Tanaka and Sten have started a much bigger avalanche than anticipated! A huge stream of rocks courses down the cliff, onto Morren’s head, and spills over into the crater basin below. The two of them have to engage their jets to avoid falling into the stream of stones themselves!

Elsewhere on the rim, the lone remaining Jairian sniper takes one looks and NOPES the heck out of there! It’s good to know when to retreat and fight another day!

On the central peak of the crater, as the ground continues to tremble, Defender Zik turns to the terrified Lia to see if she’s ok.  Suddenly, large cracks appear in the peak!

Defender Zik lands on the central peak of the crater again, debating internally how he should handle this trap of Morren’s. If he stays completely out of the line of fire, Morren will kill Lia, but if he stays in the open, it’s only a matter of time before Morren succeeds.

With very few options, Zik tries to goad Morren into making a mistake.  He begins to insult his foe, but just as Morren is about to hurl some invective right back, Sten and Tanaka’s efforts at the top of the crater rim succeed! A huge crack opens in the cliff face!

Defender Zik and Dakaasin are out of immediate danger, as they stay close to the side of the cliff that Morren and the other sniper, Rick, can’t see. They attach some ropes to the cliff and keep their jets off to make them even harder to locate as they climb the central peak of the crater. At the top, three frightened hostages await their fates!

But Morren isn’t so easily dissuaded! Adapting quickly to Zik’s ploy, Morren prepares a grenade launcher, and begins launching grenades at the peak to dislodge his mortal enemy!

After Haven’s incredible discovery of how to communicate with dolphins, she learns that they’re usually thinking about food and fun! She plays the dolphins and humpbacks near her underwater lab some Beethoven music, as a way of introducing them to human entertainment. Haven and the dolphins get so absorbed in their newfound ability to interact that they don’t notice that all the music and commotion has attracted a couple of curious great white sharks! Once the sharks arrive, the dolphins panic, knocking over Haven’s communications antenna! Worse, a humpback whale gets crowded into the cliff of a nearby island, causing an underwater avalanche! The rubble falls onto the living quarters module of the lab, crushing it! Haven is in mortal danger!

The two erstwhile combatants gingerly let themselves the rest of the way down the cliff and continue their journey. Zik swears not to get in Trent’s way, although he didn’t swear not to dissuade Amelia if she’s interested! They’re friends, it seems… for now!

Whew! That was quick thinking by Zik! Good thing he’s got that emergency grappling hook! It certainly comes in handy! And nothing breaks the tension like a near-death experience. If you can’t laugh at that, you can’t laugh at anything!

Down they go! Will they survive?

Trent is a little too hot under the collar to listen to reason. Something tells me he has a little bit too much pent-up frustration! Who can blame him though; he’s a slave, too shy to court the girl of his dreams, and is getting upstaged by a suave hero with a spaceship! Well, it’s a moot point now, because they’re going over the cliff to certain death!