Grrl Power #649 – The long way back
Whoops. That reflexive grab of the shield orb is 99% of the time going to be a good thing, but this time, not so much probably.
Now if Sydney had completed her Apex Superheroine in Training training, she’d know exactly what to do. Okay, no, Arc-SWAT doesn’t take into account exo-planetary shenanigans. At least not yet. There will probably be a bumper course developed in the near future.
I’m not really sure what that course would entail actually. Probably just advice on what to do if you get super lost, and a little booklet with major galactic landmarks, plus $100 in astro-bucks and a homing beacon supplied by Dabbler. Only she wouldn’t do that because that’d require tech that humans don’t have yet, and she’s not about to hand over a FTL communicator and a generator capable of powering it.
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At least there are a few chances Sydney might be rescued.
– Harem has seen the place and could theoretically teleport back there now to bring her supplies and information.
– Sciona’s people have visited Earth before so there might be more than one way to open a new more stable portal there from either side. The location of their homeworld should be known at least to the Council.
– Sydney can teleport to a degree (might need to invest some more into that particular skilltree (if this encounter doesn’t give exp points I don’t know what will))
– The cosmic can opener still lies in Sciona’s hideout under a collapsed mountain – artifacts are hard to destroy permanently.
– Chrona might bend reality a bit to get her back. Wonder if her safepoint can draw Sydney back still?
Daphne has to be very familiar with the destination, that’s why she was able to *VORP* home to the farm butt had to taxi back wherever she started from
Sydney can only teleport after LightBee has physically moved to the destination, and it can only sense if there is an obstacle in the way, Sydney would still have to Holo-Halo to figure out where it is, so using that to Navigate the Seas of the Sun won’t work
Don’t forget – Sydney’s O2 addiction triggered the air generation feature of one of the (then two) unknown orbs, so it may be that the orb feature that gets her home will be triggered by the soon-to-be-rising tide of panic.
Guarantee she’s rescued- this is still backstory. We haven’t caught up to the first chapter yet (starting to think we never will).
Which could be the result of: clone (evil or otherwise), alternate dimension version, time travel, possibly a contract dispute for the actor (in tonight’s episode the role of Sydney will be played by…)
Or it may be resolved by a Deus ex Machina. No, literally. Deus will appear and step out of a machine.
So, he’ll just open up a local branch office and pop outside quickly?
Now you’ve got me imagining Deus as a time lord. Which might explain some things about him.
Two words: Uber/Lyft.
The lawyers from both companies are even now trying to reach Dave B to make this happen.
However, if the first commercially viable space elevator or teleportation company sees your comment and names themselves “Uberlift”, I will hunt you down.
Just call Space Cabbie.
Knowing Sidney she’ll just hijack a star-ship, go on a magical space adventure, and return home dressed like a pirate with a huge scar over one eye like a certain person.
That or threaten to sue the space-army for for attempted obitaration.
She has a case. She’s not Alarian, she was as non-threatening as someone stuck on another planet could be and they didn’t even ask for ID.
She could get some serious space-creds for this!
Non-threatening, yes.
The fire guy, Math, Kevin, Mr. Amorphous, the guy in the police report, and Dabbler might disagree.
Hard to come across non-threatening when you’re casually walking around with an armed weapons system. The new locals clearly have a negative history with the orbs; while she might be proven innocent later (if she survives) that doesn’t make the mechs wrong for acting on their “shoot on sight” policy.
That’s not a given. All we know for sure is that they scanned them and decided to shoot. That could mean they shoot at anything they don’t understand.
With a ship to ship cannon?
Perfectly good strategy, per several of the maxims. If you’re going to shoot something, make sure it can’t shoot back.
34. If you’re leaving scorch-marks, you need a bigger gun.
35. That which does not kill you has made a tactical error.
36. When the going gets tough, the tough call for close air support.
37. There is no ‘overkill.’ There is only ‘open fire’ and ‘I need to reload.’
Also as Tony Stark has said ” I prefer the weapons I only have to fire once”
Well then. We now know what that last unknown ball is, don’t we?
Some kind of Space/time manipulation.
Maybe an alternate version of the cosmic can opener
What if the orbs used to belong to something equivalent to a herald of Galactus and the last orb can be used to summon forth a world eater. Thinking to Sydney’s comments “alien dinner bell” as possible symbolic clue (even if she wasn’t being serious), but more likely not.
But it would make sense for an alien life form if its familiar with that to detect it, freak out, and try to blast the herald before they can summon their cosmic master.
It’s techtree time
The shield blocks souls!? Add yet another level of ‘this sh** is awesome’ to the description of the orbs.
I love the sound souls make when they bounce.
Not something I expected to read today.
Just be glad there wasn’t a gap in the shield, or they would be going into Mr Buble’s bung-hole :P
Thanks for pointing out what a ridiculous sentence that is, I just laughed at how quickly I read it and accepted it as perfectly normal given the context.
My family keeps a list of the ridiculous things we’ve said to kids (and vice versa) that you’d normally never expect to say, like “don’t put my keys in that banana.” I may have to start a list of ridiculous things I’ve read online without questioning (new sites and political statements wouldn’t count).
Yeah, and it’s barely upgraded.
SERIOUSLY LOOK HOW MANY MORE POINTS IT TAKES TO MASTER IT!
That shield is ridiculously amazing.
I look forward to when she unlocks damage reflection.
I hate when that happens.
First order of business would seem to be getting far away from the guys that were shooting at her.
Holy Crab Nebula! <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyUTLGy29m4"This song fits this situation perfectly!! Heck, it even mentions Maxi: Purple, gold and blue
This one, this song also fits
“Now I’m truly all alone, canyon walls and the river of no return
I’m amazed at what I am, I never knew the feelings that I know”
Any one else notice Dabbles coping a Maxi-feel in the first panel? ;)
No I didn’t but of course she is. good catch. Wonder when Max is gonna recall that and react.
Wouldn’t it be fun, if Sci-spirit didn’t make it through, and she ends up haunting Sydney :D
Theoretically, they could both gain from the experience, not sure about anyone else around them though :P
I’m pretty sure Sciona is the different-than-the-rest off-white soul out in front of the pack (2nd panel). So of course she got through the portal back to Earth…
Yeah, was pointed out on the first page, was just saying how much fun it would be for the viewers (not so much for Sydney and Sci :P)
What’s next for Sciona? Good thing Deus and Vale collected enough information to make a spare for her. Probably don’t even need those fancy artifacts to do it either.
Welp, I refer you to my earlier speculation that the last Orb will be a Star Drive. Although it’s also possible that the Alien Genocide Beasties will make peaceful contact and ship (or punt) her home.
Also, why wouldn’t Dabbler give out and FTL comm? If it’s tuned to a particular receiver rather than a general comm there aren’t too many abuses a non-ftl civilization could use it for. None that wouldn’t be solved by building in a few seconds of lag.
Kind of hard to have “peaceful contact” when the first response is “nuke the hell out of you.”
The risk would be the underlying science.
General Relativity has to be wrong if a device like that can exist, and the other technologies that become possible if one can figure out why GR is wrong could be a big deal. Having an FLT communicator to study would be a fast track to determining what the mistakes in GR are (compare how human science says it should behave to what it really does).
An analogy might be an radiothermal generator, which generates power from the heat of decaying radioactive isotopes. On its own its mostly harmless, but being given a working one to study could lead to nuclear bombs as the underlying principles are related.
It’s highly unlikely that General Relativity would be proven “wrong”, any more than Newton’s formula for gravitational attraction is “wrong”. We’d merely have limits where General Relativity did not give the correct answer for the prevailing conditions.
So, quantum gravity.
Well, Dabbler is well aware of the Alari, and presumably knew about their homeworld even before the portal. It may be as simple as Sydney surviving until Dabbler stops by in a more conventional spacecraft to give her a lift home.
well i think any ark swat course on off wolrd standing need to include the martian movie with matt damon,,
also her swearing remind me of the simpson when one time homer swear ,, but instead of hearing the swear we get https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9W5GjEYKj8
Today’s fun fact: NASA is already developing a navigation system accurate to within 10 miles (at > 17k mph) that will work anywhere in the galaxy, using a map of millisecond pulsars. This has been demonstrated with ground-based equipment using just 4 pulsars. (There are thousands, possibly millions of pulsars known)
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasa-team-first-to-demonstrate-x-ray-navigation-in-space
That is awesome – basically interstellar GPS.
Although, while I admire the highly appropriate name SEXTANT for the project, it does sound pretty contrived.
The American government does love it’s backronyms.
I have to point this out. Most of you have failed to notice that Sydney is just about to get a visitor who is crawling into the crater with her. So I say she’s about to make a new friend in a bit.
Actually did mention it, butt once the second page appears no one goes to the first page who weren’t already there
Not entirely true Guesticus, I generally read all the comments when I get up starting at the beginning. I just rarely comment as you, Pander, and Yorp pretty well hash everything out that I might say most of the time
People don’t read, that’s why the same comment or question that was posted on the first page is repeated or pointed out on the second
Heck, sometimes the almost-same comment is repeated three posts, and several hours, between on the same page
People don’t read, that’s why the same comment or question that was posted on the first page is repeated or pointed out on the second
Heck, sometimes the almost-same comment is repeated three posts, and several hours, between on the same page
+1 internet for that.
Sydney is just lucky she’s the main character, or she would be in a lot of trouble right now!
Well…… shit.
First panel, Dabbler is definitely copping a feel there.
“RAOOOoooo”
Big bad is powering up again…I think it may be time to run. (Or fly really really fast)
it has the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover
… whelp, she’s boned.
Not all that worried. Now that Dabbler’s been there, she should be able to whip up a Recall Teleport spell to go back and fetch Sydney.
Will the rest of the team and the Alari souls even have a place to stand on the other side of the portal? The whole place blew up rather thoroughly, didn’t it?
Does that spaceship have a saving throwl against Sonic Damage?
*saving throw (blasted non-editing forum!)
And thus Sydney befriended Mecha-Thulu and rode it back to Earth Neverending Story style.
Okay, Syd. This is where you beat the ever loving “mud” out of Mecha Cthulhu.
oof
That sucks.
It looks like next week back on Earth we begin the adventures of “Some other GRRL” Power.
So, the reset (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/720) was successful, that is kind of scarily impressive.
Okay, so, we have two new and unused powers: air generation and rapid fire weapons.
Can I predict space flight and battles? I think here might be a good point in time to start using them.
It’s gonna be interesting, as you have something as small as Sydney who is far more agile and versatile than space craft powered by linear engines.
You missed the teleport with the comm ball.
maybe some spaceship infiltration instead?
She would have to hide in a very good place first – the telepresence leaves her open and vunerable – that shield probably won’t handle multiple hits of that size. I think she’d be able to dodge them though.
Thinking about it, her best bet is to fly directly to the mothership and go flat against the ship (to stop massive blasts being sent her way), then use telepresence to slip inside very very quickly
Ok just how fast are those soul things, because the timing seems seriously broken here. Sciona didn’t even *find* the soul battery until after the nuke blast went off and the blast wave of debris cleared. Sydney and crew were going to scramble through that portal, which they are floating directly beside, as soon as they could after that. In the same time it took Sydney to drop her shield and everyone to start jumping through Sciona found the battery, performed blood magic to open it, all the souls flew around that ship, past mecha cthulu, covered the entire distance past that that the team had needed quite a bit of flight time at top speed to cover…. and shot through the portal?
Having a hard time seeing that all lining up correctly.
Souls don’t have the pesky problem like having a body to slow them down
Being a little technical, let’s assume souls move at the speed of thought (which is roughly 70-120 miles per second), so the souls could have travelled the distance between Soul battery and portal in about a second once freed.
Still, what do they have soul warp drive? Because they seem to be moving at a relatively sedate speed going past Sydney and Maxima into that portal.
Ladies and gentlemen, doggos of all ages… We are about to witness the first intergalactic swearing contest. In this corner the reigning champion of the planet… what? They call it that? Ok… Earth! And in the other corner… wait… it’s already begun. MY EARS! ALL 300 OF THEM! WHAT DID THEY TEACH THIS (wait how old is she again? Really? Not even a thousand? Uh…) We now break to these comercial interruptions.
And somewhere on earth in an observatory they witness the first self inflicted supernova as the Judges booth implodes.
Anyone else thinking that she going to discover that she can link orbs without using her hands together as a skill point up grade when she needs to make her self in to space ship…
Space the final frontier…these are the voyages of the u.s.s Sydney it’s mission to get back to earth after being stranded on strange hostile alien planet…..
What Dabbler can do for a intergalactic space survival course? Teach them how to be a space hobo. No really. Give them the basics of how to work through the system enough to be mobile. Pick a location in a popular central city or well known local (so they can get directions). Check that location periodically incase any missing agents show up.
Tada! The cheapest survival course to the intergalactic scene with 0 non-earth tech.
Granted, this will not prevent agents from picking up non-earth tech, but that’s just frankly unavoidable in this scenario. Either they have to stay in a non-earth environment where alien tech is a possibility, or they will have to be given enough non-earth tech to be quickly returned to earth. Catch 22 scenario.
God that face, haha haha!
isn’t maxima super fast? why doesn’t she doesn’t just carry everyone there….
She can be Super Fast, or Super Strong, not both at once, and they didn’t realise they were on the Soul Track
Plus her initial reaction time is human-normal, she needs a little warning to shift into bullet-catching mode.
I seem to remember sometime back that I speculated that one of her orbs could be an FTL drive…
Looks like we’re going to find out!
oooooohhh now i’m imagining sydney coming back on earth in a saiyan capsule.
Could always introduce a new villain who deliberately rescues Sydney so his latest order of comics doesn’t get delayed because she isn’t able to help her comic shop owner’s friend with the ordering?
Keep him from being identified until they run into his team so whilst everyone’s fighting he and Sydney are discussing comics and movie releases as if there isn’t a fight going on!