Infiltration issue 3

	; Eat foot, dig?
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	March 8, 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

The Decepticons attempt to erase evidence of their location while Ratchet warns Prowl of the situation.

Synopsis

Aboard the Autobot starship Ark-19, located at the bottom of Lake Michigan, Prowl gives Ratchet a thorough dressing-down for disobeying his orders and breaking cover, then tells him to find out just what's on Verity Carlo's stolen palmtop and to get rid of the humans, refusing Ratchet's suggestion that Prowl alert Optimus Prime. Ratchet reminds them that regardless of whether or not the Decepticons are acting under orders or have gone rogue, it's only a matter of time before Megatron arrives. Fortunately, his pleas do not fall on deaf audio sensors, as Ironhide listens intently.

Ratchet appears to Verity, Hunter O'Nion, and Jimmy Pink in their containment cell and persuades Verity to hand the palmtop over. He shows them the mysterious businessman's photos and explains that they show a Decepticon Command Bunker, mysteriously abandoned (which Decepticons never do) and apparently in Siege Mode much too early for standard Decepticon procedure. While this is going on, Ironhide finishes sending a pulsewave to Autobot command, for Optimus Prime's optics only.

In the meantime, a police officer is investigating the dead body found on an Arizona reservation, tracking him to a caravan park—just as a pair of war-planes, one black, one purple, appear out of thin air and destroy the dead man's caravan before promptly disappearing again. Later, an Abrams battle tank destroys the remains of Jimmy Pink's garage, then transforms into the purple plane and along with the black one disappears yet again. Finally, the coach which Verity and the dead man traveled on is destroyed.

Verity, Hunter and Jimmy insist that Ratchet take them to the Decepticon bunker in Nebraska so that they can locate the proof Ratchet needs to persuade Prowl of the severity of the situation. Partially swayed, Ratchet makes his mind up when Bumblebee offers to help out. The three humans and two Autobots make their way to Nebraska—just as the Decepticon lieutenant Starscream orders Skywarp and Blitzwing to destroy the bunker...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Ratchet (4) Sunstreaker (5) Prowl (6) Ironhide (7) Bumblebee (8) Wheeljack (9) Jazz (10)	Runabout (12) Skywarp (13) Blitzwing (14) Starscream (16)	Hunter O'Nion (1) Verity Carlo (2) Jimmy Pink (3) Stoker (11) Lindy Simmons (15)

Notes

Prowl dismisses Ratchet's actions as being to "give yourself another shot at being a hero", implying that he has carried out similar actions in the past which may have gone wrong.
The "Decepticomments" section featured mail answered by Chris Ryall and short ads for next month's issues: Infiltration #4, The Gathering #3, Generations #2.
The first few pages of this story were reprinted as part of a Free Comic Book Day issue by IDW Publishing on May 6th, 2006.