Meanwhile, outside the ship, Tanaka’s fighter has taken critical damage! He ejects in the nick of time, and his ship explodes behind him.

Trained for just such an emergency, Tanaka engages his EVR system. He uses his grappling hook and rocket boots to get to safety. Landing on the roof of the Kodiak’s bridge, he draws his pistol, and prepares to continue the fight!

Following Rachelle’s battle plan, the Jairian fighters crowd the space between the breacher and the Kodiak.  They take heavy losses, but they’re able to shield the breacher from the big guns! A frustrated Trent is seeing his cannons go inexplicably offline one by one.

Despite that, Trent manages to damage the incoming breacher! One of the drives gets blown to bits. But it’s not enough; it still has three drives! James Anchor informs the crew: prepare for impact!

James Anchor gets a damage report from his crew! The damage is as bad as it looks, but at least they didn’t lose anyone to death or space! Between reports from Chief Engineer Seamus and Tactical Officer Emma, the captain gets up to speed.

Then Jason announces that the bow howitzer is ready. He hasn’t wasted any time cycling up the weapon and locking it on to its Jairian target! Captain Anchor orders him to fire! The second breacher bites the dust!

Zik is on his way to the bridge of the Kodiak, but he hears the rumble of the guns! The ever resourceful Zoot informs him that the ship is under attack, so Zik decides to don his helmet and search for his Zernabian friends.  They’ve never been in a space combat situation and he wants to make sure they’re safe!

Outside, the battle continues, as the Jairian fighters get to the ship and are engaged aggressively by the Chadee.

On the bridge, Captain James Anchor orders Weapons Officer Jason to target the next Jairian boarding vessel. He’s locked on and ready to go!

But at that moment, a Jairian fighter is shot down. It makes a surprise turn right at the howitzer! The Jairian collides with the howitzer right as it fires, and there’s a huge explosion!

Zik is in the hallway right outside the stern howitzer maintenance access chamber, and sees the flames through the window!

Tanaka opens fire on the Jairian fighters, killing two in the opening seconds of the battle!  When his full battle rage is unleashed, bad guys beware!

Meanwhile, on the Kodiak, Weapons Officer Jason is training Trent on how to use the Kodiak’s guns by assigning him one to get the hang of how the system works.

When that’s done, Jason announces to the Captain that the howitzers are ready to fire.  James Anchor gives the order, and the howitzer incinerates one of the Jairian breacher ships in a single shot!

Tanaka and his fellow Chadee pilots exit the Kodiak and head to the Jairian fleet. They’ve been told to hold their fire in case the Jairians decide not to tempt fate and retreat.

Rachelle isn’t backing down, however! For whatever reason, she doesn’t want to return empty handed. She decides that their best odds of success lie in attacking and boarding the Kodiak directly. She orders most of her fleet to do just that, but the Vigilant Gaddi has some teeth that need to be pulled! Along with a handful of fighters, she hangs back to neutralize Ramesh’s ship, promising to join the main fleet in the assault on the Kodiak once she’s done. Her ship opens up on the Gaddi!

That’s the sign James Anchor was waiting for! It’s time to dive in and drive off the attackers! He gives the order to Tanaka, who leads the charge into the main group of Jairian ships! The battle is on!

Thinking fast, Zik turns and fires his shotgun, hitting the adult of the two Jairians chasing him! The kid stops in his tracks, afraid that he’ll be next, but Zik just stares him down. He drops the shotgun and turns to fight the fire, hoping that the kid has gotten the message: you’re too young to die, so leave off!

Meanwhile, the Jairian is dying a messy death. He asks the kid to avenge him before praising the Jairian revolution. Then he bleeds out messily, and young Ryan turns his head in disgust. War ain’t pretty, lad!

While Zik hammers away with his shotgun, Arata sees the damage the rocket has done on his security monitors. As it turns out, the main elevator for the mine was damaged! It fell all the way to the bottom, bouncing out of its shaft and crushing the legs of one of the miners at the bottom!

Zik hurries over to get a look at what’s going on. He sees right away that the miners are going to need help to free the poor man. He grabs a fire extinguisher and charges out of a side door, heading for the burning elevator building!

But Morren has spotted Zik and sends three of the Jairians after him! One gets stopped cold by the digger drones, but two more make it past! Worse, one of them is the kid, and Zik certainly doesn’t want to hurt him! What will he do?!

The drones are activated by Arata and sent into battle! Three were in a hangar, while the fourth is visible on this page dealing with the ore that Zik brought for processing. On their way to the action, the drones are instructed to pick up some rubble to use as a projectile!

Meanwhile, Morren and the Jairians are pinned down by Zik and Tanaka’s relentless barrage. Morren says something that’s offensive to one of the other Jairians, and is quickly chastised for his indiscretion. But the correction turns out to be that guy’s last words; a pile of rubble lands squarely on him, crushing him!

Morren switches tactics: these drones present an even bigger threat to his attack than Tanaka does! He orders them to be taken out. A rocket is launched, but the guy launching it accidentally leans into Tanaka’s sight and gets smoked! The rocket misses its target drone – and hits an important building behind it!

The shotgun Zik is using has the desired effect as the Jairians scramble for cover.  Zik, Tanaka and Arata seize the opportunity to get into the security building, where they know they’ll be safer.

No sooner do the doors close, however, than the Jairans begin shooting again! Zik tells Tanaka to go to the third floor and fight back, which he does gleefully! He grabs a machine gun and a belt full of ammo and heads up the ladder.

The fierce Tanaka doesn’t even bother to break the window first, he just starts shooting! With a battle cry he begins filling the air with bullets, trying to fight off the intruders!

Meanwhile, Zik patches up Arata. He’s in no condition to fight, but being a Chadee, he doesn’t want to be left out of the action! Zik suggests that perhaps the digger drones that are used to move dirt around the mine can be used to open a new front on the Jairans. Arata eagerly agrees to try it!