And that wraps up Starcaster issue #7. We will resume our regular update schedule on Friday.
In the meantime, if you’re jonesing for more Starcaster and would like to support the series, you can check out the Starcaster Patreon where we’ll be finishing issue #8 this month, and then onto issue #9!
Wait… You’re not going to tell us if Severic ever found the blue case?!?
The world HAS to know! If Tim ever shows us the ruins, I swear to God, there’d better be a blue case somewhere in the background =)
I see a blue case and they’re going to roast it black.
No colors anymore they want it to turn black.
Death from above
did someone call for an exterminatus?
PURGE THE HERETIC. PURGE THE XENOS. THERE CAN ONLY BE DEATH. FOR THE EMPEROR!
I knew they were going to kill him.
I didn’t expect them to do the equivalent of firing a bazooka at an insect.
That’s *cold.*
I actually think it is about to get very *very* hot
Semantics. XD
Insect? Even if the Dranglaex clearly outgun Severic’s mob, it’s still a top-tier interplanetary mafia.
Also, overkill is the smartest way to handle an enemy force. Minimizes your losses, and any chances at retaliation.
There is no overkill. There is “fire” and “reload”
Logistics brigades must love you at parties. 😛
Google it and you’ll discover something you love.
I was referring to the man himself, not the mob.
It’s obvious you cannot really attack the former without attacking the latter. That was implied, and pure common sense.
So, why bother thinking they’re attacking him only?
So, feds are about to find the fleet I take it
By the worst way possible, losing an entire planet worth of production. Oh and ofc the loss of billions of lives, very tragic, yes yes.
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Wow, thats a bit overkill, maybe they should have split up the fleet? A war actively using starcasters would likely have no winners.
Splitting up the fleet would invite defeat in detail… They are killing two birds with one stone — starting their war of extermination while getting rid of an incompetent lackey.
MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction. Helped prevent a war between the United States and the Soviet Union for decades.
Blasting a planet from orbit without the Starcaster would effectively be keeping the war “conventional” instead of the Starcaster nuking.
Is an orbital bombardment a tad overkill to off one guy? Probably, but much like a spider in your car, bomb it from orbit, it is the only way to be sure.
Well to be fair they were gonna purge the universe of all the “failed” creations of that super race anyway so this is just moving up the time table/finishing failed minions
I already said something similar to this, to The Legacy above. It’s been established that Marko is the head of a top-tier interplanetary mafia. No small potatoes here, just huge and then even bigger. The Dranglaex are bringing so many guns to the battle because it’s not just the one guy, but also all the firepower he can recall to save his ass while sitting at his HQ. Considering he saw it coming, he probably recalled a substantial amount of extra guns to his side already. Also, overkill is just being smart. Reduces your losses and any chances at future… Read more »
No, it’s definitely better to use some of the physical munitions that they’ve spent a century preparing to use, rather than a godlike energy bracelet that apparently has infinite energy and consumes none of your resources, and is more effective.
Orbital Bombardment, when you care enough to send the very best.
Rain fire! … but sir we have some our own men…. just do it!
Ah the tell tail signs of a crazy person.
Seriously though I still don’t see how a star caster can be used from space without killing the user by destroying the pressurized vessel they are on. I’m sure it’s some sci-fi mumbo jumbo (I supercharged the ships systems, or I can shoot through this force field in one direction), but such an actual limitation would be a nice balance to the item.
ive got the feeling the star caster can sustain the user for a time, as well as giving them an energy based protective suit of sorts. Green Lantern style, basically. there is talk about the device not only being a “death beam” but also a “tool to create”. the user “only” has to understand and master it. my guess would be that if the fans manage to pick the choices that get Cort to finally train with the thing, he will be the first in quite a while to unlock the more benevolent properties. Again, Green Lanterns pretty often start… Read more »
The Starcaster wouldn’t have shot a blast of energy. These are used for creating planets, and that lets you also have a lot of abilities for destruction. I imagine bearer could “only” destabilize the core from a distance, causing the planet to explode in minutes if not sooner.
Also, the mob here are all guns for hire, I imagine that the Dragnalex don’t actually see them as part of their fleet. This is “get rid of a couple major loose ends and have some delightful destruction” instead of “nuke a planet we have a stake in just because we can”.
You can (actually and with 2020 technology) create a skinsuit-based space suit and a helmet. Even if the part above the hand gets damaged, you will only have a giant hickey on your hand.
I’m pretty sure a starcaster can do a lot more tricks than just “shoot a big laser”.
This really felt like it wasn’t enough (pages, that is).
I agree. But it was free, and the art and storyline are fine-quality if not exceptional, so I’m not going to complain.
Found the fleet!
Oh, I remember those two. They are the Dranglex emperor bro duo or something like that, right?
I kinda feel sorry for Severic
Good News: They don’t have to deal with Marko and the Syndicate anymore.
Bad News: Now they have three starcasters and two starship fleets after them
Ewww, alien Caliguls…….
Registered just to say this: Maybe he caught me on a bad day, but I am SO GOD DAMNED SICK AND TIRED of space navies being seen as the ‘End All’ of power. Yes, sure, if you have a vessel that can cross galaxies the weapons will be of parallel power, but you know what else would be? Defense. Just once I’d like to see something akin to the following: Fleet warps out right into the teeth of pretty standard defense of planetary object since they were seen coming literally light year away. So, this Starcaster series has a lot… Read more »
I hear what you’re saying… but if you have a federation of inhabitated planets in a section of the galaxy… let’s say a few dozen different planets with major civilization centers… the concept that ALL of them can, at all times, be fully defended at all times seems equally far-fetched. Especially when the enemy can jump into local space from a great distance away, and especially when it’s happening at the tail end of a century-long cold war. So the Dranglaex have one single fleet, assembled for the purpose of eradicating “unpure” species, and the Federation has one giant fleet… Read more »
You make a good point, but… (yeah we saw that coming) There’s a reason Navies (or tank battalions…or normal…battalion) have strategic limits. If I park a fleet in your harbor, I will destroy that city, non the continent, not even the coast. Oh and we’d see it coming, again, it’s not perfect defense (you’re right about that) but it near damn perfect intelligence today, now, with current tech. That would also have parallels. (Another annoyance with Sci-Fi, being entire fleets engaged in what amounts to a knife fight, but I digress) As for individual defenses, yep, not possible, but here… Read more »
Isn’t that ‘strategic limits’ thing exactly what’s happening here? Given that is shaping up to be a galaxy-scale conflict, nuking one planet like this isn’t that big of a deal in the full scope of things. It’s basically the equivalent of taking out one harbor in a surprise attack. It’s not like this is ending the war in one stroke, it’s just the opening salvo. ‘We’d see it coming’ doesn’t really seem fair, as the scale of observation is vastly different. It’s a lot easier to monitor a finite Earth where you can hover satellites over it to keep a… Read more »
It really just sounds to me like you have a chip on your shoulder where Sci-Fi is concerned.
The Ender Saga is an excellent inspiration for battles and fleets that have to cross vast distance to reach their destination. The defenders always see the attacks coming, but it’s always a matter of “will renforcement reach us in time”. This specific series have to rely on sublight transportation between planets, and often have years if not decades to prepare for the invasions. This is not a perfect comparison because of FTL in Starcaster, but all the books are worth reading IMHO (my personal favorite sci-fi series)
You can’t see a fleet that isn’t there yet. Any fleet capable of near-lightspeed can only be seen when they are in range of fire. That is, if they can’t teleport. Otherwise You’d need an active sensor array fully covering teleportation range and subspace communication for the alert.
Then watch Deep Space Nine Season Episode 25/26 “What you leave behind”.
Although there is a fleet defending the planet too, the planetary defense practically does the job alone in destroying a good part of the attacking invasion force.
I played the BOTF game. Orbital defense is nice and cheap but it only helps to a certain extent. Against *this* fleet here, OD does not help.
Defense in space just really doesn’t make sense, as there are approach angles from every direction and it’s an issue, on an order of magnitude greater the further away you get from the planet. So honestly, the only defense you’d do is the planet’s own, in addition to whatever else you’d try to move. Read Ender’s Shadow; there’s a decent description of why defense in space makes zero sense. Also, I fear you don’t understand the basic concept of FTL travel, or even light speed travel. They weren’t seen “light years away;” that’s a measure of distance, not time, and… Read more »
“First step of conquering the galaxy: clean up loose ends before they betray you.”
Gooodbye, bluue sky! Goodbye – blu-u-ue sky! Goodbye…. goodbye… (Pink Floyd)
I reread the entire series, I really enjoy it. I did this on the last issue release as well. I just wanted to point out that when reading through there doesn’t seem to be any cover art for issue 4. I don’t know if it was oversight or not, but wanted to share since I don’t think the comment I left on page 1 of issue 4 will be seen.
You know they’re powerful when the only way to be sure is plan B for these guys.
Hmm, so to be able to read #8 and #9 you’ll need to be a patreon?
No, just like issue #7, eventually those issues will come to the website for free as well. But if you want them first, in high res and want to participate in voting, yes you need to be a Patreon.
You can’t have FTL travel without FTL communications. Since we saw interdiction of vessels travelling at FTL speed (and advance warning that proceeding at FTL speed is not allowed), I presume some method of monitoring and detection is also present. Now, I fully agree that whether it’s actually effective or helpful is a whole another matter. The Federation may (or may not) have detected where the Dranglaex fleet went and that it’s about to bomb the planet back to the stone age, but reacting to it is pretty much impossible. Even if they actually responded, they would need to put… Read more »
“You can’t have FTL travel without FTL communications.”
I think that would be an interesting quirk of a scifi universe. You can transport matter FTL but the process screws with any sort of broadcasted information, so communication between star systems relies on the space pony express transporting physical media.
It could work. It reminds me of the Frontier-verse. It introduced a couple of awesome concepts: – The higher the ship mass, the longer it took to go through hyperspace, but it still needed a hyperdrive. This means a large fleet takes weeks (if not months) to arrive at a destination, while a nimble scout takes hours. – On departure and arrival, a hypercloud is present, which shows some details of the flight. Definitely the departure/arrival star system and time to take to destination. It was necessary for assassination missions. You knew when your target would leave port, you followed… Read more »
He didn’t want nor need to take that call.
Someone decided to go darth malak on this taris, it seems?.
huh, I am a little bit lost on these last 2 pages.. who are these guys and why are they attack the planet?