The Intergalactic Highway

Did the beast wars technically start, or have something to do with Rampage? Because he was supposed to be on the Axalon, well he was before the Predacons shot them down. They were an exploration ship right? But as I recall from bad spark;

Cheetor: What is it Big-bot?
Optimus: The dark secret of the Axalon's journey
SilverBolt: It was put on the Axalon for what reason Optimus?
OPtimus: To dump it, somewhere far, some place barren

Needing a place to dump it, they were traveling the universe to find somewhere far away to dump Rampage off. And getting sidetracked/ attacked by the Predacons, they ended up in a time warp hole. So if they didn't have to dump Rampage's pod off somewhere, would they be in the Axalon and getting sent back in time?

Read "Dawn of Futures Past" if you're able to get your hands on it. Its a comic book, but its the prequel to the Beast Wars series. It explains the whole thing. Basically, the Axalon was going to drop off protoform X on a remote world before they went off on the exploration mission, but then Megatron stole the Gold Disk and Primals ship was the closet with a transwarp drive so they were summoned for pursuit despite their sensitive cargo.

^ That pretty much sums it up. If anyone's to blame for starting the Beast Wars, it'd have to be Megatron.

Thanks guys I will have to try to find a copy of the comics and read it!