Written by Larry DiTillio
- Pilot,after Hawk and her have been well blasted by a manic Tank
Power's team have intercepted a message indicating that a resistance leader known as Cypher and his men are to be subject to a test. Concerned, the team go to Cypher's headquarters to check on their welfare. They enter an abandoned underground railway station and begin searching. Tank and Hawk remain at the entrance to keep watch while Scout and Power search inside.
Inside Power and Scout find numerous dead bodies and several survivors, including Cypher, all who are displaying strange psychotic behavior. A barely lucid Cypher tells Power that his men seem to have been infected by a strange madness.Power decides to take the survivors back with them in the hope that Mentor can establish a diagnosis. Meanwhile, Pilot alerts them that sensors are showing Dread forces closing in.
The troopers arrive but are caught by Tank and Hawk on the door. They lead the survivors back to the Junkship and take off. But Dread is not ready to give up yet and sends Soaron into the fray. The Junkship can't outrun the BioDread with the additional weight so Hawk is dispatched to deal with Soaron while the Junkship speeds away. A single well aimed missile is all it takes to subdued Soaron and Hawk heads home.
Meanwhile, back at the base, Mentor is analysing Cypher's symptoms and blood sample. Tank complains of fatigue and Power sends him off to catch some sleep. Hawk arrives back at the base just as Mentor tells Power that Cypher and his men have ingested a powerful psychoactive chemical, which was probably introduced through the water supply. At that moment, Hawk recalls that Tank took a drink from one of Cypher's water canteens. Power, recalling Tank's fatigue moments ago, sends Pilot and Hawk to check things out.
Pilot and Hawk gingerly walk to the entrance of Tank's living quarters only to discover that he has already been affected by the drug. A manic tank blasts both Hawk and Pilot unconscious. Meanwhile, Power has discovered that the drug is part of the 'Styx' phase of Project New Order and that Dread plans to release it into all the main water tablets in the area, effectively poisoning the entire resistance. The launch must be stopped. Power assigns Hawk to deal with Tank, who is running manic around the base, while he and the team head off to stop the missile launch.
After a rough and tumble which leads to his suit deactivating, Hawk is at the mercy of Tank, who prepares to deliver the final blow. A desperate Hawk starts talking and coaxing Tank and finally manages to penetrate the chemical haze on his friend's mind. Tank calms down and allows a relieved Hawk to lead him to his quarters. Power and the team meanwhile manage to stop the launch of the missiles, to Dread's chagrin. Mentor manages to produce a counter-agent which the team administer to Tank. Phase One of Project New Order has been halted.
Comment:
Not a particularly interesting story IMHO;it's importance is arguably more to the development of the overall arc of Dread's Project New Order. Leaving Hawk to deal with Tank illustrates the closeness of the two and is indicative of their strong friendship.
Dread uses a good-old fashioned chemical warfare as his first weapon in Project New Order. The poisoning of the water supply is consistant with what we are told about New Order earlier episodes [See The Ferryman] - that the phases of Project New Order are linked to earth, air, water and fire. Charon phase, linked to the earth, is the use of geothermal energy to produce the power needed to create Bio-Dreads. Styx [which is the River of Death in Greek mythology] is linked to water and Dread tries to use it to destroy the resistance. The remainder two phases, Icarus (the air element) and Prometheus(the fire element), are revealed in later episodes.