Im glad y'all liked the last chapter. I'm going to continue this story and see where it goes. As usual, if you like this then make sure to like and comment: I really value your feedback. I'm also thinking of going back and editing some things, as I thought of some cool ideas that might make the story more interesting, mainly some Meta ideas to increase the depth of this litRPG. So make sure to go back and read the last chapter in a bit: some things may be different.
First
I gripped the rough leather hilt of my new sword tightly as I walked down the newly lit hall within this strange labyrinth. The air was dank and musty, and cobwebs hung from every corner. The dented blade glowed in the firelight, as did the breastplate, and I was just starting to warm up.
I didn't like this place: it made me feel uneasy. The loneliness was also crushing, but for some reason I was used to it. The weight of all my gear was also heavy, with all the weapons and rations causing my shoulders to ache, but I pressed forward. Something inside me insisted that this was familiar, and if I could do it before then I could do it now.
At first, the hall seemed unending, but after what felt like hours I finally reached a large, open room with a humble wooden throne in the center. The edges of the vaulted ceilings held great tapestries that had faded over time, the once magnificent artistry lost forever. Candelabras, urns, and braziers all forged from bronze and inlaid with different gems and precious metals were strewn about, and there was a gigantic bronze brazier at the center of the room, just in front of the throne.
On the throne sat a withered corpse wearing a crown of twisted branches, as well as rusted armor that had fused with flesh long ago. Simple wooden coffins lined the walls, six in total, each likely containing another corpse.
Then I noticed the brazier in the middle: it had long gone cold, the coals dead and waiting to be given life again by flame. But what worried me more was the burnt remains of the skeleton in the center: it was a reptilian thing, tall and robust judging by the size of the femurs, and it gripped a sword much like mine…
Okay, I didn't like this place at all, not one bit. Whoever was here before me obviously met some horrible fate, maybe even burnt alive within the brazier, which was a fate I had no desire to experience.
Next to the throne was a chest, and anyone with common sense knew that opening the chest would probably be a bad idea. So I looked for something far more valuable: an exit. At the far end of the room we're a pair of double doors made from polished slate, and soni approached them. I ran my scaly hands across it and admiring the beautiful masonwork: engraved with elegant images of all sorts of events, such as men slaying giants, terrifying dragons burning down villages, great treasures hidden away, and a large mead hall with a boat as it's roof nestled on a hill, it was something out of legend. But that didn't matter, I just needed them to open so I could leave. They didn't budge from me pushing them, nor did they possess any handles or bars, so something else has to activate them.
I decided to see if I could get some answers out of the magic note turned journal. I pulled it out and began writing with the quill, the tip seemingly possessing an endless supply of ink. How do I open the doors?
Once again, my good hand began moving if it had a mind of its own, scribbling out a minimalist sentence that would probably be of no use to me. Open the chest.
I grumbled and wrote down another response. Will bad things happen if I open the chest?
More furious scribbling against my will. Bad things will happen either way.
Well, that was reassuring.
What will happen when I open the chest?
Bad things. I wanted to punt the book across the room. I just stuffed it back into my bag and growled again, the depth of my reptilian voice startling me. I was sure I wasn't supposed to sound like that, but I did. Maybe I was just overthinking this, and it was just a side effect of some kind of amnesia, but I really felt like I was in the wrong body.
I turned back to the throne and the chest next to it. It was a simple wooden thing with no lock, so it wouldn't be challenging to open at all. I walked towards it, sword in hand, anxiety shooting through me like electricity, and as I bent down to open it up I couldn't help but look behind me as I did so.
Then, with one simple motion, I opened it. There was more than I expected, but still not much, just a small pile of rough gold coins and a few assorted gems. I dipped my hand into the gold and pulled out a handful, the coins each easily the width of a golf ball and decently hefty too. Then I looked for a place to put them: if I was going to be put in danger for opening this damn chest, then I was going to get something out of it.
As I stuffed the gold into my pack, I heard creaking next to me, and I instinctively dropped my pack onto the ground and kicked it to the side before rolling away. The withered corpse lifted itself up from the wooden throne, a faint hissing escaping its lips as if its vocal chords no longer worked. Then it turned to me, eyes glowing red with hatred and jaw clenched. It balled its fists and deeper its hateful gaze before pointing at me and unleashing an ear-splitting hiss like that of copper pipes coming apart. I lifted up my longsword and held it in a defensive stance, backing away slowly as my ears rang. Then I felt a bony hand on my shoulder.
I spun around and swung the blade, vivisecting another corpse halfway. All the other coffins were bursting open, and the angered dead were hobbling out, some holding rusted and chipped weapons, others simply meandering towards me with the same hatred in their eyes as the first. I was surrounded.
I swung my sword and cut one’s head off, the otherwise dry and leathery flesh of its neck giving way to my old longsword. Then I sliced through the knee of another, sending it sprawling to the ground before I stomped its head into pieces. That left four, including the one on the throne. That one stood back, glaring at me and waving its hands as if conducting an orchestra, its armored robes flowing despite the lack of ventilation. It must be the one controlling the undead.
I matched forward, sword lifted again and swung at the leader of the undead. It blocked the strike with its armored bracer and swiped at me, bony hands scraping against my breastplate but also imbuing me with an overwhelming weakness to the touch, as if I hadn't slept for days. With a grunt, I kicked him back and onto the floor, but the rest of the dead seemed to fall into a frenzy, charging at me as if they were rabid ghouls. I needed to end this, and I needed to end it now.
I impaled the first undead and kicked him off alongside their ringleader, then slammed the pommel of by sword into the forehead of the next with a spiteful roar that seemed to charge the air with static, crushing the undead’s skull inward and releasing the energy trapped within as if crumbled to the floor. The third swiped at my arm, causing an intense cold to run through me and a horrible pain to erupt from the deceptively small laceration, as if maggots were chewing on my flesh. I roared again and swung diagonally, vivisecting the decrepit thing all at once.
That left the composer. It stood back up and seemed even angrier than before, as if it had actually cared for those skeletons. Then I heard a voice behind its bestial whispers, a voice that almost sounded… pained. “Hadvar, Børge, Aegilief, Gunhild, Halfdan, Ivar! Do not fall, not to this dragon’s bastard!” It seemed to exclaim, but its cries seemed to fall on deaf ears as the corpses were no more, what remained of the flesh disintegrating into nothing more than ash, leaving only dirty bones behind.
“You shouldn't have attacked me.” I said behind grit fangs, my body still recovering from the effects of their icy touch. But no matter how much I tried to justify it to myself, it always felt like a weak response: I was probably plundering some poor guy's tomb, and then proceeded to kill all his friends to boot. I was in the wrong here, but I wasn't just going to be trapped in this shit hole of a tomb forever.
Then I looked at the brazier, which was now lit and burning, the otherwise bleached white bones of the reptile thing within coated in fresh soot. They would've killed me, or I would've starved. And they were already dead, anyway: for all I knew the undead here were held together by nothing more than old memories and whatever terrible magic possessed this place. I wasn't going to die yet, I at least wanted to see the sun one last time.
“Sorry about you and your friends, but I'm not going to die here today,” I said, trying to seem apologetic, “I've only got one shot, or so I've been told.” I matched forward again, unwavering, and busted him in the head with my pommel before slicing off his arm at the joint when he tried to reach out for me again, hissing with anger. Then, as I bullied him backwards to put some length between us, I finally kicked him one last time and jammed the end of my sword into his empty eye socket, sending the blade through his rotting head and out the back. He let out one last hiss before going limp, whatever magical nonsense holding him together dissipating as his body crumpled and his bones unknitted themselves.
I dropped the sword with a grunt and sank to my knees. My head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and my stomach was churning. The horrible sickness the undead gave me when it swiped at me seemed to be winding down, the pain in my arm dull and more distracting than painful, but the unbearable cold and discomfort was still coursing through me. I needed to get out of this wretched place. This was a tomb, right? Maybe that door led to some kind of exit to the outdoors, or at least a pathway to it.
I forced myself back up on my feet, retrieved my bag and filled it with the rest of the treasure from the chest, and strapped everything on my back once again. I would probably want to find some kind of civilization, maybe a place where this gold would hold some value, because then maybe I could use it to find some answers.
Behind me, the doors began to crumble with a glowing purple light, as if the magic that has sealed it had been broken with the death of the undead on the throne, and I could see some semblance of light. I rushed towards it, only to find myself in an even colder area than before. The air was frigid and filled with a thick, looking fog that seemed to sap the strength out of me. It felt like an early spring morning, when it would go just above freezing and the rain had come in droves overnight, leaving behind the mist. Spruces, pines and other evergreen trees towered around me, and the forest floor was coated in thick roots, mossy rocks, vines, and dead evergreen needles. A dirt path that had long been overtaken by the forest stretched away from the tomb I had emerged from, leading me away from this place.

Hi All,
I'm looking at migrating from my very old shitty QNAP TS 419PII. It was good for a while but I'm over it's shitty restrictions and software and I'm looking for some migration advice.
I currently have the following drives in my QNAP (some of which I will get rid of because they are getting old)
1 x 1Tb 1 x 1Tb 1 x 2Tb
For a total of 4 Tb of storage in a RAID5 configuration.
The main data that I want to retain and hopefully copy over to the new device takes up about 500Gb
Does anybody have any suggestions about how I can go about migrating my data without backing it up?
Is it possibe to set up a DiskStation DS423+ in such a way where I can transfer the data from my old NAS incrementally and avoid having to buy the same amount of storage that I currently have? e.g. Maybe I can put my largest disk in the first bay with a large size disk, transfer my precious 500Gb over to that from the old nas, delete data from the old nas and then add the existing disks from the old nas as I go?
I know the simple solution is to do something like buy 2 x 4Tb drives for the new NAS, keep both of them online, copy the data over but as usual, I'm on a budget.
I've looked at temporarily backing up the most important data to the cloud but that all looks too expensive and time consuming.
Surely somebody here has found themselves in a similar situaltion. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hi all,
I'm a proud new owner of a '24 SR5 and am looking to upgrade to some AT tires and possibly wheels as well but without needing to lift/level.
According to this video they were able to slap some 33" (285/70r17) tires on the stock SR5 without any lift and I think aesthetically this size looks great on the 4th gens. I've also seen a few others in forums online do the same.
However, I'm debating if it's worth it to spend ~$2.5k+ to get larger tires and new wheels simply for aesthetic purposes or if it would be smarteeasier on the wallet to just upgrade piece by piece.
So a few of the options I've been considering are:

1. Run this tire size on stock wheels at a 7" width and upgrade the wheels later. (Would a shop even do this for me if it's outside of recommended compatibility?)
2. Choose a size that's slightly wider but compatible with factory wheels (like 265/75r17) and again upgrade wheels at a later time
3. Just cough up the full cost up front for the tire/wheel package?
4. Bonus: is there a time of year where there are killer deals on packages that I should wait for?

How have you all done this upgrade in the past? Is it typically recommended to do everything in one go or have you went piece-by-piece?
I'm new to modding vehicles so thank you all for any advice you can offer!

Oh man! That White's Bite is real. For anyone who is interested in PNW boots from White's or Nick's or Frank's here is my experience with the initial break in process. I found a pair of White's Packers on ebay for a good price. They looked okay in the pictures but it was hard to tell what kind of shape they were in. I was pleasantly surprised when the arrived. They were basically new old stock. Never broken in. No creasing in the leather and no signs of wear on the soles. Manufacture date was 2006. Boots almost 20 years old and basically brand new. I have a beat up pair of the exact same boot (Original Packer in the 690 last in 9D) so I knew that the size was right. The other pair I have I bought on ebay for cheap. They arrived pretty beat up and fit my foot like a slipper.
I was not prepared for how different a new pair feels. The old pair is soft and supple and my feet slide right in. No pinch points and plenty of room. The leather on a new pair is insanely stiff. I tried to put them on my feet but could not get my foot in them. After switching to the thinnest socks I could find I was able to get my foot in by alternating between pulling on the tongue and the pull loop. My foot slid in and holy hell! My immediate reaction was hell no! Felt like a vice on my feet. I can completely understand now why people post online about whether or not they got the right size. I am lucky in that I know they are the right size because I already have a pair broken in that feel perfect.
After getting both feet in the boots I removed the laces and walked around the house like that. Felt like the boots wanted to kill my feet. It took about 15 minutes for my feet to settle into the boots and find their place. At that point it felt better so I laced them up. Here is a key to knowing that your size is right- If they feel better after a few minutes of wear than they did when you first put them on. This means that your feet have settled in and found their place in the boot. Now at this point they are still tight. Feels like a firm hand shake. No bad painful spots though. And, I can walk in them. They are so stiff I feel like I can't walk correctly but they don't hurt my feet when I walk. They just feel like they are squeezing them tight.
At that point I knew they were going to be okay. That squeeze I feel now is going to mean a perfect custom fit once the leather softens.
Woke up this morning and put them on. Felt like hell on my feet and my right toes felt like they couldn't straighten out. Walked around the house a bit and allowed my feet and toes to settle in. I'm in them about 2 hours now and they feel better than they did when I first put them on. That's another sign of a good fit. I have a pair of sneakers with me for when I can't stand it anymore. It ain't easy breaking in a pair of Whites but the reward is the best fitting and most comfortable shoe you have ever worn.

Hi everyone, Im a 1,73 cm around 80kg, 31 year old male with around 30% bodyfat. I started around 3 years ago with around 90 kg. All weights are roughly since I mostly go by waist size, not so much weight. You probably can already tell that it wasnt straight forward for me since 10 kg in 3 years is not alot. This was mostly due to me overdoing it with running, injuring myself in the process and then jojo-ing back a bit.
Since around 4 months I switched to zone 2 cardio mostly. Still running but with more training over time and lower intensity I now feel on the right track here. I ran in the last 4 months on at least 20 days per month, always around 5 km and always around 300 kcal according to my treadmill, most of it in zone 2. I also work in additional weight training every now and then, just so my muscles don vanish completly. I dont count calorie burns on that, but just know that this shouldnt be a major area of concern either.
My diet (pretty much unchanged since day one) is strict and open at the same time. I dont have breakfast and eat a protein porridge for lunch (100gram oats, 50 gram casein protein powder, 10 gram nuts + 50-100ml almond milk + water) which is in sum pretty much excactly 500 kcal. Im pretty strict about that. Then an apple or banana in the afternoon around 100 kcal and then my most open and last meal of the day, dinner. Always homecooked, with often a salad or at least plenty of vegetables. There wouldn't be any fast food or anything else of the usual suspects. While I dont track calories here, I would be suprised if it surpassed 1000 kcal (my estimated allowance for this meal) regularly.
There are days where I dont follow my diet, but thats mostly birthdays and such so, maybe 1-2 days a month where I once again would be suprised if I surpassed (as an absolut maximum 3000 kcal a day, 2500 probably being a more realistic upper sealing. We are talking going out for dinner or having a cake, not an all you can eat buffet.)
I dont drink much alcohol anymore, we are talking somewhere in the 1-2 times a month 3-4 glasses of wine. While still to much, it also shouldnt be a major calorie contributor.
Other then that I`m unfortunately not very active, programing as a job and gaming as a hobby doesnt mix well.
Using Online calculators I should be around 2000 kcal burn (NEAT) per day + 300 from Sport on most days. While eating around 1600 kcal per day. So a good day would give me a deficit of 700 kcal (round about).
On my worst days I should gain around 500 kcal. Even going by the 10 bad days in a month, 20 good days estimate. This would give me an overall burn of (...calculating...) 5000-14000 = -9000 kcal per month. So around 300 kcal on an average day. With this calculation being pretty pessimistic I would say.
Even if we round down again and say its only a 7000 kcal deficit per month... I should loose a kg per month, which would still be a rather slow diet (while feeling quite strict if Im honest). And this being an absolute low estimate.
My simple problem is: I havent lost that much, not by a long shot, we are talking 1-2 kg in the last 4 months.
HOW? what am I missing? It feels like I got everything under control. Im fairly "experienced" with diets and even loosing weight. I know what it feels like and generally how to do it. Im honest with myself and never complained online before, since always saw my own shortcomings eventually (poor diet, to little NEAT, overtraining etc. all being problems before, that I solved for me). But this time Im drawing a complet blank, I feel like I should be loosing weight, faster or honestly most of the time at all with what Im doing. Do you guys have any ideas or pointers, Im really out of my wits this time?

Hi everyone,
I’m planning a project at my three-story residence in Lawrenceville where I would like to replace all the windows in the home with new ones. The plan is to keep the size, location, and type of windows the same, just replacing the old ones with new ones without changing the structure of the house in any way.
I’ve never done any construction projects like this before, but my windows desperately need replacement. I’m trying to find out if this kind of work would require a ROZA (Residential Occupancy Zoning Approval) or a building permit, or if it would need an inspection. What do I need to know about this process before getting started?
I don’t think I’d go through with the project if it required extensive coordination with the City of Pittsburgh and applying through the online permit website. Any advice or information from those who have done similar projects would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks for any responses!

Hello All,
I am a High School Math Teacher and I am in search of a game that I can use within a class size of 20-30 kiddos (not all at once, maybe 2-3 pods going at once) to help relieve some stress & bring in a better social climate for my study hall periods. Obviously keeping it "educational" and "applicable," I was at first looking at Catan. I think Catan would be fun, however, the game + expansion only compensate 5-6 players and averages to be around $75. If anyone has any cheap alternatives that can be used, that would be lovely. Side note, if theres a way to have it played online, I have a smart board that I use to lecture with & I think it would be entertaining to have that physical-electronic interaction.
Aside from this game, I haven't played many other board games outside of the RPG and Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know & links are appreciated! I currently am teaching Seniors & Freshmen and will be doing so for a while. In a year or two, I will be teaching an AP Comp Sci course where hopefully building a board game online would be interesting for the kiddos & serve as a good side project. Fingers crossed it goes over well & can be done. Thanks for the help & I look forward to all the responses.

Hi everyone,
I’m planning a project at my three-story residence in Lawrenceville where I would like to replace all the windows in the home with new ones. The plan is to keep the size, location, and type of windows the same, just replacing the old ones with new ones without changing the structure of the house in any way.
I’ve never done any construction projects like this before, but my windows desperately need replacement. I’m trying to find out if this kind of work would require a ROZA (Residential Occupancy Zoning Approval) or a building permit, or if it would need an inspection. What do I need to know about this process before getting started?
I don’t think I’d go through with the project if it required extensive coordination with the City of Pittsburgh and applying through the online permit website. Any advice or information from those who have done similar projects would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks for any responses!

Hi everyone,
I’m planning a project at my three-story residence in Lawrenceville where I would like to replace all the windows in the home with new ones. The plan is to keep the size, location, and type of windows the same, just replacing the old ones with new ones without changing the structure of the house in any way.
I’ve never done any construction projects like this before, but my windows desperately need replacement. I’m trying to find out if this kind of work would require a ROZA (Residential Occupancy Zoning Approval) or a building permit, or if it would need an inspection. What do I need to know about this process before getting started?
I don’t think I’d go through with the project if it required extensive coordination with the City of Pittsburgh and applying through the online permit website. Any advice or information from those who have done similar projects would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks for any responses!

Hi everyone,
I’m planning a project at my three-story residence in Lawrenceville where I would like to replace all the windows in the home with new ones. The plan is to keep the size, location, and type of windows the same, just replacing the old ones with new ones without changing the structure of the house in any way.
I’ve never done any construction projects like this before, but my windows desperately need replacement. I’m trying to find out if this kind of work would require a ROZA (Residential Occupancy Zoning Approval) or a building permit, or if it would need an inspection. What do I need to know about this process before getting started?
I don’t think I’d go through with the project if it required extensive coordination with the City of Pittsburgh and applying through the online permit website. Any advice or information from those who have done similar projects would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks for any responses!

Hi everyone,
I’m planning a project at my three-story residence in Lawrenceville where I would like to replace all the windows in the home with new ones. The plan is to keep the size, location, and type of windows the same, just replacing the old ones with new ones without changing the structure of the house in any way.
I’ve never done any construction projects like this before, but my windows desperately need replacement. I’m trying to find out if this kind of work would require a ROZA (Residential Occupancy Zoning Approval) or a building permit, or if it would need an inspection. What do I need to know about this process before getting started?
I don’t think I’d go through with the project if it required extensive coordination with the City of Pittsburgh and applying through the online permit website. Any advice or information from those who have done similar projects would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks for any responses!

I am looking to get a bike for tours (up to day trips) in the area (Algarve, Portugal), mainly on smaller paved roads and good dirt roads. It is about exercise and enjoying the countryside. If it rains I stay home, mudguards do not apply.
I have been reading and it seems a gravel bike is what I am looking for - 35 or 38mm tyres are probably enough, and I want straight handlebars as my hands don't agree with the straight ones.
I also think I should go for a geometry/riding position more toward touring bike than road bike. Any clues how I evaluate that for a shortlist?
I have rented a Scott Speedster 40 EQ in XL(58), according to their site (they suggest a size depending on your measures) I should have had a XXL. A larger frame will tend to put the handlebars further up and forwards relative to the saddle, right? It doen't feel much off, but I think I would like the handlebars a few cm higher.
More generally, I will be looking for something up to about €1000, most likely carbon fork and subcompact groupset. I know Trek and (of course) Triban is available around here, probably more if I look. Is mail order worth considering?
About me: 57yo male, Danish so I have cycled for transport since forever; not much the last two decades though. Never been good at riding standing, so I need the low gears for the hills. At around 20 I had a half serious road bike and a summer job that made me do 45km/day. Have always been fixing my bikes myself.

May 20 (Reuters) - Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google has preemptively paid damages to the U.S. government, an unusual move aimed at avoiding a jury trial in the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit over its digital advertising business.
Google disclosed, opens new tab the payment, but not the amount, in a court filing last week that said the case should be heard and decided by a judge directly. Without a monetary damages claim, Google argued, the government has no right to a jury trial.
The Justice Department, which has not said if it will accept the payment, declined to comment on the filing. Google asserted that its check, which it said covered its alleged overcharges for online ads, allows it to sidestep a jury trial whether or not the government takes it.
The Justice Department filed the case last year with Virginia and other states, alleging Google was stifling competition for advertising technology. The government has said Google should be forced to sell its ad manager suite.
Google, which has denied the allegations, said in a statement that the Justice Department “manufactured a damages claim at the last minute in an attempt to secure a jury trial.” Without disclosing the size of its payment, Google said that after months of discovery, the Justice Department could only point to estimated damages of less than $1 million.
The company said the government has said the case is “highly technical” and “outside the everyday knowledge of most prospective jurors.”
The Justice Department will have a chance to respond to Google's arguments before a judge considers the question at a hearing scheduled for June 21 in Alexandria, Virginia, federal court. The trial is set for September, currently before a jury.
Stanford Law School's Mark Lemley told Reuters he was skeptical Google’s gambit would prevail. He said a jury could ultimately decide higher damages than whatever Google put forward.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/google-cuts-mystery-check-us-bid-sidestep-jury-trial-2024-05-20/

I am looking at purchasing a 2020 Mitsubishi Mirage G4 ES; I test drove it yesterday and I like the simplicity of it as well as the small size and low price tag. 90% of my driving is just me (one passenger) 20 minutes to and from work and then the occasional 3-4 hr beach road trip a few times a year. My only concern so far with it is I have no knowledge of three cylinder engines and while I did recognize the car needing a little higher RPMs for highway speeds and a little extra time to get up to speed, this does not bother me. It does however make me wonder if an engine has slightly higher RPMs over time (the average being just under 3000 while on cruise control on the highway) does this wear down the engine and affect longevity quicker than a larger engine? I can’t seem to find an answer online. Also would having more passengers for road trips really strain the engine as well or do you think it is made to endure working that hard at times?? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

I'm seeking planning advice to better understand our system.
Background: 1920s house with full basement, two full stories and a finished attic. Radiators throughout first and second floor. From what we've been able to piece together, the boiler was originally coal-fired and was later converted to a natural gas burner. The diameter of the horizontal pipe in the basement ceiling is large (apx 3" internal diameter) and we've been told this is because the system would have originally circulated by convection. System was later converted to pump-circulation. There are no zones like a modern system would have.
On the second floor there is a loop of exposed pipe with an access cap. It is higher than the highest radiator in the house. There are visible remnants of a deprecated pipe in a wall. We think this is from a feed and expansion cistern or possibly a hot water storage cistern, that were removed from the system several decades ago. We have lived in the house for ~15 years. We have never drained or topped up the system. I'm certain there is no glycol in the water.
Needs:
1) This loop of piping is in the way of an intended renovation to a bathroom and it needs to be removed or relocated.
2) If we need to open and modify the system, we might want to add radiators to the attic, or to the planned 2nd-floor bathroom renovation
3) Famous words "while we are at it": if system being modified, we would also want to turn the position of one main floor radiator.
Questions:
1) Do we need to maintain an access cap at the high point in the system? If yes, what is it used for? Air intake while draining system? Refilling? Or can you do those things from the basement as long as the access line has a backflow valve in it?
2) Any hints how such pipe loops are often designed in older homes? I can easily trace that the larger diameter pipe on one side of the access cap drops all the way to the basement and over to the bottom of the boiler. On the other side of the access cap, the pipe reduces in size, drops into the kitchen ceiling, and disappears somewhere; it is not visible in the basement. Does this mean I should expect that it tees into one of the pipes connected to one of the second floor radiators? Or is it more likely that it does connect back into the basement pipework and I just can't find it (yet)?
Thanks for any help you can offer online. I live in a sparsely-populated rural area with a real shortage of all tradespeople. Beyond that, there are few hydronic systems in our local and very few people who know how to work with them. Trying to figure out what we are in for and what might be possible/practical.

Previous
So, if you’re just joining us, I work at a haunted zoo now. Since I’ve gotten some rest, it feels like I’ve got my head on straight, at least, so I’d like to continue where I left off.
I sat on the floor in the office after meeting the ghost until I’d settled my rattled mind (and realized I’d forgotten to ask her name, how rude is that?). I took a deep breath and got up off the floor. Walking over and falling into the rolling chair in front of the large screen of camera views, when I brought up the camera that covered the area in which I’d spotted her, she was still there, and it seemed she hadn’t moved an inch.
Sitting there, at a loss, I continued to watch her. The ghost hung around for another five minutes or so, appearing to look at a few things off-screen, though I’m not sure what. Then she walked off into the forest and left the view of the cameras. I wasn’t sure if she vanished into the ether or if she’d gone looking into the trees to look for something.
But that wasn’t the end of the job interview, so let me jump back there. It continued into what kind of animals the zoo had, with Andrew asking me how much experience I had with dangerous animals.
I took a moment to consider the question. “So, ah…I’ve been going hunting and fishing with a neighbor since I was sixteen,” I told him. “We always have to keep an eye out for gators, bears, and hogs. Then there’s snakes, of course…snapping turtles… Since I’ve lived here my whole life and been aiming for a job with wildlife for a long time, I know a lot about the animals in Arkansas in general. But good advice for all of the above is avoid them, so I’ve had encounters, but I don’t know if you’d say I have experience with them.”
“That’s fine,” Andrew said, nodding. “That’s an answer I’m satisfied with. Now, the ghost was the appetizer, Ripley; here’s the main course. To start with, the pay isn’t twenty-five an hour. It’s fifty.”
Staring in shock for a moment, I asked, “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. But that’d be weird to post online considering what applicants think we need, so I halved it.”
“That’s… Okay, why?”
“The animals are already here. You just can’t see them.”
I stared at him for a long moment, some disbelief worming its way into my expression, before saying, “Sorry, what?”
“There’s a chance you’d naturally never see them, or at least some of them,” he continued casually. “It depends on both your genetics and how long you stay on the job. I can naturally see six of them, but that’s it. Suzanne can see all of them, and more. Some are what people would label demons or ghosts. Or magic. Mostly you’d call them cryptids. The ghost was just a warm-up; I mentioned her first because it never takes more than a week to see her if you work the night shift. If you manage to handle her okay, soon you’ll be able to see the animals too. The more time you spend on the grounds, for weird reasons,” he said, wiggling his fingers in the direction of the back door, “the more you’ll be able to see.”
“So, this…this is a zoo for cryptids,” I echoed slowly. He nodded once, waiting to find out what kind of reaction I would have. I gestured vaguely around the room. “If this is a hidden camera show, will you cut me a check for showing up and participating?”
Andrew coughed out a chuckle and shook his head. “No joke. There are a ton of stories out there that have been written to death, pulverized until they’re not the Grimm stories of old and instead they’re Disney films. A lot of those stories come from what some humans have seen. There are dozens of other worlds pressed up against ours, and occasionally things come through by accident. If they’re smart, they’ll lay low and then make their way back when they can. If not, they become local folklore until someone helps them back. I’m just from London, but Suzanne is from somewhere else. She hires people like us for this zoo. Humans.”
Sighing, I shook my head. “That makes no sense. Why would she hire a muggle for a magic zoo?”
Andrew burst out laughing at that, and then waited to gather himself before he continued. “Fair point, but this is less about magic and more about animals, and you’re missing some information that will explain it. First of all, if I misjudge an employee, and they think they can make bank by outing the endangered and valuable animals we have, it’s easy to relocate the zoo.”
“Because magic?” I asked.
“Exactly,” he replied, ignoring the thread of skepticism in my tone. “That means it isn’t the end of the world if that happened, though it is a pain in the arse. But second…let me ask you a question. Speaking of reality shows, say the Discovery Channel put out a call to replace Steve Irwin when he passed. Imagine they had a line out the door,” he said with a gesture, “of people who thought they had the skill and natural talent to replace him, to take on everything he’d been doing his whole life. How many do you reckon would lose an arm, a leg, or their life, by the end of the day?”
My lips parted in surprise and I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re saying people from…wherever…they’re just as dumb as humans, but they’re worse, because they actually think they can handle these things.”
Andrew pointed the pen at me. “Things. Exactly. You called them things. Suzanne and her friends grew up with them and would call them animals. These animals have dispositions and temperaments that we’ve studied for as long as there have been scientists. Where Suzanne’s from, they know the weaknesses of these animals, and also they’re in enclosures here, even if you and I can’t see the walls because they’re invisible things called ‘wards’. If I hire someone who’s got magic on top of all that, they’ll have almost no instinctive fear.
“Everything here is nocturnal, and every one of them is a hunter. Some of these things? Humans see them and they pass out. Not that I want you passing out, but I need someone who is scared of these things, who knows to stay out of the enclosures no matter what. Not someone who thinks they can train them to do tricks, who gets close enough for them to grab a mouthful of hair and drown them. Once, we had a night shift manager injured, and once killed, because they didn’t take these animals seriously enough.”
Thinking back to the Sea World orca incident I knew he’d been referencing, I remembered wondering how someone at that level of her profession could be so careless as I watched the video on YouTube. It made sense when he explained it like that. I hesitated before mentally throwing my hands up and going all in. “So, why put this place here, then? If they’re endangered and also dangerous, why have a zoo at all instead of just a small reserve?”
He pursed his lips, looking disappointed in me. “Ripley. You know that already. You already said as much.”
Thinking back through our conversation, I said, “The rich humans who pay top dollar to see supernatural animals.”
“Not humans,” he told me. “But people, yes, and they are rich, and they’re making donations and spending their money on a ticket here because everything we have is endangered.”
“So…”
I just let my voice trail off and my mind started to drift. Andrew remained silent, letting me do so. There’s that thing people say, ‘I believe that you believe it,’ which is just a kinder way of saying, ‘Bullshit.’ Parents say it about closet monsters. Psychologists say it to people who say they’ve been abducted and probed by aliens. I wanted to say it to Andrew.
But I also wanted a job. If it meant working overnight at an empty zoo, that was fine. When it came down to it, especially when I took the tone of our conversation into account, this was a zoo specifically focused on preserving endangered ‘animals’, and it was allegedly doing important work. Also, if this turned out to be the real deal and I started seeing the animals, I would deal with it, just like I would deal with an enclosure that had a lion or tiger or gorilla. If it came with a ghost and invisible creatures, I really didn’t see what the difference was, if I couldn’t go in the enclosures either way.
On that note, I’d like you to imagine a kid who looks at a roller coaster, watching everyone screaming and grinning as they go up and down and all around and they’re like, ‘Heck, I could do that! That looks like a blast!’
Then they get on, the first drop hits, and they realize they’ve made a terrible mistake.
“All right,” I sighed. “I can’t say I’m going to turn down a job just because it’s going to be scary. Especially not one with this paycheck.”
Andrew smiled. “Awesome. There’s an adjustment process for anyone working here, similar to a dog that gets adopted, actually. I know the general guidelines of, ‘three days, three weeks, three months’ in terms of milestones, until they finally feel they’re where they’re supposed to be,” he told me, “and you can think of your time here along those lines. I really think you’re a great fit, and once you reach the milestone of working here for three months, I’ll officially consider you our new night shift guard. And I hope you’ll stay with us for many years.”
I nodded and smiled at the flattery of an employer wanting me to work a great job for them for a long time. I’d never had a dog, but those milestones were well-known among anyone who knew animals, especially dogs. The first three days, the dog is getting to know its new digs, exploring, and decompressing. At three weeks, they’ve gotten used to their environment and are starting to get comfortable with their surroundings and the routines of the humans they live with. By three months, they know the rules and follow them, they trust you, and they feel they are where they’re meant to be. I could only hope to be so lucky.
I saw the ghost two days ago and she has yet to make another appearance (for those who are curious, I asked, and her name is Leila), and I still hadn’t seen any animals. I did hear one, though, I feel compelled to note. A growling roar sounded from the lake on occasion, echoing across the vast zoo, sending a shiver down my spine. Whatever that animal was, it sounded gigantic.
Andrew said there was apparently a group that wanted to visit for a birthday and they were offering a huge donation, so he let me know they were making an exception and that this group would be walking through the park that night. That meant I’d be watching people watching animals that, as far as I could tell, weren’t there.
It was anticlimactic. Even the three people who came for the tour just looked like people, not like aliens or something eldritch from another dimension, and I stayed in the security office the whole time. Andrew was the one giving the tour. I watched them spend about five minutes at each enclosure, the hour or so that they were there passing without incident. It was clear that they were able to see all the animals, though, since they motioned excitedly at each enclosure and spoke to Andrew, who presumably answered any questions they had.
If they could see the animals, that was that. There was still that niggle in the back of my head, from my twenty-three years of life never encountering anything like ghosts or cryptids, telling me that this was ridiculous. Waiting for someone to knock on the door, a camera mounted on their shoulder, to tell me that it was a big joke and they wanted to see how long I’d play along. But from all I saw, this was a real place with real, invisible animals.
I do carry a taser and pepper spray in my capacity as a security guard. Though it isn’t for the animals, since they’re in the enclosures; they’re actually for the rare instance of a break-in. Andrew mentioned that it had happened several times it the past, someone trying to steal an animal in the hopes of selling it on the black market. They’d been successful before, but apparently my predecessor Roger was good at his job, and mostly they left in handcuffs.
I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge fan of confrontation, but my job was to call Andrew and then confront the person, not kick their ass. That’s what the police were for, or rather, the people Andrew would call in lieu of police in certain situations.
Fifty bucks an hour. That’s the key here.
Andrew hadn’t set up direct deposit, since he was sticking with a strategy of waiting to see if I’d continue to work there once I found out myself dealing with the animals (I’ve decided I am going to just call them animals). Instead, I got an old-fashioned check after my shift every Friday. The number on the first check was delightful. I went out that evening and had a big dinner at the local diner, order my most expensive favorites on the menu and a big slice of pie for dessert.
When it came to the paychecks in general, though, I had this weird feeling of not wanting to tell my dad and brother about the fact that it was actually $50/hr. I previously mentioned that my dad, his name’s Nathan if you’re curious, works at a local grocery store. Our town has a couple food franchises, but I think its size is just short of whatever threshold Walmart uses to decide where to open. He earns $14/hr. and that’s after the tiny raises he’s gotten over the past thirteen years.
That’s not to say he’d feel bad about not making as much as me. On the contrary, he would be ecstatic for me and really proud. But, like me, he’d be suspicious. That hourly rate was the biggest hint that this was more than just a private zoo for cryptids. And as soon as that fat check cleared without problems, my dad wouldn’t be satisfied with reassurances; he’d want to come visit the zoo and look around.
I’d told him it’s a private preservation with scheduled (expensive) visits only and that it had only eleven animals, so he’d been appeased by me brushing off the idea of a visit. Also, I took a few photos of my workplace; one of the security room, one of me sitting in my chair, one photo of the many screens I watched, and a selfie where I was feigning sleep out of boredom, slouched in my chair with my mouth open in a faux snore. That let him feel like he knew where I was and what I was doing, and that I was safe.
But if I told him I was making double what he thought, my father would practically order me to quit. No job was worth my safety, he’d tell me. I was quite of the opposite opinion, however, considering how crucial any and all conservation efforts were these days. Especially with the steep extinction levels due to humans competing with other animals for space, not to mention climate change. Working in any job that helped preserve species and keep ecosystems in balance, or put them back in balance, was so important.
Then again, my father would also point out something I had realized right away: the fact was that I was working with endangered species that were not from Earth. I wasn’t helping my planet. To be honest, though…that didn’t matter to me. Especially after that talk with Andrew about why he hired a human for this job, I figured whichever dimension these animals came from had the equivalent of us, razing forests to the ground, clouding the planet with pollution, and leaving the animals with no avenue of recourse when yet more land was taken from them.
I really do hope to keep working here for a long time, though, and not just because of the money. I can’t help it; I want to know what these things were, and I want to work with them, to do the job of a zookeeper. The same way you go up to the chain-link fence to get close to a carnivore on the other side who thinks you’d make a nice afternoon snack. You just want to be closer to them, to experience that incredible, daunting feeling of being in their presence.
Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t long before I got what I wanted.
The day after we had the tour go through, I was doing my sweep when I saw the ghost again. She was sitting on a small boulder in the same area I’d seen her the first time, looking identical, blood covering the front of her slashed shirt, the wounds visible underneath. I stopped and stood there for a moment before I decided to raise my hand in a small wave.
The young woman cocked her head at me and raised a hand in the air in an imitation of my gesture, her expression showing a bit of curiosity.
She was low-key, seemingly not concerned with my presence, looking at me as a novel phenomenon in her world. I wondered what that world consisted of. Was she always here, sometimes visible and sometimes not? Or did she have another world next to ours, in the ether, where she left everything in this world behind and floated in her disembodied form? Did she still feel emotions? Was that really curiosity on her face, or was I projecting? Did she feel happiness? Fear? Did she have the option of moving on, or was she stuck here?
Many questions that I might never get the answers to. And that was assuming Andrew knew the answers, since I’d never met Suzanne Cooper and he hadn’t even mentioned that possibility. This place was clearly her baby, but I’m sure running it was a lot of work. Plus, if she was rich enough to own it, she was rich enough to have other businesses and charities to run.
When it comes to the enclosures, they’re all wrapped by a barrier of some kind, though never one that seems adequate. There was not a single place with the ugly metal weavings of a chain-link fence, and no stretches of circular razor wire. Instead, there are nice fences. Black iron, or wrought steel fencing in a similar style to the one circling the perimeter of the zoo, just shorter and with different patterns. Or a spaced picket fence, the wood stained in some tone of brown, or a split two-rail fence. As if to say, ‘This is the border of your enclosure, but we’re just letting you know out of courtesy.’
When I started to pass enclosure number seven last night, a young woman’s voice spoke, “Hello.”
I startled, unaware that I hadn’t been alone. “Oh. Hi,” I said, staring at her standing a few yards in.
She had been next to a large tree and I hadn’t seen her. This enclosure was behind a picket fence, and she walked through the large area of wild grasses and flowers that stretched across the other side of the fence. There were fewer tall grasses closer to the fence, which I guessed was because it had been tromped down by her regular pacing along it when there were visitors, or if she wanted to see the various enclosures of the zoo. Her sudden appearance was a bit weird, considering I had been expecting to see a cryptid and instead I was looking at, it seemed, an attractive Asian woman.
She wore a black kimono, the soft silk robe draped gently over her body, with beautiful patterns of cherry blossoms, more so over her left side, and red and blue birds with their wings spread. A sash wrapped around her abdomen, she wore socks and sandals on her feet, and her hair was up in those rolls that gave volume to the style.
I was no expert on any fashion, much less that of another country, so I just assumed it was all traditional Japanese clothing. Most likely, the visitors who came liked to see a certain time-honored style and that’s what she stuck with. Or maybe she played on stereotypes. That would be amusing.
“I’m Yui. It’s nice to meet you,” she spoke, arriving at the border of the fence and holding out a hand for me to shake.
I’d been standing about three yards away from her, and I’ll be honest, muscle memory tried to kick in. But I only made it two steps, my hand starting to rise, before I froze, the hand falling limply at my side. “Nice to meet you, too,” I answered, my voice quiet.
Damn. I wonder how many times that honey trap works back where she comes from.
The pleasant look on her face faded, and she lowered her hand. “You won’t shake hands with me? Isn’t that rude?”
“I mean, I kind of like my hand where it is. You know, attached to me.”
Her demure smile widened into something more amused. “I would never do something so revolting.”
Looking her up and down, as if more visual information would give me more knowledge of what she was, I asked her, “What would you do?”
“I would be less wasteful,” she said softly.
A finger of ice trailed down my spine, and I had the sudden image in my head of her grabbing my outstretched hand in an iron grip and yanking me over the fence, leaving me to sprawl on the ground. Then killing and consuming me efficiently, without a single careless step, the same way humans slaughtered pigs, using everything from the hog but the squeal. I was struck with a shiver at the idea of her consuming everything from me but my screams.
Slowly, I took one step further down the path, then another. Just as I got to a walking pace, though, I realized the woman had started walking too, in the same direction. I’d have eventually gotten to the end of her enclosure and keep going, leaving her behind, but she spoke up. “Are you leaving?”
I came to a stop, meeting her gaze again. “My job is to walk the zoo every hour. Then I’ll get back to the security room and stay there until my next walk.”
“Have you met the others yet?”
I hesitated before saying, “Just Leila.”
She blinked languidly. “That means nobody welcomed you here.”
“Andrew did.”
She didn’t reply to that. Instead, she slowly started to lean forward, and I flinched backward a few steps further as I saw insect legs start curling out from her back.
No. Not insect. Arachnid.
The eight legs ended in small ‘paws’ with tiny claws, a layer of hairs covering the leg from top to bottom, like any typical tarantula. I took two more slow steps back and my mouth went dry as the jointed legs just kept lengthening, until they were large enough to lever her off the ground.
My gaze had been on the spider legs, but my heart skipped a beat as I realized her human legs had melded together and turned into a bulging abdomen. Her skin was shifting to a carapace, eventually all the way up to her shoulders and down her arms, her fingers elongating and her nails stretching to claws. From there down, her body was that of a pale tarantula with pedipalps the size of my arms and piercing fangs in her jaws that looked like they could take my head off.
There was a moment, my vision blurring, where I was worried that I might piss myself. The part of my brain that still had its humor intact in that moment told me that I should keep an emergency set of clothes in my car, or at the very least, start wearing Depends to work.
“I show you my true form,” she said softly, her voice now raspy like an eighty-year-old after a lifelong smoking habit. “Welcome to Suzanne Cooper’s zoo. The night shift guard for many years was Roger, before he retired and the zoo moved, and I miss him dearly. What should I call you?”
I choked on my words. There was no way my throat was going to cooperate enough for me to clearly get a sentence out. Instead, I realized my legs had taken control of the situation themselves, unsatisfied with my conscious brain’s decision to stand and stare, taking steps backward. I backed up a yard, then five yards, then ten.
My mind focused on the fact that spiders don’t waste anything, and pictured my demise. I’d be wrapped in a cocoon, killed, and made nice and mushy before she had me for dinner.
The whole time, my brain was a frenzied mess, my pupils were probably the size of dimes, and I was staring at that tiny, pathetic fence between her and me. There was so much adrenaline pumping through my body that I felt like my bones were vibrating. The fence was, to my eyes, the only thing between us. The only thing keeping her from tackling and killing me. My only hope was that she’d do it quickly.
But she didn’t move. As I absorbed her innocent, polite words, the look on her face was calm, and I wondered if this was typically the way a conversation went before she devoured her prey. I wondered how many people she’d eaten. Not humans, not people from Earth, but the ones from where she came from. The fact that she doesn’t scare the shit out of those people means they’re staggeringly dumber than humans.
Finally, I rounded a corner, both relieved at having her out of my sight and worried that she would take that moment to come find me. When she’d been within eyeshot, I had at least known where she was and could run in the other direction. But I didn’t hear the sound of faint footsteps moving rapidly toward me. All was quiet, in that deep, smothering way that only an empty business in the middle of the night in small town America could be.
My hands trembling, I barely paid attention to anything but the confirmation that my surroundings were free of the colossal spider as I finally got back to the door. Grabbing the handle and letting my eyes dart around for about ten seconds and my ears prick for the slightest sound, I finally swiped my key card across the pad and went inside, shutting the door behind me and engaging the backup deadbolt.
Maybe that was why they had decided on keycards. If I was running from something and panicking, using an actual key or inserting the card like at a hotel would keep me from getting to safety considering my hands were shaking enough to mix a margarita.
Walking over to my chair, I fell into it, letting my body flush itself of terror as I looked up at the cameras. There she was, still in arachnid form, exactly where I’d left her behind that rinky-dink fence, casually looking around and slowly pacing back and forth. I stared at her as my racing heart gradually slowed, and a minute or so later she turned on her eight legs and walked back into the trees.
Whatever invisible fences the enclosures have apparently work, which is nice, because I wasn’t keen on getting killed by one of the creatures here. And that’s what brings me here, spilling out everything that’s happened so far. Because nearly passing out from terror isn’t something I wanted to deal with at work, obviously, but I keep going over what she did in my head again and again, and I feel like I reacted like a child who spotted a wolf spider on their bed. I started to worry for my overactive sense of self-preservation, at least in my capacity as an employee here.
The spider didn’t even try to hurt me, and so I was feeling a bit foolish. Even annoyed, actually, at the fact that I’d freaked out so hard and took off instead of trying to engage in at least basic conversation. I got the sense that she wasn’t at human-level intelligence, but I was never going to be able to hold any level of conversation with an alligator.
Sure, she did mention that she wouldn’t be so crass as to yank off my hand because she’d rather just have my entire corpse, but wouldn’t a wolf do the same if it was hungry? Wouldn’t any carnivore? Actually, they probably would’ve been satisfied with one of my hands. The fear here was from the fact that she turned into a giant spider. If she’d turned into Clifford, I would’ve reacted the same way, if not better than, meeting Leila.
With that, I decided I’m staying on the job. Considering how frustrated I can get with foolish people, it’s a bit hypocritical, and I’m being a bit of an idiot. But…there are definitely wards keeping them in their enclosures. Also, I signed up for creatures for another dimension, whether or not I believed in them at the time, and I will not let encountering my first one in an objectively boring way be the reason I quit.
The money is a factor, I’ll grant you. Of course it is. And I can’t spend it if I’m dead, but all signs point to surviving as long as I don’t do anything dumb. Also, yes, I’ll admit there’s a not-so-little voice in the back of my head that’s desperate to know what else is here. I never thought I’d do something like this, but finding out these things are real, I honestly do want to learn more about them.
Still, though, I decided to call Andrew at the end of my shift to ask if the pepper spray and taser I carried worked on a certain spider, as well as the other animals I’d yet to meet.
Previous

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

20. Quantum of Solace (2008)

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

19. Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation (2015)

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

18. Vanishing Point (1971)

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

17. Fast Five (2011)

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

16. The Blues Brothers (1980)

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

15. Baby Driver (2017)

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

14. The Raid 2 (2014)

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

13. The Driver (1978)

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

12. The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

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

11. The Seven-Ups (1973)

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

10. Death Proof (2007)

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

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

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

8. The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

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

7. Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)

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

6. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

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

5. Duel (1971)

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

4. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

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

3. The French Connection (1971)

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

2. Bullitt (1968)

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

1. Ronin (1998)

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

Dubai, the City of Gold, is not just a dazzling metropolis known for its luxurious lifestyle and iconic landmarks. It's also a thriving business hub where innovation and continuous learning are paramount. As companies strive for excellence in a competitive market, investing in employee training becomes crucial.

But with a plethora of training companies in Dubai, choosing the right partner for your organization's needs can be overwhelming. This article by HNI.ae aims to simplify your search by highlighting some of the top training companies in Dubai, each catering to diverse learning objectives.

Identifying Your Training Needs:

Before diving into the list, it's essential to identify your specific training needs. Here are some key questions to consider:

What skills do your employees need to develop? Is it leadership training, communication skills, software proficiency, or industry-specific knowledge?
What is your learning style preference? Do you prefer instructor-led classroom sessions, online learning modules, or a blended approach?
What is your budget? Training costs can vary depending on the program duration, size of the group, and trainer expertise.
Top Training Companies in Dubai:

1. Edstellar:

This global training solutions provider offers a comprehensive range of programs, from soft skills development to technical certifications. Edstellar boasts a network of over 5,000 certified trainers, ensuring you find the perfect fit for your needs. They also provide a user-friendly learning management platform for streamlined administration and progress tracking.

2. Spearhead Training:

A veteran in the training industry, Spearhead has been delivering high-quality corporate training programs for over 40 years. Their extensive portfolio covers management & leadership, business skills, sales & marketing, personal development, and more. Spearhead is known for its interactive and engaging training methods, ensuring participants retain valuable knowledge.

3. Meirc Training and Consulting:

With over 65 years of experience, Meirc is a leading provider of public and customized training solutions. They offer a vast selection of courses, including industry-specific programs and internationally recognized certifications. Meirc emphasizes practical application, ensuring participants gain real-world skills readily applicable in their roles.

4. PROTRAINING:

Focused on delivering tailor-made training solutions, PROTRAINING works closely with clients to understand their specific needs and develop customized programs. Their offerings encompass communication skills, leadership development, team building activities, and more. PROTRAINING is a great option for companies seeking a personalized learning experience.

5. Atton Institute Training Center:

Known for its short-term, intensive workshops, Atton Institute caters to busy professionals seeking to acquire new skills quickly. Their programs emphasize practical application and are offered in various formats, including on-site training and online modules.

Benefits of Investing in Employee Training:

The benefits of investing in employee training are well documented. Here are just a few:

Enhanced Employee Skills and Knowledge: Training equips your workforce with the skills and knowledge necessary to perform their jobs effectively and efficiently.
Increased Productivity: Skilled employees are more productive, leading to improved performance and higher outputs.
Improved Employee Engagement: Investing in employee development demonstrates your commitment to their growth, fostering a more engaged and motivated workforce.
Reduced Turnover: Employees who feel valued and have opportunities for growth are more likely to stay with the company.
Enhanced Innovation and Problem-Solving: Training promotes critical thinking and problem-solving skills, leading to more innovation and improved decision-making within the organization.
Conclusion:

By investing in the right training program for your employees, you can unlock their full potential and drive your organization towards success. Dubai offers a diverse range of training companies, each with its own unique strengths and focus areas. This HNI.ae article serves as a starting point for your search, helping you choose the ideal partner to empower your workforce and achieve your business goals.

Additional Tips:

Read client testimonials and reviews before making a decision.
Inquire about free consultations to discuss your specific needs and explore customized training options.
Compare pricing and package options to find the best fit for your budget.
By taking a proactive approach to employee training, you can ensure your team has the tools and expertise needed to thrive in the ever-evolving business environment of Dubai.

Okay guys, this is a hard one because the question might look desperate, but i really am not. SO basically, i am 30F, single and dating through online dating hell for some years now. I am not unattractive but also not a supermodel, i do get compliments sometimes from men, so i know people are attracted to me sometimes (obviously not always). I am not overweight but have a little bit on my hips and big boobs, which just makes me not a size 0, but also not super big. Just quite average tbh. I would say i do have a cool style, i try to experiment and love vintage clothing, so i also do not look comepletely boring. I also have a lot of hobbies and am a creative/fun soul. I am interested in a lot of things deeply (music/philosophy/movies/books) which make me not the most boring person to talk to, if you are into these things as well, of course. I live in an big city and am outgoing, but not too excessively. So now you have a glimpse of who i am as a person. I like myself, i can say that in confidence, i am over my self-hating years. Just living a peaceful, decent life tbh.
Now to the important part: i always get rejected from men. To that point, where i am really asking myself what i am doing wrong because i just don’t get it? Like we have a nice date, we talk and laugh a lot and i always enjoy the dates and it it seems like they do to. And then, the text message pops up „hey you are an amazing woman and super cool, I just didn’t feel the spark/it didn’t click for me/there are more friendship vibes/YOU NAME IT. And even though I would agree, there were no dates where I felt the spark or was blown away either, but I just think a nice/comfortable date is a great fundament for another one and even more? Like how do people decide so early that i am just not it? Do they just think I’m not hot enough?
Please let me know what your experiences/thoughts on this are or what you would suggest in my position because i start to think i‘ll just get a cat and never date again.
Edit: edited some typos.

Chapter 1: The Awakening
The year was 2145, and humanity was at the brink of collapse. Nations had crumbled, and the world was now divided into warring factions. The discovery of ancient titans-massive, biomechanical war machines buried deep within the Earth's crust-had set the stage for a new era of warfare. These titans, remnants of a forgotten civilization, were the ultimate weapons, capable of leveling entire cities with a single strike.
In the heart of the desolate wasteland that was once Europe, the Northern Alliance fought fiercely against the Red Dominion. Tanks rumbled across the battlefield, their treads crushing the scorched earth beneath them. Soldiers, armed with advanced pulse rifles, exchanged relentless gunfire. But amidst the chaos, the true titans of war lay dormant, waiting to be awakened.
Captain Elena Drakovich of the Northern Alliance stood atop a hill, her keen eyes scanning the horizon through the scope of her rifle. Her unit had been tasked with locating and securing one of these legendary titans, rumored to be hidden in an ancient bunker deep within enemy territory. It was a mission that could turn the tide of the war, but the risks were unimaginable.
"Captain, we have visual confirmation of the bunker entrance," Sergeant Liam Hayes reported, his voice crackling through the comms. He pointed to a partially collapsed structure barely visible through the smoke and debris.
"Good work, Sergeant," Elena replied. "Squad, prepare to move out. This is our chance to make history."
As they approached the bunker, the ground trembled beneath their feet, and the air was filled with the scent of burning metal. The sound of artillery fire echoed in the distance, a constant reminder of the ever-present danger. Elena's team moved with precision, their training and discipline evident in every step.
Inside the bunker, the air was thick with dust and the stale scent of decay. The walls were adorned with ancient symbols, glowing faintly in the dim light. At the center of the vast chamber lay the titan, its colossal form covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs. It was a sight to behold-a towering behemoth of metal and flesh, a fusion of technology and organic matter.
"Captain, this is incredible," Liam whispered, awe evident in his voice. "We need to get this thing operational."
Elena nodded, her eyes never leaving the titan. "Get to work, everyone. We don't have much time."
As the engineers began their work, the ground above them shook violently. The Red Dominion had discovered their presence and was closing in fast. Tanks and troops were converging on their location, intent on stopping the Northern Alliance from securing their prize.
"Hayes, secure the perimeter. We need to buy some time," Elena ordered, her voice steady despite the growing tension.
Outside the bunker, the battle raged on. Northern Alliance soldiers dug in, using the terrain to their advantage as they repelled wave after wave of Dominion forces. Tanks roared across the battlefield, their cannons thundering as they exchanged fire with the enemy. The air was filled with the deafening sounds of war.
Inside, the titan's eyes flickered to life, a deep, resonating hum filling the chamber. The ancient war machine began to stir, its massive limbs creaking as it slowly came online.
"We've done it, Captain!" an engineer shouted, his voice filled with triumph. "The titan is operational!"
Elena's heart pounded in her chest. "Excellent. Now let's show the Dominion what happens when you awaken a sleeping giant."
The titan rose to its full height, towering over the battlefield. With a deafening roar, it unleashed its fury upon the enemy. Plasma cannons blazed, and missiles streaked through the sky, leaving trails of fire in their wake. The ground shook as the titan's massive feet crushed tanks and fortifications beneath them.
The Red Dominion forces, caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the titan, scrambled to regroup. But it was too late. The titan, driven by a relentless, ancient rage, tore through their ranks with unstoppable force. Soldiers fled in terror, and the once imposing Dominion tanks were reduced to smoldering wrecks.
As the dust settled, the battlefield fell eerily silent. The titan stood amidst the ruins, a testament to the Northern Alliance's newfound power. Elena climbed to the top of the titan, looking out over the devastation. She knew this was just the beginning. With the titan at their side, they had a fighting chance to reclaim their world from the brink of destruction.
"We've awakened the titan," Elena said, her voice resolute. "Now, let's finish this war and rebuild our future."
The journey ahead would be fraught with danger, and the cost of victory would be high. But with the titans of war on their side, the Northern Alliance was ready to face whatever challenges lay ahead. Together, they would forge a new era, one where the titans roamed the earth once more, and humanity rose from the ashes of its past.
Chapter 2: The Reclamation
(To be continued...)