Space Opera, Part 1: The Stars My Destination As the dead Rodimus Prime floats through space, he drifts into the atmosphere of a planet and crashes to the surface. Two thugs notice this and examine the body, thinking it reminds them of the Jangle Man. When they try to remove the Matrix lodged in Rodimus's chest, the Autobot returns to life, though still unconscious. The thugs then decide to take Rodimus to "the Admiral" in hopes he will help them get off-planet.
Rodimus awakens at the Admiral's headquarters, an Ilxian starship, and the Admiral tells him that he bears Rodimus no ill will, but that he must use the Matrix as a power source to get off-planet. Before he can try though, Rodimus uses his arm blasters to free himself. He transforms to get away, which surprises the aliens.
The badly damaged Rodimus hides in a cave, but is surprised by a Chaosteros, which attacks him. The beast runs off though when he hears music. Rodimus thanks his savior, but is flabbergasted to find out it's Wheelie, who disappeared millennia ago. Wheelie takes Rodimus to his own ship for repairs, which Rodimus tries to figure out what happened. Garnak tracks him down, but is easily subdued. He explains how they crashed, and about the Admiral's experiments that ruined the planet's atmosphere. Garnak doesn't have any loyalty to his former bosses, so he agrees to help Rodimus and Wheelie escape the planet instead.
The group trick the Admiral and Codder into leaving the ship, and Rodimus speeds inside with Garnak while Wheelie calls a Chaosteros to keep the two aliens busy while the ship is prepared for takeoff. Rodimus hooks up the Matrix to the ship's power source and goes offline while Wheelie pilots the ship to Cybertron.
