Episode 81 of The Trigan Empire
The Skorpiads
aka De Skorpiads (Dutch title)
The Skorpiads (Dutch title, translated)
Written by Ken Roscoe
Illustrated by Gerry Wood
The Skorpiads was originally published in 14 instalments in issues 956 (5 July 1980) to 969 (4 October 1980) of Look and Learn magazine.
To date it has not been reprinted in English.
Plot summary
The alien Captain Dekko, whose stricken spaceship was rescued in the previous episode, had not told the Trigans that their spaceship had actually been shot down by the Skorpiads. The Skorpiads’ spaceship remained above Elekton to see what would happen to Dekko’s spaceship. They went into a low orbit and were in the wrong place when Dekko’s spaceship took off again. The spaceship escaped from the Skorpiads, who became furious.
They dropped crabrok capsules on Elekton. Janno is decorated for the deeds he performed to save the spaceship and Elekton. After that, he wants to go to Daveli to find Keren. When he arrives there, everyone has disappeared and he finds many dead monsters of Daveli. They appear to have died from burns. He sees a swarm of enormous crabroks flying overhead and flees into the jungle. The insects eat all the wood from the city. While Janno watches, new monsters from Daveli enter the city, but they are quickly killed by the insects. The insects spray them with acid. The insects discover Janno, who flees to his plane. He manages to take off, but one wing is hit by the acid. Despite the damage, he returns safely.
Together with Trigo, he goes to investigate. They fly into a swarm of insects with their plane, but they manage to escape. Trigo now believes that the insects exist. Peric examines the insects and discovers that they come from space. The insects are coming towards Trigan City. Janno takes off with a squadron of planes and manages to drive the insects back.
Peric comes up with a plan to lure the insects to the land of the zargots with wood. He thinks the zargots will be able to kill the insects. Janno flies to Daveli to lure the insects. They follow him to the plain of the zargots. Distracted by the wood, the insects stop. The zargots approach the insects and indeed can withstand the acid. They kill many insects. Peric realizes that the insects are the danger Dekko meant. He opens the back of the key, where a piece of paper comes out. He follows the instructions and arrives at an obelisk in the mountains.
The Trigans watched as the zargots destroyed the insects. They return to Trigan City and on the way encounter a group of Daveli warriors, including Keren. Keren tells Trigo that they wanted to flee into caves, but the caves were full of the insects’ nests. Together with Janno and Trigo, they go to the caves and begin destroying the insects’ nests with fire.
Peric finds an electronic projector in the obelisk, on which he sees how the Skorpiads breed the insects. Trigo and Peric realise that the insects are the weapon of the Skorpiads. They must destroy the queen egg. Janno and Keren discover a cave full of eggs. They need reinforcements to destroy the eggs. A squadron of hovertanks sets out with Trigo toward the caves. Keren and Janno discover a group of insects trying to carry away a huge egg. They destroy the egg and the insects. All the insects come after them and they are about to be overwhelmed, but thanks to the reinforcements from Trigo, they manage to destroy all the insects and their nests.
The Skorpiads who were hovering above Elekton are impressed by the Trigans. They leave and are determined to visit Elekton again.
Links
Plot summary (Dutch)