Clonoid Carnage

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Defender Zik and the brave Zozian warriors are charging into battle on the Zernabian prison world! The vile Clonoids are coming thick and fast, but curiously only armed with their taser guns. There are several of the huge Clonoid Super-soldiers in the fray as well, and their arm cannons deliver a much bigger jolt!
As the Zozian snipers get set up on the rocky outcropping, the main Zozian battle force starts filling the sky with bullets, tearing through the Clonoid onslaught. But there are so many Clonoids that they overwhelm the Zozians, and the two armies are soon fighting face to face! A few Zozians think it would be wiser to retreat, but Zik urges them on, saying they’ll never have another opportunity to rescue Elcyra’s slaves. Zik should know, he’s watch the vile Zernabian Queen blow up an entire factory full of innocents who were no longer useful to her!
An enraged Amelia sees only revenge as she slices through the Clonoid front ranks in her battle armor. These subhuman creatures obliterated almost everyone she knew growing up, so this is personal!

Landing Zone Rally

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With the first wave of Clonoids dispatched, the Zozian attack force regroups at the landing zone. As they return, the Temerity lands to let Defender Zik, Amelia and Trent Quickdraw out to help the ground troops. A trio of Kodiak shuttle craft also descend to help evacuate the prisoners.

To the amazement of the rest of the Zozian troops, Zik and Amelia exit the Temerity in enormous powered battle armor! Zik explains that they’re of a new design for Kodiak Planetary Security, and Zik got James Anchor to make a couple extra ones for him and Amelia. Trent was also offered a suit, but opted to fight in his new suit of space armor. It’s lighter and stronger, and more suited to his style of fighting than the hulking battle armor.

As the Zozians organize themselves, Defender Zik and Red Wolf discuss the unexpected strength of their enemy. The Clonoids haven’t done much damage yet, but they’re far more numerous than the scans from Todd’s spy drones suggested. But they’re committed now, so it’s time to rescue the prisoners. With a loud battle cry, the Zozians charge fearlessly into the fray!

Lucky To Escape

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Defender Zik flies with Lia back to the rill in the crater where the others are. As they approach, Lia catches the unexpected sight of her father lying unconscious, missing an arm. Understandably, she becomes very upset, and Mizhakwan, busy making a sling for Dak, reassures her that he’s just resting and will be OK. Zik asks Dak if she’s ok, and she reports that her dislocated shoulder is painful, but she’ll live. Mizhakwan reminds Zik that they need to get the injured to the Temerity’s infirmary as quickly as possible.

Depositing Lia in the rill, Zik takes off again, determined to shut down the jammer which is preventing them from contacting their ship. Reasoning that the jammer would’ve been crushed in the avalanche, he directs Sten and Tanaka to look for it at the far sniper position, while he and Trent Quickdraw will check the other one. He reminds his friends to be on the lookout for that final sniper, who is still alive and dangerous!

Trent is skeptical that the final combatant will keep fighting, and Zik agrees that if the Jairian is smart, he’ll be hiding somewhere, but you can never be sure what an extremist will do. Suddenly, Zik pulls up short, remembering that Chadee never take prisoners! If Tanaka happens to find that sniper, he’ll pull his trigger without pausing to consider how valuable a Jairian prisoner would be!

Just then, Sten finds the jammer, and asks Tanaka to cover him while he disables it.  Zik comments that the Jairian probably doesn’t know how lucky he is. Quickdraw counters with a bad pun about how Morren is flat out of luck, crushed as he is under tons of rock!

That brings our intense Episode 6 to a close, Defenders! Stay tuned, there’s an epilogue page coming soon!

Boulder Calvary

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Defender Zik remembers just in time that he’s exposed himself to the other sniper! As Trent Quickdraw lays down a barrage of suppressing fire, he dives back under cover.

Morren takes advantage of the situation to launch another batch of grenades, laughing at his opponent’s error. But being distracted by his prey, Morren fails to notice that Tanaka and Sten have managed to sneak up on him, and are now on the rim of the crater right on top of him!  Keeping under cover so the other Jairian sniper doesn’t see him, Tanaka leans out to get a clear shot on his prey, but the boulders under his feet shift! This cliff face is dangerously unstable!

But that gives the ever-resourceful Sten an idea: If they can’t get a clean shot on Morren without exposing themselves, why not just drop the boulder on his head? Even in this lower gravity, the great rock must have enough mass to crush their foe! Tanaka gleefully agrees with the plan, and the two get ready to create an avalanche.

Cliff Dash

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Springing from cover, Defender Zik and Dakaasin leap forward for their mad dash to the central peak of the crater! Quickdraw lays down some heavy covering fire with his sniper rifle, causing the Jairian in his sights to leap back behind a boulder to avoid getting zorched! As bullets and plasma beams fill the sky, Zik and Dak fly full out, low to the ground to take advantage of any cover they can get! After a harrowing few moments that seem like hours, they arrive at the central peak! They made it in one piece!

Plan Of Attack

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The newly headless Mikibot is helped back into the safety of the rill the team has taken shelter in.  Defender Zik congratulates the deadly accuracy of Trent’s sharpshooting as he regroups with his team. It’s time to form a proper plan of attack!

The plan Zik comes up with takes advantage of the new blind spot left by the absence of the sniper Trent eliminated.  Tanaka and Sten are sent back out of the crater, to circle around behind one of the other two shooters.  Zik and Dakaasin will fly as fast as they can to the base of the peak while Trent covers them with suppressing fire. Once at the top, Zik will distract the Jairians while Dak frees the hostages.

An embarrassed Mikigaazo apologizes for jumping in before everyone is ready. After millennia on his own, this crystalline alien isn’t used to working as part of a team! Defender Zik assures him that his action was brave, but hasty. They need to coordinate to fight this enemy! Miki promises to help Mizhakwan to stabilize Gordon’s condition.

Zik, Dak and Trent ready themselves for the dash to the peak! Three.. Two… One…

Heads Blown Off

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As Mikigaazo rushes out of hiding to try and rescue the hostages, the nearest Jairian takes the easy head shot right away.  Defender Zik and Dakaasin watch in horror as Miki’s head explodes in a shower of sparks. But Zik remembers that this is just a mech frame for the crystals inside, and calls out to see if Miki is okay.

Sure enough, the crystal pod located in the torso of the Mikibot platform is unharmed, and Miki is able to get back up, reassuring the humans looking on.

This apparent resurrection comes as a complete shock to the Jairian watching through his scope! He jumps up in surprise at his now headless yet animate target.  Unfortunately for this Jairian, Trent Quickdraw was watching him through his own sniper rifle’s scope, waiting for just such an opportunity! And unlike the crystalline Mikigaazo, head shots on humans are fatal!

Hasty Heroics

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Defender Zik slides down from the rim of the crater to check on Gordon’s condition and formulate a plan.  Mizhakwan has applied a tourniquet to Gordon’s missing arm, but she insists that they need to get him to a proper infirmary as soon as possible. But they still can’t call the Temerity back because of the comms jamming!

To help get a strategy going, Zik asks Zoot to display a tactical map. Zoot creates a hologram showing the approximate location of the snipers and their firing arcs overlayed on the crater terrain.  The hostages are on the central peak of the crater, covered by all three Jairian snipers, whereas the Temerity team is in a hollow to one side.

Zik reasons that the best way to get to the hostages is to try to take out the nearest sniper first, so that they can approach the peak safely. He assigns that task to Trent Quickdraw who begins looking for his target immediately. Then, as Zik and Dak discuss what to do next, Mikigaazo sees an opportunity to pitch in!  His crystalline body inside the Miki-bot is immune to bullets, so he offers to fly up and rescue the hostages himself! Zik tries to stop him, but it’s too late!

Hey Defenders! I know the hologram in panel 2 is a bit tough to read, so here it is a bit larger.  It’ll look better when it gets printed in the third Defender Zik book, which will be made available after the next exciting episode! That’s right, book three will have four episodes in it!

Morren’s Gauntlet

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Defender Zik calls for his crew to cease fire, recognizing Morren’s voice.  He asks how in the world Morren could have survived their last encounter, which ended with Morren getting spaced with a broken visor! As it turns out, Jairian trooper uniforms have redundant visors for just such an emergency.

Morren sets out the situation for the Temerity team: he intends to kill them all! But to make it interesting, he’s placed the ZEMM flight crew at the top of the crater’s central peak, and he challenges Zik to try and make it to the top. He promises to free the hostages if Zik makes it.

An understandably skeptical Tanaka objects, saying that they can’t trust Morren to keep his word. But Morren doesn’t care, he holds all the cards! The hostages can just be eliminated right away. Zik hastily agrees to play Morren’s game, if only to buy the hostages more time.

Reply With Bullets

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The Temerity crew scrambles for cover at the floor of a crater as bullets zing through the sky. Mizhakwan hurries over to help the maimed Gordon while Zik calls again for Amelia to come back with the ship. But Zoot interrupts to inform Zik that their communications are being jammed! They can reestablish local comms with the team via a tight-beam line-of-sight backup system, but comms to the Temerity are severed!

Assessing the situation, Zik asks how many enemies they face. Sten informs him that there are three adversaries, spread out around the rim of the crater.  In that case, it’s time to reply with extreme violence! Zik and the crew open up and send a hail of bullets back at the Jairians!

Taking cover, Morren taps into a local channel to interrupt Zik’s barrage…