Schlock Mercenary

I don't think that's even a speed record for Schlock... I'd have to go over some of the previous "He's faster than he looks" moments, but I'm fairly confident this probably counts as a leisurely pace for him.

Also, given how far out he can stretch his mass as well as how little we see in each of Sunday's panels, he might have been in position to nail both simultaneously; he just stretched it out for the reader's benefit (also, so that he'd know what the enemy was planning).

Yeah.

Also uuplechan's are tiny. They're just hors d'oeuvres for him.

New one. In which we find that Schlock has developed a taste for puppehs.

https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2018-04-24

Puppy Mc Nuggets. They are small

"Eating the opposition" has always been on the menu.

That said, interesting. Schlock is really a game-breaker for this scenario (even moreso than usual).

I can't help but feel, though, that Schlock's success hinges almost as much as anything on that people expect civilized behavior from the mercenaries. When someone surrenders, you don't expect them to then go around eating your people during the interrogation. Heck, you generally don't expect mercenaries to start eating enemy combatants...

Well, in this case, you can equally say that you don't expect to be murdered in cold blood by the people you're willingly cooperating with, so I have to say that Schlock is just evening the playing field here.

And even if they knew, they're not exactly in a position to do anything to stop him...

Also, this confirms that Schlock can be a walking (oozing) chemical weapons factory if he wants. Just eat four members of a species to analyze specific biochemical reactions, then produce the required chemical to facilitate? That's pretty broken.

I have to assume that there are limits to this; otherwise, all Schlock would need to do is find out what species he's fighting and just become a walking chemical weapon, flinging tiny pieces of himself at foes as literal smart ammo (which then could return to him, allowing him to repeatedly do so). My guess is that either the uuplechans are naturally sensitive to Schlock himself or just something that he easily can synthesize. Other sophonts wouldn't be quite so vulnerable.

I initially misread it as "neural chemical," so maybe it's something like that. A chemical that the cats produce naturally, but in small doses. Schlock identified it when he ate a few and then learned to synthesize it.

It's also been pointed out in discussions for making the RPG that Schlock himself is ridiculously good at that sort of thing, even by amorph standards due to his unusual "parentage". It's unlike that another amorph, like the ones in Shafter's Shifters, could pull this sort of trick.

New one.

https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2018-04-25

I don't think I've seen Schlock that shocked before.

Tired but still effective. And I called her motive.

Well, I'd call that a plan, Captain.

https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2018-04-27

Not sure it's a totally great one but what the hey?

What can we say? She's a born button-pusher.

Long-range remote control.

They've got a point. Of course, Landon is leaving out where they also spent some time being shielding from communication to discuss countermeasures against Chinook...

Poor Landon is dealing with stuff way above his pay grade and practical experience, to be fair. Give him some havoc to wreak, and he'll be back to the bear that doesn't let something like "half of these organs aren't working" stop him.

The current cartoons make me glad Schlock is on the right side in this fight. Because he'd be an utterly terrifying opponent if he was on the wrong one.

There's an understated level of badass for the ambassador who can grab an uplifted polar bear by the cheek and get meek acquiesence.

Repurposing a repurposed spaceship to be a spaceship.

Seems like Breath Weapon has some uninvited guests:

https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2018-05-03

The usual punchline here would be that it's Petey. We'll see if that's subverted.

Petey has open invitation to get there via hypernet. I'm thinking its Landom and company. Which convenient for them to be in the local area.

Less optimistically, it's just some extension of Chinook trying to make sure that they don't die now that she's killed their pilot.