Silent Light

	{{#if: "Deck the halls with camouflage, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!" \|; "Deck the halls with camouflage, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!"}}}}
	"Silent Light" {{#if: \| {{#if: \|; (')}} {{#if:\|; ""}}}}
Publisher	IDW Publishing}}
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Published in	The Transformers Holiday Special}}
First published	December 23, 2015}}
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Cover date	December, 2015}}
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Written by	James Roberts}}
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ist}}{{#if: \| by}}	}}
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{{#if: SilentLight.jpg | {{#if: IDW Publishing | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: The Transformers Holiday Special | {{#if: December 23, 2015 | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: December, 2015 | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: James Roberts | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: Kotteri | {{#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: Joana Lafuente | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: Tom B. Long | {{#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: 2005 IDW continuity | {{#if: Current era | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: | {{#if: |

{{#switch:{{#sub:more than meets the eye|2|14}}|dark cybertron=}}

As the Lost Light prepares to go dark to pass through a dangerous region of space, Swerve, Nautica, and Whirl try to hide a baby from Ultra Magnus.

Synopsis

Returning to the Lost Light on December 24th after a three-day absence to attend Meteorfest, Rodimus finds the halls of the ship decked with signal boosters and Megatron and Ultra Magnus putting the finishing touches to a large, green, conical device. The two explain that the ship is about to enter a region of space controlled by the Maulers, a violent robophobic offshoot of the Galactic Council, and that the device and its boosters are a cloaking machine that will let the ship pass safely through the area while the crew place themselves in Biometric Envelopment Device hibernation pods. As Magnus places a crown-like "brain shield" on Rodimus's head, he notes that Brainstorm is supposed to be helping them, but is busy working on more "abstract weaponry"... entirely unaware that the "Contrivance Engine" the scientist recently built has made the Lost Light look very much like it's decorated in the style of a certain Earth holiday...

In Swerve's, Whirl, Nautica, and Swerve enjoy a lock-in, indulging in some high-quality engex subspaced in from Luna 1. A knock on the door sends them into a panic as they think Ultra Magnus has found them out, but when Whirl answers it, he is shocked to find a newborn protoform in one of the engex crates on the doorstep. Concluding that she has been sent from Luna 1 with the booze and knowing they cannot leave her unattended, but unable to take her with them into a B.E.D. because they will only conceal one spark each, the trio break into Magnus's office in order to use the subspace hatch to send the protoform back to the moon. Just as the protoform starts to imprint on Whirl, forming a face that emulates his own, Magnus (sans his armor) comes sauntering down the hall, crooning a Christmas song from an album Swerve gave him. The trio bluff that they've been doing a final security check before going to their B.E.D.s and he lets them go on their way, but unfortunately, Nautica has hidden the protoform in Magnus's office... and she has crawled inside his Magnus Armor and animated it! Magnus screams, thinking the armor possessed. Nautica panics and knocks him out, shocking everybody, but in the confusion, the protoform and Magnus's armor get away.

The armored protoform makes her way to the control room and shambles up to Megatron. The ex-Decepticon thinks Magnus is trying to give him a hug and recoils in alarm and confusion; fortunately, Swerve and co. rush in and escort "Magnus" away, claiming he's just had a drink to steady his nerves. Out of time, Swerve and Nautica leave the protoform with Whirl, though not before Nautica wonders aloud who knocked on the door if the protoform came in a crate. Whirl dismisses the question and, being Whirl, decides that he has no choice but to blow the protoform out an airlock... but before he can bring himself to do it, he looks down at the little 'bot and sees she has imprinted on him further, mimicking his clawed hands. Whirl sighs and takes the protoform to B.E.D. with him...

Whirl awakes with a start the next morning to find himself in the medibay, and the protoform gone. Velocity reveals that, in actuality, it wasn't a protoform at all — it was a cluster of Scraplets. Gesturing to a canister in which the deadly creatures are now quarantined, Velocity explains that they had used their ability to combine to first knock on the door, then to assume a non-threatening form. In turn, Whirl explains that his B.E.D. was able to conceal them both because he shut down his systems to deprive his spark of energy. Nautica assumes he must be upset that he nearly died trying to protect a swarm of tiny, deceitful, emotionally-manipulative killing machines... but Whirl being Whirl, he's actually proud of the little buggers.

Featured characters

{{#if:* Rodimus (1)

Megatron (2)
Ultra Magnus (3)
Whirl (4)
Swerve (5)
Nautica (6)
Rewind (unheard, on comm, 8)
Velocity (9)|

{{#if:* Rodimus (1)

Megatron (2)
Ultra Magnus (3)
Whirl (4)
Swerve (5)
Nautica (6)
Rewind (unheard, on comm, 8)
Velocity (9)|| style="background:#ffdddd;" valign="top" |
Rodimus (1)
Megatron (2)
Ultra Magnus (3)
Whirl (4)
Swerve (5)
Nautica (6)
Rewind (unheard, on comm, 8)
Velocity (9) }}{{#if:|

Autobots }}{{#if:\|	Decepticons }}{{#if:\|	Humans }}{{#if:* Protoform/Scraplets (7)\|	Others }}{{#if:\|	Misc }}{{#if:\|	Misc }}
}}{{#if:\|	}}{{#if:* Protoform/Scraplets (7)\|	Protoform/Scraplets (7) }}{{#if:\|	}}{{#if:\|	}}

Quotes

"Put this on. We're about to test the machine."
"You know I hate hats."
"It's a brain shield. Exposure to invisibility fields has been linked to irritability, erratic conduct, chronic moping and extreme sarcasm."
"God, imagine if anyone on board started exhibiting those behaviors..."

—Ultra Magnus and Rodimus

"I love it so much it's making me sad."

—Whirl on subspace-filtered engex

"She was in one of the crates."
"Which means she was sent here. But why? What are we supposed to do with her?"
"It's a message from Primus. He's telling us to put her back in the crate until someone more responsible comes along."

—Whirl and Nautica

"What's going on here? You're being all stiff, awkward and humorless. I approve."

—Ultra Magnus on Swerve's poker face

(Nautica clobbers Magnus with her wrench, knocking him out.)
Swerve: "WHAT THE HELL?!"
Whirl: "Are we sure I didn't just do that? Because that's the type of thing I would do."
Nautica: "He was panicking! He made me panic!"
Whirl: "You've knocked off his tiny mustache!"

"So to summarize... A swarm of sentient pathogens manipulated me into putting my life at risk by feigning kinship and mining a threadbare seam of compassion that I like to pretend doesn't exist. And they did all that just so they could live to kill again."
"I'm sorry."
"Are you kidding? I'm proud of them."

—Whirl and Nautica

Notes

Continuity notes

Rodimus has been away "surfing on meteors", a reference to when he was introduced into IDW continuity doing exactly that in Spotlight: Hot Rod.
When he is handed the brain shield, Rodimus grumbles that he hates hats, something he first displayed back in the 2012 More than Meets the Eye annual.
The fact that the Lost Light now has a subspace hatch that enables supplies to be teleported to the ship was established in More than Meets the Eye #48, released on the same day as the Holiday Special. While that story locates the hatch in the medibay, this one (set after issue #49<ref>{{#if: A reminder: the MTMTE Xmas story, Silent Light, takes place after Speak, Memory and before The Dying of the Light, i.e. between 49 and 50. |"A reminder: the MTMTE Xmas story, Silent Light, takes place after Speak, Memory and before The Dying of the Light, i.e. between 49 and 50."—|}}{{#if: https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/697567411059359744 |James Roberts|James Roberts}}{{#if: Twitter |, Twitter|}}{{#if: |, ""|}}{{#if: 2016 |, 2016{{#if: 02 |/{{#switch:{{#len:02}}|1=002|02}}{{#if: 10|/{{#switch:{{#len:10}}|1=010|10}}|}}}}|}}{{#if: https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/697567411059359744 ||}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/697567411059359744%7C7%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/697567411059359744%7C8%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/697567411059359744%7C7%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/697567411059359744%7C8%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#if: | (dead link)}}</ref>) notes it has been moved to Magnus's office.
Whirl mutters that he's responsible for "pretty much everything that's happened in the last four million years" and gives a note to himself about "not beating up prisoners", referring to the fact that he effectively caused the Great Cybertronian War four million years ago by whacking the daylights out of Megatron, who was wrongly imprisoned for instigating a bar fight at the time.
Swerve refers to Cerebros from Luna 1, first mentioned in More than Meets the Eye #46. Now, why ever would we want to be reminded he exists...?
Ultra Magnus's love of music was first revealed in More than Meets the Eye #13. Swerve has been able to supply him with Christmas tunes because he downloaded the entirety of all Earth entertainment ever circa issue #41.
Nautica claims Magnus has had a "weak energon spritzer"; his drink of choice, as joked about in More than Meets the Eye #6, then confirmed in Robots in Disguise #23.
Ultra Magnus will refer to his armour being fumigated for scraplets in "No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases", placing this story shortly before it.
This is, surprisingly, not the last we will see of the friendly scraplets; they will reappear in Lost Light issue #20.

Transformers references

The ability of Scraplets to combine themselves into a larger form was originally seen in the Marvel comic story that introduced them.

Real-life references

We don't need to point out that the title is a riff on "[[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Silent Night|{{#if:||Silent Night}}]]", but we're doin' it anyway.
There's no Christmas on Cybertron, so it's only thanks to Brainstorm's "Contrivance Engine" that eeeverything in the Lost Light just happens to resemble traditional Christmas trappings in this story. The cloaking machine and its signal boosters being a Christmas tree and fairy lights should be obvious to all readers, but British author James Roberts has also included some elements that are more traditional to the United Kingdom: the energon tab packet that Rodimus tries to tug from Megatron's hand stands in for a [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Christmas cracker|{{#if:||Christmas cracker}}]], while the brain shields resemble the rubbish crêpe-paper crowns one finds in such crackers.
Having to stay in your B.E.D. to avoid detection on the night of December 24? Whoever heard of such a thing?
Finding a baby on your doorstep? At Christmas? Such a contrivance!
Magnus sings "[[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year|{{#if:||It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year}}]]". See "Errors", though.
The scene where Whirl picks up Minimus' fallen moustache is inspired by the [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Fawlty Towers|{{#if:||Fawlty Towers}}]] episode "[[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Communication Problems|{{#if:||Communication Problems}}]]", where Basil picks up a hearing aid from the floor and asks of a guest, "Is this a piece of your brain?"
You'd be forgiven for thinking that Whirl's moment with the protoform in front of the airlock is a reference to the short story "[[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}The Cold Equations|{{#if:||The Cold Equations}}]]" by [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Tom Godwin|{{#if:||Tom Godwin}}]], but Roberts had never heard of the story until after reading this Wiki article.

Errors

Swerve calls the album Magnus's choice of song comes from Andy Williams Sings Christmas, but actually, it's [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}The Andy Williams Christmas Album|{{#if:||The Andy Williams Christmas Album}}]].

Other notes

In a surprise turn, we are given one of the key missing steps in how Cybertronians are born and mature. Previously we learned that forged sparks are harvested alongside the surrounding surface of the hot spot. Here we find out, whether aided or unaided, these develop into a semi-featureless protoform which will naturally mature and grow an alt-mode.

Soundtrack

"It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" by [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Andy Williams|{{#if:||Andy Williams}}]]<ref>{{#if: Bit late, but here is the (inevitable) soundtrack to 'Silent Light', from today's TF Holiday Special. https://t.co/iKKvMKDvHR |"Bit late, but here is the (inevitable) soundtrack to 'Silent Light', from today's TF Holiday Special. https://t.co/iKKvMKDvHR"—|}}{{#if: https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/679607376463413249 |James Roberts|James Roberts}}{{#if: Twitter |, Twitter|}}{{#if: |, ""|}}{{#if: 2015 |, 2015{{#if: 12 |/{{#switch:{{#len:12}}|1=012|12}}{{#if: 23|/{{#switch:{{#len:23}}|1=023|23}}|}}}}|}}{{#if: https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/679607376463413249 ||}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/679607376463413249%7C7%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/679607376463413249%7C8%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/679607376463413249%7C7%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/679607376463413249%7C8%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#if: | (dead link)}}</ref> (of course!)

References

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