The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Three
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| "The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Three" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||||||||
| First published | July 17, 2019 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | July 2019 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Brian Ruckley | ||||||||||||
| Art by | Angel Hernandez (pg. 1-3, 6-9, 11-20), Anna Malkova (pages 4-5, 10) | ||||||||||||
| Colors by | Joana Lafuente | ||||||||||||
| Letters by | Tom B. Long | ||||||||||||
| Editor | David Mariotte and Tom Waltz | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | 2019 IDW continuity | ||||||||||||
Chromia's investigation into The Rise takes a deadly turn when the 'bots of Security Operations investigate a seemingly-abandoned bunker.
Synopsis
Aboard a carrier, Sideswipe, Chromia, and Windblade approach the Iacon Memorial Crater, ready to investigate the potential Rise hiding spot. Chromia remotely confers with Geomotus to ask him for his opinion regarding the size and scale of any potential underground installation; the geologist points out that—owing to the patterns of microfissures that surround the site—the Risers have been busy, and any excavations would have to be large-scale.
As Windblade and Sideswipe ready their weapons, Chromia wonders why Barricade hasn't responded to her summons, before Windblade interrupts her to point out their way in: a disguised hatch cut into the metal surface of the crater. As Chromia gives her marching orders, Windblade wonders if they should call in Prowl or the trainees, but Chromia refuses. Prowl is busy with his own investigation, she reminds her, and they're not risking trainees until they're certain what they're dealing with.
Elsewhere, the black market dealer Headlock makes his way through the streets of Iacon, only to come face-to-face with Prowl himself! Out of patience, the police-bot quickly overpowers the smaller Cybertronian, and presses him for information regarding one of his ex-affiliates: the recently-murdered Voin scavenger. Headlock tires to wheedle his way out of any potential conflict, desperately telling Prowl that he's already given the 'bots of Security Operations everything he knew about the Voin. Prowl—out of patience after grilling his way through the Iaconian underworld—warns him that he hadn't given him any useful knowledge the last time they met. Headlock immediately backpedals and shocks Prowl: it wasn't Prowl with whom he shared information regarding the Voin scavenger, but Prowl's affiliate Barricade... the same Barricade who's abruptly dropped off the map...
Beyond the city, Chromia's detachment attempts to probe the doorway with a group of drones, to no avail; the builders of the base have wired their base against remote probing, and when the drones abruptly drop to the ground Chromia decides that the only way is for her and Windblade to scope out the site on foot while Sideswipe stands guard. As the pair enter, they're unaware that they're being watched on camera by Sixshot and his two underlings, Flamewar and Shadow Striker. Chromia and her team are also unaware that Sixshot has already evacuated the base; although Shadow Striker is eager to join them, Sixshot reminds them that they'll need to scuttle the facility to ensure that the trespassers get nothing useful. While Flamewar runs guard duty, and Shadow Striker primes the charges, Sixshot sets off to deal with the intruders himself.
Not far away, the two security 'bots continue their tour of the abandoned bunker, finding increasingly disturbing signs of the scope and scale of Rise activity: armories and repair bays, stripped clean in anticipation of the raid. Chromia laments that they're too late: had they raided the site earlier, they surely would have found the murderers of both Brainstorm and Rubble, but as they walk, they discover the base's power source: a receiving array for microwave-beamed energon, connected to a series of stolen energon stations. Though the base is seemingly empty, Chromia has a breakthrough: the Rise members who set up the station never bothered to disable the monitoring hardware... meaning that Chromia can extract data on everyone who's ever refueled there. Before she can begin the extraction process, however, Windblade abruptly gets a signal from Sideswipe and races off, leaving Chromia all alone—all alone, that is, except for Sixshot, who's caught up with the intruders!
In Iacon itself, business is booming for the 'bots of the Ascenticon Guard, as Bumblebee arrives to find Guard leader Elita-1 assessing some new recruits... recruits that include Barricade, who's decided to leave his old career behind and start afresh as a member of the Ascenticons. Brushing off Bumblebee's incredulity, the ex-cop smirks that while Bumblebee had to win over both Elita and Soundwave, they clearly recognize that Barricade has more to offer them.
Windblade and Sideswipe regroup at the top of the crater, but as Sideswipe sees the shape of Flamewar come into view, he warns her to keep her distance with the help of an antique thermal lance...but Flamewar has more firepower on her side, as she unleashes a fiery blast that knocks the red 'bot off his feet.
Underground, Chromia tries to stay one step ahead of Sixshot as the hulking 'bot pursues her through the abandoned facility, trading fire as they go, only for a thrown explosive from Sixshot to send her flying. It looks like the end for Chromia—just before Windblade arrives in time to hurl her sword through Sixshot's chest. Wounded but still upright, Sixshot flees as Shadow Striker announces the base is set to detonate. With time running short, Chromia orders Windblade to retrieve as much data as she can from the energon station, and though she takes a few potshots at Sixshot's retreating shape, she's unable to stop him from boarding an escape ship and blasting off.
On the surface, Sideswipe trades fire with Flamewar, until the sight of the ship flying overhead catches his attention-and while he's distracted, Flamewar takes advantage of the split-second lapse in concentration to transform into her alternate mode and peel out. A disheveled Chromia bursts out of the hatch and asks Sideswipe where Windblade is, moments before the ground beneath their feet starts to crumble and the entire crater erupts in a colossal explosion! A lone shape is hurled out of the blast and crashes back to the ground: Windblade's battered body...
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Ascenticons | Others |
|---|---|
|
Quotes
"Hey, hey! Calm yaself!"
"Oh. I should calm myself? No, Headlock. I don't think so. I'm way past the point of calm. It's way too late for calm. Calm is for people who don't have two new dead bodies!"
- —Headlock and Prowl
"I'm touring the black market, and you're my fourth stop. I'm getting bored. So either you tell me you traded with that dead Voin, or I'll see if I can put a you-shaped hole in this wall. Pretty sure I can, if I really commit."
- —Prowl plays bad cop
"And you—"
"Touch me and I'll rip your arm off and find out how much of it I can fit through one of your eye sockets."
- —Sixshot finds that Shadow Striker isn't so easy to threaten
"Is that a thermal lance?"
"Yes! Yes, it is."
-FWOOSH-
"I've got that beat."
- —Flamewar versus Sideswipe
Notes
Continuity notes
- Sideswipe wields a thermal lance, a weapon that he informs Windblade is a relic from the Age of Expansion. Of course, this does throw into question how closely law enforcement is cooperating with the terms of the Nominus Edict, which stated that all non-integrated weapons with lethal capacity would be prohibited on Cybertron.
- Geomotus bluntly informs Chromia that he did not enjoy his last trip to the Memorial Crater; that occurred in issue #4, in which he accompanied Chromia and Windblade to the wilderness and encountered Cyclonus.
- In the same call, Geomotus mentions that he's doing research alongside another 'bot named Landmine... though, given this comic's habit of introducing some decidedly unexpected characters, it's not yet clear if it's the Generation 1 incarnation, his Unicron Trilogy incarnation, or an all-new original character.
- Prowl was previously noted to have turned to his underworld contacts for information regarding the murder of the Voin scavenger in issue #5. Barricade, meanwhile, was also investigating the case of the murdered Voin as per issue #4, though that issue did not specifically depict any prior encounter with Headlock. Ominously, the Voin itself was then murdered by Quake in the very next issue, despite Prowl's assertion that the aliens are normally impossible to tell apart.
- The notion that energon can be beamed remotely from place to place was first introduced in issue #2 as one of the key features of the Winged Moon. Issue #5 had Chromia learn from Sideswipe that more than two hundred Cybertronians had vanished; presumably, this facility was how they were able to keep themselves fueled without attracting the attention of law enforcement.
- Barricade muses that he could've made it as a gladiator, which was established to be a popular sport on antebellum Cybertron in issue #6. His comments that the sport was "shut down" at some point suggest that there's more to be learned about how Megatron rose from miner to senator...
Transformers references
- Sideswipe's weapon of choice in this issue is, at least allegedly, a thermal lance (though Windblade disputes this), and although it's not specifically called out as such, his usage of the staff-like weapon specifically evokes his 2015 Robots in Disguise incarnation, who wielded the nigh-identical Decepticon Hunter on a regular basis.
- The unexpected Robots in Disguise homages continue with the introduction of Headlock, who's identical to the the 2015 Robots in Disguise Decepticon of the same name. It's not clear if his partner-in-crime Groundpounder exists in this universe... but we wouldn't be surprised if he showed up in a future issue!
- One of the potential Ascenticon recruits on page 10 is drawn to resemble a Seeker as per their appearance in the Siege toyline, clad in a made-up burgundy color scheme that doesn't seem to gel to any preexisting Seeker.
- Barricade's gladiatorial aspirations reference his "Aligned" incarnation, who was a supporting member of Megatron's gladiatorial corps as per the Exodus novel.
Errors
- On page three, a comma is missing from Sideswipe's dialogue: "A thing of beauty don't you think?"
Other trivia
- The contents of this issue must have changed relatively late in production: solicits for issue #9 mentioned Sentinel Prime making his return to Cybertron, and Orion Pax investigating the situation...when the former doesn't actually happen in the book, at least not on-panel, and the latter character doesn't show up at all.
Covers (3)
- Cover A: Sentinel Prime, his retinue, and Bumblebee, by Umi Miyao, in direct contravention of sub-section 11 (3) of the Autobot Code (appendix D: Entertainment)
- Cover B: Prowl and Chromia interrogate Froid, by Priscilla Tramontano
- Retailer incentive cover: A cartoon-styled Cyclonus and the Sweeps, by Guido Guidi
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