Remain in Light 2 of 5: House of Ambus

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"Remain in Light 2 of 5:
House of Ambus"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published June 19, 2013
Cover date June 2013
Story by James Roberts
Pencils by Alex Milne
Inks by Brian Shearer
Colors by Josh Burcham
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor John Barber
Editorial assistant Toni Korde
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2013)

While the Legislators lay siege to the Lost Light, Rodimus's team are imprisoned on Luna 1 with a mysterious cell-mate and are confronted by the mastermind behind their plight.

Synopsis

A seemingly-unending army of Legislators has invaded the Lost Light, teleporting aboard and striking at the Autobots all throughout the ship simultaneously. Both Swerve and Skids, battling on separate fronts, recognize the robots from their last encounter with them, and while Swerve is able to use the impressive armament built into his bar by Brainstorm—as well as the comical but effective "My First Blaster" the scientist made specially for him—to dispatch his lone attacker, Skids finds his super-learning abilities pushed to the limit by the much larger force he faces...

Down on the surface of Luna 1, while Pharma takes the incapacitated Ratchet prisoner, the rest of Rodimus's team retreat from Lockdown's forces, save for Whirl and Cyclonus, who disobey orders and counterattack. In fleeing, the others discover the awesome sight of a Metrotitan graveyard, and Rodimus orders them to fly inside the titans' giant bodies in hopes of losing their pursuers. Weaving through a Metrotitan's cavernous interior, Rodimus is able to dispatch the Decepticons on his tail... but unfortunately, his comrades are not so lucky and are taken captive by Lockdown's men, forcing Rodimus to surrender. They are escorted to a prison on the moon's surface, where they discover a silent Ultra Magnus who pays them no attention, a mysterious ancient space bridge, and meet face-to-face with Lockdown's true master: Chief Justice Tyrest, primary lawmaker of Cybertron, failed arbiter of peace, broker of the Tyrest Accord, and creator of the Aequitas computer, who vanished from public view years ago. Tyrest charges them all with "crimes against creation" (prompting a tirade of verbal abuse from Rodimus) and confines them to a cell with another Autobot named Ambus. After Rodimus relates their plight, Chromedome inquires of their cell-mate if he is Dominus Ambus, Rewind's old partner, but the moustachoied 'bot explains that he is Dominus's spark-brother Minimus Ambus, a trader imprisoned for selling enriched nucleon. Rodimus notes Ambus's lack of an Autobot badge, prompting Rung to offer him his, but Ambus politely refuses. With the last few days of his life ticking away, Tailgate is very eager to find a way to escape, hoping Brainstorm or Chromedome can use their special abilities to bust them loose, but Ambus warns that escape attempts will be seen as admissions of guilt, and Rodimus agrees, noting they need to figure out the bigger picture first.

Back aboard the Lost Light, Skids tears into wave after wave of Legislators, fighting with a righteous fury sparked by the blame he assigns himself: there's no question that the Legislators are here for him, and the rest of the ship's crew, who took him in without question, are suffering as a result. Swerve races to the oil reservoir to aid his friend, arriving just as the doors open and a torrent of fuel spills out... followed presently by a battered, weakened, but victorious Skids. Just as Skids steps through the doors, however, another large red, white and blue robot materializes behind him and stabs him through the torso with a gigantic sword. Swerve opens fire, but fails to land a single shot, and is promptly knocked out by the newcomer.

Elsewhere, Ratchet awakens to see Pharma leering down at him. After showing off his new hands, which can "turn into anything", the deranged doctor gestures to a large yellow box in the middle of the room, and challenges Ratchet to guess what is inside it. Intent on not humoring Pharma, Ratchet claims he does not care and refuses to play the twisted game, so Pharma simply opens it to reveal... Ratchet's body! With great horror, the medic realizes he is nothing but a decapitated head and spark hanging from a med-slab!

Back in the prison, Rung hands out energon sticks to calm everyone's nerves, and tells Tailgate—who remembers Tyrest from Nova Prime's days—about the history of their jailor. Rodimus takes over to recap Tyrest's role in the Aequitas trials, even as both Rung and Ambus try to quiet him, knowing that the trials are top secret and not to be talked about. Ambus conspicuously tries to change the subject, asking questions about Skids, and Rung offers him an energon stick, only to deliberately drop the box as he hands him one. Ambus becomes angry, quickly picking up the scattered sticks... which serves as the last piece of evidence Rung needs. Ignoring Ambus's plaintive requests to stop, Rung explains that he has observed many familiar characteristics in Ambus: a certain way of speaking, an intolerance for mess, and a fixation on the psychiatrist's Autobot badge, which he deliberately positioned at an angle when he reattached it after Ambus turned it down. Rung gives Ambus the chance to tell the others the truth for himself, and he reluctantly agrees. Minimus Ambus is his true name, he explains, but the crew of the Lost Light have always known him as... Ultra Magnus!

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashback.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Others

Quotes

"Now, I didn't say it to Fort Max—and I didn't say it to Whirl—and I didn't even say it to Cyclonus when he had his Dead Universe flashback. But you, my friend—to you I say:"
(CH-CHUK)
"Get the hell out of my bar."
(Swerve blasts the Legislator.)
"♪ HOORAY! ♩ YOU SCORED A DIRECT ♫ HIT! ♪"

—Swerve's badass speech is a little deflated by his My First Blaster


"The last time I danced this dance some piece of scum had just destroyed my memories. I woke up with blowtorch in my hand and nothing in my head, and your friends were all over me. So you'll forgive me if I put two and two together—and make fist!"
(THWOK)
"Okay, that didn't really work, did it, the whole 'two and two' thing. It should be 'four'—you're expecting me to say 'four,' but I said... 'cos it coincided with me punching you, yeah? Forget it."

—Skids


"Pharma, we really must sit down some time so I can explain to you why we all hate you. We'll start with your personality and go from there."

—Lockdown


"If I still kept a journal of all my moves, that would be on the front cover."
"Excellent, excellent effort. It's just a shame none of your friends are as much of a show-off as you are."
"Yeah, well, none of my friends have flames on their chest. It's a lot to live up to."

—Rodimus and Lockdown


"Ah, enriched nucleon...! The magic ingredient! Two drops turns hand gun into a banned gun."
"You should really stop and listen to yourself sometimes."

—Brainstorm and Perceptor


"Brainstorm! How about cobbling together some kinda superweapon out of—out of the ceiling or something? You're always telling us what a genius you are..."
"I don't respond well to pressure."
"Well, why not open your magic briefcase and make all the naughty people in the universe disappear?"
"Don't. Mock. The briefcase."

—Tailgate and Brainstorm


"What about you, Domey? The Legislators round the corner—could you extend the needles in your fingers far enough to reach their necks and brainwash them into letting us go?"
"Short answer: No. Long answer: No, don't be an idiot."

—Tailgate and Chromedome

Notes

Continuity notes

  • In addition to being hilarious, Swerve's need for "My First Blaster" reminds us of his poor marksmanship and weapons-handling, established in past instances such as when he accidentally shot Rung in issue #6 and blew his own face off in issue #12.
  • The Metrotitans were introduced in the More than Meets the Eye 2012 annual (in which Rodimus's crew also went on a voyage through the innards of one). That they should turn up in the same place as Lockdown's group is no surprise, since the Decepticon squad were established to be hunters of Titans when they debuted in Spotlight: Trailcutter.
  • Chief Justice Tyrest was introduced by Roberts in Last Stand of the Wreckers #5, named after the Tyrest Accord first established in Spotlight: Ultra Magnus.
  • Chromedome takes umbrage at Tailgate calling him "Domey"; that was Rewind's nickname for him.
  • Pharma is revealed to have worked with Ratchet at the Deltaran Medical Facility; the facility was first mentioned in ""Chaos Theory," Part 1, and the fact that Ratchet worked there was revealed in Spotlight: Orion Pax.
  • Tailgate gets very sarcastic about Tyrest's aspirations as Rung relates his backstory; he did the same thing about Dominus Ambus when Chromedome told his story in issue #12.
  • Tyrest's "judging machine", Aequitas, was the central macguffin of Last Stand of the Wreckers.
  • It's fitting that Rung should recognize Ambus as Magnus through observation of traits in his speech; issue #13's "Signal to Noise" featured an exchange between the two characters in which Rung commented on the observations he'd made on Magnus's way of talking over time.

Transformers references

Real-life references

Crew manifest

  • Deftwing's corpse appears, having become a victim of the Legislators off-panel.
  • Rodimus gives the crew count as "three hundred, give or take", which seems on the generous side, given that it was 200-ish at outset.
  • Ultra Magnus is who what now??
  • 12 deaths, one crewmember in terminal condition, Ultra Magnus is... what??? ...5 new arrivals (plus 20 or so Faders), and one banishment since the launch.

Soundtrack

For all of "Remain in Light":

For this issue alone:

Covers (3)

  • Cover A: Skids battles a throng of Legislators, by Alex Milne and Josh Perez
  • Cover B: Gears, Hound and Huffer defending themselves, by Sean Chen and Tom Chu. In what's probably a slightly embarassing snafu for Hasbro, Chen has drawn Huffer and Gears based on the unofficial "third party" toys based on the characters, "Rager" and "Cogz".
  • Cover RI: A Legislator looms over the fallen Ambulon and First Aid, by Nick Roche and Josh Perez.

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