Grrl Power #664 – The biggest collar of her career
I don’t know what Sydney is hoping to accomplish with suggesting that thing is under arrest. I mean it’s obviously just a suggestion. There’s no indication the thing even understand English, and even if it decided to surrender or whatever the next step would be, her whole goal is to beat the hit dice out of the thing until a skill point falls out.
I guess it’s partially to ease her own conscience, as if this goes as she needs it to, this will be her first time killing something. Assuming that thing is alive and not some sort of mecha-kaiju. It helps that it’s a huge rampaging monster. She would probably have a heck of a lot more trouble killing something more human looking. She blew up a few of those mannekillers, but they were soulless automatons. It also assuming all those fighters were drones and not manned. It’s convenient how those things stopped attacking as soon as Sydney decided to focus on the big guy. Basically I sort of forgot. They probably should still be swarming her, or at least some stragglers should be picking at her shields. Maybe they actually ran out? Or they just decided there was no point in tossing more materiel into the meat grinder that is The Mighty Halo.
As I post this page, it occurs me that I maybe should have posted this page on Monday, and Monday’s today. I do like popping back and forth between Sydney and stuff back on Earth, but it was kind of a weird place to break the fight. Maybe once we’re past these pages, I’ll change up the order in WordPress if I can figure out how, to make it read a bit smoother.
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Okay, I’m a bit disappointed. Sydney promised a particle beam enema, yet all we get is an amputation. However, she may have just spared us the sight of particle beam induced explosive diarrhea. And given that we know nothing about Squidward’s anatomy, it is entirely possible that Sydney has just robbed him of his manhood.
I agree. I was expecting the direct shot, too, not the leg shot. In fact, on first seeing the beam pass behind the critter’s main body, I assumed that it had moved, and Sydney had missed.
I would have gone for the kill shot. When somebody/thing has already attempted to kill you and your team, for whatever reason, you are under no moral obligation to go for a disabling shot. You put the opponent down, permanently.
She is following the Maxima Vs Vehemence. Limb them first then demand they surrender while offering medical treatment, or get the atomisation. Personally I think the maw opening up is going to be a plasma beam on steroids. Cant say Sydney isn’t doing too bad, only in her first week of being in the Military and already killed loads of Aliens and declared war on a Planet killing genocide machine.
There are a few places where there is a possibility of a gap in the storyline so it’s more than likely much more than a few days.
With her vivid imagination, yeah, I think possibly she got a really clear mental image of what it would be like to be buried in several hundred tons of kaiju shit — with, who knows, possibly floating chunks of partially-digested Alari — and thought better of it. This may yet turn out to be an extreme tactical error.
Sydney might simply not be a good shot. Remember her shooting at the tank? It sort of went off kilter for the main particle beam. She seems a lot more accurate for the ‘machine gun’ attack, since it’s more like a ‘spray and pray’ level of accuracy then.
I think this is just her trying to come to terms with what she is doing. This is the first time she’s straight-up killed something with a face and some semblance of self-awareness. She doesn’t know if this thing is sentient – hell, she doesn’t even know if it’s the enemy; it could be the last surviving defender of this world after the apocamalypse. She’s not ready to just murder it, so she’s roleplaying herself into making it OK.
She’s out of her jurisdiction,,,
I was about to say the same. That place is hardly a US American state.
Not to mention that she shot to wound and not kill, and against someone that attacked her first.
Clearly, she does not represent US law enforcement.
My guess is that Peggy has not covered that part of her training yet.
Peggy: This is a firearm. It’s not a very big one and some of you carry personal firepower [ Glance at Sydney ] that is much more impressive, but for most folks, this is still a lethal weapon, a few of your teammates notwithstanding. This is a tool of last resort. If you use it, you use it to kill, not wound, not scare, or anything else like that. If you use it, you are using it to kill. You do not take it out of your holster unless there is a direct threat to public safety that would need killing to restore public safety. If you use it, you are no longer intending to effect an arrest, but you intend to be filling out paperwork for the next week or so and being grilled as to whether you really needed to kill someone or not. Remember that death is final; once you kill someone, you can’t question them and you can’t send them to court. Even our doctor can not heal someone in that state.
That’s a very good summation of the use of deadly force.
There are probably different rules for force when you need to worry about interplanetary diplomacy, though. Being able to say you tried to talk might help you when dealing with the galactic UN or any allies that thing might have. You might also talk them into revealing some important clue, or even just their name.
the rules for war are a bit more draconian than that, David. I don’t know if Peggy would have taught her those rules though…
No, she shot to kill (she was aiming for it’s arsehole), the fact she missed her intended target and simply blew off a leg was an accident
Now you’re assuming that you know what Sydney was thinking. She landed next to its leg, not directly under it. Despite what she said about the enema, she was probably planning to take out the leg. My guess is that actually getting directly under it would’ve put her outside its shield, so it would’ve just deflected the shot again. Taking out the leg may in fact have been part of her plan.
Why would being directly under Squiddly put her outside it’s shield? The only experience with shields Sydney has had has been Mr Buble, which is a bubble, she had zero-reason to suspect Squiddly had a form-fitting shield
You are the one making assumptions about what Sydney is thinking as opposed to what she has actually stated her intentions to be
Actually I agree with Guesticus here. It’s more likely she accidentally hit the leg instead of what she was aiming at. In the past when she’s used the ‘cutting’ beam, she’s shown herself to be a fairly poor shot or poor judge of how to use the particle beam (the tank and the forest).
The one time she hit what she was aiming at, and at the right power level to be able to do what she wanted to do, was when she shot the mannekiller I believe (can’t find the page to know for sure what she shot but I think it was a mannekiller.)
They’ve not covered jurisdiction yet in her training
She’s also military, and I’d say this lines up nicely with US foreign policy on matters of jurisdiction.
I.E. not having one at all and doing it anyways.
obviously you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about Pendrake. Ever hear of a Status of Forces Agreement?
Totally legit. Just like bombing Yugoslavia in 1999, sneaking into Pakistan to get Osama, and invading Panama and Iraq.
And wait, you are saying Sciona’s world had a SOFA with Earth?
Or droneing people all over the world after the CIA and NSA concluded they may probably be terrorists or standing to close to one.
It’s not like the US wouldn’t have bases where they are not invited like Syria.
A status of forces agreement (SOFA) is an agreement between a host country and a foreign nation stationing military forces in that country. SOFAs are often included, along with other types of military agreements, as part of a comprehensive security arrangement. A SOFA does not constitute a security arrangement; it establishes the rights and privileges of foreign personnel present in a host country in support of the larger security arrangement.
There is no agreement between the Alari Homeworld and Earth, so presently Sydney is Military Personnel in a Military Uniform, firing high powered weaponary in a world she has no jurisidiction in… that could be considered an invasion by the Xenoarchy (think I spelled that right…), especially if it does turn out McKree the Mechathulhu is a cop doing his job.
Oh no! And he was only one day from retirement!
With two kids, and a third on the way!
To be fair, Sydney was fired upon first. And her first effort was to de-escalate by disengaging. Unfortunately, on the thin hope another portal may open somewhere near where the last one did she has returned to the area where a (a) genocide, (b) police action, (c) invasion, (d) all of the above, (e) other, is occurring.
Though Sydney’s choice to ‘return with a PPO bang’ can be a topic of discussion during her debrief.
OTOH, they did appear unannounced in the midst of a -whatever-. And we don’t exactly have a copy of Squidwards RoE handy. Nor do we still know the origin of Sydneys orbs. The readership has leaned towards their purpose being somewhat benign, but for all we actually know up to this point they have been the sole property of some equivalent of, oh, the Black Lantern Corps or similar.
You are right. She is not on Earth.. but she might not even be in our universe.. she might be in some parallel universe… remember this page? : https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2915 Harem said “There were too many of me” .. maybe this planet is in another universe, with another set of Harems and when that portal was opened, she got connected to them.. so instead of 5 Harems, there were 10
but then again, we don’t know if their jurisdiction reaches beyond Earth or beyond their own universe :D
At this point, she might be thinking:
https://truthermusical.wordpress.com/2017/04/11/the-juris-my-dick-tion-crap/
Arrrgh! I was trying to link _only_ to the video, and now I can’t edit the link. I am NOT supporting the rest of that hyperlink.
So, please ignore that link, and use this one instead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOJNs5YPR4g
Arrrgh! I was trying to link _only_ to the video, and now I can’t edit the link. I am NOT supporting the rest of that hyperlink. (Just my luck that Google came up with a conspiracy theory page.)
So, please ignore that link, and use this one instead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOJNs5YPR4g
Page says:
“””””
Today’s Deep State court system is based on the “juris-my-dick-tion crap”, because the judges have largely forgotten the Universal Law of our Almighty Creator, and are focused instead on doing what is most expedient, safe, popular or politic at the time. This prevents them from making fair, heartfelt judgements in the context of the social situation at the time, and what is the ‘right’ thing to do. The compartmentalization of knowledge allows them to be wilfully ignorant
“””””
Ooh, let’s play “Count the bullshit!” That’s always a fun game.
1. Deep State
No such thing
2. Almighty Creator
Separation of church and state?
3. “compartmentalization of knowledge allows them to be willfully ignorant”
So, hang on, are they ignorant because the information was kept from them (compartmentalization) or because it was available to them but they explicitly chose not to know it?
I give up. I’m going to stay willfully ignorant of the rest of this article.
Dude, I’m sorry. I really didn’t look closely enough before posting the link.
Religion, has no place in law.
if there is no god, then human life means the same as the life of a cow. thus if it’s alright to kill a cow for food, it’s okay to kill a human for convenience as well. I’m not saying we need the clergy to administer law…far from it. but don’t deny the role of God and religion in the basis of our laws.
So since Sydney missed the anus, she is now going to go for the mouth?
I wonder if Squidward will shit beams after that.
Maybe Squidward is like the Sea Anemone, where one opening serves as both mouth and anus.
I think that it is as you say. What a dirty mouth the Mastersquid has. Its mother surely is ashamed of its
rude and vulgar behaviour.
Its teeth are in its butthole, it can’t help but be confused. Sex is probably even more confusing (and hazardous for the partner).
oops – just realized she moved before talking to it. please ignore my previous uncaffeinated comment.
Shame on you for such irresponsible behaviour, Posting While Decaffinated.
fun fact, humans in general tend to have cleaner anuses than mouths.
“Clean” is a very vague definition. Amount of bacteria isn’t really a proper measure, since we’re essentially living in symbiosis with them.
But the digestive tract usually contains relatively little variety of bacteria, while our mouth may contain pretty much anything. There’s a reason the next stop after the mouth is an acid bath – our stomach serves as much as decontamination/disinfection as it serves to break down food for proper digestion.
When she’s done I wonder where she’ll spend her next skill point as that should totally level her up.
probably more speed as she`s assuming no one is coming to get her
Speed won’t do her any good when she has no idea which direction to go in and would require most likely massive FTL speeds to get to Earth even if she did, something she realized earlier. She’d be better developing other orbs that might have gateway or long-range teleportation (like the Comm Orb which she unlocked an unexpected teleportation feature of) even if she isn’t sure which one might have it.
If she was going to do that though she wouldn’t have put her PREVIOUS point into flight and unlocked the hypothetical FTL talent line in the first place. I’m fairly certain she put that last point in flight so she can put her NEXT point into flight as well.
I think she plans on trying to unlock the next row on the flight orb. That’s what she tried to do at her last upgrade, but she forgot she purchased the wrong skill point at the upgrade before that.
I have the Comic-monkey on me back!
Just one man!
After this one I’m going Straight!
Just need that one last Comic!
Just one more!
(I’ll give a gold start to the first person who knows where that’s from)
It… was from the Venture Bros… the Pirate Captain when he got hooked on darts….
ok that’s 2 boss’s who have had a limb removed.
Of course. Limbs are sticky-out bits and so easy to chop off when you have an explode-y cut-y beam of laser plasma death.
I’m going out on a limb and and say she takes all the samples at a handout
Get out
no ‘arm in asking, eh?
Ah hah, the puns are afoot!
I too noticed a disturbing trend in the number of limbs per day being removed by Archon.
You mentioning that Sydney would find it easier to kill this thing compared to something more humanoid just made me realise something. I’m betting almost everyone from ArcSWAT have killed people at some point, and there is no way Sydney is going to manage avoiding killing someone in her line of work. All of her (few) engagements so far haven’t ended with any fatalities, but that luck probably isn’t going to hang around.
Well Maxima was surprised the big super battle ended with no casualties, and her idea of disarming someone was to literally blow their arm off.
Although she did get on Dabbler for blowing Sciona’s leg below the kneecap off…after as Dabbler pointed out Maxima had already slammed her through enough hard surfaces to liquefy the bones and organs of most people.
I like how this page calls back to this page. Be careful what you tell Sydney, she might be listening.
The one good thing to come out of the deconstructionist era of comics, writers paying closer attention to what’s and how’s of the real world’s make up and how that would interact with super powers and other actions.
Puts me in mind of a recent episode of Venture Bros, Rusty Venture to show off an anti-gravity belt to his stock holders jumped through a glass window…only to end up being sliced up by the glass and end up going to the hospital and nearly dying.
I agree that she should’ve hit its ass or something else that looked more vital than a limb. If something is powerful enough to drive my shields to the limit I would not waste time on banter and threats. Especially not on a foreign planet, surrounded by alien forces. Just kill whatever attacks you and get the hell out of here.
Buuuut it’s a funny comic about girl heroines, and proper strategies are a lot more moring than a daring crazy ADHD girl, so it’s all good.
Halo is going to look way cooler to the eventual rescue team if she’s riding MechaCthulu around like a show pony instead of just standing over it’s corpse.
I’m just guessing, but she did teleport right next to its leg. Despite all her talk about a plasma-powered enema, she might have been afraid that if she got directly under it and fired straight up, she’d be outside its shield and her shot would’ve just been deflected like the first one was.
Hmm… is this whole arc inspired by the fantasia depiction of Night on Bald Mountain? Gigantic demon thing on over a big crater mountain thing, shooting huge flames, weird streams of ghosts trying to make an exodus?
From what Wikipedia tells me, the work was supposed to be representative of a witch’s sabbath occurring on St. John’s Eve. Which explains the demonic imagery in the Fanstasia segment – I have to wonder how many people had really bad trips buring that segment.
Modest Mussorgsky wrote a fundamentally repetitive work (the original piece was never performed in Mussorgsky’s lifetime, apparently), and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov brought it out of obscurity, which is pretty cool. The two of them started the “tone poems” type of music – also cool.
I prefer the Igor Stravinsky / Rite of Spring segment, myself, but dinosaurs and amped up peasant music – who could resist that, am I right?
“Night On Bald Mountain” my most favorite of all the segments of the original 1940 version of Fantasia. Did you know that it was Bela Lugosi tapped to go through the motions of the demon for the animators? The demon, I always though it was the chief evil angel on All Hollows Eve to release the monsters and spirits for a night of wild abandon upon our world. But I liked all the segments. Never did see the “updated” one.
Back on Earth:
“…in a hole or something keeping a low profile. She’s not stupid.”
*beat panel*
*lots of laughter followed by worry*
I can’t help but Wonder did she miss getting him on purpose or did she do it by accident? The fact that she flew up to talk with him after her attack suggest that she use the non-fatal tack on purpose
I’m pretty sure that’s a light-bee of her, not the actual her. Which will be properly revealed when it’s mega attack goes right through her, allowing the real her to shoot it.
Good call, and I think Halo is clever enough to do it that way.
In addition the ability to correct or delete posts, there should be a ‘Like’ or ‘I agree’ feature in the comment area.
I agree. That’s Holo Halo.
While that is indeed a good theory my statement was not about whether she was communicating using Holo Halo or not it was about why she chose to go for a wounding attack rather than one that would in theory be fatal.
She ought to kill it,cut it up and roast the meat. That will provide her with enough food for a while.
That assumes it’s not toxic. She doesn’t know that. Also: Does she know how to start a fire, or can she turn the beam down that low?
She definitely knows how to start fires given sufficient amounts of burnable material, such as forests.
Restricting the size is still a problem, or not, depending on your point of view.
I must say I appreciate how you managed to get a surprised look on the “face” of the Lovecraftian genocide monster in panel 2
I was going to say the same!
Panel 1: “Eat fire you little pipsqueak, where are you…”
Panel 2: “…wat*. Oh, CRAP.”
* see also this programming talk for more wat
your ‘wat’ link was messed up with supposed malicious porn spyware according to the inescapable page it was connected to
Dave, we are in 2018. ^^
We are, Halo isn’t.
Looks like Sydney found a weak spot and take the advantage…!
Is it a weak spot, a weapon port, both, more, or something else entirely? It is, after all, glowing….
HA! Called it! “Sweep the leg.”
Alright We get to see the battle! Im guessing you are going to be jumping from Sydney to Deus? Does this suggest that the two stories will somehow intertwine?
Hmm…. Space Calamari probably sells big on the magic councils black market. Get a sample!
But for the vampires on the Council, would Space Calmari blood be considered a delicacy or a poison?
Based on the flow of this battle so far, let me write the promo for the next page.
“Next time on Grrl Power we visit Joel back at the comic shop for all the pulse pounding action of New Comics Day!”
Attagirl, shoot it in the giant blinky f*ck me lights!
I would assume this is Holo-Halo, as it seems exceptionally foolish of her to be right in front of it, knowing what it’s beams can do.
It looks like she has a blue ball above her head (flight) making the only way she could hover is to be holo.
No yellow ball in the halo, so Lightbee’s in her hand.
*zooms in*
It’s there.
In Panel 5, it’s peeking out from behind and to the left (our left) of the purplish orb, which I’m guessing is lighthook but is a few shades too dark but obviously it’s tiny so we can’t expect it to be rendered with perfect accuracy.
In Panel 6, it’s sandwiched between the Pew-Pew Orb and the unknown green orb.
…
*Because I’m not hip.
*green air orb, d’oh.
Squidward, before you do something rash, consider the following lifehack:
Do NOT swallow a person who is nearly immune to nukes (and thus, presumably, to your digestive system), especially if she’s holding a beam that can perform auto-cauterizing surgery on you in a heartbeat.
Sage advice.
Anything special planned for next Thursday, Dave?
https://www.collectedcurios.com/SA_0666_small.jpg
I still like what XKCD did for comic 404.
https://xkcd.com/404/
I just realized that Mega Nega Squidward is wearing a helmet of sorts. To me, this implies that it’s actually some sort of commander of the invading forces, rather than purely a wrecking-ball monster being employed by them. That’s actually kind of terrifying.
Squidward is also using shoulderguards.
So a skyscraper sized monster that breathes nuclear death beams uses armour. For me that means it’s both intelligent, in some way vulnerable and the scariest part is that that conclusion means there are things Squidward is afraid of and that those things are capable of harming it.
And for now it seems that Sidney is on that level…
Given the kneejerk reaction, I’m inferring all orb users are on that level.
Unless it does so or was designed so purely for aesthetics, given the lack of armor on the rest of its body I am thinking its more an aesthetics choice.
Wearing things on our bodies is done for one of three reasons.
1: Social Norms
2: Protection
3: Ornamental
We know an intelligence is behind the creature as it is or was made by given the whole beamed down by the thousands of miles tall space craft. But for all we know the helmet and guards are purely decorative…
or bad end scenario…its a mind control helmet and this “creature” is being forced against its will to do all this (like the dinosaurs from Dino-Riders).
Squidward’s got his helmet and his shoulda-ma-pads?
Sydney, if you loot Squidward, those items will not auto-resize for you. And as trophies they are bigger than your apartment building. So unless you have kaiju friends who you want to gear up, give up on looting.
Or maybe not – maybe one of the mystery orbs is spatial storage? You would think a gamer like her would have tried that already, though.
Minor correction – the helmet would be her apartment building.
A little too goth/metal for her style perhaps, but you’d get some mad respect from the neighbors. Or maybe Max would requisition it to put on top of the Archon headquarters (if only to give Arianna a coronary).
Of course it still sounds weird, Sydney. The Assault/Battery distinction is jurisdictionally defined. One place might have different definitions for them, another place might make them essentially synonyms.
Maxima was only correct in the context of the place she read that law in :P
> they were soulless automatons
Ain’t we all, technically?
Bit disappointed with this, she should have burned that sucka from rectum to oral cavity. Also, why? It’s doing it’s damnedest to finish her. Big mistake on her part. Also I think we have just found the Sarlac butthole!
That is the Sarlacc. Now we know what world she’s actually on, and what condition she leaves it in.
I think the drones would just get in the way of the big guy and he’d destroy as many of them as halo
As far as excuses go, I’d just say they were extra-atmospheric craft and not designed for re-entry. The “functions-just-as-well-IN-an-atmosphere-as-in-space” type spaceships are pretty much impossible.
That is an explanation offered of marine tactics during the Korean war when the Chinese came swarming in and the marines fought close and personal, thus forcing the Chinese to do the same since shooting in hand to hand combat is quite likely to hit your own side. [Of course, we are talking marines here, and my understanding of the situation may be as defective as MacArthur’s.]
how does Sydney, shield and fire her beam at the same time ?
she’s on the ground next to one of its feet
“Clean” doesn’t really have a specific meaning. So I’ll ask you this: Would you rather lick a cut on your arm, or rub your own feces in it?
I bet Syd is still using the light bee when she is talking to squidly.
That means she can’t fire the PPO right now, since she has to be holding both the shield orb and the yellow light bee orb. Plus, even if that mouth is a weak spot, she would have a much harder time fireing into it from down below. But if she is hovering right in front of it and that IS an even stronger weapon….
Mayve she’ll be scooped up and swallowed and then attack from the inside out? Still a little disappointing Squidward can be so easily damaged. Though of course now he/she/it is aware of the threat, so maybe her next attack will be deflected again?
This makes me really curious who or what the original owner of the orbs is – and what will Sydney do when they show up to reclaim their property? If people like Squidward are so terrified of them, can that be good?
Maybe ARCHON can try to search the place where Sydney found her orbs to try and find more traces of the oiginal owner?
Probably the best move in this case is to pull a Last Jedi feint and let it fire on her position, then teleport as soon as it stops to find her unscathed and send the PPO beam down its [undetermined orifice] through center of mass.
So an ‘Independence Day’ type of “Shoot into the weapon. It’s unsheilded and directly connected to the reactor.” deal?
Just remember, when confronting a world destroying monster if it asks if you’re a god you say yes!
But what if it then says: “PROVE IT!” ?
“You missed? How could you miss? He was three feet in front of you!”
Dishonor on you, dishonor on your cow..
Not the rump roast I was promised. :(
Maybe she thinks she might get more experience or whatever from dragging things out?
On the fighters; they have to deal with the heat of re-entry, if they are even equipped to fly in an atmosphere. Even if they were coming for her, it would take some time, so I wasn’t even thinking about them.
Clearly, that gigantic whateveritis STILL has absolutely no clue just how much trouble it is in.
“Yeah, yeah. Just stop right there and raise all your pseudopods s-l-o-w-l-y above your head(s) …”
I wouldn’t call Sydney gigantic…. :)
Is it just me or does it look like a giant weaponized guy like these guys? https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2707
Nah, Trent’s cool.
She is extremely far out of her jurisdiction… lol
I think it’s safe to assume those fighters were drones. I’ve seen an analysis of space combat and basically the only thing a fighter is good for is drawing fire and taking hits for the main ship. Putting pilots in them would only kill moral, and they would have slower reaction times than a computer.
For the fighters, there’s good reason they’re not scouring the area.
They’d have no more protection from Squidwards nuke-lasers than they’d have from Syd’s PPO. They’d just be getting in the way, at best.
As others have mentioned, that’s if they could even enter the planetary atmosphere in the first place.
Of course, they could open fire from orbit, but odds are good they’d be hitting Squidward too.