Infiltration issue 4

	; "Bumblebee Holding Giant-Ass Gun" #392
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	April 12, 2006
Cover date	March 2006?
Written by	Simon Furman
Art by	E. J. Su
Colors by	John Rauch
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Edits by	Chris Ryall & Dan Taylor
Continuity	IDW continuity
Chronology	Infiltration

Ratchet and Bumblebee protect their human friends while a new player arrives on Earth.

Synopsis

In flashback, a younger Verity Carlo is meeting with a guidance counselor after running away from yet another foster home. The counselor dismisses Verity's tough facade, stating that all she sees is a young girl 'in a world of hurt.'

Verity, Hunter and Jimmy explore the abandoned Decepticon base. After splitting up, Verity discovers a months-old human corpse in military uniform inside some kind of stasis tube and almost has a nervous breakdown.

Topside, Skywarp and Blitzwing try to destroy the bunker, forcing Ratchet and Bumblebee into battle. Bumblebee is able to shoot down Skywarp, his processor speed outmatching the Decepticon's, but Ratchet is taken out by Blitzwing in his tank mode.

Meanwhile, the Machination prepares to "appropriate" Cybertronian technology, having discovered the location of Ark-19 under the lake via the SM-40's homing signal.

Back underground and ignoring the others' wish to leave, Verity discovers that someone else has entered the bunker... Megatron.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Ratchet (5) Bumblebee (6)	Blitzwing (13) Skywarp (14) Megatron (15)	Verity's counselor (1) Verity Carlo (2) Hunter O'Nion (3) Jimmy Pink (4) Machination secretary (7) Drake (8) Abraham Dante (9) Miss Svenson (10) Mister Jolly (11) Drake's team (12)

Errors

This issue has the same publish date as issue #3.

Items of note

Cameos: Unnamed Machination employees, Stoker (in picture)
Megatron is talking to Razorclaw. The full conversation appears in Stormbringer #3.
The Machination's plot and the purpose of the SM-40 is revealed in Devastation #1 — a preview with the relevant pages is printed in Spotlight: Optimus Prime.
The human corpse is that of a human abducted and replaced by a Decepticon Facsimile Construct; the pod it was in is a life support vessel, keeping it alive in case a new facsimile needs to be grown, but which was abandoned and allowed to fail. This is explained in Escalation #2.
This is the first issue to make it explicit that Verity is more emotionally vulnerable than she lets on.
The "Decepticomments" section featured mail answered by Chris Ryall and short ads for next month's issues: Infiltration #5, The Gathering #4, Generations #3.
Drake's team is assembled. None of them particularly resemble any of the members of the team as seen in Escalation.

Covers (8)

Cover A: Starscream by E. J. Su, would later become part of the wraparound cover RI-A for issue 5
Cover B: Bumblebee on Blitzwing's turret by Guido Guidi
Cover C: Bumblebee with giant-ass gun by Andrew Wildman
Cover D: Humans by James Raiz
Cover RI-A: Foil stamp of cover C, without the background
Cover RI-B: (Mostly) toy-accurate Megatron by Guido Guidi
Cover RI-C: Saluting Bumblebee by Guido Guidi (includes 3 mini-prints)
Cover RE-A: Megatron and Optimus Prime by Andrew Wildman (drawtheworldtogether.com exclusive)