#Dispatch system scaling

[full-stackmobiledeveloper]

Scaling a Dispatch System? Here’s How to Bulletproof It Before You Launch

Excerpt: Got a dispatch or ride-hailing app? Before you go global, your system needs to handle multi-region traffic, simulate failures, and stay online 24/7. This post highlights what real growth means—and why testing for distributed resilience matters more than adding new features.

The on-demand economy has fundamentally reshaped how we consume services, from food delivery to ride-hailing and last-mile logistics. At the core of every successful venture in this space lies a robust and intelligent dispatch system. It's the brain coordinating drivers, vehicles, and customer requests, ensuring seamless, efficient operations. For many businesses, the dream is not just local domination but global expansion – reaching new cities, countries, and continents.

However, the leap from a successful regional operation to a truly global presence is fraught with technical complexities. It’s not simply about translating your app into different languages or tweaking a few parameters. Real growth means your dispatch system must be bulletproof, capable of handling multi-region traffic, withstanding unforeseen failures, and maintaining continuous uptime, 24/7, across diverse geographical and technological landscapes. In 2025, the emphasis has shifted dramatically from simply adding new features to ensuring your core infrastructure possesses distributed resilience.

The True Meaning of "Scaling" a Dispatch System

When we talk about scaling a dispatch system, we're not just referring to an increase in the number of concurrent users. It's a multifaceted challenge encompassing:

Geographic Distribution: Your system needs to perform optimally whether a request originates in New York, London, or Mumbai. This means managing latency, data synchronization across continents, and localized data processing.

Peak Load Management: The ability to absorb sudden, massive spikes in demand (e.g., rush hour, special events, or even unexpected weather conditions) without degradation of service.

Data Volume and Velocity: Handling petabytes of real-time location data, transaction records, and user interactions, processing them instantaneously for optimal dispatch decisions.

Operational Resilience: The capacity to recover quickly and gracefully from hardware failures, network outages, or even software bugs without disrupting service. This is where the concept of "bulletproofing" truly comes into play.

Regulatory Compliance: Adapting to distinct local regulations, data privacy laws (like GDPR, CCPA, or region-specific mandates), and payment processing requirements without rebuilding the entire system.

Trying to address these challenges reactively after launch is a recipe for disaster. Downtime, slow response times, and data inaccuracies will erode user trust faster than any new feature can build it. This is precisely why pre-launch validation for a dispatch system is non-negotiable for any entity aiming for global reach.

Why Distributed Resilience Matters More Than New Features

In the competitive landscape of 2025, user experience is king. A slight delay in dispatching a ride or a failed delivery due to system glitches can lead to immediate customer churn. While new features might attract initial attention, it's the underlying stability and reliability that retain users and drive long-term adoption.

Distributed resilience means designing your system so that it can continue operating even if parts of it fail. This involves:

Redundant Infrastructure: Deploying your system across multiple data centers and cloud regions so that if one goes down, others can seamlessly take over.

Decoupled Services (Microservices): Breaking down your monolithic application into smaller, independent services. If one service encounters an issue, it doesn't bring down the entire system. This is a core tenet for any modern mobile application development company.

Automated Failover and Recovery: Systems that automatically detect failures and switch to healthy components without manual intervention.

Data Replication and Consistency: Ensuring that critical data is replicated across multiple locations and remains consistent, even during outages.

Bulletproofing Your Dispatch System: A Pre-Launch Blueprint

To achieve this level of resilience, a rigorous pre-launch validation process is essential. This is where partnering with an experienced mobile application development company can make all the difference.

1. Comprehensive Load and Stress Testing

Beyond basic functional testing, you need to simulate real-world global traffic:

Global Load Simulation: Use tools to mimic user requests from various geographical locations simultaneously. This helps identify latency issues and regional performance bottlenecks.

Peak Demand Scenarios: Test for volumes 5x, 10x, or even 20x your expected peak. Understand your system's breaking point. A dedicated mobile app development company will conduct these rigorous tests.

Component-Level Stress Testing: Isolate individual services (e.g., mapping, payment, driver matching) and stress them independently to ensure they can handle extreme loads.

2. Chaos Engineering and Failure Injection

This is the ultimate test of resilience. Instead of just hoping your system works, you actively break it in controlled environments:

Network Latency and Partitioning: Introduce artificial delays or disconnect parts of your network to see how the system behaves.

Resource Exhaustion: Simulate CPU spikes, memory leaks, or disk space shortages in specific services.

Service Failure: Deliberately shut down instances of services to verify automated failover mechanisms. This proactive approach helps to find weak spots before they become production issues. Many mobile application development service providers integrate this into their QA.

3. Data Consistency and Integrity Checks

As data flows across regions and is replicated, maintaining consistency is paramount.

Conflict Resolution Testing: Simulate scenarios where data conflicts might arise (e.g., two drivers accepting the same ride simultaneously) and ensure your system resolves them correctly.

Data Integrity Audits: Regularly verify that data replicated across different databases or regions remains identical and uncorrupted.

Disaster Recovery Drills: Practice restoring your entire system from backups in a different region, verifying data integrity and recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs). Partnering with a skilled mobile application development company ensures these protocols are robust.

4. Internationalization and Localization Validation

Beyond mere translation, ensure your system adapts culturally and functionally:

Timezone and Currency Handling: Verify correct processing of payments and scheduling across all target timezones and currencies.

Map and Routing Accuracy: Test routing algorithms with local map data, considering regional road rules and traffic patterns.

Regulatory Compliance Checks: Engage legal and compliance experts in each target region to review your system's adherence to local laws. This often requires close collaboration with your mobile application development partner.

5. User Acceptance Testing (UAT) with Real Users in Target Regions

There's no substitute for real-world feedback from actual users in your target markets.

Pilot Programs: Launch a beta version of your app to a limited set of users and drivers in a new city or country.

Feedback Loops: Establish robust channels for gathering feedback on performance, usability, and any localized issues.

Metrics Monitoring: Closely track key performance indicators (KPIs) like dispatch success rate, average driver response time, and customer satisfaction.

An experienced mobile application development company like CQLsys excels in orchestrating these real-world validation phases, ensuring the product meets local expectations.

Partnering for Success: The CQLsys Advantage

The complexity of bulletproofing a global dispatch system demands specialized expertise. An experienced mobile application development company brings the necessary technical prowess, architectural understanding, and quality assurance methodologies. They can help you design scalable cloud-native architectures, implement advanced testing frameworks, and navigate the nuances of global deployment.

For businesses looking to expand their ride-hailing or delivery platform, securing robust and resilient mobile application development solutions is paramount. From designing fault-tolerant systems to executing rigorous chaos engineering, a dedicated mobile application development firm ensures your system is not just feature-rich, but truly global-ready. Their end-to-end expertise covers everything from conceptualization to launch and beyond.

Conclusion

In 2025, the ambition to scale a dispatch system globally is commendable, but the path to achieving it is paved with technical challenges. Simply adding more features without first ensuring the underlying resilience and scalability of your system is a dangerous oversight. By prioritizing comprehensive pre-launch validation, including rigorous load testing, chaos engineering, and meticulous localization, you can bulletproof your dispatch system against the inevitable shocks of global operations. This strategic investment in resilience, supported by the expertise of a specialized mobile application development company, is the true key to unlocking sustainable global growth and ensuring your service remains online 24/7, no matter where your users are. Your future success depends on it.

[mydearestbeloved]

Ok but esper!Jinwoo and guide!reader wasn't something I was thinking about but it sounds delicious and it will now constantly be on my mind along with your tp!au. I totally get the struggle of wanting to hop between series but also wanting to stay on task lol. I love your work - thank you for feeding us 🙏❤️ take care of yourself!

Never thought anyone would notice that little bits I put in a reblog—at least not to the extent of mentioning them in an ask! 😂

I'm still very much obsessed and dead set on finishing Trial Player AU—but!

My mind wandered to an idea for Guideverse, where Reader is a special guide. She's an all-time high-compatibility match with many espers of various ranks, and her guiding power is incredibly strong to boot! Unfortunately, this makes her a rare commodity, so she's kept on standby for only the most special situations—ones that may or may not even happen—and used as a ready-to-dispatch backup in case any esper ever goes berserk. Because of that, she was never truly bonded to "the one", as per the usual one guide-one esper match.

That is, until Jinwoo reawakens as an S-class esper with his power scale offing the charts right from the get-go. The association in charge of esper-guide matching scrambles to find someone for him, and Reader is hastily appointed. The thing is, Jinwoo already has the System to stabilize him, so he doesn't actually need her guiding. Still, she does her duties diligently, staying by his side and all that. Her guiding—while rendered obsolete for stabilizing his powers—ends up offering Jinwoo peace of mind instead: calming his heart, body, and mind whether he's in turmoil, riding an adrenaline high during or after a raid, or when he just wants to not think.

I'm thinking of that "she fell first, but he fell harder" dynamic. Beside Jinwoo, Reader finally feels like she can be a person instead of a commodity. But she also feels useless, since her supposedly high-tier guiding—the very reason she was assigned to him—proves more or less ineffective for his actual condition. She feels like she have nothing to offer him back in return for giving her a life.

Jinwoo falls for her because she's just an overall sweet person to him, caring for him when she doesn't have to. Especially since, with their abnormal esper-guide temporary bond, she could technically just sit back and not bother with him.

Eventually, the matching association notices the abnormality and requests a proper compatibility test. And well—their score comes back as a 7. Not 70, not even close to the average stable match of around 60-ish. Just 7%. A number so low it makes everyone question how in the world Jinwoo is even receiving her guiding without showing a single ounce of agitation in response to the incompatibility. They association's conclusion? Reader's guiding is potent enough to override the low compatibility. 🤔

After that is just various shenanigans:

How Jinwoo staves of the matching association from disturbing his and his Reader's peace with their annoying insistences, that they can find him a better match but with the priority goal of retrieving Reader back into their arsenal;

How Jinwoo, after multiple experiences of being guided normally by Reader, starting to wonder how it would feel like to undergo the quote-unquote "Ultimate Guiding" by—ahem—sleeping with with her 🤭;

How Jinwoo wanting to be officially bonded to Reader, truly and permanently, as her one and only esper; and... yeah, that's how far my daydreams about this version of guideverse have gone, for now. ASDFGHJKL 🤣🤣🤣

Thank you for your kind words, dear Anon. You take care of yourself too! 🥰

[eureka-its-zico]

A Body of Stars

Ongoing series

Synopsis: With a galaxy at war, it’s hard to distinguish the stars from the metal of UNSC ships. You were told about the war that waged between the UNSC and insurrectionists; your planet opposing them since you were born. Your enemy was meant to be the UNSC and the Spartans they created, specifically John-117 - the Master Chief. Except, all isn’t as black and white as you were raised to believe, and the galaxy holds secrets far darker than you could’ve imagined.

Pairing: John - 117 x F!Reader

Genre: enemies to lovers, strangers to lovers, slow burn, eventual smut, Halo TV series/Mass Effect mashup

Warnings: mentions of war, violence

Word count: 11.7k

A/N: Alright. As hyper fixations go, the Halo series (and let’s be real, Pablo is a menace) has my ass in a chokehold. That being said, season 2 was amazing and made me want to work on a small fic that blended the series and my love of BioWare’s Mass Effect. Mass Effect is my favorite sci-fi space game about galactic war, friendship, love, sacrifice. I could rant but I won’t. There will be mentions of certain ME things in here, like the reader having biotics, to go along with the lore of the halo series. So, without further ado: its back story time. I hope someone out there enjoys this and as always, thank you for reading 🖤 much love, Jenn

Year: 2521

•Shadow Sea cluster•

•Lera system•

Destination: Laconix

ETA: 13 hours

The Midsummer Night came out of slip space without a hitch.

Not that he’d been worried. It was one of the few things that Captain Jacob Keyes hadn’t worried about during this current mission. What, or rather who, currently worried him was standing less than ten yards from him and came in the form of his ex-wife. He risked a glance where Dr. Catherine Halsey was hunched over with her nose deep inside another holopad. 

Those holopads had been one of the many reasons why their marriage fell apart. 

There was no doubting the brilliance her work contributed to the scientific field or the war effort. All of her research was the stepping stone humanity needed in terms of augmentation and the human genome. The contributions Halsey and her Spartans made towards this never-ending battle against the covenant saved lives, but, and it was a big but, Jacob knew that Halsey’s methods were questionable, at best. Hell, he’d been a part of those questionable decisions, driving the helm, while she did what she deemed was necessary. 

Vital. 

So, Jacob Keyes knew without her ever having to say a word that something was off. The Midsummer Night and the Pegasus holding Halsey’s darling Spartain-III’s were meant to go for a routine extraction. Intel indicated one of the leaders in the insurrectionist rebel groups, Kahn Montrello, was located on a planet within the Lera system of the Shadow Sea cluster. It was a typical snatch-and-grab unless they were met with resistance. 

Halsey requesting to tag along was more than just a surprise. It was suspicious. Jacob knew Halsey didn’t do anything without purpose.

“Tell me again why you’ve insisted on inserting yourself into a routine mission dealing with insurrectionists?”

Halsey hadn’t even looked up from the damn holopad to acknowledge he’d walked over. 

“I’m just here to gather some data while the Silver Team is dispatched to help your marines on the ground.”

Jacob’s boots scuffed against the metal of the bridge as he moved closer to her. His eyes on Catherine’s back - willing her to turn, to acknowledge him - as her gaze held tightly to the readings she’d taken from a tablet from her lab. The data was transferred to the larger scale computer in the bridge’s main console. Halsey’s eyes roaming endlessly through data Jacob himself knew he’d never understand without her help. 

“Come on, Catherine. That may be the bullshit you fed Parangosky and the other admirals, but don’t feed me the same lies and expect it to go down smoothly.”

Halsey broke away for the briefest millisecond from whatever data she was reading. Her eyes skimmed over him before returning back to what was more important.

Research in the name of human exploration always was.

“It’s not bullshit. Data collected in the field is highly valuable for furthering my research; proof to Parangosky the Spartan research is worth her continued funding.”

“That’s a nice speech, Catherine, but I know that any collected data during the mission is recorded and sent back to your lab for analysis. So, when are you going to start telling me something honest?”

Honesty. 

Asking Halsey to be anything other than secretive was like asking a tiger to get rid of its stripes. Jacob knew even if she told him - really shared - it still wouldn’t be all of the actual information. Key pieces of information - the most valuable - would be forever stored within her; leverage for another day. 

Whatever it was she could see on those holopads had her sky blue eyes wide in excitement. Halsey wouldn’t be able to contain it - hide it - for much longer.  If the small rise at the corner of her mouth was any indication, all Jacob needed to do was push a little further. Find the right words to spark a rush of hypotheticals that might turn out to hold some truth. If she didn’t crack yet, it would take one more well-placed question and she would cave. 

“Jacob,” her voice was breathy, tinged with unrestrained joy. “I think I found something.”

“What are you talking about, Catherine? Found something?”

More cryptics. More hoops. 

A sigh heavy with years of fights - conflicts - departed his lips and Halsey rushed to recover some ground. Her body quickly took back the space he left to place her hand gently on his bicep. The grip was soft but demanding that he stay close; pleading with him not to pull away.

Halsey needed him. 

“A few weeks ago the UNSC sent over old documents from companies they’d disassembled. Conatix was one of them.”

It wasn’t hard to spot the confusion that deepened the lines in the crease of Jacob’s forehead and scrunched up his nose. His eyes roamed her face searching for a tell, but if Halsey had one she’d never show it. 

“Conatix was an old UNSC factory that produced our warships-“

“Yes, I know.”

“Why would you be interested in anything about warships?”

Halsey scanned the room to make sure no one was watching - no eyes lingering on the two of them - before she directed her attention back to him. The caution that darkened her eyes shifted with a spark Jacob knew all too well. 

Halsey had found something. Really found something. 

“Usually, nothing of value would be of interest in old documents and schematics for warships but, while scrolling through the files I stumbled upon an encrypted file.”

“UNSC documentation is always encrypted when it’s being shipped out to-“

“To be destroyed, yes I already know that, Jacob,” Halsey cut in. Her body directed back towards the holopad that she carefully picked up. Her fingers darted across the screen hunting for the files in question. “But this was different. It wasn’t schematics or calculations - it was redacted - sealed documents about an incident.”

No sooner had she started Halsey was finished. Her hand reached out to give him the holopad and waited patiently for him to take it. 

“Go ahead.”

Jacob looked around the ship's bridge to make sure no one was watching. He needed to be careful, not necessarily for Halsey’s sake, but for that of his crew. He should’ve known - did know - Halsey had a habit, a bad one, to go above the chain of command to get what she wanted. That leverage she saved for a rainy day coming in hot to throw around pawns and pieces as she saw fit to get her way. 

Cautiously, Jacob secured the holopad from her and started looking at the documents, or what little he could see. Almost with every swipe all he saw were broken links and documents with holes of information missing. Sentences that formed into two words with the rest gone or replaced by shapes and numbers. An elaborate break in the code. 

“I was able to decipher most of them. Get back what information they tried to hide-“

“Catherine,” he whispered her name in warning, not for himself, but for her. 

“Jacob - this wasn’t about warships or weapons or schematics. Something happened. A ship they’d used with element zero - eezo - had leaked out over a few colonies. A hole in one of the port engines that wasn’t caught in time.”

“Catherine,” Jacob pleaded again, “This isn’t news or anything that concerns you or me.”

Halsey wasn’t going to back down. He knew she wouldn’t. Not when the sheer joy of finding something undiscovered was close. The science behind furthering human evolution. The moment he realized what this was - what he held in his hands - Jacob knew his eyes were saucers. The sudden shock of realization stunning him to the spot. 

“Children, Jacob,” Halsey practically laughed. “The pregnant mothers who were infected by the particles gave birth to children with eezo ingrained into their nervous system. The abilities these files claim they saw…it’s like nothing I’ve ever read.”

In her excitement, Halsey reached out and took a hold of his arm. The startled warmth of her touch was enough to knock Jacob back out of his daze. His eyes skimming one more time over impossible things he saw in diagrams Halsey recreated. 

“Even if that was true, you don’t even know if any of them are still alive or where they are.”

With her lips curved up in victory, Halsey plucked the holopad from his hands. 

“Yes I do. We’re headed there now.”

————-

“You get caught staring up at the sky again and Caster is going to throw a fit.”

“When isn’t he throwing a fit?”

Your question wasn’t meant for an answer. The words barely made it above a whisper while you kept watch on the green hued light that streaked across the sky like a river. Calling it green felt like you were doing it a disservice. You knew it was more than that - the way it moved with purpose across the endless blue above. The different shades that reminded you of the grass on which you stood and dark as the forest that surrounded you. 

“Come on,” Thao called over his shoulder. Your name calling from his lips like it would be enough to coax you forward. “I want to get back to actually enjoy what little of my day I have left.”

“You can enjoy it now,” you reminded him. 

It took a few more seconds - another millisecond after that - for your eyes to turn back to the world around you. The snap of a branch somewhere off to your right informing you Thao had taken off without waiting for you to catch up. 

“Not when my friends are back at the colony having fun without me. And I’m out here looking for dumb ass yaks.”

A small tut of disapproval clicked at the roof of your mouth. Your stride easily brings you closer to the shorter eleven-year-old boy. It allowed you to gently ruffle his hair. Your efforts were greeted by a grunt of annoyance with his hand grabbing at your wrist to gently shove you away. 

“And just think, you would be there now, doing whatever it is you troublemakers do, if you and your friends hadn’t set a flare off inside Caster’s hut. And don’t disrespect the yaks.”

Thao’s eyes disappeared inside his head as your elbow gently nudged his shoulder. You must be making some kind of progress, because this time he made no move to push you away. 

“Old man deserved it. Always hoarding the chicken eggs.”

“He owns the chickens.”

“So?”

“So,” you drawled, “it means he owns the eggs. Owning the eggs also means he gets to distribute them however he sees fit.”

“How is that fair? You know he gave Lydia and her kids three eggs last week? Three eggs. What is a family of five supposed to do with that? It’s not right.”

You knew what Thao meant. You understood the feeling of anger that burned into sadness and ultimately to the ash of defeat. Kahn allowed those who proved useful in the fight against the UNSC to have a majority hold on most of the items in the colony. Those who allowed themselves to be shuffled around an unseeable chessboard like pawns. 

Willing to die, to give up everything, at his disposal. 

All in the name of fighting a government who grew more powerful everyday. The UNSC sharing their own videos of propaganda that showed thousands upon thousands of soldiers equally willing to die for a cause, and Spartans being the unmovable force needed to shift any battle back into the UNSC’s favor. It was this very reason Kahn looked for those desperate enough to join, to do anything he asked, to win. 

A devoted father agrees to be a walking bomb to blow up a UNSC building? His family is rewarded with food, wood, and blankets to help make it through the harsh winters. Attempting to infiltrate a building to release a virus, whether you were caught or not, Kahn took care of your family. It could be with livestock, guns for protection, or even the yaks whose pelts made the biggest profit at the markets. 

Every loss of life was just another reminder of the men and women who slowly disappeared from the colony. A senseless loss of life. You were still trying to figure out what it was for; what purpose you hadn’t been able to see, because for every life lost in the pursuit of justice against the USNC, their numbers only grew. The colony's numbers, however, weren't so lucky. 

“You could turn this war around.”

“I won’t kill for you, Kahn.”

You swiftly whipped your head to the side to rid yourself of the memory. Your eyes narrowing on the green rolling hills on the other side of the treeline. That was where you would find the yaks grazing. You gently patted Thao’ss shoulder - for whatever comfort it would give - before you moved forward to take point. 

“That’s because it isn’t fair, Thao.”

“See! Even you agree,” Thao huffed out your name. His small body broke into a jog to match your hurried step. “If anyone in the colony would be able to kick his ass, it would be you.”

Your feet were turning before you’d even realized it. Your body answered the piercing spike of adrenaline in your blood with your hands shooting out to grab his shoulders. The action made you crouch a couple inches until you were face-to-face with Thao. Your eyes scanned wildly across his features reading nothing but uncertainty. 

“Don’t ever say something like that out loud again, Thao. Do you understand me?”

“I was only saying-“

“I know what you're trying to say. The answer is no, and if Kahn or any of his dumbass lackies ever heard you even mention something like that we are both as good as dead.”

“But-“

“Tell me you understand!”

If anyone asked why you felt the sudden surge of panic ripple over your skin, you wouldn’t be able to say, or  place where it stemmed from. Technically, the both of you were out in the safety of the mountain fields and away from the prying eyes of Kahn’s dictatorship. Lost behind a sea of forest, the rolling fields of green, and poppies that puddled around you like blood. 

You’d seen what Kahn and his insurrectionists were capable of. Any whisper - false or not - and the person went missing. Kahn ruled the colony with the fear generated by the UNSC, but cultivated his own like the boogeyman. 

“Yeah I get it. Whatever.”

Thao shrugged out of your hold and turned away from you. His pre-teen feet stomped a path out of the tree line and out into the field. A sigh left you, worn and heavy, as you watched his retreat. 

I Should’ve been softer…

You let out a huff of air as a hand scrubbed over your face. It was supposed to be a simple ‘herd the yaks back to the colony’ type of day. Not grovel to one of the only people - kid or not - who wasn’t afraid of you. 

It was your turn to jog after his retreating form. Quickly, you noticed that he didn’t even look up to acknowledge your presence. He wasn’t sending jokes about being an old lady (you were twenty-four, thank you very much) whose brittle bones could snap under the strain of being a person. You would’ve taken being called an old lady than suffering through the silent treatment. 

Gently, you nudged his shoulder with your elbow. When he didn’t turn you tried again and again until, finally, you were rewarded with him turning an annoyed side-eye in your direction. You gave him your best apologetic smile and carefully looped your arm around his shoulders to bring him in close. 

“I’m sorry. Okay? I was kind of an asshole.”

“A major asshole.”

“Okay. I’ll accept that major part but only for today.”

“If there was an asshole award, you would’ve taken home the prize-“

“Okay, geez. I get it.”

You both settled into a comfortable pace with your arm still draped over his shoulders. Your mind raced back to the last time you’d been able to do this.  Thao had been younger - shorter - and with the rate he was growing, you soon might not be able to reach him. Soon, Thao might not care for your company. 

“You know, I am surprised you didn’t fracture an ankle running after me at your tender age.”

“Alright, that’s enough for today,” you grumbled in mock annoyance. 

You ended up having to shove him away just to try and hide the smile that threatened to lift the edges of your mouth. The sound of Thao’s laughter at your weak attempt at being mean - he 100% knew it took way too much to even make you raise your voice - made the crack of a smile begin to form. 

The yaks were about another ten or so feet ahead of you both. Their massive bodies moved in slow steps while they grazed along the long grass. You weren’t sure if it was their adorable long bangs that made it impossible for them to notice you right away (doubtful) or if they just didn’t consider either of you a threat (possible). Either way, they didn’t startle as the two of you closed the remaining distance. Didn’t jump up to try and kick or gore either of you with their horns when Thao produced the ropes from his satchel. 

It took a grand total of ten minutes, maybe less, to have all seven of the yaks securely held in makeshift collars from the rope. Their large bodies begrudgingly followed the two of you as you gently pulled the lead, forcing them to give up their meal of dewy grass and follow you back through the treeline. 

“You know,” Thao cautiously began, his eyes skimming between you and the trees. “This might be a lot faster if you just…ya know, float them up.”

“Float them up?”

“With your blue magic.”

This time you weren’t able to hide your smile as you shook your head. 

“It’s called biotics, Thao, not blue magic.”

“Blue magic sounds waaaay cooler than ‘biotics’. Who even came up with that lame name, anyway.” 

“You can thank the good folks at Conatix for that one.”

One of the yaks pulled back on its lead forcing you to give a slight tug back. You could understand if they were tired after eating, but you really didn’t have time in your schedule for yak naps. A huff of air came from the nostrils of the yak to drive home that it wasn't happy not having its nap. Or maybe it was the berry bush it was after, either way, napping and eating stops were prohibited. 

You weren’t aware the conversation had died until Thao’s voice interrupted the silence. 

“Is it true that you were born like that?”

His question was timid - afraid he would upset you. You were used to the questions; the stares. You remember sitting with your parents in a room, about Thao’s age, when Conatix came back around trying to clean up their mess. Said mess being spilling eezo from their ships across planets that later infected children. While some pregnant mothers had children like you, exposed to element zero in the womb creating a nervous system made of eezo, a majority were far less lucky. Children born riddled with tumors or horrific physical complications that left them in pain their entire lives. 

You were supposed to be a lucky one. 

One of the lucky ones they’d been trying to take back with them to their laboratories. A lucky one meant to be bought by a substantial fee that your parents quickly declined. It was the last choice they ever got to make for you before they mysteriously died in a tragic accident off-world. 

“Yes.”

You didn’t feel lucky and maybe it was the way the words crumbled out of your mouth. The way they sat suspended in the air in a swirl of regrets and dead wishes that Thao knew you didn’t want to talk anymore. Not about your past or anything that reminded you that what you are - who you are - has felt like one big burden. You wondered, most nights, if there was a possibility that curses could be born. 

————

The rest of the walk back was filled with an awkward silence. You weren’t sure if it was one you’d made by your lack of response, or if Thao no longer felt like talking. A part of you feared the image he’d held of you since he was young, full of mystery that made you seem cool, was slowly becoming destroyed. You knew it was a matter of time before it happened.

You were an anomaly. 

Children saw you as magical, while adults believed you could perform some kind of mind control or read their thoughts. It was the main reason Kahn wanted you to join the resistance. Who wouldn’t want someone who could read thoughts and control minds on their team? You’d know when and where attacks could happen and make them blow up their ships from the inside. Unfortunately, for Kahn, the only thoughts you could read were your own and, as of right now, they were desperately shouting at you not to lose one of the few friends you had left. 

Even if they happened to be a young boy who was notorious for being the most talkative kid in the colony. 

With a few more steps up the hill, you both came to a stop at the top of the hill. You took in the thatched roofs of the huts that lay scattered in a misshapen circle of rows. The outer ring of homes were made of clay and the only splash’s of color came from designs being painted on the sides of homes or flowers planted in the yard. 

The middle ring was meant to be for men like Kahn and his commanders; men and women of importance so that they lived closer to the final, smaller ring, of storefronts and farmers. The middle circle was left open and featured a large walkway down the center of town and out into the hills. 

Kahn specifically had the colony built this way. The walkway was the most important, because Kahn believed it was good for his people to be able to watch those that fought for their freedoms return from another victory against the UNSC. You knew it was more about parading around having people kiss his ass than for uplifting any kind of morale. 

It was the same path that Thao and you took now as you brought in the yaks from the mountains. You knew it wouldn’t be long until you got them back inside their pen and with the irritated snorts and tugs on their leashes, the yaks knew it too. The sound of multiple small feet came rushing in on Thao’s side and the faces of a few village children came into view. They made sure to stop just before they got in the way of a yak. 

“Thao, can you come play?” 

“Not yet. I have to finish this choir for Caster.”

A lot of groaning ensued and you felt your free hand reach over the back of a yak. Your fingers waving for him to give you his leashes. Thao’s brow raised in question and you only answered him by pointing at the leash and waving him again to hand it over. 

“Hurry up and give them to me before I change my mind.”

You were trying to be grumpy. The way any elder in town would complain about the youth of today being too soft and not knowing the meaning of hard work and blah blah. You were sure they were all just stuck in super grouchy mode from having to be an adult with responsibilities for too long. And because of that, you knew, instead of looking grumpy, a smile was already brightening up your face. Thao’s face lit up in response and his eyes darted - unsure - from up the path and back to you. 

“Are you sure? Caster -“

“Will never know that you didn’t help bring them all the way back. Now, like I said, hand over the lead before I suddenly have a fit of amnesia.” 

He didn’t need further prompting. Thao’s hand smashed the remaining leashes into your waiting palm and turned on his heel to run off with the other kids. A soft, “thank you,” calling out behind him. 

You didn’t waste any more  time watching their retreating backs as they tore down a small alleyway between huts. You had your own things that you still needed to finish today. As you continued on your way, you greeted people who were outside in their gardens or hanging up laundry. Some of them returned your greetings of, “Hello,” with grunts with their backs turned to you or hurried inside. Apparently, if they didn’t look you in the eye or were behind the safety of a wall it kept you from using your mind control powers. 

You were willing to bet Kahn had something to do with that latest lie about your make believe abilities. If you wouldn’t fight for him, why not cause a little mass panic in your presence. You being the monster and him, the hero, forcing you to toe the line. No ‘mind reading’ unless it was for the ‘cause’. 

As you neared the pen in front of Caster’s shop, you started to rotate the leashes tighter in your hands. You were positive if the yaks felt a slack in their leash, they would attempt a revolt. They also weren’t the biggest fan of the metal pen of broken down ships Caster created to house them; the metal of an old hatch door from a USNC frigate - rusted and covered in moss - groaned as it opened. A sound the yaks knew well and instantly sent their hooves stamping into the muddy grass. 

“Alright, ladies, I don’t want any trouble. It’s time to get your butts back in here - whoa!”You shot around with a start as one of the yaks gently bumped its nose against your back sending you forward towards the pen. “None of that,” you mumbled. Your index finger pointing at your chest then back to every single one of them. “Your home, not mine. Now go.”

With a cautious glance over your shoulder you took a step forward leading the herd inside. It wasn’t until you’d begun to remove their leashes that the familiar sound of a man clearing his throat brought your gaze up to search the fence. It didn’t take long for you to find Caster leaning against it. An arm hanging over while the other held up whatever self-righteous bullshit questioning he was about to spew. 

“Where’s Thao?”

“He helped me bring them here, Caster. I sent him on his way once we reached the pen.”

“That’s not what he was told to do and you don’t have any authority to change orders.”

Every word reached you like a slap in the face. Caster’s irritation was evident with the click of his tongue. You tried to keep your face neutral; your gaze fixed on one of the yak's as your fingers ran through the tangled fur. You gave one final pat to signal your departure before you walked back to the pen’s exit. 

“I wasn’t aware Thao had to be the specific individual to deliver a bunch of yaks inside the pen.”

“Bullshit,” Caster snarled your name. His body closing the distance between you as you stepped through the pen entrance. “You can try and play dumb with me all you want, but we both know you aren’t that damn dense. Thao can’t shut up even for a second in his sleep, and you’re trying to tell me the boy magically didn’t complain the whole time he was with you?”

Caster invaded what little space you had once you stepped fully out from behind the pen. The door hadn’t even closed yet before Caster rushed you, attempting to trap you between him and the metal. The cold gray of his eyes roamed your face waiting for you to break at his intimidation. 

One of the Shadow Sea’s three moons would have to explode first before that ever happened. 

You jammed the cool metal of the pens chains into his chest. You didn’t bother to see if he would catch it when you released it. You knew he would, and when Caster did, you made sure to take a step towards him forcing the older man two options; hold his ground or back up. You weren’t surprised when he did the latter. 

“You’re right, Caster, I’m not that damn dense. Close up your own fucking pen.”

You didn’t give him the chance to reply. The first step you took forced him to take another step back, your shoulder ramming into his as you pushed your way past him. 

Could you have gone around? 

Yes, but, no matter what, it felt a lot better being petty for a couple of seconds than pretending for a second you cared. 

It didn’t take Caster long to find his bearings. The sound of the chains rustling in his hands and a slew of curses thrown at your back were the first to greet you before he yelled after you: “Just wait until Kahn hears about this!”

“Yea, yea,” you mumbled.

You were willing to bet no matter how the exchange between Caster and you went, Kahn was always going to hear how it went. Good or bad. Caster yelled something else at your retreating back. You responded with a wave and continued back down the main path before you veered off course into a smaller path. It was one you knew well since you were a child. One you knew led to your grandparents' hut. 

Smoke rose from the clay chimney and you knew, before you entered through the doorway, you’d find your grandfather working to dry his latest clay pots by the fire. Your grandmothers weathered fingers working tirelessly with a needle and her beadwork scattered over the small table. It was only a few days before everyone with goods left to try and sell them at the Market. You moved through the small space stopping to kiss the top of your grandmother’s head before you gently took over for your grandfather. 

“And where did you run off to this morning?” 

You didn’t have to look up to feel the weight of your grandfather’s stare. His scrutinizing eyes waiting for you to give him a response knowing full well it wasn’t going to be the one he wanted.

“There is no need to worry, grandpa. I was nowhere and everywhere all at once.”

“That sentence alone turned what little hair I have left white.”

“All of your hairs’ already white.”

“Precisely my point,” he groaned. 

The soft chuckle of your grandmother cut through the tension in the small room. Your eyes now directed to the open flame and focused on turning the pot slowly with the tongs. The last thing you wanted to hear on top of giving your grandfather white hair and an early grave was ruining a pot he’d worked on most of this morning. 

“Would you two stop it? I’m sure she has a perfectly good explanation for why she was missing this morning. Don’t you dear?”

Your grandmother sent a coy look in your direction and you couldn’t wait to completely crush her dreams. While your grandfather believed in hard work, your grandmother believed in finding a good spouse who could provide for the imaginary great grandchildren she’d already named. 

Either that or joining the resistance. 

“I was out helping Thao rally up the yaks that ran away this morning.”

A sigh so heavy escaped from your grandfather’s chest that you could’ve sworn all your ancestors before you joined him. 

“And there it is.”

The soft call of your name forced your attention back to where your grandmother now sat idle. Her hands placing the beadwork and adjoining needles on the table. Her small frame turned on the bench to make sure she had your full attention. 

“I’m happy you want to help but you already know Kahn will-“

“Will throw a bitch fit. Yeah, yeah, I know.”

A smack on your arm sent you jolting back in surprise. Your eyes cautiously roaming over to your grandmother to see if she was going to hit you again. With how tightly her lips were pressed together, you had a feeling, with some of the things that came from your mouth, the possibility of her doing it again was imminent. 

“Whether you like him or not, Kahn is our leader.”

“No, he is your leader. Kahn will never be mine. A real leader doesn’t sacrifice their people to gain information or so they don’t get locked up inside a UNSC prison.”

“And do you think there is someone more fit to lead if he was gone? Who do you think would run the rebellion?”

“Plenty of more competent individuals could step forward to take his place if he wasn’t aro-“

You realized you sounded like Thao who, hours before, you’d shushed him into complacency. Your fear for his safety was paramount over how right his words might have been. And here you were doing the exact same thing inside your grandparents hut. 

“Enough!” 

Your grandfather wasn’t known for raising his voice and when he did it was usually out of desperation; a fear that surpassed anger that delved into worry from the unknown. You could see it now etched into every wrinkle that creased in the sagging skin of his sunburnt face. The way he tried to hold onto the anger before it was swept away by something he wouldn’t voice in fear of giving it a name. 

“Whether you like it or not, Kahn runs this settlement. He is the only one working here to free us from the tyrant that is the UNSC! At least he is doing something, which is more than I can say for my own granddaughter!”

“Ernest,” your grandmother’s voice cautioned. 

“So you want me to just let him use me like some kind of weapon?”

You no longer cared about holding the pinchers over the fire or the clay pot - your grandfather's life’s work - held delicately between them. As you stood up from the stool you dropped the pinchers and the sound of clay cracking tapered over your shuddering breathing for just a moment. You moved away from the fire towards a corner of the room closest to the door. The thunder in your ears drowning out the shouts of your grandmother; your eyes coming in and out of focus as you tried to ease the panic from your veins. 

It would only take a second - a fatal second of panic to fill the room with a cobalt hue of flame that would ruin everything. 

“Kahn offers you a way to use your gift, to teach you how to use it, and better help our people and you spit in his face!” He hissed. “Your parents gave their life for the cause-“

“And what has Kahn given!?” You hadn’t meant to scream. Each word laced with a grief stricken with rage that only bloomed brighter over time. “He asks families to give their husbands, wives, their children to fight his battles and what the fuck does he do for us?!”

“Why can’t you ever see that you can help save us? Kahn can help teach you how to control it.”

“Help me control it or control me?”

“You ungrateful child.”

His words hissed through the air and buried themselves in the hollow of your chest. Your feet involuntarily took a step back, ready to flee the hut, ready to find peace in the hills of the forest when the collective raised shouts of the villagers rang out from behind the walls. 

“UNSC vessels spotted!”

It was the distraction you needed to escape the hut. The shouts of worried men and women pushing you to rush outside and greedily take gulp after gulp of fresh air until the flare, the warmth, of your power began to dig back inside your skin. When you dragged your gaze away from the grass you were greeted with villagers running back and forth. The ones who sprinted down the open lane back out towards the open forest only ended up coming back moments later. 

You made your way out into the crowd, weaving in between the bodies to get to the heart of the circle their bodies created. They all stood in large huddled groups; mothers clutching their children and the able bodied men moving in front of them, in front of everyone, to try and guard them. The villagers who tried running down the main road were coming, as if herded, back to the center of the village. You didn’t understand why they were all running back to the middle. 

This was a kill zone. 

Strategically the worst place to be for any of the resistance fighters if they were going to make any attempt to fight back. It wasn't until you made it to the middle that your earlier rage turned to ice as you watched the UNSC marines, and four very big fucking Spartans, make their way up the middle. 

If Spartans were here you knew no one stood a chance. A fight would be suicide. You needed to get back to your grandparents. You needed - 

“Attention settlers of the Lera system of Laconix: I am Captain Jacob Keyes of the USNC. We have viable intel that led us to believe that you are harboring a fugitive by the name of Kahn Montrello - a known insurrectionist. We are asking for your cooperation in this matter. We can resolve this matter peacefully, with no need to resort to any unnecessary violence.”

“Screw you! You have no jurisdiction here or any outer colonies.”

Fred. That was his name. Maybe. You didn’t know - couldn’t remember. Your brain couldn’t think past your own rushing pulse or speeding thoughts. He was just pushing past the crowd with angry shouts and limbs flying while he moved towards them. You watched as he made his way towards the marines like a man on fire, and was met by a Marine who burned brighter. The butt of their gun cracking against his cheek sent him spiraling to the ground. 

You weren’t sure if you were already panicked or if the sight of blood seeping through his fingers caused it. No matter what the real reason was you knew there was no getting around whatever came next. Like a swarm of locusts, the marines fanned out and moved forward. Their bodies corralled the villagers tighter together and kept any hope of escape at bay. 

It was the perfect time for Kahn to make his appearance. His form practically glided from between a lake of terrified bodies frozen in fear, clutching one another, as he opened his arms in welcome. 

“You say you wish us no violence, only want our cooperation, and yet attack a simple working man.”

“You need to stay where you are or you will be taken down with force,” a marine answered, their gun trained on Kahn who continued to take careful steps forward. 

He responded with his hands showing he wasn’t armed. Kahn made a show to come to a stop in front of Captain Keyes. 

“Maybe that was advice you should’ve opened with, Captain Keyes.”

Kahn was treating this like a joke. He was wearing that easy smile of his displaying he didn’t have a care in the world. He was either suicidal, genocidial in willing to let them completely kill the colony or, you realized with a sickening drop in your stomach, Kahn had another plan. 

“And you are?”

“I’m Malcom. Another humble merchant who lives here.”

Liar! 

The panic that settled like lead inside your gut dropped heavier, threatening to upend whatever was left from your morning breakfast. You didn’t have to guess what his plans were, because Kahn was laying them bare for everyone to see. The only difference between you and everyone else is that whoever he chose to sacrifice for the name of his ‘revolution’ would be met with silence. 

Captain Keyes outlined Kahn’s frame with suspicion and a pebble of hope was thrown your way. Maybe he could sense the lie that costed Kahn’s words. Maybe it would be enough for him to call bullshit. 

“Okay, Malcolm. And what is it you’re wanting?”

“I want nothing, Captain. I just want to show you exactly who you are looking for.” 

Kahn never intended to point the finger at himself - why would he when there were dozens of men brainwashed to think their sacrifice mattered. You followed his finger like everyone else drawn to the imaginary string he pulled and waited to see what poor fool he chose this time. 

Except this time - no…NO! 

It was your grandfather who took a step forward out of the dozens of bodies. The wooden tip of his cane met the ground with a depth of a shovel digging a grave with each step. Your grandmother reached out her arms - called for him to come back - but he continued to make his way forward. His head held high like he was making a decision everyone should be proud of. 

“I am Kahn Montrello. The man you seek.”

Captain Keyes took one look at your grandfather and you could see the disbelief reflected in his eyes. The way they darkened further on a decision you, or anyone else, would ever be made aware of until he made it. 

“I’ve never known an insurrectionist leader to give themselves up so willingly.”

Thank god Captain Keyes was smarter than he looked. Your grandfather, however, wasn’t backing down. He squared his shoulders and planted his hands coolly over the hilt of his cane. His head held high enough for his next words to strangle him. 

“Any leader should be willing to give themselves up for the safety of their people. Is that what you can offer me, Captain Keyes? The safety of my colony if I come willingly?”

“What are you doing?”

You were sure it was the panic that surged you forward. How you found yourself taking step after step until you were out from behind every last villager and into the clearing with Kahn and your grandfather. 

“Stay back!”

“Don’t take another step forward!”

You were vaguely aware of the commands being slung your way. The arms that lifted weapons as you took scrambling steps towards your grandfather who only looked on with distaste. 

“Go back with the others. I won’t tell you again.”

It was the voice he’d used countless times since you were a child. A voice that radiated with authority that now only showcased his age. A part of you wanted to follow his orders and run to your grandmother’s side. To be a good granddaughter and comfort her the way she needed. 

But she wouldn’t need comforting if Kahn wasn’t such a fucking coward. 

“No!”

He hissed your name as he nervously looked out over the marines. At Captain Keyes.

“Be good and do as you're told.”

“I won’t let you do this!”

“And I don’t need your permission-“

“What about grandma? You’re just going to leave her like this?”

“I wasn’t aware Kahn Montrello had grandchildren?” Keyes quipped. 

You could see your grandfather open his mouth to reply and you made sure to cut him off before he could say another lie. 

“That’s because he doesn’t because Kahn -“

“Apologies, Captain Keyes,” Kahn cut in. “This girl is unwell. Ever since she lost her parents -“

“Don’t you dare speak about them.“

“-she’s been desperately trying to cling to anyone willing to call her family.”

You weren’t aware you were moving forward until you heard the shouts from the marines; the gasps of fear from your own people. You were vaguely aware of the tingle of heat that moved like a shockwave from your fingertips up your arms until it consumed you. In another time, a different life, maybe you would’ve been aware that your biotics had flared to life and enveloped you in what looked like cobalt flame. 

A fitting image for the one Kahn so lovingly painted for you. An unhinged woman filled with crazy fantasies and a desperation for family.

The only thing you could focus on was Kahn who stood before you. The coward who easily was willing to give your grandfather up to the UNSC knowing what they do to insurrectionist leaders. The unspeakable torture done to collect secrets, and their executions televised on every available feed for all to see. 

With the thought of your grandfather’s future weighing behind your eyes you lashed out. Your hand rising forward to catch Kahn midway in taking a step back. Your biotics held him suspended in the air. You were vaguely aware of what sounded like your grandfather calling your name. The wood of his cane crunching through dirt and leaves to rush to you. 

There was more shouting - orders being relayed and metal clicks of safeties being released - and you knew chaos was about to ensue. 

“Spartan’s your orders are to grab the insurrectionist known as Kahn Montrello. Marines focus on providing backup and subduing any and all threats.”

A wash of relief rippled through you. The UNSC had come to their senses. They  must have realized Kahn for the liar he was. Captain Keyes caught on that the rouse Kahn created with your grandfather was all a lie. 

Except that wasn’t what happened. 

The marines who fanned out around the clearing were now moving in towards one sole target: you. The Spartans who Keyes sent forward to capture Kahn weren’t headed in your direction, but towards your grandfather who was visibly shaking as he watched two of the UNSC’s giants - their most powerful weapons - move towards him. 

“No! You have it all wrong! He isn’t Kahn!”

You released the hold you had on Kahn. No longer was he held suspended in the air as you sent his body flying towards the marines. Your feet were digging into the soil, pitching you forward in a hard sprint, as you barreled blindly towards your grandfather. You could hear him warning you to stay back - ‘stay away’ - but you never were good with doing what you were told. 

The closest Spartan,only identified by the numbers 028 on her chest, was almost on him. They were so close it would only take a couple more inches and this Spartan would grab a hold of him and you would lose him. Forever.

You were running on pure adrenaline. Your vision honed in on nothing else but the hand of the Spartan that reached out to grab at his arm. If they got a hold of him, that was it. You called on every cell of energy in your body, your arm drawing back - nerves frying - as the eezo inside your body compacted in the space around you, changing it into a powerful ball that you launched with a scream. The Spartan barely had time to react when the cobalt sphere of element zero slammed into her suit and sent her flying back. 

“Riz!”

You had a split second to make half a shield before the second Spartan’s fist slammed against it. The impact snapped like a shockwave of its own. The force of impact sent your feet sliding back against the dirt. The sound of heavy footsteps following your rolling body forced you to spring to your knees as you called on another surge of element zero and sent it flying like a fastball. 

It slammed into the Spartan but, unlike the first one, it barely slowed them down. The impact crackled against the air and the force field around his armor allowing your biotics to push them back only a few feet. It was all the feet you needed to scramble on all fours to your grandfather, who was kneeling in a heap in the dirt. 

As soon as you slide in next to him, you put up a small force field - a bubble of blue that encapsulated you both just in time before bullets bounced against the shield. Gently, you secured an arm underneath his shoulders and tried to lift him up to you. All while your right hand stayed pressed against the barrier you’d created. Your arms shaking with the strain of holding back another round of gunfire and the slamming fists of a very big, very angry, Spartan. 

You were running out of time. The strain of keeping the barrier up, of using powers you usually never touched, left a noticeable trail of perspiration to crown your forehead. If you kept this up much longer, you knew the nosebleeds would start soon. 

“Come on grandpa. We have to get up now. We gotta get you out of here.”

“Just let them take me, deheyah*.”

A heavy wave of memory, weighted with emotions thick and stifling, threatened to knock you off balance. The last time your grandfather had ever called you that, was before your parents died. When you were allowed the luxury of childhood innocence and the imagination that the world held the beauty of magic before it was destroyed by the gravity of reality. 

“That’s not going to happen, grandpa. I won’t let it happen. I can’t lose you too.”

Your body jerked with the next slam of a fist against the barrier. The impact sent a shutter down into the marrow of your bones and snapped at your nervous system. The pain was immediate and tore a gasp from you. 

“You will never lose me. I will always be with you. Wherever you go. Whatever you choose to be.”

“No.” 

You shook your head violently forcing him to reach out to steady you. The soft leather of his hand cupped your cheek quieting your protests and forced you to keep your eyes on him. 

“I’m sorry for what I said. Earlier. I just - I just wanted what was best for you. I always have. But…only you know what is best for your life. Never stop fighting. Don’t be afraid of who you can be.”

“Why are you talking like this? This isn’t goodbye grandpa. Come on, I have to get you back to grandma. She’s going to be pissed if you just stay here.”

But it was, wasn’t it? You’d felt it when your hands touched the layers of shawls that draped over his chest. It was wetter than it should’ve been. His eyes glassy and unfocused and struggling to keep them on you while he spoke. Somehow, you’d been a few moments too late when the bullets came your way, and those few seconds allowed the hollow point of a bullet to find a hole in the center of his chest. 

Blood covered your left hand as another sharp synopsis of pain resonated through your nervous system. Spartan 028, Riz, was back up and hammering away at the sphere of the barrier you’d created. The pain should’ve been unbearable but nothing compared to the last gasp of air that shuddered from your grandfather. It couldn’t compare to the feeling of his body, lifeless, and sagging towards the earth where the weight forced you to place him. 

None of this would’ve happened if Kahn wasn’t a coward. If he didn’t use people, the very people he claimed were his. People he swore to defend and liberate - for his own gain. 

The anger swelled brighter inside like a raging flame. Every beating your nervous system took holding up the barrier became a dulled sensation as you struggled to breathe around the loss of your grandfather. 

The Spartans had stopped but didn’t move back. A woman was off to your right. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Smiling like she was friendly but the mock kindness didn’t reach her eyes. They were bright with excitement; the way hunters spotted prey. A scientist finding a new object to dissect. 

“…I’m Doctor Halsey.”

Of course she was. She wanted to dissect you. The same way the scientists from Conatix tried many years ago by trying to buy you from your parents. She was saying your name but she had no right to it. 

This Dr. Halsey. 

False smile given under false pretenses. Just like Kahn has his fancy glittering speeches that kept hopes high and results low. 

“We don’t want to harm you. If you are willing to come peacefully we promise we will leave the colony immediately. No further bloodshed needs to happen.”

The part of you that wasn’t soaked in grief agreed. It was the best call to make - the right call. It promised no more suffering would happen. It meant your grandmother would be safe. 

Your grandmother. A woman who lost her son. Her husband. Now her granddaughter. Who would watch her if you left? The thought alone sprang a sharp refusal to your tongue until you stood, your eyes cast down at the warm body of your grandfather. In that moment, whatever reasonable human being you used to be ceased to exist. The only thing left was rage. 

Dr. Halsey must have noticed. No longer was she crouched to be eye level with you. She returned to her full height. Her hands placed out in front to shield herself, as if that would be enough to stop what happened next. 

“Whatever you’re thinking - don’t.” 

Your reply came in a scream that crawled its way from the pit of despair that had lodged itself inside your heart. The loss of your parents, the death of your grandfather,  and for your grandmother who would be alone. You used that hurt, bitterness, and rage and used it to erupt your shield into a burst of biotic energy that detonated like a bomb. The sheer force alone sent the Spartans back. 

It wasn’t enough but you only needed a minute or two. Just enough time for you to send your biotics crackling along the air in a line until it grabbed a hold of Kahn and pulled him like a slingshot of force back towards you. When he was close enough, you dropped your left hand that you’d use to control the pull of his body, and cocked back your right arm, your palm open, and launched it forward. The slam of the biotics hit home at the center of his chest launching Kahn back through the scrambling crowd of people, with the sickening crack of his sternum mixing with the scream that tore from your throat.

It was all the time you had before the Spartan marked with 117 came into view. His armored fist closes in like a warthog at full speed against your cheek, sending your body spiraling into the dirt. You could feel the earth shift with tremors as he moved to follow you. You could taste the blood from the hit and wondered if your jaw was broken. If you just lost a whole row of teeth. 

“John, Incapacitate her only! I need her to be brought back with us. Alive.”

For a glorious moment, your blurred vision swirled only with the uninterrupted view of the sky before the cameo green of Master Chief, savior of the galaxy - or John - 117 -  helmet came into view. A joke was brewing on the back of your tongue, covered in humor and blood before his fist came crashing down your line of sight, and the world became blissfully quiet.

_________

You found that the darkness wasn’t as quiet as you’d hoped.

The impact from the punch the Maater Chief, or John - 117 as that woman called him,  had launched you into what felt like a nightmare. Held hostage by a paralysis of your own mind. Unable to change the forms of what you saw. The images were vivid. The sounds carried a weight that sat heavy like lead in your skull. It made you miss the pain of being conscious. 

You weren’t sure if the screams that bounced around inside your head were real or if they were just a part of the nightmare. Over and over your broken mind played out the moment a Marine’s bullet found a hole inside  your grandfather's gut. 

No matter how fast you ran, if you launched yourself in front of him, you were never fast enough. Each step you took sunk deeper into the earth as if your legs were trying to race through quicksand. Your own biotics mysteriously grew quiet - refusing to work for the first time in your life. 

No matter what the outcome never changed. Your grandfather was gone, and there was no time travel to head back and change that startling fact. 

A sickening lurch, one you knew meant a ship was coming out of slipspace, sent the contents of that morning’s breakfast swirling in your stomach. You barely had time to register that it was real, the nausea, and that you were really about to throw up. You’d barely rolled to your side before said breakfast displayed itself onto a very shiny metal floor. 

As soon as you finished, you rolled back onto your back. Your eyes fluttered open to take in the fluorescent lights, the cool slated metal ceiling that matched the walls and floor. It was definitely a cell, and you most definitely found out much too late that your wrists were tied behind your back. 

When you were sure you weren’t going to upend anymore of your breakfast, you slowly began to maneuver to sit on the only bench they’d laid you on. The pain in the sockets of your shoulders informing you that you’d been like this for quite a while. 

You were still trying to gather your bearings when the sliding doors to your right opened. A woman with blonde hair stood at the forefront with a Spartan, the dusk green armor of John - 117, standing protectively behind her. When she moved, he moved. You couldn’t help but consider her a puppeteer and the Spartan the puppet. He didn’t move unless she did and you doubted he would be doing any of the talking. 

She entered the room with a cautionary smile and clinical eyes assessing you before she even entered. It was easy to tell she was a scientist and, more than likely, a very experienced one in whatever it was she specialized in. 

“Hello, Subject Cobalt,” she said brightly. Her smile never faltered once. “I’m glad to see that you are alright. My name is Doctor Halsey. I’ve come to do an assessment on you and make sure you didn’t sustain any life-threatening or mind altering issues after what happened back on Laconix.”

Subject Cobalt? 

Was that supposed to be you?

You eyed her warily as she took her first step inside the cell. The heavy footsteps of Mjolnir armor followed closely behind. If she suspected you were jumpy - a rabbit in headlights, as the old ones used to say - Halsey never showed it. 

A few more steps and she was beside the bench. Another breath and she was sitting beside you. The smile on her face beaming and hollowing out her eyes with rapture at what she must have considered a new species. You made a fine new specimen for any scientist, you would imagine. A nervous system full of eezo that lit your body up like an Earthen Christmas tree and the power to wield it like a weapon.

Doctor Halsey was practically giddy beside you. 

“I’m going to do a few simple tests to verify cognitive function isn’t impaired. To do so, I’m going to need your assistance. Do you think you could do that for me?”

Your eyes scanned over her as you considered your options. It turned out to be a very short list that was available to you. The only option being to go along with what she asked. 

“Okay.”

That one word was all the go ahead Halsey needed to cause her megawatt smile to go up a notch. She must have thought you would be resistant to following orders and she wasn’t wrong but, from where you were sitting, this seemed like the lesser of two evils. 

“Splendid. First, I’m going to run this pen horizontally and vertically. I need you to focus on the tip of the pen, and follow it as closely as you can.”

“Okay.”

Doctor Halsey lifted the pen up to eye level, a few inches away from your face, and waited for your eyes to train on the silver point. You hadn’t expected an examination as soon as you woke up. You weren’t sure if you should’ve felt happy or worried about it. If you were one misstep away from becoming a lab rat. 

You’d been so deep in thought - your mind considering all the outcomes and possibilities of this interaction ending well - that you completely missed her first question. 

“I’m sorry. Can you repeat the question?”

Another smile. Another deflection. It was enough, however, for you to notice the tightness in the fine lines of her face. It was so small you could’ve missed it. 

“Of course. During your biotic episode on Laconix, I noticed your nose started bleeding. Does it do that every time you use your biotics?”

“No.”

The tightness again. This time it was the edges of her smile - suspended in that mock sweetness - that reminded you of your mother. Waiting for you to give more detail without prodding and realizing, rapidly, you feared incriminating yourself. The pen dropped into her lap. Her eyes roaming over your face for a sign - a tell - that she could exploit. 

“You aren’t in any kind of trouble. I’m merely trying to help you -“

“Is that what you’re trying here, Dr. Halsey? To be my friend? To tell me I’m not in any danger when you took me off my planet against my will?” You inquired. Her mouth was still suspended open, forming around a word cut short by your desire to not hear anymore bullshit. “It feels like there is more going on than what you’re sharing.”

She schooled her face - even her eyes - to remain emotionless. A perfect blank slate to display only what she wanted without giving away what she didn’t. 

“Alright. I watched you. At first, you seemed in control, but after the third or fourth time your biotics displayed themselves, and you overextended their use, you suffered an epistaxis - the nosebleed. Further scans done here in the ship’s medical bay presented signs of swelling and hematoma on the brain. A few hours before you woke up, I had them run another analysis and both are gone. Which leaves me to believe it only occurs upon exhaustion.”

She watched you as she spoke. Her gaze searching, prodding, for signs of whatever reaction she expected but wasn’t getting. You would’ve loved to offer up whatever it was she wanted, if only you knew which specific one she was hunting for. 

“Tell me. Do you get migraines?”

“What is this?”

“I don’t understand.”

“That’s a lie,” you shot back. 

The tone in your voice matched the anxiety rising in your chest. It caused your words to be rougher than intended, alerting the Spartan in the corner who took a step towards you. Only the rising hand of calm - control - from Dr. Halsey kept him from taking another step. 

“I think you understand more than you’re willing to tell me or, at least, not wanting to show your whole hand, anyway. You’re a scientist, right? Probably super smart. Smart enough you probably come from some UNSC lab  from Reach or Illium?”

“Reach.”

The carefully constructed smile was back on her lips, but this time you could see a spark of something brighten up the soft blue of her eyes. You were doing something she didn’t expect, but her scientific mind found it fascinating. No doubt logging it away to draw it open later somewhere quiet to dissect. 

Your lips pouted around her admission. Reach. One of the top three planets, if not the first, for all private and commercial research filled with legal litigation and NDA’s to protect organizations and UNSC labs from the courts of public opinions. It was how Conatix got away with doing what they did to you and the other kids scattered across the galaxy. Only taking notice when it seemed like something that could benefit them. You weren’t stupid. Halsey had taken one look at what you could do - what you did - and only two things came to mind: control or destroy. 

You hadn’t figured out exactly which one you were to Dr. Halsey yet. 

“Are you going to kill me?”

Halsey didn’t necessarily give you a reason to think it was an outlandish guess. Everything - everyone - was expendable when it came to science and the betterment of humanity. Or whatever the UNSC’s science team's new slogan was.

“Why would we kill you?”

You tried to shrug off the growing anxiety that sat coiling inside your gut.

“To experiment on me. Take me apart and see what’s buried underneath, so to speak. Isn’t that what you people do.”

“You don’t realize what you are, do you? The advancement of human genetics - biology - that is flowing through you.”

“What’s flowing through me is eezo and it cost hundreds of children their lives.”

“Yes, but for one out of a hundred children there is something remarkable. You. The one out of a thousand. A stepping stone towards humans having a place amongst the vast and ever growing populace of space. I don’t want to kill you, Cobalt. I want to integrate you into my program.”

“What program?”

You wondered if madness was contagious. If you asked anyone else, they might have dismissed your words as too harsh. No doubt calling Halsey’s display of excitement for simply that, but you could see her eyes. Underneath all that perfectly concealed pleasant exterior was an intelligence that was willing to break the norms - rules - to get to whatever she needed. 

“I run the Spartan program. Granted, you are well past the parameters to become a Spartan, no, I…I want to make a subunit. I think Cobalt, we can help each other, and not only help each other, but possibly end this war.”

UNSC propaganda. 

That’s what the war was. Everyone in the outer colonies knew it was just a fancy attempt to stop the growing surge of colonists from joining the insurrectionists. Halsey sensed your doubt before you disregarded her words with a shake of your head. 

“No. The covenant is just a UNSC nightmare story to try and get the outer colonies to toe the line. To allow themselves to be governed under your jurisdiction.”

“I can promise you. It’s not.”

“Of course you would say that! You’re a USNC scientist for Christ’s sake!”

“John.”

Somehow, you’d forgotten that big hunk of tin was in the room. Halsey kept you focused on her - solely on her - that when the Spartan took a step forward, the reflection of the room mirrored in his visor, you almost jumped out of your skin. 

In his hand was a holopad that he deposited into her waiting palm. Halsey didn’t waste time logging in. Her fingers tapped wildly across the screen with a speed that left you dizzy. When she found whatever it was she’d been looking for she extended the holopad out for you to take. 

“This was transmitted to us only a few hours ago.”

Warily, you watched her. Your mind debating if you should take the holopad or tell her to fuck off. It was more made up videos or fancy speeches, you were sure of it. The grim lines of her face, however, left you wondering just how certain you were. It was her turn to place the holopad in your hands. Your gaze on her a few more seconds before it dropped down to the video that played on the screen.

Bright beams. It’s what you noticed first. Beams that erupted from the sky with such brilliant clarity you knew it could only be one form: plasma. You couldn’t understand - comprehend - what you were seeing. 

Plasma on that scale was impossible. It should’ve been and yet, you watched as it sliced through the planet's barrier, through molecules, and simple things like trees and mountains. Everything it touched turned red hot like lava from volcanoes you’d heard stories about that were on the original human planet of earth. While the plasma beam continued its destructive course, the magma it left behind flowed behind. 

You didn’t understand until you did. 

You knew that mountain. You’d glanced at it many times on walks to neighboring villages for trade. Attempted to climb it a thousand times as a child. 

“What is this?”

Your disbelief was met with something you couldn’t place from her. Halsey didn’t offer up sympathy. She offered up an understanding of watching everything you love disappear in a wave of destruction. But how could she understand the hollowness, the sinking feeling of dread that gripped your heart and threatened to make it stop?

“It’s Laconix. Shortly after we left the Covenant arrived. They glassed the planet.”

“Glassed? I - I don’t. I don’t understand.”

You were going to hyperventilate if you weren’t careful. 

“It’s gone, Cobalt.” That’s not my name. “The Covenant doesn’t take prisoners. They destroy everything. Kill everything. Your planet is gone.” 

Gone. 

Gone. 

Your home. What was left of your family - your people - your community. Gone. In less than 7.8 seconds of holopad footage. 

“But you can avenge them. You can fight for them and to protect every other planet still left out there in the galaxy and I can help you do it.”

Deep down a part of you knew this had been her tactic all along. If reason didn’t make someone join your cause, then using their emotions against them would. You should’ve seen it coming. Took the time to ask more questions but the growing hole in your soul moved on from shock and grief was rocketing towards unbridled rage at lightning speed. 

When you glanced back up at her, Halsey knew she had you before you even spoke. 

“What do you need me to do?”

As always, thank you so much for reading. Comments and reblogs are always appreciated.

[daphnefisherofficial]

bugna: TAKIPSILIM | destiny's twilight

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

Pairing: MCU Moon Knight System (Marc/Steven/Jake) x Avatar Fem!Reader

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(A/N: This update took a lot longer than expected, because I really wanted to flesh out Darius Carter's character here. As we discovered in the latest chapter, he is the avatar of Anubis and the past life of our moon boys (Marc, Steven and Jake). I can't wait for you to finally meet him and discover how he first met our beloved Mira (you) and became an avatar. Sooooooo, I will no longer keep you waiting. Enjoy!)

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE - LIEUTENANT DARIUS CARTER

The year was 1914, and the world was on the brink of an inferno. The scent of gunpowder and the sound of marching boots echoed through the continent, war slowly rising on the precipice as the entirety of mankind braced itself for a conflict of an unprecedented scale. As the avatar of Mayari, the goddess of the moon, your immortality has not shielded you from countless conflicts that you have witnessed over centuries. But something about this one felt different.

As the majority of Europe has been set ablaze with the flames of war, you found yourself walking on foreign soil, far from the shores of your own homeland. Leaving the tranquil halls of Harvard University where you had just earned your medical degree being a pensionada, you have answered the call of duty in the first world war as you were dispatched to the epicenter of battle.

Not as a warrior, but as a healer.

It was a time of uncertainty, and your only duty was to save lives and alleviate the suffering caused by the horrors of war. It was a daunting task, but you were determined to do your part.

It was in a military outpost in France where you crossed paths for the first time. The air in the barracks was thick with anticipation and a hint of apprehension as fresh soldier recruits started to fill the encampment, their faces a mix of youthful enthusiasm and the dawning realization of what lay ahead. 

You stood among the medical personnel sent by the American Red Cross, observing the nervous yet determined faces of your comrades as you were being introduced to one another and your regiment officer. Your crisp, white medical uniform felt heavy with responsibility, yet you bore it with the quiet strength of someone who had seen far more than her youthful appearance suggested.

It was here that you saw him for the first time.

His towering stature caught your eyes immediately, standing tall and proud among your peers as his striking hazel brown eyes seemed to pierce through the haze of bodies and chatter. He stood out, not just for his imposing presence but for the way he carried himself—confident, yet with an air of humility.

His olive brown skin was littered with nervous sweat as he saluted, his military uniform crisp and new.

"Lieutenant Darius Carter, reporting for duty," he said, his voice steady and confident.

“At ease, Lieutenant”, the regiment officer said, patting the young soldier’s back encouragingly before his eyes fell on you and your colleagues. “You will be in charge of this unit, together with our friends and allies from the American Red Cross. Why don’t you introduce yourselves?”

It was there, amidst the sea of young, eager faces, that your eyes met for the first time. Darius found himself tongue tied as you stepped forward, his heart pounding loudly in his chest as he witnessed you raising your right hand to salute before introducing yourself to your superiors and your fellow army recruits altogether. 

“Myrna Katigbak, reporting for duty,” you spoke, managing a polite smile despite yourself as you felt a hundred pairs of eyes on you. And yet, Darius's gaze stood out from the rest of your comrades, his eyes sparkling with bold admiration as he felt a strong connection in that moment, an inexplicable pull towards you that he couldn’t possibly ignore. 

Something about your enigmatic presence drew him in. Having grown up in a family with a deep connection to Egyptology, you were like an undiscovered pharaoh’s tomb to the young lieutenant waiting to be unravelled. And like any archaeologist and Egyptologists he has known his whole life, he has made it his first mission to seek you out and fulfill his quiet curiosity.

The next time you saw Darius Carter, it was in the makeshift soup kitchen. The scent of broth and bread filled the air as you ladled portions into bowls, your hands moving with practiced efficiency. Your fellow medics and soldiers, both weary and hungry after their intensive training, lined up at the long table with gratitude etched on their faces as you started to distribute lunch.

The young lieutenant was but a few steps away from the long table as the line progressed, almost chickening out as he neared. As he slowly approached, you looked up and met his gaze fully for the first time. Handing him his bowl of soup and a half loaf of bread, you noticed him trying to linger, his eyes bright with a mixture of hope and shyness as he struggled to find the words to speak.

“You can come back for seconds later, Lieutenant Carter”, you smiled, amused by his poor attempt at small talk which you find endearing.

“Right, thank you, Miss Katigbak”, he stammered as he ended up butchering the last name of your latest alias.

“You can just call me Myrna”, you corrected with an amused smile, bidding him goodbye as your attention shifted to the next man in need of sustenance. “I don’t expect everyone to get my last name right”

Darius internally groaned as he mildly shook his head, managing a soft chuckle despite himself as he continued moving forward and out of the lunch line. He found himself sitting at a nearby table, still gazing longingly at the long table where you were as he started to eat. As the hours slowly progressed and the early afternoon finally made its way, the number of people in the soup kitchen slowly dwindled until the only ones left were him and you.

This time around, Darius no longer allowed his nerves to get the best of him. With careful steps, he approached you once again, his eyes emanating the same spark from when he first laid eyes on you. 

“Excuse me, Miss Katigbak”, he asked, finally pronouncing your last name correctly with his rich, baritone voice that resonated pleasantly in the empty vicinity. “May I help you with anything?”

“You got it right this time,” you nodded in his direction as you started preparing your workspace for your upcoming chore. “And yes, you can help by carrying those empty bowls from the lunch tables and I’ll wash them here.”

He eagerly obliged, his movements careful as he balanced multiple trays of empty bowls on his hands. As soon as they piled up, he worked alongside you and shared your dishwashing workload. It was a mundane task for a soldier like him, but it didn’t matter as he had you to keep him company.

Besides, observing you from afar was becoming his favorite pastime. Your smooth and flawless skin was the first thing he noticed, a warm, sun-kissed brown with golden undertones that radiated health and vitality. Your hair, ebony-black and rich, fell in long, soft waves around your shoulders, framing your face perfectly. Your facade possessed a delicate heart-shaped contour that added a touch of youthful charm, along with high cheekbones and small, slightly upturned nose that accentuated your femininity. Your lips, full and naturally mauve, curved into a smile that reflected the warmth of your spirit, a genuine expression that made him feel at ease.

But it was your eyes that truly captivated him. Almond-shaped and chestnut brown, they glistened with warmth and mystery, capable of conveying joy, sorrow, and strength in a single glance. Framed by long, thick lashes, your gaze had an intensity that made those who met it feel uniquely seen. Your naturally arched brows added depth to your expression, giving you a look of quiet confidence.

“You never did go back for seconds, Lieutenant Carter” you spoke out loud, slightly startling Darius from his own reverie.

“I’m sorry, what?” he asked, his voice warm and earnest as you ended up laughing at his amusing response. 

“I meant you could go back in line earlier after finishing your meal to get a second serving of soup and bread”, you ended up explaining in which Darius sighed with pure relief. “I was waiting for you”

“Oh, right”, he seemed to relax at your friendly tone. “I’m too shy, unfortunately, so I will most likely die of hunger before I ask you for seconds, Miss Katigbak”

“You can just call me Myrna”, your amusement grew as you observed his quiet awkwardness which you find endearing. “Miss Katigbak is too formal and besides, it’s only the two of us here”

“Myrna it is”, Darius nodded, testing your name in his lips. “And please call me Darius, Lieutenant Carter is also too formal”

“Sure, Darius”, you obliged, prompting a warm smile from the lieutenant. “And now that introductions and our collective nerves are out of the way, care to tell me why you’re really here?”

"Well, to be honest, I was hoping to engage you in a conversation since we’ve first met”, Darius scratched the back of his head, his gaze locked onto yours. “I've heard that you're a medical graduate, and I thought I might pick your brain about a few things."

"I'm happy to help, but I have to warn you that I'm not the most exciting conversationalist”, you laughed softly. “I spend most of my time tending to wounds and doling out soup."

“That’s quite all right”, Darius's eyes sparkled with interest. "In fact, I have a penchant for Egyptology. Did you know that the ancient Egyptians were pioneers in the field of medicine?"

“Egyptology, you say?” you couldn't hide your surprise. "That's an unexpected interest for a soldier. But I must admit, it's a topic I find intriguing as well."

“I could spend all day talking about it if you’re interested”, Darius started, his positive energy overflowing at finding an outlet to share his interests. “I came from a family of archaeologists and Egyptologist, hence my knowledge”

As he started going on about his recent discoveries in the history of Egyptian medicine, you slowly fulfilled his curiosity by answering his questions in correlation to your current expertise, marking your longer interactions with the young lieutenant. He didn’t keep the conversation one-sided and challenged your insights, asking about your journey from America, your studies at Harvard, and your impressions of the war. You answered every question with polite brevity, finding his earnestness both charming and amusing as the two of you find companionship amidst the harsh reality of the ongoing war.

Your paths crossed once again in the crucible of battle. The frontlines were chaotic and brutal, the air filled with the deafening sounds of gunfire and explosions, serving as a constant backdrop to your work as a medic. You and Darius found yourselves deployed and stationed together with him as the commanding officer of your sector. As a medic, you worked tirelessly to fulfill your duty to save as many lives as possible and tended to the wounded from your unit, often under fire. 

It was during one of these intense battles that you truly began to see the depth of his character.

Darius was brave, almost to the point of recklessness, always throwing himself into the fray to protect his comrades. It was after one such skirmish that he found himself injured, and you were the one to tend to his wounds. As you worked, he watched you with a mixture of pain and admiration.

"You have a steady hand," he remarked, his voice strained but appreciative.

"Years of practice," you replied, focused on your task. "Hold still, this might hurt."

He winced but remained silent as you cleaned and bandaged his wounds. When you were finished, he looked at you with gratitude. "Thank you, Myrna. I don't know what I'd do without you here."

You smiled softly. "It's my duty, Darius. Just as it's yours to fight."

In the days that followed, your interactions grew more frequent and meaningful. You shared stories, hopes, and fears, finding solace in each other's company amidst the horrors of war. Your connection deepened, and it became clear that Darius's feelings for you were more than just admiration.

One fateful day, your barracks were under siege, almost overrun by enemy forces. The chaos was overwhelming as German soldiers started to storm the base. Recognizing the dire situation, Darius Carter ordered your unit as its commanding officer to evacuate.

“Myrna, take the others and head to the trucks”, he said, handing you a slip of paper with coordinates. “You and the rest of the surviving sector will be taken to the rendezvous point.”

“Understood, Lieutenant”, you nodded, saluting Darius as you started to help your fellow medics and other soldiers escape first, ensuring they reached the safety of the military trucks stationed on the outskirts. As the alarm sounded, signaling the order to retreat, you urged the remaining few of your comrades to make haste, barking orders left and right as you refused to leave anyone behind.

“Darius, you need to go”, you shouted amidst the chaos around you, seeing the lieutenant fought bravely as he clutched his rifle close, firing shot after shot at the advancing German soldiers merely a few feet away.

“I’m not going anywhere without you, Myrna”, he declared, his voice firm with resolve.

“I’ll be right behind you”, you insisted and started to push him away to safety, but he held his ground unwavering. 

“No, I’m not leaving you!” he shouted, his eyes locking onto yours with pure determination as his tone left for no argument. “We’re in this together”

You sighed in defeat, allowing him to stay by your side knowing there was no time to debate. The situation grew more perilous by the minute as it became clearer that the enemy was closing in on the barracks. But you and Darius continued to stand your ground, determined to aid your fellow comrades and guide them to safety.

Together, you fought your way through the turmoil as the chaos and destruction intensified, dodging bullets and explosions while glancing left and right to ensure each other’s safety. The moment of truth came when the last of the military trucks departed, and the two of you finally decided to make your escape. 

The barracks were in shambles, and you could hear the sounds of enemy soldiers drawing nearer. The two of you made a run for it, racing toward the outskirts where an abandoned motorbike was stationed.

But fate had other plans. Just as you were about to reach the vehicle, a group of German soldiers appeared on the scene, hot on your heels. They spotted your position, and before the two of you could react, shots rang out followed by a sharp crack that rang out. Darius staggered as he cried out in pain, clutching his shoulder where a bullet had struck. You watched in horror as he fell to the ground, the world seeming to slow down around you.

Panic coursed through you as you knelt beside him, trying to assess the situation. The German soldiers closed in, their weapons trained on you both. Your heart pounded wildly in your chest as you let your own instinct take over. There’s no way in hell that you will let him die on your watch.

Without hesitation, you drew upon the ancient powers bestowed on you by your patron goddess Mayari, summoning her very essence that lay dormant within you all these long years until this precise moment. In a blinding flash, your form shifted as the ceremonial armor slowly materialized in a shimmer of moonlight, replacing the former medical uniform enveloping your body.

You, Myrna Katigbak, a simple medic, began to change before Darius’s wide eyes. The initial shock and disbelief he felt witnessing your transformation slowly turned into awe, marking the beginning of your intertwined fates being woven together.

END OF CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

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[bloopitynoot]

What I Read This Week: 03/23/2025

I am a librarian, and unrelated to stereotypes about my profession, I do read a metric shit-ton in a week. Most of it is fanfiction but hey, I thought maybe it's time I share my reads?

This is what I read this week:

1 as prescribed, i'll date your dad by nyoomerr (67, 251)

Summary: Just months before the Immortal Alliance Conference, Luo Binghe discovers the cure to Without-a-Cure. With his own heritage still sealed and mostly unknown to him, there seems to be only one solution: Shen Qingqiu must receive the cure from the last known Heavenly Demon, Tianlang-Jun, even if it means that Luo Binghe has to grit his teeth and set his precious Shizun up with another man.

Shen Qingqiu does not want to receive the cure from Tianlang-Jun. He doesn't particularly want to receive anything from Tianlang-Jun.

Shen Qingqiu somehow ends up fake-dating Tianlang-Jun anyway, if only to swindle the System into delaying the Endless Abyss plot for as long as he can.

What a way to start my reading week. The premise of this fic is everything I didn't know I wanted. This is so ridiculously absurd XD The fact that Shen Qingqiu has the entire mountain urging him to get some demon dick floored me

This is rated T (there is no demon-dicking involved!). The journey is wild though

I wish there was a part two or some insight into the resolution, but sadly there isn't. I would still read it again with that knowledge! It's an open ending.

2. Heaven Official's Blessing by MXTX Chapter 68-73

Summary: Born the crown prince of a prosperous kingdom, Xie Lian was renowned for his beauty, strength, and purity. His years of dedication and noble deeds allowed him to ascend to godhood. But those who rise, can also fall…and fall he does, cast from the Heavens again and again and banished to the mortal realm.

Eight hundred years after his mortal life, Xie Lian has ascended to godhood for the third time. Now only a lowly scrap collector, he is dispatched to wander the earthly realm to take on tasks appointed by the heavens to pay back debts and maintain his divinity. Aided by old friends and foes alike, and graced with the company of a mysterious young man with whom he feels an instant connection, Xie Lian must confront the horrors of his past in order to dispel the curse of his present.

I finished book 4 and have just cracked open book 5! I'm reading about a chapter a day and live blogging the experience. you can follow along on the Bloopitynoot reads TGCF tag

NO SPOILERS PLS.

I am so soft for Hualian

3 Scales & Rivers by wirevix (29,743)

Summary: Shen Yuan's luck was funny his whole life--it came in peaks and valleys, ups and downs.

Escape the Demon Realm before he's killed in a territory fight! Almost slaughtered by cultivators. Rescued by a couple of friendly, atypical demons who look out for him! But their lives are terrible because of an old betrayal. Adventure, explore the world, find treasures! But get into a lot of trouble on the way, almost get killed all the time, and never find something that can really help get Great Uncle out of his prison.

Meet an unexpected half-demon in the Borderlands! ...Well, that one had no downsides, actually.

This was kind of cute! I definitely want to read more (if there are any) Shen Yuan is a demon/demon hybrid fics.

I love this being shen yuan POV and him just being a little guy who wants to roam around and cozy up to human culture.

I desperately wish there was a little more at the end (the story feels abrupt).

Mind the tags if you read!

4 How To Train Your Employee by ParueCake (MiraEyeteeth) (96, 969)

Summary: Shen Yuan has transmigrated into a dragon. An apparently extremely wealthy dragon with his own mountain and palace and everything. Unfortunately, he runs into a problem in the form of trying to find an ethical source of labour to actually help maintain the whole palace. After several misunderstandings with the local human beings, he finally manages to clearly communicate his desires and one city provides him with a (rather scrawny and underfed) boy who most definitely agreed to the terms of employment that Shen Yuan tried to put forward! Luo Binghe has been shoved into the clutches of a dragon without being told anything and is surely about to be eaten at any moment.

This was such a fun read!

I love a transmigrated shen yuan who breaks all social norms and cultural boundaries.

This man said Workers Rights.

This is part one that ends on bingqiu but the second part is end game bingliushen (it is in progress though, only 1 chapter out atm).

5 How to (Not) Be A Dragon Slayer by ParueCake (MiraEyeteeth) (7,312 1 chapter atm)

Summary: Liu Qingge is good at his job. Liu Qingge was hired to slay the evil dragon that lives on Qing Jing Peak. Liu Qingge is in over his head.

Part two of the series above; so far only 1 chapter!

This is the Liu QIngge POV and it's incredible.

The author states it will start with Liu Qingge POV and then head into the bingliushen endgame.

I honestly hope this fic continues because it's a solid read. I also need to know what happens with Qi-ge.

6 Lan Wangji, Lawyer at Law by siralanoftrebond (57,447)

Summary: Lan Wangji lives the boring life of a corporate lawyer for his family's law firm until Wei Wuxian's band starts using his garage for practice bringing chaos (and many unwanted fantasies) into his life. Will he and Wei Wuxian ever come to an understanding or will the long arm of the law intervene before they have a chance?

This fic was absolutely stunning and I don't think it's getting the love it deserves. Truly, so good for a modern au with lighter-moderate angst.

This is a love story and a case fic between two absolute freaks

RIP Lan Qiren's peace of mind honestly.

I highkey would read a part two in the same universe.

7 Antiquated Practices by Prim_the_Amazing (58,121)

Summary: “Would the honorable Mobei-Jun agree?”

“WHAT!?”

There’s a loud crash, and everyone’s attention instantly flicks over to Shang Qinghua standing off the side. He seems to have dropped some large platter of something - he should not be doing something so lowly as serving things, he’s not a servant any longer. But it is very typical of him to mindlessly reach out and start doing whatever unfinished tasks he sees before him, grumbling all the while as if someone is forcing him into it. Right now, he looks gobsmacked. Pale and wide eyed and gaping in shock, looking shaken to his core.

“Marriage!?” Shang Qinghua demands, his voice high and strangled.

-

Several misunderstandings happen in a row.

I am absolutely here for the drama that is this miscommunication. no, no, do not misunderstand, there was barely any emotional turmoil in this plotline. It was 90% two people thinking very different things of one situation and I LIVED for it.

the plot can be summed up as: Mobei-jun: he's finally wifing me. SQH: Shit- fuck- We are going to die!?- Oh. My. God.- not today satan!!!!!!

SO GOOD

8 Stealing Sun From the Flowers by CherriChou (40, 576)

Summary:

After some investigating, it seems he’d lucked out even further; he doesn’t have some shitty System telling him what to do! Those things are always so annoying in isekai stories—restricting the transmigrator’s actions, punishing them for doing something ‘wrong,’ etc, etc. He’d probably tear his own hair out if he had to deal with one! …Then again, it would be nice if some sort of pop-up could just tell him, real quick, where the hell he is. What world is this?

AU where Shen Yuan wakes up in the mushroom body with no memory of his time as Shen Qingqiu, nor a System to guide him. Fun times are had.

Normally I am not one for amnesia plots (they are too sad and angsty) but this was actually so heartwarming!

Amnesia drove the characters to communicate better and become better people

Very sweet minimal/light angst. Solid read!

9 Building it back, stone by stone and seal by seal by KizuKatana (134, 279)

Summary: It had been over 200 years since the war between cultivators left more than half the land ravaged and uninhabitable and the practice of cultivation punishable by death.

Despite the risks of being caught as a practicing cultivator, Wei Wuxian took on the hunt of a dangerous yao that had destroyed a small village and killed all of the civilians. While searching for the demon, he encountered a mysterious cultivator dressed all in white. Wei Wuxian was excited to finally meet another cultivator, but instead of greeting him or making pretty much any conversation at all, the man attacked Wei Wuxian on sight. - - - - - - There is NO WAR in this fic. This takes place two centuries after the war happened, and it has a sort of post apocalyptic vibe. This is a story of rebuilding and finding safety. It's about found family and forming a new society away from the old one that persecuted them.

I think this might be the top fic of this reading week. Very much recommend if the summary vibes with you. The writing was incredible.

The story of found family absolutely ruined me in the best of ways.

It's very much a story of being in a hopeless situation and carving out space for yourself through the power of community. Happiest of endings!

10. Love in Another Shape by celardor (WIP- Read Chapter 17 this week)

Summary: After the events of the Immortal Alliance Conference, Luo Binghe and Liu Qingge find themselves suddenly dependent on one another for survival. In order to return to their beloved Shen Qingqiu, they’ll have to face down innumerable monsters, Luo Binghe’s unstable demonic powers, and their own tangled feelings.

Meanwhile, all Shen Qingqiu wants is to be left alone. Unfortunately, even with the System in hibernation he can’t seem to escape the demands of the plot. He finds himself tasked with sorting out the aftermath of the Conference, investigating a missing person case, and taking a trip to visit Liu Qingge’s family. Through it all, the narrative continues to deviate further and further from the original story Shen Qingqiu had read, ultimately leading to a discovery that could shed light on the past and bring long-buried secrets to the surface.

Part two in the series and this is endgame bingliushen! looks like there is a chapter count now 17/21!

eeeep! I dont want to spoil, but cute things

also a little bit of angst while plans happen.

Honestly such a solid series if the summary interests you!

11 Help! My Shidi Turned into an Adorable Cat! by NonBeeArrow (33,878)

Summary: Of course. Of course that hack author would include a plant that turns people into cats.

Liu Qingge gets turned into a cat. This will have terrible consequences for him.

Part of a series! (Part two is in progress) This part one was very cute.

Totally fluffy, literally 0 angst besides small relationship miscommunications and individual sexual awakenings.

A fantastic palate cleansing fic. Also I am weak for these tropes LOL

12 Don’t We All Fall? by Adey (42, 841)

Summary: The Wen remnants—those survivors whom Wei Wuxian had pulled from certain death, defying the righteous sects in the process—were still a contentious topic. The fact that they had not attempted any retaliation, that they lived in this forsaken place away from the prying eyes of the world, did not erase the fear their name invoked. The sects had their grudges, deep-rooted and bitter.

Or, Lan Qiren goes to Yiling to determine whether the information he’s been fed adds up to the reality of it.

Y'all know I'm weak for good uncle lan qiren and this entire story was that.

Qiren thinks something is suspicious and decides to check in on the burial mounds himself- he sorts some things out!

This was such a soft fic- WY gets the sweetest family and a golden core fix! Very cute, very warm.

That's what I read this week!

I think I have enough fics left in my MFL for another week of reading, but I will be doing a fic sweep for SVSSS and MDZS soon. Every once in a while I will mass hunt on ao3 and it's about time I did it again.

As usual I always appreciate any of your recs! In addition, if you want a personalized rec list (MDZS and SVSSS right now) I am always happy to make one! Just dm me with what you're looking for :)

till next week!

[nthspecialll]

Rdr1 newspaper "Blackwater #55" transcriped

Masterlist link.

Civil Unrest Returns To Mexico

General Ignacio Sanchez’s government has been quick to downplay reports of civil unrest in several provinces. Although witnesses talk of large scale rioting, protests and train hijacking by rebel bands, alongside government death squads and other reports of violent retribution. Government officials describe events as little more than small scale skirmishes between an increasingly confident government and the last vestiges of a rebellion loyal to previous regimes. Dispatches very widely as to the scale and extent of unrest and as to whether Mexico is moving towards a much needed period of peace and prosperity or sinking into era of violent internal strife and conflict. Unrest in Capital is believed to have led to the deaths up to five thousand people, although one loyal official blamed events on nothing more than festivals gone wrong.

Kidnapped Woman Found Alive

A rancher’s daughter, Bonnie MacFarlane, kidnapped from her home in Hennigan’s Stead, New Austin, narrowly escaped death by hanging after a blood shootout between Armadillo lawmen and Bill Williamson’s gang at Tumbleweed. The motive for the kidnapping is still unclear. Initial reports seemed to indicate that it was a crime of passion, but Miss MacFarline is a spinster of 29 years, well past marriageable or childbearing age, so this appears implausible. The incident seems to be linked to the recent capture of Normal Deek rumored to be Bill Williamson’s second-in-command. Several men lost their lives in the skirmish but Bill Williamson’s body was not recovered and it is thought that the notorious outlaw is still at large.

Landon Ricketts Alive.

Perhaps the legends of the old West do live on into this more modern century. Reports from Mexiso suggest that possibly the last of the great gun men, Landon Ricketts may be alive and well just south of the border. Mr. Rickets, who survived the Blackwater Massacre of 1899 and who shot and killed both of the Butcher brothers in 1896, amongst many other rumored and verified killings, was long believed dead after a late night gun fight in eastern California in 1902. Now it seems the last of the men who lived by the speed of their reflexes may still be amongst us. It is unclear whether he will now join a Wild West show.

South Western Railroad Executives Demand Action

Railroad company officials have demanded the government take action against rising crime and unrest in the region. The railway was supposed to bring peace, prosperity and the benefits of civilization to the region, but has itself become a target of robbers, brigands and rare evaders. Officials say that unless their profits improve, they will have to stop paying off government officials, with disastrous consequences for everyone concerned.

Many Losing Faith In Federal Government

As the federal government continues to tighten its grip on land, property and law across the entire western region, people are questioning the true motives behind its interference in local affairs and, moreover, whether the politics, institutions and bureaucracies it has established are in fact less efficient than they were before. The federal government promised untold economic and social improvements however, for most, the West is poorer and more lawless than it was thirty years ago.

Travel To Mexico Still Difficult

As diplomatic relations between the United Stations (??) and Mexico continue to deteriorate, travel between the countries is complicated as major routes across the border between New Autsin and Nuevo Paraiso remain impassable. Commercial travelers and tourists are being advised against border crossings at this time.

Sewage Streams Through Blackwater

The Blackwater Sewerage Commissioners have announced a solution to the question of discharge of human manure into river system around Blackwater. All citizens are thus required to construct sewerage pipes that discharge at a local downstream from the center of town. Currently the emitted gases and stench are frequently unbearable and vapors in the water have been said to consume the paint at the bottom of boats. By safely discharging downstream, this ensures the town and people have performed their civil duties.

Nate Johns Promises Change As Governor

With the gubernatorial elections looming, Nate Johns delivered a series of bold and impressive speeches this week, in which he promised to halve crime and taxes by 1915 and vowed that every household in the State would have an automobile, an indoor toilet and one literate family member by 1920. Campaigning under the slogan, “Make the West Fair Again.” Mr Johns has been dogged by the accusations of corruption and claims that he is out of touch with the common man. Despite his family’s immense wealth and influence, Mr- John maintains that he is a man of humble origins with people’s best interest at heart.

Massacre At Ridgewood Farm

A group of bandits carried out a brutal massacre at Ridgewood Farm in Cholla Springs. Men and women were murdered in cold blood, seemingly with little motive. Armadillo lawmen stormed the farmhouse, defeated the criminals and freed the survivors. It has not yet been confirmed if this was the work of the Williamson gang: if not, beleaguered Armadillo Marshal Leigh Johnson has another serious problem on his hands.

Chinese Workers Riot In Mexico

Reports are coming in of rioting amongst migrant Chinese workers in mexico. Chinese laborers, large groups of whom are building both towns and railroads across Mexico, have protested about reduced pay and appalling working conditions. Riots broke out last week across Mexico at building sites following the withholding of wages due to deadlies not being met. Mexican officials blamed socialist along with poor translators.

Immigration Leads US to Disaster

The democracy Platform has announced its opposition in both immigration and the integration of immigrants in the country. With immigrants comes large voting blocks and organization against the majority class and race. Immigrants provide a vast block of unskilled labor, further devaluing the labor born in Blackwater. It is the position of the established class that opposition to the immigration is the only good choice whereby these territories can be prevented from becoming completely orientalized.

Miscellany

In honor of Mary Shackleford, age 19, of Ridgewood Farm. Her life was taken too soon.

Seeking actors for exciting new motion picture projects. Contact D. S. MacKenna at the School House. Armadillo, New Austin.

Earl Errington, age 31, and his wife Betsie Errington, age 28, of Blackwater proudly announce the birth of their twelfth child, Francis Leonard Errington.

Chewing Tobacco available for purchase. Wonderful health benefits. Nathanial Johnson M.D. Physician, Armadillo

Normal Deek, age 34, killed in a gun battle Tumbleweed in Gaptooth Ridge, New Austin.

Willie Feaney, 27 years old, of Ridgewood Farm has passed away. He be missed by all who  loved him.

Room available in Casa Madrugada Nuevo Parasio. Good price. Many nice girls.

You got yourself a fine pair of eyes.

[cardiacreports2]

Paramedic Incident Report

Incident Number: 2024-19245 Date: December 6, 2024 Time of Call: 15:23

Incident Location: ClimbX Indoor Gym, 345 Summit Street, Boulder, CO

Patient Information:

Name: Daniel Carson

Age: 20

Gender: Male

Height: 5'11"

Weight: 165 lbs

Physical Description: Lean and muscular build with well-defined arms and torso typical of an experienced climber. Short dark brown hair, light complexion.

Description of Incident: At 15:23, dispatch received a 911 call reporting a young male climber had collapsed while bouldering at an indoor climbing facility. The patient was reportedly scaling a mid-level climb when witnesses described him suddenly clutching his chest, losing his grip, and falling to the mat below. He was unresponsive upon initial assessment by gym staff.

Initial Assessment Upon Arrival (15:30):

Level of Consciousness: Unresponsive

Pulse: Absent

Respiratory Effort: None

Skin Condition: Pale, cool, and clammy

Pupils: Fixed and dilated

Bystanders reported that staff initiated CPR immediately after the collapse and delivered one shock using the facility's automated external defibrillator (AED).

Treatment at Scene (15:30-15:45):

CPR: High-quality chest compressions continued upon paramedics’ arrival.

Airway Management: Airway secured with a bag-valve mask; oxygen at 15 L/min.

AED Analysis: AED advised one additional shock, which was administered at 15:35. Return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) achieved at 15:37.

Vital Signs Post-ROSC:

Pulse: Weak and irregular at 45 bpm

Blood Pressure: 80/50 mmHg

Respiration: Shallow and labored at 10 breaths/min

Oxygen Saturation: 78%

Transport Summary (15:45-16:00): Patient was loaded into the ambulance for transport to St. Anthony's Hospital. During transport, the patient exhibited further signs of cardiac distress. At 15:50, he experienced ventricular fibrillation (VF).

Intervention: CPR resumed, epinephrine 1 mg administered IV, and defibrillation attempted twice.

Outcome: No ROSC achieved after second cardiac arrest.

Time of Death: 16:00

Remarks: The patient suffered two cardiac arrests within a 30-minute period, likely indicative of a severe underlying cardiac condition. Efforts to stabilize were unsuccessful due to continued arrhythmias and compromised circulation.

Autopsy Report

Case Number: 2024-AU-1245 Date of Examination: December 7, 2024 Time of Examination: 09:00

Name: Daniel Carson Age: 20 Height: 5'11" Weight: 165 lbs Sex: Male Race: Caucasian

External Examination:

General Appearance: Well-developed and muscular young male. No evidence of external trauma except for mild abrasions on the back of hands and forearms, consistent with climbing activities. Skin pale with slight cyanosis around the lips and nail beds.

Scars/Marks: None significant.

Tattoos: None noted.

Clothing: Patient arrived wearing climbing shorts and a tank top.

Internal Examination:

Cardiovascular System:

Heart: Enlarged, weighing 420 grams (average for age/weight: 300-350 grams).

Valves: Mitral valve revealed significant calcification and fibrosis, indicative of a congenital defect. The defective valve exhibited stenosis, which restricted blood flow and created turbulent circulation.

Coronary Arteries: Severe occlusion (95%) of the left anterior descending (LAD) artery due to atherosclerotic plaque.

Myocardium: Evidence of acute ischemic changes and scarring, suggesting prior silent infarctions. The ventricular walls were thickened (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy).

Aorta: Normal caliber and appearance.

Respiratory System:

Lungs congested, with frothy fluid in the trachea and bronchi.

Right lung: 450 grams; Left lung: 430 grams.

Gastrointestinal System:

Stomach contained approximately 200 mL of partially digested food.

No abnormalities in the esophagus, stomach, or intestines.

Central Nervous System:

Brain weight: 1,450 grams. No gross abnormalities.

Other Organs:

Liver: Enlarged (1,600 grams), possibly due to mild congestion.

Kidneys: Unremarkable.

Spleen: Normal size.

Microscopic Examination:

Heart Tissue: Acute myocardial infarction visible in sections of the left ventricle.

Coronary Arteries: Advanced plaque buildup with rupture and thrombus formation.

Mitral Valve: Fibrotic thickening and calcification evident.

Toxicology:

No evidence of drugs or alcohol.

Summary and Cause of Death: Daniel Carson, a 20-year-old male, died from complications of a congenital mitral valve defect and severe coronary artery disease. The primary event was a massive myocardial infarction triggered by the blockage of the LAD artery. A second cardiac arrest during transport proved fatal.

Final Diagnosis:

Acute myocardial infarction secondary to LAD artery occlusion.

Congenital mitral valve stenosis and calcification.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy contributing to cardiac instability.

Cause of Death: Cardiac arrest due to a defective valve and blocked artery.

Manner of Death: Natural.

Signed by: Dr. Margaret Li, MD Pathologist

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ray Hartmann at Ray Hartmann's Soapbox:

This is what you might call an unnatural disaster. It has been four days and counting since a killer EF-3 tornado devastated St. Louis – killing five people, injuring dozens more, destroying more than 5,000 buildings and wreaking more than $1 billion in damages. It’s one of the most severe tornadoes to hit the U.S. in recent years. But the one radar the storm has not landed upon is that of the Trump Administration. The decimated Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) hasn’t mustered a yawn in response to the tragedy. Not a peep. FEMA has had its famous ups and downs over the years, but in 2011, when another killer Midwestern tornado – admittedly an even deadlier one – annihilated Joplin, FEMA was on the ground in less than 24 hours coordinating an awesome relief effort. Of course, there was a grownup in the White House back then. Let’s be clear: What’s happened to FEMA in the past four months is not the stuff of normal partisan discord. It’s part of a full-scale assault on the very notion that the federal government should care for the most vulnerable people it purportedly serves; rather than only those who invested wisely in ownership of ruling politicians. In related news, world’s richest man Elon Musk giddily inflicted a chainsaw massacre on unfavored parts of the federal government before slinking away. Don’t think for a second that this very partial list of his DOGE treachery isn’t directly related to the new normal felt today by the victims in St. Louis: · Roughly 20% of FEMA’s staff is gone. Thanks to DOGE’s layoffs and buyouts, the agency lost over 1,000 experienced emergency workers in recent months. · $646 million was cut from FEMA’s preparedness and state grant programs. That includes funding Missouri communities rely on to train first responders, modernize emergency systems and prepare for exactly this kind of disaster. · Hazard mitigation funding was pulled back for the first time in nearly 30 years. Trump’s FEMA decided this spring to stop automatically providing post-disaster mitigation funds — which help communities rebuild stronger and safer. That policy is now the default, even as tornadoes and floods intensify, and St. Louis is about to understand what that means. · FEMA Corps was eliminated. The youth-led AmeriCorps program that deployed to disaster zones is gone. That’s hundreds of would-be helpers who will never be dispatched to St. Louis or anywhere else. This is just a sampling of the damage inflicted by Trump’s “Project 2025” ideological surrogates — all in the name of “returning primacy” to the states to handle disasters. Pretty ironic that one of the first states punished severely for the arrogance of these heartless bastards is also one of America’s Trumpiest: Missouri. Gov. Mike Kehoe faces an uphill battle at best to meet the challenges facing St. Louis — not because he won’t try, but because it’s hard to imagine that he can muster the needed resources. That’s in part because of his Republican Party’s obsession with shrinking state government, but more broadly it’s a consequence of FEMA having checked out.

Ray Hartmann wrote a good Substack column on the recent tornado event in the St. Louis area juxtaposed with the Trump Regime/DOGE’s cuts to FEMA.

[mikerickson]

Dispatches from the Frontlines of Democracy: 6/10/2025 NJ Primary Election

I worked as a poll worker again yesterday, this time for the NJ Primary Election. You know the drill, hijinks and shenanigans below the cut:

Woke up at 4:45 AM and got home at 9:30 PM, so it was a long fucking day and I'm still thoroughly wiped out today.

Each district is supposed to have four poll workers, but we were short-staffed and I was only paired with one other woman, who I also worked with last November and got along really well with. She works at my local supermarket and kept recognizing voters that were coming in. Her reactions ranged from, "hang on, I wanna go say hi to this person," to, "oh no, I'm gonna run to the bathroom for a bit so hopefully they don't see me."

Another poll worker at the adjacent table was South Korean and was telling us about how when he was doing his compulsory military service he got selected one year to count ballots for a Korean election. I didn't know how to tactfully say, "I'm not comfortable with the military overseeing the voting process," so I left it alone.

Same guy also shared a rumor that our local Hooters that recently shut down is gonna become a rotating sushi restaurant, which, talk about pyrrhic victories.

I can't do sudoku puzzles for shit anymore, I don't know how I used to be so good at them back in high school.

Part of the process for signing in a voter is getting their signature on the sign-in tablet and matching it against their signature on file, which I can't see until they hit a submit button (so they can't try to forge it on the spot). If they don't match, we're supposed to give them a provisional ballot which basically goes through an extra step of investigation to prevent fraud. I had one guy just give an aggressive Richter scale-style scratching, complete with an arms-length flourish in the air. I thought, "oh, here we go...," but it matched the one on file identically. When he signed the physical voting authority slip, he did it the exact same way again.

Speaking of provisionals, I had one woman come up who already looked over it and said, "I'm not gonna be in your system and I'm gonna have to vote provisional," with an exasperated voice. I doubted her and tried about six different ways of entering her into the system with no luck. Finally with some combination of scanning her license and manually entering her home street address I found her and she was flagged with a "must vote provisionally" notice. Apparently she's been fighting with the Board of Elections for years and no one has been able to figure out why she's in IT limbo.

When I was working the voting booths themselves, my default line was, "I'll take you over here, sir/ma'am." I had one older woman quip back at me, "oh, he's gonna take me in this booth right here? I don't think I'd mind..." Her husband wasn't amused, but also didn't seem surprised.

Once a voter is in the booth behind the screen we're not allowed to enter with them or even look inside without their permission. I had one gentleman call out to me asking why Ras Baraka (a progressive Democratic candidate) wasn't appearing on his ballot. I got his permission and looked at the screen to see that he had a Republican ballot. I verified and explained that he was a registered Republican and he said, "I am? ...oh yeah, I guess I am..." I left him in there for a bit longer, but he did end up voting anyway.

I had another older man call out and get agitated because, quote, "I don't know who any of these people are!" I didn't really understand what the problem was until he directly asked me who he should vote for and I explained to him twice that I wasn't allowed to do that. About a half hour later this played out again with a second man.

I clocked at least four gay couples, but felt awkward wishing an unprompted "Happy Pride." Except for the one guy I saw with a rainbow watchband who said it back.

Around midday another older gentleman (noticing a pattern here?) who only spoke Spanish was having trouble with the poll workers at his station so the youngest worker on duty for the whole building - a latina undergrad in her senior year - had to come over to help him. He was unaffiliated so he could pick either party, but apparently he picked Republican first by accident so he wanted to void his ballot (which is a pain in the ass to do) and then vote on the Democratic ballot. This was about a thirty minute process with an angry voter and this poor first-time poll worker was so burnt out by the end of it, I felt bad.

There was one argument early in the day between a Gen X mother and her Gen Z daughter. I got the impression that the mother was trying to tell the daughter who to vote for, and they disagreed pretty strongly over it. They bickered quietly by the bathrooms for about ten minutes before approaching the booths. When the daughter came out of her booth, her eyes were red like she'd been crying, and then they continued arguing for a while longer in the parking lot.

At the end of the night I had to bring the supply bag, provisional ballots, and the SIM card with the digital results to the Township building. My equivalents from other polling stations started trickling in after me, and one of them loaded her supply bag wrong; she was missing some key stuff and only had the SIM card. The Township workers were just wincing, realizing that they were going to have a very long night chasing down the missing materials to certify their results for that district. I basically hit them with a, "that's rough, buddy," and went home because I did my shit right.

[mariacallous]

The Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are about to take a historic energy security step on February 9, when they will synchronize their former Soviet electricity systems with the Continental Europe Network (CEN). This will conclude the final chapter of Russia’s involvement in the energy sectors of these frontline European Union (EU) and NATO member states. But the Baltic states and their NATO allies must now work to secure this hard-won energy independence from Russia’s ongoing hybrid attacks on critical energy infrastructure. 

Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have faced a wide array of Russian coercive energy policy measures arising from their historical dependence on Russian energy supplies and Soviet-era energy infrastructure. These measures included a total economic and energy blockade of Lithuania in 1990 in response to its independence movement, a prompt shutdown of an oil pipeline after Lithuania declined to sell its crude oil refinery to a Russian company in 2006, and long-term politically motivated gas pricing for the Baltics, to name just a few well-known cases. 

Having faced the destructive impacts of Russia’s weaponization of energy, the Baltic states have become leaders among European nations in severing ties with Russia’s energy supplies over the past decade. The installation of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Klaipėda, Lithuania’s seaport, in late 2014 marked a significant step in this direction. It opened the Baltic gas markets to global LNG suppliers, including those from the United States. This alternative gas supply route enabled the Baltic states to ban all Russian gas imports, both piped and LNG, just two months into Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. The Baltic states became the first European countries to take such a principled stance, and they are among those advocating for the rest of the EU members to follow suit by implementing a blanket ban on Russian LNG.  

Flipping the switch

The timely diversification of oil and electricity supply routes also allowed the Baltics to stop importing these energy sources from Russia. In terms of electricity, the Baltic states use the interconnectors Estlink 1 and Estlink 2 between Estonia and Finland, Nordbalt between Lithuania and Sweden, and LitPol Link between Lithuania and Poland for power exchanges with Europe. However, the Baltic states’ early market-level integration with their EU neighbors did not mean the immediate end of Russia’s involvement in the their electricity sectors on the system control level.

These are the last days that the Baltic states’ power grids remain a part of the Russian-controlled Integrated Power System/United Power System (IPS/UPS) grid. This effectively means that a dispatch in Moscow is still responsible for maintaining electric frequency stability in the Baltic states—bringing all the risks that such a dependency on Moscow entails. Ukraine and Moldova performed a test desynchronization from the IPS/UPS grid concurrently with the onset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, immediately asking for an emergency synchronization with the European grid, which was granted. Lithuania was aware of the potential need to perform an emergency synchronization, too, and thus had prepared its power grid to function in an isolated mode if needed. On February 8, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia will decouple from the Russian-controlled grid and conduct a joint isolated operation test before joining the European grid on February 9.

The planning for the Baltic synchronization with the European grid began as early as 2007, but—due to multiple project phases involving political, regulatory, and infrastructural components in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Poland—it has only now been finalized. The project was co-financed by the EU, which has allocated more than €1.2 billion from its Connecting Europe Facility. For the EU, the project is as important as it is for the Baltic states: only with Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia connected to the European grid can the EU achieve its goal of a fully integrated European energy market, in which all uncontrolled third-party impacts on its member states are eliminated.

Securing critical infrastructure

Although Russia will no longer exert direct influence over the energy supply and system control of the Baltic states, Moscow may now focus on targeting their critical energy, communications, and data infrastructure. Since October 2023, at least eleven cables running under the Baltic Sea have been damaged. This includes the underwater Balticconnector gas pipeline between Estonia and Finland; communications cables linking Finland, Germany, Sweden, and Lithuania; and the Estlink 2 power cable between Estonia and Finland. A data cable between Latvia and Sweden has been damaged as recently as January 26. The Lithuanian government is responding with increased military involvement in protecting critical seaborne energy infrastructure under the Baltic Sea amid an attempted sabotage of the NordBalt power cable that connects it to Sweden.

The damage was caused by vessels dragging their anchors on the Baltic Sea’s seabed. Investigations into the circumstances of the damage are still ongoing, but the rapid increase in such incidents and the vessels involved—mostly Russia’s “shadow fleet” oil tankers—raise concerns that the damage was intentional. As a response, NATO has stepped up its presence in the Baltic Sea by launching a new military patrol mission called Baltic Sentry. This mission involves deploying frigates, maritime patrol aircraft, and naval drones to enhance the ability of littoral states to respond to destabilizing acts on their critical infrastructure. The Alliance has also established a Critical Undersea Infrastructure Network to enhance information-sharing and situational awareness and a dedicated Maritime Centre for the Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure within NATO’s Maritime Command in Northwood, United Kingdom. 

Crucial first steps have also been made to increase the protection level of the onshore LitPol Link interconnector between Lithuania and Poland, through which the Baltics are synchronizing with the European grid. Lithuania’s Public Security Service has taken over the protection of several LitPol Link sites from a private security company that had previously been assigned this role. The Baltic states and Poland, fully aware of Russia’s hybrid activities in the region, have also urged the EU to provide financial support for enhancing current security measures for the LitPol Link and other critical energy infrastructure in the region. 

It’s a start, but more needs to be done, particularly in the case of Lithuania. With vital interconnectors—LitPol Link in energy and Rail Baltica in transport and military logistics—passing through the country, Lithuania is emerging as a crucial gateway connecting continental Europe to the Baltics, the Nordic region, and even the Arctic.

All these interconnections traverse the narrow land corridor between Lithuania and Poland, known as the Suwałki Gap. This notorious area borders Belarus to the east and Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave to the west.

Russia could attempt to isolate the Baltics from the rest of Europe by obstructing the Suwałki Gap from these territories. Thus, beyond the punctual tactics of strengthening the security of the LitPol Link and, later, the planned additional onshore electricity interconnector between Lithuania and Poland that is reportedly set to run along the Rail Baltica tracks, an approach of a comprehensive protection regime for this vulnerable border area is needed. An increased NATO military presence in Lithuania and regional measures, such as installing the Baltic Defense Line along the Baltic states’ borders with mainland Russia, its Kaliningrad region, and Belarus, are important steps toward a solution.

With the Baltic power systems soon operating in harmony with those in continental Europe, the regional security agenda shifts from concerns over the security of energy supply to the protection of critical energy infrastructure. The Baltic nations and their allies should further enhance their proactive efforts to deter sabotage and secure this strategically vital region.

[jpitha]

Between the Black and Grey 50

First / Previous / Next

Fen's flagship the Contemplation of Eternity linked into existence a few hundred million kilometers from the Gren station. For the first time since she left with Gord and Spyglass all those years ago, she was home.

"Empress! We have entered the system. We are being pinged by traffic control." The comms officer said. She was a young woman, sitting in the front of the Command Desk, hunched over her station.

"Ignore their pings, Lieutenant. Sensors, please begin scanning the runabouts hovering around the station. Look for ones that seem to have more weapons than you would expect."

"Yes Empress. Can... you be more specific?"

Fen turned her gaze upon the Sensor Suite officer. She was an older woman, in the middle of her career and in the few days that Fen had been aboard, didn't find anything objectionable about her. She held the gaze for two beats more than was comfortable and said "Not really. Look for runabouts with heavy slug throwers, engines with an overdriven ion trail, some might even have some large laser batteries."

She saluted sharply and turned back to the screen.

They continued to approach the station. It was never very busy, but Fen noticed that there seemed to be even less traffic than normal. There were only a few ships docked to the bottom of the station, and the traffic in system was sparse. Seeing the station brought back a flood of memories to Fen. Her old life with Ma-ren, the K'laxi familial line that raised her, her siblings and parents. It seemed so long ago but wasn't even ten years ago.

"Empress, they're getting awfully insistent. We have passed two security perimeters without contacting Traffic Control and they really would like to speak with us. They've said if we pass another perimeter they will be forced to assume our intentions are antagonistic and will fire upon us."

Fen smirked. She knew what kind of defenses the Gren station had. It was an old station, built to defend against other Gren factions and maybe the Sefigans. Against a human Super Dreadnought, it couldn't compare and they knew it. It was a bluff. "Continue to ignore Traffic Control, Lieutenant." She turned "Sensors? What has your scan discovered?"

Lieutenant Daniels sat up and turned to face Fen. "Empress, you were right, there is a small swarm of runabouts that look like they are regular Gren station ships, but have oversized drives as well as heavy weapons. Some even seem to be hastily fitted with K'laxi slug throwers."

"Those would be Pennfenn or Tam'itarr's ships. They shake down folks coming in for 'docking fees' and 'contraband inspection.'" Fen looked down at her pad and saw the scan of one of them. Their familiar shape looked back at her. "Helm, continue your approach."

They thrusted closer to the Gren station. As they passed the final perimeter, the runabouts stopped their casual orbit and approached Contemplation. "The runabouts have targeted us, but their weapons have not powered up yet." Sensors said.

"Free all weapons, but do not target or fire yet." Fen said. "Contact Traffic Control, please. I would like to speak to them."

The Comms officer's fingers danced over her pads, and the face of the Gren head of Traffic Control appears on the screen. He looked like any Gren that the crew had seen, furred and scaled, with mouthparts like a crab and a large bulky body. Growing up among them, Fen could read their body language better than her crew, and she knew he was very worried.

"Human Imperial Ship! Please cease your approach! Your act of aggression has not gone unnoticed. We have already dispatched a runabout to Gate to the Gren homeworld to alert High Command of your treachery."

Fen muted the call. "Sensors, do you see the ship he's describing?"

"One moment... yes. I see it. It's one of the altered runabouts you asked for me to search for. It's boosting towards the gate at a high rate of speed."

"Are they still within targeting distance?"

"For the laser batteries. They're on the ragged edge of our missiles and out of rage of the slug throwers. If we launched now, a missile might catch up before they reach the Gate, but we'd be close enough that the Gate might take a hit too. It would be risky."

Destroying a Gate would be seen as an extreme act. The people on the Gren station would be trapped - or at least at the mercy of the Humans and K'laxi and their wormhole generators. "Do not fire upon the runabout, let it go."

"Aye, Empress."

The call was un-muted. "This is Empress Fenchurch Whitehorse of the Human Empire, first of her name. I am looking for the Gren named Tam'itarr. You will provide him within three standard units. If you do not, my shock troops will board and we will find him. Any attack against my ship will be met with overwhelming force."

The Gren on the other end of the line was stunned into silence. His mouthparts moving aimlessly, like a sputter for a human. He turned his head to something out of the sight of the camera and as he turned back there was a burst of static.

"Signal is being overridden from inside the station, Empress. Someone else is piggybacking on their signal."

"Locate the source of the signal, but do not block it. Let them break in."

"Doing it now, Empress."

Fen turned back to the screen and saw - through the static and distortion - a familiar face.

"Fen! As my legs carry me around, I have not seen you in cycles. You have done well for yourself!"

"Tam'itarr. You know why I'm here." Fen steely gaze bored into Tam'itarr.

"I have a - how do humans say it? - a hunch. But, you know me, I never was stupid." The camera panned, and they could see that Tam'itarr was surrounded by K'laxi. He was with the refugees. "If you make any attempt to capture me, then I will be forced to take action against your dear family." Fen could see that the K'laxi were sitting together, with a few Gren standing over them with their long, bladed weapons out. Sitting in the front was Da'reni, the matriarch. The old K'laxi looked into the camera and her eyes widened, and her ears twitched. She "Fen. You have found your purpose after all."

"My purpose?"

Da'reni nodded. "I assume you know what you are at this point yes?" Fen nodded without speaking. "Then you have become what you were meant to become. We failed. All our work, all our sacrifice, was for nothing."

"No! Your work wasn't for nothing. I am who I am because of you. Because of the family. I have taken the lessons you gave me and applied them in my work." Fen had seamlessly switched to her childhood dialect, and everyone on the command deck was watching her, surprised.

Da'reni smiled sadly. "I know that you mean that as a compliment, child, but you are also saying that the things we taught you are making you a better oppressor. Why did you return, child?"

"Tam'itarr shot Ma-ren! Shot her in the back as we were running. I had always planned on returning to extract revenge, but I will admit that I had not planned originally on returning with the entire human Empire at my back."

"Tam'itarr shot her? He had told us that the human you were with, Gord had shot her as you both ran to Spyglass."

"No, Gord was trying to help us. Tam's goons shot her with a long range rifle." Fen was tearing up telling Da'reni the story. "She almost made it."

Da'reni looked at Tam'itarr and turned to look at the other Gren behind her. "Fen, Empress. There are so few of us left. Tam'itarr's people have made our lives here hard. To hear the truth now after all these years? Your vengeance is righteous, I so declare. Mourn us, but do not let our lives stay your hand. Avenge Ma-ren, avenge us. Know this - we loved you with all our hearts."

Tam'itarr turned the camera back to himself. "I hope your reunion was a touching one, Fen. I noticed that you switched to your K'laxi dialect as soon as you started speaking. You had better not be planning something, my people like it here, we'll be staying a while, making sure that you-" Fen closed the connection.

"Empress, are you all right?" The captain, sitting next to her turned and looked kindly at her. He was older, with a beard flecked with white. His uniform sharp and the medals on his chest gleaming.

Tears flowed from Fen's eyes and ran down her cheeks. She took a shaky breath, held it, and let it out again. "Thank you captain. I am fine. Just had an unexpected reunion. Weapons." Fen took another calming breath. "Target the reactors on the station. I want them offline but not destroyed. Shock troops at the ready. We're going to hard dock and then board. I will be accompanying you, ready my armor. We take Tam'itarr alive."

[randomthefox]

Do you agree Super Perfect Cell is a universe destroyer?

https://www.quora.com/Is-Cell-from-Dragon-Ball-Z-a-universe-buster

"Super" Perfect Cell?

Reminds me of "Mystic Gohan" lol. The names folk come up with.

I like to joke that Cell isn't even a planet buster. He is the only DBZ arc villain who never blew up a planet. Freeza blew up a planet. Buu blew up a planet. Cell never blew up a single planet. What a loser =P

To me DIALOG is not a feat. A character SAYING "I can blow up the whole universe" is not indicative of their ability to do so. Characters can SAY whatever they want. There are several villains who SAY to Goku "I'll beat you down in three seconds flat" or something like that, only for Goku to immediately rock their shit. My favorite Dragon Ball quote of all time is this moment from Goku.

I really want you to consider this line. Goku IS NOT saying this to boast about how strong HE is. He's not saying "ha, I'm even stronger than planet buster tier!" or anything like that. He calls himself "one little man." He is saying this to DEMEAN FREEZA. He is putting down Freeza's power. He is downplaying his own power for the sake of humiliating his opponent. What good is the power to destroy a planet when you can't even dispatch the person standing in front of you?

It doesn't matter what a character SAYS they can do. What matters is their feats. It doesn't matter if Cell theoretically could go from planet to planet and star to star and blow himself up and then regenerate himself over and over again until eventually the entire solar system is wiped out. What matters is he loses to Gohan. When he has a broken arm and is down to 50% of his power.

The problem with power scaling debates is it focuses on numbers and STATEMENTS, and ignores the actual events of the story. Cell is weaker than Gohan. RIDICULOUSLY weaker than Gohan. It doesn't matter if Cell "could" blow away the entire solar system, because he doesn't. He doesn't even blow up a planet lol. (I mean, he blows up King Kai's planet I guess, but that's a tiny planet like the size of a very little moon, so I'm not giving him credit for that.)

So my conclusion is that no, Cell CANNOT blow up the universe, because he doesn't. Take it or leave it =P

[vague-humanoid]

US Deploys Troops to Give Israel’s Genocide a Boost

On The Freedom Side LIVE, Thursday, 10/17  at 3pm ET/12pm PT, Eugene and Rania are joined by special guests:

Mike Prysner - War veteran, Host of Eyes Left Podcast and producer for The Empire Files joins the show to give insight into the Pentagon’s plans to deploy a THAAD advanced anti-missile defense system to Israel along with 100 US soldiers to operate it – the first time the US has deployed boots on the ground since the start of the Gaza genocide. Prysner will discuss how the move signifies preparations for US involvement in a wider regional war.

Zoe Alexandra - Journalist and Editor of Peoples Dispatch joins the show to discuss the latest attempts by the Colombian right-wing to overthrow Gustavo Petro’s democratically-elected government through an unconstitutional investigation into his 2022 campaign finances. Several world leaders have called this a lawfare coup. Zoe will discuss the mass mobilizations taking place to defend Colombia’s democratic process.

Giorgio Cafiero - CEO of Gulf State Analytics, a Washington, DC-based geopolitical risk consultancy, joins the show to discuss how the reactionary Gulf States are responding to Israel’s dangerous escalations to provoke a full-scale regional war in the Middle East.

Lawrence Grandpre - The Director of Research at Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle will discuss Kamala Harris’s recently unveiled ‘opportunity agenda for Black men.’ Grandpre explains why the superficial attempts from the Harris-Walz campaign to win the Black vote – while doing nothing to address Kamala’s abysmal track record incarcerating Black people – will only fall short.

Junaid S. Ahmad – Professor of Law, Religion, and Global Politics and Director of the Center for the Study of Islam and Decolonization in Islamabad, Pakistan joins the show to discuss the mass protests that swept Pakistan following Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Ahmad explains how the resistance in the Middle East has helped to revitalize the mass action against Pakistan’s US-backed military regime.

#breakthroughnews

[ninjarebelshade]

Certified Used Automation Equipment: Smart Investment for Industrial Growth

In the fast-paced world of manufacturing, automation is no longer a futuristic concept—it’s today’s standard. But for many businesses, the cost of brand-new systems can be a roadblock. That’s where Certified Used Automation Equipment comes in—a reliable, affordable, and sustainable way to access high-performance systems without overspending.

Whether you’re expanding your production line or upgrading outdated machinery, Mahajan Automation offers expertly tested and guaranteed Certified Used Automation Equipment that delivers long-term value and seamless performance.

What is Certified Used Automation Equipment?

Certified Used Automation Equipment refers to previously-owned machinery that has been carefully inspected, restored, and approved for reuse in industrial settings. This includes robotic arms, PLC systems, servo motors, conveyor systems, and more.

Unlike simple second-hand equipment, certified systems are subjected to detailed diagnostics, repairs, software updates, and final quality testing. The certification guarantees that each unit meets original performance standards, giving buyers peace of mind and consistent output.

Why Choose Certified Equipment Over Brand-New?

✅ 1. Affordability Without Compromise

LSI Keyword: cost-effective automation Buying certified used equipment often saves 40–60% compared to new systems, allowing companies to allocate budgets more strategically across labor, training, and scaling.

✅ 2. Faster Deployment

Because most systems are already available and refurbished, certified equipment is ready to ship and install quickly—minimizing downtime and accelerating production.

✅ 3. Eco-Friendly Operations

Choosing Certified Used Automation Equipment supports sustainability by extending the lifecycle of machines and reducing electronic waste—a key step toward greener factories.

✅ 4. Trusted Performance

Certified machines go through a strict quality assurance process, ensuring they perform just as well as their newer counterparts in demanding industrial environments.

Applications Across Industries

LSI Keyword: industrial automation systems Certified automation equipment fits into nearly every industrial sector:

Automotive – Welding robots, painting systems, vision-guided assembly

Pharma & FMCG – Pick-and-place units, filling lines, labeling systems

Electronics – Precise robotic arms for soldering and micro-assembly

Metal Fabrication – Cutting machines, robotic welders, grinding cells

Packaging – Conveyors, palletizers, automatic bagging machines

With proper integration, these systems can enhance throughput, improve quality, and reduce manual errors.

What to Look for in Certified Equipment

LSI Keyword: pre-owned machinery When considering certified automation systems, always verify:

Inspection Reports – Ensure mechanical, electrical, and software checks are documented.

Service Records – A history of usage, maintenance, and upgrades shows system reliability.

Warranty Coverage – Choose providers offering limited warranties for parts or service.

Upgrade Potential – Opt for systems that can be modified or scaled in the future.

Integration Support – Work with vendors who provide setup, programming, and training.

Mahajan Automation offers all of the above—ensuring your investment in Certified Used Automation Equipment is protected and profitable.

Why Mahajan Automation?

When it comes to refurbished factory equipment, Mahajan Automation leads the way in quality, service, and customer support. With years of experience in delivering reliable automation integration, they help manufacturers scale efficiently with certified systems.

🔧 What They Offer:

Certified robotic arms, controllers, and motion systems

Customized retrofits and automation cells

Pre-sale consultation and after-sales training

Rapid dispatch and installation services

Indian and global brand support (ABB, FANUC, KUKA, Siemens, etc.)

Mahajan Automation makes automation simple, reliable, and affordable for Indian industries across sectors.

Final Thoughts

Certified Used Automation Equipment is more than just a cost-saving choice—it’s a smart strategy for sustainable industrial growth. With certified reliability, reduced lead times, and full integration support, pre-owned systems allow businesses to keep up with automation demands while staying within budget.

Explore a wide selection of guaranteed automation solutions at Mahajan Automation and discover how certified systems can help you streamline your operations with confidence.

[darkmaga-returns]

Major US grid operators are raising the alarm about the looming capacity crunch.

Power has the story:

“Six major U.S. grid operators have raised a unified alarm about an impending capacity crunch, warning that the pace and scale of explosive demand—including from data centers, manufacturing, and electrification—poses a precarious misalignment with accelerating generator retirements and transmission constraints.

At a March 25 hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, the nation’s top grid officials testified that the U.S. power system is under mounting strain—and that without urgent structural reforms, the ability to maintain reliable electric service could falter. Their message was unusually direct: demand is accelerating, supply is lagging, and current tools may not be enough to bridge the gap.

Read the full story here.

All of the ten regional grids seem to be facing the same problems of increasing demand and closure of dispatchable capacity. ERCOT, for instance, who run the grid in Texas, forecast that peak demand will increase from 86 GW to 106 GW by 2030.

PJM in the Mid-Atlantic and Mid West anticipate a rise in peak demand of 47% in the next 15 years, and California’s CAISO are looking at an increase of 33% in the next ten years.

The US still relies on gas and coal for half of its power: