FBF - To The Death #10

Title: Tooth and Claw

Story by: Simon Furman

Art by: Geoff Senior

Letterer by: Martin Baines

Design by: Amazing15

Printed in the UK by: Mixam

Plot

At the Clouds taper, Veni crushes Dryagin's chest to try and kill him, however he stops when the Firedrake appears outside their window, blows out the glass and Bill proceeds to shoot through the Triumvirate. Dryagin gets up and vivisects Veni.
The remaining two try to grab him from behind, but Leone and Bette attack them in turn, Leone almost gets knocked out the now smashed windows, but Bette has her head crushed by Vici. Dryagin decapitates both of them, and sends their bodies plummeting down the building

Down below, King reports that the Asphodel weapon's defences are different to what they were expecting, so it'll take longer to disarm, all whilst the Dolmen are continuing to contact their homeworld...
The sky above the Cloudscraper turns dark as the evacuation Starliner hovers above it to pick up the rest of it's passengers.
Leone searches for a hidden switch in the room to find where the real Triumvirate are, since the ones they've killed were Simulacrums, whilst Lena talks to Dryagin, and tries to get him to leave it, and come with her, but he needs to finish this, since it's partly his fault that Asphodel was used for this weapon in the first place. Leone finds the switch and all the holograms in the room vanish, revealing a hidden staircase. Dryagin heads up, and orders Leone to join Lena and Bill in the Firedrake to escape and says goodbye to Leo too.
Dryagin makes it upstairs, and finds a stasis chamber with the Triumvirate's human bodies within, still living, and conscious. The roof opens and the Starliner abducts them to take them to the "New Earth".

Suddenly, the Dolmen portal opens above the Starliner, and a giant Asphodel dragon flies out of it.
Just as it appears, Flynn is rescued from the limo he was left in, and the Firedrake speeds away, just as King announces that he's disabled the weapon.
The giant dragon fires down, destroying the Starliner, the Cloudscraper and the ground around it before returning to Asphodel.
The Firedrake leaves the planet with its newly permanent residents.
Three Days later, Snow meets with "The Director" who has taken over the absence of Tri-Corp on Earth, but promised that she is still invested in Earth, unlike the Triumvirate, however, Snow can't hear her, as he has died from drinking poison, having completed his mission.

The Firedrake stop off on a planet to leave memorials for their fallen friends, before heading off for a new adventure, out in the stars...
Back on Earth, rescue work has begun on the crater where the Cloudscraper was when someone crawls out if the rubble, shocking a rescue worker, who tries to help the victim, however Killatoa, fully healed again, tears the poor human apart and starts crawling out of the crater, plotting his revenge on the Firedrake Crew....

Characters

Firedrake Crew

Aleksy Dryagin Killed in Cloudscraper Destruction
Diamond Bill
Leone
Bette Larsen Killed by Vici
Hash Flynn
Lena Dryagin
Leo Dryagin
Lupex, the Space Doggo

White Noise

"The Director"
Deacon Snow Poisoned to Death
Juddh King Likely Killed in Cloudscraper Destruction

Berenger Likely Killed in Cloudscraper Destruction
Forward/Tactical Bunker Staff

Tri-Corp

Veni/Beauregard Percy Simulacrum Destroyed by Dryagin, Real Body Killed in Cloudscraper Destruction
Vici/Sebastian Pelle Simulacrum Destroyed by Dryagin, Real Body Killed in Cloudscraper Destruction
Vidi/Lucius Warrender Simulacrum Destroyed by Dryagin, Real Body Killed in Cloudscraper Destruction
Killatoa
"The Chosen Few" (Implied) Killed in Starliner Explosion

Asphodel
Dolmen Trio Likely Killed in Cloudscraper Destruction
Asphodel Dragon

Other Human

Rescue Worker Michael McGarry Killed by Killatoa
Cloudscraper Rescue Workers
Cloudscraper Siege Livestream Audience
800,000 Casualties (Mentioned) Killed in Cloudscraper Destruction

Notes

• This marks the finale of To The Death, though the letter at the end mentions a future for this story, so we may get a  sequel down the line :)
• This issue does NOT have a character list at the start...this irks me....
• So Berenger survived last issue, despite how it looked...but I'm pretty certain he died this time....
• The original human bodies of the Triumvirate members are revealed to have been still alive, but in some sort of life support goop that allowed them to control the Simulacrum bodies...at least until the end of this issue...
• We dont know the "director's" name but it may be Baroque, based on her company name
• It's unclear is Snow poisoned himself, or was killed by the Director, but I believe it was suicide, as he feeling guilty about his actions with Asphodel and getting many people killed.
• The rescue worker killed by Killatoa at the end is based on  fan Michael McGarry, who won a contest on Simon Furman's website. I've decided to just name the character after him too, just for identity-sake.
• We don't see Killatoa's body too clearly at the end, but due to his apparent death last issue, and his call of "to the death" I'm going to guess that he took Dryagin's body for his own, just for future plot reasons