IDW - Transformers Galaxies #10

Title: Storm Horizon, Part 1

Written by: Brandon Easton

Art by: Andrew Griffith

Colours by: Josh Burcham

Letters & Design by: Jake M. Wood

Editors: David Mariotte & Tom Waltz

Assistant Editor: Riley Farmer

Plot

During the war against the Threefold Spark, Ultra Magnus fought bravely and made a name for himself as a powerful General, and at some point made friends with the wise sage, Alpha Trion.

In the present day, Magnus is working for the Cybertronian Expeditionary Force and us currently stationed aboard the Fist of Iacon shuttle in deep space. Following a solo mission he receives a message from Jazz, saying that Alpha Trion gas gone missing, and he wants him to find him. Magnus immediately gas the ship redirected to his last known coordinates.

Soon, the shuttle arrives at the Decimus Sector, where Splice-thieves are known to lurk. Upon arriving they're attacked by an unidentified shuttle, but they easily disable them, forcing them to crash on a nearby planet, Kworia.

Magnus' smaller shuttle craft heads down to investigate the shuttle, but can't land close due to the landscape. They land elsewhere and start walking toward the shuttle, finishing a hidden message along the way, seemingly from Alpha Trion saying he's searching for the lost artifacts of the Age of Expansion. They don't believe it's true, but most if the team decide to perform a deep scan of the area to see why someone would plant an obvious trap like this.

Magnus heads off on his own and finds the area near the trash full of Splice-thief ships, and finds that he's unable to communicate with the ship.

Back at the shuttle, Chromedome notices the signal jamming too, but also notice multiple Cybertronian hyperspace signatures in the area Alpha Trion vanished too. Suddenly the doors are hit by gunfire and the ship is boarded by several shadowy figures...

Magnus breaks into the Splicer compound and finds Spinister is behind the Splice-ring here. Spinister reveals that he's looking for Alpha Trion too, and knows his signal ended at the "Black Sphere", a system heavily affected by a black hole, and he wants Magnus to go there for him to find Trion for him.

Magnus begins to refuse, but stops when he is shown the prisoners from his crew, forcing his hand, agreeing to help him in exchange for their safety...

Characters

Cybertronian Expeditionary Force

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport

Chromedome - Car Captured by Splicers

Erector - Truck Captured by Splicers

Discharge - Fire Truck Captured by Splicers

Powertrain - Truck Captured by Splicers

Rest of Fist of Iacon Crew Some Killed/Captured by Splicers

The Threefold Spark

Threefold Spark Troops (Flashback)

Exarchon (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Jazz - Car

Spinister - Helicopter

Splicer Victim Killed by Spinister

Cybertronians in Spinister's Crew Some Killed by Magnus

Megatron - Mining Vehicle (Flashback)

Alpha Trion (Flashback)

Other

Splice-Thieves

Organics in Spinister's Crew

Native Kworians

Silicon Energy Leeches Killed by Magnus

Notes

• Ultra Magnus' flashback design is based on his design from the mtmte comics, while his present day body is based on his current Siege toy.
• This issue has a bit of a mtmte vibe to it, with Magnus and Chromedome serving on a deep space vessel and an enemy of theirs is Spinister (though all three of them have very different personalities compared to the older series)
• Megatron is shown as one of Magnus' co-warriors during the flashback, but he has his classic fusion cannon there, which we didn't see him use in the previous flashbacks. He could have picked it up and lost it during the war I guess though 
• Among the Threefold Sparks' forces we see a couple more Seeker body types, implying that, along with Skywarp being shown to be a past member, the Seeker body may have originally been designed as some of Exarchon's bodies.
• Chromedome is shown using his Titans Return body, whilst the other characters with current toys are all based on Siege designs.
• It's shown that Magnus used to be a lot more violent and cold before being influenced by Alpha Trion.
• It's mentioned that Cybertron's spacebridge communications array has been damaged. This was likely either done during the Reversionist attack or when the Tether collapsed.
• We don't see a badge on him, but from Sentinel's previous statements that he intends to pass the Matrix to him, we can assume that he's an Autobot here.
• The potentially fake message from Trion saying he's looking for artifacts from the Age of Expansion seems like a callback to the start of the Galaxies series where the Enigma of Combination was found. We also known from dialogue that the other artifacts aren't being looked for, most likely due to the dangerous monster created from the last one found.
• It's unknown yet if this version of Alpha Trion is a member of the Thirteen Primes, OR whether this version of the Primes are just normal bots like the previous IDW continuity, or more mythical like they usually are.
• Considering his comments about things being different on Cybertron and his being exiled, it's likely that Spinister is a part of the Rise, and us referencing the (then) upcoming attack on the Senate from issue 23, since this issue was originally meant to be released around the same time as issue 22.