Quantum Troopers Return Episode 10: The Ship Of Theseus

UNIFORCE now realizes that an existential crisis exists with respect to Red Harmony. The cartel seems to be overseen and commanded by a malevolent extraterrestrial entity called Configuration Zero. UNIFORCE now believes Red Harmony needs to be shut down and wiped out completely. But how to do that, when the cartel is protected by the Chinese?
A mission to penetrate and destroy the cartel’s base below the Ming Tombs near Beijing is formed. The assault goes well but Colonel Johnny Winger is captured by cartel agents and spirited out of the base. Winger is now missing, presumed to be in the custody of Red Harmony with priceless details about Quantum Corps systems and tactics in his processor-head. Something has to be done and fast. A new mission is formed when signals analysis points to Winger being held in or below Potang Palace in Tibet.
The purpose of the new mission: to locate and render Configuration Zero inoperable and to rescue Colonel Winger. If he can’t be rescued, the troopers of 1st Nano have orders to terminate the famous atomgrabber.
The mission team approaches Potang Palace in an underground assault and penetration effort. What they don’t know is what Configuration Zero is planning for Johnny Winger. The assault and penetration proceeds as expected, but, unknown to the troopers, Winger is being prepared for a different future…a future in which he will become part of Configuration Zero itself. Battling his way through a series of tests and changes, Winger tries to survive the process, even as his own 1st Nano troopers battle through Red Harmony defenses to rescue him.
In the end, Winger seems to have survived and is rescued. But he’s suffered grievous injuries and has to be regenerated back at the Mesa de Oro base. The regen process goes well but it’s clear to all that Winger is changed.
General Wolfus Linx briefs Winger on a proposed new mission coming up. But as Winger departs, and armed with intelligence showing Configuration Zero seems to have disappeared, Linx watches Winger carefully, a growing suspicion in the back of his mind:
“Have we rescued something we should have destroyed?”
Final episode in the Quantum Troopers Return serial.