Explosive Decompression
Trent Quickdraw has lived up to his name! As he fires on the Jairian breacher ship attached to the Kodiak, there’s a huge explosion! Defender Zik and Morren, in the galley right next to the breacher, are blown off their feet!
Worse still, that breacher was the only thing plugging the hole in the Kodiak’s hull that it made when it attached itself! Zik and Morren are quickly blown into space, and both of them forget their battle in a desperate scramble to fix their face masks.
Inside, at the doorway of the galley, Amelia grabs on for dear life as the air swoops out of the giant hole in the hull!
Trent’s Mistake
In the galley, Defender Zik lands a solid blow with his club, shattering the visor of Morren’s helmet! Someone’s in trouble if he gets spaced!
Meanwhile, on the bridge, a confident Trent is running out of targets for the Kodiak’s cannons. Between the Chadee snub fighters and his efforts, they’ve eliminated almost all of the Jairian fighters! He turns his attention to the Jairian breacher ship, attached like a lamprey to the side of the Kodiak. With the right angle, maybe he can blow it right off the hull…
In the breacher, the copilot is alarmed at the fact that all the boarding parties seem to be disappearing on him. But the pilot is even more alarmed to see one of the Kodiak’s cannons swing towards them.
At the last moment, both the Jairian pilot and Gerald realize what’s about to happen, but their cries go unheeded as Trent mashes the fire button! What’s the big deal?! Find out next page!
Brawl In The Mess Hall
The gallant Defender Zik and the malodorous Morren Mallor are duking it out in the mess hall of the Kodiak! As a dazed Amelia watches from the doorway, your favorite space hero fends off Morren’s knife attacks and swings back with the club he found! Who will prevail?!
Duel With The Butcher
Defender Zik helps a shocked Amelia to her feet. The vile Jairian thug Morren has just assaulted her! But as Zik helps her to the infirmary, he hears a groan from the mess hall — Morren is already getting back to his feet! Realizing that the thug must be on performance enhancing drugs, Zik turns back, and recognizes Amelia’s assailant!
It’s the same Morren from Zik’s first encounter with the Jairians, during the incident at Baker Mine. Morren reveals that among the Jairians, Zik is hated, and referred to as the Butcher of Baker Mine! Donning his helmet, Morren vows revenge!
DEFENDER ZIK LORE BREAK!
In the same way that achieving a mighty deed can get you known by another name associated with the act, screwing something up really badly can also follow you for a long time among Zozians. You can even gain an unflattering name if your unfortunate deed is particularly unique. Zozians have great respect for those who are brave and decisive in a moment of crisis, provided that the action you take in that moment is both virtuous and above all successful.
The bloodbath at Baker Mine is outwardly blamed on Zik by the Jairians, but Morren has never shaken the shame of his complete failure at the battle. Internally, he’s not well liked by most.
Get Forked
The vile Jairian invader Morren Mallor continues his sexual assault on Amelia, who fights back as well as she’s able to after regaining consciousness. She desperately reaches around for something to use as a weapon – and finds her fork!
Scooping up the fork, she lunges at Morren’s face. Her fork finds its mark in Morren’s eye! He howls in pain!
Just then, Zik walks into the mess hall and sees that a Jairian is attacking Amelia. The club he picked up from the last Jairians he encountered comes in handy, and he gives Morren a mighty wallop in the back of the head!
Morren Unmasked
In the galley of the Kodiak, Amelia regains consciousness after hitting her head. But the Jairian in the hall junction outside heard her!
The Jairian investigates – and likes what he sees! He removes his mask, revealing himself to be Morren Mallor! This is the same Jairian that led the attack on Baker Mine!
Morren explains that him and his comrades do whatever they want, and he wants Amelia! He starts to tear at Amelia’s clothing, and she cries out…
…a cry heard by a nearby Zik!
Chasing Off The Jairians
Zik wraps up his story about chasing off the Jairian thugs who tried to steal Baker Mine! After rescuing the miner stuck under the elevator, Zik runs back out to help fight off the remaining Jairians.
After the Jairians leave, one of the mercenaries, a man named Clint Donovan, steps out and reveals that he had been helping defeat the them! Clint had recognized Zik from the news after the asteroid incident and decided he wasn’t going to kill the man who had saved an entire planet.
Zik goes over some of the major changes that Zoz went through after the Jairian uprising. People everywhere started carrying weapons to protect themselves. Zik became known as Defender Zik in the media, and he became the new head of Delta Mines! He built a stronger security station and renamed Baker Mine to the Frank Cooper Memorial Mine, in honor of poor Frank who was murdered by the Jairians in cold blood. Zik Enterprises went on to become a pivotal company in the progress of the Zozian civilization!
Mad Dash
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?!
Drone Strike
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!