Hey Everyone!

The much fabled ‘fficial T-Shirt is revealed!

Something I really enjoy is using someone’s possessions to tell you about them as a person. We obviously try to surround ourselves with things we like and these choices reflects on us a lot, sometimes without us realizing it. I’ve often looked around my own home and wondered ‘If I died right now and a stranger walked in, what would they think about me just by observing my home? How much of it would be right?’.

I’ve had the unfortunate, but universal, experience of helping clean up the effects of a loved-one after they’ve passed. In that experience I learned things that I don’t think I would have ever learned in their life. I wanted to reflect a little bit of that with Vulture, while they all may be co-workers, there are some things that you might not necessarily share with people you work with, even if you really trust them.

Thanks for reading,

- Luther out

PS: The pre-cut hayseeds were Matt’s idea. I can’t take credit for that flash of brilliance.

Boom! Right under the wire before midnight!

At least it’s not midnight in my timezone yet… either way it’s a new page. I have to be up early tomorrow, so I don’t have much time.

Enjoy the page and thanks for reading!

- Luther out

And we’re back everyone!

Still no update on our first merch item but here’s the next page.

As much as I want to write more here about this sequence, I feel that I’m going to have to save that for the end. I’ll simply say that I feel that death and mourning are an important part of war stories, which I feel can often get overlooked in the military sci-fi genre. At least, I think we’re a part of that genre, not really sure to be honest.

Thanks for reading everyone!

- Luther out

Hello everyone,

I’ll let this one speak for itself.

Thanks for reading,

- Luther out

Hey Everyone,

One of the tricky parts about writing a comic where you only come out one page at a time is that some page setups require the pages to flow into each other. It’s OK when people are chewing up the archives, it’s not so great when regular readers are trying to read the story as it comes up. In this case, you might want to read the previous page and then this one to get the full effect.

Thanks for reading,

- Luther out

Hello Everyone,

Sorry that this page took so long, but in all honesty I don’t regret it. I think that this one was worth the extra time spent, both in the action and in establishing something about Christophe. Observant readers will also notice a new LIMB design, something older and piloted by someone different than our beloved Free Marketeers.

As always, thanks for reading!

- Luther out

Don’t have much time. Super busy week. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading,

- Luther out

And now for something a little different.

Thanks for reading,

- Luther out

Hey Everyone,

So I read everyone’s comments last week and thought that it might be time to explain the Liability Balance System, because at first blush it looks absolutely insane and I really don’t have space to explain this in the comic proper. Or, at least, I don’t have space to explain this without it turning into a Neal Stephenson-esque ‘fictional textbook’ thing.

LIMB pilots for security companies handle  a tremendous amount of Utils in equipment and that equipment is often in danger. To discourage unnecessary risk taking, pilots are budgeted a certain ‘liability balance’ which is refreshed every deployment. Every time a pilot loses or damages company property, a fraction of that cost is deducted from their balance. Once the balance is depleted, that cost becomes money owed. Your contract doesn’t expire until the owed money is paid back or the company chooses to let you go.

Does this system make sense for a security contractor securing company assets against bandits? Yes. If your pilots got overzealous then they could cost the company more utils than the company is making on their contract, which is an absolute no-go.

Does this system make sense for a security contractor in a war? No. In security, losses are incurred when somebody fails to do their job. In a war, losses are unavoidable, and sometimes a necessity. The Free Market has never fought a war, though independent mercenaries have signed up with various outsider countries during their conflicts when the signing bonuses were good (most notably the famous ‘Glow-Boys’ of the Impossible Wars).

As for Dizzee… Dizzee is a poor security contractor. He gets plenty of kills but he’s too aggressive and loses too much equipment, probably because he’s 19 and that’s what 19 year olds are like. That’s a problem with Security. War is different.

Thanks for  reading,

- Luther out

PS: Click on the Top Webcomics Vote Button (blue and white button that’s up and to the left under ‘Follow Us’) and follow the instructions there to get a preview of the first Official ‘My Life at War’ t-shirt! Tell us what you think in the comments!

Hello Everyone,

The next few pages will be left to speak for themselves, I’ll comment on them at length when they’re completed.

Welcome to the Free Market.

- Luther out