Asteroid Prison Break

The Asteroid Prison Break ranks among the most consequential events of the series, in which the Unopan Coalition soldier Allen frees the Viltrumite traitor Nolan from his scheduled execution and recruits him against his own people's reign of terror. It stands as one of the sparks that ignites the Viltrumite War, the climactic struggle between the Coalition of Planets and the Viltrum Empire.

Once Allen grew strong enough to rival the Viltrumites, they captured him and hauled him to their prison, meaning to probe the source of his power, never realizing he had let himself be taken to save Nolan. Having learned of the events on Thraxa from Mark, Allen reunites with a recovered Nolan across their cells and shares a telepathic heart-to-heart. He praises Nolan's actions on Thraxa and presses him to join the Coalition, but Nolan refuses, having accepted death as fitting punishment while admitting he genuinely misses Debbie. The two forge a real friendship over their months together, even as the prison scientists keep failing to unlock Allen's strength.

On the day of the execution, after a four-month delay, Allen breaks out with ease and sparks a chaotic riot that frees prisoners who are cut down by the guards. His fortune turns when he finds the caged warrior Battle Beast and offers him the fight of his life in exchange for helping rescue Nolan. As the Executioners batter a resigned Nolan toward death, Allen reaches him at last by forcing him to save Allen's life, proving Nolan has truly changed. United, Nolan and Allen overpower one Executioner while Battle Beast relishes his duel with the other, and the fight spills into open space where the airless void kills the remaining guards.

With only Nolan, Allen, and Battle Beast left alive, Allen finally persuades Nolan to back the Coalition so he can prove his change to his family. When Allen frets about reinforcements, Nolan reveals the secret Viltrum has hidden from the universe and the real reason his execution dragged on: the Viltrumites are a dying race, with fewer than fifty pure-blooded members remaining. Elsewhere, Battle Beast tears his own Executioner apart before drifting frozen through space, until a Coalition scout ship recovers his body. He wakes from the deep chill still hungry for battle.