Exploring the Wild Highs and Serene Valleys of Himachal Pradesh

Nestled in the lap of the Himalayas, Himachal Pradesh is a paradise for nature lovers, adventure enthusiasts, and anyone looking to escape the hustle and bustle of city life. With its breathtaking landscapes, rich cultural heritage, and a plethora of outdoor activities, this northern Indian state offers an unforgettable experience for travelers. In this blog, we will take you on a journey through the wild highs and tranquil Valleys In Himachal Pradesh.

The Wild Highs: Peaks and Passes

1. Rohtang Pass

Rohtang Pass, situated at an elevation of 3,978 meters, is one of the most iconic destinations in Himachal Pradesh. Known for its stunning vistas and challenging terrain, it is a favorite among adventure seekers. During the summer months, the pass becomes a hub for activities like skiing, snowboarding, and paragliding. The drive to Rohtang is equally thrilling, offering panoramic views of the surrounding snow-capped peaks.

1. Triund

For trekking enthusiasts, Triund is a must-visit. Located in the Dhauladhar range, this trek offers a relatively easy yet rewarding experience. The trail passes through lush forests of oak and rhododendron, culminating in a magnificent view of the Dhauladhar peaks and the Kangra Valley. Camping under the starry sky at Triund is an experience that will stay with you forever.

1. Hampta Pass

Hampta Pass is a high-altitude trek that connects the lush green valleys of Kullu to the arid landscape of Spiti. This trek is a feast for the eyes, with a diverse range of landscapes including alpine forests, meadows, glaciers, and barren mountains. The trek is moderately difficult, making it suitable for both novice and experienced trekkers.

1. Kinnaur Kailash

For those seeking a spiritual journey coupled with adventure, the Kinnaur Kailash trek is ideal. Known for the Kinnaur Kailash Shivling, a 79-foot tall rock formation that resembles a Shiva Lingam, this trek is both challenging and spiritually enriching. The route offers stunning views of the Kinnaur Valley and the mighty Sutlej River.

The Serene Valleys: Peaceful Retreats

1. Spiti Valley

Spiti Valley, often referred to as "Little Tibet," is a cold desert mountain valley that offers tranquility and awe-inspiring landscapes. With its ancient monasteries, such as Key Monastery and Tabo Monastery, and pristine villages like Kibber and Langza, Spiti is perfect for those seeking peace and spiritual solace. The valley is also a haven for adventure activities like river rafting, mountain biking, and trekking.

1. Kangra Valley

Kangra Valley is a lush green paradise known for its tea gardens, historical temples, and vibrant culture. The valley is home to the famous Masroor Rock Cut Temples and the serene Kareri Lake. Dharamshala, located in Kangra Valley, is the residence of the Dalai Lama and a hub for Tibetan culture. The valley's picturesque landscapes make it a perfect destination for relaxation and cultural exploration.

1. Parvati Valley

Parvati Valley is a mystical land, renowned for its scenic beauty and vibrant culture. The valley is dotted with charming villages like Kasol, Tosh, and Malana, each offering a unique cultural experience. The hot springs of Manikaran, nestled in the valley, provide a perfect spot for relaxation. Parvati Valley is also a gateway to the famous Pin Parvati Pass trek.

1. Chamba Valley

Chamba Valley is known for its untouched beauty and rich cultural heritage. The town of Chamba, with its ancient temples and palaces, offers a glimpse into the region's history. The valley is also famous for its handicrafts, including the intricate Chamba Rumal embroidery. Surrounded by the majestic Pir Panjal and Dhauladhar ranges, Chamba Valley is ideal for nature walks and exploring historical sites.

Conclusion

Valleys In Himachal Pradesh is a land of contrasts, where the wild highs of its towering peaks and the serene lows of its tranquil valleys coexist in perfect harmony. Whether you are an adventure junkie, a spiritual seeker, or someone looking to unwind amidst nature, Himachal Pradesh has something to offer. So pack your bags, lace up your hiking boots, and get ready to explore the wild highs and serene valleys of this Himalayan wonderland.

A couple of weeks ago, I realized that my mid-2009 15" Unibody Macbook Pro (5,3) was showing signs that the battery was swelling. I removed the battery, and I have been using it by booting it with the "press power for 20 seconds with the unplugged magsafe, plug magsafe, release power, wait 5 seconds, press power" procedure. It worked fine. I purchased a replacement battery, installed it, managed to boot it up without tightening all screws - I didn't tighten in case something didn't go as expected and I needed to open it again. When I saw that everything was working fine, I shut down, tightened all screws and it didn't boot up. I have since, removed battery and been able to boot without a battery a few times. But every time I plug the battery again, it does not boot up. I have tried several combinations of all screws tightened, just a few screws tightened, booting with magsafe, without magsafe, tried reseting SMC and NVRAM... These last two, pressing the power button shows no sign of life whatsoever. The only sign that the battery is connected is the little button on the side that shows the battery charge, 6 out of 8 dots are on. The magsafe connector shows the green light when connected. I am running out of ideas, hoping that a savvy redditor will enlighten me with Mac Lore.

Sometimes i'll see the 29k bus and it will have the regular route info, but in green. It will be at random times

Use Orange Line for service to Park Street, Boylston, Arlington, and Copley. (Downtown Crossing, Chinatown, Tufts Medical Center, and Back Bay are all short distances away from the Green Line stations mentioned above.)
The MBTA also recommends using Route 39 for alternative service for the E Line Branch service (it will be continuing from Heath until Copley) and Route 57 for service to Kenmore via the B Branch and Packard’s Corner.
Route 1 and 55 are your best chance at connecting at Hynes Convention Center.

$100-$250 idk just depends on brand and condition can have salt just for a budget build seeing what's out there

Hello everyone, Covenant, Wei, and Duodex here to go over the rest of our technology changes in this new Progress Report. We will go over the rest of the completed changes in each part of our tech trees and doctrines. There are some uncompleted sections that will be finished in a future version, but this will not have any impact on the gameplay. We will start by covering the small changes to trees already covered in Part 1 or trees that are very similar to vanilla.
The Infantry Tech Tree:
The infantry tree has one relatively major change since the last PR. We have decided that Mechanized equipment and Amtracs should be included in the infantry tree. Originally they were going to be in the tank tree back when we were considering making an NSB equivalent for the tanks but with the choice to only do base game tanks it made more sense to include the Mechanized in the infantry tree instead.
The Air Tech Tree:
The air tree has one small change since the last PR, we have moved scouts to be connected to air interceptors instead of as a subtech. Due to scout planes only being available with the La Resistance DLC we needed to add an alternate tech for players who didn't own LaR but this proved impossible in the old implementation. Instead we have attached them to the tree.
The Artillery Tech Tree:
The Artillery Tech tree is an expansion of the vanilla tree. This choice was made not out of laziness but because artillery, conventional anti-tank, and conventional anti-air guns did not develop that much between 1948-1964 OTL. With that in mind the Kalterkrieg artillery tree will be an extension/light modification of the vanilla tree to fit the timeline and that's it. Missile-based anti-air and anti-tank weapons are in the missiles tech tree instead of this one to not over complicate/confuse everything.
Electro-Mechanical Engineering Tree:
Much like the artillery tree the Electro-Mechanical Engineering Tree (or Electronics in game) will effectively be a time shifted version of the vanilla tree with one small change. The growing importance of aircraft and air warfare made us consider adding a tech related to air-traffic control as post-ww2 there were a number of developments in this field that came with the improvements in radio and radar technologies. The 1946, 1952, 1956, and 1960 radar technologies will have a technology connected to each named Air Control (4 in total) that will improve stats such as mission efficiency, accident chance and bad weather penalty.
There is also the rocketry tree that is on the right of the side. The original plan was to incorporate a space race mechanic to the later rocketry techs but instead of developing a half-assed mechanic or delaying release to finish it we have decided to leave it to the future. The early techs do however improve rocket artillery and are required to unlock the first missiles tech (much like vanilla).
Now let's cover tech that is quite different from vanilla…
Armour Tree:
The armour tree is not an extension of vanilla in any way and has two branches in it, Light Armour and Main Battle Tanks. The tanks in each also have subtechs to represent variants of these tanks with the light tanks having amphibious tanks as a subtech and the MBT’s have a subtech for Self-Propelled Anti-air and Self-Propelled Artillery. There are also a number of intermediate upgrade techs that improve certain stats.
There are 4 light tank models researchable, a 1945, 1948, 1952, and a 1960 model with each having an amphibious tank subtech. In between tank 2 and 3 and 4 there are gun and speed upgrades which improve soft attack and speed respectively.
For Main Battle tanks there are 3 models, (though the first model is considered a medium tank) a 1945, 1948 and 1960 model. Between 1948 and 1960 there are 2 upgrades for armor, gun and chassis as well as a general upgrade. The general upgrade is required before the 1960 model can be researched and the general upgrade requires at least both of one upgrade line be researched. Each MBT model has subtechs for SPAA and SPA/SPG which benefit from the upgrade techs.
Some of you may be wondering why there are no heavy tanks or tank destroyers. I assure you this was not a mistake but a conscious choice. We decided that both lost their use post-war and it would be useful to add each to the tech tree. While some heavy tanks were developed by the allied powers post WW2 they were very quickly made obsolete in favour of Main Battle Tanks. The same thing happened with Tank destroyers though they were also hampered by the creation of improved anti-tank weapons like RPGs.
Industry Tree:
While the industry tree is inspired by vanilla some explanation is required due to some effects used in the tree. There are 4 branches to the industry tree, Construction, Industry, Resources, and Oil.
The construction branch is simple. There are 4 techs that improve construction speed with 3 mutually exclusive choices in-between. The choice you make is between improving the land cultivation in a state or receiving improving the civilian economy in a random owned state. Due to some limitation with the engine the location of the factory is only shown in the hover tooltip and not the research effect window.
The production branch has 4 techs that improve efficiency and 3 pairs of techs that improve dockyard and factory output. The dockyard and factory techs are not mutually exclusive (though I don't recommend researching it if you are a landlocked nation).
The resources branch has 4 techs that extraction and in-between them are 3 sets of techs that add steel, chromium, tungsten or aluminium if certain conditions are met. You will gain 5% production of the specific resource in each state that produces 20 or more of said resource. Due to the aforementioned engine issue the states that gain extra resources are only available by hovering over the tech.
The Oil branch is simple, it has 4 techs that each improve how much fuel is gained from oil and refineries.
Missiles Tree:
Missiles are obviously an important part of any Cold War mod and as such that has earnt them their own tree. There are 3 (technically 4 but the 4th is smaller) branches to the missile tree, ballistic missiles, surface-to-air missiles, air-to-air missiles, and anti-tank missiles. Ballistic and SAMs require the basic guided missiles (like from vanilla to be researched).
Ballistic missiles and SAMs both have basic and improved tech as well as an intermediate upgrade. Ballistic missiles use the vanilla mechanic for missiles while SAM equipment are used for a SAM support battalion. The reason neither has a unique mechanic (yet) is that we felt that having a half-finished or buggy to use mechanic would be more frustrating than just using vanilla. Ballistic missiles also have 2 subtechs, cruise missiles which right now just increase the strategic bombing strength of ballistic missiles but I hope in future to add cruise missiles (this is yet another limitation created by Paradox where we can’t make unique versions of rocket sites). Ballistics and SAMs also share a subtech that is ship-based missiles that add both anti-ship and ship-based SAM equipment modules.
The air-to-air branch has 3 techs that each improve air attack. As we have chosen not to make a BBA version of the air tree (I, Covenant do not want to deal with balancing BBA planes and NSB tanks so that's why. I also just don't like it in general) the air-to-air techs just add general improvements to attack. There are also 2 IR (infra-red) air-to-air missile techs that improve night attack. These require the research of 2 IR experimentation techs that improve other stats.
Lastly the anti-tank missiles branch has a pre-req tech, optical guidance that you need to research to unlock anti-tank gun 3 which you need to unlock basic anti-tank missiles. Our justification for this is that anti-tank missiles only started to become viable after 1960 which is outside the mod timeframe.
Secret Weapons Tree:
The secret weapons tree is our least complete tree and we will explain why but first the branches. There are 3 branches, atomic weapons, biological warfare, and flamethrowers. Currently the atomic weapons branch has only some techs working, biological warfare is unfinished whereas flamethrowers have actual effects.
The atomic weapons branch is currently, if effectively a retooling of the vanilla atomic techs. You must research basic atomic research, then atomic piles (which allows the building of reactors), then bomb research (which adds research speed), then finally the atomic bomb actually unlocks nukes. The other atomic techs do not do anything but we plan on working on custom nuclear mechanics after release.
The flamethrowers branch has 4 techs, each improves the soft-attack of all infantry and motorized units but it also has a negative impact. Whenever a nation researches flamethrowers that nation gains a -20 opinion modifier with every other nation on earth. This is to illustrate that since the end of the war (and its rampant usage by Russia and Japan) the world now sees flamethrowers as cruel weapons and a war-crime. As such any nation who is seen to be improving their flamethrowers is viewed negatively. Nations that start with flamethrowers will not have this opinion modifier though. We plan to do something similar for biological weapons research.
Land Doctrines:
For our land doctrines we decided to have 4 choices for land doctrines, those being combined operations, maneuver warfare, deep battle and asymmetrical warfare. Instead of covering every element of these doctrines, which would take forever I will give an overview of what each doctrine entails and tease a few of the bonus each gives.
Combined operations encompass the intricate orchestration of diverse military elements, pooling resources and expertise across multiple branches or services of a nation's armed forces, alongside potential collaboration with allied forces. This synergy fosters a unified approach towards achieving strategic objectives, leveraging the unique strengths of each component to enhance operational effectiveness on land, at sea, and in the air.
Maneuver warfare epitomizes a dynamic military strategy characterized by fluidity, agility, and rapidity in troop movements. It emphasizes exploiting enemy vulnerabilities, disrupting their cohesion, and seizing advantageous positions, rather than relying solely on brute force or attrition. Through swift and decisive actions, maneuver warfare seeks to outmaneuver and outwit adversaries, capitalizing on the element of surprise to gain tactical superiority and achieve operational success.
Deep battle embodies a strategic doctrine aimed at penetrating deep into enemy territory to target their rear areas, lines of communication, and critical infrastructure. By striking at the heart of the opponent's logistical and organizational support systems, deep battle disrupts their ability to sustain military operations, eroding their resilience and weakening their overall combat effectiveness. This approach emphasizes the importance of coordinated and synchronized offensives across multiple fronts, enabling forces to exploit vulnerabilities and capitalize on fleeting opportunities.
Asymmetrical warfare signifies a paradigm shift in military engagement, where conventional power differentials are challenged by asymmetric tactics and unconventional strategies. In asymmetric conflicts, weaker forces often employ guerrilla warfare, insurgency, terrorism, or other irregular methods to undermine the strengths of more conventionally powerful adversaries. By leveraging innovation, adaptability, and asymmetry in tactics, asymmetrical warfare seeks to offset numerical or technological disadvantages, maximizing the impact of limited resources and achieving strategic objectives through asymmetric means.
Naval Doctrines:
Naval doctrines similarly also have 4 choices for doctrine. These are brown water navy, green water navy, blue water navy, and naval supremacy (with a shared escort related tree between the last two). I will do the same as army doctrine and explain each while teasing some effects.
Brown water navies primarily operate in inland or shallow coastal waters, focusing on riverine and littoral areas. Their vessels are typically smaller and more maneuverable, optimized for navigating rivers, estuaries, and other confined waterways where larger naval vessels may struggle to operate effectively. Brown water navies are often tasked with patrolling and securing waterborne trade routes, conducting riverine warfare, and supporting ground operations in coastal regions, playing a vital role in maintaining maritime security and stability in these environments.
Green water navies operate in the near-coastal zones and littoral regions of the open ocean, possessing the capability to project power and influence within a limited range from their home shores. These navies typically deploy a mix of surface combatants, submarines, and maritime patrol aircraft to safeguard territorial waters, protect maritime trade routes, and deter potential threats in their immediate maritime vicinity. While green water navies may lack the global reach of blue water navies, they play a crucial role in defending coastal territories and exerting maritime control over critical strategic areas.
Blue water navies are capable of operating across vast oceanic expanses and projecting power on a global scale. Equipped with aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines, blue water navies possess the capability to conduct sustained naval operations far from their home bases, projecting force and protecting national interests worldwide. Blue water navies are essential for power projection, sea control, and maritime dominance, enabling nations to influence events in distant regions, respond to crises, and protect vital sea lanes of communication crucial for global trade and commerce.
Naval supremacy represents the pinnacle of maritime power projection, embodying unparalleled dominance and control over the world's oceans. Exemplified by nations like the United States during the Cold War and the Royal Navy from during Britain's Imperial Century, naval supremacy entails not only the capability to operate globally but also the unrivaled ability to dictate the terms of maritime engagement and shape international affairs through naval strength alone. Beyond the capabilities of a traditional blue water navy, a nation with naval supremacy commands an overwhelming advantage in both conventional and strategic terms, with a fleet comprising advanced aircraft carriers, stealthy submarines, state-of-the-art surface combatants, and comprehensive maritime surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. Such a navy not only safeguards vital sea lanes and strategic choke points but also projects influence across all maritime domains, ensuring unrivaled deterrence and the ability to decisively intervene in any maritime theater of operations. Naval supremacy confers not just military superiority but also significant diplomatic leverage, shaping the geopolitical landscape and underpinning a nation's status as a global maritime hegemon.
Air Doctrines:
For now we are using vanilla air doctrines. We understand this may be disappointing but none of us possessed enough knowledge of different cold war air doctrines to create something good enough. Air doctrines of the cold war is also not something that is documented in an easy to access and absorb place like the others so for now nothing is in place but we will endeavour to produce something post-release.
I hope you all enjoy messing around with the tech we have created for Kalterkreig. I am sure you will find weird and wonderful ways to break them and which equipment is meta and which is not.

So a little cute story from my first cuet exam So after the Economics exam finished my center was in Rohini west ( Himalaya public school ) my brother dropped in the morning but the center didn't even have a single facility to keep belongings and bag and i had no idea as I was supposed to go alone after the exam ( initially at home we thought that they might have a bag section or any stall outside to keep the bags ) but it was a no , had to give my phn metro card and everything to my brother back and he took them to his work I was kinda scared so I asked a girl to help him call my brother through her parents phn and my brother said I can't come to pick you up and said ki babu metro se aja I mean it was first time outside without phn away from 1:30 hours away from home so I took a rickshaw went to metro thankfully the metro route was straight and no change of lines I hopped on the metro helped and I was standing for nearly 3-4 stations
I saw a empty seat and sat there where there was guy sitting beside me he had question paper in his hand I was bored and a Lil bit of scared tooo since it was my first time alone in metro without phn I politely asked him aapka bhi eco ka paper tha and he got flustered and said no ( even tho I saw his paper clearly said economics 😂) And then he was oh haan eco ka tha 😂 then he was a bit shy personality we talked about how much we have attempted and stuff he asked me ki kal toh BST ka hai and I said no mein commerce se nahi hu and he said oh humanities and I was like maybe I'm bothering him too much i got quiet and i have very small build so had alot of space so one uncle and sat between us ( uncle was respectful and I had no problem but it was just a bit awkward
After some stations woh uncle uthe or chale gye And I was went to his side near him and then another uncle came and he literally sat beside me squishing me like litreally 😭 and i kind touched his legs but i was making sure not to touch him at all but i was feeling kinda safe as he was beside me 🥹 and then thankfully after some time that uncle reached his station and then we initiated more convo and by this time he also started getting comfortable we were laughing ( I didn't even had a good look of his face but he was cute we didn't even looked at each other it was good talking to him about du and stuff and I was feeling safe enough i asked him apko kahan utarna hai he said shahdara and usne pucha kyu I said just asking and he asked me apko merese phele utarna hai and I was like no apke bad 🥹 and then he started getting comfortable I was constantly thinking if I should ask for his Instagram or something 😭( I regret i didn't) and then we were talking a girl sat beside me I saw her and she was my friend and i literally shifted towards her instantly like instantly 😭 and then I couldn't even say thank you to him because he stepped out at his station I wanted to wake him bye but he didn't even look back 😭
He was wearing dark green tshirt and had kalwas in his hands and I was wearing grey sweat pants and black tshirt i looked at his question paper I didn't even asked his name and don't even know correctly but his name was I guess kapil? Bisht? Thapa ? I'm honestly so grateful to him that he made me feel safe ❤️ And I hope I meet him again someday 🥹( manifesting)

Q; What is "footprint"? Why does my shoe size matter?
A: Footprint is how the optic is cut (a specific pattern) and it needs to match how the gun's slide is cut. Think like blocks. Can't put the square in the circle. Read here for more information.
Q: What is enclosed emitter?
A: An enclosed emitter optic means that the optic's light emitter is behind glass. Being enclosed as such, it cannot blur or otherwise become difficult/impossible to use due to fuzz, dirt, mud, etc.
Q: So is open emitter pointless?
A: No. Depends on use case, preference, etc.
Q: Which Holosun's are open emitter?
A: Talking reflex sights, the 407C, 407K, 507C, 507K, 507 Comp, 508T, SCS MOS, SCS VP9, SCS PDP, SCS MP2, SCS P10, 510C are open emitter optics. Classic tubular red dots like 403, 515, AEMS (not tubular though) are not reflex sights and are always "closed emitters" though they don't fit into this category/argument really.
Q: Which optics (reflex sights!) are closed/enclosed emitter?
A: 509T, EPS (carry & full), SCS 320, SCS CARRY
Q: Why are the SCS 320 and SCS CARRY enclosed emitters, but not all the rest of the SCS lineup?
A: The ability to make an enclosed emitter depends on the screw placement, as necessitated by the footprint of the optic. When you're not using a plate to mount, like on the 509T, or Aimpoint Acro, you must mount the optic using screws from the top down. As such, space is a commodity. The SCS 320 uses the DPP (Delta Point Pro) footprint which allows enough room for screws and enclosure of the emitter. Holosun's SCS Carry uses their proprietary K footprint and also allows enough room for this. Don't expect an enclosed SCS MOS. The lack of enclosure on the SCS MOS, PDP, VP9, MP2, P10 is not an overlooked design flaw, but a requirement. If you want enclosure, try a different optic.
Q: What is MRS?
A: Multi Reticle System. This reticle allows you to toggle from a single dot, a dot and a ring around it, or just the ring.
Q: What reticle do I need? MRS, 2 MOA, 3 MOA, 6 MOA? Does astigmatism matter?
A: Depends on your use case, and eyes. Astigmatism may make red worse, or it may make green worse. We have customers with astigmatism who cannot see red, and others who swear by it, same with green. Don't take someone else's word for it, get behind both and see which is better. Your eyes are yours and yours alone. As for reticle size, plenty of folks prefer 6 MOA for CCW purposes as it's nice and bright and easy to pick up. That being said, it's a recommendation only. Some prefer 2. At the eye, 2 and 6 look very similar. The difference is downrange where point of impact begins to change quite a bit with distance.
Q: Why only green reticles for the SCS line?
A: Green emitters require lower power usage, and current technology does not allow for enough reliability/power to incorporate a red emitter.
Q: Do I need a red dot?
A: A red dot won't make a terrible shooter perfect. Practice is key. That being said, optics allow for shooting with both eyes open, and quick target acquisition, as well as awareness of the shooter's surroundings. In the modern day optics are as likely to fail as your handgun itself. Some shooters swear off dots because "they are something else that can fail", while others swear by them. We consider them a force multiplier and encourage people to try them. If you won't train with your dot, don't buy a dot.
If you have more questions, please ask them, and we'll do our best to get them answered. If you're looking to buy an optic, reach out to us (Ibex Armament) here and we'll get you one, or direct you to a store local to you, recommend a reliable store you've used before, etc.

TIMESTAMP:https://imgur.com/a/GmRi3go
Brand new MeproLight MOR PRO 4.3 MOA Green Vis+IR laser, this is my second MOR PRO, these things are pretty sweet optics! I mocked it up on a rifle once 0 rounds and it has sat in my safe for a few months,
The IDF uses these if that means anything to you, they have fiber optics for daylight powerless illumination, tritium for low light passive aiming through nods, and it is powered by 2× AA alkaline or lithium for dot and lasers. Can take pictures of vis+IR lasers upon request
Asking $1100 shipped +PP GS fee, or would trade for a 1431 MK2 housing

I want to thank Meatcanyon and Wendigoon for starting Creepcast. I've played around with writing horror, and here is my first short story. I will post it for free in a few other places to see what people think. Please enjoy!
A Hike to Remember
By R.L. Oclen
Chapter 1
A woman sits with hastily pulled-up fire-red hair in the waiting room of the state patrol station. The procedurally sterile off-white walls and decade-old magazines do little for comfort. With her head hanging low, her shoulders pushing forward, and her boots rapidly tapping on the floor, something has to give.
"Please just let her be okay." The woman growls as a pair of officers come in from the field. The officers' demeanors quickly change when they see the familiar face.
"Tabitha, did Officer Nichols call you?" one of the state patrol officers asked sympathetically.
"Yes, he asked me to come in and pick up a few things," Tabitha said, shooting back a muted look.
" I'll let them know you're here." The officer said, nodding to Tabitha as they passed the security door. Tabitha leaned back against the hard plastic chair, staring blankly into the fluorescent light. She had done this dance in the macabre repeatedly over the past month. The last image of her younger sister, Lisa, still burned in her mind. Tabitha had always been protective over her younger sister after their parents died. A pang of guilt shoots through her chest as she thinks about her and Lisa's argument.
"Tabitha Hymm, Officer Nichols is ready for you."
"Okay," she stood up, shaking off her guilt, and followed the officer back. The familiar surroundings of the state patrol station blurred as Tabitha stared forward. She followed the officer as they came to a rustic wooden office door, which was embossed with "Officer Nichols."
The escorting officer turns the old brass door knob. "Sir, I have Tabitha Hymm here." A grizzled West Virginia Highway State Patrol veteran sits behind the desk and nods. The escorting officer steps aside, pushing the door open as Tabitha pushes past him and slumps in the awaiting chair like so many times before. An uncomfortable relationship had formed between the two, born out of necessity and duty.
"Cup of coffee?"
"No thanks. Let's just cut to the chase. You don't have anything new?"
The worn laugh lines and Officer Nichols's face flattens. His eyebrows contour sympathetically as he shakes his head.
"Tabitha, I don't have anything else new for you. I wanted to give you the clothes returned from the lab." Her face darkened at the same response she had heard many times.
"As we discussed two weeks ago, there is nothing new and no signs of struggle or foul play," Officer Nichols said while placing a box marked evidence on the table and sliding it forward. Tabitha began to weep at the realization of Lisa's clothes in front of her. In a coordinated queue, Officer Nichols brought out a box of tissues. Reluctantly, Tabitha took a few moments to unblur her vision.
"How does someone stop their car in the middle of the Remington West Virginia State Park, lock it, and then walk into the woods?" Officer Nichols clasped his hands together and sighed at her worn question.
"Tabitha, I wish I had an answer for why your sister stopped her car in the woods and simply walked off. We're still going through her cell phone, but no signs exist that anyone forced her. On that Tuesday morning, she pulled over to the side of the road, secured her car, and walked away." Officer Nichols said empathetically.
Tabitha became stoic at the same explanation she had heard many times before. " So what next?"
"You should go back to Ohio, and I'll contact you as soon as I have more information." She winced at Officer Nichols's words. Reality began to pull at her that bills and work wouldn't wait much longer.
"If I leave, she's gone for good."
" You staying won't bring her back." Officer Nichols said sympathetically.
" So is that it? She's just gone?"
" Tabitha, I'll be honest with you. In cases like this… when people do things like this. Recovery is harder in the spring due to the weather and the animals. You know her mental condition better than I do. I can't explain why she did what she did. But until I find a solution, a suicide note, some intention, or body. She's not here. Tabitha, I'm-"
" Don't you fucking say sorry!" Tabitha stood up, screaming at Officer Nichols, throwing the plastic chair backward against the wall. " I should just look for myself."
"No!" Officer Nichols said momentarily, gripping the desk as his face hardened, then relaxed. Tabitha was caught off guard by Officer Nichols, who was normally composed. "Tabitha, I know this is unbearable. I've sat on this side of the desk and had these conversations. Trust me; I need you to be safe if I need your help later."
Tabitha nods, knowing Officer Nichols is right. She reaches down, picks up the evidence box of her sister's belongings, and leaves.
" Tabitha, if you're heading home, don't stop your car; just keep driving." Tabitha stops to look at Officer Nichols, feeling an eeriness to his words.
" Goodbye, Officer Nichols," Tabitha said as she closed the rustic wooden door behind her. She counted the tiles as she exited the West Virginia State Patrol Station. Placing her sister's belongings carefully in the back seat of her Jeep, Tabitha then sat momentarily behind the steering wheel, staring at the emblem. The familiar numbness washed over Tabitha as she pushed the start button. She pulled onto the highway, driving to the motel that had been home for the last month or so. Muted pop music accented the drive back as her mind raced with questions. Once inside the two-and-a-half-star motel room, Tabitha sat her sister's belongings on the corner table, crumbled onto the bed, and cried.
***
Tabitha wiped the steam from the slightly spotted mirror above the bathroom sink. The hot water from the shower felt good and loosened some of the stress from her body. Looking back at her, Tabitha's face was framed by damp curls around her shoulders. Her face marked the stress of the past month. Frowning, she examined the bags under her eyes; sleep had to come tonight. Walking into the living area, She changed into her favorite gym shorts and oversized sleep shirt. The alarm on her phone flashed "7:00 am," so she could drive home five hours after breakfast.
Tabitha hated feeling comfortable in this once strange room, but falling asleep was getting easier now. Her eyes closed slowly as the ceiling fan droned evenly. At first, nothing came in her dreams, but she let her guard down and slipped further into sleep.
As she dreamed of floating overhead like a bird of prey, Tabitha soared over the vast Remington National Park. The high noon sun bore down on the crisp woods, perfectly contrasting sky and forest. The heat of the sun felt good on her feathers. Distant cries rang out through the dream-like forest, catching her attention. Tabitha tilted her wings toward the screams, feeling a sense of familiar curiosity.
She now recognized the sobs and cries for help as she flew closer, her sharp eyes locked on her sister leaning against a large oak tree. She glided overhead without care, examining the situation below. Lisa clung to the tree, her eyes darting back and forth, scanning upwards. Lisa's face reflected desperation, looking for help in any direction. Tabitha lazily circles Lisa several times before perching on a sturdy branch higher in one of the oak trees. She watched Lisa intently with hunger. She bellowed deeply, hearing the unnatural sound she made, catching Lisa's eyes. Lisa's expression changed; she became calm, almost uncaring, as she stared back at Tabitha's form. Hunger grew exponentially in Tabitha as she spread her large wings. Her large eyes gaze down at Lisa before diving straight for her sister.
Tabitha jolts awake to the alarm on her phone flashing "7:23 AM." She breathes in sharply, shaking off the last horrible thoughts from the reoccurring nightmare. The strange details become more vivid each time. The lingering memories of folk stories her mother told sat in the back of her mind. In those stories, the dead would reach out in dreams as a matter of warning. Leaning back on the headboard, she searched for the advice her psychologist gave her. During their last session, Dr. Ryland explained dreams are a form of self-actualization of guilt. He told Tabitha that it was natural to feel responsible when losing a loved one in this manner.
Tabitha grumbled, lightly running her hands through her red hair; she pushed everything to the back of her mind. "Get it together!" She grumbled to herself. She pushed herself off the bed and got ready to leave. It was going to be a long trip home, and the only thing she could do now was leave things in the authorities' hands. Packing up was pretty easy since she only cycled through the outfits she brought. The local laundromat must have made a small fortune off her. Tabitha took one last look at the box of Lisa's belongings before throwing them in her duffle bag. She was thankful she didn't have to spend another night in this room.
***
Tabitha sat behind the wheel, waiting for the 90's model minivan to finish their order so she could grab a breakfast burrito on the way out. Considering the situation, the Deer Stop Family Restaurant did have a good breakfast. Finally, pulling up to the 70-style drive-in board, Tabitha rolled off the order she had been accustomed to. " I'll take a large iced tea with the double breakfast burrito meal and hash browns, please."
" Would you like some happy hot sauce with that?"
" That's fine, and a few ketchup packets as well."
" Your total is $8.79. Please pull around."
She pulled around to her window, flashed her debit card, got the receipt, and waited for her food. Luckily, the young woman serving her wasn't very talkative in the morning. The last thing she wanted was a conversation about the weather or meaningless small talk.
" Here's your large iced tea and breakfast meal. Ketchup and happy hot sauce are inside."
" Thanks," Tabitha said while mustering her best fake smile. The woman only smiled and nodded as the service window automatically closed. She pulled into the parking lot and dug into breakfast. Turning the radio to the weather, Tabitha sat back and enjoyed her meal. The local DJ read through the headlines, making nonpartisan comments about politics and grumbling about improving the economy. Tabitha powered through the updates of the "out-of-state woman" who'd gone missing. It was nice that the local radio station gave Lisa's name, description, and a missing person's number for sightings or leads. Tabitha even interviewed with the local news and radio stations, hoping it would bring Lisa home. But she soon found all it brought was a sorrowful look from the locals as she interacted with them in her day-to-day life.
Finishing the last of her hash browns, Lisa wadded up everything in the paper bag and threw it in the back seat. The 9 AM weather report said it was nothing but clear skies and sun the rest of the week. Tabitha flipped the radio over to the greatest hit station, pulled out of the parking lot, and began her trip home. She memorized the roads, every bend and turn in the early weeks as she frantically looked for Lisa. There's something hypnotic about the trees: the way they flow together. The trees' green tops and the oak trees' wide trunks were a relaxing view. Tabitha enjoyed the lazy s-curves of the road, bending and winding around the hills and the trees. The occasional farmhouse or field dotted the sides of the road as she made her way to the main highway.
The blur of a semi-truck snapped Tabitha's attention as she pulled up to the mouth of the highway. She had four and a half hours ahead of her, which would be a long ride. Tabitha pulled onto the highway and picked up speed, noting sparse traffic. She relaxed into her seat, letting her gaze gloss over the blur of green foliage. Without warning, Tabitha caught a large shadow from the corner of her left eye. When she registered the black feathery form, Tabitha tensed up and slammed on the brakes as it swooped across the vehicle's hood. Quickly, she pulled the car safely off the road. She couldn't determine exactly what it was, but it was bigger than any bird she'd seen. It was a bird, right? Tabitha turned off her Jeep and grabbed the keys and cell phone. Standing before the Jeep, she looked over the grill to see if she made contact with the entity.
Bewildered, she scanned the tree line, spotting something in the distance. Sitting in the clearing of the large oak forest was an enormous black owl. It stared intently at Tabitha with bright, shiny yellow eyes. She pushed the lock button on her keys, causing the jeep to beep securely. She turned, looking across the open field, an enormous black owl perched in the upper branches of an old oak tree. Each step she took away from the road piqued her curiosity. Soon, Tabitha stood in the middle of the open field, staring intently into the eyes of the enormous owl.
The horn of a passing semi-truck blared, pulling Tabitha's attention away from the mysterious large creature. She looked back and saw that she had walked farther away from the Jeep than she had thought. She glanced back to the forest line only to see the enormous owl was deeper into the woods than before. She narrowed her vision to find the two large, bright yellow eyes staring back. Had it moved? The day's stress, care, and worry suddenly poured out of Tabitha. It was replaced by only curiosity and overbearing tranquility. She warmly smiled for the first time in months as her feet pulled her further into the woods.
Chapter 2
The tug of gravity pulls Tabitha to her senses as her body reacts, falling forward. Her arms thrust forward, bracing for impact. Water rushes around her face as she struggles to get her bearings. Quickly, Tabitha pushed herself up in the ankle-high stream she fell in. The haze slowly clears from her mind as she stares at the muddy water. The dull ache throbs up her legs. Tabitha can smell the sweat from her clothes. Her face contorted in panic as she quickly stood up in the water, looking for her cell. Thankfully, the device was still in her pocket, dry and unscathed.
"One o'clock. How can that be?" Tabitha says, slowly looking up from the screen to see the vast, dense West Virginia forest encompassing her view. She shakes her head back and forth with disbelief. A smile gently spreads across her face, with the last bit of tranquility leaving her body. How did I get out here? Her breathing becomes faster as her pulse begins to quicken. I'm in the forest. I'm all alone—just like Lisa!
"NO, NO, NO, NO! THIS FUCKING CAN'T BE HAPPENING TO ME!" Tabitha screams into the void of trees. Her eyes well up with tears as she crumbles to her knees, gripping her phone tightly to her chest. Her sobs ring out through the thick oak trees. Her breath slows a little as she regains her composure. She begins to search her mind for anything. What is the last thing I can remember? The image of the black shadow crossing her vision while driving flashes into her mind.
"Okay, I got out of the Jeep, the…then what?" Tabitha says, trying to refresh her memories. She thinks her memory is not just gone; it's a black void in her mind. Complete blackness fills her mind right after remembering locking the Jeep and then turning to see the…
"Fuck I saw something. What was it!" Tabitha says, frustrated with her mind. She knew there must be a logical reason she was out here. Officer Nichols warned her not to go looking for her sister. She wasn't stupid; she just said that as a last-ditch effort to get him to do anything. Now I'm here.
"Run!" Tabitha heard Lisa's voice in her ear. Before she could turn around, she heard a loud bellowing coming from overhead. Fear shot down her back, reminding her of the nightmares she had over the past month. She shot forward full bore as something crashed to the ground behind her. Glancing back as she ran, a black mass of feathers convulsed between the broken branches of the trees. Its slick black feathers rippled across its surface as its bones crackled and flesh tore. Its body contorted and twisted from the shape of an owl to something bigger.
"Run, Tabby! Don't let it catch you!" Tabitha pushed forward, hearing Lisa's scream beside her face. Her breath burned in her chest, and she moved past the old oak trees bent over the creek bed. Her feet slammed rapidly, splashing along the side of the creek. Another loud bellow comes from behind as the trees bend and break to the force behind her. A small opening in the rocky creek bed catches her sight from the left. She dives into the crevasses, not caring where the fathoms lead. Tabitha tumbles in the pitch black, taking scrapes and sharp jabs from the rocks as she tumbles further into the void.
She finally tumbles to a stop on the sandy, wet floor of the cave. Her body aches from the sudden burst of exhaustion. The cool water running around her body from the creek is soothing despite her bumps and bruises. Pushing herself up, she scoots out of the water. Feeling her way forward, she finds a dry spot to collect herself. Quickly pushing her hand into her pocket, she finds her phone undamaged.
The sound of footsteps pushing against the creek fills the void around Tabitha as the light steps move closer to each other up the underground creekbed. She slowly removes her cell from her pocket and then shines the camera light toward the sound. A pair of scratched and bruised pale bare legs hold up a frail form in front of her in the creek. She wears the darkness as a shroud with nothing else to clothe her. Tabitha froze, not wanting to shine the light further in the pale form before her.
"Tabby, turn your light off. You need to save your battery." Tabitha turned off the light and then rushed forward, embracing Lisa—the how or why didn't matter, only the now. The pale form hugged her tightly. Tabitha felt her cold, bare skin. The darkness couldn't hide the feeling of the marks across her back and torso.
"Lisa, I'm-"
"Hush! I don't have much time. This wasn't your fault! I'm with Mom and Dad now. You have to survive, Tabby! Listen. Wait until the sun shines through the cracks, making a trail out. Follow it down the creek until you come to the opening. You'll see a large hill you hike up for a cell signal. And remember…If you can't see it… It can't hurt you. I love you-"
Tabitha stumbled forward before catching herself. The void in front of her arms was only filled by cool air. She looked up and noticed a faint glimmer of light pushing through the ceiling. She sat down, relaxing against the limestone wall of the cave, waiting for the trail of light to form.
***
After a few hours, the light shining through the cracks of the cave ceiling was bright enough to lead Tabitha to the other side. She stepped onto the creek bed, thankful for the sun hanging lower in the sky. Scanning the sky, Tabitha saw only a few clouds. The foothills of Appalachia backdropped the forest as she scanned for the hill. Her eyes found the trail leading up the steady slope of an impressive hill. The top of the hill was bare. Part of the hill must have sheared off in a landslide, leaving the top void of trees and a jagged cliff face. Tabitha started her hike up the back of the hill. She was careful to stay under the heavy canopy of the old trees, hopefully avoiding the creature's eyes.
She did her best to quiet her mind while hiking up the trail. Come on, almost to the top, then I can call 911, she replayed repeatedly in her mind. Her adrenaline made up for the lack of food since morning. She drank some water from a clean spot in the creek. She was placing her bet on rescue rather than worrying about the water.
Leaning against one of the trees, Tabitha took out her cell and measured the signal.
"Damn it, nothing!" She swore under her breath. She listened nervously and cautiously peered her head out from the tree line. Standing at the tree line, the cell phone still had a low signal. She pushed her anxiety down with a swallow and slowly stepped forward onto the bare rock. Tabitha was now out in the open. She walked with the cell phone pointed upwards, measuring the signal. Within three feet of the cliff face, her signal bar punched up to full. Tabitha began to punch in the numbers just as a pair of large yellow eyes appeared. She felt her legs become weak, and her vision blurred as the creature snared her in its gaze.
Tabitha ducked, missing the giant owl's claws as it swooped for her. She squinted her eyes shut, momentarily breaking the hold of the infernal beast as it crashed to the ground, tumbling down the path of old trees. On her hands and knees, she tucked the dialed phone back into her pocket. She heard the creature's loud bellowing, followed by the snapping of bone and flesh ripping. It was changing its shape to finish her off.
Tabitha tried to get up, but the flash of its eyes did something to her. Her legs were numb, her stomach was in knots, and she could barely put a few thoughts together.
"If you can't see it, it can't hurt you." Tabitha heard clearly in her left ear. She quickly pushed herself into a sitting position and fumbled for the key chain in her right pocket. Pulling the long chain of keys, luck charms, and keepsakes, her father's Swiss army knife dangled at the end. She slowly opened the half-inch blade. Her body wholeheartedly rejected her plan and tried to fight her. Every internal warning system sounded as her body fought against her as she brought the blade against the corner of her left eye.
She didn't know if she could do it until the creature bellowed in her direction. With one quick motion, the half-inch blade sliced across her left eye. The world dimmed and then went black on her left side. Behind her, the beast's thundering gallop was getting closer. Tabitha plunged herself into total darkness with the last bit of her strength. Her hand gripped tightly around the bloody knife as she folded forward onto the ground. She could feel herself weeping blood. She squinted, doing her best to stem the tide of blood loss.
A large feathered paw drove into Tabitha's right side, flipping her onto her back. She lay still as the hulking creature stood over her. It remained motionless, and Tabitha was confused about why it didn't move or bite her. Then she started to giggle, just a little at first. Then, laughing madly into the creature's face as it growled back at her. She could not see it; she couldn't see anything. Her mind couldn't be eaten!
The creature roared into Tabitha's face while plunging one of its sharp claws into her shoulder. Tabitha screamed in pain, slashing the knife downward. The blade hit something soft, and she ripped the blade down, rending whatever she had hit on the abomination. A bright yellow, foul-smelling liquid gushed in a torrent over Tabitha's face. She turned to cough, having swallowed a portion of it. The creature reared back, squealing in pain. Its hind leg came down hard on Tabitha's leg, snapping her tibia. She jerked her leg up, causing the creature to tumble forward and fall over the edge of the cliff side.
Tabitha heard the creature crash below at the base of the hill. A large dead tree speared the creature through its chest. Tabitha could hear the labored whines of the creature as its cries became weak and slowed. A wave of sickness hit her as she rolled over and vomited. The foul smell drenched her. She did her best to focus, reaching into her pocket and pulling out the phone. By memory, she typed in the unlock pin. She held her breath and placed her thumb where the call button should be.
She could hear the call being made then, "911. What is your emergency?"
"Please help me! A bear has attacked me, and I can't see. I think I am on a hill."
"Ok, ma'am, stay with me! Do you know where you are located?"
"No, I'm lost. Please send help."
"It's okay. Stay with me on the phone, and I'll use the cell signal to try to find you."
"I'm on top of one of the hills. I think I am lying on a bare roc-" Tabitha slipped unconscious with the cell still tightly in her hand. Her body began to tremble and convulse.
"Ma'am! Ma'am! Stay with me. I have help on the way."
Chapter 3
A young man in military fatigues frantically compiles images and reconnaissance data from his drone feed. Confirming his hunch, he commands the winged surveillance drone to make a hard left and send a live video feed. His eyes widened as he saw a large owl-shaped shadow crash onto the top of a hill. He watches in awe as the sleek black owl twists and shifts into something much larger, like a grizzly. As the drone turns, he sees a woman at the cliff's edge trying to steady yourself on her hands and knees.
He bolts up from the command module, jotting down the drone's coordinates on one of the printouts. The drab government-issued office motif for the watch station blurs in the corner of his eye as he rushes down the hallway to the watch commander's office.
"Sir, recon has eyes on AMOS! And it's feeding!" the man said, swinging the heavy wooden door open. He took the hastily compiled file and pushed it forward to the commanding officer.
An older, tanned man quickly stands, reaching for the files. His brow furls, seeing his charge is awake. "Keep eyes on it! Go Adams!" The young man nods, turning on his heel and bolting for the drone command module. As his office door slams shut from the subordinate officer, he grabs his headset and frantically dials the closest military outpost to the coordinates.
"Hello, Sergeant Klein; this is Agent Smith of Black Watch outpost 7948! Shadow is active, code Alpha, Mike, Oscar, Sierra. The coordinates and data package have been sent. A civilian is on the ground; deploy strike-and-rescue ASAP.
"We'll be up in five, Agent Smith! The line cuts as Agent Smith closes out the call on his headset and rushes to the door. The normally quiet watch station buzzes alive, with personnel flooding the central command station. The background echoes resource allocation calls, frantic typing, and the hum of cold computers warming up.
"Adams, get our eyes back on Amos!"
"Coming back around in 30 seconds." Thirty sets of eyes stare at the three giant screens, anxiously waiting for the drone feed to clear the bank of trees. The camera clears the tre top to see the giant feathered grizzly rear back slinging its massive head away from its prey. Its large yellow right eye spews bright yellow liquid all over the red-haired woman and the cliff face. The giant feathered grizzly missteps, crushing the woman's leg and causing the creature to tumble over the cliff face.
"Fuck!" Agent Smith yells in horror as he watches AMOS fall four stories, impaling a sharp, 3-meter-tall log lodged in the boulders. The command center freezes wide-eyed at the flailing dying creature on screen. Agent Smith pulls his cell out quickly and dials.
"Klein, Scrub the current request! AMOS is down! Switch to rescue and harvest now!
"What, someone took out AMOS?"
"YES! It's at the bottom of the cliff, bleeding out essence! The woman is covered in it as well. Clean as much of it off her as possible before you take her to the ER.
"Understood!"
Agent Smith, in a rage, slings his phone straight forward, connecting with Private Adams's skull. Adams flinches at the sudden impact of the hard plastic and covers his head. Agent Smith grabs the table in front of him and flips it over, sending the computer equipment crashing to the government-issued tiled floor.
"A two-year cycle gone! All that essence is gone! Now I have to wait another 24 months for AMOS to resurrect!" Agent Smith screams, causing the rest of the staff to recoil away in fear.
"Jones!" Agent Smith says sternly, turning to a petite woman on his left. She stares at him, pleading.
"Yes Sir?'
"Get Officer Nichols on my office line. That fuck up has some explaining. He should have told us AMOS was awake."
"Right away!" Jones quickly sits back down and begins dialing Nichols, thankful she doesn't have to deal with Agent Smith further. The command center quickly shifts gears as Agent Smith returns to his office.
***
Two Weeks later…
"Tabitha… Tabitha… This is Doctor Wilhelm. Wake up." The kind older gentleman said as they gently nudged Tabitha in her hospital bed.
"Where am I?" Tabitha asked, waking from what felt like years of sleep. She sat up, the world still pitch black, but an odd sense of the world around her seemed to hum just behind her eyes.
"You're in the hospital, dear; you scared us. Do you remember anything?" He said as he sat down on the side of her bed.
Tabitha thought for a moment the last parts after she slashed her eyes were a blur. She remembers people yelling and the sound of two or three helicopters over her. " No, it's really all just a blur."
"Well, it's probably for the best. You had some very serious injuries. The first night, we honestly didn't think you would make it. Then…" The doctor trailed off with a concerned expression, not knowing how to explain things further.
Tabitha felt his pulse quicken somehow. She didn't understand it but fully felt or sensed the doctor beside her. She sensed the two other nurses standing at the end of the bed. Her body didn't hurt. She felt great. She felt hungry.
"Doctor, you said had. What happened to my injuries?" She said calmly, trying not to startle the old doctor further.
"Well, Tabitha, it's the closest thing to a miracle I've ever seen. You had violent seizures from the minute you hit the entrance of the ER. We couldn't even set your leg. The medications we gave you had a minimal effect, and you thrashed so much that we had to restrain you. Then, the early morning check-in found you in a deep sleep. All but your eyes were completely healed. So we switched gears to support care and treated your eyes the best we could." He said, watching her reaction.
Tabitha leaned back in her bed, taking in the wild account. "Do you know how I healed so quickly?"
"What happened to you is beyond all scientific reason. A miracle is the only way the staff and I can explain it. I know you have been through a lot, but I want to check your eyes."
"Thank you for all your help, Doctor Wilhelm." She said, sitting up in bed.
"You are most welcome, dear. Now I am going to unwrap your eye-dressing. Hold still, please." he said as he reached up and pulled on the bandage tape. Tabitha felt a quick tug and felt the bandages loosen from around her head. The doctor slowly unwrapped the bandages. The doctor's brow wrinkled as he examined the two large black scabs covering Tabitha's eyes.
"Tell me if this hurts at all, ok?"
"Yes, doctor." She relaxes as the doctor's gloved fingers pass over the scab. He pushes and gently tugs at the side of one, and it starts to lift. He pulls on the scab more, and Tabitha begins to sense the light as it hits her eyelid.
"Oh, I can sense the light, Doctor Wilhelm!" She said, smiling.
"Wonderful! Nurse Allen, please hand me some saline solution. I think a little water will loosen these right up. Hold still; this may feel cold," he said as he reached for the solution. She felt the cool liquid flush over the left eye, then the right. The scabs fell away with a gentle tug from the doctor. She could see the light shine through her eyelids. She grinned widely, happy to have some form of sight left.
"Please open your eyes for me," he said as he sat back on the bed. Tabitha slowly opened her eyes. The flood of light was almost too much, causing her to squint. After a few moments, she adjusted to the fluorescent lights. Three figures began to take shape in front of her. First, the distinguished older features of Doctor Wilhelm came into view quickly, followed by the brunette and blonde younger nurses standing at the end of the bed. Suddenly, her vision snapped into place, crisp and clear.
"I can see perfectly! This is amazing! Thank you, Doctor Wilhem!" she said, turning to look directly into his eyes, but he stared back at her unmovingly.
"Doctor Wilhelm?" she said as her expression became more worried. Doctor Wilhelm just sat staring, intensely focused on her eyes. His expression was overbearingly calm. She glanced at the nurses, rigidly staring back at her with trapped, calm expressions. Doctor Wilhelm began to twitch slightly. It traveled from the base of his spine out to his limbs, finally convulsing.
"Doctor Wilhelm, are you okay?" Tabitha yelled as the doctor began to have a seizure and fell on top of her bed.
"Help Him!" She screamed at the two nurses only to see both of them crumble to the tiled floor. One of them bashed her head off the bed frame. Tabitha recoils back from Doctor Wilhelm in terror as he starts foaming at the mouth. She climbs over the bed rail and hits the tiled concrete floor with a thud. Her adrenaline surges as she bolts for the door, looking for help.
At the entrance of her hospital room, she sees another nurse leaving the adjacent room. "Please, my doctor and staff need help!" As the male nurse turns to see Tabitha, he suddenly goes stiff before collapsing into a violent seizure, spilling his cart over with him.
"What's happening!" Tabitha screams, thinking something is in the air, or everyone has come down with something. A pair of security guards round the corner, hearing the screams and commotion.
"Ma'am, are yo-" The guard freezes mid-stride as he makes eye contact with Tabitha. Both men start to convulse and topple over, thrashing violently on the hard tile.
"No, no, no, no!" Tabitha yells as she darts into the women's bathroom, a few doors up the hall. She runs in, terrified of the situation. She approaches one of the sinks, bracing herself against the cool porcelain. Her stomach turns, and she dry heaves in the sink. She steadies herself while turning on the cold water. Leaning in, she takes a drink. As she looks up, a glint of two yellow eyes catches her. Tabitha stumbles backward on reflex. Then, she sees her reflection in the mirror. Two completely bright yellow eyes stare back at Tabitha. She screams at herself in the mirror, not feeling hungry anymore.
The end.
I will

Been driving for a few years. First time I got caught over weight. Was being a lazy piece of shit and didn’t bother to slide my tandems.
I was 1,900 over on my trailer. DOT just asked me to go to the back lot and fix it right quick. Took me two minutes then hopped back on scale and they gave me the green light.
Will they be mailing my ticket to my company or is this something I need to track down and get myself? They never mentioned anything about a citation of any sort so Im just confused what the procedure is.

OR TAKE EVERYTHING FOR $200!!!!! Or make me offers if you're interested, seriously—I'm highly motivated to get rid of everything ASAP.
Doing another purge of my partner's wardrobe for her. Vast majority of items have either been kept in a garment bag hung in the closet of our smoke- and pet-free home, while a couple were neatly rolled and kept in a drawer. All have been babied and cared for according to care labels. Definitely open to offers. Will discount multiple items purchased together. I take PayPal F&F, or add 4% to the price if G&S:

• $25 $35 River Island - dress w/fun symmetrical geometric/tiger pattern in lots of colors (Size UK 6 / EUR 32) Old but basically new. Purchased in London. Worn 1-2x
• $15 Aritzia Wilfred - camisole(?) in black (Size US S) I think it's a camisole? It has an open back, though, and needs to be tied. Excellent condition
• $20 $25 & Other Stories Paris Atelier - flowy pants in black (Size US 2 / EUR 34) Excellent condition
• $15 $20 Topshop - silk button-up w/floral pattern in black, green, yellow, and white (Size US 0 / UK 4) Old but excellent condition. Purchased before Topshop got acquired by ASOS
• $15 $20 Red dress Don't know the brand, fabric composition, or size. But it feels like either silk or viscose, and it fits similarly to all the other tops listed here
• $20 $25 Olive - cotton button-up in white/navy Olive is a British clothing brand. Couldn't find the size anywhere, but it fits similarly to all the other tops listed here. Worn 1-2x
• $15 Aritzia Babaton - camisole in white (Size US XS) Excellent condition
• $40 $50 & Other Stories Paris Atelier - polka dot dress in blue/white (Size US 2 / EUR 34) Basically new; worn once
• $15 $20 Olive - collared sweatshirt(?) in black Don't know how to describe it other than it looks like a collared sweatshirt. Great condition
• $40 $50 Madewell - merino wool cozy cardigan in charcoal/olive (Size US S) Excellent condition. Worn a handful of times
• $40 $60 Madewell - 10" High-Rise Skinny Jeans in black (Size US 27) New without tags
• $20 $25 Madewell - jean shorts (Size US 25) Excellent condition. Worn a handful of times
• $20 $30 Zara The Trafaluc Collection - jeans (Size US 2 / EUR 34) Excellent condition. Worn a handful of times
• $60 $80 Madewell - Slim Wide-Leg Crop Jeans in white (Size US 25) New without tags

[Run Zero chapter: https://redd.it/1csb71x not every run will have a chapter; it won't be long before there are multiple runs per chapter.]
Portal load: Agility 1, Bait 3, Trumps 1, Pheromones 1, Packrat 1, Motivation 1, Power 2, Toughness 2, Looting 5, Discipline Challenge, 54 of 54 He allocated, 7.8% AP at start.
[This is probably the lowest helium load I've ever done, and sorta keeping my own advice on a recent Reddit post, Bait and Looting are up. Especially Looting, but it's not like I don't always do something like this.]
The human emerges from the glowing green mist and hits the ground. Groans. Pushes against that ground, trying to get back up. I feel really heavy. I'm not that fat, am I? He's got a dark blue button-down shirt on. A uniform? A shoulder patch. Rolls over- Ah, what's that? His shoulder pressed into something hard and metallic, He reaches over and his hand naturally seems to find a folding handle. He pulls it out from under himself and gets it up on his chest, sort of in a semi-comfortable position to hold it up and look at the screen while lying on his back. Some fiddling around the edges gets the power button pressed and the screen lights up with:
"Manual portal activation 1 successful: Void enabled. / 54 He loaded / Discipline challenge active / Total portal activation 955"
"Kakka," its one of his trimps.
'My' trimps? The human sets aside the portal pad and gets up.
Are you the guy? They all seem to be looking at him, as though they have a frickin' huge problem to solve and they need his help to solve it.
32s: First trap.
Do you bite? It doesn't matter much to us. The trimps look hopefully up at him through the trap's grating, We're so friggin' screwed.
I didn't think four of you could fit in there! He opens it and they all start following him around like imprinted hatchling birds. It seems his tactic of making a catch-alive trap confirmed to them that he was 'the guy' to help solve whatever problem...
26m42s: Z2c15, 58 pop, 7.7s RC with Z1/2; 29m44s: Fresh turkimp c25.
"Hey, buddy," he says to his first scientist, "can you speak yet?"
"Shijou?" it says, then it starts writing, "Hi Tightniks."
"Who do you mean 'Tightniks'?" he asks, "I mean, it's not like I remember my own name, but what makes you think it's Tightniks?"
"Tai," it points right at him with one paw.
"Just pointing at me isn't going to answer that," he chuckles.
The trimp's hands are quite prehensile, but it's hard to tell without it holding something, they don't seem able to make their fingers visually distinguishable. [Puchim@s all the puchidoru, although some have big round hands and some have small pointy hands; Takanya is the latter. Probably Final Fantasy Red XIII as well, but I'm not familiar enough with him to be satisfied.] This one starts climbing up his leg.
"Wait, wait," he stops it. It's a challenge to stoop in this gravity, but not as much of one as carrying a trimp. He gets down on his knees and back on his haunches and-
"Tai," it points again to a spot on his chest just left of his heart, then climbs on his lap and grabs his uniform at that spot, "Tai!"
He looks down and sees "Tightniks" embroidered into the fabric above his pocket. "Ah," he sighs, "Well, if that's my name, that's my name."
"Shijou," it gives him a friendly whack on the shoulder.
2h38m55s: Mskel in Z11c3.
"Hey guys?" Tightniks points at his bone box, waving his finger, "Does anyone remember where these came from?"
"Nope," the yellow one says.
"Yeah, there are 12 more in here than we got kills to account for," Tightniks says.
"I've been getting a sense of deja vu about just about everything," the red one points at the metal box on the strap over his shoulder, "That's a big exception. Any clues there?"
"It says it's for something called a DT Experimental Industries Time Portal," the human shrugs, "I have no idea what it's talking about, honest."
3h25m46s: Block PB, 0.3% AP sub-4h, 540 pop, 8.3s RC, no turkimp
That thing is beeping? He takes a look at his TPCS pad and he's got a message saying that he finished the Block in under 4 hours and there's a little attack bonus- Under 4 hours? It's been over 4 days!! Checking the time on the device reveals that the portal times in terms of a "map frame" out there in space, and the passage of time has been vastly dilated on this planet.
4h15m56s: Zone 15, 954 pop, 11.9s RC with Z14/60, no turkimp.
"Tightniks," the yellow one comes back from the second full bin to the filling third bin, watching the human fold up another of his very first inventions, the very first thing he built after jumping through the mysterious green phenomenon exiting the crashed ship, "Why in blazes are you building so many traps?"
The human had finished another and tossed it into the bin, then picked up the now ever-present portal control pad, gets it out of auto-sleep and called up the "Achievement Points" page. "I have this weird hunch," he says.
"Deja vu? That familiar feeling we always have?" the yellow one inquires politely, slightly tilting its head.
"May I?" Tightniks turns up his hand and waves it up and down in a lifting gesticulation, then points at the trap pile.
"Sure," the yellow one understands, "if you'll put me back down after."
The human sets the pad down, stoops at the knees and gets his arms under the yellow trimp scientist's front limbs and lifts it up onto that stack of traps with a grunt; it is an impressive demonstration of his improving strength against the planet's high gravity. Then he picks up the pad again and points at one of the blank purple squares near the bottom.
"You don't know what that is," the yellow one says, "Are we going after that first one that is readable?"
"Yes," the human nods, "it's for finishing something called a Dimension of Anger, whatever that is, before getting something called Bounty."
"Whatever that is," the trimp chuckles.
"No, I know what it is," the human says, "I remember it being access to a resource-rich area on the other side of a green Wall we'll find with our next map route. It doubles our resource production."
"That would be handy," the yellow one says.
"Hmm," he nods, "But all the traps are for this one," pointing at the third square in the top row of the array the pad labels "Feats", the second of three that are purple.
"Oh," a stylus materializes in the yellow one's paw, "Well, all it says is 2.5%. It doesn't say how to get it. Something to do with traps?"
"Something to do with traps," the human chuckles, "that's only convenient to do now."
4h29m46s...
Other trimps can understand the grey one better than the human, "Shijou shijou shijou?" is what a human ear would hear, but it's really asking the yellow one, "You mean he knew it was going to be here?"
"Yeah," the yellow one nods.
"Well, it's gotta be that pad none of us finds familiar," the grey one insists.
"I don't think so," the yellow one argues, "He showed the reason for all these traps to me on the pad, and the information is not yet available there."
"Well, it can't be just a coincidence," the grey one grumbles.
6h23m16s: Our first void map dropped.
"What is that?" The red one asks the yellow one. It grabs a stick and lifts the strange square object up by an edge from as far away as he can.
"I have no idea," The yellow one says.
"It seems to have some sort of cooling effect," the red one says, looking underneath it, having tilted it up with the stick, "Like it's not just cold, but actually cooling down, as though it were the opposite of on fire."
"Shijou," the grey one says, holding a note.
"It's a void map. Grab it with a blanket and put it on the cart please. - Tightniks"
"Shijou shijou," the grey one clarifies, "The new pad said 'void enabled'. Guessing it's that."
10h06m21s: Zone 21, 1975 pop, 19.6s RC with Z20/232, no turkimp.
"Ooooookay," Tightniks growls, "There is something off about this thing."
"Shijou?" the grey one looks at the yellow one with concern about their human starship pilot friend.
The human stoops, picks up the little green gem on the ridge between Zone 20 and 21, looks at it, huffs, and asks, "Any idea where this comes from?"
"Err..." the red one seems hesitant to say, "I think you made it."
"Really?" the human huffs, "How could that be?" Then he tosses it at Red, "See if anything reacts to it. It might be radioactive, so we should take turns to minimize exposure."
"Really?" Red's holding it now, "What makes you say that?"
"Because I'm pissed off for no reason I can figure out," the human says, "I think it's coming from-" he gasps, "Waitamint!" He starts searching for the portal pad.
"Frags," the red one says quickly, "I think it's arranging a route. You're good with maps," it tosses the gem to the grey scientist.
The human has his portal pad up and reads aloud, "You have the Discipline challenge active. Tweak the portal to- yada yada yada. Tiss tiss t- completing The Dimension Of Anger will cause Trimp damage to return to normal." He snaps his fingers, "That's gotta be it."
"Shijou," the grey one says hopefully, and has a map drawn within a few minutes.
12h30m06s: Portal, 45 He, 3.600 He/hr, 2098 pop, 18.3s RC, 1% AP for Portal-before-Bounty.
The last head of the map's boss monster goes limp as one of the fighting trimps' dagger points goes into it, and the huge thing settles on its tail, resting on the package that seems to be the prize of this map. And there's a popping sound, and then something mechanical.
Is that a scroll compressor? Tightniks looks at the package. The deflating monster's lifting envelope material drapes over everything underneath it. "Red, Shijou!" he snaps and points, "roll up that side of it. Keep this part from sucking down on the extractor nozzle!"
All fifty of the scientists jump in, literally, pushing the gas in the bag towards the compressor. Tightniks as well, rolling up the front.
Until he kicks, and nearly trips over, a smaller package that might be the explanation for the reason why the center of the monster's defense seemed to be a little away from the big package he could see. It's in the right place, he realizes. He gets it uncovered and reads stenciled-and-sprayed block letters on it:
"DT TIME PORTAL / THIS SIDE DOWN"
Perhaps the Dimension of Anger is so named because of the rage suddenly rising up in Tightniks' throat. It isn't so much as the free-floating aggression suddenly has an answer, there is definitely a fresh batch of rage and anger as he grips the nearest Dagger V, Mark 2 with both hands- ...I must have gotten used to destroying it at some point. He lets go of his weapon with his right hand first and dangles his left arm while holdi-
Refocusing on surviving the next few seconds, the pilot turns on the radar for the final approach and takes a last look around, then straight ahead at his forward camera and primary flight display...
He crouches, sets the dagger down gently, then starts clearing the debris from the box's grab iron. He tries to lift it- Damn, this is heavy!
Surprised at this turn of events, his two oldest scientists, Grey and Yellow, rush to either side of him and help out. They get it flipped over and read the other side of the device, Tightniks chuckles a bit at its predictability:
"DT TIME PORTAL / THIS SIDE UP" There's a square cutout in the middle of one side of it, with a sliding cover at the bottom of it.
"Thanks," he pats his scientists, "but back off, please." He gets the cover unlatched, and slides it open to see, first a big rainbow-colored wide data cable and card edge connector, then several fluid ports. "There's something missing," he says aloud as he gets the cover completely off and onto the grass, "this connects to some-" he's got the wide flat cable up in his hand, realizing what it plugs into. He looks at his scientists, lips trembling, "G-g-g-get the pad."
The grey one already has the survival data pad and offers it to him.
"No, the other pad," Tightniks clarifies, "The big one. The big one," he picks up wide flat rainbow cable and its edge socket in one hand, "It goes here," he points at it with the other. "It must have come with me end of the last cycle."
Both the yellow one and the red one bring it, one on each side.
"Thank you," the human takes it, gets its hinge lugs on the trunnions at the top of each corner of the cavity, then gets the cable connector on the card edge in the pad's base recess, "See, that's where it came from." It comes on:
"12h30m05s: You have completed the Discipline challenge, unlocking a new memory-enable coolant loop and restoring your trimps to normal combat discipline."
"Do you have any idea what that's about?" the yellow one points at the edge of the left side.
"That's-" Tightniks examines it, then suddenly realizes, "It's gotta be for the void map."
He's got a port cover open, and the bottom of it says, "NULLIFIUM/VOID HEIRLOOM INTERFACE"
"Shijou?" the grey one brings the blanket-wrapped void map.
The human clears an edge of the map; doesn't seem to matter which one, and then gets it into the slot. It disappears and the blanket settles down while the environment goes deep blue and suddenly goes super cold. "Hoe Lee!" he shivers, wrapping the blanket around himself, "I hope this isn't too much of a Napolean-Hitler Maneuver!" He glances around, but all the trimps don't seem to discomforted by the sudden cold.
12h35m24s: Void 1, 55 He, 4.369 He/hr, 2098 pop, 18.3s RC, first void AP 1% and 0.3% AP for 100 He simultaneously, we got a rare shield, but it's lame with attack, storage, and empty.
As the environment around them return to normal, the trimps cheer over the deflated corpse of the- ...whatever, who give a hoot? Tightniks finds a flurry of messages on the portal screen, two regard APs, one is about having recovered 10 He units, and the big one was about a "shield". Through the touchscreen, he enables it, and gets the status effects that it's talking about.
"Where to now, boss?" the yellow one asks, Tightniks can feel the draft off the cold trimps. They seem to be extraordinarily robust ectotherms, unlike him.
"Let's go back to that friggin' Wall, where it's warmer," he shivers, "We got that AP and could use the resources." As he leads them to the L15 route, he thinks, Maybe I did that void too early. It takes on the level of our most recently entered Zone, and the resources probably go up accordingly. [I did for character reasons after seriously considering running it at Z25 or 30.]
12h49m37s: Nursery unlocked.
"Four hundred thousand gems!" the human squeaks, "Are you kidding me?"
Grey and Yellow glance at each other, the former says "Shijou?" and starts doodling a real answer.
"I'm not sure if you've noticed, but young trimps have special diets for healthy bones," the yellow one explains.
"You eat gems?" the human gasps.
"Shijou," Grey says with a shit eating grin just above a little sign that says, "Babies eat aluminate, and gems are the best!"
"Do they like the taste?" Tighniks tosses a gem from the helium compressor in the direction of the nearest house.
"Uh-Uuuuh!" after it bounces off a paving stone, a yellow juvenile with red head fur jumps into the air to catch it in its mouth. [Puchim@s Yayo. Liek seriously, she jumps after pennies.]
13h32m59s: Zone 25, 84 He, 6.199 He/hr, 2217 pop, 52.6s RC with Z24/568, no turkimp.
It has an unusually light colored body, dark head fur that lies flat, and for trimp tails, wide and not all that prehensile, reminds Tightniks of a- ...he remembers what the animal looks like, but not that his home planet is called Earth nor that the animal is called a tanuki raccoon. Just the tail, the rest of the trimp looks like a trimp for the most part. Oh yeah, the mining foreman. [Puchim@s Yukipo] He turns to Red and asks, "What's wrong with it?"
"It's in a bad mood," the red one answers.
"I can tell," Tightniks glares angrily at the red one for a moment, cools off, takes a breath, and asks kindly, "Why is it in a bad mood?"
"We've never been out this far," the yellow one offers, "...well, with the portal captured at least. Now, it was in a good mood before it got near the cart after we started this zone. Something new on the cart?"
Tightniks approaches the mopey mining foreman and asks it, "What's the matter, little fella?"
It sighs, then starts struggling to climb [see 1x6] onto the compressor cart. Tightniks helps it up with a lift, then it goes to the portal pad and turns it on, opens up the coolant page, the challenges tab there, and sort of sighs and looks questioningly at him.
"Metal challenge:" the pad reads, "Tweak the portal to bring you to an alternate reality, where the concept of Miners does not exist..."
"Oh," Tightniks realizes, then huffs, "That explains the bad mood." He sits down with the mining foreman trimp and brushes its tail, "Don't worry, my friend. You'll be back after one cycle, and I'm sure I'll miss you and your miners. These guys," he nods at the scientists, "we're scared they wouldn't be back when I first used it on purpose, but they came back. If there's a 'Science challenge' later on, I'll have you and not them-"
The scientists flinch.
"It'll be okay," he assures the mining foreman he hasn't yet realized has fallen comfortably asleep in his lap, "It'll be okay, buddy."
16h11m02s: Gymnastic Z25 taken and gyms rapidly increasing now.
The 710 fighting trimps are majestic with their new gymnastic skill and nearly impossible to hit. Only occasionally did the gorillimp do damage. They took it down easily.
Then the dragimp they faced next blew them away with a fireball that made Tightniks flinch. It took him a second to get the dragimp back in his bee nickels. The next group was all ready to relieve their fallen comrades before they went down, even without the welcoming traps for the wild volunteers (of which Tightniks has just started into the 41st bin of ten thousand.) The dragimp can do nothing to them; anything that hits gets deflected by their V-8 shields; they never got sufficiently blindsided.
[Funny: V-8 is a veggie drink similar to clamato juice I can't find anymore, but it's really five-eight, which just happens to be the squadron number of the cast in Space: Above and Beyond. Herp-a-derp!]
19h11m12s: Spammed some random biome maps...
"Tai?" the grey one looks up at the human holding a little sign, "Last couple zones, you've been mapping a lot of random biome routes we never used. Is there any point to that?"
"Stats," the human says, fitting another one together, "Oh, and this," he tosses the trimp the completed forest route map."
As it registers in the portal system, the pad starts beeping and flashing its screen.
"What?" Tightniks sneers incredulously, "There's an AP for that?" He checks and sure enough, there's a 5% Achievement Point for making a 'perfect' map, by a full notch the biggest AP so far.
The yellow one was relaxing on the corner of the latest filled up trap bin, the 49th, notices, and leans back, "Yarey yarey..." shaking its head.
19h13m28s: Uberhouse taken.
"Shijou," the grey one stands at Tightniks feet holding a small book.
Tightniks takes a brief break from his trapmaking and stoops for his oldest scientist.
"Shijou," the grey one bobs the small book in its hands to offer it to Tightniks.
"Flush toilets and septic systems?" Tightniks reads, "You do this yourself?"
"Oh, don't you wish," the red one snickers, "No, it was in that perfect route you mapped up."
20h39m26s: Zone 30, 161 He, 7.794 He/hr, 4656 pop, 20N, 74.5s RC with Z29/1735, no turkimp, 2.5% AP for sub-60 He Z30 start...
"Oh?" Tightniks has an Ax V-3 over one shoulder and screws the helium hose connector to the portal system with one hand. He grunts, sounds kinda disappointed, sets the ax down and continues working on his massive pile of traps; he's almost finished the 55th of, he just learned, 100 huge bins.
The mining foreman had struggled up onto the cart to see, and just looks baffled. It usually looks a bit lost just as part of its demeanor, but this time it looks really quite confused, and makes rather bemused sounds too.
"Oh, what is this?" Red jumps up on the cart, sounding like it's gotta be silly.
The mining foreman climbs back down and spots a purple ore vein, makes a happy sound and pulls its shovel out of its back pocket to start digging into it.
[OC: This is not even close to an exaggeration vs. OG Puchim@s Yukipo who, in 1x2, just pulls out her shovel from nowhere and digs a hole through Project 765's indoor tile-and-concrete office floor to have a nap in the cold open of a 137 second long cartoon episode. Never run out of mushroom boxes! Also, 2nd season Golden Week gold medallion, she and Yayo dig into a volcanic island and hit an oil gusher ...you don't need to know much geology to realize...]
"Really?" Red groans, "Sheesh."
What's on the pad? "Hoarder: Have over 1 million traps at once, 2.5% damage."
20h48m06s: Gateways.
"Hmm," Tightniks pauses from his trap building and gazes over where they came from.
"Thinking of something?" the yellow one asks from the stack he's building under his feet as he puts the most recent trap on the pile.
"Yunno, we have a lot of territory back there that should be pretty pleasant to live in," Tightniks says, "You'd think we should be able to just map an enemy-free route that trimps can just sit down and live peacefully in. I'd love to be able to do that."
"Shijou," the grey one is at his feet with a massive shit-eating grin, not really "hiding" a big piece of documentation behind its back. Obviously it's not so dumb as to realize that it isn't concealed. It then pulls it out and offers it to the human, "Shijou."
"What's this-" the human gasps, "Are you kidding?"
"Shijou."
"Well?" the yellow one prompts, "Let's friggin' try it, shall we?"
21h34m53s...
For some odd reason, that quiet little mining foreman is on the trap pile, fiddling around. Seems to be trying to arm one, has the spring catch on-
"Hey, buddy!" the human notices, "What are you-"
SPROING and it goes flying through the air. Does a few flips and turns, and then sticks the landing, strikes a pose, and makes a happy sound. [op cit. 1x57]
"What the-" Tightniks says, scratching his head, I wonder how much more damage the fighters could avoid if they could do stuff like that.
"Shijou," the grey one is carefully copying out the trimpese from a tattered and dusty scroll.
"What is that?" Tightniks asks.
"Where mining buddy learned that flip," Yellow says from the cart with feet playfully dangling, "another gymnastic book we picked up a few NMEs back. Probably another chapter from the same book, actually. It seems to have been torn apart and scattered."
"Is that right, bud-" the human looks around, can't seem to find the mining foreman, "Buddy, where are you?" It can't move so fast as to get out of sight this quickly!
"Po-wee!" it cheers from the bottom of its latest hole, which is beside a pile of rich bluish-greenish copper ore, onto which another shovelful flies out of the hole onto it.
22h44m17s: Zone 32, 205 He, 9.016 He/hr, 9548 pop, 30N, 37.7s RC with Z31/2712, no tkp.
"You should probably go," Red whispers.
The exhausted human has just sat down for a nap after tossing yet another trap into the huge bin stenciled "61".
"Really, I mean it," the red trimp scientist gently sets a paw on the pilot's shoulder, "Listen to sense please. Charge all this helium and use the portal; it'll make us so much stronger."
"Only 392 thousand to go," Tightniks sighs, "All the ones I've made go to waste if I use it now. I know it's only a two-and-a-halfer, but if I go now, I'll never be in de-" his head slumps into the nodding-off of post-all-nighter fatigue, "moo."
Red and the mining foreman help the snoring human gently down onto his side. The former quietly asks the latter, "Do you think he's doing the right thing?"
The mining foreman makes a particularly delighted squeak, grabs its latest flask of leafy-flowery infusion, which is just now cool enough not to punish such a maneuver with a nasty burn, and upends the whole thing in a couple seconds. It then bounds off joyfully towards the big pit mine over there. It does not often lead the general laborers because of the gymnastic and shield driven block fight, which needs wood, but it happens to be doing so today.
Yellow stands next to the grumbling unhappy green lumber foreman trimp, who is standing on the head of its dual bit ax with its chin on the end of the haft sticking up from the head on the ground. "Cheer up!" the yellow scientist gently prods it in the elbow, "There isn't a Lumber challenge."
1d00h20m05s: Zone 33, 229 He, 9.410 He/hr, 10120 pop, 50N, 40.8s RC with Z32/3390, no turkimp.
"It's a familiar smell," the human says.
"There's no way we've been out this far since whatever it is that shtfed Trimp civilization," Red grumbles. [Word based on acronym SHTF, which stands for "stuff hits the fan" in its G-rated version. Long time ago, similarly derived "nsfw" was a kerbalese cuss word.]
"I think it's from before that," Tightniks clarifies, "from before the time loop stuff."
"I'm worried our fighting group is nearly a third of our population," Yellow sighs.
"Casualties bother you?" Tightniks asks, "I thought we talked about that."
"It's taking forever to breed up new groups, and these things, *snap* ow," Yellow didn't quite touch that one the right way, "you've got 661 thousand of are too small to help. If you don't go now, this will probably be our last Coordination and we won't be able to finish the next zone."
1d06h52m14s: Gymnastic Z35 finally away.
"Did you know it was there?" The red one asks the human as they watch the grey one transcribe another lost chapter of the Gymnastic book.
"No," Tightniks huffs, in a few minutes' break from his trap building, "But I'm not surprised, I hope it gets us Zone 36. In any case, as soon as I finish that millionth trap-"
The mining foreman makes a mournful sound.
"Don't worry, buddy," Tightniks pats it on the head, "I'll brush your tail again last thing before I go." He's working on bin #88.
1d08h00m10s: 12802 pop, 80N, 43.7s RC with Z34/5298, down from 27.4s; '31m00s...
Tightniks, wearing wool-lined leather gloves mixing shimp and bovimp ingredients, plugs the void map that they got from earlier in the zone into the portal, bundled up against the expected cold. He hopes that the fresh Gymnastic Z35 and Coordination Z34 will get them through it.
1d08h33m03s...
"Do you think you can get it back out of there?" Red asks the shivering human as he reaches for the portal.
There are a pair of ejector levers beside the void map slot which clicked when he inserted it, but the void map disappears, so it remained an open question as to whether they could get it back out. Making sure not to have his hands over the void map slot, Tightniks gets a thumb over each one and there's resistance like something is in the empty slot. He grunts and pushes down until they suddenly snap down, the ejected void map rematerializes. "Well, that's a relief," he sets it down and the starts doffing his coats and sweaters to let the warm air of the normal world reach him.
"Try again later?" Yellow asks.
"Yes," the human says.
"What, are you kidding?" Red scoffs, these things level up with the zones!"
"Later on in this zone, obviously," Tightniks grunts with a huff, and then turns to see the grey one holding its little sign with those exact words on it, can't help but smile.
1d09h08m09s: Snimp in Z36c74...
Having just finished yet another trap for bin #95 of the hundred that he needs for the million-traps AP, he tosses it in and looks to the front. There's not much left of that snimp, but it just killed a third fighting group. "The training bonus from running ten laps in an on-level map route doesn't transfer to the void, does it?"
"Shijou," the grey one says with a note of confirmation.
"And I'm getting close to done this pile of traps we need for that 2.5% AP damage bonus."
"Shijou," it says again.
1d09h08m21s: Snimp in Z36c75...
Tightniks sighs, "...and there's another one. So much for that void map with its heinous critically accurate fast voidsnimps and ugly boss fight." And he returns to building traps.
1d10h14m08s: Trying again...
"NULLIFIUM/VOID HEIRLOOM INTERFACE," Tightniks tightens the stuff around himself and then finishes getting the void map inserted with his gloves, and his fingers come together as it puffs out in a brief blue mist in the void environment.
"Timba timba," Tightniks hadn't even noticed that the lumber foreman was up on his head, pats him on the head, wants to get back to work. [No Puchim@s resembles the lumber foreman.]
"Oh, there you are," the human says, "Sorry, I wanted to finish the run with the mining foreman in charge of the resourcing workers. I don't know what's about to happen to it when I hit the Metal challenge."
"Who the devon talked you into into trying this thing again?" Yellow grumbles, looking up at the indigo sky and mysteriously shrunken and dim sun, hands- ...forepaws on its waist, not discomforted by the cold, but bothered by the re-attempt. [This cuss-word after Disturbed song "Inside the Fire".]
"Shijou," the grey one grins above a Rosetta-stone-like sign it's holding with "It was me." in forty-seven languages both human and trimp.
"Zone 37 is hopeless in the time it'll take me to finish building the traps," Tightniks says.
"Won't the cold slow you down?" Red inquires, "It seems to get to you for some reason we don't get."
"Timba timba," the lumber foreman confirms from its perch on Tightiks' jacket hood.
"Yeah," he huffs, tightening it down, "but it slows down the portal clock by the same amount, so who cares?"
1d10h38m48s: Voidsnimp in c12...
Even in the void, Tightniks has gotten used to the sounds of the combat and trimps dying en masse, but when he heard that voidsnimp screech, which is similar to a "drill" robot from an Earth video game he has almost totally forgotten called Descent (Interplay 1995), he almost involuntarily turned to see, Even way back here, they can damage us despite all that gymnastic training? Then it landed the critical hit and wiped them out, as all critical hits do on this void route. He still finished the trap he was working on before going back to the portal, "Forget this, we're just getting the zone blimp." He pops the map from the portal's void slot, and starts getting his void gear off. His uniform long since wore out, so he's wearing something much more cave-manny. [I picked that sound because that sucker was dangerous and terrifying and carried the nearly hitscan Vulcan cannon. There was no Descent II equivalent, but the Thiefbot was pretty annoying.]
1d10h45m30s: 1M traps AP for 2.5%. 1d10h47m36s: Zone 37, 345 He, 9.916 He/hr, 13120 pop, 100N, 33.6s RC with Z34/5298, 2774 pop short, no turkimp.
Tightniks had nearly finished the long procedure for loading and configuring the portal, then sat down with the mining foreman to brush its tail like he promised.
The scientist trimps tried to hit the portal's activation plunger, but it refused to travel the full distance closed for any of them. Quite tired themselves out trying. The only one not exhausted into total silence was the grey one with its exasperated "Shijou..."
The mining foreman refused to go to sleep, and watched intently as Tightniks finally reached over and set it home with one hand. Its last nervous little sigh was the only thing he remembered-
The ship is without power, and Tightniks can't run the radar much without draining the batteries...

Yeah, it's too early for this but I feel like fantasy booking some more. We don't know who will already be on tour, who will already play in the Daytona/Orlando area, who may be recording, etc. but that's not gonna stop me from compiling a list. I think I did pretty good with my 2024 guesses, so here's an anticipated pool of who I think they will reach out to. For the term "headliner," I'm considering the top 2-3 bands on the Apex/Octane drift stages.

• Aerosmith: adding them to the list, but I don't see it happening.
  
• Alice in Chains: legends. Cantrell solo got cut short in 2022, would love to see them at WTR. Haven't played since, what, 2013?
  
• The Black Keys: surprisingly haven't done much with DWP outside of B&B
  
• Blink-182: has historically stuck with Aftershock for DWP events, but I think their price may be coming back down based on where they're billed in festivals such as ACL this year.
  
• Bring Me the Horizon: worthy of headlining the Octane Drift stage at this point, really surprised they weren't booked this year
  
• Creed: featuring a Limp Bizkit-like resurgence, I'm honestly surprised they weren't booked this year on DWP events.
  
• The Cure: adding them to the list, but I don't see it happening.
  
• Def Leppard: had Motley Crue this year, wouldn't be shocked if they got the other half of the tour next year; played in 2017
  
• Eminem: would be a gigantic draw, and cost a gigantic amount of money.
  
• Faith No More: seems to be awakening from their slumber this summer in Europe, Patton seems to be better mentally as seen by all his Mr. Bungle touring.
  
• Fall Out Boy: putting them on Octane Drift and Blink on Apex would bring a lot of WWWY fans to Daytona
  
• Five Finger Death Punch: last played 2022
  
• Ghost: I think we were all shocked they didn't play this year with all the 2023 promos
  
• Godsmack: played 2023, doing the radio festival circuit this year; I could see them next year off the album tour cycle and doing a greatest hits set
  
• Green Day: played LTL 2023
  
• Guns N' Roses: one of the scrapped 2022 bands
  
• Iron Maiden: playing Aftershock, now has a relationship with DWP
  
• Jane's Addiction: had to adjust to a Porno For Pyros set in 2022 due to Dave's long COVID, they seem to have gotten back on their feet
  
• Journey: normally would've been out of place, but considering we had Crue, KISS, and Skynyrd I think they would be welcomed at the festival. Touring with Def Leppard this year, might put them into the festival pool.
  
• Kid Rock: a very Florida-friendly booking, DWP has used him in the past but it's been a long time
  
• Korn: one of the scrapped 2022 bands - probably the band I saw the most shirts of this year that wasn't playing, still a hot booking
  
• Lamb of God: haven't played since 2021, due for a return
  
• Linkin Park: rumored to be reuniting, has a history with DWP. I think they'd pay big for them.
  
• Lynyrd Skynyrd: could bring them back, played 2021. Fits very well with Florida.
  
• Machine Gun Kelly: if he's still doing his pop punk thing, could be in the FIR slot
  
• Marilyn Manson: depending on how he does on the FFDP and PR recovery tour, he could be the direct support act on the Octane Drift stage.
  
• Metallica: winding down their long world tour, would probably be open to festival dates in 2025
  
• Misfits: DWP seems to LOVE these guys
  
• Muse: has played multiple DWP events, had an early 2023 NA tour so I think them touring here next year would be in the cards.
  
• My Chemical Romance: don't have current tours, only has done Aftershock so far.
  
• No Doubt: would they cough-up Coachella money? Doubt it, but can't rule it out.
  
• Paramore: adding them to the list, but I don't see it happening.
  
• Parkway Drive: worth of at least being top 2 on Octane Drift, especially if they bring their full production
  
• Pearl Jam: their relationship with DWP lies more on the B&B side, so I'm not sure if they spend the money on WTR
  
• Post Malone: an out there selection, could be too expensive but would fit better than you'd think.
  
• Rage Against the Machine: a holy grail booking, they've publicly said they're doing playing. But so did Slayer.
  
• Rammstein: if they book them far enough ahead of time, they can plan for a larger stage and production as needed. Previously did Chicago Open Air, and would presumably need to be routed within a tour based on how much production they use. Would make sense as the Thursday headliner as they can take additional days to set-up if needed, and then spend all night breaking down.
  
• Red Hot Chili Peppers: I'm putting them on the list, but I don't think they'll do it after they weren't received too well at LTL 2022.
  
• Rise Against: had 2022 scrapped, just played Sonic Temple
  
• Rob Zombie: 2023 performance was marred with technical difficulties, so I'm not sure if he would want to return to fix that wrong or may just not be interested in playing it
  
• Scorpions: touring overseas (for us) this year, could be coming to NA next year
  
• Shinedown: had their 2022 show cut short due to the weather
  
• Slayer: seems like a given with the LTL/AS bookings this year - they'll probably do WTST in 2025
  
• Sleep Token: gonna be expensive
  
• Slipknot: because apparently they're the house band
  
• The Smashing Pumpkins: played in 2022, could be due for a return
  
• Staind: last played in 2021, just played ST and are doing LTL and AS this year. This leads me to believe they were being pushed/saved for next year.
  
• Sublime: not sure how high they'd be billed these days, maybe 2nd highest on Octane Drift
  
• System of a Down: played Sonic Temple 5 years ago, but seem to be pretty heavily tied to SNW
  
• Weezer: played LTL last year, killed it. Could have a set like The Offspring where it's just wall-to-wall hits.
  
• ZZ Top: could be a solid band to play before someone like Def Leppard, Journey, etc.
  

Who else do you think may be in the pool?

Madfinger Devs:
First off, thank you. This game is scratching an itch for me and some of my prior service buddies that I wasn't sure was ever going to be scratched unless we made it ourselves. So, thank you. I've got about 50 hours of playtime in so far and there are some kinks to work out, but there are overall a ton of great things about this game and we are thoroughly enjoying it thus far. So, the following is a wishlist of sorts that the group of guys I play with have come up with. We are fully aware that this is in Early Access and I expect bugs, imbalance, and issues. This is not a complaint, it's meant to be a mostly constructive criticism, with some wish list sprinkled in that we think would really send this game to the next level for those who are similarly-minded.
Item Interaction
Interacting with items is much harder than it should be. Opening and closing doors, picking things up, it feels like I have to hover around looking for some magical point on the item in order to interact with it. Maybe this is an adjustment in the radius of the pointer, or the interactable sphere of the model itself but this should be just a *little* more forgiving, so that opening and closing doors/windows and picking up items can happen just a little bit faster.
Nameplates
For the love of god. Please add some way to ID friendlies, even if just my own squad besides the map. A name plate, maybe a green dot on the compass, something. I'm all for immersiveness, but it's hard to maintain formation when i can't see who my teammates are half of the time. Even if it's a name plate that only appears when i aim directly at them, something.
Healing
We love that there is more of an emphasis on how one heals than simply using a medkit. However, it seems like this process is a little more arduous than necessary. For instance, the healing of teammates is unfortunately abysmal at the moment. The "Examine" system is fine, but then if I move my mouse even a few pixels, I have to re-examine the teammate before I can "heal" them. Then, I have to have the items out and on my chest rig or in my pockets to use items on a teammate or faction member. This seems a little odd. So, Suggestions for healing:

1. **Edit** It seems like the medical items are in fact accessible, according to other commenters. I'll continue playing and testing this myself, it just felt like it wasn't working consistently for me. However, sounds like user error here!
2. **Edit** to clarify improvements for rendering aid to other players: As of now, if I switch into my inventory or move my cursor for any reason, I have to re-examine the casualty in order to administer aid. This wastes precious time when a teammate is bleeding out. I suggest that Once a player examines a casualty, they should not have to examine them again unless they either sustain more injuries, or some appropriate amount of time has passed. Once I know they have a broken arm and GSW to the neck, I don't forget that if I look in my inventory. Please fix this.
3. When I was in the military, we always harped on using the casualty's own IFAK to render aid first, before dipping into our own. We carry our IFAK so that we are essentially providing the supplies needed for our own first level of care. It would make a lot of sense to when examining the casualty, it also checks to see if any of the necessary medical supplies to treat the casualty's wounds are actually in their own inventory (can be restricted to medical bags affixed to their belt/chest rig) and use those first, before using our own supplies. I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to stop and try to help a random faction mate bleeding in the street only for them to die, and I've wasted my precious bandages and blood packs on them. in PvP, you could maybe loot their body, but in PvE it's a total loss. You can't recover your items and the player is just gone. Applying their own aid first would alleviate a lot of this waste and also give it a little more realistic edge.
4. We should be able to drag unconscious/coma teammates. If a teammate goes down, we should be able to drag their body back into cover. Maybe limit this to squadmates only, so that there's less of a chance of griefing/trolling but it should be possible to drag a comrade to safety to administer aid, rather than having to kneel in the middle of the road to do so.

A More Dynamic LZ system
What we have currently works on a basic level. It's essentially a bunch of roller coasters that give the player a bird's eye view of the map as they traverse from one point to another. However, this system could use some improvements.

1. Ability to extend the time a bird is on an LZ. Sometimes things happen, and for the bird to touch down for 10s and take off because you're bandaging after an unexpected contact can be rough. That wait can be 10-15 minutes and in some cases longer. Either A) make the wait time 30s and once all squad members "ready up" the bird can lift off immediately, OR B) the wait time stays +/-10s and squad members on the LZ can "Press Y" to request the bird stays on deck for another 10 seconds.
2. 4 birds per faction can be extremely frustrating, especially when there are lots of solos and duos. We have to find a way to make more birds available or to better use the 4 that are available:
   1. Simply make more birds available. 1xhelicopter per squad on server.
   2. Make it so that players can "ride back" on birds that are dropping off players. (Yes, this could extend in-flight time for birds in the air, but it could also reduce number of requests). If a bird drops a team off at Charlie 1, and I am there, the bird can show on map Destination: C1 > RTB, and I would know that bird is returning to base after dropping off at Charlie 1. If I hop onto that bird, it flies back to base, if I do not, it can fly off-map to the nearest edge. I think this could easily be implemented and would cut down on a lot of helo requests to LZ's.
   3. Implement a fuel system on the birds. For instance, I'm at Foxtrot 2 and want to go to India 1. If I request to India 1, and there's a bird already en route to an F-2 or a nearby LZ, and it has fuel capacity to get to India 1, it can drop off its team, pick me up and take me to India 1. Once fuel capacity is reached, it flies off-map at nearest edge
   4. Any one of these or hybrid method could reduce the amount of wait times for teams to get birds, and also be more efficient for getting teams to and from locations using the same birds already in play, especially if Patrol Bases or faction Main Bases could be opted as helo refueling options?
3. Maybe able to purchase an emergency Pickup? It can be expensive ($10K+), but being able to call in a bird to any open, flat area for an emergency pickup would be cool. It would also give us a reason to use the currently pointless smoke grenades.
   1. Emergency Pickup only useable in area that has 30m+ radius of open ground with no trees.
   2. Call in Bird, at 30 seconds out, you have to pop a colored smoke, the bird will confirm color and land on your smoke.

Death Penalty/Loot - Okay, so it is nice that when a player dies, they have an opportunity to return to their corpse and get their loot back. This is a nice touch and has saved me a bit of money and gear over the past couple weeks. However, even in PvE there should be a way for some to loot a dead body. I am thinking of maybe 2 ways to do this:

1. Now, I say maybe keep the first-death grace period to go back and get your loot, assuming you can make it. However, if you die a second time, that corpse should become lootable. Perhaps, a time limit can be imposed so that there aren't just dead bodies cluttering up the game and wasting resources, but maybe for 2-3 minutes, the corpse becomes lootable to all (or maybe just faction or even squad). This allows for teammates to help pick up the gear one may lose, if they die during PvE, and also provides some scavenging opportunities for others.
2. After the first PvE death, maybe there is a 15-minute timer to return to the body, where it is not lootable. This gives the player (in most cases) enough time to return to the body if they move quickly, and can protect their gear from opportunists. After 15 minutes, the body becomes lootable for another 5 minutes, for a total of 20 minutes of recovery time, the last 5 of which can be looted by other players. After 20, the body disappears for all. this helps to save resources and adds some scavenging, but also allows for teammates to help pick up the slack. If the player dies a second time before the 15 minutes expires, the 5 minute lootable period begins immediately.

Suppressors, Camouflage, Concealment
Suppressors and camouflage should work on AI. I don't know what system is in place to "alert" AI, but it seems like I get one suppressed shot, then anyone within 50-100m locks on to my precise location, regardless of concealment or camouflage and I come under immediate effective fire, even if I one-shot an unaware AI with a suppressed weapon. As of now, the only reason to spend the money on a suppressor in this game is if I just want my own shots to be quieter for myself and my squad. There's no tactical advantage for the money spent in PvE and the effect is limited in PvP.

1. Maybe a system that rewards players for taking controlled shots? A suppressed one-shot kill from >100m should only alert AI within immediate proximity. They can alert to the general direction of the player's shot (maybe 90-degree sector) and begin scanning.
2. Suppressed weapons fired within 50-75m of enemy AI should still alert them, but maybe to a lesser extent than they currently do. Maybe a 60-degree cone of "alerted" status for enemies in this 50-100m range when firing suppressed.
3. <50m suppressed weapons have no effect.
4. AI should not be able to see me at 50m+ through dense vegetation. I cannot see them, they should not be able to see me. Sure, if they want to spray an AK into a tree line as suppressing fire, fine. However, they should not be taking point-target shots on me because a 4-pixel by 4-pixel patch of my glove was detected.

AI- We have to talk about this
I don't know why, but it feels like I am constantly on a pendulum swinging between the extremes of AI who couldn't shoot me if their muzzle was pressed into my chest, and AI who are able to nail me in the T-Box through 12-inch thick reinforced concrete.

1. I don't know the magic middle ground, but having the AI be slightly disoriented when fired upon, maybe taking 1-2 seconds to react and get their bearings would help add a more realistic edge to the gun fights.
2. AI should behave somewhat tactically. I would love to see some bounding movements, suppressive fire, and flanking. I don't know how to implement, but maybe if there are more 4+ AI in a 20m radius, they get grouped up and become a fireteam. Two of them set a base of fire from some covered position while another two make a flanking maneuver
3. Clipping is an issue. I've died several times to AI shooting me through the floors and walls in the YBL-1 bunker. Thankfully the gear isn't prohibitively expensive, but it is an annoyance.

Flesh out this world
The island is huge. It's huge and the whole thing can be traversed on foot. It's just that there's really no reason to do so. I'd much rather just ride my helicopter to the LZ closest to my objective, in and out. Get my reward. There's no incentive to walk between points of interest unless we are trying to PvP and want to go largely undetected across the map to our ambush site. Here are some ways to accomplish a more immersive island.

1. There are no civilians. I know this can be explained away by an evacuation, but that's no fun. There could be civilians in these villages and it could be very engaging. Why am I running boxes of medical supplies out to villages where the only inhabitants are enemy combatants? Add non-combatant civilians.
   1. Make villages have non-combatants. If you kill them, it can cost you a fine and hurt your faction's standing within that village among the civilians.
   2. Civilians, if faction standing becomes too negative with them, will become hostile toward your faction. (kill too many, they arm themselves and fight back). Each faction has its own unique standing with the civilians in that village on the server, so each village can have its own diplomatic stance.
   3. Civilians can function as in-game vendors. Some dude in a market stall may sell fish, or crafting items for features I read were anticipated in later iterations of the game.
   4. If a faction's standing becomes strong enough, civilians may even arm themselves and help to drive out the hostiles occupying the village. Maybe this part is something that becomes a part of a dynamic event later.
   5. Even if they do nothing, it adds a layer of complexity to the missions, and makes it so that players must get Positive ID before taking a shot. In some cases, hostiles can pose as civilians, and pick up a weapon adding an even more immersive element to asymmetric warfare.
2. Patrol Bases - This can be done in a way that gives players a way to seek refuge and operate out of forward bases. Something like Elder Scrolls Online did the castle/keep system in their PvP where the NPC's in some neutral zones captured by one faction or another would then guard that area on behalf of the faction.
   1. Points of Interest can be captured as patrol bases. This gives another "objective" to players and can encourage more PvP interactions.
   2. Once captured, a patrol base (PB) gets assigned a number of NPC's that will fight hostile NPC's and other factions that come within a pre-determined distance of the PB.
   3. Helicopters can fly in and out of patrol bases owned by that faction. Gives an additional LZ that is less prone to LZ camping.
3. AI Patrols - Each faction should have some AI patrolling its immediately controlled areas.
   1. Dense presence in the town/area between the main base and starter town for each faction. These can be 4-6 man patrols, moving tactically and in conventional military formations. They can be engaged by players and hostile AI.
   2. Less dense patrols in forward areas. Mostly on roads between points of interest.
      1. Patrol between Crimson Shield base camp and Kiu Vongsa, between KV Gas Station and the ridge west of Hunter's paradise, along the main road, for example. Just 4-6 man patrols that walk the roads and can be engaged.
      2. Similar routes in other faction areas.

Miscellaneous Gear and Feature Wish List

1. Belt-fed weapons. Please.
   1. This could be game changing for PvE and PvP. They should be expensive. They should be heavy, and they should be more of a cone of fire. They can be powerful, suppressive weapons, balanced by the fact that they aren't meant for accurate point-target system.
   2. This gives squads an opportunity to use more immersive tactics. Setting up bases of fire, support and assault elements, etc..
   3. Should probably limit this to SAW/RPK and other lighter weapon systems
2. Laser Range Finders and Binoculars
   1. Binoculars for scouting out enemy positions.
   2. Laser Range finders for getting good distance measurements for zeroing weapons
   3. These should have weight, cost money and take up inventory space. Choosing to carry this means leaving something else behind.
3. Radios - These are a necessity.
   1. Make Radios available for purchase from one of the vendors.
   2. They have multi-channel capabilities. Faction, which is also audible in the command tent at main base. Squad, which can be heard by anyone in your squad with a radio equipped and on the squad frequency.
   3. Maybe make VOIP always on for PVP. If you're communicating, you should be audible. Can reduce range of hearing, but I think this would add a very interesting dynamic to communicating as a team and being weary of possible enemies listening to you.
4. Mortars. They're already there. Let us use them.
   1. the mortars on our main base can be put into effect and used by the players
   2. Have the radios above allow for calling fire missions. Call up main faction on radio, request fire mission from anyone on base who is listening and willing to use the mortars.
   3. Provide the "mortar team" a position for enemy fire. It can be your position and distance/direction or just a grid location to the enemy. This is where binoculars and Laser Range finders become handy.
   4. Can limit the rounds fired from base to X rounds per minute, to avoid spamming.
   5. Can also limit range. As of now, 81mm mortars can basically engage targets to Ground Zero from each base and the contested points of interest between each main base i.e YBL, Midnight Sapphire and Ban Pa.
   6. Could allow for maybe 60mm mortars with shorter range and less firepower inside of the patrol bases mentioned above, and give fire mission support to squads operating further out or omit that feature and keep
5. Make smoke grenades do something -right now, they don't have any real reason in the game other than beautifying the main base while waiting for a helicopter.
   1. Allow them to signal incoming birds at an LZ.
   2. Allow grey/white smoke but more dense for providing concealment while moving/retreating in a firefight
   3. Allow them to signal a resupply drop that could potentially be called in later in the game at a forward location. I.e. call for resupply, 15 seconds out, mark Drop zone with colored smoke and the drop occurs within 150m of that smoke.
6. Mines - I'm hit or miss on this, but I've heard others ask for it
   1. Claymores, PWN, IED, whatever. Some form of anti-personnel mine that can be used to protect avenues of approach, kick off ambushes, or defend sniper hides and machine gun nests (assuming you implement the LMG suggestion above)
7. Speaking of Command and Signal - Star Clusters and parachutes, please add these.
   1. These could be a great way to signal squad location, objectives, or signal ambush start.
8. Shared Mission Board.
   1. There should be a way for us to draw on a map, on the objective and have our team see it. Maybe everyone has a tablet that can pull up a mission brief, similar to a Ready or Not or maybe Rainbow Six style satellite imagery. We can draw on it, share it with the team and have us know various rally points, lines of departure, etc within the squad.
9. Arm bands or helmet covers to help ID squad/Team/Clan
   1. We should have a way to ID our squad. Even if it's just an orange patch on the left sleeve, or something to that effect so that we can quickly see who our friendlies and immediate squad are while on mission or in the field. Since camouflage is customizable, I wouldn't suggest removing a customization feature, but add a way for us to be able to ID one another quickly and tactically.
   2. This can later be used to implement clan regalia, etc..
10. Ghillie suits.
11. Expensive, heavy, hot, but make them available.
12. Maybe add a way to customize them with vegetation, especially once crafting items are released.

These are just a handful of the items we've come up with to add some more immersiveness and depth to the game. Overall, I'm very happy with what's come out so far in Early Access. I hope they continue in the direction they've been going so far.
**EDIT** Thanks to all for the suggestions, comments and feedback to this list. I've updated the medical items to account for the fact that accessing them from outside med bags sounds like my error. Again, this is not a complaint. This is simply a "wish list" a few of us have dreamt up that we think would just add a chef's kiss to the game.
Super happy with current Early Access showing, and this is what EA is all about. Player feedback and interaction during development, so that the final product has a greater chance at success!