In a distant system, Defender Zik stands by in the Temerity as Ramesh and his crew finish shoring up the heavily damaged Vigilant Gaddi. It was a narrow escape, but the jumps they’ve made thus far have proven to be effective at throwing the Clonoids off their trail. But hyperspace has been hard on the broken hull of the Gaddi, and they’ve stopped within the ring system of an icy world to patch what they can before continuing.
In due course, Ramesh radios over to say that they’re ready to go. Zik asks how the refugees are holding up, to which Ramesh reports that they’re furious enough to have nearly staged a mutiny. Only being reminded that they would be stranded in space without a pilot calmed them down. The two old pals then review the battle; Zik tries to keep positive about it, but Ramesh is more of a realist than an optimist, and points out that a 60 percent survival rate isn’t exactly a victory. Conceding the point, Zik admits that Elcyra seems to have duped the Zozians into attacking, before springing the trap with her insanely powerful capital ship. The Zozians have achieved a pyrrhic victory, and have gotten a rude awakening about how far the rest of humanity have advanced technologically in the past thousand years!
Ramesh declares that he’s not confident the Gaddi can withstand more than one more jump without undergoing catastrophic hull failure, so the two decide to head straight back to Zoz from here. As they leap into hyperspace, however, a drone tucked away on one of the larger ring rocks begins broadcasting a report back to its operators…

Defender Zik, aboard the Temerity, flies over the damaged section of the Kodiak 2 and asks James Anchor how they’re doing. Everyone else has escaped, it’s just down to them, and James reassures Zik that the Kodiak can escape. In fact, he urges Zik to escape while he can, because Queen Elcyra is powering up another enormous laser blast!
The two vessels jump into hyperspace, each to their own scatter destinations, eager to reunite later back home on Zoz…

Aboard the mighty Kodiak 2 capital ship, Admiral James Anchor gets an update from fleet officer Emma: most of the Zozian ships are either dead or have escaped the prison planet system. Gerald, at the helm, reports that the Kodiak is in position for the main cannon, a railgun so massive and powerful that to aim it, they have to rotate the whole ship! James gives the order to get it ready to fire, and Jason immediately gets the final preparations underway.
Before the Kodiak can fire, Queen Elcyra’s Varanus ship unleashes a withering laser blast which slices the starboard wing! Seamus gives a rapid damage report: the hull is breached right through the whole ship! Also, the rotational cannon controls are offline ship-wide! Until they can be swapped to the redundant control systems, they’re unable to fire!
The main cannon, however, was unaffected by the massive explosion, and Jason reports that during the chaos, his crew finished the massive energy ramp-up required to fire the weapon. James gives the order and the incredibly powerful quad-railgun unleashes its shells at sizeable fraction of the speed of light! The force is powerful enough that they manage to penetrate the powerful shields protecting the Varanus, and they score a direct hit on her port laser array! There’s a huge explosion as the entire array is obliterated!

On the bridge of the Kodiak, James Anchor gets an update from Emma on the status of the fleet – and it’s dire! Many Zozian ships have escaped the system, but over a fifth of the entire fleet has been destroyed, leaving masses of twisted wreckage in decaying orbits around the prison planet. Admiral Anchor gives orders that the massive Kodiak capital ship is to remain in the fight until every survivor has fled.
Meanwhile, in the thick of the dogfight, Defender Zik’s Temerity receives a mayday from Ramesh, who is getting swarmed by Clonoids after being savaged by Queen Elcyra’s massive ship, the Varanus. The Temerity and Ron’s Revenge rush to help, but Ron’s Revenge is hit badly by a Zernab patrol ship’s plasma bolts! As the Temerity rushes around destroying Clonoids, Mitch watches in horror as his old friend’s ship is torn apart by a Zernab ripper ship. The vessel is lost, but in one last act of defiance, they set their reactor to overload, heroically taking the breacher out with them!

Queen Elcyra’s withering attack on the Zozian war fleet is claiming one victim after another – even the civilian transports! Defender Zik enters the cockpit of the Temerity to witness a grim scene: with every powerful blast emanating from Elcyra’s mothership, another Zozian vessel is disabled or destroyed, and the space around the prison planet is growing thick with twisted, burning debris. It’s a slaughter!

Aboard the Vigilant Gaddi, calculations for the jump into hyperspace are nearly complete; so far so good! But nothing seems to escape the baleful beams of withering death slicing through the dark. Just as they’re ready to jump, the Varanus strikes! Both of the starboard cargo containers on the Gaddi are immolated, along with all the former prisoners who were in them!

As sirens blare and a red alert is engaged, Captain Ramesh demands a status report. A frightened David gives the update, but he’s shell-shocked trying to wrap his head around the scale of the mass murder Elcyra just committed. Ramesh reminds him that they still have to rescue the other half of the prisoners – this is no time to lose your cool!

Fortunately, the engines weren’t hit! They can still jump! But will the Varanus hit them again?!

The villainous Queen Elcyra launches her final assault on the Zozian fleet! A single, massive laser blast shears right through one of the Makwa corvettes escorting the Kodiak! Francisco is rightfully shocked at the sheer power of Elcyra’s capital ship, but Mitch keeps his cool and gives the signal for a full retreat.
On the Kodiak 2, Admiral James Anchor gives orders for his fleet to protect the transports while they make preparations to retreat. However, word starts coming in that the Clonoids have now engaged some kind of energy shielding! This whole battle was a trap!
It’s a full rout! Will Defender Zik and the rest of the war party make it back to Zoz?!

The battle against the Clonoid garrison rages all around the prison planet! Even though the Zernabian fleet is light, the fighting is ferocious. James Anchor’s Kodiak takes on the largest Zernabian capital ship directly, and after a direct hit from the dorsal railgun, the Zernabian ship explodes! Firing superheated shells at relativistic speeds is marvelously effective!

A few sectors are having a harder time clearing the orbital opposition, but after some judicious redeployment, the Zozian position is secured. Landing transports begin their decent to the surface while the larger cargo ships like Ramesh’s Vigilant Gaddi remain in orbit to collect the refugees. What awaits the landing parties on the surface? Stay tuned, Defenders!

A few hours later, the Temerity is screaming through space, heading back to Zoz. The injured are being looked after in the infirmary, and Defender Zik has gotten his suit cleaned up. He and Amelia are looking for Mikigaazo, to see how he feels about the Mikibot platform’s first real-world test. Despite the bot platform getting its head blown off, it still seems to have performed well, but Miki has the final say.

After looking throughout the ship, Amelia and Zik find Miki in the cargo hold.  He’s crouched on the ground next to the two body bags containing the bodies of the ZEMM pilots who were killed by Morren. Zik calls out in a friendly way, but it’s quickly evident that Miki is having a hard time with something.  Miki is trying to understand why he can no longer feel any energy from the two bodies in front of him.

Zik and Amelia explain that the two unfortunate souls have died. This is a new concept for Miki, who becomes alarmed at the prospect that every human will die eventually. Unwilling to fully accept being apart from his friends as an inevitability, Miki asks if a part of himself can remain with each of them all the time, so that he can absorb their energy and always remember it.

Honored to receive such a gift, the human pair agrees, although Zik advises Miki to be cautious about who he gives this gift to. Not all humans are worthy of such trust, and Miki agrees that the Jairians they encountered felt very different.  He could sense the darkness in their hearts, and comments that each human is quite unique, something alien to this creature who can divide and recombine itself.

Amelia gives Miki a little hug and assures him she loves him. Miki comments that love is the best emotion he can sense from a human, and reciprocates the feeling.

And that’s a wrap, Defenders! We’ve come to the end of Episode 6: Apodian Ambush! I have some preparations to make before beginning Episode 7, including finding a new web host for the site. But keep an eye out, Zik fans, because The War Party will be coming at you soon!

After a few minutes, Defender Zik and the crew of the Temerity are on their way! Zik congratulates the team on an excellent scramble time, and lets them know that this time, it’s not a drill! There is a real mission afoot, with a good chance of combat! After months of playing cat-and-mouse with the elusive and violent communists, there’s finally an opportunity to confront them directly in an effort to foil their hijacking.  Francisco locks in the navigation to Gamma Apodis, and they hit the hyperdrive! It’s go time!

The next day, the Temerity arrives at lonely planet Hypnos, adrift in the galaxy without a star to orbit. Francisco reports that the trajectory of the small world takes it up out of the galactic plane, and it loops back down somewhere up the spiral arm. This planet has travelled a long way in the intergalactic void before its return near Zoz!

Zik remarks that planet Hypnos has some incredibly huge canyons scarring its surface, but he gets distracted by the debris field they’re entering. It’s quite thick, and he needs all hands in the cockpit to help identify and eliminate the asteroid threats.

As they plow through the debris field, whatever the flotsam repulsors can’t push out of the way, Trent blasts with the point defense cannons! They finally make it through thanks to great teamwork and Zik’s piloting skills.

It’s time for a closer look at the remote and desolate planet Hypnos, and what they discover is a shattered world of craggy canyons and deep craters! What happened to this place?!