Apostasy#1: The Dawn Shall Rise

The comic opens with a dream of the beach, long ago. A narration states: Sometimes when I dream, I remember things. Things that might be from before... just glimpses. They might be from my childhood, perhaps later. They seem from so long ago... the sand between my toes, the smell of the ocean... the sky... and the Sun." Then a rough voice cuts in, saying "Wake up!"

The Sun morphs into a harsh overhead light inside a train. A masked man - a Civil Protection officer of the Combine thought police - is waking up our protagonist, a man in a standard-issue blue civilian outfit. The Civil Protection officer forces him out of the train as the man thinks to himself that he hates dreaming.

As he walks outside, the man is greeted by a dystopic sight. A big holographic screen with the face of an older gentleman on it - Doctor Wallace Breen, the Administrator of the Combine empire on Earth - is welcoming new arrivals. Civil Protection officers, also known as 'metro cops', are forcing people around while floating robots called scanners photograph and document civilians.

Our protagonist spots a lone man being held by Civil Protection and by other Combine soldiers. He watches the prisoner draw a handgun and be immediately thrown to the ground by the superhuman strength of one of the Combine soldiers.

The protagonist arrives at a checkpoint where his ID marker is scanned and his name and designation are requested. He identifies himself as Markis Meriwhether, from Municipal Services. He thinks to himself that he's glad his title hides what he really does, as he crosses paths with an older man waiting at the train station. Mark starts making conversation with the stranger and asks where he's from, to which the man replies he's from Outpost Rybak, but as soon as Mark tries to follow up on that, the lone man brushes him off.

Mark thinks back to what he heard about Rybak: a small port and fishing outpost about 50 miles east that was overrun by antlions, deadly alien insects larger than a human child. Rumors said there were no survivors, although Mark thinks to himself that the man might have something to say about that. Mark decides to keep moving and moves to the next checkpoint, but not before catching a glimpse of the prisoner from before being dragged away, half-beaten to death.

Finally within city limits, Mark can't help but think of how different the air in City 17 feels from City 19. Not just from being near a coast, but also some kind of tension in the air. He brushes it off as he arrives at his apartment block and then his new Combine-mandated apartment, which is completely trashed. But Mark doesn't care. He immediately drops onto the nearby couch, hoping for some sleep without dreams.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, a man in a militia uniform is looking through hi-tech Combine binoculars at a small coastal settlement. He's accompanied by another man in an old Special Ops uniform. The first man comments that something about their drop-off is giving him the creeps.

As they watch through the binoculars, they realize the men down in the settlement are all riled up. The second man then calls out to the first, Jack, as he spots an incoming Combine armored personnel carrier. Jack tells him to get the men on the radio but the transmission doesn't get through. The second man, Billy, wants to get down there and help, but Jack tells him that would just get them killed as well and decides to just wait and see what happens. The Combine APC arrives at the settlement and a soldier climbs out to check inside, but one of the refugees throws a grenade at them.

The grenade's impact throws the soldier like a ragdoll. The APC fires back at the rebellious refugees and kills two of them. Jack then decides it's time for them to go down there, as there's only one soldier now, and hopes that they'll get a hold of the personnel carrier, as that would pay for months' worth of supplies.

They drive down in their dingy, broken down buggy, then approach carefully on foot. Jack tells Billy to fire at some gas tanks near the surviving enemy soldier. The subsequent explosion obliterates the soldier and the wall beside him.

Jack teases Billy, saying to him that perhaps with another shot he can bring the whole house down. Billy laughs and tells him that next time he shoots. They start scavenging the remains of the soldier and the refugees, but find little of use. Jack thinks to himself that it sometimes amazes him what one can get used to, as he stares at the corpse of one of the humans.

Meanwhile, back in City 17, a woman in white clothes is checking on an unconscious man in a makeshift hospital bed. She asks a nearby colleague how many they've lost today, to which he replies he's lost count between eight and sixteen, and she states that her patient doesn't have much longer either.

The woman, Doctor Galena Noland, tells her assistant to page her if anything improves, otherwise to call Removal. She starts making her way to the lobby of the dilapilated hospital they're at as she thinks of how little humans care now that they're under Combine rule. Her thoughts of how strange the concept of funerals now feels are cut off by a scream for help.

A man barges in carrying a bloodied man - the same man, in fact, that Markis Meriwhether saw get beaten up. Galena rushes the wounded man to a bed and asks him for details, but he begs her to listen to him. He tells her the Combine will be there any minute and hands her a key, then mentions that someone named Doctor Kleiner will know what to do with it. He draws the symbol of a lambda on the wall with his own blood and tells Galena to look for the symbol at the train station. Suddenly, Civil Protection comes in.

The police officers shove aside the hospital staff and declare that the wounded man is wanted for questioning. Galena starts complaining but an officer shoves her towards a wall and asks if her intention is to interfere. She replies no, of course not, and falls to the floor in defeat as Civil Protection drag the man away.

As Civil Protection carry the mysterious man away, Galena starts to stand up and wonders to herself if there isn't something someone can do against the Combine. She stares at the key in her hand, which the Combine didn't notice, and then at the bloody lambda on the wall.

At that same moment, on the wastelands of the Coast, Jack and Billy are checking out the Combine APC. Jack is inside the vehicle, confused by its lack of a driving wheel, when suddenly a weird noise starts getting closer from the outside. Billy screams for Jack to get out there as he spots an incoming Combine gunship.

The gunship starts firing on them as Jack jumps out of the APC and takes cover behind it. He screams at Billy, who is back to the wall of the settlement, to get to the buggy. They both rush to the buggy, Jack gets behind the wheel and asks Billy if he ever feels like he's going to have one of those days. Billy screams at him to go and Jack hits the pedal.

The gunship chases the fleeing buggy. Jack looks back at the gunship as Billy begs for him to look out. The buggy jumps a ramp as the gunship fires at them and blows up some dilapidated cars in the highway. As Billy complains that Jack will get them killed, Jack keeps driving towards a tunnel.

Jack says it's going to be close, but he succeeds at driving into the tunnel just as the gunship fires at them. They lose the gunship there and Jack stops the car to catch his breath. He starts to tell Billy that their old buggy Lucy would never fail them but Billy doesn't reply.

Jack turns to Billy and screams his name as he sees Billy slumped over. He gets out of the car and checks on Billy, then shouts NO as he realizes his brother is dead. The issue ends. Next issue: Overwatch.

Next comic:

#2: Overwatch

6 thoughts on “#1: The Dawn Shall Rise”

Michael Andrei Palon

September 20, 2022

Smart use of the Phoenix Connexion character model from CS: Source here.

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Jimmy

October 15, 2022

Well done! I’m inspired by this medium, using video game engines to create comics, lot’s of potential here (envisioning a No Mans Sky photo-capture space opera)

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CaptainQuirk26

February 8, 2023

I’m impressed! This is quite good. Did you make the geometry in hammer?

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1. Mythos
  
  February 8, 2023
  
  @CaptainQuirk26 This is an old comic from 2005 and the author, James “BrashFink” Brandt, doesn’t really hang around these parts anymore. That said, I believe all the maps in this particular chapter are from Half-Life 2—the hospital seems to be Nova Prospekt and I believe Mark’s apartment is the apartment you don’t get to see that a Civil Protection squad breaks into. Presumably just really clever use of prop placement to make them look like different places.
  
  Reply
BrashFink

August 23, 2023

Whoa, I don’t think I ever noticed there were comments at the bottom of the issues before. LoL. Mythos is dead on for the locations. The CS2 Characters back then were an INCREDIBLE pain. I had to pose the CS2 models and take a screenshot, then pose the citizen character heads in front of the CS2 models, take another screenshots, then photoshop the mess together.

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BrashFink

August 23, 2023

Oh… another thing about the CS2 models. In later issues, someone in the community (cannot remember who) made be a CS2 model with Jack’s head for me to use. Wish I could remember who.

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