Webcomic / Outrim

Outrim is a hard science-fiction strip where humanity uplifts small mammals so they can act as expendable spacers and colonists. It covered the crew of the free trader Outrim Queen as they attempted to make a profit and pay off their run-down ship. Drew heavy inspiration from Traveller. Ended December 2008, archived here.

Tropes:

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Installing "Vesta" on a bunch of mining robots made them attempt to exterminate the miners (no mining drivers, defaulted to agriculture and pest control), they fixed it by running Linux.
• The Alleged Ship: The "Queen" is outdated and falling apart.
• Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: Dutch has an old-fashioned cutlass for boarding without the risk of damaging equipment with stray bullets. One of many Traveller references in the comic.
• Asteroid Miners: One job was transporting a team of moles to an asteroid mining colony.
• Asteroid Thicket: Supposedly averted
• BFG: Angus' rodent-portable Plasma Cannon, by name even.
• Centrifugal Gravity: There's no artificial gravity, unless the crew are on a spinning wheel segment they float.
• Chainmail Bikini: Prudence's VR avatar looks like a giant valkyrie version of herself wearing this attire.
• Drop Pod: The "Buttkickers" have a couple of sugar gliders who scout out the landing zone in this manner.
• Everything's Louder with Bagpipes: Angus uses them for jamming
• Interspecies Romance: One of the moles actually proposed to Prudence, she refused.

• Powered Armor: A couple of armadillos in battle suits appear, and demonstrate both the advantages and the faults with them.
• Private Military Contractors: Boadie's Buttkickers, a mercenary company run by one of Dutch's old friends from the Colonial Marines who hire the Queen for transport.
• Retirony: Boadie was planning to take up farming after one last mission, instead she caught a stray bullet.
• Shout-Out:
  • As mentioned before, there were several references to Traveller, particularly with the technology and logistics of space travel.
  • Angus the Scottish engineer left the Navy due to too many Star Trek jokes.
  • In the final chapter the crew finds a small Bolo.
• Space Pirates: Seen in the final arc, mostly North African Jerboas so as to appear like Barbary Corsairs.
• Uplifted Animal: Uses a synthetic protein called "SmartUp".

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