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Custom Honor Guard Challenge Coins

2023.04.01 11:58 SuperChallengeCoins Custom Honor Guard Challenge Coins

Challenge Coins For Honor Guards Are The Highest Form Of Honor

https://preview.redd.it/eq7oyzq0x8ra1.jpg?width=497&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=851b084d4f0063ba89658c8eb2293666110a7086
The honor guard is a custom that exists all across the world and dates back in time.
They are often called upon for important rituals like weddings or funerals, as well as to welcome and protect dignitaries visiting their nation.
Any military unit may serve as an honor guard for a head of state or another senior person, although some nations select a specific unit to carry out the duty alone.
The honor guard is often seen maintaining the conventional military formations and presentations, both for safety and for display purposes.
Soldiers of the honor guard may often be identified by their dress uniforms, as well as by their deliberate, coordinated motions and rituals.
The finest approach to portraying honor guard members as the public face of their country’s armed forces is via the awarding of military challenge coins.
For more than ten years, Super ChallengeCoins has served as the source for personalized unit challenge coins for all military branches.
We have a great deal of respect and appreciation for the men and women who serve their nation because of our extensive expertise in developing and distributing challenge coins.
We work hard to provide the greatest military challenge coins available thanks to this regard. Our customers come back to us year after year for their future challenge coin requirements because of the great quality of our product and superior level of customer care.
Get in touch with us right away to begin designing a memento that your honor guard members will treasure.
Units Of The United States Honor Guard

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Coast Guard Honor Guard Challenge Coin Coastie USCG Medallion
The American military’s many branches each have their own honor guard. The honor guard troops, stationed in the Washington, D.C., region, carry out several events on behalf of the President of the United States while representing the military as a whole and the United States as a whole. The units often travel around the nation and the globe when necessary, thus they are not restricted to serving in or near the country’s capital.
The U.S. Military’s particular honor guard units include:
United States Marine Corps Color Guard Platoon
To accord proper military homage and to highlight the Marine Corps’ distinguished legacy of warfighting, this platoon displays the National Flag and the Marine Corps Battle Color at events held across the National Capital Region and throughout the United States.
Army Honor Guard Company (3rd United States Infantry Regiment)
To represent the U.S. Army and tell its narrative to Americans and the rest of the world, this regiment holds memorial services to pay tribute to fallen colleagues as well as celebrations and unique events.
United States Navy Ceremonial Guard
Representing the Navy in official events in and around the nation’s capital, including those for the president, the Joint Armed Forces, the Navy, and the general public.
Coast Guard Ceremonial Honor Guard
Represents the Commandant, the Military District of Washington, and the US Coast Guard at formal events attended by dignitaries and foreign leaders.
The 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment guards the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery as an illustration of the routine duties performed by honor guard troops. Every branch and every unit has its own flag, ceremonial attire, and customs. They may completely personalize each of their challenge coins.
Canadian And British Honor Guards
Honor Guard Challenge Coin
The honor guard may be assembled from a wide range of locations outside of the United States.
When it comes to protecting heads of state and other dignitaries, some nations use a more comprehensive strategy.
The ceremonial guard of the Canadian Armed Forces has traditionally been drawn from the regiments of the Governor General’s Foot Guard and the Canadian Grenadier Guard. But as of late, service is now available to personnel of every branch of the Canadian military.
The ceremonial guard participates in several routine events and presentations in addition to their sentry responsibilities at the National War Memorial and Rideau Hall.
These routine responsibilities include Trooping the Colour, the Governor General’s review of the Guard, and the Changing of the Guard.
There are no specific ceremonial units within the British Armed Forces.
They instead depend on troops from all three forces that are not deployed abroad to alternate and perform public tasks at different significant historical locations around the nation.
The Household Cavalry and the five Foot Guard units traditionally carry out ceremonial tasks.
The Household Cavalry’s following regiments are often called upon to carry out such duties:
The Life Guards
The Blue & Royals
Grenadier Guards
Coldstream Guards
Scots Guards
Irish Guards
Welsh Guards
The Queen’s Colour Squadron, the Royal Air Force’s ceremonial unit, is another option in addition to these Army groups.
Let Super ChallengeCoins Provide Your Challenge Coins For The Honor Guard.

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Honor Guard Challenge Coin CBP-2
Superior officers often issue challenge coins as a way to recognize extraordinary courage in the line of duty, foster a sense of teamwork, and express appreciation for service.
Since serving in the honor guard sometimes entails no additional compensation, expressing thanks to the troops who carry out the tasks may often go a long way.
For more than ten years, Super ChallengeCoins has produced personalized challenge coins.
In the challenge coin sector as a whole, we aspire to be the best in terms of quality and client happiness.
We do this by providing affordable prices, using the finest products on the market, and educating a helpful team that can assist you throughout the whole process. Additionally, anticipate getting:
FREE artwork on every order
FREE quotes on every order
FREE unlimited revisions on design
FREE shipping
100% satisfaction guarantee
If you have any queries or issues, please do not hesitate to contact us. We would be delighted to help! We appreciate your selection of signature coins and look forward to working with you.
https://superchallengecoins.com/

submitted by SuperChallengeCoins to u/SuperChallengeCoins [link] [comments]

2023.04.01 11:52 marcoxnt93 [H] Humble Turkiye Syria Leftovers and a lot games [W] Offers

https://www.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/cg1p8marcoxnt93s_igs_rep_page/
Humble Turkiye-Syria Earthquake Relief Bundle leftovers

Ticket to Ride
Strange Brigade
System Shock Enhanced Edition
Pilgrims
Flynn: Son of Crimson
Into the Pit
Worms Rumble
Backbone
119 Operator
211 Operator
Calico
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack
Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition
Space Crew: Legendary Edition
Monaco
Death Squared
Lust from Beyond – M Edition
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
Remnants of Naezith
Planet TD
Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue DX
XEL
Little Orpheus
Detached: Non-VR Edition
Agent in Depth
Meow Express
Arcade Spirits
Non-Stop Raiders
The Inner World
The Amazing American Circus
Soulblight
Stacking
Hack 'n’ Slash
MirrorMoon EP
Cosmic Express
Cris Tales
Orbital Racer
Symmetry
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
Alchemist’s Castle
Soul Searching
Doughlings: Arcade
Doughlings: Invasion
Quadrata
Rym 9000
stikir
Cats and the Other Lives
Soulflow
Izmir: An Independence Simulator
Guns & Fishes
Pill Baby
Project Chemistry
Pixross
Frick, Inc
Sunlight

TIER 0
Back 4 blood eu
Destiny 2 Planet of Peace Exclusive Emblem
Dirt Rally 2.0 + 3 DLC
F1 2012
F1 2019 Anniversary
Grand Theft Auto Vice City
Remnant from the Ashes
Road to Guangdong - Story-Based Indie Road Trip Driving Game
the wolf among us

TIER 1
Absolver
Bloodstained Ritual of the Night
borderlands Game of the year enhanced Edition
Borderlands: The Handsome Collection EU
Chernobylite Enhanced Edition
Darksiders genesis
Deep Rock Galactic
Doom Eternal
Duke Nukem Manhattan Project
DUSK
Elex
Endless Space 2 – Deluxe Edition
friday the 13th
Geometry Wars 3 Dimensions Evolved Mystery
Genital Jousting
Grid Autosport
Grid ultimate edition
Golf With Friends
GoNNER BLüEBERRY EDiTION
guild wars 2 heroic edition
guild wars nightfall
Hitman Absolution
House Flipper
Just cause 3 XXL
Kingdom Rush
Kerbal Space Program x 2
Legend Of Grimrock
Lego Marvel 2 Deluxe
Little Dragons Cafe
Mafia III: Definitive Edition
MAIN ASSEMBLY
Maneater
Mordhau
Orn the tiny forest sprite
Outward US x 2
Overcooked 2 + Surf and Turf + Too Many Cooks
pathfinder wrath
PGA TOUR 2k21 x 2
Phantasmagoria
Portal Knights
Pro cycling manager 2019
Project Cars
Project CARS 2 + Japanese Cars Bonus Pack
Risen
Sairento VR
Scum
Second Extinction
Sonic Forces
Spyro Reignited Trilogy x 2
Starbound
Star Trek Bridge Crew
State of Decay 2
streets of rogue
Summer in Mara
Superhot VR
Tales of Zestiria
Team Sonic Racing
Tekken 7
The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion GOTY
The Division + DLC US
Tomb Raider GOTY
Total War: MEDIEVAL II – Definitive Edition
TRINE 2 Complete Story
TRINE 3 The Artifacts of Power
Tracks - The Train Set Game
WARHAMMER 40,000: Gladius- Relics of War
Warhammer 40000 : Mechanicus
Wasteland 2 Directors Cut
Wasteland 3
valkyria chronicles IV Complete
X-com 2

TIER 2
ABZU
Armello x 3
asterix obelix xxl3
Band of Defenders
batman arkham knight
Battle Chasers: Nightwar
Beyond Blue
BioShock Infinite
Book of Demons
CHAOS CODE -NEW SIGN OF CATASTROPHE-
Choice Chamber
Chess Ultra
Cities skylines
civilization IV Complete Edition
Civilization 5
Dead by Daylight
Death and Taxes
Degrees of Separation
Drake Hollow
Driftland: The Magic Revival x 2
Endless Space 2
Europa Universalis IV
eXperience 112
FEZ
Flying Tigers: Shadows Over China - Deluxe Edition
Forced
From Space
Gamedec
Gato Roboto
Golf With Friends
Gunman Tales
Hotshot Racing
human fall flat
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1
Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
Just Cause 3
Killing Floor 2
King's Bounty: Crossworlds
King’s Bounty: Warriors of the North - The Complete Edition
Last Oasis
Manhunt
Megadimension Neptunia VII
Men of War: Assault Squad 2 - War Chest Edition
METAL SLUG 3
Metro Last Light Redux
Miscreated
MO:Astray
Morphopolis
Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021
Natural Selection 2
NecroWorm
Neo Cab
NEOVERSE
Not For Broadcast
Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty
Odyssey - The Story of Science
OF MICE AND SAND -REVISED-
One Step From Eden
Opus Magnum
Overcooked
Overgrowth
PATHOLOGIC 2
Pillars Of Eternity
Phoenix Point Year one edition
Planespace Torment Enhanced Edition
Plunge
Quantum League
Quest of Dungeons
Railroad tycoon 3
Rise of Industry
River City Melee Mach
Roarr! The Adventures of Rampage Rex
Sanctuary RPG: Black Edition
Scribblenauts Unmasked
Scythe Digital Edition
Serious Sam 3 BFE
Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut
Shing!
Skullgirls
Sinking Island
Slinger VR
SNIPER GHOST WARRIOR CONTRACTS
snk anniversary
Sonic All Stars Transformed Collection
Sparkle 2
Sparkle Unleashed
Starbound
Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga
STAR WARS Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy
STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast
STAR WARS The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition
Star Wars Kotor 2
Star Wolves 3: Civil War
stick fight the game
Still There
Stronhold Crusader 2
Struggling
Styx Master of Shadows
SUPER TIME FORCE ULTRA
Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality
SurrounDead
Surviving Mars x 2
Swords of Gurrah
Tannenberg
THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIII STEAM EDITION
The Technomancer
tilt brush
Titan Quest Anniversary Edition
The Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut
The Beast Inside
The Gardens Between
The Incredible Adventures of Van Hesing
the long dark survival Edition
The Stillness of the Wind
The Swords of Ditto: Mormo’s Curse
The town of light
The walking dead the new frontier
The Wild Eight
Train Valley 2
Trüberbrook
Tropico 5
Tsioque
Unto The End
Valfaris
Voidship: The Long Journey
volcanoids
Wargroove
WARSAW
West of Dead x 2
Wizard Of Legends x 3
Worms Clan Wars
Without Within 3
XCOM: Chimera Squad
Yooka Laylee
Zwei: The Arges Adventure
Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection

TIER 3
112 Operator
911 Operator
Acorn Assault: Rodent Revolution
Ageless
AI War 2
Alan Wake's American Nightmare
Alien Shooter 2 Conscription
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
angry video game nerd
Arcana Hearts 3
Armada 2526 Gold Edition
arma X
As Far As The Eye
Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation
Atari Vault
AVEN COLONY
Before we Leave
Belladonna
BLACKHOLE
Blitzkrieg Anthology
Boomerang Fu
Bomber Crew - Deluxe Edition
Boreal Blade
Borealis
Bridge Constructor Playground
Broken Age x 3
Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons
Bunker Punks
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
Cally's caves 3
Callys Caves 4
Capitalism 2
Carmageddon Max Damage
Cast of the Seven Godsends
Cepheus Protocol
Chaos Reborn
City Siege: Faction Island
COLT CANYON
Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!
Crazy Belts
crazy machines 3
Creeping Terror
Crowntakers
Crying Suns
CTU: Counter Terrorism Unit
Cybarian: The Time Travelling Warrior
Cyber Hook
Dad Quest x 2
Dark Heritage: Guardians of Hope
Darkness Within 2: The Dark Lineage
Darksiders Warmastered Edition
Dark Strokes The Legend of the Snow Kingdom Collectors Edition
Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
Death to Spies: Moment of Truth
Death Squared
DESOLATE
Detached
Deus Ex: Invisible War
Dimension Drifter
Distrust : Polar Survival
Double Dragon IV
Draw Slasher
Duke Nukem Forever x 2
Dungeons 3
Dungeon Siege II
DV: Rings of Saturn
EarthNight
EarthX
Eliza
Enforcer: Police Crime Action
ENSLAVED™: Odyssey to the West™ Premium Edition
Epistory - Typing Chronicles
Etherborn
Etherlords I & II
Evergarden
evoland
F1 2018
Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered
Farming World
Fire
Fort Triumph
Fury Unleashed x 2
Garfield Kart
Gas Guzzlers Extreme
Goat simulator
Golf Gang
God's Trigger
Go Home Dinosaurs
Going Under
Gone Home + Original Soundtrack
Grim Legends 2: Song of the Dark Swan
GRIP: Combat Racing
Guilty Gear Sign
Gunscape Standard Edition
Hacknet + DLC
Heaven’s Vault
Heavy Burger
Heroes of Annihilated Empires
Hexologic
Hidden Object Bundle 5 in 1
Hidden Object 6in1 bundle
Hive Jump
Hopiko
HORACE
Hue
Hyperspace Invaders II: Pixel Edition
In Between
Innerspace
INMOST
Inside My Radio
Iris and the Giant
Iron Fisticle
John Wick
Just Die Already
ken follet
Kingdom: Classic
King Oddball
Knights of Pen & Paper 2
Knight's Retreat
Labyronia RPG
Labyronia RPG 2
Laser Disco Defenders
Leisure Suit Larry 7 - Love for Sail
Lemuria Lost in Space
Levelhead
LIBERATED
Little Misfortune
Livelock
Lostwinds
Lovecraft’s Untold Stories
Lust from Beyond: M Edition
Lust for Darkness
Luxor 3
Mages of Mystralia
Magrunner: Dark Pulse
Masquerade: The Baubles of Doom
Medieval Kingdom Wars
Mini Ninjas
MirrorMoon EP
Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine
Moon Hunters
MotoGP 15
Morkredd
MOUNT & BLADE
MXGP - The Official Motocross Videogame
My Memory of Us
Mystery Loss
Narcos: Rise of the Cartels
Nba Playgrounds
Neon Chrome
Newt One
Nex Machina
Neverending Nightmares
Neverout
Niffelheim
Night Call
Nowhere Prophet
Odallus: The Dark Call
Of Orcs And Men
Offworld Trading Company + Jupiter's Forge Expansion Pack
Omen Exitio: Plague
Orbital Racer
Out of Space
Overload
Overlord II x 2
Pac-Man 256
PAC-MAN™ CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION 2
Paper Fire Rookie
Paperbark
Paradigm
Particula
Pathway
Pawnbarian
Payday 2
Peaky Blinders: Mastermind
Perfect Universe
Pesterquest
Pickers
Pikuniku
Pirate Pop Plus
Pixel Heroes
Pixplode
Planet Alpha
Planet of the Eyes
Police Stories
port royale 3 gold
Post Master
POPUP DUNGEON
Prehistoric Tales
Quantum Conundrum
Radio Commander
Rapture Rejects
Rebel Galaxy
red orchestra 2
Re-Legion
REMOTHERED: BROKEN PORCELAIN
Remnants of Naezith
RESIDENT EVIL HD
Rezrog
Retimed
Ring of Pain
Road Redemption
ROCK OF AGES 3: MAKE & BREAK
Röki
Roombo: First Blood
Rover Mechanic Simulator
RRRR
Rustler
Sakura Agent
Sakura Angels
Sakura Beach
Sakura Beach 2
Sakura Fantasy
Sakura Magical Girls
Sakura Shrine Girls
Sakura Spirit
Samorost 3
Serial Cleaner
Seven enchanted edition
Sigma Theory: Global Cold War
SIMULACRA + SIMULACRA 2
Sins Of The Demon
Shadowrun Hong Kong Extended Edition
Shoppe Keep
Shoppe Keep 2
Smile For Me
SKULLY
Smoke and Sacrifice
Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing
Soulblight
Space Pilgrim Academy: Reunion
space run galaxy
Speedrunners
Spellspire
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
StarCrossed
State of mind
Stealth 2: A Game of Clones
Stealth Bastard Deluxe x 2
Steamburg
Still Life 2
Storm Of Spears
Strider
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
Sudden Strike 4
Sundered
Super Hexagon
Supraland
Super Mutant Alien Assault
Super Panda Adventures
Swag and Sorcery
Syberia
Syberia II
Syberia 3
System Shock: Enhanced Edition
Tabletop Playground
Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation
Teleglitch Die More Edition
Telefrag VR
Teslagrad
Testament of Sherlock Holmes
Time Mysteries 3: The Final Enigma
The Amazing American Circus
Tharsis
The Ball
The Deed
The dropping of the dead
The Dwarves
The Hex
The King's Bird
The Last Door: Season 2 - Collector's Edition
The Lost Crown
The Purring Quest
There Came An Echo
The Haunted Island, A Frog Detective Game
The Signal From Tölva
Think of the Children
This War of Mine
ToeJam & Earl Back in the Groove
Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation
Tomb Raider V: Chronicles
Tomb Raider Legend
Tomb Raider Underworld
Tooth and Tail
Train Station Renovation
Treasure Hunter Simulator
Tropico 4
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
Underhero
Unrest
Valnir Rok Survival RPG
Vane
Velocity Ultra Deluxe
Vertiginous Golf
Viking Saga The Cursed Ring
Wanderlust: Travel Stories
Wandersong
warlock 2
war tech fighters
Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Heart of the Forest
Without Within 2
Whispers of a machine
Wings of Vi
Yoku's Island Express
Youropa
Zoo Park

TIER 4
Acceleration of SUGURI 2
Age of Wonders III
Alien Spidy
Almost There: The Platformer
Angvik
A New Beginning – Final Cut
AtmaSphere
Battle vs chees
Circuit Breakers
Corridor Z
CreaVures
Cubicle Quest
Dagon – The Eldritch Box DLC
Dashing Dinos
Death Fungeon
Drawful 2
DungeonUp x 2
Earth 2150 Trilogy
Enclave
Endless Space – Collection
Evergarden
Formula Car Racing
Fluffy Horde
Gorky 17
Guts And Glory
Hacknet Deluxe Edition
Haegemonia: The Solon Heritage
HIVESWAP: Act 1
Holy Potatoes a Spy Story
Homefront
Horizon Shift
Joggernauts
Journey of a Roach
Learn Japanese to survive Hiragana Battle
Left in the Dark: No One on Board
Leisure Suit Larry 5 - Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work
Leisure Suit Larry 6 - Shape Up Or Slip Out
Little Racers STREET
Lock Parsing 2
Love is Dead
Midnight Mysteries 3: Devil on the Mississippi
Memoria
Moss Destruction
NAIRI: Tower of Shirin
NeuroVoider
No Time to Explain Remastered
One Finger Death Punch
OneShift
Out of Reach: Treasure Royale
Pesterquest
Purrfect Date – Visual Novel/Dating Simulator
Raceland
Regions Of Ruin
Regular Human Basketball x 2
Rencounter
Renoir
Return to Mysterious Island
Resort Boss: Golf
Rym 9000
Seraph
Shooting Stars!
Silence
Sky Break
Space Pilgrim Episode III: Delta Pavonis
Space Pilgrim Episode IV: Sol
Spandex Force: Champion Rising
Steel Rats
Super Daryl Deluxe
Sword Legacy Omen
Taxi
The Adventure Pals x 3
The Deed: Dynasty
The Emerald Maiden: Symphony of Dream
The Spiral Scouts
The Uncertain - The Last Quiet Day
Tiny Troopers
ttv2
Twilight City Love as a Cure
Two Worlds: Epic Edition
Tumblestone
Unhack
Unhack 2
Viking Saga The Cursed Ring
White Noise Online
World Keepers Last Resort
Zombie Party x 2

submitted by marcoxnt93 to indiegameswap [link] [comments]

2023.04.01 11:51 marcoxnt93 [H] Humble Turkiye Syria Leftovers and a lot games [W] Offers

Humble Turkiye-Syria Earthquake Relief Bundle leftovers

Ticket to Ride
Strange Brigade
System Shock Enhanced Edition
Pilgrims
Flynn: Son of Crimson
Into the Pit
Worms Rumble
Backbone
119 Operator
211 Operator
Calico
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack
Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition
Space Crew: Legendary Edition
Monaco
Death Squared
Lust from Beyond – M Edition
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
Remnants of Naezith
Planet TD
Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue DX
XEL
Little Orpheus
Detached: Non-VR Edition
Agent in Depth
Meow Express
Arcade Spirits
Non-Stop Raiders
The Inner World
The Amazing American Circus
Soulblight
Stacking
Hack 'n’ Slash
MirrorMoon EP
Cosmic Express
Cris Tales
Orbital Racer
Symmetry
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
Alchemist’s Castle
Soul Searching
Doughlings: Arcade
Doughlings: Invasion
Quadrata
Rym 9000
stikir
Cats and the Other Lives
Soulflow
Izmir: An Independence Simulator
Guns & Fishes
Pill Baby
Project Chemistry
Pixross
Frick, Inc
Sunlight

TIER 0
Back 4 blood eu
Destiny 2 Planet of Peace Exclusive Emblem
Dirt Rally 2.0 + 3 DLC
F1 2012
F1 2019 Anniversary
Grand Theft Auto Vice City
Remnant from the Ashes
Road to Guangdong - Story-Based Indie Road Trip Driving Game
the wolf among us

TIER 1
Absolver
Bloodstained Ritual of the Night
borderlands Game of the year enhanced Edition
Borderlands: The Handsome Collection EU
Chernobylite Enhanced Edition
Darksiders genesis
Deep Rock Galactic
Doom Eternal
Duke Nukem Manhattan Project
DUSK
Elex
Endless Space 2 – Deluxe Edition
friday the 13th
Geometry Wars 3 Dimensions Evolved Mystery
Genital Jousting
Grid Autosport
Grid ultimate edition
Golf With Friends
GoNNER BLüEBERRY EDiTION
guild wars 2 heroic edition
guild wars nightfall
Hitman Absolution
House Flipper
Just cause 3 XXL
Kingdom Rush
Kerbal Space Program x 2
Legend Of Grimrock
Lego Marvel 2 Deluxe
Little Dragons Cafe
Mafia III: Definitive Edition
MAIN ASSEMBLY
Maneater
Mordhau
Orn the tiny forest sprite
Outward US x 2
Overcooked 2 + Surf and Turf + Too Many Cooks
pathfinder wrath
PGA TOUR 2k21 x 2
Phantasmagoria
Portal Knights
Pro cycling manager 2019
Project Cars
Project CARS 2 + Japanese Cars Bonus Pack
Risen
Sairento VR
Scum
Second Extinction
Sonic Forces
Spyro Reignited Trilogy x 2
Starbound
Star Trek Bridge Crew
State of Decay 2
streets of rogue
Summer in Mara
Superhot VR
Tales of Zestiria
Team Sonic Racing
Tekken 7
The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion GOTY
The Division + DLC US
Tomb Raider GOTY
Total War: MEDIEVAL II – Definitive Edition
TRINE 2 Complete Story
TRINE 3 The Artifacts of Power
Tracks - The Train Set Game
WARHAMMER 40,000: Gladius- Relics of War
Warhammer 40000 : Mechanicus
Wasteland 2 Directors Cut
Wasteland 3
valkyria chronicles IV Complete
X-com 2

TIER 2
ABZU
Armello x 3
asterix obelix xxl3
Band of Defenders
batman arkham knight
Battle Chasers: Nightwar
Beyond Blue
BioShock Infinite
Book of Demons
CHAOS CODE -NEW SIGN OF CATASTROPHE-
Choice Chamber
Chess Ultra
Cities skylines
civilization IV Complete Edition
Civilization 5
Dead by Daylight
Death and Taxes
Degrees of Separation
Drake Hollow
Driftland: The Magic Revival x 2
Endless Space 2
Europa Universalis IV
eXperience 112
FEZ
Flying Tigers: Shadows Over China - Deluxe Edition
Forced
From Space
Gamedec
Gato Roboto
Golf With Friends
Gunman Tales
Hotshot Racing
human fall flat
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1
Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
Just Cause 3
Killing Floor 2
King's Bounty: Crossworlds
King’s Bounty: Warriors of the North - The Complete Edition
Last Oasis
Manhunt
Megadimension Neptunia VII
Men of War: Assault Squad 2 - War Chest Edition
METAL SLUG 3
Metro Last Light Redux
Miscreated
MO:Astray
Morphopolis
Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021
Natural Selection 2
NecroWorm
Neo Cab
NEOVERSE
Not For Broadcast
Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty
Odyssey - The Story of Science
OF MICE AND SAND -REVISED-
One Step From Eden
Opus Magnum
Overcooked
Overgrowth
PATHOLOGIC 2
Pillars Of Eternity
Phoenix Point Year one edition
Planespace Torment Enhanced Edition
Plunge
Quantum League
Quest of Dungeons
Railroad tycoon 3
Rise of Industry
River City Melee Mach
Roarr! The Adventures of Rampage Rex
Sanctuary RPG: Black Edition
Scribblenauts Unmasked
Scythe Digital Edition
Serious Sam 3 BFE
Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut
Shing!
Skullgirls
Sinking Island
Slinger VR
SNIPER GHOST WARRIOR CONTRACTS
snk anniversary
Sonic All Stars Transformed Collection
Sparkle 2
Sparkle Unleashed
Starbound
Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga
STAR WARS Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy
STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast
STAR WARS The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition
Star Wars Kotor 2
Star Wolves 3: Civil War
stick fight the game
Still There
Stronhold Crusader 2
Struggling
Styx Master of Shadows
SUPER TIME FORCE ULTRA
Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality
SurrounDead
Surviving Mars x 2
Swords of Gurrah
Tannenberg
THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIII STEAM EDITION
The Technomancer
tilt brush
Titan Quest Anniversary Edition
The Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut
The Beast Inside
The Gardens Between
The Incredible Adventures of Van Hesing
the long dark survival Edition
The Stillness of the Wind
The Swords of Ditto: Mormo’s Curse
The town of light
The walking dead the new frontier
The Wild Eight
Train Valley 2
Trüberbrook
Tropico 5
Tsioque
Unto The End
Valfaris
Voidship: The Long Journey
volcanoids
Wargroove
WARSAW
West of Dead x 2
Wizard Of Legends x 3
Worms Clan Wars
Without Within 3
XCOM: Chimera Squad
Yooka Laylee
Zwei: The Arges Adventure
Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection

TIER 3
112 Operator
911 Operator
Acorn Assault: Rodent Revolution
Ageless
AI War 2
Alan Wake's American Nightmare
Alien Shooter 2 Conscription
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs
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As Far As The Eye
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The Ball
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The Signal From Tölva
Think of the Children
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Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation
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Tooth and Tail
Train Station Renovation
Treasure Hunter Simulator
Tropico 4
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
Underhero
Unrest
Valnir Rok Survival RPG
Vane
Velocity Ultra Deluxe
Vertiginous Golf
Viking Saga The Cursed Ring
Wanderlust: Travel Stories
Wandersong
warlock 2
war tech fighters
Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Heart of the Forest
Without Within 2
Whispers of a machine
Wings of Vi
Yoku's Island Express
Youropa
Zoo Park

TIER 4
Acceleration of SUGURI 2
Age of Wonders III
Alien Spidy
Almost There: The Platformer
Angvik
A New Beginning – Final Cut
AtmaSphere
Battle vs chees
Circuit Breakers
Corridor Z
CreaVures
Cubicle Quest
Dagon – The Eldritch Box DLC
Dashing Dinos
Death Fungeon
Drawful 2
DungeonUp x 2
Earth 2150 Trilogy
Enclave
Endless Space – Collection
Evergarden
Formula Car Racing
Fluffy Horde
Gorky 17
Guts And Glory
Hacknet Deluxe Edition
Haegemonia: The Solon Heritage
HIVESWAP: Act 1
Holy Potatoes a Spy Story
Homefront
Horizon Shift
Joggernauts
Journey of a Roach
Learn Japanese to survive Hiragana Battle
Left in the Dark: No One on Board
Leisure Suit Larry 5 - Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work
Leisure Suit Larry 6 - Shape Up Or Slip Out
Little Racers STREET
Lock Parsing 2
Love is Dead
Midnight Mysteries 3: Devil on the Mississippi
Memoria
Moss Destruction
NAIRI: Tower of Shirin
NeuroVoider
No Time to Explain Remastered
One Finger Death Punch
OneShift
Out of Reach: Treasure Royale
Pesterquest
Purrfect Date – Visual Novel/Dating Simulator
Raceland
Regions Of Ruin
Regular Human Basketball x 2
Rencounter
Renoir
Return to Mysterious Island
Resort Boss: Golf
Rym 9000
Seraph
Shooting Stars!
Silence
Sky Break
Space Pilgrim Episode III: Delta Pavonis
Space Pilgrim Episode IV: Sol
Spandex Force: Champion Rising
Steel Rats
Super Daryl Deluxe
Sword Legacy Omen
Taxi
The Adventure Pals x 3
The Deed: Dynasty
The Emerald Maiden: Symphony of Dream
The Spiral Scouts
The Uncertain - The Last Quiet Day
Tiny Troopers
ttv2
Twilight City Love as a Cure
Two Worlds: Epic Edition
Tumblestone
Unhack
Unhack 2
Viking Saga The Cursed Ring
White Noise Online
World Keepers Last Resort
Zombie Party x 2

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2023.04.01 11:51 marcoxnt93 [H] Humble Turkiye Syria Leftovers and a lot games [W] Offers

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2023.04.01 11:12 ShadowDragon8685 [Ace is the Only Sane Pirate 17]Breaking Out like a Rolling Stone.

"About time!" Lu t'Cca thundered at her. "Split find hiding spot!
Najia backpedaled, giving the irate Split prisoner plenty of room to get past without coming into arms' length of her. At least he seemed to get that this was a prison break, and he made no move for her or her firearm, darting well clear of her, and out from the cell block.
Axiom's voice cut the sudden quiet that was otherwise punctuated only by her racing heart. "While you two were chatting, I've found a way to temporarily disable security in the hangar. That's where we'll hitch our ride. Head for the second level; the Ministry seems to have installed more switches. They'll require some adjustment, but I know you love a good puzzle." Najia snorted. She did, in fact, love a good puzzle, but breaking out of a prison was not the time to indulge in that. Usually. Unless one looked at the prison as the puzzle. She shook her head, huffing, and drew her pistol again. There was no marked pathway this time, but she made better time; it was reckless, but she jogged, since the place was seemingly totally unguarded. And, if it wasn't, chances were that Lucca would run into the guards first, and she'd hear the struggle ahead. She passed the lift, glancing towards it, and hurrying past in the other direction she hadn't been yet, coming to a door. Slowing, she closed enough with it that it opened automatically.
Najia let out a huff; Lu t'Cca was on the other side, but so was Axiom. She stepped forward, and looked from Axiom, who nodded to her, to Lucca, who snarled. "Creature reveal Split hiding spot! Creature nothing better to do?" This is a hiding spot? Najia shook her head; the two of them were literally standing in the middle of an intersection, in front of an airlock with two branches off on either side. She huffed, looking at Lu t'Cca. "Hey, Mellerd said -"
"Split not talk about friend-foes!" Lucca ranted. "Kriss went against family! Betrayal followed petty betrayal! Way of Windfall, yes. Way of some Split, maybe, but not how real warriors do revenge!" He made a guttural sound of anguish, shaking his head vehemently. Kris? He was on a first-name basis with her? The fact that Ace had spoken so frankly of xenosexual encounters popped into her head, the constant talk of betrayal, pettiness, personal matters, and suddenly it was obvious; somehow, this was personal. Personal; and none of her damn business. She held her hand up placatingly, holstering her other pistol, trusting to Axiom's physical presence to keep peace between her and Lucca. "Fine. I'll leave you to it," she said. "Split thought so," Lu t'Cca spat, looking back to Axiom. She looked to Axiom as well. "Switches, Wildcard. Get to it."
Najia nodded, and darted down the left-hand branch of the intersection, fuming all the while. It ran into a dead-end, and she uttered "ah fuck," turning and sprinting in the other direction, slaloming between Maestro and Lucca. At the end, she dead-ended there, and exasperated raised her voice, "the hell?!" Back in the middle, she examined the airlock carefully; she could see that it connected to nothing, which is why she discounted it previously. Carefully she moved into the airlock, her hand on her pistol just in case Lucca tried to kill her by cycling it, but he and Axiom seemed to be in the process of discussing old times.
Exasperated, Najia stepped back out of the airlock. "Axiom, where are these buttons you're talking about? How are we supposed to get out of here?" "Er..." Axiom blinked, tri-ocularly, at her, and looked around. He looked at his datapad. "They should be... Through..." He let out a discontent rumble. "Oh my. That is not obvious on a computer systems diagram schematic." "They're on the other side of the frigging airlock," Najia said. "You're probably already aware that humans can't survive in vacuum, let alone maneuver in it, right?" She snorted, her sarcasm at least getting a sheepish shuffle on his long legs out of Axiom. "Can we get out the way we came back in? Even if it means abandoning the Raven?"
"No," Axiom said gravely. "The tampering I did to activate the cell block doors will be caught by someone sooner or later - probably later than sooner, but sooner if we try to leave the cell block." "Split has been implanted with a tracking device," Lucca growled. "It will raise quite the ruckus when Split leave the cell block!" "If we're leaving by... Unconventional mechanisms, that will be no trouble," Axiom noted. "But if we enter the lift, it will lock down and security will be summoned immediately."
"Outstanding," Najia huffed. "Let me double-check something, see if I can think of something." She turned and left the way she had come from. She bypassed the lift; she had no intention of simply bailing on them. But now, she had two options. Neither was good, but one was significantly less good, so she hoped the other option worked. She opened a channel to Boso Ta. "Boso Ta, I hope to hell you've been listening in." "I have, Assistant!" Boso Ta's voice came through loud and clear. "You are in quite the conundrum. I hope you see a manner in which I may be able to extricate you, for I do not." "You and the Professor have been upgrading teleporters with the ability to upgrade themselves. To do so, you've been transporting equipment, right?" "Hai!" Professor Nakagawa's voice cut in. Clearly he was on the line. "This capability is within our grasp. What is your proposal, Takio-San?" "Can you teleport my EV suit to me?"
There was silence for a long few moments which felt like an eternity. "Potentially," Boso Ta broke the silence. "Have it placed in one of our lifts." "I'll get right on that," Marta cut in on the line. Najia smiled to hear her voice. "Any other requirements?" "If this will work, we will need very precise measurements," Professor Nakagawa said. "The teleporter is more your project than mine, Boso Ta. My thought is that it will require at least three triangulating vessels, and a beacon, and a substantial amount of open space." "Will an empty cell block do for that," Najia asked, hustling down the corridor. "It should yes... Yes! That will work." Rei Stringer cut in on the call, and Najia blinked as she saw Rei's comm-code. "I can arrange the fly-by," she said. It had been awhile since Najia had heard from the friend she had left in charge of the Eighteen Billion Terran-tech construction supplies factory, and generally, in charge of Eighteen Billion affairs. "There's a patrol of Katana in the area already, it won't look suspicious if they do a swing-by of Wormwood Scrubs."
Najia set her datapad down on the floor in the middle of the cell block. "I put my datapad down on the floor. Is that beacon enough," she asked. "Hai, Takio-San," the aged professor's voice informed her. "But I would endeavor to be in another room when the teleport takes place. This is... Highly experimental." "Vacating the room," Najia said, sprinting out into the hallway and down it. "Tell me when it's gonna happen."
"In... About twenty seconds," Boso Ta informed her. "You might want to cover your ears, assistant." Najia didn't even bother to complain about being called 'Assistant' again, she simply crouched and closed her eyes, covering her ears and tried to become one with the railing. She counted to thirty, then opened her eyes. "Did anything happen?" "Your EV suit and EMU aren't in the lift anymore," Marta said to her. "Better go check."
Najia did, and she laughed heartily. Her hardshell carapace EV suit and EMU were sitting on the floor of the cell block. "A perfect teleport! I didn't even hear anything." "Fantastic," Boso Ta said. "You had best hurry, Assistant."
One fast donning later, Najia opened the door to where Axiom and Lucca were still standing around, chatting like old gossips. They both started when they saw her, and she held her hand up. "Easy, guys, it's me." She was hauling her EMU with her. "Split wonders where creature was hiding that," Lu t'Cca said, pointing at her. "Ancient secrets," Najia flippantly answered, as she hefted her EMU into the airlock, and sat in it, strapping in. "Right, let's do this." Reaching up, Najia slapped the airlock cycle button. The door behind her hissed shut; air was evacuated. Her suit indicated a total drop of external pressure, and the airlock's A-grav let go, letting her float free, and so she pushed off the floor.
"Excellent!" Axiom crowed at her, over the comm. "Level 2 is right through there. That exhaust fan may impede your movements, but it won't make our mission impossible. See those alcoves? There's where I'd hide if I were you, whenever the fan is blowing at full speed."
Exhaust fan? I'm in vacuum! Najia carefully maneuvered out. She was in vacuum and microgravity; but she was also inside a large, cylindrical space. Below her was something like a massive fuse-box with a big holographic turret outline, and she jetted down to examine it, but could see no obvious way to tamper with it without most likely setting off major alarms, so she looked back up - just as a synthesized alert klaxxon sounded.
I hate this place, Naija thought, as she saw a fan at the top of the cylinder spin up. At a guess she thought, perhaps it was something like an exhaust, which struck as horrifically wasteful in space, but she could only grit her teeth, watching it spin. At the bottom of the cylindrical space, she only felt the slightest of buffeting; it might have been substantially stronger closer to the top. I am very confused, very frustrated, and I just want to get the hell out of here, she thought. She was seriously considering revisiting her first plan, which had been to simply teleport herself, Axiom and Lucca to Ace's ship.
But now, though, she was pissed, and she wanted to poke something spiteful in Mellerd's eye herself. So she jetted to the top of the cylinder, looking around. As she did, Axiom popped up in her comms. "These airlocks are shut, so you'll need to find a way to bypass their locks." She responded with only a quick "roger," looking around. One airlock, contrary to Axiom's words, was hanging open, but the lights next to it were red. She tried it anyway; but for once, Axiom was spot-on. The airlock door might have been open, but its functions were locked out, the panel totally nonresponsive. She returned below, and looked around; there was an open airlock opposite Axiom and Lucca, so she tried it, and it worked for her automatically.
"Well, let's see what's down this way," Najia muttered to herself, slipping out of her EMU and leaving it in the lock. She unholstered the pistol that was now clamped to her hardshell-clad thigh, and started to look around again.
To her surprise, she found only another cell block - it was a dead end! She was about to hiss in frustration, when she heard someone call to her. "You there! You! Hey! You are not supposed to be here!" Najia turned to face the Teladi voice, her pistol half-raised, when she saw that the figure in question was imprisoned. She lowered her aim to the floor, and appraoched the bars. Standing within was a Teladi, who looked rather forelorn. Najia's shoulders slumped. Well, this is awkward, she thought. When the Teladi seemed to realize she wasn't a guard, she started to ask, "Oh please, please, please! You cannot leave me here! I am friends with Urgu... Ugusa... I can help you make profitsss! I promise."
Najia sighed at the pathetic display, but she understood the Teladi's desire for freedom; though, on the balance, she also had no idea what this Teladi had done to become imprisoned. Knowing Kriss Mellerd, it was a total crap-shoot; she might be a real scum-bag, or she might be being shaken down. Axiom cut in on her. "I sympathize with the little lizard, really I do, but we cannot compromise this mission in the name of charity."
Najia huffed out a sigh, and looked around. Frustratedly, she slapped the door panel on the imprisoned Teladi's cell, and to her surprise - and the prisoner's surprise - it opened. The prisoner looked around, confusedly, and Najia was glad that her mirrored helmet hid her gaze. "That's the best I can do," she said, resignedly. "You'll have to effect your own escape from here, if you can. Good luck." Turning, she huffed back into the airlock, slapping the button to cycle it as the Teladi prisoner looked around in tentative confusion, taking a few steps out of her cell.
Najia pulled her EMU's straps back on. "Well, that was a fucking bust," she snarled. "I'm about to start lasering shit," she muttered, floating back into the massive vacuum cylinder, and back up towards the locked airlocks. She found a third floor of airlocks, but they only offered some shelter from the fans starting up. After waiting that, frustratedly she flew back out again, and started looking around. "Axiom, there aren't any switches here!" "My diagrams say there are switches, Wildcard. Look more carefully - and swiftly."
Najia let out a guttural growl of frustration, and switched to her cutting laser. Giving in to a pique of frustration, she hit her Mk.2 thrusters, blowing past level 1 to the sub-level, coming up level with the big fuse-box. "Right, let's see what this does," she said with a snarl, and targeted her suit's cutting laser on the big set of what looked like fuses.
She blazed a neat line down the middle of them, and, gratifyingly, the 'Turrets' hologram switched to a big red repair icon... She looked around for a moment. Nothing happened. Najia smirked. "On the one hand, this place is frustrating, confusing, and I kind of want to blow it up out of spite by now. But on the other hand, the gross criminal negligence on display is really working in my favor. Fuck it. Lasers for everything," she said, snarling and going back up the shaft. There were a bunch of unmarked panels, and, giving in to the frustration she felt earlier - which she had barely restrained herself from allowing herself to hold Lu t'Cca at gunpoint - she started lasering the panels like a schoolgirl hooligan on a vandalism spree.
"Your new laser is low-powered, but if you keep it aimed at the lock, it will break eventually," Axiom said. Najia blinked. New laser? This is my laser and I've had it for a while, and... Oh, piss on this! She laughed, however, as she saw that one of the panels had indeed fractured.
One deeply-cathatic vandalism spree later, every panel had been opened, and had revealed that inside the two panels nearest the top-level airlocks were two further, smaller panels, with similar mechanisms. With the fan starting up again, Najia took shelter in one of the alcoves at the top, just under an airlock, and, deciding to use her time productively, she lasered the opposite airlock's control panel. After holding her laser on the box for awhile, it was a glowing ruin, and Axiom commed her. "Partial access to level two established," he informed her.
Najia nodded. She didn't even bother to sarcastically snark at him, though the phrase no shit, Sherlock ran through her mind. Rather, she charitably assumed he was reporting to her something he was learning electronically, and turned around. This is gonna be bright, she thought, as she trained her laser at close range on the near access box, and closed her eyes. She held in the firing stud, and held it - counting in her head to seven, when Axiom's comm made her let up off the laser. "And just like that, we have free reign over level two! They can't stop you now!"
Najia grinned, and opened her eyes to behold a molten, glowing hole drilled into the electronics she had blasted. "Right. Let's get this show on the highway."
On the level above her, in the half just above, she slipped in, and found herself facing a door to another cell block, just through the airlock. She went in and looked; no prisoners. Walking out, she huffed, and decided to walk the half-circuit around the big cylinder again. To her surprise, she found a console, just attached haphazardly to a railing. Really? Najia examined it, and snorted; it looked shoddy, ad-hoc. She tapped the console's screen, and it simply changed color. Axiom piped up. "Magnificent! That'll give you access to half of the switches! There must be another console nearby that will let you remove the second cover."
"Got it. Moving on," Najia said. Back to the airlock she went, after checking the other half of the crescent hallway she was in; without any luck, she just floated across to the other airlock on her EMU. Predictably, she found that, on the opposite railing in the other half of the level, was another console haphazardly attached to a railing, and she rapped it quite firmly with her knuckles. It flashed. "How's that, Axiom?" "Both covers confirmed open," Axiom informed her. "Let's flip some switches. Get back into your spacesuit."
"Never got out of it. Who has time to undress four times? Anyway, switches, yaaay switches," she snarked, as she cycled the airlock again, strapping her EMU back on. "Whoever designed this place is both a madman and criminally negligent."
Once the airlock cycled through again, Najia saw that the two panels she had manipulated had caused five boxes that she had previously taken as unimportant junction boxes to slide their panels open. She groaned to herself when she saw that there were five more lock-like switches within. "Great, time for more vandalism, yay." She lasered the first of the boxes' interiors, the one that was lit, and held it for a long few moments.
"Something's not right," Axiom said, comming her. She had a sinking feeling. "The switches are also setting the state of their neighbors," he declared. Sure enough, she had blasted the leftmost switch, and the second had lit up. Worryingly, the leftmost switch did not look damaged in the slightest. "You'll have to find a combination which turns them all off," Axiom said, as Najia groaned. "I don't think a game of whack-a-mole will get you there," Axiom continued. "Though... Actually, it might!"
Najia groaned, and briefly considered calling for a five-hundred-some member boarding party attack from two capital ships instead. "What tail-hole thought this was a good idea," she bitched. "Who dreamed this up? Why install it like this? Don't anybody answer that, those questions were rhetorical," she snarked, as she set about the process of shooting the junction boxes like they were a juvenile 'turn them all off' game.
About eighty seconds and the false start of thinking she could shoot an inactive switch to switch it on and switch its neighbors states (it transpired that she could only make an active switch toggle neighbors' states), all five boxes were dark, and Najia snarled, bristling with outrage that this was evidently considered part of a high security system and not a child's game.
"You got it, Wildcard!" Axiom commed her. "Access to Level 3 established. And it turned off the darned fan! Off to the hangar, then." Up one level, Najia cycled herself into the airlock, and groaned. She was getting mightily tired of this, and she rolled her shoulders. "I am going to need a massage and to soak for an hour in the shower," she griped to no-one in particular. She hefted her EMU half-over her left shoulder, unholstering her pistol, just in case. The EMU was very heavy, but her EV suit had a fairly substantial low-profile power assist mechanism. Not enough to turn her into a super-soldier by any means, but enough to let her heft a 150kg load like a bulky and cumbersome backpack. She was tempted to leave it behind... But it was a good thing she didn't. The corridor she found was only a straight shot to - and she groaned - another airlock. As she approached it, Axiom unhelpfully congratulated her. "Excellent," he said. "Yo're approaching the internal hangar now. Our getaway ship is right over there." Cycling through, she passed into the deep well of an internal ship hangar - and groaned.
Najia was looking at a Magpie. That was the big, innovative, unique ship?
"If we want to make it out of here, you'll have to destroy the clamps on the hangar doors," Axiom informed her. Najia groaned, sighed, and rolled her shoulders. "Right. I can do that. All this for a..." She seethed, and looked back at the ship.
No, it wasn't a Magpie, but it sure as hell looked like one. It was clearly a derivative design, but it had not the Magpie's massive cargo pods; rather, it had smaller pods, and a lot more gubbins - antennae, dishes, and the like. Fan-dabbie-dozie she thought balefully to herself as she set about finding and destroying the lockdown clamps. As she did so, she also saw a couple more panels that had a turret hologram over them, and, thinking, why the hell not, fried them, too. Moments later, the lockdown clamps fell, too, and she saw a red light glare through one of the hangar windows.
Axiom piped up, "Holy triangle, that's the station alarm! Lucca and I are going to make a run for the ship!" She blinked, looking up - two EVA-suited figures, with full EMUs, cycled through the airlock she had come through.
What, she thought. Where... I... What... Where...? In a moment of dumbfounded confusion, she stared openly, unmoving, before both of them dipped between the ship's large thrusters, and headed for its belly, while Axiom said, "approaching the dock. Be with you in a moment!" Fearing being left behind, Najia abandoned the question of where they had gotten EV suits, let alone EMUs, in favor of making haste to join them.
As Najia negotiated into the airlock, Axiom and Lucca reported that they had boarded, and Axiom was working on powering up the ship's systems, and Axiom was transferring the ship's ownership - and hence, control - to her. They were trying to talk over one another, making it confusing, but, as she got into the ship and shed her MMU, running for the seat, Axiom noted, "This prototype ship does not appear to have an emergency eject system. I assume it was supposed to be added later." "Great," she snarled. "This is going tits-up and I'm in a little ship with no ejection system." "Split been moving into position," Maestro informed her, in a bit of good news. "Alarm must have mobilized more Ministry forces than Split anticipated."
"Thrice blasted!" Axiom roared from the back. "Mellerd deployed a capital ship to head off the Arcadian Endeavour!" Najia groaned, checking her map. A Pheonix-class vessel named Rolling Rock was engaging the Arcadian Endeavor.
As Najia got the Raven's struts up and pushed it forward, she got a comm from the Rolling Rock itself. She snarled as she saw Kriss Mellerd in her comm pane. "Thank you for leading the old man, and his crew of clowns, right to my doorstep. Crossing them off the Ministry's list will do wonders for my career advancement."
Najia gawped at her, in shock at the sheer gall on display, as Mellerd laughed. "You just stumbled into this whole affair, so I will offer you a one-time chance to get out of this. All you have to do is dock at my ship and hand over the pirates youy are currently harboring. You won't be able to keep the ship, but -"
Najia cut her off, snarling in anger. "You just love the sound of your own voice, bitch. Even if I was inclined to take an 'out,' though, nobody can trust you. For anything." Najia switched the comms to her ships, as she powered the Raven up to full. It seemed to be armed with two cannons; she test-fired them by holding in the trigger. They didn't fire immediately, but when she let go, they let fly. "Woah. These must be those Teladi charger things," she muttered. "Whatever. Ladies? This bitch cannot be trusted to keep her word. End her rightly!"
The Rolling Rock was already exchanging fire with Arcadian Endeavor, while Ace nipped at her heels, firing off shots from that launcher and the frontal cannon. Shiv and Kunai - the name chosen for the Paramerion - lifted from the Jackdaw and Arcadian Endeavour respectively, while Jackdaw and the Snapping Tortoise broke from formation with it to engage.
"L beam turrets... Problematic," Najia muttered to herself. "Let me see what I can do about that," she added, as she set the Raven prototype in motion. She could only hope, at least, that Kriss was at least rethinking her decision, now that the odds had tilted decidedly against her.
She dove into action against Rolling Rock, testing out the Muon Chargers, as the ships with her split and attacked. The destroyer was big, and problematic, but it seemed rather... Awkward to control, in fact. Ponderous, its turrets, even the lasers, seemed slow to respond. She nipped around it, firing a few times, as her four ships slipped past it. A plasma bolt struck her shields, and she yelped, diving to evade. "That's it," she heard Rei - not over the open comms, but in her earbud. "I am not letting you get your ass killed like this. I'm dispatching help," she said, and Najia winced.
Great. So this is how the war with the Ministry starts? And yet, oddly... There was no sign of Ministry reinforcements. Najia fled from the immediate vicinity to recharge her shields, coming in close to the Arcadian Endeavour, and watched as the Eighteen Billion Katana squads roared in. She winced as she saw that Okayama and her defense fleet had also been dispatched - a Destroyer squadron was going to bear down on Rolling Rock... Eventually. And yet, the Ministry was doing nothing.
It hit her suddenly; Kriss was rogue. Was doing this on her own. She snarled and grinned. The Ministry might be mad, when this shook out, but they'd have a hard time proving her involvement. Especially if she could play it as her ships responding to a distress call because a rogue vessel with an unaffiliated transponder had attacked a ship. It was flimsy... But it was enough. "Bear down on her, ladies. Tear that thing apart." Najia crowed, as she pulled the Raven in to touch down on the Arcadian Endeavour's landing pad. She looked back. "Axiom, they're gonna need you in the engine room. Lucca, you're not gonna wanna be on this ship!" The back ramp was dropping as she settled down; neither waited for her to have landed fully, they dropped from the ship and sprinted past, to the lift.
"So, you've decided to go down with the sinking ship? One less loose end for me to tie up later!" Mellerd crowed at her, and Najia smirked; of course she knew she couldn't trust Mellerd. "You're worse than a pirate, Kriss. Nobody can trust you," Najia said. "Prepare to kiss your ass goodbye."
Maestro was rattling on in her ear, but Najia could barely hear him over the combat calls. She hoped he was smart enough not to fire upon the T.E. vessels responding - it would be awkward later, and they were joining the fight on his side, after all. He was saying something about escape, and turrets. Najia snorted. "Actually, we're just going to blow this thing up," Najia declared. "We can't leave someone like Kriss Mellerd at our backs."
Things seemed to be doing well at first; the Rolling Rock was handling clumsily, awkwardly, as if she was critically undermanned. That gave Najia an odd hope that she might actually succeed at boarding her; the responding vessels were quickly tearing down her turrets and shields.
Then, everything went dramatically pear-shaped. Najia yelped as lasers tickled the the Raven's shields down and she got them back up again; again and again this happened, each time the hull started to fracture more and more. She made attack runs, damaged a surface element, and then things got worse. Where were those lasers coming from?
"Missile. Incoming missile." She slapped the countermeasures button, only to see the screen flash ammo empty. "Fuck!" A missile slammed into her, followed by a fly-by from a starfighter. She didn't catch it, but she took a pot-shot at it as it went past. Things were going from bad, to worse, when she heard someone howl, "Jackdaw's taking heavy fire! Jackdaw's... Oh fuck!"
Najia felt a moment of total disassociation. Numbly, her hand drifted over the stick, trying to maneuver the clunky ship like a starfighter, whilst fighting through mental fog.
Marta.
"We've got them!" Rei stringer called out, over her line. "I've got the crew of Jackdaw at the depot, but now we're under attack by a Ministry warship!" Najia gasped, shoving her stick forward, hard. Her ship was flying apart around her, and she snarled. "Someone get these motherfuckers!" "We're coming in," she heard - both the first, and last, person she wanted to hear. "Fenrir, engaging!" "Okayama, engaging." "Kagawa, engaging!" "Ark Royal, moving to engage!"
Najia laughed, incredulously. That was four fleets. Four fleets that most definitely were not supposed to be engaging to support the Arcadian Endeavour. One of them the Teladi wasn't even supposed to know about - Alarms blared. The Raven had taken a nasty hit, and a Ministry Kea was lining up on her six. She tried to pull away - she wasn't going to be fast enough - the ship jerked - the world went white.
Najia crashed forward to the deck, yelping, arms up to guard her head. She looked up; a Marine was standing next to her, offering her hand to Najia. "Better get to the skipper, ma'am," the Marina said. "We're Koshirae." Najia laughed, taking the proffered hand and climbing to her feet, hustling down to the bridge's main deck. Selaia Kevlin was standing in the middle like the Maestro, calmingly barking out orders with command presence. She looked up at Najia, briefly, smirking at her. "Does the owner have the conn?"
Najia shook her head, laughing. "Fight the ship, captain. I've got to coordinate this clusterfuck." Selaia laughed at her and nodded, barking out, "bring us up ninety, show her our broadside. Turret gunners, you are cleared to engage."
She hustled down to the fleet coordination console; the crewwoman at it hopping away for her. "This is Takio," she said, hopping on the controls. "Ladies, clear my skies of red. I don't know what the hell has gotten into the Ministry, attacking our stations like this, but if it's hostile out there, we kill it."
Rolling Rock was not having a good day, and it was getting exponentially worse. Her engines had been disabled, and Najia heard Maestro call out over the pirate channel, "Her engines are disabled. Now is the time to get away! But, where is Wildcard?" Najia winced. How was she going to explain that? Did she even want to? "This is Snapping Tortoise," Raleen, the captain of her pirate Baku called out. "We are picking up the crew of Jackdaw and Raven. Let these big bruisers fight, we'll get back to you."
"No!" Kriss Mellerd called out, yelping. "I don't wanna die!" Rolling Rock was coming apart under the growing tide of fire it was enduring, and more ships were still arriving. Najia snarled. Part of her wanted to bid Kriss a bon voyage to the afterlife, but she looked up to Selaia. "If anyone gets out of that ship, I want them. And we don't tell the Ministry."
"Roger that," Selaia said, and barked out orders to the helm to move closer to Rolling Rock. Najia looked back - a Ministry Razorbill was thoroughly engaged, and another had just blown up, attacking the construction depot.
She gritted her teeth, snorting hard. There was going to be hell to pay for this later. Righteous indigation - no, fury - was going to be the order of the day. Her ships had responded to a distress call from a Windfall trader, by an unidentified vessel. It was attacking relentlessly, wasn't on-record as being anything official. Then Ministry vessels, apparently heeding the aggressor's pleas, had jumped in, attacking Takio Enterprises assets, and the inevitable happen.
That was the tack she was going to have to take, and she clenched her fist. Outside, Rolling Rock came apart in a dazzling blossom of red that polarized the bridge windows for a long several moments. When they cleared, the ship was a debris field. Part of her hoped that Mellerd was dead; part of her hoped she wasn't. There was going to be a butcher's bill for today, and she tried - probably vainly - to make peace with that.
"Get us close enough to the Ministry Wharf to make contact," Najia said, looking to Selaia. "I've some barking to do." Selaia smirked at her. "After this? They should know damn well your bark isn't nearly as bad as your bite. They should be happy to get barked at. You should put on a respectable jacket at least." Najia let out a huff of exasperation, hurrying to do just that.
Najia needed to work to summon the righteous indignation she required for the bluff, but she reminded herself of the fate of Ace's mother to do so; the Ministry were assholes, even if they were also the lawful authority; and they had attacked her. She had clear and convincing evidence that Mellerd was up to no damn good. Not that she waas going to reveal it to anyone.
Hence, she found herself with eyes coldly blazing over the comms to the Ministry Police Kea craft which had departed from the wharf to intercept Koshirae. "Enough is enough," she snarled over the holo, standing in the conference room. "My ships responded to an attack upon a free trader from a destroyer that was not transmitting appropriate Ministry codes - not that the Ministry should be allowed to attack random traders, either."
"Your ships fired upon Ministry vessels," the captain of the Kea shot back, clearly outraged - but also, like the pilot who had followed her through the rift - terrified at being massively outnumbered and outgunned.
"Let me be clear, on the record, so there is no ambiguity," Najia said, leaning forward, placing her fist on the table. The effect was to lean closer to the hologram - and on the little attack ship's screen, her face would loom larger. "My ships responded to a distress call from a ship being attacked by an unknown vessel not transmitting appropriate ID. The Ministry, for whatever reasons, chose to respond to the event by siding with the aggressor and attacking my ships. Takio Enterprises warships responded by destroying the Ministry vessels." Her heart was thumping in her chest, but she narrowed her eyes. "If this is the gratitude of the Ministry of Finance, for all that Takio Enterprises has done here in Eighteen Billion, in Grand Exchange and at large, for the Ministry and the company, up to and including constructing facilities and securing neutral diplomats to mediate the dispute between the Company and the Ministry... Well, you might want to check with your superiors before you write a check they have to make good on. To be absolutely clear, this is a threat; you are the highest-ranking Ministry combat officer in Eighteen Billion. It is your decision whether this conflict continues or ceases, here and now. Ah - ah! Shut your fucking muzzle and listen to me carefully," she snapped, as the pilot opened her muzzle to retort.
"If you say anything but words to the effect of 'this was a horrible misunderstanding and we should deescalate the situation' - if you, personally, choose to escalate the situation, the first step I will take will be ordering all of my shipyards to stop producing vessels for the Ministry. The second step will be that I shall cripple the Ministry's ability to replace vessels by destroying the Ministry Shipyard and Wharf here in Eighteen Billion. I shall then proceed onward to prosecute this destructive and pointless war - a war chosen by you, pilot, here and now - by destroying each and every Ministry of Trade station I can find, until someone with some competent authority asks me to please stop doing that. You can see the weight of tonnage I have here, you know the Ministry does not have the tonnage to stop me. The choice is in your claws, pilot; war, or peace. War, or peace. Escalate, or deescalate. Your call."
The Kea pilot visibly shrank backwards in her command chair, obviously struggling to attempt to retain composure and command respect in the face of an overt and direct threat to bring fire and flame directly to the Ministry of Finance. Finally she steeled herself, straightening up in her chair. "This has obviously been a dreadful misunderstanding, miss Takio. The Ministry is undoubtedly going to demand reparations for our lost warships, but such matters are the purview of the financiers, not myself. If you will cease giving offense, we too shall cease attacks upon your vessels."
"Thank you," Najia said, leaning back. She fought not to visibly slump and sigh in relief, or to show how badly her heart was racing. "As for the reparations, they can take that up with the diplomat I have on payroll. Out." She cut the channel, and collapsed back into the chair behind her.
A moment later, the comm lit up again, and she flicked it on. It was a huge conference call, with the commanders of her fleets, the captain of Koshirae, Marta on the Snapping Tortoise with a small bandage on her forehead; Rei Stringer on the 18B construction depot, Tsukiko Peterson back at the headquarters, Professors Nakagawa and Okoye - whom Najia realized with a pang of guilt she hadn't yet formally re-introduced herself to -, Boso Ta,, and Ace. Najia let out a heavy sigh of relief. "Please for the love of god tell me we didn't lose anybody," she said, first off.
"Nobody from Jackdaw, Marta confirmed. "I took a headcount. We got lucky. "That seems to be a recurring theme," added Captain - probably should be Commodore - Xiaowen Kapoor - one of Najia's older friends, and currently the commander of T.E.S. Fenrir. "It helps that we responded with overwhelming firepower. My fleet is reporting no fatalties; thirteen casualties, mostly caused by haste in the heat of battle."
That proved to be the recurring theme; all of her responders reported sustaining injuries, mostly 'workplace accidents' incurred whilst in the heat of battle, but though some were serious, none were life-threatening.
"Najia Takio," Professor Yoriko Okoye - an aged-but-not-venerable, steel-haired professor-turned diplomat said, with the same tone of voice that she had used when reproaching Najia in class. "You are now, as ever you were, charmed, lucky, and reckless. You choose to act with passion first and foremost. This is a fine mess that I'm going to have to clean up, you understand. Can I expect this sort of thing to deal with in the future?"
Najia took in a breath, glancing around at her fellows. Barring a few, they were all young - Tsukiko was the third-oldest and Najia knew she was closer to thirty-five than forty - barely. Most of them looked grave, but not mutinious. She sighed, and smiled, wryly. "While I don't plan to go to war with the Ministry, there may be future... Rough spots to smooth over, yes. If you'd like to resign and go home -" "Not yet," the aged professor said, sharply. "But for dealing with this, I am going to require a pay rise!"
A chorus of chuckles surrounded her, and Najia sighed, face-palming and smiling. "That's fair, professor. We're going to have a fine time untangling this. Ace, how are the Curs?"
Ace looked into her eyes, then looked away for a moment, then back to her. "Secure in Windfall, awaiting your hopefully-safe return." She trilled, and Najia nodded. "Next stop, then."

submitted by ShadowDragon8685 to X4Foundations [link] [comments]

2023.04.01 11:12 POMO-Mum96 RANT! Yeah...jws show REAL love and care about you

So since being POMO for a year or so I have this sister who tries to get in contact all the time. She's an elders wife and studied with me when I was reinstated. She's one of the main reasons I started hating meeting because were taught that the love jws show to each other is true and better than any love form anyone in the "world" but everyone sees her actions towards me as loving yet they really aren't and she makes my skin crawl, and yet somehow I'm ungrateful.
Background, this sister was around for both my children's births (not the actual births, but saw them like days after being born and had been in their lives regularly) and has been around me for years since I moved to the area as a teenager (nearly 30 now). She has had many many conversations with me. I've discussed my likes, dislikes and loads of family info with her. And I purposefully remembered as many things about her. Fav colour (and wrote her cards with that colour on the front), her pet and extended family who are not jws names and history, her address, her phone number, even what brand of coffee she liked so I could go out for my way to buy some for when she came over for a study (I didn't drink coffee back then).
All this to say I was trying to show that I remembered stuff about her because it was important and that's what showing love is truly about.
Well after fading and waiting for my disassociation to be announced, I had a voice message today from her. I debated listening to it as she waffles, but I did and it cemented my belief that she doesn't care about me at all.
To anyone outside it may have seemed like a kind message "she has some clothes for me and stuff for the kids, and had a big cream cake to drop round' so wants me to tell her when I'm in so she can do that...
The reasons why that is so unloving...
1)I'm autistic and struggle with verbal communication and have stressed several times, don't call me or leave voice notes, text me in some way so I can re-read the message and actually understand it. Show you care by texting, not voice messaging...she refuses to do this.
2) she always asks about my kids but never uses their correct names even thought he youngest is 6 and she's known their names since before they were born. She knows I hate nicknames and insists on calling my son one (I won't say his actual name but imagine having a kid called Timothy and someone calling him mothy...it's horrible and not a nice nickname at that.) And my daughter's name is lovely but she refuses to call her by it. Making it longer and changing it to something completely different (again, not her real name, but imagine a child called laura-lee and havign it constantly pronounced laurie-leigha 🤮)
3) she continually has clear outs of her clothes and drops them round to me WITHOUT notifying me. Shell just dump them on my pimi family or literally drop them outside my door and txt me as she drives off. It's usually tons of kid junk from her nephew or clothes for meetings which are completely the wrong size (we're 3 to 4 sizes different) so I'm constantly having my house filled with her unwanted junk even though I've explained I don't want it and I'm not her size so "stop it"!
4) she knows my husband has an awful egg allergy and not only am i lactose intolerant, but me and the kids suffer with eczema from eating lactose and fatty milk/cream, yet she continually makes giant fresh cream cakes (with egg) and asks to drop them off all the time when literally none of us can eat them. She's also done this with pies and called in uninvited to drop them off when none of us can eat them (pastry made with egg and other things she knows we can't eat cause of dietary reasons)
But besides these reasons that show her text isnt motivated by real love heres soem more reasons...
5) she knows both my kids are on the autism spectrum too, they are very particular about what foods they can and can't eat yet and does not listen to us about dietary needs and intolerances and continually give my pimi family snacks and treats for them which I don't allow them to have and she knows this (like I said, she's been there since they were first born so she's had over 7 years to remember)
6) again, my son has many autistic needs as a baby but cause her nephew has mild needs she assumed mine was the same and treated him as her nephew had been which was not healthy for my son and his needs. I would continually tell her he needs different treatment than she's used to, but she refused to listen and would say "oh ok" but then never do it the next time.
7) when I was going to meetings she would badger me constantly about having my daughter sit with her (for someone who loves her so much she can't even say her name right). I gave in after years of this (it started as soon as she could toddle). One time my daughter wanted to answer, she couldn't read but would be whispered answers and repeat. Ya know, typical kids JW answers. Well, while sitting with this sister (who, again, knew she couldn't read yet) my daughter asked for an answer and was told to put her hand up. She did, the mic came, and the sister held up her watchtower and painted to the paragraph and expected her to read the answer she'd underlined. My daughter was stunned,shocked, embarrassed and cried immediately running back to me. She never wanted to sit with her again and then I'm amde out to be a bad parent and controlling because my 3 year old was embarrassed in front of a hundred people and put on the spot so she didn't feel safe with that sister anymore.
This sister always tries to come off as considerate and loving, but all of her actions, despite asking nicely and explaining for over 7 years, are so self-esteem boosting for her but just go to further my proof that she has never tried to really care about
It just infuriates me that they all try to say they're loving and really care about you but their actions only ever show the opposite. It's as if they show up and keep in touch to do these things so they can show other "look how loving I am, I do X and X and X for them even tho they're not in meetings anymore". to try and tick her imaginery box on her goodie two sheos list and appease her conscience or something.
I don't want to sound ungrateful. I'm usually the most gracious person when people give me things, and am very appreciative. We've struggled a lot financially so other people popping down clothes fo toys for the kids were appreciated so much. Its this one sister. She says ove and over she cares but though I've been appreciative in the past and siad thank you but reminded her of oumy specific needs, and dealt with handing off these items to charity shops and other people, if it keeps happening and she makes no change to how she approaches me and these situations, she's not really doing it for us and to show she cares. And after 7 years or constant reminding, I think that's long enough to make at least some small changes. I've had worldly friends make more changes in those 7 years to actually learn about what I needed as a person and shower true love.
It just grinds my gears and I'm so glad I have a reason to never have to talk to her and so many others again now.

submitted by POMO-Mum96 to exjw [link] [comments]

2023.04.01 11:08 seven777heavensabove My son doesn't want to be late for 6th form on Wednesdays

My son told me he can't be late for A Level Maths on Wednesdays because he might end up having to sit near one of 2 other lads. I asked him why. He said person 1 kept talking about their furry butt plug. I was kinda like ok, try and steer the conversation away if you don't like it, you know. Then I asked about person 2. He said they had greasy hair and smelled real bad, I told him try not to be judgemental and then he said, but he wears really horrible dresses, now this did make me chuckle and I asked him what type of dress do you think he'd look better in?..
Typed with humour not malice
Edit: their (person 1) not his (my son) furry butt plug cos this was obviously confusing people.

submitted by seven777heavensabove to britishproblems [link] [comments]

2023.04.01 10:39 AngelicWhimsy DAE get triggered by "fillial piety"? saw a post on AITA that had my blood boiling, so sick of people picking and choosing when to respect/use teenagers as little adults, and when they get to be controlled or infantilized at whim.

I really hate that people force children and teenagers to grow up too fast. If they do it constantly they can treat the child/teen like a "brat" if they don't do yet another request or chore that doesn't respect their time and autonomy. Everyone mindless agrees with the parent because society is brainwashed that parents are god and children are brats that must obey. There is Mother's day, Father's day...but (unless in Japan) there is no Children's day. What about the time to honour the Daughter and the Son? Reciprocal relationships not just one on the knees and the other lording over.
I had that as the eldest. I was the scapegoat. I did most of the chores and would end up falling asleep after midnight washing up piles of dishes the golden youngest never had to do because "I'm the eldest set a good example" I weeded and scratched my hands with the spikes in the hot sun. I scrubbed things, and stayed home whilst my brother went on beach trips with his friends and my sister went to dance classes.
My feelings were constantly invalidated, dismissed, mocked and laughed at. I was rarely taken seriously and my privacy was not respected. I was barely allowed out with friends, had my diaries read so I gave up keeping them - nothing was private or safe, and I had all the responsibility of being another parent - but none of the respect. My mother used to encourage the youngest to stand in my doorway and mock me, I was always separate from the family, and rarely given proper dignity. When it suits parents to ground, take things away and paint you as a brat - they will. When they want to play the "you're basically an adult" card they will. and society will always agree, and most people will think an abused child must care for the parents in old age.
I know other examples are not nearly abusive, just run of the mill unfair parenting, but it's all to common and even a mostly well treated child can leave with messages that we grow up with that are horrible for self esteem and dignity.

submitted by AngelicWhimsy to CPTSD [link] [comments]

2023.04.01 10:17 Fast_Boat5736 writing a low-magic fantasy war book: plot advice

After witnessing the poor writing quality of many popular books, particularly those on BookTok, I became interested with how these stories were able to captivate such large audiences. When I first read the trending ACOTAR series and "Lightlark" by Alex Aster, I wanted to scratch my eyes out seeing how 2 dimensional the characters and the worlds they reside in are.
So, I decided to write a story to include border topics and characters without relieving readers of a fantasy-inspired world. I want to write a story that contains themes such as moral relativism of the consequences of war and characters who are grounded in genuine conversations and a believable world while also addressing the reality of the world in which we reside. Some of my inspirations come from history (The Pelopponesian War, Julius Caesar) while others come from my favourite books and mange (Got, Aot, The Way of Kings trilogy. etc). Please give me your advice and thoughts of the story premise or things that I could change to make it even better.
My story so far follows a young boy who grew up in a community that has escaped slavery and made a home for themselves in the harsh, unforgiving desert tundra. Their unique appearance and history have left them feared by other groups, who believe them to be descendants of devils. Survival in the desert is a constant struggle, displacement necessary to obtain food and other necessities. But despite their challenges, the desert provides a safe haven for the group, shielding them from the slavers in nearby city-states.
With the boy's community under attack by slavers, his mother takes a desperate step to protect them. She summons a sandstorm that ultimately defeats the slavers but leaves her as a sacrifice. The boy is left as the sole survivor. He is later taken by slavers and faces the reality and plight of his people. He becomes consumed with a desire to free his people and to uncover the mysterious power that his mother wielded to defeat their enemies. Could this be the very power that instilled fear in other nations and caused them to enslave his people?
The story also introduces two other central characters caught in the heat of a brutal war between two city-states, both known for their enslavement practices. The first is a young woman determined to avenge her father who was betrayed by his council. She flees to the enemy city-state, where she marries into the royal family and seeks vengeance on those who betrayed her father. The second is an illegitimate son of the girl's father betrayer, born of a slave mother whom he has never met. This character possesses the same mysterious power that the desert boy seeks.
As the plot unfolds, there will be crossovers in romance, brotherhood, and war as each character battle for freedom or vengeance, driven by their clashing ideologies.
Your thoughts and opinion will be very appreciated.

submitted by Fast_Boat5736 to fantasywriters [link] [comments]

2023.04.01 10:15 jiquvox Complete guide to Kathy Rain's lore/plot secrets SPOILERS

Table of content
Foreword
Part 1 Sources
Part 2 Theory about the supernatural plot
Part 3 Chronology of the events (see comments spoilers : Reddit software considers it goes over 40000 characters even if I count around 30000 )

FOREWORD

Having played the game in its original version last week I felt at the same time charmed by the gameplay/mood and kinda puzzled/frustrated by the story. I will add my review in a different post.
Looking around to find an explanation, I didnt find anything really consistent. In fact I found other people sharing the same frustration toward the elusive plot.
But I did find out there was a director's cut version and ended up watching long parts of a video walkthrough of the DC version. Even if the game plot still remains fairly elusive , It turned out to be a lot more complete/rounded up and it strenghtened my reading of the plot.
Comparing key moments of both versions, I ended up figuring out a narrative that would make sense of the plot. So to be perfectly clear, this is a spoiler full guide for people who ended up frustrated by the mysteries of the game. I DISADVISE READING IF YOU HAVENT PLAYED THE GAME.
I will refer to the original game as OG and the Director's cut as DC. When I dont mention anything it normally means that the quote stays the same in both version. A few words about DC itself from the author itself
https://adventuregamers.com/forums/viewthread/15566/P90
From the author Krusbert in 2021
“All the story changes I made to the game was to improve overall plot cohesion, fix pacing problems, tie up loose ends in the narrative and to establish a stronger background lore for more stories with Kathy
Hopefully that doesn’t feel like too much of a cop out, but trust that each cut was made deliberately and after careful consideration.”

I wont get in all changes of the DC but here are a few : lily ghost and the grey double of the Crimson one seem to disappear , the grey man in dream day 3 is completely substituted by the crimson man , performing the exact same role with the boy and the painting , A Great Eye appears on screen in the abyss.
overall DC version simplifies/eliminate obscure part , stresses some part/adds more specific details to convey its secret plot in much more accessible way
but in some part, the writer seems to have partly changed the mystic plot : especially regarding Lily fate, Father Isaac answers on day 4 changed dramatically. So this theory adopts mostly the view of the DC version with a few elements of the OG version to cast some additional light.

PART 1 SOURCES OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE SUPERNATURAL PLOT

You have 6 sources of mystic information
but some might not be reliable or only partly reliable
*Jimmy Cochran (on tape and on day 4) . They are several characteristics that make him the prime authority about the plot.
*Father bill notes/tape :
Partly unreliable base on Jimmy Cochran opinion. His tape is considerably expanded in DC .
*Priest Isaac you met him on day 1,3 but he becomes especially open once he’s arrested on day 4 Very unreliable based on various elements
*The Crimson man (and indirectly his Grey double in dreams of day 2 and 3 in OG version)
*Lily who appears only in OG Version on Day 5 in the Abyss toward the end
* Joseph Rain at the end in both OG and DC version

PART 2 THEORY ABOUT THE SUPERNATURAL PLOT/LORE

The supernatural plot can be summarized in 3 key ideas.
1-The lights/below dimension are real but not divine, simply dangerous natural phenomenon
2- the below distorts desires and fears : Father Bill and Isaac are tormented people with a religious mindset that reshapes the below
3- the below also distorts time : time loops and foretelling ability / Lily

SECTION 1-the lights, the below dimension and the red flowers are real dangerous phenomenon.

1.1 the lights are not hallucination, they are real
We have a photo taken by Jimmy Cochran and found in Joseph Rain briefcase on day 1 and developed on day 2 that proves they're real.
-But they are not divine, they are a dangerous natural phenomenon
Jimmy : the lights are neither divine nor unholy. They are but a distortion of ourselves
Joseph on a tape you recover on day 4 expands considerably on their nature in DC version :
I have come to believe that the glowing lights are burst of energy, similar to the static discharge that cause lightning . However instead of a positive and a negative electric charge , the colliding forces have a dimensional nature. Assuming this hypothesis is correct, the lights would only appear at the edge of the zone.
Their nature is much more arguable in OG but in DC they first and foremost are a sign you ‘re at the limit of the zone where the treshold is : the dark pit where your mind can enter another dimension. The source/below (what the church call the holy of holies).
Being a place of collision between the dimensions touching the lights can have disastrous consequences depending on the invididual.
1.2 The red flowers
Their consumption allow to properly enter the below dimension. By extension they are the real link to this alternate dimension. That’s why Kathy burns them at the end in order to cut off the source.
Joseph DC version on day 5 : I've come to understand the red flowers anchor this realm to the real world
1.3 The below/source/cradle of obscurity/ the holy of holies
it is a essentially a distorted mirror of our own dimension.

Section 2- The below distorts our fears and desires

intro - the fundamentally twisted nature of the below
Jimmy (talking about the lights) they are but twisted reflection of us. Everything we long for and desire
Joseph DC version : it takes each of your fears , every source of guilt and turns them against us
In DC version when Kathy opens her aborted child coffin, the Crimson man makes a difference between people : his kind like broken people like her who can be mended/who embrace them -Kathy is conflicted with his anger toward her father, her guilt toward her mother and aborted kid.
Happy go lucky people like Kathy's friend Eileen are simply “greedy little piglets that seem to get away ". Same goes for Nathan.
The below needs tormented people to work
Speaking of which…
2-1-Father Bill and his son Isaac are tormented person whose own religious desires/fears are distorted inside the below/source/cradle creating the Crimson man/ the Old god and making this place what we see in the game
Again Jimmy points out how the church of the holy trinity is wrong, calling them "misguided faithful" and stating "the lights are neither divine nor unholy".
But let's wind black the clock to the genesis of the Church in spring 71
Bill had 2 sons : Joshua and Isaac - Now those are very religious name . You don't name give those kind of name twice by accident.
But even more interesting is that the Price family mausoleum shows that Joshua was born in 61 and Isaac in 59. So it seems to strongly imply that BEFORE Bill even became a pastor, back when was still a traveling salesman, he had already a very religious mind.
-Also both Father Bill and his son Isaac are shown to be very conflicted individual
concerning Father Bill and the creation of the church , his own son Isaac expressedly established he was a conflicted individual at the time of the incident

this day was different. My father held dark thoughts in his mind. He was angry, thinking of evil deeds, even considering swerving off the road into a rock and ending it all. Then suddenly, divine intervention! three bright lights appeared.

not only that but upon hearing Father Bill tape on day 4 ) in DC version (where it becomes much more expressive than OG) , Kathy specifically exclaims "Jeez, Father Bills was a nutty! "
Isaac shows even stronger inner conflict - not only he commits suicide out of desperation after hearing his father disapproval , he was already a conflicted individual in his youth oh yes I was a teenager back then, full of rebellion, every fiber of my being wanting to distance myself from my father
2-2 the Crimson one is Isaac reborn after suicide
It might seem surprising because Isaac exists at the same time as Isaac and even condemns the Crimson one. Now let’s put aside the mechanics of how it works for a moment. There are 5 proofs of the identity of the Crimson one
*2-2-1 Jimmy “Let's go see the man you reunited with his family” on day 4
Jimmy speaks in riddles when interrogated by Kathy on day 4. But when it comes to the Crimson man Jimmy describes him in a very odd and specific way “Let's go see the man you reunited with his family”. It is extremely relevant to Isaac situation.
-Isaac family are all dead based on the Price familial mausoleum . There are 8 graves. Isaac grave is the ONLY ONE without a death date.
- Kathy makes Isaac hear the tape of his father disapproval of his actions, leading to his suicide which indeed “reunite him with his family” since they’re all dead
-The tv in jail /father billy even says “Welcome home son” when Isaac kills himself.
* 2-2-2 the portrait of father bill crying blood on day 4
when Kathy touches the lights on day 4: she has a vision of the Crimson man issuing mockery statement about victims that make Father Bill portrait cry blood
In DC version the content of the tape left by father Bill in the safe behind the portrait is made much more explicit than in OG

my visions concerning my sons are troubling ... I've watched them become corrupted with pride, turning their backs on the very foundations of our faith ... I've seen great sins committed : Act of violence and intimidation ,. Outsiders brought to hallowed ground with neither reverence nor ritual “ there are dark dreams indeed. I pray that they never come to pass, lest my soul shall weep tears of blood

this is Father Bill vision about Isaac come to pass.
*2-2-3 -Jimmy in OG version on day 4 says the Crimson man is a great ally of Joseph
At face value it seems very confusing considering Joseph very much wants to close the source.
It makes a lot more sense when you consider Isaac had huge respect for Joseph. here's what Isaac says of Joseph on day 3
He and my father did charity work together, Joseph was around a lot when I was young. Joseph was the person who convinced me to become a priest Jospeh made me realize my sinful pride and showed me how I should follow my heart , regardless of what others might think. And for that I am eternally grateful.
2-2-4 : The crimson one is repeatedly referred as having no name/ lost his name.
-The crimson man wheen he meets Kathy on day 3 says his name has been taken from him
that's because the Crimson man exist at the same time as Isaac (as for the why we're going to talk about time in Kathy Rain) : so he cannot call himself Isaac anymore.
specifically in DC it's added on the tape of Father Bill on day 4 the Crimson one is described in the following way only he is poised to understand the struggle of those who are lost : the broken and guilt ridden .To have no name is to have a shattered spirit.
*2-2-5 he looks vaguely like an hairless version of Isaac with black eyes

2-3 As for the Old God it is arguably Father Bill himself.
in DC version there is the appearance of a great red eye
the Crimson one talks with a great red eye on tv on day 2 , the great red eye appears again on tv on day 5
And Isaac describes Father bill trial in the following way :
under the watchful gaze of his GREAT EYE, God tested father's faith in countless ways. Fueled by conviction and a sense of purpose, Father persevered.
in OG it is pointed out that Father Bill ascended to unite with God. In OG it's the ultimate goal of the mending. in OG Father bill notes have specifically notes with initial in front of the description of people who ascended : it is marked "FB ?" in blue.
Also the TV in the prison seem to be Father Bill speaking since he says "welcome home son" when Isaac commits suicide. The Prison TV echoes the tv in the below which shows the Great Eye.
2-4 the agenda is nothing but a twisted version of christian theology and rites
2-4-1 the Mending, a hardcore twist on the Christian idea of salvation
to Kathy question once Isaac is in jail what is your church really about Isaac ? what are your trying to accomplish Isaac answers in a surprisingly honest and self-aware way "the same as any other church. All we want is the salvation of mankind"
The "Mending" is at the core of the dogma of the church of holy trinity and it's about salvaging the sinners. As shown by the notes of Father Bill you recover in a safe on day 4
it reflects Father Bill and Isaac desire to save people although they seem differently motivated. Father Bill might truly believe this/act out compassion and reflects his own desire of salvation. In the other hand, Isaac faith seem far less benevolent and shows a lot of pride/moral superiority : You can try child. I have God on my side.
2-4-2 a controversial doctrine that involves pain
Like most zealot their faith can turn kinda inhumane and cruel though. In theory it is well meaning. They want people to be happy osave them. But it’s still based on the predicate most people are sick/sinner. Isaac is the worst.
The Crimson one refers to it as “taking one's medicine”
about Lily : He wanted her to take her medicine (Nathan recollection about Lily and the crimson one) About Kathy before she gets in the source : All we want is for you to take you medicine Kathy. For you to grow and be happy.
But the mending and generally the connection with the below can make people tremendously suffer (lily, jimmy) and sometimes outright break them mentally -turn them catatonic (Joseph, eileen and countless unnamed other victim according to Isaac himself) :
Regarding the possible failure of the mending, the Crimson man is slightly apologetic about it: “What one wants and what one is able to do are different “ The crimson one doesn’t force people the way Isaac does even if he's not entirely above manipulation.
In the other hand, Isaac is so focused on his divine mission that he’s straight up indifferent to the people. It's not only collateral damage *(A necessary evil. I look at the bigger picture, the greater good.)*When pushed, Isaac clearly shows his colors, if it fails it's very much the fault of the sinner. All I did was bring them face to face with God. If they chose to reject him , they were beyond redemption.
That‘s the pride Father Bill was warning against. Isaac is extremely self-righteous and considers he knows better and can do no wrong. Which is pretty rich because Isaac is ignorant of entire aspects of the church doctrine.
2-4-3 Isaac shortcomings : ignorance, lack of empathy and pride
It is specifically suggested that Isaac is far less convincing than his father (besides his lack of charisma, his lack of empathy sure didn't help).

-the church flourished and continued to grow all the way up until his suddent death in 1983.That's when I stepped in to take leadership of the Church
-I take it that the church started declining after the death of Father Bill ?
-yes naturallly so, with such an magnetic personality he was irreplaceable

Isaac quickly tries to defend the church is still thriving but Kathy points out two signs that things are relatively dire for the church now :
about the church : Looks kinda empty to me
about her first meeting with Isaac at the cemetary : What's up with you handing out pamphlets at funerals then ? trying to reel them in when they're weak ?
And that’s why the Crimson one Disappears as soon as Isaac takes over. See Isaac testimony once he’s arrested and how he rejects the notion of Kathy even meeting the Crimson one.

Preposterous. No one has seen that apostate since Father’s death.

The Crimson One disappears because Isaac is simply unable to bring willingly subject to the faith. In such a way the Crimson one refuses to have anything to do with this. The Crimson one wants willing subject.
Remember that the Crimson one doesn’t oppose Kathy leaving before the stairs of judgment /right at the threshold of the mending :

This is crazy, I could just walk away , just ride on my bike and drive. Forget I was ever here.
Nothing is stopping you.

She has to do it on her own free will .
In DC version Father Bill tape says so explicitedly : the mending is a gift and a duty. But it must begin in the heart of a true believer. Someone who yearns for change and possesses the dedication and perseverance to achieve it.
Isaac shortcoming doesnt stop here. In spite of trying to look all-knowing, it’s very arguable whether Isaac even knows where is the Treshold pit to the Below. :
that’s probably why he steals Lily painting. Since the Crimson one disappeared he wanted to bring the sinners to the treshold himself . But he doesn't know where the treshold is. He figures that since Lily received divine knowledge from God, her painting might give clues about where to find the treshold . He's not entirely wrong since Lily painting clearly helped Joseph Rain to find the Source. He's just wrong about those being some sort of secret he needs to unlock by defacing the paintings.
His storage unit makes his frustration clear as he not only defaces all her painting to find a secret Clue but writes on the wall "where is it ? " (the stealing must at least happen after 1981 since Joseph saw all of them ) the fact he disfigures them looking for a secret truth also fit his pride/superiority complex : there has to be a secret truth - one he’s the only fit to perceive.
-Remember he brings Eileen to his father mausoleum. And he doesnt need to know where the treshshold is to find red flowers : it is shown the red flower grows also at the edge of the forest
-Although he says he brought sinners to the stair of judgment, considering his gigantic pride he might simply be lying rather than admit he doesn’t even know something as central to his faith . In fact he considers even “preposterous “ the very idea of Kathy meeting the Crimson one when HE has been actively looking for him for years.
As for why the Crimson one and Isaac MO differs in spite of being originally the same person : remember that Isaac is very distraught by hearing his father stern disapproval and wonder outloud if has strayed from the faith, eventually committing suicide soon afterward. The Crimson one is his reborn version whose ways are corrected to fit his father gentler faith.
I will atone for my sins
But how is it even possible for the Crimson one and Isaac being in the first place ? . That brings us to the time aspect of Kathy Rain.

Section 3-time loop and foretelling ability

3-1 time loop in the real world
It’s Kinda hard to fully understand how time works in Kathy Rain world but the game seems to strongly suggest the real world is going through a time loop
-Jimmy seems to say that Kathy and him had this conversation several times in spite of her not remembering it And she is “ doing so much better than the last time”
-in the director’s cut : “what came before must come again “ on Kathy father postcard in the hole he fell into in the abyss on day 5
3-2 time stand still in the below
And the mirror dimension seem to also distort time . Time pretty much seems to stand still in in the below.
Joseph talking about the time he went catatonic says : “it hasn’t been so long from my point of view”. It clearly implies that time doesn’t flow the same way below as in the real world
While the real world runs in loops , Time in the Below arguably stand still or runs very slow. It might explain the time paradox of having both Isaac and the Crimson one at the same time : Isaac commits suicide in one time loop and is reborn as the Crimson one ( that's the entire nature of time paradoxes )
3-3 foretelling
So if people create a connection with the below/the source they can see the future through the below but the toll on the mind is huge.
Jimmy Says he’s “below watching reruns “
Jimmy states Lily can see “the loops, the infinite possibilities ”
-Jimmy also saw Kathy “over a great pit throwing the last memento of [her father] into the empty blackness below” ( which echoes her fight with her dad in the abyss on day 5)
There are even subtler hints I wont get into.
This foretelling stuff brings us to Lily.
3-4 Lily
as for Lily : I’d say this part of the plot is really messy. What she can exactly do, what was the church plan for her, what is her ultimate fate.
At some level the writer kinda acknowledge that because in both version she is described in game as a “conundrum” and there seem to be a few contradictions.
No only that but most importantly that there is clearly some evolution between OG and DC . See Isaac testimony about the fate post-death of Lily - it dramatically changes between OG and DC :

in OG : in death [she ]ascended , united with the holy conduit (the holy conduit is the religious name given to the lights by Isaac. And Lily materializes indeed as the three lights on day 5 in the below dimension in the OG version )
in DC : Alas there is no hiding from god. Her soul knows only fire and brimstone now. (and she doesnt appear at all in the DC version )

But it’s possible to get some general idea about Lily place in the plot, regardless of the inconsistencies
Lily connection with the below seems particularly strong : she saw the loops, the infinite possibilities
As for why her connection is so strong , it’s easy to miss, but, if you show the botanical note about the red flower to Sue , Lily's mother and asks her if she recognizes it she answers

“Sure smoked it a few times back in the day”
Similar to pot but much stronger and more unpredictable Never touched the stuff AFTER I got pregnant with Lily.”

it seems to hint that Sue might have smoked the red flower at the very start of her pregnancy . Doing so affected Lily in her womb and might have made created a latent connection with the below which fully activated once she found the lights . Keep in mind that the red flower is the key connection between the below and real world.
As for her role, the Church/below clearly seems to see Lily as a tool to propagate their doctrine over the world :
in OG she’s literally described as “prophet” by Isaac on day4 ( in OG she even later merge with the lights ). She is also described as a “chronicler” by both Jimmy and Isaac But DC makes clearer the plans of the Church/below for her : Not only does Isaac blames her for rejecting the gift of prophecy of God.
But In DC day 3 the Crimson man says

Listen to the drowned girl
While she may be free in death , her cold wet hands still trap many in painful ignorance.

Lily was meant to be the one to really propagate the message and convert people to the religion.
Lily turns very unhappy once she found the lights and had visions.
In OG Isaac says she was “part prophet, part mender” in life. Arguably the reason of her suffering and unhappiness was the very visions she received. Consider also that Jimmy vision are not nearly as strong as Lily - he can only perceives some words ,. And consider that as a grown man it was already too Much and he was eventually interned
Lilly is specifically urged by the Crimson Man to “take her medicine” (which means undergoing the mending based on Crimson comment to Kathy) and “fights” with him according to Nathan .
Whether it was because she was unhappy and the Crimson one is naturally attracted to unhappy people or because the mending would have made her a better prophet is arguable . At any rate she resisted : most likely because she had already enough disturbing visions and the mending seemed to involve even more emotional pain.
With those core ideas setup, the chronology of events now makes some sense.

I post the chronology in the comments as I went above the character limit

submitted by jiquvox to adventuregames [link] [comments]

2023.04.01 10:10 SwannSwanchez Datamine 2.25.0.54 -> 2.25.1.19

2.25.0.54 -> 2.25.1.19

Sound changes : Aircrafts Effects, Aircrafts Engines, Aircrafts Guns, Ships Explosions, Ships Weapons, Tanks Effects, Tanks Engines, Tanks Explosions, Tanks Objects Crash, Tanks Weapons
New Loading Screen : Mobile Infantry
Human camera :
- FPS -> TPS
- Now has a sight view
HE-DP now causes impact marks
New DM and X-Ray parts :
- Frame
- Helmet
- Body armor
- Body shield
- Chest armor
- Head
- Chest
- Right arm
- Left arm
- Right leg
- Left leg
- Left engine
- Right engine
Dust caused by aircraft collision no longer has explosion sound FX
New FX :
- Jetpack
- Jetpack start
Shell (in belts) icon colors changed :
- AP : Silver -> Red
- APC, AP-T : Silver - Green -> Red - Green
- APHE, API, SAPHEI, SAPI : Red -> Red - Blue
- APHE-T, API-T : Red - Green -> Red - Blue - Green
- AP-I(c) : Red -> Black
Track sounds : part of SFX volume -> part of My engine volume (50 - 100% possible volume -> 27 - 100% possible volume)
New UAV engine sound for the new UAV
New AI type : Quadcopter (it can hover)
New armor type : Aramid-fabric (basically CHA, but with 0.2x quality modifier instead of 0.94)
New Aircraft : UAV Raven's Eye
A109, A129 (all) :
- FBW mode 3 : Aileron and elevator modes : Velocity -> Position
- SAS changes
D.371 H.S.9 : Can't use flaps anymore
D.500, D.501, D.510 (all), D.521, F2A-3, Fw 189 A-1, He 177 A-5, Potez 633, Yak-4 : Updated FM format
D.520 (all), Potez 630, Potez 631, Yak-2 KABB : Instructor and SAS changes
F-4E, F-4E (ISR), F-4F (all), F-4S :
- Wing drag with raised flaps increased
- Fuselage aerodynamics changed
Hkp 2, SE 313 B, SA 316 B, Z9 (all), Z11WA, Z19 (all) : SAS changes
J6K1 :
- Wing with raised flaps : Oswald efficiency number : 0.85 -> 0.71
- Wing with full flaps, horizontal stabilizer and vertical stabilizer aerodynamics changed
- Fuselage area : 11 -> 13.2 m2
- Propeller #1 :
  - Pitch : 18.63 -> 17.7°
  - Width : 0.16 -> 0.15 m
- Propeller #2 :
  - Pitch : 7 -> 8.69°
  - Width : 0.2 -> 0.22 m
- Propeller aerodynamics changed
- Propeller mass : 140 -> 230 kg
- Propeller Governor : Pitch : [20, 74] -> [32, 80]°
- Instructor and SAS changes
La-15, La-174 : No longer have Combat Flaps
MiG-21bis (all) :
- Water temperatures lowered for RPM < 11000
- Water temperatures increased for RPM > 11000
- Oil temperatures increased
MiG-23BN, MiG-23MF, MiG-23ML (all), MiG-27 (all), Su-22M3 :
- Turbine RPM For 0% Throttle : 0.465 -> 0.4
- Water temperatures lowered for RPM < 5000
- Water temperatures increased for RPM > 5000
MiG-23M :
- Water temperatures lowered for RPM < 5000
- Water temperatures increased for RPM > 5000
P-39N-0 :
- Horizontal stabilizer and vertical stabilizer aerodynamics changed
- Water and oil temperatures lowered for RPM > 3000
- Instructor and SAS changes
P-39N-0 (Pokryshkin) : Water and oil temperatures lowered for RPM > 3000
Su-7 (all) : FBW mode 1 :
- Elevator mode : Rate -> Manual
- Rudder mode : Manual -> Rate
- SAS changes
Tornado F. Mk. 3 :
- Max G-load increased at 0% and 50% wing sweep in the positive direction by about 0.42 - 0.22 G depending on fuel and weapon load
- Max G-load increased at 100% wing sweep in the positive direction by about 1.21 - 0.63 G depending on fuel and weapon load
- Wings and horizontal stabilizer aerodynamics changed
- Aileron lift sensitivity changed
- Elevator angle multipliers and sensitivity multipliers changed
- Instructor :
  - forceAdvanced : false -> true
  - preciseRotStopDetection : true -> false
- Added a radar page to the cockpit MFD
- Laser designator and IR tracker sensors removed
Tornado G.R. Mk. 1, Tornado IDS (IT) :
- Max G-load increased at 50% wing sweep in the positive direction by about 0.43 - 0.22 G depending on fuel and weapon load
- Max G-load increased at 100% wing sweep in the positive direction by about 0.72 - 0.37 G depending on fuel and weapon load
- Wings and horizontal stabilizer aerodynamics changed
- Aileron lift sensitivity changed
- Elevator angle multipliers and sensitivity multipliers changed
- Instructor :
  - forceAdvanced : false -> true
  - preciseRotStopDetection : true -> false
Tornado IDS (all GER) :
- Max G-load increased at 50% wing sweep in the positive direction by about 0.42 - 0.22 G depending on fuel and weapon load
- Max G-load increased at 100% wing sweep in the positive direction by about 0.70 - 0.36 G depending on fuel and weapon load
- Wings and horizontal stabilizer aerodynamics changed
- Aileron lift sensitivity changed
- Elevator angle multipliers and sensitivity multipliers changed
- Instructor :
  - forceAdvanced : false -> true
  - preciseRotStopDetection : true -> false
Wirraway : VNE : 437 -> 580 km/h
Yak-141 :
- Wing span : 10 -> 10.2 m
- Inner wing area : 5.12 -> 5.62 m2
- Wings with raised flaps :
  - Oswald efficiency number : 0.71 -> 0.79
  - Aerodynamics changed, drag increased
- Wings with full flaps :
  - Oswald efficiency number : 0.7 -> 0.76
  - Aerodynamics changed
- Fuselage and vertical stabilizer aerodynamics changed, drag increased
- Horizontal stabilizer :
  - Span : 5.13 -> 6.2 m
  - Area : 6.2 -> 0.01 m2
  - Elevator area : 0.01 -> 6.2 m2
  - Aerodynamics changed
- Elevator angle multipliers changed
- Afterburner thrust multiplier increased at 10 km 1400+ km/h TAS
- Afterburner thrust multiplier increased at 12 km 1800+ km/h TAS
- Water temperatures increased for RPM > 7300
New Sensors :
- A "1RL33" track radar for the MANPADS exoskeleton, but it's that only in name, as it only has 90° search and IRST track, with less range and power)
- Another IR tracker, a modified version of the one used in targeting pods, with half the vertical range (for the UAV Raven's Eye)
New artillery : 155 mm M777 with high-precision shells
New "Tanks" :
- Assault (US and USSR)
- Antitank (US and USSR)
- AA Gunner (US and USSR)
- Sniper (US and USSR)
9A35M2 Strela-10M2 : New Skins :
- Deforming tricolor camouflage
- Late desert camouflage
New Ground Weapons :
- 8.6 mm MG338 machine gun
- 12.7 mm 6P51 machine gun
- 21 mm smoke grenade launcher with 3D27 grenades
- 30 mm 2A72S semi-automatic sniper cannon (copy-paste XM914A)
- 30 mm XM914A semi-automatic sniper cannon
- 43 mm GM-93P under-barrel grenade launcher with VK-94 grenades
- 9M115M
- 9M133M6 (9M133 with 1600 mm penetration instead of 1200 mm)
- 9M336M1 (9M336 (which is a 9M39V copy itself) with the following differences :
  - Warm-up time : 5 -> 1.5 sec
  - Uncaged seeker
  - FoV : 2 -> 0.75°
  - Inner FoV : 1 -> 0.5°
  - Gimbal limit : 38 -> 8°
  - Can lock ground targets
  - Guidance delay : 0.5 -> 0 sec
  - Lofts
  - Has 400 mm HEAT penetration)
- APILAS
- FIM-92X (FIM-92E with the following differences :
  - Warm-up time : 4 -> 1.5 sec
  - FoV : 3 -> 0.75°
  - Can lock ground targets
  - Guidance delay : 0.5 -> 0 sec
  - Lofts
  - Has 400 mm HEAT penetration)
- RPG-28
- Spike-SR4
- Spike-SR4ME
- TOW-2N (copy-paste TOW-2A)
New UI icons :
- bullet_cannon_black : https://i.imgur.com/4G6QTkU.png
- bullet_cannon_red_blue : https://i.imgur.com/zMq0MQs.png
- bullet_cannon_red_blue_green : https://i.imgur.com/qdpnqi8.png
- bullet_gun_black : https://i.imgur.com/65yUDz1.png
- bullet_gun_red_blue : https://i.imgur.com/fuifXYQ.png
- bullet_gun_red_blue_green : https://i.imgur.com/j3t5rr5.png
- exoskelet_grenade_launcher : https://i.imgur.com/EKDOkIh.png
- exoskelet_jump : https://i.imgur.com/nMkQFmT.png
- exoskelet_machinegun : https://i.imgur.com/KbnFVfs.png
- exoskelet_run : https://i.imgur.com/kTCF22k.png
- exoskelet_sight : https://i.imgur.com/ltFIW5o.png
- quadrotor_hovering : https://i.imgur.com/qOIxwc3.png
- quadrotor_streak : https://i.imgur.com/byZPBzG.png
- supportplane_to_exoskelet : https://i.imgur.com/aDqsKah.png
New tech-tree icons :
- UAV Raven's Eye : https://i.imgur.com/3AP4RvM.png
- Assault : https://i.imgur.com/x6w6G63.png
New tank decorations :
- Grenade launcher : https://i.imgur.com/2PGIkRK.png
- 8-mm machine gun : https://i.imgur.com/So7N48T.png
- Quadcopter (black) : https://i.imgur.com/6BRa2Hb.png
- Tactical Helmet : https://i.imgur.com/S0fOwDi.png
Cannibal Axe, Ceremonial Kris, Chainsaw, Slasher’s Hatchet, Slasher’s Mask decorations : No longer hidden, now have Marketplace links
"SDI Forces - Harpy" badge, "SDI Forces - Hydra" badge, "SDI Forces - Minotaur" badge, TailSpin decals : No longer hidden, now have Marketplace links
Added some of the groundwork for the crafting event
Nevada (BB-36), Pr. 204, Terra Nova (DDE 259) : Added back the ability to skip researching them, for some reason?
Typhoon F.B. Mk. Ib : No longer hidden, it can be bought for 1930 GE (Royal Air Force Day)
New Vehicles :
- UAV Raven's Eye (US) :
  - Hidden
  - Rank 7
  - BR : 10.7
  - Repair Cost : 4860 / 4860 / 4860 SL
- Assault (US) :
  - Hidden
  - Rank 7
  - BR : 11.3
  - Stock Repair Cost : 8050 / 7310 / 8810 SL
- Antitank (US) :
  - Hidden
  - Rank 7
  - BR : 11.3
  - Stock Repair Cost : 8050 / 7310 / 8810 SL
- AA Gunner (US) :
  - Hidden
  - Rank 7
  - BR : 11.3
  - Stock Repair Cost : 8050 / 7310 / 8810 SL
- Sniper (US) :
  - Hidden
  - Rank 7
  - BR : 11.3
  - Stock Repair Cost : 8050 / 7310 / 8810 SL
- Assault (USSR) :
  - Hidden
  - Rank 7
  - BR : 11.3
  - Stock Repair Cost : 8050 / 7310 / 8810 SL
- Antitank (USSR) :
  - Hidden
  - Rank 7
  - BR : 11.3
  - Stock Repair Cost : 8050 / 7310 / 8810 SL
- AA Gunner (USSR) :
  - Hidden
  - Rank 7
  - BR : 11.3
  - Stock Repair Cost : 8050 / 7310 / 8810 SL
- Sniper (USSR) :
  - Hidden
  - Rank 7
  - BR : 11.3
  - Stock Repair Cost : 8050 / 7310 / 8810 SL
Increased the hangar repair time of all ground vehicles. (don't worry, it's reverted next update)
Added new HUD and controls for the exoskeletons
New avatars :
- Gerard Roope : https://i.imgur.com/JrBa8mh.png
  - During World War II Gerard Roope, commander of HMS Glowworm, was the first to perform a heroic deed deserving of a Victoria Cross, the highest military award of the British forces. On April 8th, 1940, near the coast of Norway Glowworm found itself outgunned against the German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper. Heavily damaged Glowworm rammed the enemy ship, piercing her hull, and fired a last shot before capsizing. Gerard Roope perished helping the crew escape the sinking ship. Hellmuth Heye, commander of the Admiral Hipper, was so impressed by Roope's actions that he wrote a letter to the British authorities recommending him for an award.
- Mobile Warrior : https://i.imgur.com/sSW6Vwh.png
  - Soldier of a special detachment of mobile infantry
New control texts :
- "Lack of oxygen" (a WTM text ported over, curious)
- "Infantryman aiming (X-axis)"
- "Infantryman aiming (Y-axis)"
- "View in battle - Infantry (X-axis)"
- "View in battle - Infantry (Y-axis)"
- "Movement"
- "Infantryman"
- "Move axis"
- "Strafe axis"
- "Jump"
- "Fast run"
New loading tips :
- "To use the surveillance aircraft, press {{ID_START_SUPPORT_PLANE_SHIP}}, rotate the catapult and press {{ID_START_SUPPORT_PLANE_SHIP}} again"
- "To activate the tracking camera, press {{ID_FIRE_GM}} after the shot"
- "To show the control help list, press {{ID_HELP}}"
- "In the menu, you can turn a single button fire with main and auxiliary guns: main caliber fires first, then auxiliary by another press."
- "For switching between the ship and surveillance aircraft press {{ID_START_SUPPORT_PLANE_SHIP}}"
- "For enabling surveillance aircraft flying in orbit press {{ID_SUPPORT_PLANE_ORBITING_SHIP}}"
New mission objective text for newbie [Ground Strike] : "Destroy the enemy planes"
New PC UI text : "32-bit version of the game is not supported."
New vehicle names : The names of the aforementioned new vehicles
Vehicles renamed :
- T-55M (SWE), T-72M1 (SWE) : Added a Finnish roundel
- Bf 109 F-4 (IT), Bf 109 G-2 (IT), Bf 110 G-4 (IT), Toldi IIa, Turán II, Zrínyi I (Sorozatvető) : Added a Hungarian roundel
- "HMS Nepal" -> "HMAS Nepal"
New engine and transmission names :
- "MT-883" (previously it was only in Belorussian, French, Hungarian, Russian and Ukrainian localisations for some reason)
- "HSWL 295" (previously it was only in Belorussian, French, Hungarian, Russian and Ukrainian localisations for some reason)
New weapon texts :
- The names of the aforementioned new weapons
- "8.6 mm machine gun shell rack filled with %s bullets"
- "30 mm ZPZ02 cannon" (Nothing uses it, IRL used on Chinese IFVs, crafting event reward?)
New weapon type texts (for unlock conditions) :
- "Unguided bomb"
- "Guided bomb"
New maps : (all three are used in the Mobile Infantry event)
- [Domination] modern_city
- [Domination] north_town
- [Domination] soviet_town
[Historical Campaign] Counterattack :
- Enterprise (CV-6) : module HP : 18000 -> 7500
- Player's and their squad's armament : Type 91 Kai 2 -> Type 91 Kai 3
- Player's squad's size : 4 -> 6 aircraft
[Single Player] The Hardest Day :
- Player's spawn moved
- Player's squad's size : 2 -> 4
- Added 2 AI Spitfire Mk. Ia
- Waypoints and radar area moved
[Single Player] Blind Hunt :
- Airfield moved
- Airfield width : 80 -> 120 m
[Single Player] Storm Warning :
- The player's and their squad's MiG-15bis now have Airframe, Compressor, Cover, Engine, Fuselage repair, G-suit and New boosters modifications
- Enemy scout aircraft : F-86A-5 -> F-84G, spawn moved
- Waypoints moved
[Single Player] Airfield Under Attack :
- Airfield moved
- Airfield width : 80 -> 120 m
- Player's and their squad's Me 262 A-1a now have Airframe, Compressor, Cover, Engine and Fuselage repair modifications
- Player's squad's size : 4 -> 2
- Enemy Spitfire F. Mk. XVI (e) (CW) spawn moved, their number lowered : 16 -> 8
[Single Player] Operation Husky :
- Player's spawn moved
- Initial Bf 109 F-4 wave : 10 -> 6
- Third Bf 109 F-4 wave : 8 -> 6
- Ship spawns moved
- 4x low quality Sims (DD-409) -> 4x high quality Churchill (I 45)
- 1x low quality Sims (DD-409) -> 1x Leander (75)
- Number of LCVPs : 20 -> 24
- Added 4x Liberty cargo ships
- Added 13x bunkers
[Single Player] Don't throw the friends :
- Player's spawn moved
- Player's and their squad's CR.42bis now have Cover and Fuselage repair modifications
- Enemy I-15 (SGR-1820) spawns moved
- Ship spawns moved
- Added 2 fishing boats
New statcard images :
- UAV Raven's Eye : https://i.imgur.com/rXooyYN.png
- Assault : https://i.imgur.com/R8vFd7M.png

Current Dev version : 2.25.1.24
Current Live version : 2.25.1.23

submitted by SwannSwanchez to Warthunder [link] [comments]

2023.04.01 10:08 puravidaprincess Ibiza with a 2 year old

We will be going to Ibiza for the third time in May, second with a child.
Last time we went my son couldn’t walk far so we didn’t get too adventurous but this time he’s better at walking so can go off the beaten track a little bit more. We have a car for the 10 days and are staying in San Miguel (we previously have stayed in Es Cana and Santa Eulalia)
We picked San Miguel this time with it being close to Bennerias and not too far from Xcarra (we enjoy kayaking at Xcarra, does anyone know if the guy who is always there will be there in May?) We love Cala sant Vincent as it’s a lovely beach/not too busy/calm water and nice places to eat so anywhere else like that appriciated. Last year we drove up to the highest point, we’ve visited the abandoned club and hotel (love the cute little beach near the hotel) also any market recommendations are recommended as we have always missed them. Any other good kayaking spots where we can take a 2 year old would be good too.
Thank you in advance for any recommendations!

submitted by puravidaprincess to ibiza [link] [comments]

2023.04.01 10:02 Pinpunch The link is in comments. I read it and it's TRULY HORRIFYING.

submitted by Pinpunch to ClashRoyale [link] [comments]

2023.04.01 09:36 addburneracct We're at our wits end

Me [30f] and my gf [32f] are both unemployed, running out of money, and in need of highly specialized and expensive medical care. Not looking for advice, if I hear another empty platitude I'm going to lose my mind.
I was laid off from my job in July of last year. Right after I started going back to school to improve my life. Right after we signed a lease and moved in together. I'm trying to push through and keep moving forward with my classes so it wasn't a waste to start back up (not to mention we really need the money on the other side of this education), but I still need two or three more years to be able to practice, and I made too much money last year for fafsa to cover all of my school expenses. So school is draining me financially as well. We chose an apartment on the budget basis that I'd have the job I was laid off from, but it's also not dramatically more expensive than apartments in this area. We're in southern California and that's not helping. I got rid of my car because my gf and I were sharing a car and I was working remotely so I didn't need it, so I also don't have a car. I haven't been able to get an interview for a single job, more or less a job that pays enough to cover my living expenses. I need to be putting more energy into finding one but I'm in some insanely demanding stats and research classes right now. It fills me with blind rage that companies don't even read your resume anymore. Just right in the trash for arbitrary reasons while people's livelihoods are on the line. I'm down to 4 months left of living expenses left in my savings, and that's if nothing emergent comes up. I tried to apply for food stamps and state healthcare but guess what? I made too much money last year. I used to be under the impression that if you did college, stayed professional, and worked hard, you would be able to succeed in America. Man was I wrong.
My gf just finished her MBA program late last year and hasn't been able to find a job that pays enough to cover her living expenses either. She has a son who she's trying to shield from our inevitable financial ruin and keep him in a good school district with his friends. She's separated from her husband (where her share of income is coming from) who is quitting his job soon and not taking one that has insurance for some reason. So she and her son are going to lose their health insurance in the near future. She has 11 (yes, 11. Doctors don't know how she's functional either) bulging discs in her spine/ neck from two bad car accidents when she was younger. She has a lot of meds and bills for those issues as well as lessening mental health issues from a bad marriage. Her physical condition is worsening because of time and probably the stress of our situation. We haven't even addressed how she's going to work when she's undergoing an unimaginable amount of chronic pain. She says the broken ribs she got from her car accident we're a walk in the park compared to how her back feels these days. She needs to see a specialist but now she won't have the insurance to do so. And her ex husbands income is too high to qualify for state programs should she lose the insurance. Should they divorce, she won't have the income to survive on.
I was optimistic at the beginning of the year. Not feeling positive anymore because it seems like there's no possible way we're going to make it out of this mess on the path we're on. I know she feels the same. But even after all of these problems I know people are worse off than we are, so I feel like we're not in a position to ask for help. Some people don't have 4 months, you know? Anyway....thanks for reading lol.

submitted by addburneracct to Vent [link] [comments]

2023.04.01 09:29 JavikShepard1942 Worthy of a Sacrifice

Writer's note: This is my first ever post to this subreddit, but long-time lurker. Feedback is very much welcome in the comments!
-------------------------------------------------
Humanity came to the galactic stage far later than we did. Our empire had enveloped them long before they left the surface of their world. Their progress startled us. They used mechanical switches and dead reckoning to reach their moon merely because another nation-sate had the same goal. They used computers far weaker than our communication devices to reach a barren planet beyond their moon, and had the audacity to set up a colony.

We watched as, time and time again, they nearly brought themselves to the brink of destruction, ready to rescue the brave pioneers upon their moon, and upon the planet they called Mars. It all changed when one of our observation shuttles was shot down by a country called Australia after a freak bolt of lightning struck and destroyed our cloaking device. I was there, upon that fateful day when humanity discovered us.

We welcomed them to the galaxy with open arms. Perhaps it was hope or fear that made us change our first contact policy on that one day, or maybe fate herself. It doesn't matter. We welcomed them one and all, and brought them to the stars happily. Many left their homeworld that year, seeking to join our armies, or our fleets. Most wanted to see the galaxy, others merely hoped for a better life. We welcomed them all.

We quickly realised why humans had spent so long fighting amongst themselves. They were a violent, arrogant, hard-headed, brutal, ruthless species. Our phase rifles were not good enough for them, they had to fix knives at the end. They brought with them crude chemical explosives that could level buildings. They brought with them their concept of war.

I still remember on Tetha II, our position being compromised by the Xanathi. Twice as large, and able to take multiple shots before falling, they were terrifying to face. The human in our squad called himself Edwin son. He said his rank was a Sergeant, from a military called the United States Marine Corps. I had been wounded, unable to shoot, and half of us were dead. He took my repeater from me, and shoved me towards the rear line. He shouted at me to go. He said he would hold them off.

I tried to pick up my pistol, before he threw that out of reach, and shoved me back again. I still remember his words, if nothing else, than for the sheer audacity of them. "Get out of here. That is an order, captain." He smiled then, a small and maybe sad one, and said two words that I had barely heard over the roar of battle around us. "Semper Fi."

He turned, shooting at the advancing Marathi, and I ran. I counted. The weapons fire stopped at 154 seconds. At 172 seconds, the ground in front of me was illuminated in a bright flash. At 174 seconds, I was knocked over by the shock wave of an explosion.

The next day, we advanced again, the Marathi having retreated for reasons we couldn't understand. We found their ruined and charred corpses. We found their broken weapons, their torn uniforms. Of our friend Edwinson, we found merely two items. A helmet that was half melted, and a small piece of metal stamped with something we could only make out to read "nson, James E."

We quickly looked up how humans honored their dead. Guardian Lazlian gave his own rifle, and Observer Talliak gave his combat knife. I myself gave my spare pair of combat boots. It was a simple monument, the rifle fixed into the ground with the knife at the barrel, the boots placed in front, and the helmet sat upon the top. It was only after the war had been won that we realised what happened.

Edwinson had held his position, contacting a ship in orbit and telling them to drop a strike on his position. He gave his life to buy us time to run like cowards. He embodied everything a Guardian was sworn to uphold... everything we abandoned on that terrible day.

That is why I am here, human, at the place you call Arlington. All that remains of my friend lies here, with nothing more than a simple white stone. It can never tell the story. Your father was the bravest being I ever knew, and I can only hope to one day be worthy of his sacrifice.

submitted by JavikShepard1942 to HFY [link] [comments]

2023.04.01 09:24 Sinpleton025 [Rifts of War] - Chapter 9

Expedition report from RG-5
Area of recon: Shore of Meilume due east of Galdush
Report carried out by Lieutenant Eric Ross
Report states: RG-5 has encountered an elven outpost on its way to the shore. The purpose of these outposts is to act as checkpoints for the Imperial army as well as to maintain surveillance within an area. The outpost encountered by RG-5 had thirty soldiers guarding it. RG-5 attempted peaceful contact, however, the elves engaged and RG-5 retaliated. All enemies have been neutralized and RG-5 has suffered no casualties and the outpost has been searched. Upon reaching the shore, RG-5 made peaceful contact with a local fishing village. They helped in local affairs, such as hunting down several feral welfen and repairing their equipment. In return, the locals gave them information on the coast south of the North Alston river. There are seven villages between the river and the Alston kingdom border and three more north of the river, which make up the fishing community of the southeast coast of the empire. The southeast coast and shore are patrolled by the Imperial third fleet with its center in the port city of Cheemo. Further information is required.
Other news: The airstrip has been finalized and drones have been sent to various locations. New findings include the official location of the river city Kuruk to the north and Imperial fort Mundus to the west. A large cluster of Imperial soldiers has been seen gathering on the opposite side of the North Alston river. Numbers count between one hundred and one hundred and fifty thousand, including auxiliary troops. No signs of any movement south of the river. Will continue to observe. The CIA has been able to establish a network in the Meilume capital and the leading agent, Edward Garcia, has confirmed that the nobility is attempting to flee the area. RG-3 is advised to speed up. As for the city itself, the population is estimated to be roughly six hundred thousand with fortifications and a force of ten thousand soldiers. No elements of any Imperial spy network have been discovered.
28th day of late yellow season, 3000th cycle
Meilume capital, Empire of light
General Laeroth's words reached the nobility of Meilume and they heed its instructions. Lord Bellon Belus rushed his family and the guard commander followed. Servants carried bags and soldiers formed a formation to escort them to Una, where they will meet with the army that will bring them to the other side of the river and then to the city of Imslone. Bellon was always a father and husband first, and lord second. Nearly two hundred thousand soldiers were slaughtered in less than a moon cycle. That was proof enough that he needed to leave the capital and save his family. Abandoning his city in the face of the enemy was an act of cowardice, often severely punished, but he would take any punishment for those he loved. He would not be like his father.
Bellon walked through the halls and double-checked every room. "Hurry up! Leave anything not of use! Leave the valuables, they are only dead weight!"
"Bellon!", a woman called him.
"Nimriel.", he said.
"Must we leave? This has been our home for cycles. And our family's home for far longer. Leaving it is-"
"It is the only way. The only way for us to live. We must, Nimriel. If we do not, the enemy will take us."
"But Bellon-"
"Think of our daughter, Nimriel. Think of Taria. What if those barbarians breach the walls? After they're done with the peasants, do you believe they will spare us? I will not allow such a thing to happen."
And speaking of the devil, Taria appeared from the corner, wearing a battle uniform with a sword sheathed on her left hip and holding a helmet in her right hand. "I am ready father."
Bellon couldn't say he was shocked too much. Since she was little she used to sneak into the courtyard and train with the guard commander. He knew and let her do what she wanted. It made her happy. But this was uncalled for.
"Stop fooling around Taria.", Bellon said, "This is a serious matter."
"Then take me seriously!", Taria responded, "The enemy is coming and I must be ready."
"You are not staying. You are coming with us to Imslone."
"I am not. I will not commit an act of cowardice and leave my post."
"Your post is beside me. I am your father!"
"I am not a little girl anymore! I have trained with Aego for over a hundred cycles! I am ready!"
"This enemy destroyed two armies and bested two generals! We stand no chance! Our only choice is to flee as far as we can and let the armies deal with them. The best we can hope to do is slow them down."
"You dare doubt our guard like that, father! These soldiers are just as strong as those of the Imperial army and our walls have held off the Rosians and ferals! We can-"
"Do you not hear me you stupid girl!", Bellon's voice boomed through the walls and made the servants and guards stop in their tracks, "I do not care for your illusions! The enemy is real! Wars are bloody and repulsive and not a place for you! You are the daughter of a lord! You are the heir to Meilume and a member of the Belus family! You will cease this foolishness at once and act accordingly!"
This was the loudest Bellon ever had to shout. He could feel his throat hurting. Taria could only feel tears falling down her cheeks as she lowered her head in shame. In truth, she just wanted to prove she was as capable as she claimed. That despite being a girl she could live in the world of men. But her dreams would have to wait. Bellon groaned and shook his head as he kept walking down the hall. Nimriel hugged her daughter and tried to reassure her everything will be alright, but her words fell on deaf ears.
As Nimriel left, someone else walked over to Taria from behind. As he placed his hand on her shoulder, Taria turned around and saw a man she thought of as her second father. "Aego.", she said through tears.
"Do not be saddened, my lady.", he said as he wiped her tears, "Your father said what he said because he cares. You are his only daughter, more valuable to him than this entire world. He only wants what is best for you. And right now, the best for you is to go to Imslone."
"B-But the enemy. What will you do?"
"I am coming with you, my lady. I left my first captain in charge. He will make sure these otherworlders bleed for this city."
Taria hugged him, still shedding tears, "Thank you Aego. Thank you."
Aego hugged her back.
---
29th of June, 2070
Since the Rift Groups programs have been initiated, soldiers all around have been eager to join. Some more than others, some less. But none were as stocked as sergeant Emma Davis. The second youngest member of RG-1, she was nicknamed 'Trigger-finger' for a reason. Great results in the shooting range, but not much else. Still, when she heard the 'Prodigy' was joining she couldn't control herself. Ever since they left for Alston, she's been clinging to Logan like a leach.
"Sir, how many people have you killed?", she asked.
"I lost count.", Logan answered.
"Sir, why have you joined the army?"
"It's a family tradition."
"Sir, have you been shot?"
"Yes."
"Sir, may I see it?"
"No."
"Sir, why did you leave the special forces?"
Logan didn't answer that one.
"Sir-"
"Emma shut up already.", Jacob said.
"Yeah, I think you're getting on the captain's nerves.", Michael said.
Staff sergeant Jacob Brown and corporal Michael Hoilman, Emma's friends since high school and pretty much the only reason she's not in jail. They've stuck by her side, being her big brothers for years, and kind of grown attached to her. It was like having a little sister.
"No I'm not.", Emma said.
"Yes you are.", Jacob said.
"You hold your captain in quite a high regard.", said Krolm, the leanoid, "Why?"
"Are you kidding me?", Emma said, "He's Logan Connors. All of Fort Bragg and the rangers know about him."
"Are rangers perhaps elites in your army?", asked Kai, the welfen.
"We're rangers.", said veteran sniper sergeant Nick Harper aka 'Bullseye', "We're a strike fast group made for quick attacks and quick action. We're not like the rest of the army that fights on the front lines. We fight in forests, towns, cities, forts, you name it. We hit fast, hard, and take care of our mission."
"Hell yeah we do!", shouted corporal Lamar Jones, the 'Heavy gunner'.
"Interesting.", said Clara, the lepian, "So that's why you have us with you. It makes sense, you don't really need us on the front lines when you got your large cannons and these armored carriages."
RG-1 wasn't just a normal group. It was the only group with sixty-six soldiers, a captain, and twice as many vehicles. This made them quite a force and that was necessary since they were being deployed to the border of Alston. After prince Bodin agreed to assist REC he chose three people who would aid him. Gregor Bachwich, son of Herwin Bachwich, the baron of the border town of Afa. He will be important in establishing first contact with the Rosians. Lieutenant Pallius Blazewing, son of Lor Blazewing, a great military figure in the Opherin army. The Opherin kingdom prides itself on great military history, having fought more battles than any Rosian kingdom or duchy in history. And finally, a youngster named Matheo Calo. There was nothing special about him besides being prince Bodin's personal squire. He's been with Bodin for years and the two became more than just prince and servant. Furthermore, Bodin promised Matheo he would bring him back to his mother in Olinor. Prince Bodin himself didn't choose to come along. His reasoning was that he wants to present himself in front of all the kings and dukes when they all gathered together. One more person did come with them. Ambassador Eugene Anderson. Together, they will establish peace. Or war.
Right now they were on their way to Afa, only several more minutes. In the LAV where the tribals were, private first-class Ethan Williams sat, writing in his journal. He was the youngest and newest addition to the group. Fresh off the academy, he graduated to be a sniper and was eager to learn from both Logan and Nick. But something kept him from them. Next to him sat Carla, who kept eyeballing him and his weapon. Ethan was nervous, he wasn't used to girls sitting near him, or even looking at him, and Carla seemed interested.
"What is this weapon?", she asked.
"O-Oh Ummm, this?", he stuttered, "This is a modified and modernized Mk22 ASR sniper rifle. I know there are older models but my granddad taught me how to use this one. It can hit a target from about twenty-two hundred yards away. In your measurements, that's four leagues."
Carla's ears went up, "Amazing! I bet I could hunt a lot of meat with it."
"Well, um. It takes a lot of skill to use it. I could show you, sometime."
"Oh?", Carla raised an eyebrow and moved closer smiling, "I think I would like that.". She purred a little which made Ethan stutter and sweat. Across from them, Lin watched with her arms crossed.
"What?", Carla asked, "Envious?"
"Not at all.", Lin said as she grabbed Lamar's arm, "I prefer strong males.". Lamar opened his mouth but couldn't say anything. He and Ethan just stared at each other.
"Before your boners brake your belts and that LAV becomes hotter than a pizza oven at Papa John's, I wanna let you know we're almost there.", said lieutenant James Wilson over the comms from the leading JLTV3, the most veteran among them, chosen to uphold discipline.
"Thank you.", said Logan.
"They seem to be getting along.", said ambassador Anderson.
"Indeed.", said Gregor, "I must say, you humans are more strange than you are frightening. The way you use words with one meaning for another. And your expressions as well. Definitely not the savages Canus described."
"I'm glad we could prove that to you. And it appears we are about to prove it to the rest of your kingdom.". They were nearly at Afa. This town serves as a fortified stronghold against the empire should they attack. Its walls were tall and thick, with bastion towers and a single entry gate. It would be difficult for the elves to take it.
"The town currently has a thousand soldiers protecting it. It's usually three thousand, but two thousand went with me through the rift. Most likely on the orders of the elves, my father would never allow it."
"Only three thousand?", James asked.
"Three thousand official soldiers, but should the need arise we can recruit militia fighters from the residents. The town itself has a population of eighty thousand."
"That's a lot of people.", Eugene said.
"Yes. Luckily, it is able to support them, even if barely. The elves aren't exactly sharing people."
"That will all change soon."
As the convoy approached the gate, a ballista javelin hit the road in front of them. The city defenders had assembled on the wall and aimed their weapons at them. While the vehicles are armored, the JLTVs have weak spots a javelin can pierce.
"Hold it!", shouted a man on the wall, presumably the commander, "Present yourselves immediately."
"I'll take care of this.", Logan said as he exited the JLTV with his hands raised, "I am Captain Logan Connors of the Rift Expeditionary Corps! We are from Galdush and have come to make peaceful relations with the kingdom of Alston!"
"Why should we listen to you!?"
"If not me, then how about someone more familiar!".
At that moment, Gregor stepped out of the JLTV3 and, to put it mildly, made the defenders' hearts skip a beat. "Commander Barion! It is good to see you!"
Barion couldn't even speak for moments. His young baron was alive. Against all odds, he made it back. "Y-Young baron!", he finally spoke, "You... You live! How!? And what are you doing with the enemy?!"
"I assure you, they are not the enemy! I will explain everything, but first, I need to ask you to open this gate and let these soldiers in!"
Barion hesitated for a moment, "B-But young ba-"
"Commander, do not make me order you!"
He immediately understood, "Open this gate immediately! Let them in! Someone inform the baron!"
The gate opened and the convoy made it in. Luckily, there was enough room to fit all of them in. Barion and his men, as well as the people, could only stare in awe at what was before them. Truly, people from another world. The commander stepped down and greeted them as well as Gregor.
"Young baron, you have a lot of explaining to do.", Barion said.
"All will be explained soon.", Gregor said.
"Gregor!", shouted a little girl as she ran towards him.
"Elora.", Gregor said as he hugged her, "My little sister. It is good to see you.". Behind her came his mother and father, who at first walked slowly with tears in their eyes, not believing it was him.
"My son.", Herwin said as he hugged Gregor, "By the heavens. You live."
"Mother. Father. I have returned. Let me introduce you to someone. This is Lord Ambassador Eugene Anderson from the land of America on the other side of the rift. He is here to represent his country and the humans."
Herwin immediately walked to him and bowed, "I am Baron Herwin Bachwich. Thank you for sparing my son's life. It is an honor to have you here, Lord Anderson."
"The honor is mine baron.", Eugene said, "I hope we will be able to discuss peace with you and your kingdom."
This confused Herwin, "Peace?"
"I have much to tell you father.", Gregor said, "The prince lives."
Completely frozen, Herwin took a few moments to process that before replying, "He lives?"
"Enemies!", shouted a soldier from the wall. Commander Barion and Logan rushed up the wall. Logan grabbed his binoculars and observed the enemy from a distance. They came from a treeline, their camp was behind it, otherwise, RG-1 would have spotted them.
"I count five hundred.", Logan said, "Various races. Elves, Rosians, ferals."
"How?", Barion asked.
"These are binoculars. They allow me to see things from a distance. Try it."
Logan handed the binoculars to Barion, who observed them for a few moments before putting them on his eyes and facing the enemy. "Incredible."
Barion handed them back but Logan refused, "Keep it, I have a spare. I get the elves, but why are your people attacking you?"
"Those bastards aren't our people. They are traitors and thieves who think the kingdom is done for. So they run to the empire and beg them for forgiveness.". He spat in disgust.
"And the elves. They don't look like the army."
"They most likely were. They call themselves rogues, those who stray from their so-called 'Path of light'. Both of these traitors sicken me."
"Then let us help you."
"Why would you help us?"
"If we're gonna be at peace with one another, we have to establish a certain level of trust, don't we?"
Barion pondered for a bit before answering, "Very well. I am eager to see the army that defeated the elves."
Nodding Logan walked to the edge of the wall and faced his men. "Jones, take your men and mount the machine guns! Davis, bring the ammo! Williams, Harper, get to higher ground and shoot anyone that looks important or a large threat! Wilson, take Green and set up the mortar! Move it, they'll be here in minutes!"
RG-1 immediately went to work. Jones and his men carried the machine guns from the trucks and mounted them on the walls, Williams and Harper climbed up the tallest tower they could find and got into position. Wilson set up the 60mm mortar in the town square.
"I think we should get to safety.", Eugene said.
"You are right.", Herwin said, "Follow me."
Logan got into position with his Mk4 SCAR chambered in 7.62mm. "Commander, I need a favor."
"What is it, captain?", Barion asked.
"If these guys fire arrows, we don't have shields to defend ourselves. You think your men can take of that?"
"Certainly. Get the shields ready! Protect their soldiers!". In moments, each ranger had a Rosian soldier behind him or her with a shield ready. It was time to fight.
The horde moved closer and closer. First, they walked and then picked up the pace as they put shields above their heads. Naturally, the ferals ran towards the wall like rabid animals. "Hold!", Logan said as he gripped his gun, "Wait for them to get closer!". There was one elf on a horse swinging his sword and giving commands. Not for long.
"It's all you kid.", Harper said as he watched Williams aim his shot.
Letting out a breath, Williams pulled the trigger and splattered the elf's brain all over the field. "Boom boom motherfucker."
"Weapons free! Light them up!", Logan shouted as the rangers opened fire on the ferals. The freaks fell by the dozens as bullets pierced their chest, heads, legs, and arms and turned them into cold, dead corpses. The mortar fired at the enemies behind them, who stopped in their tracks, clearly confused and terrified. The rangers aimed their weapons at them and started cutting them down.
"Get some, blueberries!", Davis shouted, "Come closer! I dare ya!"
The few dozen that survived retreated back to the trees. The rangers cheered, but the Rosians didn't cheer as much as they stared in awe. Now they see why the elves lost, these people are powerful.
Commander Barion walked to Logan, "Thank you for the assistance. But I doubt this is the last we have seen of them."
"I know.", Logan said, "That's why I'll have one of my guys scout those trees with a drone along with Lin and Clara.". Logan walked down to the two of them, "Scot! Get over here!"
"Coming!", Scot answered. Scot Green aka 'Mechanic', was the group's engineer. He was also their drone pilot. "Yes sir?"
"I need you to pilot the Fly into those tree lines and scout for the enemy.". The SPFD Fly was a small recon drone invented by DARPA to save both room and energy. Solar-powered and long-lasting battery, coupled with its long-range and small size made it a very useful tool to have in recon missions. "Lin, Carla, you two are also going. I need good eyes and ears over there."
"Sure thing, sir.", Lin said saluting the best she could.
"You two do know how to use a radio, right?"
"Of course we do.", Clara said, "We're not idiots."
"Good. Go.". Lin and Carla ran to the trees as Scott maneuvered the Fly.
The baron and his family, along with Ambassador Eugene walked over to the soldiers. The baron was first to speak, "That was... most impressive. But I must ask. Why peace? Surely you seem powerful enough to take the kingdoms by force."
"Because my people aren't barbarians, baron.", Anderson said, "If peace can be made, then we will do anything to make it a reality."
"I see. And the prince? What does he say about this?"
"You can ask him yourself.", Anderson said as he nodded to Logan who signaled his men to set up a desk and a large screen. "With this device, we can talk to the prince and even see him."
"Amazing.", said Herwin as he eagerly awaited to see his prince. After some preparations, the screen was ready and it turned on. The lights slightly startled the Rosians before the screen was clear and on it was prince Bodin himself. "My... My prince.", Herwin said as he knelt, "It is a miracle. You truly live."
"Baron Bachwich.", Bodin spoke, "Please, rise. I am not before you just yet. This is strange for me as well. Am I correct to assume the human soldiers have arrived?"
"Yes, my prince. They recently just helped us crush an attack from a bandit horde."
"Do you then see why I have chosen to make peace with these people?"
After a momentary pause, Herwin nodded, "I do, my prince. It is incredible to see that a nation so powerful is willing to make peace with its enemy and not subdue it."
"We are not their enemy, baron. The elves and their empire are. This is why they chose to make peace with us. They understand we are just vassals forced to fight. I suggest you hear Lord Anderson out."
As they were talking, Scot called for Logan, "Sir. I have a visual."
Logan nodded, "Alright. Commander Barion, would you like to see the enemy?"
"Yes.", Barion answered, "Show me."
Scot pulled up the video feed on his screen, "This is their camp. I count roughly three thousand. Lin and Carla confirm."
"Where are those two?", Logan asked.
"In the trees."
"Call them back and give me the radio.", Logan took the radio, "Galdush base. Come in Galdush base. This is Captain Logan Connors of Rift Group 1. Do you copy? Over."
After a few moments, the radio spoke, "Copy Rift Group 1. Sitrep. Over."
"Galdush, we have made contact with border town Afa. Upon entry, we engaged a third party, designated rogue elves, and bandit Rosians. Half a battalion attacked us but we drove them off. We confirm the enemy numbers in three thousand, various races. What's the status of our air forces? Over."
"Three air squadrons of Invictus ACs and a Boeing Stratofortress is currently being fueled and should be ready in half an hour."
"Galdush I request a tactical bombing run. The area will be marked via drone. How copy?"
The radio went silent for a few moments before speaking again, "Affirmative RG-1. Stratofortress will be up in the air as soon as possible. Make sure to mark the area. Galdush out."
"Copy that Galdush. RG-1 out."
"What was that?", Barion asked.
"You're gonna get another demonstration."
"Captain!", Carla shouted as she ran towards him. "I have eliminated an enemy scout.", she said as she extended a severed head toward Logan.
Logan smacked his lips before replying, "I see. Get rid of it."
"Yes sir.", Carla said as she tossed the head into a nearby pile of trash.
'At least she's helping', Logan thought.
---
(Two hours later)
The bandits and rogues were sitting in their tents, trying to plan an attack. The otherworlders were an unexpected problem, but hopefully a problem they could be dealt with.
"Alright, listen.", said an elf, "We'll strike at night. It didn't work last time because there were too many of them, but I reckon there can't be more than a few dozen of them."
"That doesn't matter.", said a Rosian, "I've seen what that few can do."
"You attacked with five hundred to scout their defenses. You were never supposed to win. Besides, we can use the tribals to deal with them. As we are attacking the front, they will go to the sides and strike."
"Are you sure this will work?"
"Yes. Soon, Afa will be ours."
At that moment, an elf rushed into the tent, "Sir, you must come and see this!"
They left the tent and came to the center of the tent. The one who called them pointed upwards into the sky. There they saw something flying. A wyvern? No, it was too big. Its wings didn't flap. What could it be? As it flew over them, something fell from it. Many egg-like things started falling and as they fell to the ground, they engulfed the camp in fire and shook the earth. In moments, the whole camp was on fire and everyone was either dead or dying. The ground was turned into a burning pile of scorched bodies.
If there were any doubts about the power of the otherwolders left, they were long gone now.
---
(Meanwhile)
Road to Una
The Belus family along with commander Aego and two hundred soldiers were on their way to Una. Taria did not wish to ride with her father and so she rode on a horse alongside Aego. Their hopes were that they would reach Una in several days and then cross the river.
"My lady.", Aego spoke, "Are you certain you should be riding alongside me and not in the carriage?"
"I do not wish to speak to my father.", Taria said, "At least not now."
"I assumed we cleared this matter."
"We have but... I still need time."
Aego sighed, "I understand. Still, you should not hate him for-", he stopped and halted the soldiers.
"What?"
"Something is not as it should be. This outpost is quiet.". The soldiers tensed up. They could also feel that something wasn't right. In a split second, Aego was shot by an arrow in the side.
"Ambush!", Taria yelled out. Suddenly, elves, welfen, and leanoids ran from the sides and the outpost. The soldiers prepared but found themselves overwhelmed by the enemies' numbers. Rogue elves fired arrows at them while welfen and leanoids exploited weaknesses and struck. Still, the soldiers fought hard, making sure the traitors and savages suffer. The enemy numbers were dropping, but not quickly enough. Taria used her training and cut down several rogues before crouching down to help Aego.
"Aego!", she yelled, "Aego hold on! You will live! Please!". She cried as he struggled to breathe. He grabbed her arm and pushed her to the side, just in time for her to dodge a spear from a leanoid. She watched as Aego spat blood before dying, his life leaving his body. In pure rage, she screamed and struck the leanoid in the side. Pulling out her sword she blocked a strike from a rogue, stepped closer, and headbutted him before slitting his throat.
Turning to her left she saw the rogues and tribals dragging her family. "Father!", she yelled, but couldn't help as a rogue hit her in the back of the head, knocking her down on the ground. Her blurred vision faded away as the rogue smiled down at her.
"Sweet dreams, little girl.", was what he said before she passed out completely.
End of chapter 9

---
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Thank you very much for reading.
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2023.04.01 09:24 welshfancy [THANK YOU] Some thanks to go with my usual mindless ramblings

Apologies to all, I am about 4 days behind on getting to the Post Office. Hope to be caught on an any thanks by this coming Monday.
A quick update, as most of you will already have received my job update postcards by now. I am working part time and it is exhausting when coupled with my recent health issues. But, still it is a good fit for me. Some days are better than others, but it isn't so difficult that I need to contemplate giving up, so that's a win!! For all those who have sent cards with supportive messages, I truly appreciate them!
On to the thanks for mail received earlier this week...
u/travel4me22 such a fun thank you postcard! I still feel like I cheated on your bday card, so getting a special thank you meant alot. Hope you are well!
u/Mikepenpal6 thanks for the postcard of Rose Tico. My trip was great, I want to go visit my daughter in Cali again soon, as I fly out of Vegas so I get to visit with my son while there, but looks like it will be a while. Hope spring is on the way for you!
u/Pinkpengin x2 thank you for the cat-cti postcard and the kitten postcard. I love hearing from you at random. It always brightens my day! Keep me posted on life updates, 19...omg!!!
u/hexagonalrainbow thanks for the super weird postcard -- I loved it. I also got a laugh out of how we think differently..I assumed the sticker meant I got to have a Frappuccino, shaved ice, AND brownies, lol!! Please PM your info again, so I can send something back!
u/ninajyang x2 thanks for the fun random card. How funny if there was something to apologize for (some imaginary slight on my behalf) and you didn't even know, lol. Also the spring card...yes, way too much rain. I cannot keep up with the yard work, too many weeds.
u/Tinawebmom thanks for the lovely dragonfly handmade card and the message. I will reply with some examples in my next card. Enjoy the hummingbirds!!
u/KK6321 thank you for the lovely Papyrus pinwheel notecard! I appreciate the kind words, work is going fairly well. I even got my first paycheck today, woohoo!! I am ready for spring if it means an end to the rain, lol. I will try to send mail soon!
u/mmmmmick thank you for the weird random card, it was perfect. Can you please send a PM to verify your address, I would love to send a card back and share one of my own previous dogsitting tales.
u/Amyt13 x2 wow...your Easter card was amazing!! The little honeycomb egg belly makes me so happy -- this is one of those rare times where I actually get envious of somebody's skills. So gorgeous!! I'm just blame the fact that you have access to cool stuff there, lol. I sent a card a while back, I probably need to get busy and send another, lol. I started a part time job, and my health took a nosedive, and I'm not doing near as much carding as I would like lately. Also, super cool postcard kinda weird, just how I like them. Language barrier -- does "no end of" mean "lots"?? Sorry, just want to make sure I understand, sometimes I think it's easier when you write in Welsh, lol. At least then, if I didn't understand, I knew I had an excuse because I live under a rock, lol. Today, I got complaints at work because I said " with the exception of" and I was supposed to say "except for" lol.
u/librariantraining16 x2 your cards arrived ans I am so happy! The first card was lovely, and I'm glad I got to be the one you decided to use it on. The little pearls made me so happy. And the inside card will not be shared, at least not for a while, I love the bright colors and alcohol theme and will be enjoying it myself for a while! Thank you!! Please let me know if the return address is good to send a thank you card too. Are you going to be in fall now? Want to make sure I get the card and season correct.

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2023.04.01 09:22 Sinpleton025 Rifts of War - Chapter 9

Expedition report from RG-5
Area of recon: Shore of Meilume due east of Galdush
Report carried out by Lieutenant Eric Ross
Report states: RG-5 has encountered an elven outpost on its way to the shore. The purpose of these outposts is to act as checkpoints for the Imperial army as well as to maintain surveillance within an area. The outpost encountered by RG-5 had thirty soldiers guarding it. RG-5 attempted peaceful contact, however, the elves engaged and RG-5 retaliated. All enemies have been neutralized and RG-5 has suffered no casualties and the outpost has been searched. Upon reaching the shore, RG-5 made peaceful contact with a local fishing village. They helped in local affairs, such as hunting down several feral welfen and repairing their equipment. In return, the locals gave them information on the coast south of the North Alston river. There are seven villages between the river and the Alston kingdom border and three more north of the river, which make up the fishing community of the southeast coast of the empire. The southeast coast and shore are patrolled by the Imperial third fleet with its center in the port city of Cheemo. Further information is required.
Other news: The airstrip has been finalized and drones have been sent to various locations. New findings include the official location of the river city Kuruk to the north and Imperial fort Mundus to the west. A large cluster of Imperial soldiers has been seen gathering on the opposite side of the North Alston river. Numbers count between one hundred and one hundred and fifty thousand, including auxiliary troops. No signs of any movement south of the river. Will continue to observe. The CIA has been able to establish a network in the Meilume capital and the leading agent, Edward Garcia, has confirmed that the nobility is attempting to flee the area. RG-3 is advised to speed up. As for the city itself, the population is estimated to be roughly six hundred thousand with fortifications and a force of ten thousand soldiers. No elements of any Imperial spy network have been discovered.
28th day of late yellow season, 3000th cycle
Meilume capital, Empire of light
General Laeroth's words reached the nobility of Meilume and they heed its instructions. Lord Bellon Belus rushed his family and the guard commander followed. Servants carried bags and soldiers formed a formation to escort them to Una, where they will meet with the army that will bring them to the other side of the river and then to the city of Imslone. Bellon was always a father and husband first, and lord second. Nearly two hundred thousand soldiers were slaughtered in less than a moon cycle. That was proof enough that he needed to leave the capital and save his family. Abandoning his city in the face of the enemy was an act of cowardice, often severely punished, but he would take any punishment for those he loved. He would not be like his father.
Bellon walked through the halls and double-checked every room. "Hurry up! Leave anything not of use! Leave the valuables, they are only dead weight!"
"Bellon!", a woman called him.
"Nimriel.", he said.
"Must we leave? This has been our home for cycles. And our family's home for far longer. Leaving it is-"
"It is the only way. The only way for us to live. We must, Nimriel. If we do not, the enemy will take us."
"But Bellon-"
"Think of our daughter, Nimriel. Think of Taria. What if those barbarians breach the walls? After they're done with the peasants, do you believe they will spare us? I will not allow such a thing to happen."
And speaking of the devil, Taria appeared from the corner, wearing a battle uniform with a sword sheathed on her left hip and holding a helmet in her right hand. "I am ready father."
Bellon couldn't say he was shocked too much. Since she was little she used to sneak into the courtyard and train with the guard commander. He knew and let her do what she wanted. It made her happy. But this was uncalled for.
"Stop fooling around Taria.", Bellon said, "This is a serious matter."
"Then take me seriously!", Taria responded, "The enemy is coming and I must be ready."
"You are not staying. You are coming with us to Imslone."
"I am not. I will not commit an act of cowardice and leave my post."
"Your post is beside me. I am your father!"
"I am not a little girl anymore! I have trained with Aego for over a hundred cycles! I am ready!"
"This enemy destroyed two armies and bested two generals! We stand no chance! Our only choice is to flee as far as we can and let the armies deal with them. The best we can hope to do is slow them down."
"You dare doubt our guard like that, father! These soldiers are just as strong as those of the Imperial army and our walls have held off the Rosians and ferals! We can-"
"Do you not hear me you stupid girl!", Bellon's voice boomed through the walls and made the servants and guards stop in their tracks, "I do not care for your illusions! The enemy is real! Wars are bloody and repulsive and not a place for you! You are the daughter of a lord! You are the heir to Meilume and a member of the Belus family! You will cease this foolishness at once and act accordingly!"
This was the loudest Bellon ever had to shout. He could feel his throat hurting. Taria could only feel tears falling down her cheeks as she lowered her head in shame. In truth, she just wanted to prove she was as capable as she claimed. That despite being a girl she could live in the world of men. But her dreams would have to wait. Bellon groaned and shook his head as he kept walking down the hall. Nimriel hugged her daughter and tried to reassure her everything will be alright, but her words fell on deaf ears.
As Nimriel left, someone else walked over to Taria from behind. As he placed his hand on her shoulder, Taria turned around and saw a man she thought of as her second father. "Aego.", she said through tears.
"Do not be saddened, my lady.", he said as he wiped her tears, "Your father said what he said because he cares. You are his only daughter, more valuable to him than this entire world. He only wants what is best for you. And right now, the best for you is to go to Imslone."
"B-But the enemy. What will you do?"
"I am coming with you, my lady. I left my first captain in charge. He will make sure these otherworlders bleed for this city."
Taria hugged him, still shedding tears, "Thank you Aego. Thank you."
Aego hugged her back.
---
29th of June, 2070
Since the Rift Groups programs have been initiated, soldiers all around have been eager to join. Some more than others, some less. But none were as stocked as sergeant Emma Davis. The second youngest member of RG-1, she was nicknamed 'Trigger-finger' for a reason. Great results in the shooting range, but not much else. Still, when she heard the 'Prodigy' was joining she couldn't control herself. Ever since they left for Alston, she's been clinging to Logan like a leach.
"Sir, how many people have you killed?", she asked.
"I lost count.", Logan answered.
"Sir, why have you joined the army?"
"It's a family tradition."
"Sir, have you been shot?"
"Yes."
"Sir, may I see it?"
"No."
"Sir, why did you leave the special forces?"
Logan didn't answer that one.
"Sir-"
"Emma shut up already.", Jacob said.
"Yeah, I think you're getting on the captain's nerves.", Michael said.
Staff sergeant Jacob Brown and corporal Michael Hoilman, Emma's friends since high school and pretty much the only reason she's not in jail. They've stuck by her side, being her big brothers for years, and kind of grown attached to her. It was like having a little sister.
"No I'm not.", Emma said.
"Yes you are.", Jacob said.
"You hold your captain in quite a high regard.", said Krolm, the leanoid, "Why?"
"Are you kidding me?", Emma said, "He's Logan Connors. All of Fort Bragg and the rangers know about him."
"Are rangers perhaps elites in your army?", asked Kai, the welfen.
"We're rangers.", said veteran sniper sergeant Nick Harper aka 'Bullseye', "We're a strike fast group made for quick attacks and quick action. We're not like the rest of the army that fights on the front lines. We fight in forests, towns, cities, forts, you name it. We hit fast, hard, and take care of our mission."
"Hell yeah we do!", shouted corporal Lamar Jones, the 'Heavy gunner'.
"Interesting.", said Clara, the lepian, "So that's why you have us with you. It makes sense, you don't really need us on the front lines when you got your large cannons and these armored carriages."
RG-1 wasn't just a normal group. It was the only group with sixty-six soldiers, a captain, and twice as many vehicles. This made them quite a force and that was necessary since they were being deployed to the border of Alston. After prince Bodin agreed to assist REC he chose three people who would aid him. Gregor Bachwich, son of Herwin Bachwich, the baron of the border town of Afa. He will be important in establishing first contact with the Rosians. Lieutenant Pallius Blazewing, son of Lor Blazewing, a great military figure in the Opherin army. The Opherin kingdom prides itself on great military history, having fought more battles than any Rosian kingdom or duchy in history. And finally, a youngster named Matheo Calo. There was nothing special about him besides being prince Bodin's personal squire. He's been with Bodin for years and the two became more than just prince and servant. Furthermore, Bodin promised Matheo he would bring him back to his mother in Olinor. Prince Bodin himself didn't choose to come along. His reasoning was that he wants to present himself in front of all the kings and dukes when they all gathered together. One more person did come with them. Ambassador Eugene Anderson. Together, they will establish peace. Or war.
Right now they were on their way to Afa, only several more minutes. In the LAV where the tribals were, private first-class Ethan Williams sat, writing in his journal. He was the youngest and newest addition to the group. Fresh off the academy, he graduated to be a sniper and was eager to learn from both Logan and Nick. But something kept him from them. Next to him sat Carla, who kept eyeballing him and his weapon. Ethan was nervous, he wasn't used to girls sitting near him, or even looking at him, and Carla seemed interested.
"What is this weapon?", she asked.
"O-Oh Ummm, this?", he stuttered, "This is a modified and modernized Mk22 ASR sniper rifle. I know there are older models but my granddad taught me how to use this one. It can hit a target from about twenty-two hundred yards away. In your measurements, that's four leagues."
Carla's ears went up, "Amazing! I bet I could hunt a lot of meat with it."
"Well, um. It takes a lot of skill to use it. I could show you, sometime."
"Oh?", Carla raised an eyebrow and moved closer smiling, "I think I would like that.". She purred a little which made Ethan stutter and sweat. Across from them, Lin watched with her arms crossed.
"What?", Carla asked, "Envious?"
"Not at all.", Lin said as she grabbed Lamar's arm, "I prefer strong males.". Lamar opened his mouth but couldn't say anything. He and Ethan just stared at each other.
"Before your boners brake your belts and that LAV becomes hotter than a pizza oven at Papa John's, I wanna let you know we're almost there.", said lieutenant James Wilson over the comms from the leading JLTV3, the most veteran among them, chosen to uphold discipline.
"Thank you.", said Logan.
"They seem to be getting along.", said ambassador Anderson.
"Indeed.", said Gregor, "I must say, you humans are more strange than you are frightening. The way you use words with one meaning for another. And your expressions as well. Definitely not the savages Canus described."
"I'm glad we could prove that to you. And it appears we are about to prove it to the rest of your kingdom.". They were nearly at Afa. This town serves as a fortified stronghold against the empire should they attack. Its walls were tall and thick, with bastion towers and a single entry gate. It would be difficult for the elves to take it.
"The town currently has a thousand soldiers protecting it. It's usually three thousand, but two thousand went with me through the rift. Most likely on the orders of the elves, my father would never allow it."
"Only three thousand?", James asked.
"Three thousand official soldiers, but should the need arise we can recruit militia fighters from the residents. The town itself has a population of eighty thousand."
"That's a lot of people.", Eugene said.
"Yes. Luckily, it is able to support them, even if barely. The elves aren't exactly sharing people."
"That will all change soon."
As the convoy approached the gate, a ballista javelin hit the road in front of them. The city defenders had assembled on the wall and aimed their weapons at them. While the vehicles are armored, the JLTVs have weak spots a javelin can pierce.
"Hold it!", shouted a man on the wall, presumably the commander, "Present yourselves immediately."
"I'll take care of this.", Logan said as he exited the JLTV with his hands raised, "I am Captain Logan Connors of the Rift Expeditionary Corps! We are from Galdush and have come to make peaceful relations with the kingdom of Alston!"
"Why should we listen to you!?"
"If not me, then how about someone more familiar!".
At that moment, Gregor stepped out of the JLTV3 and, to put it mildly, made the defenders' hearts skip a beat. "Commander Barion! It is good to see you!"
Barion couldn't even speak for moments. His young baron was alive. Against all odds, he made it back. "Y-Young baron!", he finally spoke, "You... You live! How!? And what are you doing with the enemy?!"
"I assure you, they are not the enemy! I will explain everything, but first, I need to ask you to open this gate and let these soldiers in!"
Barion hesitated for a moment, "B-But young ba-"
"Commander, do not make me order you!"
He immediately understood, "Open this gate immediately! Let them in! Someone inform the baron!"
The gate opened and the convoy made it in. Luckily, there was enough room to fit all of them in. Barion and his men, as well as the people, could only stare in awe at what was before them. Truly, people from another world. The commander stepped down and greeted them as well as Gregor.
"Young baron, you have a lot of explaining to do.", Barion said.
"All will be explained soon.", Gregor said.
"Gregor!", shouted a little girl as she ran towards him.
"Elora.", Gregor said as he hugged her, "My little sister. It is good to see you.". Behind her came his mother and father, who at first walked slowly with tears in their eyes, not believing it was him.
"My son.", Herwin said as he hugged Gregor, "By the heavens. You live."
"Mother. Father. I have returned. Let me introduce you to someone. This is Lord Ambassador Eugene Anderson from the land of America on the other side of the rift. He is here to represent his country and the humans."
Herwin immediately walked to him and bowed, "I am Baron Herwin Bachwich. Thank you for sparing my son's life. It is an honor to have you here, Lord Anderson."
"The honor is mine baron.", Eugene said, "I hope we will be able to discuss peace with you and your kingdom."
This confused Herwin, "Peace?"
"I have much to tell you father.", Gregor said, "The prince lives."
Completely frozen, Herwin took a few moments to process that before replying, "He lives?"
"Enemies!", shouted a soldier from the wall. Commander Barion and Logan rushed up the wall. Logan grabbed his binoculars and observed the enemy from a distance. They came from a treeline, their camp was behind it, otherwise, RG-1 would have spotted them.
"I count five hundred.", Logan said, "Various races. Elves, Rosians, ferals."
"How?", Barion asked.
"These are binoculars. They allow me to see things from a distance. Try it."
Logan handed the binoculars to Barion, who observed them for a few moments before putting them on his eyes and facing the enemy. "Incredible."
Barion handed them back but Logan refused, "Keep it, I have a spare. I get the elves, but why are your people attacking you?"
"Those bastards aren't our people. They are traitors and thieves who think the kingdom is done for. So they run to the empire and beg them for forgiveness.". He spat in disgust.
"And the elves. They don't look like the army."
"They most likely were. They call themselves rogues, those who stray from their so-called 'Path of light'. Both of these traitors sicken me."
"Then let us help you."
"Why would you help us?"
"If we're gonna be at peace with one another, we have to establish a certain level of trust, don't we?"
Barion pondered for a bit before answering, "Very well. I am eager to see the army that defeated the elves."
Nodding Logan walked to the edge of the wall and faced his men. "Jones, take your men and mount the machine guns! Davis, bring the ammo! Williams, Harper, get to higher ground and shoot anyone that looks important or a large threat! Wilson, take Green and set up the mortar! Move it, they'll be here in minutes!"
RG-1 immediately went to work. Jones and his men carried the machine guns from the trucks and mounted them on the walls, Williams and Harper climbed up the tallest tower they could find and got into position. Wilson set up the 60mm mortar in the town square.
"I think we should get to safety.", Eugene said.
"You are right.", Herwin said, "Follow me."
Logan got into position with his Mk4 SCAR chambered in 7.62mm. "Commander, I need a favor."
"What is it, captain?", Barion asked.
"If these guys fire arrows, we don't have shields to defend ourselves. You think your men can take of that?"
"Certainly. Get the shields ready! Protect their soldiers!". In moments, each ranger had a Rosian soldier behind him or her with a shield ready. It was time to fight.
The horde moved closer and closer. First, they walked and then picked up the pace as they put shields above their heads. Naturally, the ferals ran towards the wall like rabid animals. "Hold!", Logan said as he gripped his gun, "Wait for them to get closer!". There was one elf on a horse swinging his sword and giving commands. Not for long.
"It's all you kid.", Harper said as he watched Williams aim his shot.
Letting out a breath, Williams pulled the trigger and splattered the elf's brain all over the field. "Boom boom motherfucker."
"Weapons free! Light them up!", Logan shouted as the rangers opened fire on the ferals. The freaks fell by the dozens as bullets pierced their chest, heads, legs, and arms and turned them into cold, dead corpses. The mortar fired at the enemies behind them, who stopped in their tracks, clearly confused and terrified. The rangers aimed their weapons at them and started cutting them down.
"Get some, blueberries!", Davis shouted, "Come closer! I dare ya!"
The few dozen that survived retreated back to the trees. The rangers cheered, but the Rosians didn't cheer as much as they stared in awe. Now they see why the elves lost, these people are powerful.
Commander Barion walked to Logan, "Thank you for the assistance. But I doubt this is the last we have seen of them."
"I know.", Logan said, "That's why I'll have one of my guys scout those trees with a drone along with Lin and Clara.". Logan walked down to the two of them, "Scot! Get over here!"
"Coming!", Scot answered. Scot Green aka 'Mechanic', was the group's engineer. He was also their drone pilot. "Yes sir?"
"I need you to pilot the Fly into those tree lines and scout for the enemy.". The SPFD Fly was a small recon drone invented by DARPA to save both room and energy. Solar-powered and long-lasting battery, coupled with its long-range and small size made it a very useful tool to have in recon missions. "Lin, Carla, you two are also going. I need good eyes and ears over there."
"Sure thing, sir.", Lin said saluting the best she could.
"You two do know how to use a radio, right?"
"Of course we do.", Clara said, "We're not idiots."
"Good. Go.". Lin and Carla ran to the trees as Scott maneuvered the Fly.
The baron and his family, along with Ambassador Eugene walked over to the soldiers. The baron was first to speak, "That was... most impressive. But I must ask. Why peace? Surely you seem powerful enough to take the kingdoms by force."
"Because my people aren't barbarians, baron.", Anderson said, "If peace can be made, then we will do anything to make it a reality."
"I see. And the prince? What does he say about this?"
"You can ask him yourself.", Anderson said as he nodded to Logan who signaled his men to set up a desk and a large screen. "With this device, we can talk to the prince and even see him."
"Amazing.", said Herwin as he eagerly awaited to see his prince. After some preparations, the screen was ready and it turned on. The lights slightly startled the Rosians before the screen was clear and on it was prince Bodin himself. "My... My prince.", Herwin said as he knelt, "It is a miracle. You truly live."
"Baron Bachwich.", Bodin spoke, "Please, rise. I am not before you just yet. This is strange for me as well. Am I correct to assume the human soldiers have arrived?"
"Yes, my prince. They recently just helped us crush an attack from a bandit horde."
"Do you then see why I have chosen to make peace with these people?"
After a momentary pause, Herwin nodded, "I do, my prince. It is incredible to see that a nation so powerful is willing to make peace with its enemy and not subdue it."
"We are not their enemy, baron. The elves and their empire are. This is why they chose to make peace with us. They understand we are just vassals forced to fight. I suggest you hear Lord Anderson out."
As they were talking, Scot called for Logan, "Sir. I have a visual."
Logan nodded, "Alright. Commander Barion, would you like to see the enemy?"
"Yes.", Barion answered, "Show me."
Scot pulled up the video feed on his screen, "This is their camp. I count roughly three thousand. Lin and Carla confirm."
"Where are those two?", Logan asked.
"In the trees."
"Call them back and give me the radio.", Logan took the radio, "Galdush base. Come in Galdush base. This is Captain Logan Connors of Rift Group 1. Do you copy? Over."
After a few moments, the radio spoke, "Copy Rift Group 1. Sitrep. Over."
"Galdush, we have made contact with border town Afa. Upon entry, we engaged a third party, designated rogue elves, and bandit Rosians. Half a battalion attacked us but we drove them off. We confirm the enemy numbers in three thousand, various races. What's the status of our air forces? Over."
"Three air squadrons of Invictus ACs and a Boeing Stratofortress is currently being fueled and should be ready in half an hour."
"Galdush I request a tactical bombing run. The area will be marked via drone. How copy?"
The radio went silent for a few moments before speaking again, "Affirmative RG-1. Stratofortress will be up in the air as soon as possible. Make sure to mark the area. Galdush out."
"Copy that Galdush. RG-1 out."
"What was that?", Barion asked.
"You're gonna get another demonstration."
"Captain!", Carla shouted as she ran towards him. "I have eliminated an enemy scout.", she said as she extended a severed head toward Logan.
Logan smacked his lips before replying, "I see. Get rid of it."
"Yes sir.", Carla said as she tossed the head into a nearby pile of trash.
'At least she's helping', Logan thought.
---
(Two hours later)
The bandits and rogues were sitting in their tents, trying to plan an attack. The otherworlders were an unexpected problem, but hopefully a problem they could be dealt with.
"Alright, listen.", said an elf, "We'll strike at night. It didn't work last time because there were too many of them, but I reckon there can't be more than a few dozen of them."
"That doesn't matter.", said a Rosian, "I've seen what that few can do."
"You attacked with five hundred to scout their defenses. You were never supposed to win. Besides, we can use the tribals to deal with them. As we are attacking the front, they will go to the sides and strike."
"Are you sure this will work?"
"Yes. Soon, Afa will be ours."
At that moment, an elf rushed into the tent, "Sir, you must come and see this!"
They left the tent and came to the center of the tent. The one who called them pointed upwards into the sky. There they saw something flying. A wyvern? No, it was too big. Its wings didn't flap. What could it be? As it flew over them, something fell from it. Many egg-like things started falling and as they fell to the ground, they engulfed the camp in fire and shook the earth. In moments, the whole camp was on fire and everyone was either dead or dying. The ground was turned into a burning pile of scorched bodies.
If there were any doubts about the power of the otherwolders left, they were long gone now.
---
(Meanwhile)
Road to Una
The Belus family along with commander Aego and two hundred soldiers were on their way to Una. Taria did not wish to ride with her father and so she rode on a horse alongside Aego. Their hopes were that they would reach Una in several days and then cross the river.
"My lady.", Aego spoke, "Are you certain you should be riding alongside me and not in the carriage?"
"I do not wish to speak to my father.", Taria said, "At least not now."
"I assumed we cleared this matter."
"We have but... I still need time."
Aego sighed, "I understand. Still, you should not hate him for-", he stopped and halted the soldiers.
"What?"
"Something is not as it should be. This outpost is quiet.". The soldiers tensed up. They could also feel that something wasn't right. In a split second, Aego was shot by an arrow in the side.
"Ambush!", Taria yelled out. Suddenly, elves, welfen, and leanoids ran from the sides and the outpost. The soldiers prepared but found themselves overwhelmed by the enemies' numbers. Rogue elves fired arrows at them while welfen and leanoids exploited weaknesses and struck. Still, the soldiers fought hard, making sure the traitors and savages suffer. The enemy numbers were dropping, but not quickly enough. Taria used her training and cut down several rogues before crouching down to help Aego.
"Aego!", she yelled, "Aego hold on! You will live! Please!". She cried as he struggled to breathe. He grabbed her arm and pushed her to the side, just in time for her to dodge a spear from a leanoid. She watched as Aego spat blood before dying, his life leaving his body. In pure rage, she screamed and struck the leanoid in the side. Pulling out her sword she blocked a strike from a rogue, stepped closer, and headbutted him before slitting his throat.
Turning to her left she saw the rogues and tribals dragging her family. "Father!", she yelled, but couldn't help as a rogue hit her in the back of the head, knocking her down on the ground. Her blurred vision faded away as the rogue smiled down at her.
"Sweet dreams, little girl.", was what he said before she passed out completely.
End of chapter 9

---
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2023.04.01 09:07 MelodyMaster5656 How to deal with my pro-revolution hometown?

To: My dearest friends at AskALoyalist

I (20M), am currently staying with my parents (late 50s) over the Spring break, in my hometown. The last time I was there, it seemed pretty normal, you know, a good tea shop on every corner, but recently it feels like everyone I knew back home has become a bleeding revolutionary?!? There are blue and red flags hanging outside every porch, and people criticize his royal majesty openly in the pubs, and even when simply walking on the streets!
It's the worst with my parents. When I first went off to attend University, they seemed like respectable subjects, praying to his majesties health every day, so imagine my utter surprise when, upon completing my arduous 6 kilometer journey home, they appeared to have done away with all the tea in the house. It turns out my ENTIRE town got together some time while I was away, and dumped their tea in the Potomac!! Now there's coffee houses on every corner, complete with very obviously painted over signs from the apparently meaningless time they spent as respectable tea shops! And that's not the half of it; they've even taken to adopting "distinctive" spellings of several words that simply defy all common sense. How the devil is does one assert "aluminum" as being an acceptable spelling in good faith? All in all, the first few days spent back in town, what with all these unpleasantries, left me in quite a state. Somewhere between flabbergasted and completely knackered, to be exact. My parents inevitably noticed my downturned spirits, but when I attempted to acquiesce to their requests for an explanation, I got met with blank stares from my father and a disapproving look from my mum. When I tried explaining to them the silliness of this apparent about face of ideology, they became unreasonably angry and dismissively suggested that I "read theory," whatever that means. I do admit at that remark I nearly lost it. As I write this in my old room, having just finished a rather sullen supper, I'm at a loss for how to continue living with these people without going absolutely barmy from the (to be frank), constant revolutionary idiocy I see about the town on the daily. What should I do?

Yours truly, u/melodymaster5656

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2023.04.01 08:42 Equivalent_Fun_2701 One of the worst vacations in my life M32 F30

So my sister in law is getting married this weekend in Las Vegas so we flew out to celebrate and be part of the wedding . My wife paid for the car rental and the room, I worked 14 hrs a day for the past month and a half to be able to enjoy the weekend we brought our children both from previous relationships on the trip also. The plane ride getting here wasnt that bad till we arrived to our destination her aunt and her family flew in on the same flight which they're cool people i dont mind them at all. As soon as we get to the luggage pick up she starts aggressively yelling at me to pick up the luggage which I didnt mind but she yelled at me in front of her aunt, uncle and cousins, plus the crowd that were picking their things up also I was so embarrassed but I let it go. We get to the rental car place and she yells at me to put the luggage in carefully which im already aware of since its not our car let it go again. She starts driving the car out of the garage becuase its under her name as she's driving to the hotel I start talking with the kids pointing out places she tells me to be quiet because she can't focus, which ticked me off because she's always telling me how I dont pay attention to the road because im always distracted, when I'm driving she's always telling me to slow down or speed up or why didnt i make a turn. To be honest I get anxious when I'm driving because Im afraid she'll critize me and I'm prone to mistakes because of that. Fast forward to today we decided to get breakfast near where they were having the wedding rehearsal we're on the express way and traffic suddenly stops cause of an accident I brake a little hard but stop safely she screams at me why did i do that(mind you the speed limit was 75 mph it was a miracle no one crashed into the back of us) so I ignore her nagging at me because it's way too early and I didnt feel like arguing. A couple of minutes later a truck cuts me off and she ask me why did you brake when that car cut us off I couldnt take it anymore and told her she has alot of opinions for someone who doesnt like to drive and that I need to focus so she should stop bickering with me . She flipped out saying she should be able to ask me questions and I shouldnt be so sensitive the kids were in the car so I tried to calm down. She kept coming at me saying she can ask me a question and I tell her I don't have to answer which when we get to she demands I give her the keys to car and for me to get out of the car and go somewhere else in front of the kids. (I felt extremely bad becuase my son doesn't live with me and I dont spend as much time as I want to ) I ask her if she's serious she said yes and told me if I didnt give her the car keys she was going to call the sheriff on me for not giving her the keys and leaving. (Im a Daca recipient and cannot afford to get into trouble with the law) I give her the keys and stay in the car for a little bit not knowing what to do and to be honest heart broken earlier on in our relationship when we moved in together she would tell me she was going to leave and or call the cops on me. So I left the car and walked to a pub thank God it was open it took all of my strength not to cry while I was one of the only 3 people in the pub. I put my phone on do not disturb told my son i was ok through text and ate alone. The only time she texted me was to ask if I was going to show up to the rehearsal I ignored her message. Fast forward to tonight she refuses to see it was wrong to threaten me I was at a point I wanted to fly my son and I back home tonight but I felt bad that he would miss out on fun activities so I stayed. He text me if my wife was kicking us out I told him no not to worry. Now I found out she told everyone that they can use our hotel room to get ready at 6am everyone is going to arrive and well since I didn't apologize I get to sleep on the floor its almost midnight and I'm sitting at a table writting my thoughts to strangers because I dont want my friends to know I live like this.

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2023.04.01 08:38 MussleGeeYem My 11 Year Long Samsung Galaxy And 12 Year Long iPhone Ownership Experience Story: Here Are Things The Galaxy Does Better Than My iPhone

Introduction

I have been using Samsung Galaxy devices for 11 years, with my first Android/Samsung Galaxy device being the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (got the Galaxy Nexus in January of 2012) and with me currently daily driving the S22 Ultra (since May 2022).
I have been using iPhones for more than 12 years, with my first iPhone being the iPhone 4 (got the iPhone 4 in December of 2010) and with me currently daily driving the iPhone 14 Pro Max (since September 2022) and the iPhone SE (2020) as a secondary iPhone for iOS development (since March 2022).
Here is my daily driver history:
Android:

Samsung Galaxy Nexus (bought in January 2012, traded the phone in October 2013)
Samsung Galaxy Note3 (bought in October 2013, traded the phone in October 2014)
Samsung Galaxy Note4 (bought in October 2014, traded the phone in September 2015)
Samsung Galaxy Note5 (bought in September 2015, sold to my cousin's son (16M) in August 2016)
Samsung Galaxy Note7 (bought in August 2016, recalled in October 2016)
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (bought in October 2016, sold to my cousin's husband (40M) in April 2017 after he broke his iPhone 6 Plus)
Samsung Galaxy S8+ (bought in April 2017, sold to my cousin's son in Vietnam (29M) in April 2018)
Samsung Galaxy S9+ (bought in April 2018, sold to my cousin's husband (40M) in March 2019, with him giving me his S7 Edge)
Samsung Galaxy S10+ (bought in March 2019, gave to my sister (21F) in March 2020 via mail, making the A50 as her secondary phone)
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra (bought in March 2020, traded the phone in February 2021)
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (bought in February 2021, gave to my sister (21F) in May 2022 via mail due to her cracking her S10+ with the front suffering some cracks, got the S10+ back)
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (bought in May 2022, still using it now)

Primary iPhone:

iPhone 4 (bought in December 2010, sold to Vietnam's used market in October 2011)
iPhone 4S (bought in October 2011, traded the phone in September 2012)
iPhone 5 (bought in September 2012 right after moving to the US, sold to my cousin (53F) in September 2013)
iPhone 5S (bought in September 2013, sold to my cousin (39F) in September 2014)
iPhone 6 (bought in September 2014, sold the phone on eBay in September 2015)
iPhone 6S (bought in September 2015, sold to my cousin's daughter (17F) in October 2016)
iPhone 7 Plus (bought in September 2016, sold the phone on eBay in November 2017)
iPhone X (bought in November 2018, sold to my cousin's husband (55M) in September 2018)
iPhone XS Max (bought in September 2018, sold to my cousin's husband (55M) in October 2019 with him giving me his iPhone X to help use that towards my iPhone 11 Pro Max)
iPhone 11 Pro Max (bought in October 2019, sold to my cousin (53F) in November 2020 with her giving me her iPhone 7 Plus to use as a spare device)
iPhone 12 Pro Max (bought in November 2020, device started breaking down, so I traded the phone in December 2021, initially planned to keep it for longer)
iPhone 13 Pro Max (bought in December 2021, sold to my cousin (53F) in September 2022 after complaints that her iPhone 11 Pro Max is breaking down, with her giving me her iPhone 11 Pro Max)
iPhone 14 Pro Max (bought in September 2022, still using it now)

Secondary iPhone (mostly for iOS app development, listening to music, not including any iPhone/smartphones I bought on eBay for a collection):

iPhone 5 (September 2015-November 2017): my cousin's husband (55M) upgraded from an iPhone 6 to a Galaxy S6 Edge+ and decided to give his iPhone 6 to my cousin (53F) due to him preferring Android over iOS (he kept the S6 Edge+ until May 2020 when he bought the S20+ and then he gave his S6 Edge+ to me in May 2020 via mail, but between 2017-2020, this acted as his 2nd phone as he was daily driving the iPhone X/XS Max mentioned above)
iPhone 6S (November 2017-November 2020): my cousin's daughter (17F) upgraded from the 6S to the 7 Plus, along with both her parents (55M, 53F) not only due to the family switching from T-mobile to Verizon but also due to her cracking my old iPhone 6S, which caused her parents not only to replace the screen but also the battery)
iPhone 7 Plus (November 2020-March 2022): my cousin (53F) received my iPhone 11 Pro Max, but since the iPhone 6S fell off my bike mount a month before, it cracked, and since the battery is so horrendous on the 6S, my cousin (53F) decided to give me her iPhone 7 Plus and I decided to take the 6S to the Apple Store in Cambridge MA to recycle it
iPhone SE (2020) (since March 2022): Even though my cousin, and later I took very good care of the iPhone 7 Plus, the phone started breaking down on several fronts: the silent switch, charging port pins, and even battery started to die hard, and plus, since the phone is getting unsupported, I started deciding on the iPhone SE. After finding out the iPhone SE 3 was $429 and finding out I could get a prepaid iPhone SE 2 on AT&T for $150 ($50 plan+$15 activation fee but I cancelled auto pay immediately after buying the phone), I got the brand-new SE 2 instead. Nowadays, the battery started to fall apart (even though the battery is currently at 93% capacity) and even though this phone is not in a beta, there are a lot of bugs even on 16.3.1 (I am thinking of updating to 16.4 tonight)

Things my Samsung Galaxy does better than my iPhone

There are many things that Samsung Galaxy phones and other Android phones do better than iPhones, including the fact that on Android:

notifications are not cluttered in the lock-screen unlike on iOS
Android is more customisable than iOS and Android is an open-source mobile operating system
Many new features such as reverse wireless charging, in screen fingerprints, foldable phones, 5G, triple camera setup, phablet size phones,
there is a real back button on Android
No need to use iTunes; you could just transfer music and photos/videos between your computer and phone without the hassle of iTunes
Some Samsung Galaxy phones (S1-S20 excluding the S6/Note5) have microSD and older Samsung Galaxy phones have removable batteries
Some Samsung Galaxy phones in certain markets have dual sim support, but since e-SIM was introduced, first with the Pixel 2, and later with the iPhone XS, dual sim is less of an advantage
There are a lot of options, including the M/J series for budget conscious buyers, the A series for the average folk in many countries, the S/Note series for power-users, business users for extra productivity (mostly the Note series) and phone enthusiasts (like me), and the Z series for certain business users for extra productivity and for Flexers
On my Samsung Galaxy devices, I could share the Wi-Fi password to other phones using the QR code; on iPhones, I could only share the Wi-Fi connection with other iPhones
Samsung Galaxy devices support split screen view and pop up view, but these two features are restricted to the iPad, and iPhones only support picture in picture video

However, there are many lesser-known things that my Samsung Galaxy phones do better than my iPhones (based on my experience over the past 11 years), and some might be controversial:

iPhone batteries start to massively degrade after a new iPhone and iOS version comes out

Even though the iPhone batteries are mostly very good during the first year of usage and have extremely good standby compared to Android phones due to software optimisation, by around July 2016, my iPhone 6S's battery is starting to fail, and I did need to rely on battery packs for my iPhones to survive as the iPhone 6S's battery would go from 100-0 after 4-6 hours of heavy use. My cousins did replace the iPhone 6S battery in October of 2017, but by October 2020 (please note according to battery health, IIRC, the 6S stands at 85%), on iOS 14, the iPhone 6S would drain from 90 to 35 in as little as 10 minutes and sometimes, during cold weather, the iPhone 6S's battery (on iOS 14) would die at 30%. Turns out this is not only an issue on my 6S as I bought a 6S on eBay in 2021 for my smartphone collection and that phone (with 80% capacity) also behaved the same, draining from 80 to 25 in around 10 minutes. The iPhones before the 6S also had a poor battery life after a year in my experience, and even though the iPhone 7 Plus, X, XS Max, and 11 Pro Max's battery holds better than the 6S due to the batteries being bigger, the batteries still started to become bad after 1-2 years.
My iPhone 12 Pro Max (I got rid of it in December of 2021 after it accidentally fell out from my nightstand drawer and the back cracked a month before) started seeing its battery fail sometime in September 2021, when the 13 Pro Max came out. Say I leave the house at 10:00 and were to return home at 19:00. By 17:00, with medium usage + hotspot, the iPhone's battery would have depleted to around 20 percent. Plus, my iPhones typically consume more battery if devices are connected to hotspot than my Samsung Galaxies are.
Also, I did receive the Galaxy S7 Edge (2019), Samsung Galaxy S9+ (earlier this month as my cousin's husband upgraded to the S23+), and the Samsung Galaxy S10+ (last year), and given that I would sell these phones on the second hand market, I would test the phones for a week or two to see the phone's condition before assessing it and selling it on the second hand market. What I found is that even though the S10+ cracked and therefore, I donated it rather than sold it, all three phones seem to have solid battery, considering their ages. The S7 Edge with its 3600 mAh battery under heavy use after 3 years would go about for 6-8 hours before needing a recharge, and my S9+ would go about for around 5-6 hours as well before hitting down to 20% of battery (that is after 5 years and given the fact my cousin's husband is a power user), and even though the S10 cracked, it would go for 8-10 hours under heavy usage before draining to around 20%. I also got back my Note5 from 2015 once my cousin's son upgraded to my cousin (50M)'s S8 Active in 2019 once my cousin upgraded to the Note10+, and even on that phone, the battery is still very good considering its age and its 3000 mAh size, doing around 4-6 hours going down from 100-20.

My Samsung devices have proven more reliable as a whole than many of my iPhones

Even though all the 4 Samsung Galaxy S phones I have repossessed were slightly slow compared to when they were first purchased, all of them, apart from the front cracks on the S10+, are still highly reliable, and according to my usage as well as from the 4 people who have used my phones, they have commented that the phones I gave to them gave them minimal issues and they JUST WORK. Fun fact: during my ownership, I have never experienced any major problems with any of my Samsung phones.
Fun fact, my cousin (28M) switched from the iPhone 7 Plus to the Samsung Galaxy S10+ in March of 2019 and is now currently using a Galaxy S23 Ultra. From his 4-year long experience using just the Galaxy S10+ (he bought the ceramic colour with 512GB of storage and currently his father is using the S10+), even though he is a power user with him customising the phone with themes, being a heavy user, and having cracked his S10+ last year, the phone was still extremely reliable, working fully as intended, apart from the battery, which has been shortened to 6 hours of heavy usage before dying.
My iPhones however, were not so bright. Even though pre-2015 iPhones are mostly reliable during my time using it, since the 6S, there have been some phones which have showed issues here and there, sometimes within the first year of ownership. As for the iPhone 6S, it is basically only the battery, which has been extremely bad after a year and the fact it would sometimes shut off at 30% during cold weather.
Starting with the iPhone 7 Plus however, and there started to be a lot of problems. Even though my iPhone 7 Plus didn't show any problems during my ownership, even though my cousin took good care of the 7 Plus, when I got her 7 Plus in November of 2020 (she got the phone brand new at Verizon in November 2017), the silent switch started to wear down and get stuck, meaning it is hard to turn on silent switch, the charging port pins started to wear, making it very hard to charge the phone or connect the phone to the computer, and the battery started to struggle real hard.
Starting with the iPhone XS Max and there started to be real struggles. Even though I didn't see any problems with either the iPhone XS Max and 11 Pro Max during my ownership and took good care of these two phones, when these two phones got passed to their second owners, problems started to arise. For the XS Max, in May of 2020, it got bricked, and it wouldn't turn on even if he plugged it in the charging cable or through iTunes, and my cousin's husband had to bring it to service, and that got him to purchase an S20+ given he prefers Android over iOS, and after fixing the XS Max, he gave it to his daughter (17F), who is his only child. For the 11 Pro Max however, the phone's battery drained fast and my cousin always had to rely on the charger, and plus, there are issues of connecting Bluetooth devices as well as with calls and volume whilst connected to Bluetooth devices, and my cousin always complained about these issues and even though I did attempt to fix, the issues didn't get resolved (I am tech savvy by the way, so I could get through a lot of issues, such as reset my bricked iPad using iTunes, etc.).
And now onto my iPad Pro 9.7. I bought the iPad in June of 2016, and even though I used it mostly for watching YouTube videos, Udemy and edX courses, the iPad started having a bricking issue in November of 2017. What happened was that I was charging and overnight, the iPad just shut itself off and never powered on again. I tried connecting it to iTunes and even though iTunes could recognise the device, whenever I reset it, errors keep on popping up and it is impossible to reset. I tried bringing it to the Apple Store, but they couldn't reset it either and they suggested that I replace the iPad Pro 9.7 with an iPad Mini 4 for $300. Then, I started taking matters into my own hands and finally resetted the iPad Pro successfully after multiple attempts in January of 2018. Four months later (in May 2018), the iPad bricked again, and I had to do the same process, and it took until August of 2018 after at least 5-10 tries for it to work again. And then in August 2020, whilst charging overnight, the iPad turned off and I thought it was toast. Turned out it was, as after countless times diagnosing the issues on iTunes, the iPad would keep on bricking after multiple reset attempts and after more than 2 years. Then, there was a miracle. In November of 2022, I finally got my iPad working again and I felt like I was very lucky, because I thought that the iPad was bricked forever and wouldn't go back on, ever.
Then, finally, it is my iPhone 12 Pro Max. I bought the phone on 20 November 2020, and by mid-September 2021, things started to go south for this phone. The top speaker started to fail and even though I cleaned it, the speaker was so muffled that I could barely hear anything from the top speaker. I brought it to the Apple Store and they said it is a digitiser issue and they couldn't even clean it for me, and around that same time, the touchscreen started to act up. With a lot of ghost touches, it started to become very hard to use the iPhone (and keep in mind, I have never replaced the screen since I never cracked the front screen). In October 2021, the phone started to have lose cellular signal when I enter the MBTA train and still didn't recognise cellular signal for minutes after I exited the MBTA and was at least a mile from that station on my bike, but luckily, resetting network settings did fix the issue with the cellular signal however. By the time the phone accidentally fell to the ground and the back did suffer some cracks in November, I started to give up on the iPhone 12 Pro Max and in December, I upgraded to the 13 Pro Max.
Even though my Galaxy Buds and my cousin (28M)'s Galaxy Buds did not show any issues (he bought the Galaxy Buds in March 2019 and after heavy usage, it still held up very well and he even gave it to his father), all 4 of my AirPods, even the AirPods Pro 2, have shown issues here and there. My first AirPods (January 2017-July 2018) basically stopped working, and hence, I bought another pair of AirPods in July 2018 and used it until February 2022, when I dropped it in the toilet. Even though I was using the 2nd pair of AirPods half the time (July 2018-January 2020, December 2020-April 2021, November 2021-February 2022), by late 2021, the AirPods started showing major problems. First off, the battery drains so fast even indoors that it only lasted about an hour. Then, once I am outside, the right side would disconnect after only 5 minutes of usage and the left side would keep soldering on. Once it fell to the toilet, it was game over (however, I still kept the AirPods, it is just in the nightstand sitting there, and I did clean it as well). I bought the AirPods 2 in February 2022, and after 2 months, at least once every week or two, the right side would discharge, even in the case (the case is clean by the way), until it went out of battery. I tried resetting the case and putting the case to charge again, but to no avail, and it took several reset attempts for it to return to normal. The same exact scenario happened to the AirPods Pro 2, which I got in October as my cousin wanted to gift me the AirPods Pro 2, in exchange for my AirPods 2. Except that sometimes, my iPhone 14 Pro Max couldn't even connect to the AirPods Pro 2 or even recognise it.

Hotspot doesn't always work on my iPhones, but always does on my Galaxy

I currently have two phone plans: my main Verizon phone plan with my iPhone 14 Pro Max and my secondary MetroPCS phone plan with my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. I do carry a third phone with me (without a phone plan), which is the iPhone SE 2020. Due to me not having a phone plan on my iPhone SE 2020, I do have to rely on hotspot when I am outside. For my iPhone SE 2020, I primarily use it for music streaming and to test my mobile applications, whilst my two other phones are used for more intense purposes, with me spending the most time on my Samsung.
For my iPhone 14 Pro Max and previous iPhones (iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 12 Pro Max, etc), personal hotspot is very buggy. My Samsung connects just fine to the iPhone hotspot, but my iPhones don't. To preserve the battery, after several minutes, the iPhone SE would get disconnected from the iPhone 14 Pro Max hotspot (which is acceptable), but it gets worse. Even if I am currently streaming Apple Music on my iPhone SE with the screen on as well, the iPhone would disconnect from the iPhone 14 Pro Max, and it is very hard to connect it to hotspot. Sometimes, the iPhone SE would say 'Unable to join network' and others, it said 'Personal Hotspot Failure', which would force me to restart both the iPhone SE and 14 Pro Max. Now the Remote Hotspot Failure started happening since I got the 11 Pro Max in 2019, and at the time, my 16:9 phone was the iPhone 6S, and even then, there were hotspot failure problems. I restarted the 11 Pro Max, but the hotspot failure would return after a week or two. Even after resetting network settings in 2021 right before my 13 Pro Max because my iPhone 12 Pro Max would lose cellular connectivity even after I exited the MBTA tunnel and I am outside a mile from the MBTA station, once I got my 13 Pro Max, the remote hotspot failure still appears. My Samsung Galaxy over the years connects to the iPhone hotspot without any issues, and would stay connected even if I am not using the phone until I basically turn off hotspot on my iPhone.
Now due to the fact connecting my iPhone SE to the iPhone hotspot is so bad, I would typically use the Samsung hotspot as a backup (keep in mind my iPhone plan gives unlimited hotspot whilst Metro only gives 5 GB). Both iPhones connect to the Samsung hotspot flawlessly, without any issues.

On my Samsung Galaxy phones, I can disable Wi-Fi using the Quick Settings (swipe down) menu, but for iPhones, it is less consistent

Sometimes, I don't want my main iPhone 14 Pro Max to connect to the Samsung hotspot due to it having its own data. I would turn off Wi-Fi on the control centre and after 5-10 minutes, it would reconnect the Wi-Fi, therefore wasting hotspot data on my Samsung metroPCS plan and making me mildly angry. iPhone does say turning off until tomorrow but in reality, Wi-Fi is turned on after 5-10 minutes. For Samsung, I turn off Wi-Fi on the quick settings until I turn it back on or I flick on airplane mode, which seems more intuitive in my case. However, when I am at home without any hotspot devices, whenever I use quick settings for iPhone, nearby Wi-Fi does disconnect until tomorrow

Connecting to Bluetooth devices is better on my Samsung Galaxy phones than my iPhones

Pretend I have two Bluetooth devices (AirPods Pro, JBL Clip 4), and I wanted to connect to the JBL speaker. On the Samsung, if I accidentally clicked on the AirPods Pro, I could click JBL Clip 4 immediately and within 5 seconds, I would be connected to the JBL Clip 4 speaker. For the iPhone however, things are not so bright, as if I were to accidentally click the AirPods Pro, I had to wait 15 seconds for Apple to search for the AirPods Pro, and then once it says it couldn't find the AirPods Pro because I left my AirPods Pro at home, that is when I could click on JBL Clip 4 and connect it. That turns a 5 second process into something like a 15-20 second process.

Apple Pay sometimes doesn't work on my iPhone

On several occasions since 2021, my iPhones would sometimes not pay using Apple Pay and would fail to pay. Sometimes, the iPhone couldn't even detect a reader even though the reader does work. Once I use Samsung Pay on my Samsung Galaxy devices as a backup, the payment did go through and it finally worked.
Yesterday, I was at the MBTA station, and I was attempting to pay for the Monthly pass. Ironically, even though the reader did work, the iPhone 14 Pro Max kept on saying 'Hold near Reader', and even though I held it near the mobile payment reader for 10-15 seconds, it still didn't do anything. Fed up, after the second time, I repaid the MBTA ticket and used my S22 Ultra and the payment did go through. However, at the restaurant around 1 hour later, even though I didn't restart the iPhone, Apple Pay finally worked again as I was able to pay my meal using Apple Pay.

Automatic updates are better on my Galaxies than my iPhones

My Samsung automatic updates are set overnight, and even with airplane mode turned on during the night, my Samsungs are always up to date without ever having to go to the settings app to update the firmware to Android 13. As for iPhone, they did schedule automatic updates between 4-5 am, but in reality, automatic updates keep failing even with Wi-Fi turned on overnight. If I wanted to update my iPhones, I would typically have to manually update via settings

Wi-Fi is far better on my Samsung Galaxy/Android phones than my iPhones, iPads, or Macs

I attended university between 2018 and 2022, and in late 2021, at university (I majored in CS by the way), my iPhones, iPads, and Macs would often struggle with Wi-Fi. My iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPhone 7 Plus (as of November 2021) would sometimes even outright refuse to connect to Wi-Fi and same goes with the MacBook 15' Core i9 (2019) (I have since upgraded to the M1 MBP 16 since the logic board on the MBP 2019 failed in November 2021), and if connected, at some parts of the university, they are extremely slow, and sometimes, borderline unusable. My S21 Ultra however, at the same place, worked far better and was able to load websites. Even my Windows laptop was able to load websites as well as my Galaxy A51 (I brought an A51 one day to MIT to see if the Wi-Fi issues only occurred on Apple products).
Fun fact: the Galaxy S21 Ultra was the first phone to offer Wi-Fi 6E and not even the iPhone 14 Pro Max supports this feature
Then in July 2022, during a flight from Dallas back to Boston, my iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPhone SE 2 would fail to connect to JetBlue's Wi-Fi network several times and if connected, the Wi-Fi was painfully slow and near unusable whilst my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra connected to JetBlue's Wi-Fi network just fine and worked as expected, with websites loading reasonably quick, just like at my university with the S21 Ultra.

USB C lasts longer than lightning connector

Finally, one thing Samsung and Android OEMs do better than Apple is the fact that many Android devices, including Samsung Galaxy devices, come with USB-C which is the future compared to Apple's ancient lightning connector (frankly, Apple now uses USB-C on most of their iPads except for the entry level iPad 9). It allows for faster charging and transfer speeds and USB-C is basically superior to lightning, which is a relic from a bygone era. Plus, USB-C seems to last longer. Whilst my lightning connectors generally worn out between 6-18 months before having inconsistent connections or connectivity issues, my USB-C connectors would keep soldering on for at least 5 years before breaking down like the lightning connectors.
TL;DR: Even though there are many benefits to owning an iPhone over an Android device, based on my user experience, after over 11 years of using various Samsung Galaxy phones, two Samsung Galaxy Tabs, and one Galaxy Bud and after over 12 years of using various iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and AirPods, I could safely assure that there are a lot of benefits to using Samsung and Android products over iPhones, namely due to the fact that notifications, customisation, features, options, Wi-Fi, multitasking, batteries, hotspot, Bluetooth, mobile payment, etc., are better on Samsung and Android products than on iPhones, based on my user experience.

submitted by MussleGeeYem to applesucks [link] [comments]

2023.04.01 08:31 MussleGeeYem My 11 Year Long Samsung Galaxy Ownership Experience Story: Here Are Things The Galaxy Does Better Than My iPhone

Introduction

Samsung Galaxy Nexus (bought in January 2012, traded the phone in October 2013)
Samsung Galaxy Note3 (bought in October 2013, traded the phone in October 2014)
Samsung Galaxy Note4 (bought in October 2014, traded the phone in September 2015)
Samsung Galaxy Note5 (bought in September 2015, sold to my cousin's son (16M) in August 2016)
Samsung Galaxy Note7 (bought in August 2016, recalled in October 2016)
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (bought in October 2016, sold to my cousin's husband (40M) in April 2017 after he broke his iPhone 6 Plus)
Samsung Galaxy S8+ (bought in April 2017, sold to my cousin's son in Vietnam (29M) in April 2018)
Samsung Galaxy S9+ (bought in April 2018, sold to my cousin's husband (40M) in March 2019, with him giving me his S7 Edge)
Samsung Galaxy S10+ (bought in March 2019, gave to my sister (21F) in March 2020 via mail, making the A50 as her secondary phone)
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra (bought in March 2020, traded the phone in February 2021)
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (bought in February 2021, gave to my sister (21F) in May 2022 via mail due to her cracking her S10+ with the front suffering some cracks, got the S10+ back)
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (bought in May 2022, still using it now)

Primary iPhone:

iPhone 4 (bought in December 2010, sold to Vietnam's used market in October 2011)
iPhone 4S (bought in October 2011, traded the phone in September 2012)
iPhone 5 (bought in September 2012 right after moving to the US, sold to my cousin (53F) in September 2013)
iPhone 5S (bought in September 2013, sold to my cousin (39F) in September 2014)
iPhone 6 (bought in September 2014, sold the phone on eBay in September 2015)
iPhone 6S (bought in September 2015, sold to my cousin's daughter (17F) in October 2016)
iPhone 7 Plus (bought in September 2016, sold the phone on eBay in November 2017)
iPhone X (bought in November 2018, sold to my cousin's husband (55M) in September 2018)
iPhone XS Max (bought in September 2018, sold to my cousin's husband (55M) in October 2019 with him giving me his iPhone X to help use that towards my iPhone 11 Pro Max)
iPhone 11 Pro Max (bought in October 2019, sold to my cousin (53F) in November 2020 with her giving me her iPhone 7 Plus to use as a spare device)
iPhone 12 Pro Max (bought in November 2020, device started breaking down, so I traded the phone in December 2021, initially planned to keep it for longer)
iPhone 13 Pro Max (bought in December 2021, sold to my cousin (53F) in September 2022 after complaints that her iPhone 11 Pro Max is breaking down, with her giving me her iPhone 11 Pro Max)
iPhone 14 Pro Max (bought in September 2022, still using it now)

Secondary iPhone (mostly for iOS app development, listening to music, not including any iPhone/smartphones I bought on eBay for a collection):

iPhone 5 (September 2015-November 2017): my cousin's husband (55M) upgraded from an iPhone 6 to a Galaxy S6 Edge+ and decided to give his iPhone 6 to my cousin (53F) due to him preferring Android over iOS (he kept the S6 Edge+ until May 2020 when he bought the S20+ and then he gave his S6 Edge+ to me in May 2020 via mail, but between 2017-2020, this acted as his 2nd phone as he was daily driving the iPhone X/XS Max mentioned above)
iPhone 6S (November 2017-November 2020): my cousin's daughter (17F) upgraded from the 6S to the 7 Plus, along with both her parents (55M, 53F) not only due to the family switching from T-mobile to Verizon but also due to her cracking my old iPhone 6S, which caused her parents not only to replace the screen but also the battery)
iPhone 7 Plus (November 2020-March 2022): my cousin (53F) received my iPhone 11 Pro Max, but since the iPhone 6S fell off my bike mount a month before, it cracked, and since the battery is so horrendous on the 6S, my cousin (53F) decided to give me her iPhone 7 Plus and I decided to take the 6S to the Apple Store in Cambridge MA to recycle it
iPhone SE (2020) (since March 2022): Even though my cousin, and later I took very good care of the iPhone 7 Plus, the phone started breaking down on several fronts: the silent switch, charging port pins, and even battery started to die hard, and plus, since the phone is getting unsupported, I started deciding on the iPhone SE. After finding out the iPhone SE 3 was $429 and finding out I could get a prepaid iPhone SE 2 on AT&T for $150 ($50 plan+$15 activation fee but I cancelled auto pay immediately after buying the phone), I got the brand-new SE 2 instead. Nowadays, the battery started to fall apart (even though the battery is currently at 93% capacity) and even though this phone is not in a beta, there are a lot of bugs even on 16.3.1 (I am thinking of updating to 16.4 tonight)

Things my Samsung Galaxy does better than my iPhone

There are many things that Samsung Galaxy phones and other Android phones do better than iPhones, including the fact that on Android:

notifications are not cluttered in the lock-screen unlike on iOS
Android is more customisable than iOS and Android is an open-source mobile operating system
Many new features such as reverse wireless charging, in screen fingerprints, foldable phones, 5G, triple camera setup, phablet size phones,
there is a real back button on Android
No need to use iTunes; you could just transfer music and photos/videos between your computer and phone without the hassle of iTunes
Some Samsung Galaxy phones (S1-S20 excluding the S6/Note5) have microSD and older Samsung Galaxy phones have removable batteries
Some Samsung Galaxy phones in certain markets have dual sim support, but since e-SIM was introduced, first with the Pixel 2, and later with the iPhone XS, dual sim is less of an advantage
There are a lot of options, including the M/J series for budget conscious buyers, the A series for the average folk in many countries, the S/Note series for power-users, business users for extra productivity (mostly the Note series) and phone enthusiasts (like me), and the Z series for certain business users for extra productivity and for Flexers
On my Samsung Galaxy devices, I could share the Wi-Fi password to other phones using the QR code; on iPhones, I could only share the Wi-Fi connection with other iPhones
Samsung Galaxy devices support split screen view and pop up view, but these two features are restricted to the iPad, and iPhones only support picture in picture video

However, there are many lesser-known things that my Samsung Galaxy phones do better than my iPhones (based on my experience over the past 11 years), and some might be controversial:

iPhone batteries start to massively degrade after a new iPhone and iOS version comes out

My Samsung devices have proven more reliable as a whole than many of my iPhones

Hotspot doesn't always work on my iPhones, but always does on my Galaxy

On my Samsung Galaxy phones, I can disable Wi-Fi using the Quick Settings (swipe down) menu, but for iPhones, it is less consistent

Connecting to Bluetooth devices is better on my Samsung Galaxy phones than my iPhones

Apple Pay sometimes doesn't work on my iPhone

Automatic updates are better on my Galaxies than my iPhones

Wi-Fi is far better on my Samsung Galaxy/Android phones than my iPhones, iPads, or Macs

USB C lasts longer than lightning connector

Finally, one thing Samsung and Android OEMs do better than Apple is the fact that many Android devices, including Samsung Galaxy devices, come with USB-C which is the future compared to Apple's ancient lightning connector (frankly, Apple now uses USB-C on most of their iPads except for the entry level iPad 9). It allows for faster charging and transfer speeds and USB-C is basically superior to lightning, which is a relic from a bygone era. Plus, USB-C seems to last longer. Whilst my lightning connectors generally worn out between 6-18 months before having inconsistent connections or connectivity issues, my USB-C connectors would keep soldering on for at least 5 years before breaking down like the lightning connectors.

TL;DR: Even though there are many benefits to owning an iPhone over an Android device, based on my user experience, after over 11 years of using various Samsung Galaxy phones, two Samsung Galaxy Tabs, and one Galaxy Bud and after over 12 years of using various iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and AirPods, I could safely assure that there are a lot of benefits to using Samsung and Android products over iPhones, namely due to the fact that notifications, customisation, features, options, Wi-Fi, multitasking, batteries, hotspot, Bluetooth, mobile payment, etc., are better on Samsung and Android products than on iPhones, based on my user experience.

submitted by MussleGeeYem to samsung [link] [comments]