The Sound of Breaking Glass

« The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #21 »
"The Sound of Breaking Glass"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
Published in	More than Meets the Eye #21
First published	September 25, 2013
Cover date	September 2013
Written by	James Roberts
Editor	John Barber
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2013)

The Autobots pick up the pieces in the wake of Tyrest's defeat.

Synopsis

Rodimus and Minimus Ambus stand in Tyrest's control room, watching as Brainstorm, Grapple, and Inferno work their way through the wreckage of the Chief Justice's spacebridge, which has burned itself out. Remotely coordinating various operations, Rodimus takes charge in a way never before seen on the Lost Light, ignoring his own injuries to make sure other work gets done. Rodimus has not forgotten the promise he made to make amends, nor has Ambus.

Fortress Maximus meets Rung in the remains of Swerve's bar to tell him that Rodimus has offered him a promotion, but that he is unsure if he should accept since he remains fearful that he could suffer another episode. Rung assures him that he will be fine, but that he should come and see him if he needs to... only to Max to reveal that he won't be able to, since the promotion means he will be leaving the Lost Light!

Rodimus returns to his office, already embarrassed at its ostentatious decor and vowing to have it re-done. Weighed down with guilt, he recalls the discussion he had with Drift in the wake of Overlord's rampage: how he was willing to take all the blame to save Drift's reputation, but how Drift instead insisted that he take the fall. The ex-Decepticon had revealed that, when he had stabbed himself during the Chaos event, he had a premonition that told him, whatever the future held, Rodimus had to be present to face it. To ensure this could come to pass, Drift had allowed himself to be exiled.

Swerve joins Rung and Maximus in his bar, especially cheery after his success in divining a cure for Tailgate's cybercrosis. Presently, Brainstorm arrives for a private chat, and asks Swerve to keep his ear to the ground for any chatter regarding his briefcase, which he believes someone has opened. Their tête-à-tête is cut short, however, when Swerve notices a strange green glow emanating from Brainstorm's chest, prompting the scientist to run off.

After making the final adjustments to the machines that will support Tailgate's systems until his spark regains its full strength, Ratchet heads for the ship's body-locker and finds Minimus Ambus donning the Magnus Armor. When Ratchet gives him a hand and reveals a precise understanding of the armor's working, Ambus realizes that he knew about him all along, and asks why he never told anyone. Ratchet points out that doing so would have served no purpose, and that he had never ratted out any of the other Magnuses either: and he knew them all, right the way back to the original. But he has known Ambus the longest, and to him, he's the true Ultra Magnus. Uplifted, Ambus departs, and Ratchet turns back to the body-lockers and opens Red Alert's drawer.

Down on Luna 1, Rodimus takes Getaway to the hot spot they had previously discovered, only to find that it will not re-ignite. After scattering the remains of the Matrix over the field in commemoration of a new generation that never was, the pair are approached by Fortress Maximus and the reactivated Red Alert. Max has accepted Rodimus's suggestion that he become the new Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord, and Red Alert—apologetic for "removing himself from the field of play"—wants to stay with him on Luna 1, to work with the Circle of Light survivors in rooting out pockets of Decepticon activity in the region. But the pair also bring news that Perceptor has been trying to contact Rodimus...

Responding to Perceptor's call, the team head for Tyrest's control room, where the scientist has successfully repaired the communications systems and is calling Cybertron. The first image to appear on the screen is a symbol marking the "Republic of Cybertron", making Rodimus think that Bumblebee has solved all the planet's problems, but could not be more shocked when the face that soon comes into focus is that of Starscream.

Sometime later, after the Lost Light has departed, Circle of Lighter Outrigger alerts Red Alert to the fact that the supposedly-comatose Tyrest has just moved. As Red peers through the peep-hole into the sealed chamber containing the Chief Justice's body, Outrigger explains that Tyrest appeared to be making a fist... and Red orders him to get Fortress Maximus immediately.

Because Tyrest has disappeared.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Others
Minimus Ambus/Ultra Magnus (1) Rodimus (2) Brainstorm (3) Grapple (4) Inferno (5) Perceptor (6) Fortress Maximus (7) Rung (8) Drift (9) Swerve (10) Ratchet (11) Getaway (13) Red Alert (14)	Tailgate (12) Starscream (15) Outrigger (16)

Quotes

"Maybe it's better that the spacebridge isn't fixed. If it was fixed, it might make people think that our losses were worthwhile: 'The ship was overrun and people died, but at least we found a way to get to Cyberutopia.' I don't want that. Do you?"

—Minimus Ambus

"You're not 'cured' because you were never diseased. But the fact that you're asking these questions—of me, of yourself—is good, Max. It's really good."
"But do you think I might come unstuck again?"
"I think you're ready for whatever is around [the] corner. As ready as the rest of us."

—Rung and Fortress Maximus

"I don't know why he even let you in on those discussions in the first place. It's not like he trusts you."
"I'll tell you exactly why he wanted me there: it was in case something like this happened. Need a scapegoat? Get an ex-Decepticon."

—Rodimus and Drift

"People can come and go—they can die—but you have to be here, otherwise we will fail. And so the simple solution—the only solution—is that I take the blame for this."
"I won't let you do this for me"
"I'm not doing it for you. I'm doing it for everyone else."

—Drift and Rodimus

Rodimus: "You see? You see? He's brought the whole planet together. Good old Bee. Good old brilliant Bee."
Fortress Maximus: "That's not Bumblebee."
Rodimus: "Don't tell me Prowl is screening his calls..."
Starscream: "Well, well, well. What a lovely surprise."

Notes

• The following Transformers are mentioned or reference to, but do not appear in the story proper itself: Wheeljack, Tyrest, Pharma, Overlord, Atomizer, Prowl, Pipes, Rewind, Chromedome, Lockstock, Lancet, Suture, Datum, Ramp, Blockus, and Bumblebee

Continuity notes

• This story takes place at various points in between the last few pages of the main story of this issue, and also incorporates a flashback to some unseen events set during issue #16.
• Rodimus thinks of Lockstock when recalling the deceased and bereaved; rather than an indicator that Lockstock has died, this most likely refers to the death of his good friend Tripodeca, whose passing was noted in #16.
• In said flashback, Drift recalls his self-impalement from issue #28 of the previous ongoing series. Although that issue depicted Drift doing the deed using one of his regular swords, it is retconned here to have been his Great Sword, with the implication that the sword's spark-channelling properties and its proximity to Vector Sigma were responsible for giving him a vision of the future.
• An early mention is made of Swerve's old shoulder injury.
• Brainstorm's briefcase was shown being blasted off his wrist in the previous issue, opening up the possibility for someone else to have opened it. This plot point becomes relevant in issue #43!
• The green glow certainly seems to imply that Brainstorm was keeping the Point One Percenter spark that he harvested in issue #17 in his chest compartment before locking himself in his workshop with it, as shown in the epilogue of the main story.
• Getaway casually taps the surface of Luna 1 to see if he is a "Matrix-Bearer-in-waiting". This will be important later.
• Red Alert is awakened from the stasis he was placed in in issue #11. It turns out he really did try to take himself offline, and wasn't the victim of some greater conspiracy.
• From Ratchet, we get a longer list of the bots who have worn the Magnus armor before Minimus Ambus: Suture, Datum, Ramp, and Blockus.
• The implication of the final scene, if you missed it, is that Tyrest has a recall trigger in his body, just like the one included in the Magnus Armor, and that he has escaped captivity by activating it. The main story in this issue made a point of noting that these recall switches can simply teleport their users away, rather than the manual relocation that Ambus opted for, explaining Tyrest's disappearance from a locked room here.

Real World References

• The title of this issue may have been inspired by Nick Lowe's "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass".

Trivia

• The "Countdown to 21" Twitter campaign that preceded this issue's release noted that this story's working title was "Stronger Hearts Than Mine Lie Empty", after the Ballboy song of the same name.
• "Breaking Glass" was written because of the sheer amount of stuff in "Remain In Light". In order to wrap things up and carry out some "big things" (Fortress Maximus becoming the Duly Appointed Enforcer, Red Alert waking up, Starscream making contact) in time for Dark Cybertron, a bonus prose story was needed. Of course once he had this extra story, Roberts started putting yet more stuff in like Ratchet and Minimus Ambus!

Errors

• Numerous spaces are missing between the end of one sentence and beginning of another. This seems to be caused by the typeface and text justification.
• Rodimus's body is described as being "tender after being pulverized by the Killswitch". Rodimus was never directly affected by the Killswitch; he was subdued by Tyrest's "weapon of mass suggestion" and later used as a conduit by the Matrix to neutralize the Killswitch.
• During Fortress Maximus's meeting with Rung, he reflects on "the shards of tinted glass in font of the ship's psychiatrist", rather than "in front". This remained incorrect in the TPB.
• In Rodimus's flashback to his conversation with Drift, the first thing he says starts with an extra double quote.
• An instance of the from Rung's "I think you're ready for whatever is around corner" wanders over to Drift's "the simple the solution".
• From Outrigger's debut: "Weren't members of the Circle of Light were supposed to be prime physical specimens?"

Crew manifest

• Red Alert is brought out of stasis.
• Red and Fortress Maximus leave the Lost Light to staff Luna 1.
• Drift's "banishment" turns out to have been a departure of his own free will.
• Getaway joins the crew.
• At least 13 deaths, 6 new arrivals (plus 20 or so Faders), and three departures since the launch.
• According to issue #26, 190 crew members are active as of the end of this story. Correcting for the above deaths, arrivals, and departures, that would be exactly 200 crew members at time of launch, which is lower than previous references in #1 and #5. Therefore, it appears an unknown number of crew members from the 50 who suffered planetfall in #2 and the 21 seriously injured in #12 are still in medbay.
• Also, since only 79 crew members have been identified, this means that more than half of the Lost Light's crew upon leaving Cybertron remain unnamed and off-panel. (So cheer up, Swerve...a lot of people probably don't know who you are!)

Foreign localization

Japanese

• Title: "Glass no Wareru Oto" (ガラスの割れる音, "Sound of Breaking Glass")

Swedish

• Title: " Ljudet av krossat glas" ("The Sound of Breaking Glass")
• This story, similarly to Bullets got an illustrated version in the Swedish hardcover Transformers: Krig och Hågkomst. These illustrations consist of Fortress Maximus and Rung talking by Sissel Gustafsson; Ratchet putting the Magnus Armor back on Minimus Ambus by Gustafsson; Fort Max, Red Alert, Getaway and Rodimus on the surface of Luna 1 by Daniel Thollin and Rodimus contacting Starscream by Linda Bedwall.