Mission Log: AF1.05

Atari Force mini-comic #5
"Galaxian"
48 pages

Atari Force investigates their 13th world, which turns out to be an uninhabited paradise. Then a ship appears carrying Aviar, a Custodian, asking why they are trespassing. After hearing their case, she escorts them to Centerworld so the First Custodians can decide whether to allow them to settle there. After they land and depart their ship, the Dark Destroyer, who was sent to this universe after its last encounter with the Atari Force, takes control of the population and attacks. Orion discovers the Dark Destroyer and Atari Force attacks the asteroid its hiding on, having to fight their way through the Custodians first. Atari Force is victorious, although the Dark Destroyer created an organic nodule in the event he was defeated that goes unnoticed as Atari Force heads back to Centerworld. After some discussion, it is decided to allow humanity to settle on planet 11435-18-2 and grant them probationary membership in the United Federation of Worlds. Atari Force returns to Earth, where Scanner One is refitted to carry colonists in suspended animation to their new home and renamed Exodus One. After the first launch, Champion final confronts Perez and learns she doesn't want to allow herself to be hurt by loving someone to have them taken away, as her family was. He tells her they're the past and that the two of them are the future. Thus ends the saga of the original Atari Force.

Annotations

1. Page 12: Leaving the void between universes is called "breakout," which was also the title of a popular Atari video game.
2. Page 47: According to this issue, six months passed between the discovery of New Earth and the launch of Exodus One, but according to Martin Champion's fact file in AF2.02, New Earth was discovered in June 2006 and he and Lydia Perez were married in August. They were obviously not yet married at the end of this story, so which is right? [Note: For the purposes of the timeline, I've used the information in the fact file in AF2.02.]
3. Why did the colonists have to be put in suspended animation for their journey to New Earth? Atari Force never was while they traveled between universes.

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