First, that last panel shows you why I don’t letter the comic by hand. My handwriting is awful.
Second, I need to talk about the ‘armor piercing loadout’. I decided to work the numbers out on my Livejournal, if you care to take a look there for hard science justification. I’m confident I’m handling the science well. And you can probably expect a joke about Jacob’s loadout options later when it isn’t interfering with the action. 🙂
↓ Transcript
Jacob: I've switched to an armor-piercing loadout. I'll protect the bridge. Captain Threenipple, there's a storm to portside.
Captain T: Aye. We've been skirting around it.
Jacob: Drive into it. We'll weather it better than those drones will. Girii -- get below decks and keep the crew calm.
Girii: But...
Jacob: Just do what I tell you. And you, Roger -- the drone stratocarrier is probably com-linked to Thule air force base. Get on the undernet and take the base offline.
Roger: What makes you think I can do that?
Jacob: There are dozens of terrorist DDOS nodes on the undernet. Use one.
Roger: I got nothing to do with them. I'm a blogger, not a hacker.
Jacob: You're on the undernet, that makes you a hacker.
Roger: No it doesn't! I'm a journalist, not a criminal!
Jacob: Explain the difference.
Roger: Journalists have editors!
Captain T: Aye. We've been skirting around it.
Jacob: Drive into it. We'll weather it better than those drones will. Girii -- get below decks and keep the crew calm.
Girii: But...
Jacob: Just do what I tell you. And you, Roger -- the drone stratocarrier is probably com-linked to Thule air force base. Get on the undernet and take the base offline.
Roger: What makes you think I can do that?
Jacob: There are dozens of terrorist DDOS nodes on the undernet. Use one.
Roger: I got nothing to do with them. I'm a blogger, not a hacker.
Jacob: You're on the undernet, that makes you a hacker.
Roger: No it doesn't! I'm a journalist, not a criminal!
Jacob: Explain the difference.
Roger: Journalists have editors!
Journalists as hackers…
Although I know you’re working from a script, and this page was done a while ago, it’s especially relevant given what’s going on with the current journalist/phone hacker news.
I didn’t think about that. Yes, this was written a long time ago. I hope my precognition isn’t acting up again.
Yes, on the one side, you have characters like Blomqvist who rely on hackers to do good, and also Wikileaks, and on the other you have News of the World. It’s everywhere. Maybe the cogs of precognition were turning in the collective unconscious.
Heh, cap’n threenipple