Spacetrawler

"Nogg: This is the bridge of the I.A. Star Banger. As you can see, you are now in outer-space. Dustin: A spaceship in space. You aliens are just full of surprises, aren't you?"

Spacetrawler is a science fiction webcomic by Christopher Baldwin, maker of Bruno and Little Dee.

Six humans from six continents get knocked out and abducted by a fish-like alien named Nogg. When they wake up aboard his ship, Nogg explains that he's shanghaied them into Interplanet Amity--a galactic activist group aiming to end the exploitation of the Eebs. It won't be easy: the Eebs are the only species capable of understanding and building the technology on which the entire galaxy depends, so attempting to liberate them will quite literally tick off every single government in the Galactic Organizational Body.

In spite of the odds, five of the humans agree to fight the good fight for their own reasons... and the sixth sort of tags along anyway.

Hilarity Ensues. As does some darker stuff.

You should start at the beginning.

"Pierrot: Dusty thinks it's a bad idea, it must be sensible."
 * Acquired Poison Immunity: Dmitri is convinced that he can condition himself to be stun gun resistant... by repeatedly shooting himself with a stun gun. It works.
 * Alien Non-Interference Clause: The undoing of Nogg's Plan A. If the humans claim Earth's seat at the G.O.B., then Earth is no longer protected by the non-interference clause.
 * Always Need What You Gave Up: Yuri's therapist robot erases her memory of torture at Flineous's hand in order to bring her back to sanity. Not long afterwards, she runs into Flineous again, so the therapist is forced to restore Yuri's memories, causing her to revert to her scary, violent self.
 * Anti-Advice: Dustin thoroughly establishes himself as a dumbass, so when he tries to warn Pierrot against trusting Curn, it convinces Pierrot to do exactly the opposite.

"Dmitri: [regarding a bug-alien he slept with] Pheromones and ventral revealing outfits. Way hot."
 * Anticlimax:
 * Action Girl: Emily is one from the get-go, while Yuri and Martina evolve into the role.
 * And I Must Scream:
 * Animal-Eared Headband: Yuri wears one, initially.
 * Animal Wrongs Group: Pierrot borders on a one-man version of this.
 * Apocalypse How: Planetary Extinction: The melt the surface of planet Carpsellon to slag.
 * Arm Cannon: Emily has one of the arm-mounted wrist blaster types.
 * Artificial Limbs: Yuri now has six four of them.
 * Asshole Victim:
 * Badass Longcoat: Emily. She even wears it over her spacesuit.
 * It even can turn into a hang glider, when necessary.
 * Berserk Button: Don't hurt animals around Pierrot. Don't talk about hurting animals near Pierrot. And don't try to force Pierrot to eat meat.
 * Beware the Nice Ones:
 * Yuri seems sweet, but if you tick her off, she will mess you up. Just ask Flineous.
 * Martina is morally conflicted about killing, even in self-defense--but she's not afraid to stun-gun her own captain to insure that No One Gets Left Behind.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Pierrot does this, capping it with a . And it is EPIC.
 * Bio Augmentation: In addition to having her limbs replaced with bionics, Yuri has a cat-like alien's ears and Eeb brain tissue grafted to her. The latter of which allows her to use telekinesis and understand Eeb technology.
 * Bishonen Line: Yuri's cyborg upgrades cause her to look increasingly inhuman--then her most powerful, "A God Am I" upgrade returns her to humanoid form, just with different skin color.
 * Black Box: Eeb-derived technology is this to non-Eebs, almost without exception. Even if another species could understand the tech, the Eebs are terrible at explaining it, and everyone else just relies on Eeb slave labor rather than bothering to learn how anything works. And in the specific case of spacetrawlers, the G.O.B. goes to great lengths to hide the truth of their construction and functioning, because this information is very politically volatile.
 * Blown Across the Room: Here, Pierrot is spacewalking and the recoil from a handgun sends him flying. In the comments below, Baldwin admits that he sacrificed realism for humor on that count.
 * Boldly Coming: Dmitri.

"Nogg: He's kind of like a mascot, but can lift things."
 * Brain Bleach: Yuri seem to give Dimitri reason to ask for some here. Or at least some... uncomfortable cleaning implements.
 * Brain In a Jar: Show up in the spacetrawler construction facility.
 * Briar Patching: Played straight for a few pages when Yuri's being "tortured" by the bounty hunters, before being subverted here.
 * Brick Joke: Russian tea cookies. Also kind of Nogg's promise to Martina, but that isn't really funny...
 * Gurf's aptitude for fleet commanding. Mentioned by Gurf's mom in #88. Comes up again in #172, squeaking in at just under a year later. Not bad, eh?
 * Catch a Falling Star: Emily and Growp fall out a several-story window together; they both steal passing hover-bikes on the way down.
 * Cats Are Mean: Flienous the Rhilzzan, then Yuri.
 * Catgirl: Yuri starts off with costume ears, but eventually surgically implants real cat ears.
 * Centipede's Dilemma: Krep is great at multi-wielding laser guns... as long as he doesn't think too hard about what each of his tentacles is doing.
 * Chekhov's Gunman: The Man Behind the Man hides in plain sight, well before his true importance to the plot is revealed.
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Dmitri gives Dal many opportunities to sever her G.O.B. ties and prove her loyalty to him. Every single time, she uses the opportunity to try to kill Dmitri.
 * Combat by Champion: When Emily realizes that her side is outgunned in the space dogfight with the G.O.B., she goads Kuu-Drahc into halting the battle so the two of them can fight one-on-one and hand-to-hand.
 * Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Possibly more symbolic than literal, but Yuri's descent into PTSD is accompanied by her cyborg implants becoming less human and more monstrous.
 * Did You Get a New Haircut?: Some people take longer than others to notice Yuri's aforementioned transformation.
 * The Ditz: Dustin.
 * Don't Think, Feel: Martina's approach to space combat during the fight with the Bollycks.
 * The Dragon: The Affably Evil lizardlike bodyguard Growp.
 * Dumb Muscle: Gurf.

"Flineous: Wait a second. How is that sporting ? Yuri: It's not. I lied."
 * Dying Race: The Harlzoids, who briefly appear in the backstory. Nogg and Choan try to save them;
 * Embarrassing Old Photo: Gurf's mom is armed with one of these.
 * Evil Laugh:
 * Kuu-drahc.
 * Yuri.
 * Exact Eavesdropping: Deliberately employed, so that "prisoners" can think they're "escaping" when they're actually being set free.
 * Extreme Doormat: The Eebs.
 * Also Qiyemps, due to being Actual Pacifists.
 * Fake Weakness: Easy to pull off when one's torturer knows nothing of human physiology. "No! Dear God, don't make me eat chocolate! It burns!"
 * Faking the Dead: uses holograms to convince the G.O.B. that their assassin succeeded in killing him.
 * Fantastic Racism: In the Spacetrawler universe, grounds for legally declaring a species non-sentient include lack of willpower and bad fashion sense. (On paper, at least. Political expediency seems to be the real reason: non-sentient species are easier to exploit.)
 * Faster-Than-Light Travel: Spaceships travel at greased light speed, whose technobabble may be some of the silliest ever written.
 * A Fate Worse Than Death: What happens to the Eebs involved in spacetrawler construction.
 * Finishing Stomp: Twice an antagonist tries to crush Emily's head under their boot. Both times, someone rescues her before they can finish.
 * Foregone Conclusion: In the framing story, Nogg says that Martina has died.
 * Framing Device: The entire story is being related by Nogg to Mr. Zorilla after the fact.
 * Gadgeteer Genius: The Eebs, good lord.
 * Genius Ditz: Gurf may act and sound like an idiot most of the time, but he has a hidden talent for space combat.
 * The Hedonist: Choan's a self-admitted one.
 * Hoist by His Own Petard:
 * When it becomes necessary to forcibly restrain Yuri, Martina uses a bomb that Yuri herself asked the Eebs to make.
 * Humanoid Aliens
 * Hyperspace Arsenal / Walking Armory: Emily.
 * Jar Potty: The potty-bot's entire raison d'etre.
 * Just a Machine: Potty-bot himself will be the first to remind you that he's merely programmed to act in a way that maximizes empathy from his users.
 * I Lied
 * I Lied

": As an example of our power, we will rain down fire on the nearby planet of Carpsellon and melt every last thing on the surface to slag simply by using our minds. From the information we now have, this "rain of fire" will be analogous to one's morning poo after enjoying a really satisfying spicy meal. Everyone on the planet's surface: O.O"
 * I'm Standing Right Here: King, here.
 * Intelligent Gerbil
 * Interspecies Romance:
 * Shuar genuinely loves Dmitri; Dmitri doesn't care.
 * Dmitri loves Dal, and she might reciprocate,
 * Curn and Oohlooh.
 * It Tastes Like Feet: Dmitri points out that the coffee tastes like asteroids. After all, it was synthesized from space debris.
 * Just a Machine: The robots themselves admit as much.
 * Klingons Love Shakespeare: Dmitri licenses his recipe for Russian tea cookies. It becomes wildly popular on multiple planets, and Dmitri makes a fortune.
 * Lampshade Hanging: Mr. Zorilla calls out Nogg for the way his narrative jumps between plot threads willy-nilly, and for the gratuitous cliffhangers.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: It's a relatively trivial procedure to erase (or restore) memories. The make liberal use of this to prevent the outside universe from learning of their existence. And the therapy-bot (who used to be a bar-bot) speeds up Yuri's counseling by erasing her traumatic memories.
 * Latex Space Suit
 * Laughing Mad: Yuri, with her psychotic persona.
 * The Man Behind the Man: is the real brains behind the GOB, and  is just the public face. Amusingly, in his first appearance  is literally standing behind.
 * Military Mashup Machine: The Purfin M-32, coolest all-terrain boat-jet ever.
 * Moment Killer: Pierrot manages to do it to himself,.
 * Mood Dissonance: The style is a colorful, classic "space-adventure"-look, but the world and events are rather darker.
 * Mood Whiplash: Frequently.
 * More Teeth Than the Osmond Family: The Mihrrgoots.
 * No One Gets Left Behind: The humans mostly feel this way. Nogg thinks this attitude will get them all killed.
 * Note to Self:: Pierrot finds out some important information about the Eebs just before he's scheduled to receive some Laser-Guided Amnesia, so he writes himself a letter summarizing it.
 * No Transhumanism Allowed: Cyborg prosthesis is treated as normal, though not apparently common. But when Choan asks Yuri about her bioaugmentation, Nogg's indignant response suggests that bioaugmentation isn't well-regarded by some folks.
 * Oh Crap: Panel eight, here. Somewhat literal, in this case.

"Dustin: Long live the Australian federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy!"
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Growp's thoughts on Emily. It's his twisted way of saying that he loves her.
 * Patriotic Fervor: Dustin.

""Plus it's boring.""
 * Planet of Hats:
 * The Eebs are a species of telekinetic gadgeteers with zero willpower.
 * The Flimboulxians (i.e. Krep's species) artificially bred stupidity out of themselves. This had a side effect of making them all jerks.
 * The Tornites all have terrible fashion sense.
 * It's implied that the Bollycks are all violent and ill-tempered.
 * Qiyemps are all pacifists, to the extent of being completely spineless.
 * Playful Hacker: Yuri.
 * Powered by a Forsaken Child: How spacetrawlers work, and the real reason why details on their construction are so carefully guarded.
 * Power Strain Blackout: Eebs (or humans like Yuri with Eeb brain implants) will black out if they strain their telekinesis by moving objects that are too massive. Too much of this strain can outright kill them.
 * Press-Ganged: Nogg's recruitment drive.
 * Psychic Powers: Eebs have telekinesis (as does Yuri after having one's brain tissue implanted), though they pass out and risk dying.


 * Pyromaniac: The prefer to use pyrokinesis to kill their enemies. And they have a lot of enemies.
 * Raised by Wolves: Or coyotes, in Emily's case. As a result, coyotes are the only creature she feels any kinship towards, and she prefers a loner's life.
 * Recursive Creators: The mastered nanotechnology by building robots, who built smaller robots, who built even smaller robots...
 * Restraining Bolt: Brain clamps, capable of robbing the clampee's free will and reducing any psychic powers they may have.
 * Sarcastic Devotee: Krep has nothing but disdain for everyone around him, but he's 100% committed to the cause.
 * Serial Prostheses: Yuri.
 * Shoot Out the Lock: "Hmm. No luck. That always works in movies."
 * Shoot the Dog:
 * When it becomes undeniable that is dangerous to Interplanet Amity and simply cannot be trusted,  kills her.
 * When the situation aboard the spacetrawler construction facility gets really bad, and all Martina's attempts to prevent further bloodshed fail, she realizes her best remaining option is to . So she does it.
 * Slave Liberation
 * Slave Race: The Eebs.
 * Slap Slap Kiss:
 * Space Opera
 * Star-Crossed Lovers: Curn and Oohlooh are biologically incompatible species. Each of of them breathes gasses that are toxic to the other, and they can't touch each other without dying.
 * Static Stun Gun
 * Stupid Sacrifice: Played for laughs when Gurf intercepts a laser blast to protect Emily. Emily then points out that it was a stun-ray, and that the now-unconscious Gurf is the heaviest member of their squad.
 * Take a Third Option: Emily in her fight against Growp.
 * Taking the Bullet: dies protecting Emily this way. Then Gurf gets knocked out, also protecting Emily this way.
 * There Are No Therapists: Zig-zagged. Nogg does have a Therapy-bot for his crew, but it's terrible at the job. Later, Martina recognizes that the crew needs a good therapist, so she replaces Therapy-bot with Bartender-bot.
 * Toilet Humor: The potty-bot.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Dustin. Trust in the authorities can be taken too far.
 * Transhuman: Yuri.
 * Translator Microbes: A brain-implanted language chip.
 * Trash Talk: Emily, but that should hardly come as a surprise given her You Fight Like a Cow antics with Growp.
 * Vodka Drunkenski: Dmitri.
 * Weapons Grade Vocabulary: A "Grwfl-grwfl" joke is so hilarious that, upon its first telling, it killed off an entire species.
 * Worthy Opponent: Emily becomes one for Growp.
 * You Fight Like a Cow: Every fight between Emily and Growp involves much back-and-forth quipping.