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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I’m envisioning Sydney being found on the Alari Homeworld by an exceptionally polite and soft-spoken alien species.
Alien: “A human out here? Did your ship malfunction?”
Sydney: “Nah! Got trapped when the wormhole collapsed, now can’t get back.”
“Do you require a lift back to Terra?”
“That’ll be sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!! Thanks!!”
“It will only take us 30 years to get you back… unfortunately our FTL runs on a no longer existent fuel amongst my people.”
“Oh… what’s it run on?”
“Unfortunately… Harsh Language.”
“… I think I can help you there… cover your ears…” *inhales* “FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF….”
If this doesn’t happen, I am going to be severely disappointed! :)
I love it.
“It runs on harsh language from someone reacting to spicy food and perverted thoughts regarding Wolverine.”
Alien looks at fuel meter: “By the stars in the sky, this trip is going to take much less time than we originally estim.. *ludicrous speed achieved* WHAT THE FRACK, LADY!?! EASE OFF A BIT”
Look out, they have gone to plaid!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rVQGT01Kzg
I had that idea once except it was gullibility.
Everyone knows FTL is impossible except for Earth humans.
They are ‘hired’ to twist knobs that make weird shapes on the secreen.
The FTL works if they’re nearby.
(See my gravitar)
OMG I could totally see that!!! They would get there in like 30 seconds and have fuel left over to travel back home. LOL
This is actually a reply to the AlyxVixen post above
Username checks out^
LOL
i wonder if this tune is going through her head
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JdKnipSPRY
I’m inclined to believe that the last orb is in some way going to help her get home. Whether some sort of super star chart that she can pass the light bee into and just go there or some sort of FTL.
But first I think we are going to see a few panels of Sydney trying to play hide and seek before she goes all “The Mighty Halo” and starts returning fire. Because if that ships first reaction was to try and destroy her then it stands to reason that they have a very good reason to fear her. And when she realizes that, this little hyperactive ADD riddled nerd is going to be there worst nightmare realized. She is in effect literally on an entire world where she does not have to worry about missing with the PPO.
I think you’re right about the light-bee, but its seems more likely to be a case where, in a couple hours, Dabbler reopens the portal just big enough for the light-bee to pass through.
Heck, Sydney make be a necessary safety precaution for getting the team out of the exploded mountain.
Except, Sydney hasn’t told anyone about the Other ability of the LightBee (have we determined an onomatopoeia for it yet?)
Tele-bee-tation.
No, meant the sound it makes, like Daphne’s *VORP* or the Wapsi-verse’s *POIT*
*shrug*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNWdRKT-nEw
Not talking about the LightBee in motion, butt the effect of Sydney’s TransHoloCation
*Fwip*
Sound effect I’d go with.
Sounds good enough for me :)
She doesn’t need to have told anyone. Sydney is probably going to be nearby when they attempt to reopen the portal. Regardless of it’s final size, she will be able to send the Bee through and then have to explain to her superior why she didn’t say anything. Though, this being a superhero comic, they will be running away from danger at the time. The only thing that would prevent it is if the portal’s magic interferes with the Lightbee link
“Scored an upgrade point while I was there, Ma’am. Seemed no point waiting to report the ability and then use it, when using it would let me report it earlier.” To be said with the straightest face possible.
*ZOOP*
Or, alternatively, the un-sound effect:
*TELEPORTATION*
A planet where nothing could really be considered collateral damage is very convenient.
yup, and halo can cut loose. carboard world, broken cutie. Do they make hazard buoys to warn ships at the light year boundary?
would actually be nice to be able to keep the planet as perm portal site for testing of super powers and weapons.
Was.. was that a Dave Berg sound effect?
It was! It was a Dave Berg Sound Effect!
Well played!
I’m gonna mushu this; stuck on a hostile planet: check, cthulian horror like entities: check, no immediate way of returning home: check, BRING IT ON!
I’m with you on this. I play a lot of Dwarfs in D&D, and every Dwarf knows: When you’re hopelessly outnumbered, backed into a corner, and outmatched; lower your head and charge while swinging for all your worth. The enemy will never expect it!
I feel like an “always expect the unexpected” should be thrown in here, but those are never as funny as I want them to be… https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120210064936AAog3vM
Or, as the battle-cry used by Terry Pratchett’s dwarves in such circumstances goes:
“Today is a good day for somebody else to die!”
As opposed to the motto of dwarfs from Dwarf Fortress. When you are hopelessly outnumbered, backed into a corner, and overmatched; lower your head and hit it with your baby.
Is this before, or after you try to kill it by throwing socks through it? (Wait, does that still work?) I should see about updating and playing again. They’ve got stress working as intended again, and I miss seeing a proper tantrum spiral.
That Alari world location maps, dimensionally, to a mountain on Earth. Why would a spaceship be the solution if Sydney is in the universe next door? Why not a trans-dimensional portal? (Or, humorously, Dabbler summons Halo.)
(Yes, Dabbler pointed out that the Xevoarchy polices the galaxy; which suggests that Sydney’s universe is rather curvy or twisted.)
Oh, side-by-side dimensions make FTL radio easier. Link sub-unit 1 (speaker) to sub-unit 2 (inter-dimensional translator) to send the signal to trans-dim unit 1 (signal emitter), in nearby universe where c^2 is max speed, which sends the data to trans-dim unit 2 (signal receiver), etc. in reverse. Voila! FTL Radio.
So… How did Sydney get left behind?
I mean, if you really think about this, the plan was that they are attempting to flee a hostile environment, and that Sydney needs to drop her shield in order to cross the portal. Out of these 5 team members, however, Sydney sans shield is the second most vulnerable person if you consider Harem at risk of perma-death if she dies while on this side of the portal.
You would think that the toughest person would bring up the rear, rather than the weakest for literally this exact reason…
The reason Sydney was behind was because, when she deployed Mr Buble, Maxi and Hiro kept going forward, Sydney had only just dropped Mr Buble and we see Daphne being carried over the threshold with Maxi carrying Dabbles
I know that they were physically in front of her at the time she deployed the shield. My point is more that after they were attacked and made the new plan for escape, keeping the most vulnerable person in the most dangerous location seems like a bad move. For all they know, that thing that blasted the crater might have been ready to snipe her the moment her shield drops.
It’s possible that very little time has passed, and they started moving as fast as possible, carrying the most vulnerable member through first (in case you forgot, Daphne has been discombobulated since they first passed through)
Yeah, it makes sense for her to go first, but Dabbler is only being carried because she’s not as fast as the others, not due to actually being disabled. Once they stopped and switched up plans, it seems like a better strategic move for Maxima to put Dabbler down and guard the rear.
Maybe, probably, if they had the time to stop and think rather than simply continue as they were, also remember: the Wormhole was not on the ground (well, not any more at least) and Dabbles can’t fly (she may have a Flight spell, butt it would take too long to activate)
The portal was several meters above the ground at that point. Dabbler can’t fly.
Halo is not the most vulnerable person in that line-up, she might even be among the most powerful ones, she just hasn’t figured that out yet. Let her ADHD calm down for a few days and she will probably start thinking about leaving the band for a solo tour. Even the top brass of ARC-Light has mused that her orbs might make her even more powerful than Max and Dabbler combined.
I did a quick Search of the comments, and I don’t think anyone has mentioned (despite the Douglas Adams reference by an early poster) an electronic thumb as a device to help in stranded-on-an-exo-planet situation. Keep your towel handy, Sid!
“Do you want Thetans? Because that’s how you get thetans!”
That is only when a volcano is involved.
Well nobody called “Sydney gets trapped on the Alari homeworld, on her own”. DaveB has well and truly pulled an unexpected twist on us. Again!
Which, given how many hundreds of comments and detailed analysis, of every angle, are made on every comic, that is an astonishing feat!
On top of which the sense of despair, isolation and
tensionfear is palpable. Whilst she is the heroine and we can assume that she will find a way out of it, her present known resources are inadequate for the job. Dave cleverly established that even a single salvo was enough to bring the force field to the brink of failure.And now Sydney is cut off from the individuals who might otherwise have been able to help.
Whilst I can see a route by which Dabbler might be able to do something, it is by no means certain, as it is likely to be beyond even her capabilities. The emphasis is very much on Halo to find a way out of this. Oddly I rate Sciona (or, for different reasons, Deus/Vale) as having better odds of rescuing Sydney, than Dabbler! Sorry if that is old hat by now, I have not had the time to keep up with the comments. Busy trying to save the world.
My guesses:
1) They will somehow be able to reopen it a littke and Sydney will teleport through via comm ball.
2) The unknown orb will come into play. (Time rewind maybe? Wormhole?)
3) the comic becomes Sydney’s Wacky Adventures through the Universe.
Oh and 4) skill tree upgrade, she gets her fifth pip in fly orb which allows light speed or some other comm orb pip which lets her teleport to where she has been before
5) krona’s save point never actuslly got turned off despite Krona thinking it was and she gets shunted back to there again. Groundhog Day ensues.
6) The giant cthulu alien with tentacles decides it wants to get to know Sydney a little better.
Their offspring invades earth.
God help us all.
ANd finds coffee
You also forgot that the tentacle freak will probably continue bombarding her, given she is alone and without any support or any indications she has any resources like food or water. There is no avenue of escape and the enemy will not stop attacking her just cause she is alone. I can picture three options for this.
1st option is to ether hide someplace and hold out hope for rescue from her team, the Xenoarchy or some curious soul who investigates the genocide of an entire planet will get her out of there. But the chances of that seem unlikely given the Xenoarchy are probably a bunch of lazy idiots.
2nd option is to launch an attack back at that thing an hope that somehow her weapon orb has the firepower to eliminate or at the very least cripple the hostile ship or the tentacle thing that is constantly attacking her. That option seems likely cause so far while the enemy has overwhelming attack power since no attacks have been launched BACK at them then for all purposes the ship or tentacle freak may not have an overwhelming defense system.
3rd option and this isn’t my favorite by the way is to simply allow herself to be captured and hope that this attacking force will show her mercy.
I do not forget stuff like that. Hence my statement and subsequent conclusion:
But you do a good job elaborating on that and offering some potential outcomes. Run and hide being the most viable option. She should be able to find food and water amongst the ruins, for example. And they will provide many places of concealment. If she can avoid being killed before getting out of range.
Her one edge is that even Hiro was able to keep ahead of the pursuers, and Halo is faster than him.
The downside being that the space ship looked like it could travel faster than light, from the clues we had. So if it looks like Sydney is about to outpace it, the ship could potentially use that to get ahead of her.
Given the level of destruction and that she is on an alien world, I’m having my doubts that she can find supplies like food or water even if she was that lucky. I also highly doubt she can outrun the alien ship the tentacle freak sure that she might be able to outrun but that alien ship however would be difficult. Hiding might not work given that the alien ship would use sensors to search for her hence hiding would not work.
Unless the life support orb also has a replicator function :)
“If it looks like Sydney is about to outpace it, the ship could potentially use [its great speed] to get ahead of her.” – Yorp
“Hiding might not work given that the alien ship would use sensors to search for her hence hiding would not work.” – MetalicSoul
Possibly so, possibly not. I’m reminded of an Arthur C. Clarke story, Hide and Seek, in which a single Human is being hunted by “the fastest ship in the fleet”, and has to evade long enough for his allies to arrive. Sydney doesn’t have it quite as easy as K.15 in that story, but the principle may be viable.
“She should be able to find food and water amongst the ruins”
If the other Alari are anything like Sciona, then Sydney will probably find various blood sausages and some sangria to wash it down with.
I am having my doubts about that, sides even if Sydney finds Alari food what’s to say its safe for human consumption? If anything if she ate anything Alari an it don’t agree with her she might ether puke it out or WORSE it goes right through her then she is on a frantic search for a place to ‘release’ herself.
First off we saw buildings still standing. Big holes in them, yes, but they had not been levelled. Which means that there will be food and water to be found.
Sciona stated categorically that there is no blood. As she is a blood mage, I will take that to be a fact, not an opinion based on what she could find with her eyeballs. She will have used a ‘locate blood’ spell and got a null result. So some pretty powerful weaponry has been used, which destroys people’s bodies totally.
Which means that animal life and animal food products may well have also been destroyed. But it clearly was selective, otherwise we would not see all the structures around still. So there is a good chance there will be vegetable type food to be found. Which is fine, because that is what Sydney eats.
Plus there is bound to be some kind of processed or wholly artificial food, which would not be harmed even by a weapon calibrated so widely as to kill all organic life, of any sort.
As for compatibility, Sciona wanted to get Sydney’s blood, with the clear intention of gaining control of Halo’s orbs. If their blood is so compatible as to be able to do that (admittedly with the aid of technomagic) then there is a reasonable chance that food will broadly be safe too.
Plus Sciona lived for a long time, on Earth, in total secrecy. And clearly without getting supplies, from off-world through the Twilight Council. They were her enemies. Plus, if there was someone importing food, from the Alari homeworld, that would raise warning flags.
So it reasonably likely that Sciona was able to survive on human food, thus explaining how she was able to keep a low profile. Not guaranteed, as it could have been smuggled in. But that would require dealing with supernaturals who have off-world contacts. And Sciona was pretty distinctive.
Combine that with her appalling people skills (anyone who knew her for more than a couple of minutes would gladly reveal her presence to anyone who may want to kill her), and it becomes less probable that she would have been able to get food from off-world.
Still you don’t risk your life even on educated guesses. There are safe ways to test unknown foods, in a survival situation. First you get a small sample and rub it on your skin. And leave it a few hours. If there is blistering, or other nasty reaction, it is poisonous, discard that and find something else.
Anything that passes that step you can then place a small bit under your tongue, for a while, and remove it. Again wait. If you start bleeding from your mouth, vomiting or turn green and purple then it is probably not good.
But, once both those steps have been done successfully, you can try eating a small piece and wait. If no adverse reactions, tuck in, it is probably not going to kill you fast. Don’t have too much though, just in case.
Again you make points that are spot on but what I mean is while Sciona can survive on human foods, what is to say that humans can survive on Alari food? Also you failed to comment about how Sydney is to hide when that ship will be on top of her and no doubt scanning for her since it has her bio signature registered thanks to the drone. This leaves very few avenues of action other then to fight or surrender, hiding while it would work probably on the tentacle horror near the ship would not work at all with that space ship. I leave this as my counter in this debate.
Fair counters. And you may prove to be right. The counter-counters though:
There is no guarantee that just because it works one way that it will the other true. But, provided Sciona can survive on human food, it is extremely unlikely that all Alari food will be poisonous to humans.
Rather there will likely be a bunch of things in both sets which are dangerous (and some that may be deadly) to the other, whilst a fair number will be harmless to both. Like dogs and humans.
As for the scanning we know that it was only partly successful. And that was at point-blank range, with nothing in between the scanner and Halo. Add some distance, or enough clutter of high technomagic items or just good thick walls, and the orbs may be able to do a better job.
Lots of ifs and maybes there though. So, whilst I played devil’s advocate, I still err on the side that Sydney is in serious doo doo here.
A fair point but till the full specs of the ship are known its all guess work, thick walls may not work at all and technomagic I do not think would still be operational given the destruction we see. The possibility of concealment would probably not work too well since we do not have all the information on what else that ship can do.
So long as the “curious soul” from option 1 doesn’t step out of a blue Police Box TM) I’m all good with that option.
Well that is ONE way to escape that problem is if that happens but…. I’m doubting she would be so lucky.
Ooh, I just saw an interesting advert, next to the comic, for ‘the Collective of Super Heroes’. Featuring a fascinating looking comic, by the name of Grrl Power!
I’ve probably seen it here (this particular version of the add) before, without noticing mind. I certainly have elsewhere. The irony just tickled me, when it sunk in.
I’ve been thinking about this for a bit, and I’ve got a new piece of speculation.
I’m speculating that it’s an exorcism orb, so that when Sydney DOES figure out how to get back to Earth, she can use it to expel the ghosts now possessing Max, Hiro, Achilles, and possibly Harem.
…. also, I might have more than one new piece of speculation…
Well I SORTA saw this coming, thought the portal would close before everyone could get through but instead THIS happens. Damn now Sydney is up a creek without a paddle, something tells me that now that the portal is closed Sydney is at the mercy of that tentacle freak and its ship. Chances are she ain’t going to leave that place unscathed ether mentally or physically, this is a twist I didn’t see coming.
… that or she figures out a way to get her light bee’s image to earth, clicks the yellow orb button and *POOF* she’s there.
And then Dabbler, visibly annoyed, scrunches her rescue plan paper in a ball and tosses it in the garbage with a sigh.
The way I see it Sydney is probably going to quote Rorschach and go up all over-kill on the aliens until they call Earth and beg them to take her away!
https://youtu.be/B3lsJmwNO40?t=20
Oh wow, that is disgusting!
*turns head sideways*
Just how are they doing that to each other?
*squints*
Eeew! It looks even worse,this way!
Psst! How much for a set of those?
This is an interesting turn of events. Discounting a long and arduous journey home, Dabbler knows where the planet is, so convential (for Dabbler) retrieval is a possibility. Harem can also “teleport anywhere she’s been before”, but she’d probably need to unteleport several of herself to account for even Sydney’s light mass, presuming she could ‘port such incredibly vast distances now.
Maybe Dabbler can rig something to transmit a signal through a remaining weak spot left by the wormhole.
In the meantime, if Sydney can’t outrun it (with it being a spaceship, seems likely), i’d say her best chance is to close the distance and hug the hull of the ship, hoping they’re not the sort of aliens that’ll overnuke their own ship to kill one combatant.
Sadly not. She can only do that to places which she extensively familiarises herself with. For instance by living there, for a protracted period. Further she only has a limited (planetary) range, not an interstellar one.
If ways were found to overcome these show-stoppers though, Harem would be limited to providing whatever support she can personally provide (e.g. giving covering fire) and logistical support (such as bringing food and drink). She would not be able to evacuate Halo, from the planet, as Harem’s maximum weight capacity is insufficient to carry even someone as light as Sydney.
Very well, we accept your cuddles. You may continue about your business unhindered.
Can we snuggle a bit longer though?
Actually, don’t believe we know that she has a “limited (planetary) range” as she has never previously been off-planet let alone to another planet entirely
Well said. I was going to say that myself.
My statement is going by DaveB‘s blogs/comments. So not quite canon (as he reserves the right to change his mind) but authoritatively sourced. Not that I have mentally indexed such statements, so the curious would need to search for it.
It’s pretty heavily implied here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1302
When her range extends with high familiarity of the target area – she gets to the realm of hundred of miles. Counterpoint to that is the word of Dave (taken literally) saying unlimited range, but one of her needs to be physically present at the destination for the incoming Harem to anchor off of.
It’s also heavily implied that Harem won’t be teleporting over to do anything to help here because of how discombobulated she got just going there the first time. That implies it’s WELL out of teleport range, let alone quantum communication range.
It would be interesting to see how she would handle one of her being on the moon while the others are on Earth. I’m curious about her distance limit before her quantum mind starts feeling the effects of separation.
Welp. They got a week to reopen that portal, tops, and find her. And don’t try and pass off to me that a planet that’s been bombarded to the point of no one alive has food and water available. It’s lucky it still has air.
There is still the opportunity of Sciona being trapped with her. If when Sydney put up her shield she was just a little slow and ended up catching Sciona inside it. We don’t specifically see what is likely Sciona AFTER the shield goes up.
Hmm point we saw only the green souls go in and Sciona had a purple soul to distinguish herself, so its likely that before Sydney could get the shield up Sciona hitched a ride inside Sydney.
You guys are over-thinking it. The most likely explanation is that Sciona lead the way through the portal and is ready through by the third panel. Sciona’s skull may be purple, but her trail appears to still be green, just like the others.
True.
This is the appropriate response to being stranded on a post-apocalyptic exoplanet inhabited only by the first hostile entity powerful enough to affect Mr. Bubble.
I don’t think the portal is completely gone, just not visible to sight. Truesight, and lightbee = teleport home?
Thirty seconds later (montage scene Halo putting on bandana ala Rambo…one handed…camo make up…what you don’t have some in your belt kit? -sniff- Noob! Grimacing and psyching herself up.)
Okay about five minutes…confuses the hell out of the aliens… then she screams her battlecry… “ADRIAN!”
And tests if she and bubble buddy can be a torpedo…the answer is yes and the payload is chaos.
They will rue the day…or night…ah, hell it’s Alari prime who can tell.
My favorite battle cry is still “FOR PONY!“
Dabbler gets home and rushes to her room
Makes a interstellar call (charges it to ARC SWAT)…
Gal Info- Yah the Big police number please…the one with the armada. You see I was just on … okay I’ll hold.
Ah, Gal Popo? I known, it’s just fun to say that. I have a friend who got left behind on a planet that was just genocided…pretty completely…the deadsouls pushed us through the collapsing wormhole and well one of ours got left behind.
Could you pick her up? Bring her to someplace neutral and I’ll take it from there? Where? Alari Prime. Well someone beat you to it. Tentacle bots…big ship with BIIIIIG dangly bits…Class 8 at least. Yep. Definite Rogue force.
Also when you pick her up…she’ll be the one in the bubble cussing up a storm…ummm just a feeling. Also try to minimize contamination…yeah Lima protocols…don’t let her touch anything.
O2 Carbon based,,,standard biped…very dangerous…No you misunderstand, it’s not her that I’m afraid of being exposed to alien culture and tech…she probably would think it’s cool.
It’s you I am thinking about…she’ll definitely be off her meds by the time you arrive at Alari Priime.
Really? Thanks. Sooner the better. Any other questions? Umm sure…what are you wearing? Hello? Damnit!
/Dabbler’s side of long distance call to GalPol Navy
“She’s not dead? Inconceivable!” – still keep thinking it takes how long to do another salvo? I bet the ship crew are a little intimidated that she survived at all against that attack.that mecha-cluthu did. also why only one? seems to be a heavy field artillery piece type weapon.
Best defense – no be there.
So after that yell, slowly turn and _slowly_ head for the ship holding the PPO. they should know better than to try and ‘break the cutie” it would be the last thing they would expert one single lone entity to do.
keep em off balance. bluffing and hiding on the ship would be the best bet and wait till help arrives. and while in ship play sneaky saboteur. She may no be able to take that ship on toe-to-toe, but mano-a-mano against the ships crew is a whole other ball game. she might be able to find out WTF is really going in in the process.
As far as the ex-machina orb:
It is interesting that there is a PIP active on the last orb. which sorta suggests that she has skill in it.
I really doubt Dave would use his wild card just for this encounter, or maybe if he does it could turn out to be a ‘crafting table’ :) I still think the orbs are missing a ‘toolbox’ maybe she could use the toolbox to make another orb.
I just thought of something, the last orb is probably translation.
Matter fabricator, maybe? That would be tough to accidentally use.
Ships computer seems like a nice catch-all choice. Covers star maps, translation, possible automatic med-bay services, holodeck (for shirtless Wolverine marriage simulator), food replicator. All of the magic stuff Star Trek computers do…
“Oh and food? Well you remember that spice you got from that cook in Hell?”
“yeah that s the one”
‘Yeah I know it’s a controlled substance and banned by treaty, let her have it.”
‘No, no ALL of it, probably calm her down a bit”
” oh and have your camera ready”
Mecha-Cthulhu is making the same sound it made right before it fired that nuke at them – is it gearing up for the next round?
So, now the big reveal. You guys know that first sequence waaaaaaaay back at the beginning? The one that ends with Sydney doing a fist bump with Anvil, whilst Anvil says something about big guns and corporal?
Yup. THAT was all a dream-sequence, and the next page will show Sydney waking up, filthy, miserable, and still in this bad dimension.
It was all a dream. All a dream. A dream.
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
SO… who believes that her last orb is a navigation tool? Maybe a wormhole generator?
agree with some here, being stranded in a foreign planet, maybe a few galaxies or dimentions away from earth, with no support, no help expected whatsoever, and confronted with being which went kaboom on her after simple scan?
go Sidi-Brahim on its ass, and don’t stop until it has clearly surrendered and promised her safe haven with transport to neutral port where she can catch a lift home.
clearly the first blast has severly tasked the shield, but its regeneration is faster than their rate of fire, so she’s safe. Now it is time to test if their forward spotter (Chtulu-face) likes PPO fire!
We don’t know their rate of fire, the typical move is to fire once with an ‘almost full blast’, and wait for the smoke to clear, if there are any survivors then “fire everything and don’t stop until supplies run out”
Always test the defences first, it’s easier to ramp up the damage-output then it is to find ammo
maybe, but the time between check and fire was very small, the serie “fire check fire” doesn’t seem relevant here for such an instinctive shoot.besides, after the fire, the shield had time to heal, the group had time to fly to portal and the souls had time to go from the battery to the portal. dust had settled most of the time, and nothing was fired
they had to drop a spotter to analyse and fire; that is a weakness, blast the spotter, or even better, telepoit behind it and fire, or use ligthbee to point the spotter or the ship’s base, anything that will marr its aim
Can’t count on getting new orb perks here…the last two times, Sydney was injured, then brought back to relative safety (or at least felt safe) before the skilltree appeared. The first time was Math knocking her head, followed by shrapnel from the PPO (which is probably registered as touching-a-star levels of danger), followed by headpats from Maxima. The second was literally dying, followed by reloading Krona’s checkpoint…sort of. Which brought her back into danger before she could spend the point, but the pattern holds.
I bet This is the chapter where we find out that the last orb is either a food replicator or a warp drive… or wormhole generator.
It would be great if the last orb could make Sydney change her body at will. A polimorphing power. Soooo many possibilities.
Green Orb = Stealth Field/Camouflage? The orbs aren’t a “
lifeboat”, “it’s a scout ship”.
That’s my thought as well. Or a peacekeeper / observation ship, also in need of stealth.
The peacekeeper idea would explain why the alien had such an adverse reaction to the orbs, as I’m guessing that the invaders aren’t there with peace in mind. I have pieced this together from careful observation of the last few comics.
It would also explain why Sydney isn’t aware of the functionality of the last orb. I myself turn invisible on a regular basis, and am often not aware that I have done so. ;-)
I wondered why I could not see you!
#Demoloscopoidon great minds..,
Actually, I think i’ve figured out what one of the mystery orbs does, and when sydney figures it out, well –
I really liked that comparison somebody made in comic comments ages past about the Halo balls being… basically a space ship theme. Has propulsion, sensors, defenses, weapons, tractor beam, unknown functions. It seems to have power that can be diverted or controlled(flyball speedometer),
So what’s the biggest weapon sydney has? PPO, but also some other utilities?
And what’s the biggest weakness her power set has? Limited hands space.
What i’m saying is the biggest next theme of a spaceship is having a space crew, or at least electronics to do things for you.
So:
One of the other orbs is a Sustainer. Something that keeps the other one powered, hands free. It has to be. Grab it, bonk the other one you wanna stay on, let em both go.
Which I think means we’re going to get a glimpse of jet fighter sydney in the near future, throwing down stargate and star trek references: shields up, weapons to maximum, engage.
With the limited hand space… we are assuming that whoever made the orbs did not have 7 or 8 hands
Or tentacles…
Also, given that some of the thematics the orbs display are downright -technological- in nature, from clearly being designed in the display of the level up grid(someone clearly MADE that), that the alien spaceship could detect sydney(when we’ve spend a significant portion of time on earth going ‘huh, we can’t get a dang clue or reading from these things, they wierd right?), I think we’re going to get a bit of insight into who made them, and also that person/race’s enemies.
I also think that the level-up system isn’t ‘ding’, its ongoing repairs. Restoring functions that were damaged by whatever left it in the keys.
Given that we’ve seen the shield can be breached, I think at least one of the orbs has to deal with pilot-safety or mitigating consequences of it. Whether that’s personal armor, medical or life support funtions remains to be seen – a well designed vessel takes care of the pilot too.
…..
inb4 ‘halo got the orbs because the previous pilot oopsied and fatfingered the eject button miles underwater’
That ongoing repairs theory of yours? I like it. I really like it. It makes a lot of sense.
as a follow up to my previous comment(potentially sorry for a double post)
Also, given that some of the thematics the orbs display are downright -technological- in nature, from clearly being designed in the display of the level up grid(someone clearly MADE that), that the alien spaceship could detect sydney(when we’ve spend a significant portion of time on earth going ‘huh, we can’t get a dang clue or reading from these things, they wierd right?), I think we’re going to get a bit of insight into who made them, and also that person/race’s enemies.
I also think that the level-up system isn’t ‘ding’, its ongoing repairs. Restoring functions that were damaged by whatever left it in the keys.
Given that we’ve seen the shield can be breached, I think at least one of the orbs has to deal with pilot-safety or mitigating consequences of it. Whether that’s personal armor, medical or life support funtions remains to be seen – a well designed vessel takes care of the pilot too.
….. inb4 ‘halo got the orbs because the previous pilot oopsied and fatfingered the eject button miles underwater’
A small amusing image popped into my head about the green Orb (which may cover all aspects of Life Support).
Sydney’s stomach growls, Green orb flashes, manifests a Tex-Mex sammich and a pepsi.
+1
The green orb has two skills. Yet we have only seen it produce air. So food is a good possibility.
I mentioned this too, elsewhere. Possible replicator :)
Right now, she has 2 options: run or fight.
So. Tactics.
If she chooses to fight, smart move would be to go land at the edge of the crater, and blast the opposite edge, just below Red-Eyed Black Cthulu. Odds are good that the explosion, coupled with the ground giving way, will make it fall into the crater, limiting its vision and thus taking the nuke weapon off the table (for now).
As for getting home…exactly how much trouble could she cause if she ‘ported onto the ship itself?
Porting into it is an extremely good idea. Risky though for two reasons:
A) The light-bee needs to find a route in. We saw this at the warehouse. Firstly in that it had seek out a broken window, where there was a gap in the boarding, and then go down the gaps in a grating.
Secondly because we had Sydney describing how her only sense was one which allows her to tell if there are obstacles in the way, and thereby tell where gaps are. This would be a pointless ability if the light-bee could phase through walls.
Spaceships are not known for leaving their windows open.
B) Whilst Sydney is controlling the light-bee, she cannot even sense what is happening around or to her own body. Let alone control it.
Of course Halo could take the precaution of landing (so she no longer has to hold the fly-ball), swapping that for the true-sight orb (to launch the light-bee) but keeping the shield up, whilst scouting. However we saw that a single salvo of attacks almost brought the shield down.
This time Sydney would not even be able to see or hear the warning, that the shield was about to be breached. She could die before she managed to find a gap/ determine that there was no way in.
If it works, a brilliant solution. But Halo would be safer trying to find somewhere to hide her body (or at least put some decent hard cover between herself and the baddies) before trying that.
One caveat though. If Sydney has secretly been practising using the teleport, then she may have optimised ways of doing so fast. Even though we have not seen such, we have had a big clue that Sydney might do this.
Namely that she debated, with herself, whether or not to tell Archon about that discovery. She figured it may be her one ace-up-her-sleeve,
if she ever hadwhen she has to fight an Evil Maxima. So far we have not found out which path Sydney took.Regarding the fight tactic: The red-eyed tentacle-monster does not appear (so far) to have either shields or armour, so the PPO might be worth trying…. that said the last panel on this page ‘may’ show a faint outline of an oval bubble around it so maybe it does have a shield after all.
Regarding the route in for the lightbee, the projection of the comm orb can go through solid objects. DaveB mentioned he forgot about that back at the Mars factory scene.
I would elaborate with a link but Im on my phone and in an office at a very boring meeting :)
Sydney, you deserve a major medal, for risking your life, by lowering your shield, so that you could.
But … they might never … um …
*tearing up*
… you can have this at least.
*awards Halo gold stars*
My guess is, this is where she’ll learn the other orb can teleport her back home.
The funniest option would be if she gets back via some other means but at great difficulty then finds out that the unknown orb could have got her back easily at any time if she’d known how to use it.
Or that center unlocks a new skill tree
If Syd find tribbles along the way home, we know you will jump in. :) Or better yet a Tribble-treat.