Battle Lines, Part 6

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"Battle Lines, Part 6"
Publisher	Fun Publications
Published in	Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club #42
Story	Pete Sinclair
Writers	Jesse Wittenrich & Pete Sinclair
Pencils	Dan Khanna
Inks	Dan Khanna
Colors	Evan Gauntt
Letters	Jesse Wittenrich
Managing editor	Pete Sinclair
Continuity	Wings Universe

As the threats of energy depletion and war continue, many find their own solutions to those problems.

Synopsis

The Decepticons bear down in Iacon, with new combiner Devastator at the forefront. Surrounded, the Autobots open fire; Kup is reminded of a situation on Derelictus Five, as does Thunderclash, who realizes that what they did their might just work here. Opening fire on a hanging cable, they are able to sever it, sending it crashing into the Devastator. Although the jolt manages to cause him pain, the giant Decepticon manages to shrug it off, but Dion realizes that Devastator can be hurt. Shouting at everyone to aim for the knees, the combined fire of all the Autobots manages to force the leg components of Devastator to disconnect from the rest, forcing him back into his components. Magnum praises Dion for his quick thinking, but Megatron declares he still has an army to command. Optimus Prime shouts that while that may be true, his army lacks something the Autobots do: courage and a pair of leaders who Megatron could never hope to outwit. Megatron takes him at his words, and blasts Magnum with the full force of his fusion cannon. Dion jumps in front of Optimus before Megatron can do the same to him, and an angered Optimus blasts back at Megatron. With the Autobot's leadership crippled, Megatron orders the Decepticons out of the city, and as the Autobots cheer, Prime kneels next to his two damaged friends.

With the battle over, the Autobots take stock; both military and civilians alike lay dead and damaged across Iacon. Prime brings Magnum and Dion to Alpha Trion, who can only save one of the pair. Meanwhile, Wheeljack, Perceptor, Hoist, Ratchet, and other Autobot scientists rebuild the damaged civilians into war capable bots. Later, Alpha Trion has managed to save the Autobot who made it, rebuilding him into "Ultra Magnus", a name befitting his new size. Other Autobots, such as Countdown, look to upgrades for smaller bodies to conserve energy as part of the Micromaster initiative, to which Flak agrees. Many Autobots flee Cybertron, not wanting to be part of the war, even including former Guardsmen Landshark and Sprocket, who leave along with a group of medics. The medics plan to call whatever planet they end up on "Paradron", an old Cybertron word for peace; Sprocket claims that Rumbler likes the sound of that, unable to cope with his brother having died in the battle in Iacon.

5 million years of war later, energy on Cybertron had become dangerously low; Prime and the Autobots plan to leave the planet to find new sources of energy. Gathering the best of the Autobots, they built a ship in secret, but the Decepticons managed to uncover their plans. When it came time to launch, the Decepticons attacked, leaving a group of Autobots serving under Elita One behind...as recounted by Side Burn into a datapad. Elita comes to tell him that Alpha Trion has prepared stasis pods that will hide the Autobots from the Decepticon forces still on Cybertron. Alpha Trion tells them they will come back online once significant energy sources are detected coming back to Cybertron. As most of the Autobots get in, Trion asks Kup if he and the others members of Cybertron Defense Team are sure about staying online, as without energy the Transformer aging process dramatically increases. Kup reasons that someone has to stay online to fight the Decepticons, and that in any case, he's already five million years old; what harm would another three or four million do? Alpha Trion cryptically tells him he'd be surprised, and the Autobots walk out as their comrades enter stasis...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots

Decepticons

Big Bang (1) Trailbreaker (2) Side Burn (3) Magnum (4) Kup (5) Dion (6) Thunderclash (7) Prowl (9) Ironhide (10) Hauler (11) Jazz (12) Alpha Trion (17) Wheeljack (18) Perceptor (19) Rumbler (20) Firster Aid (21) Hoist (22) Ratchet (23) Firestar (24) Pipes (25) Red Alert (26) Tailgate (27) Inferno (28) Powerglide (29) Smokescreen (30) Ultra Magnus (31) Cop-Tur (32) Flak (33) Countdown (34) Landshark (35) Paradron Medics (36) Sprocket (37) Gears (39) Huffer (40) Elita One (41) Moonracer (42) Chromia (43) Lancer (44) Greenlight (45) Outback (46) Grapple (47)

Devastator (8) Starscream (13) Megatron (14) Soundwave (15) Skywarp (16) Laserbeak (38)

Quotes

"Not electricity: a concussive jolt!"
"You're gonna swear at him?"
"What? No..."

—Dion and Side Burn

Notes

• Characters mentioned but not seen include: Deathsaurus.

Continuity notes

• Refugees were seen fleeing Cybertron in ships identical to the Ark in pre-war records in "Desertion of the Dinobots, Part 2", which is recreated here. Among those refugees are those who would go on to colonize Paradron, seen in "Fight or Flee", including the medics seen in this story.
• The scene with Optimus conferring with Jazz, Prowl, and Trailbreaker over the search mission from "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1" is directly recreated here. In the next panel, Laserbeak can (barely) be seen spying on the Autobots loading up the ship, which wasn't present in the episode but obviously happens between Laserbeak spying on Optimus and his return to Soundwave.
• Wheeljack brings the Sky Spy drone onboard, thinking it might come in handy. As it turns out, it would!
• The scene in which Elita One and the others are separated from the departing Autobots by Decepticons is recreated from "The Search for Alpha Trion".
• The idea that the season 2 Autobots and the Female Autobots were stored in stasis on Cybertron while the others left serves as an explanation as to where they were during season 1. Although it doesn't explain why they show up out of nowhere in the cartoon, one can infer that most of them managed to escape to Earth once they were reawakened, thanks to the Decepticons bringing energy sources from Earth during season 1.
• Lancer and Greenlight evidently joined up with the Autobot military at some point, after having been assistants in an archeological dig in "Flames of Yesterday".
• The idea that being outside of stasis and without energy will age a Transformer more rapidly serves to explain why Kup, who is one of the youngest Autobots in the story, is one of the oldest Transformers in the present day.

Transformers references

• Countdown appears in his Universe toy body.
• Side Burns notes that Countdown's Micromaster Initiative "was also a new means to "surprise" the enemy," riffing on the Micromaster packaging slogan: "Micro-size has the power to surprise!"
• The Cybertron Defense group is named for the Cybertron Defense Team from (wait for it) Cybertron.

Other trivia

• It's obviously meant to be uncertain who becomes Ultra Magnus; Prime greets him as an "old friend", which would make sense for Dion, but looks like Magnum. Magnus would later claim that in The Transformers: The Movie that he's "just a soldier" when Prime passed leadership of the Autobots to him, which would go against Magnum's role as part of the High Council.
• Although it's not clear from the comic itself, Jesse Wittenrich indicated that Big Bang and Ironfist survived the battle in Iacon, and would become part of Cybertron Defense with Kup and Thunderclash.
• Derelictus 5 was originally meant to be part of prose story that would take place after this story, featuring Kup and Thunderclash.
• On page 4, there's a guy who looks like First Aid but in blue. It's not a coloring mistake; First Aid wasn't created yet, so that's just a guy who looks like First Aid, but in blue. Supposedly. Ask Vector Prime would later ignore the idea they hadn't been created yet.