Astrobots #3

Creator and Editor: Aaron Thomas 

Writer: Simon Furman

Artist and Letterer: Hector Trunnec

Producer: Esmond Zhou

Publisher: Whatnot Publishing

Plot

The visitors from the Persephone have been separated, with Athenia being escorted by Atlas, whilst the rest are being kept in a meeting room. The Persephone crew are told that Atlas needs them to lower the shields to commit a "deep screen" to ensure the colonists are safe to come to the planet. The crew are insulted that Atlas doesn't trust their own systems, but agree to the terms...

Elsewhere, Apollo is brought into the Resistance base, where he meets their leader, Articus, who reveals that he knows Atlas intends to commit genocide on the humans aboard the ship, and also reveals that Atlas led a bloody rebellion in the past, which led to him taking control from the bots who were nominally in charge, who wanted to have the city be a cooperative venture between the Astrobots and human colonists. 

Atlas relays this same story to Athenia, but frames it as him protecting the city for the upcoming humans, as other Astrobots wanted the city for themselves.

Athenia is taken to see E-10, where she discovers the science project that he has been forced to work on by Atlas, countless cloned humans, ready to populate his city. 

Atlas reveals that he plans for these clones to populate the city, because the real humans from Earth are historically known to be violent and destructive. He reveals that the deep screen scan will kill all the human colonists, and he wants Athenia and her fellow Venusians to help these clones to acclimate to life, if she refuses, then he will just destroy the Persephone, and build his own Venus units from Athenia.

Argus, in his new body, leads his troops to the Resistance base, and a full-on battle takes place, with Apollo teaming with the rebels, using their stolen weapons from previous heists, and tears through his forces...

Characters

Atlas City

Atlas

Emissary-10

Argus Intelligence 

Senator Stratica 

Argus Units 

Ninjex Units 

Emissary Science Units 

Human Clones (In pods) 

Resistance

Articus

Apollo-08

Vulkan

Chernos

Geomek

Red Geomek 

Trydant (Flashback Only) Killed by Atlas

Other Resistance Members 

Persephone

Zenofanes

Athenia

Belus

Galax

Stratus

Lyrel 

Venusian Therapists

Human Colonists 

Notes

• This issue confirms that Argus is an A.I. which uses avatars for interacting with other Astrobots.
• Atlas is shown in three different forms this issue, a "naked" mode, which features no armour, as seen when he first arrives at the city, his usual white form, and a black body which seems to have a dragon-like design on the back, which was revealed by an upcoming toy to be "Savage Atlas".
• Interestingly, it is stated that Atlas arrived in the city, meaning he hasn't always been there, and that it was likely called something else before he conquered it.
• The character E-10 is revealed to actually be named "Emissary-10" and was one of the visionary leaders of the city before Atlas took control.
• Atlas is revealed to have cloned his own humans, and intends to kill off the real one on the Persephone. He says that this is due to humans being innately evil and self destructive, but wouldn't the clones have those same base instincts? 
• Trydant, one of the former triad of leaders, appears to use Chernos' model as the basis for his design.