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Transformers: Annihilation
Publisher	ibooks
First published	September 5, 2003
Cover date	November 2003
Writer	David Cian
Continuity	Dreamwave Generation One continuity
ISBN	ISBN 0743474422 ISBN 978-0743474429
Page count	240

While Megatron finds himself deposed as Decepticon leader, the Autobots try to deal with the Keepers.

Synopsis

Las Vegas is in chaos, as everyone present begins reacting to the sudden appearance of the missing Transformers and the awe-inspiring Keepers. Optimus Prime and Jazz are attempting to preserve the lives of the various assorted aliens who also arrived from the Keepers' world. Megatron is searching for Starscream to reclaim his throne, and the other Autobots and Decepticons present continue to battle as best they can. Unnoticed to most anyone, the human hostages from the Keepers' world also begin trickling back into the population, including Paul Charteris and Melony Harcourt, two of the Followers.

Megatron confronts Starscream and learns the extent of his traitorous ex-lieutenant's plans. However, due to his own severe injuries battling against the Keepers, Megatron finds that he is in no position to quash Starscream's rebellion at this time. Megatron is reluctantly forced to cede leadership of the Decepticons to Starscream, but he refuses to bow before the new "leader". Instead, he tears off his insignia and officially quits the Decepticon forces, planning to seek his own means of dealing with the threat of the Keepers. Many other Decepticons follow suit, splitting their ranks in two: Thundercracker, Skywarp, Rumble, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Devastator, and the Insecticons remain with Starscream, while Soundwave, Frenzy, Ravage, Spyglass, Viewfinder, and the Omega Sentinel leave with Megatron.

With the aliens properly cared for, Optimus Prime confronts the Keepers in the new humanoid and semi-humanoid host bodies they have taken for themselves. A spokesperson for the group, referred to only as The Voice, informs Prime of their intention to conquer the entire planet within three days' time, if it is not surrendered to them beforehand. When Optimus physically assaults the Voice for his arrogance, the Keepers unleash a wave of nullfying darkness over the city of Los Angeles, apparently destroying it and all who live in its boundaries.

Throughout these games and powerplays, Grimlock's secret human army had been continuing their fight with the Decepticons to retake Las Vegas. Recognizing the threat of the Keepers and the consolidated Decepticon forces, Optimus Prime orders a retreat to outside the city before any further action could be taken. Grimlock was locked in combat with Devastator and could not be evacuated, but Optimus Prime, Jazz, Bumblebee, and Prowl, along with Spike Witwicky leave Vegas to regroup with the other Autobots. Spike's ally Agent Franklin remains behind to guard their escape.

Meanwhile, Paul and Melony are taken hostage again, this time by the LVPD operating under Starscream's discretion. Starscream is interested in sending a message to the Followers, inviting them to flock to his city and truly become "Followers" of the Transformers. He has Melony scheduled for execution when she speaks out of turn, but lets Paul go free to convey the message to his superiors. That superior would be Allister Greaves, founder of the Followers, who was already aware of the message thanks to Franklin, his double agent in the NSA who observed Paul's confrontation with the Decepticons. Franklin approaches Paul on the street and invites him back to Greaves' base of operations to discuss what the Followers should do next.

Starscream's offer is quickly rendered moot, though, as he has a confrontation with the Keepers. The Keeper formerly known as Bluestreak approaches Starscream under a flag of truce, but then overloads the Decepticon leader's circuitry with a surge of energy, leaving him on the brink of death and a perfectly-fitting host for another of the Keepers to possess. The other remaining Decepticons attempt to flee, but are caught in an impenetrable energy barrier cast by the Keepers, and held prisoner.

Outside the city, Autobot reinforcements have arrived in the form of Ironhide, Sunstreaker, Ratchet, and Wheeljack. At Soundwave's approach, Optimus Prime leaves to make contact with Megatron, and the two agree to join forces against the Keepers. Elsewhere, Allister Greaves and the Followers make their plans as well. Contacts from inside the government have informed Greaves that a two-stage military assault is being planned against the Keepers, with a wave of combat vehicles to be followed by an all-out nuclear strike if the first strike is unsuccessful. Horrified, Greaves sends Paul back to Las Vegas to try to save Melony and evacuate as many of their people as possible, while directing Franklin to reconnect with the Autobots and offer any assistance he can to their inevitable counter-strike as well.

The Keepers were hardly idle all this time, though, and were more than aware that various factions were conspiring against them. They make an attempt at "shock and awe" to cow the planet's populace into submission by grotesquely mutilating and transforming Melony into a new Keeper, casting her soul into the same endless void that Bluestreak and Starscream have been reduced to since giving up their forms.

As Optimus Prime and Megatron enter the city with their troops and the first wave of US military forces, they join up with Skywarp and the remaining Decepticons from Starscream's faction, and so the war with the Keepers begins. Spike is still trying to reactivate the gateway key, in the hopes of sending the Keepers back where they came from. As the other Transformers strike out at the aliens, Bumblebee and Agent Franklin remain with Spike until the key can be activated. Devastator and Omega Sentinel begin fighting with Keeper-Starscream and Keeper-Bluestreak, as the others fall in behind them.

Then a bunch of things start to happen at once.

First, the US government deliberately steps up their timetable, launching the nuke at Las Vegas early in the hopes of obliterating the Transformers along with the alien threat. The Keepers controlling Bluestreak and Starscream are suffering damage in their battles, and so physically and mentally join forces to become a more powerful gestalt being. The other Keepers are busy, however, as Melony Harcourt manages to retake control of her physical body and begins violently lashing out at the Keepers. Grimlock re-emerges as well, having found a vein of pure energon running underneath Las Vegas after his climactic fight with Devastator a day earlier. And, as a final twist, Franklin Townsend reveals himself as a triple agent who was been working for the Keepers all along, and threatens to kill Spike if he doesn't hand over the gateway key that his masters desire.

As Optimus Prime comes upon the pool of energon, he conceives a plan to manipulate the Matrix to use against the Keepers. Infusing himself and the Matrix with pure energon to temporarily become super-powerful, Optimus then asks his fellow Autobots to give up the majority of their own life-energies to merge with his own. Bumblebee, who had left Spike's side to inform Optimus of the energon pool, realizes his mistake and returns just in time to stop Franklin from murdering Spike. Still, Franklin recovers the gateway key and brings it to his masters in the hopes of escaping. Time, however, has run out. The nuclear warhead strikes earth, and the massive radioactive shockwave begins to race over the land. Devastator, Omega Sentinel and Bumblebee are too far away, but the super-charged Prime manages to protect the other Autobots and Decepticons from the onslaught. He then gathers the nuclear fire up in a net of Matrix energy, casting it all back at Franklin and the Keepers just as they open the gate, blasting them to atoms and out of our solar system.

In the aftermath, those outside Prime's protective bubble are heavily damaged, including Spike Witwicky who was hiding under Bumblebee and needs to be rushed for medical treatment. Devastator and Omega Sentinel may never be reactivated. Bluestreak and Starscream had combined mental force at the last moment and overwhelmed the Keeper who controlled them, destroying their captor and shattering their bodies back into separate pieces, with the possibility of revival still open. Paul Charteris and the Melony-Keeper both apparently died fighting against the Keepers before the blast. And, as the dust settles, Megatron calls Prime on the favor he is honorbound to grant from their time on the Keepers' world:

Megatron wants to be named the new Prime.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

Notes

• The cover art is taken from a piece done by Don Figueroa showcasing all of the Megatrons (at the time) from across the franchise, with most of the piece motion blurred behind the original Megatron. As such, you can see details such as Beast Wars Megatron's Tyrannosaurus rex hand. (It's by the bottom of the page, just under the author's name.)

• Unusally, Wheeljack has some kind of aerial altmode. We're never specifically told what kind of vehicle, but it's one with offensive capabilities. This is a direct contradiction from the Dreamwave comics this is a sequel to, where he clearly had his Lancia Stratos race-car alternate mode, and also just something very rarely seen before for Wheeljack.

• The character Paul Charteris from Book One has had his surname spelling readjusted to 'Chateris' for the entirety of Annihilation.

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