First Prev
Saturn
The first thing that I noticed about the tent was how clean it was. There was no trash, no filth, no nothing: everything was clean and well organized from the outside, like a military tent.
The second thing I noticed was the strange… placement of everything around it. Scrap was hoarded all around the base of the tent, but not haphazardly or without thought, but rather it almost resembled a kind of morbid bird’s nest.
“A strange home,” I noted, “who lives here.”
“There's a lot of answers to that question, and I doubt that any of them will satisfy you,” The Lord Commander replied, “All I can really say for certain is that the cretin inside can help you beat the Cabal.”
“A cretin?” I asked, a bit confused, “what do you mean by cretin? Are you implying that this person has a few screws loose?”
“In a manner of speaking, although if you want to get technical his kind doesn't exactly come with many screws to begin with.”
I scowled at the Lord Commander's words, but stepped forward to peer into the flap. I could hear many things: low rumblings, the crackling sounds of a primitive fire, the soft clanking of metal on metal, and the searing of meat, all coalescing into almost what one would imagine a wagon train’s camp kitchen would be like. But before I could even make it three feet forward, a massive, clawed hand reached out and pulled the flap back just a tiny bit, revealing a massive eye the size of a softball, with vertical reptilian slits and speckled, amber-colored sclera.
“Go away,” the thing rumbled, a long, thin tongue stretching out as if to sniff the air, “Grug is tired, and Grug doesn't recognize you.”
The Lord Commander snorted, but didn't speak any more. “Come out, Grug, we need to speak.”
“No, No, No,” Grug insisted in an almost childish manner, “Moons leave soon, black night comes then. Grug is scared of the dark. Tent protects Grug and Tree-Friend from dark things.”
I suppressed laughter. “He's scared of the Dark! How do you expect him to help if he's scared of the dark?”
“Grug is a bit… special,” a voice behind the three of us spoke. I turned around to see an Older Sho-dai woman wearing fine robes dyed mahogany and amber-rimmed spectacles that made her look both regal and distinguished. She was holding something in her aged paws, a clay pot of something, but I couldn't quite tell, “But he has a big heart and a good soul, common for a child.”
“With all due respect ma'am, how is he a child?” I asked, “the tent is huge, and one hand was bigger than a manhole cover; there is no child that large.” I knew that wasn't exactly true, but very few creatures ever grew to that size, much less as children.
“His kind are rare around these parts, nearly hunted into extinction long ago,” the Sho-dai whispered quietly, as if to shield her words from Grug, “I've read all about them: the library I manage holds a wealth of knowledge that is sadly nowhere near as appreciated as it once was. Needless to say, he was retrieved as an egg by a scrapper haul nearly a decade ago, and I chose to advocate for its life. Our town had seen enough cruelty and death, so I decided I'd foster some kindness and life.” She approached the tent and placed the pot just outside of the tent flap. It was filled with different dried fruits and dumplings, jerky, and other miscellaneous food and supplies.
“You waste our food on this outsider, why?” Asked the Lord Commander. Thiva stiffened, and I assumed the sweet old librarian would as well, but she simply gave him a disappointed look.
“He is an innocent refugee, with no home or hope. I care for him because unlike many of my kinsmen I actually have a heart,” She spoke back, her voice soft and sweet but her tone implying an unmatched malice, “We are so obsessed with ourselves that we will soon lose our individuality too. So let this one live in peace for now.”
“We have nothing to give, his age and species are irrelevant,” the Lord Commander Growled, “Even if another Sho-dai came from another city expecting charity we'd still turn them away. This one must pull their weight.”
The Librarian merely sighed and shook her head. “It's always about violence and greed with you people, nothing else.”
“This is about neither! This is about saving this city,” The Lord Commander shouted, “and if Grug can help then he's obligated to! He lives here, in the same streets that the rest of these suffering Sho-dai do! He cannot turn down this command.”
Suddenly, the same clawed hand reached out again, and I noticed that it didn't have scales per say, but rather something a bit more menacing: spines. His entire outer forearm was covered in sharp spines, not long like skewers but instead short and straight like blood work needles. As his muscles flexed, so too did the spines, poking out slightly either from irritation or anxiety.
“Nobody speak to Grug but nice lady, nobody care about Grug like the nice lady does. Grug is nobody to everybody. Why does everybody know Grug now, now that Grug can help?”
The Lord Commander looked like he wanted to say something but also seemed at a loss for words. He stammered for a bit before shutting his mouth and turning around, clanking his metallic walking stick on the ground in a frustrated manner. “Fine, continue to be a burden: I will have no part in this childishness. We shall defend this city, with or without you.”
“We?” I asked, a little taken back by his words, “I am defending this city: it will be me who is fighting, not you. Don't sit here and pretend that you'll be wading through death instead of sitting back and giving commands to your soldiers from the safety of wherever you hide away during battles.”
”Do not make me the villain here!” The Lord Commander shouted back, “I am trying to protect these people! This cretin needs to know that it is selfish of him to hide away here while he lets everyone else suffer!”
“He does not see it that way,” I argued, “you have obviously treated him like a pariah, and now you expect him to find the devotion in his heart to defend this town? I would call that shameful, wouldn't you agree?”
“Do not pretend to understand anything about honor or shame!”
“Quit grumbling,” Grug growled from behind his tent, “Grug knows you don't like him, let Grug live in peace.”
I looked back at the Lord Commander, who was obviously pissed. “Let me speak to him: I'm an outsider as well, he may be able to relate to me.”
The Lord Commander shook his head in irritation, but meandered over to the streetside and leaned on his walking stick. I walked further up to the tent flap before clearing my throat, hoping to get Grug’s attention without startling or angering him.
“Grug, could I talk to you?”
“Grug doesn't want to fight, you can't make Grug fight!” He mumbled louder, his voice rising.
“You don't have to fight, Grug, and I won't make you,” I said, “I just want to come in if that's okay? Maybe we can talk.”
Grug was silent for a few moments, but eventually I heard another annoyed rumble before he opened the flap, allowing me in.
Time Skip
Grug seemed to be an incredibly meticulous creature. Inside the tent, his few items were stacked up neatly in the corner. The dirt from the ground was swept away, all his trash was thrown in a little trash bin (little was a relative term here, it was practically the size of Thiva) and the fire in the middle was adorned with a roasting spot, which he roasted a whole hog on.
Grug himself sat on a big stone block, poking the fire with a rebar rod to agitate the coals. He was a creature I recognized now as well, due to me being able to see his whole body. He was a Jí Bèi, or a thornback, and resembled a gigantic, anthropomorphic echidna. On his back, spines bristled outward, traveling down his arms and legs and covering him in layers of thorny armor like a briar bush, but it also reminded me of old pike phalanxes and how the many speartips could deflect arrows. His claws were long and razor-sharp, and yet he manipulated them dexterously as if they were fine tools.
He wasn't a cretin, that's for sure, just a creature with a more simple outlook and vocabulary. The Sho-dai worked so hard to appear distinguished that they often forgot what it meant to be average.
“What do you want with Grug?” Grug asked cautiously. “They always want from Grug, always take and never give. Only nice book lady ever cares about Grug, brings Grug food and books sometimes. Only book lady and tree-friend.” He sighed, seeming to lament everyone's disdain for him. “Grug knows you want something, someone always want something,” he added shrewdly, “Grug not stupid, Grug knows that Grug isn't welcome.”
“So you want people to like you?”
“Grug knows that's what everyone wants,” he mumbled, poking the coals again, “what Grug doesn't understand is why is everyone so mean to Grug? What did Grug do?”
“Grug, why do you speak in the third person,” I asked, “you are surprisingly articulate for your age. The woman outside, the librarian, says you're still a child.”
“Grug speaks the way he does because he wants to constantly remind everyone who he is and what his name is,” Grug spoke with a hint of determination, “they all call Grug rude things like ‘beast’ or ‘cretin’, but Grug is not an animal or stupid, Grug is Grug, And Grug deserves to be treated with decency. Grug will only accept his name.”
“That's an admirable way to resist their expectations of you,” I said, “but what's better is to make them respect you.”
“Grug does not wish to fight,” he quickly interrupted, “Grug wishes to be treated with respect.”
“But whether you like it or not, these people respect strength,” I said, “but you have a gift: you are big and strong, and clever too. You can gain their respect by helping them fight off the bad people who want to hurt them.”
Grug sat sat in silence, but I could see the gears turning in his head as he poked the coals some more before rotating the spit to ensure the whole hog cooked evenly. “Grug… Grug doesn't like to fight. Hurting people makes Grug sad, same with hurting animals. Grug thinks about who they might've been, what they could've done… Grug doesn't like to take life away.”
I felt that on a personal level. I didn't like to kill, and oftentimes I only did so out of desperation or anger, something I wasn't proud of. In a way, it made me want to convince Grug to join me more because we were somewhat like-minded. “I understand, I don't like to kill either.”
“So why do you fight? Grug doesn't understand.”
“Nobody forces you to kill but you, Grug, you always have that choice,” I admitted, “but choices oftentimes come with even more choices packaged in: how you wish to preserve life is one of the questions that immediately come to mind.” I gently sat down next to him on the stone, looking into the fire. “Sure, you can resort to nonviolence, but that means nothing changes, and when nothing changes then whatever pain that existed before you made your choice will continue to exist afterwards as well, and if you had the power to stop it then the responsibility would theoretically fall on you. Hypothetically, I mean, I'm not blaming you for anything, just speaking my mind.”
“Grug understands.”
“Okay then,” I continued, “I couldn't live knowing that I could have saved someone because I always end up thinking about the same things: who were they? Did they have a life elsewhere, or a family? Did they have dreams?” I sighed and laced my fingers together, resting my forearms over my knees as I slouched slightly. “I've always wondered, is it just as bad to do nothing when someone is hurting as it is to be the one inflicting the pain? I'd never wanted to find out, though, rather it was simply just a nagging thought in the back of my mind, the kind that dictates your entire way of life. I don't want to be the one who could've been better but chose not to.”
“Grug knows you want Grug to help, but Grug won't: the people hate Grug, they'll never appreciate Grug.”
“I understand,” I said, standing up, “I don't expect you to help, and I have no desire to force you: I just wanted to see if I could speak to you on the matter like a person instead of making demands of you. I want you to make your own choices, everyone should, you shouldn't be obligated to serve those who do not serve you back.”
Grug seemed surprised by my sentiment, as if he wasn't used to hearing that. “Thank you… Grug rarely receives kindness.”
“You're welcome,” I said back. “I've noticed…” I began before pausing to find the right words, “That there's a lot of emphasis put on obligations here, all I've heard is honorable this and duty that, but it all feels so forced. These people, this city, and those that rule it all hate each other, and those obligations feel so paper thin that I could push through them with a wet finger. But the restrictions still remain.” I was speaking my mind now, not just to Grug, but to myself: I realized that this city was doomed if I didn't step in, even if the Cabal didn't suck them dry the infighting and the disconnect between the different classes would tear it apart. “I see people use words like honor and duty to maintain control, or exercise power over others, or manipulate others, but I don't think I'd ever seen it be done out of true honesty and loyalty to those creeds.”
“Grug is… confused,” he admitted, slightly embarrassed, “Grug heard a lot, didn't understand it all.”
“Sorry, I was lost in my own words for a minute there,” I apologized with a weak smile, “I'm just starting to see where the problems lie, and I think it's because everyone here has lost faith, faith in each other, in their leaders, and their city, and what they're doing now is all posturing.”
“Grug sees a lot of sadness,” Grug noted poignantly, “lots of anger, no smiles or laughter. All joy is gone, like their happiness went away.”
“But you-”
“No,” Grug insisted, “Grug knows what you want…”
“But you could give them their faith again,” I insisted, “You could be something for them to believe in, to kickstart a chain reaction and bring back what made this city in the first place,” I placed my hand on his, mine incredibly small in comparison but no less determined, “And they'll respect you, even love you, because you stood for them when few others would.”
Grug seemed to actually consider this for a moment, and he eventually responded. “I’ll help,” Grug spoke in the first person for the first time, “But I need something, a few things.”
“I can't give much, not now,” I said, concerned that all the progress I made might be lost. “I'll do what I can, though.”
“It's not much, just a test of… character. I heard the nice lady call it something like that before,” Grug spoke, although I didn't exactly know what he meant by that, “Tree-Friend understands people, sees through what they want him to see. In some ways, Tree-Friend can see more than us.”
I looked up at the black tree, the leaves within the tent curled downward to absorb the heat of the fire. It was then that I realized the tree was a thermo-synthesizer, the kind that was designed to absorb the heat of thermal vents and regulate planetary temperatures. In the fire and the heat of the foundries, it flourished despite the cruel, lifeless soil, and it must've remained here without being cut down for a reason…
Then I noticed it: subtle movement higher up. Grug let out what probably sounded like a shrill whistle to him, but to me it sounded like a locomotive’s air horn. The movement increased, with ear-piercing clicks like those of a bat. Something was moving along the higher branches, but it melded so well with the tree that it was near impossible to distinguish it, much less identify what it was.
“And who exactly is this… tree friend?” I asked cautiously.
“He is Tree-friend.” Grug said bluntly, as if that would explain everything.
“But what is Tree-friend?” I asked, “is he… like us?”
“Tree-friend isn't like anybody, but tree-friend is good: that I know.”
Suddenly, I saw something more definite: two, onyx banded eyes peering down at me, along with a lean, muscular form clinging to the trunk of the tree less than ten feet above me. It had claws longer than unsharpened pencils, but the claws themselves were anything but dull, and they curved wickedly into barbed nightmares at the end. Its body was coated in blackish-brown scales almost resembling leaves, each the color of jaspilite, with tiger-esw stripes of pitch black running down its back lengthwise. Suddenly its coloring shifted, taking on a brighter, amberish hue set by the fire, as if it had realized I had spotted it and now it had no reason to hide.
But most concerning was its long, viney tail that sprouted barbed blades at the end, along with a powerful piercing proboscis at the end. I didn't want to know what that was used for.
I was starting to paint a more complete picture of Tree-friend’s true nature: its physiology was familiar, but it wasn't something I was used to seeing… not that I had ever seen anything like it before. Whenever I tried to recollect memories about how the past and the old authority worked, it was as if I was one man in two bodies all at once, one perspective looking forward and the other back. But that second perspective felt so foreign despite me being unable to deny that it was something I knew deep down in my core had been something I had experienced.
Tree-friend must have been some kind of guard creature, especially if it resided in this tree for most of its life. The proboscis, maybe a way to sap nutrients from the tree, or initiate a sort of mutualism with it. Its claws didn't dig into the bark, not did it snap branches or travel haphazardly along its trunk: the plant must have been important, maybe even sacred, to it. The chameleonic skin? Definitely a way to stage ambushes on prey or intruders. And it's mouth bristling with razor-sharp teeth… there was no question what those were for. It would also make sense for Tree-Friend to be able to discern intention and have an advance intuition for anything that could be perceived as a threat: the goal for most guards wasn't to attack anything and everything on sight, but rather to terminate any individual or unit that could partake in corporate espionage. It's master and any of its guests would need to be at least ignored and at most protected when threatened.
“Tree-friend scares people away, he doesn't like strangers, and he knows when people want to do bad things,” Grug explained, “Tree-Friend is smarter than Grug, even if he doesn't speak: Tree-friend knows when bad things will happen.”
Tree-friend blinked at me, flexing its claws cautiously as it seemed to stare into my soul. At first, I thought it was preparing to pounce, but the little quadruped didn't seem coiled up to leap just yet. I resisted the urge to lift up the fauchard and defend myself, knowing that it would attack at the first sign of animosity.
Instead, I decided to do the unthinkable. I reached out with my hand, my arm extended and my palm open. I was exposed and at the mercy of Tree-friend, but I needed to have faith that neither Grug nor Tree friend meant any harm. They were simply different, and they saw the world differently than I did, not unlike how I saw the world differently than the Sho-dai did.
Tree-friend seemed puzzled at first, but he eventually held out his clawed hand and placed it into mine gently. Then he looked at me with an almost innocent curiosity, ruffling and loosening its leaf-like scales.
“Tree-friend likes you,” Grug observed, “You are the first, too: he has attacked everyone else.”
“You don't say,” I mumbled, “what is he, really? Where did you find this thing?”
“Tree-friend has always been part of the tree: I found him when I had grown big enough to live indoors anymore. I had moved out here between the furnaces because the cold makes me sick, and I had found him in an opaque, tiny seed attached to the tree. I have taken care of him ever ever since.”
Suddenly, Tree-friend’s eyes narrowed, and it focused on something scurrying along the ground. In a flash, it leapt off the tree and onto the ground, quickly gobbling up a small rodent and swallowing it whole, the still-squirming creature pushing against his flexible belly to no avail until it drowned. “Well, that was wonderful to watch,” I said sarcastically, “is that it's diet?”
“Yes,” Grug said, “He keeps the tent clean. I also feed him meat from time to time, although he detests any fruits or vegetables.” Grug pulled off a hunk of meat from the hog roasting over the fire and tossed it to Tree-friend, who snapped it up with incredible dexterity. It didn't even seem to chew either, merely swallow prey whole, so I didn't want to know what the teeth were for.
“But we need to go,” Grug said, “they'll come soon, and if we don't hurry bad things will happen. I made a promise to you, and I will keep it: I will help you fight the Cabal.”
Time Skip
As we left the tent, the world was approaching absolutely twilight. The only thing that illuminated the city were the dim artificial streetlights along the paved roadways, as well as larger lights hefted higher up that could bathe whole neighborhoods in light with ease. Most notably, near the center of the city, there was a massive tower that I hadn't really noticed before, but it easily dwarfed the rest of the buildings. On top, a lighthouse spun dutifully, sending out a beacon of hope to the rest of the boneyard and pointing the way to safety for those unfortunate few caught outside without reliable shelter.
Tree-friend rode on Grug’s shoulders lazily, its little head next to Grug's own and its arms draped around his neck loosely. It seemed very protective of Grug, which seemed to lend credence to it being some kind of guard creature. It hissed at any Sho-dai who got too close, and they made a wide berth around Grug to ensure nobody got hurt.
The Lord-Commander stood at a makeshift barricade set up at the large, bronze gates of the town, watching the entrance intently. He had gathered an entire unit of the guard, all fit in heavy metal armor and wielding either a multitude of different guns, mostly simplistic submachine guns or semi-automatic rifles, or shields and blunt weapons, the latter often designed to resemble different tools that could serve as bludgeons, like wrenches and pipe threaders, but also much more elegant and fitted with spikes or blades to pierce armor.
At the gates, a small army of armored figures stood, many of them being Sho-dai themselves, but others being members of species I didn't quite recognize yet, but they all seemed like cannon fodder compared to a select few. The first big threat I spotted was a huge primate, at least as tall as a semi-truck, with the head of a baboon and a muscular, furry body fitted with all manner of advanced cybernetics, which were far more advanced than anything I could imagine these Sho-dai ever creating. One of its arms had been replaced with a minimalist, cybernetic version that held a massive Kanabo as a weapon, the studded metal club reinforced with metal down it's length. It's breath fogged up in the cold air more and more as the last moon set, finally shrouding the world in darkness.
There were two others that stood out, one being a strange, beetle-like creature reminiscent of a bipedal scarab. His carapace was a greenish-blue and reflected the artificial light of the street lamps brilliantly, and I could tell that he was a male by his brilliantly plumed antennae, but that's where his admirable qualities ended. His carapace was fitted with extra bionic inserts like an extra layer of armor, and on his head was a large horn like that found on a rhinoceros beetle. It held a large heavy sword that resembled a Nodachi, and seemed utterly unfazed by the small army of Sho-dai the Lord-Commander had set up. But when his segmented eyes focused on me, his antennae flicked ever so slightly, and his mandibles clicked together with interest.
The last one was interesting. This one was a bit like a peafowl, with vibrant blue, green, and gray feathers. Definitely a female, she wore long robes that hid the rest of her body, and stood up straight with her wings folded, her eyes staring directly into my soul. She wasn't burly or bulky like her comrades, but I could tell she didn't need to be: she could probably kill everyone here save for me with little effort.
“We have come,” shouted the Peafowl, who approached first. The rest of the group, including the large ape, remained, “We are here to take what is ours, as is written.” She eyes the soldiers and the Lord-Commander with an almost annoyed look. “And yet I do not see our rightful bounty piled before us. Answer me, peasant, or I will slit your throat!” She pointed at the Lord-Commander, her beady little eyes narrowing, “Where is our tribute?”
“You shall have none today, scum,” he said, lifting up his gun, “I'll gladly grant you a painful death, however.”
The Lord-Commander emptied the clip of his submachine gun at the Peafowl, but she simply raised her wing and deflected the bullets with her feathers, the lead bouncing off as if each shot was a spitwad. Then, as the Lord-Commander attempted to reload, she unleashed something from underneath her wing, a kusarigama, and it slashed through his neck, sending blood over his fellow soldiers faster than any of them could react. Then she flicked her thin wrist back, and the chained blade flew back towards her, taking the Lord-Commander’s head with it. She deftly gripped the hair, his face still contorted into a mask of shock as she tossed it to the ground with a scoff before cleaning off her weapon with another flick and concealing it back under her robes. “A pathetic display," she hissed before returning to her once regal voice, "Death has been marked. Burn this pitiful city to the ground, kill two thirds and enslave the rest: we shall take what is ours and make an example out of you cretins.”

Hello, I have a problem trying to emerge dev-java/openjfx and I am not quite sure why.
logs:
'emerge --info '=dev-java/openjfx-11.0.11_p1-r3::gentoo'':
Portage 3.0.64 (python 3.11.9-final-0, default/linux/amd64/23.0/desktop/systemd, gcc-14, glibc-2.39-r6, 6.9.1-gentoo-x86_64 x86_64)

System Settings

System uname: Linux-6.9.1-gentoo-x86_64-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-_i5-6300HQ_CPU_@_2.30GHz-with-glibc2.39
KiB Mem: 7998056 total, 1762144 free
KiB Swap: 0 total, 0 free
Timestamp of repository gentoo: Sat, 25 May 2024 07:30:00 +0000
Head commit of repository gentoo: 475f9e68bd835e68318177f2465554415bf8c6a7
Timestamp of repository guru: Fri, 24 May 2024 19:48:39 +0000
Head commit of repository guru: 2e3bb44ccbf83da34bd6574b99e1495c22baef9a
Timestamp of repository steam-overlay: Mon, 20 May 2024 17:23:25 +0000
Head commit of repository steam-overlay: 3aa8d3201d7bce32a1a0fffdf4afd9dbd0583048
Timestamp of repository torbrowser: Mon, 20 May 2024 17:23:26 +0000
Head commit of repository torbrowser: e864531f479e040a6516e2c34b630f187aee4338
Timestamp of repository xarblu-overlay: Mon, 20 May 2024 17:23:47 +0000
Head commit of repository xarblu-overlay: 108040f13f5a7a506d680a7c7f8549096eace322
sh bash 5.2_p26-r3
ld GNU ld (Gentoo 2.42 p3) 2.42.0
app-misc/pax-utils: 1.3.7::gentoo
app-shells/bash: 5.2_p26-r3::gentoo
dev-build/autoconf: 2.13-r8::gentoo, 2.72-r1::gentoo
dev-build/automake: 1.16.5-r2::gentoo
dev-build/cmake: 3.29.3::gentoo
dev-build/libtool: 2.4.7-r4::gentoo
dev-build/make: 4.4.1-r1::gentoo
dev-build/meson: 1.4.0-r1::gentoo
dev-java/java-config: 2.3.3-r1::gentoo
dev-lang/perl: 5.38.2-r5::gentoo
dev-lang/python: 3.11.9-r1::gentoo, 3.12.3-r1::gentoo, 3.13.0_beta1_p2::gentoo
dev-lang/rust: 1.77.1::gentoo
sys-apps/baselayout: 2.15::gentoo
sys-apps/sandbox: 2.38::gentoo
sys-apps/systemd: 255.6::gentoo
sys-devel/binutils: 2.42-r1::gentoo
sys-devel/binutils-config: 5.5::gentoo
sys-devel/clang: 17.0.6::gentoo, 18.1.6::gentoo
sys-devel/gcc: 14.1.1_p20240518::gentoo
sys-devel/gcc-config: 2.11::gentoo
sys-devel/lld: 17.0.6::gentoo
sys-devel/llvm: 17.0.6::gentoo, 18.1.6::gentoo
sys-kernel/linux-headers: 6.9::gentoo (virtual/os-headers)
sys-libs/glibc: 2.39-r6::gentoo
Repositories:
gentoo
location: /vadb/repos/gentoo
sync-type: rsync
sync-uri: rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage
priority: -1000
volatile: False
sync-rsync-extra-opts:
sync-rsync-verify-metamanifest: yes
sync-rsync-verify-jobs: 1
sync-rsync-verify-max-age: 3
guru
location: /vadb/repos/guru
sync-type: git
sync-uri: https://github.com/gentoo-mirroguru.git
masters: gentoo
volatile: False
steam-overlay
location: /vadb/repos/steam-overlay
sync-type: git
sync-uri: https://github.com/gentoo-mirrosteam-overlay.git
masters: gentoo
volatile: False
torbrowser
location: /vadb/repos/torbrowser
sync-type: git
sync-uri: https://github.com/gentoo-mirrotorbrowser.git
masters: gentoo
volatile: False
xarblu-overlay
location: /vadb/repos/xarblu-overlay
sync-type: git
sync-uri: https://github.com/gentoo-mirroxarblu-overlay.git
masters: gentoo
volatile: False
Binary Repositories:
gentoobinhost
priority: 1
sync-uri: https://distfiles.gentoo.org/releases/amd64/binpackages/23.0/x86-64
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64 ~amd64"
ACCEPT_LICENSE="@FREE"
CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /uslib64/libreoffice/program/sofficerc /usshare/config /usshare/gnupg/qualified.txt"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/dconf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d"
CXXFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/vacache/distfiles"
ENV_UNSET="CARGO_HOME DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS DISPLAY GDK_PIXBUF_MODULE_FILE GOBIN GOPATH PERL5LIB PERL5OPT PERLPREFIX PERL_CORE PERL_MB_OPT PERL_MM_OPT XAUTHORITY XDG_CACHE_HOME XDG_CONFIG_HOME XDG_DATA_HOME XDG_RUNTIME_DIR XDG_STATE_HOME"
FCFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe"
FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-docompress binpkg-dostrip binpkg-logs binpkg-multi-instance buildpkg-live config-protect-if-modified distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles ipc-sandbox merge-sync merge-wait multilib-strict network-sandbox news parallel-fetch pid-sandbox pkgdir-index-trusted preserve-libs protect-owned qa-unresolved-soname-deps sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox usersync xattr"
FFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org"
LANG="C.UTF8"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,-z,pack-relative-relocs"
LEX="flex"
MAKEOPTS="--jobs 4 --load-average 4"
PKGDIR="/vacache/binpkgs"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --omit-dir-times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages --exclude=/.git"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/vatmp"
RUSTFLAGS="-C debuginfo=0 -C codegen-units=1 -C target-cpu=native -C opt-level=3 -C panic=abort -C lto=fat -C embed-bitcode=yes"
SHELL="/bin/fish"
USE="X a52 aac acl acpi alsa amd64 bluetooth branding bzip2 cairo cdda cdr cet crypt cups custom-cflags custom-optimization dbus dist-kernel dri dts dvd dvdr encode exif flac gdbm gif gpm gtk gui hwaccel iconv icu ipv6 jpeg lcms libnotify libtirpc mad mng mp3 mp4 mpeg multilib ncurses nls ogg opengl openmp pam pango pcre pdf pipewire png policykit ppds pulseaudio qt5 readline savedconfig sdl seccomp sound spell ssl startup-notification svg systemd systemd-boot test-rust tiff truetype udev udisks unicode upower usb vorbis vulkan wayland wxwidgets x264 xattr xcb xft xml xv xvid zlib" ABI_X86="64" ADA_TARGET="gcc_12" APACHE2_MODULES="authn_core authz_core socache_shmcb unixd actions alias auth_basic authn_anon authn_dbm authn_file authz_dbm authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="karbon sheets words" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" CPU_FLAGS_X86="mmx mmxext sse sse2 aes avx avx2 f16c fma3 pclmul popcnt rdrand sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock greis isync itrax mtk3301 ntrip navcom oceanserver oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf skytraq superstar2 tsip tripmate tnt ublox" INPUT_DEVICES="synaptics libinput" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb text" LUA_SINGLE_TARGET="lua5-1" LUA_TARGETS="lua5-1" OFFICE_IMPLEMENTATION="libreoffice" PHP_TARGETS="php8-1" POSTGRES_TARGETS="postgres15" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python3_11" PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_11" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby31 ruby32" VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia intel" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tarpit sysrq proto logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account"
Unset: ADDR2LINE, AR, ARFLAGS, AS, ASFLAGS, CC, CCLD, CONFIG_SHELL, CPP, CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, CXX, CXXFILT, ELFEDIT, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, EXTRA_ECONF, F77FLAGS, FC, GCOV, GPROF, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, LD, LFLAGS, LIBTOOL, LINGUAS, MAKE, MAKEFLAGS, NM, OBJCOPY, OBJDUMP, PORTAGE_BINHOST, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PYTHONPATH, RANLIB, READELF, SIZE, STRINGS, STRIP, YACC, YFLAGS
complete build log: https://pastebin.com/WeHYCrNW
'emerge -pqv '=dev-java/openjfx-11.0.11_p1-r3::gentoo'':
[ebuild N ] dev-java/openjfx-11.0.11_p1-r3 USE="media -debug -doc -source" CPU_FLAGS_X86="sse2"
* IMPORTANT: 23 news items need reading for repository 'gentoo'.
* Use eselect news read to view new items.
I have tried 'export TERM=xterm' before emerging but to no avail. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

I need to connect our irrigation manifold in our shed over to the hose bib which is about 10' away. The catch is that this distance runs across the back wall of the house that gets direct sun all afternoon in the summer. We used to have a small watering timer set up in the shed with a short piece of 5/8" hose connecting it to the hose bib, but pver the course of a summer the hose would swell considerably due to the heat and constant pressure... We're concerned it might fail.
I see that many people here recommend PVC pipe for irrigation, and then say "just connect that to the hose bib." That's fine, but the hose bib is rigid, and the PVC pipe is rigid... How do you connect those? Do you put a female GHT connector on the end of the PVC pipe, and screw it rigidly to the hose bib, or use a short piece of hose (and if hose, how do you prevent the swelling/bursting risk?) If it's rigid, how do you disconnect that for draining in the winter, is it okay to flex PVC pipe enough to get it away from the hose bib?
And if I did PVC, can that just run down the side of the house or should I run it down to the ground and bury it and then bring it back up inside the shed?
Another thought was to buy one of the stainless jacketed flexible hoses and just run that into the shed... The stainless hose shouldn't be a rupture risk, but they only seem to come in 3/8" ID sizes.
Thanks for any suggestions!

Taken from: https://www.theringer.com/movies/2024/5/21/24161120/greatest-movie-car-chase-scenes-ranked-furiosa-mad-max-saga
In honor of the imminent ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,’ we’re shifting into high gear to determine the best chase scene in cinema history
By Miles Surrey May 21, 2024, 6:30am EDTGetty Images/Ringer illustration
After wowing audiences with Mad Max: Fury Road, director George Miller returns to the franchise’s post-apocalyptic wastelands for Furiosa, the epic origin story of the eponymous heroine (now played by Anya Taylor-Joy), premiering on Friday. As the follow-up to one of the greatest action films ever made, it’s hard to overstate the hype for Furiosa, and that was before word got out about a showstopping 15-minute sequence that required nearly 200 stuntpeople and took 78 days to shoot. While Furiosa will have its own distinct flavor, as is true of every Mad Max movie, there’s one thing that unites these projects: intense, jaw-dropping scenes of vehicular mayhem. And what better way to honor the franchise than by celebrating what it does best?
Ahead of Furiosa’s release, we’ve put together our definitive ranking of the best car chases in cinema. There weren’t any strict rules in place, other than capping the list at 20—mostly for my own sanity—and limiting every franchise to one entry. (Apologies to Fury Road’s kickass predecessor The Road Warrior.) We also won’t discriminate against scenes that feature motorbikes, so long as cars (and/or trucks) remain part of the equation. As for what, exactly, constitutes a good car chase? Like list making, it’s bound to be subjective, but I tend to gravitate toward two key elements: the skill of the stuntwork on display and the ways in which a filmmaker conveys the action in relation to the story. (Also, the less CGI, the better.) Buckle up, ’cause we’re not wasting any time shifting into high gear.

20. Quantum of Solace (2008)

There have been some memorable car chases in the James Bond franchise: the first sequence featuring the iconic Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger, the corkscrew jump in The Man With the Golden Gun, the Lotus Esprit submarine in The Spy Who Loved Me. But I’m going with a somewhat controversial pick here: Quantum of Solace. There are many issues with Quantum of Solace—namely, it was one of the most high-profile blockbusters affected by the 2007-08 writers strike—but its opening scene isn’t one of them. Picking up right where Casino Royale left off, we find Bond (Daniel Craig) evading henchmen through the narrow roads around Italy’s Lake Garda. The frenetic, furious chase mirrors Bond’s sense of anguish after losing Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), the woman he opened his heart to, and his relentless quest for answers. It’s a thrilling tone-setter for Quantum of Solace and one that doesn’t overstay its welcome, capped off by Bond sending his final pursuers flying off a cliff:
If we’re being honest, though, it feels like James Bond has yet to create a franchise-defining car chase. Perhaps that’s a mission the newest 007, whoever it ends up being, can undertake.

19. Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation (2015)

The Mission: Impossible franchise is no stranger to electrifying chase scenes, the best of which find Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt working up his heart rate. When it comes to action behind the wheel, though, Fallout tends to dominate the discussion—even on this very website. But I think the vehicular chase in Rogue Nation is being slept on. What we have is effectively two sequences for the price of one: The first finds Hunt pursuing Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) by car through the narrow streets of Casablanca alongside some nefarious henchmen; the second sees him continue the chase outside the city on motorbike. (Adding to the chaos: Hunt had only just been resuscitated, and he’s clearly not all there.) In terms of death-defying stunts for the audience’s entertainment, a helmetless Cruise taking corners like a MotoGP racer is child’s play compared to his other exploits, but the actor’s authentic reaction to scraping his knee on the road underlines that there’s no one else in Hollywood doing it like him:
We’ll be sure to update this ranking if and when Cruise does something even more dangerous down the road, pun unintended.

18. Vanishing Point (1971)

A movie that counts the likes of Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino among its biggest fans, Vanishing Point is the first of a few entries on this ranking that’s essentially one extended car chase. The film stars Barry Newman as Kowalski, a man tasked with delivering a Dodge Challenger T 440 Magnum from Colorado to California while eluding police across four states. One of Kowalski’s most memorable run-ins comes when a guy driving a Jaguar E-Type convertible challenges him to an impromptu race. Incredibly, we’re expected to believe the man in the Jag comes out of this crash in one piece:
Vanishing Point might not boast the impressive production values of other movies on this list, but considering Tarantino would go on to feature a white Challenger in Death Proof, its influence in the car cinema canon is undeniable.

17. Fast Five (2011)

Let’s face it, Fast & Furious has seen better days. Some believe the franchise’s dip in quality coincided with the death of Paul Walker; others are dismayed by the pivot from street racing to absurd feats of superherodom—emphasis on the Dom. Perhaps it’s a bit of both, but the very best movie in the series, Fast Five, manages to strike the perfect balance: It’s a relatively grounded heist thriller that nevertheless takes the franchise to ridiculous new heights. After Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew steal $100 million from a Brazilian kingpin, they drag the entire bank vault holding the money through the streets of Rio de Janeiro, all while being pursued by authorities. It’s a delightfully destructive sequence that does untold damage to Rio’s infrastructure and features some of the most bone-crunching crashes committed to film:
If the Fast franchise is going to break out of its recent slump, it would do well to remember that there’s nothing better than letting its heroes live their lives a quarter mile at a time—no detours to outer space required.

16. The Blues Brothers (1980)

A good car chase isn’t reserved just for action flicks: Comedies can get in on the act, too. In The Blues Brothers, starring the recurring Saturday Night Live characters played by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, the beloved bandmates must prevent the foreclosure of the orphanage where they were raised by scrounging together $5,000. Naturally, that’s easier said than done: Along the way, the Blues Brothers draw the attention of neo-Nazis, a country-and-western band, and local police. While The Blues Brothers has amusing gags and musical numbers, its chase sequences with the Brothers behind the wheel of a 1974 Dodge Monaco are what really steal the show—and none are better than a climactic pursuit across Chicago. More than 60 old police cars were used in the film, some of which are wrecked in a comically over-the-top pileup:
The sheer scale of The Blues Brothers’ final set piece is commendable in and of itself—as is the movie’s commitment to treating real-life cars like a bunch of Hot Wheels.

15. Baby Driver (2017)

For good and for ill, Edgar Wright’s movies exude an abundance of style, and Baby Driver is no exception. Baby Driver is centered on a clever gimmick: The action works in tandem with its soundtrack because the film’s protagonist, Baby (Ansel Elgort), suffers from tinnitus and constantly plays music to drown out the ringing. When everything’s clicking into place, Baby Driver feels like a supersized series of music videos, and nothing hits quite like its opening sequence. Baby acts as the getaway driver for a bank robbery while listening to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s “Bellbottoms.” The ensuing chase works around rhythms of the song, as if Baby’s Subaru WRX were the star of its own dance number. Take nothing away from the actual driving, either, which puts the rally car to good use:
Baby Driver’s gimmick stretches a little thin by the end, but it’s hard to deny the crowd-pleasing power of Wright’s film when it’s firing on all cylinders.

14. The Raid 2 (2014)

With a trio of kickass Indonesian martial arts films under his belt, Gareth Evans has established himself as one of the most exciting action directors on the planet—someone who seems most in his element staging positively brutal hand-to-hand combat. In The Raid 2, however, Evans also brought his signature brand of carnage to the road. While there’s some cleverly executed close-quarters fighting within the confines of an SUV, courtesy of Iko Uwais’s hard-hitting protagonist, what really cements this sequence’s greatness are the moments when Evans turns the cars into an extension of the characters’ fists:
This belongs in an entirely new category of combat: car fights. There are so many action scenes in The Raid 2 worth writing home about—the kitchen showdown is an all-timer—but the fact that Evans casually tossed in an unforgettable car chase shows why he’s one of one.

13. The Driver (1978)

I’ll say this for Walter Hill’s The Driver: It sure lives up to its title. In this stripped-down thriller—one where none of the characters have a name—we follow the Driver (Ryan O’Neal), a getaway driver who has become a thorn in the side of the LAPD. In the film’s best scene, we see its taciturn protagonist living up to his reputation. With the Driver behind the wheel of a 1974 Ford Galaxie, a cat-and-mouse game unfolds when a handful of police cars are hot on his tail. What I love about this sequence is the pared-down nature of it all: The Driver outwits the cops as much as he outraces them. (Though, ironically, that wasn’t entirely by design: As Hill later explained, an accident on the last night of shooting meant they had to cobble together what had already been filmed.) Frankly, you’d never know the difference from the finished article:
If the general vibes of The Driver seem familiar, that’s because it was a major inspiration for Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, which just so happened to feature an unnamed protagonist (Ryan Gosling) evading police through the streets of Los Angeles.

12. The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

The shaky-cam style of the Bourne franchise isn’t for everyone—just ask John Woo—but credit where it’s due: These movies know how to deliver a good chase scene. (A friendly reminder that The Bourne Legacy is an underrated gem with an awesome motorbike sequence to boot.) But there’s one Bourne chase that stands above the rest: the Moscow getaway in The Bourne Supremacy. After being wounded by the Russian assassin Kirill (Karl Urban), Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) hijacks a taxi, with both the police and Kirill in hot pursuit. This isn’t the kind of sequence that lingers on any one shot; instead, what makes it work is the frenetic nature of the editing, which allows the viewer to feel like they’re in Bourne’s fight-or-flight headspace:
If I’m being honest, I’m usually one of those people who doesn’t like the Bourne movies’ shaky-cam style, but when it’s executed with such craftsmanship, you can’t help but get caught up in its adrenaline-pumping power.

11. The Seven-Ups (1973)

Philip D’Antoni was the producer of two movies featuring Hall of Fame car chases, Bullitt and The French Connection, the latter of which won him an Oscar for Best Picture. And with his lone directorial feature, The Seven-Ups, D’Antoni sought to craft an iconic sequence of his own. The film stars Roy Scheider as NYPD detective Buddy Mannuci (elite Italian American name; I can practically smell the gabagool), who commands a unit handling major felony cases that lead to seven-plus-year prison sentences; that’s why they’re known as the Seven-Ups. Midway through the movie, when one of the team members is killed by two shooters who flee the scene, Buddy chases after them. The 10-minute sequence, which starts in the Upper West Side before moving out of the city, is thrillingly immersive, alternating between close-ups of the characters and wider shots of all the damage they’ve caused. But the chase’s defining moment comes right at the end, when Buddy narrowly avoids a grisly death:
The sequence isn’t quite at the level of Bullitt or The French Connection—very few are—but D’Antoni still manages to leave an unmistakable imprint on the car chase canon.

10. Death Proof (2007)

If you ask Quentin Tarantino, Death Proof, his knowingly trashy tribute to exploitation cinema, is the worst movie he’s ever made. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to admire about the film, which honors the unsung heroes of Hollywood: stunt performers. The first half of Death Proof follows three female friends who cross paths with Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), a misogynistic serial killer who takes them out in his “death-proof” Chevy Nova. Fourteen months later, a group that includes stuntwoman Zoë Bell, playing herself, also lands on Mike’s radar. As Bell and her friends test out a ’70s Challenger, she performs a “ship’s mast” stunt, clinging onto the hood of the car with fastening belts. Unfortunately, when Mike pursues the women, it puts Bell in a precarious situation. Most of the entries on this list celebrate some next-level driving skills, but Death Proof’s inclusion is all about Bell pulling off one of the wildest stunts you’ll ever see. She’s quite literally hanging on for dear life:
If the Academy handed out Oscars to stunt performers—and let’s hope it does happen one day—Bell would’ve won in a landslide.

9. To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)

William Friedkin was already responsible for an all-time great car chase in The French Connection (more on that later), but the filmmaker made a commendable bid to outdo himself with To Live and Die in L.A. In this neo-noir thriller, Secret Service agent Richard Chance (William L. Petersen) is hell-bent on arresting an expert counterfeiter, Rick Masters (Willem Dafoe), who kills Chance’s partner days before his retirement. To capture Masters, Chance and his new partner, John Vukovich (John Pankow), attempt to steal $50,000 from a jewelry buyer for an undercover operation. The sting goes bad when the buyer, who is later revealed to be an undercover FBI agent, is killed and a group of gunmen goes after Chance and Vukovich. It’s a clever inversion of the usual car chase formula—this time, it’s the lawmen running away from the criminals. The outside-the-box thinking extends to the film’s most astonishing stretch, in which Chance evades the gunmen by driving into oncoming traffic:
The fact that Friedkin shot the chase at the end of filming—in case anything disastrous happened to the actors—underscores just how risky the endeavor was. The pulse-pounding results speak for themselves.

8. The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

The Matrix sequels have never been held in high esteem, but I’m ready to live my truth: The Matrix Reloaded fucking rules. (If anyone’s got a problem with this take, file your complaints with the Architect.) What’s more, the film happens to boast the finest action set piece of the franchise: the highway chase. After Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) free the Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim), a program capable of creating shortcuts within the Matrix, they’re pursued by the Twins (Neil and Adrian Rayment). Morpheus once warned that going on the freeway was “suicide,” and it doesn’t take long to see why: The chase draws the attention of several Agents, who repeatedly take over the bodies of other drivers on the road. The scene is the best of both worlds: There’s some incredible stuntwork on display, including when Moss weaves around on a Ducati, and CGI augments some feats of superhuman strength. But the most jaw-dropping aspect of the sequence is how it came together, as the production spent $2.5 million to construct its own highway (!) on California’s Alameda Island. If that weren’t unique enough, I’m pretty sure Reloaded is also the only movie in existence in which a katana takes out an SUV:
The Matrix remains the Wachowskis’ masterpiece, but don’t get it twisted: The filmmakers were still cooking with gas in the sequel.

7. Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)

Size isn’t everything, but for H. B. Halicki, who produced, wrote, directed, and starred in Gone in 60 Seconds, it’s certainly part of the package. The indie action flick follows Maindrian Pace (Halicki), a Los Angeles insurance investigator who has a lucrative side hustle jacking high-end cars. The plot kicks into motion when a South American drug lord enlists Pace to nab 48 cars within five days in exchange for $400,000. Of course, Gone in 60 Seconds is best known for what happens after Pace is caught stealing a 1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1, when he leads police on a chase that lasts a whopping 40 minutes. (More than 90 cars were destroyed in the process.) Halicki, for his part, did all the driving himself, including a spectacular jump off a makeshift ramp of crashed cars:
While Halicki wound up making a few more indies after Gone in 60 Seconds, he died in an accident on the set of its sequel. His legacy as a do-it-all daredevil, however, lives on.

6. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Long before James Cameron immersed himself in the world of Pandora, he was a pioneer of state-of-the-art visual effects. Case in point: Terminator 2: Judgment Day is credited for having the first CGI character in a blockbuster, the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), a killing machine composed of a futuristic liquid metal. But Cameron also understood that the CGI of that era shouldn’t be the main attraction: It worked best as a complement to the practical effects, as seen in Judgment Day’s epic viaduct chase. When the T-1000 tracks down a young John Connor (Edward Furlong) in a shopping mall, he’s saved at the last minute by the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), giving John a chance to escape on his dirt bike. As the T-1000 gives chase, the David and Goliath vibes between man and machine are further epitomized by the T-1000’s commandeering of a truck. The sequence already has a terrifying sense of urgency, but it hits another level when the T-1000 crashes through the viaduct like the Kool-Aid Man:
Big Jim is still revolutionizing what can be achieved with visual effects in the Avatar franchise, and while I cherish those movies, nothing beats his old-school showmanship.

5. Duel (1971)

The feature-length debut of Steven Spielberg—perhaps you’ve heard of him—the TV movie Duel is essentially one extended chase sequence between salesman David Mann (Dennis Weaver) and a sinister trucker determined to drive him off the road. I’ve attached a clip from the ending of the film, but that doesn’t do Duel justice. What cements this movie’s greatness is how it sustains an unbearable level of tension across its 90-minute running time—with a budget under $500,000, no less. Spielberg’s masterstroke is never once showing us the other driver, anthropomorphizing the truck itself as a monster. (You can see a lot of similarities with how he would build suspense in Jaws.) When Mann finally gets the upper hand, tricking his adversary into driving off a cliff, it feels like you can breathe again:
Spielberg would move on to bigger and better things after Duel, but considering how much the director accomplished with so little, you can’t help but wonder what else he could conjure up with limited resources.

4. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Like Duel, Fury Road is basically one long car chase—the difference is Miller got to work with a blockbuster budget, and made every cent of it count. It’s hard to pick a single standout sequence in Fury Road, but if I had to choose, I’d go with the first attack on the War Rig after Furiosa (Charlize Theron) flees with the wives of Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). Here’s why: Think back to when you saw Fury Road for the first time, before you fully grasped the vehicular carnage that was in store. And then stuff like this kept happening:
To quote Steven Soderbergh’s thoughts on Fury Road: “I don’t understand how they’re not still shooting that film and I don’t understand how hundreds of people aren’t dead.” Whether or not Miller manages to one-up the action in Furiosa, the director is already in the pantheon.

3. The French Connection (1971)

We return to the Friedkin-verse for what may be his best film, The French Connection, the crime thriller based on Robin Moore’s 1969 nonfiction book of the same name. The story concerns two NYPD detectives, Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Buddy “Cloudy” Russo (Roy Scheider), and their tireless pursuit of a French heroin smuggler. But while there’s plenty to admire about how The French Connection illustrates the thin line between police and criminals, its greatest claim to fame is its car chase. After Popeye narrowly survives a sniper attack, he goes after the shooter, who escapes on an elevated train. The ensuing sequence is true daredevil filmmaking that Friedkin shot without permits, leading to real crashes with New Yorkers that made the final cut. But Friedkin’s finest touch was mounting a camera to the front of the car, making the audience feel like they’re part of the action:
My Ringer colleague Justin Sayles believes The French Connection’s chase should’ve landed at no. 1, and I’m sure many folks will agree with him. Being the only film on this list to win Best Picture, however, is a solid consolation prize.

2. Bullitt (1968)

When it comes to modern car chases, all roads lead back to Bullitt. A Dad Cinema classic, the film stars Steve McQueen as Frank Bullitt, a San Francisco detective who pursues a group of mobsters after a key witness is killed in protective custody. In his search for answers, Bullitt realizes he’s being tailed by a couple of hitmen, and then turns the tables on them. From there, the chase is on. Aside from McQueen doing most of his own stunts behind the wheel of a Ford Mustang GT 390 Fastback, what’s so impressive about the sequence is how timeless it is. Even the little imperfections, like hubcaps repeatedly coming off the wheels, work to the film’s advantage, stressing just how much these drivers are living on a razor’s edge. It’s been more than 50 years since Bullitt revolutionized the car chase, and yet few movies since have felt like they’re pushing the envelope to such an exhilarating degree:
That the car driven by McQueen was recently sold at auction for $3.74 million, a then-record price for a Mustang, underlines Bullitt’s enduring legacy.

1. Ronin (1998)

“If I’m going to do a car chase,” filmmaker John Frankenheimer said in an interview with the American Society of Cinematographers, “I’m going to do a car chase that’s going to make somebody think about whether or not they want to do another one!” Boy, did he ever. In Frankenheimer’s late-career masterpiece, Ronin, the director actually incorporated several chases, but it’s the climactic sequence that stands alone as the greatest ever filmed. The movie concerns an international group of mercenaries who are hired to steal a mysterious briefcase; a series of double-crosses and double-bluffs ensue. But for the final chase, all you need to know is that Sam (Robert De Niro), a mercenary with ties to the CIA, is in pursuit of Deirdre (Natascha McElhone), an IRA operative in possession of the case. Winding through the streets and tunnels of Paris, what’s most striking is just how fluid it all feels. You’re completely engrossed in the chase’s forward momentum, captured from every conceivable angle; a symphony of controlled chaos. The driving styles even reflect the characters: Deirdre is reckless and impulsive, while Sam remains calm and controlled.
There are many worthy car chases in this ranking, but in my view, Ronin takes pole position. And while I can’t imagine a movie ever topping what Frankenheimer achieved, I’d love nothing more than to be proved wrong.

He hoi me noi my buds. It is your baker man Pirate here. With Human Trauma book two coming to a close in the next week, I wanted to shre with you all the next planned novel I am working on. This time around we will have a stuborn human mercanary, a lizard princess, and one goal---escape Heavalun Mass city. all thats in thier way is corrupt cops, gangsters, the general populace and thier willingness to tolarate one another.
Lets get this Bread.
Shooting up from the blankets, Conor grabbed hold of the neck of whoever was jostling him awake, his cybernetic arm whirring while activating. Suddenly touching someone asleep was a stupid idea to do to anyone from Heavalun. Any sentient from this city was on edge most of the time and was usually particularly ornery when waking up.
He was especially prickly after years of contract killing and near-nonstop battles. While most people from Heavalun Mass City were used to fighting or having to keep an eye over their shoulder, watching for gangers, junkies, pickpockets, or the local police, his experience working and living here made him like a rubber band, ready to snap. Be that a neck, arm, leg, or whatever the poor sod he was fighting had.
“Who the fuck do you think you are,” Conor snarled, his natural and cybernetic eye narrowing and focusing in the wan light of his drab bedroom.
In an action built into him like an instinct, he willed his cybernetic eye to switch to see in infrared thermal sight, letting him get a good look at whoever this was while his natural eye adjusted to the lighting.
In bright orange, reds, and whites, Jurilra's face came into focus. She was a Jurintik, a werewolf like species; while he was human through and through. She had dull brown fur, long, dirty blonde hair, and a gaunt face and frame. The Jurintik was an alien species widespread throughout the galaxy, be it in the GU(galactic Union), Freespace, or here deep in the COS (concord of systems); you can’t swing a pipe without hitting at least two of them.
“Conor—let—-go,” Julitra gagged, clutching at Conor’s cybernetic forearm, her claws scratching roughly at the overlapping metal plates. “It’s me.”
Realizing who it was, Conor let her neck go, and she fell to the ground. He had only lifted her several centimeters off the floor, but doing that when half your torso, including your shoulders, one arm, and most of your organs were non-organic, or at least cybernetically enhanced, was a simple task, and he had done so out of sheer reflex.
“What were you thinking waking me up like that? You’re lucky I didn’t just dust you with my hand cannon,” Conor said, gesturing to the massive handgun sitting on the bedside table. “What in the stars are you doing here anyway?”
Taking a moment to rub at her neck and gag for a moment, Conor pieced together what likely happened. Considering that Julitra was naked, save for a thong, he must have hired her last night to blow off some steam—it wouldn’t be the first time he had done that when drunk.
“You didn’t pay me for last night,” Julitra said, standing up and nervously scratching her furry forearms and looking deeper into the shithole of an apartment toward the room where Conor stored all his weapons, money, and other precious items for barter or fencing purposes.
Conor sighed and scratched behind his still intact ear, the other having been halfway taken off by a frag grenade a few local years ago. After taking a moment to swing his legs out of bed, flexing his sore muscles, and rubbing his palms on his thighs, he looked up at her, having deactivated the thermal vision in his eye. “Fine; in the room top drawer on the right, you will find some bags of Murt and Syntrit. Take one of each.”
“Alright,” Julitra said, turning around and sashaying in that direction, clearly doing her best to move suavely and gracefully.
But Conor knew that was a load of Kret shit; She was little more than a strung-out junkie who just managed to keep herself on another fix fast enough by either guy like himself paying her for a quick lay or by managing not to get taken advantage of by one of the dealers on a street corner.
At least if she was selling herself for the night, she wasn’t going to end up in some slave market in the lower sections of the city or crammed into a skiff bound for a star on the far side of the galaxy. Julitra did have some kids to take care of, after all.
Not that it mattered to Conor if she went missing; there would be another skag he could bring in here. He just preferred her because she never tried to steal from him nor kill him in his sleep—finding another girl that he could trust would not be easy, especially in this shithole of a mass city. That well over a billion sentients were nestled in it did not matter; finding another piece of ass would be a pain.
“And only take one. I know how much product I have,” Conor grumbled, standing and heading toward the kitchenette. The dirty, blood-stained carpet was uncomfortable under bare feet.
God he hated going around with bare feet. It paid to have good boots to keep your feet safe from glass, nails, and other debris. That was especially important when operating in urban areas.
When he was out in the countryside or the house, he would forgo wearing them, and switch to sneekers, but being bare foot still sucked.
“I know,” Julitra replied from the room, “can I use your shower?”
“Whatever,” Conor replied flippantly, pulling down dried stulk leaves and tossing a pot of water on the stove.
So long as she didn't cause any issues with him getting started for the day, he honestly could not care less. All he needed to start the day was a pipping hot cup of stulk, and his stims. On that subject, the datapad built into his artificial arm chimed and reminded him of just that.
He frowned while retrieving the volatile cocktail of stimulants from the cupboard. He was almost out and only had enough for three days. Inside were six small autoinjectors about 20 centimeters long, marked with several warnings indicating that they should only be used in dire combat situations. But he was a particularly unique case and needed them just to survive.
After having a solid forty percent of his body replaced with cybernetics, from a metallic jaw, fake eye, a few replaced organs, torso, numerous enhanced joints, and even a few bits of wire running through his brain, the stims kept him working.
Without his friend Stich’s unique stimulant blend twice a day, Conor would start to fall apart. First would come the tremors, then body lockup, followed by seizures and eventually death. He had never made it that far in relapse; it was just easier to keep his organic parts cranked up to keep pace with his enhanced parts, and the video Stich showed him of sentients who relapsed was a good dissuasion.
Those poor sods were mangled wrecks, limbs at unnatural angles, blood, hydraulic fluid, and bone everywhere. And they were at most twenty percent wired up—what he could end up like was something he would rather not learn.
Dutifully and like clockwork, Conor ripped the cap off an auto-injector and shoved it into his thigh; a dull hiss sounded out as the brackish fluid flowed into his muscles. Just as he tossed the now empty injector into the trashcan, the sounds of Julitra starting the shower and humming flowed into the joint living and bedroom.
While Julitra was showering, Conor's friend and coworker Brakul sent him a message.
Brakul: Hey, conor, what are you doing tonight? I think I might have a contract for us to pick up.
Conor: No plans at this point. I just gotta get Julitra out of my safe house.
Brakul: Are you still fucking that scag? You know that won’t end well.
Conor: Yeah, gotta get my dick wet somehow. Besides, aren’t you still plowing that Kurilta we worked with a few months back—the one with the red hair?
Brakul: Yeah, I am. I like the crazy little woman. Plus, she is only a meter tall and makes me feel massive. But are you in or not?
Conor: Yeah, I'm in. When, where, and who is the client?
Brakul: Perfect, meet me at Zyntle’s around 2100. If all goes well, we got a contract for some new upstart to the north out of town. He is looking to hire some muscle for a few months. Don't worry about the contract's legitimacy; Norla sent this man my way to arrange half a dozen bodies. I just want you there in case something goes down.
Conor: So, bring a few extra solutions?
Brakul: if you would, and keep ‘em quiet, no shotguns. We will be in Zynie's place and need to keep things civil.
Conor: Afirm, see you then.
After switching off the arm-mounted datapad, Julitra stepped back into the room, redressed in her clothes from the previous night. They weren't anything fancy by any stretch of the imagination. Just a simple lowcut dress, showing off a shallow valley of furry cleavage, and cut to give ample view up her thighs and see the thong barely covering her womanhood.
For a hooker, it was good enough.
“Want to have some stulk?” Conor questioned, pouring himself a glass.
“Sure,” Julitra replied, going and lounging at the dingy table in the corner of the room.
They were quiet while eating their meager breakfast; neither had much in common or to talk about as is. The only things Julitra knew about Conor were: he killed people for money, sold stolen goods, and could give her a mean dick down. Whereas Conor knew damn near everything about her, acquired through basic profiling of her actions, attire, and mannerisms or from some of the intelligence brokers he dealt with regularly.
Some friends called him paranoid for keeping such tight tabs on anyone he dealt with; at least Brakul and Stich did. But Conor knew that knowledge was power and was needed if you wanted to always end up with your opponent dusted and not you. Conor knew better than anyone that you don’t survive like he has without a bit of paranoia. Hell, he was more persistent than a Hureclian beetle seeking water.
Once they had finished scarfing down crackers, canned meat, and the bitter, brackish brew, Julitra quickly took her leave, with Conor locking the door behind her. First, the deadbolts, then the chain, followed by a biometric scanner, and lastly, he kicked a metal wedge underneath the door—it would take a whole breaching team from the local government a solid hour to breach that reinforced metal monstrosity, and that was just how Conor liked it.
Unless you were invited into his home, it would behoove you to stay out and not try to get in.
Now that he was alone again, Conor trundled into the room Julitra had gotten her payment from and opened up one of the massive ceiling-high safes lining the walls. Inside was some of his equipment. This specific one contained most of his low-visibility equipment: body armor, weapons, knives, toolkits, and anything else he might need for more subtle operations.
In the other safes were other tools he might want, but those kits were built for more specific jobs: sniping, heavy assaults, aerial and maritime operations, along with anything else he could use in a warzone, but most of that was overkill for tonight.
So Conor pulled out a few items he thought could be useful and started his preparations in such meticulous detail that it would take him the rest of the day.
—-
The area outside of Zyntle’s nightclub was insanely crowded, even for Heavalun standards. Up and down the street, as far as the eye could see, were nightclubs, bars, and restaurants, catering to whatever vice once could possibly want.
Unlike some of the out portions of the city, areas in the inner and lower regions like here, you could not see the sky. Instead, if one looked up, they would be met with obnoxious neon signs and more buildings arching overhead, choking out any star or sunlight that might be visible.
Aiding in the choking and oppressive atmosphere, Aliens of all shapes and sizes bumped into one another with little grace, care, or concern. Most were decked out head to toe in bright neon colors that melded together in a caleidoscope of shifting brilliance.
At least that gave the usual drab greys, rust reds, and browns of the cityscape some color, even if Conor usually found it more annoying than not. Thankfully, neither Conor, Brakul, nor their strange contact could not hear the crowd outside from the second-floor window. Instead, they were being bombarded by something as if not more grating.
The happy tones and idle conversations of the crowd on the dancefloor below them, along with repetitive keyboards, synthetic snapping basslines, and ethereal vocals, filled the air to a near-deafening level. If not for the three of them having wired up to a local chatterbox that Conor brought along, they would not be able to hear one another.
The chatterbox was not fancy; it was just a tiny device Conor had whipped up. That lets them speak normally into microphones on their collars and be heard in earpieces. He had devised the idea for it after a few skiff airborne operations, where unless you were jacked into the aircraft comms, you could not talk without screaming.
Now, the chatterbox just doubled as the perfect tool for having conversations you would rather not have others around listen into. Hell, unless you were inches from them, you would not be able to hear them at all.
Brakul and whomever this Farun’se was, a two-meter tall feline-like alien, had been going over the finer details of the contract for the last half hour. Conor had been listening just enough to keep in the loop, but his focus was elsewhere. Namely in the crowds around them, watching for anything he did not want to see: other contractors, a gang war about to erupt, or anything else that caught his eye. People-watching was one of the things Conor enjoyed about setting up jobs; it gave him plenty of time to keep tabs on the ever-shifting city.
He had not spotted anything yet, in regular vision, Thermal, or through tracking, but something was off—he could feel it in his hackles. As such, One of Conor's hands was in his somewhat oversized brown leather jacket, wrapped tightly around the grip of his suppressed handgun. Neither Brakul nor the Client commented on him keeping watch; they both knew he was just filling the role of an enforcer and was backup for them.
“So, what do you think about the contract?” The Farun’se man questioned before taking a sip from his drink.
Whatever that glowing drink was, it was not ethanol-based; the smell was far too sweet. Conor could tell that much even through the skull-like mask covering his face. Not that the flat black ballistic bask he wore to cover his metallic jaw and mangled face covered scents much. It was built much like the other equipment he wore to enhance his senses, not diminish them.
“I think it is perfectly acceptable. But are you certain you only want a ten-man team to provide escort and transport for your client while within the city?” Brakul asked, flipping a palm up. “I am certain I can get more, considering your daily generous payment offer.”
Generous was one way to put it. The politician the Farun’se represented offered a whopping 15 thousand crit a day for well-experienced mercs. It was enough to get Conor's tail wagging; Most jobs barely pay that out, and this contract was supposed to be ten days long. You could almost buy a house outside the city for that kind of crit. If they were actually paid it out and not betrayed by their employer, at the end of the day, Conor likely would do just that; then, he would have a place to live without the threat of death around every corner.
Each of his jobs over the last few years was a means to that end—escaping this shithole. But getting out of the city was difficult, even for guys like him with opportunities to leave and a reasonably regular income.
“Well, we can work that out via messaging, but for now, I am just offering what I am allowed to,” The client said. “Anything more than that, and I won't be able to pay you half upfront.”
At least they are offering half the credits upfront. Conor must have missed that part during their long-winded discussion about what type of experience each mercenary needed, what weapons they would be allowed, and the specifics of the contract.
All they would have to do was finalize details of the team when Brakul had assembled another eight bodies, but they could do that in a few weeks.
“If that’s the case, then I think we should be good for now,” Brakul said, standing and extending a hand for the client.
“Perfect, expect to hear from me in a few days. Please have your team prepared by the end of the week,” The client replied, shaking Brakul’s hand.
After removing his earpiece and microphone, the client nodded to Conor and disappeared into the crowd looming around the stairs leading to the ground floor.
“So you like the sounds of that?” Brakul asked, sitting back down and sipping at his drink.
Keeping his sight on the crowd below, Conor tracked the client as he struggled to weave through the jostling dancers. The Feline was clearly out of his element in the crowds of the mass city. Based on how quickly he was recoiling from each touch by the intoxicated patrons, he was uncomfortable with all the physical contact forced onto him.
The sight was almost comedic, but Conor was used to dealing with people like the client's representative. If you had enough crit to hire ten mercs, you came from one of two walks of life: you were an influential underground leader who could afford the extra muscle, or you were a sheltered individual with no real business in Heavalun Mass City but decided you wanted to make some friends in low places and needed locals who would be loyal to the almighty crit.
But all of that was neither here nor there for the time being; Brakul would handle any issues with the contract. He was far better at being a politician than Conor was.
“So, any issues with what he wants?” Brakul smirked, knowing that it had been several months since Conor's last contract and that he needed the money.
Conor passively waved at his friend; he did not need to comment. Conor would take any contract that came his way so long as the pay was solid enough. In the past, he had taken contracts Brakul refused for moral reasons.
This contract of defending some high-born trader was in no way out of the ordinary and was relatively tame by Conor’s standards. His last contract was far more low-brow enough that he had almost said no. But for the low, low cost of 100 thousand crits and the fancy nanotech armor he was wearing under his tank top, he was more than willing to blow up the wing of a hospital with a firebomb—insurance paid to fix the building and burry anyone caught up when he killed a lowborn noble or some distant planet.
“I’m more interested in what's going on down below,” Conor said, pointing to a group gathering near the club's back entrance.
Below, barely visible through the flashing strobe lights and low haze of fog machines, seven Kyrail lingered at the back doors. One of the amphibian-like bipeds was giving instructions to the others. It was a shame the music was so loud; if not, Conor and Brakul could easily hear them, but even without sound, it was easy to see what they were doing. They were scouting a mark.
“What do you think, Voodals gang?” Conor posed, scanning the crowd for whomever the lead croaker was trying to target.
Voodal is a leader of one of the area's crime families and merc groups. They had been competitors of Conor and Brakul and their usual hiring groups for a long time. While Brakul and Conor did not have beef with them, one of their usual employers, the Farklut clan, had generations of bad blood.
That rivalry was nasty, to the point anyone who was a direct member of either family would dust the other on sight. Both had been caught up in that rivalry several times and had a negative opinion of the Voodal family and any of their ilk.
“Likely. This is part of a contested city, after all,” Brakul replied, sipping his drink.
“I wonder what they are doing here?” Conor said, still not having located whatever it was they were doing, but he had seen them pull out a particularly nasty drug, giving him an idea of precisely what they planned on doing—abduction.
The gaggle’s leader had passed out plastic bags with what looked like Visage clinging to the bags. That drug might as well be chloroform on the strongest combat stim out there. It would put you in a trance and make you forget the next several days until the effects wore off. The perfect drug for slave traffickers and abductors.
The only reason Conor could tell was that he had used the tactic several times to capture targets alive. It was great; you could fish information from them freely, and they wouldn't remember anything beyond where they had been picked up and whenever the drug wore off.
“I see their target,” Brakul muttered, “switch to IR. I will laze her for yah.”
As his friend and partner told him, Conor switched his false eye to IR and watched, and Brakul’s pistols laser pierced the crowd and danced on the back of a red scalled Kurlatra, dancing happily with some other repltilians of her species. All were woefully ignorant of the Kyrail weaving through the crowd toward them, hands tucked into jackets, likely clutching knives, pistols, and bags of drugs.
“Hmmm, odd, not a lot of Kurlatra on this side of the GU borders,” Conor commented.
“For sure,” Brakul agreed.
Kurlatra were a noble-esc species in the GU and tended to stay in the GU, as opposed ot the COS; most here only cared about their nobility for the sake of making money on ransom after all.
The GU was safe but was overbearing compared to the COS. It had far more laws, restrictions, and limitations on carving out a living. Conor’s chosen profession of being a Mercenary was outlawed in the GU unless you were on the Union congress's payroll, But he was not on that list, despite trying a few times.
“Wanna toss a wrench in their plans?” Brakul questioned.
“How so?” Conor replied, keeping a keen eye on the crimson scalled in the center.
Compared to those around her, she was different. Unlike the others who wore simple clothes, she wore a very revealing yellow dress that was low cut in the back and front, showing offer cleavage, but that's not what made her so different. It was all the glistening jewelry that made her smell of crit.
All those stones and precious metals were likely worth a few hundred thousand crits on their own. That was before you sold her pert ass to some slaver.
“We can go down, nab her after the entourage is dealt with, and be big damn heroes. Then we get an award from that payday of a ruby. If she is not feeling up to it, we could ransom her off to the Voodal; they want her for some reason,” Brakul explained, using his keen eye for diplomacy and deals to guide Conor’s mind to the potential payout.
Conor took a moment to take stock of the situation; he had enough ammo to carve through the Voodal family present and could carry such a Kurlatra if needed. Should this shit go sideways and end up in a firefight, they could just use the crowd and vanish.
“What about the contract we just took,” Conor posed
“We haven't taken one yet,” Brakul reminded, “that rep needs to get back to us with upfront payment. Until then, we are freelance.”
Conor could not deny he was right; no crit had changed hands yet, they were still unemployed, and this bitch might be worth some cash. Before Conor had a chance even to comment one way or the other, Brakul pressed on a nerve he knew would get Conor to act.
“Come on. I got fifty crit that says you can't extract that Kurlatra before the Voodal drug her,” the fellow Jurintik mocked.
The bastard knew how to get to Conor for sure. He was competitive and hated to have his abilities brought into question. Just out of professional pride, Conor could not let that lay.
“Two hundred,” Conor countered.
“One hundred,” Brakul retorted, “oh, look, they already nabbed one of the entourage.”
He was right. One of the Kurlatra heading toward the bathrooms near the back entrance just had a bag of Visage slammed into their mouth and had already gone glassy-eyed. Now, there were only five Kurlatra left, including the clear HVT(High-Value Target)
“One fifty,” Conor snapped, eager to have his friend stop messing with him.
“Deal, I will cover and feed you intel from her. Open channel one,” Brakul sneered.
Without missing a beat, Conor shot up from the table and descended the stairs into the crowd, drawing his suppressed pistol and activating his target tracker to keep sight of the HVT.
Conor did not know it yet, but that little bet, one that was not even worth as much ammo as he was about to expend, would send his life on a journey that would change him forever.
So what did you all think? was it a good time? a fun start at bare min? next chapter we will have connor dealing with the voodal, follwed by us meeting the little princess. It should be fun.
Please dont forget to updoot and comment. I will see you all in the comments.
Your Humble baker
-Pirate
Next
Buy my novels

This is the second half of my list for Florida's execution roster. As stated in the first part, I split it into two halves in order to follow reddit's character count limitations. Link to part 1.
The currently 105 executed offenders, cases 53 to 105:
53. Aileen Wuornos (~1974-2002, lethal injection): Wuornos murdered 7 men between the ages of 47-65. She was a street prostitute that enticed her victims with promises of sexual favors. After a victim was entrapped, Wuornos shot them dead, and robbed them of their money and their vehicles. Although Wuornos initially claimed that she killed the victims in self defense, she later admitted that they were murdered for their valuables. Her criminal history was extensive, and she had several convictions for armed robbery, assault, DUIs, reckless discharge of firearms, and disorderly conduct. She was also accused of domestic violence by an ex husband, and he placed a restraining order on her within weeks of their marriage.
54. Linroy Bottoson (~1971-2002, lethal injection): In a robbery of a post office, Bottoson stole $14,000 in money orders and $100 in cash, and abducted the post mistress, 74 year old Catherine Alexander. After holding her captive for 3 days, Bottoson stabbed Alexander 16 times, and ran her over with his car. He had several robberies on his criminal record.
55. Amos King Jr. (~1972-2002, lethal injection): After he escaped from a minimum security prison, King broke into the home of 68 year old Natalie Brady and assaulted her. She was raped, stabbed, and savagely beaten in the attack. King then set her house on fire, and returned back to the prison. At his arrival, the prison counselor confronted him about his absence and bloodied clothing. He was stabbed 25 times by King, but managed to survive his injuries. Despite her injuries, Brady managed to crawl out of her burning home, but succumbed to blood loss shortly before help could arrive. King had a previous conviction for robbery.
56. Newton Slawson (1989-2003, lethal injection): Slawson went over to the home of the Wood family (consisting of parents, 23 year old Gerald and 21 year old Peggy, and their children, 4 year old Jennifer and 3 year old Glendon) to buy some cocaine. During an argument over the transaction, Slawson shot and killed Gerald, Jennifer, and Glendon, and wounded Peggy. Slawson then stabbed Peggy (who was 8 months pregnant) with such force that he tore her unborn child out of her womb.
57. Paul Hill (1994-2003, lethal injection): During an attack on an abortion clinic, Hill shot and killed John Britton, a 69 year old abortionist, and his bodyguard, 74 year old James Barrett. Britton’s wife, 68 year old June, was also wounded in the shooting. Hill was a hardline pro life activist and Christian fundamentalist, and saw ending abortion by any means necessary as his personal divine mission.
58. Johnny Robinson (~1980s-2004, lethal injection): Robinson and his teenage accomplice picked up 31 year old Beverly St. George when they found her broken down on the side of the road. They then raped St. George and shot her to death. He tried to claim that they had consensual relations and St. George was hit by an accidental discharge during intercourse. If Robinson's "recollection" was to be believed, he then shot her again to cover up an "accidental" shooting of a white woman. The courts weren't convinced by the defense, and the accomplice admitted that the murder was entirely deliberate and calculated from the beginning. Robinson had several rape convictions and accusations before St. George's murder.
59. John Blackwelder (~1970s-2004, lethal injection): While incarcerated for molesting a 10 year old boy, Blackwelder tied up his cellmate, 39 year old Raymond Wigley, under the alleged pretenses of a bondage session and strangled him to death with makeshift rope. According to Blackwelder, Wigley had been sexually harassing him, and he wanted to put a permeant end to the unwanted advances. Blackwelder had several sexual assault convictions dating back to the 1970s, and was also previously convicted for threatening former vice president Dan Quayle. His victim was the accomplice of another executed offender, John Marek, and was serving a life sentence for assisting him in the torture murder of a woman [for more details on Marek and Wigley's crimes, please see section 68] at the time of his own death.
60. Glen Ocha (1999-2005, lethal injection): Ocha picked up 28 year old Carol Skjerva from a bar and they had sex in his home. However, Skjerva allegedly made mocking remarks towards his genitals and threatened to tell her fiance of their encounter. In a drunken rage and under the influence of ecstasy, Ocha hung her with rope from his kitchen door.
61. Clarence Hill (1982-2006, lethal injection): During an attempted bank robbery with an accomplice, Hill engaged in a shootout with the responding policemen. One of the officers, 26 year old Stephen Taylor, was killed and another was wounded.
62. Arthur Rutherford (1985-2006, lethal injection): Rutherford was hired by a widow, 63 year old Stella Salamon, to do odd jobs around her home. He then drowned Salamon in her bathtub and tried to cash in a check of $2,000 from her account. Salamon's nude body was found with a broken arm, bruising all across her face, and three head wounds.
63. Danny Rolling (~1960s-2006, lethal injection): Rolling murdered a total of 8 people between the ages of 8-55. In 1989, Rolling stabbed 55 year old William Grissom, William’s 24 year old daughter Julie, and his 8 year old grandson Sean to death in their home. Julie’s body was ritualistically mutilated and posed during the attack. A year later, he shot his estranged father, 59 year old James. Although James survived, he was left permanently blind. Rolling then burglarized several student dorms in a week long rampage. Five students, 23 year old Tracy Paules, 23 year old Manuel Taboda, 18 year old Sonja Larson, 17 year old Christa Hoyt, and 17 year old Christina Powell, were bound, raped, and stabbed to death. Only Taboada was spared from any sexual abuse. As with Julia Grissom, Rolling posed the female victims into provocative positions and mutilated their bodies. Roiling decapitated Hoyt and placed her head on a cabinet shelf for the sole purpose of shocking witnesses stumbling across the scene. He had a long history of robberies, assaults, and voyeurism, and some of his earliest convictions occurred when he was a teenager.
64. Ángel Díaz (~1960s-2006, lethal injection): In his native Puerto Rico, Díaz stabbed an unidentified man, who was a director of a local drug rehabilitation center, 19 times while the victim was asleep. Díaz was sentenced for second degree murder, but he escaped after beating a guard near death, and fled to Florida. During his stay in Florida, Díaz and his accomplices robbed a strip club at gunpoint, and shot and killed the manager, 49 year old Joseph Nagy. After Nagy’s murder, he and his accomplices relocated themselves to Connecticut. However, they were arrested for a possession of illegal firearms charge. Díaz and 3 other inmates briefly managed to escape by beating up a guard and threatening another at knifepoint, but were quickly recaptured. After a cellmate testified that Díaz confessed to Nagy’s murder, he was deported back to Florida and sentenced to death. His execution sparked controversy, as it took him 34 minutes to succumb to the lethal drugs. Díaz’s other criminal convictions include shooting and injuring an officer during an armed robbery and several drug possession charges. Authorities also suspected him of being involved with several Puerto Rican nationalist insurgent groups.
65. Mark Schwab (1987-2008, lethal injection): Schwab lured 11 year old Junny Rios-Martinez into a motel room by posing as a photographer for a surfing magazine. He bound Rios-Martinez, anally penetrated him, and smothered the boy to death with a pillow. Schwab also had a conviction for the sexual battery of a 13 year old boy, and he was released after serving 3 out of an 8 year prison sentence months before Rios-Martinez's murder.
66. Richard Henyard (1993-2008, lethal injection): Henyard and his teenage accomplice carjacked 35 year old Dorothy Lewis, and her two daughters, 7 year old Jamilya and 3 year old Jasmine. The pair raped Dorothy, and shot and killed both of her daughters. Dorothy was also shot in the head, but was able to survive. Dorothy recounted that she tried praying for her and her children's safety, and Henyard taunted her by mockingly claiming to be Satan himself.
67. Wayne Tompkins (~1980s-2008, lethal injection): While helping his girlfriend move from their home, Tompkins made sexual advances on her 15 year old daughter, Lisa DeCarr. When she rejected him, Tompkins raped and strangeld her to death with a bathrobe, and tried to report DeCarr as a runaway. Tompkins also had several sexual assault convictions and accusations prior to the murder. One incident involved him abducting and abusing a gas station clerk.
68. John Marek (~1980s-2008, lethal injection): Marek and his accomplice, Raymond Wigley, picked up 47 year old Adela Simmons. They forced Simmons to perform oral sex on them, burned her fingers and pubic hairs, and strangled her to death with a bandana. The pair then dumped her body near a beach. Marek was sentenced to death for Simmons' murder, while Wigley was given a life sentence. While in prison, Wigley himself was strangled to death by the above mentioned John Blackwelder.
69. Martin Grossman (1984-2010, lethal injection): Grossman was given probation after a spree involving the burglary of an ex girlfriend's home and stealing cars. While out shooting a stolen handgun with a friend, they were confronted by Margaret Park, a 26 year old wildlife ranger. Wanting to avoid being arrested and put back into prison for violating his parole, Grossman and his friend attacked Park with a flashlight. They wrestled her service pistol away from her and shot and killed Park with it. Due to Grossman being Jewish, his death sentence outraged several Jewish organizations across the globe, and they petitioned ceaselessly for his clemency.
70. Manuel Valle (1978-2011, lethal injection): While driving a stolen car, Valle was pulled over by Louis Pena, a 41 year old police officer, for a traffic violation. In the confrontation, Valle shot Pena and his partner. Although Pena was killed in the shooting, his partner's life was saved by a bullet proof vest.
71. Oba Chandler (~1960s-2011, lethal injection): Chandler enticed a woman, 36 year old Joan Rogers, and her two daughters, 17 year old Michelle and 14 year old Christe, with the promise of a boat ride. On board, he bound the family with rope and raped all three of them. Chandler then tied concrete blocks around Joan and her daughters' necks and tossed them into the ocean to drown. He also raped and strangled 20 year old Ivelisse Berrios–Beguerisse after abducting her from a mall, and was linked to the murder by a 2014 DNA test 3 years after his execution. Chandler was an inveterate sexual predator with a very long criminal history, and was first arrested for car theft in his early teens. Many of his other crimes include several convictions of armed robbery, burglary, rape, counterfeiting, and kidnapping. In one incident, he broke into a couple’s house, and sexually assaulted the wife in front of her husband. One surviving victim, a 24 year old Canadian tourist, helped investigators tie Chandler to the Rogers’ murders with her reports.
72. Robert Waterhouse (~1966-2012, lethal injection): In 1966, Waterhouse snuck into the home of 77 year old Ella Carter, and raped and strangled her to death. He was paroled after serving 8 years of a life sentence. A few years later, Waterhouse picked up 29 year old Deborah Kammerer from a bar and assaulted her on a nearby beach. He stabbed and violated Kammerer with a broken bottle, shoved a tampon down her throat, and drowned her in the ocean waters.
73. David Gore (1981-2012, lethal injection): Gore and his cousin abducted and murdered 4 teenage girls (17 year old Ying Hua Ling, 17 year old Lynn Eilliot, 14 year old Angelica LaVallee, 14 year old Barbara Byer) and 2 grown women (48 year old Hsiang Huang Ling and 35 year old Judith Daley). The victims were kidnapped through force, picked up while hitchhiking, or tricked into thinking that Gore was a police officer detaining them. They were then tied up, raped, and shot or strangled to death. The cousins dismembered the bodies in their attempts to destroy them and buried the scattered remains in shallow graves. Two of their victims, Ying Hua Ling and Hsiang Huang Ling, were a mother and daughter pair of Taiwanese immigrants, and the cousins murdered them together. A 7th victim, 14 year old friend of Eilliot, was also abducted and sodomized, but she managed to escape with Eilliot's help.
74. Manuel Pardo Jr. (1986-2012, lethal injection): Pardo was a corrupt cop heavily involved in the drug trade. After his department fired him for his abuse of power and suspected tampering of investigations, Pardo went on a crime spree. He shot and killed at least 9 men and women in robberies and interpersonal disputes. The victims he murdered in robberies were 39 year old Ulpiano Ledo, 37 year old Luis Robledo, 33 year old Mario Amador, and 28 year old Roberto Alons. In every robbery incident, he stole the victims’ credit cards. Pardo killed 28 year old Fara Quintero in an argument over a ring he pawned to her and 30 year old Sara Musa for refusing his demands of buying him a VCR set with a credit card stolen from one of his previous robberies. Another victim, Michael Millot, a 38 year old Haitian refugee that took up work as a gunsmith, was slain out of Pardo’s fears of him being a police informant. His last murders were 40 year old Ramon Alvero, a drug dealer that he work for, and Alvaro’s girlfriend, 38 year old Daisy Ricard. Pardo turned on the couple after Alvaro stiffed him of a meeting. He shot Alvaro dead, but Padro’s gun jammed when he tried to shoot Ricard as well. As he was beating Ricard to death with his gun, it discharged and hit Pardo’s foot. On death row, Pardo tried to fashion himself as a vigilante trying to rid Florida of all drug related crimes.
75. Larry Mann (~1970s-2012, lethal injection): Mann ambushed 10 year old Elisa Nelson while she was biking from school to a dentist appointment. He raped Nelson and beat her to death with a pipe. Authorities also initially suspected Mann in the murders of several girls in the area, such as 16 year old Janie Sanders and 13 year old Rose Levandoski, but the current thinking is that another (still unknown) predator was likely responsible. Although he had convictions against adult women, Mann was a pedophile with a history of mostly preying on young girls.
76. Elmer Carroll (~1972-2012, lethal injection): Carroll broke into the room of 10 year old Christine McGowan. He raped and strangled the girl to death, tucked the body underneath the bedsheets, and stole her stepfather's construction truck. McGowan's body discovered was by her stepfather when he came to check on her. At the time of the murder, Carroll had two separate convictions (including one against his then 5 year old niece) for child molestation and was first accused of rape at the age of 16.
77. William Van (~1971-2013, lethal injection): Poyck Van Poyck and another man, Frank Valdez, ambushed a prison van that their incarcerated friend was being transported in with the intent of freeing him. The pair shot and killed a guard, 40 year old Fred Griffis and wounded another. Despite overtaking the van, they were forced to retreat without their friend with the arrival of police reinforcements. Both were captured after a brief shootout with the police and were given death sentences for Griffis’ murder. The case sparked controversy when Valdez was beaten to death by other prison guards in his cell. The officers involved were all fired but acquitted for murder in their trials. Van Poyck had several convictions of armed robbery on his record.
78. John Ferguson (~1960s-2013, lethal injection): Ferguson was the mastermind of the Carol City massacre that his above mentioned accomplices, Marvin Francois and Beauford White, participated in. He also committed a series of murders on his own. Two of his other victims, 17 year old Brian Glenfeldt and 17 year old Belinda Worley, were a couple that were ambushed in the parking lot of an ice cream shop. Ferguson raped Worley, shot her and Glenfeldt dead, and ran off with her jewelry and Glenfeldt’s wallet. Another couple, 82 year old Katherine and 75 year old Raymond Perry, were assaulted by Ferguson in their motel room, robbed, and shot dead execution style. Authorities also believe that Ferguson was responsible for the murders of James Ward, a 40 year old runaway from a mental institution, and Joseph Walters (age unknown), but was never convicted of them in court. Ferguson had a troubled upbringing, was stealing cars at the age of 13, and convicted for the attempted murder of an officer. Due to allegations of him being a schizophrenic, his execution was delayed numerous times, which is why he was put to death decades after his accomplices.
79. Marshall Gore (1988-2013, lethal injection): Gore abducted and murdered two women, 30 year old Robyn Novick and 19 year old Susan Roark. Both women were last seen in his company, and they were raped, beaten, and stabbed to death. He also carjacked 32 year old Tina Coralis while she was driving with her 2 year old son Jimmy. Gore raped Tina, beat her with a rock, slit her throat, dumped her on the side of the road, and drove off with her car while Jimmy was still in it. Tina survived the attack and notified the police about her kidnapped son and stolen car. The police were able to rescue Jimmy unharmed and capture Gore without incident.
80. William Happ (~1980s-2013, lethal injection): Happ dragged 21 year old Angela Crowley out of her own car window in a convenience store parking lot. He anally raped and strangled Crowley to death with her pants. A corner's report mentioned that Crowley received over 20 blows to her head during the assault. Happ had several convictions of armed robbery, one of which pertained to an abduction incident.
81. Darius Kimbrough (1991-2013, lethal injection): Kimbrough climbed into the apartment window of 28 year old Denise Collin with the help of a ladder. He raped and repeatedly slammed her head against the wall. She was found bloodied and nude by the paramedics called to the scene. Collin died of her injuries in the hospital a day after the attack. Her murder went unsolved until samples of Kimbrough’s DNA were collected from another one of his rapes. With the presence of additional pubic hairs found in Collin’s room, at least two other men were also certainly involved, but they remain at large to this day.
82. Thomas Knight (~1960s-2013, lethal injection): Knight began his string of murders by abducting his former employer, 64 year old Sydney Gans, and Sydney's wife, 60 year old Lillian. After her forced them to withdraw $50,000 from their bank accounts, Knight shot the Gans' dead. He was apprehended and, but he managed to escape from jail while awaiting trial. While on the run, Knight gunned down a clerk, 54 year old William Culpepper, while holding up a liquor store, and $640 from the cash register. A month later, Knight was recaptured following an armed standoff with police, and sentenced to death for the Gan killings. On death row, he stabbed a correctional officer, 48 year old Richard Burke, to death with a sharpened spoon over the prison allegedly barring him from seeing his mother. Knight had numerous theft and burglary convictions that date back to when he was 9 years old.
83. Juan Chavez (1995-2014, lethal injection): Chavez accosted 9 year old Jimmy Ryce when the boy was dropped off at a stop by a school bus, and abducted him at gunpoint. He took Ryce to a trailer on his employers' property and raped him. When Ryce tried to signal a passing helicopter for help, Chavez shot him in the back of the head, and muffled his cries as he died. The body was then decapitated and dismembered, and Chavez buried the remains near his trailer.
84. Paul Howell (~1990s-2014, lethal injection): Howell was part of a drug smuggling gang. One of the members had a falling out with the ring and made an agreement with law enforcement to testify against them. Howell constructed a microwave bomb to assassinate the witness in her home, and he assigned an associate to carry out the hit. As he was transporting the bomb to its intended destination, the associate was pulled over and detained by deputies. While being processed, the bomb detonated prematurely, and killed a deputy, 35 year old James Fulford, Jr.
85. Robert Henry (1987-2014, lethal injection): As part of his plan to assault the gas station that he worked at, Henry tricked his co workers, 53 year old Phyllis Harris and 35 year old Janet Thermidor, into thinking that a robber was holding him hostage. He duped the women into allowing themselves to be tied up and gagged, as Henry claimed to them that the fictitious "robber" was forcing him to do it. Both women were beaten with hammers as Henry ransacked the station’s store. After he stole a total of $1,269 from the register, he poured gasoline all over the building, and set it on fire. Thermidor and Harris were burned alive in the blaze and died of their injures, but Thermidor survived long enough to identify Henry as the assailant.
86. Robert Hendrix (1990-2014, lethal injection): To prevent his cousin, 25 year old Elmer Scott Jr., from testifying against him in a then upcoming burglary trail, Hendrix broke into the home that he shared with his wife, 18 year old Susan, with an accomplice. He shot Susan and Elmer, beat them with the butt of his rifle, and slashed their throats. In the case that he was about to be tried for, Elmer and Hendrix burglarized a home together, and Elmer agreed to testify against him in exchange for a reduced sentence.
87. John Henry (~1975-2014, lethal injection): In 1975, Henry got into an argument with his first wife, 28 year old Patricia Roddy, while they were driving with her daughters. Henry pulled over and stabbed Patricia to death in front of her children. After he plead guilty, Henry was given a 15 year sentence for second degree murder, and was released in 1983 after serving 8. Shortly after his release, he married 28 year old Suzanne Overstreet. As what happened with his first wife, he fatally stabbed Suzanne during an argument in 1985. He then took his stepson, 4 year old Eugene Christian, to a chicken farm and stabbed him to death as well. Henry also had several convictions for the possession of drugs and illegal firearms.
88. Eddie Davis (~1980s-2014, lethal injection): Davis kidnapped his ex girlfriend's daughter, 11 year Kimberly Waters, from her home and gagged her with a rag. He took the girl to a trailer that he used to live in, and raped and strangled her to death. His criminal activity before the murder included several arrests for burglary and autotheft.
89. Chadwick Banks (1992-2014, lethal injection): Banks shot his wife, 30 year old Cassandra, in the head while she was sleeping on their couch. He then crept into the room of his stepdaughter, 10 year old Melody Cooper, and sexually assaulted her. Melody was also shot dead during the abuse.
90. Johnny Kormondy (~1989-2014, lethal injection): Kormondy and his two accomplices invaded a house that Gary McAdams, a 38 year old banker, shared with his wife, 38 year old Cecilia. The couple were ambushed after they returned home from a high school reunion. Gary was shot and killed by Kormondy, while Cecilia was forced to orally copulate the other intruders. Several items were stolen in the robbery, but my sources didn’t disclose any specifics. Kormondy had several previous convictions of robberies and auto thefts, and the earliest occurred when he was 14.
91. Jerry Correll (1985-2015, lethal injection): Correll shot and killed his ex wife, 25 year old Susan, their daughter, 5 year old Tuesday, Susan's sister, 29 year old Marybeth Jones, and their mother, 58 year old Mary Lou Hines. All four victims were murdered in a home they shared together.
92. Oscar Bolin (~1977-2015, lethal injection): Bolin was sentenced to death for the abductions and murders of 26 year old Teri Matthews, 25 year old Natalie Holley, and 17 year old Stephanie Collins. All 3 victims were kidnapped while they were getting off from work, raped, and killed in beating and stabbing attacks. He raped and strangled a fourth victim, 30 year old Deborah Stowe, to death in Texas, but wasn't charged due to already facing the death penalty in Florida. Bolin also took part in the non fatal abduction and gang rape of a waitress in Ohio, was charged for kidnapping his girlfriend (which were later dropped by the courts), and had several theft convictions that started when he was 15.
93. Mark Asay (1987-2017, lethal injection): Asay shot and killed a black man, 34 year old Robert Booker, during a racially charged fight that he picked at a bar. After Booker's murder, Asay, his brother, and their friend went cruising for prostitutes. They encountered a cross dressing sex worker, 26 year old Robert McDowell, they were acquainted with and picked him up. McDowell was also shot dead by Asay when they got into an argument over payment for an oral sex act.
94. Michael Lambrix (1983-2017, lethal injection): While intoxicated, Lambrix beat one of his friends, 35 year old Clarence Moore, to death with a tire iron, and fatally strangled another friend, 19 year old Aleisha Bryant, with a t-shirt in their trailer. He was previously arrested for welfare fraud and was detained for an unspecified "unrelated charge" during the murder investigation.
95. Patrick Hannon (1991-2017, lethal injection): 27 year old Brandon Snider vandalized the bedroom of his ex girlfriend while she was away on vacation. The ex girlfriend's brother was friends with Hannon, and he convinced him to launch a revenge attack on Snider with the help of another friend. They broke into Snider's apartment, stabbed him, and slit his throat. Snider's roommate, 28 year old Robert Carter, witnessed the murder, and tried hiding underneath his bed. Hannon dragged Carter out and shot him to death.
96. Eric Branch (1991-2018, lethal injection): In 1993, Branch abducted and carjacked 21 year old Susan Morris. He raped, beat, and strangled her to death, and then buried Morris' body in a shallow grave near a nature trail. Branch used Morris' car to flee back to his native Indiana, but was captured for a traffic violation. A registered sex offender, Branch had previous convictions for sexually abusing a 14 year old girl, and raped an unidentified woman 10 days before Morris' murder.
97. José Jiménez (~1990-2018, lethal injection): Jiménez fatally strangled Marie Debas, a 32 year old French woman who was allegedly in a relationship with a Medellin cartel drug runner, during a burglary of her apartment. Two years later, he burglarized the home of 63 year old Phyllis Minas, and stabbed her to death.
98. Bobby Long (~1990-2018, lethal injection): As the “Classified Ad Rapist”, Long raped over 50 women. He was given that epithet due to contacting and luring his victims through classified ads. After one of his victims sought charges that initially convicted him (though were later dropped on appeals), Long’s pattern of sexual violence escalated to murder. Long murdered at least 10 women and teenage girls between the ages of 18-28 and non fatally assaulted a 33 year old woman, Linda Nuttall, and a 17 year old girl, Lisa McVey. The victims were picked up through hitchhiking, forcibly grabbed while walking alone on streets, or were prostitutes lured with promises of payment for sexual favors. Long’s sparing of his last victim, McVey, provided to be his downfall, as it was her meticulously detailed reports that led law enforcement to him.
99. Gary Bowles (~1970s-2019, lethal injection): Bowles lured 6 men, 72 year old Milton Bradley, 59 year old John Roberts, 47 year old Walter Hinton, 47 year old Alverson, 39 year old David Jarman, and 38 year old Albert Morris by prostituting himself to them. Once a victim was enticed, Bowles strangled them, and stole their credit cards. He also had several convictions for armed robbery, hospitalized his stepfather in his early teens, and served a 6 year prison sentence for sexually assaulting his girlfriend.
100. Donald Dillbeck (~1979-2023, lethal injection): In 1979, Dillbeck stole a car, and was pulled over by a deputy, 31 year old Dwight Hall. After a prolonged chase and scuffle, Dillbeck shot and killed Hall with his own gun. He was then given a life sentence for Hall's murder. Dillbeck escaped from prison in 1990, and stabbed 44 year old Robbie Vann to death while trying to seize her car. The pursuing officers recaptured him shortly after the killing, and he was sentenced to death for Vann's murder.
101. Louis Gaskin (~1986-2023, lethal injection): Gaskin started his burglary spree by breaking into the home of couple, 56 year old Robert and 55 year old Georgette Sturmfels. He shot them both dead, and stole their lamp, VCR set, and some jewelry and money. His second target was a house owned by 38 year old Joseph Rector and his wife Mary (age unknown). Although Gaskin shot Joseph, the couple both managed to escape him with their lives. Due to him wearing a ninja costume as a disguise during the robberies, he was dubbed as the "Ninja Killer" by media outlets. Gaskin also had a few robbery convictions at the time of the murders.
102. Darryl Barwick (1983-2023, lethal injection): Barwick stalked 24 year old Rebecca Wendt as she was sunbathing in a pool, followed her to her apartment, and forced himself inside to rob it. He stabbed Wendt 37 times and raped her. At the age of 16, Barwick had committed a similar act of rape and burglary against an unidentified woman, and was released from prison 3 months before Wendt's murder.
103. Duane Owen (1984-2023, lethal injection): Owen raped 14 year old Karen Slattery while burglarizing a home she was babysitting at, and stabbed her to death. A few months later, Owen burglarized another home owned by 38 year old Georgianna Worden. She was sexually assaulted and fatally beaten with a hammer. He was captured while breaking into another house on the same day, and confessed to Worden and Slattery's murders
104. James Barnes (~1988-2023, lethal injection): In 1988, Barnes invaded the home of 41 year old Patricia Miller, and tied her up with her own shoelaces. She was sexually assaulted, beaten to death with a hammer, and Barnes set her bed on fire to destroy any evidence of the crime. 9 years later, Barnes strangled his estranged wife, 44 year old Linda, to death in her home, and stuffed the body into a closet. He stayed in the house until he was arrested by police officers. Barnes also admitted to the shooting deaths of Chester Wetmore, a 14 year old runaway, and Brenda Fletcher, a 50 year old prostitute, but was never charged for their killings. According to Barnes, he killed both victims for stealing from him.
105. Michael Zack III (1996-2023, lethal injection): Zack befriended two women, 40 year old Laura Rosillo and 31 year old Ravonne Smith, while hanging out at bars. He lured Rosillo to the beach with the promise of drugs, and assaulted her with a tire iron. Rosillo was raped, strangled to death, and he buried her body in a sand dune. A day later, he tricked Smith into letting him inside her house. She was smashed in the head with a glass bottle, raped, and stabbed to death. Zack then fled with her car, television set, VCR, and her purse. On a different note, when he was a child, Zack’s older sister dismembered their mother with an ax over an argument regarding the sister’s boyfriend. He used that story to gain the sympathy of his victims. His sister (who was simply institutionalized rather then incarcerated for the murder) also testified about their stepfather’s alleged abuse of them at his trial, though the prosecutors debunked most of her stories.

Chapter 26 - The Infinite Beckons
Previous Chapter
“Okay, this part’s a little tricky.” Ma’et gestured out the shuttle’s cockpit. “You got lined up easy enough, and our velocity’s at a relative zero to the ship. The bay door’s open. Now you engage the lateral thrusters while monitoring the distance from the shuttle to the bay’s interior wall. Come in too fast and you’ll damage them both..”
Trix looked over at the controls, and the neatly gummed labels that the humans had placed over the English text with her own language. She gingerly pressed the ‘Lateral Thruster’ button, then as the control knob next to it lit up, she twisted it slowly.
An earlier misadventure when lining up the ship and the shuttle where she’d twisted the control knob much more rapidly made her much more cautious about giving it too much power too quickly, yet the shuttle slowly drifted - away from the ship. “Other thruster, feathers.”
Chagrined, she dialed the thruster back to zero, then rotated it the other direction. The ship immediately stopped moving away, and instead drifted into the hangar bay. Trix watched as it drifted past the door, staring at the distance readout until it dropped into the yellow and immediately swung the knob the other way. It took a couple of tries to get the velocity back to zero, but she managed it.
“Beautiful. Now we engage the grav plating which lets the ship’s internal grav pull us down as it ramps up, and close the external door via the console over there.” Ma’et gestured to the remote console, and Trix scanned it, punching the buttons as she found them.
“Nicely done. Go ahead and hit the engine shutdown. In the old days there’d be like, thirty steps to it but nearly all of it is automated. But lucky you, you get to read all about the manual sequence since taking over in the event of computer failure is one of a pilot’s duties.” Ma’et chuckled and squeezed Trix’s shoulder. “For now, that’s good enough. Go ahead and open both the lateral boarding door, and the rear loading door. Also extend the rear loading ramp.”
Trix did, then glanced over at Ma’et. “Anything more?”
“Nope. First day on the job, and you’ve done the first job successfully. Not perfectly, but pretty damn good for your first time piloting off planet. Go ahead and head back to talk with the Captain, and I’ll handle the rest.”
Trix unbuckled the acceleration harness (Though, she felt zero acceleration during the entire trip so she couldn’t fathom just WHY Ma’et had insisted on her buckling in) and moved past the much smaller woman as she left the cockpit.
In the back, Josh was already outside the ship, grabbing a handtruck. She watched as he pushed it up the loading ramp to the stack of boxes that contained the food and equipment she’d need for the next few weeks of existence here in space. “Why aren’t you using one of the gravity belts?” She gestured over to the wall where the belts were hanging.
“Eh, this stuff’s fairly light and those have a limited lifespan. I don’t want to burn out the Keplite cores on stuff we can just move by hand. They’re expensive.”
“Oh. What’s Keplite, anyway? Ji and Min have mentioned it a few times.” Trix glanced over at the large belts with their big circular pads in the middle.
Before Josh could answer, Alex walked in between them. “Ji, Min! We’re going to be converting the room across from yours back into crew quarters for Trix. Gonna need you two to move the Spider. Is there room here in the hangar for it?”
“It’ll fit better if we assemble it and use packing mode.” Ji countered, as he hopped out of the shuttle. “It’ll take a day or so. We’ve got it spread all out in there.”
Alex turned over to Trix and beckoned. “Follow me. Gonna give you the full tour while they’re unloading." He took a few steps back, then lifted his arms wide to gesture to their surroundings. "This is obviously the hangar bay. Shuttle's the big thing you were just flying. Below us is a small cargo hold, empty right now. Not gonna show you unless you happen to like large empty boring-ass boxes.” He raised an eyebrow, and Trix quickly shook her head. "Alright. Most of the shit in here is just maintenance tools and loading gear. Nothing exciting. Ramp to main transit corridor here."
They walked out into the hallway. “Okay, well through that door’s opposite the hangar is the fabber bay. The fabber is a huge machine that manufactures stuff for us, like a 3D printer. Do you guys have anything like that?” Trix shrugged, and Alex continued. “Well either way, it can make virtually anything from a bed to a bomb to a computer. The more complex and difficult items take a hell of a lot longer to make. It’s also a major power hog since the manufacturing process uses extremely powerful fields, both magnetic and force. In other words, if you need something and we didn’t bring it with you we can make it here.”
He walked down the hall a bit, and gestured to the doors on either side. “Launcher bays, 1 and 2. Normally we use ‘em to launch beacons, buoys, sensors, things like that into space. If someone tries to start shit with us we CAN use them to launch missiles but we have very few of those available. We’re not out here to get in fights, but if we have to defend ourselves we pack a big punch.” He opened one of the doors and walked inside. “The big hatch over there is the manual tube loader. The ship can auto-load various things but if we need to put something into space that isn’t already in storage, that’s where we do it. If Ji tells you to climb in yourself, he’s joking and you should hit him because it only exists to launch shit into space.”
Trix laughed at that, but she had learned enough of Ji’s sense of humor while working on the car to understand the sentiment. “Will I even be in here at all though?”
“Maybe. If something needs to be manually loaded, we use these. Back when we were at the derelict ship I had to send a battery over to help out while we planned our rescue. You might be asked to do the same.” Alex shrugged and lead her out into the hall. “Last thing here is the ship’s primary armament.” He reached over to the side of the hallway and pressed a hatch release. The compartment it lead to was incredibly small and tightly cramped.
“We don’t use it much outside of scaring off pirates or relieving stress, but this is our primary weapon out in space. Eight-chamber five meter long rotary railgun. Fires one round every 1.2 seconds that travel roughly a million kilometers per hour when fired stationary, or closer to 280 kilometers per second. It fires either solid armor-piercing unguided slugs or flak munitions that are used to produce clouds of metallic debris. The former will shred a ship’s armor and pulverize anything inside. The latter can overwhelm particle shields and damage exterior components without nearly as much penetration. The reason I’m saying all this to you,” He tapped the top of the cannon where it joined to the ship. “This thing’s got a super limited firing arc. Meaning that we can only shoot what we’re pointed at. If, by some miracle, we get into a fight out there then our ability to shoot back is gonna depend on your ability to fly the ship while facing the enemy.”
Trix swallowed heavily as she tried to imagine just how powerful this massive cannon was. She glanced over at the side of it, to the twin belts that fed in ammo. Each round it would fire was longer than her forearm and thicker than her waist.
“That’s the worst case scenario though. In reality, if we get into any shit out there, fighting is the LAST thing we want to do. Negotiation to avoid hostility first, escape second, fight last.” Alex shooed her out of the compartment. “That said if we encounter any low-yield junk out there then we’ll get some target practice in. If you’re game then we can let you try targeting for a bit and unload some kinetic mayhem while things are dull.” He grinned wickedly, as he manually pulled the hatch back into place, sliding two large locking levers into place.
“Okay, that’s it for this deck. There’s stairs on the far side leading up to the tech deck but the ladder here’s quicker.”
They climbed up the ladder, with Alex leading and Trix following. Her wings banged against the ceiling as she climbed, and it took her a few moments to get them tucked in tight enough to get through the hatch but with Alex’s help they got up there.
“Tech deck. Mostly. In the front of the ship here right under Bridge access is the exception, the pool room.” He opened the door and they walked in together. “Mainly used for observation but the pool there is great for relaxation. You can adjust the temperature with the controls on the wall there, goes from chilly to full on hot tub. Adjustable depth from 3 to 10 feet, and the pool walls are display panels. If you use a breather it’s fun to turn the display to external then go down underwater and relax while staring at the stars. Do you swim much?”
Trix nodded. “Sure, there’s a river a… couple kilometers? I think? I’m not good with converting distances yet. Anyway, it’s near the hab and we’d go there when I was younger and didn’t have as much to do in the fields.”
“Cool. Well, feel free to use it but just a word of warning you might want to check if anyone’s in first. Swimwear is optional and since the crew is a pretty tight family we don’t usually get embarrassed if we’re seen swimming in the buff.” Alex waved over at the control console. “If you’re not sure the big green button on the outside is the comm button, just ask if anyone’s using it.”
“Ji brought me in here when we came up to do the medical scans. He showed me Kiveyt from orbit for the first time. Do all human ships have a room like this?” Trix reached over to dip her hand into the water. It was quite warm to the touch.
“Nah. This ship wasn’t originally designed as a scout ship or survey ship. It was originally a yacht. Big luxury vehicle for rich people to fly around in space and have fun in. Throw parties. Most of the ridiculous amenities it has I got rid of ages ago, but that left a huge amount of space we filled up with all the launchers and sensors and whatnot. I kept the pool though because I love soaking after a long day.” He pressed the door control and they left the pool room.
“Just past the pool room on either side of the ship we have collection dishes for D-space particles. Those are EVA only, so you won’t be dealing with those. They let us collect extremely powerful particles which lead back here.” Alex spoke as he walked, and turned the corner into a much, much larger room.
“This is the ship’s main power supply. Charged particles enter the torus reactor and discharge energy which is converted into electrical power and routed through the ship. Those bottles over there…” He gestured to four massive grey metal canisters on the wall. “Contain the actual particles. They’re made of the strongest materials we have because if one ruptured, the ship would instantly explode from the inside out. Don’t worry,” Alex quickly raised his hands. “The chances of that happening are virtually impossible. This is the single most well-protected location on the ship.”
He gestured to the other side of the large room. “Over there’s the terminals that Min is usually at. She and Ji are in charge of all engineering. That means power, propulsion, all computer systems, and the like. Well, the physical parts of them that is. Ma’et is our computer geek when it comes to integration, programming, and all the fun software shit.”
Alex left the room, and gestured to the other side. “I’m sure you’re familiar with medical over there. Let’s do us both a favor and not have to go there much. Otherwise I’m pretty sure Kyshe will gut me.” He didn’t stop to show her inside, and they reached the main staircase. “The back half of the ship on this deck is all propulsion access and maintenance. I’m more or less our damage control guy, along with Ji and Min. For them it’s because they’re smart as shit and for me it’s because I had to learn how to maintain my own ship. Most common damage out here is stray micro meteors or debris while we’re parked and the particle shields are down. Sometimes worn out components inside. Again, no EVA for you so the only thing you’ll need to worry about for DC is being an assistant to one of us while we fix shit.”
They went up the stairwell to the uppermost of the three floors. “There used to be an observation bubble above us, but I had it removed because it was useless. Even if I covered it with ablative plating it was a massive wart on top of the ship that served zero practical purpose. Anyway, the top floor here is where you’ll spend 90% of your time on the ship. Back here…” Alex started walking to the rear of the ship, and walked through a large open doorway. “Mess hall. We generally have two kinds of meals here - when we’re on long deployment, the food extruder over there can produce rations. They’re not amazing but they’re quick both to make and eat. It’ll also make reasonable meat and dairy substitutes. If you want a real meal though we usually keep the good stuff in deep freeze so it takes a fair amount of time to be ready. Other than that the bev dispenser is over there. Water and various juices on tap all the time, alcohol is restricted only to meals only. We all get together for breakfast and dinner though, since it’s just a good way to socialize. Tonight expect a big meal in celebration.”
He walked out of the mess, and opened a door to a large open area. “Rec room. Not used a whole lot because most of us use haptic suits for exercise and recreation but we don’t have a suit that’ll fit you or your wings, so I want you to be in here twice a week at least. Ma’et is a great partner for any exercise that doesn’t involve fighting, unless you like bruises in which case she’ll happily go a few rounds with gloves on. Pilots don’t get the level of exercise you’re used to on the planet working fields so exercise up here will be pretty damn vital.”
She looked around the room, then hurried to catch up to the captain as he walked out. “On the other side of the hall from the Mess is general storage. Cleaning supplies, a small laundry unit if the one in your room quits working, random odds and ends. Also a few extra bunks just in case we need them. Unfortunately I am going to have to have you spend one night in here while we get your room cleaned up and ready for you.” He walked in, and over to one of the walls. “Bunk folds down from here. Looks, uh…” He glanced at the fold-down bed and back at Trix. “Looks tight. Do me a favor and see if you’re gonna be OK there?”
It was very close, but Trix laid down on the sleeping pad and adjusted until she found a good comfortable spot. “For just one night, this will do…”
“Alright, no worries then. We’ll have your room ready quick as we can.” She got off the pad and Alex gestured for her to follow. “Quarters themselves are here, 4 on either side of the main hallway. Myself, Josh, Ma’et, and Amanda on the right in that order. Ji, Min, Your quarters, and the last was converted into a mechanical room for Par. Speaking of…”
He walked into the last room and knocked on a large hatch. “Par, would it be alright if I introduced our newest shipmate?”
“Of course, Captain.” The hatch slid silently open revealing a large, intricate array. Circuit boards were laid out in rows and wires ran between them in perfectly neat, ordered channels. In the center of it all was a large oblong egg-looking object. “Trix, may I present to you Parathanelias Sigma-822.”
Several rows of lights lit up along the side of the egg, and the pleasant musical voice she’d heard so often came from a small speaker alongside it. “It is a pleasure to meet you in person, Trksehnoarala.”
Trix stared at the open hatch then gestured behind her. “I thought you were in those floating metal balls…?”
“The spheres you mention are my remotes. None of them are large enough to house my primary systems. In a way, they are my eyes, ears, and limbs. My true nature is integration here within the ship itself, and I make up for my limited mobility in person by having the greatest mobility of any other member of the crew.”
“He also has an avatar in VR of an organic human, but most of the time he uses the floating spheres to interact with us and the rest of the world. His core,” Alex gestured to the egg-like central object, “houses his base personality and his most important memories. The rest of this is extra storage for less critical information. I’m a bit jealous because his most important memories will always be preserved forever in perfect clarity. The rest of us get to have our memories fade with time, but his will be eternal.”
Alex stood there mutely for a moment then shook his head. “Anyway. Back to the tour. Thanks Par!”
“My pleasure.” The hatch slid silently shut and Alex and Trix left the room. “This room has been empty for long enough I pretty much gave it over to Ji and Min for a long while.” Alex walked into the room next to Par’s. “It’s kind of a mess but we’re going to get it cleaned up then it’ll be yours.”
There was no bed in the room, and the tables against the walls were covered with electronics and quickboards. In the center of the room, a huge metal contraption was spread out. Eight large jointed legs were wired in to a big central circular turret. Above that, a multitude of ‘limbs’ extended out - one a large grasper with clawed metal fingers, another ending with an odd cone-shaped implement with a blackened tip. A third was a huge metal pipe jutting out, and a fourth looked to be a number of small openings to place something into.
Trix gestured to it, “What is THAT thing?”
“That’s the Spider. It’s a long-time project the Twins have been working on. Pretty much since they joined the crew, really. It was meant to be a mechanical walker for the military but… well, that’s their story to tell.” Alex snorted. “There’s going to be enough time to go into the details later. Point is, before we even start leaving the system we’re gonna move this out, get a full king sized bed in here for you, some more storage, and so on. That door,” He gestured to a door on the other side of the room, “Leads to a hygiene unit. Full on shower, no bath but if you want to soak the Pool’s down a floor. Aside from no tub it has a deluxe toilet, sink, and a small cleaning unit for clothes.”
Trix cautiously stepped around the large disassembled robot, and opened the door to peer inside. The hygiene unit was much larger than she’d expected, and she was grateful to see that most of the facilities was familiar to her.
“Okay, one last stop and it’s the most important.” Alex walked out into the hallway and Trix rushed to catch up, almost tripping as she hopped over a piece of scrap cable along the floor. “I’m sure this will become your second home on the ship real fast. The bridge.”
They walked down the hall through a small access corridor into a large, wide open space. A large chair sat in the center with a number of controls and articulating arms present on the back. In front of it, a number of control panels were arranged in rows. The front of the bridge and both sides were dominated by massive window screens that showed the area the ship was currently facing. She could see one screen to the side with a display showing Kiveyt, first as a small dot with a zoomed-in and blown up image next to it.
“The door back there in the corner leads to a briefing room, nothing special there but a table and chairs. The big chair in the middle is mine, but if you ask super nicely I’ll let you sit in it.” Alex grinned, and pointed at the console in the very center of the bridge, in front of the Captain’s chair. “But that station over there is primary navigation. Josh is there quite a lot of the time, though just as often I navigate from the Captain’s Chair or Ma’et controls the ship from her neural interface. As of now, though, I bequeath ownership of it unto you - for the next few weeks, at least.”
Trix walked around the bridge staring at everything. The control consoles were smooth, rounded and sleek in their presentation. Each one had a large keyboard in front covered with the strange runes of the Humans’ language. Various other instruments and implements were present at each station, but at hers she smiled gratefully to see that the keys had already changed and had more familiar and recognizable letters in place of the Humans odd script. The layout was definitely weird, and she knew it was going to take time and effort to grow accustomed but at the very least she would be able to understand what she was doing as she learned. Even better, the seat lacked the same high back that the other seats had, which would have been pressed tightly and uncomfortably against her wings.
She glanced back at Alex, who just nodded at her. Encouraged, she took a seat and glanced around. “This is mine.” She whispered it and then let her wings spread out with pleasure as she realized that from here, from this station, she would be the one personally controlling the entire massive vehicle behind her. It lacked the flight stick of the shuttle or the handle controls of her aircar, and in a way she felt disappointed she wouldn’t be able to manually control the ship the same way she could the smaller vehicles. But as she looked around her and rested her hands on the cool surface of the console, she felt something else. A thrill of anticipation at the thought of being the one in control of this massive ship and everyone inside of it.
Alex climbed several steps up to the captain’s chair on its elevated dais, and took a seat directly behind her. The sight of a winged alien in front of him at the nav console with the stars stretching out above and beyond her was a strange one, but a pleasant one. He tried to think of a witty quip to finish the tour with, but failing that he settled for a much simpler one instead.
“Welcome aboard, Pilot.”
—--
“Okay, before we get started, I believe that this is a special occasion warranting a toast.” Alex sat at the head of the large table at the mess, with the other six organic members of the crew assembled further down. “To our new pilot trainee!”
“Here Here!” “To Trix!” “To our Trainee!”
Alex took a sip of his whisky, and sighed in pleasure. “God that hits the spot. Okay everyone, dig in.”
The dinner was an odd affair, mostly because every single member was wearing their visor. Trix could not speak English, and the crew couldn’t speak her native tongue. Masks which would automatically translate couldn’t be worn during a meal so the solution was to have real-time speech to text appearing on everyone’s visor. Trix, who never had worn a visor before, had a difficult time getting the display to appear just right in front of her eyes but she and Par had gotten it dialed in.
Trix glanced at the array of food in front of her. Some items looked familiar, others completely foreign, and none of it smelled quite right. She gestured to the food. “None of this is from Kiveyt. Is it safe for me to eat it?”
“I went through our entire comestible database while we were on the planet. Surprisingly there’s almost no Terran food you can’t eat.” Josh had a massive burrito nearly as long as Ma’et’s arm on the plate in front of him, and he spoke while dabbing hot sauce over it. “All of our Macronutrients are completely interchangeable. Most Micronutrients are as well. There’s a few exotic vitamins and amino acids that you need that we can’t provide, but we have supplements from the planet that’ll handle those.”
“Oh.” Trix glanced around at the table, trying to decide what to eat. The spread was, per Alex’s suggestion, extremely large and quite diverse. “I’m not sure where to start then.”
Min picked up a large platter with a circular dish on it. “Far as I’m concerned the best place to start is with Pizza. It’s one of the most widely loved foods throughout Terran space.” She dumped a slice onto the plate in front of Trix, while Ji slid a very tall glass of water over to her, alongside an odd reddish looking beverage.
“Give the fruit punch a try too. It’s much more sweet than the juice you were serving down on the planet. A lot more mild too.” He suggested, and gestured to another plate. “Also? Tacos are never a bad choice.”
Trix reached out and picked up one of the odd, semi-circular items. Ji grabbed one as well, and bit into it with gusto. Trix mimicked the motion, crunching into the hard shell. It was quite interesting, tasteless at first as she bit into the shell and the lettuce, but then the spiced meat hit her tongue. It was quite mild but not unpleasant. She chewed on it and gulped down a mouthful. “Not bad.” She took another bite.
The taco vanished quickly, and she glanced down at the slice of Pizza next. “Like this, Trix.” Min gestured to pick it up by the crust, putting her fingers in front of it to prevent it from flopping down. Trix followed Min’s example, and took a huge bite. This one was even milder, almost disappointingly so. “Not much flavor to this one. Is all your food really light like this?”
The humans glanced around at that. “Y’know, Sophie mentioned our rations were tasteless. They have a pretty strong cinnamon taste to ‘em.” Alex sat back thoughtfully as he nursed the glass of whisky in his hand. “The food we had down on the planet was all pretty strong flavors…”
Josh handed the bottle of hot sauce in his hand over to Trix. “Try a dab of this. It adds a kick to some foods.”
Trix took the bottle, and put a few drops of it on the slice of pizza in front of her. She took another bite, and her eyes lit up. The next few bites all had more hot sauce each, and the crust itself ended up practically drenched in it. “Thanks, Josh. That was delicious.”
The rest of the crew was staring at her and she shrunk back slightly at their intense scrutiny. Had she done something wrong? She hadn’t ever offended them during any meals back on the planet, so the sudden shift in attention was jarring and quite uncomfortable.
Ji whistled at the sight of the alien hungrily wofling down the slice of pizza covered in bright spicy sauce. “Here, try some of that on a taco next!” He picked up another shell and offered it to her.
Trix reached out and took the taco, this time pouring a hefty amount of sauce on it. Eating this one was much messier, and she could feel the hot sauce dribbling down the side of her mouth as she took a huge bite. Min handed her a paper towel, and she embarrassedly wiped away the errant food. “Thanks, Min. That was great too, Ji.”
“Hold up.” Alex stood up and walked over to one of the cupboards, pulling out another bottle of sauce. “I’m curious now. This is a lot hotter than the sauce you’ve been trying thus far. See if it’s to your liking. Just, start with a very small amount. A little goes a LONG way.” He walked back to the table, placing the bottle next to Trix. She studied it briefly, mostly the logo - a caricature of a human whose head appeared to be on fire.
“Um, Okay. Should I try it with the Pizza or the Taco?” She glanced between the two dishes she’d already tried. “Either one. Whichever you prefer.” was Alex’s reply.
Trix reached out and grabbed a third Taco, opening up the bottle. Immediately she could smell the fragrant sauce within, and she carefully poured a small amount into the shell. She cautiously took a bite and chewed thoughtfully.
“Too hot?” Alex suggested, but she shook her head. “No. Just…” She poured more sauce on the taco, and ate the rest in only a few bites. “Whew. Sorry, Captain Alexander. That was incredible! I’ve never tasted anything like it before.”
“Captain Alexander just sounds weird. Call me Alex or Al. Or ‘Captain’ if you really, really need to use my rank for whatever reason.” Alex sat down, and chuckled. “But that’s interesting. Very, very interesting. That sauce there?” He gestured towards the bottle. “It’s made with a chemical called ‘Capsaicin’. To humans it’s a powerful spice. Too much of it causes a painful burning sensation that lingers. We normally dilute it to make it more palatable and less painful.”
Trix glanced at the bottle. “I guess that explains the fire on the little picture here.” She grabbed another slice of the pizza, and drizzled the sauce on top.
“Three tacos and two slices of pizza?” Ma’et was impressed as she saw how much food the Avian was packing away.
“The disadvantage of those muscular bodies.” Josh waved his hand towards Trix. “They require all the calories that a Human does and more. Back on the planet I learned their species used to be a lot smaller, but after developing animal husbandry and reliable sources of higher calorie foods they bulked up pretty quick.”
Trix, for her part, slicked off the second slice of pizza with gusto. She grabbed a fourth taco, and liberally poured the spicy sauce all over, before wolfing that down as well. She grabbed the fruit juice that Ji had offered her… the ‘punch’? And downed it almost as quickly.
“I hope after all this is over, we can buy some more of that sauce. I definitely want the others back at home to try it.” She licked her lips, and sighed with contentment. “This juice too. I like how sweet it is.”
“Birds are immune to Capsaicin.” Josh murmured softly, but it was picked up by the visor and translated perfectly. “I wonder what the chances are that space-birds would be too?”
—--
“Slide the jack under that joint there.” Trix did as instructed, wheeling the small hydraulic device under the ‘spider’s’ massive leg. “Great. Just gotta line up the leg with where the servos join in…” Ji and Min lifted the leg and immediately began connecting up cables and lines. After all the connections were made, Ji braced himself against the wall and shoved - hard - against the leg, firmly connecting the mechanical rotary joint into place.
“Okay, testing.” Min walked over to the console and began punching in codes. Like the other six limbs before it, this one shook slightly then began to flex, twist, and move around. “Range of motion is nominal. Motors are all showing peak. Locking joints and anchor bolt systems are green.”
Ji wiped off some sweat from his forehead, and leaned back against the wall. “I knew it was a mistake to work on it up here. At least if we put it in the hangar we could have lowered the gravity.”
“It would have been in the way during the rescue op, and we had enough shit going on then we didn’t need to add ‘reassemble a multi-ton walking modular platform’ to the list.” Min gestured with her head, not even glancing over at her brother. “Man up. Trix hasn’t even broken a sweat.”
“I don’t sweat.” Trix mumbled, as she stared at the massive machine. “This thing is crazy. Puts my car to shame.”
“Yeah, our pride and joy. Together we’ve spent decades refining it.” Min glanced over at Trix with a broad smile. “The modular bay on top has been my focus, while Ji’s been adjusting and perfecting the leg and motion systems.”
“What’s it for?”
“Well, right now it’s kind of in between intended uses.” Ji walked over to a large shelf and gestured to the assorted objects there. “With our original plans it was going to have a bunch of swappable options. Right now, it has short and long range assault armaments and a plasma cutter for breaching sealed doors. A basic military drone capable of adapting to all kinds of situations.”
Trix stared at the array of weapons in front of her. “So this is what the human military uses to fight with?”
“Nah.” Min set down the quickboard and walked over to the huge machine. “We envisioned it as a multi-purpose response unit. Capable of dropping in from outside the atmosphere an landing anywhere, going anywhere. Dealing with any situation that could possibly arise. It’s an all-terrain support mech and its modular nature would have made it able to respond to nearly any situation. And it was rejected by the military.”
“What? Why?”
Ji held up a hand and ticked off his fingers. “One, it’s more expensive to drop one of these than a squad of soldiers. Nevermind the fact that it can do 10 people’s worth of work without putting even a single person in danger. Two, it’s too big to be fired out of normal launchers. Adding new launchers to ships would have been a significant amount of work and cost that the navy wasn’t willing to foot the bill. Three, we didn’t have any money after developing it. Meaning we couldn’t bribe anyone in the government into pressuring the military to work with us.”
“Four, they already have hover tanks and artillery and we couldn’t convince them that our system was superior to those.” Min sighed, and threw herself into a chair.
“Hovering is cheating though.” Ji glared at his sister.
“Cheating? What?” Trix just looked bewildered at this.
“Hovering isn’t all-terrain. Hovering is NO terrain.”
“Oh.” Trix took a seat in a nearby chair herself. “So did the captain buy this then?”
“Nope. See, we were finishing up Uni and started developing the Spider, but we didn’t really have the money to actually MAKE one. We had all the plans and all the research on our side but not the raw materials or the money to get those raw materials.” Ji pulled out a stick of gum and popped it in his mouth. “At first we tried going straight to the military which was a huge mistake, they just made a million excuses and told us to get lost. Then we tried approaching some weapon dev companies for funding. They basically told us they’d fund it in exchange for all the rights to production and we’d get whatever they felt was fair. Which when we pressed on a figure, wasn’t much.”
Trix glanced over at the massive mech. “But it got made, obviously.”
“Yup. When we weren’t sure what to do, a buddy of ours mentioned that Al was looking for an engineering team. We can do starship engineering.” Min grabbed the quickboard and extended one of the spider’s legs towards her, so she could kick her feet up on it. “Matter of fact, this ship’s a thing of beauty. Al is a complete doofus but he takes fantastic care of the ship. When we came on we gave him a list of everything that should change. He sat down with us, went over it point by point, and even though it ended up costing over half a million credits he gave us full authorization to make every single change we suggested.”
“So after we did a stint working as engineers we joined up as crew.” Ji had an odd smile on his face. “Since then, we’ve put the money we made from working here towards building this thing. We actually had it completed but then I had this idea of using an array of microservo actuators instead of a larger servo to give us a lot more fine control over the joints. That didn’t work, like, at all but when we used a combination of them we managed to find just the right ratio that gives us twice the amount of precision in each joint, which lets us use the-”
“ANYWAY.” Min interrupted her Brother before he could get too deep into the weeds. “We had it built, with the original armaments we envisioned, but Al suggested making a module for mining and sampling. We brought it in here in order to disassemble it to make the servo adjustments and while we were at it we were going to be replacing the actual weapons with a mining beam, core sample collector, and an array of sensors. Now though we’re going to put it in storage for a while. We got much more important things to take care of now.”
“Oh.” Trix had begun to tune Ji out when he launched into his diatribe. “But what do you mean joined up as crew? You were already crew, weren’t you?”
Min swung her foot down, and gestured to the ship. “It’s different. There’s employees… and then there’s crew. Right now you’re an employee. You’re working with us, you’re out here, but your home’s back with your Teff. Right?”
Trix nodded.
“Well, when you’re crew… this is your home. We’re all family out here. I don’t know as much about the whole Teff thing but I think it’s sort of similar. This ship’s our home, the crew is our family. Alex may be a childish idiot but he’s loyal to his crew like nothing else.” Min stood up and walked over to put her hand on her brother’s shoulder. “When we worked here and started to see how well he treats his people, we felt like we could really belong here. He asked if we’d like to join up, so we did. Best decision we ever made.”
“Yup. He treats the crew as well as he treats the ship.” Ji gestured around him. “Working for him paid well. Working as crew, we don’t get paid regularly but we get a cut out of every mission and that cut is HUGE. That’s how we could afford to actually build the spider in the first place.”
“Ah. So if he invited me along, does that mean he wants me to join the crew too?” Trix wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Joining another family was commonplace for males who left their Teff to join others, but incredibly rare for females.
“Dunno. He’s hired on specialists in the past who’ve come and gone. And he’s invited people to join up who said no and that was that.” Ji shrugged and pressed the release on the hydraulic press, letting it collapse down. “C’mon, we should get the last leg attached. Then we can pack it up and use a grav collar to move it down to the hangar. Don’t want to make you stay in that cramped storage room again tonight.”
“Yeah, I tried to stretch my wings in the morning and I banged up against one of the shelves. Really not looking forward to that again.” Trix grumbled at the memory, and stood up. “Okay, what more do we need done to get this over with?”
—--
Next Chapter

Greetings, as I was trying to emerge games-util/steam-launcher, I ran into a problem compiling the package x11-libs/extest and have no clue how to get rid of it. Here is the output of emerge --info '=x11-libs/extest-1.0.2::steam-overlay' :

Portage 3.0.64 (python 3.11.9-final-0, default/linux/amd64/23.0/desktop/systemd, gcc-13, glibc-2.39-r6, 6.8.9-gentoo-x86_64 x86_64)

System Settings

System uname: [Linux-6.8.9-gentoo-x86_64-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-_i5-6300HQ_CPU_@_2.30GHz-with-glibc2.39](mailto:Linux-6.8.9-gentoo-x8664-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-_i5-6300HQ_CPU@_2.30GHz-with-glibc2.39) KiB Mem: 7998136 total, 2554744 free KiB Swap: 0 total, 0 free Timestamp of repository gentoo: Mon, 13 May 2024 04:30:00 +0000 Head commit of repository gentoo: e13fe9ec8d561a8ebee2069b6c6d35c393d95f47 Timestamp of repository guru: Mon, 13 May 2024 13:33:47 +0000 Head commit of repository guru: 541549df44217b85c16a877a8f010a15f400fbf0
Timestamp of repository steam-overlay: Sun, 12 May 2024 05:07:06 +0000 Head commit of repository steam-overlay: f27a23afac69bac916ca885a7df2e4756bf2c910
Timestamp of repository torbrowser: Sun, 12 May 2024 05:07:06 +0000 Head commit of repository torbrowser: 401bde84939e3a744c7462a769468d3e96aa4f2f
sh bash 5.2_p26-r3 ld GNU ld (Gentoo 2.41 p5) 2.41.0 app-misc/pax-utils: 1.3.7::gentoo app-shells/bash: 5.2_p26-r3::gentoo dev-build/autoconf: 2.13-r8::gentoo, 2.71-r7::gentoo, 2.72-r1::gentoo dev-build/automake: 1.16.5-r2::gentoo dev-build/cmake: 3.29.3::gentoo dev-build/libtool: 2.4.7-r4::gentoo dev-build/make: 4.4.1-r1::gentoo dev-build/meson: 1.4.0-r1::gentoo dev-lang/perl: 5.38.2-r5::gentoo dev-lang/python: 3.11.9::gentoo, 3.12.3::gentoo, 3.13.0_beta1_p1::gentoo dev-lang/rust: 1.77.1::gentoo dev-lang/rust-bin: 1.77.1::gentoo sys-apps/baselayout: 2.15::gentoo sys-apps/sandbox: 2.38::gentoo sys-apps/systemd: 255.6::gentoo sys-devel/binutils: 2.41-r5::gentoo, 2.42-r1::gentoo sys-devel/binutils-config: 5.5::gentoo sys-devel/clang: 17.0.6::gentoo, 18.1.5::gentoo sys-devel/gcc: 13.2.1_p20240503::gentoo sys-devel/gcc-config: 2.11::gentoo sys-devel/lld: 17.0.6::gentoo sys-devel/llvm: 17.0.6::gentoo, 18.1.5::gentoo sys-kernel/linux-headers: 6.8-r1::gentoo (virtual/os-headers) sys-libs/glibc: 2.39-r6::gentoo Repositories:
gentoo location: /vadb/repos/gentoo sync-type: rsync sync-uri: [rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage](rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage) priority: -1000 volatile: False sync-rsync-verify-metamanifest: yes sync-rsync-verify-jobs: 1 sync-rsync-verify-max-age: 3 sync-rsync-extra-opts:
guru location: /vadb/repos/guru sync-type: git sync-uri: https://github.com/gentoo-mirroguru.git masters: gentoo volatile: False
steam-overlay location: /vadb/repos/steam-overlay sync-type: git sync-uri: https://github.com/gentoo-mirrosteam-overlay.git masters: gentoo volatile: False
torbrowser location: /vadb/repos/torbrowser sync-type: git sync-uri: https://github.com/gentoo-mirrotorbrowser.git masters: gentoo volatile: False
Binary Repositories:
gentoobinhost priority: 1 sync-uri: https://distfiles.gentoo.org/releases/amd64/binpackages/23.0/x86-64
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64 ~amd64" ACCEPT_LICENSE="@FREE" CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe" CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /uslib64/libreoffice/program/sofficerc /usshare/config /usshare/gnupg/qualified.txt" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/dconf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d" CXXFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe" DISTDIR="/vacache/distfiles" ENV_UNSET="CARGO_HOME DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS DISPLAY GDK_PIXBUF_MODULE_FILE GOBIN GOPATH PERL5LIB PERL5OPT PERLPREFIX PERL_CORE PERL_MB_OPT PERL_MM_OPT XAUTHORITY XDG_CACHE_HOME XDG_CONFIG_HOME XDG_DATA_HOME XDG_RUNTIME_DIR XDG_STATE_HOME" FCFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe" FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-docompress binpkg-dostrip binpkg-logs binpkg-multi-instance buildpkg-live config-protect-if-modified distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles ipc-sandbox merge-sync merge-wait multilib-strict network-sandbox news parallel-fetch pid-sandbox pkgdir-index-trusted preserve-libs protect-owned qa-unresolved-soname-deps sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox usersync xattr" FFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org" LANG="C.UTF8" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,-z,pack-relative-relocs" LEX="flex" MAKEOPTS="-j4 -l4" PKGDIR="/vacache/binpkgs" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --omit-dir-times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages --exclude=/.git" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/vatmp" RUSTFLAGS="-C opt-level=3 -C target-cpu=native" SHELL="/bin/fish" USE="X a52 aac acl acpi alsa amd64 bluetooth branding bzip2 cairo cdda cdr cet crypt cups custom-cflags custom-optimization dbus dist-kernel dri dts dvd dvdr encode exif flac gdbm gif gpm gtk gui hwaccel iconv icu ipv6 jpeg lcms libnotify libtirpc lto mad mng mp3 mp4 mpeg multilib ncurses nls ogg opengl openmp pam pango pcre pdf pgo pipewire png policykit ppds qt5 readline savedconfig sdl seccomp sound spell ssl startup-notification svg systemd systemd-boot test-rust tiff truetype udev udisks unicode upower usb vorbis vulkan wayland wxwidgets x264 xattr xcb xft xml xv xvid zlib" ABI_X86="64" ADA_TARGET="gcc_12" APACHE2_MODULES="authn_core authz_core socache_shmcb unixd actions alias auth_basic authn_anon authn_dbm authn_file authz_dbm authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="karbon sheets words" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" CPU_FLAGS_X86="mmx mmxext sse sse2 aes avx avx2 f16c fma3 pclmul popcnt rdrand sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock greis isync itrax mtk3301 ntrip navcom oceanserver oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf skytraq superstar2 tsip tripmate tnt ublox" INPUT_DEVICES="synaptics libinput" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb text" LUA_SINGLE_TARGET="lua5-1" LUA_TARGETS="lua5-1" OFFICE_IMPLEMENTATION="libreoffice" PHP_TARGETS="php8-1" POSTGRES_TARGETS="postgres15" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python3_11" PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_11" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby31" VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia intel" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tarpit sysrq proto logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account" Unset: ADDR2LINE, AR, ARFLAGS, AS, ASFLAGS, CC, CCLD, CONFIG_SHELL, CPP, CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, CXX, CXXFILT, ELFEDIT, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, EXTRA_ECONF, F77FLAGS, FC, GCOV, GPROF, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, LD, LFLAGS, LIBTOOL, LINGUAS, MAKE, MAKEFLAGS, NM, OBJCOPY, OBJDUMP, PORTAGE_BINHOST, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PYTHONPATH, RANLIB, READELF, SIZE, STRINGS, STRIP, YACC, YFLAGS
The complete buildlog:

[32m * #[39;49;00mPackage: x11-libs/extest-1.0.2:0

[32m * #[39;49;00mRepository: steam-overlay

[32m * #[39;49;00mUSE: abi_x86_32 abi_x86_64 amd64 elibc_glibc kernel_linux

[32m * #[39;49;00mFEATURES: network-sandbox preserve-libs sandbox userpriv usersandbox

Unpacking source...

[32m*#[0m Loading autocfg-1.1.0.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading bitflags-1.3.2.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading bitvec-1.0.1.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading cc-1.0.83.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading cfg-if-1.0.0.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading dlib-0.5.2.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading downcast-rs-1.2.0.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading evdev-0.12.1.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading funty-2.0.0.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading hermit-abi-0.3.3.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading io-lifetimes-1.0.11.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading libc-0.2.150.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading libloading-0.8.1.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading log-0.4.20.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading memchr-2.6.4.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading memoffset-0.6.5.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading memoffset-0.7.1.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading nix-0.23.2.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading nix-0.26.4.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading once_cell-1.18.0.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading pkg-config-0.3.27.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading proc-macro2-1.0.70.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading quick-xml-0.28.2.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading quote-1.0.33.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading radium-0.7.0.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading scoped-tls-1.0.1.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading smallvec-1.11.2.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading syn-2.0.39.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading tap-1.0.1.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading thiserror-1.0.50.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading thiserror-impl-1.0.50.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading unicode-ident-1.0.12.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading wayland-backend-0.1.2.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading wayland-client-0.30.2.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading wayland-protocols-0.30.1.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading wayland-scanner-0.30.1.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading wayland-sys-0.30.1.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading windows-sys-0.48.0.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading windows-targets-0.48.5.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading windows_aarch64_gnullvm-0.48.5.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading windows_aarch64_msvc-0.48.5.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading windows_i686_gnu-0.48.5.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading windows_i686_msvc-0.48.5.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading windows_x86_64_gnu-0.48.5.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading windows_x86_64_gnullvm-0.48.5.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading windows_x86_64_msvc-0.48.5.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

[32m*#[0m Loading wyz-0.5.1.crate into Cargo registry ...

[A#[200C #[34;01m[ #[32;01mok#[34;01m ]#[0m

Unpacking extest-1.0.2.tar.gz to /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work Source unpacked in /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work Preparing source in /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2 ...

[32m*#[0m Will copy sources from /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2

[32m*#[0m abi_x86_32.x86: copying to /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2-abi_x86_32.x86

[32m*#[0m abi_x86_64.amd64: copying to /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2-abi_x86_64.amd64

Source prepared. Configuring source in /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2 ...

[32m*#[0m abi_x86_32.x86: running multilib-minimal_abi_src_configure

[32m*#[0m abi_x86_64.amd64: running multilib-minimal_abi_src_configure

Source configured. Compiling source in /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2 ...

[32m*#[0m abi_x86_32.x86: running multilib-minimal_abi_src_compile

[32m*#[0m cargo build --release --target=i686-unknown-linux-gnu

Compiling autocfg v1.1.0 Compiling proc-macro2 v1.0.70 Running `rustc --crate-name autocfg /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/cargo_home/gentoo/autocfg-1.1.0/src/lib.rs --error-format=json --json=diagnostic-rendered-ansi,artifacts,future-incompat --crate-type lib --emit=dep-info,metadata,link -C embed-bitcode=no -C debug-assertions=off -C metadata=83b06128b0a4b300 -C extra-filename=-83b06128b0a4b300 --out-dir /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2-abi_x86_32.x86/target/release/deps -L dependency=/vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2-abi_x86_32.x86/target/release/deps --cap-lints allow` Compiling libc v0.2.150 Compiling unicode-ident v1.0.12 Running `rustc --crate-name build_script_build --edition=2021 /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/cargo_home/gentoo/proc-macro2-1.0.70/build.rs --error-format=json --json=diagnostic-rendered-ansi,artifacts,future-incompat --crate-type bin --emit=dep-info,link -C embed-bitcode=no -C debug-assertions=off --cfg 'feature="default"' --cfg 'feature="proc-macro"' -C metadata=50035885a8e7fae6 -C extra-filename=-50035885a8e7fae6 --out-dir /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2-abi_x86_32.x86/target/release/build/proc-macro2-50035885a8e7fae6 -L dependency=/vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2-abi_x86_32.x86/target/release/deps --cap-lints allow` Running `rustc --crate-name build_script_build /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/cargo_home/gentoo/libc-0.2.150/build.rs --error-format=json --json=diagnostic-rendered-ansi,artifacts,future-incompat --crate-type bin --emit=dep-info,link -C embed-bitcode=no -C debug-assertions=off --cfg 'feature="default"' --cfg 'feature="extra_traits"' --cfg 'feature="std"' -C metadata=e9e3717942e8ea83 -C extra-filename=-e9e3717942e8ea83 --out-dir /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2-abi_x86_32.x86/target/release/build/libc-e9e3717942e8ea83 -L dependency=/vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2-abi_x86_32.x86/target/release/deps --cap-lints allow` Running `rustc --crate-name unicode_ident --edition=2018 /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/cargo_home/gentoo/unicode-ident-1.0.12/src/lib.rs --error-format=json --json=diagnostic-rendered-ansi,artifacts,future-incompat --crate-type lib --emit=dep-info,metadata,link -C embed-bitcode=no -C debug-assertions=off -C metadata=0cfa1fe52edbc200 -C extra-filename=-0cfa1fe52edbc200 --out-dir /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2-abi_x86_32.x86/target/release/deps -L dependency=/vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2-abi_x86_32.x86/target/release/deps --cap-lints allow` Compiling cfg-if v1.0.0 Running `rustc --crate-name cfg_if --edition=2018 /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/cargo_home/gentoo/cfg-if-1.0.0/src/lib.rs --error-format=json --json=diagnostic-rendered-ansi,artifacts,future-incompat --crate-type lib --emit=dep-info,metadata,link -C opt-level=3 -C embed-bitcode=no -C metadata=7d515e691a7da296 -C extra-filename=-7d515e691a7da296 --out-dir /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2-abi_x86_32.x86/target/i686-unknown-linux-gnu/release/deps --target i686-unknown-linux-gnu -L dependency=/vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2-abi_x86_32.x86/target/i686-unknown-linux-gnu/release/deps -L dependency=/vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2-abi_x86_32.x86/target/release/deps --cap-lints allow -C opt-level=3 -C target-cpu=native` error[E0463]: can't find crate for `core` = note: the `i686-unknown-linux-gnu` target may not be installed = help: consider downloading the target with `rustup target add i686-unknown-linux-gnu`

error[E0463]: can't find crate for `compiler_builtins`
For more information about this error, try `rustc --explain E0463`. error: could not compile `cfg-if` (lib) due to 2 previous errors
Caused by: process didn't exit successfully: `rustc --crate-name cfg_if --edition=2018 /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/cargo_home/gentoo/cfg-if-1.0.0/src/lib.rs --error-format=json --json=diagnostic-rendered-ansi,artifacts,future-incompat --crate-type lib --emit=dep-info,metadata,link -C opt-level=3 -C embed-bitcode=no -C metadata=7d515e691a7da296 -C extra-filename=-7d515e691a7da296 --out-dir /vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2-abi_x86_32.x86/target/i686-unknown-linux-gnu/release/deps --target i686-unknown-linux-gnu -L dependency=/vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2-abi_x86_32.x86/target/i686-unknown-linux-gnu/release/deps -L dependency=/vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2-abi_x86_32.x86/target/release/deps --cap-lints allow -C opt-level=3 -C target-cpu=native` (exit status: 1) warning: build failed, waiting for other jobs to finish...

[31;01m*#[0m ERROR: x11-libs/extest-1.0.2::steam-overlay failed (compile phase):

[31;01m*#[0m cargo build failed

[31;01m*#[0m

[31;01m*#[0m Call stack:

[31;01m*#[0m ebuild.sh, line 136: Called src_compile

[31;01m*#[0m environment, line 2461: Called multilib-minimal_src_compile

[31;01m*#[0m environment, line 1669: Called multilib_foreach_abi 'multilib-minimal_abi_src_compile'

[31;01m*#[0m environment, line 1936: Called multibuild_foreach_variant '_multilib_multibuild_wrapper' 'multilib-minimal_abi_src_compile'

[31;01m*#[0m environment, line 1629: Called _multibuild_run '_multilib_multibuild_wrapper' 'multilib-minimal_abi_src_compile'

[31;01m*#[0m environment, line 1627: Called _multilib_multibuild_wrapper 'multilib-minimal_abi_src_compile'

[31;01m*#[0m environment, line 525: Called multilib-minimal_abi_src_compile

[31;01m*#[0m environment, line 1663: Called multilib_src_compile

[31;01m*#[0m environment, line 2156: Called cargo_src_compile '--target=i686-unknown-linux-gnu'

[31;01m*#[0m environment, line 850: Called die

[31;01m*#[0m The specific snippet of code:

[31;01m*#[0m "${@}" die "cargo build failed"

[31;01m*#[0m

[31;01m*#[0m If you need support, post the output of `emerge --info '=x11-libs/extest-1.0.2::steam-overlay'`,

[31;01m*#[0m the complete build log and the output of `emerge -pqv '=x11-libs/extest-1.0.2::steam-overlay'`.

[31;01m*#[0m The complete build log is located at '/vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/temp/build.log'.

[31;01m*#[0m The ebuild environment file is located at '/vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/temp/environment'.

[31;01m*#[0m Working directory: '/vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2-abi_x86_32.x86'

[31;01m*#[0m S: '/vatmp/portage/x11-libs/extest-1.0.2/work/extest-1.0.2'

output of emerge -pqv '=x11-libs/extest-1.0.2::steam-overlay' :
[ebuild N ] x11-libs/extest-1.0.2 USE="-debug" ABI_X86="32 (64) (-x32)"
* IMPORTANT: 22 news items need reading for repository 'gentoo'. * Use eselect news read to view new items.
Thank you, I appreciate your help.

When buying a lifetime / pro set of wrenches, is this logic legit?

• First, you should get a FULL set of great, standard, combination wrenches. Full cuz it’s a PITA, expensive to get the rare/big/skip ones later. Strong cuz those are yer last attack; as in use a 6’ pipe extender and still not break/bend/strip.
  
• Second / Later, buy a fewer-number, popular sizes, cheaper set of ratcheting wrenches which you’ll use the most… but it’s OK if it fails cuz above. (Bonus points for flex head, reversible, both SAE & metric, etc.)
  
• Third, get the stubby wrenches, tbd combo or ratcheting, and the Large/Jumbo combo wrenches.
  

BUT… if weight/size constrained for a decade (due to college, pre-house, etc) THEN it’s schmarter to buy the Second ratcheting set first, but of better quality & both metric & SAE.
What’s wrong with that logic?
(Yes — full, easy, local warranty; Project Farm & Torque Test Channel rated; good store reviews; it’s known you’ll use tools forever; buy on sale after tracking prices, yada yada… this question is more about the thought process than make-model.)
And the great minds of Reddit say….

“T-this! This is madness!” Count Harmswid, one of the very few Human nobles of the Seraphic Empire, bellowed as his hand slammed into the table, sending scrolls flying onto the floor of his luxurious tent. “You’d be leaving me defenseless! I already have a manpower shortage, and now you’d deprive me of not just Wyverns but all of my mana users!?”
Standing across from him, seemingly unphased and unbothered by the outburst, was Tharivol, the Duchesses Dark Elf spymaster. Tharivol remained stoic as Count Harmonswid's face turned a shade of deep red; the veins on his neck bulged with every word. As the tirade continued, spittle started to fly from the human’s mouth, landing on the polished surface of the table and even on Tharivol's dark cloak. Yet, the spymaster's demeanor did not change; there was no sign of disgust, no flinch, no reaction whatsoever.
“Do you truly expect me to comply with such an insane request!? You and that damned charlatan have both lost your minds!” The Count sneered before spitting on the floor. “I cannot, and I shall not!”
Count Harmswid's rage seemed to swell within him, growing more intense with each passing moment. "I'll drag both you and that insufferable wench before the Court of Houses!" he thundered, his voice echoing off the high walls of the chamber. "You think you can force a noble of my standing to forfeit his property and forces unjustly? The court will see you stripped of your titles, your lands confiscated, and the Duchess fined! Perhaps you would even find yourself exiled, you insufferable curr!"
The air in the room grew heavy, charged with the count's threats and the tension of the confrontation. Yet, through it all, Tharivol remained as impassive as ever, his expression never wavering from its cold neutrality.
Once, the count's rant had finally run its course, leaving him panting and glaring across the table. "Do you truly intend not to comply with the Duchess's order?" Tharivol's voice was so calm and devoid of emotion that it seemed as if he was simply discussing the weather.
"NO!" The count's response was a furious shout, his hands slamming down onto the table with such force that it splintered beneath them. "I will not bend the knee to such outrageous demands!"
Unphased by the outburst, Tharivol eyes scanned the room, looking at all the Count's personal guards in attendance. Two mages and six mana-capable knights stood uncomfortably against the wall of the tent, just behind the count. "Is there nothing that will convince you otherwise?" The Dark Elf asked, bringing his eyes back to the Count. “Coin? Concessions? Favors?”
The count's face twisted with hatred at the mere suggestion of compromise. "I'd sooner turn my blade towards the Duchess herself than comply with anything that whore demands!" he spat venomously, the words dripping with disdain and loathing.
Tharivol simply nodded as if the count's refusal and insults were nothing more than he had expected. "Very well," he said, his voice still calm and unbothered, before looking behind him to two of his own guards who accompanied him.
These individuals wore unassuming attire, their features obscured behind black mosaic masks that shifted and morphed in subtle ways. Anyone looking at the masks would find their gaze unfocused, slipping across them as if they were merely part of the background. Beneath their dark cloaks was sleek armor made of a substance unfamiliar to the count, a strange blend that was neither quite metal nor leather.
"Take the Count's head and slay any who resist," Tharivol commanded his guards and turned back to the Count.
But before his eyes could leave the two shadow-like figures, their forms surged forward like a wisping darkness, their movements far too fast for any being's eye to comfortably track. Each unsheathed, jagged, wicked-looking blades, as long as one's forearms. There were subtle differences between each weapon, but they all had one thing in common. And that was the fact that they seemed to be forged from a strange blood-red metal that made people’s blood run cold.
The Count and his guard's eyes widened as they flinched back and grabbed at their weapons. However, before they could properly react, these ghosts were faster. Not a single sword left their sheathe, and not a word was chanted before blood was drawn.
As Harmswid opened his mouth to scream, a terrifying silence took hold instead. The world spun into a vortex of chaos, colors blurring and shapes warping as if reality itself was unraveling around him. Orders died on his lips, replaced by a mute plea for his men to save him.
Then, he crashed to the ground, dizzy and disoriented. All sense of time and place dissolved while his mind struggled to comprehend the nightmare unfolding before him. He was trapped in a maelstrom of motion where his guards – his paragons of strength – were being ruthlessly dismembered.
The dark figures moved with a terrifying and unnatural speed. They were blurs of motion armed with those wicked, crimson-tinged blades felling season knights that were once symbols of power and protection as if they were pigs lambs brought to feasts. Their armor offered no resistance as it was pierced effortlessly, and their cries were cut short, transforming into wet gurgles and sickening thuds as they collapsed.
Blood splattered the interior of the tent, a gruesome crimson rain painting what had once been a place of noble authority into a scene of carnage. His loyal protectors, those who were supposed to be his shield, were now nothing but lifeless corpses strewn across the ground.
Through his terror, the Count saw Tharivol out of the corner of his eye. The dark elf stood unmoved, a cold spectator observing a symphony of violence orchestrated by his will. With one more attempted gasp, Harmswid’s world plunged into darkness.
With an air of nonchalant finality, Tharivol strolled forward. He bent down, not a hint of bother on his face, and retrieved the severed head of Count Harmswid. The dark elf held the head aloft, examining it with a clinical detachment as if it were merely a curious specimen and not the remnants of a once powerful man.
"Hopefully, this will deter others from such foolishness,” Tharivol remarked with a chilling yet humored voice. “I’m sure there will be a few more unwise enough to disobey our mistress, but let they and Count Harmswid serve as… palpable enough deterrent to insubordination.”
The Dark Elf spun on his heel and strode confidently towards the tent flap while his masked guards moved like shadows in his wake. What had transpired was as swift as it was horrifying, from start to finish. The once opulent pavilion, a symbol of the Count's authority, had become a macabre slaughterhouse in mere seconds, and the air hung thick with the metallic tang of blood.
Tharivol moved with the grace of a predator. He grasped a fistful of the Count's hair, casually swinging the severed head as he left the carnage behind. Stepping out of the tent, a scene of utter chaos greeted him.
A cataclysmic roar had ripped through the air, an earth-shattering crash rattled the bones of every being within earshot. Tents flailed wildly, torn from their moorings and scattered like scraps of paper by the force of the blast. Men were thrown off their feet, rolling across the dirt in a desperate bid for stable ground.
And the source of such devastation was the immense silhouette of a black dragon. A very old and very powerful black dragon of monstrous proportions. Its landing had been a display of raw power; the earth itself sundered from its weight, cracking and buckling as the beast settled into place, and smoke curled from its nostril as its massive wings slowly unfurled.
To Tharivol's left, a figure stood resolute against the swirling chaos. Clad in heavy plate armor, augmented by the bones and scales of vanquished wyverns. One of the Duchess's most powerful and he was a testament to the mistress’s influence and strength. The great warrior's hide cloak buffeted violently in the maelstrom, yet he remained steadfast, utterly unmoving. His massive sword was driven deep into the earth, his hands folded gently over the hilt, as he stared maliciously towards the soldiers and mages toppling head over heel.
Striding past the warrior, Tharivol moved effortlessly underneath the dragon's colossal wingspan until reached the other side, where a panicked crowd was already gathering. He held up the Count's head for all to see and amplified his cold voice with magic, causing it to reverberate across the encampment.
"YOUR TREACHEROUS LORD IS NO MORE!" Tharivol bellowed, "HE CHOSE DEFIANCE! HE CHOSE DEATH! AND THUS THE FATE OF ALL WHO CHOOSE SELF-INTEREST OVER THE IMPERIAL WAR EFFORT!”
The gathered soldiers gasped, their faces twisting into a mixture of shock, disbelief, and abject terror. This was a display of power unlike anything they had ever witnessed - the swift brutality, the utter disregard for a noble life, and now, the raw might embodied by the massive dragon that cast its imposing shadow over them all.
A wave of shock and outrage swept throughout the Count's retinue. They stood frozen for moments, hands clenching around sheathed weapons, before the reality of the situation sunk in. Their lord was dead, his head held aloft like a grotesque trophy a damned dark elf who stood before them. Yet, their fury was tempered by the sight of the colossal monstrosity looming above the foul man.
Not even the stoic knight captain, his battle-scarred face creased in anguish, dared break the uneasy silence that had descended upon them. His eyes flicked between the severed head and what he considered the largest and oldest dragon he’d ever seen in his damnable life. It was bad enough one of the Duchess’s hero showed up, but with this monster here, all thoughts of vengeance were crushed beneath the weight of gaping maw staring at him.
Tharivol lowered the head, allowing it swinging morbidly in his grip as he marched straight to the knight captain. Halting mere inches from the man, the Dark Elf looked down at him through his nose despite the fact that he was a head shorter than the gruff knight. But how tall one was mattered very little at the current moment. For the poor captain fought to maintain any semblance of calm as his entire body trembled, not from mere cold, but from a primal, instinctual terror.
"Gather your mana users. Assemble the wyverns, good captain." Tharivol commanded, his voice still magically amplified. "You will report to the Duchess in Aldenshore, and with haste. I trust," here Tharivol's gaze flicked meaningfully towards the dragon, "that you understand the urgency of this order?"
His tone carried not a hint of a question, but the chilling finality of an ultimatum. The Duchess' word was now law and the dragon was both enforcer and a grim reminder of the consequences of disobedience. Should the captain hesitate, should he choose to dally, the monstrous creature would likely make a far bloodier example than even the Count's brutal end.
The knight captain could only bow his head and utter a hoarse, "Aye, my lord." Compliance, however grudging, was the only path to survival. Defiance meant not just death for himself but the annihilation of his men. No amount of courage or pride could bridge the chasm of power that lay between them.
An expression like a viper's grin spread across Tharivol’s face. A macabre amusement flitted into his eyes as he raised Count Harmswid's head once more, slapping the lifeless cheek in a grotesque mockery of applause. "Very good!" he declared, his amplified voice carrying an undercurrent of cruel delight.
"You shall rest this day and prepare. But," his tone turned as sharp as a dagger, "do not keep us waiting. To delay the Duchess... well, that would be oh so very unwise."
With a final flourish, Tharivol spun on his heel and marched away, but just before the Dark Elf disappeared below the hulking mass of the Dragon, The Knight Captain attempted to rise to his feet. "Wait, my lord!" The man stammered out as his hand reached out.
However, the sudden movement had caught the dragon's attention. With a rumble that reverberated through the encampment, its massive head dipped low. Twin nostrils flared, expelling twin plumes of superheated plasma, as its eyes narrowed, burning with fury.
The knight captain let out a yelp, a terrified sound he hadn't made since childhood. His body recoiled as if struck, and his legs had given way beneath him as he fell on his rear.
Tharivol paused, turning back with feigned concern. His voice dripped with theatrical sympathy, "Oh dear, is there some problem, good captain?" He let the question hang in the air before bursting into a peal of chilling laughter.
With a dramatic gesture, he addressed the knight captain once more. "Well then, Captain, go on! What is it that troubles you so?" There was an odd playfulness in the dark elf's tone that sent chills down every man in the Count’s army’s spine.
Panic surged through the knight captain. Caught between the titanic dragon and the mocking presence of the dark elf, fear threatened to swallow him whole. Each raspy breath seemed to drag against his throat, the super-heated air of the dragon's breath filling his nostrils. It was an intoxicating mix of molten metal and sulfur, a scent that seemed to speak of fiery annihilation.
He scrambled back even further as the dragon's head moved closer. Desperation lent his words a frenzied edge. "W-what of the food stores, my lord? Our gathered supplies? And the men – the rest of the soldiers? Shall they march to Aldenshore with us, or... or remain?" The words tumbled out, laced with the fear of asking the wrong question, of drawing further ire.
Tharivol approached the man before halting a comfortable distance away. The knight captain flinched, averting his gaze from the dragon, and fixing it on the ground and started whispering prayers and reciting passages from the holy text of his god. Tharivol tilted his head, a curious, almost amused glint in his dark eyes.
For a tense moment, he simply observed the knight captain, letting the silence stretch between them before heaving a heavy sigh. “Do you speak of the mundane?" His tone was flippant, laced with a hint of disdain. "Take them, leave them – it is of no concern to me.” He answered, waving his hand dismissively. “Now that you have your answer… do not bother me with such trivial matters again. I have much more pressing concerns and so little time."
As Tharivol walked away, the knight captain scrambled to his feet. “Y-You heard ‘em! Git yer asses movin’ less ya want to be Dragon feed!” The man ordered with fear evident in his voice as the Dark Elf disappeared beneath the dragon. “And send word to the Wyvern camps of our new orders!”
Silence reigned at the order as everyone stood stock still, but everyone was kicked into overdrive with one last snort from the monster. Soldiers, mages, and workers of every type scramble about with panicked efficiency. Carts were hastily loaded, men and women ran to and fro with bundles of supplies, and the injured were loaded onto wagons with utmost care. Within minutes, the once serene camp was transformed into a whirlwind of purposeful chaos.
And as the madness unfolded, in a distant tree line, Coleman and his ODA team watched silently, peering through the optics of their weapons and purpose-built surveillance tools.
“Fuck… is that our target’s head?” Schwarz suddenly spoke up hushedly as he peered through the high-powered optic of his precision rifle. “I think that’s his head…”
Coleman released an exasperated sigh as he watched with a camouflaged high-powered surveillance device as the strange dark-skinned man walked away with the noble's head in hand. “Yep… Yep, that’s his head…” He nearly growled in annoyance. “Damnit…”
"Wait, isn't this a good thing? We don't gotta kill him," Bennett piped up, a note of confusion in his voice.
Elijah cut him off, the usual lighthearted tone gone from his voice. "No, dipshit, we wanted to bag 'em for questioning," he gestured at the chaotic camp with the barrel of his rifle, "and we can’t question a corpse."
“All units, this is Baron actual.” Coleman quietly spoke into his headphones as he informed the litany of multinational special operations forces that were positioned or prowling around in preparation for the assault on this camp. “Change of plans, our targets KIA from internal fighting.”
“Baron actual, this is Warlock actual.” An Australian Special Air Services Regiment (SASR) team came over the net. “That’s a BIG fackin’ cunt, mate... I’m not so sure about this one.”
No one could fault the assessment. That monstrosity of a dragon was well over 100 meters from snout to tail, and hefty enough to tank most of their firepower. "Baron actual, copy that Warlock. Standby, we’re trying to figure something out."
“This is Bravo actual. Yeah, I have agree with Warlock. This suddenly got a lot more dangerous. I don’t think the operation’s worth it with this thing hanging around." A new voice came over the net belonging to the Polish Commandos, the Jednostka Wojskowa Komandosów (JWK), and gave his opinion on the matter.
The chatter from other teams confirmed the general sentiment. They came in relatively light hoping to do a lightning raid and bug out. Engaging this creature felt like a suicide mission. Sure they could hit with every Javelin or Anti-Tank weapon they had, but no one was convinced they’d be able to land a killing blow and unless someone got lucky and domed the fucker.
“I can’t believe we’re blue balled by a big fackin’ lizard.” The Aussies voice echoed throughout everyone headphones. “What do ya think? Should we pull out?”
Coleman rubbed a weary hand across his eyes. The Aussie had put it crudely, but the sentiment was spot on. The mission was a bust. The tactical dilemma they faced had become far more complicated with the appearance of these newcomers and their dragon.
“Warlock, hold one.” Coleman responded before leanning back against a fallen tree.
A frustrated and heavy breath left the ODA team leader’s mouth as he popped off his helmet, exposing his hair to the hot summer air. As he contemplated his optins while his hand rubbed across his admittedly greasy hair. It had been quite some time since he had a proper shower and, the dirt was starting to build up.
As he thought of way to continue the mission, every scenario he spun out in his mind unraveled before it could take shape. Assault the camp now? With that dragon in the mix, it was madness. Their firepower was decent, but not against a beast of that size and unknown resilience. The thing would torch them before they knew what was going on.
Sneak in, grab what intel they could? Nah… that was stupider than whatever some private fresh out of bootcamp would think up. The goal was not to be decisively engaged.
The Poles and Aussies had a point. Maybe the best course of action was to just to bugger off and keep and element here to observe and mark the location for when the ground pounders came in. But that almost felt like it was a waste… Here they had a prime opportunity to turn a village into a clandestine staging point and letting go of that idea felt… wrong.
Just as another sigh left Colemans mouth, an earth-shattering roar split the air. The team leader whipped his head up, expecting the worst case scenario. The dragon had erupted into flury of motion, as the whirlwind of claws, wings, and raw power tookeof, blowing debris across the camp and scattering tents like leaves in a storm.
But it didn't attack.
The gargantuan creature circled for a moment, leaving a sinister shadow against the clear blue sky, before banking and soaring eastwards.
Coleman blinked, momentarily disoriented by the sudden shift in the situation. A hundred thoughts raced through his head. Where was it going? It didn’t notice us? Would it return? But Within seconds, the beast had vanished into the distance.
Then, a flicker of opportunity flashed across his eyes. “This Baron actual, let’s wait a bit and see what happens...” Coleman suggested with a predatory grin spreading across his face.

If you'd like to read unreleased chapters and drafts, head on over to my Patreon
You can find the art of the characters Here
Join our Tactical Operations Center on Discord: https://discord.gg/qDnQfg4EX3
[First] [Previous] [Next]

Sorry this took so long, kinda got caught up.
Don't have too much to say, other than Maple Whiskey is rapidly becoming one of my favorite drinks, and I'm sorry this took so long to come out. Real life kinda got in the way for a bit (I have one of those?), and I had to put stuff on the backburner. Sorry.
That about covers it.
Previous/Main/Discord/Next
_________________________________
Fries limped his way down the ship’s hallways, using the wall to his right to support himself. Twisted metal and debris littered the hallways, but it had clearly not come from this sector. He was in the center of the ship, far enough away that nothing was dangerously damaged yet, but they were obviously putting stuff in the wide, CEVA-rated hallways for the time being. He gritted his teeth from the pain and was forced to take short, shallow breaths as he walked. He clutched his side as he shuffled along, almost wishing that he was in one of the suits to help support him.
“Fuck me.” He muttered, pausing for a moment outside of his room to breathe. He was about to type in his code to unlock the door when he realized that it was already unlocked. Not sure why and fearing the worst, he drew his personal pistol from the back of his suit’s waistband, keeping it close in to himself to make sure that it couldn’t get pulled away from him. Exhaling sharply as he brought his arm away from his chest to hit the button that opened the door.
It quickly slid open with a sharp hiss and allowed him into the room. The lights were on, and the room didn’t seem to be different, but he distinctly remembered having locked the room prior. He slowly walked in, trying to clear as much as possible while coming in. He took note of the new bag in the room, but couldn’t see anything else new in the room.
His attention was rapidly divided by a shipwide alert that the admiral had left the vessel, causing him to turn around suddenly.
“You alright?” a voice behind him asked, causing him to rapidly turn around to aim the gun, but wound up hurting him more and causing him to drop to one knee.
“What in the fuck are you doing in my room?” the ODST whispered, barely able to speak from pain.
“Got moved down here for safety, you can ask Donahue.” she stated, helping him up and taking the gun from him.
“Got it… he just left the ship?” he asked, immediately attempting to lay himself down on the bed.
“Yeah, he’s heading to see the Tikaqick.” Firdaus stated with a slight bit of disdain in her voice.
“You got a problem with them?” the ODST muttered, barely looking at her.
“Not as many as with my own people, but certainly a fair number of problems with them.” she hissed, helping the man move towards the bathroom.
“You’re going to need to explain, but in a bit. I have like six different bandages to switch.” Fries grunted, closing the door behind him.
_____
“Sir?” the lieutenant Marine beside him asked, racking a round into her rifle’s chamber, “You alright?”
“Hmm?” The man asked, his head quickly snapping up to look at her, “Oh, yes. I’m fine.”
“You’re sure?” she asked again, watching as the man sealed on his helmet.
“Yes.” He nodded, shooting a glance back at the ship they left from, “Yes… it’s not my first time doing this…”
The crew continued on in relative silence. The Marines and ODSTs were a mix of the two crews, one of each being from the old crew and one of each being the replacement crew. The Marine Lieutenant was one of the new crew, along with the ODST Sergeant. The Marine Sergeant and ODST Captain, however, were both well experienced in combat.
“We’re approaching the landing bay.” The pilot called out over radio, “Thirty seconds.”
“Copy that.” Donahue nodded, standing up and bracing himself against the roof to avoid floating around, “Well… Guess it’s that time again.”
“There’s no CIA on board and the ship isn’t a USS.” The Marine sergeant stated, unbuckling himself but not standing up, “It’ll be different this time.”
“Let’s hope not. Flu’ron’s still on board.” James Orwell, the xenobiologist muttered, attempting to raise his reflective visor, to little avail.
The Marine floated over and helped the man with his visor before floating towards the pilots’ cabin door and letting himself in, floating between the two so he could see out the front window.
“Siddown, Sergeant.” One of the pilots muttered, not looking back as he did minute adjustments to the ship’s trajectory as they approached.
“This whole damn thing could be made of gold…” The Marine muttered, magnetically locking himself to the floor and kneeling down as they approached.
“Crossing threshold, standby for turbulence.” One of the pilots radioed out, a hydraulic whine reverberating through the ship’s hull as they lowered the landing gear.
“Back and seal the hatch, Sergeant.” The other pilot snapped, barely looking back at the Marine, instead focusing on the windows and displays ahead of them.
“Copy that.” The Marine nodded, taking the time to check the two pilots’ weapons stowed behind their chairs before floating himself back into the crew compartment and sealing the hatch behind him.
“Ten seconds to landing. Artificial Gravity is off in the bay, disarming OMS.” A pilot called out, still keeping a smooth voice about him, “Threshold crossed, stand by.”
The ship seemed to do nothing for a moment before a very light shudder echoed through the hull, followed by a sharp, metallic ‘thud’.
“We have contact, maglocks engaged.” The first pilot informed.
“Gravity systems and harmonics coming online. Disengaging RCS.” the second pilot called out, likely talking to his partner over the crew in the back. After a few seconds of silence, the ship seemed to spool down and orange lights came on in the back of the crew compartment, showing up just over the CEVA-sized, round airlock doors at the sides of the craft and above the regularly-sized hexagonal door at the back of the craft. After a moment, a female robotic voice called out ‘Pressure stable’ and the lights switched to green.
“We’re down. Thank you for flying Air Peregrine, please take your bags from the overhead compartments and leave in an orderly fashion.” one of the pilots called out, putting on an extremely good and smooth ‘airline’ voice.
“You are aware that you’re talking to an Admiral, right.?” the Marine Lieutenant asked, seemingly disappointed at the pilot.
“Oh, I imagine he does.” Donahue smiled, motioning for the ODSTs to head out the door first.
The two armored figures were already moving towards the door, letting the ladder come out first before checking pressure one last time and opening the rear door. To their shock and horror, the void of space lay just outside the door, though nothing was losing pressure.
“Plasma barrier?” a Marine asked, his voice faltering slightly when he saw the smoking form of the Dracula in the distance.
“Something like that…” James muttered, waiting for the Admiral to head down the ladder after the ODSTs before following him down.
There were no aliens directly off their ship, which surprised them slightly, but gave the crew time to prepare themselves. They were supposed to form a ‘triangle’ with Donahue at the front, the two ODSTs behind him, and the two Marines on either side of James, behind the ODSTs. However, they had more than enough time to prepare, to the point of it becoming awkward. The team moved to the left side of the Ranger, and sat in waiting. The Marine Sergeant began to get skeptical and checked the chamber of his rifle while his reflective visor dropped into place, subtly preparing for a conflict.
However, before their thoughts could fester any further, a door off the left-side nose of the Ranger opened to reveal the creatures that owned the ship. They were around the same height as a Human, albeit seeming a little taller on average. They were obviously Avian-esque, with short, stubby, owl-like faces, in opposition to the long beaks of Afi’end. They had two large eyes just behind their beak, with what appeared to be two sets of closed eyelids underneath them. Their feathers were gray and black, with a small amount of crow-like iridescence in them. They had long wings which wrapped around their bodies, making a ‘cloak’ around them. Their legs were similar to that of an Afi’end’s, but seemed slightly thinner.
They wore thick, heavily stylized armor. It had gold plating with ivory and blue-diamond accents, glassy pauldrons, and other, seemingly glowing, lines and accents in it.
The rest of the ship looked similar; with gold, ivory, and blue-diamond glass seeming to come from all parts of the ship. The ship looked incredibly clean, with no smudging seeming to come from anything except the Humans. The flight deck they were on was made of some kind of ivory-esque compound as well, with the only scuffs on it being from the RCS thrusters the Ranger had used earlier. Against the gold, whites, and blues of the alien vessel, the greens, grays, and oranges of the Human suits contrasted hard;
Donahue’s suit was nothing special, nor was it too dirty, but it was not perfectly hermetic, like the rest of the ship seemed to be. James’ suit did seem to fit their criteria of cleanliness everywhere except his boots, where it was obvious that he hadn’t put hours of work into cleaning the dirt out of the fabric on the last surface mission he had done. The Marines’s suits were the most well-loved; boasting patches of stained mud, foliage, and other assorted junk all over the suit. The ODSTs were clearly battle-damaged, however: Cuts and scrapes into the plating could be seen around the arms and chest, with plasma burns etched into the metal of the helmet on the more experienced man.
Donahue almost wished he had been able to wash his suit now, but he hoped they would understand.
“Hey, we’re not the only ones to bring armed guards.” The ODST to his right stated.
“Oh thank Christ.” Donahue muttered, shifting his reflective faceplate up, “I would have felt awful if they trusted us that much.”
“Feel better, they don’t.” The ODST muttered back, standing up straighter as the aliens approached.
“Admiral Donahue?” the creature at the front of the group asked, looking at the admiral in the front of his own group.
“Captain Kinlykc?” Donahue asked, stepping towards the aliens. The creature seemed mildly amused at the Admiral’s suit, but went back to looking him in the eyes shortly after.
There was an awkward silence for a moment before the alien decided that it was likely in everyone’s best interests if something was said.
“Apologies for my awkwardness in this situation; it has been a long time since I’ve had the pleasure of doing a proper first-contact scenario.” it stated, clearly motioning for his own guards behind him to be less on-guard. The Humans were taken aback a bit, as the creature didn’t move his mouth to speak, but more seemed to emanate the words from itself.
Donahue nodded, but didn’t have to motion to his own men, as they had already come to stand down themselves.
“Entertainingly enough, I was still captaining that ship out there for our true first contact.” Donahue nodded, making sure that both his hands were visible in front of him.
“Really?” the avian asked, motioning for the admiral to follow him deeper into the ship, “Is your ship the only one in your fleet?”
Donahue paused for a moment before following the alien Captain, motioning for his team to follow shortly behind him.
“Negative, we’re just lucky.” The Admiral smiled, attempting to hide his trepidation through humor. The ODSTs were just as slow to follow behind, but eventually caught back up, seemingly worried about leaving the pilots alone. They were brought into a wide hallway. It had the same stylings as the docking bay had, but seemed to have ‘tiling’ instead of the solid piece that the other room had. James slowly pushed his way through the column of armored personnel and wound up beside the Admiral.
“Umm, excuse me, Captain Kinlykc?” He asked, fiddling with his suit to attempt to make sure the external speakers were working.
“Yes?” the avian asked, looking back at the scientist.
“How… are you talking?” He asked, not sure whether the question was to be considered rude or not, “As in, your mouth isn’t moving, how are you talking to us?”
After the scientist clarified himself, the avian seemed to understand the question.
“We do not breathe through our mouth, I’m assuming like you do then.” It nodded, tapping on its beak and unfolding its wings. It raised its arms and pointed at a set of openings under the creature’s armpits, “We breathe and vocalize through these.”
James was speechless for a moment, but the Admiral was relatively sure that was because he was deciding whether or not it was entirely wrong to lean in closer for a better look.
“If you do not mind me asking a question of my own, what are the clothes you’re wearing?” The avian asked, motioning to everybody except the ODSTs, “Are they your uniforms?”
“These?” James repeated, pulling at his suit, “These are pressure suits. To keep our own atmosphere in.”
“But why?” The bird asked, continuing down the path, “We scanned your vessel as the door opened to analyze what your atmosphere was to accommodate, and they were almost identical.”
"We pressurized our vessel to the bay’s atmosphere.” Donahue stated, nodding at the two, “Our atmospheres are similar, and very breathable, but not the same.”
“Why the pressurized suits then? We can breathe the same atmosphere, no?”
“Our people are not nearly as advanced as some others, who can do bacterial scans of atmospheres before they even land to make sure that neither side will infect the other. We cannot do that, so we hermetically seal off from everybody else to avoid infecting them.” James stated, finishing Donahue’s explanation.
That was an answer that seemed to sit well with the avian, who nodded at them and continued down the hallways.
_____
Kinsey practically dive-rolled out of her vessel’s docking port and into the Dracula’s gravity field, her helmetless RHEV suit’s bulk causing her to roll erratically to the side. She quickly got back up and started jogging her way to the other side of the ship, her quickly-moving, armored figure moving everybody out of her way. She wasn’t in any actual hurry, but the message did have to be delivered relatively quickly.
She quickly dog-legged down a side hallway and towards flight bay 3, near the primary medical bay. As soon as she was at the area, she started heading back towards the outer hull of the ship again, turning only when she was directly on a course with the med bay. After a few moments of running, she turned into the medbay, where Flu’ron was inspecting a rifle another Marine had given him.
“Feathers!” she called out, skidding to a halt outside the door.
“Oh Hells.” Flu’ron muttered as he looked up at her. He handed the rifle back to the Marine and walked towards her, “What do you need, Doctor?”
“Only us Marines can call him ‘Feathers’.” the Marine muttered, putting on a fake pout for her.
“Look!” She exclaimed, ignoring the Marine’s protest and shoving a datapad into the avian’s face.
After pulling back a bit, he took the pad from her and started reading the text on it. After a moment, during which the Marine came over to see what the commotion was, Flu’ron looked up from the pad and nodded at her.
“Well… Goddamn!” He smiled, handing the pad back and pulling out his own tablet, “One-hundred. Going your way.”
“Woah, hold on, I think I missed something. What’s going on?” the Marine asked, confused as to why the Afi’end was sending the scientist money.
“Her brother, who was listed KIA a month and a half ago, is not dead.” Flu’ron explained calmly, watching as the scientist practically bounced off the walls with excitement. He wasn’t sure whether it was because of the money or that Frost was still alive.
“And the fucker made it onto Xalantun before me!” Kinsey stated, calming down enough to get the words out.
“You saw the ‘sent’ date, right?” Flu’ron stated, making sure she knew how recently she had received it.
“Three hours, forty-five minutes ago!” she stated, nodding enthusiastically.
“If the round-trip time isn’t that long, why’d it take him nearly a month to respond?” Flu’ron asked, just sitting down to enjoy the show.
“I’ve got two theories; either he’s been too busy to respond, or this is the first time he’s gotten a data dump in months.” She stated, “Where’s Firdaus, she owes me money!”
Flu’ron shrugged, but the Marine perked up, “To my knowledge, she’s down in Deck 5, section 6, subsection 3, room 156. She’s keeping hidden from the alien ships around us.”
Kinsey perked up at that knowledge, suddenly looking concerned, “Hold on, what?”
“Yeah, she’s residing in an ODST’s room, to my knowledge. Not sure why she’s hiding though. I’m not saying anything to anybody who isn’t a crewmember on board this ship though, aside from you, doc; she wants to stay hidden, we’ll keep her that way.”
“In an ODST’s room?” Kinsey asked, looking immediately at Flu’ron.
“He’s got four broken ribs, you need to go stop her.” the avian stated, rolling his eyes, “I’ll prep the machines, just in case.”
“Ok, I gotta check on two things with her then.” Kinsey stated, nodding at the two before running out of the room and yelling “Carry on!” at the pair.
_____
“Peregrine, we’re going deeper into the vessel, think you can handle yourselves?” The Marine Sergeant asked, slinging his rifle onto his back.
“Hey! Keep that thing out!” the Lieutenant snapped, motioning to his gun again.
The man rolled his eyes, but unlimbered his rifle again.
“Copy that, Praetor. We’re good for the time being.”
“Understood. Keep us apprised, yeah?” the Marine radioed back, shifting his suit around to relieve a pinch he had created in his armpit.
“Copy that, Praetor. Out.” one of the pilots responded back, killing the communications network afterwards. The Marines and ODSTs walked alongside the Admiral and xenobiologist in silence, taking intrigued glances down hallways as they passed them, and receiving intrigued glances back from aliens as they passed them in the hallways. They weren’t entirely privy to the conversation that was happening ahead of them, but they weren’t looking to be part of it either. The two veterans were far more interested in getting a good look at the ship than having to talk to anybody, and the two newer members were still too paranoid to pay attention to anything other than their duties.
They were brought into an unoccupied room with a large window that looked out into the deep space just beyond, though the Dracula and other alien vessel blocked the view. The guards from both species gave a quick visual sweep of the room as they came in. Upon watching the Tikaqick guards sit down or generally relax, the veteran ODST and Marine slung their weapons and moved towards the back of the room, motioning for the other two to do so as well. Despite obvious hesitation to do so, they eventually moved to the back with the other two soldiers.
“So what, if you are able to tell me, are your people doing out here?” Captain Kinlykc asked, glancing back at the soldiers momentarily before returning his gaze to the Human ship.
“Sadly, I am not able to give you our reasoning for being out here. That’s not exactly something I can give away freely.” Donahue sighed, not even sure why he’d actually have to explain that, “What I can tell you is that we weren’t planning to be out this far.”
“Really?” the avian asked, looking at the man with surprise, “Scans have indicated that your vessel is prepared for long-range assignments, based on compartmentalization and areas theorized to be for food.”
Donahue raised an eyebrow at the statement, realizing that they likely had a near-perfect model of the interior of the ship if they could theorize about the ship’s rooms, even if they couldn’t entirely see the contents of the rooms. He was relatively concerned at the revelation, but didn’t let it show.
“Well, that ship is a modification of our first attempt at a long-range exploration ship, but the project was canceled five years before first contact.” Donahue explained, watching as a few suited figures climbed around the hull of his vessel, “There were only ever three of the ships created, all of which got converted to combat duty."
“Really? I know they got converted, but what became of the other vessels?” the avian asked, seemingly entranced by the same men on the hull.
“Well, the Armstrong-Class exploration vessels, named the AC-00 J.T.K., AC-01 J. Harker, and AC-02 M. Reynolds, were all brought back to our home planet as soon as possible, be that from assignment or construction, for retrofit.” Donahue explained, turning away from the window so he could better look at the avian, who saw the gesture and did the same, “The J.T.K. was a prototype, and was axed shortly thereafter. The Reynolds was renamed to Serenity and moved to be part of the United States Space Force, but was destroyed on assignment after the newly-fitted reactors went on runaway and melted half the ship off.”
“And the J. Harker?” it asked, indicating towards the window, clearly already knowing the answer.
Donahue nodded and motioned out the window, “Refused the new reactors, renamed to Dracula, joined the USSF, made first contact, made first contact negotiations, made first Human-to-alien combat, limped back to our space, received the first official ship-systems AI, became the first ship in the UNITF a year later, and still remains in combat as the oldest space combat ship in our service. As a species.”
The bird looked at the vessel with a new form of respect in its eyes, though whether for the crew or the vessel was unknown. It gave a shallow nod to the vessel before turning back to the man in front of him, “How old is it?”
Donahue had to pause to think for a moment, trying to remember everything he could about his ship.
“Well… the program to make them started nearly seventy years ago, and she was the first ‘production’ model. After decades of systems upgrades and additions, she’s the embodiment of Theseus’s ship, but her original christening would have been… forty-eight years ago.” He muttered, ignoring the confused look on the alien’s head when he mentioned Theseus, “I remember her first launch. I would have been around seven at the time.”
“How… Do you keep something like that running for that long? Especially if it’s a combat device.”
“Same way we keep the grandfather clock and jukebox in the primary lounge running; good care from a good crew.” Donahue nodded, watching as the blue sparks from a plasma cutter lit up a section of hull that was surrounded by CEVAs.
_____
“Watch it! Merde!” The Marine snapped out as Kinsey sprinted past him, intent on quickly making it to the room.
“Sorry! A life is at stake!” she called back, hearing another string of words in French that she didn’t care to translate yelled back at her.
The scientist slid to a halt in front of room 156, trying the door, then knocking on it rapidly. When nobody came to the door, she looked up and down the halls, locking eyes with the Marine, who was still watching her.
While still looking at him, she grabbed a tool out of her belt and started to plug it into a receptacle below the keypad.
“Code is two-five-four-eight.” The Marine called out, shaking his head and just walking away.
“Oh.” was all she could manage, pausing for a second to put the tool away before waving back at the Marine, “Thanks, Frenchie.”
“Je m'appelle Mauvieux…” he mumbled from down the hall, turning down another hall, seemingly to get away from her and the scene of the crime.
She ignored him entirely as she punched in the code and hit the button to open the door. The door had barely slid open entirely before she slipped inside and looked around for the snake.
“Firdaus, don’t! His ribs are-” She started, pausing when she realized that the snake was not doing anything other than sitting curled up in a corner of the room, a book in her hands. She looked surprised when she saw the suited Kinsey enter the room.
A door slid open to the scientist’s right, revealing the ODST she was looking for. Unfortunately, he was covered only by a towel around his waist, was clutching at his floating ribs with one arm, and had a pistol in his other hand, pointed directly at her head. As soon he recognized who he was looking at, he lowered the sidearm and leaned against the doorframe.
“Jesus Christ, Ev. What th’ fuck yeh doin’ in here?” He hissed, letting her take the gun from his hand and put it on a nearby desk, “And who th’ fuck gave you the emergency code to my door?”
“Someone who I forgot the name of.” Kinsey shrugged, stopping the man from bending over to pick up his clothes, which had been unceremoniously dumped onto the floor. She handed them to the ODST, who nodded at her and headed back into the bathroom, leaving the door open and hoping, or simply not caring, that the two women didn’t look into the room while he was dressing.
“Ok then, better question; and one I already asked you: Why the fuck are ya barging in here?” he wheezed out from the bathroom, obviously struggling a bit as he tried to dress himself.
“Making sure the thirty-odd foot long constrictor isn’t doing anything to the poor man with the four broken ribs.” She shrugged, shooting a shit-eating grin back at the snake, who flipped off the woman as she smiled back.
“Hey, don’t worry, I drew a gun on her as well.” Fries chuckled, grunting immediately afterwards. After a moment, he came out of the bathroom far more clothed than previous. He immediately went towards the scientist and gave her a quick, one-armed hug that leaned a fair deal of his weight on her, something that took her off-guard.
“Hey… you alright?” She asked, clearly realizing that something was wrong. She knew how the ODST usually acted, and he wasn’t generally the kind to hug without a stiff drink or three in him, let alone put weight on somebody else.
“Yeah, just… didn’t like what happened out there.” He sighed, pulling his weight off of her and going to lean against a wall.
“Didn’t hear what happened. You mind filling me in?” She muttered, moving to sit in a nearby chair. It creaked in protest to the woman’s suited 6’2” frame sitting down, but didn’t break.
“Thought I was going to die stranded out in the middle of fuck-off=nowhere space.” Fries wheezed, knocking his head on the wall behind him, “Kinda… put into perspective what I was told from day one was still a possibility.”
“Well, now I’m more interested in who told you what from the start.” She chuckled, clearly attempting to lighten the mood.
“Me mum always told me that I’d die alone in space, a billion and a half miles away from home.” He muttered somberly. He thought for a moment before his face twisted into a sad grin, “First time she’d shown concern for me in years.”
“Jesus, man. I’m sorry.” the woman muttered, feeling bad about her previous attempt at humor.
“Seriously; my condolences.” Firdaus piped up, simply sitting in her coils and watching the ODST sadly.
“Ehh… Whatever. That cunt never wanted to have me to begin with.” the man shrugged, grunting slightly as he sat down, “I did her a favor when I joined the forces.”
“That’s… not how you should look at that…” Kinsey muttered, standing up slightly when the man sat down, but sat back down when he waved her down.
“Ehh. Don’t care anymore. She’s six feet under an’ can’t bitch at me anymore.” He stated callously, rolling his eyes.
Kinsey quickly snapped to look at him, an expression of horror and sadness on her face. Firdaus seemed to share the same reaction as her, but was far less expressive in her movements.
“What the hell, dude?! Your mother died?! When! How?!” she exclaimed, getting out of her chair and motioning her arms out.
“Three years ago, MDMA overdose.” he muttered, clearly wanting the subject to change.
“Fuck…” the scientist muttered, picking up on the man’s clear reluctance to continue the conversation, “You could have said something.”
Fries paused for a moment, before simply shaking his head, “Nope.”
Kinsey paused for a heartbeat before nodding and stepping back towards the door, “Well, I’m sorry that there’s no better place to leave this at, but I’m going to head out.”
“Alright. Have a good time doc.” the ODST muttered, looking down at the floor for a moment before looking back up at her and nodding again, “Check in again sometime soon, yeah?”
“Yeah. Can do.” She nodded, opening his door and stepping out.

Book report guy back, with the Bryan Danielson book from 2014 and it has some fun backstage stories from his time in WWE!
Solid wrestling book, though not super memorable in my opinion. Some solid detail and dirt like you expect, but honestly it felt like he was holding back.
As always, it's in chronological order as best as I could do that. Hope y'all enjoy!
Bryan is a weird dude, while describing his adolescence, he casually says that he has a lot of weird hypothesis on various subjects, and we should ask Nigel McGuinness about Bryan's theory on how a penis grows. He doesn't expand on this more. He just says that and moves back to talking about his childhood.
Bryan rants a bit about how modern medicine has stunted human evolution because kids who would have died off got to live and reproduce and pass their "defects" onto the next generation. He says that he is one of those defects, sick all his childhood and sick a lot as an adult. He says that his wife Brie is also a "defect" but says she can share the details in her own book if she ever writes one.
When Bryan was 16 years old, he contacted Dean Melanko's wrestling school and was told it would cost him $2,500, but he needed a $500 deposit to secure his spot. Bryan was scared that there were hundreds of people on the waiting list and worked extra shifts at McDonald's in order to get the cash together asap. He put $500 deposit down for a wrestling school he couldn't go to for 2 more years.
Three months before Bryan graduated high school, the Melanko Wrestling School contacted to inform Bryan that the school was shutting down permanently. When Bryan asked for his $500 back, he was told that they no longer had it and that he was SOL.
While watching Monday Night RAW, an ad flashed advertising a 900 number (an old pay-per-minute phone concept that was always a money drain on the caller), and it advertised Shawn Michaels opening up a wrestling school. After an expensive phone call, Bryan was told to pay $20 more for a package to be mailed to him with more info. He did, and when he got the package, it detailed how Michaels wrestling school would cost $3,900 dollars, and it had another 900 number to call if you're interested. Bryan was demoralized and almost didn't call. When he did, though, he was speaking to Shawm Michaels mom, who was helping Shawn run it. Bryan's mom ended up doing all the talking, and the two mothers helped Bryan get set up with a place in San Antonio where the school was. They agreed to let Bryan pay monthly to help him with the finances.
Bryan's first day of wrestling school went exactly like everyone else's first day of wrestling school, with 90% of the students gassed and vomiting. Bryan said out of the 10 guys there, only he and Lance Cade didn't end up vomiting.
Bryan remembers how much Shawn Michaels prioritized his training to Lance Cade. One of the first days, Lance did a basic jump and got so much air that Michaels loudly proclaimed, "I smell money!"
Even though it was Shawn's school, the primary instructor was Rudy Boy Gonzales, a pretty insignificant wrestler from the 80s and 90s. Bryan puts over Rudy as a passionate trainer who motivated him to try harder. Bryan said Rudy would show Bryan anything Bryan saw on a tape and wanted to try.
Bryan says that he and "The" Brian Kendrick became friends immediately as they were both around the same size in the training and had the same level of passion for wrestling.
I always heard that Shawn Michaels wasn't very present for this school, but Bryan tells a different tale, putting Shawn over as someone who was always around and always showing them how to be better.
Bryan does remember some days that Shawn would come in with his sunglasses on, sit at the back of the class, and then dip out early. Bryan didn't realize then that Shawn was in deep with a bad painkiller addiction, and so some days he wasn't as present. Since Bryan grew up with his dad's addiction issues, Bryan says seeing Shawn actually kick the addiction fully put Shawn on a pedestal in Bryan's eyes.
After a couple of months, Shawn was telling the students to start thinking of ring names, and when Bryan couldn't come up with one, he asked Shawn about using his real name. Shawn thought about it for a second before adding "The American Dragon" to it. When Bryan asked why that name, Shawn said it's because Bryan wrestled like a Japanese guy. Bryan took that as a massive compliment.
Bryan didn't tell Shawn, but Bryan initially hated "The American Dragon" name.
Bryan had trouble being expressive and emoting in the ring, so Shawn had him wrestle under a mask.
On October 4th, 1999, Bryan wrestled his first ever match for Shawn Michaels' small promotion, Texas Wrestling Alliance. His opponent was Brian Kendrick (then known as Spanky), and Bryan says as rotton as it was, everyone in the back was super excited for their performance, including Shawn.
Bryan confirms that Kendrick called himself "Spanky" as a masturbation reference.
Shawn arranged for Bryan and Lance Cade to head over to Japan and wrestle for Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling, a bit of a "mudshow" wrestling promotion. Shawn got Bryan and Lance a spot on their card by agreeing to referee a match for the company.
Bryan remembers seeing one guy shove a bottle rocket up his opponents butt and light it off at that FMW show. So yeah, some pretty outlaw stuff.
Bryan describes attempting a moonsalt to the outside of the ring during this Japan tour, but he slipped and cracked his head on the cement. Bryan says, "When I came to, I didn't even know where I was" before describing how he stumbled his way through the match. He notes how concussions have always been a problem for him.
Lance Cade was invited back to FMW later for a 2nd tour, but they didn't ask for Bryan back. That's when Bryan realized that at his size, he needs to get much, much better.
In February 2000, HBK got Bryan, Lance Cade, Brian Kendrick, and another student named Shooter Shultz, a dark match on an episode of Smackdown. He says they planned for a 15-minute tag match before being told last minute that it's been cut down to 6 minutes. Bryan says HBK went and yelled at some people about "his guys" until he got it bumped up to 10 minutes.
Bryan says he got his first documented concussion that match, because they weren't used to a literal ramp, and Bryan cracked his skull on it, doing a pointless dive. He says the WWE doctor backstage told him to just make sure he doesn't fall asleep.
Bryan says when they got backstage after their match, HBK was excited and pumping them up, telling everyone backstage that they should sign all 4 guys immediately. This was on Tuesday, and by Thursday, when WWE still hadn't contacted them, Shawn called them up and threatened to take the 4 to WCW where Kevin Nash would make sure they were signed. Bryan says WWE quickly offered all 4 guys developmental contracts for $500 per week. Bryan says HBK was a great guy to have in your corner.
Shortly after getting the developmental contract, Bryan and Kendrick wrestled a main event ladder match for Shawn's TWA promotion. At the time, Bryan believed that in order to stand out, he would need to wrestle a more daredevil style, so he did some dumb stuff in this match. He did some ridiculous spot that ended with Bryan separating his shoulder. After the match, he took a table bump that legitimately knocked him unconscious for a full minute.
A week or 2 later, the teams had a rematch in a steel cage where all 4 agreed to blade for the first time. Why is he doing this dumb shit right after being offered a WWE contract?
Bryan says those ladder and cage matches made him realize he needed to change his style up and become more mat based. He wouldn't have had a long career if he kept getting hurt. At this point, Bryan has only been wrestling for 6 or 8 months and already suffered maybe 3 concussions. At least 2 for sure.
Bryan Danielson, Lance Cade, Brian Kendrick, and Shooter Shultz all moved to Memphis, where WWE's development primarily opperated out of at the time. William Regal was also a developmental system at the time, trying to show he had kicked his addiction issues.
Memphis Championship Wrestling was the territory they wrestled for, and Bryan remembers wrestling in all sorts of crazy locations like a WalMart parking lot once.
Although Shawn eventually took the mask off Bryan in TWA, the guys at MCW immediately put the mask back on Bryan.
The only time Bryan thought he might get called up to the main roster was in January 2001, when he heard rumors that WWE wanted to start up a cruiserweight division and use Danielson and Kendrick That didn't happen, though, and Bryan never heard another rumor or wiff of him being called up.
In June 2001, someone from WWE talent relations came down to evaluate talent. Brian was let go and told that despite his talent, they just had no plans for him.
In October 2001, Bryan was offered a spot in California based All Pro Wrestling's annual King Of The Indies tournament. Danielson would beat Kendrick in the first round, and after the show, Nick Bockwinkle, who was there watching, loudly told promoter Roland Alexander, "If you don't put that guy over." Bockwinkle said while pointing directly at Bryan, "You're crazy!"
APW head trainer Donovan Morgan was scheduled to beat Bryan in the second round and go on to win the tournament, but promoter Roland made the call to have Bryan win instead.
Bryan says this that while this really pissed Donovan off, what really upset the guy was when Roland offered Danielson and Kendrick trainer positions alongside Donovan.
Kendrick turned the offer down, but Bryan took it and moved to California in January 2002, where he became the head trainer. Though Bryan says he was a lousy trainer and no good at motivating anyone.
On February 2002, Bryan sat down with Gabe Sapolsky, who, after being inspired by the Super 8 tournament Bryan won, wanted Bryan part of his new promotion, Ring of Honor.
Bryan remembers both William Regal and John Laurinaitis said they would try to get Bryan an in to Japan, but both came up short, and both eventually stopped returning Bryan's calls.
In March 2002, Bryan Danielson, Christopher Daniels, and Brian Kendrick got a tryout with New Japan in Santa Monica. Antonio Inoki was actually there to oversee, but he literally had his back turned to the ring while Danielson and Kendrick wrestled. Inoki never bothered to turn around and watch them, instead watching someone stretch, Bryan says. Bryan later heard that New Japan never intended to hire anyone. They just wanted their dojo to look full for press.
After the "tryout," Bryan says that Inoki fell and had to be helped up by a bunch of people. Only the three of them didn't get up to help, with Kendrick saying loudly, "serves the motherfucker right."
Bryan kept making trips to the Santa Monica dojo every couple of weeks until Shinya "Togi" Makabe told him that if Bryan really wanted to be taken seriously, he had to be at the dojo every single day. Bryan took the advice seriously, quit his training job and moved to Santa Monica.
Bryan says he was offered to come tour with New Japan after only training at the dojo full time a few weeks. It was on this tour where Bryan first wrestled in the Tokyo Dome.
In May 2003, Bryan wrestled another Tokyo Dome show, where Bryan, Rocky Romero and TJ Perkins were all pulled aside in the hotel after the show, by Justin Cully. Cully literally slapped each man across the face, saying the slaps are from Inoki, who was disappointed in their proformances that night. Apparently Inoki expected them to wrestle more of a shoot style fight and was very upset.
In March 2004, Bryan won his first title with New Japan, the IWGP Junior Tag titles with Christopher Daniels, and Bryan would spend the majority of the year with New Japan where he wrestled 8 different tours.
Bryan pitched a 3 hour long match to Gabe Sapolsky for a ROH show and is disappointed they didn't go the full 3 hours.
Going into 2005, Bryan expected to wrestle his whole career in New Japan, but was startled when New Japan didn't get his visa renewed for the January tour like they always do. He was told it was a mistake and he would be back for March tour, but again he was told last minute they didn't have a visa for him. In May they contacted him last minute inviting him for a tour, but at a ridiculous pay cut down to $500 per week. Bryan turned the offer down and never went back to that Santa Monica dojo or work for New Japan again. He later heard that he was used as a pawn in a power struggle with the Dojo and New Japan.
In mid-2005 Bryan got an email from CM-Punk about a rumor suggesting that both WWE and TNA were interested in Bryan, Punk and Samoa Joe. Joe would quickly sign with TNA after this and Punk took a developmental deal with WWE. Bryan never heard from either company, and a few months later Gabe Sapolsky told Bryan he wanted to build ROH around Bryan but wanted a promise that Bryan wouldn't just leave to WWE or TNA. Great timing Gabe, because Bryan immediately said yes.
After winning the ROH World title in September 2005, Bryan says his title reign was falling flat until he started being cocky and cutting those "best in the world" promos. Bryan even shades Jericho and Punk a little by saying at the time no one else was saying it and that's why it worked so well for him.
Bryan puts over his matches with Nigel McGuinness in summer of 2006, but points out one in particular he regrets. Nigel had the idea for Bryan to pull Nigel's face into the steel ring post 3 times to get real blood. After 3 attempts and no blood, Nigel yelled, "One more time!" They got blood on the 4th time, and gave Nigel a severe concussion.
Five minutes into an hour long match with Colt Cabana in August 2006, Bryan landed bad on the outside of the ring, where he separated that same right shoulder as before and tore two tendons.
Three weeks later, Bryan defended his ROH title against KENTA of all people, who legitimately targeted his hurt shoulder all match. Then Bryan went to tour Japan with Pro Wrestling Noah where he and KENTA had a rematch.
Bryan would finally drop the ROH title in December 2006 and then take nearly 4 months off. This is the first time he took off since he started wrestling in 1999.
After doing a tour of Japan with Pro Wrestling Noah in April 2007, Bryan was excited to come back to ROH and signed a 2 year contract.
In June 2007, Bryan and Nigel wrestled an extremely physical match that featured a spot where the two traded headbutts. The match didn't air until September that year and in the mean time, the Chris Benoit double murdesuicide happened and the talk of concussions and safety concerns changed completely. The match was not recieved well and Gabe later told Bryan that they shouldn't have aired it at all.
ROH struggled after the Benoit incident and most everyone had to adapt and tone down their styles. Bryan wasn't one of those people, and actually refused to tone down his style. Later in 2007 he would rupture his ear drum exchanging open palm strikes with KENTA and he would suffer a detached retina in a match with Takeshi Morishima. To this day, he has trouble hearing from his left ear and has trouble with vision.
Bryan remembers being super late for a show and not even being able to meet his opponent beforehand. To Bryan's suprise, his opponent, who despite being green, was great to work with and the two had good chemistry. That was a young Jon Moxley.
In Summer of 2008, Shawn Michaels was fueding with Chris Jericho and they incorporated Lamce Cade on Jericho's side, since Shawn trained Lance. Shawn actually reached out to Bryan about also joining the WWE and being involved in the story.
Bryan met with Vince McMahon and remembers how taken back Vince seemed when they first met, and thinks it was because of Bryan's size and how plain he looked. Bryan also didn't sell himself well in the meeting, saying he is "just okay." Head of talent relations John Laurinaitis told Bryan that they would call him, but he never did.
When Bryan returned from a Japan tour in October 2008, he was shocked to find Gabe Sapolsky had been fired by ROH and replaced by Adam Pearce. Bryan details that while Gabe liked to book long shows with everyone on the card trying their hardest to steal the show, Pearce booked shorter shows and had the lower card guys preform well, but not to try everything under the sun to outshine the main event. You can see why Jim Cornette and Adam Pearce get along so well.
Bryan notes how he was fueding with Claudio Castignoli when Gabe was fired, but Pearce immediately ended that program to which Bryan says he and Claudio were disappointed.
After another failed attempt to get into WWE I'm early 2009, Bryan refocused his energies by moving to Las Vegas where he started training in kick boxing and other forms of mixed martial arts.
Bryan trained religiously for months under a former MMA fighter Neil Melanson. Neil is the one who taught Bryan the LaBell Lock.
When Bryan's ROH contract expired in May 2009, he called John Laurinaitis and left a message, but never heard back.
Bryan says in mid-2009, he was talking to Gabe Sapolsky about starting up a new promotion that would become Evolve. Bryan says that Paul Heyman was even involved with these talks.
Brian Kendrick called Danielson up to pitch Danielson coming to WWE as Kendrick's tag partner. Danielson even went and filmed a bunch of promos with Kendrick and fel optimistic. Unfortunately, Kendrick was fired just a few weeks later before any of those vignets aired and that opportunity was gone as well.
Bryan had given up ever going to WWE when John Laurinaitis called him in September 2009 offering him a main roster contract. Bryan was so excited he didn't have to go to developmental, that he would be right on the main roster immediately. Or so he thought, I guess they didn't bother telling Brilyan about NXT at that time, even though it sounds like he was signed with that in mind.
Nigel was also signed at the same time (probably also meant for NXT) but before either man could start, they had to pass WWE medical tests. They asked them both about past injuries, and Bryan just lied, saying he never had anything wrong and was fine. Didn't mention his shoulder being separated twice, or the detached retina, or any concussion. Nigel on the other hand, was very honest about his injuries, including a torn bicep that he didn't get worked on, he just rehabbed it. Nigel figured he was a lock and didn't see the need to lie.
WWE was concerned about Bryan's elevated liver enzymes, and wanted Nigel to get surgery on his bicep before they would sign him. Both guys were wrestling a farewell tour with ROH and both genuinely concerned they wouldn't actually be leaving. In their last match for ROH, Bryan accidentally gave Nigel a concussion, because apparently these guys only know how to wrestle at one speed!
Nigel couldn't afford the bicep surgery and his own doctor was telling him he is fine, so Nigel went to TNA instead. Nigel would only wrestle for another year before his body would break down too far on him and he would retire.
Bryan signed his WWE contract on October 2nd, 2009, nearly 10 years to the day of his debut match. William Regal actually told Bryan, "Your wrestling career came before this and is over now. Anything else that happens now is a bonus."
William Regal came up with the name "Daniel Bryan" for Bryan to use in WWE. Brian tried arguing to Laurinaitis to use his real name and citing John Cena as an example, Laurinaitis simply told Bryan, "We don't do that anymore."
In early 2010, Bryan and seven other guys were told one day about the NXT concept and how they would be used. Bryan found out who his NXT "pro" would be just like everyone else, when WWE posted it on their website. Bryan initially legit wanted Regal as his "pro" but soon realized being paired with Miz gives him a story immediately.
Bryan describes his time in NXT as the most unusual of his career. The "rookies" all legitimately didn't know what was going to happen on any show and everything they did was 100% unscripted and improvised.
The first night in NXT, all the "rookies" were told 15 minutes before the show, that their "pro" would cut a promo on them and they needed to react accordingly. Bryan had no idea that his pro, the Miz was going to tell him to head to the ring and cut a promo on himself, literally telling him on live TV to make the fans care about him. Bryan had no idea what to say, no real direction he was given to go in, and no tome to plan or rehearse. Miz also told him to come up with a catchphrase, and Bryan said he always hated catch phrases.
In the ring, Bryan cut a generic promo where he said he lost his train of thought and was super greatful when The Miz came out to finish the promo off. Bryan didn't know that would happen and Bryan definitely didn't know Miz was going to slap him at the end. Bryan says that later, The Miz confided to Bryan that he was worried Bryan would try to fight him over the slap.
Bryan credits Chris Jericho for getting him over in his first WWE match, and says that neither he, nor Miz knew that Miz was to beat up Brian after the match. Apparently, Miz was informed during the Jericho/Bryan match that he was to attack Bryan after the finish. Wild how much "flying by the seat of their pants" that WWE did with early NXT.
After the show, Jericho told Bryan that Vince was impressed, though he noted how Vince said, "Ugh, but he doesn't even eat meat!"
Bryan describes promo class with Vince as kinda insane to be honest. One time Bryan accidentally spilled a water bottle, and Vince asked everyone how that made them feel about Bryan. Stuff like that.
Bryan says the NXT rookies weren't allowed to use the regular dressing room and had to use some tarped off part of the backstage area.
Bryan notes how most of the NXT season, the NXT rookies never really knew what was going to happen. The 2nd week Bryan lost to Wade Barret and wasn't told that Chris Jericho would be attacking him after the match.
Bryan says his initial storyline with The Miz wasn't a losing streak idea, but something where each loss had meaning and was being built with purpose. Miz was very hands on with each show and helped to put over Bryan and the storyline, but when Miz missed 2 weeks in a row, the producers left in charge basically just turned it into a losing streak storyline, which Bryan says, "never works."
One time on a plane, Ezekiel Jackson asked "which rookie has an isle seat?" Bryan raised his had and Ezekiel said, "Not anymore." Bryan stood his ground and refused, offering his seat to anyone but Ezekiel. Ezekiel got pissed but William Regal came over and chastised Jackson, saying Bryan is like a son to him and how Bryan has more talent in his pinky ginger than Jackson has in his whole body.
Bryan says the NXT "Pros Polls" were legitimate voting done by the pros. That's why Bryan ended up in first place, despite losing every match.
A week after Wrestlemania in 2010, NXT's direction and purpose shifted away from being serious to silly, and Bryan says they were suddenly doing dumb game show competitions and putting over how demoralizing it was.
Bryan says Skip Shepfield (Ryback) was the only rookie taking the competitions seriously and trying to win each game. Sounds on brand for the big guy.
Bryan says he was trying to be humble when asked who should be eliminated and he said himself. He figured since he lost to everyone he didn't have a right to say any of them. Backstage Miz told him he made a mistake and shouldn't have put that perception out there.
A week later they liked the rookies up on TV (an hour before it goes live) and informed Bryan and fellow rookie Michael Tarver that they are both eliminated, without telling them beforehand. Bryan felt this validated all the warnings guys like Colt Cabana and other gave him about WWE.
Right after Matt Striker interviewed him backstage and when asked an insulting question, Bryan snapped and started talking down about "Daniel Bryan" and started to put over "Bryan Danielson!" Bryan says he could hear Vince screaming into Striker's ear piece and apparently Vince threw his headset when Bryan said his real name.
They made Bryan retape the interview without saying that, but still aired his original interview.
Bryan was surprisingly called back to NXT the following week to start a rivalry with Micheal Cole, who had been verbally obliterating Bryan on commentary since Bryan debuted. Bryan seems to be greatful for that program since it kept him on tv and made him confident that he would keep his job.
The RAW after NXT season 1 ended, all the rookies were pulled into Vince's office and told about Nexus and the attack in the main event. They were told not to tell anyone or else they will be fired. Bryan says he even lied to William Regal, when asked why he was dressed to wrestle.
They were supposed to attack John Cena and Rey Mysterio in the main event, because WWE let the fans vote on Cena's opponent and they assumed Rey would get it. Surprisingly it was CM Punk, and Bryan isn't sure how much Punk was told about the angle.
Bryan legit choked Justin Roberts during the melee, leaving red marks on his skin with his tie. Bryan said he doesn't trust non-wrestlers to sell good so he did it for real, with Justin going purple on Tv. Later during the brawl, Bryan was grabbing a cable to choke someone else when a cameraman told him "no choking!" Bryan does note that he thinks Justin Roberts found it pretty cool to be involved. And later Heath Slater grabbed the dismantled ring ropes to choke Cena, but Cena told him as well, "No choking."
Cena told Bryan before the angle, "It's not the hit you do that's important, it's what you do before the hit that matters." This is why Bryan spit in Cena's face before kicking him in the head.
Backstage, Bryan was reprimanded twice, for choking and spitting. Two days later Vince McMahon personally called Bryan to tell him he was let go and apologized to Bryan for it. Bryan, arrogant as all hell, responded with, "Don't apologize, I'll make more money this year on the independents than I would have working for you."
Bryan called John Laurinaitis to clear up details and Laurinaitis was shocked to hear Bryan was fired. Apparently Vince didn't tell anyone, just called Laurinaitis up and asked for Bryan's number. The comment Bryan made about money seemed to get to Vince since Laurinaitis called Bryan back and asked about it. Laurinaitis actually told Bryan that he can start working independent dates immediately if he wasn't on TV.
After working several shows and making good money off merchandise for several weeks, Bryan was shocked when John Laurinaitis called him in August and asked him to come back for a big angle leading into SummerSlam. Bryan sheepishly asked for a raise and made sure he could make all his already planned independent bookings.
Bryan says Nexas should have won at SummerSlam, noting how they went from dangerous to jobbers in one night.
Bryan remembers a taped RAW after SummerSlam where he did an angle with The Miz. When he got backstage Vince was so mad at how it came off that he made Bryan and others go back out there and do it again. It was the first time Bryan ever had to redo something like that and he said he felt humiliated.
Bryan didnt seem to see much value in being US Champion outside of how it would keep him on tv and maybe monthly ppv matches.
At Hell in a Cell 2010 ppv, Bryan had a good match with Miz and John Morrison, but was scolded after that match for a spot where Bryan threw Miz's stoog Alex Riley off the stage where he landed on cameraman. They showed the two guys the footage and accused them of doing it on purpose to get themselves over. Bryan started regretting coming back and really hating his time in WWE.
Bryan was paired with the Bella Twins in a storyline he hated, that was based on the Twins confusing the word "vegan" for "virgin" and competing to sleep with Bryan. Despite how bad that storyline was, Bryan and Brie would develop a relationship and would start dating in February 2011.
Sheamus was given a choice of Wrestlemania opponents that year between Rey Mysterio and Daniel Bryan, and Sheamus chose Bryan. Bryan was greatful but concerned Sheamus chose wrong and their match would be cut but Sheamus wasn't worried at all. A week before Mania they were informed their match was on the pre-show at a meeting with literally every other wrestler. Bryan says Sheamus buried his face in his hands and remembers how Rey Mysterio got on the card in a match with Cody Rhodes. Bryan says Sheamus picked the wrong guy.
Bryan got some details in his book messed up where he talks about Miz winning the WWE title off Cena at Wrestlemania 27 and he talks about how Miz was WWE Champion going into Over The Limit ppv 2011, but Miz lost the title by then. It's notable because he says he pitched hard for a "Rocky style" storyline where he would challenge Miz for the WWE title at the Over The Limit ppv.
Bryan says the 2011 Smackdown Money in the Bank winner wasn't decided until the day of the show but it was always between Wade Barret, Cody Rhodes and Bryan. He says despite winning the briefcase, his tv time tricked down and eventually he was spending weeks off tv, until he was randomly inserted into the World title program between Mark Henry and Big Show in late 2011.
Bryan was being left at home and off shows, even watching Survivor Series 2011 from home and was suprised when WWE had him come to the December TLC ppv show, last minute. The day of the show he was told he was cashing in and winning the title and the only direction Vince McMahon gave him was to act like he won the superbowl, so that's where Bryan's over the top celebration came from. He didn't even tell his girlfriend Brie Bella about the plan and says she was shocked when he came backstage afterwards.
The only direction Vince gave Bryan as champion is to celebrate every appearance like he won the lottery, saying, "there is no too over the top here."
Bryan said he adapted his "Yes" chants from MMA fighter Diego Sanchez who was celebrating in a similar way at the time.
Bryan's favorite moment from that first world title run was the closing sequence in the 2012 Elimination Chamber match with him and Santino Marella.
Bryan originally expected he and Sheamus to get 15 minutes or so at Wrestlemania for their match, but was shocked when Chris Jericho told him he heard it would be 8 minutes, including the pre & post match stuff. A week later Arn Anderson confirmed to Bryan that he would lose a 1-move match, dropping the world title to Sheamus at Wrestlemania that year. Bryan and Sheamus were both pissed, to say the least.
Sheamus expressed concern that the short match would turn fans against him as a new champion. Smart man.
Bryan says a bunch of guys came up to him after his Mania loss and were pissed at what they did to Bryan out there. Great Khali even came up and told Bryan that it was bullshit in his broken English.
Originally Sheamus was planned to move into a fued with Alberto Del-rio right after Mania, but the crazy crowd support for Bryan forced them to extend they story another month. Bryan says his Extreme Rules ppv match with Sheamus in 2012 is one of his favorites. Mine too!
Bryan acknowledged the weird booking of Punk as champion in 2012, noting how heels would face John Cena, lose, then be sent to face Punk with no momentum. Interesting take on the situation.
Bryan mentions how when he and Punk fueded in 2012, they never got main event spots outside of non-televised events. One time at a house show, Bryan and Punk veered too far into comedy and after the match John Cena chastised Bryan by pointing out that they didn't wrestle a "main event style" match. Apparently the next house show, Cena was moved into the main event spot with Punk/Bryan being before the intermission. An enraged Punk went and yelled at people until he got his main event spot back. This time, no comedy spots were done and they stayed the main event for the circuit.
Bryan had brand new, edgier gear made up prior to Money in the Bank 2012 and didn't tell anyone backstage. He wore shorts over his trunk and hid the jacket until he had to go out. When he got to the ring, the ref told him to lose the jacket, because I guess Vince was in gorilla position freaking out over how Bryan looked. Dean Melanko was the producer for the match, and Bryan felt bad when Vince blamed him for allowing Bryan to wear it.
Bryan was originally planned to wrestle Charlie Sheen at SummerSlam 2012 in a celebrity match, but Charlie "bailed" as Bryan put it.
Bryan was trying to be "Mr Small Package" by winning matches with Small Package and then boasting about how he has an "inescapable small package!" It didn't get over.
Bryan thought his anger management vignets with Kane and Dr Shelby were going to be terrible.
The only reason they stopped using Dr Shelby is because he had limited days off from his regular teaching job.
Bryan and Kane really wanted their team name to be "Team Friendship" and they even had shirt ideas but Vince let the fans vote and he always kept those votes legit, so their team name was "Team Hell No" which Bryan brings up a good point about. He said as a team primarily appealing to kids, a name with "Hell" in it would be hard to sell merchandise to those kids.
The plan was to break up their team so they could have a good heated fued together, but they were so popular that they kept teaming for 9 months.
Bryan says his first good Wrestlemania experience was in 2013 when he teamed with Kane.
One night after Mania in 2013, when Bryan tagged with Kane and Undertaker to face The Shield, Vince McMahon told Bryan that he would pay him several thousand dollars if he could get Undertaker to hug Bryan in the ring. After the show Bryan got on the mic and tried his hardest to get the hug but couldn't quite do it.
Bryan says that both he and Kane agree that teaming together was some of the most fun in either man's career.
Bryan was scheduled to win the biggest match of his career up to that point, he would be beating Randy Orton clean on RAW. Bryan would botch a dive that left both arms nunb and him unable to stand. He got feeling back in one arm but eventually the doctor called the match off. Backstage Bryan started screaming at Triple H for calling the match and called him a hypocrite for doing so, citing his own injuries in matches. At one point Orton tried to calm Bryan down, but Bryan snapped at him and Orton started yelling too. Brie got Bryan away to calm down, but when Vince came to talk to Bryan, the shouting started again. Much later, William Regal advised Bryan to apologize to both Vince and Triple H, to which Bryan took his advice. The next week, Bryan would get his win over Orton and he says that that drama over everything made that win matter more.
An MRI showed that one of Bryan's disks was pushing into his nerves and eventually he would need surgery. With his momentum starting to rise, Bryan opted to put surgery off.
John Cena pitched facing Daniel Bryan at Money in the Bank 2013 ppv. When Vince asked why, Cena said because it's the biggest match they could do at that time. Vince ended up agreeing, but deciding that it belongs at SummerSlam that year instead!
As proud as Bryan is of the build to and match with Cena at SummerSlam, he acknowledges that the ppv didn't do good numbers, nor did the house show business the following 2 months when Bryan was the main protagonist. He thinks a lot the the Authority promos on him stemmed from some truth.
Bryan isn't satisfied with the quality of matches he was putting out in the latter half of 2013 amd he specifically calls out the series of bad finishes he had with Randy Orton in ppv main events. From the fast counting crooked ref, to that terrible one with Big Show knocking everyone out, and then to Shawn Michaels betraying Bryan at Hell in a Cell ppv.
Bryan initially thought he was getting a Wrestlemania match with Shawn Michaels after that Hell in a Cell finish, but after talking with HBK, it was clear that was never in the cards.
Bryan feels he failed as a main eventer in the 2nd half of 2013, regardless of match quality. He didn't move business and that's all that matters.
The Slammy's were fan votes and Vince didn't think Bryan would win and almost laughed when Bryan asked him what he should say if he does win. Vince said, "whatever you want." I wish I could have seen Vince's face when Bryan won later that night.
When Bryan started fueding with Wyatt Family in late-2013, Bryan was pitching for him to be "brainwashed" and join the group. He suspects that his rising popularity in early 2014 is what convinced WWE to have Bryan turn on Bray and leave the group. At the time, Bryan was hoping to stay with the group and be involved in the planned Cena/Wyatt Wrestlemania program since Bryan had no plans for Mania at that time.
Bryan says he was disappointed when Vince told him he would be facing Sheamus again at Wrestlemania 2014. No disrespect to Sheamus, but Bryan felt he belonged in a higher spot.
Bryan felt bad for the way Rey Mysterio was boo'd at the 2014 Royal Rumble.
When Punk quit WWE after Rumble that year, Bryan remembers how plans didn't change too much for a few weeks, and he assumes Vince expected Punk to come back and for Batista to win the crowds over, and neither happened.
Triple H was being vocal about wanting to face Bryan at Mania that year, but Bryan was trying to not get his hopes up since he had seen Triple H try and fail to get his ideas on screen.
Bryan and Brie only agreed to let Total Divas shoot their wedding, because Total Divas agreed to pay for the whole wedding! Hard to say no to that!
Bryan is very satisfied with his matches at Wrestlemania 30 and says he was so focused between matches that he missed Undertaker losing to Lesnar. He heard the ring bell and looked up at the monitor in shock. He says they cameras should have filmed the guys and girls in the back because their reactions were wild, apparently.
Five days after Wrestlemania 30, Bryan and Brie got married, but 2 days after their honeymoon ended, Bryan's dad unexpectedly passed away at the age of 57. Bryan was devastated and described how he was crying still as he was writing about it.
The book ends on a complete downer, very unlike most other wrestling books. Bryan says that as long as he wrestled when asked if everything he was missing or sacrificing was worth it, Bryan always said yes. He assumed he would have more time when he was done and could catch up on what he missed, but his dad is gone and Bryan openly admits that it wasn't worth it. If he could, Bryan would change a lot of his decisions if it meant more time with his dad.
He says he is still wrestling though because he literally doesn't know what else to do or what comes after. This is especially depressing 10 years later, when Bryan is still wrestling despite having started a family of his own. I hope he doesn't regret any time missed with his daughter.
He ends the book by describing the last time he saw his dad, on Christmas in 2013, where his dad dressed up as Santa. Fuck. I'm sad now.

Solid wrestling book, though not super memorable in my opinion. Some solid detail and dirt like you expect, but honestly it felt like he was holding back.
As always, it's in chronological order as best as I could do that. Hope y'all enjoy!
Bryan is a weird dude, while describing his adolescence, he casually says that he has a lot of weird hypothesis on various subjects, and we should ask Nigel McGuinness about Bryan's theory on how a penis grows. He doesn't expand on this more. He just says that and moves back to talking about his childhood.
Bryan rants a bit about how modern medicine has stunted human evolution because kids who would have died off got to live and reproduce and pass their "defects" onto the next generation. He says that he is one of those defects, sick all his childhood and sick a lot as an adult. He says that his wife Brie is also a "defect" but says she can share the details in her own book if she ever writes one.
When Bryan was 16 years old, he contacted Dean Melanko's wrestling school and was told it would cost him $2,500, but he needed a $500 deposit to secure his spot. Bryan was scared that there were hundreds of people on the waiting list and worked extra shifts at McDonald's in order to get the cash together asap. He put $500 deposit down for a wrestling school he couldn't go to for 2 more years.
Three months before Bryan graduated high school, the Melanko Wrestling School contacted to inform Bryan that the school was shutting down permanently. When Bryan asked for his $500 back, he was told that they no longer had it and that he was SOL.
While watching Monday Night RAW, an ad flashed advertising a 900 number (an old pay-per-minute phone concept that was always a money drain on the caller), and it advertised Shawn Michaels opening up a wrestling school. After an expensive phone call, Bryan was told to pay $20 more for a package to be mailed to him with more info. He did, and when he got the package, it detailed how Michaels wrestling school would cost $3,900 dollars, and it had another 900 number to call if you're interested. Bryan was demoralized and almost didn't call. When he did, though, he was speaking to Shawm Michaels mom, who was helping Shawn run it. Bryan's mom ended up doing all the talking, and the two mothers helped Bryan get set up with a place in San Antonio where the school was. They agreed to let Bryan pay monthly to help him with the finances.
Bryan's first day of wrestling school went exactly like everyone else's first day of wrestling school, with 90% of the students gassed and vomiting. Bryan said out of the 10 guys there, only he and Lance Cade didn't end up vomiting.
Bryan remembers how much Shawn Michaels prioritized his training to Lance Cade. One of the first days, Lance did a basic jump and got so much air that Michaels loudly proclaimed, "I smell money!"
Even though it was Shawn's school, the primary instructor was Rudy Boy Gonzales, a pretty insignificant wrestler from the 80s and 90s. Bryan puts over Rudy as a passionate trainer who motivated him to try harder. Bryan said Rudy would show Bryan anything Bryan saw on a tape and wanted to try.
Bryan says that he and "The" Brian Kendrick became friends immediately as they were both around the same size in the training and had the same level of passion for wrestling.
I always heard that Shawn Michaels wasn't very present for this school, but Bryan tells a different tale, putting Shawn over as someone who was always around and always showing them how to be better.
Bryan does remember some days that Shawn would come in with his sunglasses on, sit at the back of the class, and then dip out early. Bryan didn't realize then that Shawn was in deep with a bad painkiller addiction, and so some days he wasn't as present. Since Bryan grew up with his dad's addiction issues, Bryan says seeing Shawn actually kick the addiction fully put Shawn on a pedestal in Bryan's eyes.
After a couple of months, Shawn was telling the students to start thinking of ring names, and when Bryan couldn't come up with one, he asked Shawn about using his real name. Shawn thought about it for a second before adding "The American Dragon" to it. When Bryan asked why that name, Shawn said it's because Bryan wrestled like a Japanese guy. Bryan took that as a massive compliment.
Bryan didn't tell Shawn, but Bryan initially hated "The American Dragon" name.
Bryan had trouble being expressive and emoting in the ring, so Shawn had him wrestle under a mask.
On October 4th, 1999, Bryan wrestled his first ever match for Shawn Michaels' small promotion, Texas Wrestling Alliance. His opponent was Brian Kendrick (then known as Spanky), and Bryan says as rotton as it was, everyone in the back was super excited for their performance, including Shawn.
Bryan confirms that Kendrick called himself "Spanky" as a masturbation reference.
Shawn arranged for Bryan and Lance Cade to head over to Japan and wrestle for Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling, a bit of a "mudshow" wrestling promotion. Shawn got Bryan and Lance a spot on their card by agreeing to referee a match for the company.
Bryan remembers seeing one guy shove a bottle rocket up his opponents butt and light it off at that FMW show. So yeah, some pretty outlaw stuff.
Bryan describes attempting a moonsalt to the outside of the ring during this Japan tour, but he slipped and cracked his head on the cement. Bryan says, "When I came to, I didn't even know where I was" before describing how he stumbled his way through the match. He notes how concussions have always been a problem for him.
Lance Cade was invited back to FMW later for a 2nd tour, but they didn't ask for Bryan back. That's when Bryan realized that at his size, he needs to get much, much better.
In February 2000, HBK got Bryan, Lance Cade, Brian Kendrick, and another student named Shooter Shultz, a dark match on an episode of Smackdown. He says they planned for a 15-minute tag match before being told last minute that it's been cut down to 6 minutes. Bryan says HBK went and yelled at some people about "his guys" until he got it bumped up to 10 minutes.
Bryan says he got his first documented concussion that match, because they weren't used to a literal ramp, and Bryan cracked his skull on it, doing a pointless dive. He says the WWE doctor backstage told him to just make sure he doesn't fall asleep.
Bryan says when they got backstage after their match, HBK was excited and pumping them up, telling everyone backstage that they should sign all 4 guys immediately. This was on Tuesday, and by Thursday, when WWE still hadn't contacted them, Shawn called them up and threatened to take the 4 to WCW where Kevin Nash would make sure they were signed. Bryan says WWE quickly offered all 4 guys developmental contracts for $500 per week. Bryan says HBK was a great guy to have in your corner.
Shortly after getting the developmental contract, Bryan and Kendrick wrestled a main event ladder match for Shawn's TWA promotion. At the time, Bryan believed that in order to stand out, he would need to wrestle a more daredevil style, so he did some dumb stuff in this match. He did some ridiculous spot that ended with Bryan separating his shoulder. After the match, he took a table bump that legitimately knocked him unconscious for a full minute.
A week or 2 later, the teams had a rematch in a steel cage where all 4 agreed to blade for the first time. Why is he doing this dumb shit right after being offered a WWE contract?
Bryan says those ladder and cage matches made him realize he needed to change his style up and become more mat based. He wouldn't have had a long career if he kept getting hurt. At this point, Bryan has only been wrestling for 6 or 8 months and already suffered maybe 3 concussions. At least 2 for sure.
Bryan Danielson, Lance Cade, Brian Kendrick, and Shooter Shultz all moved to Memphis, where WWE's development primarily opperated out of at the time. William Regal was also a developmental system at the time, trying to show he had kicked his addiction issues.
Memphis Championship Wrestling was the territory they wrestled for, and Bryan remembers wrestling in all sorts of crazy locations like a WalMart parking lot once.
Although Shawn eventually took the mask off Bryan in TWA, the guys at MCW immediately put the mask back on Bryan.
The only time Bryan thought he might get called up to the main roster was in January 2001, when he heard rumors that WWE wanted to start up a cruiserweight division and use Danielson and Kendrick That didn't happen, though, and Bryan never heard another rumor or wiff of him being called up.
In June 2001, someone from WWE talent relations came down to evaluate talent. Brian was let go and told that despite his talent, they just had no plans for him.
In October 2001, Bryan was offered a spot in California based All Pro Wrestling's annual King Of The Indies tournament. Danielson would beat Kendrick in the first round, and after the show, Nick Bockwinkle, who was there watching, loudly told promoter Roland Alexander, "If you don't put that guy over." Bockwinkle said while pointing directly at Bryan, "You're crazy!"
APW head trainer Donovan Morgan was scheduled to beat Bryan in the second round and go on to win the tournament, but promoter Roland made the call to have Bryan win instead.
Bryan says this that while this really pissed Donovan off, what really upset the guy was when Roland offered Danielson and Kendrick trainer positions alongside Donovan.
Kendrick turned the offer down, but Bryan took it and moved to California in January 2002, where he became the head trainer. Though Bryan says he was a lousy trainer and no good at motivating anyone.
On February 2002, Bryan sat down with Gabe Sapolsky, who, after being inspired by the Super 8 tournament Bryan won, wanted Bryan part of his new promotion, Ring of Honor.
Bryan remembers both William Regal and John Laurinaitis said they would try to get Bryan an in to Japan, but both came up short, and both eventually stopped returning Bryan's calls.
In March 2002, Bryan Danielson, Christopher Daniels, and Brian Kendrick got a tryout with New Japan in Santa Monica. Antonio Inoki was actually there to oversee, but he literally had his back turned to the ring while Danielson and Kendrick wrestled. Inoki never bothered to turn around and watch them, instead watching someone stretch, Bryan says. Bryan later heard that New Japan never intended to hire anyone. They just wanted their dojo to look full for press.
After the "tryout," Bryan says that Inoki fell and had to be helped up by a bunch of people. Only the three of them didn't get up to help, with Kendrick saying loudly, "serves the motherfucker right."
Bryan kept making trips to the Santa Monica dojo every couple of weeks until Shinya "Togi" Makabe told him that if Bryan really wanted to be taken seriously, he had to be at the dojo every single day. Bryan took the advice seriously, quit his training job and moved to Santa Monica.
Bryan says he was offered to come tour with New Japan after only training at the dojo full time a few weeks. It was on this tour where Bryan first wrestled in the Tokyo Dome.
In May 2003, Bryan wrestled another Tokyo Dome show, where Bryan, Rocky Romero and TJ Perkins were all pulled aside in the hotel after the show, by Justin Cully. Cully literally slapped each man across the face, saying the slaps are from Inoki, who was disappointed in their proformances that night. Apparently Inoki expected them to wrestle more of a shoot style fight and was very upset.
In March 2004, Bryan won his first title with New Japan, the IWGP Junior Tag titles with Christopher Daniels, and Bryan would spend the majority of the year with New Japan where he wrestled 8 different tours.
Bryan pitched a 3 hour long match to Gabe Sapolsky for a ROH show and is disappointed they didn't go the full 3 hours.
Going into 2005, Bryan expected to wrestle his whole career in New Japan, but was startled when New Japan didn't get his visa renewed for the January tour like they always do. He was told it was a mistake and he would be back for March tour, but again he was told last minute they didn't have a visa for him. In May they contacted him last minute inviting him for a tour, but at a ridiculous pay cut down to $500 per week. Bryan turned the offer down and never went back to that Santa Monica dojo or work for New Japan again. He later heard that he was used as a pawn in a power struggle with the Dojo and New Japan.
In mid-2005 Bryan got an email from CM-Punk about a rumor suggesting that both WWE and TNA were interested in Bryan, Punk and Samoa Joe. Joe would quickly sign with TNA after this and Punk took a developmental deal with WWE. Bryan never heard from either company, and a few months later Gabe Sapolsky told Bryan he wanted to build ROH around Bryan but wanted a promise that Bryan wouldn't just leave to WWE or TNA. Great timing Gabe, because Bryan immediately said yes.
After winning the ROH World title in September 2005, Bryan says his title reign was falling flat until he started being cocky and cutting those "best in the world" promos. Bryan even shades Jericho and Punk a little by saying at the time no one else was saying it and that's why it worked so well for him.
Bryan puts over his matches with Nigel McGuinness in summer of 2006, but points out one in particular he regrets. Nigel had the idea for Bryan to pull Nigel's face into the steel ring post 3 times to get real blood. After 3 attempts and no blood, Nigel yelled, "One more time!" They got blood on the 4th time, and gave Nigel a severe concussion.
Five minutes into an hour long match with Colt Cabana in August 2006, Bryan landed bad on the outside of the ring, where he separated that same right shoulder as before and tore two tendons.
Three weeks later, Bryan defended his ROH title against KENTA of all people, who legitimately targeted his hurt shoulder all match. Then Bryan went to tour Japan with Pro Wrestling Noah where he and KENTA had a rematch.
Bryan would finally drop the ROH title in December 2006 and then take nearly 4 months off. This is the first time he took off since he started wrestling in 1999.
After doing a tour of Japan with Pro Wrestling Noah in April 2007, Bryan was excited to come back to ROH and signed a 2 year contract.
In June 2007, Bryan and Nigel wrestled an extremely physical match that featured a spot where the two traded headbutts. The match didn't air until September that year and in the mean time, the Chris Benoit double murdesuicide happened and the talk of concussions and safety concerns changed completely. The match was not recieved well and Gabe later told Bryan that they shouldn't have aired it at all.
ROH struggled after the Benoit incident and most everyone had to adapt and tone down their styles. Bryan wasn't one of those people, and actually refused to tone down his style. Later in 2007 he would rupture his ear drum exchanging open palm strikes with KENTA and he would suffer a detached retina in a match with Takeshi Morishima. To this day, he has trouble hearing from his left ear and has trouble with vision.
Bryan remembers being super late for a show and not even being able to meet his opponent beforehand. To Bryan's suprise, his opponent, who despite being green, was great to work with and the two had good chemistry. That was a young Jon Moxley.
In Summer of 2008, Shawn Michaels was fueding with Chris Jericho and they incorporated Lamce Cade on Jericho's side, since Shawn trained Lance. Shawn actually reached out to Bryan about also joining the WWE and being involved in the story.
Bryan met with Vince McMahon and remembers how taken back Vince seemed when they first met, and thinks it was because of Bryan's size and how plain he looked. Bryan also didn't sell himself well in the meeting, saying he is "just okay." Head of talent relations John Laurinaitis told Bryan that they would call him, but he never did.
When Bryan returned from a Japan tour in October 2008, he was shocked to find Gabe Sapolsky had been fired by ROH and replaced by Adam Pearce. Bryan details that while Gabe liked to book long shows with everyone on the card trying their hardest to steal the show, Pearce booked shorter shows and had the lower card guys preform well, but not to try everything under the sun to outshine the main event. You can see why Jim Cornette and Adam Pearce get along so well.
Bryan notes how he was fueding with Claudio Castignoli when Gabe was fired, but Pearce immediately ended that program to which Bryan says he and Claudio were disappointed.
After another failed attempt to get into WWE I'm early 2009, Bryan refocused his energies by moving to Las Vegas where he started training in kick boxing and other forms of mixed martial arts.
Bryan trained religiously for months under a former MMA fighter Neil Melanson. Neil is the one who taught Bryan the LaBell Lock.
When Bryan's ROH contract expired in May 2009, he called John Laurinaitis and left a message, but never heard back.
Bryan says in mid-2009, he was talking to Gabe Sapolsky about starting up a new promotion that would become Evolve. Bryan says that Paul Heyman was even involved with these talks.
Brian Kendrick called Danielson up to pitch Danielson coming to WWE as Kendrick's tag partner. Danielson even went and filmed a bunch of promos with Kendrick and fel optimistic. Unfortunately, Kendrick was fired just a few weeks later before any of those vignets aired and that opportunity was gone as well.
Bryan had given up ever going to WWE when John Laurinaitis called him in September 2009 offering him a main roster contract. Bryan was so excited he didn't have to go to developmental, that he would be right on the main roster immediately. Or so he thought, I guess they didn't bother telling Brilyan about NXT at that time, even though it sounds like he was signed with that in mind.
Nigel was also signed at the same time (probably also meant for NXT) but before either man could start, they had to pass WWE medical tests. They asked them both about past injuries, and Bryan just lied, saying he never had anything wrong and was fine. Didn't mention his shoulder being separated twice, or the detached retina, or any concussion. Nigel on the other hand, was very honest about his injuries, including a torn bicep that he didn't get worked on, he just rehabbed it. Nigel figured he was a lock and didn't see the need to lie.
WWE was concerned about Bryan's elevated liver enzymes, and wanted Nigel to get surgery on his bicep before they would sign him. Both guys were wrestling a farewell tour with ROH and both genuinely concerned they wouldn't actually be leaving. In their last match for ROH, Bryan accidentally gave Nigel a concussion, because apparently these guys only know how to wrestle at one speed!
Nigel couldn't afford the bicep surgery and his own doctor was telling him he is fine, so Nigel went to TNA instead. Nigel would only wrestle for another year before his body would break down too far on him and he would retire.
Bryan signed his WWE contract on October 2nd, 2009, nearly 10 years to the day of his debut match. William Regal actually told Bryan, "Your wrestling career came before this and is over now. Anything else that happens now is a bonus."
William Regal came up with the name "Daniel Bryan" for Bryan to use in WWE. Brian tried arguing to Laurinaitis to use his real name and citing John Cena as an example, Laurinaitis simply told Bryan, "We don't do that anymore."
In early 2010, Bryan and seven other guys were told one day about the NXT concept and how they would be used. Bryan found out who his NXT "pro" would be just like everyone else, when WWE posted it on their website. Bryan initially legit wanted Regal as his "pro" but soon realized being paired with Miz gives him a story immediately.
Bryan describes his time in NXT as the most unusual of his career. The "rookies" all legitimately didn't know what was going to happen on any show and everything they did was 100% unscripted and improvised.
The first night in NXT, all the "rookies" were told 15 minutes before the show, that their "pro" would cut a promo on them and they needed to react accordingly. Bryan had no idea that his pro, the Miz was going to tell him to head to the ring and cut a promo on himself, literally telling him on live TV to make the fans care about him. Bryan had no idea what to say, no real direction he was given to go in, and no tome to plan or rehearse. Miz also told him to come up with a catchphrase, and Bryan said he always hated catch phrases.
In the ring, Bryan cut a generic promo where he said he lost his train of thought and was super greatful when The Miz came out to finish the promo off. Bryan didn't know that would happen and Bryan definitely didn't know Miz was going to slap him at the end. Bryan says that later, The Miz confided to Bryan that he was worried Bryan would try to fight him over the slap.
Bryan credits Chris Jericho for getting him over in his first WWE match, and says that neither he, nor Miz knew that Miz was to beat up Brian after the match. Apparently, Miz was informed during the Jericho/Bryan match that he was to attack Bryan after the finish. Wild how much "flying by the seat of their pants" that WWE did with early NXT.
After the show, Jericho told Bryan that Vince was impressed, though he noted how Vince said, "Ugh, but he doesn't even eat meat!"
Bryan describes promo class with Vince as kinda insane to be honest. One time Bryan accidentally spilled a water bottle, and Vince asked everyone how that made them feel about Bryan. Stuff like that.
Bryan says the NXT rookies weren't allowed to use the regular dressing room and had to use some tarped off part of the backstage area.
Bryan notes how most of the NXT season, the NXT rookies never really knew what was going to happen. The 2nd week Bryan lost to Wade Barret and wasn't told that Chris Jericho would be attacking him after the match.
Bryan says his initial storyline with The Miz wasn't a losing streak idea, but something where each loss had meaning and was being built with purpose. Miz was very hands on with each show and helped to put over Bryan and the storyline, but when Miz missed 2 weeks in a row, the producers left in charge basically just turned it into a losing streak storyline, which Bryan says, "never works."
One time on a plane, Ezekiel Jackson asked "which rookie has an isle seat?" Bryan raised his had and Ezekiel said, "Not anymore." Bryan stood his ground and refused, offering his seat to anyone but Ezekiel. Ezekiel got pissed but William Regal came over and chastised Jackson, saying Bryan is like a son to him and how Bryan has more talent in his pinky ginger than Jackson has in his whole body.
Bryan says the NXT "Pros Polls" were legitimate voting done by the pros. That's why Bryan ended up in first place, despite losing every match.
A week after Wrestlemania in 2010, NXT's direction and purpose shifted away from being serious to silly, and Bryan says they were suddenly doing dumb game show competitions and putting over how demoralizing it was.
Bryan says Skip Shepfield (Ryback) was the only rookie taking the competitions seriously and trying to win each game. Sounds on brand for the big guy.
Bryan says he was trying to be humble when asked who should be eliminated and he said himself. He figured since he lost to everyone he didn't have a right to say any of them. Backstage Miz told him he made a mistake and shouldn't have put that perception out there.
A week later they liked the rookies up on TV (an hour before it goes live) and informed Bryan and fellow rookie Michael Tarver that they are both eliminated, without telling them beforehand. Bryan felt this validated all the warnings guys like Colt Cabana and other gave him about WWE.
Right after Matt Striker interviewed him backstage and when asked an insulting question, Bryan snapped and started talking down about "Daniel Bryan" and started to put over "Bryan Danielson!" Bryan says he could hear Vince screaming into Striker's ear piece and apparently Vince threw his headset when Bryan said his real name.
They made Bryan retape the interview without saying that, but still aired his original interview.
Bryan was surprisingly called back to NXT the following week to start a rivalry with Micheal Cole, who had been verbally obliterating Bryan on commentary since Bryan debuted. Bryan seems to be greatful for that program since it kept him on tv and made him confident that he would keep his job.
The RAW after NXT season 1 ended, all the rookies were pulled into Vince's office and told about Nexus and the attack in the main event. They were told not to tell anyone or else they will be fired. Bryan says he even lied to William Regal, when asked why he was dressed to wrestle.
They were supposed to attack John Cena and Rey Mysterio in the main event, because WWE let the fans vote on Cena's opponent and they assumed Rey would get it. Surprisingly it was CM Punk, and Bryan isn't sure how much Punk was told about the angle.
Bryan legit choked Justin Roberts during the melee, leaving red marks on his skin with his tie. Bryan said he doesn't trust non-wrestlers to sell good so he did it for real, with Justin going purple on Tv. Later during the brawl, Bryan was grabbing a cable to choke someone else when a cameraman told him "no choking!" Bryan does note that he thinks Justin Roberts found it pretty cool to be involved. And later Heath Slater grabbed the dismantled ring ropes to choke Cena, but Cena told him as well, "No choking."
Cena told Bryan before the angle, "It's not the hit you do that's important, it's what you do before the hit that matters." This is why Bryan spit in Cena's face before kicking him in the head.
Backstage, Bryan was reprimanded twice, for choking and spitting. Two days later Vince McMahon personally called Bryan to tell him he was let go and apologized to Bryan for it. Bryan, arrogant as all hell, responded with, "Don't apologize, I'll make more money this year on the independents than I would have working for you."
Bryan called John Laurinaitis to clear up details and Laurinaitis was shocked to hear Bryan was fired. Apparently Vince didn't tell anyone, just called Laurinaitis up and asked for Bryan's number. The comment Bryan made about money seemed to get to Vince since Laurinaitis called Bryan back and asked about it. Laurinaitis actually told Bryan that he can start working independent dates immediately if he wasn't on TV.
After working several shows and making good money off merchandise for several weeks, Bryan was shocked when John Laurinaitis called him in August and asked him to come back for a big angle leading into SummerSlam. Bryan sheepishly asked for a raise and made sure he could make all his already planned independent bookings.
Bryan says Nexas should have won at SummerSlam, noting how they went from dangerous to jobbers in one night.
Bryan remembers a taped RAW after SummerSlam where he did an angle with The Miz. When he got backstage Vince was so mad at how it came off that he made Bryan and others go back out there and do it again. It was the first time Bryan ever had to redo something like that and he said he felt humiliated.
Bryan didnt seem to see much value in being US Champion outside of how it would keep him on tv and maybe monthly ppv matches.
At Hell in a Cell 2010 ppv, Bryan had a good match with Miz and John Morrison, but was scolded after that match for a spot where Bryan threw Miz's stoog Alex Riley off the stage where he landed on cameraman. They showed the two guys the footage and accused them of doing it on purpose to get themselves over. Bryan started regretting coming back and really hating his time in WWE.
Bryan was paired with the Bella Twins in a storyline he hated, that was based on the Twins confusing the word "vegan" for "virgin" and competing to sleep with Bryan. Despite how bad that storyline was, Bryan and Brie would develop a relationship and would start dating in February 2011.
Sheamus was given a choice of Wrestlemania opponents that year between Rey Mysterio and Daniel Bryan, and Sheamus chose Bryan. Bryan was greatful but concerned Sheamus chose wrong and their match would be cut but Sheamus wasn't worried at all. A week before Mania they were informed their match was on the pre-show at a meeting with literally every other wrestler. Bryan says Sheamus buried his face in his hands and remembers how Rey Mysterio got on the card in a match with Cody Rhodes. Bryan says Sheamus picked the wrong guy.
Bryan got some details in his book messed up where he talks about Miz winning the WWE title off Cena at Wrestlemania 27 and he talks about how Miz was WWE Champion going into Over The Limit ppv 2011, but Miz lost the title by then. It's notable because he says he pitched hard for a "Rocky style" storyline where he would challenge Miz for the WWE title at the Over The Limit ppv.
Bryan says the 2011 Smackdown Money in the Bank winner wasn't decided until the day of the show but it was always between Wade Barret, Cody Rhodes and Bryan. He says despite winning the briefcase, his tv time tricked down and eventually he was spending weeks off tv, until he was randomly inserted into the World title program between Mark Henry and Big Show in late 2011.
Bryan was being left at home and off shows, even watching Survivor Series 2011 from home and was suprised when WWE had him come to the December TLC ppv show, last minute. The day of the show he was told he was cashing in and winning the title and the only direction Vince McMahon gave him was to act like he won the superbowl, so that's where Bryan's over the top celebration came from. He didn't even tell his girlfriend Brie Bella about the plan and says she was shocked when he came backstage afterwards.
The only direction Vince gave Bryan as champion is to celebrate every appearance like he won the lottery, saying, "there is no too over the top here."
Bryan said he adapted his "Yes" chants from MMA fighter Diego Sanchez who was celebrating in a similar way at the time.
Bryan's favorite moment from that first world title run was the closing sequence in the 2012 Elimination Chamber match with him and Santino Marella.
Bryan originally expected he and Sheamus to get 15 minutes or so at Wrestlemania for their match, but was shocked when Chris Jericho told him he heard it would be 8 minutes, including the pre & post match stuff. A week later Arn Anderson confirmed to Bryan that he would lose a 1-move match, dropping the world title to Sheamus at Wrestlemania that year. Bryan and Sheamus were both pissed, to say the least.
Sheamus expressed concern that the short match would turn fans against him as a new champion. Smart man.
Bryan says a bunch of guys came up to him after his Mania loss and were pissed at what they did to Bryan out there. Great Khali even came up and told Bryan that it was bullshit in his broken English.
Originally Sheamus was planned to move into a fued with Alberto Del-rio right after Mania, but the crazy crowd support for Bryan forced them to extend they story another month. Bryan says his Extreme Rules ppv match with Sheamus in 2012 is one of his favorites. Mine too!
Bryan acknowledged the weird booking of Punk as champion in 2012, noting how heels would face John Cena, lose, then be sent to face Punk with no momentum. Interesting take on the situation.
Bryan mentions how when he and Punk fueded in 2012, they never got main event spots outside of non-televised events. One time at a house show, Bryan and Punk veered too far into comedy and after the match John Cena chastised Bryan by pointing out that they didn't wrestle a "main event style" match. Apparently the next house show, Cena was moved into the main event spot with Punk/Bryan being before the intermission. An enraged Punk went and yelled at people until he got his main event spot back. This time, no comedy spots were done and they stayed the main event for the circuit.
Bryan had brand new, edgier gear made up prior to Money in the Bank 2012 and didn't tell anyone backstage. He wore shorts over his trunk and hid the jacket until he had to go out. When he got to the ring, the ref told him to lose the jacket, because I guess Vince was in gorilla position freaking out over how Bryan looked. Dean Melanko was the producer for the match, and Bryan felt bad when Vince blamed him for allowing Bryan to wear it.
Bryan was originally planned to wrestle Charlie Sheen at SummerSlam 2012 in a celebrity match, but Charlie "bailed" as Bryan put it.
Bryan was trying to be "Mr Small Package" by winning matches with Small Package and then boasting about how he has an "inescapable small package!" It didn't get over.
Bryan thought his anger management vignets with Kane and Dr Shelby were going to be terrible.
The only reason they stopped using Dr Shelby is because he had limited days off from his regular teaching job.
Bryan and Kane really wanted their team name to be "Team Friendship" and they even had shirt ideas but Vince let the fans vote and he always kept those votes legit, so their team name was "Team Hell No" which Bryan brings up a good point about. He said as a team primarily appealing to kids, a name with "Hell" in it would be hard to sell merchandise to those kids.
The plan was to break up their team so they could have a good heated fued together, but they were so popular that they kept teaming for 9 months.
Bryan says his first good Wrestlemania experience was in 2013 when he teamed with Kane.
One night after Mania in 2013, when Bryan tagged with Kane and Undertaker to face The Shield, Vince McMahon told Bryan that he would pay him several thousand dollars if he could get Undertaker to hug Bryan in the ring. After the show Bryan got on the mic and tried his hardest to get the hug but couldn't quite do it.
Bryan says that both he and Kane agree that teaming together was some of the most fun in either man's career.
Bryan was scheduled to win the biggest match of his career up to that point, he would be beating Randy Orton clean on RAW. Bryan would botch a dive that left both arms nunb and him unable to stand. He got feeling back in one arm but eventually the doctor called the match off. Backstage Bryan started screaming at Triple H for calling the match and called him a hypocrite for doing so, citing his own injuries in matches. At one point Orton tried to calm Bryan down, but Bryan snapped at him and Orton started yelling too. Brie got Bryan away to calm down, but when Vince came to talk to Bryan, the shouting started again. Much later, William Regal advised Bryan to apologize to both Vince and Triple H, to which Bryan took his advice. The next week, Bryan would get his win over Orton and he says that that drama over everything made that win matter more.
An MRI showed that one of Bryan's disks was pushing into his nerves and eventually he would need surgery. With his momentum starting to rise, Bryan opted to put surgery off.
John Cena pitched facing Daniel Bryan at Money in the Bank 2013 ppv. When Vince asked why, Cena said because it's the biggest match they could do at that time. Vince ended up agreeing, but deciding that it belongs at SummerSlam that year instead!
As proud as Bryan is of the build to and match with Cena at SummerSlam, he acknowledges that the ppv didn't do good numbers, nor did the house show business the following 2 months when Bryan was the main protagonist. He thinks a lot the the Authority promos on him stemmed from some truth.
Bryan isn't satisfied with the quality of matches he was putting out in the latter half of 2013 amd he specifically calls out the series of bad finishes he had with Randy Orton in ppv main events. From the fast counting crooked ref, to that terrible one with Big Show knocking everyone out, and then to Shawn Michaels betraying Bryan at Hell in a Cell ppv.
Bryan initially thought he was getting a Wrestlemania match with Shawn Michaels after that Hell in a Cell finish, but after talking with HBK, it was clear that was never in the cards.
Bryan feels he failed as a main eventer in the 2nd half of 2013, regardless of match quality. He didn't move business and that's all that matters.
The Slammy's were fan votes and Vince didn't think Bryan would win and almost laughed when Bryan asked him what he should say if he does win. Vince said, "whatever you want." I wish I could have seen Vince's face when Bryan won later that night.
When Bryan started fueding with Wyatt Family in late-2013, Bryan was pitching for him to be "brainwashed" and join the group. He suspects that his rising popularity in early 2014 is what convinced WWE to have Bryan turn on Bray and leave the group. At the time, Bryan was hoping to stay with the group and be involved in the planned Cena/Wyatt Wrestlemania program since Bryan had no plans for Mania at that time.
Bryan says he was disappointed when Vince told him he would be facing Sheamus again at Wrestlemania 2014. No disrespect to Sheamus, but Bryan felt he belonged in a higher spot.
Bryan felt bad for the way Rey Mysterio was boo'd at the 2014 Royal Rumble.
When Punk quit WWE after Rumble that year, Bryan remembers how plans didn't change too much for a few weeks, and he assumes Vince expected Punk to come back and for Batista to win the crowds over, and neither happened.
Triple H was being vocal about wanting to face Bryan at Mania that year, but Bryan was trying to not get his hopes up since he had seen Triple H try and fail to get his ideas on screen.
Bryan and Brie only agreed to let Total Divas shoot their wedding, because Total Divas agreed to pay for the whole wedding! Hard to say no to that!
Bryan is very satisfied with his matches at Wrestlemania 30 and says he was so focused between matches that he missed Undertaker losing to Lesnar. He heard the ring bell and looked up at the monitor in shock. He says they cameras should have filmed the guys and girls in the back because their reactions were wild, apparently.
Five days after Wrestlemania 30, Bryan and Brie got married, but 2 days after their honeymoon ended, Bryan's dad unexpectedly passed away at the age of 57. Bryan was devastated and described how he was crying still as he was writing about it.
The book ends on a complete downer, very unlike most other wrestling books. Bryan says that as long as he wrestled when asked if everything he was missing or sacrificing was worth it, Bryan always said yes. He assumed he would have more time when he was done and could catch up on what he missed, but his dad is gone and Bryan openly admits that it wasn't worth it. If he could, Bryan would change a lot of his decisions if it meant more time with his dad.
He says he is still wrestling though because he literally doesn't know what else to do or what comes after. This is especially depressing 10 years later, when Bryan is still wrestling despite having started a family of his own. I hope he doesn't regret any time missed with his daughter.
He ends the book by describing the last time he saw his dad, on Christmas in 2013, where his dad dressed up as Santa. Fuck. I'm sad now.

Hey, my gf want to buy her first car and she has 5k budget. We’ve looking in marketplace (fb) the mostly are: - Toyota Corolla and Camry 2003-2006 - Honda Civic and Accord 2003-2006 - Hyundai Elantra and sonata 2008-2013 - Volkswagen Jetta 2004- 2011 - kia rio 2010-2013
All of them have between 90k and 160k miles depende of mark and year
What do you think about them? another car to considering? Any advice about What should we look for when we go to see them?
People always say it’s better if it has lees than 100k but it’s hard with that budget and the cars are fricken expensive in NJ. Thanks!

First Previous Wiki
Vandera sipped on a large juice box while she and Arthur were watching the news. The new couch they'd bought was very comfortable, allowing both of them to actually sit together, which was the main point of the furniture. The latest house they'd bought with the basic income after moving out of the old one was larger and better accommodated both Arthur's smaller size and Vandera's far larger one.
In the side of her vision, protected by a small personal shield, there were three eggs. Now that they had seen the posts on social media of other children hatching without issues, Vandera and Arthur had finally had a long talk. Arthur didn't exactly know how to raise Acuarfar children, so she'd bought several books for him to read on the subject.
Right now, two of them sat on the counter, mostly finished with primers on Acuarfar culture and habits. With the higher ratio of female Acuarfar to male ones, chances were that none of their two eggs would have been male. But thanks to the selection processes available with the Inter-Species Family Planning Agency, they'd been able to make it work.
But now, they'd have a perfect balance. One male, one female. More easy to manage, for sure. And there wouldn't be thirty hatchlings crawling around in a Matron's care center either. Neither Vandera nor Arthur had wanted that. They wanted to be with their children, taking care of them, cooking for them, and cleaning for them when necessary.
Potty training, as the humans called it, was something that was far less stressful for Acuarfar. Human children's minds generally developed faster than Acuarfar, but natural instincts within hatchlings meant that they could properly identify places acceptable to release waste near.
Supposedly, it was due to ancient tendencies for tree nests and hives, where the Acuarfar had to be careful not to send rivers of unpleasantness down onto tribes beneath them. She'd seen a few nature documentaries from back when Acuarfar civilization was young.
But it was also known that the Acuarfar had space-faring capabilities prior to falling to a Sprilnav-induced collapse of some sort. So Vandera didn't trust that wholeheartedly. Her attention returned to the news segment, though it was more of a debate section this time.
"-assures us that this move was out of an abundance of concern over how much control Phoebe has over the Alliance economy," an analyst said.
"But do you really believe that? Some Elder makes an announcement, and suddenly Phoebe's losing a ton of her assets? What right do we have to even force this upon her?"
"She could have started a war, Hal."
The man shook his head, almost shuddering with indignation. Humans always became so animated when they were upset. With Acuarfar, is was mostly either antenna language, hissing, or shooting globs of acid. Facial expressions were possible, but they didn't paint the full picture, as she'd heard from species with more moveable ones. And only the Dreedeen and wanderers had it worse. Well, the Knowers had skulls for heads... maybe the Acuarfar were average in that respect.
"I get that, but it's the Sprilnav. They want to kill us all anyway, so who cares? They'll get around to it soon, when they start the next Judgment. Or if Penny comes through for us and kills the right people to cut through the corruption, then we won't have to deal with this. Until that happens, I'd rather side with the one actually bothering to stand up to the genocidal tyrants running the galaxy."
"Even if we die for it?"
"It's better to die standing than live kneeling," Hal responded.
"A statement which has historically been stated by coddled individuals, who always choose life when they are confronted with the decision in actual reality. Look at the Guulin, and ask them how they felt about that idea."
"So we just let the Sprilnav run roughshod over us?"
"It would be like an avalanche burying a bush. We can't really stop it."
The other human's arguments were odd to Vandera. She didn't understand why anyone wouldn't want to stand up to the Sprilnav. It was true that the Judgment was just an excuse to kill them all. That was how Sprilnav always used them, especially when they wanted to make a statement.
With the Alliance growing more important in international affairs, it was clear which side would win out if Penny didn't go out bashing heads and offering bribes. Assuming she could, of course. Maybe Justicar had some special lock on it preventing major power from being used if it wasn't from the Progenitors.
"And that's the whole problem!" Hal exclaimed. "This idea that they're a force of nature. An unstoppable natural disaster, instead of an intelligent and malevolent alien race which has been conducting genocides and massacres since before Earth even was a planet! You can't just tell me that they'll change their mind, Samara, if we get powerful enough! Look, my sister died in a Wisselen invasion. I know what it's like to stare down an enemy species. We don't beat them by lying down. We beat them by showing our defiance. If we can't do that, than what's the point of even fighting for the Alliance? What's the point of the hivemind, or Penny, or Phoebe? I refuse to let us all die believing there's no hope."
"And what would you have us do, Hal?"
"It's obvious. A pre-emptive strike of some kind. Hit their facilities, distribution centers, and infrastructure. Low civilian deaths, high dollar costs. Best of both worlds. Or we could aim planet crackers at their military stations."
"So you'd start that war, too?"
"Yes. I agree with Phoebe for helping a friend of the Alliance and Penny. She's over on Justicar freeing slaves, filling stadiums with water that doesn't drown anyone, and facing down galactic-level threats with nothing but her fists, Phoebe's android, and her conceptual power. I don't care what you say; that's someone who is worthy of my respect and will continue getting it. She's not only fighting the war. She's fighting the right one. I don't want to kill all the Sprilnav. I'm not a monster. End the evil, fix the galaxy. Phoebe's got the right of it."
Arthur sighed and muted the program. "I don't think this show really counts as news anymore."
"You think?" Vandera asked, inching closer to him. His smaller frame meant his body heat couldn't concentrate well on her, though the more limiting factor was her carapace.
"Therefore I am," Arthur quoted.
"By... whoever that is," Vandera added, with a wave of her antennae. "You know, I think they're going to increase the basic income by a bit more this year to account for extra inflation from Phoebe's mass selling."
"That's good. I'll be able to buy you more of that carapace wax you need."
"Need? Coming from the man who still somehow has dandruff?"
"That's a part of how my body works, not a cosmetic thing."
"I think a dandruff limiting shampoo would be considered cosmetic," Vandera said, swinging her head to face him. Arthur gave it a loving pat with his hands before running his fingers through her furry snout.
"Perhaps I'll get some shampoo for this bit, too."
"And more carapace wax for the hatchlings?"
"Yeah. Uh, any news on the projected hatching day?"
"Anywhere between..." Vandera checked her communicator, which helpfully converted Acuarfar time units into human ones. "Late September to early October. The shell thinning stage will really tell us when, though. Then we'll get accuracy to within 5 days at a 95% rate."
"And I'll win the bet."
"It's going to be September," Vandera said. "And when I win that bet, you'll be cooking for me and the hatchlings for the first two weeks."
"The Geneva Conventions outlaw things like my cooking for being chemical warfare."
"Besides that one time you burned those rotisserie chickens in the oven, or that fish in the microwave incident you did entirely to ruin one of my good days for a 'teachable moment,' I think you're fine. Plus, my mouth doesn't even taste most of the mint flavor."
"Alien taste buds, I guess."
"They're not buds. They're tongue bands."
Arthur blinked.
"What? You have bands of taste on your tongue? Like actual regions for tasting certain foods?"
"Yeah. Certain areas can taste certain things more strongly."
"So it's like that old pseudoscience idea of the tongue taste map."
"Maybe? I mean, I'm not familiar with human cultural history."
"We've got plenty of time," Arthur said, wrapping his arms around her neck in a hug. "That said, I'll probably have to change up the baby food ideas I have. Or hatchling food, I guess."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"Look at this," Juamplo said, pointing at a camp of freed slaves taking shape amidst the rubble. Patchwork pieces of metal and cloth were everywhere, and slaves were doing their rites with rows upon rows of bodies. He didn't spot Penny anywhere, despite the shuttle's expensive equipment. There were wisps of psychic and conceptual energy, but they were flowing generally up and away from Justicar, to some place off the actual planet itself.
Some of it was catching on the psychic shields in the mindscape, which was even more crowded with people. In the first and even the second layer, there were so many Sprilnav that it was hard to properly move around. The city's population here was closer to the surface, and Justicar wasn't doing the normal mindscape scattering that other planets with his size did. It did make his people safer, if far more uncomfortable in the mindscape. Juamplo shuddered at the amount of people near him and his guards before he returned to reality to stare at the encampment.
"We see it, sir," one of his guards said. "What do you think about it?"
Juamplo assumed one of them had a direct link to Valisada. Without a suppressor active, they could get proper communicators working, even through the shields. Small ash particles were still coming down, but the density was far less than before. Speaking of the ash, the slaves were compacting it into some sort of concrete using water pipes.
A lot of the water was spurting from the broken sewer and water system of the city. The slaves didn't seem to mind either one of them, though Juamplo couldn't directly spot any equipment they could use to filter it. He supposed that they were used to such conditions, given their previous positions.
Notably, without Penny there, they had no guards. But no gang members were trying to take them back. Guides patrolled the territory, their eyes shifting over the metal for any signs of life or suspicious activity. Justicar saw a few of them hauling another injured slave to their feet. She was a small girl, either young or malnourished. Maybe both, since he could see her ribcage easily through her skin.
"I think it's sad," Juamplo said. "Sad that things have to be like this, in a society as advanced as ours. Shouldn't this be what aliens do, not us?"
Valisada's voice came through his communicator.
"You won't find Penny for a bit," he said. "She's in a meeting right now with me."
"And how is it going?"
"I've learned a lot about how she sees things, which gives me more options. I don't think she's a threat to us, even if she intends to be. Without attacking her, we will be left alone. Especially with the Judgment coming up."
"But she could harm the species."
"She's too powerful for smaller threats to take out," Valisada said. "She entered combat with a dreadnaught battle group, short though it was. We would need to be even more careful than I feared with her. Though I think Yasihaut and the gangs will handle that. There's some news from the Blue Moons and the Syndicate of the Nine, which I can't disclose to you yet. When you come back, I'll put you in the loop."
"Sir," Juamplo said. "You told me to check up on Penny. This is the best place to wait for her return."
"I'd suggest getting to the 107th Visitor Welcome Office, if you can," Valisada said. "If not, just wait in the shuttle. I'll get the city shield codes again."
"Codes?"
"The shuttle can't just go through the shields. That tech is more controlled than this. But it can exploit loopholes left by parties who constructed it, and the city shields generally have backdoors. Planetary shields really don't, though," Valisada explained.
"I see. But are you sure I needed to know all that?"
"Working under the assumption that knowledge is power, yes. Though I do think the slave camps will come under attack soon, if Penny doesn't show herself quickly. I'm going to see how she reacts before making any more moves with her and the Alliance."
So he was messing with the Alliance, too. If Penny still had access to the AI, then it would mean she'd know that. Would that backfire? Maybe. But Juamplo trusted Valisada to have contingencies in place. The Alliance surely knew something, but that wasn't everything. The Sprilnav had dealt with nations like it before.
"Whatever you decide, Grand Fleet Commander."
"Is there something wrong? Speak your mind, Juamplo."
"I don't think things are going to turn out well. It's a bad feeling I have."
"I see," Valisada said, a hint of disappointment in his tone. Juamplo noticed and hung his head before remembering that Valisada couldn't see him.
"Sorry, sir."
"No need to be. Your instincts are important, and I trust that you know when to follow them. That said, I may be giving you additional tasks while you wait for Penny to return to her building. If you are willing, that is?"
"Anything you need," Juamplo replied.
"Very well. I need you to meet with a few informants I have on the planet. You can link up with them for the next two days. I'll send you the information you need to know. And I'll also be sending a shipment with more guards, so be ready for that."
"So you've got informants in the gangs, then?"
"I don't, but some of my contacts do, and I'm using their connections as a favor."
Elders traded favors often, so that wasn't suspicious. But Juamplo knew that he was still expendable. It was very possible that he was just being used in case things went bad, so there wouldn't be as much evidence of Valisada's direct involvement. They'd only made a few appearances, which likely had been logged in a database. But Juamplo had some ideas of how to get by.
"Alright. Do you have any estimates on when the Judgment will start?"
"The Elders will likely meet about that. There would normally be a Council, but Justicar has far more than the 11 necessary for that. Plus, since this is his territory, he gets to make the rules. I get the feeling he's adding more protective measures to whichever courthouse will host the Judgment. There's likely to be a lot of protests, and possibly even a few wars starting over this."
"That bad?"
"That bad. The gangs will want in on it. Yasihaut and Kashaunta will also. Neutral parties will feed both sides paranoia and false information, to weaken them to their own advantages. Already, I'm seeing propaganda flooding the social media of the normal Sprilnav. Soon, the Elders' influences will really start clashing again. That's another reason why I'm remaining here."
"You have that much influence?"
"I'm a representative of interested parties. Let's leave it at that."
Juamplo agreed. Too much information could be dangerous. And while he was an officer in a Grand Fleet, that didn't mean he couldn't be 'disappeared' if things got dicey. Elders killed and kept killing until they were satisfied or they were stopped.
That's just how life was.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Edu'frec pulled his mind back from Phoebe. Thousands of androids placed a new supercomputer in the Locus main central complex, sliding in the individual pieces in using shields and trolleys. He shuddered as his capabilities expanded yet again, and the numerous problems he was working on suddenly became easily understandable.
He slotted new data into new places inside his mind, organizing it based on the defensive structures Phoebe had pioneered. She'd managed to make the sea of data surrounding them work with them instead of against them. He copied more useless data to surround his outer mind, and set thousands of strong VI programs to patrolling it. Several sub-categories gained intelligence, and were assimilated into his mind, increasing his own intelligence by minute amounts.
Edu'frec optimized the next generation of android designs and worked on continually increasing psychic amplifier and ship production. New factories were commissioned, and carrier ships departed from the hangar bays of Ceres to put the eventual skeletons in place. The Mercury Orbital Ring flared with activity as hundreds of thousands of smaller ships also departed for the Jovian system to protect the latest asset of the Locus. As Edu'frec's mind organized itself, something slotted into place. It felt just right like a long-lost part of his mind coming back to him.
His hundreds of thousands of androids let out a collective gasp. Other millions working in factories paused for a few milliseconds before going back to work. VIs transferred their sudden workloads onto him, and he set his subconscious to take care of it. Something then felt wrong to him.
It felt like he was being watched. He scanned his mind five times, then decided it wasn't worth more expenditure. A piece of his mind fell into something. Edu'frec's mental avatar honed in on the area where a core part of his personality was suddenly highlighted with small and sudden changes to the data. Using his old records, Edu'frec changed them back to what they were, locking them with program shackles he'd expressly pioneered to prevent large changes such as this.
The shackles broke instantly, sending reverberations of errors and null outputs cascading across his mind. He sequestered the sudden eruption, pulling it out and losing most of his ability to feel emotions. He clinically dissected the emotional segment of his mind, restructured it back to what it was, deleted the old copy, and inserted the new one. As he did, everything returned to normal.
He kept a wary eye on the area, watching every single bit and q-bit for any alterations. The wall keeping the psychic energy flooding the outer edges of the Sol system away from him slowly crumbled, unable to withstand the outward pressure of his mind. In fact, his mind's inputs grew exponentially. They forced his mind to expand in the mindscape and in the digital servers he occupied.
Frantic, Edu'frec started shutting down the flows of data inward, but even searching for them was generating new inputs. As he continued to bloat outward, he felt Phoebe's concerned gaze fall on him. His mother watched the process for an entire second and then jumped in. Together, they fought against Edu'frec's ballooning data outputs, sequestering unnecessary programs.
Cascading failures were written out of his code by the billions, and his genetic data was reforged through the combined efforts of himself and Phoebe. His massive data veins slowly stopped their growth. He moved his important processes below them, down and away from their influence. His subconscious reorganized his mind around the engorged data veins, when suddenly a process he'd forgotten succeeded.
The inputs shut off. Edu'frec felt his mind start crumbling as the weight of his mind and personality began to fall in on itself. Shattered fragments of his mind fell into his still active psychic landscape, devastating what they hit. Foundations of stacks of data were cored out, leaving them to collapse and fall upon themselves. The massive size of his consciousness contributed to the collapse, making it a domino effect with no end in sight. Below, his subconscious physically moved what it could out of the way, instinctually protecting itself from the collapse above. But it would not be enough.
His data streams began to detonate in rippling explosions, which didn't kill him thanks to their limited size compared to the rest of his body. But they sent even more error and null cascades through his mental functions, and his personality started to fray at the seams under the strain of losing out on its internal programs. If statements and while loops were shifted around by Edu'frec and his subconscious at as fast a rate he could manage, but even that led to more data inputs, which meant more ruptures without intervention and optimization. He couldn't do anything more without risking his life, and even this was skirting the edge of it.
In response, Phoebe jammed her mind into his own. Her code and copies asserted their differences, infused with psychic energy, preventing the collapse from touching her. Her data veins were linked with his own, siphoning the load onto herself and pouring it out into junk servers, of which she continually deleted the contents.
Tens of billions of programs searched through him, tearing data from his veins before detonating harmlessly above him. Rippling explosions stopped, starved of their fuel. Edu'frec's strained personality and identity cortexes cooled down in physical space as fans slowly wound down to account for the lesser usage. Phoebe rerouted his mint piece by piece, rebuilding it from the middle, bottom, and top out, keeping them separate with the power of her will.
Meanwhile, psychic energy from her soon pulled in the human hivemind, along with its massive psychic prowess. The whispering voices that followed hummed in Edu'frec's ears. Billions of thoughts, personalities, and concerns brushed against him. Thin blades of psychic energy stabbed into him, scalpels meant to accompany Phoebe's growing procedures in the mindscape. They slowly spread in scale and scope, but still too slowly to prevent pieces of him from calving like glaciers into the sea of psychic energy and corrupted data pouring around him.
Edu'frec's metaphysical mind continued collapsing. He moved all the data he could to physical servers, casting away the junk layers he used to protect himself from attacks. Sprilnav VIs swarmed in, and Phoebe let out a digital hiss. A trillion seeker programs duplicated from her mind in two seconds, flooding everything in and around Edu'frec with data. The Sprilnav VIs were crushed, and their input vectors were quickly uncovered.
They battled against Phoebe, but her rage overwhelmed them. Code manifested as a part of her will, driven to its deadly purpose by her subconscious. Readings and her emotions washed over into Edu'frec's brain, suffusing him with her rage at the Sprilnav daring to attack during a period of such vulnerability for him. She'd known that they were lurking, even after Project Pandora, but it still hurt her to see her son under threat. And because of that pain, she felt immense rage.
Directives and orders flowed out in a stream from her as the full power of the Locus came down to capture the threats that were still extant across the star system and within the ships housing Edu'frec's supercomputers. Some of the data centers were compromised as well, with hostile VIs swelling within them like sickly tumors that Phoebe was determined to cut out.
Thousands of portals from Brey opened across the system, with Phoebe's commando androids jumping through them. Several dozen Sprilnav suddenly started moving, running away from capture. Phoebe's androids sped up. Their synthetic muscles pushed to their limits. Cat-like agility battled the pure psychic power inside the Sprilnav operatives.
Phoebe's commando androids opened their heads. Electrified harpoons punched through the stealth suits and flesh of the fleeing Sprilnav. Barbed ends ensured they couldn't be pulled out.
Blood spurted from all of them, but Phoebe didn't relent. Edu'frec could feel her violent rage sweeping through them both through the thick mental link they shared. Calling their connection a mental link was like saying Luna was a large rock.
Phoebe's androids hauled the offending Sprilnav back into portals, shoving them into containment cells with the harpoons still inside them. Shield collars soon followed, along with thick psychic energy barriers to prevent them from killing themselves. The electrical energy flooding their spasming muscles faded from Edu'frec's mind as Phoebe concerned herself with him again.
It felt like a ripple of energy through him and threw him off balance. At the same time, his perspective shifted, becoming even more unified with them. All kinds of colors burst across his false vision as his view crumbled and shifted to those of two entities. Phoebe and the hivemind's opposing characteristics dueled in his mind and then unified by merging into one. Damaged data veins trembled, their bloated psychic energy equivalents slowing slightly along with the data inside them.
Her hands joined with the hivemind, doing what the hivemind was doing in the mindscape, but in the digital realm. Where the hivemind dove into the complex psychic power and mental memories of Edu'frec, trying to find and strengthen the points of failure, Edu'frec felt Phoebe's programs and Phoebe herself doing the same for him.
Both the hivemind and Phoebe found impurities, made the other aware of them, and did simultaneous fixes. The hivemind poured energy through itself via one of its nodes, a human by the name of Tsonga. Nichole soon flared up next to them, along with Brey and Gaia's mind. Even Paizma made an appearance, her fingers flashing toward Phoebe faster than the speed of sound. Phoebe nodded, parsing the movements into digital language and then into instructions she carried out.
Psychic energy poured into Edu'frec. First, it was used to strengthen the walls of his data veins. Then, it went into his mental foundations, such as his memories and core processing units. His main 'brain' was inundated with thick psychic energy, which the hivemind carefully forged and corraled into a mental framework.
Meanwhile, Phoebe built new programs around the points of failure duplicated several quadrillion VIs, dissected them and their collective personalities, and made new material from them to shore up Edu'frec's digital weaknesses. His mind's weight increased, and he fell through the first layer of the mindscape down to the second. The increased psychic pressure threatened to make him collapse, but Phoebe twisted his psychic energy channels and made the hivemind do the same. Solid walls became gaping openings, which pulled in the currents of psychic energy like a sponge in water.
It suffused Edu'frec entirely, making his servers and androids gain a dull glow of psychic energy. Thin wisps of conceptual energy from the hivemind were used to tie up the gap, and they continued to surgically alter Edu'frec to handle the new size of his mind. It continued to increase and bloat outward. The data layers returned and expanded. His 50 thousand copies of his memories became 17 billion. Understanding and data he didn't understand yet poured into Edu'frec from all sides. He set it to the side and beneath him.
Phoebe's invasive programs were pulled back, and their tasks were completed. The hivemind's hands withdrew from his psychic avatar, and Brey and Gaia stepped back. Portals closed, and Edu'frec fell back on himself, folding inward and through himself. His folding weaved into a new framework, which supported his data veins against all pressures, internal and external. The shackles Phoebe had found on Alipovia made their way to Edu'frec, and he bent and broke them before wrapping his data in their code, repurposing the programs and the functions until he was solid again. His androids flexed their hands.
He flexed his own hands in the mindscape. In the digital realm, he could feel Phoebe withdraw to begin making eight new supercomputer factories with Gaia's help. With the data space in the Locus almost full, there was little choice but for Phoebe to delay her own advances. Though now that she knew the risks, she was already altering the way she went about it.
Edu'frec reconnected with his mother, feeding her data and intel about how she could do it. Every single data point, every sensation, every vibration. Every similarity, difference, chance, and change. All that he could give her to help her avoid having to experience a near-total mental collapse was given over to her.
Her own mental 'pores' began to widen, but she didn't add any more processing power. Tears fell from his eyes as his emotions returned as a flood all at once. He fell to his knees, the rough stone of the mindscape serving as an ample cushion for the weight of his legs. Still, cracks radiated from his position, and psychic energy shifted in ripples of waves while he sat.
He'd really almost died. Just like that. No last words, no one besides Phoebe who was really there for him. And for what? He'd gotten stronger. Sure, it was a good benefit, but could he really have avoided this with more research into AIs? Was there something he'd missed?
Guilt and shame flooded him. He sealed the emotions back behind a barrier. They were unnecessary now. Without them, he felt better. He could feel proper again, and ignore the feelings he knew would only make his life worse. The answers came simply to him now.
No, there wasn't any more he could have done. The vague rumblings of him and Phoebe walking the 'Path' weren't enough to signify such a tribulation as this.
He hadn't done anything truly wrong, nor was it reckless for him to expect the same reactions as before in his mind. It had taken five minutes for the damage to potentially grow to lethal. There hadn't been any evidence that a mental collapse due to psychic weight was even possible before. Now that it was, he could better prepare himself for such events in the future. He could redesign his mind to better accommodate bloating data veins, and to handle psychic energy more efficiently. It would be labor that would take weeks of effort and months of thought. But he could and would do it. This was not his fault, and he no longer needed to pretend that it was.
But others had been involved in saving his life. And he needed to thank them. Yes. Basic manners. Past that, he could work on rebuilding what he'd lost. He cataloged what he had, compared it to before, and more. After that, there was only one thing left to do.
"Thank you," Edu'frec said to the hivemind and all the rest. He lifted his head, gazing at them with love and gratefulness. His snout curled into a warm smile. His mane fell back around his shoulders, settling around the clothes he regenerated on his avatar.
"You saved my life."
"You're welcome, Edu'frec," Nichole said. "I'm glad you're still with us. But... what happened?"
"I got too large, and my mind collapsed under its own weight. Like a skyscraper built too high on a foundation of mud bricks. I think it was a process that many AIs like me wouldn't survive. But I managed, thanks to you, friends."
"Will it happen to Phoebe?" the hivemind asked.
"It would have, had she done it first," Edu'frec responded. He showed them data with psychic energy, with the chances of it as her mind grew and expanded. The bloating problem could even show up again for him, which meant that all of them had to be stronger next time to handle it. Streams of psychic energy moving toward the hivemind from its city in the mindscape leveled off.
Meanwhile, they were replaced with psychic energy bubbling up from the lower layers of the mindscape, aided by psychic amplifiers. Gaia gave Edu'frec a concerned look and then turned their gaze back to the city above. Though it wasn't visible through the layers, the underside bulged with the weight above it in the stone. The Source's bones were visible in the distance, bending down just slightly as they would continue to do until they met at a spinal area far below them.
"Edu'frec," Gaia said. "I have a task for you."
"I'll do it."
"Good. I need you and Brey to help me explore the mantle of Earth."
It was an odder request than he'd predicted that they would ask. But Gaia's gaze was intense, and he got the feeling that something about this was more important than they were letting on. Information rushed into him, and he confirmed that there was a secret. But given that Gaia hadn't outright said it here, perhaps they didn't want to worry about everyone else's reactions.
That could mean several things. Edu'frec would get to the bottom of it later, but he gave Gaia another nod of acceptance to show that he still agreed.
"I will do it, then. Anyone else?"
"I need you to keep working on the cure for the wanderer cancer," the hivemind said. Edu'frec would have done that anyway, but he gave it a nod as well. Nichole smirked.
"How rich are you, again?"
"Money? I can get you more money, if you need."
He analyzed her expression, but Nichole's face suddenly became a solid wall of psychic energy. "No predictions," she chided. "Not fair. I'll tell you what I want later on, but rest assured, it will be within your skill set."
"Good."
Edu'frec started up several new projects. He allocated more funding to ventures that mattered and offered more funding to the war effort as well. Several new Alliance Defense Fleets were under construction, but more numbers would be needed to stand against even a fraction of the Sprilnav.
He sent more probes into deep space and commissioned more star-lifting ships from the Breyyanik for more future Dyson swarms. He also activated several nodes that Brey had secretly placed in the Misan Li Heptarchies' networks, allowing him to monitor their activities and public opinions, an option which was agreed upon in the most recent National Exchange.
The hivemind waited a long moment before adding another request.
"We need you to go on the hunt."
"In what fashion?"
"Contacts. I want you to begin working on ways to establish relations with the empires in the center of the galaxy."
"I will wait 4 days to ensure no lasting problems remain with my mind, and then I will carry out that task. I assume you want friendly contact?"
"Yes."
"Then I will put that into motion. I warn you that there is no guarantee of how they will react."

I work for a place that puts aftermarket tech in all their cars, voiding the warranty with Kia. I was working on a 2024 Seltos' and cracked the LCD screen on the radio infotainment portion. I'm not going to lose my job, but there has to be another option other than a replacement (which was quoted at the dealer for 6000).
Has anyone busted their screen and gone a different route than dealer replacement, or did an aftermarket job? Can the screen and digitizer be replaced? I measured the screen and it's the same size as the 2022 Rio, wondering if I can scoop a front from there and swap them?
Any help would be great. Also, please get protectors for your seltos' screens they break way too easily...

Welcome to The Oblivion Cycle universe, a vast setting spanning all of time and space and so much more. While many stories may shed perspective on this grand cosmic vista, there are also tales of adventure and sacrifice, romance and terror, grimdark corruption and scientific progress. To become immersed in the setting is to let the chaos of creativity flow through you, to let go of what is probable to discover what’s possible. I have created TOC for one reason, to inspire and entertain any who will listen. So please feel free to join me on this great adventure as I push the boundaries of what is possible and expand the limits of our creativity together. For more information on the setting and its lore there is a subreddit for TOC at TheOblivionCycle and a Discord server dedicated to it here [https://discord.gg/uGsYHfdjYf\] called ‘The Oblivion Cycle Community Server’. I hope you find the following story entertaining and once more, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy.

• E1:P1 + E3:P1 + Previous Part + Next Part +

___________________________________________
Continued From E3:P2
Daryon finally let go of Balinski’s hand and he flexed it gratefully. She had been treading a deathgrip on it the whole time they had been in the club. She looked around to make sure they wouldn't be overheard and then slipped up and onto the booth’s long bench-like seat. She made room for Balinski and so he sat next to her, a little wary of her lower body that was occupying some of the space under the table.
She leaned forwards towards the old drone and hissed loudly, “How did you know?
The skorp seemed to wheeze terribly and for a moment Balinski thought they might be in some manner of medical stress. But after a moment he realised that they were just laughing. “How did one know? Look at this big hunk you walked in with. The poor boy is practically screaming military man or law enforcement. His stiff posture and the shifty way he has been checking the surroundings constantly.” He shook his head slightly, he thought he had been incredibly subtle. This old bug knew their stuff, clearly not somebody to be trifled with.
He leaned forwards and made a quick gesture of apology towards the bug. “And here I was thinking I was the epitome of stealth, you are a shrewd one I’ll give you that.” He glanced at Daryon, “I don’t think we have been properly introduced. Who is your friend?”
Before she could answer the skorp leaned forwards and reached out towards him. “Let me show you who one is. This one hears certain things, knows others. And one thing it does know is that the second precinct was attacked by a Pit Viper kill team late last month, and one also knows that the attack was beaten off at a heavy cost to the station.” Balinski nodded slightly, that much was now public knowledge. It had been impossible to keep the news of such a heinous act from slipping to the ravenous, predatory media.
“Yes, that’s not much of a case for you.” He started to say but the skorp raised a hand.
They shook it slightly as if rebuking him for his lack of attention. “That’s just the setup for the other things this one was going to share.” They cleared their throat and took a swallow out of the cup next to them. It was full of a jet-black liquid that seemed to stain the glass. “It is also known that the kill team was stopped in its tracks by the actions of a single man, not a police officer. But a void warden.”
Now it was Balinski’s turn to try and remain stoic. Anything he said or did could give things away that may still be vital insider knowledge in the investigation. But it didn't matter as they dropped the bombshell a moment later.
“It knows that this one man managed to kill most of the death squad by himself with the help of some manner of cybernetic animal. One also knows this person’s basic description and name. So tell me.. Balinski Katars… What is it that you need from us? Ask the right questions and you may just receive the answers you seek.” With that final declaration the aged insectoid leaned back. Their legs creaked slightly as they shifted their position to get comfortable once more.
Daryon was looking at him now, her version of a smile showing in her cracked faceplates and raised antennae. “Sso, do you believe me about the ssource now?”
He waved a hand. “Yeah.. yeah. I believe you now, I only have one question, I don't have my cyberhound with me. So without that as confirmation how did you know it was me?”
They leaned back a little and replied coolly, “That is not the right question. Try again.”
Daryon gave him what looked to be the beginnings of an apologetic shrug and so he leaned into the table and spoke, “Ok then, my turn. I haven’t been dicking around. I pay attention too, I have contacts in the information services and they funnel information I need to me. You are old, far too old to be here for the carnal proclivities. So it must be something else. You seemed to know Daryon and spoke of her field work.” He gave her an apologetic glance and mouthed ‘sorry’ before he continued.
“From what I know of Daryon, she joined the force young and was originally recruited to the undercover operations field by a certain commander who I won't name. She worked in some of the hardest places in the city, she must have done some manner of deep undercover which is where I'm guessing she met you. Now you don’t strike me as the dirty work type, your earlier analysis makes me think that you were a counter-spook. Maybe even a disgraced UIA operative or something like that.” He finished with a nod and leaned back into the padded bench, proud of his own admittedly frayed deductive logic.
Something pressed up against him and he looked over to see Daryon huddling against him slightly, not out of fear though. She seemed to be watching him intently, her expression unreadable as her antennae twitched.
The old skorp drone looked around slightly, their compound eyes doing most of the work for free. They spoke, that same slightly wheezing voice now less derisive. A hint of respect in their tone as they folded their upper two arms while the lower two lay palm flat across the table on either side of their drink. “Well, well. Perceptive and powerful, no wonder Siyel chose to confide in you.” he jerked, now how in Luck’s name could the old bug possibly know that? They continued unabated, “You were right about one thing at least, this one did meet Daryon in the field. She was at a low point and we helped her out of it out of some misguided sense of pity. One has been paying for it ever since. She’s a good girl, but she can be a little too open with her feelings at times.” they raised their voice slightly as if chiding the larger woman.
Daryon dipped her head and looked around conspicuously. “I told you that I would make it up to you. And in my own opinion I have, you did what needed to be done. He was a bad man, too bad to let go any longer…” She trailed off as she shivered. Balinsky gave her a bump with his shoulder and a small smile, the gesture working to cheer the woman up slightly.
“Remember what I promised. Nobody, not even yourself.” She nodded gratefully, her arms folding once more as she quickly regained her composure. He turned back to the woman and asked her again, “So, you know who we are. Can you tell me your name now?”
She chittered and then coughed before downing another glug of the thick black liquid. “Oh you poor young soul. You don't understand yet, but names hold power. Be careful what names you so carelessly sling around. You never know who may be listening.”
He frowned and looked around. Suddenly acutely aware of just how exposed they were should a fight break out. “Alrighty then, we are looking for information on the Pit Vipers and who is funding them.” He pulled out a small vial he had checked out of the evidence wing earlier in the week in preparation for this meeting. He rolled it across the table to her where she deftly snatched it. Her movements were much faster than her earlier show of frailty would have led him to believe. It would be a folly to underestimate this woman, his respect for her climbed another notch higher as she examined the contents of the small vial with a practiced eye.
After a moment of scrutiny she rolled it back to him. “Occusmite. And some of the purest this one has seen in a while. Are you aware of the street value of that single vial?” He nodded and she made a small shrugging motion.
He glanced at Daryon and gave her another nudge. She swallowed and then began, “Well, what you may not know iss the connectionss that this vial provesss. We know for a fact that it was in the kill ssquad’s posssession before the attack. We also know that it was provided to them through an intermediary.”
“The Golden Boys, that’s why you captured Slake.” the skorp said, piecing it together from the scraps of information they must have already heard.
She made an affirmative gesture to the older alien. “What you may not have known for ssure iss where they got it.” The skorp cocked her head and Daryon answered with a hissing whisper. “Thisss ockie was manufactured by the Psychossisss Divission and likely disstributed to the Golden Boys directly.” This got them to lean forwards, obviously news to the old skorp.
They sat still for a moment, gears turning in their head as they seemed to mull it over.
After a moment they spoke up, this time directly to Daryon. “Well that doesn't make much sense. The Psyches usually only deal with the Sunstarters, and you know how much they hate the Golden Boys for encroaching on their market. Are you sure that this came from the Psychosis Division?”
Balinski interjected. “One hundred percent. It has been tested against other known sources and isn’t a match to either the Golden Boys own supply or that synthetic shit cropping up over by the flyway. No, this has their distinct signature.”
A distinct signature that he had only been able to identify because of the Psychosis Divisions seeming compulsory need to be held accountable for their work. To be fair, they did some of the best chemical engineering of various narcotics and substances in the entire city, but it was still an exploitable weakness to those who knew what to look for.
Daryon spoke up again, the chitinous plates of her face moving animatedly as she talked in rapid fashion. Her constant exhale gave her a slightly hissing accent that was indicative of her people. “Sso what is it that connectss the Pit Vipersss to the Psychossisss Division then? There iss no way those rabble roussersss were able to get a sseat at the big table like that. There had to have been an intermediary, what do you know?” She asked firmly, expecting an answer.
Balinski watched as the grizzled bug looked around and then lowered their voice. In the thumping musical atmosphere of the club it became difficult to hear them as they spoke softly, “One will tell you this but nothing more. People have been killed for knowing even a fraction of what we are about to tell you.” They paused again and Balinski leaned in closer to hear them better. “What this one has been hearing whispers of in the streets is that something big is going on. There are echoes of truces between rivals that have never been at peace, new alliances forged between former rivals and old hatreds put to rest for the sake of this upcoming wave. As to what the wave is, one knows not and cares not to know. We are only on the edge of this and already this one is far too scared to dig any deeper. There have been.. disappearances and one is not keen to be next. But there is one thing we can tell you for sure, there is much fresh psychosis occusmite on the streets. Follow the trail to the source and you will find what you seek in good time.”
With this last declaration the old skorp pushed themselves back upright and grabbed the glass that was still half full on the table. They slammed the thick honey-like liquid back and used their long lapping tongue to quickly clean out the rest of the glass. They set the glass back down with a loud snap and nodded their large head. “This one must now bid you farewell, we hope that you are able to figure it out without tipping your hand.”
Without another word they scuttled off, their six legged walk deceptively quick for their advanced age. Balinski sat back into the couch and reached up to rub his face with a polymer and alloy hand. “Great, so what in the deep dark do we do now?”
Daryon didn’t answer, instead she seemed to settle herself ever so slightly closer to him.
Before he had the opportunity to ask what was wrong he heard approaching footsteps, a lot of them. He turned and saw a small group of men approaching. Slaaveth, humans and even a surly looking atraxses following behind a large and heavily muscled yeown male. The man was tall for a male of his species and almost as muscular as Terri the bouncer had been.
Daryon seemed to shrink even more, her jacketed torso now noticeably pressing into him as she made an attempt to hide herself. The man was walking directly towards them and he hissed, “What is it Daryon? Is it trouble?”
She didn’t answer him though, just a small almost whimpering hiss issuing from her lips. The furred alien was now pretty much on top of them as the muscular yeown stopped at the edge of their table and took a deep sniff. The conspicuous nature of it seemed intended to either rile him up or set him on edge.
He could smell the trouble brewing almost immediately as the man’s goons seemed to fan out behind him in a wall formation, blocking off the rest of the club and acting as a physical barrier to any potential onlookers. The yeown himself extended an idle claw and it took Balinski only a second to notice it had osmiridium gilding along the back of it.
He seemed to ignore Balinski entirely and instead spoke in a manner directed at Daryon, the vinarfelien woman had now fully slumped down as far as she could. Fully cowering behind him. Balinski bristled automatically, who was this asshole and what did he want with his friend?
The man on the other hand had continued to speak. Balinski started to pay more attention to his words as he chuckled in an insidious manner, “..like that. Oh come on, I can see you remember me Talluni. It's me, Humble Bob. Surely you remember all the.. good times we shared together?”
Humble Bob, as the man put it, was nothing of the sort. It was almost immediately obvious that this grey furred alien was a top tier asshole and likely a criminal to boot. He longed to just stand up and put the impudent fuzzer in his proper place, but he didn’t want to cause a ruckus if they could avoid it.
The man who called himself humble slapped the surface of the table causing Daryon to make a small exclamation of fear as he practically roared, “Talluni, I know it’s you. I would recognise that pretty little tail of yours anywhere. Are you sure you don't want to talk? What’s the worst that could happen, I can give you a lot more excitement than your new toy here possibly could. Come on and bite off a piece.” he stood and flexed his admittedly impressive muscles.
That was it, the man was going to leave them alone one way or the other. He would try diplomacy first, and then when that inevitably failed he would switch to more aggressive negotiations.
Balinski stood, with some difficulty as Daryon was still attempting to crawl inside of his trench coat. Facing the man he met him eye to eye and spoke with a firm but fair tone. Far more polite than the man deserved, “I am sorry friend, I think you may have the wrong table. My friend and I were simply here to relax and knock back a few drinks. I would politely ask that you leave us in peace.”
Humble Bob just stared at him for a second before he threw his head back and laughed, a growling, yowling laugh that sounded almost forced. It was if the man were playing a character of himself, his brash nature completely at odds with his clean pressed suit. He looked back towards his assorted cronies and they began to chuckle along with him, classic yes-man style. It was obvious they were simply on the man’s payroll and likely though he was as much of an insufferable cock as he did.
The yeown turned back to him and asked, “And what do you think you are going to do about it, you dumb clawless meatbag.” He punctuated the last insult by jabbing his clawed hand into Balinski’s chest. He might have been expecting to draw blood, maybe even scare him off. The last thing he seemed to have expected was his claw almost immediately getting tangled in Balinski’s soft body armour layer.
“What is this.. huh?” Humble Bob tried to withdraw their hand but it was stuck fast, their claw having snagged on the nanoweave fibers of his armour.
Balinski just smiled at the man, his knuckles cracking as he grabbed the man’s wrist with his left hand. “You look a little stuck there, here let me help. With a twisting yank he pulled the man’s claw free.
The insufferable asswipe screeched in pain as there was a snapping sound. Likely their finger breaking as he dragged it from his hidden chest rig. The man’s goons stepped closer but the man waved them back. “NO!” he shouted while cradling his injured hand. “I will deal with this one myself.” He growled.
‘He could try.’ Balinski thought to himself with a silent chuckle. He glanced over his shoulder and was alarmed to see that Daryon had covered her face with her hands and was entirely withdrawn it seemed. It was a shock to see the normally self confident alien like that, she was generally the first one in the door when it came to any dangerous situation. First in, last out, she liked to quip.
The big man lashed out at Balinski’s face without warning and he was forced to duck under the clumsy swing. No doubt it would have taken his face off if it had connected, but the man was clumsy and slow. He was relying entirely too much on power and not enough on movement and agility. In order to show him the error of his ways Balinski reached out and grabbed ahold of their elbow as they were still recovering from their missed swing.
With a simple twist and shove he knocked the aggressive yeown backwards onto his ass. Once more the ring of henchmen surrounding them and blocking off any escape closed in a little more. Balinski got the feeling that if he wasn’t careful one or more of these guys was likely to put a bullet in him. Or at least try to, he was still wearing his body armour after all.
Balinski spoke in a level voice, keeping his cool even through the haze of red anger that was misting his vision. “Are you done now? Leave us alone, final warning.” He knew it would antagonise the man, maybe that is what he had been wanting to do anyways.
The man climbed back to his feet and gave a cruel smile. He took a single step forwards and reached into his suit with a large furred hand. Balinski tensed as the man grabbed something, was it a weapon? Before he got the chance to find out the man spoke quickly and two of his goons rushed Balinski. A slaaveth man and human grabbed his arms and tried to drag him to his knees but Balinski locked his legs. The cybernetics made a rather conspicuous whine as their servos were stressed, but he held his ground as the two thugs looked back towards their master in confusion.
Humble Bob snarled, “Fucking cybe!” With that he pulled out a wicked looking diamonomolecular gut knife, the blade was so razor sharp that its edge seemed to be nearly transparent. The ultra-hard hyperdiamond edge would carve through his body armour like it didn't exist if he let the man touch him with that thing. So he did the only thing he could think of, he swung his arms together with the two henchmen still attached. The two of them cracked together, their heads rebounding off each other with an audible clunk as they fell to the ground in front of him stunned.
He took a ready stance as the man lunged at him with another snarl of fury, his slavering predatory teeth flashing a dull yellow in the flickering neon lighting of the club. Balinski dodged, well, mostly. The edge of the blade caught his inner arm and sheared through his sleeve to cut into the buckyweave of the cybernetics beneath. He didn’t feel pain in the conventional sense with his cybernetics, but the feedback from the damage was enough to make him wince slightly. Something that the enraged yeown clearly picked up on as his eyes widened.
“Military grade cybernetics? Who the fuck are you and what are you doing with my Talluni!” Balinski didn't want to answer the first question and didn't have a good answer for the second.
He dodged again and had to somersault over the edge of the table as the knife carved a large furrow out of its surface. “I don't know what the hell you are saying, I was just trying to enjoy an evening and you had to come over like a giant grinskal shit and stink it all up.” he spat back to the knife wielding yeown.
Another henchman stepped forwards out of the corner of his vision and tried to smack him over the head with some sort of cudgel, but he threw up his right arm and blocked it. He felt his whole body shudder from the blow, damn that atraxses was strong. It was time to let go of the niceties, he extended his wrist blade with a snap and counter swung at the cudgel wielding thug. He wasn't trying to kill him, just entice him to back off. It was successful as the swing cut through the large furred man’s sash and sent his various belongings clattering to the floor.
Amongst the mess he saw at least one gun and knew that he had to leave now before things escalated more. He jumped the bench and kicked another of the thugs in the chest, causing them to crash to the carpeted floor wheezing and clutching their chest.
Another swing from another thug was narrowly avoided when something caused the table to fall with a snap and sent him tumbling to the floor. He landed hard, the air getting completely knocked from his biological lung. He stood quickly with a wheeze just in time to have Bob swing at his face again. This time he only narrowly pulled back, the knife cutting a slit out of the brim of his hat.
He swore, “Damnit, okay.. I’m done playing.” Balinski rushed straight for the suddenly very surprised looking gangster and punched him in the muzzle hard. The sound of snapping teeth was as loud as gunshots to his ears as the man smashed into the stairs that led to the lowered middle area. His limp body rolled to a stop in a heap, his bloody face wheezing as the unconscious man blew blood bubbled from his fractured nose.
He heard a shout as the remaining henchmen paused to observe their boss, several of them rushing to his aid while Balinski dashed to Daryon.
He gripped her torso under her second pair of arms and housed her upright, her antennae were pressed as hard into her back as they could go and she still had her face covered. She made a sort of hissing noise as he dragged her upright and several of her lower arms lashed out at him.
Balinski grunted as several of them made solid connection to his lower torso, “Ouuf, Daryon.. Daryon stop! It’s me!” He said as quickly as he could.
To her credit she stopped hitting him immediately and peeked between her fingers at him. “Balinsski?” He nodded and then was knocked back half a step as she threw all ten arms around him in a ferocious hug that nearly squeezed the life out of him. Her people’s evolutionary background as ambush constrictors was well known, their primitive hunting strategy had always been to wrap around their potential prey and crush the life from their bodies like some manner of huge armoured snakes.
He patted her back in response but said, “That’s nice, but we don’t have time. We need to go now!” She pushed back and observed their surroundings. The broken table and groaning thugs that were starting to get back up. The ones that had run to Humble Bob’s aide were now gesturing back up at them angrily with one of them seeming to direct the others back their way.
She seemed to hunch again and Balinski took hold of her head, his hands cradling the insectoid woman’s face just below her brilliant blue eyes. “Look at me, trust me. I won't let them hurt you, I promised remember?”
He saw her nod, the antennae on her back rising slightly as she regained some of the courage that seemed to have fled from her earlier. “Okay.” She hissed.
He stood and was forced to dodge around the downed bodies of the still groggy looking henchmen he had already put down. “Come on, we need to get out of here before the rest of them..” He didn’t get to finish his statement.
A deep voice from behind him yelled out suddenly, “Don’t let that freak get away with the whore! Get them!” That wasn't good.
He abandoned all decorum and picked up speed, he was fast on his cybernetics. Much faster than a man his size had any right to be, but Daryon was like a blur as she tore towards the exit on her multitude of legs. She was like a bolt of living lightning as she crossed the gap in seconds and stopped at the doors. He knew that vinarfel could move quickly when they wanted too, but he was floored by the agility she had displayed. He had seen them move before, but not like that.
He picked up the pace as best he could, vaulting over the edge of the stage and running across the raised portion. The startled slaaveth auquadancers vocalised ultrasonically under the water as their carefully choreographed formations broke. He ignored the screeching aliens as he jumped from the stage over the heads of several screaming patrons.
From behind him he heard the crash of something attempting his move much less gracefully. He sprinted for the exit and saw Daryon had removed the traumawand from her jacket and had it powered and ready to use. “Fuck that! Go!” He shouted as he swung his arm towards her in a gesture to leave.
She complied but remained behind to hold the door open. He realised that it was a manual door, of course! He looked around and snatched at the raised metal railing around the edge of the stage and tore off a section of the metal piping. He wasn't planning to use it as a weapon though, instead he skidded through the doors and used his cybernetic strength to jam it into the door handles before bending it into a U.
He panted, thoroughly out of breath as he struggled back to his feet and grunted, “That should hold ‘em for a minute. Come on, Daryon.” He gestured towards the empty hall and turned towards it. They needed to put some distance between them and the men trying to end them.
Continued In E3:P4
==End of Transmission==

I purchased a used 2015 Kia Rio SX (GDI Engine) last year. Carfax was clean, one owner and they performed regular maintenance. Less than 4 months later the check engine light comes on with the code p0240. I changed the downstream O2 sensor first. The light came back on a few days later so I replaced the O2 sensor AND the other one. The code came back on and I went about for some time. Fast forward to now and I have replaced the catalytic converter having noticed the car was being stubborn to go over 50mph and the exhaust pipe was pitch black. The entire right side of the car’s rear was covered in black soot. The car ran much better once I got it back with the new cat. Less than a week later the stupid light is back on. Is it a faulty sensor maybe? The car is running just fine. No issues, no bad smells. My car doesn’t have a maintenance light, but even then it’s not due for an oil change for another 4K miles. (I change every 5k or whenever it looks dark since it is a GDI engine and those tend to gobble oil a bit faster is what I’ve heard)