A Dust of Crystals

« Transformers #40 »
"A Dust of Crystals"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	February 16, 2022
Cover date	February 2022
Written by	Brian Ruckley
Art by	Anna Malkova
Colors	David García Cruz
Letters by	Jake M. Wood
Editor	David Mariotte, Tom Waltz and Riley Farmer
Continuity	2019 IDW continuity

The fate of Cybertron hangs in the balance as the Decepticons besiege Crystal City.

Synopsis

On one of Crystal City's many balconies, a pensive Optimus Prime quietly awaits the impending Decepticon strike that will make or break his dwindling Autobot resistance. As Ironhide checks in with his old friend, Prime muses that although he once told Termagax that their choices define who they are, that's not entirely true. Anyone can choose a path, a course of action, a side... but the real test of character comes from how they live with the consequences of that choice. Beyond the city limits, Strika and the Decepticons who have followed her from Iacon are already committed to their choice: not content with merely killing the Autobot leader, Strika orders her troops to raze Crystal City to the ground. The Autobots die today; obliteration of this final refuge will herald the birth of a new Cybertron—and, as one, the Decepticons raise their weapons and charge.

Within the city walls, Ratchet does what he can for a wounded Arcee, who grimly explains what she and her team saw on the way back from Iacon: Strika has brought half of the garrison stationed in Iacon, and Jhiaxus has already supplied reinforcements from neighboring Tarn. Still a warrior at heart, Arcee remains determined to do her part in the coming fight, but Greenlight reminds her that she has other responsibilities this time—a responsibility to Greenlight, and their mentee Gauge. Arcee's never run from a fight, doesn't know what to do this time... and neither do Bumper, Sideswipe, Strongarm, Vibes, and Slapdash who tersely watch from behind their improvised barricade as the cloud of dust on the horizon grows ever larger. With only a few minutes until contact, Vibes suggests a last-minute prayer to whoever's listening...

Crystal City began with Solomus's vision of a bright future for the Cybertronian species; at the dawn of the Age of the Firstforged, with the Thirteen already in decline, he sought the counsel of Solus and Alchemist Prime. Together, they raised a city of towering crystal spires, a celebration of the virtue and potential of the Cybertronian race—and although the city continued to grow after the Thirteen and their acolytes disappeared from Cybertron, the builders and architects who followed in their stead never deviated those ideals. Now, however, it seems as though Crystal City will follow its creators into oblivion: as the opening Decepticon salvo reduces those same spires to shards, Pyra Magna and the Prime Guard keep Optimus abreast of the fighting outside. Backstreet informs his leader that Bumblebee wants to speak with him, while Pyra notes that most of the remaining civilians and neutrals have evacuated. All they have to do now is hold out long enough for their backup to arrive... but, as Perceptor reminded them before he left, there's no telling how long that might take. All the Autobots can do is dig in and return fire: although Kup's artillery brigade send Weirdwolf and Roadtrap scrambling for cover, their shots allow Storm Cloud to pinpoint their position and transmit their coordinates to Strika, who calmly orders her heavies into action: backed by a solid line of tanks, cannons, and artillery, the second barrage topples buildings and forces Topshot and his team into a retreat as defenders across the city take cover and outrun collapsing buildings as they fall back to the city center.

Amidst this bleak tableau, with the Autobots losing ground minute by minute, Optimus and Bumblebee finally sit down for a chat. Even here, secure in an underground bunker, the pair can hear the Decepticons hammering their crumbling defenses... a fact that's not lost on Bumblebee, who points out that while plenty of Cybertronians hate Megatron and the Decepticons, precious few have the strength of conviction required to take up arms and fight them. Optimus grimly wonders if, perhaps, he's truly in the wrong: after so many cycles of war, he and the Autobots are no closer to victory. While there's still time, Optimus quietly apologizes to Bumblebee for everything he's put him through in the name of the greater good, but is taken aback when Bumblebee tells Prime that he's already forgiven him and that he's going topside to join the fight. Optimus warns him that they're only stalling for time so that the Crystal City refugees can reach Darkmount in time... and hopefully, so that their reinforcements can arrive. No matter how Bumblebee feels, Prime warns, blind self-sacrifice won't heal his guilt: only by staying alive can he fix his mistakes.

As the Decepticons push closer and closer to the city center, Wingstun and Obsidian search for Autobot stragglers amidst the ruins—only for Sidetrack to catch the pair off-guard and blow Wingstun's head apart. Unfortunately for him, Obsidian's too agile to hit: Kup shouts to disengage, but the nimble Decepticon leaps through Sidetrack and instantly eviscerates him with his whirring rotor-blades. Meanwhile, Sideswipe's unit open fire on the Decepticons, while, amidst the chaos, Windblade catches up with a doubtful Bumblebee, who's surprised just how much his old friend has changed since they last crossed paths. At that moment, however, the Decepticons finally breach the last barricade, and the explosion sends the group flying; while Blitzwing, Snaptrap and Heavywait move in to finish their prey, a defiant Sideswipe makes a final stand as his comrades transform and fall back—he doesn't last long, however, and Windblade and Bumblebee quickly haul his wounded body away to the final Autobot fallback points moments before Streetwise seals the gate. Inside, the assembled Autobots can do nothing but await the end: Crystal City has fallen to the Decepticons, and with it, Cybertron.

Although Ironhide insists they can still win the fight, Optimus is more pessimistic: with the Decepticons in control of the planet, all they can try to do is save what they can. At that moment, however, a distant light in the sky prompts Ultra Magnus to speak up: against all the odds, help has finally arrived. Even the triumphant Decepticons take note of the phenomenon as they surge onwards; although Blitzwing initially mistakes the streak of fire for an oncoming meteorite, Strika corrects him. That's not a meteor... it's a Titan; badly damaged from her adventures in space, but still ready to fight, buildings shake and collapse from the impact as she touches down.

Lodestar has arrived.

Featured characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"We like to think we are measured by our choices. We like to think that is how we pass or fail some test. But the choice is the easy part. Our righteous, noble choices. Weightless. Our merit, or otherwise, does not really live in the choice... but in its consequences."

—Optimus Prime

"Crystal City. Last stronghold of those who would send you back into mediocrity, insignificance. The last place obstructing the rise of a new Cybertron. So you are going to tear it down. Shatter it. Crush it into dust. NOW."

—Strika

"...miracle if any of us get out of this alive."
"Universe don't trade in miracles, Topshot. Staying alive's about stayin' smart, stayin' stubborn and—yes—luck. You can't make miracles, but sometimes y'can make luck. Sometimes you even make it out of firepower."

—Topshot and Kup

"Anything that has been made once can be made again. But if we're afraid to unmake anything, the future can never be different from the past. Fire."

—Strika

"There is no penance to be found in falling. Only time gives us the chance to address our mistakes. Remember that, Bumblebee."

—Optimus Prime

"Someone's having a bad time of it."
"We're all having a bad time of it."
"Well, it's important to share, my mentor used to tell me. So let's share the bad times around. Here they come!"

—Sideswipe and Strongarm

Notes

Continuity notes

• In his conversation with Ironhide, Optimus remembers his angry exchange with Termagax back in #35, in which he told her that the impending battle for the Enigma of Combination would force her to choose a side, whether she wanted to or not.
• Seen briefly in the group shot of Decepticons before the attack begins, Barricade's left arm now ends in a stump, apparently not having gotten his hand replaced after Charger melted it off in issue #33.
• Sideswipe, Bumper, and Strongarm last appeared together in issue #31; in particular, Bumper and Sideswipe were still recuperating from the injuries they sustained in issue #25. While Sideswipe’s been patched up, it seems as though Bumper has followed through on his vow to keep his mismatched replacement arm as a badge of honor from that same issue.
• Halonix Maximus, a close associate of Solomus’s as per an exchange in issue #25, makes a one-panel appearance as one of the ‘bots helping to construct Crystal City.
• Civilians and neutrals fleeing the siege of Crystal City—including Perceptor and Termagax—have struck out for for Darkmount, which Wheeljack and Hoist turned into a refugee sanctuary after the end of Escape #5.
• Lodestar and Lightbright last appeared in the 2021 Transformers annual, in which their search for the rogue Vigilem brought them into conflict with Thunderwing and his minions on the Hexagon asteroid colony. Their adventure ended with a severely damaged Lodestar limping back to Cybertron; neither she nor her Cityspeaker have had the chance to repair the damage she sustained, most notably the loss of her entire right arm. They're not the only reinforcements on the way, either: they've brought Scattershot and his Technical Solutions team along, who gained the ability to combine into Computron after a freak accident involving Airachnid’s Combination Core.

Transformers references

• The narration notes that the creation of Crystal City began around the end of the reign of the Thirteen. While it doesn't go into specific detail about what happened to them, it notes that by this time most of the Primes had either "gone" or "fallen", in an apparent reference to The Fallen. Notably, the flashback depicts Solus Prime as alive and well, so it seems that this universe has eschewed the standardized backstory which usually depicts Solus as the first, if accidental, casualty of the Fallen's temper.
• The same flashback features our first glimpse of Solomus, who'd previously been namedropped in issue #25; unsurprisingly, he's based on his two designs that appeared in More than Meets the Eye, while his body is based on his mythologised design, his colors and distinctive head are that of his true form. When he appears alongside Solus and Alchemist Prime, the two are shown to be enormous, easily twice as large as Solomus himself—perhaps tying back to a bit of Prime marketing-speak that described the original Thirteen as "rightfully huge".
• Alchemist Prime's design is closely based on that of Cyberverse Maccadam. He's shown laying the foundations for the city by morphing base materials into pure crystal, the first in-fiction display of his transmutation powers from The Covenant of Primus in action.
• IDW's first Transformers continuity also tied the origins of Crystal City to the Thirteen in Optimus Prime #10.

Errors

• The "story so far" recap depicts two conversations about Exarchon—one between Skywarp and Onslaught and the other between Megatron and Starscream—from the first issue of War's End, which came out a week after this issue.
• When Strika addresses the massive assembly of Decepticons in page 2, panel 2, Visper is miscolored.
• When Strongarm's group arrives at the Autobots' bunker, her vehicle mode is mis-colored yellow, presumably mistaken for Bumper.
• Lodestar is drawn with the two over-the-shoulder turrets she picked up as part of her Titan-hunting refit—however, she should only have one, since Vigilem shattered the other during their climactic fight in the annual.

Covers (3)

• Cover A: Bumblebee pinned down by rust worms, by Angel Hernandez and Fram Gamboa
• Cover B: Optimus in Crystal City, by Nick Brokenshire
• Retailer incentive cover: Bumblebee and Optimus, by Andrew Griffith and Thomas Deer

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Reprints

• Transformers Volume 6: War's End (November 16, 2022) ISBN 1684059410 / ISBN 978-1684059416
  • Collects Transformers (2019) issues #37–43, War's End issues #1–4, and Fate of Cybertron.
  • Bonus material currently unknown, most likely alternate covers.
  • Hardcover format.

• 

  Volume 6: War's End – cover art by Cryssy Cheung

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