Today on Quantum Vibe: The smoking gun Strip 678 - Click strip above to goto the next strip.
First Seen: Fri 2013-09-27
Story & Art: Scott Bieser - Colors: Zeke Bieser Sci-Fi Adventure Monday & Thursday.
Quantum Vibe
A thousand years in the future, humanity has colonized worlds in nearly
100 galaxies, thanks to Quantum Vibremonic technologies developed five
centuries earlier. Other new technologies have created various
off-shoots of humanity and extended life expectancies five-fold. The
story begins with how a mad scientist and his plucky assistant, along
with their robot friend, brought humanity to the stars, and continues
with the adventures of some unique people in fantastic places.
What Comes Next [ Mar 18, 2024 ]
The war is over, but This Means War has a ways to go. Novo Paolo/Bubbleopolis is still in a nebula/stellar nursery, no one knows what happened to the planet Sharen (center of the Intergalactic Council), and the status of the now-surrendered Invaders is yet to be resolved. What will they do when they learn their homeworld is basically destroyed? Will Alyss and Li be re-united? How about Diana (the real one) and Otto?
These questions will be resolved in the next few weeks, before This Means War part 3 wraps in late May.
After that, I plan to go BACK in time about 400 years, to when Alyss and Li left their home in the Sol System to colonize a new world on the far side of the galaxy. As one might expect, hijinks ensue. New subtitle yet to be determined, start date sometime in around the start of July. Stay tuned!
Panel 1
Resuming flashback, now with Chelsea's cameo in the upper corner. The scene shows the pair sitting on a sofa in someone's living room, conversing intently.
Chelsea: 'So we examined everything we knew, and noted all the anomalies.
Chelsea: 'As the days passed, the worst of our theories became more and more viable.'
Panel 2
Medium close 2-shot of Ed and Chelsea, both looking horrified.
Ed: They're going to send a 183 kilotonne, black carbon planetoid smashing into Ceres!!!
Panel 3
Back to present. Nicole and Antigone are shocked.
Nicole: Ceres?!
Antigone: That could kill hundreds of thousands! It could alter Ceres' orbit!
Nicole: Why the shuck would they do that?
Panel 4
Ed and Chelsea, with Nicole just visible to the far right.
Ed: That's what we wondered, at first.
Chelsea: Then I found out the identity of a rock-wrangling ship – registered out of Hygiea -- that had pushed the black rock on its new course.
Panel 5
Medium close-up on Chelsea.
Chelsea: I tried to hail it, but got no response.
Chelsea: I got a track on its present course, headed for Hesperia, which has an outpost owned by an Hygiean company.
Panel 6
Medium close-up on Ed.
Ed: Then I found the smoking gun: An encoded message sent to the ship from Vesta, although it was disguised as coming from Hygiea.
Ed: It acknowledged the ship had pushed the rock towards Ceres and promised payment on arrival at Hesperia from a Hygiean account.
Panel 7
Chelsea, Nicole and Antigone.
Nicole: So, they're setting up a frame for this crime on the Hygieans! Why?
Antigone: To start a war.
Antigone: It's an old game: 'Let's you and him fight.'
Antigone: Vesta Vista could make a fortune selling arms and support to both sides, and rebuilding after the war.
Panel 8
Ed, Chelsea and Nicole, Antigone barely visible. Nicole is scowling.
Ed: We think there's more to it than that. After all, Vesta Vista does just fine with its current projects.
Chelsea: We have some indications that Omega-Tek and the Lunar government are involved.
Nicole: Loonies. It figures.