Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn 1983

A lone skybike, a one-man, open-cockpit flying machine, streaks across a desolate frontier and shoots toward Dogen. He barely has time to react before the craft crashes, and when he scrambles to the pilot’s body, he发现 a crystal carved with the symbol of a dead tree. A murdered prospector lies nearby, and his young daughter Dhyana witnessed the brutal killing by Baal’s forces. The green liquid Baal sprayed on the man draped the scene in a nightmare-like sheen, a state in which Syn’s presence and execution with a crystal become all too real. Dogen convinces Dhyana to join him in the hunt for Syn.

Dhyana explains that the crystal in the pilot’s body is a lifeforce storage device, a dangerous relic tied to an ancient power. She speaks of the Cyclopians, an ancient people who once used such devices, and she hints that only a magic mask housed in their lost city could stand against it. Zax confirms the claim and directs Dogen toward the mining town of Zhor to find a rough-edged former ally: Rhodes.

The path to Syn’s world is not easy. In Cyclopian territory, they are blocked by nomads under Baal’s command who spray Dogen again, leaving him paralyzed. Dhyana fights to keep him safe, guiding a retreat, while a dream-world sequence sees Syn looming over them as Dogen struggles to resist. A summoned monster materializes in Dhyana’s place, firing electric bolts, but Dogen manages to short out the threat and the creature vanishes. The dream lingers, however, as Dhyana is suddenly teleported away to an unseen fate.

Dogen and Dhyana reach Zhor and search for Rhodes, a washed-up veteran who guards the town’s rumor mill. In a bar, Rhodes is blunt: the lost city doesn’t exist, and he’s not eager to reopen old wounds. Undeterred, Dogen intervenes when miners seize a captured nomad soldier, turning the tide with help from Rhodes. The two men strike an uneasy bargain after a tense confrontation, and Rhodes agrees—with reluctance—to help them, recognizing that something larger and more dangerous is at play.

Venturing deeper into Cyclopian territory, the pair discovers a colossal statue with a single eye and uncovers the mask’s resting place. Snake-like creatures lash out, and a group of nomad warriors blocks their path. Their leader, Hurok, grabs the mask and accuses them of trespass—an act that could, in nomad law, unleash deadly consequences. Rhodes reminds the warriors of their code, and Dogen steps into a ceremonial duel with Hurok. The fight is intense, but when Dogen shows mercy, Hurok yields and welcomes him as a comrade.

Syn haunts Dhyana, bringing her before a vast crystal and forcing her to touch it. The crystal’s power, he claims, is fed by captured souls, including the life force of her own father. Dhyana’s resolve hardens; she declares that her true warrior will come for her. Meanwhile, Dogen and Rhodes strike Baal’s encampment, sparking a chase across the wasteland. Dogen dons the mask and steps into a dreamlike landscape where he confronts the burning tree at the heart of Syn’s world. In that dream, he finds an axe in his grasp and hacks at the tree, its moaning echoing the crystal’s own plea. When he returns to the waking world, Baal attacks with a robotic arm, only for Rhodes to shove him aside and be knocked out. Dogen wrenches the limb free, stripping Baal of his power, and Baal flees. Dogen follows the green fluid to Syn’s camp, where nomads encircle Syn and Hurok greets the intruders.

Syn denounces Dogen as a foe to be destroyed, but Dogen makes it clear that his real target is Syn himself and the soul-crystal that powers him. Hurok refuses to slain Dogen, insisting on dialogue, and Dogen accuses Syn of tyranny and manipulation. When the crowd grows hostile, Syn unleashes the crystal’s stun on his own followers, and Dogen uses the mask to deflect a barrage of energy blasts. Baal tries to seize the mask, shattering it on the ground; Hurok retaliates and kills Baal, while Syn teleports away to safety. Undaunted, Dogen vaults onto a skybike and races into the desert in pursuit, but Syn slips through an energy portal and vanishes.

Returning to the nomad camp, Dogen finds [Dhyana] safe in Hurok’s protection. With the crisis momentarily at rest, Dogen pledges to confront Syn again should he return and to destroy Syn’s soul crystal once and for all. The two travelers depart on foot, only to be picked up by Rhodes in Dogen’s truck and escorted back toward civilization as night gives way to town lights. In a world built on danger and deception, the promise of a final reckoning with Syn lingers in the air, and the trio moves forward together, bound by shared purpose and hard-won trust.