Pod, its wings wide. Thad, their awareness distorted.
The pod runs through its unfolding procedure in the background of panels one through three – I think the tail fin popping up behind Thad’s head is kinda cute, though not as visible as it could be – I had a tough time with the lighting in this scene and that’s one of the details that wound up de-emphasized as a result. Thad turned out nicely in my opinion – Ornix blocks the light for a bit of thematic darkness, an element used again at the bottom of the page. Used throughout the scene, in fact. Thad and Ornix don’t know what they’re getting into; West and Raven don’t know what’s going on with the Hrazny mrDat Lodge – everyone is in the dark.
I suppose that makes the two lights reflecting off of Thad’s Dyluck-colored helmet extra thematic.
Production detail: I rendered and drew a sickbay shot for panel two, similar to panel five of Fire -5-, but wound up not using it, as I couldn’t get the sickbay shot and the shuttlepod to play nicely. Fortunately the chaotic burst of blue energy conveys the intended effect just as well.
The Icarus and Daedalus are heading “down” – forward is the bottom of the frame, which could make panel four a companion of sorts to Guide -14-.
Friday: Is everybody ready?
