Wheeljack: Orbital Decay

From the surface of the Winged Moon, Wheeljack watches the last of the evacuation shuttles leave for Cybertron, then focuses his mind on the daunting task ahead. Severed from the Tether that connected it to Cybertron and badly damaged from the battle between Vigilem and Lodestar, the moon has spun off into an unstable solar orbit that will eventually send the planet straight into Cybertron's sun. Wheeljack, Huffer, Lancer, Cosmos and Gears have only seven cycles to find a way to change the moon's trajectory and save almost a sixth of Cybertron's increasingly-precious energon. At their first meeting, Wheeljack lays out their options, but curtly dismisses Huffer's usual pessimism—there is no challenge that a bit of ingenuity and some lateral thinking can't solve. Idea number one: while Wheeljack bores into one of the moon's internal storage vats, Lancer overpressurizes the network. The moment Wheeljack's improvised drilling rig pierces the container, the energon fountains up into space, an improvised thruster that will hopefully push the moon out onto a wider vector—but only a few seconds later, Huffer reports that the pressurized liquid will shake the moon's inner workings to bits, so Wheeljack returns to the drawing board.

Wheeljack remembers his time with Termagax as they watch the Winged Moon and the Tether near completion. The Autobot government has requested she not embark on any more overambitious engineering projects, but Termagax has a new plan: if she cannot change the world anymore, she will change people instead, and she asks Wheeljack what he thinks of the name "Ascenticons".

With only five cycles left, Cosmos warns Wheeljack that the Winged Moon will pass through the Croaton Cloud. Their high-velocity trip through the debris cloud, all that remains of the dead Titan Croaton, will force them to take shelter, so Wheeljack accelerates the timeframe on plan number two: using strong cables and their one remaining shuttle, Cosmos and Lancer try to lift a chunk of the lunar surface so that Wheeljack and Huffer can access and manually reactivate the moon's rotational jets. Unfortunately, Huffer finds that the internal mechanisms are too damaged to jury-rig, and although Wheeljack promises that they're not out of ideas yet, that next brainwave will have to come soon—their trip through the cloud costs them another cycle and batters the moon's delicate mechanisms even further. While Cosmos scouts ahead in his spaceworthy alternate mode, Lancer keeps their shuttle out of harm's way by flying it above the cloud until it's safe to touch down; once she lands, however, she spies an out-of-place object on a shelf. The suspicious engineer hits it with a wrench... and when it transforms, she shouts for the others—she's found an Infiltration Trooper!

Thirty kilocycles ago, Wheeljack tries to soothe hurt feelings as Termagax storms out of the Senate building and contemplates resigning from the political arena. Wheeljack points out that, despite her lofty ideals, her anger has only hurt her cause, and the notoriously volatile Megatron taking up her cause will not alleviate this problem. But Termagax's mind is made up; if Wheeljack really cares, she warns, then he'll do what he can to shape Megatron into a worthy leader. Wheeljack worries: he and Termagax are engineers who build up... and Megatron is a dangerous ideologue, who will only destroy that which they have worked so hard to create.

Having captured and interrogated their stowaway Enemy, Wheeljack realises that he is their mystery saboteur, having installed the energon siphon on the Winged Moon for the purposes of funneling energon from the station down to The Rise; the little 'bot confirms as much, explaining that, after the Tether fell, he hid himself aboard one of the evacuation shuttles in the hopes that its crew would smuggle him back to Cybertron, but chose the wrong vessel. A furious Wheeljack shouts that the Tether didn't just "come down", it was destroyed—destroyed by the same 'bots who claim to follow Termagax's ideals. Enemy shrugs this off, pointing out that he was just following orders... but Wheeljack storms off, vowing that they will not lose Termagax's masterwork on his watch. With just three cycles on the clock, Wheeljack teaches Gears how to brute-force and hold open the moon's jammed alignment mechanisms; despite Gears' own frustrations at his inability to find a talent, Wheeljack advises him to have patience. When Huffer pointedly wonders aloud if he's being too patient, Wheeljack snaps that, for all his faults, Gears is still doing more than Huffer before he orders the surly engineer to stand guard over their prisoner while the others get ready.

Idea number three is their most drastic yet: by rigging the moon's wings with improvised explosives, then detonating them at the right time, they'll both lose mass and push themselves out onto a wider vector. When Lancer activates the moon's harvest mode and deploys the wings, Cosmos zips in and out, lining the outer wings with explosives while Gears keeps the alignment mechanisms steady. At the right moment, Wheeljack thumbs the detonator—the first explosion severs the first wing and sends the moon spinning onto a new course, and the second blast ignites the stored energon itself to create an ad-hoc rocket engine. As the sudden acceleration throws Wheeljack against the wall, he shouts for Cosmos to report, and collapses in relief when the chief of space security reports that they've managed the impossible and achieved their goal. While Huffer breaks out the K-Juice, Wheeljack takes a moment to himself to watch the sun recede into the horizon. But these festivities are short lived—because, at that moment, the damaged communications suite picks up a transmission from Flamewar and the other members of "Team Stream", who plan to steal the moon!

Featured characters

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

Ascenticons/Decepticons	Cybertronians
Termagax (6) Enemy (7) Flamewar (8) Shadow Striker (9) Blackjack (10) Slipstream (11) Tracer (12) Hyperdrive (13) Astrotrain (14) Hotlink (15) Sunstorm (16)	Wheeljack (1) Huffer (2) Lancer (3) Cosmos (4) Gears (5)

Quotes

"Engineering is about precision and careful calculation. Except when there's no time and something is really, really stuck. Then, it's about the judicious application of brute force."

—Wheeljack

"What? Who calls themselves Enemy? Oh, wait... you didn't choose it, right? Someone else came up with your name?"
"No. I chose it."
"Wow. I mean, to each their own, but... wow. Issues, much?"

—Lancer, Enemy, and Huffer

"Too patient? Too patient?! What would you suggest? That I shout at him? That I whine at him or undermine him with sarcasm? I am his mentor! I am responsible for his care, his guidance, his preparation. I am his gateway into the world. The responsibility is absolute! Unconditional! Not some petty inconvenience to be set aside when I choose. And it is an honor. He tries, Huffer! He persists! He hopes! Which is more than I can say for you."

—Wheeljack gives Huffer the business

"If this goes wrong—which, overall, not unlikely—I don't plan on wasting time setting you free before I run for the evac shuttle. Just so you know."

—Huffer to Enemy

"TEAM STREAM MARK TWO is here, losers! Bigger, badder, and stealing your moon!"

—Flamewar

Notes

Continuity notes

Wheeljack, his mentee Gears, and the other three members of the team last appeared in Transformers issue #17, where a cataclysmic battle between Lodestar and Vigilem interrupted their investigation into possible sabotage on the Winged Moon. Issue #20 had Orion Pax explain to Sentinel Prime that Wheeljack and a small team had stayed on the moon to try and save it from its fiery fate; as the events of this comic take place across multiple cycles, it seems likely that the comic begins at the same time as issue #19, and takes place in the background while the entire "Rise of the Decepticons" arc plays out on Cybertron. Additionally, the events of this story will set up the upcoming Escape miniseries, which features Wheeljack in a starring role.
The comic opens with a report from Head of Intelligence Starscream that documents the potential threat posed by Infiltration Troopers—the same kind of warriors who helped storm the Senate in the previous issue. As this is Starscream talking, it's difficult to tell how much of this report is true, but notable takeaways include the revelation that they served during the Age of Expansion and the War of the Threefold Spark, and that Senator Ratbat, an Infiltration Trooper himself (as implied in issue #19), supposedly owes his political success to their continued support. The report makes a few disparaging references to "the previous regime" in reference to how Starscream ousted Soundwave from Cybertron's intelligence division at some point before the beginning of the comic.
The report also alludes to the existence of "war-forged Seekers"; the meaning of this is not immediately clear from context, but issue #15 mentioned Skywarp leading a "clone swarm" for Exarchon, and Galaxies #10 featured Ultra Magnus smashing his way through a battalion of Seeker-like bots.
Wheeljack and Termagax appeared together during the "Constructicons Rising" arc of Transformers: Galaxies, a story that included Termagax announcing her plans to build the Tether in Iacon, her first clash with the Senate over the fate of the Constructicons, and several call-forwards to the Ascenticon movement she would one day found. The first flashback takes place 301 kilocycles before the present day, which would place it just one kilocycle before the Winged Moon's grand opening in #6; the second takes place much more recently, a mere thirty kilocycles ago, and shows Termagax leaving the political arena behind to begin her self-imposed exile.
While admiring the horizon, Cosmos admits that he wishes that "a specific someone else" were here to admire the view with him. It's a sure bet that he's talking about his long-distance romantic partner Blast Off, whom he met and courted in the backup story of the Transformers Valentine's Day Special. Whether he knows that Blast Off is now a member of the Rise, however, is another question entirely...
Flamewar and the other members of "Team Stream"—Slipstream, Shadow Striker, Blackjack, Tracer, Hyperdrive and Astrotrain—coordinated the attack on the Titan Net in issue #17 with the intent of destroying the Tether. In this issue, they're joined by Hotlink and Sunstorm, which is likely why Flamewar refers to this lineup as "Team Stream Mark Two".
Issue #21 established that Team Stream was preparing for a new assignment which prevented Astrotrain from going to pick up Rage's team.

Transformers references

The Titan Croaton shares his name with the Titan from the Cyberverse cartoon. In that show, the Quintessons briefly possessed Croaton's body and directed him to attack Cybertron; this version of the character appears to have suffered a similar fate, as Wheeljack notes that Croaton was "usurped" by Exarchon and subsequently destroyed during the War of the Threefold Spark, leaving nothing behind save for the drifting Croaton Cloud.
His history's a bit too complex to get into on this page, but Enemy was the product of a lot of weird back-and-forth between Hasbro, Takara, and various licensees in the mid-eighties before he finally got a proper figure in 2012 as part of the Encore toyline, then a speaking part in vol. #49 of the Transformers Legends manga.
The team celebrates their success with a round of K-Juice, which debuted in More than Meets the Eye as Roller's preferred beverage. It received a prior shout-out in issue #20 as one of the many drinks available at Swindle's.
Hotlink and Sunstorm's presence in the Riser-composed Team Stream is a logical thematic extension as their original accompanying counterpart, Bitstream, was mentioned Transformers #16 to be a senior Rise scientist.

Real-life references

"We had to destroy half the moon to save it," muses Huffer, in what might be a reference to the (in)famous Vietnam War-era slogan: "we had to destroy the village to save it."

Errors

This issue gives Gears a toy-accurate yellow vent on his chest, while every other appearance gives him a grey, cartoon-accurate chest instead.

Other trivia

Originally solicited for October 14, this comic arrives very late, landing on November 11 after multiple delays. Unfortunately, this delay meant that solicits for future issues spoiled this comic's ending by revealing that Wheeljack and company saved the moon before they were invaded.

Covers (6)

Cover A: A world shattered, by Beth McGuire-Smith
Cover B: Work faster, Wheeljack! by Red Powell
Retailer incentive cover: Wheeljack and Megatron, by Nicole Goux
Devil Dog exclusive cover A: Soundblaster, by Livio Ramondelli
Devil Dog exclusive cover B: Soundwave, by Livio Ramondelli
Devil Dog exclusive cover C: Soundwave's cassettes take flight, by Livio Ramondelli

The Transformers: The IDW Collection #11
Star Trek: Picard
Godzilla

Reprints

Transformers Volume 3: All Fall Down (February 24, 2021) ISBN 1684057396 / ISBN 978-1684057399
- Collects Transformers (2019) issues #19–24 and Galaxies issues #7–12.
- Bonus material includes alternate covers.
- Hardcover format.