Writer: Buzz Dixon adapted from novel by M.S. Murdock
Artists: Chuck Wojtkiewicz and Ian Akin
Hauberk was a military satellite built by the Soviets in 1999. RAM bought it and turned it into a powerful military satellite that now holds the Earth in their iron grip. RAM decides to use it to attack the NEO HQ located under Chicagorg. They attack killing many innocents, but Buck Rogers and NEO manage to escape. They go to Salvation which is an orbiting junkyard but secretly a military base of NEO. Huer.doc while looking for information on Hauberk in the cybermatrix gets an offer from Ardala. She sells NEO information that can destroy it.
Now the NEO needs advanced krait fighters and enlists Black Barney. Barney instead of mounting a raid uses a clever ruse involving hacking into RAM accounts and ordering paint for the fighters. Through a bureaucratic snafu the fighters are dumped in space and Barney picks them up. With the krait fighters NEO attacks and it looks like they will win. Unfortunately, RAM kraits arrive led by Colonel Killer Kane and trap the NEO between them and Hauberk.
“New Gennies Part Two”
By Scott Haring
The second article about genetically created creatures from the computer game. This one is about Swamp Hornets on Venus and Hexadillos and Sand Squids found on Mars.
“Sins of Ardala Chapter One: Employment History”
A young girl is sold into slavery by her father and brothers. Ardala buys the girl, and she tells her about her past. Ardala Valmar is born on the colony Starsalem. It is inhabited by a cult of Normanites who reject modern technology. The colony needs conductors and decides to sell some of the excess young girls for the parts. Ardala is one of those girls. She gets sold and sent to a brothel in the asteroid belt.
“Capture Hauberk!”
By Paul Arden Lidberg
Artwork by Gloria Yuh
A two-player board game with NEO lead by Wilma Deering on one side and RAM on the other. The objective is to either hold or capture the Hauberk station. Sort of like a game of checkers.
Now we are getting into some exciting and interesting story. The last three issues were mainly more about Black Barney then Buck Rogers. While an interesting character I think the real focus should be on Buck. Now TSR decided to adapt one of their novelizations. I just recently bought this trilogy last year and hope to read it this year. It seems like an action-packed story with Buck and the NEO taking the fight to RAM. So far it has plenty of excitement. I loved the part where Barney cons RAM into giving him the krait fights through bureaucratic maneuvering. Poor guys who fell for it were executed for their incompetence. RAM can be a very harsh employer.
The backup story is giving us the origin of Ardala. So far, a very interesting story with lots of potential. It gives us a more sympathetic understanding of what has so far been a ruthless character. TSR does a great job of creating multidimensional characters for their world. Plus, we get another game to cut up your comics module for. Basically, a game of checkers only with spaceships. Also continues to give us creature stats and history of stuff from the fun computer game.
Comic book cave of awesome 