The saga thus far: (long version)

The lovely Fiorella Branford, fresh from her graduation to the rank of Initiate in the Order of the Mantra, takes off from the instruction center. Her goal is to rendezvous with the Resistance, one of the largest organized groups remaning to fight a largely unknown alien menace which has taken over a great deal of Earth. She enjoys an uneventful trip for all of 5 minutes before a missile turns her ship into a compact the hard way, forcing her to utilize her Mantra abilities to save her skin (at the cost of freezing it a bit). Though she survives her plummet to earth, she barely has time to appreciate her luck before it turns sour again, as she's ambushed by a shadowy figure wielding a nasty, if somewhat archaic, slugthrower. This armed assailant is not the most attentive of captors, however, allowing Fiorella to lay him out with a lightning-quick uppercut.

After turning the tables on her opponent, Fiorella binds him with her hair band (aside from having a glass jaw, this fellow also has rather thin wrists) and persuades him to tell his story. It turns out this bushwhacking narcissist is a cargo runner named Alexi Beaumont, who was engaged in a mission of mercy to bring his cargo of adorable puppies to a community of starving and disease-ridden Korean orphans. Of course, this quest was abruptly ended, first by the missile which crippled his ship, and then by Fiorella torpedoing this transparent tale and discovering Alexi was merely a hapless smuggler whose storytelling skills obviously outshined his ability to evade ballistic weaponry while unconscious.

After story time is concluded, Fiorella decides to appropriate Alexi's ship, as well as Alexi himself, in order to get to Resistance HQ in a timely manner. This plan hits a minor bump, however, when the long march to the craft's landing site reveals what Alexi would not; that while his mid-class freighter is in far fewer pieces than Fiorella's snub, it is not up to flying without emergency repairs. The two then begin the even longer march into the closest town, Mt. Limberry. She unshackles (or in this case unhairbands) her captive, and prepares to play upon patriotism to get the parts the ship requires. Unfortunately, this little burg is less interested in resisting their otherworldly invaders, preferring instead to embrace them. This becomes apparent when the two are apprehended at a local machine shop and summarily imprisoned.

However, the normally impenetrable Cleersteel prison tubes prove ineffective against Fiorella's Mantra abilities, which she uses to temporarily destabilize the molecules of the cell and allow both her and Alexi to escape. As they leave the prisoner containment room to begin exploring the mysterious facility in which they are held, they hear a cry of disdain from within one of the installation's pleasantly labelled doors. Inside they find a sassy female strapped to an ominous-looking device. After freeing her and booking it to the storage room containing their personal effects, the newly formed trio does the traditional introduction bit. Simply named Tranna, the recent arrival finds herself offered up by Alexi as a bargaining chip to be used in his escape, leading to a menage a trois of pain. After the enjoyment of pounding on the paper-thin pilot, the group sets off to the armory to outfit the ladies wih armaments more modern than Alexi's slugthrower. They quesiton the lack of a guard, and immediately get their answer when the missing sentry catches them by surprise. Alexi fires a shot in panic, but the shadowy figure dodges the projectile with ease.

The mysterious and agile fellow turns out to be a henchman for Mr. Solus, their captor, whose impressive abilities are matched only by his enormous ineptitude. He decides to aid them in their escape, one of several indicators that he is not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. 18, as his forehead says he should be called (though the brain inside it seems to disagree), goes with Fiorella to scout ahead. This leaves Tranna and Alexi to meet Ralph, the midget with the oddly familiar manner of speech who quickly attempts to force his way into the grou, as well as Tranna's trousers. Of course, it proves to be a good thing he worked fast as several seconds later he is felled by a laser to the face. Tranna and Alexi mourn their fallen would-be comrade with all the gravity and touching emotion to be expected of them, and quickly run to rejoin their less fried companions.

More to come....

Content © 2006 Matt Simpson [hustlertwo]
Illustrations by Juan Uzcategui [Suiz] & Chauncey McAskill [gotax]
Website Design by Chauncey McAskill [gotax] & Chris Wells [thetruecoolness]

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