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?!

Like a wraith from deep space, Queen Elcyra has arrived just as Defender Zik and the Zozian war party are about to leave. She opens communications with James Anchor, assuming that since the Kodiak 2 is the largest ship in the fleet, he must be in charge. Admiral Anchor is less than happy to see her, and promptly calls her a witch. She taunts him by pretending to be impressed by the new, larger Kodiak capital ship.
But now down to business, Elcyra demands that the Zozians are her slaves and the fleet should prepare to be boarded. James retorts that no Zozian would ever bow to her.
This reply seems to be exactly what Queen Elcyra anticipated, and she launches into her Plan B with glee. She gives the order to her Clonoids to wipe out all remaining humans on the prison planet, Zozian and Zernabian alike, and to level the factories. Now that the trap is sprung, she no longer needs her bait!
With one final taunt at the aghast and furious Zozians, she launches her real attack…

With everyone aboard, Defender Zik and the Zozian war party head back to orbit. Mitch congratulates the team for successfully getting the refugees to the transports, with losses kept to a minimum.
Once in orbit, the squad reunites with the Vigilant Gaddi and reports in to Admiral James Anchor’s Kodiak 2 capital ship. Things are calm as they patrol, with all orbital opposition eliminated. The fleet begins preparations to scatter to the multiple jump points required to cover their tracks.
Suddenly, an enormous, immense, gigantic spaceship drops out of hyperspace directly in their path! The shocked ship crews hear the sinister, sultry voice of Queen Elcyra floating over the radio waves…

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!

After several jumps through hyperspace to conceal their approach vectors, the Zozian fleets arrive in the Zernabian prison system! Dead ahead of the Temerity is the infamous prison planet where Zik encountered the Clonoids for the first time. Tanaka gets a tactical report from Francisco; their fleet, Blue Squad, has all arrived safely. The other Zozian fleets are also reporting in as they arrive, and the massive Kodiak 2 dominates the scene. The Zozian fleets outnumber the token Clonoid sentry, and their capital ship, while large, is dwarfed by the Kodiak 2.

Upon receiving a similar keep-away message as Defender Zik received when he stumbled on the system, his father Mitch takes to the radio. He announces to the Clonoids that the Zozians have arrived to offer transportation and safe harbor to anyone who wishes to leave the planet. The Zernabians respond with a terse warning, claiming that the slaves are owned by Queen Elcyra and any intruders will be fired upon. Taking the high road, Mitch retorts that there can be no legitimate claims of ownership by one sentient creature on another. The Zozians will not be dissuaded and leave the ball in the Clonoid’s court. Tanaka, of course, hopes they choose battle.

The answer is soon given in the form of a stream of massive plasma bolts from the Clonoid capital ship, which detonate on the hull of one of the Makwa corvettes escorting the Kodiak 2. Mitch gives the order to all Zozian fleets: Engage the enemy!

A gleeful Tanaka guns the engines, eager to catch up to the Sharktooth, who jumped ahead. The Battle of Prison Planet has begun!

Our intrepid space hero Defender Zik has apologized for getting his old friend James Anchor into a bit of a mess with a prison-rescue side-quest that turned into a huge space battle. But James isn’t too mad about his capital ship the Kodiak getting bloodied in the fighting. After all, getting into space battles and blowing up bad guys is the whole reason Captain Anchor and his crew are in the security industry!

But Zik has larger ideas: the Jairians, who attacked with a much larger fleet than the Zozians usually face, as well as Queen Elcyra and her hostile Zernabian Clonoids, both present a new and larger threat to peace on Zoz! To counter this new set of threats, Zik proposes that Captain Anchor expands his operation – instead of merely repairing the Kodiak, he should expand his capabilities to offer planetary-scale security!  To James Anchor, the opportunity to use bigger ships with bigger guns and take on bigger missions sounds like a dream come true.  In the face of such adversity, they have to think bigger to meet the challenge!

But then Zik’s colony computer, Zoot, interrupts with an important message.  He has decoded a message in the cryptic statement made by the Jairian fleet coordinator, Rachelle! The message, delivered in anagram form with some knuckle-tapping to indicate the order of the words, reveals that not only is James’ long-lost uncle still alive, but that Rachelle herself has taken the same last name, implying marriage! This is a shocking revelation to James, who is left speechless!

Who is the uncle of James Anchor? How did he meet this strange destiny? Find out in a future episode of Defender Zik!

Next: a brief epilogue!

Not long afterwards, Rachelle the Jairian Fleet Coordinator calls for a stand-down of the remaining Jairian troopers and snub-fighters.  They have surrendered! Defender Zik and the crew of the Kodiak have won a hard-fought battle against a huge Jairian fleet and boarding party!

During the prisoner transfer negotiations, Captain James Anchor thanks Rachelle for calling for a cease-fire. He gives her an update on the status of the survivors and assures her that they will be returned safely.

Rachelle is a little concerned when she learns that some of her troopers hare returning in pieces, not all of which are accounted for with certainty! James explains that several troopers wandered into a Chadee barracks, and they didn’t last long against the legendary battle-fury of the Chadee!   Muttering a barely-intelligible curse in reply, Rachelle seems beyond furious, and soon signs off.

As they follow the remaining troops to oversee the transfer, James grumbles about how much of a mess the Jairians have made of the Kodiak. He tells Zik that he’s pretty sure the insurance will consider the mighty vessel a write-off!  Considering the Jairians blew up one of the two huge howitzers, and the giant hole Trent blew into the hull in the galley, he’s probably correct!

Zik, ever the gallant hero, offers to make it up to his longtime friend…

Defender Zik finishes plugging the giant hole in the hull of the Kodiak by filling in the gaps between the tables with the Hull Putty™ compound.  A curious Amelia asks about the Putty, and follows it up with a pointed question about how many times she’ll have to see Zik nearly die trying to save the day.  Zik assures her that there’ll be just one more time.

Amelia observes that Zik really handed Morren’s butt to him during their fight.  Zik assures her that the villain is probably dead by now, because of the broken visor.  A crack like that isn’t going to be easily reparable in the limited time someone has to live after getting spaced!

Stopping Zik from walking for a moment, Amelia lets him know how much she appreciates Zik jumping to her aid and beating back the murderous Morren.  She was off to a great start with that fork, though! I bet she could’ve taken him.

The tender moment causes Zik to remind himself to keep it cool. As much as Amelia makes his heart race when she looks at him like that, Zik remembers the promise he made to Trent to not pursue her. Still, it couldn’t hurt to enjoy the moment, right? It’s so easy to get lost in those beautiful eyes…

Thinking quickly, Zik dons his breather mask and turns back to the ship.  The force of the wind could easily blow him too far away to get back on board in time, so he hustles to deploy his EVR system.

Back on board, he sees that Amelia is stuck in the doorway, holding on for dear life! Morren broke off her breather, so if she gets spaced, she’s a goner!  Zik plugs the giant hole with the only thing at hand – two tables!

As the wind diminishes, Amelia regains her footing.  Zik asks her to hand him the Hull Putty™ canister so he can plug the remaining holes between the tables.  Amelia, like Trent, has never been in space before, and this kind of battle is all new to her, so she’s understandably confused as to why there was a sudden explosion.  Zik deduces that someone blew up the Jairian Hull Breacher vessel that was attached and plugging the hole with its breaching dock, and he guesses that a rookie mistake like that is sure to anger his buddy Captain James Anchor!

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!