Prime's Directive, Part Three

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Filmation would never have been able to afford this camera angle.
"Prime's Directive, Part Three"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	December 5, 2018
Cover date	November 2018
Written by	John Barber and Mike Johnson
Art by	Jack Lawrence
Colors by	Josh Burcham
Letters by	Christa Miesner
Editor	Chase Marotz and David Mariotte
Continuity	Star Trek vs. Transformers

Titans clash as Kirk makes an unusual new friend, and the battle for Cygnus Seven takes a surprising new direction.

Synopsis

With the other Autobots trapped underground and Optimus Prime badly wounded, Starscream and Soundwave join their fellow Decepticons as they lay waste to Cygnus Seven, gleefully watching as the inhabitants of the local mining colony flee in terror. Though Scotty and Spock return fire with their phasers, their weapons aren't able to penetrate the Decepticons' armor. Despite his wounds, Optimus insists on protecting the organics; over Doctor McCoy's protests, Prime uses his body to shield one group of miners from Airachnid's blasts, and although they do their best to evacuate the Federation miners targeted by the Decepticons, it's clear that their desperate rearguard action can't hold out forever.

Deep beneath the local dilithium mine, inside Fortress Maximus's body, Ratchet finishes his adjustments to the Titan's inner workings, so that Captain Kirk can interface with the gigantic Autobot. Windblade has misgivings of her own about the plan, unsure if the human can handle the mental strain of merging with Fortress Maximus's consciousness, but Sulu reassures her—if anyone can handle it, it's Kirk. Ratchet obliges and activates the device.

Merged with the Titan's mind, Kirk struggles to handle the overwhelming mental merge, glimpsing fragmented memories of Cybertron and the Great War in between flashes of his own youth. Ratchet and the other Autobots watch as Kirk's memories focus on an object closer to the present day: the starship Enterprise, a ship that Kirk knows back-to-front. As a disoriented Kirk returns to reality, Jazz commends the captain's bravery, while Ratchet explains the next step of his plan: using the Enterprise schematics obtained from Kirk's brain, he can get to work on bringing Fortress Maximus back online and into fighting shape.

But he doesn't have a shirt to rip!

On the surface of the planet, Starscream gloats as he takes stock of his victory. As McCoy and the other members of the Enterprise weigh up their options, the blusterous Seeker demands that Prime face him or be destroyed. The Autobot leader, unwilling to see any more organic lives caught in the crossfire of the war, offers to sacrifice himself so that the organics can make their escape. Though McCoy protests this course of action, Spock has already weighed up their options and chosen the most logical course of action; as the others watch, he calmly walks in front of Starscream to announce their surrender, much to the amusement of Klingon commander Kuri as he beams in, ever-eager to assert the dominance of the Klingon Empire over the Federation. Spock tells the villains that they'll surrender so long as the Federation miners can safely leave, a statement echoed by Prime as he struggles to his feet to stand alongside the half-Vulcan. Starscream is unmoved; after all, what does he stand to gain by not killing Prime on the spot? Before anyone can come up with an answer, however, the ground shakes and a mighty starship bursts through the ground: Fortress Maximus, transformed into a copy of the Enterprise! The other Autobots and their new allies burst through the hole created by their passage to join the battle, but they're not the only group with a surprise weapon, as Kuri's Warbird transforms to reveal itself as the monstrous Trypticon, contemptuously blasting the Autobots aside with his fiery breath!

Inside Fortress Maximus—his interior reshaped into a Cybertronian-sized copy of the Enterprise's bridge—Ratchet coaches Kirk as the captain uses a special headset to take control of the living ship, blasting Trypticon with a volley of phaser fire as the other Autobots swing into action. Sulu and Windblade dogfight with Ramjet and Thrust, Bumblebee and M'Ress trip up Soundwave, and Arcee helps keep Airachnid off Jazz's back. Frustrated by their setback, Kuri and Starscream trade barbs, but their bickering is cut short when Arcee knocks the Seeker commander to the ground and orders the miners to get to the Enterprise.

As Scott and Spock wonder how the captain could be piloting the ship alone, however, villainous reinforcements arrive in the shape of Megatron and a group of Klingons, with the Decepticon leader taking the opportunity to shoot Optimus in the back! The Klingons promptly point their weapons at the Federation miners, only for Kirk to swoop in and beam them and Arcee to safety. As he does so, Ratchet encourages Kirk to pull off the ship's final trick. Kirk strains to concentrate, and as he does so Fortress Maximus begins to transform around him. As Trypticon watches in astonishment, their two minds merge as the Titan assumes his new robot mode, declaring himself the mighty Fortress Tiberius!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Away with ye, ye wicked contraption!"

—Scotty takes on Airachnid

"It appears to resemble an overly-large metal version of the extinct Earth creature Tyrannosaurus rex. Though, I admit this seems a highly illogical form for a Cybertronian to take."

—Spock has yet to meet Grimlock...

"The captain—operating a Constitution-class starship alone? Impossible. At a minimum, twenty-three crew members would be required to—"
"Ach! With the right modifications I could do it with five, maybe four in a pinch."

—Spock and Scotty

"You don't see that every day."
"Well, maybe you don't..."

—M'Ress and Bumblebee regard Fortress Tiberius

Notes

Continuity notes

• Optimus Prime describes Trypticon as the "very thing that ended our mission to find energon," referencing the backstory from the previous issue. Similarly, Starscream notes that the humans "would not hesitate to put an end to [him]," a presumable allusion to the events of World War III and the Eugenics Wars.

Transformers references

• The concept behind "Fortress Tiberius" seems loosely inspired by the binary bonding technology alluded to in various ancillary media, which depicted Headmasters and their ilk as existing in a quasi-symbiotic relationship, a process by which memories and emotions could unconsciously "bleed" from one partner into the other. This concept was first explored in issue #51 of the Marvel comic, and taken to its logical extreme in the Beast Wars: Uprising story "Head Games." All this said, Cerebros is nowhere to be found in this comic, and Fort Max's head doesn't look like it's formed from Kirk...
• While merged with Fortress Maximus, Kirk catches a glimpse of an unidentified Cybertronian city, based off Iacon's appearance in the original The Transformers cartoon during the planet's Golden Age.
• Arcee's battle against Airachnid might be a reference to their long-running rivalry in the Transformers: Prime cartoon.

Star Trek references

• Kirk's memories include his childhood, growing up on a farm in Riverside, Iowa, and another scene of him as a young man attending Starfleet Academy in San Francisco.
• Kuri derogatorily refers to his Federation captives as "targs", a Klingon animal somewhat like a wild boar that is often kept as a pet.
• Scotty's claim that Constitution-class vessels could be crewed by about five people given the right modifications is exactly what would happen in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
• McCoy drops his catchphrase once again, claiming "I'm a doctor, not a magnet!"
• Fortress Maximus's new moniker is based off Kirk's own middle name, "Tiberius". But see "Errors", below...

Real-world references

• When interfacing with Fortress Maximus, Ratchet observes to Kirk that it would be easier if he would "think in Cybertronian"; this recalls the famous "you must think in Russian" line from the movie Firefox.

Errors

• In the final panel of the comic, "Fortress Tiberius" is misspelled with an extra "o." This was corrected for the trade paperback.

Other notes

• Years ago, the Dark of the Moon novelization had Wheelie joke about a theoretical Star Trek episode where the Enterprise was revealed as a Transformer. As if that could ever happen...
• Originally solicited for November, this issue arrives late, landing in the first full week of December.
• Backmatter includes an exclusive interview with Star Trek authors Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelley.

Covers (3)

• Cover A: The crew of the Enterprise encounter Soundwave and the Decepticon Mini-Cassettes, by Philip Murphy
• Cover B: Kirk, Spock, and Uhura flee Megatron, by Gavin Fullerton
• Retailer incentive cover: Women of the Federation and Cybertron: Windblade, Arcee, Uhura, M'Ress, and Nurse Chapel; by Megan Levens and Charlie Kirchoff

• 

  Buzzsaw eject. Target: Kirk's wig.

• 

  Kirk, your acting is bad comedy!

• 

  It's Ladies Night!

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External links

• Preview
• Issue article at Memory Alpha
• Issue article at Memory Beta, the non-canon Star Trek wiki