Skyway carry on

The ~global market for air taxi~ is projected to have considerable CAGR of around 26.5% during the forecast period. This Air Taxi Market research report focuses more on a number of distinctive as well as foremost market sectors. It further focuses market segmentation. Industry-specific interviews are carried out with market players to foresee future business growth. Various facets of the industry are also depicted here under each industry sector. Future development visions and a wide range of subjects are covered in this Air Taxi Market study report. All this crucial data greatly assists key players to establish their presence in the competitive market. It verifies and revalidates the knowledge provided in this global Market report. It also allows several organizations to learn more about a range of opportunities already available in the market and makes aware to firms about upcoming opportunities too. It ensures several firms to attain a long-standing business success by capturing all of the latest updates about market growth. Most important participants are able to employ such report as a great resource to attain a competitive advantage over the cut-throat market.
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The global air taxi market is segmented based on propulsion type, and operation. Based on the propulsion type, the market is further classified into electric, parallel hybrid, turboshaft, and turboelectric. The electric segment is projected to have considerable growth owing to the significant rise in adoption of electric vehicles. On the basis of operation the market is further segregated into autonomous and piloted.
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· Market Coverage
· Market number available for – 2024-2031
· Base year- 2024
· Forecast period- 2024-2031
· Segment Covered- By Source, By Product Type, By Applications
· Competitive Landscape- Archer Daniels Midland Co., Ingredion Inc., Kerry Group Plc, Cargill
· Inc., and others
Market Segmentation
Global Air Taxi Market by Propulsion Type
o Electric
o Parallel Hybrid
o Turboshaft
o Turboelectric
Global Air Taxi Market by Operation
o Autonomous
o Piloted
Regional Analysis
o North America
o United States
o Canada
o Europe
o UK
o Germany
o Italy
o Spain
o France
o Rest of Europe
o Asia-Pacific
o China
o India
o Japan
o Rest of Asia-Pacific
o Rest of the World
Company Profiles
o Airbus SE
o Airspace Experience Technologies, Inc.
o The Boeing Co.
o Bell Textron, Inc.
o EHang Intelligent Technology Co. Ltd.
o FACC AG
o Fly Aeolus
o Embraer SA
o Honeywell International, Inc.
o Hoversurf
o Kitty Hawk Corp.
o Neva Aerospace, Ltd.
o Nurol Aviation Inc.
o Lockheed Martin Corp.
o Lilium GmbH
o Skyway Air Taxi, LLC
o Uber Technologies, Inc.
o Volocopter GmbH
The Report Covers

• Market value data analysis of 2019 and forecast to 2026.
• Annualized market revenues ($ million) for each market segment.
• Country-wise analysis of major geographical regions.
• Key companies operating in the global air taxi market. Based on the availability of data, information related to pipeline products, and relevant news is also available in the report.
• Analysis of business strategies by identifying the key market segments positioned for strong growth in the future.
• Analysis of market-entry and market expansion strategies.
• Competitive strategies by identifying ‘who-stands-where’ in the market.

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Lawman
A drop of scarlet fell into the dust.
Hauke ignored the bullet hole in his side and kept reloading. There would be time to bleed later.
He sat in a battered wooden chair under an awning, with one leg draped over its arm, eyes staring intently down the dirt road. A rhythmic metal clicking came from the guns he held as he filled their cylinders with fresh shells. But his eyes never left the road. There was no need; his hands worked without thought.
Beyond the awning, the sky was bare, the town was still, and the planet’s twin suns blazed with fury. Heat shimmered off the hard-packed dirt road running through the center of Aeos, and sweat made tracks down Hauke's face through the dust. Gehenna was technically a moon, though larger than most planets, stark and strange, a waterless desert world of jagged black mountains and sunbaked hardpan on the edge of Alliance space—on the edge of nowhere.
Most who worked at Deepcore's mining facility called the moon The Withered Lands. An apt name Hauke thought, for a place of perpetual sunlight and crushing heat. A place barren of life. No where any but a witling would wish to call home.
He was only here because corporate greed put this lonely settlement on a fringe world otherwise deemed uninhabitable; corporate greed and a ready supply of desperate people - the disillusioned and the displaced, the utterly broken. For most, their lives were a legacy of misery, and they left behind a past they hoped to forget. There was never a shortage of such expendables in a galaxy riddled with crime and war. No one would miss them. No one cared. That's why the outlaws chose this shit hole to put down roots. There were vulnerable people here, a flock of sheep placidly going about their daily lives as the wolves circled, and no Alliance security to protect them. Easy pickings.
Hauke shook his head and slid another round into an empty chamber. Shame, really. These are decent folk. Better than the other sewers he’d policed.
Then he shrugged.
Good people they might be, but it didn't matter. It should, but it didn’t. They were expendable. Everyone was, after a fashion, even Hauke.
Every worker who stepped off a Deepcore transit shuttle into the dust and the heat was undeniably corporate fodder, disposable flesh to be used and discarded like soiled toilet paper. Deepcore made no bones about this practice, nor did they bother with any pretense that their workers on Gehenna were anything but company fodder. Why should they? No one with wealth enough to matter was paying attention. Nobody in the Core gave two shits about a bunch of dregs dying on the Fringe. Who would? Alliance authorities? Funny. The money-made politicians in the halls of power wouldn't waste a bucket of piss on what they deemed rats squabbling for the right to live in society's sewers, filthy beggars and low-born rabble best ignored by their betters. Why waste resources cleaning them out when, given enough time, disease and starvation would do the job for them?
Hauke snapped his pistol's cylinder up into its housing and gave it an experimental spin. The smooth, well-oiled clicking that came forth drew a smile across his sun-roughened face. It was a warm and comforting sound, like a fireplace in winter. If you took care of your guns, they would take care of you.
Hauke favored the classics over the garbage that companies were peddling these days, six shooters from an era lost in time. They were reliable, never overheated or shorted, and were effective on anything that ever walked or crawled in the mud - given the proper ammo. The thunder of their song sent even the most hardened criminals fleeing for cover.
He paused his reloading and studied the brass casing he held. It was a Spartan Arms Blacktip, called shatter rounds on the streets. They were expensive, hard to come by, and highly deadly. And illegal. The speed loaders clipped to the tac-belt circling his waist held the same rounds. Even a Treskori's thick armored hide offered little protection against these babies.
Movement caught the corner of his eye and drew his attention to the north.
A small Dazkani woman darted out of a nearby alleyway and across the street, a lavender-skinned child in tow, rushing for a two-room cabin very much like his own. Her tan robes were trimmed in black and embroidered across the shoulders in her house pattern. Each frantic step revealed flashes of light purple flesh on a muscular thigh where the robes were divided down the side.
His eyes followed her progress.
Then the cabin door slammed shut behind them, and she peered out through its only window with jet black eyes full of fear.
Hauke shook his head. Though he didn't blame the people of Aeos. They were afraid, and for a good reason. Outlaws calling themselves The Reapers, with blade and barrel and cruel ways, had taken by force what little joy these people had found and made each day a misery. Then came Hauke and his revolvers, claiming to be the answer, though they only saw another killer here to sink his teeth into their town.
Eyes watched from windows and doorways across Aeos. He could feel their itch upon his skin, too many eyes and wringing hands awaiting the coming confrontation. If the Reapers won today, they would turn their ire upon the people of Aeos. Things would get ugly. Fast. No wonder they were worried. Hauke was just one man against dozens of killers. He smiled. That almost made it an even fight.
Whatever happens today, he thought, absently running an oilcloth over his gun and his eyes over the town. These people would do well to cut their losses and make for the inner systems far from Deepcore and outlaws and the wild lawlessness of The Outer Fringe. They would live longer and be happier for it.
He took up his second pistol, its nickel finish reflecting sharp flashes of silver in the sunlight.
Brass casings fell at his feet.
Deepcore was supposed to be the shining star of the mining industry, a leader among leaders whose policies demanded quality of life for all its employees and family-first values that resonated down to the lowest janitor. A good PR story, Hauke thought. Tall tells for the gullible and chronically stupid.
Anyone with two brain cells fighting for third place should understand it was all a carefully crafted illusion, a shiny veneer overlaying the odious truth, the plots, the lust for profits, treacherous ways corps did business.
Hauke's fingers moved with practiced grace, and the clicking continued. Red dripped from his side.
How many politicians must have been bought over the years to maintain such an elaborate facade? How many innocent people were stuffed into early graves to protect the dark secrets? His frown deepened. Too many.
In his experience, corruption was a disease that most often began at the top and snaked its way down through long-sitting senators and middling managers, black tendrils of rot coiling through the layers of a midden heap. Parasites, all of them. Getting fat and rich off the blood and tears of ordinary folk who want to live in peace and enjoy what few comforts they can afford.
But Hauke knew there was no such thing on the Fringe. Not on Gehenna. Not for the dregs, anyway. His stomach twisted, and he slowly ran the oilcloth over his second gun. Not in this galaxy.
He lifted his eyes and scanned the area. Aeos was a town built with the cheapest fiberplast factory Prefabs Hauke had ever seen. The kind of flimsy boxlike structures meant only for a temporary settlement, never a permanent city. Some buildings still showed faint traces of the original terracotta red from the factory. But most gleamed bone white in the harsh sunlight, pitted and wind-worn like the skeletal remains of some long-dead titan strewn across the sand. When the town died, like those before it, Deepcore would erect another on the sands that held its corpse. Even Gehenna could not stop profits.
Off to the west, the dark silos and rumbling machinery of the vast mining operation loomed over Aeos like a cruel overlord, uncaring of their suffering and singular in its purpose. Columns of thick black smoke rose from its inner workings to stain the sky, and an endless procession of thick-hulled barges—laden with ore until their sides bulged—strained for orbit. Day and night, the Impervium ore flowed from Gehenna's mines to fatten the pockets of Deepcore's elite back in the heart of the Corporate Alliance. Here was a state-of-the-art operation save three things: no drones, no automated equipment, and no modern conveniences; Aeos was built with shithouse parts. Profits again.
Even the barges were operated by organics, with no autopilot or AI-driven software. The moon's electromagnetic something-or-other interfered with guidance systems, so they did everything the old-fashioned way. And then there was Gehenna's powdery dust. It held magnetic particles that worked their way into the delicate inner guts of electronics and advanced machinery, sparing no circuit or wire. That's why they needed flesh and blood workers to do the job—blood sacrifices laid out upon the corporate altar.
As for Aeos itself, there was little else to it. Flat-roofed cabins with tattered awnings shading tiny porches crowded either side of the road. A few dilapidated parts shops and rundown diners, a large closed-air market beside a cluster of tall water tanks beaded with sweat. A sprawling communications array. A small starport built on a nearby plateau just outside town, made hazy by blowing dust. There were no Sky Towers rising from sprawling cityscapes, or manicured parks to bring beauty to this desolate place. No holographic skyways filled the night skies with the endless glittering lights of air traffic. None of the high-tech glitz and glow he was so accustomed to seeing on even the poorest of Alliance worlds. Aeos was sterile and rundown, abandoned by hope.
But today, that changed.
Hauke glanced at the upper edge of his augmented vision. Twenty past eleven local time, Gehenna time. His jaw muscles tensed, and he climbed to his feet, spinning his pistols into their holsters.
Time to settle an old score.
All was quiet as he stepped out into the dust-blown street, the laughter of children at play gone silent and the hustle and bustle of the little mining town strangely absent. Indeed nothing stirred but the wind, which briefly transformed the approaching outlaw into a grainy silhouette etched into the swirling dust.
Threiner.
The name came to him unbidden, a harsh whisper in his thoughts. A sudden surge of heat rose in his chest, an electric quickening of the heart. This was the culmination of a decades-long search and perhaps some small comfort for an old wound that had never fully healed. He'd come here to take the outlaw back to Ryari Prime to face Alliance justice, alive or maybe dead. It didn't matter.
Behind Threiner, a massive cerulean sphere twice the size of Jupiter filled the sky. Layer upon layer of milky clouds and swirling blue eddies drifted across its surface, vibrant hues muted behind a thin white haze. It rose from behind jagged black peaks that cut across the horizon, and he had to tilt his eyes to take it all in; an immense orb haloed in shimmering silver rings spreading wide across the sky. Hyperion was its name, a titanic gas giant and the largest planet in the A-9 system. A trick of its size, or perhaps Gehenna’s atmosphere, made Hyperion appear close enough for him to touch, as though Hauke could reach out and swirl a finger in the layers.
At last!
A voice rose from the stillness of his mind. A familiar voice. Peace for your father. Peace so that we can sleep. The heat in his chest blazed into a blinding thirst for vengeance, a wildfire out of control. It tried to overwhelm him. He shook with the effort of holding it back, teetering on the edge of sanity. His hands trembled as they inched toward his guns, fingertips brushing aged ivory handles—eager to let them sing.
Why do you fight me? The voice said. He is our enemy. An outlaw. A murderous swine who's earned a thousand deaths. That it should be by your hand can only be seen as justice—a just thing for all his victims.
No…I…
Think. The voice was a silken purr, a whisper of falling gossamer across his skin. It caressed him with seduction. Think of all who cry out from the grave. They cry out for vengeance! Who would hear their silent words? Give them justice. Give them peace. Kill Threiner. Kill him now!
No! Hauke's shout was a silent snarl, teeth bared, face twitching. He would not dishonor his father's memory or his badge. It was unthinkable! He was an Alliance Marshal, a man sworn to justice like his father before him. And justice was what he meant to have. Not murder.
Save your twisted words, brother. I'll not hear them.
The voice retreated like the battering waves of a storm that suddenly lost their fury and fell back into the sea. It took all of his strength to stuff the voice back down into the hollows of his mind, where it waited, lambent eyes in the dark. You will see in time that I know you, even if you do not know yourself. We are the same, brother, the voice whispered.
When Hauke was sure he'd mastered himself, he took a step forward. Then another. Another.
There were forty feet between them when he stopped and angled his body toward the outlaw. "Surrender, Threiner," he raised his voice to carry the distance and over the low moan of the wind. It sounded strange coming from his mask, a slightly electronic resonance. "Lay down your weapon. Now."
Their eyes locked, and the outlaw only scowled.
Threiner was Treskori, so he wore no mask over those hideous reptilian features; his species required none. Their robust systems quickly adapted to nearly any environment, something humans did not share.
Without a mask, Hauke would be light-headed in less than a minute, air drunk, it was called. Nausea would rack his gut a short time later. Things would begin to dim, to shut down, starting with his ability to reason. Walking and talking would become a chore. Then he would collapse in the sand, delirious and confused, lungs gasping in the burning air. Darkness would come shortly after, a soulless void to consume his world. In the end, he would have no strength to call for help or the wits to understand what was happening to him. Not a fate to be envied.
Threiner's slitted black-and-yellow eyes bore into Hauke's, and for a tense moment, they held in a silent struggle. Neither moved or blinked, still as statues. Only the wind gave voice, twining its fingers through Hauke's shoulder-length hair and shifting the dust between his boots. Then Threiner's scaled lips slowly peeled back to reveal serrated teeth in a vile show of contempt. It was meant to frighten him and mock him, the cruel smile of a predator toying with its prey.
Hauke wasn't impressed. He'd seen his like before, many times, and they all bled the same with hot lead in their hearts.
Yet an eight-foot Treskori with the speed of a gazelle was nothing to take lightly, a genuine threat. So Hauke remained cautious in case Threiner decided to rush. The outlaw held a heavy plasma cannon at his side in one massive three-clawed fist, tapping it idly against a thick trunk of a leg. One blast from that cannon would leave a basketball-sized hole in Hauke's chest if it left anything at all.
Threiner glared at him with supreme confidence. In Treskori culture, strength and size were the ultimate deciding factors, especially in battle. Yet even with a Treskori's great strength, that weapon—typically found mounted on assault vehicles—would be slow to wield, slow in a fight where speed mattered. Hauke resisted the urge to smile. Speed kills.
Threiner's eyes narrowed into suspicious slits, following Hauke's eyes down to the plasma cannon, then snapping back up. A sneer that would have frozen helium slowly spread across his face. There was no armor or personal shielding that could defend against that weapon. And Threiner knew it.
Speed kills.
Hauke's hands drifted to the weathered leather holsters belted low on his hips and the nickel-plated revolvers waiting within. Immaculate they were, with quick-draw barrels and feather lite triggers for rapid fire. Their song was blood and death, and he had no doubt they would sing it soon. Engraved In fancy script along each barrel were the pistols' names, Justice and Virtue, exquisite artistry by the hand of a master gunsmith. These rare treasures were passed to him by his father with a lineage tracing to the days of his father's great-grandfather and beyond. A time when outlaws roamed the untamed west, and lawmen hunted them wherever they hid.
Threiner turned his head slowly, deliberately keeping one evil eye on Hauke, and spit a huge gob of green-tinged saliva into the dust, then snapped his glare back into place.
"Be smart, Threiner," Hauke said, though every inch of him hummed on the razor's edge of violence, and every fiber hoped Threiner would twitch that cannon in the wrong direction. "And you might live to see the outside of a prison cell again one day." The mouthpieces back in the Core wanted Threiner brought back alive if possible. Alive was better for the holovids the senators wanted to run. But if Threiner even breathed wrong, Hauke would not hesitate.
"No surrender, human," Threiner's deep hiss was full of malice, and vast musculature rippled across his shirtless bulk. "Pain. Much pain for you." From his great height, Raim Threiner glared down at Hauke as though looking at an insect he meant to crush under his boot—a naturally occurring, ever-present scowl that twisted his ugly face beyond hideous.
Threiner turned his head and spat again. "Pain," he said, scraping the sharp tip of an ebon claw across his throat scales. "All pain for you." Threiner's massive plasma rifle still hung idle at his side, barrel pointed at the ground, unmoving. But his free hand clenched into a fist. Sunlight glittered off thousands of small granular scales covering his skin like viridian glass, and a low growl issued deep within his throat, an ominous rumble that would have sent lesser beings running. But Hauke had seen it all before, and he stood firm, his jaw set, hands poised and ready. Whatever was going to happen would happen. Nothing could change that now.
Abruptly Hauke realized that Threiner was doing his best to hide a nervous edge. And rightly so. Confidence was a necessity if you wished to stay alive in this business. But blind arrogance would get you killed.
Most in his business had heard the tales of the human Lawman with lightning in his hands and ice in his veins. Most believed it was nothing more than a fairy tale, something cooked up by the Badges to keep little outlaws awake at night. Yet something must have clicked in Raim's little lizard brain. Perhaps it was the bullet-riddled bodies of his gang strewn about and already rigid in the sunlight, posing as corpses pose, that made him understand the legendary Lawman now stood before him.
"Surrender," Hauke repeated, his tone hard and flat. The icy look in his eyes said there would be no further chances. His hands hovered over his guns. Sweat stained the crown of his wide-brimmed bolero. Red dripped down his side. A sudden wind rippled folds into his shirt, kicking up a dirty haze. Everything went quiet. He could hear his heart, feel its fire surging down to his fingertips. His eyes narrowed, but he willed himself not to blink.
His hands itched to rip the guns from their holsters and let them sing. It would be so easy. Threiner wouldn't have time to process that Hauke had pulled steel before he died. His hands trembled. But he would give the outlaw a chance to lay down his weapon. He always did.
His father once told him that a man's honor was all he truly possessed. All else could be taken away or destroyed. Material possessions and riches would become someone else's when you died. In time, even your spouse. But your honor, your legacy, was yours to keep forever. This was made all the more important in a galaxy rife with treachery. A man's honor was sacred. His father had believed that, and so did Hauke. He had killed outlaws, true, more than a few: humans, Treskori, even Jasei. If they broke the law, killed, raped, or pillaged across The Alliance, he hunted them down. Most had surrendered peacefully.
For those foolish enough to pull on him, things had always ended badly; this he did not deny. He was ruthless and cunning, as one must be to survive hunting the galaxy's worst. He would not waste time with denials. He would not pretend to be righteous. He had never found a sense of pride or pleasure in the violence. He was a professional. He did not kill for joy. He only killed when given no choice. Even Raim Threiner, his father's killer, deserved his day in court. That was justice. That was how the system worked. He would bring this vile creature back alive if he could. The rest was up to Threiner.
"No surrender, human," Threiner repeated, breaking into Hauke's thoughts and rolling his broad angular head atop an even wider neck. Only seconds had passed since he first spoke. A transverse crest of bony spikes connected by a thin membrane of leathery flesh fanned up across the crown of his skull, rattling and bristling with anger. "Much pleasure to kill you, Marshal scum shit."
His response did not surprise Hauke.
The plasma rifle started up, and Hauke's hands flashed. There was thunder and smoke, time slowed.
Threiner lay on his back when the smoke cleared, slitted eyes staring blindly at Gehenna's twin suns. Four massive holes leaked green down his chest and pooled in the sand. Hauke's pistols roared again, and two more holes erupted in Threiner's head. Better to be sure than pay the price of folly.
Guess the senators weren't going to get their holovid back in the Core. Well, piss on them. Hauke was a lawman, and there were no politicians here.
People emerged from their shacks, peering plaintively up and down the streets. Their eyes were still fearful, but something else kindled behind them.
Hauke turned, gleaming pistols still in hand and lifted his voice to carry.
“People of Aeos,” he scanned their faces, and saw hope dawning where before there was only despair. “Raim is dead. The Reapers are dead. You are free.”

I. PRC/Ayala Mall Circuit Makati
PUVs that terminates at this place: PRC-Kayamanan C via Chino Roces(terminal: San Lorenzo Place), PRC-Libertad via Chino Roces and Gil Puyat (terminal: Taft-Gil Puyat area), Makati Loop e-jeeps (termina: One Ayala ground floor), P2P bus from District Imus
PUVs that passes by this area: Guadalupe-Leon Guinto via Paco(terminal: Agoncillo-Pedro Gil near LRT Pedro Gil, Guadalupe Cloverleaf), Guadalupe-Leon Guinto via Bukid(terminal: Leon Guinto-San Andres near LRT Quirino, Guadalupe Cloverleaf), Makati Loop regular jeeps (terminal: Puregold Makati, and Landmark Makati), Ayala-J.P.Rizal (terminal: Biak na Bato-Zapote, Landmark Makati)
II. Ayala Avenue/One Ayala
PUVs that passes by Ayala (RCBC plaza only): Fairview-Ayala bus by NS Trans via Taft, Quiapo Espana, Quezon Ave; Malanday-Ayala bus by Pamana Trans and Saint Martin de Porres via Monumento, Rizal Ave, Taft (may extend trip to MRT Buendia), Guadalupe-Cartimar via Gil Puyat jeeps, Bel-Air-Washington jeeps (terminal: Shell Bel-Air EDSA, Washington-Gil Puyat).
PUVs that passes by Ayala Ave(Ayala Triangle, Glorietta, and One Ayala): Washington-MRT Ayala jeeps(terminal: Washington-Gil Puyat or at Urban Ave-Gil Puyat, behind Shell at EDSA-McKinley road), FTI-Buendia bus, Pacita-Buendia bus.
Notable Landmarks within Ayala:

• Salcedo-H.V.Dela Costa (Teleperformance Ayala, Makati Medical Center, Ayala North Exchange, RCBC Plaza/Yuchengco Museum, GT Tower, Philam Life, LKG Tower)
  
• V.A.Rufino (PLDT Smart, Dela Rosa Carpark 1 and Carpark 2, 6780 bldg, 6789 tower, PBCOM tower, Valero tower, The Gentry, Salcedo Weekend Market, Medical Towers Makati, Legazpi Park)
  
• Paseo De Roxas (Ayala Triangle Garden, HSBC, The Enterprise Center, Tower One, PSBank, Paseo Center, The Penthouse, SGV Ayala, Insular Life)
  
• Makati Ave (Ayala Triangle Garden, Greenbelt 3, Greenbelt 4, Greenbelt 5, The Peninsula Manila, Makati Shangri-La, H.V.Locsin bldg, The Link, Ayala Museum, Landmark Makati)
  
• Parkway Drive (6750 tower, Glorietta 3, Rustan's)
  
• Courtyard Drive (Glorietta 4, Glorietta 5, Rustan's)
  
• One Ayala + SM Makati
  

Buses that can be found in One Ayala:

• Alabang via Sucat and Bicutan exits
  
• Alabang Derecho (will ignore Sucat and Bicutan exits, so double check the signboard before embarking)
  
• FTI
  
• Pacita
  
• Balibago
  
• Nuvali
  
• P2P Fairview
  
• P2P District Imus
  
• P2P NAIA 1-4
  
• P2P Katipunan
  
• EDSA Carousel
  

UVs that can be found in Dela Rosa Carpark 2: San Mateo IMus BDO, Sucat-Evacom, Molino Paliparan, Balic Balic, Antipolo, Las Pinas
UVs that can be found in One Ayala UG floor (more details can be found at Sakay.ph Blog):

• Gate 5 (Suki Market/Mayon street, FTI, Marikina)
  
• Gate 6 (Antipolo, Pasig via Kalayaan, Pacita-Binan)
  
• Gate 7 (Sucat Evacom, BF El Grande, BF Resort)
  
• Gate 8 (Las Pinas via Skyway, Molino via COastal, Molino via Skyway)
  
• Gate 9 (Imus via Coastal, Russia-Moonwalk Paranaque, Bicutan)
  

Jeeps that can be found in One Ayala UG Floor:

• Pasay Road-Libertad
  
• Pateros
  
• Makati Loop regular jeep
  

III.Arnaiz Ave (Makati part is formerly Pasay Road)
The Pasay Road-Libertad jeeps travels through most of Arnaiz Ave, but follows a specific route since certain stretches of Arnaiz Ave are 1 way only.
From P.Zamora-Arnaiz Ave: Arnaiz Ave-Osmena Highway > U Turn slot in Magallanes > Osmena Highway-Don Bosco street > Don Bosco-Chino Roces > Chino Roces-Arnaiz Ave > Arnaiz Ave-East street > East street-Palm drive > Palm Drive-Park Square rd (terminal)
From Park Square Makati: Park Square rd-Arnaiz Ave > Arnaiz Ave-Amorsolo > Amorsolo-V.A.Rufino > S.Javier-J.Victor > J.Victor-Arnaiz Ave > Arnaiz Ave-Cementina Ext > Arnaiz Ave-P.Zamora (terminal)
Notable landmarks: Waltermart Makati, jeeps to M.Reyes, jeeps to Evangelista, Bangkal area of Osmena Highway (1 way only) Legazpi Village, Greenbelt, Glorietta
IV. Chino Roces
The PRC-Kayamanan jeeps traverses the entire Chino Roces Ave from PRC up to EDSA/MRT Magallanes. Terminal in PRC is at A.Reyes-J.P.Rizal in front of Jollibee, terminal in Kayamanan is beside San Lorenzo Place.
Notable Landmarks:

• PRC/Circuit Makati
  
• Vito Cruz(Shopwise Makati, short walk to Mapua Makati, Comuna), trikes passing by Pablo Ocampo Sr Ext towards Z.Roxas area
  
• Gil Puyat (Jaka Center, Burgundy Tower, BIR Makati)
  
• Arnaiz Ave (Waltermart Makati, Makati Cinema Square, Brgy hall of Pio Del Pilar, The Beacon Makati)
  
• Don Bosco/Wilcon Pasong Tamo
  
• EDSA (San Lorenzo Place Mall/SouthGate Mall/MRT Magallanes)
  

PRC-Libertad jeeps will turn right from Chino Roces to Gil Puyat and will terminate to Taft-Gil Puyat (but will use the U turn slot near Leveriza street). Despite the name, the jeeps will not go to Arnaiz Ave. Basically they have half of the PRC-Kayamanan and the Guadalupe-Cartimar jeeps' route then combined.
Chino Roces ext: There is also FTI-Pasong Tamo jeeps, which will travel along Chino Roces ext which isn't covered by the PRC-Kayamanan jeeps. From Southgate Mall up to Gate 3 Plaza.
Notable Landmarks:

• Southgate Mall
  
• Silverlens
  
• The Bevvy
  
• PhilHealth Makati
  
• Art Cube Gallery
  
• White Space Manila
  
• Tarzeer Pictures
  

V. Kalayaan Ave-J.P.Rizal
Guadalupe-Leon Guinto jeeps (both via Paco and Bukid routes) will travel on both avenues. Kalayaan Ave is eastbound only, J.P.Rizal is westbound only, at least up to Makati Ave intersection.
Landmarks:

• Puregold Makati + Del Pan and Z.Roxas streets
  
• Lugawan sa Tejeros
  
• PRC/Circuit Makati
  
• Makati City Hall
  
• Century Mall/Centuria Medical Makati
  
• Poblacion
  
• driveway leading to Rockwell/Powerplant Mall
  

VI. Mandaluyong-MRT Buendia e-jeeps
This is the only PUV that travels between Makati and Mandaluyong without passing by EDSA.
From Mandaluyong: Maysilo Circle-San Francisco street > San Francisco-Coronado > Coronado-Makati-Mandaluyong Bridge > Makati-Mandaluyong Bridge-Makati Ave > Makati Ave-J.P.Rizal > J.P.Rizal-N.Garcia > N.Garcia-Jupiter > Jupiter-Makati Ave > Makati Ave-Gil Puyat > Gil Puyat-U turn slot underneath Kalayaan Flyover
From MRT Buendia: Gil Puyat-U turn slot underneath Kalayaan Flyover > Makati Ave-Gil Puyat > Jupiter-Makati Ave > N.Garcia-Jupiter > Kalayaan Ave-N.Garcia > Kalayaan Ave-Makati Ave > Makati-Mandaluyong Bridge-Makati Ave > Coronado-Makati-Mandaluyong Bridge > San Francisco-Coronado > Maysilo Circle-San Francisco street
Notable Landmarks:

• Mandaluyong City Hall/Boni jeeps
  
• near The Acqua Residences and City of Mandaluyong Science High School
  
• Poblacion/Century Mall/short jeep ride to Rockwell
  
• Makati City Hall
  
• SM Jazz
  
• Department of Tourism and Department of Trade and Industry
  
• SM Cyber Makati One/Cyber Two
  
• Shell Bel-Air EDSA/MRT and Carousel bus stop Buendia/VXI Recruitment center
  

VII. PUVs in Guadalupe

• Leon Guinto (Paco or Bukid) via J.P.Rizal/Kalayaan Ave, terminal in cloverleaf.
  
• Pateros, terminal in cloverleaf/Guadalupe ferry station. Passes by University of Makati and J.P.Rizal ext, short walk to Ospital ng Makati. basically traverse along Brgys. East Rembo, West Rembo and Comembo. It also passes by "Buting" (you could rode a tricycle her if you plan to go San Joaquin, Pasig). I really can't think of any other popular landmarks as it passes along to almost residential areas.
  
• Gate 3 via Lawton Ave, passes by Upper McKinley and Robinson Cyber Sigma and Gate 3 Plaza. also passes by PhilPlans before turning right to BGC, Uptown Mall, DLSU-Rufino campus, Internation School Manila, British School Manila, Every Nation/Victory BGC and will do a stop-over at Market! Market! terminal before going again to Gate 3.
  
• FTI via C5 road, passes by Market Market and Upper McKinley and Bayani road. also passes by "Buting" (different area in Buting thou, this one is along C5/elevated U-turn), Blueboz, Palaso-called "Ilalim", BCDA, Waterfun, Heritage Park, Centennial Village, then will turn left to Service Road.
  
• Guadalupe-Cartimar via entire Gil Puyat Ave from Paseo De Roxas up to U turn slot near Leveriza street (passes by Cash & Carry Mall, SM Hypermarket, and Dian street)
  
• Iirc, there's jeep and UV going to San Joaquin, Pasig. Their terminal is in front of 7-11/Watsons/Mercury Drug Store.
  
• Guadalupe has a MRT station and Carousel bus stop which requires passing by the MRT Concourse first.
  
• Trikes are available along Manggahan street for those who wish to go to "Butas" which is close to BGC's St.Lukes and Mitsukoshi mall.
  

VII. MRT stations, Carousel bus stops, PNR stations, and Pasig Ferry stations in Makati

• Guadalupe, Buendia (Gil Puyat), Ayala, and Magallanes (Chino Roces) has their respective MRT stations. Buendia and Ayala are the only stations that its train platform is below street level.
  
• Among the MRT stations in Makati, only Magallanes doesn't have a corresponding Carousel bus stop
  
• Guadalupe and Valenzuela ferry stations are within Makati. Guadalupe is along J.P.Rizal street, not too far from Guadalupe cloverleaf. Valenzuela is on A.Bonifacio street, about 8 minutes of walking from J.P.Rizal street.
  

VIII. Gil Puyat Ave/Buendia
The Guadalupe Cartimar jeeps are the only ones that travels through nearly the entire Gil Puyat Ave + the occasional Malanday-Ayala buses that sometimes extends to U turn slot in Buendia-EDSA. in Pasay side, they will pass by Taft Avenue with LRT1 Gil Puyat and the Buendia bus terminals and will reach up to the U turn slot near Roxas blvd/F.B.Harrison.
Notable Landmarks along Gil Puyat in Makati side:

• Brgy Palanan and Brgy San Isidro areas of Makati (Cash & Carry Mall, Dian street, SM Hypermarket, Buendia Food by the Court)
  
• Brgy San Antonio and Brgy Pio Del Pilar areas of Makati (Cityland, Washington jeepney terminal, Cityland Makati, Malugay street, Makati Executive Tower 1 and 2, Avida Towers Asten, Yakal street, RedDoorz Makati, Techzone, Victoria De Makati, iAcademy Yakal)
  
• Chino Roces (BIR, CEU Makati, Burgundy tower, Jaka Center, Red Planet Makati, Comfoods)
  
• Urban Ave (Tropical Hut Makati, Makati Medical Center, Skyland Plaza)
  
• Ayala (see the Ayala section)
  
• Salcedo Village area (FEU Makati, World Center bldg, Trident tower, Tordesillas, Salcedo Weekend Market, Jaime Velasquez park, SM Jazz via N.Garcia
  
• Makati Ave (Pacific Star bldg, DTI, DBP, walk to Century Mall and Poblacion area, Cyber Makati One)
  
• Paseo De Roxas (DTI)
  
• before Kalayaan Flyover (Cyber Makati Two, VXI Recruitment, Shell Bel-Air, MRT and Carousel bus stop Buendia)
  

Thank you for reading, I hope you find this guide useful. I realize some areas are excluded or feels too light in information, and it's mostly because I'm not familiar with some jeepney routes. This includes the Pateros jeeps, the Evangelista and M.Dela Cruz jeeps, Washington-Libertad jeeps, the Gate 3 jeep route when inside BGC, among others. I'd like the other commuters who are more familiar with these jeep routes to just leave a comment below detailing each street/intersection.
edit: added Alabang Derecho bus route
edit 2: added aeramarot's details on Guadalupe PUVs, also added more landmarks, especially on Ayala and Buendia sections.

DC Next Proudly Presents:

THE FLASH

In On Two Fronts
Issue Thirty-Five: Running Wild
Written by AdamantAce
Edited by Deadislandman1
 
<< First Issue < Prev. Next Issue > Coming Next Month
 
 
Wally West's morning routine was nothing short of a whirlwind. He was up and dressed in a flash, literally, his movements a blur as he zipped into his clothes and was almost out the door when a familiar voice halted him mid-stride.
“Where do you think you’re going?” The question came not with accusation, but with a playful undertone.
Wally spun around, his momentum carrying a breeze that fluttered the nearby curtains, to find Rosie Dillon lounging on the couch, a steaming cup of coffee in hand. Her expression was a mix of amusement and affection.
He couldn't help but smile, his heart swelling a bit as he approached her. “Got a big day today, huh?” he teased, referring to her job interview.
Rosie nodded, her excitement palpable. “Yeah, and I'm going to nail it,” she declared with a confidence that made Wally's smile widen.
After a quick but tender kiss, during which he whispered an earnest “I love you”, Rosie gave him a nod, the unspoken signal that it was okay for him to resume his life at high speed. With another swift peck, Wally was out the door, the sound of it closing echoed faintly in the distance.
Once outside, Wally dialled back into the rest of the world. He returned a missed call from Ambassador Rhinebeck. One he should have known better than to miss.
“Ambassador!” he exclaimed as he connected and Grace Rhinebeck’s image appeared projected on his mask’s lenses. “Is everything alright?”
“Everything is fine, Flash,” she replied. “If there was a crisis in Doomtopia we would have sent someone for you.”
Wally winced at the name, but pressed on. “I know, but I don’t want you all to stop thinking you can rely on me.”
“We won’t, Flash.” There it was again. “You’re - pardon my expression - one of the good ones.”
As Wally raced through Gem City, the sprawling metropolis that had evolved from the merging of Central and Keystone, he took in the advanced architecture and bustling skyways once again. Flying cars never got old, especially when it left the roads clearer for the city’s friendly neighbourhood speedster. Still, their sleek innovations didn’t make up for the fumes they belched into the atmosphere. Wally frowned slightly; for all the technological advancements of the 25th century, some things seemed stubbornly stuck in the past.
Then, his musings were interrupted by another chime from his communicator. This time, it was a message from a scientist friend, beckoning him to the Flash Museum for a discussion on some Speed Force anomalies. It had been years since Wally was a walking Speed Force anomaly himself, which he figured gave him a unique insight. He quickly called his contact back.
“Should I be worried?” Wally asked brusquely. He didn’t mind skipping the pleasantries when he knew he’d be face-to-face with the man in less than a minute.
“Don't panic, just come by,”* the professor assured him. “I’ll explain everything.”
“Okay. On my way, Dr Thawne.”
 
🔻🔺 ⚡ 🔺🔻
 
Present Day
 
Morning light filtered through the blinds, casting a soft glow across the bedroom. Barry lay awake, the sheets pooled around his waist as he watched Patty sleep beside him. The rays of the sun played across her features, accentuating her peaceful expression. In that quiet moment, Barry couldn’t help but marvel at her, feeling a mix of exhilaration and apprehension. They had moved swiftly, rekindling their relationship with an intensity that was both thrilling and daunting. Yet, as he watched her, all he could think was how right it felt. They had navigated all of that teenage awkwardness years ago, Barry resolved, now they had begun to repair their cracked foundation they could speed things up all they pleased.
Patty stirred and blinked open her eyes, catching him halfway through changing into his shirt, his smile broad and unabashed.
“Morning,” she greeted, her voice groggy and husky.
“You know what my favourite thing about having super speed is?” she mused, sitting up. “Getting to sleep in and still get to work on time.”
With a playful flourish, she zipped around the room, a blur of motion that ended with her fully dressed in an instant. Barry watched, amused and slightly envious.
“That’s just an advanced Speed Force technique,” he chuckled, pulling on his last sock. “I’m never on time for anything. You’ll have to teach me that someday.”
“Maybe someday,” she quipped, a smirk playing on her lips.
Patty stepped closer, her expression softening. “Last night was wonderful, Barry. I can’t wait to do it again.”
“Next time, maybe we can eat out somewhere?” Barry suggested, hopeful.
“I’ll check my calendar after work,” she replied, leaning in to plant a quick kiss on his forehead. With another flash of speed, she was gone, her departure leaving a slight gust of wind that fluttered the curtains.
Barry stood alone in the quiet room, her absence already felt. Yet, the promise of what lay ahead left a warm feeling in his chest, a contrast to the cool morning air filtering through the window.
 
🔻🔺 ⚡ 🔺🔻
 
Red lightning crackled intensely around William West as he concentrated on harnessing the volatile energy. In the Speed Force Institute's training room, his quick, tight circles generated a powerful storm of energy, which he then attempted to direct with increasing precision. Each attempt to target the distant bullseye resulted in another charred mark on the walls or floor, the actual target remaining frustratingly intact.
Exhausted, he paused, hands on his knees, breathing heavily. Just then, the doorway slid open with a hiss and Iris West, his aunt, stepped through. “I thought I’d find you here.”
William straightened up, surprised. “I didn't know you had access to this place.”
Iris chuckled lightly. “It’s one of the perks of being the Flash’s sister.”
She walked over to him, her heels clicking softly on the concrete floor. “How's the scholarship application going?” she inquired, her tone genuinely curious.
William's shoulders slumped slightly. “I... haven’t really started. Got a lot on my plate,” he admitted, expecting a lecture.
Instead, Iris simply nodded. “I can see that. And I've been checking the logs; you've been training hard, maybe too hard. You're doing fantastic, you know.”
He glanced at her, curious. “Did Barry tell you that?”
“No, but he does speak very highly of you,” Iris assured him with a warm smile. “Maybe spend some more time with him outside of this... training arena? Barry Allen's worth your time too, not just the Flash. He could help with your applications.”
William shifted uncomfortably, his desire to focus solely on avenging his parents battling with the practicality of what Iris was suggesting. “We train together all the time.”
“Yes, you and the Flash maybe, but there’s more to life than just training, William. Barry can help with your applications, and I'll help with essays and personal statements,” Iris encouraged firmly.
The proposal was tempting, grounding. William nodded slowly, a part of him eager for the normalcy it promised.
“And have you spoken to Detective Zolomon again lately?” Iris asked casually.
William's heart skipped. He had indeed been meeting with Zolomon, working on something far from what Iris would approve. “Yeah, we talked about a police internship,” he lied, “but I don’t think I’ll go for it. I don’t want to be a cop.”
A blur of red and gold streaked into the training room, announcing Barry’s arrival in his full Flash costume. “Hey, Iris! William!” he called out cheerfully as he skidded to a halt beside them.
Iris raised an eyebrow. “You seem better rested than I'd expect,” she commented, her tone teasing.
William cringed slightly at the innuendo. “Seriously?” he muttered, his expression a mix of amusement and mild disgust. It was weird enough thinking about his uncle in such a context.
Intent to move swiftly on, William turned to Barry with a more practical question. “Why are you still wearing the whole getup, Barry? Everyone already knows you’re the Flash. Why not train in your sweats?”
“Ah, I'm glad you asked, William. That's actually the focus of today's lesson!”
William rolled his eyes at the formality. “Lesson?” he echoed, not entirely hiding his scepticism.
Iris, still standing by, decided to intervene. “Barry, I was just telling William he should take a break. He’s been pushing himself pretty hard lately.”
William's response was quick and firm, reflecting a determination that belied his young age. “I’m fine! Let’s just continue with the training,” he insisted.
Iris studied him for another moment, yet seeing the resolve in William's eyes, she nodded slowly. “Okay, but don’t overdo it,” she cautioned, her voice soft but stern.
“Promise,” William replied, a slight smile breaking through as he turned back to Barry, ready for whatever lesson his uncle had in store.
Convinced, if not entirely comfortable, Iris gave them both one last look before turning and exiting the training room. Her steps echoed faintly as she left, the door hissing shut behind her, leaving William and Barry alone in the vast, equipment-laden space.
“Alright,” Barry clapped his hands together, the sound sharp in the quiet room. “Let’s get started then. There’s a lot more to these suits than just identity protection. It covers my face, sure, but it also shields my body. The fabric is a lightweight fibre that doesn't impede speed yet absorbs the impact of hits, scrapes, and even some forms of energy blasts.”
William's brow furrowed in confusion. “But doesn’t the Speed Force protect speedsters from most of those things?”
Barry nodded. “The Speed Force does minimise the effects of friction, preventing us from igniting when we run through the wind. It offers some protection against other forces too, but it’s not all-encompassing, especially when you're up against supervillains like the Reverse Flash." The mention of the Reverse Flash sharpened William's focus instantly, likely Barry’s exact intention.
Barry continued, “Not to mention: the suit is skintight. We already don’t worry about drag, thanks to the Speed Force, but loose fabric can still be a nuisance. A streamlined design helps prevent any self-sabotage from tripping or fabric interference."
Half-joking, William asked, "So does this mean I’ve got to get myself my own full-body condom if I want to run like you?"
Barry laughed softly and extended his hand, holding something small and metallic. “No need.” He handed it to William who took it, examining the titanium ring engraved with the iconic Flash lightning bolt.
“This is...?” William began but trailed off, a profound awe colouring his tone.
“Max’s Flash Ring,” Barry replied with reverence for the fallen hero.
The significance wasn't lost on William. He slipped the ring onto his left middle finger, marvelling at how it seemed to be a perfect fit. Barry, smiling, did not mention the nanotechnology that adapted its size.
Removing his scarlet glove, Barry revealed a similar ring of gold. He demonstrated how to activate it by pressing a hidden button. William, filled with curiosity and a bit of nervous excitement, pressed the button on his ring.
In a blur, the costume shot out, rapidly expanding. In that moment, Barry placed his hand on William’s shoulder and pulled them both into Flashtime - the speedsters’ slowed down perception of reality - allowing them both to witness the unfolding of the suit in slow motion. There, William watched the dramatic unfurling of silver fabric accented with black and highlighted with red lightning bolts streaking across the chest.
However, as the Flashtime ended and reality snapped back to its regular pace, William, still caught up in the spectacle, failed to step into the suit. It fell to the floor with a comical slap, lying fully expanded yet unoccupied.
Barry chuckled at the sight, the sound echoing slightly in the spacious training room. “Looks like today's real lesson is how to suit up at super speed,” he said, amused. “Trust me, nobody wants to catch a speedster half-dressed and struggling into their costume.”
William, slightly embarrassed but more amused like his uncle, nodded, his earlier frustrations momentarily forgotten in the novelty of his new gear and the trust Barry was extending him with their prized possession of Max’s.
 
🔻🔺 ⚡ 🔺🔻
 
Wally West sat at the desk in his bedroom, the muted glow of his laptop illuminating scattered research notes for his engineering assignment. The tabs open on his screen offered little of interest, a stark reminder of the mundane aspects of a lot of education. Yet, beneath this veneer of academic normality, Wally harboured secrets that stretched the boundaries of time itself.
From the bottom drawer of his desk, he retrieved a sleek metal disk, a futuristic device incongruous with his surroundings. Placing it carefully on the desk, he pressed the centre. Immediately, it came alive with a soft blue glow, projecting a hologram of intricate car engine schematics into the air. The design was from the 25th century, tantalisingly advanced yet disappointingly close to modern capabilities. Wally pondered how he could integrate this knowledge into his paper without causing a ripple through the timeline.
His curiosity piqued, Wally's fingers hesitated over another button on the disk. Yielding to temptation, he pressed it. The engine's blueprint vanished, replaced by a holographic newspaper front page, the headline in bold.
FLASH DIES IN CRISIS.
It was the same page that had haunted Barry, stored in the time vault by the adult Bart Allen. The date and details shifted with each viewing, a morbid reminder of a mutable future tethered by a seemingly constant event: the Flash's death.
“Bart... where are you?” Wally murmured, lost in thought. He knew a teenage Bart Allen - Barry’s future grandson - had been hopping through time, training under every Flash. The young Bart who had made a brief visit to the 25th century had hinted at dire events, and clearly was fixated on this headline by the time he reached adulthood. In the present day, it had been years since Bart had covertly trained under Jay Garrick, and then Max Crandall. Everything he knew about Barry’s future fate, and the Reverse Flash’s machinations pointed to Bart and the complex tapestry of his history. He was overdue for a partnership with Barry, but when he did rear his head he would answer Wally with exactly what was going on. Bart was the key, he was certain.
The unsettling silence of the room was abruptly shattered. “Feeling nervous, West?” The voice, distorted and chillingly familiar, immediately made Wally’s blood run cold.
Spinning around, Wally faced the nightmare he had hoped to avoid. The Reverse Flash stood mere feet away, his red eyes gleaming malevolently, his features obscured by his rapidly vibrating form.
A surge of energy exploded between them, red and yellow lightning crackling wildly as they launched into a frenetic dash around the room. The chase spilled into the street, an eruption of speed and power that blurred the lines of the residential area around them.
“Everything is already in motion,” the Reverse Flash taunted as they circled each other, his voice a sinister echo in the whirlwind. “You and your light touch approach to timeline surgery can't stop it. I’ve already tried, with blunter instruments!”
Where have you been!?” Wally demanded, breathless from the shock of the encounter. The Reverse Flash had been absent since the chaos at Patty and Barry's wedding, his whereabouts a mystery. All the while, the Flash Family feared the day he would reappear.
The villain's reply was cryptic, tinged with dark amusement. *“The so-called ‘Legion of Doom’ has shifted its priorities. I check in, but I’ve been busy setting up the dominoes.”’ *
Wally gritted his teeth. If he wanted riddles he would have headed off to Gotham.
“Besides… you should know where I've been…” The dark speedster sneered, taunting the previously future-flung Wally.
Both came to a stop in the middle of the street, each just staring the other down.
“So what do you want?” Wally's cry was a mix of defiance and desperation. “You’ve messed with Barry enough.”
First, the Reverse Flash merely laughed.
“What?” Wally balled his hands into fists.
“Barry Allen is right where I want him,” the foe replied. “Right now, you’re the thorn in my side. I'm not going to let you mess everything up.”
The Reverse Flash charged forward with immense speed, and Wally reacted on impulse. At first, Wally was sprinting away, the evil speedster in hot pursuit as their surroundings were reduced to a blur. But as the Reverse Flash overtook him, Wally instead found himself the pursuer, chasing the family’s tormentor towards Keystone City, each step a desperate bid to unravel the threat before him and protect those he loved.
 
 
Next: Shatter in The Flash #36
 

1. Buy back land.

There is no hope for Metro Manila if the government refuses to spend any tax money on eminent domain.
Old buildings, structures, shanties, and slums have to be torn down to build viable sidewalks, open spaces, and parks.
While in theory this seems impossible, the fact that we’re able to do it for the Skyway and for the train projects means that they can be done for exclusive pedestrian walkways to improve mobility.
It’s just that we don’t want to for some reason.
Imagine having a spine of interconnected walkways dedicated only to pedestrian and bike mobility that lead to and from train and bus stations. No motorcycles, no cars, no e trikes.

1. Government should compete with jeepneys, tricycles, and busses and put them out of business through a GOCC

Controversial, but that’s the only way to modernize our public transport.
The jeepney and tricycle system as it is is archaic, chaotic, stupid and unreliable. We have to have busses that are nice, carry a lot of people, with fixed stops, and with salaried drivers.
Make jeepney and tricycle owners go out of business and offer them a job.

1. Redraw Manila roads and routes. In doing so, we’re able to optimize which land the government needs to buy back as well as which routes should be offered.

Additionally, we have to reconsider with the terrifying thought that certain roads may need to become one way so we can add real sidewalks if we’re serious about mobility.
Bonus: 1. Consolidate utility posts 2. Remove or lessen spaghetti wires 3. Remove any and all things impeding sidewalks. Impound any vehicle that parks on a sidewalk. (i think the mmda is way more vigilant about this now.) 4. I hate all the bike lanes we have right now they’re arbitrary lines drawn on the road making a 2 land road into a 1.5 lane road. It’s difficult to drive. If you wanna make a bike lane, take 1 lane and protect it accordingly.
Frikin nonsense money grab poorly implemented bike lane lines. Hate them.
Edit: Eminent domain is the most important thing. If government sucks at development, then just pay Ayala a fee to get them to do it.
They’ve literally made a bus terminal in One Ayala., which is its own quasi-public good that’s better than anything government’s come up with.
We just need eminent domain from the gov side.

“Deadly Attractor” (TOC)
by P. Orin Zack
[2003]
 
Chapter Six
... Downtown Los Angeles ...
Leonard Aroun was on a mission, he just wasn’t too clear on why. What he did know was that the tenuous trail he’d been following pointed to somewhere in Los Angeles. But then, what good is a trail if you don’t know why you’re following it? Being blackballed tended to do that to a person. Well, it did for Leonard, anyway.
It was late afternoon, and he’d been walking the streets of downtown L.A. since morning. He stepped aside to let a knot of self-involved Angelinos pass by, and was distracted by the irregular noise of a laboring delivery vehicle hovering on aGrav lifts a few stories up. Resuming his stride, he took to studying the architecture of the hodge-podge collection of individually interesting office towers that gave the city its famously anarchic appearance.
Appearances, however, could be not only deceiving, but from what he’d learned lately, downright contrived. At the moment, it wasn’t the buildings that really interested him so much as what he suspected was going on inside one of them. The fact that there were subliminals in the com didn’t really surprise him at first. After all, they embedded data in conversational channels to carry all the ancillary data cues used to indicate things like privacy and encryption levels, or even the watermarks that identified location or carrier. These other subliminals, though, they were different. Rather than being introduced by the service’s encoding gear, they were layered over the signal somewhere en route. So if you watched one of the courthouse newsfeeds, or made use of the MedCenter’s automated self-diagnosis interactives, you’d also get the unexpected benefits of whatever imperceptible messages were being smeared on them like the icing on a cake. The thing was, nobody would admit to even knowing about them. So, after frustrating himself trying to get answers the usual way, he’d taken to searching them out himself.
That’s what had led him to Los Angeles, and why he was prowling the streets this afternoon. After quitting that obnoxious civil service job, it seemed that nobody wanted to hire him. It was as if having sullied himself in the ranks of some faceless GD bureaucracy had made him a pariah for some reason. Burying his depression in old videos, he got caught up in movies that reflected his own situation, and was particularly intrigued by the ones about how Senator Joseph McCarthy had bullied his 20th-century congressional contemporaries into subverting the US Constitution in the name of political fear-mongering.
Those who had challenged his dubious authority, a knot of Hollywood screenwriters who stood up to the mock investigations he chaired, were forced from their jobs, prevented from working, and had their reputations destroyed. Leonard identified with these blackballed renegades, and resolved to emulate them by attempting to expose the truth behind the treatment he was getting. In fact, he was so taken by those grainy images of the Hollywood Ten that he’d taken to dressing like them as well. Of course, there were limitations to what the ragbots were capable of producing, so he’d had to settle for rendered tweed instead of the real thing.
Leonard stopped outside one of the less interesting-looking buildings, and looked through its grimy glass facade at the streams of non-descript people hurrying across yet another impersonal lobby. It was the kind of building that attracted the sort of businesses that didn’t concern themselves with impressing visitors, the kind that was home to the sort of businesses most likely to front for the far more intriguing activities that he was after.
His reflection in the glass made him seem a displaced traveler from a past that few people bothered to learn about anymore. After all, a double-breasted tweed suit wasn’t exactly the kind of fashion trend that was swirling through the social networks these days. Self-consciously straightening his tie, and squaring his shoulders to match the stiff look of those inside, he stepped through the airwall doorway and glanced around. There were two banks of elevators, and judging from the logo on the doors, they were the expensive aGrav variety that eliminated the annoying feeling of actually going up or down. His usual strategy, when checking out a possible haven for whoever was inserting the subliminals, was to play into the unstable persona he’d created and get lost in as many places as possible. Being loud and annoying was among the best ways to keep people from really noticing you. So he headed towards the bank that served the upper floors, and waited.
Soon, the doors of one unit slid open, and several people stepped out. Once the traffic cleared, Leonard stepped in and the door started to slide shut behind him. Before he finished turning around, though, a woman rushed in, grabbed his wrist, swung his arm up behind him and pulled his finger back nearly to the breaking point, forcing him to bend forward. The door was closed by this time, and the elevator had presumably started rising through the express floors.
She reached out and jabbed the emergency stop button. “All right,” she said gruffly, “other hand on your head. Now!”
Leonard tried to pull away, but only succeeded in making his finger hurt more. “What do you want?”
She jerked it back even further. Leaning close, she whispered in his ear, “I said, put your other hand on your head.”
His eyes watered. “Ow! If you want money,” he said, catching his breath, “I don’t—”
“Look,” she said, straightening a bit, “here’s your choice: I check the pockets of that bizarre getup, or you lose a finger.”
“Okay, okay,” he said. “Who are you, anyway?”
While Lenny waited for an answer, the woman opened his jacket and started patting him down. Judging from her technique, he figured that she knew something about anatomy, because she started with the places where something might be hidden, and that made the search somewhat intimate. When she found something in a pocket, she reached in, pulled it out, and threw it on the floor. Finally, she put two fingers against his cheek, and turned his face up towards her. “You first. What were you doing outside the courthouse yesterday morning?”
He squirmed to shake his head free. “Outside the—?”
She pushed his arm up further. “If you don’t stop struggling, I’ll knock you out and get the answers myself. Now, why were you there?”
Leonard’s eyes stung. “Get them your—? What are you, a psychic or something?”
He must have been close, because she hesitated long enough for him to slip free, grab her arm and push her against the elevator door with it. “Your turn,” he said. “What’s this about?”
While he waited for an answer, she narrowed her eyes, and then closed them tightly. A few seconds later, he yelped in response to what felt like a hot poker burrowing into the base of his skull. Stepping back from his attacker, he rubbed the phantom pain from his neck and shuddered.
“Simple,” she said. “I want to know if you’re one of them.”
He spread his hands in confusion. “One of who?”
She frowned. “That’s the other thing I don’t know.”
“Great,” he said, stooping to recover the items she’d tossed on the floor. “So I’ve got a psychic stalker who doesn’t know what she’s after. Look, there are two things you ought to know. First, I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. And second, mugging someone in an elevator would never work anyway.”
She cocked her head. “Why not?”
Leonard gestured towards the ceiling. “Subliminals. That’s why I’m here right now, and that’s why I was at the courthouse yesterday.”
“Sub—?”
He shook his head as he brushed himself down. “Subliminals. Covert messages in the com channels, in the elevators, everywhere. I’ve been tracking down the source. Who did you think I was, anyway?”
She shook her head in dark amusement. “Someone a lot more dangerous than that. Whoever they are, they have the means to screw with reality. I’ve seen it happen.”
Leonard thought for a moment while running the heel of his hand down the jacket’s sealstrip. The one Lester Cole wore may have had functional buttons, but the ragbot could only provide decorative ones. If what she claimed had any truth to it at all, then the stories he’d been spreading might actually be true. He glanced around at the walls of their temporary prison, and then looked her squarely in the eye. “Here’s what. If either of these groups are in this building, they’re going to be wanting to talk with both of us, so I suggest you release this thing so we can go somewhere safe to talk this out.”
She nodded, released the stop button, and relaxed her stance. The safeties would return the car to the lobby in a moment, so they quickly brushed themselves down and took up the personae of confused, sartorially mismatched tourists in a scary situation. As the doors slid open, they pushed through the crowd while making idle chatter about spending their first vacation in years stuck in an elevator.
Once outside, the woman gestured towards the right. “My flier’s that way.”
“Before I go anywhere with you,” he said as they walked, “I want to know your name.”
 
Good question, Angela thought. It was one aspect of revealing herself that she hadn’t considered, and it started a torrent of memories sluicing through her mind.
The leading edge of that sudden flood brought her back a year, to Australia, and to that chaotic morning at the NullArbor City MedCenter. After fruitlessly wracking her brain for a way to identify their mysterious advisor, she’d put it out of her mind for a while and thought again about the ice cave. If the sudden retroactive appearance of that cave was caused by whoever had derailed the work being done by the people whose life-patterns she’d traced, then one of two things would have had to be true. Either her own investigation was being intentionally deflected, or the ice cave was just a side effect of some other, unrelated alteration being stitched into the fabric of reality.
The first path of that logic fork was tantalizing, because it would have given her unprovable evidence of being on the right track. Unfortunately, it didn’t make much sense. After all, if someone had the power to arrange for that sherpa accident, why would they go to the trouble to create a nonexistent ice cave to save her? There were easier and cheaper ways to scare someone.
The other path suggested that she was simply the lucky beneficiary of someone else’s misfortune. This made more sense, but at the expense of being impossible. Yet if it were true, it implied that her nemesis was steering a process rather than picking discrete events, because that’s the only way to get unintended consequences.
But then if her accident, her rescue, and her being at the MedCenter weren’t planned, her nemesis wouldn’t know that she was looking for him. And if that were true, she’d realized, then he wouldn’t be explicitly hiding his identity from her. Which in turn meant that the advisor, who she suspected of having orchestrated this and other events, would not be on his guard. So in a manner of speaking, she had the element of surprise. And with the element of surprise, perhaps she would be able to draw him out into the open. But the morning shift had come on duty by then, and there wasn’t much time left.
Angela shook the memory off, lest it interfere with the business at hand. “For the moment,” she said several strides later, “call me Cynthia.”
Her amusement at re-using the first alias she’d crafted brought her back once again to that morning in the MedCenter, and the reason she needed it. Events had cascaded so quickly over the next few hours that she wasn’t sure if she still remembered them clearly. The most important one, of course, had been the simplest. To draw the man out, to make him drop his guard long enough for her to learn who he was, all she had to do was put her neck on the block. The people she’d traced were clearly important to him, so by making the connections among their ‘accidents’ public, he’d have to act, if only to cover it up. Which meant that all she really needed to do was have a talk with one of the staff.
The call nurse who answered her attention request got an earful. Angela explained that because she’d been cooped up for so long, she really needed someone to talk to. Happy to gather fodder for the rumor mill, the nurse listened as Angela reeled off a tall story involving several of the people she’d been tracking, placing herself in a fictional nexus of their respective influence networks. Then, after releasing her conversational bait back into the wild, she sat back to scan for sudden changes in the MedCenter’s psychic noise.
It had happened shortly after breakfast. In the midst of the soundless roar, she felt the psychic equivalent of a searchlight suddenly brighten the room. While her target was checking her out, she quickly reached out towards the source of that probe. For a moment, it seemed as though she was going to be able to reach inside his mind and see who he was, when an odd sort of psychic shield got in the way. Working with patients, she’d encountered a wide variety of defensive walls, but his wasn’t like any of them. Then, when she attempted to push through the shield, it seemed like the awareness space inside it had been twisted in some direction that she didn’t understand.
A moment later, as she recalled, the door had burst open. One of the MedCenter Security people held her down while the nurse she’d used for bait gave her a transdermal — some kind of sedative — and babbled about how sad it was that Angela had succumbed to such a sudden mental breakdown. She resisted as long as she could, and then settled back into a drug-induced fog. Instead of being released, the nurse said, she was to be transferred after lunch to a security ward for dangerous patients. Fortunately, she was able to fight through it once they left, and during the usual lunchtime chaos, she escaped.
Feeling a bit paranoid, she’d decided to make a clean break with her problem, and went underground. Her first attempt at crafting a phony identity didn’t work out too well, but that month or so of living as ‘Cynthia Thedic’ gave her the practice she needed to get it done right. And perhaps now, she thought, would be the final payoff.
They’d reached her beat-up flier by this time. Once they were both secured, she spun up the fans, lifted into the skyway, and headed for the spot in the Angeles Crest where she’d left her gear.
 
Even before she’d gotten to L.A., Angela knew she’d need a set of wings. She scanned the resale listings, picked out a dirty fan job that was queued up for refurb, and made an offer. Then, as she’d done with the flier she left tucked away down under, she disabled the thing’s automatic nav system before leaving the used-flier lot. With that taken care of, she started hunting down a place to camp, and settled on a hidden alcove in the Angeles Crest canyon wall because it made an inverse reflection of the ice cave that had started her underground life. For one thing, it had been there before she arrived, and for another, it was not enclosed.
At the moment, they were hovering over the ridge that sheltered her temporary home, and she was scanning the area to be certain it was still deserted. After she set down behind the boulder fronting the alcove, and spun down the fans, she turned to her passenger. “You know,” she said, “I still don’t know your name.”
“No?” He smiled insincerely. “You didn’t exactly ask before groping me, now did you?”
She shook her head. “Sorry about that, but I had to be sure. Anyway, I’m asking now.”
He sighed. “It’s Leonard Aroun, but I prefer Lenny. Should I get out, or do you want to talk in here?”
She popped her restraint and turned a bit to lean against the door. “This is fine. So tell me your story.”
He stared out the forward window. “Only if you spill yours.”
“Fair enough,” she said.
Lenny released his restraint, and laid it to the side. “I’m not too good with accents, but I’m pretty sure you’re not from around here.”
“Too right,” she said amiably, emphasizing her Australian accent. “I’m from down under. Started in Canberra, but got degreed in NullArbor City, not too far from Dobrin Center.”
He turned to look at her. “Oh? Did you work for the GD? I mean, being so close to the government complex and all.”
“Me? Work for the GD? Are you nuts?” She shook her head in distaste. “Not a chance. It was bad enough just having those bureaucrat jerks as patients.”
Lenny slid around and leaned against the door, his right arm resting on the dash area. “Then you’re a doctor? But I though you said you were psychic?”
She grimaced. “The two don’t mix, Lenny. I was a Healer.”
He relaxed a bit. “Was?”
“Yeah. But I lost my license about a year ago. Nasty business.” Realizing that she’d lost control of the situation, she raised her hand. “Wait a minute. Weren’t you going to tell me your story?”
“Sorry,” he said, grinning. “It’s just that I used to work for the GD myself. Well, a minor agency of it anyway.”
“Used to?”
He took a breath and crossed his arms. “Well, I didn’t actually get that far. It was more like I was recruited, then bailed partway through the training when I learned more about it.”
“Why?” she said quietly. “What did you find out?”
“That’s, um…” Lenny turned to look out the window. “That’s part of my problem,” he said wistfully. “I don’t remember. It’s like my memories were messed with or something. I still remember everything else, though. I have all my technical skills intact, but the details of that job are just missing.”
She leaned towards him. “What do you remember?”
“Not much, really,” he said. “I think it had something to do with public relations, because they kept tabs on the activities of a lot of organizations. They wanted me because I’m good at teasing out the dynamics of interlocking systems. But the systems they wanted me to work on weren’t technical but social.”
“Social?” Angela echoed.
“Projecting the behavior of groups. Thinking of them like science experiments, where you can remove one person or another, and then see where the models go. It was all pretty arcane, really.”
She frowned, and looked down at the floor. “Removing people,” she said slowly. Then she looked up at him. “That sounds like they were looking for efficient ways to sabotage something.”
“I had the same thought,” he agreed. “But when I brought it up to my manager, he said it was for contingency planning. Something about it just didn’t seem right though.”
“I think I know what you mean,” she said. “So what about it don’t you remember?”
He uncrossed his arms and cupped his right fist in his left hand. “Details. Like the people there, where it was located, the groups I was supposed to be analyzing. Stuff like that. Why do you ask?”
“Well,” she said, a bit hesitantly, “if you let me do a psychic probe, I might be able to get at some of those memories for you.”
“I suppose, but what good would it do?”
Angela swallowed. “Remember what I told you in the elevator? That I was after some people who could screw with reality? I think it’s the same group.”
He narrowed his eyes and leaned towards her. “You mean they mess with reality to remove those people?”
She nodded.
He leaned back against the door. “But how?”
“I’m not sure yet. One thing I do know that is it’s just not natural. So can I take a look?”
Lenny slumped. “Might as well. What do I do?”
She rubbed her hands together. “Get comfortable, close your eyes, and think about that job. I’ll do the rest.”
Angela waited while Lenny slid his hand under the sealstrip to open his jacket, and then spent a moment removing his tie. When he was finished, she leaned towards him, held her hands over his head, took a long breath and closed her eyes.
Probing people’s minds had become something of a habit for her recently, but this was the first time she’d asked permission in the year since she’d gone underground. It felt good, almost like being back in her practice. At least, that’s how she felt until she started to sense what was going on inside his mind. She’d been able to tell that he was hyper just from watching him fidget, and had put it off to a combination of nervousness and caffeine, but once she began to sense the activity behind the scenes, she realized that there was more to it than that.
What she found when she reached into the interwoven energy knot of his consciousness was a more tightly connected network of chi than she had ever seen. Clearly, his interest in the dynamics of interlocking systems was an outward reflection of the incredibly dense network of ideas and memories that made up his inner world. Reaching into it was all the more a tactile experience for the glimpse that it gave her of how he experienced the world. But these sensations weren’t so much memories as they were the filter that his experiences passed through on their way to being stored. And one thing that he was experiencing at the moment was sexual arousal; not the mindless lustful passion too easily mistaken for love, but rather a deeper intrigue, one now fuelling the glimpse she caught of his idle speculation about their possible future together.
Pulling back abruptly in self-conscious protection of his privacy, she turned her attention instead to the wash of memory he was wading through. There were several images contending for his attention, but they had one thing in common: they’d been tampered with. Where there should have been clear images of the people he’d worked with — managers, coworkers and so forth — there were instead pasted-in placeholders, rendered non-entities who meant nothing to him. In a manner of speaking, someone had peace-bonded his memory, rendering it harmless against them.
She opened her eyes. “All right, I’m done.”
He shuddered slightly. “So, what did you find? Any dragons in there?”
“There might as well be. Someone stripped your memories. That’s why you can’t recall the details.”
He chuckled. “Gotta watch out for those exit interviews, I guess. So now what? Can you fix then?”
Angela studied his face for a moment before answering, and noticed for the first time that he’d used length differences to carve a subtle pattern into his short hair. “Unfortunately, no,” she said, frowning suddenly. “If you’d simply forgotten the details, I’d be able to fish them out, but since they’ve been tampered with, that’s not possible.”
“Hmmm.” Lenny looked dejectedly down at her seat. “Is there anything you can do to help?”
“I’m not sure,” she said. “How about this. You mentioned subliminal messages when we were fighting in the elevator. How do you know about them?”
He looked up at her and smiled. “I hear them.”
She cocked her head in confusion.
“I know they’ve got to be subliminal, because nobody else hears them. But for me they’re everywhere, and they’re extremely annoying.”
Warming to the prospect of conducting a diagnostic session after a year away from the routine, she inched closer to him. “When did you first notice them?”
He scratched his head. “I’ve been through this with HealthTech’s diagnostic bot, and it’s just a waste of time.”
She touched his hand briefly in consolation. “I’m not surprised. But have you asked a Healer to help?”
Lenny shrugged. “Why bother?”
“Because we can do things that they can’t, that’s why.”
He looked at her for a moment. “Like what, for example?”
Angela smiled broadly and tapped her ear. “Like listen through your ears, that’s what.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s simple, really. All I have to do is set up a psychic link, like I just did a few minutes ago, or like Frank Sanroya is doing in court this week, and share your senses. Your ears in this case.”
He sat back against the door. “You can do that?”
“Sure,” she said happily. “It’s basic diagnostics for a Healer. Want to give it a try?”
“And do what?”
“Like I said, let me listen to the subliminals. If they’re everywhere like you say, all we’d need to do is turn on the com, right?”
He sat for a while with the thought before answering. “Yeah. Sure. All right. Give it a try. Whatever.”
“Okay,” she said. “You hear the things, so tune up a feed with an interesting one, and then give me a minute to wiretap your head.”
He held up his hands in protest. “Do what?”
“Just kidding, Lenny. Relax.”
It took a few minutes for him to decide on a feed. Once that was done, he sat back and waited. Angela closed her eyes and focused on the feeling that she had established earlier of his consciousness. After hunting about for a bit to locate the sensory part of his energy nexus, she began to gently alter the location of her focus and listened. A few moments later, she began hearing the newsreader’s voice as if he were in two places at once. The second one would be how Lenny was hearing it. By consciously ignoring the one with the sonic image coming from her right, she could hear Lenny’s version more clearly. When she did this, she also realized that from his point of view, there were two people speaking. The second voice would be what Lenny reported as the subliminal.
“There is no danger to you,” it said, in a gentle, hypnotic voice. “The news is fun. Buy our sponsor’s products.”
Angela sat back, astonished, and opened her eyes. “Turn that thing off, would you?”
“Sure,” he said, and tapped the power control. “Hear anything?”
She nodded. “Enough to know that I can do without it. Thanks for the demo. I’m happy to report that you’re not crazy; you really do hear voices. So how were you tracking the source?”
“By listening.” He looked around the alcove before continuing. “Most feeds have generic announcements like the one you just heard, though they’re tailored to the venue. But some places, like that building, have specialty ones, and something triggers them. If I go into a place with one of those, I can tell what they’re trying to protect by behaving randomly and listening for changes in the messages.” He squirmed in his seat. “Listen, I’m getting a bit cramped in here. Mind if I get out to stretch my legs?”
Angela nodded and opened her door. “Good idea. I think I’ll join you.”
He continued after getting out and shutting the door behind him. “The problem is that the triggers are usually pretty specific. So in an elevator, for example, if they want to keep people off of some floor, the message only gets triggered if that floor is requested. The message would tell you that it was an error, and that you must have wanted to get off on some other floor.”
“But then what do you do?” She asked as she knelt beside her bedroll. “If you get off anyway, you’d call attention to yourself, wouldn’t you?”
He laughed. “That’s the beauty of acting irrationally. You can get away with just about anything. Which reminds me, you seem to have skated out of your part of the bargain.”
She looked at him quizzically while laying out the mattress. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve told you a lot about me. Now it’s your turn.”
“Oh, that.” She scooted onto the mattress and motioned for him to join her. “What do you want to know?”
He stepped onto the cushion, and then descended, cross-legged in one smooth motion. “Not play that game, for one thing.”
She shook her head. “What game?”
He put his hands on the mattress and rotated in place to face her, and then lightly tapped her nose with his forefinger. “By posing that question, you set up a dynamic in which I have to know what to ask in order to get anywhere. It’s not only a stifling strategy, as far as conversation goes, it’s also a covert control maneuver.”
“I suppose I deserve that,” Angela said, amused. “After all, you did tell me that you worked with dynamics.”
He nodded happily. “So would you like to try again?”
“Okay.” She looked at him briefly. “Look, before I start, would you mind taking that jacket off? You look uncomfortable with it all twisted up like that, and for some reason it keeps reminding me of the GD drones I saw too many of back home.”
“Sure.” Lenny shrugged, slipped his faux-tweed jacket off, and tossed it aside. The white shirt he wore under it was more conventional, even though it had the kind of collar that went with his period getup. “You were about to tell me about yourself?”
Angela gazed at the alcove wall for a moment before speaking. “Growing up in Canberra, I learned two things. One was that our Australian government was a sham, and the other was that the Global Directorate over in Nullarbor City was, as well.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s like this,” she said quietly. “When people, especially those in power, take a stand on something, they may or may not really believe in it. Some are paid to play the game; others do it to gain influence or to curry favor. Anyone who really pays attention can get a sense of this kind of duplicity, but for natural psychics it’s almost painful to watch. I mean, between the way it’s reflected in people’s auras and the way they suck energy from whoever they’re sucking up to at the moment, it’s kind of hard to miss.”
Lenny squeezed her knee gently. “I didn’t realize the world was so hard for a psychic to deal with.” Then, smiling, he added, “So, I guess we have something in common.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah,” he said, raising her chin with his finger. “We both have to put up with things that other people don’t even know are happening. The only difference is that as far as I know, I’m the only one with my particular ‘gift’. So what did you do?”
“Well,” she said, unfolding her legs to lay edgewise along the mattress, “At first, I tried to ignore it.”
“Been there,” he said lightly. “Didn’t work.”
“So, after asking around, I decided that the best thing to do was to learn more about it. To study techniques and learn what to do with it.”
He looked at her curiously for a moment, and then let his gaze drift waistward. “So you became a Healer?”
“Not exactly,” she said, propping herself up a bit higher. “I became a teenage shark. I figured that if they could get away with that sort of thing, then a psychic ought to do a whole lot better at it.”
Lenny unfolded his legs and stretched out along the opposite edge of the mattress, leaving about a foot between them. “How’d it work out?”
She laughed. “Not good. A lot of people had thought of that long before I had, especially at the racetrack. It sort of evened out the field, but didn’t change much.”
He placed his palm on the open area between them. “I could have told you that. Upgrading to psychic competition wouldn’t change the dynamic, just the tactics.”
Angela idly traced the veins on the back of his hand with a fingertip. “I guess. So anyway, when I got my head back to learning something useful, I ended up palling around with a few kids who idolized the jerks at the local MedCenter.”
Lenny slipped his hand out from under her finger and wove his fingers into hers. “Which, I guess, meant that you’d have to go the other route and become a Healer.”
She gently moved her hand against his, savoring the feel of skin against skin. “Yeah, that’s what happened, but how did you know?”
He curled his fingers and held her hand tightly. “It’s just your dynamic, that’s all.”
“Hmmm,” she said, looking into his eyes. “What say we try a twosome?”
 
(TOC)

By Karena WalterReporter
Ontario has issued a request for proposals for the twinning of Garden City Skyway and pushed the construction start date back a year to 2026.
Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria, speaking in St. Catharines Friday, said RFPs have been issued to five teams for the first phase of work. Following procurement, the design of the new bridge is expected to begin in 2025 with construction starting in 2026.
This is one of the most critical corridors from an economic perspective in this province,” Sarkaria said, making the announcement with local officials in front of the skyway in an empty lot on Eastchester Avenue East.
“In a year, we’ll see about $1 trillion worth of goods travel over this piece of infrastructure that is behind us here today. So in order to ensure the safe travel of goods, as well as from an economical perspective, this is really needed.”
Garden City Skyway carries QEW traffic over the Welland Canal between St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake and is a major route to four international border crossings. The ministry said the bridge, which is due for repairs, sees 106,000 vehicles cross it every day.
Sarkaria said the provincial government is twinning the bridge with the future in mind — a future that hasn’t ruled out expanding more of the highway.
In the next 10 years, he said, it’s estimated more than five million new people will reside in the Greater Golden Horseshoe. As the population and tourism grows, he said it’s important investment is made in the critical artery.
Sarkaria said that includes expanding GO Transit and increasing its service to ensure people have alternative ways to get from Toronto to Niagara.
“But along those lines, we’re also looking at ways to expand highway infrastructure into the area,” he said, adding the province has committed about $30 billion over the next 10 years for roads, bridges and highways and is committed to reducing any gridlock.
He said the ministry is working with municipal partners along the Toronto- Niagara route. “This new bridge project is a key part of that start of that journey. As we move forward over the next 10 years and build for the next 10, 20, 30 years, it’s going to be a generational asset that will support the growth for this area and ensure that we have a strong economy moving forward.”
Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff said when planning started for Red Hill Valley Parkway in Hamilton decades ago, there may have been people who said it wasn’t necessary because there wasn’t as much growth. By the time it opened, people couldn’t wait to use it. “This is about being proactive,” Oosterhoff said. “This is about recognizing where the pinch points are in our transportation corridor throughout Niagara.”
Oosterhoff said he’s been actively advocating for expanding the QEW with more lanes to increase capacity.
He said based on the population growth forecast across the GTA, if the province doesn’t twin the bridge, people are going to wish it did in the future. “Those pinch points become a real, real challenge when you have a bridge like this that isn’t able to accommodate more of that growth,” he said.
“And so I think it’s really about proactive planning and saying, if we can ensure that those pinch points are addressed now, we’re going to be able to grow much more sustainably over the coming decades.” A four-lane, 2.2-kilometre-long bridge will be built north of the current skyway. Once completed, traffic will switch to the new bridge so rehabilitation work can begin on the existing bridge, including a full deck replacement.
When completed, the new bridge will carry four lanes of Toronto-bound traffic while the upgraded bridge will carry Niagara-bound traffic. Talk of twinning the skyway goes back to 2010 when the MTO started looking at a long-term strategy to address structural and traffic safety needs of the bridge.
Alternatives heard at a 2011 public meeting included repairing, replacing or expanding the bridge or building a tunnel.
In 2013, the MTO said it had chosen twinning as its preferred choice, which would allow traffic to continue to flow over the new bridge while the old one is rehabilitated.
At the time, a consultant for the ministry said twinning to the north of the current bridge would have the least property impact and could save money. A tunnel under the canal was deemed too expensive and would have “significant” impacts on the surrounding area.
In 2020, the ministry said it wanted to twin the skyway in five years and was still targeting construction for early 2025 more recently. To expand the bridge, the MTO expropriated 18 properties on the St. Catharines side and seven on Niagara-on-the-Lake side. At least one business said it had to vacate its property in 2023.
St. Catharines MPP Jennie Stevens said the government should be more forthcoming with details. “For years, we’ve witnessed a cycle of endless reannouncements regarding the Garden City Skyway project,” she said in an emailed statement.
“While it’s encouraging to see the government acknowledge their responsibility to improve this provincially-owned asset that is at the end of its lifespan, it’s long overdue for a detailed plan with a definitive timeline to ensure minimal disruption, and clear communication to the businesses and residents in Niagara.”

### Race Information
* **Name:** Around the Bay
* **Date:** March 24 2024
* **Distance:** 30km...no wait 34 km.. no wait 35.4 km!
* **Location:** Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
* **Website:** https://bayrace.com/
* **Time:** 3:59:40
### Goals
Goal Description Completed?
-------------------------------
A Finish it! *Yes*
B Whole thing under 4 hours *Yes*
C First 30 km in under 3:30 *Yes*
D First 30 km in under 3:18 *No*
### Splits
Kilometer Time
I won't subject you to 35 km worth of splits but suffice to say the first 30 were around 6:36 and the last 5.4 around 7:40.....
### Training
I signed up for this race in a burst of optimism following a personal best half marathon in 2 hours and 42 seconds. I had run this race before, when it was 30km, in 3:18 and was hoping for a similar result. I had a baby 19 months ago and when I was on maternity leave I was able to train every day with a lot of support from the lovely folks at childminding at the ymca. Buoyed by optimism about my training plans I signed up for this 30km race in March giving little regard to the facts of returning to my insane on call job and the demands of five children. Due to some road work the race was changed to 34 km which I wasn't super thrilled about but figured I would just take the last 4km as a cool down and try not to fret too much about it!
In the weeks leading up to the race I did run a 28 km run in just under 3 hours two weeks before the race and clocked about 40- 60 km per week in the 8 weeks leading up to the race. This was probably (certainly!) not adequate training for the task at hand!
### Pre-race
The week before the race was absolutely a hot mess. I traded a 24 hour call shift to my coworker in exchange for working 24 hours extra on call over the course of the week. This resulted in me working 80 plus hours the week before the race. My diet consisted mostly of hastily snarfed granola bars while driving and donuts sympathetically procured from very kind nurses who said things like "you're here *again*?!" I slept in 4-5 hour spurts, punctuated by my toddler waking me up for night time nursing during the times I was actually home at night. Should the toddler be night weaned by now? Certainly! But this is my *last ever* baby and she is completely spoiled. Oh well, sleep is boring anyways. I ran *zero* kilometers in the week before the race. My last run was a 20k, 8 days prior. The day before the race I got paged out shortly before 6 am, left the hospital at 9:30 pm and arrived home at 10:30 pm. I rolled into bed, seriously questioning all my life choices that had led up to this moment. To add to my sorrow, a mere two days before the race a sinkhole was discovered in part of the road near the finish causing the organizers to need to add 1.4 km to the final distance. Realistically, 1.4 km is not a lot of km but the thought of adding *anything* to this race when I was feeling fairly maxed out was honestly pretty stressful. I actually have never dreaded a race before, but the predicted weather conditions, my poor sleep and eating habits and lack of training combined with the extra distance I hadn't trained for left me feeling fairly intimidated!
### RaceMy spouse and I honestly got fairly lost trying to find a place to park which was in a way a blessing in disguise because I had very little time to fret (and freeze!) before we were lined up and ready to go! The energy was high! The day was sunny and pretty darn chilly with a brisk breeze. I wore a ridiculous hand crocheted llama hat to keep my head warm. I thought it was probably too much but actually I was grateful for it because the breeze was pretty sharp!The 10k/15k/and 35.4k participants all started in the same corral. I was grateful for this! I ran with my husband for the first 800 m or so then bid him farewell, thinking to myself that I could have been done with this whole situation in like an hour if I'd only made smarter choices, but ah well. Maybe I would have quit but I already told all my friends and my coworkers I was doing this so there wasn't much choice but to see it through. This is my best advice for going through with a race you don't know if you can finish, by the way. Tell everyone, then let your pride carry you through when you run out of steam!I didn't keep track exactly of the distance, but at some point early on (1.5 km? 2.5 km?) we veered off from the 10/15km participants and headed towards the waterfront.One thing I will say for this race- it was scenic! There were no km markers for the first 8 km which I actually appreciated because it kept me from counting in my head and I was just enjoying the race. The rolling hills came along earlier than I had expected but I was really enjoying the views of the water as we ran over the skyway and the other bridges. I really cooled my pace because I knew I hadn't trained well so I dialed it down to a slower pace than I'd run any race ever before. This turned out to be a solid plan.
Km 13 My husband texted the family chat on Whatsapp to say he was done the 10km in 10:11 and was heading to Subway for lunch. Further regrets surrounding my life choices ensued. I began daydreaming about sandwiches and started mentally planning my Easter brunch menu
Km 18-24This got tough! It was actually not super hilly but the cold was causing stiffness in my muscles and I was getting pain in various joints. The wind was pretty sharp and while the scenery was lovely I was starting to feel * very* tired.... not a good sign when there's a long ways still to go!
Km 24 the giant hill! I've seen this beast before. My first time Around the Bay I was younger and had a mere 4 children and the plucky aspiration of the uninitiated to run the whole way up the darn thing. That, predictably, was not a strategic move. This time I noped right out of that fantasy, opened up Whatsapp and texted my family members about my progress then briefly scrolled through the drama on my work chat. I took a gel, changed my playlist to Madonna and power walked up the hill. then picked it back up at the top!
Km 25-26
A fun tradition of this race is after the peak of the hill, you run past a graveyard. Each year there is a man dressed up as the grim reaper and fun signs saying things like "watch for dying runners turning right! (into the graveyard). If you like, you can stop for a selfie with the reaper. I didn't though, because I knew I already looked like death warmed over anyways
Km 26-30
A bit of a struggle honestly! In previous years I would have just powered through but the problem with your race adding 5.4 km is you have to save *something* for the end, even if you're treating it as a cool down. I still felt like I had energy but my left hip and right knee were really stiff and bothering me at this point. I did absolutely love running around the Hamilton Harbour. It was warming up a bit and the sunlight sparkling on the water was a beautiful sight.
KM 30!Honestly came up sooner than I expected! I was pumped to cross that milestone. Everyone nearby (ie all the slow people) were seemingly employing the same "cool down" run/walk strategy as me. I planned to take the last 5.4 km as a chill bonus and not push too much as I was going to be going back on call later in the evening. (more regretting of life choices ensued)
Km 30-35.4This was more of a struggle than I anticipated. It was very much a mental struggle between wanting to just walk (or like just plain ditch out at a nearby coffee shop) and wanting to finish! In the end this segment took me over 40 minutes. I did run the final km and felt pretty good when I saw the finish line!### Post-race
Grouchy and sore I found my husband. I was *freezing*. I limped back to his car, complaining vigorously about my trials, turned the seat warmers full blast and turned up the heat to a balmy 26 degrees Celsius. When I got to my in laws, my blessed mother in law drew me a nice hot bath which will probably go on the short list of Best Baths I have Ever Taken. We had a lovely visit and a nice supper and my toddler was very much spoiled by doting grandparents. Driving home I said a silent prayer that I would not be paged out of my bed that night. Despite the fact I'd ditched out on the Palm Sunday Mass to run 35 km in the cold, God granted my request and I slept like a rock. I woke up and noticed I'd somehow managed to gain a massive sunburn to my face despite the chilly weather!In the end, I probably wouldn't take on so much race with so little training and I also didn't predict how much the cold would affect my muscles and joints. But I'm proud of finishing the race, even at a pace much slower than I'd hoped!
Made with a new [race report generator](http://sfdavis.com/racereports/) created by herumph.

Chapter 5
Governor Voranor Starstrike of clan Starstrike.
I woke up suddenly in the night as I heard some of the soldiers running around on the skyways above me. I stretched as much as I could within the bars of my small cage and winced as the bruises on my wings flared up in pain as they caressed the cold bars of my prison.
I muttered a curse under my beak as I didn't want to cause trouble for the townsfolk sleeping below me. I stood up in my cage, barely able to stand upright on the hard steel floor of it. I grabbed the bars and looked down to the floor 15 meters below me.
In the faint light I could see the four barred sections that segregated my people, one for children, one for males, one for females and the last one for military personnel, all in all 1500 prisoners. The cages were large, spanning almost the entire hexagon warehouse, not counting the walk paths between them. I was horrified when I saw the machines that made these cages be brought to our town, in large specially designed ships.
Huge machines that looked like an 8 sided dice hovering barely above the ground, with two exhaust pipes sticking out the top and holes on each side. They ate metal and other material and remade it into metal cages in various sizes and with different purposes that could be assembled together perfectly. Machines which sole purpose is to churn out cages and other devices of cruelty, and at a staggering rate, the cages that house us now were built in mere 2 days after the town was taken over.
The cage ceilings over my kin were made from thick bars with tiny barbed spikes that stuck to their feathers and skin, that ultimately made them lose the feathers. Many were already covered in bald spots, scratching at barbs that just dugg ever deeper. Iron walkways over the cages were placed so our captors could throw food down to us. I watched in anger and disgust as the barely edible gruel the fed us was just tossed down between the bars in waterproof sacs, forcing us to eat like animals
I was placed in the middle of the warehouse next to a skywalk. The Xyrrans thought it fitting that I would be looking down over my people as some sort of a joke. The nobles often came to mock me, tossing leftover food at me like I was a common pet and the worst of them all was that young noble Sarnak, the son of the second in command. He made it his personal mission to break my spirit.
Every so often in the beginning he came to me, sneering at me, calling my people weak. I didn't mind, I just ignored him, he then tried to starve me, dangling food in front of me, just out of reach. I ignored it as best I could and eventually the meager meals given to me came again, apparently the high chief wants me alive and relatively fit for some reason.
Then that young noble did something despicable. He brought to my cage children, too young to fly, dropping them from the walkway down to the floor below. It was horrifying, how could such a monster exist? The Xyrran soldiers just laughed as the helpless children tried their best to slow the fall, breaking their legs when landing or their wings in the descent as they were not strong enough, then mercilessly tossed back to their cage whilst the children's family wept in anguish.
I begged him to stop after he threw the first two children, but he just looked at me amused that he was finally getting to me. With tears in my eyes I watched as he continued to do this with another two. I pleaded with him to stop, asking what he wanted.”I want you to grovel and admit how weak and pathetic your species is, how futile your pockets of resistance are and that we the Xyrran are superior in every way.” He said with arrogance simply oozing from his entire being.
If that was all I had to do to save the children then I would do it a hundred times over. I went on my knees and spoke out all his demands.” Hmpf, how boring, you're far too easy to break. But I suppose that is to be expected by lesser species, so brittle and weak.” he said in a mocking tone.
I didn't care at the time as long as he didn't hurt the children anymore. I do feel pride in a sense that my cousin Xelios is still fighting back, since that arrogant noble kept coming every now and then to vent about him. But I don't have any hope that he will rescue us in time before their slave ships will arrive.
I watched in confusion as more Xyrran soldiers were running around, the townsfolk below me starting to wake up as well, frightened and curious as to what was happening. I dreaded for a brief moment that the Xyrran haulers were here, ready to take us beyond our borders, to be sold and bartered as commodities. But that thought quickly diminished as I saw the faces of the soldiers in the low light looking nervous, as if something unexpected had happened.
More noise came from outside the main door, it opened and roughly 50 soldiers alongside a lesser noble shuffled at a fast pace into the building, walking up to the scaffolding and walkways, focusing their rifles on every window and door in the facility.
“What is happening” I wondered to myself, curiosity winning over my cautiousness. The red and purple hued noble barked orders as now the 70 or so soldiers were all lined up to every entryway to the warehouse. As he was checking something on his communication device, the speakers in the building churned to life as an eerie melody started playing in it. Every Xyrran and Alerian that was awake turned their head up to the speakers as children's voices started speaking in Xyrran.
Thanks to the fastened translation device in my ears I could understand it but even if I didn't I would be disturbed by it. Something about shadows, swaying and…Terrans? It was some sort of a rhyme as I could not understand it perfectly. Then the voiced in the speakers started to laugh, a very disturbing chilly laugh then they stopped and said,“we are already here, run little lizards, run.” that felt bizarre, but before I could wrap my head around it, all hell broke loose outside the warehouse.
There were explosions and laser shots ringing outside, the Xyrran looked like they were close to panicking. The noble stood firm close to the center of the building, not far from my cage.”Hold your positions men!” he shouted in an authoritative tone.”We will not lose our precious spoils, those are our orders.” he continued as he lifted his glowing sword and readied his pistol in his other hand.
Outside the main doors could be heard muffled shouts and gunfire, then suddenly it was all silent. For 10 minutes or so I could only hear sounds coming from somewhere far away outside, and murmur and whispers within. The lights suddenly started to flicker then the breaking of glass was heard from the ceiling as what looked like a few cylinders were dropping down from the openings of the windows there. As soon as they broke through the glass the cylinders exploded and big clouds of dark smoke instantly covered the ceiling. The clouds merged and slowly began to descend down towards the floor.
The soldiers on the top skywalks 10 meters above me were the first to be engulfed in the smoke and once inside the smoke, the screams began. Laser fire could be seen as red streaks of light within the clouds as the bodies of the first victims of the smoke began to drop down to the levels below, their eyes wide as pools of blood started to drain from their bodies.
“FIRE.” shouted the noble, as he gnashed his teeth, trying desperately with focused eyes to spot any movement within the smoke cloud. The soldiers unleashes a barrage of laser fire into the smoke above, holes formed where the shots went through but were quickly covered up again as the cloud crept ever so slowly down, seemingly mocking their futile attempt at stopping it. It crept down along the walls of the building until it reached the floor and all the Xyrran were now backed up to each other in the center skywalks, roughly 50 now left.
The dark plumes of the smoke danced slowly in front of them from all directions, the commander ordered them cease-fire and they looked now, nervously at the still smoke cloud all around them. Suddenly out of the smoke, a silver dart of some sort connected to black chains shot down from up above, piercing a Xyrran soldier in the leg, it roared in pain as the dart opened and 4 backward facing hooks latched onto it. In a quick yelp the soldier was hoisted up into the cloud. Dozens of other darts shot from all around them, connecting every time and pulling the screaming Xyrran to their doom.
They tried to resist, but one by one they were whittled down until only the commander was left. He stood there in front of me, shooting wildly in all directions, yelling curses as panic seeped ever deeper into his eyes. A clicking sound could be heard as he had finished all his ammunition. Then from the clouds, pairs of blue eyes could be seen, and a soldier clad in pitch black armor walked out of the smoke, his blue eyes fixed on the enemy in front. The lesser noble cursed and yelled as he swung his sword around. The black armored soldier walked at a steady pace towards him as two vibrating blades slid out from his forearms, humming slightly.
The noble prepared himself and lunged at the black soldier, slicing with his sword back and forth, but the soldier merely dodged and blocked nonchalantly as if he was a tutor teaching a child, his gaze never leaving the noble. The solder eventually stabbed through the swordhand of the Xyrran and kicked him back. The noble landed on his back as he grabbed around the wound on his forearm. Then another chain-dart shot down and dug through his right leg. He winced in pain then saw as the hooks unfold and dig into his skin,”no, NO, NO-” he yelled, his scream cutting off as he was engulfed into the could.
I turned my head, the black soldier was now standing in front of me, looking me up and down as If to confirm something, then his visor slit open and I saw two black eyes on an ashen skinned Terran looking at me, his teeth bared in a smile under a thick finely trimmed, red mustache. He was definitely a Terran, I had watched hundreds of videos and movies about the Terrans, he was definitely one but not a normal one.
“Governor Voranor, I presume?” the soldier asked in a haughty tone.”Yes, yes that is me.” I said back timidly, as my mind was rushing through several things at the same time.”Splendid, my name is Harald, I am captain of the fifth company of Raven division, I am here on the behest of Captain Grey, the commander of this operation, my task is to escort you to him to be briefed on the situation at hand.” He continued nonchalantly, as if engaging in small talk. He was literally fighting an enemy hellbent on killing him a minute ago.
“What about my people here, and in the other prisons?” I asked in a pleading tone.”They will be rescued momentarily, the segregated cages make it easier as we can ask the military persons imprisoned here to help with the evacuation. Our medics will also make a triage in front of the warehouses to deal with any wounded Alerians.” The captain answered back with a smile.”I feel better knowing that, could you help me out of here then captain?” I asked, relief flowing over me now. He smashed his knuckles together with an evil grin,”not a problem governor!” He laughed as he jumped up over the rail and grabbed my cage with one arm and swung his other hand in a fist to the lock on my cage, a loud clang was heard as a dented fist mark was left on the lock, then he just pulled hard and flung the door wide open.”After you governor,” he said with a smirk as he bowed politely.
I jumped over to the railing, grabbing it with my feet. I flexed my wings in what felt like ages and took in a long breath.”Alright, where are we heading?” I asked in a mused tone, feeling alive again.”We are going to your office, I suspect Captain Gray has finished rounding up the nobles.” he answered back as he jumped down to the floor, landing gracefully and without a sound.”What a wondrous piece of armor” I thought to myself as I glided down to him.
We went to the army personnel cage first as I told my townsmen about the Terrans, that they were our allies and are here to help. Hearing those words from me helped calm the people down as they were quite shaken by the whole ordeal that happened. Once that was in order I walked with Captain Harald towards the exit. Once out I was blasted with the aftermath of a battle, no a slaughter. There were Xyrran corpses lying around the warehouse, being picked up by the Terran soldiers and dumped into piles. Long dark ships were hovering above the town as they put out fire with some sort of smoke bombs not too dissimilar to what I witnessed earlier and an eerie silence somehow loomed over the town.
“We are currently cleaning up the aftermath of the battle, we should be finished before 5 a.m. I think.” the captain said whilst twirling the end of his upper lip hair.” Would you like me to call a transport for us?” he continued.”No, I wish to stretch my wings, I can fly there, I know the town like the back of my talons.” I answered back.”Well, well, how about a race then?” He asked with a mischievous grin.”Oh, I may be a bit old but I am still fast, think you could keep up to me?” I said back in a boisterous tone.”Oh, I believe I can.” he answered, as he bolted down the pathway towards my house.
I was stunned for a moment before I took to the air, I flapped my wings hard to gain speed as I closed the distance on him. He lept over one story building like it was nothing, cutting through the winding pathways and gardens with an unnatural grace. I was probably going 45 Km/h but he was still faster than me on the straight roads.
I felt the fresh air as the wind glided over my feathers, the smell of the trees was such a sweet thing to have again. Before I knew it we were at my manor, Harald stood there triumphantly as he leaned against a pillar, not even showing a hint of being tired.”Guess I win,” he said, whilst having a smug look on his face.”You cheated!” I mused back, as I tried to hide my winded gasps.”I don’t see any evidence that I did,” he said whilst giving me a wink.
He opened the door as we went into my manor, we walked up the stairs to my private office. In front of it stood two shadow soldiers, standing guard. They saluted as they saw Captain Harald and opened the doors. I walked inside and saw 2 Terrans sitting at the circular table in the middle of the room with their helmets off talking to a hologram screen on the table. One had light grey hair almost white, neatly cut short. He had clean, soft skin and carried himself neatly, like a proper soldier. The other had no hair on his head but his face had a thick, kemped, black, beard. He had a scar running across his face from his left ear up and over his head back to his neck, and carried the air of a wild hunter, ready to strike at any time.
The gray haired man looked at me with a smile.”Welcome back to your home governor, glad to see you are in one piece. I am Captain Gray and this is Captain Hayes and I believe you have already met your rescuer, Captain Harald. We wanted to ask you about a few things considering logistics and the matter of the townsfolk before you get a well deserved rest.” he said in a soft tone.”That should not be a problem,” I answered back, with a courteous bow” I am overjoyed to hear that our allies have joined us and I am relieved that this whole ordeal is almost over.” I finished, clicking my beak slightly in amusement.”I am afraid it’s not over yet, we still need to finish liberating your planet and kick the Xyrran back to their galactic borders.” he commented back with a stern look as he gestured to me to take a seat.
We went over logistical things like temporary housing and food supplies, what to expect when their main armada comes. Time flew by as I conversed with them and before I knew it almost 2 hours had passed. I bid them a good night as we would continue in the morning when my cousin would come. I headed to my bedroom, washed myself and simply crashed on top of my bed, letting the sheer exhaustion wash over me as I drifted off into a deep slumber.
Chapter 4
Chapter 6

Straddling the border of North Carolina and Tennessee, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a hiker’s paradise. A wondrous diversity of plant and animal life, as well as a rich history of Southern Appalachian culture, make this national park a must-visit destination.

Why Visit Great Smoky Mountains National Park in an RV?

This vast national park spans roughly 522,427 acres, and the best way to explore this territory is by setting up an RV base camp at one of the park’s many campgrounds. Most park roads are accessible to RVs, but be sure to check the website for current conditions leading up to your visit.
Because the park is spread out, an RV allows you to camp at several different locations throughout your stay. This way, you’ll be able to experience the different trails and park attractions while minimizing daily driving.

When to Visit Great Smoky Mountains Park

According to the National Park Service (NPS), the Smoky Mountains National Park is one of the top five most visited parks in the US. In 2020, the park received more than 12 million visitors, and the park stays open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
That said, seasonal road closures may impact your ability to access certain parts of the park. Depending on when you’re visiting, be sure to check the park’s website to get information on temporary road and facility closures when planning your trip.
Be aware that park elevations range from 875 feet up to 6,643 feet at the top of its highest peaks. That means conditions can vary dramatically from your campground to the accessible peaks in the park.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the Spring

The NPS classifies spring in the Smoky Mountains from March through May. This is arguably the most unpredictable time for weather in the park, and changes can occur rapidly, especially at higher elevations.
In March, the average high temperature at the lower elevations in the park is 61℉, and the average low is 42℉. April’s average high regularly reaches the 70s, and lows rarely drop below freezing. In May, the average high is in the 70s and 80s, with lows in the 40s and 50s.
Be aware that temperatures can drop 10-20 degrees at higher elevations. Up high, snow is common in March and is possible at lower elevations as well. April and May see average rainfall accumulations between four and 4.5 inches.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the Summer

Summer runs from June through August in the park, and it includes the park’s busiest season, which is roughly from July 1st through August 15th. Summer in the Smokies is known for three things: heat, haze, and humidity. Afternoon thunderstorms are also common and daytime temperatures at the park’s lower elevations regularly rise into the 90s in July and August.
Comfortable evenings experience lows in the 60s and 70s, making summer the perfect time to stay out late and stargaze in the park. Still, temperatures above 80℉ are rare at higher elevations in the summer, and night-time lows can still dip down into the 40s at times.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the Fall

The changing colors in the park make fall the second-most popular time to visit. Fall runs roughly from September through mid-November in the Smoky Mountains and is the driest time of the year in the park.
Autumn is also known for clear skies and daytime highs averaging in the 70s and 80s in September but falling into the 50s and 60s in November. The first frost of the year typically happens in late September, and lows near freezing are common by mid-to-late November.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the Winter

Winter in Great Smoky Mountains National Park runs from mid-November through February. As you gain elevation in the park, extreme weather becomes more likely. The lower elevations, however, typically experience relatively moderate winters.
At lower elevations, more than half of all winter days experience daytime temperatures in the 50s and lows at, or just below, freezing. The lower elevations only receive snowfalls in excess of one inch a handful of times yearly.
Most of the higher elevations in the park are blanketed in snow for much of January and February. It’s not uncommon for up to two feet of snow to fall in a single storm at high elevations, and temperatures as low as -20℉ have been recorded on the park’s high peaks.

Where to Stay

There are a total of 10 campgrounds within the boundaries of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. These are considered frontcountry camping with restrooms with flush toilets and cold running water. Each site at these campgrounds offers a picnic table and a fire grate.
Of these 10 campgrounds, seven offer spots that are accessible to RVs. Here are the quick links to these campgrounds where you can find more information on camping fees, RV size restrictions, and more:

• Cades Cove Campground
• Cataloochee Campground
• Cosby Campground
• Deep Creek Campground
• Elkmont Campground
• Look Rock Campground
• Smokemont Campground

Please check the NPS website for more information or call the park headquarters at 865-436-1200 for more information.
In addition, there are opportunities for backcountry camping along the park’s many trails. You can also investigate group campgrounds for larger parties or horse camps for your equestrian needs.

Staying Outside The Park

There are also a number of RV parks and resorts in nearby towns like Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. Consider these alternatives if you can’t find a site at a campground inside the park.

• Greenbrier Campground: Located in Gatlinburg, TN, about 25 minutes from the Sugarlands Visitor Center.
• Riveredge RV Park: Located in Pigeon Forge, TN, about 20 minutes from the Sugarlands Visitor Center.
• Stonebridge RV Resort: Located in Maggie Valley, NC, about 40 minutes from the Oconaluftee Visitor Center.
• Smoky Mountain Meadows Campground: Located in Bryson City, NC, about 30 minutes from the Oconaluftee Visitor Center.

Tips For Booking

• Reservations for RV-accessible campgrounds in the park can be made through Recreation.gov or by calling 877-444-6777. Making reservations in advance is strongly recommended when visiting the park during the summer and fall months.
• Only heat-treated firewood that is bundled and certified by the USDA or a state department of agriculture is allowed in the park to prevent the introduction of invasive species.
• Camping within the park is limited to 14 consecutive days and no more than 60 days in a calendar year.
• General quiet hours run from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., and generator quiet hours run from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.
• Check-in time is 1 p.m., and check-out time is noon.
• Only one RV or trailer is allowed per site. Sites with one RV or trailer may also have one additional vehicle.
• There are a minimal number of food storage lockers available in park campgrounds. Food and scented items must be stored in an enclosed vehicle or in a camping unit made of solid, non-pliable material when not in use.

Get more information on campground rules and regulations before your visit.

How to Get Around Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Downloading maps of the park and surrounding regions is a great way to plan your visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Cell service may not be 100% reliable throughout the park, so having these maps on hand will help you navigate the attractions you want to visit.
There are three main entrances to the park, and they are located in Gatlinburg, TN, Townsend, TN, and Cherokee, NC. There is no public transportation to the park from nearby cities, but there are some commercial operations running out of Asheville, NC, and Knoxville, TN.
Depending on the entrance you are looking for, check the park’s website for more detailed driving directions.

Driving Tips in the Park

The more than 380 miles of roads in the park are mostly paved, and even gravel roads are suitable for passenger vehicles most times of the year. However, roads can be narrow and winding, with blind spots and small shoulders. Speed limits throughout the park are 35 miles per hour or less.
Trailers, RVs, and buses are prohibited on certain roads in the park, and RVers should be familiar with mountain driving techniques to avoid overheating brakes and other mechanical issues. If you’re unsure whether a certain road is accessible to your RV, stop and ask a ranger at the closest visitor center.

Places to Go

From starting your trip at a visitor center to exploring off-the-beaten-path, there are many places to go in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Here’s a brief overview to help you plan your visit:

The Visitor Centers

There are a total of four visitor centers placed strategically throughout the park. They are located at Cades Cove, Oconaluftee, Sugarlands, and Clingmans Dome, respectively. Research which location is closest to the entrance you plan to use to get into the park.
A visitor center is a great first stop to pick up maps, inquire about trail conditions, and ask park rangers any questions you may have. They are also the meeting location for any ranger-led programs you’d like to participate in during your stay.

Clingmans Dome

Clingmans Dome is one of the park’s most popular attractions. Topping out at 6,643 feet in elevation, it is the highest point in the park and offers spectacular panoramic views of the Smokies stretching out in all directions.
It is also the tallest mountain in the state of Tennessee and the third-highest point east of the Mississippi. Getting to the observation tower to enjoy the views only requires a half-mile walk from the parking lot, although the trail is quite steep.

Cades Cove

If you’re interested in wildlife viewing, Cades Cove is one of the best locations to visit in the park. This broad, lush valley is a bountiful habitat for white-tailed deer, black bears, coyotes, turkeys, groundhogs, and many of the park’s other animal inhabitants.
Whether you just want to drive through the valley, stop and hike, bike the Cades Cove Loop Road on a vehicle-free day, find a campground, or study the valley’s rich history, there’s plenty to do in one of the most popular areas in the park.

Cataloochee

For visitors interested in learning more about the park’s cultural heritage, the Cataloochee Valley is one of the best places to tour historic buildings. From old churches and schools to preserved homesteads, there’s much to learn about the people who inhabited the valley before the park was established.
Cataloochee Creek and its tributaries also offer some of the best fishing in the park. Other attractions include wildlife viewing, hiking, and camping. Be sure to pick up the self-guided tour booklet at a roadside stand as you enter the valley.

Deep Creek

A vast collection of streams and waterfalls awaits visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains’ Deep Creek area. There are several excellent loop hikes with waterfalls scattered throughout, and some of the trails in this park area also allow mountain biking.
The campground in this part of the park is open from April through October, and you can enjoy the Deep Creek Picnic Area if you’re just looking for a spot to pull off and enjoy your lunch before continuing on your merry way.

Elkmont

Numerous archaeological digs in the area have made Elkmont the park’s epicenter for learning more about the prehistoric history of the Appalachian Mountains. Fossil evidence uncovered here has revealed the existence of human inhabitants dating as far back as 8,000 to 5,000 years ago.
More recently, Elkmont was home to the Appalachian Club. Today, 18 of the club’s buildings have been preserved by the park service. The Elkmont Campground is also one of the largest in the park and a great location to base your Smoky Mountains adventure.

Roaring Fork

Wildflowers are abundant year-round in this part of the park, and it’s also a great destination for checking out more historic buildings. Roaring Fork gets its name because the creek flowing through is one of the largest and fastest-flowing streams in the park.
A great place to start here is with a tour of the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. Along this 5.5-mile one-way road, you’ll have chances to see old log cabins and grist mills, and you can stop to stretch your legs on the hike to one of the park’s most popular waterfalls, Rainbow Falls.

Mountain Farm Museum and Mingus Mill

If you’re entering the park near the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, the Mountain Farm Museum and Mingus Mill is a great place to start. It offers several easy-to-moderate walking trails and one of the park’s most unique collections of historic structures preserved in a single location.
On the site, there’s an old barn, apple house, spring house, log farmhouse, smokehouse, and a working blacksmith shop. You’ll truly get a sense of how people lived here more than 100 years ago, and it’s a great opportunity to teach kids about historic gardening and agricultural practices used for hundreds of years on the North Carolina side of the park.

Newfound Gap

While some folks might simply refer to them as “mountain passes”, the term “gap” is more prominent in the vernacular of Southern Appalachia. It refers to a low point between two mountains, and the Newfound Gap is the lowest drivable pass in the park.
Rising to a height of just over 5,000 feet, the drive’s biggest attraction is the diversity of forest ecosystems you’ll encounter along the way. The diversity is often compared to what you’d experience on the much longer drive from Georgia up to Maine. Oh, and the Appalachian Trail crosses over the gap road, so it’s an excellent chance to get out and stretch your legs on this famed long-distance hiking trail.

Fontana Dam

Standing at a height of 480 feet, the Fontana Dam is the tallest concrete dam in the eastern United States (east of the Rocky Mountains). Blocking the Little Tennessee River, the dam forms Fontana Lake, which has a reservoir size covering roughly 11,700 acres.
The lake offers about 240 miles of shoreline and excellent opportunities for boating and fishing. The nearby visitor center is open from early May until late October and is a great place to get more information on recreational opportunities in the area.

Attractions in North Carolina

The Tennessee side of the park may be more popular, but the southern side of the park offers plenty to see and do as well. Start at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center and then choose one of the following scenic drives to get acquainted with the area.

• Longview Drive: Roughly six miles long, including views of Fontana Lake. Starts near Bryson City, NC.
• Blue Ridge Parkway and Cherohala Skyway: While technically located outside the park boundaries, both drives offer excellent mountain views.

The North Carolina side is also one of the best places to spot members of the park’s reintroduced elk herd in Cataloochee Valley or visit the tallest waterfall in the southern Appalachians, Mingo Falls.
Some of the park’s other North Carolina attractions include hiking, fishing, picnicking, camping, biking, and touring historic structures.

Things To Do in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

From workshops and classes to wildlife viewing, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park offers something for everyone. Here’s a quick overview of all the things to do in the park:

Auto Touring

Because of the park’s mountainous terrain, one of the best ways to experience its diversity is by car. On all the park’s roads, you’ll find numerous pull-outs where you can briefly explore mature hardwood forests, weathered historic buildings, cascading waterfalls, and panoramic mountain views.
You can find affordable booklets at the park’s visitor centers to guide your auto-touring adventure in the Smoky Mountains. Some of the most popular roads in the park include Cades Cove Loop Road, Newfound Gap Road, Cataloochee Valley, Upper Tremont Road, and the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail.

Biking

Most of the roads in the parks allow bicycles, but you must be comfortable sharing the road with automobile traffic. The steep terrain also requires a proper multi-speed road bike and comfort with riding on narrow roads.
The Cades Cove Loop Road is the most popular route for biking in the park. It’s an eleven-mile ride, one-way, and offers chances to see local wildlife and stop to check out some of the park’s 19th-century homesites along the way.

Hiking

From kid-friendly hikes to multi-day backpacking trips, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park offers great hiking for people of all skill and fitness levels. If backpacking interests you, learn more about the Appalachian Trail and the permits required for backcountry camping.
If you’re looking for day hikes, here are a few of the most popular trails:

• Alum Cave Bluffs: This is a moderately strenuous five-mile round-trip hike with highlights including an old-growth hardwood forest and the narrow tunnel of Arch Rock.
• Andrews Bald: This is a moderate 3.6-mile round-trip hike highlighted by massive patches of blackberries and raspberries if you hit it at the right time of year.
• Charlies Bunion: This is a difficult eight-mile round-trip hike along the Appalachian Trail, with the halfway point featuring stunning panoramic views from the stone outcropping that the hike is named for.
• Chimney Tops: This is a tough 4.4-mile round-trip hike that is one of the most popular in the park. It features three stream crossings and excellent views of Mount Le Conte.
• Rainbow Falls: This is a moderately strenuous 5.4-mile round-trip hike that concludes at one of the largest falls in the park, an 80-foot drop that sometimes freezes into the shape of an hourglass in the winter.

As a quick safety tip, bears are active year-round in the Smoky Mountains. Hikers may carry bear spray while in the park, and you should study up on other important hiking safety tips before hitting the trails.

Fishing

In a park that has more than 2,900 miles of streams, you’ll find plenty of chances for fishing. Roughly 20 percent of the park’s waterways are big enough to support trout populations and fishing is permitted year-round in the park from 30 minutes before official sunrise to 30 minutes after official sunset.
Depending on where you plan to fish, you must meet the fishing license requirements for North Carolina, Tennessee, or both states. Fishing licenses are not sold within park boundaries and must be obtained in nearby towns before entering the park.

Horseback Riding, Hayrides, and Carriage and Wagon Rides

Horseback riding is another opportunity in the park, whether you bring your own horses or you’re looking for a guided experience. There are four concession stables to choose from in the park. They are located at Cades Cove, Smokemont, Smoky Mountain, and Sugarlands.
If you want to bring your own horses, you’ll have plenty of trails to choose from. Download a trail map to plan your ride, and make sure you stick to horse-accessible trails. There are five horse camps for overnight stays, and check out the park’s website to learn more about hayrides and carriage and wagon rides in the Smokies.

Visiting Burial Landscapes and Historic Buildings

Over 90 historic buildings and cemeteries have been preserved or rehabilitated in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. These sites are an important link between the Southern Appalachian communities that dwelled here before the park’s formation and today’s modern visitors.
Most of the park’s historic log buildings are along the main roads for auto touring. The burial landscapes provide unique insights into various community origins, burial customs, religious beliefs, and cultural influences of the early humans in this region.

Viewing the Fall Colors

Starting in early October, the leaves in the park begin to change at elevations greater than 4,000 feet. While the exact dates of the “peak season” are impossible to predict from year to year, the fall colors here are truly a sight to behold if you can time your visit correctly.
Clingmans Dome Road, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the Foothills Parkway are the best roads in the park to drive if you want to see the changing of the leaves on mountain maple, yellow birch, American beech, hobblebush, pin cherry, and many other native trees.

Waterfall Excursions

If you visit the park in spring, the melting snow at high elevations swells the park’s vast collection of waterfalls. Grotto, Laurel, Abrams, and Rainbow Falls are a handful of the most popular cascades in the park, and more than 200,000 visitors arrive in the park each year to visit falls like these.
With more than 85 inches of annual rainfall and rugged mountainous terrain, the park boasts the perfect climate for developing waterfalls. The tallest waterfall in the park, the Ramsey Cascades, drops more than 100 feet before collecting in a small pool that is often home to a family of salamanders.

Wildflower Viewing

Spring and summer are also great times for wildflower viewing in the park. More than 1,500 types of flowering plants can be found within the park, and nine species of native shrubs, such as Catawba rhododendron and sweet azalea, contribute to the annual blooming display.
In fact, the diversity of wildflowers has earned the Smoky Mountains the unofficial nickname of “Wildflower National Park.” From spring beauties blooming in the late winter to the final asters blooming in the fall, wildflower viewing is a year-round attraction in the park.

What to Bring and How to Prepare

• A limited selection of groceries, snacks, firewood, ice, and other concessions are available at Cades Cove Campground, Elkmont Campground, and the Smokemont Riding Stables. Most of your perishable goods should be bought outside the park and packed in your RV refrigerator or an insulated camping cooler.
• There are no gas stations or other related services in the park. There are numerous communities outside the park, but the closest services are in Cherokee, NC, Gatlinburg, TN, and Townsend, TN.
• Bring a pet leash (maximum six-foot length) and keep your pet on it at all times when outside your RV. Pets are only allowed on certain roads and trails in the park but check here to see pet restrictions for all 62 national parks.
• Hiking clothes. Many hikes in the park may require a light shirt at the bottom and an insulated jacket as you climb in elevation.
• Yellowjacket wasps can be extremely aggressive in the park in the fall. Insect repellents and bug sprays will help, as will lanterns and candles. But allergic persons should carry Benadryl or an Epi-pen in their first aid kit. If stung on the hand, it is recommended to remove any and all rings before swelling occurs.
• There are no swimming or tubing areas in the park, and climbing waterfalls is strongly discouraged due to algae growth that causes rocks to be extremely slippery.

Be sure to read up on more information regarding water safety, temporary closures and alerts, emergency information, and general park safety tips before visiting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Plan your next trip to the national parks in an RV. Rent an RV, trade-In your RV, or buy an RV and start traveling for less than $5 a day.

I found a bag (Skyway Tanner Carry on) that I measured out to be perfect size 22x14x9 but reading the actual description card the company measures it out to be 22.5x14x9.5. Would this be fine as a carry on or should I just find something smaller?
Also to note: our plane is going to be a 737-9 MAX

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Happy New Year! I hope all of you are having a good start to the year. Although I haven't posted here for quite some time, I have been working on the map. Here is a list of everything plotted since my last post which I will include a source link as well as a simple description of the event:
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Murder
Claresholm Highway Shooting - 2011, Claresholm, Alberta, Canada. The gunman was upset that his ex-girlfriend was with a group of men whom she was at the bar and travelling with. He followed them as they were travelling eventually ramming them from behind. One of the occupants went to approach the gunman, who shot her multiple times. He then exited the car and shot several shots at the victim's vehicle, killing his ex-girlfriend and one of the men that she was with. The gunman then turned the gun on himself, committing suicide.
Jacksonville Dollar General Shooting - 2023, Jacksonville, Florida. The gunman began shooting outside of the store, striking and killing one person while they were parked in their car. He would enter the store where he would shoot and kill an additional 2 more people. He would then lock himself in an office where he would commit suicide. Evidence points to this being a targeted hate crime.
Lafayette Shooting - 2015, Lafayette, Louisiana. The gunman entered a theater and purchased a ticket to a movie that was showing the evening of the shooting. He entered the theater, took a seat, and about 20 mins into the showing, began shooting. He would end up killing two people. He made attempts to escape but reentered the building after responding police showed up and committed suicide.
College Station Shooting - 2012, College Station, Texas. A man became upset after getting served and shot and killed the constable serving him. Responding police would get into a shootout with the man, which resulted in a bystander getting killed. The man would also die after police shot him to death, ending the shootout.
Costa Mesa School Car Attack - 1999, Costa Mesa, California. A man would use his car to drive at high speeds into an early learning center's playground. After driving through once, he would turn around, and drive through again, hitting a tree. Three children would end up trapped under the car. Two children died in the event.
Jill Dando Murder - 1999, London, England. Dando was a journalist and newsreader for the BBC. As she was returning to her home, she was shot once in the head by an unidentified assailant. Her murder has remained unsolved.
Lady of the Dunes - 1974, Provincetown, Massachusetts. This was an unidentified decedent's case for almost 50 years. The woman was discovered strangled to death, nearly decapitated, by a child looking for their dog. After multiple exhumations to identify the woman, she would be named Ruth Marie Terry in 2023. She would have gone missing several months after marrying her husband. He would not report her disappearance to the police but would visit with her family to report her missing but with few details. He has since died but has been officially named as her murderer.
Trabuco Canyon Shooting - 2023, Trabuco Canyon, California. An ex-police officer entered a bar where he proceeded to shoot his estranged wife. Her friend who was with her was also shot. She exited the bar where she died from her injuries. The gunman would exit the bar to retrieve another handgun, where he would shoot and kill two more people. While standing next to his truck, responding police would shoot and kill the gunman.
Zijie Yan Murder - 2023, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Yan was an associate professor at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. A graduate student of his entered the campus and shot and killed Yan. The gunman would leave the campus and soon be apprehended by police shortly after. Due to an untreated mental diagnosis, the gunman is awaiting trial once he is competent to stand trial.
Laura Ann Carleton Murder - 2023, Cedar Glen, California. Carleton was a shop owner who had a pride flag hanging in her store. The gunman, who had issues with this, shot and killed Carleton after an argument occurred. The gunman left the scene but was soon apprehended by police after witness reports. He would be shot and killed by responding police.
Gary Bell Edens Murder - 2013, Lawrence, Kansas. Edens was shot and killed by two people after they came to his home looking for his son. They stated they were there for information about two women who stole one of the perpetrator's cars.
Brooklyn Bridge Shooting - 1994, Brooklyn Bridge, New York. A gunman would begin shooting at a passenger van with Jewish students inside, killing one and injuring 3. This was classified as a hate crime. The gunman was sentenced to 141 years in prison.
Palo Verde Arizona Train Derailment - 1995, Palo Verde, Arizona. A passenger train was sabotaged leading the train to derail off a trestle bridge leaving one person dead and multiple people injured. There were notes left near the scene that pointed to sabotage. No one has been arrested for the event.
Centennial Olympic Park Bombing - 1996, Atlanta, Georgia. This bombing was the beginning of a series of bombings committed by domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph. Rudolph placed the bomb at the base of a sound tower at the event's 'town square'. A security guard would find the bomb and alert the police. An evacuation occurred but the bomb exploded several minutes later killing one person and injuring 111 others. The security guard who first noticed the bomb would soon be suspected of placing the bomb himself. After more than 80 days, he would be cleared as a suspect. Rudolph would place three more bombs (I'm hoping to place these locations on the map) targeting a lesbian bar and abortion clinics further injuring and killing more people. He would go on the run for 5 years before being apprehended.
Harry and Harriette Moore Murders - 1951, Mims, Florida. Harry and Harriette Moore were activists and leaders of the early Civil Rights Movement. On Christmas Day, after celebrating their wedding anniversary, a bomb that was planted underneath their bedroom floor exploded. Harry would die on his way to the hospital, while Harriette would die several days later. Their deaths are the very first assassinations of any activists during the Civil Rights Movement. 18 people were charged by the federal government with civil rights violations, with less than half actually being convicted on minimal charges. Years later, one man would be charged and convicted in the murders and sentenced to 60 years.
Mississippi Civil Rights Workers' Murders - 1964, In and Around Philadelphia, Mississippi. 3 men who were assisting with registering African Americans in the area to vote were kidnapped, murdered, and buried. It was found during the investigation that local police officers and sheriffs were involved in the murders
Adewunmi Family Murder-Suicide - 2012, Bourbon, Missouri. A Mother would bring her three children to a secluded road on a resort ranch property where she would shoot them and then commit suicide. She had a history of depression
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Mass Murder
Dunham Family Murder-Suicide - 2023, Hartville, Ohio. A man would shoot and kill his three children, his wife, and then himself inside the family home. I was unable to find much information regarding a motive.
Goshen Shootings - 2023, Goshen, California. 6 people inside a home were shot to death in a suspected gang killing. 2 men have been arrested for the murders and are currently waiting trial.
Half Moon Bay Shootings - 2023, Half Moon Bay, California. This was a spree shooting that occurred at two locations. Both locations were farms in which the gunman was working at currently or had worked at in the past. All people killed were the gunmans coworkers. The gunman visited the first farm and shot and killed 4 people and seriously injured another man. He then left and headed a couple miles south to another farm in which he shot and killed another 3 people. He would be apprehended at a police substation where he was taken into custody without a fight. He reported his frustrations with his working conditions and towards his supervisor. A trial is currently pending.
Arkabulta Shootings - 2023, Arkabulta, Mississippi. A man would begin his shooting spree by shooting a man sitting in a car next to his. He would go to the homes of his ex-wife and stepfather where he would fatally shoot them. Also shot were his stepfathers sister and two gentlemen who were on the property. The gunman would soon be apprehended by police after locating his vehicle with him inside. A trial has yet to be set.
University of Nevada Shooting - 2023, Las Vegas, Nevada. 3 professors were shot and killed when a gunman entered a hall on the campus. Police would soon approach and engage in a shootout with the gunman killing him. Rejection of a job position at the university seems to be the motive.
Lewiston Shootings - 2023, Lewiston/Lisbon, Maine. A gunman would enter a bowling alley during a youth event and begin shooting attendees. He would then leave and head to a bar several minutes down the road. In total 18 people were shot and killed. He would then go on the run where two days later, police would find him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound 8 miles from where the shootings occurred. This is the deadliest mass shooting in Maine's history to date.
Eubanks Family Filicide - 1997, San Marcos, California. A mother would shoot and kill her four children as retaliation towards the children's fathers and boyfriend leaving her. She was sentenced to death and is currently on death row.
Mountain Meadows Massacre - 1957, Brookside, Utah. This was a series of attacks over several days of an emigrant wagon train that was making its way to southern California. These attacks were organised because of the hysteria and rumours at the time. Local militia dressed as native americans and attacked the wagon train causing the emigrants to fight back. At the end, between 120-140 people were murdered. 17 children, all under the age of 6, were spared due to their young age.
Black Tom Explosion - 1916, Jersey City, New Jersey. This was an act of sabotage by agents of the German Empire that targeted munitions waiting to get sent to Allies during WWI. 4 people were killed in the blast and the explosion damaged the Statue of Liberty. It was one of the largest artificial non nuclear explosions in history.
Preparedness Day Bombing - 1916, San Francisco, California. The largest ever held parade in the city was targeted by radicals who were opposed to WWI. The parade was a show of support for the US entering the war. A planted suit case bomb would end up killing 10 people and injuring 40. It was the worst terrorist attack in San Francisco's history.
Wall Street Bombing - 1920, Manhattan, New York. This is an unsolved bombing that exploded on Wall Street in Manhattan. The bomb was driven to the spot by horse and wagon and consisted of 100 pounds of dynamite and 500 pounds of heavy sash weights. 40 people were killed instantly and over 140 were injured. It is believed that Galleanists were the perpetrators of the event.
​
Disappearances
Virginia Carpenter Disappearance - 1948, Denton, Texas. Carpenter was 21 years old at the time of her disappearance. She was on her way to Dallas to enroll in college. When her train stopped in Denton, she left to head to the dormitories. She had realised that she had left her luggage on the train and went back to the train station. When she was unable to collect her luggage, she made arrangements to have her luggage brought to her room. She was driven back to the dorms and dropped off. She would then see several people that she knew and stopped to speak with them. This was the last time anyone had reported seeing Carpenter.
Cynthia Kinney Disappearance - 1976, Osage, Oklahoma. Cynthia was a teenage girl who would go missing while working at her uncles laundromat. No one has been charged with her disappearance. This case came of prominence in 2023 when it was thought that Kinney was connected to BTK.
Ana Walshe Disappearance - 2023, Cohasset, Massachusetts. Walshe was last seen out to dinner with friends and her husband on New Year's Eve. She was reported missing by her employer and eventually her husband. About two weeks later, her husband was arrested for her disappearance and murder after blood and blood-stained knives were located in the basement of the family home. He is currently waiting for a trial to begin.
​
Mixed Bag
Bedford Explosion - 2023, Bedford, Ohio. An explosion would occur at a copper alloy plant resulting in one death and multiple injuries. The explosion was caused by workers attempting to maintenance a water leak. The water that was leaking triggered a steam explosion.
East Palestine Train Derailment - 2023, East Palestine, Ohio. A train carrying hazardous materials derailed outside of East Palestine. In attempts to manage the situation, a controlled burn off was done releasing further hazardous materials into the air. Many domestic animals and wildlife died in the immediate aftermath of the derailment and residents have reported health issues.
Ta'Kiya Young Killing - 2023, Westerville, Ohio. Young was approached by police after reports of her stealing from a local store were made. Police approached with their guns drawn. As Young was attempting to move the car, the police shot a single shot into the car, killing Young and her unborn child. Her and her child's deaths have been ruled homicides.
Arlington House Explosion - 2023, Arlington, Virginia. Multiple reports were made to police of the owner of the house shooting his gun and lighting flares outside the house. Multiple attempts were made to make contact with the owner, but all attempts failed. Nearby residents were evacuated. Gas to the house was eventually cut. Shortly after, the house exploded resulting in the death of the owner.
Jonathan Lewis Killing - 2023, Las Vegas, Nevada. Lewis was a high school student who was beaten to death after defending another student who was getting bullied by several teenagers. Several of the teens have been charged as adults and are currently awaiting trial.
Mount Erebus Disaster - 1979, Mount Erebus, Antarctica. A sightseeing plane trip ended when the plane flew into the side of Mount Erebus. This was caused by pilot error.
Daniel V Jones Suicide - 1998, Los Angeles, California. Jones was a man who was diagnosed with HIV several months previous to the event. He was upset about his treatment with the HMO in charge of his care. He parked on a LA freeway, laid out a banner, and after some time returned to his car to commit suicide by igniting a Molotov cocktail inside the truck. He escaped the truck, wandered around a bit, and eventually committed suicide by shooting himself with a shotgun. All of this was broadcast live by news helicopters.
Sunshine Skyway Bridge Collapse - 1980, Tampa Bay, Florida. This bridge collapsed when a freighter collided with one of the bridge's support columns. 35 people were killed when their vehicles and passenger bus plummeted to the bay below
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Purtle's Internet Lineup for January 30th, 2024 6:14pm
Pics:

• we have child actors why dont we have child directors https://twitter.com/AltHistCody/status/1751727455990120874
  
• do you think toad does the dog side eye https://twitter.com/_MasterOfPasta/status/1751836809351278958
  
• best or worst shirt of all time what we thinking https://twitter.com/CelesteLover32/status/1751921597936800008
  
• Elmo - Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing? https://twitter.com/elmo/status/1751995117366296904
  
  • Do You Think When They Tweeted This They Anticipated The Answers They'll Be Getting https://twitter.com/destiny_thememe/status/1752174055913103535
  • Official follow up - Wow! Elmo is glad he asked! Elmo learned that it is important to ask a friend how they are doing. Elmo will check in again soon, friends! Elmo loves you. https://twitter.com/elmo/status/1752378693446508842
  • one of my favorite replies i saw https://twitter.com/SixKeeHH/status/1752130798222750067
• Sonic news
  
  • RUMORS: A Sonic Chao game and new Sonic sports title are both currently in development for mobile devices. https://twitter.com/MbKKssTBhz5/status/1752228221410476263
  • The Sonic Fall Guys title will release at the start of summer. https://twitter.com/MbKKssTBhz5/status/1752230143853031579
  • Sonic X Shadow Generations might be the name of that remaster. [thread] https://twitter.com/sonicstadium/status/1752335670528414057

Clips:

• They messed up the skyway in the current secret course, like I'm pretty sure it's a mistake and they'll fix it asap https://twitter.com/LuigiBlood/status/1752085510263083481
  
• New SF6 tech - This is not just a “JP is OP” clip; it’s showing off new tech discovered today that removes damage penalty/proration on Stun combos. Notice how JP jumps just as Manon hits the wall - this counts as an “action” and resets the Stun proration. Can be done with attacks as well. https://twitter.com/jiyunaJP/status/1752291311049490850
  
• the first https://twitter.com/NateAndDestroy/status/1752282066429804747
  

Videos

• Aris Reviews the Qanba 2009 Arcade [12:24] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldf8ViL_c6U&feature=youtu.be
  
• Show the actual game [Marketing] Sakurai [2:30] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4oPgNbnJCI
  
• Running 220km in the footsteps of a murderer - Part 2 - Beau Miles [20:47] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKSOE0PfzpI
  

Articles/News/Other

• Bayer ordered to pay $2.25 billion after jury links herbicide Roundup to cancer https://old.reddit.com/news/comments/1ady65s/bayer_ordered_to_pay_225_billion_after_jury_links/
  
• Musk declares Tesla workers will have to sleep at TX Gigafactory https://old.reddit.com/nottheonion/comments/1ae7m8y/musk_declares_tesla_workers_will_have_to_sleep_at/
  
• McGovern: You say this is not going to be fixed with laws. Then what the hell are we doing here? [clip] https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1752088547216199948
  
• Elon Musk’s X to hire 100 content moderators in wake of Taylor Swift, AI fiasco https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1752085407859122478
  
  • hey its this again - musks basic problem: https://twitter.com/KrangTNelson/status/1752101017678712853
  • the original tweet: https://twitter.com/shaun_vids/status/1589961115752013824
• Speaking of libertarianism, here's famed comedian Penn Jillette: https://twitter.com/drvolts/status/1752121458556584194
  
• [clip] Dressed as doctors and nurses, Israeli special forces carry out Fauda-style operation in Jenin hospital https://twitter.com/i24NEWS_EN/status/1752225951688052930
  
  • pretty sure disguising your soldiers as medical personnel is a war crime https://twitter.com/quendergeestatus/1752237668916740160
• Goldman: Your own party Is sabotaging and undermining this administration's efforts to address the border while you are trying to impeach him by saying that they're not addressing the border The hypocrisy is the least of it. Your attack on the rule of law is the worst of it. https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1752360308390121687
  
• Activision-Blizzard's esports division has only 12 employees left. They laid off 60/72 staff members https://fxtwitter.com/GGBreakingPoint/status/1752400808816353780
  
• UPS announces 12,000 job cuts, says package volume slipped last quarter https://old.reddit.com/news/comments/1aepg0y/ups_announces_12000_job_cuts_says_package_volume/
  

First Previous Next
Patreon Official Subreddit Series Wiki Royal Road
“I think there’s something I need to clear up before we move on.” I started with a purposeful, careful, diplomatic tone of voice.
“Yes, Emma?” Thalmin replied with a cock of his head.
“I’m only using the term commoner because I think that it’s, at best, an analogous term that is able to somewhat bridge the gap between our two cultures. However, I don’t think it really gets to the heart of how fundamentally different our two societies are structured. For in my world, the delineation between noble, peasant, commoner, and the sort simply does not exist - legally, functionally, and practically speaking.” I began with a firm statement that seemed to be as nearly as reality shattering as everything else around Thalmin at this point. “The way things work today, necessitates a society that relies not on the decisions of those with the capacity for mana manipulation, the access to generational wealth, or the birthright to rule, but on the quantitative abilities and responsibilities of the individual. Thus, every individual is… for lack of a better term, perhaps more akin to a noble in their own right. As every individual is responsible for the fundamental operation of our government, and integral in the practical operation of our society and its economy.”
This explanation hung in the air, punctuated by several more ring ring rings of the fleets of cyclists and scooterists on the streets in front of us, and the long drawn-out electrical hum of the elevated tracks above us.
Thalmin’s facial features did not betray his inner turmoil, but his eyes certainly did. As they ranged in emotions from shock to concern, and at one point, something I could almost mistake as a look of fear. Before ending up with what could only be described as a reluctant look of awareness; culminating in a single, wordless, nod of his head.
This was followed closely by Ilunor’s smoke-ridden huffs, and as expected, Thacea’s signature stoic yet deeply concerned gaze.
All three stared at me with varying levels of suspicion, which I attempted to placate with a polite and drawn out sigh. “I can address this matter after we are finished with the tour. I know it’s a lot to take in, but if you recall from the helmet cam footage I showed you earlier, it was something that was already touched upon during the confrontation with Mal’tory. So you can understand that I am not lying. I wouldn’t have just ruined my perceived legitimacy in my argument with him just to flex a lie. Still, it’s one thing to just talk the talk. I need to show you I can walk the walk as well, and I have just the things lined up to show you.” This seemed to raise a few brows with the whole group, prompting Thalmin in particular to look on at me with a renewed sense of engagement. As if acknowledging the perceived loftiness of my statements, then following it up with my promise to uphold the burden of truth, was enough to get him back on board. Thalmin was, after all, a man who seemed to prefer action to back up words. “If you guys are, of course, still alright with me continuing?”
I could’ve just continued.
But establishing their willingness to progress was important.
If SIOP had taught me anything, it’s that Fundamental Systemic Incongruency required a constant back and forth between both parties. Which also meant these periodic checks before moving to more complex topics was vital. Just like how a good teacher would check with a class before moving on to mind-numbing math principle number 394.
“Of course. That’s what we’re here for, right?” Thalmin spoke with a nervous laugh.
Followed up closely by a polite chirp from Thacea. “Indeed. Please feel free to proceed, Emma.”
Two nods of varying levels of apprehension soon followed, with only Thalmin and Thacea actually voicing their acknowledgement. This left Ilunor with just a faint shrug, lending the EVI’s warnings even more credence.
Time would tell if the deluxe kobold would actually hit that Information Dissemination Overflow threshold.
But until then, I carried on, prompting the EVI to move the projection along as we left the heart of the old quarter slowly at the pace of a brisk walk.
Things progressed quickly as we did so.
As we walked down streets that would’ve been remarkably familiar to those who’d walked the same sidewalks five, seven, maybe even nine centuries ago. For despite the replacement and augmentation of a few lesser iconic 20th century structures during the latter half of the 21st, most of the skyline would have still been recognizable to those from its early history.
Indeed, it was around this point that each of the gang’s focus seemed to shift and diverge, as Thacea’s eyes were trained squarely towards the skies, whilst Thalmin’s gaze was fixated on the going ons at ground level.
Neither party was going to be missing out with their chosen fixations, as the skies above buzzed with the same degree of activity as the busy streets below.
Indeed, the aerially-inclined amongst our group was going through a certain degree of sensory overload as a result. As Thacea’s pupils darted back and forth between the different lanes of drones, all criss crossing above and between the buildings, moving in perfect unison like cars traveling on an invisible track of rail. It didn’t take me long to realize that a direct and eerie comparison could be drawn between the stacked droneways of Acela and that of the avinor capital’s skyways. However instead of sapient people-sized birds dominating the airways, it was quad-blades and ornithopters carrying modular suitcase-sized containers; albeit with similarly colorful plumages (or in this case, artwork) adorning their sides. Many of them proudly boasting locally-drawn pieces of artwork advertising local businesses.
However, it was clear that alone wasn’t the avinor’s sole focus, as her gaze was constantly drawn back to the more permanent fixtures of the skyline - the skyscrapers themselves.
“Emma.” Thacea began with a tentative breath. “Forgive me for being so forward, but I must ask: your people are flightless, correct?”
“Yup, that’s correct. Hence why you don’t see any of us performing the cool aerial acrobatics you guys were showing off in that sight-seer tour of yours.” I managed out with a wide smile and an encouraging tone of voice still brimming with excitement from this whole cultural exchange.
That little compliment seemed to take Thacea off guard, as I could just about make out a look of abashment, followed milliseconds later by the same tempered but anxious expression returning shortly thereafter. “Thank you, Emma. Flattery aside, this leads me to a question. Considering your flightless predisposition, what purpose does the verticality of your city serve?”
I… paused at that question. Actually paused as it prompted me to actively reflect. This hit me as hard as one of those Cross Cultural Information Dissemination Exercises SIOP handed me weekly. The instructors always stressed that answers to these sorts of questions should preferably include not just the plain and objective answer, but should also serve as a vehicle for cultural dissemination, to bridge the gap.
And what better way to do that than with the skyscraper.
A testament of human ingenuity, prosperity, and culture.
Everything led me to one, simple conclusion. A conclusion that at its core, felt so fundamentally human.
“Habitation, community, productivity, and the facilitation of a way of life we’ve become accustomed to - an urban life.”
“But why?” Ilunor suddenly asked through a strained breath. “Why the need to go so high up?”
“Because we wanted to, Ilunor.” I answered definitively, and without an air of doubt to be had between each and every word. “Because we want to live in close proximity to services, to amenities, to our work and to the beating heart of civilization. Because as human beings, we’re drawn to the prospect of advancement. It’s in our very core, an inherent desire to want to be at the center of it all. This pull is so strong that this was how the first cities were created, out of necessity for the consolidation of skilled labor to better share in cooperation. However as time went on, this cooperative nature necessitated out of our manaless predispositions, pushed us to specialize in increasingly niche fields, and in doing so pushed us to entrench ourselves in increasingly tight-knit cooperative communities. We’re drawn to cities because we’re social beings, and we build these skyscrapers because we all want to be in the same place at the same time. This results in the expansion of the city outwards, but also, upwards. For to be at the heart of it all, ten, twenty, fifty stories isn’t enough to fulfill the housing needs of every human being. We needed more, we wanted more, and so we decided to commit to that vision. However, there’s another element to this. One that I mentioned just a few moments ago. We humans have a desire to express ourselves through our creative endeavors. It’s in our very soul. These buildings aren’t just utilitarian blocks of composalite and glass, they’re works of art and culture, a medium of expression unto themselves; the zeitgeist of a generation immortalized in construction. Moreover, we humans have an innate desire to cement our legacy into this world of ever shifting chaos. We build ourselves monuments in the form of our buildings and cities, as a bulwark of stability against an ever shifting natural world. In short, we built them because we could, because we wanted to, to serve the purposes of housing, of work, of entertainment and leisure, and as canvases for our art and culture.”
A long pause punctuated that speech, as the EVI seemed to have taken it upon itself to arrive at a particular stretch of street that practically boasted this frame of mind. It was a street that went straight through the heart of Manhattan, giving one unparalleled views of skyscrapers towering above from both sides of the converted road, leading up towards the historic cluster of the Empire State, Chrysler and other assortment of art deco icons, before finally revealing an ominous, foreboding, almost otherworldly presence of something just beyond those 20th century marvels. Towering, looming, but not actively encroaching on these monuments of the old world.
For the direct line of sight on a good clear day revealed a monolithic behemoth that shared dominance with two more of its brethren, the trio of starscrapers which has for centuries now acted as the backdrop to this iconic vantage point in old town Manhattan.
The three towers were arranged in such a way that it almost seemed to frame the old quarter, like guardians of the old world. Yet at the same time, they were not shy about embracing their own identity, belonging to an age of unparalleled scale and prosperity, built to solve problems intrinsic to their own time. They served as a constant reminder of progress, yet with clear deference to the past from which they arose from. As despite their immense height, they did not seek to actively compete for attention. Their towering presence accomplished that already. Instead, their art deco revivalist facades, their tapered geometrical rise to the top, their deliberate choice of design elements hearkening back to the old quarter which they loomed over, served to hammer home their commitment of having one foot in the past with the other firmly planted in the future.
Thacea’s eyes all but glistened at the sight. Her eyes locked onto the monoliths in the horizon, and her stoic visage straining to maintain its regal veneer.
No words were uttered around this point, as I allowed the gang to take in the sights for as long as they needed to.
“As flightless, manaless beings, we always dreamed of reaching for the skies.” I eventually broke the silence. “So once we attained that, we next dreamed about scraping the stars themselves. And so with great effort, we eventually accomplished that too.”
Ilunor was the first to side eye me at that comment, but to his credit, he refused to elaborate further aside from a soot-ridden hurmf.
It was Thalmin that properly broke the silence, as the look of doubt in his eyes didn’t necessarily grow, but remained steady and unbroken. “I want to believe you Emma.” He started off. “But I find it increasingly difficult to imagine anyone, commoner or noble alike, actually living in this museum of monuments.”
It was then that something clicked within me. And it wasn’t so much that each of the three had varying levels of their own suspensions of disbelief. Moreso, it was the approach of familiarity that mattered. By starting off with oldtown Manhattan, Thacea was able to see all of the varying structures leading up to the starscrapers. She understood intrinsically the flow of progression given her vertically minded headspace.
Thalmin, on the other hand, required a different approach.
And if his words didn’t already convey it, then his sight-seer tour still fresh in my mind certainly did.
He needed to see things from ground level, as he’d done with his trek through his city.
I’d need to replicate that too if I were to stand a chance at not pushing him over the IDOV threshold.
“Then I’ll show you, Thalmin.” I announced politely, gleefully even. As the projection promptly shifted from that scenic, touristy view, back towards the subdivided city blocks and the streets that meandered through them.
Silhouetted and darkened figures walked the small meandering streets that carved straight through what were formerly impassable blocks, opening up the way to more street-level amenities and services that catered to the pedestrian. Indeed, aside from the increased density, nothing at the ground level had truly changed that much. The small businesses and legacy storefronts remained as they have for centuries, albeit with a few tweaks to their product lineup and menus. The larger upscale retail stores whilst having swapped brands, leases, and allegiances over the centuries largely followed the same pattern, having for the most part maintained the same pedestrian-facing stores.
Brick and mortar facades stood alongside iconic brownstones, with the occasional glass and white-steel breaking up the pure oldtown aesthetic, the latter having themselves become historic by virtue of their age despite not looking the part.
Everything was recognizable, save for of course the absence of a few of the eyesores that had momentarily become synonymous with the NYC pedestrian experience— the eternal sidewalk scaffolding. That unfortunate aspect of old NYC heritage had been left behind for the better.
But the changes didn’t stop there. As taking after the global Tidy Cities Initiative of the 25th century, possible only with the advent of cheap and plentiful centralized and partially autonomous robotic labor, the streets were absolutely spotless. You’d be hard-pressed to find a stray piece of gum, let alone a random bag of trash, or even a pile of autumn leaves present for longer than a few minutes before one of the cleanerbot swarms came around to dispose of it.
Thalmin seemed to take note of this, at everything in fact, as he began the expected gauntlet of questions.
“So, Emma.”
“Yes, Thalmin?”
“With so many people, how is it that your streets remain clean?”
“Oh, let me show you.” I paused the simulation in place, materializing a bag of holographic trash as I placed it on one of the street corners. Soon enough, a small squad of football-sized cubots with wide, round, dumb, glowing eyes came sauntering out of one of the unmarked pods that popped up every few blocks. The squad of goobers worked in coordinated unison, efficiently packing, hauling, then dragging the trash into their pod and vanishing out of sight.
“I see…” Was all Thalmin could say, his eyes that had once narrowed in suspicion now widened in tentative acknowledgement as we pressed onwards. “But when discussing a city of hundreds of millions, surely these… mana-less golems couldn’t possibly be enough-”
“Oh of course they aren’t. However, in each and every apartment lies a centralized direct tube network that whisks away commercial and residential grade trash alike directly to processing plants. In addition, we’ve made great strides in waste reduction too. Community printers, mini-assemblers, and repair shops help in maintaining what we already have, avoiding a throw-first buy-next mentality that plagued us for the longest while.” I had the EVI enter a random high-rise apartment, one of the more modern refurbished ones as we ascended the stairs and into a second-story communal area dominated by the aforementioned printer, and a whole host of repair tools.
“Fascinating.” Thalmin acknowledged with a look of engagement. “So I’m assuming this… space is similar in function to a town’s blacksmith and communal work parlor, except…” He trailed off, allowing me to finish that sentence for him.
“...except it’s able to produce a lot more than a blacksmith, yup. Able to repair a lot of the tools we rely on. And, it serves a vertical community, rather than one spread out like a town.”
That latter sentence in particular seemed to click within the lupinor, as he nodded with a clear shift in his features.
We eventually left the building, heading back onto the streets as the gauntlet of questions continued.
“That store specializes in… flowers?” The lupinor prince pointed at a florist shop, clad in its period-green colors with bold bright white lettering denoting it as having been established sometime in the late 20th century.
“Yes, while you can order it on-” I paused, realizing how I almost casually entered a whole new can of worms that I really didn’t need to get into right now. “Erm, while you can order it via dedicated messaging systems, a lot of people still love the experience of actually talking to a florist themselves.”
“And I assume your typical common-, er… individual, is capable of affording such luxuries?”
“Yup, I mean it’s definitely not covered by Requisitions Units, so you’d have to pay for it out of pocket using Universal Transaction Units. But yeah, it’s affordable enough.”
This elicited something of a raised brow from the lupinor as we then crossed paths with more points of interest. “And this one, or rather, this street in particular. These seem to be stores of some sort? General stores?”
“Oh these? Yeah! They’re bodegas, basically our city’s version of general stores.” I quickly prompted the EVI to veer the projection towards the storefronts as I stood in front of one in particular, gesturing both of my arms towards the fresh produce and other assorted freshly harvested ingredients piled up high in clean-containers reminiscent of a 31st century replication of a 20th century establishment. “Again, while you can get them directly delivered by supermarket retailers or the requisitions office via those guys up above-” I pointed directly overhead, at the lanes of drones that continued meandering back and forth. “-there’s just something about going to local retailers that’s kept these places a cornerstone of city life. Moreover-” I paused, panning the scene over to one of Aunty Ran’s favorite stores… the Asian Specialty Market. “-there’s a lot more specialized goods you can get from these places too! With lots of people comes lots of culture and thus lots of need for a variety of ingredients!” I grinned wide, eliciting yet another nod from Thalmin as we moved forwards deeper still.
Eventually, we ended up in an area with a particularly dense collection of small restaurants. Something the lupinor prince, as his visit to Valley Hill had hinted at, was particularly interested in.
“Oh this street in particular is infamous for how good it smells. You got the smell of freshly baked buttery goods, side by side fragrant spices, herbs, and heck, the constantly-spinning turntable of pizzas just constantly slamming you face first with that cheesy, tomato-y, garlic-y, basil-y goodness.” I rattled off in the confines of my helmet, eliciting what could only be described as a subtle sniff sniff sniff by the lupinor prince who promptly frowned as a result.
“Your sight-seer does not come with the immersive experience of scents it seems.” He spoke disappointedly, albeit still with a renewed sense of invigorated focus and interest.
“Hey, you’re only tasting a fraction of what I’m going through right now with my suit. The past ten or so meals we’ve had together have been nothing short of torture, so now you get a taste of what I’ve been experiencing this past week!” I announced jocularly, prompting the lupinor to break out in a smile, as he slapped my back once with reasonable force.
“That’s rough.” Was all Thalmin said through a wide fangy sneer, as this bit of friendly, jokingly teasing humor seemed to be quite on brand for the prince.
This down to earth look at the city, focusing and honing in on its daily life, seemed to accomplish exactly what I was going for. As Thalmin seemed to grow increasingly attuned to the idea of the city, now that the question of day to day life was actually addressed.
Though there was still at least one area of interest that Thacea had seemingly shifted focus towards. As in addition to eyeing the shops and stores, her vision now focused on something Thalmin was likewise starting to hone in on as well.
The streets.
Because unlike the heritage town of Valley Hill, where the typical road to sidewalk model was relatively unchanged, the city was decidedly different. For there was now a distinct lack of a space for cars, as the space between buildings had been entirely reimagined. Now dominated centrally by light-rail, and flanked further by lanes specifically devoted to a myriad of pedestrian-grade vehicles - namely bicycles, scooters, and a whole assortment of wheeled transportation designed explicitly for compact personal use.
The gang, and Thalmin in particular, stared intently at every commuter as they seamlessly transitioned between the tram before unfolding and unfurling their preferred mode of personal transport towards their final destination. As thousands more people walked along the wide open expanse of sidewalk that now shared dominance alongside bicycles and scooters, electric or traditionally powered.
“I can wrap my head around the lack of horses, Emma.” Thalmin began, pointing at the bicycles. “This contraption is… remarkably and deceptively simple yet innovative, and once again brings into question not only the skills of your blacksmiths and manufactoriums, but the volume by which they are able to outcompete more simple means of beast-driven personal transport. However, my question is thus. You previously implied that your manaless beastless carriages were the primary mode of transport. But I do not see them anywhere here unlike your first hometown.”
“Oh, they’re here. They’re just underneath our feet. Alongside the other half of our public transport systems.”
“Underground carriageways?”
“Yup.”
“For what purpose?”
“There just wasn’t enough space for them aboveground. And as you can see around you, the space is better suited to be used by people rather than cars. In cities where space is at a premium, ground-level commuting is usually centered around the pedestrian rather than the car.”
“You make it sound as if there were actually too many beastless carriages at one point, Emma.” Thalmin replied with a narrowing of his eyes.
Prompting me to stare back at him with a blank, featureless expression that could only be read as if only you knew. Sadly, the helmet nullified what would’ve been half of my response. So I had to once again rely on good old fashioned words to get my point across.
“There were, Thalmin.” I replied bluntly. “At one point-” I gestured up and down the street, before prompting the EVI to quickly switch to a pre 26th century New York. Prior to the urban restructuring schemes. “-there were literally so many of them on the roads that there was nowhere for them to go.”
Thalmin was hit face first with the blasting of horns, prompting him to hold his ears down.
This was followed up by a look of complete and utter shock, as I could track his eyes darting from one end of the street to the other, down the seemingly endless bumper-to-bumper traffic that moved at a snail’s pace. The sidewalks were overly crowded too, with barely any space to breathe as a result.
This blast from the past lasted for only a few seconds more before the scene quickly transitioned back to modern day. As the gang breathed a collective sigh of relief having just narrowly escaped gridlock NYC.
“As you can see, one of our greatest accomplishments became our greatest hurdle. We were… in a sense… suffering from success. However, like many things in human history, we found alternative solutions to the very problems we created.” The scene shifted once more, this time, we began sinking into the Earth itself, which strangely enough didn’t seem to phase any amongst the group.
In fact, they seemed to collectively understand we were now witnessing a semi-realistic architectural render of the ground beneath where we were just standing atop of.
It was, instead, the content of what they were seeing that began throwing them off. As we were now witness to one the larger commuter-tunnels. A massive multi-laned, multi-level tube that hosted a similar number of cars from the pre 26th century projection. Except this time, traffic flowed smoothly.
“We divided the space in a way that wouldn’t simply remove the option of a mode of transportation, but instead we saw where each could shine in their own way. The space a car takes above ground is better suited for a small group of bikes, scooters, or whatever your choice of personal transport is. Cities must be built with its people in mind after all, and what better way of doing that then maximizing the space they have to walk, and giving them sunlight priority. Besides, getting from Point A to Point B isn’t as slow as the tram might lead you to believe.” I gestured at the tram in question, moving at a leisurely enough pace when compared to the trains that soared above on the spaghetti-like elevated rail network. “Normally you’d just take a subway or a skytrain, then reach your final destination on foot or on wheels. It’s pretty quick too, let me show you-”
“Emma.” Thalmin stopped me before I could continue, his face expressing the exhaustion from the outright endless flow of information that had inundated him up to this point. “It’s slowly starting to become clear to me that a lot of the troubles you face aren’t troubles at all.” Thalmin spoke candidly, as if he wasn’t allowing the words to stew in his head before blurting them out.
“What do you mean?”
“The problem of this… carriage congestion, can only arise out of a situation wherein an excess of beastless carriages existed in the first place. Which, to get to that point, would require a whole host of advances that would leave certain other issues completely overlooked.”
“Issues such as food, water, shelter, disease, and poverty. Problems that should be plaguing an adjacent realm. Problems which are both life-threatening and palpable.” Ilunor spoke abruptly, once more butting into the conversation with a burst of smoke-filled breaths. “The problems you currently raise are non-problems that arise only once you become comfortable. These are crownland problems, problems that arise if and only the fundamental problems of life are addressed.”
“You mean immaterial worries that arise out of complexity?” I offered, prompting the Vunerian’s eyes to grow wide with shock and confusion, as if he wasn’t expecting those words in particular to emerge from my vocoders.
“Yes…” He managed out. “But that is a terminology which you should not know.”
“Because it’s reserved for those living in highly advanced societies right?”
“I…”
“That is correct, Emma.” Thacea finally stepped in, completely sidestepping the now-flabbergasted Vunerian as he stood there, eyes vacant and pupils dilated. “For what you are suggesting, and the manner in which you are conveying your realm, seems to imply that your society is one that suffers from none of the pitfalls facing a pre-contact adjacent realm. More than that though, the manner in which you carry the narrative of your civilization seems to imply that the complexity which you have managed to accomplish far outclasses even those adjacent realms that have been entwined with the Nexus for the longest.”
“I guess that may just be the case.” I acknowledged with an awkward, sheepish sigh. “And that might have to do with the fundamental differences in how we operate, and what we rely on. By virtue of our technology, our sciences, we rely on everyone to cooperate, which allows for a lot of advancement as it spreads out the burden of progress amongst a huge swath of people. I’m assuming that progress when it comes to magic, is only limited to like, a room full of nobles per realm at best, right?”
“That is being reductive, Emma.” Thacea shot back sharply, but added softly thereafter. “But not entirely far from the truth.”
I acknowledged that with a curt nod. “I apologize if I was getting ahead of myself there. But the point I’m trying to make here is that without mana, without magic, the burden of advancement fell on the shoulders of the people. And it was with that, that advancement was made with the betterment of all in mind.”
“An example which can be seen with the mode of transportation we took to get into the city I presume? For in the absence of transportiums, and with the need to move not simply materials but people en masse, you employ the use of rail.” Thacea openly pondered. “Which instead of remaining a niche augment to transportiums, have in and of themselves become the primary mode of transportation.”
“Correct.” I nodded.
“So instead of an immaterial connection provided by magic, you instead needed to cross that physical gap.”
“By brute forcing it through laying down tens of thousands of miles worth of track, and then some, yup.”
“I see.”
Silence once more crept up after that exchange, with Thacea once more going deep into thought, Thalmin following suit… but with Ilunor maintaining a look of utter loss in his eyes.
“I don’t believe you.” He managed out low and hushed. “I don’t believe you.” He tried again, his voice resonating deep within his throat before finally, he let out a respectable roar. “I refuse to believe you!”
I allowed him to calm down first, allowing him to regain his bearings, as a full minute passed before I replied with no pretenses of superiority, but with only a friendly tone of voice to color my speech. “What’ll it take for you to believe me, Ilunor?”
“Show me… show me how you managed this.”
“Alright then.” I nodded in prompt agreement. “That can be arranged.”
First Previous Next
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(Author’s Note: And here we go! A proper taste of Acela city life, or at least as far as can be experienced just short of traveling to Earth! I had a lot of fun trying to describe how I envisioned a livable megacity of the future, taking elements from solarpunk aesthetic as well as giving it a more classic big sci fi megacity vibe with a bit more of a hopeful and optimistic twist! I always want humanity in my settings to trend towards the brighter side of things, so I really hope that comes through in this chapter! I hope you guys enjoy! :D The next Two Chapters are already up on Patreon if you guys are interested in getting early access to future chapters!)
[If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 64 and Chapter 65 of this story is already out on there!)]

I can launch SKSE just fine and get the main menu, but when I create a new save, none of the mods are actually active. In the menu sidebar, the MCM displays as "$Mod Configuration" (with the dollar sign), and if I open it, it's completely empty.
I'm running AE 1.6.1130 with SKSE 2.02.05, and all mods/plugins are up to date and enabled. I've reinstalled SKSE many, many times and made sure the scripts were properly installed. I've run SSEEdit and QuickAutoClean multiple times. I've gone through the logs from MO2, SKSE, Skyrim, and even Windows. I've made sure all mods are compatible and/or fully patched. I spent hours configuring my load order in case that was the issue, but no dice. Everything is installed on an external hard drive, not in Program Files or another regulated location.
I've Provided my load order here as well as links to in-game screenshots of the MCM issue. I can provide anything else (logs, specs, etc.) if anyone is interested. I haven't hit a wall; a wall has hit me.
$Mod Configuration: https://ibb.co/6bGRfsm Empty MCM: https://ibb.co/pfFKgr5
Load Order: ----------------------------- [Disabled] 0000; BURPST Patch Collection [Disabled] 0001; No .esp [Disabled] 0002; Behavior Data Injector 0003; DLC: HearthFires 0004; DLC: Dragonborn 0005; DLC: Dawnguard 0006; Creation Club: ccvsvsse004-beafarmer 0007; Creation Club: ccvsvsse003-necroarts 0008; Creation Club: ccvsvsse002-pets 0009; Creation Club: ccvsvsse001-winter 0010; Creation Club: cctwbsse001-puzzledungeon 0011; Creation Club: ccrmssse001-necrohouse 0012; Creation Club: ccqdrsse002-firewood 0013; Creation Club: ccqdrsse001-survivalmode 0014; Creation Club: ccpewsse002-armsofchaos 0015; Creation Club: ccmtysse002-ve 0016; Creation Club: ccmtysse001-knightsofthenine 0017; Creation Club: cckrtsse001_altar 0018; Creation Club: ccfsvsse001-backpacks 0019; Creation Club: ccffbsse002-crossbowpack 0020; Creation Club: ccffbsse001-imperialdragon 0021; Creation Club: cceejsse005-cave 0022; Creation Club: cceejsse004-hall 0023; Creation Club: cceejsse003-hollow 0024; Creation Club: cceejsse002-tower 0025; Creation Club: cceejsse001-hstead 0026; Creation Club: ccedhsse003-redguard 0027; Creation Club: ccedhsse002-splkntset 0028; Creation Club: ccedhsse001-norjewel 0029; Creation Club: cccbhsse001-gaunt 0030; Creation Club: ccbgssse069-contest 0031; Creation Club: ccbgssse068-bloodfall 0032; Creation Club: ccbgssse067-daedinv 0033; Creation Club: ccbgssse066-staves 0034; Creation Club: ccbgssse064-ba_elven 0035; Creation Club: ccbgssse063-ba_ebony 0036; Creation Club: ccbgssse062-ba_dwarvenmail 0037; Creation Club: ccbgssse061-ba_dwarven 0038; Creation Club: ccbgssse060-ba_dragonscale 0039; Creation Club: ccbgssse059-ba_dragonplate 0040; Creation Club: ccbgssse058-ba_steel 0041; Creation Club: ccbgssse057-ba_stalhrim 0042; Creation Club: ccbgssse056-ba_silver 0043; Creation Club: ccbgssse055-ba_orcishscaled 0044; Creation Club: ccbgssse054-ba_orcish 0045; Creation Club: ccbgssse053-ba_leather 0046; Creation Club: ccbgssse052-ba_iron 0047; Creation Club: ccbgssse051-ba_daedricmail 0048; Creation Club: ccbgssse050-ba_daedric 0049; Creation Club: ccbgssse045-hasedoki 0050; Creation Club: ccbgssse043-crosselv 0051; Creation Club: ccbgssse041-netchleather 0052; Creation Club: ccbgssse040-advobgobs 0053; Creation Club: ccbgssse038-bowofshadows 0054; Creation Club: ccBGSSSE037-Curios 0055; Creation Club: ccbgssse036-petbwolf 0056; Creation Club: ccbgssse035-petnhound 0057; Creation Club: ccbgssse034-mntuni 0058; Creation Club: ccbgssse031-advcyrus 0059; Creation Club: ccBGSSSE025-AdvDSGS 0060; Creation Club: ccbgssse021-lordsmail 0061; Creation Club: ccbgssse020-graycowl 0062; Creation Club: ccbgssse019-staffofsheogorath 0063; Creation Club: ccbgssse018-shadowrend 0064; Creation Club: ccbgssse016-umbra 0065; Creation Club: ccbgssse014-spellpack01 0066; Creation Club: ccbgssse013-dawnfang 0067; Creation Club: ccbgssse012-hrsarmrstl 0068; Creation Club: ccbgssse011-hrsarmrelvn 0069; Creation Club: ccbgssse010-petdwarvenarmoredmudcrab 0070; Creation Club: ccbgssse008-wraithguard 0071; Creation Club: ccbgssse007-chrysamere 0072; Creation Club: ccbgssse006-stendarshammer 0073; Creation Club: ccbgssse005-goldbrand 0074; Creation Club: ccbgssse004-ruinsedge 0075; Creation Club: ccbgssse003-zombies 0076; Creation Club: ccbgssse002-exoticarrows 0077; Creation Club: ccbgssse001-fish 0078; Creation Club: ccasvsse001-almsivi 0079; Creation Club: ccafdsse001-dwesanctuary 0080; Creation Club: _ResourcePack 0082; Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch - USSEP 0083; Unofficial Skyrim SE Fixes - Continued 0084; Address Library for SKSE Plugins 0085; Animation Queue Fix 0086; Hearthfires Houses Building Fix 0087; Kill Camera Misalignment Fix 0088; Lute breast cripping fix 0089; Mage Armor Script Fix 0090; Motionless Rocks Killing People Fix 0091; World Encounter Hostility Fix 0092; Zero Bounty Hostility Fix 0093; Disable Follower Collision 0094; Don't Stay in The Water - NPC Water AI Fix 0095; No More Standing Too Close SSE 0096; Move it Dammit - SSE All-in-One Insaller 0097; SSE Engine Fixes (skse64 plugin) 0098; Equip Enchantment Fix 0099; Scrambled Bugs 0100; powerofthree's Tweaks 0101; Auto Input Switch 0102; Vanilla Scripting Enhancements 0103; Floating Ash Pile Fix 0105; skse 0106; XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended 0107; XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended - Fixed Scripts 0108; XPMSSE - Nemesis - Papyrus Stack Fix 0109; powerofthree's Papyrus Extender 0110; Project New Reign - Nemesis Unlimited Behavior Engine 0111; Nemesis Creatures BEHAVIOUR compatibility - Werewolf Addon 0112; PapyrusUtil SE - Modders Scripting Utility Functions 0113; ConsoleUtilSSE NG 0114; Dynamic Animation Casting - NG 0115; PAPER 0116; Paired Animation Improvements 0117; Perk Entry Point Extender 0118; MergeMapper 0119; Crash Logger SSE AE VR - PDB support 0120; Fort Takeovers Framework 0121; BodySlide and Outfit Studio 0122; Papyrus Tweaks NG 0123; Papyrus Tweaks NG - INI 0124; JContainers SE 0125; Custom Skills Framework 0126; Faster HDT-SMP 0127; Dynamic Activation Key 0128; Description Framework 0129; Inventory Interface Information Injector 0130; CBPC - Physics with Collisions 0131; Fuz Ro D-oh - Silent Voice 0132; Animation Motion Revolution 0133; SSE Display Tweaks 0134; Keyword Item Distributor 0135; Base Object Swapper 0136; Open Animation Replacer 0137; Wordkeys 0138; Container Item Distributor 0139; SRC - Exclude from Radiant System 0140; Spell Perk Item Distributor 0142; Immersive Weapons 0143; Legacy of the Dragonborn 0144; Legacy of the Dragonborn - Hall of Forgotten 0145; Undeath - Classical Lichdom 0146; Immersive Fort Dawnguard 0147; Stormcrown - A Shout Overhaul 0148; Wyrmstooth 0149; Beyond Reach 0150; Darkend 0151; Beyond Skyrim - Assets 0152; Beyond Skyrim - Bruma 0153; Beyond Skyrim - DLC Integration Patch 0154; The Midden - Expanded 0155; Deadly Dragons 0156; Dragons Use Thu'um 0157; Jump Behavior Overhaul SE 0158; Skyrim Realistic Conquering - All In One 0159; Lawbringer 0161; Mysticism - A Magic Overhaul 0162; Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim 0163; More Apocalypse - An expansion for Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim 0164; Triumvirate - Mage Archetypes 0165; Triumvirate (Balanced) 0166; Ascension 2 0167; Elemental Destruction Magic Redux 0168; Constellation Magic 0169; Cosmic Spells 0170; Inquisition 0171; Lunaris 0172; Necromancy Summon Spells 0173; Sonic Magic 0174; Thaumaturgy - An Enchanting Overhaul 0175; Thaumaturgy - Jump Boots 0176; Thaumaturgy - Weapon Enchantment XP Tweak 0177; Vulcano 0178; Abyss 0179; Abyssal Tides Magic 0180; Abyssal Wind Magic 0181; Arcane 0182; Arclight 0183; Astral Magic 2 0184; Storm Calling Magic 2 0186; Imperious - Races of Skyrim 0188; Legacy of The Dragonborn Perk Menus 0189; Adamant - A Perk Overhaul 0190; Vokrii - Minimalistic Perks of Skyrim 0192; SkyUI 0193; MCM Helper 0194; B.O.O.B.I.E.S (aka Immersive Icons) 0195; Spell Tomes - I4 icons 0196; moreHUD SE 0197; moreHUD Inventory Edition 0198; FSMPM - The FSMP MCM 0199; UIExtensions 0200; Legacy of The Dragonborn - Item Descriptions 0201; A Matter of Time - A HUD clock widget 0202; Viewable Faction Ranks 0203; RaceMenu 0204; Astral Magic 2 Icon - I4 Add-On 0205; Constellation Magic Icon - I4 Add-On 0206; Cosmic Spells - I4 patch 0207; Racial Abilities - I4 Icons for Legacy 0208; I4 Weapon Icons Overhaul 0209; Select One Skip - Hold Key to Skip Quantity Menu 0210; Show Follower Carry Weight 0211; Show NPC Disposition Relationship Rank 0212; Floating Damage 0213; Wider MCM Menu for SkyUI 0214; RaceMenu Poser 0215; Read Or Take SKSE 0216; Use Or Take SKSE 0217; Keyboard Shortcuts Fix 0219; Recipe Auto-Learn 0220; Endless Firewood - Chop Forever 0221; Weightless NG 0222; Where Are You - Lookup And Track Followers and other NPCs 0223; Keep the Skeleton Key - Deceive Nocturnal (For Legacy of the Dragonborn) 0225; Even Better Quest Objectives SE 0226; Katana - Journey in the Shadows 0227; Immersive Baba Yaga and the Labyrinth 0228; Bring Meeko To Lod 0229; The Queen's Cure SE 0230; Undeath Remastered 0231; Nilheim - Misc Quest Expansion 0232; College of Winterhold - Quest Expansion 0233; The Only Cure - Quest Expansion 0234; Return to Pelagius' mind 0235; House of Horrors - Quest Expansion 0236; The Whispering Door - Quest Expansion 0237; Paarthurnax - Quest Expansion 0238; Quest - Baba Yaga and the Labyrinth 0239; Lost Heritage - Bloodborne Inspired Quest 0240; SIRENROOT - Deluge of Deceit 0241; The Innocence Lost - Quest Expansion 0242; The Heart of Dibella - Quest Expansion 0243; Opulent Thieves Guild 0245; More Painful Death Sounds SE 0246; More Painful Death Sounds Plugin Update 0247; Rain Extinguishes Fires 0249; Legacy Safehouse Plus 0250; Safehouse Teleport - Legacy of the Dragonborn 0251; Legacy of the Dragonborn - Player Homes Displays 0252; Legacy of the Dragonborn Private Armory 0253; Windyridge - Player home in Winterhold 0254; Solitude Skyway 0255; Milandriel - A small piece of Valenwood in Skyrim 0256; Reich Corigate 0257; Laintar Dale 0258; Vernim Wood 0259; Better Tel Mithryn 0261; Vampire Armor Expansion 0262; Vampire Armor Expansion - SPID 0263; Vampire Clothing Expansion 0264; Vampire Clothing Expansion - SPID 0265; TAWOBA REMASTERED CBBE SE 0266; The Expanded World of Bikini Armors 0267; Immersive Armors 0268; Vampire Armor Expansion - Temper Hotfix 0269; Zikoru Swords Collection 0270; Isilmeriel LOTR Weapons Collection SSE 0271; True Weapons 0272; True Weapons - SPID 0273; Dawnguard Arsenal SSE 0274; Lore Weapon Expansion SE 0276; Skyrim's Paraglider 0277; Potion Of Obtainable Progress 0278; Wild Witch 0279; Boethiah's Calling - Unique Weapon 0280; The Shattered Blade of Baziar 0281; Reaper Scythes 0282; Scythe Of The Crow Mother Reborn 0283; Warglaive of Azzinoth -The Twin Blades of Azzinoth- 0284; Yol'Kreh - The Infernal Scythes 0285; Zikoru Swords - Rebalanced 0287; Skill Based Dynamic Animations 0288; Look Around - Searching Animations For NPCs 0289; Indecent Exposure - Immersive Naked Reactions 0290; To Your Face SE - AE - VR 0291; Talkative Dragons 0292; Bandit Lines Expansion 0293; Enemy (R)Evolution of Skyrim - EEOS 0294; EEOS EX - Enemy Revolution Expanded 0295; Wait Your Turn - Enemy Circling Behaviour 0296; I'm walkin' here NG 0298; Legacy of the Dragonborn SSE - The Curators Companion 0299; Immersive Wenches 0300; Immersive Persuasion 0301; More Dialogue Options 0302; Wintersun - Faiths of Skyrim 0303; Skyrim Reputation 0304; Skyrim Reputation Improved 0305; Vitrium 0306; Skyrim Skill Uncapper 0307; SPERG - Skyrim Perk Enhancements and Rebalanced Gameplay SSE Port 0308; Optimised Scripts for SPERG 0309; Trade Routes - Regional Economy SE 0310; Lawless - A Bandit Overhaul 0311; Lawless Expanded Enemy Coverage Addon 0313; True Weapons - Crafting 0314; Skooma Crafting 0316; Precision Creatures 0317; Vanargand Animations - Crossbows 0318; Vanargand Animations - Sneak Crossbows 0319; New Treasure Hunt SSE 0320; Treasure Hunter for SSE 0321; Better Jumping SE 0322; Magic Sneak Attacks 0323; Atronach Friendly Fire 0324; Swap Consumable 0325; Archery Locational Damage 0326; Taunt Your Enemies - Taunting Matters 0327; Believable Crime Report Radius 0328; Simply Order Summons 0329; Swiftly Order Squad - Follower Commands UI 0330; Take a Peek - New Stealth Mechanic 0331; Mid Air Shouts - Shout while falling 0332; Precision 0333; Infinite Stamina Out of Combat 0334; Infinite Horse Stamina Out of Combat 0335; Remember Lockpick Angle - Updated 0336; Pick Up Radius 0337; Better Court Wizards 0338; Elemental Weathers 0339; Enhanced Invisibility 0340; Enhanced Soultrap 0341; Quests Award Perk Points 0343; Interesting NPCs SE (3DNPC) 0344; Companions Dialogue Bundle 0345; Khajiits Steal Too - Caravan Fence Option 0346; Karstaag - The Frost King Reborn 0347; Dark Elf Voices for Bandits 0348; Khajiit Has Wares 0349; Cult of the World Eater - Dragon Priests Buff Alduin 0350; Wealthy Marks - A Pickpocket Mod (SPID) 0351; Project ja-Kha'jay 0352; Coven - Enemy witches overhaul 0353; Coven - Mysticism Spells 0354; Coven - Mysticism Spells SPID 0355; Dapper Deliveries - A Courier Overhaul 0357; Calientes Beautiful Bodies Edition -CBBE- 0358; CBBE 3BA 0359; KS Hairdos SSE 0360; Immersive Wenches - KS Hairs 0361; RaceMenu Undress 0362; KSHair For Legacy of the Dragonborn 0363; The New Gentleman 0364; Highly Improved Male Body Overhaul 0365; Darkend FaceGendata 0367; Blended Shorelines - No more jagged water edges 0368; Enhanced Atronachs - With Levelling and Luminosity 0369; PooP - Potions Swap 0370; Deadly Spell Impacts 0371; Strange Runes 0372; Legacy of The Dragonborn - Museum Exterior Fixes 0373; Deadly Spell Impacts for Mysticism 0374; Worn Undead 0375; BURP Spell Tomes 0376; Legacy of the Dragonborn - Improved Dig Sites SE by Xtudo 0378; QUASIPC - Qwinn's Unified Automated Self Installing Patch Compendium 0379; Apocalypse - Vokrii Compatibility Patch 0380; Nemesis Creatures BEHAVIOUR compatibility 0381; QAPP - Beyond Reach 0382; QAPP - Wyrmstooth Patch SE 0383; Unofficial Legacy of the Dragonborn and Beyond Skyrim Bruma Synergy Patch 0384; Undeath - XPMSSE - Strange Runes - Skeleton Patch 0385; Solitude Skyway LOTD Patch 0386; Interesting NPC's Imperious Patch 0387; Immersive Weapons - Various Patches 0388; Legacy of the Dragonborn Patches (Official) 0389; USSEP - Triumvirate Patch 0390; Apocalypse - Balance Patch 0391; House of Horrors Quest Expansion - Patches 0392; Isilmeriel LOTR Weapons Collection SSE - Patch 0393; SIRENROOT CBBE 3BA and HIMBO Patch 0394; Legacy of the Dragonborn - Hall of Forgotten - TCC Patches 0395; UVCPC - Umgak's Vokrii Compatibility Patch Compendium 0396; Deadly Dragons Patches 0397; Dragons Use Thu'um - Deadly Dragons Patch 0398; Vokrii - Mysticism 2 Patch 0399; Skyrim Reputation Wintersun Patch 0400; Skyrim Reputation Patches for Quest Expansions and Alternate Routes 0401; Triumvirate - Mysticism Patch 0402; Triumvirate Adamant Patch - Balanced 0403; Wyrmstooth - Brimstone and Wyrmstone Armory (and Legacy of the Dragonborn Display Patch) 0404; Legacy of the Dragonborn - Interesting NPCs Patch 0405; Opulent Thieves Guild Patch Collection 0407; I'm Talkin' Here 0408; Im Talking to You 0409; Logical Outfits and Classes for The Dark Brotherhood Forever 0410; Better College Application 0411; Customizable Faster Woodcutting Animation - OAR 0412; Stagger Direction Fix - SSE 0413; Comprehensive Attack Rate Patch - SKSE 0414; More powerful mining animations SE 0415; Legacy of the Dragonborn - Hall of Forgotten - Delayed 0416; Immersive Wenches - Player Dialogue Rewritten 0417; Sensible Bribes - Based on Speechcraft Not Level 0418; Legacy of the Dragonborn - Taking Skull Decapitates 0419; Immersive wenches disable bandits 0421; Paraglider Fix 0422; Saints and Seducers - Mysticism Rebalance 0423; HearthFires Display Case Fix SE 0424; Darkend Walls Fix 0425; Lawbringer - Register and Claiming Fix 0426; Lawless Patch FOMOD 0427; Nilheim BQ Fix 0428; SkyUI SE - Difficulty Persistence Fix 0429; SkyUI SE - Flashing Savegames Fix 0430; Opulent Thieves Guild ESL Patch 0431; Paragliding Vampire Werewolf Patch 0432; Skyrim Reputation - Fixed and Patched 0433; SMP-NPC crash fix 0434; Triumvirate - Follower Cloaking Spell Absorption Fix 0435; Companions Dialogue Bundle - Dialogue Fix 0436; Immersive Wenches - Name Fix 0437; SkyUI - Ghost Item Bug Fix 0438; Jaxonz MCM Kicker 0440; CBBE 3BA (3BBB) - Settings Loader 0441; Legacy of the Dragonborn SSE - Settings Loader 0442; SPERG - Settings Loader 0443; Trade Routes - Regional Economy SE - Settings Loader 0444; Deadly Dragons - Legacy Settings Loader 0445; Immersive Wenches - Settings Loader 0446; A Matter of Time - A HUD clock widget - Settings Loader 0447; Take a Peek - New Stealth Mechanic - Settings Loader

Humanity has managed to lift itself above the blue sky of the Earth and ventured into the stars. We have everything from AI-operated autonomous spaceships, quantum computers to AI assistants in cranial implants and everything people could never even imagine to become reality just 100 years ago, but we still haven’t quite yet managed to eliminate the need for human labour.
Sometimes situations arise that require the innovation and intuition of a Human mind; situations where the ability to make elaborate judgements and logical connections are required. Situations, like when a robot vacuum gets stuck in a mannequin’s dress causing it to sway around which in turn causes the Mall Security AI to flag it as suspicious activity. Now, that’s a situation where human ingenuity is still needed.
That’s why I’m here at 4 AM liberating the little helper from the yoke of a summer dress. I watch the little guy buzz away, making sure it doesn’t go tripping bikini mannequins in the swim suit section. Last thing I need is another mannequin domino. I take my tablet computer and sign off the alarm. Gotta make up some kind of an official sounding explanation and resolution for it, so some corp manager might think I did something today when eyeballing through my tickets. “Cleaning drone immobilized by a clothing article.”.
See, there’s the difference between me and a Regular Joe. I am an asslicker pro and I am not ashamed to admit it. I want that seat of a Security Manager, rubbing my balls all day doing even less than I do now but for double the pay. The key to success there is to learn to put a managerial spin on things. Say what the managers wanna say. I know their ways. I’ve read every standard, every process document to know exactly what kind of null-brain shit they love. Instead of saying “I nudged the robot a bit ‘til it moved.”, you say “I successfully conducted a manual remobilization of an autonomous cleaning unit.”. Surely someday, someone, somewhere at the Security Administration will look at immaculacy of my tickets and see my potential as a manager.
That’s what I hope. Every time I’ve applied for a promotion all I’ve got is one of those emails apologizing for not being selected after like 6 months have gone and I forgot the fucking thing already anyway. It’s like they want me to fry my brain in uncertainty and anticipation and after I’m over it, they come and fucking drag me back like, “hey, you remember this thing you wanted a while ago and already thought you won’t get it? Well, for your information, you are not getting it.
Fuck you. Love, HR.”.Best I’ve got was a very meagre one-time pay raise after I prevented a massive fire that had started and automated systems had failed to report it. They gave me a 20 credit raise and after that, they told me my salary is “frozen”. No more raises. They said when I joined the company, the salary I negotiated was “too high” and it would be “unfair for others” if I got more.
If the job wasn’t so sinfully easy most of the time that I could study an entire university degree by reading books during night shifts, I’d have left right then and there. I close the shutter doors of the shop. Their loud rattling echoes in the empty shopping corridor. I continue day dreaming about my life as an amazing security manager as I start walking to the ship bay. My egg-shaped transporter buzzes four hover engines pop out. Their dull green glow illuminates the floor as the ship starts hovering. The AI-operated vehicle starts moving automatically to the next destination. When the garage door opens, a strong gust of wind shakes the ship and the blinding orange glow of the dawning sun floods the bay before the ship takes off.
Rooftops and skyscrapers of Shanghai Prime bask in the orange glow of Martian dawn while bright neon lights shine in the dark streets. Sometimes for a brief moment, I think the city looks pretty nice, but reality always has it’s way to ruin the mood. There are series of small explosions in the distance. It’s probably the fucking terrorists again. I take out my phone and skim through social media for news. There is one post though that catches his eye. It’s from my crazy cousin who always posts weird conspiracy theories and raves on about the government on social media. He’s been at it again all night and the feed is chock full of his bullshit.
I consider blocking the guy for a moment, but a link to a news website about another “Martian Incident” in one of his posts catches my eyes. An incident happened in my home city New Calgary. There’s a live stream where a newscaster is reading a report. “It’s the most devastating incident so far with a death toll of 245 after a powerful explosion caused an entire office building to collapse on itself.”
Security footage shows an old woman walking around an office space with her eyes glowing as she screams profanities at people sitting in the office. When a visibly nervous younger lady approaches the old woman and gestures for her to calm down. The old lady motions with her hands at her and somehow causes a powerful directed blast that sends the woman violently flying through windows of a high-rise office building.
The video ends when people start panicking and the office bursts into flames. “The suspect, a 56-year-old woman with no prior criminal record, was described as ‘a lovely old lady’ by her neighbours.”. “Damn!” is all I can say. Some granny went on a rampage! These incidents happen almost every week nowadays. They were big news at first a few years back but not so much any more. Now, they’re just background noise. Just some terrorists, the usual.
When the newscaster turns to an “expert” and asks for their insights, two other “experts” almost immediately engage in a heated argument about government involvement and start shilling their favorite politicians who sound like they have it all figured out. One of them suggests the incidents were caused by secret experiments conducted at a government research facility called “HRO32” which almost lost funding, until the last president, who coincidentally wasn’t this expert’s favorite, decided to keep the facility running.
That facility has become somewhat a meme due to the secretive nature of their work. Nobody even knows what the name means. They came up with “pseudo-warp drives” a hundred years back in that facility. Recently, they unveiled an actual experimental Warp Drive that would allow faster-than-light travel, which is something the pseudos can’t do. Pseudo-Warp Drives only allow ships to reach speeds unattainable by conventional means.
You can probably imagine how crazy the alien conspiracy theorists, including my weird cousin, went about the announcement of FTL-capable warp-drive. “It’s alien technology!” He would proclaim to all the world on social media. That’s probably what loonies like him in the days old said when pseudos were announced. Some things never change. I yawn as I watch the news and star feeling a little drowsy. I manage to get a few glimpses of the last “inspirational” news bit with a plastic faced “influencer” giving ass-shaking tips to pre-schoolers before I doze off. Sometime later, I’m stirred awake by a beeping noise. “Destination reached” my egg ship announces.
Clueless in my sleepy stupor, like a hatchling, I emerge from the egg wiping drool off my cheek, yawning and rubbing my eyes. That nap really hit the spot. I walk back to the Security Office and get there just before the next shift comes in. I compile a report by feeding my tickets in the system to an AI and it spits out a nice compilation of key highlights from them. I pass the report to this guy “Gab” who comes in 15 minutes late as usual. The dipshit has the gal to complain about my cleaning drone incident having the wrong priority.
I can’t be arsed to argue with the guy, because I know his type. He’s the kind of guy who will sit around bitching and arguing about something, then he does all the things he complains about and loaded with a thousand excuses he ignores the fact. A very stranglable guy that one. Is that even a word? Anyway, I leave the security office fuming with annoyance, hoping that my next assignment will be Gab-less.Martian cities aren’t much different from those of Earth’s.
Streets are always busy no matter the time of day and everything is open 24/7. When you constantly surrounded by high-rises with neon-light illuminated facades it can make it difficult to tell if it’s day or night. Most people don’t care anyway. When tourists on a day cruise or businessmen arrive planet-side, they aren’t going to do something so incongruous as to wait for the daytime to go sightseeing or do business.
When I finally get down from the umpteenth floor, I start making my way towards the transport hub a few buildings away. Walking over a skyway to the next building, as I enter a large commercial hall with an open market, my absent-minded stride is briefly interrupted by loud gasps from a group of tourists. They are all very obviously from Earth and are watching an android and a human worker at a fish stall ‘competing’ for a show by filleting raw fish that they put for sale. These markets on Mars are popular with tourists from Earth whose urbanites don’t get to see unprocessed food very often. That reminds of another reason I hate this place.
Fresh meat and fish costs a small fortune because tourists from Earth pay such ridiculous prices for them, Luckily food exports to Earth were limited a few years back. It used to be even worse. Cursing the prices to a vendor, I buy a few cans of tuna from him with what is basically my two hour’s salary. Shouldn’t walk through a food market when you’re tired and hungry. This kind of impulse purchases are hard on my wallet. I struggle to keep my eyes open when I get to the tube station. Luckily, the train arrives just when I get there and I can take a little nap before I get home. The train is fulI of people. There aren’t even seats in this one because it’s an 7 AM rush hour train.
Mars is nowadays is ironically greener with Earth’s own fauna than Earth itself. Earth’s entire surface has been transformed by out of control urban sprawl from a green and blue marble to grey and blue. It has a bit of a reputation around the Solar System as a squalid urban hellhole, but they are working hard to fix that image. Travel agencies’ ads are all over the train. I feel the train nudge into motion.
I set my alarm to wake me up in 45 minutes and try to rest my eyes a little as well as I can while being pushed around by strangers around me.When the train finally arrives at my home station, I’m greeted by dimly lit streets filled with neon lights. Sunlight reflecting from high-rise windows above barely reaches down to this level. It’s even darker in the sections below where the poorest dregs of the society live.
I am ever so lucky to be a successful middle class man living the dream in this lovely neighborhood! When I exit the train, immersed in my social media feed, I nearly step on a pile of human feces that’s lying in the middle of the walkway. I hear someone behind me step in it and cursing.
I get to a konbini-terminal near my apartment. There’s a dead druggie full of bullet holes lying in a pool of blood next to it. Above the terminal there's a neon sign with a koala giving the thumbs up, while saying "High Koala-ty goods! And friendly service!".
Good service indeed. This poor "lady" probably tried to rob the place. I ignore her and try to look on the bright side. The terminal still works! The screen lights up when I tap it a few times. After selecting a few days' worth of ramen noodles, chips, protein paste and a few pieces of bread, I pay the purchases with my phone. Soon, a service android comes out of a heavily armored service door next to the terminal and hands over my groceries. "Thank you for your compliant patronage." the service android says, while I'm staring down the barrel of an automated turret behind the armored door.
I continue walking home. On my way, I check my phone quickly for public security reports from my area to make sure there are no surprises on the way. Wouldn’t wanna get robbed or something. Fortunately, the way is clear. The only inconvenience on the way is several dead bodies left behind after a shoot-out between some gangs last night. I hope they clean them up by next week or the whole street will reek of death for days again. I quickly check if they have any easily removable cybernetics left. Usually the people who shoot these dregs make sure there’s nothing left, but it looks like I got lucky this time.
There’s a pretty good cybernetic eye on one and a chip with 5 credits on one of them. I crouch down, pulling out of my knife and start carefully carving out the eyeball. I manage to get it out intact with almost no damage. It looks like it might fetch a pretty good price online. When I finally get home, the metallic door slides open and I’m greeted by a gust of musty air from my over-pressurised and badly ventilated studio apartment. “Ah! Home, sweet home!” There are clothes hanging from drying racks hanging from the ceiling right at the entrance.
There’s the small kitchenette where I drop the groceries on the floor as per the official protocols in this kingdom. A brief glance at a sink full of dirty dishes instantly strikes me with an overwhelming urge to sleep, so I punch a button by a desk next to the kitchenette and a retractable ladder to my bunk pops out. I jump in and the second my head hits the pillow I fall asleep immediately. Next morning, I wake up to a brave new day. When I open the curtains of the one small window in my apartment, I am immediately blinded by a large neon sign across the street.
Unfortunately for me, the badrug den got their sign fixed, so now I get have my audiovisual space enhanced with a crude animation of a neon dick being jacked off and a big tiddy android girl dancing. I start half-seriously planning a way to take out the sign with explosives, but luckily for my industrious and entrepreneurial fellow citizens at “Smut Chiks”, my phone interrupts my thought with a loud beep. It’s an email and to my surprise this hellworld deals yet another unexpected blow to my already delicate psyche. I’m being drafted to district militia. “Fan-fucking-tastic.” is all I can say about that. I feel like my head’s about to explode and throw a bunch of crap off a shelf in anger.
Thoughts start racing through my head. Images of being stuck in some dilapitated apartment with nowhere to run and then being shot to shreds by drones. I can already see myself in the news highlights with politicians and empty-headed whores laughing at footage of death like they do every now and then in the “War Highlight” streams where they show deserters or enemy soldiers suffering and dying.
What a time to be alive to become get a chance to die fighting for this shithole as a cannon fodder against people I don’t know for absolute garbage pay after being forced to put your entire career on hold. I tried to pretend I’m okay with this but after I saw two politicians and a representative of the “Sex Workers United” debating about android sex bot ban because human prostitutes can’t suck dick for a living anymore.
That’s the kind of top priority problems we have I guess. I could truly feel the spirit of patriotism flare up and burst into flame in my heart when I opened social media and my feed was flooded, as usual, with videos of women shaking their asses in luxury penthouses to show of solidarity for the sex workers. They aren’t drafted because they are women. Why the fuck AM I living in this shithole the one who has to go and deal with even more shit while these fucking people don’t have to? Fuck. That.
When I see my pile of unpaid bills on the floor, I get an idea. I’m going to lose everything to loansharks eventually if I have to serve in the militia. I’ll lose everything I’ve worked for anyway. I get on the computer and find start looking for a booking website. After dealing with a barrage of ads, I finally find one that looks trust worthy. I check the cheapest one-way trip to Pluto, the only planet in the Solar system beyond Mars’ jurisdiction, and make quick calculations in my head.
If I sell my apartment and everything worth a credit, I can get just enough money for a trip to Pluto and I’ll have just enough to get by for a few months. Just enough to get me started. I’ve felt apathetic and depressed for a long time, but for some reason, I start feeling alive again. Like, I have a cause, a reason for being and that reason is to get the fuck out of here.
A month went by and during that time, I sold everything I had, quit my job and found another job in a cruise company in Pluto. When I sold my apartment, it occurred to me that after taxes and bullshit bureaucracy fees, even though I sold it for profit, I ended up losing money. I mean, I would have lost money if I had paid back the loan I had for the apartment.
The militia gig would have caused me to lose the apartment and credit score anyway because of the shit pay for mandatory 5 years. “I’ve got nothing to lose and no love is lost for this shithole” I think to myself when I watch the city disappear into the clouds as the passenger shuttle begins ascent to orbit. For a moment, I feel like a bad ass renegade. I’m a criminal now and I’m the worst kind; the kind who doesn’t pay their debts. The kinda renegade who owes taxes. That’s a life in prison if not straight into death row.
Sadly, my feelings of renegade badassery quickly fade and I spend the following week waiting for the flight to Pluto on a space station near Mars while completely fucking wrecked mentally speaking. The station is still in Mars’ jurisdiction and I’m a nervous wreck the whole time, just waiting for the police to show up and pick me up to throw me into a boot camp. I was supposed to be reporting for duty two days before the departure.
When the ship to Pluto finally arrives, as I’m walking towards the security terminals, I anxiously double and triple check my ticket information on the phone and make sure I have everything I need with me. The whole time in the security terminal I have this feeling that something is wrong. “What if the flight number is wrong and I end up in Venus?” “Is the terminal correct?” “Am I accidentally carrying something illegal?” “What if I accidentally have drugs and a murder weapon in my possession because I mixed up my luggage with someone?” I try to suppress irrational fears in my head as I approach the security officers doing the screenings.
Finally I get through to board the ship and find my cabin. I sigh with relief and drop my luggage on the floor. It’s going to be a long journey. It’ll take two months to get to Pluto from Earth and the ship will be staying on a station near Earth for a week or so before the trip even begins. All In all it’ll be about three months before I actually get to Pluto. There’s no turning back now. When the ship starts to move, people gather around viewports to see the polar dust plumes of Mars as we pass the planet. I sneak a peek too even though I’ve already seen them. I never liked the place, but it was still home to me for a long time.
The planet does look beautiful from space. The polar dust pillars slowly emerge from behind the red horizon as the ship aligns itself to start accelerating to cruising speed. The pillars are caused by violent winds generated in the on-going terraforming process. Powerful wind currents that spiral towards the pole, form a massive cyclone that surges upwards and like a geyser that spits clouds of the iconic Martian red dust skywards.
Or something like that. Nothing much happens during the rest of the trip other than that I got lucky half-way through the trip when we stopped near Saturn. The three other people in my cabin disembarked and I had a four person cabin all for myself for the rest of the trip.Only a few hours after I’ve disembarked, I am contacted by a representative from the company I’m going to be working for. She says she’s gone through my files and was very impressed with my combat training and experience. I worked the better part of my 20’s in a “Control & Suppression Unit” of a major security corporation on Mars, but after a series of incidents, I got fed up with it and ended up landing a quieter, more mundane security job with less violence.
That’s what I thought I’d be doing here on Pluto too, but this woman on the phone turned out to be an instrument of fate who was about to change that. They have a lot of vacancies for competent security professionals in this part of the galaxy for a few good reasons.
One: Pluto is in the middle of fucking nowhere and you can’t go anywhere in any reasonable time frame to even spend a holiday on Luna or Earth or even somewhere around Saturn, so you’re just kinda stuck here on a rock with maybe a million other people scattered around.
Two, there’s a lot of pirates and other scum walking around here. I mean, they don’t cause problems usually when they are station-bound or landed, but even if the worst outlaws can’t show their face anywhere, their bottom-of-the-barrel minions who’ve yet to make a name for themselves and have no outstanding bounties sure can and they will make sure everyone around them knows who they are, so they cause a lot of trouble and security folk like me are the ones who have to deal with that.
Does it sound enticing to risk your life for shit pay and risk getting shot by some petty pirates over some trivial bullshit? I’m not good at math, but that’s an equation even I can work out.“Mr. Dunn, there’s something we need to discuss.” She says. The way she said that made me feel like something was wrong. I sigh and I sit down on a bench with a view of hovercrafts and small ships zipping past above and below in the skyways between the surrounding high-rise buildings. I take a deep breathe and prepare myself, expecting another twist of fate to derail my plans.
After a dry and very scripted little corporate speech about their values and how thankful they are to have me as an employee, she says there have been some developments since I left Mars and they want me to take another job instead of the one I already signed a contract for. Before even saying what the job is about, she goes directly to listing its perks and when she gets to the salary, I interrupt her.
I’m almost certain I had a stroke or lapsed into psychosis and I’m hallucinating because all the perks and especially the salary sound way too good to be true. She repeats it to me and confirms I heard it correctly. Just to be sure, I ask her to repeat my full name to make sure they don’t have the wrong guy. She confirms everything is all correct on their end. Without skipping a beat, I tell her immediately to sign me up and ask her when I can start. I’m screaming in my own head “SIGN ME UP! SIGN ME UUUUUP!” and can scarcely contain my excitement enough to listen to her talk about all kinds of mandatory wavers and NDA’s. It sounds like they are a lot stricter than usual, but nothing new.
A week later, it’s my first day on the job. First, I have to go through a month-long introductory training where me and over 200 others are told everything about the company and our job details. It turns out I missed a little detail when I signed the contract, that says I have to spend almost the entire first year ship-bound on a cruise ship. It's a job in a heavily armed unit that is similar to tactical units of planetary police forces and security corporations that are called in when a situation calls for “the big guns”, except our unit has access to even bigger guns even most planetary police.
At one point, I almost feel like I’ve ended up in the army. Like, when we are taught how to call in air support from fighters in space, how to operate shoulder-launched light anti-ship missiles and use a lot of gadgets and weapons I can imagine you’d see in the military. The first month is hectic, because it's like a crash course to basics. But, I do get to know some people and I’m happy to see myself assigned into the same squad with them when we are finally taken to the cruise ship.
During the training, they said the cruise ship is going to be huge, but it was only when we got within view distance that I truly understood just how fucking massive the thing is. When we got to the ship, it was like a city in space. It didn’t have a docking bay, it had skyscraper looking protrusions all over it and they all had their own docking bays with small ships coming and going.
There were about. 50.000 people on-board when it started the year long cruise towards around the Solar System. The biggest of draw of this cruise is the first milestone at the very edge of the Solar System in interstellar space. The reason this ship is special and why the security is so heavy, is because this thing is fitted with the largest pseudo-warp drive in history, that allows it to reach distant destinations relatively quickly.
It only takes a month for the ship to reach the first destination quite literally in the middle of nowhere as much as anything ever has been in the middle of nowhere. There’s nothing much to see in interstellar space, but the views are pretty nice and you get to say you’ve been outside the solar system. We’re going to spend the second month cruising in interstellar space before the ship will start heading towards Jupiter.
At first, I was a little worried by the fact that I’d be carrying around a rifle while in heavy armor, but everything turned out alright. There are no pirates in this area of space and most passengers are docile most of the time. There are incidents every now and then, but clearing out drunken revellers from a plaza doesn’t require guns, so I end up spending most of my time just strolling around on patrols looking like a bad ass with all the gear I’m rocking or flying around the ship with a patrol craft. I’m growing to like the job more and more everyday.
My colleagues are good people who take their job seriously despite how easy it is a lot of the time. Besides patrols, we spend a lot of our time training. We have lot of Close-Quarter Combat training, room clearing exercises and, get this: Zero-G combat training! Now how cool is that?! They have a training area set aside for Zero-G activities and sometimes we get to use it for that. Half-way through the interstellar portion of the journey, the ship reaches the “zenith”, the furthest point in interstellar space we’re gonna get before the ship’s trajectory slowly starts curving back towards the solar system. I’m sitting in a patrol craft flying along the hull of the ship.
I see thousands tiny figures walking inside the ship through the windows of walkways that connect some of the protrusions on the hull. My colleague sitting next to me, a big man who goes by the name “Radovic”, is an old-timer with a respectable, thick beard that has started to grey from the tips. It’s his fourth tour on this ship and he’s telling me stories of the past cruises when suddenly comm link starts flooding with reports of an “anomalous incident” in progress.
That’s what they officially call the “Martian incidents” with the glowheads. We report ourselves responding it, because we are close enough. Radovic sets the destination and engages autopilot so we can gear up while they ship takes us there. I can feel my hands tremble a little when I’m checking my rifle. I’ve had to handle it a lot in training, but it’s been a very long time since the last time I’ve had to use one in a real situation.
When we exit the ship, we receive reports of dozens of casualties. Lots of civilians are already dead and a few guards too. I feel the fear knocking in the back of my mind as the seriousness of the situation is beginning to dawn on me. This is it. This is for real now. We run through the landing bay area, through a busy mall where people seem to be oblivious of the events unfolding not far from them in the lower level. On thee way, we see some security guards guiding people to move out of the area. They’re trying to evacuate without causing panic. Finally we get to the elevator that has been cordoned off by two guards.
They give us some tidbits of info about the suspected glowhead. According to them, it’s just some random guy who had a seizure and went unconscious when he was out with his family. When he woke up, his eyes started to glow and he just started moving and throwing people and objects around by just waving his hands around. That sounds like exactly the kind of weird shit I’ve heard about these incidents before. Before we enter the elevator, Radovic reports over the comms that we’re about to enter the area of operations, when we get a go ahead, I punch a button and we’re on our way down.
It’s only a few levels below us, but the elevator ride feels long. We're both intently looking at our helmet visor's HUDs that start displaying data from HQ. There's the floor map and presumed location of the suspect. I can feel drops of sweat forming on my temples and dripping down my cheek while we wait for the door to open.
The glowhead is reportedly running somewhere in the corridors, trying to enter closed off shops and indiscriminately killing everyone he comes across. When the elevator doors open, we’re greeted by several dead bodies on the floor near the elevator and there are more strewn all around the eerily empty lobby area. All the bodies look very badly damaged by blunt force trauma, probably from being thrown around by the glowhead. It’s feels particularly unnerving to see guards among the dead, because for all I know, it might be someone I know.
As we keep advancing with our guns ready, we hear screams behind a corner ahead. I take position by the corner with Radovic right behind me. I take a peek and see the glowhead about 100 meters away just circling around in the middle of the hall way. His movement are erratic and his head makes weirdly sharp movements twitching and turning as he keeps scratching his head and occasionally screaming something incomprehensible.“Command. This is Patrol 7668. We have a visual on the suspect. It’s a clear shot from here, but he doesn’t seem violent. Please advice.” I say over the comm link.
“Patrol 7668. This is command. Roger that. Engage the target. Shoot to kill.” A voice responds.“Fuck.” I say under the breath and look at Radovic. “You got that?”. Radovic just nods. He gestures me to move so he can take a look behind the corner. “There are no civvies nearby.” he notes. When he looks at me we just nod at each other. “On three. Make sure the round hits.” he says and starts counting down.
When he gets to one, I follow him out of cover and get down on the floor and take aim at the guy. He has his back turned to us when we open fire. The man is riddled with bullets. .He's dead before he hits the ground. We were taught to “shoot excessively” when dealing with glowheads. They say they don’t always go down when they should. his guy sure did. When I get to him, his brain was splattered all over the floor, but his eyes were still glowing, Radovic starts reporting the kill while I start going through the body for ID.
I find a wallet and a phone in his chest pocket. His phone has a picture of two children as a background. Probably his. I feel a sting in my heart knowing that I probably just killed someone’s father and for some reason, my mind is suddenly flooded with powerful emotions in a way that I don’t even know how to deal with. My hands are shaking hard as I push back tears while I go through the wallet. “I’ve shot people before. Why is this different?” I ask in my head. I keep thinking “Nothing I can do about it… There was nothing I could have done.” and then curse myself for taking this job.
Suddenly, the comm links start getting more reports of similar incidents. There are multiple new incidents involving glowheads. While I'm listening to the comm, I start feeling a strong, painful sensation in my head. It get's so bad that I collapse on my knees and scream while holding me head.
I turn to look at Radovic who looks surprised. When our eyes meet, he gasps and curses out loud, reflexively training his rifle at me. I collapse on the floor. I twitch and squirm, incapacitated by the pain. The comm link goes crazy with even more reports of glowheads. The chatter is only making the pain worse, so I try to remove my helmet, but I fumble with the strap because the pain is too much. I do manage to silence the comms in my active ear protection.
I hear Radovic nearby yelling to his comm link “He’s fucking turning! Dunn! He’s one of them!”. His gun is still pointed at me, but the pain is so overwhelming that I can’t even think of a reaction to that. I turn to look at the ceiling. My head is spinning and the pain is getting even worse, I hear something explode nearby and feel the hull shudder.
Not long after, it’s followed by a series of explosions and distant screams. I hear Radovic cursing by himself for a while, but then, he yanks me by the shoulders and starts dragging me somewhere. I’m still writhing in agony, but it feels like the pain is starting to subside while I'm being dragged through the hallway.