IDW - Star Trek vs Transformers #2

Title: Prime's Directive Part 2

Written by: John Barber & Mike Johnson

Art by: Philip Murphy

Colours by: Leonardo Ito & Josh Burcham

Letters by: Christa Miesner

Edits by: Chase Marotz & David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Scotty completes his scans of the inert Optimus Prime, and determines from his previous actions and engineering that he may be alive after all. Spock believes that if his mind is like that of an organic being then he can mind meld with him. Spock begins the mind meld, and quickly sees the history of Optimus and his species, which also reactivates the Autobot leader, who thanks Spock for what he just did.

In the mines nearby, the other Autobots have awoken and are attacking the Federation officers, assuming them to be humans who have killed Optimus Prime. Ratchet manages to stop his teammates from firing too much, as the mine may collapse, giving Kirk the opportunity to tell them that Optimus is still alive, but stunned on the surface, and asks the Autobots to explain to them who they are.

Elsewhere, at Trypticon, the Decepticons confront the Klingons, who have taken control of Trypticon. The Decepticons are ready to just kill the Klingons, as they don't believe they could be of use to them, but then Commander Kuri sparks their interest when he brings up his cloaking technology...

Bumblebee explains to Kirk and his team that they arrived on Earth and hid there using their ability to change shape. However after a while the Earth began World War III and in the aftermath, the Autobots left the planet in a Titan, Fortress Maximus. They travelled for some time until they were attacked by the Decepticons in Trypticon and their Titan is invaded. The Autobots crash Fort max into Cygnus Seven where the two teams were knocked into stasis once again. Recently the teams on the mining colony accidentally woke them up, leading to Optimus chasing after the Decepticons before the rest of the Autobots could wake up...

In orbit, the Enterprise is caught up to speed with what the Autobots are. Before they can do anything else though, the Enterprise finds a crater where Trypticon was set up and are quickly attacked by some cloaked Klingons.

Soundwave jambs the transmissions between the Enterprise and the surface teams and the Decepticons mount the Klingon Bird of Prey and launch their attack on the surface team, whilst the Enterprise is damaged.

Optimus drives himself and his new allies to the mine where the Autobots and other Federation officers are, but the entrance is collapsed by the Decepticons, trapping Optimus and his friends. Inside the mines, the Autobots decide their only way to win this is to wake up Fortress Maximus, and the Federation officers agree to help them...

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime/Orion Pax - Truck

Ratchet - Ambulance

Jazz - Porsche

Bumblebee - VW Beetle

Arcee - Sports Car

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Fortress Maximus - Battleship (Flashback Only) Deactivated

Decepticon

Megatron - Pistol

Soundwave - Cassette Player

Airachnid - Helicopter

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Thundercracker - Fighter Jet

Trypticon - Battle Station

Other Seekers - Fighter Jets

Sunstorm - Fighter Jet (Flashback Only)

Federation

Captain Kirk

Commander Spock

Doctor McCoy

Scotty

Sulu

M'Ress

Arex

Enterprise Bridge Crew

Cygnus Seven Mining Colony Staff

Klingon Empire

Commander Kuri

Kor

Kali

Kaz

Other Human

Zefram Cochrane (Flashback Only)

Lily Sloane (Flashback Only)

WWIII Soldiers (Flashback Only)

WWIII Survivors (Flashback Only)

Notes

• This issue doesn't have a title, but since the previous one was a "part 1" we can assume this one is "part 2"
• So it turns out that the Transformers in this continuity ARE actually from this universe and were even present on Earth during World War III, an event from Star Trek canon. At some point they must have been either forgotten or erased from history.
• Optimus is shown to have been Orion Pax in his past, and looked like he did from the cartoon. The brief flashbacks also show us that events similar, if not identical to those from the cartoon's opening mini-series and the Movie took place (though likely without the deaths of Optimus and Megatron)
• The Seeker being repaired by Teltraan-1 in Optimus' flashback is unidentifiable due to sharing his body type with a few dozen other characters. But since we later see Optimus being repaired by a similar device, and we can see his red colours through the yellow light, we can assume that this Seeker is yellow, so I say he's Sunstorm!
• Jazz, Bee and Windblade appear to be VERY willing to kill the "humans" they find. I guess they did some horrible things to them during the unseen events before this story takes place.
• Fortress Maximus and Trypticon being used as the counterpart Titans here is clearly a reference to their recent pairing as Titans in the Titans Return toyline.
• Bee mentions how the Autobots left Cybertron to deal with meteors to clear a path for Cybertron. This was the backstory from the Marvel comics, and not the cartoon. Implying this is another continuity, or perhaps even set in a universe similar to the Beast Era, which was shown to have a mixture of Marvel and cartoon backstory.