Gauging the Truth, Part Three: Moment of Truth

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Publisher	IDW Publishing}}
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First published	September 2, 2020}}
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Cover date	August 2020}}
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Written by	Sam Maggs}}
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Art by	Beth McGuire-Smith}}
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Colors by	Josh Burcham}}
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Letters by	Jake M. Wood}}
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Editor	David Mariotte, Tom Waltz, and Riley Farmer}}
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{{#if: TFGalaxies 9 cvrA.jpg | {{#if: IDW Publishing | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: September 2, 2020 | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: August 2020 | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: Sam Maggs | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: Beth McGuire-Smith | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: Josh Burcham | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: Jake M. Wood | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: David Mariotte, Tom Waltz, and Riley Farmer | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: 2019 IDW continuity | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: |

{{#switch:{{#sub:xx|2|14}}|dark cybertron=}}

Arcee and Greenlight fight to stop Heretech and his Reversionists, but Gauge's status as a child of two worlds may be the key to saving Cybertron.

Synopsis

Plenary Heretech and the Reversionists who follow him have come full circle—as the Exodus arrives over Cybertron, Arcee, Greenlight, and Gauge observe the grim panorama below, and Arcee deduces that this is a deliberate move on Heretech's part. The mad Senator intends to take advantage of the chaos on Cybertron for his own ends. Arcee and Greenlight hatch a plan: Gauge will rejoin Heretech's ranks in the hopes of slowing down his plan from the inside, while Arcee and Greenlight will flee to the surface using a launch bay to warn as may people as they can. The three share a quick hug before Gauge returns to the upper levels of the ship, where Accelerator waits to return her to custody. Gauge accepts Accelerator's many threats and admonishments... but is shocked when Accelerator informs her that the only reason she's still alive is because Heretech has a special destiny for her!

Heretech parades Gauge before the assembled Reversionists for one final ceremony—she will be their messenger, chosen spread their holy word across Cybertron. All Transformers will renounce their former allegiances and join the Reversionists on their "true path"... and those who do not will return to Primus when the Exodus fires its plasma engines directly onto the surface, igniting a vein of naturally-occurring energon that Gauge will find for her people. Gauge knows that this will only accelerate the burgeoning crisis below, but doesn't dare speak up. If she refuses to comply, Heretech warns her, she too will perish with the other sinners. Once again, Gauge finds herself caught between two worlds: the religious world of the Reversionists and the secular existence of her mentors. Has her Reversionist upbringing really enlightened her, or duped her into following a maniacal false prophet? All her life, Gauge has followed instructions, Arcee's, Greenlight's, Heretech's, Accelerator's... but Gauge has her epiphany—she may have been raised in two different worlds, raised and conditioned to advance two different causes—but there is only one Gauge, and only she can decide what that means.

As the Reversionists leap from the Exodus to begin their attack on the local communications outpost, Gauge follows, transforming as she falls and landing in her mobile digger alternate mode. As the Reversionists overwhelm the defenders, Gauge reports to Arcee that she's heading towards the communications tower, ignoring her mentor's demands to tell her what she's up to. The Reversionists don't want to kill, she realizes, they want converts... and perhaps Arcee and Greenlight might not have the right answer to this problem. Gauge reaches the tower, slips past the Reversionists outside, then locks herself in the broadcast center. Once she activates the array, Gauge delivers her impassioned speech: the Reversionists want the people of Cybertron to join them, and the Cybertronians want her to denounce their movement. Today, however, she'll do neither. If a Cybertronian wants to become a Reversionist, then they should have the freedom to choose... but the Reversionists must also respect the wishes of others who might not wish to join them. The Reversionists didn't give Gauge that choice; every minute of every day, they told her how to live, how to act, how to think—but now that Gauge can think for herself and make her own decisions, she wants to stop them from inflicting that abuse onto anyone else. As the crowd outside pounds on the doors, Heretech himself descends from on high, rips his way into the comms tower, and prepares to rip Gauge apart for her disobedience. But Arcee and Greenlight aren't far behind, and promptly leap to their mentee's defense!

Determined to prove that nothing can stop will of Primus, Heretech transforms, intent on using his hulking drill-tank alternate mode to bulldoze right over the three. Using their own vehicle forms, however, Arcee and Greenlight outmaneuver their foe and keep the religious fanatic at bay while Gauge transforms and uses her scoop to dig up a mass of raw energon crystals. For the first time in her life, Gauge stands up for herself by pitching the crystals directly at him; a crack shot from Arcee ignites the energon, and the subsequent explosion leaves the 'bot she once worshipped broken and defeated. Her actions have finally broken Heretech's godly façade—his mystique lost forever, Heretech stands revealed as just an ordinary Cybertronian. Greenlight asks Gauge what they should do with the villain, and Gauge suggests they leave him for the other Reversionists to deal with—just like her, they should let Heretech's former followers decide what they should want to be.

Although Heretech's defeat means that the Senate's Reversionist party no longer exists, its members are quick to bounce back, and elect Accelerator as their new plenary. She and most of her followers will return to space once the Exodus has been repaired, but not all. Some choose to stay behind on Cybertron, in the hopes of joining other factions and steering their homeworld towards a brighter tomorrow... including Gauge. But despite her many adventures, she's not quite ready to go it alone, and approaches Arcee and Greenlight to ask if she can stay with them. The two happily agree, but Gauge has one condition: just because they're her mentors, doesn't mean that she can't question their judgment. Greenlight agrees, joking that she always questions Arcee's judgement. As the sun rises over the Cybertronian skyline, the reunited family walks off into the dawn, ready to begin their new life—together.

Featured characters

{{#if:| {{#if:|| style="background:#ffdddd;" valign="top" | }}{{#if:|

Autobots }}{{#if:|

Decepticons }}{{#if:|

Humans }}{{#if:* Accelerator (4)

Heretech (5)|

Reversionists }}{{#if:* Greenlight (1)

Gauge (2)
Arcee (3)|

Others }}{{#if:|

Misc }}

}}{{#if:|

}}{{#if:* Accelerator (4)

Heretech (5)|

Accelerator (4)
Heretech (5) }}{{#if:* Greenlight (1)
Gauge (2)
Arcee (3)|

Greenlight (1)
Gauge (2)
Arcee (3) }}{{#if:|

}}

Quotes

"The Reversionists wanted me to have faith in the process. But I have faith in myself. I make my own decisions, now. I choose who I'm going to be. Sure, there may be some beauty in repetition. But I think the real beauty... is in the unknown."

—Gauge

"They took me from my family. Told me how to live. I can make my own decisions now. And I've decided to fight back against their plan to rob you all of your free will, head-on. And now I am almost certainly going to be ripped to shreds so if you'll excuse me, Cybertron-"

—Gauge makes a speech

"Just because you're my mentors doesn't mean that I can't question you. Right?"
"I question Arcee all the time."
"Only because I'm nearly always right and she just can't accept that."

—Gauge, Greenlight, and Arcee

"To a new life. To my new life. To find a new routine."

—Gauge closes us out

Notes

Continuity notes

It's not entirely clear how far along the timeline this adventure is set relative to what's going down in IDW's main Transformers ongoing. As the war doesn't appear to have broken out yet, it'd likely take place at some point during the concurrent "Rise of the Decepticons" story arc that began in #19—possibly just before, as Cybertron still seems to be reeling from the destruction of the Tether.
In this universe, newborn Transformers like Gauge and Rubble don't have alternate modes when they emerge from the Pyramid; in Transformers issue #18, Gauge specifically laments the fact that she hadn't chosen one yet. By process of elimination, this must mean that she scanned her alternate mode at some point after leaving Cybertron during her time as Accelerator's mentee. Since Heretech specifically praises her "unique skills" in finding energon, maybe having her choose this specific vehicle mode was always a part of his overarching "kill all who disagree" plan?

Transformers references

Heretech's big fight scene marks the first time he's transformed in either IDW continuity, but his depiction as a fanciful drill-tank is in keeping with James Roberts' vision for the character in his script for More than Meets the Eye #16, which described him as a tunnel-boring machine. <ref>James Roberts's script for More than Meets the Eye #16: "He transforms into a digging machine (tunnel boring machine)."</ref>

Errors

On page twelve, there’s a comma missing from Gauge’s speech bubble, between "now" and "I".

Other trivia

Originally solicited for May, the comic slipped to June before IDW Publishing’s two-month hiatus and further delays pushed it all the way back to September.

Covers (3)

Cover A: Gauge, Arcee, and Greenlight make a stand, by Umi Miyao
Cover B: Gauge gets up to mischief, by Sara Pitre-Durocher
Retailer incentive cover: Stuck in the middle with Gauge, by Kei Zama and Josh Burcham

Reprints

Transformers Volume 3: All Fall Down (February 24, 2021) ISBN 1684057396 / ISBN 978-1684057399
- Collects Transformers (2019) issues #19–24 and Galaxies issues #7–12.
- Bonus material includes alternate covers.
- Hardcover format.

Volume 3: All Fall Down – cover art by Cryssy Cheung

References

External links

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