Episode 1: Calling
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| File:Infiltration 2b.jpg Don't look up! | |||||||
| Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||
| First published | February 8, 2006 | ||||||
| Cover date | February 2006 | ||||||
| Written by | Simon Furman | ||||||
| Art by | E. J. Su | ||||||
| Colors by | John Rauch | ||||||
| Letters by | Tom B. Long | ||||||
| Edits by | Chris Ryall & Dan Taylor | ||||||
| Continuity | IDW continuity | ||||||
| Chronology | Infiltration | ||||||
Ratchet reaches safety with the Autobots, or does he?
Synopsis
Confronted by two menacing robots, the stunned Verity, Hunter and Jimmy can only stand and gawk as the ambulance driver disappears in a blaze of electricity. That blaze stuns one of the robots, sending it into the garage wall and scattering concrete everywhere. The ambulance itself transforms into a third giant robot, who shields the three humans from the rubble. As the white robot draws a weapon, the third robot deploys an ink spray, blinding his attacker, then transforms back into an ambulance once again and orders the three humans inside. As the ambulance peels out, Jimmy laments the destruction of his garage.
Back in the wilds of Arizona, a police detachment finds the dead body of the mustached businessman. He has no I.D., but one of the officers recognizes him and makes a phone call to a group of people in a boardroom to report the death. Behind them, the wall is adorned with a massive "M".
Traveling on a crowded freeway, the ambulance is once again picked up by the blue jet fighter and narrowly avoids a pile-up caused by the jet's sonic boom. This allows the two sports cars—who identify themselves as Runamuck and Runabout—to catch up, partially transforming to deploy weapons. According to the ambulance, this is a very disturbing sign, as Decepticons never break cover, let alone in such a brazen fashion.
In Oregon, Starscream and Blitzwing marvel at the ore that they have discovered. They anticipate refining more, and getting some kind of unfriendly response for breaking protocol.
Some more fancy driving allows the ambulance to shake Runamuck and Runabout. Verity, who on top of fleeing for her life has had reality turned upside down on her, screams for them to stop and jumps out.
While Jimmy goes to calm her down, Hunter tries to pry more detail out of the ambulance—starting with its name, Ratchet—but before he can get far, the jet re-acquires them. With everyone back inside, Ratchet pours on a burst of speed. In the middle of the desert, three more cars with weapons that spring from hidden compartments appear in their path and shoot the plane down. These cars then transform, draw weapons, and the leader informs Ratchet of the statutes of the Autobot Code of Interplanetary Conflict that he has violated. In his defense, Ratchet offers only two words: Siege Mode...
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Entelechies | Heartless | Nobodies |
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Errors
- None yet identified.
Items of note
- Cameos: More Machination employees, including Abraham Dante
- The truck that rams the Battlechargers may be a reference to Laser Optimus Prime.
- As with last issue, we see that all Transformers feature heavy (retractable) armament in vehicle mode. Runabout, Runamuck and Sunstreaker have missiles, Ironhide has a roof mounted cannon, and Prowl has machine-guns behind his headlamps. Also, in addition to the weapons shown last issue, Ratchet has a turbo-booster. They are all hardcore.
- The "Decepticomments" section featured mail answered by Chris Ryall and short ads for next month's issues: Infiltration #3, The Gathering #2, Generations #1 and the War and Peace reprint.
Covers (7)
- Cover A: Battlechargers by E. J. Su, half of the RI-B cover
- Cover B: Thundercracker attacks Ratchet by Guido Guidi
- Cover C: Prowl threatens Ratchet by Andrew Wildman
- Cover D: Thundercracker attacks humans by James Raiz
- Cover RI-A: Starscream by Guido Guidi
- Cover RI-B: Battle wraparound cover by E. J. Su, first part of a continuous image
- Cover RI-C: Ratchet by Guido Guidi (includes 3 mini-prints)
- Infiltration 2a.jpg
Cover A
- Infiltration 2b.jpg
Can I have a ride?
- Infiltration 2c.jpg
Crap cover
- Infiltration 2d.jpg
Cover D
- Infiltration 2ria.jpg
Half a conehead
- Infiltration 2rib.jpg
Cover RI-B
- Infiltration 2ric.jpg
Cover RI-C
Advertisements
- 10th Anniversary Beast Wars toys
- Infiltration #3, including a 2-page B&W sketch preview
- 3-page preview of The Gathering
- Angel: "City Of" scriptbook
- The Gathering (back cover)
