Dan Dare from acquiring the mystical Crystal of Life. On his return to Earth, he and his Treen companion Sondar find themselves branded traitors and found guilty of helping the Mekon to steal the Crystal. This story arc concluded with the pair escaping the Earth authorities and going on the run to try to clear their names by tracking down the Mekon and recovering the Crystal, establishing the format for the next story arc. Despite promises that Dare and Sondar would be back, the "2000 AD" Dan Dare strip "Attack on Eternium" ended here in prog 126 (18 August 1979). In 1997,
Dan Dare new supporting cast, who remained with the series throughout the rest of its run. Spacecraft of various designs were presented as the product of inhabitants of various planets. The vehicle most identified with Dan was the winged "Anastasia". Designed by Sondar, it employed both Venusian and Earth space drives. Later, an alien ship was adopted and renamed the "Zyl-bat". There was also an experimental time-travelling ship called "Tempus Frangit" (Latin: "it breaks time" or "time breaks"). There were land and air vehicles – in the first stories, cars conform to styling of the time, while some flying machines were based