Strip 819 -- First Seen: 2011-11-07
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
Aerial (sort of) view of Ceres City. We've never really done this before. The City sits upon and among a low rocky outcropping on the dwarf planet's surface. The out-cropping is not terribly large – it rises only a about 20 meters above the icy plane around it, and spreads perhaps 45 square kilometers across at the ice-surface level. Structures are sometimes built upon the rock, partly into the rock, but are mostly anchored into the ice adjacent to the rock. It looks like a haphazard jumble of domes, rounded blocks, wide tubes (traffic corridors), and some tall towers here and there. Also, there's the Spaceport, with the landing area a metal platform anchored a bit away from the rest of the city.
Pete (from inside the city): Hasn't started yet, has it?
Naveed (from inside the city): No, you got here just in time, Pete. Rosenberg has not shown up yet.
Panel 2
Inside a non-descript bar, minimally decorated. High on one wall is a large Comm screen, placed at an extreme angle to it so we can't see what's on it yet. The place is full of people, some of them looking expectantly at the screen. Most of the people seated at the tables are oriented so they can view the screen without craning their necks, even if they're not looking at it presently. Two of them, Pete and Naveed, sit at a small table with a clear view of the screen. Pete is a Hakka Chinese person from Hong Kong ('Pete' is really a nick-name), Naveed is a Hindi, from Mumbai. Both men look like rough-and-tumble miners.
Pete: Won't be long, Naveed. I see 'Madame Lefarge' taking her seat.
Naveed: Is it true that Rosenberg gives her free admission to his arbitrations?

Panel 3
Closer 2-shot of Pete and Naveed, chatting, their beers on the table before them..
Pete: 'At's what I've heard. Prolly gets free refreshments, too.
Naveed: I do not doubt it. She provides a macabre grace note to cases involving death and mayhem.

Panel 4
Closer 2-shot of Pete and Naveed, Pete is taking a sip of his beer.
Pete: Well, this case certainly qualifies.
Naveed: I think LeFarge appeals to Rosenberg's – how you say -- eccentric sense of humor.