Apostasy#2: Overwatch

The comic starts with a nightmare based off a forgotten memory. A man is arguing with his wife and starts beating her up.

Mark Merriwhether is woken up from his nightmare in his downtrodden apartment by some loud noises.

The noise is coming from outside. Mark opens the door and comes face-to-face with a woman carrying a shelf, who is also surprised to see him. She apologizes for the noise and explains that she is taking the shelves from another apartment whose inhabitants were relocated off-world, meaning they were sent off Earth to parts unknown. The woman introduces herself as Galena Noland. Mark offers her his help.

Mark finishes off placing the shelf in Galena's apartment and she offers him some water. She starts making small talk, asking what he does for a living, and he tells her he works at Municipal Services. When she asks him what he does there, he evades the question and leaves abruptly, leaving Galena confused.

Back at his apartment, Mark is feeling regretful about brushing off Galena like that, but refuses to think any further about it while he's not at work and decides to focus on getting his new place together. Meanwhile, out in the wastelands, the mercenary Jack is mourning the death of his brother Billy when he overhears some noise.

Jack spots a couple of headcrab zombies, former people whose bodies have been taken over by parasitic creatures known as headcrabs. He dispatches them pretty quickly and thinks to himself that it could be worse, at which point he sees something worse: a fast headcrab zombie, a skeletal infected corpse that rushes at him. He tries to run towards a door, but that exit is suddenly blocked off by another zombie. Meanwhile, a headcrab approaches Billy's corpse.

While dealing with the remaining zombies, Jack notices another one approaching, and is horrified to realize it is actually an undead Billy. A few of the zombies are now blocking Jack's path to the buggy and he plans on blowing himself up along with them, when suddenly two Combine soldiers show up and start attracting the zombies' attention.

Jack takes the distraction as his cue to get out of there with the buggy. He kills the zombie that blocked his way out the door and turns his attention back to Billy. He hesitates for a second, then says goodbye to his little brother and shoots him in the head.

Jack throws his grenade at the Combine soldiers, which blows them up as he leaves in the buggy.

As he drives away and reaches Highway 17, Jack reminisces about his family history of survivalism. His father taught Jack and Billy to live off the land as hunters and, when the Black Mesa Incident brought hostile alien creatures to Earth and then the Combine invaded and took over the planet, they managed to survive off-grid. As he realizes he is now truly alone, Jack reaches his destination and exits the buggy.

A refugee greets Jack, telling him Cubbage is looking for him. Jack meets up with Colonel Odessa Cubbage, one of the human Resistance's leaders. The colonel asks for good news, but Jack tells him they were ambushed and that the colonel's men are dead. Cubbage does not look pleased.

Colonel Cubbage tells Jack he is looking for some rockets. Jack tells him he has some in his hole-up but they will cost triple. The colonel is shocked at first, but Jack tells him that's the price and he caves in. Then Odessa asks where's Billy and Jack tells him he's dead as he leaves.

Meanwhile, at Galena's apartment, she is staring at the key she got from a rebel. She remembers him telling her to seek out Doctor Kleiner. She hides the key in her apartment and gets dressed for work, thinking she should talk to John at the hospital, who knew people from Black Mesa. She stops for a moment at Mark's door, but decides to not bother him.

Mark has finished up cleaning is apartment, just in time to leave for work. He leaves the apartment block while contemplating how people are forbidden to talk about their jobs due to their sensitive nature.

Mark reflects on the paranoia that fuels City 17, thinking that it is the city's lifeblood and what keeps people separate from one another. He eventually arrives at Municipal Services.

Mark is separated into a hallway and then into an area for transfers and new recruits. He considers how the poor bastards there have no idea what kind of shock they are in store for. Then, a bureaucrat comes in, introduces himself as Allister Tenenbaum, head administrator of Overwatch, and welcomes the citizens to Overwatch Civil Protection. Mark looks on as a few citizens react in shock and terror.

On the outskirts of City 17, Jack is still reeling from his loss, thinking that everyone he ever loved is now dead. He swears vengeance as he arrives at his safehouse, which he remembers Billy helped him set up nine years earlier. As he goes in, he notices something is wrong.

Jack notices something triggered his boobytrap and goes in. His safehouse has been raided by the Combine and more than three months of supplies, ammo included, are gone. He quickly decides to leave, figuring the Combine would be back soon, but has no idea what to do next, except make it up as he goes.

Back in City 17, in the Sector 14 trauma ward, Doctor Galena is looking for John, who turns out to be a vortigaunt - a friendly alien that is enslaved by the Combine. Galena asks him if he knows Doctor Kleiner and John replies he worked at Black Mesa with the Freeman. Galena asks if he has any idea where Kleiner is today and John replies it is likely he died at Black Mesa, but to ask the doctor in office 365, who worked at Black Mesa as well.

Galena thinks about Gordon Freeman, who was a scientist at Black Mesa when the gap was breached between Earth and the alien world of Xen. It is rumored he was at Xen when the portals closed and that he defeated the vortigaunts' enslaver, the Nihilanth, making him a savior for the vortigaunts. Galena arrives at the office and greets Doctor Judith Mossman. Meanwhile, back at Municipal Services, Mark's partner introduces himself.

He's Barney Calhoun, Civil Protection officer and secret rebel mole. The issue ends. Next issue: Mission Omega.

Next comic:

#3: Mission: Omega

3 thoughts on “#2: Overwatch”

Michael Andrei Palon

September 20, 2022

Awesome, but where’s Page 17?

Reply
1. Mythos
  
  September 20, 2022
  
  @Michael Andrei Palon Oops, accidentally left that one out. Thanks, it’s really tough to double-check 700 comics.
  
  Reply
  1. Michael Andrei Palon
    
    October 2, 2022
    
    @Mythos Ah, it’s here as it should be. Thanks a lot!
    
    Reply

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