“THE GREAT PLUTONIUM PLOT.” A renegade scientist is stealing all the plutonium in the galaxy. He hopes to rule the solar system with his "Teleportator," but needs the radioactive element to power it. Unfortunately for him, he must go through Space Ranger to get it. Plus, “THE ROBOT PLANET.”
The Great Plutonium Plot
The interplanetary liner Asterex, travelling between Earth and Venus, is attacked by space pirates. Jarko, the Jovian Space Pirate, steal their shipmen of plutonium. Meanwhile, the Martian raider Gurph attacks the plutonium factory on the moon, stealing plutonium as well. When word gets back to the headquarters of Allied Solar Enterprises, young Rick Starr is interested. After touching base with his father, millionaire Thaddeus Starr, Rick Starr (aka Space Ranger) and his secretary Myra Mason head off to investigate.
Space Ranger uses the spaceship Utopia, carrying plutonium as bait. Sure enough, while heading to Mars, the ship is attacked by pirates. The pirates steal the plutonium, but also steal a tracking device. Space Ranger traces the pirates to Mars. He first heads to his secret base, an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter, where he meets his shape-changing sidekick, Cryll. The two go to Mars, and infiltrate the pirate hideout.
Breaking in, Space Ranger is confronted by pirates defending their base. Even Space Ranger’s numb ring is enough to prevent the Martian pirates from capturing him. They bring Space Ranger to Ganymede, where they bring the captured Ranger in front of their leader, the renegade scientist Zandor. Zandor has created a Teleporator, a device capable of teleporting anyone from anywhere within the solar system, and plans to use it aboard his ship to rob the solar system blind.
However, Cryll transforms into a Neptunian Electric Eel and short-circuits the energy cell that Space Ranger is in. Space Ranger uses a stolen ship to ram Zandor’s ship. With Zandor and the Teleportator disabled, Space Ranger’s job is done.
The Robot Planet
While exploring the gulf of space outside the solar system, Space Ranger discovers a satellite. Back at his headquarters, Myra Mason reveals that all of the planets are now moving closer to the sun. Myra examines the satellite Space Ranger retrieves, and discovers that there are another five just like that one in orbit around the sun. They discover the origin of the satellite is the system Sirius, and head there to investigate.
After landing on an Earth-like planet orbiting Sirius, Space Ranger is attached by wheeled robots. The Ranger is rescued by cave people strumming bows of high-pitched sound. They defeat the robots and rescue Space Ranger. These cavemen, the Shann-People, reveal that they created the robots ages ago to be servants, but now the robots rule the planet. The robots have places the satellites in our solar system to try to force us into their Robot Empire. Returning to his ship, Cryll reveals that Myra Mason has been kidnapped by the robots.
Space Ranger finds Mysa, and breaks her out of captivity. At the same time, Danaan, leader of the Shann-People, leads a revolt on the robots. Space Ranger, Mysa, and Cryll go to the main power source of the satellites. They destroy it, and find that it disables all of the robots as well. With no more robot overlords, the people of Shann can take their planet back, thanks to Space Ranger.
Vignettes:
- "Are You a Litter-Bug?" by Henry Boltinoff
- "On the Planet Og"
- "Escape From Planet X"
- "A Judy Jupiter Space Stickler"
- "Space Ships From the Past"
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