Wic and Phantom Team returned home after a successful raid against the Androchidan Empire on Karkin Four. Not only had the heroes relocated millions of human refugees who were traversing the merchandise processing facility, but they also managed to start a war between rival factions that recalled all AE forces on Earth.
With a new hope, the Phantoms turned their attention to helping the civilian population move to greener pastures outside New York’s metropolis. In the process, they reconnected with familiar faces, like Sugar, who’d tried to beat the dropship Dolores with a baseball bat, and Sissy, the Bratva mafia boss and big brother to Vlad and Lada. They also met a new teammate, Delilah Hobbs, known as Midnight. Not only was she the United States Air Force’s first female Combat Controller, but she was also the first woman to make Wic lose his train of thought (a point he still protests).
When a new ring appeared in the sky over New York City, Wic and company realized that the fight wasn’t over. To everyone’s dismay, the empire re-tasked the origin ring from Antarctica to Manhattan. The purpose, according to the recently returned Major Insarka Kindesh of the Androchidan rebellion, is to release Gornath of the Ontishog to kill the Phantoms.
Together with his three Kel-Huelborne officers and squads of death angels, the overlord Gornath hunted Wic and captured Ken “Yoshi” Yoshida. With few options remaining and time running out, Wic agreed to meet Gornath in an attempt to rescue Yoshi. But when then op went sideways after Wic was tortured, he was forced to leave Yoshi behind.
That was only the beginning of their troubles.
During Wic’s captivity, he learned of Gornath’s dangerous plot to exterminate Earth with a deadly hybrid toxin called phytomordia, more commonly known as Yellow Plague. While nonlethal to humans, the agent threatened to wipe out the world’s agriculture, and thus kill humanity by starvation.
Not willing to let the terrorists succeed, Wic and Bumper crossed back to Karkin Four through the portal in an attempt to sabotage the delivery system. But when their attempt failed, the team was forced to try again.
Next, the Phantoms devised a plan to skydive an improvised bomb into the origin ring. But since Yellow Plague was already being dispensed, a second objective was hatched to wipe out the toxin using an old school solution: a squadron of crop dusters topped off with ethanol. While Aaron and Insarka oversaw the spray operation around Central Park, the rest of Phantom Team constructed and flew Bumper’s bomb through the ring.
While the plot was a partial success, Wic’s concern became a last-ditch attempt to rescue Yoshi. But when Gornath retreated back through the ring, the Phantoms decided to follow for a final showdown. Despite the team’s best efforts, Yoshi died while fighting Gornath, and Wic made the overlord pay with his life.
However, even with the enemy’s defeat, the danger wasn’t over. The ring still posed an imminent threat, and the enemy was mounting another assault. Wic and the Phantoms hatched one last bold and risky plan: blow the origin portal out of the sky. With the enemy preparing to emerge, bombs were placed on the ring’s propulsion points. It was Sissy Petrov who gave his life to defend the explosives, and it was Phantom Team who watched from above as the empire’s original gateway to Earth crashed down and swallowed Central Park Tower.
With the battle complete, Insarka’s scouts ventured through the still operational gate to survey the damage. Upon their return with news of massive destruction to the enemy’s command center, Major Kindesh offered Wic the chance to save even more lives in other star systems. Ultimately, it was an offer Wic couldn’t refuse, and a cause Phantom Team seemed destined to embrace…
…as long as they can stay alive.