In the darkest recesses of the universe, lurks the Dread Phallinoid. Vast, grotesque, as ancient as the cosmos itself and utterly without mercy, the Phallinoid slumbers, out of sight and out of reach of all life… but every one hundred years a terrible hunger rises in the belly of the beast and it awakens - ready to feast!
There were ill portents on Frandor, heart of the old Arkadian Empire. First, a small crack had appeared on the surface of the sacred Crystal of Arkadon. Not long after came the second sign - on the forty-second day of Gamnox the Empress collapsed and passed into the blackest of comas. What could it mean? They were to find out all too soon. Seemingly out of nowhere, the Phallioid appeared in orbit of Frandor - the attack had begun! With his elite fighter pilots, the Drexxon (lead by legendary pilot Xameron Kopax), heading back from an assignment at the edge of the Frandorian system, the Emperor found he was powerless to defend the planet - he had no choice but to unleash the weapon of last resort: The Chronotron! With the Drexxon just about to enter the fray the weapon was detonated, stopping time across the star system, locking Frandor and the Phallinoid in an eternally frozen battle.
As the centuries passed and the Arkadian Empire crumbled, Frandor and the Phallinoid drifted into myth and legend, their location lost to the mysteries of time.
5000 years later, interplanetary grave robber Frax Strellium is drinking in the Argon Lounge on Lomar Hexis, when a mysterious job comes his way. He and his beautiful Quintarian navigator Axon are tasked to take their ship, the Novamax III, beyond the Outer Belt - into the mysterious beyond, where none have ever journeyed. Their destination? The lost world of Frandor! Joined by the mysterious and aloof Hexma Tran, assigned to them as an expert on the old Arkadian Empire, their voyage takes them through the deadly maelstrom of the Outer Belt, where the rules of time and space can flip at any second, all the way to the frozen horror of Frandor’s last stand. Once there, they are double-crossed by Hexma, an agent of a race that have been seeking the Phallinoid for millennia. Using fragments from the Crystal of Arkadon, she frees the Phallinoid and its deadly swarm of Phallinodes from the effects of the Chronotron - and the carnage begins again, but with the Frandorians frozen and utterly unable to defend themselves!
Scavenging some more fragments of the crystal, Frax and Axon find themselves engaged in breathless, deadly dogfights with the Phallinodes as they attempt to escape from the surface of the planet. Once free they seek out the Drexxon, who have remained frozen on the edge of the battle for 5000 years. Somehow Xameron Kopax’s mind remained unaffected by the Chronotron and over the passage of millennia he has developed psychic powers with which he communicates with Axon. By adapting the Novamax’s torpedo matrix, Frax and Axon are able to revive Xameron and two other pilots. The fighters take the battle to the ghastly Phallinoid, whilst the Novamax III undertakes a daring raid on the planet’s surface to recover as much of the Crystal as they can.
Savagely wounding the Phallinoid, the Drexxon are able to lure the great beast into the chaos of the Outer Belt, but at the cost of two of the pilots - only Xameron remains! As the Dread Phallinoid begins to suck his ship into its vast, horrible mouth, a sudden cascade of laser fire frees him - it is the Novamax and the rest of the Drexxon, newly revived by Frax and Axon! Together they are able to overwhelm the beast while a deadly flux continuum opens up in the Belt, pulling it in. The Drexxon break free of the Belt, but the Novamax is being pulled in with the Phallinoid, until some quick thinking from Frax inverts the gravitational forces around them and propels them free at the exact moment that the arcane beast implodes!
With Frandor being slowly rebuilt and revived, Xameron is elected as the new King, replacing the fallen Emperor. He asks Frax to stay with him and lead his new military forces, but Frax declines. Axon chooses to stay however - as Xameron’s new Queen. With their psychic connection they have fallen hopelessly in love, much to Frax’s annoyance. Given a large send-off by the Frandorians, Frax bids them all farewell and begins the long journey back to Lomar Hexis, to finish the drink he had just ordered when this whole adventure began.
In the darkest, bleakest recesses of the ancient universe, lurks the Dread Phallinoid. Relentlessly, it strives to sate its
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