Battle had been launched by IPC in 1975 in response to DC Thomson's Warlord, with both focusing on war stories with some connection to real conflicts past and present.

[1] The serial was printed in Battle between 26 March and 31 December 1983, effectively ended to make space for the increasing amount of the comic taken up by the Palitoy-backed "Action Force" licensed strips.

[1][2] Having purchased the rights to IPC's post-1 January 1970 catalogue in 2016,[3] Rebellion Developments issued the complete story in a trade paperback under their Treasury of British Comics imprint in May 2019.

While no communication has been made, Earth is hopeful of a friendly first contact and Space Shuttle Columbia is sent into orbit to greet the aliens – only to be shot down on live television as it approaches.

While their foot soldiers are unshielded, the British Army is only able to give sporadic resistance due to the air supremacy enjoyed by the aliens' spike-covered scout ships.

Led by the uncompromising Major "Mad Mike" McVicker, Storm Squad fight their way into London and back out with the Lomax family, taking them to a secure bunker in Bedfordshire under the command of General Lapsey and the Minister of Defence.

The Spooks have started rounding up civilians, fitting able-bodied adults with cybernetic control boxes that irreversibly turn them into mindless zombies and killing any who resist.

Storm Squad take Lapsey, Lomax and former Geddon Down worker Doctor Martin Bennett on the sortie to retrieve Ex-Seventeen, using a captured spy craft piloted by a veteran RAF Squadron Leader 'Tommo' Frame.

Despite further losses – including both the General and Squadron Leader sacrificing themselves to allow the rest of the group to escape – and a slow, perilous journey back to the bunker, the survivors are able to release the bacteria, realising that they will be wiping out much of the remainder of humanity along with the invaders.

[10] Doris V. Sutherland covered the story for WomenWriteAboutComics, and appreciated the potentially silly storyline being told with "a straight face", citing it as an example that 2000 AD "did not have a monopoly on bombastic sci-fi pulp" at the time; however, she also noted the abrupt change of direction in the conclusion.