Transformers: Escalation #2

Credits

Writer - Simon Furman / Art - E.J. Su / Letters - Neil Uyetake / Colors - Zac Atkinson

Story

Nine months ago: On the streets of Washington D.C., a Senator and a General have a discrete meeting about current conflicts in the Middle East. The Senator's petroleum-based corporate interests have a financial stake that the war continues, and the General assures him they'll keep it going. Unknown to them, the Decepticon Runabout is nearby and preparing to capture the Senator...

Today: As Optimus Prime, Wheeljack, and Jazz race to Lebanon, Missouri, Ironhide briefs them on the attack on himself and Sunstreaker (from last issue). Ironhide was certain that Sunstreaker was destroyed, and notes that emergency services took the wreck to a police impound yard in Springfield. While Verity and Jimmy are in grief over Hunter's death, Ironhide is convinced that the Decepticons were involved and urges a full-frontal assault. Optimus strikes down the idea, ordering Ironhide to take the humans back to Ark-19 for safety while they recover Sunstreaker's remains.

At the Decepticons' Oregon bunker, Megatron monitors the start of Phase 2, as Skywarp and Thundercracker destroy a nuclear power plant in the Middle East -- an attack that will be blamed on the United States. Megatron considers leaving a new unit commander behind, but then decides to stay around a bit longer, both to monitor future developments and to try out his new transformation instead.

As Ironhide drives Jimmy and Verity back to the Ark, Jimmy asks how the Decepticons could have been involved, since their attackers were humans. Ironhide explains the existence of facsimile avatars, artificial organisms with implanted memories that follow the Decepticons' orders. Verity realizes that was the skeleton she saw in Nebraska (from Transformers: Infiltration #4), and Ironhide explains that "Phase 2" consists of provoking a global war, and simply let the planet's inhabitants destroy themselves...

That evening, at the Springfield police impound lot, Jazz and Wheelljack survey the area and identify entry points. Jazz cuts through the chain-link fence, but Wheeljack reports that he's found an unconscious security guard and a dead guard dog. The two quickly reach the impound building, where Machination members have just finished loading Sunstreaker's wreck onto a flatbed carrier. The Machination immediately attacks with electronic disruptors, which instantly immobilizes the Autobots! With effort, Jazz and Wheeljack manage to remove the disruptors, but are then blasted with a high-explosive rocket! As the flatbed truck races off, the other members of the Machination disperse in the confusion. Jazz and Wheeljack recover, then quickly drive away just before the building is leveled by an explosion!

As the driver of the carrier heads for the highway, he looks back to admire the explosion -- only to run head-on into Optimus Prime! The driver is killed instantly in the ensuing crash, and Prime wordlessly recovers Sunstreaker before the authorities arrive...

Back at Ark-19, Ratchet announces that the wreck was not Sunstreaker, but merely a well-built replica crafted from an Earth car. The Autobots speculate on the reason for the ruse, and Prime worries that the level of detail indicates the Transformers have already been exposed. Soon afterward, Ironhide briefs Verity and Jimmy on the situation, including the possibility that Hunter is alive. On a television screen in the background, a reporter discusses today's attack of the El Jira power plant, and how Republican Senator Alexander Holt -- the same Senator targeted earlier by Runabout -- is advocating "firm action" to protect U.S. business interests in the area...

Notes and Comments

• The text of the inside front cover reads:
  

  The mysterious organization known as the Machination has struck! On the outskirts of Lebanon, Missouri, with controlled precision, Autobot trooper Sunstreaker and his human passenger, Hunter O'nion, have been ruthlessly taken out of the game! As Optimus Prime and the Autobots struggle to muster a response to the tragedy, so the Decepticons -- now under the direct command of Megatron -- begin to transform their covert strategies to date into direct actions of their own...

  Phase two continues...

• Megatron's "new exostructure" is clearly based on the Walther P-38 pistol of the original Megatron toy.
• Is the name "Springfield" a reference to the small-town base of the same name used by Cobra in Hasbro's G.I. Joe toy line?