IDW - Rom vs Transformers: Shining Armor #1

Written by: John Barber & Christos Gage

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: Josh Perez

Letters by: Tom B Long

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

In the Gray Area, a patch of space in between the spaces controlled by the Galactic Council and Solstar Order, a Galactic Council ship is chasing a Cybertronian Colonist ship, carrying protoforms aboard, and manage to shoot it down, however they are confronted by Rom, the Space Knight, who admonishes them for attacking a vessel down without provocation. The Captain defends his actions by pointing out that Cybertronians are just dangerous machines who aren't really alive. Rom questions this, but stops when he detects life on the ship still. Whilst he is distracted, the Council ship takes off, heading towards the Shadow System.

Rom examines the ship, and finds only dead robots, he begins to wonder if Cybertronians are really just robots after all, until one of the protoforms activates and asks for help, which he obliges.

Rom carries the new-born Cybertronian back to Solstar space, and manages to recover some of the Energon in the ship for synthesis. Once there, she is repaired, and helped in her shaping, eventually taking the form of a female with a car alternate mode. The Cybertronian, later named Stardrive, grew up with the other children of the Solstar, but most of them feared her due to her origins, and she began to feel the same way when she was taught about how violent her species is...but wants to be different.

Later, her class went to Mato Grosso where they were attacked by some Dire Wraiths, they appear to be very interested in Stardrive, but are stopped when the Space Knights arrive, led by Rom, who has now saved her twice in her life, however the head Dire Wraith has escaped. Stardrive gets inspired by this event to join the Space Knights herself...

Ten years after her "birth", Stardrive is now a Cadet in the Solstar Order, and is stationed for a stake-out on a Mining Colony.

Rom and his team arrive on the colony for a pick-up when they encounter some disguised Dire Wraiths, whom Stardrive has been staking out for a week, and the team take them down. One of the Cadets, Auxin, goes off after one of the Wraiths, but ends up being ambushed by more of them, luckily however, a nearby car transforms into Stardrive and she saves her fellow cadet, however the other cadet isn't happy with her stealing his "first kill" and returns to the crew. Once back there the crew discuss destroying the colony to make sure there's no more Wraiths, but Rom and Stardrive point out that that's not necessary, which Livia and the others accept, and they leave.

On the ship, Livia is annoyed with Rom for taking Stardrive's opinion over hers, but he just points out that it was the correct decision. Elsewhere on the ship, Stardrive sulks and wonders if the crew knows that she can hear them bemoaning about her...

The ship soon arrives at the Solstar Station "Orchid Crossing" orbiting Xetaxxis, where they are stationed, and prepare for their next mission. Ahead of it however, Livia and Rom decide to discuss with Stardrive her importance in the mission.

The senior Knights visit Stardrive in her room, where she is recharging, and the two Knights explain to her that following the destruction of the Dire Wraith homeworld, the species has been spreading to other systems, and in order to fight them, they need to make a deal with the Galactic Council, and eventually the Cybertronians to enter their respective spaces to follow them. They have a meeting with the Council the next day, and they want to have Stardrive shown as an example of how a Cybertronian CAN be good after all.

The next day, a Council ship arrives at Orchid Crossing, and the assembled dignitaries meet, and the Council are notably hateful towards Stardrive. The Solstar representatives begin with their requests to enter Council space, but the Council representatives seem insulted that they have claimed victory over the Wraiths...and quickly reveals that they ARE Wraiths, and start attacking the dignitaries and begin going after the Knights. The ship behind them begins to transform, revealing it to be Astrotrain in disguise, explaining how the Wraiths entered the Solstar station undetected, they were hiding inside him.

Auxin gets killed by Astrotrain, and more Decepticons, led by Starscream, burst into the station and join the fight. The lead Wraith, Vekktral, points out Stardrive to Starscream, and the Cadet identifies him as the Wraith who attacked her five years earlier.

Stardrive prepares to join the battle, but is soon encountered by Starscream, who is interested in her, due to him not recognizing her from Cybertron and even realizes that she has never met another Cybertronian before now, and attempts to sway her to join the Decepticons. During the battle, Livia kills one of the Decepticons, showing Stardrive that her species is not immortal like many believe, leading Starscream to threatening to kill the Cybertronian Knight. He kicks her through a door, and locates his real target, Stardrive's Energon Synthesizer and begins to grab for it.

Luckily at the last second, the wall is blasted in from the outside, and the Autobots Ultra Magnus and Bumblebee smash in, ready to save the day and take down the Decepticons...however this violence just confirms Stardrive's fears that he species IS just naturally violent after all....

Characters

Solstar Order

Rom

Livia

Orphion

Nikomi

Cadet Stardrive - Car

Cadet Sata

Cadet Auxin Killed by Astrotrain

Solstar Ambassador  Killed by Vekktral

Solstar Politicians

Solstar Doctors

Solstar Civilians

Autobot

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport

Bumblebee - Car

Decepticon

Starscream - Jet

Astrotrain - Galactic Council Shuttle

Blitzwing

Thrust - Jet

Dirge - Jet

Ramjet - Jet

Ursa Major - Bulldozer Killed by Livia

Doomwings - Jet

Other Cybertronian/Colonist

Camien Colonists Killed by Galactic Council

Primus (Mentioned)

Dire Wraith

Vekktral

Mining Colony Wraiths Destroyed by Rom's Team

Galactic Council Wraiths

Other Species

Galactic Council Captain

Galactic Council Ship Crew

Mining Colonists

Rom's Family (Mentioned) Dead

Sata's Family (Mentioned)

Auxin's Family (Mentioned)

Notes

• This story is set about 200 years ago, set after the events of the Rom Annual, just after the abandonment of Cybertron, but before the Transformers arrived on Earth.
• The Cybertronians chased and killed by the Galactic Council at the start of this issue have been revealed to be Camien via Twitter. This explains why Stardrive is a female since females are common on Caminus, but pretty much unheard of on Cybertron in recent history.
• The Galactic Council captain mentions their next location will be the "Shadow System", likely another name for the "Dark Nebula", an area inhabited by Dire Wraiths, whom we see have replaced the crew 10 years later.
• It's mentioned that the Dire Wraith's home planet has been destroyed...I guess the Solstar Ore-Armour helped them after all!
• It's shown here that the Solstar Order and Galactic Council actually have separate jurisdictions, and separate spaces...at least 200 years ago anyway. 
• Stardrive is shown with a giant pig-monster plushie in her youth....nawwwwwww (add that to my wish-list for new Hasbro toys please!)
• Despite her being accepted by the Solstar Order and allowed to live with them, and having been raised by them, it appears that the other species rotected by them still fear Stardrive due to her species...RACISTS!!
• So apparently the Solstar Ore is able to coat Cybertronians and can even retract or change to match their faces and alternate modes. This adds more to the theory that the Ore was one of Shockwave's Regenesis-Ores that he sent out in the distant past
• Gee, it's a good thing that the Wraith that attacked Stardrive in the past had such a distinct character model huh? Else she probably wouldn't be able to identify him years later!
• Starscream's interest in Stardrive's Energon Synthesizer is due to Cybertron having run out of it, due to the years of war, and the "recent" destruction of the atmosphere due to Thunderwing's rampage. It will remain in this state until the end of the Chaos Event many centuries later.
• It's unclear which version of Ultra Magnus we are seeing in this issue, but due to the "B" cover for next issue showing him being seemingly possessed by a Dire Wraith, and some mentions of how Dire Wraith and Cybertronian technology have mixed in the past in the Rom series. We can probably assume this is Minimus Ambus' predecessor in the role. Maybe we'll see his induction into the program by the end of this event?
• Amongst Stardrive's possessions is a holographic photo of herself with Rom and another Knight, likely either Livia or Fy-Laa.