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!

In his eagerness to reunite with his daughter, Gordon Mises gets ahead of the rest of the crew of the Temerity.  Defender Zik urges caution, because this scenario seems too much like an….

AMBUSH!

From hiding, Morren fires at the person who looks most like how he remembers Zik from their last encounter. But that person is the unfortunate Gordon, whose arm is blown clear off from Morren’s shot!

Gordon falls out of the sky, and while Zik scrambles to catch him, everyone scatters. Bullets are zipping in from all around the crater, and there’s a mad dash for cover while Sten, Tanaka and Trent Quickdraw give covering fire.

They reach the crater floor after some near-misses, and Zik calls out to the Temerity for support – Amelia, come back!

The grieving Tanaka is sorely tempted by the offer of an eternity of observation, without needing to act. While he’s lost in debate, a terrified Misha bolts from the lab through a side door.

Meanwhile, Defender Zik is trapped in the time warp! He screams out for help, hoping that his voice will reach Tanaka across the temporal abyss he finds himself in!

Zik’s voice snaps Tanaka into action, and he leaps to the aid of his good friend, shutting down the machine.  Zik falls to the floor of the infernal machine — is he okay?!

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?!

The hangar bays doors of Bastion Station open, and the new shuttle craft is launched! All systems are in the green, and Defender Zik and crew head down to the atmosphere of planet Zoz to conduct their atmospheric flight test.

As Zik hands over the scanner controls to young co-pilot Ryan, a mischievous grin creeps over Tanaka’s face. While Ryan is in mid-sentence, Tanaka suddenly jerks the craft into a precipitous drop followed by a tight loop back to level. A terrified Ryan cries out that Tanaka should have warned them, but where’s the fun in that?!

Amelia guns the engines of the Temerity! It’s high time to escape planet Hypnos!  As the meteorites rain down, Amelia flies low and flat, trying to escape the danger zone as quickly as possible before gaining altitude.

Zik arrives in the cockpit to help as the flight starts to get rougher, and nearly loses his footing. The Temerity screams through canyons as Amelia whips her around the deadly barrage!

Finally, they emerge from the zone of densest impacts and Amelia pulls the Temerity up and into the sky! Zik lets out a whoop and declares that Amelia’s piloting skills are already legendary! A relieved Amelia relaxes enough to smile at the compliment as they sail into space.

Tanaka leaps from the bridge tower of the Kodiak and glides silently towards his prey.  The unsuspecting Jairian is so busy sabotaging the cannon that he has no idea his fate is at hand!

SLICE!

Defender Zik is charging into action! The gravity of the hallway rotates sideways suddenly, allowing Zik to swing and making the Jairians fall!

One tumbles back down the hallway he came from, while the other two fall onto walls.  As one struggles to regain his footing, Zik’s swing ends in a boot to the head for the other!

Now confronting the last Jairian, Zik steals the thug’s helmet and uses it like a club!

Defender Zik is still taking the time to help crewman Travis, who has a broken leg, to the infirmary! He has reduced the gravity in each hallway so that Travis can move without putting strain on his injury, and it seems to be helping.

But they’re interrupted by Jairian raiders! The thugs have come from the very intersection that has the infirmary door, so there was no avoiding this encounter. The Jairians ready themselves to attack!

Thinking quickly, your favorite space hero tells Travis to brace himself, and launches himself at the armored invaders. He tells Zoot to rotate the gravity in the hallway so that the new “down” is the way the Jairians have just come from. Just as he grabs a handhold, he tells Zoot to engage the gravity! What will happen?

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!