That's right, I'm still slowly plugging away at this ongoing animated series thing. 'Insertion Burn' started as a one-off animation because I wanted to do something that illustrated orbital maneuvers in action, mostly just because I personally wanted to see how it would turn out. After finishing it, I decided there was room to expand it into a full fledged space adventure story, and from there it bloated into the massive mega project it now is, eighteen animations and counting. Just for fun, I collected the first seventeen animations into a complete video file and the total run length is 19 minutes 40 seconds. Granted, the collected video version includes additional frames that didn't make it into the GIF versions, but still that's a lot of frames! It's getting ever closer to its conclusion, however. I know that these silent GIF pantomimes aren't necessarily the easiest things to follow from a narrative perspective, so I thought this would be a good time to recap the series thus far. So, here goes:
Our story begins with our nameless (anti) hero holding on for dear life as Captain Savage brings their spacecraft in for a teeth-rattling deceleration over the ice moon Enceladus. Once they're safely in orbit, we learn that our shady protagonist is traveling under the assumed name James T. Kirk, which earns him a skeptical glance from the Captain, but her taxi service doesn't ask questions. After rebuffing “James'” amorous advances, the Captain takes her payment up front and makes it clear to “James” that the clock is ticking on his fare. Thoroughly chastised, he departs, blowing her a kiss as glides through the open hatch.
Upon landing on the moon, James gains access to the vast subterranean ocean and enters a foreboding sunken temple. It isn't long before he's attacked by one of the denizens of this seemingly abandoned place, and he's easily overwhelmed. The creature rips his helmet off and drowns him. Satisfied that her prey is fully subdued, the creature prepares to take a bite out of him, but is herself slain by a harpoon-wielding mermaid. The mermaid hoists James' lifeless body into her arms and inspects her prize. Beneath her mask, she smiles with sly approval.
Deep within her cavernous lair, our masked mermaid toils heroically to revive James, who has been dead perhaps too long for her primitive machines to save. Just as she's on the verge of abandoning all hope, a feeble spark of brain activity tells her there is something going on between our protagonist's ears as he lies there no longer quite dead. The camera pulls in and we enter James' mind as he dreams an account of how he found himself here, in this strange submerged catacomb.
A space station comes into view, and as we ghost our way inside we find this is a very odd station indeed. It's completely flooded, filled to capacity with water. It's a facility for mer-people, mooners adapted for subterranean aquatic environs. And here we find James, along with a sordid looking cast of space adventurers and mercenaries, as they infiltrate the mer station. They are guided by a turncoat mermaid who aids them by dispatching some of the guards and an unsuspecting worker who apparently recognizes her. After defusing the station's defenses, the adventurers use a clever ruse to disarm the remaining guards. The facility's staff of security personnel and scientists are herded into a vault, into which a bomb is thrown by the Leader of the marauders. The vault is hastily sealed, and the jarring explosion from within assures them they'll have no further trouble from the staff.
Our turncoat mermaid utilizes her high level clearance to open a mysterious chamber in the scientists' lab. Unfortunately for her, this marks the end of her usefulness, and the ruthless Leader immediately does away with her. One of the adventurers, a tech wizard of some sort, enters the chamber and hacks into a tank containing a giant brain hooked up to tubes. No sooner has he transmitted back the data than an angry holographic gatekeeper appears and in the blink of an eye it rips him in half. The Leader manages to seal the chamber before the gatekeeper can get out and visit further vengeance upon the rest of them. They've lost one of their own, but they have the data. Now “James,” who has been a somewhat squeamish observer up to this point, proves his worth. With his help, they decrypt the hard-won data and discover a treasure map leading them to Enceladus. According to the map, here they will find a mysterious green tetrahedron of immense value.
In the final act thus far, we see played out the sorry end of James' expedition. At a cloud colony on Uranus, one of the adventurers sees an opportunity to betray her companions and win a greater share of the spoils for herself. Together with James, she hatches a hasty and brutal plot to assassinate the others, thus leaving only James and herself to split the treasure fifty-fifty. Throwing back a quick drink from James' flask to seal the deal, she follows through on her hideous plot, first gunning down her companions and then turning the weapon on James. She has no plans to split fifty-fifty what she can have all to herself. But alas, the meek and unassuming James has the last laugh: There was more than just liquor in his flask, and the lethal concoction fells his would-be executioner before she can squeeze the trigger. Now the last man standing, James collects his treasure map and heads off to Enceladus, leaving his co-conspirators – and his past – behind in a burst of cleansing flame.
And that's where we pick up here, with James beginning to come to in the mermaid's lair. Having restored him back to life, she's making her intent known… though James has yet to return to his full senses. More to come in future installments, though not on any dependable schedule!
As for the page itself, this is all obligatory exposition; it's an “anchor” page to establish the geopolitical significance of what the mooners are up to at Nova Dagon. And in case you're thinking there's no way I subjected you to four pages of tranny Oprah just to set up one page of heavy explanatory dialogue… you are very wrong, my friend!
That's all (that's more than enough!). See you later gals and gents!
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