IDW - Drift: Empire of Stone #1

Written by: Shane McCarthy

Pencils by: Guido Guidi

Inks by: Stephen Baskerville

Colours by: John-Paul Bove

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Plot

Drift, now exiled and a Neutral Cybetronian again is fighting with some Decepticons on a planet they have enslaved, and manages to defeat them, taking them prisoner on board his shuttle. The Decepticons expect him to take them back to Cybertron for a trial, but instead he says he's handing them over to the Galactic Council, who detest Cybertronians.

Drift arrives on a Galactic Council Outpost, where he finds Ratchet waiting for him, planning to bring him back to the Lost Light with him. Drift refuses, and Ratchet is shocked that Drift plans to hand over some Cybertronians to the Council, with Drift saying that he plans to catch all the remnants of the Decepticons at the Galactic Rim, to which Grit, one of the Decepticons, laughs and says he's badly misinformed if h thinks there's just remnants out there. He refuses to say anything else, but his cohorts tell Drift about a Decepticon outpost, in exchange for them being taken back to Cybertron instead.

They head out to the outpost world, but are quickly shot down by weapons-fire, and crash, with only Ratchet, Drift and Grit surviving the fall, upon leaving the wreckage of their shuttle, the group are attacked by a large group of Decepticons, with Grit about to be killed by the Decepticons for travelling with some Autobots, but Drift and Ratchet save him, much to his shock.

Unfortunately the duo are soon forced to stop when more Decepticons arrive, and are placed into cuffs. The group are taken  to a stone castle that Drift recognizes, and are taken inside, to a Decepticon leader, who greets Drift as Deadlock, and wants his help to take the system they are in apart....

Characters

Autobot

Ratchet - Ambulance

Decepticon

Gigatron

Hellscream - Jet

Vanquish - Jet

Grit - Truck

Desperados Killed in Shuttle Crash

Gigatron's Troops

Overlord (Mentioned)

Cybertronian

Drift - Car

Other

Blue Aliens

Galactic Council Outpost Denizens

Galactic Council (Mentioned)

Notes

• This series follows what Drift has been up to since his self-imposed exile from the Lost Light
• There are a lot of generic characters from the Victory anime appearing in this issue (and Hellscream from the Victory comic too!)
• The unnamed leader of the Decepticons in this story is based on Robots in Disguise Megatron. Since it is unlikely that he'd be called Megatron as well, I'm assuming that he'll be using his Japanese name, Gigatron.
• Drift appears to recognize the castle on the planet, but doesn't appear to recognize the planet itself implying that this is just a mass-produced castle used by "Gigatron", or it's a mobile base of some sort.