Yezz, here's the latest update of Insertion Burn, the ongoing animated series that nobody asked for. This one's sort of a “bridge” animation that probably should have posted along with the previous one, but the file size of Insertion Burn Episode 18 was so large that it would just be cruel and unusual to post them both together. So you're getting this now. If you haven't been following the (now nearly twenty minutes long) animated series, this is our nameless (anti) hero as he hallucinates himself getting lucky with a sexy nymph while in fact he's being molested by a scaly space mermaid who brought him back to life after he drowned. More to come on that with the next install…
*** MINOR TECHNICAL GRIPES AND QUIBBLES***
Technically, I think the Captain misspoke when she said the hangar is a “structural weak point” in an O'Neill cylinder colony like Nova Dagon. It's actually the outer shell of the colony that should be structurally weak, because spinning the colony puts it under so much strain. The outer hull of a rotating space colony is under as much strain as a terrestrial suspension bridge of the same length as its circumference. So I think what she meant to say is that it's a vulnerable area to attack… but she couldn't, because she can only squeeze so many words into a speech balloon and have it fit right. Also, it's a popular trope that when people are exposed to the vacuum of space, the pressure differential makes them burst open. I've written about that in at least one science blurb already; people do not explode in space… though space may cause your lungs to rupture and your bowels to evacuate, while all of your blood, body fluids, and mucus membranes instantaneously start to boil. As far as what happens to a dead body after it's been in space for a while, I imagine that you'd basically turn into human jerky, since you've had all your fluids sucked out and most of the decomposition-driving microbes will be killed off. But until somebody tries the experiment, we may never know for sure (looking at you, Elon Musk!).
This page gives the final clue as to what the mooners are up to. They've used small scale attacks to gain access to the central nervous system controlling the hangar defenses, and are preparing to take over a high-powered freightship docked in the hangar bay. In the coming pages, the final phase of the attack kicks into gear. So you'll want to tune in for that.
Also, I plan to talk more shit about Star Wars. Because deep inside I'm just a hateful person. But I had to push that rant back a few days because this blurb was so much more pertinent – one might even say “prophetic” – given what's transpired on today's page…
In his short story 'The Warriors,' hard sci fi author Larry Niven tells the story of a pacifist solar system invaded by a spacefaring warrior race known as the Kzinti. The pacifist humans have no weapons to fight off the invaders, but they soon realize the laser arrays they use to propel their solar sailcraft, and the powerful exhaust jets from their photon drives and fusion-powered spacecraft, are very effective at destroying Kzinti spacecraft. Though Niven was not the first sci fi writer to make this observation, his story gave rise to one of the more iconic parables of modern science fiction, the so-called Kzinti Lesson:
'A reaction drive's efficiency as a weapon is in direct proportion to its efficiency as a drive.'
In other words, if your sci fi spaceship's propulsion system is fast enough for interstellar travel, or even rapid substellar travel, then you're essentially firing a short-range WMD class energy weapon out the back of your spaceship when you accelerate. Any spacecraft or colony unfortunate enough to get caught in the path of that exhaust jet is going to get cooked.
This is not to be confused with Jon's Law, which states that the more powerful a spaceship's energy supply is, the more catastrophic the results if something goes wrong. Jon's Law is arguably at least part of the reason why the Ewoks almost certainly died from the fallout after the Death Star was destroyed over Endor. There's a reason why you don't see those cute little furballs in any of the new movies. Because they're all dead.
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