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Four months before theMission City "incident", two F-22 fighter jets fly over the Nevada desert, escorting a US Air Force cargo plane to a secretSector Seven base.Agent Salazar is deliveringWreckage for the purpose of conducting research. After explaining Wreckage'sstory toProfessor Vine, Salazar oversees the beginning of experiments conducted on Wreckage.

One month before the "present" time: In the aftermath of theMission City battle,Ironhide,Captain Lennox,Technical Sergeant Epps and a few other soldiers track down and destroy theAllSpark's creations. Meanwhile,Ratchet is reattachingBumblebee's leg.Sam andMikaela are watching on when Sam is suddenly hit by asoda can.Dispensor attacks them, but Ratchet nonchalantly stomps him into pieces.Optimus Prime asks Lennox for a favor, helping them leave the city before humans he doesn't consider trustworthy show up. After placing the remains ofJazz in a trucktrailer Prime can haul, the Autobots set out to leave the city. Lennox gives Ironhide his cell phone so Sam can call Epps when they have left the city.

Shortly afterward,Agent Simmons and his fellow Sector Seven agents show up to retrieve the remains of the fallen Decepticons and the AllSpark's creations. Simmons asks Lennox for Sam's location, but Lennox claims Sam just disappeared. Simmons wants to recruit Lennox and Epps for Sector Seven, but Lennox would prefer to return home to his wife and daughter. Just then, Epps's cell phone rings. Sam informs then that they have left the city, but because of the bad connection, he's yelling into the phone, loud enough for Simmons to hear him as well. Lennox asks Simmons for a vacation before he agrees to accept the offer.

The next morning, Simmons is in the Sector Seven facility in Nevada, overseeing the arrival of the Decepticons' remains. He informs the scientist that he has received orders to dump the robot bodies into the ocean, so they only have one month to conduct their research. The scientist replies that Wreckage has not been active since Salazar shut him down a few weeks earlier, and nowSalazar is dead. Simmons suggests calling Lennox in case Wreckage doesn't wake up.

One month later, Lennox and Epps have a secret meeting with Optimus Prime, Ratchet and Ironhide (according to Optimus, Bumblebee continues his assignment as Sam's guardian). The Autobots mention having been followed by a police car, which Lennox suggests might have beenBarricade. Lennox informs Prime that the Decepticons' remains are about to be dumped into the ocean, and they want the Autobots to escort the transport. Unbeknownst to them, however, they are secretly being spied on by Barricade, who transmits his newly gained information toStarscream, who has recentlyreturned toMars. Though unsure whether Barricade might end up betraying him as well, Starscream decides that the opportunity of disposing of Optimus Prime, Megatronand Wreckage all at the same time would be too good to ignore.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Others
Ironhide (4) Bumblebee (8) Ratchet (9) Optimus Prime (13) Jazz's corpse (14)	Wreckage (3) Brawl's corpse (16) Blackout's corpse (17) Barricade (21) Starscream (22) Dreadwing's head (23)	Salazar (1) Vine (2) Robert Epps (5) William Lennox (6) Mikaela Banes (10) Sam Witwicky (11) Seymour Simmons (15)	Xbox 360 robot (7) Dispensor (12) Longarm (18) Landmine (19) Salvage (20)

Quotes

Captain Lennox: "Nice. Showing off a bit, aren't you?"
Ironhide: "Just showing you humans whatreal firepower is, that's all."
Captain Lennox: "Well, next time try not to burn our faces off, okay?"
Ironhide: "Target neutralized. Sorry about your faces."

—After destroying the~~X-Box 360~~ Y-Box robot.

Ratchet: "This substance is loaded with stimulants and ingredients that are harmful to your human structures. Absorption could lead to decay of necessary formations in your oral cavities, as well as increased weight gain."
Sam Witwicky: "Thanks, Ratchet. I'll, um...we'll be careful."

—Ratchet on the health hazard posed bycanned soda.

Seymour Simmons: "Ah, Captain Lennox. Long time...no talk. Still want to point agun at me?"
William Lennox: "Well, my short-term memory still works. What doyou think?"

—No love is lost between these two.

Robert Epps: "Man, you should've seen it! There was asoda machine, and a game system, and asteering wheel that—"
William Lennox: "He gets it, Epps."

—And there was atank, and ahelicopter, and anF-22...

"Look. I'll cut to the chase. I want youboth. No, not in that kind of way."

—Simmons, eloquent as ever.

"Captain Lennox, it's Sam! Ironhide told me to call you! It's a bad connection right now so I hope you can hear me!"

—YES,SAM! CAPTAIN LENNOX CAN HEAR YOU LOUD AND CLEAR!

William Lennox: "You're late. Stopping to takesoil samples again, Ratchet?"
Ratchet: The mineral deposits contained in them are most interesting, Captain Lennox."

—Ratchet, not getting a joke.

Notes

Continuity notes

What happened to all the Sector Seven troopers? In themovie, they were loyally under Lennox's command on theAutobots' side, but here they've conveniently vanished so they can't report toSimmons.
Dreadwing was decapitated by Starscream at the end of thefinal isssue ofThe Reign of Starscream.

Transformers references

So do we, Epps. So do we.

One of the F-22 pilots uses the call signLeader One.
The Y-Box robot hides inside arather familiar looking van, whichIronhide promptly blows up.
Optimus Prime'sholo-driver is in the likeness ofPeter Cullen.
Optimus Prime leaves Mission City hauling a trailer similar to that of hisG1 namesake.
The bulldozers and cranes used to clean up the corpses of the Decepticons bear a resemblance to the alt modes of theConstructicons.
On the final page, resting on the arm of a chair behind Starscream, is the severed head ofDreadwing.Others havedone this.

Real-world references

Probably to avoid licensing fees, the X-Box 360 robot is now a "Y-Box", andDispensor no longer dispenses Mountain Dew, but rather "MountainIDW".
On page 6, a comic book store also features an "IDW" sign.
Lennox's phone number is (555) 555-1984.

Errors

Why areLennox andEpps's cell phones working again? What happened to the total communications blackout from themovie?

Other trivia

Both Lennox's and Epps's cell phones look likeHighline 1070.
The comics cover A collage strangely sports Arcee.

Covers (8)

Cover A: Character collage; art by Alex Milne & colors byJosh Perez.
Cover B: Wreckage and Sector Seven; art & colors byJosh Nizzi.
Retailer Incentive Cover: Wraparound character collage; art by Alex Milne & colors by Josh Perez.
Mania #100 Cover: The first issue of the Australian reprinting of the story. With a tiiiiiny little bit of Milne art on the cover.
Mania #101 Cover: Second issue of the Australian reprinting of the story.
Mania #102 Cover: Third issue of the Australian reprinting of the story. Front cover features a tiny bit of Milne art, while the back cover is a reprinting of IDW's Cover A
Mania #103 Cover: Fourth issue of the Australian reprinting of the story. Front cover features no TFs at all, while the back cover is a reprinting of IDW's Cover A... again.
Mania #104 Cover: Fifth issue of the Australian reprinting of the story. Front cover features a shout-out about the Transformers comic.