Decepticon Hijack

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"Hey, wha—?! Get back here! I'm hijacking you!"
"Decepticon Hijack"
Publisher	Marvel Books
First published	1985
Written by	Regina Weyn
Art by	John Speirs
ISBN	ISBN 0-87135-079-3 ISBN 9780871350794
Page count	24pp

The Decepticons will rule Earth if they manage to seize the ultimate fuel source... a tanker truck!

Synopsis

Blitzwing, our lord and savior.

Optimus Prime stands "proud and triumphant" on an Oregon cliffside, admiring the rising Sun. He listens to the sound of birdsong, so very different from the laser fire of the previous night's battle. He notes by the Sun's position that it's nearly 8:00 am—time to get to work. Meanwhile in the camp below, Ratchet and Huffer are already hard at work trying to repair all the badly damaged Autobots from the last battle with the Decepticons. The Dinobots are particularly beat up.

Suddenly, the Decepticon jets blaze by overhead. As Red Alert raises the alarm, the Autobots fear their time has come, but Optimus Prime knows the Decepticons are as damaged as they are, and wonders what's up. Up in orbit, Shooting Star spots the reason. His transmission to the Autobots tells them of an oil truck broken down some thirty five miles northeast, while the jets buzz the Autobots as a distraction.

Driver Abe Walters and Barry have repaired a flat tire, only to find that the truck's wiring has been short-circuited by Blitzwing. Megatron is ready to steal the truck's oil, by getting Bombshell to use cerebro-shells on the humans and Long Haul to siphon off the gas. The Autobots spy them from a nearby hillside and, after tactical advice from Prowl, Sunstreaker uses his gun to restore the truck's circuitry. The unaware truckers drive off, much to Megatron's fury.

The Decepticons give chase to the truck. Megatron manages to grab it from behind, bringing the rig to a halt, but the Decepticons have barely a moment to enjoy their victory, as Swoop appears in the sky above! A large explosion later, Megatron and his men are reduced to a pile of metal rubble. The Autobots find the humans in the truck have fainted, and extract them before Starscream blows the truck up with a couple of cluster bombs.

The Autobots return to their camp with the rescued humans, and send them back off to the city in Bumblebee. Swoop receives lots of praise for his heroic actions. Out in the desert, a Decepticon rescue team retrieves the remains of their comrades, and the burning oil truck sends billowing smoke into the sky.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Optimus Prime (1) Ratchet (2) Huffer (3) Red Alert (9) Shooting Star (10) Bumblebee (11) Sunstreaker (12) Prowl (13) Mirage (14) Swoop (22) Inferno (24)	Starscream (4) Thundercracker (5) Skywarp? (6) Laserbeak (7) Buzzsaw (8) Blitzwing (17) Bombshell (18) Megatron (19) Long Haul (20) Ravage (21) Decepticon rescue squadron (23)	Abe Walters (15) Barry (16)

Quotes

This Earth, he thought, is a strange planet with many interesting and amusing creatures.

—Optimus Prime

"That truck holds our advantage over Optimus Prime and his band of do-gooders. With the oil we can defeat the Autobots and rule Earth forever."

—Megatron is possibly over-valuing the contents of the oil truck.

Notes

• Also specifically mentioned as being damaged are Bluestreak, Sideswipe, and Trailbreaker.
• This is Shooting Star's one and only appearance. Given the early off-model versions of several other Season 2 characters within, it is possible he originates in an early take on Cosmos, though that is only speculation.
• At one point, Megatron refers to his troops as Destructicons.
• Sunstreaker's ability to shoot "high-energy electron pulses" is straight from his tech specs. Likewise Swoop's air speed of 250 mph, and the explosive power of his air-to-air missile launchers.
• Megatron has an alarm frequency that "blares" when he's damaged, summoning a rescue squadron.
• Optimus Prime's hand can scan for energy output readings and diagnose humans.

Errors

• Pretty much every 1985 character featured in this story is at least somewhat off-model, some of them like Red Alert very much so. The '84 characters don't escape either, with Sunstreaker being rendered with a mouthplate.
• Three Seekers are shown flying over the Autobot base. Though two are obviously Starscream and Thundercracker, the third, which presumably should be Skywarp, has an odd black and blue coloration.
• In the picture of Shooting Star in orbit, Starscream and Thundercracker are shown flying at apparently the same level as him.
• To destroy the Decepticons, Swoop drops an "air-to-air missile launcher". Normally a launcher would be used to, y'know, launch a missile rather than itself being dropped, and as the targets are on the on the ground, an "air-to-air" missile would seem to be counterproductive.
• Said "missile launcher" does the equivalent of "5000 pounds of TNT" in damage, flattening the Decepticons, yet not harming the tanker truck full of oil they're hanging on to.
• Starscream appears to be among the Decepticons hit by Swoop's payload, but moments later is fine.
• As Starscream streaks towards the Autobots and truck, Sunstreaker is colored red.
• Swoop has two long ears instead of a single crest when the Autobots give him a round of applause.

External Links

• "Decepticon Hijack" at Steve-o's Transformers Site