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A Stormforce 10 Adventure™ December 1998 |
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A Stormforce 10 Adventure™ December 1998 |
Continued from last issue... The ship Polyphemus is under attack by giant sea-ickies. Acting by instinct, Krill Stromer dives into Arctic waters. She changes to match the ocean: translucent skin, boiling-point body temperature. She urges a gam of whales to tear into the sea-monsters. Krill is rescued, as are most of the sailors. Captain Jubal Early covers up: all Classified. But he reports to a committee that includes Senator Kenneally, who feuds with Krill's family. They have to flee. Trust her? Early's loyal crewmen, Moynihan and Trinka, commandeer a plane. Krill points to New Brunswick. Approaching the coast, Krill grabs a parachute and bails out. Early dives after her. The crewmen bet a Moosehead "the captain has fallen for the floater". Elsewhere, Senator Kenneally looks at tanks full of "salamanders." Krill enters an old cannery - a disguised HQ. Nick and Pandora greet them - but copters drop black-clad soldiers. From a monitor comes a broadcast from Krill's mother. She refused to "be a slave to alchemy and eugenics" and refused "that primordial evil in our hybrid blood... to be subhuman." Before that's explained, "salamanders" swim up and burst in. Eight-foot manphibians kill and are killed. Krill and a monster fall through the floor into the harbor. Krill turns translucent and fights, but is dragged into the depths. Early, Krill's Mom, and Kenneally's men have lost her - again. At his HQ, the Senator orders the cannery blown up. He receives a last injection to become the "Urschlime". Scientists report the new UXB-023 is ready. The senator can "usher in Earth's new Golden Age!" Continued... |
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A Stormforce 10 Adventure™ January 1999 |
Continued from last issue... Krill dreams, hearing an ancient voice... Off Africa during the Renaissance. Agnes de Lumiere, a brilliant scientist, tested a diving bell. Black tentacles of The Other entered her body and mind. The Other is (simply) an anti-life from Earth's earliest days. Agnes would have succumbed to its siren song, except an Angel Shark broke the spell. She escaped, but was changed. Desperate, Agnes met a priestess of an ancient order that fights The Other. Agnes became a warrior, an Ange de Mer, a "perfect genetic weapon" that keeps evolving - into Krill Stromer. Who's now a prisoner of Senator Kenneally. He wants her secrets. She bites him. Krill is tossed to a giant crab. Meanwhile, Pandora, Early and crew haul a salamander to a lab. Dr. Amy Nishakowa, an old friend, autopsies: it's a mutated human. Pandora negotiates with a Nishakowa exec for help. She gets the Nayad, another ancient-advanced sub, with Nishakowa tech-troops. Krill battles the giant crab. She turns translucent, then mottled in some complex pattern of psychological warfare? She cracks the crab's claw. Nishakowa hotshots use the Nayad to raid Senator Kenneally's headquarters. Bullets fly. One guy shatters Krill's tank. Water floods. The crab rampages. Krill strangles the senator - until she's clouted on the head. Kenneally escapes in his UXB-023. Krill pulls on Early's jacket and picks up a gun. "I'm off to the Antarctic to finish the Anges de Mer's long battle. Who's with me?" Continued... |
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A Stormforce 10 Adventure™ February 1999 |
Continued from last issue... The Nayad approaches the Antarctic Ocean, searching for Senator Kenneally's boat. Krill recaps the story and... Spots the vessel. Kenneally lowers the UXB-023 bathysphere as torpedoes zoom. Nayad blasts them, and the UXB-023 is cut loose to sink! Black tentacles from the bottom enfold it. Krill feels the anti-life's ancient pull - until Amy Nishakowa slaps her. Krill grabs an air tank and dives outside. Tentacles attack, she slashes, then they part to reveal the sunken bathysphere. From it rises Senator Kenneally - changed into the Urschlime, a rubbery monster, champion of anti-life. Krill battles. Early and Nick don iron diving suits. Pandora and Amy load a vial into a torpedo. Krill's air tank explodes. Early and Nick fire barbs. Giant sea-ickies swarm the Nayad. Krill shares air with Early, but things looks bad. Until an ancient voice reminds Krill "your name is your greatest gift." Krill summons billions of krill, the shrimp-like "life of the sea" that swarm the Urschlime, which recoils. The heroes jump aboard and launch the "Urschlime Buster" torpedo. Boom! Is the creature dead? Probably not. The fight will continue. Krill's team and Nishakowa Corp. will make a fortune patenting the new-ancient inventions. The name of the team? A crewman notes a "big blow" coming in, a storm force 10. "Storm Force 10" it is! |
Comments A fascinating and way-deep epic. Almost too deep. It takes a couple of reads to see all the layers and interpersonal relationships. It's a winner all around. Tough smart beautiful women. Superpowers. Snazzy guns and wild gadgets. Super-submarines. Icky monsters and vicious foes. Explosions, destructions, brawls, and a sense of humor. But not popular. Email correspondence with a Dark Horse editor revealed that sales were too low to produce a sequel. Too bad. Maybe Dr. Krill Stomer, the Subhuman, the Ange de Mer, the Angel Shark, will find a new life in some other venue. Let's hope so. |