The characters are hanging out in the hotel bar. Recouping from the day before's activities. In the bar hanging out is Loran the disgruntled former UPF man, Octavian the Vrusk entrepreneur and their robot which they have dubbed Awesomo. Omar the yarizian merc, is out taking care of personal business. Well as they sit there in the bar. They get a pleasent surprise. In walks Gesh the dralasite medic. He tells the group of how he (or would it be better to say it?) miraculously survived the shuttle crash. Then walked his way back to Mahg Mar City. Even though the long walk. Gesh seems no worse for wear. He sits down just as Mack from Macks Friendly Liquor Store enters the bar. He tells the characters that hes glad to see them. He asks them if they have any more liquor for sale. He tells them being that this city is full of frontiersmen, college kids, and currently mercs. That alcohol is in big demand. Especially now with the planet blockaded. With nothing getting on, or off the surface. He offers to pay them double the amount per bottle that they brought him before. (See last summary) The characters tell him they may be able to help him out. He thanks them and takes off. The characters decide to cash in on his offer. Knowing that there is at least thirty more cases of liquor in the crashed ship. Which equals big money. (36,000 credits to be exact) They decide to go to the Army/Navy store and stock up on supplies. Then they pay their old pal Crazy Ralphy May a visit. Of Crazy Ralphy Mays Rental Center. They talked and haggled with him for a bit. Finally deciding to rent a ground transport from him. (described as looking like an army 2,1/2ton truck painted blue) They drove the truck deep into the hard pack desert. Past the site of the shuttle crash. Which now seems stripped of usable parts and material. To the village of the lizard people. They see lizard folks in their brown robes hiding behind rocks and ledges as they approach. Till they get to the village proper. They they see the lizard folk going about their daily lives. As they disembark from the truck they are greeted by the chief and a few lizard guards. They at first question the characters about the dralasite. (Gesh) But they convince him that he is part of their tribe. So they accept him too. They go to the entrance of the ship buried deep in the caves. Once there they have Awesomo start loading cases of liquor in to the truck. They group decides to explore the rest of the ship. They open the other door in the room. Finding a long hallway. Appearing to be the main connecting hall of the ship. They first jimmy open the door directly across the hall from they. They found another cargo section. Which contained crates of medical supplies and three 55gallon drums. Two of windshield washer fluid, and one of 80w90 oil. They move on from here toward the front of the ship. Finding a small crew section. With quarters, and rest room facilities. They find a few useful items there. But nothing of particular importance. They move forward again to fin the gallery/entertainment area. Finding nothing but long rotten food turned to dirt. They move on to the cockpit. This is a scene of carnage half of the cockpit area is destroyed and full of rock from the impact. They find a couple bodies that have decomposed to the point of skeletons. They then travel back down the main hall to the rear of the ship and the last door. They open it to reveal the engineering section. As they enter they are attacked by a security robot. The robot is a simple looking affair. A barrel like cylindrical body mounted on triangular shaped tracked assemblies. The top of the body is a dome like head with a single eye mounted between the head and body. In the center if the body protrudes a large barrel of a launcher. They battle the robot. Guns a blazing, electro stunners blasting, and swords flashing. The robot returning fire with tangler rounds. They quickly dispatch the robot. They deduce that the robot had been on standby. Being powered by what was left of the ships parabatteries. They find nothing of use here. So they return to the cargo compartment, and Awesomo. Who has loading the majority of the crates of liquor. They help finish loading the truck. They bid the chief and villager goodbye and take off. As they get to the exit of the ravine the village is located in. They see smoke ahead. Loran uses his Magnigoggles and sees a large scale battle going on between Merc Co. forces and Galactic Task Force troops. It a full on battle including hover tanks and the tank robots. The group wisely decides to go around and avoid this. As they circle out of the way of this battle they are attacked by Merc Co skirmishers in a modified Explorer. Sporting a machine gun in a turret on top. The machine gun damages their transport. It grinds to a halt, with the explorer coming to a stop in front of it. The Merc CO guys in the explorer accuse the group of being GTF troops. The characters try to talk there way out. Even offering them some liquor. But the Merc Co troopers turn greedy and decide they should have all the alcohol. Thus the fight begins. The fight was fierce. The characters escaped mostly unscathed. But Awesomo took a beating. The group took the Merc Co troopers Explorer. They found some tow straps. Which they connected the ground transport to the explorer. They tow the truck and its load to Mahg Mar City. They delivery to liquor to a very happy Mack. At Macks Friendly Liquor Store. Who as promised pays them handsomely. They then drag the truck back to Ralphies. Who isn't very happy about his truck being shot up. But has half come to expect it from the group. They pay him for the damages. Then they ask him about repainting the explorer. So it cant be recognized by Merc Co, or anyone else. Ralphy says that he can help the group. The characters decide that they would like the explorer painted up like the A-Team van. They then go to the Pompadour bar. They find one One-eyed Hank there. In his rhinestone jumpsuit glory. They hire him to fix Awesomo. Which he does. So they reward him handsomely. The characters then return to the hotel. Next time new van, and new adventure.
This panel, from Action Comics #32 (1941) is confirmation of something that
I have long suspected,…
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This panel, from Action Comics #32 (1941) is confirmation of something that
I have long suspected, but I have yet to see any comics historian or
biograph...
5 hours ago
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