This book is a weird one. I started many The Gun stories which I never finished, and to be fair, this should really have been one of them. It has loads of staples in it, because I kept adding more pages at different times (and I didn't realise, back then, that staplers also have an un-stapler on the back of them). It never describes where this story is set (not that the locations are very realistically depicted, anyway). In the ill-fated re-makes (take one) it was going to be Pakistan, but I think the first version was supposed to be in The Grand Canyon. Anyway, This story was actually based on a battle I acted out with toy soldiers one fun afternoon in the conservatory, which had lots of old chests of drawers and wardrobes in it at the time, doubling up as cliff faces.
The story begins with Gunn flying a reconnisance mission in an odd-looking plane that was based on, of all things, a garden trowel. A computerised voice says "missiles launched", and Gunn gets blown out of the sky by one of those stupid 'Triangle missiles', which featured so heavily in the early stories. He comes around upside down, inside a net which is held up by a tame "zombie". There's two pairs of feet, and a voice saying "shall I kick him again?". This was lifted directly from the 2000AD strip Outlaw.
Meanwhile, a bunch of Wolf Force soldiers are preparing to attack the canyon. A commander called Rik can be seen (didn't he die in book 4? its even weirder because book 4 was made after this one). He is ordering some "Micro Tanks" around, the Micro tank was an idea I had for a small one-man tank that's little bigger than a small car like a Ford Fiesta, but with heavy armour, tracks and a Minigun on it, which is controlled by one person.
Up on a cliff, a sniper is spying on the enemy base. He spots a fat Stealth Force soldier with a Hitler moustache. Somebody on the radio tries to stop him firing, but I guess he couldn't resist blowing away "Hitler". The shot echoes round the canyon and prematurely alerts the Stealth Force soldiers to the coming attack. One of the "small queens" from book 4, and some Jetpack soldiers (it appears that they can, indeed, "fly now"), take off to defend the base, and find the sniper!
The sniper fires at one jetpack, and somehow hits a human-sized object going at 600mph (that's how fast the jetpacks went, funny what little details you remember isn't it?). The jetpack explodes and the pilot drops out of the air with smoke coming off him. Some bloke runs into battle with a UZI going "Gedem", bullet casings flying everywhere. A tank with mounted rocket launchers fires a couple of rockets at massed Stealth Force soldiers on a cliff, blasting them off it. A Wolf Force guy jumps out from behind something with two machine guns and starts blazing away, with more shell casings flying all over the place.
Back in Gunn's cell, an enemy officer comes in and says "Well Mr Gunn, your friends have caused trouble", before dramatically cocking his huge, fancy gun and adding "But NO MORE!". This guy is never seen again. Gunn adds "Theyl come for me", probably in his best Clint Eastwood impression. Back at the main battle, two Stealth force soldiers finally locate the sniper and shoot at him. The sniper gets hit, but fires one more time and hits another jet pack, the pilot drops out of the air smoking again. One of the Stealth Force queens is hovering over the battle, it's pilot says "More enemies coming!". The the guy in the forward turret (with four machine guns, and some terrible attempts at perspective) yells "Get em!" and blasts away. A Wolf Force soldier gets hit several times, and blood sprays out of him like silly string (this frame needs to be seen to be believed). Another guy takes cover and yells "Get a Scud here, now!" into a radio. At the time, I thought "Scud" was a generic term for big, truck-launched ballistic missiles. Also, the guy intends for the big, truck-launched ballistic missile to be used as an anti-aircraft weapon!
Gunn, still hanging upside down in a cell, says "I can use the battle as cover", it took him that long to think of an idea like that? Outside, an out-of-control jetpack crashes into a small queen, the "Bam" looks more like "8am". Back inside, Gunn is hoisting himself up and undoing the locks on his feet, he escapes them rather easily. He reaches over for The Gun and his helmet (how did they, and him for that matter, survive the plane crash?), but a guy with a HUGE head and a really small gun comes in going "Stop!". A bizarre bit of arty-farty crap shows the barrel of The Gun, and the silhouette of the guy being hit, at the same time. Gunn walks out of the room and The Gun says "Welcome back"... never mind "they fly now", apparently The Gun TALKS now! (I likely ripped this idea off a comic called Rogue Trooper, as published in... oh, go on, have a guess!)
Outside, the Scud-like missile has arrived and is fired at one of the small queens, which is fortunately hovering right above it. Inside, some Aliens-like sentry guns are guarding a hallway, Gunn chucks in a rock and it gets blasted by thousands of bullets. He sets the grenade launcher to fire a 'bounce grenade', the display shows that it carries 7 different types of grenade, including "Hiel Hitler" (meaning it makes a powerful explosion so is "bad"!), "Smoke", and "Laserblock" (gas that blocks laser detector things, or something). Although the launcher is the size of a tube of pringles, it somehow stores all these, and the firing mechanisms, and the electronics for the display screen. And a sword as well, don't forget! Anyway, he fires a bounce grenade, which boings around the corridor too fast for the sentry guns to shoot, and blows them up.
Gunn walks out of one of the secret doors, onto one of many clifftop ledges. One of the jetpack soldiers lands next to him, going "Hey, you!". Gunn kicks him over the edge of the cliff, while also grabbing his jetpack. Gunn puts on the jetpack and flies away, meanwhile another guy falls off his as it starts to burn. It flies into the air and explodes, the explosion is seen by a far-away Stealth Force soldier, who mistakes it for a signal calling for reinforcements.
Gunn swoops into battle, and we now see Wolf Force F-117s have joined in, and are dogfighting the jetpacks, they seem to only be using scatter machine guns, and not missiles. A Wolf Force pilot somehow notices Gunn is flying one of the jetpacks (can he see his name badge when they are both moving at several hundred miles per hour?), conveniently explaining the lack of friendly-fire. Suddenly the big queen from book 4 appears, except it's stripy and has eyes cartoon eyes and a shark-like mouth painted on it. You know, just like a bee. Gunn shoots a jetpack's wing with his own jetpack, and it goes flying off in a random pattern (this happened a lot in the battle I acted out with toy soldiers, because its cool. Rather difficult to depict in a static comic page, though). One of the 'star destroyer' queens is flying over the battlefield, in a scene similar to the AT-AT sequence of The Empire Strikes Back. Suddenly the randomly-flying jetpack crashes into it and explodes, the pilot survives and slides off the side, still burning. Gunn is making his way through the battle when his fuel starts running low. He can see the damaged queen struggling to stay in the air behind the large one, so he jumps off the jetpack screaming "Ditchin'!" I put my signature at the bottom of this frame because I thought it looked cool. He grabs onto a convenient ladder handle on the big queen, the jetpack carries on and slams into the damaged one.
Gunn clambers out of a floor hatch inside the queen. Up on the 'bridge' the pilot says an enemy queen can be seen, so fires the missiles out of the Wings at it. Inside, Gunn shoots a few people, but is spotted on the security cameras. Two guys (one with a stupid beard) come after him, one gets shot, but Gunn pauses to see the Wolf Force queen (it looks like my very original conception for them... when The Gun was still just a game I played in the garden... this is the only appearance of the "original design" in the comics!) get hit. He is looking out of the window, and the reflection of it burning and falling out of the sky can be seen in the window, I signed this frame, too.
The final page looks very rushed, it was probably done at a time when I wasn't that interested in drawing comics. I think I just wanted to get another book "done" so I could fill in a gap in the continuity. You know, what with this thing's intricate ongoing plot. Gunn stands in the cargo hold going "Gotta wreck this!" he opens a crate next to him and finds loads and loads of C4 plastic explosives. The guy with the stupid beard (and now huge feet) comes in going "Don't move!" Gunn pulls the clip out of his gun, going "Look, no ammo", then fires the flame thrower going "For the gun", that sequence was stupid then and is worse now!
He sticks a timed detonator into the C4 and flies out of the window, on a jetpack he must have found JUST LAYING AROUND, the dog-fighting jetpacks and stealth fighters in the background are now just drawn as triangles, a real sign of laziness. The Queen explodes and Gunn walks across the battlefield, some guy comes up and goes "Great work sarge!" Gunns wise-cracking comment? "I know", WHAT an ending eh?
A final note about this story is that it doesn't contain a single "Urg", some of the other sounds people make when they die in this one include "Ak", "Uk", "Aark" and "Wagle". That last one being the silly string blood guy.
