This is an email I sent to head office HR. Got no response and no action was taken, so therefore it was ignored:
Dear [Head of HR],
This is regarding a more serious issue, as you may or guessed from the title. I feel I need to raise this it's possible this might not of been the first time something similar has happened to me.
After about a month of arriving at [location of work] I became a training buddy due to my years of experience at cinemas and I have now been performing this duty for many years. Shortly after joining [cinema brand] I became a member of the projection team, then during the change over to digital projection I became a digital buddy
Recently the duties have been revamped for both roles, but I have been left out of this. I have discussed this with [Twit of a GM] (our new general manager) and he completely ignored any knowledge of all of the hard work I had been doing in these roles over the years. (I informed him that I am a buddy after the first staff meeting) and he stated that I haven't been do the two jobs recently.
I must state it's hard to do the job of digital buddy, for example when during a power out the important information that you have given to the manager is ignored. leading to further problems.
The digital buddy has to be invited to do their job to delete old files from the server, chase KDMs, and such, so how am I meant to do that job without the invite (it's only in the past week or two that [co-worker] has been allowed to do the deletes. I helped in training [co-worker] on how to do digital projection when he came to [location of work])
In the training buddy section of my job I train new staff when they come in, sometimes management will provide me the forms for the trainee to fill in and sometimes not, this prevents me from correctly performing the signing off of new staff. The management have never informed me of this new box system (which has been implemented only a short time ago), but they have been treating me as a trainer and I have been training people.
[Twit of a GM] says that because I haven't been using the box system I'm not a trainer, even though I have been performing that role.
[Twit of a GM] has said my up selling is up and down every week, which doesn't set a good standard (yet at the same time saying up selling isn't the reason for not allowing me to be a buddy).
He complimented me on my customer service saying it was the best, but then insulted the way I look and implied that no one would come to me for help, this is quite bizarre as after talking to him I asked my co-workers that day and they were confused as to why he would say that as they always come to me when I'm there.
To tell you the truth that saying that colleagues do not seek my assistance was the biggest insult to me and is clearly untrue. I try to solve problems before the need to the manager whenever I can.
Regarding my appearance, one shirt they gave me is too baggy but I tuck it in and my other shirt is too small but it looks better in comparison so I try to wear that one (shirt sizing seems to be a problem).
[Twit of a GM] informed that when he arrived at the site he was introduced to the managers and buddies at the time (I do not know as to why I was not there, but it could be something to do with [Old Dumbass GM], who seemed to have a problem with me because I had requested to move sites and he refused the transfer, or it could have been something else as I was never given a satisfactory reason.
There were other instances of [Old Dumbass GM] behaviour towards me, I provided many ideas to improve the cinema but these were generally ignored.
It is interesting to note that many of the other managers have known that I am a digital and training buddy, but [Twit of a GM] and a select few disregard this fact.
I feel that I have been demoted not via any official means, but according to the whims of a few members of the management team.
Soon after [Twit of a GM]’s arrival at [location of work] I was asked about my sick days and I answered honestly the sick days were necessary and I have gone over this with another manager. Every time I have been sick, if I have had to visit the hospital (which I was forced to do so by a manager once because of chest pains) I have sent in pictures of the forms and any other information they may need (I still have the emails with all the information I gave). But for some reason I get the feeling am I looked at by him as if I am dishonestly taking those sick days.
Now this is in my file and I have talked to at least one manager at [location of work] (and one at [another location of worked when needed for an event], now), I have dyslexia with dyspraxic tendencies and also suffer with depression, these are very personal I feel that these are being used against me as they make me very vulnerable to being discriminated against. [Twit of a GM] response was that he doesn't know of any of this (which seems to be a line I heard too many times in that meeting).
I've put a lot of time and effort and sometime money in to my job (I brought pens for every person and labeled them so each person would have a pen. I brought torches to light the hawking trolley. I created a spreadsheet to help in the rotation of the posters, etc) and many joked I lived at the cinema as I was there so much, but now I have managed to have a life outside of the cinema and my job responsibilities are been taken away, despite all the years I have put in, it is very disheartening to think my efforts have been wasted
I am certainly not progressing at my current site, and I feel my skills and experience are being wasted. I am only allowed to perform duties I am qualified for when it is convenient to the management.
I suggest the best thing would be for me to get a transfer to a site closer to [location of where live] and be reinstated to the role of Digital and training buddy. If possible I would like to work in the [another location of worked when needed for an event] sites as I miss working in the [another location of worked when needed for an event] and I enjoyed the times I worked at the [another location of worked when needed for an event] site as well as visiting the [different cinema location] site (I have talked to [cool manager] once or twice saying I would love to work with her once again). If not [[a nice cinema location I did some projection cover for] would be nice (where I trained some managers how to use the digital projectors).
Please if you could help me that would be great.
Sincerely,
Pensivegamez

Hello all! Long time lurker, first time poster. I’m nearing the end of my contract (one year, one month, two days…but who’s counting anyway?) and I have a question for the community. I believe I may have been dealt a unique deck of cards with a psoriasis diagnoses/an incredible PCM who actually puts their patients best interests in front of their branch of service.
Snapshot of my situation: active duty Air Force for 9 years, I will be separating next June capping it at 10 1/2 years. About 3 years ago, I was diagnosed with psoriasis by an off base dermatologist who was adamant that I was put on Humira (biologic immunosuppressant for those not in the know) due to the widespread coverage/non-response to topical steroids. I’m also certain that I’ve had psoriatic arthritis for the last six years, and the skin issue (undiagnosed) dates back to technical training when it first flared up.
Upon returning to my PCM to discuss Humira use, he advised me that as soon as I filled the prescription, he would be required to initiate MEB proceedings due to the drugs immunosuppressant qualities, the requirement for refrigeration and my tentative dosage I’d be required to take (one self-administered auto-injector every 4-6 weeks for the rest of my life, making me non-deployable). However, he told me that as long as I elected not to fill the script I would be able to continue on in my enlistment. With that, I crumpled up the scripts and threw them in his garbage can.
Fast forward to the present. In the last 6 months, my psoriasis flared up and I went back to said PCM for recommendations on medications that wouldn’t trigger MEB, but essentially any systemic medication will do just that.
Here’s where it gets interesting…from what they eluded to with these medications, MEB/medical retirement will essentially start on my timeline (Humira used at the interval I would require rates at 60%). Which is great…but here’s my conundrum. I genuinely care about my troops and my coworkers. There is currently a significant amount of instability/turnover within my shop which will continue for about the next year (I was recently selected by our SEL to fix the broken program, as I have a track record of problem solving/revamping work sections within my squadron to work efficiently after the previous NCOIC was both fired and demoted for reasons that culminated in a MAJCOM level investigation). I would genuinely love to finish this job and leave the shop better than I found it for those who come after me. So, my question is…how long am I looking at this MEB taking? I’d like to be able to finish out my current contract…I just don’t want to start pushing through it too soon.
TL/DR
i want to finish my contract ending next June and ive been offered a MEB. How long do they take?

Hello everyone, though no one may have noticed, the old mod of this community disappeared, he may have deleted his account or gotten banned for whatever reason, and I decided that I could step up and be the moderator for this community. I put in a request and viola, I have now been demoted to a Reddit Janny!
I’m a big Project Management nerd having passed the CAPM twice (back in the day you had to retake the exam to renew it) and the PMP once. I have been a longtime poster on pmp and enjoy answering and working through questions. I even run a Project Management Discord server where you can pop in and ask questions or get PM or PMP help. This week we will be doing daily job hunting at 4pm PST. Feel free to pop in and get company through the grind.
https://discord.gg/cwURt4wDmf
No big rule changes, the community has been running smoothly with or without a mod. I’m hoping to add recruiters or job help to this community since it’s full of people getting their start in Project Management. If you have any other thoughts on how to make this community great, I’m taking suggestions.
Thanks for reading - happy studying and cheers!

She likely started in 1992, before I met him. She's not even still married to him. In my opinion, we were supposed to meet when he was working somewhere. Had I been where 9th grade would have taken me, we would have met in neutral country for positive outcome. I see the effects looking BACKWARDS about how messed up things are. Someone is caught in a loop and unable to see any positive things in my life, especially after I was baptized Catholic. Weird, isn't it.
Wouldn't it be funny if the embodiments of evil got a time machine to travel to get away with any crime? It's funny, just a fantasy of connecting various unsolved puzzles, not reality. I don't take this seriously. I don't even take them seriously since ALL proof I did anything bad they have is actually photoshopped. But they convinced people reading Craigslist and Facebook! I stopped using either. I even met fakes on LinkedIn meant to connect job hunters with professionals in similar fields. Just as many fake profiles there as Facebook, so networking was equally bad for me too. Unproductive waste of time because most posts are repeated over and over. People on LinkedIn don't discuss jobs, workplaces, employment or career fields anymore.
They brag US government officials demoted me to illegal immigrant from US citizen because ten to thirty illegals want to take my place. Election year promotion? Certain political party wants to be more famous for illegal industry in future? Other people want to use my degrees by pretending I am a retarded moron because my family got paid or threatened by a group of people. They said I wasn't good enough BUT didn't have the ability to have compassion to LEARN what happened. Wanting to succeed wasn't lacking just a support network in my youth wasn't there. That lack of compassion is what killed them in the end because of emotional and financial cruelty to me. I wasn't really special. I wasn't unique because my story is shared by thousands of women worldwide kept from POTENTIAL. I just had a large heart. I used to care about people, but I lost that ability. All hate is reflected back on them because of the many POSITIVE things they prevented me from doing my ENTIRE lifetime! I had a long list of positive things I wanted to achieve, but they pretended I wanted negative things for myself and my 3 children!
They call me crazy over time machine sub-Reddit, but not any other poster there? Sounds like you should INVESTIGATE my critics before it's really too late to prevent worst scenarios. It's all connected when you see it from my point of view. I'm just telling my story even if you don't want to hear it. I'm the annoying narrator everyone hates. :-) See you next time.

Compendium of the Six Great Generals Of Old Era
Hello here,this is Kaijin(or by my reddit account Hezzyo),after previous post where I writed about Renpa,Chou Sha and Gakuki with Yan military,I decided to write some sort of compendium which would include everything we know about old Qin Six Great Generals(military achivments,campaigns,strategies,diplomacy) and ascension of Qin Military from a small army to a superpower(weapons,armours,ideologies included) .I also collaborated with Pallad(Apple) on this,and I would like to thank him for helping me with this.
Turned out the post is very big(apparently it has 55pages),I would upload it on drive and share the link so everybody can read it https://drive.google.com/drive0/folders/1H5j_fiIqunNG6i3RiPIt3pIalTA5DTeZ , I would also upload pdf there you don't even need to download it you can just click on it and read in browser.(the photos would be included as well and won't be messed in order like in the reddit post and i wont be limited by numbers of images either since here i need to be under or 20,in pdf there are more) - the only issue so far the ODT format get messy when it gets converted in pdf(an old problem),and by this,pdf format is having a little weird organisation,so I'm sorry for this.
The visual representations are not really accurate,but I choosed them based on how i felt and liked them at the moment of writing the post(I wasn't going to bore you with some ancient posters images,but the Battle Maps and the records are accurate,whenever a record conflicted I mentioned both variants and also my personal opinion)
This would be a giant post(55 pages,images included),hope you would enjoy it.

1. Shibasaku (Sima Cuo 司馬錯)

He was the oldest general of old era compared to other greats,given the fact that his first known war was in 316,and he also served under the previous Kings of Qin before King Sho.
Visual Representation of Shibasaku
Political Scene: ''He advocated the expansion of Qin towards the south and personally commanded the campaigns against the states of Shu 蜀 and Ba 巴. His political opponent Zhang Yi(he advocated instead for attacking Han) did not accept his argument that the conquest of the southern regions would economically support the further expansion of Qin towards the east. Shibasaku was right in his argument because the conquest of Shu did not only provide grain and tax income to the state of Qin, but also personnel to staff its large armies. Moreover, the region of Ba was an ideal base for the conquest of the state of Chu 楚 along the valleys of the Yangtze River and the River Han 漢.
Shibasaku words:'' If you win Shu,you ll win over Chu''.
Military:
316BC: Campaign against Shu and Ba
Shibasaku,alongside Zhang Yi and Captain Dan Mo,invaded Shu and fought with them at Jiameng Pass.King of Shu personally led his army in battle and adopted a defensive position at the pass.Initially it was a hard battle,but soon the Shu army was heavily defeated.King of Shu fled,and was later killed by Qin Troops in some months. In the winter of the same year,Shibasaku took the opportunity and attacked Ba as well .
(While we have no concrete evidence of how many troops were there for battle with Shu,The Old Qin dramas mention that in this battle Qin was outnumbered by the enemy,and most of historical records point this as 'heavy battle'.)
310BC: Chen Zhuang(regional commander of Shu appointed by Qin) rebelled and Shibasaku was sent to destroy the rebellion.The rebellion was crushed,and Chen Zhuang died.
301BC: Duke Ning Hui of Shu rebelled against Qin (some say he was later framed by his stepmother), and Shibasaku went to pacify the rebellion. He granted Ning Hui a sword=>and Ning Hui and his wife chose to take their own lives.
~ Shibasaku pacified the land of Shu three times. It is said that he personally oversaw the construction of towers, city walls, and gatehouses in Chengdu, and remnants of these structures endured until the Jin Dynasty.~
295BC: Shibasaku served as State Captain and led the army to attack Xiangcheng of Wei. (he succeded)
293BC: Hakuki succeded Shibasaku as State Captain while Shibasaku was promoted to Left Chancellar position. (State Captain was highest rank for military). - ''Zizhi Tongjian'' created by Sima Guang in Song Dynasty Time.
292-291BC: Shibasaku served as the Left Chancellor and was tasked with leading the army alongside attack the Wei state,capturing the Zhi territory of Wei.He also attacked the Han state alongside Hakuki, seizing the Deng territory of Han.
289BC: Shibasaku and Hakuki,invaded Wei,capturing 3 cities(Yuancheng, Jueqiao and Heyong).After this,the Qin Army arrived in previously captured Zhi territory,and captured another 61(both large and small cities) from Wei.
https://preview.redd.it/c29apq85tduc1.jpg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dc84477fee6ca5bc6fa324f8766db933e67bca96
286BC: Shibasaku conducted the military campaign against the state of Wei 魏 and forced the king of this state to cede the territory of Henei 河內 and the former capital Anyi 安邑.
280BC: Shibasaku also realized the large riverine campaign along the River Fuling涪陵江 commanding 200k troops.
The Qin army defeated the Chu army and captured Qianzhong County 黔中(from where Chu was much easier to attack in future) of the Chu State forced the Chu State to cede the land north of the Han River and Shangyong to the Qin State.
-This is his last mention,so he probably retired and died later of either old age either an ilness,we dont know since his fate is never mentioned.His family continued to serve under Qin and other empires as well-> Sima Jin(his grandson), was the deputy general of Hakuki,he killed himself alongside Hakuki later. Sima Chang, the grandson of Sima Jin, was the chief iron officer of Qin(in charge of controlling the iron supply of Qin) .The son of Sima Chang was Sima Wuze was a Master of the Market of Han Dynasty.The son of Sima Wuze was Sima Xi,he was a Lord of the fifth rank. The son of Sima Xi was Ma Tan of Taishi Company. The son of Sima Tan was Sima Qian, the author of "Historical Records" of the Han Dynasty.

"Shibasaku was a strategist with innovative and pioneering ideas. His ideas not only helped Qin basically to destroy Chu, but also provided a reference for future kings who wanted to attack the Central Plains from Shu. When Shibasaku initially focused on attacking Shu, he said: "If you win Shu, you will win Chu. If Chu dies, the world will be united." This shows that he had foresight. -

Military Records Compilation Committee of Qindu

2.Hakuki(Bai Qi 白起)

He was also called "Ducal Grandson" Gongsun Qi 公孫起 because he was related to the house of Qin.He was appointed to the position of Right Militia after he had been recommended to King Zhaoxiang 秦昭襄王 by Counsellor-in-chief Wei Ran 魏冉, and was granted the twelfth grade of nobility.
''His lively gaze mirrored his decisive actions, thorough analysis, and strong will. He excelled in troop deployment and maintained a close bond with Wei Ran.''
Military:
294BC: Hakuki was sent to attack Xingcheng in Han.
Battle of Yi Que(293BC)
With Wei Ran's recommendation,Hakuki was promoted.Meanwhile the allied forces of Han, Wei and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty guarded Weihan to prevent Qin from advancing eastward.Hakuki was sent to deal with this situation.
Qin troops were 120k while Wei&Han combined army was 240k commanded by Gongsun Xi and Bao Yuan.
Yique terrain was dangerous,having mountains,forests and a river,making it an important strategical location.
Among the coalition forces of the states of Han and Wei, the Han army was weak, and their chief general, Bao Yuan, hoped that the Wei allied forces would take the lead in battle.
Gongsun Xi believed that although the Han army's combat strength was not particularly strong, their crossbows, armor, shields, bronze helmets,were all of excellent quality. Therefore, he hoped that the Han army would take the lead as the vanguard.
Hakuki stood on the gentle slope of Yi Que, overlooking the armies of Han and Wei. The Han army was positioned in front, with their allied Wei forces slightly behind and to the side.Scouts and Spies,brought news that the commanders of both the Han and Wei armies were showing signs of discord, with each side blaming the other and preserving their own strength, neither willing to engage with the Qin army first.
In response to this situation, Hakuki decided to adopt a strategy of avoiding the strong and striking the weak, aiming to divide and conquer while sowing discord among allied forces.
https://preview.redd.it/gokjrh05uduc1.jpg?width=598&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=14863559bc9ef3383cea0dc6f501196376c40101
At the onset of the battle, Hakuki first deployed a small number of decoy troops to confront the Han army, creating an appearance of intending to attack the Han forces.These decoy troops consisted of numerous banners and fluttering ribbons arrayed at the front lines, causing confusion among the enemy and leading them to mistakenly believe that this was the direction of the main attack.The Han army, unaware of the true situation, was thus held in check by the Qin decoy troops.
Hakuki then withdrew his elite main forces and maneuvered them to the rear of the coalition army, taking advantage of the unready troops of the Wei to launch a sudden attack.Caught off guard, the Wei army was overwhelmed and forced to hastily engage in battle in the narrow area around the Yi Que mountain.Unable to coordinate their formation in time, they scattered and fought individually, leading to a swift and devastating defeat.
Upon learning that their allied flank had been instantly routed, the morale of the Han army plummeted.Soldiers mutinied, and the commander lost control as the situation deteriorated. At this moment, the flank of the Han army was fully exposed to the formidable main forces of the Qin army. Before any orders could be given by the commander, they were immediately flanked by the Qin forces, leading to the swift collapse and retreat of the Han army.
Seizing the opportunity, the Qin army pursued the fleeing enemy, further expanding their gains,capturing Yi Que and other 5 cities.He also crossed the river and captured land from Han as well.
https://preview.redd.it/d0pi5wrbuduc1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5a7770e6c9389dfe5f73c693116390f8731ddd76
A big part of the combined army surrendered and he had them massacrated,all of them,all 240k(including Gongsun Xi) -but i believe this number its a bit inflated,also Qin casualties were in tens of thousands,but we dont know the exact number. Because the oustanding result,he was promoted to National Captain. I already discussed about how he took part in campaigns alongside Shibasaku(292,291,289BC),so I wont discuss that again but i ll add new details about the battles where I can.
Now we had an interesting record,in 282BC ,Hakuki was sent to attack Zhao,capturing 1 city.
And we have: ''Hakuki attacked the State of Zhao, beheading 20,000-30,000 peoples,wiping out a city'' -which appear in ''Historical Records'' and his Biography ,but on the other hand we have ''In 282 BC, the Qin State sent general Bai Qi to capture two places in the Zhao State. The next year, Qin sent troops to capture Zhao's Shicheng;another year later, it attacked Zhao again. The two countries fought and fought. Zhao lost more than 20,000 troops, but the Qin army's offensive was stopped'' which also appear in Historical Records,Zhan Guo Ce,Zhao records and General Military History of China(a modern book) as well,which implies that Hakuki was stopped by Zhao even tough it come at a cost of 20k troops and 1 city got destroyed. The Zhao General who has the achivment for stopping Hakuki is Rin Shou Jou(Lin Xiangru). -it was mentioned in the Military History of China(the book) and if you search for his chinese name it would be mentioned on those sites as well listing multiple modern sources.
This would also explain why when RSJ speaked with King Sho,the following years,Qin didnt dared to attack Zhao right away even after being deceived by RSJ with the Jade thing 2 times(and this was considered a great insult yet they didnt dared to attack).While Zhao deployed troops near border,Qin still outnumbered them but instead they opted for peace.So Qin and Zhao made peace.
Also when RSJ arrived back home he convinced his disciples to stay and he made peace with Renpa(even in manga it was shown for them to be at each other throats,but in a funny way) I wont enter in details here since you re here for 6GG but he said this:''The reason why King of Qin did not dare to use troops against Zhao was because of the two of us'' -reffering to him and Renpa.
So I guess it was a dificult battle for Qin,or they suffered big casualties,and the campaign wasn't worth anymore,Hakuki having a tendancy for stopping the attack if he is not sure in his chances or if the casualties would be too big.Either way,he stopped Hakuki.
https://preview.redd.it/qkjhesptuduc1.jpg?width=798&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=19170316e1c40c328d68efec62b17b5275af7b2c
Back to Hakuki
After Grand Riverine Campaign,Qin attacked Chu again,this time sending Hakuki.
Battle of Yanying(279-278BC)
At this time, political corruption prevailed within the state of Chu. King of Chu neglected state affairs,cities and fortifications as well as the army deteriorated over the years.
After analyzing the situations of both Qin and Chu,Hakuki decided to adopt a strategy of directly attacking the central regions of Chu's rule.
In 279 BC: 150k downstream along the Han River, capturing key towns along the coast. Hakuki ordered the destruction of bridges, burning of ships, and cutting off of retreat routes to show his determination for a decisive battle. Along the way, the Qin army searched for food to replenish their supplies(plundering grain supplies from conquered cities and villages right and left).
Meanwhile, the Chu army, engaged in fighting on their home turf, lacked morale as soldiers were preoccupied with concerns for their families, they were also unable to resist the fierce attacks of the Qin army, leading to successive retreats.
The Qin army advanced rapidly, swiftly capturing key locations in the Han River basin, including Dengcheng ,and advancing directly to the Chu capital, Yancheng,where Chu had assembled its main forces(100k but also civilians+militia etc) to block the Qin army's southward advance.Qin army was met with fierce resistance and the city endured prolonged attacks.Hakuki couldnt take the city by force.
Hakuki decided to take advantage of favorable conditions with Man River water flowing from Western Mountains to Eastern Side of the city.He ordered troops to build dams to store water,and also ordered them to construct long canals directly into Yancheng.The he flooded the city trough the canals,the city was unable to resist and was drowned,resulting in hundreads of thousands of soldiers and civillians deaths. He then led his army to capture Xiling.
In 278 BC,Hakuki launched another attack on Chu, seizing the capital Ying and burning the tombs of its previous kings in Yiling.
https://preview.redd.it/4a8io695vduc1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2985edea0f0f7d6a7272379a50469e5fb43e54b0
The Qin army advanced eastward to Jingling , forcing King of Chu to move the capital to Chen for self preservation. In this battle, Qin occupied vast territories around Dongting Lake, south of the Yangtze River, and north to Anlu, establishing Nanzhong, and Hakuki was ennobled as the Marquis of Wu'an for his achievements. Meanwhile, witnessing the nation's gradual decline, the patriotic poet Qu Yuan, in frustration, threw himself into the Miluo River.
Link to an animation for this battle: https://baike.baidu.com/item/鄢郢之战/3999239 (when you enter on site its literally the middle video above the title even tough its in chinese)
277BC:Hakuki and Zhang Ruo(the governor of Shuzhong County) led their troops to capture Wu County and the Jiangnan area,and established Qianzhong County here.
276BC: Hakuki attacked Wei and captured two cities.
Battle of Huayang(273BC)
Zhao and Wei Army attacked Huayang(an important city of Han), Han sent envoys to Wei Ran for aid.Wei Ran, alongside Ko Shou and Hakuki led the army to rescue Han.
While the allied forces and the Han army were deadlocked at Huayang, which was far from Qin territory, Wei and Zhao estimated that the Qin reinforcements would not arrive in the short term and thus were lax in their defense. (Zhao general was Jia Yan and Wei general was Mang Mao)
Hakuki adopted a strategy of attacking unexpectedly and exploiting weaknesses.The army set out from Xianyang, conducting rapid marches averaging one hundred miles per day, and arrived at Huayang within just 8 days. They immediately launched an attack on the relaxed Wei army, annihilating 150,000 soldiers of the Zhao-Wei coalition, capturing Zhao generals, and forcing Wei's prime minister Mang Mao to flee. Subsequently, they attacked the Zhao army again, defeating the reinforcements led by General Jia Yan after fierce battles, and captured 20,000 Zhao soldiers, drowning them in the Yellow River.
(Ko Shou ,also beheaded 40k troops 1 year earlier,before this battle).
Anyway with the main force of the Wei army mostly annihilated and unable to continue fighting, General Duan Ganzi of Wei requested to cede Nanyang to Qin in exchange for peace.Qin and Wei made peace.
For this battle Qin had around 100k,the casualties on their side were tens of thousands while from Wei and Zhao(who combined had about 190k,Wei lost 130k and Zhao 20k)
*after this battle,Wei army was literally destroyed it would take good years to replenish*
Battle of Xingcheng(265-264BC)
Fan Ju, a man from the state of Wei, fled to the state of Qin due to persecution by the Prime Minister of Wei, Wèi Qí. In Qin, Fan Ju, in the capacity of a guest official, advised King of Qin against the shortcomings of Wei Ran, who repeatedly led Qin's troops to cross the borders of Han and Wei to attack the state of Qi, expending great effort for minimal gains(actually Wei Ran did this because it would help his private estate to get richer)
He proposed the famous strategy of "befriend the distant, attack the nearby", suggesting that Qin should use a combination of benevolence and intimidation to befriend the states of Wei and Han, while threatening the states of Chu and Zhao.Qin would then launch attacks on the nearby states of Han and Wei to expand its territory. King of Qin adopted Fàn Jū's advice and launched attacks on the neighboring states of Han and Wei.
In 264 BC, King Zhaoxiang of Qin ordered Hakuki, to attack Xingcheng in Han, capturing five cities including Xingcheng and killing 50k(''beheading them'') Han soldiers, thus initiating the Battle of Xingcheng.
The following year (263 BC), Hakuki led his army to blockade the Taihang Mountains in Nanyang.
In 262 BC,Hakuki captured the city of Yewang in Han, severing the connection between Shangdang Commandery and the Han territory. The prefect of Shangdang Commandery, Fēng Tíng, had no choice but to surrender to the state of Zhao, triggering the famous Battle of Changping between Qin and Zhao.
*Explanation: Feng Ting did not want to surrender to Qin,because they were pretty brutal,so they instead surrendered to Zhao because this way Qin would be angry and the 2 states would fight.Zhao Court officials rejected the ideea because ''it would bring more disaster than benefits'',but who are you to say to Tojou Father to not accept a stupid decisions?So Zhao accepted the ideea.
Then Renpa was sent to defend Changping against Qin army.
Battle of Changping (Chouhei) 262-260BC
In 262 BC, the Qin army, led by Ouki(Wang He/Yi), invaded Shangdang, and Feng Ting had to evacuate the commandery fleeing to Zhao and merging with Renpa army.The Zhao army also mobilized, and after arriving at the front line, Renpa strategy in the beginning was to asses the enemy commander strength,so he set up 3 defensive lines pivoting south of Changping Pass.
The first was the Kongcangling , the second was the Danhe Line, and the third was the Bailishi Great Wall.
These three defense lines stretched east to west for dozens of miles, intricately interconnected.
https://preview.redd.it/738aczl0wduc1.png?width=831&format=png&auto=webp&s=47fae8327c2d4bb9f5e93a1e9065778115186301
Ouki troops: 550-600k
Renpa troops: 450K (Han troops included)
In April,Zhao Army first encountered Qin army west of Gaoping Pass on Renpa first defensive line.Initially Zhao army killed Qin scouts,but they were soon overwhelmed by Qin giant number,resulting in Zhao losing several skirmishes in the beggining resulting in losing the Commander in Gaoping(in April) and some strongholds nearby(1-2 months later,also losing 4 captains in process)
Renpa now assesed the enemy strength,he concluded that field battles are disadvantageous for Zhao Army,while he was outnumbered,so he opted to counter Qin by holding the 2nd line of defense along the Dan River(which was a large river)
https://preview.redd.it/zgfy1rg9wduc1.jpg?width=577&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6f37a7733c9abd9ce7582780cc3fae43a5a1ba15
He started focusing on further reinforcing positions on the east bank of Dan River valley using fortified ramparts built along the mountain foothills, hoping to exhaust the Qin army, as Changping was much farther away from Qin territory than Zhao and keeping the army supplied would be much more taxing to the Qin due to the more rugged and winding mountain routes in the west.
The Qin army attempted to cross the river multiple times under Ouki command,once they even managed to breach a part of the 2nd line,but the only issue with this strategy was that Renpa could always surround them and deliver heavy casualties to Qin Army,thus repulsing Qin army back while Zhao Army did not suffered many.
This happened for more times,and Qin Army was pretty frustrated with how the war was going.
At this point Hakuki was holding the greatest rank in military,he also come to the battle multiple times inspecting and giving directions and commanding as well(before Ouki was being replaced by him) *Lian Po -is Renpa in case someone might ask*
Hakuki observing the battlefield
Sources- ''Bai Qi led a large army into the territory of Wu'an, when suddenly a scout came to report: "Twenty li to the east, we found the Zhao army's supply camp, heavily guarded by General Lian Po." " After hearing the scout report, Bai Qi was suspicious and went to inspect it himself. It was okay if he didn't look at it, but when he looked at it, he was shocked. He saw bags of food piled up layer by layer in Zhao's military camp. he military camp below was lined with large tents and the flags were in order. So he looked up to the sky and sighed: "Zhao's army has enough food and good soldiers, but God will not help me." He hurriedly ordered the troops to retreat. From then on, this nameless hill was called Sushan'' (this come from Tang Dynasty records)
There were also mentions in some modern records of Hakuki trying to attack some strongholds on 2nd line of Renpa defense but couldnt get them.
(In the anime 2nd season in Sanyou was mentioned in Qin court room that ''Even Hakuki could not get a castle from Renpa''.)- in the manga tough it was not shown.
(Those sources come from modern records (not the old ones like Shji and Zhan Guo) ,but they come from Li Dei from Department of War Theory and Strategic Research, from Academy of Military Sciences and from Directory of Chinese Generals from Ancient Times to the Tang Dynasty as well + others but those that i shared are the most relevant) -so with this we can conclude that this happened,and not just 1 time Hakuki himself comed to the field,at least from the modern records historical point of view,since the old ones doesn't mention this,but the old records also doesnt mention the abundance of details in battles that happened in general. Keep in mind that there were probably a lot of skirmishes, most don't have names, let alone details,most arent even mentioned.Often times, annals just mention at a certain year that something happened.A certain campaign might also have numerous battles, and the number of fights were even mentioned, but these minor fightings were almost never given details (if they are mentioned at all), and were considered to be under one military operation, of which only the results and the most decisive event were given a description (sometimes, even these aren't given descriptions)
Either way,back to Changping battle,both Qin and Zhao Kings were frustrated.Qin because suffered heavy casualties and the war become a stalemate since they didnt dared to attack again,while Zhao was mad with the lack of action and that it cost a lot to maintain the giant army fighting Qin.
So after years of war,Qin sent spies to the Zhao court,praising Choukatsu(Zhao Kuo) as great general,son of great Lord Ma'Fu (Chousha) and that Qin is afraid of him,not afraid of Renpa.
Tojou father having Tojou brain rot,called Choukatsu and asked him if he could defeat the enemy.Choukatsu agreed and said he could defeat them easily.
Zhao Court Officials opposed this ideea right away,saying that its foolish to replace the veteran Renpa with Choukatsu who didnt fought a single battle so far. Choukatsu mother also said he is not a great general and how his father often said that he took the war to lightly and he is good just on paper,but when it come to the real war he is not flexible and would do mistakes.
"The battlefield is a place of death, yet Chou Katsu speaks lightly of it. If Zhao does not make Chou Katsu its commander, that's the end of it. If they must needs make him commander, it’s Chou Katsu who will defeat Zhao’s army." -Chousha of 3GH
Gakujou also opposed this ideea,Rin Shou Jou(who was very ill at this time) literally begged the king to not replace Renpa with Choukatsu because it would bring a disaster to Zhao Army.
Either way Zhao changed Renpa with Chou Katsu,while Qin secretly changed Ouki with Hakuki.
*Now we know the total number of troops,but I have some records that conflict each other here,one is when Renpa in beginning of the war ,only had 200k and then receiving later another 200k(in months or next year) after the mobilization was complete,another is when Choukatsu replaced Renpa and he come with 200k as reinforcments(after 2 yrs of war),either way ,total Zhao troops should been around 450k with Han army,but I can't say exactly for sure with how many troops either Zhao or Qin begin the battle.Qin troops also grow exponentially as the War raged on,King Sho sended troops to the front multiple times - but I wanted to share this with you in case you might want to know.*
In July 260 BC, Chou Katsu arrived at Changping and took over command of the Zhao army.He discarded all previous strategies made by Renpa and also replaced all Renpa veteran officers with young officers from his side.
He decided to take his main force north to quickly cross the Dan River and attack the left flank of the Qin army stationed along the river's west bank,hoping a decisive offense would be enough to break the Qin army. In doing so, he left most of the provisions stored at the old main camp further south along the river, which was now relatively undermanned and could not secure the elongated supply line stretched along in front of the Qin army across the river.
Unknown to Chou Katsu,Hakuki had anticipated his plan and responded with a maneuver that resembled the later Battle of Cannae.
Hakuki had deliberately reduced the strength of his left flank stationed along the river, and had a line of hill fortifications further west of the river reinforced instead. When Choukatsu crossed the river and attacked, the Qin left flank quickly abandoned their riverside positions and withdrew back west toward the hills, drawing Choukatsu to chase after them. However, a Qin detachment of 25,000 men had then traversed north through the Taiyue Mountains to perform a wide left encirclement behind Zhao's third defensive line stapled around the Changping Pass, cutting off Zhao supply lines from the north. At the same time, another detachment of 5,000 light cavalry with bows and crossbows advanced on the right and crossed the Dan River to cut off communications between Zhao Kuo's new camp and their southern main depot, splitting the Zhao army into two, and Hakuki main force immediately followed in to secure and choke off the Dan River valley exits.These detachments eventually completed a triangular encirclement that trapped Zhao forces around a small mountain range.
Choukatsu soon found his attack against the enemy left flank halted by the Qin hill fortifications, unable to make any progress. He then realized that his rear were being ambushed by the Qin cavalry and provisions were quickly running low, and was forced to abandon his offensives and pull back across the river. The Qin army then counterattacked and pursued, inflicting heavy casualties upon Zhao retreating army. After being unable to reach the friendly forces in the south, the Zhao Kuo's army dug in on a hill and had to await relief.
However, since 295 BC, Zhao foreign policy had been dominated by opportunism, and had frequently shifted between hezong (合縱) (anti-Qin alliances) and lianheng (連橫) (pro-Qin alliances), depleting its diplomatic goodwill with other states. Therefore, as the battles in Changping unfolded, Zhao was unable to secure any help from either the State of Chu or the State of Qi.
King of Qin used this opportunity to mobilize additional forces against Zhao from, by bestowing one grade of noble rank on the population as merits and ordered a nationwide mobilization conscripting every able-bodied man over the age of 15, with the king himself personally overseeing the reserves to the Changping frontline in order to further bolster the encirclement.
With the enemy firmly trapped, Hakuki started repeatedly launching attacks to further wear out the Zhao army and deny them any chance of escape. Choukatsu improvised hill positions were besieged non-stop for 46 days, and by September, with winter nearing, his army's struggle for survival grew more desperate, with the starving Zhao soldiers slaughtering all the horses and allegedly even murdering and feeding on each other. The fighting was also so fierce that half of the Qin soldiers were killed in combat, but the exhausted and demoralized Zhao army was ultimately unsuccessful in breaking out. Chou katsu was eventually killed by Qin crossbowmen when leading his best troops in a final attempt to breach the encirclement. With their commander dead, the remaining Zhao army gave up and surrendered.
Hakuki wanted to take advantage of the victory and quickly lay siege to Handan, but guarding and feeding the large number of prisoners of war would be a huge burden, and releasing them was out of the question because the newly subdued local population was still hostile to Qin rule and these Zhao captives would likely get reconscripted or participate in revolts.
As a one-off solution, Hakuki ordered the captured Zhao soldiers all to be executed, presumably by being buried alive;only 240 of the youngest soldiers were spared and released back to Zhao to spread terror. Han dynasty historian Sima Qian stated in his chronicle (written about 150 years later) that over 450,000 Zhao soldiers were killed during and after the battle.
It is also debated if Hakuki alone decided to slaughter everyone or if he got the order from King Sho,either way this massacre had long term effects.Prior to this campaign, Zhao had been one of the most militarily powerful states of the Warring States and arguably the only one that could resist Qin's expansion aside from Chu. Instead, it never recovered from the loss of manpower at Changping. Meanwhile, three years of war had financially and domestically exhausted Qin as well.
About the casualties on both sides,Qin troops casualties were around 250k(most of them were against Renpa),while Zhao casualties were 450k. The 450k number seems exagerated,so it was probably lower,but we know it was so big that zhao was never able to properly organize an army bigger than 150k again,even after decades.
''The Battle of Changping was the largest war in the Warring States period.Its intensity was rare even in the era of old weapons worldwide.Not only does it deserve research for the strategic successes and failures of the highest decision-making levels of the major states, but it also concentrates the participation of the most outstanding military strategists of the Warring States era, such as Lian Po(Renpa) and Bai Qi(Hakuki). This battle involved these legendary generals commanding with unparalleled strategic acumen, thus embodying the ancient and rich military science theories and practical experiences of ancient China.'' -Anthology of Historical Records
https://preview.redd.it/kmxw9eurxduc1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d80696d933869af0498128563d6ab34bba6cc444
After this battle,somehow Shadong County was recaptured by Zhao,and in 259BC Hakuki led the army again,he splitted his army into 3, Ouki(he gone and captured Buan and Pilao),Sima Geng captured Taigen,and Hakuki himself led his army to attack Kantan(Handan).
Zhao could not risk to send forces to defend against Ouki and Sima Geng,and they instead amassed everything they could at Kantan to stop Qin,since if Kantan falled,then whole Zhao would fall.
Fan Ju was jealous of Hakuki,he tought that it would overshadow his career in Qin,so he tried to convince the King Sho to stop the offensive because if he was to succeed then it would make Hakuki even more stronger in Qin. Hakuki has other opinion,he wanted to attack Zhao now because they couldnt properly organise after Changping Battle,and there was a good chance Kantan would fall.
Fan Ju convinced King Sho with things like ''qin troops are very tired of war'' and other things and Qin and Zhao made peace.This enraged Hakuki.
Fan Ju representation
1 year later,Qin attacked Zhao again,this time attacking Handan(Kantan).At this point Hakuki and Fan Ju were having a conflict.
Hakuki refused to command the army and feigned sickness.He believed that the State Zhao had been well prepared this time.Also, led by great general Renpa, every one of Zhao was ready to revenge for their sacrificed people in the Battle of Changping.He tought it would be a very difficult battle and advised King Sho to not attack Kantan.King Sho did not listen,and initiated the war.
With Battle of Handan(Kantan) ongoing,more defeats and high casualties occured in Qin army(we will speak about this right away when we go to Ouki),King Sho asked multiple times for Hakuki to led the army,but Hakuki stubborn in nature,refused.
''At this time, Hakuki recovered from illness, and King Sho intended to appoint him to lead the attack on Handan(Kantan).Hakuki advised King Sho, saying, "Handan is not easy to conquer. Moreover, if the other states come to its aid, their troops will arrive within a short time.The other states have resented Qin for a long time. Although Qin has defeated the Zhao army at Changping, the casualties were also big on our side. Our army is far away, contending for someone else's capital. If Zhao collaborates internally while the other states support externally, they will surely be able to defeat the Qin army.Therefore, we should not attack Zhao with our troops."
King Sho personally requested Hakuki to come out of retirement, but Hakuki declined. King Sho then sent Fan Ju to visit Hakuki and criticized him, saying: "You once won against the odds, achieving victories like a god (referring to his victories over Chu and defeats of Han and Wei coalition). How can you refuse to fight with strength against weakness and with numbers against few?"
Hakuki analyzed the situations during the attack on Chu and the defeat of the Han and Wei coalition, believing that he could win consecutively because of strategic advantages, rather than any supernatural prowess. He then pointed out that after the Battle of Changping, Qin failed to swiftly capitalize on its momentum to annihilate Zhao, which instead allowed Zhao time to recuperate and strengthen its resistance against Qin. Additionally, the people of Zhao would resort to defensive strategies and guerrilla warfare, making it difficult for Qin to defeat them in open battle. If Qin's military efforts yielded no results, it would prompt the other states to come to Zhao's aid. Therefore, Hakuki believed: "I see the harm but not the benefit." Fan Ju, feeling ashamed, withdrew after hearing Hakuki analysis and relayed his words to King Zhaoxiang. King Sho remarked, "Without Hakuki, wouldn't I be able to destroy Zhao?"
The battle unfolded exactly as Hakuki predicted,Chu and Wei come to aid Zhao,and Qin suffered heavy casualties.
Upon hearing this, Hakuki said, "In the beginning, the King of Qin did not heed my advice. What are the consequences now?"
King Sho, enraged, personally went to Hakuki residence and forcibly ordered him to lead the troops, saying, "Even if you are ill, you must lead troops for me. If you achieve military exploits, it is what I hope for, and I will reward you generously. If you refuse, I will resent you."
Hakuki said: "I understand that even if I go and achieve no military exploits,I can still avoid blame. But if I refuse to go, even if I have no fault, I cannot escape death. However, I just hope that the king can consider my humble strategy, abandon Zhao, and let the people recuperate to deal with the changes among the other states. To pacify the fearful, to attack the arrogant, to eliminate the unjust, with this, you can command the other states, and the world can be pacified. Why must Zhao be the first target of attack? This is what it means to yield to a minister yet conquer the world. If Your Majesty does not carefully consider my plan and insists on satisfying yourself psychologically at the expense of condemning me, it will also be conquering a minister but being subdued by the world. Which is greater, the prestige of conquering a minister or the prestige of conquering the world? It is said that wise kings cherish their countries, and loyal ministers cherish their reputations. A broken country cannot be made whole again, and the dead cannot be resurrected. I would rather face severe punishment and death than be the commander of a disgraced army. I hope Your Majesty will consider this carefully."
After this King Sho leaved without a response.Following this, Fan Ju once again requested Hakukito return to duty, but hakuki still claimed to be too ill. King Sho then demoted him to the rank of common soldier and exiled him to Yinmi.Hakuki did not immediately set out. Three months later, news of the Qin army's defeat continued to spread from Handan.
*I needed to literally stopped abruptly here because I exceeded the character count allowed on the post(over 40k,damn it REDDIT)\* You have the full continuation of the post,in the drive and on the kingdom discord(in both discords) in history spoilers section,PINNED.
I would want to thank you for reading this and arriving here,hope you liked this part of the post and I hope you would like the continuation that is in drive and on discord as well.

Hey kids did you know Homestuck is split into four roughly equally sized parts? You did? Alright, cool. Part 3 is the one between Cascade and the kids arriving at the new session.
So I’ve noticed an extremely big trend of people dropping off of Homestuck during part 3. If people get past the first few acts, this is typically when people lose interest and can’t complete the rest. This is also when most of the fandom dropped off Homestuck!
If you want to get into the Homestuck franchise, I recommend reading all of it. I am not advocating for people to skip parts of Homestuck, this is created totally independently of my personal opinions regarding the Parts of Homestuck. For some people reading the entire thing just isn’t an option for one reason or another, or at least an option they would enjoy substantially less than not reading it. So I made this handy dandy cheat sheet for people who can’t quite get through this part but still want to finish it, because luckily there isn’t really a whole lot you need to know to get into part 4.
Kind of
I will not summarize Act 6 Intermission 4 or Act 6 Intermission 5, because I suggest that those are read even if you are determined to skip over part 3 for a variety of reasons. Trust me, actually reading those will work a lot better than a summary.
A6I4 begins here
A6I5 begins here
I’m not doing this because I think part 4 is better necessarily, I’m doing this because there are a fuck ton of people who like Homestuck a lot and want to finish it but can’t because of the pacing and storytelling of part 3, and this might make at least someone more likely to finish (3/4ths of) the whole thing.
CASCADE
Still confused about what happened during Cascade? Don't worry, Hussie summarized the events of Cascade on their tumblr for confused readers. Although this isn’t in Homestuck proper, it is about as close to an official recap of Cascade as we’re gonna get.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Read these if you’re confused!

INTRODUCTION

So last time we left off Lord English was dramatically revealed to be this super jacked green version of Lil Cal and PSYCHE think fast dumbass

WHUH?????

The Scratch was a request from our heroes to Skaia to reset the session. However, in the physical world, Skaia can only influence one thing: The portals it uses to defend itself from meteors. After the scratch, the meteors carrying the eight humans created through John’s ectobiology would be redirected by Skaia. The kids’ ecto-ancestors would serve as the players of the new session, and the kids we were following would serve as their ancestors. For clarity, the players pre-scratch will be called the Beta Kids and the players post scratch will be called the Alpha Kids.
Nanna = Jane Crocker
Grandpa = Jake English
Bro = Dirk Strider
Mom = Roxy Lalonde
However, the times the meteors would land would not be a perfect mirror of what happened pre-scratch. For some reason, Dirk and Roxy’s meteors would land hundreds of years in the future rather than some time in the late 90s. The future? The whole time? Really? We are all shocked by this huge revelation.
As Doc Scratch explained, the trolls’ session was already scratched. However, the only pre-scratch trolls that matter are Aranea Serket (Marquise Spinneret Mindfang post scratch) and Meenah Pisces (Her Imperious Condescension post scratch). The rest are intentionally made to be as offensive, stupid, and pointless as humanly possible. This brings the total number of Trolls to 24 and the number of trolls we give a shit about to a nice even six and three quarters. More on these two later!!!

OKAY. WHO THE HELL ARE THESE GUYS?

Wait a second. Some background info first.
The post scratch universe is stored in the hand of Bilious Slick, which was severed from the rest of his body during the events of [S] Cascade. As explained by Doc Scratch’s troll ancestor fanfiction, HIC would travel to this scratched universe and arrive at earth, hatching a plan to use its sburb session to create a new universe under her eye that she may rule with an iron fin. HIC would be undercover under the persona of Betty Crocker for years, slowly building her pastry empire and influencing politics behind the scenes. After Jane’s entry into her session, she would initiate a total takeover of the earth. Due to being an alien fish lady, she would suck at ruling humans, and hundreds of years in the future the earth would be almost completely flooded because of her shenanigans and the only two humans left alive would be Dirk and Roxy. If you want to be infodumped about this lore, read this pesterlog.
Also all of the Alpha kids are 15 rather than 13.
Also I don’t remember if Scratch mentioned this, but HIC mastered all of the caste specific powers of trolls. She can commune with animals, has telekinesis, can fire massive lasers, the whole shebang. She is all of the X-men.
Also post scratch Dave and Rose die valiantly fighting HIC after killing her dual puppet presidents of the United States, Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J.
JANE CROCKER is a Prospit Maid of Life and the heiress of the Crockercorp empire. She would be groomed to work for HIC since birth, especially using her strange crockercorp computer the “Tiaratop”. She likes baking and Problem Sleuth or something.
JAKE ENGLISH is a Prospit Page of Hope who can probably be best described as a comically exaggerated parody of John. His grandmother, a famous scientist and CEO of Skaianet, was brutally murdered by HIC when he was very young due to her pissing her off one too many times (This is also why his last name is English. Jade adopted the last name of the one person HIC feared (If you want to see Jake and his imaginary friend ramble about this, again, this is the crucial HIC infodump pesterlog)). He lives in the ruins of her house on an island riddled with deadly gigantic versions of the lusii of the trolls we’re familiar with. He fancies himself a brave plucky adventurer boy but really he’s just kind of pathetic and gets his ass kicked a lot. He is apparently supernaturally attractive, because all of his friends have massive crushes on him causing loads of wacky interpersonal drama. He does not notice/refuses to acknowledge this because he is obsessed with himself and his weird adventure boy persona. He is pretty heavily implied to have a crush on Roxy. He has this imaginary brain ghost idealized version of his best bro Dirk that only exists in his mind, which can become real if he believes hard enough.
ROXY LALONDE is a Derse Rogue of Void who can be most directly compared to Dave Strider. She has a rather playful but laid back personality. Her mother would leave her a fuck ton of alcohol stocked up in her house that she would indulge in due to crippling loneliness and a desire to feel a connection to her late mother. She has a crush on Jake but does not act on it out of respect for the feelings of her bestie Jane. So she mostly just has a crush on Dirk, who she drunkenly flirts with nearly every day with full knowledge that he is gay and is deeply uncomfortable with the whole situation. After a series of dreams where she sees a teenage version of her mother and being informed that young versions of their ancestors will arrive at their session, Roxy recovers from her alcoholism due to not wanting her mother to meet her an inebriated mess. After recovering from her addiction, Roxy kind of becomes the de facto leader of their session and the force that holds them together.
DIRK STRIDER is a Derse Prince of Heart who can most directly be compared to a very control freak-y Rose Lalonde. He’s kind of obsessed with his identity, but he also hates himself a lot. He does still have Lil Cal, but here he is “empty”, which makes a friend I will mention later terrified. He makes robots and shit, and is also extremely gay for his best friend Jake. Dirk tries to court Jake using a variety of strange methods. For example, he sends Jake a robot to “spar” with him, but on the lower settings he is apparently too “tender” and romantically advances on Jake which makes him extremely uncomfortable, and on higher settings he is completely impossible for Jake to beat and nearly kills him. Dirk blames his romantic failures on his personal Auto Responder he created from a ghost image of his brain when he was 13 thus making him supposedly developmentally “stuck” as a 13 year old. The Auto Responder constantly antagonizes Dirk and meddles in his life.
So the love triangle thing is that Dirk has a crush on Jake, Jake has a crush on Roxy, Roxy has a crush on everyone, and Jane has a crush on Jake. You got that? Okay. So Dirk wins this whole drawn out affair by killing himself through teleportative decapitation and convincing Jake that he has to kiss his severed head in order to revive him an event that kicks off their beautifully bromantic romance. Dirk and Jake’s relationship doesn’t last though because Dirk is too clingy and Jake starts ghosting him out of nowhere.
So stalking them from a viewport on some mysterious planet somewhere this entire time are two mysterious children
CALIBORN is a Derse Lord of Time. They’re this bratty violent misogynistic child who demands smut from Dirk and harasses our alpha males/females. Remember the friend I said I will mention later? This is them, say hi! They hate their sister and want to kill them more than anything.
CALLIOPE is a Prospit Muse of Space. They’re this infectiously positive and inexplicably British deviant art self insert tumblr girl who writes fanfiction and draws fanart of Homestuck characters, and desperately wants to be part of their adventures. Their weapon of choice is none other than the very same magnum we saw Doc Scratch use earlier, which has object duality with a conductor’s baton. Calliope desperately tries to get her brother to read Homestuck. She even color coded the dialogue for him!!! How thoughtful, imagine having that luxury.
They essentially take the role of the alpha kids’ Trolls. Also they’re the same person. The whole time? Really? Wow. This is because they are of a new species called Cherubs, a species that has a mysterious resemblance to Lord English.
Essentially, Cherubs have a split personality, a good half and an evil half. When one half goes to sleep, the other one wakes up. As a Cherub matures the stronger half will slowly take over the weaker half, until the weaker half is entirely absorbed into the victor’s subconscious. Caliborn and Calliope in particular have two chains attached to their legs which can only be opened by one of the Cherubs, meaning they can only access their side of the room when they sleep.
Calliope thinks that their destiny is to play sburb together, where they will learn to work together and learn valuable lessons or something and beat the game and kiss I guess. Caliborn finds this idea revolting and wants to play the game by himself without his beloathed sister, so he hires Jack to kill Calliope’s dream self, therefore killing her waking self prematurely. The death of their session’s destined second player causes Skaia to become covered in dark clouds. He then bites off the leg with the chain only calliope can open and replaces it with a robotic leg in order to escape his home. He plays the game by himself, causing a black hole to be released from the Cruxtruder rather than a Kernelsprite which sucks in the planet he’s on, which apparently has a bunch of statues of liberties on it. Wonder what that’s supposed to mean. And then he [INSERT A6I4 HERE].
GCAT is the post scratch equivalent of Bec, and he is implied to have been created using the genetic material of Jaspers and a “BARK” code Jake wrote in his sleep. He doesn’t actually do all that much. He isn’t owned by anyone and just teleports around fucking shit up occasionally.

ALRIGHT. WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS THOUGH?

Not much!

• None of the alpha kids would manage to prototype anything before entering into the medium, meaning Prospit and Derse would be at a permanent stalemate and the battlefield cannot be seeded to serve as a new universe. Their planets are empty, dull, depressing, have no completable quest, and in one case filled with deadly gas that instantly kills people. Luckily Jade helpfully shrunk her fully prototyped battlefield and will replace the unprototyped battlefield with their fertile one when she arrives. Hence, rather than four heroes, the alpha kids are the FOUR NOBLES, and their purpose is to sit on their ass and wait for the real heroes to arrive.
• Before Jane’s entry into the medium, HIC overthrew the black queen and is the new ruler of Derse.
• Jane’s dad, who is inexplicably the same as John’s dad, would be kidnapped almost immediately after entering and would remain kidnapped for all of part 3.
• Upon entry, Jane would come across none other than Gamzee, who is here due to time travel shenanigans and juggalo magic or something. He would offer to be Jane’s helpful guide. Upon rejection, Gamzee would all up and throw the corpses of his dead comrades into Kernelsprites to make strange sprite combinations of trolls. SOMEONE has to be their guide. Things would continue like this for a while spriteways.

ASSASSINATION GAMES

• Now undeterred by BQ’s obsession with game rules and keeping the whole thing “fair”, Jack would attempt to break the session’s stalemate by assassinating the nobles in their sleep before the session even starts. He would fail at assassinating Jane’s dream self, leading to his arrest on Prospit.
• CD would successfully kill Jake by feeding his dream self peanuts in his sleep.
• HB would attempt to assassinate Dirk’s dream self, believing him to still be asleep. He would be beheaded by Dirk in the process, as he was secretly awake the whole time. With his cover blown, Dirk parades through the streets of Derse with HB’s head in an act of sedition to declare himself very awake and very dangerous.
• DD would fail to locate Roxy, as at the time she was drunkenly sleepfloating out of her moon spire.
• Due to Jack’s arrest, DD would serve as the new acting Archagent of Derse. DD would smoothly and casually convince HIC to give him the black queen’s RING OF ORBS NOFOLD so he can kill Dirk and Roxy. After putting it on, he becomes… MY GOD. HE BECOMES… The Draconian Dignitary. The ring is called the ring of void, and it has the ability to turn people invisible and incorporeal, but does not transform people due to not being prototyped. Nobody knows where the white queen’s ring is. Yes, these rings are a Lord of the Rings reference. Anyway DD uses Red Miles.
• Due to a combination of HIC’s drones in the future, the Slayer’s red miles he used to destroy Billious Slick, and DD’s red miles, Roxy and Jane’s waking selves would die. With one “self” remaining each, the Alpha kids would all successfully enter together due to Dirk conducting xtreme shenanigans. Btw this is when Dirk proposed to Jake by killing himself.
• Lord English would order HIC to stop attempting to kill the nobles until her birthday on 4/13, which is in a few months. She goes back to the drawing board.
• It begins to dawn on HIC that everything she did for the last 1,000 pages may have been a colossal waste of everyone's time. Timeskip time!!!

WAIT WHAT ABOUT THOSE SPRITES

• Turns out, Sprites explode if they’re too mentally unstable. This would be true for Tavrisprite back when Jane first entered the medium, which was a combination of, you guessed it, Tavros and Vriska. Their ghosts appear next to each other in the furthest ring after this.
• The only sprite that matters is ARQUIUSPRITE, a combination of Equius and Dirk’s auto responder. He loves horses and muscles and himself and he wants you to touch his muscles and that’s all there is to say on the matter.
• ERISOLSPRITE, a combination of Eridan and the corpse of the alive half of Sollux, is also here but he doesn’t do anything because he hates everything too much. But that’s where Eridan is if you were wondering.
• FEFETASPRITE also explodes because ARquius sucks at apologizing. Don’t get too excited, their whole gimmick was that they never talk on screen because Feferi’s quirk is annoying.

OKAY NOW YOU CAN DO THE TIMESKIP

• Roxy would be captured by HIC and thrown in a jail cell on Derse, where she would be told to do an impossible task. However, she would escape with the aid of the Draconian Dignitary.
• The Nobles would be told by Caliborn that they need to die on their sacrificial slabs to go god tier. They would head to the centers of their respective moons, where they would settle their personal differences and wait to be killed so they can help their ecto-children when they arrive.
• Prospit’s moon would explode due to Gamzee giving Jack Lil Cal, causing him to become possessed with the power of Lord English. HIC would simultaneously explode Derse’s moon. They would go god tier as John and Jade would arrive at their session. Jack English would accost the prospit dreamers, but Jade would teleport him as far away as possible. HIC would then spring the trap she has been planning upon their arrival. She would use her animal communion powers to possess Jade and force the tiaratop onto Jane’s head, thereby putting them both under her command. Jade kicks Dirk’s ass and teleports him as far away as possible too, and Roxy and Jake are both captured and sent to Derse.

Also they’re all 16 by the end, because of the few months they spent in their session.
Here’s some miscellaneous resolved plot points from Part 1:
When Jaspers suddenly disappeared during Rose’s childhood he was actually appearified by Roxy and lived with her for a few years before being crushed by a massive book. Roxy then held a big cat funeral with all of the genetic offspring of Jaspers and transportalized him back to where he came, which unbeknownst to her was the house of an alternate universe version of herself. Oh yeah I guess I should mention that Roxy is an aspiring ectobiologist who clones a fuck ton of cats in her basement. They’re all definitely very dead now though.
Jake was the asshole who was appearifying all of those pumpkins this entire time. That’s a mystery that sure as hell didn’t need to be solved but damn if we didn’t just solve it. Appearifyin’ all these pumpkins. Fuckin’ pain in the ass.
Remember the C.R.U.N.K. poster of those two mysterious robots that was in Dave's room all the way back? Don't you wonder who they were? No to both questions? Too bad. They're two rap robots Bro built when he was young, SAWTOOTH and SQUAREWAVE. They do some cool shit with Dirk in this part but are ultimately irrelevant.

WAIT WHAT HAPPENED WITH THOSE OTHER GUYS FROM BEFORE

OK so before I explain anything, First Guardians can’t teleport when they’re in the furthest ring. They can only do localized teleportation within a universe. However, they can act as a portal to teleport other things directly to the green sun from practically anywhere.
Also, when ascending up the GOD TIERS, gods don’t get boondollars. That shit is for babies now. Instead, they get ACHIEVEMENT BADGES sewn on their KIDDIE CAMPER HANDYSASH, one of which is a badge that allows us to see their conversations formatted like a pesterlog without some gimmick like dream bubbles or sprites or flashes. There is now simply “dialogue”. Feels wrong doesn’t it? Also I guess Vriska just didn’t ascend any god tiers after defeating the black king.
Upon reaching the green sun, the four remaining trolls find Aradia, Sollux (now half dead), Rose, and Dave. Rose is appointed the new leader of the misfortune prone players, and decides that due to the failure of the plot to destroy the green sun they will now simply have to regroup at the new session and defeat Jack directly.
The PROSPITIAN MONARCH, unable to help her friends herself, teleports WV (who is still alive, but barely) and Serenity to the pupils she has inherited.
SOLLUX and ARADIA decide they want to remain in the dream bubbles, and give the meteor a telekinetic push at the speed of light with direction from Rose’s new powers to navigate stories to their conclusion. The SOVEREIGN SLAYER gives chase, and the Prospitian Monarch chases after him. The light speed journey of (most of) our main cast through the furthest ring will take 3 years. Almost immediately, their meteor intersects with a dream bubble where a doomed Feferi heals WV’s injuries. They will continue intersecting with many dream bubbles as they travel across the furthest ring, interacting with a variety of kooky characters that are all really lame and boring.
After witnessing Gamzee steal her friends' corpses, KANAYA endeavors to murder Gamzee, forcing him to hide in the vents. But then she gets bored and stops after a while.
DAVE and Terezi quickly begin dating, much to Karkat’s dismay. Rose also quickly loses interest in entertaining his shit all the time.
KARKAT ends up drifting apart from Terezi and Kanaya due to general immaturity and unapproachableness. He also bonds with Meenah a bit.
TEREZI is now wracked with guilt after failing to save her friends. Most of her time quickly becomes monopolized by Gamzee, who viciously mocks her. The two begin a particularly brutal and toxic secret kismesissitude. This strains the relationship between her and Dave, and they break up after he finds out about her secret Kismesissitude. Partially as a response to Gamzee’s mockery, Terezi would allow Aranea to heal her vision using her Sylph of Light powers.
GAMZEE’s moirailegence with Karkat quickly becomes unhealthy due to its one sided nature as well as his time being occupied by hiding later his relationship with Terezi, and his strange job in service of his new master Lord English. He also constructs a fake god hood, complete with legendary codpiece.
ROSE begins drinking a lot of alcohol because of anxiety relating to meeting her mom again. Her alcoholic powers give her the confidence necessary to make a move on Kanaya and they begin dating two years in, but next we see of them their relationship is kinda in shambles because of her alcoholism.
The WASTELANDIC VINDICATOR spends his time making additional plans for can town and ruminating on governance. He’s also just happy to still be included.
Now pretty much without anybody else to talk to, Dave and Karkat end up getting extremely close over the course of the meteor ride.

WHERE ARE THE PROSPIT DREAMERS?

JOHN and JADE are traversing the yellow yard, a journey that will conveniently also take exactly 3 years. John chooses not to teleport to the Green Sun, opting instead to keep his beloved sister company. They are not alone however, as they have with them ALL OF THE B LISTERS FROM THE FIRST HALF due to Jade having all of their planets. This includes Jaspersprite, Nannasprite, Casey von Bubbles Salamander Egbert-Lalonde, all of the surviving consorts, and all of the surviving carapacians. The only one that actually matters though is DAVESPRITE. Because they are essentially outside of the narrative of Homestuck, they don’t frequently dream of dream bubbles, and never meet any of their (alive) friends (for very long).
The journey is long, boring, draining, and lonely for everyone who didn't live alone on an island their whole life. Davesprite and Jade begin dating along the way, but they break up because Davesprite is just generally this depressed miserable asshole who makes everyone around him miserable by virtue of being a copy of someone who actually matters and presumably also having a corvid clitoris. All of this crap causes John to go completely insane and have a big tantrum about kicking Davesprite’s ass, and he also now thinks Con Air is a crappy movie. By the end of their journey, Jade and John will have been permanently distanced from the rest of their friend group.

WELL OK, I GUESS THAT’S EVERYO-

Wrong ding dong wake up asshole there are more subplots.
SPADES SLICK is still alive!!! He was saved from his suicide attempt/murder success due to personal intervention from Andrew Hussie, and is being nursed back to health after having been fitted with powerful cybernetic enhancements. However, Lord English appears to kill the author and put an end to his shenaniganry once and for all. Hussie tosses Slick off a massive cliff to protect him, before dueling his fellow author. He first draws Doc Scratch’s weapon of choice looted off Spades Slick: A magnum loaded with the one thing capable of harming Lord English, magic cueballs. Doc Scratch, however, only ever kept it loaded with one, which was fired by Slick earlier. In desperation, Hussie raises the CONDUCTOR’S BATON, the most powerful weapon in Homestuck. It doesn’t do anything however because magic is fake as shit and Hussie is murdered. Last we see of Slick, he has successfully climbed back onto the balcony of Hussiespace.
LORD ENGLISH then springs his genocide into action. He begins entering dream bubbles, raising his ill gotten CONDUCTOR’S BATON. His jaw would then unhinge, and unleashed from his putrid maw would be a powerful burst of rainbow energy. This shatters the dream bubble, killing all of the ghosts within. Yeah that’s right, he kills ghosts, thus earning him the title “The Angel of Double Death”. Well not exclusively it’s also an allusion to his creation in the shadow of the simultaneous death of two univer bah you get it. This is all in an attempt to find and kill the ghost of his beloathed sister, Calliope (This isn’t presented as a twist because everybody knows Caliborn is a very young Lord English as soon as we first see them.) Everybody begins freaking out about this, because Lord English is threatening to destroy all of reality with his technicolor bullshit. Several parties begin responding to his ramage:
VRISKA broke up with Doomed!John off screen, and Doomed!John is also now double dead because of Lord English. After the explosion of Tavrisprite, she and Tavros decide to look for a legendary treasure in the furthest ring, supposedly like the third only thing that can defeat Lord English. Andrew Hussie, now a ghost, proposes to her with this random ring and she immediately rejects him. Tavros then gets the ring and decides he is going to propose to Vriska with it. John, fresh from taking out his frustration by confirming the Slayer's demotion to tertiary antagonist with a little help from Rose, shows up and takes it from him and shoves him in a locker or something while being infodumped by her.
MEENAH is a Derse Thief of Life and is this spunky black coded fish lady. She wants to get a massive army of ghosts so she can beat the shit out of Lord English through the power of brute force.
ARANEA is a Prospit Sylph of Light and she’s this annoying sexy bookworm lady. Nobody really likes her, and she yearns for the life of adventure that her post scratch self led. She wants to find Calliope’s ghost, thinking her to be yet another only thing that can defeat Lord English.
Vriska and Meenah eventually get in a massive brawl and Aranea just kind of stands off to the side complaining. What’s the outcome? I guess you’ll just have to read Act 6 Intermission 5 to find out!!!!!!!!

WHAT’S A JUJU

fancy word for magic important thing
Remember the magic crowbar the guy with the seven hat carried? That’s the only thing that can break jujus. The egg timer is a juju, the oven that moves at one second per second is a juju, Die’s doll is a juju, Lil Cal is a Juju, the CAIRO OVERCOAT is a juju, etc. Cherubs LOVE jujus. Their favorite Jujus are drugs that make people go “trickster mode”, which makes them Caucasian and sickeningly saccharine. Yeah Lil Cal is a doll of a Cherub who is in trickster mode.

UHHH IS THAT IT?

Well here’s a brief Q&A
Q: Why did HIC try to kill the nobles if she was grooming Jane to be her minion since birth?
A: uh……… I guess that was a backup plan? We don’t know
Q: What’s with the Sollux half dead thing?
A: He explains it himself early in act 6 intermission 5, so please defer to his explanation
no more questions
Have fun reading the 2 remaining intermissions and then part 4! Or don't

Old time miscer here not quite a Zyzz golden age brah but a solid 2014 join date hundred of thousands rep power manmore(always rep back crew) and proud Platinum member
Been away from the misc,I got fucking old brahs and been trying to work on leaving moms basement and get on that 10k a day ceo status time, but here i try to come back for some lulz and what do I see?
Fukking nothing, these fukking phaggots can't even keep up a web 2.0 forum, lmao, bodybuilding com s YouTube's has 5 Milly subs and averages 100 hundred comments per video, whoever soyboy is in charge of their socials should get fired asap and demoted to run some cute discord server, they clearly have no idea what the fuk they are doing, the traction Seo power of some misc threads was crazy, write some fitness related chit in google and you'll get 2 out of 10 results are misc threads, thats crazy traffic that these troglodytes are throwing in the trash, not to mention they ll lose even more customers because I'll be damned if I ever purchase something again from them until they bring the misc back
But enough venting, I don't have a twitter account because I have a life but I will make itz and I'm asking of you phaggots, get one and destroy bbcom s twitter with requests to bring misc back, we are the lifeblood of the site, we are the original shit posters that were never mean spirited or completely deranged like 4chans psychopaths, the misc is the real home of cameratism, on the misc the brahs will call you a phaggot and make fun of you, but they will also go out of their way to help you,motivate you, and inform you, that was the beauty of it, tough love and lulz for days, and hnngss sometimes too, one of the places where people knew how to take a fucking joke and not be offended by their own shadow, I want it back, I demand it comes back, you should too, we spearheaded internet cultuere, we deserve better,don't ldar and do something about it, phaggot
Not to mention there's this hbb at my gym I need to approach, who the fuk am I supposed to ask for pickup lines now?? Tik tok?? Surely not Reddit, hold me brahs
Cliffs Semi OG Brah is old and nostalgic and mad misc is gone Wont ldar, sent mails and called them out
Might be intoxicated, might be a sex attic
Had to get a Reddit account for this chit
Will NOT thumbs up U phaggots, will just wait to see y'all back in misclhalla and rep you there with a cheeky kunt remark
In before go fist urself
Love you brahs
No homo
Full homo (not srs)
But srs thread is serious, come at me

CW: death
Obligatory long time lurker first time poster.
Do not cross post this anywhere.
Give me strength while I give yall a quick rundown of the drama fest that has been my life the last 6 months.
To start it is always sad when someone passes but her husband had been at deaths door playing ding dong ditch for the better part of 3 years. Anytime she called we expected it to be that he had finally not pulled through. Sadly, he didn't make it out of this most recent holiday season (being intentionally vague for privacy reasons).
As a little context we do not live in the same state as our families.
So we were home at the time of his passing which was unfortunate because that meant my husband felt obligated to attend the funeral. He only went to the funeral and not the wake which upset her but we already had plans with my family the day of the wake and we had to drive 90 mins to said family. We have 2 kids 3yo and 10mo baby. She traveling with them is already a hassle and my husband didn't want me having to wrangle both kids so he told her he wasn't going to the wake. She had expected us to cancel all plans. Spoiler alert it didn't happen.
So day of the wake passes and it's the day of the funeral. I didn't know her husband well and I don't do funerals since attending my mom's funeral as a teenager. They make me uncomfortable and I opted to stay at the house with the kids. Our oldest is nonverbal autistic so having them at organized events is like herding cats it doesn't go over so well. She was upset my husband showed up without the kids because she wanted to show off. Boohoo so sad my kids aren't props. My husband then went back to her house to do dinner with her that night and she was upset that the kids and I didn't go. We've never once taken our kids to her house because it's been a smokers house for the last 50+ years. So why she thought they would be there that night I have no idea.
So moving on we are back home she is in her state of residence and everything seems okay. Until she tells us she has decided to up and move across the country and leave her family behind because in her words "I'm not welcome there, they don't make me feel welcome." They've never done anything to make her unwelcome they just didn't really care for her husband and his misogynistic mindset and attitude but they were still both always invited to every holiday and family get together.
But she has decided the best course of action is to leave her stable job, her family and all her friends and move in with her middle child who she hasn't seen in at least 10 years.
She expected this news to have my DH all bent out of shape because she didn't ask to move in with him. In her mind he should be so upset that she chose someone else to support her instead of him. eyeroll. All he said to her was that's a great idea and I think it'll be really good for you and she somehow worked that up in her head to he doesn't love her.
We make it past that speed bump. My oldest has their 3rd birthday which she forgets. Doesn't call until 4 days after and says sorry I didn't want to call during the party. She thought the day we had the party was his actual birthday. It's not. She finally admitted that she forgot his birthday. I don't know how it's the day after her own son's birthday.
We get past that. Now on to her moving across the country we are the halfway point from point A to point B of her move. BIL was flying out to then drive her from point A to point B. We offered to let them stay with us for a night and they accepted. Day of we find out they got a hotel instead. Fine you want to spend money on it go for it.
They end up having dinner with us. Everything was great I later realized though that she would stop taking pictures when i was in frame. She expects me to be an ex one day because she has been married 4 times. (Funnily enough all 3 of her children are still only on their first marriages. And all still happily married.) I let it go because my husband takes enough pictures of me and my kids I don't need her too.
So they make it to point B the following day and then we don't hear from her for a few days. It's bliss. But then all of a sudden she is telling us don't accept friend requests from anyone from point A. Weird but okay. Come to find out in her huge moving sale she sold things that didn't belong to her and owners of said things were looking for her. She also just cut and run and left alot of loose ends. Typical MIL fashion though.
We get through that whole debacle which brings us to today. I extended one olive branch. Our youngest has their 1st birthday coming up and I wanted to invite her even though I knew she wouldn't make it more than likely. I ask for a place to send said invite and she tells me no need to send one through the mail because of distance and her being unemployed. The party isn't for 2 more months. But fine tell me not to send it and I won't. I told her as much. She is ignoring me again.
I think she thinks I an trying to get an address to send to the people she screwed over but I'm not. I just wanted to send her the invite so she had it.
But I'm done now. She doesn't have Facebook anymore so she won't see or receive any updates of my kids. My DH is 100% on my side. He's told her that she didn't have many chances left to get her act together. But because she is the type of person who has no personality unless it's who she is dating or married to she is adopting her sons persona since she lives with him. And he doesn't talk to or reach out to any family at all. So she is starting to be the same way. Pretty much everything that has happened in the last 6 5 months has been because she needed a new personality to assume and has assumed BIL's.
It's her loss. But she has officially gone from grandma to "Miss". Hope she enjoys the demotion.
If you made it this far thank you for reading. Maybe one day I will post about the idiocy she displayed when my DH had surgery a few years ago.

The movie is German, or at least the director is and I think the dialogue was German. It's contemporary, released sometime after 2000, probably closer to 2010.
It's about an actor in Germany with the lead role in a new play who is inexplicably demoted to a smaller insignificant role. To get revenge he hammers a nail through the foot of the actor who replaced him. His daughter contacts him asking if he'd agree to be tested by her doctors, who can't explain a strange medical issue she has. They want to know if she inherited it. The man is being followed by agents of the Catholic church for some mysterious reason. He eventually learns that they were responsible for his demotion in the play. At some point we learn that he had been abandoned in a forest as a young boy and his family had never been found.
I don't remember all the details, but the Catholic church eventually informs him that he's an alien who'd been left on Earth, along with other alien children, as some kind of social experiment. They want him to agree to return to his home planet. For some reason, they can't just kidnap him–he has to volunteer to return. He tells his daughter she's half alien, and she agrees to visit the ship with him. The Catholic church was involved because they'd discovered the aliens and made an agreement to help them find the children left on Earth and convince them to return. In exchange, the aliens would take a group of Catholic clergy back to their home planet, which doesn't have religion, to spread the word,
At the end, the Catholics discover they'd been deceived. As they are checking the cargo hold that they'd filled up with statues, crosses and various artifacts, the aliens open the hatch and in an instant, everything in the hold is blown into space.
If it helps, I also have a vague recollection that the name of the movie is a number, maybe the number of a year. Also the poster is kind of ugly. It's a stylized silhouette of a man's head and the rest is text.
FOUND IT! I had reviewed it on IMDB years ago with an old account, so I tried to remember other movies I'd reviewed back then, found one of them, then was able to see all the reviews I'd made with that account. The name of this film is "No. 10". The writedirector is Alex van Warmerdam.

(TL;DR : I'm a rambling, old, nostalgic fool)
Have you ever wanted to compare DDLC to some other completely different game, just because you felt an emotional connection? Even something that is NOT typically associated with DDLC (so no obvious choices like Undertale, Omori, etc) and you never told anyone, afraid that people would "WTF" you?
It happened to me. As I said in other posts, I was spoiled, but the end of Act 1 was still emotionally intense, so my mind had to find something to cling on, something known, but safe (fictional).
And I went back to "Beneath a Steel Sky" (from now on, "BaSS"), a cyberpunk point-and-click adventure, released in 1994 by Revolution Software.
It's legally free now, so you can play it, if you like.
Spoilers for both games will follow (duh!). And disturbing stuff (duh!)
I already hear a voice: "Are you MC-level dense? What part of cyberpunk dystopia you didn't get? In BaSS, you see a villain committing mass murder right in the friggin Prologue! You KNOW it's not a walk in the park, people can and will die! For crying our loud, you know right from the start that YOU can die! (in less ways than a Sierra adventure, but in far more ways than a Lucas adventure). What did you expect from a world in which swiping the wrong card in the wrong place will get you quickly disintegrated while nobody bats an eye? So there is NO way BaSS could have shocked you like the end of DDLC Act 1".
But it did.
Looking around on the web, there are no many discussions about BaSS, maybe because it came out before the Internet was popular, maybe because it wasn't shocking at all to most players?
I was younger and more naive, and totally Wrong Genre Savvy.
By the late mid-game, I had completely forgotten about those premises, and I was happily pocketing objects, solving puzzles, exhausting dialog trees with quirky NPCs and exchanging snarky remarks with my robot buddy Joey.
Yes, the humour was darker than your average Lucas adventure, but... I did not expect... THAT.
Maybe most people saw it coming, but I didn't.
So I (not so gently) opened the door, got shocked, labeled the savegame "A HORROR TURN", and considered not playing anymore.
Then, some days later, I got over it and went on. As expected, that bad moment was a turning point for the game, preparing you for other disturbing stuff (even if the ending felt a bit rushed... but I heard the same complaint for DDLC and other games).
So here are my parallels, before, during and after the turning point. Many of them are afterthoughts, of course.

• False general sense of safety. Yes, DLLC has the ominous warnings, but hey, it's still a cute dating sim, isn't it? BaSS has that dreadful prologue, and dark elements, but hey, it's still a humorous 90s point-and-click adventure, isn't it?
• False expectations about characters. Especially Sayori: not just a bubble of sunshine, she's framed as a typical "best" romancing choice for a dating sim. In BaSS, Anita Einbeck is clearly a potential ally, and I felt natural to compare her to similar female characters in Lucas adventures, like Elaine or Sophia, so also a potential love interest. The dreaded Smurfette Principle did not help: it was fully in charge in the first part of the game (and even later you meet very few female characters). Robert has no home to go back, he may defeat the villains, whoever they are, then settle to live in the city with Anita, or escape with her, or whatever. How foolish I was.
• You open the door and the world gets mean. Nuff said about Sayori, no reason to twist the knife (whoops, sorry Yuri). In BaSS, you open a locker door and there's Anita's corpse. I know her character is not fleshed out like Sayori, I know that I exchanged just a few words with her instead of all those dialogues with Sayori, but please cut me some slack, my emotions are what they are. In retrospect, there were clues, but while playing, I really never expected that to happen.
• It gets mean in a horrible way. The 90s pixel art of BaSS isn't detailed as DDLC modern graphics. But don't worry, our protagonist Robert will compensate by describing Anita's body, and the dreadful effects of radiation poisoning. She experienced a slow and painful death.
• You will never know the truth. Would have Sayori died without Monika's tampering? This is a source of endless debate in the fanbase. My sayorian answer veers towards 'no', but other people beg to differ, and I respect their opinion. In-game, you never get the chance to "investigate". In BaSS, was it an accident? just her boss negligence? Or was she deliberately murdered? If yes, was her boss? (seems the most obvious choice, but...). Was the crazy AI ? (possible, according to what a certain character said, but...). Someone else? You'll never know. You can investigate... very briefly. There are clues, but no solid evidence, and even if there was, "justice" in this world is served by kangaroo courts.
• And you'll blame yourself.... You know that the game railroads you, but... would have Sayori died if you had NOT join the Club, if you had not reconnected with her, if you did not pique Monika's interest with your mere presence? And in BaSS, you know that the game railroads you, but... would have Anita died if you had NOT been there, bothering her, asking for her help? Her boss hints he demoted her to reactor duty because of you. Also someone else hints it's because of you, for a different reason. And if you replay, you may notice a NPC who's very near while you talk with Anita... did he listen too much?
• ... even from a game mechanic standpoint. Again, you really have no choice, but... Even if Sayori is already dead behind that door, until you open it, you can still reload a savegame where she's alive. Of course, even with reloading you cannot change that outcome, but anyway... By opening the door, you seal her fate! In BaSS, you can save and load freely (Of course, even with reloading you cannot change that outcome), but anyway... discovering the locker room does not trigger Anita's death. Even if the pixel art of Anita's corpse is already behind the locker door, until you open it, she's alive! You can go back to the factory and talk to her! That's really a friggin Schrödinger's door! By opening the door, you seal her fate!
• A dreadful presence: the game twists the knife. You may see Sayori again in Act 2, but she's not her: maybe distrubing pictures in your folders, maybe as a special poem, maybe the "poster" of her death scene in the classroom background. :( . In BaSS, you'll meet Anita again, but she's not her: it's her virtual reality avatar, asking to carry on her mission. :(

I stop because my ramblings are becoming more and more groundless.
What do you think? does this wall of text make sense or is just a pipe dream?
(And what are your pipe dreams? for example, just the other week, Preston compared DDLC to the movie Dead Poet Society, that isn't even a game, and I would have never made the connection, but it rings some bells).

DO NOT COMMENT ON LINKED POSTS. I am NOT OP. Original post by u/throwaway49204 in relationships
trigger warnings: mentions of death, a drunk driving incident, possible emotional infidelity, cancer, financial abuse, emotional abuse, mentions of physical abuse
mood spoilers: good
 
*Me [31 F] with my husband [35 M] married 2 years together for 10. He doesn't want his kids to be like me. * - on October 2, 2014.
This morning I told my husband that his mom's good friend passed away. He was upset both about the passing, but mostly with me for telling him on his way to work. He said, "are you fucking retarded?" and told me that he didn't want his kids to turn out like me (we don't have any kids yet). He thinks I have no empathy.
I told him this morning because my mother tends to wait until she thinks it's the right time to tell me about deaths and other uncomfortable things and I think it's very controlling. Also he's always told me that he wants to know things right away.
But he was mad at me because now he's gonna be upset all day at work. Which I get, now, but I really felt like I was doing the right thing for him.
We are good most of the time, but he's going through a really stressful patch right now. I've been trying to shoulder a lot of the stress, let him take it out on me, etc.
I just feel so bad for ruining his day and I honestly feel like sometimes I'm ruining his life. I don't know what to do. I don't want to get divorced but I don't want him to feel like this. He says I'm bringing nothing to our relationship when I feel like I do so much for him.
I am willing to answer any other questions to clear things up. I honestly don't know what I am looking for by posting here. I just feel really lost.
tl;dr: Husband doesn't want our kids to be like me.
someone asked OOP if it was common for her husband to talk to her that way, and they explain that this is emotional abuse
OOP replied:

I wouldn't say he speaks to me like this. He often says "what is wrong with you?" to which I really have no reply and I don't know what he is trying to achieve by asking me that over and over. I told him I don't like it when he says that and there is nothing wrong with me, and he tells me not to act in a way that makes him say that.

Another reply from OOP:

It's really not that bad most of the time though. Usually we have fun and he makes me smile and laugh every day and we love each other very much. It's just when he gets mad at me about stuff that things get a little heated.
I really don't want to be with anyone else. I honestly don't see how anyone else would put up with my weirdness. I just want to try to get through this rough patch somehow.

another user: It's a common tactic of abusers to make you feel like you're so broken that no one else would want you. There's nothing wrong with you. You're internalizing his warped view, and it's damaging to your self-image.
Edit: Can you try telling me a few recent incidents that have resulted in his asking "What is wrong with you?!"
OOP:

Like last night when I let my car run out of gas, or this morning with the whole telling him about his mom's friend dying.

In other replies, OOP painted a picture of life with their husband:

See I never used to be stressed. My doctor told me I had "the blood pressure of a teenager" and now I have borderline high blood pressure. Even when I was really busy with a class that I had like a month to finish, I asked if he could help out by making dinner and doing his own laundry. He said no, it was my fault for procrastinating, and he shouldn't have to sacrifice to make up for it. It seemed right at the time but now I am questioning. Also he is now mad at me for the house being a wreck because I was so busy during that time I couldn't keep up. I feel really confused right now.
He's gotten mad at me for talking shit like that before though. I don't want to be a bad wife. I think I'm a mess.

Someone tells OOP that while her husband overreacted, her timing was bad
OOP:

Yeah in hindsight it would've been better to tell him after work. I was just worried about him talking to his mom in the meantime and not knowing, I wanted him to be prepared.

Another user: So what if he talked to his mom? Then he'd know through her, is that a bad thing?
OOP

No, but sometimes he has a tendency to be a little insensitive with her as well. He like, blew up at her for being flighty on the day she found out his dad had cancer, and then felt bad afterward because he didn't know everything that was going on.

Someone says her husband sounds like an angry person
OOP:

He definitely can be. He's gone to anger management a couple of times, and he's a lot better than he used to be.

Context for the reason her husband ended up in anger management

It was before he met me. He has a bit of a record and used to get in fights a lot.

Another commment from OOP:

I wouldn't say walk on eggshells. I know things that piss him off and try to avoid those things, but that's just a normal part of living with someone.

OOP explains part of why she didn't want to end the relationship

But he's stuck with me and hasn't left when I've done shitty things, so it's not really fair for me to leave over this?

Context

I wrecked my car driving drunk, I was talking to one of my old guy friends for a while and hiding it from him, and for a while I was texting with random dudes, nothing explicitly sexual, but flirty.

another user: Question - can you give full context [for the incident at the start of the thread]? I'm curious to what was said before, during and after. I saw you apparently let him know with a "your mom's friend passed away".
OOP replied:

He was taking me to work (because my car is out of gas). He had gotten over last night and we were talking about our cats or whatever. And then I said "oh, your mom's friend Clara died". And he said "Clara Miller?" and I said "yeah I think that's her last name. Like Clara and Mike? She was at our wedding?".
And he said "my aunt Clara" and started to cry a little and get emotional. That's when he got pissed at me for telling him on his way to work and said all the stuff I wrote in the intro. I apologized and told him that I thought he'd want to know right away and explained about my mom. I said I was thinking about how I would feel in your place and that's when he said that I only think about myself and don't think about him and that he doesn't want his kids to be like me. He didn't say that bit about the kids in an angry way. More in a resigned and dejected way.
Then he told me not to say anything else until I got out of the car, so I didn't say anything, not apologizing again, not goodbye or I love you.
Thinking about it now, there is a very real possibility that he didn't even know she was sick. I talk to his mom more than he does, but I assumed she had told him about it. She got diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and it spread quickly. They gave her 2 weeks on Tuesday, and she died that night. So if he didn't know, I could see how he would be very shocked, where as the rest of us knew it was coming. I don't know, it's really just a mess and I feel so bad about it.

A person who was once in OOP's shoes responded and warned her about escalation. Linking because it's quite long
This is OOP's reply to the post linked above:

We haven't moved away, but he does blame me for quitting his old job. He says he would've had a career there now and been making a lot more money (when in reality he had already been demoted and was miserable there). He blames me because I said we weren't spending enough time together (he was working nights).
When we are with my family he always wants to leave early or if I go by myself he pesters me and reminds me of stuff I have to do at home or with him until I leave.
We had one car for several months and even now with the gas thing: He told me he would bring me the gas can when he picked me up last night. Then he picked me up and we went to eat instead and he said he would send me with the gas can in the morning and I could sort it out myself. So when we were leaving I asked about the gas can and he said we didn't have time, he would sort it out tonight.
My name is on the bank account, but he has taken my debit card away and says that we are doing much better financially now because of it.
I always check with him if it's okay before I go anywhere, but there's always a problem with it later. I could go on and on about that topic.

__

But here's the thing. I love him so much and I don't want to leave him. Before I married him, I really thought a lot about unconditional love and what that means. And I played through some really fucked up scenarios in my head and confirmed that, yes, I would still love him if he did any of these things.
I took my promise to him very seriously. And really, like I said, things are really good most of the time.
Yes I was talking to other guys because they made me feel good and valued what I had to say and thought my hobbies and interests were interesting. Maybe it was a mini-midlife crisis. I don't know. But really at the end of the day I wanted my husband more than I wanted any of that. I still do. I love him and I love our life together.

A few more comments from OOP for context:

I just kind of let him unleash everything on me last night. I know he's upset about a lot of stuff. He can't yell at his dad's cancer, but he can yell at me, ya know? I'm just trying to take it all in. I love him and I want to be there for him.
He was definitely yelling at me, bringing up a lot of our past problems and stuff. Saying "why can't I give him a break?" when I know he's got a whole bunch of other stuff going on. My car ran out of gas at work yesterday, which is what initiated all of this. And he's right, I should've been more attentive to my own shit so he wouldn't have to come bail me out and put one more worry on his plate.
I totally could have walked to the gas station, I just happened to be on the phone with him when I found out my car was out of gas. I kinda want to walk to the gas station on my lunch break today but I'm afraid he'll be mad that I didn't let him handle it.
I'm actually pretty "well-adjusted" and have a good job and a slew of friends. I a kind of a weirdo sometimes, but I'm not like a pariah.

People overwhelmingly tell OOP that this relationship isn't healthy
 
*[UPDATE] Me [31F] with my husband [35 M] married 2 years together for 10. He doesn't want his kids to be like me. * - April 9, 2019, four years later, OOP shared her only update.
It took me 3 more years, but I finally left him last year.
This post helped me see how much was wrong in our relationship, but I was still so hesitant to leave.
We had pets and a beautiful home together and I loved his family and we had so many inside jokes and plans for the future.
But eventually it was all just too much for me to take any longer. The day after his parents' 50th anniversary party, I told him I wanted a divorce. I just couldn't see myself living like that for 50 years.
I moved from the suburbs to the city with a friend. I rekindled some old friendships from high school and made a bunch of new friends who I am so thankful for. He kept the dog, I took the cats.
I thought my life was ending but it was just beginning.
I told my (very religious) family and they were all understanding and supportive. I've maintained friendships with a good number of our mutual friends, friendships I was worried about losing.
I'm working on my masters degree and volunteering and experiencing life and love and art and beauty like I never thought was possible.
I met a guy at a friend's punk rock show and we hit it off, but we are taking things very slowly. He is wonderful and so kind to me.
If you are in an abusive relationship, please don't be afraid to leave.
It gets so much better. I still miss him from time to time. I feel guilty about getting divorced, guilty for wasting my parents money on a failed marriage. I miss his parents. I miss my dog.
But I am SO MUCH happier. My future feels uncertain, but that is better than feeling like a death sentence.
Thank you so much to everyone who offered advice and sympathized and even had harsh words for me deciding to stay.
tl;dr: Left my abusive husband. Life is much better.
EDIT: for those saying it didn’t sound that bad or abusive, you should know it got worse. It did escalate to physical abuse, us sleeping separately/no intimacy for a year.
If you think you are too old or too much trouble or have too much baggage or are too much anything, please believe that it is possible to find love again. Both loving yourself and having someone else love you 💕
a deleted user: I am so happy you finally were able to put that behind you and start a new life. And dont think about it as a failed marriage because you tried so much. Sometimes things don turn out how we expect but Thank God were alive for another change. Curious, what happened to him?
OOP replied:

He’s gone completely no contact, but I can only hope he’s doing well.

 
Reminder - I am not the original poster. DO NOT COMMENT ON LINKED POSTS.

I submitted an abstract for a talk to a major conference and it got demoted to a poster presentation (I'm a faculty member). This has never happened to me before! To be fair, I submitted it to a sub-discipline that I normally don't associate with intimately, but still... How bad is this and how embarrassed should I be? Any advice or wisdom?

Right off the bat, right when I got there, a trans woman told me she was leaving because a certain admin (a Ben Shapiro fan) was bullying her; a 20 year-old man told me he was groomed, and was eventually demoted because he refused Nick Grass’s sexual advance! A CA, now a SUP, made TWO—count ‘em, TWO—highly inappropriate comments regarding firearms (😳), then made an ominous comment that I 100% took as a threat towards me.
FOS, SUPS, and trainers stared me down, from day one. First time meeting them. Threatening glares and postering. Vaguely threatening comments and behavior.
The list goes on and on and on and on… I can’t even list them all, because there are too many, and I don’t want to dox myself—by the way, during an orientation, an FOS bragged about doxing an employee online and getting them fired! Wtf?
There are so many “CapTel horror stories”. Yes that is an actual term.
STILL, some of you take any chance you get to harass CAs, any way you can, and you do it under the guise of “doing your job”. Do you not understand how intimidating that is? Do you not understand you are creating a hostile work environment?
Do you now understand you’ve exposed yourself and the company you work for to a massive lawsuit?
And can you really blame me?? You think I say this stuff for fun? This is not fun. I can’t sleep at night.

Long time lurker, first time poster here.
I’m in a dilemma & thinking if you guys can put some light to it. I’m a 27 year old, working in the government sector. I was on Contract for a long time on a WG 11 pay scale, roughly $40/hr. It was an Admin Support role and I did that role for 3 years. I am a fast learner and pretty much got to a point where I was in the top 2 by performance (the other person wasn’t contract). Since it was almost 3 years and I was done uni, I started applying into FT roles for the benefits. A month later I got my first Permanent offer on a WG 8, roughly at $35/hr. It was a job in Finance and I don’t like it, but oh well everyone’s advice was you would be stupid to turn down a permanent offer like that. I accepted but I was applying into another role planning to keep this one as a base. I was basically going for more money + exposure. This is a WG 9 and I accepted it a year ago (at 37/hr), currently it’s $38.20 During this time, the WG 11 role was filled twice but the others couldn’t cut it and left soon. I am known to be a high performer wherever I go. In my 2nd month (May ‘23) I told my GM that this is not the ideal role I wanted to be in and he called it himself “yea, I don’t see you in a role like this. I have a big team (6 directors, and 4 managers under each) so explore which team you’d like to join. I see you fit in the IT transformation team”. I do agree since my background is in that but again I’m not a heavy codeprogrammer. We again chatted in Dec and he mentioned he had to wait for budget to be approved but he sees me in this role until end of the year (Dec ‘24) before he can move me into something I want. I was not too happy with this answer as I had already taken a demotion to join here. The Director in IT Transformation already wants me in his team but needs approval from my GM (also his boss) to proceed. GM said I need someone reliable who can take my job for me to move on to that Team. I am stretching it out but it is a lot of work for the pay I am getting.
Fast forward to last month, the role I had on contract (WG 11) got posted permanently and my previous manager directly sent me this posting asking if I’m applying. With Cost of Living increases, it’s now $42.05/hr for that role. I told him I’d think about it but applied anyway. I passed the assessment and have the interview next week. I’m 90% certain, they’d hand me the job but have to go through HR formalities. Once they send out offers, there would be a very short turnaround time.
With the one final offer on hand and a tentative offer (don’t know what WG they’d offer me) for the end of the year, what should I stick to? Do I go back to the old higher pay role in a permanent capacity where it’s a basically easy job or deny the role being offered and wait for end of the year to see what happens.
TLDR: The current one I get to learn & get to challenge myself but at a lower pay. Old one is a piece of cake for me but at a higher pay. What should I choose?
TIA

Here's a sci fi story I wrote. Let me know your thoughts!
My knuckles were white-clenched around the datapad, the emergency transmission echoing in the otherwise sterile comm center. “…unknown origin…multiple bogeys…civilian casualties…” The voice, Lieutenant Vara's normally crisp tones now a ragged whisper, cut out in static. We didn't need more details; the situation was painted in crimson across the holoscape.
Three dots, like malignant embers, marked the position of our outermost colony of Haldis. Each pulsed an angry scarlet, denoting the sudden and brutal surge in energy levels. We were under attack. "Can you confirm visual, Lieutenant? Anything?"
​

By the way, if you prefer to listen to this story in video format, you can view the full video here

​
Captain Zylar's voice, usually booming with the confidence fitting his station, held a thread of strain I'd never heard before. More static. Then, "Negative, sir. We picked them up entering the system edge. No visual, but…" Her voice faltered. "But their energy signatures… they're like nothing we've ever catalogued." Zylar was no fool. He knew it the moment I did – this wasn't a raid, a border skirmish, or even a concerted strike.
This was an invasion. Protocol was useless now. Haldis was self-sufficient, but a world of farmers and engineers stood no chance against an unknown enemy wielding superior tech. We were the Rimward Fleet, humanity's furthest edge, the only thing between Haldis and annihilation. "Lieutenant Vara," I forced my voice to remain steady, "get me a wideband open channel.
All frequencies.
I need every ship on Haldis listening." She did, bless her, and my voice boomed across the colony world: "This is Commander Elian Torval of the Rimward Fleet. You are under attack by unknown assailants. Evacuate immediately to designated shelters. Repeat…" I shut off the feed. It was cruel, telling civilians to run when there was nowhere to go but underground. But it bought us time – time we were already running short on.
"Captain, we've got to move. Full burn to Haldis. Scramble all fighters…" I cut myself off. We had a pitiful two dozen fighters, antiques compared to what we were likely facing. Zylar slammed his fist down. "It won't be enough, but it's all we've got! Comms, get me High Admiral Kyros. Now." My gut twisted. Kyros commanded the Vanguard Fleet, the real heavy hitters.
They were weeks away at best. Earth knew Haldis existed, of course. But we were the backwater, the edge of human-held space. Would they even bother coming? Kyros' lean face appeared on the holoscape, his normally impeccably pressed uniform rumpled. "Commander Torval, report!" I did; short and brutal.
The Admiral's dark eyes hardened like obsidian. "Unknown tech, you say?" "Yes, sir. No matches in the database. Unprecedented power readings." Silence fell, broken only by the hum of the ship thrumming into high alert. Kyros was a legend for a reason; I could practically see the gears turning behind his steely gaze.
Finally, he spoke. "Hold for as long as possible, Commander. We'll route you whatever reinforcements we can scrape together…" His voice trailed off, doubt heavy in the air. "But make no mistake, you're cannon fodder. Your job is to buy time." Fodder. He didn't sugarcoat it. But hey, better to die a defiant nuisance than cowering in terror.
If we were going down, we'd take a few with us. "Understood, Admiral." I cut the transmission. I could feel the crew staring at me. Young recruits, mostly, sent to the galactic outskirts to play space cops among sleepy colonies. This wasn't in the brochure. "Comms," I ordered, forcing the tremor out of my voice, "Prepare a fleet-wide transmission. Standard encryption, but flag it as open-intercept."
A flicker of confusion crossed Lieutenant Rhys' face, but he did as he was told. Good lad."Sir," Rhys stammered, "open-intercept for the enemy?" I met his gaze unflinchingly. "Exactly, Lieutenant. Time to up the psychological warfare." A flicker of something like admiration crossed his face, quickly replaced by the grim determination I was mirroring. Fear was a luxury none of us could afford. In a few hours, we might be dead.
But before that, we'd give these invaders hell. I stepped up to the comms console and tapped in a series of commands. Then, taking a deep breath, I spoke into the open channel: "Calling unknown aggressors, this is Commander Torval of the Terran Confederation. Lay down your weapons and state your purpose, or be prepared for immediate retaliation. Note that we hold full diplomatic protection of this world under treaties with the Galactic Concord. You attack us, you attack the Concord. Choose wisely." It was a bluff. A desperate one.
Rimward territories barely registered with the big political players, and the Galactic Concord was a bloated, bureaucratic mess. But maybe, just maybe, these attackers didn't know that. For an agonizing minute, there was only silence. Rhys was practically chewing through his lip in anxiety, but I held my ground. Then, a voice crackled across the comms channel, filtered through an eerie translator program. "Terran… Confederation?" The voice wasn't organic, filled with synthesized warbles and dissonant undertones. "We recognize no such authority.
This world belongs to the Ctharii Dominion." A wave of unease swept through the bridge. We'd heard of the Ctharii. Not an empire, more like a swarm, ruthlessly expansionist, notoriously difficult to negotiate with. The last thing we needed was to be stuck between them and the Concord. "Listen carefully, Ctharii," I projected my voice, laced with as much steel as I could muster,
"I don't care about your Dominion. The Concord might be a light-year away, but my reinforcements are not. Continue this assault, and I promise you, your losses will be so catastrophic they'll make this little skirmish seem like a target drill." Another agonizing pause. My comm officer was sweating bullets, the poor kid. "Your reinforcements are of no consequence," the Ctharii voice buzzed dismissively, "Our scans indicate your fleet is laughably small.
This world will soon belong to the Swarm." And they were right. Our pitiful fleet wouldn't hold off a determined child with a slingshot, let alone an alien armada wielding unknown tech. But my blood was roaring in my ears, despair mixed with an edge of fury. "Then I guess we'll all die together," I retorted. "But I give you my word, Ctharii.
By the time you conquer those smoking ruins, you'll regret ever setting sight on this system." Silence fell again. I wasn't even sure they were still listening. The holoscape flared, incoming enemy fire painting ugly streaks across the display. We'd bought mere minutes. "Commander!" Rhys hissed, "Massive shift in enemy energy readings. They're pulling… no, that's not right… they're jumping!" My jaw almost hit the floor. Jump - as in FTL jump. "They're retreating?" Zylar sounded as shocked as I felt. The Ctharii ships vanished from the holoscape, leaving a vacuum of stunned disorientation in their wake. Had they really...cut and run?
After all that big talk of Dominion and conquest? "Sir, I'm picking up a signal." Rhys' voice had a tremor in it – this time not fear, but sheer confusion. "It's... it's not Ctharii, the translator program doesn't recognize it." Hesitantly, he patched it through. A new voice filled the bridge, clear, strong, and speaking flawless Galactic Standard. "This is Grand Admiral Sorin Volarus of the Imperial Starfleet. Our recon units picked up your... interesting broadcast, Commander." My heart hammered like a war drum. It wasn't the Concord. It wasn't reinforcements.
It was the Galactic Empire. The big guns.
The ones no one in their right mind would want to see turning up in their backyard. I swallowed a suddenly dry throat. "Admiral, my apologies for the deception. We were facing…" I searched for the right words "...an existential threat."A wave of weariness washed over me, mingled with a jolt of adrenaline I wasn't sure my body could handle. "Grand Admiral Volarus, let me be clear - we weren't expecting anyone, least of all the Empire." "A fair assessment, Commander," the Grand Admiral's tone was smooth, laced with a hint of amusement.
"In fact, the only reason we're here is your rather bombastic transmission. 'Immediate retaliation', was it? Most intriguing." "The situation was… desperate." "Indeed, though the Ctharii withdrawing at the mere mention of retaliation paints an interesting picture. Are you certain you weren't exaggerating your capabilities?" My neck prickled with defensiveness, but also a sliver of doubt. Had the swarm been spooked by my bluff, or had something we weren't seeing driven them off? "I assure you, Admiral -" Zylar started, but Volarus cut him off. "Relax, Captain. It seems you've inadvertently stumbled into a rather…unique situation.
Shall we enlighten you?"
His tone held an unmistakable command disguised as a question. "We're all ears, Admiral," I retorted, hoping to match his composure. "This region," Volarus began, his voice taking on a lecturing tone, "is what we call a 'contested zone'. The Ctharii have been sniffing around its edges for some time now. A thorn in our side, but rarely brave enough for a full-scale incursion." "So, they attacked Haldis figuring it was easy pickings," I finished for him. "Precisely. Our presence must have…discouraged them further."
The Admiral's voice held a hint of smug satisfaction. Zylar and I exchanged glances. The relief that the civilians on Haldis had dodged a bullet was warring with a rising dread. Because the Galactic Empire wasn't here to save us. They were here to claim this sector. The comm screen flickered, revealing the Grand Admiral. A tall man, surprisingly youthful for his rank, clad in a pristine grey uniform, a sharp contrast to Kyros' usual rumpled appearance.
Volarus had the kind of face meant for propaganda posters – strong jaw, icy blue eyes, and a mane of silver-streaked hair. The picture of Imperial might. "We intercepted your transmission on our long-range scanners," he continued. "Commander, the sheer audacity of claiming Concord backing… I must admit, it takes guts. Or perhaps desperation?" Behind Volarus, I saw it.
Not the bridge of his ship, but an expanse that sent chills down my spine. Stars, thousands of them, pinpricks in an endless void. And among them, shapes that defied reason. Monolithic wedges, kilometers long, bristling with what could only be unimaginably powerful weaponry. If the Rimward Fleet was a collection of angry wasps, this was a gargantuan hornet's nest.
Volarus followed my gaze, a thin smile playing on his lips. "An impressive sight, is it not? But not what you were expecting, I gather." "Admiral," I swallowed, forcing my voice to stay steady, "I understand we're far from the core systems. We're a small force, a minor outpost.
What is the Empire's interest in this…contested zone, as you call it?" "Bluntness. I like that." Volarus leaned forward, something predatory flickering in his eyes. "The Ctharii are pests. But pests can multiply, grow bolder. This region…there are resources, strategic positioning. It borders a disputed sector the Concord also has its eyes on." "So we're just a pawn in your intergalactic chess game?" Zylar's voice was thick with resentment.
Volarus didn't even look offended. "A pawn? No. More like a…roadblock. You've inadvertently done the Empire a favor, Commander. Revealing your world's existence, proving Earth's interest in the region. It gives us…justification." "Justification for what?" My mouth had gone dry. The predatory grin returned. "Why, to establish a permanent presence, of course.
Think of it as… preventative maintenance." His gaze swept the bridge, assessing every face, no doubt reading the despair and defiance warring on our features. "Naturally, your kind cooperation would streamline the process immensely.""Cooperation implies choice, Admiral." I managed to keep my voice steady, but a wave of anger was building within me. "Sounds more like you intend to annex our world." Volarus chuckled, a surprisingly warm sound for such a cold man. "Annexation is such an ugly word, Commander.
Protectorate has a far nicer ring to it, don't you think?" Zylar slammed his fist on the command console. "Go jump in a lake, Imp!" The Grand Admiral's smile vanished. "Insolence won't get you far, Captain. You have a choice, limited as it may be. Your people can accept Imperial protection, or you can resist and experience the full might of our fleet firsthand. Believe me, the Ctharii attack will look like child's play in comparison." My mind was racing. Was he all bluster? Even with our tiny fleet, we could inflict some losses.
But Haldis' defenses were laughable against an armada like Volarus commanded. And even if we could buy time, how long before the Ctharii returned in force? Caught between the hammer and the anvil, Haldis wouldn't stand a chance. "You want guarantees?" I asked, stalling for time to think. Volarus raised an aristocratic eyebrow.
"Of course. The Empire is nothing if not benevolent. Autonomy, preservation of local governance…" He waved a hand dismissively, "The usual formalities. Your population need only understand that the true power rests with us." "A boot on our necks, rebranded as benevolence," Rhys muttered, just loud enough to be heard by the Imperials. "Silence, Ensign!" Zylar snapped, but a flicker in Volarus' eye told me he'd heard it nonetheless.
It wouldn't be freedom, that much was clear. Earth wouldn't just abandon a colony, but even if they sent a fleet, years would pass. By then, Haldis would be thoroughly entrenched in the Imperial system, our people likely brainwashed into accepting their fate. At least under the Empire, there'd be protection from the Ctharii… for now. And Volarus wasn't wrong – resistance would be futile, a bloodbath.
Rage coursed through me, hot and bitter. But as I looked around the bridge, I saw it mirrored in my crew's eyes; not just anger, but a flicker of resignation. These were good people, farmers and engineers, not warriors. And though the fire of rebellion burned in my own heart, I was their Commander. My duty was to them. "Admiral, let's discuss the terms of this…protectorate," I said, the word scraping against my tongue. A calculating gleam appeared in Volarus' eyes. "Wise decision, Commander. You possess a pragmatism I admire." Hours passed in negotiations as tense as any battlefield.
Volarus was ruthless yet savvy, driving a hard bargain. I managed to salvage a semblance of internal autonomy for Haldis, but trade, military presence, even our educational system – all would be under rigid Imperial control. Earth would have to be notified, would send an envoy, perhaps even try to contest these terms.
But by then, it'd be too late. As the transmission ended, an icy dread settled over me. We'd survived but at a terrible cost. Haldis was no longer our world. "Open a fleet-wide channel," I ordered, my voice heavy. "All ships, stand down." Protests rose, quickly silenced by Zylar's glare. It was my job to deliver this news, no matter how much it tasted like ashes. "People of the Rimward Fleet," I began, forcing calm into my voice. "We have…new developments.
The Ctharii have withdrawn.
Another power has entered the system, one we cannot stand against. The Galactic Empire." Gasps rose across the comm channels. We'd all heard the horror stories. The Empire was a monolith, crushing dissent and individuality with methodical ruthlessness. To those who complied, a veneer of order. To those who defied, annihilation. Yet, I continued, explaining the Empire's claim of this sector, the terms of the 'protectorate', the futility of defiance. My words were met with anger, fear, a simmering despair. Yet, when I opened the channel for responses, there were no calls for rebellion, no suicidal charges, only a grim chorus of acknowledgements. We were a small fleet, a backwater colony.
The galaxy had bigger players, and we were just caught in their crossfire. The next hours were a grim whirlwind. An Imperial corvette docked with our flagship, carrying a skeletal occupation force. Volarus was true to his word – no violence, only swift efficiency. Imperial officers were arrogant, but not overtly cruel.
They demanded access to our systems, our communication network, our very way of life. Watching them take over the bridge, my command center, was a special kind of agony.A sense of unreality hung heavy as the days turned into weeks. Haldis functioned on a strange, numb autopilot. Farmers tended crops – now to fill quotas set by distant Imperial bureaucrats. Engineers adapted machinery to conform to unfamiliar standards. Even the children's lessons subtly shifted, the Empire's sanitized history seeping into their young minds.
And I, Commander Elian Torval, became a cipher. My crew was 'reorganized', their skills deemed useful by the Empire. Zylar was given an insulting token position – an 'advisor' to the newly appointed Imperial governor, a pale-eyed career politician named Praetor Valis. As for me, I was offered a role I couldn't refuse – the figurehead 'Commander' of Haldis' newly formed "Defense Force". We had no real weaponry, just the remnants of our antiquated fleet, and our duties were reduced to patrols and petty law enforcement.
I became a mascot, gracing PR events in my once-proud uniform, now adorned with Imperial insignia. The humiliation was a slow, corrosive poison. Yet, even amidst the despair, something akin to grudging respect flickered in the eyes of some locals. Rumors circulated, whispered tales about hidden stashes of food, communication blackouts orchestrated by our 'useless' engineers, even the occasional Imperial supply crate going missing. It was small, disorganized resistance, but it was there. And though I never gave orders, never outwardly encouraged it, they knew I wouldn't stop it either.
One crisp morning, a summons came: Praetor Valis required my presence in his ludicrously opulent, hastily constructed headquarters. As I strode through the streets of a town I no longer recognized, anger gnawed at me. Imperial banners hung where familiar shop signs once were. Uniformed troopers patrolled, not with the relaxed manner of our old guard, but with a cold alertness. Valis was as unremarkable as I remembered – a cog in a massive machine, meticulously groomed and exuding an oily self-importance. "Commander Torval, so good to see you! The people love you, a beacon of… stability, yes," he simpered.
I barely held back an eye roll. "You wanted me for a reason, Praetor?" His smile didn't falter. "Of course! You'll be pleased to know, my contacts at Imperial High Command have been quite impressed with our progress. They believe Haldis is ripe for…further integration into the Empire." "Integration?" I asked, dread settling like ice in my gut.
"Why yes! Expanding our modest garrison, increasing trade quotas… and" – here his grin became positively gleeful – "introducing more permanent residents." My stomach lurched. We'd already received a trickle of settlers – Imperial loyalists looking for opportunity on a 'tamed' world. Now Valis was talking about a mass influx. Haldis, overrun. "You'll turn our world into an Imperial colony." Valis waved a dismissive hand. "Oh, hardly. Simply… optimizing its potential, as it were.
We'll transport skilled colonists – engineers, educators, administrators. Your people lack initiative, Commander. They need our guidance." My hands fisted. These 'skilled' colonists would be the final nail in the coffin, the local population demoted, their culture swallowed whole. "Your guidance? You call it guidance, Praetor. I call it occupation." "Semantics, my dear Commander!" Valis chuckled. "Call it what you will, the Empire has plans for Haldis.
And you will play your part. Announce it – a celebration! A welcoming ceremony for our new arrivals." "I'll do no such thing-" "Commander," Valis' voice hardened, the oily mask slipping. "This is not open to debate. Obey, and perhaps we'll find a more...substantial role for you. Defy, and well, let's just say your usefulness will have expired." The threat hung between us, unspoken but clear. I was trapped. Collaboration meant complicity, but resistance seemed impossible. Yet, to stand by and allow Haldis to be erased? Unthinkable. As I left Valis' office, my mind raced.
There had to be a way, some spark to ignite a full-blown rebellion. But to do that, I needed something the Empire desperately thought it had already snuffed out – hope. Later, I found myself drawn to the spaceport. Not the gleaming new one the Imps used, but our old, rundown facility. It was deserted, a ghost of its former self. Here, our fighters had launched, ready to face the Ctharii. Now, these hangars echoed with emptiness. A shadow in the darkness made me whirl around. A familiar figure, in worn mechanic's overalls, emerged. Lieutenant Rhys.

My knuckles were white-clenched around the datapad, the emergency transmission echoing in the otherwise sterile comm center. “…unknown origin…multiple bogeys…civilian casualties…” The voice, Lieutenant Vara's normally crisp tones now a ragged whisper, cut out in static. We didn't need more details; the situation was painted in crimson across the holoscape.
Three dots, like malignant embers, marked the position of our outermost colony of Haldis. Each pulsed an angry scarlet, denoting the sudden and brutal surge in energy levels. We were under attack. "Can you confirm visual, Lieutenant? Anything?"
​

By the way, if you prefer to listen to this story in video format, you can view the full video here

​
Captain Zylar's voice, usually booming with the confidence fitting his station, held a thread of strain I'd never heard before. More static. Then, "Negative, sir. We picked them up entering the system edge. No visual, but…" Her voice faltered. "But their energy signatures… they're like nothing we've ever catalogued." Zylar was no fool. He knew it the moment I did – this wasn't a raid, a border skirmish, or even a concerted strike.
This was an invasion. Protocol was useless now. Haldis was self-sufficient, but a world of farmers and engineers stood no chance against an unknown enemy wielding superior tech. We were the Rimward Fleet, humanity's furthest edge, the only thing between Haldis and annihilation. "Lieutenant Vara," I forced my voice to remain steady, "get me a wideband open channel.
All frequencies.
I need every ship on Haldis listening." She did, bless her, and my voice boomed across the colony world: "This is Commander Elian Torval of the Rimward Fleet. You are under attack by unknown assailants. Evacuate immediately to designated shelters. Repeat…" I shut off the feed. It was cruel, telling civilians to run when there was nowhere to go but underground. But it bought us time – time we were already running short on.
"Captain, we've got to move. Full burn to Haldis. Scramble all fighters…" I cut myself off. We had a pitiful two dozen fighters, antiques compared to what we were likely facing. Zylar slammed his fist down. "It won't be enough, but it's all we've got! Comms, get me High Admiral Kyros. Now." My gut twisted. Kyros commanded the Vanguard Fleet, the real heavy hitters.
They were weeks away at best. Earth knew Haldis existed, of course. But we were the backwater, the edge of human-held space. Would they even bother coming? Kyros' lean face appeared on the holoscape, his normally impeccably pressed uniform rumpled. "Commander Torval, report!" I did; short and brutal.
The Admiral's dark eyes hardened like obsidian. "Unknown tech, you say?" "Yes, sir. No matches in the database. Unprecedented power readings." Silence fell, broken only by the hum of the ship thrumming into high alert. Kyros was a legend for a reason; I could practically see the gears turning behind his steely gaze.
Finally, he spoke. "Hold for as long as possible, Commander. We'll route you whatever reinforcements we can scrape together…" His voice trailed off, doubt heavy in the air. "But make no mistake, you're cannon fodder. Your job is to buy time." Fodder. He didn't sugarcoat it. But hey, better to die a defiant nuisance than cowering in terror.
If we were going down, we'd take a few with us. "Understood, Admiral." I cut the transmission. I could feel the crew staring at me. Young recruits, mostly, sent to the galactic outskirts to play space cops among sleepy colonies. This wasn't in the brochure. "Comms," I ordered, forcing the tremor out of my voice, "Prepare a fleet-wide transmission. Standard encryption, but flag it as open-intercept."
A flicker of confusion crossed Lieutenant Rhys' face, but he did as he was told. Good lad."Sir," Rhys stammered, "open-intercept for the enemy?" I met his gaze unflinchingly. "Exactly, Lieutenant. Time to up the psychological warfare." A flicker of something like admiration crossed his face, quickly replaced by the grim determination I was mirroring. Fear was a luxury none of us could afford. In a few hours, we might be dead.
But before that, we'd give these invaders hell. I stepped up to the comms console and tapped in a series of commands. Then, taking a deep breath, I spoke into the open channel: "Calling unknown aggressors, this is Commander Torval of the Terran Confederation. Lay down your weapons and state your purpose, or be prepared for immediate retaliation. Note that we hold full diplomatic protection of this world under treaties with the Galactic Concord. You attack us, you attack the Concord. Choose wisely." It was a bluff. A desperate one.
Rimward territories barely registered with the big political players, and the Galactic Concord was a bloated, bureaucratic mess. But maybe, just maybe, these attackers didn't know that. For an agonizing minute, there was only silence. Rhys was practically chewing through his lip in anxiety, but I held my ground. Then, a voice crackled across the comms channel, filtered through an eerie translator program. "Terran… Confederation?" The voice wasn't organic, filled with synthesized warbles and dissonant undertones. "We recognize no such authority.
This world belongs to the Ctharii Dominion." A wave of unease swept through the bridge. We'd heard of the Ctharii. Not an empire, more like a swarm, ruthlessly expansionist, notoriously difficult to negotiate with. The last thing we needed was to be stuck between them and the Concord. "Listen carefully, Ctharii," I projected my voice, laced with as much steel as I could muster,
"I don't care about your Dominion. The Concord might be a light-year away, but my reinforcements are not. Continue this assault, and I promise you, your losses will be so catastrophic they'll make this little skirmish seem like a target drill." Another agonizing pause. My comm officer was sweating bullets, the poor kid. "Your reinforcements are of no consequence," the Ctharii voice buzzed dismissively, "Our scans indicate your fleet is laughably small.
This world will soon belong to the Swarm." And they were right. Our pitiful fleet wouldn't hold off a determined child with a slingshot, let alone an alien armada wielding unknown tech. But my blood was roaring in my ears, despair mixed with an edge of fury. "Then I guess we'll all die together," I retorted. "But I give you my word, Ctharii.
By the time you conquer those smoking ruins, you'll regret ever setting sight on this system." Silence fell again. I wasn't even sure they were still listening. The holoscape flared, incoming enemy fire painting ugly streaks across the display. We'd bought mere minutes. "Commander!" Rhys hissed, "Massive shift in enemy energy readings. They're pulling… no, that's not right… they're jumping!" My jaw almost hit the floor. Jump - as in FTL jump. "They're retreating?" Zylar sounded as shocked as I felt. The Ctharii ships vanished from the holoscape, leaving a vacuum of stunned disorientation in their wake. Had they really...cut and run?
After all that big talk of Dominion and conquest? "Sir, I'm picking up a signal." Rhys' voice had a tremor in it – this time not fear, but sheer confusion. "It's... it's not Ctharii, the translator program doesn't recognize it." Hesitantly, he patched it through. A new voice filled the bridge, clear, strong, and speaking flawless Galactic Standard. "This is Grand Admiral Sorin Volarus of the Imperial Starfleet. Our recon units picked up your... interesting broadcast, Commander." My heart hammered like a war drum. It wasn't the Concord. It wasn't reinforcements.
It was the Galactic Empire. The big guns.
The ones no one in their right mind would want to see turning up in their backyard. I swallowed a suddenly dry throat. "Admiral, my apologies for the deception. We were facing…" I searched for the right words "...an existential threat."A wave of weariness washed over me, mingled with a jolt of adrenaline I wasn't sure my body could handle. "Grand Admiral Volarus, let me be clear - we weren't expecting anyone, least of all the Empire." "A fair assessment, Commander," the Grand Admiral's tone was smooth, laced with a hint of amusement.
"In fact, the only reason we're here is your rather bombastic transmission. 'Immediate retaliation', was it? Most intriguing." "The situation was… desperate." "Indeed, though the Ctharii withdrawing at the mere mention of retaliation paints an interesting picture. Are you certain you weren't exaggerating your capabilities?" My neck prickled with defensiveness, but also a sliver of doubt. Had the swarm been spooked by my bluff, or had something we weren't seeing driven them off? "I assure you, Admiral -" Zylar started, but Volarus cut him off. "Relax, Captain. It seems you've inadvertently stumbled into a rather…unique situation.
Shall we enlighten you?"
His tone held an unmistakable command disguised as a question. "We're all ears, Admiral," I retorted, hoping to match his composure. "This region," Volarus began, his voice taking on a lecturing tone, "is what we call a 'contested zone'. The Ctharii have been sniffing around its edges for some time now. A thorn in our side, but rarely brave enough for a full-scale incursion." "So, they attacked Haldis figuring it was easy pickings," I finished for him. "Precisely. Our presence must have…discouraged them further."
The Admiral's voice held a hint of smug satisfaction. Zylar and I exchanged glances. The relief that the civilians on Haldis had dodged a bullet was warring with a rising dread. Because the Galactic Empire wasn't here to save us. They were here to claim this sector. The comm screen flickered, revealing the Grand Admiral. A tall man, surprisingly youthful for his rank, clad in a pristine grey uniform, a sharp contrast to Kyros' usual rumpled appearance.
Volarus had the kind of face meant for propaganda posters – strong jaw, icy blue eyes, and a mane of silver-streaked hair. The picture of Imperial might. "We intercepted your transmission on our long-range scanners," he continued. "Commander, the sheer audacity of claiming Concord backing… I must admit, it takes guts. Or perhaps desperation?" Behind Volarus, I saw it.
Not the bridge of his ship, but an expanse that sent chills down my spine. Stars, thousands of them, pinpricks in an endless void. And among them, shapes that defied reason. Monolithic wedges, kilometers long, bristling with what could only be unimaginably powerful weaponry. If the Rimward Fleet was a collection of angry wasps, this was a gargantuan hornet's nest.
Volarus followed my gaze, a thin smile playing on his lips. "An impressive sight, is it not? But not what you were expecting, I gather." "Admiral," I swallowed, forcing my voice to stay steady, "I understand we're far from the core systems. We're a small force, a minor outpost.
What is the Empire's interest in this…contested zone, as you call it?" "Bluntness. I like that." Volarus leaned forward, something predatory flickering in his eyes. "The Ctharii are pests. But pests can multiply, grow bolder. This region…there are resources, strategic positioning. It borders a disputed sector the Concord also has its eyes on." "So we're just a pawn in your intergalactic chess game?" Zylar's voice was thick with resentment.
Volarus didn't even look offended. "A pawn? No. More like a…roadblock. You've inadvertently done the Empire a favor, Commander. Revealing your world's existence, proving Earth's interest in the region. It gives us…justification." "Justification for what?" My mouth had gone dry. The predatory grin returned. "Why, to establish a permanent presence, of course.
Think of it as… preventative maintenance." His gaze swept the bridge, assessing every face, no doubt reading the despair and defiance warring on our features. "Naturally, your kind cooperation would streamline the process immensely.""Cooperation implies choice, Admiral." I managed to keep my voice steady, but a wave of anger was building within me. "Sounds more like you intend to annex our world." Volarus chuckled, a surprisingly warm sound for such a cold man. "Annexation is such an ugly word, Commander.
Protectorate has a far nicer ring to it, don't you think?" Zylar slammed his fist on the command console. "Go jump in a lake, Imp!" The Grand Admiral's smile vanished. "Insolence won't get you far, Captain. You have a choice, limited as it may be. Your people can accept Imperial protection, or you can resist and experience the full might of our fleet firsthand. Believe me, the Ctharii attack will look like child's play in comparison." My mind was racing. Was he all bluster? Even with our tiny fleet, we could inflict some losses.
But Haldis' defenses were laughable against an armada like Volarus commanded. And even if we could buy time, how long before the Ctharii returned in force? Caught between the hammer and the anvil, Haldis wouldn't stand a chance. "You want guarantees?" I asked, stalling for time to think. Volarus raised an aristocratic eyebrow.
"Of course. The Empire is nothing if not benevolent. Autonomy, preservation of local governance…" He waved a hand dismissively, "The usual formalities. Your population need only understand that the true power rests with us." "A boot on our necks, rebranded as benevolence," Rhys muttered, just loud enough to be heard by the Imperials. "Silence, Ensign!" Zylar snapped, but a flicker in Volarus' eye told me he'd heard it nonetheless.
It wouldn't be freedom, that much was clear. Earth wouldn't just abandon a colony, but even if they sent a fleet, years would pass. By then, Haldis would be thoroughly entrenched in the Imperial system, our people likely brainwashed into accepting their fate. At least under the Empire, there'd be protection from the Ctharii… for now. And Volarus wasn't wrong – resistance would be futile, a bloodbath.
Rage coursed through me, hot and bitter. But as I looked around the bridge, I saw it mirrored in my crew's eyes; not just anger, but a flicker of resignation. These were good people, farmers and engineers, not warriors. And though the fire of rebellion burned in my own heart, I was their Commander. My duty was to them. "Admiral, let's discuss the terms of this…protectorate," I said, the word scraping against my tongue. A calculating gleam appeared in Volarus' eyes. "Wise decision, Commander. You possess a pragmatism I admire." Hours passed in negotiations as tense as any battlefield.
Volarus was ruthless yet savvy, driving a hard bargain. I managed to salvage a semblance of internal autonomy for Haldis, but trade, military presence, even our educational system – all would be under rigid Imperial control. Earth would have to be notified, would send an envoy, perhaps even try to contest these terms.
But by then, it'd be too late. As the transmission ended, an icy dread settled over me. We'd survived but at a terrible cost. Haldis was no longer our world. "Open a fleet-wide channel," I ordered, my voice heavy. "All ships, stand down." Protests rose, quickly silenced by Zylar's glare. It was my job to deliver this news, no matter how much it tasted like ashes. "People of the Rimward Fleet," I began, forcing calm into my voice. "We have…new developments.
The Ctharii have withdrawn.
Another power has entered the system, one we cannot stand against. The Galactic Empire." Gasps rose across the comm channels. We'd all heard the horror stories. The Empire was a monolith, crushing dissent and individuality with methodical ruthlessness. To those who complied, a veneer of order. To those who defied, annihilation. Yet, I continued, explaining the Empire's claim of this sector, the terms of the 'protectorate', the futility of defiance. My words were met with anger, fear, a simmering despair. Yet, when I opened the channel for responses, there were no calls for rebellion, no suicidal charges, only a grim chorus of acknowledgements. We were a small fleet, a backwater colony.
The galaxy had bigger players, and we were just caught in their crossfire. The next hours were a grim whirlwind. An Imperial corvette docked with our flagship, carrying a skeletal occupation force. Volarus was true to his word – no violence, only swift efficiency. Imperial officers were arrogant, but not overtly cruel.
They demanded access to our systems, our communication network, our very way of life. Watching them take over the bridge, my command center, was a special kind of agony.A sense of unreality hung heavy as the days turned into weeks. Haldis functioned on a strange, numb autopilot. Farmers tended crops – now to fill quotas set by distant Imperial bureaucrats. Engineers adapted machinery to conform to unfamiliar standards. Even the children's lessons subtly shifted, the Empire's sanitized history seeping into their young minds.
And I, Commander Elian Torval, became a cipher. My crew was 'reorganized', their skills deemed useful by the Empire. Zylar was given an insulting token position – an 'advisor' to the newly appointed Imperial governor, a pale-eyed career politician named Praetor Valis. As for me, I was offered a role I couldn't refuse – the figurehead 'Commander' of Haldis' newly formed "Defense Force". We had no real weaponry, just the remnants of our antiquated fleet, and our duties were reduced to patrols and petty law enforcement.
I became a mascot, gracing PR events in my once-proud uniform, now adorned with Imperial insignia. The humiliation was a slow, corrosive poison. Yet, even amidst the despair, something akin to grudging respect flickered in the eyes of some locals. Rumors circulated, whispered tales about hidden stashes of food, communication blackouts orchestrated by our 'useless' engineers, even the occasional Imperial supply crate going missing. It was small, disorganized resistance, but it was there. And though I never gave orders, never outwardly encouraged it, they knew I wouldn't stop it either.
One crisp morning, a summons came: Praetor Valis required my presence in his ludicrously opulent, hastily constructed headquarters. As I strode through the streets of a town I no longer recognized, anger gnawed at me. Imperial banners hung where familiar shop signs once were. Uniformed troopers patrolled, not with the relaxed manner of our old guard, but with a cold alertness. Valis was as unremarkable as I remembered – a cog in a massive machine, meticulously groomed and exuding an oily self-importance. "Commander Torval, so good to see you! The people love you, a beacon of… stability, yes," he simpered.
I barely held back an eye roll. "You wanted me for a reason, Praetor?" His smile didn't falter. "Of course! You'll be pleased to know, my contacts at Imperial High Command have been quite impressed with our progress. They believe Haldis is ripe for…further integration into the Empire." "Integration?" I asked, dread settling like ice in my gut.
"Why yes! Expanding our modest garrison, increasing trade quotas… and" – here his grin became positively gleeful – "introducing more permanent residents." My stomach lurched. We'd already received a trickle of settlers – Imperial loyalists looking for opportunity on a 'tamed' world. Now Valis was talking about a mass influx. Haldis, overrun. "You'll turn our world into an Imperial colony." Valis waved a dismissive hand. "Oh, hardly. Simply… optimizing its potential, as it were.
We'll transport skilled colonists – engineers, educators, administrators. Your people lack initiative, Commander. They need our guidance." My hands fisted. These 'skilled' colonists would be the final nail in the coffin, the local population demoted, their culture swallowed whole. "Your guidance? You call it guidance, Praetor. I call it occupation." "Semantics, my dear Commander!" Valis chuckled. "Call it what you will, the Empire has plans for Haldis.
And you will play your part. Announce it – a celebration! A welcoming ceremony for our new arrivals." "I'll do no such thing-" "Commander," Valis' voice hardened, the oily mask slipping. "This is not open to debate. Obey, and perhaps we'll find a more...substantial role for you. Defy, and well, let's just say your usefulness will have expired." The threat hung between us, unspoken but clear. I was trapped. Collaboration meant complicity, but resistance seemed impossible. Yet, to stand by and allow Haldis to be erased? Unthinkable. As I left Valis' office, my mind raced.
There had to be a way, some spark to ignite a full-blown rebellion. But to do that, I needed something the Empire desperately thought it had already snuffed out – hope. Later, I found myself drawn to the spaceport. Not the gleaming new one the Imps used, but our old, rundown facility. It was deserted, a ghost of its former self. Here, our fighters had launched, ready to face the Ctharii. Now, these hangars echoed with emptiness. A shadow in the darkness made me whirl around. A familiar figure, in worn mechanic's overalls, emerged. Lieutenant Rhys.

My knuckles were white-clenched around the datapad, the emergency transmission echoing in the otherwise sterile comm center. “…unknown origin…multiple bogeys…civilian casualties…” The voice, Lieutenant Vara's normally crisp tones now a ragged whisper, cut out in static. We didn't need more details; the situation was painted in crimson across the holoscape.
Three dots, like malignant embers, marked the position of our outermost colony of Haldis. Each pulsed an angry scarlet, denoting the sudden and brutal surge in energy levels. We were under attack. "Can you confirm visual, Lieutenant? Anything?"
​

By the way, if you prefer to listen to this story in video format, you can view the full video here

​
Captain Zylar's voice, usually booming with the confidence fitting his station, held a thread of strain I'd never heard before. More static. Then, "Negative, sir. We picked them up entering the system edge. No visual, but…" Her voice faltered. "But their energy signatures… they're like nothing we've ever catalogued." Zylar was no fool. He knew it the moment I did – this wasn't a raid, a border skirmish, or even a concerted strike.
This was an invasion. Protocol was useless now. Haldis was self-sufficient, but a world of farmers and engineers stood no chance against an unknown enemy wielding superior tech. We were the Rimward Fleet, humanity's furthest edge, the only thing between Haldis and annihilation. "Lieutenant Vara," I forced my voice to remain steady, "get me a wideband open channel.
All frequencies.
I need every ship on Haldis listening." She did, bless her, and my voice boomed across the colony world: "This is Commander Elian Torval of the Rimward Fleet. You are under attack by unknown assailants. Evacuate immediately to designated shelters. Repeat…" I shut off the feed. It was cruel, telling civilians to run when there was nowhere to go but underground. But it bought us time – time we were already running short on.
"Captain, we've got to move. Full burn to Haldis. Scramble all fighters…" I cut myself off. We had a pitiful two dozen fighters, antiques compared to what we were likely facing. Zylar slammed his fist down. "It won't be enough, but it's all we've got! Comms, get me High Admiral Kyros. Now." My gut twisted. Kyros commanded the Vanguard Fleet, the real heavy hitters.
They were weeks away at best. Earth knew Haldis existed, of course. But we were the backwater, the edge of human-held space. Would they even bother coming? Kyros' lean face appeared on the holoscape, his normally impeccably pressed uniform rumpled. "Commander Torval, report!" I did; short and brutal.
The Admiral's dark eyes hardened like obsidian. "Unknown tech, you say?" "Yes, sir. No matches in the database. Unprecedented power readings." Silence fell, broken only by the hum of the ship thrumming into high alert. Kyros was a legend for a reason; I could practically see the gears turning behind his steely gaze.
Finally, he spoke. "Hold for as long as possible, Commander. We'll route you whatever reinforcements we can scrape together…" His voice trailed off, doubt heavy in the air. "But make no mistake, you're cannon fodder. Your job is to buy time." Fodder. He didn't sugarcoat it. But hey, better to die a defiant nuisance than cowering in terror.
If we were going down, we'd take a few with us. "Understood, Admiral." I cut the transmission. I could feel the crew staring at me. Young recruits, mostly, sent to the galactic outskirts to play space cops among sleepy colonies. This wasn't in the brochure. "Comms," I ordered, forcing the tremor out of my voice, "Prepare a fleet-wide transmission. Standard encryption, but flag it as open-intercept."
A flicker of confusion crossed Lieutenant Rhys' face, but he did as he was told. Good lad."Sir," Rhys stammered, "open-intercept for the enemy?" I met his gaze unflinchingly. "Exactly, Lieutenant. Time to up the psychological warfare." A flicker of something like admiration crossed his face, quickly replaced by the grim determination I was mirroring. Fear was a luxury none of us could afford. In a few hours, we might be dead.
But before that, we'd give these invaders hell. I stepped up to the comms console and tapped in a series of commands. Then, taking a deep breath, I spoke into the open channel: "Calling unknown aggressors, this is Commander Torval of the Terran Confederation. Lay down your weapons and state your purpose, or be prepared for immediate retaliation. Note that we hold full diplomatic protection of this world under treaties with the Galactic Concord. You attack us, you attack the Concord. Choose wisely." It was a bluff. A desperate one.
Rimward territories barely registered with the big political players, and the Galactic Concord was a bloated, bureaucratic mess. But maybe, just maybe, these attackers didn't know that. For an agonizing minute, there was only silence. Rhys was practically chewing through his lip in anxiety, but I held my ground. Then, a voice crackled across the comms channel, filtered through an eerie translator program. "Terran… Confederation?" The voice wasn't organic, filled with synthesized warbles and dissonant undertones. "We recognize no such authority.
This world belongs to the Ctharii Dominion." A wave of unease swept through the bridge. We'd heard of the Ctharii. Not an empire, more like a swarm, ruthlessly expansionist, notoriously difficult to negotiate with. The last thing we needed was to be stuck between them and the Concord. "Listen carefully, Ctharii," I projected my voice, laced with as much steel as I could muster,
"I don't care about your Dominion. The Concord might be a light-year away, but my reinforcements are not. Continue this assault, and I promise you, your losses will be so catastrophic they'll make this little skirmish seem like a target drill." Another agonizing pause. My comm officer was sweating bullets, the poor kid. "Your reinforcements are of no consequence," the Ctharii voice buzzed dismissively, "Our scans indicate your fleet is laughably small.
This world will soon belong to the Swarm." And they were right. Our pitiful fleet wouldn't hold off a determined child with a slingshot, let alone an alien armada wielding unknown tech. But my blood was roaring in my ears, despair mixed with an edge of fury. "Then I guess we'll all die together," I retorted. "But I give you my word, Ctharii.
By the time you conquer those smoking ruins, you'll regret ever setting sight on this system." Silence fell again. I wasn't even sure they were still listening. The holoscape flared, incoming enemy fire painting ugly streaks across the display. We'd bought mere minutes. "Commander!" Rhys hissed, "Massive shift in enemy energy readings. They're pulling… no, that's not right… they're jumping!" My jaw almost hit the floor. Jump - as in FTL jump. "They're retreating?" Zylar sounded as shocked as I felt. The Ctharii ships vanished from the holoscape, leaving a vacuum of stunned disorientation in their wake. Had they really...cut and run?
After all that big talk of Dominion and conquest? "Sir, I'm picking up a signal." Rhys' voice had a tremor in it – this time not fear, but sheer confusion. "It's... it's not Ctharii, the translator program doesn't recognize it." Hesitantly, he patched it through. A new voice filled the bridge, clear, strong, and speaking flawless Galactic Standard. "This is Grand Admiral Sorin Volarus of the Imperial Starfleet. Our recon units picked up your... interesting broadcast, Commander." My heart hammered like a war drum. It wasn't the Concord. It wasn't reinforcements.
It was the Galactic Empire. The big guns.
The ones no one in their right mind would want to see turning up in their backyard. I swallowed a suddenly dry throat. "Admiral, my apologies for the deception. We were facing…" I searched for the right words "...an existential threat."A wave of weariness washed over me, mingled with a jolt of adrenaline I wasn't sure my body could handle. "Grand Admiral Volarus, let me be clear - we weren't expecting anyone, least of all the Empire." "A fair assessment, Commander," the Grand Admiral's tone was smooth, laced with a hint of amusement.
"In fact, the only reason we're here is your rather bombastic transmission. 'Immediate retaliation', was it? Most intriguing." "The situation was… desperate." "Indeed, though the Ctharii withdrawing at the mere mention of retaliation paints an interesting picture. Are you certain you weren't exaggerating your capabilities?" My neck prickled with defensiveness, but also a sliver of doubt. Had the swarm been spooked by my bluff, or had something we weren't seeing driven them off? "I assure you, Admiral -" Zylar started, but Volarus cut him off. "Relax, Captain. It seems you've inadvertently stumbled into a rather…unique situation.
Shall we enlighten you?"
His tone held an unmistakable command disguised as a question. "We're all ears, Admiral," I retorted, hoping to match his composure. "This region," Volarus began, his voice taking on a lecturing tone, "is what we call a 'contested zone'. The Ctharii have been sniffing around its edges for some time now. A thorn in our side, but rarely brave enough for a full-scale incursion." "So, they attacked Haldis figuring it was easy pickings," I finished for him. "Precisely. Our presence must have…discouraged them further."
The Admiral's voice held a hint of smug satisfaction. Zylar and I exchanged glances. The relief that the civilians on Haldis had dodged a bullet was warring with a rising dread. Because the Galactic Empire wasn't here to save us. They were here to claim this sector. The comm screen flickered, revealing the Grand Admiral. A tall man, surprisingly youthful for his rank, clad in a pristine grey uniform, a sharp contrast to Kyros' usual rumpled appearance.
Volarus had the kind of face meant for propaganda posters – strong jaw, icy blue eyes, and a mane of silver-streaked hair. The picture of Imperial might. "We intercepted your transmission on our long-range scanners," he continued. "Commander, the sheer audacity of claiming Concord backing… I must admit, it takes guts. Or perhaps desperation?" Behind Volarus, I saw it.
Not the bridge of his ship, but an expanse that sent chills down my spine. Stars, thousands of them, pinpricks in an endless void. And among them, shapes that defied reason. Monolithic wedges, kilometers long, bristling with what could only be unimaginably powerful weaponry. If the Rimward Fleet was a collection of angry wasps, this was a gargantuan hornet's nest.
Volarus followed my gaze, a thin smile playing on his lips. "An impressive sight, is it not? But not what you were expecting, I gather." "Admiral," I swallowed, forcing my voice to stay steady, "I understand we're far from the core systems. We're a small force, a minor outpost.
What is the Empire's interest in this…contested zone, as you call it?" "Bluntness. I like that." Volarus leaned forward, something predatory flickering in his eyes. "The Ctharii are pests. But pests can multiply, grow bolder. This region…there are resources, strategic positioning. It borders a disputed sector the Concord also has its eyes on." "So we're just a pawn in your intergalactic chess game?" Zylar's voice was thick with resentment.
Volarus didn't even look offended. "A pawn? No. More like a…roadblock. You've inadvertently done the Empire a favor, Commander. Revealing your world's existence, proving Earth's interest in the region. It gives us…justification." "Justification for what?" My mouth had gone dry. The predatory grin returned. "Why, to establish a permanent presence, of course.
Think of it as… preventative maintenance." His gaze swept the bridge, assessing every face, no doubt reading the despair and defiance warring on our features. "Naturally, your kind cooperation would streamline the process immensely.""Cooperation implies choice, Admiral." I managed to keep my voice steady, but a wave of anger was building within me. "Sounds more like you intend to annex our world." Volarus chuckled, a surprisingly warm sound for such a cold man. "Annexation is such an ugly word, Commander.
Protectorate has a far nicer ring to it, don't you think?" Zylar slammed his fist on the command console. "Go jump in a lake, Imp!" The Grand Admiral's smile vanished. "Insolence won't get you far, Captain. You have a choice, limited as it may be. Your people can accept Imperial protection, or you can resist and experience the full might of our fleet firsthand. Believe me, the Ctharii attack will look like child's play in comparison." My mind was racing. Was he all bluster? Even with our tiny fleet, we could inflict some losses.
But Haldis' defenses were laughable against an armada like Volarus commanded. And even if we could buy time, how long before the Ctharii returned in force? Caught between the hammer and the anvil, Haldis wouldn't stand a chance. "You want guarantees?" I asked, stalling for time to think. Volarus raised an aristocratic eyebrow.
"Of course. The Empire is nothing if not benevolent. Autonomy, preservation of local governance…" He waved a hand dismissively, "The usual formalities. Your population need only understand that the true power rests with us." "A boot on our necks, rebranded as benevolence," Rhys muttered, just loud enough to be heard by the Imperials. "Silence, Ensign!" Zylar snapped, but a flicker in Volarus' eye told me he'd heard it nonetheless.
It wouldn't be freedom, that much was clear. Earth wouldn't just abandon a colony, but even if they sent a fleet, years would pass. By then, Haldis would be thoroughly entrenched in the Imperial system, our people likely brainwashed into accepting their fate. At least under the Empire, there'd be protection from the Ctharii… for now. And Volarus wasn't wrong – resistance would be futile, a bloodbath.
Rage coursed through me, hot and bitter. But as I looked around the bridge, I saw it mirrored in my crew's eyes; not just anger, but a flicker of resignation. These were good people, farmers and engineers, not warriors. And though the fire of rebellion burned in my own heart, I was their Commander. My duty was to them. "Admiral, let's discuss the terms of this…protectorate," I said, the word scraping against my tongue. A calculating gleam appeared in Volarus' eyes. "Wise decision, Commander. You possess a pragmatism I admire." Hours passed in negotiations as tense as any battlefield.
Volarus was ruthless yet savvy, driving a hard bargain. I managed to salvage a semblance of internal autonomy for Haldis, but trade, military presence, even our educational system – all would be under rigid Imperial control. Earth would have to be notified, would send an envoy, perhaps even try to contest these terms.
But by then, it'd be too late. As the transmission ended, an icy dread settled over me. We'd survived but at a terrible cost. Haldis was no longer our world. "Open a fleet-wide channel," I ordered, my voice heavy. "All ships, stand down." Protests rose, quickly silenced by Zylar's glare. It was my job to deliver this news, no matter how much it tasted like ashes. "People of the Rimward Fleet," I began, forcing calm into my voice. "We have…new developments.
The Ctharii have withdrawn.
Another power has entered the system, one we cannot stand against. The Galactic Empire." Gasps rose across the comm channels. We'd all heard the horror stories. The Empire was a monolith, crushing dissent and individuality with methodical ruthlessness. To those who complied, a veneer of order. To those who defied, annihilation. Yet, I continued, explaining the Empire's claim of this sector, the terms of the 'protectorate', the futility of defiance. My words were met with anger, fear, a simmering despair. Yet, when I opened the channel for responses, there were no calls for rebellion, no suicidal charges, only a grim chorus of acknowledgements. We were a small fleet, a backwater colony.
The galaxy had bigger players, and we were just caught in their crossfire. The next hours were a grim whirlwind. An Imperial corvette docked with our flagship, carrying a skeletal occupation force. Volarus was true to his word – no violence, only swift efficiency. Imperial officers were arrogant, but not overtly cruel.
They demanded access to our systems, our communication network, our very way of life. Watching them take over the bridge, my command center, was a special kind of agony.A sense of unreality hung heavy as the days turned into weeks. Haldis functioned on a strange, numb autopilot. Farmers tended crops – now to fill quotas set by distant Imperial bureaucrats. Engineers adapted machinery to conform to unfamiliar standards. Even the children's lessons subtly shifted, the Empire's sanitized history seeping into their young minds.
And I, Commander Elian Torval, became a cipher. My crew was 'reorganized', their skills deemed useful by the Empire. Zylar was given an insulting token position – an 'advisor' to the newly appointed Imperial governor, a pale-eyed career politician named Praetor Valis. As for me, I was offered a role I couldn't refuse – the figurehead 'Commander' of Haldis' newly formed "Defense Force". We had no real weaponry, just the remnants of our antiquated fleet, and our duties were reduced to patrols and petty law enforcement.
I became a mascot, gracing PR events in my once-proud uniform, now adorned with Imperial insignia. The humiliation was a slow, corrosive poison. Yet, even amidst the despair, something akin to grudging respect flickered in the eyes of some locals. Rumors circulated, whispered tales about hidden stashes of food, communication blackouts orchestrated by our 'useless' engineers, even the occasional Imperial supply crate going missing. It was small, disorganized resistance, but it was there. And though I never gave orders, never outwardly encouraged it, they knew I wouldn't stop it either.
One crisp morning, a summons came: Praetor Valis required my presence in his ludicrously opulent, hastily constructed headquarters. As I strode through the streets of a town I no longer recognized, anger gnawed at me. Imperial banners hung where familiar shop signs once were. Uniformed troopers patrolled, not with the relaxed manner of our old guard, but with a cold alertness. Valis was as unremarkable as I remembered – a cog in a massive machine, meticulously groomed and exuding an oily self-importance. "Commander Torval, so good to see you! The people love you, a beacon of… stability, yes," he simpered.
I barely held back an eye roll. "You wanted me for a reason, Praetor?" His smile didn't falter. "Of course! You'll be pleased to know, my contacts at Imperial High Command have been quite impressed with our progress. They believe Haldis is ripe for…further integration into the Empire." "Integration?" I asked, dread settling like ice in my gut.
"Why yes! Expanding our modest garrison, increasing trade quotas… and" – here his grin became positively gleeful – "introducing more permanent residents." My stomach lurched. We'd already received a trickle of settlers – Imperial loyalists looking for opportunity on a 'tamed' world. Now Valis was talking about a mass influx. Haldis, overrun. "You'll turn our world into an Imperial colony." Valis waved a dismissive hand. "Oh, hardly. Simply… optimizing its potential, as it were.
We'll transport skilled colonists – engineers, educators, administrators. Your people lack initiative, Commander. They need our guidance." My hands fisted. These 'skilled' colonists would be the final nail in the coffin, the local population demoted, their culture swallowed whole. "Your guidance? You call it guidance, Praetor. I call it occupation." "Semantics, my dear Commander!" Valis chuckled. "Call it what you will, the Empire has plans for Haldis.
And you will play your part. Announce it – a celebration! A welcoming ceremony for our new arrivals." "I'll do no such thing-" "Commander," Valis' voice hardened, the oily mask slipping. "This is not open to debate. Obey, and perhaps we'll find a more...substantial role for you. Defy, and well, let's just say your usefulness will have expired." The threat hung between us, unspoken but clear. I was trapped. Collaboration meant complicity, but resistance seemed impossible. Yet, to stand by and allow Haldis to be erased? Unthinkable. As I left Valis' office, my mind raced.
There had to be a way, some spark to ignite a full-blown rebellion. But to do that, I needed something the Empire desperately thought it had already snuffed out – hope. Later, I found myself drawn to the spaceport. Not the gleaming new one the Imps used, but our old, rundown facility. It was deserted, a ghost of its former self. Here, our fighters had launched, ready to face the Ctharii. Now, these hangars echoed with emptiness. A shadow in the darkness made me whirl around. A familiar figure, in worn mechanic's overalls, emerged. Lieutenant Rhys.

Then I saw when the Bear broke one of the six seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, "Veemo." I looked, and behold, a white helicopter, and he who rode on it had a stringer; and a egg cannon was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.
When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Woomy." And another, a red helicopter, went out; and to him who rode on it, it was granted to take peace from the seas, and that salmon would slay one another; and a great splatana was given to him.
When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, "Ngyes." I looked, and behold, a black helicopter; and he who rode on it had a pair of dualies in his hands. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, "A scale of gold for a smallfry, and three scales of gold for a poster; but do not have internet issues lest you be demoted."
When the Bear broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, "Oomy." I looked, and behold, an ashen helicopter; and he who rode on it had the name Death; and the Slammin Lid was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the Spawning Grounds, to kill with slosher and with splashdown and with wave breaker and by the wild specials of the sea.
— Inkantation 6:1–8
No I have no idea why I made this