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I Have No Mouth And I Must Starscream

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Transformers Halloween Special
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"I Have No Mouth And I Must Starscream"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published September 29, 2021
Cover date September 2021
Written by Dan Watters
Art by Beth McGuire-Smith
Colors Nahuel Ruiz
Letters by Jake M. Wood
Editor David Mariotte, Tom Waltz and Riley Farmer
Continuity 2019 IDW continuity

Starscream ventures into the deep Cybertronian wilderness in search of a ghost, only to discover that there are some fates far worse than death...

Contents

Synopsis

Since seizing control of Iacon, the Decepticons have had their hands full keeping the city running smoothly: a problem that's only been exacerbated by rumors of Autobots lurking in the wilderness, looking to take back the city. In response, Megatron's currently forming a dedicated unit to hunt down and flush out any potential counter-insurgents—the lucky 'bot chosen to head such a taskforce will report to both military and civilian authorities, and will no doubt be hailed as a hero of the revolution... so it should be no surprise that the ever-ambitious Starscream has volunteered himself as a way to get ahead. When he approaches Megatron's office, however, he takes a moment to eavesdrop on a conversation between Megatron and Sixshot; although he's pleased to hear that Megatron's already decided to put Starscream in charge, he's less enthused when Sixshot questions where Starscream's true loyalties lie—Cybertron, the Decepticons, or just himself? Megatron explains to Sixshot that, when Starscream was newly forged, his mentor Cryak took him on countless expeditions, and although a freak accident left her mortally wounded, he believes that she successfully imbued him with a love for Cybertron's geography and culture before she went immersant. Sixshot still has doubts, however, and so Megatron sighs and tells him that he'll get Soundwave to do it instead.

A frustrated Starscream stalks from Decepticon Headquarters and bumps into a terrified Runabout and Runamuck, who've returned from a routine patrol with dreadful news: the legend is true! For millennia, Transformer have told tales of a ghost who howls in the night—the disembodied spark of a dead Cybertronian condemned to wander the wastes in search of a body... and now the two Battlechargers have heard its screams with their own ears. Starscream immediately suspects that there's more to this tale than what he's hearing: after all, a canny group of Autobots could regroup using this ghost story as a cover to keep superstitious Decepticons at bay. While Runamuck and Runabout want to take this straight to Megatron, Starscream has a different idea: one 'bot with an intimate knowledge of the landscape beyond Iacon can sleuth out the problem better than an obvious army. Besides, he adds to himself privately, if he handles the problem alone, he'll surely land himself the cushy position he's been dreaming of.

Starscream's journey takes him far from Iacon, out into the deep wilderness and, eventually, into an isolated glade of metallic flora as night falls. Alone with his innermost thoughts, Starscream briefly reflects on his time with his mentor, and whether or not the Decepticons are right about his self-serving nature... and, as a result, it's almost a relief when the horrible screams reach his audio receptors. When Starscream follows the screams, however, he doesn't find a ghost at all—instead, he finds one of the Voin's ape-like organic servants. Having somehow escaped captivity, the creature's neural cable that usually connects it to its Voin owner has somehow tangled itself up amidst the trunks and stems of the metallic forest, and left it unable to escape. Starscream initially wonders how the creature could've survived for so long without any food, but soon realizes that the cable that trapped it has also somehow been drawing raw energon up from the planetary surface. Disgusted by the idea of an organic leeching energon from his planet, Starscream unsheathes his knife and approaches the creature; when he does so, however, he discovers that the electrical current coursing through the wire has an unusual reaction with his own spark...

A few seconds later, Starscream regains consciousness, and is horrified to discover that the accident has somehow transferred his spark into the body of the Voin ape! Panicked and disgusted by his predicament, Starscream tries to think rationally; although his new body is wracked by unfamiliar instincts and awash with fear hormones, the Decepticon eventually realizes that he has not become the organic creature; rather, his spark is somehow trapped within its body. With enough effort, it's even possible to surf from one cell to the next; as he probes the limits of his new form, a familiar voice tells him that he can make the process easier if he visualizes a body for himself. Somewhere in the ape's arteries, Starscream rematerializes, but demands to know who's helping him—when his benefactor obeys his request, however, Starscream recoils in horror... for standing before him is the other Cybertronian trapped in this body, her spectral form hunched and deformed by her failed immersion: Cryak!

Cryak explains that she chose this hidden glade to go immersant after her accident; her spark gradually returned to the living fabric of Cybertron, and she might've gone on to the next life in peace had a stray Voin ape not trapped itself after blundering into the metal bracken. When the ape went mad with hunger, it bit down on its own cable, and this somehow drew her spark up from her decaying body and into its organic form, stranding both of them between life and death. Cryak screams in the night, in the hopes that someone would investigate and help her, but by probing Starscream's spark she realized that her cries for help have only given rise to a ghost story that keeps travelers away. When Starscream explains that his body is still here, Cryak agrees to help find it... but not for him to use. A megacycle of isolation within her fleshy prison has driven her insane: having come to believe that it was a mistake for Cybertronians to ever assume motile forms, she will use Starscream's body to "free" as many Cybertronians from their bodies as she can. But despite what everyone thinks of him, Starscream does have his limits, and he draws the line at genocide!

The two sparks battle one another as they zip through the poor creature's anatomy—a chase that takes them from the lungs, down to the intestines, and back up into its skull, where the artificial neural link interfaces with the creature's brain. Cryak has more experience navigating her fleshy prison, but Starscream has more combat experience and the ruthless, clawing will to survive. Starscream catches Cryak, cuts her off from escaping the body, and successfully escapes back into his own body. As Starscream picks himself up off the ground, he considers how best to deal with Cryak. He could annihilate her with a single blast, or even bring her back to Iacon to try and free her, but then, how could he rob the planet of one of its most enduring legends? Trapped in her animal body, Cryak cannot speak, nor can she even beg for Starscream to put her out of her misery—as Starscream leaves Cryak to her eternal torment, all she can do is scream, and scream, and scream...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Decepticons Others

Quotes

"How dangerous might that same passion be if it is directed only towards one's self-interest? I suppose all I'm asking is... what do we think Starscream is really like?"

—Sixshot


"It is true that Starscream used to come here with me often. But since I passed on, he has not been here at all. Not for kilocycles. He cannot fail to think of me, of course, as he traverses the hills. After all, he knows the wastes are where I returned myself to the land. Oh yes, I said 'I'. Did you not realize that I was telling this story? I, Cryak the dead."

—Cryak gets spooky


".. Well, he is used to having teeth. But to Cybertronians, they are of use only as weapons. And there is such an inconsistency to the materials of this body. What his teeth are now embedded in... the flesh of the gum... is so soft. How do these biologicals go around with bodies that feel like they might be pulled apart so easily?"

—Cryak


"I shall put those cannons of yours to work, returning as many of my fellow Cybertronians to Primus as I can before they stop me. I will rid them of the horror of legs. Of arms. The misery of limbs and eyes and noses."

—Cryak


"I could kill this animal. I could atomize it in under a second, and your spark with it. Or perhaps I could find a way to free you. To unblock that cable and return you to the planet as you always wished. But the myth of the disembodied spark is a part of Cybertron. You understand, don't you? Goodbye, Cryak."

—Starscream


"Starscream truly does love Cybertron. He loves it enough that he would not be the one to rob it of one of its myths. That's what Starscream is truly like. So he will leave me here, and never return. And never tell anyone what he found. And realizing this, I—the ghost of the wastes—the disembodied spark—begin to scream."

—Cryak


"Ook."

—Voin ape

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Starscream's been away from the main Transformers comic for a while—he last appeared in issue #28 recuperating from the injuries he sustained in issue #26 while trying to get into Megatron's good books. The comic doesn't specify when this adventure takes place relative to developments over in Transformers, but a good guess would be that, like the 2021 annual, it occurs at some point during the forty-cycle timeskip between issues #30 and #31.
  • In her narration, Cryak explains that Cybertron is the body of Primus, who voluntarily surrendered his physical form to create the metal world. It's possible that Cryak might've been a Reversionist in life; Transformers #4 and Galaxies #7 established this as one of the religion's central tenets.

Transformers references

  • In her anti-organic rant, Cryak notes that it's only a matter of time before Cybertronians begin mimicking organics more closely. Plenty of Transformer subgroups and factions—most notably the Pretenders, Maximals, and Predacons—have all utilized quasi-organic disguises at some point or another. With several Pretenders appearing in the rebooted universe's first Wreckers story, it's possible that Cryak's already too late!

Real-world references

  • It probably goes without saying that the title of this story homages Harlan Ellison's famous sci-fi novella. Perhaps not coincidentally, a minor character in that story was also transformed into a grotesque ape creature.

Errors

  • On page one, Starscream passes a Voin and its servants—however, this one is drawn to resemble a heavily-armed "asserter" Voin, using big gorilla-like apes instead of the skinny chimps harnessed by "civilian" Voin. Transformers #16 had Nautica observe that only a few Cybertronians had ever seen an asserter in action; the specific asserter that showed up in that story was implied to be the first to ever set foot on the metal planet before Quake killed it in #22.
  • On page nine, the city of "Helex" is misspelled "Helix".
  • Cryak's narration notes that the Rust Sea is a part of Cybertronian mythology, supposedly formed from Primus's own nucleon. However, Transformers #34 just finished establishing an entirely different, less mythical origin for the Sea of Rust—according to that story, the sea was formed comparatively recently during the Age of Expansion, as a kind of planetary immune response to contain a swarm of destructive rust worms. This might be handwaved as her going mad but it's still odd.
  • On page twelve, there's a comma missing from Starscream's dialogue.

Covers (3)

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  • TFHalloween cvrRI.jpg
  • TFHalloween cvrRE.jpg

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