As I passed by Mt Mortar I decided to bypass the whole thing by means of the small creek adjacent to it. As I did I ended noticin somehin that was glimmerin in the tree's, but I didn't have Royals with me so I couldn't get a closer look. I took note to come back later and kept on my way to Mahogony, makin land a bit after and continuin east to Mahogany, along the way catchin a Mareep. It was a bit closer than I liked, being half the level of my own Mons, but luckily I just needed The Chain to put em to sleep and then toss a Ultra Ball to nab it. Once caught I named her
Electrc Avn
She was way more chill than even Bohemian, Lax even, and all that cotton made her pretty good at taken hits too. I thought about addin her to the team, but not now, right now she needed to wait in the box, the next two Gyms wouldn't be too good for her. I made it to Mahogany Town and couldn't help but notice somethins were off. Firstly, the Gym was blocked off by some guy who was guidin people to the Lake of Rage up north, which while I wasn't plannin on goin in there yet, his familiar look to that guy sellin them overpriced slowpoke tails, and the subsequent later connection to Team Rocket shenanigans, had me on all sorts of edge. Then there was the fact that my chill blues got replaced with some funky interpretive whatsit as soon as I walked into town. This and the absolutely fake tree next to the suspicious shop had me come to one conclusion, something was goin on up at the Lake of Rage, and I was about to make my way there to find out what. I healed up, and headed north, tryin to avoid any wild Mon encounters and instead findin duo of Rocket Goons holdin up the waypoint, forcin tolls onto people. If my guess wasn't clearly right before, this is more than enough proof that Rocket's up to somethin. Once I get there however, I end up findin what they were talkin about, a massive Gyrados, red and furious. I tried catchin it, but Bohemian decided to crit it with it's second Petal Dance, causin it to knock the big boi out. I guess calmin it down would suffice, but despite Rockets whole thing here bein ruined, I still hadn't found the head of their operations here, luckily, someone else had...
Lance
I froze in place as he walked up and started givin out the details on what's been goin on here. His Dragonite standin right next to him, and loomin right over me. Eventally, I'd have to go toe to toe with that thing, but it wouldn't be the first big Dragon I'd have to get past so I'll have experience, and a plan. I then heard him call out to Dragonite to fly him back to Mahagony Town, meanwhile I had to walk, this time skippin the impromptu toll booth and passin through the Grass. As I passed on through I found a Girafarig, gave me a bit of a scare in flinchin and critin The Chain, but I put it to bed and then nabbed it in a ball. Named the little guy...
MelowYelow
And he was a Mellow one, Gentle in nature, until he got excited, then he was thrashin about the place. I'd box him but also kept him in mind for later. I made to it Mahogany and headed towards the Pokemon Center, healed up my Mon and then headed to the suspicious shop, and what do I walk into, but a near murder of one of the guys as a beam of white hot energy slams him against the wall. The other guy quickly moved out of the way, and as he turned to me I froze again, but he just casually mentioned that the hidden passage was bellow the cabinet, moved it out of the way, and then headed on down. I took a second before followin down there. As I do I end up runnin into their security system, but the guards are so weak compared to my mon now that I decided to use them for E.V farmin, as well as free Poke. One floor down and I end up catchin up with Lance, where he explained that we had to find out a password in order to reach the Rocket Exec runnin this show, and after that we needed a password from the Admin to open the door to some Electrode who were runnin the generator for the device that was throwin the signal across the radio. Now the plan was set, and we set off to work. Beat up some goons, some scientists, got the passwords, and then headed Downstairs. There I end up runnin into Paul, but apparently Lance got to him first cause he wasn't even lookin to fight, and gave him a good lecturin too about how he treated his Mon, lettin them die off left an right with not a care in the world, callin em weak and worthless... I might not have been the latter two but, I've had plenty of deaths on my own here, and I was wonderin if I might risk endin up like Paul... what was Paul even like. I didn't have time to ask him cuz he stormed off while I got lost in my own thoughts, but I had my own things to worry about beyond that, like the Executive behind this up comin door...
Petrel
Parents musta known who they were raisin cuz this man looked as slick and slimy as his namesake, and sounded it too as he told me the password right away, only to then brag that it only responded to his voice. He snickered like a Hyena, and started a fight with me in hopes of wipin me out. His mon were pretty scummy as well; His Zubat was a Flinch Fusion monster (though thank god Starships was able to wipe the floor with it before it could get started), his Raicate was mostly fair, sucker punch being the cheapest thing on the field, and then came the Koffing. I had a sneaking suspicion, what with his smug grin cracked by the sweat on his face, so I threw in DaBleedin and, well it made it boom. Out of mon and out of options, he decided to run, and I was at a bit of a blank spot. Maybe I'd get lucky and Lance would catch em as he was runnin out, nope, got luckier, the nearby Murkrow started screamin the password, and it sounded a lot like Petrel while doin it. All of a sudden it runs off, and I give chase; I managed to chase that thing screamin all the way to the Electrode room. Before I could stroll on in however, I ended up runnin into another Executive...
Arianna
A fiery red head who gave me some serious deja vu, and another rocket friend of hers. Before I could start what looked to be a tough 2v1, Lance came in to back me up, with his own Dragonite. Even funnier than that is the fact that Arianna's mon were also fairly under leveled compared to my own, so what seemed like a hard double battle turned out to be easy, and then was made easier by the man Lance and his Sudo-Legendary Mon. Needless to say, I was more than a bit humored. We both cleaned those two up, and got to dealin with the Electrode problem. Because of the way they were hooked up, we had to knock them out to deal with them. I nabbed one of them for myself, and called it...
BalroomBlz
No surpise it was Naive, neither the fact that it had a sturdy body, though I'd box it for now, instead leavin and headin to the Pokemon Center to top me and the Mon off before fightin Pryce.
To Be Continued...
Previous Chapters
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8

So, Rank Match is coming to EN (in less than 12 hours as I’m writing this!). Maybe you’ve seen a few posts crop up on your twitter TL or randomly on this subreddit bringing up fear of cheaters. Maybe you haven’t and have only seen the ones saying “I’m no good, I’ll probably only languish in bronze” or something like that. But all the same, I think we need to treat with the topic.
Let’s talk about cheating. It’s rampant, and it needs to be recognized. It’s worth addressing. It’s worth keeping EN’s integrity as a server.
A little context, before I do: I'm a user from the community Sekai server (henceforth referred to as Sekaicord) linked on the sidebar. By habit, I am not a reddit user, and I apologize if this comes off too strong as a consequence. I understand this is a contentious topic, and I recognize that I might have perception bias if the only posts I see from here showcase the "worst" posts and not the actual "average" opinion on this — but, my impression is that, in general, this subreddit has a terrible track record when it comes to identifying cheaters, and an equally awful slate of defenses for their behavior. I'm writing this post not just to address some of these defenses, but also to open the conversation. The less we know about it, the less we can push the devs to take action on it. And likewise, the more we’re aware…
Some context for my viewpoints / experiences on the matter:
- I'm a Day 1 JP player, with 240+ Master FCs. I played EN from day 1 up until around Scramble, when the amount of external tiering drama got too much for me (and, if my handle on what happened during White Day is right, it hasn't gotten better). Level-wise, I’d be about Lv31-32 for FC skill and 26-28 AP-wise. Ask me for a handcam if you want. On Sekaicord I frequently talk to much better players — yes, even ones who can FC/AP 33+ songs (which are probably the most likely to get doubted). I asked a player with Lv34+ FCs (AMARA, 16bit, Intense Voice, Disappearance/END) to review this huge treatise before I wrote it out. I'm pretty confident as to their legitimacy and generally see some patterns that emerge as to why they are. I'll explain some of these here.
- I tend to give the benefit of the doubt to APs up to around Lv32 in the wild, but a lot of Lv33+ FCs tend to be more suspect for any number of reasons you can see from the co-op results screen.
- The atmosphere in Sekaicord around cheating is, as you can probably infer from my tone, highly distrusting. Cheaters are banned on sight once proof is established beyond doubt – so in fact, it surprises me that technically speaking, the rules on the subreddit’s sidebar don’t concretely penalize cheating!
But like many communities, it didn't start out like that. The dedicated gameplay channel was VERY happy to celebrate players' accomplishments (we used to have every 33+ FC pinned) and generally didn't ask for much proof — until Rank Match came on JP, and a player who we all thought was just insanely good got exposed (because JP caught and banned him). Here's the thing — he was a good player in his own right (i.e., Lv. 32+, but not good enough for the results he cheated), and the way he hid his results was much less blatant than some of the people later banned from the server for cheating, who… well, put in about as much effort as some of the cheaters that have been linked to me from here. This is how it goes for pretty much any community: break the established trust, and obviously nothing's the same afterward.
I will try to write this in such a way that it gives cheaters as few hints as possible on how to make their plays look more "legit"; I simply want to point out some of the common patterns that emerge when a cheater really is afoot (and which are never an issue for a legitimate player), and refute some of the more common defenses.
Another thing: yes, not everyone condescends to the level of some of these defenses I’ve written out. However, I’ve seen them appear enough in more or less these exact forms, unchallenged, that it’s worth quoting them in exactly the same way to give you an idea of what’s wrong with these viewpoints. This is not meant as a personal attack (moreso if you may have said something to these effects in the past); it’s simply an attack on the logic behind them.

DEFENSES:

(1) "Has it ever occurred to you that someone might just be that good? / Or maybe they're just that good?"
Statements like these are, to put it bluntly, passive-aggressive and condescending towards people who might have genuine grounds for suspicion. People weren't born yesterday; we're fully aware that people on the level of HPS, MaengZombie, nanoflower, REN, STK, SkisK… exist. (I've specifically excluded jack just because he's the low-hanging fruit and also to point out that if one’s only knowledge of a "good player" is jack, well… there’s a whole world out there).
But the reason people don't cast doubt on those players is because they have put in the effort to be deserving of that trust. Every one of the players I've mentioned has videographic evidence — YouTube, Twitter clips, the list goes on. They frequently compete to get world-first on APs, and they're well aware that if you do not have a video that shows your hands, your play means nothing. For example, tweets purporting to show world-firsts on Six Trillion Years and Overnight Story were, pretty much without exception, disregarded by JP players when the user was silent on the question of handcams.
(The first recognized AP of Six Trillion Years is from SkisK , at 1d 1h 19m after release.)
(A little aside: JP players can be pretty ruthless about cheaters. From the official JP Discord, I passed by this message of someone posting a Yaminabe AP tweet with no proof on release day and was (not) surprised to see a slew of X-to-doubt reactions -- and, as with the tweet above which I had to resort to Wayback Machine to show you, it was later deleted presumably after getting called out.)
I also want to be clear on this: this also means that a player you don't expect CAN come out of nowhere and stake their claim on an achievement, as long as they have the proof to back their claim up. Here's a good example: the maxed score on Arcaea's hardest chart, Testify BYD, was achieved by a player (005saikou) who otherwise wasn't known for any other world-firsts! And — you guessed it — he had an annotated video to back up his claim, commenting on which parts he thought was hardest, and other peculiarities of the chart.
There's a common counterargument to (1) that goes something like
(2) "Well, maybe some people just don't want to show their hands / dox themselves / don't know how to record / etc."
Let's do this point-by-point.
2a) "...don't know how to record / not everyone has a second phone or camera to record handcams with..."
The trial-and-error process required to reach the level of play we're talking about 99% demands the ability to record, review, and rewatch your play. Even if you're not going to post it, you almost certainly will have tried it at some point on the road to 33+ just for your own "where did I go wrong?" purposes.
This argument is also an insult to the intelligence of a player; recording ISN'T EVEN HARD. Recording is built-in on iOS. Recording on Android is as simple as typing "screen recorder app" into Google Play Store (or its equivalent, for Xiaomi and other no-Google builds) and downloading the first free option that doesn't have ads every 0.1 seconds. While screen recordings are less trustworthy than handcams because, well, you can’t see what the player is doing in order to get that result, they’re trustworthy enough in conjunction with players who, besides a recording, can talk about what, why, and how they do what they’re doing (more on this below).
As for handcams, please don't be intimidated by the fact that most well-known YouTubers have professional-looking, crisp 1080p setups: even a grainy 480p view is enough as long as it's clear you're not pretending to mash away while a bot automatically PERFECTs the 200BPM portions of Intense Voice. Google "handcam setups", or DIY one by cutting a slit at the top of a cardboard box and pointing a camera lens down while you play from the bottom (my preferred solution). I have seen players who record themselves using cheap $20 webcams not even clipped to anywhere stable, players who ask to borrow a family member’s phone or camera for a paltry five minutes… anything to be honest! For as many cheaters I’ve seen accused, I’ve also seen nearly as many people who put in the effort to be honest, which deserves a good mention.
Just about every case I know of someone who wasn't a cheater was willing to provide a handcam of some sort. It doesn't matter if they took 30 minutes, five hours, or three days — they came back and defended themselves. I've even seen it on the EN discord! The first instinct of a cheater, by contrast, is to either stay completely silent and let other people do the defending for them, or to get extremely defensive and use some of the many arguments here.
Incidentally, there are legitimate examples I know of of completely unknown players who pop up one day in Sekaicord with some godlike play, and the reason they were believed on the spot? Handcam.
2b) "...don't want to show their hands / dox themselves..."
I suppose nothing can be done about that, but on this point I'd like to point out that Sekai is hardly the first (and will not be the last) rhythm game community to have doubters. This is frankly small-time compared to osu! players doing this like it's a JOB. And that comes down to a fundamental truth about rhythm games: difficult skill-based achievements have always had value because people SHOW they can be done. Consequently, if there is no proof, there is no value; if you're willing to make an outrageous claim; you best be prepared to show some outrageous play, or risk it not being worth anything at all.
There are other ways to show you clearly did what you're claiming to that don't involve a handcam, mind you — but they involve knowing what you're talking about, describing the chart / your strategies in detail, and, well, generally a certain level of passion about the intricacies of the game that most cheaters don't really seem to have, because they're only really here for the one fleeting shot at attention (mentioned this above already; skip to “spotting cheaters” below if you’re curious enough to know how).
Moving on…
(3) "But they posted a recording of…"
Let me be clear on this point: I personally (and many others) are not wondering if they photoshopped a rainbow clear diamond on a song; anyone can do that in three minutes. I am also not wondering (and do not care) if someone has a recording of themselves scrolling through a list of songs with a shiny line of rainbow diamonds, because that doesn't really mean anything if they cannot demonstrate the ability to repeat it (and that a bot didn't do it for them). On this point, most players aren't so letter-of-the-law obsessed as to demand a recording of a re-AP (understandable: players like Mita Kousuke take months even to get a singular AP on What's up? Pop! and there's no guarantee the perfect moment will be caught on camera for most players) — I (and many others) just want to see a level of play that reasonably LOOKS like they can do what they’re claiming to have done. Put simply, I really just want to see someone’s fingers dancing where the notes are landing, not their hands flailing miserably against the glass screen while a bot does the actual playing.
What would "reasonable" look like? Take a look at the Mita video as an example. While he lists some of his current personal bests at the top, you'll find that the majority of these streams are him failing, sometimes incredibly early, sometimes amazingly -- but the overall level of play is high. Players who've just finished with a feat from the night before / day before / two hours / 30 minutes before don't "rust over". A few hours' rest (if necessary) for exhausted hands is almost always enough to show something approaching legitimate if the player in question is legitimate -- again, no one's asking for a second AP.
(4) "You're just jealous!"
And? So what if I am? Since when was emotion a valid reason to stop reading and avoid the possibility that even people driven by emotion can make valid points? But part of why this argument is unusually effective is because most aren't aware of the common patterns that drive cheaters, and so valid arguments are often dismissed as being down to jealousy if you're not aware of why some of these defenses for cheaters just don't stick.
Part of why I shared the context of where I come from with this was partly to dispel this argument. I've long since accepted that there are people much better than me, and I want to explain why people (who don't necessarily have that chance) react the way they do towards cheaters without resorting to ad hominems like this.
But never mind me. If me potentially being jealous is enough to discount it at my sub-33 skill level, then would you believe the distaste for EN cheating if it came from the world-first AP on Kusaregedou to Chocolate? Incidentally, I assure you he's got nothing to be jealous of: after all, he's going to Tokyo for Spring CS and rubbing shoulders with HPS and the rest of the Sekai gods.
(5) "It's just a game, why would anyone cheat on Sekai?"
If you've ever heard a variation of the common schoolyard boast (or jokes about it) "my dad works at Nintendo / Game Freak / Activision / [insert AAA video game company here]", the answer is: it’s for exactly the same reason immature people have lied since the dawn of society — attention and self-esteem. Of course they gain nothing from this, it is just a game, after all — but kids literally lie just to win arguments as petty and easily-forgotten as those in a schoolyard. Why would Sekai be the first skill-based game (of many, many rhythm games out there) immune to this?
(6) "It's just a game, calm down lol"
I genuinely struggled to write an answer to this without getting a bit irritated; I’ve seen this so many times in so many places for so many wrong reasons. But what’s wrong with being passionate about a game? What’s wrong with wanting the pastime you settle into after a stressful day of work or school to be a fair playing ground? Why shouldn’t a game be taken seriously when competitive PvP games fuel multi-billion industries, have university scholarships, and round-the-clock teams and sport scientists analyzing them, and ignite the passions of people just as intensely as any “traditional” sport?
“Because that’s esports, and this is just Sekai”? Here, tell me you can’t feel the room shake when Mita APs Brand New Day live on stream.
What’s wrong with being passionate about something in the same way others, you included, are passionate about things besides Sekai – enough to be offended if someone said this exact same thing to you? What’s wrong with wanting fairness for one thing and not another?
(7) "Trust the cheat detection!"
I hate to have to say this, I really do, but automated cheat detection for EN is TERRIBLE. It might not even exist. As evidence I'd like to point towards some of the more infamous cheaters: the T2 for Mesmerized by Mermaids in EN. There are some pretty damning threads from long-time tierers that have explained the point in much more detail than I could eloquently say. Now, this exact cheater was defended by someone using the exact same argument I'm about to reply to, and it's just as fallacious now as it was then.
Allow me to explain exactly why "trust the cheat detection" doesn't fly.
- T2, as the threads I've linked demonstrate, was clearly botting, and did so for the entire week the event ran. So why didn't the supposed "cheat detection" pick this up? Why was T2 allowed to play all the way until the EVENT ENDED? Why was the event title AWARDED to T2, denying the T4 (nara) the T3 as a result?
- The appeal to authority argument particularly disgusts me because of one thing: JP has had its own issues with cheaters of a different nature: those who share accounts so that they can tier 24/7 with no downtime. The example I know of is from Unnamed Harmony: not only did they outright admit to account sharing (and insinuated that the t2 who lost was probably also cheating), they weren't banned. I use JP as an example for this reason: JP, which actually, proactively bans botters in Rank Match, still has cheaters that are left completely alone. How then, can you expect EN to have better scrutiny when even botters need a public outcry and a LOT of angry support desk mails just to get one T2 banned? (oh, and come back, and get that account banned too, and admit to committing about 7k euros worth of chargeback fraud…) No offense, but EN can't even herd its official discord channels together; how am I supposed to believe they have time for botters?
T2 Mermaids is hardly the only example there is — only the most notorious one. But if even the cases of people high enough to be in the ranking spotlight take so much effort to call out (no thanks to people spouting uneducated defenses and convincing enough people), how much more botters who just roam the wilds with all perfects that show with 0 notes hit?
Put another way: why use a tiering cheater as an example for skill-based cheating when tiering skill boils down to whoever has the stamina to slap Envy for the longest time? Answer: they use the same tools. The person running around with an EmpErroR AP in public rooms may be doing it to show off, while a tiering cheater may be doing it so they doesn’t lose sleep or struggle the same way their competitors do, but the means are (almost) always the same: a machine does the work for them. And if the game isn’t banning one of them… how can you be confident they’re banning the other?
“Well, that was months ago! They’re better now, I hope!”
The proof is in the pudding. If you’re right, then I’d be happier than anyone else.

SPOTTING CHEATERS:

Besides the whole "they get really defensive" / [insert argument above] things listed above, there are a few more tells that really go a long way towards sniffing out a cheater, and I'd like to go over some of them here (since they didn't really fit naturally into the counterarguments presented above). I'll skip over directly critiquing their results in the case that a prospective cheater reads this and takes notes on how to avoid getting caught.
Now, a little disclaimer, for fairness: most of the posts I’m aware of don’t actually involve the cheaters themselves risking getting caught on here, and so the uses for such red flags may not be easily applicable. But all the same, they go hand-in-hand with the (fallacious) defenses for cheaters, and it’s important to know what you’re looking for when someone inevitably comes here asking why they got banned (for “no reason”) assuming EN is any trustworthy when Rank Match hits.
Keep in mind: each of these ALONE does not mean someone is a cheater — it's when red flags like these, ALONG with refusing to provide videographic proof, come together, that someone becomes more and more suspicious.
(1) Unrealistic timeframes for improvement
Let's not mince words here: the highest levels of Sekai are HARD. As in, it competes with "pure" rhythm games like Arcaea, Lanota, Phigros, Cytus, Dynamix, CHUNITHM, maimai, ONGEKI… levels of hard. Sekai itself is unusually hard for a popular rhythm game (sorry Tokyo 7th Sisters, no one knows you) with funny PNGs you roll and pay for, in a market where the closest competition (and therefore most people's previous frames of reference for existing difficulty) is Bandori or Enstars. And, well, no offense… but Bandori doesn't have six Hell or Hell SPs (and it took THIS long to release the 33+ specials…) and a release schedule that promises more every three months, like we're getting with Yaminabe and Jinsei. As for Enstars? Two years to release Awakening Myth and Seishun Emergency SP (and they’re only roughly as hard as ~32lv. Sekai charts).
What this results in are cheaters who grossly underestimate the time needed to get to Sekai's highest level. You might hear things like "i was up all night / week / month getting this omg my fingers are so tired". To use an example from sekaicord / experience: most players who commit to the improvement grind tend to find that they'll improve really quickly from 26 to 30 — and then hit a major wall at Lv31, where the difficulty then spikes exponentially. The average time it takes legitimate players to go from Lv31 to 32? Six months or more. 32 to 33? You'll be lucky or just insanely good if it takes you six months.
Anyone claiming to be the exception to this pattern, put simply, needs the proof. People are willing to believe someone’s good if they can see someone play good.
(2) Not recognizing patterns when questioned
An actual story about a banned cheater from sekaicord: they claimed to have AP'd Don't Fight the Music on Master, and immediately fell through when people started asking them about patterns from other charts, including Hibana and KING. The issue? They were told that those patterns were from Don't Fight the Music. This is pretty much self-explanatory: you'd at least be expected to know the charts you're claiming to have beaten!
But besides that, people who have pulled off such feats (hell, pretty much anyone) always has a devil of their own. Everyone has That One Pattern they find, and which they hate. And if you're a devilish enough little Pattern (hello Greenlights / Bitter Choco Decoration), you'll be so absolutely evil that everyone will know you, not the other way around. Someone who picks out a pattern that is pretty obviously free to someone actually at that skill level OR doesn't have a least favorite pattern at all tends to stink from a mile away.
(3) Low-quality / vague explanations and/or misuse/lack of terminology/jargon
A common trope in TV shows, video games, and so on is a smart character (usually a scientist) who launches into a convoluted explanation with a LOT of jargon you're not supposed to understand, before a character stops them and says you're making my brain hurt. While silly, this trope has some basis in the fact that people who are good at something tend to be really passionate about it, and often won't hesitate to explain in a lot of detail exactly how they pull off what they do. The same almost always goes for rhythm game players — it's common for people who have just conquered a chart in sekaicord to follow up their FC / AP screenshot with a long-ass postmortem of the parts they hated the most, the strategy that finally got them through it, and pretty much everything in between.
As a cheater, it would be pretty difficult to emulate this. There's no adrenaline rush as you get through the part that you've been struggling on for weeks, possibly months, no sitting down staring at a chart viewer cursing the disgustingly hard part, no detailed "L-R-L-R(index)-R(middle)" big brain strategy just to pass something extremely cursed. There is nothing to explain. Most often, you will get "i was just shaking throughout it's all so hard", "uhhh i just mashed as hard as i possibly could" “go watch a video instead of bothering me” without reference to a specific pattern, and almost no way to describe their solution in terms any reasonably practiced regular would be familiar with. Did you jack this part here? Two fingers or multiple? Is there a BPM divisor that helps you get the rhythm down on this?
Let's go back to the 005saikou Arcaea example I mentioned earlier. Pretty much anyone at that level will have thoughts about their own achievements, and which parts they found hardest to conquer; look at the pinned comment (translation of the CCs) on his Testify video and see just how detailed they can get. I'm not saying everyone has to get to that level of detail, but someone with practically nothing to say about their achievements AND no video either is a serious red flag.

A brief conclusion

Why I took the time to write all of this is pretty simple: I would very much like if people were more aware of the players they're defending who don't deserve to be defended. Not only are there legitimate players out there much more deserving of your attention, but there's also a glut of illegitimate ones out there cruising along with the potential to make Ranked Match completely unplayable if we're just going to sit here and pretend it's not a problem. Perhaps you’re thinking it’s not going to be a problem for you if you only stay in Bronze / Silver / Gold / Plat. Good for you, but then that leaves Diamond and Mastery completely unplayable wastelands fit only for people who jump onto sites-that-shall-not-be-named for modded apps. Pretty much every time I talk to a JP player about EN and the prospect of ranked match, I universally hear back the words “cheating” and smell the implication that there’s no point to even touching it. There’s already so few legitimately skilled players on EN (let alone those who aren’t simply imported / previously JP players) and the last thing EN needs is to drive those players away.
Genuine question: If the playerbase is capable of raising enough of a stink to get an entire event memory-holed out of existence (I have not forgotten RMD), please tell me why it's not possible to push the devs to take action on people who will undermine the legitimacy of an entire game mode? It's easy enough to ignore if you're just running around co-op getting event points and can forget about someone who's not playing the game, but in a game mode whose basis is a fair and even competition between two players, surely there's some reason to get them to do something.
Call me jealous, salty, misguided, whatever you want, but if at the end of the day this post has you thinking a bit more critically about why people can be so suspicious of others (and why it's more legitimate than just jealousy), then writing it will have been worth something. Please, don’t throw these words by the wayside, and keep a more critical eye out for the people you meet, be it in ordinary rooms, on social media, or, well… on Ranked Match. If you could do something about RMD, you can do something about cheaters.
If you’ve gotten this far, thanks for your attention and time.

Hello!
Some time ago I saw an anime movie or maybe even series.
A portal between two worlds sorta opens up once every X-XX years. The main premise is that the time flows in opposite directions in these worlds (and is imprinted genetically), so for each other these people other person gets younger as they age. And the thing is that the previous day/future day version each of them meet do not remember what happened between them the day before, because one of them is always day younger and the other one is a day older, when watching from each of their perspectives.
I think it starts with a moment when guy and girl meets each other at the same age and for him the last time he sees the girl is the first time she sees him. And the last time she meets him is his first. And the girl sorta tries to udnerstand why he looks at her like that and starts to cry or something.
I remember she first meets him in a train, I think. She also had a notebook. I think he gives her the notebook and she sorta follows through it. Or something like that.Anyone know the name? I know I saw this suggested in a ''top 10'' kinda list at that time, but now all the lists are populated with different top 10s.

Hello Creative writing community.
My name is Redicus the Finch and I've been writing since I was young even though I hated it. I was a very creative kid and had to sometimes get those ideas out. Never had any plans of being a writer. I still don't, I just like exploring ideas and sharing them with others.
I've written a few rough short stories, that I felt were weak but got great reception from stranger online, and friends. Each one of my projects has gotten longer then the last, and I decided to start a much larger project.
I've never committed to writing a full chapter novel and wanted to start with something easy. I have completed the first two chapters and heavily revised and edited it. I will admit my spelling, grammer, and sentence structure sucked, and still are rough. It is one of the reason I decided to begin writing more frequently to get better.
Now the problem I seem to be having is content itself... I feel like I am going way too big. I was planning on a basic sized novel. But it is turning into a lord of the rings length epic. The series if completed would be two full books and two shorter novels. Really just focusing on the first book of coarse and fleshing that out. it took me a long time to do the first two chapter as I went back and edited it many many times. I wanted to get those two chapters really fleshed out so I could share it and decide based off of public reception how much effort ide put in. Or if I should just abandoned the idea of writing all together.
But inspiration has gotten the better of me, and I've gone hard on chapter 3 with one minor problem...
My chapters so far are looooong! First two chapters share the same file are just under 20,000 words. thats 10,000 per chapter, which i think is double the average. So starting chapter 3, i figured I would try and make them shorter if I could... I'm only half way through the plot of chapter 3 and i am sitting at 12,000 words... In three chapters two and a half I am already the size of a small novel at 32,000 words and I still have 15 more chapters for a total of 18 in book one...
Is a 15-20,000 word chapter really crazy and just too much? Also what kind of hints and tips would you give a beginning writer with a big imagination?
I am willing to share the first two chapters. I might take one more opportunity to revise and edit it one more time before releasing it.
One thing I will admit, and I am almost ashamed to admit that this story is based off a popular video game series... Which I know sounds really really laaaaame! But the series itself poses fun challenges for a writer. Like the main character not speaking, and dealing with things that aren't possible in story mechanics.
This was really just a tool to practise writing for developing my own project later. But I don't want to just write it for nothing. It would be nice to share it with a community that would appreciate it and actually enjoy reading it. My biggest fear is that I'm not as good as a writer that I think I might be. So if anyone is willing to lend some eyes for 20,000 words or so ide apperciate it.
Not sure if this would interest people, but for those who are unfamiliar with the Half Life series. This is would be a science fiction action adventure. It's about a scientist who participates in an unfortunate experiment that opens a portal to another dimension. He has to fight his way to the surface and more to escape the horrors of the facility. But there is more going on than meets the eye as malevolent forces seem to manipulate the events that unfold.
I'd rather not spoil too much for those who are unfamiliar to the series. I am very excited to help expand this universe and help people explore it for the first time.

As framed from China:
Fang Bingxing, considered the father of China’s Great Firewall, has raised concerns over GPT-4, warning that it could lead to an “information cocoon” as the generative artificial intelligence (AI) service can provide answers to everything.
Fang said the rise of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, developed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI and now released as the more powerful ChatGPT-4 version, pose a big challenge to governments around the world, according to an interview published on Thursday by Red Star News, a media affiliate to state-backed Chengdu Economic Daily.
“People’s perspectives can be manipulated as they seek all kinds of answers from AI,” he was quoted as saying.
Fang, a computer scientist and former government official, is widely considered the chief designer of China’s notorious internet censorship and surveillance system. He played a key role in creating and developing the Great Firewall, a sophisticated system of internet filters and blocks that allows the Chinese government to control what its citizens can access online.
I would put it differently, but I think he understands the point correctly. Here is more from SCMP, via D. The practical value of LLMs is high enough that it will induce Chinese to seek out the best systems, and they will not be censored by China. (Oddly, some of us might be seeking out the Chinese LLM too!) Furthermore, once good LLMs can be trained on a single GPU and held on a phone…
Solve for the political equilibrium.
The post Yes, the Chinese Great Firewall will be collapsing appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.
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Comments

](https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2023/03/yes-the-chinese-great-firewall-will-be-collapsing.html#comments) - I initially made a claim like this in the comments, that LLMs ...by dan1111 - This is somewhat wishful thinking I fear. Some were sceptical ...by LivelyClock

I’ve been playing for a while now and I don’t know if I’m missing something? I’ve spent like 20 gems (already used my free one on this particular request) trying to skip the “Complete an Event Portal Request.” thinking it might have been a glitch so I opened/closed the game. Gems get spent and it doesn’t refresh to a new request. Is it because I’m only at the 28 rank and I have to complete this request multiple times and you don’t get this request at a higher rank? Or is this a permanent request that you just have to keep doing over and over again? Any advice is much appreciated!

Pleas does someone have ever the same issue or something like this.
already tried everything but still nothing changed.
I think its something wrong with create but i have already tried to update all of his mods and apis but stil nothing.
After the server is loaded the game run about 10mins and then crash with this repport:
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Description: Exception in server tick loop
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java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "java.lang.Integer.intValue()" because the return value of "com.simibubi.create.foundation.utility.ServerSpeedProvider.getSyncInterval()" is null

at Not Enough Crashes deobfuscated stack trace.(1.18.2+build.4) at com.simibubi.create.foundation.utility.ServerSpeedProvider.serverTick([ServerSpeedProvider.java:26](https://ServerSpeedProvider.java:26)) at com.simibubi.create.events.CommonEvents.onServerTick([CommonEvents.java:104](https://CommonEvents.java:104)) at net.fabricmc.fabric.api.event.lifecycle.v1.ServerTickEvents.lambda$static$2([ServerTickEvents.java:62](https://ServerTickEvents.java:62)) at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.handler$dcf002$onEndTick(MinecraftServer:5832) at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.tick(MinecraftServer:889) at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.runServer(MinecraftServer:697) at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.method\_29739(MinecraftServer:273) at [java.lang.Thread.run](https://java.lang.Thread.run)([Thread.java:833](https://Thread.java:833)) 

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A detailed walkthrough of the error, its code path and all known details is as follows:
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-- System Details --
Details:

Minecraft Version: 1.18.2 Minecraft Version ID: 1.18.2 Operating System: Linux (amd64) version 4.19.0-23-amd64 Java Version: 17.0.6, Azul Systems, Inc. Java VM Version: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (mixed mode, sharing), Azul Systems, Inc. Memory: 721988536 bytes (688 MiB) / 3414163456 bytes (3256 MiB) up to 19327352832 bytes (18432 MiB) CPUs: 12 Processor Vendor: GenuineIntel Processor Name: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E7-4890 v2 @ 2.80GHz Identifier: Intel64 Family 6 Model 62 Stepping 7 Microarchitecture: Ivy Bridge (Server) Frequency (GHz): 2.80 Number of physical packages: 1 Number of physical CPUs: 12 Number of logical CPUs: 12 Graphics card #0 name: SVGA II Adapter Graphics card #0 vendor: VMware (0x15ad) Graphics card #0 VRAM (MB): 64.00 Graphics card #0 deviceId: 0x0405 Graphics card #0 versionInfo: unknown Virtual memory max (MB): 22068.24 Virtual memory used (MB): 5793.45 Swap memory total (MB): 1952.00 Swap memory used (MB): 0.00 JVM Flags: 20 total; -Xms2G -Xmx18G -XX:+UseG1GC -XX:+ParallelRefProcEnabled -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=100 -XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions -XX:+DisableExplicitGC -XX:+AlwaysPreTouch -XX:G1NewSizePercent=30 -XX:G1MaxNewSizePercent=40 -XX:G1HeapRegionSize=8M -XX:G1ReservePercent=20 -XX:G1HeapWastePercent=5 -XX:G1MixedGCCountTarget=4 -XX:InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent=15 -XX:G1MixedGCLiveThresholdPercent=90 -XX:G1RSetUpdatingPauseTimePercent=5 -XX:SurvivorRatio=32 -XX:+PerfDisableSharedMem -XX:MaxTenuringThreshold=1 Fabric Mods: ad\_astra: Ad Astra! 1.0.5 additionaladditions: Additional Additions 4.0.5 adorn: Adorn 3.5.0+1.18.2 advanced\_runtime\_resource\_pack: Runtime Resource Pack 0.5.7 advancednetherite: Advanced Netherite 1.5.1-1.18.2 advdebug: Advancements Debug 2.3.0 adventurez: AdventureZ 1.4.11 ae2: Applied Energistics 2 11.6.2 ae2additions: AEAdditions 3.1.2-fabric ae2things: AE2Things 1.1.1-beta.1 ae2wtlib: AE2WTLib 11.5.0 animal\_feeding\_trough: Animal Feeding Trough 1.0.3+1.18.2 appbot: Applied Botanics 1.3.4 appleskin: AppleSkin 2.4.1+mc1.18.2 aqupdcaracal: Caracal mob 1.18.2-1.3.8 aqupdgrizzly: Grizzly Bear mob 1.18-1.3 arcanus: Arcanus 1.29 archeology: CapsLock Archeology Mod 0.1.9 midnightlib: MidnightLib 0.4.4 architects\_palette: Architect's Palette Fabric 2.2 architectury: Architectury 4.10.86 artifacts: Artifacts 7.0.3+fabric expandability: ExpandAbility 6.0.0 attributefix: AttributeFix 14.0.2 auto-workstations: Auto Workstations v1.0-SNAPSHOT-19 autoconfig1u: Auto Config v1 Updated 3.4.0 automobility: Automobility 0.2.1+1.18.2 jsonem: JsonEM 0.1.2 myron: Myron 1.6.3+1.18.1 badpackets: Bad Packets 0.1.2 balm-fabric: Balm 3.2.0+0 bamboocombat: Bamboo Combat 1.0.1 beaconoverhaul: Beacon Overhaul 1.6.1+1.18.2 bedbenefits: BedBenefits 6.0.2 better\_bad\_omen: Better Bad Omen 1.3.0 betterdeserttemples: YUNG's Better Desert Temples 1.18.2-Fabric-1.3.1 betterdungeons: YUNG's Better Dungeons 1.18.2-Fabric-2.1.0 bettermineshafts: YUNG's Better Mineshafts 1.18.2-Fabric-2.2 betteroceanmonuments: YUNG's Better Ocean Monuments 1.18.2-Fabric-1.0.3 betterstrongholds: YUNG's Better Strongholds 1.18.2-Fabric-2.1.1 betterwitchhuts: YUNG's Better Witch Huts 1.18.2-Fabric-1.0.1 bewitchment: Bewitchment 1.18-23 impersonate: Impersonate 2.4.1 bhmenu: BHMenu-Fabric 1.17.1-1.18.2-1.3 biomemakeover: Biome Makeover 1.18.2-1.4.32 blast: BLAST 1.9.1 blockus: Blockus 2.4.8+1.18.2 terraform-wood-api-v1: Terraform Wood API (v1) 3.0.0 bookshelf: Bookshelf 13.2.50 bosses\_of\_mass\_destruction: Bosses of Mass Destruction (Beta) 1.3.9-1.18.2 maelstrom\_library: Maelstrom Library 1.2.4-1.18.2 multipart\_entities: MultipartEntities 1.1.5-1.18.2 botania: Botania 1.18.2-435-FABRIC botanypots: BotanyPots 8.0.14 botanytrees: BotanyTrees 4.0.2 bowinfinityfix: Bow Infinity Fix rv11 buildinggadgets: st'ructure tools 1.0.22 mm: Manningham Mills 2.3 byg: Oh The Biomes You'll Go 1.4 cacao: Croptopia's Chocolaterie 1.2 campanion: Campanion 3.0.3 capybara: Capybara 1.0.8 cardinal-components: Cardinal Components API 4.2.0 cardinal-components-base: Cardinal Components API (base) 4.2.0 cardinal-components-block: Cardinal Components API (blocks) 4.2.0 cardinal-components-chunk: Cardinal Components API (chunks) 4.2.0 cardinal-components-entity: Cardinal Components API (entities) 4.2.0 cardinal-components-item: Cardinal Components API (items) 4.2.0 cardinal-components-level: Cardinal Components API (world saves) 4.2.0 cardinal-components-scoreboard: Cardinal Components API (scoreboard) 4.2.0 cardinal-components-world: Cardinal Components API (worlds) 4.2.0 carrier: Carrier 1.10.0 catwalksinc: Catwalks Inc. 1.3.0 cccbridge: CC:C Bridge 1.3.1 chalk: Chalk 2.0.1+1.18.2 chassis: Chassis 1.1.0 chipped: Chipped 2.0.0 chiselsandbits: Chisels & Bits 1.2.114 clienttweaks: Client Tweaks 7.1.0 cloth-api: Cloth API 3.2.64 cloth-client-events-v0: Cloth Client Events v0 3.2.64 cloth-common-events-v1: Cloth Common Events v1 3.2.64 cloth-datagen-api-v1: Cloth Datagen v1 3.2.64 cloth-utils-v1: Cloth Utils v1 3.2.64 cloth-config: Cloth Config v6 6.4.90 cloth-basic-math: cloth-basic-math 0.6.1 clumps: Clumps 8.0.0+15 compactmachines: Compact Machines 4 ${version} forge\_tags: Forge Tags 2.2 companion: Companion 2.0.1 compressor: Compressor 0.2.0 crowdin-translate: CrowdinTranslate 1.4+1.18.2 computercraft: CC: Restitched 1.100.8 conjuring: Conjuring 1.0.22+1.18 connectivity: Connectivity Mod 1.18.2-3.3 cookingforblockheads: Cooking for Blockheads 12.1.1 couplings: Couplings 1.8.0+1.18.2 com\_electronwill\_night-config\_core: core 3.6.5 com\_electronwill\_night-config\_toml: toml 3.6.5 coxinhautilities: Coxinha Utilities 1.4.2+1.18.2 omega-config-gui: Omega Config GUI 1.2.3-1.18.1 

cloth-config-lite: cloth-config-lite 2.0.6

 craftingtweaks: Crafting Tweaks 14.0.3 crawl: Crawl 0.10.6 create: Create 0.5.0.i-963+1.18.2 com\_google\_code\_findbugs\_jsr305: jsr305 3.0.2 milk: Milk Lib 0.3.2 

dripstone_fluid_lib: Dripstone Fluid Lib 1.2.0

 porting\_lib: Porting Lib 1.2.783-beta+1.18.2 

com_github_llamalad7_mixinextras: MixinExtras 0.1.1

 registrate-fabric: Registrate for Fabric MC1.18.2-1.1.7 creativecore: CreativeCore (Fabric) 2.6.12 creeperoverhaul: Creeper Overhaul 1.3.1 croptopia: Croptopia 2.1.2 com\_typesafe\_config: config 1.4.1 io\_leangen\_geantyref\_geantyref: geantyref 1.3.11 org\_spongepowered\_configurate-core: configurate-core 4.1.2 org\_spongepowered\_configurate-hocon: configurate-hocon 4.1.2 croptosis: Croptosis 1.5.0 cyti: Can You Trash It? 1.0.6 dangerousstonecutter: Dangerous Stone Cutter 1.6 dankstorage: Dank Storage 1.18.2-3.7.2 dark-enchanting: Dark Enchanting 1.0.0+1.18.2 libgui: LibGui 5.4.0+1.18.2 

jankson: Jankson 4.0.0+j1.2.0
libninepatch: LibNinePatch 1.1.0

 omega-config: OmegaConfig 1.2.3-1.18.1 darkpaintings: DarkPaintings 10.0.3 darkutils: DarkUtilities 10.0.5 dawn: Dawn API 3.3.2 deathlog: DeathLog 0.2.9+1.18 decorative\_blocks: Decorative Blocks 2.1.1 deepslatecutting: Deepslate Cutting 1.3.4 com\_moandjiezana\_toml\_toml4j: toml4j 0.7.2 maybe-data: Maybe data 1.3.1-1.18.2 defaultoptions: Default Options 14.1.1 display\_case: Display Case Mod 1.0.3 dml-refabricated: Deep Mob Learning: Refabricated 1.18.2 dml-refabricated-base: DML: Refabricated - Base 1.18.2 dml-refabricated-events: DML: Refabricated - Vanilla Events 1.18.2 dml-refabricated-modular-armor: DML: Refabricated - Glitch Armor 1.18.2 dml-refabricated-rei: DML: Refabricated - REI Integration 1.18.2 dmlsimulacrum: Deep Mob Learning: Simulacrum 0.5.4-beta ktdatataglib: KtDataTagLib 1.6.5+1.18.2 doodads: Doodads 0.1.2-1.18.2 dragonfight: Dragonfight Mod 1.18.2-2.5 dragonloot: DragonLoot 1.1.0 dual\_riders: Dual Riders 1.1.1 duckling: Duckling 1.0.7 dungeons\_arise: When Dungeons Arise 2.1.50 dusk: Dusk Mod 1.18.2-2.1 dustrial\_decor: Dustrial Decor 0.5 ecologics: Ecologics 1.7.10 elytratrinket: Elytra Trinket 3.0.0-1.18.1 enchancement: Enchancement 1.18-18 experiencebugfix: Experience Bug Fix 18 extraalchemy: Extra Alchemy 1.8.1 fabric-api: Fabric API 0.76.0+1.18.2 fabric-api-base: Fabric API Base 0.4.5+64b7c69360 fabric-api-lookup-api-v1: Fabric API Lookup API (v1) 1.6.3+2373a54560 fabric-biome-api-v1: Fabric Biome API (v1) 8.0.7+e83becad60 fabric-block-api-v1: Fabric Block API (v1) 1.0.0+ee3621fc60 fabric-command-api-v1: Fabric Command API (v1) 1.1.10+d7c144a860 fabric-commands-v0: Fabric Commands (v0) 0.2.9+b4f4f6cd60 fabric-containers-v0: Fabric Containers (v0) 0.1.24+d7c144a860 fabric-content-registries-v0: Fabric Content Registries (v0) 3.1.3+c85f2e3860 fabric-convention-tags-v1: Fabric Convention Tags 1.1.0+43ce63a460 fabric-crash-report-info-v1: Fabric Crash Report Info (v1) 0.2.1+ee261a3e60 fabric-data-generation-api-v1: Fabric Data Generation API (v1) 3.1.0+6c70b68e60 fabric-dimensions-v1: Fabric Dimensions API (v1) 2.1.21+489d6f8260 fabric-entity-events-v1: Fabric Entity Events (v1) 1.4.9+d7c144a860 fabric-events-interaction-v0: Fabric Events Interaction (v0) 0.4.20+d7c144a860 fabric-events-lifecycle-v0: Fabric Events Lifecycle (v0) 0.2.22+d7c144a860 fabric-game-rule-api-v1: Fabric Game Rule API (v1) 1.0.13+d7c144a860 fabric-item-api-v1: Fabric Item API (v1) 1.6.2+8165403660 fabric-item-groups-v0: Fabric Item Groups (v0) 0.3.16+91896a4960 fabric-lifecycle-events-v1: Fabric Lifecycle Events (v1) 2.1.1+cc71601c60 fabric-loot-api-v2: Fabric Loot API (v2) 1.1.2+1997ad1260 fabric-loot-tables-v1: Fabric Loot Tables (v1) 1.1.4+e747827960 fabric-mining-level-api-v1: Fabric Mining Level API (v1) 2.1.6+cc71601c60 fabric-networking-api-v1: Fabric Networking API (v1) 1.0.24+2d30af4b60 fabric-networking-v0: Fabric Networking (v0) 0.3.11+b4f4f6cd60 fabric-object-builder-api-v1: Fabric Object Builder API (v1) 2.1.5+032c981d60 fabric-particles-v1: Fabric Particles (v1) 0.2.13+526dc1ac60 fabric-registry-sync-v0: Fabric Registry Sync (v0) 0.9.12+bb2e047760 fabric-rendering-data-attachment-v1: Fabric Rendering Data Attachment (v1) 0.3.9+ee3621fc60 fabric-rendering-fluids-v1: Fabric Rendering Fluids (v1) 2.0.3+54e5b2ec60 fabric-resource-conditions-api-v1: Fabric Resource Conditions API (v1) 2.0.3+91b7aa6660 fabric-resource-loader-v0: Fabric Resource Loader (v0) 0.5.3+047a5ecb60 fabric-screen-handler-api-v1: Fabric Screen Handler API (v1) 1.2.3+1f6558e860 fabric-transfer-api-v1: Fabric Transfer API (v1) 1.6.4+f4563ac860 fabric-transitive-access-wideners-v1: Fabric Transitive Access Wideners (v1) 1.1.0+e747827960 fabric-language-kotlin: Fabric Language Kotlin 1.8.5+kotlin.1.7.20 org\_jetbrains\_kotlin\_kotlin-reflect: kotlin-reflect 1.7.20 org\_jetbrains\_kotlin\_kotlin-stdlib: kotlin-stdlib 1.7.20 org\_jetbrains\_kotlin\_kotlin-stdlib-jdk7: kotlin-stdlib-jdk7 1.7.20 org\_jetbrains\_kotlin\_kotlin-stdlib-jdk8: kotlin-stdlib-jdk8 1.7.20 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_atomicfu-jvm: atomicfu-jvm 0.18.4 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_kotlinx-coroutines-core-jvm: kotlinx-coroutines-core-jvm 1.6.4 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_kotlinx-coroutines-jdk8: kotlinx-coroutines-jdk8 1.6.4 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_kotlinx-datetime-jvm: kotlinx-datetime-jvm 0.4.0 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_kotlinx-serialization-cbor-jvm: kotlinx-serialization-cbor-jvm 1.4.1 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_kotlinx-serialization-core-jvm: kotlinx-serialization-core-jvm 1.4.1 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_kotlinx-serialization-json-jvm: kotlinx-serialization-json-jvm 1.4.1 fabricloader: Fabric Loader 0.14.10 farmersdelight: Farmer's Delight 1.18.2-1.2.2 farmingforblockheads: Farming for Blockheads 10.0.2 feature\_nbt\_deadlock\_be\_gone: Feature NBT Deadlock Be Gone - Fabric 2.0.0+1.18.2-rc1 ferritecore: FerriteCore 4.2.1 findme: FindMe 3.0.6 floral\_flair: Floral Flair 1.3.0 flytre\_lib: FlytreLib 1.8.2 forgeconfigapiport: Forge Config API Port 3.2.4 ftbchunks: FTB Chunks 1802.3.7-build.172 ftblibrary: FTB Library 1802.3.7-build.154 ftbquests: FTB Quests 1802.3.8-build.106 ftbteams: FTB Teams 1802.2.7-build.71 ftbultimine: FTB Ultimine 1802.3.3-build.67 gag: Gadgets Against Grind 1.0.1-build.2 gateofbabylon: Gate Of Babylon 1.7.0-1.18.2 geckolib3: Geckolib 3.0.67 com\_eliotlash\_mclib\_mclib: mclib 18 com\_eliotlash\_molang\_molang: molang 19 geodes: More Geodes 1.4.2 glassential: Glassential 1.3.0 go-fish: Go Fish 1.5.0-1.18.2 goblintraders: Goblin Traders 1.5.1 goldenhoppers: Golden Hoppers 1.3.3 goodall: Goodall 1.0.2 graveyard: The Graveyard 1.9 graveyard\_biomes: The Graveyard Biomes 1.1 guardvillagers: Guard Villagers Fabric 1.18.2-1.0.14 guild: Guild 0.4.0 harvest\_scythes: Harvest Scythes 2.5.3+mc1.18.2 hexcasting: Hex Casting 0.9.4 fiber: fiber 0.23.0-2 horseinfo: Horse Info 0.4.1-1.18 iceberg: Iceberg 1.0.38 icy-incitement: Icy Incitement 1.18.2-fabric-1.1.3 impaled: Impaled 1.1.3 incantationem: Incantationem 1.1.6+1.18.2 indrev: Industrial Revolution 1.14.0-BETA fake-player-api: Fake Player API 0.3.0 libblockattributes\_core: LibBlockAttributes (Core) 0.10.0 libblockattributes\_fluids: LibBlockAttributes (Fluids) 0.10.0 libblockattributes\_items: LibBlockAttributes (Items) 0.10.0 magna: Magna 1.7.0-1.18-pre1 step-height-entity-attribute: Step Height Entity Attribute 1.0.0 indrev-nikolite: Industrial Revolution: Nikolite Expansion 1.0+1.18.1 infusion\_table: Infusion Table 1.1.0 inmis: Inmis 2.6.0-1.18.2 inmisaddon: InmisAddon 1.0.1-1.18 inventorysorter: Inventory Sorter 1.8.8-1.18 iron-jetpacks: Iron Jetpacks 0.4.3 ironchests: Iron Chests: Restocked 2.0.4 itemfilters: Item Filters 1802.2.8-build.47 jamlib: JamLib 0.0.5 java: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM 17 kibe: Kibe 1.9.10-BETA+1.18 kjsextras: KubeJS Extras 3.0.0 kleeslabs: KleeSlabs 11.1.1 kubejs: KubeJS 1802.5.4-build.535 kubejs\_create: KubeJS Create 1802.2.2-build.28 lazydfu: LazyDFU 0.1.2 lifts: Lifts 1.4.1-BETA+1.18 lithium: Lithium 0.7.10 logbegone: Log Begone 1.0.2 logicates: Logicates 1.0.2+1.18.2 logprot: Logprot Mod 1.18-1.6 lootbags: Resourceful Lootbags 1.1.0 resourcefullib: Resourceful Lib 0.0.4 lootintegrations: Loot integration Mod 1.18.2-1.5 lootr: Lootr [0.3.23.60](https://0.3.23.60) lovely\_snails: Lovely Snails 1.0.4+1.18 luggage: Luggage 1.3.2 magicalforest: Magical Forest 2.0.3 mcwbridges: Macaw's Bridges 2.0.5 mcwdoors: Macaw's Doors 1.0.7 mcwfences: Macaw's Fences and Walls 1.0.6 mcwlights: Macaw's Lights and Lamps 1.0.4 mcwpaintings: Macaw's Paintings 1.0.4 mcwpaths: Macaw's Paths and Pavings 1.0.1 mcwroofs: Macaw's Roofs 2.2.1 mcwtrpdoors: Macaw's Trapdoors 1.0.7 mcwwindows: Macaw's Windows 2.0.3 megane: megane 7.10.0 megane-api: megane-api 7.10.0 megane-applied-energistics-2: megane-applied-energistics-2 7.10.0 megane-create: megane-create 7.10.0 megane-deep-mob-learning-simulacrum: megane-deep-mob-learning-simulacrum 7.10.0 megane-fabric-transfer: megane-fabric-transfer 7.10.0 megane-industrial-revolution: megane-industrial-revolution 7.10.0 megane-kibe: megane-kibe 7.10.0 megane-lib-block-attributes: megane-lib-block-attributes 7.10.0 megane-luggage: megane-luggage 7.10.0 megane-modern-dynamics: megane-modern-dynamics 7.10.0 megane-powah: megane-powah 7.10.0 megane-reborn-core: megane-reborn-core 7.10.0 megane-reborn-energy: megane-reborn-energy 7.10.0 megane-runtime: megane-runtime 7.10.0 megane-tech-reborn: megane-tech-reborn 7.10.0 megane-vanilla: megane-vanilla 7.10.0 megane-wireless-networks: megane-wireless-networks 7.10.0 minecarttweaks: Cammie's Minecart Tweaks 1.5 minecraft: Minecraft 1.18.2 mobscarecrow: Mob Scarecrow 2.1.1 mocolors: Mo' Colors 1.4.0 modern\_industrialization: Modern Industrialization 1.2.2 playerabilitylib: Pal 1.5.0 moderndynamics: Modern Dynamics 0.2.6-beta morevillagers: More Villagers 3.3.2 mostructures: Mo' Structures 1.4.2+1.18.2 mythicmounts: Mythic Mounts 1.18.2-7.0 naturalist: Naturalist 1.1.1 naturescompass: Nature's Compass 1.18.2-2.0.3-fabric nears: Nears 1.1.8 netherportalfix: NetherPortalFix 9.0.0 no\_angled\_brackets: No Angled Brackets 1.0.0 no\_null\_processors: No Null Processors - Fabric 2.0.1+1.18.1 notenoughcrashes: Not Enough Crashes 4.2.0+1.18.2 onastick: On A Stick 2.0.0 openloader: OpenLoader 12.0.1 overloadedarmorbar: Overloaded Armor Bar 1.18.1-6 owo: oωo 0.7.2-no-cme+1.18 patchouli: Patchouli 1.18.2-71.1-FABRIC paucal: PAUCAL 0.4.7 pehkui: Pehkui 3.6.0+1.14.4-1.19.3 kanos\_config: Kanos Config 0.3.1+1.14.4-1.19 peripheralium: Peripheralium 0.4.3-1.18.2 peripheralworks: Unlimited Peripheral Works 0.2.1 piercingpaxels: Piercing Paxels 1.0.3+1.18.x pigpen: PigPen 8.0.1 playdate: Playdate 2.2.4 polylib: PolyLib 1801.0.2-build.13 powah: Powah! 3.0.5-beta probablychests: Probably Chests 0.5.5-1.18.2 productivevillagers: Productive Villagers 1.0.2 promenade: Promenade 2.6.3 terraform-shapes-api-v1: Terraform Shapes API (v1) 2.1.0 pyrotastic: Pyrotastic 1.18.2+2.0.3 questsadditions: Quests Additions 1.4.0 quickshulker: Quick Shulker 1.3.9-1.18 kyrptconfig: Kyrpt Config 1.4.6-1.18 

blue_endless_jankson: jankson 1.2.1

 shulkerutils: shulkerutils 1.0.4-1.18 rare-ice: Rare Ice 0.4.1 reborncore: Reborn Core 5.2.0 redstonebits: Redstone Bits 1.8.2 repurposed\_structures: Repurposed Structures 4.1.14+1.18.2 respawnablepets: Respawnable Pets 1.18-4 revelationary: Revelationary 1.0.2 rhino: Rhino 1802.1.14-build.225 rightclickharvest: Right Click Harvest 3.0.3+1.18 rottencreatures: Rotten Creatures 1.0.0 roughly\_enough\_loot\_tables: Roughly Enough Loot Tables (RELT) 1.18-1.1 roughlyenoughitems: Roughly Enough Items 8.3.563 error\_notifier: Error Notifier 1.0.9 roughlyenoughprofessions: Roughly Enough Professions 1.0.2 roughlyenoughresources: Roughly Enough Resources 2.5.0 runelic: Runelic 11.0.1 seedfix: Seed Fix 1.0.1 shulkerboxtooltip: Shulker Box Tooltip 3.1.3+1.18.2 simpleteleporters: Simple Teleporters 2.3.0 simplevoidworld: Simple Void World 4.0.0 slimyboyos: Slimy Boyos [4.0.0.7](https://4.0.0.7) slimyfloor: Slimy Floor 1.18-1.2.2 smootherbedrock: Smoother Bedrock 1.0.4 smwyg: Show Me What You Got 1.0.1 someforgepatchesported: Some Forge Patches Ported 1.0.3 spark: spark 1.9.11 fabric-permissions-api-v0: fabric-permissions-api 0.1-SNAPSHOT spectrum: Spectrum 1.5.7-1.18.2-magic additionalentityattributes: Additionalentityattributes 1.0.0+1.18.2 bannerpp: Banner++ 2.0.6-teb.1+mc.1.18.2 incubus\_core: Incubus Core 1.7.1 programmerartinjector: Programmer Art Injector 1.2.1 speedometer: Speedometer Mod 1.1.0 spirit: Spirit 2.1.8 splash\_milk: Splash Milk 1.0.2 staffofbuilding: Staff of Building 1.4.1-1.18.1 starlight: Starlight 1.0.2+fabric.89b8d9f stoneholm: Stoneholm 1.4.3 strawdummy: Straw Dummy 1.7.0 strongersnowballs: StrongerSnowballs 6.0.1 structory: Structory 1.0.0 tamago: Tamago 1.0 tconstruct: Hephaestus 1.18.2-3.5.2.155 mantle: Mantle 1.18.2-1.9.156 

star: Star 1.3+1.18.2

 serialization\_hooks: Serialization Hooks 0.3.23 techreborn: Tech Reborn 5.2.0 team\_reborn\_energy: Energy 2.2.0 tempad: Tempad 1.4.1 terrablender: TerraBlender [1.1.0.102](https://1.1.0.102) terrarianslimes: Terrarian Slimes 1.2.1-BETA+1.18 thatched: Thatched 1.1.0 thonkutil: ThonkUtil 2.14.1+1.18 thonkutil-base: ThonkUtil Base 1.12.2+23c1dc2c60 thonkutil-capes-v1: ThonkUtil Capes (v1) 1.3.2+9e23427060 thonkutil-customization-v1: ThonkUtil Customization (v1) 1.0.14+9b80223760 thonkutil-legacy: ThonkUtil Legacy 1.0.20+9b80223760 thonkutil-modchecker-v1: ThonkUtil ModChecker (v1) 1.0.12+9b80223760 thonkutil-potions-v0: ThonkUtil Potions (v0) 1.4.1+9b80223760 thonkutil-trades-v1: ThonkUtil Trades (v1) 1.1.20+9b80223760 tinycoal: Tiny Coal 1.0.1 toolstats: ToolStats 9.0.3 totemmod: Wither Totems Mod 0.3.5-1.18.2-pre2 totw\_additions: Towers of the Wild: Additions 1.2.1 transportables: Transportables 1.2 trapexpansion: Trap Expansion 1.3.3 trashslot: TrashSlot 11.0.2 travelersbackpack: Traveler's Backpack 1.18.2-7.1.11 reach-entity-attributes: Reach Entity Attributes 2.2.0 travelstaff: Staff of Travelling 1.0.11 trinketofundying: Trinket of Undying 2.0.2-1.18.2 trinkets: Trinkets 3.3.1 twilightforest: The Twilight Forest 4.1.268 javax\_annotation\_javax\_annotation-api: javax.annotation-api 1.3.2 vanilla-hammers: Vanilla Hammers 3.4.0-1.18.2 static-content: Static Content 1.0.2-1.16.2 

staticdata: Static Data 1.1.2

 vanillaexcavators: Vanilla Excavators 1.1.0 villager-hats: Villager Hats 1.4.0 voidtotem: VoidTotem (Fabric) 1.18.2-1.3.1 waystones: Waystones 2.5.5+mc1.18.2 wildbackport: TheWildBackport 1.2.3 wirelessnetworks: Wireless Networks 1.5.1 wolveswitharmor: Wolves With Armor 1.7.1-1.18.2 wthit: wthit 4.13.4 xlpackets: XLPackets 2.1-1.17.1 xps: Xp Obelisk 0.4.6-r+1.18.2-Fabric xps\_additions: XP Obelisk Additions 0.1.4-r+1.18.2-Fabric yigd: You're in Grave Danger 1.3.11 yungsapi: YUNG's API 1.18.2-Fabric-2.2.6 org\_javassist\_javassist: javassist 3.28.0-GA org\_reflections\_reflections: reflections 0.10.2 yungsbridges: YUNG's Bridges 1.18.2-Fabric-2.1.0 yungsextras: YUNG's Extras 1.18.2-Fabric-2.1.0 Server Running: true Player Count: 0 / 3; \[\] Data Packs: vanilla, minecraft/croptop, compressor (incompatible), Fabric Mods World Generation: Stable Is Modded: Definitely; Server brand changed to 'fabric' Type: Dedicated Server (map\_server.txt) Suspected Mods: Create (create), Fabric Lifecycle Events (v1) (fabric-lifecycle-events-v1) 

[19:20:14] [Server thread/ERROR]: Encountered an unexpected exception java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "java.lang.Integer.intValue()" because the return value of "com.simibubi.create.foundation.utility.ServerSpeedProvider.getSyncInterval()" is null at Not Enough Crashes deobfuscated stack trace.(1.18.2+build.4) ~[?:?] at com.simibubi.create.foundation.utility.ServerSpeedProvider.serverTick(ServerSpeedProvider.java:26) ~[create-fabric-0.5.0.i-963+1.18.2.jar:?] at com.simibubi.create.events.CommonEvents.onServerTick(CommonEvents.java:104) ~[create-fabric-0.5.0.i-963+1.18.2.jar:?] at net.fabricmc.fabric.api.event.lifecycle.v1.ServerTickEvents.lambda$static$2(ServerTickEvents.java:62) ~[fabric-lifecycle-events-v1-2.1.1+cc71601c60-87d8f812a1297025.jar:?] at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.handler$dcf002$onEndTick(MinecraftServer:5832) ~[server-intermediary.jar:?] at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.tick(MinecraftServer:889) ~[server-intermediary.jar:?] at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.runServer(MinecraftServer:697) ~[server-intermediary.jar:?] at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.method_29739(MinecraftServer:273) ~[server-intermediary.jar:?] at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:833) [?:?]

Hi i got a question. I did the main mission. I had to take care of a tree and then in the end i saw that there is a portal that opens but then the mission was ended. Would the mission be continued?

First Previous
Chapter 2: Now Is Found
​
The moment the Into the Black entered Sol, the human’s home system, various transmissions and radio signals poured in. At first, the captain and the rest of the crew thought that humanity was well and truly alive. But upon closer inspection of the deluge of signals they were receiving, they realized they were nothing more than automated warnings, echoes, and ghost signals bouncing around the countless derelict ships, stations, habitats, and arcologies that surrounded nearly every world and moon in the system. The place was a mass grave, far greater than any of the previous systems. In fact, this system was the most developed Ohmata had ever seen. The Galactic Union’s capital is the most advanced system in the GU, and it pales compared to the level of development of the human home system!
The sheer amount of death and destruction was frightening. Entire fleets worth of ships clumped together in the void of space. Their own mass creating a small gravity, pulling them together and fashioning massive hulks. While also creating hazardous clouds of metal debris, more than a few moving fast enough to rip the Black to shreds, should they not be vigilant. Constructs the size of cities floated aimlessly, stuck within the confines of the star’s influence. Mobile defense platforms, which once bristled with the finest weapons humanity could field, lay battered and broken amongst the many wrecks that called Sol home. Humanity did not go down without a fight, that much was for certain. If anyone ever called them cowards, Ohmata would simply show them the recorded footage of their home system to prove the naysayers otherwise.
There looked to be more metal strewn about from the battles and destroyed ships alone than in every GU fleet combined, and more than a few worlds, too. The difference in the ships was obvious. The human vessels were boxy, utilitarian. They did their jobs, and they did them well. Many of which appeared to be nothing more than massive guns someone built a ship around, then put more guns on that.
The Nemesis were different; they weren’t boxy and rigid angles like the humans, but not totally smooth either. They had a far more organic look with multiple bends and curves, but the surfaces seemed to be rough and bumpy, and unlike the human ships, almost none were symmetrical. But though they were asymmetrical, there existed patterns in the various derelicts. As if they were variations of preexisting models, updated and expanded upon with time. In comparison, most GU ships were a happy medium. They had the bends and curves like the Nemesis, but were neatly symmetrical like the human ships.
Looking past the destruction and death, the system was fairly average. Four rocky worlds, four gas giants, and several smaller bodies here and there. The gas giants still had the broken remains of floating cities scattered across them, while their moons contained colonies and stations galore. But what was most interesting were the third and fourth rocky worlds. The fourth one had depressingly little green on it. It was mostly red, with an occasional white streak indicating clouds. It was highly developed, ruined cities ranged across its surface freely. But it bore the marks of war none the less. It would be a prime candidate for collecting samples, as long as the surface wasn’t too hazardous. Humanity did have a fetish for nuclear annihilation towards their end, after all.
The third planet, the third planet was something else. It was a grey husk devoid of life. Its moon had a massive crater denting its facade, with many smaller ones marking its surface. They stood out prominently. Fresh wounds of war contrasted against natural meteor strikes. The debris from the lunar surface and whatever had caused the impact was already starting to form the semblance of a ring around the planet. And like everywhere else, the surrounding space was choked with battle debris, though most had collected in the planet’s “proto ring”. There was so much debris that they could barely scan the planet, and what parts they could get to was so irradiated that a signal couldn’t penetrate from such a distance. Which meant if they wanted to scan the home world of these legendary humans, they would have to get closer. Which, frankly, was currently impossible.
“Nix’Fa, can you maneuver through that debris field?” Ohmata asked, while peering down at her console.
“No ma’am. A shuttle may get through, but it won’t have any of the equipment necessary to scan the planet. At least, not at any reasonable rate,” Nix’Fa replied. She, too, was looking over her console at potential flight paths.
First Lieutenant Qhaax spoke up from her station. “We may not need to actually scan the planet to learn more about humanity, captain. Most of the planet is a flattened, irradiated death pit, but the debris field around it still contains warships from both sides, some in remarkable condition. In fact, several derelicts appear to still have power, even after thousands of years. We may be able to board them using a shuttle and extract data from any intact computer systems we find. And while not exactly human, there is a Nemesis ship relatively close to the edge of the field. It would be a good first target.”
“Then we’ll change our plan to that. Qhaax, contact Kitern and tell her to get her marines suited up, send a techy or two and some researchers with them as well. You’ll have to contact Tentzonta to get her to let some of her engineers loose for once, and Glevar for her researchers. Though you won’t have to convince her, she’ll be jumping at the opportunity. Nix’Fa, start plotting them a course, and we’ll go from there, understood?”
The two responded with a crisp, yes ma’am, and got to work on their respective tasks.
-
“Kitern, can you hear me?” Ohmata’s voice called out from Kitern’s suit’s comms.
“Loud and clear, cap, whatcha need?” Commander Kitern responded as she stowed away several more energy cells for her weapon. She was a digitigrade, feline like mammal known as a Lioranian, with thick paw like hands that held deadly claws within them. They were still thin and nimble enough to manipulate objects accurately, but most importantly, pull a trigger. Her kind also had a slightly elongated snout, long tail, and top forward facing ears. Their eyes were dark, but a few bore mutations which lightened the iris to a sky blue. And their pupils are vertical, but would dilate periodically to give better depth perception and low light visibility. Her species’ coats ranged from a dark tan to a bright yellow gold and had multiple coat patterns of varying intensities. She personally had a dusty tan coat with slight stripe markings originating from her spine, but quickly fading as they reached around to her abdomen and chest.
“You already have a basic rundown about what to do. But I just wanted to remind you, we marked an entrance for you through some old battle damage on a derelict Nemesis ship that is close to the edge of the debris field. Enter, make your way to the power source, secure the area, and set up a pressurized zone if possible so the techies can work in peace. If you can’t, oh well, they can work in their suits. Also, you see anything living, as unlikely as that is, don’t go shooting it. Try to capture or reason with it, but if it does anything stupid, then do what you and your girls do best.”
Kitern smiled maliciously. “Aye, aye, captain. We’ll keep the civvies alive and kick’n, get the goods and be back in no time.”
“Then I leave the rest to you. Oh, try not to mess with the shuttle’s controls while it’s on autopilot this time. It’ll be weaving through a debris field too compact to get the Black into. Any rescue efforts will take a long time, longer than what you’ll have, so don’t touch the throttle like last time!” Ohmata raised her voice jokingly, playfully reminding Kitern of the last time they were on a shuttle together in such conditions.
“Ha! Dontcha worry, I’ll be in the back. Onsa will be in the pilot’s seat for this go. She’s a better flyer anyways,” Kitern played.
“Alright then, get done and come back, preferable alive. Ohmata out.” There was a click as Ohmata closed the channel.
“Hmph, always do.” Kitern had been staring at a random wall while talking to Ohmata. With the call over, she turned to her squad. “Alright girls, get your shit together and get to the shuttle. Oh, and keep your hands to yourself, Hran is coming along, I don’t want any complaints from him, or hands where they shouldn’t be, got it?” she barked, eyeing each of the three other marines, more specifically the youngest two.
“What if he lets us?” one of said marines asked jokingly.
“It’ll be a cold day on Ca’tab before that happens, Asteli,” Kitern replied.
“You never know, we might just wear him down finally, right Gre’Namra?” the perky Venanian replied.
“How many times do I have to tell you? Just call me Namra, and I doubt it. Men like to be wined and dined. Take them out, pay for a fancy meal, maybe buy them something. You know, the usual,” her counterpart, a Drae’Ildan, responded.
Kitern sighed. “Or how about not harassing anyone and act like a decent sentient, you hornbags? Now, shut it and get to the shuttle. Dentala you’ll have your work cut out for you keeping track of these two today.”
“Not as big of a job as keeping track of you, I pity Onsa,” Dentala said as she lifted a heavy kinetic slugger with a red hand, another Venanian.
Kitern chuffed deeply, her species version of a chuckle. “Me too! But, you might wanna put on a glove before we go out. Might help with the whole vacuum thing.” Dentala looked at her hand, surprised that she had forgotten it, before slipping one on. It attached to her bracer and made an airtight seal, forming an armored gauntlet. With that, the four marines left to join their fifth member in the shuttle.
As they left the locker room, Asteli mumbled under her breath. “We wouldn’t do that. We’re not assholes,” she said, addressing Kitern’s assertion of harassment.
“Well, you sound like one,” Gre’Namra replied quietly. After that, they kept their heads down and trudged along with their commanding officer.
A short jaunt later, they were passing through the hangar bay’s airlock. They were greeted by the Black’s only two shuttles. One, small and cramped, meant for scanning dangerous locations that they couldn’t get to with the ship. Logically, that would mean it was best suited to scan Earth. But even its equipment was not powerful enough to breach the radiation. Not without descending into the planet's atmosphere and becoming so irradiated they would practically glow in the dark. And while they could get Aphosi to pilot the shuttle remotely, its scanners aren't able to scan such a broad area like an entire planet. They were more meant to target small, specific locations.
The second shuttle was much larger. It was built to transport supplies and the handful of rovers they had in storage, to make excursions to planets. The smaller shuttle had permanently extended wings and large thrusters on the rear. The larger of the two, simply dubbed Shuttle One, could fold its wings. And had a variety of thrusters located across the ship for better maneuverability in space, and atmospheric thrusters embedded in the center of each wing for flight in atmo. But it also had two large engines in the back for forward thrust, just above its rear ramp.
Walking over to shuttle one, Onsa, the other Lioranian in the squad, was already waiting for them in the pilot’s seat. In the rear seating area were two engineers and two scientists, wearing grey, lightly armored EVA suits that looked to be made of cloth, but were instead a variety of advance polymers and flexible but insulative materials. Most of the helmet was a large, one way transparent material, allowing for increased awareness while sacrificing protection. In comparison, the marine’s helmets had no exterior window, instead a suite of miniature sensors embedded in their black armored helmets allowed them to see through an internal display screen. The helmets appeared to be smooth metal from a distance, only up close could you see the microscopic sensors embedded in them.
The marine’s suits held many of the same features as the civilians, but were black and had thick armored plates over vital areas and on select parts of their extremities, with thinner, non-metal armor segments filling in the gaps. Both suit types had an array of pockets and hideaways, each holding their respective tools of the trade. Regardless of the accessories, or level of protection, each was specially crafted to accommodate for the unique physiologies of the different species.
Had the ship and its equipment not made with each of their species in mind, they would have worn generic multi species suits. Instead of the pre-built features tailored for their specific anatomy, they would be covered with a thick insulated, pliable material that fitted over the horns, tails, and crests and shrank until it was tightly pressed against every nook and cranny. Aside from personalized helmets, each species’ leg sections and gloves/gauntlets catered for whether they were plantigrade, digitigrade, or for how many digits they may possess.
Hran being a male Venanian, had small horns jutting out from his temples. But because his horns were so small, his helmet did not need any special features. Thus was fairly plain. It looked like a sphere that had been slightly squished in on the sides. Unlike the females of his species, who had much larger, curved horns, their helmets were marked with two twin armored segments sticking up like antenna. Otherwise, their helmets were just as “stubby” as his, for their flatter faces. At least, in comparison to the other species onboard.
The Shednae with their elaborate head crests and long faces, had a stubby mohawk like metal protrusion for their crests to fit in, and longer helmets to account for their heads. The Drae’Ildan’s helmets were similar to the Shednae. In fact, they could be mistaken for one another if not for the lack of a head crest. Lastly, the Lioranian helmets were quite plain, aside from the extended “snout” for their slightly longer faces and two nubs to house their ears located on the top of their heads.
Those with tails were likewise afforded a special area to put them, instead of the shrinking material normal for such species. The Shednae have a small knob like space for their short tails. While the Venanians and Lioranians had long thin tails, they could be coiled in the suit. Drae’Ildan suits had a much longer and thicker tail section that looked burdensome but was quite flexible. Their suits were also equipped with a much larger array of sensors to assist them, as the Drae’Ildan’s natural sensory organs were significantly dulled in such tight confines.
“I see the grunts have finally made their appearance. Why did you bother bringing so many guns with you? It’s a derelict that has been floating dead in space for thousands of cycles. There won’t be anything living on board.”, one of the engineers nagged, as the marines ducked into the shuttle. Though her helmet was on, it was clear she was a part of engineering by the orange stripe running along the left of her suite, and left sleeve. Mimicking their uniforms.
“And a fine hello to you Kass, you too, Hran,” Kitern said as she sat down across from the two Venanians and buckled in. Hran simply nodded silently. Kitern continued, “And as for your question, we have no idea what we’ll find. You want to be stuck out in space with no way of protecting yourself if something is there? Yeah, I’m sure it’s empty too. Doesn’t mean I’m taking any chances.” Kass snorted at her reply.
“Shavizi, Jurwa, what about you two, think we’ve over prepared?” Kitern asked the two scientists to her left. Their stripes were blue.
“One can never be too prepared! Though the heavy slugger seems a bit excessive, but as long as you don’t drop it on me, I have no complaints,” Jurwa, a Shednae, said gleefully, practically bouncing in her seat.
“I agree, organic enemies aside. The ship may have automated defenses still functioning. If so, they will have to be dealt with accordingly.” Shavizi added. Yet another Venanian.
“See Kass, they get it,” Kitern grinned smugly underneath her helmet as she leaned back and buckled herself in.
As the others sat down and buckled in, Onsa turned in her seat to see if they were all ready. Everyone confirming they were. She turned back around and started up the shuttle. Quickly putting it into autopilot, but still keeping her hands on the controls just in case. The shuttle slipped out of the bay, passing through the atmospheric retention field, and pitching down and to the left, heading for the derelict Nemesis ship.
As the debris field is so dense and dangerous, the Into the Black was several hundred kilometers away, clear of any potential danger. As such, the trip would take around five minutes before they reached the field, another six to navigate the debris, as it was so hazardous. The Nemesis ship in question was near the edge of the debris field, but still mostly intact, with some power readings emanating from within, a perfect target for research.
-
“We’re coming alongside it now. Once we have successfully magnetized to its hull with the docking clamps, I’ll decompress the shuttle and you can open him up,” Onsa called out, just barely turning her head back in their direction.
Kitern activated her comms so everyone could hear her clearly once the air was siphoned out. “Gotcha. Scans show two distinct points of power readings. Both look to be in the same place, or at least really damn close. We’ll take a right once we get into the ship and follow the corridor until it leads to a three-way intersection. Then we make a left, then a right, and we’ll be on track. The room in question will be along that corridor. Keep your eyes and sensors open for anything that looks Nemesis-y.”
“Oh, like the entire ship?” Kass chimed in.
Kitern rolled her eyes. “Onsa, give a countdown.”
Onsa nodded her head. “Affirmative. Decompression commencing in three… two… one… starting.” There was an audible hiss that slowly faded away as the air in the shuttle was pulled back into storage tanks for later use. “Decompression complete, safe to open the door,” she confirmed over their comms.
“Opening door. Don’t go floating off,” Kitern joked as she pressed a button near the hatch, causing it to slide open silently. Before them was a gaping hole in the side of what looked like a ship that had grown large warts. The human beacons had mentioned that the Nemesis ships weren’t smooth, but the reality was a bit more unsettling up close. The humans weren’t sure why the Nemesis ships were so… bumpy. But they knew it wasn’t actually part of the building process, as newly refurbished or repaired Nemesis vessels lacked the warty exterior. But they had seen no importance in investigating the reason, as they had no tactical or structural advantage. Humanity theorized they were damage, but what could cause metal to ripple and bubble? So it remains a mystery to this day.
Kitern lifted a foot, causing the magnetic lock on that boot to disengage automatically, then re-engage when she put pressure on it. Allowing her to walk forward until she was looking down into the hole. Kitern put a foot on the lip of the shuttle, and bent forward, pushing herself into the opening.
As Kitern floated into the ship, she could see the corridors were circular, with strange partitions along the edges. The partitions didn’t seem to move or close, so she guessed they were more decorative support beams than actual doorways. A second later, she put out a hand to stop herself from colliding with the far wall, and pushed downward, boots magnetizing to the floor. Upon magnetizing, she immediately lifted her weapon. It was a small energy-based firearm, similar in size and function to an SMG.
Looking down both directions of the corridor showed nothing of interest other than more of those strange support beams and closed bulkhead doors on either end. She noted the twisted metal and battle damage in the corridor caused by whatever had impacted the hull.
Before everyone had touched down, she started making her way toward their objective. She continued on until she reached the bulkhead door at the end of the corridor. It was not fully closed, only partially, allowing someone to grip between the two sections and pull them apart. She did just that. As the door slowly opened, Dentala came up behind her and lent her strength to the task. Grunting in exertion, they pulled the door apart until they could easily walk through. Kitern silently fist bumped Dentala on the shoulder in thanks before she continued on, weapon held at the ready.
As they proceeded through the derelict, signs of battle began to appear. At first, it was only a few scorch marks or kinetic impact craters on the wall. Then, what looked like dried blood from some ancient creature. It had aged into a sickly dark green color with a hint of yellow. A quick scan showed that no genetic material could be retrieved, it had long degraded into nothing. Though some sort of information could certainty be gleamed from the stain if they searched long enough, but the sample was unimportant, as it was not a focus of the mission. Pressing on, the signs of battle intensified, as well the amount of spilled blood. At one point, an entire corridor looked like it had been painted in viscera.
The team could only speculate on what had happened. Was it a mutiny? Civil war between surviving Nemesis forces trapped in the Sol system? Or perhaps the humans had something to do with it? But there was one thing on everyone’s mind as they walked through the ancient carnage. Where were the bodies? They hadn’t passed a single corpse yet, just blood stains.
“Captain Kitern, do you suppose we can slow down and so I can scan the ship a bit more? I can’t get a proper reading while moving like this,” Shavizi requested from the back. She had some sort of tool and was waving it back and forth across the surface of the corridor.
“You can scan the ship when we stop, and that will be when we get to those power signals. And once we make sure the place is secure,” Kitern responded, weapon still up at her shoulder as she swept the hallway.
“If that is your order,” Shavizi relented, but still attempted to scan everything they passed, incomplete or not.
It didn’t take long before they arrived at where the Black said the power readings were. They had weaved about the ship a bit more than desired. Several bulkhead doors were completely sealed shut, causing them to detour, but they managed it in the end. They were now standing in front of a large single door; it was nowhere near as large as the bulkhead doors that sealed off entire corridors, but it was large enough to allow passage with room to spare on all sides.
It too bore damage from whatever conflict had occurred within the ship. The door’s access panel was damaged, and the surrounding wall panels warped. Preventing them from directly interacting with the door.
“This is the place; my scanner is already picking up power readings from here. Hran, be a dear and get out the interface tools. We’ll see if this door has power first, instead of brute forcing our way through first thing,” Kass stated. Hran silently carried out his orders, unpacking a variety of tools they may need.
After pulling off several of the panels to see if they allowed access to the door’s wiring, they eventually found the right one. Sadly, a closer inspection revealed that the door, like nearly the entire ship, had no power, meaning it couldn’t be opened by the press of a button like they wanted.
“Oh well, do what you do best, Kitern,” Kass shrugged as she and Hran began packing up their tools.
“Eh, worth a shot. Privates, if you please,” Kitern motioned to the door for the two young marines to take a crack at it. They both replied with a crisp, yes ma’am, and quickly got to work trying to pry open the door.
It took a little more effort than they thought, but over time it slowly slid further and further open, until Gre’Namra wedged herself in between the door and frame, and used her entire body to push it open. Asteli joined in when it widened enough for the both of them. Together, they pushed it fully open, the door slowly recessing into the wall. Revealing an old dusty room with several long bed-like pods.
“Thank you, girls. Now clear the room while you’re at it. Though by now any baddies would have chewed you up,” Kitern ordered. The two did just that. Thankfully, the entire room could be seen from the doorway, so there really wasn’t any clearing. Just looking behind the pods for anything not so friendly.
During their little search, they noticed one bed had several lights flickering on its side. They pointed it out to the others. Immediately, Kass and Shavizi pushed them aside to get to it. Drooling over it like children being offered sweets.
“I wonder what this is?! After so many thousands of years, it still has power. I thought those beacons were incredible enough, but this is something else!” Kass said to no one in particular.
Shavizi had been scanning the bed, as well as its neighbors, while Kass looked it over. “Hmm. The pods have a sliding covering that encloses the occupants. All the others are open, yet this one is closed.” Shavizi tapped at her scanner a bit. “Wait… the other energy signature… it’s coming from inside it!” she said astonished, while moving a hand over the top of the slid that covered the pod. As she did, thousands of years’ worth of dust floated away from where she dragged her hand. Allowing a small amount of light to break free from within.
Noticing this, Shavizi leaned forward and peered inside the pod. Her eyes went wide as her mind tried to make sense of what she was seeing. “GET BACK! DON’T TOUCH IT!” she screamed, but was too late. Kass, who was now crouched down near the base of the bed, had pressed a finger to one of the flickering lights just as Shavizi yelled her warning. All Kass had time to do was turn her head up and mutter a confused, “huh?”, before the covering of the pod slid open, unleashing its occupant onto the galaxy.
First Previous
Hello once again! First things first. If you see the name Osan, please point it out to me. It is supposed to be Onsa, but the program I use to write the story changed the name to Osan for some reason. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the cliffhanger! This chapter is meant to help further detail the various species and their features, and of course set up for many things to come!
Also, in my last story. I had a lot of flashback sequences to add in fluff and give backstory to the MC. While I don't want overuse it in this story, I do want to have flashback esque sequences that are basically just battles of the Human-Nemesis war (recorded combat footage recovered from human ships and installations), introduce new characters, or maybe give further development to preexisting characters. The flashback sequences will be called Orphan: Tales of the Past and won't begin until a certain point in the main story. Once that point is reached, the side stories will pop up every once in a while in place of the main story chapters. Or, if I fell as if its safe to push the story ahead, you'll get the main story and a side story in one week.
That's it for the week folks! See you next week!

A slave-driving murderer had just publicly declared war on us. The cheering and applause of the people standing around us was an eerie and ominous accompaniment to the feeling of dread swelling in my chest and radiating down to my stomach. He'd captured all of them thus far. I swallowed and dropped my gaze down to the pavement as it dawned on me that all of those people had tasted freedom, and were then immediately and mercilessly hunted down and dragged back to hell.
But there was an interesting caveat there. He called us by the names O'Malley had erroneously wrote down in his ledger. The men that were chasing us that day had picked up our actual fake aliases, but then we'd killed them at the inn. It seemed that knowledge died with them– a drop of good luck in a raging downpour it seemed.
"William," I said just loud enough to catch his attention.
He turned and eyed me. "Huh? Were you talking to me?"
I lifted an eyebrow. "Yeah. Who else would I be calling William?"
He narrowed his eyes, "It's Tovin, you spaz."
I glanced around nervously. Nobody appeared to have been listening to us. I took him by the shoulder and led him away from the crowd gathered around the picture boxes. "What are you doing?" I hissed.
"What am I doing?" he scoffed. "What are you doing? You know my name. What, are you playing a game right now?"
"Our aliases," I said through my teeth. "We're using fake names, remember?"
His expression changed from annoyed and confused to forlorn and somber. He swallowed and looked away. "... I'm losing it again, aren't I?" he asked.
I remained silent. I didn't know what to say. I didn't want him to feel worse about it, but that would have been a dangerous slip-up in front of the wrong person. Before now, I was starting to think that Tovin back home had overblown how quickly the mental decline would be.
"Don't worry about it," I said finally, passing him on the sidewalk further into the city. "Come on. We need to find a way to make some money."
"And fast," he added, trailing behind me. "We need food, clothes, and a couple of beds. And more cigarettes, too. I've only got a few left and I'm trying to make them last."
We walked the mazelike streets of Bronzegirder looking for work. I wasn't used to Diesel society yet and often found myself hung up on storefront windows that marketed all kinds of gadgets and technology. I would do my best not to stare when people walked by wearing metallic pieces on their persons.
Some wore gadgets on their forearms, some on their wrists, and others in various other areas. I wondered what purpose they served, where they were sold, and how expensive they could be. And it wasn't just the gadgets. There were far more dark-skinned people here than we had in Galgia. It was something I had read about but never experienced. They ranged from light tan all the way to almost black, and it just added to the culture shock.
There appeared to be people living in the buildings above the storefronts. The tall towers we had seen in the far distance earlier served as housing as well as business space. Diesillians stood on their balconies, some hanging wet laundry, others leaning over their railing while they enjoyed a drink or a smoke. We passed so many things I would have wanted to stop and look at were we not being hunted. DuPonte seemed awfully sure of himself when he said he'd find us, but for the life of me, I couldn't imagine how one would find antything they were looking for in this city.
"I'm totally lost," I admitted. "We need a map or something."
He remained quiet. I turned to speak to him more directly only to find that he wasn't behind me anymore. My stomach dropped as I looked around at the sea of people.
"William?" I called out. "William!"
It was no good. I'd have to literally scream if I wanted to breach the drone of the crowd, and I couldn't afford to draw too much attention to myself. There was also the possibility that he'd forgotten his name again anyway. I adjusted the straps of my backpack and sighed deeply before doubling back. He couldn't have wandered too far away, and he'd be easy to spot against the horde of people in more modern clothing.
I kept close to the storefronts as I picked up my pace. I began to peer into each store as I passed them. The longer I searched, the more I worried. He wasn't in his right mind. He'd get himself noticed and captured if he let too much slip, or pulled down his hood. I came to the turn we had taken after we'd left the picture boxes. He was with me at this point, I was sure of it. I turned around and swallowed as I scanned the crowd.
This was really, really, bad.
"William?" I tried again. I decided to cross the street and nearly got run over by one of their vehicles. It screeched to a stop and when I lowered my arms, I found the front of the metallic machine inches from my face.
"Git the fuck oudda da road!" shouted the pilot, shaking his fist in the air. I quickly scurried onto the opposite sidewalk and made my way down the street with the flow of the crowd. I kept my eyes peeled as I walked. It was difficult to see over everyone's shoulders. Diesillians were a good deal taller than Galgians as a rule, and it made it a nightmare for an average-sized guy like myself. Just when I was about to start asking around, something caught my ear.
Something I never expected to hear– music.
I stopped in my tracks and the public parted around me like a river around a boulder. I turned toward the sound and followed my ears to a large silver pavilion nestled between two tall buildings. It looked like an empty lot that had been designed for another tall building but instead served as some sort of inner-city courtyard where live entertainment performed.
I slowly approached as a woman stood in front of a mic stand singing while a band performed with shining metallic instruments behind her. She had black hair styled in a way I'd never seen hair styled. It was pulled up and around under a hat and shined the same as her red lipstick did. But what awed me the most was that she was singing.
No danger; no combat; no sign of beasts being summoned forth. She sang beautifully, adding something to music that I had never in my life once considered because in Galgia, to sing was to slaughter. Music was a tool of war and forbidden entirely outside of such circumstances, for if one of us were even to hum, anything could come crawling out of the resulting portal.
But here she was, singing what I presumed were the words to a poem in perfect rhythm and harmony with the band that played behind her.
"You're my machine, my heart's ignition. The gears that keep my love in motion. You're the engine that never tires– the pistons set my soul on fire."
I was completely taken in. It was therefore no surprise to me that here in the crowd, I spotted Tovin watching her with equal admiration from the edge of the stage. I weaved through the crowd as politely as I was able and then stopped next to him. He glanced at me before quickly returning his eyes back to the stage. I didn't say anything to him; no words needed said so long as she was singing.
"You, my dear, a love machine, the one that keeps my bearings clean– I'm addicted to your engine's roar, your power's what I'm living for."
I wasn't a hundred percent sure what she was talking about, but it was clearly a love song written for one lucky guy. When the song was finished, she ever so slightly lifted her ruby-red dress from the sides and took a bow. The crowd clapped, a few whistles coming from somewhere behind us.
"Thank you," she said softly into the mic. "It's important to remember that love conquers all," she said, passing her deep black eyes over us. "Hatred fades over time, but love lasts; it endures. This next song is about a long lost love and reconnection."
We stayed and listened to a couple more songs before she left the stage, and the band with her. She disappeared on promises of returning tomorrow for a second show. Of all the things thus far I had seen in the land of our enemy, something so sweet as non-weaponized music ranked among the most surprising and awe-inspiring.
As the crowd began to disperse back onto the main street, I turned to Tovin. "Hey, do me a favor and don't disappear like that. I didn't know where you were and we've got to stick together."
"Can we come back here tomorrow?" he asked, completely ignoring what I'd said. He stared at me with hopeful eyes, a small smile on his face. It still felt strange of him to ask me permission for anything, but I couldn't deny that it was a pretty magical performance.
"Only if we live that long," I answered with a heaping helping of snark. "We need money so we can get off these streets tonight. Come on, we're losing daylight."
He looked past my shoulder and suddenly pointed. "What about that?"
I turned to see a bulletin board posted on the side of a building not far from us. On it were several posts, but one of them specifically read, "200 Octim Sign-On Bonus." The two of us walked up the board and looked over the job.
"There's a sign-on bonus," Tovin said as his eyes moved down the paper. "The Empress needs you. Galgian dogs sent monsters to run amok in our fair empire. Officials are spread thin amidst heightened tensions with Galgia's military. Find and kill monsters for bounties. Seek employment at the Hunters' Barracks at 443 Alloy Avenue on the north side of town. Look for the men in uniform."
"Monsters?" I asked. "There aren't any monsters in Galgia. None in all of Aurii if our textbooks are accurate."
"You want to at least check it out?" he asked.
"I think we'd be wasting our time," I said dismissively. "We hiked through a bunch of wilderness closer to the Galgian border and we didn't see anything all night."
He folded his arms. "Then let's get our sign-on bonus and leave."
That was such a fantastic point that I pushed my palm against my forehead and visibly cringed. "Oof. Why am I so dumb?" I whined.
"I don't think you're dumb," Tovin said as he moved down the bulletin board to look at other flyers. "I think you're just honest to a fault. It never would have occurred to you to do something so underhanded."
I would never get used to compliments from Tovin. It was like watching a different person wear his body and speak with his voice. Had life at ENU really been such a drag on him?
"None of these other jobs are offering money upfront," he added, turning to face me. "Let's head to the north side of town and see if we can find Alloy Avenue."
x - - x - - x - - ★ - - x - - x - - x
The walk was long and difficult– not because it was too far, but because we had to pass so much delicious-smelling food along the way. I hadn't been sure before if Tovin was as hungry as I was, but the north side of Bronzegirder was quiet enough to hear both of our stomachs growling in concert with one another. The buildings were made of brick in the district we wandered through, and the walkways were closer to cobblestone like the kind we had back home. The roads were three times as wide, there were benches along the walkways, and they had planted trees caged in black iron gates at the trunks. The few people that strolled the sidewalks on Alloy Avenue were well-to-do, dressed in expensive-looking suits and wearing high hats with wide brims.
"I like this side of town better," Tovin said as we looked for building addresses. "Though I have to say, I'm surprised to see trees in the collossity."
"Goes a little against what we were taught doesn't it?" I asked.
"I don't recall being taught anything," he grumbled. "It's just another thing I somehow know."
I cast him a sympathetic glance and he didn't seem to like it. He scowled at me, "Don't you pity me."
"I'm not," I rolled my eyes. "I'd never feel bad for you Tovin, not in a thousand years."
"Just shut up," he snapped. "We're here."
He stopped in front of a brick building with an impressive stone staircase that had bronze handrails running up the length of them. At the top were two men in uniform just as the flyer had indicated. He was the first to start up the steps and I quickly followed behind him. As we passed them I took a good look at their uniforms. I could have sworn that I'd seen them somewhere before. We walked up to the glass doors and pulled them open.
A blast of warm air blew over us as we entered the building and it was a welcome reprieve from the cold. Inside was smaller than I had anticipated. I was expecting high ceilings, murals, metal artwork, and all kinds of stuff from how nice the outside looked. Instead, we found ourselves standing in a dirty lobby about the size of a headmaster's office. There were several rows of chairs dotted with people filling out forms on clipboards. At the back of the lobby was a little window with a man sitting on the other side. He was dark-skinned, had a shaved head, and bore a grisly pink scar across his cheek. He waved us forward when he noticed us.
"Let me do the talking," I whispered to Tovin, taking the lead in front of him as we made our way over; he didn't protest.
"Afternoon, gentlemen," he spoke into a microphone that relayed his voice to us through a little black device on the window. "Thinking about joining up?"
Before I could even speak, Tovin leaned onto the counter. "So when you say monsters," he adopted a skeptical look. "You mean like the ones that don't exist?"
The man behind the counter rolled his eyes. "Oh, great, another conspiracy theorist."
"What did you call me?" Tovin shot back.
"Ahhh, ha ha," I called out loudly, pulling Tovin back by his shoulder. "My brother is better at fighting than talking," I covered quickly. "Just talk to me from here on in."
He cast me a disinterested glance before handing us both clipboards with forms attached. "Whatever. Just read the whole thing and sign the liability waiver at the bottom. He's free to deny their existence while they're chewing his face off, but the empire won't be responsible for it."
I took both of the clipboards and passed one to Tovin. The two of us sat down and began going through them– and immediately, we faced a problem. They wanted first and last names, home addresses, medical history, and something called landline numbers. Tovin and I exchanged glances; this wasn't going to work.
I stood up and slowly walked back up to the counter as I looked over the document. Every time I looked, it seemed more and more ridiculous. Blood type? Social security number? Insurance provider? I didn't know what any of this meant. It might as well have been in an entirely different language.
"Did you have a question?" asked the man behind the counter.
"Yeah, I don't have most of this information," I said, setting the clipboard down on the counter. "Sorry, but we're gonna have to just go."
"Well, hang on now," he said, reaching under the little pass-through window and retrieving the clipboard. "I take it you boys are homeless then?" he asked.
"Uhh... Yeah," I answered tentatively. Did they really have such a homeless problem that he was able to jump to that conclusion so quickly? "We don't know how to answer these questions, so thanks anyways."
"I said hang on, dammit," he called through the mic before swiveling around in his chair and pulling some kind of lever underneath it that caused it to sink lower to the floor. He opened a cabinet and began rifling through it. I peered through the window at his chair– it was on some kind of ball axis that allowed him to spin in it freely. I felt like every couple of minutes I was seeing something I'd never seen before. He swiveled back around and lifted his chair back up before he handing me a new form. It was more like a strip of paper with three questions on it.
Shirt size, shoe size, and pant size.
There was a second slip of paper underneath it. I looked back up at the window attendant as Tovin appeared next to me. I handed him the slip of paper and we exchanged glances.
"The empire isn't being picky right now," spoke the man through the speaker. "You'll be assigned a number, a gun, and a uniform. You won't be eligible for emergency care, and you can't be assigned to a party. It'll be just the two of you. If you're still interested, we need all the help we can get."
I shrugged at Tovin, and he got to work filling out the information. I leaned on the counter and jotted down my uniform size before signing the waiver and handing everything back. He took both of the documents and then nodded toward the door on his right. "Come on back."
He reached under the table and did something that caused the door to make a whirring sound. It popped open on its own, and he thumbed us over to it. "Close it on your way in. Walk straight down the hall and through the third door on your left. Your hunter number is 27B and his is 28B."
We walked down the hallway and found the designated door already opened and with a sign on the inside that read, "Uniforms HERE" with an arrow pointing into the room. We were met by a portly woman with bouncy curls that hung down to her shoulders. She sat behind a desk absolutely surrounded by hanging uniforms, all kept in clear covering. She sized us up with a retractable ruler– the coolest ruler I had ever seen. After she took our measurements, she began sifting through uniforms.
"Why did they ask us for our sizes if they were going to measure us?" Tovin grumbled.
"I don't know," I whispered. "Just be quiet."
"Don't tell me to be quiet," he shot back, elbowing me in the ribs.
She turned around holding two suits by the hangers, one in each hand. "Your uniforms will come out of your first bounty collected," she announced. "No money needed upfront. Change into them and make sure they fit." We took them from her and she breezed past us. "Holler out here when you're changed." She closed the door behind her.
We turned away from one another and began getting dressed. I pulled back the crinkly clear material and looked down at the uniform. Now that I was seeing it closer, it was actually an extremely dark shade of blue, rather than black as I had thought prior. I looked down at the hat and held it in my hands. I had seen it before. Then, all at once, it came rushing back to me.
These were the uniforms of the men that had come to the mine. They had come carrying guns to inspect the worksite after what had happened to Hammer. Skully must have thought a monster had gotten to him based on the state of his body. I stared down at the uniform in disbelief. Could monsters really be running around in Diesel territory?
"You better not be looking over here," Tovin warned.
They had mistaken what Tovin had done for a monster attack. Skully's "fonekall" wasn't a pilgrimage. It was some form of long-distance communication. She reached out to the capital to request aid from someone, and they sent these guys. I began to wonder if I was making a mistake. If we could be dispatched like that, then we could feasibly be sent back to the camp.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. We were only in it for the sign-on bonus. Once we had that in our hands, we'd be outta here. We could even jump to the next town. They knew nothing about us other than our clothing size. We could be dust in the wind by tomorrow morning.
I shoved those thoughts to the back of my mind and quickly got dressed. The uniform fit perfectly, it was comfortable, and best of all had been designed with a high collar. It covered our neck markings perfectly. I turned to see Tovin with the hat on already. He looked like a classic Diesel villain from a comic book I had read as a kid.
"It fits nice," he said, testing the range of motion he had in his arms. "I think this will work."
"Yeah," I nodded. "Let's get our money and get the hell out."
"Speaking my language," he smirked.
He moved for the door and leaned out, calling for the attendant. I looked at myself in the full-body mirror and did a quick turnaround. I had to admit, I looked pretty darn stylish. The white gloves, belt, and hat looked pretty good against the dark blue and gold buttons.
The woman returned and smiled at both of us, her curls bouncing as she tossed her gaze cartoonishly left and right between us. "You two look good!"
"Thanks," I smiled back. "When do we get our sign-on bonus?"
"Oh, don't worry about that just yet," she said, moving back to her desk. "Do you boys know how to shoot?" she asked as she sat down.
"Shoot?" Tovin asked.
"A gun," she clarified, her smile fading. "Have either of you shot a gun?"
"No, ma'am," I answered. "Our parents didn't let us near them growing up."
"That's no problem," she said, lifting her hands. "We're happy to teach you the basics. You'll just exit the room and go left down to the very end of the hallway. I'll buzz you through the double doors at the end, and Old Mitchell will take you from there."
Tovin audibly groaned, and I took him by the arm, leading him out of the room. We walked down the hallway as he bellyached about what a waste of time it was. It was unlike him to turn his nose up at the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of a new weapon. In fact, he'd been acting weirdly childish lately. I didn't like it. It beat dealing with Tovin-Classic, but it was still a hassle. As we neared the end of the hallway, we began hearing the sound of guns being fired one by one.
The doors buckled and hummed the same as the first door had, and we pushed them open. We passed into a large room with Diesillians shooting at targets a good distance away. This was why the building was so large and the lobby was so small. The brick walls were covered in informational and safety posters, as well as what appeared to be schematics for the weapons themselves.
I looked across the large room to see a man striding toward us. He was wearing shiny black boots that were laced tightly to his calves. His pants and jacket were hunter green, and he bore perhaps the silliest mustache I'd ever seen; It was long and curled at the tips. I had to be careful not to snicker– his eyes were hidden behind dark sunglasses, and I couldn't tell if he was watching me.
"New recruits?" he called out to us from entirely too far away.
"Yes sir," I called back. "My brother and I just signed up."
"Brothers!" he exclaimed. "I love it, dammit!" He stopped in front of us. He was chewing on something and was being as obnoxious as he possibly could about it. He was wearing perhaps the stupidest hat I had seen of the Diesel yet. It had no visible brim and was high on one side while sloping down toward the other. For the life of me, I couldn't discern the purpose of it.
"You boys know how to shoot?" he asked.
"No sir," I shook my head. "We're new at this."
"Good," he smiled widely. "That means you haven't formed any bad habits yet. I love newbies," he said before waving for us to follow him. "Come on, let's get you your rifles. I'm Mitch, but folks around here call me Old Mitchell."
"James," I said as I followed after him. "This is my brother William." It was difficult to talk over the noise of the weapons. I occasionally jumped when someone shot their gun nearby– a reflex I couldn't wait to be rid of. He led us to a small room; so small that it might as well have been a glorified safe. He disappeared inside and came back out holding two guns. The same long metal tubes Tovin and I had been attacked with at O'Malley's inn.
We each took one and promptly inspected it. Suddenly, Old Mitchell stepped forward and grabbed both of our guns by the barrel, lifting them so they were pointed at the ceiling.
"You boys ever even held one of these?" he barked. "Careful where you aim. Never point one of these at anything or anyone that you're not prepared to destroy."
"They sweep you, Mitch?" asked a man as he passed behind us.
"Pointed 'em right at me," he called back with a laugh. "We'll get 'em straightened out, don't you worry about that." He looked at us both, chewing aggressively. "Now I'm gonna let these rifles go. You keep 'em pointed up, you understand?"
"Yes, sir," I answered.
"Sure," Tovin said in a disinterested tone.
He let go of our rifles and we kept them pointed at the ceiling as we were told. I looked up and down the length of the tube before turning it over and inspecting the area under the barrel. It was split underneath with what looked like some kind of spring running along the length of the tube.
"They're not loaded," Mitch said, waving for us to follow him to the other side of the room. "But you will always treat them like they are. I'm going to show you how to load them over here. Set them down on the desk, I'm gonna stand between the two of you so I can watch you both."
I set my gun down in front of me and looked to my right. There was a box of what I presumed to be bullets. I expected them to be round pellet-like projectiles, but they were tubular with roughly textured heads on them.
"Turn your weapon over. You'll notice you can see a spring inside the bottom of the barrel. Close to the other end of your gun, you'll find a little round tab there. Take that tab and push it with your thumb all the way up toward the tip of the barrel. You'll then pop it out to the side there."
I did as he asked, and sure enough, the barrel popped out to the left at the tip of the weapon. I glanced over at Tovin who was struggling with the spring. Old Mitchell moved over and helped him with it. "Sometimes they get stuck," he muttered as he got Tovin to the same step I was at.
"Now," he shouted. "Take your ammunition right there in the box next to you, and begin placing the rounds into the underside of the barrel, flat side first. Then, you'll load more bullets into the gun overlapping one another. Be careful not to let the rounds collide with one another too heavily, or you could have a little accident."
I loaded the bullets carefully one after another until the barrel was about full. He checked on Tovin's rifle, and then inspected mine.
"Good. Now realign the barrel, there and come with me to the bay," he said, starting toward the practice range. I carefully lifted the weapon and rested it against my shoulder, turning with Tovin to follow him. When we stopped at the range, he motioned for Tovin first. "Come on, Will, we're gonna start with you."
"Pass," he said nonchalantly.
Old Mitchell blinked twice. "What?"
"I want to see Gill do it first," he said, stepping out of my way.
"It's a nickname," I said quickly, stepping up to the range. "Anyways, I'll go first, I don't mind, what do I do here?"
Mitch remained silent for a couple of seconds before clapping his hands once. "Okay! Well, go ahead and pull the hammer back."
I looked down at the weapon and then back up at him. Sensing my confusion, he carefully reached forward and pulled back a little tiny lever on the top of the rifle until it clicked. "That's called pulling the hammer back," he said. "Will, you watching this?"
He didn't wait for a response. "Next thing you're gonna do is pull that lever out underneath the gun. That's going to load the weapon with a fresh cartridge. You're gonna do that between every shot, now. Lift it up against your shoulder like this; get it snug in there." He pulled it against my shoulder. "Look down the iron sight there at the tip of the rifle and line it up against your target. Your weapon is primed and ready to fire. You're good for fifteen shots before you've got to reload. You can always flip it over to see how many bullets are left. Go ahead and aim carefully, and try and hit that target paper down there."
At the end of the range, there was a piece of paper with a silhouette of a human head, shoulders, and torso. I closed one eye for better aim and held the gun tightly as I lined up my shot.
"Don't pull the trigger," Mitch advised in my left ear. "Squeeze it. Squeeze the trigger until it doesn't move easily anymore. Then when you're sure about your aim, squeeze with just that little bit of extra strength you need."
I did as he said, and felt what he was referring to. With my target in sight, my hand steady, and my aim as true as I could hope for, I fired the weapon. The shot rang out right in my ear, but interestingly enough, it wasn't so bad when I was the one firing. I was ready for it, and expecting it.
"Holy smokes!" exclaimed Mitch. "You put one right between the eyes!"
"Beginners's luck," said a man from behind me. "I did the same thing first time I shot, and never did it again."
"Let's prove him wrong, James," Old Mitchell laughed. "Now use that lever under the gun to eject the casing and load a fresh bullet."
I pulled the lever and the shiny little bullet casing popped out the top and flew over my shoulder. It was a really satisfying feeling.
"Do I pull the hammer again? I asked.
"Nope, it'll pop back down. You'll only pull that hammer back the first time. Go ahead and fire again, only this time, aim for the neck."
"Alright," I said, closing my eye and tightening my focus. I squeezed the trigger just as I had the first time and shot a hole straight through the center of the target's neck. I lifted my head and smiled. "I hit it!"
"No way," said the man behind me. "Ain't never shot before, my ass. He's taking you for a ride, Mitch."
"You're sure you're new at this, son?" Old Mitchell asked, one eye half shut. "That's really impressive, kid. Seriously, if this is your first time holding a rifle, you might be cut out for the military. Had a staff sergeant with worse aim than you."
"Alright, alright," Tovin pushed me aside. "My turn. Let me show you something you'll never forget."
The two of us took turns shooting for hours. We hadn't even noticed the time going by. For once, it seemed Tovin had found something he wasn't naturally amazing at, and it was infuriating him to no end.
Conversely, I found something I was really, really good at. I hit my target almost every time, and to be honest, I couldn't figure out what was so difficult about it. A crowd had gathered to watch me shoot. I got really swift with the lever, and could shoot out both of a target's eyes, and put one in its forehead in a matter of seconds.
Tovin wasn't a bad shot, but I knew how he felt. If he wasn't first, he was last as far as he was concerned, and at one point he about threw his rifle. Old Mitchell had to talk to him about how some things come naturally to others, and how he shouldn't be discouraged from coming to the range and practicing.
It was rich hearing Tovin get that talk of all people. The natural genius that outshined everyone, struggling with something for the very first time. I almost couldn't believe I was better than him at something, and of course, it just had to be the thing that we'd never do again once we found our friends and went back home.
Our friends.
We were wasting time here. "Hey, Mitchel," I turned toward him. "When do we get our sign-on bonus? It was supposed to be something like 200 octims."
"You get your sign-on bonus when you bring back your first bounty," he responded quickly.
"What?" Tovin shouted. "That's not fair! We signed on, now where's our money?"
I was equally upset. We were lied to. But it made sense that they couldn't just hand us uniforms, cash, and a gun, and let us go. They wanted to make sure we at least killed a monster.
"It's fine," I said with a sigh. "Where can we find bounties?"
"It's not fine," Tovin protested.
I yanked him by the collar of his shirt and looked him in the eyes. "It's fine," I said slowly and firmly. "We'll run out, bag a monster, and be back before dark."
He held eye contact with me for several seconds before shrugging me off of him and walking away. He stormed across the bay and left through the double doors at the other end of the room.
"My brother was the same way," said Mitch. "Hard-headed. Stubborn as a mule. Loyal as anyone you'd ever meet though."
He had no idea. Tovin wasn't just difficult, but he was turning into a walking liability. I didn't know how much longer I could take him acting like this. Suddenly, Mitch extended his arm, pointing to a door adjacent to where he'd gotten our guns from.
"Bounty board is in there. Come on, I'll show you."
It was a medium-sized room with several corkboards wall to wall filled with bounties. Every monster was named and almost all of them were sketched to a professional degree. You could find how much money the monster was going for, which hunters it had killed, where it was last seen, as well as whether or not there were hunters currently after it.
They had a system where you would notate which monster you were going after, and if you didn't return, they'd add your name under the list of hunters that died searching for it. There were so many monsters I couldn't believe it, and according to Old Mitchell, these were only the monsters within a five-mile radius of Bronzegirder.
I learned the process of choosing a bounty and chose a smaller monster with no names under its fatality list. Mitch agreed it was a good monster for beginners, and offered a few pointers for tracking it. I submitted the bounty request and got it approved before leaving the bay and heading down the hall in search of Tovin. I entered the lobby and didn't see him. I left the building and found him at the top of the steps staring out into the street where a couple of vehicles were hauling something massive together under a tarp.
Several uniformed hunters were walking slowly next to the vehicles. Their uniforms were tattered and bloodstained, and a few of them walked with a limp. We watched as the exhausted men passed the building on their way down the road. Two of them were sobbing silently, but we could tell by their exposed teeth and wrinkled expressions that they'd lost someone.
From beneath the tarp, a scaly limb fell off the side of the vehicle and dangled lifelessly. It was a reptilian-looking arm with an open wound, and the shredded remnants of a uniform hanging from its claws.
"Gill," Tovin said quietly. "Is that..."
"Yeah," I answered.
"That's definitely a monster."
Writing Prompt Submitted by u/My-Last-Hope

My name is Thomas Saul, I am a member of the Skatin Nations tribe in British Columbia, Canada. I am of Salish, and European descent. I began this project around May 2021 when news broke about the Kamloops residential school where the remains of 215 children were allegedly found. As a teenager I briefly Attended Norkam secondary in Kamloops, and have friends and family who still live in Kamloops, so this hit close to home. Upon my research into The origin of this residential school I found that Israel wood Powell, a Freemason, was the Indian Superintendent at the time it was built. Four generations of my family attended residential schools, some in Port Alberni and some Mission City, so naturally I wanted to know more. I have come to the conclusion that Colonisation, Freemasonry, and residential schools go hand in hand. Its a Fact, both the United States and Canada would not exist without Freemasonry, Therefore many Freemasons played a leading role in the genocide of Indigenous Americans. “Freemasonry, as it exists in various forms all over the world, has a membership estimated at around 6 million worldwide.”
Genocide: The UN definition, which is used in international law, states that genocide is: "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group," as such:(a) "Killing members of the group;"(b) "Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;"(c) "Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;"(d) "Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;"(e) "Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
The supreme governor of the Church of England is the head of the Church of England, a position which is vested in the British monarch. The father of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 King George III was not a Freemason, George III had announced that the colonies would no longer seize Native lands or purchase them without treaties. Starting in 1763, no English settlers could legally travel through or acquire land west of the Appalachian Mountains. The proclamation specifically stated that Native Americans had been subject to “great Frauds and Abuses” and that their sovereignty should be protected. Freemason Thomas Jefferson in his list of 27 grievances accused the king saying “He has excited domestic Insurrections among us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes, and Conditions.’’ Thomas Jefferson did this to build support for the revolutionary act that the Declaration of Independence would represent. It was suspected that the Freemasons were behind the Boston Tea Party, the American War of Independence, the french revolution, and Napoleonic France triggering British prime minister William Pitt’s, the Unlawful Societies Act of 1799 where he aimed to see Freemasonry abolished. Some Freemasons addressed Pitt explaining how vast their membership is and its connection to Royalty and As a result, Freemasons were excluded from the Act, but lodges were obliged to return a list of members to the local Clerk of the Peace every year, which are recorded in the Quarter Sessions.1. King George IV reigned from the death of George III until 1830, he was the first of many British Freemason kings and was the head of the Anglican church. William IV, Edward VII, Edward VIII, George VI were also masons. In the 209 years since the Union of the Premier and Ancient Grand Lodges to form the United Grand Lodge of England, a member of the Royal Family has been its Grand Master for more than 150.
A Freemason warrant of constitution is the Document which authorizes or gives a Warrant to certain persons therein named to organize and constitute a Lodge, Chapter, or other Masonic Body. The first Warrant for a military Lodge was issued by the Grand Lodge of Ireland in 1732 to the First British Foot Regiment. Within a few years the Grand Lodge of Scotland and both the Grand Lodge of England, Modern and Ancient were issuing Warrants to military Lodges. In 1733, 18 men gathered at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern on King Street in Boston and organized the first Masonic Lodge in North America. The first record of a military Lodge Warrant being issued in the new world happened during the French and Indian Wars. It was issued by the then Provincial Grand Master at Boston to the 28th British Foot in an expedition against the French at Crown Point. Edward Cornwallis became founder in December 1748, of a military Lodge in his regiment, the 20th. Foot, No. 63, on the registry of the Grand Lodge of Ireland. The warrant was issued to Lord George Sackville, Lieut. Col. The Hon. Edward Cornwallis and Captain Milburne. When in 1759 this famous regiment gained new honors at the battle of Minden, that name was immediately adopted as the name of the lodge. Cornwallis’ second lodge was founded in Halifax early in 1750 or possibly earlier, under a “deputation” or dispensation from Major Erasmus James Philipps of the 40th. Regiment at Annapolis Royal, Provincial Grand Master for Nova Scotia under Henry Price of Boston. Of this lodge, known as the First Lodge, Cornwallis was the first Master. Cornwallis In October 1749, issued an order that came to be known as the Scalping Proclamation. His government would pay a bounty to anyone who killed a Mi’kmaq adult or child in a bid to drive them off mainland Nova Scotia.
Sir William Johnson, an agent for the British Indian Department met Joseph Brant, a 9-year-old Mohawk boy while doing a land deal with Joseph's father King Hendrick. Sir William eventually started a common-law relationship with Joseph's sister Molly giving him incredible power over her tribe. Johnson groomed young Joseph Brant to become a loyal warrior and eventually leader of the six nations tribe. At 13 years old Joseph accompanied Johnson on his first tour with the military. Missionary Samuel Occham, a student of Eleazar Wheelock (father of The Great Awakening) procured a 19-year-old Joseph Brant to attend Moore's Indian charity school in Lebanon Connecticut with the blessings and charity of William Johnson. Freemasons Benjamin Franklin and Benedict Arnold had also donated money to Wheelock’s cause. William was the British Crown's first superintendent of Indian Affairs for the colony in 1756 and Joseph Brant was appointed as a captain in the Indian Department. Many Freemason colonists were high-ranking military who waged many wars on the Indigenous American population, scientists say so many Indigenous people were killed as a result of colonization it caused a mini ice age. After the North American wars, many Freemasons took positions as Indian agents helping to remove and segregate the native population. Anyone who wanted access to the six nations had to go through Indian agent Sir William Johnson and his family which includes the Brant family and the Kerr family through various marriages. At one point Johnson proposed that the moor's Indian Charity School move from Lebanon, Connecticut, to Johnstown but it never happened. Eventually, Johnson withdrew the support for Wheelock. In a letter Wheelock had suggested to Lord Dartmouth "The Nations will not make war with us while their Children, and especially the Children of their chiefs are with us” Dartmouth college claims that In 1766, Johnson was invited to join the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG), the largest and most influential Anglican missionary society in the 18th-century British-Atlantic world. He began working to place Anglican missionaries like Freemason and bishop Charles Inglis, rather than Congregationalist and Presbyterian ones, among the Six Nations. I believe Moore's dubbed “the great design” was the original model for the Mohawk Institute and the Canadian residential school system.
On April 10, 1766 Sir William Johnson was raised to the position of Master Mason of St Patrick's Lodge No. 4 where many Freemason Indian agents like John Butler, Guy Johnson, Sir John Johnson, William Johnson Kerr, Christian Daniel Claus, Gilbert Tice, George Croghan and A protégé of Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, Rev. Samuel Kirkland attended. In 1770 Johnson's fellow St Patrick's lodge Freemason Rev. Samuel Kirkland coincidentally parted ways with Wheelock and Moors charity school. Eventually Kirkland founded the Hamilton-Oneida Academy as a boys' school in central New York. In 1776 Joseph Brant was initiated into the Freemason fraternity in London England where it is rumoured a benefactor of Moors charity school king George III gave Brant his masonic apron. When Brant returned to Canada he became affiliated with Lodge No. 11 at the Mohawk village on the Grand River, of which he was the first Worshipful Master, and later affiliated with Barton Lodge No. 10. Joseph Brant invited fellow Freemason and grandson of Eleazar Wheelock to be a minister to the Mohawk. To Joseph It was imperative that Freemason Rev. Davenport Phelps was made minister of the Mohawks, so he reminded the Bishop, through Sir John, of the pledge which the Archbishop of Canterbury had made to him in the presence of the King, that whenever the Indians, by the erection of a church, should be ready for religious instruction, he would do all in his power to supply their wants. A Freemason named Rev. Robert Addison helped make this happen. Mr Addison, a relative of William Johnson, had been minister to the Six Nations and Joseph Brant and Freemason John Norton were his translators. Freemason Reverend Davenport Phelps and Jarvis Wheelock, the brother of Eleazar, were invited to Canada and granted land by Freemason and founder of the family compact John Graves Simcoe, the man behind the Simcoe patent. Mrs Simcoe in her Diary says, “In April of the following year Mary Brant (sister of Freemason Joseph Brant and common-law wife of Freemason Indian agent Sir William Johnson) successfully prescribed a favourite Indian remedy, the root of sweet flag (acorus calamus), for Governor Simcoe, who had been extremely ill with a persistent cough. The medicine relieved his malady “in a very short time. This brought the Brant family and Simcoe family close together. Davenport Phelps became the Worshipful Master of The Barton Lodge under Freemason William Jarvis and he was the first chaplain at the Mohawk Chapel. Davenport was the leader of many Indian agents who were members of The Barton Lodge. I suspect Davenport's mission was to help with the so-called Indian problem.
Chief Joseph Brant has been accused on many occasions of selling off land for his own enrichment and in a lot of cases he sold land to Freemasons. He granted 999-year leases to many families, the Nelles, the Young’s, the families of Adam Young UE, his three sons, Lieutenant John Young (Indian department) UE, Sergeant Daniel Young UE, and Private Henry Young UE, along with Captain Henry William Nelles UE and his families (Rev. Abraham Nelles). Many of these Indian agents were members of The Barton Lodge. Both Captain Henry William Nelles UE and Adam Young UE, fourth great-grandfather of Robert Collins McBride UE, were also the first Freemasons to settle in Haldimand County. Freemasons Robert Kerr and Rev. Robert Addison, William Kennedy Smith, also had land there. "There were very few outright legal sales of our land; 90 per cent of the leased land has never been paid for or paid to Six Nations," according to a research document prepared by Six Nations. Many Freemasons were involved with the Simcoe patent and the Haldimand Proclamation. Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe stated that the Indians could not lease their land since British subjects could lease land only from British subjects. Freemason William Jarvis signed the Haldimand proclamation, Freemason Thomas Ridout surveyor-general was behind the Ridout survey, Freemason Sir Peregrine Maitland lieutenant governor informed them that they had no title to the northern part of the grant, Freemason John Butler acted as an agent of purchase on behalf of the government, Freemason chief John Brant) and Freemason Robert Johnson Kerr finally went to England to lobby on behalf of the Six Nations.
Freemasons King George IV, and King William IV, reigned from January 29 1820 to June 20 1837. The idea of residential school was brought forward by the Freemason Governor of Upper Canada, Sir Peregrine Maitland, within the context of a proposal he made in 1820 to the Colonial Office "for ameliorating the condition of the Indians in the neighbourhood of our settlements." Maitland's proposal contained most of the civilising concepts and techniques that would be adopted in the next three decades. The American Freemason, President Andrew Jackson succeeded in pushing the Indian Removal Act through the United States Congress in 1828 leading to the trail of tears. John Brant solicited help from the New England company to build the Mohawk institute, the first residential school in Canada. The mohawk institute operated from 1831 to June 27, 1970. John Brant appointed Rev. Abraham Nelles son of Freemason Robert Nelles as principal of the Mohawk Institute. Abraham after over 30 years was succeeded by Freemason Robert Ashton. Oronhyatekha aka Peter Martin was also a Freemason and played an important role in the development of the Mohawk Institute. The Arthur of the Historical sketch of the Barton Lodge, No. 6, G.R.C., A.F. and A.M., says “the name of Brother John Brant is connected with important events in the history of Canadian Masonry.” John Brant is responsible for the formation of at least 12 residential schools in Ontario, while Freemason Israel Powell the superintendent of Indian affairs in British Columbia Powell “was able to boast that the government had established seventeen Indian schools, one for each year in office.”. Powell sought to establish several boarding schools across the province and particularly pushed for creating a school in Kamloops to address communities in the province’s interior.The school opened in Kamloops in 1890 and became one of the largest residential schools operated by Indian Affairs. The Freemason Organisation is vicariously liable for all abuses in those residential schools.
In 1837 a Rebellion in Upper Canada was led by William Lyon Mackenzie, who was a fierce critic of Simcoe’s Family Compact, an elite clique of businessmen and many Freemasons. Mackenzie opposed a system of land grants that favored settlers from Britain. Many Freemasons such as William Botsford Jarvis and Sir Allen Napier Macnab who was Joint premier of the Province of Canada helped stop this rebellion. Sir Allen Macnab was succeeded by Freemason Sir John A. Macdonald as Joint Premier. This Rebellion of 1837, this triggered the 6th generation Freemason Lord Durham to write The Durham Report, he was appointed governor in chief of British North America. In his 1839 Report on the Affairs of British North America, he recommended that Upper and Lower Canada be united under a single Parliament, with responsible government. In 1863 a steamboat named the Brother Johnathan) carried smallpox from San Francisco to British Columbia killing 1/3rd of the Native population. Many Freemasons like Thomas Harris the first mayor of Victoria, Israel Wood Powell who served in the Victoria Rifle Volunteer Corps which was established to protect the colony from the indigenous population, Amor De Cosmos who was the extremely racist editor of The Daily British Colonist, and Ronald J. NcDonell clerk for magistrate Pemberton who forced The Nuu-chah-nulth to leave their camp, escorted by two gunboats. There are many many more who may have purposefully mishandled the smallpox epidemic of 1863. British freemason Edward Jenner created the life-saving smallpox vaccine but on the other hand Freemasons Jeffrey Amherst and Col Henry Bouquet have been accused of distributing smallpox contaminated blankets to their enemies.
As early as 1866 Israel W. Powell, with his colleague Amor De Cosmos, had proposed confederation with the Canadian colonies. Israel Wood Powell, Superintendent of Indian affairs also outlawed potlatching an indigenous ceremony In British Columbia. Following the Lord Durham’s report, Freemason Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon proposed The British North America Act, 1867 Under section 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867, the federal government has exclusive legislative authority for "Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians." Of the 36 Fathers of the Canadian confederation, 11 were Freemasons. One being Freemason Sir John A. Macdonald, He was named by the United Grand Lodge of England as their Grand Representative near to the Grand Lodge of Canada. Sir John A. Macdonald took a page from American Freemason Andrew Jackson's book by removing the Indigenous people from their land. He was proud that he was able to subdue the Indigenous people with less blood shed than his American brethren. One Of Macdonald's Legacies is the Canadian Pacific Railway which displaced many tribes across Canada. Sir John A. Macdonald's campaign promise in the 1870s was that he would have a railway built that would link the country from coast to coast. Freemasons Richard Marpole, Sir Sandford Fleming, Sir George J.A. Bury And the Chinese Freemasons of Vancouver and Alberta made Macdonald’s promise come true. As quickly as the railroad was laid Freemason lodges were erected. Louis Riel a Métis hero, led two resistance movements against the Government of Canada and its Freemason Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald. Riel sought to defend Métis rights and identity. The Wolseley expedition was a military force authorized by Sir John A. Macdonald to confront Louis Riel and had been dispatched to Red River under Freemason Colonel Garnet Joseph Wolseley. Another of Mcdonald's legacies is the North West Mounted Police. Macdonald established the N.W.M.P in 1873 which boasted 750 Freemason members in its time. He claimed that “it was intended to have a body of mounted rifles to protect the people from the chance of an Indian war.’’ Meanwhile, The Pacific Scandal, the first major post-Confederation political scandal in Canada, Sir John Macdonald and senior members of his Conservative Cabinet were accused of accepting election funds for the contract to build the C.P rail.
The near completion of the railway allowed troops from eastern Canada to quickly arrive in the territory causing Riel to surrender to Canadian forces. The NWMP barracks was where Louis Riel was detained after his arrest in 1885 for leading the North-West Rebellion. Many Freemasons were involved in the defeat of Louis Riel. The RCMP museum had a display of the noose which hung Riel. Macdonald said this about Riel "He shall die though every dog in Quebec barks in his favor." John A. Macdonald is also one of the fathers of the Canadian Indian act First passed in 1876. In 1879 Freemason Nicholas Flood Davin wrote the Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds, otherwise known as The Davin Report. An amendment to the Indian Act in 1894 under Freemason Prime Minister Sir Mackenzie Bowell, made attendance at day schools, industrial schools, or residential schools compulsory for First Nations children, resulting in over 100000 Indigenous children being forcefully removed from their families by Indian agents and the RCMP. From 1740 to 1896 The Mexican government's response to the various uprisings of the Yaqui tribe have been likened to genocide particularly under Freemason Porfirio Diaz. Due to slavery and massacre, the population of the Yaqui tribe in Mexico was reduced from 30,000 to 7,000 under Diaz's rule. One source estimates at least 20,000 out of these Yaquis were victims of state murders in Sonora. It was during this period of the conflict that the United States Army fought the last battle of the American Indian Wars, the final battle being the Wounded Knee Massacre December 29, 1890, and in the subsequent Drexel Mission Fight the next day. In recent history the statues of Freemason John A. Macdonald, Freemason Edward Cornwallis, Freemason George Washington, Freemason Lawrence Sullivan Ross, Freemason Robert E. Lee and Andrew Jackson have all been vandalized but no mention of their affiliation to the Freemasons in the news. We can't point fingers at the church or government without first confirming whether or not the accused are Freemasons. The Order of the Eastern Star, Job's Daughters, and Rainbow Girls are masonic fraternities for women such as the daughter, widow, wife, sister, or mother of a Master Mason. All masons will cry out that Freemasonry has nothing to do with what an individual member has done, yet they all praise these men and prop them up as heroes. Freemasons claim to have superior morality compared to the average person, that they are the most honorable men on the planet, yet they refuse to acknowledge their members role in the genocide of the Indigenous Americans.
You may believe Freemasons are irrelevant nowadays but that is far from true. Winston Churchill is regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century. Churchill was initiated into Studholme Lodge No. 1591 on 24 May 1901. He said of the Pashtun people “all who resist will be killed without quarter,” Pashtun territory was occupied by the British in 1848 and divided into two areas. Winston Churchill's policies caused a famine that claimed more than 3 million Indian lives during the The Bengal famine of 1943. President Harry Truman, known as one of the most dedicated men to have joined Masonry on the morning of August 6, 1945, ordered an American B-29 bomber to drop two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians. John Edgar Hoover, more commonly referred to as J. Edgar Hoover, was an American attorney and director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Hoover was raised on November 9th 1920 in Federal Lodge No. 1 in Washington D.C. In 1919 Hoover became the head of the Bureau of Investigation's (predecessor of the FBI) new General Intelligence Division. The division was also called the Radical Division because it was the task of the division to find radical elements in American society to monitor and disrupt their activities. The Duke of Kent was initiated as a Freemason in Royal Alpha Lodge No. 16 in London on 16 December 1963. The Duke of Kent, is now UGLE’s longest-serving Grand Master. The Duke’s brother, Prince Michael of Kent, is also a Freemason and is Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons, and Provincial Grand Master of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Middlesex. On 6 March 1953, HRH Prince Philip progressed to the Second Degree of Freemasonry, before advancing to the Third Degree on 4 May 1953.
I encourage those who have been affected by the actions of Freemasons to begin a class action lawsuit against this organization in what ever country, state or province you live in and hold Freemasonry accountable for genocide. The first thing a Freemason will say when presented with this evidence is you don't know how masonry operates, that the lodge is not responsible for individual members actions. That is exactly what the Catholic church said before the Canadian Court of Appeal on July 28, 2020 had found the Archdiocese vicariously liable for abuses committed by a civilian employee. I witnessed countless people stand up against the Catholic Church for what they have done and the Pope came to Canada and apologized. Now it's time to turn your sight toward Freemasonry. You must understand that all Freemasons on the American contenent have greatly benefited from the genocide of Indigenous Americans.
“ Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's acceptance of an inquiry's finding that Canada committed genocide against Indigenous people could have tremendous legal impact if a court ever weighs Ottawa's responsibility for crimes against humanity, experts say.”
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/trudeau-s-acknowledgment-of-indigenous-genocide-could-have-legal-impacts-experts-1.5457668
"I didn't use the word genocide because it didn't come to mind but I described genocide," Pope Francis told reporters on the papal flight from Iqaluit to Rome on Friday.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/pope-francis-residential-schools-genocide-1.6537203
“The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it.”
― President John F. Kennedy
“President Kennedy issued an Executive Order prohibiting use of facilities on military bases by groups not integrated. The result was to bar Masonic lodges from using the bases.” Masonic Parallels with History - A Chronology of General and Masonic History by Alphonse Cerza. themasonictrowel
THE MILITARY AND FREEMASONRY
Freemasonry in Nova Scotia
Freemasonry at the Two Sieges of Louisbourg 1745 and 1758
Freemasonry in Quebec
Sir William Johnson, the Brant family, the Kerr family and the British Indian Department
MOOR’S INDIAN CHARITY SCHOOL
Mohawk Institute (Mush Hole)
The rebellion of 1837
Manitoba Freemasons
Saskatchewan Freemasons
North-West Rebellion
Provincial Premiers Alberta masons
The Canadian Pacific Railway
Smallpox epidemic of 1862
British Columbia Freemasons
Freemason Prime Ministers
American Freemasons and the genocide of the
Indigenous peoples.
Spanish Freemasons
Royal Freemasons
300 Years of Freemasonry Celebrated at Royal Albert Hall Global Event
Freemasonry according to Masons.
The Fourth Council of Toledo Canon 60 and Indian Residential Schools
Sources
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQ4QiANX3BnEdEwD94FXfh1Nkg_RJ-XN5UhN0_gLX10isR2i08xUziA9ZX7sErUMdp4PTKKPhP0P7F2/pub#h.fpjzhjnusgk1

Hello Churners,
I'm currently working as an intern and will soon become a full-time employee. I stay in San Francisco, California. I'm looking to get my first credit card with an annual fee, and I prefer a VISA card because I frequently shop at Costco. However, I'm open to an AMEX card if it meets all my requirements.
I travel around 5-6 times a year, so having a card that provides priority pass lounge access would be a plus but not mandatory. I'm also looking for protection plans for purchases, rental cars, and flights.
In terms of rewards, I'd like a card that offers high points for travel, grocery, gas, and shopping categories.
My current credit scores: Transunion 752, Equifax 756, and Experian 735 (FICO).
Previous Credit Cards: Apple Card [$5k limit], Chase Freedom Unlimited [$5k limit], Amex Blue Cash Everyday with a $15k limit, Deserve Student credit card 3k limit.
I haven't applied for any credit cards in the last 6 months and am under the Chase 5/24 limit.
I have found that Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Sapphire Preferred would be better but later found that I already have Freedom unlimited and those CSP/CSR only gives access to chase portal for redemption of my points. I also found Amex platinum is only worth when you use those benefits it offers, I never used walmart, saks, equinox. I'm also looking at Capital One venture X then found that from January 2023, no outside lounge experiences are allowed with the card.
If I dont choose a Chase Sapphire Reserve/ Preffered now, I cannot apply for it in next 1.2 years again. because this is going to be my 5th credit card in past 24 months. I do not know if deserve credit card is gonna count under Chase's 5/24 rule but I'm counting on it for now.
Can you suggest the best credit card that meets my requirements?
Thank you in advance!

The Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency’s e-bike rebate program will open on Tuesday, March 28, at 11 a.m. Limited rebates will be available. Find the documentation you’ll need to prove residency and how to qualify for the income-qualified rebate in the "Participant Eligibility" section of the website.

• Standard Rebate: As a Denver resident, you can save up to $300 on the sale of an e-bike or up to $500 on the sale of an e-cargo bike.
• Income-Qualified Rebate: If you meet our income-qualified requirements, you can save up to $1,200 on the sale of an e-bike or up to $1,400 on the sale of an e-cargo bike.

This program is very popular, and we expect rebate vouchers to be gone within a few minutes of the application portal opening. If you miss out on getting a rebate voucher during this application round, another round will be available on Tuesday, May 30.

Three new secrets this week.

1. before the crouching hallway there is an hole for a relic. It can be found on the right after you exit the area before it with the vex milk.
   
2. (needs vexcalibur equipped) Before the launcher that takes you to the Slide before the boss there is a new button which allows access to another subject near where the hobgoblins spawn. Destroy the pyramids
   
3. (needs vexcalibur equipped) after beating Brakion and before opening the chest go under each of the 3 vex milk pillars and destroy the pyramids then use the portal that spawns and enjoy the view!
   

The Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency’s e-bike rebate program will open on Tuesday, March 28, at 11 a.m. Limited rebates will be available. Find the documentation you’ll need to prove residency and how to qualify for the income-qualified rebate in the "Participant Eligibility" section of the website.

• Standard Rebate: As a Denver resident, you can save up to $300 on the sale of an e-bike or up to $500 on the sale of an e-cargo bike.
• Income-Qualified Rebate: If you meet our income-qualified requirements, you can save up to $1,200 on the sale of an e-bike or up to $1,400 on the sale of an e-cargo bike.

This program is very popular, and we expect rebate vouchers to be gone within a few minutes of the application portal opening. If you miss out on getting a rebate voucher during this application round, another round will be available on Tuesday, May 30.

I haven't seen the full recording, only some snippets and the opening to surprise myself for Portals but does anyone have a transcript of the opening monologue? I can't hear it well in any recordings.

Option #1: Open a Business Bank Account with Mercury

Once upon a time non-residents were required to hop on a plane and fly back home to open a U.S. business bank account for their LLC.
Now, Mercury makes it possible to open a bank account 100% online from the comfort of your couch. It takes just minutes to sign up on their easy-to-use platform, and you can do so from almost anywhere in the world.
Though you’ll need to have a U.S. incorporated LLC to get started, you don’t need a U.S. address, making it an ideal option if you’ve already relocated.

Benefits of Opening a Bank Account With Mercury

When you open a business bank account with Mercury, you’ll get access to a virtual debit card that can be used to make purchases immediately.
As a business owner, you likely order some of your office supplies online. Your virtual debit card can come in handy if you want to buy items from a U.S.-based e-commerce platform, like Amazon or eBay.
Other advantages include:

• Get a business savings account, checking account, and debit card – Both physical and virtual debit card options are offered.
• They are FDIC-insured – Your money will be protected (up to $250,000) in the event of an individual bank failure.
• No minimum balances.
• No monthly fees, transaction fees, or hidden fees.
• Send and receive wire transfers and checks for free.
• Easy-to-use online dashboard.
• Convenient mobile app.

Learn more about the benefits of a Mercury business bank account.

How to Open a Business Bank Account with Mercury

In order to be eligible for a bank account through Mercury, you’ll need a U.S. incorporated company with a federal employer identification number. Mercury does not allow their services to be used by sole proprietorships, trusts, or businesses involved with the following industries: money services, adult entertainment, marijuana or internet gambling.
To open your business bank account through Mercury, here’s what you’ll need to do:

• Gather the required documentation - This includes your social security number, employee identification number, a copy of your government-issued ID, and your LLC formation documents (this will either be your Articles of Organization or Certificate of Formation, depending on which state you formed your LLC).
• Create an account on the Mercury website - Complete the application online and verify your email address.
• Download the mobile app once approved - Turnaround time for your application to be reviewed and accepted is about 1-2 weeks. After this, you’ll gain full access to the online dashboard.

Tip: Not sure if Mercury is right for your business? They offer an online demo that allows you to get a feel for the platform and how its features work.

Option #2: Open a Business Bank Account with Brex

If you don’t have a U.S. residence or social security number, a Brex Business Account may be a good fit for your business. With your cash management account, you’ll be able to send checks, deposit payments, and manage all of your transactions via a user-friendly portal.
The application process can be completed online, however, you must have a U.S. incorporated company in order to sign up.

Benefits of Opening a Bank Account with Brex

Although Brex isn’t a bank, a Brex cash account offers most of the perks of a traditional business bank account. In addition to a fully online application, you’ll be able to deposit funds and schedule payments to or from any account (you can create up to 8 accounts!) at lightning speed.
Other advantages include:

• No account, transaction, or hidden fees – While some banks impose heavy fees for transacting abroad, Brex does not.
• No minimum balance required – Get started with as much (or as little) as you currently have. There’s no pressure.
• Get a business checking account and credit card – Build credit while earning rewards for your business.
• Live support by phone and chat – Customer service is available around-the-clock if any questions, comments, or concerns should arise.
• Create up to 8 accounts – Save time by keeping all of your business expenses separate.
• Easy-to-use mobile app – Approve payments, deposit checks, access cards and more within their convenient app.

How to Open a Business Bank Account with Brex

Don’t have a U.S. address? No worries – you won’t need one with a Brex business account. However, there are a couple of key documents you will need to get started.
To open a bank account through Brex, here’s what you’ll need to do:

• Gather the required documentation. In order to apply, you’ll need a U.S. incorporated business, an employee identification number, and a U.S. billing address OR a PO Box or virtual office for international founders. You should also have plans to provide services and products to U.S. customers or plans to employ/contract U.S. personnel.
• Create an account on the Brex website. Once you’ve created your Brex account, you can begin the application process.

Option #3: Open a Business Bank Account with Relay

A Relay Business Bank Account is another viable option for your business if you don’t have a U.S. residence or social security number. Relay is an online banking platform that allows you to manage your money, collect U.S.-based payments from customers, and send and receive checks, wires, and transfers.
Like Mercury and Brex, Relay also requires you have a U.S. incorporated business to apply.

Benefits of Opening a Bank Account With Relay

A Relay business bank account allows you to open up 20 individual business checking accounts, making it a great choice if you plan to hire additional employees.
Other advantages include:

• No account fees, account minimums, overdraft fees.
• FDIC insured up to $250K – Rest assured that your money is always protected in the event of a bank failure.
• No branch visits or tedious paperwork involved – The process can be completed fully online.
• Send and receive ACH transfers, checks or wires.
• Collect payments in USD – This includes payments from PayPal, Stripe, Square, Amazon and more.
• Schedule recurring payments – Put expenses on autopilot so you can focus your time where it matters.
• Use powerful account integrations – Connect your bank accounts to useful software like Xero and Quickbooks.

How to Open a Business Bank Account with Relay

The registration process is slightly different for each U.S. business entity. Since you have a single-member LLC, here’s what you can do to get started:

• Gather the required documentation. You will need to provide your employer identification number, EIN verification letter, a U.S. business address and phone number, as well as a copy of your Article of Organization or Certificate of Formation.
• Create an account on the Relay website. Once you’ve created your Relay account, you can fill out the application and submit the aforementioned documents.
• Start managing your money. Track your cash flow and expenses and set spending controls for your team via Relay’s online dashboard.

How to Open a U.S. Business Bank Account In-Person

Many traditional banks will allow you to open a business bank account as a non-resident. As long as you have a U.S. incorporated business, you’re good to go. However, there is a catch: You’ll need to physically visit one of their branches in order to open your account.
If you have the ability to visit a bank in-person, you may find that one of the following options is a good fit.

Option #1: Open a Business Bank Account with Bank of America

Established in 1930, Bank of America is one of the more popular financial institutions in modern-day times. It’s an excellent choice for small-to-midsize business owners, offering a ton of benefits and little risk. However, as noted above, you will need to complete the process in-person.

Benefits of Opening a Business Bank Account with Bank of America

With a Bank of America business checking account, you can expect a long list of perks, including:

• Virtual debit card available for use immediately.
• Manage your accounts online – Easily view and manage personal and business accounts (including sending, requesting, and receiving money) at the touch of a button.
• Software integrations.
• Customize employee account access – Perfect for keeping track of multiple employees within your company.
• Virtual financial assistant – Get help with transferring or sending money, searching for transactions, and more.

Learn more about the benefits of a U.S. business bank account at Bank of America.

How to Open a Business Bank Account with Bank of America

To open a business bank account with Bank of America, you’ll have to visit one of their in-person branches. You will need to provide both your foreign (if you have one) and your U.S. address.
Here’s what you’ll want to bring with you:

• Home or permanent residence address.
• U.S. physical address.
• Personal identification.
• Secondary identification.
• Proof of address – This can be a government-issued ID with photo, work ID with address and photo, or current utility bill with your name and address.

You should also be prepared to provide the following (this applies to all traditional banks listed in this section, not just Chase):

• Articles of Organization/Certificate of Formation/Certificate of Organization.
• Details about your business – This includes business formation date (month/year) and country and state of legal formation and primary business operation.
• Social security number.
• Date of birth.
• Legal business name and DBA ("doing business as") name, if applicable.
• Business Tax ID (TIN) or Employer Identification Number (EIN) – You will need this to get access to online banking.

Option #2: Open a Business Bank Account with Chase

Chase is another well-known financial institution that caters to businesses of all shapes and sizes. If you’re able to visit an in-person branch, this could be a great option for your business.

Benefits of Opening a Business Bank Account with Chase

One of the best things about a Chase business bank account is the ability to choose from many different business credit cards with all sorts of rewards. If you’re a frequent traveler, this could save you a ton of money in the long haul!
Other benefits include:

• Save valuable time – Easily access your funds and make and receive payments through Chase Business Online and the Chase Mobile® app.
• Seamlessly manage your money – Keep track of cash flow, deposits, incoming wires, and payroll.
• Get access to unparalleled customer support – Have a problem with your finances? You’ll able to chat with their customer support team dedicated to support you through every stage of your business.
• Effortless account syncing – Already have a Chase personal account? It’s incredibly easy to synch this with your business account.

How to Open a Business Bank Account with Chase

To open a business bank account with Chase, you’ll have to visit one of their in-person branches.
Be sure to bring the following with you to your appointment:

• Personal identification.
• Tax identification number – An Employer Identification Number (EIN) is required, but single member LLCs may use their SSN or ITIN. For non-citizens, an ITIN is acceptable.
• Business documentation – You’ll need to submit your LLC formation documents along with your DBA certificate, if applicable.
• Assumed name certificate – This may be required if your business is operating with a DBA (doing business as).

"So, you're telling me we found another sapient omnivore species?"
The commander grunted, ripping his boot from a watery patch of mud and nearly crashing into the swampy water between two twisted tree roots.
Sunny reached out with one of her four armored arms and caught him by the back of his pack, pulling him upright.
He nodded a thanks to her and adjusted his gear.
Behind her Ramirez ducked under a low hanging branch, slogging through a pool of knee-high water, adjusting the containment pod, holding Krill more comfortably over both shoulders.
Krill, comfortable and warm inside his containment pod, watched the marines, scientists, and a linguist struggle through the mud under a covering of impossibly tall, twisted trees, their canopy blocking out all light that might have dared cut downwards towards the watery floor below.
"Not entirely sapient, I suppose."
Krill answered,
"Unfortunately the way in which they communicate is going to drastically reduce their ability to create complex structures and perform mathematical equations."
Together they maneuvered themselves over a root, which at some point in the distant past, had decided to grow upwards instead of down. At about four feet high, it had changed its mind and arched back down into the water. Perhaps it had been smaller then, but at four feet wide, the root was an absolute monstrosity now.
The trees themselves were massive, challenging, and sometimes outgrowing the legendary redwood forests of the western Americas, but unlike the redwoods, these trees didn't stand tall and proud. Instead, they chose a twisted path much like the branching veins which made up a human vascular system. They twisted and undulated, interlocking past each other with branches that were well over two feet wide in many cases, and stretching to over four feet wide in others.
No one direction was good enough, and the trees twisted, ducked swirled and reached, grasping for any sort of light to be found.
On top of the darkness cast by the trees and the soggy nature of the forest floor, it was also horribly hot and humid, giving the impression of a microwaved wet blanket thrown over the world. Where heat from the upper canopy met the cooler air of deep forest pools, it created a perpetually thick mist which writhed and undulated through the trees, leaving only the shadowy impressions of twisted trunks and clawing branches past distances greater than 50 feet (15m).
"They communicate primarily through pheromones and heat modulation. From what I understand, the language in itself isn't precise, and really only works in generalities and feelings than it does in absolutes."
Commander Vir kicked a rotting log out of the way, ducking as a massive green bug buzzed over his head and into the fog.
Turns out the hotter and more humid a planet gets, the bigger the bugs get,
"But we were still able to communicate with them?”
Krill nodded from inside his case,
"Yes, generally speaking. For a species that cannot communicate in absolutes, I hear they are quite reasonable. They seem willing to accept our friendship, and have..... invited, I guess, us to participate in some sort of primitive ritual."
Vir perked up, flashing a bright smile.
“Reasonable? Peaceful? Rituals? And definitely CANNOT communicate in ABSOLUTES!? Am I the only one who thinks that sounds familiar?”
Sunny sighed,
“No Adam I am reasonably sure that they are not Jedis…”
“C’mon, that would be so cool! Like lightsabers, the force and stuff… maybe they look like tiny Yodas? I mean it fits, with the swamp, the speech impairment and all…”
He nearly fell over another root.
“Adam, focus. We have a mission here.”
The commander nodded, scrambling over another tree branch,
"Alright, so... where are these things anyway? How do they look?"
His boots hit solid ground, covered in some sort of wet spongy fungus and he glanced down at his GPS.
“Considering they talk by smell, my bet is on Elephants with giant human noses. What do you think Mav?”
Ramirez turned around to look at Maverick, who had stopped walking.
“…”
“Mav?”
“Giant… fucking spiders…”
“…”
Commander Vir was still looking at his GPS and no one else answered, so without looking up he broke the silence and said:
“Wow you are always so negative; it better not be, I want my space Yodas…”
“…”
“…”
More silence.
This time it was broken by Ramirez.
“Giant fucking spiders… with… Wolfheads!?”
The commander was still diddling around with the GPS in his hands.
“Oh not you too Ramirez, also that’s oddly specific, you always had a pretty cruel imagination. Ah there we go I think it’s that way.”
He said, looking up from his GPS to keep moving.
“…”
“…”
After some steps he realized no one was following him, so he stopped and turned around.
Behind him the other marines were dead silent, heads lifted towards the sky in shock.
"FUCK ME."
One of the marines whispered, scrambling back behind a tree root.
Commander Vir turned and nearly fell into the water again, eyes locked onto the creatures descending from high above.
They were huge, about the size of large horses, and horrifically spider like in their construction, or perhaps an ant. They had large-scale abdomens connected to a thinner thorax. All together they had ten appendages, three pairs of spider-like legs on the abdomen which, instead of ending in a pod or foot, ended in a sharp pointed spike. On the abdomen, they had two arm-like appendages, with too many joints and strange wavy tentacles instead of fingers.
The head was just as disconcerting.
It seemed too large for the body, grossly out of proportion and strangely out of place, like some cosmic sentience had used a random animal generator to assign parts to its body.
The head was wolflike, if you were to strip the skin and fur away, leaving only the muscle underneath. You could see the line of teeth running up either side of the muzzle, while the large red-pink ears rotated continuously.
Commander Vir had backed himself into the bowl of a tree eyes wide. Sunny slogged herself up from the water, placing herself between the strange spidery creatures and the human.
They didn't descend like a spider might, on threads of silk, but they used their back six feet, and the spikes on the end to dig into the bark of the trees with a disconcerting thud thud thud thud.
Finally the largest of the creatures reached the ground, surprisingly silent for its massive bulk.
Glancing around Sunnys tensed body, he noticed something he hadn't before, and that was a strange small mass gripping onto the spidery creature's underbelly. Upon closer inspection he counted ten legs and a surprisingly spidery head buried against its underside... a completely separate creature holding on to its companion.
Behind the largest creature, he noted ANOTHER type of creature. It boasted the same sort of structure as the large creature, but its abdomen was devoid of scales, and covered in strange black bulbs suctioned onto its body by way of a strange, sticky black-green webbing. Its head was also constructed differently more like a lizard than a wolf, with large bulbous eyes that could rotate behind its own head to look in all directions.
Commander Vir fiddled nervously with the advanced translation headset he wore, strapped to his helmet, supposedly it was supposed to be able to understand what these things were saying.
"Sky... friends."
The translation was somewhat garbled, but he understood it was the large wolf-head who spoke.
He walked forward, pushing Sunny gently to the side despite her clear reluctance,
"Yes, we are friends, and we are here to offer peace to you, and the assistance of the Galactic Assembly."
He wasn't entirely sure how that was going to translate over in smell, but the creature seemed happy lifting its head and gnashing its large canine teeth.
"Agreement... for a favor."
Commander Vir grew unsure then, letting off a reluctant,
"What favor?”
The spidery shape moved closer sniffing at him with its large wolffish nose. Sunny stiffened at his side, and he put a hand on her arm to calm her.
"Ritual... you watch and help."
"None of us will get hurt... will we?"
The creature stopped and pondered the question for a long moment,
"No danger... live... healthy... happy."
Commander Vir nodded slowly,
"Alright, what do we have to do?"
The creature hefted its large bulk, and turned in the opposite direction,
"Follow."
It commanded, scuttling off into the trees.
[…]
"This is very interesting."
Krill was saying to one of the accompanying scientists, who nodded vigorously in agreement.
"What's so interesting?”
Commander Vir whispered, from where he stood at the edge of yet another, but larger fungus covered clearing, watching as the creatures scuttled back and forth.
The scientist learned in in excitement,
"It seems that these creatures have a ternary gender system."
Before the commander could ask, the scientist continued,
"For ease of speech, the large ones are the females, and those things on their bellies are probably the males. The medium ones are the third gender, the 'they' if you will. It looks like the male impregnates the female who then attaches the eggs to the third party. Dr. Krill tells me that the third party have a very high heat signature, probably to incubate the young. Those attachments probably provide nutrients into the egg and may even transfer DNA over as well."
"Wow... freaky."
The commander muttered in fascination.
"Kind of gross if you ask me."
Sunny muttered.
"I'm with her. Its kinky, but too kinky for me…"
Ramirez muttered, receiving a few nods from the other marines.
"Oh please."
Krill whispered,
"I know what human reproduction is like, and it's arguable way worse."
The scientist waved them all off,
"The big one there, the one that's been talking to us. I think she's the queen, and judging from those egg sacks, this is probably mating season, if they have one."
"Creepy, but cool, I guess."
The captain muttered. They watched for a little longer as the queen scuttled around the clearing and then returned to look at them, lowering her meaty wolffish head to the commander's eye level.
"Ritual... find... eggkeeper."
She scuttled away.
"Oh... this is some sort of… Mating ritual maybe? To choose that third party you were talking about?”
"This isn't exactly the kind of "Mating ritual" I wanted to see."
Ramirez muttered. The other marines turned to look at him with raised eyebrows. Sunny stuck her tongue out in disgust.
Off in the clearing, some of the smaller females had moved themselves onto the high branches scuttling through the trees to examine the "they" who waited patiently. It appeared that side was very important in the ritual, as they all fought for the largest counterpart. Once found, the wolffish head would lower, and open up to reveal a tube under the tongue. From there she would... disgorge the egg onto the abdomen of the 'they' and the mucus would solidify to hold them on.
"It has to do with size."
Krill hissed,
"But it seems that it has more to do with heat. The big ones only get chosen more because they also happen to be warmer than the smaller ones. I'd say they incubate at an average of 90 degrees Fahrenheit, so 32 degrees Celsius."
They watched this for a while, the scientists taking notes and the marines making inappropriate jokes.
Eventually most of the creatures had finished, leaving only the queen left over.
Everything went still when she began to move, and she scuttled around the clearing, looking over all the available 'theys' she could find, but she just didn't seem satisfied.
Commander Vir tugged at the collar of his jacket, a line of sweat dripping down his face.
She continued her circuit once and then twice; at some point she turned her head, large eyes locking on the humans.
She sniffed at them.
The human laughter died as she advanced.
"What is she doing?"
The commander muttered under his breath.
The scientist that stood next to him, hidden partially behind Sunny, answered
"I... I'm not sure."
She scuttled even closer, and the humans backed away.
"Hey doc... didn't you say something about... them being attracted to heat? And like the “they’s” being around 90 F/32 Celsius?”
Ramirez wondered, hiding himself behind a root.
"Yeah... I did, why?”
"Not to freak anyone out or anything but... isn't average human heat about 98.6 Fahrenheit… so 37 degrees Celsius?"
”FUCK!”
”OH NONONONONO!”
”HIIIIDE!”
”RUUUN!”
What followed was a rather violent game of nose goes, but instead of involving touching one’s nose to see who was the last person standing, it involved a mad rush to reduce body heat.
The smartest marines took the initiative and dove into the water beside the clearing, completely submerging themselves under the surface.
Others chose to cover whatever exposed skin they might have had in mud, as if to mask the heat.
Still others chose to cut and run.
Unfortunately, with his position at the head of the group, commander Vir wasn't fast enough.
She came at him in a scuttling rush, and in a frantic leap to get away, his boot caught on a root and he hit the ground hard.
Sunny tried to leap in front of him, but was bowled over by the mad rushing form.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!"
Commander Vir repeated, scuttling backwards across the ground, as the large spidery shape loomed over him.
He stopped dead in his tracks, backed against a tree root.
She leaned closer.
He raised his hands above his head blocking his face,
"Please don't lay your eggs in me. Please don't lay your eggs in me."
She reached out one of her forward hands, surprisingly delicate, as she cut through the first layers of his jacket, and shirt.
They fell away in slices revealing the pale human skin underneath red and sticky with the tropical heat.
His chest and abdomen heaved with his breath as he tried to scramble away, but she caught him with the prong of one of her back legs pinning him in place.
"Fuck... Help... HELP."
Sunny wasn't fast enough, having been tipped head over heels into the water, with the rest of the marines in similar positions, Krill contained inside his tube unable to help but also unable to look away.
She lowered her head, and the man screamed. It was cold, gelatinous and slimy at first, but even as it touched open air, he could feel it fusing against his skin solidifying. He thrashed and wriggled, but she was far too strong holding him in place.
Finally though, she backed away, leaving him panting on the ground shaking and trembling leg throbbing where he had been pinned.
She leaned her head down to examine him,
"Warm."
They locked eyes,
"Friends... now... Keep them... warm."
She retreated, and he struggled to his knees, turning to look down at his body which was now partially obscured by a sticky pod of six black eggs, pulled tight against his skin. His hands were shaking, as he reached down to touch them, cold and smooth.
He tried tugging on one, but nearly fainted at the pain it caused against his skin.
The creatures were withdrawing back into the trees, leaving him kneeling on the fungus, hands trembling as looked downwards.
Sunny was the first to recover, scrambling out of the water and over to him, placing a hand on his back as she examined the strange eggs attached to his skin,
"Mother of-"
The marines cut her off as they came wriggling from the trees,
"Commander, commander are you ok..."
One of the marines cut around front, frozen in his tracks, eyes wide once he saw,
"WHAT THE HELL!"
Sunny reached out as if to tug on one of them,
"NO!"
He snapped, jerking away from her.
The others gathered around to look with exclamations of shock and disgust.
The commander looked up at Sunny pleadingly.
She decided to take charge, helping him to his feet and then pulling him into her arms,
"We have to get him back to the ship, let's move, NOW!"
"What do you think, Dr."
Dr. Katie examined the scan with a frown,
"It's very, very strange, that's for sure."
Commander Vir lifted his head to look down at them,
"Well what the HELL does that mean?”
Krill shoved his head back onto the table,
"Stay still."
Dr. Katie hummed softly as she continued to examine the scans,
"It looks like these little filaments have breached the skin ... and.... well at least one of them has made it to your liver, this one here has made it to your lungs."
"What about white blood count?"
Krill wondered,
"The body must have noticed something by now?"
Dr Katie shook her head,
"Nothing, the body seems to have accepted it. I took some samples and... well I think I might know why."
She rolled herself to the side in her chair and over to one of the adjoining computers,
"See this, this is HIS DNA ...and this is the DNA of the strands."
Krill pearled over her shoulder,
"What the... they look almost identical."
"Yes... I don't think the body knows anything is wrong."
She turned her chair back around to look at the commander,
"Congratulations commander, you are perhaps, in the weirdest way possible, the only man in the history of existence who might just experience the miracle of life. You are going to be a dad!"
The look on his face made it clear he wasn't interested in being congratulated,
"What the actual fuck does that mean?"
He snapped, Dr. Katie rolled closer,
"Well, to explain in terms you may understand. You are doing more than keeping them warm. Those filaments that you saw are acting like umbilical cords. The one at your liver is using it as a filter, and to take in nutrients as it seems to have branching filaments to the stomach and intestines. The one going to your lungs is taking in carbon... not sure what that's going to do to your breathing if anything. But at this point I don't think that even Dr. Krill, as good as he is, can remove them. We would have to remove too much of your internal structure to it to be viable, plus they don't seem to be hurting you."
"Not hurting me! NOT HURTING ME! You said it yourself they are SUCKING OUT MY VITAL JUICES."
Dr. Katie shrugged,
"Welcome to pregnancy... sort of.”**
”Look we will monitor you, make sure they aren't sucking away to many nutrients. Look on the bright side, you can probably eat more, and judging from an analysis of the egg sacks, the average gestational period is only around two months."
"TWO MONTHS!?"
Sunny, who had been standing next to the man at the head of the exam table, couldn't suppress a short chirp of laughter.
He glowered at her,
"What's so funny!?"
She chirped again placing a hand on his arm,
"You're gonna be a mom."
If looks could kill, shed be reduced to a singularity,
"Get your hand off me or ill break it in half!"
She continued chirping but removed her hand just in case.
This was going to be a very awkward call to the UNSC and the GA.
For that matter, it was going to be a very awkward call home.
Previous First [Next](link)
Intro post by me
OC-whole collection
Patreon of the author

FYI, this is a story COLLECTION. Lots of standalones technically. So, you can basically start to read at any chapter, no pre-read of the other chapters needed technically (other than maybe getting better descriptions of characters than: Adam Vir=human, Krill=antlike alien, Sunny=tall alien, Conn=telepathic alien). The numbers are (mostly) only for organization of posts and continuity.
OC Written by Charlie Stastarrfallknightrise,
Typed up and then posted here by me.
Proofreading and language check for some chapters by u/Finbar9800
Future Lore and fact check done by me.
Another new alien race! WOOOOO
Also to all arachnophobes: I am sorry…I guess just imagine eight legged dogs the size of horses if that helps…
Previous First [Next](link)
"So, you're telling me we found another sapient omnivore species?"
The commander grunted, ripping his boot from a watery patch of mud and nearly crashing into the swampy water between two twisted tree roots.
Sunny reached out with one of her four armored arms and caught him by the back of his pack, pulling him upright.
He nodded a thanks to her and adjusted his gear.
Behind her Ramirez ducked under a low hanging branch, slogging through a pool of knee-high water, adjusting the containment pod, holding Krill more comfortably over both shoulders.
Krill, comfortable and warm inside his containment pod, watched the marines, scientists, and a linguist struggle through the mud under a covering of impossibly tall, twisted trees, their canopy blocking out all light that might have dared cut downwards towards the watery floor below.
"Not entirely sapient, I suppose."
Krill answered,
"Unfortunately the way in which they communicate is going to drastically reduce their ability to create complex structures and perform mathematical equations."
Together they maneuvered themselves over a root, which at some point in the distant past, had decided to grow upwards instead of down. At about four feet high, it had changed its mind and arched back down into the water. Perhaps it had been smaller then, but at four feet wide, the root was an absolute monstrosity now.
The trees themselves were massive, challenging, and sometimes outgrowing the legendary redwood forests of the western Americas, but unlike the redwoods, these trees didn't stand tall and proud. Instead, they chose a twisted path much like the branching veins which made up a human vascular system. They twisted and undulated, interlocking past each other with branches that were well over two feet wide in many cases, and stretching to over four feet wide in others.
No one direction was good enough, and the trees twisted, ducked swirled and reached, grasping for any sort of light to be found.
On top of the darkness cast by the trees and the soggy nature of the forest floor, it was also horribly hot and humid, giving the impression of a microwaved wet blanket thrown over the world. Where heat from the upper canopy met the cooler air of deep forest pools, it created a perpetually thick mist which writhed and undulated through the trees, leaving only the shadowy impressions of twisted trunks and clawing branches past distances greater than 50 feet (15m).
"They communicate primarily through pheromones and heat modulation. From what I understand, the language in itself isn't precise, and really only works in generalities and feelings than it does in absolutes."
Commander Vir kicked a rotting log out of the way, ducking as a massive green bug buzzed over his head and into the fog.
Turns out the hotter and more humid a planet gets, the bigger the bugs get,
"But we were still able to communicate with them?”
Krill nodded from inside his case,
"Yes, generally speaking. For a species that cannot communicate in absolutes, I hear they are quite reasonable. They seem willing to accept our friendship, and have..... invited, I guess, us to participate in some sort of primitive ritual."
Vir perked up, flashing a bright smile.
“Reasonable? Peaceful? Rituals? And definitely CANNOT communicate in ABSOLUTES!? Am I the only one who thinks that sounds familiar?”
Sunny sighed,
“No Adam I am reasonably sure that they are not Jedis…”
“C’mon, that would be so cool! Like lightsabers, the force and stuff… maybe they look like tiny Yodas? I mean it fits, with the swamp, the speech impairment and all…”
He nearly fell over another root.
“Adam, focus. We have a mission here.”
The commander nodded, scrambling over another tree branch,
"Alright, so... where are these things anyway? How do they look?"
His boots hit solid ground, covered in some sort of wet spongy fungus and he glanced down at his GPS.
“Considering they talk by smell, my bet is on Elephants with giant human noses. What do you think Mav?”
Ramirez turned around to look at Maverick, who had stopped walking.
“…”
“Mav?”
“Giant… fucking spiders…”
“…”
Commander Vir was still looking at his GPS and no one else answered, so without looking up he broke the silence and said:
“Wow you are always so negative; it better not be, I want my space Yodas…”
“…”
“…”
More silence.
This time it was broken by Ramirez.
“Giant fucking spiders… with… Wolfheads!?”
The commander was still diddling around with the GPS in his hands.
“Oh not you too Ramirez, also that’s oddly specific, you always had a pretty cruel imagination. Ah there we go I think it’s that way.”
He said, looking up from his GPS to keep moving.
“…”
“…”
After some steps he realized no one was following him, so he stopped and turned around.
Behind him the other marines were dead silent, heads lifted towards the sky in shock.
"FUCK ME."
One of the marines whispered, scrambling back behind a tree root.
Commander Vir turned and nearly fell into the water again, eyes locked onto the creatures descending from high above.
They were huge, about the size of large horses, and horrifically spider like in their construction, or perhaps an ant. They had large-scale abdomens connected to a thinner thorax. All together they had ten appendages, three pairs of spider-like legs on the abdomen which, instead of ending in a pod or foot, ended in a sharp pointed spike. On the abdomen, they had two arm-like appendages, with too many joints and strange wavy tentacles instead of fingers.
The head was just as disconcerting.
It seemed too large for the body, grossly out of proportion and strangely out of place, like some cosmic sentience had used a random animal generator to assign parts to its body.
The head was wolflike, if you were to strip the skin and fur away, leaving only the muscle underneath. You could see the line of teeth running up either side of the muzzle, while the large red-pink ears rotated continuously.
Commander Vir had backed himself into the bowl of a tree eyes wide. Sunny slogged herself up from the water, placing herself between the strange spidery creatures and the human.
They didn't descend like a spider might, on threads of silk, but they used their back six feet, and the spikes on the end to dig into the bark of the trees with a disconcerting thud thud thud thud.
Finally the largest of the creatures reached the ground, surprisingly silent for its massive bulk.
Glancing around Sunnys tensed body, he noticed something he hadn't before, and that was a strange small mass gripping onto the spidery creature's underbelly. Upon closer inspection he counted ten legs and a surprisingly spidery head buried against its underside... a completely separate creature holding on to its companion.
Behind the largest creature, he noted ANOTHER type of creature. It boasted the same sort of structure as the large creature, but its abdomen was devoid of scales, and covered in strange black bulbs suctioned onto its body by way of a strange, sticky black-green webbing. Its head was also constructed differently more like a lizard than a wolf, with large bulbous eyes that could rotate behind its own head to look in all directions.
Commander Vir fiddled nervously with the advanced translation headset he wore, strapped to his helmet, supposedly it was supposed to be able to understand what these things were saying.
"Sky... friends."
The translation was somewhat garbled, but he understood it was the large wolf-head who spoke.
He walked forward, pushing Sunny gently to the side despite her clear reluctance,
"Yes, we are friends, and we are here to offer peace to you, and the assistance of the Galactic Assembly."
He wasn't entirely sure how that was going to translate over in smell, but the creature seemed happy lifting its head and gnashing its large canine teeth.
"Agreement... for a favor."
Commander Vir grew unsure then, letting off a reluctant,
"What favor?”
The spidery shape moved closer sniffing at him with its large wolffish nose. Sunny stiffened at his side, and he put a hand on her arm to calm her.
"Ritual... you watch and help."
"None of us will get hurt... will we?"
The creature stopped and pondered the question for a long moment,
"No danger... live... healthy... happy."
Commander Vir nodded slowly,
"Alright, what do we have to do?"
The creature hefted its large bulk, and turned in the opposite direction,
"Follow."
It commanded, scuttling off into the trees.
[…]
"This is very interesting."
Krill was saying to one of the accompanying scientists, who nodded vigorously in agreement.
"What's so interesting?”
Commander Vir whispered, from where he stood at the edge of yet another, but larger fungus covered clearing, watching as the creatures scuttled back and forth.
The scientist learned in in excitement,
"It seems that these creatures have a ternary gender system."
Before the commander could ask, the scientist continued,
"For ease of speech, the large ones are the females, and those things on their bellies are probably the males. The medium ones are the third gender, the 'they' if you will. It looks like the male impregnates the female who then attaches the eggs to the third party. Dr. Krill tells me that the third party have a very high heat signature, probably to incubate the young. Those attachments probably provide nutrients into the egg and may even transfer DNA over as well."
"Wow... freaky."
The commander muttered in fascination.
"Kind of gross if you ask me."
Sunny muttered.
"I'm with her. Its kinky, but too kinky for me…"
Ramirez muttered, receiving a few nods from the other marines.
"Oh please."
Krill whispered,
"I know what human reproduction is like, and it's arguable way worse."
The scientist waved them all off,
"The big one there, the one that's been talking to us. I think she's the queen, and judging from those egg sacks, this is probably mating season, if they have one."
"Creepy, but cool, I guess."
The captain muttered. They watched for a little longer as the queen scuttled around the clearing and then returned to look at them, lowering her meaty wolffish head to the commander's eye level.
"Ritual... find... eggkeeper."
She scuttled away.
"Oh... this is some sort of… Mating ritual maybe? To choose that third party you were talking about?”
"This isn't exactly the kind of "Mating ritual" I wanted to see."
Ramirez muttered. The other marines turned to look at him with raised eyebrows. Sunny stuck her tongue out in disgust.
Off in the clearing, some of the smaller females had moved themselves onto the high branches scuttling through the trees to examine the "they" who waited patiently. It appeared that side was very important in the ritual, as they all fought for the largest counterpart. Once found, the wolffish head would lower, and open up to reveal a tube under the tongue. From there she would... disgorge the egg onto the abdomen of the 'they' and the mucus would solidify to hold them on.
"It has to do with size."
Krill hissed,
"But it seems that it has more to do with heat. The big ones only get chosen more because they also happen to be warmer than the smaller ones. I'd say they incubate at an average of 90 degrees Fahrenheit, so 32 degrees Celsius."
They watched this for a while, the scientists taking notes and the marines making inappropriate jokes.
Eventually most of the creatures had finished, leaving only the queen left over.
Everything went still when she began to move, and she scuttled around the clearing, looking over all the available 'theys' she could find, but she just didn't seem satisfied.
Commander Vir tugged at the collar of his jacket, a line of sweat dripping down his face.
She continued her circuit once and then twice; at some point she turned her head, large eyes locking on the humans.
She sniffed at them.
The human laughter died as she advanced.
"What is she doing?"
The commander muttered under his breath.
The scientist that stood next to him, hidden partially behind Sunny, answered
"I... I'm not sure."
She scuttled even closer, and the humans backed away.
"Hey doc... didn't you say something about... them being attracted to heat? And like the “they’s” being around 90 F/32 Celsius?”
Ramirez wondered, hiding himself behind a root.
"Yeah... I did, why?”
"Not to freak anyone out or anything but... isn't average human heat about 98.6 Fahrenheit… so 37 degrees Celsius?"
”FUCK!”
”OH NONONONONO!”
”HIIIIDE!”
”RUUUN!”
What followed was a rather violent game of nose goes, but instead of involving touching one’s nose to see who was the last person standing, it involved a mad rush to reduce body heat.
The smartest marines took the initiative and dove into the water beside the clearing, completely submerging themselves under the surface.
Others chose to cover whatever exposed skin they might have had in mud, as if to mask the heat.
Still others chose to cut and run.
Unfortunately, with his position at the head of the group, commander Vir wasn't fast enough.
She came at him in a scuttling rush, and in a frantic leap to get away, his boot caught on a root and he hit the ground hard.
Sunny tried to leap in front of him, but was bowled over by the mad rushing form.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!"
Commander Vir repeated, scuttling backwards across the ground, as the large spidery shape loomed over him.
He stopped dead in his tracks, backed against a tree root.
She leaned closer.
He raised his hands above his head blocking his face,
"Please don't lay your eggs in me. Please don't lay your eggs in me."
She reached out one of her forward hands, surprisingly delicate, as she cut through the first layers of his jacket, and shirt.
They fell away in slices revealing the pale human skin underneath red and sticky with the tropical heat.
His chest and abdomen heaved with his breath as he tried to scramble away, but she caught him with the prong of one of her back legs pinning him in place.
"Fuck... Help... HELP."
Sunny wasn't fast enough, having been tipped head over heels into the water, with the rest of the marines in similar positions, Krill contained inside his tube unable to help but also unable to look away.
She lowered her head, and the man screamed. It was cold, gelatinous and slimy at first, but even as it touched open air, he could feel it fusing against his skin solidifying. He thrashed and wriggled, but she was far too strong holding him in place.
Finally though, she backed away, leaving him panting on the ground shaking and trembling leg throbbing where he had been pinned.
She leaned her head down to examine him,
"Warm."
They locked eyes,
"Friends... now... Keep them... warm."
She retreated, and he struggled to his knees, turning to look down at his body which was now partially obscured by a sticky pod of six black eggs, pulled tight against his skin. His hands were shaking, as he reached down to touch them, cold and smooth.
He tried tugging on one, but nearly fainted at the pain it caused against his skin.
The creatures were withdrawing back into the trees, leaving him kneeling on the fungus, hands trembling as looked downwards.
Sunny was the first to recover, scrambling out of the water and over to him, placing a hand on his back as she examined the strange eggs attached to his skin,
"Mother of-"
The marines cut her off as they came wriggling from the trees,
"Commander, commander are you ok..."
One of the marines cut around front, frozen in his tracks, eyes wide once he saw,
"WHAT THE HELL!"
Sunny reached out as if to tug on one of them,
"NO!"
He snapped, jerking away from her.
The others gathered around to look with exclamations of shock and disgust.
The commander looked up at Sunny pleadingly.
She decided to take charge, helping him to his feet and then pulling him into her arms,
"We have to get him back to the ship, let's move, NOW!"
"What do you think, Dr."
Dr. Katie examined the scan with a frown,
"It's very, very strange, that's for sure."
Commander Vir lifted his head to look down at them,
"Well what the HELL does that mean?”
Krill shoved his head back onto the table,
"Stay still."
Dr. Katie hummed softly as she continued to examine the scans,
"It looks like these little filaments have breached the skin ... and.... well at least one of them has made it to your liver, this one here has made it to your lungs."
"What about white blood count?"
Krill wondered,
"The body must have noticed something by now?"
Dr Katie shook her head,
"Nothing, the body seems to have accepted it. I took some samples and... well I think I might know why."
She rolled herself to the side in her chair and over to one of the adjoining computers,
"See this, this is HIS DNA ...and this is the DNA of the strands."
Krill pearled over her shoulder,
"What the... they look almost identical."
"Yes... I don't think the body knows anything is wrong."
She turned her chair back around to look at the commander,
"Congratulations commander, you are perhaps, in the weirdest way possible, the only man in the history of existence who might just experience the miracle of life. You are going to be a dad!"
The look on his face made it clear he wasn't interested in being congratulated,
"What the actual fuck does that mean?"
He snapped, Dr. Katie rolled closer,
"Well, to explain in terms you may understand. You are doing more than keeping them warm. Those filaments that you saw are acting like umbilical cords. The one at your liver is using it as a filter, and to take in nutrients as it seems to have branching filaments to the stomach and intestines. The one going to your lungs is taking in carbon... not sure what that's going to do to your breathing if anything. But at this point I don't think that even Dr. Krill, as good as he is, can remove them. We would have to remove too much of your internal structure to it to be viable, plus they don't seem to be hurting you."
"Not hurting me! NOT HURTING ME! You said it yourself they are SUCKING OUT MY VITAL JUICES."
Dr. Katie shrugged,
"Welcome to pregnancy... sort of.”**
”Look we will monitor you, make sure they aren't sucking away to many nutrients. Look on the bright side, you can probably eat more, and judging from an analysis of the egg sacks, the average gestational period is only around two months."
"TWO MONTHS!?"
Sunny, who had been standing next to the man at the head of the exam table, couldn't suppress a short chirp of laughter.
He glowered at her,
"What's so funny!?"
She chirped again placing a hand on his arm,
"You're gonna be a mom."
If looks could kill, shed be reduced to a singularity,
"Get your hand off me or ill break it in half!"
She continued chirping but removed her hand just in case.
This was going to be a very awkward call to the UNSC and the GA.
For that matter, it was going to be a very awkward call home.
Previous First [Next](link)
Intro post by me
OC-whole collection
Patreon of the author
Thanks for reading! As you saw in the title, this is a cross posted story written by starrfallknightrise and I'll just upload some of it here for you guys, if you are interested and want to read ahead, the original story-collection can be found on tumblr or wattpad to read for free. (link above this text under "OC:..." ) It is the Empyrean Iris story collection by starfallknightrise. Also, if you want to know more about the story collection i made an intro post about it, so feel free to check that out to see what other great characters to look forward to! (Link also above this text). I have no affiliations to the author; just thought I’d share some of the great stories you might enjoy a lot!
Obviously, I have Charlie’s permission to post this and for the people already knowing the stories, or starting to read them: If you follow the link and check out the story you will see some differences. I made some small (non-artistic) changes, mainly correcting writing mistakes, pronoun correction and some small additional info here and there of things which were not thought of/forgotten or even were added/changed in later stories (like the “USS->UNSC” prefix of Stabby, Chalar=/->Sunny etc). As well as some "biggemajor" changes in descriptions and info’s for the same stringency/continuity reason. That can be explained by the story collection being, well a story collection at the start with many standalone-stories just starring the same people, but later on it gets more to a stringent storyline with backstories and throwbacks. (For example Adam Vir has some HEAVY scars over his body, following his bones, which were not really talked about up till half the collection, where it says it covers his whole body and you find out via backflash that he had them the whole time and how he got them, they just weren't mentioned before. However, I would think a doctor would at least see these scars before that, especially since he gets analyzed, treated and goes shirtless/in T-shirts in some stories). So TLDR: Writing and some descriptions are slightly changed, with full OK from the author, since he himself did not bother to correct these things before.

I just feel like the Traveler fighting back being shown in the Launch trailer ruined the big "jaw drop" moment of Lightfall.
All these shots of light bursting into the Witness's Pyramid ship and plants growing, there was so much speculation, could it be the Witness is opening a portal into the traveler but on his Pyramid ship? Could the Witness be using this "Veil" to open a portal? Is he going inside the veil but it's fighting back? And the shots of him traveling inside the Traveler's beam (as now we know), we speculated he could be traveling at the speed of light or the insides of the Traveler.
So many questions and I feel like the answers should've been ingame not on the launch trailer.
I did not feel the same shock I felt ingame seeing it again, with more "context" from a cutscenes, as I felt while watching the trailer which is sad. I hope Bungie can work on this.
I feel like they can't find the sweetspot between showing EVERYTHING about an expansion/season (Lightfall) and showing absolutely nothing until launch day (Haunted), while I think it's really simple. Just release the next season's trailer in the last quarter (last 3rd if you wish) of the current season. It leaves enough time to speculate, wait for the last week's special "thing" to launch and so on and so forth.
Name dropping Season of the Deep was not my forte either. I like to think of the close future, not the faaar future. It's the same reason I hope Bungie does not reveal ANYTHING about the next saga. My focus and attention I want all of that to be aimed towards the Witness and The Final Shape, not being annoyed that its a stupid Vex saga or pogging out of my mind that it's a IX saga. That's what I want. I don't want them to announce the next Expansion in the next Saga at ALL until The Final Shape is fully finished.
Imho if you cut out the traveler shooting a laser and just leave the flashing and fast bits of planets moving, it should've been enough, and still left us to speculate what the Traveler will do about all this, how will he fight back or will he even fight back?
​
TL;DR: Bungie, when we asked you to show us more, so we can get hyped, we didn't mean tell every season's name MONTHS before their launch, or to show every single cool detail, important information and spectatular scenes in trailers, what we asked you to do is to put out trailers just a few weeks before a season's launch, and to not show too much in expansion trailers.

Pay Arrears to Pensioners, Gallantry winners of armed forces; Supreme Court gives deadline to centre.
National Security Act invoked against 5 members of Amritpal Singh’s ‘Waris Punjab De’
Clear all OROP dues by Feb 28, 2024 Supreme Court directs Centre
As COVID 19 Cases surge, health ministry issues revised guidelines
KCR’s Daughter Appears for Questioning in Delhi Liquor Policy Case
Kerala Archbishop Promises BJP a Lok Sabha Seat in 2024, On a Condition
Grand Tricolor, Late Night Summons : India’s strong response to Khalistani protest at UK Mission
PM Modi to Attend G7 Hiroshima Summit, Accepts Japanese Counterpart Kishida’s Invite
Unprecedented : Rahul Gandhi responds to Police Notice over Bharat Jodo Yatra Claims
Delhi Excise Policy Case : Manish Sisodia’s Judicial Custody extended till April 3
International World News Headlines – 21 March 2023
Putin stuns Zelensky by landing in Ukraine ; Drives in Russia – held Mariupol, chats with people
Trump expects to be arrested on Tuesday
Ukraine War : China vows Solidarity with Russia Much to The Angst of US : India’s Balancing Act Gets Complicated
Xi Jinpind in Russia : Chinese President expected to ‘mediate for peace’ in Russia – Ukraine War
Millions of Dead Fish Float in Australian River after Hypoxia Disaster
Dozens of Imran Khan Supporters Arrested by Pak Police
Sports News Headlines – 21 March 2023
Mitchell Starc, openers lead Australia’s dominant show to level series
Gone with the Wind ! Hilarious scene during New Zealand – Sri Lanka 2nd Test
Gautam Gambhir backs KS Bharat ahead of KL Rahul ; Slams former players
He is satisfied with 90-100; I used to be content after 250-300′ : Sehwag
Kessie the Clasico climax of Barcelona’s three-act play :Moment of the Weekend
FA Cup : Manchester United Book semi – final berth after drama filled 3-1 victory against Fulham
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Sensex crashes over 900pts intra-day : 5 factors behind Mondays market out
UBS rescues Credit Suisse, Fed Increases Dollar Liquidity, Gold Hits a One year High
Gold prices hit record high, cross Rs.60,000 mark for the first time
RBI Deputy Governor’s post : Chiefs of BoB, BoM, PNB, and two SBI MDs in race
Double whammy for IT sectors as Global banking crisis further clouds earnings outlook
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Adani Enterprises, other Group stocks fall while Adani Green rises
Experts zero in on 10 stocks as market trades below 200 day average
Jayanti Chauhan to steer Bisleri now, as Tata Consumer no longer pursuing buyout
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Science Technology News Headlines – 21 March 2023
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With WhatsApp new Feature, extract image right from text
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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day 20 March 2023
NASA finds first ever Volcanic activity evidence on Venus
Stephen Hawking thought his thesis in a brief history of time was wrong.

I'm quite excited though with some reservations about the narrative consequences of March of the Machine. Any set where the make a dedicated set afterwards just to clean up the details promises to be monumental. And what with them saying that "both the game and the universe will never be the same" clearly they're swinging for the fences. But I wanted to lay down some ideas that I have for what exactly I think is coming.
Elesh Norn is trying to become a God
This one is essentially a fact at this point so I barely count it. She's trying to model herself after the Father of Machines Yawgmoth so Godhood is the natural next step. The "Triumph of the Fleshless" story clearly shows that she has special plans for Theros as well as a unique fear of Elspeth since she's the one who actually had a God-Killing blade. And of the art we have of the Collector Booster Display shows her with that weapon. I had speculated this for a while, mostly as a joke because I found it funny the idea that there would be a card with the type line: Legendary Artifact Enchantment Creature - Phyrexian Praetor God. Still holding out for that.
Elspeth will kill Elesh Norn after or just before she becomes a God
Or imprison her. Either is equally likely in my opinion. Magic story-lines all really love setting up the villain to have almost won only to be toppled in the last instant by a plucky unexpected hero. And hey, I do too.
Quintorius and Thalia will become planeswalkers, among others
Quint already happened in "A Radiant Heart" but considering the box art for the Set Booster Display, I can't imagine that they would put two planeswalkers and one other creature on it. I say "among others" because I think they're gonna cull the herd of planeswalkers they've accrued up to this point. Either Phyrexianize them or kill them off or both, like with Lukka and Tamiyo. They may also change the nature of the planeswalker spark, but I don't think that's what they're planning on changing. I'll circle back to that point later. But first, speaking of Tamiyo...
Emrakul's back!
I've been saying this since they mentioned a Phyrexian invasion of the Multiverse and I'm amazed I haven't seen anyone else saying anything. I have a few reasons to think it. One: in "Mother, Son, and Story" it's revealed that Tamiyo had a failsafe scroll in the event of her death.

"I am what remains of Tamiyo—her story unending. You may think of me as her memory. Many years ago, she created me in anticipation of her death and sealed me away within a scroll until I was needed, bound with an iron ring." Tamiyo's memory—her story—pauses. "I had hoped I might never be."

This isn't quite Tamiyo, but a copy of her essence tucked away in a scroll for safe keeping until needed. Now this scroll is only ever described as "a scroll bound with an iron band." But this is not the first time that scroll has been mentioned. In "The Promised End," when Nissa and Tamiyo bound Emrakul in the moon of Innistrad, they almost failed until Tamiyo pulled out "a long scroll, a scroll with iron bands" and used it to power the spell. Later when Jace asks her about it, she reveals that Emrakul was puppetting her and altering the scroll's spell, making it into something else.

"But that wasn't the worst part. The scroll I opened. The second one. You were right. I shouldn't have opened it. A promise made long ago, which one day I'll have to answer for. But the spell she read...it wasn't the original spell. The scroll she used, it cast...a different spell."

Now it's possible this was a different scroll all together, but I don't think it is. Having one character have two items with almost identical descriptors do two different things is bad form for a story. So, odds are Emrakul or something like her will be showing up in similar circumstances. The other narrative reason is something Emrakul says to Jace in his mind palace, or rather Jace's limited perception of Emrakul.

"This is all wrong. I am incomplete, unfulfilled, inchoate. There should be blossoms, not barren resentment. The soil was not receptive. It is not my time. Not yet."

What Emrakul seems to be implying is that she expected the people her to be happy and calling her name, not struggling and trying to free themselves. And what better time to call to the horrors you know than when facing the horrors you don't?
And one last point. Emrakul's whole shtick is that she doesn't affect inorganic matter, she only corrupts living things. Plants, werewolves, people, all that stuff. What Elesh Norn's deal is that she finds flesh and the creatures full of it as nothing short of heretical. What better set of villains to set against one another then a flesh-lover and a flesh-hater? Inside you there are two wolves...
The theme is "unlikely allies"
This is a theme they briefly toyed with in War of the Spark with the Bond cycle, but I think it's gonna be the undercurrent of a lot more of the cards. Obviously all of the Legendary duos are gonna be the most obvious example of this. And I think they have some narrative fun to them. Here's some spitballs for cards I'm expecting.

• Pia Nalaar and Dhiren Baral - This one I am most excited about just in terms of narrative repercussions.
• Hazoret and the Locust God - This one seems super cool since, and I didn't realize this, the Locust God and Scarab God are still around
• Aurelia and Rakdos or Aurelia and Borborygmos - Either would just tickle me
• Norika and Heiko - The Sisters Yamazaki!
• Yisan and Jalira - This one seems more mechanical fun than narrative
• Anowon and Kazuul - I hope its actually Kazuul and Iona, but that seems a little too silly
• Grumgully and Emry - Silly, but plausible enough
• Chevill and some monster - hopefully something that will shave his pornstache
• Tromokratis and Polukranos - Okay, I'll stop

EDIT: Just saw MaRo's spoilers so I need to put three more on this list because they essentially have been spoiled: Kroxa and Kunoros, Kogla and Yidaro, Borborygmos and Fblthp (not Okaun and Zndrsplt)
Last but not least, the big change to the Magic-verse?
The Planes will be physically connected
I really truly hope this isn't the case but it feels like the way that the narrative is going. They stop the Realmbreaker, kill the Phyrexian Praetors, kill or cure most of the Phyrexian walkers (another thing I'm not looking forward to cause I would prefer the dead stay dead instead of some magic hand-wavey cure-all [looking at you Jace, you edgelord]) but the wreckage of the realmbreaker leaves the planes with portals leading between them. It makes the world far more boring in my opinion since it lets the aesthetics of other planes seep into each other or the rules of those worlds as in the case of Theros. It also makes Planeswalkers less special so hopefully this is not what actually happens.
Oh and one last little extra bit...
Nicol Bolas is back and probably Phyrexianized (either that or joins the fight against them and gets away)