At the shores of Alaska, Optimus Prime tries to recall how he and the Autobots arrived in their current predicament—trying to recover an Autobot vessel when they were ambushed by the Decepticons. When Prime manages to get the advantage against Megatron, the vessel opens and from it emerges Scourge, who brings news that the war on Cybertron is over.

But before Scourge can explain, Shockwave arrives and blasts him out of commission, but validates his claims of Cybertron's unification. He explains that while the Autobots and Decepticons were on Earth, he united Cybertron and had come to Earth to take the stranded Transformers home as prisoners—but Megatron reacts negatively and the skirmish restarts.

Shockwave masterminds EVERYTHING.

Shockwave releases the Triple Changers to subdue the Earthbound Transformers. A pair of missiles of from Shockwave's henchman, Blitzwing takes out Megatron, but before Blitzwing can injure Optimus, Grimlock arrives and bends Blitzwing's cannon out of shape. Despite Grimlock's arrival, Shockwave's side of the conflict gets the upper-hand thanks to their technological superiority. Optimus orders Trailbreaker to use his force fields to cover the Autobots' retreat. With the Autobots gone and Megatron disabled, Starscream and the rest of the Decepticons surrender.

Away from the conflict, Optimus and Prowl agree that Prowl will remain in the area with Hound, Cliffjumper, Trailbreaker, and Mirage as a reconnaissance team, while Optimus and the other Autobots will return to the Ark for repairs and further deliberations on how to handle the recent developments.

The Decepticons are loaded into Shockwave's ship, which takes off to return to Cybertron, leaving behind Blitzwing to meet up with Security Team Dion, who will round up the Autobots. Rumble and Frenzy are dispatched to monitor Megatron's body in the loading bay while the rest of the Earth Decepticons are loaded into stasis to undergo re-education, despite Starscream's reservations.

In the Ark, Ironhide and Ratchet listen to the Autobots' debate about what their next move should be. Gears is willing to give peace a chance to return to Cybertron, while Bluestreak disagrees, refusing to forgive the Decepticons for their past crimes. Grimlock arrives and characteristically suggests that it's time for action.

In Alaska, Prowl's team is hunted by Ramjet and Dirge, as Prowl radios for help from the Ark, Mirage stops him and introduces the leader of Security Team Dion.

In space, Megatron tries to awaken aboard Shockwave's ship, but Starscream opens the bay doors, dropping Megatron out of the ship. Rumble and Frenzy hold on, as Starscream fires one last shot at Megatron, blasting off his helmet.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons
Prowl (2) Optimus Prime (4) Mirage (5) Sideswipe (7) Ironhide (8) Bumblebee (11) Sandstorm (13) Broadside (14) Huffer (18) Brawn (20) Hound (21) Trailbreaker (22) Jazz (23) Sunstreaker (24) Grimlock (25) Wheeljack (26) Ratchet (30) Bluestreak (31) Ultra Magnus (34)	Starscream (1) Megatron (3) Thundercracker (6) Skywarp (9) Scourge (10) Shockwave (12) Blitzwing (15) Octane (16) Astrotrain (17) Ravage (19) Soundwave (27) Rumble (28) Frenzy (29) Ramjet (32) Dirge (33)

Quotes

"Accept it. I am your superior in every conceivable way."

—Shockwave enforces Megatron's resignation as leader

"Tell us, Commander Shockwave, where do we sign up?"

—Starscream switches allegiance...surprise, surprise

"Remember, Starscream, that I am completely aware of your treacherous history and lack the patience to tolerate it."

—Shockwave makes a conclusion that Megatron never could.

"Is that who I think it is?"
"It better not be! I can't believe that dino-dummy has got the bearings to show his backstabbing mug around here."

—Ratchet and Ironhide groan at Grimlock's return

Notes

Hey, colorist, we changed the writer. Different story now, please change the background on the cover.

What do you mean, "half the characters either don't appear in this story or are fighting for different sides"?

The standard "Autobot" and "Decepticon" covers for this issue were originally solicited with different colors (and lacking the portions that feature the Triple Changers). Notable changes, aside from minor coloring details on the robots (such as a stronger "fading" effect for characters in the background, added white "shine" effects, corrected colors for Bumblebee's arms and weird white borders around the characters) affect the background, changing the brown color of the rocky terrain to white, presumably in order to reflect the "arctic" setting of the opening scene of this issue, and completely changing the clouds.
It's not like the characters depicted on the covers are particularly indicative of the content, but... why is there a Powerdasher (the car type) on the Autobot cover? That's beyond random, even for a cover that also features Overdrive.
Also, why does Blaster have mechanical levers for extracting his hands on his forearms? That's an extreme level of toy-accuracy.

Continuity notes

Gadgets and powers:
- Sideswipe uses his pile-driver arms to knock Octane off-balance.
- Trailbreaker uses his forcefield
The last time we saw Optimus Prime, he had fallen down from a cliff in the desert following what appeared to be some sort of seizure. An expository paragraph inside the front cover of this issue connects that scene to the otherwise confusing beginning of this issue. This paragraph was omitted in the trade paperback collections. Whups.
The Autobot vessel was last seen on the final pages of the first Dreamwave miniseries.
The reason Scourge was in an Autobot vessel was unexplained until the Generation 1 ongoing comic. That he has a Decepticon symbol, despite never being one, never gets an explanation.
A rare moment of character exploration for Bluestreak brings up the destruction of his home city.
In his argument with Bluestreak, Gears brings up mankind's fear and hatred of the Autobots, a major theme of the previous miniseries.
It is revealed that Wheeljack survived death by blowing his energy reserves to stop the metal virus in the previous miniseries, although Jazz does make mention of it being a very near thing.
Ironhide's enmity toward Grimlock is due to Grimlock's time serving with the Decepticons in the previous miniseries.

Transformers references

Security Team Dion derives its name from Dion, a friend of Orion Pax who some crazy people thought might be the same person as Ultra Magnus, but come on that's just crazy talk that only a fool would buy into.
No less than three references to the animated movie occur in the last pages, including two directly cribbed lines (an "I still function" from Megs, and a "how it pains me" from Starscream).

Other trivia

The "Wavelengths" page features an article from the desk of Pat Lee, wherein he mentions that he penciled one page in bed with a fever. The photo shows him holding a Wobbuffet.

Errors

One of these is not like the others…

The inside cover of this issue has several of its titles at the top swapped. The series' overall main title is stated to be "Transformers: War and Peace", while the title of this particular mini-series is "Generation 1", with chapter 1 being titled "New World Order". All subsequent issues state the overall title of the series as "Transformers: Generation 1", and the title of the mini-series as "War and Peace".
In the previous miniseries, Grimlock ripped off the Autobot insignia on his chest when he defected to the Decepticons. At the end of the miniseries, Grimlock, still with a gaping hole in his chest, abandoned the Decepticons again but didn't accept Optimus Prime's offer to join the Autobots again either, instead deciding to wander off on his own. Yet when he comes to aid the Autobots in this issue, he suddenly sports a Decepticon insignia on his chest.
Shockwave introduces himself by name, which is kind of unnecessary since everyone present should already know who he is.

Covers (5)

A three-page wide foldout Autobot cover, featuring the Autobots facing off against Blitzwing, Octane, and Astrotrain. Art by Pat Lee.
A three-page wide foldout Decepticon cover, featuring the Decepticons facing off against Broadside and Sandstorm. The Decepticon cover could connect to the Autobot cover to form an image six pages wide. Art by Pat Lee.
An incentive Shockwave cover that dealers could order for every 25 regular issues ordered. The Shockwave cover could fit between the Autobot and Decepticon covers.
A holofoil cover featuring Megatron, released a week after the regular covers. Art by Pat Lee.
A limited-to-7000 Dynamic Forces cover by Bill Sienkiewicz, released a month after the issue first hit stands.