IDW - Beast Wars #4

Title: Savage Landing, Part 4

Written by: Erik Burnham

Art by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Jake M. Wood

Assistant Editor: Riley Farmer

Editor: David Mariotte

Supervising Editor: Tom Waltz

Plot

Having escaped from the Darksyde, Nyx tries to make her way back to the Axalon, but is too injured to fly or walk too far. Soon, the Maximal is attacked by a strange green feline, but is saved by Dinobot, who she eventually realises is the same Predacon who helped her escape earlier, but she starts to suffer badly from Energon exposure and collapses.

Dinobot carries her, and asks her computer to direct him back to the xalon to save her life (after a lot of anti-Predacon firewalling).

The next morning, the Maximals have been working on fixing up their systems, when Cheetor finds a logged message to the Predacon Technolab, sent just before they left Cybertron, which automatically deletes itself. Rhinox dismisses his concerns, since they share information all the time, but Cheetor seems unconvinced.

Before anything can be done about it though, Optimus' experimental sensor boost, using the orbiting stasis pods, detects Nyx's signal, but she's moving a lot slower than normal, concerning them all.

Elsewhere, Tarantulas manages to break through the security program Dinobot activated and opens the Darksyde up again, freeing the Predacons. Megatron, still angered by Dinobot's betrayal, orders the team to hunt him down, and sets the Darksyde to self destruct if anyone enters the ship, unless he cancels the order.

Back at the Axalong, the Maximals have gathered outside the ship to start searching for Nyx, when Optimus sees Dinobot arriving, carrying Nyx on his back. Cheetor goes after him, assuming that he's the one who hurt her, but the Maximal cat is easily kno led down, however, rather than finishing off his for, like a typical Predacon crinal would, Dinobot instead requests to join the Maximals instead after handing over Nyx to be healed up.

Characters

Maximal

Optimus Primal - Gorilla

Nyx - Bat Injured from Energon Exposure

Rhinox - Rhino

Cheetor - Cheetah

Rattrap - Rat

Predacon

Megatron - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Dinobot - Velociraptor Requests to join Maximals

Tarantulas - Tarantula

Waspinator - Wasp

Skold - Alligator Snapping Turtle

Scorponok - Scorpion

Terrorsaur - Pteranodon

Other

Strange Feline Chased off by Dinobot

Notes

• The strange feline seen attacking Nyx is interesting, it doesn't look like any Earth creature, implying this might not be prehistoric Earth like we have been led to assume, however it's possible that this cat is a Vok experiment, or perhaps another Cybertronian in an alien cat mode? We'll just hBe to wait and see I guess...
• I know she can't fly in her bat mode, but why doesn't Nyx just transform back to Beast mode to stop herself from dying from Energon exposure?
• The Predacon message seen in the Axalon computer could be just a red herring, but if I had to guess who could have sent it, based on their locations in issue one, and assuming there isn't another currently unseen Maximal on the Axalon, I'd guess it was Rattrap who sent the message.
• So with this issue, we've reached the point of the cartoon where DInobot asks to join the Maximals, but not try to claim leadership (yet), so this is around the end of episode one of the series.
• Dinobot's motives for leaving the Predacons here differ from those he gave in the cartoon. Here he joins the Maximals because he considers them more honourable than the Predacons, whilst in the original he just wanted to get the better of Megatron and to command a crew of his own originally.
• From the preview image for next issue, it looks like Dinobot is in a prison cell, so I guess his faction shift request will be initially rejected.