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"Prime's Directive, Part Four"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	January 16, 2019
Cover date	December 2018
Written by	John Barber and Mike Johnson
Art by	Philip Murphy
Colors by	Josh Burcham
Letters by	Christa Miesner
Editor	Chase Marotz and David Mariotte
Continuity	Star Trek vs. Transformers

Alliances are made and broken as Fortress Tiberius enters the fray, but can this incredible Autobot stymie Starscream's ambitious new scheme?

Synopsis

The battle between the Autobots, Decepticons, and their new allies rages on the surface of Cygnus Seven, weaving in and around the titanic forms of Fortress Tiberius and Trypticon as the two Titans battle for supremacy. Captain Kirk—piloting the enormous body of Fortress Tiberius—struggles to stay lucid in the face of his new partner's overwhelming desire for revenge against the Decepticon, who bested him in combat once before. Ratchet continues to guide Kirk through the mental combination as Doctor McCoy and Spock offer their own thoughts on the battle. Ignoring Spock's worries that the battle will end with the taking of intelligent life and the violation of Starfleet protocol, Kirk succumbs to Fortress Maximus's anger and uses his warp engines as gigantic cannons to pummel the Decepticon Titan with a barrage of long-rage fire.

Below, Kuri and Starscream grimly assess the situation. Kuri is furious at the prospect of losing the battle, reminding Starscream of the terms of their deal. As Windblade and Sulu swoop down to attack Megatron, however, the Decepticon leader shouts for reinforcements, and both Klingon and Decepticon realize that the treacherous Air Commander has taken advantage of the confusion and abandoned his post! In the nearby dilithium refinery, Starscream deactivates his personal cloaking device, courtesy of Kuri, and takes stock of the situation: if all of the Cybertronians in the galaxy are currently on Cygnus Seven, he reasons, then there's nothing stopping him from taking over another organic planet... and the abundant supplies of dilithium on Cygnus Seven will serve as a suitable energon substitute for Starscream to fuel his conquest.

Bumblebee and Jazz watch the furious Megatron as the tenuous Decepticon-Klingon alliance breaks down. Jazz is all in favor of leaving the Klingons to their fate, but M'Ress intervenes: the Federation is dedicated to protecting all life when possible, even Klingons, and her argument persuades Bumblebee to try and intervene. As Windblade and Sulu regroup with the two Autobots, however, they're nearly crushed by Trypticon as the fight spills over into their position. Although the quartet move aside in time, Sulu raises a salient point: if Jazz, distrustful of mankind, is angry at Trypticon for nearly stepping on him, then how does he think humans feel about sharing space with Cybertronians?

A freshly-refueled Starscream races out of the mine and absconds with the stolen dilithium, cloaking himself in the process—much to Megatron's fury! The Decepticon leader quickly puts two and two together, realizing that Kuri is to blame for Starscream's most recent betrayal, and a blast from his fusion cannon sends the organics scurrying for cover. In doing so, however, Megatron has left himself open for a wounded but determined Optimus Prime, and the two nemeses face off once more.

Meanwhile, the battle between Fortress Tiberius and Trypticon turns in favor of the Decepticon. The monstrous Titan uses his fiery breath to burn Tiberius's metal skin, forcing Spock and McCoy prepare to evacuate the transformed ship as they worry about the well-being of their captain. Furious with his former allies, Megatron prepares to step on Kuri—but the Klingon warrior is rescued at the last moment by Jazz, who's finally put aside his own prejudices to help organic life. Kirk, meanwhile, musters his last ounce of willpower to push through the pain and Fortress Maximus's desire for vengeance; reasserting his identity as James T. Kirk, and announcing his intention to protect life, he's able to overpower Trypticon with a burst of last-ditch-strength.

The battle lost, Megatron sounds the order for the Decepticons to retreat; Trypticon promptly assumes his Klingon starship mode to beam Megatron to safety before escaping into deep space. Sulu, M'ress, and Spock round up their new Klingon prisoners, and despite Kuri's blustering proclamations, Kirk shuts him up with some more bad news: Fortress Maximus's scans have detected Starscream en route to the Klingon Empire. Jazz is more than happy to let Starscream conquer the Klingon homeworld, but Spock points out that, as Starfleet personnel, it's the duty of the Enterprise and its crew to protect innocent lives from aggression—even if those lives belong to Klingons.

Not far from Cygnus Seven, the real USS Enterprise drifts through space with a disabled warp core. Arex and Uhura's latest attempt to signal for help is interrupted when unexpected reinforcements arrive in the shape of Fortress Tiberius, who's carrying the Autobots and the rest of the Enterprise's away team. Kirk fills them in on their situation, beaming Optimus and the other Autobots over to the ship's hangar so that the alliance can coordinate their next moves. Scotty gets to work on bringing the Enterprise back online with the assistance of the Cybertronians, while Kirk grimly muses over their predicament: if they want to save the Klingon Empire, then will they have to invade it, risking all-out war with their aggressive neighbors in the process?

As Trypticon warps through space, Megatron discusses recent developments with Soundwave: the Decepticon tyrant intends to track down Starscream and his stolen dilithium, and make an example out of him. Megatron is unaware that Starscream is already one step closer to achieving his goals as the Seeker arrives at Kronos, Klingon homeworld and capital of the Klingon empire. As he touches down outside a Klingon city, Starscream enthuses at the prospect that the planet will soon belong to him!

To be concluded!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Captain, as you are well aware Starfleet Order Two prevents the taking of intelligent life."
"This might be an exception, Spock—after all, where I come from, dinosaurs went extinct a long time ago."

—Spock and Kirk

"Remember how mad you were at humans, Jazz? Well... think about how we feel about you."

—Sulu

"We were allies! Honor demands—"
"Honor! Bah! The only honor is victory—through any means!"

—Kuri and Megatron

"You can barely stand, Prime... so it's time to fall!"

—Megatron remixes an old chestnut

Notes

Continuity notes

• Fortress Maximus's desire for vengeance against Trypticon is presumably based off their last battle in 2053, seen in issue #2.
• Starscream notes that Cygnus Seven contains all of the Cybertronians in the galaxy, suggesting that in this universe Cybertron either lies outside the Milky Way or is completely depopulated.

Transformers references

• The energon cube shown here takes after the energon cubes from the Generation 1 cartoon, which were force fields of energy that could be generated from any mundane energy source. Starscream's ability to spontaneously generate one hearkens back to "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1" and "War Dawn," where Soundwave and some other Decepticons could pull off a similar feat.
• Jazz's offhanded mention of Trypticon as "ginormous" is no random choice of words; it's a reference to The Transformers: The Movie, where he described Unicron as such.

Star Trek references

• Spock mentions "Starfleet Order Two," which prohibits the taking of intelligent life; it was established in The Animated Series episode "One of Our Planets Is Missing".
• Facing death, Kuri defiantly announces that "today is a good day to die," a popular Klingon saying.
• The Klingon homeworld is spelt here as "Kronos"; in the Star Trek canon, this is established to be its Anglicized name, with the directly transliterated Klingon spelling being "Qo'noS." The city Starscream lands in is based off the planet's rugged, mountainous look as established in Star Trek: Enterprise.
• Fortress Tiberius strikes Trypticon with a Double-fist punch.

Errors

• On page 17, "hangar" is misspelled as "hanger."

Other notes

• Originally solicited for December, this issue arrives significantly late, halfway through the month of January.
• This issue corrects the spelling of Kirk's middle name, establishing both it and the name of Fortress Maximus's new Enterprise mode as "Tiberius."

Covers (3)

• Cover A: Optimus Prime and the Enterprise, by Philip Murphy
• Cover B: The crew of the Enterprise encounter Optimus Prime, by Priscilla Tramontano
• Retailer incentive cover: Bumblebee and M'Ress, by George Caltsoudas

• 

  "You think Warp engines have power? Look at THIS!"

• 

  Peekaboo!

• 

  The Cat-Girl with the Golden Car

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External links

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