Battle Scars, Part 1

ROM #11 backup story »
"Tales of the Solstar Order Battle Scars, Part One"
Publisher	IDW Publishing, Ted Adams
Published in	ROM #11
First published	June 7, 2017
Cover date	May 2017
Written by	Chris Ryall & Christos Gage
Pencils by	Guy Dorian, Sr.
Inks by	Sal Buscema
Colors by	Alessandra Alexakis
Letters by	Shawn Lee
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Editorial assistant	David Mariotte

Rom remembers his old friend.

Synopsis

While flying in the skies of Earth, Rom reflects on how the long war against the Dire Wraiths has forced him to abandon his attachments yet every year, he always pauses on this particular day. To remember his old friend, Fy-Laa.

In days long past, Rom and Fy-Laa streak through the spaceways commenting on Fy-Laa reshaping his armor into a more blocky and menacing appearance as they approach the planet Verdulun-5. Arriving the two find the stench overpowering as they break out their Analyzers to do a standard scan. The scan is inconclusive reading a Dire Wraith presence as being everywhere and nowhere all at once.

Fy-Laa lands for a closer reading only to find the ground gelatinous in nature. The soil springs to life and envelops the Space Knight yet no sooner can he summon his Neutralizer does the gel leave him, having scrubbed clean the impurities on his armor. Though Rom reactivates his Analyzer for a clearer reading, the blob speaks to him saying it is both a Dire Wraith and an indigenous lifeform. All of a sudden other blobs spring to life claiming to all be one in the same and advance on the Space Knights who can only ready their Neutralizers.

Featured characters

All characters bar Rom (and some seagulls) appear only in the flashback.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Space Knights	Dire Wraiths
Rom (1) Fy-Laa (2)	Verdulun-5 (3)

Notes

Continuity notes

• As established in issue #7 and shown in the the main story, it takes two Space Knights to do a full scan of a planet.
• After the implication in the annual, we now get confirmation that Fy-Laa is Rom's deceased Space Knight partner.
• Precisely when this story takes place isn't very clear. Considering Rom is flying alone, the present day section seems to take place between issue #0 and issue #1 but how long it's been since Verdulun-5 isn't clear though it seems to have been at least a few years.
• As established in issue #2, "solar cycle" is the Elonian term for a year.

ROM References

• Fy-Laa's new armor design seems at least partially inspired by the original Rom toy, specifically the ridges on the back of the head and the Neutralizer design.