Endtown by Aaron Neathery for October 02, 2013

Oops, that might leave Endtown just a little exposed…

Looks like the rats are going to have to rethink their strategy. . . and cover story.

Houston, We have Liftoff!

Good thing the “dust of everything that’s ever been destroyed” is soft.

Well now that is what I’d call burning your bridges!

Hopefully they have more than just one surface security station, or no one else will be leaving for a while.

Wow, if that doesn’t attract the topsiders’ attention, I dunno what will! RUN, Wally and Holly! Find cover!

Wally and the great glass elevator… (Dahl reference, I know it’s not glass.)

Could make it difficult to send out foraging teams. How long before that rabbit starts looking mighty tasty?

I don’t think those rats will be rethinking anything. Or saying anything, except through forensics.If this attracts the Topsiders to Endtown, they may be what Jackrabbit is supposed to face to defend the colony.

Well, that’s what you get for not thinking someone with a grenade could still be a threat even though you couldn’t see them any more. Line Of Sight does not provide you immunity to grenades.

Nothing like a crises to unite the population.

Hope this doesn’t give the Topsiders a possible location to Endtown.

Something I’d forgotten…the bottom of the tube was open. That would mean that suction brought the car up..at least to a certain point. But with the bottom of the shaft open, the potato gun (or punkin chunkin—which I was thinking) analogy wouldn’t work. Increased gas pressure from the grenade should just bleed out the bottom of the shaft as shown. Oh well, now they have to land.

Man!!! Those Apex Lux grenades are really something!!!

Pop goes the weasel – or in this case, the cat and mouse.

Penthouse! This is your stop, sir and madam.

Brilliant illustration!!! Bravo Aaron!!

1- I hope at least a couple rats were injured by that, and 2- how in all of the hell are you supposed to be able to THROW that a safe distance!?

GOING UP!!!Next floor…Topsider Satellite!!!

So, does this mean that they’re a threat again?

Ya know, I saw an outhouse do that once, them must’ve been some powerful beans.______________________________________

JusKiddin, but before we question the capacities of a grenade, remember back in high school when we could get an M-80 from fireworks, or dynamite from the feed store, and drop it down a city storm sewer, and try to blow of the manholes? Storm sewer pipes in a small city are generally 14" inside diameter. Yes, I know plumbers measure stuff differently than HVAC-E contractors.

Point is, at my grandmother’s house, if done just right, we could blow the lid off the manhole four blocks away, and there were three pair of drains in that direction. And a drain manhole lid is very, very heavy.Sky HighRemember to vote.

Vote ENDTOWN Vote Doc Rat Vote Hubris Vote Kevin and Kell Sincerely, JusSayin

Jussaying,“Sky High”? You’re giving me 70s flashbacks.

Wheeeee!!!! Ouch!! Gasp!!Thunk, bump, roll. Get us out!!. Anybody there?Roll some more, we need to get the door right side up so we can get out. Well the door is broken so we won’t need a crowbar, hate to have to go down just to get, well , anything.Sure hope none of the uglies that courted me before it decides to reapply his/her attention.Climb in, we will get started.What is that lump I have been sitting on?Saved Aaron the difficulty of dialog. Giggle.Blessed Be

Or just bomb em like they tried before.

Panels 3&4 are the elevator pod containing Holly and Wally blasting throught the elevator cover the sand crawlers would have covered. Those kind of blast forces are going to leave Holly and Wally messed up for a while. But now they are out, with two days remaining for the cliffhanger.

Those are pretty good grenades.Heavy damage below for sure.There will be some causalities for sure. This may shut down the entire elevator system. No more coming and going unless they have other sites.My guess is what is the black object in panel two.Does “Alien” come to mind.Remember the system was designed to keep bad things out. What if some bad thing just got in there?Sure Wally and Holly survive. At the cost of over 6 thousand Endtowners maybe. Question to all………..Is this for the Greater Good????(Sorry so late to post. Busy day.)

Looks like they’ve got a dust leak coming through the various elevator ducts. This could be bad, or at least very inconveinant for Endtown. Our heroes may have to use the dittos to cover the topside damage and strike out on their own without that protection. This could test how well or even if the satillite system is working.

An aside on the landscape, wonder if there is anything out there beyond dust and the occational ruin, as the whole setting could be more metaphoric/symbolic than “realistic”? My pet images include areas only lightly hit by Amesworth, skeletonized trees and raw bedrock where the dust has rinsed off high ground, for example. But that is only my nit-picky hard SF side, so turning everything into dust world is perfectly fine. Arron’s art and story-telling has a somewhat European flavor, with more symbolic/fantastic elements than what I’m used to in US SF. (or at least the kind of stuff I was reading in my formative days)

Well, Aaron covered the door problem I mentioned. Now how to cover it up from the Topsiders…

“Our heroes may have to use the dittos to cover the topside damage and strike out on their own without that protection.”YES! Finally, someone (other than me) mentions using the dittos to hide the surface damage. However, given the number of dittos in the ball, Wally can easily give up enough to cover the pod and still be feared (the damaged elevator shaft is already hidden under the dust and not visible by the satellite).

The grenades may have been meant to be launched from a, um, “potato gun” cannon after the pin is pulled.

Actually, grenades are to be used from cover, as the potentially leathal fragmentation radius is a lot further than most people can throw. The blast effect on normal grenades is pretty limited, so the fancy type must be awfully potent.