episode written by Mark Edens and Richard Mueller

Quick summary: A mission for Marsh and Marsala to deliver an e-frame repair specialist to the resistance in Maine results in Marsh crashing in New York City and Marsala's capture by Galba. Livia sends some of the third generation Neo warriors to capture Marsh for Phaeton. Marsh runs into an old cabbie named Sidney, who helps him around. Marsh is able to dispose of the feline Neo warriors while on foot, but is given bigger problems by a winged one named Kor. Kor captures Sidney, but Marsh saves him and outflys the eagle warrior to defeat him. Galba injects Marsala with something that causes him to lose consciousness, and Galba tells Livia he is dead.

Significant events, revelations, and other notes:

• Marsala is captured, and Galba wants Livia to believe he is dead.
• Whatever resistance group was in Maine that was supposed to receive Sgt. Felson still needs someone to fix stolen Neo e-frames.
• A traitor exists in the Maine resistance.
• Marsh escapses from his predicament.
• Thrax is once again a Neo e-frame squad leader. Apparently being on Draconis' execution list won Phaeton's favor once he discovered Draconis' treachery.
• No resistance exists in New York City. Apparently the Terrans there have organized into scavenger bands, but only to find food or survival supplies.
• Was there once a resistance cell in New York City, and it simply got destroyed or absorbed into one of a nearby city? How many major cities lack resistance movements?

Great Quotes:

• During the Neo ambush, Marsala exhibits calmness and coolness:
  Felson: "Look out! They're right behind us!"
  Marsala: "I am aware of that Sergeant."
  Marsh: "Marsala, there's too many of them!"
  Marsala: "I quite agree."

• Marsh: "Is there a safe place we can go?"
  Sidney: "Safe? In New York?"

• After the Neo warrior tries to lure Marsh out by threatening to kill Sidney:
  Sidney: "He doesn't even know me."
  Kor: "I know how Terrans think."
  Sidney: "You know Terrans, you ganif? What am I, chopped liver?"

• Kor, after waiting what he feels was long enough for Marsh to try to save Sidney:
  "He will not sacrifice himself for you. You were right. Congratulations." (pushes Sidney off building)

Long Synopsis: provided by Wayne Wirfs (retribution17@hotmail.com)

The episode opens in Earth orbit above the Atlantic Ocean, before dawn. A Pirate pilot tells J. T. that there is a storm over the Grand Banks (region in the North Atlantic, lying off southeastern Newfoundland, Canada). She says they couldn't ask for better cover.

"Good, bring us in as close as you can. We'll land and take it from there."

In the hanger bay J. T. is framing up. Marsala is with him in his own two-seat e-frame. Marsala asks Sergeant Felsen, an e-frame repair tech, if all his equipment is ready. Felsen says he's double-checked everything and comments that he's going to be down in the woods a long time repairing captured Neo e-frames for The Resistance. Countering that comment Marsala says the war might be over before they knew it. Felsen sighs, "Let's hope so."

"Ready Marsala?" J.T. asks. Marsala's cyberlink plugs in. "Ready to launch on your mark," Marsala responds.

The Pirate ship's hanger bay door opens and Marsala and J. T. begin their drop through the storm clouds. Thrax appears out of nowhere, in his new e-frame, other e-frames behind him. "Our information was correct," he begins, "Assume attack formation."

J. T. spots them on his radar, radios to Marsala about the "bandits," and tells him to break left. Marsala says he sees them and tells Sergeant Felsen to prepare himself. Marsala does a continuous barrel roll, while firing his dual rear-blasters. He shoots one down and tags another, which causes that e-frame to fall into the ocean and explode. Three e-frames chase Marsala. Felsen tells Marsala that they are right behind them. Sounding annoyed Marsala tells Felsen that he is aware of that. Marsala succeeds in destroying another e-frame, two still in pursuit, with reinforcements in the vicinity.

"Marsala, there's too many of them!" shouts J. T.

"I quite agree."

J. T. tells Marsala to cloak and lay low; he will try and draw their fire. Marsala says understood, cloaks, and tells J. T. good luck.

Thrax sees Marsala disappear and stops his pursuit. He tells Units Two and Six to remain on station and continue the search. The rest are to follow him. Marsala de-cloaks and heads for the coast of Maine.

J. T. is then seen flying through the clouds for cover. Thrax comments on this and says that he is a clever pilot. Thrax spots J. T. coming out of a cloud and tells the other Neos he has visual conformation of the target, and to follow on his lead.

Shots fly past J. T., who is practically skimming the water at this point. He sees New York and decides to take cover there, versus engaging his pursuers.

A Neo e-frame fires three rockets after Marsh. One collides with a bridge supporter. J. T. flies through suport columns on a building. A rocket hits one of the columns but the last gets through. J. T. looks behind him to see how many are left. When he looks forward he sees he is heading straight for a dirt and garbage mound at least thirty feet high. He pulls up to fly over and the rocket explodes at the base of the mound. The compression wave knocks J. T.'s frame out of control. He crashes through a building and falls three stories, landing on his back.

He opens up and steps out. His frame is pretty busted up and will need repairs. He runs towards a building and hides under the stairs. Five Terrans appear, walking side-by-side. One Terran grabs J. T.'s fusion pack. Two Neo e-frames flash their lights on the crash and see the Terran with the fusion pack run into an alley. The Neo tells the Terran that he cannot hide a fusion pack, and follows the Terran into the alley. A shot rings out and the Neo e-frame reappears, the pilot now holding J. T.'s fusion pack. He flies over to Thrax and tells him that a Terran scavenger had the ExoFleet pilot's fusion pack and that he cannot fly without it. Thrax comments that J. T. was a good pilot and that is was a shame he did not go down by their guns, because the Terrans that dwell in New York will now get him.

J. T. comes out of hiding after Thrax and the others leave. He walks over to his e-frame to inspect it and notices his fusion pack is gone.

"Well, guess I'm a foot soldier from now on," says J. T., as he draws out his hand blaster.

The scene switches to the coast of Maine, in the evening. Marsala is coming up on the landing zone. A Terran on the ground with binoculars is searching the skies for the awaited ExoFleet e-frame. As he sees Marsala's e-frame he draws back into the woods. Marsala uses a light on his e-frame to find the clearing to land. He spots it and lands, engaging his cloaking device once he touches down.

The Terran with the binoculars comes out of hiding and tells the ExoFleet personnel that they took their sweet time. Marsala then de-cloaks and jumps out of his e-frame.

"Mr. Turner?" Marsala asks.

"Yeah, I'm Turner."

"I assume you have secured the area?" Marsla asks, Felsen now standing behind Marsala.

"Oh it's secure alright," Turner responds while backing into the woods. He then turns around and runs.

Marsala yells, "It's a trap!" and Felsen and him run back to Marsala's e-frame. Two Neosapien e-frames shine their light on the two as they run. Marsala stops to throw a grenade at one of the e-frames. The other gets off two stun shots, J. T. and Felsen fall to the ground. Galba tells them to bring the two to his headquarters. The scene exits and opens up at Phaeton's headquarters beneath Phaeton City. He is in his exo-suit that allows him to maintain his physical integrity, sitting in "The Thinker" position. His chamber doors open and Livia walks in. She says that one of their patrols encountered two Terran e-frames over the Atlantic Ocean. She then goes on saying one e-frame crew was captured and that the other was shot down over New York City. He hasn't been found but his fusion pack was recovered.

"I did not make you Governor General of Earth so you could waste time with trivial details."

Livia explains, "The name on the fusion pack was J. T. Marsh."

"Marsh!" Phaeton exclaims, "I want him captured! Fate has placed him again in my hands. This time he must not escape!"

"I have sent a special force to hunt down Marsh," Livia says. The scene fades out to New York City. A Neosapien is crouching on a rooftop. He has feathered wings. He stands up and Livia's voice continues, "A third generation of Neo warriors. The most deadly predators ever created." The new Neo warrior caws like an eagle and jumps off the building.

J. T. is seen fixing his e-frame. The sun starts to appear and J. T. comments on it. He then starts covering his e-frame with cardboard boxes and garbage from the mound he crashed into (these dirt/garbage mounds appear to be common throughout the streets of New York City). J. T. is throwing the final touches on when he hears "So, your first time in New York?" J. T. spins around, blaster drawn, to see a Terran standing in an opening to an alleyway.

"I knew it. I can always spot a tourist," the man continues, showing no signs of concern over the blaster pointed at him, "Welcome to The Big Apple. What you need is a guide, someone to show you around.

The name's Sidney. Go money-better yet, got any food?"

"Food? Yeah, here," J. T. says. He tosses a ration bar to Sidney. "What I really need is a fusion pack. I think I can get my e-frame flying again if I have power."

Sidney, while chewing on a bite of the ration bar sarcastically asks, "What am I, a hardware store?"

Just then the Neo bird warrior flies overhead and caws. Sidney and J. T. just hear the caw, which Sidney thinks is strange because he hasn't heard a bird in New York for over a year. He finishes the bar and tells J. T. that even the pigeons are gone now.

J. T. asks him if there is a safe place they could go to. "Safe? In New York?" humorously replies Sidney. J. T. pushes Sidney around and heads him into an alley because he wants to get cover now that the sun is up.

Four new Neo warriors round the corner where J. T. and Marsh just were. The Neo warriors are engineered to look and have the attributes of a cat, but are standing upright. They sniff the ground for scent trails.

J. T. and Sidney have picked up the pace, but do not know about the Neos. Sidney trips on the sidewalk. J. T. helps him standup. "Not the way I planned on spending my retirement," says Sidney, breathing hard.

J. T. hears a hiss and turns around just in time to see a Neo cat jump up and over a dirt mound. He takes it down with a few quick shots to the chest.

"Neos! Run for it!" J. T. yells. They both start to run away.

A pursuing Neo cat raises its hand. J. T. and Sidney run through a door. The Neo cat that has its hand raised shoots its claws from its fingers and they land inches from Sidney and J. T., just as they pass through the door. Another Neo cat tosses two grenades into the building. J. T. hears the them land with their typical "clank." "Grenades!" he exclaims. Both him and Sidney jump out the building's windows, and the grenades explode as they hit the ground. They get up and continue to run.

The Neo bird is then seen cawing into a radio. A Neo cat listens to their orders. He relays them to the other Neo cats. It appears the orders are to split up, as they soon do.

Sidney and J. T. are still running, but Sidney is falling behind. He calls to J. T., "I gotta stop. I can't run anymore." J. T. stops and waits for Sidney to catch up. "Come on Sidney. We got to keep moving."

"We lost those things. You say they're Neosapiens? I never saw any Neos like that before."

"I have," replies J. T., referring to an earlier conflict in Canberra, Australia. He looks around. "Get down!" he tells Sidney, pushing Sidney and himself to the ground. A Neo cat jumps out of an alley and launches its claws at J. T. J. T. picks up a piece of wood and intercepts the claws with it. The Neo cat lunges towards Marsh; J. T. uses his wrist blaster to kill the Neo cat in mid-air. J. T. walks over to it and takes its grenade, adding, "Mind if I borrow these?"

Three Neo cats round the corner. J. T. chucks two grenades, one after the other, back at them and then continues to run again. While J. T. Was using his incendiary devices Sidney runs ahead and opens a manhole. J. T. catches up. Sidney tells J. T. he knows a shortcut and both head down into the sewers. While they're making their way through the sewers Sidney comments that maybe they won't have to run too much.

Sidney stops and turns around to face the following Marsh. "You know, I'm not-"

"As young as you used to be," finishes J. T.

"Ah, I was never that young."

J. T. hears splashing water from whence they came. The Neo cats are still in pursuit. "Hurry!" commands J. T. Sidney heads up a ladder to the surface, while J. T. time-sets a few grenades-a trap for the Neos. J.T. climbs out and replaces the manhole cover. Sidney begins to run away but J. T. tells him to wait. A Neo cat lifts its head up out of the manhole. J. T. fires a few shots to keep the Neos from coming out. The three Neos each grab a grenade, preparing for a rush-attack (I assume). Apparently orders of "Marsh is to be brought back to Phaeton alive" were never given to them.

The grenades J. T. left sound their alarms and go off. The Neo cats hear them but it is too late. The grenades explode and the manhole cover is blown into the air. A few seconds later it lands a foot from J. T. and Sidney. "Now we can go," J. T. explains.

J. T. follows Sidney into a skyscraper. The Neo bird is still in pursuit. The building appears to be a fancy hotel or apartment complex.

"This is where I live," Sidney tells J. T., "I couldn't afford it before the war."

J. T. tells Sidney that he needs to contact The Resistance. Sidney tells J. T. that there is no resistance in New York, just people trying to survive.

J. T.'s radio goes off. He takes it from his belt to listen. A voice comes through. It is the Neo bird. "Terran, I am Kor, a Neosapien warrior. I was created to destroy you. We have your fusion pack. Your exo-frame cannot save you-you cannot escape."

"Is there anyone who isn't out to get you?" asks Sidney.

J. T. tells Sidney he has to get out of New York and reach The Resistance. He says Kor will call in reinforcements and surround the building. He asks Sidney for help, and in return he will take him to safety, The Resistance, or even Venus.

"Who am I supposed to know on Venus?" Sidney asks. He goes on to say that he couldn't live anywhere else but New York, and humorously adds that he would miss the nightlife.

"Kor's only after me. You should be able to escape, once I'm gone," J. T. tells Sidney.

"Hey, wait a minute. Did I say no?" He turns around and starts to walk, "I'm gonna feel like such a schlemiel in the morning."

He takes off the cloth-cover to his taxi, the last one in New York according to him. J. T. asks him if it still runs. With pride Sidney replies that it has a rechargeable fusion battery. J. T. gets in the back while Sidney also gets in and starts the Taxi. "Buckle up, it could be a bumpy ride." J. T. buckles up. "You're the first fare I've had in two years," Sidney says as he resets his meter, "I hope you're a big tipper."

And they are off-to take J. T. out of New York and to The Resistance. Kor sees them leave the building and follows them.

While flying through the city J. T. is surprised by the devastation. "I knew Chicago was hit hard, but it's nothing compared to this."

"If you think this is bad you should see the Bronx."

Sidney flies through and over debris, without slowing down. J. T. tells Sidney he would make a good pilot, but Sidney says no thanks, he has enough excitement in his life.

Kor then collides with Sidney's cab. His talons rip through the top of the roof. Marsh shoots up at Kor with his hand blaster. In the excitement the left side of the taxi collides with the side of a building, knocking out most of the glass on that side. The taxi is still going on strong while J. T. and Kor fight it out. The taxi again collides with a building. The roof comes off and in the process it hits J. T.'s shoulder. His hand blaster falls to the ground.

"Twenty years on the streets of New York and not a scratch, and now this!" complains Sidney.

J. T. has knocked Kor off and tells Sidney to step on it. J. T. takes out his grenades and starts chucking them unsuccessfully at Kor. Kor flies in and grabs Sidney, then flies away. J. T. grabs the controls from the back seat and crashes into the second floor of a department building. J. T. climbs out and rests himself against a wall. He turns on his radio. "Marsh," Kor starts, "I have the old Terran. Surrender or I will send the old man down to you, alone."

J. T. doesn't respond and takes the fusion battery out of the taxi.

"Answer me Marsh! Your life for the old man's?"

"He doesn't even do me," comments Sidney as he looks down at the street.

"I know how Terrans think." replies Kor.

"You know Terrans, you ganif?! What am I, chopped liver?"

J. T. is running back to his e-frame, fusion battery still in is hands. Kor tells J. T. his is losing patience and that he must surrender, but J. T. continues to ignore him. He gets to his e-frame and uncovers it. Two Terrans come out from an alleyway and attack J. T. He makes short work of them and inserts the fusion battery into his e-frame. "I know you don't have a tenth of the power in a fusion pack-just get me in the air." J. T. jacks in and the e-frame takes off.

Kor has grown tired of waiting for Marsh. He picks up Sidney. "He will not sacrifice himself for you. You were right. Congratulations," Kor tells Sidney, then throws him off the skyscraper. Halfway down Marsh catches Sidney with an e-frame arm (which must have hurt Sidney).

"Going up?" J. T. asks Sidney.

Kor is outraged and flies after Marsh. J. T. quickly drops off Sidney. Sidney wants to get out of there but J. T. says he can't outrun Kor on battery power, but then says he might be able to out fly him. Kor swoops down and knocks J. T. on his face. His windshield is now busted. J. T. gets up and flies away. A cat and mouse game ensues through New York City, but J. T. decides to head out for Liberty Island. J. T. is holding his last grenade. "Looks like I only get one shot at this," he says, flying up towards the Statue of Liberty's torch. He tosses the grenade at it and the grenade rests there. "I gotta time it just right," says J. T., as he circles the statue.

J. T. flies by the torch again, Kor still behind him. The grenade goes off and the debris causes Kor to lose control of his flying. Then the fist of the statue hits him and both fall to the ocean. The fist's weight must be too much for Kor, because he does not get free.

J. T. flies to face the Statue of Liberty. " Sorry old girl," apologizes J. T., "but it was for good cause. I know you understand."

J. T. flies back to Sidney. J. T. says he can take him out of New York, or at least as far as the fusion battery will take them.

"You know, I meant it when I said I couldn't live anywhere else. I want to be here when this city starts to live gain."

They shake hands.

"Good luck Sidney."

"Likewise my friend."

At Niagara Falls there is a small Neosapien observation building right at the falloff.

Inside Sergeant Felsen and Marsala are restrained to individual beds. White sheets cover them from foot to neck. Marsala awakes, and tries to break the restraints. A door opens and Galba walks in. Marsala asks him if Sergeant Felsen is alright. Galba says he is merely stunned and because of superior Neosapien breeding he woke more quickly. Galba asks Marsala if he is from the ExoFleet.

"Marsala. Lieutenant. EFN-269-"

Galba cuts him off by injecting a drug into him. Marsala immediately losses consciousness. Livia walks in and asks Galba if the captured ExoFleet officers have been interrogated.

"You may subject the human to your interrogating. I'm afraid the Neosapien traitor won't be answering any questions, ever," Galba replies, covering Marsala's head with the white sheet.

The episode list