Field Marshal Lorca was the top Khundish commander and reputed to be the greatest military mind in the galaxy. He attacked a Legion of Super-Heroes craft captained by Brainiac 5 and was defeated. The Legionnaires continued on their way to a Science Police Convention on Thanagar, but first dropped Brainiac 5 off at a 3-D Chess tournament on Ruzicka. Lorca, who wished to possess the Legion's craft, now attacked again with a full squadron, and forced the Legion to crash-land on the barren world of VanVlack IV.
Brainiac 5, responding to the Legion's emergency call, took command of the situation from Ruzicka, but Lorca realised this and blocked communications. He tricked the four Legionnaires into leaving their ship and attacking the Khunds against overwhelming odds; astonishingly, they were victorious. Lorca, trying to grab victory from the jaws of defeat, snuck into the Legion's own ship, but he neither he nor the Legionnaires had realised that ship's fusion tanks had been disrupted in the earlier attack; the ship exploded and Lorca was killed.
