Ghosts in the Minefield

As you return toward the boundary seperating your Solar System with the rest of the galaxy you see figures moving around, impossibly, among the space mines. They look like this.

A God calls

Hovering in front of you, radiating pure cosmic power is the God of the Ab-Originals, the Gray Emissary itself, the preserver of cosmic balance...Gygek.

Season 2, Issue 10 The Royal Wedding (A transitional bridge filler one shot)

When last we left the Vanguard they were trapped inside the monastic temple of Lor surrounded my evil tentacle cultists from Grue while high above the sky filled with billions of Maxination drones intent on consuming the entire planet of Lore Prime and every life form on it. To make matters worse Scartax was revealed to be one of Somber Quinn's evil twins hellbent on recovering the two Chakra Crystals the Vanguard had recovered. The other evil twin also finally revealed itself, it had been Adela's living supersuit the entire time. With two them members down and the sky literally falling on them it appeared to be an unwinnable situation. But Doctor Robot used his unparalleled ingenuity and managed to hack into the operating system of the Maxinations themselves, isolating Max's consciousness and forcing the drones to reboot themselves. Meanwhile Spacewolf chased down the evil Quinn clones, saved Adela, discovered the real Scartax and recovered the crystals. But the worst was not over. Even after hurling Max into the nearest star the now reformatted Mechanations were still on an unstoppable march to devour Lore Prime. The Vanguard threw a Hail Mary. Using the monastic psychic amplifier and her mystical connection to the Q system Adela teleported every living creature off the planet, sparing the lives of billions of Lor Republic citizens.

The Vanguard are now heroes on a cosmic scale and their immediate future looks bright. Earth is being considered for induction into the Lor Republic, the Forbidden Zone may soon be lifted, the Gruen species will be liberated and Doctor Robot is about to get married...

Super Unknown Revealed

Adela screams in pain as the inside of her costume errupts in hundreds of hook like fangs, ripping at her flesh. The suit, normally a slick silken texture keyed to Adela's power signature is now something that resembles a thick tar like epidermis. It begins seeping into her ears, sinuses, nostrils and throat. Once porous the suit is now smothering and viscous. Adela is now blind, deaf and unable to draw anything into her lungs except the invading mass of thick fluid that was once her own supersuit. What is worse is the vision seen by those witnessing the conversion. The Super Unknown is now a monstrous entity writhing and pulsing over Adela convulsing tortured body. This is, as it has always been, the Metamorph Grue known as N-Quin. Its current mission, kill its host.

Somber Quinn revealed

The normally kind and quizative face of paranormal investigator and part time alien hero Somber Quinn twists itself into a rage filled grimace. Tiny hairs begin to sprout across its chin and upper lip. "I am not that traitor Somber Quinn" the figure spits with rancor "and I never have been. I am his evil twin... Y-Quin, tactical operation grue and your worst nightmare."

Coordination Agents Revealed

That's right... the coordinated agent clones are all secretly evil tentacle monster cultists.

Issue 2.9: Death and Maxs

In our last issue the Vanguard used sabotage, manipulation and subterfuge to work against the fake princess in control of Lor-Var. Split into two groups they attempted to both recover the two Sacramundi Stones from the Royal Palace and take control of the central telepathy hub in the Monks of Lore's Great Monastery with mixed success.

The team of Space Wolf and Scartax, Crown Prince of the Moon infiltrated the Palace inner sanctum and managed to wrestle the two stones from the Arcane Master using them to impersonate Princess Lorik. During the brief battle Scartax was knocked unconscious, revealing himself to be another member of the shapeshifting Grue race. When confronted by Space Wolf with this knowledge Scartax used his Tensor weapon to digitize the snarling space knight...fearing that contact with the Stones was somehow corrupting his judgement and senses.

The team of Dr. Robot, Adela and the true Princess Lorik teleported into the central telepathy chamber. When Lorik connected herself to the device the feedback from the machine nearly killed her, and alerted the Great Monastery's three caretakers, the Panglossian Colloquim to their presence. A stand off began with both sides blaming the other with sabotaging the telepathic hub. Eventually Adela was able to telepathically convince the Colloqium members that they meant no harm to the Lore Republic, despite Dr. Robot's computer virus deactivating the hub mechanism, effectively disabling their pan-galactic telepathy network. During their negotiations Adela suffered her own bout of mysterious telepathic feedback, resulting in a spasm so jarring she broke her own arm.

Once reunited the Vanguard rebooted the hub enough to present indisputable evidence that their Lorik is the true Princess and ruler of the Lore Republic. During this Space Wolf used the power of the Sacramundi Stones to escape Tensor confinement and accuse Scartax yet again. The two argued that neither could be trusted. In the midst of their argument a much larger threat arrived on Lor-Var. The artificially intelligent machines that have been plaguing Lore Republic outposts have appeared in orbit. To make matters worse they know resemble the face of the Vanguard's old enemy Maximilian Mars. Speaking collectively in Max's voice they demand the inhabitants of Lor-Var turn over the Sacramundi Crystal to him or he will extinquish all life on the planet. The Vanguard responded with a giant middle finger comprised of Dr. Robot's force field projections.

No matter what happens next, only two things are certain to result from this encounter: