I want to see a Black Lagoon crossover with a quirked Lagoon company.
Revy could have gun quirk or a hand quirk which allows her to use multiple firearms at once with amazing accuracy.
Benny has a technology quirk that allows to him hack and extort money.
Dutch could have
Rock has a small scale magnetism quirk which helps him not be struck by bullets.
Imagine Izuku or anyone with a heroic incentive dealing with the situation in Roanapur Thailand. The city is infamous as a den of crime and corruption and is home to a wide variety of criminals including pickpockets, thugs, mercenaries, thieves, prostitutes, assassins, and gunmen, all of whom operate without hassle from authorities.
The complete opposite of Japan and its heroes.
PS: I think using Roanapur would be a stronger example on why the world doesn't care about those who aren't in the spotlight than continuously using the corrupt Japanese hero society as an argument. Plus it can show Izuku and basically anyone that their views on the world are small, many people in this city suffered in unimaginable ways, but they don't want to change since it's the only life that can give them a sense of control and freedom.
You can read the wiki page to discover how much of a shithole Roanapur is compared to Musutafu
https://lagooncompany.fandom.com/wiki/Roanapur

I have 47 Guns and I need money so if you want one you can have it for 10 dollars or if you show me what you do with it you can have it for 2

So I (21F) just broke up with my ex (33M) about a week ago. I originally said we could loosely remain friends, but after our last interaction together (exchanging belongings) I realized I want nothing to do with him. I can't heal while interacting with him. I blocked him on everything, but didn't tell him anything.
Fastforward to today. I got off of work late at night and he was waiting for me. I just ignored him and started walking home. I don't have a car, so I have to walk about 30 min to get home. He started following me and yelling that he wanted to talk. I said no. After about 5 min, he drove off toward my place.
I tried calling my friends, but they didn't answer. I then texted one of them the situation and a picture of him outside my work. I then took an abnormal path home.
When I got close to home, I unblocked him and texted him: "Do not interact with me ever again. That includes, but is not limited to, texting, calling, emailing, sending letters in the mail, messaging via social media, showing up to where I live or work, waiting for me in places I am likely to be, leaving things at my place, contacting any of my friends by any of these methods, or doing any of these things through a third party." I decided to set clear boundaries because I had not been clear before, although I feel showing up unannounced to my work and following me home should not happen either way.
He responded: "I can see you. I just want 5 minutes of your time and you won't hear or see from me ever again."
I told him no and that not interacting with me includes texting me now. And he said he would wait for 15 more min.
I waited 30 min before going back to my place. I also sent my friend a screenshot of the texts and let them know he owns a gun. He wasn't there, although a gift was left on the porch.
I don't know what to do. I feel terrified that he will be waiting for me when I go to and from work, but I need to work. I don't know if I have enough to get a restraining order, or even if I did if it would escalate things. I'm just so scared. Please, any advice would be so helpful!

[Memory transcript: James Smith, rebel, City 7] Date: 2136 July 10th
Just as i finished the sentence every rebel got to action
"Need ammo here!" Shouted a lean man behind a barricade
"I gotchu man!" Shouted back someone else
"Set up those Machineguns!"
Every man and woman ran back and forth to set up the defenses in time and to provide enough ammo so that our defenses wouldn't fall apart quickly meanehike the refugees were being carried away someplace else, far away from the front.
"I'm ready to tear these bastards a new ass-hole!" Says a bulky man
"You and me both" replies a skinny guy.
As these two stopped talking everything went quiet, so quiet in fact that i can hear water droplets impacting a small water puddle behind me, i look over to everyone else, they're concentrated and ready for a fight.
"You hear that?..." A lightly armored woman beside me whispers "...sounds like footsteps."
They're getting close, very close, we all take aim anticipating the enemy to just walk out, but that never comes, instead, the footseps suddenly stop and i can hear the garbled chatter coming from the hallway, barely comprihensible for my ears.
"All units-" [-UNINTELLIGABLE-] "Groundwatch-" [-UNINTELLIGABLE-]
Just as the soldiers stopped talking, i heard a high pitced whirring sound and something impacting the concrete walls in the hallway, suddenly a manhack flies out and aims for a nearby rebel, but it's quickly shot down.
"All Units" [-UNINTELLIGABLE-] but the soldiers got alerted to our presence.
A grenade is tossed out
"Get down!"
Another
"Shit, Grenade!"
And another
All of them landing near people
Some react quickly and get out of the way and some are not as fortunate. Enemy's strategy worked, those that were still alive were flushed out from the safety of their cover and soon the soldiers capitalized on it.
Shotgunner stormed out, destroying any opposition while the rest of them were in the back, suppressing anyone that would dare to fire back.
One rebel made it to a machinegun and opened fire, he only managed to take down a single soldier and got shot right in the chest, turning his insides into outside
We're losing, we have to retreat. "Retreat!" I shout as i make the worst decision ever; run out of my cover and dive into another one, i hear as bullets whizz past me in a close call and impact a wall nearby.
I wanted to try and atleast kill one of them, but as i try to peek out a bullet almost penetrated my skull. All i can do is listen, as fellow rebels try to get away but fail horribly, i see as one rebel almost makes into the same cover that i am in, but gets shot and falls right beside me, gasping for air as he chokes on his own blood... his eyes filled with fear and soon. Nothing.
"James!... James!" I heard someone shout my name "snap out of it man! We gotta get out of here!" I was still looking at the corpse and suddenly i was smacked in the face, turning my head i see my friend, Kylar.
"You hear me!? We have to get the fuck out of here ASAP!" I look at him barely comprehending his words
"I have a grenade, we can slow them down while we make it out of here alive." Kylar says as he shows me a grenade and tosses it.
"Bouncer! Bouncer! Bouncer!" We distracted the soldiers and got out of there as fast as possible, fight still went on but the amount of guns firing decreased and soon, silence blanketed the battle field. The two of us were safe.
[Memory transcript: Scientist Velvek, Venlil Prime]
"Sir, Venlil prime's telescopes detected some kind of object suddenly appearing in the outer rims of the system and we were tasked to investigate it." Said a female Venlil
"What? Are they mad!? What if it's the Arxur!" I said
"That's what i also thought at first, but further monitoring suggested that it's unlike anything we've seen before and if it was the Arxur, they wouldn't send a single ship."
"Alright..." i sigh out "ready the crew, we need them on the ship, now."
"Yes sir."
15 mimutes later and everyone was ready, we got onto the science ship and started heading to the unedentified object, once we got close though...
"What is this?" Said one of my crew members
"It looks like a vessel, a naval vessel... how did it end up here?" Commented another
When i took a close look at it i saw letters written on the side of the ship, but i couldn't read it well
"Zoom in on the letters, maybe we can identify "who's" ship this really is"
[Borealis]
"What is this language? My translator can't identify it... alright take pictures, we need to get back to Venlil Prime, maybe the linguists can identify what it says."
"Alright."
We took pictures and departed, heading back to Venlil Prime.
(Thank you for taking your time and reading this chapter, hope you liked it and if not please tell why, i'd like to hear what i can improve in my writing.)

So my game consist of different game modes . In the main game lobby the game will be set to r15 but if you select war gamemode and click play in the lobby it will teleport you to a place which is r6 (acs guns system) and the winner will get coins for example . Would this Idea of communication beetwen r6 and an r15 game work ?
İf so can somebody show me a small example ?

my stats
games played- 73
WR- 64%
DR- 0.93
survivability
Neustrashimy has a tanky HP pool (19.4k) and an additional heal that lets her disappear and recover large chunks of HP, plus a low, thin profile that makes her hard to hit when angled at range. In addition she also has an additional heal that lets her survive into the late game
Score: 5/5
manuverability
Shes relatively slow (35kts), though not unusably so, but her turning is tight, she has ridiculous acceleration (10.9s) and her rudder is responsive (4.5s) allowing her to duck and weave through shells and torpedos
score: 4/5
main battery
Shimy only has 2 main battery guns, and they're a pretty mixed bag. You have long range (9km), flat ballistics, and a fast reload (4s), but your alpha (448/496), fire chance (4.5%) and low quantity of barrels (2×2 130mm) take out a lot of her bite, especially against larger ships
Overall you have consistent damage, but not enough to solo a "true" gunboat or cruiser, and against battleships you're basically just fishing the superstructures for fires. Carriers though, you're oddly good against with the ability to fullpen their bow, stern and broadside (though not the torpedo belt) with AP, and I wouldn't be surprised if you had the occasional citadel or two thrown into the mix
Finally, both of Neustrashimys guns can 360°, and coupled with her great angles you show very little broadside when kiting away
RPM: 60
HE DPM: 26.8k
AP DPM: 29.7k
EFPM: 2.5
Score: 4/5
torpedos
Neustrashimy has 2×5 torpedos with decent range (8.4km), speed (62.5kts) and reload (56s) but low flood chance (15%) and damage (3.7k).
Now from all the praise you might think these are great, but the frustration comes from the lack of focus. They arent slow but high damage like black, the RM DDs or the german BCs, they don't have the reload of the german or European torps and they don't have the stealth and raw alpha of IJN or PA torps. Overall I would just use them in the standard way, plowing them into broadside battleships you would otherwise be reliant on fires to kill
Damage per launcher: 20.2k
Damage per broadside: 40.4k
Score: 3/5
AAA
Hot. Meh.
This is the kind of damage I expect from a T5 DD, and especially not from a post war ship designed with AA fire in mind (90/61). You do get improved AA range (3.9km/1.8km), but its a pittance since it doesn't do anything
score: 1/5
concealment
Shimy has top tier concealment (6.1km), able to hide from any ships that would be able to kill her or push into pretty much anything other than British DDs before being detected score: 5/5
utility
Neustrashimy has 3 × Smoke 2, 3× speed boost 2, 3× sonar 1 and 2× DFAA 3
Smoke: neustrashimy is a great smoke farmer, able to pop down a trail and farm BBs and BCs with HE
Speed boost: compensating for her below average speed, but still not cracking the 40kt threshold i have for high tier DDs with speed boost
Sonar: great for contesting caps, coupled with her great mobility you can easily dodge torpedos in cap, plus you can easily push enemy smoke
DFAA: while it is high tier, it means very little since the base stats are garbage the buff you get means little overall (180/183)
Smoke: using smoke gives shimy the ability to easily capture or contest objectives, and grants her cover as she struggles to shoot over rocks due to her flat ballistics
conclusion
Neustrashimy is a pain in the ass to kill. You have great concealment, high health, a tiny profile, great angles and good gun and torpedo ranges. In my opinion I would liken her most to a support like belfast of all things, with great utility and a tool for every occasion, but poor damage that limits her farming potential.
In terms of playstyle shes great at all ranges, with the concealment, traverse and mobility for cap contesting, but also the main battery range, angles, ballistics and torpedo range for kiting and farming from range
Something else to note is that Neustrashimy is a historical ship, built by the russians in the cold war and capable, in theory, of surviving nuclear or biological warfare

overall score: 5/5

we have all tried busting myths like the ray gun everytime glitch or tried to go to round 100 to see if h!tler shows up..
currently trying to bust some myths in zombies, do you guys have any interesting ones for me to check if they're real?
would be appreciated

Police Station (Paris), Day time
Its been a day since the first round of the squid games and Roger in on the case alongside him is British detective Martin who are working on the case to find the 200+ people who were reported missing that were based in Europe
Martin: As far as I can see the first flood missing reports came at around 7am yesterday which means that the mass abductions must have happened at around then.
Roger: And what exactly does this prove
Martin: Nothing, for now but don't worry we are already 1 step closer to finding our crimminal
Paris Metro
Nino has been trying to get in contact with Adrien however he simply would not answer.
Nino: Come on dude why hasn't he been answering, I've tried seeing if he is at home but no one is answering what if his dad was abducted as alongisde him. I hope they are okay
Bunk Rooms
Everyone has been served breakfast we then cut to Sabrina and Lila talking to each other
Lila: You haven't been feeling well
Sabrina: It's just that I miss Chloe, I know she was mean to me at times but we were still good friends
Lila: You see Marinette over there
Sabrina: Yes
Lila: We are going to sabotage her and make Chloe proud
Sabrina: But
Lila: Trust me on this one
Sabrina agrees and immediately plans to sabotage Marinette we then cut off to 4:40pm where the next game begins
Control Room, 4:40pm
We see Gabriel and Tomoe sitting on two couches and wearing masks we see the recruiter working as a personal asistant in place of nathalie
Recruiter: Your whisky sir and for you mam your tequilla
Gabriel and Tomoe take their drinks and put in on a coffee table
Tomoe: So Gabriel, are we ready for our next game
Gabriel: Yes begin to open, we will know mask ourselves
Bunk Rooms
Everyone gets a notificaftion for the next game
Front man: You will now be escourted to your next game please follow the guards
Marinette: What will it be this time
Adrien: I don't know but I am pretty certain it will be another death game
Everyone follows the guards to the playground where they are asked to select a shape
Playground
Felix knows what the game is exactly about so does Nathalie they instantly choose the circle Marinette goes for the square, Kagami goes for the triangle and Adrien goes for the umberlla. Then the front lady gives an announcement
Front Lady: Welcome to the second round you here you have been given a honey comb biscuit with the shape you selected inside your tin your goal is to get the biscuit out if you fail to do so in 1 hour you will be eliminated. If you mess up you will be eliminated.
At 5:00pm sharp the game begins and everyone is in panick
Adrien: Seriously, why did I chose the Umbrellla
Felix: Don't give up on your self you can do this, I will always believe in you
Early in the game Felix and Nathalie manage to succeed we see people getting shot 1 by 1, Marinette and Kagami finish soon after. As the timer falls to 30 minutes Adrien is worried
Adrien: Come on, Come on.
Adrien is getting more and more worried as the timer begins to go to 15 minutes and soon 10 minutes and then he gets an idea
Adrien: Wait if this is sugar then I can just lick it off
Adrien licks the biscuit and gives the final product to the guards others around him follow suit, quickly runs back to the bunk rooms.
VIP Lounge
Gabriel sees everything and is impressed by his son's thinking
Elite 1: Gabriel, see I knew your son will win just look at his thinking
Gabriel sighns in relief
Gabriel: Thats good to hear I was worried for a second
Playground
Its 5:59 and there is only a few more seconds left till the end of the game there are still people at the surface
Front Lady: 5,4,3,2,1
The guards shoot every last person who is left at the playground
Bunk Rooms
We see everyone who is left back at the bunk rooms the number of survivors has dropped to just 90 people less than 1/2 of the people who were there before the game
Marinette: Thank god you're okay Adrien
Adrien: Don't worry
Felix: We shouldn't be calm for too long who knows what will happen next
Kagami: Dinner has arrived we should probably eat now we really need the energy if we want to win
Every person is given water and a lunch box with rice and vegetables
Person 1: Seriously
Person 2: I know right
Everyone ate and most people are now in the recreation room, Marinette and Adrien are playing foosball, Lila and Sabrina talking together, Nathalie is listening to music, Kagami is reading a Manga and Felix is jotting down his plans
Lila: Well that was easy
Sabrina: I know but how are we going to sabotage Marinette
The lights go out all of sudden and everyone is in panick mode but is afraid to move
Marinette: What was that
Adrien: I don't know
Person 3: Screaming
The screams of three people can be heard before the lights flicker the first time the three people are seen dead and the second time everyone is holding a bloody knife.
Person 1: Attack
Person 4: Lets all calm down
Everyone in a fit of rage begins fighting in both rooms
Adrien: Marinette run
Adrien and Marinette run to the bunk room to the top of the bunk beds the room is darker than usual but it is still possible to see
Kagami: Are you guys okay we heard screaming
Adrien: I don't think so there is a fight going on
Marinette: Hopefully the guards will help use
Control Room
Gabriel: Ah yes this is all going to plan and Adrien has managed to run to safety
Tomoe: Good, just make sure our children are safe
Bunk Rooms:
The attacks also reach the bunk rooms and it becomes a fight to the death
Felix: Adrien come here
While the cameras are focused on the fight Felix briefs Adrien on the plan
Adrien: How did you get the schematics
We suddenly reach a flash back
Flash back Atlantic Island
At this time Atlantic island was still under construction Felix had taken screen shots to several schematics of the island showing every possible route. We then go to flashback of him at his house
Flash Back Felix's house
Felix: And there we have managed to stich in every key detail of the the map
Duusu: It's looking good
Felix: Now all we need is a way to get in without getting caught.
Amelie: What are you up to Felix
Felix: Nothing mum can you please go
Amelie: Anything for my boy
We then cut back to the present fighting scene
Bunk Rooms, Present
Felix: A little spying
Adrien: Aren't we going to get caught, they probably already caught us
Felix: Don't worry as long as they are focused on the fight they wont worry about us
Felix then grabs a set of tools here he has a gun, a small handheld device, a usb and screw driver.
Felix: Once I insert this usb I will always have direct access to the entire system allowing me to make changes to the security system
Adrien: How are you going to do that
Felix: Just watch and learn
Felix opens a box with a few screws allowing him to insert a usb. He manages to do all of this in a matter of minutes
The fight rages on until 30 minutes have passed here the guards have came to stop the fight as they seize everyone's knives.
Marinette: Thank god we are alright, I am going off to bed
Felix: Me two
Kagami: Me three
Adrien: Me four
Nathalie: Same
They all fall asleep as they are tired after fighting
Control Room
Elite 1: That was amazing Gabriel you need to do this again
Gabriel: Well it is not in the roster and they have probably already caught on don't worry though we have more surpises planned, I just wished that, Marinette Dupain Chang was dead already
Tomoe: Well Gabriel about that we do have some luck
Gabriel: Tomoe tell me more
Tomoe: Apparantely both Lila and Sabrina are planning to plot against Marinette maybe we should assist them
Bunk Rooms
After the fight everyone decided to go to sleep as the lights went out Lila is still awake on her bed while the guards are cleaning up the scene. Lila gets a notification on her alliance
Front Man: Hello Lila Rossi.
Cut to black end of part 3

My brother shot himself 2 years ago. He was my best friend and who I could always talk to. After he did what he did my already heavy drinking descended into full blown alcoholism which led to a hospitalization for dangerously low electrolytes last year (I quit drinking immediately) and ever since my health has been fucked.
Awful heart rate fluctuating out of control at rest, with walking, and after eating. debilitating Orthostatic hypotension that causes me to nearly faint after walking more than 30 minutes or standing still for 7 minutes. No libido/loss of sex drive, completely unable to get an erection. Constant liver area pain. Things aren’t getting better and despite negative workup so far I am almost certain that it’s cirrhosis.
My life is falling apart, i can’t study or function at med school anymore. I may have to drop out of medical school or at least repeat a year. Last week everything started to overwhelm me and I snapped. I went out to where my brother shot himself and screamed and demanded that he show himself in some voice or apparition and explain what he did. I don’t even believe in ghosts, it was like an out of body experience. My mom eventually found me and went into hysterics with my dad and almost called 911 on me
We could’ve had such a good life together big brother, there’s nobody I enjoyed being around more than you. You were the smartest and most kind-hearted person I knew. We could’ve traveled together, addressed our drinking problems together, been successful together, had families. But look at us now. You’re a pile of ashes and I’m losing my health and my future because I couldn’t stop drinking to stop the nightly obsessive thoughts of you putting the gun to your head. My girlfriend left me. Our parents are going to lose two sons. One to suicide at 34 and one to self-inflicted liver disease. No grandkids to carry on their legacy.
What a perfect ending to this family’s story.

Expedition report from Rift Group 4
Report carried out by Lieutenant Marvin Bailey
Report states: Peaceful contact with the local town of Una has ended in failure. Upon nearing the gates, the elves demanded RG-4 to identify themselves and after identification, they opened fire on with bows, crossbows, and scorpions. RG4 retaliated by opening fire with its 50mm chain gun, destroying parts of the wall, killing an unknown number of defenders, and destroying their heavy defenses. The initial shock from the chain gun froze the defenders, allowing RG-4 to vacate the area with minimum damage and no losses taken. This was the first unsuccessful interaction with the local populace since the beginning of the expedition and the Rift Group program and it shows that not all natives will be pleased with REC's arrival.
Other news: The enemy force on the other side of the North Alston river has not shown any signs of movement. Moreover, drone footage shows a number of the local populace leaving the Meilume capital and Una across the river, further suggesting that the Imperial army wishes to fortify and wall off the area between the two Alston rivers with the intention of boxing the REC before attacking. CIA sources can confirm this is the case. As far as the Rosian vassal kingdoms are concerned, RG-1, upon making successful contact with the border town of Afa, has sent a platoon, led by lieutenant James Wilson, to the Alston capital of Olinor where they made contact with the king of Alston, Thavok Zorgen. After a number of debates, king Thavok has agreed to accompany the platoon to the duchies of Zirith, Dothen, and Elarith, as well as the kingdom of Opherin to convince the dukes and kind Ostontul to attend a meeting with ambassador Eugene Anderson. Additional transportation will be provided should it be necessary.
30th day of late yellow season
Elyana, Empire of Light
"So.", said the chained human, "Is it my turn to pick the nail or yours?". The torturer responded by punching him in the face. The prisoner spat out a piece of his tooth before answering, "C'mon, you're supposed to be consistent. It's nail, nail, cut, punch. The teeth come later when all the nails are gone. Everyone knows that.". The torturer punched him again. "There you go again, messing up the consistency. I think I know why you work in this shit hole now."
The torturer wanted to hit him again, but a voice stopped him, "Enough!". A moment later, two elves walked into the room.
"Great General Laeroth.", the torturer said as he bowed.
"How is the questioning, Maul?", Laeroth asked.
"Not well, my lord. This human is proving to be a greater challenge than I had anticipated. All I got was a name. Jack Mitchell."
Laeroth sighed as he approached the chained-up human. His body was cut in several places and half of his fingernails have been removed. In addition, he was missing two teeth and bleeding from his mouth and nose. Yet he still denies Maul. As much as it pained Laeroth to admit it, he was impressed. Any Rosian or even elf would have broken by now. What made this human different?
"Jack Mitchell.", Laeroth said, making Jack lift his head and smile.
"What's up?", Jack asked.
"The ceiling.", Laeroth answered, making Jack laugh. "What is humorous?"
"Maul over there said the same thing.", Jack replied as he wheezed, "You sure you're not related? You got the same shade."
This made Maul mad as he grabbed his hammer, "You insolent savage!"
"Calm yourself.", Laeroth said, "I still need this human alive. High mage Gunru, you have my permission.".
"Yes, general.", said Gunru. He was one of the seven high mages of the empire in North Altia, second only to the grand mage Ishton. Each high mage is able to use more than one type of magical ability. Usually, a mage is only able to use one ability from a single spirit. The mages of Vita can be healers or they can use their power to give life to made objects. This way they can create their own army, however, the mage has to remain alive in order for the creature to remain alive, and if the creature is destroyed the life will return back to its source. The mages of Elendi can use one of the various elements, such as wind, fire, water, and so on. One other ability the high mages possess is 'Mind read'. By focusing their spiritual energy on the mind of the target, they can visualize their knowledge.
"What the hell are you doing?", Jack asked as Gunru grabbed his head with both hands, "I mean I'm flattered but I'm into women, just so you know."
Gunru closed his eyes and white energy started appearing from his hands. That energy went into Jack's head, which remained perfectly still as this occurred. Gunru entered his mind and began to project Jack's memories, thoughts, and knowledge around him. Laeroth just watched. He himself couldn't see unless Gunru gave the knowledge to him. But he did see something that disturbed him. Gunru began to twitch. A twitching that turned to shake as his eyes opened and quickly pulled back while panting and holding his head as though he had a headache.
"Gunru.", Laeroth called, "Tell me, what have you seen?"
Gunru shook and could barely grasp the words to speak, "T-T-Terrible things. A mistake. All of this was a mistake."
"Show me."
"No!", Gunru yelled immediately, "You must not. I could not get all the details myself. You will go insane."
"I must know our enemy. Even if it is a little, I must know. Gunru, you must show me."
Gunru greatly hesitated and opposed this. But at the same time, he knew if anyone was able to take the strain, it was Laeroth, the most loyal servant of the empire. "Very well. I shall show you as much as I can. Forgive me."
As Gunru placed his hands on Laeroth's head, the same energy went into it. Laeroth opened his eyes and found himself on a field of battle. Two sides were fighting, humans. One side had blue clothing and the other was red, both fighting with cannons and boomsticks, but nothing else. The blue-clothed soldiers appeared to be winning and they charged the red ones, all while carrying a flag. Red and white stripes with stars. It was brutal. What could it mean?
Night turned to day over and over again, until another battle occurred. Same thing, broomsticks, and cannons, but they fought each other. Once again, there was a flag with stars and stripes but now there were two. A civil war? Hundreds of thousands of men died all for what?
Fast forward, Laeroth appeared in another field, but considerably more terrifying. It was a field of black mud, ash, and blood as far as the eye could see. Thousands upon thousands of bodies piled up around giant cannons that fired and destroyed castles. He could see waves of soldiers running forward at their dug-in enemies. They fell by the dozen until a few lucky ones reached the line and engaged in a brutal brawl. The fighting kept escalating until a massive white cloud filled the battlefield and everyone caught in started choking and dying.
Once the smoke cleared, Laeroth could see hundreds of thousands, no, millions of soldiers and armored beasts marching across a field. They fought another gigantic army, one Laeroth thought could never exist. Millions of troops met on the battlefield and slaughtered one another as the metal monsters spat fire and thousands of iron wyverns fought in the air. Massive ships of steel fired enormous cannons of steel at one another as hundreds of iron rods fell from the sky and flattened the cities below.
Closing and opening his eyes one more time he saw a city. A large city with towers of stone and glass that pierced the clouds. But then he saw it get destroyed as it was engulfed in a literal sea of flames. All of those people were dead in an instant, and in place of the city was a gigantic cloud in the shape of a mushroom.
The day turned to night again as Laeroth was lifted into the air and observed the world change. The nations fought one another while also existing in peace. Cities became massive and their armies even more powerful. But then, the fires came. The great cities turned to a smoldering pile of ash as they turned on one another in the name of 'salvation'. War, disease, poverty, entire civilizations were whipped out and empires started to fall. But in this chaos, something was born. The petty rivalry of the great powers vanished and united they led their armies and pulled the corruption by its roots. It took them decades but they did it. And now united, they rebuilt their homes. The world was not at peace but they made the most of it. At least until they showed up. The rift opened, the invasion failed and now an angered giant prepares to take its vengeance and punish them for their crimes.
Gunru stopped sending energy into Laeroth's mind and let go of his head. Laeroth bent over and panted. His heart was racing and his nose bleeding. He could not believe what he saw. Was there really no hope? Was this war lost before it even began? How was he to win? He wasn't, but he knew he couldn't just give up. His pride as a warrior and a soldier wouldn't let him. But more than that, it was Canus. His maniacal nature coupled with fear will only make things worse if he were to find out. Furthermore, the Inquisition will most likely pull strings and keep the war going for their sick and twisted games. Laeroth knew he had to come up with something, otherwise, the empire will crumble.
"General, are you alright.", Maul asked.
"I am fine Maul.", Laeroth answered, "Take the human back to the cell and treat his wounds. I will let you know what I want with him next later."
"Yes, my lord.", Maul said as he gestured to the guards to help him.
"Gunru."
"Yes, general?", Gunru answered.
"You must not speak of this to anyone. Not even the emperor. This stays between us. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, general."
"Good. Now excuse me, I must clean myself and prepare for the future.". Laeroth left the torture chamber and climbed up the steps to the halls. On his way to his personal chamber, he could feel a strange sensation run down his spine. The effects of the mind read? No, this was something else. He made a random turn and walked down a narrow hallway. After taking a few steps, he prepared a knife and waited. Soon, a cloaked individual suddenly appeared from behind the corner and started running away. Laeroth immediately gave chase, signaling the guards in front to stop him. Two guards formed up with shields, which made him stop for a moment. After a moment Laeroth threw his knife at his back. He yelled in pain as he fell over and the guards moved in.
"Leave him!", Laeroth shouted as he grabbed the man and pulled the cloak down. It turned out to be a woman. "Who sent you!? Talk!". His words fell on deaf ears as the woman's head twitched and a thick purple foam-like substance oozed from her mouth. Laeroth groaned and let her go, "Burn the body. Speak nothing of this.". The guards nodded and carried the body outside.
'Gilshor.', Laeroth thought, 'I will not let you turn this war into your own personal puppet show. The darkness will not rule the light.'
---
(Meanwhile)
Upper level of the Imperial palace
Lilyth Camilla Agorix was always a strange girl. While the other girls took care of their hair, she took care of the armor forged specifically for her. While the other girls practiced knitting and read poetry, she expressed an interest in politics and philosophy. This behavior wasn't particularly accepted by her father. Her mother, on the other hand, empress Alruna Flavia Agorix, greatly supported her. It was thanks to her effort that women were allowed to join the army, and at the moment, a tenth of the army is female. Alruna wasn't named the Lioness for anything, and Lilyth tries to live up to her expectations.
But some members of the family aren't as hard-working as her. Her brother Armas is the biggest and most disgusting slob. She could hear him and his hooligans laugh in his chamber. Trying her best to ignore them, she walked past, but as Armas exited the room he called her over, "Hey sister! Come on in. We have room."
Lilyth groaned, "I have more important matters to attend to than entertain a room full of children."
Armas laughed, "Oh come on, loosen up. The slaves taught me that."
"Armas, if mother finds out-"
"What? What will she do? These slaves were given to me and I can do whatever I want with them."
"Is that so?", spoke a mature womanly voice, "Tell me, Armas, what exactly have you been doing?"
"M-Mother?", Armas uttered. Next to her was the second youngest daughter, Khelsa, along with the captive human girl, Amy. The two became friends after Amy arrived and while Alruna didn't support it at first, she learned that a child is a child, and her being from a supposedly savage land is irrelevant. "Nothing. Just questioning these captives with my soldiers."
"You mean raping women with your hooligans.", Alruna said as she walked into his room. The stench and sight made her sick. "Guards! Take these women to my chambers and bring along some maids. Clean them, feed them, and dress them properly." Guards did just that, pushing away the thugs who grunted in response.
"Khelsa?", Amy asked, "Is that your brother?"
Khelsa sighed in response, "Yes. I'm sorry you had to see this."
As the guards took the women out, Armas protested, "Mother, this is unfair. These women are my slaves. Furthermore, they are savages from a barbaric land. They should consider themselves lucky to even be in my presence. Father says-"
Alruna slapped him, stopping his sentence, "Your father may be the emperor, but I know him better than anyone else. He is narrow-minded and frightened, only seeing what is right in front of him, and never bothering to properly assess anything. We may be the chosen bringers of light, but if we act as barbaric as our adversaries then we are no better than them. Now, get this room cleaned and then yourself. You are royalty, act like it." With that Alruna and Lilyth left, leaving Armas to bicker and throw tantrums.
"Thank you, mother.", Lilyth said, "I must go now."
"Go, my daughter.", said Alruna. Lilyth bowed and entered her chamber.
"Fenris.", she spoke, "Is everything ready?"
"Yes, princess.", Fenris said, "The savage stands before you in chains and the scribe has prepared the parchment."
"Excellent. Scribe, you are to document any and all findings. Listen carefully. Do you understand?"
"Yes, princess.", answered the scribe.
"Let us begin.", Lilyth said as she walked to the captive, "What is your name?"
"You know that.", he answered and received a back-handed slap. After moving his head back, he answered, "Brian O'Neil."
"Where are you from?"
"My mom.", to which he received a punch in the stomach. It didn't hurt a lot, considering he was a large man. "The United States of America."
"Tell me more about it."
"It's a unity of fifty-two states with three hundred and fifty million people."
This shocked Lilyth but she didn't show it, "Are there more countries?"
"Many more. My country isn't even the biggest one."
"So there are more empires in your world."
"No, there aren't any."
Lilyth paused for a moment, "Then what?"
"We are a republic. We elect our leader and that leader represents us. He doesn't have all the power and all of his decisions are put to a vote. Empires and kings are a thing of the past."
"You expect me to believe that? A nation cannot function without a centralized figure controlling it."
Brad chuckled, "We use to think that, too. But we found out that the opposite is true. One person can control a city, or maybe a small nation. But the bigger a nation gets and the more powerful it gets, the more strain appears on a single person. This is why our nations are governed by dozens of people and we have careful systems for governance. A single person is not enough. He would only bring ruin."
This shocked Lilyth more. A system like this was always theorized by politicians and philosophers, but nothing was ever tested because the emperors abolished it, saying that it goes against the path of light. "You say that. But our empire has grown powerful and spread across the world. We have become its rulers and spreaders of wisdom, knowledge, and civilization."
"There used to be an empire in my world that thought just like you. They wanted to conquer the entire world and make it so that only their ways exist. Do you want to know what happened?"
"What?"
"They became too big. There was too much ground. Their forces were spread thin and could be picked off by united barbarians who didn't like their ways. War stopped and since their economy depended on it, it crumbled. Their politicians became corrupt and power-hungry. They stole from and even killed each other. Eventually, they fell beneath the force of the united kingdoms they called savages and were wiped out. This is why no one can truly conquer the world. No matter how hard you fight, the world always wins."
Lilyth clenched her fists and stared at Brad with an angered look, "You say that we will end up the same?"
"If you refuse to change, then yes.".
After staring at him for a few moments, she spoke, "Fenris! Take him back to his cell. We will continue this tomorrow."
"At once, princess.", Fenris said and grabbed Brad by the arm.
As they were walking out the door, Brad turned his head to Fenris, "You know she likes you, right?".
Fenris looked at him for a bit before pushing him forward. Lilyth was left to ponder Brad's words. There is still much for her to learn.
---
(That night)
Somewhere between Meilume capital and Una
Being a prisoner is never good. Your rights are taken away and the ones who captured you can do anything they want to you. They could kill you, sell you or worse. This was the predicament the Belus family found itself in. Out of the two hundred soldiers that accompanied them, only one soldier remained, the others were killed and fed to the welfen and leanoids. The Belus family was in a cage with the last soldier, Klaus, and a servant, Lia. The five of them were all sitting with their hands tied behind their backs, wondering what will happen next. Taria was still grieving over the death of Aego, not even lifting her head.
"Bellon.", Nimriel whispered, "What will happen to us?"
"Do not worry.", Bellon said, "We will alright."
"Stop lying, father.", Taria said, still with head lowered, "These people will first rape us, torture us and then demand ransom from the empire."
"Hush, my lady.", Lia said, "Don't say such things."
"What? The truth?"
"You should listen to the little girl.", said a rogue elf as he crouched in front of the cage. Behind him was the fire in the center of the camp with four more rogues, two leanoids, and one welfen. Most of the bandits were asleep, only over a dozen stayed awake. "The money we'll get from you will make us set for life. Sure, we might have lost more than half our men, but that just means more for the living."
Taria spat, "Open this cage and I'll show you a little girl."
The rogue chuckled, "Quite a fighter. I saw you kill that leanoid. You're good. Why don't you come with us?"
"Why would I join a bunch of good-for-nothing traitors? You know nothing of honor, duty or the light."
The rogue laughed, "They still teach that shit? The light is nothing but a made-up excuse the first emperor made so we can take these lands. People like us? We see the truth. And all of you are being manipulated."
"You dare mock the path of light?", asked Bellon.
"Shouldn't a bad joke be mocked?"
Taria and Bellon gritted their teeth. This is why rogues are killed on sight. They know nothing but greed. As Taria stared at the rogue, something appeared in the corner of her vision. A man in green armor held a black boomstick and aimed it at the bandits by the fire. She looked around and saw six more. Are they insane? If they fire it, it will alert everyone. But when they fired them, only a slight sound was heard. Enough for the rogue in front of her to turn around. He saw his mates dead, but couldn't call for help as his neck was ripped out by a welfen. The Belus family was in shock as the welfen opened the cage.
"Don't be afraid.", he spoke, "I'm with the Americans."
This confused the family. "Who?", Taria asked.
Soon after, a soldier in green got to them, "My name is Lieutenant Caden Roberts of RG-3. We're here to rescue you.". He cut their ropes and waved his hand to signal the rest of his men. As they moved, Taria saw the dead bodies of the bandits and when they got out of the camp she could see that only fifteen soldiers, including two tribals, came to rescue them.
"Who are you people?", Taria asked.
"We're the Rift Expeditionary Force from the United States of America.", said the lieutenant as he pressed a small metallic box which caused the entire bandit camp to get engulfed in flames. The bandits burned and screamed, some ran out of the camp but got shot by the green soldiers. Their camouflaged armor, repeating broomsticks, and fire magic puzzled Taria greatly. She couldn't even see their faces from their masks and eyewear. Who are they? Her questions had to wait a little longer, as iron carriages moved from behind them and opened.
"Lieutenant, is it go time?", spoke the man from one of the carriages.
"Yeah.", said the lieutenant, "Let's go, I'll get them to the MRAP. Come on.". He led the five of them to the middle carriages through its back door. It looked like it was completely made of metal and that it could take a cannon shot. This just further confused them. As the carriages started moving, they noticed that it was going at high speeds, even faster than horses.
"Who are you?", Bellon asked, "What do you want from us?"
The soldiers in front of them looked at each other before taking their masks and helmets off, revealing their pale faces. It wasn't anything sinister and they didn't look like they intended to harm them.
"I am sergeant Jeff Parker.", spoke one of them.
"I am staff sergeant Liam Cook.", spoke the other one, "Over here is Lioba, our feelian, and Olaf, our friendly welfen."
"It's welfen that attacked us.", Klaus spoke.
"Do not speak as if they are of my kind.", said Olaf in an angered tone, "Those beasts lost their meaning in life."
"What do you mean?", Jeff asked.
"Each wolf lives for the pack. For the tribe. He fights for it, provides for it, and dies for it. These wolves, they've abandoned their blood and chosen the life of a wild animal. They're no better than the ferals."
"I see. We have those too. We call them deserters. They flee the army and abandon their brothers. And so we hunt them down and punish them."
"As you should."
After some silence, Klaus spoke, "Forgive me. I meant no disrespect.". Olaf nodded.
"Are you taking us home?", Nimriel asked.
"No.", Liam said, "We're taking you to Galdush. Our lieutenant-general wishes to speak with you. Well, lord Bellon more specifically." The five went silent. This was the enemy from the rift, and now they're taking them to their leader.
"Are we to become your slaves then?", Taria asked.
Jeff and Liam chuckled a bit. "No no, of course not. That kind of thing is in the past for us. Our lieutenant-general only wants to speak with you. After a nice conversation, we will personally bring you back to the Meilume capital."
"How do you know its name?", Bellon asked.
"We have our ways. Now sit back and enjoy the ride.", Liam said as he pulled some blocks out of his pocket. When he opened it, it was gray and seemed to be food. After offering it to Lia, he spoke, "Hungry?". After some hesitation, Lia took it and tasted it. It was quite delicious. As she ate the whole thing, Liam chuckled as he opened a bag, "Don't strain yourself, I have enough for everyone."
---
(Several hours later)
Fort Galdush
"My lady.", said Lia as she shook Taria, "My lady, wake up, we've arrived."
Taria woke up, "What? How long have I been asleep?"
"A few hours, my lady."
This was surprising, to say the least, "We're already here?". She looked out the window and saw their fort as well as their machines. The M2 battle tanks rolled over the hills and fired at the targets, blasting through them. She saw soldiers shooting their guns and groups running in a circle. At the gate, the lieutenant introduced himself and the convoy continued. Inside, they could see soldiers clad in thick, metal armor carrying large boxes and as they got out of the MRAP they saw the Invictus ACs flying in the air. All of this overwhelmed them. To them, these were otherworldly monsters. To the rangers, it was a normal everyday occurrence.
Lieutenant Roberts stood in front of his men, "Alright. I will take lord Bellon Belus to lieutenant-general Coleman. Parker, Cook, you take the rest to their temporary residents."
"Yes sir.", both of them said as they saluted, "Okay, let's go. I promise it's nothing bad."
Taria, Lia, Nimriel, and Klaus went with Jeff and Liam to their residence while Caden took Bellon to the lieutenant-general. The two of them went into the central command building.
"Lieutenant Caden Roberts of Rift Group 3 here to see colonel Andrew Marshal and lieutenant-general Patrick Coleman.", he said to a woman who worked as a secretary.
After some delay, the woman nodded, "Go down the hall to meeting room two."
"Thank you. Come on.". Bellon followed Caden through the hall. He admired how it was crystal clear and pearl white like they were made of pure marble. As they walked they reached the meeting room and entered. Inside were two men who stood up immediately.
"Good morning.", said the first man, "I am lieutenant-general Patrick Coleman of the Rift Expeditionary Corp. And this is our logistics officer, colonel Andrew Marshal."
"Nice to meet you.", Andrew said, "You are the lord of Meilume, Bellon Belus, correct?"
Bellon stuttered, "Y-Yes I am. Great general, you have my eternal gratitude for saving my life, and my family.", he said as he bowed.
"Please.", Patrick spoke, "No need to bow. And please call me Patrick. Sit down."
"Thank you, Patrick.", Bellon said as he sat down, Caden next to him.
"While I accept your gratitude, I'm going to need to ask something else of you?"
'Of course. What was I expecting?', Bellon thought, "And what would that be? If it is gold I assure you the emperor will pay a decent sum for my family and me."
"Oh no, god no. I'm not asking for money. I need something from you that only someone of your status within the empire can provide."
'Someone of my status'. "What exactly?"
"As you know, your empire opened a rift in our country and attacked without warning and unprovoked. We beat the invasion force and the force than came after it. You lost two armies in less than a month, or, a moon cycle as you call them."
"Yes, I am aware of this. What does that have to do with me? I didn't send those armies."
"We know. But you have a connection with the person who did. And we want you to send a message to him for us."
'A message?' "And what kind of message?"
"We would like an audience with a representative to negotiate peace."
This stunned Bellon. 'Peace?'
---
(Meanwhile)
Jeff and Liam brought the four to an empty army barracks, reserved for these situations. "Okay.", Liam spoke, "You'll be staying here until the lieutenant-general orders otherwise. Don't worry, you'll be comfortable." They entered the barracks and it was clean, with several beds, a fridge, desks, and lights, which Jeff turned on, surprising the 'guests'.
"Make yourselves at home.", Jeff said, "I'll bring you some breakfast soon.". He left and closed the door, leaving the four to talk.
"What do you think will happen, Klaus?", Nimriel asked.
"I don't know, my lady.", he answered, "But we shouldn't do anything to anger them. I think we should wait and see what is to come."
Taria looked out the window and saw the tanks and LAVs driving past as well as soldiers marching in unison. "Incredible. All this power. They could have destroyed Meilume before we even had the chance to escape. And yet here we are. In their fortress, waiting for them to bring us food. They want something."
"Well.", Lia said, "That man who offered me the sweet food was nice. I think they're not that bad."
"They are the enemy, Lia. Enemies should never be trusted. It might seem like they are good, but they are using us. They want us here so we can witness their power and use us to spread fear through the rest of the empire. Clever."
"I think you are thinking too much about it, my lady. Perhaps you need to sit down, and rest."
Taria sighed. She walked to a nearby desk and observed the notebooks, pens, and pencils. She sat down and opened a notebook, immediately noticing how the paper is milk-white with lines to help her writing. Picking up one of the pens, she observed how smooth it was and made of spotless, thin metal, but also how it didn't have a tip. Then she noticed the round top and remembered how the lieutenant pressed his metal box. Pressing down the top, the pen clicked and the tip appeared. Amazed, she clicked it several more times before starting to write.
"Taria?", Nimriel asked, "What are you doing?"
"I'm writing down what I saw."
At that moment, Jeff opened the door and brought several white cardboard boxes, "I brought breakfast. I hope it's to your liking."
Each of them took one and Jeff put the last one on Taria's desk. She looked at him and asked, "Can you show me more of your fortress?"
Jeff hesitated a bit, "Why?"
"I'm curious. I wish to learn."
"So you can write it down and give the information to the army?". Taria sat silently. This wasn't untrue. "Look, we're not your enemy. Our commanding officer is talking to your father about peace. Truth is, we don't want war.". Taria paused to think about that. "But if I get permission, I'll show you around."
"I would appreciate it. Thank you."
​
End of chapter 10
​
---
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Expedition report from Rift Group 4
Report carried out by Lieutenant Marvin Bailey
Report states: Peaceful contact with the local town of Una has ended in failure. Upon nearing the gates, the elves demanded RG-4 to identify themselves and after identification, they opened fire on with bows, crossbows, and scorpions. RG4 retaliated by opening fire with its 50mm chain gun, destroying parts of the wall, killing an unknown number of defenders, and destroying their heavy defenses. The initial shock from the chain gun froze the defenders, allowing RG-4 to vacate the area with minimum damage and no losses taken. This was the first unsuccessful interaction with the local populace since the beginning of the expedition and the Rift Group program and it shows that not all natives will be pleased with REC's arrival.
Other news: The enemy force on the other side of the North Alston river has not shown any signs of movement. Moreover, drone footage shows a number of the local populace leaving the Meilume capital and Una across the river, further suggesting that the Imperial army wishes to fortify and wall off the area between the two Alston rivers with the intention of boxing the REC before attacking. CIA sources can confirm this is the case. As far as the Rosian vassal kingdoms are concerned, RG-1, upon making successful contact with the border town of Afa, has sent a platoon, led by lieutenant James Wilson, to the Alston capital of Olinor where they made contact with the king of Alston, Thavok Zorgen. After a number of debates, king Thavok has agreed to accompany the platoon to the duchies of Zirith, Dothen, and Elarith, as well as the kingdom of Opherin to convince the dukes and kind Ostontul to attend a meeting with ambassador Eugene Anderson. Additional transportation will be provided should it be necessary.
30th day of late yellow season
Elyana, Empire of Light
"So.", said the chained human, "Is it my turn to pick the nail or yours?". The torturer responded by punching him in the face. The prisoner spat out a piece of his tooth before answering, "C'mon, you're supposed to be consistent. It's nail, nail, cut, punch. The teeth come later when all the nails are gone. Everyone knows that.". The torturer punched him again. "There you go again, messing up the consistency. I think I know why you work in this shit hole now."
The torturer wanted to hit him again, but a voice stopped him, "Enough!". A moment later, two elves walked into the room.
"Great General Laeroth.", the torturer said as he bowed.
"How is the questioning, Maul?", Laeroth asked.
"Not well, my lord. This human is proving to be a greater challenge than I had anticipated. All I got was a name. Jack Mitchell."
Laeroth sighed as he approached the chained-up human. His body was cut in several places and half of his fingernails have been removed. In addition, he was missing two teeth and bleeding from his mouth and nose. Yet he still denies Maul. As much as it pained Laeroth to admit it, he was impressed. Any Rosian or even elf would have broken by now. What made this human different?
"Jack Mitchell.", Laeroth said, making Jack lift his head and smile.
"What's up?", Jack asked.
"The ceiling.", Laeroth answered, making Jack laugh. "What is humorous?"
"Maul over there said the same thing.", Jack replied as he wheezed, "You sure you're not related? You got the same shade."
This made Maul mad as he grabbed his hammer, "You insolent savage!"
"Calm yourself.", Laeroth said, "I still need this human alive. High mage Gunru, you have my permission.".
"Yes, general.", said Gunru. He was one of the seven high mages of the empire in North Altia, second only to the grand mage Ishton. Each high mage is able to use more than one type of magical ability. Usually, a mage is only able to use one ability from a single spirit. The mages of Vita can be healers or they can use their power to give life to made objects. This way they can create their own army, however, the mage has to remain alive in order for the creature to remain alive, and if the creature is destroyed the life will return back to its source. The mages of Elendi can use one of the various elements, such as wind, fire, water, and so on. One other ability the high mages possess is 'Mind read'. By focusing their spiritual energy on the mind of the target, they can visualize their knowledge.
"What the hell are you doing?", Jack asked as Gunru grabbed his head with both hands, "I mean I'm flattered but I'm into women, just so you know."
Gunru closed his eyes and white energy started appearing from his hands. That energy went into Jack's head, which remained perfectly still as this occurred. Gunru entered his mind and began to project Jack's memories, thoughts, and knowledge around him. Laeroth just watched. He himself couldn't see unless Gunru gave the knowledge to him. But he did see something that disturbed him. Gunru began to twitch. A twitching that turned to shake as his eyes opened and quickly pulled back while panting and holding his head as though he had a headache.
"Gunru.", Laeroth called, "Tell me, what have you seen?"
Gunru shook and could barely grasp the words to speak, "T-T-Terrible things. A mistake. All of this was a mistake."
"Show me."
"No!", Gunru yelled immediately, "You must not. I could not get all the details myself. You will go insane."
"I must know our enemy. Even if it is a little, I must know. Gunru, you must show me."
Gunru greatly hesitated and opposed this. But at the same time, he knew if anyone was able to take the strain, it was Laeroth, the most loyal servant of the empire. "Very well. I shall show you as much as I can. Forgive me."
As Gunru placed his hands on Laeroth's head, the same energy went into it. Laeroth opened his eyes and found himself on a field of battle. Two sides were fighting, humans. One side had blue clothing and the other was red, both fighting with cannons and boomsticks, but nothing else. The blue-clothed soldiers appeared to be winning and they charged the red ones, all while carrying a flag. Red and white stripes with stars. It was brutal. What could it mean?
Night turned to day over and over again, until another battle occurred. Same thing, broomsticks, and cannons, but they fought each other. Once again, there was a flag with stars and stripes but now there were two. A civil war? Hundreds of thousands of men died all for what?
Fast forward, Laeroth appeared in another field, but considerably more terrifying. It was a field of black mud, ash, and blood as far as the eye could see. Thousands upon thousands of bodies piled up around giant cannons that fired and destroyed castles. He could see waves of soldiers running forward at their dug-in enemies. They fell by the dozen until a few lucky ones reached the line and engaged in a brutal brawl. The fighting kept escalating until a massive white cloud filled the battlefield and everyone caught in started choking and dying.
Once the smoke cleared, Laeroth could see hundreds of thousands, no, millions of soldiers and armored beasts marching across a field. They fought another gigantic army, one Laeroth thought could never exist. Millions of troops met on the battlefield and slaughtered one another as the metal monsters spat fire and thousands of iron wyverns fought in the air. Massive ships of steel fired enormous cannons of steel at one another as hundreds of iron rods fell from the sky and flattened the cities below.
Closing and opening his eyes one more time he saw a city. A large city with towers of stone and glass that pierced the clouds. But then he saw it get destroyed as it was engulfed in a literal sea of flames. All of those people were dead in an instant, and in place of the city was a gigantic cloud in the shape of a mushroom.
The day turned to night again as Laeroth was lifted into the air and observed the world change. The nations fought one another while also existing in peace. Cities became massive and their armies even more powerful. But then, the fires came. The great cities turned to a smoldering pile of ash as they turned on one another in the name of 'salvation'. War, disease, poverty, entire civilizations were whipped out and empires started to fall. But in this chaos, something was born. The petty rivalry of the great powers vanished and united they led their armies and pulled the corruption by its roots. It took them decades but they did it. And now united, they rebuilt their homes. The world was not at peace but they made the most of it. At least until they showed up. The rift opened, the invasion failed and now an angered giant prepares to take its vengeance and punish them for their crimes.
Gunru stopped sending energy into Laeroth's mind and let go of his head. Laeroth bent over and panted. His heart was racing and his nose bleeding. He could not believe what he saw. Was there really no hope? Was this war lost before it even began? How was he to win? He wasn't, but he knew he couldn't just give up. His pride as a warrior and a soldier wouldn't let him. But more than that, it was Canus. His maniacal nature coupled with fear will only make things worse if he were to find out. Furthermore, the Inquisition will most likely pull strings and keep the war going for their sick and twisted games. Laeroth knew he had to come up with something, otherwise, the empire will crumble.
"General, are you alright.", Maul asked.
"I am fine Maul.", Laeroth answered, "Take the human back to the cell and treat his wounds. I will let you know what I want with him next later."
"Yes, my lord.", Maul said as he gestured to the guards to help him.
"Gunru."
"Yes, general?", Gunru answered.
"You must not speak of this to anyone. Not even the emperor. This stays between us. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, general."
"Good. Now excuse me, I must clean myself and prepare for the future.". Laeroth left the torture chamber and climbed up the steps to the halls. On his way to his personal chamber, he could feel a strange sensation run down his spine. The effects of the mind read? No, this was something else. He made a random turn and walked down a narrow hallway. After taking a few steps, he prepared a knife and waited. Soon, a cloaked individual suddenly appeared from behind the corner and started running away. Laeroth immediately gave chase, signaling the guards in front to stop him. Two guards formed up with shields, which made him stop for a moment. After a moment Laeroth threw his knife at his back. He yelled in pain as he fell over and the guards moved in.
"Leave him!", Laeroth shouted as he grabbed the man and pulled the cloak down. It turned out to be a woman. "Who sent you!? Talk!". His words fell on deaf ears as the woman's head twitched and a thick purple foam-like substance oozed from her mouth. Laeroth groaned and let her go, "Burn the body. Speak nothing of this.". The guards nodded and carried the body outside.
'Gilshor.', Laeroth thought, 'I will not let you turn this war into your own personal puppet show. The darkness will not rule the light.'
---
(Meanwhile)
Upper level of the Imperial palace
Lilyth Camilla Agorix was always a strange girl. While the other girls took care of their hair, she took care of the armor forged specifically for her. While the other girls practiced knitting and read poetry, she expressed an interest in politics and philosophy. This behavior wasn't particularly accepted by her father. Her mother, on the other hand, empress Alruna Flavia Agorix, greatly supported her. It was thanks to her effort that women were allowed to join the army, and at the moment, a tenth of the army is female. Alruna wasn't named the Lioness for anything, and Lilyth tries to live up to her expectations.
But some members of the family aren't as hard-working as her. Her brother Armas is the biggest and most disgusting slob. She could hear him and his hooligans laugh in his chamber. Trying her best to ignore them, she walked past, but as Armas exited the room he called her over, "Hey sister! Come on in. We have room."
Lilyth groaned, "I have more important matters to attend to than entertain a room full of children."
Armas laughed, "Oh come on, loosen up. The slaves taught me that."
"Armas, if mother finds out-"
"What? What will she do? These slaves were given to me and I can do whatever I want with them."
"Is that so?", spoke a mature womanly voice, "Tell me, Armas, what exactly have you been doing?"
"M-Mother?", Armas uttered. Next to her was the second youngest daughter, Khelsa, along with the captive human girl, Amy. The two became friends after Amy arrived and while Alruna didn't support it at first, she learned that a child is a child, and her being from a supposedly savage land is irrelevant. "Nothing. Just questioning these captives with my soldiers."
"You mean raping women with your hooligans.", Alruna said as she walked into his room. The stench and sight made her sick. "Guards! Take these women to my chambers and bring along some maids. Clean them, feed them, and dress them properly." Guards did just that, pushing away the thugs who grunted in response.
"Khelsa?", Amy asked, "Is that your brother?"
Khelsa sighed in response, "Yes. I'm sorry you had to see this."
As the guards took the women out, Armas protested, "Mother, this is unfair. These women are my slaves. Furthermore, they are savages from a barbaric land. They should consider themselves lucky to even be in my presence. Father says-"
Alruna slapped him, stopping his sentence, "Your father may be the emperor, but I know him better than anyone else. He is narrow-minded and frightened, only seeing what is right in front of him, and never bothering to properly assess anything. We may be the chosen bringers of light, but if we act as barbaric as our adversaries then we are no better than them. Now, get this room cleaned and then yourself. You are royalty, act like it." With that Alruna and Lilyth left, leaving Armas to bicker and throw tantrums.
"Thank you, mother.", Lilyth said, "I must go now."
"Go, my daughter.", said Alruna. Lilyth bowed and entered her chamber.
"Fenris.", she spoke, "Is everything ready?"
"Yes, princess.", Fenris said, "The savage stands before you in chains and the scribe has prepared the parchment."
"Excellent. Scribe, you are to document any and all findings. Listen carefully. Do you understand?"
"Yes, princess.", answered the scribe.
"Let us begin.", Lilyth said as she walked to the captive, "What is your name?"
"You know that.", he answered and received a back-handed slap. After moving his head back, he answered, "Brian O'Neil."
"Where are you from?"
"My mom.", to which he received a punch in the stomach. It didn't hurt a lot, considering he was a large man. "The United States of America."
"Tell me more about it."
"It's a unity of fifty-two states with three hundred and fifty million people."
This shocked Lilyth but she didn't show it, "Are there more countries?"
"Many more. My country isn't even the biggest one."
"So there are more empires in your world."
"No, there aren't any."
Lilyth paused for a moment, "Then what?"
"We are a republic. We elect our leader and that leader represents us. He doesn't have all the power and all of his decisions are put to a vote. Empires and kings are a thing of the past."
"You expect me to believe that? A nation cannot function without a centralized figure controlling it."
Brad chuckled, "We use to think that, too. But we found out that the opposite is true. One person can control a city, or maybe a small nation. But the bigger a nation gets and the more powerful it gets, the more strain appears on a single person. This is why our nations are governed by dozens of people and we have careful systems for governance. A single person is not enough. He would only bring ruin."
This shocked Lilyth more. A system like this was always theorized by politicians and philosophers, but nothing was ever tested because the emperors abolished it, saying that it goes against the path of light. "You say that. But our empire has grown powerful and spread across the world. We have become its rulers and spreaders of wisdom, knowledge, and civilization."
"There used to be an empire in my world that thought just like you. They wanted to conquer the entire world and make it so that only their ways exist. Do you want to know what happened?"
"What?"
"They became too big. There was too much ground. Their forces were spread thin and could be picked off by united barbarians who didn't like their ways. War stopped and since their economy depended on it, it crumbled. Their politicians became corrupt and power-hungry. They stole from and even killed each other. Eventually, they fell beneath the force of the united kingdoms they called savages and were wiped out. This is why no one can truly conquer the world. No matter how hard you fight, the world always wins."
Lilyth clenched her fists and stared at Brad with an angered look, "You say that we will end up the same?"
"If you refuse to change, then yes.".
After staring at him for a few moments, she spoke, "Fenris! Take him back to his cell. We will continue this tomorrow."
"At once, princess.", Fenris said and grabbed Brad by the arm.
As they were walking out the door, Brad turned his head to Fenris, "You know she likes you, right?".
Fenris looked at him for a bit before pushing him forward. Lilyth was left to ponder Brad's words. There is still much for her to learn.
---
(That night)
Somewhere between Meilume capital and Una
Being a prisoner is never good. Your rights are taken away and the ones who captured you can do anything they want to you. They could kill you, sell you or worse. This was the predicament the Belus family found itself in. Out of the two hundred soldiers that accompanied them, only one soldier remained, the others were killed and fed to the welfen and leanoids. The Belus family was in a cage with the last soldier, Klaus, and a servant, Lia. The five of them were all sitting with their hands tied behind their backs, wondering what will happen next. Taria was still grieving over the death of Aego, not even lifting her head.
"Bellon.", Nimriel whispered, "What will happen to us?"
"Do not worry.", Bellon said, "We will alright."
"Stop lying, father.", Taria said, still with head lowered, "These people will first rape us, torture us and then demand ransom from the empire."
"Hush, my lady.", Lia said, "Don't say such things."
"What? The truth?"
"You should listen to the little girl.", said a rogue elf as he crouched in front of the cage. Behind him was the fire in the center of the camp with four more rogues, two leanoids, and one welfen. Most of the bandits were asleep, only over a dozen stayed awake. "The money we'll get from you will make us set for life. Sure, we might have lost more than half our men, but that just means more for the living."
Taria spat, "Open this cage and I'll show you a little girl."
The rogue chuckled, "Quite a fighter. I saw you kill that leanoid. You're good. Why don't you come with us?"
"Why would I join a bunch of good-for-nothing traitors? You know nothing of honor, duty or the light."
The rogue laughed, "They still teach that shit? The light is nothing but a made-up excuse the first emperor made so we can take these lands. People like us? We see the truth. And all of you are being manipulated."
"You dare mock the path of light?", asked Bellon.
"Shouldn't a bad joke be mocked?"
Taria and Bellon gritted their teeth. This is why rogues are killed on sight. They know nothing but greed. As Taria stared at the rogue, something appeared in the corner of her vision. A man in green armor held a black boomstick and aimed it at the bandits by the fire. She looked around and saw six more. Are they insane? If they fire it, it will alert everyone. But when they fired them, only a slight sound was heard. Enough for the rogue in front of her to turn around. He saw his mates dead, but couldn't call for help as his neck was ripped out by a welfen. The Belus family was in shock as the welfen opened the cage.
"Don't be afraid.", he spoke, "I'm with the Americans."
This confused the family. "Who?", Taria asked.
Soon after, a soldier in green got to them, "My name is Lieutenant Caden Roberts of RG-3. We're here to rescue you.". He cut their ropes and waved his hand to signal the rest of his men. As they moved, Taria saw the dead bodies of the bandits and when they got out of the camp she could see that only fifteen soldiers, including two tribals, came to rescue them.
"Who are you people?", Taria asked.
"We're the Rift Expeditionary Force from the United States of America.", said the lieutenant as he pressed a small metallic box which caused the entire bandit camp to get engulfed in flames. The bandits burned and screamed, some ran out of the camp but got shot by the green soldiers. Their camouflaged armor, repeating broomsticks, and fire magic puzzled Taria greatly. She couldn't even see their faces from their masks and eyewear. Who are they? Her questions had to wait a little longer, as iron carriages moved from behind them and opened.
"Lieutenant, is it go time?", spoke the man from one of the carriages.
"Yeah.", said the lieutenant, "Let's go, I'll get them to the MRAP. Come on.". He led the five of them to the middle carriages through its back door. It looked like it was completely made of metal and that it could take a cannon shot. This just further confused them. As the carriages started moving, they noticed that it was going at high speeds, even faster than horses.
"Who are you?", Bellon asked, "What do you want from us?"
The soldiers in front of them looked at each other before taking their masks and helmets off, revealing their pale faces. It wasn't anything sinister and they didn't look like they intended to harm them.
"I am sergeant Jeff Parker.", spoke one of them.
"I am staff sergeant Liam Cook.", spoke the other one, "Over here is Lioba, our feelian, and Olaf, our friendly welfen."
"It's welfen that attacked us.", Klaus spoke.
"Do not speak as if they are of my kind.", said Olaf in an angered tone, "Those beasts lost their meaning in life."
"What do you mean?", Jeff asked.
"Each wolf lives for the pack. For the tribe. He fights for it, provides for it, and dies for it. These wolves, they've abandoned their blood and chosen the life of a wild animal. They're no better than the ferals."
"I see. We have those too. We call them deserters. They flee the army and abandon their brothers. And so we hunt them down and punish them."
"As you should."
After some silence, Klaus spoke, "Forgive me. I meant no disrespect.". Olaf nodded.
"Are you taking us home?", Nimriel asked.
"No.", Liam said, "We're taking you to Galdush. Our lieutenant-general wishes to speak with you. Well, lord Bellon more specifically." The five went silent. This was the enemy from the rift, and now they're taking them to their leader.
"Are we to become your slaves then?", Taria asked.
Jeff and Liam chuckled a bit. "No no, of course not. That kind of thing is in the past for us. Our lieutenant-general only wants to speak with you. After a nice conversation, we will personally bring you back to the Meilume capital."
"How do you know its name?", Bellon asked.
"We have our ways. Now sit back and enjoy the ride.", Liam said as he pulled some blocks out of his pocket. When he opened it, it was gray and seemed to be food. After offering it to Lia, he spoke, "Hungry?". After some hesitation, Lia took it and tasted it. It was quite delicious. As she ate the whole thing, Liam chuckled as he opened a bag, "Don't strain yourself, I have enough for everyone."
---
(Several hours later)
Fort Galdush
"My lady.", said Lia as she shook Taria, "My lady, wake up, we've arrived."
Taria woke up, "What? How long have I been asleep?"
"A few hours, my lady."
This was surprising, to say the least, "We're already here?". She looked out the window and saw their fort as well as their machines. The M2 battle tanks rolled over the hills and fired at the targets, blasting through them. She saw soldiers shooting their guns and groups running in a circle. At the gate, the lieutenant introduced himself and the convoy continued. Inside, they could see soldiers clad in thick, metal armor carrying large boxes and as they got out of the MRAP they saw the Invictus ACs flying in the air. All of this overwhelmed them. To them, these were otherworldly monsters. To the rangers, it was a normal everyday occurrence.
Lieutenant Roberts stood in front of his men, "Alright. I will take lord Bellon Belus to lieutenant-general Coleman. Parker, Cook, you take the rest to their temporary residents."
"Yes sir.", both of them said as they saluted, "Okay, let's go. I promise it's nothing bad."
Taria, Lia, Nimriel, and Klaus went with Jeff and Liam to their residence while Caden took Bellon to the lieutenant-general. The two of them went into the central command building.
"Lieutenant Caden Roberts of Rift Group 3 here to see colonel Andrew Marshal and lieutenant-general Patrick Coleman.", he said to a woman who worked as a secretary.
After some delay, the woman nodded, "Go down the hall to meeting room two."
"Thank you. Come on.". Bellon followed Caden through the hall. He admired how it was crystal clear and pearl white like they were made of pure marble. As they walked they reached the meeting room and entered. Inside were two men who stood up immediately.
"Good morning.", said the first man, "I am lieutenant-general Patrick Coleman of the Rift Expeditionary Corp. And this is our logistics officer, colonel Andrew Marshal."
"Nice to meet you.", Andrew said, "You are the lord of Meilume, Bellon Belus, correct?"
Bellon stuttered, "Y-Yes I am. Great general, you have my eternal gratitude for saving my life, and my family.", he said as he bowed.
"Please.", Patrick spoke, "No need to bow. And please call me Patrick. Sit down."
"Thank you, Patrick.", Bellon said as he sat down, Caden next to him.
"While I accept your gratitude, I'm going to need to ask something else of you?"
'Of course. What was I expecting?', Bellon thought, "And what would that be? If it is gold I assure you the emperor will pay a decent sum for my family and me."
"Oh no, god no. I'm not asking for money. I need something from you that only someone of your status within the empire can provide."
'Someone of my status'. "What exactly?"
"As you know, your empire opened a rift in our country and attacked without warning and unprovoked. We beat the invasion force and the force than came after it. You lost two armies in less than a month, or, a moon cycle as you call them."
"Yes, I am aware of this. What does that have to do with me? I didn't send those armies."
"We know. But you have a connection with the person who did. And we want you to send a message to him for us."
'A message?' "And what kind of message?"
"We would like an audience with a representative to negotiate peace."
This stunned Bellon. 'Peace?'
---
(Meanwhile)
Jeff and Liam brought the four to an empty army barracks, reserved for these situations. "Okay.", Liam spoke, "You'll be staying here until the lieutenant-general orders otherwise. Don't worry, you'll be comfortable." They entered the barracks and it was clean, with several beds, a fridge, desks, and lights, which Jeff turned on, surprising the 'guests'.
"Make yourselves at home.", Jeff said, "I'll bring you some breakfast soon.". He left and closed the door, leaving the four to talk.
"What do you think will happen, Klaus?", Nimriel asked.
"I don't know, my lady.", he answered, "But we shouldn't do anything to anger them. I think we should wait and see what is to come."
Taria looked out the window and saw the tanks and LAVs driving past as well as soldiers marching in unison. "Incredible. All this power. They could have destroyed Meilume before we even had the chance to escape. And yet here we are. In their fortress, waiting for them to bring us food. They want something."
"Well.", Lia said, "That man who offered me the sweet food was nice. I think they're not that bad."
"They are the enemy, Lia. Enemies should never be trusted. It might seem like they are good, but they are using us. They want us here so we can witness their power and use us to spread fear through the rest of the empire. Clever."
"I think you are thinking too much about it, my lady. Perhaps you need to sit down, and rest."
Taria sighed. She walked to a nearby desk and observed the notebooks, pens, and pencils. She sat down and opened a notebook, immediately noticing how the paper is milk-white with lines to help her writing. Picking up one of the pens, she observed how smooth it was and made of spotless, thin metal, but also how it didn't have a tip. Then she noticed the round top and remembered how the lieutenant pressed his metal box. Pressing down the top, the pen clicked and the tip appeared. Amazed, she clicked it several more times before starting to write.
"Taria?", Nimriel asked, "What are you doing?"
"I'm writing down what I saw."
At that moment, Jeff opened the door and brought several white cardboard boxes, "I brought breakfast. I hope it's to your liking."
Each of them took one and Jeff put the last one on Taria's desk. She looked at him and asked, "Can you show me more of your fortress?"
Jeff hesitated a bit, "Why?"
"I'm curious. I wish to learn."
"So you can write it down and give the information to the army?". Taria sat silently. This wasn't untrue. "Look, we're not your enemy. Our commanding officer is talking to your father about peace. Truth is, we don't want war.". Taria paused to think about that. "But if I get permission, I'll show you around."
"I would appreciate it. Thank you."
End of chapter 10
​
---
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This is really important for me, so i will detail it and as such the post will be long, but i will try to make it more readable. I also have a basic tldr at the end. I am curious if you can relate to my case.
Background: I am having this disease since my first year in highschool. Now i am 24 years old, and while sometimes it almost goes away, it always ends up coming back. I first went to a good doctor in my second college year and i used xolair, which instantly helped. After a year or two though, they came back, i took xolair, helped again. Now it came back again, on full power, last month, which i took xolair again two days ago, but this time it did not helped instantly, yet. I dont see much relief on antihistamines. I am waiting for the relief for now.
For me, the disease feels like a spectrum, and i have observed that it has changed over time. At first, almost all the time i got little red dots, that are swallowen were watery, all over my body. What i felt was not itching but TERRIBLE burning/stinging pain. And after waiting for some minutes, they went away. With time, visual effects have diminished. Now, when they do show up, its either red skin or small sized bunch of red dots. I started to feel it even though nothing break outs in my body, unless its really extreme. Sometimes i am healed enough that i FEEL the urticaria is still there, but i do not get the pain. Sometimes its managable uncomfort. But when its in the end of the spectrum, its like i have internalized mt urticaria to the point that it is always there.
What i cant relate: Usually when i see posts on here or the depiction/description of urticaria, it is as if the hives break out, and after some time it goes away, sometimes with taking a medicine. And most of the time, the visual effects are there, such as swallowing, red skin. I cant exactly relate to this.
My case: I am in the most unpleasent phase right now, so i will describe you how it is. It happens INSTANTLY, and it does not breaks out on full scale or shows any visual sign unless i dont stop exposing myself to the cause. What is the cause? Well, 2 main factors.
First is emontional stress: in ANY form. THE moment i strongly feel ANYTHING, instant wave of pain. Its like someone hits you with a tazer gun. Someone said something that made me a little anxious? Pain. Almost tripped over a rock? Pain. Feel like crying? Pain. Regressed an emotion? Pain. Listening the music that gave you goosebumps? Pain. For example, when i am listening music, the moment i feel that pain, i stop listening the music, i wont completly break out. When it happens, i can FEEL as if my veins pump poison and that it leaks inside me, so if i calm dowm and close the pump, its fine. However if i let it leak, i will be complelty in pain and covered in red dots.
Another cause is phsyical: I think this will be more relatable, as my body heat is rising up my urticaria will also build up. Under the sun, in an closed stuffy place, exercise, throwing the trash, if i let my heart pump more blood then normal, and if i let my body warm up and tire myself, it will build up. That is why especially on hot days, i walk for five minutes, then the moment i feel the first shock and feel myself just a bit tired, i rest myself amd let myself cool for a minute, then proceed.
Alas: So as you can guess life turns to hell when i have it in this form. I refrain from social situations so i dont get uncomftable and be in pain, cant go anywhere on time because i have to rest every minute, and i have to basically shut myself in during hot days and summer. Worst part is i cant realisticly explain myself to everyone anytime, especilly because it can happen instanly in social situations. And its usually not known so i have to explain it in full which puts me in stress which can start my urticaria building up. am praying xolair takes effects asap again.
Tl;dr: So for me i feel it is more internalized an it is with me every second, and it builds itself up, like the overheat meters in games, instead of breaking out for certain periods, and i can feel it building up. Its almost there and its reflexive, spontaneus. It wont have an affect on my skin if its still on the bottom half of the meter, but if i let it build up it will start covering my body in little red dots and will increase the more i let it go on, which i do see here sometimes.

And I really loved it. I would like to share some of my favorite moments in the game, and personal opinions on them. (My english may not be good, it's not my first language.)
In my first playthrough, I let Connor remain android and not deviant ("evil" Connor route?), made Markus lead a pacifist rebellion (that turned violent oops), and successfully got Kara, Alice and Luther to Canada.
- The opening
It got me interested in the game right away, Connor's mission was interesting, Markus's story showed the city in such a realistic way that it felt like I was really there - and the intro with Kara was very beautiful.
- The artist's son though. Very disrespectful. I'm glad I didn't see him again in the playthrough.
- The game's style being very realistic
I really like how the characters would have such realistic expressions, and how they'd have raindrops on their face when it rained, or snow when it snowed. Even the way your character turns when you walk close to another - loved it. I don't play such realistic games often.
- Connor's story
I really liked it - it was funny at times, but serious too. I liked figuring out what had happened at the crime scene. While I played the "evil" connor route, I really liked the scene where he met Markus, another android like him, but a "Deviant". Since Connor remained android, he did not see him as a living being, that felt and thought, that had a dream or a cause; he just saw a Deviant he had to dispose of. It was very interesting.
Amanda was not nice though. I did my best and she just replaced Connor :(
- Kara and Alice
"These two really can't get a break" is the first thing I thought. As soon as they found some peace, things got difficult once again; going around without shelter, the police on their tail, Zlatko and even the amusement park in the snow (those androids gave me a heart attack).
I really felt like a mother that just wanted Alice to be warm, dry and safe somewhere, so I could finally be at peace as well. Luther was so sweet too, it was very nice.
In the final chapter, I couldn't bring myself to sacrifice him - though I did feel bad about asking Jerry to do that instead. Such a hard decision, right when everything seemed to be going well for once...
- Markus being down in the dumps
...please excuse my poor attempt at a joke. Anyway, that was a great chapter. It felt very realistic, with the way Markus was crawling and looking for decent body parts to use for himself - and then climbing the wall of garbage to get out... and the close-up, with the way the rain fell, Markus's new heterochromia and the way he walked away with the jacket. Very cool and immersive.
- Quick decisions
I had to memorize the keys and buttons to press fast! I thought I knew them, but the fighting scenes made me take back that thought. Had to act fast and think fast. This game also made me realize I'm really bad at making decisions.
- Kamski's test
I expected something like that since the moment Kamski started speaking to Connor, but that didn't make it any less interesting. As I was going for the "Connor remains machine, not deviant" route, I decided to shoot Chloe (was this her name? I forgot): I needed those answers from Kamski after all. That being said, I half-expected the menu lady to get mad at me when I finished my playthrough that day lol
- Night of the Soul chapter
The moment I saw the house's atmosphere, the gun, and especially Hank's dog being sad, I had a feeling something bad was going to happen; and yet it was still so sudden, and the scene was incredibly well made. The dog barking after the shot made me feel guilty :(
- The chapter where Connor was aiming at Markus from the top of the building, but the cops interrupted him, and Connor looking like "I'm so done with humans"
- Markus' final fight and North's death
Because as I said, I did not do very well with pressing the right buttons fast. During the fight I was doing pretty well, I had teammates covering me and I was advancing. I fought off some soldiers, and after a bit of button mashing, everything seemed to be peaceful... until a drone suddenly appeared. I was not quick enough, and in a second, North was dead.
I'm used to slow deaths in games, like characters bleeding out or similar; I don't play many games with guns and such. For this reason, seeing North just be shot and die in a matter of seconds was shocking; I didn't even like her that much, but she had a bond with Markus, and I felt guilty, as if it was my fault he had lost his lover. Nearly made me cry - one of the most well-made scenes I've ever seen.
- The menu lady left :( do I get another one? It was nice to have my menu talk to me... though when she started looking around with that worried expression I thought my game was broken.
- The menu lady going "oh your save file is corrupted! ...hehe it was a joke."
Nevermind. I do not in fact miss her.
That's all I have in mind, honestly the game was so good I'm still feeling the excitement and all the emotions it gave me. I can't wait to play it again and see how the next playthrough goes!
Have a nice day, and if you read this far, thank you :D

Watonga City, Mothers realm
April 3rd, 2291
8:30 pm
Diana landed outside the city, Frank disembarked and explained why the bloodthirsty creature was not a threat, all the while Wendy watched. She had felt something off about Oklahoma as soon as they neared its borders, her ears rang at random times, and she had nightmares of mutants. She had kept these things to herself as she had not wanted to worry Frank but now, they were becoming unbearable, her ears rang as Frank stood there calming the crowd but then suddenly stopped.
"Welcome, we've been expecting you two!"
Wendy looked to see a woman in her Middle Ages approaching her the crowd.
"I'm so sorry for the crowd we don't often get visitors around here."
"It's alright. But what do you mean you have been expecting us?"
"You're Sarah’s little boy toy, right?"
Frank stood up straight upon hearing Sarah’s name.
"I'm Victoria...I'm somewhat in charge around here. Please come in. And bring that thing in here..."
Frank turned to Wendy and nodded towards her. Wendy took the reigns and tapped Diana slightly to go forward. However, the griffon did not budge. She did it again and once more nothing.
"Diana come on."
The griffon sat down and shook Wendy off of it before unfurling its wings and flying up into the sky.
"HEY WAIT!"
Frank ran over to Wendy who sat on the ground.
"Hey you hurt?!"
"Why would she do that?"
"I don't know maybe she's not used to cities being full. Look we can find her after. This is the destination."
"Wait what?"
"We made it."
Frank helped Wendy off the ground and led her to the small gate that surrounded the city.
"I'm so sorry for the trouble of you coming here...we tried to make the trip to you but there were....complications."
"So, I take it you know about her?"
"Yes, she's a psyker...as am I and many others here."
Wendy looked up at the woman.
"You're a psyker too?!"
"Yep, I can influence people with my voice. It's how I got honcho here to trust me so easily at first."
Wendy turned to Frank who now realized just how relaxed he was earlier.
"We call it harmonic influentia..you have electrokinesis it's a rare trait here...but out west more common."
Wendy looked around the city, everything was so clean and pristine. These people were thriving, and Frank even seemed to agree.
"So, where's this training facility of yours?"
"It's by the capital building, we call it the chapel."
("Frank so what now?")
Frank shrugged.
"So do you guys get a lot of issues from Texas?"
"The occasional border skirmish with them but we can charm them away mainly. We are very isolationist...we tend to keep to ourselves and so we do not tolerate violence much. We have few guns to be honest. Only our army and guards carry them."
"I can respect isolationism but only trusting weapons in the hands of certain individuals is an issue."
Frank smelt a small nudge and turned to his left. Wendy mouthed to him.
*Shut up*
"No, it's fine, we're all our own individuals after all."
"How did you?"
"Oh, and would you look at that we’re here already."
Wendy looked at the building, it was large and covered with lavish ornaments.
"So why do you call it the chapel?"
"We worship our mother here."
"Mother?"
"Yes, she grants us ideas, instructions and much more. I will lead a sermon tomorrow if you wish to see more."
"You wouldn't happen to know of a Dorkin's would you?"
"Dor....oh the apostate.... yes he was a good man, but he grew radical wanted to create a society ruled by mother. We banished him almost a decade ago, I heard he established his own branch of our church in Utah."
"We had a few run ins with his men just...curious if you were connected."
"No, you're safe...we're not as radical in our beliefs."
Victoria led them up the stairs and into the chapel throwing the golden doors open.
"Welcome....this is our, training ground and your new home Wendy"
"Wait home?"
"Yes, you are staying with us, right?"
"I...I..."
Wendy turned to Frank and looked at him.
"Can he stay too?"
Victoria's eyebrows frowned for a second.
"Of course.....he's more than welcome to."
"I can stay...still need to clear my name back in NCR anyway, bastards still think I'm a murderer."
"Then that settles it, the rooms are up the stairs and to the left, they're all empty right now as school is out of session so you can pick one for the time being then come join us for dinner."
Frank and Wendy thanked Victoria before walking off to find two rooms.
"I'll pick whatever is closest too your room got it?"
"Yeah...hey so how are we going to find Diana?"
"We won't have to, she's right outside."
Frank walked over to a window and pointed up to the sky. A large creature flew in the silhouette of the moon.
"She refuses to come in, so she'll probably just be in the area hunting local fauna, you made her promise not to eat random people, right?"
"Yeah, I did."
"Alright well...leave your stuff and let's go eat dinner, chef Kingly can take a break."
Wendy chuckled as she opened the door and threw the bag onto the small bed. The room was small and cozy, there was a sink and a bar of soap. A small toilet was on the other side of the room surrounded by more luxurious items.
"I could get use to this."
As Wendy touched the counter her head throbbed, and her ears rang. She closed her eyes tightly as the pain hit her head. She groaned and grabbed at her head trying everything to make the pain go away. Then the smell hit her, it was horrendous, her stomach curled, and she grew nauseous.
"Wendy you alright?!"
A image flashed in her mind, a giant conglomerate of flesh and machinery held together by old wire and sinew. She opened her eyes and screamed out in horror Frank stood over her as she lay there.
"Hey kid you alright?!"
He looked at her worried.
"What happened?"
"You passed out. I heard you fall and came in here. Picked you up and placed you on the bed. You almost fried me, what happened, did you hit your head?"
"I..."
The image of gore flashed in her mind.
"I... yeah...I hit my head on the counter."
"Well be more careful......do you still want to eat dinner? I can tell them to bring the food here."
"No, I'm fine.... let's go..."
Wendy got up off the bed and wiped the drool from her mouth.
"I am no doctor...but you had a seizure.... I think we should-"
"I said let's go!"
Wendy tied her hair back into a ponytail and threw water on her face quickly cleaning up before walking towards the door.
"If you insist."
* 15 minutes later
Frank and Wendy sat down at the table with Victoria. The dining room was luxurious, it was clean solid metal and gold.
"How do you guys afford this stuff?"
"It's all just stuff we've found in and around our city, Morgana has put it to good use. You guys must be hungry."
Victoria clapped her hands and a Mr. Handy appeared from another room holding 3 trays of food.
^{"Your dinner sir and misses."}
“So, where is everybody else?”
“As I have said they are out on break usually I teach the classes and hold dinner but right now it's just us three.”
Wendy looked at her plate.
“What is this?”
“Salmon from the shores of Texas.”
“Salmon?”
“Have you never seen a fish before?!”
Frank said tearing and cleaning the fish tail of any meat.
“Locked in a cage remember?!”
“Oh yes, those damn brutes in the NCR. I swear they have no manners; it must have been awful having all those tests done on you. I experienced a similar fate before the war. All those damn lab coats, poking and prodding at me.”
“Wait before the war?! How...how old are you?”
Frank looked up from the fish and looked back and forth at Wendy and Victoria.
“Cannot say really. I like to think I am young, but my age occasionally shows Morgana is the beautiful one. But at my best guess I am around 226.”
Wendy sat mouth open as she looked at the woman who just shrugged off immortality.
“So, you can’t die or age?!”
“Age, no. Die, we very much can... its mother that keeps us this young, she uses her abilities to influence our cells to prevent the ones we love from dying, by natural means.”
“Oh, well what happened?”
“Hmmm?”
“You said you were in a lab how did you escape?”
“Ahh yes...the great war, it short circuited the power to our cages.... we escaped and... we banished the scientists to the waste.”
Frank cleaned his hand as he looked upon the conversation, he was not a psyker so he simply sat quietly as the two talked.
“So, Wendy when did you learn to control your abilities? Sarah mentioned you struggled at first to close your mind to other thoughts.”
“I struggle slightly but I have managed to prevent it most of the time. I learned it when I was around 6. Then there was pyrokinesis at 8, and electrokinesis was more recent around a month ago now, and even closer was my ability to talk to beasts hence the griffon.”
“Interesting...”
Frank set his fork down.
“You could make fire this entire time and you’ve been making me struggle for 5 minutes to turn on an old stove every day!?”
“Yeah, I didn’t want to be our damn cooking tool.”
Frank sighed as he continued to eat. He was out of his league and so he quickly finished his meal and excused himself. He walked the halls for a bit, they were old slightly rusted but articulated well. Then he saw her. A woman in purple standing on a balcony smoking a cigarette.
“Hello there handsome.”
Frank felt worried then suddenly at ease.”
“Victoria had said it was just us 3 tonight. I take it you are not supposed to be here.”
“I go where I please, I designed this grand hall after all.”
“You must be the lovely Morgana then.”
“I see V mentioned me.”
“She did...she left out how beautiful you were though.”
“You outsiders really know how to flatter a girl.”
“I should, seduction is a trait I practiced well o-”
“Oh, there you are Frank, who's this?”
Frank blinked his eyes quickly then looked behind him to see Wendy standing there holding a small cup.
“When did you...never mind this is... Morgana....shes the designer of this grand hall...”
“A pleasure to meet you...but I must be going now...so see you soon.”
Downstairs
“I thought she ordered you to seduce him?!”
“I tried, that little rat showed up. The reports were right Lysander, she is powerful, her mere presence broke my hold on him.”
“Not to worry. V still has a plan.”
“That girl is more powerful than any of us could have imagined, Dorkin's is right she’s better off dead even if it's not what mother wants.”
Lysander and Morgana opened the door to V’s room
“AND WHO WILL WE USE INSTEAD MORGANA?!”
Victoria shouted at her from behind before pushing them both in.
“HMM? YOU?!”
“No, V it's just...so many have died for one gir-”
V walked over to the desk in the room as she stared at Morgana
“They have died for the Putrescent mother. If I hear more of this talk, I will have you killed for treason! Since you did not seduce and have the guardian fall in love with you, I must alter my plan to make him wish to stay, Lysander!”
“Yes?”
“From my conversation with the vessel I have learned that her guardian is one with a strategic mind. In the morning show him one of our pleasant arms factories, but do not harm him. I cannot convince the vessel by force; she must do it willingly for the ritual to be complete.”
“I will do as told.”
“Why must we convince the guardian?”
“Her attachment to him is too strong. And she will not believe him just leaving so we must make it seem like he loves it here, so when we offer her the chance to bring prosperity her mind dwells on him not us.”
“I understand, V please allow me to try again. You must keep the vessel distracted long enough to-”
“No! You had your chance and unless he fails you shall live with that guilt, or you can join the Dowagers!”
“I understand...V I don’t like what you’ve become...”
“I’ve become what mother needs of me to become.”

In this subreddit we show our Lego buildings that we have spent time in. It can be Lego Duplo or off brand Lego as long as it's not profanity, nudity, no racial slurs. Here we do not care about your race and we ask you get along with eachother. I will post rules here.
No cussing No nudity No racism Constructive criticism is ok but no bullying No reporting out of spite No spamming Guns are ok but no shooting up schools

Here is a list of commonly reported bugs and glitches I have read in the subreddit. I have also experienced most of them myself.
• Hits not registering/bots dying only after several hits. According to some this also seems to apply to players.
• Emergency reload: Having to cock the gun although there is a bullet in the chamber, this seemingly small detail is actually a strategic part of the gunplay.
• Deaths by "invisible" bots or through thick cover where you should be protected.
• Explosive caches sometimes not receiving damage from granades/molotovs and having to be destroyed only by planting an explosive.
• Optics with higher than 1x magnification being shrunk. (Setting FOV to 90 seems to help but it is not an ideal solution obviously.)
• Backpacks and gasmasks floating around, dead enemies standing still weirdly.
• Choosing one outfit, it is correct in-game (confirmed by first person view skin and observing own dead body) but shows smt else in loadout menu.
Edit: for the first time in 6 months of playing the game it crashed, right before entering a Last Light game. Not enjoying this at all.
• Here is ann old one 😇 : Secondary weapon/explosives not showing in first person view although working correctly (can still be considered a bug as it can be quite confusing)
Do we have a way to report these on consoles or only thing we can do is hoping guys in Mew World are following social media?

​
Ahh, dear reader, hello there! So lovely to see you once more... well figuratively speaking that is… or is it?
After all, I am exceedingly well versed in The Arts. Maybe I am watching you at this very moment, with Clairvoyance or perhaps a Scrying Spell or maybe an enchanted object like the good old fashioned Crystal Ball? The Magus has one you know…
Just teasing… or am I? …teeheehee…
Anyway, this latest instalment comes to you courtesy via a Voice to Text application my Magus recently acquired for me, as he said listening to me speak aloud while typing is too distracting for him. I find that interesting considering his immense mental discipline yet understandable at the same time. After all, extoling ones inner monolog to an uncaring audience would be tedious to experience. Hmm… I’ve just thought of a new torture for the souls of the dammed, specifically for writers who think they are better than everyone around them. How ingenious of me!
In any case, I would prefer to distract him in other ways, mark you.
I also must say what wonderfully inventive creatures you humans are! An application of mathematical code, the base language of reality. It is very much like a spell in its function and nature I would say, that it allows my phone, yes the Magus got me one, to record all I say and transcribes it into neatly typed words on its electronic pages. It’s like having a monk-scribe in your pocket! Unquestionably wonderful!
So as I relax in my fabulously hot, luxurious scented, oiled bubble bath, I can easily regale you with further tales of the adventures I have had thus far on this wonderous blue and brown spherical rock that is third in line from our star. And I do not have to type with two fingers either, which is a massive bonus let me tell you!
If memory serves… ahh yes, we had just returned to the car where I saw a sign of my Magus’s humour on display in the form of his licence plate.
I do have to admit dear reader, I was indeed highly amused. He knows he’s going to hell, he just insists that it be on his terms! I love it! Such confidence, such audacious willpower.
That is exceedingly… stimulating for Succubi.
Ok dammit, it makes me tremendously horny, and I’m not talking about the ones on my head either you know! We are incredibly lusty beings, us Succubi, after all.
I was already in a highly ‘excited’ state when we got to the car, so much so that I had to use my Cell Adjustment Psionic discipline to tremendously dull down my inflamed senses as I did not wish to leave the tell-tale mark of my inflamed passion on the lower back portion of my new dress and also not on the car-seat when I sat back down in the vehicle.
Ahem…
After a few moments, which caused the Magus to glance up at me with a slightly puzzled expression, of standing outside the car (he had no idea nor cared… hmmph!) I opened the door and folded myself back inside the vehicle and resumed my seat. I later learned that I could have mostly avoided this… embarrassment… by actually wearing what you call absorbent lined underwear! I wasn’t wearing panties at the time as I was totally unaware of their existence. I do so now as its much more comfortable in lots of ways and in addition, stops the shiver when an errant chill wind blows unexpectedly up your gusset!
Moving on…
Getting into the car, the Magus paused until I had done up my seatbelt before starting the engine, waiting for another car to pass us by before safely pulling out and sedately driving off. I later learned that we could have gone screaming down the road in a cloud of burning rubber if the Magus was of a mind to. I would have if given the opportunity! Something to look forward to dear reader.
Instead, we drifted slowly through the placidly moving traffic as I watched the sun descend below the horizon of the ocean. I had only been back here on Earth for a few hours but every second was total bliss. I do not think that most of you humans realize how good you have it here. Even those who do not reside in the more developed and advanced nations, being on Earth is special.
There are infinity more worse places you can be, let me assure you of that.
We drove back mostly the way we had travelled to this particular beach. This time though it was much later in the day, heading in the opposite direction, I became aware of many more things that had escaped my attention earlier on.
We passed by denser zones and clusters of buildings where I could see various shops, food outlets, restaurants and varying vendors, all brightly lit up now as the daylight was fading. I saw incredibly tall metal poles with blazing, glowing lights illuminating the surrounds with a warm yellowy orange glow making it still easy to see. Electric lighting will never cease to amaze me. Yes dear reader, I can experience a sense of wonder and joy at simple things, even beyond the act of slaughter and soul draining. Would it astonish you that I like flowers? Such strange lifeforms that had developed aromas they use as a method of propagation. Delightful.
Anyway… we shortly crested the hill that we had previous ascended westwards earlier on the way to the beach and then I saw it!
I was awestruck once again.
Towering edifices, glittering, shining buildings monstrously higher than Hagia Sophia was, the most immense human made structure in the world when I was last in it. These glistening towers of glass, metal and stone made that church look like a feeble children’s toy. I could see over a dozen of these buildings of varying size, clustered together in less than a square mile.
The Magus glanced to his left and saw me gaping at them.
“They’re called Sky Scrapers Meridiana. They’re generally office buildings, places of business where people daily work in their wage-slave jobs then go home at night. The buildings are left vacant but light up at night as you can clearly see.”
I turned and gawped at him.
“They’re empty at night?”
I could not comprehend why such space, that had amazing views, would be left empty of an evening?
“Yep. Well most of them are. There will be some that still have people in them, conducting various types of business overnight because its what they do for a living.”
“What do they do?” I asked in a murmur as I turned back to see the vista be obscured by a large set of commercial and residential buildings that we were currently passing.
The Magus shrugged.
“They’ll be doing all sorts of things, financial trading, working back late to do their jobs… various affairs of commerce and such. It’s not that important really Meridiana. I’ll take you into the city another day when we have time for you to be a tourist. Now, if I may, I want to know more about your Telekinesis. I got an idea of how much you can lift, probably over 1400 kilograms at least if my guess as to how much a warhorse in armour with a rider would weigh… maybe more? Probably more but we’ll test that later. Anyway, it’s your fine control skills I’m interested in.”
I turned back to the Magus who was looking ahead, driving us through the busy traffic that had become a factor. I later learned that it was a time of day called ‘rush hour’.
“I am capable of very delicate manipulation with my Telekinesis, especially in regards to the erotic arts,” I said to him with a husky, low, salacious purr.
“That’s cute but I really want to know if you could snatch out of the air and control a very small, fast moving bouncing ball, say the size of your thumbnail?” he asked in an offhand manner as he slowed down due to the traffic which was banking up in front of us.
I inwardly sighed once more. Such a challenge he was!
“Yes I can but why?”
He briefly turned to me and broadly grinned before returning his attention to driving.
“There’s a game that we will ‘play’ after dinner. It is called Roulette. The game features a spinning wheel with thirty seven little slots. Into the spinning wheel a little white ball is spun in and circles around, eventually slowing and bouncing into once of the numbered slots. The slots are alternately coloured red or black and all are numbered from 00 to 36. You can bet where the ball will land, either in red or black and specifically in a numbered slot. If the ball lands in a slot you bet on, you get a payout of thirty seven to one. Ever dollar you bet wins you 37 back. You can also just bet on which colour the ball will land in giving you your money back plus it’s value as a reward. Bet $100, you get your $100 back plus another $100.”
“Dollar... that’s money right?” I said as the implications slowly dawned on me. You could make a fortune from this!
“Yes Meridiana. Dollars are what we use as currency these days. Gold is still used but not in the way you were used to. It’s still valuable as are other precious metals but that’s going to take a long explanation which is a distraction for now. So, do you think you could perhaps catch the bouncing ball with your power, directing it into the number we bet on?”
I thought about it for a few moments.
“I will have to see how the ball moves but I think I could, yes.”
“Excellent. You stand to make us a lot of money tonight. There are other games like card games, slot machines which I’m uncertain that your powers would be able to mess with. Roulette is our hunting ground. We must be careful though.”
“Why?”
I was surprised by his tone of caution. We were power incarnate! What could possibly touch us?
“Casinos hate losing money. Roulette is going to be the hardest one they can prove that we’re cheating on if you use your Telekinesis. We will be closely watched the entire time we are in the casino. There are devices called cameras, similar to Crystal Balls, that observe everything they see, relaying the images back to people in other rooms whose task it is to spot potential cheaters in the casino. They also have people walking the floor, disguised as ordinary folk, always watching everyone else. And I want to avoid the eyes of any infernal beings who may be in the casino.”
“Ahh… I see… a healthy paranoia then, for them and us hmm?”
He nodded once, emphatically.
If you have a fortune, you need to protect it, especially from people like me. His caution in regards to our identity was also most prudent and he was correct that there was a possibility that there may be others of my ilk lurking in the shadows, walking in human form as we often do.
I have to confess dear reader, that I am a master thief as well as an expert assassin, in addition to being an accomplished warrior although I rarely fight in hand to hand combat, preferring seduction, subterfuge and skulduggery as my main methods of killing. Yet still, I can fight and kill extremely proficiently with many weapons, being skilled at one of the highest levels of melee combat, the use of weapons and ways of fighting with them. I’ve been around a while you know? You pick up on things like that if you wish to live as long as I have.
Besides… stabby, stabby, stabby, bash, slash and smite can be loads of fun when you’re doing the stabbing and bashing with a well-balanced blade or mace in your hands. But I digress…
“You have it Meridiana. Yes the casinos’ management are extremely paranoid. We will have to alter our appearance as well before we enter the casino. I shall use a minor low level spell while you can take a new face. We will do so after dinner.”
I nodded then a thought came to me. I asked,
“You said we were going to something called a buffet? I know what the word means as my abilities allow me to understand any spoken language, much like the enchantment known as Tongues. Yet I’m finding it hard to match the word with the concept.”
The Magus raised an eyebrow in interest at this revelation.
“Oh right. Just because you know a word doesn’t mean you automatically understanding it conceptually and in context either. Good to know. Well, a buffet is an enormous array of various foods, hot and cold, sweet to savoury, where you merely help yourself and consume as much as you wish. You pay for the privilege of course.”
“Truly? How much will this cost you?” I inquired wide eyed.
I noticed that we had moved through the traffic and had turned down a descending road and were now going into a massive concrete tunnel along with hundreds of other cars, all slowly moving in the same direction. It was quite honestly astounding that everyone was not smashing into one another. All the drivers were…well mostly were, attentive to their immediate surrounds and situation as we gradually merged our car into the main lane of traffic which was making its way under the earth via the huge yawning tunnel ahead.
Such staggering feats of engineering and construction which would have made the Emperor Justinian weep copious, bitter tears of pure envy. Oh how I wished I could make him see this and realise his idiotic boast was pointless when he finished Hagia Sophia. He bragged that he had surpassed Solomon himself with his church. He had but it wasn’t worth it. Justinian nearly bankrupted the Eastern Roman Empire, all for a useless church and his own vanity.
Moron.
Still, I shouldn’t care, his hubris ended up sending him to hell anyway so... yay! His actions also exacerbated the effects of the famine and plague that swept the through the empire and western Europe in the year 535 with his stupid desire to re-unify the Roman empire under his rule. You will be pleased to know dear reader, that he is burning in eternal torment for his multitude of sins so it is all good. My thoughts of deceased, vainglorious emperors and their fate were interrupted as the Magus spoke again,
“Hmm? … it should set us back about $80 each I’d should say? A small price to pay in all honesty when you see what is on offer. Drinks will be on top of that price, unless you just have plain water but tonight Meridiana, I shall introduce you to Champagne, one of humanities greatest achievements.”
This was enticing to hear!
“If you say so Magus. I completely believe you as you will not be lying to me,” I said, nodding and trying to think about Champagne.
So many new concepts were entering my mind, it was hard to keep my mind and thoughts in order. I understood that Champagne was a special type of wine, one which had a fizz embodied within it, making it highly regarded but that’s all I could deduce for now.
Also… I had a thought: the Magus could and would never lie to me. The feeling I had earlier, in being able to trust everything he said to me because of the oath he gave to me, was an unfettering sensation.
All my existence I have dealt with bare faced lairs, deceivers, misshapers of the truth who twisted words to suit their own selfish ends. With the Magus, all I had to be concerned with was his agenda, which actually had my interests aligned with his own. Truly remarkable.
I needed that champagne now!
We emerged from the tunnel, traveling with the traffic over wide dark river, again on another immense concrete bridge this time. There was a gigantic colosseum off to our right, all lit up with multiple coloured lights that ran around the circumference of the structure. It was like as though it was enveloped in a rainbow. Frankly, it was amazing to behold.
Beyond that, I could see many more large towers and structures, lining the sides of the vast road we were hurtling along now. The Magus had increased our speed as traffic had thinned out. Never in my life had I moved so fast, well unless I was using a Haste spell to briefly increase my physical speed, which I use in combat if necessary.
I barely had the sense we were travelling in the car at roughly 80kph. Such an odd experience to have for the first time. There was no rushing of wind, no press of air on my face, just comfort and air-conditioning. Marvellous!
After a few minutes later I saw our destination.
Again I was nearly stupefied by the gigantic structure. Multiple massive buildings, all surrounded by lush green, well-manicured and maintained gardens made my jaw go slack with disbelief.
“That’s Crown Casino, Towers and hotel Meridiana. I can see you are impressed. Let me just say that if you think this is amazing, wait until we go to Las Vegas…” he said as he turned the car into the driveway of the complex.
“There’s even more impressive structures than this?”
My mind boggled dear reader. It was almost too much to take in.
“Yep. My city is a small one compared to others around the globe. We will travel to them, in due course. I know you can use your powers of Dimensional Walking, moving through other planes of reality and appearing on a different part of the planet. However, there will be times when we will need to travel together conventionally. Perhaps one day, if I learn the right spells, we will be able to avoid having to fly in an aeroplane and by-pass the utter tediousness of baggage check-ins, airport security and so on…” he muttered darkly.
“HUMANS CAN FLY!?!” I said in a loud strangled astonished voice.
The Magus chuckled with genuine amusement.
“Think back Meridiana. I said humanity has been to the moon and back. I said we can travel safely and comfortably in a machine, called an aircraft, across the planet. Some ‘planes are huge while others are not much bigger than the car. Oh, that reminds me, we will have to construct an identity for you. We will begin that process tomorrow. You are going to need a passport soon enough,” he said as he found a relatively unoccupied parking area west of the massive structures.
He saw my puzzled expression and mistook it for wondering why we had parked here.
“It’s free to park here and there are hardly any security cameras in the vicinity.”
I nodded dumbly.
“But of course Magus…”
He saw my expression as he switched off the engine. A tiny look of… sympathy appeared on his face. He spoke to me in a soft, calm, soothing tone,
“Take a breath Meridiana. Close your eyes and focus upon the stillness within the vehicle. You are safe here with me. Nothing will harm us. Just breathe and relax, let each breath calm you. With every breath you are at peace within yourself and the world around you.”
I did as he said and instantly sensed my whirling mind begin to centre itself, become still.
I may be an ancient and powerful demon dear reader, however I have been imprisoned for nigh on a thousand years and now have been released into a world that I was unable to recognise at all.
The Magus later told me I was suffering from a psychological malady called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Yes dear reader, even us demons can get mentally fucked up. I mean, compared to the average human, we’re all demented, tormented psychopaths which explains a lot about ourselves but still… even a psychopath can suffer from mental trauma. Demons can go insane.
I breathed rhythmically, each exhaling breath calming me. With one final exhalation, I opened my eyes, turned to my Magus and softly smiled at him.
“Thank you,” was all I said. I meant it.
He nodded briefly, his intensely burning eyes boring into mine, deeply searching, looking for signs of any madness that may still be lingering within. Well, there’s always the hunger for sex and mayhem, but that’s natural for me.
“Come on, you look fine now, let’s go,” he said as he got out of the car.
I followed his example, releasing my seat belt and stepping out of the car. Closing the car door behind me, walked over to the Magus then I threaded my right arm around his left as we walked off like a normal couple, casually strolling through the car park towards the casino and hotel.
I could hear the noise of all the adjacent traffic all still travelling busily along the massive road that went past the enormous complex. There was the calls of various birds I’d never heard before, the waft of scented flowering plants and the heavy aroma of moisture in the air from the nearby river. I closed my eyes for a second just to let it all wash over me as I sedately walked along with my Magus.
Soon we came to the entrance. Huge dark glass doors magically opened for us upon our arrival. To my right I could see various coloured signage, advertising the types of ‘fast food’ eateries that people could choose to dine at. They were all brightly lit and mostly clean.
It was at that moment I saw my first wretch.
A dishevelled, unkempt, shabby man sat listless outside the fast food eateries upon the low stone wall that contained a small, well-kept garden. He looked up at us as we approached, his eyes full of misery and despair.
“Got any spare change?”
“Sorry mate, no one carries cash anymore,” lied my Magus to him with a conciliatory voice, a sad but brief compassionate smile appeared briefly on his face.
The wretched man’s face became even more resigned. He nodded back in understanding, returning his fallen face back to morosely contemplating the ground at his feet.
We kept walking, leaving the broken man behind us.
I was about to congratulate the Magus in his treatment of the beggar when I had to stop as I was confronted by an incredible sight.
Before us, in the huge well-lit lobby of the building, was a huge pair of MOVING METAL STAIRCASES!
One staircase ascended while another came down from the landing some 50 feet above us. On either side were normal, marble clad stairs that some people were using. Yet many other people were on the moving metal stairs, all just taking the experience of being raised or lowered completely for granted.
“It’s just an escalator Meridiana. A simple machine that makes life a little more comfortable. Take it, go for a ride. I’m taking the stairs as I need the incidental exercise,” he said to me as he pried my clutching hands from his arm. I had been unconsciously gripping him tightly in my amazement at seeing such a machine.
The Magus walked off to the left, climbing the steps briskly while I gingerly walked forwards, watching the metal stairs endless appear and ascend upwards. The hand rail also moved in synchronicity with the metal stairs. I observed as a pair of young women, chatting intently to each other, walked past me and up to stand upon a metal stair which was part of dozens of metal stairs it seemed. I saw them be lifted by the moving stairs, rising above and away from me.
Summoning my courage, I stepped forwards onto a moving stair, wobbled slightly as I was not used to the speed which it moved, making me grab the moving banister tightly to steady myself as I rode my way upwards. I let out a small laugh as it was such a novel experience. The young women in front of me turned around at my laugh, raising their eyebrows at me as well as actually truly seeing me for the first time. Their smiles faded as I grinned back at them.
The young women could see my infinitely superior beauty on full display. They looked hesitant, now uncertain of themselves as they mistakenly believed themselves to be beautiful. They were, passible, not ugly but not worthy of a harem to be perfectly honest. I later learned dear reader that many foolish young women, especially in what you call the western world, regard themselves as queens, rating themselves ten out of ten on a scale of dazzling good looks. These sad women are delusional. I mean, if they were that beautiful, why weren’t their faces on the covers of the glossy magazines I see in various ‘supermarket’ check outs? No matter, vanity and hubris are all ways to damnation and misery. So many people sending themselves to eternal torment simply because they were raised by idiotic parents who never properly taught their children the need for humility. It’s all win-win for the pits you know…
My Magus met me at the top of the stairs, holding out his hand to me and then leading me through the vast interior of the complex.
“That’s the casino,” he indicated to our right.
Looking, I could see dozens of people making their way inside into the brightly lit and noisy interior of the casino. I caught the whiff of desperation, despair, avarice, lust, elation and a strong aroma of human urine. I wrinkled my nose in disgust. Yes, even I have some standards dear reader.
“Magus, why does it reek of piss?” I asked as we strolled by and proceeded into the most immense, glass covered atrium I have ever seen.
“Oh, you can smell that?” He looked intrigued.
I nodded with a mild look of disgust.
“Hah… interesting. Well… some gamblers get stuck on a poker machine. They sit there for hours, desperately hoping that the machine they are playing on will pay out. The poor fools stupidly believe that if they play at the machine long enough, they’ll win big. So they stay seated, ignoring the need to relieve their bodily urges, to the extent that they prefer to piss themselves rather than abandon the machine that is draining away their money. The poor fools are incapable of understanding that the machine is designed to rarely pay out. Every time they play, it has a simple algorithm that calculates the chance of a payout. Most machines will payout a small amount of money occasionally, thus keeping the gambler hooked in the mistaken belief that the big one is just around the corner. It rarely, if ever, is.”
I stopped, stunned at what I just heard. The Magus stopped and looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
“That’s… diabolically genius!” I stuttered as I considered the fiendish brilliance of the whole concept.
Someone had made hell on earth not only possible but also could make a fortune from it as well as breaking people’s souls and spirits in the process! The concept of dangling hope in front of a damned soul, then snatching it away was one of the oldest known tortures of hell. This was a magnificent, a culmination of the perfection of thousands upon thousands of years of the torture, all neatly packaged in a fairly simple machine designed to beggar it’s user and turn them into slaves to it. Gobsmacking was the only word I could think off that fully encapsulated the way I felt at that moment.
“Yes it is, isn’t it? I have always suspected that those machines were most likely invented by a demon. It makes perfect sense,” he said as he shrugged, then tilted his head, indicating we should proceed onwards.
I noddled dumbly as again, I had been totally overwhelmed by the latest piece of information the Magus informed of. I barely registered the hundreds of people all wandering around the massive lobby of the hotel atrium. Many were dressed finely while others, mostly men, were dressed casually. My Magus was one of them, still wearing his novelty T-shirt and hemp pants. They were clean though and his shoes, a brand known as Babuuk, made him look somehow better dressed then the other men who were similarly attired. Maybe it was just his subtle aurora of power, his sheer confidence and his towering Will that made him stand out from the mouth breathers all around us? I guess it was.
We arrived at the entrance of the restaurant and the Magus was greeted by a short Asian woman, dressed neatly in the hotels livery.
I started to realise that there were people from so many different races of humanity all around us. I had come from a time where only what was left of the Eastern Roman Empire was this diverse, and even then it was but a shadow of the heyday of the full glory that was Rome. Here were people from almost all the lands of earth, all happily co-mingling, getting on with having dinner with family and friends. Very surprising indeed.
The Asian woman at the reception counter spoke to us with a friendly smile,
“Good evening sir, madam. A table for two for you then?” she asked politely, her voice tinged with a broad accent I had not heard before. She spoke English yet I could tell that wasn’t her first language.
“Yes please,” politely replied the Magus.
This was something I did not expect. Despite his and my obvious power, he was respectful and even kind to the servants. All of them. He didn’t condescend nor sneer down at the servants of the hotel. It is still something I have difficulty reconciling. I said nothing, just observed. Oh, he has since instructed me not to call them servants, they are members of staff and will be treated with respect until they show they do not deserve it, then they are fair game. I can live with that.
“Table seventy one is ready for you both, have a lovely evening.”
She actually meant it! I could see it in her eyes, she was truly enjoying her task. She was smiling and joking with her fellow staff members, politely greeting the next people behind us with her cheerful friendly demeanour.
Astonishing.
In my prior experiences, servants and slaves were a miserable lot but then again, that was understandable. They had no choice as to their circumstances. They had to obey lest they suffer harsh punishment.
As we proceeded into the large dining room, with over a hundred tables of varying sizes, I could see off to my left where the food was.
I stopped again and stared dear reader.
I have been to banquets with Emperors and Kings, Popes and Princes, all sumptuous feasts but nothing was like what I saw before me. Dozens upon dozens of people had plates in their hands, all calmly wandering around the incredible cornucopia of varieties of food that were on display, all brightly lit up for them to simply help themselves to as much as their plate could hold.
Roasted meats, all neatly carved by expert chefs, freshly shucked oysters all seated in enormous silver ice-filled serving bowls, trays upon trays of cooked vegetables of kinds I had never seen before and… a dazzling array of sweet desserts and treats that made me almost go weak at the knees at the very sight of them.
“Come on Meridiana, you’re starting to drool,” whispered the Magus gently into my ear as he dabbed my wet lips with a soft piece of paper that he withdrew from his pants pockets.
Once again I nodded dumbly as I allowed him to escort me to our table. He even seated me, pushing me and my chair in one I had sat down. After he had taken his seat, a young man, quite a handsome one from the Indus I believed?... came over to us, again dressed in the livery of the hotel.
“Good evening, sir, madam. Would you care for something to drink?” he inquired ever so politely.
“And good evening to you sir. Yes indeed, may we please have a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, two glasses and a bottle of San Pellegrino sparkling water?” he asked with a real smile to the servant… no member of staff.
“Of course sir, I shall get that for you immediately,” replied the waiter with a pleased smile at being spoken to so politely.
“Thank you,” said the Magus then he turned to me and asked,
“Do you need a moment Meridiana? I understand this might trigger you again…”
I shook my head.
“No. It is overwhelming… but in a good way Magus. I have to ask, how can a place like this provide so many people with so much food? Even in the height of the Empire, there were magnificent feasts to be sure but… you say this happens everyday, that this is just a Tuesday and not a busy night?”
He nodded.
“This is the age of abundance Meridiana. Many of us, who live in what is known as The West, have dwelt in an age of such wealth and richness that almost all here never think on their incredible luck and privilege to live in such times. They do not know that it will come to an end. Maybe that is a small mercy. All golden ages end as you well know. So I say, let them dwell in ignorant bliss for now. We can enjoy it while it lasts.”
“Huh? Why do you believe that your golden age will end Magus?”
“It’s a long explanation and one I do not wish to go into detail here and now Meridiana but later, I will share my thoughts with you on this. Ahh, here comes our champagne.”
The waiter and another staff member had returned, with one carrying two bottles while the other had a metal bucket partially filled with ice. The waiter from the Indus placed both bottles on our table, displayed the label to the Magus who briefly nodded. Then, the waiter removed the cork from the bottle with an adroit twist of his wrist. It made a pleasing pop and I could see a little haze of cold… smoke? lightly emanate from the neck of the bottle. He poured the brightly bubbling and fizzing wine into both our glasses, carefully making sure the foam did not overflow them. He was very good at his task.
“Thank you good sir,” said my Magus to the waiter who beamed back at him with a happy smile. He placed the bottle into the bucket of ice and withdrew, leaving us alone, amidst the crowed dinning room.
The Magus took up his glass, holding it in front of him. I mirrored him.
“Here’s to a good dinner with interesting company and later, ripping the shit out of a casino Meridiana.” He pushed his glass gently forwards, lightly clinking it against mine. I wasn’t familiar at the time with that form of salute and toast but went with it anyway, after all… when in Rome as they used to say.
“That sounds… delightful Magus. I am eager for it all.”
I then took a sip of my champagne and was transported into a realm of heavenly bliss.
It was exquisite.

Memory Transcription Subject: Ovook Tkarna, Captain of the United Hope
Date [Standarized Human Time]: August 22, 1898
"I repeat, unknown ship, you have trasspased into territory of the Krakotl Alliance. State why are you here and who you are or you will be considered a hostile"
The bird, or at least I thought that it would be classified as a bird, said again, his (her?) patience running low due to our lack of a response to the order given to the crew
"A-apologies"
I finally said. Though I hadn't recovered from the shock of finding a civilization on what was suppossed to be a normal exploratory mission, I was still the Captain of the ship, and it was my duty to take the lead in situations of high importance, and he doubted there was a situation of bigger importance than a First Contact situation
"This is Captain Ovook Tkarna, Captain of the Exploratory Vessel 'United Hope', and she is my Second in Command, Arkhor Sanjalis"
The bird looked at Arkhor, their eyes apparently examinating closely the apparence of the girl
"We were supossed to explore this system for a future colonization... Well, that was when we thought that this system was uninhabited and that there wasn't inteligent life here"
The bird quickly put their gaze back on me, eyes narrowing at the answer
"Exploratory Vessel? In all of my carrier I have seen Cruisers with less weapons than those of your vessel! Hell, MY Cruiser has less weapons than your vessel!"
The bird said, venom behind those last words. Even though this was a serious situation, I couldn't help but notice how it used the word "Cruiser" to refer to their ships, but that didn't make sense. Even if their ships were bigger than his ship, the United Hope only classified as a Large Skaknar [Heavy Frigate], and that was because it had been built on the almost finished hull of a Jaknar class. Nevertheless, that gave two possible options for an explanation: their shipbuilding capabilities were still young, and as such they classified things like Skaknars [Frigates] as Shaknaruks [Star Cruisers], which would at least give some security to the Commonwealth even if conflict was the last thing they desired. Or, their shipbuilding capabilities were so advanced that they could fit the firepower of a Shaknaruk [Star Cruiser] in a ship slightly bigger than a Skaknar [Frigate], which would mean terrible things for the gigantic ships back at the Commonwealth
"W-well, I- Uhm..."
I stuttered, trying to find the words to respond to the acussations of the bird. Luckly, Arkhor apparently already had something prepared
"That is due to uncommon circumstances"
The bird again shifted their attention to Arkhor, and I did the same, waiting to see what she would said
"The United Hope was built upon the hull of an old battlecruiser, and leaving aside some point defense lasers, most of the weapons are mere husks without the necessary power to operate"
The bird narrowed his eyes at the answer that Arkhor gave, and I looked at her now with confusion, since everything she had said was a blatant lie. Yet Arkhor looked at me with a look I was familiar with, a look she had given me many times in situations that seemed hopeless during maneuvers that seemed suicidal. The "trust me, I know what I'm doing" look, and so I mantained my silence for now
"Hmm.... Wait there"
The bird finally said, and after that the communications link was closed, which at least gave the crew some room to breathe, and many let out breaths of air they didn't know they were holding
"What in the name of the Great Shankala was that!?"
I screamed at Arkhor, bewilderment in my voice because of what she had said, to which Arkhor answered with a surprisingly calm look
"That, bugbutt, was a de-escalation of the situation in which we found ourselves in"
She said, as if what she had done had been the only course of action that could be taken, which only confused me even more
"A de-escalation? You call lying a de-escalation!?"
I said, raising from my chair and taking height by raising half of my body segments in the air, which gave me a pretty intimidating stance, since both my arms and pincers were quite notable in that position. Of course, I didn't let the small legs of those segments move, even if I wanted to, since that was something generally seen as vulgar if done outside of the privacy of one's own home
"NO, Ovook"
Arkhor spat, also raising from her chair. Even though, technically, the Arthroplakrans were bigger than the Karkranians, the reality was that an Arthroplakran could only rise themselves to half of the segments that composed their bodies, since trying to do otherwise would put way too much weight on the exoskeleton, damaging the armor or, even worse, breaking it and hurting said Arthroplakran, while the Karkranians were completly fine due to their tails being relatively shorter compared to the rest of their bodies. Which, in short, meant that Arkhor was almost the same height as me, and that only made the discussion we were having all the more intimidating for the rest of the crew
"I call it 'keeping important information about the Commonwealth and our ships safe'. Did you see how that... That bird looked at us? It was like they were ready to take us out as soon as we said something that they didn't like!"
I stood in silence for some moments, principally because she had called me by my name. Dating back to our days in the Academy of Brooma, when we would usually just annoy each other, it had become a sort of silent rule that we would only use our real names in situations of utmost priority and importance, which, to be fair, was a pretty accurate description for our current situation. I quickly snapped out of that, shaking my head a little before looking back at Arkhor
"That's EXPECTABLE, Arkhor! We showed up uninvited, into a system that could possibly be already claimed by them, while having more weapons on this exploratory vessel than they seem to have on their warships!"
Arkhor looked at me with a mix of bewilderment and irritation on her look, and I couldn't help but flinch a little, since deep down even I didn't completly trust my own words, that were more like excuses rather than possible justifications after seeing how aggressive the bird had been towards them, even after they said that the United Hope was just an exploratory vessel
"That still doesn't make sense! We arrived here without any of our weapons ready, we complied with everything they told us, and even if we did try to attack them, we are outnumbered! Hell, it should be us the ones over the edge, not them!"
I sighed as I put a hand on the space between my antenna, while Arkhor lowered her head a little, still with a little of irritation on her look. This situation was stressing me, stressing her and likely stressing everyone else on the bridge, and the fact that that bird hadn't returned yet only made the situation more tense
Though, thinking better, it was probably a good thing that it hadn't returned yet; the little discussion between Arkhor and Myself would have probably prompted the bird to take them as prisioners or maybe even fire at them if it misinterpreted the situation
"Uh... H-hey, guys?"
Kraftan spoke, breaking the spontaneous silence that had fallen on the bridge, and getting the attention of both Arkhor and Me
"Look, I don't want to fuel this paranoia about the intentions of our mysterious guests here. But..."
He trailed off, before putting on display in the bridge the image of one of the vessels of the birds, probably having being taken by one of the cameras in the hull of the United Hope
"I have to say, those spaceships appear to be quite advanced, and REALLY well armed"
The attention of the bridge quickly settled on the image displayed by the holoprojectors, and some small gasps were heared trought the bridge at the sight of the vessel
The vessel, for starters, had dozens, maybe hundreds of small turrets with what appeared to be railguns or maybe coilguns spread throught the hull. In a way, it remainded me of the Support Kinetic Guns that the United Hope had, yet they were painfully small, way too small to actually serve as normal Support Kinetic Guns. Maybe they were Small versions? Those were usually found on any ships on the navy, from Snalknals [Corvettes] and Small Skaknars [Light Frigates] all the way to the Large Shandukark [Heavy Battlegalaxies] and their variants due to the fact that those guns were less energy consuming than the Laser Cannons found on bigger ships, and could serve as more powerful Anti-Air weapons; yet the vessel in the screen was big, maybe not as big as a Small Kharfnak [Light Destroyer], but it should be able to satisfy the energetic need for some Laser Cannons to serve as Anti-Missile defense
So why was it using only kinetics?
Maybe it was merely a matter of doctrine, it was possible that those birds favored cheap saturation fire instead of the precise but energetically costly shots of the Laser Cannons, even if that also came at the expense of the probability that some missiles could get through the defensive fire. Though maybe the birds trusted them enough to take that risk
The scanners also detected a considerable number of missile launchers, and something werid was that the scanners didn't, or couldn't, detect any form of energy based weaponry, which made me wonder a little about the why of that. Yet all of that quickly became meaningless as I, and probably the rest of the crew, got a good look at the bow of the ship
There, menacingly protruding from the hull of the vessel, was a Heavy Main Kinetic Gun, or at least an analogue of one, if that made sense
"..... T-that's impossible"
"Well, unless they, somehow, managed to create hyper realistic visual illusions, its very much possible"
"M-maybe it's an error! Are you sure that you didn't mess up the scanners before we departed?"
"I did the standard revisions SIX TIMES before departing from Graekyo, are you really cuestioning the job I have done for the past twenty years right now!?"
Both Alvja and Kraftan argued, the logical part of their brains being momentarily shut down due to the shock of the sight of the weapon, and honestly I couldn't blame them
Main Kinetic Guns, or MKG's, were the primary anti-asteroid and, most importantly, anti-ship weapons that the warships of the "Sharuk Abkayla" [Stellar Warforce] used. Unlike Support Kinetic Guns, these were only found on two types: Main Kinetic Gun, and Heavy Main Kinetic Gun, with the principale difference between them being that Support Guns had various types of shells and could be grouped into batteries of up to four guns in a turret and used against a big variety of targets, while Main Kinetic and Heavy Main Kinetic Guns were only capable of shooting anti-ship munitions (fired in bursts of three in the case of MKG's, and a single round in the case of HMKG's), and usually ran throught a quarter (or, in case of HMKG's, half) of the warship, protruding from the bow of the vessels, with the only similarities being that both used a revolver cannon system to maximize their fire rate and being a chemically-electromagnetically powered hybrids as to minimize the energy required to fire them
The thing is, even with all that, Main Kinetic Guns still used a lot of energy from the reactors, to the point that some weapons had to be deactivated in order to fire the ones found on Khragnaraks [War Constellations] and Shandukarks [Battlegalaxies], while 'smaller' ones being found all the way down to the Large Kharfnak [Heavy Destroyer] still being capable of draining an important quantity of energy from the reactor
And yet, there it was, an HMKG in a ship no bigger than a Medium Kharfnak [Destroyer], seemingly existing only to confirm my fears about the technology of these aliens, and laugh at our reactions as dread set in each and every single one of us
If these.... Birds.... Had the capability to put such a weapon in a, relatively, small vessel, it frightened me to think what else they might have that we didn't know about, and I imagine that many crew members were having a similar thought to mine
"THAT'S ENOUGH YOU TWO!"
Arkhor screamed, snaping me out of my thoughts and back to reality, at the same time that she got the attention of Kraftan and Alvja, snaping them out of their argument
"We are in the middle of one of the most important moments in the history of the Commonwealth! We cannot afford to get into infighting and argumenting against each other now!"
Both of them hunged their heads in shame, and quickly directed their attention back at their posts while Arkhor gave a tired sigh
"So, what now?," She said, looking back at me "I'm pretty sure that we are aren't exactly authorized to just give sensitive information to them, and it doesn't seem like they will be willing to accept vagueness in our answers"
Sometimes I hated when she was right, and this was one of those times. The Commonwealth certainly wouldn't look at us with good eyes if we gave information that they didn't want us to give; yet the Birds were seemingly on the edge, and any answers that they didn't like would certainly make our situation worse, maybe even lethal
I really wished we were instead dealing with a Proton Storm rather than this
"Ovook?"
Once again I snapped out of my thoughts, seeing the concerned look on Arkhor, and the rest of the crew for that matter, in the periphery of my sight
Of course, I was still the Captain of this ship
"Our situation is delicate without a doubt," I finally said, trying to give a semblance of calm in my voice "I.... Believe.... That if we want to make it out of here unscathed, then we will have to.... 'Create'.... Some information that they might ask us"
Looking around through my various eyes, I could notice that a numerous part of the crew seemed to have calmed down; though my relief was short lived, as I noticed that the entirety of them were Karkranians, while the Arthroplakrans all seemed just as distressed as before
Damn it, were my antenna twitching? Maybe my mouth parts were moving nonstop? Judging by the looks in the Karkranian side, it seems that, at least, they didn't really bother studying the visual cues of my species. I mean, it was a little irresponsible, since the Captain of the ship was an Arthroplakran, but at least that meant that they swallowed my facade of calm; not much, but it was a start
"So," Arkhor said, looking a little irritated "Essentially we have to do what I did since the start?"
I chuckled internally, even in a life or death situation, she still found ways to annoy me a little
"Of course not," I said, moving my head to face her "Because, now, I'm authorizing you to do it"
Arkhor gave an exasperated sigh while she lightly moved hee head from side to side, but in the end, she chuckled a little and sat back on her command chair
"Alright everyone, y'all heard mister authorizer, everyone back to their duties!"
She seemed to inject a little of her eagerness in the crew, and soon everyone was back on their stations to do their part to the best of their abilities
"Just so you know," Arkhor said, looking at me with one of her side facing eyes "When we get back, I'll say that this was my idea"
With some amusement in me, I walked back to my chair, sitting comfortably in it while I chuckled a little
"I hope that you have the same amount of creativeness as you do of smugness"
With a final laugh between the two, I adjusted my captain's hat; it was a little annoying how it covered my eyes, but nevertheless it wasn't a big deal
"Alright," I said, more to myself than to anyone else, while I took a deep breath and exhaled to finally calm myself "Let's make the Homeworld proud"
[First] [Next]

This is entirely from memory and the place might have closed down by now. I tried to Google it, but no luck and I don't really remember the name of the club.
It's a nightclub/ bar, but it had 2 or 3 very high (about 20 -30 ft?) on a stage. It was an semi indoor / outdoor area, but im not ebtirely sure since it was very dark but I remembered seeing palm trees off in the distance. I don't remember strippers, but I remember girls doing a show and climbing the poles. There were also girls serving drinks. To get there from the strip, we had to go through a few casinos, and lobbies. I was brought there through a rep of a vendor that no longer works there and I believe he hired a promoter that brought us to the club.
I haven't been to Vegas in 9 years but I remembered that the club was one of the best experiences that I had while visiting and wanted to go there again when I visit in a few months.