The Temerity descends into the atmosphere of the Zernabian prison planet, along with the transports and other escorts. As they approach, they’re ambushed by a squadron of Clonoid fighters! The evil Clonoids score a direct hit on the Sharktooth, which erupts in flames.

Tanaka delegates the other escort, Ron’s Revenge to help Sharktooth out while he pounces on the Clonoid fighters, shredding them. By the time the Zozian transports are making their approach to the landing zone, the Temerity has make short work of its foes.

All is quiet at the LZ, and the Zozian troops start to disembark while the Temerity cruises overhead. But again, seemingly out of nowhere, another wing of Zernabian fighters shows up on a confounded Francisco’s scanners! How do they keep appearing out of nowhere?

The riddle doesn’t concern Tanaka, and the legendary Chadee bloodlust is in overdrive in him right now! All he sees is fresh meat! Time to feast!

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!

The newly headless Mikibot is helped back into the safety of the rill the team has taken shelter in.  Defender Zik congratulates the deadly accuracy of Trent’s sharpshooting as he regroups with his team. It’s time to form a proper plan of attack!

The plan Zik comes up with takes advantage of the new blind spot left by the absence of the sniper Trent eliminated.  Tanaka and Sten are sent back out of the crater, to circle around behind one of the other two shooters.  Zik and Dakaasin will fly as fast as they can to the base of the peak while Trent covers them with suppressing fire. Once at the top, Zik will distract the Jairians while Dak frees the hostages.

An embarrassed Mikigaazo apologizes for jumping in before everyone is ready. After millennia on his own, this crystalline alien isn’t used to working as part of a team! Defender Zik assures him that his action was brave, but hasty. They need to coordinate to fight this enemy! Miki promises to help Mizhakwan to stabilize Gordon’s condition.

Zik, Dak and Trent ready themselves for the dash to the peak! Three.. Two… One…

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!

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?!

As they continue to walk into the jungle, Zik and Tanaka, unaware that they’re being stalked, talk about how to handle Tanaka’s predicament as a Ronin Chadee. Zik suggests that Tanaka could ride with his crew on the Temerity, which Tanaka seems open to.

Meanwhile, Zik’s helmet visor scanners are going crazy. There’s so many life forms that it’s unable to separate one from the other and form an analysis. Or is it because it’s encountering something it’s never scanned before? Something large, and not in the database?

Suddenly, a GORILLA CENTAUR jumps out of the dense brush and attacks!!

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?!

While Defender Zik battles Morren in the mess hall, down one level and all the way aft, James Anchor is waiting patiently in the engine room.  He knows that this is the obvious target for the Jairian raiders to capture, since they can’t get to the bridge.

Sure enough, the scallywags charge in, brandishing their weapons, ready to kill anyone in their way. But Captain Anchor has a little surprise for them – he draws his gun and points it right at them, finger on the trigger!

The Jairians are stunned. No one shoots guns on a spaceship, especially not in an engine room! Doing so is a really good way to blow yourself up! They call James’ bluff.

Except that James Anchor never bluffs! He explains that his gun isn’t loaded with bullets at all. Rather, the gun has small hunter-killer drones in it, and he’s now set them to target the unique bio-signatures of the three Jairians! James describes in detail how the drones, once launched, are a death sentence for anyone unlucky enough to be their target. Even if the Jairians somehow make it out of the Kodiak alive and try to disappear, the drones will hunt for them forever. And the worst part is that once the drones locate their target, they drill in a straight line to the heart. Depending on where they start, that could be quite an uncomfortable way to die!

The Jairians hesitate, and Emma emerges from hiding with a roll of space duct tape.  James Anchor instructs them to drop their weapons and let Emma bind them, and really, what choice do they have? It was checkmate the moment they walked into the room.

The vile Jairian invader Morren Mallor continues his sexual assault on Amelia, who fights back as well as she’s able to after regaining consciousness.  She desperately reaches around for something to use as a weapon – and finds her fork!

Scooping up the fork, she lunges at Morren’s face. Her fork finds its mark in Morren’s eye! He howls in pain!

Just then, Zik walks into the mess hall and sees that a Jairian is attacking Amelia.  The club he picked up from the last Jairians he encountered comes in handy, and he gives Morren a mighty wallop in the back of the head!

Over on the Vigilant Gaddi, Ramesh has solved the mystery of why Naser keeps missing his shots: he’s a Jairian mole!  He’s been missing on purpose to protect his comrades! That dastardly spy even sent a message to the Jairians the minute the Kodiak departed to help Zik!

Ramesh engages a secret security device that Zik Enterprises had built into the ship especially for such emergencies.  Naser finds himself locked out of his control panel, and his suit is magnetized to the back of his seat! He pulls a knife, but that too is pulled to the chair, where it remains stuck.

Now it’s time to show these Jairians what the Gaddi can do, even with only one cannon left!