Chip Fusing Chart & Guide - What's Worth Keeping : nier

Why Dogecoin to $1 is Only a Matter of Time
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The Bubble
It’s February of 2021, and let’s be completely honest: We’re in a bubble. It’s kind of like 1999 but not the same. In 1999, interest rates were much higher. Today, they are nearly zero. In some countries, they are even negative. From a long-term perspective, this is very bad.
The Federal Reserve is completely to blame for this. Their policies are entirely reckless, and officials refuse to acknowledge what is going on here. The Coronavirus hysteria caused by the media and enabled by officials made the crash last summer the worst man-made disaster in the history of our financial system. The Great Depression was caused by over-speculation and a lack of regulation in an emerging financial system. The Great Recession was caused by greed and fraud (strangely, no one is in jail for this). This market collapse was caused by elected officials and the fed, who got trigger-happy and cut rates to zero back in the spring of 2020.
Whatever we wind up calling the burst of this bubble is to be determined. It will, however, be entirely manmade because the fed refuses to acknowledge the speculative behavior currently going on in SPACs, Cryptos, Penny Stocks, and anything else that serves as a legal Ponzi scheme for inflating the bubble. Even real, dividend-paying stocks have gotten way overvalued in some sectors. Also, since the fed has no plans of raising rates within the next two years (so they say for now, at least), if you’re searching for yield, you have nowhere else to look than the equities markets or one of these legalized forms of Ponzi schemes. It’s extremely unfair to conservative or retired investors looking for an honest return on their savings. This all is actually why it is a great time to look at Dogecoin, as I will get to in a moment. So long as rates are near zero, the bubble will continue to go on for longer and longer. And while it continues, people will constantly look for the next big thing.
For How Long?
Now, this may sound all doom and gloom, but that’s not my point. One day the bubble will burst, but I’m not making a prediction of when that will happen. Anyone making up dates for when the bubble will burst is either clueless or a con artist. No one knows when this bubble will burst. It could be weeks, months, or even years. One thing is for sure, the bubble will not burst just because things are overvalued. That’s not how bubbles work.
There needs to be a catalyst to burst the bubble. A major military conflict. An unexpected move or comment by the fed (raising rates, calling out the bubble for what it is, etc.). Another nationwide lockdown. I can go on with examples, but a little selloff here and there (August 2020) that causes the financial media to lose its mind is not enough. Just because you claim the bubble is bursting isn’t enough either. If you follow the media, you will get burned over and over again. That’s how it works. They want you to go to their sponsors for help, and once they burn you (sell you gold, overcharge you for poor investments, etc), you’ll come back to them hoping to figure things out. It’s a shell game. When the bubble burst, it will happen extremely fast and unexpectedly. There’s nothing wrong with playing the bubble, but you need to be mindful of when it ends because once the music stops, there will be a mad rush for the exits. You don’t want to be stuck holding the bag because everything will get crushed when the bubble burst. Even the blue-chip stocks that pay solid dividends will get hammered.
Fundamentals Don’t Matter (For Now)
In this bubble environment, fundamentals don’t make sense and, quite frankly, they don’t matter. You can argue back and forth all day long about whether something has a practical future or whether something is overvalued. I’m not here to do that about Dogecoin, Bitcoin, or any other crypto. The same could be said about Penny Stocks right now. (Hint: virtually all of these companies are way overvalued). You can find tons of articles of that nature, and I’m not likely to change your preconceived notions anyway. If we look at all the irrational bubbles that have occurred lately, you are a complete fool if you believe that TSLA or BTC is worth nearly a trillion dollars. It’s worth nowhere near that valuation.
How do I determine what something is worth, and who do I mean? It is called the market cap. In layman’s terms, that is where you take all the stock shares and multiply it by the share price. And I’m not recommending buying or selling TSLA or BTC, I’m just pointing out that these valuations are absurd. Does that mean they will not pass 1 trillion dollars? Of course not. There’s a very reasonable chance they do pass a $1 trillion market cap. That sounds absurd to write but it’s true. When the bubble bursts, you better believe fundamentals will be back in play. This disconnect can’t last forever. But it can go on for a while. And while it lasts, we all want to make some money
A Quick Word About ALL Cryptos
While I don’t believe Cryptocurrencies are going anywhere (as in, people will always buy and sell them), I also do not see any APPLICABLE future in them other than trading with other people. In fact, the biggest use I see of Cryptocurrencies is for illegal and untraceable transactions. The government will do all they can over the next several years to bring in lost tax revenue and track transactions better, but that’s the extent to which Cryptos will have relevance. How do I know this? Because the federal reserve, which is backed by the taxing authority of the US Government and the might of the US military, isn’t about to let some alternative currency usurp the US dollar. How do you think we can afford to provide all this government stimulus to fight Covid? If you think about this, you will see why other countries are much worse off. They must play by our rules, while we get to export our inflation to other countries because they must use the USD to buy commodities on the international exchanges (look at what happened when Saddam tried to circumvent this). If they print more money, their currency gets devalued. That’s why as bad as things look, relatively speaking, the US isn’t in terrible shape compared to the rest of the world.
If your financial future is so married to Bitcoin, ask yourself this: what happens if your account gets hacked? Who will you call? Who will make you whole again? If you have a brokerage account with legitimate stocks, there are regulations in place. There is the SIPC which protects again brokerage failure. With Bitcoin, you are completely gambling. This lack of regulation and lack of price stability means that there is no viable path to Bitcoin being a legitimate currency. Does it mean people can buy and sell it? Of course. But if you are in the cult of believing that Bitcoin is the future world reserve currency, you need to get your head examined.
Gold and Silver con artists have been trying for decades for people to get on this alternative currency train. At least gold and silver have some practical industrial applications. And hundreds of years of history on its side. Crypto isn’t anything but something people agree upon as having value. Why do I point this out? Because the one thing you need to do is separate yourself from what you think you know about Crypto and Blockchain, etc. While it all sounds cool and revolutionary, it really doesn’t matter. The US government could easily create their own form of Crypto that gives them more control. The decentralized part just doesn’t jive with our current global hegemony. If you don’t understand this, you should think more and read less. Once you accept this, you can start to see all Crypto as fundamentally worth the same: virtually nothing. The technicals, however, are why we want to look at Dogecoin.
Relative Valuation of Dogecoin
Now that you understand a little more background into where we are, I believe Dogecoin is extremely undervalued. Why? It’s simple. Relative valuation. This is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to compare investments. Ok, so maybe this isn’t really investing anymore; it’s gambling. Still, we can apply the same concept. Imagine two companies: they are in the same industry and have similar margins, earnings, growth prospects, etc. One company is valued at $50 billion and costs $120 per share, and one is valued at $85 billion and costs $80 per share. Which one would you invest in? Of course, you would invest in the one that is worth $50 billion at $120 per share. The cost per share means absolutely nothing. It is psychological.
Now, you say Dogecoin isn’t on par with Bitcoin and that where I’m going with this isn’t a fair comparison. Go back and read the last section. That’s why I wrote about the practical applications of Cryptocurrencies in general. None of that matters. The only thing that matters is the general sentiments shared by people that buy and believe in Cryptocurrency. So, let’s look at the current valuations:
Bitcoin – Price $40,500, Market Cap $755B (estimated as of 2-6-21)
Dogecoin – Price $.05, Market Cap $4.4B (estimated as of 2-6-21)
(Source: Yahoo Finance)
Now, I’m not saying Dogecoin is worth what Bitcoin is. I’m not even saying it's worth half or a third of Bitcoin. Who really knows? No one does. You certainly cannot say for certain that one is better than another. One is more “established” and has more name recognition. What I am saying is this: if Dogecoin goes to $1, it will have a market cap of just over $85 billion. Even at Bitcoin’s current market cap, that’s just over 1/10 of its value. And that isn’t even pricing in more appreciation of Bitcoin’s value over time. This means I see tons of room for Dogecoin to run. (I know some will mention dilution via minting of new coins, but that’s another discussion and not entirely relevant to the points I am trying to make in this piece.)
Could Dogecoin match Bitcoin? That sounds absurd, but let’s look just for fun: if Dogecoin were to have the same market cap as Bitcoin, that means it would have a current price of $8.55. So, what am I saying here? You must know the range of possibilities (within reason, if that even exists anymore) before you start thinking about price targets. To say Dogecoin is going to $100 is just absurd; things need to be put in the proper context.
Why Dogecoin?
Using relative valuation, I believe you could make a case for any Crypto. Will they all run to Bitcoin’s level? Of course not. The last question is why Dogecoin? This is the most important one that we have to answer before deciding on buying Dogecoin. The answer is simple: hype and name recognition. If I look at the most valuable cryptocurrencies by market cap, Dogecoin is number 12. I have taken an informal survey of probably 100 people over the last two weeks. I showed them the top 15 Cryptocurrencies by market cap to see which they were familiar with: Stellar, Binance Coin, Cardano, Polkadot, XRP . . . almost all of these were completely unheard of. But, somehow, they have valuations of 2-3 times Dogecoin.
Dogecoin has a few things going for it. First, hype. Elon Musk and many other prominent celebrities are pilling in. Mark Cuban has said he’d buy it over a lottery ticket. That alone can help aid a very quick lift off. Second, the name Dogecoin is very easy to remember and a trendy thing. What the heck is Cardano anyway? XRP? I mistakenly called it XPR before I edited this piece. And if you are still hung up on the practical use of Dogecoin or other Cryptos, you are missing the point of this piece entirely. Look at the story behind Bitcoin. An anonymous person online created a decentralized platform for money movement or something like that. What? How in the world did that idea ever take traction? It’s just like people online arguing over which Penny Stock is the next big thing. Neither person is right, but the perception is really all that matters.
Third, stimulus checks will be hitting within weeks or months. This naturally promotes price inflation when people have more dollars chasing few goods. People will inevitably pile into whatever they think is the next great thing. Dogecoin has momentum right now. And this brings me to number four.
Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, FOMO is very powerful right now. There are people all over the world that know people who have won big money in this bubble. Penny stocks, GameStop, Bitcoin, and many others that you can name. How many people do you personally know that have won big in the lottery? Probably none. This is a unique time in history. People have won big in this market and are looking for the next thing.
Dogecoin is something that could pick up steam quickly. It could blow up overnight. It may not, and that is the risk you take. At the end of the day, it’s just money that you can always make more of. Life-changing money is worth the risk when you find the right risk-reward ratio.
Do your due diligence, but also think ahead to a scenario that you could imagine. Would you be that surprised if Dogecoin reached $1? And if it did, would you be surprised if it started running towards multiple dollars? $1 is a psychological number that typically leads to a further breakout. The current market cap suggests this is all very possible. Now imagine getting in at four or five cents.
Disclosure: Long Dogecoin with Diamond Hands. No positions in any other things mentioned. -BJ

RoyalRoad
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Not all traders were taking Galactic Credits.
That was consistently a problem whenever cards and virtual currencies replaced cash in human society.
In tech business terms, this is called adoption.
In financial terms, there's a slightly fancier name for the people who didn't have an account: the unbanked. In modern banking, it is sometimes used as a more politically correct synonym for "poor".
Unfortunately for Galactic Credits, adoption was low, and the unbanked were the vast majority of traders.
In a human financial system, the way that banks solved this problem eventually was through incentives. Other than simply being convenient, credit cards were exclusive and gave off a feel of luxury. It made people feel richer than they are. But what really drove adoption over the edge was spamming them to everyone through the mail and promising they'd get discounts and money for using them.
Also unfortunately for Galactic Credits, the alien traders that used it didn't feel luxurious and rich. Instead, they had a sneaking suspicion that they were being ripped off by the humans. They just weren't sure how.
Some, like Zikzik, saw the convenience benefits, but the galactic aversion to debt and taboo of anything more advanced than a barter system counterbalanced with their innate businessbeings' need for efficiency.
Sarah had no idea why. All she knew was that only a quarter of the traders coming in were open to using Galactic Credits, and new traders were coming in every day. She can't go down to the spaceport, set up a booth, and try to talk every new merchant into ignoring all their financial instincts to adopt GCs!
This was unsustainable.
It was time to get an expert. They needed someone who could help resolve the problem and get more traders on board.
She'd found him on social media.
Dr. Max Stearns had struck it rich working at an early fin-tech startup, got bought out by Bank of America, and then retired at 35. He came out of retirement to teach graduate level Economics classes at a local college, and then somehow fumbled his way into a Professor position. Darn it, he was just here to not be bored out of his mind, not get a second wind in his career as an academic at age 50!
For a profession that was increasingly favoring non-tenured instructors over professors, it was a testament to how much they wanted to keep him there. It turns out he was almost as good at explaining things to students as he was at designing financial systems.
So, when Sarah, who was most definitely not a student though she could probably pass as one if she wanted to, came to his predictably empty office hours, he thought maybe she was lost. After the initial confusion, apology, and introduction, Sarah started explaining her problem.
In short, aliens have an extreme reluctance to adopt credits, blah blah blah.
Normally, Stearns was thinking, people would be charging for this. But like all nerds who know a good problem when they see one, he couldn't resist tackling it. He was nerd-sniped.
"You actually have two problems," he began, "first, your system isn't worthy of trust. Your company is non-sustainable and everyone knows it. The other human traders bought into it because they know they wouldn't risk much by doing it. As you can see in these charts you're showing me, they're immediately converting their GCs back into cash. And when they want credits because they've agreed generally to use it, they come back to you, buy GCs with cash, and then immediately use them on the traders."
"The human traders are well aware of your position, but they're temporarily using the system because it is far, far more convenient than barter. Unfortunately, the alien traders don't have that intuition. You're being kept afloat now by selling and trading goods, not by your business of being a financial firm," Stearns continued.
"I've thought about starting to charge the other human traders a fee to keep the business sustainable," Sarah explained, "but wouldn't that drive them away?"
"No. In fact, judging by what you're saying because the transaction costs of bartering is so high, the benefits the human side derives would keep them there even if you charged what would normally be considered absurdly high fees. This is one of those very few cases where charging people money might actually make them more likely to use your business!" Stearns replied. Then, he made a rough waving gesture with his hands. "I need to see more details and there needs to be an iterative process to build a model, but I suspect you would keep almost all of your human traders even if you charged a fee as high as about 20% for each transaction."
"Twenty percent!" Sarah yelped, "that sounds like an exorbitant fee! Wouldn't they just start another currency system?"
"Hah, it's an estimate, and you probably don't have room to lose any human trader right now. But no, they can't replace you. They'll face the exact same problems you face now. If they try to replace you, they'll also have to deal with the fact that they've just discredited your credits system. In fact, the aliens will probably trust them even less."
"Ok, I'll think about adding a fee structure for the humans," Sarah said thoughtfully, "what was the other problem you were going to mention?"
"Your second problem is actually an opportunity. Every functional economic system is a system of incentives and disincentives. The only incentive you're giving the aliens to switch to your credits is one they clearly don't understand. You need to provide incentives they do understand. Or, in this case, maybe disincentives if they don't switch."
"Like what? Get the spaceport to ban them from trading if they don't recognize GC?" Sarah asked.
"Nothing that extreme. And if you did that, I suspect they would simply meet up in orbit and exchange goods there. Without money, it won't be efficient for them, but for some, it would be an acceptable alternative. No, you'd need to provide them a more soft touch but clear disincentive that they understand when trading without GCs to drive them away from barter."
"Can you give me an example?" Sarah asked.
"Ah this is where I normally start charging an hourly consulting fee," Stearns smiled but made a dismissive wave as Sarah began the motion of pulling out a wallet, "but I think I'd rather have a stake in this. A bit of your company and the opportunity to go into space and see what I suspect is about to happen there if your little venture succeeds. Think about it, and let me know."
"I'll be in my office."
Sarah and Jen split the company evenly four ways: one for each of them, one for Benny and Junior combined, and one for Stearns. It was incredibly generous, they knew. Normally, the first few startup employees would get up to one or two percent of the firm, but this was a financial company without anyone with financial experience, and they'd owe it to Benny that they'd gotten their start.
After all, it didn't matter how big their portion of the pie was, if the pie was zero. And that's what their pie was right now: a big fat zero. It didn't make any money; it facilitated some of their food trades and ensured they got more profits there, sure, but it required them to be constantly recruiting and cutting into their time actually selling stuff to the aliens.
Sarah was sure that it was only a matter of time before a big bank caught wind of this and simply put them out of business. The only advantage GC had was they started first. Stearns had said that the first mover was an edge, yes, but they'd be nuts if they were gonna just rest on their laurels and depend on it.
They needed Stearns, and from their meeting, he seemed genuinely interested in helping them grow the enterprise. He had seemed to be surprised to be offered that much stake in the company, but the women both agreed that all they had so far was a good idea, which was worth nothing without good execution.
If anyone could turn their novelty into a business, Dr. Stearns was their guy.
And if him giving notice to his employers that it was going to be his last quarter at the college a week later was any indication, it was generous enough.
The first thing Stearns did was institute a human merchant transaction fee as he had suggested.
Except in very rare circumstances, most payment networks used by humanity charged a fee. In the US, this was around 1-3%.
In countries where networks are growing, the percentage is lower to encourage growth.
In countries where networks have high transaction costs, the percentage is higher to reflect costs. Having to barter was the ultimate transaction cost.
At Galactic Credits, they charged 8%. This was an extraordinarily high fee, calculated using careful models, but the alternative was literally bartering, which all the human have agreed by now is just plain dumb.
So, they grumbled at the fee, but not a single human trader got off the network.
They used this newfound income and the allure of the stars to poach the branch manager and several of his employees at the BoA office next doors, and put them to work selling the idea of cards and currency to the aliens.
As time went on, they noticed that more and more human traders were beginning to specialize. It used to be they all bought and sold. Now, some were only buying, or only selling. As Stearns had predicted it would, behavior started to change.
The aliens saw that more humans were now coming to the spaceport with only a card and driving away with goods, or vice versa. It signified trust in the system. Some of them started signing up not intending to use it, but just to try to figure out what the humans were doing.
A few of the more daring ones even started asking about using credits to pay for their fuel at the spaceport facilities, which many of the human traders were happy to facilitate, for a fee.
Stearns put a stop to that pretty quickly when he learned about it. They just signed up the spaceport authorities for an account and cut out the middlemen.
Sarah and Jen also noticed that some human traders complained about the transaction fees to the alien traders in small talk.
For the alien businessbeings who saw trade as an adversarial relationship where the trader on the other side of the table was someone to be convinced or even defeated, the humans’ complaints actually increased trust in the Galactic Credits system.
After all, if Sarah was ripping the other guy off, maybe she’s not ripping me off so much.
Adoption among aliens reached half by the end of the week.
The second thing Stearns did was to start offering incentives for the aliens to sign up, or rather he made it uncomfortable for them not to.
Normally in a payment system, the merchant eats the cost of each transaction. When you swipe your card at a point of sale terminal, you don't pay the fee, the merchant does. She may charge you more money to use a card, which is not supposed to be allowed, or she may just quietly up some of her prices, but that's another story.
In the Galactic Credits system, because all the transactions took place in the hands of a human, the human had to pay the cost of doing business on both sides, both when they were buying and selling goods. This was the target of a lot of the complaints from human traders, especially the increasing number of exclusive buyers.
This was where the incentive came in.
Human traders that agreed to only buy items from aliens that took galactic credits had their buy fees waived.
This incentive was supposed to be enough to drive business towards the alien traders taking credits at the expense of the others, but not enough to force humans who exclusively sold items (fruit truckers like Benny) to become exclusive buyers to avoid fees. After all, the fee was 8% but this was a gold mine. Everyone was making exorbitant profits from the aliens.
Moreover, Stearns wanted the complaints to change. The human traders could still complain, but he wanted them to complain about something else.
He reasoned that businessbeings that were part of a standardized galactic trade network instinctively understood the value of institutions. An institution responsive to complaints is an institution good for business. This would logically drive up adoption.
Unexpectedly, this second reason did not even come into play. They would only much later learn why.
The incentives themselves, on the other hand, started to work…
Gorok belongs to a species that developed out of an ocean planet, called Ara. The R is silent.
Their civilization had started underwater, and after hundreds of thousands of years of development, the Arans managed to breach the surface of their ocean world and reach the stars using technology developed and refined in water.
To the casual human eye, they were humanoid robots, robotic feet and manipulators, with a head peeking out from an aquarium. Many traders called them "dolphinheads" behind their backs.
Because of how long it takes for an underwater species to develop anything, they often took a long view of things. The dolphinheads were an old species. They didn't mind taking things slow. Some might even call them patient.
In Sarah's view, they were just goddamn stubborn.
Gorok isn't a particularly obstinate member of her species, but the average of stubborn is still stubborn. It was annoying to have to deal with her, and a few of the human traders openly joked about punching her and her stupid fishbowl face if the security guards were not there.
Gorok does not trust these human Galactic Credits.
N'har is an unremarkable bipedal humanoid businessman. His planet, Yis'meh is known for incredibly beautiful and jarring landscapes, formed from active tectonic plate behavior and extreme weather patterns at high altitudes.
On the list of most interesting things on his planet, his species does not rank top 50.
Like most of the galaxy, he too had no concept of money, credit, or literally any economic system more complex than barter.
N'har does not trust these human Galactic Credits.
Scrulvi is from a species of six foot tall hedgehog-like quadrupeds called the Dlaivo.
They are born with incredibly hard shells, grow poisonous spikes on their back, and can gallop deceptively fast. Also, they breed very quickly. In the early days of their development, some combination of these factors was how they survived.
It was definitely not their brains. Most galactic species consider the Dlaivo to be the dumbest species to ever gain sentience and reach the stars. They survive in spite of their brains.
When they finally discovered FTL, predators on their home planet were actually still a major threat to their average resident because the Dlaivo had never found a solution to them. A neighboring species (the Bhaks) pitied them, decided to use their planet as a military training camp, and killed off all their natural predators for them over a couple of months of target practice exercises.
The Dlaivo thanked them profusely and never considered the possibility that they might be there to occupy and sell their people into slavery. Which, to their credit, the Bhaks did not do.
The Dlaivo were the butt of many village idiot jokes in the galactic community. For example, some would joke that the underwater Arans actually discovered how to make fire at an earlier point in their development than the Dlaivo.
Like other galactic beings, however, their prejudice against credits ran deep.
Scrulvi does not trust these human Galactic Credits.
Scrulvi trusted the humans, though. After all, Sarah and Jen had never cheated him. None of the human traders ever did. Sure, it seemed like they were giving the other traders better goods for their items, but the humans’ goods were very valuable, everyone could win, and Scrulvi almost always stumbled into one small profit or another anyway.
When Sarah offered to give him a credit account and to start trading with credits, he didn't understand, but Sarah is so nice! Surely, what she's offering can't be bad for him.
So Scrulvi stumbled into the greatest profit of his life when he was the only trader landed on the spaceport taking credits when Stearns’ incentives program got announced.
He offloaded all his sale items, filled his cargo hold with the highest quality fruit, all in record time, and with a fairly big chunk of change in his credits account.
He didn't know what to do with the credits, but maybe he can ask Sarah about that the next time he comes back to Earth… oh well.
N'har, the unremarkable, did not trust these credits, but he was seeing with his own six eyes what it's doing. For some reason, all the humans wanted to trade with the idiot Dlaivo next to him first.
Thinking about it, hah, they must be scamming him out of all his goods.
When Scrulvi took off half an hour later with a full hold, he was shocked. This must be some new scheme the humans are running with their new credits.
But when another Dlaiva (seriously, how did these morons even figure out how to operate spaceships?) took off ten minutes after she started taking credits, he was beginning to wonder.
Alright, maybe he was the mark, but he was burning to know what the trick was. The worst he has to lose is a little of his cargo, right? And whatever clever scam the humans thought up, maybe he could learn it and try it on someone else later.
He beckoned Sarah over, got a credits account, and took off half an hour later with a full hold of fruit and some leftovers in his credits account.
Must be a long con.
Gorok did not fill her hold that day. She watched angrily as the other traders around her all offloaded their goods and filled their cargo with fresh fruit.
One after another took off.
She refused to take credits from this Sarah human.
It was silly. It's just all numbers on a viewscreen.
She was a trader. She traded goods, for goods.
That's how it's done. That's how it's always been done. And that's how it'll always be done.
Eventually, the other traders in orbit complained that she was occupying the landing pad for far too long. She was forced to leave Earth without conducting a single sale or transaction.
After this trip, Gorok did not make many sales. Dwindling profits meant that she was forced to trade her ship in for a relatively small underwater plot near where she grew up. She built a beautiful home, had many little Arans, and lived happily ever after.
Not everyone was built for the offworld trading life.
They quit the fruit business. That was a side hustle that built up capital for them initially. What Galactic Credit had now was a bustling bank business that no longer needed that extra profit on the side to sustain their business model. And they didn’t want to remain in competition against their customers.
Benny Jr and Jen had done a little side project on a jailbroken Bohor air filter, and found that with a little tweaking, they could have the air filters intake the aerosolized oxides of carbon clogging up the atmosphere and forge them into beautiful pure diamonds.
They were selling that on the side for now, purely because of how profitable it was, but it was likely once everyone else figured that out, the artificial diamonds flooding the market would force a commodity crash, like gold had when alien gold flooded Earth's markets. There were rumors that the De Beers diamond monopoly company was buying up numerous Bohor air filters from the newly opened Johannesburg spaceport in South Africa.
Other than that, the fees were more than covering all their cost of doing business. The lawyers, the accountants, the servers, and a sizable salary for every founding employee.
Over the alien trader booths, more and more traders started putting up the signs that said, "I ❤️ GC”. Sarah was especially proud of those signs. They were given to traders who would take GC for all transactions to signal to humans that they were open for business.
By now, this was most of them.
Some new traders would occasionally come down and not have an account. They would quickly get an account and one of the GC signs, or rarely, they would refuse and be asked to leave by other traders waiting in line in orbit.
As it turns out, peer pressure was often just as powerful an economic force as a market incentive.
Getting the alien FTL comms tech from a bunch of technical drawings to interface with the Galactic Credits site was not easy, but Jen and her team of engineers had done it. They'd put together the first financial application on the GalacticNet, and to go with it, the first offworld point of sale system in the galaxy.
You can instantaneously access your credits account from one side of the galaxy to another. Several backup systems were also copied from existing human credit card systems, like offline transaction storage and carbon copy card sales slips.
After the traders' credits cards were upgraded to chip cards, Galactic Credits were rapidly becoming indistinguishable from any other payment systems on Earth.
As a result of the aliens' consumer economies being restricted in scale by barter, their GalacticNet was used much like the human Internet was in its early days: for academic, governmental, or military use.
Much of the traffic was for big picture information exchange. What passed through the FTL comms were big news headlines, research data, emergency calls for help…etc. Without widespread consumer goods in most societies, there were no personal computers, tablets, and phones.
It's not that aliens couldn't produce those goods; in fact, their electronics were in some ways much more advanced than human ones, but few people had them. They were produced in big batches, and then bartered off one by one to people with goods that electronics makers had.
The first consumer apps on the GalacticNet were made by humans because the first consumers on the GalacticNet were humans. And like the academics who watched normies flood the Internet in its early days, the existing users on the GalacticNet were filled with fascination, mixed with a noticeable trace of horror, as the residents of Earth began to flood the GalacticNet with porn, social media, games, businesses, and more porn.
At first, it was lonely. The GalacticNet wasn't much different from the Internet, plus a few brave aliens who would venture to upload videos introducing themselves to the masses of Earth.
Not to be left behind, some other civilizations started buying consumer electronics from Earth traders and handed them out to their people. And what started as a lonely project was starting to make the galaxy a closer, more connected place.
What the residents of Earth saw was definitely not what they expected.
As Sarah learned more about the way the galaxy worked, the more she felt bad for the aliens. From what she heard from the traders, saying that life sucked outside of Earth was an understatement.
There were always shortages. Not enough things were always being produced, so beings had to share things that shouldn't be shared. Most beings lived in absolute squalor.
The tiny percent of traders that she'd interacted with are supposedly some of the richest beings to have ever existed in the galaxy, and yet they still sometimes have trouble upgrading their ships, finding supplies or maintenance, or even just to buy a nest or house. They had few luxuries and quality of life goods.
"Without widespread usage of currency, economies are extremely limited. Bartering is so primitive by human standards, that there are some economic historians who say no barter economy has ever existed in human history because currency is so vital to any real economic activity that they have always gone together," Stearns had said.
Other economic experts on Earth have been predicting the same thing since the news of lack of money spread. She didn't believe it until she saw the footage on GalacticNet. Video of what the aliens considered to be normal life looked like ghettos, or even worse, disaster zones.
They had been able to make and acquire the ships and goods they had, through tens or hundreds of thousands of years of inheritance and hand-me-downs. They could create technological marvels beyond humanity's current means, but they could only do so with time. Lots and lots of time.
On a technological basis, they were collectively a bit further advanced than Earth. They could travel between the stars, cure cancer, and modify the atmosphere!
On a GDP or production per year basis, forget about industrialization. The galaxy hasn't even fully entered the feudal age.
This paradox shocked humans to their core.
For Sarah: At first Galactic Credits was a project to make money off aliens. At some point, it started being a project to make aliens smarter, to make them understand money, so it was easier to make money off them. And now, she could only see a path forward for it as a charity or some kind of galactic advancement project.
The galaxy needed help — now.
Galactic Credits was about to hold the galaxy's hands through a speed run of the last three millennia of human economic development.
A couple months after Stearns started making changes, the whole company drove down to the spaceport.
As Sarah and co reached the trader booths, they noticed a mix of human and alien traders chatting and joking around.
"Oh how about this one. What's the easiest way to become a millionaire?" Asked a human trader, with one of the oldest money jokes in the book. After a pause where the other human traders respectfully didn't ruin his joke, he delivered the punchline, "you start as a billionaire and let your son go shopping with your credit card harharhar."
The humans grinned and the aliens made their approximations of laughter.
"Hey it's Sarah and Jen! Speak of credits and cards, and here she comes!" Zarko said as he noticed them approaching.
"Hey-o Zarko, here's Dr. Stearns. Dr. Stearns, Zarko," Sarah introduced the two, and they nodded at each other in the traditional universal greeting that's become commonplace on the spaceport.
"Ah! Dr. Stearns," said Oliver, a human trader, grinning, "I hope you're not here to increase our fees again."
"You better believe your fees are increasing. I know what you put in that OJ you sell. That much sugar isn't good for the poor alien children, you know?" replied Stearns, who could take it and hit back about as good as any boomer could.
The other traders pretended to look at Oliver scandalously. Hah, as if they weren't all pumping their goods full of additive sugars to get the aliens hooked.
"Speaking of orange juice, I was trying to offload two tons of it for some reactor fuel on Zakabara Prime, and unfortunately the exchanges there did not accept fruit juice as an acceptable trade item for reactor fuel. Guess I won't be taking my business there again," huffed Zarko.
The other traders nodded knowingly. Zakabara Prime rarely accepted food products in exchange. The Zakabarans were an incredibly protectionist planet that had many farmers who didn't like the incredible competition that Earth was bringing to the table.
"Actually, that's one of the things we came here to talk about," Stearns put on his serious face, "we're about to start making offworld Galactic Credits consoles available to the trading public, within a year. It would allow you beings to buy and sell from other traders from anywhere in the galaxy!"
By this point, many of the alien traders that had normally bartered or traded with each other would come to Earth to use the terminals that the human merchants had to conduct fractional transactions, for a processing fee from the humans, of course. There was a small but growing number of human traders that would come with just their tablets and process cargo for aliens for free all day.
Technically, this was rent seeking of the worst kind, but GC had not discouraged this type of behavior. For one, Earth was growing to be an increasingly popular destination for traders galaxy-wide. This was excellent for business, and it was cementing Earth as the trade goods and exchange center of the galaxy. All trade routes led to Sol.
For another, technically these processing merchants were providing a service, one that was only necessary because there was no offworld usage of credits.
Now, GC was about to put them all out of business.
The implications of this were not lost on the aliens. They didn't understand money, but they are not stupid.
Well, except the Dlaivo.
Those oversized hedgehogs are very stupid.
What the traders knew is that whatever the humans were doing with these credits on Earth was very profitable for the traders, and they no longer thought of credits as a scam or scheme, but rather an intricate new institution that was rapidly expanding.
Traders everywhere were whispering about Earth's new system. The idea of a currency was becoming less of a taboo. The pamphlets freely handed out at its spaceports certainly didn't hurt.
Skeptics were still coming down the gravity well to see how it all worked, and not all of them were convinced. But many lifted off with a full cargo of fresh fruit and a credits account…
If you could use human credits offworld, no one was really sure what could happen.
Not even the humans.
"Sounds good, where do I sign up?"
Sneak peek on themes for the next chapter:

This chapter was meant to be a natural stopping point for the first arc of the story. The next chapter gets a bit darker and deals with some pretty mature themes to set up the next arc. There's quite a bit of death, not due to war.

RoyalRoad
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Hey everyone... I'm a tier 3 plat level scrub who has been playing Rampart for the last 3 weeks and I gotta admit i'm quickly falling in love with Rampart! I would consider myself slightly above average at Apex, but still feel like sharing my experiences as my skill in this game continues to grow. When Rampart first came out I played her for a day or two and quickly agreed with everyone online that while she had potential, she was a lack luster legend with a cheesy campy playstyle who felt slow and clunky next to mobility based champs like Horizon or Wraith and I went back to my more comfortable picks. In Apex legends gun fights can change and flow very quickly and in a fast paced game Like Apex Rampart's ult and her tactical felt like it was always far too slow! Slow to setup and activate her ult or her Q, slow to wined up & start shooting her Ult Sheila and slow to reload the big gun. The cone of fire for her ult was WAAAY too narrow in season 6 and 7. Her ult left your flanks totally exposed and tunneled your field of view. I'm Sure in higher skilled games you just get lasered in the face playing Rampart because her kit is more of a turtle style in a game where high mobility Legends are the flavor all the Pro players use to make big stylish plays and big twitch views...
But I dunno y'all, I think a lot of people are not playing her correctly. She is currently the Dark Horse of Apex. I think she has a lot more depth to her kit and her abilities that dont get abused enough in game...Like I said i'm not in high diamond or masters or anything, but I feel many people who sleep on Rampart are not using her abilities intelligently and are using her in a more reactionary way... Her strength Lies in knowing where the fights will pop off before it does. I wanted to talk about a few things I noticed about Rampart since I picked her up seriously...
Her tactical cover Q is super super powerful. Like Ohhhh WOW!! I thought it was kind of underwhelming at first, but once you get comfortable with using her Q in the heat of battle...WOW it's a big game changer! her Q is good in tight close ranged indoor fights and in wide Open areas where you have little cover. The trick lies with dropping the cover in smart locations BEFORE the fighting gets serious and is right on top of you. you push forward for easy clean angles, do some damage, pack up your cover and Use enemy sounds and your map knowledge to know when and where to drop the cover. Drop her cover in areas that make sense as you use rampart you will start to get a feel for where the best times and places are, High ground is obvious, areas where you have extra cover that you can build your Amped cover off of Boxes, crates Rocks.
One thing about Apex that I have learned is looking for angles of attack on a squad, positioning yourself for a Flank attack on an enemy team where they have little cover and are exposed so you get free shots on them while your team mates distract them. After a while I can hear the close range gunshots and gauge where to drop the cover so as the enemy team runs towards me or peaks me, I'm already setup and waiting for them! Rampart takes this even further advantage of these flank attacks when using LMG + amped cover. Her faster reloading speed + large mag size + her amped cover means you can damn near obliterate a team by yourself or at least lock them down and force them immediately on the defensive! abuse angles of attack and push up when they flee from your endless mag size. Factor in the new Gold Mags and Rampart becomes a never ending whirlwind of amplified Bullets. Using Rampart FORCED me to use LMGs that I normally hated in past seasons. Guns Like the L-star and spitfire are insane now! I love them! Devo was always good, but with Rampart it's just disgusting!
If an enemy throws grenades and blows up your door your, as long as the door is closed, your Amped cover still stands strong even if the door get's blown off the wall. I cant tell you how many times I was able to 1v2 or 1v3 a team who engaged me in tight indoor fights because I was able to block doors and abuse the angles as they chased me indoors, control the push and slow their aggression. I Set up my ult at the mouth of choked entryway and wait for them to confidently try and ape me only to get blown away by a mini gun the second they turn a corner they eat mouthfuls of hot lead death because they think im trapped and solo
she is also REAALY good at medium distances and pushing with her Q when your engaging an enemy team one on one...The added amped cover gives you MORE angles of engagement and flanking points that the enemy team just DOES not expect to see coming...And when you get two or 3 tactical covers dropped it's hard for the enemy team to ignore you when your doing amped poke damage from their flank and pushing up on them, they are FORCED to respond to your pressure and it allows your teammates to be aggressive while you get all their attention from your cover....just watch for the 3rd party as rampart is weak as she has no additional mobility. She has No get out of jail free Q. Her power is that of a tactician, her power lies in the setup...seeing where the fight will flow BEFORE it pops off. Stay Mobile with your cover. Learn to stay glued to your team, setup up cover for not just yourself but your team and then quickly packing up your cover when it's time to move. Now with Season 8 adding an immediate 45 health to her cover as it builds, her tactical can be used in MUCH more of a reactionary way then was possible in season 6 and 7. It's a lot harder to deny her setup then it was before! this is HUGE for Rampart as denying her cover is how you defeat her
Also with season 8 her amped cover got a HUGE secret buff that no one but the Rampart mains are talking about. In Season 6 and 7 the amped cover had issues when being placed on ramps or steep hills and other areas with bumpy uneven terrain. Sometimes I would be stuck in areas fighting and placed my cover in an area that looked clear and her cover would just NOT work and you would lose 4 precious seconds fidgeting to place cover properly... Well, I think Respawn took notice and REALLY improved how her Cover Drops on the map...Now in season 8 it's buttery smooth and I feel like season 8 was almost a Re-Release for Rampart as every part of her kit was touched up and tweaked in some way. This secret Buff is HUGE as her Clunky cover was what turned a lot of people off to putting in time with her when she launched in season 6
I always thought her Q was kind of weak and her ult was useless in most situations because it's easy for enemies to just shoot the cover down before it builds and I would feel discouraged and useless in gun fights, cover felt like it Just takes too long to build...But I had a realization after putting in many hours with her ...When you drop Rampart's Q you have a window to CONTEST the cover as it builds. DONT SIT BEHIND THE COVER OR HIDE AS IT BUILDS (which is instinctual) FIGHT TO KEEP IT UP!. So many times I see streamers or other solo que players just drop the cover and they just LET it get shot down! They hide as it's building and don't make use of the opening the amped cover creates ... if done properly the enemy now has to choose in that split second between shooting YOU (who is peaking them adjacent to the building cover with shots) or shooting the cover that you are building. It leaves them exposed for a small window of time! If the enemy lets it build, you have the advantage because if they peak you can stand in the open fully protected by the cover AND you're doing amped damage. If they destroy your cover before it fully builds use the time as an opening as they peak get that chip damage in or get a lucky headshot... Even if they shoot the cover AND you don't get any damage shots in...Rampart is a defensive legend but the best defense is a STRONG offense. Rampart's cover allows you to Push and be aggressive while abusing the cover's defensive power! You lead and you push forward for your team Laying down cover at chokes, corners and high ground for your team to take advantage of
Now that the cooldown of Rampart's Q was lowered it allows you to still push and be very aggressive, even if you lose one or two Covers in the process, you have more charges back very quickly. I noticed when building her cover vs enemy team with multiple Snipers/long range poke is a bit of a problem and not ideal unless you have a sniper as well to contest them. If the enemy snipers makes it a priority to focus on you and they destroy your cover then it's better to just forget about dropping the cover for the time being and play normally. Poke them from long range and wait for the perfect time to try and redeploy your cover, wait until attention is off of you, then you set up one or two covers and then light up the enemy team once again. Once they see your trying to set up cover from long range enemy teams will REALLY punish you for that. I feel like a lot of new rampart players only really set up amped cover in LONG range engagements or areas where they are turtling in a building where they have the height and can do easy poke on enemy teams like trainyard skyboxes or skyhook/city building rooftops. They only throw down amped over when the whole team is turtling in one building. They don't know how to use the cover to push forward with their team, check and setup multiple angles of attack and ALWAYS PICK UP YOUR UNUSED COVER WHEN POSSIBLE...it's precious! Get used to picking up your cover as you move, Quickly throw it down and then Quickly pack it up, don't just leave it there in the open because it can be used AGAINST you if your team get third partied. Obviously not ever cover you drop is worth picking back up, but don't leave cover in stupid places for other enemy teams you use against you
Rampart is AWESOME at pushing UPHILL into enemy teams. Obviously this is not an ideal situation to EVER be in, but if your FORCED to push uphill or fight into a team from the low ground, you want a rampart with you! her cover evens the playing field and the height advantage that the enemy has is not as impactful when a good rampart player is Constantly dropping cover as they advance uphill, just watch for throwables as they will scatter you out of cover and allow you to get picked off as you scramble away.
...I try and find a rock, a bin or some kind of cover to build my amped cover off of and then IMMEDIATLY contest the cover and take poke shots at an enemy who is engaging me...EVEN if the enemy breaks my cover, I have learned to constantly wear down an enemy squad down with skilled shots because every time they look to break my cover, I try and contest and chip them for free damage and close the gap and push up as much as I can when/where it makes sense. Obviously there are times when you just miss a shot or cannot position yourself to contest the cover that's building, but it seems like Rampart's Q really works well after you get used to it. Mix this with a Wraith portal or Rev ult and you can aggressive push teams WITH amped cover and u can set up cover to GUARD the Totem/portal with cover so even if you die you respawn at totem with health and shields with amped cover to protect you while u heal. Drop a few near the wraith Portal so if you have to take it back you have some cover watching your ass ...Then if they push your guarded totem or take your portal it now has cover and they my die trying to finish you off if they ape. Her tactical can be used to Turtle and lock down a location easily, but I like to use Rampart to stay mobile push aggressive and claim high ground or block off doorways for us to fall back to if we get hit hard.
Once you start mastering Rampart's Q you start to see the code in the Matrix.... you start to notice there are THOUSANDS of areas literally BUILT into the map for her Amped cover EVERYWHERE. Some of the BEST vantage points and angles to shoot teams from are from inside buildings that have height and windows overlooking wide open areas where teams fight all the time. Respawn designed and tweaked these viewpoints on purpose ...Areas like Skyhook, Trainyard, East and west fragment, all the Bridges, train Tracks and tunnels on maps like world's edge with lots of high ground and cover to build amped cover off of. The grey chain link fences with the Walls that are all over world's edge are perfect! There areas were designed to give teams angles and vantage points for teams to fight from...They also happen to be PERFECT slots for your amped cover to fit into. Abuse them, abuse them!, ABUSE THEM!
Before you res a team mate, always drop a cover or two to watch your back, this has saved me and my wounded team mates from an unseen shooter more then a few times. after some practice you can drop cover super fast and res downed teammates
In end game Rampart can power turtle and drop up to THREE miniguns for her team with UNMILITED ammo...Ranked games get super sweaty late game. Have a crypto, bloodhound or pathy scan final zone locations... knowing were the last two zones will be will be huge for your Setup grab high ground at a choke and get free kills...having 3 miniguns protected from all sides and angles with amped cover and high ground... Good luck killing that team
If your in trouble and need to heal mid combat try putting your back to a corner and drop amped cover in front of you to create a little triangle or a little cube corner and you can seriously 1v2 or 1v3 if your smart and a cracked shot
Block Doorways and Ziplines with your cover all the time. If the Enemy team is flying up a zipline to kill you they will be surprised to get body blocked by your cover and shot by your teammates for amped damage as they fall back down
Did you know that if you get Bang or Gibby Ulted and are caught out and cannot make it to indoor cover, Jump into a nearby corner or put your back to a rock or a wall and drop an amped cover or two to box yourself in as much as possible. If the cover does not finish You will still take 45 less damage from the ult itself, but you will still get concussed.
If the cover finishes before the bang or gibby ult hits you, you take zero damage and suffer no slow or blurry effect as long as you got the cover up in time. If your in a ranked game and your team get's ulted to flush them off their highground you dont need to scatter anymore...stack on the rampart with her back to the wall in a tight corner and have her protect the entire squad with her cover AND keep your high ground position! It's like an instant gibby bubble!!
Sniping with Rampart is also really really powerful for two reasons...
Hitting someone with a Charged sentinel shot, Kraber or raining triple take rounds from amped cover is absolutely glorious, sniping with amped cover really gives you that extra kick you need to down targets faster at range
her passive works well with sniping because it help alleviate the one of the HUGE downsides to using a sniper weapon! Your no longer forced to Weapon switch to your side arm in close range situations! No one wants to use a Sentinel or a Triple take in close range fights unless they have to. Every now and again you get a lucky shot close range but your at a huge disadvantage in close range because if you miss with the sniper the enemy can now burn you down and switch to their OTHER SMGs or Shotgun and blow you away while your still reloading your slow firing sniper.
Rampart's Passive speed reloads LMGs...using a devotion or fully kitted Spitfire gives you an advantage as reloading these weapons is almost just as fast as weapon switching to a side arm!...When your gun runs dry in close fights you don't really want a sniper as your side weapon, no need to worry as Rampart because your LMG is pretty vicious at close to medium range and if you are using amped cover smart, it makes up for the LMG's lower frontloaded DPS. I don't have the math or anything but LMG's have Large Magazines at the expense of Raw upfront DPS. I think Rampart's Passive with larger mags and faster reloading, used with amped cover makes the LMG's almost as good as the SMGs at close/medium range like the 301 or volt, Find a devo with a turbo charger as rampart with a bruiser scope and it's a Death Ray gun that never stops shooting. A Spitfire with a 2x and Gold mag? fucking nuts and Season 8! Respawn gave Spitfire a nice damage buff! that means on low profile legends I'm doing 20 damage per bullet!! I can down TWO full health enemies in one clip and reload in a flash and have ANOTHER 63 spitfire rounds ready to go instantly. Remember...While everyone else has purple/Gold mags Rampart with an LMG in hand has what is the equivalent of a unique Red mag for her LMG...That's an extra 8 rounds in the Mag MORE then everyone else. That's HUGE! USE LMGs with Rampart always! I know LMG's are not way most people play, But DAMN it's good on rampart! any Buff to LMG's is a buff to Rampart because no one uses them like her!
Now for her Ult...Wow her ult takes some getting used too, It's slow and clunky at first because once you master it, it's fucking game over for anything and everything in front of you. When I first started I did not even know you could Zoom with her ult and I would hop on and then accidently reload or hop off the turret at the worst times. But once you get used to it it becomes your Ace card...you can 1v3 easily with smart play. I just forced myself to use her ult every chance I could so I could learn when and where using her made sense... and I quickly started to see how insane it is. Once I pulled a team inside...They downed our crypto indoors in skyhook. I dropped sheila in a corner inside, let them hear me ressing him, as they ran in jumped off the res and quickly onto sheila sitting in the corner and they just ran upstairs and into in the room like apes and all three got obliterated in one clip as they rounded the turn. crypto was crying on voice chat at how awesome that was!
The amped cover does a good job of camouflaging sheila, the Enemy REALY has to look to see that the turret is behind the amped cover.
There is a subtlety to using her ULT correctly, First of all it's only good at medium/semi-long range, If it's too far out you will only do mild chip damage before the enemy just ducks to cover and focus all shots on you. Not only that, but now you have just wasted your Ult and loudly announced to the entire server where you're team has set up. If your going to Drop sheila it better be for a guaranteed kill or to at least do enough damage to shut down an all out Ape attack on your position or a third party who thought you did not see them pulling up.
Drop sheila but DONT immediately zoom in and start firing unless it's for a kill you KNOW you can get. The enemy team can see the laser beam of where your pointing when zoomed in and they can HEAR sheila humming as you wind up the minigun...This will cause them to stop and run for cover from JUST the sound of the minigun spinning up alone. You want them to only notice sheila was dropped and firing on them when it's too late to react. Sheila will down a full health Gibby in seconds...I see some players drop their Sheila Ult, panic and shoot targets not fully exposed, do some lame chip damage and waste the ult where as if they were a little patient or timed it better, they could have wiped BOTH enemy squads in one Mag...
They blew their load too early for only a small amount of damage and a cracked shield or two... so what I do is I sit on sheila and DONT zoom in...DONT start shooting... I wait and sit in silence...Let my team draw them towards me or from out of cover...They only see my amped cover and dont notice sheila is setup...they are too busy fighting my team to notice me...and I wait a second or two for the enemy to fully commit to pushing out and expose themselves before I start shooting...Now I have one guaranteed down and possibly a second or a full squad wipe which never gets old! it sucks if your team dies and your sitting on your ult because your out of position to help...takes practice and experience to know when to drop her Ult and when to jump off her ult and push up with your team.
ALMOST NEVER USE SHEILA WITHOUT AMPED COVER TO PROTECT YOU, I dont need to explain why...your a sitting duck with a GIANT target on your head without any cover...Rampart's strength lies in her ability to setup for the big fight.
ALWAYS PICK UP YOUR TURRET WHEN YOUR DONE!!! You Wiped the whole enemy squad, your feeling good and you Jump off Sheila to loot up with your team... suddenly and enemy team rolls up on the low low and jumps on the turret you conveniently left for them at the high ground. your team is looting in the open and your sitting ducks all because you did not take the 1 extra second to pack up the turret and your cover... ALWAYS pack up the turret unless your planning on returning to Sheila.
Sheila is great when you have high ground over multiple enemy teams who are fighting and unaware of your team at all or if you can get a team on a narrow bridge or locked down in a tight area...feels so dirty but it feels so good to see a caustic jump, shit his pants and do a jump spin towards you totally panicked as you drop him from full health into thin red and green paste before he can even reach for his shield battery
...if you can catch a Gibby drop his bubble in the open to save himself or his team...PERFECT time to drop amped cover, time it so you drop Sheila just before the bubble falls. just wait for the Bubble to expire and Gun them down. She is the perfect Anti Gib
Oh and the new Champ Fuse is the Anti Rampart...He can clear her cover very easily with just one of his tactical's if used correctly. But i hear this is changing very soon to only do 50% of the damage it currently does to rampart's cover. so fuse wont be able to get away with that against rampart much longer
rampart works GREAT paired with Revenant's ult, drop cover as you push enemy in ghost form...if you die you can run back and reuse all the cover you just dropped in their faces to finish the kill
Gibby bubble gives you time to setup your Ult or Reset your cover in peace. Bangalore Q can give you smoke cover to setup for close range ult in their face that the enemy wont be expecting as well. rampart and Wattson works great together for obvious reasons.
Any tracker legend that can use survey beacons works good with rampart as well because the Zone will show you where enemy teams will be forced to be running in from zone and it lets you gatekeep them with Sheila or setup for the late game and pick the perfect areas/buildings to hold for final rings

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Burning Down The House
Emilia stood outside the Storage hatch with a flamethrower.
Well she called it a flamethrower, but over the helmet camera Jamet thought it looked more like a plasma welder taped to a pressurized aerosol bottle. Every now and then the camera would turn sideways and upward, focusing on the clearly worried expression of Paul, then face forward again. "Uhh, how long are we going to wait here?" Emilia managed to sound worried and irritated in equal amounts.
"I second that, lieutenant." Paul sounded just as nervous, although his tone made it harder to tell. She had his camera input on the left side of the screen away from Emilia's to avoid accidentally giving herself nausea. Every now and then the taller man's feed would turn downward to check on Emilia's tiny suited form, then check the heavy pry bar in his gloved hands. "The longer I stand here the less I like the idea."
Jamet tapped a console key. "I get it, sorry. But I don't think it'll be much longer. Janson, can you hear us? What's your status?"
The big man's baritone voice sounded smaller over an audio link. "Captain's authorizing the systems right now, ah can cut local gravity after that. You sure this will work?"
"Will it put our friends in storage to sleep? Actually, no. I'm not sure."
"Ma'am?"
"Engineer?"
"That would have been a great time to lie to me. Jus' saying." Something clicked over the line, then beeped. "That's got it. Everyone ready? Gravity cutting off in five, four..."
She checked the redundant buckles on her workstation, then gripped the edge of the console as the engineer finished his countdown. Right after 'one' it suddenly felt like the entire ship took a nosedive off a cliff, tossing her heart and stomach straight upwards in a horrible feeling of falling. Jamet closed both eyes and took deep breaths, focusing hard on squashing her body's automatic panic reflex. At least she wasn't alone: On screen both cameras twitched wildly as Paul and Emilia fought the sudden urge to freak out under weightlessness.
"Gah! Hate that feeling! Makes me want to throw up every time." A small gloved hand gripped the edge of the hatch like a lifeline. "Paul, hanging in there?" Low gagging sounds floated over suit speakers. "Guess not. Alright, moment of truth here." Emilia's feed slowly floated upwards until her helmet pressed to the inset hatch window.
Inside main storage was a brightly lit, chaotic mess. With gravity off everything knocked loose from the bins floated through the air in long streamers, bouncing off each other and the racks in whirling displays. The back wall was especially bad, spare parts and pieces of random tools nearly obscuring everything from view. But after a few moments of watching Emilia tapped the plexi. "There, I see it. Them? It? They?"
Jamet enlarged the display and squinted, eyes tracking warily across the image. Moving pieces slowly resolved into a large series of hexagons, stuck haphazardly to the walls and upper parts of the storage racks. There were four of them she could see, each as big as her outstretched arms and fuzzy with attached triangular drones. Limp cables drifted through the air, slowly revolving around inert metallic figures that spun and tumbled with leftover momentum. A small river of drones trailed upward, caught in the middle of pulling materials towards the overhead Environmental vents.
After nearly a minute without any movement, Jamet keyed the channel open. "I think they're asleep. Or unpowered. Do you think it's safe to open the hatch?"
"Not really," Paul sounded like a man trying to swallow and talk at the same time. "I doubt any of this is safe. Emilia?" His camera alternated between laser-focus through the window to pointed at the top of her white-colored skinsuit helmet.
"No idea. But I'm willing to give it a try." Her view floated downward, then centered on the hatch controls. "Popping it now."
It felt like the entire comm link held their breath as the hatch whooshed out of view. Emilia held the cobbled-together flamethrower at arms-length, pointed in the general direction of the hexagons.
Nothing moved. Actually, everything moved. But not intentionally.
"Alright, going in. Gonna see how they react to getting flamed." Her POV pushed off, gliding forward gracefully from handhold to handhold as she crossed the room.
Janson popped onto the link, sounding worried. "You remember about the fire, right?"
The camera bobbed once, up and down. "Yeah, I got it. Paul, you're right behind me? Don't leave me if this gets bad. I'm about to light it up." One hand came into the camera angle, grabbing hard onto an upright storage pole to anchor. The other aimed the fat aerosol container at the nearest hexagon cluster, then firmly jammed the button on top. A thick stream of gel shot from the nozzle, tacky chemicals keeping the stream together until it struck the hexagons as a thick goo. Emilia carefully hosed the entire surface down, taking a moment to make sure a lot got into the interior. "Alright, here goes."
Making sure no part of the hanging gel stream was near her hand, Emilia held the plasma welder out and triggered it. Instantly the entire mass caught fire with a hissing blast of flame that blossomed into a spherical explosion, yellow and red globes reaching in every direction. Emilia's camera flinched away as she shouted. "Damn, you weren't joking!"
"Were you too close?" Janson sounded worried. "Fire in zero-G is dangerous, goes in every direction."
The POV kicked back farther, putting a storage rack between the flames and her suit. "Nah, I'm okay. But it was close, had me scared for a bit. Paul, you see anything moving?"
Jamet switched to watching Paul's feed. He was higher up, near the ceiling looking down. "No, nothing moving." He swung the pry bar around one-handed, using the long metal pole to poke at the burning remains. Broken and melted drones slowly spun off, revealing an interior hot enough to spit little balls of cooling metal into the air. Melting strands of electronic slag drifted on thermal expansion. "Can you get the other pods, then switch to the ducts?"
She watched from the console as Paul got to work breaking up the flaming hexagon, using his bar to smash anything that looked like it might still be functional. Emilia tagged off with him, drifting forward to apply more gel accelerant when it looked like the flames might die out. Occasionally she used the plasma tip more directly, slicing off tightly-coupled drones wherever he couldn't get the bar between their cables.
Everything seemed to be going well. Suspiciously well, actually. Jamet pulled up an overlay of the Kipper's Environmental ducts near the storage area. "Paul, quick check of the Enviro lockouts? I don't see any alerts."
His camera stopped moving for a couple seconds, then got back to work. "Nothing setting off alerts here. Reactor vents are at zero tamper notices as well. If everything goes well we will move there next."
"Alright. I'm going to stop looking over your shoulder, but if absolutely anything happens..."
"You will be the first to know." Paul sounded amused. Nauseous, but definitely amused.
Emilia's POV lit up orange and red again. "We'll beat it so fast you won't believe it. We're fine, Impossible, go smack down your Corpo."
Jamet snorted, which was an unusual experience without gravity because everything stuck in her sinuses. With a grimace of distaste she killed the visual feeds, minimizing them off the workspace to avoid the distraction. "Janson, I'm cutting comms with you to focus on this. Are you going to be okay?"
"Ah'm fine, but thanks. Just going to stay here for a bit an' listen to them work, just in case they need help."
"Alright." Tap, click. "Captain, I'm about to call our friend on the habitation ring. Any last minute changes?" She frowned at her gloved hands, wondering why they seemed so jittery. Zero-G, probably.
"Go ahead, lieutenant. Do you want me to listen in or stay off the channel entirely?"
"Oh." That was... quite an offer. And a hell of a show of trust. "Would you be okay not listening in, sir? I didn't want you to think I was cutting deals or anything. I can record the whole thing if-"
She could almost see the sardonic grin as he cut in. "It's fine. Actually, change that-- record the conversation, if you please. It might be useful evidence later on. But I'm not worried about you backdoor dealing." Something whirred in the background, then clanged. "I trust you."
Which stirred up something bitter in her recent memory. A voice, low and husky, deep with personal confidence and enjoyable physical afterglow: Trust me, J. She could hear the gentle music in the background, taste sweet wine and the excitement of the moment. It felt so real, so possible. We can do this. Together. Come with me to Upper. And then that final nail in the coffin, the secret hope too good to be true: Be my partner.
Her hands hurt from gripping the console in rage. She blinked away the memory, deliberately letting go and brushing away traitorous tears. They held in the air like glittering diamonds, evidence of pointless anger that took a careful swipe to knock away. But it still took several long, deep breaths before her heartbeat stopped pounding hard enough to blur her vision.
Jamet tapped the comms key, proud of how level her voice was through a closed up throat. "I appreciate that, Captain. Signing off now, I need a moment to put myself together for this talk."
"Take your time. Janson tells me we still have half a day of deceleration ahead; assuming we can clear Storage I'm going to order everyone down for a rest cycle as well. Make sure we're not tired and making mistakes."
"Good idea. Alright, sir-- signing off."
Click, tap.
Alone on the bridge, Jamet carefully unbuckled the harness and drifted away from the co-CEO console. A soft kick against the seat sent her upwards, rebounding off the overheads with a practiced push that angled her back downward into the CEO area. Snagging the straps, she pulled herself into the seat and buckled in, settling back on the chair with a sigh and closed eyes.
It felt good. Almost too good: Like revisiting a childhood dream and finding it just as wonderful as before. The Command Executive Officer station was a staple of every ship, always raised slightly over everything else in the bridge. Supposedly it was to give the CEO direct sight to everyone's consoles... but realistically it was more about perception and authority. Whoever took this spot, took the ship. It wasn't Corporate Navy; not quite. But the feeling was the same, a throwback to when she still had ambitions and the drive to fulfill them. Before she'd given up the Navy for a lateral move into Middle Management and a tumble into ignominy.
Jamet fell into that emotion, mentally dropping back and downward into herself until she landed at the person she was nearly a year ago. It was a tough fit: She'd changed since then and knew it, could feel the parts that didn't fit into the Corporate mold any more. She was a lumpy, heart-shaped peg trying to convince herself to be sharp and jagged again.
Cupping hands together, Jamet rested her chin across both thumbs and closed her eyes. Mentally she gathered everything about the crew-- Janson's bearded grin, Emilia's struggle to trust, Paul's cautious oversharing, Siers' quiet confidence-- and put it away. Locked it in a box where she couldn't think about it. Empathy wouldn't help for this: Executives didn't have any.
It took a long five minutes, but she found that old Jamet again. Ruthless, hungry, casually dismissive. Management.
She wristed the console to life, dragging open Communications and selecting broadcast with sharp, angry motions. Her workspace lit up with a selection of frequencies, jumping bars showing which ones were actively in use. Jamet selected all of them at once, then set broadcast power on maximum to blot them out of existence with her signal. Whatever petty talks they were engaging in was unimportant now; they'd listen to her or else.
The channel clicked open. She had the whole band to herself.
Jamet spoke into the air with a voice colder than the space between stars and more bored than an immortal buried under mountains. "Material Extraction Station Fortune's Find: This is Executive Reals, commanding Fiscal Recovery Vessel Kipper. Cease all activity at once and surrender. Do not attempt to hide, we have pinpointed several dozen active transmissions and know your whereabouts. Do not attempt to sabotage, steal or repurpose any equipment-- doing so will be met with extreme mortal sanctions. You have five minutes to respond on any channel with a designated representative for forceful employment."
This prepared speech was the brainchild of nearly an hour's careful wording, every phrase crafted to inspire maximum Executive fear. The keystone to this threat was rebranding the Kipper as an authorized vessel of Corporate Headquarter's Fiscal Recovery division.
FR dealt with reacquiring assets from loss, damage or negligent mismanagement. They were the gleaners, the threshers, old-style carrion eaters crawling the remains of Corporate battlefields between every system. Recovery-branded agents held extremely wide latitude of authority when it came to reclaiming any and all property no matter what form it took: Raw ore, infrastructure pieces, natural resources... and most especially trained personnel.
They were the complimentary division of Fiscal Enforcement, the strongarm branch that showed up after everything went wrong to see what was valuable enough to salvage. Anything with a monetary value that wasn't in extremely small pieces became immediate property of the agency, adding to HQ's bottom line.
If Recovery showed up it was because everything (and everyone) around was already considered a loss. Which put any Executive still around on extremely thin ice, robbed of any authority in a heartbeat.
Jamet kept a bored gaze on the clock, timing out five minutes while imagining what had to be happening aboard the habitation ring. For sure their Executive was doing everything physically possible to get her people off their skinsuit communications devices-- the absolute last thing she needed was underlings cutting deals or giving information behind her back. That was the point of broadcasting to everyone: Giving the Exec something to panic about immediately.
It was also a foregone conclusion that a standoff was going down somewhere over there, abused workers versus their Management tormentor. Which was the other reason for claiming to be from Fiscal Recovery: If the Kipper flew in and announced they were rescuing everyone there would have been an immediate (and very, very bloody) comeuppance against the Exec as she lost all power at once. But broadcasting as Recovery changed the game, levelling the field: Now everyone had the exact same asset value, but their Executive might have enough personal pull to be able to leverage a better position for the group.
But her bargaining chips became the workers, alive and retaining asset value. She suddenly had to care very, very much about the health of her people.
Jamet would have laughed at the reversal, but that would require more perspective taking than she cared about.
The clock tipped past three minutes. When explaining this plan to Captain Siers he expressed a lot of surprise about the five minute timeline. "Why such a short time limit? It seems like if something went wrong they wouldn't be able to meet it. Won't that backfire?"
She'd grinned, delighted to explain game moves to a novice. "No, it's fine-- that's actually the point. Think about what happens if we give them something like a day to think it over." She pointed around the bridge, singling out a surprised Janson. "The engineer over here starts having second thoughts, maybe he talks a bit with comms," Emilia took a pointed finger. "They get together with Environmental and suddenly there's a power bloc. A strong group out for themselves. Meanwhile the Execs," Jamet pointed to herself and Siers. "Are trying to cut deals for their own advantage while fighting this new, upstart faction at the same time. It's a mess. Nothing gets done."
Siers looked skeptical. "And a five minute deadline stops that?"
"Yeah." She thought about it and frowned. "Well unless someone knew that was about to happen and preplanned. But that's unlikely in this case. Anyways," the dismissed the idea with a casual wave. "With such a short time to decide everyone just rolls with the established decision makers. The Exec will call the shots, get things moving, then promise the world to her people to prevent them from going back on the deal."
Numbers clicked over, becoming four minutes. Jamet felt smug. "Any moment now..."
"Fiscal Recovery vessel Kipper, this is Upper Management Executive Rachel Targer. I am the ranking member of the Fortune's Find and be aware: We have not ceded this station or its assets to any branch of Corporate, local or otherwise. I demand to know the name of your supervisor."
Over the last year Jamet Reals knew what it felt like to be dragged down. To be taken advantage of, kicked off every opportunity, pushed out and penalized for anything and everything. Doors slammed in her face, allies and friends turning against her, spitefully denied every opportunity. She'd been on the edge of oblivion or worse, taken there by a system she'd upheld and participated in at every turn.
And after all that time, all that struggle and hopelessness, every rage- and tear-filled night alone hunting for any position at all...
It was all worth it.
Jamet grinned like a shark, every tooth standing out in violent promise as she tapped the broadcast key. "You're speaking to her, Ms. Targer."

be me; old LizarDM
be also me; Anene Nolake (Goliath Barbarian), Noemi Meltruik (Aasimar Fighter), Pali Ogirn (Half Elf Cleric), Savar Tolkic (Dragonborn Monk) and Zethark Crulk (Bugbear Rogue)
trouble brews in Goren as the party begin to make their way back together after almost two weeks apart
meanwhile, the Saint's Regiment has taken full control of Theala, now working only to reinforce the country's borders and drive out remaining forces
the party take the time to recuperate before the war bleeds back into their lives, unaware of the threats already closing in around them

Anene stepped through the uneven inn door, a long, cloth covered object in her arms
she swept the soaking hair out of her eyes and gave a smile to the man running the inn
"really pouring out there, huh"
the inn keeper gave her an uncomfortable smile in return and glanced down at her feet
she dropped her gaze, seeing the puddle slowly forming beneath her
she winced. "Sorry. I'll uhh, just, take off the boots"
she peeled off her boots and gave an apologetic smile before walking across the cold floorboards to her room
she had scarcely touched the doorknob before the door was flung open, revealing Zethark
"PALI'S COMING BACK!"
she held out a hand to stave him off
"woah there. Just bring the energy down by a solid 50%"
Zethark paused to think before nodding
"he told me he's going to be here tomorrow, so I went out and bought stuff for dinner"
he grabbed her hand and pulled her into the room like an excited child
"come look what I got"
Anene smiled and allowed herself to be pulled inside
the smile faded as she saw the veritable hoard of groceries atop Savar's bed
"who are you planning on feeding? A small village?" she asked, placing her package onto her bed
Zethark shook his head. "Not a village, just you, me, Savar, Pali and Mako"
he beamed and gestured to the pile
"I've got jam because I like jam, elven bread because Pali says that's the best kind, we have chicken, beef, lamb and fish, because I know you and Savar like to have meat, but I wasn't sure which was your favourite. We've got cheese because Pali said that cheese and bread is really nice. I wanted to buy some alcohol too, but I thought Savar wouldn't like that, so instead I got a few bottles of this lemon drink that I got to test and it was really nice"
his eyes widened and he ran to the corner of the room and reached into his bag, pulling out a small, shoddily made wooden boat
"I also got this as a gift for Pali. He always buys me a gift, so I thought I'd buy him one for once because I have money. Also, the man who sold it said it would bring good luck and that it was made from a magical wood and I think Pali would like some luck and magical stuff"
Anene took a moment to process everything
"how much did this all cost?"
Zethark frowned for a moment
"42 gold pieces," he announced confidently
the goliath took a deep breath and forced a smile onto her face
"so about a third of our total funds?"
Zethark nodded slowly
"do you think Pali will like it?"
"yep...I'm sure he'll love it," Anene replied through gritted teeth
she looked at the bag. "Where's the rest of our money?"
Zethark darted over and pulled out a large satchel that rattled with coins
"in here. I wanted to keep it all together so I knew where it was"
Anene swore she felt a vein pop somewhere in her head, but she maintained her smile nonetheless
"how thoughtful of you, Zethark. Just...hand that over okay. I think I'll hold onto our money for now"
he nodded and stepped past her towards the cloth wrapped object on her bed
"what's this?"
she stepped over and grabbed his arm before he could pull away the cloth
"its something very special to me. I just got it made"
Zethark glanced between her and the object
"can I see it?"
Anene met his pleading eyes and patted his head
"maybe later, big guy. For now, do you know where Savar is? We need to talk"
Zethark looked down at the item on her bed and pouted. "He's visiting Mako. I'm not sure how long he'll be there"
Anene nodded and glanced over at the food hoard
"why don't you pack that up. Sort it into bags. We can't have it all lying about"
Zethark looked back at it and nodded. "Okay, I'll see you later!"
Anene made her way to the door and paused, turning around just in time to see Zethark staring at the cloth wrapped item
"no peeking"
Zethark grunted but looked away nonetheless
Anene took an extra second to make sure he wasn't going back for it, and then closed the door
she paused. Waited a few seconds. And then she opened the door again
Zethark stood up from her bedside
"I didn't touch it"
Anene sighed and walked in, grabbing the item and taking it with her this time as she left

Rorthak sat in his cell, legs crossed and hands on his knees
he took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before exhaling
there wasn't all that much to do in here
his restraints prevented him from moving much more than a meter
the bed, meant for normal prisoners, was out of his reach, forcing him to sleep on the floor
all he had left to him was the freedom of his own mind. A domain entirely under his control
he enjoyed conflict. He lived for the thrill of facing an opponent and testing himself against them in mortal combat
but he had become too strong. He hadn't faced someone capable of holding their own against him in years
he missed the challenge of a genuine threat
handicapping himself worked for a while. Fighting without weapons or armour was a true test of his might
but even that became too easy. And he resented taking fights with no challenge
allowing himself be captured was upsetting. Facing an entire squad of guards, alongside the three opponents he had just felled. That could have been fun
but no. The plan came first. The girl was not there, and so neither was the map. And so he had to wait
he often thought about her. That night that she slipped away
she was no match for him. No real threat at all. But his carelessness had allowed her to escape, and she had taken the map with her
that was a mistake he would not allow twice
how strong had she grown since their last match? Had that night haunted her? Driven her to improve herself?
the anticipation was truly thrilling
he wanted to fight her again. To finish what they started
but that would have to wait. Patience and communication would serve him better here. Even a man like him could recognize that violence would only impede his efforts
there was a knock at the door, and Rorthak cracked an eye open
he had an excellent sense of the passage of time, even in here. Lunch was not for another hour at least
the grate slid open, revealing a blonde woman with short cut hair, dressed in guard's armour
he had seen her before. She was often on the day shift
of course. When he had last seen her, her eyes had been blue. Not the deep purple they now were
"the preparations have been made for your extraction," she whispered. "We've taken a small house, just down the street. The occupants have been removed and the population is none the wiser"
Rorthak nodded silently. Things were moving quickly. Quicker than he anticipated
"I still don't have the map. Without it, there is no reason to leave"
"we can take it," she hissed, a cruel grin stretching across her lips. "Just give the word and we will slaughter them and take the map from their corpses"
Rorthak shook his head. "If you were to fail, they would know that they are no longer safe, and they will leave. If we are to act, we must do so with precision. I will not allow us to fail"
the woman snarled. "Patience will only get you so far. The master does not favour those who fail him. If your next meeting does not procure results, we will act upon our own plan. You can afford to play the long game, mortal. We can not"
the grate slid shut, and Rorthak rested back against the wall
working with Lomar for so many years had taught Rorthak many things. The value of planning. Of patience and cool headedness
but also the value of not placing all your eggs into one basket
Lomar wanted him to succeed, but that did not mean that he was not prepared for the goliath to fail
Rorthak's fists clenched
he liked challenges. He liked the threat of failure
but he hated losing more than anything else

Anene fell into an impossibly dark void, sinking as if in water
an expanse that stretched beyond any concept of distance or space
her breath came out in clouds, illuminated by the faint blue glow of the crystal in her palm
it was cold, but not uncomfortably so and she felt oddly at home in this great darkness
"your return was expected, Thunder Warrior. Tell me. Have you found what you were looking for?"
a velvet voice. Undoubtedly male, but entirely ageless. Echoing through the darkness with sharp clarity
Anene smiled, raising the crystal
"did you miss me?"
there was a warm chuckle. "To say that I missed you would be to say that I care for you. I will instead say that I anticipated your return"
Anene shrugged. "Probably the best I'll get"
she had a sensation of weightlessness, as if she were floating
it wasn't entirely unpleasant
"and to answer your question. Yes. I think I found what I was looking for"
"I am pleased to hear so," the voice replied. "Now. What brings you back? What do you seek?"
the golaith stared out into the darkness, trying to make out any semblance of...anything
her search came up fruitless, however
"I'm here for answers," she said
"then you have but to ask"
Anene took a breath and straightened her back
"do you lead people to Gilog Har?"
"I do"
"who will you allow to find the city? Do you have a criteria?"
Anene felt a vague sense of amusement emanate from the darkness
"the criteria is not of my own making. I will allow those with purpose to enter"
Anene frowned. "But what if the purpose is ill? What about those who's intentions are bad?"
"intentions are not for me to decide. Good, evil, neutral. Any with purpose may enter"
"so what's to stop someone from using what is in the city to wreak havoc?"
"Gilog Har is guarded. Those who seek to violate it will find nothing there"
the voice seemed deeper somehow. It radiated an aura that caused the hair on Anene's neck to raise
the words were more than a promise
they were a threat
she took a long pause, and the crystal in her palm hummed
"I have been given a decision to make. There are people who want this knowledge. Bad people. And they are willing to trade for it"
there was silence, and Anene took that as an invitation to continue
"they want this crystal. And in exchange, they will provide us with the means to save someone who has been greatly harmed"
the voice returned, but now it seemed somewhat quieter
"you are asking if the fate of one is worth giving up the city," it stated
the moment the words were said aloud, Anene felt a hint of shame
"that is not something I can decide for you, seeker," the voice continued. "No one person can make that decision for you beyond yourself. So, now you must ask yourself. What is the value that you give to a life?"
Anene looked down at the crystal
the small, blue shard of earth that held the key to so much
one small object that people all over the continent wanted so badly
and she made her decision

the cell door opened with a groan and Rorthak glanced up as the familiar figures of Anene, Savar and Zethark stepped into the room
the goliath's eyebrow raised and he sat up straight from his crosslegged position as the door closed behind them with a heavy bang
"well. This feels awfully final," he remarked. "I take it you've come to a decision, then"
Savar stepped forward before kneeling down in front of Rorthak
"we have. We've decided to take you up on your offer"
Rorthak looked over at Anene and gave a smile
"cooler heads prevail then"
she narrowed her eyes but said nothing, arms wrapped around a long object covered in cloth
Zethark stood by the door, hand resting on the shortsword by his waist, light crossbow held in the other hand, currently unloaded
Savar reached into his coat and removed the heavy puzzle orb, raising it for Rorthak to see before placing it on the floor at his feet
"the map. As requested. Do you have your end of the bargain?"
Rorthak nodded. "I wouldn't come to you if I did not have my own chips to play with"
there was a long stretch of unbroken silence where both sides stared at each other expectantly
after another few awkward seconds, Anene sighed. "I knew it. Let's go. He's not worth our time"
Rorthak tutted. "No patience, little one. Your prize will be here just about..."
there was a loud crack, as if a miniature lightning bolt exploded inside the room, and a small chest appeared at Rorthak's feet
Anene grit her teeth, and Zethark's fingers tightened around the shortsword
Savar raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware that magic could be used here"
Rorthak shrugged. "Perhaps in a more well funded prison, they could afford to keep every cell magically sealed. But in a town like Goren?" He glanced around him. "They'd be lucky to even have one. And clearly, I present no magical threat"
Zethark caught a flicker of movement in the corner of his eye
he glanced over to the corner of the cell, where long shadows stretched in the dim light provided by the single wall mounted candle in the room
though he saw nothing, his fur began to raise, and his ears dropped
"Savar..."
the dragonborn raised a hand to shush him, keeping his gaze on Rorthak
"there's a diamond in that box?"
Rorthak nodded. "Diamond dust. Very difficult to acquire during the war, but we have our means"
Savar leaned forward to grab it but Rorthak simply placed a heavy boot beside the chest. A silent threat
"that's not how this deal goes"
Savar frowned. "We're not giving you the map until we confirm that there's actually diamond dust in there"
Rorthak scoffed. "Do not demean me. I am not one to lie or cheat. I will open the chest. But in return, you will open the sphere"
Savar exchanged a glance with Anene. "Who says we know how to do that?"
the goliath raised an eyebrow
"you mean to tell me that in the months that you have possessed it, not one of you has been intelligent enough to decipher its code?"
he shook his head
"no. I don't think so. Open it, and our deal can continue"
Savar nodded and slowly passed the sphere over to Anene
Rorthak strained against the chains holding him back and lifted the chest into his hands
the goliath's eyes locked, and in unison, opened their respective storages
the chest opened, revealing a small silk satchel
the puzzle sphere opened with a low click, and as Anene separated the halves, the room went silent
empty
Rorthak gave a small smile and gently closed the lid of the chest
"I thought as much". He sighed, and with a low groan, climbed to his feet, chest in hands. "So what was the plan if this little ruse failed?"
Savar pouted. "Well. Honestly, we were just going to take that chest and walk out of here"
the goliath chuckled and held out the chest
"be my guest. I'm the only one who can open it, and in about 8 minutes, it'll be returned to its sender. Any contents inside will go with it"
Anene fought to hide her frustration as a smile stretched across Rorthak's lips
"so we're right back where we started, aren't we?" He tapped his foot. "We don't have all day, so you'd better make the map appear in the next 8 minutes or you'll have to explain to your friend why he'll be spending the rest of his life in a mental hospital"
the room went silent. The occupants painfully aware of each passing second
"give it to him," Anene whispered
the others turned to look at her, and the goliath lowered her eyes
"give him the crystal. He's won"
Zethark let out a small whine before reaching into a small pouch on his belt
he gave one final look to Anene before taking out the small, glowing blue crystal
Rorthak gave the bugbear a nod
"thank you. I'm glad we could come to a more civil arrangement"
Anene's fists clenched so hard her knuckles turned white, and with a swift movement, she snatched the crystal from Zethark's fingers and stuffed it into the sphere, snapping it shut with a click
"go to hell"
she threw the sphere to Rorthak, who caught it with ease, chains rattling with the movement
"very mature of you"
he opened the chest and carefully placed the sphere inside
there was a moment of tense anticipation, before finally, Rorthak reached in and pulled out the satchel
the chest disappeared with a loud crack, taking the sphere with it, and Rorthak tossed the satchel to Savar
"be careful not to spill any. Lomar likes to calculate to a very precise degree. Each particle there is required"
Savar narrowed his eyes as he carefully pocketed the satchel
"so what's the plan from here? You're going to spend the rest of your life in here"
Rorthak shook his head, face neutral once again. "Not quite. I've still got work to do"
Savar turned and knocked on the heavy metal door, and after a second, a guard pulled it open
Zethark slipped out, keeping an eye on the shadowed corner of the room, and a second later, Savar stepped out after him
"until next time, little one," Rorthak called
Anene stopped at the door, fingers gripped tight around the cloth wrapped object in her hand
"I'll be waiting"
the door slammed shut, leaving Rorthak behind
the goliath sat in silence for several seconds, listening to the footsteps disappear
the shadows in the corner shifted, and the female guard stepped forward, materializing out of thin air
her purple eyes glowed in the shadows, the candlelight faintly illuminating sharp fangs
"consider me impressed, mortal. I didn't have you picked for the intelligent kind"
Rorthak looked at her with a neutral expression
"not many do"
the guard stepped closer, looking up at the hulking goliath
"so. What's the plan now?"
Rorthak glanced around his cell. This small, cold square that had been his home for nearly two weeks
a pathetic place
"my work here is done. Patience has proven successful, but I think I'm in the mood to stretch my limbs"
a cruel grin stretched across the demon's face
"we get to have some fun?"
Rorthak looked down at her, meeting those enchanting, purple eyes
"yeah. Let's have a little fun"

First Post: https://www.reddit.com/CradledDnDStories/comments/dcnbn6/demoa_1_new_beginnings/
Last Post: https://www.reddit.com/CradledDnDStories/comments/kubae3/demoa_37_prisoners_of_wa
Next Post: https://www.reddit.com/CradledDnDStories/comments/lbgrft/demoa_39_part_1_warning_of_trauma_to_come/

Pirate Aggro – A Blast from the Past
Hello Everyone! I am Rhoombawhack! I just hit top 100 Masters with the winningest deck on Mobalytics and no one is talking about it, so I figured I would.
Since the new expansion dropped, I have been playing around with a number of decks, bouncing primarily from Fiora/Sparklefly, TF Go Hard, and Overwhelm variants, but none of them where having very consistent results. Prior to yesterday, I deranked from Diamond I all the way down to Diamon IV. I checked Mobalytics to see if there were any hidden gems in the rough, and after sorting by win rate, I found Pirates of all things at the top. Here is that list, which is the list I used to climb:
CECAKAQGCYQCMOR4AQAQGAQPEUUAEAQDAMCACAYGAYBACAQDAUAQCAZTAA
https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/code/CICAIAIDAIHSKKAFAIDBMIBGHI6AEAQDAMCACAYGAYBACAIDGMAQEAYFAA
Deck Commentary
In contrast to most aggro decks in Runeterra, this Pirates list is running a full set of 12 one drops. Aggro decks tend to bounce between 6 and 9 one drops, but having a full 12 is favorable in this meta. There are times where games are won because on Turn 3 you have played 5 units and the opponent just can’t keep up. Additionally, both Crackshot Corsair and Jagged Butcher have 2 Health, which is not only important for Imperial Demolitionist, but it also means that these units survive Go Hard. Having so many 1 drops also allows you to have a bit of a strange curve, as Demolitionist isn’t really a turn two play.
As I talk about having such an ability to go wide on board, it may seem strange to not include Arena Battlecaster. But, going wide is not your primary plan it is highly dependent on both your hand and your opponent’s hand. If they can match your tempo, then Battlecaster would be a dead draw because we don’t play many elusive, fearsome, or overwhelm units. Beyond this, a lot of our units, such as MF and Corsair like to sit back and chill, so they can’t take advantage of Battlecaster either.
Another interesting thing to note are the spells: this deck only runs 3 Decimate and 3 Fervor. For spells above that cost, the only consideration would be Decisive Maneuver, but we don’t really have enough overwhelm units to have a large enough pay-off. Because Zap really wants to be pulling fervor from the deck, we do not want to play any spells that cost 3 or less. And Fervor is such a strong card currently that is worth it to pay such a deckbuilding cost to have 6 outs to is. It basically carries your match against Targon Plaza variants by denying the lifesteal from Sunforger. It also helps against SI variants by denying lifesteal from Go Hard and Grasp, which give you extra reach.
The last real MVP card is Jack, The Winner. When this deck was super meta, I played it, and I found Jack subpar. I was thinking about him wrong though. Jack serves one purpose: he bridges your early and late game. Your late game is tied to either the GP level or the 8 mana needed to play Farron. Jack accomplishes both of these things well. Obviously, Sleep is a great tool to proc GP levels when it is the opponent’s attack, and Jack’s big body also allows you to stall because there are very few decks in the meta that like trading with him.
As a last note, while I have been referring to the deck as an aggro deck, it is important to remember that it is more of a burn deck. The key difference here is that aggro decks can struggle to win games after losing the board, but we don’t necessarily have that issue. As long as we can stall to play our burn, we are ok. This means that after the first couple of rounds, as long we have gotten enough chip damage, we can play to stay alive and let the burn finish the opponent, as long as they aren’t healing significantly.
Match ups
Go Hard:
Of all decks, Go Hard seems to be a pretty decent match up. This really surprises me: 1 health units are vulnerable, they heal, and they can board wipe you. But somehow, it isn’t too bad. It is probably because they struggle to interact with you at fast speed, so if you develop in the back half of their turn and open attack, you should be feeling pretty good. Additionally, it seems that the match up is swung because you can force them to use mana suboptimally by pressuring them. Additionally, they can struggle to deal with a wide board on Turn 3 (or to open attack on Turn 4). Lastly, they CAN struggle to close games if they can’t get their Go Hards going, so you can look to burn them out.
Targon Plaza:
My advice for how to play against Targon Plaza varies wildly depending on whether you are attacking on odds or evens, at least as far as the early turns are concerned. Assuming that you attacking on odd turns, feel free to develop into attacks up until turn 3. On turn 3 though, you should only develop if you can go wide or if they have already dropped a Shieldbearer. If you are attacking on evens, you should always open attack. Shieldbearer will ruin your attack on Turn 2, and Sunforger will ruin your attack regardless of when it is played.
After the early turns, it essentially comes down to whether you can dodge the Sunforger lifesteal, so Fervor is critical, especially if they get to play a Plaza. For this reason, be weary of playing Jack or GP. If they have Sunforger you cannot Fervor Jack or GP to kill them, and the Sunforger will get the lifesteal.
Other Plaza Variants: I’ll be honest here: I don’t have too too much to say. Either they are going to hit their combo pieces and you are going to struggle to play, or they are going to miss the combo pieces and you are good to go.
Fiora/Shen:
This matchup isn’t too bad, with a handful of exceptions. Firstly, you can struggle against Fiora because you don’t want to invest resources to kill her, especially considering that they tend to be able to either protect the Fiora, or they can Nopeify! your Fervor. Additionally, they do run Deny and Nopeify!, but those tend to be mere annoyances if they can’t stick a Fiora on board. The only other thing that can be a little scary is Spirit’s Refuge, but that card isn’t super common. The other thing is the obvious try to limit the Rivershaper draws if possible, but I think that’s more of a secondary thing.
Draven/Ezreal
This deck is trying to win the game in a similar way to you, but they sack a lot of their early game to make it a bit more consistent. So, more often than not this match comes down to you having a strong, somewhat wide, high tempo opener that they struggle to compete with, then they come back in the midgame, and you burn them out or they beat you because you run out of stall tools. Draven is a really big threat for no other reason than an inability to do anything to him. Ezreal, however, tends to be mostly irrelevant to the game past an elusive blocker as long as you have Fervor.
Feel The Rush
This matchup is another pretty easy one. They play a minimal number of early game units, and Avalanche isn’t particularly threatening. This is probably the one matchup where Demolitionist is a pretty great play on turn two, but only if you have a 2 health 1 drop as Demolitionist survives an Avalanche. Beyond that, work to stop Trundle from levelling before Feel The Rush because that will extend your clock by at least a turn usually.
Lee Sin Variants
These games tend to go in one of a couple ways: either they have Sparklefly and buffs, or they have an Eye Of The Dragon. If either of these conditions are met, then it becomes incredibly difficult to burn through the lifesteal that they have. This is probably the only reason to add another spell in addition to the deck, but between few good options to solve this problem (at least in our colors), and the problem being relatively rare, it isn’t too worthwhile. Even still, the matchup is still winnable because they still need another key combo piece in the for of Mentor Of The Stones for the combo to really go off. They also pack Deny and Nopeify! which can make the match a little questionable. This is a matchup where it seems to go to draws more than anything.
Butterfly Fiora
Swim’s latest toxic deck takes the two cards that our deck struggles to deal with and highlights how we struggle with them. If they get a big Sparklefly, that basically GG unless you can Fervor around it, but even then, they have Single Combat, which would mitigate the Fervor anyway. If they pick the Fiora wincon, it’s a similar story, but they aren’t lifestealing, so that’s a plus. And hey, there’s always about a 10% chance they just lose the game by default, so there’s that too.
Pirate Burn is an incredibly rewarding deck to those who are good at using Fervor. Unironically, this is probably one of the two biggest skills of the deck, the other being knowing the order in which you unload your burn. Regardless, give it a shot, and hopefully, you too will bring the Mobalytics average up.
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If you have any questions for me, feel free to ask, and I'll do my best to answer!

Well, it was a narrow thing but between votes from you readers here, and on my Patreon Pawn won out and will be the next series. If you liked the others I get the feeling they'll be next. I still have plans... so many plans! But for now Chapter 2 of Pawn! Hope you all enjoy!
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First Chapter
Neu Vieumau Joint Occupation Zone
Sanctum Habitation Dwelling
Raiden couldn’t help but smile a little as he watched the screen. “89% Great Improvement!” He quickly sent over a copy to Vix with a quick thumbs up. Soon after his screen chimed to let him know he’d earned a coupon for a half dessert ration with that test score. Shortly after Vix sent back a stink slug and her own 94% score, which made him grin. Of course Vix did better, she always did. But he knew how frustrated she got that by improving his scores he’d get more rewards than hers just always being good. Some people tried to game the system because of that. Not Vix though. She always went all out right from the start.
“Rai is class over?” He felt a tug at his sleeve as the soft voice spoke and he nearly jumped out of his skin in shock from both the tug and the voice.
“Loop-” He barely cut himself off from cussing as he looked back at the younger Davari girl just behind his chair. Her face slightly concerned and worried after his reaction. She was wearing an oversized yellow shirt with a cartoon octopus on it. Aki The main host of the educational kid’s show put out by the Joint Occupation Government. “Jesus Juala! Don’t sneak up on me like that!” He growled out at her and then immediately felt bad about it as he saw her shy away a little.
“Sorry.” She was already turning to leave when he reached out to set a hand on her shoulder.
“It’s fine Juala. I just… was finishing up a test and was very focused. You startled me. It’s okay. What did you want?” Raiden was a little annoyed with how often Juala came to him for things, but then he felt worse if he tried to chase her off or get her to leave him alone. He was stuck.
“I didn’t mean to startle. But… food?” She asked with an obviously hopeful look up at him as she clasped her hands together.
“Didn’t Suviki feed you yet?” Just after she shook her head he glanced at his watch. It was just after one in the afternoon and she wasn’t up?! Raiden wanted to growl all over again, but knew it wouldn’t do any good. He hated that junkie… “Alright. Hold on a moment.” He let out a heavy sigh and turned back to his small laptop to send Vix a message he needed to feed Juala, then he’d meet her downstairs. She sent back a thumbs up and he pulled his student ID from the side which turned off the computer.
It was one of the ways the JOG tried to fight people just selling them since they only worked for kids with verified IDs so they could participate in school. Yet, it didn’t always work. Raiden had missed some tests after his last laptop had mysteriously vanished from his room one night. His dad had been angry Raiden even accused him, or Suviki yet Raiden knew it was one of them. Obviously. Of course when wasn’t his dad angry? Thankfully Vix had gotten him a replacement soon after.
Still, Raiden walked with Juala into the main room of the apartment as he walked over into the cooking corner. Opening the half fridge he sighed as he tried to figure out what he could work with. Of course the flat vid screen was still set up in front of the worn and tattered couch his dad had found on some street corner. Couldn’t sell the vid screen. Oh no. But steal a school laptop? Sounds good. Stock the fridge? Or keep paying vid subs? Vid subs it is!
“Eggs.” He announced, as he reached in to grab the carton. For some reason he checked the little spot for butter, as if by some miracle there would be any. Of course it wasn’t butter. It was dietary animal fat. Because butter was expensive, and dietary animal fat was as cheap as it got. Still, he needed something to cook the eggs in so he grabbed a chunk of that, and then the small tub of salsa he’d gotten… When had he gotten it again? He opened it up and took a sniff. Didn’t smell bad, and didn’t seem to have any mold… It would do.
“Omyay?” Juala hopefully asked as she saw him taking the eggs out.
“I still don’t know how to make an omelette Juala. They’re fancy. Mine are just scrambled. Go to my stash and grab salt and pepper.” He told her next. She nodded and scurried off to his room. Meanwhile he grabbed the small pan and set it on the hotspot, turning it up before adding the chunk of dietary animal fat. As that started to melt a bit he cracked two eggs into a big glass, adding a bit of water from the tap before scrambling them up with a fork. Juala returned just as the animal fat was melting and spreading out across the pan.
“Here.” She held up two small packets, one of salt and one of pepper. Raiden carefully saved all the salt and pepper packets he could from rations, and if any restaurants let him take extra. A bit of salt and pepper went a long way in cooking. He ripped them open to dump into the eggs before pouring it all into the pan. As it started to cook he tapped out a bit of salsa into the pan as well. Juala just watched from behind him, focused on what he was doing. He knew she could likely do it herself but she was forbidden from using the hotspot. Of all the things Suviki was actually worried about for her daughter… Can’t use the kitchen, but don’t mind if she’s starving!
Raiden felt more of his own anger rising up inside of him even as he scrambled the eggs around in the pan. He resented having to take care of Juala. She wasn’t his child! She wasn’t his sister! They shared no blood! But was it her fault? No. Part of him just wanted to make her do it herself like he had. Why should she get someone to help out when he had no one? Yet… he already knew that he’d still help because when he didn’t the guilt would well up inside him until it was unbearable. But it didn’t make him like her. It just made him resent her only slightly less than his guilt would allow.
“Get your plate.” The eggs were done as he turned off the heat and waited for her to grab her bright blue plastic plate from the lower cupboard so he could scrape the eggs onto it. Just as he did the door to the main bedroom opened and Suviki walked out. Of course. Just after he had already done all the work. The Davari woman yawned and stretched, seemingly oblivious to how the small shirt she wore clung to her as she did. Raiden looked away, and set the pan and glass he’d used into the sink. “I made Juala breakfast. Your turn to do the dishes.”
“Thanks Rai.” Juala happily spoke up with a smile as she went to sit at the table to eat.
“You used them. You clean them.” Came Suviki’s reply as she mostly ignored Raiden and walked over to turn on the vid screen and grab her ultrasense box. Even as she did she let out a little happy giggle, as if she just couldn’t wait to get high. Raiden glanced at the xeno woman for a moment, his anger rising still. Couldn’t she even bother to put some real clothes on? Not just a tiny shirt and gym shorts that had less fabric than his underwear? Some of the guys downstairs liked to visit just for that but it always made him feel… uneasy and dirty somehow.
“Hey, I had school you know. I don’t wake up early just so I can take care of your kid.” He’d had the argument countless times before but he still needed to say it.
“And I appreciate you doing it.” She called back as she sat down at the coffee table before the vid screen, opening the box to prep the ultrasense for her afternoon dose.
“I don’t want your appreciation. I want you to clean the dishes!” Raiden called back. “She’s your daughter! Why don’t you actually take care of her?”
“Raiden.” The deep voice made him jump a little as he looked at the large figure in the doorway to the master bedroom. “You used them. You clean them.” Raiden tensed at the sight of his father. The large man’s body was covered in layers of ritual scars from his newfound faith in Swagin. The scars crisscrossed a lean and muscular form honed by hard labor, and yet his flesh had a much more pale and pasty coloring from years of unhealthy habits and drug use. Not to mention for as much time as his father slept his eyes were ringed with dark circles as if all that sleep never brought any actual rest.
“I only used them because you both just woke up! She has a child to take care of and she’s getting up after one!” Raiden growled back. He knew he shouldn’t say anything. But… he had to. Something in him refused to let him stop from at least pointing out the unfair nature of the setup.
“Raiden. Stop being a disrespectful little shit. Clean the dishes.” His father’s voice had immediately turned hard. He hadn’t hit Raiden in a few months but the underlying threat was always there. Lurking just beneath the surface. And not far beneath the surface either.
“Shouldn’t I get paid for my daycare services?” Raiden tried next, still feeling like he needed some kind of fight. But this made his father stalk forward, and Raiden could only barely contain his flash of fear and hold his ground. His father looked down at him as he approached, crossing his arms.
“Shouldn’t I charge you rent for living in my home? I’m the one with the job here Raiden. You get to live here. You get fed. That’s your pay.” Of course that’s what he’d say. Never mind that just about all the food Raiden got was from mandated ration packs anyway. Or that the apartment cost the same in rent no matter how many people lived in it, or the additional support his father got by having a dependent.
“You gotta make Suviki start taking care of her own daughter more! It’s not my job! They’re not family! It’s bad enough you forgot mom so easy-” Raiden let more of his anger out as he growled at his father.
“Suviki is your mother now! Juala is your sister! We are a family by ceremony which means more than you appreciate you little shit! And if you utter one more disrespectful fucking word I’ll-” Even as Raiden simply stood there his father’s right hand clenched into a fist. His legs wanted to betray him. To just make the first move and run for it. But he forced his feet to remain stationary. To glare up at his father.
“Dan, my Gelumiv. Leave him alone. I got the ultrasense going and I’ve only got a few hours till my shift starts.” Raiden watched his father look off at Suviki as she was already using a small blowtorch to melt down the drug, preparing the stim injector vial with a funnel.
“Watch your tone Raiden.” His father wagged a single finger at him a moment and pulled away to join Suviki at the couch. She had already loaded the vial into the stim injector for him. Raiden looked over then at Juala sitting at the table. Her head was low, fork lightly scraping at her eggs. He felt bad about how he talked about her… But then let out a hiss and turned back to the sink. He quickly scrubbed the pan, spatula, and glass out to set them in the drying rack. Good enough, he figured as he quickly headed out the door.
Once he had stepped out and slammed the door shut he just let out a low wordless growl and ran his hands through his hair before forcing himself to stop and relax. His breathing grew more controlled and settled and then he smiled. He didn’t really feel like smiling just yet but he still forced himself to. He was going to see Vix and he didn’t want her to know anything was up. Feeling more prepared he quickly headed over to the stairwell to get down to the first floor. Even as he was walking down the stairs he could hear voices from below. Laughter and talking. Vix and the orphans were getting ready to head out it sounded like.
“You ready for half of a half of a dessert ration? I think that’s a third right?” He asked as soon as he saw Vix. Hearing his voice the Jipasi girl looked over and rolled her eyes. Her blue triangular ears flicked back and her rainbow tail curled up to display her annoyance. She was wearing the same surplus mountain camo fatigue jacket she always wore, matching it today with olive drab cargo pants. There were plenty of non-military clothes but Vix always preferred them since they were made for utility and function. Raiden wished he could get some but his dad forbade it. He held a stupid grudge about mom’s death. As if the military wasn’t fighting the Hive the entire time.
“You know full well that half of a half is not a third.” She crossed her arms and glared at him a moment as he just grinned back.
“Do I know that?” He teased a little. Vix lived on the second floor in the barracks for wards of the state and other orphans. Though he’d never call her an orphan since she hated the term. After all she’d managed to live alone for years after her older brother disappeared. But the JOG didn’t care. Juveniles without living, responsible, and physically present families were all housed in similar such barracks across the city. At least they got free education, healthcare, and food out of it. Plus a small stipend. Raiden had a family, and was worse off for it.
“I’m positive you do. Though I know you don’t honestly game the system. You’re just that dumb without my help.” Vix grinned as she said that and it was his turn to roll his eyes.
“Don’t make me regret asking for your help to begin with.” He was about to go on, but he saw the other kids from the barracks heading out into the stairwell. It was mostly Davari, with a few other Jipasi, and two Ravex who even now towered over most everyone else despite all of them being around the same age. Raiden was the only human kid in the building. It hadn’t made him any more popular once the Void military took over patrol duty for this area of the city from the old Citizen’s Militia. Right now Raiden was less worried about his popularity though, and more worried about how all the kids had backpacks or satchels and looked like they were headed somewhere specific. “What’s going on? Is there a field trip I didn’t know about?”
Vix frowned a little as she glanced back at the others. “Ah… everyone wanted to head to the ferry building before the big rush.”
“Oh. Well… we can still hang out right?” Raiden asked, and then felt a bit more worry as Vix’s tail dipped.
“Actually… I wanted to head there too. I know it’s short notice and I should have told you earlier so you could make other plans… But… Well my brother was last seen at the ferry building you know. And I found someone on the family reunion forums that might know about him. So… I really wanted to check it out. And… I know you’d go if you could but…” She trailed off a moment. “Look you know I like hanging out with you. Everyone does. You’re an honorary part of the barracks! But…” She had tried to soften the moment but trailed off again.
She didn’t want to just say outright he was flat broke and couldn’t afford the tram ticket. They got passes every month from the government. He had to walk everywhere. It limited where he could go and still hang out with them. Usually Vix stayed behind with him since she knew what it was like from her time alone. Plus they’d grown up together. But… even she had to ditch him sometimes. That little voice in the back of Raiden’s mind remarked she was probably thankful to get away from him for a while since he was so needy and clingy. But he quickly told that voice to shut up. “That’s alright.” He waved it off.
“You’re okay with it?” Vix checked, and he could tell by the flick of her ears and unfurl of her tail she was hopeful he was indeed okay with it. Part of him wanted to just ask what could he honestly do about it? Guilt trip her into not trying to find her long lost brother? What kind of guy would that make him?
“Yeah. I mean, it’s nice out. I’ll go check out the park.” He remarked which made her laugh.
“Oh yeah. Maybe check out the zoo.” She teased.
“Yeah good idea.” He nodded before snorting a bit. The park, and zoo had both been destroyed in the war. People these days mostly joked about going to the park as a means of saying they’d just wander around bored. But then an idea hit him. “Oh! Use my ID code for the half dessert ration.”
“What?” She blinked in surprise. “Why? It’s yours you earned it.”
“I only scored so high with your help! I was going to give you half my half anyway. You can find way better dessert rations at the ferry building. Just, bring some of it back if you can. Or if you can’t bring any back you can split your next dessert ration with me anyway. That’s plenty fair.” He smiled, as he felt good about the idea.
“Okay.” She smiled back, her tail unfurling fully to show off the rainbow colors as she obviously liked the idea too. “I hadn’t thought about it. But you’re right, way more variety around the ferry building. Cool.” She set her hands on her hips and nodded then for a moment. “Cool. Yeah. Uhm… Thanks for being so cool about it! Us going I mean. You know we’ll hang out soon.”
“Yeah. You guys going to be back tonight?” He checked, a bit worried they might stay longer.
“We’ll see. I know some of them wanted to use the temp barracks out there and see the light show tomorrow but it might already be full. We can’t reserve them obviously. If I get a good lead I might stay longer too.” Raiden caught himself immediately worrying she’d find some sign of her brother which might mean she’d leave soon. But, again guilt hit him for being worried about Vix finding a way to leave. She’d been looking for her brother and he’d be terrible to hope she never finds him just so he could have her around.
“Gotcha.” He just smiled and nodded, trying to appear casual and relaxed. “Well you guys have fun. I’ll go see if the line for the zoo is really long.” Vix grinned wide.
“See you soon Raiden.” She nodded then and gave him a little wave as she turned to join the others heading down the stairs and out of the building. He just kept smiling so as she reached the bottom and looked up she’d see him smiling down and gave her a wave. She waved one more time and headed out.
Once she was out of sight his shoulders slumped and he felt the energy drain from his face. A moment later he just rubbed his face with his hands and headed down the stairs as well. But he moved slow, not wanting it to be extra awkward and step out of the building while they were still on the street. Just as he reached the first floor though he saw the building superintendent standing in his door. Or… more standing just inside the door and totally filling it up.
“[Hey dwelling manager Reudi.]” He greeted the fat Davari in decktongue.
“Hhhhhhh.” The Davari’s heavy breath hissed in and out as he nodded. The super creeped Raiden out. He creeped everyone out. His breathing was always so heavy and labored… Raiden wasn’t even sure how the guy could move around. He had to be hundreds of kilos. Raiden had never seen anyone so fat before. One pudgy hand was waving a hand fan to try and cool himself off. It wasn’t even that hot… for normal people at least. Raiden wondered just how hot the Davari was under all that fat… How had he managed to stay fat since the end of the war? Did all the rent money go to food?
“Uhh… [See you later dwelling manager Reudi.]” Raiden added and quickly scurried past the door to get outside. There were rumors about Reudi being some kind of perv. But Raiden figured the guy was too fat to leave his apartment so it was probably just rumors. Honestly what could he do?
Once Raiden was outside he could see the tailend of Vix with the orphans to his right heading to the tram line. So he quickly headed left, and rounded the corner onto Herui street. In his haste he nearly ran straight into a group of soldiers. “Whoa, slow down kid.”
Raiden gulped and backed up a bit as he looked at the squad of humans. Their armor painted blue, with some splotches being more worn than others. They’d never intended to become a permanent fixture in society and had to do what they could to adapt since the end of the war. Just like everyone else. “Sorry.” Raiden looked down away from the soldiers then and slipped past. They didn’t stop him, which was nice.
He knew that plenty of locals preferred the old militia but they’d always had a habit of harassing non-locals. And since Raiden was human they assumed he couldn’t be a local. As if he could be some tourist. Not like Neu Vieumau was isolated from the rest of the galaxy or anything! Three measly systems isolated from the rest of civilization. Hey look at this human kid! Obviously he was a tourist!
Still… Raiden didn’t want to linger by the soldiers and moved up the street to round another corner into an alley behind the old cultural exchange building. It had been partially destroyed in the New Years offensive and left abandoned since then. But it had some interesting old art to look at if one didn’t mind the burnt rafters and crumbling floors. Yet, he once more had to stop as he saw a pair of Davari up the alley. Neff and Lenk, the neighborhood assholes. They were each holding pipes as they were smashing something on the ground. No wait… A person? Were they beating some person in a robe? He stood in shock as he saw an arm reach up as if to defend the figure they were beating. “Hey!”
He was as surprised as the Davari to hear his voice ring out. They stopped though and looked up at him. “[Not a word Raiden!]” Lenk leveled the pipe he was holding at him. The anger he’d felt before at his dad swiftly rose up within him. He wasn’t going to do what they told him! Especially not now!
“Hey!” He cried out again and stepped out of the alley, now yelling at the human soldiers he’d seen up the street. They paused and started to look back at him. “Hey help! Someone is getting attacked down there!” He pointed.
“[You’ll regret this Raiden!]” Lenk yelled back but they were already turning and running off down the alleyway. The soldiers were swift as they ran up past Raiden and gave chase. One of them paused a moment at the fallen figure they’d been beating but then kept running. This surprised Raiden as none of the soldiers seemed to help the poor person. The bullies, and soldiers were running off still as he jogged up to try and find out what was going on.
Once he was closer though he saw why the soldiers had kept running. It wasn’t a person. It was a bot. It was twitching a bit and writhing on the ground. The chassis had obviously been broken and cracked. Sparks flying out randomly from the broken head of the bot unit. Joints bent and twisted from getting hit with pipes. What was a bot doing here though? It looked fancy. Some sort of gold or silver inlay across the faceplate and chest. Though he wondered why it was wearing an old torn robe.
Raiden’s eyes went wide though as he looked at the chest of the unit. It had been broken up and he saw a symbol on the interior. The Absolute Dynamic’s logo. The company had made the best military tech, and been responsible for the apocalypse. To say nothing of all their warcrimes. But… it was also supposed to be the best… The bot let out a series of beeps or… chirps at him a moment before he saw the lights in its eyes flicker and die. The sparks also stopped. Raiden gulped a little and looked up the alley towards where the soldiers had run.
Would they be back? He knelt down over the bot and quickly grabbed the main chest of the unit and pulled up, hearing synth snap and break as he opened it up. Inside was a mass of mechanical and electronic parts and he had to stop and think. “What’s the most valuable part of a bot?” He asked aloud. They’d had a small unit on bot functionality just a few months ago. He’d gotten a B minus. “The control unit!” In the center was a cracked and chipped synth case where most of the cables, wires, and other boards converged.
Grabbing it he immediately let out a hiss and let go, it was incredibly hot! Waving his hands in the air a moment to try and cool them off he looked around for something to use. He saw a length of copper pipe nearby. Had Neff and Lenk been pulling them out of the old building? Either way he grabbed one, wedging it into the chest of the bot. He couldn’t exactly see what he was doing but he thought he had it wedged in under the control unit and then set one foot on the chassis while he shoved down on the pipe. There was a groan as he heard synth fracture and snap before there was a louder Pop and the pipe swung up with the sudden lack of pressure.
Raiden dropped the pipe and reached in, hissing in pain at the heat of the control unit in his hand as he pulled it out. Once it was out he dropped it on the ground to try and keep from burning his hand. Looking around the alley he saw plenty of trash scattered around and grabbed an old pizza box, using it to scoop up the part. Looking up the alley he saw a soldier looking around. Was he looking for the Davari? Or Raiden? Either way Raiden quickly ran back up the other way clutching the pizza box to his chest. His heart was racing as fast as his feet as he ran down the street.
What had he even just done? Everything had happened so fast he hadn’t actually had time to process any of it. Though the faster he ran the more he was aware of the feel of his feet on the sidewalk. What passed for his shoes were little more than old rubber soles and torn cloth held together with lots of greytape. Running like this put them at serious risk of completely disintegrating. So he slowed down and tried to think. What did he do with the control unit? He needed to get rid of it as fast as possible! How? Where?
Pawn shop! Looking around to try and reorient himself to figure out where he was in the neighborhood he quickly moved towards the pawn shop that was a block off from his home. However just as he made it to the street he stopped. There were more human soldiers on the other side. Were they the same ones from before? They had a tow truck and were standing around a van for some reason. They had to be different. Act casual… He slowed down to a normal walk and headed for the pawnshop.
“Hey kid!” Raiden flinched as he heard a soldier call out to him. But since he’d stopped he looked over, still clutching the pizza box. “Do you know whose van this is?”
“Uh… yea. I think that’s Mister Murizi’s old van.” He replied which now made all the soldiers look his way.
“What? You know whose van this is?” The soldier now seemed surprised.
“Yes?” Raiden was now very unsure.
“Where does this guy live?” The soldier asked and Raiden pointed past him at the house they were in front of. “What?! Are you serious? We’ve been asking all over who owns this van and you’re telling me it belongs to the asshole who lives right here?” The soldier asked. “Why wouldn’t he talk to us then?!”
“He hates humans. He used to scream at me whenever I walked by.” Raiden replied.
The soldier looked at the one next him. “Sarge we’re still going to tow it right?”
“No. Now that we know who owns the van it’s different.” The soldier, apparently the sergeant next to him, replied.
“Awww, but the kid just said he hates humans! We’ve been trying to find the owner all this time! Fuck that guy!” The first soldier groaned.
“We follow regs. Get the translator and get rid of the tow truck.” All around the squad of soldiers began to groan.
“Thanks alot kid!” The first growled out.
“I’m sorry.” Raiden was still frozen in place holding the pizza box.
“It’s alright. Thank you for helping out.” The sergeant replied before he began to organize the soldiers. Now that they weren’t focused on him Raiden quickly slipped into the pawn shop. He’d never been inside but he knew about it. When he saw the turrets on the ceiling though he paused.
“Hello, welcome to my pawn shop. I… did not order a pizza.” Raiden looked down from the turrets at the man behind the glass. He had deeply tanned skin and greying hair but a nice smile. He was wearing an apron with some grease stains on it. For some reason just seeing him helped Raiden calm down and relax a little. He didn’t know the owner was also human.
“Pizza? Oh. Uh… it’s not pizza. I just…” Raiden approached the glass. “You buy bot parts right?”
“I do. But, first let me introduce myself. I am Gustavo Clay. But my friends call me Clay. What’s your name?” Raiden blinked, a little off put by the man being so formal yet casual at the same time.
“Uh… Raiden.” He replied.
“God of Thunder and Lightning? Impressive. I was not expecting to deal with a god today. Or a spirit depending on your interpretation.” Raiden was now totally lost even as the man’s easy smile partially set him at ease.
“God of thunder and lightning?” He asked, obviously unsure what was going on.
“Raiden. Your name. Mythological Japanese god spirit.” Clay seemed to sense Raiden’s continued confusion. “That’s the origin of your name. No? Not… familiar with the lore?”
“Uhm… No.” Raiden confessed.
“Well, that’s the origin. Now, what can I do for you Raiden? I presume you have something in the box?” Clay gestured at the pizza box in his hand.
“Yes. It’s… It’s an…” He stopped… Should he mention the Absolute Dynamics logo? Was selling their stuff illegal? “A uh… I think it’s a bot controller.”
“Oh?” Clay pulled some glasses out from the top pocket of his apron and put them on. “May I see it?” Raiden approached the glass and opened the pizza box. “Hhhmmm…” Clay leaned over and squinted at it from the far side. “I can’t really inspect it from this side. Would you mind setting it in the turntable?” Clay gestured at the turntable built into the glass to move things from either side. Raiden reached in and gently touched the part. To his surprise it was cool to the touch. Could it really dissipate heat that quick? Either way he carefully picked it up and set it on the turntable.
“I’m fairly sure these are valuable.” Raiden tried to sound more confident as he said that.
“Yes, they usually are.” Clay nodded as he rotated the opening to grab the part. He looked it over closely and then pulled out a small tool of some kind from his apron, opening up the cracked synth cover. “But unfortunately this one is broken…”
“I mean that’s expected right? This is a pawn shop. I’m not selling a working bot controller. But it’s worth something. I’ve done research.” Raiden tried to defensively explain.
“Well… If you’ve done your research you’d know that these are very precise things. So yes, they can be worth a great deal even if not working… Provided they can be repaired easily. Look…” The man held the part close to the glass. “The processor housing is totally cracked, half the control board is burnt out, and whoever removed this just ripped it free so half the onychispeculo were broken open.”
Raiden looked around the shop a moment noting all the bot parts on shelves behind the glass. “Yeah but you fix bots here.”
“I can fix motors, and mechanical parts. This? This is very high tech and requires some precise and particular tools. Tools usually found in dedicated cleanrooms in very high tech facilities. I’m flattered you think I’ve got that kind of thing to work with here but my dear thunder and lightning god unless you’ve got some magic I don’t know about it’s simply beyond my abilities.” Raiden wasn’t sure he’d ever been told no in such an eloquent yet roundabout way. It hardly felt like a no. Even if that’s what it was.
“It’s full of rare bits… gold and diamonds and that… onyxissspecs…. Stuff.” He tried next. Didn’t people sell gold at places like this?
“Ah! You mean if I were to try and smelt this? Well… that is also not something I have the facilities for. This is a simple pawn shop. Not a forge. Also this doesn’t really contain that much of those materials. It’s mostly valuable because of the aforementioned precise technical work.” Clay set the broken controller back into the turntable to rotate it back around to Raiden. Raiden just stared at it, feeling defeated. Then again, what had he expected? He’d just… broken a bot and tried to make some money off it. Why had he even done it? Had his brain just shut down?
“Well… thanks…” He wasn’t sure if he even wanted to pick it up again.
“Want me to dispose of it?” Clay asked.
“Sure.” Raiden shrugged and turned to head out the door.
“Wait.” Raiden stopped and looked back as Clay seemed to examine him. He adjusted his glasses and carefully looked Raiden over. “How would you like to make some money?”
The man had been nice to him… and he had just looked Raiden over very obviously… plus he did talk kind of funny… There were rumors about how some people his age made money… “I uh… I’m keeping my clothes on.”
“What does that have to do with-” Clay obviously looked confused before realization hit him and he held up his hands. “No. No no no. I need someone to deliver some packages.”
“Packages?” Raiden hesitated. “Like… the post office?”
“Sort of. But it’s more that I have some customers who have a hard time coming down to my store and I’m trying to make it easier for them to get orders. It’s very minor and I don’t want to deal with the post office if I’m just having things delivered a block away. But of a waste. Don’t you agree?” Clay smiled, his expression still charming and helping Raiden relax.
“Why don’t you do it then if it’s that close?” Raiden didn’t really have a reason to doubt him but it was still odd.
“I’m afraid I’m the only one who works here. I must have someone watching the store after all. I have four packages here if you’re interested in delivering them. You are looking for some credits yes? That’s why you brought the bot controller?” Clay gestured to the broken piece once more.
“Yeah… How much?” Raiden turned back, much more curious now.
“Ah, let this be a first little test of mine. You make an offer. You tell me how much you want to deliver them. If it’s too high… I’ll decline. But if it’s a good price… We can do business.” Raiden watched the man, unsure why he’d make a deal like that. Was he hoping Raiden would go low then? How much did people usually charge to get things delivered? Vix had mentioned it once when she bought that compass. Did he charge a lot? But then the store owner would turn him down…
“Three.” He finally announced.
“Three credits?” Clay checked.
“Per package.” Raiden quickly clarified. “Three credits per package… If they’re within a block.” He didn’t want to get suckered into walking all around the city for three credits.
“That does sound amenable.” Clay kept smiling. “I will also not interfere if the client gives you a tip. Though I don’t know if they will. The culture of tipping across Neu Vieumau and in fact all former Telucid territory is… nebulous at best. Even so I’ll give you a package, you deliver it and return.”
“Wait… Where are they all headed?” Raiden asked. Clay behind the glass pulled up a small pocket slate, tapping on it a moment before a little printer on Raiden’s side of the glass activated and spat out a small piece of paper. Raiden grabbed it as it fluttered towards the ground and looked it over. “If you give me all four packages I can make it in one loop. Much faster that way.”
“But what’s to stop you from just taking all these packages? I have just met you after all.” Clay asked, watching Raiden carefully.
“I… What’s to stop me from stealing just one package though?” He countered.
“One package might be a small loss. You have no idea what’s inside. All four are a much more tempting target.” Clay tilted his head a little and adjusted his glasses.
“I uh…” Raiden thought about it a moment and then reached into his pocket to pull out the only valuable thing he had to set in the turntable besides the bot controller. His student ID card. “You hold on to that until I get back.”
Clay frowned and rotated the glass before picking it up. “A student ID?”
“A JOG issued ID. I need it to get past any security checkpoints. Or use my computer. Or get rations. I can’t anywhere or do anything without it. You give me all four packages and you keep that until I return.” Raiden wasn’t even sure why he wanted this man to trust him so badly. Surely this was something he would have to accept if Raiden was going to deliver some packages for him? Though… maybe this could become an actual job.
“Very well.” Clay pocketed his ID, and then walked away. For a moment Raiden thought the man was just stealing his ID as he walked into the back of the shop and a moment of panic welled up within him. Yet, it subsided just as quickly as he saw Clay return with a few small brown boxes. “Here you go.” He began to send them through the turntable.
“Also I need a backpack.” Raiden added, realizing he couldn’t carry them all at the same time.
“Oh aren’t you pushing your luck?” Clay asked and arched an eyebrow. “A backpack and all these packages? I am going to be very disappointed while tracking you down if you run off with all this.”
“I won’t.” Raiden promised, though he wondered for a moment if Clay was serious about tracking him down. Was that a thing? His eyes flicked back up to the turrets in the ceiling. He watched Clay go to a particular cabinet in the back then, opening it up to reveal a dozen or so different backpacks as he seemed to slowly inspect each one. “Oh uhm… About the credits… Do you sell shoes? Maybe instead of credits we could… make a trade or something?” This caused Clay to look back.
“You’re looking for shoes? I have a number. What is your shoe size? And how many credits do you have to spend on it?” Even though both were reasonable questions Raiden felt his cheeks flush as he realized the answer to both.
“Uhm… I don’t know… and… Once I’m done delivering packages… I’ll have twelve credits to spend.” When he said that Clay stopped and looked at him with… Raidne wasn’t sure what emotion crossed his face. Confusion? Curiosity? Concern?
“Well, I certainly don’t have any shoes for twelve credits but let me see what you’re wearing. Take a step back from the glass if you don’t mind.” Raiden took a step back and Clay leaned over a little, his head pressing against the glass as he looked down. For a moment Raiden heard him mutter something about Zeus Kristo and his cheeks flushed brighter. But they were all he had. “Is that just… some rubber and fabric bound with greytape?”
“Yeah.” Raiden’s voice was quiet.
“I’m sorry. I know you must be doing the best with what you have. Hold on. I have something for you.” Clay walked into the back office of his shop once more. Raiden just slowly looked around the pawn shop at all the things behind the glass. Rations, medicines, weapons, bot parts, there were some boardgames. Was that a really fancy chess board? “Here it is.” Raiden looked back as Clay returned, holding a small piece of paper which he set into a small black nylon backpack and sent through to Raiden’s side.
“What is it?” Raiden asked as he pulled out the backpack and the paper.
“That is a coupon for one free set of boots from the nearest police station.” Clay smiled at him.
“You were just hassling me for a backpack that’s got to be just a few credits and now you’re giving me a set of boots?!” Raiden gasped out.
“Ah yes, but see the backpack is my credits. That coupon is government credits. They’re worthless to me. But valuable to you. They handed out a number years back as part of a footwear for the needy program. I’m honestly surprised you never got any.” Raiden suspected that his father had likely ignored it if he’d even heard of the program.
“Is this instead of the credits for the deliveries?” He checked.
“No, you go get yourself some proper footwear. If you’re going to be my delivery boy I need you wearing something you can use all day.” Clay smiled.
[Continued in comments]