Latest blog post: Update on the comic (2026-05-28)
Author's comment:
I think they'll be fine. They're so far away, after all...
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Comments (7)
Ummmhh, captain Kas? An unknown, very foreign ship taking aim at your main ward should merit you telling your own crew to "fire at will!", don't you think ... ?
When a target has a large rotating drum to provide an open-air pseudogravity environment, and an attacking bogey has a light-speed beam weapon that they can aim and fire in less than a handful of heartbeats, I am pessimistic about evasive maneuvers. The captain's warning will arrive after the damage.
Even if evasive maneuvers are technically possible, it would mean applying enough drive force for Dawn to structurally destroy its own habitat with enormous loss of life.
It is possible that the bogey is firing to disable, and Dawn will be left immobile but mostly unhurt. It is also possible that Dawn is about to be destroyed with the loss of all crew aboard. Either way Earth would have Raharran refugees to shelter in addition to the Raharran exile already stranded there.
Any speculation about the bogey? Do they have a motive to disable rather than destroy? They clearly did not want to be found. Having been found do they want to run away, or eliminate the witnesses? And if they want to eliminate the witnesses, does that include Earth?
I'm guessing the Dawn isn't the target, but rather it's military escorts. They are far more likely to be able to pose a threat to the Azinarsi than the Dawn itself.
It doesn't have to be a light beam, an ion/plasma beam is also possible. (eg strip off electrons, use magnetic field (electricity in superconducting wire) to speed atoms up to fraction of speed of light.
From their perspective 1000 years can be like a day in our terms because they have been around for millions of years.
An advanced alien civilization might watch *every* other civilization that might advance to be able to come near their territory in next 1000+ years.
I think the most obvious original motive of bogey was to watch earth.
Reasons why can vary, earthlings making thousands of thermo nuclear bombs and potential rapid tech growth from AI could make them a future "threat" especially from a species that looks at things from perspective of thousands of years.
From perspective of advanced tech civilization, "moron" lower tech civilizations can be threats, in same way the superpowers of earth have to fear a 3rd rate country making dna manipulated anthrax bombs.
I too am pessimistic about their evasive abilities.
Hmmmm. If the architects of the Dawn thought of this kind of situation and provided a (non-military) defense against it, I'd expect the still-rotating habitat to emergency-detach from the "frame". The habitat could accelerate away from the frame at, say, 90% of its internal artificial gravity, and the ship-gun-carrying "frame" would be at liberty to maneuver.
Still not likely to happen fast enough to avoid taking the first hit, I fear ...
With bit of luck, that´s a communication laser pulse and just by "happenstance"
is aimed past Earth and apparently close to the vicinity of Dawn.
Well, we can always hope.
Oh shit!
If the previous page was shit hit the fan, we straigh up go to a sewer discharge into a turbine here.
Chirst. Surely that the Dawn can do some evasive maneuver, but dear that it poorly desidned for: the drum will be a total mess and dang! Also a thought for everyone in EVA suit, like Hekaht, who arent in a very good position to withstand sudden acceleration like that.
btw, the Moon is a 1 l/s of Earth, is very short for maneuver of any kind. And even if the beam is slower than ligh, it seem uncomfortably fast.
Else, no matter who are this Azinarsi, their are pretty upset to be discovered.
What if the "ghosts" do choose to wipe Earth clean, too? "Pulsar jet sweeping a close-orbit binary star"?
Something tells me Gharr & friends are about o have quite a few more roommates...
I really like the "crater" dents in the Azinarsi ship.
And boy, are those grills full of lunar regolith, this thing hasn't had a good cleaning in a long time.
So "Camp Raharr" is going to be....."Refugee Camp Raharr" and span 1/4 of a continent? Lets hope not but this is certainly a clear declaration of War if I have ever seen one.
Oh Voy, I don't see this ending well if that strike hits. Very typical elder race reactive stupidity of course to strike first at any hint of a "threat" even if it is not a threat.
Holly Terra! I wasn't expecting that!