A large raiding fleet of Jairians is approaching the cargo convoy!  The Kodiak is finally in communications range, and James Anchor broadcasts an ultimatum: leave the convoy alone or face the consequences!

Rachelle, the Jairian fleet coordinator recognizes James’ last name. She tries to scare him off with an ultimatum of her own.

But James Anchor is a stalwart guardian! He gives the Jairians a final warning and then issues orders to prepare for battle!

The Jairians approach the convoy… will the Kodiak make it in time to save them?

Zik is in the secondary hanger with some of the engineering staff of the Kodiak, working the kinks out of his newly repaired ship. The team solves the plasma imbalance problem Zik detected during his training flight with Amelia.

As they wrap up the repairs, the red alert alarm sounds for the third time in the past couple of days. As Leslie gripes, Zik decides to head up to the bridge.

Up on the bridge, Captain James Anchor gets a status report from Tactical Officer Emma. The ship is closing in on the convoy they were protecting when they left to rescue Zik, but Emma has seen another fleet on the scanners. It’s a Jairian raiding party!

A furious James Anchor can’t understand how the Jairians could have already found out that the convoy was unprotected.

In the Kodiak medical bay, Amelia is visiting Vera, and recounting the stories Zik told her during their flight. She’s never lived anywhere but the desert prison planet, so his description of living on an island was especially exotic for her!

When Amelia mentions that Zik’s father is a pineapple farmer, Vera leans back, remembering her youth before Queen Elcyra. She hasn’t tasted pineapple in decades!

Amelia excitedly tells her that there are some pineapples in the galley. She runs out to get some, promising to continue with another of Zik’s stories.

Vera chuckles to herself, amused at how Amelia is totally unaware that she’s glowing.

WELCOME TO EPISODE 3! Brawl In The Void is going to be an intense episode, so strap yourselves in!

Zik space-walks over to the Kodiak to help investigate the Clonoid stuck to its hull.

They scan it and determine that it’s dead, but still transmitting a signal to the Clonoid central computer. That means Queen Elcyra used her hapless drone as a tracking device!

James Anchor gives the order to float the Clonoid behind the main engines. A curious Trent is informed that once then engines are lit up, the Clonoid will be atomized!

Zik and Amelia rejoin the Kodiak, and they all set off again for the convoy that the Kodiak is supposed to be protecting.

And that’s a wrap for Episode 2 of Defender Zik! I hope you enjoyed these tales from your favorite hero’s past! Next week, we start the exciting Episode 3, where we rejoin the convoy only to find Ramesh… well… no spoilers!

The Epilogue of Forging The Defender begins! We have one loose end to tie up before the next exciting episode!

Tactical Officer Emma has discovered the Clonoid that evil Queen Elcyra has fastened to the hull of the Kodiak during their brief encounter. Captain James Anchor orders a full stop so that they can deal with the situation.

Zik and Amelia, once notified, circle back in their ship to help out.

Emma explains what she’s discovered to Captain Anchor, and Zik, listening in, is able to spot the Clonoid attached to one of the struts holding the bridge.

Captain Anchor informs Zik that they will be sending some crew members out to get the Clonoid off the hull, and Zik offers to help!

Welcome to the third and final part of Forging The Defender, the second Defender Zik episode! We’ve been learning about how humble asteroid miner Zik came to be known as Defender Zik on his home planet of Zoz. In this part, we will learn how he got the last part of his nickname: Zik the Gallant Defender of Zoz!

It all starts with Amelia asking if Zik’s fame has extended to a lot of attention from the ladies of Zoz.  He admits that it has, although he’s single right now. Could Amelia have a motive beyond curiosity for wanting to know that?

Zik wraps up the story of the attack of the space commies! Amelia has decided to make herself comfortable, pulling her chair right up to Zik’s and using your favorite space hero as a couch. He doesn’t seem to mind too much.

Meanwhile, over on the Kodiak, James has brought Trent Quickdraw onto the bridge to show him some of the features of Trent’s new battle armor. The visor has a bunch of cameras on it, one of which will allow Trent to see through walls! There’s a limited range, and he can’t see too much detail, but he can see enough… Enough to see that Zik and Amelia are a little closer than he’s comfortable with! While Jason may be jealous of the cool view settings in Trent’s armor, Trent is preoccupied with what he sees on board Zik’s ship!

So ends part two of Forging The Defender! There’s one more part to go, where Zik describes where the “Gallant” part of his name comes from. Tune in next week for that!

Welcome to Part 2 of Forging The Defender! For those of you just joining us, we’re on the way back from the Zernabian prison planet with some refugees of Queen Elcyra’s despotic reign. One of the refugees, Amelia, is flying with your favorite space hero Zik, and is getting him to tell stories from his past!

In this part, we will learn how Zik became known as a defender of justice on his home planet Zoz! What are Jairians? Stay tuned to find out!

Captain James Anchor is on his way back to the bridge of the Kodiak with a fresh coffee. On his way, he stops by the medical bay to check up on Vera. Fiona has stabilized the sleeping Vera, and is confident that her lung cancer can be cured. James also asks for a status update on the blood tests that Fiona has done on all three of the Zernabian passengers. Sure enough, the divergence of the Zozians from the rest of the human species over the last thousand years has resulted in some new pathogens and viruses for which the Zozians have no immunity.  Fiona is working on it, though, and it won’t be long before she can create a vaccine!

Next, James Anchor stops by the hangar bay, where an off-duty Jason is teaching Trent more about how to use firearms. This time he’s holding it safely! Not with his finger on the trigger like before! Although, in Trent’s defense, he had never held a gun before and there wasn’t time during the riot to teach him properly. But that’s being remedied by Jason now! Jason is just as impressed at Trent’s innate shooting accuracy as Zik was.

Meanwhile, Emma is busy sifting through the battle data from their encounter with Queen Elcyra. She seems to be onto something unusual, but what could it be?

So ends Part 1 of Forging The Defender! We’ll dive straight into part 2 next week! See you then!

Your favorite space hero Zik pauses in his narrative of the tale of the spinning asteroid because this part of the story reminds him of a song. He’s twisting, turning through space trying to land on an asteroid, and the lyrics to an Old Earth song by Metallica fit quite nicely! He sets the ship on autopilot and loads up the tune so that Amelia can hear it.

For those curious, here’s the song:

Meanwhile, on the Kodiak, James Anchor is on the bridge watching Amelia’s flying lessons with amusement. She certainly seems to be having fun out there! Gerald, currently at the helm, agrees.

Tactical officer Emma has been busy analyzing the recent battle with Queen Elcyra in the hopes of discovering all she can about Zernabian technology. She gives Captain Anchor an update, and he asks her to focus on the torpedoes for now. It’s very odd that guided torpedoes could miss the only target in the area, and James wants to know why.

But first, he needs coffee! Incidentally, coffee is a great beverage to enjoy awesome space adventure comics with! Grab a cup with me! Mmmmm, that’s good stuff.