Another week, another page! Special thanks go to all the folks who took advantage of last week’s extension of 6-Commando Poker! I’ll be contacting all of you this week to see about getting you yor prizes.
We’re rolling towards the end of the chapter, here. And I think it’s going to be something you either love or hate – as ever, I’m trying to be willing to take risks with this story, and I hope you like where I’m going with it. After the end of Chapter 3, of course, there will have to be some kind of a reckoning, so to speak, because I’m going to have to devote myself to shaping this book up for printing, if I plan to get it done for printing this year, as I hope to do. Now, of course, there’s always the possibility that I could just nix the print version and go on with the story, leaving the whole thing online. And I admit, there’s a part of me that’s tempted to do that, not only because I really DO want to draw chapter 4 and keep the whole thing going, but also because this year I’m taking my licensing examinations to register as an Architect. But at this point, I feel like I’ve so totally committed myself to this, and hyped up the book form so much, that I kind of ought to see it through. God willing, I’ll be able to get it done in a time and in a shape that you’ll all appreciate, and will make me happy with the result. Right now, only time will tell.
If I do have to take a pause in order to do this, however, I’m going to see to it that there’s something to fill the gap, even if it’s just weekly “this is what I did this week” posts for you. So I’ll really be doing my best to keep you all involved.
As to everything else, I don’t have much more to add for now. I’m a bit late, and a bit tired, and I’m also on the road this weekend, so I’m not sure what else there is.
All the best, folks!
>>> We’re rolling towards the end of the chapter, here. And I think it’s going to be something you either love or hate – as ever, I’m trying to be willing to take risks with this story, and I hope you like where I’m going with it.
This is one of the moments where I wish 6 Commando would update more often… which is solid evidence you succeed at building a excellent arc of suspense (yes, I had to use the dictionary for that one ^^).
>>> […] but also because this year I’m taking my licensing examinations to register as an Architect.
I’d love to see a 6 Commando print edition (and I stand by my previous statement of a pre-order), but your carreer should go first, print edition secound.
This page work well with no dialogue at all. I think the looks on their faces tells it all. Not to mention the fact noone has tried to stop Rucker (yet). I expect we see MIKE (or what has become of him) soon.
#1 Who are those guys in the redish-brownish power suits?
#2 One question to fuel my theory (or not): MIKE’s “CPU brain” contains a [living?] part of “gelled protein wetware”, right? Artifical protein grown in a petri-dish (MIKE’s maker was some geek in a lab-coat with an eyedropper and a petri-dish?) or from a different source?
#1 From what i understood
Green: Combat/Command/Medical (look at the shoulder-pads)
Yellow: Detox/Chemical
Red/Brown: Engineering (look a few pages back you will notice them trying to cut open a door)
Blue: Technical/System (worked on Mikes internal & brain/CPU)
You got it. There is also an as-yet unseen Purple, which is for the Chaplain’s Corps.
–M
To answer #2, Ulrich, yes, Mike’s CPU is “protein wetware,” a special kind of gel made from a synthetic amino acid called 2-4 Desoxyribotransistorase. It’s grown in a vat, in sheets, which are layered into a cube about a three feet (1 meter, give or take) to a side. Each sheet of protein alternates with a very thin superconductor film (about a molecule thick) that allows any given molecule of the gel to be polarized selectively. The density of the gel is very high, but because it’s organic its actual storage and calculation capacity varies somewhat and isn’t directly measurable. Once the whole thing is layered together, it’s encased in lead, followed by coolant ceramics, then more lead, an armored, shock-resistant case, and then a thick coating of polymer plastic. The resulting object is then wired into the secondary systems and backups, which in turn control the various servos that operate Mike’s internal systems.
Mike’s wetware CPU is a refit, however – his original processors were silicon-based integrated circuits. His current “brain” was grown by a company called GenTech-OVC Biosystems, a subsidiary of Omni-Vehicular Consortium, at their biotech plant in Cape Town, South Africa. The CPU was shipped, inert, to an OVC field station in Pretoria, where Mike was refitted with it in 1995, as part of an operational-extension program for the Echo-class Rumblers, which were kept in the field beyond their original operational lifespan because of delays in the introduction of the Victor-class machines.
–M
I see.
Now I can dismiss my theory which was based on this particular strip:
http://www.viciousprint.com/6commando/?p=459
Where is he taking her? Mike can’t help her. Or does he (mike) fell sad or regretful that she is injured and want’s to see the extant of her injuries? I wonder if it will get him mad and make him want to get revenge? And are there traitors in there midst?
How I wish I could draw more than one page a week! But you may be assured that all will be revealed. Soon. 😀
God, that sounds so irritatingly mysterious of me, doesn’t it? Oh, well. But really. It will.
–M
*Smashes Keyboard with head, then gets new keyboard to write with* Oh my Gods, Rucker actually IS carrying out the heavaly irradiated, dying woman on life-support, in his arms, exposing himself to radiation in the process.
And now what genius? Are you going to walk out of the base, into the sunset? Through the neuclear wasteland and the thickets of the dead? Maybe you can find a nice pile of scorched bones to lay down on and join?
SOrry if I come off as kind of strident, but… MY GODS OF MY ANCESTORS!!!
Yeah, when you commented last week I knew you would. Tom was already in the elevator by then, so to speak.
–M
he seems like he’s waking towards Mike like it’s a God
‘what will happen next? will Mike blow up the base? Will he save Sarah and the major from certain death? Find out in the next episode of….
…6-COMMANO!’
Same Rumbler Time, Same Rumbler Channel!
Actually, as silly and totally “never-gonna-happen” as it sounds, I harbor secret fantasies of this becoming an animated miniseries someday. Never say never, I guess, but still. I know this will get me in trouble, but I’ll say it anyway: American animation isn’t mature enough to take on a subject like euthanasia or causality in artificial intelligence.
–M
now be honest, which country is seriously mature enough?
with the current politics it seems like none are to me
but lets just say: these wouldn’t be things for everybody, but they can still be there
(just like xxx-stuff, a ton of people ‘really don’t like this’ but it’s still around, not to mention it’s a massive industry)
I meant mature in the sense of regarding our native animation industry as being capable of producing films and TV programs for adults as well as children. In the United States, by and large, animation is seen as being largely for kids only, or purely for comedy; more sophisticated works are imported from Japan and Europe. That’s just starting to change, with programs like The Venture Brothers and, earlier, with Aeon Flux. But although it has been accepted that animation can be mature and nuanced as an artform, there is great static friction against it becoming part of our generally accepted commonplaces of our own American cinematic culture.
–M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8aSLg82vJU
All this time, in the last few pages, when I see Rucker and what he’s willing to do I keep hearing this song. She’s probably not going to wake up, to give him the validation for his deeds, but it would be nice for her to know someone is (or will) be going through Hell to save her.
Nice find!
Indeed so! Although the title of this page comes from a song by The Submarines called “Modern Inventions” which I happened to be listening to when I was working.
This one has a very “Battlestar Galactica” feel to it…
–M
Best of luck on your licensing examinations!!
Thanks! It’s a long and needlessly tortuous process. Seven exams, which can take upwards of a year to complete, in some cases. Bureaucracy on top of bureaucracy, trying to get to the top of a profoundly broken system where the rules keep changing and the value is more on closing the ranks of the profession than on ensuring proper levels of skill needed for proper practice.
But you have to play “their” game!
–M
I feel your pain my friend.
I’m currently in the finishing process of my master’s training (security & safety services). It’s been a long way, 3 years of the basic professional level qualification and tests, two years on-the-job experience followed by one and a half year of regular classes (next to my day… nighttime job) at the academy.
I hope this all will be worth it. :/
Hoo, me too! Barriers to entry in any profession are just a means of making sure those on the inside can keep newcomers out. I’d much rather a system that rewards actual achievement rather than the passing of artificial hurdles (which constantly move and change depending on which generation is in charge).
–M
As a 5 year licensed architect I do understand your ire at the process and the ARE’s. Took me a year and a half (having a kid in the middle if it didn’t help any) to get through them. Hang in there, I know the politics can be maddening, but it is worth it in the end for the job we do.
Every year it gets more and more insane. More rules and more regulations and more bureaucracy, and more patronizing statements about how it’s all for our own good. Meanwhile, the unintended consequence is that master draftsmen can’t make a decent living as such for very long anymore because NCARB erases their job experience on a five-year rolling basis, so the onus is on them to get licenses whether they’re ready or not, rather than to develop truly worthwhile levels of skill in the craft. If this system is so necessary, how is it we’ve had twenty centuries of competent and even brilliant architects in the West without it? It’s total nonsense in my opinion – the only goal of the IDP and ARE is to limit the number of architects in the profession in order to drive up prices. It’s a scam, plain and simple.
And the fact that I have to play the game anyway is really frustrating.
–M
Oh, and by the way, sorry for sounding so petulant there – I just got finished filing six months’ worth of IDP hours, which is kind of like doing your taxes. It IS worth it, in the end, and it’s a great business to be in. It’s just like anything – the bureaucracy is very paternalistic and exasperating.
–M
Rucker isn’t being irradiated, at least not very much. Sarah might have residual surface particulate contamination, but if she got a big enough dose of neutrons to activate her body, she’d have been killed instantly.
Probably true. But still, suffice it to say, it’s not likely that that’s a distinction they’ll make. The response in a crisis will be absolute: “Don’t touch them,” rather than “It’s probably okay so long as it isn’t for an extended period.” If you take my meaning.
And of course, it’s better for drama my way. 😉
–M
I know there’s no revolver on this page, but I found this link for an awesome-looking revolver.
http://chiappafirearms.com/product/727
Really dig the Wasp revolver from Avatar
http://www.imfdb.org/w/images/thumb/9/93/WASP_gun_revolver.jpg/600px-WASP_gun_revolver.jpg
Revolvers do give that “Wild West” feel to things, don’t they?
–M
Very touching scene, though I know this can only end in hart break.
🙂
Well, we’ll have to see.
–M
The Colonel will rip you a new one for this, Tom.