Grrl Power #721 – A historic disembarkation
There was a plan in place to get Sydney down without anyone noticing. Cora had a flight path and everything. But that all went out the window when they realized the gig was up, alien wise. They just forgot to call Archon HQ and tell them they were coming in, 5 by 5.
I’ve said it before, but I am nothing resembling a visionary futurist. I don’t think a warp capable starship would utilize hydraulics in their bay doors. Something magnetically driven, or maybe controlled by artificial myomers. If tractor beam technology exists, you could probably use it to swing a door open and shut. I can only imagine the technology would weigh a heck of a lot less that metal tubes full of liquid. It’d probably take a ton more power to work tractor beam driven doors, but if you can crack lightspeed, presumably you’ve got power to spare. I don’t know that weight would necessarily matter all that much, and maybe hydraulics would be more reliable than little telekinesis pods doing all your manual labor, but I think it would seem kind of retro once you have more sophisticated ways of doing stuff like that.
I’ve decided that when Cora said The Interdictor was 160 meters long, she was talking about the main body of the ship, not including the two anti-mass drivers in the front, or the gravity sled. That probably makes more sense considering the size of the cargo bay shown a few pages ago.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
To be fair, I’d be annoyed by Sydney there too.
You just came back, quit being stupid, perhaps act professional. :p
Ariana is just trying to invoke the Death Beam Laser Eyes we’re all sure she has as a latent superpower.
“You just came back from something hideously stressful and dangerous. Instead of trying to calm down and celebrate that you, as an untrained novice, escaped something that terrified some of the strongest people from your -planet-, which was not even half a year ago all you knew for a fact to exist, stress yourself out by putting up a front and acting unnaturally”
..Yeah, no. I don’t see it. Personally I think I’d be all jokes and stupid shouting to, and I’m not even that way naturally, hell, this might even be something worth breaking my lifelong preference for sobriety to get drunk as a skunk and wake up lord only knows where.
And she leads off with Robin Williams. Good choice.
For the press she likely didn’t realize was there?
No, that would be unnatural.
I think Sydney was just trying to make sure they didn’t think she was replaced by a shapeshifting alien.
Well, the girl sure knows how to make an entrance. Arianna needs to switch into high gear tap dance mode regarding Halo’s off planet training. Something along the lines of OJT in dealing with alien races and diplomacy. Heh, Sydney a diplomat! Although she’s done pretty good so far.
The funny part, when you think about it, is [i]that’s exactly what Sydney was doing[/i]… just the hard way. After all, she learned a lot on that alien planet, and her improved skills are going to be incredibly useful to the team down the road.
So essentially she underwent a traditional anime training from hell, right? Kind of: “you do not climb to masterhood – it is more akin to falling off a cliff.”
I’m sure Frix was doing it the hard way at least.
Panel 5: If looks could kill, Sydney had best quickly bring her Shield Orb up…Or wind up quadrapalegic from “Laser-Eyes” Arianna.
If looks could kill, that starship would be a cloud of expanding gas and there’d be a new mile-wide hole in the ozone.
Well, that’s going to make things….interesting? Now mankind knows it is not alone…well, the public now knows. So I assume riots, religious debates, governments pretending they never knew about aliens, some governments collapsing in panic because they TRULY had no idea about the aliens, increase in fuel and food prices just…well because. Bomb shelters being made. Survivalists hiding in their basements. And a lot of UFO kidnapped victims trying to sue the aliens. And a lot of debates about if there ARE Vampires, Elder Gods, and Ghosts now that the Earthlings have proof that aliens exist.
And a week later the Kardashians will do something weird and the aliens will become old news.
The headlines in all the Scientology publications will be “See? We told you it was all about aliens!”
Is that how majority of USA population functions, with some exaggeration? I mean, I always figured that most people don’t give a fuck about Kardashians and others who are famous for being famous. So I thought those kinds of bullshit don’t make it into most news sources, be they TV, papers or internet. On the other hand, this leads me to the realization that maybe this kind of thing is also happening in my own country and I am just blissfully ignorant. After all we too have people famous for being famous. On just another hand (yes we are on third already, don’t judge me) I do know that they don’t make it into evening news of at least half of our TV stations (easy to count, we have just four, small country).
We would never make any racist comments about your three hands. We are very accepting group here for bot terrestrial and extraterrestrial species.
In science fiction circles we call it “on the gripping hand” From “A Mote In God’s Eye”. An alien race had three arms. So it was on one hand, on another hand, on the gripping hand.
The public already knows Dabbler is an alien.
No they dont, they just know she “has a battle form”. Of course NOW they may well be going back to asking if she’s an alien, but originally they were just told it was a battle form.
they knew it beforehand, remember alari ship …that’s also why Sydney came via such flashy entrance
Daily Panicker guy is gonna have a laaaaaaaaawt to write about.
damn it sydney
As for the door, Don’t they have Nanotech? A Liquid metal door/staircase/ramp like the one in Disney’s “Flight of the Navigator” should be an option.
We have materials that’s form can be manipulated with electrical current and thermal memory plastics etc.
More advanced tech probably doesn’t have moving parts for basics like a ships external door and ramp.
On the other hand… OLD TECH is RELIABLE TECH… those electrical and thermally manipulated materials can change state when not intended to due to external conditions… there is a phenomena called “space charging” that happens to spacecraft that could build up enough electrical charge in a given piece of material that could cause it to spontaneously change from the “keep door closed, i’m in a vacuum” mode to the “open the door cause it’s OK now” mode and POOF! your O2 is now a NO O2 (ie, a vacuum) condition… that would be bad… and i think Thermal operated doors would be worse, think of the heat buildup on re-entry to a planets atmosphere, you may have the best heat sinks technology can buy, but there will ALWAYS be some amount of waste heat given off/absorbed where you don’t want it under normal conditions… and that means that there could be conditions in space that would put that thermally operated door mechanism over the edge for the transition from shut to open… and again, that would be bad…
Hydraulics may be passe’ but it’s RELIABLE… and on a spacecraft, that is Numero UNO!
O’Brien: In order to bring the system up to Starfleet code, I had to remove the couplings to make room for a secondary backup.
Cardie: Starfleet code requires a -second- backup?
O’Brien: In case the first one fails.
Cardie: *incredulous* What are the chances that both the primary system -and- its backup would fail at the same time?
O’Brien: Thats very unlikely, but in a crunch I wouldn’t want to be caught without a second backup.
Cardie: *eyeroll*
Only two backups?
…
Damn, O’Brien must be slipping. He really need that vacation, and now – before even the hint of notion that he had only two backups in place reaches someone who can demote him to janitorial…
That scene always reminds me of the almost literal fight O’Brien had with the Cardassian computer system in the pilot episode when they wanted to move the station and the computer kept saying “That procedure is not recommended”
Obviously, the computer was programmed that way BECAUSE there was no triple redundancy built in.
Personally, that scene always reminds me of one of the main ideological patterns of DS9: Science is BAD, and only Faith can save us.
Not a fan of such mindset in general, and this scene in particular – despite O’Brien clearly being casted as a sympathetic side.
PS: #MakeIrregularVerbsRegularAgain
We still use wheels on cars and bikes even though we have the tech to make hovercraft.
There is a lot to be said for tech being ‘too stupid to go wrong’. Especially when it’s a survival-critical system like the one keeping your air in place.
On the one hand Sydney had no choice in the ships landing path. On the other hand, I am still surprised at how stupid Sydney is being. I would say she gets a pass for all the terrifying shat she’s gone through but honestly if I gave Sydney a pass for every strange or overwhelming day she had I would always be giving Sydney a pass, is my guess.
Just because the world knows Aliens are real doesn’t mean the world knows Archon itself has any contact WITH said Aliens. Causing a huge international incident by revealing that, by parking on Archon’s front lawn, is by no means a smart or clever move. I suspect that if Sydney had any actual agency in this choice she’d be getting arrested by none other then Archon itself for treason, it’s such a big, stupid move. I also suspect that the comic will try and have someone actually get mad at her, and rightfully so I say, for this choice she didn’t really get to make, because ultimately she COULD have informed Cora that just because the Jig is up, that don’t mean you quit dancing the tango, or in this case, just because Aliens are on earth, that don’t mean you reveal the fact that your Nation, already the subject of a lot of scrutiny for supposedly weaponizing their supers, has also known about Aliens for god knows how long.
Pretty sure she’s completely out of meds now.
She was running low before.
And I said pretty much the same thing about I knowing aliens are real vs knowing that the government knew that aliens are real.
On the plus side, the veil might have an easier time now: Ahh a vampire! Oh wait, just an alien. Move on.
Agreed – someone had to tell Cora where the Archon building was, and the only possibilities are Dabbler and Sydney. Both of whom knew aliens were still code Ultraviolet Platinum, and that wouldn’t change just because the Alari landed on the other side of the planet.
This was a huge, grandiose move; a moment’s thought would make it obvious how terribly this would be for Archon’s PR. It was either incredibly malicious, stupid, or clueless. I love it.
I would say that news being broadcast live from the Archon front lawn might be a teeny bit of a hint as to the location.
I give her a pass because this is her first week on the job.
THERE IS NO WAY IN HECK SHE SHOULD BE ALLOWED OUTSIDE UNTIL BASIC TRAINING IS COMPLETE. But here we are, her embarrassing us all because they haven’t finished her training.
I mean…this is beyond idiotic though. There is basic training and then there is common sense. Basic doesn’t teach you how to tie your shoes, because there are some things you should know. Granted dealing with aliens isn’t common sense, but common sense should say “I should talk to someone to let them know I’m coming back with aliens.” Or “Hey guys, I’m in an alien ship, should I park it on the front lawn?” Or “Hey, I can fly down to earth from here, don’t worry.” Just anything other than this. She doesn’t deserve a pass, she deserves all the eye lasers Ariana can muster.
They DID contact someone — Dabbler, who then contacted Max. And chances are, the landing location was relayed. It seems to be the usual thing that Arianna simply doesn’t get put in the loop on things like this, and since she was making up stuff as she went along…well, hey.
That’s true. Dabbler did tell Max that Sydney would be arriving within the hour. So if Max didn’t tell anyone else, it’s on her.
Why did they even need to land?
They could have flounced her out the airlock and let her fly down alone.
She got lost at only a hundred feet, something tells me unless her wrist device is charged she is going to have a hard time finding her bearings.
Besides pretty good chance Cora wants
A: To see her old friend Dabbler
B: Speak with Sydney’s superior officers
C: Speak with the humans about the Alari planet, the colony ship, and the refugees.
(and in person is better than over coms).
I’m leaning towards they were supposed to stay in orbit until coordinates for a secure landing site could be given them (a remote corner of a desert military base at night being traditional), but given that the genitals are unveiled Cora and Sydney decided to ignore that.
What basic did you attend?!? We were taught which eyelet to pass the shoelace through, whether the shoelace was right over left or vice versa – HOW TO TIE YOUR SHOES. And it got inspected, believe me. Ask an army guy how to “blouse your boots.” Ask about belt buckles. Ask about buttoning your shirt or blouse. Boot camps assume nobody nowhere know nothing about anything.
Preach it!
The one that got me was “put the hangers on the rod with the open part of the hook toward the back.” Then I found out about that shelf/hook arrangement they use a lot in the south, and it was “Oh, so that’s why…”. There is a method to their madness, sometimes.
Other option… Dabbler said to come on down(or maybe someone else at Archon)… Since we know they were in contact with Dabbler at the very least. Possibly to keep anyone from covering it up, or to show that that african nation isn’t the only one who now has access to advanced tech, or possibly just to fuck with Ariana.
Who scheduled a press meeting outside of Archon HQ on the same day Sydney was returning? Cora had talked to Dabbler, and they knew Cora’s ship was FTL, so they knew that Sydney would be returning, in a starship, on that day.
Totally not Sydney’s fault.
The aliens: Sydney, they know about aliens now but didn’t knew about how many alien races there are, and you might have wanted to call Archon first and blah, blah, blah BOOORING. Who wants to know how many races watch Star Trek because it’s soooo good??
Adriana: What they said! Except the Star Trek part!!
Well, to be honest, no one asked Sydney when they are lying about “sequestered training.” Admittedly, it is a global military standard to “misinform” about self losses unless they know it can be proven by third party sources, (even then,) sooner or later they will be caught in the lie and their credibility will plummet. I would have expected Archon to be smarter about their lie and take into consideration situations that would reveal it, and choose a better obfuscation. I mean, come one, she is expected to come back safely after what, x weeks (or months) of disappearance? Repeating myself, they need a better misleading story.
As for what that can be…
Heh, I am sure Machina Industries will have their consultation fees that can be reached from their website contacts.
A couple of things that come to mind…
a. How relieved will Max be when she sees Sydney? Will she shed tears of relief? Will she hug her subordinate like a long lost teddy bear?
b. How will Max react when she hears Sydney’s report?
c. How will Max react when she learns there are Alari aboard the Interdictor?
d. How will the Alari react when they learn that Sydney performed a corporal act of mercy for the Alari refugees?
Right about now I’m sure that Max is aware the Interdictor has set down outside Archon HQ and he on her way out of the building… I don’t care how annoying Sydney’s remark was… I get the feeling Max’s first words are going to be, “Cool your jets Ari…”
Ari is the PAO… its not really in her purview to dress down Sydney. Max on the other hand will be conflicted… She knows that Sydney was stranded in the act of protecting the team… something her training has barely touched on. She acted in the best interests of the team, not so much herself. I think that will gain her a lot of leeway. Still, I think max will probably repeat “Don’t ever do that again” over and over… though, if she hadn’t, they’d all have been stranded.
Either way, I think we’re about to see a whole new, softer side of Max… for about thirty seconds…
Max has been pretty understanding about Sydney’s major faux pas in the past (e.g. interrupting a G7 teleconference), but dropping this mess on their front lawn in front of the public is a whole new level.
The genitals were indeed unveiled, but Sydney just added streaking and teabagging to the mix.
I mean…this wasn’t really her call. Its Cora’s ship, and she has known Syd long enough to know she should not be allowed a mile near any kind of executive decision. If the veil was off Cora may have decided to tear it all the way off. Also with the US being the only government that seems to have regular contact with aliens it seems smart to weigh in with them and bring the debate back under the control of a Major Nation and not a small African country that is out and out owned by a corporate interest.
d. How will the Alari react when they learn that Sydney performed a corporal act of mercy for the Alari refugees?
I think she is still technically a cadet. :)
Technically, Sydney is a recruit.
Candidates training to be officers are cadets.
So…. technically I’m wrong. :(
But I learned something!
Halo should in no way be in for ANY kind of harsh criticism. As basically new recruit with very little training she survived an almost impossible situation, saved her team mates and returned to base against incredible odds. An After Action Review on mistakes made and how things could have gone better is appropriate and would be a normal, mandatory, response. Anyone trying to jump her shit deserves to get their ass handed to them. There should be happiness breaking out all over with much back slapping, welcomes home and many celebratory drinks.
“No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” – Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
In this case there was NO battle plan. Her team got dumped into a hostile, alien environment and everyone was acting and reacting as best they could and according to their training. Halo done GOOD.
It’s honestly not at all weird that a space-age civilisation capable of light speed and technological telekinesis would still use hydraulics.
For a start, hydraulics only need power to change position. Without power, they stay exactly where they are, because water is incompressible. A door that’s held closed with hydraulics won’t suddenly flop over if there’s a power outage – which is definitely a feature you want on a space ship.
Just think: we still use levers, gears, ramps, screw pumps and water wheels in real life, and those were invented so long ago that we don’t know who invented them. Hydraulics are only slightly more recent than those, and we also use them all the time. You don’t throw out a simple mechanism just because you figured out something more complicated to do the same thing!
Just to be picky (which is half the fun) space ain’t no kind of place to use water in your hydraulics; in fact it’s cold as hell.
I recently saw a program about the development of the C 17. They did a high altitude cargo drop over Afghanistan to avoid ground fire. The depressurized cargo hold got down to about 20 below F. When they tried to close the door the lubrication on the latch had frozen and would not click into place. They had to attach ropes to the door and pull to assist the automatic mechanism to get it to seat into the frame.
I mean yeah you’d probably use a solution of water and… something else to make it not freeze as readily. Or just another liquid with similar incompressability to water?
Check the brake fluid in your car. It is a hydraulic fluid, but it is also a very good paint stripper. It has something other than water in it. (Don’t pour it on the car paint unless you want to repaint you whole car.)
It’s like there should be something that’s lubricating and has a very low freezing point and also a low viscosity for use in hydraulic systems in harsh environments, something like Hydraulic Fluid For Harsh Environments https://www.google.com/search?q=hydraulic+fluid+for+harsh+environments&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS809US809&oq=hydraulic+fluid+for+harsh+environments&aqs=chrome..69i57.14613j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Most hydraulic fluids I have dealt with in manufacturing are some mixture of glycol…which is made from steeric acid … which is rendered from the stomachs of cows.
Then there is the M2 that slid on ice for a mile at the Aberdeen Proving Ground because everyone forgot that water, used in the hydraulics for the brakes, freezes.
That is why emergency brakes in a vehicle, are operated, by a cable system.
You wrote almost exactly what I was about to write. I’ll add that our oldest tool tech (knives and hammers) are still considered indispensable to this day.
[DaveB]_A_Brief_Question:
How is it that Arianna gets a “Who’s-Who” mention when Cora-&-Crew don’t …
… when NONE of them have spoken on this page?
Cora and the Maliens don’t have cast entries yet.
That look on her face is saying quite a bit, plus you can’t see the others very clearly.
Perhaps I’m old, but I would have gone for the classic “take-me-to-your-leader” opening line.
Personally my plan would be to skim low earth orbit and dump Sydney out they airlock, let her go the rest of the way with her shield+flight orbs, and hang about out of easy detection range until I hear back about what they wanna do as far as the Alari refugees, whether that involves landing instructions or Sydney comes back to ferry them or what.
Alternatively, if I just want to land, I ring up Dabbler for landing instructions.
The number one thing I do not do is listen to Sydney when she says ‘Just park anywhere’.
In Syd’s defense, the parking lot *IS* right in front of the building…
In Sydney’s defense, the parking lot *IS* in front of the ARCHON building…
That would be the sensible thing to do, so, not Sydney. Not after she’s been through all that and probably out of meds as well.
Pneumatic doors; not hydraulic.
Man. Sydney really is sort of a twit sometimes.
To be fair, it was Cora’s decision to come down without stealth. As captain of the ship, she’s the one who bears the responsibility for not considering the possibility that discretion might still be called for. At the very least, she should have made contact with Archon before going down.
It’s all on Cora, Sydney should not be in trouble for this.
Actually, I was reacting to that fusillade of pop-culture references. Mork & Mindy, Star Trek, and an “All Your Base” joke all thrown together? Ugh. I don’t know why, but I find that literally nauseating. It’s like a really obnoxious soup.
Ah, I see. Well Sydney’s gotta be Sydney. It would be out of character if she showed more decorum.
she can’t show too much decorum, her breasts aren’t that big
Sydney is going to have more than a few moments vs others supers of measured patience and annoyance. She is basically a walking super weapon in the same league as Maxima. Her shield took what appeared to be a kilo if not mega ton explosion at Point Blank Range. She cut apart alien death walkers with her PPO. She is capable of very fast atmospheric travel and intra+interstellar travel. There are going to be a few moments where a bad guy is going to be monologueing followed completely falling to do anything to her. Then a frustrated Picard style face palm and her calmly explaining that if it weren’t for her restraint and preference to avoid lethal force where possible that the fight would already be over.
Now that I think about she seems to be slowing being worked towards being a counter to Maxima should she ever go rogue.
Well yeah, you could move the door without the hydraulics, but that doesn’t mean you can’t keep them for the aesthetics. I mean I know it’s due to the difficulty of drawing something from scratch, but those don’t look like they are properly attached in panel 4 anyway. Cora probably has hard-light projecting the whole bay door, hydraulic struts and all.
That’s a terrible idea! If the power goes out everything gets vented out into space!
What basic did you attend?!? We were taught which eyelet to pass the shoelace through, whether the shoelace was right over left or vice versa – HOW TO TIE YOUR SHOES. And it got inspected, believe me. Ask an army guy how to “blouse your boots.” Ask about belt buckles. Ask about buttoning your shirt or blouse. Boot camps assume nobody nowhere know nothing about anything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DxF3KdkOdE&feature=youtu.be
FIRST CONTACT
I think the important thing about a space door is that it be simple enough that it won’t fail. Because of that whole ‘protection from the vaccuum of space’ thing. Hydraulics are simple compared to the other stuff DaveB mentioned, so I can see people using something simple like hydraulics for a door :).
Sydney, practice this line; you’re going to be using it a lot going forward, I suspect.
“Adrianna, I am neither morally nor contractually responsible for any lies you choose to tell to the press and public. ESPECIALLY ones you don’t even tell me about.”
“YOU WERE OUT OF CONTACT!”
“In that case, you could very safely assume the chances of my playing along with your little web of lies was zero, yes?”
“AARGH!”
Actually, she both morally and contractually obligated. She is an on-duty government employee that reports up the chain, and Arianna is the designated individual in charge of public relations. If Arianna (and presumably her assistants…?) haven’t approved a classified topic or event for external discussion, the only thing Sydney is allowed to say about it is “no comment”. Given that she is publicly blowing multiple secrets she knows were taboo, “national security” is a fairly reasonable concept to invoke, and it’s actually hard to believe there will be no consequences for showboating like this.
Not to say I’m not enjoying it anyways.
Arianna is higher up the org chart but she is not in the chain. She is, at most, a support position.
…You’re right.
I KNEW there was a reason I left the military. >.>
To be fair, those might not be hydraulics, they might be entry guns in the stand by and don’t look actively menacing but still ready mode. After all, we can’t see them connecting with the ramp, despite Dave talking about hydraulics. ;)
Classic Sydney. Dabbler is probably giggling her shapely butt off over this one.
oh fuck that face hahaha had me laughing out loud
Wouldn’t have been that hard to get Sydney down unnoticed anyway; just wait until night, then toss her out an airlock. Nobody would notice a human flier at night.
NORAD would…
You know one of the biggest mistakes people can make is futurism for futurism’s sake. One of the dumbest things on Star Trek are the brig cells. Force field doors that will turn off the moment there’s a short? Why?
Metal cell doors with locks would actually be much more secure. Knives have been with us for hundreds of thousands of years. We aren’t giving up knives. Hydraulics are reliable and secure. Stick with hydraulics. You won’t be sorry.
It’s even worse than that: in one TNG episode ( or maybe it was one of the movies, I don’t remember) Picard tells a guest that the window on the Enterprise she’s looking through isn’t a window at all, it’s a forcefield! Can you imagine? Everyone on the Enterprise is essentially one short away from being vented into space, or at least suffocating after the ship’s air supply is vented? I don’t think that idiocy was mentioned ever again, for which I’m grateful. A ship that malfunctions as often as Federation ships do would be an even bigger death thrap if al the air could be lost the moment there was a power loss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DxF3KdkOdE&feature=youtu.be
First Contact. And he had to use controls to OPEN THE COVER on the “window”.
Don’t forget that when life support fails, everyone starts suffocating within a minute or so of the alarm sounding. CO2 doesn’t build up that fast, so where is the air going?
The Enterprise has emergency portholes as well as permanent windows. The emergency portholes are forcefields for… some reason (I assume so they can be switched off if you need to do a space walk from an awkward part of the ship??) and are usually covered by a metal hatch.
The actual permanent windows are made of sapphire – much tougher and thicker than glass.
I think that the explanation for that issue is rather simple. As far as I remember, Star Trek ships are actually held together with a forcefield. If there’s not enough power to keep the air out, the ship’s probably going to fall apart really soon.
That’s an incredibly inconvenient way to build a ship, designers have to make structures stable at every stage of construction, not a puzzle box with a drop-dead linchpin keeping the entire assembly in place. It’s almost like they designed it for plot devices instead of actually being used for space exploration.
I keep coming back to one question: How is Sydney even awake anymore? The last time we saw her getting any sleep was in #589, or for her more than 24 hours ago. She didn’t get much sleep then because she was suffering the side-effects of Dabbler’s warming spell, and she has had a full day of lessons and training, followed by the fight at Sciona’s base, the shock of ending up stranded on another planet, the battle with Squidward, the thrill of being the target of an orbital nuclear bombardment, the trip to The Fracture, meeting Cora and crew, having sex with Frix and spending hours on the loo recovering from her grakz. How the hell is she able to do anything besides collapsing? I’m calling it right here: that last, unknown orb is somehow keeping her going.
It was mentioned that she had enough time to sleep before (6-8 hours) before the grakz hit her and she would need it… and then they flashed forwards to the next aftermath of the grakz… so I am pretty sure this is covered.
Hmmm… yes, i forgot about that. But it looked like she was already beginning to feel the efects of the grakz when Cora said that, so I assumed she didn’t really spend those hours sleeping, but I guess she must have. Rats. Still no closer to figuring out what that last orb does.
Huh. Wonder if Sydney will ever experience any reaction to all the stress and traumashe’s ben through? She seems to be remarkably unfazed.
Subjectively, Sydney spent less than a day on the Alari home world, half a day on the space station, and a third of a day traveling to Earth. Unless she mentioned running out of meds in there somewhere, I doubt she’s had time to do so. She was planning on keeping extra doses with her googly eyes.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, weeks, months, seasons may have passed. Someone said the planted fields in Deus’s kingdom looked the same? It may have been a whole year. Or it may just be something they could get two plantings of.
This is why lying because you are too lazy to tell the truth always gets PR people and politicians into trouble.
If Archon had simply stated, if asked, “Archon personnel were recently involved in stopping a terrorist attempt against the United States of America. Some Archon personnel where injured. They are currently being treated. We expect all of them to make a complete recovery. Halo is currently listing as MIA but recovery efforts are still underway.
Let me add: “Oh! Look! Recovery efforts were successful. Halo needs to see our medical people for a check up. We will make her available for questions after she is medically cleared and has completed our standard debriefing.”
Follow up scene: Ariana describing how Archon’s rawest recruit’s accomplishments reflect the quality, skill, intelligence, and training of Archon operatives.
Also Ariana is outside the chain of command. She has no authority over Sydney.
Heh, your principle is correct. Your example though falls right into the same trap that got Arianna!
“Archon personnel were recently involved in stopping a terrorist attempt against the United States of America.”
What terrorists? Where? What danger is there to the American people? Are a few of the questions which would spring up in answer to such a statement. None of which could be fielded without digging deeper and deeper lies. Many of which could have severe legal and political consequences.
In reality governments actually (barring the dumb ones which get caught out in situations similar to this) just say stuff like “we do not comment on the deployment details of any individuals, unless there is an operational need for such.”
Too dull for a comic story though, and pissing off Arianna is worth its weight in gold pressed nanoo nanoos.
Fair enough. I always erred by saying too much.
Also, “we managed to lose and possibly injure a highly valuable, untrained youth in her first week by putting her into combat action” doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence either.
The same terrorist(s) against which Archon personel fought near Somecity, USA, causing damage enough to take out a bridge and levelling half of Somemountain, USA, actually. Although I wonder if that has also been covered up, this amateurishly. Then again, this has been chosen for the rule of funny, I would say.
Indeed. This is a comedy comic first and foremost, so that must always take precedence to reality checking.
Of course the fact that it mirrors reality well enough, at other times, that people (myself included) feel the urge to point out discrepancies, is a good sign. For a situation to diverge enough from the everyday, first the audience must be set in the mind-frame that all is normal. Thus heightening the impact of the comedic divergence.
BTW, DaveB, you probably should add to the blue orb description, “Flight/Aetherium Causeways” or “Flight/Wormholes” or something :)
Travel
Also of note, the Aetherium Causeway was blip one of its chain and its already so advanced compared to everything else that it set off the Nth tech alarm in Cora’s mind. Imagine what the next plips up are, dimension travel without detection, alternate timeline travel, reality jumping, buffer space sliding, ect..
Actually, Sydney has been more responsible and restrained with her powers than her teammates.
At the onset, I wasn’t sure if her PPO at full power would be safe to use inside of a planetary atmosphere. I’d expect that she thought the same thing. It is probably also the reason why she didn’t do an upgrade to a stronger energy blast even when she was in danger of dying. She didn’t want to have the ability to destroy planets.
She’s been careful on who/what she attacks more than her teammates. She’s never put people into danger. (Her teammates have done some terrible actions. They pretty much tortured Sciona and then used lethal attacks against her, nearly killing a great many people in the process).
She kept out of combat when her life was threatened on the space station.
Interesting assessment. I like it.
Called it. Still calling it.
Arianna’s joining The Dark Side over this one.
She is going to binge drink Pepsi, instead of the other brand?
She’s going to seize the Screaming Skull of Karaoke and sing Edie Brickell songs.
America’s first (official) contact. And Sydney makes it a classic that should put Neil Armstrong’s paw line in the shadows!
In Sydney’s defense she didn’t know the press would be there. As far as she knew she was walking out to meet friends and co-workers.
I just realized, that line (though not actually “first contact” for the whole world, we don’t know what the Alri said in Galytn) will indeed be entered into the annals of history. 0.o
…followed by several pages of footnotes explaining 21st century nerd pop culture.
Yea, hence why I stipulated “America’s” rather than “Humanities”. Likewise the “official” was because we know Maxima and many other Americans, back through history, have been covertly working directly with aliens and other supernatural beings.
As for history it all depends on how the secret records are classified. Assuming that the USA has a similar approach to the UK’s system, less problematic secrets are given a number of years that they must be kept for, before a review can approve their release. Whilst others are given no such provision and are therefore meant to be kept forever.
One of the former was the development of the first computers, by the UK, during WWII, to help crack the Enigma machine and other codes. One of the latter being that it was done using technological advice from aliens. But shush – don’t tell anybody. Remember this is still a secret!
Arianna is just annoyed because she doesn’t get the “All your base” reference.
She’s not hip; she only knows memes that are captions on stock photos.
*Sydney looking at Arianna* “Meesa Backs!!!*
We’ve had Star Trek references (Quatloos, from the Gamesters of Triskelion) and Mork from Ork references (Nanoo nanoo) so why not a Star Wars Jar Jar Binks Reference? C’mon Sydney, you have it in you and it would REALLY piss off Arianna. Just make sure you do it when Max is there to make the boss laugh too.
Jar Jar who?
Abrams.
Jar-Jar Abrams.
He went to make a Star Trek reboot after ruining the Old Republic. And one of his padawans is now spreading STD everywhere.
Daniel here. I’ve had a random thought, we know Max is aware Sydney is almost home, she was wrapping up some business with a Rogue Super when she got the call. What I’m curious about is where Max is now? Is she dropping the perpetrator in the Super Jail directly, in ARCHON Tower booking him now or at Sydney’s PLANNED landing site, waiting for her there…
She is watching from a short distance away, waiting for Arianna’s humiliation to set in before whisking Sidney off to the ballroom for her debriefing.
note that sydney isn’t like your standard recruit going through basic where they are stuck at a base training the vast majority of the time for three months. She’s pretty contingent on being allowed to have a life outside arc and the military, and she’s allowed to cause she has super powers and the government is willing to flex to get her to use them on its behalf
On the hydraulics and futurism.
On the first thing, it fits the style of her ship. If she had a mechanical ship with a muscle fiber techno-organic sphincter with a tongue-tentacle like ramp it would be rather odd considering the rest of her ship design; and honestly it doesn’t look (high tech enough) to justify an energy slide, maybe a portal down or levitating platform.
On the second, (reader dumb-down), even if you can imagine something super advanced, sometimes its a good idea to keep it recognizable to the viewer. I am reminded of this by something the creator of Ghost in the Shell said; when he made the manga he imagined a world of wireless networks and being able to communicate via skin contact with a communication board with computers using the prosthetics. However he decided to use wire connections and keyboards instead so it wouldn’t distract the readers and be fitting the then current themes in cyberpunk.
-Basically, everything big so far with Cora in her ship has looked fairly mechanical, with small things being holograms and such- Its like the magic thing *why would every entrance and light be magical when mana drain and magic cancelling exists* same with tech, if power loss is possible, best to at least have mechanical back ups.
‘It’s in the contract! They’re subscribers at my comic shop!’
Kinda have to wonder if it was any easier to draw from this angle?
And as you can see, the training involved puppets and shiny string
Sydney derailing yet another of Arianna’s media thingies was not as good as I hoped for.
‘
IT WAS BETTER!
My only concern being whether this will be the last little push that tips over Arianna into full-blown super-villainry. Always felt like she was most of the way there anyhow.