Silent Light

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"Deck the halls with camouflage, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!"
"Silent Light"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
Published in	The Transformers Holiday Special
First published	December 23,2015
Cover date	December, 2015
Written by	James Roberts
Art by	Kotteri
Colors by	Joana Lafuente
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

As theLost Lightprepares to go dark to pass through a dangerous region of space, Swerve, Nautica, and Whirl try to hide a baby from Ultra Magnus.

Contents 1Synopsis 2Featured characters 3Quotes 4Notes 4.1Continuity notes 4.2Transformers references 4.3Real-life references 4.4Errors 4.5Other notes 4.6Soundtrack 5References

Synopsis

Returning to theLost LightonDecember 24thafter a three-day absence to attendMeteorfest,Rodimusfinds the halls of the ship decked with signal boosters andMegatronandUltra Magnusputting the finishing touches to a large, green, conical device. The two explain that the ship is about to enter a region of space controlled by theMaulers,a violent robophobic offshoot of theGalactic Council,and that the device and its boosters are a cloaking machine that will let the ship pass safely through the area while the crew place themselves inBiometric Envelopment Devicehibernation pods. As Magnus places a crown-like "brain shield" on Rodimus's head, he notes thatBrainstormis supposed to be helping them, but is busy working on more "abstract weaponry"... entirely unaware that the "Contrivance Engine"the scientist recently built has made theLost Lightlookverymuch like it's decorated in the style of a certain Earth holiday...

InSwerve's,Whirl,Nautica,andSwerveenjoy a lock-in, indulging in some high-qualityengexsubspacedin fromLuna 1.A knock on the door sends them into a panic as they think Ultra Magnus has found them out, but when Whirl answers it, he is shocked to find a newbornprotoformin one of the engex crates on the doorstep. Concluding that she has been sent from Luna 1 with the booze and knowing they cannot leave her unattended, but unable to take her with them into a B.E.D. because they will only conceal onesparkeach, the trio break into Magnus's office in order to use the subspace hatch to send the protoform back to the moon. Just as the protoform starts to imprint on Whirl, forming a face that emulates his own, Magnus (sans his armor) comes sauntering down the hall, crooning a Christmas song from an album Swerve gave him. The trio bluff that they've been doing a final security check before going to their B.E.D.s and he lets them go on their way, but unfortunately, Nautica has hidden the protoform in Magnus's office... and she has crawled inside hisMagnus Armorand animated it! Magnus screams, thinking the armor possessed. Nautica panics and knocks him out, shocking everybody, but in the confusion, the protoform and Magnus's armor get away.

The armored protoform makes her way to the control room and shambles up to Megatron. The ex-Decepticon thinks Magnus is trying to give him a hug and recoils in alarm and confusion; fortunately, Swerve and co. rush in and escort "Magnus" away, claiming he's just had a drink to steady his nerves. Out of time, Swerve and Nautica leave the protoform with Whirl, though not before Nautica wonders aloud who knocked on the door if the protoform came in a crate. Whirl dismisses the question and, being Whirl, decides that he has no choice but to blow the protoform out an airlock... but before he can bring himself to do it, he looks down at the little 'bot and sees she has imprinted on him further, mimicking his clawed hands. Whirl sighs and takes the protoform to B.E.D. with him...

Whirl awakes with a start the next morning to find himself in the medibay, and the protoform gone.Velocityreveals that, in actuality, it wasn't a protoform at all — it was a cluster ofScraplets.Gesturing to a canister in which the deadly creatures are now quarantined, Velocity explains that they had used their ability to combine to first knock on the door, then to assume a non-threatening form. In turn, Whirl explains that his B.E.D. was able to conceal them both because he shut down his systems to deprive his spark of energy. Nautica assumes he must be upset that he nearly died trying to protect a swarm of tiny, deceitful, emotionally-manipulative killing machines... but Whirl being Whirl, he's actuallyproudof the little buggers.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Put this on. We're about to test the machine."
"You know I hate hats."
"It's abrain shield.Exposure to invisibility fields has been linked to irritability, erratic conduct, chronic moping and extreme sarcasm. "
"God, imagine if anyone on board started exhibitingthosebehaviors... "

—Ultra MagnusandRodimus

"I love it so much it's making me sad."

—Whirlon subspace-filtered engex

"She was in one of the crates."
"Which means she wassenthere. Butwhy?What arewesupposed to do with her? "
"It's a message from Primus. He's telling us to put her back in the crate until someone more responsible comes along."

—WhirlandNautica

"What's going on here? You're being all stiff, awkward and humorless. I approve."

—Ultra Magnuson Swerve's poker face

(Nautica clobbers Magnus with her wrench, knocking him out.)
Swerve: "WHAT THE HELL?!"
Whirl:"Are we sureIdidn't just do that? Because that's the type of thing I would do. "
Nautica:"He was panicking! He mademepanic! "
Whirl:"You've knocked off his tiny mustache!"

"So to summarize... A swarm ofsentient pathogensmanipulated me into putting my life at risk byfeigning kinshipand mining athreadbareseam of compassion that I like to pretend doesn't exist. And they did all that just so they could live to kill again. "
"I'm sorry."
"Are youkidding?I'mproudof them. "

—WhirlandNautica

Notes

Continuity notes

• Rodimus has been away "surfing on meteors", a reference to when he was introduced into IDW continuity doing exactly that inSpotlight: Hot Rod.
• When he is handed the brain shield, Rodimus grumbles that he hates hats, something he first displayed back in the2012More than Meets the Eyeannual.
• The fact that theLost Lightnow has asubspacehatch that enables supplies to be teleported to the ship was established inMore than Meets the Eye#48,released on the same day as the Holiday Special. While that story locates the hatch in the medibay, this one (set after issue #49^[1]) notes it has been moved to Magnus's office.
• Whirl mutters that he's responsible for "pretty much everything that's happened in the last four million years" and gives a note to himself about "not beating up prisoners", referring to the fact that he effectively caused the Great Cybertronian War four million years ago by whacking the daylights out ofMegatron,who was wrongly imprisoned for instigating a bar fight at the time.
• Swerve refers toCerebrosfromLuna 1,first mentioned inMore than Meets the Eye#46.Now,whyeverwould we want to be reminded he exists...?
• Ultra Magnus's love of music was first revealed inMore than Meets the Eye#13.Swerve has been able to supply him with Christmas tunes because he downloaded the entirety of all Earth entertainment ever circaissue #41.
• Nautica claims Magnus has had a "weak energon spritzer"; his drink of choice, as joked about inMore than Meets the Eye#6,then confirmed inRobots in Disguise#23.
• Ultra Magnus will refer to his armour being fumigated for scraplets in "No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases",placing this story shortly before it.
• This is, surprisingly,notthe last we will see of the friendly scraplets; they will reappear inLost Lightissue #20.

Transformers references

• The ability of Scraplets to combine themselves into a larger form was originally seen in theMarvel comicstory that introduced them.

Real-life references

• We don't need to point out that the title is a riff on "Silent Night",but we're doin' it anyway.
• There's no Christmas on Cybertron, so it's only thanks to Brainstorm's "Contrivance Engine"thateeeverythingin theLost Lightjust happens to resemble traditional Christmas trappings in this story. The cloaking machine and its signal boosters being a Christmas tree and fairy lights should be obvious to all readers, but British author James Roberts has also included some elements that are more traditional to the United Kingdom: the energon tab packet that Rodimus tries to tug from Megatron's hand stands in for aChristmas cracker,while the brain shields resemble the rubbish crêpe-paper crowns one finds in such crackers.
• Having to stay in your B.E.D. to avoid detection on the night of December 24? Whoever heard of such a thing?
• Finding a baby on your doorstep? AtChristmas?Such acontrivance!
• Magnus sings "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year".See" Errors ", though.
• The scene where Whirl picks up Minimus' fallen moustache is inspired by theFawlty Towersepisode "Communication Problems",where Basil picks up a hearing aid from the floor and asks of a guest," Is this a piece of your brain? "
• You'd be forgiven for thinking that Whirl's moment with the protoform in front of the airlock is a reference to the short story "The Cold Equations"byTom Godwin,but Roberts had never heard of the story until after reading this Wiki article.

Errors

• Swerve calls the album Magnus's choice of song comes fromAndy Williams Sings Christmas,but actually, it'sThe Andy Williams Christmas Album.

Other notes

• In a surprise turn, we are given one of the key missing steps in how Cybertroniansare born and mature.Previously we learned that forged sparks are harvested alongside the surrounding surface of the hot spot. Here we find out, whetheraidedor unaided, these develop into a semi-featureless protoform which will naturally mature and grow an alt-mode.

Soundtrack

• "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"byAndy Williams^[2](of course!)

References