FBF - To The Death #2

Title: Severance

Story: Simon Furman

Art: Geoff Senior

Letterer: Martin Baines

Designer: Amazing15

Printer: Mixam

Plot

The Triumvirate hold a meeting to discuss a mini-revolution at a mining facility on the Moon, but due to most of their military forces being off-world, they need someone to deal with it...when they remember that a military team IS nearby...

At Mercy Spaceport, the crowds are excitedly waiting for the Pacifiers to return, when one of them, a disguised Juddh King receives a call from his associate, Deacon Snow, informing him of the sniper waiting to kill Dryagin upon arrival. King goes in disguise and heads to the sniper's location

On the Firedrake, Dryagin is working out, when he is interrupted by the holograms of the Triumvirate, who order him to lead his team to the Moon and liberate the facility from "terrorists", in exchange they will give his team some extra pay...

Back on Earth, the Triumvirate confirm their stay of execution for Dryagin, but decide to still kill his family, as that order has already been given.

Soon, at the Dryagin Ranch, Lena is furious that Aleksy is going to be late home due to this new mission, and the two argue over the holo-communicators , but Lupex, the family dog keeps barking at something, leading to the communication cutting out. Lena tries to find out what happened, but is unaware that a man is standing behind her...

On the Firedrake, Aleksy tries to re-establish communication, but there's nothing wrong with their equipment, so it must be Earth-side...

The jets fly towards the Ranch and detonate their payloads in the building, incinerating it, leading the skeletal remains of a woman holding her child....

At Mercy Spaceport, the sniper is approached, and shot by King. They originally planned to recover Aleksy and his team as well, but have now learned that they have been redirected to the Moon for a mission...complicating their plans.

The Firedrake arrives at the Moon, and prepare to raid the mining facility to liberate it from the "terrorists", all whilst being recorded and shown to the people of Earth too. Bill and Larssen remain on the Firedrake to run the ship, whilst the rest of the team land on the Moon and easily get inside the facility, where they quickly discover that the "terrorists" are just the miners, staff and families who were stationed there, simply protesting their treatment at the facility.

On Earth, some of the viewers are recruited to control some robotic soldiers and are encouraged to attack and kill the Pacifiers for a reward, which they happily try to do!

Elsewhere on Earth, Lena wakes up in a cell, where she is greeted by a man who refuses to show himself, he has abducted her, Leo and their dog to keep them safe from the Triumvirate as they want them dead for some reason...

On the Moon, the Pacifiers quickly realize that they have been lied to and set up by the Triumvirate, and learn that the ships that attacked them before they were sent on this mission are approaching them too...the team suit up and prepare to fight their way out of the facility....and get home to their families.....

Characters

Pacifiers

Aleksy Dryagin/Komodo

Hash Flynn

Leone Shot in Arm by a Brood-Class

Jonas Huey

Josiah Kraken

Megan Umber

Dolan Rekt

Bette Lawson

Diamond Bill

Triumvirate

Veni

Vidi

Vici

Other Human

Juddh King

Deacon Snow

Lena Dryagin Abducted by Snow

Leo Dryagin Abducted by Snow

Lemuel Hemmingway

The Sniper Killed by King

Luna-9 Staff, Miners and Families

Brood-Class Cyber Warrior Operators

Hope Resettlement Camp Bar Patrons

Dryagin's Fans

Mercy Spaceport Security

Other

Lupex, the Doggo (Heard)

Varos (Mentioned)

Notes

• My biggest wish for a comic have been granted in this issue...IT COMES WITH A CAST LIST AT THE START!!! I don't need to keep character notes to remember names now!!! YAY!!!
• The moustached man I couldn't identify last issue is called Dolan Rekt by the way. Maybe this is more evidence of computer games being important in this future?
• This issue begins before the last couple of pages of the previous issue, before the missiles attack the Dryagin Ranch 
• According to the "advertisement" in this issue, the main resource that is used on Earth and is being harvested from other planets is Helium, which was exhausted as a natural resource on Earth decades ago in universe.
• Juddh King (and presumably others) use holograms to disguise themselves as others, seemingly by superimposing an image of someone else over themselves and moving in time with the hologram. When he kills the sniper, the sniper's face seems to vanish, so he most likely has the same device in effect.
• The Triumvirate  is revealed to be the heads of "The Energy Corp", a company that controls entertainment, energy and arms. We can assume that (from the name) it began as an energy company, but branched out over time
• Unless they are just unnaturally tall, we can assume that the Triumvirate enlarged their holograms when talking to Dryagin, in order to intimidate him
• We learn here that Aleksy has been on duty for Leo's entire life and hasn't really met his son before, he took the job with the Pacifiers to pay their bills.
• Adding to the theme of this future being de-sensitised to violence and being obsessed with computer games (which are being taught in schools now remember) we have people watching the team's missions and hoping to see death, and even volunteering to control remote soldiers to try and kill them as well.