Time To Fake Our Deaths

Dawn came and the day for the Autobots to leave earth had finally arrived. To some, it marked a new beginning, to others it was goodbye to their friends. To every story, there were always multiple sides. As for the Autobots, they had reached the most crucial part of their plan. They gave their eyes no rest as they worked tooth and nail to prep the haul of the booster rocket to accommodate them. They had engineered a space to house them and all their equipment in there and reinforced the walls to handle crashing back to earth with their weight in the equation.

Their engineers had also set a course for the Xantium to make their plan full proof. They had selected a different solar system a galaxy away for their ship to travel too before turning around and heading back to Earth. By their calculations, the battle should be over and done and things should be back to normal.

"Optimus, everything is ready. We're go for launch" Leadfoot said.

"That's good. We proceed as planned" he replied.

"You heard the man. Get your asses into the booster rocket. We don't have time to waste" Roadbuster yelled.

"Move it" Ironhide said as he spurred the bots to get in quickly.

Within the customized haul, the bots had linked the ships controls to a panel so that they could control the ship and its movements. Topspin manned the panel as the rest of the Autobots stood in the space provided for them. It was a little cramped but they had to do what they had to do. Bars were welded to the top of the haul so that they could hold on to during take-off and when they land back.

"How's it looking Top?" Leadfoot asked as he closed the hatch to the haul.

"It's looking good. I have the engine's primed, navigation has been set and we're ready for launch" he reported back to him.

"Que, ensure that the rover has been secured, we don't want to carry Optimus' trailer on our shoulders" Sideswipe said.

"Right! Give me a hand a hand Bee"

The yellow bot would whir as they went to double check the straps they used to hold down the rover.

"We're all clear" Said Bee.

"That's good. Topspin, tell the humans we are ready for launch" said Optimus.

Topspin nodded and sent a message to NASA telling them that they were a go for launch. The operators received their message and relayed it to the teams working round the clock to make sure that the launch was successful. Epps and his group of engineers watched from their hanger, Simmons and Dutch watched from the command center alongside Mearing while Sam watched from a lookout point.

"The Autobots are ready to launch sir" said an operator.

"Alright. Initiate the countdown sequence" the head operator said.

"Initiating countdown" an operator said.

"Initiating countdown. 5…4….3…"

"God I hope this goes well" Mearing prayed.

"2…1…. Ignition"

The thrusters of the rocket burst into life as the Autobots began their launch. All boosters apart from two ignite but the force produced from the others made up for it as the Xantium was propelled upwards. As the ship went higher and higher into the sky, Sam received a call from the asshole boss his girlfriend had, Dylan.

"You should really look at this as a partnership. You have to stand on the side of progress if you wanna be a part of history" he said cockily over the phone as he Flew with Carly in a helicopter to Chicago.

"You wanted an answer. You got one" Sam answered with anger in his voice.

"I always get what I want, Sam. We just needed to be sure"

"Sure of what?" Sam asked.

"That they would go without a fight"

Starscream had stationed himself in the stratosphere, watching the and waiting as the events on the ground were communicated to him.

"It has begun" he said after speaking a phrase in Cybertronian.

He engaged his thrusters and began his decent back to Earth as he transformed into his F-22 Raptor form.

"Guys. We have company" Topspin as they picked up Starscream closing in on them on their radar.

"It's a setup!" Ironhide said angrily.

"That must be Starscream. Do you want me to intercept?" Jet asked eagerly.

"Negative Jetstream" Optimus adviced. "Wreckers, can the haul survive our ship exploding?"

"Sure it can. We designed the damn thing didn't we?" said Roadbuster.

"Hell yeah we did. This thing can survive crashing on earth from Mars. I don't think a little explosion is going to bother us" added Leadfoot.

"The we proceed as planned" Optimus concluded.

"It's a shame we couldn't keep da ship" Dino said.

"I was looking forward to it coming back one day" Ratchet added.

"Say again?" the launch announcer said after receiving some news from the guys in charge of their radar.

"We're tracking an incoming object" an Analyst said as they displayed the picture of an object approaching the Xantium.

People knew that something was up. At that same moment, the Decepticon on Sam's wrist began to move, dropping to the floor as it tried to slither away. Sam didn't let that happen as he stomped on it repeatedly until he eventually killed it.

"We all work for the Decepticons now" Dylan said over the phone.

Starscream closed in on the ship and launched four missiles at the Xantium.

"I'm gonna miss you old friend" Leadfoot said, as he said his final goodbyes to the ship.

"Everyone! Brace for impact!!" Topspin announced.

The missiles hit and blasted the ship to bits. The Autobots were startled by the impact but held strong with the bars welded to the walls and roof helping them maintain balance. On the outside, their human allies were devastated, they couldn't believe their eyes. The Autobots were dead. Or so they thought.

"How long until we hit the bottom?" Jet asked.

"It's gonna take a while. Ten to fifteen minutes tops. We are very heavy after all" said Roadbuster.

"Alight then. Autobots as soon as he hit the ground, we move out. We cannot afford to lose any time. A beach has already been set as the point where we resurface. Moving without our vehicle modes would take time so we need to put in the hustle. We have no idea what the decepticons might be up to. We would need to act fast" said Optimus.

On the outside, sirens blared as rescue officials headed out to search for what might remain of their space friends or if there were any survivors. While rescue operations went on, Sam met up with Dutch to ask him if he could track Dylan's phone so he could go rescue Carly. While he was trying to track the phone, the Decepticons moved into Chicago, everyone from Megatron, to Sentinel, Soundwave and Shockwave were present. They were all ready to begin their invasion.

"I need your help to track this phone call" Sam said handing over his phone to Dutch. "There's a man on this phone. He's the head of their human operations and he has Carly hostage" he said with Epps watching from the background, listening keenly to their conversation.

"The call was placed en route. I'm hacking into the phone's camera now" Dutch said with his eyes fixed to the screen as he broke through the device's encryption.

"There, that's it" he said as he displayed a live video from the phone's camera. "That's a live stream from the camera. Someplace, right, hold on, I can triangulate this" he said as he used satellite technology to triangulate its position.

"Okay, it's Chicago cell sights. There, I've got it. Trump Tower, Chicago. Lower penthouse"

"I'm going" Sam said with his mind already made up.

"You sure?" Simmons asked.

"She's done nothing but try and help me, and I can be there in fifteen hours" he said.

"You're not going alone" Epps chipped in. "I still got my NEST friends out there. I'll round them up, we'll find your girlfriend, we're gonna bring this guy in"

"Why are you helping me?" Sam asked shocked at his offer.

"Because that asshole killed my friends too"

With Sam's plan to head to Chicago and rescue Carly in motion, the Decepticons were putting their plans into motion. Pillars were being launched into the sky all around the globe; Sentinel had taken his place alongside the control pillar. Their forces were moving into the city in their hundreds as they began their assault on the city. Underwater, the Autobots had finally hit solid rock and were preparing to disengage.

"Alright pretty boys we finally made it. We just gonna open the hatch and let all the water in easy peasy" Said Leadfoot as he hit the combinations for the door to open.

Slowly the door opened and water came rushing in, slowly, the haul began to get filled with water until they were al submerged. The headlights of each bot soon came on and it was time to get to work. Que, Bumblebee and Dino worked on getting the rover operational while Ironhide, Jetstream and Ratchet loaded Prime's trailer aboard the rover.

"There there" Jet said as he dropped Prime's trailer on the back of the rover.

"Remember everyone, carry all your weapons. We're going into hell" Ironhide advised.

The Autobots took their weapons and began leaving the haul one by one. The rover already had a route mapped out to get up to the surface. The autobots began the long walk up to the beach and knew that they had to move out of the area fast or risk the humans spotting them and alerting the media of their presence. Slowly but steadily, the Autobots advanced towards the beach, like soldiers marching through the torrential rain on a cold night in Stoke.

After hours of walking, they finally made it to land but only rose out of water at dusk to reduce the risk of getting spotted. The rover drove onto land fist before Optimus and his bits emerged from the depths like Frogmen.

"I hope I don't get rust from staying this long in the water" Ironhide said as he shook the water on his body.

"Let's not get carried away Ironhide. Can anyone give us an update on the situation outside?" Asked Prime.

Jetstream held the side of his helm as he tapped into a news network frequency and used their antenna to bounce off a signal to a satellite. From there, he was ablel to learn of the Decepticons laying siege to Chicago and slaughtering thousands of people.

"Not good" he said.

"What seems to be the problem?" Ratchet asked.

"The Decepticons have laid siege to Chicago. They've overrun the streets and slaughtered millions. They have fighters at their disposal and rule the skies, no one can get in or see what they're doing" he reported.

"Not good" Sideswipe commented.

"Autobots we make our move now. For the sake of humanity, we have to get to Chicago and put an end to this once and for all" said Optimus with a captivating voice.

"You heard the man, wheels up in five" Ironhide said.

The bots offloaded Prime's trailer and he got hooked up to it. The rover was then tossed into the ocean to safeguard their presence as they began the long drive to Chicago. The bots would have to move through the back roads and rural areas to avoid getting spotted by cameras or get recorded on video. It was a daunting task but they had to do it. With most of the world's attention on what was happening in Chicago, they could go unnoticed for a while. Dino and the Wreckers led the way as they possessed the faster vehicles, Jet, Sideswipe and Bee followed closely behind before we have Wheeljack, Ironhide, Ratchet and Prime at the back. The convoy of bots was making steady progress to Illinois.