Zoot projects a life-sized hologram of the Clonoid Super-Soldier that nearly crushed Defender Zik during their battle on the Zernabian prison planet. The audience gasps in shock, staring at the image in disbelief. Red Wolf voices that disbelief, but James Anchor steps in to back the word of his old friend. He offers the telemetry data from the Kodiak 1, and commends Tanaka for being the one who finally took down the beast.

With that settled, Heavy Club returns to the matter of whether this mission is an acceptable proof of bravery for Onawa’s hand. Given the size of this beast, is Red Wolf still up to the challenge? Red Wolf re-asserts his intention, saying he’ll face anything to convince her that he’s worthy. A skeptical Heavy Club questions Red Wolf’s judgement, but says that it’s a problem that solves itself either way it goes down, because if this mission is too much for Red Wolf to handle, he’ll be dead. Ultimately, it’s Onawa’s decision, and she accepts. Maybe her judgement is also misplaced, but that’s love for you!

The elder most against the war party makes one last appeal, reminding them that Elcyra will retaliate. Zik stands up and points out that Elcyra will eventually find Zoz no matter what they do, and has already announced her intention to subjugate them. Hiding is pointless. He also points out that their ancestors accomplished one of the bravest feats in history by being the first to launch themselves on an interstellar journey to find a new home. Their great grandparents risked everything to escape tyranny during a dark time in human history, and the least they can do as beneficiaries of that bravery is to offer the opportunity for others to share in the liberty they bought.

A question of the practicality of fighting Elcyra’s advanced ships brings James Anchor to his feet. He offers the assistance of his new fleet, including the newly constructed Kodiak 2 capital ship. To ease the concerns of the most skeptical elder, he proposes that the invading ships jump into and out of the prison planet’s system from random directions to help conceal the exact location of Zoz.

Mizhakwan has heard enough. She can see that there’s nothing that will change the minds of the youth who are hell-bent on carrying out this raid. She offers to go along with the raiders to keep them in line. Mitch, Zik’s father, also offers to accompany the raid, and between them represent the interests of the elders. The meeting concludes, and everyone who can fight is left to decide if they will volunteer to sign up for this historic mission!

As the debate in the Zozian longhouse’s aquatic auditorium continues, Defender Zik’s father Mitch brings up a sobering point. The proposed raid to rescue the slaves from the Zernabian prison planet will face stiff opposition, because Todd’s spy drones have witnessed a sharp increase in Clonoid activity.

Red Wolf vows to help the slaves or die trying, which confuses one of the dolphins in attendance. She asks why one should risk so much to help humans not in the same pod. Mizhakwan helpfully explains that the desire to help others is a strong human instinct, because we know that others of good will would help us if we were in the same situation. It’s just what good humans do.

Other elders bring up a strong point in opposition to the raid, however. This attack will cause Elcyra to retaliate, regardless of whether any slaves are rescued. As it stands, the evil queen has openly declared her intent to conquer Zoz, but that might have just been bluster. This attack would push her to retaliate directly.

With that point in mind, a Chadee elder asks Vera and Amelia to describe the Clonoids, so that everyone can better understand what their opposition is like. Vera describes how Clonoids are networked together, and that the most common type is the relatively weak Drone. Amelia covers the Soldier type, comparing them to a brave Sten.

Then Zik chimes in, describing the enormous Super Soldier type he fought. Red Wolf is skeptical, and voices the shared skepticism of many Zozians about the relative size of the largest Clonoid type. While James Anchor seethes at someone doubting the honesty of his oldest friend, Zik calmly asks Zoot to project a life-sized image of the Super Soldier to illustrate his point…

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!

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…

While Tanaka bars the door, Zik tries to ride history’s first centaur rodeo. Misha the gorillaur grabs your favorite space hero off her back and flings him across the room. Recovering quickly, Zik squares off with the giant creature, while the holographic dragon continues to distract it.

Meanwhile, Tanaka finishes with the door, effectively blocking the much larger Marco from entering, and he leaps up onto the steel frame which surrounds the lab.  He gazes down on the chaos and hesitates. Does he really want to help Zik stop the singularity machine, or could this be an escape from the pain of his lost clan?

Defender Zik launches into action, getting Zoot to project a holographic dragon to distract the gorillaur! While Misha deals with the flying phantom, Zik jumps on her back and feeds her some lefts! Meanwhile, Tanaka starts piling furniture in front of the door to prevent the enormous Marco from joining the fray. A furious Dr. Wagner shouts at Misha to see through the illusion and concentrate on subduing the prisoners.  Can they stop the singularity machine in time?!

A mighty brawl erupts in the jungle, as the gorillaurs attack Defender Zik and his Chadee pal Tanaka! As the huge male takes a swipe at Zik, a female sneaks up on Tanaka, who is drawing his pistol.  She grabs Tanaka from behind in a half-Nelson, forcing him to drop the gun!

Zik and the huge male square off, but it goes about as badly for Zik as you might expect. With his suit integrity beginning to decline, Zik also whips out his pistol and aims at the male. However, the female has Tanaka in a death grip! One false move, and Tanaka gets a dirt nap!

Surrendering his gun, Zik pleads for his good friend’s life. They’re captives of these enormous, mysterious creatures!

Now that it’s a little calmer, Zik reiterates his admiration for Amelia’s flying, because she really saved their bacon!  He even gives her the name Amelia Firebird to commemorate her great deed!  Amelia thanks him, and timidly asks about how Zik can so readily charge forward when there’s danger, especially when it involves falling rocks! The trauma of the factory explosion caused Amelia to freeze up when the meteorite nearly crushed Trent.  Zik explains that he faced the trauma of his mother’s death in the avalanche head-on by learning to do the very thing that killed her: rock climbing.  In fact, it was during those rock-climbing lessons that Zik met Dakaasin, who was in the same class!

Just then, Trent and Francisco enter the cockpit, wondering if they’re out of danger from the meteorite storm.  Zik assures them that the danger is past, thanks to Amelia, and asks how everything is going elsewhere on the ship.  Trent explains that there were some messes made as things fell down, and he may have learned some new Zozian swear words from Sten in the process!  Laughing, Zik asks them to get ready to shoot their way through the asteroid cloud orbiting planet Hypnos, because it’s time to head home!

But first things first.  Zik sends a priority message to James Anchor, because unlike the last time when it was merely Clonoids, Zik has found aliens first! Time to settle the 50 Z-buck bet!

The decisive Defender Zik announces that they’re going to presume the crystals on Planet Hypnos are alive, and begins to get on top of the situation. He starts by asking a flustered Francisco for the exact time the meteorites will present a danger to the ship.  Amelia asks if she should land, but Zik wants to be certain of the intentions of the crystals before risking getting too close. He directs a now-rebooted Zoot to begin establishing a dialogue with the crystals.

Francisco reports back with an estimate for the meteor strikes, prompting Zik to tell everyone to set a 45 minute timer so they all know when to leave.  Always eager to help, especially when it comes to using guns, Trent Quickdraw offers to shoot the meteorites as they approach. Zik replies that it would just rain smaller debris down on them, which could be even more dangerous. Instead, they should max out their repulsors to deflect anything they can.

Dak, Sten and Mizhakwan are asked to make room in the cargo hold, in case they’re leaving Hypnos with a guest. Then Zoot announces that he’s already established communications with the crystal, because it’s copying and rearranging the words he sends in an intelligent way. It’s time to make formal contact with an alien life form!

Having determined that nothing seems to be moving, our intrepid explorers keep walking toward a cave nearby.  There, they find that the walls are absolutely covered with the strange crystals. What’s making them grow?

Before they proceed into the cave, Zik decides to check in with the Temerity to inform them of their progress. For some reason, Francisco isn’t responding to their calls. While Mizhakwan investigates a crevasse in the cave, puzzled Zik decides to check if their communications link is working, and calls on Zoot to help him troubleshoot the problem.

But just as Zoot activates the interactive hologram, there’s a blinding flash from the crystals that surround them! Zoot’s hologram frazzles out, and Mizhakwan slips! She falls straight into the crevasse!

The light fades somewhat, and Amelia and Zik dash to the edge of the hole. Mizhakwan has fallen out of sight!