Planet G
Anthony and his friend Mike crash land on a mysterious planet while Botimus and the crew deal with an invasion of another kind..
Synopsis
Anthony, with his friend Mike Quartz and several Zapbots (Botimus Prime, Boaty, Flier and Speedy) are enjoying some vacation time at a local park on Tockmak 3. While mountain climbing Boaty flies up to check on Mike as Anthony and Speedy watch Mike ascend the mountain from below. After Mike gets annoyed with Boaty he loses concentration and falls. Boaty flies after him as well as Anthony and Speedy, but it's Flier who catches the human which causes the other three to crash into each other.
Back on Fortress Misslemax, Pliers is noting how bad the upgrade to the spaceship fortress is going. Suddenly a distress call from Planet G comes in and forces a recall of the main crew to assist the planet. Anthony and the crew head back to Fortress Misslemax for departure.
Anthony notes to Mike of having issues with his friend Alan not following directions. It's discovered his incompetence is what is causing all the upgrades to be handled so badly. Alan storms out of Anthony's office after an argument.
When they arrive at Planet G Anthony attempts to take his Shortstop body down (in shuttle mode) to the planet with Mike to investigate. However, they quickly lose power and crash land on the planet's surface. The rest of the crew try to ascertain what happened and Scan discovers there is a floating cloud of cosmic radiation surrounding the planet that will rob anything of its energy. Scan requests a sample of the cloud be brought aboard for study.
Meanwhile back on the planet Anthony and Mike proceed to try and reach civilization through the harsh planet terrain. Left with only their regular bodies they must make it to the nearest city. The planet proves to be a challenge as this includes evading a bear, a Wompar and living vines that try to strangle them.
Back on Fortress Misslemax, when Scan fires some energy into the sample to make it grow, it ends up evolving in a full blown Tyrannosaurus Rex. As the beast proceeds to destroy the already incomplete Fortress Misslemax, Botimus calls upon the Protectors to help with the situation. It is discovered that the cosmic cloud is the transportation system of the ancient Earth dinosaurs that have used it as a conduit from planet to planet. Scan develops a special laser to help disable the dinosaurs and equips Vision the fastest Zapbot around, along with the Protectors. Botimus Prime and the crew go looking for the Dinosaur.
Back on the planet, Anthony and Fortress Misslemax are caught in an acid rain storm. Just as they are about to give up Anthony summons all his energy to grab his friend and haul him to safety within a nearby station.
On Fortress Misslemax, Botimus Prime and the team run into the Dinosaur and proceed to disable it. However they turn around and find four other dinosaurs have been created. With the help of the Protectors and Vision's new weapons, they proceed to disable the dinosaurs and put them in special containers. Scan reveals that he has worked on a special shield to allow Slipstream to head down to the planet's surface but it contains the possibility of killing the microbes during transit. As such Botimus Prime has to makes a leadership decision to kill a newly discovered race, or rescue his Master. With sadness Botimus Prime makes the call for Slipstream to head down.
In the human hospital room Anthony and Mike are recovering just as a Dinosaur breaks into the facility and almost destroys Anthony. At the last second Slipstream barges into the building knocking the Dinosaur out.
A day later Fortress Misslemax now fully repaired prepares for departure. The microbe cloud descended to the planet below as it began to evolve and give life to all types of ancient Dinosaurs. The Protectors with their modified lasers work to help re-enforce the science settlements allowing the paleontologists to now study ancient dinosaurs on a planet similar to prehistoric Earth.
Anthony and Mike tour the Warp Core for Fortress Misslemax and suddenly realize a lone Dinosaur had survived within the room. Anthony destroys the dinosaur with his Matrix power. The incident causes Anthony to go into a coma for a short time of where he has a weird dream with a voice calling to him.
When Anthony returns to health Fortress Misslemax is ready to leave the planet. The Zapbots return to their vacation spot to complete their vacation.
Epilogue: Meanwhile across the edge of a Universe dark figures overtake an alien spaceship.
Featured characters
| Zapbots | Humans | Enemies | Planets |
|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"I think this new upgrade to Misslemax was done by a bunch of humans! Half the doors won’t open, the warp drive is off line, and guess who’s job it is to fix it?"
- Pliers submitting his personal log.
Notes
Versions
- First Version: 1989?
- Second Version: 1996?
- Third Version: 2021
Production notes
- Holy crap we have a plethora of Zapbots in this story. Never realized it till now.
- In the original writing of this story, Matt E. still existed and the story was based around him. In 1997 when I rewrote it, I changed it to my straight friend Mike B. aka 'Mikey'. Rereading it in 2020 it didn't quite have the same impact unless there was a romantic involvement with the character so it was adapted to include Mike Quartz (once again no offense to Mikey).
- This is the first appearance of Vision, Slipstream, and the Protectors Copter, Burn Rubber, Phiston and Double Shot.
- Third pass to provide extra details and upgrades happened in 2021.
Continuity notes
Real-life references
Continuity and plotting errors
Other trivia
- This story borrows heavily from Star Trek V as this was one of my favorite movies at the time.
