Spotlight: Galvatron

Script: Simon Furman Art: Guido Guidi Lettering: Chris Mowry Colors: Eric Burns Editors: Dan Taylor Covers by: Guido Guidi, Alex Milne


 * Major characters (in order of appearance): Galvatron, Sideswipe, Leadfoot, Hound, Skram, Warpath, Road Rocket, Thunderwing.


 * Originally published: July, 2007

Synopsis
In the Benzuli System, a group of aliens is monitoring an anomaly that threatens the nearby system. Suddenly, their sensors detect something emerging from the anomaly, despite the fact that nothing can possibly survive in it. The something is Galvatron, who assaults their ship directly; they turn their comet-destroying weapons on him, shutting him down. They drag his body into their ship for study, but he suddenly comes back online and proceeds to slaughter the crew and destroy the ship. Galvatron speaks of being the harbinger of unlife, and doing the bidding of an unnamed dark master. Though Galvatron is his herald for the time being, he is not content to remain so. With his secondary objective - the destruction of the probe ship - complete, Galvatron continues to Cybertron for his primary objective.

At Thunderhead Pass on Cybertron, Sideswipe gripes to Leadfoot about how much he hates his posting, and marches off to make a transmission to Earth to see about getting reassigned. Ratchet answers and tells Sideswipe that Optimus Prime is currently away on personal business. Sideswipe tells Ratchet to ask Prime if he's considered his relocation. Sideswipe feels that guarding Thunderhead Pass is a dead-end job and he should be on Earth helping to find Sunstreaker. His transmission is cut short, however, when Hound arrives and demands him to sign off. Verity Carlo and Jimmy Pink were listening over Ratchet's shoulder, and tell him that Sideswipe's right: they're not doing anything to find Sunstreaker or Hunter, and that it may already be too late. They walk away telling Ratchet that they've failed their friends through their inaction.

Back on Cybertron, Hound reprimands Sideswipe for his transmission. He had ordered a total block on all unauthorized outgoing transmissions, and reminds Sideswipe that he's the one in charge. Sideswipe tells him that he's in charge of nothing: while the area might have been important a while ago when Thunderwing was active, with Jetfire and his team having packed up and left the area's essentially a dead zone. He tells Hound that he's in the mood to bust heads and can't think of a better place to do it than Earth. Hound gives him a formal warning and assigns him to sentry duty. Sideswipe marches off to do it, but grumbles that he's still going to do everything he can to get reassigned.

Meanwhile, Galvatron reminisces about the past. Before the chaos of Thunderwing and the war, before the factions, Galvatron was a crew member on the first Ark. Though the citizens were told that it was about exploration and opening trade routes, the truth was that they had discovered a mysterious anomaly: a door to somewhere else, some dark parallel universe, and they were going to examine it. Galvatron had been chosen for the mission due to his willingness to recklessly throw himself in the unknown, but none of the other crew realized just how far he was willing to go...

At Thunderhead Pass, Leadfoot hears a sound, but barely has time to say anything before Galvatron kills him with his bare hands. Sideswipe hears the disturbance and attacks Galvatron, and gets blasted for his troubles. Hound, Skram, Road Rocket, and Warpath also hear the fighting and show up, and Hound orders them to take Galvatron alive for questioning. As they pummel him with weapons fire, Sideswipe recovers, sets his gun to maximum power, and shoots Galvatron in the face, blowing off half of his head. Hound immediately starts yelling at Sideswipe that a corpse can't tell them anything, with Sideswipe naturally defending his actions. Skram interrupts, though, and tells them that Galvatron isn't dead. In response, Galvatron stands up, transforms, and blasts them all... But to incapacitate, not kill. Galvatron consideres it a small rebellion against his master, a reminder that his destiny is his own. He says that the others aboard the Ark are all dead, killed by his hands. The moment they entered the dead universe, it claimed them all.

Hound recovers and immediately starts sending out an emergency distress signal. But Skram bursts in with terrible news: Thunderwing is gone! Elsewhere, Galvatron stands beside Thunderwing, and states that his primary objective is achieved.

Errors

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Items of Note

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