Self defense classes bel air md
What Should You Expect From Defense Driving Classes?
2023.04.01 11:20 Leading-Wear9458 What Should You Expect From Defense Driving Classes?
These classes are designed to equip students with the knowledge and abilities they need to travel the road with self-assurance and safety. Most of these classes are available on a varied timetable to better suit the needs of students with active schedules. There are now even Virgina Driving School that will pick up and drop off pupils at their homes or places of employment.
What Should You Expect From Defense Driving Classes?
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What Should You Expect From Defense Driving Classes?
2023.04.01 11:12 ShadowDragon8685 [Ace is the Only Sane Pirate 17]Breaking Out like a Rolling Stone.
"About time!" Lu t'Cca thundered at her. "Split find hiding spot!
Najia backpedaled, giving the irate Split prisoner plenty of room to get past without coming into arms' length of her. At least he seemed to get that this was a prison break, and he made no move for her or her firearm, darting well clear of her, and out from the cell block.
Axiom's voice cut the sudden quiet that was otherwise punctuated only by her racing heart. "While you two were chatting, I've found a way to temporarily disable security in the hangar. That's where we'll hitch our ride. Head for the second level; the Ministry seems to have installed more switches. They'll require some adjustment, but I know you love a good puzzle." Najia snorted. She did, in fact, love a good puzzle, but breaking out of a prison was not the time to indulge in that. Usually. Unless one looked at the prison as the puzzle. She shook her head, huffing, and drew her pistol again. There was no marked pathway this time, but she made better time; it was reckless, but she jogged, since the place was seemingly totally unguarded. And, if it wasn't, chances were that Lucca would run into the guards first, and she'd hear the struggle ahead. She passed the lift, glancing towards it, and hurrying past in the other direction she hadn't been yet, coming to a door. Slowing, she closed enough with it that it opened automatically.
Najia let out a huff; Lu t'Cca was on the other side, but so was Axiom. She stepped forward, and looked from Axiom, who nodded to her, to Lucca, who snarled. "Creature reveal Split hiding spot! Creature nothing better to do?" This is a hiding spot? Najia shook her head; the two of them were literally standing in the middle of an intersection, in front of an airlock with two branches off on either side. She huffed, looking at Lu t'Cca. "Hey, Mellerd said -"
"Split not talk about friend-foes!" Lucca ranted. "Kriss went against family! Betrayal followed petty betrayal! Way of Windfall, yes. Way of some Split, maybe, but not how real warriors do revenge!" He made a guttural sound of anguish, shaking his head vehemently. Kris? He was on a first-name basis with her? The fact that Ace had spoken so frankly of xenosexual encounters popped into her head, the constant talk of betrayal, pettiness, personal matters, and suddenly it was obvious; somehow, this was personal. Personal; and none of her damn business. She held her hand up placatingly, holstering her other pistol, trusting to Axiom's physical presence to keep peace between her and Lucca. "Fine. I'll leave you to it," she said. "Split thought so," Lu t'Cca spat, looking back to Axiom. She looked to Axiom as well. "Switches, Wildcard. Get to it."
Najia nodded, and darted down the left-hand branch of the intersection, fuming all the while. It ran into a dead-end, and she uttered "ah fuck," turning and sprinting in the other direction, slaloming between Maestro and Lucca. At the end, she dead-ended there, and exasperated raised her voice, "the hell?!" Back in the middle, she examined the airlock carefully; she could see that it connected to nothing, which is why she discounted it previously. Carefully she moved into the airlock, her hand on her pistol just in case Lucca tried to kill her by cycling it, but he and Axiom seemed to be in the process of discussing old times.
Exasperated, Najia stepped back out of the airlock. "Axiom, where are these buttons you're talking about? How are we supposed to get out of here?" "Er..." Axiom blinked, tri-ocularly, at her, and looked around. He looked at his datapad. "They should be... Through..." He let out a discontent rumble. "Oh my. That is not obvious on a computer systems diagram schematic." "They're on the other side of the frigging airlock," Najia said. "You're probably already aware that humans can't survive in vacuum, let alone maneuver in it, right?" She snorted, her sarcasm at least getting a sheepish shuffle on his long legs out of Axiom. "Can we get out the way we came back in? Even if it means abandoning the Raven?"
"No," Axiom said gravely. "The tampering I did to activate the cell block doors will be caught by someone sooner or later - probably later than sooner, but sooner if we try to leave the cell block." "Split has been implanted with a tracking device," Lucca growled. "It will raise quite the ruckus when Split leave the cell block!" "If we're leaving by... Unconventional mechanisms, that will be no trouble," Axiom noted. "But if we enter the lift, it will lock down and security will be summoned immediately."
"Outstanding," Najia huffed. "Let me double-check something, see if I can think of something." She turned and left the way she had come from. She bypassed the lift; she had no intention of simply bailing on them. But now, she had two options. Neither was good, but one was significantly less good, so she hoped the other option worked. She opened a channel to Boso Ta. "Boso Ta, I hope to hell you've been listening in." "I have, Assistant!" Boso Ta's voice came through loud and clear. "You are in quite the conundrum. I hope you see a manner in which I may be able to extricate you, for I do not." "You and the Professor have been upgrading teleporters with the ability to upgrade themselves. To do so, you've been transporting equipment, right?" "Hai!" Professor Nakagawa's voice cut in. Clearly he was on the line. "This capability is within our grasp. What is your proposal, Takio-San?" "Can you teleport my EV suit to me?"
There was silence for a long few moments which felt like an eternity. "Potentially," Boso Ta broke the silence. "Have it placed in one of our lifts." "I'll get right on that," Marta cut in on the line. Najia smiled to hear her voice. "Any other requirements?" "If this will work, we will need very precise measurements," Professor Nakagawa said. "The teleporter is more your project than mine, Boso Ta. My thought is that it will require at least three triangulating vessels, and a beacon, and a substantial amount of open space." "Will an empty cell block do for that," Najia asked, hustling down the corridor. "It should yes... Yes! That will work." Rei Stringer cut in on the call, and Najia blinked as she saw Rei's comm-code. "I can arrange the fly-by," she said. It had been awhile since Najia had heard from the friend she had left in charge of the Eighteen Billion Terran-tech construction supplies factory, and generally, in charge of Eighteen Billion affairs. "There's a patrol of Katana in the area already, it won't look suspicious if they do a swing-by of Wormwood Scrubs."
Najia set her datapad down on the floor in the middle of the cell block. "I put my datapad down on the floor. Is that beacon enough," she asked. "Hai, Takio-San," the aged professor's voice informed her. "But I would endeavor to be in another room when the teleport takes place. This is... Highly experimental." "Vacating the room," Najia said, sprinting out into the hallway and down it. "Tell me when it's gonna happen."
"In... About twenty seconds," Boso Ta informed her. "You might want to cover your ears, assistant." Najia didn't even bother to complain about being called 'Assistant' again, she simply crouched and closed her eyes, covering her ears and tried to become one with the railing. She counted to thirty, then opened her eyes. "Did anything happen?" "Your EV suit and EMU aren't in the lift anymore," Marta said to her. "Better go check."
Najia did, and she laughed heartily. Her hardshell carapace EV suit and EMU were sitting on the floor of the cell block. "A perfect teleport! I didn't even hear anything." "Fantastic," Boso Ta said. "You had best hurry, Assistant."
One fast donning later, Najia opened the door to where Axiom and Lucca were still standing around, chatting like old gossips. They both started when they saw her, and she held her hand up. "Easy, guys, it's me." She was hauling her EMU with her. "Split wonders where creature was hiding that," Lu t'Cca said, pointing at her. "Ancient secrets," Najia flippantly answered, as she hefted her EMU into the airlock, and sat in it, strapping in. "Right, let's do this." Reaching up, Najia slapped the airlock cycle button. The door behind her hissed shut; air was evacuated. Her suit indicated a total drop of external pressure, and the airlock's A-grav let go, letting her float free, and so she pushed off the floor.
"Excellent!" Axiom crowed at her, over the comm. "Level 2 is right through there. That exhaust fan may impede your movements, but it won't make our mission impossible. See those alcoves? There's where I'd hide if I were you, whenever the fan is blowing at full speed."
Exhaust fan? I'm in vacuum! Najia carefully maneuvered out. She was in vacuum and microgravity; but she was also inside a large, cylindrical space. Below her was something like a massive fuse-box with a big holographic turret outline, and she jetted down to examine it, but could see no obvious way to tamper with it without most likely setting off major alarms, so she looked back up - just as a synthesized alert klaxxon sounded.
I hate this place, Naija thought, as she saw a fan at the top of the cylinder spin up. At a guess she thought, perhaps it was something like an exhaust, which struck as horrifically wasteful in space, but she could only grit her teeth, watching it spin. At the bottom of the cylindrical space, she only felt the slightest of buffeting; it might have been substantially stronger closer to the top. I am very confused, very frustrated, and I just want to get the hell out of here, she thought. She was seriously considering revisiting her first plan, which had been to simply teleport herself, Axiom and Lucca to Ace's ship.
But now, though, she was pissed, and she wanted to poke something spiteful in Mellerd's eye herself. So she jetted to the top of the cylinder, looking around. As she did, Axiom popped up in her comms. "These airlocks are shut, so you'll need to find a way to bypass their locks." She responded with only a quick "roger," looking around. One airlock, contrary to Axiom's words, was hanging open, but the lights next to it were red. She tried it anyway; but for once, Axiom was spot-on. The airlock door might have been open, but its functions were locked out, the panel totally nonresponsive. She returned below, and looked around; there was an open airlock opposite Axiom and Lucca, so she tried it, and it worked for her automatically.
"Well, let's see what's down this way," Najia muttered to herself, slipping out of her EMU and leaving it in the lock. She unholstered the pistol that was now clamped to her hardshell-clad thigh, and started to look around again.
To her surprise, she found only another cell block - it was a dead end! She was about to hiss in frustration, when she heard someone call to her. "You there! You! Hey! You are not supposed to be here!" Najia turned to face the Teladi voice, her pistol half-raised, when she saw that the figure in question was imprisoned. She lowered her aim to the floor, and appraoched the bars. Standing within was a Teladi, who looked rather forelorn. Najia's shoulders slumped. Well, this is awkward, she thought. When the Teladi seemed to realize she wasn't a guard, she started to ask, "Oh please, please, please! You cannot leave me here! I am friends with Urgu... Ugusa... I can help you make profitsss! I promise."
Najia sighed at the pathetic display, but she understood the Teladi's desire for freedom; though, on the balance, she also had no idea what this Teladi had done to become imprisoned. Knowing Kriss Mellerd, it was a total crap-shoot; she might be a real scum-bag, or she might be being shaken down. Axiom cut in on her. "I sympathize with the little lizard, really I do, but we cannot compromise this mission in the name of charity."
Najia huffed out a sigh, and looked around. Frustratedly, she slapped the door panel on the imprisoned Teladi's cell, and to her surprise - and the prisoner's surprise - it opened. The prisoner looked around, confusedly, and Najia was glad that her mirrored helmet hid her gaze. "That's the best I can do," she said, resignedly. "You'll have to effect your own escape from here, if you can. Good luck." Turning, she huffed back into the airlock, slapping the button to cycle it as the Teladi prisoner looked around in tentative confusion, taking a few steps out of her cell.
Najia pulled her EMU's straps back on. "Well, that was a fucking bust," she snarled. "I'm about to start lasering shit," she muttered, floating back into the massive vacuum cylinder, and back up towards the locked airlocks. She found a third floor of airlocks, but they only offered some shelter from the fans starting up. After waiting that, frustratedly she flew back out again, and started looking around. "Axiom, there aren't any switches here!" "My diagrams say there are switches, Wildcard. Look more carefully - and swiftly."
Najia let out a guttural growl of frustration, and switched to her cutting laser. Giving in to a pique of frustration, she hit her Mk.2 thrusters, blowing past level 1 to the sub-level, coming up level with the big fuse-box. "Right, let's see what this does," she said with a snarl, and targeted her suit's cutting laser on the big set of what looked like fuses.
She blazed a neat line down the middle of them, and, gratifyingly, the 'Turrets' hologram switched to a big red repair icon... She looked around for a moment. Nothing happened. Najia smirked. "On the one hand, this place is frustrating, confusing, and I kind of want to blow it up out of spite by now. But on the other hand, the gross criminal negligence on display is really working in my favor. Fuck it. Lasers for everything," she said, snarling and going back up the shaft. There were a bunch of unmarked panels, and, giving in to the frustration she felt earlier - which she had barely restrained herself from allowing herself to hold Lu t'Cca at gunpoint - she started lasering the panels like a schoolgirl hooligan on a vandalism spree.
"Your new laser is low-powered, but if you keep it aimed at the lock, it will break eventually," Axiom said. Najia blinked. New laser? This is my laser and I've had it for a while, and... Oh, piss on this! She laughed, however, as she saw that one of the panels had indeed fractured.
One deeply-cathatic vandalism spree later, every panel had been opened, and had revealed that inside the two panels nearest the top-level airlocks were two further, smaller panels, with similar mechanisms. With the fan starting up again, Najia took shelter in one of the alcoves at the top, just under an airlock, and, deciding to use her time productively, she lasered the opposite airlock's control panel. After holding her laser on the box for awhile, it was a glowing ruin, and Axiom commed her. "Partial access to level two established," he informed her.
Najia nodded. She didn't even bother to sarcastically snark at him, though the phrase no shit, Sherlock ran through her mind. Rather, she charitably assumed he was reporting to her something he was learning electronically, and turned around. This is gonna be bright, she thought, as she trained her laser at close range on the near access box, and closed her eyes. She held in the firing stud, and held it - counting in her head to seven, when Axiom's comm made her let up off the laser. "And just like that, we have free reign over level two! They can't stop you now!"
Najia grinned, and opened her eyes to behold a molten, glowing hole drilled into the electronics she had blasted. "Right. Let's get this show on the highway."
On the level above her, in the half just above, she slipped in, and found herself facing a door to another cell block, just through the airlock. She went in and looked; no prisoners. Walking out, she huffed, and decided to walk the half-circuit around the big cylinder again. To her surprise, she found a console, just attached haphazardly to a railing. Really? Najia examined it, and snorted; it looked shoddy, ad-hoc. She tapped the console's screen, and it simply changed color. Axiom piped up. "Magnificent! That'll give you access to half of the switches! There must be another console nearby that will let you remove the second cover."
"Got it. Moving on," Najia said. Back to the airlock she went, after checking the other half of the crescent hallway she was in; without any luck, she just floated across to the other airlock on her EMU. Predictably, she found that, on the opposite railing in the other half of the level, was another console haphazardly attached to a railing, and she rapped it quite firmly with her knuckles. It flashed. "How's that, Axiom?" "Both covers confirmed open," Axiom informed her. "Let's flip some switches. Get back into your spacesuit."
"Never got out of it. Who has time to undress four times? Anyway, switches, yaaay switches," she snarked, as she cycled the airlock again, strapping her EMU back on. "Whoever designed this place is both a madman and criminally negligent."
Once the airlock cycled through again, Najia saw that the two panels she had manipulated had caused five boxes that she had previously taken as unimportant junction boxes to slide their panels open. She groaned to herself when she saw that there were five more lock-like switches within. "Great, time for more vandalism, yay." She lasered the first of the boxes' interiors, the one that was lit, and held it for a long few moments.
"Something's not right," Axiom said, comming her. She had a sinking feeling. "The switches are also setting the state of their neighbors," he declared. Sure enough, she had blasted the leftmost switch, and the second had lit up. Worryingly, the leftmost switch did not look damaged in the slightest. "You'll have to find a combination which turns them all off," Axiom said, as Najia groaned. "I don't think a game of whack-a-mole will get you there," Axiom continued. "Though... Actually, it might!"
Najia groaned, and briefly considered calling for a five-hundred-some member boarding party attack from two capital ships instead. "What tail-hole thought this was a good idea," she bitched. "Who dreamed this up? Why install it like this? Don't anybody answer that, those questions were rhetorical," she snarked, as she set about the process of shooting the junction boxes like they were a juvenile 'turn them all off' game.
About eighty seconds and the false start of thinking she could shoot an inactive switch to switch it on and switch its neighbors states (it transpired that she could only make an active switch toggle neighbors' states), all five boxes were dark, and Najia snarled, bristling with outrage that this was evidently considered part of a high security system and not a child's game.
"You got it, Wildcard!" Axiom commed her. "Access to Level 3 established. And it turned off the darned fan! Off to the hangar, then." Up one level, Najia cycled herself into the airlock, and groaned. She was getting mightily tired of this, and she rolled her shoulders. "I am going to need a massage and to soak for an hour in the shower," she griped to no-one in particular. She hefted her EMU half-over her left shoulder, unholstering her pistol, just in case. The EMU was very heavy, but her EV suit had a fairly substantial low-profile power assist mechanism. Not enough to turn her into a super-soldier by any means, but enough to let her heft a 150kg load like a bulky and cumbersome backpack. She was tempted to leave it behind... But it was a good thing she didn't. The corridor she found was only a straight shot to - and she groaned - another airlock. As she approached it, Axiom unhelpfully congratulated her. "Excellent," he said. "Yo're approaching the internal hangar now. Our getaway ship is right over there." Cycling through, she passed into the deep well of an internal ship hangar - and groaned.
Najia was looking at a Magpie. That was the big, innovative, unique ship?
"If we want to make it out of here, you'll have to destroy the clamps on the hangar doors," Axiom informed her. Najia groaned, sighed, and rolled her shoulders. "Right. I can do that. All this for a..." She seethed, and looked back at the ship.
No, it wasn't a Magpie, but it sure as hell looked like one. It was clearly a derivative design, but it had not the Magpie's massive cargo pods; rather, it had smaller pods, and a lot more gubbins - antennae, dishes, and the like. Fan-dabbie-dozie she thought balefully to herself as she set about finding and destroying the lockdown clamps. As she did so, she also saw a couple more panels that had a turret hologram over them, and, thinking, why the hell not, fried them, too. Moments later, the lockdown clamps fell, too, and she saw a red light glare through one of the hangar windows.
Axiom piped up, "Holy triangle, that's the station alarm! Lucca and I are going to make a run for the ship!" She blinked, looking up - two EVA-suited figures, with full EMUs, cycled through the airlock she had come through.
What, she thought. Where... I... What... Where...? In a moment of dumbfounded confusion, she stared openly, unmoving, before both of them dipped between the ship's large thrusters, and headed for its belly, while Axiom said, "approaching the dock. Be with you in a moment!" Fearing being left behind, Najia abandoned the question of where they had gotten EV suits, let alone EMUs, in favor of making haste to join them.
As Najia negotiated into the airlock, Axiom and Lucca reported that they had boarded, and Axiom was working on powering up the ship's systems, and Axiom was transferring the ship's ownership - and hence, control - to her. They were trying to talk over one another, making it confusing, but, as she got into the ship and shed her MMU, running for the seat, Axiom noted, "This prototype ship does not appear to have an emergency eject system. I assume it was supposed to be added later." "Great," she snarled. "This is going tits-up and I'm in a little ship with no ejection system." "Split been moving into position," Maestro informed her, in a bit of good news. "Alarm must have mobilized more Ministry forces than Split anticipated."
"Thrice blasted!" Axiom roared from the back. "Mellerd deployed a capital ship to head off the Arcadian Endeavour!" Najia groaned, checking her map. A Pheonix-class vessel named Rolling Rock was engaging the Arcadian Endeavor.
As Najia got the Raven's struts up and pushed it forward, she got a comm from the Rolling Rock itself. She snarled as she saw Kriss Mellerd in her comm pane. "Thank you for leading the old man, and his crew of clowns, right to my doorstep. Crossing them off the Ministry's list will do wonders for my career advancement."
Najia gawped at her, in shock at the sheer gall on display, as Mellerd laughed. "You just stumbled into this whole affair, so I will offer you a one-time chance to get out of this. All you have to do is dock at my ship and hand over the pirates youy are currently harboring. You won't be able to keep the ship, but -"
Najia cut her off, snarling in anger. "You just love the sound of your own voice, bitch. Even if I was inclined to take an 'out,' though, nobody can trust you. For anything." Najia switched the comms to her ships, as she powered the Raven up to full. It seemed to be armed with two cannons; she test-fired them by holding in the trigger. They didn't fire immediately, but when she let go, they let fly. "Woah. These must be those Teladi charger things," she muttered. "Whatever. Ladies? This bitch cannot be trusted to keep her word. End her rightly!"
The Rolling Rock was already exchanging fire with Arcadian Endeavor, while Ace nipped at her heels, firing off shots from that launcher and the frontal cannon. Shiv and Kunai - the name chosen for the Paramerion - lifted from the Jackdaw and Arcadian Endeavour respectively, while Jackdaw and the Snapping Tortoise broke from formation with it to engage.
"L beam turrets... Problematic," Najia muttered to herself. "Let me see what I can do about that," she added, as she set the Raven prototype in motion. She could only hope, at least, that Kriss was at least rethinking her decision, now that the odds had tilted decidedly against her.
She dove into action against Rolling Rock, testing out the Muon Chargers, as the ships with her split and attacked. The destroyer was big, and problematic, but it seemed rather... Awkward to control, in fact. Ponderous, its turrets, even the lasers, seemed slow to respond. She nipped around it, firing a few times, as her four ships slipped past it. A plasma bolt struck her shields, and she yelped, diving to evade. "That's it," she heard Rei - not over the open comms, but in her earbud. "I am not letting you get your ass killed like this. I'm dispatching help," she said, and Najia winced.
Great. So this is how the war with the Ministry starts? And yet, oddly... There was no sign of Ministry reinforcements. Najia fled from the immediate vicinity to recharge her shields, coming in close to the Arcadian Endeavour, and watched as the Eighteen Billion Katana squads roared in. She winced as she saw that Okayama and her defense fleet had also been dispatched - a Destroyer squadron was going to bear down on Rolling Rock... Eventually. And yet, the Ministry was doing nothing.
It hit her suddenly; Kriss was rogue. Was doing this on her own. She snarled and grinned. The Ministry might be mad, when this shook out, but they'd have a hard time proving her involvement. Especially if she could play it as her ships responding to a distress call because a rogue vessel with an unaffiliated transponder had attacked a ship. It was flimsy... But it was enough. "Bear down on her, ladies. Tear that thing apart." Najia crowed, as she pulled the Raven in to touch down on the Arcadian Endeavour's landing pad. She looked back. "Axiom, they're gonna need you in the engine room. Lucca, you're not gonna wanna be on this ship!" The back ramp was dropping as she settled down; neither waited for her to have landed fully, they dropped from the ship and sprinted past, to the lift.
"So, you've decided to go down with the sinking ship? One less loose end for me to tie up later!" Mellerd crowed at her, and Najia smirked; of course she knew she couldn't trust Mellerd. "You're worse than a pirate, Kriss. Nobody can trust you," Najia said. "Prepare to kiss your ass goodbye."
Maestro was rattling on in her ear, but Najia could barely hear him over the combat calls. She hoped he was smart enough not to fire upon the T.E. vessels responding - it would be awkward later, and they were joining the fight on his side, after all. He was saying something about escape, and turrets. Najia snorted. "Actually, we're just going to blow this thing up," Najia declared. "We can't leave someone like Kriss Mellerd at our backs."
Things seemed to be doing well at first; the Rolling Rock was handling clumsily, awkwardly, as if she was critically undermanned. That gave Najia an odd hope that she might actually succeed at boarding her; the responding vessels were quickly tearing down her turrets and shields.
Then, everything went dramatically pear-shaped. Najia yelped as lasers tickled the the Raven's shields down and she got them back up again; again and again this happened, each time the hull started to fracture more and more. She made attack runs, damaged a surface element, and then things got worse. Where were those lasers coming from?
"Missile. Incoming missile." She slapped the countermeasures button, only to see the screen flash ammo empty. "Fuck!" A missile slammed into her, followed by a fly-by from a starfighter. She didn't catch it, but she took a pot-shot at it as it went past. Things were going from bad, to worse, when she heard someone howl, "Jackdaw's taking heavy fire! Jackdaw's... Oh fuck!"
Najia felt a moment of total disassociation. Numbly, her hand drifted over the stick, trying to maneuver the clunky ship like a starfighter, whilst fighting through mental fog.
Marta.
"We've got them!" Rei stringer called out, over her line. "I've got the crew of Jackdaw at the depot, but now we're under attack by a Ministry warship!" Najia gasped, shoving her stick forward, hard. Her ship was flying apart around her, and she snarled. "Someone get these motherfuckers!" "We're coming in," she heard - both the first, and last, person she wanted to hear. "Fenrir, engaging!" "Okayama, engaging." "Kagawa, engaging!" "Ark Royal, moving to engage!"
Najia laughed, incredulously. That was four fleets. Four fleets that most definitely were not supposed to be engaging to support the Arcadian Endeavour. One of them the Teladi wasn't even supposed to know about - Alarms blared. The Raven had taken a nasty hit, and a Ministry Kea was lining up on her six. She tried to pull away - she wasn't going to be fast enough - the ship jerked - the world went white.
Najia crashed forward to the deck, yelping, arms up to guard her head. She looked up; a Marine was standing next to her, offering her hand to Najia. "Better get to the skipper, ma'am," the Marina said. "We're Koshirae." Najia laughed, taking the proffered hand and climbing to her feet, hustling down to the bridge's main deck. Selaia Kevlin was standing in the middle like the Maestro, calmingly barking out orders with command presence. She looked up at Najia, briefly, smirking at her. "Does the owner have the conn?"
Najia shook her head, laughing. "Fight the ship, captain. I've got to coordinate this clusterfuck." Selaia laughed at her and nodded, barking out, "bring us up ninety, show her our broadside. Turret gunners, you are cleared to engage."
She hustled down to the fleet coordination console; the crewwoman at it hopping away for her. "This is Takio," she said, hopping on the controls. "Ladies, clear my skies of red. I don't know what the hell has gotten into the Ministry, attacking our stations like this, but if it's hostile out there, we kill it."
Rolling Rock was not having a good day, and it was getting exponentially worse. Her engines had been disabled, and Najia heard Maestro call out over the pirate channel, "Her engines are disabled. Now is the time to get away! But, where is Wildcard?" Najia winced. How was she going to explain that? Did she even want to? "This is Snapping Tortoise," Raleen, the captain of her pirate Baku called out. "We are picking up the crew of Jackdaw and Raven. Let these big bruisers fight, we'll get back to you."
"No!" Kriss Mellerd called out, yelping. "I don't wanna die!" Rolling Rock was coming apart under the growing tide of fire it was enduring, and more ships were still arriving. Najia snarled. Part of her wanted to bid Kriss a bon voyage to the afterlife, but she looked up to Selaia. "If anyone gets out of that ship, I want them. And we don't tell the Ministry."
"Roger that," Selaia said, and barked out orders to the helm to move closer to Rolling Rock. Najia looked back - a Ministry Razorbill was thoroughly engaged, and another had just blown up, attacking the construction depot.
She gritted her teeth, snorting hard. There was going to be hell to pay for this later. Righteous indigation - no, fury - was going to be the order of the day. Her ships had responded to a distress call from a Windfall trader, by an unidentified vessel. It was attacking relentlessly, wasn't on-record as being anything official. Then Ministry vessels, apparently heeding the aggressor's pleas, had jumped in, attacking Takio Enterprises assets, and the inevitable happen.
That was the tack she was going to have to take, and she clenched her fist. Outside, Rolling Rock came apart in a dazzling blossom of red that polarized the bridge windows for a long several moments. When they cleared, the ship was a debris field. Part of her hoped that Mellerd was dead; part of her hoped she wasn't. There was going to be a butcher's bill for today, and she tried - probably vainly - to make peace with that.
"Get us close enough to the Ministry Wharf to make contact," Najia said, looking to Selaia. "I've some barking to do." Selaia smirked at her. "After this? They should know damn well your bark isn't nearly as bad as your bite. They should be happy to get barked at. You should put on a respectable jacket at least." Najia let out a huff of exasperation, hurrying to do just that.
Najia needed to work to summon the righteous indignation she required for the bluff, but she reminded herself of the fate of Ace's mother to do so; the Ministry were assholes, even if they were also the lawful authority; and they had attacked her. She had clear and convincing evidence that Mellerd was up to no damn good. Not that she waas going to reveal it to anyone.
Hence, she found herself with eyes coldly blazing over the comms to the Ministry Police Kea craft which had departed from the wharf to intercept Koshirae. "Enough is enough," she snarled over the holo, standing in the conference room. "My ships responded to an attack upon a free trader from a destroyer that was not transmitting appropriate Ministry codes - not that the Ministry should be allowed to attack random traders, either."
"Your ships fired upon Ministry vessels," the captain of the Kea shot back, clearly outraged - but also, like the pilot who had followed her through the rift - terrified at being massively outnumbered and outgunned.
"Let me be clear, on the record, so there is no ambiguity," Najia said, leaning forward, placing her fist on the table. The effect was to lean closer to the hologram - and on the little attack ship's screen, her face would loom larger. "My ships responded to a distress call from a ship being attacked by an unknown vessel not transmitting appropriate ID. The Ministry, for whatever reasons, chose to respond to the event by siding with the aggressor and attacking my ships. Takio Enterprises warships responded by destroying the Ministry vessels." Her heart was thumping in her chest, but she narrowed her eyes. "If this is the gratitude of the Ministry of Finance, for all that Takio Enterprises has done here in Eighteen Billion, in Grand Exchange and at large, for the Ministry and the company, up to and including constructing facilities and securing neutral diplomats to mediate the dispute between the Company and the Ministry... Well, you might want to check with your superiors before you write a check they have to make good on. To be absolutely clear, this is a threat; you are the highest-ranking Ministry combat officer in Eighteen Billion. It is your decision whether this conflict continues or ceases, here and now. Ah - ah! Shut your fucking muzzle and listen to me carefully," she snapped, as the pilot opened her muzzle to retort.
"If you say anything but words to the effect of 'this was a horrible misunderstanding and we should deescalate the situation' - if you, personally, choose to escalate the situation, the first step I will take will be ordering all of my shipyards to stop producing vessels for the Ministry. The second step will be that I shall cripple the Ministry's ability to replace vessels by destroying the Ministry Shipyard and Wharf here in Eighteen Billion. I shall then proceed onward to prosecute this destructive and pointless war - a war chosen by you, pilot, here and now - by destroying each and every Ministry of Trade station I can find, until someone with some competent authority asks me to please stop doing that. You can see the weight of tonnage I have here, you know the Ministry does not have the tonnage to stop me. The choice is in your claws, pilot; war, or peace. War, or peace. Escalate, or deescalate. Your call."
The Kea pilot visibly shrank backwards in her command chair, obviously struggling to attempt to retain composure and command respect in the face of an overt and direct threat to bring fire and flame directly to the Ministry of Finance. Finally she steeled herself, straightening up in her chair. "This has obviously been a dreadful misunderstanding, miss Takio. The Ministry is undoubtedly going to demand reparations for our lost warships, but such matters are the purview of the financiers, not myself. If you will cease giving offense, we too shall cease attacks upon your vessels."
"Thank you," Najia said, leaning back. She fought not to visibly slump and sigh in relief, or to show how badly her heart was racing. "As for the reparations, they can take that up with the diplomat I have on payroll. Out." She cut the channel, and collapsed back into the chair behind her.
A moment later, the comm lit up again, and she flicked it on. It was a huge conference call, with the commanders of her fleets, the captain of Koshirae, Marta on the Snapping Tortoise with a small bandage on her forehead; Rei Stringer on the 18B construction depot, Tsukiko Peterson back at the headquarters, Professors Nakagawa and Okoye - whom Najia realized with a pang of guilt she hadn't yet formally re-introduced herself to -, Boso Ta,, and Ace. Najia let out a heavy sigh of relief. "Please for the love of god tell me we didn't lose anybody," she said, first off.
"Nobody from Jackdaw, Marta confirmed. "I took a headcount. We got lucky. "That seems to be a recurring theme," added Captain - probably should be Commodore - Xiaowen Kapoor - one of Najia's older friends, and currently the commander of T.E.S. Fenrir. "It helps that we responded with overwhelming firepower. My fleet is reporting no fatalties; thirteen casualties, mostly caused by haste in the heat of battle."
That proved to be the recurring theme; all of her responders reported sustaining injuries, mostly 'workplace accidents' incurred whilst in the heat of battle, but though some were serious, none were life-threatening.
"Najia Takio," Professor Yoriko Okoye - an aged-but-not-venerable, steel-haired professor-turned diplomat said, with the same tone of voice that she had used when reproaching Najia in class. "You are now, as ever you were, charmed, lucky, and reckless. You choose to act with passion first and foremost. This is a fine mess that I'm going to have to clean up, you understand. Can I expect this sort of thing to deal with in the future?"
Najia took in a breath, glancing around at her fellows. Barring a few, they were all young - Tsukiko was the third-oldest and Najia knew she was closer to thirty-five than forty - barely. Most of them looked grave, but not mutinious. She sighed, and smiled, wryly. "While I don't plan to go to war with the Ministry, there may be future... Rough spots to smooth over, yes. If you'd like to resign and go home -" "Not yet," the aged professor said, sharply. "But for dealing with this, I am going to require a pay rise!"
A chorus of chuckles surrounded her, and Najia sighed, face-palming and smiling. "That's fair, professor. We're going to have a fine time untangling this. Ace, how are the Curs?"
Ace looked into her eyes, then looked away for a moment, then back to her. "Secure in Windfall, awaiting your hopefully-safe return." She trilled, and Najia nodded. "Next stop, then."
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Najia backpedaled, giving the irate Split prisoner plenty of room to get past without coming into arms' length of her. At least he seemed to get that this was a prison break, and he made no move for her or her firearm, darting well clear of her, and out from the cell block.
Axiom's voice cut the sudden quiet that was otherwise punctuated only by her racing heart. "While you two were chatting, I've found a way to temporarily disable security in the hangar. That's where we'll hitch our ride. Head for the second level; the Ministry seems to have installed more switches. They'll require some adjustment, but I know you love a good puzzle." Najia snorted. She did, in fact, love a good puzzle, but breaking out of a prison was not the time to indulge in that. Usually. Unless one looked at the prison as the puzzle. She shook her head, huffing, and drew her pistol again. There was no marked pathway this time, but she made better time; it was reckless, but she jogged, since the place was seemingly totally unguarded. And, if it wasn't, chances were that Lucca would run into the guards first, and she'd hear the struggle ahead. She passed the lift, glancing towards it, and hurrying past in the other direction she hadn't been yet, coming to a door. Slowing, she closed enough with it that it opened automatically.
Najia let out a huff; Lu t'Cca was on the other side, but so was Axiom. She stepped forward, and looked from Axiom, who nodded to her, to Lucca, who snarled. "Creature reveal Split hiding spot! Creature nothing better to do?" This is a hiding spot? Najia shook her head; the two of them were literally standing in the middle of an intersection, in front of an airlock with two branches off on either side. She huffed, looking at Lu t'Cca. "Hey, Mellerd said -"
"Split not talk about friend-foes!" Lucca ranted. "Kriss went against family! Betrayal followed petty betrayal! Way of Windfall, yes. Way of some Split, maybe, but not how real warriors do revenge!" He made a guttural sound of anguish, shaking his head vehemently. Kris? He was on a first-name basis with her? The fact that Ace had spoken so frankly of xenosexual encounters popped into her head, the constant talk of betrayal, pettiness, personal matters, and suddenly it was obvious; somehow, this was personal. Personal; and none of her damn business. She held her hand up placatingly, holstering her other pistol, trusting to Axiom's physical presence to keep peace between her and Lucca. "Fine. I'll leave you to it," she said. "Split thought so," Lu t'Cca spat, looking back to Axiom. She looked to Axiom as well. "Switches, Wildcard. Get to it."
Najia nodded, and darted down the left-hand branch of the intersection, fuming all the while. It ran into a dead-end, and she uttered "ah fuck," turning and sprinting in the other direction, slaloming between Maestro and Lucca. At the end, she dead-ended there, and exasperated raised her voice, "the hell?!" Back in the middle, she examined the airlock carefully; she could see that it connected to nothing, which is why she discounted it previously. Carefully she moved into the airlock, her hand on her pistol just in case Lucca tried to kill her by cycling it, but he and Axiom seemed to be in the process of discussing old times.
Exasperated, Najia stepped back out of the airlock. "Axiom, where are these buttons you're talking about? How are we supposed to get out of here?" "Er..." Axiom blinked, tri-ocularly, at her, and looked around. He looked at his datapad. "They should be... Through..." He let out a discontent rumble. "Oh my. That is not obvious on a computer systems diagram schematic." "They're on the other side of the frigging airlock," Najia said. "You're probably already aware that humans can't survive in vacuum, let alone maneuver in it, right?" She snorted, her sarcasm at least getting a sheepish shuffle on his long legs out of Axiom. "Can we get out the way we came back in? Even if it means abandoning the Raven?"
"No," Axiom said gravely. "The tampering I did to activate the cell block doors will be caught by someone sooner or later - probably later than sooner, but sooner if we try to leave the cell block." "Split has been implanted with a tracking device," Lucca growled. "It will raise quite the ruckus when Split leave the cell block!" "If we're leaving by... Unconventional mechanisms, that will be no trouble," Axiom noted. "But if we enter the lift, it will lock down and security will be summoned immediately."
"Outstanding," Najia huffed. "Let me double-check something, see if I can think of something." She turned and left the way she had come from. She bypassed the lift; she had no intention of simply bailing on them. But now, she had two options. Neither was good, but one was significantly less good, so she hoped the other option worked. She opened a channel to Boso Ta. "Boso Ta, I hope to hell you've been listening in." "I have, Assistant!" Boso Ta's voice came through loud and clear. "You are in quite the conundrum. I hope you see a manner in which I may be able to extricate you, for I do not." "You and the Professor have been upgrading teleporters with the ability to upgrade themselves. To do so, you've been transporting equipment, right?" "Hai!" Professor Nakagawa's voice cut in. Clearly he was on the line. "This capability is within our grasp. What is your proposal, Takio-San?" "Can you teleport my EV suit to me?"
There was silence for a long few moments which felt like an eternity. "Potentially," Boso Ta broke the silence. "Have it placed in one of our lifts." "I'll get right on that," Marta cut in on the line. Najia smiled to hear her voice. "Any other requirements?" "If this will work, we will need very precise measurements," Professor Nakagawa said. "The teleporter is more your project than mine, Boso Ta. My thought is that it will require at least three triangulating vessels, and a beacon, and a substantial amount of open space." "Will an empty cell block do for that," Najia asked, hustling down the corridor. "It should yes... Yes! That will work." Rei Stringer cut in on the call, and Najia blinked as she saw Rei's comm-code. "I can arrange the fly-by," she said. It had been awhile since Najia had heard from the friend she had left in charge of the Eighteen Billion Terran-tech construction supplies factory, and generally, in charge of Eighteen Billion affairs. "There's a patrol of Katana in the area already, it won't look suspicious if they do a swing-by of Wormwood Scrubs."
Najia set her datapad down on the floor in the middle of the cell block. "I put my datapad down on the floor. Is that beacon enough," she asked. "Hai, Takio-San," the aged professor's voice informed her. "But I would endeavor to be in another room when the teleport takes place. This is... Highly experimental." "Vacating the room," Najia said, sprinting out into the hallway and down it. "Tell me when it's gonna happen."
"In... About twenty seconds," Boso Ta informed her. "You might want to cover your ears, assistant." Najia didn't even bother to complain about being called 'Assistant' again, she simply crouched and closed her eyes, covering her ears and tried to become one with the railing. She counted to thirty, then opened her eyes. "Did anything happen?" "Your EV suit and EMU aren't in the lift anymore," Marta said to her. "Better go check."
Najia did, and she laughed heartily. Her hardshell carapace EV suit and EMU were sitting on the floor of the cell block. "A perfect teleport! I didn't even hear anything." "Fantastic," Boso Ta said. "You had best hurry, Assistant."
"Excellent!" Axiom crowed at her, over the comm. "Level 2 is right through there. That exhaust fan may impede your movements, but it won't make our mission impossible. See those alcoves? There's where I'd hide if I were you, whenever the fan is blowing at full speed."
Exhaust fan? I'm in vacuum! Najia carefully maneuvered out. She was in vacuum and microgravity; but she was also inside a large, cylindrical space. Below her was something like a massive fuse-box with a big holographic turret outline, and she jetted down to examine it, but could see no obvious way to tamper with it without most likely setting off major alarms, so she looked back up - just as a synthesized alert klaxxon sounded.
I hate this place, Naija thought, as she saw a fan at the top of the cylinder spin up. At a guess she thought, perhaps it was something like an exhaust, which struck as horrifically wasteful in space, but she could only grit her teeth, watching it spin. At the bottom of the cylindrical space, she only felt the slightest of buffeting; it might have been substantially stronger closer to the top. I am very confused, very frustrated, and I just want to get the hell out of here, she thought. She was seriously considering revisiting her first plan, which had been to simply teleport herself, Axiom and Lucca to Ace's ship.
But now, though, she was pissed, and she wanted to poke something spiteful in Mellerd's eye herself. So she jetted to the top of the cylinder, looking around. As she did, Axiom popped up in her comms. "These airlocks are shut, so you'll need to find a way to bypass their locks." She responded with only a quick "roger," looking around. One airlock, contrary to Axiom's words, was hanging open, but the lights next to it were red. She tried it anyway; but for once, Axiom was spot-on. The airlock door might have been open, but its functions were locked out, the panel totally nonresponsive. She returned below, and looked around; there was an open airlock opposite Axiom and Lucca, so she tried it, and it worked for her automatically.
"Well, let's see what's down this way," Najia muttered to herself, slipping out of her EMU and leaving it in the lock. She unholstered the pistol that was now clamped to her hardshell-clad thigh, and started to look around again.
To her surprise, she found only another cell block - it was a dead end! She was about to hiss in frustration, when she heard someone call to her. "You there! You! Hey! You are not supposed to be here!" Najia turned to face the Teladi voice, her pistol half-raised, when she saw that the figure in question was imprisoned. She lowered her aim to the floor, and appraoched the bars. Standing within was a Teladi, who looked rather forelorn. Najia's shoulders slumped. Well, this is awkward, she thought. When the Teladi seemed to realize she wasn't a guard, she started to ask, "Oh please, please, please! You cannot leave me here! I am friends with Urgu... Ugusa... I can help you make profitsss! I promise."
Najia sighed at the pathetic display, but she understood the Teladi's desire for freedom; though, on the balance, she also had no idea what this Teladi had done to become imprisoned. Knowing Kriss Mellerd, it was a total crap-shoot; she might be a real scum-bag, or she might be being shaken down. Axiom cut in on her. "I sympathize with the little lizard, really I do, but we cannot compromise this mission in the name of charity."
Najia huffed out a sigh, and looked around. Frustratedly, she slapped the door panel on the imprisoned Teladi's cell, and to her surprise - and the prisoner's surprise - it opened. The prisoner looked around, confusedly, and Najia was glad that her mirrored helmet hid her gaze. "That's the best I can do," she said, resignedly. "You'll have to effect your own escape from here, if you can. Good luck." Turning, she huffed back into the airlock, slapping the button to cycle it as the Teladi prisoner looked around in tentative confusion, taking a few steps out of her cell.
Najia pulled her EMU's straps back on. "Well, that was a fucking bust," she snarled. "I'm about to start lasering shit," she muttered, floating back into the massive vacuum cylinder, and back up towards the locked airlocks. She found a third floor of airlocks, but they only offered some shelter from the fans starting up. After waiting that, frustratedly she flew back out again, and started looking around. "Axiom, there aren't any switches here!" "My diagrams say there are switches, Wildcard. Look more carefully - and swiftly."
Najia let out a guttural growl of frustration, and switched to her cutting laser. Giving in to a pique of frustration, she hit her Mk.2 thrusters, blowing past level 1 to the sub-level, coming up level with the big fuse-box. "Right, let's see what this does," she said with a snarl, and targeted her suit's cutting laser on the big set of what looked like fuses.
She blazed a neat line down the middle of them, and, gratifyingly, the 'Turrets' hologram switched to a big red repair icon... She looked around for a moment. Nothing happened. Najia smirked. "On the one hand, this place is frustrating, confusing, and I kind of want to blow it up out of spite by now. But on the other hand, the gross criminal negligence on display is really working in my favor. Fuck it. Lasers for everything," she said, snarling and going back up the shaft. There were a bunch of unmarked panels, and, giving in to the frustration she felt earlier - which she had barely restrained herself from allowing herself to hold Lu t'Cca at gunpoint - she started lasering the panels like a schoolgirl hooligan on a vandalism spree.
"Your new laser is low-powered, but if you keep it aimed at the lock, it will break eventually," Axiom said. Najia blinked. New laser? This is my laser and I've had it for a while, and... Oh, piss on this! She laughed, however, as she saw that one of the panels had indeed fractured.
One deeply-cathatic vandalism spree later, every panel had been opened, and had revealed that inside the two panels nearest the top-level airlocks were two further, smaller panels, with similar mechanisms. With the fan starting up again, Najia took shelter in one of the alcoves at the top, just under an airlock, and, deciding to use her time productively, she lasered the opposite airlock's control panel. After holding her laser on the box for awhile, it was a glowing ruin, and Axiom commed her. "Partial access to level two established," he informed her.
Najia nodded. She didn't even bother to sarcastically snark at him, though the phrase no shit, Sherlock ran through her mind. Rather, she charitably assumed he was reporting to her something he was learning electronically, and turned around. This is gonna be bright, she thought, as she trained her laser at close range on the near access box, and closed her eyes. She held in the firing stud, and held it - counting in her head to seven, when Axiom's comm made her let up off the laser. "And just like that, we have free reign over level two! They can't stop you now!"
Najia grinned, and opened her eyes to behold a molten, glowing hole drilled into the electronics she had blasted. "Right. Let's get this show on the highway."
On the level above her, in the half just above, she slipped in, and found herself facing a door to another cell block, just through the airlock. She went in and looked; no prisoners. Walking out, she huffed, and decided to walk the half-circuit around the big cylinder again. To her surprise, she found a console, just attached haphazardly to a railing. Really? Najia examined it, and snorted; it looked shoddy, ad-hoc. She tapped the console's screen, and it simply changed color. Axiom piped up. "Magnificent! That'll give you access to half of the switches! There must be another console nearby that will let you remove the second cover."
"Got it. Moving on," Najia said. Back to the airlock she went, after checking the other half of the crescent hallway she was in; without any luck, she just floated across to the other airlock on her EMU. Predictably, she found that, on the opposite railing in the other half of the level, was another console haphazardly attached to a railing, and she rapped it quite firmly with her knuckles. It flashed. "How's that, Axiom?" "Both covers confirmed open," Axiom informed her. "Let's flip some switches. Get back into your spacesuit."
"Never got out of it. Who has time to undress four times? Anyway, switches, yaaay switches," she snarked, as she cycled the airlock again, strapping her EMU back on. "Whoever designed this place is both a madman and criminally negligent."
Once the airlock cycled through again, Najia saw that the two panels she had manipulated had caused five boxes that she had previously taken as unimportant junction boxes to slide their panels open. She groaned to herself when she saw that there were five more lock-like switches within. "Great, time for more vandalism, yay." She lasered the first of the boxes' interiors, the one that was lit, and held it for a long few moments.
"Something's not right," Axiom said, comming her. She had a sinking feeling. "The switches are also setting the state of their neighbors," he declared. Sure enough, she had blasted the leftmost switch, and the second had lit up. Worryingly, the leftmost switch did not look damaged in the slightest. "You'll have to find a combination which turns them all off," Axiom said, as Najia groaned. "I don't think a game of whack-a-mole will get you there," Axiom continued. "Though... Actually, it might!"
Najia groaned, and briefly considered calling for a five-hundred-some member boarding party attack from two capital ships instead. "What tail-hole thought this was a good idea," she bitched. "Who dreamed this up? Why install it like this? Don't anybody answer that, those questions were rhetorical," she snarked, as she set about the process of shooting the junction boxes like they were a juvenile 'turn them all off' game.
About eighty seconds and the false start of thinking she could shoot an inactive switch to switch it on and switch its neighbors states (it transpired that she could only make an active switch toggle neighbors' states), all five boxes were dark, and Najia snarled, bristling with outrage that this was evidently considered part of a high security system and not a child's game.
"You got it, Wildcard!" Axiom commed her. "Access to Level 3 established. And it turned off the darned fan! Off to the hangar, then." Up one level, Najia cycled herself into the airlock, and groaned. She was getting mightily tired of this, and she rolled her shoulders. "I am going to need a massage and to soak for an hour in the shower," she griped to no-one in particular. She hefted her EMU half-over her left shoulder, unholstering her pistol, just in case. The EMU was very heavy, but her EV suit had a fairly substantial low-profile power assist mechanism. Not enough to turn her into a super-soldier by any means, but enough to let her heft a 150kg load like a bulky and cumbersome backpack. She was tempted to leave it behind... But it was a good thing she didn't. The corridor she found was only a straight shot to - and she groaned - another airlock. As she approached it, Axiom unhelpfully congratulated her. "Excellent," he said. "Yo're approaching the internal hangar now. Our getaway ship is right over there." Cycling through, she passed into the deep well of an internal ship hangar - and groaned.
Najia was looking at a Magpie. That was the big, innovative, unique ship?
"If we want to make it out of here, you'll have to destroy the clamps on the hangar doors," Axiom informed her. Najia groaned, sighed, and rolled her shoulders. "Right. I can do that. All this for a..." She seethed, and looked back at the ship.
No, it wasn't a Magpie, but it sure as hell looked like one. It was clearly a derivative design, but it had not the Magpie's massive cargo pods; rather, it had smaller pods, and a lot more gubbins - antennae, dishes, and the like. Fan-dabbie-dozie she thought balefully to herself as she set about finding and destroying the lockdown clamps. As she did so, she also saw a couple more panels that had a turret hologram over them, and, thinking, why the hell not, fried them, too. Moments later, the lockdown clamps fell, too, and she saw a red light glare through one of the hangar windows.
Axiom piped up, "Holy triangle, that's the station alarm! Lucca and I are going to make a run for the ship!" She blinked, looking up - two EVA-suited figures, with full EMUs, cycled through the airlock she had come through.
What, she thought. Where... I... What... Where...? In a moment of dumbfounded confusion, she stared openly, unmoving, before both of them dipped between the ship's large thrusters, and headed for its belly, while Axiom said, "approaching the dock. Be with you in a moment!" Fearing being left behind, Najia abandoned the question of where they had gotten EV suits, let alone EMUs, in favor of making haste to join them.
As Najia negotiated into the airlock, Axiom and Lucca reported that they had boarded, and Axiom was working on powering up the ship's systems, and Axiom was transferring the ship's ownership - and hence, control - to her. They were trying to talk over one another, making it confusing, but, as she got into the ship and shed her MMU, running for the seat, Axiom noted, "This prototype ship does not appear to have an emergency eject system. I assume it was supposed to be added later." "Great," she snarled. "This is going tits-up and I'm in a little ship with no ejection system." "Split been moving into position," Maestro informed her, in a bit of good news. "Alarm must have mobilized more Ministry forces than Split anticipated."
"Thrice blasted!" Axiom roared from the back. "Mellerd deployed a capital ship to head off the Arcadian Endeavour!" Najia groaned, checking her map. A Pheonix-class vessel named Rolling Rock was engaging the Arcadian Endeavor.
As Najia got the Raven's struts up and pushed it forward, she got a comm from the Rolling Rock itself. She snarled as she saw Kriss Mellerd in her comm pane. "Thank you for leading the old man, and his crew of clowns, right to my doorstep. Crossing them off the Ministry's list will do wonders for my career advancement."
Najia gawped at her, in shock at the sheer gall on display, as Mellerd laughed. "You just stumbled into this whole affair, so I will offer you a one-time chance to get out of this. All you have to do is dock at my ship and hand over the pirates youy are currently harboring. You won't be able to keep the ship, but -"
Najia cut her off, snarling in anger. "You just love the sound of your own voice, bitch. Even if I was inclined to take an 'out,' though, nobody can trust you. For anything." Najia switched the comms to her ships, as she powered the Raven up to full. It seemed to be armed with two cannons; she test-fired them by holding in the trigger. They didn't fire immediately, but when she let go, they let fly. "Woah. These must be those Teladi charger things," she muttered. "Whatever. Ladies? This bitch cannot be trusted to keep her word. End her rightly!"
The Rolling Rock was already exchanging fire with Arcadian Endeavor, while Ace nipped at her heels, firing off shots from that launcher and the frontal cannon. Shiv and Kunai - the name chosen for the Paramerion - lifted from the Jackdaw and Arcadian Endeavour respectively, while Jackdaw and the Snapping Tortoise broke from formation with it to engage.
"L beam turrets... Problematic," Najia muttered to herself. "Let me see what I can do about that," she added, as she set the Raven prototype in motion. She could only hope, at least, that Kriss was at least rethinking her decision, now that the odds had tilted decidedly against her.
She dove into action against Rolling Rock, testing out the Muon Chargers, as the ships with her split and attacked. The destroyer was big, and problematic, but it seemed rather... Awkward to control, in fact. Ponderous, its turrets, even the lasers, seemed slow to respond. She nipped around it, firing a few times, as her four ships slipped past it. A plasma bolt struck her shields, and she yelped, diving to evade. "That's it," she heard Rei - not over the open comms, but in her earbud. "I am not letting you get your ass killed like this. I'm dispatching help," she said, and Najia winced.
Great. So this is how the war with the Ministry starts? And yet, oddly... There was no sign of Ministry reinforcements. Najia fled from the immediate vicinity to recharge her shields, coming in close to the Arcadian Endeavour, and watched as the Eighteen Billion Katana squads roared in. She winced as she saw that Okayama and her defense fleet had also been dispatched - a Destroyer squadron was going to bear down on Rolling Rock... Eventually. And yet, the Ministry was doing nothing.
It hit her suddenly; Kriss was rogue. Was doing this on her own. She snarled and grinned. The Ministry might be mad, when this shook out, but they'd have a hard time proving her involvement. Especially if she could play it as her ships responding to a distress call because a rogue vessel with an unaffiliated transponder had attacked a ship. It was flimsy... But it was enough. "Bear down on her, ladies. Tear that thing apart." Najia crowed, as she pulled the Raven in to touch down on the Arcadian Endeavour's landing pad. She looked back. "Axiom, they're gonna need you in the engine room. Lucca, you're not gonna wanna be on this ship!" The back ramp was dropping as she settled down; neither waited for her to have landed fully, they dropped from the ship and sprinted past, to the lift.
"So, you've decided to go down with the sinking ship? One less loose end for me to tie up later!" Mellerd crowed at her, and Najia smirked; of course she knew she couldn't trust Mellerd. "You're worse than a pirate, Kriss. Nobody can trust you," Najia said. "Prepare to kiss your ass goodbye."
Maestro was rattling on in her ear, but Najia could barely hear him over the combat calls. She hoped he was smart enough not to fire upon the T.E. vessels responding - it would be awkward later, and they were joining the fight on his side, after all. He was saying something about escape, and turrets. Najia snorted. "Actually, we're just going to blow this thing up," Najia declared. "We can't leave someone like Kriss Mellerd at our backs."
Things seemed to be doing well at first; the Rolling Rock was handling clumsily, awkwardly, as if she was critically undermanned. That gave Najia an odd hope that she might actually succeed at boarding her; the responding vessels were quickly tearing down her turrets and shields.
Then, everything went dramatically pear-shaped. Najia yelped as lasers tickled the the Raven's shields down and she got them back up again; again and again this happened, each time the hull started to fracture more and more. She made attack runs, damaged a surface element, and then things got worse. Where were those lasers coming from?
"Missile. Incoming missile." She slapped the countermeasures button, only to see the screen flash ammo empty. "Fuck!" A missile slammed into her, followed by a fly-by from a starfighter. She didn't catch it, but she took a pot-shot at it as it went past. Things were going from bad, to worse, when she heard someone howl, "Jackdaw's taking heavy fire! Jackdaw's... Oh fuck!"
Najia felt a moment of total disassociation. Numbly, her hand drifted over the stick, trying to maneuver the clunky ship like a starfighter, whilst fighting through mental fog.
Marta.
"We've got them!" Rei stringer called out, over her line. "I've got the crew of Jackdaw at the depot, but now we're under attack by a Ministry warship!" Najia gasped, shoving her stick forward, hard. Her ship was flying apart around her, and she snarled. "Someone get these motherfuckers!" "We're coming in," she heard - both the first, and last, person she wanted to hear. "Fenrir, engaging!" "Okayama, engaging." "Kagawa, engaging!" "Ark Royal, moving to engage!"
Najia laughed, incredulously. That was four fleets. Four fleets that most definitely were not supposed to be engaging to support the Arcadian Endeavour. One of them the Teladi wasn't even supposed to know about - Alarms blared. The Raven had taken a nasty hit, and a Ministry Kea was lining up on her six. She tried to pull away - she wasn't going to be fast enough - the ship jerked - the world went white.
Najia crashed forward to the deck, yelping, arms up to guard her head. She looked up; a Marine was standing next to her, offering her hand to Najia. "Better get to the skipper, ma'am," the Marina said. "We're Koshirae." Najia laughed, taking the proffered hand and climbing to her feet, hustling down to the bridge's main deck. Selaia Kevlin was standing in the middle like the Maestro, calmingly barking out orders with command presence. She looked up at Najia, briefly, smirking at her. "Does the owner have the conn?"
Najia shook her head, laughing. "Fight the ship, captain. I've got to coordinate this clusterfuck." Selaia laughed at her and nodded, barking out, "bring us up ninety, show her our broadside. Turret gunners, you are cleared to engage."
She hustled down to the fleet coordination console; the crewwoman at it hopping away for her. "This is Takio," she said, hopping on the controls. "Ladies, clear my skies of red. I don't know what the hell has gotten into the Ministry, attacking our stations like this, but if it's hostile out there, we kill it."
Rolling Rock was not having a good day, and it was getting exponentially worse. Her engines had been disabled, and Najia heard Maestro call out over the pirate channel, "Her engines are disabled. Now is the time to get away! But, where is Wildcard?" Najia winced. How was she going to explain that? Did she even want to? "This is Snapping Tortoise," Raleen, the captain of her pirate Baku called out. "We are picking up the crew of Jackdaw and Raven. Let these big bruisers fight, we'll get back to you."
"No!" Kriss Mellerd called out, yelping. "I don't wanna die!" Rolling Rock was coming apart under the growing tide of fire it was enduring, and more ships were still arriving. Najia snarled. Part of her wanted to bid Kriss a bon voyage to the afterlife, but she looked up to Selaia. "If anyone gets out of that ship, I want them. And we don't tell the Ministry."
"Roger that," Selaia said, and barked out orders to the helm to move closer to Rolling Rock. Najia looked back - a Ministry Razorbill was thoroughly engaged, and another had just blown up, attacking the construction depot.
She gritted her teeth, snorting hard. There was going to be hell to pay for this later. Righteous indigation - no, fury - was going to be the order of the day. Her ships had responded to a distress call from a Windfall trader, by an unidentified vessel. It was attacking relentlessly, wasn't on-record as being anything official. Then Ministry vessels, apparently heeding the aggressor's pleas, had jumped in, attacking Takio Enterprises assets, and the inevitable happen.
That was the tack she was going to have to take, and she clenched her fist. Outside, Rolling Rock came apart in a dazzling blossom of red that polarized the bridge windows for a long several moments. When they cleared, the ship was a debris field. Part of her hoped that Mellerd was dead; part of her hoped she wasn't. There was going to be a butcher's bill for today, and she tried - probably vainly - to make peace with that.
"Get us close enough to the Ministry Wharf to make contact," Najia said, looking to Selaia. "I've some barking to do." Selaia smirked at her. "After this? They should know damn well your bark isn't nearly as bad as your bite. They should be happy to get barked at. You should put on a respectable jacket at least." Najia let out a huff of exasperation, hurrying to do just that.
Hence, she found herself with eyes coldly blazing over the comms to the Ministry Police Kea craft which had departed from the wharf to intercept Koshirae. "Enough is enough," she snarled over the holo, standing in the conference room. "My ships responded to an attack upon a free trader from a destroyer that was not transmitting appropriate Ministry codes - not that the Ministry should be allowed to attack random traders, either."
"Your ships fired upon Ministry vessels," the captain of the Kea shot back, clearly outraged - but also, like the pilot who had followed her through the rift - terrified at being massively outnumbered and outgunned.
"Let me be clear, on the record, so there is no ambiguity," Najia said, leaning forward, placing her fist on the table. The effect was to lean closer to the hologram - and on the little attack ship's screen, her face would loom larger. "My ships responded to a distress call from a ship being attacked by an unknown vessel not transmitting appropriate ID. The Ministry, for whatever reasons, chose to respond to the event by siding with the aggressor and attacking my ships. Takio Enterprises warships responded by destroying the Ministry vessels." Her heart was thumping in her chest, but she narrowed her eyes. "If this is the gratitude of the Ministry of Finance, for all that Takio Enterprises has done here in Eighteen Billion, in Grand Exchange and at large, for the Ministry and the company, up to and including constructing facilities and securing neutral diplomats to mediate the dispute between the Company and the Ministry... Well, you might want to check with your superiors before you write a check they have to make good on. To be absolutely clear, this is a threat; you are the highest-ranking Ministry combat officer in Eighteen Billion. It is your decision whether this conflict continues or ceases, here and now. Ah - ah! Shut your fucking muzzle and listen to me carefully," she snapped, as the pilot opened her muzzle to retort.
"If you say anything but words to the effect of 'this was a horrible misunderstanding and we should deescalate the situation' - if you, personally, choose to escalate the situation, the first step I will take will be ordering all of my shipyards to stop producing vessels for the Ministry. The second step will be that I shall cripple the Ministry's ability to replace vessels by destroying the Ministry Shipyard and Wharf here in Eighteen Billion. I shall then proceed onward to prosecute this destructive and pointless war - a war chosen by you, pilot, here and now - by destroying each and every Ministry of Trade station I can find, until someone with some competent authority asks me to please stop doing that. You can see the weight of tonnage I have here, you know the Ministry does not have the tonnage to stop me. The choice is in your claws, pilot; war, or peace. War, or peace. Escalate, or deescalate. Your call."
The Kea pilot visibly shrank backwards in her command chair, obviously struggling to attempt to retain composure and command respect in the face of an overt and direct threat to bring fire and flame directly to the Ministry of Finance. Finally she steeled herself, straightening up in her chair. "This has obviously been a dreadful misunderstanding, miss Takio. The Ministry is undoubtedly going to demand reparations for our lost warships, but such matters are the purview of the financiers, not myself. If you will cease giving offense, we too shall cease attacks upon your vessels."
"Thank you," Najia said, leaning back. She fought not to visibly slump and sigh in relief, or to show how badly her heart was racing. "As for the reparations, they can take that up with the diplomat I have on payroll. Out." She cut the channel, and collapsed back into the chair behind her.
A moment later, the comm lit up again, and she flicked it on. It was a huge conference call, with the commanders of her fleets, the captain of Koshirae, Marta on the Snapping Tortoise with a small bandage on her forehead; Rei Stringer on the 18B construction depot, Tsukiko Peterson back at the headquarters, Professors Nakagawa and Okoye - whom Najia realized with a pang of guilt she hadn't yet formally re-introduced herself to -, Boso Ta,, and Ace. Najia let out a heavy sigh of relief. "Please for the love of god tell me we didn't lose anybody," she said, first off.
"Nobody from Jackdaw, Marta confirmed. "I took a headcount. We got lucky. "That seems to be a recurring theme," added Captain - probably should be Commodore - Xiaowen Kapoor - one of Najia's older friends, and currently the commander of T.E.S. Fenrir. "It helps that we responded with overwhelming firepower. My fleet is reporting no fatalties; thirteen casualties, mostly caused by haste in the heat of battle."
That proved to be the recurring theme; all of her responders reported sustaining injuries, mostly 'workplace accidents' incurred whilst in the heat of battle, but though some were serious, none were life-threatening.
"Najia Takio," Professor Yoriko Okoye - an aged-but-not-venerable, steel-haired professor-turned diplomat said, with the same tone of voice that she had used when reproaching Najia in class. "You are now, as ever you were, charmed, lucky, and reckless. You choose to act with passion first and foremost. This is a fine mess that I'm going to have to clean up, you understand. Can I expect this sort of thing to deal with in the future?"
Najia took in a breath, glancing around at her fellows. Barring a few, they were all young - Tsukiko was the third-oldest and Najia knew she was closer to thirty-five than forty - barely. Most of them looked grave, but not mutinious. She sighed, and smiled, wryly. "While I don't plan to go to war with the Ministry, there may be future... Rough spots to smooth over, yes. If you'd like to resign and go home -" "Not yet," the aged professor said, sharply. "But for dealing with this, I am going to require a pay rise!"
A chorus of chuckles surrounded her, and Najia sighed, face-palming and smiling. "That's fair, professor. We're going to have a fine time untangling this. Ace, how are the Curs?"
Ace looked into her eyes, then looked away for a moment, then back to her. "Secure in Windfall, awaiting your hopefully-safe return." She trilled, and Najia nodded. "Next stop, then."
2023.04.01 10:05 Fdsn U.S. State Dept approves potential sale of F-35 fighters, munitions to India. [Premium article, full copypaste in the comments]
![U.S. State Dept approves potential sale of F-35 fighters, munitions to India. [Premium article, full copypaste in the comments]](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/tNgjssi-9OKtmqqZUWu-XIS2EDd41AUSZe6b5wQWlKo.jpg "U.S. State Dept approves potential sale of F-35 fighters, munitions to India. [Premium article, full copypaste in the comments]") | submitted by Fdsn to IndianDefense [link] [comments] |
2023.04.01 09:24 Sinpleton025 [Rifts of War] - Chapter 9
Expedition report from RG-5
Area of recon: Shore of Meilume due east of Galdush
Report carried out by Lieutenant Eric Ross
Report states: RG-5 has encountered an elven outpost on its way to the shore. The purpose of these outposts is to act as checkpoints for the Imperial army as well as to maintain surveillance within an area. The outpost encountered by RG-5 had thirty soldiers guarding it. RG-5 attempted peaceful contact, however, the elves engaged and RG-5 retaliated. All enemies have been neutralized and RG-5 has suffered no casualties and the outpost has been searched. Upon reaching the shore, RG-5 made peaceful contact with a local fishing village. They helped in local affairs, such as hunting down several feral welfen and repairing their equipment. In return, the locals gave them information on the coast south of the North Alston river. There are seven villages between the river and the Alston kingdom border and three more north of the river, which make up the fishing community of the southeast coast of the empire. The southeast coast and shore are patrolled by the Imperial third fleet with its center in the port city of Cheemo. Further information is required.
Other news: The airstrip has been finalized and drones have been sent to various locations. New findings include the official location of the river city Kuruk to the north and Imperial fort Mundus to the west. A large cluster of Imperial soldiers has been seen gathering on the opposite side of the North Alston river. Numbers count between one hundred and one hundred and fifty thousand, including auxiliary troops. No signs of any movement south of the river. Will continue to observe. The CIA has been able to establish a network in the Meilume capital and the leading agent, Edward Garcia, has confirmed that the nobility is attempting to flee the area. RG-3 is advised to speed up. As for the city itself, the population is estimated to be roughly six hundred thousand with fortifications and a force of ten thousand soldiers. No elements of any Imperial spy network have been discovered.
28th day of late yellow season, 3000th cycle
Meilume capital, Empire of light
General Laeroth's words reached the nobility of Meilume and they heed its instructions. Lord Bellon Belus rushed his family and the guard commander followed. Servants carried bags and soldiers formed a formation to escort them to Una, where they will meet with the army that will bring them to the other side of the river and then to the city of Imslone. Bellon was always a father and husband first, and lord second. Nearly two hundred thousand soldiers were slaughtered in less than a moon cycle. That was proof enough that he needed to leave the capital and save his family. Abandoning his city in the face of the enemy was an act of cowardice, often severely punished, but he would take any punishment for those he loved. He would not be like his father.
Bellon walked through the halls and double-checked every room. "Hurry up! Leave anything not of use! Leave the valuables, they are only dead weight!"
"Bellon!", a woman called him.
"Nimriel.", he said.
"Must we leave? This has been our home for cycles. And our family's home for far longer. Leaving it is-"
"It is the only way. The only way for us to live. We must, Nimriel. If we do not, the enemy will take us."
"But Bellon-"
"Think of our daughter, Nimriel. Think of Taria. What if those barbarians breach the walls? After they're done with the peasants, do you believe they will spare us? I will not allow such a thing to happen."
And speaking of the devil, Taria appeared from the corner, wearing a battle uniform with a sword sheathed on her left hip and holding a helmet in her right hand. "I am ready father."
Bellon couldn't say he was shocked too much. Since she was little she used to sneak into the courtyard and train with the guard commander. He knew and let her do what she wanted. It made her happy. But this was uncalled for.
"Stop fooling around Taria.", Bellon said, "This is a serious matter."
"Then take me seriously!", Taria responded, "The enemy is coming and I must be ready."
"You are not staying. You are coming with us to Imslone."
"I am not. I will not commit an act of cowardice and leave my post."
"Your post is beside me. I am your father!"
"I am not a little girl anymore! I have trained with Aego for over a hundred cycles! I am ready!"
"This enemy destroyed two armies and bested two generals! We stand no chance! Our only choice is to flee as far as we can and let the armies deal with them. The best we can hope to do is slow them down."
"You dare doubt our guard like that, father! These soldiers are just as strong as those of the Imperial army and our walls have held off the Rosians and ferals! We can-"
"Do you not hear me you stupid girl!", Bellon's voice boomed through the walls and made the servants and guards stop in their tracks, "I do not care for your illusions! The enemy is real! Wars are bloody and repulsive and not a place for you! You are the daughter of a lord! You are the heir to Meilume and a member of the Belus family! You will cease this foolishness at once and act accordingly!"
This was the loudest Bellon ever had to shout. He could feel his throat hurting. Taria could only feel tears falling down her cheeks as she lowered her head in shame. In truth, she just wanted to prove she was as capable as she claimed. That despite being a girl she could live in the world of men. But her dreams would have to wait. Bellon groaned and shook his head as he kept walking down the hall. Nimriel hugged her daughter and tried to reassure her everything will be alright, but her words fell on deaf ears.
As Nimriel left, someone else walked over to Taria from behind. As he placed his hand on her shoulder, Taria turned around and saw a man she thought of as her second father. "Aego.", she said through tears.
"Do not be saddened, my lady.", he said as he wiped her tears, "Your father said what he said because he cares. You are his only daughter, more valuable to him than this entire world. He only wants what is best for you. And right now, the best for you is to go to Imslone."
"B-But the enemy. What will you do?"
"I am coming with you, my lady. I left my first captain in charge. He will make sure these otherworlders bleed for this city."
Taria hugged him, still shedding tears, "Thank you Aego. Thank you."
Aego hugged her back.
---
29th of June, 2070
Since the Rift Groups programs have been initiated, soldiers all around have been eager to join. Some more than others, some less. But none were as stocked as sergeant Emma Davis. The second youngest member of RG-1, she was nicknamed 'Trigger-finger' for a reason. Great results in the shooting range, but not much else. Still, when she heard the 'Prodigy' was joining she couldn't control herself. Ever since they left for Alston, she's been clinging to Logan like a leach.
"Sir, how many people have you killed?", she asked.
"I lost count.", Logan answered.
"Sir, why have you joined the army?"
"It's a family tradition."
"Sir, have you been shot?"
"Yes."
"Sir, may I see it?"
"No."
"Sir, why did you leave the special forces?"
Logan didn't answer that one.
"Sir-"
"Emma shut up already.", Jacob said.
"Yeah, I think you're getting on the captain's nerves.", Michael said.
Staff sergeant Jacob Brown and corporal Michael Hoilman, Emma's friends since high school and pretty much the only reason she's not in jail. They've stuck by her side, being her big brothers for years, and kind of grown attached to her. It was like having a little sister.
"No I'm not.", Emma said.
"Yes you are.", Jacob said.
"You hold your captain in quite a high regard.", said Krolm, the leanoid, "Why?"
"Are you kidding me?", Emma said, "He's Logan Connors. All of Fort Bragg and the rangers know about him."
"Are rangers perhaps elites in your army?", asked Kai, the welfen.
"We're rangers.", said veteran sniper sergeant Nick Harper aka 'Bullseye', "We're a strike fast group made for quick attacks and quick action. We're not like the rest of the army that fights on the front lines. We fight in forests, towns, cities, forts, you name it. We hit fast, hard, and take care of our mission."
"Hell yeah we do!", shouted corporal Lamar Jones, the 'Heavy gunner'.
"Interesting.", said Clara, the lepian, "So that's why you have us with you. It makes sense, you don't really need us on the front lines when you got your large cannons and these armored carriages."
RG-1 wasn't just a normal group. It was the only group with sixty-six soldiers, a captain, and twice as many vehicles. This made them quite a force and that was necessary since they were being deployed to the border of Alston. After prince Bodin agreed to assist REC he chose three people who would aid him. Gregor Bachwich, son of Herwin Bachwich, the baron of the border town of Afa. He will be important in establishing first contact with the Rosians. Lieutenant Pallius Blazewing, son of Lor Blazewing, a great military figure in the Opherin army. The Opherin kingdom prides itself on great military history, having fought more battles than any Rosian kingdom or duchy in history. And finally, a youngster named Matheo Calo. There was nothing special about him besides being prince Bodin's personal squire. He's been with Bodin for years and the two became more than just prince and servant. Furthermore, Bodin promised Matheo he would bring him back to his mother in Olinor. Prince Bodin himself didn't choose to come along. His reasoning was that he wants to present himself in front of all the kings and dukes when they all gathered together. One more person did come with them. Ambassador Eugene Anderson. Together, they will establish peace. Or war.
Right now they were on their way to Afa, only several more minutes. In the LAV where the tribals were, private first-class Ethan Williams sat, writing in his journal. He was the youngest and newest addition to the group. Fresh off the academy, he graduated to be a sniper and was eager to learn from both Logan and Nick. But something kept him from them. Next to him sat Carla, who kept eyeballing him and his weapon. Ethan was nervous, he wasn't used to girls sitting near him, or even looking at him, and Carla seemed interested.
"What is this weapon?", she asked.
"O-Oh Ummm, this?", he stuttered, "This is a modified and modernized Mk22 ASR sniper rifle. I know there are older models but my granddad taught me how to use this one. It can hit a target from about twenty-two hundred yards away. In your measurements, that's four leagues."
Carla's ears went up, "Amazing! I bet I could hunt a lot of meat with it."
"Well, um. It takes a lot of skill to use it. I could show you, sometime."
"Oh?", Carla raised an eyebrow and moved closer smiling, "I think I would like that.". She purred a little which made Ethan stutter and sweat. Across from them, Lin watched with her arms crossed.
"What?", Carla asked, "Envious?"
"Not at all.", Lin said as she grabbed Lamar's arm, "I prefer strong males.". Lamar opened his mouth but couldn't say anything. He and Ethan just stared at each other.
"Before your boners brake your belts and that LAV becomes hotter than a pizza oven at Papa John's, I wanna let you know we're almost there.", said lieutenant James Wilson over the comms from the leading JLTV3, the most veteran among them, chosen to uphold discipline.
"Thank you.", said Logan.
"They seem to be getting along.", said ambassador Anderson.
"Indeed.", said Gregor, "I must say, you humans are more strange than you are frightening. The way you use words with one meaning for another. And your expressions as well. Definitely not the savages Canus described."
"I'm glad we could prove that to you. And it appears we are about to prove it to the rest of your kingdom.". They were nearly at Afa. This town serves as a fortified stronghold against the empire should they attack. Its walls were tall and thick, with bastion towers and a single entry gate. It would be difficult for the elves to take it.
"The town currently has a thousand soldiers protecting it. It's usually three thousand, but two thousand went with me through the rift. Most likely on the orders of the elves, my father would never allow it."
"Only three thousand?", James asked.
"Three thousand official soldiers, but should the need arise we can recruit militia fighters from the residents. The town itself has a population of eighty thousand."
"That's a lot of people.", Eugene said.
"Yes. Luckily, it is able to support them, even if barely. The elves aren't exactly sharing people."
"That will all change soon."
As the convoy approached the gate, a ballista javelin hit the road in front of them. The city defenders had assembled on the wall and aimed their weapons at them. While the vehicles are armored, the JLTVs have weak spots a javelin can pierce.
"Hold it!", shouted a man on the wall, presumably the commander, "Present yourselves immediately."
"I'll take care of this.", Logan said as he exited the JLTV with his hands raised, "I am Captain Logan Connors of the Rift Expeditionary Corps! We are from Galdush and have come to make peaceful relations with the kingdom of Alston!"
"Why should we listen to you!?"
"If not me, then how about someone more familiar!".
At that moment, Gregor stepped out of the JLTV3 and, to put it mildly, made the defenders' hearts skip a beat. "Commander Barion! It is good to see you!"
Barion couldn't even speak for moments. His young baron was alive. Against all odds, he made it back. "Y-Young baron!", he finally spoke, "You... You live! How!? And what are you doing with the enemy?!"
"I assure you, they are not the enemy! I will explain everything, but first, I need to ask you to open this gate and let these soldiers in!"
Barion hesitated for a moment, "B-But young ba-"
"Commander, do not make me order you!"
He immediately understood, "Open this gate immediately! Let them in! Someone inform the baron!"
The gate opened and the convoy made it in. Luckily, there was enough room to fit all of them in. Barion and his men, as well as the people, could only stare in awe at what was before them. Truly, people from another world. The commander stepped down and greeted them as well as Gregor.
"Young baron, you have a lot of explaining to do.", Barion said.
"All will be explained soon.", Gregor said.
"Gregor!", shouted a little girl as she ran towards him.
"Elora.", Gregor said as he hugged her, "My little sister. It is good to see you.". Behind her came his mother and father, who at first walked slowly with tears in their eyes, not believing it was him.
"My son.", Herwin said as he hugged Gregor, "By the heavens. You live."
"Mother. Father. I have returned. Let me introduce you to someone. This is Lord Ambassador Eugene Anderson from the land of America on the other side of the rift. He is here to represent his country and the humans."
Herwin immediately walked to him and bowed, "I am Baron Herwin Bachwich. Thank you for sparing my son's life. It is an honor to have you here, Lord Anderson."
"The honor is mine baron.", Eugene said, "I hope we will be able to discuss peace with you and your kingdom."
This confused Herwin, "Peace?"
"I have much to tell you father.", Gregor said, "The prince lives."
Completely frozen, Herwin took a few moments to process that before replying, "He lives?"
"Enemies!", shouted a soldier from the wall. Commander Barion and Logan rushed up the wall. Logan grabbed his binoculars and observed the enemy from a distance. They came from a treeline, their camp was behind it, otherwise, RG-1 would have spotted them.
"I count five hundred.", Logan said, "Various races. Elves, Rosians, ferals."
"How?", Barion asked.
"These are binoculars. They allow me to see things from a distance. Try it."
Logan handed the binoculars to Barion, who observed them for a few moments before putting them on his eyes and facing the enemy. "Incredible."
Barion handed them back but Logan refused, "Keep it, I have a spare. I get the elves, but why are your people attacking you?"
"Those bastards aren't our people. They are traitors and thieves who think the kingdom is done for. So they run to the empire and beg them for forgiveness.". He spat in disgust.
"And the elves. They don't look like the army."
"They most likely were. They call themselves rogues, those who stray from their so-called 'Path of light'. Both of these traitors sicken me."
"Then let us help you."
"Why would you help us?"
"If we're gonna be at peace with one another, we have to establish a certain level of trust, don't we?"
Barion pondered for a bit before answering, "Very well. I am eager to see the army that defeated the elves."
Nodding Logan walked to the edge of the wall and faced his men. "Jones, take your men and mount the machine guns! Davis, bring the ammo! Williams, Harper, get to higher ground and shoot anyone that looks important or a large threat! Wilson, take Green and set up the mortar! Move it, they'll be here in minutes!"
RG-1 immediately went to work. Jones and his men carried the machine guns from the trucks and mounted them on the walls, Williams and Harper climbed up the tallest tower they could find and got into position. Wilson set up the 60mm mortar in the town square.
"I think we should get to safety.", Eugene said.
"You are right.", Herwin said, "Follow me."
Logan got into position with his Mk4 SCAR chambered in 7.62mm. "Commander, I need a favor."
"What is it, captain?", Barion asked.
"If these guys fire arrows, we don't have shields to defend ourselves. You think your men can take of that?"
"Certainly. Get the shields ready! Protect their soldiers!". In moments, each ranger had a Rosian soldier behind him or her with a shield ready. It was time to fight.
The horde moved closer and closer. First, they walked and then picked up the pace as they put shields above their heads. Naturally, the ferals ran towards the wall like rabid animals. "Hold!", Logan said as he gripped his gun, "Wait for them to get closer!". There was one elf on a horse swinging his sword and giving commands. Not for long.
"It's all you kid.", Harper said as he watched Williams aim his shot.
Letting out a breath, Williams pulled the trigger and splattered the elf's brain all over the field. "Boom boom motherfucker."
"Weapons free! Light them up!", Logan shouted as the rangers opened fire on the ferals. The freaks fell by the dozens as bullets pierced their chest, heads, legs, and arms and turned them into cold, dead corpses. The mortar fired at the enemies behind them, who stopped in their tracks, clearly confused and terrified. The rangers aimed their weapons at them and started cutting them down.
"Get some, blueberries!", Davis shouted, "Come closer! I dare ya!"
The few dozen that survived retreated back to the trees. The rangers cheered, but the Rosians didn't cheer as much as they stared in awe. Now they see why the elves lost, these people are powerful.
Commander Barion walked to Logan, "Thank you for the assistance. But I doubt this is the last we have seen of them."
"I know.", Logan said, "That's why I'll have one of my guys scout those trees with a drone along with Lin and Clara.". Logan walked down to the two of them, "Scot! Get over here!"
"Coming!", Scot answered. Scot Green aka 'Mechanic', was the group's engineer. He was also their drone pilot. "Yes sir?"
"I need you to pilot the Fly into those tree lines and scout for the enemy.". The SPFD Fly was a small recon drone invented by DARPA to save both room and energy. Solar-powered and long-lasting battery, coupled with its long-range and small size made it a very useful tool to have in recon missions. "Lin, Carla, you two are also going. I need good eyes and ears over there."
"Sure thing, sir.", Lin said saluting the best she could.
"You two do know how to use a radio, right?"
"Of course we do.", Clara said, "We're not idiots."
"Good. Go.". Lin and Carla ran to the trees as Scott maneuvered the Fly.
The baron and his family, along with Ambassador Eugene walked over to the soldiers. The baron was first to speak, "That was... most impressive. But I must ask. Why peace? Surely you seem powerful enough to take the kingdoms by force."
"Because my people aren't barbarians, baron.", Anderson said, "If peace can be made, then we will do anything to make it a reality."
"I see. And the prince? What does he say about this?"
"You can ask him yourself.", Anderson said as he nodded to Logan who signaled his men to set up a desk and a large screen. "With this device, we can talk to the prince and even see him."
"Amazing.", said Herwin as he eagerly awaited to see his prince. After some preparations, the screen was ready and it turned on. The lights slightly startled the Rosians before the screen was clear and on it was prince Bodin himself. "My... My prince.", Herwin said as he knelt, "It is a miracle. You truly live."
"Baron Bachwich.", Bodin spoke, "Please, rise. I am not before you just yet. This is strange for me as well. Am I correct to assume the human soldiers have arrived?"
"Yes, my prince. They recently just helped us crush an attack from a bandit horde."
"Do you then see why I have chosen to make peace with these people?"
After a momentary pause, Herwin nodded, "I do, my prince. It is incredible to see that a nation so powerful is willing to make peace with its enemy and not subdue it."
"We are not their enemy, baron. The elves and their empire are. This is why they chose to make peace with us. They understand we are just vassals forced to fight. I suggest you hear Lord Anderson out."
As they were talking, Scot called for Logan, "Sir. I have a visual."
Logan nodded, "Alright. Commander Barion, would you like to see the enemy?"
"Yes.", Barion answered, "Show me."
Scot pulled up the video feed on his screen, "This is their camp. I count roughly three thousand. Lin and Carla confirm."
"Where are those two?", Logan asked.
"In the trees."
"Call them back and give me the radio.", Logan took the radio, "Galdush base. Come in Galdush base. This is Captain Logan Connors of Rift Group 1. Do you copy? Over."
After a few moments, the radio spoke, "Copy Rift Group 1. Sitrep. Over."
"Galdush, we have made contact with border town Afa. Upon entry, we engaged a third party, designated rogue elves, and bandit Rosians. Half a battalion attacked us but we drove them off. We confirm the enemy numbers in three thousand, various races. What's the status of our air forces? Over."
"Three air squadrons of Invictus ACs and a Boeing Stratofortress is currently being fueled and should be ready in half an hour."
"Galdush I request a tactical bombing run. The area will be marked via drone. How copy?"
The radio went silent for a few moments before speaking again, "Affirmative RG-1. Stratofortress will be up in the air as soon as possible. Make sure to mark the area. Galdush out."
"Copy that Galdush. RG-1 out."
"What was that?", Barion asked.
"You're gonna get another demonstration."
"Captain!", Carla shouted as she ran towards him. "I have eliminated an enemy scout.", she said as she extended a severed head toward Logan.
Logan smacked his lips before replying, "I see. Get rid of it."
"Yes sir.", Carla said as she tossed the head into a nearby pile of trash.
'At least she's helping', Logan thought.
---
(Two hours later)
The bandits and rogues were sitting in their tents, trying to plan an attack. The otherworlders were an unexpected problem, but hopefully a problem they could be dealt with.
"Alright, listen.", said an elf, "We'll strike at night. It didn't work last time because there were too many of them, but I reckon there can't be more than a few dozen of them."
"That doesn't matter.", said a Rosian, "I've seen what that few can do."
"You attacked with five hundred to scout their defenses. You were never supposed to win. Besides, we can use the tribals to deal with them. As we are attacking the front, they will go to the sides and strike."
"Are you sure this will work?"
"Yes. Soon, Afa will be ours."
At that moment, an elf rushed into the tent, "Sir, you must come and see this!"
They left the tent and came to the center of the tent. The one who called them pointed upwards into the sky. There they saw something flying. A wyvern? No, it was too big. Its wings didn't flap. What could it be? As it flew over them, something fell from it. Many egg-like things started falling and as they fell to the ground, they engulfed the camp in fire and shook the earth. In moments, the whole camp was on fire and everyone was either dead or dying. The ground was turned into a burning pile of scorched bodies.
If there were any doubts about the power of the otherwolders left, they were long gone now.
---
(Meanwhile)
Road to Una
The Belus family along with commander Aego and two hundred soldiers were on their way to Una. Taria did not wish to ride with her father and so she rode on a horse alongside Aego. Their hopes were that they would reach Una in several days and then cross the river.
"My lady.", Aego spoke, "Are you certain you should be riding alongside me and not in the carriage?"
"I do not wish to speak to my father.", Taria said, "At least not now."
"I assumed we cleared this matter."
"We have but... I still need time."
Aego sighed, "I understand. Still, you should not hate him for-", he stopped and halted the soldiers.
"What?"
"Something is not as it should be. This outpost is quiet.". The soldiers tensed up. They could also feel that something wasn't right. In a split second, Aego was shot by an arrow in the side.
"Ambush!", Taria yelled out. Suddenly, elves, welfen, and leanoids ran from the sides and the outpost. The soldiers prepared but found themselves overwhelmed by the enemies' numbers. Rogue elves fired arrows at them while welfen and leanoids exploited weaknesses and struck. Still, the soldiers fought hard, making sure the traitors and savages suffer. The enemy numbers were dropping, but not quickly enough. Taria used her training and cut down several rogues before crouching down to help Aego.
"Aego!", she yelled, "Aego hold on! You will live! Please!". She cried as he struggled to breathe. He grabbed her arm and pushed her to the side, just in time for her to dodge a spear from a leanoid. She watched as Aego spat blood before dying, his life leaving his body. In pure rage, she screamed and struck the leanoid in the side. Pulling out her sword she blocked a strike from a rogue, stepped closer, and headbutted him before slitting his throat.
Turning to her left she saw the rogues and tribals dragging her family. "Father!", she yelled, but couldn't help as a rogue hit her in the back of the head, knocking her down on the ground. Her blurred vision faded away as the rogue smiled down at her.
"Sweet dreams, little girl.", was what he said before she passed out completely.
End of chapter 9
---
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Area of recon: Shore of Meilume due east of Galdush
Report carried out by Lieutenant Eric Ross
Report states: RG-5 has encountered an elven outpost on its way to the shore. The purpose of these outposts is to act as checkpoints for the Imperial army as well as to maintain surveillance within an area. The outpost encountered by RG-5 had thirty soldiers guarding it. RG-5 attempted peaceful contact, however, the elves engaged and RG-5 retaliated. All enemies have been neutralized and RG-5 has suffered no casualties and the outpost has been searched. Upon reaching the shore, RG-5 made peaceful contact with a local fishing village. They helped in local affairs, such as hunting down several feral welfen and repairing their equipment. In return, the locals gave them information on the coast south of the North Alston river. There are seven villages between the river and the Alston kingdom border and three more north of the river, which make up the fishing community of the southeast coast of the empire. The southeast coast and shore are patrolled by the Imperial third fleet with its center in the port city of Cheemo. Further information is required.
Other news: The airstrip has been finalized and drones have been sent to various locations. New findings include the official location of the river city Kuruk to the north and Imperial fort Mundus to the west. A large cluster of Imperial soldiers has been seen gathering on the opposite side of the North Alston river. Numbers count between one hundred and one hundred and fifty thousand, including auxiliary troops. No signs of any movement south of the river. Will continue to observe. The CIA has been able to establish a network in the Meilume capital and the leading agent, Edward Garcia, has confirmed that the nobility is attempting to flee the area. RG-3 is advised to speed up. As for the city itself, the population is estimated to be roughly six hundred thousand with fortifications and a force of ten thousand soldiers. No elements of any Imperial spy network have been discovered.
28th day of late yellow season, 3000th cycle
Meilume capital, Empire of light
General Laeroth's words reached the nobility of Meilume and they heed its instructions. Lord Bellon Belus rushed his family and the guard commander followed. Servants carried bags and soldiers formed a formation to escort them to Una, where they will meet with the army that will bring them to the other side of the river and then to the city of Imslone. Bellon was always a father and husband first, and lord second. Nearly two hundred thousand soldiers were slaughtered in less than a moon cycle. That was proof enough that he needed to leave the capital and save his family. Abandoning his city in the face of the enemy was an act of cowardice, often severely punished, but he would take any punishment for those he loved. He would not be like his father.
Bellon walked through the halls and double-checked every room. "Hurry up! Leave anything not of use! Leave the valuables, they are only dead weight!"
"Bellon!", a woman called him.
"Nimriel.", he said.
"Must we leave? This has been our home for cycles. And our family's home for far longer. Leaving it is-"
"It is the only way. The only way for us to live. We must, Nimriel. If we do not, the enemy will take us."
"But Bellon-"
"Think of our daughter, Nimriel. Think of Taria. What if those barbarians breach the walls? After they're done with the peasants, do you believe they will spare us? I will not allow such a thing to happen."
And speaking of the devil, Taria appeared from the corner, wearing a battle uniform with a sword sheathed on her left hip and holding a helmet in her right hand. "I am ready father."
Bellon couldn't say he was shocked too much. Since she was little she used to sneak into the courtyard and train with the guard commander. He knew and let her do what she wanted. It made her happy. But this was uncalled for.
"Stop fooling around Taria.", Bellon said, "This is a serious matter."
"Then take me seriously!", Taria responded, "The enemy is coming and I must be ready."
"You are not staying. You are coming with us to Imslone."
"I am not. I will not commit an act of cowardice and leave my post."
"Your post is beside me. I am your father!"
"I am not a little girl anymore! I have trained with Aego for over a hundred cycles! I am ready!"
"This enemy destroyed two armies and bested two generals! We stand no chance! Our only choice is to flee as far as we can and let the armies deal with them. The best we can hope to do is slow them down."
"You dare doubt our guard like that, father! These soldiers are just as strong as those of the Imperial army and our walls have held off the Rosians and ferals! We can-"
"Do you not hear me you stupid girl!", Bellon's voice boomed through the walls and made the servants and guards stop in their tracks, "I do not care for your illusions! The enemy is real! Wars are bloody and repulsive and not a place for you! You are the daughter of a lord! You are the heir to Meilume and a member of the Belus family! You will cease this foolishness at once and act accordingly!"
This was the loudest Bellon ever had to shout. He could feel his throat hurting. Taria could only feel tears falling down her cheeks as she lowered her head in shame. In truth, she just wanted to prove she was as capable as she claimed. That despite being a girl she could live in the world of men. But her dreams would have to wait. Bellon groaned and shook his head as he kept walking down the hall. Nimriel hugged her daughter and tried to reassure her everything will be alright, but her words fell on deaf ears.
As Nimriel left, someone else walked over to Taria from behind. As he placed his hand on her shoulder, Taria turned around and saw a man she thought of as her second father. "Aego.", she said through tears.
"Do not be saddened, my lady.", he said as he wiped her tears, "Your father said what he said because he cares. You are his only daughter, more valuable to him than this entire world. He only wants what is best for you. And right now, the best for you is to go to Imslone."
"B-But the enemy. What will you do?"
"I am coming with you, my lady. I left my first captain in charge. He will make sure these otherworlders bleed for this city."
Taria hugged him, still shedding tears, "Thank you Aego. Thank you."
Aego hugged her back.
---
29th of June, 2070
Since the Rift Groups programs have been initiated, soldiers all around have been eager to join. Some more than others, some less. But none were as stocked as sergeant Emma Davis. The second youngest member of RG-1, she was nicknamed 'Trigger-finger' for a reason. Great results in the shooting range, but not much else. Still, when she heard the 'Prodigy' was joining she couldn't control herself. Ever since they left for Alston, she's been clinging to Logan like a leach.
"Sir, how many people have you killed?", she asked.
"I lost count.", Logan answered.
"Sir, why have you joined the army?"
"It's a family tradition."
"Sir, have you been shot?"
"Yes."
"Sir, may I see it?"
"No."
"Sir, why did you leave the special forces?"
Logan didn't answer that one.
"Sir-"
"Emma shut up already.", Jacob said.
"Yeah, I think you're getting on the captain's nerves.", Michael said.
Staff sergeant Jacob Brown and corporal Michael Hoilman, Emma's friends since high school and pretty much the only reason she's not in jail. They've stuck by her side, being her big brothers for years, and kind of grown attached to her. It was like having a little sister.
"No I'm not.", Emma said.
"Yes you are.", Jacob said.
"You hold your captain in quite a high regard.", said Krolm, the leanoid, "Why?"
"Are you kidding me?", Emma said, "He's Logan Connors. All of Fort Bragg and the rangers know about him."
"Are rangers perhaps elites in your army?", asked Kai, the welfen.
"We're rangers.", said veteran sniper sergeant Nick Harper aka 'Bullseye', "We're a strike fast group made for quick attacks and quick action. We're not like the rest of the army that fights on the front lines. We fight in forests, towns, cities, forts, you name it. We hit fast, hard, and take care of our mission."
"Hell yeah we do!", shouted corporal Lamar Jones, the 'Heavy gunner'.
"Interesting.", said Clara, the lepian, "So that's why you have us with you. It makes sense, you don't really need us on the front lines when you got your large cannons and these armored carriages."
RG-1 wasn't just a normal group. It was the only group with sixty-six soldiers, a captain, and twice as many vehicles. This made them quite a force and that was necessary since they were being deployed to the border of Alston. After prince Bodin agreed to assist REC he chose three people who would aid him. Gregor Bachwich, son of Herwin Bachwich, the baron of the border town of Afa. He will be important in establishing first contact with the Rosians. Lieutenant Pallius Blazewing, son of Lor Blazewing, a great military figure in the Opherin army. The Opherin kingdom prides itself on great military history, having fought more battles than any Rosian kingdom or duchy in history. And finally, a youngster named Matheo Calo. There was nothing special about him besides being prince Bodin's personal squire. He's been with Bodin for years and the two became more than just prince and servant. Furthermore, Bodin promised Matheo he would bring him back to his mother in Olinor. Prince Bodin himself didn't choose to come along. His reasoning was that he wants to present himself in front of all the kings and dukes when they all gathered together. One more person did come with them. Ambassador Eugene Anderson. Together, they will establish peace. Or war.
Right now they were on their way to Afa, only several more minutes. In the LAV where the tribals were, private first-class Ethan Williams sat, writing in his journal. He was the youngest and newest addition to the group. Fresh off the academy, he graduated to be a sniper and was eager to learn from both Logan and Nick. But something kept him from them. Next to him sat Carla, who kept eyeballing him and his weapon. Ethan was nervous, he wasn't used to girls sitting near him, or even looking at him, and Carla seemed interested.
"What is this weapon?", she asked.
"O-Oh Ummm, this?", he stuttered, "This is a modified and modernized Mk22 ASR sniper rifle. I know there are older models but my granddad taught me how to use this one. It can hit a target from about twenty-two hundred yards away. In your measurements, that's four leagues."
Carla's ears went up, "Amazing! I bet I could hunt a lot of meat with it."
"Well, um. It takes a lot of skill to use it. I could show you, sometime."
"Oh?", Carla raised an eyebrow and moved closer smiling, "I think I would like that.". She purred a little which made Ethan stutter and sweat. Across from them, Lin watched with her arms crossed.
"What?", Carla asked, "Envious?"
"Not at all.", Lin said as she grabbed Lamar's arm, "I prefer strong males.". Lamar opened his mouth but couldn't say anything. He and Ethan just stared at each other.
"Before your boners brake your belts and that LAV becomes hotter than a pizza oven at Papa John's, I wanna let you know we're almost there.", said lieutenant James Wilson over the comms from the leading JLTV3, the most veteran among them, chosen to uphold discipline.
"Thank you.", said Logan.
"They seem to be getting along.", said ambassador Anderson.
"Indeed.", said Gregor, "I must say, you humans are more strange than you are frightening. The way you use words with one meaning for another. And your expressions as well. Definitely not the savages Canus described."
"I'm glad we could prove that to you. And it appears we are about to prove it to the rest of your kingdom.". They were nearly at Afa. This town serves as a fortified stronghold against the empire should they attack. Its walls were tall and thick, with bastion towers and a single entry gate. It would be difficult for the elves to take it.
"The town currently has a thousand soldiers protecting it. It's usually three thousand, but two thousand went with me through the rift. Most likely on the orders of the elves, my father would never allow it."
"Only three thousand?", James asked.
"Three thousand official soldiers, but should the need arise we can recruit militia fighters from the residents. The town itself has a population of eighty thousand."
"That's a lot of people.", Eugene said.
"Yes. Luckily, it is able to support them, even if barely. The elves aren't exactly sharing people."
"That will all change soon."
As the convoy approached the gate, a ballista javelin hit the road in front of them. The city defenders had assembled on the wall and aimed their weapons at them. While the vehicles are armored, the JLTVs have weak spots a javelin can pierce.
"Hold it!", shouted a man on the wall, presumably the commander, "Present yourselves immediately."
"I'll take care of this.", Logan said as he exited the JLTV with his hands raised, "I am Captain Logan Connors of the Rift Expeditionary Corps! We are from Galdush and have come to make peaceful relations with the kingdom of Alston!"
"Why should we listen to you!?"
"If not me, then how about someone more familiar!".
At that moment, Gregor stepped out of the JLTV3 and, to put it mildly, made the defenders' hearts skip a beat. "Commander Barion! It is good to see you!"
Barion couldn't even speak for moments. His young baron was alive. Against all odds, he made it back. "Y-Young baron!", he finally spoke, "You... You live! How!? And what are you doing with the enemy?!"
"I assure you, they are not the enemy! I will explain everything, but first, I need to ask you to open this gate and let these soldiers in!"
Barion hesitated for a moment, "B-But young ba-"
"Commander, do not make me order you!"
He immediately understood, "Open this gate immediately! Let them in! Someone inform the baron!"
The gate opened and the convoy made it in. Luckily, there was enough room to fit all of them in. Barion and his men, as well as the people, could only stare in awe at what was before them. Truly, people from another world. The commander stepped down and greeted them as well as Gregor.
"Young baron, you have a lot of explaining to do.", Barion said.
"All will be explained soon.", Gregor said.
"Gregor!", shouted a little girl as she ran towards him.
"Elora.", Gregor said as he hugged her, "My little sister. It is good to see you.". Behind her came his mother and father, who at first walked slowly with tears in their eyes, not believing it was him.
"My son.", Herwin said as he hugged Gregor, "By the heavens. You live."
"Mother. Father. I have returned. Let me introduce you to someone. This is Lord Ambassador Eugene Anderson from the land of America on the other side of the rift. He is here to represent his country and the humans."
Herwin immediately walked to him and bowed, "I am Baron Herwin Bachwich. Thank you for sparing my son's life. It is an honor to have you here, Lord Anderson."
"The honor is mine baron.", Eugene said, "I hope we will be able to discuss peace with you and your kingdom."
This confused Herwin, "Peace?"
"I have much to tell you father.", Gregor said, "The prince lives."
Completely frozen, Herwin took a few moments to process that before replying, "He lives?"
"Enemies!", shouted a soldier from the wall. Commander Barion and Logan rushed up the wall. Logan grabbed his binoculars and observed the enemy from a distance. They came from a treeline, their camp was behind it, otherwise, RG-1 would have spotted them.
"I count five hundred.", Logan said, "Various races. Elves, Rosians, ferals."
"How?", Barion asked.
"These are binoculars. They allow me to see things from a distance. Try it."
Logan handed the binoculars to Barion, who observed them for a few moments before putting them on his eyes and facing the enemy. "Incredible."
Barion handed them back but Logan refused, "Keep it, I have a spare. I get the elves, but why are your people attacking you?"
"Those bastards aren't our people. They are traitors and thieves who think the kingdom is done for. So they run to the empire and beg them for forgiveness.". He spat in disgust.
"And the elves. They don't look like the army."
"They most likely were. They call themselves rogues, those who stray from their so-called 'Path of light'. Both of these traitors sicken me."
"Then let us help you."
"Why would you help us?"
"If we're gonna be at peace with one another, we have to establish a certain level of trust, don't we?"
Barion pondered for a bit before answering, "Very well. I am eager to see the army that defeated the elves."
Nodding Logan walked to the edge of the wall and faced his men. "Jones, take your men and mount the machine guns! Davis, bring the ammo! Williams, Harper, get to higher ground and shoot anyone that looks important or a large threat! Wilson, take Green and set up the mortar! Move it, they'll be here in minutes!"
RG-1 immediately went to work. Jones and his men carried the machine guns from the trucks and mounted them on the walls, Williams and Harper climbed up the tallest tower they could find and got into position. Wilson set up the 60mm mortar in the town square.
"I think we should get to safety.", Eugene said.
"You are right.", Herwin said, "Follow me."
Logan got into position with his Mk4 SCAR chambered in 7.62mm. "Commander, I need a favor."
"What is it, captain?", Barion asked.
"If these guys fire arrows, we don't have shields to defend ourselves. You think your men can take of that?"
"Certainly. Get the shields ready! Protect their soldiers!". In moments, each ranger had a Rosian soldier behind him or her with a shield ready. It was time to fight.
The horde moved closer and closer. First, they walked and then picked up the pace as they put shields above their heads. Naturally, the ferals ran towards the wall like rabid animals. "Hold!", Logan said as he gripped his gun, "Wait for them to get closer!". There was one elf on a horse swinging his sword and giving commands. Not for long.
"It's all you kid.", Harper said as he watched Williams aim his shot.
Letting out a breath, Williams pulled the trigger and splattered the elf's brain all over the field. "Boom boom motherfucker."
"Weapons free! Light them up!", Logan shouted as the rangers opened fire on the ferals. The freaks fell by the dozens as bullets pierced their chest, heads, legs, and arms and turned them into cold, dead corpses. The mortar fired at the enemies behind them, who stopped in their tracks, clearly confused and terrified. The rangers aimed their weapons at them and started cutting them down.
"Get some, blueberries!", Davis shouted, "Come closer! I dare ya!"
The few dozen that survived retreated back to the trees. The rangers cheered, but the Rosians didn't cheer as much as they stared in awe. Now they see why the elves lost, these people are powerful.
Commander Barion walked to Logan, "Thank you for the assistance. But I doubt this is the last we have seen of them."
"I know.", Logan said, "That's why I'll have one of my guys scout those trees with a drone along with Lin and Clara.". Logan walked down to the two of them, "Scot! Get over here!"
"Coming!", Scot answered. Scot Green aka 'Mechanic', was the group's engineer. He was also their drone pilot. "Yes sir?"
"I need you to pilot the Fly into those tree lines and scout for the enemy.". The SPFD Fly was a small recon drone invented by DARPA to save both room and energy. Solar-powered and long-lasting battery, coupled with its long-range and small size made it a very useful tool to have in recon missions. "Lin, Carla, you two are also going. I need good eyes and ears over there."
"Sure thing, sir.", Lin said saluting the best she could.
"You two do know how to use a radio, right?"
"Of course we do.", Clara said, "We're not idiots."
"Good. Go.". Lin and Carla ran to the trees as Scott maneuvered the Fly.
The baron and his family, along with Ambassador Eugene walked over to the soldiers. The baron was first to speak, "That was... most impressive. But I must ask. Why peace? Surely you seem powerful enough to take the kingdoms by force."
"Because my people aren't barbarians, baron.", Anderson said, "If peace can be made, then we will do anything to make it a reality."
"I see. And the prince? What does he say about this?"
"You can ask him yourself.", Anderson said as he nodded to Logan who signaled his men to set up a desk and a large screen. "With this device, we can talk to the prince and even see him."
"Amazing.", said Herwin as he eagerly awaited to see his prince. After some preparations, the screen was ready and it turned on. The lights slightly startled the Rosians before the screen was clear and on it was prince Bodin himself. "My... My prince.", Herwin said as he knelt, "It is a miracle. You truly live."
"Baron Bachwich.", Bodin spoke, "Please, rise. I am not before you just yet. This is strange for me as well. Am I correct to assume the human soldiers have arrived?"
"Yes, my prince. They recently just helped us crush an attack from a bandit horde."
"Do you then see why I have chosen to make peace with these people?"
After a momentary pause, Herwin nodded, "I do, my prince. It is incredible to see that a nation so powerful is willing to make peace with its enemy and not subdue it."
"We are not their enemy, baron. The elves and their empire are. This is why they chose to make peace with us. They understand we are just vassals forced to fight. I suggest you hear Lord Anderson out."
As they were talking, Scot called for Logan, "Sir. I have a visual."
Logan nodded, "Alright. Commander Barion, would you like to see the enemy?"
"Yes.", Barion answered, "Show me."
Scot pulled up the video feed on his screen, "This is their camp. I count roughly three thousand. Lin and Carla confirm."
"Where are those two?", Logan asked.
"In the trees."
"Call them back and give me the radio.", Logan took the radio, "Galdush base. Come in Galdush base. This is Captain Logan Connors of Rift Group 1. Do you copy? Over."
After a few moments, the radio spoke, "Copy Rift Group 1. Sitrep. Over."
"Galdush, we have made contact with border town Afa. Upon entry, we engaged a third party, designated rogue elves, and bandit Rosians. Half a battalion attacked us but we drove them off. We confirm the enemy numbers in three thousand, various races. What's the status of our air forces? Over."
"Three air squadrons of Invictus ACs and a Boeing Stratofortress is currently being fueled and should be ready in half an hour."
"Galdush I request a tactical bombing run. The area will be marked via drone. How copy?"
The radio went silent for a few moments before speaking again, "Affirmative RG-1. Stratofortress will be up in the air as soon as possible. Make sure to mark the area. Galdush out."
"Copy that Galdush. RG-1 out."
"What was that?", Barion asked.
"You're gonna get another demonstration."
"Captain!", Carla shouted as she ran towards him. "I have eliminated an enemy scout.", she said as she extended a severed head toward Logan.
Logan smacked his lips before replying, "I see. Get rid of it."
"Yes sir.", Carla said as she tossed the head into a nearby pile of trash.
'At least she's helping', Logan thought.
---
(Two hours later)
The bandits and rogues were sitting in their tents, trying to plan an attack. The otherworlders were an unexpected problem, but hopefully a problem they could be dealt with.
"Alright, listen.", said an elf, "We'll strike at night. It didn't work last time because there were too many of them, but I reckon there can't be more than a few dozen of them."
"That doesn't matter.", said a Rosian, "I've seen what that few can do."
"You attacked with five hundred to scout their defenses. You were never supposed to win. Besides, we can use the tribals to deal with them. As we are attacking the front, they will go to the sides and strike."
"Are you sure this will work?"
"Yes. Soon, Afa will be ours."
At that moment, an elf rushed into the tent, "Sir, you must come and see this!"
They left the tent and came to the center of the tent. The one who called them pointed upwards into the sky. There they saw something flying. A wyvern? No, it was too big. Its wings didn't flap. What could it be? As it flew over them, something fell from it. Many egg-like things started falling and as they fell to the ground, they engulfed the camp in fire and shook the earth. In moments, the whole camp was on fire and everyone was either dead or dying. The ground was turned into a burning pile of scorched bodies.
If there were any doubts about the power of the otherwolders left, they were long gone now.
---
(Meanwhile)
Road to Una
The Belus family along with commander Aego and two hundred soldiers were on their way to Una. Taria did not wish to ride with her father and so she rode on a horse alongside Aego. Their hopes were that they would reach Una in several days and then cross the river.
"My lady.", Aego spoke, "Are you certain you should be riding alongside me and not in the carriage?"
"I do not wish to speak to my father.", Taria said, "At least not now."
"I assumed we cleared this matter."
"We have but... I still need time."
Aego sighed, "I understand. Still, you should not hate him for-", he stopped and halted the soldiers.
"What?"
"Something is not as it should be. This outpost is quiet.". The soldiers tensed up. They could also feel that something wasn't right. In a split second, Aego was shot by an arrow in the side.
"Ambush!", Taria yelled out. Suddenly, elves, welfen, and leanoids ran from the sides and the outpost. The soldiers prepared but found themselves overwhelmed by the enemies' numbers. Rogue elves fired arrows at them while welfen and leanoids exploited weaknesses and struck. Still, the soldiers fought hard, making sure the traitors and savages suffer. The enemy numbers were dropping, but not quickly enough. Taria used her training and cut down several rogues before crouching down to help Aego.
"Aego!", she yelled, "Aego hold on! You will live! Please!". She cried as he struggled to breathe. He grabbed her arm and pushed her to the side, just in time for her to dodge a spear from a leanoid. She watched as Aego spat blood before dying, his life leaving his body. In pure rage, she screamed and struck the leanoid in the side. Pulling out her sword she blocked a strike from a rogue, stepped closer, and headbutted him before slitting his throat.
Turning to her left she saw the rogues and tribals dragging her family. "Father!", she yelled, but couldn't help as a rogue hit her in the back of the head, knocking her down on the ground. Her blurred vision faded away as the rogue smiled down at her.
"Sweet dreams, little girl.", was what he said before she passed out completely.
End of chapter 9
---
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2023.04.01 09:22 Sinpleton025 Rifts of War - Chapter 9
Expedition report from RG-5
Area of recon: Shore of Meilume due east of Galdush
Report carried out by Lieutenant Eric Ross
Report states: RG-5 has encountered an elven outpost on its way to the shore. The purpose of these outposts is to act as checkpoints for the Imperial army as well as to maintain surveillance within an area. The outpost encountered by RG-5 had thirty soldiers guarding it. RG-5 attempted peaceful contact, however, the elves engaged and RG-5 retaliated. All enemies have been neutralized and RG-5 has suffered no casualties and the outpost has been searched. Upon reaching the shore, RG-5 made peaceful contact with a local fishing village. They helped in local affairs, such as hunting down several feral welfen and repairing their equipment. In return, the locals gave them information on the coast south of the North Alston river. There are seven villages between the river and the Alston kingdom border and three more north of the river, which make up the fishing community of the southeast coast of the empire. The southeast coast and shore are patrolled by the Imperial third fleet with its center in the port city of Cheemo. Further information is required.
Other news: The airstrip has been finalized and drones have been sent to various locations. New findings include the official location of the river city Kuruk to the north and Imperial fort Mundus to the west. A large cluster of Imperial soldiers has been seen gathering on the opposite side of the North Alston river. Numbers count between one hundred and one hundred and fifty thousand, including auxiliary troops. No signs of any movement south of the river. Will continue to observe. The CIA has been able to establish a network in the Meilume capital and the leading agent, Edward Garcia, has confirmed that the nobility is attempting to flee the area. RG-3 is advised to speed up. As for the city itself, the population is estimated to be roughly six hundred thousand with fortifications and a force of ten thousand soldiers. No elements of any Imperial spy network have been discovered.
28th day of late yellow season, 3000th cycle
Meilume capital, Empire of light
General Laeroth's words reached the nobility of Meilume and they heed its instructions. Lord Bellon Belus rushed his family and the guard commander followed. Servants carried bags and soldiers formed a formation to escort them to Una, where they will meet with the army that will bring them to the other side of the river and then to the city of Imslone. Bellon was always a father and husband first, and lord second. Nearly two hundred thousand soldiers were slaughtered in less than a moon cycle. That was proof enough that he needed to leave the capital and save his family. Abandoning his city in the face of the enemy was an act of cowardice, often severely punished, but he would take any punishment for those he loved. He would not be like his father.
Bellon walked through the halls and double-checked every room. "Hurry up! Leave anything not of use! Leave the valuables, they are only dead weight!"
"Bellon!", a woman called him.
"Nimriel.", he said.
"Must we leave? This has been our home for cycles. And our family's home for far longer. Leaving it is-"
"It is the only way. The only way for us to live. We must, Nimriel. If we do not, the enemy will take us."
"But Bellon-"
"Think of our daughter, Nimriel. Think of Taria. What if those barbarians breach the walls? After they're done with the peasants, do you believe they will spare us? I will not allow such a thing to happen."
And speaking of the devil, Taria appeared from the corner, wearing a battle uniform with a sword sheathed on her left hip and holding a helmet in her right hand. "I am ready father."
Bellon couldn't say he was shocked too much. Since she was little she used to sneak into the courtyard and train with the guard commander. He knew and let her do what she wanted. It made her happy. But this was uncalled for.
"Stop fooling around Taria.", Bellon said, "This is a serious matter."
"Then take me seriously!", Taria responded, "The enemy is coming and I must be ready."
"You are not staying. You are coming with us to Imslone."
"I am not. I will not commit an act of cowardice and leave my post."
"Your post is beside me. I am your father!"
"I am not a little girl anymore! I have trained with Aego for over a hundred cycles! I am ready!"
"This enemy destroyed two armies and bested two generals! We stand no chance! Our only choice is to flee as far as we can and let the armies deal with them. The best we can hope to do is slow them down."
"You dare doubt our guard like that, father! These soldiers are just as strong as those of the Imperial army and our walls have held off the Rosians and ferals! We can-"
"Do you not hear me you stupid girl!", Bellon's voice boomed through the walls and made the servants and guards stop in their tracks, "I do not care for your illusions! The enemy is real! Wars are bloody and repulsive and not a place for you! You are the daughter of a lord! You are the heir to Meilume and a member of the Belus family! You will cease this foolishness at once and act accordingly!"
This was the loudest Bellon ever had to shout. He could feel his throat hurting. Taria could only feel tears falling down her cheeks as she lowered her head in shame. In truth, she just wanted to prove she was as capable as she claimed. That despite being a girl she could live in the world of men. But her dreams would have to wait. Bellon groaned and shook his head as he kept walking down the hall. Nimriel hugged her daughter and tried to reassure her everything will be alright, but her words fell on deaf ears.
As Nimriel left, someone else walked over to Taria from behind. As he placed his hand on her shoulder, Taria turned around and saw a man she thought of as her second father. "Aego.", she said through tears.
"Do not be saddened, my lady.", he said as he wiped her tears, "Your father said what he said because he cares. You are his only daughter, more valuable to him than this entire world. He only wants what is best for you. And right now, the best for you is to go to Imslone."
"B-But the enemy. What will you do?"
"I am coming with you, my lady. I left my first captain in charge. He will make sure these otherworlders bleed for this city."
Taria hugged him, still shedding tears, "Thank you Aego. Thank you."
Aego hugged her back.
---
29th of June, 2070
Since the Rift Groups programs have been initiated, soldiers all around have been eager to join. Some more than others, some less. But none were as stocked as sergeant Emma Davis. The second youngest member of RG-1, she was nicknamed 'Trigger-finger' for a reason. Great results in the shooting range, but not much else. Still, when she heard the 'Prodigy' was joining she couldn't control herself. Ever since they left for Alston, she's been clinging to Logan like a leach.
"Sir, how many people have you killed?", she asked.
"I lost count.", Logan answered.
"Sir, why have you joined the army?"
"It's a family tradition."
"Sir, have you been shot?"
"Yes."
"Sir, may I see it?"
"No."
"Sir, why did you leave the special forces?"
Logan didn't answer that one.
"Sir-"
"Emma shut up already.", Jacob said.
"Yeah, I think you're getting on the captain's nerves.", Michael said.
Staff sergeant Jacob Brown and corporal Michael Hoilman, Emma's friends since high school and pretty much the only reason she's not in jail. They've stuck by her side, being her big brothers for years, and kind of grown attached to her. It was like having a little sister.
"No I'm not.", Emma said.
"Yes you are.", Jacob said.
"You hold your captain in quite a high regard.", said Krolm, the leanoid, "Why?"
"Are you kidding me?", Emma said, "He's Logan Connors. All of Fort Bragg and the rangers know about him."
"Are rangers perhaps elites in your army?", asked Kai, the welfen.
"We're rangers.", said veteran sniper sergeant Nick Harper aka 'Bullseye', "We're a strike fast group made for quick attacks and quick action. We're not like the rest of the army that fights on the front lines. We fight in forests, towns, cities, forts, you name it. We hit fast, hard, and take care of our mission."
"Hell yeah we do!", shouted corporal Lamar Jones, the 'Heavy gunner'.
"Interesting.", said Clara, the lepian, "So that's why you have us with you. It makes sense, you don't really need us on the front lines when you got your large cannons and these armored carriages."
RG-1 wasn't just a normal group. It was the only group with sixty-six soldiers, a captain, and twice as many vehicles. This made them quite a force and that was necessary since they were being deployed to the border of Alston. After prince Bodin agreed to assist REC he chose three people who would aid him. Gregor Bachwich, son of Herwin Bachwich, the baron of the border town of Afa. He will be important in establishing first contact with the Rosians. Lieutenant Pallius Blazewing, son of Lor Blazewing, a great military figure in the Opherin army. The Opherin kingdom prides itself on great military history, having fought more battles than any Rosian kingdom or duchy in history. And finally, a youngster named Matheo Calo. There was nothing special about him besides being prince Bodin's personal squire. He's been with Bodin for years and the two became more than just prince and servant. Furthermore, Bodin promised Matheo he would bring him back to his mother in Olinor. Prince Bodin himself didn't choose to come along. His reasoning was that he wants to present himself in front of all the kings and dukes when they all gathered together. One more person did come with them. Ambassador Eugene Anderson. Together, they will establish peace. Or war.
Right now they were on their way to Afa, only several more minutes. In the LAV where the tribals were, private first-class Ethan Williams sat, writing in his journal. He was the youngest and newest addition to the group. Fresh off the academy, he graduated to be a sniper and was eager to learn from both Logan and Nick. But something kept him from them. Next to him sat Carla, who kept eyeballing him and his weapon. Ethan was nervous, he wasn't used to girls sitting near him, or even looking at him, and Carla seemed interested.
"What is this weapon?", she asked.
"O-Oh Ummm, this?", he stuttered, "This is a modified and modernized Mk22 ASR sniper rifle. I know there are older models but my granddad taught me how to use this one. It can hit a target from about twenty-two hundred yards away. In your measurements, that's four leagues."
Carla's ears went up, "Amazing! I bet I could hunt a lot of meat with it."
"Well, um. It takes a lot of skill to use it. I could show you, sometime."
"Oh?", Carla raised an eyebrow and moved closer smiling, "I think I would like that.". She purred a little which made Ethan stutter and sweat. Across from them, Lin watched with her arms crossed.
"What?", Carla asked, "Envious?"
"Not at all.", Lin said as she grabbed Lamar's arm, "I prefer strong males.". Lamar opened his mouth but couldn't say anything. He and Ethan just stared at each other.
"Before your boners brake your belts and that LAV becomes hotter than a pizza oven at Papa John's, I wanna let you know we're almost there.", said lieutenant James Wilson over the comms from the leading JLTV3, the most veteran among them, chosen to uphold discipline.
"Thank you.", said Logan.
"They seem to be getting along.", said ambassador Anderson.
"Indeed.", said Gregor, "I must say, you humans are more strange than you are frightening. The way you use words with one meaning for another. And your expressions as well. Definitely not the savages Canus described."
"I'm glad we could prove that to you. And it appears we are about to prove it to the rest of your kingdom.". They were nearly at Afa. This town serves as a fortified stronghold against the empire should they attack. Its walls were tall and thick, with bastion towers and a single entry gate. It would be difficult for the elves to take it.
"The town currently has a thousand soldiers protecting it. It's usually three thousand, but two thousand went with me through the rift. Most likely on the orders of the elves, my father would never allow it."
"Only three thousand?", James asked.
"Three thousand official soldiers, but should the need arise we can recruit militia fighters from the residents. The town itself has a population of eighty thousand."
"That's a lot of people.", Eugene said.
"Yes. Luckily, it is able to support them, even if barely. The elves aren't exactly sharing people."
"That will all change soon."
As the convoy approached the gate, a ballista javelin hit the road in front of them. The city defenders had assembled on the wall and aimed their weapons at them. While the vehicles are armored, the JLTVs have weak spots a javelin can pierce.
"Hold it!", shouted a man on the wall, presumably the commander, "Present yourselves immediately."
"I'll take care of this.", Logan said as he exited the JLTV with his hands raised, "I am Captain Logan Connors of the Rift Expeditionary Corps! We are from Galdush and have come to make peaceful relations with the kingdom of Alston!"
"Why should we listen to you!?"
"If not me, then how about someone more familiar!".
At that moment, Gregor stepped out of the JLTV3 and, to put it mildly, made the defenders' hearts skip a beat. "Commander Barion! It is good to see you!"
Barion couldn't even speak for moments. His young baron was alive. Against all odds, he made it back. "Y-Young baron!", he finally spoke, "You... You live! How!? And what are you doing with the enemy?!"
"I assure you, they are not the enemy! I will explain everything, but first, I need to ask you to open this gate and let these soldiers in!"
Barion hesitated for a moment, "B-But young ba-"
"Commander, do not make me order you!"
He immediately understood, "Open this gate immediately! Let them in! Someone inform the baron!"
The gate opened and the convoy made it in. Luckily, there was enough room to fit all of them in. Barion and his men, as well as the people, could only stare in awe at what was before them. Truly, people from another world. The commander stepped down and greeted them as well as Gregor.
"Young baron, you have a lot of explaining to do.", Barion said.
"All will be explained soon.", Gregor said.
"Gregor!", shouted a little girl as she ran towards him.
"Elora.", Gregor said as he hugged her, "My little sister. It is good to see you.". Behind her came his mother and father, who at first walked slowly with tears in their eyes, not believing it was him.
"My son.", Herwin said as he hugged Gregor, "By the heavens. You live."
"Mother. Father. I have returned. Let me introduce you to someone. This is Lord Ambassador Eugene Anderson from the land of America on the other side of the rift. He is here to represent his country and the humans."
Herwin immediately walked to him and bowed, "I am Baron Herwin Bachwich. Thank you for sparing my son's life. It is an honor to have you here, Lord Anderson."
"The honor is mine baron.", Eugene said, "I hope we will be able to discuss peace with you and your kingdom."
This confused Herwin, "Peace?"
"I have much to tell you father.", Gregor said, "The prince lives."
Completely frozen, Herwin took a few moments to process that before replying, "He lives?"
"Enemies!", shouted a soldier from the wall. Commander Barion and Logan rushed up the wall. Logan grabbed his binoculars and observed the enemy from a distance. They came from a treeline, their camp was behind it, otherwise, RG-1 would have spotted them.
"I count five hundred.", Logan said, "Various races. Elves, Rosians, ferals."
"How?", Barion asked.
"These are binoculars. They allow me to see things from a distance. Try it."
Logan handed the binoculars to Barion, who observed them for a few moments before putting them on his eyes and facing the enemy. "Incredible."
Barion handed them back but Logan refused, "Keep it, I have a spare. I get the elves, but why are your people attacking you?"
"Those bastards aren't our people. They are traitors and thieves who think the kingdom is done for. So they run to the empire and beg them for forgiveness.". He spat in disgust.
"And the elves. They don't look like the army."
"They most likely were. They call themselves rogues, those who stray from their so-called 'Path of light'. Both of these traitors sicken me."
"Then let us help you."
"Why would you help us?"
"If we're gonna be at peace with one another, we have to establish a certain level of trust, don't we?"
Barion pondered for a bit before answering, "Very well. I am eager to see the army that defeated the elves."
Nodding Logan walked to the edge of the wall and faced his men. "Jones, take your men and mount the machine guns! Davis, bring the ammo! Williams, Harper, get to higher ground and shoot anyone that looks important or a large threat! Wilson, take Green and set up the mortar! Move it, they'll be here in minutes!"
RG-1 immediately went to work. Jones and his men carried the machine guns from the trucks and mounted them on the walls, Williams and Harper climbed up the tallest tower they could find and got into position. Wilson set up the 60mm mortar in the town square.
"I think we should get to safety.", Eugene said.
"You are right.", Herwin said, "Follow me."
Logan got into position with his Mk4 SCAR chambered in 7.62mm. "Commander, I need a favor."
"What is it, captain?", Barion asked.
"If these guys fire arrows, we don't have shields to defend ourselves. You think your men can take of that?"
"Certainly. Get the shields ready! Protect their soldiers!". In moments, each ranger had a Rosian soldier behind him or her with a shield ready. It was time to fight.
The horde moved closer and closer. First, they walked and then picked up the pace as they put shields above their heads. Naturally, the ferals ran towards the wall like rabid animals. "Hold!", Logan said as he gripped his gun, "Wait for them to get closer!". There was one elf on a horse swinging his sword and giving commands. Not for long.
"It's all you kid.", Harper said as he watched Williams aim his shot.
Letting out a breath, Williams pulled the trigger and splattered the elf's brain all over the field. "Boom boom motherfucker."
"Weapons free! Light them up!", Logan shouted as the rangers opened fire on the ferals. The freaks fell by the dozens as bullets pierced their chest, heads, legs, and arms and turned them into cold, dead corpses. The mortar fired at the enemies behind them, who stopped in their tracks, clearly confused and terrified. The rangers aimed their weapons at them and started cutting them down.
"Get some, blueberries!", Davis shouted, "Come closer! I dare ya!"
The few dozen that survived retreated back to the trees. The rangers cheered, but the Rosians didn't cheer as much as they stared in awe. Now they see why the elves lost, these people are powerful.
Commander Barion walked to Logan, "Thank you for the assistance. But I doubt this is the last we have seen of them."
"I know.", Logan said, "That's why I'll have one of my guys scout those trees with a drone along with Lin and Clara.". Logan walked down to the two of them, "Scot! Get over here!"
"Coming!", Scot answered. Scot Green aka 'Mechanic', was the group's engineer. He was also their drone pilot. "Yes sir?"
"I need you to pilot the Fly into those tree lines and scout for the enemy.". The SPFD Fly was a small recon drone invented by DARPA to save both room and energy. Solar-powered and long-lasting battery, coupled with its long-range and small size made it a very useful tool to have in recon missions. "Lin, Carla, you two are also going. I need good eyes and ears over there."
"Sure thing, sir.", Lin said saluting the best she could.
"You two do know how to use a radio, right?"
"Of course we do.", Clara said, "We're not idiots."
"Good. Go.". Lin and Carla ran to the trees as Scott maneuvered the Fly.
The baron and his family, along with Ambassador Eugene walked over to the soldiers. The baron was first to speak, "That was... most impressive. But I must ask. Why peace? Surely you seem powerful enough to take the kingdoms by force."
"Because my people aren't barbarians, baron.", Anderson said, "If peace can be made, then we will do anything to make it a reality."
"I see. And the prince? What does he say about this?"
"You can ask him yourself.", Anderson said as he nodded to Logan who signaled his men to set up a desk and a large screen. "With this device, we can talk to the prince and even see him."
"Amazing.", said Herwin as he eagerly awaited to see his prince. After some preparations, the screen was ready and it turned on. The lights slightly startled the Rosians before the screen was clear and on it was prince Bodin himself. "My... My prince.", Herwin said as he knelt, "It is a miracle. You truly live."
"Baron Bachwich.", Bodin spoke, "Please, rise. I am not before you just yet. This is strange for me as well. Am I correct to assume the human soldiers have arrived?"
"Yes, my prince. They recently just helped us crush an attack from a bandit horde."
"Do you then see why I have chosen to make peace with these people?"
After a momentary pause, Herwin nodded, "I do, my prince. It is incredible to see that a nation so powerful is willing to make peace with its enemy and not subdue it."
"We are not their enemy, baron. The elves and their empire are. This is why they chose to make peace with us. They understand we are just vassals forced to fight. I suggest you hear Lord Anderson out."
As they were talking, Scot called for Logan, "Sir. I have a visual."
Logan nodded, "Alright. Commander Barion, would you like to see the enemy?"
"Yes.", Barion answered, "Show me."
Scot pulled up the video feed on his screen, "This is their camp. I count roughly three thousand. Lin and Carla confirm."
"Where are those two?", Logan asked.
"In the trees."
"Call them back and give me the radio.", Logan took the radio, "Galdush base. Come in Galdush base. This is Captain Logan Connors of Rift Group 1. Do you copy? Over."
After a few moments, the radio spoke, "Copy Rift Group 1. Sitrep. Over."
"Galdush, we have made contact with border town Afa. Upon entry, we engaged a third party, designated rogue elves, and bandit Rosians. Half a battalion attacked us but we drove them off. We confirm the enemy numbers in three thousand, various races. What's the status of our air forces? Over."
"Three air squadrons of Invictus ACs and a Boeing Stratofortress is currently being fueled and should be ready in half an hour."
"Galdush I request a tactical bombing run. The area will be marked via drone. How copy?"
The radio went silent for a few moments before speaking again, "Affirmative RG-1. Stratofortress will be up in the air as soon as possible. Make sure to mark the area. Galdush out."
"Copy that Galdush. RG-1 out."
"What was that?", Barion asked.
"You're gonna get another demonstration."
"Captain!", Carla shouted as she ran towards him. "I have eliminated an enemy scout.", she said as she extended a severed head toward Logan.
Logan smacked his lips before replying, "I see. Get rid of it."
"Yes sir.", Carla said as she tossed the head into a nearby pile of trash.
'At least she's helping', Logan thought.
---
(Two hours later)
The bandits and rogues were sitting in their tents, trying to plan an attack. The otherworlders were an unexpected problem, but hopefully a problem they could be dealt with.
"Alright, listen.", said an elf, "We'll strike at night. It didn't work last time because there were too many of them, but I reckon there can't be more than a few dozen of them."
"That doesn't matter.", said a Rosian, "I've seen what that few can do."
"You attacked with five hundred to scout their defenses. You were never supposed to win. Besides, we can use the tribals to deal with them. As we are attacking the front, they will go to the sides and strike."
"Are you sure this will work?"
"Yes. Soon, Afa will be ours."
At that moment, an elf rushed into the tent, "Sir, you must come and see this!"
They left the tent and came to the center of the tent. The one who called them pointed upwards into the sky. There they saw something flying. A wyvern? No, it was too big. Its wings didn't flap. What could it be? As it flew over them, something fell from it. Many egg-like things started falling and as they fell to the ground, they engulfed the camp in fire and shook the earth. In moments, the whole camp was on fire and everyone was either dead or dying. The ground was turned into a burning pile of scorched bodies.
If there were any doubts about the power of the otherwolders left, they were long gone now.
---
(Meanwhile)
Road to Una
The Belus family along with commander Aego and two hundred soldiers were on their way to Una. Taria did not wish to ride with her father and so she rode on a horse alongside Aego. Their hopes were that they would reach Una in several days and then cross the river.
"My lady.", Aego spoke, "Are you certain you should be riding alongside me and not in the carriage?"
"I do not wish to speak to my father.", Taria said, "At least not now."
"I assumed we cleared this matter."
"We have but... I still need time."
Aego sighed, "I understand. Still, you should not hate him for-", he stopped and halted the soldiers.
"What?"
"Something is not as it should be. This outpost is quiet.". The soldiers tensed up. They could also feel that something wasn't right. In a split second, Aego was shot by an arrow in the side.
"Ambush!", Taria yelled out. Suddenly, elves, welfen, and leanoids ran from the sides and the outpost. The soldiers prepared but found themselves overwhelmed by the enemies' numbers. Rogue elves fired arrows at them while welfen and leanoids exploited weaknesses and struck. Still, the soldiers fought hard, making sure the traitors and savages suffer. The enemy numbers were dropping, but not quickly enough. Taria used her training and cut down several rogues before crouching down to help Aego.
"Aego!", she yelled, "Aego hold on! You will live! Please!". She cried as he struggled to breathe. He grabbed her arm and pushed her to the side, just in time for her to dodge a spear from a leanoid. She watched as Aego spat blood before dying, his life leaving his body. In pure rage, she screamed and struck the leanoid in the side. Pulling out her sword she blocked a strike from a rogue, stepped closer, and headbutted him before slitting his throat.
Turning to her left she saw the rogues and tribals dragging her family. "Father!", she yelled, but couldn't help as a rogue hit her in the back of the head, knocking her down on the ground. Her blurred vision faded away as the rogue smiled down at her.
"Sweet dreams, little girl.", was what he said before she passed out completely.
End of chapter 9
---
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Area of recon: Shore of Meilume due east of Galdush
Report carried out by Lieutenant Eric Ross
Report states: RG-5 has encountered an elven outpost on its way to the shore. The purpose of these outposts is to act as checkpoints for the Imperial army as well as to maintain surveillance within an area. The outpost encountered by RG-5 had thirty soldiers guarding it. RG-5 attempted peaceful contact, however, the elves engaged and RG-5 retaliated. All enemies have been neutralized and RG-5 has suffered no casualties and the outpost has been searched. Upon reaching the shore, RG-5 made peaceful contact with a local fishing village. They helped in local affairs, such as hunting down several feral welfen and repairing their equipment. In return, the locals gave them information on the coast south of the North Alston river. There are seven villages between the river and the Alston kingdom border and three more north of the river, which make up the fishing community of the southeast coast of the empire. The southeast coast and shore are patrolled by the Imperial third fleet with its center in the port city of Cheemo. Further information is required.
Other news: The airstrip has been finalized and drones have been sent to various locations. New findings include the official location of the river city Kuruk to the north and Imperial fort Mundus to the west. A large cluster of Imperial soldiers has been seen gathering on the opposite side of the North Alston river. Numbers count between one hundred and one hundred and fifty thousand, including auxiliary troops. No signs of any movement south of the river. Will continue to observe. The CIA has been able to establish a network in the Meilume capital and the leading agent, Edward Garcia, has confirmed that the nobility is attempting to flee the area. RG-3 is advised to speed up. As for the city itself, the population is estimated to be roughly six hundred thousand with fortifications and a force of ten thousand soldiers. No elements of any Imperial spy network have been discovered.
28th day of late yellow season, 3000th cycle
Meilume capital, Empire of light
General Laeroth's words reached the nobility of Meilume and they heed its instructions. Lord Bellon Belus rushed his family and the guard commander followed. Servants carried bags and soldiers formed a formation to escort them to Una, where they will meet with the army that will bring them to the other side of the river and then to the city of Imslone. Bellon was always a father and husband first, and lord second. Nearly two hundred thousand soldiers were slaughtered in less than a moon cycle. That was proof enough that he needed to leave the capital and save his family. Abandoning his city in the face of the enemy was an act of cowardice, often severely punished, but he would take any punishment for those he loved. He would not be like his father.
Bellon walked through the halls and double-checked every room. "Hurry up! Leave anything not of use! Leave the valuables, they are only dead weight!"
"Bellon!", a woman called him.
"Nimriel.", he said.
"Must we leave? This has been our home for cycles. And our family's home for far longer. Leaving it is-"
"It is the only way. The only way for us to live. We must, Nimriel. If we do not, the enemy will take us."
"But Bellon-"
"Think of our daughter, Nimriel. Think of Taria. What if those barbarians breach the walls? After they're done with the peasants, do you believe they will spare us? I will not allow such a thing to happen."
And speaking of the devil, Taria appeared from the corner, wearing a battle uniform with a sword sheathed on her left hip and holding a helmet in her right hand. "I am ready father."
Bellon couldn't say he was shocked too much. Since she was little she used to sneak into the courtyard and train with the guard commander. He knew and let her do what she wanted. It made her happy. But this was uncalled for.
"Stop fooling around Taria.", Bellon said, "This is a serious matter."
"Then take me seriously!", Taria responded, "The enemy is coming and I must be ready."
"You are not staying. You are coming with us to Imslone."
"I am not. I will not commit an act of cowardice and leave my post."
"Your post is beside me. I am your father!"
"I am not a little girl anymore! I have trained with Aego for over a hundred cycles! I am ready!"
"This enemy destroyed two armies and bested two generals! We stand no chance! Our only choice is to flee as far as we can and let the armies deal with them. The best we can hope to do is slow them down."
"You dare doubt our guard like that, father! These soldiers are just as strong as those of the Imperial army and our walls have held off the Rosians and ferals! We can-"
"Do you not hear me you stupid girl!", Bellon's voice boomed through the walls and made the servants and guards stop in their tracks, "I do not care for your illusions! The enemy is real! Wars are bloody and repulsive and not a place for you! You are the daughter of a lord! You are the heir to Meilume and a member of the Belus family! You will cease this foolishness at once and act accordingly!"
This was the loudest Bellon ever had to shout. He could feel his throat hurting. Taria could only feel tears falling down her cheeks as she lowered her head in shame. In truth, she just wanted to prove she was as capable as she claimed. That despite being a girl she could live in the world of men. But her dreams would have to wait. Bellon groaned and shook his head as he kept walking down the hall. Nimriel hugged her daughter and tried to reassure her everything will be alright, but her words fell on deaf ears.
As Nimriel left, someone else walked over to Taria from behind. As he placed his hand on her shoulder, Taria turned around and saw a man she thought of as her second father. "Aego.", she said through tears.
"Do not be saddened, my lady.", he said as he wiped her tears, "Your father said what he said because he cares. You are his only daughter, more valuable to him than this entire world. He only wants what is best for you. And right now, the best for you is to go to Imslone."
"B-But the enemy. What will you do?"
"I am coming with you, my lady. I left my first captain in charge. He will make sure these otherworlders bleed for this city."
Taria hugged him, still shedding tears, "Thank you Aego. Thank you."
Aego hugged her back.
---
29th of June, 2070
Since the Rift Groups programs have been initiated, soldiers all around have been eager to join. Some more than others, some less. But none were as stocked as sergeant Emma Davis. The second youngest member of RG-1, she was nicknamed 'Trigger-finger' for a reason. Great results in the shooting range, but not much else. Still, when she heard the 'Prodigy' was joining she couldn't control herself. Ever since they left for Alston, she's been clinging to Logan like a leach.
"Sir, how many people have you killed?", she asked.
"I lost count.", Logan answered.
"Sir, why have you joined the army?"
"It's a family tradition."
"Sir, have you been shot?"
"Yes."
"Sir, may I see it?"
"No."
"Sir, why did you leave the special forces?"
Logan didn't answer that one.
"Sir-"
"Emma shut up already.", Jacob said.
"Yeah, I think you're getting on the captain's nerves.", Michael said.
Staff sergeant Jacob Brown and corporal Michael Hoilman, Emma's friends since high school and pretty much the only reason she's not in jail. They've stuck by her side, being her big brothers for years, and kind of grown attached to her. It was like having a little sister.
"No I'm not.", Emma said.
"Yes you are.", Jacob said.
"You hold your captain in quite a high regard.", said Krolm, the leanoid, "Why?"
"Are you kidding me?", Emma said, "He's Logan Connors. All of Fort Bragg and the rangers know about him."
"Are rangers perhaps elites in your army?", asked Kai, the welfen.
"We're rangers.", said veteran sniper sergeant Nick Harper aka 'Bullseye', "We're a strike fast group made for quick attacks and quick action. We're not like the rest of the army that fights on the front lines. We fight in forests, towns, cities, forts, you name it. We hit fast, hard, and take care of our mission."
"Hell yeah we do!", shouted corporal Lamar Jones, the 'Heavy gunner'.
"Interesting.", said Clara, the lepian, "So that's why you have us with you. It makes sense, you don't really need us on the front lines when you got your large cannons and these armored carriages."
RG-1 wasn't just a normal group. It was the only group with sixty-six soldiers, a captain, and twice as many vehicles. This made them quite a force and that was necessary since they were being deployed to the border of Alston. After prince Bodin agreed to assist REC he chose three people who would aid him. Gregor Bachwich, son of Herwin Bachwich, the baron of the border town of Afa. He will be important in establishing first contact with the Rosians. Lieutenant Pallius Blazewing, son of Lor Blazewing, a great military figure in the Opherin army. The Opherin kingdom prides itself on great military history, having fought more battles than any Rosian kingdom or duchy in history. And finally, a youngster named Matheo Calo. There was nothing special about him besides being prince Bodin's personal squire. He's been with Bodin for years and the two became more than just prince and servant. Furthermore, Bodin promised Matheo he would bring him back to his mother in Olinor. Prince Bodin himself didn't choose to come along. His reasoning was that he wants to present himself in front of all the kings and dukes when they all gathered together. One more person did come with them. Ambassador Eugene Anderson. Together, they will establish peace. Or war.
Right now they were on their way to Afa, only several more minutes. In the LAV where the tribals were, private first-class Ethan Williams sat, writing in his journal. He was the youngest and newest addition to the group. Fresh off the academy, he graduated to be a sniper and was eager to learn from both Logan and Nick. But something kept him from them. Next to him sat Carla, who kept eyeballing him and his weapon. Ethan was nervous, he wasn't used to girls sitting near him, or even looking at him, and Carla seemed interested.
"What is this weapon?", she asked.
"O-Oh Ummm, this?", he stuttered, "This is a modified and modernized Mk22 ASR sniper rifle. I know there are older models but my granddad taught me how to use this one. It can hit a target from about twenty-two hundred yards away. In your measurements, that's four leagues."
Carla's ears went up, "Amazing! I bet I could hunt a lot of meat with it."
"Well, um. It takes a lot of skill to use it. I could show you, sometime."
"Oh?", Carla raised an eyebrow and moved closer smiling, "I think I would like that.". She purred a little which made Ethan stutter and sweat. Across from them, Lin watched with her arms crossed.
"What?", Carla asked, "Envious?"
"Not at all.", Lin said as she grabbed Lamar's arm, "I prefer strong males.". Lamar opened his mouth but couldn't say anything. He and Ethan just stared at each other.
"Before your boners brake your belts and that LAV becomes hotter than a pizza oven at Papa John's, I wanna let you know we're almost there.", said lieutenant James Wilson over the comms from the leading JLTV3, the most veteran among them, chosen to uphold discipline.
"Thank you.", said Logan.
"They seem to be getting along.", said ambassador Anderson.
"Indeed.", said Gregor, "I must say, you humans are more strange than you are frightening. The way you use words with one meaning for another. And your expressions as well. Definitely not the savages Canus described."
"I'm glad we could prove that to you. And it appears we are about to prove it to the rest of your kingdom.". They were nearly at Afa. This town serves as a fortified stronghold against the empire should they attack. Its walls were tall and thick, with bastion towers and a single entry gate. It would be difficult for the elves to take it.
"The town currently has a thousand soldiers protecting it. It's usually three thousand, but two thousand went with me through the rift. Most likely on the orders of the elves, my father would never allow it."
"Only three thousand?", James asked.
"Three thousand official soldiers, but should the need arise we can recruit militia fighters from the residents. The town itself has a population of eighty thousand."
"That's a lot of people.", Eugene said.
"Yes. Luckily, it is able to support them, even if barely. The elves aren't exactly sharing people."
"That will all change soon."
As the convoy approached the gate, a ballista javelin hit the road in front of them. The city defenders had assembled on the wall and aimed their weapons at them. While the vehicles are armored, the JLTVs have weak spots a javelin can pierce.
"Hold it!", shouted a man on the wall, presumably the commander, "Present yourselves immediately."
"I'll take care of this.", Logan said as he exited the JLTV with his hands raised, "I am Captain Logan Connors of the Rift Expeditionary Corps! We are from Galdush and have come to make peaceful relations with the kingdom of Alston!"
"Why should we listen to you!?"
"If not me, then how about someone more familiar!".
At that moment, Gregor stepped out of the JLTV3 and, to put it mildly, made the defenders' hearts skip a beat. "Commander Barion! It is good to see you!"
Barion couldn't even speak for moments. His young baron was alive. Against all odds, he made it back. "Y-Young baron!", he finally spoke, "You... You live! How!? And what are you doing with the enemy?!"
"I assure you, they are not the enemy! I will explain everything, but first, I need to ask you to open this gate and let these soldiers in!"
Barion hesitated for a moment, "B-But young ba-"
"Commander, do not make me order you!"
He immediately understood, "Open this gate immediately! Let them in! Someone inform the baron!"
The gate opened and the convoy made it in. Luckily, there was enough room to fit all of them in. Barion and his men, as well as the people, could only stare in awe at what was before them. Truly, people from another world. The commander stepped down and greeted them as well as Gregor.
"Young baron, you have a lot of explaining to do.", Barion said.
"All will be explained soon.", Gregor said.
"Gregor!", shouted a little girl as she ran towards him.
"Elora.", Gregor said as he hugged her, "My little sister. It is good to see you.". Behind her came his mother and father, who at first walked slowly with tears in their eyes, not believing it was him.
"My son.", Herwin said as he hugged Gregor, "By the heavens. You live."
"Mother. Father. I have returned. Let me introduce you to someone. This is Lord Ambassador Eugene Anderson from the land of America on the other side of the rift. He is here to represent his country and the humans."
Herwin immediately walked to him and bowed, "I am Baron Herwin Bachwich. Thank you for sparing my son's life. It is an honor to have you here, Lord Anderson."
"The honor is mine baron.", Eugene said, "I hope we will be able to discuss peace with you and your kingdom."
This confused Herwin, "Peace?"
"I have much to tell you father.", Gregor said, "The prince lives."
Completely frozen, Herwin took a few moments to process that before replying, "He lives?"
"Enemies!", shouted a soldier from the wall. Commander Barion and Logan rushed up the wall. Logan grabbed his binoculars and observed the enemy from a distance. They came from a treeline, their camp was behind it, otherwise, RG-1 would have spotted them.
"I count five hundred.", Logan said, "Various races. Elves, Rosians, ferals."
"How?", Barion asked.
"These are binoculars. They allow me to see things from a distance. Try it."
Logan handed the binoculars to Barion, who observed them for a few moments before putting them on his eyes and facing the enemy. "Incredible."
Barion handed them back but Logan refused, "Keep it, I have a spare. I get the elves, but why are your people attacking you?"
"Those bastards aren't our people. They are traitors and thieves who think the kingdom is done for. So they run to the empire and beg them for forgiveness.". He spat in disgust.
"And the elves. They don't look like the army."
"They most likely were. They call themselves rogues, those who stray from their so-called 'Path of light'. Both of these traitors sicken me."
"Then let us help you."
"Why would you help us?"
"If we're gonna be at peace with one another, we have to establish a certain level of trust, don't we?"
Barion pondered for a bit before answering, "Very well. I am eager to see the army that defeated the elves."
Nodding Logan walked to the edge of the wall and faced his men. "Jones, take your men and mount the machine guns! Davis, bring the ammo! Williams, Harper, get to higher ground and shoot anyone that looks important or a large threat! Wilson, take Green and set up the mortar! Move it, they'll be here in minutes!"
RG-1 immediately went to work. Jones and his men carried the machine guns from the trucks and mounted them on the walls, Williams and Harper climbed up the tallest tower they could find and got into position. Wilson set up the 60mm mortar in the town square.
"I think we should get to safety.", Eugene said.
"You are right.", Herwin said, "Follow me."
Logan got into position with his Mk4 SCAR chambered in 7.62mm. "Commander, I need a favor."
"What is it, captain?", Barion asked.
"If these guys fire arrows, we don't have shields to defend ourselves. You think your men can take of that?"
"Certainly. Get the shields ready! Protect their soldiers!". In moments, each ranger had a Rosian soldier behind him or her with a shield ready. It was time to fight.
The horde moved closer and closer. First, they walked and then picked up the pace as they put shields above their heads. Naturally, the ferals ran towards the wall like rabid animals. "Hold!", Logan said as he gripped his gun, "Wait for them to get closer!". There was one elf on a horse swinging his sword and giving commands. Not for long.
"It's all you kid.", Harper said as he watched Williams aim his shot.
Letting out a breath, Williams pulled the trigger and splattered the elf's brain all over the field. "Boom boom motherfucker."
"Weapons free! Light them up!", Logan shouted as the rangers opened fire on the ferals. The freaks fell by the dozens as bullets pierced their chest, heads, legs, and arms and turned them into cold, dead corpses. The mortar fired at the enemies behind them, who stopped in their tracks, clearly confused and terrified. The rangers aimed their weapons at them and started cutting them down.
"Get some, blueberries!", Davis shouted, "Come closer! I dare ya!"
The few dozen that survived retreated back to the trees. The rangers cheered, but the Rosians didn't cheer as much as they stared in awe. Now they see why the elves lost, these people are powerful.
Commander Barion walked to Logan, "Thank you for the assistance. But I doubt this is the last we have seen of them."
"I know.", Logan said, "That's why I'll have one of my guys scout those trees with a drone along with Lin and Clara.". Logan walked down to the two of them, "Scot! Get over here!"
"Coming!", Scot answered. Scot Green aka 'Mechanic', was the group's engineer. He was also their drone pilot. "Yes sir?"
"I need you to pilot the Fly into those tree lines and scout for the enemy.". The SPFD Fly was a small recon drone invented by DARPA to save both room and energy. Solar-powered and long-lasting battery, coupled with its long-range and small size made it a very useful tool to have in recon missions. "Lin, Carla, you two are also going. I need good eyes and ears over there."
"Sure thing, sir.", Lin said saluting the best she could.
"You two do know how to use a radio, right?"
"Of course we do.", Clara said, "We're not idiots."
"Good. Go.". Lin and Carla ran to the trees as Scott maneuvered the Fly.
The baron and his family, along with Ambassador Eugene walked over to the soldiers. The baron was first to speak, "That was... most impressive. But I must ask. Why peace? Surely you seem powerful enough to take the kingdoms by force."
"Because my people aren't barbarians, baron.", Anderson said, "If peace can be made, then we will do anything to make it a reality."
"I see. And the prince? What does he say about this?"
"You can ask him yourself.", Anderson said as he nodded to Logan who signaled his men to set up a desk and a large screen. "With this device, we can talk to the prince and even see him."
"Amazing.", said Herwin as he eagerly awaited to see his prince. After some preparations, the screen was ready and it turned on. The lights slightly startled the Rosians before the screen was clear and on it was prince Bodin himself. "My... My prince.", Herwin said as he knelt, "It is a miracle. You truly live."
"Baron Bachwich.", Bodin spoke, "Please, rise. I am not before you just yet. This is strange for me as well. Am I correct to assume the human soldiers have arrived?"
"Yes, my prince. They recently just helped us crush an attack from a bandit horde."
"Do you then see why I have chosen to make peace with these people?"
After a momentary pause, Herwin nodded, "I do, my prince. It is incredible to see that a nation so powerful is willing to make peace with its enemy and not subdue it."
"We are not their enemy, baron. The elves and their empire are. This is why they chose to make peace with us. They understand we are just vassals forced to fight. I suggest you hear Lord Anderson out."
As they were talking, Scot called for Logan, "Sir. I have a visual."
Logan nodded, "Alright. Commander Barion, would you like to see the enemy?"
"Yes.", Barion answered, "Show me."
Scot pulled up the video feed on his screen, "This is their camp. I count roughly three thousand. Lin and Carla confirm."
"Where are those two?", Logan asked.
"In the trees."
"Call them back and give me the radio.", Logan took the radio, "Galdush base. Come in Galdush base. This is Captain Logan Connors of Rift Group 1. Do you copy? Over."
After a few moments, the radio spoke, "Copy Rift Group 1. Sitrep. Over."
"Galdush, we have made contact with border town Afa. Upon entry, we engaged a third party, designated rogue elves, and bandit Rosians. Half a battalion attacked us but we drove them off. We confirm the enemy numbers in three thousand, various races. What's the status of our air forces? Over."
"Three air squadrons of Invictus ACs and a Boeing Stratofortress is currently being fueled and should be ready in half an hour."
"Galdush I request a tactical bombing run. The area will be marked via drone. How copy?"
The radio went silent for a few moments before speaking again, "Affirmative RG-1. Stratofortress will be up in the air as soon as possible. Make sure to mark the area. Galdush out."
"Copy that Galdush. RG-1 out."
"What was that?", Barion asked.
"You're gonna get another demonstration."
"Captain!", Carla shouted as she ran towards him. "I have eliminated an enemy scout.", she said as she extended a severed head toward Logan.
Logan smacked his lips before replying, "I see. Get rid of it."
"Yes sir.", Carla said as she tossed the head into a nearby pile of trash.
'At least she's helping', Logan thought.
---
(Two hours later)
The bandits and rogues were sitting in their tents, trying to plan an attack. The otherworlders were an unexpected problem, but hopefully a problem they could be dealt with.
"Alright, listen.", said an elf, "We'll strike at night. It didn't work last time because there were too many of them, but I reckon there can't be more than a few dozen of them."
"That doesn't matter.", said a Rosian, "I've seen what that few can do."
"You attacked with five hundred to scout their defenses. You were never supposed to win. Besides, we can use the tribals to deal with them. As we are attacking the front, they will go to the sides and strike."
"Are you sure this will work?"
"Yes. Soon, Afa will be ours."
At that moment, an elf rushed into the tent, "Sir, you must come and see this!"
They left the tent and came to the center of the tent. The one who called them pointed upwards into the sky. There they saw something flying. A wyvern? No, it was too big. Its wings didn't flap. What could it be? As it flew over them, something fell from it. Many egg-like things started falling and as they fell to the ground, they engulfed the camp in fire and shook the earth. In moments, the whole camp was on fire and everyone was either dead or dying. The ground was turned into a burning pile of scorched bodies.
If there were any doubts about the power of the otherwolders left, they were long gone now.
---
(Meanwhile)
Road to Una
The Belus family along with commander Aego and two hundred soldiers were on their way to Una. Taria did not wish to ride with her father and so she rode on a horse alongside Aego. Their hopes were that they would reach Una in several days and then cross the river.
"My lady.", Aego spoke, "Are you certain you should be riding alongside me and not in the carriage?"
"I do not wish to speak to my father.", Taria said, "At least not now."
"I assumed we cleared this matter."
"We have but... I still need time."
Aego sighed, "I understand. Still, you should not hate him for-", he stopped and halted the soldiers.
"What?"
"Something is not as it should be. This outpost is quiet.". The soldiers tensed up. They could also feel that something wasn't right. In a split second, Aego was shot by an arrow in the side.
"Ambush!", Taria yelled out. Suddenly, elves, welfen, and leanoids ran from the sides and the outpost. The soldiers prepared but found themselves overwhelmed by the enemies' numbers. Rogue elves fired arrows at them while welfen and leanoids exploited weaknesses and struck. Still, the soldiers fought hard, making sure the traitors and savages suffer. The enemy numbers were dropping, but not quickly enough. Taria used her training and cut down several rogues before crouching down to help Aego.
"Aego!", she yelled, "Aego hold on! You will live! Please!". She cried as he struggled to breathe. He grabbed her arm and pushed her to the side, just in time for her to dodge a spear from a leanoid. She watched as Aego spat blood before dying, his life leaving his body. In pure rage, she screamed and struck the leanoid in the side. Pulling out her sword she blocked a strike from a rogue, stepped closer, and headbutted him before slitting his throat.
Turning to her left she saw the rogues and tribals dragging her family. "Father!", she yelled, but couldn't help as a rogue hit her in the back of the head, knocking her down on the ground. Her blurred vision faded away as the rogue smiled down at her.
"Sweet dreams, little girl.", was what he said before she passed out completely.
End of chapter 9
---
First /Previous / Next
Thank you very much for reading
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2023.04.01 08:17 GenoMachino Primary and secondary weapons guide: XL mode update
Link to my other guides: https://www.reddit.com/worldwarzthegame/comments/fs7mbc/new_player_guide_primary_and_secondary_weapons/
Link to previous version of my weapons guide just for reference: https://www.reddit.com/worldwarzthegame/comments/q47kh9/primary_and_secondary_weapons_overview_aftermath/
Disclaimers: I am not able to upgrade all my weapons to max perk level due to lack of time these days, but all weapons except the one noted are at least level 5+. For the same reason, I'm not going to come up with any snappy tag lines, just dry impressions.
The perks mentioned in each weapon is my PERSONAL preference, you don't have to follow exactly what I did if you like a particular stat over others. If you have any interesting perk combos, just reply below.
Unique perk means the first slot perk, these are usually unique to one weapon, or shared by only a few guns. Some of these are very OP and they completely changes the way that weapon work.
Common perks are perks in slot 2 and 3. These are shared by many weapons and mostly just minor stat changes.
FAQ's
Q: What's the best gun in this game?
A: There's no such thing as "best" weapon, there's only the one that's best for your class setup and situation. Some guns are better for fighting small groups and other are better at killing mobs. Class perk often affect the power of the gun and personal style influence your preference.
Q: How do I know if a gun is silent or not with the new skin system.
A: Open the gun customization window and read the description on top. Any silenced gun will says "silent". Don't rely on the graphics because silencer on the barrel is cosmetic and have no real effect on the silence mechanism.
Q: Which stats are the best to get, what do the stats mean?
A: Prioritize power, accuracy, and penetration; handling isn't as important. Power = more dmg per bullet. Higher accuracy means the hits will be closer to your reticle so you miss less. Penetration = number of additional zekes you can hit with each bullet, +1 Penetration = hit 2 zekes, +2 pen = hit 3 zekes. PEN is super important because it's a dmg multiplier.
Most of the time, you should use short bursting vs small groups, or full auto/mad clicking on large groups, so handling (the amount of rise after repeat shots or when you move around) doesn't matters as much. I would only add handling if a gun is firing all over the place with full auto and just can’t stay on target. Running and gunning is a bad idea in most scenario.
Total ammo is not stated in the customization menu, but it’s an important factor in insane/extreme difficulty and hard horde mode due to lower ammo amount in the crate. Some guns run out of ammo very easily and I will point them out specifically.
Q: Which guns are best for swarm fights?
Anything with +2 penetration is best for horde/pyramid/swarm fights. I will make specific mentions if some guns are good for large groups.
Q: Why are you talking about headshots so much?
Except boosted/Elite/Specials*, headshot will one-shot all other zekes. In higher difficult, zekes have a lot of HP, so body shots are not as effective. You really want to put your target down with as few bullets as possible because there are so many zekes to kill.
*Normal bullets only. Boosted/Elite and some weaker specials can still be one shot with the right weapon and setup.
Tier 1:
Scout Rifle: about the same as before.
Basic semi-auto rifle. Best for picking off zeke at mid range. +1 penetration and fixer can hit 4 zekes, so line up the targets and take advantage of the extra penetration. Best when used with ammo fixer because you just have to aim for the body and explosive ammo take care of the rest.
The unique wolfpack perk is same as before, but the Veteran II perk to increase reload speed is really great one to have too.
For the common perks, +10 magazine size is pretty fantastic, custom barrel +1 acc and +10% dmg is also good.
Compact SMG: slight improvement but perks are pretty meh
Worst out of the 3 starter gun. It's accurate only at close/medium range, low stopping power, and definitely not enough ammo. Thank god GS/medics can refill ammo with headshot, and slashers have melee power to compensate. Get close, use short burst and aim for the head because body shot takes forever to kill something.
Unique: snake-bite perk is more viable now because they removed the ammo penalty, but you still use up ammo too fast so I am avoiding it. Point blank +50% dmg is OK since compact suck at hitting far targets anyway. Go with CQB if you are a slasher or medic/GS with a big sword. All 3 perks carry some sort of down-side, so they are pretty meh.
For common, I use custom sight for +2 acc because you can headshot a bit easier (this gun reload fast so -10% reload isn’t a big issue). +10% DMG power perk is definitely needed. If you max the level, ammo pouch perk is really necessary.
Shotgun: Best starter gun got better
Personally I think it's best of the 3 starter guns. Lots of ammo, easy to aim, +1 penetration, and big stopping power. The T1 shotgun can one shot elite squad w/o explosive ammo! The slower pump action allow you to aim between rounds, so it's easy to one-shot target. I can even get third-hand to trigger without reloading. The range is not bad, but get up close and personal for max effect; rely on pistol for sniping enemy farther away. You do need to be point-blank range to one-shot bulls in the back, and at least 3 good shots to bring down an infector.
The fletchette unique is bad. On paper it looks good with +4 acc and +1 Pen. But the reduction in power makes it difficult to one shot zeke at higher difficulty. Because of the slow fire rate, this gun must be able to put down target with one round. I end up using extorsion instead, it’s an OK perk when you run out of bullets and zekes closing in. On edge is too situational for my taste.
Common perk is pretty standard, just pick what you like. I'd get the range bonus.
Pistol: about the same as before
Weak starter pistol, but still useful even for a veteran. It's extremely accurate, so use it to pick up head-shot against idle zekes. There is little reason to use your primary weapon when pistol can easily get you through early map during silence phase. It’s also great at picking off screamers if you are not using a rifle.
It really sucks the previous unique ability is now split into two. You must choose either +2 pen or +50% dmg against special. I still chose the +dmg because it’s good vs idle specials, screamers, and lurkers hiding around corner, you won’t rely on this gun when there’s multiple zeke charging you anyway so Pen doesn't matter that much.
For common, you want custom sights for +2 acc for a total of 11, because this is suppose to be a sniping weapon. Second slot is up to you.
Machine pistol: almost the same except for that insane 3rd unique perk (not i am not going to go into that buggy behavior)
An upgrade version of standard pistol with higher fire-rate. Same low dmg and 0 pen, so aim for the head with the 3-round burst, don’t try to body shot anything, it takes too long. Tons of ammo though.
The special perks are great. You start with perk that turn it into an automatic, and it is great fun to use. But last unique perk can add 20% ammo to your heavy weapon after 10 kills, which is especially useful for high dmg heavy like RPG or MGL. That's some really OP shenanigans if an exterminator can repeatedly fill up his RPG
The common perks exist to support that unique perk, so pick power and extended mag so you can get that 10 kills.
Tier 2
Assault rifle: Solid weapon got a minor buff
My favorite gun for mid-game just because I am an old school CS player. Good amount of ammo, range, and stopping power. Burst fire is extremely accurate even if you are not a gunslinger, and downright deadly if you are. This gun is really trust worthy when things get hairy because I know it can headshot something and put it down for good. The +1 pen and low handling is its main weakness. Full auto sends bullets everywhere, so only hold trigger if zekes are in your face or piled up. Relatively weak against pyramid or fences so you will be emptying magazine after magazine. At least ammo amount is high so you shouldn't run out as long as you are careful.
You really want to go for that last unique perk with +10% healing on self. First perk is OK until you get there, but mostly not useful because you probably already took some dmg when you find this gun. Second perk is pretty OP if you play as vanguard (frequent shield use), but not too useful for other classes.
For common perk, use ergonomics early on for handling and dmg, and +15% reload later on.
Sport Carbine: better than before but took an ammo nerf
I always see people skipping this gun because they don't know how good it is. It's better than the scout at everything: more power, acc, +2 Penetration is insanely good. Fixer with power shot can hit up to 5! It's the first gun I look for when I play fixer, but any other class can use it to good effect. This gun can fire faster and reload fast while dishing out a lot of dmg, especially against a horde or a pyramid. Due to high accuracy, it's even good against small groups because it's easy to rack up headshots. Carrying ammo capacity took a nerf in the new update, it’s down to 180 vs 225 before, so aim well and watch that ammo count.
Unique perk isn’t unique, but at least good. I wouldn’t take custom fit, that -10 mag size really hurt. Fresh mag is ok until you get veteran II for that +25% reload.
For common, I took the +2 acc/-10 reload just because I like to snipe with it. But really all 4 perks at the bottom are great choices and provide good buff. Take what you like.
Classic battle rifle: about the same as before
This gun's specialty is horde killing. If you are not a fixer, this is the second best tier 2 gun for killing large piles, so always pick this up before you fight a horde where the +2 penetration will collapse a pyramid easily. It's accuracy and handling is pretty bad, but not an issue vs pyramid or fences. You should swap it out once the swarm fight is done and you move onto silence phase. Ammo amount is still pretty low, so watch out for that.
Unique perk is just copy/paste from before, you still have tiger claw +25% dmg vs special. Or the HP round II that turns it into a fixer-only gun because fixers gets huge dmg and +2 pen back. The third perk add handling, it's not bad if you just want to use it for horde killing and doesn’t care about special dmg.
Common perk is still power and ammo pouches for more ammo, this gun really need more ammo.
Classic Bullpup: it’s better somehow?
A weaker version of the T-3 Bullpup with only +1 penetration and fire 2 rounds burst. Not sure why but this gun feels more powerful and more accurate than before, so maybe they shadow buffed it? Or maybe I finally figured out how to use it correctly with more practice. It’s a good choice to replace that T1 scout or compact SMG when no other choice is available. You do need to fire this weapon slowly because it’s hard to settle down, give it pause between shots. If you don't, it will fire everywhere and won't stay on target.
You no longer have to sacrifice magazine size for the scorpion tail perk, which is nice because it’s a decent perk. The other unique frankly sucks and I don’t know why Saber did that. Who the hell uses adrenaline on a regular basis? What a joke of a unique perk.
Common perks are nice. Custom round I with longer range and +1 acc is great. Power is OK, but weighted bullet with +20% dmg is even better. You don’t have to worry about ammo as much because it’s got large carry capacity and fire slow anyway.
Light Automatic Weapon: still great weapon with the right class
For a gun that's meant for full automatic fire, it's got surprisingly good burst accuracy with +1 penetration as a bonus. Accuracy/handling during full auto is decent and can stay on target with minor adjustment, so it won't fire all over the place like the AK or the CBR. Just don't expect to pick up long range targets. It seems to spawn more now, so maybe they shadow buffed the spawn rate? The 125 round magazine is amazing and countered-balanced by a 5 second reload animation (melee reload cancel at 75% instead of the normal 50%).
Don't let the long reload fool you, there are multiple ways to reload without actually reloading.
For common, custom barrel for dmg and acc is great, then Power perk. Veteran isn’t really needed because above mentioned shenanigans.
SMG: minor improvement, still meh though, need to test out lvl12 perk
A direct upgrade to the compact SMG. Use this gun exact same way as the compact SMG, short burst and aim for the head. It's more stable than compact so you can rack up multiple HS in a row even on full auto. Range and power is still an issue: it packs no punch past medium range, and ammo would run out way too fast. DEFINITELY need more carried ammo to be more effective. +1 Penetration is also bit hard to notice because it's weak. Use it if no other better alternatives available, or if you are playing medic with good aim. They really need to buff all SMG’s with more ammo.
Unique: CQB perk is basically third hand for slasher and Vanguard, pretty useful if you play these two class regularly. Perfectionist is meh unless you start with this weapon via perk. Semi-auto is suppose to be pretty good, but I haven’t been able to test it out since it's a lvl12 perk and I don't use SMG a lot
Common: anything that increases stat is OK. Ergonomics, veteran, and ammo pouch.
Combat shotgun: holy shit that eagle scout perk!
This gun is more like the T3 version after the update, but remember to slow down your trigger finer because firing too fast cause the accuracy to go down considerably. It’s a major upgrade from the tier 1 pump, just remember to pause and aim carefully vs small groups. No other complaints really.
Unique perk has to be eagle scout, period. It no longer carry the -4 magazine penalty, so now you simply has insane range for a shotgun and +1 more pen. No other unique perk affected a weapon as much as eagle scout, the practical difference is insane because this shotgun now has rifle-like range. If you have a hell raiser shotgun-build, it’s a complete blood bath until you run out of ammo. I won’t even go into the other two because there’s no point.
Common perk: I use custom sight for +2 accuracy because the default 3 acc is just too low. The rest is up to you.
Sniper rifle: major buff due to two round burst
Still the gold standard for semi-auto rifles. Just really high stats all around, it’s got everything you want except automatic fire. The key to use sniper is let it settle between shots. If you fire too fast, the bullets will go everywhere, so you have to pause between firing. Aim carefully and make shots count due to low carry capacity and low fire rate. You don’t want to miss at close range and then get beat up while reloading.
Unique perk: forget the old extreme perk, go for the new two round burst. The problem with old sniper is the slow fire-rate, so the two round burst compensated for that. Now you fire much faster with same accuracy. It’s another perk that fundamentally changes a gun in a good way. Just pay more attention to ammo since you chew thru twice as fast now.
Common perk: I use ergonomics II just because I want more handling for the second round to stay on target, so I’m willing to take that hit on reload speed. The last 3 perks are all very good too so take your pick.
PDW: still the same
Low stopping power, low accuracy, no pen, lots of ammo but not worth shit if you can't hit anything with it. To be honest I haven’t upgraded this thing enough to even hit level 8. But the base version is so bland it’s not worth the effort. I usually just keep pistol for sniping specials or shotgun for close quarter defense.
Fine motor skill unique perk does make it interesting if you are GS who like to switch guns.
I haven’t even upgraded this gun enough to see common perks yet.
Compact Shotgun: still the same
Decent secondary for personal protection, whip it out when zekes get too close and your primary magazine runs out. 4-round capacity is OK for emergencies and you can get it silenced, reloads fast as well. It definitely does not have the same stopping power as its primary weapon cousins, so do not expect to be able to drop zekes in one shot.
I haven’t even upgraded this gun enough to see common perks yet.
Dual-barrel shotgun: I did not upgrade this.
I used to use the unique version so I never haven’t bothered upgrading this; it’s only at level 2. At base level it's just a really powerful but short-ranged shotgun. I will update this later. Some people love this, others don’t, I am in the latter camp.
Revolver: work in progress
Revolver use to be bad and I used the unique version that didn’t require any upgrade, so it’s only at level 3. But I do think new revolver now packs a bit more punch because I am able to one-shot zeke more often now. Plus revolvers are just pretty bad ass looking in general. Wil update later if I upgrade it more.
Tier 3:
Assault Carbine: same old reliable with longer range
Carbine has gone through very few changes since the game release but finally getting buffs. It still works in all situations and for all classes, even though it's not the best at anything. I use it like a more stable AK. Only +1 penetration so it's not that good at pyramid killing, but it's great against smaller groups. Both small burst and full autos are pretty on-target so you can rely on it to always hit whatever you are aiming at. It’s still my top 3 guns for gunslingers because you can easily rack up multiple headshots in a row and replenish lots of ammo due to large magazine.
Unique: boat-tail round increase its accuracy and effective range, given carbine a very long range. It’s very effective at flat and open maps because you can pick up targets from very far away.
Common: Custom barrel, weight bullets, basically anything that adds more power and accuracy to kill faster.
Battle rifle: OMG WHY SABER WHY
Saber must’ve heard me saying how good this gun is so now they decided to nerf it hard. This use to be one of the best at mowing down pyramids due to automatic fire with +2 pen. But with XL update, even though other stats are left alone, both carrying capacity and magazine size took a large hit. The 25 round magazine is small for semi-auto fire mode and way too small for automatic, so you are reloading all the time and DPS goes way down. You have to park next to ammo crate because it runs out too fast. Power and accuracy are still great, but you can forget about the auto fire. I have switch this gun back to semi-mode because it’s still good when fired slower.
Unique: I am using boat tail, because the auto perk is nerfed. I treat it more like an upgrade to the T2 sport rifle, which is probably what Saber originally wanted this gun to be.
Common: Power and veteran I is good. If it really bothers you then extended mag and ammo pouch will increase ammo and capacity.
Bullpup: still a good weapon, not much changed
One of the best pyramid killer in the original release before it got power creeped, but still a great gun all around. Good stopping power due to 3-round burst, +2 penetration kills any horde and pyramid quickly. Extremely accurate at up to medium range. It's hard to find any fault with this thing except the low firing rate. The burst mode is demanding, use the gap between the burst to do proper aiming for best results. It's even better when fixers use it since now it's +4 Penetration. Total ammo is low, so watch that ammo usage.
Unique: I still use selective fire since I run fixer. It’s -1 penetration, but turns it into an automatic with optional zoom burst mode, and it's really ONLY for ammo fixers. This is THE FASTEST gun in the entire game, you chew through 45-round magazine in just a few seconds and drain the whole crate within 2-3 minutes. Only an ammo fixer can afford enough bullets to keep firing in auto mode, and it's ridiculously over-powered because it’s still treated as semi-auto rifle even during full auto mode. Just put down a few ammo box in front of yourself, and entire horde just disappeared due to sheet amount of explosive ammo travelling down range. Even bulls go down quickly due to all the explosive ammo to the face.
Common: weighted bullets since you use ammo box and veteran for faster reload. I use ergonomics II since reload time doesn’t matter too much if I am parked in front of ammo box.
Advanced SMG: No major change
Similar to T2 SMG but fire a bit faster with a bit more power, still not great though. Total ammo is the highest in game, but effective range is limited, so only use it at close/medium distance. It's easiest just to go full auto with this gun if you want to kill anything in a pile, or stick with long burst at close range. Its pretty weak against large swarm, OK with smaller groups.
For unique, go with FMJ for 1 more pen. This is one of only three automatic weapon that can do +2 penetration. With Battle rifle nerfed so badly, you are really down to this and T2 CBR. Power is further weakened but at least you have one more PEN. It’s better than the normal version.
Common: Custom round is must, SMG has such a short effective range. I also use weighted bullets to buff power since capacity is pretty high.
Special SMG: pretty much the same as before
The special SMG is what the advanced SMG should’ve been. Similar to tier 2 SMG but with more dmg, accuracy, and handling. Fire rate is lower than other SMG and you only get 40 rounds per magazine, but it's good enough. Carrying capacity is only 280 rounds so you do have to refill often. It's not really for swarm fights due to limited range and penetration, but works fine for smaller horde encounters at close distance. If you can aim well, the high accuracy and power is really good. Just don't expect to kill a ton of zekes with it.
Unique: First two perks are meh. Semi-auto sounds like a good idea, but it’s a lvl12 perk I haven’t reached yet.
Common: custom mag, range, and veteran are all good options.
ACW: Still GOAT
Still one of the best in game. The ammunition is explosive ammo and not an explosive, so explosive perk or nerf doesn't apply, and it has 0 penetration. High AOE dmg, good accuracy and handling, lots of ammo, good fire rate, you really can't ask for more. Each round can kill 6-7 zekes when things are all piled up due to higher AOE range. Just point and shoot, it requires very little aiming. The explosion range is similar to the cross-bow so be extremely careful when aiming for zeke clsoe to people (or yourself) because you might cause a lot of FF. Like other explosive ammo, it can hit a zeke during its death animation and waste a round. Not recommend for GS and fixer class, let weaker gun class like medic or DM have it. Vanguard/slasher should be careful with ACW because they usually zeke in close quarter, don’t splash dmg yourself, this weapon does not have shark skin perk.
Unique: Reparation perk is still the same as before the update, it’s a pretty good perk. Shrapnel is amazing though because it increase the explosive range of ammo for higher swarm killing power.
Common: Power and veteran is needed because this thing reloads slow.
Assault shotgun: good weapon got even better
This gun is awesome at close to medium range. Huge dmg, +2 pen fast fire rate, and 20 rounds magazine. You can mow down an entire fence easily. The range is pretty poor, so know your maps to know which area allows this gun to be most effective. It's a top tier choice for any class, but particularly good for Gunslingers and any class with third-hand. Carrying ammo is high so that's usually not a problem.
Unique perk: +10 Magazine anyone! Less reload is always good to increase DPS. Gunslinger with 30-round magazine is amazing since you refill 2 rounds per headshot. Even though it's not a game changer, bigger magazine is almost always a good buff
Common: I love custom round because it increase effective range. Also use ergonomics II to increase handling, this is one of the few guns that you can do run and gun with, so I took the reloading debuff for more handling.
Crossbow: from bad to decent, but still be very careful with it
I used to absolutely hate on this thing because too many newbs pick it up and just randomly hurt teammates with FF and cause all sort of havoc. It uses explosive ammo that cannot be silenced, so only use it during large battle when silence isn’t a consideration. Drop it as soon as swarm is over. AIM AWAY from your teammates and DON'T try to save your teammate with this thing, you will just blow them up with FF. It's nearly useless against bulls, but good vs all other specials including rats. I don’t recommend this weapon for newer players, you need to be good at aiming because your #1 priority is actually avoiding FF when using cross-bow.
Unique: You have to use shark skin. This perk used to carry a -1 magazine penalty, but that’s been removed. So now it’s just a really good ability. You can fire on the ground close to yourself instead of trying to hit a moving target with a slow bolt, and not worry about hurting yourself. Piecing bolt sounds good but not a good ability in practice because it reduces so much power.
Common: extended mag, veteran I are both good. You should have “Friend not foe” to reduce FF on teammates.
Multi-barrel shotgun: Saber what the heck is this thing, lol
First time I tried this gun, hated it. Level up a few times, loved it. Then I used it more, and now I hate it again. This guns is essentially a beefed up double-barrel. The amount of power is amazing; this thing collapse a pyramid in 2 rounds. But the range is just horrendous, you really have to be in melee range for it to have any noticeable effect. The pellets pattern is also extremely random with a very large and spread out cone. It’s not unusual for me to completely miss the zeke that’s 5 feet in front of me, but somehow kill the two zekes that’s on the side, which lead to some truly WTF moments. I don’t pick it up much anymore because on most maps zekes are just simply out of this gun’s reach. It’s great for Slasher and vanguard because they are always very close to target anyway.
Unique: Advanced user perk is great if you use vanguard shield to auto reload. Extortion works kinda the same but works for all other classes.
Common: this gun REALLY need custom rounds for more range because the default range is just terrible. Custom barrel is also a good choice for second slot.
Grenade Launcher: about the same as before
Unique weapon with very low spawn rate. It fires loud grenades, so don't use if you want to keep silent. One of the most fun gun to use and its low ammo is the only thing prevent it being abused. Refilling it 2-3 times in insane/extreme and ammo box is empty. Because it uses impact explosive grenade, GS's grenade perk and HR's explosive perk will both apply. It only explodes after hitting hard surface, so you can fire through teammates. The only class that can fully utilize its power is the hell raiser because of the extra explosive dmg perks.
Fun fact, you can spam this gun in “thief” mutator because each melee kill refills one ammo
Unique: If you are not a hellraiser, then the fire grenade perk is for you. The round works just like a molotov and Exterminator's molotov perks apply to it. You can use it choke off a small gap, or set a whole pyramid on fire. Kill and Heal is a great perk once you reach it, because it adds temp health.
Common: very few choice available, use Friend not foe to reduce accidental FF, and ammo pouch for one more round.
Flare gun: Still the only weapon without perk or upgrade
Just like the thumper, it's unique spawn with a very low rate. Flare guns are LOUD, so do not use it when you are trying to remain in stealth. But once silence is lifted, it's fun to use and very powerful when used correctly. When it first land, it attracts all zekes including specials in a small area similar to the C4 hello kitty perk. Use this to redirect dangerous specials away from your team like those 2 bulls + infector that will otherwise wreck your team. A few seconds after landing, it explodes and set zekes around it on fire and push them back. It doesn't attract too many, so it’s only good against smaller groups and specials. Lots of ammo but long reloading time, so only use it for emergencies. Let support class use this because they will keep you safe while the attack class works on the main body of the swarm.
submitted by GenoMachino to worldwarzthegame [link] [comments]
Link to previous version of my weapons guide just for reference: https://www.reddit.com/worldwarzthegame/comments/q47kh9/primary_and_secondary_weapons_overview_aftermath/
Disclaimers: I am not able to upgrade all my weapons to max perk level due to lack of time these days, but all weapons except the one noted are at least level 5+. For the same reason, I'm not going to come up with any snappy tag lines, just dry impressions.
The perks mentioned in each weapon is my PERSONAL preference, you don't have to follow exactly what I did if you like a particular stat over others. If you have any interesting perk combos, just reply below.
Unique perk means the first slot perk, these are usually unique to one weapon, or shared by only a few guns. Some of these are very OP and they completely changes the way that weapon work.
Common perks are perks in slot 2 and 3. These are shared by many weapons and mostly just minor stat changes.
FAQ's
Q: What's the best gun in this game?
A: There's no such thing as "best" weapon, there's only the one that's best for your class setup and situation. Some guns are better for fighting small groups and other are better at killing mobs. Class perk often affect the power of the gun and personal style influence your preference.
Q: How do I know if a gun is silent or not with the new skin system.
A: Open the gun customization window and read the description on top. Any silenced gun will says "silent". Don't rely on the graphics because silencer on the barrel is cosmetic and have no real effect on the silence mechanism.
Q: Which stats are the best to get, what do the stats mean?
A: Prioritize power, accuracy, and penetration; handling isn't as important. Power = more dmg per bullet. Higher accuracy means the hits will be closer to your reticle so you miss less. Penetration = number of additional zekes you can hit with each bullet, +1 Penetration = hit 2 zekes, +2 pen = hit 3 zekes. PEN is super important because it's a dmg multiplier.
Most of the time, you should use short bursting vs small groups, or full auto/mad clicking on large groups, so handling (the amount of rise after repeat shots or when you move around) doesn't matters as much. I would only add handling if a gun is firing all over the place with full auto and just can’t stay on target. Running and gunning is a bad idea in most scenario.
Total ammo is not stated in the customization menu, but it’s an important factor in insane/extreme difficulty and hard horde mode due to lower ammo amount in the crate. Some guns run out of ammo very easily and I will point them out specifically.
Q: Which guns are best for swarm fights?
Anything with +2 penetration is best for horde/pyramid/swarm fights. I will make specific mentions if some guns are good for large groups.
Q: Why are you talking about headshots so much?
Except boosted/Elite/Specials*, headshot will one-shot all other zekes. In higher difficult, zekes have a lot of HP, so body shots are not as effective. You really want to put your target down with as few bullets as possible because there are so many zekes to kill.
*Normal bullets only. Boosted/Elite and some weaker specials can still be one shot with the right weapon and setup.
Tier 1:
Scout Rifle: about the same as before.
Basic semi-auto rifle. Best for picking off zeke at mid range. +1 penetration and fixer can hit 4 zekes, so line up the targets and take advantage of the extra penetration. Best when used with ammo fixer because you just have to aim for the body and explosive ammo take care of the rest.
The unique wolfpack perk is same as before, but the Veteran II perk to increase reload speed is really great one to have too.
For the common perks, +10 magazine size is pretty fantastic, custom barrel +1 acc and +10% dmg is also good.
Compact SMG: slight improvement but perks are pretty meh
Worst out of the 3 starter gun. It's accurate only at close/medium range, low stopping power, and definitely not enough ammo. Thank god GS/medics can refill ammo with headshot, and slashers have melee power to compensate. Get close, use short burst and aim for the head because body shot takes forever to kill something.
Unique: snake-bite perk is more viable now because they removed the ammo penalty, but you still use up ammo too fast so I am avoiding it. Point blank +50% dmg is OK since compact suck at hitting far targets anyway. Go with CQB if you are a slasher or medic/GS with a big sword. All 3 perks carry some sort of down-side, so they are pretty meh.
For common, I use custom sight for +2 acc because you can headshot a bit easier (this gun reload fast so -10% reload isn’t a big issue). +10% DMG power perk is definitely needed. If you max the level, ammo pouch perk is really necessary.
Shotgun: Best starter gun got better
Personally I think it's best of the 3 starter guns. Lots of ammo, easy to aim, +1 penetration, and big stopping power. The T1 shotgun can one shot elite squad w/o explosive ammo! The slower pump action allow you to aim between rounds, so it's easy to one-shot target. I can even get third-hand to trigger without reloading. The range is not bad, but get up close and personal for max effect; rely on pistol for sniping enemy farther away. You do need to be point-blank range to one-shot bulls in the back, and at least 3 good shots to bring down an infector.
The fletchette unique is bad. On paper it looks good with +4 acc and +1 Pen. But the reduction in power makes it difficult to one shot zeke at higher difficulty. Because of the slow fire rate, this gun must be able to put down target with one round. I end up using extorsion instead, it’s an OK perk when you run out of bullets and zekes closing in. On edge is too situational for my taste.
Common perk is pretty standard, just pick what you like. I'd get the range bonus.
Pistol: about the same as before
Weak starter pistol, but still useful even for a veteran. It's extremely accurate, so use it to pick up head-shot against idle zekes. There is little reason to use your primary weapon when pistol can easily get you through early map during silence phase. It’s also great at picking off screamers if you are not using a rifle.
It really sucks the previous unique ability is now split into two. You must choose either +2 pen or +50% dmg against special. I still chose the +dmg because it’s good vs idle specials, screamers, and lurkers hiding around corner, you won’t rely on this gun when there’s multiple zeke charging you anyway so Pen doesn't matter that much.
For common, you want custom sights for +2 acc for a total of 11, because this is suppose to be a sniping weapon. Second slot is up to you.
Machine pistol: almost the same except for that insane 3rd unique perk (not i am not going to go into that buggy behavior)
An upgrade version of standard pistol with higher fire-rate. Same low dmg and 0 pen, so aim for the head with the 3-round burst, don’t try to body shot anything, it takes too long. Tons of ammo though.
The special perks are great. You start with perk that turn it into an automatic, and it is great fun to use. But last unique perk can add 20% ammo to your heavy weapon after 10 kills, which is especially useful for high dmg heavy like RPG or MGL. That's some really OP shenanigans if an exterminator can repeatedly fill up his RPG
The common perks exist to support that unique perk, so pick power and extended mag so you can get that 10 kills.
Tier 2
Assault rifle: Solid weapon got a minor buff
My favorite gun for mid-game just because I am an old school CS player. Good amount of ammo, range, and stopping power. Burst fire is extremely accurate even if you are not a gunslinger, and downright deadly if you are. This gun is really trust worthy when things get hairy because I know it can headshot something and put it down for good. The +1 pen and low handling is its main weakness. Full auto sends bullets everywhere, so only hold trigger if zekes are in your face or piled up. Relatively weak against pyramid or fences so you will be emptying magazine after magazine. At least ammo amount is high so you shouldn't run out as long as you are careful.
You really want to go for that last unique perk with +10% healing on self. First perk is OK until you get there, but mostly not useful because you probably already took some dmg when you find this gun. Second perk is pretty OP if you play as vanguard (frequent shield use), but not too useful for other classes.
For common perk, use ergonomics early on for handling and dmg, and +15% reload later on.
Sport Carbine: better than before but took an ammo nerf
I always see people skipping this gun because they don't know how good it is. It's better than the scout at everything: more power, acc, +2 Penetration is insanely good. Fixer with power shot can hit up to 5! It's the first gun I look for when I play fixer, but any other class can use it to good effect. This gun can fire faster and reload fast while dishing out a lot of dmg, especially against a horde or a pyramid. Due to high accuracy, it's even good against small groups because it's easy to rack up headshots. Carrying ammo capacity took a nerf in the new update, it’s down to 180 vs 225 before, so aim well and watch that ammo count.
Unique perk isn’t unique, but at least good. I wouldn’t take custom fit, that -10 mag size really hurt. Fresh mag is ok until you get veteran II for that +25% reload.
For common, I took the +2 acc/-10 reload just because I like to snipe with it. But really all 4 perks at the bottom are great choices and provide good buff. Take what you like.
Classic battle rifle: about the same as before
This gun's specialty is horde killing. If you are not a fixer, this is the second best tier 2 gun for killing large piles, so always pick this up before you fight a horde where the +2 penetration will collapse a pyramid easily. It's accuracy and handling is pretty bad, but not an issue vs pyramid or fences. You should swap it out once the swarm fight is done and you move onto silence phase. Ammo amount is still pretty low, so watch out for that.
Unique perk is just copy/paste from before, you still have tiger claw +25% dmg vs special. Or the HP round II that turns it into a fixer-only gun because fixers gets huge dmg and +2 pen back. The third perk add handling, it's not bad if you just want to use it for horde killing and doesn’t care about special dmg.
Common perk is still power and ammo pouches for more ammo, this gun really need more ammo.
Classic Bullpup: it’s better somehow?
A weaker version of the T-3 Bullpup with only +1 penetration and fire 2 rounds burst. Not sure why but this gun feels more powerful and more accurate than before, so maybe they shadow buffed it? Or maybe I finally figured out how to use it correctly with more practice. It’s a good choice to replace that T1 scout or compact SMG when no other choice is available. You do need to fire this weapon slowly because it’s hard to settle down, give it pause between shots. If you don't, it will fire everywhere and won't stay on target.
You no longer have to sacrifice magazine size for the scorpion tail perk, which is nice because it’s a decent perk. The other unique frankly sucks and I don’t know why Saber did that. Who the hell uses adrenaline on a regular basis? What a joke of a unique perk.
Common perks are nice. Custom round I with longer range and +1 acc is great. Power is OK, but weighted bullet with +20% dmg is even better. You don’t have to worry about ammo as much because it’s got large carry capacity and fire slow anyway.
Light Automatic Weapon: still great weapon with the right class
For a gun that's meant for full automatic fire, it's got surprisingly good burst accuracy with +1 penetration as a bonus. Accuracy/handling during full auto is decent and can stay on target with minor adjustment, so it won't fire all over the place like the AK or the CBR. Just don't expect to pick up long range targets. It seems to spawn more now, so maybe they shadow buffed the spawn rate? The 125 round magazine is amazing and countered-balanced by a 5 second reload animation (melee reload cancel at 75% instead of the normal 50%).
Don't let the long reload fool you, there are multiple ways to reload without actually reloading.
- GS can constantly refill ammo using front-line supply: It adds rounds for each headshot. I often kill an entire swarm wave and the ammo count still reads 100+.
- HellraiseExterminator have third-hand perk that reload the gun automatically after 15 kills. It’s really amazing with this weapon because you can just keep shooting. Watch out for ammo usage though, don't want to get too trigger happy and suddenly found out your ammo is 0
- Fixer's ammo box can instantly reload it. Just remember to stay close to an ammo box, and also explosive ammo cancel out penetration. It's not semi-auto so fixer's power shot do not apply
- Vanguard with quick hands perk can reload gun when you block a hit or charge. Just do a quick block and holster the shield, and you are back to full magazine.
For common, custom barrel for dmg and acc is great, then Power perk. Veteran isn’t really needed because above mentioned shenanigans.
SMG: minor improvement, still meh though, need to test out lvl12 perk
A direct upgrade to the compact SMG. Use this gun exact same way as the compact SMG, short burst and aim for the head. It's more stable than compact so you can rack up multiple HS in a row even on full auto. Range and power is still an issue: it packs no punch past medium range, and ammo would run out way too fast. DEFINITELY need more carried ammo to be more effective. +1 Penetration is also bit hard to notice because it's weak. Use it if no other better alternatives available, or if you are playing medic with good aim. They really need to buff all SMG’s with more ammo.
Unique: CQB perk is basically third hand for slasher and Vanguard, pretty useful if you play these two class regularly. Perfectionist is meh unless you start with this weapon via perk. Semi-auto is suppose to be pretty good, but I haven’t been able to test it out since it's a lvl12 perk and I don't use SMG a lot
Common: anything that increases stat is OK. Ergonomics, veteran, and ammo pouch.
Combat shotgun: holy shit that eagle scout perk!
This gun is more like the T3 version after the update, but remember to slow down your trigger finer because firing too fast cause the accuracy to go down considerably. It’s a major upgrade from the tier 1 pump, just remember to pause and aim carefully vs small groups. No other complaints really.
Unique perk has to be eagle scout, period. It no longer carry the -4 magazine penalty, so now you simply has insane range for a shotgun and +1 more pen. No other unique perk affected a weapon as much as eagle scout, the practical difference is insane because this shotgun now has rifle-like range. If you have a hell raiser shotgun-build, it’s a complete blood bath until you run out of ammo. I won’t even go into the other two because there’s no point.
Common perk: I use custom sight for +2 accuracy because the default 3 acc is just too low. The rest is up to you.
Sniper rifle: major buff due to two round burst
Still the gold standard for semi-auto rifles. Just really high stats all around, it’s got everything you want except automatic fire. The key to use sniper is let it settle between shots. If you fire too fast, the bullets will go everywhere, so you have to pause between firing. Aim carefully and make shots count due to low carry capacity and low fire rate. You don’t want to miss at close range and then get beat up while reloading.
Unique perk: forget the old extreme perk, go for the new two round burst. The problem with old sniper is the slow fire-rate, so the two round burst compensated for that. Now you fire much faster with same accuracy. It’s another perk that fundamentally changes a gun in a good way. Just pay more attention to ammo since you chew thru twice as fast now.
Common perk: I use ergonomics II just because I want more handling for the second round to stay on target, so I’m willing to take that hit on reload speed. The last 3 perks are all very good too so take your pick.
PDW: still the same
Low stopping power, low accuracy, no pen, lots of ammo but not worth shit if you can't hit anything with it. To be honest I haven’t upgraded this thing enough to even hit level 8. But the base version is so bland it’s not worth the effort. I usually just keep pistol for sniping specials or shotgun for close quarter defense.
Fine motor skill unique perk does make it interesting if you are GS who like to switch guns.
I haven’t even upgraded this gun enough to see common perks yet.
Compact Shotgun: still the same
Decent secondary for personal protection, whip it out when zekes get too close and your primary magazine runs out. 4-round capacity is OK for emergencies and you can get it silenced, reloads fast as well. It definitely does not have the same stopping power as its primary weapon cousins, so do not expect to be able to drop zekes in one shot.
I haven’t even upgraded this gun enough to see common perks yet.
Dual-barrel shotgun: I did not upgrade this.
I used to use the unique version so I never haven’t bothered upgrading this; it’s only at level 2. At base level it's just a really powerful but short-ranged shotgun. I will update this later. Some people love this, others don’t, I am in the latter camp.
Revolver: work in progress
Revolver use to be bad and I used the unique version that didn’t require any upgrade, so it’s only at level 3. But I do think new revolver now packs a bit more punch because I am able to one-shot zeke more often now. Plus revolvers are just pretty bad ass looking in general. Wil update later if I upgrade it more.
Tier 3:
Assault Carbine: same old reliable with longer range
Carbine has gone through very few changes since the game release but finally getting buffs. It still works in all situations and for all classes, even though it's not the best at anything. I use it like a more stable AK. Only +1 penetration so it's not that good at pyramid killing, but it's great against smaller groups. Both small burst and full autos are pretty on-target so you can rely on it to always hit whatever you are aiming at. It’s still my top 3 guns for gunslingers because you can easily rack up multiple headshots in a row and replenish lots of ammo due to large magazine.
Unique: boat-tail round increase its accuracy and effective range, given carbine a very long range. It’s very effective at flat and open maps because you can pick up targets from very far away.
Common: Custom barrel, weight bullets, basically anything that adds more power and accuracy to kill faster.
Battle rifle: OMG WHY SABER WHY
Saber must’ve heard me saying how good this gun is so now they decided to nerf it hard. This use to be one of the best at mowing down pyramids due to automatic fire with +2 pen. But with XL update, even though other stats are left alone, both carrying capacity and magazine size took a large hit. The 25 round magazine is small for semi-auto fire mode and way too small for automatic, so you are reloading all the time and DPS goes way down. You have to park next to ammo crate because it runs out too fast. Power and accuracy are still great, but you can forget about the auto fire. I have switch this gun back to semi-mode because it’s still good when fired slower.
Unique: I am using boat tail, because the auto perk is nerfed. I treat it more like an upgrade to the T2 sport rifle, which is probably what Saber originally wanted this gun to be.
Common: Power and veteran I is good. If it really bothers you then extended mag and ammo pouch will increase ammo and capacity.
Bullpup: still a good weapon, not much changed
One of the best pyramid killer in the original release before it got power creeped, but still a great gun all around. Good stopping power due to 3-round burst, +2 penetration kills any horde and pyramid quickly. Extremely accurate at up to medium range. It's hard to find any fault with this thing except the low firing rate. The burst mode is demanding, use the gap between the burst to do proper aiming for best results. It's even better when fixers use it since now it's +4 Penetration. Total ammo is low, so watch that ammo usage.
Unique: I still use selective fire since I run fixer. It’s -1 penetration, but turns it into an automatic with optional zoom burst mode, and it's really ONLY for ammo fixers. This is THE FASTEST gun in the entire game, you chew through 45-round magazine in just a few seconds and drain the whole crate within 2-3 minutes. Only an ammo fixer can afford enough bullets to keep firing in auto mode, and it's ridiculously over-powered because it’s still treated as semi-auto rifle even during full auto mode. Just put down a few ammo box in front of yourself, and entire horde just disappeared due to sheet amount of explosive ammo travelling down range. Even bulls go down quickly due to all the explosive ammo to the face.
Common: weighted bullets since you use ammo box and veteran for faster reload. I use ergonomics II since reload time doesn’t matter too much if I am parked in front of ammo box.
Advanced SMG: No major change
Similar to T2 SMG but fire a bit faster with a bit more power, still not great though. Total ammo is the highest in game, but effective range is limited, so only use it at close/medium distance. It's easiest just to go full auto with this gun if you want to kill anything in a pile, or stick with long burst at close range. Its pretty weak against large swarm, OK with smaller groups.
For unique, go with FMJ for 1 more pen. This is one of only three automatic weapon that can do +2 penetration. With Battle rifle nerfed so badly, you are really down to this and T2 CBR. Power is further weakened but at least you have one more PEN. It’s better than the normal version.
Common: Custom round is must, SMG has such a short effective range. I also use weighted bullets to buff power since capacity is pretty high.
Special SMG: pretty much the same as before
The special SMG is what the advanced SMG should’ve been. Similar to tier 2 SMG but with more dmg, accuracy, and handling. Fire rate is lower than other SMG and you only get 40 rounds per magazine, but it's good enough. Carrying capacity is only 280 rounds so you do have to refill often. It's not really for swarm fights due to limited range and penetration, but works fine for smaller horde encounters at close distance. If you can aim well, the high accuracy and power is really good. Just don't expect to kill a ton of zekes with it.
Unique: First two perks are meh. Semi-auto sounds like a good idea, but it’s a lvl12 perk I haven’t reached yet.
Common: custom mag, range, and veteran are all good options.
ACW: Still GOAT
Still one of the best in game. The ammunition is explosive ammo and not an explosive, so explosive perk or nerf doesn't apply, and it has 0 penetration. High AOE dmg, good accuracy and handling, lots of ammo, good fire rate, you really can't ask for more. Each round can kill 6-7 zekes when things are all piled up due to higher AOE range. Just point and shoot, it requires very little aiming. The explosion range is similar to the cross-bow so be extremely careful when aiming for zeke clsoe to people (or yourself) because you might cause a lot of FF. Like other explosive ammo, it can hit a zeke during its death animation and waste a round. Not recommend for GS and fixer class, let weaker gun class like medic or DM have it. Vanguard/slasher should be careful with ACW because they usually zeke in close quarter, don’t splash dmg yourself, this weapon does not have shark skin perk.
Unique: Reparation perk is still the same as before the update, it’s a pretty good perk. Shrapnel is amazing though because it increase the explosive range of ammo for higher swarm killing power.
Common: Power and veteran is needed because this thing reloads slow.
Assault shotgun: good weapon got even better
This gun is awesome at close to medium range. Huge dmg, +2 pen fast fire rate, and 20 rounds magazine. You can mow down an entire fence easily. The range is pretty poor, so know your maps to know which area allows this gun to be most effective. It's a top tier choice for any class, but particularly good for Gunslingers and any class with third-hand. Carrying ammo is high so that's usually not a problem.
Unique perk: +10 Magazine anyone! Less reload is always good to increase DPS. Gunslinger with 30-round magazine is amazing since you refill 2 rounds per headshot. Even though it's not a game changer, bigger magazine is almost always a good buff
Common: I love custom round because it increase effective range. Also use ergonomics II to increase handling, this is one of the few guns that you can do run and gun with, so I took the reloading debuff for more handling.
Crossbow: from bad to decent, but still be very careful with it
I used to absolutely hate on this thing because too many newbs pick it up and just randomly hurt teammates with FF and cause all sort of havoc. It uses explosive ammo that cannot be silenced, so only use it during large battle when silence isn’t a consideration. Drop it as soon as swarm is over. AIM AWAY from your teammates and DON'T try to save your teammate with this thing, you will just blow them up with FF. It's nearly useless against bulls, but good vs all other specials including rats. I don’t recommend this weapon for newer players, you need to be good at aiming because your #1 priority is actually avoiding FF when using cross-bow.
Unique: You have to use shark skin. This perk used to carry a -1 magazine penalty, but that’s been removed. So now it’s just a really good ability. You can fire on the ground close to yourself instead of trying to hit a moving target with a slow bolt, and not worry about hurting yourself. Piecing bolt sounds good but not a good ability in practice because it reduces so much power.
Common: extended mag, veteran I are both good. You should have “Friend not foe” to reduce FF on teammates.
Multi-barrel shotgun: Saber what the heck is this thing, lol
First time I tried this gun, hated it. Level up a few times, loved it. Then I used it more, and now I hate it again. This guns is essentially a beefed up double-barrel. The amount of power is amazing; this thing collapse a pyramid in 2 rounds. But the range is just horrendous, you really have to be in melee range for it to have any noticeable effect. The pellets pattern is also extremely random with a very large and spread out cone. It’s not unusual for me to completely miss the zeke that’s 5 feet in front of me, but somehow kill the two zekes that’s on the side, which lead to some truly WTF moments. I don’t pick it up much anymore because on most maps zekes are just simply out of this gun’s reach. It’s great for Slasher and vanguard because they are always very close to target anyway.
Unique: Advanced user perk is great if you use vanguard shield to auto reload. Extortion works kinda the same but works for all other classes.
Common: this gun REALLY need custom rounds for more range because the default range is just terrible. Custom barrel is also a good choice for second slot.
Grenade Launcher: about the same as before
Unique weapon with very low spawn rate. It fires loud grenades, so don't use if you want to keep silent. One of the most fun gun to use and its low ammo is the only thing prevent it being abused. Refilling it 2-3 times in insane/extreme and ammo box is empty. Because it uses impact explosive grenade, GS's grenade perk and HR's explosive perk will both apply. It only explodes after hitting hard surface, so you can fire through teammates. The only class that can fully utilize its power is the hell raiser because of the extra explosive dmg perks.
Fun fact, you can spam this gun in “thief” mutator because each melee kill refills one ammo
Unique: If you are not a hellraiser, then the fire grenade perk is for you. The round works just like a molotov and Exterminator's molotov perks apply to it. You can use it choke off a small gap, or set a whole pyramid on fire. Kill and Heal is a great perk once you reach it, because it adds temp health.
Common: very few choice available, use Friend not foe to reduce accidental FF, and ammo pouch for one more round.
Flare gun: Still the only weapon without perk or upgrade
Just like the thumper, it's unique spawn with a very low rate. Flare guns are LOUD, so do not use it when you are trying to remain in stealth. But once silence is lifted, it's fun to use and very powerful when used correctly. When it first land, it attracts all zekes including specials in a small area similar to the C4 hello kitty perk. Use this to redirect dangerous specials away from your team like those 2 bulls + infector that will otherwise wreck your team. A few seconds after landing, it explodes and set zekes around it on fire and push them back. It doesn't attract too many, so it’s only good against smaller groups and specials. Lots of ammo but long reloading time, so only use it for emergencies. Let support class use this because they will keep you safe while the attack class works on the main body of the swarm.
2023.04.01 07:47 j2thaDizme123 thats where i stopped writing
my love hear my soul telling you what you need to hear. hear this with a loss of ego.
ego is a killer. vanity is fleeting.
whatever these words cause..let it be known they are spoken out of love and urgency.
youre the SMARTEST human I know. but smart and clever arent the same, and noticed a more clever you. take your knowledge of this world, use the wisdom of your spirit, and understand youre being duped if you were starting to buy into what the world is trying to sell you.
Its really is all spiritual..ALL OF IT
the customer service stance, the ends to a means sales like drive, and the vision....boo, friend, kindred spirit, human whose soul i love. ..DEEEEEE. not me...not on me. i have guilt and regrets but boo...not on me. i know my worth, i know my value...just like i know yours..(ABOVE PRICELESS)
i love you fam. my family. PLEASE do not attempt to OVERstand me...on any plain. I am your dead ass equal..i humble my self in the honor of your presense and always will. i will take respect over appeasment, and truth over lies any day. i am your equal.
do i seem ignorant or lacking of the third eye?
God has blessed me with the ability to soak in the frequencies, waves, and rays of many things unspoken, unseen, and underlying. I have INTUITION. i have PERCEPTION. I was blessed with the abstract ability to take what is not perceivable to the eyes, ears, touch, etc in any way. To take the thin air and cram it all into a storage area...pull the random numbers out of it. Put them in Generalized groups and clusters insanely fast, line them up respectively without haste, meleeing and circumventing HUGE chunks of variables, digits, integers, mass, protons, neutrons, electrons, molecules, mass, atoms....whatever... that others deem absolute necessities for calculation, and process those articles of input with minimal decryption, skipping whole chunks of data, and reprocess them to real life situations, evaluations, and situations/ scenarios. I pull something from ABSOLUTELY NOTHING and my success rate on foresight is about 90% because of that. I thank God for the ability. THe honor is Gods. thats his gifts..my applicable side of all of this is my biggest shortcoming, to apply it...i know this. i see it.
.we are equal. there is no higher standing to be attained here or currently held above me, by me, above you, by you and the same for ANYONE you know or have known.. in the ways of status, classification, prestige, rank, or pedigree. its all vanity, and love is love...and i no longer care about the romanticized version of it. more than romance whats important and serious is family. youre family. i can live without romance. but not without you im spirit. if my words create a rift im sorry. you are very independent. to be told by anyone else. lol nah not happening...and for this my dear...allow me to pray i say this right. right...but if i have too i will be the perpetual bad guy...no one else is qualified to, or able to withstand the consequences of a negative effect here but me...but its not accusatory..its a plea...and a warning..and something can seewith my heart. its me waving a flag saying icebergs ahead. if im labeled a kook for expessing this...so be it. this is divinely driven. im moved by God to speak it. and the time is now. im screaming from my heart psychically.. we are equal.
im saying to you in spirit "change course", im telling you humble yourself. YOUR KEY TO LIFE IS IN THE BOOK OF LIFE. NOT THE BANK. grab gods word please
proverbs 8: 10- 11 (i beg of you to read these verses with the same urgency you would complete a work related task)
i wasnt there for them. I will be judged accordingly...but on the monetary front boo..in the future when you see who provided the most in numbers...IT WILL HAVE BEEN YOU FIRST by your amazing work ethics...then...drum roll..ME. I feel like you classify me as last...crunch the numbers...eventually you will have too. it will be ME that provided THE MOST LIQUID. not him, not them...ME..because of one decision that i will never regret that is etched in stone..the full transfer of my wealth directly to your hands.
God gave me that. God is giving you that...NOT MAN. IT IS SPIRITUAL..ALL OF IT. THE SIGNS ARE SHOWING YOU MY LOVE. LOOK AT THEM...LOOK AT THEm WITH YOUR SOUL AND SPIRIT. EARTH...With love of family, the authority of friend, and the fear of GOD im requesting.... turn the volume down on the EARTHLY physical eyesight limited by the narrow visioned 3d realm of practicality. Girl you are nothing but soul and spirit. Have you forgotten? Thats why im here. to remind you. just like you are here to bring me down to earth. DEEE...glue..EARTH...
HERE IS A SIGN: my sisters dying request for a piece my of art. SHE HAD TO HAVE IT...WHAT DID IT SAY? THERE IS YOUR FIRST SIGN THAT WHAT I SPEAK IS CORRECT glue.
this is not the works of this world. and you are spirit and soul...remeber that earth...just like i need not bee to flighty and impractical...you need not be too grounded...down down is where the dark one is...he was cast to the EARTH. where ppl are categorized by class and swag and money. HERE IS YOUR SECOND SIGN.
the earth is his realm my entwined spirit....
Spirit...thats why i love you. but you arent my one. you arent her. i get that now. were different. too different.Thats what always made me love you. Your soul and spirit. we all bleed the same. we all rot the same nasty rot at death. no matter how many accessories we dangle on ourselves like an overloaded christmas tree...in the end that shit falls to the wayside and there yours, mine, and theirs, rotted stinking dead ass corpses will lie. Fact.
ARE YOU NOT AWARE THAT YOU ARE THE HIGHEST ECHELON OF WOMEN THIS WORLD HAS TO OFFER? THE YOU OF RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND? YOU ARE!! MAN IF YOU BRUSH THIS OFF OR DISMISS IT. IT WILL BE ON YOU..IVE ALWAYS BEEN THE CRAZY ONE...IF I MUSt CONTINUE MY PATH BEING VIEWeD LIKE THAT FOR THIS. I WILL WEAR ALL THE STRIPES AND CONSEQUENCES OF IT.
i just pray this it doesnt come off as demanmding, belittling, rude, dismissive, pompous, or mean..
OK heres wisdom. a sign in a riddle .
If the first will be last, and the last first...and we both know of the great reset to come...
then what would happen to the poor person that doesnt, and never did have any money? he would adapt more easily. but with more money comes more payments, if the reset renders money useless, and the man of many bills still owes those bills. whos the lower being?
a guy that has a neg $3mil balance but isnt able to fix the problem? or the homeless guy with the neg $3.00 dollar balance thats poor as shit.? .in a numbers game homeless guy wins. hes one million times classier per the ignorant engagment rules of class warfare. (which is all vanity)
im no longer romantically interested..but i love you fam..so its out there
submitted by j2thaDizme123 to u/j2thaDizme123 [link] [comments]
ego is a killer. vanity is fleeting.
whatever these words cause..let it be known they are spoken out of love and urgency.
youre the SMARTEST human I know. but smart and clever arent the same, and noticed a more clever you. take your knowledge of this world, use the wisdom of your spirit, and understand youre being duped if you were starting to buy into what the world is trying to sell you.
Its really is all spiritual..ALL OF IT
the customer service stance, the ends to a means sales like drive, and the vision....boo, friend, kindred spirit, human whose soul i love. ..DEEEEEE. not me...not on me. i have guilt and regrets but boo...not on me. i know my worth, i know my value...just like i know yours..(ABOVE PRICELESS)
i love you fam. my family. PLEASE do not attempt to OVERstand me...on any plain. I am your dead ass equal..i humble my self in the honor of your presense and always will. i will take respect over appeasment, and truth over lies any day. i am your equal.
do i seem ignorant or lacking of the third eye?
God has blessed me with the ability to soak in the frequencies, waves, and rays of many things unspoken, unseen, and underlying. I have INTUITION. i have PERCEPTION. I was blessed with the abstract ability to take what is not perceivable to the eyes, ears, touch, etc in any way. To take the thin air and cram it all into a storage area...pull the random numbers out of it. Put them in Generalized groups and clusters insanely fast, line them up respectively without haste, meleeing and circumventing HUGE chunks of variables, digits, integers, mass, protons, neutrons, electrons, molecules, mass, atoms....whatever... that others deem absolute necessities for calculation, and process those articles of input with minimal decryption, skipping whole chunks of data, and reprocess them to real life situations, evaluations, and situations/ scenarios. I pull something from ABSOLUTELY NOTHING and my success rate on foresight is about 90% because of that. I thank God for the ability. THe honor is Gods. thats his gifts..my applicable side of all of this is my biggest shortcoming, to apply it...i know this. i see it.
.we are equal. there is no higher standing to be attained here or currently held above me, by me, above you, by you and the same for ANYONE you know or have known.. in the ways of status, classification, prestige, rank, or pedigree. its all vanity, and love is love...and i no longer care about the romanticized version of it. more than romance whats important and serious is family. youre family. i can live without romance. but not without you im spirit. if my words create a rift im sorry. you are very independent. to be told by anyone else. lol nah not happening...and for this my dear...allow me to pray i say this right. right...but if i have too i will be the perpetual bad guy...no one else is qualified to, or able to withstand the consequences of a negative effect here but me...but its not accusatory..its a plea...and a warning..and something can seewith my heart. its me waving a flag saying icebergs ahead. if im labeled a kook for expessing this...so be it. this is divinely driven. im moved by God to speak it. and the time is now. im screaming from my heart psychically.. we are equal.
im saying to you in spirit "change course", im telling you humble yourself. YOUR KEY TO LIFE IS IN THE BOOK OF LIFE. NOT THE BANK. grab gods word please
proverbs 8: 10- 11 (i beg of you to read these verses with the same urgency you would complete a work related task)
i wasnt there for them. I will be judged accordingly...but on the monetary front boo..in the future when you see who provided the most in numbers...IT WILL HAVE BEEN YOU FIRST by your amazing work ethics...then...drum roll..ME. I feel like you classify me as last...crunch the numbers...eventually you will have too. it will be ME that provided THE MOST LIQUID. not him, not them...ME..because of one decision that i will never regret that is etched in stone..the full transfer of my wealth directly to your hands.
God gave me that. God is giving you that...NOT MAN. IT IS SPIRITUAL..ALL OF IT. THE SIGNS ARE SHOWING YOU MY LOVE. LOOK AT THEM...LOOK AT THEm WITH YOUR SOUL AND SPIRIT. EARTH...With love of family, the authority of friend, and the fear of GOD im requesting.... turn the volume down on the EARTHLY physical eyesight limited by the narrow visioned 3d realm of practicality. Girl you are nothing but soul and spirit. Have you forgotten? Thats why im here. to remind you. just like you are here to bring me down to earth. DEEE...glue..EARTH...
HERE IS A SIGN: my sisters dying request for a piece my of art. SHE HAD TO HAVE IT...WHAT DID IT SAY? THERE IS YOUR FIRST SIGN THAT WHAT I SPEAK IS CORRECT glue.
this is not the works of this world. and you are spirit and soul...remeber that earth...just like i need not bee to flighty and impractical...you need not be too grounded...down down is where the dark one is...he was cast to the EARTH. where ppl are categorized by class and swag and money. HERE IS YOUR SECOND SIGN.
the earth is his realm my entwined spirit....
Spirit...thats why i love you. but you arent my one. you arent her. i get that now. were different. too different.Thats what always made me love you. Your soul and spirit. we all bleed the same. we all rot the same nasty rot at death. no matter how many accessories we dangle on ourselves like an overloaded christmas tree...in the end that shit falls to the wayside and there yours, mine, and theirs, rotted stinking dead ass corpses will lie. Fact.
ARE YOU NOT AWARE THAT YOU ARE THE HIGHEST ECHELON OF WOMEN THIS WORLD HAS TO OFFER? THE YOU OF RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND? YOU ARE!! MAN IF YOU BRUSH THIS OFF OR DISMISS IT. IT WILL BE ON YOU..IVE ALWAYS BEEN THE CRAZY ONE...IF I MUSt CONTINUE MY PATH BEING VIEWeD LIKE THAT FOR THIS. I WILL WEAR ALL THE STRIPES AND CONSEQUENCES OF IT.
i just pray this it doesnt come off as demanmding, belittling, rude, dismissive, pompous, or mean..
OK heres wisdom. a sign in a riddle .
If the first will be last, and the last first...and we both know of the great reset to come...
then what would happen to the poor person that doesnt, and never did have any money? he would adapt more easily. but with more money comes more payments, if the reset renders money useless, and the man of many bills still owes those bills. whos the lower being?
a guy that has a neg $3mil balance but isnt able to fix the problem? or the homeless guy with the neg $3.00 dollar balance thats poor as shit.? .in a numbers game homeless guy wins. hes one million times classier per the ignorant engagment rules of class warfare. (which is all vanity)
im no longer romantically interested..but i love you fam..so its out there
2023.04.01 06:41 PrickyOneil March has been “Concussion Awareness Month“. In closing, I thought I’d share my story of living with probable Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)
Yeah I put this off until the last minute, I’ve had enormous difficulty communicating all my life so please bear with me. I don’t think one person knows this whole story but I realize it’s time I find a way to let my voice be heard. Hopefully it’s come together well enough after a week of working on it...
I was the kid that won all the first place trophies and held all the records on track and field day in kindergarten. Always outside doing whatever adrenaline pumping activity I could get myself into. From early on my parents recognized that I needed an environment that team competitive sports provides. Justifiably so, I would never trade the life lessons earned while playing American football for those read in a class room.
I suited up for the gridiron at 7 years old. I was padded from the toes up and it felt incredible, like I was a tank! The coaches loved me, I was short and stout, quick, sharp and fearless. It didn’t take long before I was playing on both sides of the ball, as running back on offense, safety on defense and returner on kickoffs. I was on the field the whole game. The attention as a team leader was intoxicating, it hooked me for life. I suffered my first on field concussion the following year.
It was the first game of the season, the bleachers seemed packed. Near the beginning of the game, playing as free safety, I see my opportunity to not let the team down. The ball gets handed off to their running back, a smaller guy like me, bursts around the mass of blockers to the outside and lights a fire down the sideline. Nothing between him and the touchdown, I project myself into his path and charge ahead like a game of chicken. Littler dude gets even lower than me, his helmet hitting me square in the diaphragm, lifts me clean off the ground and runs through me as though I wasn’t there. I land on my back, head hits the grass. Next thing I know I’m being lifted into an ambulance after being carried off the field on a stretcher. This was my first year of full contact play after a season of flag football and I clearly had not yet grasped the differences. I was in 2nd grade.
As I was enrolled in speech and hearing therapy at school, coaches began teaching me to get over that big hit by hitting the next kid even harder. I began to yearn the brutality of the game even as I took more punishment. The cycle was vicious. Looking back it really seems as though the coaches had some other agenda or issue that fed the aggression. We were coached to lead with our heads because shoulder pads were far too small proportionately and they’d make fun of us after a game if we couldn’t count multiple paint streaks embedded into the plastic on our helmets. Those paint marks were made by helmet to helmet contact, the more impactful the hit, the greater your “trophy”. Some kids earned more trophies than I and it pissed me off so I’d hit harder. They’d line us up one-on-one and tell us to knock the other guy off his feet if we wanted to play in the next game. I couldn’t begin to count the times I was laid out left counting the birds flying over my head in practice alone. Guys would go down every night, coaches laughing, “Aww get him some gatorade, he’s fine. Sit out 10 minutes and get back in here little guy.” I went on to play another 5 years in mostly the same positions until one day, after a difficult practice and a conversation with a close teammate, we dropped our pads and never looked back. But the damage had been done, my path had already been irrevocably set.
After that first on field concussion in 2nd grade, I went on to endure countless concussions over the next 7 years, first from football, then bike riding, fighting and skateboarding. It seemed after a few days of balance issues, blurry vision or headaches, I had no lingering problems and follow-up medical care was nonexistent at the time. It would be easier to recount the couple dozen times I was knocked unconscious, including one that kept me in the hospital for a week. I was so harebrained by high school, I attempted my fourth day of ninth grade black out drunk. The next day I was allowed back on campus I got busted with a joint. At 14, I ran away from home and made it 800 miles before being picked up by cops while breaking into cars for spare change. I was headed for Colorado to build a cabin. Wtf did I know about any of that? And I nearly made it. I quit school, 8th grade was my last year of formal education. Would wonder around the city drinking or smoking anything I could get a hold of. I’d go skateboarding atop some of the tallest buildings in Atlanta or scoot around the woods on an ATV while blindly firing my buddy’s .44 into the air. I shouldn’t have lived through it all, I have dear friends that didn’t. But at 15 I had an epiphany (thanks to LSD), packed a box and moved 400 miles away from everything and everyone. I was somehow able to hit the reset button and leave that volatile part of my life behind and spend the next several years recovering from the constant brain trauma.
Fast forward a few decades and what I’m left with is an inability to manage my life beyond today, I’ve been stuck in flight or fight mode ever since and I’m exhausted with looking over my shoulder. I’m feeling the effects of early onset dementia as I type this and I’m actually scared for the first time in my life. My days have moved beyond forgetting where I put my keys to nearly burning the house down when I run to the store forgetting that I was in the middle of cooking. I haven’t driven a vehicle in years because I’m scared I’ll hurt someone in a fit of road rage or forget why I left home in the first place. The few hours of sleep I may get is the only way to escape the screaming in between my ears and it makes rolling out of bed all the more difficult. I’ve lived in 27 different homes yet never owned my own. It’s been a rarity to hold a job or relationship more than a couple of years and have no savings for retirement. I’ve all but given up friendships and not had a meaningful conversation with my kids in years and I can’t blame them at all. I think about them all day and it hurts beyond words knowing that I’m the asshole and they’re better off without me around much. Have a talk with the person sitting next to you when your only available emotion is anger and see how many more conversations they willingly have with you. Imagine that being your dad. It’s as if there’s a switch that’s never been flipped and I’m incapable of appropriately expressing emotions in the moment. I really don’t mean to be the prick, I simply can’t help it. But I’ll never let you see the side of me cowering in the bathroom bawling my eyes out once I have time to reflect.
I’m 48 years young now and launching a new mission in life, to help educate those on how it takes a community to provide a safe environment for our children. Not one person has all the right answers and alone we fail. Whether it be coaches, school administrators, parents or the medical field, the system failed me. I would never advocate to end youth football, but why does it need to be combative? Too many have tragically lost their voices without even knowing football damaged their brains. The year I fell in love with the game was the year I played low-contact flag football, it becomes something else entirely when you start hitting each other.
It’s time to ban youth tackle football. Is it radical, yes. So were seatbelts and smoking bans.
Converting youth football to a flag system is the only remaining viable solution to making football safer for our kids. CA and NY have recently submitted proposals, it’s time lawmakers in other states step forward. The NFL’s most recent Pro Bowl gave flag rules a shot, the fans and players enjoyed it so much it’s here to stay. If the NFL gets its proposal to the 2028 Olympic Games approved, it will be no-contact flag football rules as well. If future iterations of the game are evolving to keep adult players safe, when will youth sports follow? Why aren’t kids more protected and supported when less than 1% of them will go on to play in the NFL?
Stay strong and Stop Hitting Kids in the Head; https://concussionfoundation.org/stop-hitting-kids-in-the-head
FYI; I have a difficult time living in the moment so give me a few days and I’ll do my best to circle back around to this post. Know that I appreciate all of you at cte for coming along on this journey of discovery with me. I am not the best at providing emotional support either but know that I look forward to getting us to a place where we can all be there more for each other. I’m thinking of you when I post and I will continue sharing my research along the way, please share yours and know that you are safe here.
Additional links;
Age of first exposure to tackle football and years played associated with less white matter in brain; https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-03-age-exposure-tackle-football-years.html
Three or more concussions add up to long-term cognitive problems; https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jan/31/three-or-more-concussions-add-up-to-long-term-cognitive-problems-study-suggests
CTE Center Director Ann McKee says the NFL ignores the risks of repetitive blows to the head and that it’s “foolish” to think the league will police itself; https://www.bu.edu/articles/2023/bu-finds-cte-in-nearly-92-percent-of-former-nfl-players-studied/
How Psychedelic Therapy Can Help Treat Brain Injury; https://www.psychedelicpassage.com/how-psychedelic-therapy-can-help-treat-brain-injury/
Before You Let Your Kids Play Football, Read This; https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/play-in-mind/202301/before-you-let-your-kids-play-football-read-this
submitted by PrickyOneil to CTE [link] [comments]
I was the kid that won all the first place trophies and held all the records on track and field day in kindergarten. Always outside doing whatever adrenaline pumping activity I could get myself into. From early on my parents recognized that I needed an environment that team competitive sports provides. Justifiably so, I would never trade the life lessons earned while playing American football for those read in a class room.
I suited up for the gridiron at 7 years old. I was padded from the toes up and it felt incredible, like I was a tank! The coaches loved me, I was short and stout, quick, sharp and fearless. It didn’t take long before I was playing on both sides of the ball, as running back on offense, safety on defense and returner on kickoffs. I was on the field the whole game. The attention as a team leader was intoxicating, it hooked me for life. I suffered my first on field concussion the following year.
It was the first game of the season, the bleachers seemed packed. Near the beginning of the game, playing as free safety, I see my opportunity to not let the team down. The ball gets handed off to their running back, a smaller guy like me, bursts around the mass of blockers to the outside and lights a fire down the sideline. Nothing between him and the touchdown, I project myself into his path and charge ahead like a game of chicken. Littler dude gets even lower than me, his helmet hitting me square in the diaphragm, lifts me clean off the ground and runs through me as though I wasn’t there. I land on my back, head hits the grass. Next thing I know I’m being lifted into an ambulance after being carried off the field on a stretcher. This was my first year of full contact play after a season of flag football and I clearly had not yet grasped the differences. I was in 2nd grade.
As I was enrolled in speech and hearing therapy at school, coaches began teaching me to get over that big hit by hitting the next kid even harder. I began to yearn the brutality of the game even as I took more punishment. The cycle was vicious. Looking back it really seems as though the coaches had some other agenda or issue that fed the aggression. We were coached to lead with our heads because shoulder pads were far too small proportionately and they’d make fun of us after a game if we couldn’t count multiple paint streaks embedded into the plastic on our helmets. Those paint marks were made by helmet to helmet contact, the more impactful the hit, the greater your “trophy”. Some kids earned more trophies than I and it pissed me off so I’d hit harder. They’d line us up one-on-one and tell us to knock the other guy off his feet if we wanted to play in the next game. I couldn’t begin to count the times I was laid out left counting the birds flying over my head in practice alone. Guys would go down every night, coaches laughing, “Aww get him some gatorade, he’s fine. Sit out 10 minutes and get back in here little guy.” I went on to play another 5 years in mostly the same positions until one day, after a difficult practice and a conversation with a close teammate, we dropped our pads and never looked back. But the damage had been done, my path had already been irrevocably set.
After that first on field concussion in 2nd grade, I went on to endure countless concussions over the next 7 years, first from football, then bike riding, fighting and skateboarding. It seemed after a few days of balance issues, blurry vision or headaches, I had no lingering problems and follow-up medical care was nonexistent at the time. It would be easier to recount the couple dozen times I was knocked unconscious, including one that kept me in the hospital for a week. I was so harebrained by high school, I attempted my fourth day of ninth grade black out drunk. The next day I was allowed back on campus I got busted with a joint. At 14, I ran away from home and made it 800 miles before being picked up by cops while breaking into cars for spare change. I was headed for Colorado to build a cabin. Wtf did I know about any of that? And I nearly made it. I quit school, 8th grade was my last year of formal education. Would wonder around the city drinking or smoking anything I could get a hold of. I’d go skateboarding atop some of the tallest buildings in Atlanta or scoot around the woods on an ATV while blindly firing my buddy’s .44 into the air. I shouldn’t have lived through it all, I have dear friends that didn’t. But at 15 I had an epiphany (thanks to LSD), packed a box and moved 400 miles away from everything and everyone. I was somehow able to hit the reset button and leave that volatile part of my life behind and spend the next several years recovering from the constant brain trauma.
Fast forward a few decades and what I’m left with is an inability to manage my life beyond today, I’ve been stuck in flight or fight mode ever since and I’m exhausted with looking over my shoulder. I’m feeling the effects of early onset dementia as I type this and I’m actually scared for the first time in my life. My days have moved beyond forgetting where I put my keys to nearly burning the house down when I run to the store forgetting that I was in the middle of cooking. I haven’t driven a vehicle in years because I’m scared I’ll hurt someone in a fit of road rage or forget why I left home in the first place. The few hours of sleep I may get is the only way to escape the screaming in between my ears and it makes rolling out of bed all the more difficult. I’ve lived in 27 different homes yet never owned my own. It’s been a rarity to hold a job or relationship more than a couple of years and have no savings for retirement. I’ve all but given up friendships and not had a meaningful conversation with my kids in years and I can’t blame them at all. I think about them all day and it hurts beyond words knowing that I’m the asshole and they’re better off without me around much. Have a talk with the person sitting next to you when your only available emotion is anger and see how many more conversations they willingly have with you. Imagine that being your dad. It’s as if there’s a switch that’s never been flipped and I’m incapable of appropriately expressing emotions in the moment. I really don’t mean to be the prick, I simply can’t help it. But I’ll never let you see the side of me cowering in the bathroom bawling my eyes out once I have time to reflect.
I’m 48 years young now and launching a new mission in life, to help educate those on how it takes a community to provide a safe environment for our children. Not one person has all the right answers and alone we fail. Whether it be coaches, school administrators, parents or the medical field, the system failed me. I would never advocate to end youth football, but why does it need to be combative? Too many have tragically lost their voices without even knowing football damaged their brains. The year I fell in love with the game was the year I played low-contact flag football, it becomes something else entirely when you start hitting each other.
It’s time to ban youth tackle football. Is it radical, yes. So were seatbelts and smoking bans.
Converting youth football to a flag system is the only remaining viable solution to making football safer for our kids. CA and NY have recently submitted proposals, it’s time lawmakers in other states step forward. The NFL’s most recent Pro Bowl gave flag rules a shot, the fans and players enjoyed it so much it’s here to stay. If the NFL gets its proposal to the 2028 Olympic Games approved, it will be no-contact flag football rules as well. If future iterations of the game are evolving to keep adult players safe, when will youth sports follow? Why aren’t kids more protected and supported when less than 1% of them will go on to play in the NFL?
Stay strong and Stop Hitting Kids in the Head; https://concussionfoundation.org/stop-hitting-kids-in-the-head
FYI; I have a difficult time living in the moment so give me a few days and I’ll do my best to circle back around to this post. Know that I appreciate all of you at cte for coming along on this journey of discovery with me. I am not the best at providing emotional support either but know that I look forward to getting us to a place where we can all be there more for each other. I’m thinking of you when I post and I will continue sharing my research along the way, please share yours and know that you are safe here.
Additional links;
Age of first exposure to tackle football and years played associated with less white matter in brain; https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-03-age-exposure-tackle-football-years.html
Three or more concussions add up to long-term cognitive problems; https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jan/31/three-or-more-concussions-add-up-to-long-term-cognitive-problems-study-suggests
CTE Center Director Ann McKee says the NFL ignores the risks of repetitive blows to the head and that it’s “foolish” to think the league will police itself; https://www.bu.edu/articles/2023/bu-finds-cte-in-nearly-92-percent-of-former-nfl-players-studied/
How Psychedelic Therapy Can Help Treat Brain Injury; https://www.psychedelicpassage.com/how-psychedelic-therapy-can-help-treat-brain-injury/
Before You Let Your Kids Play Football, Read This; https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/play-in-mind/202301/before-you-let-your-kids-play-football-read-this
2023.04.01 06:26 Silveros Looking for Critique: Homebrew Sorcerer Subclass (Star Specter)
Hello!
I'm looking for feedback on a homebrew sorcerer subclass. I enjoy the space/stars theme but do not enjoy any existing classes/subclasses with the theme. I also enjoy having a pet, but don't enjoy the pet classes/subclasses available. I made this homebrew subclass in order to have a little of both in a way that satisfies both categories.
The origin story is that you gained your powers from a dying star that becomes reborn through you and activates your sorcerous powers in the process. The entire subclass is basically a defensive one with a pet thrown into the mix, and some features are usable or active based on whether or not the pet is summoned. The pet is weak in general but I designed it that way as it can be resummoned repeatedly (with an action). This might change or I might weaken the pet if people consider that aspect too strong.
I spent the most time making the level 1 and 14 features, so the level 6 and 18 features might not be tuned. The level 1 feature involving death is more of a feature for my next character's backstory but I felt like I could make it fit into the subclass.
Hopefully this post formats properly, as I copy-pasted it from a Word document. As soon as I have it 100% fine-tuned, I'll use one of those websites to make it look fancy. I put dashes to separate each feature, and the pet stat block is in the first feature.
Thanks in advance for reading and for help!
-------------------------------------
The Star Spirit
At 1st level, you can call upon the star spirit within your body. As an action, you can pull the spirit from your body and summon it in a physical form.
The spirit is friendly to you and your companions, and it obeys your commands. See its game statistics in the accompanying Star Spirit stat block, which uses your Proficiency Bonus (PB) in several places. You determine the spirit's appearance, except it is spectral.
In combat, the spirit shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn immediately after yours. Your bond with the spirit allows it to know which actions and movements you would want it to take. The actions can take can be one from its stat block or some other action.
The spirit remains until it is reduced to 0 hit points, until you use this feature to summon the spirit again, or until you dismiss it as a free action. The spirit immediately returns to your body when it vanishes, and anything the spirit was carrying or wearing in that moment is left behind.
[ Star Spirit (Stat Block) ]
Small Undead
Armor Class: 12 + PB (natural armor)
Hit Points: 3 times your sorcerer level
Speed: 30 ft., fly 30ft. (hover)
STR 1 (-5)
DEX 15 (+2)
CON 8 (-1)
INT 13 (+1)
WIS 14 (+2)
CHA 12 (+1)
Damage Resistances: radiant
Damage Immunities: poison
Condition Immunities: exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed, poisoned, prone, restrained, unconscious
Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 12
Languages: understands and telepathically speaks any language you know
Challenge: -
Proficiency Bonus (PB): equals your bonus
Incorporeal Movement. The star spirit can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. It take 5 force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
Actions
Shooting Star. Ranged Spell Attack: +2 plus PB to hit, range 60 ft., one target you can see. Hit: 1d6 + PB radiant damage
------
Starlight Armor
At 1st level, the essence of the star spirit enhances your natural defenses. You gain resistance to radiant damage and a +1 bonus to your AC.
------
Eternal Soul
At 1st level, if you would die, the star spirit absorbs your body and soul to protect it. While absorbed, the time limit on raising you from the dead is paused, your body is fully restored of any missing parts, and the star spirit becomes immune to everything but can only use its turn to speak or move.
The star spirit is used instead of your body to raise you from the dead with an appropriate action, at which point your body reappears in the nearest unoccupied space.
------
Astral Guard
At 6th level, you can call upon your star spirit's power to deflect and absorb damage.
As a reaction when an enemy makes an attack against you, you can impose disadvantage on the attack roll. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
In addition, if any attack made against you with disadvantage misses, you can absorb some of the energy in the air created by the attack. You restore hit points equal to your spellcasting ability modifier.
------
Spectral Drift
At 14th level, you can freely move through the air as if you were drifting through space. You gain a flying speed of 20 feet and can hover. This effect ends if your hit points are reduced to 0, at which point your rate of descent slows to 20 feet per round and you take no falling damage upon reaching the ground.
In addition, while your star spirit is not summoned, you can expend 1 sorcery point to become incorporeal for 1 minute. While incorporeal, you can move through objects and creatures as if they were difficult terrain. You can not summon your star spirit while inside an object, and you take 5 force damage if you end your turn inside an object. If this effect ends while you occupy the same spot as an object or creature, you are immediately shunted to the nearest unoccupied space that you can occupy and take force damage equal to twice the number of feet you are moved.
------
One with the Cosmos
At 18th level, you and the star spirit become one with the cosmos. You and your star spirit gain immunity to radiant damage, and you gain a +1 bonus to your AC.
In addition, you can use your action to transform into a being of pure cosmic energy. While in this form, you gain the following benefits:
While your star spirit is summoned, it also gains the benefits of your transformation. While your star spirit is not summoned, you gain a +3 bonus to your AC against melee attacks while transformed.
You remain in this form for one minute. You can't enter this form again unless you finish a long rest, unless you spend 6 sorcery points to do so again.
submitted by Silveros to DnDHomebrew [link] [comments]
I'm looking for feedback on a homebrew sorcerer subclass. I enjoy the space/stars theme but do not enjoy any existing classes/subclasses with the theme. I also enjoy having a pet, but don't enjoy the pet classes/subclasses available. I made this homebrew subclass in order to have a little of both in a way that satisfies both categories.
The origin story is that you gained your powers from a dying star that becomes reborn through you and activates your sorcerous powers in the process. The entire subclass is basically a defensive one with a pet thrown into the mix, and some features are usable or active based on whether or not the pet is summoned. The pet is weak in general but I designed it that way as it can be resummoned repeatedly (with an action). This might change or I might weaken the pet if people consider that aspect too strong.
I spent the most time making the level 1 and 14 features, so the level 6 and 18 features might not be tuned. The level 1 feature involving death is more of a feature for my next character's backstory but I felt like I could make it fit into the subclass.
Hopefully this post formats properly, as I copy-pasted it from a Word document. As soon as I have it 100% fine-tuned, I'll use one of those websites to make it look fancy. I put dashes to separate each feature, and the pet stat block is in the first feature.
Thanks in advance for reading and for help!
-------------------------------------
The Star Spirit
At 1st level, you can call upon the star spirit within your body. As an action, you can pull the spirit from your body and summon it in a physical form.
The spirit is friendly to you and your companions, and it obeys your commands. See its game statistics in the accompanying Star Spirit stat block, which uses your Proficiency Bonus (PB) in several places. You determine the spirit's appearance, except it is spectral.
In combat, the spirit shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn immediately after yours. Your bond with the spirit allows it to know which actions and movements you would want it to take. The actions can take can be one from its stat block or some other action.
The spirit remains until it is reduced to 0 hit points, until you use this feature to summon the spirit again, or until you dismiss it as a free action. The spirit immediately returns to your body when it vanishes, and anything the spirit was carrying or wearing in that moment is left behind.
[ Star Spirit (Stat Block) ]
Small Undead
Armor Class: 12 + PB (natural armor)
Hit Points: 3 times your sorcerer level
Speed: 30 ft., fly 30ft. (hover)
STR 1 (-5)
DEX 15 (+2)
CON 8 (-1)
INT 13 (+1)
WIS 14 (+2)
CHA 12 (+1)
Damage Resistances: radiant
Damage Immunities: poison
Condition Immunities: exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed, poisoned, prone, restrained, unconscious
Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 12
Languages: understands and telepathically speaks any language you know
Challenge: -
Proficiency Bonus (PB): equals your bonus
Incorporeal Movement. The star spirit can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. It take 5 force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
Actions
Shooting Star. Ranged Spell Attack: +2 plus PB to hit, range 60 ft., one target you can see. Hit: 1d6 + PB radiant damage
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Starlight Armor
At 1st level, the essence of the star spirit enhances your natural defenses. You gain resistance to radiant damage and a +1 bonus to your AC.
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Eternal Soul
At 1st level, if you would die, the star spirit absorbs your body and soul to protect it. While absorbed, the time limit on raising you from the dead is paused, your body is fully restored of any missing parts, and the star spirit becomes immune to everything but can only use its turn to speak or move.
The star spirit is used instead of your body to raise you from the dead with an appropriate action, at which point your body reappears in the nearest unoccupied space.
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Astral Guard
At 6th level, you can call upon your star spirit's power to deflect and absorb damage.
As a reaction when an enemy makes an attack against you, you can impose disadvantage on the attack roll. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
In addition, if any attack made against you with disadvantage misses, you can absorb some of the energy in the air created by the attack. You restore hit points equal to your spellcasting ability modifier.
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Spectral Drift
At 14th level, you can freely move through the air as if you were drifting through space. You gain a flying speed of 20 feet and can hover. This effect ends if your hit points are reduced to 0, at which point your rate of descent slows to 20 feet per round and you take no falling damage upon reaching the ground.
In addition, while your star spirit is not summoned, you can expend 1 sorcery point to become incorporeal for 1 minute. While incorporeal, you can move through objects and creatures as if they were difficult terrain. You can not summon your star spirit while inside an object, and you take 5 force damage if you end your turn inside an object. If this effect ends while you occupy the same spot as an object or creature, you are immediately shunted to the nearest unoccupied space that you can occupy and take force damage equal to twice the number of feet you are moved.
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One with the Cosmos
At 18th level, you and the star spirit become one with the cosmos. You and your star spirit gain immunity to radiant damage, and you gain a +1 bonus to your AC.
In addition, you can use your action to transform into a being of pure cosmic energy. While in this form, you gain the following benefits:
- Ranged attacks have disadvantage against you.
- You can fly up to twice your flying speed.
- You can disengage as a bonus action.
While your star spirit is summoned, it also gains the benefits of your transformation. While your star spirit is not summoned, you gain a +3 bonus to your AC against melee attacks while transformed.
You remain in this form for one minute. You can't enter this form again unless you finish a long rest, unless you spend 6 sorcery points to do so again.
2023.04.01 06:16 babab0l I did my own scaling since I couldn't find a good one
Most people who scale DS characters either low ball them too much and underestimate the characters or wank them to the heavens so I'm gonna start doing my scaling and share my opinion on this. - I'll be very strict and low-ball a little because I hate wanking characters - we'll be starting with the upper moon 6 our second favorite pair of siblings gyutaro and daki and make our way up to muzan. - I started with them because they're the most characters that are chaotic in scaling some people put them at low as building level ahem vsbw and some lunatic put them at outer since gyutaro said he could kill Buddha. - let's start with gyutaro : he's the elder sibling and the stronger of the two he's also the true holder of the rank upper 6 so he's the more relevant of the two
submitted by babab0l to KimetsuNoYaiba [link] [comments]
- powers and abilities : Abilities: Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Acrobatics, Self-Sustenance (Type 3), Extrasensory Perception, Enhanced Senses, Telepathy, Genius Intelligence, Weapon Mastery (Of his sickles), Immortality (Type 1, 2, 3 and 8; Is one with Daki, and they must be defeated simultaneously in order for them to die, allowing him to regenerate from even decapitation as long as she's alive as well), Regeneration (High-Mid; Can quickly regenerate from decapitation, his head being crushed, and losing limbs), Absorption & Statistics Amplification (Can grow stronger by eating humans), Reactive Evolution (Kokushibo states that both humans and demons alike can grow and surpass their limits through battle), Body Control, Biological Manipulation (Can turn people into demons with his blood), Aura & Fear Manipulation (Has a vastly superior aura to the Lower Kizuki Demons, which can cause shuddering and a feeling of lacking air. Even Daki could inflict fear upon Tanjiro, which Gyutaro should scale to. His scent made Tanjiro feel as if his throat was going numb and his presence inflicted fear upon him), Blood Manipulation, Poison Manipulation (Can inject deadly poison into people with his sickles), Forcefield Creation (Can form a dome with his slashes), Homing Attack & Explosion Manipulation (Can manipulate his sickles to target his foes until it explodes), Resistance to: Regeneration Negation (High-Mid; As long as Daki's alive, he can regenerate from nichirin blades, which normally negate demons' regeneration by decapitating them), Disease Manipulation (Demons are unable to get sick), Pain Manipulation (Demons are shown to be capable of handling intense pain, as they can shrug off their limbs and heads being sliced off or crushed), Poison Manipulation (Can quickly recover from the poisonous effects of wisteria flowers, which can paralyse demons for half a day), Paralysis Inducement, Fear Manipulation (Should easily resist the Lower Kizuki Demons' aura), biokenises ( fused with and healed his sister gave her his eye and can manipulate his cells on a stronger level that the normal demons who can split themselves and control thier hair and mutate to gain extra abilities like the hand demon and the mantis demon)
- DESTRUCTIVE CAPACITY : obliterated most if not all of the red light district with this attack and it's implyed that he did destroy it since the red light district did infact was destroyed almost completely in a great earthquake in the taicho period (the same time of the show and the show is based on the real Japan so it's like the demon slayers made it look as a natural disasters after the fight) he literally turned this to this so what is the red light district? And how do we scale this feat? Well the red light district was a large city named yoshiwara in that period had more than 90k people living in it before 1940 and by the definition of Japan a city is a statement that has more than 50k people living in it here's the requirements for city in japan and yoshiwara fullfil all the requirements and after WW2 the city was made into smaller districts and then some merged with Tokyo and some with Fuji
- then is it a city level feat? Not so fat he preformed this feat in his last attack that can be argued that it's a self distruction and also the buildings are old style and are easier to destroy if would need much more force to destroy modern cities and he destroyed most of the district not all of it all of this combined make me scale him a tier lower
- drum roll please.... GYUTARO IS : TOWN LEVEL TO LARGE TOWN LEVEL (I won't be putting him at city level since he didn't destroy all of it he destroyed most of it also this calc from the anime calculated him at town+ but I believe he is large town level tho since he at least obliterated 90% of the city )
- his attack potency could be higher with the use of poison and explosive attacks
- now stamina : infinite (demons don't have a consept of fatigue and can go at full power forever)
- speed : massively hypersonic+ (much faster than tengen) casually blitzed tengen who blitzed daki without effort and low diffed her who is much faster than tanjiro and can move faster than he can react and he moved a dozen meters climbing the gates before his head connected and before he even moved from his position in the air and early tanjiro himself is able to easily evade attacks that are as fast as sound and no mark tanjiro can casually dodge lightning while pushing genya out of the way
- lifting strength : unknown, presumedly greater than class k (much stronger physically than tanjiro who can push a giant Boulder and kyojuro who lifted a whole 8 cart train with just a dash)
- durability : a demon durability isn't consistent with thier DC and ap and can be harmed by characters weaker than them multi-city block level and
- thier necks are thier toughest spot and are consistent with thier AP and DC : large town level (it took tanjirou a 100x strength boost to kill him)
- daki
- DC & AP : multi-cityblock+ to small town- level chopped up a large part of the district with one casually attack took the effort of tanjirou and zenitsu and inoske to defeat her but got one shot by tengen
- speed : hight hypersonic+ to barely massively hypersonic (scales a much lower than gyutaro) and is faster than tanjiro
- stamina : infinite
- durability : city block level in her body (could parry attacks from dance of the fire god tanjiro easily) Multi-city block level at her neck (very difficult to kill when it's soft and it took all the strength of inoske and zenitsu to kill her)
2023.04.01 04:38 JaiPebbles Unamenism Basic Beliefs (Part-1)
Unamenism Single Follower: Unamenine Multiple Followers: Unamenine (Original: Gimainism, Gimainite, Gimainites)
Basics: The Big Bang was caused by a deity known as Gimden, this caused the destruction of Gimden’s physical being, scattering their body across the ever expanding universe. The pieces of their body became scattered pieces of consciousness, smaller than quarks, these over time evolved into what became the first self-replicating cells. Each cell contains a small portion of this original consciousness, over time certain multicellular organisms can evolve greater connection to Gimden, resulting in greater intelligence. Species that achieve sentience are the only true ones with souls, although non-sentient beings have lesser souls that usually follow greater souls. Plants and microbes however, have no soul. The soul is contained in the brain during life, and since plants have no brain they are essentially pure sources of Gimden’s essence, as none is used to form a soul. Since they have no brain Souls can either stick around on earth, or rejoin the collective consciousness of Gimden. Gimden’s mind is a utopia, where people are infinitely organized into their own room. Each room can go anywhere in their infinite mind. Each conciseness is connected in some way, and all things, wether the person experienced it in life or not can be accessed.
Spirits on Earth: Spirits can stick around earth in some cases, ultimately it is left up to the person. The light people see when dying is the doorway to Gimden’s mind. When their spirit leaves their body they have to choice to go, or stay. If they stay they on earth they can return to the place of their death and enter the door any time. Spirits can control certain things, such as storms, waves, fires, etc. Spirits can be warded off with the burning of plants if needed.
Sins: There are few sins in the Unamenine faith, but the few that are there, are major. This is a semi-comprehensive list in order of severity. 1. Murder, and any sort of killing, is strictly prohibited unless it is defense of one’s self, one’s freedom, or of others. (Does not include abortion, the soul is only fully formed once a being enters the world. A.E. Birth) (Rings 5-4 depending on reasoning) 2. Rape is a completely evil act. Not only does it strip away the freedom of choice from a person, but it also violates their very being. (Ring 5) 3. Restricting of another’s freedom is one of the worst things someone can do. Freedom and the truthful being of one’s self is the true meaning of life, and restricting that is evil and immoral. (Does not include regulations and rules, specifically referring to taking away the rights of others without a true or valid reason. (Think restricting trans surgeries, not banning guns)) (Rings 5-3 depending on severity) 4. The exorcism of peaceful souls is just a lesser form of restriction of one’s freedom. Their souls wish to live peacefully, so why not let them. (Rings 3-2 depending on intent) 5. Greed and the hoarding of items at the direct, or indirect harm of others (outside of reason) is extremely immoral to the point of being evil. (Think Jeff Bezos buying a $5,000,000 yacht when barely paying his workers minimum wage, not a person in the middle class not donating to charity (although that is very much encouraged)) (Rings 4-2 depending on severity) 6. Creating visual representations of Guden other than a gold and/or white circle of rings (unless depicting the Big Bang) is considered highly immoral as we don’t know what Gimden’s mind actually looks like, and this is our best guess. (This one most likely wont get you into any of the Fimfbalu (Five Evils) Rings but is just highly discouraged.) (Rings ?-0) 7. Stealing, or acting upon one’s envy is considered immoral, as it is a lesser form of greed. (Rings 2-1 depending on severity) 8. Cheating in a relationship is highly immoral, once you commit to someone breaking their trust is completely unacceptable. (Rings 2-0 depending on effect on person and if they’ve forgiven you in life.) 9. Eating or producing (factory farmed) meat is immoral because of the inhumane treatment of the animals within. This harms the souls of both the animal and the consumer. (Rings 1-0 depending on reason) 10. Blind belief is not quite immoral, but it is misguided. Information and study of topics is important, never blindly believe what anyone tells you. (Rings 1-0 depending on your reaction/correction) 11. Being closed minded is not immoral, but misguided. Keeping one’s mind open is extremely important for any reason. (Rings 1-0 depending on severity)
The Fimfbalu Rings (The Rings of the Five Evils) The Rings of the Five Evils are the way to redemption in the afterlife. 1. The least of all five rings, it essentially consists of apologizing to whoever you hurt. 2. The best of the three middle rings, it consists of the person seeing the consequences of their actions. 3. The median of the three middle rings, it consists of a deep dive into the mind of the person to find the root of their problems. 4. The worst of the three middle rings, it consists of the person experiencing everything from the other party’s perspective. 5. The worst ring, it consists of essentially torture until the person is cleaned of enough sin to progress to ring 4.
submitted by JaiPebbles to Unamenism [link] [comments]
Basics: The Big Bang was caused by a deity known as Gimden, this caused the destruction of Gimden’s physical being, scattering their body across the ever expanding universe. The pieces of their body became scattered pieces of consciousness, smaller than quarks, these over time evolved into what became the first self-replicating cells. Each cell contains a small portion of this original consciousness, over time certain multicellular organisms can evolve greater connection to Gimden, resulting in greater intelligence. Species that achieve sentience are the only true ones with souls, although non-sentient beings have lesser souls that usually follow greater souls. Plants and microbes however, have no soul. The soul is contained in the brain during life, and since plants have no brain they are essentially pure sources of Gimden’s essence, as none is used to form a soul. Since they have no brain Souls can either stick around on earth, or rejoin the collective consciousness of Gimden. Gimden’s mind is a utopia, where people are infinitely organized into their own room. Each room can go anywhere in their infinite mind. Each conciseness is connected in some way, and all things, wether the person experienced it in life or not can be accessed.
Spirits on Earth: Spirits can stick around earth in some cases, ultimately it is left up to the person. The light people see when dying is the doorway to Gimden’s mind. When their spirit leaves their body they have to choice to go, or stay. If they stay they on earth they can return to the place of their death and enter the door any time. Spirits can control certain things, such as storms, waves, fires, etc. Spirits can be warded off with the burning of plants if needed.
Sins: There are few sins in the Unamenine faith, but the few that are there, are major. This is a semi-comprehensive list in order of severity. 1. Murder, and any sort of killing, is strictly prohibited unless it is defense of one’s self, one’s freedom, or of others. (Does not include abortion, the soul is only fully formed once a being enters the world. A.E. Birth) (Rings 5-4 depending on reasoning) 2. Rape is a completely evil act. Not only does it strip away the freedom of choice from a person, but it also violates their very being. (Ring 5) 3. Restricting of another’s freedom is one of the worst things someone can do. Freedom and the truthful being of one’s self is the true meaning of life, and restricting that is evil and immoral. (Does not include regulations and rules, specifically referring to taking away the rights of others without a true or valid reason. (Think restricting trans surgeries, not banning guns)) (Rings 5-3 depending on severity) 4. The exorcism of peaceful souls is just a lesser form of restriction of one’s freedom. Their souls wish to live peacefully, so why not let them. (Rings 3-2 depending on intent) 5. Greed and the hoarding of items at the direct, or indirect harm of others (outside of reason) is extremely immoral to the point of being evil. (Think Jeff Bezos buying a $5,000,000 yacht when barely paying his workers minimum wage, not a person in the middle class not donating to charity (although that is very much encouraged)) (Rings 4-2 depending on severity) 6. Creating visual representations of Guden other than a gold and/or white circle of rings (unless depicting the Big Bang) is considered highly immoral as we don’t know what Gimden’s mind actually looks like, and this is our best guess. (This one most likely wont get you into any of the Fimfbalu (Five Evils) Rings but is just highly discouraged.) (Rings ?-0) 7. Stealing, or acting upon one’s envy is considered immoral, as it is a lesser form of greed. (Rings 2-1 depending on severity) 8. Cheating in a relationship is highly immoral, once you commit to someone breaking their trust is completely unacceptable. (Rings 2-0 depending on effect on person and if they’ve forgiven you in life.) 9. Eating or producing (factory farmed) meat is immoral because of the inhumane treatment of the animals within. This harms the souls of both the animal and the consumer. (Rings 1-0 depending on reason) 10. Blind belief is not quite immoral, but it is misguided. Information and study of topics is important, never blindly believe what anyone tells you. (Rings 1-0 depending on your reaction/correction) 11. Being closed minded is not immoral, but misguided. Keeping one’s mind open is extremely important for any reason. (Rings 1-0 depending on severity)
The Fimfbalu Rings (The Rings of the Five Evils) The Rings of the Five Evils are the way to redemption in the afterlife. 1. The least of all five rings, it essentially consists of apologizing to whoever you hurt. 2. The best of the three middle rings, it consists of the person seeing the consequences of their actions. 3. The median of the three middle rings, it consists of a deep dive into the mind of the person to find the root of their problems. 4. The worst of the three middle rings, it consists of the person experiencing everything from the other party’s perspective. 5. The worst ring, it consists of essentially torture until the person is cleaned of enough sin to progress to ring 4.
2023.04.01 04:35 Ghostofcanty News digest//Artsakh news//understanding what happened at the border//Military reforms//etc//🇦🇲🇦🇲🇦🇲🇦🇲🇦🇲
Armenia and Greece sign military cooperation plan for 2023
The program for 2023 includes 21 activities, of which 15 will take place in Greece and 6 in Armenia:• Joint training of Special Forces – Special Operations Forces.
• Co-training on Electronic Warfare.
• Participation in the Multinational Training Centre for Peace Support Operations.
• Exchange of experiences and lessons in Air Defence Systems.
• Staff exchange and visits to schools and multinational schools, as well as seminars.
• Staff meetings and talks on matters of mutual interest, with special emphasis on the field of Military Intelligence.
The signing of the Program confirms the strong military ties of the two countries and further strengthens the operational capabilities and the level of interoperability of their Armed Forces, contributing to the strengthening of the role played by Greece and Armenia in ensuring stability and security in the wider region.
https://en.armradio.am/2023/03/30/armenia-and-greece-sign-military-cooperation-plan-for-2023/
Cabinet approves military-technical cooperation agreement with Czech Republic
The Government of Armenia on March 30 approved the agreement on military-technical cooperation with Czech Republic which was signed in 2019.The agreement envisages cooperation in military education, defense industry, military history and museology, as well as participation in peacekeeping missions abroad. It will be sent to the Constitutional Court to determine its compliance with the constitution, and in the event of receiving a positive response the agreement will be submitted to parliament for ratification.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1107571
Border guards to take over the protection of road connecting Lachin Corridor to Armenia – PM
“But since the road connecting the Lachin Corridor to the Republic of Armenia was not completely ready, a temporary route was launched that entered the territory of the Republic of Armenia through the Kornidzor Bridge, then again into the territory of Azerbaijan, then again into the territory of the Republic of Armenia. According to the agreement reached, this route was supposed to operate until April 1, 2023,” the Prime Minister said.He emphasized that the border guard troops will be stationed at the state border of the Republic of Armenia in the same positions where the units of the Ministry of Defense were stationed until now.
PM Pashinyan said the Azerbaijani side tried to present the situation as another “blockbuster.”
“This approach is at least not constructive. No change in the Armenian positions has occurred as a result of all this, with the difference that we intend to protect the area in question, unlike before, through Border Guard troops. In other words, the change that takes place is as follows: from the same positions along the state border of the Republic of Armenia, the units of the Ministry of Defense will withdraw according to the plan, and units of the Border Guard troops will be deployed in their place. We made the same proposal to Azerbaijan as well, so that the same would happen on Azerbaijan’s side. I hope that this process will take place without provocations,” Nikol Pashinyan stated.
https://en.armradio.am/2023/03/30/route-of-lachin-corridor-changes/
I have great hopes that the Azerbaijani forces will return to the designated places. Governor of Syunik
According to him, there is no panic in the border communities, but people are worried about the created situation.Syunik Marz Governor Robert Ghukasyan has been in Tegh community for two days already. According to the report of the National Security Service, from April 1, the road connecting the territory of the Republic of Armenia to the Lachin Corridor will pass through the Kornidzor-Tegh route, only through the territory of the Republic of Armenia. According to the agreements reached yesterday between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the border guards of the two countries were to be deployed on both sides of the border along the above-mentioned section in the last days of March. According to the calculations of the Armenian side, the Azerbaijani side was located 100 to 300 meters ahead of the border at five points. "Radiolur" talked with Syunik Marz Governor Robert Ghukasyan.
link
Against all challenges, we should not deviate from the development agenda of Armenia for a single moment. PM Pashinyan
Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan received the President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France, Laurent Wauquiez, and the delegation led by him, who were on a two-day visit to the Syunik Province, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister."Of course, we are in a very difficult period, and our country and the region are experiencing very difficult times. In this sense, such visits are also very important in terms of conveying moral strength and support, including political. I would like to emphasize the importance of your visit to the starting point of the Lachin Corridor and the Syunik Province and, of course, your messages regarding the existing situation."
"I would also like to hear your impressions from the visit. I hope you have noticed that despite all the problems, we are making very serious investment projects in the republic, including in the Syunik Province. massive construction works are being carried out: roads, schools, kindergartens, other infrastructures, because our approach is that despite all the challenges, we should not deviate for a moment from the development agenda of Armenia. Recently, the European Union's investment and economic plan was launched in Syunik Province, which is extremely important. We also hope that the presence of the EU civilian mission along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border will become an additional factor contributing to stability and security. I welcome you once again."
The President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France said,
"Thank you very much, Mr. Prime Minister.
This is the second time we are meeting, and I have the greatest respect for what you are doing for Armenia in this very difficult period. Last time I was very impressed with your strength and your will to move forward with very specific plans.
You are asking about my impressions from this visit. first of all, I want to say that it was very important for us to go to the Syunik Province and be the first French local authority to establish cooperation with the region, because we understand very well how important Syunik is for the territorial integrity of Armenia."
The parties emphasized the consistent efforts of the international community towards stability and peace in the region.
The interlocutors also discussed the prospects for the development of multi-sector partnership and the expansion of trade and economic ties. In this regard, the signing of the Cooperation Agreement between the Syunik Province and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region on March 29 was highlighted.
The Prime Minister noted that the Armenian Government consistently continues the policy of balanced territorial development, and in this regard, attached great importance to the strengthening of decentralized cooperation with France and the exchange of experience between regions. Nikol Pashinyan referred to the reform agenda of the Government of Armenia, measures being implemented to improve the investment environment. Laurent Wauquiez thanked for the information, noting that French companies are interested in doing business in Armenia.
The sides exchanged ideas on opportunities for implementing joint projects in the fields of agriculture, healthcare, education, infrastructure, and renewable energy.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1107672.html
Whoever attacks Syunik will be attacking Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, says Laurent Wauquiez
“That’s why we decided to have a cooperation agreement between our region and Syunik province. The agreement was signed in a very meaningful place, in the Tatev Monastery. Cooperation will relate to healthcare, agriculture and education. I’ve said that whoever attacks Syunik will be attacking my region,” Wauquiez said, repeating his statement made at the signing ceremony earlier.“This isn’t a dispute between two countries where borders aren’t clarified and it could last forever, this is a total disregard for human rights that are protected under all international conventions, this is a desire to destroy a nation, its culture and history, its memory. This is certainly Armenia’s struggle, Artsakh’s struggle, but this is also a bigger struggle, this is a struggle for all the values that we bear. This is a struggle for civilization and democracy. Protecting you means protecting all these values,” the French politician added.
He called for stronger reaction by the international community and international sanctions against Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
“It was decided not to buy Russian gas any more after the occupation of some parts of Ukraine, but is the Azerbaijani gas more acceptable? Why weren’t there any consequences for what happened, why are there no sanctions against the Aliyev regime? I share these questions with you and I am equally angered,” he said.
Wauquiez said that together with his 40-member delegation he visited Syunik province. “All members of my delegation can now say, I have been there, I have seen what’s happening, I know what’s happening. The Azerbaijani troops came and captured the parts from the sovereign territory of Armenia where we went just one day earlier.”
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1107640.html
Nagorno Karabakh FM meets with Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes President Laurent Wauquiez in Yerevan
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1107631.htmlFrance’s Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region to attempt humanitarian convoy passage into blockaded Nagorno Karabakh
“In 2019, we met with representatives of Artsakh and signed a cooperation agreement between my region and Artsakh. We’d adopted a political position in my region to confirm Artsakh’s right to independence, which led to serious pressures by Pan-Turkist terrorist organizations against me and my family. Why am I here today? Because I am well aware that the entire international attention is on Ukraine and there is a serious danger for Armenia and Artsakh to be forgotten in all of this. I am here to say that we are not forgetting you, you are not alone, and we shouldn’t allow the violations of international law in Armenia, Artsakh and Lachin Corridor to go unnoticed in silence,” Wauquiez said.The President of the Regional Council of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes visited the entrance of the blockaded Lachin Corridor in Syunik to show to his countrymen the violations of international law, that 120,000 people on the other side are deprived of basic human rights.
“I was with the Governor of Syunik the moment he was notified that an advance had taken place the day before where we were located at that time [Tegh village]. I have witnessed and can testify about the violation of international law. I have also seen the Azerbaijani flags hoisted on the heights located in Armenian lands. And I had the chance to speak with displaced persons of Artsakh, whose words were deeply touching. As a politician, it is my duty to take action and be able to help you,” he said.
Wauquiez said that they want to organize a humanitarian convoy jointly with the organizations representing the Armenian community of France and try to deliver humanitarian aid to Artsakh.
“The convoy will be organized with our region’s support and will bear our region’s flag. It will approach the Lachin Corridor and we will demand passage to Artsakh. Either the convoy will pass and we will have a ray of hope, or the convoy will be barred and it will give us the opportunity to present this issue before international and European organizations, that once again the international law is being violated, and that actions must be taken,” Wauquiez added.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1107638.html
Laurent Vauquier, President of the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Region of France, visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial
linkAzerbaijan has advanced troops 100 to 300 meters in five points, Armenia’s National Security Service says
After August 2022, a part of the road connecting the Lachin Corridor to Armenia was still passing through the Azerbaijani territory after the Kornidzor Bridge. That part of the road and its adjacent territory were controlled by the Russian peacekeeping forces.According to the agreements reached yesterday between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the border guards of the two countries were to be deployed on both sides of the border along the above-mentioned section in the last days of March.
According to the NSS, there has been “misreading of maps” and in some places, the Azerbaijani side, without waiting for pre-arranged adjustments, started positioning and carrying out engineering works.
“According to the calculations of the Armenian side, there are five points, where the Azerbaijani side has advanced troops 100 to 300 meters further from the border. It has now been agreed that cartographers from both sides will correct the situation,” the National Security Service said.
“The Armenian side approaches the situation with the logic of not allowing escalation,” it added.
“The Armenian army did not have positions in the area in question, because positions are not located on the border line, but on the nearby strategic heights. And the protection of that part of the border should be transferred to the border guard troops, according to the agreement mentioned above,” SNS stated.
https://en.armradio.am/2023/03/30/azerbaijan-has-deployed-troops-100-to-300-meters-across-the-border-in-five-points-armenias-national-security-service-says/
Azerbaijani forces block Aghavno-Tegh section of Goris-Stepanakert highway – Police
According to the Ministry, the new Tegh-Kornidzor dirt road of Syunik marz bypassing the closed road, which connects to the new Kornidzor-Hin Shen road put into operation in August 2022 (Lachin Corridor), is already ready. Asphalting works of the Tegh-Kornidzor road are in progress.Farmer in Artsakh comes under Azerbaijani fire
On March 30, the Martuni regional police department reported that at around 10:35 a.m. Hayk Zargaryan, a 29-year-old resident of Berdashen community of Martuni region was attacked by the Azerbaijani army while carrying out agricultural work with his “Belarus” tractor in the administrative area of the village.No casualties were reported. Agricultural work was forced to stop. The information about the incident was passed on to the Russian peacekeepers.
https://en.armradio.am/2023/03/30/farmer-in-artsakh-comes-under-azerbaijani-fire/
Armenia, Malta keen to deepen bilateral relations
Ararat Mirzoyan briefed his counterpart on Armenia’s vision on the normalization of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations and on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue as well as the efforts of the Armenian side to strengthen stability and peace in the South Caucasus.Both sides emphasized the need to settle the existing issues exclusively through peaceful negotiations.
Minister Mirzoyan briefed the interlocutor on the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh resulting from the illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor by Azerbaijan. He stressed the importance of taking practical steps in accordance with the targeted statements and calls already made by international partners. The implementation of the decision of February 22 of the International Court of Justice as well as the imperative to send an international fact-finding mission to the Lachin corridor and Nagorno-Karabakh was emphasized.
https://en.armradio.am/2023/03/30/armenia-malta-keen-to-deepen-bilateral-relations/
Armenia names Ambassador to Singapore
Armenian Ambassador to Indonesia Serob Bejanyan will from now on also cover Singapore.https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1107665.html
Iran appoints new Ambassador to Armenia
The Islamic Republic of Iran will appoint Mehdi Sobhani, the country’s Ambassador to Syria, as new envoy to Armenia, Iran’s Foreign Ministry informs.Sobhani is described by the Ministry as an experienced diplomat.
Iran’s current Ambassador to Armenia Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri was appointed in 2019 and assumed his mission in early 2020.
https://en.armradio.am/2023/03/30/iran-appoints-new-ambassador-to-armenia/
CSTO Secretary General warns of “risk of destabilization” due to situation in Nagorno Karabakh
“The tension in the Caucasus region persists as a result of the many years of disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Interfax news agency quoted the CSTO Secretary General as saying.He warned of a serious risk of destabilization because of the risks relating to the situation in Nagorno Karabakh and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
“The situation in the Central Asian region is also tense, the threat of infiltration of extremist ideology and terrorist groups into the territory of CSTO allies is growing. The difficult threats coming from the territory of Afghanistan are especially concerning,” he said, adding that the organization is working to perfect its mechanisms of withstanding challenges and threats.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1107647.html
CSTO “always ready” to send mission to Armenian-Azerbaijani border
“Regarding the Caucasian region, the organization is always ready to send a CSTO mission to the Armenian-Azerbaijani border pursuant to the interests of ensuring Armenia’s security, as well as to provide other assistance,” TASS news agency quoted CSTO Secretariat representative Yuri Shuvalov as saying after a joint meeting of the CSTO Secretariat and Joint Staff.The assistance mechanisms are included in the CSTO Collective Security Council’s draft decision, which is pending, he added.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1107650.html
Mher Sahakyan approached me and hit me without saying anything. Vladimir Vardanyan about the incident in the parliament
"The session of the committee was proceeding normally, at one point the process of discussion was disturbed, the MPs started talking quite loudly and I tried to urge Artsvik Minasyan and the rest of the MPs to return to the substantial discussion. After that, in response to my legitimate demand, MP Mher Sahakyan said that I cannot raise my voice against them, and I said that I was conducting the session and continue to conduct it. He approached me (we were already standing) and attacked me without saying anything, hit me and ran away," said Vardanyan.According to Mher Sahakyan, as a result of the blow, a rather significant cut occurred in the eyebrow area. Vardanyan does not rule out that the blow was made with some kind of tool.
"It was quite a hard blow. I haven't passed the forensic examination yet, I will probably do it tomorrow," concluded Vardanyan.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1107687.html
MP Mher Sahakyan was arrested in connection with the incident in the National Assembly
After the incident, Sahakyan was arrested and taken to the Police Department of the RA Ministry of Internal Affairs on the basis of a reasonable suspicion that he had committed a criminal act.NA deputy Vladimir Vardanyan was taken to the "Nairi" medical center in order to receive medical treatment. The latter was recognized as a victim within the proceedings, and a forensic medical examination was appointed. A number of people who witnessed the incident were interrogated, the necessary investigative actions are also being carried out against the arrested M. with Sahakyan.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1107678.html
Armenian Prime Minister participates in opening of Summit for Democracy 2023
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan participated on March 29 in the Plenary Day of the official opening of the Summit for Democracy 2023 held online.The Summit for Democracy is held at the initiative of United States President Joe Biden.
On Wednesday, March 29, the Summit for Democracy’s five co-hosts — the United States, Costa Rica, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, and Zambia — officially kicked off the Summit, with each co-host leader hosting a live, fully virtual, thematic, Leader-level plenary session. Plenaries will be interspersed with “spotlight interventions” by leading activists and civil society figures.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also delivered remarks.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1107478.html
Armenia remains committed to the peace process with Azerbaijan’ – PM Pashinyan at Summit for Democracy 2023
"Along with strengthening the democratic institutions in our country, in September, 2022, we had to encounter an aggression against the internationally recognized territory of the Republic of Armenia, which resulted in the occupation of part of our sovereign territory by Azerbaijan. It was back in September that we felt the union of democracies and the clear condemnation of aggression against Armenia. I want to take this opportunity and extend our gratitude to the United States and other partners that helped us stop the further incursion through diplomatic engagement.""Armenia feels strongly about the human rights violations across the world and there is a lot that we need to do together to prevent genocides, ethnic cleansings and atrocities. Whatever is happening with Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh today, the blockade of the Lachin corridor by Azerbaijan and the humanitarian crisis resulted by it, is definitely an attempt of ethnic cleansing of Armenians in NK. And we cannot turn a blind eye on that. At the same time, I reiterate that Armenia remains committed to the peace process with Azerbaijan. We are convinced that there is no alternative to the peaceful development of the region and that sticking to democratic values will help us find a way to peace."
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1107479.html
Speaker Alen Simonyan might need second surgery on arm
Simonyan fractured his right arm on March 20 while training. He underwent surgery for the injury and was seen wearing an arm brace during his March 28 visit to Germany.“The Speaker of Parliament might undergo a second surgery,” Simonyan’s spokesperson Tsovinar Khachatryan told ARMENPRESS, adding that the Speaker is feeling well.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1107626.html
I am ready to serve in Artsakh, regardless of any post or position. Artur Davtyan's interview
Read the full thing at the link vvhttps://armenpress.am/arm/news/1107709.html
Lithuanian officials have expressed their readiness to support Armenia in the security sector
The Secretary of the Security Council thanked the Lithuanian authorities for supporting the presence of the EU mission in Armenia.Secretary Grigoryan presented to his Lithuanian colleagues the security environment created around Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, the concerns about the possible escalation of Azerbaijan, as well as details about the humanitarian crisis in Lachin, stressing the urgent need to send an international fact-finding team to Nagorno-Karabakh and the Lachin corridor.
Lithuanian partners have expressed their readiness to support Armenia in security matters, especially in the field of cyber security.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1107690.html
The issue of Armenia's accession to the ICC will be resolved in an alliance way. Zakharova
The Russian Federation expects that the situation related to Yerevan's possible accession to the International Criminal Court (ICC) will be settled in an allied and mutually acceptable manner."This topic is a subject of discussion both in Moscow and during high-level contacts in Yerevan. I do not consider it necessary to publish the details of those contacts. Of course, we assume that this issue will be resolved in an allied and mutually acceptable way," Zakharova said in the briefing, answering the question of how Moscow views the fact that the Constitutional Court of Armenia has recognized the Rome Statute as compatible with the Armenian constitution.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1107602.html
Within the framework of the "Armenian Business Corner" project, 20 Armenian companies and 16 services were officially introduced to the American market
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1107651.htmlMore than 100 companies representing real estate and construction sectors under one roof. "Home-Expo" exhibition has started
RA Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan, highlighting the implementation of such measures, emphasized that last year in Armenia, a record 322 thousand square meters of building utilization rate was recorded, which is the highest rate in the history of independent Armenia.The government and the Ministry of Economy cooperate in a special format with the "Armenian Association of Builders" and state and non-state organizations in the construction sector with the aim of making the sector more attractive and making investments more profitable," Kerobyan said.
The main sponsors of the exhibition are Red Invest Group, Defense Housing and ASEDL companies.
Marina Babakhanyan, marketing director of Defanse Housing, mentioned that at the "Home-Expo" exhibition, Defanse Housing is presenting the residential district in the adjacent part of the North-South highway, which is the largest development in the history of Armenia.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1107689.html
The NATO Secretary General intends to achieve Sweden's membership of the alliance by July
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1107648.htmlTurkey approves Finland NATO membership bid
Any NATO expansion needs the support of all its members.Finland will now be formally admitted into NATO at its next summit, taking place in July in Lithuania.
In a statement following the Turkish vote, the Finnish government said joining the alliance would strengthen the country's security, and improve stability and security in the region.
But his ongoing hostility to Sweden was clear - as he again accused the country of embracing Kurdish militants and allowing them to demonstrate on the streets of Stockholm.
Finland, a country with a 1,340km (832 mile) border with Russia and one of the most powerful arsenals of artillery pieces in Western Europe, is ditching its neutrality and joining the alliance in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow describes as a “special military operation.”
Russia's foreign ministry earlier condemned Finland's decision, saying it was ill-considered and based on Russophobic hysteria.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1107633.html
14 medical patients were transferred from Artsakh to Armenia through the mediation of ICRC. 11 people returned
Planned surgeries continue to be suspended in the medical facilities operating under the Artsakh Ministry of Health.5 children are in the neonatal and resuscitation department in "Arevik" medical unit.
At the "Republican Medical Center", 5 patients are in the intensive care unit, 1 of them is in critical condition.
Until today, a total of 229 patients have been transferred from Artsakh to Armenia with the mediation and accompaniment of the International Committee of the Red Cross
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1107373.html
Tightened blockade of Artsakh discussed at Security Council sitting
Issues related to the defense of the Artsakh Republic, ensuring the security and the life-activity of the population of the Artsakh Republic under the conditions of the tightening of the blockade and unceasing provocations by Azerbaijan were on the agenda. State Minister Gurgen Nersisyan and Defense Minister, Lieutenant-General Kamo Vardanyan delivered reports.President Harutyunyan underscored the close and coordinated cooperation between the law enforcement agencies and civilian structures, public administration and local self-government bodies in the solution of urgent and long-term problems.
The President gave a number of instructions to the authorized bodies in the context of the discussed issues.
https://en.armradio.am/2023/03/31/tightened-blockade-of-artsakh-discussed-at-security-council-sitting/
Azerbaijan confirms participation European Weightlifting Championships 2023 in Yerevan
Azerbaijan will be represented by five athletes at the event.The EWF European Weightlifting Championships 2023 is scheduled to take place 15-23 April in Yerevan, Armenia.
https://en.armradio.am/2023/03/31/azerbaijan-confirms-participation-european-weightlifting-championships-2023-in-yerevan/
Armenian PM, EU’s Michel discuss ongoing crisis caused by Azerbaijan’s illegal blocking of Lachin Corridor
The interlocutors discussed issues related to the ongoing crisis caused by Azerbaijan’s illegal blocking of the Lachin Corridor. The sides exchanged thoughts on recent developments, Armenia-Azerbaijan negotiation process, peace agenda.Nikol Pashinyan and Charles Michel emphasized consistent efforts to ensure stability and peace in the region.
https://en.armradio.am/2023/03/30/armenian-pm-eus-michel-discuss-ongoing-crisis-caused-by-azerbaijans-illegal-blocking-of-lachin-corrido
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2023.04.01 03:31 RafflesiaArnoldii Reactivity II: Specific Difficulty, Specific Reaction
Welcome to today’s episode of ‘I read Enneagram Literature so you don’t have to’.
So, last time we discussed reactivity, it was in terms of symptoms and triggers – what causes it, how it looks like for each type.
This time we’re going to try looking at it at a somewhat deeper level, trying to glipmse what’s ‘underneath’ the reaction, and underneath that, down to the very root.
There is this idea that for every type there is a particular way that they parse pain, adversity and disconnection, a particular cascade or complex of emotions that tends to be set off (that, in some individuals, may be buried quite a bit under the surface) – this is called the ‘specific difficulty’, which then leads to the specific reaction, how the person characteristically responds to adversity, the ostensibly visible outward behavior – furthermore, the particular way that the adversity is interpreted, what one feels in response, and how one then reacts (having one interpretation, feeling, response etc. and not others) may be grounded in particular assumptions or perceptions. (Almaas would say, ‘delusions’ deriving from the absence of the holy ideas)
It’s repeatedly emphasized that since the ideas are all synonymous, to “lose” one is to lose all and so we would all have these experiences and reactions sometimes so long as we are subject to “egoic existence” -
But there’s one reaction that particularly tends to be your go-to reaction when things don’t go your way.
As some variants of the theory goes, this “specific reaction”, or at least some simpler, pre-verbal, implicit version of this, would also have been your reaction as a baby when your needs weren’t being met, or possibly even what you were feeling the very moment you realized you were a separate person different from your mother and the rest of the world, and that this then formed the basis for your separate self-concept.
Or, if you believe in that sort of thing, it would rather have been the moment you got disconnected from the universal consciousness and subcumbed to the illusion of being a separate being.
It is worth nothing that if it is your concept of you getting distinguished from your concept of the universe, it could well feel like being cut off from a state of oneness, the same way that the reverse experience of everything becoming one can reportedly happen during meditation or drug trips, with or without any supernatural or metaphysical elements involved.
But even as a purely psychological postulation it is of course highly speculative, perhaps best seen as a metaphor, summary or just-so story, an image describing a subjective feeling.
However, the notion that we tend to whatever adversity and pain you happen to encounter differently and in consistent ways based on our mode of perception and the specific biases of it is something that may highly check out or that I’d find interesting to explore, as I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of how your viewpoint can influence what you see and the way that people’s reactions, responses, feelings and choices can differ under adversity.
At very least, I’ll have to grant this Mr. Almaas that he is clearly an intelligent, well-read person familiar with a great variety of spiritual traditions from around the world and astute insight into people’s reactions and feelings, which is particularly apparent in the way that he skillfully anticipates the reader’s emotional torque and always has a nice little term for it.
(Frankly, I smell INFJ. All this “subtler spiritual world beneath everything” is very Ni.)
It is clear that he got this Wisdom from much introspecting & discussing his meditation experiences with other spiritual seekers.
If I did not by chance happen to have the particular background that I do and this very particular collection of whimsically gathered facts rattling around inside my head, he might have converted me.
Whether we agree with his conclusions & what the lens and what is seen, he seems to have fine perceptions on the human psyche so hypothetics about babies & universal soul aside, his sharpness on anticipating & discerning feelings may lead one to at least entertain his notions with regard to the emotions of adults.
Be that as it may, I will now simply attempt to convey the concept for your consideration.
So the feeling reaction can be angry frustration at the thing not being how it ought, whether that is something external or yourself, including for some a more or less buried sense that you, too are ‘wrong’ and in need of improvement, or at least of civilizing & control so you stay ‘right’. Some unhappier 1s can present with a deep sense of unworthyness & how they’re ‘the worst’.
Note that, in contrast to some of the other complexes, the idea that “some parts are wrong” also implies that some parts are right & that this is discernible to you.
The reaction to this, then, tends to be either improvement or justification.
Improvement is straightforward – you try to fix the thing that’s wrong. It’s almost a reflex to bring it up or even immediately go & fix it. The error will tend to (as a result, 1s or even 1 fixers can be spotted by a tendency to repeatedly bring up nitpicks or complaints that bother them)
This is where some of the compulsive action-like quality or tendency toward action as cope comes from, but likely also action-orientedness in a positive sense, (“if no ones gonna fix it I will”)
This impulse to fix is also applied to oneself, so 1s can be the kinds of people who are always looking to grow & improve themselves.
The other side of the coin is justification, responding to the feeling of ‘wrongness’ by arguieing & proving that you are, in fact, right, arguing that your way is the best & the other person might be wrong, or that you’re not wrong fir wanting something because you’re going about it the ‘right’ way.
The underlying assumption that needs to be there for this response to make sense is that some things are better than others, that things are comparable, that it’s possible for some parts of something to e right and for others to be wrong, for some to perfect and others imperfect. (and this is where Almaas would wax poetically to you about the intrinsic Holy Perfection of all things that is also the intrinsic intuitive intelligence of the universe & yadda yadda)
Certainly there may be some over-perception of what’s binary, or even just linear unitarian and rankable, meaning, it can be boiled down to a single number, so that there is a clear unambiguous “better or worse” to everything – some things may be incomparable apples and oranges, or there may be different equally good options, or a tradeoff depending on priorities.
However, I think most of us would agree that there is an universal better or worse for some things at least – starving children, for example.
Think of the classic example of the person who is dejected over the 1 person who didn’t like their presentation, or who has a hard time not taking it as personal rejection if their help is declined.
2s tend to implicitly assume that they should be able to make everyone like them so when that isn’t the case it can be felt as humiliation or shame, but particularly the kind of shame where you feel irrelevant, like the ‘No thank you’ means ‘You’re not needed or important we can do just fine without you’.
The reaction then is described as wilfulness, actively making sure that things go your way, in particular, that you get the responses you want from others. You put yourself in a good light, you go out of your way to make a connection, you ingratiate yourself,
In the extreme this can lead to meddlesomeness, like intruding in situations youre not really a part of to make sure they go your way. Like the classic mistake where the step-parent tries too hard to force a blended family & gets pissed off when the stepkids keep mementos of their bio parent or want to do things with just their full siblings. “why are you excluding me/your half-siblings, I just want us all to be a happy family” but then by trying too hard to force it they just antagonize the step kids. But letting it grow organically entails the possibility that you might be disliked or rejected and then feel powerless & shamed again.
The underlying assumption you need to make for this interpretation of things to make sense is that you have a separate will that can be frustrated & aren’t part of an great universal motion that is already making everything happen & taking care of everything… sigh.
2s can certainly come off as both overperceiving how much it’s all up to them (“They need me, if I don’t solve all their problems who will? My shitty boyfriend will die without me”) and as overly forcing matters in ways that can seem pushy, ingratiating or even manipulative, & it is true that you wouldn’t feel humiliated or impotent if you didn’t think it was up to you, because if the other person just chose differently, why should you be ashamed if they refused your offer? It wouldnt mean youre unimportant, just that they’re not in the mood for, say, your cookies today.
Though, when I think of all the 2s that are charity workers or doing thankless hard work in caretaking professions, I am kind of grateful that they didn’t leave it up to the “benevolence of the universe” but rightly perceived the need for somebody to fucking care - Soup kitchens & nursing departments are alledgedly chock full of ‘em. So I’d say it’s an issue of right perception.
The esoterics would say that the charity workers helping is of course part of the universal will, but that smells like catholicism, “everything bad is you everything good is god”, thats no way to live.
(Funfact: You won’t believe how uneccesarily Freudian this was in the book. Just kept referring to it as “humiliated castration”.)
Please note the difference to 2, that, though it’s kinda similar, the point here is not that you feel personally humbled, but that you did the thing wrong, and therefore your pain could be remedied by doing the thing better. It’s your doing that was the problem.
So there is a self-judgement entailed here: You weren’t good enough, but good enough in the sense of “not competent enough”, not morally or method wise, like with 1.
The reaction, then, is also different: Striving and activity. You think what happened is you did it wrong, so you must do it better, do more, keep doing.
This is why 3 is one of those types that get antsy when they sit idle for too long.
The striving itself & desire to become-through-doing may actually be more fundamental that even the desire for success, praise or attention (which are external marker by which to measure the striving, that you’re doing it right) – because, as soon as the 3 has cleared one goal, they quickly think of another.
You also sometimes hear 3s or 3 fixers say that when someone says they’re not X they take it as a pointer that they should be more X. Not being X is seen as a failure, & the response is to strive to be more X.
This is underlied by the assumption that you are a separate doer, you’re an agent appart from the “universal flow”, you are a someone who can do something.
If you didn’t see what happens as potentially under the control & depending on your actions,
Sigh.
I will never understand ppl who find the idea that they have no agency comforting. Proactivity & not waiting for shit to fall in your hands is IMHO one of the best qualities you can have in life.
I honestly admire this quality, as someone who’s shot themselves in the foot so much by assuming it’s all pointless & my actions don’t matter.
That said, the grain of truth here may be that 3s overestimate what is within their ability & then judge themselves by those too-high estimations. Like thinking they must win everything or work so hard it breaks their body, that you always can & should do more & it’s not ok to have limits – or that limits are the same as having failed. Your body having limits is not your failure, did you design it? Did you invent humans? No, evolution fucked that one up (universal benevolence my arse) so you did not fail.
This can be a disconnection from oneself, or from what is divine, sublime, meaningful or spiritual, from whatever it is that matters, whatever you’d find at the end of the rainbow, whatever you’d hope to find inside that castle from Utena.* That which shines. The Power of Miracles. Something Eternal. The blue flower. The unicorn in the garden.
And not only are you separated from it, you feel like it is unreachable, or you are unreachable to it, that you are far from heaven -
As you might expect, if you’re away from that, you’re left in a sad and mournful state, longing for what can never come back, or what you can’t seem to find, what seems distant to you.
You see the world as a sad burnt-out cadaver from which the light has gone, and you don’t get how everyone else seems to walk through this place as if nothing is wrong. Maybe you envy them, or you disdain them, or you think they must just be dumb and simple but whatever the specifics it seems unlikely that you can have a rapport with them.
One might think of Herman Hesse’s descriptions of his youth where he saw his mother & sisters as existing in “the light world” and himself as being aware of a realm of darkness.
So what reaction can you possibly have to it? The book is deliberately out to humble you by calling it “control” & I see how it means that & how, in the worst cases, that absolutely applies, though it’s gonna make ppl imagine the wrong thing. It’s not control like a control freaks who tells you what to do, in its more benign manifestations you might call it creation. Trying to make your own meaning, if divinity seems far away, in being deliberate about how you exist, putting thought & choice in little choices like what makeup to wear or what option to pick, relating it to something within you, seeking the sublime wherever it may be.
Though you can certainly call it control when it gets into trying to craft how you will be seen & responded to. Correcting ideas and perceptions you don’t want as misunderstandings might be thought of as a kind of control.
That thing when your relationship is stalling out & you cause some drama or suddenly have this fantasy of running away with a casual acquaintance is a kind of control. Inflicting pain onto yourself so at least you know when the stab comes is a kind of control. Chosing which negatives to show so they don’t focus on the really raw spots is a kind of control. Making your pain into something pretty is a way of mastering it.
In extreme cases, stuff like self-harm or anorexia can be control.
“If all else fails, I myself have power to die”, as one famous 4 (Shakespeare) has Juliet say. She destroys herself before they can force her to marry Paris, which seemed to her the only way to take control over her destiny and stay true to what was important and meaningful to her, & in the end its all an accusation to the parents: What a crappy world you made, that the only way to be free was to die.
The assumption, of course, that you need to make to conclude that you can be “cut off”, is that you have your own separate identity and nature, that people and things have separate natures at all and aren’t all part of god & the same divine origin.
So the world can’t be a dead abandoned carcass devoid of divinity if it is all divinity & there is no distinction between divine and not divine. Or: You can’t be cut off from yourself because you are the universe / part of the body of god.
Note that the point here is not so much the idea that you are separate at all, (that’s rather associated with 5) but that you have a separate nature. (for example, divine or not)
He uses the mataphor of air in a baloon, and the lack of Holy Transparency is the idea that there is a baloon, whereas the lack of Holy Origin is the idea that the air in your baloon has some particular smell or color different from the other baloons.
There’s a funny little moment in the book where Almaas writes that if you could have separate natures that mean, in his thinking, that you came from separate origins/gods and “that cannot be, because then there would be ultimate division, and if there was ultimate division, spiritual work would be totally pointless”. It’s a nice, satisfying glipmse at what keeps him up at night, or at least what last remnants of fear even he couldn’t yet train himself out of.
There are of course spiritual beliefs that include ultimate distinction, such as Zoroastrianism and mainstream Christianity (which, as its factually practiced, is often more dualist than monotheist – there is good & bad, everything good comes from god & everything bad comes from the devil. There isn’t really a devil in Judaism, and the Islamic devil has a very different, much smaller role)
I’d also like him to define ‘ultimate’ for me. Cause he’s like, “yeah things are different but those differences are not ultimate”. Certainly you can turn reality so that it all being off the same stuff can be said in a way that it’s technically correct. It’s all excitations in quantum fields. You can also turn it so that really nothing really touches. What makes one of those ways of looking at it ‘ultimate’?
Cause, the idea of difference doesn’t come cause someone woke up on day & decide they’re more special than u but from a mode of perception where contrasts & differences are emphasized.
Who says that it’s not the difference that it’s real and the unity that’s illusory?
Or maybe both are just hopelessly biased lenses reflecting our inability to see reality other than through the flawed architecture of our wrinkly meat-computers & we don’t know what the effin world looks like.
That said, I have heard some 4s reporting that a turning point in their life was when it occurred to them to try and find traces of, or connections to the sublime & the beautiful in their everyday surroundings.
If you kneejerk assume what’s meaningful is ‘out there’, you might miss it when it’s in front of you. You might not want to define the meaningful & real (or yourself) too narrowly.
Though this is probably possible without immediately throwing all taste and discernment overboard.
It’s not a question of convincing yourself the shitty boring thing is actually great, but of being willing to see what genuinely is connected or relevant to what you personally consider meaningful – which is obviously going to differ by the individual.
For me personally – well, this is obviously not a ‘layer’ that I can always be conscious of all the time, but when you consider all the complicated biological machinery, mental mechanisms & particular experieces that make someone up, how incredibly unlikely it is to be sentient beings clinging to the surface of this little bubble, then that seemingly boring rando suddenly looks very different. I’m still going to prefer what I personally find interesting & resonant cause I gotta pick something and I only have 24 hours in a day so probably not gonna be friends with the boring rando and im still going to complain about everything that sucks because somebody should, but, its a difference if I see the random guy as boring to me subjectively, though technically a rare sentient creature of stardust, that if I see him as objectively a part of and a symbol for the lesser light-forsaken rot that consumes everything.
It’s probably going to change how I treat him.
I don’t think the rot is an illusion at all, so even if I believed in spirituality I would a more chaotic world than Almaas’s all-benevolent one, but even the carcass of rot is again just one perspective, even if its my ‘home base’ perspective. Some stuff is probably also good even if it’s not all stuff.
The text labels the experience as ‘deficient isolation’.
Basically a sense of being small, weak, frail, not enough, empty, impoverished, insubstantial and separated from all else as if by thick impenetrable walls or an insurmountable gulf across which any understanding is dubious at best.
You are stuck in a confusing place that you can’t make any sense of; Existence is understood as a rather flimsy, fragile, barely-there something; life as a laborious torment where one must constantly hold oneself up – and limited and insufficient as you are, you are absolutely not up to the task. You might sit there frozen in dread when you contemplate the insurmountable hurdles that you will be expected to cross.
If you understand your situation like that, there is only one reaction you can possibly have. You’re hopelessly outmatched, and only a fool would play when they cannot win.
Therefore the kneejerk response when something gets difficult is always to get away, to run, to hide away, to break off contact, to avoid it or avoid having to deal with it, to give it a wide, wide berth, to put some distance between yourself and the adversity in whatever way you can, if not by literally leaving then by finding something to preoccupy yourself with so that you have to experience as little of it as you can get away with.
Sometimes you see the tendency to retreated or the interests portrayed as some kind of preparation with the eventual goal to return, but that’s a misunderstanding; While individuals might research some things in advance before doing them that’s more a question of bracing to endure it.
The pursuits aren’t preparation for anything; They’re just what you have instead of what people would generally consider a life, somewhere to exist, something to fill your consciousness with.
There is not generally any great intention to ‘come back’ or do anything else of realistic practical nature.
I recall reading about an instance where Franz Kafka was asked something like, “So you don’t write to publish?” and his answer was, “No, I just do this to prove to myself that I am not altogether stupid.” Indeed a lot of what he produced only saw the light of day after his death.
So, that pretty much summarizes it.
Now, according to the perspective espoused in that book none of this makes sense, as it is based on the assumption that you are a separate being, separate from others, separate from the universe, separate from god, separate from everything – otherwise, it would not make sense to try and get away from the world, since that’s quite impossible if you are one with it.
Nor would it make sense to feel cut off or walled off in the first place; Your sense of experiencing yourself as flimsy is simply a consequence of defining yourself too narrowly and trying to exist on your own apart from god or the universe which you are irrevocably tied to, so you’d feel much more substantial and confident acting in the universe as just another part of it.
(Here we are treated to a ministry of truth esque rant about how real indepence is actually independence from the idea of wanting to be independent. That perfect independence is impossible may well be, same as there is no perfect anything; But you’re not going to get me to buy that total determinism is a good thing. Illusion or not, I still have the subjective experience of having to choose something I can’t just sit and wait for the universe to pick something. )
I get that technically all is made up of atoms & it is only our perception that divides it into discrete objects, and that there isn’t really a way to get away from reality if everything is reality.
I get that very well actually as I understand precisely how quickly my perceived intactness as an emergent system would be ended by the likes of worms, botflies or a bunch of stray shrapnel penetrating my silly little skull. Even a restricted little parcel of reality is full of inescapable awfulness.
That doesn’t change that people are separate from each other in the sense that they cannot read minds.
No one can really know anyone’s elses thoughts & feelings; Lots of ppl just don’t notice because they’re better at guessing other ppl’s contents than I am, but that doesn’t change that it remains a guess. A guess that often leads to presumptuous and cruel behavior whenever they don’t understand someone.
I think being aware of & respecting the differences between you & others is the beginning of all respect, and realizing that you don’t fucking “just know” and not everything is obvious is the first step to wisdom. What can you find out if you don’t think there is anything to find?
Reserving judgement when there’s not enough info to tell anything should be held up as a virtue.
That said, it certainly is true – and I have alas experienced the proof in this particular pudding for myself – that type 5 individuals tend to rate their abilities to sustain effort, endure stimulus, master unfamiliar situations and make themselves comprehensible to others as somewhat worse than it actually is.
One supposes that this works rather by the same principle as how a little child might come to avoid anything to do with ball games with a rather stronger aversion than is strictly merited after having been whacked in the face with a ball once too many.
Sometimes one can somewhat exposure-therapy onself into tolerating stuff if one can persist past the initial aversion.
Though this is quite different from the sometimes espoused claim that the limitations are completely illusory; Making sure to stay in the stretch zone rather than the panic zone and coming up with some system of concrete steps where even small increments constitute some progress (as something you can hold against the sense that its all a futile pointless waste) is actually a huge part of not quitting, in my experience, though I cannot be said to have it figured out by far.
You feel exposed, abandoned and scared of whatever might be coming at you from the outside world, but at the same time, you don’t trust yourself to be able to handle what might be coming at you.
You may wish that someone would hold you or comfort you, but at the same time, you doubt that this is really possible to obtain such comfort. Whatever help anybody offers you smells of self-serving reasons. But you don’t trust your own intentions either, your own thoughts, feelings and intuitions are suspect as well. You fear that you might have an ugly, monstrous nature deep down inside.
With nothing certain to rely on either within or without, you feel touchy, on-edge, confrontational, volatile.
You often hear the metaphor of balancing along an edge or lacking solid ground under your feet.
I’s wager that it’s probably the exact emotion described in Papa Roach’s “Gettin away with murder” or Linkin Park’s “One Step closer”.
The reaction, then, if you feel threatened, is to be on guard. To respond with heightened alertness & vigilance & stand ready to apply one of the four Fs as required.
The other types all more or less default to one or two of the responses, but 6s runs the whole gamut probably because they are the most in touch with their natural alarm responses.
They often have a level of heightened lartness going on, it doesn’t take much to set off a response, and they may often default to responsding with defensive suspicion and hostility when something goes wrong. A part of this suspicion is a kind of exaggerated scepticism that ends up testing things again & again even after they have been confirmed for the bajillionth time.
They try to guess what others are up to, but they are also suspicious and vigilant with regards to themselves, & may be inclined to beat themselves up or fear making mistakes.
The assumption you need to make for this fear to even make sense is that the world is dangerous, that is, that the world, and all the humans that are part of it including yourself, aren’t intrinsically good. If you knew it was intrinsically good, you would just trust it without fear, suspicion or defensive aggression, as you would just trust that whatever happens is for the best.
(I kid you not.)
This is equated with not recognizing that essence or divinity exists or the assumption that ego is all there is, with thinking that, for example, your parents aren’t being nice to you out of pure good but because they have reasons/causes such as obligation.
Here we get the obligatory esoteric riffing on ‘overly rationalistic’ worldviews, though Almaas distinguishes that lacking Holy Faith is not per se equivalent with not believing in god, as it is possible to be an atheist and still believe in the good in humanity.
He explains, however, that this faith is to come from direct experience of essence & the divine & not from belief, in that usual manner that spiritual types conveniently exempt themselves & their cherished spiritual experiences from the problem of perception.
Now, 6s probably notice more danger than the rest of us because they look for it. I can’t count the times that my sisters (who are 6s) alerted my mom or I that we were about to spill, drop or break something we were totally oblivious about. They did not imagine that, we did spill the darn sauce. The world is not so intrinsically good as to magically avoid food waste.
Unless we’re dealing with a very immature or downright paranoid individual, the dangers are often actually there.
At the same time, this looking for it can create an overemphasis or bias since they don’t look for not dangerous, perfectly fine, rainbow sparkly things.
It has also happened often that my sisters were fretting & nervous about an exam & worried if they would pass at all, and then they got an A or B on it, a discrepancy that can probably be explained by failing to feature in positive information.
Your noggin tracks negatives for free, which is already half the world (yay!), but it might pay & get you a more accurate picture if you make some conscious effort to notice good stuff also.
Later on there might be this entire chain reaction involving mounting anxiety, restlessness and a whole lot of copium, but when the blow first connects, the answer is ‘What now? What do I do? Where do I go from here?’
Whatever happened was not what you expected or thought it would be. Maybe a door you had counted on staying open has now closed. Or maybe you’re just hurting and you don’t know what to do about it.
The reaction to this, then, is to think of something to do. To direct your own experience of life, either externally, by making plans and packing your day full of enjoyable experiences and thereby ensuring that you will not only have everything you need but also having plenty of extra options to spare, or internally, by thinking of an idea of what you want to be like and trying to nudge your feelings in a positive direction by thinking of reasons why things aren’t so bad.
Either you think up some solution to your problems, or you explain the problems away wholesale. Maybe all it takes is a little perspective shift.
Naturally this desire to direct your own experience might bring you into conflict with or friction against those who may want to restrict your freedom or limit your opinions, so another way of directing your experience is thinking of ways to charm or outfox them.
This might sound rather similar to the 4 reaction (perhaps accounting for some of the similarity between the types) but while the 4s control response is about knowing when & why the blow is coming, the 7s direction has a particular, optimal outcome in mind: You want the plan to ensure that you get what you want.
The assumption underlying this, as Almaas would have it, is that you can direct your life and have an independent plan for yourself.
You can’t, since there is only the one, godly plan – and in this he explictly includes the work of self-developement and how it cant be forced along some plan, goal or timeline and must simply be allowed to happen.
To this you might have a similar reply as the type 7 musician Tori Amos: ‘If the divine plan is perfection, maybe next I’ll give Judas a try’. She wrote that song while she was coping with the grief about a miscarriage.
The universe, if it makes sense to anthropomize it like this at all, frankly doesn’t know what the frick it’s doing.
There is probably some partial truth in that 7s can sometimes feel aimless or appear that way to others, or be over-focussed on maximizing their experience to a point where it may get in the way of taking it in.
I too would, to some extent, explain the reaction in terms of the 7s way of seeing the world – being aware of all the options both for what you can do & what you can be, that you would in theory have the potential to go/do be all those things, so how do you pick?
In a way, having a vivid imagination and being able to appreciate the potential in all the options makes this harder, cause you know many of them might be equally good… but there is only finite time, other limits that make it so you cant have them all, which you would also be well-aware of, and that’s where the fear comes in.
So you might end up flitting from option to option without fully squeezing the juice of any.
And if there’s no particular reason to pick one over the other, it can seem like it doesn’t matter which one you pick, like it’s all basically pointless and arbitrary.
As it was said in that one Doctor Who minisode, “If you turn the universe into your backyard, that’s all you have: A backyard.” The characters of Rick Sanchez or the Joker might be another example 7 brand of nihilism at its most destructive.
If it is all the same and nothing matters, there is really nothing else to do but to see how you can extract the most pleasure from whatever’s available.
In modern works the metaphor of infinite parallel universes is often used; In his own day, Goethe depicted his protagonist Faust as getting a second life by magic after considering his first one unhappily wasted & then trying his hand at many different pursuits, often leaving everything in ruins as a result of his selfishness, and yet it is the very tendency to strive for the ideal that is his saving grace in the end.
That being said, given how your average 7 sets themselves to experience & learn a lot more than the general population, I wouldn’t say the aim to plan & ensure that you have a quality experience here on earth is futile – I could stand to have more of that myself.
Just be mindful of the earthly limitations that apply – you cannot always direct everything to the better, sometimes bad stuff just happens, and sometimes you might be happier if you just yourself enjoy what is there rather than thinking how it could be better.
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Welcome to today’s episode of ‘I read Enneagram Literature so you don’t have to’.
So, last time we discussed reactivity, it was in terms of symptoms and triggers – what causes it, how it looks like for each type.
This time we’re going to try looking at it at a somewhat deeper level, trying to glipmse what’s ‘underneath’ the reaction, and underneath that, down to the very root.
There is this idea that for every type there is a particular way that they parse pain, adversity and disconnection, a particular cascade or complex of emotions that tends to be set off (that, in some individuals, may be buried quite a bit under the surface) – this is called the ‘specific difficulty’, which then leads to the specific reaction, how the person characteristically responds to adversity, the ostensibly visible outward behavior – furthermore, the particular way that the adversity is interpreted, what one feels in response, and how one then reacts (having one interpretation, feeling, response etc. and not others) may be grounded in particular assumptions or perceptions. (Almaas would say, ‘delusions’ deriving from the absence of the holy ideas)
It’s repeatedly emphasized that since the ideas are all synonymous, to “lose” one is to lose all and so we would all have these experiences and reactions sometimes so long as we are subject to “egoic existence” -
But there’s one reaction that particularly tends to be your go-to reaction when things don’t go your way.
As some variants of the theory goes, this “specific reaction”, or at least some simpler, pre-verbal, implicit version of this, would also have been your reaction as a baby when your needs weren’t being met, or possibly even what you were feeling the very moment you realized you were a separate person different from your mother and the rest of the world, and that this then formed the basis for your separate self-concept.
Or, if you believe in that sort of thing, it would rather have been the moment you got disconnected from the universal consciousness and subcumbed to the illusion of being a separate being.
It is worth nothing that if it is your concept of you getting distinguished from your concept of the universe, it could well feel like being cut off from a state of oneness, the same way that the reverse experience of everything becoming one can reportedly happen during meditation or drug trips, with or without any supernatural or metaphysical elements involved.
But even as a purely psychological postulation it is of course highly speculative, perhaps best seen as a metaphor, summary or just-so story, an image describing a subjective feeling.
However, the notion that we tend to whatever adversity and pain you happen to encounter differently and in consistent ways based on our mode of perception and the specific biases of it is something that may highly check out or that I’d find interesting to explore, as I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of how your viewpoint can influence what you see and the way that people’s reactions, responses, feelings and choices can differ under adversity.
At very least, I’ll have to grant this Mr. Almaas that he is clearly an intelligent, well-read person familiar with a great variety of spiritual traditions from around the world and astute insight into people’s reactions and feelings, which is particularly apparent in the way that he skillfully anticipates the reader’s emotional torque and always has a nice little term for it.
(Frankly, I smell INFJ. All this “subtler spiritual world beneath everything” is very Ni.)
It is clear that he got this Wisdom from much introspecting & discussing his meditation experiences with other spiritual seekers.
If I did not by chance happen to have the particular background that I do and this very particular collection of whimsically gathered facts rattling around inside my head, he might have converted me.
Whether we agree with his conclusions & what the lens and what is seen, he seems to have fine perceptions on the human psyche so hypothetics about babies & universal soul aside, his sharpness on anticipating & discerning feelings may lead one to at least entertain his notions with regard to the emotions of adults.
Be that as it may, I will now simply attempt to convey the concept for your consideration.
Type 1
The response here is to judge that there must be something wrong. The unsatisfactory something in the environment is simply incorrect, not how it should be.So the feeling reaction can be angry frustration at the thing not being how it ought, whether that is something external or yourself, including for some a more or less buried sense that you, too are ‘wrong’ and in need of improvement, or at least of civilizing & control so you stay ‘right’. Some unhappier 1s can present with a deep sense of unworthyness & how they’re ‘the worst’.
Note that, in contrast to some of the other complexes, the idea that “some parts are wrong” also implies that some parts are right & that this is discernible to you.
The reaction to this, then, tends to be either improvement or justification.
Improvement is straightforward – you try to fix the thing that’s wrong. It’s almost a reflex to bring it up or even immediately go & fix it. The error will tend to (as a result, 1s or even 1 fixers can be spotted by a tendency to repeatedly bring up nitpicks or complaints that bother them)
This is where some of the compulsive action-like quality or tendency toward action as cope comes from, but likely also action-orientedness in a positive sense, (“if no ones gonna fix it I will”)
This impulse to fix is also applied to oneself, so 1s can be the kinds of people who are always looking to grow & improve themselves.
The other side of the coin is justification, responding to the feeling of ‘wrongness’ by arguieing & proving that you are, in fact, right, arguing that your way is the best & the other person might be wrong, or that you’re not wrong fir wanting something because you’re going about it the ‘right’ way.
The underlying assumption that needs to be there for this response to make sense is that some things are better than others, that things are comparable, that it’s possible for some parts of something to e right and for others to be wrong, for some to perfect and others imperfect. (and this is where Almaas would wax poetically to you about the intrinsic Holy Perfection of all things that is also the intrinsic intuitive intelligence of the universe & yadda yadda)
Certainly there may be some over-perception of what’s binary, or even just linear unitarian and rankable, meaning, it can be boiled down to a single number, so that there is a clear unambiguous “better or worse” to everything – some things may be incomparable apples and oranges, or there may be different equally good options, or a tradeoff depending on priorities.
However, I think most of us would agree that there is an universal better or worse for some things at least – starving children, for example.
Type 2
So for 2, the fundamental response to things not going your way is a sense of impotent humiliation, feeling personally slighted or humbled, but also dispensable, uneeded and unimportant.Think of the classic example of the person who is dejected over the 1 person who didn’t like their presentation, or who has a hard time not taking it as personal rejection if their help is declined.
2s tend to implicitly assume that they should be able to make everyone like them so when that isn’t the case it can be felt as humiliation or shame, but particularly the kind of shame where you feel irrelevant, like the ‘No thank you’ means ‘You’re not needed or important we can do just fine without you’.
The reaction then is described as wilfulness, actively making sure that things go your way, in particular, that you get the responses you want from others. You put yourself in a good light, you go out of your way to make a connection, you ingratiate yourself,
In the extreme this can lead to meddlesomeness, like intruding in situations youre not really a part of to make sure they go your way. Like the classic mistake where the step-parent tries too hard to force a blended family & gets pissed off when the stepkids keep mementos of their bio parent or want to do things with just their full siblings. “why are you excluding me/your half-siblings, I just want us all to be a happy family” but then by trying too hard to force it they just antagonize the step kids. But letting it grow organically entails the possibility that you might be disliked or rejected and then feel powerless & shamed again.
The underlying assumption you need to make for this interpretation of things to make sense is that you have a separate will that can be frustrated & aren’t part of an great universal motion that is already making everything happen & taking care of everything… sigh.
2s can certainly come off as both overperceiving how much it’s all up to them (“They need me, if I don’t solve all their problems who will? My shitty boyfriend will die without me”) and as overly forcing matters in ways that can seem pushy, ingratiating or even manipulative, & it is true that you wouldn’t feel humiliated or impotent if you didn’t think it was up to you, because if the other person just chose differently, why should you be ashamed if they refused your offer? It wouldnt mean youre unimportant, just that they’re not in the mood for, say, your cookies today.
Though, when I think of all the 2s that are charity workers or doing thankless hard work in caretaking professions, I am kind of grateful that they didn’t leave it up to the “benevolence of the universe” but rightly perceived the need for somebody to fucking care - Soup kitchens & nursing departments are alledgedly chock full of ‘em. So I’d say it’s an issue of right perception.
The esoterics would say that the charity workers helping is of course part of the universal will, but that smells like catholicism, “everything bad is you everything good is god”, thats no way to live.
(Funfact: You won’t believe how uneccesarily Freudian this was in the book. Just kept referring to it as “humiliated castration”.)
Type 3
Here, the response to something not going your way is to feel that you have failed. You should have been able to do this without a problem, but there’s a problem, so you didn’t do it right.Please note the difference to 2, that, though it’s kinda similar, the point here is not that you feel personally humbled, but that you did the thing wrong, and therefore your pain could be remedied by doing the thing better. It’s your doing that was the problem.
So there is a self-judgement entailed here: You weren’t good enough, but good enough in the sense of “not competent enough”, not morally or method wise, like with 1.
The reaction, then, is also different: Striving and activity. You think what happened is you did it wrong, so you must do it better, do more, keep doing.
This is why 3 is one of those types that get antsy when they sit idle for too long.
The striving itself & desire to become-through-doing may actually be more fundamental that even the desire for success, praise or attention (which are external marker by which to measure the striving, that you’re doing it right) – because, as soon as the 3 has cleared one goal, they quickly think of another.
You also sometimes hear 3s or 3 fixers say that when someone says they’re not X they take it as a pointer that they should be more X. Not being X is seen as a failure, & the response is to strive to be more X.
This is underlied by the assumption that you are a separate doer, you’re an agent appart from the “universal flow”, you are a someone who can do something.
If you didn’t see what happens as potentially under the control & depending on your actions,
Sigh.
I will never understand ppl who find the idea that they have no agency comforting. Proactivity & not waiting for shit to fall in your hands is IMHO one of the best qualities you can have in life.
I honestly admire this quality, as someone who’s shot themselves in the foot so much by assuming it’s all pointless & my actions don’t matter.
That said, the grain of truth here may be that 3s overestimate what is within their ability & then judge themselves by those too-high estimations. Like thinking they must win everything or work so hard it breaks their body, that you always can & should do more & it’s not ok to have limits – or that limits are the same as having failed. Your body having limits is not your failure, did you design it? Did you invent humans? No, evolution fucked that one up (universal benevolence my arse) so you did not fail.
Type 4
So, when a 4 is met with things not going so peachy or events they do not like, the go-to response is to feel disconnected, cast-out, stranged – lost in the wild or left out in the rain.This can be a disconnection from oneself, or from what is divine, sublime, meaningful or spiritual, from whatever it is that matters, whatever you’d find at the end of the rainbow, whatever you’d hope to find inside that castle from Utena.* That which shines. The Power of Miracles. Something Eternal. The blue flower. The unicorn in the garden.
And not only are you separated from it, you feel like it is unreachable, or you are unreachable to it, that you are far from heaven -
As you might expect, if you’re away from that, you’re left in a sad and mournful state, longing for what can never come back, or what you can’t seem to find, what seems distant to you.
You see the world as a sad burnt-out cadaver from which the light has gone, and you don’t get how everyone else seems to walk through this place as if nothing is wrong. Maybe you envy them, or you disdain them, or you think they must just be dumb and simple but whatever the specifics it seems unlikely that you can have a rapport with them.
One might think of Herman Hesse’s descriptions of his youth where he saw his mother & sisters as existing in “the light world” and himself as being aware of a realm of darkness.
So what reaction can you possibly have to it? The book is deliberately out to humble you by calling it “control” & I see how it means that & how, in the worst cases, that absolutely applies, though it’s gonna make ppl imagine the wrong thing. It’s not control like a control freaks who tells you what to do, in its more benign manifestations you might call it creation. Trying to make your own meaning, if divinity seems far away, in being deliberate about how you exist, putting thought & choice in little choices like what makeup to wear or what option to pick, relating it to something within you, seeking the sublime wherever it may be.
Though you can certainly call it control when it gets into trying to craft how you will be seen & responded to. Correcting ideas and perceptions you don’t want as misunderstandings might be thought of as a kind of control.
That thing when your relationship is stalling out & you cause some drama or suddenly have this fantasy of running away with a casual acquaintance is a kind of control. Inflicting pain onto yourself so at least you know when the stab comes is a kind of control. Chosing which negatives to show so they don’t focus on the really raw spots is a kind of control. Making your pain into something pretty is a way of mastering it.
In extreme cases, stuff like self-harm or anorexia can be control.
“If all else fails, I myself have power to die”, as one famous 4 (Shakespeare) has Juliet say. She destroys herself before they can force her to marry Paris, which seemed to her the only way to take control over her destiny and stay true to what was important and meaningful to her, & in the end its all an accusation to the parents: What a crappy world you made, that the only way to be free was to die.
The assumption, of course, that you need to make to conclude that you can be “cut off”, is that you have your own separate identity and nature, that people and things have separate natures at all and aren’t all part of god & the same divine origin.
So the world can’t be a dead abandoned carcass devoid of divinity if it is all divinity & there is no distinction between divine and not divine. Or: You can’t be cut off from yourself because you are the universe / part of the body of god.
Note that the point here is not so much the idea that you are separate at all, (that’s rather associated with 5) but that you have a separate nature. (for example, divine or not)
He uses the mataphor of air in a baloon, and the lack of Holy Transparency is the idea that there is a baloon, whereas the lack of Holy Origin is the idea that the air in your baloon has some particular smell or color different from the other baloons.
There’s a funny little moment in the book where Almaas writes that if you could have separate natures that mean, in his thinking, that you came from separate origins/gods and “that cannot be, because then there would be ultimate division, and if there was ultimate division, spiritual work would be totally pointless”. It’s a nice, satisfying glipmse at what keeps him up at night, or at least what last remnants of fear even he couldn’t yet train himself out of.
There are of course spiritual beliefs that include ultimate distinction, such as Zoroastrianism and mainstream Christianity (which, as its factually practiced, is often more dualist than monotheist – there is good & bad, everything good comes from god & everything bad comes from the devil. There isn’t really a devil in Judaism, and the Islamic devil has a very different, much smaller role)
I’d also like him to define ‘ultimate’ for me. Cause he’s like, “yeah things are different but those differences are not ultimate”. Certainly you can turn reality so that it all being off the same stuff can be said in a way that it’s technically correct. It’s all excitations in quantum fields. You can also turn it so that really nothing really touches. What makes one of those ways of looking at it ‘ultimate’?
Cause, the idea of difference doesn’t come cause someone woke up on day & decide they’re more special than u but from a mode of perception where contrasts & differences are emphasized.
Who says that it’s not the difference that it’s real and the unity that’s illusory?
Or maybe both are just hopelessly biased lenses reflecting our inability to see reality other than through the flawed architecture of our wrinkly meat-computers & we don’t know what the effin world looks like.
That said, I have heard some 4s reporting that a turning point in their life was when it occurred to them to try and find traces of, or connections to the sublime & the beautiful in their everyday surroundings.
If you kneejerk assume what’s meaningful is ‘out there’, you might miss it when it’s in front of you. You might not want to define the meaningful & real (or yourself) too narrowly.
Though this is probably possible without immediately throwing all taste and discernment overboard.
It’s not a question of convincing yourself the shitty boring thing is actually great, but of being willing to see what genuinely is connected or relevant to what you personally consider meaningful – which is obviously going to differ by the individual.
For me personally – well, this is obviously not a ‘layer’ that I can always be conscious of all the time, but when you consider all the complicated biological machinery, mental mechanisms & particular experieces that make someone up, how incredibly unlikely it is to be sentient beings clinging to the surface of this little bubble, then that seemingly boring rando suddenly looks very different. I’m still going to prefer what I personally find interesting & resonant cause I gotta pick something and I only have 24 hours in a day so probably not gonna be friends with the boring rando and im still going to complain about everything that sucks because somebody should, but, its a difference if I see the random guy as boring to me subjectively, though technically a rare sentient creature of stardust, that if I see him as objectively a part of and a symbol for the lesser light-forsaken rot that consumes everything.
It’s probably going to change how I treat him.
I don’t think the rot is an illusion at all, so even if I believed in spirituality I would a more chaotic world than Almaas’s all-benevolent one, but even the carcass of rot is again just one perspective, even if its my ‘home base’ perspective. Some stuff is probably also good even if it’s not all stuff.
Type 5
So, you are a type 5 just minding your business, and then something goes really sideways. What’s your most likely response?The text labels the experience as ‘deficient isolation’.
Basically a sense of being small, weak, frail, not enough, empty, impoverished, insubstantial and separated from all else as if by thick impenetrable walls or an insurmountable gulf across which any understanding is dubious at best.
You are stuck in a confusing place that you can’t make any sense of; Existence is understood as a rather flimsy, fragile, barely-there something; life as a laborious torment where one must constantly hold oneself up – and limited and insufficient as you are, you are absolutely not up to the task. You might sit there frozen in dread when you contemplate the insurmountable hurdles that you will be expected to cross.
If you understand your situation like that, there is only one reaction you can possibly have. You’re hopelessly outmatched, and only a fool would play when they cannot win.
Therefore the kneejerk response when something gets difficult is always to get away, to run, to hide away, to break off contact, to avoid it or avoid having to deal with it, to give it a wide, wide berth, to put some distance between yourself and the adversity in whatever way you can, if not by literally leaving then by finding something to preoccupy yourself with so that you have to experience as little of it as you can get away with.
Sometimes you see the tendency to retreated or the interests portrayed as some kind of preparation with the eventual goal to return, but that’s a misunderstanding; While individuals might research some things in advance before doing them that’s more a question of bracing to endure it.
The pursuits aren’t preparation for anything; They’re just what you have instead of what people would generally consider a life, somewhere to exist, something to fill your consciousness with.
There is not generally any great intention to ‘come back’ or do anything else of realistic practical nature.
I recall reading about an instance where Franz Kafka was asked something like, “So you don’t write to publish?” and his answer was, “No, I just do this to prove to myself that I am not altogether stupid.” Indeed a lot of what he produced only saw the light of day after his death.
So, that pretty much summarizes it.
Now, according to the perspective espoused in that book none of this makes sense, as it is based on the assumption that you are a separate being, separate from others, separate from the universe, separate from god, separate from everything – otherwise, it would not make sense to try and get away from the world, since that’s quite impossible if you are one with it.
Nor would it make sense to feel cut off or walled off in the first place; Your sense of experiencing yourself as flimsy is simply a consequence of defining yourself too narrowly and trying to exist on your own apart from god or the universe which you are irrevocably tied to, so you’d feel much more substantial and confident acting in the universe as just another part of it.
(Here we are treated to a ministry of truth esque rant about how real indepence is actually independence from the idea of wanting to be independent. That perfect independence is impossible may well be, same as there is no perfect anything; But you’re not going to get me to buy that total determinism is a good thing. Illusion or not, I still have the subjective experience of having to choose something I can’t just sit and wait for the universe to pick something. )
I get that technically all is made up of atoms & it is only our perception that divides it into discrete objects, and that there isn’t really a way to get away from reality if everything is reality.
I get that very well actually as I understand precisely how quickly my perceived intactness as an emergent system would be ended by the likes of worms, botflies or a bunch of stray shrapnel penetrating my silly little skull. Even a restricted little parcel of reality is full of inescapable awfulness.
That doesn’t change that people are separate from each other in the sense that they cannot read minds.
No one can really know anyone’s elses thoughts & feelings; Lots of ppl just don’t notice because they’re better at guessing other ppl’s contents than I am, but that doesn’t change that it remains a guess. A guess that often leads to presumptuous and cruel behavior whenever they don’t understand someone.
I think being aware of & respecting the differences between you & others is the beginning of all respect, and realizing that you don’t fucking “just know” and not everything is obvious is the first step to wisdom. What can you find out if you don’t think there is anything to find?
Reserving judgement when there’s not enough info to tell anything should be held up as a virtue.
That said, it certainly is true – and I have alas experienced the proof in this particular pudding for myself – that type 5 individuals tend to rate their abilities to sustain effort, endure stimulus, master unfamiliar situations and make themselves comprehensible to others as somewhat worse than it actually is.
One supposes that this works rather by the same principle as how a little child might come to avoid anything to do with ball games with a rather stronger aversion than is strictly merited after having been whacked in the face with a ball once too many.
Sometimes one can somewhat exposure-therapy onself into tolerating stuff if one can persist past the initial aversion.
Though this is quite different from the sometimes espoused claim that the limitations are completely illusory; Making sure to stay in the stretch zone rather than the panic zone and coming up with some system of concrete steps where even small increments constitute some progress (as something you can hold against the sense that its all a futile pointless waste) is actually a huge part of not quitting, in my experience, though I cannot be said to have it figured out by far.
Type 6
So the type 6 response to adversity tends to be a state of fearful insecurity.You feel exposed, abandoned and scared of whatever might be coming at you from the outside world, but at the same time, you don’t trust yourself to be able to handle what might be coming at you.
You may wish that someone would hold you or comfort you, but at the same time, you doubt that this is really possible to obtain such comfort. Whatever help anybody offers you smells of self-serving reasons. But you don’t trust your own intentions either, your own thoughts, feelings and intuitions are suspect as well. You fear that you might have an ugly, monstrous nature deep down inside.
With nothing certain to rely on either within or without, you feel touchy, on-edge, confrontational, volatile.
You often hear the metaphor of balancing along an edge or lacking solid ground under your feet.
I’s wager that it’s probably the exact emotion described in Papa Roach’s “Gettin away with murder” or Linkin Park’s “One Step closer”.
The reaction, then, if you feel threatened, is to be on guard. To respond with heightened alertness & vigilance & stand ready to apply one of the four Fs as required.
The other types all more or less default to one or two of the responses, but 6s runs the whole gamut probably because they are the most in touch with their natural alarm responses.
They often have a level of heightened lartness going on, it doesn’t take much to set off a response, and they may often default to responsding with defensive suspicion and hostility when something goes wrong. A part of this suspicion is a kind of exaggerated scepticism that ends up testing things again & again even after they have been confirmed for the bajillionth time.
They try to guess what others are up to, but they are also suspicious and vigilant with regards to themselves, & may be inclined to beat themselves up or fear making mistakes.
The assumption you need to make for this fear to even make sense is that the world is dangerous, that is, that the world, and all the humans that are part of it including yourself, aren’t intrinsically good. If you knew it was intrinsically good, you would just trust it without fear, suspicion or defensive aggression, as you would just trust that whatever happens is for the best.
(I kid you not.)
This is equated with not recognizing that essence or divinity exists or the assumption that ego is all there is, with thinking that, for example, your parents aren’t being nice to you out of pure good but because they have reasons/causes such as obligation.
Here we get the obligatory esoteric riffing on ‘overly rationalistic’ worldviews, though Almaas distinguishes that lacking Holy Faith is not per se equivalent with not believing in god, as it is possible to be an atheist and still believe in the good in humanity.
He explains, however, that this faith is to come from direct experience of essence & the divine & not from belief, in that usual manner that spiritual types conveniently exempt themselves & their cherished spiritual experiences from the problem of perception.
Now, 6s probably notice more danger than the rest of us because they look for it. I can’t count the times that my sisters (who are 6s) alerted my mom or I that we were about to spill, drop or break something we were totally oblivious about. They did not imagine that, we did spill the darn sauce. The world is not so intrinsically good as to magically avoid food waste.
Unless we’re dealing with a very immature or downright paranoid individual, the dangers are often actually there.
At the same time, this looking for it can create an overemphasis or bias since they don’t look for not dangerous, perfectly fine, rainbow sparkly things.
It has also happened often that my sisters were fretting & nervous about an exam & worried if they would pass at all, and then they got an A or B on it, a discrepancy that can probably be explained by failing to feature in positive information.
Your noggin tracks negatives for free, which is already half the world (yay!), but it might pay & get you a more accurate picture if you make some conscious effort to notice good stuff also.
Type 7
When confronted with all things pear-shaped, the response, at least on the most immediate level, is to feel disoriented and lost.Later on there might be this entire chain reaction involving mounting anxiety, restlessness and a whole lot of copium, but when the blow first connects, the answer is ‘What now? What do I do? Where do I go from here?’
Whatever happened was not what you expected or thought it would be. Maybe a door you had counted on staying open has now closed. Or maybe you’re just hurting and you don’t know what to do about it.
The reaction to this, then, is to think of something to do. To direct your own experience of life, either externally, by making plans and packing your day full of enjoyable experiences and thereby ensuring that you will not only have everything you need but also having plenty of extra options to spare, or internally, by thinking of an idea of what you want to be like and trying to nudge your feelings in a positive direction by thinking of reasons why things aren’t so bad.
Either you think up some solution to your problems, or you explain the problems away wholesale. Maybe all it takes is a little perspective shift.
Naturally this desire to direct your own experience might bring you into conflict with or friction against those who may want to restrict your freedom or limit your opinions, so another way of directing your experience is thinking of ways to charm or outfox them.
This might sound rather similar to the 4 reaction (perhaps accounting for some of the similarity between the types) but while the 4s control response is about knowing when & why the blow is coming, the 7s direction has a particular, optimal outcome in mind: You want the plan to ensure that you get what you want.
The assumption underlying this, as Almaas would have it, is that you can direct your life and have an independent plan for yourself.
You can’t, since there is only the one, godly plan – and in this he explictly includes the work of self-developement and how it cant be forced along some plan, goal or timeline and must simply be allowed to happen.
To this you might have a similar reply as the type 7 musician Tori Amos: ‘If the divine plan is perfection, maybe next I’ll give Judas a try’. She wrote that song while she was coping with the grief about a miscarriage.
The universe, if it makes sense to anthropomize it like this at all, frankly doesn’t know what the frick it’s doing.
There is probably some partial truth in that 7s can sometimes feel aimless or appear that way to others, or be over-focussed on maximizing their experience to a point where it may get in the way of taking it in.
I too would, to some extent, explain the reaction in terms of the 7s way of seeing the world – being aware of all the options both for what you can do & what you can be, that you would in theory have the potential to go/do be all those things, so how do you pick?
In a way, having a vivid imagination and being able to appreciate the potential in all the options makes this harder, cause you know many of them might be equally good… but there is only finite time, other limits that make it so you cant have them all, which you would also be well-aware of, and that’s where the fear comes in.
So you might end up flitting from option to option without fully squeezing the juice of any.
And if there’s no particular reason to pick one over the other, it can seem like it doesn’t matter which one you pick, like it’s all basically pointless and arbitrary.
As it was said in that one Doctor Who minisode, “If you turn the universe into your backyard, that’s all you have: A backyard.” The characters of Rick Sanchez or the Joker might be another example 7 brand of nihilism at its most destructive.
If it is all the same and nothing matters, there is really nothing else to do but to see how you can extract the most pleasure from whatever’s available.
In modern works the metaphor of infinite parallel universes is often used; In his own day, Goethe depicted his protagonist Faust as getting a second life by magic after considering his first one unhappily wasted & then trying his hand at many different pursuits, often leaving everything in ruins as a result of his selfishness, and yet it is the very tendency to strive for the ideal that is his saving grace in the end.
That being said, given how your average 7 sets themselves to experience & learn a lot more than the general population, I wouldn’t say the aim to plan & ensure that you have a quality experience here on earth is futile – I could stand to have more of that myself.
Just be mindful of the earthly limitations that apply – you cannot always direct everything to the better, sometimes bad stuff just happens, and sometimes you might be happier if you just yourself enjoy what is there rather than thinking how it could be better.
2023.04.01 02:14 Grmigrim Things that must change (in my opinion)
Diablo 4 Feedback:
Going over the „must do changes“
I already posted this in the D4 reddit, but since this is the more official Diablo place I wanted to post it here aswell.
First of all, everything that is mentioned here is my own, personal view on the matter and my intention of writing this is to give feedback so that I have a higher chance of some day being able to play the game I want to play. I also only played the Druid and the Barbarian to lvl 25 since these Archetypes interested me the most. Thus, I will only give feedback on these two classes.
Another small thing: English is not my first language, so if there are errors, typos or whatever, please refrain from focusing on that. Since all this is out of the way now, lets get to the most important part.
TLDR:
Gameplay great, art great, classes great (except druid), itemization terrible, skill trees doubling in size would be a good start, putting many legendary powers on the skill tree as skill runes would be infinitely better to create choice (you shouldn’t be able to have all active), dungeon design good at a base but needs more variety and less walking, overworld is amazing and makes me feel isolated most of the time, the map needs to be a little more clear in cities and give us options to be put in the middle of the screen with less opacity, interface needs a major rework.
Now, that the part for casuals who don’t want to deep dive is over lets get to the real feedback.
Don’t change:
The gameplay mechanics at a base level. The game is smoother than anything I ever played.
Open world and stuff.
The Must Do Changes:
Itemization, Interface, Skilltree
Itemization:
Items are, apart from gameplay, the most important part to create a great game that involves looting items. That does not mean, that items should give your character the most power though, but rather that creating items that are interesting to find and use, while not making any other gameplay aspect irrelevant, which is what is currently the case in Diablo 4. At this point I am not even talking about the individual affixes or legendary powers. If you have a low damage weapon, you have a low damage build, regardless of any other factor that may influence the power of your character. This is a grave design flaw since when 100% of your damage is determined by what weapon you wield, putting in more skill point into your skill tree only increases your damage based on the weapon that you wear. A level up feels way less significant for a damage increase than finding a weapon with 20 more damage. If you have a great weapon for your current level, you are going to deal great damage. If you have a bad weapon for your current level, you are going to deal bad damage. Although defence works in a similar way, there are more options to gain flat damage reduction and survivability that don’t solely rely on your defence stat as a base for the survivability they are providing for you. An example would be the barbarian generator flay* which provides a flat damage reduction stack that has nothing to do with how much defence you have. That is good, because it shouldn’t have anything to do with my defence stat. Now lets look at what happens with increasing my damage by using skill points. If I invest a point into violent whirlwind, I deal 30% more damage if I channel whirlwind for more than 3 seconds. This damage increase is tied to what weapon I use. This 30% more damage, is only ever as good as the weapon that I use. There is no static increase in power no matter how many skill points I invest. If I don’t find a good weapon, I wont deal good damage. This design is bad because if I find a low level weapon, that has the perfect affixes on it (non of which currently exist in the game btw.) I want to keep using that weapon, but because my entire damage relies on what weapon I use, I am bound to selling or salvaging the low level GG item I found. That is not fun. I wish they had learned their lesson from Diablo 3. This issue could be solved by giving skills both flat damage and %damage that scales off your weapon.
Now that this basic issue has been addressed, I want to talk about legendary affixes. Any legendary affix that increases the damage of a specific skill or provides a utility aspect (like resource cost reduction or automatic targeting for untargeted skills) that makes it possible to deal more damage with that specific skill are a must use and not a choice. If there were 30 legendary affixes for each skill, this would be a different story, but since we only have a limited amount of them, its bad design. With the current state of legendary affixes, any that works the way I mentioned earlier should be put on the skill tree as a rune you have to chose from. Later I will go into more detail when talking about the skill tree.
A lot of the normal affixes on items were incredibly boring. Especially the rolls on weapons were underwhelming. Finding a weapon that increased you attackspeed by 1.5% felt like finding a weapon with nothing on it at all. Only because a weapon is low level, doesn’t mean that the affix rolls on it should be low as well. Providing meaningful affixes at low level is crucial to create a fun and exciting looting experience even during lower levels and non endgame content. Lets say it takes 20 hours to reach endgame when playing through the game the first time (as a casual who doesn’t skip cutscenes, listens to people talking and is not min maxing the gameplay at every step). Those 20 hours should feel good. You should be happy about finding great items. In its current iteration, the items all feel exactly the same and the major difference is what level mob dropped them for their base damage to be either better or worse than what you currently use. Weapons need to have the possibility to roll +to weapon damage as element X/Y/Z, attack speed, chance to do X/Y/Z, +to skills, converting a % of all damage dealt to an element, bleeding or poison. All of these are more interesting than just doing % more damage when a condition is met. Also, I feel like the different base weapons are not different enough from each other. I didn’t really care what type of item the weapon was. That must change. Make the differences between each base weapon more distinct.
For other gear, I also think that some stats roll at too low numbers to be significant. I like regen when not being damaged by an enemy, but I think it should rather be regen when not damaging an enemy. Some classes can avoid taking damage much more easily than others and this way it would work as a small heal in between fights without having to go to town. I also like that boots and pants can have an inherent roll that is evade or potion related. (We need more of this as part of actual item bases, so different items become interesting) The bad part is, that these inherent affixes overshine any other roll the item could have. 40% movement speed after dashing, vs 2% move speed overall. The 2% feel completely meaningless. The base stat rolls are interesting, but only if the base stats would work in a different way. I will talk about that more later on. Anyways, I am not an expert when it comes to itemization, but I think even a few small changes could go a long way.
Interface:
I do not like anything about the interface, except the way the skill icons look. Personally, I think its neat. Now lets get to the other parts of the interface. First I am going to talk about the map. While the map worked great for me strolling around in the wild, I found it to be quite mess in Kyovashad. I couldn’t always clearly see if there was a path, a doorway or a wall. I think slightly changing the colours of pathways, doorways and exits in cities by making them a little bit brighter could work very well. I especially felt that ways when going to the “Kadala” trader on the right side of Kyovashad. In addition to that, I would like if we could have many more customization options for both the map and the skill bar with the health and resource globe. Let us move them please, putting them as individual parts so we can move the health pot sign anywhere we want, scale the health globe very big and the resource globe very small at the same time. For the map I wish we could have options like putting the map in the middle of our screen only when we enter a dungeon, all the time or not at all. Let us change colour, opacity and all these things.
Moving on to the “renown” screen, I wish it would just be a little box hidden somewhere small on my screen. I click a small button to collect the rewards but don’t have to enter an entire screen just to collect my stuff. You can add the screen hidden away in an option somewhere, where people who care about it can look at it. For me it didn’t feel Diablo like at all. Pressing a button in a menu somewhere in my map feels very wrong. The only menu where I gain power from should be the skill tree or a system that works similar to what a skill tree is. It would be so much cooler if we collected the money and whatever we get from the renown bonus from a chest in the main city of each region. It would be as if the people living there were actually thankful and saved up to give us the rewards because “they like us so much”. Doing it in a menu is in my opinion not the way to go.
Going over to the skill tree, I think the design is okay, although I will go into more detail about that later in the skill tree part. When it opens I feel like it is way too zoomed in. If it opens zoomed out all the way I could decide at what part of the tree I want to zoom in.
Coming to items and the inventory, I have to say, that this is the worst looking inventory I have ever seen. I am not talking about the character, but the space where I collect my loot. Why would there ever be a case where a truly giant double bladed axe takes up the exact same space as a ring or an amulet? The big problem is, just like in Diablo 3, we will pick up every single item that drop to salvage it for materials or selling it for gold. This must change. Always filling up the inventory with junk, not knowing if any of them even have potential to be good, this feels bad. I also miss identifying legendary items. One might think its just taking up unnecessary time, but the anticipation building while your character channels to identify or you are hovering over it with a scroll if identification is deeply missed (by me at least). I would also love if we could get the option to look at gear that is on the ground, just like in Diablo 3.
Coming to the upper part of the inventory, it is just a lot of empty space. I like seeing the character there, but I don’t like the way the gear slots are organized. There must be a better, more interesting way, that is not just 2 rows + weapon slots at the bottom. The stats with life defence and power are okay I guess, but I want to be able to take a look at the details of my character very quickly and not click through 2 menu’s. Here, customization would be cool. Let us decide which stats we want to see at the left side of the inventory.
Skill Tree:
It too small, too restrictive, not interesting enough, giving us 500 ways to apply vulnerable while only 3 to actually significantly change the way a skill works or plays.
Skill trees doubling in size would seem like a reasonable size where the game beings to provide actual opportunities to create self made builds. At its current state, I feel like every 5 characters I will encounter the exact build I am playing, with the only difference being which skill they use to apply vulnerable or provide survivability.
Choice is currently written in very tiny letters in Diablo 4. Every single skill currently in Diablo 4 that is not an ultimate skill needs at least 3 more runes that significantly change the way they work. Lets imagine we call those mastery runes. Lets imagine we unlock them after putting 5 points into the base skill. Now lets imagine that they alter skill in a ways that matter for gameplay. An example could be, that instead of 6 strikes, lightning storm (the druid skill) is now one very powerful ‘Lighting Strike’, damaging only the targeted mob but no longer providing group clear. Another example could be double swing marking enemies that are hit by both weapons to take 110% of the next damaging skill that is not double swing as damage over time, instead of dealing it as initial damage. That way that single rune could create an entire array of bleeding builds that revolve around double swing without limiting any bleeding build that exists outside of this way of playing a bleed build. There are almost infinite ways of making the skills and passives in the tree more interesting. Please use them, even if its not possible until launch.
What might be possible until launch is to deliver the promised feature of earning 5 stat points per level that we can then spend ourselves. The game did that automatically. I get why it did that. Focusing on the “main” stat of your class was the best thing to do.
I suggest changing the stats for each class, providing them with very unique ways to spec, while not being limited to pumping every point into the “main stat”
I felt unhappy with the stats the most as I played the druid. Why would my werewolf scale with willpower, which focuses on overpower damage. Why would my werebear be “useless” if I invested everything into strength even though playing a strong bulky bear is what its all about?
I suggest that a basic damage increase is removed completely from stats. For the druid increasing earth, lightning, werewolf or werebear damage. This would create actual choice of going for a specific way to deal damage. I addition to that, each stat should provide a form of utility that is only active if the stat is the highest out of all four. For dex that could be an additional dash, for intelligence a potion charge or something along those lines. You can go in so many direction. For other classes the stats would have to work in different ways again, since not all classes have four damage types, but for the sorc it could be that they also provide the same defensive options, but are renamed to elemental masteries, so the sorc has only 3 stats that can increase the potency of elemental damage and a fourth one that makes them a glass cannon, increasing all damage but by less and reducing defence gained from items and not providing any defensive option as an addition when it is the highest stat.
All of these are just quick ideas thrown into the room. They are not thought out, not for every class and might have other issues I didn’t think about, but for me, that would be many times better than the current system in the game, which is simply very boring.
Dudu feedback:
The druids as a class felt especially clunky to me. Many of the skills did not work the way I wanted them to work. Storm Strike was the most underwhelming generator, for me. The lightnings chain range was very, very small. Increasing the range of it wouldn’t hurt anybody and also wouldn’t make it unbalanced. I just felt disappointed that when I attacked, very often I was only hitting one mob because the other mobs where just out of range for it to connect. Also I feel like it should either be a rune or introduced to the base skill, that Storm Strike can bounce at least 2 times on the same target. That would make it much more fun to look at, and play with it.
Claw also disappointed me, not as a base skill, but when taking the rune for it to “strike” twice. In its current form it dealt double the damage and the wolf would attack with two hands at the same time. When I read the rune I imagined it would feel more like actually attacking twice. Hitting with both hands at the same time didn’t feel close to being as cool as if the werewolf actually attacked two different times in a short window, generating spirit twice aswell. That would make it much cooler for me.
Maul felt okay while windshear felt very slow, just like the druid overall. Earth spike is a cool concept, but I am currently not seeing myself ever using it since I don’t like the thematic of earth skills. If it was reworked to be a tree stump poking out of the ground I would think about using it, just because it would be funny stump things to death.
I am not going to comment on every skill now, but I want to say that every single base skill cost too much spirit, while any basic skill didn’t generate enough to feel like a smooth gameplay loop. I don’t know why every single class got regenerating resources, except the druid and barbarian. It should already tell a lot about what players like, since these two classes are also the ones that received the most amount of criticism.
Tornado is the only base skill that needs a major rework. It is not predictable where it will go, very bad when used in small spaces and so big many times it just got stuck somewhere and disappeared. Make is smaller and more predicable or let us spawn them where our mouse is, building up, growing in power standing still for 1-2 seconds until is searches for nearby enemies. Remove the legendary power that makes it search enemies. Otherwise, this skill will ever only be fun when using it.
Make cyclone armour’s active a dash instead of a knockback please. You almost never want to randomly knock away all enemies around you as the druid, since with many builds its you who is running after the monsters. Having another dash for that, or escaping when playing a more ranged build, would go a long way to make cyclone armour way better.
Coming to companions, The active of both the ravens and the vine creeper are very very nice. It is a shame that their passive counterpart is not noticeable at all. I was using the vine creeper for hours and in all that time I only noticed it attacking a single time. I am not exaggerating here. It bad and not noticeable at all, with so much going on on your screen. The same goes for the raven. Their passive impact is close to zero. Contrary to that, the passive part of the wolves felt very helpful as they tanked damage and had thus noticeable impact in combat. Its just too bad that their active counterpart feels like it has no impact at all, just like the passive of the other two. I think tweaking them in some way could make a zoo druid very fun.
For the ultimates, I hate grizzly rage. I never, ever create a build, just to activate an ability, that gives me other abilities that I could have chosen myself. Please make Grizzly Rage summon a giant Bear, so summon builds have another summon to rely on. This bear could also give buffs to the player so it can be used in more ways than the summon build, but the design of grizzly rage is not interesting at all. If it gave us skills that were not accessible through the skill tree, just like the archon wizard in Diablo 3, one could justify having this ultimate in the game, but in its current form it serves not purpose.
Barbarian Feedback:
I love the way the barbarian plays. I loved the skills and everything about how you played it. It is very unfortunate that the other classes from the early access beta were so much stronger at early levels since I had a great time playing through the game. Every skill worked the ways I was expecting it to work. It was the right difficulty, and I even died a few times. That should be the goal of difficulty for the game. The other classes seemingly had it too easy. A big factor might be, that often times I felt like I had no way of recovery or rage generation without getting close to mobs, which was impossible since my hp was so low. Since this is a problem of the early levels I think barb can stay pretty much all the same, provided they add the rune choices I mentioned earlier and increase the size of the skill tree.
submitted by Grmigrim to Diablo [link] [comments]
Going over the „must do changes“
I already posted this in the D4 reddit, but since this is the more official Diablo place I wanted to post it here aswell.
First of all, everything that is mentioned here is my own, personal view on the matter and my intention of writing this is to give feedback so that I have a higher chance of some day being able to play the game I want to play. I also only played the Druid and the Barbarian to lvl 25 since these Archetypes interested me the most. Thus, I will only give feedback on these two classes.
Another small thing: English is not my first language, so if there are errors, typos or whatever, please refrain from focusing on that. Since all this is out of the way now, lets get to the most important part.
TLDR:
Gameplay great, art great, classes great (except druid), itemization terrible, skill trees doubling in size would be a good start, putting many legendary powers on the skill tree as skill runes would be infinitely better to create choice (you shouldn’t be able to have all active), dungeon design good at a base but needs more variety and less walking, overworld is amazing and makes me feel isolated most of the time, the map needs to be a little more clear in cities and give us options to be put in the middle of the screen with less opacity, interface needs a major rework.
Now, that the part for casuals who don’t want to deep dive is over lets get to the real feedback.
Don’t change:
The gameplay mechanics at a base level. The game is smoother than anything I ever played.
Open world and stuff.
The Must Do Changes:
Itemization, Interface, Skilltree
Itemization:
Items are, apart from gameplay, the most important part to create a great game that involves looting items. That does not mean, that items should give your character the most power though, but rather that creating items that are interesting to find and use, while not making any other gameplay aspect irrelevant, which is what is currently the case in Diablo 4. At this point I am not even talking about the individual affixes or legendary powers. If you have a low damage weapon, you have a low damage build, regardless of any other factor that may influence the power of your character. This is a grave design flaw since when 100% of your damage is determined by what weapon you wield, putting in more skill point into your skill tree only increases your damage based on the weapon that you wear. A level up feels way less significant for a damage increase than finding a weapon with 20 more damage. If you have a great weapon for your current level, you are going to deal great damage. If you have a bad weapon for your current level, you are going to deal bad damage. Although defence works in a similar way, there are more options to gain flat damage reduction and survivability that don’t solely rely on your defence stat as a base for the survivability they are providing for you. An example would be the barbarian generator flay* which provides a flat damage reduction stack that has nothing to do with how much defence you have. That is good, because it shouldn’t have anything to do with my defence stat. Now lets look at what happens with increasing my damage by using skill points. If I invest a point into violent whirlwind, I deal 30% more damage if I channel whirlwind for more than 3 seconds. This damage increase is tied to what weapon I use. This 30% more damage, is only ever as good as the weapon that I use. There is no static increase in power no matter how many skill points I invest. If I don’t find a good weapon, I wont deal good damage. This design is bad because if I find a low level weapon, that has the perfect affixes on it (non of which currently exist in the game btw.) I want to keep using that weapon, but because my entire damage relies on what weapon I use, I am bound to selling or salvaging the low level GG item I found. That is not fun. I wish they had learned their lesson from Diablo 3. This issue could be solved by giving skills both flat damage and %damage that scales off your weapon.
Now that this basic issue has been addressed, I want to talk about legendary affixes. Any legendary affix that increases the damage of a specific skill or provides a utility aspect (like resource cost reduction or automatic targeting for untargeted skills) that makes it possible to deal more damage with that specific skill are a must use and not a choice. If there were 30 legendary affixes for each skill, this would be a different story, but since we only have a limited amount of them, its bad design. With the current state of legendary affixes, any that works the way I mentioned earlier should be put on the skill tree as a rune you have to chose from. Later I will go into more detail when talking about the skill tree.
A lot of the normal affixes on items were incredibly boring. Especially the rolls on weapons were underwhelming. Finding a weapon that increased you attackspeed by 1.5% felt like finding a weapon with nothing on it at all. Only because a weapon is low level, doesn’t mean that the affix rolls on it should be low as well. Providing meaningful affixes at low level is crucial to create a fun and exciting looting experience even during lower levels and non endgame content. Lets say it takes 20 hours to reach endgame when playing through the game the first time (as a casual who doesn’t skip cutscenes, listens to people talking and is not min maxing the gameplay at every step). Those 20 hours should feel good. You should be happy about finding great items. In its current iteration, the items all feel exactly the same and the major difference is what level mob dropped them for their base damage to be either better or worse than what you currently use. Weapons need to have the possibility to roll +to weapon damage as element X/Y/Z, attack speed, chance to do X/Y/Z, +to skills, converting a % of all damage dealt to an element, bleeding or poison. All of these are more interesting than just doing % more damage when a condition is met. Also, I feel like the different base weapons are not different enough from each other. I didn’t really care what type of item the weapon was. That must change. Make the differences between each base weapon more distinct.
For other gear, I also think that some stats roll at too low numbers to be significant. I like regen when not being damaged by an enemy, but I think it should rather be regen when not damaging an enemy. Some classes can avoid taking damage much more easily than others and this way it would work as a small heal in between fights without having to go to town. I also like that boots and pants can have an inherent roll that is evade or potion related. (We need more of this as part of actual item bases, so different items become interesting) The bad part is, that these inherent affixes overshine any other roll the item could have. 40% movement speed after dashing, vs 2% move speed overall. The 2% feel completely meaningless. The base stat rolls are interesting, but only if the base stats would work in a different way. I will talk about that more later on. Anyways, I am not an expert when it comes to itemization, but I think even a few small changes could go a long way.
Interface:
I do not like anything about the interface, except the way the skill icons look. Personally, I think its neat. Now lets get to the other parts of the interface. First I am going to talk about the map. While the map worked great for me strolling around in the wild, I found it to be quite mess in Kyovashad. I couldn’t always clearly see if there was a path, a doorway or a wall. I think slightly changing the colours of pathways, doorways and exits in cities by making them a little bit brighter could work very well. I especially felt that ways when going to the “Kadala” trader on the right side of Kyovashad. In addition to that, I would like if we could have many more customization options for both the map and the skill bar with the health and resource globe. Let us move them please, putting them as individual parts so we can move the health pot sign anywhere we want, scale the health globe very big and the resource globe very small at the same time. For the map I wish we could have options like putting the map in the middle of our screen only when we enter a dungeon, all the time or not at all. Let us change colour, opacity and all these things.
Moving on to the “renown” screen, I wish it would just be a little box hidden somewhere small on my screen. I click a small button to collect the rewards but don’t have to enter an entire screen just to collect my stuff. You can add the screen hidden away in an option somewhere, where people who care about it can look at it. For me it didn’t feel Diablo like at all. Pressing a button in a menu somewhere in my map feels very wrong. The only menu where I gain power from should be the skill tree or a system that works similar to what a skill tree is. It would be so much cooler if we collected the money and whatever we get from the renown bonus from a chest in the main city of each region. It would be as if the people living there were actually thankful and saved up to give us the rewards because “they like us so much”. Doing it in a menu is in my opinion not the way to go.
Going over to the skill tree, I think the design is okay, although I will go into more detail about that later in the skill tree part. When it opens I feel like it is way too zoomed in. If it opens zoomed out all the way I could decide at what part of the tree I want to zoom in.
Coming to items and the inventory, I have to say, that this is the worst looking inventory I have ever seen. I am not talking about the character, but the space where I collect my loot. Why would there ever be a case where a truly giant double bladed axe takes up the exact same space as a ring or an amulet? The big problem is, just like in Diablo 3, we will pick up every single item that drop to salvage it for materials or selling it for gold. This must change. Always filling up the inventory with junk, not knowing if any of them even have potential to be good, this feels bad. I also miss identifying legendary items. One might think its just taking up unnecessary time, but the anticipation building while your character channels to identify or you are hovering over it with a scroll if identification is deeply missed (by me at least). I would also love if we could get the option to look at gear that is on the ground, just like in Diablo 3.
Coming to the upper part of the inventory, it is just a lot of empty space. I like seeing the character there, but I don’t like the way the gear slots are organized. There must be a better, more interesting way, that is not just 2 rows + weapon slots at the bottom. The stats with life defence and power are okay I guess, but I want to be able to take a look at the details of my character very quickly and not click through 2 menu’s. Here, customization would be cool. Let us decide which stats we want to see at the left side of the inventory.
Skill Tree:
It too small, too restrictive, not interesting enough, giving us 500 ways to apply vulnerable while only 3 to actually significantly change the way a skill works or plays.
Skill trees doubling in size would seem like a reasonable size where the game beings to provide actual opportunities to create self made builds. At its current state, I feel like every 5 characters I will encounter the exact build I am playing, with the only difference being which skill they use to apply vulnerable or provide survivability.
Choice is currently written in very tiny letters in Diablo 4. Every single skill currently in Diablo 4 that is not an ultimate skill needs at least 3 more runes that significantly change the way they work. Lets imagine we call those mastery runes. Lets imagine we unlock them after putting 5 points into the base skill. Now lets imagine that they alter skill in a ways that matter for gameplay. An example could be, that instead of 6 strikes, lightning storm (the druid skill) is now one very powerful ‘Lighting Strike’, damaging only the targeted mob but no longer providing group clear. Another example could be double swing marking enemies that are hit by both weapons to take 110% of the next damaging skill that is not double swing as damage over time, instead of dealing it as initial damage. That way that single rune could create an entire array of bleeding builds that revolve around double swing without limiting any bleeding build that exists outside of this way of playing a bleed build. There are almost infinite ways of making the skills and passives in the tree more interesting. Please use them, even if its not possible until launch.
What might be possible until launch is to deliver the promised feature of earning 5 stat points per level that we can then spend ourselves. The game did that automatically. I get why it did that. Focusing on the “main” stat of your class was the best thing to do.
I suggest changing the stats for each class, providing them with very unique ways to spec, while not being limited to pumping every point into the “main stat”
I felt unhappy with the stats the most as I played the druid. Why would my werewolf scale with willpower, which focuses on overpower damage. Why would my werebear be “useless” if I invested everything into strength even though playing a strong bulky bear is what its all about?
I suggest that a basic damage increase is removed completely from stats. For the druid increasing earth, lightning, werewolf or werebear damage. This would create actual choice of going for a specific way to deal damage. I addition to that, each stat should provide a form of utility that is only active if the stat is the highest out of all four. For dex that could be an additional dash, for intelligence a potion charge or something along those lines. You can go in so many direction. For other classes the stats would have to work in different ways again, since not all classes have four damage types, but for the sorc it could be that they also provide the same defensive options, but are renamed to elemental masteries, so the sorc has only 3 stats that can increase the potency of elemental damage and a fourth one that makes them a glass cannon, increasing all damage but by less and reducing defence gained from items and not providing any defensive option as an addition when it is the highest stat.
All of these are just quick ideas thrown into the room. They are not thought out, not for every class and might have other issues I didn’t think about, but for me, that would be many times better than the current system in the game, which is simply very boring.
Dudu feedback:
The druids as a class felt especially clunky to me. Many of the skills did not work the way I wanted them to work. Storm Strike was the most underwhelming generator, for me. The lightnings chain range was very, very small. Increasing the range of it wouldn’t hurt anybody and also wouldn’t make it unbalanced. I just felt disappointed that when I attacked, very often I was only hitting one mob because the other mobs where just out of range for it to connect. Also I feel like it should either be a rune or introduced to the base skill, that Storm Strike can bounce at least 2 times on the same target. That would make it much more fun to look at, and play with it.
Claw also disappointed me, not as a base skill, but when taking the rune for it to “strike” twice. In its current form it dealt double the damage and the wolf would attack with two hands at the same time. When I read the rune I imagined it would feel more like actually attacking twice. Hitting with both hands at the same time didn’t feel close to being as cool as if the werewolf actually attacked two different times in a short window, generating spirit twice aswell. That would make it much cooler for me.
Maul felt okay while windshear felt very slow, just like the druid overall. Earth spike is a cool concept, but I am currently not seeing myself ever using it since I don’t like the thematic of earth skills. If it was reworked to be a tree stump poking out of the ground I would think about using it, just because it would be funny stump things to death.
I am not going to comment on every skill now, but I want to say that every single base skill cost too much spirit, while any basic skill didn’t generate enough to feel like a smooth gameplay loop. I don’t know why every single class got regenerating resources, except the druid and barbarian. It should already tell a lot about what players like, since these two classes are also the ones that received the most amount of criticism.
Tornado is the only base skill that needs a major rework. It is not predictable where it will go, very bad when used in small spaces and so big many times it just got stuck somewhere and disappeared. Make is smaller and more predicable or let us spawn them where our mouse is, building up, growing in power standing still for 1-2 seconds until is searches for nearby enemies. Remove the legendary power that makes it search enemies. Otherwise, this skill will ever only be fun when using it.
Make cyclone armour’s active a dash instead of a knockback please. You almost never want to randomly knock away all enemies around you as the druid, since with many builds its you who is running after the monsters. Having another dash for that, or escaping when playing a more ranged build, would go a long way to make cyclone armour way better.
Coming to companions, The active of both the ravens and the vine creeper are very very nice. It is a shame that their passive counterpart is not noticeable at all. I was using the vine creeper for hours and in all that time I only noticed it attacking a single time. I am not exaggerating here. It bad and not noticeable at all, with so much going on on your screen. The same goes for the raven. Their passive impact is close to zero. Contrary to that, the passive part of the wolves felt very helpful as they tanked damage and had thus noticeable impact in combat. Its just too bad that their active counterpart feels like it has no impact at all, just like the passive of the other two. I think tweaking them in some way could make a zoo druid very fun.
For the ultimates, I hate grizzly rage. I never, ever create a build, just to activate an ability, that gives me other abilities that I could have chosen myself. Please make Grizzly Rage summon a giant Bear, so summon builds have another summon to rely on. This bear could also give buffs to the player so it can be used in more ways than the summon build, but the design of grizzly rage is not interesting at all. If it gave us skills that were not accessible through the skill tree, just like the archon wizard in Diablo 3, one could justify having this ultimate in the game, but in its current form it serves not purpose.
Barbarian Feedback:
I love the way the barbarian plays. I loved the skills and everything about how you played it. It is very unfortunate that the other classes from the early access beta were so much stronger at early levels since I had a great time playing through the game. Every skill worked the ways I was expecting it to work. It was the right difficulty, and I even died a few times. That should be the goal of difficulty for the game. The other classes seemingly had it too easy. A big factor might be, that often times I felt like I had no way of recovery or rage generation without getting close to mobs, which was impossible since my hp was so low. Since this is a problem of the early levels I think barb can stay pretty much all the same, provided they add the rune choices I mentioned earlier and increase the size of the skill tree.
2023.04.01 01:44 Kratangg The JJW Law firm-"We can get you out of legal trouble!"
 | Namesake: Dancing With Myself by Billy Idol submitted by Kratangg to fanStands [link] [comments] User: Johnson Johnson Wrong Esq. Wearable stand Stats: Power: Ø Speed: Ø Range: A Durability: E Precision: E Potential: C Appearance: A pair of oversized checkered boots and gauntlets summoned onto the user. Each piece is connected to the user's spine and each other via metallic cords. Ability: DWM’s primary ability allows the user to completely control the movements of others, so long as they precisely mimic the target’s movements beforehand. The period of control’s duration lasts as long as the period of mimicry, and forces targets to move as the user does. Simply, the user copies the target’s movements, then puppets them to follow theirs. The ability can be applied to people, humanoid stands, corpses, and would eventually extend to any intentionally humanoid object. While capable of harming stands and serving as a minimal amount of defensive armor, they provide the user with no additional strength. User information/backstory: Johnson Johnson Wrong began, as many do, from humble beginnings. A lower class kid from south Georgia, he managed to skid under the eye of the law despite his sketchy dealings and unsavory compatriots. This not only gave him powerful experience and valuable connections, but the money he needed to fulfill his dream-paying his way through law school! He passed the bar with flying colors, and moved on to his duties as a defense attorney. He was very good at his job. He was not nationally known, and had no desire to be, but was the first choice for legal assistance in certain circles. There was a certain je ne sais quoi to Johnson that lent itself to great feats within the courtroom. He himself went on trial twice for suspected murder, yet was acquitted both times while representing himself. This understated profile, remarkable yet unorthodox skill, and tendency to occupy the same establishments as many of his clientele were enough to catch the eye of a wealthy beneficiary. Vincent Niche, multimillionaire and shipping empire giant, has wandered into their sights seeking mercenaries of versatile skillsets to embark on a mission alongside him. The danger would be steep, but the reward steeper. The unusual situation this high profile individual was putting himself in, and the relatively seedy location he was employing "no questions asked" mercenaries from implied suspicious business. Johnson volunteered...as this man seemed likely to require a very expensive lawyer. His application, as well as several others', were eagerly accepted. The freelancers were introduced to each other, some having already been acquainted. Soon, additional information was provided and they were gathered in Niche's office. They were given a group briefing, specifying the mission details as 'recovering an artifact' deep within the Amazon Rainforest. They would convene at his property in Brazil in one month's time. They were to prepare by then, and board a cruise heading to their destination complimentary of Niche. They would be given a personalized weapon and equipped before boarding a helicopter and exploring various sites. There was a high possibility of life-threatening combat, as Niche's estranged sister, Gretchen, was pursuing the same goal with her own highly skilled team. They would be paid five million dollars each upon mission completion. They were then dismissed without elaboration. Johnson was fascinated, his mind racing at how to take full advantage of his new rich, yet clearly eccentric and naïve client. Though, there were preparations to be made. He took the squad suit shopping in an effort to make his less appearance-conscious coworkers more presentable, and prepared his wit for the trip. This would be quite the fascinating outing. Their relaxing journey was more eventful than anticipated as they were forced to combat a group of attackers bearing a full armory of weapons and explosives. Yet, the incident became more and more bizarre as it progressed. Each and every one of the ridiculously well-armed assailants had the same face, voice, and general incompetence. This was somehow a literal one man army consisting of the same person over and over. What more, they vanished in a burst of light upon sustaining any injury. They left no trace of their existence aside from their dropped weapons, and the confusion only arose as they shot their way into the security office their ringleader was holed up in. The man, identifying himself as 'Doopli Trooper', was far more articulate and competent than his subordinates, despite being the same person once again. He was alert, a skilled combatant, and seemed to be miming finger guns. A small scuffle broke out before Doopli threw himself out a window. Yet, he seemingly landed on his back 30 feet down completely unharmed. Throughout the ensuing chase, he amassed more of himself out of thin air. They were used as meat shields, diversions, and gymnastic partners as the group had him on the run. This was becoming a problem. It took nearly an hour overall, but eventually Doopli would slow down due to exhaustion. He was apprehended and fell unconscious. It was strange, though. The man seemed on the verge of death despite not sustaining a single injury. The ship would proceed to harbor, being met by Speedwagon employees as soon as it arrived. Johnson’s suspicions only grew alongside the other mercenaries as Doopli was taken into the company’s custody and their squad was whisked away to an underground bunker within the rainforest. Niche greeted them, the group immediately demanding answers. The supernatural experience of a magically appearing clone army had made this job somehow even more suspect than it already was, and their benefactor NEEDED to explain himself. Niche was dismissive, telling them that all would be understood in due time as per the outcome of Section 7E of their contracts. Section 7E…Johnson had combed over the contract a multitude of times before signing, but that paragraph was particularly odd. Seemingly nonsense meant to fill a word count or cover every hypothetical, “The possible life-risking effects of new skill or weapon acquisition” released liability of death or injury during the process of equipping employees prior to mission start. No matter how unorthodox the methods. This seemed to be a roundabout way of covering gun safety and workers comp, among a litany of other factors. These thoughts traversed Johnson’s mind as they were directed to stand in a line and introduce themselves to a one-armed old man Niche referred to as ‘the SWF boss’. The man took each of their hands, giving a strange riddle in a pleased tone as he moved along the line. Johnson felt uneasy as the man looked into his eyes, telling him “You bring others to move at your pace, dancing to your own tune with high ambition.” What this meant was unclear, but deep down, it felt as if his very being had been exposed and peered into. Producing an arrow from thin air, they were told to observe a screen to the left for further instruction. After the concerning news that they were the third attempted team, everything went black. He woke up an indeterminate amount of time later, the man sitting by his bedside. Johnson’s groggy realization upon blinking reality back into existence was clear: The contract was shit. His compatriots seemed to have similar feelings, though their complaints were quickly silenced by Niche, or more accurately, the strange being they noticed standing beside him. They were introduced to the concept of ‘stands’, and told that their survival meant they were worthy. They merely needed to practice and they would uncover their hidden potential. The next day was precisely that, as the mercs one by one discovered their abilities. During this time, they were also given the true details of their mission. An immortal bird, a fellow stand user, was in possession of a coin originating from Niche’s ancestor. This coin contained their stand, which granted its user a lifespan proportional to their material wealth. They were to assist Niche to breach the bird’s solid gold temple and retrieve the coin before his sister could. Once again, it was nonsense. Johnson looked down at his new gauntlets as the others greeted the final employee, whose arrival was delayed by a plane crash. This…this would be interesting. A whole breadth of possibilities were opened before Johnson. Now, he just needed to complete this assignment. The journey would have a rough start, as their base was attacked by Gretchen’s crew before they were fully prepared. They were forced to evacuate into the jungle, and the race towards a solid gold temple began prematurely. Their first encounter was bizarre, to say the least. The group came across an abandoned logging camp full of instruments, and were swiftly attacked by a flying frog and a tree covered in mouths. Johnson spent a majority of the fight as a saxophone. The encounters only increased in brutality from that point forward, as Gretchen’s crew relentlessly attacked them at every turn. Despite this, they won at every turn, even taking in an ‘ally’ from the other side, and eventually a prisoneguide that turned traitor the second they could. These fights provided immense practice for the mercs, and Johnson unlocked more and more of their power. He was the lynchpin of several fights, and eventually learned he could control anything intended to be humanoid, including stands, stand constructs, and corpses… During the final showdown with the bulk of Gretchen’s remaining crew, the team was separated in a building collapse initiated by one of the enemies and aided by an encroaching army of plant monsters. Johnson struggled against a small team of enemy users that kept them under constant surveillance and control via their ability synergy. All he could see was a bound man in a straight jacket and a state of sensory deprivation. A second stand swam through the floor, watching him…just staring. They seemed to have perfect control of the area somehow, and Johnson’s inability to control the bound man made an approach seem impossible. Though, he was smarter, better at bluffing, and was able to kill their heavy hitter through ridiculous means that involved a corpse, several guns, and using his gauntlets like…gloves. He approached the other two members of the team, who had been obscured by a chunk of rubble. They immediately surrendered, guiding him through the crumbling facility and using their abilities to heal him. They additionally insisted they join up as a newly formed team, as Johnson had just killed their third member. While reluctant at first, Johnson realized how advantageous this was, and accepted their deal as the first two lackeys for his “law firm”. The escape after his encounter was just as perilous, with the crew frantically avoiding prehensile plants and a giant vegetation monster Johnson was able to control and hold back. He gave out, but bought the few precious seconds their helicopter escape route needed to arrive. They were able to get an actual night’s sleep, and headed out the next morning to breach the temple. The entire structure was solid gold, and filled to the brim with ancient doubloons. They were confronted by an absolute kaiju of a stand, which swiftly dealt with Gretchen’s last minion before turning its soul-reading gaze at them. The fight was horrifying, and resulted in physical and mental trauma before a precise shot from the resident sniper killed the bird. They had lost one crew member in the process of securing the coin during the fight, but it was over. The stand collapsed into itself as all went quiet. Right afterwards, Gretchen confronted them and demanded the coin. It took the combined effort of the entire crew to overcome her Art of War and overwhelming physical strength in a manner that was frankly overkill. Now it was over. … The temple started collapsing, forcing the crew to make it out by the skin of their teeth at the end of a very, very long mission. NOW it was over, actually. Niche was very pleased with his crew and their success, giving them their reward and whatever they could carry from the golden temple. Many of the mercenaries continued working with Niche or the SWF as everyone looked towards the future, but Johnson had other plans. His reward was put towards his own Law Firm, compound, and manpower. Further pushing his stand to the limits revealed he had control over nonliving humanoid objects like the statues that would now line his yard. He began scouting out people from different walks of life as bodyguards or mercenaries with select skills. Most importantly, he needed stand users. Anyone in a rough spot that could be recruited or manipulated was high priority, and his growing underground reputation as the best stand user attorney in the business was a fantastic boon. Many of his cases resulted in the recruitment of valuable allies and minions, from clients to other attorneys. Continuing to this day, he has high hopes, and equally high ambitions…perhaps that immortality-granting coin should belong to him…he deserved it, after all... ゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴ ゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴ (Former) “Team Dredge” Namesake: Operator by Jim Croce User: J.D. Integrated Phenomenon stand Stats: Power: Ø Speed: B (Transfer speed) Range: E* (Activation; no range limitation once ‘plugged in’.) Durability: C Precision: A Potential: A Appearance: The user’s head appears concave and mechanical. Dozens of dual input wires float around their skull as if plugged into an invisible sphere. Ability: The user can ‘plug’ others into their stand by inserting one of its many wires into the air in front of them. That line is now connected to that specific individual and cannot be reused until ‘unplugged’ and reinserted. This effect lasts until the former happens, or a recipient dies. Senses, sensations, thoughts, and even injuries can be transferred and sent between willing members of the network with absolute freedom and few limits, passing through the user and their stand. User information/backstory: Team leader and only competent strategist of the trio, J.D. stressfully held his crew of mercs together through job after job with a solid record of success. His ability was pure utility, and the only users he could acquire were oddballs with little direct combative ability, but his (relatively) keen mind lent itself to develop a system of synergy for their strange and limited powersets. In his system, the three would be constantly connected via ｢Operator｣, allowing precise use of ｢S&M｣ through third-person vision courtesy of ｢Wolfpack｣. This method served them well through many missions, though they were overcome by Johnson, despite him being a hare away from death, when weak link Bell’s stand was caught and its eyes covered. One line is always connected, though he refuses to reveal to whom. He simply dodges the question, a sadness behind his eyes. ゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴ ゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴ Namesake: Wolfpack by Sabaton User: S. Merci Bell Nonhuman stand Stats: Power: D Speed: C Range: B Durability: B Precision: B Potential: E Appearance: https://preview.redd.it/38u98i6js5ra1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=d25ddabc9e49d8357d401be3536ff15ec08aeee5 Ability: ｢Wolfpack｣ is a simple stand with a simple ability-it is a submarine that can dip into any material as if it were liquid, with two separate options for sight. The user can see out of both its face and periscope at any time, even both simultaneously for split vision. This is relegated to separate eyes. If they so desire, the user may enter the cramped, hollow interior of ｢Wolfpack｣ for travel purposes. User information/backstory: Hawaiian shirt clad recon specialist of the team, his stand was the most technically active portion of J.D. strategy. ｢Wolfpack｣ was required to be attentive and observant at all times, but this job was rarely stressed over. Lax and carefree, Bell’s attitude would often take the brunt of punishment or blame in bad situations as the punching bag, whether it was his fault or not. ゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴ ゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴ Namesake: S&M by Rihanna User: ??? (Deceased) Humanoid Effect stand Stats: Power: B Speed: B Range: C Durability: E (Can be forcibly deactivated with the slightest disturbance to the user) Precision: A Potential: D Appearance: A slightly frosted translucent sphere around the user. Ability: When all of the user’s sensory information and movement are restricted, the gain complete telepathic control over everything in a 15 meter diameter sphere around them. User information/backstory: The heavy hitter of the team, his ability is only viable through the use of their leader’s strategy, though he was never seen as more than a tool in this regard. The others found him unsettling…for good reason, and his death at the hands of Johnson was only mourned so far as it limited their potency as a team. |
2023.04.01 01:23 Adventurous-Map-9400 Growing Up Alien Chapter 17
A homeless teenager reaches out to the Shil’vati on first day of the invasion of Earth.
This is a rewrite of my original story ‘Loyalist’.
Credit to u/bluefishcake for writing the original SSB story.
Pizzaulostin who has been beta reading since the beginning.
and u/BruhMomentGEE
Credit to u/HollowShel for getting me started with this!
This story is based in the SSB universe.
Previous
First
next
as always, comments are welcome.
I regarded my handcuffs with professional disapproval. They had a longer than regular chain for ambulatory movement and inmate processing, by the deep, I could even use them as garrote if needed. They had revealed the limits of their rank with that apology.
“No need to worry. I am sure this will be a formality in less than an hour,” I told them, if there was one thing that was in abundance on the planet Sky it was Interior and undercover commando trainees. I hoped this would probably be their most interesting case all month.
“So, would you care to explain how you are raising a human, that is also considered a military asset?” The agent inquired as she pulled out her slate.
“Of course, Klein surrendered himself and requested medical aid and refugee status. He was willing to answer essential questions regarding human culture that aided in liberating humanity into the Shil’vati Empire. He wouldn’t be safe on Earth anymore, and I mentioned that he was still important in writing my reports. If I had my slate, I could give you the relevant documentation,” I said in a conversational tone, without any of the emotions that weighed the story, and glossing over the specifics.
“No need. I have everything you submitted to the Interior, including his asset designation, the interrogation transcripts, and even his doctor’s contact info. To be honest with you it’s the only reason we haven’t interviewed you yet, even after a dozen calls about a ‘possible trafficked human’ since he arrived. Your information is corroborated with several other departments. The issue now is what the medivac scans found.” The agent pushed a slate towards me with medical notes bolded for emphasis ‘probable severe abuse’.
“The report shows a recent history of blunt force trauma, abrasions, and even muscle tearing, in short. It looks like the human has been systematically tortured for months. You also have recently requested restricted training armor in the human’s size.” The agent explained.
Ah, that was my mistake. I had been treating Klein as another child, just with some unique needs. It looks like there were other considerations, ones that I failed to see.
“I really do need my omni-slate to illustrate this, it’s on my desk right now if one of your assistants could get it?” I asked, hoping they got the suggestion to not leave me with only one interrogator in the room so they wouldn’t be graded too harshly.
They thankfully acquiesced without comment, and with my omni-slate in hand I pulled up the latest video of Klein practicing with me, the speed and brutality was difficult for me to sit through. Then, Klein pulled off his helmet seconds later, laughing in the rain. Unconcerned that, without armor, we could have just killed each other- I was grateful he had, else it might’ve been interpreted quite differently. “The bruising mostly from everyday participation at a Rakiri gym, and some remnants from before I got proper gear for baton practice. He heals extremely fast, and more so, he isn’t happy unless he exercises for at least an hour or two a day.”
I pulled up another video. Klein was sitting at the table bouncing his leg at an ever-increasing pace while trying to focus on a decently complex equation. He finally stood up and started pacing mouthing words as he skipped in time to an unheard rhythm.
“W-what’s he doing?” The agent asked, looking just a tad disturbed by the display of what seemed erratic behavior.
“A sort of dance while playing the song ‘a fine mesh net’ on his headphones. There was a monsoon that Shel weekend, and even I’m not crazy enough to fight in a thunderstorm like that. He does that around the house for an hour, and then finally settles in on a video game,” I explained to the agents, who were looking at me dubiously.
“So, you oversee an adolescent who is an intelligence asset, but also seems poorly fitted for Shil’vati life. Why the baton practice? Wouldn’t that make him even more dangerous, more of an outsider? Are you trying to sabotage his integration? Why not take him shopping, instead, or teach him beauty and self-care routines?” They were antagonizing. Countering every argument to see how I reacted. It seemed they could at least interrogate decently well.
“I hardly call a few quirks ‘poor fitting’. The baton practice is for obvious self-defense. Its intention is to make him dangerous,” I explained, letting the interviewers lead the conversation.
The back and forth went on for a while, but I presented a highlight reel of the last few months. Including a Rakiri gym video when Klein tried to flourish a wall climb and smashed his shoulder on the ledge while face planting into the mud.
The agents would not be arresting me today. They would need medical reports, and would require Klein, Hario, and Compassion Through Deeds to attest while truth scanned that these were sports injuries, and not some conspiracy to commit torture. We were also going to need to see an ICAD agent every two weeks for counseling. I had no idea what ICAD was, but I would investigate them later.
Finally, the agents appeared they were closing up the interview. I tried not to brace myself as they asked the complicated question. “One thing we need to know is, what is Klein to you? If he is just a crucial asset, then why haven’t you contacted a local volunteer family foster? Or was the military asset just a cover to find a male heir?”
I sighed, the truth wasn’t incriminating, but if I didn’t word it right, I would look like the worst sort of military tourist. “I had, originally, taken care of Klein as a key intelligence asset. Within that first week though, I had found that despite the decades of preparation, there wasn’t a process for someone to claim asylum as a child during first contact. He would be in military bureaucratic limbo without an advocate. We both know where he would end up.”
The room cooled by several degrees, which was a pity, I almost got the talkative agent to laugh at Klein’s antics. “Out of duty I investigated ways I could bring him home until I could find resources to place him in a stable situation with all the resources to help a xeno without a community. I found someone who was willing to help in exchange for reports on Klein’s adaptation to Shil’vati lifestyle. That’s Klein’s purpose as a military asset in my home.”
I continued. I was saying more on than I needed to, but if they did a follow up investigation later for some other incident, which was a when, not if, then I wanted this on record. “Klein has become part of this household though, despite, or maybe because, of his oddities. He may not be Shil’vati, but he seems to have integrated well. It’s why, while it was never my intention, when he is an adult, I will offer him full adoption, and title of home guardian.”
I watched the agents exchange looks, then the agent made a few taps on her slate. ‘Upper left, middle center, probably a message app’. I then listened for the telltale taps of a yes as a micro expression of a self-satisfied smile crossed the agent’s face. I decided to stop playing interviewee.
“So, you won the bet on if I would claim the human as my son, how long has that pool been building?” I asked folding my hands together.
The agent answered before she could think. “Two months… Wait!? How did you-”
The agent was cut off by the squawk of the slate’s speaker. “Agents you did well enough with the interview portion, however; you absolutely failed to secure the subject. Could you please illustrate to them why I stressed caution {petal of death’s veil}?”
The code name wasn’t one I had heard in decades, but I wasn’t going to snub an old handler. I kicked on my fast reaction mods to max speed and lunged over the table past the still sitting agents. I pirouetted and twisted the restraints into a loop as I brought them down over the left agent’s head and pulled back carefully, lightly touching the chain of my restraints around the neck of the agent before she could even react.
I kicked off my mods and caught my breath as time returned to normal. Both agents’ eyes went wide with shock as the one not about to be strangled tried to get away to pull out her weapon. “W-who are you!?”
“I’m going to slowly release you and put my hands up, is that everything you needed {hated old friend}?” I directed my question to the slate, using the code High Shil word to show I was playing along.
“More than enough. Agent! Holster your weapon and come back to the safe room. We need to go over security procedures,” the slate responded, and the very brief confrontation was over.
The agents walked out, and Siltan stomped in looking like she could bring about a thunderstorm by pure force of will. “We weren’t the only ones to get visits from the ‘majesty’s’ Interior today. Cee let me know that the Interior is also interrogated Reqellia as well.”
I now understood why these two rookies were here. It was a distraction for me. I grumbled as I picked up my slate and called Reqellia. Her face appeared a second later.
“By the Deep, it’s been a long day,” Reqellia breathed out as I heard a door slam, then she cursed some more.
“Tell me everything. Is Klein ok?” I asked.
“Cee says he’s fine and is waking him up. Klein might be getting a mod himself before she closes him up though because, oh- looks like it’s my day is going to get longer still. ICAD is here, and it’s a Hydrean in a Gearschilde clinic.” Reqellia hung up, and I stared at the phone in confusion.
It was time to find out what ICAD was.
I started to panic as I turned my head, focusing on lettering on a terminal, tried to sigh, and felt what few muscles I could control turn to lead as I sank back on the medical bed. Thank the goddess, it was Shil and Gearschilde lettering on the slate and medical supplies.
“Good afternoon Klein, are you okay? Your heart rate spiked.” I heard Cee, or full name Compassion Through Deeds, speak and turned my head to see her. She wore a dark red lab coat and regarded me with unblinking cybernetic eyes. Most of her orange skin had been replaced with dark steel etched with stylized waves and swirls of silver. Her face still emoted in a pleasant smile, but had that uncanny valley look of unblemished synth skin. I looked down to see a dozen micro surgical tools still inside me.
I should have been screaming at the sight, but all I felt was relief and joy. “Yeah, I just worried for a half second that I had hallucinated the last few months and was actually on a back on Earth on some black-market operating table getting my kidney stolen.”
Cee was aghast. “Does that happen on Earth?”
I would shrug, but again, I couldn’t move, instead I responded. “Rumors of it happening, but I never knew anyone personally.”
Cee reassured me. “Well, good news Klein, you are on Sky, you are in a Gearschilde clinic where stealing vital organs is a legal, moral and religious crime of unrepentant severity. What I have done is remove your appendix, and let the sedatives wear off so we can discuss what you want in its place.”
“In place of my appendix? Why?” I asked, it wasn’t like I really needed the vestigial organ turn internal hand grenade.
“Customary in Gearschilde for surgery is to be about giving a better life than just taking from the body. So, any ideas of what would make your life better?”
I thought about the bruising, the constant having to put healing patches on, and the annoyance of doing so. I thought about the near fatality of almost blowing my appendix, and if something could have fixed the issue before it got out of hand. “What about a healing dispenser? I keep having to put on patches and gel at the end of the day, and if I miss a spot, I will pay for it later.”
Cee gave me a grateful expression. “That’s a perfect first implant. I was worried you were going to ask for something more aggressive. When I was your age, I got my first defensive mod, a retractable forearm knife. Of course, my next surgery was being stitched back together after accidently stabbing myself with it.”
I tried to chuckle, but I didn’t have control of my diaphragm for it. “So, what’s next?”
Cee explained. “Well, the fabricator in the other room is right now creating your implant. It shouldn’t take long; are you ok being immobilized for the next hour or so?”
I thought about it, and honestly, I was still surprised I wasn’t panicking. “No, but I’m going to get really bored just laying here, do the Gearschilde have any good myths or stories?”
I knew I was fishing in an untapped pool that was guaranteed to have something. I wasn’t expecting my doctor to be gleeful at the thought though. “Oh blessed be you child, I am a surgeon priest, half the reason I am in this vocation is to tell stories. I take it you know nothing about Gearschilde mythology, or even our history?”
It was on my list of rabbit holes to get into, but instead I binged the rest of Prince Of The Stars and cried, it was nice. “No, but I would love to hear them.”
“Well if you want to, every Shel we have open services and brunch. But since you are new to Gearschilde mythology we should start with one of my favorites. The story of the Hopestrider.”
The ceiling lights dimmed, and the sterile operating room felt surprisingly cozy as I leaned my head back. Listening to Cee starting up the tale. “Our sect requires us to lead what can best be called ‘child technician classes’. Learning to take care of machines, which includes us by the start of adolescence, if not before. It’s a critical life skill, and teaching it is considered an important part of our religious studies.”
‘Cyberpunk VeggieTales’ Squirrel brain chittered.
No one wants your opinion squirrel brain. I thought back.
Cee paused for dramatic effect. “Then, everything changed.”
“The ground shook, and the mountain kingdoms erupted in fire and molten rock. Radioactive dust from these now volcanoes made the centers of civilization barren and deadly. Only the wasteland colonies in the poisonous mists provided any refuge, and so king and commoner alike huddled in the once disposable outposts of a ruined world. Our story starts a generation after the calamity with an unlucky child.”
I heard a ding, Cee stopped as the ceiling lights came up. “Oh dear, let me stop for a second to get the implant.”
I leaned back and thought about her nightmare world. When Cee returned, I didn’t even bother to open my eyes, too engrossed in the imagery of the story. “What happened to the child?”
I could hear the whirring as she started to work. Her voice I realized had taken a more scripted cadence. She must have automated her voice so she could focus. “In a metalworker’s home, a child was born with broken legs and brittle bones. It was common in those days for such a child to die that way. It was their first born and the parents did everything they could to save them. A surgeon was called. The child lost their legs, but kept their life.”
“The child lived in the workshop. Kept warm by the hearth’s fire, even unable to walk, they were curious. Day in and out, they watched their parents construct machines that helped the community make food, filter the air, and defend the homes from the starving, mutated, monsters that circled the fortress walls. The child felt helpless though. Only able to crawl within the confines of the home or be carried around like cargo about the maze-like town of winding stairs and narrow passageways.
“They spent much of their time learning, sitting near the hearth to keep warm, they did the careful work of filing gears and wheels needed to control what could be automated as each hand replaced was another that could be spent doing something else critical to keep the community alive. Still, the child wanted to do more. They could not deliver what they made, and had to rely on others to help them at every turn in life.”
“Little did the child know that in the hearth a machine spirit lived, getting by eating scrap metal that fell in and sleeping at night on the bed of embers. The machine spirit saw the child’s wish, an invention without form, and turned it into a dream for the child, since new machines would mean new machine spirits to play with.”
That night the child saw themselves flying over the cold gray landscape on a pair of machine legs. Traveling the dangerous paths to other towns, and giving the isolated towns hope and community. The child awoke with joy and crawled over to his workbench littered with scrap metal, now children….”
Cee stopped talking and her voice went back to an unscripted rhythm. “I just realized we can’t do the practical part of this story. In class each kid gets a hope strider stuffy with snaps to attach legs they make. We give them bits of copper. Show them how to bend and hammer it, and how to bond it by wrapping the joint in solder and then applying heat with a soldering iron heated in their own toy ‘hearth’ with a safety cover. Still we get a daily small burn or cut, but that in itself is a valuable lesson in tool safety.”
It sounded adorable in a weird, steampunk way. “Sounds fun, so, new legs?”
Cee got the que, as much as I loved the story, and the talk about kindergarten metal shop, I was still immobilized on the operating table. I heard surgical whirring, and the scripted voice came back. “Yes, the child works all night until they fit the new legs on, and for the first time stand up on their own! The parents are overjoyed as they watch them move about the house and that afternoon, with the help of an iron bar as a cane, they walk around their community by themselves.”
“However, it isn’t long before the legs start to see wear and tear, but the child persists, not wanting to stop and fix the creaking joints, until one day the legs stop working altogether and they fall down in a twisting staircase. Carried back to the workshop, they rest for days to heal before they are able to work again. Constructing a new set from the remains of the old. Now…”
My whole body had that pins and needles feel and I tried to move my fingers, but it was sporadic and jerky. Cee distracted me by explaining my new implant. “So, this implant is very basic. It can only be requested to send diagnostic data. The implant only administers more healing serum at a safe, steady rate if, and only if, it doesn’t detect any in your bloodstream. There is an injection site with a color change circle around it. It uses standard go, caution, stop colors to let you know if it’s functioning. I want to wave your omni-pad over the site and check the diagnostics at least once a day. It should hopefully catch if something like this is happening again.”
I tried to not move as I felt my body twitch. My gut felt like I had been run over, repeatedly. I asked, “why didn’t my medical monitoring implant catch this?”
Cee explained. “That’s only good for basic vitals. Near universal indicators of life and activity such as heart rate and blood pressure. The new implant will be able to scan for elevated protein counts. So, if one of your other internal organs starts to malfunction you can get a more unambiguous message that I hope you won’t ignore before getting medivac’d through the city.”
I chuckled a little at that, and it hurt. “Ow, ok, no movement. I thought it was just a pulled muscle or something.”
Cee looked down at me sternly, and her voice took on a deeper, more authoritative tone. “Child, more than enough Gearschilde have died thinking they can just, push themselves past their organic parts failing, if you have a torn muscle that hurts after you’ve used healing gel, then it’s serious enough you need to come see me, or another xeno-doctor, immediately. That’s why I hope your new implant can fix things before it gets to that point.”
Cee brightened after that and went back to the explanation of my implant. “Now that I scolded you, there is a color changing circle over your implant’s location. It will change color when the healing serum runs low, or and will start to flash in color, and try to ping your omni-pad if it detects a malfunction. The implant uses a standard Shil’ implant autoinjector, and it will reject anything not meant for red blood standard biology, but still be careful, it’s not a perfect filtering system. Today I’m giving you a set of autoinjectors I want you to use throughout the week. It's fortunate that your implant’s primary function will speed up your recovery time.”
Ok, that’s cool to know, but.
‘What happened to Hopestrider?!’ Squirrel brain demanded.
“So, the story, what happens next?” I asked as Cee helped me sit up. My stomach still hurt, but the feeling was in the overworked muscle category rather than a gut punch.
Cee started to explain as I put on what was essentially gym clothes. Soft, baggy pants and shirt with easy pull away tabs if they needed to remove the clothes quickly for checkups and surgical intervention. “Well, we don’t have time to go over the Hope Strider as a story, or even a summary, but if you want to, my husband teaches the child technician class during open services on Shel, you could sit in and listen.
Right now, I will give you a family crafted picture book that tells the core story of Hope Strider growing up, and making their first delivery. After that it’s a loose selection of legends that are attributed to Hope Strider as they grow older and more accomplished, but while I get that book, I need you to speak to someone.”
Cee led me out of the operating room, and into a comfortable looking lounge where a… Hydrean was sitting in an Imperial business uniform reading an omni-pad. My brain pulled everything I knew of Hydreans out. A rabbit hole I had dug into one rainy Shel on the public information repositories.
She, they, single gendered I reminded myself, looked up and smiled at me calmly, mouth closed for politeness. Their skin was grass green with artful patches of bark on her face and neck, the result of cosmetic scarification. They looked human, or Shil’oid, but that was purposefully done. Even the somewhat standard looking ‘desert walker’ Hydreans normally had more, or less, limbs than standard. Biological modification was at the root of all Hydrean technology, ancient as the stone ax to other species.
I thought about how contentious Hydrean/Shil relationships were said to be. Their arid home planet was off limits to all but certified personnel who had been trained how to handle the dangerous mix of flora/fauna that instead of being different groups, was just a single taxonomy that had no distinction between predator and prey. With their complex biology, a Hydrean needed to undergo extensive body modification just to exist off their home world.
Cee left the room with a friendly goodbye and offered assistance “Hello Klein, I am Ka’tel. It’s wonderful to meet you. I am with the Imperial Child Assistance Division, or ICAD. My job is to help interspecies fosters and adoptions. How are you feeling today?”
I caught a glimpse of her teeth as they spoke. Triangular, and made of burnished metal meant to tear off chunks of animal, plant, or even rock, whole and let their stomachs’ mix of acids dissolve it into something the rest their body could use.
‘The agent in charge of your welfare is a plant/animal hybrid with a diet of ‘yes’, your doctor is a wholesome orange 40K mechanicus, and your crush is a were-lion, you are not ok .’ Squirrel brain remarked.
“I’m actually pretty good, despite the surgery, it’s actually a common issue for humans.” I said to Ka’tel, because my life was weird before the aliens, squirrel brain was just being a pessimistic asshole.
“Really? Do you know what caused it?” Ka’tel asked.
“It just, happens? Gets irritated or infected and then you need to get it removed.” I said nonchalantly. Ka’tel made a mark on her omni-pad.
“How did you know? It seems dangerous if it can happen suddenly, and you mentioned it before you passed out.” Ka’tel asked tone friendly and conversational.
“Oh, the side of your stomach hurts. I was hoping it was just a pulled muscle bec- Dammit!” I just remembered what happened before I woke up here.
“The raid game! Ko’tasa would have had to substitute for me and she’s not well balanced for our team mix.” I said with a exasperated sigh.
Ka’tel cocked their head to one side, but the tone in her voice was humorous. “You were willing to ignore a possible life-threatening condition for a game?”
I explained, though I felt idiotic now. “I couldn’t tell. I get sore muscles all the time from gym, and sparing, and even from the auxiliary work, honestly my commandant doesn’t really know where to put me sometimes. Last week I helped with road clearing for the new town to go up a few [miles] away, and the girls could barely keep up with me.”
Ka’tel seemed to be enjoying my rambling. “Sounds like you really get put to work.”
“Not really? The auxiliary is the only work I do, and if I wanted to stop I just, can. It’s not like I need to worry about buying food.” I knew what I was saying seemed strange while living in the Imperium.
It was the first hint that Ka’tel was controlling her expressions when she seemed more attentive and… relieved? “That’s delightful news to hear! Is there anything about your living situation that bothers you?”
I paused and thought about it, and really couldn’t see anything. “Not really?”
“Anything, or anyone, you miss from Earth?” Ka’tel asked, stressing that last bit, dropping a mental bomb on my head and I froze, mouth partly open with a half formed response. When was the last time I even thought about Earth as more than an abstract concept? It hadn’t been [six months] since I left but…
I didn’t feel anything.
The last year I lived on Earth, it was like being a ghost. I saw people, I even talked to people, but it was like a thick plate of glass all around me. Today I felt color, and life, and things, but that last year on Earth?
Like radio static.
I looked at Ka’tel, and their expression was one of controlled neutrality. Why was I not freaking out?
I had a sensation of the room spinning. I asked, “No, I don’t really feel anything about Earth, is that normal?”
“I don’t know Klein, by most sentient standards what you went through was unusual, and from what little I know about humans that isn’t propaganda, it’s unusual for humans as well. What I do know is right now you seem happy and healthy, and that’s my top priority.” Ka’tel said as they stood and offered me a stiff plastic card with their contact details on it.
“We will be chatting every other week to see how you are adjusting. I might ask to visit you at the youth auxiliary depot, the gym or at home. I really am glad to see you are doing just fine, but if you ever need a way out, that card has an emergency signal function, just pull the plastic tab.” Ka’tel told me, and was about to open the door before I spoke up.
“How should I refer to you?” I asked, and once they realized, Ka’tel gave me a genuine, toothed, smile that was both menacing and goofy at the same time.
“Most people don’t learn enough Hydrean biology to ask. Her, that’s how everyone in the office sees me, and it’s more convenient socially.” She said, opening the door to an anxious looking Itaro standing next to a serious Ruhal and Reqellia.
“I need to speak to you Ruhal, and Reqellia, you should join us for this conversation as well.” Ka’tel said as she ushered me out.
Cee led us into a gaming room with a long table on one side, and a set of couches facing the wall to wall display on the other. She handed me an overloaded plate of cookies with bottle of water, and stepped out, closing the door behind us. “Eat those, your stomach has healed, but it’s going to need calories to fuel the recovery.”
Only then did I realize I was salivating at the smell of warm sugar, and flour made of Kasan grain, if I was identifying the green color correctly. I put the plate of cookies on the table, and snarfed them as I sat down.
After swallowing the fourth cookie semi-whole, I looked up to see Itaro’s face fighting a war between impatient, apprehensive, and hopeful. I stopped, realizing what I was doing, and sipped some water to stall for time.
I was about to pull my omni-pad out from my pockets when Itaro suddenly put her hand out to stop me. “Wait! Klein, I need to tell you something…”
She was silent for a long moment, what was she worried about?
“I… Like you, as, I find you…. Attractive, and I may have gotten a little…. overprotective when you got hurt.” Itaro said, her voice stuttering.
‘Oh, that makes things easy.’ Squirrel brain was for once, right.
“I like you too.” I said as I leaned over and kissed her.
submitted by Adventurous-Map-9400 to HFY [link] [comments]
This is a rewrite of my original story ‘Loyalist’.
Credit to u/bluefishcake for writing the original SSB story.
Pizzaulostin who has been beta reading since the beginning.
and u/BruhMomentGEE
Credit to u/HollowShel for getting me started with this!
This story is based in the SSB universe.
Previous
First
next
as always, comments are welcome.
Chapter 17:
Thanks to the author of Alien-Nation for editing this chapter!Ruhal:
“We are sorry about the restraints. Your dossier has a security lock from the Office of Interior that I can’t even read, and all our supervisor could tell us was ‘interview with caution’,” one of the two agents explained.I regarded my handcuffs with professional disapproval. They had a longer than regular chain for ambulatory movement and inmate processing, by the deep, I could even use them as garrote if needed. They had revealed the limits of their rank with that apology.
“No need to worry. I am sure this will be a formality in less than an hour,” I told them, if there was one thing that was in abundance on the planet Sky it was Interior and undercover commando trainees. I hoped this would probably be their most interesting case all month.
“So, would you care to explain how you are raising a human, that is also considered a military asset?” The agent inquired as she pulled out her slate.
“Of course, Klein surrendered himself and requested medical aid and refugee status. He was willing to answer essential questions regarding human culture that aided in liberating humanity into the Shil’vati Empire. He wouldn’t be safe on Earth anymore, and I mentioned that he was still important in writing my reports. If I had my slate, I could give you the relevant documentation,” I said in a conversational tone, without any of the emotions that weighed the story, and glossing over the specifics.
“No need. I have everything you submitted to the Interior, including his asset designation, the interrogation transcripts, and even his doctor’s contact info. To be honest with you it’s the only reason we haven’t interviewed you yet, even after a dozen calls about a ‘possible trafficked human’ since he arrived. Your information is corroborated with several other departments. The issue now is what the medivac scans found.” The agent pushed a slate towards me with medical notes bolded for emphasis ‘probable severe abuse’.
“The report shows a recent history of blunt force trauma, abrasions, and even muscle tearing, in short. It looks like the human has been systematically tortured for months. You also have recently requested restricted training armor in the human’s size.” The agent explained.
Ah, that was my mistake. I had been treating Klein as another child, just with some unique needs. It looks like there were other considerations, ones that I failed to see.
“I really do need my omni-slate to illustrate this, it’s on my desk right now if one of your assistants could get it?” I asked, hoping they got the suggestion to not leave me with only one interrogator in the room so they wouldn’t be graded too harshly.
They thankfully acquiesced without comment, and with my omni-slate in hand I pulled up the latest video of Klein practicing with me, the speed and brutality was difficult for me to sit through. Then, Klein pulled off his helmet seconds later, laughing in the rain. Unconcerned that, without armor, we could have just killed each other- I was grateful he had, else it might’ve been interpreted quite differently. “The bruising mostly from everyday participation at a Rakiri gym, and some remnants from before I got proper gear for baton practice. He heals extremely fast, and more so, he isn’t happy unless he exercises for at least an hour or two a day.”
I pulled up another video. Klein was sitting at the table bouncing his leg at an ever-increasing pace while trying to focus on a decently complex equation. He finally stood up and started pacing mouthing words as he skipped in time to an unheard rhythm.
“W-what’s he doing?” The agent asked, looking just a tad disturbed by the display of what seemed erratic behavior.
“A sort of dance while playing the song ‘a fine mesh net’ on his headphones. There was a monsoon that Shel weekend, and even I’m not crazy enough to fight in a thunderstorm like that. He does that around the house for an hour, and then finally settles in on a video game,” I explained to the agents, who were looking at me dubiously.
“So, you oversee an adolescent who is an intelligence asset, but also seems poorly fitted for Shil’vati life. Why the baton practice? Wouldn’t that make him even more dangerous, more of an outsider? Are you trying to sabotage his integration? Why not take him shopping, instead, or teach him beauty and self-care routines?” They were antagonizing. Countering every argument to see how I reacted. It seemed they could at least interrogate decently well.
“I hardly call a few quirks ‘poor fitting’. The baton practice is for obvious self-defense. Its intention is to make him dangerous,” I explained, letting the interviewers lead the conversation.
The back and forth went on for a while, but I presented a highlight reel of the last few months. Including a Rakiri gym video when Klein tried to flourish a wall climb and smashed his shoulder on the ledge while face planting into the mud.
The agents would not be arresting me today. They would need medical reports, and would require Klein, Hario, and Compassion Through Deeds to attest while truth scanned that these were sports injuries, and not some conspiracy to commit torture. We were also going to need to see an ICAD agent every two weeks for counseling. I had no idea what ICAD was, but I would investigate them later.
Finally, the agents appeared they were closing up the interview. I tried not to brace myself as they asked the complicated question. “One thing we need to know is, what is Klein to you? If he is just a crucial asset, then why haven’t you contacted a local volunteer family foster? Or was the military asset just a cover to find a male heir?”
I sighed, the truth wasn’t incriminating, but if I didn’t word it right, I would look like the worst sort of military tourist. “I had, originally, taken care of Klein as a key intelligence asset. Within that first week though, I had found that despite the decades of preparation, there wasn’t a process for someone to claim asylum as a child during first contact. He would be in military bureaucratic limbo without an advocate. We both know where he would end up.”
The room cooled by several degrees, which was a pity, I almost got the talkative agent to laugh at Klein’s antics. “Out of duty I investigated ways I could bring him home until I could find resources to place him in a stable situation with all the resources to help a xeno without a community. I found someone who was willing to help in exchange for reports on Klein’s adaptation to Shil’vati lifestyle. That’s Klein’s purpose as a military asset in my home.”
I continued. I was saying more on than I needed to, but if they did a follow up investigation later for some other incident, which was a when, not if, then I wanted this on record. “Klein has become part of this household though, despite, or maybe because, of his oddities. He may not be Shil’vati, but he seems to have integrated well. It’s why, while it was never my intention, when he is an adult, I will offer him full adoption, and title of home guardian.”
I watched the agents exchange looks, then the agent made a few taps on her slate. ‘Upper left, middle center, probably a message app’. I then listened for the telltale taps of a yes as a micro expression of a self-satisfied smile crossed the agent’s face. I decided to stop playing interviewee.
“So, you won the bet on if I would claim the human as my son, how long has that pool been building?” I asked folding my hands together.
The agent answered before she could think. “Two months… Wait!? How did you-”
The agent was cut off by the squawk of the slate’s speaker. “Agents you did well enough with the interview portion, however; you absolutely failed to secure the subject. Could you please illustrate to them why I stressed caution {petal of death’s veil}?”
The code name wasn’t one I had heard in decades, but I wasn’t going to snub an old handler. I kicked on my fast reaction mods to max speed and lunged over the table past the still sitting agents. I pirouetted and twisted the restraints into a loop as I brought them down over the left agent’s head and pulled back carefully, lightly touching the chain of my restraints around the neck of the agent before she could even react.
I kicked off my mods and caught my breath as time returned to normal. Both agents’ eyes went wide with shock as the one not about to be strangled tried to get away to pull out her weapon. “W-who are you!?”
“I’m going to slowly release you and put my hands up, is that everything you needed {hated old friend}?” I directed my question to the slate, using the code High Shil word to show I was playing along.
“More than enough. Agent! Holster your weapon and come back to the safe room. We need to go over security procedures,” the slate responded, and the very brief confrontation was over.
The agents walked out, and Siltan stomped in looking like she could bring about a thunderstorm by pure force of will. “We weren’t the only ones to get visits from the ‘majesty’s’ Interior today. Cee let me know that the Interior is also interrogated Reqellia as well.”
I now understood why these two rookies were here. It was a distraction for me. I grumbled as I picked up my slate and called Reqellia. Her face appeared a second later.
“By the Deep, it’s been a long day,” Reqellia breathed out as I heard a door slam, then she cursed some more.
“Tell me everything. Is Klein ok?” I asked.
“Cee says he’s fine and is waking him up. Klein might be getting a mod himself before she closes him up though because, oh- looks like it’s my day is going to get longer still. ICAD is here, and it’s a Hydrean in a Gearschilde clinic.” Reqellia hung up, and I stared at the phone in confusion.
It was time to find out what ICAD was.
Klein:
I blearily came to, as high powered, piercing white light flooded my half open eyes. I tried to move my arm to shield my face and found I couldn’t. Actually, I couldn't move or even feel anything from the neck down.I started to panic as I turned my head, focusing on lettering on a terminal, tried to sigh, and felt what few muscles I could control turn to lead as I sank back on the medical bed. Thank the goddess, it was Shil and Gearschilde lettering on the slate and medical supplies.
“Good afternoon Klein, are you okay? Your heart rate spiked.” I heard Cee, or full name Compassion Through Deeds, speak and turned my head to see her. She wore a dark red lab coat and regarded me with unblinking cybernetic eyes. Most of her orange skin had been replaced with dark steel etched with stylized waves and swirls of silver. Her face still emoted in a pleasant smile, but had that uncanny valley look of unblemished synth skin. I looked down to see a dozen micro surgical tools still inside me.
I should have been screaming at the sight, but all I felt was relief and joy. “Yeah, I just worried for a half second that I had hallucinated the last few months and was actually on a back on Earth on some black-market operating table getting my kidney stolen.”
Cee was aghast. “Does that happen on Earth?”
I would shrug, but again, I couldn’t move, instead I responded. “Rumors of it happening, but I never knew anyone personally.”
Cee reassured me. “Well, good news Klein, you are on Sky, you are in a Gearschilde clinic where stealing vital organs is a legal, moral and religious crime of unrepentant severity. What I have done is remove your appendix, and let the sedatives wear off so we can discuss what you want in its place.”
“In place of my appendix? Why?” I asked, it wasn’t like I really needed the vestigial organ turn internal hand grenade.
“Customary in Gearschilde for surgery is to be about giving a better life than just taking from the body. So, any ideas of what would make your life better?”
I thought about the bruising, the constant having to put healing patches on, and the annoyance of doing so. I thought about the near fatality of almost blowing my appendix, and if something could have fixed the issue before it got out of hand. “What about a healing dispenser? I keep having to put on patches and gel at the end of the day, and if I miss a spot, I will pay for it later.”
Cee gave me a grateful expression. “That’s a perfect first implant. I was worried you were going to ask for something more aggressive. When I was your age, I got my first defensive mod, a retractable forearm knife. Of course, my next surgery was being stitched back together after accidently stabbing myself with it.”
I tried to chuckle, but I didn’t have control of my diaphragm for it. “So, what’s next?”
Cee explained. “Well, the fabricator in the other room is right now creating your implant. It shouldn’t take long; are you ok being immobilized for the next hour or so?”
I thought about it, and honestly, I was still surprised I wasn’t panicking. “No, but I’m going to get really bored just laying here, do the Gearschilde have any good myths or stories?”
I knew I was fishing in an untapped pool that was guaranteed to have something. I wasn’t expecting my doctor to be gleeful at the thought though. “Oh blessed be you child, I am a surgeon priest, half the reason I am in this vocation is to tell stories. I take it you know nothing about Gearschilde mythology, or even our history?”
It was on my list of rabbit holes to get into, but instead I binged the rest of Prince Of The Stars and cried, it was nice. “No, but I would love to hear them.”
“Well if you want to, every Shel we have open services and brunch. But since you are new to Gearschilde mythology we should start with one of my favorites. The story of the Hopestrider.”
The ceiling lights dimmed, and the sterile operating room felt surprisingly cozy as I leaned my head back. Listening to Cee starting up the tale. “Our sect requires us to lead what can best be called ‘child technician classes’. Learning to take care of machines, which includes us by the start of adolescence, if not before. It’s a critical life skill, and teaching it is considered an important part of our religious studies.”
‘Cyberpunk VeggieTales’ Squirrel brain chittered.
No one wants your opinion squirrel brain. I thought back.
Cee’s story: Hope Strider
“Long ago our world was full of harsh life. The valleys were often filled with poisonous mists and deadly predators that could rip apart even the strongest of our people. The mountain kingdoms were brutal fiefdoms that sent many to their deaths mining precious metals from the dangerous wastes of the valleys. Drilling into the heart of the mountains provided the power necessary to purify water, and later, steam engines turned those fiefdoms into empires. Expanding into the wastes using the lowest class of people as its foundation.”Cee paused for dramatic effect. “Then, everything changed.”
“The ground shook, and the mountain kingdoms erupted in fire and molten rock. Radioactive dust from these now volcanoes made the centers of civilization barren and deadly. Only the wasteland colonies in the poisonous mists provided any refuge, and so king and commoner alike huddled in the once disposable outposts of a ruined world. Our story starts a generation after the calamity with an unlucky child.”
I heard a ding, Cee stopped as the ceiling lights came up. “Oh dear, let me stop for a second to get the implant.”
I leaned back and thought about her nightmare world. When Cee returned, I didn’t even bother to open my eyes, too engrossed in the imagery of the story. “What happened to the child?”
I could hear the whirring as she started to work. Her voice I realized had taken a more scripted cadence. She must have automated her voice so she could focus. “In a metalworker’s home, a child was born with broken legs and brittle bones. It was common in those days for such a child to die that way. It was their first born and the parents did everything they could to save them. A surgeon was called. The child lost their legs, but kept their life.”
“The child lived in the workshop. Kept warm by the hearth’s fire, even unable to walk, they were curious. Day in and out, they watched their parents construct machines that helped the community make food, filter the air, and defend the homes from the starving, mutated, monsters that circled the fortress walls. The child felt helpless though. Only able to crawl within the confines of the home or be carried around like cargo about the maze-like town of winding stairs and narrow passageways.
“They spent much of their time learning, sitting near the hearth to keep warm, they did the careful work of filing gears and wheels needed to control what could be automated as each hand replaced was another that could be spent doing something else critical to keep the community alive. Still, the child wanted to do more. They could not deliver what they made, and had to rely on others to help them at every turn in life.”
“Little did the child know that in the hearth a machine spirit lived, getting by eating scrap metal that fell in and sleeping at night on the bed of embers. The machine spirit saw the child’s wish, an invention without form, and turned it into a dream for the child, since new machines would mean new machine spirits to play with.”
That night the child saw themselves flying over the cold gray landscape on a pair of machine legs. Traveling the dangerous paths to other towns, and giving the isolated towns hope and community. The child awoke with joy and crawled over to his workbench littered with scrap metal, now children….”
Cee stopped talking and her voice went back to an unscripted rhythm. “I just realized we can’t do the practical part of this story. In class each kid gets a hope strider stuffy with snaps to attach legs they make. We give them bits of copper. Show them how to bend and hammer it, and how to bond it by wrapping the joint in solder and then applying heat with a soldering iron heated in their own toy ‘hearth’ with a safety cover. Still we get a daily small burn or cut, but that in itself is a valuable lesson in tool safety.”
It sounded adorable in a weird, steampunk way. “Sounds fun, so, new legs?”
Cee got the que, as much as I loved the story, and the talk about kindergarten metal shop, I was still immobilized on the operating table. I heard surgical whirring, and the scripted voice came back. “Yes, the child works all night until they fit the new legs on, and for the first time stand up on their own! The parents are overjoyed as they watch them move about the house and that afternoon, with the help of an iron bar as a cane, they walk around their community by themselves.”
“However, it isn’t long before the legs start to see wear and tear, but the child persists, not wanting to stop and fix the creaking joints, until one day the legs stop working altogether and they fall down in a twisting staircase. Carried back to the workshop, they rest for days to heal before they are able to work again. Constructing a new set from the remains of the old. Now…”
Klein:
Cee stopped again, but this time she had moved away from me and was putting the now bloody surgical tools into a sanitizing system. “We're done! I am going to start removing the nerve blocks, so you’re going to be sore, but if things get too painful, let me know. Please, try not to move anything but your hands right now, even then I would advise against it.”My whole body had that pins and needles feel and I tried to move my fingers, but it was sporadic and jerky. Cee distracted me by explaining my new implant. “So, this implant is very basic. It can only be requested to send diagnostic data. The implant only administers more healing serum at a safe, steady rate if, and only if, it doesn’t detect any in your bloodstream. There is an injection site with a color change circle around it. It uses standard go, caution, stop colors to let you know if it’s functioning. I want to wave your omni-pad over the site and check the diagnostics at least once a day. It should hopefully catch if something like this is happening again.”
I tried to not move as I felt my body twitch. My gut felt like I had been run over, repeatedly. I asked, “why didn’t my medical monitoring implant catch this?”
Cee explained. “That’s only good for basic vitals. Near universal indicators of life and activity such as heart rate and blood pressure. The new implant will be able to scan for elevated protein counts. So, if one of your other internal organs starts to malfunction you can get a more unambiguous message that I hope you won’t ignore before getting medivac’d through the city.”
I chuckled a little at that, and it hurt. “Ow, ok, no movement. I thought it was just a pulled muscle or something.”
Cee looked down at me sternly, and her voice took on a deeper, more authoritative tone. “Child, more than enough Gearschilde have died thinking they can just, push themselves past their organic parts failing, if you have a torn muscle that hurts after you’ve used healing gel, then it’s serious enough you need to come see me, or another xeno-doctor, immediately. That’s why I hope your new implant can fix things before it gets to that point.”
Cee brightened after that and went back to the explanation of my implant. “Now that I scolded you, there is a color changing circle over your implant’s location. It will change color when the healing serum runs low, or and will start to flash in color, and try to ping your omni-pad if it detects a malfunction. The implant uses a standard Shil’ implant autoinjector, and it will reject anything not meant for red blood standard biology, but still be careful, it’s not a perfect filtering system. Today I’m giving you a set of autoinjectors I want you to use throughout the week. It's fortunate that your implant’s primary function will speed up your recovery time.”
Ok, that’s cool to know, but.
‘What happened to Hopestrider?!’ Squirrel brain demanded.
“So, the story, what happens next?” I asked as Cee helped me sit up. My stomach still hurt, but the feeling was in the overworked muscle category rather than a gut punch.
Cee started to explain as I put on what was essentially gym clothes. Soft, baggy pants and shirt with easy pull away tabs if they needed to remove the clothes quickly for checkups and surgical intervention. “Well, we don’t have time to go over the Hope Strider as a story, or even a summary, but if you want to, my husband teaches the child technician class during open services on Shel, you could sit in and listen.
Right now, I will give you a family crafted picture book that tells the core story of Hope Strider growing up, and making their first delivery. After that it’s a loose selection of legends that are attributed to Hope Strider as they grow older and more accomplished, but while I get that book, I need you to speak to someone.”
Cee led me out of the operating room, and into a comfortable looking lounge where a… Hydrean was sitting in an Imperial business uniform reading an omni-pad. My brain pulled everything I knew of Hydreans out. A rabbit hole I had dug into one rainy Shel on the public information repositories.
She, they, single gendered I reminded myself, looked up and smiled at me calmly, mouth closed for politeness. Their skin was grass green with artful patches of bark on her face and neck, the result of cosmetic scarification. They looked human, or Shil’oid, but that was purposefully done. Even the somewhat standard looking ‘desert walker’ Hydreans normally had more, or less, limbs than standard. Biological modification was at the root of all Hydrean technology, ancient as the stone ax to other species.
I thought about how contentious Hydrean/Shil relationships were said to be. Their arid home planet was off limits to all but certified personnel who had been trained how to handle the dangerous mix of flora/fauna that instead of being different groups, was just a single taxonomy that had no distinction between predator and prey. With their complex biology, a Hydrean needed to undergo extensive body modification just to exist off their home world.
Cee left the room with a friendly goodbye and offered assistance “Hello Klein, I am Ka’tel. It’s wonderful to meet you. I am with the Imperial Child Assistance Division, or ICAD. My job is to help interspecies fosters and adoptions. How are you feeling today?”
I caught a glimpse of her teeth as they spoke. Triangular, and made of burnished metal meant to tear off chunks of animal, plant, or even rock, whole and let their stomachs’ mix of acids dissolve it into something the rest their body could use.
‘The agent in charge of your welfare is a plant/animal hybrid with a diet of ‘yes’, your doctor is a wholesome orange 40K mechanicus, and your crush is a were-lion, you are not ok .’ Squirrel brain remarked.
“I’m actually pretty good, despite the surgery, it’s actually a common issue for humans.” I said to Ka’tel, because my life was weird before the aliens, squirrel brain was just being a pessimistic asshole.
“Really? Do you know what caused it?” Ka’tel asked.
“It just, happens? Gets irritated or infected and then you need to get it removed.” I said nonchalantly. Ka’tel made a mark on her omni-pad.
“How did you know? It seems dangerous if it can happen suddenly, and you mentioned it before you passed out.” Ka’tel asked tone friendly and conversational.
“Oh, the side of your stomach hurts. I was hoping it was just a pulled muscle bec- Dammit!” I just remembered what happened before I woke up here.
“The raid game! Ko’tasa would have had to substitute for me and she’s not well balanced for our team mix.” I said with a exasperated sigh.
Ka’tel cocked their head to one side, but the tone in her voice was humorous. “You were willing to ignore a possible life-threatening condition for a game?”
I explained, though I felt idiotic now. “I couldn’t tell. I get sore muscles all the time from gym, and sparing, and even from the auxiliary work, honestly my commandant doesn’t really know where to put me sometimes. Last week I helped with road clearing for the new town to go up a few [miles] away, and the girls could barely keep up with me.”
Ka’tel seemed to be enjoying my rambling. “Sounds like you really get put to work.”
“Not really? The auxiliary is the only work I do, and if I wanted to stop I just, can. It’s not like I need to worry about buying food.” I knew what I was saying seemed strange while living in the Imperium.
It was the first hint that Ka’tel was controlling her expressions when she seemed more attentive and… relieved? “That’s delightful news to hear! Is there anything about your living situation that bothers you?”
I paused and thought about it, and really couldn’t see anything. “Not really?”
“Anything, or anyone, you miss from Earth?” Ka’tel asked, stressing that last bit, dropping a mental bomb on my head and I froze, mouth partly open with a half formed response. When was the last time I even thought about Earth as more than an abstract concept? It hadn’t been [six months] since I left but…
I didn’t feel anything.
The last year I lived on Earth, it was like being a ghost. I saw people, I even talked to people, but it was like a thick plate of glass all around me. Today I felt color, and life, and things, but that last year on Earth?
Like radio static.
I looked at Ka’tel, and their expression was one of controlled neutrality. Why was I not freaking out?
I had a sensation of the room spinning. I asked, “No, I don’t really feel anything about Earth, is that normal?”
“I don’t know Klein, by most sentient standards what you went through was unusual, and from what little I know about humans that isn’t propaganda, it’s unusual for humans as well. What I do know is right now you seem happy and healthy, and that’s my top priority.” Ka’tel said as they stood and offered me a stiff plastic card with their contact details on it.
“We will be chatting every other week to see how you are adjusting. I might ask to visit you at the youth auxiliary depot, the gym or at home. I really am glad to see you are doing just fine, but if you ever need a way out, that card has an emergency signal function, just pull the plastic tab.” Ka’tel told me, and was about to open the door before I spoke up.
“How should I refer to you?” I asked, and once they realized, Ka’tel gave me a genuine, toothed, smile that was both menacing and goofy at the same time.
“Most people don’t learn enough Hydrean biology to ask. Her, that’s how everyone in the office sees me, and it’s more convenient socially.” She said, opening the door to an anxious looking Itaro standing next to a serious Ruhal and Reqellia.
“I need to speak to you Ruhal, and Reqellia, you should join us for this conversation as well.” Ka’tel said as she ushered me out.
Cee led us into a gaming room with a long table on one side, and a set of couches facing the wall to wall display on the other. She handed me an overloaded plate of cookies with bottle of water, and stepped out, closing the door behind us. “Eat those, your stomach has healed, but it’s going to need calories to fuel the recovery.”
Only then did I realize I was salivating at the smell of warm sugar, and flour made of Kasan grain, if I was identifying the green color correctly. I put the plate of cookies on the table, and snarfed them as I sat down.
After swallowing the fourth cookie semi-whole, I looked up to see Itaro’s face fighting a war between impatient, apprehensive, and hopeful. I stopped, realizing what I was doing, and sipped some water to stall for time.
I was about to pull my omni-pad out from my pockets when Itaro suddenly put her hand out to stop me. “Wait! Klein, I need to tell you something…”
She was silent for a long moment, what was she worried about?
“I… Like you, as, I find you…. Attractive, and I may have gotten a little…. overprotective when you got hurt.” Itaro said, her voice stuttering.
‘Oh, that makes things easy.’ Squirrel brain was for once, right.
“I like you too.” I said as I leaned over and kissed her.
///// Author’s Commentary
Wow! I couldn’t find a good stopping point so I just kept writing and writing and… It turned into something over 5 thousand words. I spent the last day trying to figure out clear up a few parts. This week I have some time off! So there will probably be another chapter sooner rather than later.2023.04.01 01:21 Adventurous-Map-9400 Growing Up Alien Chapter 17
A homeless teenager reaches out to the Shil’vati on first day of the invasion of Earth.
This is a rewrite of my original story ‘Loyalist’.
Credit to u/bluefishcake for writing the original SSB story.
Pizzaulostin who has been beta reading since the beginning.
and u/BruhMomentGEE
Credit to u/HollowShel for getting me started with this!
This story is based in the SSB universe.
Previous
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as always, comments are welcome.
I regarded my handcuffs with professional disapproval. They had a longer than regular chain for ambulatory movement and inmate processing, by the deep, I could even use them as garrote if needed. They had revealed the limits of their rank with that apology.
“No need to worry. I am sure this will be a formality in less than an hour,” I told them, if there was one thing that was in abundance on the planet Sky it was Interior and undercover commando trainees. I hoped this would probably be their most interesting case all month.
“So, would you care to explain how you are raising a human, that is also considered a military asset?” The agent inquired as she pulled out her slate.
“Of course, Klein surrendered himself and requested medical aid and refugee status. He was willing to answer essential questions regarding human culture that aided in liberating humanity into the Shil’vati Empire. He wouldn’t be safe on Earth anymore, and I mentioned that he was still important in writing my reports. If I had my slate, I could give you the relevant documentation,” I said in a conversational tone, without any of the emotions that weighed the story, and glossing over the specifics.
“No need. I have everything you submitted to the Interior, including his asset designation, the interrogation transcripts, and even his doctor’s contact info. To be honest with you it’s the only reason we haven’t interviewed you yet, even after a dozen calls about a ‘possible trafficked human’ since he arrived. Your information is corroborated with several other departments. The issue now is what the medivac scans found.” The agent pushed a slate towards me with medical notes bolded for emphasis ‘probable severe abuse’.
“The report shows a recent history of blunt force trauma, abrasions, and even muscle tearing, in short. It looks like the human has been systematically tortured for months. You also have recently requested restricted training armor in the human’s size.” The agent explained.
Ah, that was my mistake. I had been treating Klein as another child, just with some unique needs. It looks like there were other considerations, ones that I failed to see.
“I really do need my omni-slate to illustrate this, it’s on my desk right now if one of your assistants could get it?” I asked, hoping they got the suggestion to not leave me with only one interrogator in the room so they wouldn’t be graded too harshly.
They thankfully acquiesced without comment, and with my omni-slate in hand I pulled up the latest video of Klein practicing with me, the speed and brutality was difficult for me to sit through. Then, Klein pulled off his helmet seconds later, laughing in the rain. Unconcerned that, without armor, we could have just killed each other- I was grateful he had, else it might’ve been interpreted quite differently. “The bruising mostly from everyday participation at a Rakiri gym, and some remnants from before I got proper gear for baton practice. He heals extremely fast, and more so, he isn’t happy unless he exercises for at least an hour or two a day.”
I pulled up another video. Klein was sitting at the table bouncing his leg at an ever-increasing pace while trying to focus on a decently complex equation. He finally stood up and started pacing mouthing words as he skipped in time to an unheard rhythm.
“W-what’s he doing?” The agent asked, looking just a tad disturbed by the display of what seemed erratic behavior.
“A sort of dance while playing the song ‘a fine mesh net’ on his headphones. There was a monsoon that Shel weekend, and even I’m not crazy enough to fight in a thunderstorm like that. He does that around the house for an hour, and then finally settles in on a video game,” I explained to the agents, who were looking at me dubiously.
“So, you oversee an adolescent who is an intelligence asset, but also seems poorly fitted for Shil’vati life. Why the baton practice? Wouldn’t that make him even more dangerous, more of an outsider? Are you trying to sabotage his integration? Why not take him shopping, instead, or teach him beauty and self-care routines?” They were antagonizing. Countering every argument to see how I reacted. It seemed they could at least interrogate decently well.
“I hardly call a few quirks ‘poor fitting’. The baton practice is for obvious self-defense. Its intention is to make him dangerous,” I explained, letting the interviewers lead the conversation.
The back and forth went on for a while, but I presented a highlight reel of the last few months. Including a Rakiri gym video when Klein tried to flourish a wall climb and smashed his shoulder on the ledge while face planting into the mud.
The agents would not be arresting me today. They would need medical reports, and would require Klein, Hario, and Compassion Through Deeds to attest while truth scanned that these were sports injuries, and not some conspiracy to commit torture. We were also going to need to see an ICAD agent every two weeks for counseling. I had no idea what ICAD was, but I would investigate them later.
Finally, the agents appeared they were closing up the interview. I tried not to brace myself as they asked the complicated question. “One thing we need to know is, what is Klein to you? If he is just a crucial asset, then why haven’t you contacted a local volunteer family foster? Or was the military asset just a cover to find a male heir?”
I sighed, the truth wasn’t incriminating, but if I didn’t word it right, I would look like the worst sort of military tourist. “I had, originally, taken care of Klein as a key intelligence asset. Within that first week though, I had found that despite the decades of preparation, there wasn’t a process for someone to claim asylum as a child during first contact. He would be in military bureaucratic limbo without an advocate. We both know where he would end up.”
The room cooled by several degrees, which was a pity, I almost got the talkative agent to laugh at Klein’s antics. “Out of duty I investigated ways I could bring him home until I could find resources to place him in a stable situation with all the resources to help a xeno without a community. I found someone who was willing to help in exchange for reports on Klein’s adaptation to Shil’vati lifestyle. That’s Klein’s purpose as a military asset in my home.”
I continued. I was saying more on than I needed to, but if they did a follow up investigation later for some other incident, which was a when, not if, then I wanted this on record. “Klein has become part of this household though, despite, or maybe because, of his oddities. He may not be Shil’vati, but he seems to have integrated well. It’s why, while it was never my intention, when he is an adult, I will offer him full adoption, and title of home guardian.”
I watched the agents exchange looks, then the agent made a few taps on her slate. ‘Upper left, middle center, probably a message app’. I then listened for the telltale taps of a yes as a micro expression of a self-satisfied smile crossed the agent’s face. I decided to stop playing interviewee.
“So, you won the bet on if I would claim the human as my son, how long has that pool been building?” I asked folding my hands together.
The agent answered before she could think. “Two months… Wait!? How did you-”
The agent was cut off by the squawk of the slate’s speaker. “Agents you did well enough with the interview portion, however; you absolutely failed to secure the subject. Could you please illustrate to them why I stressed caution {petal of death’s veil}?”
The code name wasn’t one I had heard in decades, but I wasn’t going to snub an old handler. I kicked on my fast reaction mods to max speed and lunged over the table past the still sitting agents. I pirouetted and twisted the restraints into a loop as I brought them down over the left agent’s head and pulled back carefully, lightly touching the chain of my restraints around the neck of the agent before she could even react.
I kicked off my mods and caught my breath as time returned to normal. Both agents’ eyes went wide with shock as the one not about to be strangled tried to get away to pull out her weapon. “W-who are you!?”
“I’m going to slowly release you and put my hands up, is that everything you needed {hated old friend}?” I directed my question to the slate, using the code High Shil word to show I was playing along.
“More than enough. Agent! Holster your weapon and come back to the safe room. We need to go over security procedures,” the slate responded, and the very brief confrontation was over.
The agents walked out, and Siltan stomped in looking like she could bring about a thunderstorm by pure force of will. “We weren’t the only ones to get visits from the ‘majesty’s’ Interior today. Cee let me know that the Interior is also interrogated Reqellia as well.”
I now understood why these two rookies were here. It was a distraction for me. I grumbled as I picked up my slate and called Reqellia. Her face appeared a second later.
“By the Deep, it’s been a long day,” Reqellia breathed out as I heard a door slam, then she cursed some more.
“Tell me everything. Is Klein ok?” I asked.
“Cee says he’s fine and is waking him up. Klein might be getting a mod himself before she closes him up though because, oh- looks like it’s my day is going to get longer still. ICAD is here, and it’s a Hydrean in a Gearschilde clinic.” Reqellia hung up, and I stared at the phone in confusion.
It was time to find out what ICAD was.
I started to panic as I turned my head, focusing on lettering on a terminal, tried to sigh, and felt what few muscles I could control turn to lead as I sank back on the medical bed. Thank the goddess, it was Shil and Gearschilde lettering on the slate and medical supplies.
“Good afternoon Klein, are you okay? Your heart rate spiked.” I heard Cee, or full name Compassion Through Deeds, speak and turned my head to see her. She wore a dark red lab coat and regarded me with unblinking cybernetic eyes. Most of her orange skin had been replaced with dark steel etched with stylized waves and swirls of silver. Her face still emoted in a pleasant smile, but had that uncanny valley look of unblemished synth skin. I looked down to see a dozen micro surgical tools still inside me.
I should have been screaming at the sight, but all I felt was relief and joy. “Yeah, I just worried for a half second that I had hallucinated the last few months and was actually on a back on Earth on some black-market operating table getting my kidney stolen.”
Cee was aghast. “Does that happen on Earth?”
I would shrug, but again, I couldn’t move, instead I responded. “Rumors of it happening, but I never knew anyone personally.”
Cee reassured me. “Well, good news Klein, you are on Sky, you are in a Gearschilde clinic where stealing vital organs is a legal, moral and religious crime of unrepentant severity. What I have done is remove your appendix, and let the sedatives wear off so we can discuss what you want in its place.”
“In place of my appendix? Why?” I asked, it wasn’t like I really needed the vestigial organ turn internal hand grenade.
“Customary in Gearschilde for surgery is to be about giving a better life than just taking from the body. So, any ideas of what would make your life better?”
I thought about the bruising, the constant having to put healing patches on, and the annoyance of doing so. I thought about the near fatality of almost blowing my appendix, and if something could have fixed the issue before it got out of hand. “What about a healing dispenser? I keep having to put on patches and gel at the end of the day, and if I miss a spot, I will pay for it later.”
Cee gave me a grateful expression. “That’s a perfect first implant. I was worried you were going to ask for something more aggressive. When I was your age, I got my first defensive mod, a retractable forearm knife. Of course, my next surgery was being stitched back together after accidently stabbing myself with it.”
I tried to chuckle, but I didn’t have control of my diaphragm for it. “So, what’s next?”
Cee explained. “Well, the fabricator in the other room is right now creating your implant. It shouldn’t take long; are you ok being immobilized for the next hour or so?”
I thought about it, and honestly, I was still surprised I wasn’t panicking. “No, but I’m going to get really bored just laying here, do the Gearschilde have any good myths or stories?”
I knew I was fishing in an untapped pool that was guaranteed to have something. I wasn’t expecting my doctor to be gleeful at the thought though. “Oh blessed be you child, I am a surgeon priest, half the reason I am in this vocation is to tell stories. I take it you know nothing about Gearschilde mythology, or even our history?”
It was on my list of rabbit holes to get into, but instead I binged the rest of Prince Of The Stars and cried, it was nice. “No, but I would love to hear them.”
“Well if you want to, every Shel we have open services and brunch. But since you are new to Gearschilde mythology we should start with one of my favorites. The story of the Hopestrider.”
The ceiling lights dimmed, and the sterile operating room felt surprisingly cozy as I leaned my head back. Listening to Cee starting up the tale. “Our sect requires us to lead what can best be called ‘child technician classes’. Learning to take care of machines, which includes us by the start of adolescence, if not before. It’s a critical life skill, and teaching it is considered an important part of our religious studies.”
‘Cyberpunk VeggieTales’ Squirrel brain chittered.
No one wants your opinion squirrel brain. I thought back.
Cee paused for dramatic effect. “Then, everything changed.”
“The ground shook, and the mountain kingdoms erupted in fire and molten rock. Radioactive dust from these now volcanoes made the centers of civilization barren and deadly. Only the wasteland colonies in the poisonous mists provided any refuge, and so king and commoner alike huddled in the once disposable outposts of a ruined world. Our story starts a generation after the calamity with an unlucky child.”
I heard a ding, Cee stopped as the ceiling lights came up. “Oh dear, let me stop for a second to get the implant.”
I leaned back and thought about her nightmare world. When Cee returned, I didn’t even bother to open my eyes, too engrossed in the imagery of the story. “What happened to the child?”
I could hear the whirring as she started to work. Her voice I realized had taken a more scripted cadence. She must have automated her voice so she could focus. “In a metalworker’s home, a child was born with broken legs and brittle bones. It was common in those days for such a child to die that way. It was their first born and the parents did everything they could to save them. A surgeon was called. The child lost their legs, but kept their life.”
“The child lived in the workshop. Kept warm by the hearth’s fire, even unable to walk, they were curious. Day in and out, they watched their parents construct machines that helped the community make food, filter the air, and defend the homes from the starving, mutated, monsters that circled the fortress walls. The child felt helpless though. Only able to crawl within the confines of the home or be carried around like cargo about the maze-like town of winding stairs and narrow passageways.
“They spent much of their time learning, sitting near the hearth to keep warm, they did the careful work of filing gears and wheels needed to control what could be automated as each hand replaced was another that could be spent doing something else critical to keep the community alive. Still, the child wanted to do more. They could not deliver what they made, and had to rely on others to help them at every turn in life.”
“Little did the child know that in the hearth a machine spirit lived, getting by eating scrap metal that fell in and sleeping at night on the bed of embers. The machine spirit saw the child’s wish, an invention without form, and turned it into a dream for the child, since new machines would mean new machine spirits to play with.”
That night the child saw themselves flying over the cold gray landscape on a pair of machine legs. Traveling the dangerous paths to other towns, and giving the isolated towns hope and community. The child awoke with joy and crawled over to his workbench littered with scrap metal, now children….”
Cee stopped talking and her voice went back to an unscripted rhythm. “I just realized we can’t do the practical part of this story. In class each kid gets a hope strider stuffy with snaps to attach legs they make. We give them bits of copper. Show them how to bend and hammer it, and how to bond it by wrapping the joint in solder and then applying heat with a soldering iron heated in their own toy ‘hearth’ with a safety cover. Still we get a daily small burn or cut, but that in itself is a valuable lesson in tool safety.”
It sounded adorable in a weird, steampunk way. “Sounds fun, so, new legs?”
Cee got the que, as much as I loved the story, and the talk about kindergarten metal shop, I was still immobilized on the operating table. I heard surgical whirring, and the scripted voice came back. “Yes, the child works all night until they fit the new legs on, and for the first time stand up on their own! The parents are overjoyed as they watch them move about the house and that afternoon, with the help of an iron bar as a cane, they walk around their community by themselves.”
“However, it isn’t long before the legs start to see wear and tear, but the child persists, not wanting to stop and fix the creaking joints, until one day the legs stop working altogether and they fall down in a twisting staircase. Carried back to the workshop, they rest for days to heal before they are able to work again. Constructing a new set from the remains of the old. Now…”
My whole body had that pins and needles feel and I tried to move my fingers, but it was sporadic and jerky. Cee distracted me by explaining my new implant. “So, this implant is very basic. It can only be requested to send diagnostic data. The implant only administers more healing serum at a safe, steady rate if, and only if, it doesn’t detect any in your bloodstream. There is an injection site with a color change circle around it. It uses standard go, caution, stop colors to let you know if it’s functioning. I want to wave your omni-pad over the site and check the diagnostics at least once a day. It should hopefully catch if something like this is happening again.”
I tried to not move as I felt my body twitch. My gut felt like I had been run over, repeatedly. I asked, “why didn’t my medical monitoring implant catch this?”
Cee explained. “That’s only good for basic vitals. Near universal indicators of life and activity such as heart rate and blood pressure. The new implant will be able to scan for elevated protein counts. So, if one of your other internal organs starts to malfunction you can get a more unambiguous message that I hope you won’t ignore before getting medivac’d through the city.”
I chuckled a little at that, and it hurt. “Ow, ok, no movement. I thought it was just a pulled muscle or something.”
Cee looked down at me sternly, and her voice took on a deeper, more authoritative tone. “Child, more than enough Gearschilde have died thinking they can just, push themselves past their organic parts failing, if you have a torn muscle that hurts after you’ve used healing gel, then it’s serious enough you need to come see me, or another xeno-doctor, immediately. That’s why I hope your new implant can fix things before it gets to that point.”
Cee brightened after that and went back to the explanation of my implant. “Now that I scolded you, there is a color changing circle over your implant’s location. It will change color when the healing serum runs low, or and will start to flash in color, and try to ping your omni-pad if it detects a malfunction. The implant uses a standard Shil’ implant autoinjector, and it will reject anything not meant for red blood standard biology, but still be careful, it’s not a perfect filtering system. Today I’m giving you a set of autoinjectors I want you to use throughout the week. It's fortunate that your implant’s primary function will speed up your recovery time.”
Ok, that’s cool to know, but.
‘What happened to Hopestrider?!’ Squirrel brain demanded.
“So, the story, what happens next?” I asked as Cee helped me sit up. My stomach still hurt, but the feeling was in the overworked muscle category rather than a gut punch.
Cee started to explain as I put on what was essentially gym clothes. Soft, baggy pants and shirt with easy pull away tabs if they needed to remove the clothes quickly for checkups and surgical intervention. “Well, we don’t have time to go over the Hope Strider as a story, or even a summary, but if you want to, my husband teaches the child technician class during open services on Shel, you could sit in and listen.
Right now, I will give you a family crafted picture book that tells the core story of Hope Strider growing up, and making their first delivery. After that it’s a loose selection of legends that are attributed to Hope Strider as they grow older and more accomplished, but while I get that book, I need you to speak to someone.”
Cee led me out of the operating room, and into a comfortable looking lounge where a… Hydrean was sitting in an Imperial business uniform reading an omni-pad. My brain pulled everything I knew of Hydreans out. A rabbit hole I had dug into one rainy Shel on the public information repositories.
She, they, single gendered I reminded myself, looked up and smiled at me calmly, mouth closed for politeness. Their skin was grass green with artful patches of bark on her face and neck, the result of cosmetic scarification. They looked human, or Shil’oid, but that was purposefully done. Even the somewhat standard looking ‘desert walker’ Hydreans normally had more, or less, limbs than standard. Biological modification was at the root of all Hydrean technology, ancient as the stone ax to other species.
I thought about how contentious Hydrean/Shil relationships were said to be. Their arid home planet was off limits to all but certified personnel who had been trained how to handle the dangerous mix of flora/fauna that instead of being different groups, was just a single taxonomy that had no distinction between predator and prey. With their complex biology, a Hydrean needed to undergo extensive body modification just to exist off their home world.
Cee left the room with a friendly goodbye and offered assistance “Hello Klein, I am Ka’tel. It’s wonderful to meet you. I am with the Imperial Child Assistance Division, or ICAD. My job is to help interspecies fosters and adoptions. How are you feeling today?”
I caught a glimpse of her teeth as they spoke. Triangular, and made of burnished metal meant to tear off chunks of animal, plant, or even rock, whole and let their stomachs’ mix of acids dissolve it into something the rest their body could use.
‘The agent in charge of your welfare is a plant/animal hybrid with a diet of ‘yes’, your doctor is a wholesome orange 40K mechanicus, and your crush is a were-lion, you are not ok .’ Squirrel brain remarked.
“I’m actually pretty good, despite the surgery, it’s actually a common issue for humans.” I said to Ka’tel, because my life was weird before the aliens, squirrel brain was just being a pessimistic asshole.
“Really? Do you know what caused it?” Ka’tel asked.
“It just, happens? Gets irritated or infected and then you need to get it removed.” I said nonchalantly. Ka’tel made a mark on her omni-pad.
“How did you know? It seems dangerous if it can happen suddenly, and you mentioned it before you passed out.” Ka’tel asked tone friendly and conversational.
“Oh, the side of your stomach hurts. I was hoping it was just a pulled muscle bec- Dammit!” I just remembered what happened before I woke up here.
“The raid game! Ko’tasa would have had to substitute for me and she’s not well balanced for our team mix.” I said with a exasperated sigh.
Ka’tel cocked their head to one side, but the tone in her voice was humorous. “You were willing to ignore a possible life-threatening condition for a game?”
I explained, though I felt idiotic now. “I couldn’t tell. I get sore muscles all the time from gym, and sparing, and even from the auxiliary work, honestly my commandant doesn’t really know where to put me sometimes. Last week I helped with road clearing for the new town to go up a few [miles] away, and the girls could barely keep up with me.”
Ka’tel seemed to be enjoying my rambling. “Sounds like you really get put to work.”
“Not really? The auxiliary is the only work I do, and if I wanted to stop I just, can. It’s not like I need to worry about buying food.” I knew what I was saying seemed strange while living in the Imperium.
It was the first hint that Ka’tel was controlling her expressions when she seemed more attentive and… relieved? “That’s delightful news to hear! Is there anything about your living situation that bothers you?”
I paused and thought about it, and really couldn’t see anything. “Not really?”
“Anything, or anyone, you miss from Earth?” Ka’tel asked, stressing that last bit, dropping a mental bomb on my head and I froze, mouth partly open with a half formed response. When was the last time I even thought about Earth as more than an abstract concept? It hadn’t been [six months] since I left but…
I didn’t feel anything.
The last year I lived on Earth, it was like being a ghost. I saw people, I even talked to people, but it was like a thick plate of glass all around me. Today I felt color, and life, and things, but that last year on Earth?
Like radio static.
I looked at Ka’tel, and their expression was one of controlled neutrality. Why was I not freaking out?
I had a sensation of the room spinning. I asked, “No, I don’t really feel anything about Earth, is that normal?”
“I don’t know Klein, by most sentient standards what you went through was unusual, and from what little I know about humans that isn’t propaganda, it’s unusual for humans as well. What I do know is right now you seem happy and healthy, and that’s my top priority.” Ka’tel said as they stood and offered me a stiff plastic card with their contact details on it.
“We will be chatting every other week to see how you are adjusting. I might ask to visit you at the youth auxiliary depot, the gym or at home. I really am glad to see you are doing just fine, but if you ever need a way out, that card has an emergency signal function, just pull the plastic tab.” Ka’tel told me, and was about to open the door before I spoke up.
“How should I refer to you?” I asked, and once they realized, Ka’tel gave me a genuine, toothed, smile that was both menacing and goofy at the same time.
“Most people don’t learn enough Hydrean biology to ask. Her, that’s how everyone in the office sees me, and it’s more convenient socially.” She said, opening the door to an anxious looking Itaro standing next to a serious Ruhal and Reqellia.
“I need to speak to you Ruhal, and Reqellia, you should join us for this conversation as well.” Ka’tel said as she ushered me out.
Cee led us into a gaming room with a long table on one side, and a set of couches facing the wall to wall display on the other. She handed me an overloaded plate of cookies with bottle of water, and stepped out, closing the door behind us. “Eat those, your stomach has healed, but it’s going to need calories to fuel the recovery.”
Only then did I realize I was salivating at the smell of warm sugar, and flour made of Kasan grain, if I was identifying the green color correctly. I put the plate of cookies on the table, and snarfed them as I sat down.
After swallowing the fourth cookie semi-whole, I looked up to see Itaro’s face fighting a war between impatient, apprehensive, and hopeful. I stopped, realizing what I was doing, and sipped some water to stall for time.
I was about to pull my omni-pad out from my pockets when Itaro suddenly put her hand out to stop me. “Wait! Klein, I need to tell you something…”
She was silent for a long moment, what was she worried about?
“I… Like you, as, I find you…. Attractive, and I may have gotten a little…. overprotective when you got hurt.” Itaro said, her voice stuttering.
‘Oh, that makes things easy.’ Squirrel brain was for once, right.
“I like you too.” I said as I leaned over and kissed her.
submitted by Adventurous-Map-9400 to Sexyspacebabes [link] [comments]
This is a rewrite of my original story ‘Loyalist’.
Credit to u/bluefishcake for writing the original SSB story.
Pizzaulostin who has been beta reading since the beginning.
and u/BruhMomentGEE
Credit to u/HollowShel for getting me started with this!
This story is based in the SSB universe.
Previous
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as always, comments are welcome.
Chapter 17:
Thanks to the author of Alien-Nation for editing this chapter!Ruhal:
“We are sorry about the restraints. Your dossier has a security lock from the Office of Interior that I can’t even read, and all our supervisor could tell us was ‘interview with caution’,” one of the two agents explained.I regarded my handcuffs with professional disapproval. They had a longer than regular chain for ambulatory movement and inmate processing, by the deep, I could even use them as garrote if needed. They had revealed the limits of their rank with that apology.
“No need to worry. I am sure this will be a formality in less than an hour,” I told them, if there was one thing that was in abundance on the planet Sky it was Interior and undercover commando trainees. I hoped this would probably be their most interesting case all month.
“So, would you care to explain how you are raising a human, that is also considered a military asset?” The agent inquired as she pulled out her slate.
“Of course, Klein surrendered himself and requested medical aid and refugee status. He was willing to answer essential questions regarding human culture that aided in liberating humanity into the Shil’vati Empire. He wouldn’t be safe on Earth anymore, and I mentioned that he was still important in writing my reports. If I had my slate, I could give you the relevant documentation,” I said in a conversational tone, without any of the emotions that weighed the story, and glossing over the specifics.
“No need. I have everything you submitted to the Interior, including his asset designation, the interrogation transcripts, and even his doctor’s contact info. To be honest with you it’s the only reason we haven’t interviewed you yet, even after a dozen calls about a ‘possible trafficked human’ since he arrived. Your information is corroborated with several other departments. The issue now is what the medivac scans found.” The agent pushed a slate towards me with medical notes bolded for emphasis ‘probable severe abuse’.
“The report shows a recent history of blunt force trauma, abrasions, and even muscle tearing, in short. It looks like the human has been systematically tortured for months. You also have recently requested restricted training armor in the human’s size.” The agent explained.
Ah, that was my mistake. I had been treating Klein as another child, just with some unique needs. It looks like there were other considerations, ones that I failed to see.
“I really do need my omni-slate to illustrate this, it’s on my desk right now if one of your assistants could get it?” I asked, hoping they got the suggestion to not leave me with only one interrogator in the room so they wouldn’t be graded too harshly.
They thankfully acquiesced without comment, and with my omni-slate in hand I pulled up the latest video of Klein practicing with me, the speed and brutality was difficult for me to sit through. Then, Klein pulled off his helmet seconds later, laughing in the rain. Unconcerned that, without armor, we could have just killed each other- I was grateful he had, else it might’ve been interpreted quite differently. “The bruising mostly from everyday participation at a Rakiri gym, and some remnants from before I got proper gear for baton practice. He heals extremely fast, and more so, he isn’t happy unless he exercises for at least an hour or two a day.”
I pulled up another video. Klein was sitting at the table bouncing his leg at an ever-increasing pace while trying to focus on a decently complex equation. He finally stood up and started pacing mouthing words as he skipped in time to an unheard rhythm.
“W-what’s he doing?” The agent asked, looking just a tad disturbed by the display of what seemed erratic behavior.
“A sort of dance while playing the song ‘a fine mesh net’ on his headphones. There was a monsoon that Shel weekend, and even I’m not crazy enough to fight in a thunderstorm like that. He does that around the house for an hour, and then finally settles in on a video game,” I explained to the agents, who were looking at me dubiously.
“So, you oversee an adolescent who is an intelligence asset, but also seems poorly fitted for Shil’vati life. Why the baton practice? Wouldn’t that make him even more dangerous, more of an outsider? Are you trying to sabotage his integration? Why not take him shopping, instead, or teach him beauty and self-care routines?” They were antagonizing. Countering every argument to see how I reacted. It seemed they could at least interrogate decently well.
“I hardly call a few quirks ‘poor fitting’. The baton practice is for obvious self-defense. Its intention is to make him dangerous,” I explained, letting the interviewers lead the conversation.
The back and forth went on for a while, but I presented a highlight reel of the last few months. Including a Rakiri gym video when Klein tried to flourish a wall climb and smashed his shoulder on the ledge while face planting into the mud.
The agents would not be arresting me today. They would need medical reports, and would require Klein, Hario, and Compassion Through Deeds to attest while truth scanned that these were sports injuries, and not some conspiracy to commit torture. We were also going to need to see an ICAD agent every two weeks for counseling. I had no idea what ICAD was, but I would investigate them later.
Finally, the agents appeared they were closing up the interview. I tried not to brace myself as they asked the complicated question. “One thing we need to know is, what is Klein to you? If he is just a crucial asset, then why haven’t you contacted a local volunteer family foster? Or was the military asset just a cover to find a male heir?”
I sighed, the truth wasn’t incriminating, but if I didn’t word it right, I would look like the worst sort of military tourist. “I had, originally, taken care of Klein as a key intelligence asset. Within that first week though, I had found that despite the decades of preparation, there wasn’t a process for someone to claim asylum as a child during first contact. He would be in military bureaucratic limbo without an advocate. We both know where he would end up.”
The room cooled by several degrees, which was a pity, I almost got the talkative agent to laugh at Klein’s antics. “Out of duty I investigated ways I could bring him home until I could find resources to place him in a stable situation with all the resources to help a xeno without a community. I found someone who was willing to help in exchange for reports on Klein’s adaptation to Shil’vati lifestyle. That’s Klein’s purpose as a military asset in my home.”
I continued. I was saying more on than I needed to, but if they did a follow up investigation later for some other incident, which was a when, not if, then I wanted this on record. “Klein has become part of this household though, despite, or maybe because, of his oddities. He may not be Shil’vati, but he seems to have integrated well. It’s why, while it was never my intention, when he is an adult, I will offer him full adoption, and title of home guardian.”
I watched the agents exchange looks, then the agent made a few taps on her slate. ‘Upper left, middle center, probably a message app’. I then listened for the telltale taps of a yes as a micro expression of a self-satisfied smile crossed the agent’s face. I decided to stop playing interviewee.
“So, you won the bet on if I would claim the human as my son, how long has that pool been building?” I asked folding my hands together.
The agent answered before she could think. “Two months… Wait!? How did you-”
The agent was cut off by the squawk of the slate’s speaker. “Agents you did well enough with the interview portion, however; you absolutely failed to secure the subject. Could you please illustrate to them why I stressed caution {petal of death’s veil}?”
The code name wasn’t one I had heard in decades, but I wasn’t going to snub an old handler. I kicked on my fast reaction mods to max speed and lunged over the table past the still sitting agents. I pirouetted and twisted the restraints into a loop as I brought them down over the left agent’s head and pulled back carefully, lightly touching the chain of my restraints around the neck of the agent before she could even react.
I kicked off my mods and caught my breath as time returned to normal. Both agents’ eyes went wide with shock as the one not about to be strangled tried to get away to pull out her weapon. “W-who are you!?”
“I’m going to slowly release you and put my hands up, is that everything you needed {hated old friend}?” I directed my question to the slate, using the code High Shil word to show I was playing along.
“More than enough. Agent! Holster your weapon and come back to the safe room. We need to go over security procedures,” the slate responded, and the very brief confrontation was over.
The agents walked out, and Siltan stomped in looking like she could bring about a thunderstorm by pure force of will. “We weren’t the only ones to get visits from the ‘majesty’s’ Interior today. Cee let me know that the Interior is also interrogated Reqellia as well.”
I now understood why these two rookies were here. It was a distraction for me. I grumbled as I picked up my slate and called Reqellia. Her face appeared a second later.
“By the Deep, it’s been a long day,” Reqellia breathed out as I heard a door slam, then she cursed some more.
“Tell me everything. Is Klein ok?” I asked.
“Cee says he’s fine and is waking him up. Klein might be getting a mod himself before she closes him up though because, oh- looks like it’s my day is going to get longer still. ICAD is here, and it’s a Hydrean in a Gearschilde clinic.” Reqellia hung up, and I stared at the phone in confusion.
It was time to find out what ICAD was.
Klein:
I blearily came to, as high powered, piercing white light flooded my half open eyes. I tried to move my arm to shield my face and found I couldn’t. Actually, I couldn't move or even feel anything from the neck down.I started to panic as I turned my head, focusing on lettering on a terminal, tried to sigh, and felt what few muscles I could control turn to lead as I sank back on the medical bed. Thank the goddess, it was Shil and Gearschilde lettering on the slate and medical supplies.
“Good afternoon Klein, are you okay? Your heart rate spiked.” I heard Cee, or full name Compassion Through Deeds, speak and turned my head to see her. She wore a dark red lab coat and regarded me with unblinking cybernetic eyes. Most of her orange skin had been replaced with dark steel etched with stylized waves and swirls of silver. Her face still emoted in a pleasant smile, but had that uncanny valley look of unblemished synth skin. I looked down to see a dozen micro surgical tools still inside me.
I should have been screaming at the sight, but all I felt was relief and joy. “Yeah, I just worried for a half second that I had hallucinated the last few months and was actually on a back on Earth on some black-market operating table getting my kidney stolen.”
Cee was aghast. “Does that happen on Earth?”
I would shrug, but again, I couldn’t move, instead I responded. “Rumors of it happening, but I never knew anyone personally.”
Cee reassured me. “Well, good news Klein, you are on Sky, you are in a Gearschilde clinic where stealing vital organs is a legal, moral and religious crime of unrepentant severity. What I have done is remove your appendix, and let the sedatives wear off so we can discuss what you want in its place.”
“In place of my appendix? Why?” I asked, it wasn’t like I really needed the vestigial organ turn internal hand grenade.
“Customary in Gearschilde for surgery is to be about giving a better life than just taking from the body. So, any ideas of what would make your life better?”
I thought about the bruising, the constant having to put healing patches on, and the annoyance of doing so. I thought about the near fatality of almost blowing my appendix, and if something could have fixed the issue before it got out of hand. “What about a healing dispenser? I keep having to put on patches and gel at the end of the day, and if I miss a spot, I will pay for it later.”
Cee gave me a grateful expression. “That’s a perfect first implant. I was worried you were going to ask for something more aggressive. When I was your age, I got my first defensive mod, a retractable forearm knife. Of course, my next surgery was being stitched back together after accidently stabbing myself with it.”
I tried to chuckle, but I didn’t have control of my diaphragm for it. “So, what’s next?”
Cee explained. “Well, the fabricator in the other room is right now creating your implant. It shouldn’t take long; are you ok being immobilized for the next hour or so?”
I thought about it, and honestly, I was still surprised I wasn’t panicking. “No, but I’m going to get really bored just laying here, do the Gearschilde have any good myths or stories?”
I knew I was fishing in an untapped pool that was guaranteed to have something. I wasn’t expecting my doctor to be gleeful at the thought though. “Oh blessed be you child, I am a surgeon priest, half the reason I am in this vocation is to tell stories. I take it you know nothing about Gearschilde mythology, or even our history?”
It was on my list of rabbit holes to get into, but instead I binged the rest of Prince Of The Stars and cried, it was nice. “No, but I would love to hear them.”
“Well if you want to, every Shel we have open services and brunch. But since you are new to Gearschilde mythology we should start with one of my favorites. The story of the Hopestrider.”
The ceiling lights dimmed, and the sterile operating room felt surprisingly cozy as I leaned my head back. Listening to Cee starting up the tale. “Our sect requires us to lead what can best be called ‘child technician classes’. Learning to take care of machines, which includes us by the start of adolescence, if not before. It’s a critical life skill, and teaching it is considered an important part of our religious studies.”
‘Cyberpunk VeggieTales’ Squirrel brain chittered.
No one wants your opinion squirrel brain. I thought back.
Cee’s story: Hope Strider
“Long ago our world was full of harsh life. The valleys were often filled with poisonous mists and deadly predators that could rip apart even the strongest of our people. The mountain kingdoms were brutal fiefdoms that sent many to their deaths mining precious metals from the dangerous wastes of the valleys. Drilling into the heart of the mountains provided the power necessary to purify water, and later, steam engines turned those fiefdoms into empires. Expanding into the wastes using the lowest class of people as its foundation.”Cee paused for dramatic effect. “Then, everything changed.”
“The ground shook, and the mountain kingdoms erupted in fire and molten rock. Radioactive dust from these now volcanoes made the centers of civilization barren and deadly. Only the wasteland colonies in the poisonous mists provided any refuge, and so king and commoner alike huddled in the once disposable outposts of a ruined world. Our story starts a generation after the calamity with an unlucky child.”
I heard a ding, Cee stopped as the ceiling lights came up. “Oh dear, let me stop for a second to get the implant.”
I leaned back and thought about her nightmare world. When Cee returned, I didn’t even bother to open my eyes, too engrossed in the imagery of the story. “What happened to the child?”
I could hear the whirring as she started to work. Her voice I realized had taken a more scripted cadence. She must have automated her voice so she could focus. “In a metalworker’s home, a child was born with broken legs and brittle bones. It was common in those days for such a child to die that way. It was their first born and the parents did everything they could to save them. A surgeon was called. The child lost their legs, but kept their life.”
“The child lived in the workshop. Kept warm by the hearth’s fire, even unable to walk, they were curious. Day in and out, they watched their parents construct machines that helped the community make food, filter the air, and defend the homes from the starving, mutated, monsters that circled the fortress walls. The child felt helpless though. Only able to crawl within the confines of the home or be carried around like cargo about the maze-like town of winding stairs and narrow passageways.
“They spent much of their time learning, sitting near the hearth to keep warm, they did the careful work of filing gears and wheels needed to control what could be automated as each hand replaced was another that could be spent doing something else critical to keep the community alive. Still, the child wanted to do more. They could not deliver what they made, and had to rely on others to help them at every turn in life.”
“Little did the child know that in the hearth a machine spirit lived, getting by eating scrap metal that fell in and sleeping at night on the bed of embers. The machine spirit saw the child’s wish, an invention without form, and turned it into a dream for the child, since new machines would mean new machine spirits to play with.”
That night the child saw themselves flying over the cold gray landscape on a pair of machine legs. Traveling the dangerous paths to other towns, and giving the isolated towns hope and community. The child awoke with joy and crawled over to his workbench littered with scrap metal, now children….”
Cee stopped talking and her voice went back to an unscripted rhythm. “I just realized we can’t do the practical part of this story. In class each kid gets a hope strider stuffy with snaps to attach legs they make. We give them bits of copper. Show them how to bend and hammer it, and how to bond it by wrapping the joint in solder and then applying heat with a soldering iron heated in their own toy ‘hearth’ with a safety cover. Still we get a daily small burn or cut, but that in itself is a valuable lesson in tool safety.”
It sounded adorable in a weird, steampunk way. “Sounds fun, so, new legs?”
Cee got the que, as much as I loved the story, and the talk about kindergarten metal shop, I was still immobilized on the operating table. I heard surgical whirring, and the scripted voice came back. “Yes, the child works all night until they fit the new legs on, and for the first time stand up on their own! The parents are overjoyed as they watch them move about the house and that afternoon, with the help of an iron bar as a cane, they walk around their community by themselves.”
“However, it isn’t long before the legs start to see wear and tear, but the child persists, not wanting to stop and fix the creaking joints, until one day the legs stop working altogether and they fall down in a twisting staircase. Carried back to the workshop, they rest for days to heal before they are able to work again. Constructing a new set from the remains of the old. Now…”
Klein:
Cee stopped again, but this time she had moved away from me and was putting the now bloody surgical tools into a sanitizing system. “We're done! I am going to start removing the nerve blocks, so you’re going to be sore, but if things get too painful, let me know. Please, try not to move anything but your hands right now, even then I would advise against it.”My whole body had that pins and needles feel and I tried to move my fingers, but it was sporadic and jerky. Cee distracted me by explaining my new implant. “So, this implant is very basic. It can only be requested to send diagnostic data. The implant only administers more healing serum at a safe, steady rate if, and only if, it doesn’t detect any in your bloodstream. There is an injection site with a color change circle around it. It uses standard go, caution, stop colors to let you know if it’s functioning. I want to wave your omni-pad over the site and check the diagnostics at least once a day. It should hopefully catch if something like this is happening again.”
I tried to not move as I felt my body twitch. My gut felt like I had been run over, repeatedly. I asked, “why didn’t my medical monitoring implant catch this?”
Cee explained. “That’s only good for basic vitals. Near universal indicators of life and activity such as heart rate and blood pressure. The new implant will be able to scan for elevated protein counts. So, if one of your other internal organs starts to malfunction you can get a more unambiguous message that I hope you won’t ignore before getting medivac’d through the city.”
I chuckled a little at that, and it hurt. “Ow, ok, no movement. I thought it was just a pulled muscle or something.”
Cee looked down at me sternly, and her voice took on a deeper, more authoritative tone. “Child, more than enough Gearschilde have died thinking they can just, push themselves past their organic parts failing, if you have a torn muscle that hurts after you’ve used healing gel, then it’s serious enough you need to come see me, or another xeno-doctor, immediately. That’s why I hope your new implant can fix things before it gets to that point.”
Cee brightened after that and went back to the explanation of my implant. “Now that I scolded you, there is a color changing circle over your implant’s location. It will change color when the healing serum runs low, or and will start to flash in color, and try to ping your omni-pad if it detects a malfunction. The implant uses a standard Shil’ implant autoinjector, and it will reject anything not meant for red blood standard biology, but still be careful, it’s not a perfect filtering system. Today I’m giving you a set of autoinjectors I want you to use throughout the week. It's fortunate that your implant’s primary function will speed up your recovery time.”
Ok, that’s cool to know, but.
‘What happened to Hopestrider?!’ Squirrel brain demanded.
“So, the story, what happens next?” I asked as Cee helped me sit up. My stomach still hurt, but the feeling was in the overworked muscle category rather than a gut punch.
Cee started to explain as I put on what was essentially gym clothes. Soft, baggy pants and shirt with easy pull away tabs if they needed to remove the clothes quickly for checkups and surgical intervention. “Well, we don’t have time to go over the Hope Strider as a story, or even a summary, but if you want to, my husband teaches the child technician class during open services on Shel, you could sit in and listen.
Right now, I will give you a family crafted picture book that tells the core story of Hope Strider growing up, and making their first delivery. After that it’s a loose selection of legends that are attributed to Hope Strider as they grow older and more accomplished, but while I get that book, I need you to speak to someone.”
Cee led me out of the operating room, and into a comfortable looking lounge where a… Hydrean was sitting in an Imperial business uniform reading an omni-pad. My brain pulled everything I knew of Hydreans out. A rabbit hole I had dug into one rainy Shel on the public information repositories.
She, they, single gendered I reminded myself, looked up and smiled at me calmly, mouth closed for politeness. Their skin was grass green with artful patches of bark on her face and neck, the result of cosmetic scarification. They looked human, or Shil’oid, but that was purposefully done. Even the somewhat standard looking ‘desert walker’ Hydreans normally had more, or less, limbs than standard. Biological modification was at the root of all Hydrean technology, ancient as the stone ax to other species.
I thought about how contentious Hydrean/Shil relationships were said to be. Their arid home planet was off limits to all but certified personnel who had been trained how to handle the dangerous mix of flora/fauna that instead of being different groups, was just a single taxonomy that had no distinction between predator and prey. With their complex biology, a Hydrean needed to undergo extensive body modification just to exist off their home world.
Cee left the room with a friendly goodbye and offered assistance “Hello Klein, I am Ka’tel. It’s wonderful to meet you. I am with the Imperial Child Assistance Division, or ICAD. My job is to help interspecies fosters and adoptions. How are you feeling today?”
I caught a glimpse of her teeth as they spoke. Triangular, and made of burnished metal meant to tear off chunks of animal, plant, or even rock, whole and let their stomachs’ mix of acids dissolve it into something the rest their body could use.
‘The agent in charge of your welfare is a plant/animal hybrid with a diet of ‘yes’, your doctor is a wholesome orange 40K mechanicus, and your crush is a were-lion, you are not ok .’ Squirrel brain remarked.
“I’m actually pretty good, despite the surgery, it’s actually a common issue for humans.” I said to Ka’tel, because my life was weird before the aliens, squirrel brain was just being a pessimistic asshole.
“Really? Do you know what caused it?” Ka’tel asked.
“It just, happens? Gets irritated or infected and then you need to get it removed.” I said nonchalantly. Ka’tel made a mark on her omni-pad.
“How did you know? It seems dangerous if it can happen suddenly, and you mentioned it before you passed out.” Ka’tel asked tone friendly and conversational.
“Oh, the side of your stomach hurts. I was hoping it was just a pulled muscle bec- Dammit!” I just remembered what happened before I woke up here.
“The raid game! Ko’tasa would have had to substitute for me and she’s not well balanced for our team mix.” I said with a exasperated sigh.
Ka’tel cocked their head to one side, but the tone in her voice was humorous. “You were willing to ignore a possible life-threatening condition for a game?”
I explained, though I felt idiotic now. “I couldn’t tell. I get sore muscles all the time from gym, and sparing, and even from the auxiliary work, honestly my commandant doesn’t really know where to put me sometimes. Last week I helped with road clearing for the new town to go up a few [miles] away, and the girls could barely keep up with me.”
Ka’tel seemed to be enjoying my rambling. “Sounds like you really get put to work.”
“Not really? The auxiliary is the only work I do, and if I wanted to stop I just, can. It’s not like I need to worry about buying food.” I knew what I was saying seemed strange while living in the Imperium.
It was the first hint that Ka’tel was controlling her expressions when she seemed more attentive and… relieved? “That’s delightful news to hear! Is there anything about your living situation that bothers you?”
I paused and thought about it, and really couldn’t see anything. “Not really?”
“Anything, or anyone, you miss from Earth?” Ka’tel asked, stressing that last bit, dropping a mental bomb on my head and I froze, mouth partly open with a half formed response. When was the last time I even thought about Earth as more than an abstract concept? It hadn’t been [six months] since I left but…
I didn’t feel anything.
The last year I lived on Earth, it was like being a ghost. I saw people, I even talked to people, but it was like a thick plate of glass all around me. Today I felt color, and life, and things, but that last year on Earth?
Like radio static.
I looked at Ka’tel, and their expression was one of controlled neutrality. Why was I not freaking out?
I had a sensation of the room spinning. I asked, “No, I don’t really feel anything about Earth, is that normal?”
“I don’t know Klein, by most sentient standards what you went through was unusual, and from what little I know about humans that isn’t propaganda, it’s unusual for humans as well. What I do know is right now you seem happy and healthy, and that’s my top priority.” Ka’tel said as they stood and offered me a stiff plastic card with their contact details on it.
“We will be chatting every other week to see how you are adjusting. I might ask to visit you at the youth auxiliary depot, the gym or at home. I really am glad to see you are doing just fine, but if you ever need a way out, that card has an emergency signal function, just pull the plastic tab.” Ka’tel told me, and was about to open the door before I spoke up.
“How should I refer to you?” I asked, and once they realized, Ka’tel gave me a genuine, toothed, smile that was both menacing and goofy at the same time.
“Most people don’t learn enough Hydrean biology to ask. Her, that’s how everyone in the office sees me, and it’s more convenient socially.” She said, opening the door to an anxious looking Itaro standing next to a serious Ruhal and Reqellia.
“I need to speak to you Ruhal, and Reqellia, you should join us for this conversation as well.” Ka’tel said as she ushered me out.
Cee led us into a gaming room with a long table on one side, and a set of couches facing the wall to wall display on the other. She handed me an overloaded plate of cookies with bottle of water, and stepped out, closing the door behind us. “Eat those, your stomach has healed, but it’s going to need calories to fuel the recovery.”
Only then did I realize I was salivating at the smell of warm sugar, and flour made of Kasan grain, if I was identifying the green color correctly. I put the plate of cookies on the table, and snarfed them as I sat down.
After swallowing the fourth cookie semi-whole, I looked up to see Itaro’s face fighting a war between impatient, apprehensive, and hopeful. I stopped, realizing what I was doing, and sipped some water to stall for time.
I was about to pull my omni-pad out from my pockets when Itaro suddenly put her hand out to stop me. “Wait! Klein, I need to tell you something…”
She was silent for a long moment, what was she worried about?
“I… Like you, as, I find you…. Attractive, and I may have gotten a little…. overprotective when you got hurt.” Itaro said, her voice stuttering.
‘Oh, that makes things easy.’ Squirrel brain was for once, right.
“I like you too.” I said as I leaned over and kissed her.
///// Author’s Commentary
Wow! I couldn’t find a good stopping point so I just kept writing and writing and… It turned into something over 5 thousand words. I spent the last day trying to figure out clear up a few parts. This week I have some time off! So there will probably be another chapter sooner rather than later.2023.04.01 01:16 catfarmer1998 Trying to make a “master list” and build my collection
If I like these shows what other shows might I like. I’m trying to build a big list, and I’m also trying to expand my personal library collection. 1. Greys anatomy 2. Friends 3. The Goldbergs 4. How I met your mother 5. King of queens 6. The golden girls 7. Full house 8. Fuller house 9. The new adventures of old Christine 10. Desperate housewives 11. Ghost whisperer 12. Timeless 13. This is us 14. Scrubs 15. Sex and the City 16. Will and grace 17. Family ties 18. Family matters 19. 3rd rock from the sun 20. 30 Rock 21. The Simpsons 22. Private Practice 23. ER 24. Two and a half men 25. Sabrina the teenage witch 26. Green acres 27. Pretty little liars 28. Mad about you 29. Designing women 30. Modern family 31. Big Bang theory 32. The middle 33. Boy meets world 34. Last man standing 35. Lost 36. Fraiser 37. Mom 38. Touched by an Angel 39. Blossom 40. Dharma and Greg 41. Mary Tyler Moore 42. NCIS 43. Bones 44. Brady bunch 45. Saved by the bell 46. Married with children 47. Wonder years 48. Newhart 49. Taxi 50. Ally McBeal 51. Veronica Mars 52. Boston Legal 53. ER 54. Parenthood 55. Six feet under 56. The fresh Prince of bel air 57. Brothers and sisters 58. Gilmore girls 59. One tree hill 60. 90210 61. Dawson’s Creek 62. Resurrection 63. That 70s show 64. According to Jim 65. Dooggie Howser 66. Rizzoli and isle 67. Secret life of the American teenager 68. St Elsewhere 69. Hill Street Blues 70. 11.22.63 71. Nashville 72. Ugly Betty 73. Samantha who 74. Castle 75. Law and Order 76. It’s always sunny 77. Felicity 78. Wings 79. Family ties 80. Parks and rec 81. All In the family 82. Becker 83. United States of Tara 84. Glee 85. The facts of life 86. The good wife 87. Party of Five 88. Scandal 89. Chicago Med 90. Jane the Virgin 91. Good Witch 92. Sister Sister 93. When Hope Calls 94. Evening Shade 95. The Exes 96. House MD 97. Still standing 98. Just shoot me 99. Murder she wrote 100. Silicon Valley 101. A million little things 102. Ghosts 103. Murder she wrote
submitted by catfarmer1998 to televisionsuggestions [link] [comments]
2023.04.01 00:46 Wurdyburd [Long Post, Part 1] GW2 and Roles: Why Attributes and Gear Fail to Teach Players, Diversify Gameplay, or Inform Design Direction
Hello, it's me again, the wordiest of birds, with another analysis and design post. This could easily be ten different posts, but I'm cutting it down to two main themes. As always: I mostly play PvE, but spend time on every class in every mode; The goal of this is not necessarily to wildly invent new systems for the game, but to identify themes, and what it takes for them to flourish, not condemn and start over, and invite conversation; I find spoiler-hiding my walls of text helps keep it digestible. Part 2 will cover non-attribute designs and tech in GW2, and open discussion about whether our current obsession with "hit big monster make big numbers go up more" is stifling the diversity of the game, and whether there could be a place for builds that aren't exclusively about damage or boons. A lot of this has been cooking for a long time, and as much as I love the game, I do worry about it's longevity, and the diversity of elite specs, builds, and challenges that we've been getting for the last several years, and what it'll mean for content in the future.
TL;DPremise/Highlights:
Questions are asked, "Are there any advantages to melee combat over range?", "Are we expected to stand still or move around during combat?", "Should every profession be viable at every challenge, or should they have unique advantages?", and "We don't believe that profession complexity should translate into an increase in DPS," among others. In attempting to form a baseline for the game, and make it's various components easier to balance, the game runs the risk of becoming too homogenized, too bland, reliant increasingly on roleplay themes that the devs don't seem interested in mechanically representing, while as many as 30 different non-PvP attribute combinations fail to see use. All the while, powercreep slowly inflates the average player's output, undermining the difficulty of old content, failing to teach players how the intricacies of the game works, and shocking inexperienced players who jump from location to location with difficulty and mechanics they are neither prepared for, nor understand.
Gripes aside, Guild Wars 2 has perhaps the strongest foundation for MMO buildcraft I've ever played. It's huge array of diverse traits and swappable weapon sets, and diverse component interactions, both within a profession and between professions, is what drew me to the game, kept me playing the full range of content, and what leads me to make these lengthy, passionate articles. There's a good reason why many other MMOs see GW2 as an inspiration, or even copy from it directly. For all it's challenges, all this game needs is a slight clarification in philosophy, even without making any of the changes recommended here, and the pieces will fall into place over time.
Guild Wars 2 is sometimes compared to Magic the Gathering.>! They both share an incredible number of sub-mechanics and themes that all fold together in intricate, and sometimes unexpected ways. Fans of each game are probably aware of the remarkable confidence that MtG has in it's color spectrum: for each color, there are a series of powerful, and well-documented sub-themes, many of which overlap with other colors. It's when the colors combine that the game truly shines, creating dynamic playstyles and themes that appeal to an incredibly diverse audience, with 3-color decks having much more tech available, and much stranger themes, than 2-color, or 1-colored decks. From the moment that a colored card is revealed to you, a practiced player can instantly make inferences to what their opponent's strategies may be, and begin to move in a way to counteract it, while pushing their own strategies. This "foreknowledge of theme" rather than "foreknowledge of event" means that two players can effectively combat each other, despite never having met or taken the chance to look through each other's deck list, and makes for more personalized decks, and more enjoyable games.!<
I give this example because such a case could be made for Guild Wars 2's attribute system.>! Much like MtG colors, each attribute aligns with a purpose, some objective that promotes value when travelling the world or the Mists alike, with each "color combo" coming together to form an attribute prefix. The problem with this analogy is that Guild Wars 2's gear prefixes aren't each designed to carry a mechanic that helps the player succeed, either while travelling alone, or in a group. Many traits exacerbate this with attribute conversion, usually from +Power, and if your selection doesn't result in you or an ally killing an enemy faster, it's generally regarded as a dead choice. !<
Were GW2 to shift to recognize each attribute as a genuine gameplay mechanic, it would grant the designers a foundation from which to design content that harnesses specific challenges, and grant the players of the game confidence in their build, as well as flexibility in purpose, when approaching said challenges.
(As an aside, first: many MMOs have rather abstract stat and buff systems, that make it impossible to understand without extensive out-of-game research, and even once understood in concept, Guild Wars 2 doesn't always communicate how these effects are supposed to interact. An across the board UI fix here would allow players to see a breakdown of where their stats are coming from, by source, and what % impact it has on each of their attribute, such as from gear, food, utility consumables, or traits, without having to actually slot it first, possibly at an armor-repair station so as to not blow out the during-gameplay UI. Being able to see the exact number of points they are away from their next +1% or 1sec effect increase would be helpful too. )
In the case of the attributes themselves, each attribute should be viewed as a component of a larger puzzle, that each have their own, special identity. By considering which professions, skills, weapons, and group content are defined by which attributes, much stronger combinations of those attributes should arise.
Otherwise, were these to be adopted, many different dead or unrecommended prefixes stand to open up, which really highlights the extreme extent to which gear has been made useless in this game, by merit of the narrow outlook the balance team takes when viewing each profession.
Disappointing outliers include:
So. This concludes Part 1. In part 2, I aim to cover how we might pair these 'attribute roles' with mechanical effects in different classes that help produce roles not currently recognized by ArenaNet. In the meantime, I'd like to open discussion:
submitted by Wurdyburd to Guildwars2 [link] [comments]
TL;DPremise/Highlights:
- Identifying each gear attribute as a distinct gameplay loop or objective, while limiting which of the nine any single player is meant to fulfill at the same time, would help educate players on the importance of each attribute, make a greater assortment of gear prefixes be valued, increase build diversity, and help the devs design future challenges, elite specs, and core mechanics that goes beyond "stack and whack" basics.
- Precision should proc more effects than just crit damage more often, and Ferocity should enhance melee-range hits more than ranged hits to promote melee play.
- Expertise should not be limited to propping up Condition Damage, and be the key to several non-damage challenges in game, while different enemy types should be more or less vulnerable to specific damaging conditions.
- Toughness is awful and should negatively impact incoming condition duration, not just strike damage, and not be undermined by Protection, which should be converted to a stacking buff to encourage multiple applications.
- Baseline healing and boon duration should be close to zero without first building for Healing Power and Concentration, which should be their own roles, separate from one another.
- Different content shouldn't be defeated by the exact same gear as everything else, and more professions should benefit from a wider variety of gear, and different gear sets than each other.
- Gear prefixes with different purposes should be found in specific, but not unique, places in the game, to promote maps and content that lack replay value.
- 4-stat gear often outperforms 3-stat gear by a wide margin, and Celestial even more than that. 4-stat gear should represent fulfilling multiple roles to a lesser extent, whereas 3-stat gear should perform one role greater, at the loss of every other role. It currently does not, outside of Berserkers, due to the relative weakness of every other attribute combo's roles.
Questions are asked, "Are there any advantages to melee combat over range?", "Are we expected to stand still or move around during combat?", "Should every profession be viable at every challenge, or should they have unique advantages?", and "We don't believe that profession complexity should translate into an increase in DPS," among others. In attempting to form a baseline for the game, and make it's various components easier to balance, the game runs the risk of becoming too homogenized, too bland, reliant increasingly on roleplay themes that the devs don't seem interested in mechanically representing, while as many as 30 different non-PvP attribute combinations fail to see use. All the while, powercreep slowly inflates the average player's output, undermining the difficulty of old content, failing to teach players how the intricacies of the game works, and shocking inexperienced players who jump from location to location with difficulty and mechanics they are neither prepared for, nor understand.
Gripes aside, Guild Wars 2 has perhaps the strongest foundation for MMO buildcraft I've ever played. It's huge array of diverse traits and swappable weapon sets, and diverse component interactions, both within a profession and between professions, is what drew me to the game, kept me playing the full range of content, and what leads me to make these lengthy, passionate articles. There's a good reason why many other MMOs see GW2 as an inspiration, or even copy from it directly. For all it's challenges, all this game needs is a slight clarification in philosophy, even without making any of the changes recommended here, and the pieces will fall into place over time.
Guild Wars 2 is sometimes compared to Magic the Gathering.>! They both share an incredible number of sub-mechanics and themes that all fold together in intricate, and sometimes unexpected ways. Fans of each game are probably aware of the remarkable confidence that MtG has in it's color spectrum: for each color, there are a series of powerful, and well-documented sub-themes, many of which overlap with other colors. It's when the colors combine that the game truly shines, creating dynamic playstyles and themes that appeal to an incredibly diverse audience, with 3-color decks having much more tech available, and much stranger themes, than 2-color, or 1-colored decks. From the moment that a colored card is revealed to you, a practiced player can instantly make inferences to what their opponent's strategies may be, and begin to move in a way to counteract it, while pushing their own strategies. This "foreknowledge of theme" rather than "foreknowledge of event" means that two players can effectively combat each other, despite never having met or taken the chance to look through each other's deck list, and makes for more personalized decks, and more enjoyable games.!<
I give this example because such a case could be made for Guild Wars 2's attribute system.>! Much like MtG colors, each attribute aligns with a purpose, some objective that promotes value when travelling the world or the Mists alike, with each "color combo" coming together to form an attribute prefix. The problem with this analogy is that Guild Wars 2's gear prefixes aren't each designed to carry a mechanic that helps the player succeed, either while travelling alone, or in a group. Many traits exacerbate this with attribute conversion, usually from +Power, and if your selection doesn't result in you or an ally killing an enemy faster, it's generally regarded as a dead choice. !<
Were GW2 to shift to recognize each attribute as a genuine gameplay mechanic, it would grant the designers a foundation from which to design content that harnesses specific challenges, and grant the players of the game confidence in their build, as well as flexibility in purpose, when approaching said challenges.
(As an aside, first: many MMOs have rather abstract stat and buff systems, that make it impossible to understand without extensive out-of-game research, and even once understood in concept, Guild Wars 2 doesn't always communicate how these effects are supposed to interact. An across the board UI fix here would allow players to see a breakdown of where their stats are coming from, by source, and what % impact it has on each of their attribute, such as from gear, food, utility consumables, or traits, without having to actually slot it first, possibly at an armor-repair station so as to not blow out the during-gameplay UI. Being able to see the exact number of points they are away from their next +1% or 1sec effect increase would be helpful too. )
In the case of the attributes themselves, each attribute should be viewed as a component of a larger puzzle, that each have their own, special identity. By considering which professions, skills, weapons, and group content are defined by which attributes, much stronger combinations of those attributes should arise.
- >>>Power:
- Well understood as the de-facto, go-to attribute for inflicting instantaneous damage. However, defined as a role, it should be more clear that inflicting damage every strike is the target objective; too many prefixes grant Power, as a sort of "This is all you need"-attribute instead. ANet once stripped the damage from disables for purity of purpose, but several weapons still fail to deliver adequate Power-based damage while lacking damaging conditions, controlling conditions, utilities, boon effects, or trait interactions: examples include Thief and Ranger MH sword and Willbender OH sword, Dragonhunter longbow, and Guardian scepter, Necromancer axe, or Daredevil staff. (This isn't to say these things aren't used, just that for purely power-based damage, they are sometimes subpar and with clearly better alternatives of weapon or trait.) If Power is a role, it should reflect in high-damage, long-cooldown abilities, or features used to set up or recover said abilities: Ranger's Hilt Bash > Maul, Guardian's Banish > Mighty Blow, and Gunslinger's Gunstinger > Dragon's Roar are excellent examples of this.
- Should a challenge be defined by a Power requirement, it should>! mostly be a DPS race, or swamped with weaker foes to cleave through. They don't need to go down in a single hit, but it should enable the fantasy of being powerful.!<
- >>>Precision: (a big one)
- Crits are simple, but misunderstood: inflicting a critical hit to gain the damage multiplier does result in higher damage, but that multiplier is the result of Ferocity, not Precision. As well, several traits generate different special effects or inflict conditions on critical hits, or increase your crit chance in various circumstances, such as striking a disabled foe, or attacking from the sides or behind. This would indicate that Precision is not the stat of "extra damage", but the attribute of "special effect". If so, then Precision could take on an entirely new meaning in buildcraft, based on which other attribute you combine it with:
- Precision+Ferocity: Inflicts higher damage multipliers on crit, and the current standard application of the attribute, crit-capping essentially translates to "permanent damage increase" rather than a rare event like it should be. Berserker and Assassin gear is easily available for this, but on it's own, fails to present any kind of real downside to not inflicting tons of damage on every hit.
- Precision+Healing Power: Could apply healing or barrier to self or in an AoE on crit. Several frontline assault builds fail to scale well with +Heal, leading to strange skill intentions from Spellbreaker, Willbender, Daredevil, Scrapper, Soulbeast, Vindicator, and Weaver. Battlescars especially is abhorrent, with an +Heal modifier of x0.006; if the skill simply required crits and high healing to function, rather than require neither, it would encourage buildcraft and purpose-selection of traits. Ele's Healing Ripple could AoE heal not just on attuning to water, but on crit,>! barrier-on-crit would help enable "effect on barrier" professions like Scourge and alacDPS Mechanist, and heal-on-crit would help grant Vindicator some license as a group-healdps, a role that currently does not exist. Zealot's, Marshal's, Seraph's, and Magi's gear are all seldom used, but could see new life with this interpretation.!<
- Precision+CondiDMG and Expertise: Applying conditions on crit leads to very reasonable hybrid-dps builds, but controlling conditions on crit, like cripple or chill or slow, creates some very intriguing debuff builds. Paired with traits that could trigger on "application of a non-damaging condition", and suddenly Necromancers, Mesmers, Rangers, Thieves, or ice/stone Elementalist become very real control casters in competitive play. The Bringers' attribute set, with Expertise, precision, and vitality sees no use, but becomes interesting for this purpose.
- Precision+Concentration: Traits and weapon skills that grant a variety of boons on a crit, or escalating boons up a ladder the way Specter's Well of Bounty and Sorrow works, would create a frontline boon-DPS that doesn't rely on feverishly mashing utility skills off-cooldown, something the devs don't seem to be able to stray away from, quickness and alacrity boon-providers being the obvious winners here.>! They could then consider using Commander's or Seraph's gear instead of Diviner's, but the lack of a 3-stat Precision/Concentration block is troubling.!<
- Should Precision be considered a role, gameplay that includes a Precision requirement should>! involve durable champions in some way. Precision/Ferocity builds would chip health down much more effectively, and Precision/Expertise builds would assist in controlling the enemy. That said, Precision could easily take a role in just about any team-wide content that involves striking quickly and often to proc the various effects.!<
- >>>Toughness: (a big one)
- I think that most players have a poor understanding of the impact Toughness has on the game, and I don't think anyone at ArenaNet much cares for it. This is a big flag, considering the popularity of tanks and bruisers in other games, and shouldn't be underestimated. Raid tough-tanking was an interesting concept, while it lasted, but more of a chore than an actual pursuit of an attribute. The theming is clear: the more Toughness you have, the less damage you take. What shocks the would-be bruisers is that this only affects strike damage, with tanks burning to death just as easily as anyone else. While this should create an identity role for Condition Damage over strike damage, the unpopularity of Toughness means cDPS never feels this advantage. What's more, as the only attribute that demands incoming effects, rather than outgoing action, it doesn't feel significant to play around, and when increased on champions and bosses, it results in purely hidden information that doesn't lend to player choice or agency.
- To top it off, the protection boon grants a whopping 33% damage reduction in strike damage from one boon alone (or 40% as a Tempest or shield Engi), while Concentration benefits many other builds outside of high durability, and boons affect up to 5 targets. Even with 3-stat, Toughness-priority heavy armor, good food, a utility, and Rune of the Dolyak, getting 30-40% damage reduction out of Toughness is extremely difficult, with heavy diminishing returns, with 10-20% being a more realistic useage case. Add in that most damage-reduction traits are a flat value that doesn't scale with Toughness (or any other stat), and Toughness becomes one of the most worthless attributes in the game.
- Recommendation 1: Flip those values, protection granting 20-33% damage reduction, while Toughness on a heavy armor class maxes out at 50% with full investment. Recommendation 2: Make protection a stackable boon, at 5% reduced incoming damage per stack, to a maximum of 5 stacks, with profession tech like Hardy Conduit or Over Shield granting 7% reduced damage per stack instead. This would mean that there would have to be a far more significant commitment to "keeping protection up" on allies as a defender, than to simply spec Concentration, and passively churn out enormous damage reduction, and create a space for more than one defender to contribute. Recommendation 3: Change damage-reducing traits and skills to scale with Toughness as well. Recommendation 3.5: Make Taunt duration scale with Toughness instead of Concentration? This would be a weird one I dunno I'm just spitballin ere
- Recommendation 4: Either additionally or alternatively, grant Toughness the added effect (either universally, or as a common trait tech more likely) of %-reduction of incoming condition duration, at -1% per 15 points of Toughness, to a maximum of -75%, as a form of negative-Expertise, if you will. This would help cement high-toughness, heavy-armor builds as a durable tanking effect in game: protectors who can grant allies Toughness, like Firebrand's Unbroken Lines, allow them to power over area hazards, while those who can pull conditions off allies and onto themselves, like Necromancer, Guardian's Save Yourselves, Rev's Pain Absorption, and Specter's Hungering Darkness, can help snuff out conditions in a way that doesn't rely on condition cleansing skills or traits, truly tanking for the team in more ways than one. It combos with the resolution and resistance boons without supplanting them, much like how Toughness already combos with protection. Above all, it creates a distinct gameplay intention, one that can be proactively built around, using forgotten prefixes such as Crusader, Captain's or Knight's, Cavalier's, Nomad's, Settler's, Giver's, or Trailblazer's. Minstrel's, Cleric's, and Apothecary's are all great for heal-tank builds as well.
- Should Toughness be considered a role, gameplay that demands Toughness should involve a lot of sudden or prolonged threats, and regular condition application in groups. Dangerous traps, or an environment that applies conditions over time, would be repelled by anyone who has better armor and defenses, and the overall nerf to protection as a boon would means that proper healing, blocking, dodging, and relocation are all made more important.
- >>>Vitality:
- Simple: more +VIT, more health. There needs to be some purity of purpose, however, where traits granting Vitality should be a distinct tanking/front-liner option, or have traits that convert their Vitality into other, more thematic attributes; various alchemical effects make sense, as does Necromancer's manipulation of life forces and Ranger's Wilderness Survival, but Guardian Power of the Virtuous, Force of Will, and Imbued Haste, and Virtuoso Quiet Intensity, are questionable sources, especially given their other effects and themes. Specter's Strength of Shadows feels custom-made for Ritualist's, not just a convenient coincidence, since it doubles or even triples up on different technologies and build requirements, while Plaguedoctor's, Shaman's, and Sentinal's all fail to see use by comparison.
- Should Vitality be considered a role, having a Vitality challenge would mean enemies strike hard and often, in a way that having less than a certain amount of health could put you on the floor. This may be through strike damage, possibly after a knockdown or disable, or repeatedly applied damaging conditions, or fights with a strong opening strike, requiring either high Vitality, or barrier application to survive for those first few seconds. Alternatively, an applied debuff that prevents the player from receiving health for a period of time would be a great test of their Vitality.
- >>>Ferocity:
- A UI element showcasing the end value of a critical hit on weapon and skill tooltips would help describe the value of this attribute at a glance.
- As a rule, traits that grant Ferocity or extra critical hit damage should be a benefit predominantly earned by front-line fighters, in melee range: Warrior's Axe Mastery is a great example of this, having a passive attribute benefit, but mostly benefitting axe skills, which are melee range specifically. This isn't to say that ranged damage should be nerfed, but there needs to be a very clear distinction of what the advantage to melee fighters is over plugging away with shots from a safe distance, which also negatively impacts the value of defensive and mobility skills and effects. An alternative could be creatures that take extra damage from crits, but only from players within short melee range, or designing certain weapons to have specific skills that inflict individually increased critical hit damage. Snipers and other 1hKO builds, and professions with high or guaranteed crits such as arcane Elementalist, Spellbreaker, or Renegade, would be a great example of this feature, making use of prefixes such as Valkyrie's and Crusader's, which without extra precision, have been left to rot.
- Including Ferocity as a role in a scenario would likely mean>! fevered combat in a close-quarters space, inside a room or hallway, or otherwise have some kind of barrier or line-of-sight obstacle that discourages trying to take potshots from a 'safe' distance. Once combat is met, high-Ferocity fighters should clean house very quickly, perhaps as a result of a short window of high vulnerability to crit damage, much like how Exposed works.!<
- >>>Healing Power:
- While healing is recognized to be a valued role in the game, as spoken by ANet's 'design philosophy' document considering "Damage, Boons, and Healing" the main roles in PvE, the actual applications of healing are a bit scuffed. "Pure DPS", "boon DPS", and "boon healer" are all used often in instanced and competitive play alike, but "Pure Boons", "Pure Healing", and "Heal DPS" are essentially nonexistent.
- As a role, Healing Power should do what it says, and actually be responsible for healing, something that it doesn't currently actually do very well. Fast-moving, selfish assault units like Revenant (battlescars and Vindicator), sword Weaver, Willbender, and various forms of Thief, all have insanely low multipliers to their healing skills, or features that don't scale with Healing Power at all, such that even heavy investment into healing power is sometimes meaningless.
- (again: Battlescars has a Healing Power multiplier of 0.006, and even less in competitive. With maximum Healing Power, runes, and tapioca pudding, on Devestation/Salvation Vindicator below half health, that means you can only squeeze an extra 13.4 extra health per strike out of Healing Power scaling alone. If the healing done by battlescars was a serious problem in competitive play, the solution should have been to nerf the base healing to essentially zero, and crank the multiplier to reward gear investment, not crash the multiplier to rely on the unmodifiable base heal instead).
- >! Warrior's Vigorous Shouts grants power->healing power conversion, almost as a joke, given Warrior's overall lack of heal tech, as is the heals available to Necromancer, several Mesmer skills, and even some effects from our very own pocket-medic Specter. The regeneration boon is often the only consistent source of healing, and often scales more than twice as powerfully as skills or passives with healing attached, and even then requires Concentration, which is just ye olde "Boon Healer" raising it's head again.!<
- Given how Healing Power begins at a base of 0, if healing skills received a significant buff to their multipliers, especially on single-target or self-healing skills, while hammering down their base values, perhaps 'group healer' may actually get an opportunity to breathe in this game, the way the devs like to pretend it does. If this is tied into Precision's special-action identity, gear such as Magi's and Seraph would have a use as well, and if battlescars only inflicted their lifesteal on a crit, or Elementalist's Healing Ripple caused AoE heals on a critical hit, there would be a very real incentive to put Healing Power in the hands of front-line fighters, and not just in the back row of people who have Concentration and provide other boons.
- If a scenario was described with the Healing Power role, then there would likely be prolonged exposure to a damaging effect, such as a smog or psychic effect, as the party rushes around to solve puzzles or explore zones. Or, a space where the party is expected to split up, and be responsible for their own healing for a time.
- >>>Condition Damage:
- The UI should reflect both how much damage a skill does across it's lifetime, as well as how much damage it does per second, to help get a feeling for the moment-by-moment effects in combat.
- Condition Damage suffers many well-documented difficulties. Compared to power-crit DPS, the nine different professions having varying access to each of the five different damaging conditions means that while there's a greater incentive to use some classes or builds over others, it's extremely difficult to balance all cDPS roles against each other, especially if they don't bring some kind of other value to the team. Additionally, enemies succumbing to their injuries wipes the conditions attached to them, forcing you to start over; this should mean that bosses, who can withstand the stacks, should be the intended target for cDPS, but many bosses have the unfortunate tendency to phase, becoming immune to further condition applications, and breaking flow. Plus, some bosses having different Toughness levels means it can be difficult to recognize when a fight would benefit from condition damage over strike damage, when then that information is hidden from the player.
- My first proposal would be that different, specific enemies have telegraphed vulnerabilities to one or more conditions: "burning destroys plants and undead" is always a popular one, but few enemies, if any, have this effect. Torment should have extra effect on spellcasters and ghosts, while bleeding and poison should have extra effect on beefier, beastlike enemies, and humanoids. Confusion is fine, since it already has an identity against enemies that make many attacks at a time. Destroyers used to be immune to burning, and frankly, the game was better for it.
- My second proposal would introduce "stacks for stacks" trait technology in professions that predominantly use long-duration conditions, such as poison and bleeding, to inflict an additional application of those conditions for every 10-15 stacks already applied to the target. This would help with ramp-up during fights where those durations actually matter, without infringing on the ability of hybrid-dps and pDPS to deal damage quickly.
- This wouldn't all be so bad (just requires an affirmation of intention), if Expertise wasn't so monumentally instrumental in propping up competitive cDPS, and had it's own identity. Grieving gear and Sinister should have been fantastic for burning hybrid-dps, Trailblazer's for tank-dps, Seraph for heal-dps, and Ritualist's for boon-DPS, but Viper's is so overwhelmingly useful on every single profession in the game, that there is very little reason to pursue these gear sets.
- Describing a scenario with the Condition Damage challenge would probably mean>! a challenging, single-monster fight, ideally one without phases for it to drop conditions uptime during. It would likely have some form of content that discourages Power damage, such as moving around a lot, or an aura effect that damages anyone who gets too close for too long, which would allow Condition Damage to continue to tick away unabated. Identifying exactly which conditions are meant to be effective against which targets would also help grant the fight some much-needed identity, such as a boss that consumes poison stacks to suffers damage instead of healing, or a boss that cycles through vulnerability to different condition types throughout the fight.!<
- >>>Concentration:
- What a nightmare of an attribute this thing is. Singularly responsible for Might and Fury, Protection, Regeneration, Vigor, Resistance, and Resolution, and Alacrity and Quickness uptime, there basically isn't a single build in the game that doesn't benefit from Concentration in SOME capacity, especially in a group, and between Harrier's, Ritualist's, and Diviner's, there isn't really a single build in the game that can't climb into bed with it.
- As covered, Regeneration has an enormous advantage from Healing Power over other skills that heal, provided it has longer duration. The only builds that don't benefit from it in some way are "hi, DPS" types who otherwise need to trade their ability to generate their own boons for traits that increase their damage output. What mostly grinds my gears is that boons are so pivotal to the balance of the game right now, that there are no easy solutions on how to fix it. The main alternative could be maintaining our current level of boon cap, with full Concentration investment, but amplifying the % increase of Concentration's contribution, so that without it, boons only last for a second or so. Otherwise, having significantly more access to boons would mean that having to stack boons is the only way to keep them up, creating new "Boon Only" spellcasters who's EXCLUSIVE contribution is to buff the team.
- Concentration as a role in content would probably require the team to split up for long periods of time, such that the more duration you have, the longer you can benefit from the effects, until you can safely return to your healer or boon-giver. Moving ground hazards and social-distancing mechanics that discourage group stacking for very long would also enable this.
- >>>Expertise:
- My favorite. Expertise carries the same foundational problems as Concentration, but at least only for one aspect of dps-gameplay. That said, it deserves better than to simply prop up Condition Damage, and should have much more diverse options. Bleeding is a good example: in competitive game modes, the already-long duration of bleeding locks enemies into combat longer, making it harder for them to break out of combat and flee. Poison, for it's lack of damage, inhibits healing, while chill and slow impact cast speed and cooldown. Weakness, vulnerability, cripple, taunt, and fear, all spell out an exceedingly powerful PvP/WvW advantages, and alternative gameplay styles of battlefield control.
- As a role, Expertise is the attribute of pressure, committing to the long game and working to undermine enemies long enough to see them fail or falter. Personally, I'd like to see more underperforming traits get swapped out for more traits that apply, or benefit from, the application of these conditions, and much in the same way as Healing and boons, SEVERELY limit the base durations, while amplifying the %-duration-increase gained from heavily investing in Expertise. Even halving some existing durations, and making expertise grant +2% duration per 15 points instead of 1%, would help open up some variant gameplay builds, especially if combined with precision for "apply condition on crit" or "gain advantage when striking a foe with X condition" builds, for gear-dedicated gameplay effects.
- Rangers should be using mud, thorns, and conditions earned from taking Trapper's Expertise to be hit-and-run guerilla fighters. Elementalists should be chilling with ice, and entombing in stone, and Necromancers should be a dark beacon from which the land and people suffer debilitating curses. Thieves have no trait or gear interaction with preparation skills, and could gain a unique condition for each trap, and Dragonhunter actively competes with itself between it's trap trait, Piercing Light, and Dulled Senses, which inflicts cripple on disable. Even a trait, "Traps and preparations have longer effect duration based on your Expertise" would reinforce the role of control artist, and help introduce more and varied prefixes than the five that we currently abuse.
- Using Expertise as a role in content design would likely mean the same singular boss from the Condition Damage role, but ideally, would involve challenges that encourage the use of NON-damaging conditions. The Snowblind Fractal is a good example of an encounter where ice elementals try to put the fire out, and need to be slowed or stopped, as is having to immobilize the ghosts during the Gorseval raid boss, to prevent them from getting to the boss the middle.
- The front gate of the Ascalon Fractal sees many enemies together (Power), with a constantly occurring arrow barrage (Healing Power and Toughness), boiling oil (burning, healing again but could be solved with the Toughness change), and a champion guarding the gate (Precision, Ferocity).
- A boss that suffers extra critical hit damage from melee range (Ferocity), but which sheds extremely damaging conditions (Vitality, Healing Power, and fixed Toughness), on a timer that demands at least some players take advantage of the melee-range crit increase to win in time, would mean an active decision between how many DPS, healers, self-heals, and boons are necessary to win. Boneskinner comes close to this, only undermined by the fact this wasn't entirely intentional.
- A Healing Power + Vitality + Toughness fight where the boss will die after a 5-minute chase sequence requiring you to jump through an obstacle course would require ENTIRELY different technologies to win than most players are capable of spinning today. Spirit Vale's Spirit Run could have been this, but instead, was limited to a series of DPS checks against walls, and the River of Souls is instead steeped in cheese mechanics and demands for superspeed and stability.
- A Power + Precision + Expertise fight, where the boss gains Exposed for 2 seconds before inflicting a devastating blow, but who's Exposed state can be drawn out by additional time based on the defiance-damage inflicted by non-damaging conditions, would require several control artists to debuff the boss, long enough and often enough for the DPS to take it down. Disable builds already enable this, in a way, but Defiance Bars completely invalidate the non-damaging aspects of Expertise.
Otherwise, were these to be adopted, many different dead or unrecommended prefixes stand to open up, which really highlights the extreme extent to which gear has been made useless in this game, by merit of the narrow outlook the balance team takes when viewing each profession.
Disappointing outliers include:
- Nadijeh's Marshal gear (PoweHeal, precision/condi) (no such thing as a healDPS)
- The Twins' Grieving gear (PoweCondi, precision/ferocity) (no Expertise? Garbo, apparently)
- Maklain's Minstrel gear (Toughness/Heal, vitality/concentration) (not unused, just unpopular)
- Pahua's Trailblazer gear (Toughness/Condi, vitality/expertise) (should be ideal jungleguerilla fighter)
- Thackeray's Seraph gear (Precision/Condi, concentration/healing) (to craft this gear you need to actually farm the map and buy the inscription.)
- Ruka's Wanderer gear (PoweVitality, toughness/concentration) (bizarre)
- Ossa's Crusader gear (PoweToughness, ferocity/healing) (bizarre, ferocity with no precision)
- Laranthir's Vigilant gear (PoweToughness, concentration/expertise) (expertise, but no condition damage?)
- Tizlak's Commander gear (PowePrecision, toughness/concentration) (precision but no ferocity)
- Apothecary's, Clerics, Bringer's, Rabid, Shaman's, Sentinel's, Settler's, Nomad's, Cavalier's, Knight's, Soldier's, and Zealot's gear from the core game are all a strange mix of healing power, toughness, and other stats, that should all present exciting, meaningful gameplay structures, but are all dumped and forgotten as random loot to be salvaged and forgotten.
So. This concludes Part 1. In part 2, I aim to cover how we might pair these 'attribute roles' with mechanical effects in different classes that help produce roles not currently recognized by ArenaNet. In the meantime, I'd like to open discussion:
- Should each professions be expected to benefit from a more personal set of gear attributes? Overlap is guaranteed in many cases, but should we see more cases such as Ritualist's, which is only desirable on professions with Vitality conversion? Or should all professions benefit identically from the same prefix options?
- Are there any archetypes or build fantasies that you think our current selection of attributes could be used to address, but currently aren't in the game, such as Expertise affecting trap duration? If so, what are they, which profession would be doing it, and which attributes do you think would enable it?
- Do you think stats being freely available is a good thing, or would you be interested in different attribute sets looted from specific zones or content types? For example, high-durability gear looted by roaming open world, or that different metas drop gear with prefixes that are explicitly designed to help you defeat it? Or that 'raid-ready' gear prefixes be looted from champions, strikes, and raids themselves?
- Should 4-stat and Celestial be nerfed, or 3-stat buffed, in order to make them more appealing? If not, what purpose do you propose for 3-stat, non-Berserker gear?
- If more content started to use a greater variety of challenges, other than just "hit big monster make big numbers go up more", would you be excited to experiment with different gear setups, in order to be better prepared for the challenges of each encounter? Or, do you prefer having a small number of loadouts, that can handle any and all content in the game?
2023.04.01 00:33 GreekMysteries123 [Online] [Other] [PBP] Trails of Azure Flames
Name of Game: Trails of Azure Flames
Genres: Action-Adventure, Anime, Fantasy, Magic, Mecha.
Themes: Kindness, Self-defense, fighting for what you believe in.
Settings: Kaldora 1500 A.D (A Fantasy North America)
Needed Players: 4
Game Description: Welcome to Kaldora, to others it's considered Mankind's peak and accomplishment to be able to bring man to the future. With knowledge of the past, mistakes created by ancestors of pre-futuristic society. Nothing has surprised future civilizations, than Magic and Mecha to compete within the Hostile world of War and Desolation. Special Forces known as the "GS" Genestic Spheres, have ultimately signed off on the missile bombing known as Blitzkrieg, destroying almost all cities. This has forced all Local and Federal militaries to construct Air Cities/Bases. Since the Lower levels is no hospitable... this is where the True Fun has begun! Are you ready to shut down GS for good?
Let me know if you're interested.
submitted by GreekMysteries123 to lfg [link] [comments]
Genres: Action-Adventure, Anime, Fantasy, Magic, Mecha.
Themes: Kindness, Self-defense, fighting for what you believe in.
Settings: Kaldora 1500 A.D (A Fantasy North America)
Needed Players: 4
Game Description: Welcome to Kaldora, to others it's considered Mankind's peak and accomplishment to be able to bring man to the future. With knowledge of the past, mistakes created by ancestors of pre-futuristic society. Nothing has surprised future civilizations, than Magic and Mecha to compete within the Hostile world of War and Desolation. Special Forces known as the "GS" Genestic Spheres, have ultimately signed off on the missile bombing known as Blitzkrieg, destroying almost all cities. This has forced all Local and Federal militaries to construct Air Cities/Bases. Since the Lower levels is no hospitable... this is where the True Fun has begun! Are you ready to shut down GS for good?
Let me know if you're interested.
2023.04.01 00:21 TrumpetDan Rener Gracie deposition quotes
Direct quotes from Rener during the trial. This is from the deposition, not the testimony or cross examination.
[Before reading, make sure you view the now leaked video on Toms instagram. I did not leak it. ]
“Brazilian Jiu Jitsu are from white to blue to purple to brown to black to red, with the red belt rank being the most advanced rank in the sport. The white belt is the least advance rank in the sport and denotes a beginner with little to no experience.
It is industry custom for beginners to have courses separate and apart from advanced practitioners so as to ensure the beginners receive the proper care and attention. Pursuant to industry standards, beginners should complete an introductory course to learn basic techniques in a safe and responsible way without the dangerous maneuvers that are used at more advanced levels.”
“Immediately prior to his injury, Mr. Greener was in a defensive position known as turtle position essentially balled up on the mat with his face down. If an opponent is in a turtle position, the goal is to safely put that person on their side or to take the back. There are many ways to take the back of a person in turtle position. To take the back of a person in turtle position, one could put their feet inside to secure the back, one could move to the side and knock them off balance with a knee and then lock legs around them, but the safest method is to just pull the person onto their side. On the day of the incident, Mr. Iturralde did not use any of the traditional methods to take Mr. Greener's back.
Instead, of performing a routine and safe back take, Mr. Iturralde pinned Mr. Greener to the mat [Dan interjection: The video shows that he did not “pin” him. It was simply from turtle] put all his pressure on Mr. Greener's neck and jumped with both feet in the air, attempting to perform a front-flip. The maneuver which Mr. Iturralde attempted was an extremely dangerous technique, known as a forward-flip backtake, which is used by only the most experienced of practitioners and even then it is typically only applied on equally skilled opponents who have received extensive training on how to properly receive the technique without sustaining crippling injuries.”
**Edited post to add the following**
“It is industry custom that instructors have discretion over which Brazilian Jiu Jitsu techniques to teach. It is contrary to industry custom for an instructor to perform a forward-flip backtake on anyone who has not received extensive instruction and practice on the technique.
Performing a forward-flip backtake on a white-belt without prior instruction, would be an extreme departure from the range of ordinary activity involved in teaching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu can be performed and is regularly practiced without without the forward-flip backtake.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu without a forward-flip backtake is common and normal. The forward-flip backtake is not a fundamental or essential technique of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.”
*edit 2 to add below quote*
“Instructional sparring and competitive martial arts are starkly different such thatthey are essentially two distinct activities. Competitors at the highest level of martial arts use techniques which are not commonly utilized during instructional sparring. A dichotomy exists between the risks in upper echelon competitions and instructional sparring during a class. The forward-flip backtake is not typically performed in instructional sparring, particularly where a practitioner receiving the technique is of a lower rank or skill level.”
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[Before reading, make sure you view the now leaked video on Toms instagram. I did not leak it. ]
“Brazilian Jiu Jitsu are from white to blue to purple to brown to black to red, with the red belt rank being the most advanced rank in the sport. The white belt is the least advance rank in the sport and denotes a beginner with little to no experience.
It is industry custom for beginners to have courses separate and apart from advanced practitioners so as to ensure the beginners receive the proper care and attention. Pursuant to industry standards, beginners should complete an introductory course to learn basic techniques in a safe and responsible way without the dangerous maneuvers that are used at more advanced levels.”
“Immediately prior to his injury, Mr. Greener was in a defensive position known as turtle position essentially balled up on the mat with his face down. If an opponent is in a turtle position, the goal is to safely put that person on their side or to take the back. There are many ways to take the back of a person in turtle position. To take the back of a person in turtle position, one could put their feet inside to secure the back, one could move to the side and knock them off balance with a knee and then lock legs around them, but the safest method is to just pull the person onto their side. On the day of the incident, Mr. Iturralde did not use any of the traditional methods to take Mr. Greener's back.
Instead, of performing a routine and safe back take, Mr. Iturralde pinned Mr. Greener to the mat [Dan interjection: The video shows that he did not “pin” him. It was simply from turtle] put all his pressure on Mr. Greener's neck and jumped with both feet in the air, attempting to perform a front-flip. The maneuver which Mr. Iturralde attempted was an extremely dangerous technique, known as a forward-flip backtake, which is used by only the most experienced of practitioners and even then it is typically only applied on equally skilled opponents who have received extensive training on how to properly receive the technique without sustaining crippling injuries.”
**Edited post to add the following**
“It is industry custom that instructors have discretion over which Brazilian Jiu Jitsu techniques to teach. It is contrary to industry custom for an instructor to perform a forward-flip backtake on anyone who has not received extensive instruction and practice on the technique.
Performing a forward-flip backtake on a white-belt without prior instruction, would be an extreme departure from the range of ordinary activity involved in teaching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu can be performed and is regularly practiced without without the forward-flip backtake.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu without a forward-flip backtake is common and normal. The forward-flip backtake is not a fundamental or essential technique of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.”
*edit 2 to add below quote*
“Instructional sparring and competitive martial arts are starkly different such thatthey are essentially two distinct activities. Competitors at the highest level of martial arts use techniques which are not commonly utilized during instructional sparring. A dichotomy exists between the risks in upper echelon competitions and instructional sparring during a class. The forward-flip backtake is not typically performed in instructional sparring, particularly where a practitioner receiving the technique is of a lower rank or skill level.”