For over ten years, thanks to the tireless endeavors of Space Fleet pilots like the heroic Colonel Daniel McGregor Dare - known as Dan Dare to his friends - the Sol System, home to the Earth Alliance of planets, has prospered and grown, with countless threats both alien and terrestrial met and vanquished. However, for as long as Space Fleet has existed, so too has the Mekon. This artificially-created alien super-intellect from the planet Venus has dedicated his very existence to enslaving the Sol system. Yet despite countless attempts to do so, he never succeeded, thanks to the tireless actions of Dan Dare and his allies: right-hand man and engineer, Albert Fitzwilliam Digby, known simply as Digby; special Space Fleet Science Advisor Professor Jocelyn Peabody; and test pilot Hank Hogan, to name but a few. The Mekon's last attempt ended in failure and left the evil Treen genius captured and incarcerated on the Moon, undergoing extensive rehabilitation. Since then, a period of peace has reigned throughout the Sol System, and utopia finally seems to be achievable. But peace comes at a price