IDW - Till All Are One #1

Title: 07:00:00

Written by: Mairghread Scott

Art by: Sara Pitre-Durocher

Colours by: Pricilla Tramontano

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

An injured Decepticon stumbles around in the wilderness outside Iacon, and dies from his injuries, whilst Obsidian observes this from above.

In the city, the integrated populations of Cybertron and the colonies are going about their everyday routines, when Ironhide is summoned to a meeting of the Justice Committee. There, he is introduced to the arranged Council of Worlds members as a private security officer. Obsidian reveals that he wants Ironhide to investigate the mysterious death of the Decepticon, who was a supplier for Carcer, and was just the most recent, and most fatale victim of a string of attacks on Decepticons lately via Mnemosurgery.

Obsidian believes that the Mnemosurgery attacks are being caused by Starscream and his police force, because of recent rumours of Swindle still being alive, despite being a casualty of the Combiner Wars (at Starscream's own hands too). Starscream is annoyed, but agrees to consider allowing Ironhide to investigate the situation.

A little further away, the surviving Combaticons are hanging out in their apartment, discussing some work they've been offered, but Onslaught is tired from hunting for Swindle, but with no luck, he's been receiving messages from an unidentified person, who's told him that Swindle is still alive, despite all appearances. Onslaught leaves to search the sewers again, and Blast Off finds another message from the informant. The message leads him to a set of Badgeless armour, which he puts on to do his own investigations.

Ironhide leaves the meeting to head to Maccadam's where a drunk Decepticons is causing some problems for the colonist patrons, whom he escorts away, meanwhile Blast Off replaces one of the Badgeless officers with himself to infiltrate their ranks.

Ironhide and the Decepticon leave the bar, but the Decepticon is being loud and annoys the nearby Badgeless, and makes the mistake of claiming "Swindle Lives". The Badgeless attack him and threaten to take his memories away, which Ironhide overhears. The Decepticon panics and runs away down an alleyway. The Badgeless appear to shoot the Decepticon, and he is soon found dead by Ironhide, with the Badgeless standing over him with smoking guns nearby.

A riot starts to brew when some of the crowd begin to swarm the Badgeless, and one of the Badgeless (likely Blast Off) sneaks away. The crowd gets scared off when the Badgeless start shooting into the air. Windblade, Obsidian and Starscream arrive, and Ironhide directly confronts Starscream about his troops actually being responsible for the attacks.

Obsidian condemns Starscream and says he'll inform the council and Elita One of this revelation, before flying away. Starscream admits to Windblade what he's authorized to be done, but threatens her with making the incident with Chromia (from Windblade Volume 1) public, and making it seem like an attempted insurrection from Caminus to destroy Cybertron.

Circuit and Longtooth appear through the crowd to get a quote from Starscream about the Badgeless attack, Starscream tries to deny that the Badgeless attacked the Decepticon, but Circuit reveals that footage of the attack has been spreading across the city already....

Characters

Autobot

Ironhide -Van

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Chromia - Speedbike

Blurr - Race Car

Metroplex - City/Space Ship

Bumblebee - Car Ghost/Hallucination

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Onslaught - Anti-Aircraft Truck

Brawl - Tank

Vortex - Helicopter

Blast Off - Space Shuttle

Fat Tankor - Treaded Vehicle

Tall Tankor - Jet/Truck

"Drunkatron" - Car Killed by Badgeless

Carcer Supplier - Car Died from Mnemosurgery

Swindle - Van (Mentioned) Supposedly Dead

Galvatron - Tank (Mentioned)

United Cybertron

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Rattrap - Mole Rat

Circuit

Longtooth

Badgeless Officers

Colonist

Elita One

Obsidian - Stealth-Bomber Osprey

Strika - Battle Tank

Lancer

Greenlight

Airazor - Falcon

Tigatron - Tiger

Vanquish - Part of Jet

Fireshot - Part of Jet

Moonracer - Sports Car

Knock Out - Sports Car

Prime Breakdown - Off Road Vehicle

Quicklightning

Other

Crowd in Iacon

"DC-357" (Alias of Combaticon contact)

Carcer - Space Ship (Mentioned)

Navitas (Mentioned) Getting Repaired

Exhaust (Name Written on Chromia's scalp)

Technimus (Name Written on Chromia's scalp)

Notes

• This series continues from where Windblade Volume two ended. It was originally meant to be released earlier in the year, but was pushed back (likely due to Sins of the Wreckers being delayed too)
• Chromia has a couple of names carved into her scalp, as seen when she briefly has her helmet off...I wonder if that will have a role later in the series?
• Fat Tankor is shown in vehicle mode, but without a tank turret, possibly meaning that weaponized vehicle modes on peace-time Cybertron are prohibited in some manner.
• Following the rise of the Badgeless on Cybertron, as shown in the previous two Windblade series' Ironhide has set up his own security firm, since no-one trusts them, or Starscream.
• The Combaticons didn't like Swindle, but they want to find him because they believe he's the "key" to some big secret and the process of combination. Swindle was only ever shown as part of their team during Primacy.
• Considering how he was the one to spirit Prowl away following the Combiner Wars, it is POSSIBLE that Rattrap somehow managed to fake Swindle's death. It's also very likely that he is DC-357 if this is the case, since it would be easy for him to get a Badgeless suit as well.
• It's revealed here that the Badgeless all look and sound the same because they use holographic armour and voice synthesizers
• Chromia and Strika have apparently made "friends" and now act as sparring partners for each other.
• "Drunkatron" confusing Greenlight and Lancer for Camiens is probably due to the initial belief of fans that all denizens of Caminus were female (which was later proven false during Combiner Wars of course)
• Whilst not confirmed yet, it's likely that Blast Off was the one who attacked "Drunkatron", just to work up the crowd more.
• This issue appears to take place during the early parts of "All Hail Optimus" as Circuit is still on Cybertron here. It's likely that Starscream sent Circuit to Earth, in the middle of a hostile encounter, as some sort of revenge for Circuit airing the footage of "Drunkatron" being murdered by the Badgeless.