Schlock Mercenary IV: Chrome and Punishment

[factotum]

Strictly speaking, cold and vacuum killed him, all the fall did was leave him disoriented and splattered (and thus preventing him from doing the previously seen trick of folding up into a ball to minimize surface area).

He can survive in a vacuum quite easily, we've seen that before. It was the impact with the station roof that killed him--yes, he could have been brought back if he hadn't got too cold there, but if he'd still been alive he could have pulled himself back together.

[Marnath]

It's also worth mentioning that he fell thousands of feet that time, versus dozens here.

[Cikomyr]

It's also worth mentioning that he fell thousands of feet that time, versus dozens here.

At a very high gravity.
Not air resistance.

[Marnath]

At a very high gravity.
Not air resistance.

What does that have to do with it?

[memnarch]

He can survive in a vacuum quite easily, we've seen that before. It was the impact with the station roof that killed him--yes, he could have been brought back if he hadn't got too cold there, but if he'd still been alive he could have pulled himself back together.

He can survive vacuum and cold when he's got time/preparation to do so. Vacuum survival and cold survival What part of "disoriented and splattered" do you think would allow him that time to prepare? Stunning him makes him vulnerable to other things as was shown by katheryn.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Speaking of... did someone just blow up Schlock? Can you guys give me a rundown of plausible causes? They'd need to know where he was going to be, and have a motive to stop him from contacting Breya, for one. And would not mind making a spectacle of the attempt.

Thanks,

Grey Wolf

[Cikomyr]

What does that have to do with it?

Makes Schlock's fall even worse if he's never slowed down by his own air resistance.

He is currently in a living environment, with plenty of atmosphere. He can just glide wherever he feels like, no matter the height of his fall. He couldn't do it on Oisiris.

[ChowGuy]

At a very high gravity.
Not air resistance.

Nine-point-one-one-four meters per second isn't "very high gravity" (Earth is nine-point-eight). I'll grant though you without air resistance his terminal (impact) velocity would have been higher, but free falling six kilometers on Earth wouldn't have been much better. Or even Luna. And he knows it.

He hadn't planned on free falling all way though, just realized too late the exo-suit had no flight capability. Still, if his plasgun hadn't needed air to recycle, he would have made it intact, and a plasgun has been used to fly in vacuum before.

This one just ran out to soon. Which is why his new plasgun has an annie plant attached. Sometimes.

Not unlike Kevyn, He's impulsive, but not as stupid as he acts. Somtimes.

[factotum]

Are you ever reading a strip and left wondering if you somehow missed one, or if the author uploaded them in the wrong order? Where the heck did that explosion come from? (Note that there's both blood and bits of Schlock on whatsername's uniform, which implies the explosion was behind the cop who was talking to Schlock earlier--maybe his own gun exploded somehow?).

[HandofShadows]

BooM?

Explosion don't really harm Schlock and he isn't packing any weapons (for once). The fire might do some damage.

Spoiler: undefined

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The people he was looking to meet might have been the ones to blow him up.

[Cikomyr]

Nine-point-one-one-four meters per second isn't "very high gravity" (Earth is nine-point-eight). I'll grant though you without air resistance his terminal (impact) velocity would have been higher, but free falling six kilometers on Earth wouldn't have been much better. Or even Luna. And he knows it.

He hadn't planned on free falling all way though, just realized too late the exo-suit had no flight capability. Still, if his plasgun hadn't needed air to recycle, he would have made it intact, and a plasgun has been used to fly in vacuum before.

This one just ran out to soon. Which is why his new plasgun has an annie plant attached. Sometimes.

Not unlike Kevyn, He's impulsive, but not as stupid as he acts. Somtimes.

Yhea, sorry about the gravity bit. I just remembered that Oisiris was supposed to be super-gravity, and something prevented everybody from being crushed to death, and I assumed it was only in the installation.

It was Oisiris itself..

[hajo]

BooM?

And it looks like a fairly big one...

Spoiler

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I guess, someone remote-detonated the 'potatoe' on the back of that ape-policeman

[Thomar_of_Uointer]

Speaking of... did someone just blow up Schlock? Can you guys give me a rundown of plausible causes? They'd need to know where he was going to be, and have a motive to stop him from contacting Breya, for one. And would not mind making a spectacle of the attempt.

Thanks,

Grey Wolf

• Ordinance launched from one of the overlooking walkways.
• Hacked into the police officer's potato and made it self-destruct.
• Suicide bomber walking in the crowd.

[FLHerne]

I think Schlock's problem on Osiris was that he was scattered somewhere really cold - we know that his contact patch can be frozen off, and when splatted in tiny pieces across a cold, heat-conductive metal surface just about all of him would have been 'contact patch'.

He can survive cold if he's kept from direct contact with the ground, and probably quite a while even if he's touching it when he's in more normal shape with less surface area-volume. Perhaps he could grow some stilts to mostly keep him off the surface? Even being scattered in vacuum would probably be alright, because he'd only lose heat by radiation.

[runeghost]

Are you ever reading a strip and left wondering if you somehow missed one, or if the author uploaded them in the wrong order? Where the heck did that explosion come from? (Note that there's both blood and bits of Schlock on whatsername's uniform, which implies the explosion was behind the cop who was talking to Schlock earlier--maybe his own gun exploded somehow?).

Yeah, I've had that feeling a few times in the last year or so. Book 8 did the same "playing with narrative structure" thing, but it seemed more obvious then. Schlock's death on Osiri, the ending (or whatever exactly happened) in the middle of the current arc, and now this explosion. I _think_ its just Howard Tayler deliberately playing games with narrative structure and reader perspective. In the case of Schlock's death, it certainly was appropriate. And he's a good enough writer that I'm quite happy to "wait and see" how it goes.

[Cikomyr]

I like that woman

[Boring McReader]

Yeah, I've had that feeling a few times in the last year or so. Book 8 did the same "playing with narrative structure" thing, but it seemed more obvious then. Schlock's death on Osiri, the ending (or whatever exactly happened) in the middle of the current arc, and now this explosion. I _think_ its just Howard Tayler deliberately playing games with narrative structure and reader perspective. In the case of Schlock's death, it certainly was appropriate. And he's a good enough writer that I'm quite happy to "wait and see" how it goes.

He's been doing a lot with the theme of transplanted, reconstructed, or replaced identities lately. I wonder whether it's just part of each story's plot, or building up to something bigger.

[Thalnawr]

Pretty sure this explosion signifies Charlie's first steps of the Foxtrot reel...

[Rockphed]

Pretty sure this explosion signifies Charlie's first steps of the Foxtrot reel...

But who is his partner? And now that the excrement shaped sophont has hit the mine, who will get spattered? And how much of schlock will be left? Last time he was in a violent explosion, he lost his appetite and became somewhat more violence happy than normal.

Edit: Looks like the Captain owes everybody a drink.

Also, what are the odds that this makes our doppleganger's plan doomed to failure?

[Thomar_of_Uointer]

One of the Nightstar forum-goers summed it up like this:

That's OK Kowalski, I'm sure Elf and the Toughs will be along shortly to pour petrol on the smoldering embers of the fire that Sorlie and Breya have so nearly snuffed out.

[ChowGuy]

Aha! Haley! I knew there was a reason I liked Sorlie! (Even if she is a spy )

[BRC]

Aha! Haley! I knew there was a reason I liked Sorlie! (Even if she is a spy )

can you really call somebody a "Spy" when there are no secrets being kept?

[ChowGuy]

can you really call somebody a "Spy" when there are no secrets being kept?

"Nothing to hide" maybe, but there are things which are hidden. The difference is pretty significant. (And I didn't say she was a particularly good spy.)

[Ibrinar]

I sometimes find Schlock quite adorable for a big moving green pile.

[Ialdabaoth]

So the actual message was, "we have the box; we need Pandora", right?

[ryuplaneswalker]

So the actual message was, "we have the box; we need Pandora", right?

Presumably, which means the Toughs want Breya to...release the information they now have to the Galaxy..thus throwing it into the

SECOND galactic Civil war that has been directly caused by the toughs, along with a Pan-Galactic War. Tagon might be going to the bad place just based on the amount of indirect deaths he has caused.

[Landis963]

Ladies and gentlemen, what are the odds that everyone's favorite MadKow just so happened to pick up a chunk of Schlock which just so happens to contain a fragment of the message?

[Cikomyr]

I cannot remember what or who Pandora might be?

Breya herself?

[Radar]

I cannot remember what or who Pandora might be?

Breya herself?

It's a metaphore. They have information that will stir up big trouble, but they need someone to actually reveal it. You do remember the mythological Pandora and the box she was given?

[Gez]

So the actual message was, "we have the box; we need Pandora", right?

More precisely, "we need a Pandora". They're not referring to someone or something in particular with such a codename, but to someone or something that could serve the role of opening the box.

See also the "we have nothing to hide, but we have something hidden". Also, Emm knows about it.

They have a big reveal to do, and it's being built up to be Teraport Wars-level stuff.