Gully worms are ground-dwelling invertebrates that greatly resemble hagfish. They average eight to fourteen inches long and are as thick as a broom handle. They have very simple eyespots that detect patterns of light and shadow, but little else. Their sense of smell is acute, leading them to their favored meals of decaying plant and animal matter. They lack true jaws, instead having a series of rasping teeth anchored in cartilaginous plates inside the mouth, which takes up one end of the creature and can distend to engulf objects significantly larger than the worm's own diameter. They secrete a sticky, viscous slime that makes them very unpleasant to the touch.
Their usual habitat is, as the name suggests, low points in the ground, where water and other matter tends to accumulate. One never encounters a single gully worm - they tend to mass up in clusters of dozens or hundreds.
As stupid, voracious scavengers that are brave in large numbers, it's no surprise that "gully worm" is a common term used to refer to Gutters.
I kind of wonder if Centcomm actually wants Dolly and Company to get to Nova Roma until after the shooting is over.*
*(There's a real chance that Acantha and Lynn (with Aeneas' help) may have solved The Problem before anyone gets there!**)
**(Except for Rose and Kyle.)
Lets see, there's a bounty on Dolly, a raise in the military presence of Nova Roma, rumors about Douchie going to war over something and the tracker that Centcomm didn't tell her her about, the one with the remote destruct sequence built in, oh yeah the Nova Bomb that is wired to the power plant so it really leaves a large hole in the plot when it blows. Plus the word that's out about Dolly Blue and Pinky being rouge AI's with destruction on their minds. (Centcomm is a bitch and never forgave Dolly for the sucker punch.)
I also had another brain fart, the thingy she is driving not only is bugged but was programmed to breakdown at a predetermined place where the "2nd" team would pick them up on the way out with either Lynn or Lynns corpse thereby removing Dolly Blue from the equation in the event Lynn became a liability, as she will due to Acantha's situation(i.e. she won't leave Acantha by herself in the situation she's in) The dust storm blew that bit out of the water as did the rebuild, however the bad news is still the word is out, via Rotter, that Dolly Blue and Company are on the way, the Gutters were only an advance contingent of a larger force comming in to waylay them for fun and profit. Bet they resupply the APC with more guns and ammo and take it from here on out.
Couple of things there - No one in joleet knows shes Dolly Breaker has a "clue" but he knows the taylor guardian was a andriod and hes firmly placed her in the NOT a andriod slot. Dolly has no idea cent sent a second team. thats all i can say without spoilers - but the storm was a random freak event ...
Who wants to bet Mira found the tracking device that Centcomm had hidden on the ship? (no, I don't have any made-up inside info on this one, sorry ^_~). a tracking device is the sort of logical overcaution that I'd expect from an AIS that has multiple operations teams (one of which is completely unaware of the existence of the other-don't remember if Marcus' team knows about Dolly and Ceci, but I think so)
I bet it was a sabotage device placed there to slow dolly and Ceci down so that Centtys team could get in place to ...back up/help her should things go pear shaped
It seems to me that CentCom isn't going to be very popular by the time this is all over with. She may be a very powerful AI but if she's going to keep this kind of thing up, she may wind up like Aenis or worse. None of the people/androids she's pulling this shit on are beings to be trifled with. If the scope of her actions becomes known to all or most of them, she's going to be toast. They'll find a way to do it. Herding housecats is one thing, herding tigers is usually a REALLY bad idea.
Don... when WAS CentComm popular? I mean as a TARGET she is VERY popular (getting punched out and shot in the head)... As an entity, not so much.
And I think you are right, her popularity as a TARGET is only going to increase. While her general popularity is only going to DECREASE. ::Hands out pitchforks and torches:: :-D
I doubt that Centcomm made the ship break down in that area, but I'm fairly certain she has a tracker in it - And probably a self-destruct mechanism too, just in case things/Lynn Taylor, need to blow up.
I was thinking of sabotage as in the ship was not running to spec as indicated in panel three. If I remember right, CentCom indicated that the ship was better than it's appearance would suggest.
CentComm have lied to Ms Taylor for years, a little more lying wouldn't be hard for her.
"there was a tragic accident, the ship was shot down by New Roma" *hides self destruct button* "I'm so sorry about your loss, maybe we should retaliate ?"
Cent builds the sets, but often takes background "pictures" from other sources. I get to hear all about the sets under construction. Sometimes it's going well and the commentary is less than 50% profanity, even!
More likely, IMO, is either something Cent-Comm put in her head, or else the reality of what she did is catching up with her. Either way, she's *not* alright...
If Dolly is about to learn some hitherto secret facts about her ship, CeCi may be concerned about how that will effect her primary purpose as body guard.
While CeCi does still seem a little rattled, her nice personality is settling back into her skull again "try not to yell at her, she's nice" speaks volumes of her werewithal, she still have enough surplus capacity to be worried about others. :)
If I'm right, the shell shock is likely still settling in, actually, and will probably be at its worst some time in the next few hours, or within the next few days
*('Factory-new tank', you could say.)
[BTW: You could save yourself some complexity if you stay with CeCi and let Mira and Dolly have their conversation off stage...]
(Just saying.)
You've got to pay close attention to how it's used!
Yes please. :)
[Comics: 520-523, 538-553, 679-692]
*(There's a real chance that Acantha and Lynn (with Aeneas' help) may have solved The Problem before anyone gets there!**)
**(Except for Rose and Kyle.)
As is the jury rigged self destruct mechanism on the ships plasma cores, making it a giant bomb.
Comic 662- 677
And I think you are right, her popularity as a TARGET is only going to increase. While her general popularity is only going to DECREASE. ::Hands out pitchforks and torches:: :-D
Alternatively, CentComm didn't have time to repair the old crate since it got delivered to her along with CeCi's new body.
"there was a tragic accident, the ship was shot down by New Roma" *hides self destruct button* "I'm so sorry about your loss, maybe we should retaliate ?"
*dun DUUUUN*
She would KNOW.. Trust me Mothers ALWAYS know if their child is n trouble or dies by Accident or...is blown up....
"You've got red on you"
Besides, who knows, maybe Mira found some smuggling compartments? :D
For something completely different;
If you have a taste for escalating absurdity, check this out.