Strip 538 -- First Seen: 2010-09-29
Escape From Terra is updated with new pages every Monday through Friday.

What Comes Next

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!

A Little House Cleaning

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The Transcript For This Page

Panel 1
Re-establish scene at the job site. Wally and his father Gus are standing near the assembled spar-and-ballast ring, heating up the ring so that it sinks slowly through the ice. By this point the ring itself is slightly below the ice surface, and steam is rising from around the edges. In the father distance we can see the mobile fabricator. Manny the customer is standing near the fabricator. Max is walking over to Gus.
Max: Boss, Sov. Hernandéz says there's a problem with the living module design.

Panel 2
Medium 2-shot of Wally and Gus. Gus is handing the control box to his son.
Gus: I need to go talk to the customer. Monitor this until I get back, don't let it sink too deep.
Wally: Gotcha.

Panel 3
Full-height shot of Wally standing there, controls still in hand, and Gus next to him with hands on both sides of his helmeted head, in a posture of exasperation. Hernandéz and Max are just walking up.
Caption: Almost a centime later ...
Gus: Wha … WHAT HAPPENED?
Wally: Um … I guess my mind wandered.

Panel 4
Overhead shot: the entire assemblage has sunk below the surface. Some water burbles in what is now a crater 50 meters across and about 20 deep. Steam rises from the sides. The line from the control box leads into the burbling water.
Wally: How do we get it back up?
Gus: {sigh} We don't. It's frozen under the surface. We'll have to fab new pieces and start over.