Astrobots #5

Creator & Editor: Aaron Thomas

Writer: Simon Furman

Artist & Letterer: Hector Trunnec 

Producer: Esmond Zhou

Plot

Athenia returns to the Persephone to warn them about Atlas' mad plans, and manages to arrange the evacuation of almost half of the colonists, however, despite a delay caused by Eros-10 jamming the signal, the deepscreen scan still takes place, and all the humans who were still on the ship are instantly killed, infuriating Athenia.

In Atlas city, Apollo is told by Atlas how he arrived on a faster colony ship in the past, and built the first city, Paradise City, but he claims that a cult of humans created the A.I. Phage, a virus that destroys Astrobots. Though Atlas was affected by it, he also fought back, and destroyed Paradise City, and killed all the colonists there, eventually ending up in the future Atlas CIty.

Atlas leaves, and swiftly executes the Rebellion leader, Articus, and publically blames the rebels for the attacks on the human colonists, and "exiles" them out of the city, which the regular population start to question, and believe is suspicious.

Later, Lyrel, one of th Persephone's delegate party who came to Atlas city is taken from her holding cell, and dragged away, with the rest of the team left in jail...

After a short drive, the convoy carrying the "exiles" stops, and the guards intend to execute them, only to be fought off by Apollo, and a rescue party.

At the city, Atlas is attacked from the sky by Athenia in a shuttle, seeking revenge for her fallen colonists, but he is defended by his guards. The other crew members beg her to leave him, as they need to tend to their surviving colonists, and worrying about Atlas' will not help them, leading her to head to their rendezvous with their new allies...

Later, Athenia meets with the rebels in the deserts outside the city, where the teams join forces and start hunting for the launched Arks to protect the surviving colonists, Vulkan and some of the other resistance members decide to return to the city to fight from within, while Apollo and Athenia head to find their first Ark...

In the dark labs under the city, Atlas continues the human cloning project, he has created his own version of the Venus type Astrobot, using Lyrel's template, and has also rebuilt the Venus type as a new Astrobot, Artemis, the hunter.

Characters

Resistance

Articus Killed by Atlas 

Apollo-08

Vulkan

Chernos

Praxis

Geomek

Eros-10 

Other Resistance Members 

Persephone Crew

Athenia

Pausanius

Eudoxus

Strabo

Zenofanes Imprisoned in Atlas City

Galax Imprisoned in Atlas City 

Stratus Imprisoned in Atlas City 

Lyrel Rebuilt Into Artemis

Venus Units 

Colonists More than Half Killed

Atlas City

Atlas

ARGUS Intelligence

Tribune Kronoz

Senator Cypherion

Senator Stratica

Senator Eoz

Senator Solus

Artemis

ARGUS Enforcers

City Guards

Black Eros Units 

Dark Venus Units

City Denizens 

Human Clones In Pods

Other

Paradise City Colonists All Killed, bar Atlas

The Children of Eve (Flashback) Killed in Paradise City 

Notes

• This issue marks the end of the first mini series of Astrobots, but does end with a confirmation of a return in 2024 (yay!) 
• Atlas confirms that he was part of an earlier colony team, that arrived on the colony world before the others, but they were betrayed by some of the humans and a war broke out, resulting in the destroyed city found in the deadlands outside the city.
• Interestingly, when the first colony ship lands on the planet, they land in a forest, whilst we have only ever seen wastelands outside the city before now (maybe the Astrobots chopped down all the trees or something?)
• Articus is killed in the same way as his old friend Trydant, his head is crushed by Atlas, using his bare hands.
• Lyrel is converted into a new Astrobot, Artemis here, a fate I'm sure is also due to befall on her fellow Persephone delegates in Atlas's custody.
• As he threatened to do to Athenia, if she didn't work with him, Atlas has created his own versions of the Venus type, to nurture his cloned humans.
• Eros-10 reveals that he has created a counter signal for the alpha wave deepscreen, so Atlas shouldn't be able to mass exterminate any more humans.
• It's not mentioned where the DNA for the cloned humans came from, but I would assume they were from the failed Paradise City that Atlas procured somehow.