No Exit: Dark Cybertron Chapter 6

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« The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #25 »
« Dark Cybertron
Chapter 6 		»
"No Exit"
Dark Cybertron Chapter 6
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published January 15, 2014
Cover date January 2014
Written by James Roberts and John Barber
Art by Atilio Rojo, James Raiz, and Livio Ramondelli
Colors by Josh Perez and Livio Ramondelli
Letters by Gilberto Lazcano
Editor Carlos Guzman
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2014)

The Lost Light crew explore the mysteries within Metroplex, the Necrotitan descends upon Iacon, and two Primes come face to face!

Synopsis

In the wastelands surrounding Crystal City, the Dinobots stand watch over those wounded by the Necrotitan's death-wave. Although badly wounded, Slag expresses his desire to have gone with the other Autobots and Decepticons into the city; Swoop talks him down, but arguing is certainly something Slag has the energy left to do, including the insistence that his name his now "Slug", after Arcee told him his old name was "offensive". When the Necrotitan suddenly moves, a pair of binoculars donated by Astrotrain lets Swoop get a closer look at the action, as the small surviving crowd of 'Bots and 'Cons comes running towards them, the Titan hot on their trail and heading straight for Iacon!

On an alien world, deep underwater, the Rodpod carries its small crew deeper into the eye socket of the unmoving Meroplex. With Ratchet unsure if Metroplex is either alive or dead, Perceptor scans for lifesigns and finds eight: a positive outcome, as there are only seven 'bots in the pod. Brainstorm analyzes the water on suspicion it may have reduced Metroplex to his sorry state, and, upon finding traces of what he believes to be Admium, has Getaway—struggling to cope with the enormity of the situation—call Swerve for his metallurgical expertise. Swerve is too busy fighting Ammonites to answer his phone, but Ultra Magnus rations that if they can save Metroplex, he can end the battle. That prospect suddenly looks a lot less likely when the Rodpod enters the Titan's brain chamber, and the crew find his brain module to be gone, surgically removed. The pod heads for Metroplex's spark chamber to investigate further, even as the Titan's internal lights die out around it, his lifeforce ebbing away.

In Iacon, Starscream seeks an update on the wounded from Flatline, though the medic at first misinterprets his request as a report on the spread of the mysterious "deathmark" left on his chest by the Necrotitan's wave. Medical aide Tankor loses patience with Starscream and bellows a stream of insults at him before stalking off; Flatline's immensely obvious observations of the situation do nothing to improve Starscream's mood, but just as he is yelling at the doctor, the Nectrotitan comes stomping into the city, and fiery chaos ensues.

In the Dead Universe, Orion Pax's team remained trapped in a containment field by Nightbeat, awaiting the arrival of Nova Prime. Hardhead tries headbutting his way out, to no avail, but Orion follows his lead, landing a hand-shattering haymaker on the cube wall. Orion appears to lose his composure, and begins screaming threats at Nightbeat, but when Rodimus tries to intercede, Pax punches him too, but only, he quickly explains in whispers, to keep Nightbeat distracted from the small crack he successfully made in the cube with his punch. Rodimus joins in the effort, raising his palms to the detective in an imploring gesture, but with unexpected results: the sight of the mysterious object in Rodimus's hand affects Nightbeat's mind, bringing him to his knees... just as Nova Prime arrives.

The Rodpod berths at a dry dock within Metroplex (unsurprising, Magnus notes, as he is a city), where the team finds a series of hand-painted arrows drawn on its walls and floors that lead them on a disorienting Escher-esque tour of the Titan's insides. Alas, the final arrow brings them right back to where they started, and when Whirl starts to take out his frustrations on the Rodpod, Magnus stops him... but in the process gets closed enough to the pod to hear ticking. W Following a length of new cable running from the Rodpod with their eyes, the team spots a stowaway Ammonite—Perceptor's eighth lifesign—standing in a doorway, holding a detonator. Before any of them can move, the tiny 'bot pushes the switch, and the Rodpod explodes!

Nova Prime greets Orion as "Optimus Prime", waving aside Pax's attempted correction and instead musing that they are all trapped in the Dead Universe now, and that the two Primes may go down side by side. Spotting Cyclonus, Nova mocks his status as a perennial "hanger-on"... at which point Cyclonus gives Hardhead the word. The taciturn 'bot barrels into the cracked wall and smashes through, though the cube re-seals before the others can escape. Hardhead tries to take on Nova himself, but the ancient Prime simply catches his punch and crushes his protective force-field generator. As the others look on in horror, Hardhead is consumed by the Dead Universe, disintegrating and blowing away on the winds. Nova then informs Orion that he is taking him to meet a "friend" of his... a friend who turns into a space bridge... a friend we know as Kup!

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Others

Quotes

"Well, something's not right."
"Easy on the jargon, Ratchet, we didn't all go to medical school."
"Sarcasm: the first sign of a damaged brain module. Other symptoms include me hitting you in the face."

—Ratchet and Whirl


"He's not even the first guy named Tankor to yell at me today."

—Starscream on the vagaries of Transformer naming. Like they say, all the good ones are taken.


Getaway: "Weird. Some kind of arrow..."
Ratchet: "Hand drawn. And pointing towards the spark chamber..."
Ultra Magnus: "And another one over there. Pointing in a different direction."
Brainstorm: "What do we do, fearless leader? Follow them?"
Ultra Magnus: "Well we certainly can't ignore them... it'd be like ignoring a traffic sign."
Brainstorm: "And that way anarchy lies..."
{The team sets off.)
Whirl: "Come on, Perceptor!"
Skids: "No one's locking the Rodpod?"
Whirl: "Hopefully someone will steal it."

Notes

Continuity notes

  • True to his word, we here see that Swerve has indeed made Orion Pax's distress call his ringtone, as he promised back in Chapter 1.
  • To see Beast Machines Tankor appearing in this issue in such a manner is perhaps a little disarming; he is, of course, only here because this issue is packed in with his new Generations toy. But! This is actually not his first appearance in IDW continuity! Given the timings involved, it can only have been an incredibly fortuitous coincidence, but Tankor first showed up in a crowd-scene cameo back in the 2012 Robots in Disguise annual.
  • The mysterious object on Rodimus's hand was alluded to back in Chapter 2.
  • Kup was last seen in Transformers: Infestation #2, in which he was sucked into the Dead Universe through a magic portal.

Transformers references

  • The story catches up to the "Roll Call" pages this issue, with Slag officially renaming himself "Slug", the name Hasbro now uses for versions of the character which originated with his Aligned universe counterpart. The full details of his change of heart aren't gone into, merely that Arcee told him that his name was offensive—a double-reference to its status as both a Transformer swear word and a disparaging term for a woman in the United Kingdom, the latter being the reason Hasbro shelved it as the character's name. The story has tactfully avoided actually using "Slag" in dialogue up until now, which is not a problem IDW stories have faced before, but Dark Cybertron is packed in with toys.

Errors

  • On page 1, Sludge grunts to draw Swoop's attention, but Swoop's dialogue has him respond to Snarl, who's not in this scene.
  • In the medibay scene, in panel one, Beast Machines Tankor is standing behind Starscream and Flatline, but in panel two, he's suddenly replaced with Generation 1 Tankor, aka Octane. Starscream proceeds to make a crack about there being more than one guy named Tankor, so this many not be an error, but the way the G1 character appears for only one panel in place of the Beast Machines character and isn't evident in the rest of the scene suggests not.

Trivia

  • Artist breakdown: Per the established pattern, Rojo draws the scenes on Cybertron, Raiz covers the Lost Light crew, and Ramondelli the Dead Universe.

Covers (3)

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