Screen 1
ONE:
Interior angle, the Bridge of the IRON CROWN, past HANS and the XO, looking out the ports.
We can see the two FLYERS outside, the one that dipped leveling off to pursue the first.
1. XO: <First flight launched, Captain.>
2. HANS: <Second flight at ready. Drop five degrees nose up level.>
TWO:
On HANS, his and the XO. The XO holds the VOICE TUBE MOUTHPIECE in hand.
3. XO: <Down five degrees, nose to level!>
4. HANS: <Ready rockets to screen.>
5. XO/off: <Ready rockets!>
THREE:
On HANS, closer. His dueling scar and the cold calculation in his eyes.
6. HANS/small: <You’re overmatched, my Lady.>
7. HANS: <Fire.>
Screen 2
ONE:
Interior of the ROCKET ROOM of the Iron Crown.
Angle as the ROCKET CREW hunches behind cover, hands clasped over their ears.
The FUSEMAN is lighting the FUSE on one of the rockets in the tube.
1. XO/tailless: <Rockets fire!!!>
TWO:
WHITE SMOKE and FLAME and SPARKS as the first ROCKET fires.
2. SFX: FWOOOOSHHHH
THREE:
Exterior front of the IRON CROWN.
TWO ROCKETS are STREAKING from the LAUNCH TUBES, flying somewhat unsteadily. This is not a precise system by any means, certainly not at range.
NO COPY.
FOUR:
Angle, the TWO FLYERS, as the ROCKETS pass them, trailing their smoke. The PILOTS are looking at the ROCKETS passing – they make them very nervous.
NO COPY.
I love the expression on the gunner and pilot in the last panel.
I am very curious, what are the rockets powered by? I’d probably get blown up because I’d be starring, captivated by all the pretty sparks.
Yeah the reaction it’s great
They seem to feel five degrees is not nearly enough.
James, the rockets are just rockets–powder, an ignighter, and no guidance system which explains the reaction of the flier crew.
I love the colors on the interior scenes in these last several installments. It’s so malevolent and confined
Meaning sometimes they don’t launch and then someone has to clear the tube and pray it doesn’t go off.
Meaning that sometimes they launch and then detonate.
Meaning that sometimes they launch and don’t detonate at all.
And of course, they rarely go where they’re pointed.
This all sounds very hazardous.
Our take is that the rockets themselves… are an “unreliable technology.”
I would expect the rockets to have some sort of timer fuse. That would make them more like flak rockets. They explode when the time/range was reached. That way you can convert a miss into a hit.
Although the point about sometimes they don’t launch would argue against a timer.
I admittedly don’t know nearly enough about this as I should, but yes, the idea is that it’s a two-fuse rocket. I don’t imagine the technology has been developed for reliable detonation-on-impact (other than hoping the ignition system, on impact, ignites the payload), but rather more like torpedos, in that they launch, then later detonate at range.
Hence the alarm on the pilot’s face, I shouldn’t think.
How exciting! It’s like an old serial: How will our heroes get out of this one?!!
The video game Dishonored was released just a week ago. One would think I might overdose on steampunkish fare, but my appetite for it seems to be quite hearty.
HANS/small:
Looooooooooooved that line and Hans’s face.
Since Lady Sabre’s the title character, I don’t expect Greg and Rick to let her and her crew get turned to toast. Yet I’m still crossing my fingers hoping she has some sneaky steampunky anti-ballistic anti-aircraft hidden SOMEWHERE on her ship.
Looking at Han’s moustache, I believe it’s a very long thin ‘stache that has been waxed back along his face and somehow the tips are stuck/pinned near his ears. Seems to be a very high-falutin’ style.