IDW - More Than Meets The Eye #32

Title: Slaughterhouse

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Plot

The Rodpod heads towards the torn apart Lost Light, and Nautica recognizes the red web around the ship as the Quantum Foam leaking out, meaning the ship is likely to blow up before long. The crew enter the ship through a large enough hole and start looking for any of the missing crew members.

Inside, they find Swerve's bar, but in a different configuration as a playhouse, which Crosscut appears to run.

After a small argument discussion with Megatron over Ravage's placement within the group, Nuatica dn Nightbeat head off to the other half of the ship to look for any survivors there too.

At the playhouse, Ravage catches the scent of Ultra Magnus, and goes to find him, however what they find is a dead Minimus Ambus, outside the Magnus Armour, with a massive Fusion Cannon wound in his torso. Skids accuses Megatron of doing this, as the group have decided that this is a future version of the ship, and that Megatron must have killed him for some reason. Megatron can't account for his future self, so he volunteers to lock himself and Ravage up somewhere whilst the others investigate.

On the other half of the ship, Nightbeat decides to ask Nautica is they have Conjunx Endurae on Caminus, which she says no to, but is amused by how blatant he is in his questioning. They reach the elevator, and find Brainstorm's mysterious briefcase abandoned on the floor...Nightbeat decides they HAVE to open it! 

On the main part of the ship, Megatron and Ravage are in a store cupboard, and they have a heart-to-heart, with Megatron declaring that he is sincere with his choice to join the Autobots, as he wants to make a difference. Ravage is unhappy with his words, and wonders whether the old leader is just resting, and will return to his true calling after a while. After their conversation, the lights come back on in the cupboard, and they notice the dead bodies of Ratchet, Drift and Hound inside with them, all with their brain modules stuffed into their open mouths.

Back in the elevator, the dynamic duo open the case, and nothing happens, at least to their perception, unknown to them, time-space around them is warped, until they close the case and give up on it. Outside the elevator they encounter the body of Tailgate impaled on a girder, and Nightbeat notices that despite them being in the engineering floor, and the lowest level of the ship, there's a set of stairs going down.....

Skids, Getaway and Riptide head towards the bridge of the ship, but when they get there they find a pile of dead Lost Lighters, all in alternate mode, and with two holes in them, one for a head shot, and a second for a Transformation cog removal.. These methods, and a call from Nightbeat about Overlord's body being found in the slow cell, and Megatron's report about Ratchet and the others, leads everyone to the same conclusion...the Lost Light was attacked by the Decepticon Justice Division!

The crew regroups next to the Rodpod, and the group explain to Nautica (as the outsider of the group) that the DJD are sadists and have their own signatures, such as Helex forcing his victims to eat their own brain modules, or Tarn removing Transformation Cogs for his addiction. They also deduce that this Lost Light is not just from a short time in the future, it's also from a different timeline, as several things are different, including Swerve's Bar, and the Slow Cell and Overlord still being on board.

The Quantum Foam starts to react with the ship, so the group have to evacuate, but Nautica i reluctant to leave without finding any survivors. Megatron tells her that there won't be any survivors from the DJD, however ravage sniffs someone inside the Magnus Armour...Megatron then investigates, and happily finds an injured, but very much alive Rewind hiding inside.

Characters

Autobot

Megatron - Tank

Nautica - Submarine

Riptide - Boat

Getaway - Car

Skids - Van

Nightbeat - Car

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab (Flashback)

Jetfire - Jet (Flashback)

Rewind - Memory Stick (Mentioned) Dead

Chromedome - Car (Mentioned)

Crosscut - Van (Mentioned)

Brainstorm - Jet (Mentioned)

Alternate Autobots

Rewind - Memory Stick

Ultra Magnus/Minimus Ambus - Vehicle Transport Killed by Tarn

Drift - Car Killed by Helex

Ratchet - Ambulance Killed by Helex

Hound - Jeep Killed by Helex

Swerve - Van Killed by Tarn

Perceptor Killed by Tesarus

Whirl - Osprey Helicopter Killed by Kaon and Vos

Mainframe Killed by Helex

Blades - Aircraft Killed by Tarn

Jackpot - Car Killed by Tarn

Blaster - Acoustic Tank Killed by Tarn

Smokescreen - Car Killed by Tarn

Rad - Car Killed by Tarn

Powerflash - Jet Killed by Tarn

Trailcutter - Van Killed by Tarn

Waverider - Submarine Killed by Tarn

Huffer - Truck Killed by Tarn

Strafe - Jet Killed by Tarn

Inferno - Truck Killed by Tarn

Rollout - Bulldozer Killed by Tarn

Highbrow - Helicopter Killed by Tarn

Crosscut - Van (On Poster) Most likely dead

Rodimus - Car (Mentioned) Dead

Decepticon

Ravage - Cassette

Alternate Overlord - Jet/Tank Killed by Tarn

Tarn - Tank (Flashback)

Helex - Smelting Chamber (Flashback)

Kaon - Electric Chair (Flashback)

Tesarus - Metal Grinder (Flashback)

Vos - Rifle (Flashback)

Galvatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Soundwave - Personnel Carrier (Mentioned)

Seawing (Mentioned)

Other

Alternate Tailgate - Car Impaled on Girder

The Pet (Flashback)

Notes

• The Lost Light's quantum foam looks a hell of a lot like blood huh? Sort of adds more to the "The Lost Light is sentient" argument huh?
• The Lost Light was apparently cloned along with all the original crew upon take off from Cybertron. This opens up a lot of questions, and some potential "untold" tales.
• One of these untold tale appears to be that Swerve never opened his bar on this version of the ship, and Crosscut turned the area into a playhouse instead!
• I think it's safe to assume that the Overlord that the DJD detected back in issue 8, as well as the Necrobot's list of dead Lost Lighters were regarding the alternate Lost Light, and not our friends from the series proper.
• Nautica refers to Ravage as a "she" despite being male. This can eitehr be attributed to the human action of refering to cats as female in spite of gender, or perhaps all denizens of Caminus are female, and she just uses it as the default gender pronoun of choice.
• Megatron never knew about the Magnus armour until finding the dead Ultra Magnus here. This begs the question of how Tarn knew about it though, as evidenced here, since Tarn would have likely reported this to his great idol Megatron.
• Nautica's wrench appears to be an analogue of Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver with all it's magical abilities etc.
• Brainstorm's briefcase was found on an elevator. One of the first times we see i really was when Brainstorm tried to use it as a shield in an elevator during the Sparkeater's rampage...huh....
• Ravage reveals that the Decepticon's loyaalty to Galvatron is just intact until Megatron returns to lead them. He also reveals that he freed the Lost Light prisoners during Megatron's trial, as a test for Megatron.
• Drift's death is even more horrible when you notice his Great Sword is sticking out of his head....
• The scene in the elevator between Nightbeat and Nautica only makes sense when you rearrange the panels to the order of the numbers on the display screen, which neither of them notice due to the timey-wimey-ness of the situation
• This issue shows off a lot more of the Lost Light crew's alternate modes than we've ever seen before. Therefore I had to hire Nightbeat to help me identify a few of them...
• Th front cover shows Ratchet in place of Swerve from the DJD battle scene for some reason.
• This version of Rewind's body looks to be in the same state as the Data Ghost seen by Nightbeat before, possibly hinting that he was trying to communicate with the other Lost Light somehow, maybe via a long range holoavatar?
• Wonder how Chromedome will react to this new replacement for his love?
• It seems that the reason for the Lost Light and crew's disappearance may be due to them getting too close to this alternate version, and perhaps both cannot exist in the same space as one another?
• Something to think of...if the DJD attacked recently, then why was Tailgate still alive despite his Cybercrosis. The DJD must have attacked some time ago, perhaps shortly after issue 8 itself?
• Megatron is revealed to have melted his fusion cannon as a term of his surrender.
• The Alternate Ratchet is shown with some gnarled hands, implying they did go a bit off after all without his transplant with Pharma.