Schlock Mercenary

"Why can't you just do what we want without bringing legal protections and junk into it?"

"Our tactics were proven not to work, but you still should have followed our plan."

oh hai

And today, the Oafans learn that being nice to rogue elements, particularly when the other party is shooting at said elements, is an effective way at getting new friends.

I liked Chinook's sudden appearance.

The Oafan looked a touch surprised.

Ennesby is never going to do anything without it backfiring on him somehow.

Childbirth.

Kevyn's still having some bother with this whole "being born again" thing.

https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2018-10-15

I mean, it's hardly his first time, and at least this one has all the bits.

This Kevyn seems quick on the uptake despite getting the decanting rush job.

Courtesy Link to the kickstarter/pre-order for books 14 and 15 ("Broken Wind" and "Delegates and Delegations")

Birthing pains of a different sort. (Wed strip)

A hundred cities and no clue.

I'm not sure I agree with her here.

I mean, this is definitely a case of function over form, but to be fair, it was an emergency rush job.

I don't see in what way a ring would be better.

Well, the main advantage of a wheel is that starting, stopping or speeding/slowing the rotation is realtively safe. The ground may lurch under you but down will remain down for as long as there's nonzero gravity, and if any part of the wheel is damaged (except the pivot point) it keeps working. For this station-on-a-string, I imagine that starting or stopping the rotation involves a much bigger and longer jolt sideways, and if anything happens to part of the station that alters your weight distribution that might alter the angle of "down". Plus, the cable is an obvious vulnerable point.

That said, a bigger factor is just that people are more comfortable with the wheel design.

Still not completely sure why he's wrong.

Again, it's function over form. In terms of doing what it's supposed to do, I'm sure the design works great (particularly for something that, again, was almost certainly a rush job). But there are various quality-of-life issues that said design completely fails to account for (Brickman already noted the aesthetic concerns; ease of moving around may be another).

As for what he's wrong about, it's that he completely doesn't understand her critique. And his description of her critique was both off-base and too broad. The problems with understanding said critique would make it impossible for Kevyn to correct for it outside of sheer accident.

I do not think aesthetics or moving were an issue - the new shape is basically the same as they used to be. I think the issue is that the cable system separates the power sources from the power users way too far and is overall less stable than a ring station would be. I'd also suspect "uh, lets just keep basically the same shape" was what Kevyn was thinking when designing it - minimizing changes because it was a rush.

Engineers and soldiers. And... subsequent squishings?

I like her.

I'm guessing there was a bunch of people that were in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Cookies.

Cookies!

Nick, I'm not sure what everyone's relative rank is, but Sunday's comic is clearly a Maxim 2 moment.

Given the current circumstances and levels of uncertainty, I think people should be prepared for multiple Maxim 2 moments in the near future.