IDW - Lost Light #11

Title: The Plotter's Club Part 2: Filling in the Blanks

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Jack Lawrence & Alex Milne

Colours by: Joana LaFuente & Priscilla Tramontano

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

Not long ago, Getaway sees Froid, Rung's psychiatrist rival, and asks for his opinion on what has been happening on the ship for the past few months.

He explains that following their return to Cybertron for Dark Cybertron, he and Atomizer started interviewing the crew to see who they can trust in the case of a mutiny against Megatron and Rodimus, as they believe the quest is getting side-tracked by Megatron on purpose to delay his trial, they manage to get most of the crew on their side, but of course have Rodimus' allies and 25 undecided to contend with. They even manage to convince Thunderclash, who thinks it's a good plan, but admits that things went wrong quite rapidly.

Following his failed attempt to get Megatron to kill Tailgate, he was arrested, which the rest of the crew took as a cue to get Rodimus and the others off ship, release Getaway, and then abandon the "Rod Squad".

Getaway is taken to the bridge, where the ship receives it's call from Rodimus, and Getaway brags about how the crew is sick with them and have put him in charge, however it soon becomes apparent that the crew are not actually fully on his side, and were unaware that Getaway has involved the Galactic Council in this, and sent them after Megatron too, or that he was going to be captain of the ship. Getaway soon states that once they reach Cyberutopia he'll step down as captain, if the crew want him to, and also claims that he told the Galactic Council to leave the other Autobots alone, and to only go after Megatron.

Getaway soon makes his way to Rodimus' former office where he tries to contact the Galactic Council to change the terms of their deal, to indeed keep the other Autobots safe, but they aren't interested and cut him off. Atomizer suggests that he do something big in order to make the crew respect him after the situation on the bridge, and he knows exactly what to do...

A couple weeks later, Getaway visits Perceptor in his lab, where he has been studying something for him that he learned about on Luna-1. He has located a system of tunnels in space that Tyrest was originally planning to use to get to Cyberutopia.

Getaway assembles some of the crew to discuss the Warren and promises that they'll be in Cyberutopia within weeks, but they wonder why Tyrest ever gave up on the tunnels, which Geatway just ignores.

Blaster receives an SOS message from the planet Freyus, who are caught in the crossfire between the Galactic Council and the Black Block Consortia, but Getaway declines their request for help, as he doesn't want to get distracted, this angers the crew as they still want to help others, but the argument is cut short....the message sent three weeks earlier from Necroworld has reached the Lost Light and is automatically playing.

Rodimus uses his segment of the message to expose Getaway as having sold him and the others to the DJD, who are about to kill them. He asks for his innermost energon to be sold, as it is Matrix enriched and for the money to be used to hire a Bounty Hunter to kill Getaway using a gun made from his own body. Before the message can continue though Getaway cuts it off and claims that it is fake, and has the crew leave. Thunderclash stays behind and demands answers. Getaway tries to explain that he had to cut off the call, or the DJD would trace it to them, but Thunderclash points out the contradiction immediately. He states his plans to go back to Necroworld to save Rodimus and the others, and he's sure the rest of the crew will too.

Atomiser shoots him with an arrow, leading him to turn to attack, but he is shot by Getaway using his Nudge Gun, and even empties the cartridge into the "Greatest Autobot Ever", putting him into a coma. He notices that Riptide has been watching this scene from the door, he runs, but Getaway soon finds him, and shoots him too.

Back in the present, Geatway reveals that all of that has only just happened, and Riptide is under the bench he was laying on. He gets onto his real objective, he wants Sunder, Froid's patient, to use his long-range Mnemosurgery skills to convince the crew that Rodimus and his friends decided to leave the ship on their own terms, and make them forget about the message about the DJD, and also trap Thunderclash into a looped memory.

Sunder agrees to do this, in exchange for 25 crew member's brain modules with life-cords attached, so he can feed on their memories. Getaway isn't sure, but is manipulated by Froid into agreeing. Getaway does, much to Atomizer's ire, but decides to use the first 25 names on the list of undecided mutineers, as he considers them threats to his plans, but also suggests one amendment to their plan, the security team need to believe that the crew members they are set upon are Decepticon spies, so they wont question their orders...

Eventually the Protectobots return to the Lost Light, and learn what happened to Rodimus and the others, and are attacked by security as they try to escape to warn Optimus and the rest of Cybertron. Riptide reveals that he was never mind-wiped from the gun shot, since the gun had been drained from Thunderclash's shots. Riptide starts insulting Getaway for his stupid plan, so he decides to take him for a "swim".

On their way to the Oil Reservoir, Getaway hears from Powerflash that the Protectobots have been captured and placed in cells. Riptide is taken into the Reservoir, where he is shown it is filled with domesticated red Scraplets, which have been trained to eat a Cybertronian, leaving only the life cord and brain module behind. He shoots Riptide with the Nudge Gun again, commanding him to forget how to turn into his boat mode, and knocks him into the oil.....

Characters

Autobot

Getaway - Car

Atomizer - Car

Thunderclash - Truck Trapped in Looped Memory by Sunder

Riptide - Boat Knocked into Oil Reservoir filled with Red Scraplets by Getaway

Sunder

Mainframe

Perceptor - Tank

Hoist - Tow Truck

Blaster - Acoustic Tank

Crosscut - Van

Hound - Jeep

Xaaron

Megatron - Tank

Rodimus - Car

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport

Tailgate - Car

Swerve - Van

Skids - Van

Rewind - Data Slug

Grapple - Crane

Inferno - Fire Truck

Smokescreen - Car

Siren - Car

Bluestreak - Car

Dipstick - Car

Rollout - Bulldozer

Huffer - Truck

Gears - Van

Joyride - Buggy

Slapdash - F1 Race Car

Jackpot - Car

Hosehead - Fire Truck

Sprocket - Aircraft

Pointblank - Car

Boss - Car

Grotusque - Winged Cat Monster

Dogfight - Jet

Strafe - Jet

Rook - SWAT Personnel Carrier

Streetwise - Police Car

Powerflash - Jet (Voice Only)

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab (Mentioned)

Sentinel Prime - Truck/Jet (Mentioned)

Brainstorm - Jet (Mentioned)

Chromedome - Car (Mentioned)

Rung - Photonic Crystal Generator (Mentioned)

Nightbeat - Car

Ratchet - Ambulance (Mentioned)

Highbrow - Helicoper (Mentioned)

Fervor (Mentioned) Possibly Fed to Sunder

Turbine (Mentioned) Possibly Fed to Sunder

25 Undecided Mutineers (Mentioned) Fed to Sunder

Decepticon

Ravage - Cassette

Overlord - Tank and Jet (Mentioned)

Decepticon Justice Division (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Froid - Jet

Cyclonus - Jet

Red Scraplet

Chief Justice Tyrest (Mentioned)

Necrobot (Mentioned)

The Knights of Cybertron (Mentioned)

Other

Galactic Council Agent (On Screen)

Death's Head (Mentioned)

General Neech (Mentioned)

Galactic Council (Mentioned)

Black Block Consortia (Mentioned)

The Fraynians (Mentioned)

Notes

• Alex Milne and Priscilla Tramontano's art credits in this issue are due to the reuse of the scenes from MTMTE #50
• Thunderclash being up and about whilst Getaway is creeping on Tailgate is technically a mistake since he should be in a coma until the climax of that plot-line. However when questioned about it on Twitter, James Roberts mentions that this happens during a brief relapse of Thunderclash's, which is going to be mentioned in a future "retcon".
• Froid and Sunder are shown to STILL be on the Lost Light, but in the brig until this issue.
• It is confirmed here that my theory that the crew was either mis-informed or brainwashed to be okay with Rodimus and the others being left on Necroworld were BOTH sort of correct. The crew were originally mis-led, but when they found out the truth they were "brainwashed" by Sunder's long-range Mnemosurgery. This also shows us that the strange behaviour last issue was due to the brainwashing, and not a forged dream for the Protectobots.
• In contrast to the assertions last issue, the crew actually do want to help other planets out, rather than ignoring them like Getaway does in order to get to Cyberutopia faster.
• We were shown during the "Dying of the Light" finale of MTMTE we saw Getaway trying to contact Neech to renegotiate the terms of their deal, so we know this part of the story wasn't fabricated at all.
• The Warren was briefly mentioned last issue, here we learn that it's basically a series of subspace tunnels that lead across the galaxy...Think of it sort of like the Borg subspace tunnels seen at the end of Star Trek Voyager.
• As mentioned in this issue, Getaway was held prisoner by Tyrest on Luna-1, which we learn here gave him insight into his theories and plans before ignoring him at some point.
• So...this issue brings up another issue I have with the continuity in IDW right now...we see that Rodimus DID mention in the video-will that Getaway sold them out to the DJD (he didn't know about the DJD being there, but whatever)...SO WHY HAS OPTIMUS NOT SENT A CREW AFTER THEM YET?!?!?!? WE KNOW HE GOT THE MESSAGE, ALONG WITH EVERYONE ON CYBERTRON!!!
• The Bounty Hunter that Rodimus is referring to in his will is Death's Head....I can't see him actually appearing in an IDW comic, but he has been referenced in other IDW material before.
• Sunder is still talking in his regular voice, rather than the Mortilus impression...we know this due to the speech bubble being white instead of black.
• The brain modules with teeth marks from last issue are revealed to be the payment for Sunder brainwashing the crew of the ship, who were chosen due to being undecided on whether to mutiny or not
• The security crew's attitude is also shown to be under the impression that anyone who disagrees with Getaway is a Decepticon spy...this explains their gun-happiness last issue.
• The Scraplets in this issue are designed after the Aligned continuity versions of the species, just coloured red.
• Despite his apparent collusion with him, we see throughout this issue that Atomizer is becoming less sure about this plan, and keeps glaring at Getaway...my guess is he will be in some way responsible for Getaway's inevitable all next issue.
• The Protectobots are mentioned as having been locked in separate cells, does Getaway and the crew know about Defensor yet or not?!?
• Last issue we saw Getaway lead First Aid to the Oil Reservoir before hearing what he had to say...we can assume that he was about to send him to the Scraplets too if he said something he didn't like. 
• Here's a question...just how many shots do the Nudge Guns have? When Brainstorm analysed Skids' one before, he said it had two canisters for two shots...we see Getaway shoot Thunderclash at least half a dozen times here...
• We can assume from this issue that the hidden thrusters on Luna-1 were built to enable the planetoid to travel through the Warren before Tyrest started his Space Bridge plan.
• It's explained that Getaway has an irrational desire to become a Prime, this actually explains a fair few things about his character and even design. He has a mouth plate and general helmet design of a traditional Prime. Also his massive ego and power grabbing personality make sense knowing this...maybe this is also why he hates Rodimus, he's jealous that he has natural Matrix-affinity and even held it for a while, along with Thunderclash who held the Matrix for Optimus for a short while.
• Since it took me a while to get to their issue, I have seen the profiles for issue 12, and see that Riptide does survive his "swim". My guess is that Getaway never recharged his Nudge Gun, and it is still empty when he uses it to make Riptide forget how to transform.