Timelines - Termination

Writer: Jesse Wittenrich

Layouts: David Reynolds

Art: Josh Burcham

Letters: Jesse Wittenrich

Plot

The golden age of Cybertron has ended thanks to a war by Jhiaxus' army of clones. One day, Thundercracker and his drones encounter a group of what they assume are Empties, but are quickly revealed to be Obsidian, Strika and several members of their team. The group quickly take down Thudnercracker's drones and take Thundercracker himself prisoner. During the fight, the pacifist Sandstorm accidentally kills one of the drones, and seems a bit distraught.

Six days earlier, Hoist is informed by Rewind that Optimus has been left in a coma following an attact by what seems to be Decepticons, as a result several other Autobots are promoted to City Commander status and all govern their own area on Cybertron and have their own troops to command.

Back in the present, Strika beats up Thundercracker to get information out of him, but Sandstorm stops her, he and Hoist then manage to get him to cooperate by basically saying that if he doesn't then Strika will just annihilate him, especially since it'll be a seath trap anyway.

In Iacon meanwhile Megaplex watches over the damaged city and discusses with Starscream about how both of them should be wary of becoming like their originators, as Jhiaxus wouldn't like it. Skywarp appears and reports that Thundercracker was captured by some Autobots, meaning they can't just bomb them, or he'll die as well. Megaplex seems happy with this as he wanted to get his hand's dirty anyway.

4 days ago, Electro and Mirage were captured by Clamp Down's troops for trying to smuggle illegal weapons and materials between Cyebrtron and Earth, Clamp Down says he'll let them go if they admit it was all Pyro's idea. As they argue with him that they need to be prepared due to Sizzle's report (thanks to his vision) about the war, the sirens start to go off. Mirage off-handedly agrees to Clamp Down's claims, and grabs a gun from him, however when he reaches the window he's shocked to see Jhiaxus' Cybertronian army bombing the city. Within half a day, the Cybertronians have devastated Cybertron's cities and taken over the most of the planet.

In the present Obsidian's team meet with Mirage and Electro outside Iacon, where Obsidian reveals he took the long route to allow them to see Thundercracker with them, to stop them from just bombing them, however just then Megaplex appears with a large portion of his army to counter them.

Obsidian faces off against Megaplex, all the time commenting on how he's just like Megatron himself, much to his annoyance and denial, meanwhile the rest of the Transformers and clones fight amongst themselves.

During the fight Megaplex starts to lose it, and goes all out against Obsidian, which causes Sandstorm to feel a lot of pain, he then suddenly chan ges his personality and attacks Obsidian, revealing himself to be a clone of the original Sandstorm, who was placed in their ranks to try and make them surrender or leave the planet in peace.

Jhiaxus suddenly appears with more of his troops and offers Megaplex and all the non-clones the same choice - leave Cybertron, or be terminated...

To be Continued....

Characters

Autobot

Obsidian - Twin Prop Terror

Strika - Tough Tank

Hoist - Pick Up Truck

Mirage - Formulaic Fun Race Car

Electro - Pick Up Truck

Clamp Down - Emergency Sports Car

Deep Cover - Emergency Sports Car

Override - Motorcycle

Dogfight - Fighter Jet

Backstreet - Race Car

Guzzle - Tank

Jazz - Sports Car

Hardhead - Tank

Springer - Helicopter/Rocket Car

Hauler - Crane

Rewind - Cassette

Gunrunner - Jet

Zoom-Zoom - Sports Car Killed by Starscream Drone

Doublecross - Two Headed Dragon Killed by Starscream Drone

Grotusque - Winged Saber-Tooth Monster Killed by Starscream Drone

Blastcharge Drones - Tanks

Optimus Prime - Truck (On Screen) In Coma

Autobot Council (Mentioned)

Pyro - Fire Truck (Mentioned)

Sizzle - Funny Car (Mentioned)

Sandstorm - Helicopter/Buggy (Mentioned)

Fixit - Ambulance (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Octane - Cargo Plane/Oil Tanker

Hot Link - Fighter Jet

Bitstream - Fighter Jet

Sunstorm - Fighter Jet

Red Wing - Fighter Jet Shot by Skywarp

Magnificus - Half-Tracked Van

Megatron (Mentioned)

Starscream (Mentioned)

Cybertronian Empire

Jhiaxus - Fighter Jet

Megaplex - Bad Jet Fighter

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Skywarp - Fighter Jet

Thundercracker - Frequent Fear Flyer Jet

Soundwave - Tracked ICBM

Sandstorm - Helicopter

Prowl - Race Car

Hubcap - Tow Truck

Starscream Drones - Bomber Jets

Skywarp Drones - Fighter Jets

Thundercracker - Fighter Jets

Sandstorm Drones - Helicopters

Other

Sky-Byte - Shark-Submarine

Empties (Mentioned)

Notes

• It's not clear when this is set in continuity, it really depends on how long it takes for Jhiaxus to make a new batch of clones really.
• Soundwave is shown to be in his larger body rather than the G-Bot version. So either this is ANOTHER Soundwave clone, or the smaller one got a new body or something.
• Octane's friendship with Sandstorm is brought up as the reason he joined Obsidian's crew
• the Skywarp clone seems to have the original's teleporting powers
• Mirage "betraying" Pyro to Clamp Down is probably a joking reference towards his character's often perceived treachery in past fiction.
• The group who attacked Optimus, who Rewind assumes are Decepticons are most likely Jhiaxus' forces...or another unknown faction.
• It's sort of implied here that Override is killed whilst contacting Backstreet and the others, but he reappears later on.
• Despite him being in Jhiaxus' new faction, Megaplex calls his forces "Decepticons". This could be because of his Megatron codes..but that doesn't excuse the insignias on him still...
• Megaplex's fusion cannon seems to be based on his IDW stealth bomber body's cannon, but recoloured to match his own body - His toy does have a peg hole that can fit the stealth bomber body's weapon as well!
• Sandstorm pretending to be the original Sandstorm could have been inspired by Sideswipe doing the same in A Flash Forward.
• Hauler and Zoom-Zoom look like they could be future toy exclusives using the Grappler and RTS Jazz molds.