Written by Christopher and Lee Bamber
THE SOLUTION
Due to the great early success of Relics Of Deldroneye, F1 customers were sreaming for a Relics II. As it happened Lee Bamber, the author had been working on Relics II for some time. Personal circumstances led him to abandon the project due to lack of time, but customers kept on, and so did I. In the end Lee gathered together what he had done for Relics II and let F1 release it as a 'pre-qual' a sort of 'shut you up' until he had enough time to write Relics II from scratch again. Because Zantis was small compared to Relics it was not quite so popular , but it is still a good game in its own right and well worth the 3.99.
The Story of Zantis =================== Days before Falcons encounter with the strange vessel far from planet Deldronis, the planet town Zantis was effected by a strange silence. For centuries, the town had fallen under the protection of the secret gang of aliens known as the Spam Syndicate. But for a few days, the town of Zantis errupted into a place of continual crime. The leader of the Syndicate had been stolen, and news travelled fast in Zantis. Falcon, summoned by the acting leader of the syndicate, was given the honourable task of finding their leader and restoring peace to the planet. No easy task for an exiled explorer with no money, no weapon and only a six-foot lady frog as a friend. Leaving the port, Falcon ventured to the only 'safe' taverno in the town, Errosons Place. A tough joint at the best of times, but it too had been overcome by the uncommon silence. The metal barkeep was little help, who maintained that most of Falcons problems could be solved without resorting to drink. Not that the barkeep had any drink to vend. Leaving none the wiser, aside from recounting the Tavernos wide selection of chocolate, Falcon made his way down a side alley and through a not-very-well hidden door to the syndicate. The stand-in leader began the rantings of a clearly unstable mind, and confirming that the situation was grave. Falcon left quickly, and searched the town for anything that may provide a clue to the whereabouts of the missing leader. An alien trader had some information, and quite a few suspicous items to sell. The information was useful, but the set of transporter cards he produced would prove to be most helpful. In trade for the cards, the alien would accept shells as payment. But finding two shells in a potential warzone was clearly going to be difficult. The first shell was obtained by briding an old tramp on a beach to reveal the hiding place of his treasured shell. Chocolate seemed to be his weakness, and ate ravenously. The chocolate was mighty expensive and Falcon made a mental note to ask the barkeep why they cost so much. The shell produced a less that ideal trade, as the card, when used on the hotel transporter unit, put Falcon in a small room with a door leading back to the hotel street. It was however fortunate in that Falcon found a rather handy crowbar. A crowbar which would later open a sealed crate, revealing a handy device for scooping meat. In turn the scoop proved even more handy when eating live crab. The end result, of course, being after the meal all you had was a shell. And the value of shells on Zantis, at least for Falcon, was now very very agreeable. After cleaning the shell in the ocean, to disguise it's recent status, Falcon used the shell to trade for a second card. This card placed Falcon at the entrance to a locked science lab. Falcon was about to give up. Throw himself in the ocean and return to the green slime of his youth, when the beach begger mumbled something with reference to Falcons plight. After a short conversation with the begger, and further exchange of the chocolate cash, the begger revealed he used to work as a maintenance technician. A maintenance card and a key where cladly handed over. The key was able quite easily to open the lock of the science lab, and inside lay the quivering green blob that was the syndicate leader. His brain was being sucked out and deposited in some huge glass computer, or so it seemed to Falcon. With stuttered clues from the leader, and consultation with the acting leader back at the main headquarters, Falcon retrieved something to restore the brain of the endangered leader. A small triangular brain disk, hidden many years earlier in a disused panel of the Virtual Timetable machine. Falcon used the maintenance card he took from the begger to bypass the access port to the panel, and used the brain disk in the glass computer to restore the leader to his usual diplomatic self. Immediately, the leader gave a skeptor to Falcon, for fear of his captor. The skeptor could only be handled by the permitted holder. Anyone else would be viciously eliminated by its power, and now Falcon controlled a power equal to that of the ancient Deldroneye and Medivian Empires combined. How on earth the kidnapper could have subdued the leader and brain- washed him before this power could be used was and remained to be a mystery to Falcon. As Falcon left to track this captor, a snakelike figure blocked his escape and declared himself to be the kidnapper. Not realising Falcon had the power of the Skeptor, the large captor ritualistically hurled friendly abuse and pathetic attempts at goating but all for naught. The kidnapper had lost the moment Falcon was handed the Skeptor, and soon-after this evil vilan was planted in a nearby garden for all to ridicule. Such was his punishment. Falcon honourably returned the Skeptor to its rightful owner, and was in return given a magnificent feast. Rumours circulated openly that most of the meat in the feast comprised of the slaughtered leaders of all the rebelious factions responsible for crimes during the riots. Falcon didn't eat much that day. To complete repayment, as the syndicate termed the gesture, Falcon was given a full tank of plasmafuel, and a very expensive spaceship to put it in. A dangerous pair of fluffy dice. And finally, as the previous owner was a gas lifeform, control systems and chairs where installed. Falcon bid farewell to his extended family, the syndicate. He knew this was a relationship he would share to the grave. Criminals they may have been, but they knew the meaning of honour, and extended Falcon every courtesy. As Falcon lauched his new ship away from the planet town Zantis, he reclined slowly as the full weight of his adventure sunk in. He was on the up again, in a big way...