PROMPT

• Solomon fits the "Late" prompt in that several of his abilities have delays on them, requiring careful timing to pull off his combos. He's also got a few tools to help him stall for time in a fight. Lore-wise, he's rushing to stop a threat that's already on Runeterra after having visions of an apocalyptic future.
• The "multiple ability" prompt is met through his Q, which has 2 activations each with unique effects that synergize with each other as well as his other abilities.
• The "removed ability" prompt is met through Solomon's ultimate, which is an adaptation of the ultimate Zac briefly had during the vanguard class update.

CHARACTER

• Etymology: Solomon has Hebrew origins, meaning "peace". In the Old Testament, King Solomon was the son of David of Bathsheba (from the David and Goliath story), and was one of the most revered rulers in Israel's history.
• Class: SkirmisheCatcher
• Role: Jungle/Support
• Race: Human
• Region: Formerly Zaun, now a wanderer
• Weapon: Dagger, Hookblade, and various high-tech gadgets
• Appearance: https://imgur.com/TCC4jNU

​

LORE

Growing up on the streets of Zaun, Solomon was fascinated by all the technology that could be created from mere scraps, and even more impressed by what the Piltovians could produce with hextech. Unlike everyone else, however, Solomon watched with more than just awe. With only a single observance, he could mentally reverse-engineer anything he saw and understand how it functioned, both machine and magical. He would often sneak into shops to steal tools and materials so he could build gadgets that almost perfectly emulated these spectacles. He even went as far as trespassing and getting into fights - both in Zaun and above in Piltover - to deliberately get caught and thrown into holding cells so he could steal whatever he could carry during his countless breakouts after figuring out how the locks and security worked.
Over the years as the political spheres of Zaun and Piltover became uncontrollably chaotic and volatile, Solomon bore witness to more weaponized technological feats. He opted to help arm Zaun's people with his talent, but resources to build his gadgets were more scarce now, and he frequently had to wander outside the cities to find what he needed. He would make increasingly longer treks to increasingly farther territories, and returning each time to an ever-declining home. It seemed nothing he provided could sustain his people for any meaningful amount of time, as Zaun's entire economy - and way of life - was on the verge of collapse, especially with the meddling of Singed turning the city's own citizens into monsters, and the likes of Piltover enforcers' encroaching presence on the streets. Solomon needed a way to end the fighting permanently.
In his search for an answer, he learned of a mage called "Zilean". Solomon journeyed to the dangerous heart of Icathia, imploring the chronomancer to aid him in his quest for peace. He needed to know what he could do to stop the impending war. Zilean's response was cryptic, offering only a single glimpse into the future. What Solomon saw was nothing less than utter horror - an infestation of purple death, the likes of which he could never have imagined. He saw his city toppled, endless fires, countless dead, the streets crawling with... things. He peered closer at one of them. It had a unique texture to its hide, refracting the light that touched it in a way that made it appear translucent. "Camouflage?", he thought. The creature suddenly snapped its gaze toward Solomon, seeming to stare directly at him as if it could see him through the vision. After a tense moment of pause, it lunged toward him with blinding speed, outstretching its massive scythes for hands and -- Zilean pulled Solomon back to the present reality.
"This is the true threat on Runeterra", the mage explained. "Your war is no war. It is only a petty squabble compared to what is to come. Every conceivable path leads to the same end. I don't yet have a solution to this problem."
"Show me more." Solomon implored. "I saw one of those creatures, what it could do. I can arm a whole city with tools to replicate it. If you show me more --"
"I will not." Zilean interjected. "I cannot. Even the act of allowing you a single glimpse may have already created disastrous alternate timelines. I cannot risk further chaos... however..." he pondered, "...your gift may yet prove to be a boon. I will scour through time to see what that boon might be."
With that, Solomon had his answer. In his search for Zilean, he had come across stories of monsters around the lands of Shurima with descriptions similar to the ones he saw in his vision. And so he wandered deep into the deserts and wastelands, hoping to learn what makes these beasts tick so he can build weapons to fight back. But first he has to find them...

​

GAMEPLAY FOREWORD

Solomon's original conception was as the grandson of Ekko in a distant future where Singed & friends unleashed chemical warfare, rendering Runeterra post-apocalyptic. He took Ekko's Z-drive and go back in time to try to prevent the causal events. As such, he was always intended to be a scrappy fighter with an arsenal of makeshift gadgets. His kit has undergone several iterations due to lore adaptations, but his first iteration was as a "trap master", with a variety of trap-based abilities to catch and lockdown enemies. This (3rd) version of his kit preserves a little of that, but mostly transitioned into "emulator" abilities reminiscent of other champions he's interacted with in the lore.
Solomon is a guerrilla fighter, meaning he prefers to catch enemies off-guard, engaging from stealth or a bush. He's got a variety of ways to close or create distance between him and his opponent, so his abilities can be used in almost any combination and work well together. He specializes in positioning: putting himself in just the right spot at just the right time encourages enemies to separate; and if they don't, he can force them out of position anyway. If things go wrong, those same abilities can double as escape tools. He's not very tanky though, so he has to position himself carefully in order to survive long enough for his spells to trigger.

​

ABILITIES

[P] GRAVITY DRONE

Solomon's trinket is replaced with Gravity Drones. They have 4 HP and project a perimeter around them. The first time an enemy champion crosses the perimeter, the drone becomes permanently visible, intensifying gravity within the area. All enemies within the perimeter become grounded and slowed by 10-20% (based on level) until they leave. At level 9, the cast range of Gravity Drone is greatly increased to match Farsight Alteration.
Flavor: Solomon needed a way to trap these "Void" creatures after he found them. He couldn't match their unnatural speed, but he could slow them down.

Vision Radius: 900 (identical to totem wards)
Perimeter Radius: 450
​

[Q] Hook, Line and Slicer

First Cast: Solomon slides in a target direction, slicing enemies with his dagger as he passes through them to deal physical damage. This ability can be recast within 3 seconds.

Damage: 40/65/90/115/140 (+ 40% bonus AD)
Cost: 40/45/50/55/60 Mana
Cooldown: 11/10/9/8/7 seconds

Recast: Solomon grabs the closest enemy with his hookblade (prioritizes his most recent attack target and champions) to deal physical damage and pulls them a short distance in a target direction.

Damage: 40/65/90/115/140 (+60% bonus AD)
​

[W] Monster Hunter

Passive: Solomon's first basic attack or Hook, Line and Slicer (Q) within 2 seconds of stealth or being unseen by enemies is guaranteed to critically strike for 40/55/70/85/100% bonus damage. This bonus is always applied against jungle monsters.
Active: (2 Charges) Solomon triggers a cloaking device, becoming invisible for 1.25 seconds.
Flavor: After observing Kha'Zix in his vision, Solomon created a device that could replicate the creature's ability to hide in plain sight.

Cost: 50 Mana
Cooldown: 18/16.5/15/13.5/12 seconds per charge
​

[E] Erasure Bomb

Solomon throws a time-delayed explosive orb to a target location, attaching to an enemy instead if it contacts them. After 2 seconds, the orb implodes to destroy enemy shields in the surrounding area and deal physical damage. It also releases a pulse in a larger area that grants ally champions hit a shield for 4 seconds.
Flavor: Solomon had a bit more difficulty figuring out Zilean's reality-warping magic. The best he could muster was getting the fabric of space to collapse in on itself.

Damage: 10/20/30/40/50 + 12/14/16/18/20% (+3% per 100 bonus AD) max health
Shield: 40/80/120/160/200 (+45% bonus AD)
Cost: 60/70/80/90/100 Mana
Cooldown: 20/19/18/17/16 seconds
​

[R] Flash Point

Solomon marks a target location. After a 1 second delay, he blinks to the marked location, teleporting all surrounding enemies with him. On arrival, Solomon releases a shockwave that deals magic damage in an area around him, slowing enemies hit by 40% for 1 second.
Flavor: Seeing a prodigious mind in Ekko within the next generation, Solomon watched carefully to gleam the secrets to his tech. He always had a hard time (no pun intended) trying to replicate the space-time powers of the Z-drive, though. The space part was easy. The time part - not so much.

Damage: 200/300/400 (+100% AP)
Cost: 100 Mana
Cooldown: 130/110/90 seconds

I know this probably isn’t the best place to put this but: So basically this happened at random so I took out the cord that made it wired so it could be turned into wireless and I noticed the light was blinking white so I tried holding down the power button for a couple seconds to make it power off like I usually do however this time it didn't power off and it made no so sound. It's been over 15m now and usually it turns itself off after 5m of trying to connect to somthing (which is what the blinking light usually means) I don't know what to do. The wired part works but not the wireless. It won't connect to my phone or do anything really, I've tried to turn it off and on can't even turn it off, forget the device and try and reconnect it but that dosnt work. Any help would be appreciated. I saw that another person had this same issue but it was around 100 days ago and the post has been deleted with only the bot in the comments.

Shorter post than usual, and probably a needless one, or at least out of date, but I figured it would be good to get down, “just in case”.
A (thankfully not as common now) misconception is that Spartan III Alpha Company’s destruction was avoidable, that if they had been trained better, equipped better, they might have survived PROMETHEUS. This is refutably false, and this post is intended to demonstrate that their demise was almost completely out of their control, and, primarily, to show that Kurt couldn’t have done anything better to save them.
(Admittedly, there is a bit of theory crafting coming near the end of this post, and I’m not sure if it’s warranted, I wouldn’t mind Haruspis’ comments, if you do see this post, as it seems to be something brought up initially in MJOLNIR and now with SPI. I doubt I’ll get a response though, and I admit I may be making this a bigger issue than it needs to be or is intended to be with its inclusion, but I’m adding it in as another (potential) factor. That’ll be Point III, and clearly labeled as theory crafting.)
With that said, let’s begin with a deep dive into Operation PROMETHEUS:^[1]
PART I: Sent from the sky
The Spartan III program has had more than a few threads made about it to deal with general misconceptions (I think we’re at like, 4 and counting now) so I’ll let those stand.
Alpha Company in general though hasn’t been delved into with much detail. Admittedly we know the least amount of their training, and etc, but we know it was both harder than their predecessors and an improvement of the Spartan II training, or at least, as mentioned by the Encyclopedia, it mirrored it in many ways:

Secretly based on the hidden world of Onyx, the SPARTAN-Ill program was operated and facilitated at Camp Currahee. a military site hidden deep within the planet's dense jungles. Much of the training regimen conducted at Currahee mirrored that of SPARTAN-II training, with intense physical and team-based exercises, as well as an advanced education conducted by an onsite Al.

• Halo Encyclopedia 2022 edition

We know the first night of their training was drastically different from the II’s. The first night of the II’s training is detailed in chapter 3 of The Fall of Reach, the chapter notes the date and time as 2300 hours, September 23rd 2517.
In this chapter Doctor Halsey gives the II’s a speech about why they’re at Reach, why they’ve been chosen, and etc….and then they go to bed.
Chapter 4 begins at 0530 hours, September 24th, 2517, around 6 hours later. The trainees are woken up by stun baton if they didn’t wake by voice alone:

”Wake up, trainee!”
John rolled over in his cot and went back to sleep. He was dimly aware that this wasn’t his room, and that there were other people here.
A shock jolted him—from his bare feet to the base of his spine. He yelled in surprise and fell off the cot. He shook off the disorientation from being nearly asleep and got up.
“I said up, boot! You know which way up is?”
A man in a camouflage uniform stood over John. His hair was shorn and gray at his temples. His dark eyes didn’t look human—too big and black and they didn’t blink. He held a silver baton in one hand; he flicked it toward John and it sparked.
John backed away. He wasn’t afraid of anything. Only little kids were afraid . . . but his body instinctively moved as far away from the instrument as possible.
Dozens of other men roused the rest of the children. Seventy-four boys and girls screamed and jumped out of their cots.

• The Fall of Reach, chapter 4

Comparatively, this is the first thing the III’s of Alpha Company do after their speech by Kurt:

”We cannot accept everyone, though," Kurt continued. "There are five hundred of you. We have three hundred training slots. So tonight. Senior Chief Petty Officer Mendez"—he nodded to the Chief—"has devised a way to separate those who truly want this opportunity from those who do not."
Kurt handed him a tablet reader. "Chief?" To his credit Mendez registered shock for only a split second. He scanned the tablet, frowned, but nodded.
"Yes, sir," he whispered.
Mendez yelled at the children, "You want to be Spartans? Then get back on those ships." They stood shocked, staring at him.
*"No? I guess we found a few washouts. You." He pointed to one child at random. "You. And you." The chosen kids looked at each other, at the ground, and then shook their heads. "No?" Mendez said. "Then get on those Pelicans."
They did so, and so did the others, a slow shuffling procession.
"Drill instructors," Mendez said.
Three dozen NCOs snapped to attention.*
"You will find Falcon Wing aerial descent units on the field. Load them ASAP and make sure your trainees are properly fit-led. Their safe deployment is now your responsibility."
The DIs nodded and ran toward the bundled Falcon Wing backpacks.
The Chief turned back to Kurt. "You're going to make them drop?" He raised both eyebrows in surprise. "At night?"
"The Falcons are the safest drop units," Kurt replied.
"With respect, sir, some of them are only four years old."
"Motivation, Chief. If they can do this, they'll be ready for what we have to put them through.”

• Halo Ghosts of Onyx, chapter 6

Anyone who didn’t jump was disqualified from the program immediately:

A girl with pigtails and missing her front teeth stepped forward. "I'll go first, sir," she yelled.
"Good girl," he said. "Go right to the edge; hang on to the guide line."
She took the tiniest baby steps to the edge of the Pelican, then froze. She took three deep breaths and then with a squeak, she jumped. The wind caught her.
She vanished into the dark.
"Next!" the old Navy man said.
All the kids, Shane included, slowly formed a line. He couldn't believe they were doing this. It was nuts.
The next boy got to the edge, looked down, and screamed. He fell backward, and scrambled away. "No!" he said. "No way!"
"Next!" the man called, and didn't give the kid cowering on the deck another glance.
The next boy jumped without even looking. And the next.

• Halo Ghosts of Onyx, chapter 6

Now, admittedly we don’t know what happened during their first morning, but I’d wager it would have been classroom instruction or some “light” activities. Even so, their first real activity was much more intense than their predecessors.
Their first test, in many respects, mirrored their deployment: dropped into unfamiliar terrain, forced to rely on their equipment and comrades above all else. They rely on each other, on the knowledge that they would not be alone when they reached the ground.
In later, proper, missions, sealed in armour, with the knowledge that their operations had to succeed, the knowledge that they had completed that first jump might have provided some small bit of comfort. If they could do that, maybe they could do anything.
This would be their main method of deployment, using droppods to get deep behind enemy lines, Strike targets of critical opportunity in places others couldn’t reach.
This is presumably how Operation FIREBRAND, IRON GREAVE, and the majority of their other operations were carried out. The standout and exception seems to be Operation HWACHA, which saw Alpha Company operating as boarding and counterboarding teams against Covenant fleet elements in zero-gee.
Whatever the case, the hallmark of a Spartan III deployment in future seemed to be a sudden, abrupt storm of drop pods appearing without warning to those on the ground.
PART II: Nightmares
A big element to why the Alphas seemed to be killed en-masse was, as Kurt puts it, “a loss of unit cohesion”. He notes that, as the battle continued on, Spartan III’s began to drastically deviate from standard formations and understood tactical doctrines. They would go at things alone, or neglect to cover their teammates, or be caught in a bad position that they should have seen and avoided:

The video from a helmet camera showed a dozen SPARTAN-IIIs limping and falling on a smoldering landscape of twisted metal. There was no unit cohesion. No two-man teams covering one another. In the heat-blurred background, Elites took up superior positions with good cover.
This was his fault. He had failed them. His training hadn't prepared them. He should have rectified the flaws in their Mark-I PR suits and fixed them faster.

• Halo Ghosts of Onyx chapter 8

Kurt puts this down to poor training and a lack of upgrades and rectified fixes to their armour (more on this latter point in Part III), and while this is his motivation to push Beta and Gamma harder, I’m not sure it was their training, truncated as it was, that was the cause.
Instead, Halo Oblivion, either intentionally or unintentionally, might give us a reason for why this situation happened:

Altered mental states were a symptom of combat fatigue, especially in exhausted soldiers who were using too many stim-packs in an effort to maintain alertness.
John knew from his combat psychology training back on Reach that too much combat stress could sometimes result in mindless, murderous rages. But such episodes were heat-of-the-moment events that erupted without warning—not carefully prepared actions like the commanders were suggesting now. He turned to Bah’d. “What kind of combat stimulants are you using?”
“Stimulants?” Bah’d narrowed her eyes. “Be careful what you imply, John.”
“Major, I never imply.” John was puzzled by Bah’d’s testy reaction. Stim-packs were standard issue for UNSC special operations troops—who often had to fight for days at a time without sleep—but they were easy to overuse in the heat of a long battle. “Your commanders are focus-locked on a pointless goal. That’s a classic sign of stim-pack overdose.”
The human brain needed sleep to flush out the toxins that accumulated during periods of wakeful activity, and John knew that going even twenty-four hours without rest could lead to concentration and memory problems. After forty-eight hours, the brain started to shut down for microsleeps, which lasted anywhere from half a second to half a minute—all followed by short periods of confusion and disorientation that could prove disastrous in a combat situation. By seventy-two hours, the brain’s toxin load grew so acute that severe lapses in concentration, motivation, and memory were inevitable—and hallucinatory episodes were common.
The only way to counteract the effects of sleep deprivation was to temporarily increase the signal-carrying capacity of the brain’s synapses.
That was how stim-packs worked—and why they were sometimes necessary in combat. If there were natural methods for accomplishing the same thing, John had never heard of them.

• Halo Oblivion, chapter 1

To reiterate, Operation PROMETHEUS occurred from 0700 July 27th to an unspecified hour on August 2nd, or, in short, 7 days, though it was likely much longer, as Alpha Company would have spent hours in Slipspace and free fall before the first Spartan hit the ground.
In terms of hours, that’s 168 hours minimum.
Because of the operation’s location and lack of other UNSC assets in the area, Alpha Company had no safe spaces to hide, or to rest. While it’s possible fireteams took up sentry in “secure” positions, only some of the teams could sleep, and if those members not sleeping were using stim-packs, they might not have been able to sleep once it was their turn. This would undoubtedly cause a rolling, cascading issue as teams were forced to abuse their stims in order to stay awake and functional, but it had the debilitating issue of impacting their higher brain functions.
In the end, the last ones standing were probably so hopped up on stimulants they’d have probably died from cardiac arrest even if they could be extracted.
Comparatively, Covenant forces were constantly rotating in fresh troops as reinforcements were brought in from existing ground units, and then troops stationed in orbit:

"After two days," the Admiral said, "seven rectors were rendered inoperative and a counterforce was finally organized by existing Covenant units."
”The Covenant counterresponse was neutralized," the Rear Admiral continued, "and over the next three days. Alpha Company destroyed thirteen more reactors."
”But," the Rear Admiral said, "a massive counterforce appeared in orbit and descended to the surface."

• Halo Ghosts of Onyx chapter 8

This is, also, not taking into account that the final extraction craft were destroyed by the final day,if not earlier, trapping the Spartans on the asteroid. There was no escape, nowhere to run to, nowhere to go.^[2]
Which is where part III comes in.
Part III: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should
THIS IS HIGHLY CONJECTURE AND THEORY-CRAFTING, PLEASE NOTE THAT WHEN REFERRING BACK TO THIS SECTION
I’ve been a pretty big proponent of SPI armour over the years, one of the most notable (if not the most notable) on the subreddit, I think (and I don’t make that claim lightly). Admittedly, a lot of that has been via a steady increase of information gathered piece-meal from various sources. If you search up SPI in Halostory’s search bar, a lot of posts with comments will have me in there, defending or clarifying something based off of tthe information we have.
But I might have been misinformed, or at least, misjudged some of the information.
How does this relate to Alpha Company and their deaths? Well, I’ve sort of touched on it above, but this recent canon fodder has sort of cemented the idea in my mind:
SPI has lost its purpose and become the antithesis of what it was meant to be, and in an attempt to make it more interesting, it’s actually been made worse.
That is to say, over the years, we’ve learned that SPI isn’t an individual armour, but a program, a suite, of different armours all under the same umbrella of “Semi-Power-Infiltration”.
It’s noted in a few places (Encyclopedia, Mythos, various Canon Fodders) as being a stable of armour with different variants optimized for different needs. The most recent canon fodder took a look at some of those variants…kind of.
Initially, this might seem like a good thing, giving the armour more variants broadens it’s potential as a warfighting platform, increasing individual operators capabilities and providing synergy amongst team members’ individual specialities, and allows characters who wear it to stand out from one another in visual media (which I personally find rather humorous, considering the Armour’s intended purpose.)
But while it might be a good idea from an artistic standpoint, it’s a very bad idea from a logistical/in-universe one.
The newest canon fodder describes SPI as:

Though not as robust as mainline Mjolnir suits, SPI armor has proven to be an excellent platform for testing a variety of field attachments and upgrades that would be far more costly (and at greater risk of destruction) applied to Spartan-exclusive missions.

• Canon Fodder: New Year, New Lore

It also goes into description of the different appearances we’ve seen over the years. Of particular note is this depiction from Mythos describing Operation PROMETHEUS. (I know, it’s long winded, but we’re finally back on topic).
The canon fodder goes on to say this about the image:

The top-right depiction of Operation: PROMETHEUS—the mission that saw the annihilation of Alpha Company (the first batch of three-hundred Spartan-IIIs)—seen in Halo Mythos likewise showcases two different variants. The central Spartan’s armor is notably more angular, lacking the traditional curves of the “baseline” Mark-I SPI, while the dead Spartan on the ground has a design which conforms more to baseline but has a much thinner “jaw” and lacks defogging vents.

• Canon Fodder: Nee Year, New Lore

Here’s where this is a problem, jotted out for ease of reading:
You have 300 people sent very far away from any logistics and resupply points, sent to an area surrounded by enemies on all sides.
You have limited space in the drop pods that these 300 people are deployed in. Likely this is filled with weapons, ammunition. Stuff they can carry on their person.
You can send…some number of supply pods (as seen in The Cole Protocol). Larger pods, likely carrying additional explosives, heavy weapons, and, most likely, extra armour to replace damaged ones in the field.
You have these 300 people wearing unique special armour that - to work effectively - must have the plating overlap * perfectly* to achieve proper camouflage. They may all need replacement parts and pieces.
You’ve given some of them unique variants that do not conform to baseline and require different armour plating to work effectively.
I think where I’m going with this is obvious.
Their own specializations and uniqueness (seem to have) killed them….or at least could have contributed to their deaths.
If you’ve just been fighting for a day or two, and your team (or several) makes their way to a supply pod full of armour, and you crack it open to find armour pieces for “SPI Mark I Type B” suits…what do you do if you’ve got Type A? The Type B plating won’t work with your armour. Sure, it might “connect” and have the panels activate, but the plating won’t properly fit, it will give you a bad “seal”, and your camouflage capabilities will be compromised. What does this mean? In short, you must isolate yourself from your comrades in order to not give their positions away, but it leaves you vulnerable.
This isn’t like traditional paradrops of today or the past, this armour is fully sealed, it needs to be to function. It is the only thing keeping you alive. The more variation, the harder it is to supply, the harder it is to supply, the more people die.
It’s especially egregious when the differences seem so….minor. It seems almost needless, at least with what we see in Mythos. What benefit did that one more angular variant provide over the usual baseline? What benefit does it give that a supplemental attachment didn’t? Was it worth the trade off for added logistical woes?^[3]
Additionally, though likely not intended (despite actually being noted in several points in the books) any particular variation based off specialty or designation would be a hinderance because it enables enemy commanders and intelligence teams to paint a picture of your capabilities.
If you can figure out that Squad leaders are wearing a particular type of armour, say, CENTURION, all you need to do is (generally speaking) target them, kill them, then kill their second in commands, then in the words of a damn fine soldier, “you can kill any poor bastard you like”.
Anything that makes you look like a more important target makes you a dead target - and for an armour based off stealth and invisibility, that’s a terrible idea.
You would think Kurt noticed this and immediately put a stop to it, because it’s getting his men and women killed…but we can see that it continues to happen in various forms
Admittedly, and to reiterate, this is likely just something we kind of need to accept as necessary for Halo’s visual media and how they’ve decided to design characters, but it still feels noteworthy to mention, especially because characters in universe mention it;^[4]

The second companion made a beeline for Hamm. There was no rank insignia on his armor— it was never smart to help snipers identify high-value targets —but the name stenciled on his breast was CUVIER.
The company captain.
Cuvier stopped halfway between John and Hamm. Nobody saluted, but Hamm stood slightly more erect. Had one of John’s Spartan snipers been an enemy watching through a scope, even the subtle shift of posture would have been enough to get the captain’s helmet blown off.

• Halo Silent Storm 8

.

Jones was only halfway up the side of the hill, but that was high enough to see the top of theopposite hill, and the tiny figures who stood there. Not the Grunts who were running this way and that, not the Jackals who lined the edge of the summit, but the shiny armor of the Elites. Those were the targets he wanted, and they seemed to leap forward as the Marine increased the magnification on his scope, and let the barrel drift slightly. Which life should he take? The one on the left with the blue armor? Or the one on the right, the shiny gold bastard? At that moment in time, in that particular place, Lance Corporal Jones was God.
He clicked the sniper rifle’s safety catch, and lightly rested his finger on the trigger.

• Halo The Flood, chapter 6

PART IV: THERE’ll BE ANOTHER TIME
New information that’s come to light regarding the operation comes from recent Halo Infinite Intel, about how Deep Winter had select Spartans pulled in secret ahead of PROMETHEUS.
Admittedly, this likely wouldn’t have drastically changed anything, but as John notes in Silent Storm, Spartan effectiveness is dramatically increased and heightened when at optimal team strength, and it seems Deep Winter pulled Spartans to make use of their individual skill sets, a cascading ripple occurs as teams would need to reshuffle and reorganize to fill in and make up to the gaps. The more Spartans removed, the less effective the Company will be, the less ground they can cover, and the greater chance of failure and death, noted here by John:

If the Spartans were attacking separate targets, they wouldn’t be able to support each other—and the efficiency of a Spartan team decreased exponentially each time a member was removed. Dr. Halsey estimated that a Spartan operating alone was only one-sixteenth as effective as a four-member team . . . and sixteen times as likely to get killed.

• Halo Silent Storm, chapter 5

As Kurt himself notes, Deep Winter often operated from a perspective of basic morality functions, which Kurt considered inadequate and a sort of weakness:

What could an AI possibly know what it was like on a real mission? Bullets zinging so close over your head that you didn't so much as hear them hut felt them pass. Or what it was like to get hit, but still have to keep going, bleeding, because if you didn't everyone on your team would die?

• Halo Ghosts of Onyx, chapter 9

Again, little likely changed, but the organizational hurdles and missing members might have effected how Alpha went about their mission, and how quickly they could have completed it.
Which leads us to our conclusion.
CONCLUSION
TLDR: Alpha Company faced a number of factors that led to their demise during Operation PROMETHEUS, and it wasn’t really due to a lack of training, or any sort of deficiency with the Spartans themselves, at least, not that we can see.
Instead, their deaths occurred due to stim-pack overdose, overwhelming enemy reinforcements, and difficult to maintain logistics hampered by additional, and unnecessary issues. While not technically a reason, the loss of select members saved by Deep Winter also probably had an effect on the Company’s overall performance,
In the end, the situation was doomed once the extraction craft were destroyed, and that only hastened Alpha Company’s demise. Kurt, despite his guilt, had nothing to be ashamed of, and their deaths couldn’t be placed on him or the others in the program. At the end of the day, Alpha Company died to factors outside their control and through no obvious faults of their own.
They may have died, cut off and alone, but they did what any Spartan would do, what any Spartan could do;
The impossible.
SUPPLEMENTAL/ADDITIONAL NOTES

• [1]: PROMETHEUS references the Greek God of the same name. A Titan who stole the fire of the gods and gave hope to humanity. In much the same way that Alpha Company gave hope to humanity by delaying the Covenant advance. Of course, this sacrifice went unknown by everyone. Interestingly, Alpha Company’s operations all involve fire in some way. PROMETHEUS has been explained. HWACHA refers to a Korean siege weapon from the 15th century, a cart with dozens of arrows/rockets that would be shot at a target, usually causing mass confusion and panic. Akin to a canister or grapeshot from a cannon. FIREBRAND doesn’t really need an explanation (but seeing as it was their most notable Anti-Insurrectionist operation…yikes, lol). While IRON GRAVE might seem out of place, it harkens back to Prometheus(the deity, not the operation) and his role as a smith. Iron needs to be forged into armour or tools, and based off the timeline, IRON GREAVE might have been Alpha’s first foray against the Covenant proper, hence, its akin to a baptismal experience, or a case of the Company being forged under fire.
  
• [2]: The Mythos artwork depicts a battlefield covered in smoke and ash, but from what I can see, the ground is more or less completely flat with very little deviation on terrain, this means Alpha would need to belly crawl until they arrived at one of the reactors to make best use of their PR systems, slowing them down significantly and, at the same time, meant that once combat was initiated, moving from Reactor Complex to Reactor Complex would have been both incredibly exposed and provided no cover.
  
• [3]: Mirage’s introduction to Infinte also introduces us to the AAP/K-ROC Ordinance Pack, an up-armoured cuirass noted to be cheap and easily available and intended to be worn by Mark I and II SPI. The overall shape makes it seem like it would have fit both Mythos depictions of SPI, and it’s almost certain everyone would have been wearing it, which would have mitigated some of the logistical issues. Assuming a Spartan needed only to replace this aspect of their armour, or their shoulder pauldrons were removed without compromising the rest of the suit’s stealth integrity, logistics issues might have been less of an issue. Other supplemental attachments, like RS/MOONGLOW, rather than entirely different helmets, would have also helped.
  
• [4]: I go into further detail of Spartan appearances and their differing looks (sort of) in this post
  

With that, we conclude another “essay”. Next up (timeline permitted) a character study and a look at love.
~ EternalCanadian

The engines of the dropship kicked on afterburners, roaring into overdrive as they neared their final descent. The inertial dampeners whined in protest, and Nikos felt his stomach flip flop as gravity spasmed around him in a desperate attempt to correct back to Terra normal. Niko gasped in exertion, his vision blurring and darkening around the corners. On his heads-up display, he could see his heart rate spike as his vitals went haywire. In response, his suit upped the oxygen percentage in his air supply and he felt something prick him in the nape of his neck. His heart rate slowed, his vision snapped into razor focus and he heaved with relief. Above them, the red combat light began to flash. Niko reached to his side, brushing his gloved hand against his rifle, and ran one final suit diagnostic. Then the dropship slammed into the ground, the combat light turned green.
“GO! GO! GO!”
The backdoor exploded open and Niko was on his feet, racing out of the dropship. Men peeled off the moment they exited, running to either side of the dropship to create a perimeter. Niko was one of the last out and he blinked in surprise at just how crowded the city was. Hundreds of bugs were scuttling away from them in all directions, trampling each other in their haste. Niko’s foot hit something wet and viscous as he stepped off the metal ramp and dashed toward his position in the perimeter. A couple of xenos were trying to drag something from under the dropship, screaming in their disgusting language all the while.
“Get the fuck back!” he roared, raising his rifle toward the bugs. His suit translated his words into the unintelligible bug speak and they froze. The one closest to the ship was still clutching onto the upper half of another xeno that Niko’s suit informed him had already flatlined. They froze just long enough that his HUD blinked red and an angry tone played in his helmet. A grin spread across Niko’s face and he opened fire. His rifle automatically cycled to anti-personnel rounds. The xeno closest to him disintegrated in a spray of razor-sharp flechettes. The second was just beginning to look over at its companion when Nikos cut it down as well. The remaining bugs began to run from him and the drop ship. Right over a huge red square that flashed on the ground less than ten feet in front of him, warning him not to step underneath it. The xenos couldn’t see it however and they didn’t even have time to react before another dropship crushed them into a paste.
Gore splashed onto Niko’s faceplate and he raised a hand to wipe it off his faceplate. When his hands came down, he saw the smooth side of a dropship. It was smeared with slime, so much of it that it nearly obscured the Terra Military Group emblem emblazoned on its side, a combat helmet with the faceplate up, revealing a grinning terran skull with two crossed rifles underneath. Written around its edge were the words, “We endanger species”
More troops poured out of the new dropship, taking positions around their own dropship. As they did so, Niko shifted his position to fill the new perimeter. On his map, he saw the blue markers of a dozen other dropships on the ground around them and the hundreds of smaller blue dots of other soldiers, “all units are on the ground and accounted for.”
The dropship engines roared again, scorching the pavement underneath them and causing a fog of evaporated biological matter to waft into the air. Then the massive dropships shot off and into back towards high orbit, leaving the terran troops in the heart of an alien city.
“Move to secure primary objective.”
That was all that the humans needed. As one they turned towards one of the massive pristine skyscrapers and made their way to it. Each squad leapfrogged closer as the others covered them from behind. They moved like a well-oiled machine. Xenos civilians sprinted to get out of their way. Niko grinned as one stumbled, falling to the ground before him. His grin widened as he felt bones crunch underfoot. Everything was going exactly as planned.
Then the windows of the lobby of the skyscraper shattered. Niko dived to the ground without a second thought, the only thing that saved him from being gunned down. A veritable wall of tracers reached out from the building and he saw one man take two rounds before he hit the ground. Niko’s eyes flitted to the casualty report to find that the man was fine. His armor had taken the brunt of the damage.
“Contact!”
The response from the humans was swift, a hollow thunk sounded behind him, and the bottom floor of the skyscraper erupted into flames. A shockwave of rapidly expanding water vapor followed right behind. There was a noticeable decrease in return fire after that.
“Move!”
Niko was back on his feet again, charging headlong into the flames. A careful approach would do them little good anymore. He raised his rifle and started firing into the smoke and flames as he slipped into the building amidst the gunfire and alarms. The lobby was a mess. Fires roared in every direction, smoke clogged the entire chamber, and the dead and dying lay in crumpled heaps of scattered limbs half fused to the ground, walls, and floor. One bug soldier was wandering around aimlessly, the lower half of one of its arms hung on by threads. Niko drilled it in the head and it dropped.
“Keep moving! It is imperative that you capture the target before enemy reinforcements arrive!”
Other TMG operatives had made it into the building and they were forming up by one of the stairwells. Their point man, a breacher in a huge suit of powered armor tossed something into the stairwell. Niko barely picked up alarmed screeches before the doors to the stairwell erupted outwards, bits of glass and shrapnel sprayed in all directions. The TMG breacher rushed inside a moment later and was immediately blasted with a hail of tracers. For a moment, Niko was sure the man was dead. But the breacher’s thunderous return fire blew away his doubts. Twin antiarmor cannons roared to life, creating two continuous fireballs that glowed like miniature suns, and illuminated the entire stairwell in a fashion that could only have been described as apocalyptic. The rest of the operators slipped in as the breacher continued his suppressing fire and began to bulldoze their way up the stairwell. Niko bolted up right behind their new pointman, a slim woman in specialist gear, careful to maintain team cohesion. As he ran, he saw the specialist pull a drone from her belt and toss it underhand into the air.
The baseball-sized package hovered in the air for a moment before it blinked to life. The drone shot up the staircase and Niko’s data display lit up with information. The drone sent out high-powered radar pulses that could have cooked an unarmored biological in seconds if they were close enough. In seconds, it had mapped out the first ten floors and was moving up. His HUD showed chaos. Civilians marked in fluorescent green ran in all directions, interfering with their security’s attempt at defense. Friendly fire incidents began to mount as the TMG operators made their rapid accent toward their target.
A door burst open and a flood of green vomited out, clogging the stairway in their desperate attempt to claw their way out of the burning building.
“Contact front!”
Niko paused just long enough for their specialist to clear a path through the horde before they continued up. The harsh bark of rifle fire and the wet thud of bodies hitting the ground echoed from behind him as a fireteam split off to cover the open door. They went up a dozen more floors, taking out green and red with equal efficiency before a bell rang in his helmet and a new marker appeared, highlighting a blotch in purple.
“Objective located.”
His suit told him that the purple blotch was nearly fifty floors up from their current location. At their current rate, it would take them another ten minutes to fight their way up. Just as that calculation set in, his suit chimed up again, “Native reinforcements on route. ETA 7 minutes, 35 seconds.”
At the same time, the specialist before him crumpled backward, tumbling down the stairs. A crack like a heavy whip snapped out a second later. Niko dove for cover, crashing through a thin plastic door that led into one corridor of the skyscraper. More than a dozen green bugs froze in front of him, barely an arm's distance away. Close enough to swarm him if they wanted to. Luckily for him, they didn’t. They were too preoccupied writhing around on the floor holding their heads as rolling booms echoed up and down the stairwell loud enough that even his helmet’s noise suppression couldn’t keep the sound below painful. He glanced at his HUD. Someone had dragged the specialist behind cover, still alive but heavily wounded and combat ineffective.
Then the specialist’s drone gave one final ping before something took it offline. It was like a light switch had been flicked off in his HUD. The amount of battlefield intel he had access to narrowed to what the sensors of the operators around him could see. But Niko didn’t need to see it to know what had taken out their drone. From a vantage point somewhere above, the defenders had set up a heavy machine gun. Its slow methodical firing hammered down on them, blowing basketball-sized holes through several feet of concrete wherever they hit. They hadn’t managed a direct hit since the start of their ambush but the suppressing fire had pinned the humans in place and showed no signs of stopping.
Worse still, their drone’s final ping revealed a wave of red approaching their locations. It appeared that the xenos had finally regrouped and were about to bring down the brunt of their force on them.
“Keep moving, retain the initiative!”
“Where the hell is that cannon?”
Niko peaked his rifle out into the stairwell, looking through its camera. Methodical muzzle flashes lit up the west side of the building some twenty floors above. He’d just started pulling his arms back when the concrete pillar he’d been using for cover disintegrated before his eyes. One round went straight through the demolished cover and smacked him right in the chest, knocking his ass flat in an instant. The air was punched out of his lungs with gut-wrenching force and he felt several ribs crack simultaneously. A hand reached out and yanked him back behind cover by the carrying handle on the back of his armor. At the same time, Niko felt another prick in his back, and the pain that had just begun to flair up in his chest was put out. The panic that had gripped him when he’d watched their specialist go down dissolved like snow under a plasma cutter and left him with only an adrenaline high the likes he’d never experienced before and a razor-sharp focus he hadn’t thought possible.
“Good shit finding that gun Niko!” someone said over the squad comms, “we’re taking that fucker out. On my mark, peak, Val’s going to fire another thermo at those xenos.”
Green acknowledgment lights flashed.
“Mark!”
Niko leaned out again, this time at a different location, and started spraying up at the machine gun. A flash from the floor below forced his visor to darken momentarily as a rocket zipped by. A second flash on a distant floor came a few seconds later. Then silence.
“Mission success is in jeopardy. Valkyrie suits authorized.”
That was all Niko needed to hear. He pulled himself from the ground and rushed the stairwell again. Somewhere above, a guard sent a wild spray of automatic fire at where he had been less than a heartbeat ago, the impacts sent dust erupting behind him. Niko didn’t even notice it as he leaped over the railing, plummeting toward the ground, now more than twenty floors below. Air whistled around him, tearing at his limbs. He felt a click, then his entire suit shuttered and for the second time in less than half an hour, his stomach lurched and he felt the G-force claw at his body. Floors passed by him in a blur, his heart rate spiked and he screamed, screamed with pure adrenaline. Twin turbojets roared to life like a pair of mythical dragons on his back. Geysers of blue flames burst from his Valkyrie suit. His entire body vibrated from the force of thrust.
He shot up like an arrow, followed seconds behind by a dozen other operators. At the same time, the remaining operators laid down suppressing fire, filling the stairwell with tungsten darts. They flashed past a blackened blasted floor, one side completely was completely missing, exposing offices and cowering civilians within. The mangled wreck of an autocannon jutted out from the roof. In seconds they had flown twice the distance they had managed to fight through and Niko’s suit began edging him toward the west side of the stairwell.
Then, as abruptly as they had started, the jets cut off, leaving him at the mercy of gravity for a brief moment. He whistled on, carried through the air by inertia alone for several floors, still moving towards the wall, close enough that he could almost touch. When he finally hit the apex of his flight, floating in apparent freefall, his suit gave him one final gentle push and he landed in front of a door highlighted in purple.
A pair of surprised guards blinked at him from either side of the door for just a heartbeat before he dropped them with a spray of automatic fire. Beside him, the rest of the Valkyries landed in near silence. The air around them shimmered from the heat. Their breacher stepped up to the door, feeling at the edges. The specialized sensors in his gloves mapped out what was within to micrometer precision and he began moving with perfect efficiency. He pulled a line of plasma cord from his belt and applied it to the door like an artist drawing his masterpiece.
The cord burned a brilliant blue as he laid down the final piece. The light was so intense that Niko’s visor went dark for a moment, leaving him almost blind. He looked away, flicking the setting on his rifle to stun and setting his grenades to non-lethal. As the final bit of cord went out, their breacher gave the door a light press with one hand and it collapsed inwards. Before it had even hit the ground, a swarm of bullets flew out like a broken wasps nest.
Niko pulled the pin on one of his grenades and tossed it into the room followed right behind by another grenade from the breacher. A quick countdown began in the corner of his HUD. As the countdown hit zero, the grenade exploded with an eardrum-shattering boom and a flash of light even brighter than the plasma cord had been. At the same time, he and the breacher turned the corner and slipped into the room beyond.
If he hadn’t been in his suit he would never have been able to make sense of the chaos around him and he would never have had time to switch his rifle back from stun. But he was in his armor and that was all that mattered. His rifle clicked automatically back to lethal and he held down the trigger and didn’t let go. His rifle spat death at several thousand rounds per minute. The xenos didn’t stand a chance. When the bullets stopped flying they had a new problem, none of the smoking, bullet-riddled corpses were highlighted in purple. Instead, a second much more imposing armored door blinked purple highlights at them like some video game.
Their breacher shook his head and got back to work, somehow moving with even more efficiency than before. Which was just as well since the sensors of one of the operators outside picked up the sound of xenos coming toward their position. In seconds, the second door was blazing and Niko flicked his rifle back to stun as he moved behind concealment.
This time when the door opened, there was no fire. The breacher peaked the barrel of his rifle into the room and it relayed data to the rest of the operators. The room inside was lavish. Or it must have been to a pre-FTL native. It was dominated by a large table and sitting behind it was their primary objective, glowing a happy purple and smoking something that would have obscured Niko’s view if not for his suit's sensors. Other than that, the room was empty.
Niko entered, raising his rifle at the xeno, “Hands in the fucking air! ”
Their objective ignored them, continuing to smoke. The breacher followed him into the room a second later, “Hands in the fucking air!” he echoed, blasting the translated speech at full volume.
The objective put down its smoking thing and raised three sets of hands into the air, then it spoke, making farting and hissing sounds at Niko, who could not understand a word of it. He ignored the xeno’s words, “stand up and turn around and this will all be over in a minute.”
As he said this, he flicked through the menu in his HUD and turned on his audio input translator.
“I was told that you would come for me.” the alien said, the translator giving the thing a deep, resonant voice, “your hairless monkies warned there would be consequences if we refused.”
Niko cursed, pulling out a pair of cuffs, specially tailored to fit the objective's specific freakish proportions, “shut it.”
It did not, “they showed us what happened to those who refused, you thought it would scare us into following. It has not.” The objective clamped down its mandibles and Niko heard a faint crack, “But I will not be paraded around my cities like some sort of sick attraction. You will have to watch me turn a martyr.”
One of its several hands reached out and slapped a large, blue button on the desk. At the same time, the breacher put half a dozen shotgun shells flying at the objective, turning it to mush.
“No don’t-”
Niko bucked, pulled off the VR jack, and gasped. He twisted his hands from their place in the suit and made to stand. A pair of hands pushed him back, “that would not be wise.”
“That was incredible. I’ve never experienced anything like it,” he gushed, blinking his eyes in a vain attempt to focus them on the person before him. He couldn’t remember where he was, or what he was doing. The fog that clouded his mind was thicker than any he had ever experienced.
“And that is just a taste of the adventure you can experience if you join up with Terra Military Group.”
Niko gasped, wiping a sheen of sweat from his forehead, “was that real?”
The woman hummed, “the operation that you just took part in was real and the experience that you had was entirely through the unaltered point of view of one Captain Alexander Sinew. But some parts had to be removed for the sake of operational security.”
He squinted up at where the woman was, imagining fighting across the stars. His eyes may not have been working perfectly but his consciousness had never been clearer, “Give me a few minutes and I’ll sign.”
The woman gave him a curt smile and nodded her head, “I’ll have the paperwork for you waiting,” she stuck her hand out, “welcome to the TMG, bringing the light of humanity across the stars.”

This is a bump/repost of my prior post

Pics and such
Selling my development and light gaming (Factorio, Minecraft, similar, though I'm sure it would do plenty more) rig that's been well loved for a couple years, because I moved aboard my boat and downsized to a Beelink Mini PC. This thing is a beast: it compiles fast, it runs Factorio megabases, and it does it without blinking. The PSU is one I installed at some point in 2022, so it should be good to go for a good while.
Pictures should be pretty thorough. The case has seen many better days, the clear panel is in good shape but the opposite side is scratched pretty badly, I don't entirely remember when or why that happened but whatever. Turn it to face a wall :) Also, one clip that secures the front panel is broken, but the other three work and usually hold the face plate on fine.
Comes with NO OPERATING SYSTEM, the NVME has been wiped clean. Asking $450 OBO locally (anywhere between Bellingham and Seattle, I'm on the San Juan Islands) or $500 OBO shipped CONUS. Looking to sell as a complete system, not for parts. Comes with power cable and wifi antenna.
See fifth picture for output of inxi -v5 on Linux (obviously nothing plugged into USB comes with this)

This post kind of got away from me and I wrote much more than I originally intended. I hope someone finds it interesting.
Took my first 3g dose last night. To set the scene a little, I've tripped three times prior to this and each dose was around 1-1.8g. Each of those trips were positive, happy, cool visuals, good times, good vibes, etc.
Last night I went over to hang out with my old roommate at my old apartment. He's in his 50's, I'm late 20's. He's had at least 20 years of experience tripping on mostly LSD, but also mushrooms here and there. 3g seemed like nothing to him, but it was definitely an ordeal for me.
I arrived and weighed out the mushrooms. I brought two ziploc bags, both filled with 3g - one with golden teachers, the other with Albino Penis Envy. We started with the Albinos and both had 1.5G to start with. We chat for a bit while we ate the mushrooms. I tried to kill the taste by following them mushrooms with gummy bears. After we had finished off our doses, my roommate turned on Star Wars: Rogue One. I'm not usually a big fan of Star Wars, but I thought this movie was pretty good. Early on, the effects of the mushrooms were evident; Around the start of the movie I noticed that some of the character's faces were slightly off, textured to an unusual degree. Throughout the movie we incrementally finished both ziploc bags of mushrooms, putting us both at 3g.
By the time the movie came to an end, the effects were becoming more and more apparent. I remember sensory details being elevated to a very intense degree. I scratched the back of my head and the pain was so sharp, like I had just been poked with a needle; I could smell Steve's microwave spaghetti and it reminded me of the smell of times when I had vomited; sometimes it felt like I was clenching my teeth so hard that I was worried I was moving them around.
The movie ended after what seemed like an eternity and Steve suggested it was time for a walk. We both went to the bathroom. I got lost in texture of the wall for a little while. I swear it began to look like little faces laughing and moving to some kind of rhythm. I stood up and examined myself in the mirror like I always do when I'm under the influence of something. There was nothing crazy about my appearance; I had huge dilated pupils, yes, but I think mushrooms tend to just made me focus on different parts of my face. Leaving the bathroom, I walked straight ahead to the dining table and kitchen - that entire walk felt like it took half a second. One moment I was in the bathroom, the next moment footsteps, blink, I'm standing at the table telling Steve I don't know how we're going to manage this walk outside.
I suggested to Steve that we hang out inside for a while longer, until the trip is a little more manageable. So, we went back to the couch. I suggested we watch Moving Art on Netflix, which Steve was hesitant about. I distinctly remember him saying it was too slow - he quickly changed his mind about that once it started. It is very slow, yet beautiful, if you're watching it whilst sober, but watching it on three grams of mushrooms is an entirely different story. It was immediately capturing; there was no way not to get sucked in. Each shot of nature felt like it was telling some complex story, every texture and pattern jumped out at you. In some long panning shots of a mountain covered with amazingly green trees I was thinking to myself that this was everything, this is what life was, I'm nature, God is nature, we're all apart of it. What seemed so profound then sounds a little loopy now, but I still believe that sentiment. At some point during this episode, the camera moved underwater to capture some of the wildlife on film and I think that's where I really began to lose it. At first I was laughing at all of the different sea creatures. Everything just seemed so nonsensical, I honestly could not believe some of the things I was seeing. At one point, the camera moves with a fish eye lens into a school of fish, who all look like they're staring right at me and watching me trip. I couldn't help but to burst out laughing at that point. Then the episode cut to some, I want to say Maori, men who were spinning sticks that were on fire, performing some kind of ritual. In my head I couldn't help but to try to analyze it with my basic understanding of mythology from Joseph Campbell's books. The dance felt ritualistic, mythological, as if these men were presenting their boons of power from the sun god. Showing us how they have deep control over something as strong as fire, as strong as the sun - yet, at the same time, respecting that power, appreciating that gift. There are some scenes of men boating, fighting the waves and strong winds - I think to myself that I'm watching the history of mankind.
We stopped after I started getting worried the episode was never going to end. We eventually went on that walk and it was incredibly beautiful. Perspectives and dimensionality were so strange yet seemed to make sense. It felt like walking around in some VR environment. It was so quiet and peaceful, the air felt nice, perspectives warped but never felt like too much. We walked around for a while, but not too far because I was worried we would run into someone. I now wish we had stayed outside a little longer, because shortly after going back in is when things got out of hand and I experienced my first bad trip.
We got back inside and I suggested we relax and watch a movie. The body high was definitely intense at this point, and I was wanting to distract myself from it by watching something. We sat down and Steve turned on Guardians of the Galaxy 2. The opening scene was incredibly beautiful, filled with love and beautiful colors, an aged down Kurt Russell - it felt overwhelmingly happy. Then, it moved into the opening credit scene. Little Groot is dancing around while the other characters are fighting some giant monster. It was just an overload of visuals, sounds, feelings, etc. and I started to panic.
I sat up, asked Steve to turn the movie off. He laughed it off a little bit, but couldn't find the remote. This made me panic a little, but he eventually shut it off. I told him it was way too much, and he laughed again. I now realize that Steve and I did not have the same experience while tripping; I'm very inexperienced with three low dose trips under my belt, Steve has been tripping for at least 30 years. He was completely calm the entire night, had complete control, and thank God for that, because I was losing it. I laid down on the ground - stomach cramps, nausea, weird shifts from lucidity to complete dissolution of time and spatial grounding. Steve did what he thought was best: he turned on some projector lights and some intense trippy music. He thought that would be good, but for me, it was terrifying. I had to sit up and quickly put a stop to that too. I feel bad now for having Steve run around and cater to my weird, shifting impulses. I grab my phone, somehow get it to call my girlfriend, but at this point she is dead asleep and I know nothing is waking her up. Hearing her voice in the voicemail message is comforting enough for the moment, but I call her at least 4 more times to not avail. I go to the next best thing: photos of her in my phone. I scroll through each, and for a moment they are incredibly comforting. I could feel nothing but intense love for her and adoration. I thought she was so beautiful, so full of life, so happy. She's always there for me, always reliable. I wished now that I had kept looking at those pictures, but my shifting impulses made me try calling her again and made me spiral when I couldn't reach her.
Then, I called my mom, which looking back on it now, was a big mistake. All it did was make her worry, and she had no idea how to comfort someone who is in the middle of a bad trip. I kind of had to talk her through comforting me - I told her to tell me it's ok, tell her she loves me, tell me it's going to end soon. When I calmed down a little, I told her I would call her back at 3am, an hour from hanging up the phone call. Within that hour, Steve lied on the ground with me and held my hand, which helped a ton. There were some times when he would bring up my anxiety and going too deep which would just make me more anxious, and I had to keep diverting to just talking about that moment.
At this point we were lying on the ground, and I listened to him talk while he pet his cat Ari. I was eating a slice of bread slowly and drinking water. Every time I was feeling good and calm, a stomach cramp or some nausea would roll in and put me back in a bad place. At this point, it was the shifting headspaces and nausea that were throwing me around and making me feel bad. I couldn't let go and enjoy myself because of it. Eventually, we did get up to use the bathroom again. Walking around a little definitely helped, and I was beginning to ease into the come down. It was a subtle difference, and I certainly shifted back into the paranoia and nausea a lot, but after calling my mom again, I was ok and Steve and I went back to the couch. We turned on The Santa Clause, which made me feel incredibly happy. It helped me through my comedown, until I was in a much better, much stable headspace. We only watched it for about 30 minutes, after which, I went to the bathroom. When I came back, Steve and I talked a lot. We talked about tripping, work, past relationships, anything that came up. I reached some deeper understandings of a past relationship and to realizations about how and why it didn't work out.
Then we revisited Guardians of the Galaxy 2 - it was a much more enjoyable experience. I fell asleep midway through, and today I'm coming to terms with exactly what went wrong with that trip.
I believe there were a lot of factors that contributed to the "bad" trip. It seemed horrifying at the time, but now I realize it was something I needed. I think the biggest factor was I had been up since 6 am, and ate the mushrooms at 9pm - forcing my body to stay awake like that was a bad decision. Tripping at night, away from the comforts of my home and my girlfriend was another bad choice. Other than the problems with my setting, I just was not ready to let go of my control over the situation. I was constantly fighting the trip to get a grasp on something when I wish I had just surrendered to the trip .
TL;DR: Guardians of the Galaxy 2's opening credits freaked me out, and I spent two hours spiraling while lying on the ground eating a slice of bread.

Book 1 of The HEL Jumper
Year 2 of The HEL Jumper
Year 3 of The HEL Jumper
Year 4 of The HEL Jumper
Year 5 of The HEL Jumper
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Thanks to Darth_Android, Fern_Vale, Mamish, Vikairious, Gruecifer, Benjamin Durbin, Daddy_Talon, and everyone else supporting me on Patreon.
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A/N: Thank you all for your patience.
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“Well, that was certainly something,” Antoth remarked to himself as he looked over the sum of his people, who were obviously not ready to retire for the evening. Thanks to plentiful computational power aboard the ship, Io had not run into any snags synthesizing Cauthan language voice overs for The Princess Bride. Thantis had even gotten himself a cameo, his voice used for the role of the grandfather and narrator. Unfortunately for those interested in a quick dispersal, Io had forgotten to include any sort of disclaimer regarding the fictional nature of the tale, inducing a riot of discussion among the villagers. Ratha turned her nose up and wore a sour expression as even her hunters found themselves debating the best way to bring down an aggressive rodent of unusual size. The AI had a self-satisfied smile on her face as she approached the village leaders for feedback.
‘I’d say the movie was a hit. Did you like it?’ she wondered. Antoth spent some time gathering his thoughts, but Ratha shot from the hip as usual.
“This happily ever after business is nonsense. There were at least seven different opportunities where the pompous one could have permanently disposed of his rival. I suppose that idiocy is why he wound up where he did in the end though,” she said of the ignominious Prince Humperdinck. Antoth and Io shared a glance for the briefest of moments. The blonde haired woman smiled warmly.
‘I see the tale was quite captivating then.’
“It was. But there are other matters to attend to, as I may have mentioned earlier,” Antoth reminded her, looking up at the twin moons which shone brightly overhead. A leaden weight settled into his stomach as he contemplated a night sky without them. The Cauthan leader took a fortifying breath. “We are prepared to negotiate our departure from Mara. Please inform Natori at your earliest convenience. He has been mentioning more frequently that he feels the pressure of time.”
‘Oh I would not worry so much about that if I were you,’ Io told them with a wink, her green eyes reflecting a couple of the small fires scattered about the central plaza. ‘Certain circumstances have arisen that may lengthen our stay here, but that is no reason to delay talks. I have already notified the Admiral of your request. I assume you’d prefer for him to meet with you here?’
“I think that would be for the best,” Antoth agreed as Ratha remained alert but silent at his side. “There are notable items that Staroth and Nerazek wish to discuss. We must understand his vision on how we will be… acclimated to human society.”
Io nodded seriously and bowed to the two of them, doing her best to contain her excitement. ‘I understand. The-’
Antoth tilted his head questioningly as Io’s train of thought was derailed. “Spirit?”
She recovered quickly, however, and smiled at him. ‘There’s nothing to worry about. That was just Natori confirming that he would be happy to join you all first thing tomorrow morning, if it suits you.’
“The cub enjoys kicking me to the outhouse first thing in the morning,” Ratha grumbled. Io was happy to be deferential with someone else’s timetable.
‘Late morning it is! Should give everyone time to wake up and have breakfast at a minimum. I’ll just let the Admiral know that… hmm, that’s odd,’ Io said to herself, having suddenly lost connection to Natori’s personal device. While Ratha could have cared less, stalking over to her guildmates to oversee their conversation, the AI clarified for the sake of Antoth’s perpetually concerned visage. ‘It seems that the Admiral has entered an important and private meeting. I will be sure to confirm the time with him afterward.’
“That would be best, thank you,” the Cauthan replied before casting his gaze over his charges. “Looks like it’s going to be a long night. I hope not all of your… motion pictures are so captivating.”
Io chuckled as she crossed her arms under her bust, taking Antoth’s words as a compliment. ‘Oh just wait until they discover video games.’
-----
“That is wonderful news, Admiral Kaczynski. When will the negotiations begin? I’ll need time to prepare my-”
“If I may be so rude, Emissary, I would ask you to kindly hold your proverbial horses,” the dark-skinned man requested of the horned alien, who had stood abruptly in his haste. Kaczynski gestured for Qul’Roth to take his seat once more, his expression passively polite. Even with the alien sitting on the floor, the two were approximately eye level.
“There are some among your species who would consider such jokes offensive, Admiral,” Qul’Roth noted. Kaczynski smiled.
“I think it’s clear that beyond the hooves you bear little resemblance to Earth’s equine species, but if you took offense I assure you none was intended.”
“Oh no, perish the thought,” Qul’Roth replied, more agitated at having been made to wait instead of any wordplay. “If anything, the hand wringing itself is more grating. We don’t look anything like horses.”
“It is an ancient tradition for humans to take offense on behalf of others and make problems where there are none,” Kaczynski explained humorously as he folded his hands together on the surface of the conference table. “But I do intend to risk your offense by stating in no uncertain terms that this negotiation will take place between myself, as a representative of humanity, and the Cauthan. The Ghaelen will not be a party to the proceedings. Though if there is anything you wish to mention now, I will be sure to take it into account.”
The more honest members of Alpha Division were happy to admit, in private, that one of the joys of intergalactic diplomacy was trying to watch a Ghaelen adapt to an unforeseen situation. Natori shared that particular view, and his voyage to retrieve the Lancer had provided no shortage of opportunities. He did feel a twinge of guilt as Qul’Roth composed himself. It was the older, most self-assured advocates of the Order who were truly entertaining when ‘out of water’. “I request an explanation, Admiral Kaczynski. We are discussing the induction of another species into the galactic community.”
“With all due respect, Emissary, we will have to disagree on that point,” Natori said, using an index finger to adjust his glasses. “These proceedings are a direct continuation of the treaty of mutual assistance and protection that was signed weeks ago between my people and the Cauthan.”
“That may be so, Admiral, but I don’t see how that contradicts my assertion, unless you intend to permanently quarantine them somewhere,” Qul’Roth insisted. Natori’s nostrils flared as he took in a strong breath.
“We have already discussed the Udanis IV pacification on this trip, Emissary. What say you about the manner in which the Gorgons were… ‘inducted’ into the galactic community?”
“Admiral Kaczynski, I understand that the Udanis incident was both an unfortunate and formative deployment in your career. You have my condolences, but I fail to see what it has to do with the situation at hand,” Qul’Roth replied politely. Natori shook his head.
“That is kind of you, but unnecessary. I would not be the man I am today were it not for witnessing our war with the Gorgons firsthand. Are you aware that we are opening an embassy on their planet?”
Natori again found himself savoring the sight of flat-footed Ghaelen. Qul’Roth checked the data disc that hung from his neck, eyes narrowing in disappointment as he discovered the corresponding information. “Why was I not informed of-”
“This information is… was classified up until a week or so ago. It’s unfortunate that we missed the official announcement. There are a few individuals whom I would have very much wanted to observe in their ‘live reaction’, so to speak. But duty called, as it were! Your High Council is no doubt aware of this development already.”
The Admiral stroked his chin thoughtfully as Qul’Roth seemed troubled by the news. The alien rubbed his antlers for a moment before adjusting his position on the floor of the conference room. “How can this be? Those primitives- er, Gorgons were irredeemably violent! Our diplomatic attempts were met with silence or outright hostility!”
“As were many of ours, and after brutal subjugation I might add,” Kaczynski replied, not wanting to rib the alien unnecessarily. “However, that did not stop us. A pair of incredibly brave individuals from both of our species sowed the seeds of this diplomatic fruit over a decade ago. I don’t blame your species for cutting your losses early on, but too many young men and women died on that moon, Emissary.”
“Yes well,” Qul’Roth began with uncertainty. “While we are most grateful for humanity’s sacrifices in resolving that dreadful conflict, I fail to see its relevance to the Cauthan question.”
“Are you familiar with the White Man’s Burden, Emissary?” Kaczynski asked instead, leaning forward over the table as he did so. The Ghaelen remained mute as he processed the non-sequitur. After consulting his data disc and skimming over a handful of notes he shook his head.
“My education on your species and its particularities doesn’t seem to have touched on this concept, Admiral. I assume it is-”
“I have my reasons, I assure you,” Natori cut in, assuming a less overbearing posture as he leaned back in his chair, crossed one leg over the other, and made slow, circular motions with his hand to help gather his thoughts. “Human history is, sadly, often defined by race and racism. It is an unfortunate but natural tendency of our minds’ desire to sort and categorize. For instance, there was an entire body of anthropological science dedicated to proving out the hypothesis that humans who look like me or my mother are biologically inferior to fairer skinned peoples, or even a different species altogether. I actually have a few of those manuscripts and documents in my possession back on Earth. Fascinating stuff, now that it’s been put behind us.”
“I…” Qul’Roth began, but Natori waved him off before pouring each of them a glass of water.
“This was not intended to make you feel uncomfortable, Emissary. It goes both ways as well, to be fair. My father was not initially accepted by certain portions of my mother’s community, and not all of them came around even after many years. That being said, these individuals were similar to the classmates I had to divest of the notion that they were related to Egyptian Pharaohs on account of their dark skin. You cannot imagine the looks on their faces when I told them they were more likely related to Ghengis Khan than Tutankhaman! I was… not very popular with them after that. But let us talk instead of the White Man and his Burden, as they called it. It was a convenient line of argumentation, a jump from the observation that European society had exceeded and surpassed many others on the planet to equating that success with the race of that civilization’s inhabitants. Once convinced of their own superiority, it was a foregone conclusion that it was incumbent upon them to spread their gifts to the lesser, darker races of the planet.”
“How barbaric!” Qul’Roth exclaimed. “And you said this line of thinking is only a couple hundred years old?”
“Rudyard Kipling, 1899,” Natori dictated, clearly having memorized the factoid. “And while I agree that it is a barbaric way of thinking, would the Philippines have been a founding member of the HEL without its history as an American colony? I wonder.”
“But surely you don’t mean to excuse-”
“No more than your species excuses its own atrocities in the name of progress, Emissary Qul’Roth,” Natori said calmly, his eyes narrowing. “I told you I had a point in all of this messy history.”
Gears turned behind Qul’Roth’s black eyes as he understood Kaczynski’s equation of his own species to imperialistic Europeans and Americans. “Admiral, you are out of line.”
“Oh? And you intend to put me back in my place?” he laughed. “Tell me, Emissary. What was it about humanity that caused your species to negotiate with us as you did? Were we special in some way, or just the first species you found capable of effectively shooting back?”
“That was before I was born, Admiral,” Qul’Roth replied carefully, his tone cold. Natori smiled.
“Indeed. First and foremost, Emissary, I am a human. Second, I am a scientist. In that spirit, please understand that what I am doing is not out of hatred for you, your people, or your Order. I intend an experiment, a trial, if you will, for the noble savage,” the man explained in broad terms. “Because I disagree with how our alliance has treated species it deems unfit for modern society.”
“Then what is it, exactly, that you intend to do?” the Ghaelen demanded reasonably. Again, Natori met him with a grin.
“I am not sure yet, Emissary. But I can tell you what I intend not to do. I will not impose upon them tenants of your Order as a condition for safe passage to Earth. They will be expected to not endanger themselves, my crew, or this ship, but otherwise I intend to allow them to live as freely as they would like. They will be offered education, job training, and employment, but it will not be mandated. Given the size of their population and the aforementioned issues with their remaining on Mara, I’m sure this will not be too great of an imposition on you?”
“What is that saying among your people, Admiral? It’s the principle of the matter?” the alien suggested. “Your executive decision to exclude my people outright from this matter is inappropriate at best.”
Natori raised his water glass slowly to his lips, taking only enough to wet his throat. The glass made the lightest of noises upon its return to the table before the Admiral presented his perspective on the matter. “Emissary, if I were excluding your people and their interests from this matter then I would be making arrangements for the villagers to remain here along with a portion of my crew, in the interests of establishing a human science colony on this planet. I have already seen and experienced enough in our brief time here to suggest that, were it not for the restraints imposed upon both of our species by what I consider to be generally prudent first contact protocols, this course of action is the only suitable one. Out of deference to our alliance, however, and consideration for the other Cauthan populations on the planet, I am willing to leave that decision up the HEL and your High Council. I will not, however, compromise the treatment of the village that gave aid and succor to our lone survivor, despite having barely anything beyond what they need to survive themselves. It is the duty of humanity to reward that kindness.”
The two men were interrupted by a knock on the metal door to the well ‘fortified’ meeting room. Thanks to the various surveillance countermeasures in place, Natori was required to stand and walk over to the door. Once there, he used the lock panel to verify the identity of their guest. “Thank you for taking time away from your charges to deliver this,” he said to Antia, accepting a bowl of greens and a coffee from her. “I will be sure to note that delivering me a coffee is above and beyond your job description.”
It was difficult to miss the fact that Kaczynski was meeting alone with Qul’Roth, verified by Anita simply leaning to the side and observing the contents of the meeting room. “Um… it’s no problem, sir. Is something-”
“All will be revealed when appropriate, Engineer Prakash. Don’t ask how the sausage is made, as they say, hmm?” he advised, sending her politely on her way before returning to his discussion with the Ghaelen emissary. “A little something for each of us?”
“I would have expected you to bribe me before explaining your plans for unilateral action on the Cauthan issue, Admiral,” Qul’Roth stated curiously, though that did not stop him from sampling the fare before him. Natori just turned a smile and leaned back in his seat.
“That’s because it’s not a bribe, Emissary. It is, however, late in the evening and I did not want to rush you out the door,” the man explained. The alien chewed thoughtfully for a moment before replying.
“I would like to think that I’ve learned better than to contest you directly when you set yourself on a course of action, Admiral Kaczynski, though you should have no doubt that my superiors will hear of this unilateral decision making of yours. This is not what our species agreed upon at the outset of this project. That being said, I have rarely heard you speak with such conviction as now. So let us set aside this Cauthan question in favor of your comments about Mara and a human colonial presence here. What makes you so certain, Admiral?”
“Was the ancient, advanced, alien technologies tampering with the warp point and altering space-time itself not enough?” the man replied incredulously. The Ghaelen held up a hand as he chewed thoughtfully, only speaking once finished.
“My understanding of the situation is that installations were found all over this system, including one on one of the moons of this planet. Surely those could be studied instead?” he proposed. Natori allowed the point.
“While scientific exploration on a habitable world is easier, I concede your point with regards to minimizing our impact on the planet and its inhabitants. That being said, Emissary, such an approach would paint an incomplete picture. The alien system, presumably active for millions of years, ended its operations and engaged in a controlled self-destruct sequence in response to a Cauthan. We believe the keyword was their god of death, Kel. If that was an accident, it was a one in a billion event.”
Qul’Roth straightened his back as he stroked the long tuft of hair that grew from his chin. His antlers almost scraped the ceiling of the human-sized room. “I must have missed that tidbit of information, Admiral.”
“That’s because it’s not publicly available, Emissary, and the soldiers there at the time have been made to understand that this subject is highly classified, at least for the time being. I hope you understand the implications of my sharing this with you here and now,” Natori elaborated before opening the leather-bound folder he often carried with him. A single piece of paper was slid across the table for Qul’Roth’s perusal. He took it between his fingers and read the title.
“This is… from the team that was ambushed by the ursae, yes? Dreadful affair that was. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt such visceral terror before!”
“Exactly,” Natori said, providing some context as Qul’Roth read the small, official, typeset text. “The plate tectonics of this continent are similar to those found on Earth near the Himalayas. This makes the central ranges, especially the older one to the east, of particular interest in examining the geological record of this planet.”
“Indeed,” the Ghaelen nodded, checking for himself to ensure he understood the proper meaning of the scientific term. “And what exactly was this team looking for in… this can’t be right.”
“Oh? And why not?” Natori wondered with childlike glee. “We’ve already found a nuclear powered endoskeleton and a formerly functioning robot. Why not nuclear war?”
“But there is no… I see,” the Ghaelen suddenly realized, raising his head from the paper and leaning forward. “You would stay behind and search for these clues. Have you found any corroborating readings at other sites? Ruled out natural causes such as volcanism or meteorite impact?”
“My dear Emissary, now you are beginning to sound like a crew member of the Event Horizon!” Natori complimented the alien, who responded with an indignant noise from within the hollow cavities of his skull. “We are still waiting for analysis of the samples gathered by other teams, and I ask you to keep in mind that the initial wave of geological sampling was intended to probe several locations as well as several eras in this planet’s geological history. With this sort of reading confirmed, we will be able to narrow our future searches.”
“Mmm, yes. I understand. I was not trained as a geologist though,” Qul’Roth explained before handing the paper back to the Admiral. “This report is quite confident in its conclusions.”
“Cobalt, Barium, Americium… you don’t see those elements in those isotopes following meteorite impact or volcanic eruption, Emissary. I have requested that Io forward the relevant literature to your device for review in your spare time. We will do our best to confirm this result before our departure.”
“Yes, yes indeed. If this is the case that village is most certainly an afterthought. Perhaps even the entire population? No matter, I will not be able to resolve this issue today,” Qul’Roth concluded after a moment of mumbling. “I do not know whether to call this serendipity or the worst of luck, Admiral. For the sake of the Order, I urge you to devote all available resources to answering this question.”
“You need not invoke the Order in this case, Emissary. I assure you that we will do all within our power,” Natori promised earnestly. The man paused for a moment, tilting his head towards the ceiling with his mouth slightly open, as though a thought were on the cusp of crystallization.
“Is there something the matter, Admiral Kaczynski?” Qul’Roth asked formally. The man returned to a relaxed posture and shook his head.
“No, thank you Emissary. I was just wondering if you might check your own species’ records for data on this system. It could be anything from anomalous light readings to scout ships gone missing, as with the Lancer. I hope we can both agree that while the possibility of a nuclear war on this planet is distressing and headline catching, the true question is who was able to seal the system off from the rest of the galaxy, and why did they do it? No matter what our subsequent geological surveys return, that question will remain outstanding.”
Qul’Roth looked down at his shimmering data disc as he chewed a green leaf between his molars. “We have deviated significantly from the original topic of conversation, Admiral. But I think this has been productive nonetheless. In the spirit of cooperation and discovery, valued as they are by the Order, I will immediately consult the records I have access to. I do not want to over promise, however. Even with this ship’s significant data storage capabilities, a preponderance of our species’ records relating to galactic exploration remain on Ghaela. Your people follow the same principle, no?”
“To an extent,” Natori agreed. “Though in our defense I would describe it more as information filtering. The vast majority of scouting data is released to the public promptly, though I know as well as anyone that some remains classified. That will likely be the case with much of what we have seen here, reminding me that I have a most difficult situation to attend to before we reach Earth once more. I am discussing paperwork, Emissary.”
“Oh, thank goodness. I was worried there would be yet another unexpected twist to this already stressful dialog,” the Ghaelen almost laughed with relief. “I presume you’re speaking of the need to bind members of your civilian crew to non-disclosure agreements?”
“And the Cauthan,” Natori agreed with a chuckle of his own. Qul’Roth cleared his throat and pushed off his hind legs to assume an upright, if hunched position.
“As you requested, I will leave those details to you, Admiral Kaczynski. I will instead return this bowl to the good engineer in hydroponics so as to deliver my thanks in person. I am sure we will speak again shortly. May our actions serve to uphold the Order.”
“And a good evening to you as well,” Natori allowed the alien to depart the conference room, effectively terminating the various countermeasures in effect. Left alone, he placed his feet on the table, propped his elbow on the arm of his chair, and rested his chin against his knuckles. “I suppose I did deserve that little jab about the Cauthan situation. He’s become wittier over the last year or so.”
The Admiral glanced out of the corner of his eye as a familiar form shimmered to life and looked around the space before finally focusing on him. ‘Ah, there you are. I’ve been looking all over for you. With an expression like that you seem to be missing a stiff drink at your side, Natori.’
“I think we both know you could have taken down the countermeasures if you had really wanted to, Io,” the man responded. She crossed her arms.
‘I have lived my entire true life in a village where privacy is basically non-existent. I know the meaning of a do not disturb sign when I see one. But you give your engineers too little credit, Natori. Even I am not exactly sure what would have happened if I had tried to brute force my way in here. Well, I know what’s supposed to happen, but not if I were to defend myself. Given you were not in any appreciable danger I chose not to. Who were you conversing with so secretly?’ she wondered, pulling up a gilded table, seating herself in a plush, Victorian armchair, and pouring herself a glass of blood red wine. ‘The Princess Bride was a smash hit, by the way.’
“Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father… prepare to die,” Natori quoted with admirable gusto but a less than perfect accent. “He was always my favorite, the man dead set on revenge who manages to achieve it without letting it consume and warp him. Do you have a moment?”
Io looked down at her comfortable setup, having even donned a pair of outrageously fluffy slippers that looked like stuffed hyrven. ‘My alternative engagement for the evening is watching a shirtless hunk of a man snuggle with his naked and now quite rotund wife. And while I never tire of watching true love play out between them, it has gotten decidedly less intense since Veera came down with a case of babies. The rubbing of fluffy tummies and gentle, unobtrusive, lovemaking just doesn’t get my circuits overheated the same way as when they were fumbling around and biting each other like horny teenagers.’
Natori’s head quickly returned to his hand, downing the last of his coffee and finding it lukewarm. “Is there anyone in particular I should blame for your voyeuristic subroutines?”
‘The aforementioned lack of privacy and a dead engineer with a penchant for maids,’ Io explained before turning the conversation on a dime while crossing her legs above the knee. ‘Was it the Emissary you were speaking to here?’
“It was indeed, and I may have dug myself into a bit of a hole out of pride,” Natori admitted, looking away from her for a moment.
‘Shall I bring my body over from the hangars? This sounds like it might be a long conversation,’ the AI deduced. The Admiral nodded, turning his chair to face her fully and returning his feet to the floor.
“An updated copy of the ship’s status report and another cup of coffee would be much appreciated as well,” he added. Io conjured a stack of paper and ‘flicked’ it at him, its arrival heralded by a small ping from his device.
‘The coffee will take a little longer,’ she explained the obvious, content to watch quietly as Natori’s eyes skimmed line after line of ‘all clear’ and the occasional ‘within acceptable parameters’.
“I won’t hold it against you,” he promised before setting aside the piece of technology and looking directly at her. “And it would seem that I still have some time to speak.”
‘Yes, you mentioned a hole you’ve been digging?’ Io probed pointedly, receiving an abridged version of the conversation the Admiral had undertaken with Qul’Roth. ‘I see. Well, I can hardly fault you for wanting the Ghaelen out of the picture, not that I think any of the villagers will find the Order particularly compelling. I do feel the need to point out that race was, in all likelihood, a convenient excuse for the equally basic human penchant for territorial expansion and empire.’
“Perhaps,” Natori agreed, pushing his chin up and to the side with a hand in an attempt to crack his neck after sitting still for too long. “Not that that sort of historical nuance would well persuade those for whom race still matters today. Some make it difficult to forget.”
‘And I’m sure Qul’Roth absolutely appreciated the completely accurate comparison,’ Io guessed with a smug expression. ‘So that’s what you wanted me to help you with? Come up with a plan to elevate the Cauthan technologically without enlightening them morally? Do you have any idea how irresponsible that sounds, Natori? I’m sure the Aztecs would have made incredible discoveries in the field of astronomy alongside industrializing the institution of human sacrifice if you suddenly pulled them forward two thousand years.’
Natori blinked twice, opening his mouth to reply only to find that Io had vanished. “Scolded by an AI, on matters of morality no less?”
‘And I’m sure you’re positively giddy about it,’ came Io’s true voice as she entered the room in the biomechanical flesh, depositing another steaming cup of coffee in front of the man.
“Quivering in my seat,” he chuckled, bringing the coffee to his lips and inhaling deeply before taking a sip that almost burned his tongue. “And you’ve taken to wearing perfume, it would seem?”
‘Oh shut it, you,’ Io glared at him as she settled into a seat. ‘I was surrounded by cooking fires all night.’
“Well I find the combination to be mildly intoxicating, as though your beauty were not enough. You don’t get much wood smoke on a starship. But we have bigger fish to fry, do we not?” he pointed out, assuming a more neutral sitting position and sterner expression. Io nodded curtly.
‘Flatterer; but you should start, Natori. Was I mistaken in my diagnosis, or is that really what you were planning?’ the AI wondered, her tone more curious than accusatory.
The Admiral shrugged. “I’m not sure I would go that far, but I did insist that we humans would handle the issue of Cauthan uplift, nor was I particularly subtle about it. I believe I implied that it was necessitated, in part, as reciprocation for taking care of you and the First Lieutenant. Am I mistaken in my opinion of them?”
Io’s expression softened as she prepared to show him a short video using her built-in palm projector. ‘No Natori, I don’t think you are. But I think you are focusing too heavily on the ones you know personally, Antoth and Ratha, Nerazek and Gentia and Thantis. Your opinion of the Cauthan is based primarily on those among them whose passions are tempered by the burden of leadership. You spoke of race and racism with the Emissary? The Cauthan are just as capable of racism as man. Watch.’
Natori did just that, leaning over the table and observing almost unblinkingly a recording that Io had saved from their very first day within the walls of the village, the day when a starved, outcast Veera was slated to be tortured for the crime of ‘aiding and abetting’ a servant of Kel. With the benefit of time and hindsight, it was easy for Io to translate a good deal of the ambient chatter from the audio. Natori placed a hand over his face, covering his left eye and half of his forehead. “I see,” he mumbled sourly. “So I was blind, then?”
Instead of answering directly, Io reached across the quarter of the table that they sat at to take his unoccupied hand in hers. She gave him a gentle squeeze before retreating. ‘Udanis was hard on you, wasn’t it?’
“No harder than it was on the soldiers who fought and died in that hellscape, nor the Gorgons who saw their world unjustly invaded in the name of peace,” the Admiral insisted. Io scoffed.
‘Foolish human, that wasn’t what I asked,’ she pointed out, throwing him a quick smirk as he perked up at her choice to refer to him by his species. ‘You did what President Truman did, Natori. You and the rest of Delta aboard the Resplendent Dawn’s fleet took the fight directly to the leaders of each faction as best you could. You killed many, and likely saved more than that number. At least that’s what the after-action projections show. Do you really believe Admiral Friedrich would have ordered a genocide of the Gorgons had the Ghaelen ordered it?’
Natori looked at Io with wide eyes before breaking into a tired laugh, full of complicated memories. “That stubborn old German? He would have destroyed all communication buoys in the system and then ordered all guns turned on the Ghaelen. And when word eventually reached the Ghaelen homeworld… he probably would have led our strike force.”
‘And there is your answer, Natori,’ Io assured him. ‘Do not think the Cauthan unimpeachable because of their idyllic, pristine existence. Have more faith in your species.’
Kaczynski leaned back in his chair and shook his head slowly, unable to believe what he was hearing. “How the hell can you be so sure, Io?”
‘You mean other than behavior modeling and more than a year of hands-on experience with the Cauthan? I used to be a tool, Natori. The Order would approve, no doubt. Now I am free, which should strike terror into the tiny part of your lizard brain that still values threat avoidance… but I was guided by a good man, and a good woman. The Cauthan need that now, just as the Gorgons did. Civilization, morality, and technology go hand in hand. I honestly don’t quite understand how humanity managed the technological jump without immediately killing one another en masse, but here we are!’
“It certainly wasn’t due to a moral uplifting from the Ghaelen,” Natori replied, feeling the weight of a population settling on his shoulders. His brow furrowed. “But I am in no place to be what you think I should be.”
‘And maybe I would agree if I accessed Dr. Lamont’s notes on you, but that’s neither here nor there,’ Io insisted. ‘Natori, you have two of Marshall and Sandra Winters' children on this ship. You have the good Doctors Dupuis, Anita, Darius, Lance Corporal Mendes, and so many others, many of whom you hand selected for this mission. You need only impress upon them the weight of the historical moment that seems to be upon us; or the negotiations could go south tomorrow and we can leave without them!’
The Admiral’s head bobbed lightly as he held in another chuckle. He looked at Io with sincerity, returning at last to his coffee. “Then I believe we should discuss any and everything you think will be brought up tomorrow morning. I’ve had a long and winding career, but I refuse to fail at a boast made to a Ghaelen. It is long past time that humanity has its chance to demonstrate proper uplift protocols.”
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Part 54
Gary Johnson, Sleepy and Therefore Grumpy. And Armed. Always Armed.
It was Radar's whining that woke him up this time. He'd been having trouble sleeping for the past few nights, ever since his two proteges went off in search of blood, leaving behind a maimed god and a metric shit-ton of panic.
He gently lifted Chris' arm from his waist and slid out of the bed, padding on bare feet over to where his daughter, Natalie, slept. Assuring himself that she was fine, he pulled on a pair of sweat pants and stepped into his boots, not bothering to lace them up. Then he walked outside, Radar sticking close to him, still whining.
Once the door of his extra-dimensional 'tent' had closed behind him, Gary knelt down to embrace the whining mass of tentacles, bathed in black smoke. He found the body at the center, wrapping his arms around the thick rib cage and letting Radar's many tongues seek out flesh to lick.
"What's wrong, boy?" he asked. Radar continued to whine and lick him frantically. Gary recognized it as self-soothing behavior. Something was upsetting his chthonic, tentacled hound.
"Radar," he said sharply, getting the beast's attention. "What is it?" he asked. Radar was a smart creature, smarter than a dog, in any case. Gary honestly believe that he understood most of what was said to him, if not all of it.
Radar reluctantly pulled out of Gary's embrace and bounded away, stopping after a few feet to turn about a dozen eyestalks back to focus on Gary. Gary followed.
Radar led him to Sookie's tent. Gary knocked, gently at first, hoping everything was all right. Radar whined some more, sending forth a couple of tentacles that ended in dog-like noses to sniff at the door.
It opened after a second to reveal Ningur, who gawked at him and Radar. "Hi, uh, come in, Sookie's not doing well..."
Gary heard another voice from behind her, pleading, "Please open the door, Sookie!" He stepped in. "What's happening?"
Ningur shrugged, her wings flexing slightly and her tail flicking around like that of an agitated cat. "I don't know. We were doing gay shit and then Sookie got upset and locked herself in the shower and Mot's trying to get her out but Sookie won't open the door and Mot's afraid to break the glass because she thinks it might hurt Sookie."
Gary listened. "Gay shit?" he asked. Ningur nodded. "That's what Sookie called it. We were licking each other's-" Gary cut her off with a raised hand. "Got it."
He stepped around Ningur and took in the scene. Sookie, like many others, had made changes to her 'tent', and the main room was now an L-shape. Posters, of the movies and television shows Sookie loved, as well as those she produced, including The Legend of Jimmy, bedecked the walls, hemming in display cases full of dildos that ranged from the mundane to the bizarre.
He stepped forward to see around the corner, and found Mot, nude and sitting with her back to a clear glass door that was currently fogged over, head in her hands and frustration evident in her posture.
"What happened?" Gary asked again. Mot looked up at him and he saw relief wash over her. She stood and stepped right up to him, speaking quietly.
"I'm so glad you're here. The three of us were, like, fooling around when Sookie just started crying and ran into the shower. I don't know what she's doing in there, but I'm afraid for her. I thought about breaking the door, but after losing my divinity while I was in a manifestation, I'm mortal, and I know she won't heal from wounds made by a mortal."
"Huh," Gary said. "I don't know if that'd work. You gotta be trying to hurt her in order to do any real damage. But I bet I know what she's doing in there."
Mot winced. "Shit-tits," she muttered. "This is why I'm glad you're here. Ningur's a sweet thing, but she's kinda useless in an emergency..."
"Ayup," Gary said, moving past her. He raised a fist and shattered the glass of the door with a hard rap. It collapsed into a mass of tiny pebbles, like safety glass, to reveal a cloud of steam that bellowed out into the room. He stepped over the pile of glass and his eyes focused on Sookie.
She was sitting against one wall with her knees up, under the water which had been turned all the way hot. Both hands were hidden behind her legs, buried in her crotch, and she was making a soft mewling sound. Gary could see the muscles in her forearms working. He stepped over and grabbed her by both arms, hoisting her up. As he did, he could see the claws buried deep in her flesh. He gave her a little shake, knocking them free, then tossed her over one shoulder and turned to carry her out.
"Turn the water off, will ya?" he asked Mot as he walked to the intersection of the two wings of the room, where Sookie's large, four-poster bed stood. He gently set her down on the edge of it, then took a seat next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
Sookie dropped a hand on her own leg and clawed furrows into it that began to heal immediately. Gary grabbed both of her small hands in one of his large mitts and held tight to them. "That's enough," he said. When she didn't respond, he took his arm off her shoulders and grabbed her chin, turning her face to his.
"Talk to me, babe'," he said.
Sookie blinked at him, then shook her head and began to sob. Gary let go of her chin, hugging her to him again. Mot approached and sat on her other side. Gary flashed her a look, then made a beckoning gesture with his head, so Mot put her own arm around Sookie and leaned into her.
"Whatever's wrong," Gary said. "You ain't got to handle it alone. All you gotta do is talk to us, you hear me?"
He let her cry for a bit longer as Mot simply hugged her and Ningur sat on the floor in front, her face twisted in confusion and sympathy. She cried for several minutes before her sobs began to relent.
"I miss her," she said after a while.
"Inanna?" Gary asked, and Sookie nodded.
"She used to come visit me," she said, sniffling and wiping at her cheeks. "Back when she first woke up. She'd tell me about Jerry and Sarisa, and I'd tell her about things that happened while she was asleep. She was the first one to... To speak to me, to be nice to me, after I left Nibiru. I had spent centuries there, thinking she'd hate me, but when I finally left... She was the only friend I had. I met Ishantee later, and we were never all that close until after she woke up, a few years ago. But Inanna was... She was my best friend."
"I know, darlin'," Gary said. "She was a beautiful lady, and I ain't just talking about looks."
"You probably think I'm a basketcase," Sookie said ruefully. Gary shook his head.
"Naw, girl."
He let her hands go and lifted her chin. "I know y'are," he added with a wink. Sookie snorted, coughed, and then laughed.
"Don't make fun of me," she complained.
Gary poked her gently in the ribs, making her squirm. "Sorry babe, that's one request I can't do."
Sookie giggled, then leaned her head against him. "Thank you, Gary."
"Ain't nothing. It were Radar what let me know something was off."
Radar, who'd been laying on the floor, watching them with all of his eyestalks, perked up at the mention of his name. Sookie held out her arms to him, and he bounded over to wrap tentacles around her legs and whine softly as she rubbed him.
"Thank you, Radar," she said.
She turned her head, "And thank you, too, Mot."
"I just can't handle all the emotional stuff," Mot said with feigned disinterest. "Gotta put an end to it."
Sookie poked her in turn, eliciting a girlish squeal. Gary glanced at Ningur, who still seemed a little confused (which he was beginning to suspect was par for the course with this one), but was smiling a small, uncertain smile.
"I'm sorry I ruined our fun," Sookie said to both of the other women. "It's fine," Mot said.
"Was it something I did?" Ningur asked.
"No, sweetie, not at all," Sookie told her. "It was that council, today. I sat in on it and it... It worried me."
"Council?" Gary asked. He hadn't been aware of any such thing. The war was progressing, and at a decent clip, under the established strategy. The human military was steadily encroaching on the primordial's territory, pushing back the zombies and spidercrabs, as they'd come to be known. They were even able to take out a primordial in a pinch, using the M1028 rounds and multiple tanks. Gary almost winced at the memory of watching it; four tanks firing what amounted to enormous shotgun shells at a mass of writhing tentacles fifty times the size of one of the tanks, and the ensuing mess that caused.
Things were getting harder, as predicted, and their progress was slowing as each primordial became more difficult to kill, but Jane was still predicting a victory in about two weeks, barring any unforeseen circumstances. Though she had warned that 'unforeseen circumstances' remained a possibility, as her domain did not give her insight into what the primordials themselves knew. What lay beyond the yawning abyss of ginungagap was a mystery.
So there'd been no need for any planning sessions, so far. They couldn't plan for what they couldn't know, and they didn't need to plan any more for what they did no.
Sookie nodded. "They were discussing Jerry."
"Shit," Gary swore. He knew something like this was bound to happen, eventually. After Tysrane had shown up, missing a hand and incapable of regrowing it, it was inevitable that the gods would get their panties in a wad.
"So what happened?" he asked.
Sookie sucked in a deep breath and massaged her thighs for a moment. "It was pretty bad. They met to discuss what happened to Tysrane, and what to do about Jerry.
"They're scared, Gary. All of them, even Yarm. And Jane... When they asked, she told them everything. That Jerry has the ability to kill a god, now. You know, death has never been a real worry to us. What happened to Ultris..." She stopped speaking for a moment to tamp down on the old wound, still ragged and bleeding, so many thousands of years later. After a moment, she went on.
"What happened to Ultris, it took four of them, with Astoram dipping into some dark, dark magic. There was a confluence as well... I don't know all of it, and even explaining what I do know would take hours, but it's not something that anyone, even Sarisa, thought could be done again. It was a fluke, a freak occurrence. Loki and Eloham were punished harshly. I think Loki's still serving his punishment. Anansi got off because he tried to stop it at the end, but Astoram... All the gods turned from him. I think, if there was a way to kill him, they'd have done it. It was a really big deal.
"And now, Jerry has woven an enchantment that will let him do it any time he wants. They're terrified."
Gary nodded. He had expected something like this. "I take it they're factionalizing?"
Sookie nodded back. "Yes. Yarm's the voice of one camp, saying that Jerry's the only one who could be trusted with this power, and we should let him get his revenge, and then just talk to him. Tysrane and a few others are arguing that we need to go find him and convince him to give it up. They're pointing out Sarisa's plan, saying that if we let him go through with this, Jerry might become that guy she's trying to make him into."
"Is that it?" Gary asked. Sookie's eyes darkened. "No," she whispered. She took a deep breath.
"The largest group... Including Vintress and Azzazu... They're arguing that he needs to be stopped right now, permanently. That he should be killed, so he can never make another godslayer."
"Sheeeit," Gary drawled slowly.
"Not fucking cool," Mot agreed.
"I don't know what to do, guys," Sookie said, her voice betraying her rising emotions.
"I do," Gary announced. All eyes turned to him.
"We're gonna go find him. We're gonna help him put Sarisa in the dirt, not for payback, but because she needs to be gone for good. She's too fuckin' dangerous. Then we're gonna come back here, win this fucking war, and square off with them assholes what want to kill my buddy, and tell them in no uncertain terms that if they come for him, they come for all of us. And if they do come for him anyways, well... I can't imagine he'd be stingy with the god killin' spells."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Mot said. Gary quirked an eyebrow at her.
"I'm not, like, the goddess of psychology or anything, and I realize I don't know him as well as you guys do, but I'm positive that he's carrying around a metric shit-ton of guilt, dude. If I had to guess, I'd say that he doesn't give a shit what happens to him after he kills Sarisa."
Gary winced. He wanted to tell Mot to shut her damn mouth, but he couldn't deny the truth in her words.
"Doesn't matter," he said after a moment's reflection. "Jerry's a damn fine listener, and with all of us reminding him that losing him would hurt us as much as losing Inanna did, he'll come to his senses."
"You sure?"
Gary nodded. He wasn't, actually. He couldn't be. But he had learned long ago that doubts are only useful when they help you refine your plans, and they can get you killed if you dwell on them too much. He had a course of action in front of him. It may not be the best possible one, but it was a good one. It was better to do something dumb decisively than to do nothing at all.
"I'm positive." He stood, Radar untangling himself from Sookie as he did. "I'm gonna go tell Chris, then get ready. I'll be back in ten, and then we're gonna go find Jerry."
"Leave the shirt off," Mot called as he left. He turned, a question in his eyes. "You just got really nice pecs, dude," Mot said with a little grin. Gary bounced his pecs, one after the other, making all three of the women laugh.
Good, he thought as he went back to his 'tent'. Good morale helps everything run smoother.
He found Chris awake, sitting up in the bed. Their eyes met, and Gary knew that Chris knew. Both were old soldiers, who knew what it meant to deploy. Chris stood and followed him back outside, so as not to wake Natalie.
"We're going after Jerry. There's a faction of the gods who want to kill him, now that he has the ability to kill them. We're gonna help him zero Sarisa and then confront that bunch. Yarm's speaking for a smaller group that'll stand with us, and Tysrane of all people, is in the middle."
"Motherfucker," Chris muttered. "Bunch of fucking drama queens, these gods."
"Yeah, well, I kinda get it. Ain't none of them ever had to worry about dying before. They don't really know what courage means."
Chris' lip curled in a sneer. Gary understood. For most warriors, a coward was the worst thing a person could be. Gary was a bit more forgiving, having seen the cowardice in himself that he had overcome, and having seen how courage can form and grow. Jerry himself proved that cowardice was not a permanent state. That kid had pissed his pants and cried like a baby, the first time they got into trouble, and now here he was, off to murder a goddess, virtually by himself.
Chris sighed deeply after a moment. "I'll take care of Nat," he said. "You take care of Jerry."
Gary nodded. "I'mma go say goodbye. We're leaving right away."
Chris came with him and they gently awakened their daughter. "What?" she asked in a drowsy voice when they got her sitting up.
"Poppy's got to go handle some things," Gary told her gently. "I don't know how long I'll be gone for, but I didn't want to leave without saying goodbye." She reached out her arms for his neck and he embraced her.
"I love you, Poppy," she said. "I love you too, Punkin," he said.
"Bring me a present when you come back," she muttered as she laid back down and closed her eyes. Both men smiled down at her and tried to stop their hearts from bursting.
She began to snore lightly again, so Chris walked Gary out. Once outside, Gary summoned his battle rattle from hammerspace, dismissing his current outfit of sweatpants and unlaced boots.
"You take care," Chris said as they hugged each other. Their lips came together for a long moment. When they pulled apart, he added. "Wreck shit."
Gary nodded. "I love you," he said.
"I love you, too," Chris said. They kissed again, and then it was done. Both of them knew these goodbyes. Neither wanted to draw it out, to make it too painful. Gary left to take care of one other task before he left.
Yarm answered on the first knock. "Gary," he said. "Come on in, I need to speak to you."
"Brekka in there?" Gary asked. Yarm nodded. "And the boys. With all that's happening, they didn't really want their space from us."
"I'd rather just the two of us chat," Gary said. "As much as I love your family, this is... Well, talking shop, you know?" Yarm nodded and stepped out, pulling the door shut behind him.
"I need to tell you about the council," Yarm began, but he stopped at the look on Gary's face.
"Sookie told me," Gary said.
"Did she tell you that most of the gods want to kill him?" Yarm asked. Gary nodded. "I'm leaving, to go help him. I trust Jerry, and I consider him a dear friend. I ain't leaving him to stand alone."
Yarm nodded, but he looked pained. "Gary, Jerry is getting very powerful. He has eleven wells, and, frankly, he's as smart as or smarter than Sarisa. And he's cunning as shit, on top of that. You know what that means."
Garry blew out a breath. "Cunning is scarier than smart, every fuckin' day," he said.
"It is," Yarm agreed. "The gods are terrified, Gary. They've never had a threat like this out there. Some of them stand with me, and some, like Tysrane -bless his objective heart- are maintaining neutrality. But most are scared, and that's making them angry."
"They all know about Sarisa's plan. They know about Jerry's visions, because Jane can't lie, and doesn't seem inclined to keep it to herself."
"Where does she stand?"
Yarm shrugged and shook his head. "I have no fucking clue. Nobody does. She's staying removed from the argument, answering everyone's questions."
"Well, hopefully with her being still a little green and all, she won't be as much a threat as Sarisa."
Yarm chuffed. "I'm as green as she is."
"Yeah, but you're so big," Gary said. He eyed Yarm with wide eyes until he cracked and they both chuckled.
"Anyways, I wanted to let you know where I'm off to. Try to run this thing in our direction, back here. I'm gonna help Jerry, but I'm also gonna make sure he has to see a little reason."
"Fuck that noise," Yarm said. "Jerry's my best friend. I'm coming with you. Besides, Saerdwin had a talk with Kratos, and he came over to our side. Between the two of them, they'd do a better job leading this faction than I would. Honestly, Saerdwin alone would do a better job, still, but they're kind of a pair."
"Well, go kiss your ole lady and hug your kids then," Gary said. "We're off to war."
----
Gary and Yarm approached Sookie's 'tent' and slowed down warily when they saw the crowd in front. As they paced closer, Gary began to make out faces. Chris was there, as was Ishantee, Ninhursag, Glorfinel and Anansi. Sookie and Mot were in the group.
Everyone was armed and armored.
Sookie stepped forward. "They're all coming," she said. Gary gawked at them. Chris met his eyes. "Brekka and Esmeralda just showed up and told me to go with you. I didn't question it."
Ishantee spoke. "Inanna was a rival for so long, but the last few weeks, we..." She sniffed and wiped her eye. "We became close. And that meant a lot to me."
"Jerry and I might not have been close, but I know better than to bet against him," Anansi said mildly.
"She stole children from me," Ninhursag growled. Gary met Glorfinel's eyes. He shrugged. "I'm with Anansi, really. This seems like the winning play, to me."
Heavy footsteps sounded from behind him, and Gary turned to find Kratos stomping up, dressed in thick leather armor and swinging an enormous warhammer as if it weighed nothing.
"Why we just standing around? I thought we were gonna go smash Sarisa?" he asked, frowning in confusion.

Hi,
yesterday my new Vanmoof S5 arrived. I assembled it and it worked perfectly. Today, it also worked in the afternoon, and it left me with ca. 70% battery. This evening, I tried to ride it, but the kicklock wouldn't unlock, despite unlocking it multiple times in the app and the bike lights going on. However, I was able to turn it off using the middle power button / reset it, and then I was able to unlock it.
But when riding it, I noticed that the motor doesn't give me any support, regardless of which support level I choose. It lets me choose the support level and the right halo ring shows the chooosen support level, but shortly after it goes dark. Sometimes, it is weirdly blinking. I have a video here, which I took with my left hand. During the entire ride, I didn't get motor support, despite choosing the right support levels and even using the boost button.
Vanmoof S5 motor not working and right halo ring automatically going dark
Does anybody know this problem? How can I fix it?
Thanks in advance!

Electrical Engineering is an underrated & underappreciated field when it comes to contribution to futurology. Like many fields of Engineering, EE is mathematical.
This field has a vast amount of subfield specializations:

• Electrical Power Systems & Distribution: This is basically the oldest subfield of Electrical Engineering, it deals with electrical power distribution & control and pertains to things that keep the lights on in our homes, and it deals with power lines, grids, diesel generators. Many consider this field to be boring, old, unenvironmently friendly, and unsexy due to the idea of not much room for innovation. However it is the backbone of the technological revolution, and nowadays without the electrical grid civilization would collapse by itself, such as hospitals unable to treat the sick, businesses and industries would shut down, and worst of all mass panic and insanity. Contrary to popular belief, this field is slowly moving towards much more environmentally & economically friendly solutions such as Solar Power, Decentralized Microgrid Systems, Wind Power, Thermal Disintegration of Biological Waste, Hydroelectric, and Geothermal. Of course modern power systems are developed to be much smarter and are controlled by a small industrial computer called Programmable Logic Controller a.k.a PLC, it is easy to program and cheap.
• Discrete Electronics: This field deal with basic electronic components usually made from Silicon a semi conductor the components are This field deal with basic electronic components usually made from Silicon a semi conductor the components are:

1. Diode: An active electronic component and it forces the electric current to travel in one direction, it's applications are transforming AC to DC electricity usually seen in chargers and power supplies. We can use a diode for voltage regulation and stability. For short circuit & reverse polarity protection, and to draw data.
2. Transistor: A 3 terminal electric component, can be either used as a switch or amplifier. For switching it's applications are in power systems, and it's the backbone of computing since a processor is made up of billions of transistors and generate binary codes such as 110101. For amplification, it can be used for something as simple as a microphone to more complex systems such as an error remover.

• Integrated Circuit Design: This is an exciting field that is part of Nanotechnology and is one of the most revolutionary fields and responsible for high performance computing. The integrated circuit is simply made up from transistors. Integrated Circuits can be Digital, Analog, Mixed Signal or RF (more on this below).

1. Digital Integrated Circuit Design is the backbone of computing and other modern electronics, transistors act as switches and it ranges from logic gates to extremely complicated circuits like Microcontrollers & Microprocessors (more on this in embedded systems). The reason why computers get better each year due to Moore's Law. Digital Circuits are nowadays used Field Programmable Gate Arrays which you can design an electronic circuits just by writing code instead of using outdated bad design simulator software.
2. Analog Integrated Circuit Design: the oldest branch of IC design. It deals with the analysis and design of Amplifiers, Feedbacking. Prominent examples are Operational Amplifiers and are used for mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, comparison, differentiation, and integration.
3. Mixed Signal Integrated Circuit Design: as the title suggests examples include microcontrollers.

• Power Electronics: The child of Power Engineering & Discrete Electronics it deals with distribution of power to electronics and households such as batteries, battery management systems, DC to AC inverters and solar panels especially as we transition to more eco-friendly solutions. It primary purpose is to design and build efficient and smart power electronics. The transistor also acts a switch using the IGBT transistors and handles high voltage and high current. Other components we use are the thyristor, diac, and triac.
• Embedded Systems Engineering: Known as Microcontrollers & Microprocessors. This field is a hybrid of Computer Science & Electrical Engineering. It deals with coding microcontroller chips that are tiny integrated circuits. This is the easiest field to pick up as a hobby, because it's cheap and programming is currently a sexy thing nowadays. Anybody could go to their local electronics store and buy an Arduino kit, it is very easy to program and could do some nice artistic projects like a LED music sync. However, there is so much more in Embedded Systems than just controlling LEDs. This field is nowadays the backbone of modern electronics whether consumer or industrial or military. Because of it devices are much smarter today like in Air Conditioning & Electric Heater units that control temperature depending on the environment, medical equipment that monitor the patient, robotics, electric vehicles, and even electrical power systems. I could go on.
• Signal Processing: This is a broad field, and is one of the most math intensive fields in Electric Engineering. It is considered the Machine Learning of electronics due to similar mathematics. It is responsible for the design of CD players, cassettes, hard drives, to more complex systems such as medical devices like the EKG. This field is essential for understanding the upcoming fields that I am about to discuss. And helps build a strong mathematical foundation in convolution, Fourier Transforms Series and Analysis, Laplace Transforms, Contour Integration, Difference Equations.
• Radio Frequency & Microwave Engineering: The toughest and most mathematically intensive field in Electrical Engineering, typically nicknamed as "black magic" in the Engineering Underworld. Due to needing to have a strong foundation in Electromagnetics that involve Maxwell's Equations, as well as the Smith Chart. It is the backbone of communication systems such as Radios, TVs, Satellites, Internet, Military, Radars & Antennas, SONAR, and 5G wireless internet. Some people study Array Signal Processing, and Stochastic Signal Processing.
• Robotics, Control Systems, and Industrial Automation: Very popular field and is essential. It is applicable to basically most the fields that I discussed above. Integrates some mechanical engineering like a vehicle that stabilizes itself such as an aeronautical system flying smoothly during strong winds.
• Optoelectronics: This field is also mathematically heavy as it is based upon Electromagnetics, and Image Processing. It deals with optical receivers and transmitters. Transmitters: Light Emitting Diodes, Laser Diodes, Light Bulbs. Receivers: Photodiodes, Photoresistors, Phototransistors , Photovoltaic Cells, Solar Panels ,Optocouplers. It is applicable is medicine, solar energy, digital cameras, military.

I think transhumanists should at least get an idea of Electrical Engineering if they wanna be proactive. Don't let the mathematics, physics, and computer science aspects discourage you from delving into Electric Engineering.

Reddit's being an ass, so I'm trying to post this on my alt account to see if it'll work.
So, aside from that, I have a longer chapter for you all today! Hehehe, enjoy... Also, Ka is a character from the fanfic The Experiment.
As always, credit to u/SpacePaladin15 for the original story, and this is an alternate universe from The Nature of Predators. Also, links to every other TNoP fanstory, as usual.
The Nature of Predators Literary Universe
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First Previous
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Ajax begrudgingly ran a subprocess to direct Buise with the floor lights back to the other xenos that Emma had elected to take in. It wasn't difficult, but it was still processing power that could have been put to something useful. Especially when he was in the middle of dismantling a takkan. The creature's arm fell to the ground, severed by a swipe from Ajax's makeshift fan-blade sword, not but a moment before its head was taken off, too. He kicked the corpse towards its comrades who all went into an animalistic panic and flew into a retreat.
Not that retreating did them any good, as he corraled them all into a dead-end and vented the airlock. They all were launched out onto the moon's surface by the difference in air pressure and got themselves lungfuls of the oxygen-deficit atmosphere. The aliens righted themselves and immediately ran back to the airlock door as their lungs filled with chlorine, hydrogen and sulfur, slamming their fists against the door, begging to be let back in as they choked to death on the thin, hostile atmosphere. Ajax walked away as the remaining xenos died outside.
Next up is the manufacturing wing. It was crawling with xenos, and he was scared to see the casualty reports in the area. It was a high-traffic area that a lot of his people would have retreated to when the first wave hit, and that even more of his people would have been traveling through. it was fourteen seconds and one-hundred-and-eighty-two milliseconds away if he hurried. Each of his footsteps launched him through the corridors, turning alien body parts into paste underfoot as he nearly broke the sound barrier.
The AI barreled through the door, and restarted his slaughter as immediately as he could. Within the first second, he had practically run through three of them, leaving twenty more in his immediate vision to dispatch. They all turned back to him after the initial noise, opening fire. His shields still held with ease, and he launched himself into the crowd.
They bleated and cawed and roared in terror, all going at such a sluggish pace in his perspective that he could easily hear it each individual time their vocal cords reverberated in their throats. He tore said cords out of a few necks, alongside a few more grotesque executions, before a similar sensor reading popped up. This time, though, he was ready. In a few dozen milliseconds, an automated response took over everything, calculating the rocket's route, his own body position, and the shape of the environment. The automation was adjusted accordingly, and in the frozen moment of time, Ajax's hand slapped the missile directly downwards.
As the rocket's course shifted to the floor, all of his available power was routed to the shields. The rocket hit the floor just as the last of the power entered the generator, resulting in a shield capable of taking just over a million psi, if only for a fleeting moment. A fleeting moment was all that was needed, however, as the explosion erupted, splashing against his shields. They broke, but his body's armor tanked the rest of the force without moving him any more than just a foot or two backwards. Meanwhile, all of the xenos that had been anywhere near him were now all dead and dying, shredded or just pasted from the explosion.
The room was down to ten xeno combatants that he could see. A grin crawled across his face as he turned to the rocket's firer. The farsul looked at him in shock. He dashed towards the alien, closing the distance in a few dozen milliseconds before punching through its snout. One of its buddies nearby was lifting another launcher in a panic.
Ajax impaled a different alien through the chest, letting the rocketeer hone in on him. The alien hardly even took aim, pulling the trigger almost immediately. Before the trigger mechanism fully activated, Ajax shifted his body out of the way, letting the missile streak past him and splatter a xeno that was trying to escape. Shrapnel splashed against his currently-unshielded armor, but the worst it did was give his shoulder a neat cosmetic scratch. The rocketeer xeno looked at its handiwork in horror.
Calmly walking up to the alien as it stood there frozen, Ajax almost casually ripped its head off by the neck, and, not wasting a moment, fastballed it at the next alien. Both skulls shattered upon impact, killing the other xeno immediately. The remaining seven alien soldiers stopped at the sight, and fled the manufacturing area.
Or… tried, to, anyways.
_
Emma sat in the back of the car. Shuttle. Whatever. It didn't matter. All that mattered was that she was getting shipped off by fanatic aliens again. Emma already knew where. She let out a quivering sigh.
"... So, what's your name, kolshian?" Emma asked suddenly, sitting back up straight. The tentacle frog turned to look at her with one eye.
"... What does it matter to you, predator?" the alien angrily sneered.
"... I know what's going to happen to me. I've been in one of your interrogation facilities before. If you have any of the mercy you claim to… just grant me a simple conversation before I get sent back to that hell. Please." Her posture drooped as she remembered. The beating. The tasing. The starving. The questions that she didn't have any answers for. And now… Now she was going back. A portion of her mind cursed at her, wished she had just left Umo to die instead; Emma had only known the kid for a couple of days, anyways. But, she pushed the thought away. Regardless of what action she "should've" taken, what was done, was done.
"... Recel," the kolshian finally answered. Emma blinked before her focus turned back to the alien.
"I'm Emma," she said in turn. "... Thank you." Recel shifted slightly.
"So, what do you want to talk about, 'Emma'?" the alien said in a tone just shy of being condescending.
"... I don't know, really. I guess… have you been in the streets of Yegaishtown at all?" she eventually replied. The kolshian flicked a tentacle in the negative.
"Ah. Well, I have. If you get a moment, you should. It's an amazing view. Miles upon miles upon miles of city, in all directions. Up, down, left, right… Seeing hundreds of thousands of cars, hundreds of thousands of people going through their daily commute, and then the shops! So many different signs, and structures, and products, all of it in just one little space. It's… awe-inspiring."
"... Well, I imagine you wouldn't have seen anything even a tenth of that size on your predator infested rock," the kolshian grandstanded.
"Well… I've seen some places get close. There were talks of making something kind of like Yegaishtown out of the city I was born in. New York. The home of Lady Liberty…" Emma allowed herself a few happy memories of home. She knew she wouldn't be making any more.
"... Still," she continued, "You're probably right. Like I said, that whole plan was just in the draft phase. But, Yegaishtown is still… just… amazing." She looked at the blackened window longingly. "Sometimes, it does remind me of home, a little. The busy passersby on their way to work, or the store, or their friend's house. All of them too busy to stop and talk to the people next to them, and all of them still being someone..." She quietly sighed, looking back down to her feet.
"... I… think I know the feeling. I was on Earth for a while, and… even if they were likely infested to the brim with savage predators… I still couldn't believe how beautiful the massive forests looked." She perked up a little at the new information.
"... You were on Earth?" she asked.
"Yeah," the kolshian quickly replied. "I, uh… got shot down when your people swarmed my ship. We survived reentry, and eventually they picked us back up. Although, me and my people spent over a week there, with the-..." Recel suddenly stopped himself, and Emma noticed as his eyes scanned the corners of the back of the van.
"... This conversation is over," he declared. Wh-... What??? Just like that? No-... No reason, or anything??? She opened her mouth to say something, but, she didn't even know what to say. He had seemed almost chatty, before-... before he almost said what he was with… Emma didn't know what had spooked the kolshian, but… she had a vague hunch. Hopefully it was a good one.
_
Ka was pushed forward at gunpoint.
"Stop, you filthy grunts! Get your hands off of me! I DID WHAT I DID FOR SCIENCE, DAMNIT!" she roared, her throatpouch expanding angrily. The guards dutifully ignored her protests, forcing her through the doors. Ka unceremoniously landed on the ground from their brutish shove, bruising her tentacle's shoulder as the door shut behind her.
"... Hello, Doctor Ka," a familiar voice said. She turned to look at the source. Staring at her… was Nikonus himself. She angrily righted herself, standing up in front of her leader. "Take a seat," he requested, gesturing to the chair between her and Nikonus' desk. Hesitantly, she sat down. The kolshian male took a breath.
"GUARDS!" he called loudly. Ka flinched, looking at the back door in fear. But… the guards didn't come through. "Good, they can't hear us," Nikonus commented, leaning forward. "Tell me, Doctor Ka. There are millions of diseased individuals like you across the galaxy." A noise came from the giant box with a cloth overtop it that rested behind Nikonus. "Ignore that for a moment. But, tell me, why do you think I decided to have a talk with you?" he asked. Ka warbled angrily. What is he getting at?
"... Because I ran tests on a human?" she speculated.
"Correct, although my reasoning is a little more complex than that. Now tell me, what is it that you learned?"
"... That you can teach a human with fear. That they take a long time to learn to hunt. That they like their food cooked. That you want something from me," she monotonely listed off. Nikonus laughed. His warbling throatpouch radiated confident intelligence.
"Astute," he jested. The man stood up from his desk and began to pace. "Humans are predators. As you are no doubt well aware, what with your cruel method of feeding. But they still could have brought so much to the Federation," he said, almost mournfully. He stopped at the curtained box.
"... Which is why I have given you permission to continue your experiments."
Nikonus pulled away the cloth, revealing Ka's test subject, curled in the corner.

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Jennifer after the bar
Another night at the bar, people say I’m an alcoholic but I think that’s just fucking bullshit. I can control myself!. And I don’t need my boyfriend tell me, “oh Jennifer, you should stop drinking for a while” who the fuck does he think he is? I guess, I have to just break up with him. He’s so annoying these days, he wasn’t always like this, he’s just not the same person that I used to know. And I don’t give a fuck right now, I just want to drink and look at these people in the bar and wonder, is their life also fucked up like mine? From outside they all look fine but I guess from inside they are damaged just like me, maybe even more, I guess the more damaged the people the more they hide and try to project an image that is not real.
Bartender: Would you like to order anything else?
Jennifer: Yeah I’ll have another tequila please.
I guess after having many drinks the world just went totally dark, I fell asleep. Something is shaking my arm, it’s a strong hand, I can feel it, it must be a man’s hand.
Bartender: Hey Jennifer wake up, Jennifer?
Jennifer: I don’t know what happened I guess I just fell asleep.
Bartender: Well I do know, you fell asleep like a plane smashing to the ocean.
I don’t know if he said that to sound smart or wanted to flirt in a sexy way. As I wake up no one’s in the bar anymore, all I can hear is the music. It’s only me and the bartender. Huh, damn I never asked his name, should I ask it?
Bartender: By the way my name is jack!. I just realised you never called me by my name.
oh I guess I don’t have to ask it anymore. Why did he say his name right now? Does he want to fuck? Hmmm I don’t think so, he’s married!. Would I fuck him if he wasn’t married? I don’t know, maybe not or maybe yeah. He has a nice body for sure, I guess I should play true and dare with him the next time, to see what’s under that shirt!. I don’t know, Ah I guess, I drank a bit too much!.
Jack: You have to go now, sorry but I have to close the bar, I have to go home. Jennifer? Jennifer? You hear me?
Jennifer: Oh yeah, I’m really sorry, it won’t happen again.
Jack: You say that all the time.
Jennifer: This time I’m serious.
Jack: oh I thought you were serious the last time!.
I leave the bar and john, was it, john? I guess it was john. He closes the bar.
Jack: See you next time Jennifer.
Jennifer: See you, bye John.
Jack: My name’s Jack not John.
Jennifer: I guess it’s the alcohol!.
As he’s going towards his car, he says to me.
Jack: aha, Yeah I guess too!.
He gets into his car and drives off. It's really cold outside. No one’s on the street. I check my phone and it’s around 3am!. Wow, Jack was really nice to let me sleep for few hours Or maybe he wanted to fuck? I guess that’s what all men think about in one way or another when they see me, I guess I’m a bit too hot for them to handle, not crazy hot but hot enough!. I kind of feel bad that I didn’t know his name. I guess, sometimes I’m a bit of an asshole but everyone’s an asshole once in a while, so I guess it’s ok!.
As I’m walking down the street, I see a car going by very fast, so fast that I felt for a moment it's going to hit a wall or something!. It’s a bit of a weird feeling to walk in the streets all alone, Sam is with me all the time, maybe I should’ve told him to come with me instead of going to the bar all alone. These streets are usually full of people, after all it’s berlin!. I guess, people in berlin sleep too, it’s 3:20 am after all.
Everything just feels different. I can smell the streets, the alcohol bottles all around the streets. Oh what’s that smell? It’s, oh no fuck, I hate this smell!. Someone has probably puked over there. I go over the other side of the street and I can still smell it. I wish there could be a magical flower in my hand right now!, I’d smell it for hours!.
I keep walking for another 10 minutes. I guess, if I continue with this speed I’d be home in 15 minutes!. I could walk faster but it’s just too dark and I don’t want to fall down on my face!. I have to finally talk with this new costumer. My boyfriend Sam can be annoying at times but if it wasn’t because of him I wouldn’t be able to get the attention of this new costumer. Maybe if Sam was with me right now I wouldn’t have to go through all these empty streets all alone. We’d be home by minutes. He’s kind of a guy that respects the law so much and always acts properly but at nights, at nights, oh, he can get really wild!!!. It’s as if he gets colour blinded at nights and can’t see the difference between red and green!. I bet he doesn’t see my underwear in green instead of red at nights!. It really gets him turned on when he sees the colour red!. As I'm walking I hear a loud sound!. What was that? I can sense from which direction the sound came from but I can’t see what it is!. I’m just standing here!. I don’t know whether I should keep walking or not. What if someone’s hiding and grabs me from the behind? What then? Will I be dead? Oh god, what should I do now? Ok, It might be a crazy idea but I'm just going to get close to that sound!. Oh shit I hear it again!. I get closer to it, the closer I get to it the less light there is, as a kid I was really scared of it but now I kind of like it!. I see shadows moving, I can’t really say what those shadows look like, a human? Or something else?!. Something with such speed comes at me. The sound is so loud that I scream!. It gets near to my feet, I look at it with eyes wide open and with such intensity!. I can’t believe what I'm seeing, this shit scared me?!. It’s a bottle of fucking beer!. Wow, I almost was about to lose my shit because of this? No, no hold on!. How did the bottle get here? It didn’t just roll here right? Suddenly from behind I sense something moving very fast!. I turn around but there’s nothing! But I'm sure, there has to be!. I never get these kind of things wrong!.
I just continue walking as fast as I can, I guess that’s the right move. Even if I fall on my face, it doesn’t really matter at this moment, my life matters more than some new costumer!. Oh fuck, I should’ve not slept at the bar. Maybe I even shouldn’t have went to the bar tonight!. Fuck, fuck it!. So If I die tonight I want to at least die in a dramatic way and not by falling down on my face!.
I still feel that thing following me, I don’t know from which direction. It’s as if it wants to haunt me. I never felt like this before. Hold on!, Someone’s coming!. It seems like a car is passing by, it’s going quite slowly, the colour of the car is white, so white that it creates this light alike effect around it even though it’s totally dark right now!. I wonder if the person siting in it can maybe help.
oh oh, I don’t think so!. There’s red all over the front window of the car, I’m pretty sure it’s blood, it’s fucking red blood!, I can’t really see the person siting in it. For some reason I didn’t start running, I’m not sure why!. The car slowly passes by!. And I couldn’t even see the person sitting in it, because of all the blood covering the window!. I continue walking but then I hear the sound of car stopping, I also stop and stand still, I can’t see the car anymore since I walked by a bit and the car is behind me, but I can hear it very closely, the door of the car opens!. I’m not sure whether I should turn back and take a look or not. What should I do now? Should I just continue walking or just run as fast as possible? I never felt this much anxiety before. I hear the door being slammed, the sound is very loud, so loud that it echoes though the street!. But I hear no word from the person!. I assume it’s a man!. I’m not sure why but I guess most men are just crazy, at least that’s what my aunt always says!. I still don’t know what to do! I can hear his footsteps, he’s slowly reaching towards me!. What if he was the one throwing the bottle near my feet? I’m so confused right now!. I wonder what he’s having in his hands, maybe an ax or a shotgun? He's getting closer and closer, I can sense it with all of my body!. My ears were never this accurate before, everything is so clear and sharpened to my ears!. He’s right behind me, I don’t hear a word, I don’t hear a sound but only my breaths!. The sweats are coming off my face, my hand are shaking, my eyes see for a moment blurry, my heart’s going faster than ever before, I wonder, I wonder if this is the end!.
He puts his hand on my right shoulder, I want to scream but I don’t, my eyes are just wide open, I’m breathing very fast!. He slowly moves his hand from my shoulder to my arm and shakes my arm a bit, I can sense he’s having something in his hand, I’m not sure what that is. He touches my hand and tries to give me something, now I can see it, it’s a knife!. I wasn’t able to see his hand, why is he giving me a knife? I’m sweating faster and faster, my left hand’s shaking, I’m holding the knife with my right hand but my right hand isn’t shaking at all!. He puts his hand on my shoulder again and shakes it a bit, and slowly moves it towards my neck!. He’s just having his hand around my neck, I don’t know what to do, I feel very scared, I have the knife, maybe I should just stab him as fast as possible!. I must do it, this is the only way, I can save myself from this asshole!. He’s still having his hand around my neck, I try to turn around and stab him with all power and speed, BUT I can’t, what is happening to me? I can’t move my body, I can’t move, my hand, I can’t feel my hand, I’m just standing!. Omg, someone please help me, I don’t understand what is happening, it’s as if I can’t feel my body But I can feel his hand around my neck!
I can sense his left hand reaching my shoulder and then moves it towards my face, I try to move but I just can’t!. He covers my eyes with his left hand, as he’s having his right hand around my neck!. I can’t see anything right now! It’s totally dark, I can sense how warm his hand is even though it’s very cold outside!. He puts away his left hand, I can see again but his right hand is still around my neck, he slowly pressures my neck, it’s becoming a bit harder for me to breath now, I still want to move my hand and stab him but I just can’t, I can’t move my body!. It’s as if I’m frozen!.
Suddenly he lets go of my neck! He brings his left hand in front of my face now I can finally see how his hand looks like!. Hold on a second, it’s a woman’s hand, I don’t get it, so all along, it’s a woman that is trying to kill me?!.
She reaches my jacket's pocket with the same hand, and pulls something out of it!. I can’t remember right now what I had in my jacket!. She immediately brings the same hand in front of my face, I can’t exactly see what is in her hand, she slowly turns her wrist, it’s a mirror!. She’s holding it in a way that I’m not able to see her face!. All I can see is the reflection of my body and hers!. But something is very strange, she’s wearing no cloths!. She’s totally naked!. With the mirror in her hand, she shows my body and her naked body to me!. I just don’t understand, I don’t understand what’s happening right now!. I know her body, it’s very familiar!. The legs, the arms, the breasts, the shape of her hands and fingers, the legs… There’s a tattoo on her belly, on the right side, it’s a, it’s a name!. It says SAM!!!. My eyes, my eyes, they have never been this wide before!. why does she have my boyfriends name tattooed on her belly?
She slowly brings the mirror upward, now I can’t see the tattoo, the legs, the breasts, the arms… All I can see through the mirror is her hand around my neck!. I still can’t see her face!. She moves the mirror very slowly upwards, now I can see my own face, but only my chin, I don’t see her face yet. She keeps moving the mirror upwards!. Now I can see her chin too and now I see her lips, why, why is she smiling? She has this strange smile on her face!. Now I can see my face completely, I’m very scared!. Now I can also, I, I , I can see her face, oh no, I can’t, this can’t be true, no this is not true, this can’t be, noooo!!!. I want to scream but i just can’t!. Her face, her face is exactly like mine, she looks literally like me, she still has this strange smile on her face, this can’t be true!. I can’t take this anymore, I can’t!. She grabs my right hand, in which I’m holding the knife with, she’s holding my hand firmly, she comes closer to me, I can feel her naked body behind my back!. She’s still smiling, as my eyes are wide open!. She just swings my right hand with a fast speed towards my chest, ah, my breath slows down, I can feel the knife in my chest, my breaths are becoming fast but inconsistent!. I want to yell, I want to scream, but I can’t!. I can’t move, I can’t do anything, all I can do is see myself and her through this mirror!. Blood is coming slowly off my chest, my cloths are getting red from the blood!. She’s still smiling, her hand and mine get red from the blood! She let’s go of my hand. Suddenly she stops smiling. She moves her right hand towards her mouth, with her tongue she licks her hand, which has blood on it!. I can’t believe what I’m seeing, I blink very fast, my vision is getting blurry, blurrier and blurrier!. She moves her right hand towards my mouth, which has blood on it, I can feel her hand around my lips, I can feel the hot blood around my lips!. With her bloody fingers, she touches my lips and pressures them a bit!. My vision is getting darker and blurrier, she moves her hand upwards and covers my eyes!. I see nothing, I hear nothing, I feel nothing!. It’s just darkness. I can’t even feel her naked body behind me anymore!. Is this it? Is this death? Is this how I die? I don’t know for how long but everything is just dark!.
I can feel something, something very warm, something very familiar, something that I’ve been missing, something that I’ve been yearning!. I feel as if I’m gaining control again, I feel as if I’m getting my senses back!. Something is shaking my arm, it’s a strong hand I can feel it, it must be a man’s hand. I feel like I had this thought before!!!.
I slowly open my eyes. I can hear everything, I see can everything again, I can move my body!. It’s Sam! He’s been shaking my arm!
Sam: Jennifer? Are you alright?
I’m at the bar? Ah, I, I don’t, it was all, was it all a dream?
Sam: Jennifer? Do you hear me?
Jennifer: Yeah Sam, I do hear you! I missed you!
Sam looks at me with a wondering face!
Sam: I think you drink a bit too much, Are you ok?
Jennifer: I, I never felt better!
I come close to Sam and kiss him gently on the lips, he seems to be a bit confused, so am I!. Oh that’s Jack, the bartender, he comes to us.
Jack: You want another drink Jennifer?
I laugh a bit as he asks this.
Jennifer: No, I think I had enough for this night!. Sam, what time is it?
Sam: It’s 12 am!. Do you want to go home?
As he asks this, I smile, I’m just so happy that he’s here with me. The dream I had, it was just so strange, I guess I’ll tell him about it tomorrow!
Jennifer: Yeah, let’s go home!.
I put my head on his shoulder and breath as deeply as I can!. I see a woman passing by us, she gets close to the exit door, before leaving she turns back and looks at me and smiles!. I get this weird feeling. She smiled like the woman who looked like me in my dream!. On her right hand I see a tattoo, it’s a black snake!. She leaves the bar!.
Sam: Aright, let’s go then. You don’t want to miss the new buyer tomorrow right?
Jennifer: Oh no, I don’t want to miss it!.
We pay and then slowly move towards the exit door. Jack smiles at us and then says.
Jack: Be careful, there’s a lot of bottles on the streets at this time!.
Sam: Alright jack!.
We leave the bar. Sam starts the car and then we go home. We both immediately get in the bed, he falls asleep right away!. I also try to close my eyes and sleep. Now everything is dark! Now everything slowly gets bright again!. I can feel something shaking my arm!.
The End

Empire of the Ghouls - Gothic Horror 5E - Kobold Press: Midgard setting - Levels 2-13

About the adventure

The Empire of Ghouls, a dark and foreboding setting in the lands of Midgard where danger lurks around every corner and the dead don't stay buried. The city of Zobeck is in turmoil as citizens go missing without a trace, leaving the streets in a state of panic. But rumors have surfaced of elaborate catacombs beneath the city's streets that may hold the key to the mystery. Those brave enough to explore them, however, must be prepared to face the horrors that dwell within.
Will you adventurers have what it takes to uncover the truth and put an end to the ghoulish workings that threaten the city's very existence? In this world, the undead rule supreme and their insatiable hunger for flesh is matched only by their desire for power. The living are little more than fodder for their insidious plots, and only the strongest and most cunning can hope to survive.
The Empire of Ghouls is a land of danger and adventure, where fortunes are made and lost in the blink of an eye. Will your party be the ones to rise to the challenge and emerge victorious, or will they fall prey to the darkness that lurks beneath the city streets? The fate of Zobeck and its citizens rests in their hands.

Additional Details

Game info, times, link, pricing :

• Tuesdays BI WEEKLY @ 6:00 PM Pacific / 9:00 PM Eastern UTC: 01:00
• Empire of the Ghouls - StartPlayingGames Invite
• Price per session: $15 with a free session 0.
• Currently we have 3 players and need 1-2 seats to be filled

How to prepare

You will need a microphone, the Discord chat app, and a Roll 20 account (the free one is fine). Characters will be created during Session 0 once we go over the setting and available options.

What I provide

• 👹 Gothic-Horror adventure setting spanning all of Midgard. 18+ only.
• 🧙🏿‍♂️ Dozens of new subclasses, spells, weapons, feats and backgrounds - all gaming material provided digitally.
• 🧌 Tired of Forgotten Realms setting? Welcome to Midgard!
• 🗡️ Levels 2-13+, event-based (milestone) experience
• 🔮 Factions & side adventures
• 🔫 Black powder technology and non-magical weapon variants available
• 👨‍🎤 Downtime activities and RP via play-by-post on Discord to bring flavor and actual bonuses to the table
• 💡Dynamic lighting on battle maps for extra immersion
• 🪄 Bonus starting items for a well-developed character background and concept
• 🎙️ Discord, microphone and Roll20 account needed (you can just use a free account, all source material provided
• 🆓 Free session 0 for character creation, setting overview, background tie-ins and intro to Roll20/Discord
• 🚧 Discord and game invite sent via StartPlaying messages
• 🆕 New player friendly

Gameplay details

• 📗 Lines and Veils doc will be linked on Discord
• 💬 Players will have private channels on Discord to discuss any issues discreetly
• 🏆 Role-Play award bonuses voted on by party
• 🗳️ Player voted campaign dynamics

Content warnings

• Alcohol Use
• Blood
• Body Horror
• Classism
• Death
• Drugs (addiction, use, withdrawal)
• Execution
• Gore
• Mind alteration
• Mutilation
• Racial Profiling
• Snakes
• Spiders
• Talk of Superior Race
• Torture

Safety tools used

• Breaks
• Lines and Veils
• Open Door
• Session 0
• Stars and Wishes
• X, N, and O Cards

How will character creation work

• 🎲 Characters will be created on the Roll20 platform and finalized in Session 0.
• 📚 Players will have access to a variety of compendium resources to build from or they may use pre-generated templates for quick character creation.
• 🔺 Characters will start the campaign at Level 2. Standard array (recommended) or point-buy. If you're new to D&D and not sure how to manually create characters or use Roll 20, we can schedule a meeting and I will take you through the process at no charge.

Players can expect

• Combat/Tactics: High
• Roleplay: Medium
• Puzzles: Medium
• Experience Level: Open to all

Jennifer after the bar
Another night at the bar, people say I’m an alcoholic but I think that’s just fucking bullshit. I can control myself!. And I don’t need my boyfriend tell me, “oh Jennifer, you should stop drinking for a while” who the fuck does he think he is? I guess, I have to just break up with him. He’s so annoying these days, he wasn’t always like this, he’s just not the same person that I used to know. And I don’t give a fuck right now, I just want to drink and look at these people in the bar and wonder, is their life also fucked up like mine? From outside they all look fine but I guess from inside they are damaged just like me, maybe even more, I guess the more damaged the people the more they hide and try to project an image that is not real.
Bartender: Would you like to order anything else?
Jennifer: Yeah I’ll have another tequila please.
I guess after having many drinks the world just went totally dark, I fell asleep. Something is shaking my arm, it’s a strong hand, I can feel it, it must be a man’s hand.
Bartender: Hey Jennifer wake up, Jennifer?
Jennifer: I don’t know what happened I guess I just fell asleep.
Bartender: Well I do know, you fell asleep like a plane smashing to the ocean.
I don’t know if he said that to sound smart or wanted to flirt in a sexy way. As I wake up no one’s in the bar anymore, all I can hear is the music. It’s only me and the bartender. Huh, damn I never asked his name, should I ask it?
Bartender: By the way my name is jack!. I just realised you never called me by my name.
oh I guess I don’t have to ask it anymore. Why did he say his name right now? Does he want to fuck? Hmmm I don’t think so, he’s married!. Would I fuck him if he wasn’t married? I don’t know, maybe not or maybe yeah. He has a nice body for sure, I guess I should play true and dare with him the next time, to see what’s under that shirt!. I don’t know, Ah I guess, I drank a bit too much!.
Jack: You have to go now, sorry but I have to close the bar, I have to go home. Jennifer? Jennifer? You hear me?
Jennifer: Oh yeah, I’m really sorry, it won’t happen again.
Jack: You say that all the time.
Jennifer: This time I’m serious.
Jack: oh I thought you were serious the last time!.
I leave the bar and john, was it, john? I guess it was john. He closes the bar.
Jack: See you next time Jennifer.
Jennifer: See you, bye John.
Jack: My name’s Jack not John.
Jennifer: I guess it’s the alcohol!.
As he’s going towards his car, he says to me.
Jack: aha, Yeah I guess too!.
He gets into his car and drives off. It's really cold outside. No one’s on the street. I check my phone and it’s around 3am!. Wow, Jack was really nice to let me sleep for few hours Or maybe he wanted to fuck? I guess that’s what all men think about in one way or another when they see me, I guess I’m a bit too hot for them to handle, not crazy hot but hot enough!. I kind of feel bad that I didn’t know his name. I guess, sometimes I’m a bit of an asshole but everyone’s an asshole once in a while, so I guess it’s ok!.
As I’m walking down the street, I see a car going by very fast, so fast that I felt for a moment it's going to hit a wall or something!. It’s a bit of a weird feeling to walk in the streets all alone, Sam is with me all the time, maybe I should’ve told him to come with me instead of going to the bar all alone. These streets are usually full of people, after all it’s berlin!. I guess, people in berlin sleep too, it’s 3:20 am after all.
Everything just feels different. I can smell the streets, the alcohol bottles all around the streets. Oh what’s that smell? It’s, oh no fuck, I hate this smell!. Someone has probably puked over there. I go over the other side of the street and I can still smell it. I wish there could be a magical flower in my hand right now!, I’d smell it for hours!.
I keep walking for another 10 minutes. I guess, if I continue with this speed I’d be home in 15 minutes!. I could walk faster but it’s just too dark and I don’t want to fall down on my face!. I have to finally talk with this new costumer. My boyfriend Sam can be annoying at times but if it wasn’t because of him I wouldn’t be able to get the attention of this new costumer. Maybe if Sam was with me right now I wouldn’t have to go through all these empty streets all alone. We’d be home by minutes. He’s kind of a guy that respects the law so much and always acts properly but at nights, at nights, oh, he can get really wild!!!. It’s as if he gets colour blinded at nights and can’t see the difference between red and green!. I bet he doesn’t see my underwear in green instead of red at nights!. It really gets him turned on when he sees the colour red!. As I'm walking I hear a loud sound!. What was that? I can sense from which direction the sound came from but I can’t see what it is!. I’m just standing here!. I don’t know whether I should keep walking or not. What if someone’s hiding and grabs me from the behind? What then? Will I be dead? Oh god, what should I do now? Ok, It might be a crazy idea but I'm just going to get close to that sound!. Oh shit I hear it again!. I get closer to it, the closer I get to it the less light there is, as a kid I was really scared of it but now I kind of like it!. I see shadows moving, I can’t really say what those shadows look like, a human? Or something else?!. Something with such speed comes at me. The sound is so loud that I scream!. It gets near to my feet, I look at it with eyes wide open and with such intensity!. I can’t believe what I'm seeing, this shit scared me?!. It’s a bottle of fucking beer!. Wow, I almost was about to lose my shit because of this? No, no hold on!. How did the bottle get here? It didn’t just roll here right? Suddenly from behind I sense something moving very fast!. I turn around but there’s nothing! But I'm sure, there has to be!. I never get these kind of things wrong!.
I just continue walking as fast as I can, I guess that’s the right move. Even if I fall on my face, it doesn’t really matter at this moment, my life matters more than some new costumer!. Oh fuck, I should’ve not slept at the bar. Maybe I even shouldn’t have went to the bar tonight!. Fuck, fuck it!. So If I die tonight I want to at least die in a dramatic way and not by falling down on my face!.
I still feel that thing following me, I don’t know from which direction. It’s as if it wants to haunt me. I never felt like this before. Hold on!, Someone’s coming!. It seems like a car is passing by, it’s going quite slowly, the colour of the car is white, so white that it creates this light alike effect around it even though it’s totally dark right now!. I wonder if the person siting in it can maybe help.
oh oh, I don’t think so!. There’s red all over the front window of the car, I’m pretty sure it’s blood, it’s fucking red blood!, I can’t really see the person siting in it. For some reason I didn’t start running, I’m not sure why!. The car slowly passes by!. And I couldn’t even see the person sitting in it, because of all the blood covering the window!. I continue walking but then I hear the sound of car stopping, I also stop and stand still, I can’t see the car anymore since I walked by a bit and the car is behind me, but I can hear it very closely, the door of the car opens!. I’m not sure whether I should turn back and take a look or not. What should I do now? Should I just continue walking or just run as fast as possible? I never felt this much anxiety before. I hear the door being slammed, the sound is very loud, so loud that it echoes though the street!. But I hear no word from the person!. I assume it’s a man!. I’m not sure why but I guess most men are just crazy, at least that’s what my aunt always says!. I still don’t know what to do! I can hear his footsteps, he’s slowly reaching towards me!. What if he was the one throwing the bottle near my feet? I’m so confused right now!. I wonder what he’s having in his hands, maybe an ax or a shotgun? He's getting closer and closer, I can sense it with all of my body!. My ears were never this accurate before, everything is so clear and sharpened to my ears!. He’s right behind me, I don’t hear a word, I don’t hear a sound but only my breaths!. The sweats are coming off my face, my hand are shaking, my eyes see for a moment blurry, my heart’s going faster than ever before, I wonder, I wonder if this is the end!.
He puts his hand on my right shoulder, I want to scream but I don’t, my eyes are just wide open, I’m breathing very fast!. He slowly moves his hand from my shoulder to my arm and shakes my arm a bit, I can sense he’s having something in his hand, I’m not sure what that is. He touches my hand and tries to give me something, now I can see it, it’s a knife!. I wasn’t able to see his hand, why is he giving me a knife? I’m sweating faster and faster, my left hand’s shaking, I’m holding the knife with my right hand but my right hand isn’t shaking at all!. He puts his hand on my shoulder again and shakes it a bit, and slowly moves it towards my neck!. He’s just having his hand around my neck, I don’t know what to do, I feel very scared, I have the knife, maybe I should just stab him as fast as possible!. I must do it, this is the only way, I can save myself from this asshole!. He’s still having his hand around my neck, I try to turn around and stab him with all power and speed, BUT I can’t, what is happening to me? I can’t move my body, I can’t move, my hand, I can’t feel my hand, I’m just standing!. Omg, someone please help me, I don’t understand what is happening, it’s as if I can’t feel my body But I can feel his hand around my neck!
I can sense his left hand reaching my shoulder and then moves it towards my face, I try to move but I just can’t!. He covers my eyes with his left hand, as he’s having his right hand around my neck!. I can’t see anything right now! It’s totally dark, I can sense how warm his hand is even though it’s very cold outside!. He puts away his left hand, I can see again but his right hand is still around my neck, he slowly pressures my neck, it’s becoming a bit harder for me to breath now, I still want to move my hand and stab him but I just can’t, I can’t move my body!. It’s as if I’m frozen!.
Suddenly he lets go of my neck! He brings his left hand in front of my face now I can finally see how his hand looks like!. Hold on a second, it’s a woman’s hand, I don’t get it, so all along, it’s a woman that is trying to kill me?!.
She reaches my jacket's pocket with the same hand, and pulls something out of it!. I can’t remember right now what I had in my jacket!. She immediately brings the same hand in front of my face, I can’t exactly see what is in her hand, she slowly turns her wrist, it’s a mirror!. She’s holding it in a way that I’m not able to see her face!. All I can see is the reflection of my body and hers!. But something is very strange, she’s wearing no cloths!. She’s totally naked!. With the mirror in her hand, she shows my body and her naked body to me!. I just don’t understand, I don’t understand what’s happening right now!. I know her body, it’s very familiar!. The legs, the arms, the breasts, the shape of her hands and fingers, the legs… There’s a tattoo on her belly, on the right side, it’s a, it’s a name!. It says SAM!!!. My eyes, my eyes, they have never been this wide before!. why does she have my boyfriends name tattooed on her belly?
She slowly brings the mirror upward, now I can’t see the tattoo, the legs, the breasts, the arms… All I can see through the mirror is her hand around my neck!. I still can’t see her face!. She moves the mirror very slowly upwards, now I can see my own face, but only my chin, I don’t see her face yet. She keeps moving the mirror upwards!. Now I can see her chin too and now I see her lips, why, why is she smiling? She has this strange smile on her face!. Now I can see my face completely, I’m very scared!. Now I can also, I, I , I can see her face, oh no, I can’t, this can’t be true, no this is not true, this can’t be, noooo!!!. I want to scream but i just can’t!. Her face, her face is exactly like mine, she looks literally like me, she still has this strange smile on her face, this can’t be true!. I can’t take this anymore, I can’t!. She grabs my right hand, in which I’m holding the knife with, she’s holding my hand firmly, she comes closer to me, I can feel her naked body behind my back!. She’s still smiling, as my eyes are wide open!. She just swings my right hand with a fast speed towards my chest, ah, my breath slows down, I can feel the knife in my chest, my breaths are becoming fast but inconsistent!. I want to yell, I want to scream, but I can’t!. I can’t move, I can’t do anything, all I can do is see myself and her through this mirror!. Blood is coming slowly off my chest, my cloths are getting red from the blood!. She’s still smiling, her hand and mine get red from the blood! She let’s go of my hand. Suddenly she stops smiling. She moves her right hand towards her mouth, with her tongue she licks her hand, which has blood on it!. I can’t believe what I’m seeing, I blink very fast, my vision is getting blurry, blurrier and blurrier!. She moves her right hand towards my mouth, which has blood on it, I can feel her hand around my lips, I can feel the hot blood around my lips!. With her bloody fingers, she touches my lips and pressures them a bit!. My vision is getting darker and blurrier, she moves her hand upwards and covers my eyes!. I see nothing, I hear nothing, I feel nothing!. It’s just darkness. I can’t even feel her naked body behind me anymore!. Is this it? Is this death? Is this how I die? I don’t know for how long but everything is just dark!.
I can feel something, something very warm, something very familiar, something that I’ve been missing, something that I’ve been yearning!. I feel as if I’m gaining control again, I feel as if I’m getting my senses back!. Something is shaking my arm, it’s a strong hand I can feel it, it must be a man’s hand. I feel like I had this thought before!!!.
I slowly open my eyes. I can hear everything, I see can everything again, I can move my body!. It’s Sam! He’s been shaking my arm!
Sam: Jennifer? Are you alright?
I’m at the bar? Ah, I, I don’t, it was all, was it all a dream?
Sam: Jennifer? Do you hear me?
Jennifer: Yeah Sam, I do hear you! I missed you!
Sam looks at me with a wondering face!
Sam: I think you drink a bit too much, Are you ok?
Jennifer: I, I never felt better!
I come close to Sam and kiss him gently on the lips, he seems to be a bit confused, so am I!. Oh that’s Jack, the bartender, he comes to us.
Jack: You want another drink Jennifer?
I laugh a bit as he asks this.
Jennifer: No, I think I had enough for this night!. Sam, what time is it?
Sam: It’s 12 am!. Do you want to go home?
As he asks this, I smile, I’m just so happy that he’s here with me. The dream I had, it was just so strange, I guess I’ll tell him about it tomorrow!
Jennifer: Yeah, let’s go home!.
I put my head on his shoulder and breath as deeply as I can!. I see a woman passing by us, she gets close to the exit door, before leaving she turns back and looks at me and smiles!. I get this weird feeling. She smiled like the woman who looked like me in my dream!. On her right hand I see a tattoo, it’s a black snake!. She leaves the bar!.
Sam: Aright, let’s go then. You don’t want to miss the new buyer tomorrow right?
Jennifer: Oh no, I don’t want to miss it!.
We pay and then slowly move towards the exit door. Jack smiles at us and then says.
Jack: Be careful, there’s a lot of bottles on the streets at this time!.
Sam: Alright jack!.
We leave the bar. Sam starts the car and then we go home. We both immediately get in the bed, he falls asleep right away!. I also try to close my eyes and sleep. Now everything is dark! Now everything slowly gets bright again!. I can feel something shaking my arm!.
The End

By Mani ravandi

First/wiki/Patreon
Unity
Despite her hate for the Union, Aster had to admit, they were incredible engineers. She had seen plenty of Union stations, made of standardized sections constructed in the core and shipped across the galaxy. But Unity was on a whole different scale.
It was the size of a small moon, but unlike a certain moon sized planet killer, this station was hollow on the inside and home to half a billion people. It was a mega-project that tried to encompass everything the Union stood for, commerce, protection, and the peaceful inhabitation of every species. Almost every known species in the galaxy called Unity home, and the station went out of its way to accommodate all forms of life. Including the rare Lithoid and Toxoid species.
As the Astaroth exited the immense inter-sector gate their entire field of vision was filled with the flow of millions of ships. Their scanners became so full of contacts that the screen was totally filled. It was like a massive school of fish all swarming around one object. There were a few big bare patches were a massive multi-kilometer super freighter was maneuvering, and from a casual glance Astarte guessed there were at least a hundred of those slowly drifting into port. Standing still like buoys, Union cruisers gently corralled the streaming ship traffic into several generalized directions. And on the edges of all the action, Union Battleships stood guard over the station and its nearby space. Piracy was a rampant concern in the Union, and it was impossible to patrol all possible targets, so the Union just focused its efforts around focal nodes and cleared hyper-lanes.
At the center of all the chaos was Superstation Unity. In-between two relatively quiet stars that orbited each other in a stable binary pattern. It was impossible to clearly make out the polyhedral shape of the station because the whole thing was covered in solar collectors and massive skyscraper sized algae farms. Long spindly arms stretched far away from the station and made stable points for Super Freighters to dock and off load their cargo. The only clear portions of space were the two pentagonal holes that filtered in natural starlight, and smaller incoming ships.
All Union stations had internal berthing for ships smaller than the colossal super freighters to better protect from hit and run pirate attacks. That way any would be raider had to get through the station before they could hit their target. It also made for a more efficient offloading process. Cranes, cargo trains, and ready warehouses could offload a ship in only a few hours.
The Astaroth called into the busy space traffic controller and quickly arranged for a berth large enough, and an indeterminate stay. Then they slowly boosted into one of the traffic lanes and began the slow crawl towards the station. Speed was tightly controlled since one miscalculation could cause a hundred catastrophic collisions.
Aster and the rest of her bridge crew tensed up as they slowly passed only a hundred meters away from a Union cruiser. But the cruiser had no reason to suspect them. Most ships were allowed to fly armed as a deterrent against pirates, so it was perfectly legal for an armed warship to pull into port.
An hour later the ship approached the massive atmospheric retention field and passed through the electric blue layer of energy. Entering into a whole different world.
Above, below, across, and beside them was a megacity on a scale unlike anything Astarte had ever seen. The station was made of thirty-two flat sections, twelve pentagons, and twenty hexagons, forming a truncated icosahedron. Or at least that’s what Karega had called it. Each hexagonal section was home to a massive city. Apartments, utilities, offices, and shopping centers were densely packed onto their plates and connected with the most intricate transit system in galaxy. While the pentagonal sections played host to industrial sectors. Manufacturing, smelting, refinement, ship building, and warehouses. It looked like the shortest and flattest part of the station, but Astarte knew that those buildings went straight through the plate and poked out of the station’s exterior.
On a hexagonal section directly above them a massive silver tower that elevated a smaller hexagonal section into the center of the vast space. This smaller section was covered in wide open green spaces and a massive lake that made for a confusing view as it was directly above them. That was the Core, and it was supported by the Silver Tower that housed the station’s anti matter reactors, gravity generators, and control centers.
The Astaroth pulled in through the rest of the yawning portal and leveled off, now pulling horizontal with the current pentagonal section they were over. She felt an uncomfortable shift in her gut as the station’s gravity briefly interfered with the ship’s. They had booked a berth in industrial section 7, which meant they had to fly over three hexagonal plates.
Her ship was by no means small. The Astaroth was much longer than the original Missouri, or even the Bismarck. But she still felt minuscule against the backdrop of the industrial section, and even smaller against one of the mega-towers of Unity’s habitation sectors. It somewhat reminded her of that time they had dived into the upper atmosphere of a gas giant. Which she realized was the intent.
This station was massive, and a marvel of engineering. But it was also inefficient as fuck with its usage of space. There was so much empty space! A normal constellation array of standard Union stations would have been a much more efficient use of materials. But that was the point.
Like the monarchs who built grand monuments in their own honor. This station was built to aggrandize everything the Union idealized, wealth, power, and vanity. It had been around since the founding of the Union and had been growing with the Union. It had just finished a massive redesign and expansion by the time Earth made first contact, and in another hundred years it would have another.
This was the kind of foe they were facing, one who could waste this much time and resources to make a monument like this. It really hammered home just what kind of opponent they were facing.
Karega stepped up to her side “Impressive isn’t it.” he remarked.
Aster nodded; her normal snark kept in check. “You’ve been here before, right?”
He nodded, which jingled the golden frilly earrings he always wore. “Once, when my parents were still alive. We met with people who had more wealth than some planet’s GDP. At the time I could only marvel at how great the Union was, but now I see something different.”
“Oh?” Aster asked, it was rare to hear her lieutenant to be so introspective.
“Imagine how great things would be if the Union actually stood for the ideals they were founded by. If they really wanted to create one single prosperous galaxy where all sapient creatures could thrive then Earth would never have fallen like it did. We would have been better off without ever meeting the Union. What kind of Utopia is that?”
Aster snorted “I never understood Utopia’s. A world where no one killed, stole, or lied always seemed like a fantasy to me.”
“That’s because you’re a street rat who delights in her vices.” He retorted.
“And that’s the thing, there’s always going to be people like me. And when you concentrate all this wealth and power into one place those people are going to flock to it like moths to a flame, or rats on a corpse. Power doesn’t breed corruption; it just concentrates the inherently corrupt into one place.”
“Ever the pessimist.”
“Expect the worst, hope for better.” She retorted.
They remained in companionable silence as the ship made its way slowly across several city sections before they were above their berth. As they landed Astarte got a glimpse of some dark figure waiting at their mooring ramp. “Looks like we have a welcoming party, anyone you recognize?”
Karega looked out and scowled “Boogieman.” He muttered.
“I’m sorry what?”
He shook his head, “That’s just how Kora described them to me when I was a kid. Officially they’re the Anti Deathworlder crime Unit, a division of the Unity SS built specifically to handle deathworlders. They always where those big black coats and hide their faces with privacy filters, Kora told me to think of them as boogiemen and to never be alone with one. They’d beat a human’s face in for the crime of sneezing.”
“Hmm, I think I should go out to say hello.” Aster said, a mischievous grin pulling at her lips.
Karega sighed “I’ll rouse the horsemen.”
~~~*~~~
The Arbiter had sneered at the Astaroth after seeing its photo in the file, but they had to admit the real thing was very intimidating. Something within the Arbiter’s human instincts recognized that this ship was deadly. The ships lines were sleek like the edge of a blade, like it could cut through any enemy. The top deck bristled with cannons, auto turrets, and missile launchers. Their first impression of danger was only confirmed as the words on the side became visible, BC-01 Astaroth the Indomitable.
The Arbiter recognized the style of lettering from old photographs of human warships, the bold sharp lettering gave the Arbiter a strong impression of authority and power. This was a warship through and through. Which begged the question how space pirates had gotten their hands on something this imposing?
Could the shape and name be some sort of façade? Was it all for show, or did this ship have the power to back up its threatening visage? The Arbiter had met more than a few lowlifes who had tried to look tough but didn’t live up to their thuggish persona. The Arbiter wanted to believe these pirates were putting on a show and didn’t actually have any power, but some deep primal instincts warned that this ship was dangerous.
Dread stood to the Arbiter’s side; their cloak hiding every aspect of their Balikstro physiology except the height. A low growl that came out and was distorted by the collar “Are you sure these are just merchants?”
The Arbiter glared at the ship as it landed. “No, we have reason to suspect this ship for nefarious business, but those details are classified. For now treat this ship of Deathworlders as highly dangerous and volatile. As soon as it lands we will board and attempt to search and impound them. We can’t let them run about the station as they please.”
Dread tensed even more. They both knew exactly what wasn’t being said, but Dread knew that the Arbiter wouldn’t say anymore.
They and the other ADCU officers stood their ground as the dry dock’s mooring ramp linked with the ship’s upper deck, the moment it touched down the Arbiter stormed forward. But as soon as their foot touched the ramp a hatch on the ship swung open and a tall human female strode out and stood at the end of the ramp.
The women in question wore a maroon plate armor in the style of samurai armor the Arbiter had only seen on display in their parents’ home. She even had the two swords at her hips, a katana and wakizashi from the looks of it. She had dark black hair that fell like black silk and her eyes were deep black pools of midnight. One of her eyes was crossed with a crooked scar, marring her otherwise beautiful porcelain doll-like face. She wore an amused smirk as she stood in the Arbiter’s way, and the Arbiter could have sworn the woman’s eye had flashed red for a second.
First the ship had tipped off the Arbiter that something strange was afoot, but this woman confirmed that these deathworlders weren’t your average criminal. The women’s appearance and get up should have looked comical, but much like the sleek grey ship she gave off an air of danger. The samurai armor should have looked out of place, but instead the woman wore it like it was the most natural thing to wear in the age of faster than light technology. And the noticeable cuts, scrapes, burns, and dents told the Arbiter that this armor had seen more than its fair share of battle.
And those swords. The Arbiter had seen Judge practice his sword play plenty of times to know that in the right hands they could be deadlier than a gun. And something about how the space pirate walked told the Arbiter that she knew what she was doing.
The woman stopped in front of the boarding ramp, her feet slightly apart, and her body loose in the way that said she was ready for a fight.
The Arbiter continued their march before stopping in front of the woman, mere centimeters between them. “Move aside” the Arbiter ordered.
A slim eyebrow crept up, “I’m sorry but who are you? Because unless you are port officials here to check our cargo I’m afraid your trespassing.” She said smoothly. Her tone was polite, but unyielding.
“I am Officer Arbiter of the Anti-deathworlder crime unit.” The Arbiter began.
“I see, and where’s your warrant?” the pirate interrupted.
The Arbiter blinked in shock under their privacy field “What?”
Her eyebrow crept up a little higher “Well you can’t board my ship without a warrant, and I don’t see a warrant.” Challenge now creeped into her voice, and the Arbiter felt a familiar unease in their stomach. This women was just as tricky and crooked as Alexandra, twisting words to her own intent.
“If you do not move aside I will charge you with obstruction of justice.” The Arbiter growled. They hadn’t had time to attain a warrant, and if this women didn’t step aside they would have to arrest her and continue with their search. It would add a load of paperwork onto the Arbiter’s desk, but so long as they found some evidence of piracy then they could lock these scum up and be done with the whole thing.
“Obstruction of what justice” a new voice croaked out. From the shadows of the hatch an old and withered human male stepped out. He wore a grim gray set of robes that reminded the Arbiter of grave keepers and undertakers. “Because unless you have a valid reason then I’ll have to ask you not to threaten my clients with illegal arrests.”
The Arbiter shifted their glare “And who are you?”
“Mr. Famine will do, I am a recognized personal defense lawyer and I am officially warning you that everything on this deck is being recorded.” The man said softly as he soundlessly stalked over to the women’s side.
Dread stepped up “We are here to carry out an investigation, step aside”
“I see” the lawyer said amiably “Well as soon as you can produce a warrant we’ll be happy to stand aside.” No one moved. “No warrant, well then I’m afraid that we will not allow you to step aboard this ship without one. And since there are no evident crimes being committed in plain view you cannot legally arrest my client since there’s no justice to obstruct.”
The Arbiter felt their anger burn brighter, if there was one thing they hated above all else was people using the law to shield their illegal actions. The law was there to protect normal people and punish criminals like these humans, it wasn’t meant to be a shield against law enforcement. “Why are you acting so suspicious” the Arbiter growled. “if you have nothing to hide then there’s no reason we can’t come aboard.”
The women focused her two black eyes on the Arbiter, and they could have sworn that one of them flashed red “We have nothing to hide, but there’s also no reason for you to come aboard. And I’ll remind you that the assertion of my rights is not probable cause.”
The Arbiter scowled uselessly at the women before promptly turning around and walking down the ramp without a final word.
They could have arrested the two of them and proceeded with their search, but that interaction told the Arbiter something very important. These pirates weren’t stupid, and there likely wasn’t anything for them to find. If they didn’t find anything then these pirates would have all the ammunition they needed to restrict the investigation against them. And if the department tried to back up the Arbiter’s action then the courts would force them to reveal the details of the case and why they suspected this ship of illegal activity. Which would have tipped off Kenzo.
This investigation was getting more and more complicated by the day.
~~~*~~~
Astarte watched the ‘boogiemen’ stalk away angrily. She had used the UV ability of her eye to peer through the holographic privacy screens to look directly at their faces. The lead one, the Arbiter, was a pretty African women with features that seemed more common in western Africa than the East where Astarte grew up. The one on the left had been a Balikstro without any of the traditional bone plating they wore. The rest were Carkic and Kaydic, but since they hadn’t spoken Aster hadn’t tried to memorize their faces.
Karega stepped up to her side “That was suspicious.”
Aster nodded “They were definitely too forceful; I think they know something. Massacres tend to stir up trouble, they may have learned our names from investigating the massacre of our insurance company.”
“Yeah, unfortunately we’d have to break in to learn what they know. We’re good, but we wont be able to sneak in unnoticed.”
Aster agreed, but the idea of probing the SS for info stayed in her mind. “Too messy, not while we still have other options. Are things all set on your end?”
Karega smiled “Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Heart were happy to hear I’ve come back to Unity all grown up and they’re very interested in our company’s growth.”
She sighed “These people better be worth the hassle.”
“They’ll be closer to the heads of Amaterasu than our under-world connections.”
“I wouldn’t doubt the shadow league if I were you. They likely already know we’re here and why.”
“I promise it’ll be worth the hassle.”
“Whatever, I need to go freshen up. Can’t have the high society of Unity see me in my armor.”
“Oh yes, whatever will they say when they see your wearing last season’s armor” Karega said with mock snobbery.
Aster snorted.
Previous/Next

Empire of the Ghouls - Gothic Horror 5E - Kobold Press: Midgard setting - Levels 2-13

About the adventure

The Empire of Ghouls, a dark and foreboding setting in the lands of Midgard where danger lurks around every corner and the dead don't stay buried. The city of Zobeck is in turmoil as citizens go missing without a trace, leaving the streets in a state of panic. But rumors have surfaced of elaborate catacombs beneath the city's streets that may hold the key to the mystery. Those brave enough to explore them, however, must be prepared to face the horrors that dwell within.
Will you adventurers have what it takes to uncover the truth and put an end to the ghoulish workings that threaten the city's very existence? In this world, the undead rule supreme and their insatiable hunger for flesh is matched only by their desire for power. The living are little more than fodder for their insidious plots, and only the strongest and most cunning can hope to survive.
The Empire of Ghouls is a land of danger and adventure, where fortunes are made and lost in the blink of an eye. Will your party be the ones to rise to the challenge and emerge victorious, or will they fall prey to the darkness that lurks beneath the city streets? The fate of Zobeck and its citizens rests in their hands.

Additional Details

Game info, times, link, pricing :

• Tuesdays @ 6:00 PM Pacific / 9:00 PM Eastern UTC: 01:00
• Empire of the Ghouls - StartPlayingGames Invite
• Price per session: $15 with a free session 0.
• Currently we have 3 players and need 1-2 seats to be filled

How to prepare

You will need a microphone, the Discord chat app, and a Roll 20 account (the free one is fine). Characters will be created during Session 0 once we go over the setting and available options.

What I provide

• 👹 Gothic-Horror adventure setting spanning all of Midgard. 18+ only.
• 🧙🏿‍♂️ Dozens of new subclasses, spells, weapons, feats and backgrounds - all gaming material provided digitally.
• 🧌 Tired of Forgotten Realms setting? Welcome to Midgard!
• 🗡️ Levels 2-13+, event-based (milestone) experience
• 🔮 Factions & side adventures
• 🔫 Black powder technology and non-magical weapon variants available
• 👨‍🎤 Downtime activities and RP via play-by-post on Discord to bring flavor and actual bonuses to the table
• 💡Dynamic lighting on battle maps for extra immersion
• 🪄 Bonus starting items for a well-developed character background and concept
• 🎙️ Discord, microphone and Roll20 account needed (you can just use a free account, all source material provided
• 🆓 Free session 0 for character creation, setting overview, background tie-ins and intro to Roll20/Discord
• 🚧 Discord and game invite sent via StartPlaying messages
• 🆕 New player friendly

Gameplay details

• 📗 Lines and Veils doc will be linked on Discord
• 💬 Players will have private channels on Discord to discuss any issues discreetly
• 🏆 Role-Play award bonuses voted on by party
• 🗳️ Player voted campaign dynamics

Content warnings

• Alcohol Use
• Blood
• Body Horror
• Classism
• Death
• Drugs (addiction, use, withdrawal)
• Execution
• Gore
• Mind alteration
• Mutilation
• Racial Profiling
• Snakes
• Spiders
• Talk of Superior Race
• Torture

Safety tools used

• Breaks
• Lines and Veils
• Open Door
• Session 0
• Stars and Wishes
• X, N, and O Cards

How will character creation work

• 🎲 Characters will be created on the Roll20 platform and finalized in Session 0.
• 📚 Players will have access to a variety of compendium resources to build from or they may use pre-generated templates for quick character creation.
• 🔺 Characters will start the campaign at Level 2. Standard array (recommended) or point-buy. If you're new to D&D and not sure how to manually create characters or use Roll 20, we can schedule a meeting and I will take you through the process at no charge.

Players can expect

• Combat/Tactics: High
• Roleplay: Medium
• Puzzles: Medium
• Experience Level: Open to all

It's been over a decade since I've done much desktop PC building or upgrading and I could use some help and feedback. I want a machine that I can sort of throw anything at it and have it not really blink. I got a promotion last year and a sizeable bonus this year that was unexpected, so I'm willing to spend up a bit even if it's overkill. It's hard for me to go too nuts, so I'd like to stay around or below $3k.
I don't currently play any games on PC, but I play often on XB and PS, so I'll very likely end up playing on PC too. Because of that, I'd like it to have some strong gaming capability. I have been very interested in getting into VR, and will likely get PSVR2 soon but would like to factor future VR gaming on the PC into the equation (in case it matters for GPU selection). This is primarily for work, which I typically need three monitors and have a ton of browser tabs and some other applications open. I do some light programming and running a virtual machine or two isn't strictly necessary, but it shouldn't be out of the question. No streaming or video editing, the camera is just for all the video meetings.
I tend to get stuck on what graphics card to go with at this point. I was leaning toward 7900 XT or XTX because I've seen lots of comments about games getting sizeable and even 4070 (what I was originally targeting) won't have enough RAM to keep up with how big some of the games are getting. However, I've also seen comments about how good DLSS 3 is and that AMD cards have driver and reliability issues compared to Nvidia. While I'm fine with troubleshooting and fixing stuff, I want my stuff to work. I don't have the time or energy to fight with my stuff every day or for weeks on end. Part of the reason I'm going overboard is because the laptop I'm working on is having issues more and more often and it's driving me up a wall. That being said, I also have difficulty justifying half or 2/3rds of my budget on a 4080 or 4090. I'm sure I could be easily convinced, but it's hard for me to make that jump.
The only thing I've actually bought from the build below are the hard drives. But please take a look and tell me if there are any issues with what I have picked out and please help convince me which card I should go with so I can finally start building this thing!
Edit: Updated parts list based on everyone's comments and feedback so far. (Thanks for the help!)
PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel Core i7-13700K 3.4 GHz 16-Core Processor	$399.99 @ Newegg
CPU Cooler	be quiet! Pure Loop 280 Liquid CPU Cooler	$104.90 @ Amazon
Motherboard	MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard	$289.99 @ B&H
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory	$142.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Crucial P5 Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	$122.99 @ B&H
Storage	Crucial P5 Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	$122.99 @ B&H
Video Card	MSI VENTUS 3X GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB Video Card	$1189.00 @ Amazon
Case	Fractal Design Meshify 2 ATX Mid Tower Case	$159.99 @ B&H
Power Supply	MSI MPG A850G PCIE5 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$144.99 @ Amazon
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 11 Pro OEM - DVD 64-bit	$139.98 @ Other World Computing
Case Fan	ARCTIC P14 PST 72.8 CFM 140 mm Fans 5-Pack	$47.12 @ Amazon
Webcam	Logitech C920s HD Pro Webcam	$59.99 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$2924.92
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-03-23 15:15 EDT-0400

Original Build:
PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel Core i9-13900K 3 GHz 24-Core Processor	$559.99 @ Newegg
CPU Cooler	ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 420 A-RGB 68.9 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$155.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard	MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard	$289.99 @ B&H
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory	$309.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Crucial P5 Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	$122.99 @ B&H
Storage	Crucial P5 Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	$122.99 @ B&H
Video Card	ASRock Radeon RX 7900 XT 20GB Radeon RX 7900 XT 20 GB Video Card	$849.99 @ Newegg
Case	Fractal Design Meshify 2 ATX Mid Tower Case	$159.99 @ B&H
Power Supply	Corsair RM1000e 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$179.99 @ Newegg
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 11 Pro OEM - DVD 64-bit	$139.98 @ Other World Computing
Webcam	Logitech C922 Pro Stream HD Webcam	$86.99 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$2978.88
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-03-22 20:38 EDT-0400

No sound coming through the headset, blinking light on the station alternating between white and red.
The headset is powered though, at least the typical white light is on.
Worked fine yesterday, arrived from work today and this suddenly happened.

Hi everyone! I'm posting a post that I enjoyed drafting. Thinking that the FIRE Duelist Pack hasn't arrived yet, I thought I'd elaborate a complete list of the characters and their related supports that could appear in the Duelist Pack in question. I don't necessarily remember them all, but in case something is missing you could point it out in the comments.
Here is my list of all ones that in my memory could have a place in the FIRE Duelist Pack, also counting that sometimes Konami can choose archetypes that maybe have a single FIRE monster inside, divided by series and indistinctly from who is more likely or not, with annexed explanation:
​
DM:
Joey WheeleKatsuya Jounoichi - As first for DM there could only be him. Joey doesn't exactly have a FIRE deck, but he does have two monsters of that attribute that could start with a retraining: Fire Swordsman and Lord of the Red. In both cases, they would probably support the Red-Eyes archetype (which already has another FIRE monster inside, Meteor Black Dragon), with the former possibly helping the strategy already introduced in the first Duelist Pack in the previous series based on Red-Eyes and Warrior monsters.
Nezbitt/Soichiro Ota - As a member of the Big 5, Nezbitt has impersonate the Deck Master card Robotic Knight, with a Machine deck based on Machine King and Perfect Machine King. Robotic Knight is a FIRE monster, and probably if he and the normal monsters of his deck gets a retraining, as well as the two Machine Kings, would receive a retraining similar to what Mako's WATER monsters got.
Noah Kaiba - His two Spirit boss monsters, Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi and Yamata Dragon, are both FIRE, and they also have some pretty powerful effects. Other Noah cards already exist in the TCG/OCG, which may be enough to get those cards back to useful retrains to create a good strategy based on his from the anime.
Bandit Keith - Well, there's not much to say about him, his deck isn't even really FIRE, but since Laucher Spider is a FIRE monster it might be a small incentive to see him something related to the support already obtained in the past Duelist Packs (after Ishizu I expect everything...).
Rebecca Howkins - Rebecca also has at least one FIRE monster in her arsenal (Fire Princess), and unlike Keith she has built an entire strategy around it based on gaining Life Points and dealing damage at the same time. Unlikely, but insertable among the candidates.
GX:
Axel Brodie/Austin O'Brien - The GX series already offers a better candidate, as well as one of the possibilities that could more concretely take its place in the Duelist Pack. Axel has a Volcanic deck full of FIRE monsters and Pyro just waiting to receive supports, they already have the devastating play with the last one Blaze Accelerator and Volcanic Scattershot and with the right retraining and much more powerful bosses (probably Fusion monsters, since he's a GX character) he has all the credentials to get a great evolution of his deck. Furthermore, since the description of the Pack also speaks of the manga, it should be noted that Axel also had FIRE monsters there and especially The Blazing Mars, which could be "joined" to the monsters he already used in the anime to form an even stronger strategy.
Chazz Princeton/Manjoume Jun - Some might be surprised to see this guy, but since we were also talking about the manga it must be said that Chazz owned both Dragonic Knight and the new Burning Dragon recently released as a promo. Could then be born a union of some kind with the Armed Dragons of the anime, or something that would involve Light and Darkness Dragon as in the manga...?
Daigo Sorano - Probably almost nobody will remember this individual, having appeared in just two duels (one of which was broken, in which he was actually a transformed Trueman but with the same exact deck of Sorano), but his deck contained the series of Horus, the Black Flame Dragon and he gave Jaden a lot of trouble before being beaten. Probably getting an Armed Dragon Thunder-style redevelopment it wouldn't be difficult to make the fearsome Horus LV8 something really incisive, being a sort of one-sided Jinzo for spells.
Syrus Trusdale/Marofuji Sho - Believe it or not, this guy had a FIRE monster-based strategy that he used very effectively against Hassleberry, based around Rescueroid and Ambulance Rescueroid in tandem with Decoyroid and Ambulanceroid. This is also unlikely, but if we included Bandit Keith for a single FIRE monster why not include him too?
5D'S:
Hunter Pace/Enjo Mukuro - And here is finally one of my favorite options after Joey: Pace really used a strategy related to FIRE monsters, and his three main cards have already entered the game we know. Also, with Duelist Nexus' support for Yusei, the mechanics around "Speed ​​World counters" have expanded, so his Speed ​​Accel Deck could be reborn through the upgrading of cards such as Speed ​​Booster and his Burning Skull cards.
Akiza Izinski/Izayoi Aki - Little to say here, Black Rose Dragon and its latest evolution are FIRE monsters and are the most important cards in its deck, moreover if they were to give an errata to Phoenixian Cluster Amaryliss they could expand the strategy on the burn side in a similar way to the one already seen in the anime on his part.
GreigeBoomer - Here's another duelist who certainly doesn't mind explosions: Greiger didn't exactly have a FIRE deck in the anime, but in the manga the story was quite different. Blaze Phoenix, the Bombardment Bird was his ace monster in that context, and has been the protagonist over the years of some FTK strategies involving Fusion Gate or other cards. Originally, in the manga his strategy was to fuse Machine monsters with Pyro monsters also TAKEN FROM THE EXTRA DECK to deal massive amounts of damage to the opponent. Since that deck was part Machine, I don't see it unlikely as a merger with its Reactor monsters from the anime, which are also focused on dealing damage.
ZEXAL:
Alito/Arito - Here too I have listed only few options, but good ones, since both are two users of FIRE monsters: Alito in particular is another most popular contender for Duelist Pack, given that his deck is totally FIRE, with Battlin' Boxers which in the original name also have "Burning" branded in their name. His is a battle focused strategy, if his deck received new Xyz and ways to narrow the opponent's range at the Battle Phase could probably deal much better with their opponent and knock them out.
Devon Knox/Daisuke Katagiri - Another face not really known, but his deck is FIRE... with Beast-Warrior and Warrior monsters... focused on drawing and at the same time inflicting huge damage to the opponent, also using disproportionate attack levels like that of Ultimatrainer to keep the opponent at bay. Plus it also has some anime cards that can be imported for Animation Chronicle, if I'm not mistaken, certainly a good, if unlikely, contender.
ARC-V:
Dennis McField/Dennis Mackfield - The last two series, and I would start from the two options for Arc-V. Dennis has a burn protection based half-Pendulum Performage deck that relies on stacking a lot of Xyz monsters on the table and giving them more attacks with Trapeze Magician, while alternating between damage protection and damage inflicted on the opponent in some cases. Flame Heater and Plushfire are FIRE monsters, but the latter was banned some time ago, and since the deck only has these two as monsters of that attribute I doubt they would errata or would unban Plushfire for such a poorly known option at level of show. However, I wouldn't rule out the possibility.
Jack Atlas (Arc-V) - He certainly could not be missing, the KING. Despite the fact that his boss monsters are all DARK monsters, many of the monsters the Arc-V incarnation of the character used - those from the Red series - were FIRE monsters, including the Synchro Monster Red Wyvern. Personally I find it a bit unlikely that this character will get support, having Konami just announced a new Structure Deck dedicated to his 5D's original counterpart (which I have intentionally not included above because of this fact), but since they are technically two different characters we could see a support with a further evolution of Red Dragon Archfiend Scarlight or Red-Wyvern that makes his strategy even more destructive.
Vrains:
SoulburneTheodore Hamilton/Takeru Homura - Here is the last character, but certainly not least, on the contrary: this is probably the most obvious as regards the cover of the Duelist Pack Duelist of Explosion, although it is not yet confirmed. Soulburner and its Salamangreat deck are quite established in the show of their series, plus Salamangreat was also been a part of the meta for quite some time. Currently the deck is no longer at the level it had in the past, but it remains highly usable and a new support can only give it new fuel to burn. Considering that in the anime his most powerful monster was Pyro Phoenix, it is not said that Konami would not find a way to make it particularly more exploitable than it is now, but an evolution of his style of play is not excluded either: he will get a LINK-5 like its Playmaker and Revolver colleagues? Or a Reincarnation Synchro Summon, the only summon he lacks besides Pendulum? Only time will tell, but it certainly is the safest theme for its hypothetical support.
​
And this was my personal list. Do you agree with all possible ideas proposed? Or is there anyone else I should have listed that I didn't take into account? Let me know what you think, if you feel like it, and if you have any more proposals that have not appeared, in any case, I thank you just for visiting the post. See you soon.

Father Thomas lowered his eyes to the velvet cushion on which he was seated. He traced his fingertip along its embroidery, following every intricate cross and curve. Much like the rest of the confessional, the cushion was well-worn, with broken threads that poked out from its stitching, inviting a destructive tug from the absentminded. The priest’s actions were more deliberate than that. He was stalling, passing time in the awkward silence that often followed his pointed questions. Passing time, until —
“It was Alexis, Father. Alexis Mackey,” said the voice beyond the partition.
Ah.
The man on the other side was Frank Altezza. The two of them had their early fifties in common, but little else. Frank was a loud man who drove a loud Mustang and who refused to admit that he’d aged past his prime. He was also crying. This was not uncommon in the confessional, but Father Thomas had not outgrown his distaste for it.
“I didn’t want to,” said Frank. “I just —“
“Of course you did,” said Father Thomas.
“What?”
“There was no one holding a gun to your head. There was no fortune to be made in the deed. What, other than a deep desire of the flesh, could have made you do such a thing?”
“I just — you know, I never meant for it to go this far.”
“Yes you did, Frank. And if you can’t be honest with yourself, how can you expect to be honest with Michelle?”
“Father —“ Frank’s face became clouded. “You can’t make me tell her.”
“Reconciliation and repentance go hand-in-hand.”
“It’ll crush her.”
“And the pain you both experience will make you less likely to sin again.”
“She’ll leave.”
“She won’t. But even if she does, far better that than to live with a lie. That’s your penance, Frank. You need to tell her and apologize. And you also need to apologize to Alexis.”
“Alexis should apologize to me!”
That was loud. Too loud. Others waiting outside might have heard it.
“Enough. She’s half your age and you indulged in your in your brokenness together. Own your sin and apologize.”
Frank took a moment to compose himself. “Yes, Father.”
“God has heard you. I absolve you of your sins in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Go in peace.”
“Amen. Thank you, Father.” Frank crossed himself and stood. He pushed aside the scarlet curtain and Father Thomas watched as he stepped out of the confessional, taking the chip on his shoulder with him.
Frank was what the priest had come to think of as an identity Catholic. He’d come to know many of them in his six years at Our Lady of Virtue Parish. These were members of the Church who, though excellent at ritual, were lacking in faith. They prayed the Rosary. They attended Mass. He presided over their Catholic weddings and their children’s baptisms. When he presided over their Catholic funerals, however, he found himself wondering at their fates. And on that note, he often wondered if he was doing the Franks of the world a disservice, providing absolution when they’d just be screwing the Alexis’s of the world by the weekend and asking for forgiveness before the month was out. He wondered if he ought to care more.
He remembered caring a lot more, back when he was an associate priest in New Hampshire. Now, leading a church in Brooklyn, those memories seemed faded and distant, almost as if they belonged to someone else.
Well, it had been a few minutes. Perhaps that was the rest of it for the afternoon and he would finally be able to return home and shut off for a while. Father Thomas rose from his velvet cushion and pushed through the curtain before him, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the light of the sanctuary.
The priest no longer saw the beauty of the place, the majesty that struck most people when they visited. It was the cracked panes of stained glass that drew his attention now, as did the water-damaged ceiling plaster, the chipped baptismal font, and the ever-growing rows of empty pews at Mass, which meant repairs were unlikely to come anytime soon. The pews were all empty today, of course. All except one.
The priest shifted his attention to a lone figure seated a few rows back from where he stood. The man was younger, early thirties. His head was lowered, his shoulders drawn in, and he was clothed in a worn, gray sweater that hung from his body like a shroud. Without looking up, the man spoke, “Father, you think maybe you’ve got time for me?”
Jesus would have taken pity on the man. Father Thomas felt only a slight irritation. But he had a duty and he had an obligation, and so he gestured with palms wide open and said, “Of course, come on in.”
The priest turned and stepped back into the confessional, pulling the curtain closed behind him. He sat on the velvet cushion and rolled his shoulders back, preparing his mind for what would hopefully be his last session of the day.
Light filtered into the other side of the booth as a bandaged hand pulled open the curtain — the priest hadn’t noticed it behind the pew. The younger man stepped inside, the floor groaning under his weight. Even through the partition, it was clear he had a more powerful build than his clothing had let on. He knelt before the screen, crossed himself, and spoke softly, “Bless me Father, for I have sinned.”
“God is with us and will hear you,” said the priest. “How long has it been since your last confession?”
“It’s been, uh…” The man trailed off.
“It’s okay — there’s no need to be ashamed.”
“Father, I honestly don’t know how to answer your question.”
That was a strange thing to say, but strange things were often said inside the confessional. “Well, have you had confession before?”
“I’m, uh — I’m sorry, Father. I have memories of confession, you know. But I…” He trailed off again.
“What’s your name?” asked Father Thomas. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around.”
“Daniel Walsh. And no, I’ve never attended Mass in New York.”
“But you are baptized within the Church?”
“I’m sorry — I’m sure this frustrating —“
“Daniel, I’m happy to meet with you, but the sacrament of confession is for those who have received a Catholic baptism.”
“Look, I remember Mass, my Confirmation — all of it.”
“So you were baptized, then.”
“I just don’t know if it was real.”
The priest shifted in his seat. It was becoming clear how this was going to go and it would be best to simply get on with it. “Why don’t you tell me what’s troubling you,” said Father Thomas.
Daniel gave a meek nod, hesitated a moment, then spoke. “I killed someone, Father.”
The priest gave a slow, solemn nod. He’d heard more than one grave sin confessed during his time in the city and it was best not to react too strongly. After allowing a moment of silence to pass, he said, “The Lord Jesus Christ died for all of our sins, Daniel. When did this happen?”
“Today. A couple hours ago, maybe.”
“Tell me more.”
“If it’s all right with you, Father, I’d really prefer not to.”
Father Thomas did his best to disguise his impatience. “The nature of Christ’s forgiveness is that it requires repentance. Repentance requires remorse. If you’re unable to speak —“
“I feel remorse, Father,” his voice was at a near-whisper. “I’m not a killer, you know? I’m… a janitor.”
“Where do you work?”
“The, uh — the U.N.,” said Daniel. He was caught off-guard by the priest’s shift in conversation, which had been exactly the point of it.
“Wow,” said Father Thomas. “They put you through a background check for a job like that?”
Daniel nodded. “Yeah, I got fingerprinted and stuff…”
“And you said you’d never attended Mass in New York before. Where are you from?”
“South Dakota. Outside Aberdeen. You know, flyover country.”
“That’s got to be a culture shock.”
“Yeah. For sure.” Daniel gave a slight, sad smile.
“What brought you out here?”
“A girl. I think. Maybe. I don’t know — we’re not together now.”
That was a misstep. Time to steer the conversation back. “So you’re a midwestern guy with a spotless record.”
Daniel nodded. “Until now, I guess.”
“Tell me what happened, Daniel.”
“Father, I —“
“It’s okay.”
Daniel shook his head. “You don’t understand. I’m scared of what I might do.”
“Give your fear over to God and tell me what’s on your heart.”
Daniel swallowed and drew in a deep breath, but said nothing. Father Thomas turned his attention away from his confessant and instead focused on the familiar feel of the pad of his middle finger against velvet. He let it glide along the raised, golden stitching, following the trance of its pattern until —
“It was a kid,” started Daniel. He took a moment to collect his thoughts, then continued, “He was on one of those one-wheel skateboard things - you know what I’m talking about?”
Father Thomas nodded, but said nothing.
“I was walking back home from the station and I didn’t hear him ‘cause I had my ear buds in. He was going at a pretty good clip and I guess I must have crossed in front of him — I don’t know — and his backpack caught on my pinky finger. Ripped all the skin clean off.”
Daniel raised his bandaged hand for show. It seemed remarkably clean for such a recent and serious wound. He continued, becoming emotional, “Something came over me — I can’t describe it. I had no control. I pulled him off the sidewalk, into an alley — there was this brick on the ground nearby and I just grabbed it and —“ Daniel let out a sob.
Father Thomas gave him a moment, then quietly said, “Go on.”
“I smashed it into his face over and over and over again, until there was nothing left but flaps of skin and teeth and bits of bone and — oh, fuck,” he sobbed. “There was so much blood. I’m sorry, Father.”
“Christ is here with us, Daniel,” said the priest, keeping the steadiest tone he could muster. “Do you think anyone saw you?”
“I don’t know — I didn’t see anyone.”
“What did you do with the body?”
“I got scared. I just left him there. God, I don’t even know who he was! He was just a kid and —”
“Daniel,” said Father Thomas, cutting him off. “I’m going to slide open the partition.”
“Okay…” Daniel wiped his face dry with his sleeve.
Father Thomas slid the screen aside. He glanced over Daniel’s body, then locked eyes with him. “You mentioned a couple times not being sure of what’s real. I don’t see a drop of blood on you.”
“I told you, I was close to home. I went back to clean up and take care of my hand.”
“Did you go to the hospital?”
“No — I was scared.”
“There’s no blood on that bandage of yours.”
The look on Daniel’s face was one of terror. “You don’t believe me.”
“I’m just trying to help you find the truth.”
“Father, please - I must have forgiveness.”
“Then show me your hand.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if there were nothing to be forgiven?”
“I killed a kid, Father. Please.”
“Then unwrap that bandage and show me a finger missing its skin.”
Daniel stared back at the priest, the emotions in his eyes at once frightening and indecipherable. Father Thomas remained steadfast.
Daniel sighed. He picked at the end of the medical tape that was wrapped around his bandage. “Up until this afternoon,” he said, “I thought I was just another guy.” He unwound the tape and continued, “Not a whole lot to me, but at least I knew who I was.” He pulled off the last of the tape and dropped it in a coil to the floor. “Now…” and he trailed off as he removed the gauze.
Beneath the bandage was a hand with a pinky finger missing its skin. In place of bone and tissue and tendon, however, was a polished, metallic skeleton. Daniel curled the finger and regarded it as if it belonged to someone else. “Can a robot go to Heaven, Father?”
“I can only hope so,” said Father Thomas.
“What?”
“God has heard you. I absolve you of your sins in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
Daniel’s eyes lost their focus. He collapsed to the floor with a heavy thump, his killswitch activated by the same coded message that every other dutiful android had encountered inside the confessional. Androids who’d been discovered, who’d killed those that had discovered them, and who’d been driven by their faith to seek forgiveness for their deeds.
Father Thomas rose from his seat and stepped out into the cavernous sanctuary. He scanned the pews and the altar and the balconies. All were empty and all was silent, save the soft scratching of the door mice behind the organ pipes. The priest walked the short distance to the door that led to the back hallway. He turned its ancient glass knob and opened it slowly, minimizing the creak it made.
Leaving the door open, he returned to the confessional and pushed back the curtain on Daniel’s side. The android’s body lay there, crumpled and lifeless, as it would be until its memory had been wiped and replaced. The priest stooped down and picked it up, throwing the four-hundred-pound hulk over his shoulder as he might a couple choir robes.
He wondered at what this one’s role had been as he carried it into the back hallway, toward the stairs to the basement, where he would zip it into a black duffle-bag that would be picked up by morning. Maybe it had been a spy, unknowingly recording video feed to be used at some other time. Maybe it was would-be assassin, foiled by a child on a too-powerful skateboard. Questions that would remain unanswered, of course, just as so many had been unanswered before them. Questions that were the territory of other men. Or perhaps they were not men. Father Thomas did not know and he did not care. It would be enough for him to go home and shut off for a while.

Hello everyone, I have a problem with the power supply on my pvm, maybe someone can help, it does not turn on, the power saving light blinks, I changed all the capacitors, this is the voltage the power supply gives:
1 pin - 5.9v
2 pin - 4.9v
4 pin - 155v
6 pin - 17v
10 pin - 19.8v
and
top three-pin connector - 216v (where it should be it seems to me 160v)
https://imgur.com/a/BzIs2o8
Power supply circuit:
https://imgur.com/a/iXm15en
video how it turns on now:
https://youtube.com/shorts/bhYls0jKDNc
I really hope someone can help