John Carter, Warlord of Mars 4-A

"The Air-Pirates of Mars!!, Chapter Four: Raiding Party!"

Now part of Stara Kan's traveling band of brigands; renegade red men intent on misdemeanor, murder, mutilation and more, John Carter bides his time. Meaning full well to kill Kan, but not until his beautiful wife Dejah Thoris is safe from Kan's toxic clutches.

Kan has John participate in raids on Martian outpost cities, always at the forefront, shrewdly besmirching Carter's good name among native Martians in the process.

There are some however, in Helium who harbor hopes of John's innocence in the raids and also the kidnapping of Dejah Thoris, for which he is surreptitiously blamed by Stara Kan's agents infiltrating the populace at ground level, planting seeds of dissent.

Tardos Mors, city ruler and also Dejah's grandfather, speaks earnestly from a parapet to placate the crowd. They disperse, still disgruntled and dissatisfied.

Back on board Stara Kan's skyship, cruising over the Martian plains, John reflects on past lives and battles throughout the centuries. As JC mulls over his imagined immortality, synchronously, the craft skims over a dying Green Man abandoned in the desert. Not just any Thark, but Tars Tarkas himself.

Yet another city is ripe for ransacking and John has to grit his teeth in order to follow Kan's orders, rather than wring his neck. The landing party is soon disconcerted by the absence of civilians and an ominous hum starts. With it comes a compulsion to file towards the unknown.

The citizens and even Stara Kan now, follow in an hypnotic daze like zombies at a shopping mall. They stop short at the end of a catwalk overlooking a darkened pit. Something lurks at the bottom of the pit. Something serpentine.

Carter is greeted by an absolute abomination which is an atrocity to eyesight. The scaly obscenity crawls over the skeletons of past unfortunates. The creature's feelers make John's flesh crawl upon contact. Natural revulsion must be put aside if John is to save the life of the man he hates most on all Mars, Stara Kan.