IDW - Rom #3

Title: Earthfall Part 3 (Maybe?)

Plot and Script by: Christos Gage and Chris Ryall

Pencils and Colours by: David Messina

Inks by: Michele Pasta

Colour Assist by: Alessandra Alexakis

Letters by: Chris Mowry

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

Rom and Camilla are being held within a binding spell by D'rge, one of the Elite Dire Wraiths, who exposits about how he finds it weird that Rom is on Earth alone, and wonders whether his long time fighting the Wraiths has driven him a little mad, even taunting him by pointing out that he doesn't intend to kill Rom, like he would have done if their situations were reversed.

He reveals that he plans to remove Rom's armour so they can examine it and use it against the Space Knights, but Camilla interrupts him, and makes him focus on her instead. He tries to convince her that the Wraithmark on her forehead is an honour, and shows her a vision of how the Dire Wraiths arrived on Earth hundreds of years earlier and have integrated into Human life.

D'rge tells Camilla that he can heal her Wraithmark, but in actuality intends to fully convert her into a Wraith instead. Luckily for Camilla, Rom has taken this distraction to get free from the spell and attacks the Wraiths, D'rge disappears during the battle, and Camilla gets captured and threatened by one of the soldiers. Camilla uses her Wraithmark to compel the soldier to let her go, allowing Rom to kill him before he can hurt Camilla.

In the aftermath, Rom and Camilla decide to team up to take down the Dire Wraiths, since he has the weapon to kill them, but Camilla can actually identify the Dire Wraiths, which Rom cannot do any more.

At Vandenberg air base, Darby has been taken for a debriefing with Countdown and some others, who question her about Rom, she lies convincingly and tells then that she thinks he was trying to interrogate her. She is given a GPS phone and a neural disruptor gun to help her if she comes across Rom again...

Darby leaves on a bus and starts to worry that everyone around her could be a Dire Wraith too, and worries that since her family were Dire Wraiths, then maybe her extended family and everyone she knew are too. She gets off the bus near a beach and waits alone...

An hour later, Darby notices Rom flying with Camilla, and he introduces the two women to eachother, with Rom apologizing to Darby for abandoning her earlier. Camilla and Darby don't get along at first, but become "friends" out of circumstance.

The team decide to infiltrate Camilla into the air base, so she can identify all the Dire Wraiths, allowing Rom to kill them, and try and ally with the Human military, as he needs to do. Darby has a plan, but doesn't think Rom will like it...

At the earlier battle site, a bird tries to eat a shrimp, which jabs it with a spike, merging them into a Wraith Hawk, which flies to a nearby lighthouse. Having arrived, a weakened D'rge heads to a lower chamber in the lighthouse where he injects into and possesses an elderly human.

Later, D'rge in his new body speaks to a translucent Dire Wraith about their new plans to try and manipulate the Cybertronians to aid them in their war, so they can destroy the Solstar Order and Rom...

Meanwhile, Darby has contacted Countdown, who is escorting her and her "prisoners", Camilla who is acting crazed and talking about shapeshifting aliens, and is intended to be placed in quarantine for her infection, but also a restrained Rom, whom she still claims to have killed her family....

Characters

Solstar Order

Rom the Space Knight

Human

Darby Mason

Camilla Byers

Old Man Taken over for D'rge's new host

Random Soldiers

Jedediah (Flashback)

Jedediah's Wife (Flashback)

Uncle Ellsworth (Mentioned)

Grandma Anne (Mentioned)

Omar Ruiz (Mentioned) Dead

Dire Wraith

D'rge

Countdown/Dave Dubosky

Dr Shen

Darby's Ex-C.O.

D'rge's "Brother"

Dire Wraith Soldiers Killed by Rom

Colonial Dire Wraiths (Flashback)

Darby's Parents (Flashback)

Notes

• Through exposition we learn that the Solstar Order is supposed to travel in pairs, so if one is killed, the other can pick up the slack, this also implies that Rom is on Earth without the knowledge of the other Space Knights
• According to the flashback shown by D'rge, the Dire Wraiths arrived on Earth during the colonial age in America....that's quite a long time!
• It's mentioned that the Dire Wraiths have been able to block the Analyzer by using technology, something they never did in the past.
• The process of becoming Dire Wraiths is explained further here. The Human is injected with the palm spike, which injects the Dire Wraith into the human, taking over their body, and merging them together.
• It's mentioned here that Rom can use his Neutralizer to heal Camilla's Wraithmark, but if he does, they will lose their "spy" amongst the Wraiths
• Though not explicitly said here, it is likely that Dr Shen and Darby's Ex-C.O. are also Dire Wraiths.
• Since they never attacked her or tried to convert her, I will guess that the soldiers on the bus are NOT Dire Wraiths.
• Through dialogue, it's made clear that the Dire Wraiths are planning to try and manipulate the Cybertronians into giving them technology, possibly as posing as human allies.