Prime Directive issue 4

	; Let us go forth and do things!
Publisher	Dreamwave Productions
First published	July 17, 2002
Cover date	July 2002
Writer	Chris Sarracini
Penciler	Pat Lee
Inker	Rob Armstrong
Backgrounds	Edwin Garcia
Colorist	Ramil Sunga, Gary Yeung, Alan Wang
Letterer	Dreamer Design
Editor	Roger Lee
Continuity	Dreamwave continuity
Chronology	Modern era

The slag hits the fan as the Autobots and the Decepticons throw down in San Francisco.

Synopsis

General Hallo arrives at the Pentagon and gives his officers orders to clandestinely lock up Spike Witwicky and destroy any evidence of the missile launch against the Transformers.

Back in the Northwest Territories, Optimus Prime wakes and pulls himself out of the cocoon of metal created by the combination of the energy from the missile explosion and the cyber-virus. The other remaining Autobots regroup and find that the Decepticons have already escaped. Wheeljack's assessment of the virus is that it is self-propagating, with the ability to feed off of energy from their weapons and quickly solidify. Prime orders his troops to find the source.

In the Pacific Ocean, 52 miles west of the United States, a sonar operator on a human submarine detects an approaching object, and sounds the alarm only moments before the submarine is destroyed.

"Rut ris rit, Raggy?"
"Look out Scoob, it's, like, a ghost!"

The Autobots are surveying Lazarus's former stronghold, which had been taken over by Megatron. They discover some of their friends and the source of the virus, which Wheeljack finds of no help in order to stop it. Ironhide gives an ominous warning to Optimus Prime about where the Decepticons will attack next.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, a giant figure approaches the shoreline from under the water and emerges, submerging the shoreline. Devastator has arrived.

Back up north, Wheeljack is still trying to find a solution to stopping the cyber-virus as Jazz and Mirage piece back together some of their fallen comrades.

Megatron and his crew, including Grimlock, are already on site in San Francisco and aid Devastator in making a mess of the place. The Autobots arrive on the back of Superion and the battle is joined. Superion falls apart into the individual Aerialbots due to fire from the Seekers. As the battle rages, the advantage appears to be in the Decepticons' hands as Devastator stands triumphant.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Optimus Prime (4) Wheeljack (5) Mirage (6) Sunstreaker (7) Sideswipe (8) Superion (9) Trailbreaker (10) Jazz (11) Ironhide (12) Ratchet (13) Hound (14) Bluestreak (16) Grimlock (18) Air Raid (25) Skydive (26) Silverbolt (27) Slingshot (28) Fireflight (29) Bumblebee (30)	Devastator (17) Megatron (19) Soundwave (20) Laserbeak (21) Skywarp (22) Starscream (23) Thundercracker (24)	General Hallo (1) Spike Witwicky (2) Lou (3) Lazarus (15)

Quotes

"I'm tellin' you man! Those Transformer things...they ain't no good!"

— human dock worker just before Devastator confirms his opinion

"Look at them Soundwave...rodents. All of them. Pathetic rodents."

—what Megatron sees when he surveys San Francisco

"You should have killed me when you had the chance Megatron."
"Kill you? But we have so much to discuss."
"Save it."

— Optimus Prime lets his fists do the talking

Notes

This was the first Generation 1 issue that didn't rank #1 in Diamond Comic Distributors' sales charts. With 126,124 copies ordered for July 2002, it ranked second behind Dreamwave's own Transformers: Armada #1, of which 135,930 copies were ordered.^[1]
The middle of the comic contains a two-page spread by James Raiz and Alan Wang with Kenny Li featuring Generation 1 and Armada Transformers.
"Triangle formation"? *snort*
Arguably the finest representation of dull surprise the world has ever known.

Errors

When discussing the cyber-virus with Optimus, Wheeljack refers to "it's root", instead of "its root".
As Megatron casually tosses a human into a fire, he refers to "the err of his ways" when it should be "the error of his ways".

Covers (2)

—All covers by Pat Lee

Cover A: Autobots
Cover B: Decepticons

Yet another Dreamwave cover that has absolutely nothing to do with the contents of the book.
You put your left foot in. You put your left foot out. You put your left foot in and you shake it all about.