• First! ;P

    Who noticed the fun tiny details on this page? ;)

    • Matt [in Middletown]

      Aside from double tapping the deathbot, the chameleon cloak, light scout armor?

      • Indeed, something maybe a littler harder to notice about the railgun ;)

        • Matt [in Middletown]

          Top rail has damage, it is bent.
          So railguns still try to tear themselves apart in this timeframe?

          • Didn’t you read Essence of Nightshade? ;P

            Yeah they’re still prone to error. Especially prototypical portable ones like hers ;)

          • Chris

            I noticed it! Very interesting about the rail gun philosophy. I wonder if that’s because of the use of only two rails instead of a cylinder or tri-rail design. I imagine with less rails comes less stability due to having to push so much juice through limited hardware.

            With a malfunctioning second rail would that mean the next shot might have significant drop? (or just explode).

          • You’ll note she kept missing after that first shot. In fact, on a previous page you can see a warning light on her gun ;)

  • Matt [in Middletown]

    Aw heck Seb!
    Hope it’s sorted soon!
    And Dan, good luck with the latest apprentice there.
    All too soon they’re asking for the car keys.

    • already solved, but I was already delayed on this page before the problems. not a great day :P

      • Matt [in Middletown]

        That rots.
        Good to see that you’re up and running though!

  • Chris Semenchuk

    The pieces are starting to get put together. I suppose now we know who was narrating the lore!

  • Delta-v

    Small details? Like Tenzin’s right arm stump, Nightshade holding the railgun by the probably still very hot rail? That sort of thing?

    And in this Comment Section, first = bottom. Kinda meh.

    • Adriano

      Unless you filter comments by the oldest. Just sayin’

      • Delta-v

        Sure YOU can, and then you have your moment of glory that almost no one can see but you. ^^

    • Do you think first at the bottom is meh? Or just that me calling “First” is meh? I kind of like newest at the top.

      • Delta-v

        I think crowing about being the first to comment is a trifle silly (apparently you agree, considering the wry emoticon you used. ^^), especially if that’s all the comment says. During the time when I was the only outside commenter, I would have been thrilled to death to have someone else beat me to the comments.

        I am mildly amused that the first comment is the last to be seen, so trying to be first for so little payoff is pretty meh to me. That being said, however, I have no problem with the way you have it set up. :)

    • Crass Spektakel

      Railguns work by magnetic-eletric fields. You can be sure as hell the magnets do not get hot or else they would depolarize. In fact it is more reasonable to expect cooling, maybe even superconductor cooling. Well, would not touch a -200^ magnet either…

      • Delta-v

        The electric discharge from propelling the projectile is pretty similar to that of an arc-welder. That’s what erodes/warps the rails. They wouldn’t have to be incandescent to be hot enough for even a gloved hand to find uncomfortable. :)

        • Chris Kotthoff

          It looks like bionic arm. Won’t feel much regardless.

          • Delta-v

            That WAS my point. We’re trying to introduce the readers to the appropriate parts of the Lore section-in this case, <Essence of Nightshade, and although each story stands alone remarkably well, you really should start with The Undying Voice of Julius Gordon to get the WHOLE backstory. :)

  • PensivePenguin

    Hmm…I just finished reading through Essence of Nightshade, but I thought Tom Fury (the railgun) didn’t have a scope because Talia’s goggles does the projectile trajectories for her? Unless this is a different rifle. Regardless, I really like the bent rail and the wires connecting the rifle with her targeting computer.

    Also, Tenzin needs better pickup lines ;P

    • Probably a bit of a disconnect between author vision and artistic representation, but the scope and her goggles work together, and the scope is a good backup if the complicated set up fails.

    • yes, disconnection, but a scope in the googles to actually work would need to be mounted in the gun, right?

    • That was my intent, yeah, but to add to what Dan and Seba have said, the main comic takes place five years after the end of Essence of Nightshade, so perhaps in that time they felt it was necessary to put the scope back on. I imagined (but didn’t explicitly point out) that Tom Fury had smaller sensors, like laser sights, that would help her goggles dial in the trajectories. Gives the gun a lower profile, which is always a good idea when you’re sniping. Maybe those little sensors were a bit unreliable, so they went back to scope.

      Also, Tom Fury is supposed to have his name hand painted in white lettering on the side. I didn’t catch that in time. Whoops!

    • PensivePenguin

      Hey! Thanks for the replies, but yeah, my headcanon right now is that she got a replacement/sidegrade after the events of EoN. And like you said, a scope would probably let her have more flexibility on the battlefield. But regardless of the reason, I think guns with scopes just looks cooler :D

      • One of the reasons why I made Tom Fury so unreliable was so we could justify any changes that needed to be made (and explain why she doesn’t have him in her first comic appearance). Plus, a hugely overpowered weapon with no drawbacks is boring, but a hugely overpowered weapon with an equally huge risk of failure is much more exciting =D

        It helps that real life railguns are even more unreliable lol

  • Chris Kotthoff

    Is that symbol on her mask the ‘all seeing eye’ of Oculus?

    • If you take a look in the Lore, in the “Mirage” story, you’ll see where it comes from.

      But not, not the Oculus symbol.

  • Oh Jane. That last panel actually made me chuckle.

  • STL Orca

    They learned one of the rules from “Zombieland”: the double-tap.