War Within Volume 3 5

War Within Volume 3 The Age of Wrath 5

Following on from the previous issue's conclusion, we rejoin the story with the Decepticon clone warrior that was being reborn as Grimlock destroying the Decepticon Aerie, all while a mysterious voice (potentially Primus or one of the other original Transformers - it's only described as a "dialogue panel") explains that Grimlock was preserved for a purpose - the core is in danger, and with the line of the Primes interrupted, a new champion must rise up.

(A side note, it is mentioned here that Dreamwave Grimlock's lineage extends to "the very beginning - to the Age of Wrath, when The Thirteen were cast from the primal forge and sent forth to face the enemy of all creation")

Beneath Cybertron near the planetary core, Megatron is beating down on Blaster with his bare hands. Blaster uses his sonics to escape and tries to free the other Autobots. Megatron, recovering, pursues Blaster threatening to reduce him to atoms. Their battle is fierce, but Megatron gets the upper hand and vaporizes a part of Blaster's leg. Springer tries to intervene but is subdued by the locking clamp on his back. But as Megatron goes in for the kill, he is interrupted by the arrival of Grimlock. Megatron is overjoyed! Finally, a worthy opponent for him to face. Blaster seizes the opportunity to override the Decepticon locking clamps keeping the other Autobots out of the fight. Having freed the Autobot slaves, Blaster collapses, exhausted.

On Quintessa, Flash is discovered by the Quintessons, having learned of their plan. He flees, but finds himself trapped by an advancing horde of Sharkticons, all while the Quintessons watch. Flash transforms to vehicle mode and uses his turbine engines to accelerate to high speed, launching himself off of the balcony he was stood on and over the Sharkticon horde, racing along the wall of the courtyard to stay off the ground.

Meanwhile, Perceptor begins to formulate a plan to destroy the Decepticon Aerial Extermination Clones, using his own mind to deliver a neural spike to the clones to bring down their entire shared neural network. Elsewhere in the lab, trying to recover Flash, Boss and the other Turbomasters open a portal and recover another long missing Autobot. Standing before them, paint faded, wheels and headlights damaged, sporting a scar through his face and a missing optic, is their leader, Optimus Prime...

TO BE CONCLUDED

This was the final script written for The War Within: The Age of Wrath. The issue was never published, but Simon Furman made copies of the script available in 2011.

There's some interesting material in this issue about the nature of the 13 in the Dreamwave series. The series name, "Age of Wrath" is mentioned in reference to the war between the original Transformers and the enemy of creation, Unicron. Interestingly there is also reference that Grimlock's lineage goes back to the 13, which seems to have been retained in the modern (2011) take on the story when it was revealed at Botcon 2011 one of the 13 was a beast.

The idea that Grimlock could be preserved by Primus or another ancient as a backup plan to Optimus Prime / the Prime lineage is also an interesting concept.