Issue 3 - The Flight of the Albatross

Memoranda To: United Nations Security Council From: General Steven Q. McFarland, M.C.C. Subject: Overlord and the Black Widows

More and more information is rapidly becoming declassified concerning the reprehensible terrorists who have appropriated the area we have come to know as the SPIRAL ZONE. I'm speaking specifically of Overlord and his henchmen who call their strike team "The Black Widows."

As you may know, is is our great shame that this "Overlord" as he calls himself, Dr. James Bent, is a local product. This may sound to an outsider like 20/20 hindsight, but my observation is, I always knew this man was going to be trouble. The only question was how much trouble.

Dr. Bent came to work at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Military Research Space Facility with quite a background: Ph.D.s in genetics, pharmacology and psychology from Stanford at the age of 23. He received his Ph.D. in quantum physics two years later. In retrospect, it's easy to see the seeds of a more sinister purpose being sown in this fertile mind.

His mad and grandiose plan to enslave the entire world under the guise of bringing it a new order was hatched during these years. His odyssey during this time was unprecedented: he defected to the Soviet Union, then returned to America and was actually welcomed back to the fold, albeit somewhat suspiciously.

You already know what happened soon after. The SPIRAL ZONE. The purpose of this memo is no to rehash the past, however. Instead, let us look at the background of Overlord's Black Widows.

The man known as Bandit once held another alias. We do not know his true name, but he was once recognized by the world as "Carlos," an international terrorist. All the information to date on Carlos is extremely sketchy. As far as our research indicates, he was raised by roving desert bandits, soon becoming their leader, hence his later adopted name. He speaks several languages, and is a master of disguise. Only a handful of photographs of him exist and we cannot even be sure they are all of the same person.

After leaving the desert bandits because of this overwhelmingly inflated ambitions, he learned the tactics of terrorism, studying the strategies of such groups as Black September, and even joining a few loosely knit terrorist organizations. Most notably, he headed the SKR, the group who claimed responsibility for the Matte Grosso Affair of 1990, the Ossetian Military Road Attack of 1996, and the dawn raid at the NATO HQ at Izmir, Turkey, of 2004. In the last of these, rumor had it that Carlos had been killed.

Not so. Carlos later resurfaced as the supervising military strategist in the Desert Wards, where he first went up against Commander Dirk Courage. He lost a critical battle to Courage, one in which Carlos' brother was killed. Carlos swore to avenge his brother's death, and has since undertaken a personal vendetta against Commander Courage.

Carlos later joined forces with Overlord, and as a measure of respect for Carlos' estimable expertise in warfare, he made Carlos his second-in-command. It is at this point that Carlos took "Bandit" as his nom de guerre.

The Black Widow who called himself Reaper, formerly known as Matthew Riles, was born to a wealthy family in Denver, Colorado. His family's money made it possible for him to graduate high school without a police record.

His superior intellect and his father's political pull gained him an appointment to West Point, where it was hoped that military discipline would straighten him out.

No such luck. Disciplined several times for various infractions, he was court-martialed and expelled after two and a half years there. He was sentenced to fourteen years in Leavenworth Federal Prison for forcing a plebe into a game of Russian Roulette with a laser pistol. Fortunately for his intended victim, other cadets intervened in time.

Riles had no intention of serving one day of his sentence. While being transported to Leavenworth, he caused the pneumatic tube train carrying him to crash, and escaped in the confusion. He fled the country and became a mercenary, selling his services to the highest bidder.

He became the highest paid mercenary in the world, recruiting and training armies as well as fighting among them.

Reaper deeply resents the fact that he was not made Overlord's second-in-command. He feels that this is an oversight that can be corrected, however.

Al Krak, a.k.a. Razorback, was a street tough during his early years on the streets of Newark and New York City. By the age of fourteen, he had spent most of his life in reform schools. A few years later, he rose to the command of a street gang known as the Laughing Gentlemen.

After retreating from particularly vicious street brawl on his turbo-chopper, Krak collided with a speeding bullet train, and spent the next six months recuperating from extensive reconstructive surgery. His face still bears the evidence of the accident.

Krak has a rap sheet a mile long, filled with arrests for assault, battery, robbery, carrying a concealed weapon, extortion, arson and other related charges. He has few convictions: the result of witnesses being afraid to testify against him.

Razorback has one outstanding trait: a fascination and skill devoted to blades of any sort. He kept an arsenal of blades collected from all over the world. They have become his trademark. He can throw blades with frightening pinpoint accuracy. He is also formidable in hand-to-hand combat.

Duchess Dire, the only female member of the Black Widows, attended some of the finest schools in the world; notably in Switzerland, Sweden, France and her native England. She was generally expelled from all of them.

When she was old enough, she quit school altogether and embarked on a journey around the world. She was always bored, and turned to crime to relieve her boredom. She was indicted on several counts in half a dozen countries, but in most cases she fled the country before charges could be brought, and bribed her way out of the charges in still other countries.

The Duchess has no military background or war experience to speak of. She was outside the SPIRAL ZONE when the first of the pods fell.

Believe it or not, she entered the SPIRAL ZONE of her own volition. The Duchess is attracted to power, and Overlord is now the single most powerful force on the planet. She saw in Overlord the quickest way to power, an absolute power that would certainly end the poor little rich girl's boredom.

Overlord is reportedly attracted to the Duchess. The feeling, we're told, is not mutual. She does enjoy basking in his reflected glory.

The other Black Widows don't trust her, and regard her as a threat. But the Duchess knows how to get them on her side as well.

To sum up, the Black Widows are dangerous, ruthless and inordinately cunning. It will take everything the Zone Riders have to defeat them and destroy the SPIRAL ZONE forever.