We, the proud few who stand on the cutting edge of frugality. We hold our heads high as we steal toilet paper, shoplift lentils, reuse condoms, syringes, and drink our own piss to save multiple dollars each year.
A place for employees of U.S prepaid cell phone brand Cricket Wireless to talk, share content and complain about customers
I’m rewatching Millennials vs. Gen X, and I think it would be so interesting to see a Gen Z vs Millennials season. Millennials are the last generation to have had a play-based instead of phone-based childhood, so I think the dynamics of a season like this would be super interesting.
I was trying to sleep and then a thought races through my head. I ran to my phone to scribble the thoughts revealed to me in my near sleep state.
The person we saw in the latest chapter is yuta. He copied Kenjaku's cursed technique in order to hijack Gojo's body.
This is further backed up by the fact that gojo said the new generation won't be limited to special grade near the beginning of the series and showed Todo, Yuji and Yuta.
This is the first time that all three have been active players in the story.
So I have been grinding job applications hard trying to find something good where I'm not pinned down like I work in North Korea and can get to the upper middle-class... It's been exhausting.
I got so exhausted that I was like, "Fuck these people... I'm going to find out if they're wasting my time."
Rather than wait until next week, I got the phone number for the place and called and starting asking questions about the job.
Let me tell ya... That's a good way to weed out some bullshit. Fortunately, I found out my interview Monday could be a good deal; I may have something I am going to like doing. 100% commission though. Dangerous stuff...
Should I leave my partner? I’ll try to shorten it. I lived with my partner and his mom. I went three hours away to visit my sons for a few weeks. While I was away, his mother accused me of trying to cancel my phone line and her phone line…which didn’t make sense because I actively used my phone number (we all shared a phone plan). She was saying she could prosecute me and such (fraud). She was saying I used her name and such, when in reality I didn’t because the owner of the lines have a code and I truly don’t know it. I had Verizon customer service confirm that I didn’t call in and there was no record of it. She kept insisting that I did when I gave proof. Once she told me she could prosecute me, I immediately started looking for lawyers because she was not about to pin this on me when I truly did nothing and she got upset that I wanted a lawyer and sent me a long message saying she doesn’t care if she never sees me again. I was a bit confused as to why she was being this way toward me. I was waiting for days for my partner to come and get me (they were down to one car since he had an accident in his mom’s car, but they were using his at the time). My partner kept trying to make it seem like he was going to get me but he wasn’t sure at the same time because of how his mom was acting. I struggle with mental health as I tried to take my life earlier in the year. She ridiculed me about that when she got upset at me one day (earlier in the year when I lived with her). She told me my attempts were just ways to try to manipulate her son and said I treat her son badly because of that and said that I couldn’t come back because of that. That sent me into a spiral because then I was already struggling with my mental health so it made my anxiety pretty bad so after being accused of something such as that, then having his mom speak to me in a ruthless manner, and then just finding out I couldn’t come back (which was a wrongful eviction) sent me into a mental spiral to where I had a mental snap and tried to take my life again. I ended up being admitted in May of this heat and come to find out I was misdiagnosed and put on the wrong medication which explained a lot. The thing is, while i was inpatient in the state I was visiting my sons in…him, his mom, and his brother dropped off all my things to my children’s grandparents house. Come to find out my children’s grandmother was texting my partners mom and that’s how my stuff ended up being dropped off. The grandma tried to make it seem like they all of a sudden showed up but I came to find out it was a mutual effort thing. The thing is my partners mom tried to have my children’s grandparents lie and tell me that they went to go get my stuff and that my partner wasn’t there when the stuff was being dropped off. The grandparents didn’t want to lie to me and just told me the truth, so I asked my partner about it and he denied it while I was in the ward and even days after. It took me telling him I have a ring camera footage of him to finally admit that he was there. He said that he tried his hardest to beg his mom to let me stay but she refused. He watched my stuff be packed, helped unloaded my things and such. He tried to tell me that he didn’t tell me because he was scared I’d hurt myself again if I found out he was apart of it all because it wasn’t the image he was trying to give. Fast forward, I’m doing a lot better now. I’m on good medication and am now working as a blue collar woman. He doesn’t work at the moment but he wants to get a place together where I’m at. He said he was going to get a job to help contribute to things. I’ve been sending him money and jumpstarting the process of getting the place. He wants to get married within the next few months but I don’t know. Was he wrong for not telling me? Am I being manipulated? Should I drop him? Should I cut it off because he’s still going to be tied to his mom? What would you do? 🥺
My 83-year-old mother is flying into Logan tomorrow at 5PM. (Oof) She has a cell phone but struggles to use it. Ordinarily, my partner and I drive to the airport. My partner stays behind the wheel of our car (either at curbside or in the cell phone lot) and I go inside and retrieve my mother at baggage claim. But my partner is out of town, so I'm going it alone tomorrow. Does anyone have any tips for parking 1 to 2 hours at Logan? I looked online and it looks like the Central Garage is my best bet, but I've only done that once in 12 years of living here and it was very odd/bizarre experience. Cars were double and triple parked all over the place, and a security guard asked for my keys while I was exiting my car "in case she needed to move it." I had my 80-pound dog in the backseat, so the security person understood why this was unwise. Everything worked out, but the memory looms large in my mind. But maybe it was just a freak incident? I've considered taking the MBTA to Logan and then cabbing back to Davis with my Mom. Is that excessive? Am I overthinking all of this? Probably. Oh and my back went out recently, so hauling her luggage back to Somerville on the MBTA is not an option for me right now.
So this a continuation of my saga with Straight Talk. I received my unlocked iPhone 15 today directly from Apple. I checked the IMEI compatibility to see if it can be activated on ST, the website said yes, but after my ordeal with customer service that included them hanging up on me twice and getting the run around and seeing all the other folks that have had similar issues, I’m having second thoughts about continuing with ST. No surprise , they still have not processed my refund, so I may have to get my bank involved to try to recoup that. I also tried to do the QuickTransfer to transfer my SIM from my iPhone 11 to the iPhone 15 eSIM, it wouldn’t work, even though the ST website says it supports it. At this point, I’m having second thoughts about continuing with ST. I don’t really care about keeping my number especially knowing that ST can take forever to transfer numbers from one phone to another and with my job , I really can’t afford to not have a phone.
Since Verizon has bought ST, and it’s the only other provider in my area, does Verizon offer decent service for prepaid customers for a reasonable price? I just can’t justify paying over $100/month for a single line, so I would rather stay on prepaid service to save money.
I know the AT&T service is spotty in my area and T-mobile has no coverage here. Just looking for advice from this forum who have more experience.
I've gone down to a dumb phone, and it occurs to me that I still pull it out and use it far too much. I wouldn't mind carrying a backpack as most of the time I can't be on my laptop (though could be if the need really arose). I have a Google Voice number and a Dell Yoga 9 laptop. What would I need to do in order to ditch the dumb phone entirely and use the laptop in its place?
I would have chosen "Venting" for my flair but it did not appear as an option. This is NOT a "seeking" post so cubs, DO NOT DM me if we don't already know each other. I will just delete it. Here is my "disappointment" story:
I am a Cougar (51F) and I posted my info on one of the "seeking" posts in the appropriate subreddit a couple of weeks ago. I specifically said that I was looking to meet a cub within 2 hours driving distance of me for a FWB type relationship. I am poly with a couple of partners but no one with this specific dynamic. Of course I got quite a few messages and I hit it off really well with one guy - but he lives 5 hours drive from me. To me, this was actually NBD because I don't mind road trips. He drives a lot for work so if HE came to see ME, he wanted to fly. Ok - fine.
I should have looked up the dates before I started typing so forgive the vagueness. But I texted quite a bit with this guy over the course of about 2 weeks and we talked on the phone once for 4 hours. It felt like we had a unique connection and there was definitely mutual attraction there. He told me he was "talking with" one other Cougar he met on Reddit and they had met for lunch once but it wasn't serious. So...I was getting excited to meet him and see if we vibes as well in person as we did via text and phone. We started planning for me to visit him on Memorial Day Weekend.
Then last week (I believe) he texted me to ask if I had bought tickets or made reservations yet. He said he had had lunch with the other woman - who lives within 2 hours of him - and she asked if they could be exclusive and he said "yes." Of course this is his choice and I respected it, but I DID ask some questions because I felt like it came out if nowhere. I said something like, "You are willing to be exclusive with someone you have met only twice and not even made out with?" To which he replied, "I never said we hadn't made out." OH. Okay. That's a bit different. 😞
I told him I was disappointed and that I felt like he had downplayed his interest in the other woman when getting to know me. But I had NOT made any reservations so I wasn't out any money. Then - he blocked my cell number, and blocked me on Instagram AND Reddit! Holy crap! That just felt mean and unnecessary!!
So I shook it off (took a couple of days) and went on with my life. Started talking with another cub from Reddit - again - he is a 2 hour PLANE ride away but not a quick car trip. Hmmm. I have tried to take it slower with this guy. We have also been communicating for about 2 weeks now, and the first week he seemed very enthusiastic, but then over the past weekend he was busy and I didn't hear much from him. I asked on Sunday night what he had been up to and he said mostly going out and drinking beer with friends. Cool, sounds like fun.
So today we are texting and I asked him if he wanted to talk about planning for me to visit him. He said he was stressed from work, not in the mood to talk about it, can we talk later. His waning interest feels familiar so I asked point blank if he has started to date someone local. He said he has met a couple of people but isn't dating them. I asked if he was interested in one in particular and he said yes, but he hasn't made a move. So - my Spidey sense is tingling big time. Part of the problem is that I am poly so I don't think starting to date someone is a reason not to meet someone else. But he has told me that eventually he wants to find a wife and get married and be monogamous. The SOONEST I could go for a visit would be June 7 which is over 2 weeks away. And if he is anything like that other guy, he will probably have a girlfriend by then. 😠
So... I get it. Dating can suck. I'm an adult and I can handle disappointment. But I'm not sure how to guard against this SAME thing happening again!! Some ideas: don't even agree to TALK to guys who live more than 2 hours drive from me, stop talking to younger men because 2 weeks seems like forever to them and I usually need a minimum of 2 weeks to plan a visit.
Cubs - if you are reading this, can you PLEASE avoid being like these 2 guys? I made it CLEAR what I was looking for, where I live, etc. These guys acted like they were interested in spite of the distance but basically ditched me for people who are more immediately accessible. If you only want to date local people, that's totally fine and your choice, but for Pete's sake, don't start talking to someone who lives far away and requires planning to see if you can't wait 2 weeks to meet them!!
Ok - end of ranting/venting. Please be kind in the comments. I would appreciate hearing different perspectives. Ideas to avoid this in the future?
I've been trying to download mk9 from psvita for a long time to play on my cell phone (Galaxy s23) and now that I managed to get everything to work, the emulator (vita 3k) simply closes by itself, so I assume it is crashing and I don't know what to do about it, It's very frustrating tbh
I recorded my cell phone screen to show what happens, but for some reason the recording stops, but basically the game works very well, but then it starts to freeze a little bit, it increases, and the emulator stops working.
I bought an iXpand drive (lightning to USB-c flash drive) to back up my device model: iPhone SE 2nd generation photos and videos. It works well enough and creates folders for months and years.
I know through the app, when I create an updated backup, it will only backup new photos and videos. But when I backup the drive to my PC, there's no special software for the device, I'm just dragging and dropping the whole backup folder.
How can I create future backups that only import new photos and videos rather than having to delete the entire old back up and import a whole new back up?
Also, is there any software for PC that allows me to browse Live Photos on PC? Like, just click on them and see a little clip rather than just see a JPEG and a short .mov file next to it in the file browser? (I understand the two files will always be separate there in the actual folders.)
Finally, I know I can use the Apple Devices app for Windows to back up my iPhone, but it seems to hide where the actual back up of the photos and videos are, making it difficult to browse them.
Hi all. Last night our Internet stopped working out of nowhere. I logged into my account and found it to say my service was inactive. I never initiated a cancellation nor was told one was happening. I am moving out of the country in a week and live in an area without cell phone service. Having Internet now is absolutely crucial in these last couple of days. I signed up for a month to month plan 3 weeks ago and payed then so I am not in default or behind payments. I have spent HOURS chatting with different people who have been of zero help. Some of them sent a new service contract to "restore service". Those new services were year long contracts with early termination fees. Again I am moving out of the country. I just want to have access to the services I already paid for.
My wife and I are moving to a more rural location, where there is a small but not zero chance of occasional power outages
We will have gas for heating and cooking, as well as a woodburner. Torches, candles etc for emergency light. Decent cooler available, no need to power fridge/microwave.
We are both remote workers so really all we need is something to keep 2 low spec work laptops and an internet router operational for let's say 2 working days (so 16 hours). We have separate small power banks for phones.
The laptops both run from 65W chargers and have reasonable batteries in their own right, i.e. could dim the screen and throttle the performance and run the laptops for say 4+ hours off the laptop battery. Plan would be to use the power pack to charge the laptops and then run the laptops off the laptop battery.
My question is - is something like the River 2 Pro enough? Capacity 768 watt hours... how does that actually translate into hours of laptop charging and router operation? Do we need more capacity?
Also considering small propane generators etc. as an alternative.
Also also, sorry if this is a gumby question.
[Chapter 1] ;
[Previous Chapter] ;
[Discord + Wiki] ;
[Patreon]
Chapter 168 – The moment to live and the moment to die
„Jumping!“ an Ensign announced loudly as the Sun's view-windows very briefly flickered into a dark black only to go back to a full view of the ongoing battle basically instantly, having barely shifted the ship's position at incomprehensible speed. „Shot clear of allied ships.“
Vice-Admiral Kazadi tapped his finger on one of the armrests of the Commander's seat that still felt anything but comfortable for him to sit in as the tight grid of flashing lights reflected in his eyes within the twilight of the bridge.
“Fire,” he then ordered. Not even a blink later, a burst of colorful light broke into his view from the side of his very own ship, lighting up the entirety of the bridge even through the automatically tinting windows that absorbed a lot of the harmful light so the crew wouldn't flashbang themselves with each shot.
The relativity canon fire tore through the enemy ship at an almost literal instant with any travel time barely being conceivable to a mortal mind. In a large unload of energy that left almost the entire stern-side of the zodiatos ship as a molten mass of dispersing slag, the main propulsion was taken out. Simultaneously, the two accompanying cruisers had also taken their shots; with the 'Civil' taking out the engine of one more enemy vessel while the 'of the roses' had instead used its shot to disperse one of the enemy projectiles in order to buy their own hunter ships more freedom of movement. Those huge ones didn't go down easy from one of the hunters' smaller shots, so using one of the large canons to dispatch it took some of the heat off them.
Meanwhile, smaller targets on the enemy vessels, such as their own canons, were gradually taken out by said hunters, whose own fire – while able to be quite destructive if intended no doubt – could be used in a far more precise manner. With more and more of their canons failing, the protective volleys the coreworld terrorists could fire to hide themselves away also became less and less effective.
“Send the fallback-beacon,” Kazadi then ordered, since close quarter attacks became less and less necessary.
It seemed that the zodiatos had a hard time adjusting to the combat style of the human unkindnesses, however that didn't mean they should take any unnecessary risks. Even if a pilot could've been able to avoid all enemy attacks in a perfect world, he knew that his pilots were only human.
Casualties of their own had been comparatively minimal so far, however as if to prove him right about his thoughts, he could see on his surveillance screen how, just in that moment, one of their ships was taken out by an enemy craft.
He grimaced to himself and let out a mild sigh. One more family who would never see one of their own again...
It took a moment before all the ships were reached by the beacon. Due to the nature of their own combat strategies, as well as the particular nature of hyperspace, it was entirely impossible to effectively contact any of their ships directly while they were out in the battle. Therefore, the order to fall back had to be broadcast as a general signal, that each of the pilots could individually pick up as soon as they would keep still for long enough so that it could reach them.
By now, the battle was already won. None of the zodiatos' weapons were able to match the relativity canons in effective range and without the larger ships to back them up, their small hunters wouldn't be able to launch an offensive – shields or not. They could just stay back and fire until surrender now. As the signal was picked up, one of their ships after another disappeared in one last flash of hyperspace as they joined back up with the larger vessels in an enclosing formation.
“Prepare for the retrieval of some of those projectiles,” the Vice-Admiral then ordered as he hoped they would be able to track some of those spent shots their enemies had fired. They would have to figure out what kind of tech that was.
In such a small-scale conflict, it was more than manageable to face it. However, it could offer some difficulties in larger fleets – especially since they didn't know how far this kind of tech could possible be expanded and refined. It was quite possible this was just some form of prototype.
While that order was followed, one of his Lieutenants suddenly spoke up.
“Sir, we have an incoming transmission from the planet. Civilian. Not encrypted, but they seemingly had an access code,” they related quickly.
“Is the earlier interference cleared up?” he immediately asked back, to which the answer was positive. “Put it through then,” he immediately ordered as soon as he heard that.
He rubbed one of his tight braids between his fingers as he waited for contact to be established. Once the line was clear, things remained quiet for a moment.
“What are we best at?” he then asked the silent line, his chest tightening ever so slightly, even if he didn't have to wait long for a reply.
“Topping from the bottom,” a very familiar voice replied from the other end, sounding incredibly strained but most certainly alive.
The code phrase was an old in-joke about something that had been said back during humanity's first contact with the tonamstrosites due to a slightly choppy translation. However, it more than sufficed here to tell Kazadi that the person on the other side of the line was not only genuine, but also not in any immediate distress – at least none that was brought onto her by someone else.
“Good to hear your voice Ma'am,” he greeted the Admiral after taking a brief moment to allow his heart to settle.
“The pleasure is all mine, Celestin,” Admiral Krieger replied in between heavy breaths that sounded like a combination between being ready to collapse and absolutely willing to tear anyone's throat out at a moment's notice. “Excuse me for the unorthodox contact, my own means of communication have all been destroyed. Update me.”
A brief smile played on the Vice-Admiral's lips.
“No problem, Ma'am. Things are under control up here, but multiple allied coluyvoree ships were destroyed and we suffered some casualties of our own which I will take full responsibility for,” he quickly complied. “By now, the enemy crafts have been largely disabled and our fighters are falling back. What's the situation on your end?”
There was a bit of a grunt from the other side of the line that seemed unrelated to the ongoing conversation.
“I'm sure you did everything by the books,” Krieger then replied a moment later. “Down here the situation is precarious but momentarily under control. We have an unconfirmed number of casualties after an attack with an unknown weapon. All squads are either KIA or unresponsive. We took down six enemy combatants but can't confirm if there's more. I'm going to need clean up, rescue teams, as well as pickup for me and two large offworlders asap.”
Celestin nodded.
“We're in a stable position, so we'll jump teams down right away. Hold out just a minute more,” he assured her while already signing in the necessary order to the troops they had on standby. “How bad are your injuries?”
There was another groan of pain from Krieger's side.
“Crushed cranberries,” she replied after a long moment that sounded like she needed to catch her breath.
“Copy that,” Kazadi replied with a grimace. “Sending muti-team with the evac.”
“Copy that,” Krieger confirmed. “Krieger out.”
With that, the call was hung up. On his screen, Celestin could see how the preparations for dispatch of the requested teams was already well underway. Jumping towards a planet at FTL was generally discouraged by the Galactic Community. However, this was an emergency. They couldn't wait for normal re-entry.
After watching the reported progress for just a moment, his eyes returned to the ongoing battle. He watched the enemy ships as they hovered dead in space, unable to maneuver.
They seemed to have recalled their own fighters back in order to form some sort of protective wall around the 'mother ships' with their own small shields. Obviously it wouldn't be very effective, so it seemed like needless cruelty to make their own soldiers get in the way of the incoming fire. Something within Kazadi told the Vice-Admiral they weren't going to stand down.
“Sir, we're getting some strange hyperspace-readings,” his Lieutenant suddenly announced, making him look up.
“Weapon-grade?” he immediately asked, knowing they had less than a moment to react if it was. However, he also figured there would've been more urgency to their voice had it been so.
“No, Sir. Travel-grade,” the Lieutenant quickly replied. “However the readings are unusual. It seems like they are creating a stretch solely around themselves.”
Kazadi's lips shifted a bit as he took that in and he briefly ran a hand over his mouth in thought. “Prepare to collapse,” he ordered. “Maybe they will attempt some sort of running start. We can't let them get away.”
Right then, the light of what was happening had not yet caught up to the spacial distortion that their sensors were detecting, meaning the ships still looked perfectly normal – if damaged – when he looked at them. However, they were planning something. And that made them appear all the more ominous.
His mind quickly went through their own protocols. The U.H.S.D.F. employed hyperspace in nearly all its possible facets in their tactics. If it was even close to sensible, they would have something that was akin to the maneuver their foes were attempting to execute right now.
A bubble of hyperspace solely around their ships...a dodge? Hardly, there was nothing to dodge like that. An attempt to hide away? No, they knew human ships could collapse hyperspace from the outside easily.
Before him, the windows of the ship once again automatically dimmed, protecting the crew's eyes as the colorful light of the created hyperspace-bubble finally reached them.
“Hyperspace collapsed!” the Lieutenant then suddenly announced, causing Kazadi to blink in surprise as his eyes shot up to his screen. He hadn't given any order to collapse it yet. But indeed, it was gone. For a moment, he thought that the stress had caused his officer to use the wrong term in haste, however no, they had been completely right. It had not been dispersed in a controlled manner. It had collapsed.
In a mild 'thud', the Vice-Admiral's fist descended on the armrest, hand firmly clenched into a fist.
“Those cowardly ba-” he began to growl but then bit his tongue and released a low, almost grunting exhale while his fist quivered from momentarily clenching tighter. “Prepare to search for survivors,” he instead said in a much more controlled manner a moment later. “Preserve lives.”
“Yessir,” multiple of his officers echoed back as he looked out of the window, where he could still see the ghostly afterimage of the hyperspace bubble linger for a bit longer. It was always a strange feeling, seeing someone in the distance who was already dead...
–
With her view darkened and her goggles momentarily pulled off her eyes, Shida stared at the glowing bubble of impossible colors. Her sensors had already told her what was about to happen at any moment now, however her eyes still heavily constricted as they finally witnessed what unfolded themselves.
In what could be described as nothing else than a 'snap' , the light of the hyperspace-stretch instantly condensed down into its original size as the universe all at once remembered that the laws of physics were a thing that existed and brutally forced space to conform to them once again – no matter what may have been in between it and its original form.
Anything within the strange, round stretch was mercilessly ripped along with the convulsion, forcing all the injected warships and fighters into the single, small point that the stretch had been generated from. Though not even a faction of a second later, it all exploded outwards again as the megatons of mass realized that they could not all exist in the same place at once, since the energy of the event was not quite potent enough to press it all into a neutron star or singularity.
No longer recognizable blotches of undefined, white-hot matter were instantly scattered in all directions like some sort of micro-supernova that accentuated the sometimes still burning nano-stars that the earlier battle had created from the opposing fighters.
It was almost pretty...but still, Shida couldn't help but let her ears hang as she wondered how many of the enemy combatants had known about the decision to end things this way. Had any of them even been asked?
Even if it was the far more disturbing answer in a way, Shida almost hoped that this had actually been one mutual suicide-pact instead of the decision of one single commander to choose death over dishonor. Especially while sitting in a ship that was technically under the command of someone else herself, that was certainly the less immediately petrifying option – even if it would probably spell far worse things in the long run.
As she said there, the 'shockwave' of the collapsing hyperspace suddenly hit her, spreading out through space even without any medium to carry it and rocking her ship gently while also penetrating all throughout her body. Of course the earlier relativity fire had already caused similar ripples and she was therefore quite used to the feeling, however these ones sure felt a bit more severe than those of the U.H.S.D.F.'s own canons. It was like she felt her own body distort while also remaining perfectly in palace – almost like she was a stiff container full of water that someone had given a heavy smack from the side, riling up the liquid without it actually having any place to plash to.
According to everything they knew, this phenomenon felt incredibly odd but was entirely harmless to living beings – which was instinctively very hard to believe when one felt it on their own body.
However, her dwelling thoughts were, perhaps luckily, interrupted as she – or more precisely one of her scanners - picked up on a peculiar signature that one of the scattered debris pieces was sending out.
Well, it was 'peculiar' to her that there was a signal at all at first, however then she quickly realized what it actually was. This particular signal was hammered into any pilot's head six ways to Sunday, and so she reacted relatively quickly when she glanced at the grid and realized that she was the closest ship to it. Firing up her engines, she turned her ship on the spot in a slight drift before activating her generator and making a jump right behind the flying object.
Once there, she allowed her computer to take aim for a second before firing out a harpoon that quickly struck the flying debris and latched her ship onto it through a long cable, allowing her to pull the thing along with her after slowly using her backwards thrusters to disperse its speed little by little. Pressing the indicator of her communication, she then spoke up.
“Scratches to Sun,” she announced. “I just recovered a black box. Permission to return for inspection?”
The black boxes of modern ships truly were among the most ridiculous pieces of tech out there, in Shida's humble opinion. Built to withstand almost everything that would likely take a ship out through a combination of brilliant engineering and extremely flexible material that only worked in its indented manner on very small scales. Well, very small compared to the ships they were built into. The things were about half the size of Shida in the end. For many years, armies of scientists had attempted their very best to make this same sort of defense useful in ways that could maybe be used to protect actual people from catastrophic events – but to no avail so far. For now, the only thing those little marvels could allow to survive even something as ludicrous as hyperspace collapsing was information.
“Permission granted, Lieutenant-Commander,” the answer came almost immediately. “Return to hangar three.”
“Copy,” Shida replied. “Scratches out.”
With that, she moved her ship around and prepared for her jump back to the Sun. Hopefully this thing would give them some answers on what exactly this whole thing was meant to accomplish...
–
Far away in another part of the galaxy, a pair of mildly glowing red eyes was laser-focused on a large screen that was just one of many that had merged all over Nedstaniot-Station to broadcast the breaking news to anyone willing to lift their eyes at a slight angle to look at them.
An attack on a coreworld. And not just any coreworld. Gewelitten itself. Something like this hadn't happened in...well, Curi didn't even know how long.
Details seemed to still be incredibly fuzzy as the battle so close to the coluyvoree homeworld had either just happened or was still happening at the moment of the broadcast, however what few details were known were already repeated on end in an endless scroll of text that was meant to catch as many people up to speed as was at all possible through the medium of television. Obviously the same emerging details could already be looked up on the net as well to find them in a more digestible format than the endlessly moving text next to the not exactly top quality footage of the occurring conflict.
However, despite the speed with which it went by, Curi had no problem following the scroll as they stared at the screen intensely.
“Attack was unannounced. Multiple Gewelitten fleet ships destroyed. Official sources confirm: Humanity NOT the aggressor. Attacking ships presumed to be of zodiatos origin. Unknown weapon technology deployed during the attack. U.H.S.D.F. ships engaged in combat after aggression. Myiat delegation ship confirmed unharmed. Attack on government facility on planet simultaneous to spacial attack. Councilman-Candidate Aldwin confirmed unharmed. Status of U.H.S.D.F. General Krieger unknown. Status of Gewelitten Governor H. Cierrophai unknown. Status of Acting-Councilman Afuéhner unknown. Allied coreworld defense fleets activated and inbound. General alert level raised to 8. Hyperspace-travel shut down around the system.”
“Mother, oh no...” Mueen said with absolute shock in his eyes, both of his hands clasped over this mouth as his wide pupils quivered in fear from what they witnessed.
Curi could understand his worry. Though Moar had supposedly been with James, so she would probably be fine. The cyborg was certainly more than just a little relieved that James was already confirmed to be safe. Though the idea that Admiral Krieger's situation was unknown was more than just a little disconcerting.
Though despite the supposed lack of their commanding officer, it seemed like the humans had decisively won out in the battle outside of the coreworld's atmosphere; unknown technology or not.
Given the sub-par footage that some drone was likely recording from quite far away from the actual conflict, it was very hard to tell just what sort of weapon the unknown but presumed to be zodiatos attackers had unleashed there. It looked like some sort of emanating energy that destroyed what it came into contact with but also interacted with it as if it had a physical presence.
Curi had never seen anything remotely like it before – not even in their wildest theories – and their mind immediately wanted to go wild with speculations and ideas about how such a thing might work now that they knew for a fact that it was possible from seeing it with their own eyes.
However, the cyborg pulled themselves together and successfully forced the briefly almost overwhelming desire to focus on nothing else down as they shifted their gaze slightly away from the screen to look over at their other currently nearby company.
Then again, as much as they knew they couldn't let their guard down around him, Reprig's eyes were just as immovably attached to the large screen as Mueen's were as he witnessed the unfolding battle with quivering horror.
His trunk was wiggling wildly in his face and one of his hands nervously scratched over the plate of the table they were all sitting and standing at and on, right next to a piece of paper with a hastily drawn sketch of a spring-like mechanical leg that was inspired by what humans called 'running blades'. The Warrant Officer's weapon also laid on the table, pushed a but further away from his hand so he wouldn't be able to easily reach it.
Though despite his focus, Curi couldn't quite help but speak up after a moment of watching him. “A coreworld attacking another coreworld,” they said to the man, who they knew either had to know far more than they did about this – or would be far more invested in it unfolding. “This is unprecedented.”
Reprig seemed to notice that they were talking to him, however he still remained silent and stared a good few moments longer before finally pulling his gaze away from the screen.
As his eyes met theirs, he looked a bit sick. It almost reminded the cyborg of one of the first interactions they had with the man, back when they nudged him slightly to hand his spy-device back to him after he tried to hide it in James' cabin. Though this time, the cyborg was quite sure that they were not the reason why the man seemed like most of his blood was currently rushing into his stomach.
Could he actually be shocked about what was happening? Was this not part of the plan?
“Unprecedented doesn't even come close to describing it...” he mumbled and couldn't hold the cyborg's gaze for long, looking down to the table's plate instead. “And these aren't just any coreworlds. Osontjar and Gewelitten have been allied for an unimaginably long time. The thought that they would even think of attacking each other...what sort of madness could've caused something like this?”
Curi was the first to admit to themselves that they were far from the best at reading people. If someone with even a modicum of skill in acting wanted to make them believe something untrue about the person they were talking to, they would never deny that there was a good chance of that person succeeding.
Still, Reprig's reaction felt...genuine to them. As if he had actually never expected something like this to happen. Not in a million years.
Maybe it was just skillful acting. And Curi knew that they should have been suspicious like that. However, despite everything he had done, they couldn't quite bring themselves to suspect that he was lying at that moment.
“I know it is unlikely you will give me an honest answer, but-” Curi began to say, however Reprig was more than able to anticipate what they were going to ask and replied long before they were finished.
“No. No. Never,” the sipusserleng said, shaking his head heavily and standing his trunk up while making a denying gesture with his hand that was so brash that he actually knocked his crutch off the small outcrop in the table it had been laid down on. “This must be some absolutely deranged people, no two ways about it. To attack a coreword...”
Curi noticed Reprig's gaze briefly twitching down, his eyes jumping onto the personal assistant strapped to his lower arm as if he suddenly got the urge to use it for something.
Curi suspected he likely wanted to call someone; question them to make extra sure that they had, in fact, nothing to do with this. Though the sipusserleng suppressed the urge and pulled his eyes away, bringing them back up to the screen.
Just at that moment, the implosion of collapsing hyperspace suddenly lit up the footage moments before the glowing remnants of what once had been the zodiatos ships were scattered across the star-system.
Mueen mumbled something in his home's language as his eyes remained affixed to the screen. Curi couldn't even begin to guess what he was saying. However, his voice sounded pleading.
“Suicide instead of surrender?” Reprig meanwhile mouthed breathlessly as his nervous tick of excessively licking his trunk began to show.
Although he had often been otherwise employed in recent times, Curi could see it in the man's eyes that he was still, in a way, military at heart. He knew the general values and doctrines that were conveyed to the soldiers of the Communal Military, both inside and out. And the idea of someone choosing death like this...it seemed to rock him to his very core.
Slowly, he turned his gaze over to Curi. His eyes were almost pleading with the cyborg, even if they seemed to already know that his next question would be asked in vain.
“Could it maybe have been the humans and their-” he began, but this time, it was Curi's term to cut him off after anticipating what was coming.
“While humans very much employ the collapsing of hyperspace as a tactic in war, the process is not invisible – or even subtle. Had the human ships caused that collapse, it would've been noticeable,” they explained succinctly. “It could've still been a mere unexpected failure of the hyperspace generation, of course. However, with the rarity of such events, the timing seems...unlikely.”
“They weren't even trying to generate a real stretch...” Reprig concurred dejectedly and left his head hanging, his trunk also sinking down limply. “I can't even imagine- Well...I hope they will at least find peace now, away from the madness.”
Curi paused for a long moment, staring at the Warrant Officer some more. Admittedly, the cyborg was a bit confounded at something. They knew for a fact the man had put his own life on the line for his orders, with a very real chance that they would lead to his death, more than just once. And yet the idea of being ordered to die seemed to disturb him. They couldn't quite figure out the difference that led to the results in reaction being so incredibly different, however it was still very clear that there was one.
And it seemed to hit the man hard.
Self-admittedly, Curi didn't exactly pity the man. They didn't quite have the capacity to. They knew about so many horrible things he had done that simply seeing him distressed was far from enough to stir such deep empathy for him within them.
Yet still, they weren't left entirely cold by it either – and if it was only because he seemed to be affected by these events in the ways a, for a lack of a better term, 'normal person' would be. He was shocked at the sudden, seemingly senseless violence, and concerned about the people involved.
Granted, it was likely only because they were people he considered worth being concerned about, yet still, the reaction was so...'normal', in a way they didn't quite expect from someone with such a capability for unceremonious acts of cruelty and violence. Even this person who had tried to kill them, or at least had been entirely comfortable with them getting killed, was capable of such a reaction.
And Curi...wasn't sure if that made things better or worse, if they were being honest.
It felt better because there was the capability for empathy there, however...it felt worse because they felt how they had been and likely still were willingly denied said empathy.
He could have cared...he just didn't want to.
Curi shook their body heavily, causing mild sounds from the engines running their legs' movements from the sudden force as they tried to shoo away emotions that they really didn't want to be feeling at that exact moment.
The thing that mostly kept them from following up on some of their uncomfortably aggressive thoughts at that moment was the fact that Mueen was still with them, the worry for his mother written across his features like a deep engraving in a metal plaque. He did not need anything like that around him right now, that much was clear.
Slowly, they moved over to him and reached up one of their long legs to run it along his arm while he still covered parts of his large face with both hands.
“She will be alright,” Curi then assured the dark-furred rafulite, switching from their usual voice box to their more “melodic” one to put on a gentle, calming tone. “She is stronger than she seems.”
Inhaling deeply as his nostrils flared, Mueen closed his dark eyes and swallowed heavily, taking his gaze off the large screen for the first time in many minutes while slowly hanging his head down.
“Yeah,” he said, seeming to force hopefulness into his tone. “Yes, she'll be fine. She made it his far. This won't get to her.”
Curi nodded with their entire body and continued to run the tip of their leg along his arm.
“She will be,” they repeated, both to the man and themselves as their own eyes moved upwards, their gaze falling back on the battlefield riddled with burning remnants of matter. “I'm sure of it.”
–
Never in his life had James felt so drunk and so sober at the same time. His mind was entirely clear, running a light-year a minute as it desperately tried to simultaneously process all the admittedly little information that he had in his current situation AND to not absolutely freak out while doing so somehow – a task he was ludicrously failing at. And it did NOT help that his body could barely keep itself on his own two feet.
He had avoided completely fainting by a hair earlier after reminding himself that, instead of being terrified for Shida's life, it would be much more fair towards her to simply focus on trusting in her skills to carry her through. However, that was barely a little patch on an enormous crack in his facade as he couldn't help but go over and over and over the fact of how much worse the situation that she needed to jump into here had been for her simply because it was his damn birthday and they wanted to indulge over it. He should've stopped that, but noooo, he just had to go and let himself be swayed so damn easily, as if he was still that little boy following Koko around whenever she visited the compound to try and get some attention.
Of course, a quiet voice in the back of his head tried to politely remind him that Shida had, in fact, not only taken part in the festivities as well but also encouraged him to do so, however it was easily overpowered by the screaming rest of his mind.
He briefly glanced over at the only somewhat conscious Commander. When she said that they should match each other's drinks, that should've been the moment he stopped. She was like half his weight, what the hell was he thinking?
His mechanical hand shot up, heavily gripping a fist full of hair as he tried to force himself to focus. What's done is done. There's no changing it. He should focus on anything else right now.
Though as he painfully pulled on his hair like that, his eyes suddenly went wide as he noticed something. Or, more precisely, didn't notice something.
When had the alarm stopped? Just now? Or had it been out and he just hadn't noticed?
Letting go of his hair, he lifted his face and looked around. If the alarm was over, then that meant...
The uncoordinated movement of soldiers reaching for their phones and radios with different speeds went through the room, and after brief confirmation, the uniformed forces began to move, having seemingly gotten new orders other than guarding the safe-rooms. Apparently, the threat was over.
James quickly fumbled for his own phone, his barely coordinated hands struggling extremely with the simple task of trying to call one of his contacts – much to the frustration of his already cleared mind. His finger trembled as he swiped it across the screen, trying to get it to the right damn place to make a simple god-damn call.
However, he froze in the motion at a quiet sound that was immediately followed by a sudden stir behind him as multiple people seemed to move quickly. And after just a second, James was among them as well.
Nearly tripping over his feet, he damn near threw himself onto the sickbed that didn't stand too far away from him, his phone momentarily forgotten and eyes wide open as they stared over at an endlessly familiar dark face, that however had life in it for the first time in what felt like an eternity at that moment.
Slowly and twitchy, Nia's eyes fluttered open as she let out quiet groans while mildly stirring in place while her doctors and nurses hurried around her and quickly began to take her vitals.
After flinching heavily as a flashlight was quite suddenly shone into her eyes to test her photopupillary reflex, she began to move even more. Meanwhile, James and Tuya were basically pressed shoulder to shoulder close to the foot of her bed, the only thing keeping them from dashing right up to her face being just enough awareness to not get in the doctor's way.
Still, although her movements were very slow, stiff, and groggy, Nia eventually lifted up her head, looking around with still somewhat hazy and half-closed eyes. But that didn't stop her from smiling when her gaze fell onto the two who so nervously stood at her bedside there.
“Hey,” she said in a quiet, croaky, but still very much cheerful voice as her unkempt hair fell down both sides of her face.
Though James didn't see much more than that, because just about at that moment, his vision was entirely taking away by welling-up waters sweeping him along.