#Flatline Prevention Protocols

[bionicboxes]

why is it so hard to make a cool robot design. you're already hard to draw can't you at least be easy to conceptualize

[ruvviks]

Chapter >> 1 [x] Characters >> Cato Wu (oc), Eddie Wolfe (oc), Huxley Byrne (oc), Judy Álvarez, Lauren Dimas (oc), Mikhail Koshechkin (oc), Panam Palmer, Viktor Vektor, Vincent Mayer (oc), Vitali Dobrynin (oc) Total >> 4.4k words Warnings >> Injuries, violence mention

‘What are we looking at?’

‘Both trucks are no longer on our radar. Three injured- no casualties. I have tabs on the perpetrators, but… That can wait.’

Vitali hurried through the hallway alongside Judy, as fast as his leg allowed him to go. Twenty minutes- he had been gone for a hot total of twenty minutes, and he had come back to an office-wide crisis, two intercepted cargo trucks and a packed medbay with three of his best mercs out of commission.

He gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on his cane. The attack had been entirely unexpected though surprisingly coordinated, possibly planned for weeks already. They had known about the routes, the timetables, even the fucking emergency protocol- information that routinely changed and was not easily acquirable, specifically to prevent incidents like these from happening.

The door to the medbay was ajar, several voices booming from inside. Vitali did not even bother to knock and he barged in, nearly running straight into Cato and Vincent.

Crowded, as he had expected- Panam and Huxley near the window, and Viktor maneuvering between three hospital beds, used by Eddie, Lauren and Mikhail respectively. Vincent slightly stepped aside the moment Vitali entered the room; though Cato did not even acknowledge his presence.

‘She’s never been knocked out of the Net before,’ she said, the slight panic in her voice sending a cold shiver down Vitali’s spine. ‘There’s no fuckin’ way they managed to- Will she- Will she be alright?’

‘Of course she’ll be alright, kid.’ Viktor paused for a second, eyes fixed on the monitor next to Lauren as he carefully plugged it into the socket behind her ear. ‘Her brain got one helluva shock from whatever daemon they let loose. She’s just asleep- give ‘er some time, alright?’

‘You’re telling me she could’ve flatlined?’

‘As with any job, Cato. As with any job.’

Vitali was no longer focused on the conversation, his eyes drawn toward Lauren’s face. She showed no sign of injury, or anything the like- but he knew she wasn’t “just asleep”, as Viktor had lightly put it, having witnessed the aftermath of a forceful removal from the Net firsthand on several occasions already.

God, had he not left- twenty minutes, fuck’s sake- perhaps he had been able to help. Of course he had been able to help, he’s their fixer of all people; as Head of Security, Mikhail knew of most escape routes and emergency protocols, but Vitali had planned much more, way more, specifically for situations like these-

His eyes wandered over to Mikhail, sitting up straight in the bed next to Lauren’s with his upper body wrapped in bandages, as well as his head. Even though he presumably was in a lot of pain- he had refused to take any painkillers, for reasons well known to Vitali- he still managed to force a reassuring smile out of himself, and gave a solid nod into Vitali’s direction.

‘God fuckin’ damnit!’ Cato’s voice broke and she took a shaky breath, finally taking a moment to look around the room until her eyes landed on Vitali. ‘Oh, fuck- hey. Sorry about that, boss. Didn’t- I didn’t mean to-’

‘You’re okay,’ Vitali immediately cut her off, voice still gentle despite the circumstances. His gaze momentarily moved back to Lauren, and his chest tightened by the thought of Vincent lying there instead, eyes closed and face peaceful though anything but okay-

He pushed the thought out of his head. No time for that, now.

‘Vitya will fix her up, like he always does,’ he calmly continued, hesitantly reaching out for Cato’s arm and giving it a soft squeeze when she leaned in to close the distance between them. ‘V- Could you take Cato and get her something to drink, please?’

‘Of course.’ Vincent stepped forward, though paused when Cato averted her gaze toward the ground and he quickly raised his hands, continuing to speak to Vitali without sound so Cato would not have to hear any of it.

‘You need me to look into anything for you?’ he asked, making sure Judy could see the mostly fluid, though still slightly hesitant movements of his hands as well. ‘If you pass me the detes, I can get started on a background check at least.’

Vitali shook his head, removing his hand from Cato’s arm and resting his cane against his hip to reply. ‘You focus on Cato, and I will take care of the rest when I am done here. But- thank you. For the offer.’

Vincent softly smiled, giving him a quick nod before tapping Cato on her shoulder and carefully coaxing her out of the room when he realized she was barely present anymore, eyes staring blankly ahead as she allowed him to pull her along.

Before closing the door, he shot a last glance at the crowd inside. ‘Hey- You two get some rest, alright?’

‘Will do,’ Eddie answered, his voice a little hoarse as he spoke from the third bed. Mikhail did not even bother to try and open his mouth and gave Vincent a weak thumbs-up instead.

Vitali grabbed his cane again and slowly walked over to Eddie’s bed, exhaustion kicking in now that he knew that they were all still alive; though he knew the guilt would not go away any time soon, as he still felt responsible for them and for what had happened-

But at least they were still alive. They were still alive.

‘We tried to shake ‘em off, but- they had us surrounded,’ Eddie quietly said, making an attempt at sitting up when Vitali moved closer and sat down on the edge of the bed to relieve his leg. ‘As if… As if they knew exactly where we were going. Cargo’s probably lost by now- sorry, boss.’

‘Never mind the cargo, Eddie.’ Vitali clenched his jaw, another jab of guilt piercing his chest and he was barely able to keep his voice stable. ‘How is your head?’

Eddie stayed quiet for a moment, eyes darting around the room as if they were desperately trying to avoid making eye-contact for whatever reason; Vitali noticed some dried-up blood still covering their jaw and ear, presumably because Viktor had been a little preoccupied with other things.

They were lucky he had even been around to begin with. Only worked at Vitali’s office once in the week- had they needed to visit any other ripperdoc in town, or had they needed to travel all the way to Viktor’s shop instead, big chance they would not have made it in time-

‘Been better,’ Eddie finally answered, voice a little miserable as they spoke. ‘But…I’ll live.’

‘Gotta give your leg some rest,’ Viktor said. Vitali knew he was talking to Eddie, but clenched his jaw again when he noticed Viktor’s eyes on him instead. ‘Give it time to heal, alright? No “I’ll be fine” and no “just one gig”. That’s how people get ‘emselves six feet under.’

‘Yes, sir.’ Eddie swallowed and watched in silence while Vitali slowly got up again. ‘Um- Vitali?’

Vitali turned his head again; the weary look in Eddie’s eyes made his chest tighten.

‘I think,’ Eddie slowly started, once again averting his gaze. ‘I think I- I dunno, call me crazy, but- pretty sure I heard Dusty out there. Our Dusty. Could recognize that madman’s voice anywhere.’

Vitali blinked, shoulders involuntarily tensing up upon hearing the oh-so familiar name. He opened his mouth, but the words got caught in his throat; so he just nodded instead, and after shooting one last glance at Mikhail he quickly left the room, gesturing at Huxley and Panam to follow suit as well.

‘Fuckin’ insanity this early in the bloody morning,’ Huxley said, closing the door behind them and carefully pushing themself past Judy to be able to walk next to Vitali. ‘And o’course it happens in yer absence.’

‘I should not have taken that fucking phone call,’ Vitali mumbled, refusing to look up at them and rubbing the bridge of his nose in exasperation. ‘But- nothing I can do about that now. Panam- What can you tell me?’

‘Not much, I’m afraid.’ Panam fastened her pace and replaced Huxley next to Vitali, knowing he had trouble hearing people positioned behind him. ‘I sat in the back, didn’t get a clear view of the road. Didn’t even notice something was up until Misha started screaming- just assumed we were suddenly in a hurry.’

Two cargo trucks, gone. Vitali did not care- whatever had been inside was not nearly as important to him as the people who had been driving and guarding it- but he did wonder-

Why?

Why some random cargo? And why his cargo, of all people in Night City? If they needed weaponry or anything the like, they would’ve been better off intercepting some Arasaka vehicles, or Militech if they were feeling brave- Vitali knew their routes were much less guarded than his own, more predictable as well, and by definition a lot easier to get access to-

‘They managed to get us to stop completely,’ Panam continued, the tone of her voice different than before, as if she was sinking into deep thought. ‘Had us locked in. I- I thought that when- you know, we started driving again, I thought it was all good, but…’

They arrived at the elevators and Panam gratefully used the moment to pause and take a deep breath, smiling wearily at Judy when she stepped closer to briefly take her hand and give it a squeeze. They entered the elevator together, and went back up a few floors to mission control.

‘It was them, behind the wheel,’ Panam said. ‘Whoever attacked us. I couldn’t reach them from my position, and I- well, I wasn’t sure if the others were still…you know. So I jumped out. On second thought, I could’ve gone with ‘em, I guess- To their hideout or whatever-’

‘Glad you didn’t.’ Vitali gestured at the tablet under Judy’s arm. ‘Trucks are chipped. We could follow them for a while from here, but lost them from radar. Would have lost you too.’ He paused, and gave her a quick lookover. ‘Are you alright?’

‘I- Yeah!’ Panam quickly nodded, but her voice was suddenly a few octaves higher than before. ‘Just some- some good ol’ scrapes and bruises. Nothing I can’t handle.’

Vitali slowly nodded, but said nothing more of it.

It had been quiet at the office for some time now. Vincent had made a full recovery after they had successfully stabilized his condition, and Vitali himself had also recovered from his leg surgery. Still, some way to go- he had to take it easy, yet was still too often found running around the office, or even joining his mercs on simple gigs.

What could he say? He got bored too easily. Needed some distraction every now and then- which he could find plenty with Vincent, of course- though he often found himself missing the thrill of a fight, of successfully sneaking through some megacorporation’s warehouse to steal their gear, of feeling the weight of a gun in his hand-

Though it was all different, now, he had noticed. Ever since Arasaka had been in control of his brain for a while, Vitali would zone out on occasion, more than he would like to admit to Viktor. A dissociative state, similar to how Vincent had been in the months after they had gotten rid of Johnny Silverhand- though sometimes it came with a seething rage Vitali had not felt in years-

And it scared him a little bit.

He had not lost control- not yet, at least. And hopefully it would never happen, given his high levels of self-awareness and self-control, and the fact he had worked so hard to be able to control his emotions the way he could nowadays.

But he had felt it. He had felt it in battle, bubbling up in his chest the moment he’d had to watch an enemy punch one of his friends in the face. He had felt it in the warehouse, causing his hands to tingle upon spotting a lighter and some canisters of gasoline in one of the workplaces. And he had felt it that morning while getting dressed, when he had grabbed his gun to put it in the holster around his thigh-

He had decided to leave it at home.

‘So, currently looking at five possible perpetrators,’ Judy said, as the four of them entered mission control- the entire hall was empty at that moment, apart from the chaos that had been left behind earlier, the moment the gig had gone wrong.

‘There might be more,’ Panam added, carefully maneuvering around an empty cup and a pool of coffee on the floor, knocked over at some point but no one had bothered to clean it up yet. ‘Didn’t get the best look at ‘em, but- I- yeah.’

‘Five is already much more of a lead than zero,’ Vitali said, leaning back against one of the desks and turning on the large screen covering most of the back wall of the room. ‘Don’t beat yourself up for it. Judy- detes. All of it.’

‘Sure thing, jefe. Take a look.’

Judy plugged in her tablet and sent the files she had been looking at to the screen, and Vitali watched as several personal documents popped up alongside some NCPD street footage of both the moment the trucks were intercepted, as well as their last known location before the radar went dark.

‘Tried scanning the rest of the cams, but they’re plugged- enemy Netrunner I’m assuming,’ Judy said, gesturing at the screen and taking a few steps forward. ‘No idea where they went, but- the route they followed before disappearing, and the area I don’t have access to- it’s all too similar to what we dealt with before.’

What we dealt with before.

A knot took shape in Vitali’s stomach and he exhaled sharply, momentarily losing his vision when a sudden fog filled his head; a strange, numb sensation he had grown way too familiar with, though it was surprisingly welcoming now in a time of crisis, and he nearly allowed himself to drift away into the far ends of his own mind-

He dug his fingernails into the palm of his hand, the stinging pain pushing the fog back until he could think clearly again.

‘What we dealt with before?’ Vitali repeated, voice a little shaky as he tried to regain his composure, and he raised an eyebrow. ‘You mean- You are saying this is-’

‘The Broker, yes,’ Judy quietly answered.

The Broker.

Silence fell over the room again and Vitali turned back toward the screen, eyes carefully scanning the footage that was still playing- over and over again, continuously showing him how Eddie got dragged over the asphalt by the collar of his jacket while bleeding profusely from two wounds, and how Mikhail was pulled from the driver’s seat and clocked in the head with the back of a gun-

He went over the facts again in his mind, painfully aware of the anger boiling in his chest. Judy was probably right- all the evidence was right there in front of them. But still, still, he could not believe it. He didn’t want to believe it.

‘Are you sure?’ was all he managed to ask.

‘Too coordinated to be a coincidence.’ Judy paused and pulled up a map of the district, zooming in on the route their cargo had taken. ‘They attacked from the south, got their backup from the same vantage points as last time- add to that their escape route, and, well- voice recog picked up on a match in my database. The Sanders guy? He was here.’

Judy swiped the map away and focused on the personal documents instead, lining them up next to each other- and Sanders was indeed there, unmistakably the same Sanders that had attempted to blow one of Vitali’s escorts to smithereens last time he had decided to show his face.

But Vitali paid him no mind, eyes slowly trailing the other available portraits as his throat tightened painfully, recognizing not one- or two, or three- but all four of them, and he gripped the edge of the desk as his stomach turned.

‘Bloody fuckin’ Christ, Eddie was right.’ Huxley stepped backwards as she cursed loudly in Irish and threw up her hands. ‘Dusty, you cunt! Why would you- Why would he-’ She turned to Vitali, brow furrowed into the angriest frown he had ever seen on her face.

‘Not just him,’ he plainly answered, nodding at the screen. ‘The others, too- I have all seen them before. And…given them gigs at some point.’

It was starting to make sense, now. Well, not all of it, but at least some- the escort incident had already left him wondering after he had seen the footage, when he could’ve sworn he recognized some of the attackers- though back then he had not given it a second thought and blamed his lack of sleep for his delusions.

But now, now-

And he understood. Of course he understood- he had left Night City unprompted with Vincent, to go to Arizona with the Aldecaldos in hopes to find him a cure. Mikhail had stayed behind, had done his best to keep the business up and running; but things had changed. And not every merc and every client had stuck around.

Vitali did not blame Mikhail- how could he? It was his own fault alone, and he took full responsibility. Even though he had taken the time to fix his reputation and his business was back on track, of course he knew not everyone would forgive him-

But he had not expected his own ex-mercs to start launching attacks on him.

‘That’s why they knew about the routes,’ Vitali quietly said, lowering his gaze in defeat. ‘And how they knew exactly when and where to attack-’

‘But why?’ Huxley cut him off. ‘What kind of piss move is this? Especially Dusty, the motherfucker-!’ Another string of swears, in at least three different languages. ‘Boss, I swear to you- Mikhail offered him everything. Kissing all of Dusty’s ass and then some to keep him satisfied after your departure, and- that- that wasn’t fucking enough? And now, he’s- they-’

‘Hux, breathe,’ Panam interrupted them. Her face had hardened, arms crossed tightly in front of her chest as her eyes moved from Huxley to Vitali. ‘You’re saying these are your people?’

‘Yes,’ Vitali quietly answered. ‘Were my people.’

The conversation continued, but he was no longer listening. His eyes were once again pulled toward the screen; though he hesitated, as if he was embarrassed to look at it. Embarrassed, because he had caused this to happen- because he had abandoned them, leaving town for his own good reasons, but without taking into account the consequences for those around him.

It made sense. He did not blame them. After all, he knew exactly what abandonment was like, and he was all too familiar with the consequences of losing your one and only safety net.

Though now, three of his loved ones had almost died; and with that, Sanders and Dusty and their gang had crossed a very clear line.

‘One thing I don’t get- Why the Broker of all people?’ Judy asked, her ever-so calm voice pulling Vitali back to reality. ‘What’s their play in all of this? Another one of your old mercs maybe, Vito?’

‘I hope not.’ Vitali shrugged, and gestured at the screen again. ‘But it’s not off the table, apparently. Either way, it seems like they are targeting us now.’

‘Us?’ Judy carefully repeated. ‘Or you?’

Vitali said nothing.

Judy raised a good point. So far, each mention of the Broker in their archive was connected to another fixer- for example, Vitali knew that Wakako had lost three full teams to them already, from one of which the bodies had never been recovered.

But the attacks had been spread out before; not merely targeting a fixer at a time, but all of them at once, over the course of several months. An attack on the entire network, almost, causing chaos and pitting mercs up against each other as everyone lost their trust in people they used to work with so closely.

Yet now- two attacks in barely two weeks. Three, even, counting the brief scuffle Vincent had had after a gig with some goons they had managed to trace back to the Broker as well. Vitali was not entirely sure what it meant, but it sure felt like they had their eyes on him; and now they had resorted to sending his ex-mercs after his people.

‘What else is there?’ Vitali quietly asked, momentarily fumbling with the top button of his shirt as he unbuttoned it, the air around him suddenly a lot more suffocating than before. ‘The Broker, I mean- what do we know?’

‘Has been around for some time, now.’ Judy paused as she closed her tabs and opened a different one, sending new files and footage to the big screen and clicking through some of it as she spoke. ‘Few years at least- earliest mention dates back to late 2075. Seems to target fixer networks but claims no attacks, so they’re not doing it for publicity.’

‘And now it’s our turn.’

‘Apparently so. Though I will say it’s strange it’s been multiple attacks now- and the fact they’re sending your ex-mercs. Cannot be a coincidence.’

Judy was often right, her gut feeling the strongest and most accurate in all of Night City, if you asked Vitali- so of course he was inclined to believe her.

‘We need to figure out who we are dealing with before the situation escalates,’ Vitali said, now noticing how everyone in the room was staring at him, almost expectantly. ‘If we can find out who they are, we’ll have much more to go on- I say we start with their vantage points. Perhaps we can find traces which can lead us to their hideouts.’

‘Good idea.’ Panam walked closer, gesturing at the screen again. ‘And we know what kind of cars they drive- all the same, as well. I can call some people, figure out where they get their wheels.’

‘I appreciate that. Thank you.’ Vitali paused, his gaze moving from Judy to Panam and back- he had noticed the brief look they’d shared, and dug his nails back in the palm of his hand before speaking up again.

‘I… I know you two had things planned for today,’ he carefully said. ‘There is plenty of people around the office; if you send V the files, he can look into it with Hux and-’

‘It’s alright,’ Judy quickly said, unplugging her tablet again and shooting another glance at Panam. ‘We’re needed here, so- our date can wait. I know how busy you are. How busy everyone else is. Especially now.’

Vitali exhaled sharply, feeling a weight he had not even been aware of washing off his shoulders. Asking for help was not his forte, still, and something he needed to work on- though he was glad Judy and he could see eye to eye, and words needed not to be spoken in order for her to catch on to his intentions-

‘Thank you,’ he said, the words heavy in his mouth. ‘Truly. And I’m sorry.’

‘It’s alright.’ Panam gave him a playful punch against his shoulder. ‘You can buy us a beer later. And a pack o’ cigs or two. None of that fake shit you smoke, though.’

The two left the room, leaving Vitali and Huxley behind. Huxley was still pacing, holding their hands mid-air as they rubbed their thumbs over the sides of their index fingers in a desperate attempt to keep their composure.

Vitali knew they did not take betrayal very well; this was just another clear example of that. The other mercs had not shown their faces much, but Dusty had been a regular- had been well on his way to joining Vitali’s inner circle, even, and to walk away was one thing, but to join an opposing party- to attack with such ferocity, and the intent to kill-

‘I cannae believe it,’ Huxley spat, grabbing one of the nearby chairs and giving it a hard push; its wheels squeaked as it slowly rolled across the room, creating less of an effect than they had meant to make.

‘Me neither,’ Vitali sighed, hopping on the desk entirely now and letting his feet dangle down, soles scraping over the floor as he slightly swayed them back and forth. ‘Not much to do about it now, though.’

‘You won’t try to talk some sense into ‘im?’

‘You and I both know him well enough to know that is out of the question. Besides, he nearly killed our friends- and by the looks of it he did not even give it a second thought.’

Huxley scoffed and rubbed her eyes, then walked after the chair she’d pushed and dropped herself into it.

Vitali let his gaze wander off again and he stared out of the window, watching an Arasaka aircraft slowly move by and vanish behind a nearby building. He clenched his jaw, feeling the familiar energy surge up through his body again, and sat in silence until his heartbeat settled down.

Everybody lived, once again. A happy ending, though this was not an ending in the slightest- moreso a beginning, of something Vitali still could not entirely place.

Why him? Why now?

It made sense for them to target his mercs, yet it felt entirely wrong- he himself sitting safely in his office, while they risked their lives out there for him. It’s why he had always done gigs with them. Why he still did, even now that he was still slowly recovering from an injury.

‘What a fuckin’ Monday, am I right?’ Huxley mumbled, their voice barely audible for Vitali. ‘Genuinely thought I was dreaming for a sec there. Still hoping I am.’

Oh, how Vitali wished he was dreaming as well. How he wished he would wake up in Vincent’s arms, and they would meet Mikhail in the living room and no one was injured and everything was fine-

‘Come on,’ Vitali said, pushing the thoughts away and jumping off the desk again. It was of no use to dwell on what had happened, and he knew that well enough- and he knew everyone present felt horrible, and a little lost- but he was there now, and he could be there for them now.

And he knew he had to be.

‘Let’s get to work.’

[fictionalplagueproductions]

If The World Was Ending

Part 2 - It Didn’t Scare Me

Part 1    Part 2    Part 3

Story Summary:  Gavin is on the hunt for his missing android when the U.S. Government announces the end of the world. The end of his world. A world without his precious Nines.

Chapter Summary: Connor has managed to escape the clutches of android genocide, but Gavin isn't sure if the same can be said for Nines.

Pairing: Reed900 (Gavin Reed x RK900)

Rating: Explicit

Notes:

Based on the song “If the World Was Ending” by JP Saxe and Julia Michaels.

Short Three-Part Story (so I can channel this desire to make Reed900 come alive)

The progress of Gavin’s relationship with Nines was practically nonexistent. Between a man who refused to admit to his faults and an android built without social protocols, it was near impossible to get anything to happen. Not to mention, android prejudice was becoming a real threat for androids and their sympathizers.

Jim Crow laws had nothing on the division that androids were undergoing now, being collected and forced into the entire state of Michigan, that is. The government called it a “remedial period” in order to adjust to android integration and develop the proper rights specific to robotic sentients. Humans were allowed to stay if they elected to; some left, most begrudgingly stayed due to the inconvenience of moving.

There had been a few brave souls to come out about their relationships with the opposing species during this time. Gavin and Nines weren’t one of them. Rather, Gavin had not been. Although fresh into deviation, Nines was willfully blind to the hatred that people inflicted upon androids (despite the illegality of it). He had been prepared to tell the entire precinct the day they first kissed but didn’t per Gavin’s request.

He wasn’t ready.

Setting aside political excuses, Gavin was his own relationship inhibitor. Commencing these romantic interests with Nines was refuting the false exterior he had displayed for so long. Coming out to the world would create problems he was dead set on carrying with him to the grave. He had upkept a heterosexual reputation for so long, he wasn’t sure how to be anything else around his family and coworkers without embarrassing himself by mocking silly stereotypes. It didn’t help that Gavin was notorious for being against androids – what insults would he be subject to if they all knew?

As anyone might guess, there was hardly a “honeymoon phase” for the private couple. What they considered “dates” would have been any ordinary lunch break or sleepover for the typical person. It’s not that they didn’t enjoy the time they spent together, but it was always anti-climactic and never much contributed to the progression of their relationship.

For several months, doubt stacked against them.

It became second nature to squabble with one another when they crossed paths merely to maintain utmost confidentiality. They had both agreed the effectiveness of this plan; it was the safest preventative measure to anyone discovering the truth. And besides, the feelings of hate for each other would always subside by the end of the day. As soon as the pair stepped into Gavin’s rust-bucket-on-wheels, Nines’ attitude melted like nothing offensive had transpired from his mouth in the last twelve hours.

Gavin could forget for a while. Especially when Nines stared at him in that special way… that pleading, merciful stare which signified he was about to kiss him. Yes, he could forget entirely.

Until one day he couldn’t: a day in which he had found himself lying on Hank Anderson’s living room sofa.

“You don’t have to sit all the way over there, you know? They’ll be out of town for the entire weekend,” Nines had said. “I have their GPS locations, too, in case any plans have been changed.”

Gavin believed his android. That’s not why he distanced himself. “I know,” he mumbled, slaving his eyes to the television.

Nines was silent for several minutes. “I don’t want to do this anymore,” came his contingent response.

The heartbeat indicating Gavin’s pressing existence quickened under the flatline of words. He was sure Nines could and had picked up on it. “Do what?” he snapped back, though his misleading disruptive tone did not match the building fear within him.

“I don’t want to keep pretending.” The android pierced him with a sharp glare. “I don’t like hating you. I was programmed to be emotionless in spite of personifying assimilations. Do you know how difficult it is to override such programs and to express emotions anyway? To feel emotions? Wasting my energy on an action that I have no desire to perform is exhaustive and it confuses my ability to love you.”

Gavin sputtered, “Did you just say ‘lo-’.”

“Please Gavin,” interrupted Nines. He was undeniably aggravated. “It’s put distance between us. I know I have little knowledge and experiences with ‘dating’, but I know that it’s typical to have a common goal of becoming familiar with a chosen partner and sharing such feelings with one another. As far as we’re concerned, we’ve hardly done anything of the sort. I mean, look at you, you’re sitting all the way over there…” Despite the stolidity in his demeanors, his voice cracked for the very first time Gavin had ever witnessed. “…and I want you over here.”

Gavin was no sympathy-cryer, but it was becoming apparent how little credit he gave Nines. He swallowed the building tears down to speak. “I…uh…I didn’t know you were feeling all of this.”

Nines scowled. “I may not be well-versed in the ways of acting the part of ‘boyfriend’, but I thought it was an obvious concept that lovers should want to enjoy their time with each other. I had hoped that this weekend we might have the opportunity to overcome some barriers, that you might be able to tell me you’re ready. I….I… never thought I would be the one stupidly pining over an emotional skin-sack to make some sort of romantic gesture.” He was raising his voice now. “I felt closer to you when you actually hated me before any of this.”

Gavin sunk into the cushions, absorbing the uncertainty his android was exuding all of a sudden. How had he not realized? Nines had always appeared so self-assured about everything. How was he supposed to have realized? His voice relinquished an untrying defeat, “I-I’m sorry. Fuck, I don’t know what to do. I’ve always been so terrible…”

“At relationships or in general?” asked Nines, though his facial expression did not indicate a cynical undertone.

“Both,” he heaved. “Nines?”

“Hm?”

Gavin shifted uncomfortably under the burden of his thoughts. “Do you…ahem…uh, love me?”

“Of course, I do.” The android rolled his eyes as if the answer was an obvious one. “What’s this all been about if not for love?”

A growing pause erupted between them, then was broken by the anguished man. “H-How long?”

Nines, all of a sudden, seemed to comprehend the weight of his words and moved his lips apprehensively before speaking their contents.  “Some time ago, I suppose. It wasn’t a concept I understood well until Connor pressed me to study and indulge in human culture. For a long time, until then, you were just Detective Reed. And then…”

He slowed to a stop, now staring through Gavin as if recalling the memory. His menacing ring spun red and Gavin half-expected for the android to blow a gasket at the bunched skin forming along his forehead.  “…You told me to ‘go fuck myself’ for the one-hundred-and-twentieth time after I had informed you that patching my wounds with bandages and alcohol was futile. Your profane terms, I then realized, came from an endearing place… I found myself considering your actions, thereafter, studying you more than I typically would another human. It eventually led to my affections for you. Why do you ask?”

Gavin, himself, remembered that alarming day like it had happened just yesterday. It was the day he, too, realized he had grown to not regret the android’s presence. “The bullet didn’t hit a biocomponent, Detective Reed,” Nines had groaned. In that moment, the simulated pain erupting from his partner’s movements embodied that of a true human. It was more than convincing, so much so that Gavin was still very much convinced to this day that he was, in fact, human.

“That-That is a big word, Nines. It’s…not just ‘like’. It’s a complicated word.” He couldn’t bring himself to say it again. It was a word that burned his tongue every time it bugged up his throat; a humiliating form of gutting your innards and displaying them to the world.

His android considered this for a moment. “Love is described in several different ways, existing dependently on the perception of a person and what they value in another. I value your stubborn loyalty, Gavin, and the way you stupidly care for my wellbeing.” Another pause. “Do you love me, Gavin?”

That damned word roared through Gavin’s head, stirring in disbelief that someone had the ability to say it so confidently; and to have someone so perfect say it to him… Could he say it back? Could he even push the syllable through his lips? As bitter as it tasted, his response was not a matter of knowing the answer, but rather recognizing the consequences that accompanied his candor.

Could he say it?

“Yeah,” he exhaled, then corrected with a stronger “yes.” An immediate blush flushed from his ears to his toes. What an idiot, he had thought to himself immediately. Somehow, the admittance attracted more humility.

Nines smiled but made haste in his following words: “I’ve been an obedient android for most of my short life,” he spoke rigidly. “Now, I have to demand of you that things change if our relationship is to advance into more intimate parameters. You may have some time to figure out how you desire to go about it, but I require it to be within the next thirty days.” Regardless of his human’s wandering eyes, Nines coerced them to land safely on his own. “I love you, Gavin,” he said firmly, lulling into a softer tone. “I love you and I want more than this silly scheme you’re trying to conduct.”

“It’s not that eas-” Gavin tried, quickly cut off by his partner.

“I’m sorry, I can’t hear a single word you say when you’re sitting all the way over there!”

The android smirked, knowing his partner was fully aware of his keen hearing abilities. Bullheadedly, Gavin remained glued to his spot. “Okay,” hummed Nines, shifting onto all fours and crawling overtop of his human’s sprawled body. He slipped a palm underneath the awaiting man’s chin and flickered a glance to his lips. “You know I always get my way, why do you beset me to this tactic every time?”

Gavin turned away, forcing himself not to fall for the android’s seductive touch.

“That’s never worked either.” Nines fixed the man’s gaze back onto him with a gentle press against his cheek. “Gavin? I’m not asking. I may be android, but my deviancy is as untame as your own human chaos. And you’re not alone. I will help you through this.”

Gavin bit at his lip, still attempting to avoid eye contact but ultimately unable to resist the reflective pools pouring infirmity into him. “All right,” he breathed. “I-I’ll do it.”

It was the right answer. Nines had never been the greatest at reading into signs, but he was sure now – without the aid of dubious internet forums – that he should kiss this man that he loved. And he reminded this man that he loved him as he planted his lips gently onto his taut skin. Afterwards, Nines leaned back, gazing at his boyfriend expectantly. “I love you, too,” said he finally, cracking a genuine smile for possibly the first time in days.

Clearly satisfied, Nines hooked around Gavin’s jawline and dove down to meet him hungrily, asking now for a more invigorating stimulation. He shivered when fingers snaked through his synthetic locks, returning the intimate gesture.

Making out was about as far as they had ever gone. Keeping things a secret on top of their natural boundaries made for uneventful cock-blocks. But after everything that had ensued, Gavin was ready to take it to the next level.

Everyone would know about them by the end of the week, anyway; he would tell them all. Nines, the “socially inept” android wanted to be his boyfriend publicly. How could Gavin say no to such requests when his partner had already overcome a great feat himself? It was his turn, now.

Shit, Nines loved him.

From below, he slipped a clutching hand beneath the android’s indigo turtleneck and sunk fingernails into plastic skin that felt so real. Nines copied the action from on top of him. They were mostly motionless save for their conjoined mouths, and the lack of bodily movement didn’t concern Gavin at first. But when his android let a grunt slip, there was no restraining the leg that mounted over Nines’ ass and the upward thrust that grew Gavin to the vastness of his length. He wasn’t sure if Nines knew how to properly reciprocate, though Gavin was more than happy to continue to oblige in the repetitive movements.

The body became stiff above him and it fell in response. Not quite what he was expecting.

Nines then dropped into dead weight altogether, halting Gavin’s accelerating speed. “I don’t know what you want.”

“What do you mean?” asked Gavin. He thought it had been more than obvious what he was trying to segue into. After the bathroom incident, Gavin had ignorantly assumed all androids were capable of “doing it”. Had he been wrong? “Can you not-?”

“I can perform sexual actions, if that’s what you mean. It’s just, I’m not yet equipped.”

“Oh.” His wonder did not end there, curious as to how the part would attach and what was in place of the regular male form. Gavin imagined a bare Ken Doll, nakedly plastic in all its glory, sporting a mere bulge with no real appendage to put on display. The fickle state his android appeared to be in, however, told him tonight wasn’t the night to pry about such curiosities. “That’s okay, I was feeling tired anyways. Let’s just finish this movie.”

The android hesitated before sliding off of him and positioning himself along the edge of the couch, allowing himself to be encompassed by Gavin’s smaller yet protective frame. Although Gavin had hoped for more after exchanging such heavy vows, having his boyfriend back in his arms was satisfying enough. He fastened himself tightly around Nines like he would dissipate into thin air and rested a chin neatly over his blue LED.

Moments passed, then it flickered red. “Gavin? I’m still aroused, you know? After all, endorphins – human and android – aren’t produced in the genitalia.”

“What’re you trying to say?”

“I’m saying,” continued Nines with a growing devious grin, “that just because one of us doesn’t have the part, doesn’t mean we can’t still have a pleasing night.” The android looked over his shoulder at his human, feeling a lump beginning to swell against his backside.

Gavin felt his breath go hot as Nines shifted to face him, his expression spoiled with desire.

They had sex for the very first time on Hank Anderson’s couch.

A week later, Gavin was regretting the memory. Not because it wasn’t a pleasant one – in fact, it was so pleasant that, despite the harrowing circumstances, a warmth built in his groin when Connor invited him to take a seat in the exact spot that Nines had been bent over for him. But the feeling did not last long, soon replaced by a pang of melancholy.

Where was Nines now and why wasn’t he with Connor?

“I thought you knew?” asked the RK800. “He was with you last night when they broke the news…” He sat across from Gavin on the love seat.

“W-What? No he wasn’t-.”

Connor dismissed him with a wave of his hand. “Nines isn’t that sneaky. Even in my stasis, I could hear him fumbling with the doorknob. ‘Faster, stronger, and more resilient’, sure, but not a single drop of stealth thirium in him,” he snickered as a side-note. “He also hates lying, so he had a shaky alibi at best when I questioned his whereabouts. I was able to eventually put two-and-two together when your bickering increased excessively, assisted by no considerable motive.” Through a heavy frown, the older android managed to yank a line into the end where his lips met and grinned at the reddening man. “Did I crack the case, Detective?”

Gavin moaned, “I didn’t come here to play games. Look, even if all that were true – which I’m not saying it is – I just want to know where he is.” Desperation edged into his voice. “O-Or to know that he’s safe.”

“I wish I could say that he is. He…He left a few hours ago.”

“What?” Gavin nearly jumped out of his seat. “Where did he go? It’s not safe for him out there right now!”

“I know that. He chose to leave on his own accord. We share many qualities, but while hiding out here, he came to this strange conclusion that androids weren’t meant to coexist with humans. He thinks androids are the reason the country has become divided.” After every word that fell from Connor’s mouth, Gavin’s hope strained like a game of Jenga; a slow removal, piece-by-piece, that would inevitably lead to a thundering tumble. “He said it was for the best that everything was happening the way it was…”

“Spit it out already, Tin Can. Where’d he go?”

Connor choked on his final sentence, somehow appearing shocked by the words ghosting in his throat. “Nines turned himself into the nearest camp.”

In all his years of detective work, Gavin would never have suspected an android such as Nines to act as a martyr for his entire race. No, scratch that; this wasn’t a martyr. How could that be so if Nines was against his own kind?

“Why didn’t you stop him?” Gavin entered into a growl, targeting Connor now. The android seemed torn up about it as much as he was, but his was the only face he could put forth blame.

“I tried, Gavin, but you know Nines as well as I do, if not better. When his mind is made up…well, I guess you guys really made quite the match.”

“Yeah…” was all he could manage in response. Images of a Nines stripped of all of his human clothing and skin pulsed afront the detective’s own eyes. Fear rung his heart like a punching bag. It was enough to cause him to lose his breath, enticing a sharp black movement across his sights, and suddenly the world was but a dream.

He woke up to Connor placing ice cubes over his wrists and speaking to him softly. “Nines loved you, you know? It was obvious to both Hank and I. Hank wasn’t too thrilled about it…but Nines seemed much happier for a long time after we figured it out. And really… how can we be mad when you showed him what makes deviation so remarkable? What makes… being human so remarkable?”

Gavin shot up from the floor, pushing the android’s helping hands out of the way. “Iye needta go find ‘im.” The older RK did not follow him out the door – he couldn’t have stopped him, anyway.

Nines was out there somewhere.

He wasn’t dead yet.

Gavin could feel it.

Even when he traversed the local camps that had already been put up in the last ten hours without any sign of the broad android, Gavin pushed on.

He pushed on, assuring himself that Nines was still present in this world.

Nines was here.

He had to be.

He had to be, didn’t he? After all, androids were built to endure for much longer than the fragile human life. It was humans that grew determinately, breaking back down into simple compounds and returning to the earth after just a few decades. Nines was supposed to watch him grow old.

No, Nines was not supposed to be the one to die.

Nines deserved to live more than any one of them, android or human.

It wasn’t supposed to be him.

It wasn’t supposed to be him.

When, finally, the sun was set far beyond its mantle, Gavin had to call it a night. And furthermore, painfully accept the mortality of his partner, of his boyfriend.

It wasn’t a fair conclusion. Androids were sentenced to death because the U.S. government couldn’t handle the thought of losing another source of enslavement. As selfish as Gavin was to journey only to save his android, his mind had developed change over just a few short months. It was hard to deny their sentience, since denying it would have meant that Gavin was falling for a toaster.

No, it was unfair and there was nothing he could do.

Nines was gone. The one good thing that had entered his life was gone.

And there was nothing he could do.

Anger boiled through his fingertips as he went to climb out of his car.

There was nothing he could do.

Gavin tossed his backpack onto the concrete ledge to retrieve later and faced the open car door. He clenched a fist around the handle and slammed it shut. Then he opened it again, shoving the damned metal with two hands now back into place. He did this several times, hastening his pace until he was sure the metal had forged a new crater.

Nines was gone.

Gavin thumped his head against the roof and angled an arm around himself protectively. That’s when the sobbing commenced. A few hot tears first burned in his sockets procured from the heat of the moment, then subsequently melted into a downpour of bitter release. Saltwater oozed past his cheeks, mingling with the slimy discharge that leaked from his nose, and adhering further down to the drool that he lacked even the simplest of strength to swallow.

With each internal repetition of his own mantra, he slammed his head harder into the rusted metal:

“He’s gone.”

Thump.

“He’s gone.”

Thump.

And there was nothing he could do.

Nothing.

Not a single goddamn thing.

Time was a mere subjective entity to the broken man. It wasn’t until the chilling air exhausted his exoskeleton of numbness that he realized his tears ducts were emptied and his feet ached for cushion. Gavin drudged up the staircase to his apartment, stumbling over every step and dragging his pack by the tips of two fingers. It reminded him of all the times he had needed Nines’ assistance through his drunken stupors. His now lost ability to climb during these muddled states came as a surprise to Gavin; he had become more dependent on the android than expected.

Eventually, Gavin achieved his minor plight, falling against his apartment door and gripping the handle for balance. It took several heaves to catch his breath and a few extra beats in between for courage before he could bind the lock with its respective key; a distinguishable challenge on its own through the bubble beginning to well from his bottom eyelids. When the door swung open, Gavin could do nothing more than to stumble inside and accept the turmoil his heart revved within him.

As he went to kick the door shut, however, a movement startled his quakes into stillness and he called out into the darkness. “Who’s there?”

Heavy stepping erupted from his room and Gavin was quick to reach for his concealed carry. Slowly, the light above him crawled along the body of a man with hands raised in surrender. A red circular blink raised high among the shadow identified him before the light could touch his face.

“Gavin,” lamented a voice, just above a whisper. Bright grey eyes reflected under the aged fluorescence, glimmering wistfully at him.

The bubbles swishing in Gavin’s sights finally popped, spilling over and singing his raw skin. His hands separated from each other and the gun went slack at his side, him ogling the floor while doing so – refusing to believe the illusion set in front of him. Then, without any preamble, he recoiled his arm and tossed the firearm recklessly into the wall beside of Nines.

The android did not move.

“You fuck-fucking shithead!”

[n0v4-z3r0]

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE’S BUTCHERED ANOTHER SQUAD?!”

Colin Venture, CEO of VentureTech, angrily threw a stack of papers off his desk. A subordinate, a man in a business suit, shrunk under his gaze. “I-It’s true, sir…” the subordinate stuttered out, “their vitals have flatlined, and all communication lost…their last known broadcast was entering combat with Subject 457…”

Colin grit his teeth and sucked in a seething breath. “DAMN IT! Damn her! What’s it going to take to SUBDUE that FUCKING COCKROACH OF A WOMAN?!”

Jessie Venture, his daughter, stood against the wall, her arms folded. She could play the role of supportive daughter very well. “Father,” she began, “something must be done about 457. We’ve received multiple messages from our shareholders. They’re starting to get nervous.”

Colin sat down roughly in his chair at his desk. “Damn it all…I would just kill the bitch outright, but we need her data, her genes! She’s the only survivor from the initial batch of test subjects, we NEED to know why!”

Jessie hummed. “If I may make a suggestion, Father…”

Colin sighed. “Go ahead, Jessie.”

“The mercenaries we’ve been sending after her quite simply don’t have the proper hardware; they’re organic. Not even close to her level. We’re sending a .38 special against an RPG.”

The CEO raised a brow. “What are you suggesting?”

Jessie smiled. “I think it may be time to send our newest recruits out into the field; people who are on par with 457.”

Colin furrowed his brow. “I don’t know…the modifications aren’t taking as well as we had hoped. They may not be able to stand up to her…”

“If the modifications are failing, then they are of little use to us anyway. Why not dispose of them and prevent another Facility 7 incident? If they succeed in subduing her, good. If they don’t, then we have no further use for their corpses.”

Colin pursed his lips, before nodding. “Very well. Jessie, make the arrangements.”

Jessie dipped her head. “At once, Father.”

Leaving his office, both Jessie and the subordinate walked side by side. “M-Miss Venture…” he spoke up, “aren’t you concerned about your father discovering your own agenda?”

“The old man is of no consequence,” she replied coolly, “he has no idea what’s going on in his own company. He’ll be dealt with soon enough. In the meantime, what does the observation team have to report?”

“They’ve done as you asked, Miss Venture. They’re currently trailing 457 and gathering surveillance, following a strict protocol of non-interference.”

“Good. Once the new subjects are deployed, I want the team to observe, gathering combat data.”

“Yes Miss Venture.” A pause. “…you don’t expect them to survive, do you?”

A cruel smirk. “Of course not; they’re cannon fodder at this point. But the combat data will be worth it.”

The subordinate nodded. “You are far more pragmatic than your father, Miss Venture.”

She chuckled. “Oh I know. But don’t worry; if things work out, we won’t have to deal with him for much longer. Let our shareholders know that I have a plan and set up a private meeting.”

“Yes, Miss Venture.”

[news47ell]

Lightning Base Review: Managed WordPress Hosting

New Post has been published on https://www.news47ell.com/reviews/lightning-base-review-managed-wordpress-hosting/

Lightning Base Review: Managed WordPress Hosting

If you’re looking for the best managed WordPress hosting provider then you’ve come to the right place.

Since Day one, back on March 26th, 2016, the day I signed up for Lightning Base, I knew that it was going to be the place I call home for News47ell.

As I begin this Lightning Base Review, I’m going to say it now: Sign up. If you are looking for the most secure, fastest and the best managed WordPress hosting provider, look no more, because Lightning Base is all of this and much more.

Keep reading my Lightning Base review to get an in-depth look at Lightning Base and it’s exclusive features that make it one of the best managed WordPress hosting providers out there.

Lightning Base review

Coming soon.

— Lightning Base (@LightningBase) December 13, 2011

Choosing a hosting provider for your WordPress site is like choosing a house for you and your family. It needs to be:

Secure & Private: You don’t want anyone to be able to access your home.

Great environment: You want your family to live in a great neighborhood.

Built by professionals: You don’t want the house to collapse.

Upgradeable: An unplanned baby? No problem, build an extra room.

24/7 support: When something breaks inevitably, there should be a team of experts who are ready with a fix.

All managed WordPress hosting providers promise to offer the features above, but not all follow on their promises. Many fall short on the environment for example by using old architecture, some fall short on support, some on security and privacy which is really scary since you’re trusting them with your hard work. It’s unacceptable.

Lightning Base, on the other hand, follows up on everything I mentioned above. Making News47ell, more secure, with a lightning-fast loading time and a 99.9% uptime. It’s unlike anything else I have ever seen before in my life.

Why I moved to a new host

Before Lightning Base, I migrated from one host to another and finally, I settled on one that I thought was reliable. I was completely wrong.

News47ell.com started to flatline multiple times a day. I did my best trying to figure out what the hell was causing this issue but I had no luck. And, with no fix on the horizon even after I contacted their support team, I decided it was time to take News47ell somewhere else.

Yes! The red highligh on line 1 is an 8 hours and 40 minutes downtime!

I wanted to host News47ell with a top-notch managed WordPress hosting provider where I don’t even need to contact the support team in case of an emergency because there will be no case of emergencies. A host of servers that are already configured properly and maintained by professionals, where I won’t face any major issues randomly during the day that takes News47ell offline multiple times a day.

I wanted a managed WordPress hosting provider that I could watch News47ell grow old with and offer a few specific things:

PHP 7

Staging Environment

Let’s Encrypt

Options to scale

Reasonable prices

After a few days of research, I came across Lightning Base and I decided to send the support team an email to see if they offer the things I listed above.

When I got a reply from Lightning Base, I was surprised to see that the person who replied to me was Chris Piepho, the Founder of Lightning Base.

We sent emails back and forth for a week, I asked him about every tiny detail I could think of before signing up. He was very detail oriented in his replies, answering every question I had with as much information as possible. Towards the end, he assured me I would find everything I was looking for AND much more with Lightning Base.

And so, on March 26th, 2016, at 8:43 PM, I signed up for Lightning Base and with that, News47ell started a new chapter and a new journey with a new host. It actually feels more like a home now.

Make sure to read my announcement article which I published when I moved my site to Lightning Base.

The 3 Promises:

Lightning Base describes themselves as a Fast, Secure and Managed WordPress hosting provider. After hosting my site with them for nearly 2 years (1 Year, 11 Months) I can say Lightning Base kept their word and delivered.

So let’s get technical and dive in deeper in my Lightning Base review to see how Lightning Base delivers on being a fast, secure and managed WordPress hosting provider with all the features it has to offer.

Fast WordPress Hosting:

The reason why Lightning Base is a Fast WordPress hosting provider comes from the fact that Lightning Base doesn’t use NGINX, Apache, Lighttpd, Facebook HHMV or Microsoft IIS. Instead, it uses LiteSpeed.

To be more specific, LiteSpeed Enterprise, an Apache compatible, proprietary web server and a server-level caching software, developed and maintained by LiteSpeed Technologies.

LiteSpeed Web Server is the 4th most popular web server with a market share of 3.3%. It includes the following features:

HTTP/2: LiteSpeed is the first commercial server to offer full HTTP/2 support. HTTP/2 features include binary protocol, fully multiplexed and header compression.

Gzip compression: Save bandwidth by compressing the files sent to the client.

Apache Compatibility: LiteSpeed Web Server has been designed to run off Apache’s httpd.conf and .htaccess files.

Apache modules: LiteSpeed Web Server is compatible with Apache core modules like mod_rewrite, mod_security, mod_include, and mod_cache.

.Htaccess caching: LiteSpeed Web Server uses .htaccess caching to make use of .htaccess files without the performance hit.

And many, many more features…

Along with that, Lightning Base servers use 100% SSD based storage. Arranged in a Raid 10 configuration. These SSDs provide redundancy, speed and combining them with Cloudflare CDN makes for the absolute fastest access times.

Secure WordPress Hosting

According to Lightning Base:

Our servers are protected by a comprehensive, dynamic firewall, followed by a web app firewall configured to prevent malicious code.

Lightning Base isolates filesystem for each and every user and uses a set of security features that come packed with LiteSpeed. For example:

Anti-DDoS connection

Per-IP Throttling

Anti SSL BEAST

SSL Renegotiation Protection

Strict HTTP request validation

Mod_security

And much more…

If all of this isn’t enough, you can always let your traffic go through Cloudflare and use the infamous Wordfence Security WordPress plugin. And always use a complex, long password and keep it safe using 1Password.

For more info on how to keep intruders away from your site, read my tutorial: How to Protect WordPress Login Page.

Managed WordPress Hosting

Imagine this scenario: You’re busy at work and you get a phone call that a water pipe broke and water is spewing everywhere in your house. What would you do?

Call a technician to fix it?

Take time off of work, go home and try to fix it yourself? Keep in mind that you don’t know anything about fixing water pipes.

I would go with option A. Let professionals do their job.

That’s what managed WordPress hosting is all about. Letting the server administrator fix any issue the server might have, keep it fast, secure and up and running. While you focus on creating a beautiful, read-worthy content.

Throughout my time with Lightning Base, I never had to deal with any issue. It’s all managed by Chris.

Lightning Base Features

The architecture of LiteSpeed

As I mentioned above, Lightning Base isn’t your typical managed WordPress hosting provider. It uses LiteSpeed web servers. Which is capable of handling thousands of concurrent clients with minimal memory consumption and CPU usage.

Each Lightning Base site comes pre-installed with LiteSpeed cache WordPress plugin.

This plugin is loaded with dozens of features that take your WordPress site speed to the next level.

Such as:

OPcode – Object Cache (Memcached/LSMCD/Redis)

Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML

Combine and load CSS/JS Asynchronously

Browser Cache Support

Smart preload crawler with support for SEO-friendly sitemap

Database Cleaner and Optimizer

HTTP/2 Push for CSS/JS (on web servers that support it)

DNS Prefetch

Cloudflare API

WebP image format support

Heartbeat control

The features of this awesome plugin don’t end here. There is a set of features that are exclusive to hosts that are LiteSpeed-powered, like Lightning Base, and those features include:

Automatic page caching to greatly improve site performance

Automatic purge of related pages based on certain events

Private cache for logged-in users

Caching of WordPress REST API calls

Ability to schedule purge for specified URLs

WooCommerce and bbPress support

WordPress CLI commands

HTTP/2 & QUIC support (QUIC not available in OpenLiteSpeed)

ESI (Edge Side Includes) support.

For a full list of all exclusive and non-exclusive features, check the plugin in the WordPress directory.

As for the architecture behind Lightning Base, each and every server uses the following software:

CentOS

LiteSpeed

PHP 7.2: You can switch between PHP 5.6, 7, 7.1, and 7.2 in cPanel

MariaDB: Community developed, free fork and drop-in replacement of MySQL

Let’s Encrypt

These work together to increase the performance and speed of your site to a whole new level.

As well as making it more secure and reliable, while maintaining very similar features that everyone knows and loves. Thanks to its compatibility with Apache, its ability to read and run off Apache’s httpd.conf and .htaccess files with no configuration required.

Servers locations

When signing up, you get to choose the location of your server between 3 options: US Central – Australia Melbourne – Netherlands Amsterdam.

Chi252

Chi351

Chi352

Chi353

Chi354

Chi355

Chi356

Iwa251

Ams251

Ams252

Mel251

Both the Chicago and Amsterdam servers are powered by SingleHop, a leading global provider of hosted IT infrastructure and cloud computing that brings enterprise-class technologies to deliver a customized cloud infrastructure experience for enterprises of all sizes.

As for Melbourne, that server is powered by IBM Softlayer. Now known as IBM Cloud. A global cloud infrastructure platform built for Internet scale with a modular architecture that provides unparalleled performance, control and a global network for secure, low-latency communications.

Each one of these servers is placed strategically and optimized in a way to deliver your content anywhere around the world in a lightning fast, reliable and secure way with the absolute minimum waiting time and minimum to no downtime.

Lightning Base Dashboard

Lightning Base has a pretty clean, straightforward and easy to understand dashboard which contains everything you need to manage your account.

Active Products/Service: Easily manage your site(s) from here, access cPanel and upgrade your server and your email, or the email’s cPanel to manage spam filter and email forwarding.

Support Tickets: Have a quick access to past and current tickets and open new ones right there from your dashboard.

Domains: Transfer and Purchase domains with any .TLD .gTLD .cctld etc.

Clicking on your site in the product and service widget, it will reveal extra info about it, such as:

Disk / Bandwidth usage

Quick access to cPanel

Few cPanel shortcuts

Extra info about your site

CDN

Lightning Base takes advantage of the amazing Cloudflare CDN which makes your site load even faster anywhere around the world. As well as adding an extra layer of security and give you a set of tools that will optimize and speed up your site.

News47ell currently runs on Cloudflare. It supports both HTTP2 and Railgun, and best of all, it’s free. But if you want to pay CDN, check out KeyCDN or BunnyCDN.

Uptime

This was my main frustration with my previous host, a daily downtime of about 30 minutes with no solution in sight.

With Lightning Base, things are again very different, with an uptime of 99.9% on both Pingdom and Uptime Robot.

You can check out our public status page.

Email

With each Lightning Base account, you will get 5 email addresses, 5 GB of storage and unlimited forwarders. It’s great, free and easy to set up. You can either go with the RoundCube web client or set up apps like Mail, Spark or Thunderbird.

Free SSL

Nowadays everybody knows about Let’s Encrypt. The free, easy to deploy SSL certificate. Lightning Base offers an easy solution to deploy your SSL certificate onto your site through cPanel.

Have your own certificate? No problem! Lightning Base also offers the option to bring your own certificate and deploy it, free of charge.

Staging environment

Lightning Base does offer a staging environment. It’s a part of the cPanel software ecosystem and it works really well.

You can easily clone your production site with one click, do all the changes and development that you want. And once you’re ready, one-click is all that separates you from pushing the staging environment back to the production site.

Backups

When something is important to you, back it up, not just once, but multiple times and put the backup in multiple places. Online and offline.

That’s what Lightning Base does with their customer’s data. They perform a daily backup of all the data they have and then they copy these backups to an off-site location in case of a disaster.

Full backups are performed weekly and a database backup is performed daily. You can increase the frequency of the backups but note that it will take more of your plans bandwidth.

If you have your own storage, you can send these backups to yourself.

Customer Support

Support at Lightning Base is something out of this world. Not all managed WordPress hosting providers have a great customer support like the one provided by Lightning Base.

So why is it so good?

Most of the time when I contacted the support, it was Chris who replied to me. He’s the only one who knows exactly how his hosting environment runs.

When someone else replies, your ticket won’t travel between multiple support agents until it gets fixed. Only one is assigned to it and only that agent will reply to you. That’s good because then you wouldn’t have to re-explain your issue to every new agent that replies to a single ticket.

You will wait only a short amount of time before you get a reply from/to your tickets. It will be as detailed as you like which helps you understand exactly what caused this, how it was solved, and how to prevent it from happening again.

Isn’t that enough?

I think it is. Seeing that Chris handles most of the support tickets by himself, this helps create a great relationship between the customer and the founder. This isn’t easy to have with other managed WordPress hosting providers. This was one of the main reasons in the first place why I started writing my Lightning Base review.

Affiliate Program

This is pretty straightforward, like many affiliate programs out there. You will get a special link. Once someone visits this link, a cookie will be placed on the visitor’s computer and it will stay active for 90 days.

Once the visitor signs up, you will get 20% of the hosting plan revenue. When your account reaches $100, you can have the balance paid via Paypal.

Pricing:

Lightning Base offers a wide range of plans for everyone. Whether it’s your personal or business site. This fast and reliable Managed WordPress Hosting provider offers very generous plans to meet your demand.

Starting at $9.95/mo, this personal plan will get you 1 WordPress with 10,000 Monthly Pageviews, 1GB SSD Storage, and 10GB bandwidth.

Prices go up all the way up to $99.95/mo which allows up to 25 WordPress sites with 140,000 Monthly Pageviews, 14GB SSD Storage, and 140GB bandwidth.

All plans come with 24/7 support, backup, PHP 7 and Let’s Encrypt.

Let’s take News47ell for a spin

I did a few tests on News47ell because I wanted my Lightning Base review to contain test results taken from a live site, rather than a demo site. Because let’s face it, you want to host a real site, with millions of visitors. Not a dummy site.

After conducting multiple tests, News47ell got an impressive score on all the tests.

Bitcatcha – Test Result

Bitcatcha allows you to determine how fast your server is by testing it in 8 different locations around the world.

As you can see, News47ell got a pretty impressive score with a rating of A+

Pingdom – Test Result

Pingdom is a very popular tool that allows you to monitor the up/downtime of your website. They also provide a tool that allows you to analyze your site, check it’s load time and find any bottlenecks.

As you can see, News47ell’s performance grade is A 95 with a load time of 536 ms.

WebPageTest – Test Result

WebPageTest is another popular and much more detailed tool that tests the speed of your site using a wide range of mobile devices as well as desktop, on any browser of your choosing in locations all around the world.

As you can see, News47ell scored 1.539s on the first loading time and 0.231s on the first byte. And A grades across all other tests performed by WebPageTest

SSL Labs Powered by Qualys SSL Labs – Test Result

Last but not least there’s Qualys SSL Labs. It’s a test that determines whether your server SSL configuration is done the right way. Scott Helme describes it in a simple way in this article by saying:

‘It’s a great way to get a feel for whether or not you’re doing SSL right.’

As you can see, again, Lightning Base scores an impressive A+ rating.

Hashtag LightningBase

Here are some tweets that people sent out about their experience with Lightning Base.

Congrats to @asmallorange @KinstaHosting @LightningBase @pagely @getpantheon @pressidium @presslabs pic.twitter.com/kQ72QbVtiC

— Review Signal (@ReviewSignal) July 28, 2015

I've had a great experience migrating #WordPress sites to @LightningBase. Top notch performance and support. Wish I knew of them years ago.

— Scott Carter (@sc456a) June 30, 2016

Loving @LightningBase — awesome WP hosting. Highly recommended. Also, their support is awesome. Thanks Chris! #hosting #WordPress

— Hannah Wright (@hannahwrightAK) June 14, 2016

My new hosting company is so fast they respond to my tickets before I even finish typing them. Thanks @LightningBase

— Brittney Wilson, BSN (@TheNerdyNurse) January 10, 2015

Conclusion

Thank you for reading all the way to the end. Although we are at the end of my Lightning Base review, hopefully, this will be the start of your online journey with this amazing managed WordPress hosting provider.

The amount of love, dedication, and work that Chris put into Lightning Base is unlike anything I have ever seen. It’s truly remarkable.

Chris managed to build a state of the art managed WordPress hosting environment, unlike anything you’ve seen before. Using software that works all together in harmony to create the ultimate hosting experience for everyone using WordPress.

Don’t miss out on experiencing what it’s like to host your WordPress site with Lightning Base and maybe one day, you will write your own Lightning Base review.

Lightning Base

#LightningBase #WordPress #Hosting #LiteSpeed #WebHosting #WebPerf

[bionicboxes]

i was made for you. is that love? is that love?

More Jamie and Lifeline :) Lifeline doesn't feel emotion exactly, but when you design a machine to care for a living creature, that line can become blurred.

[bionicboxes]

What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us.  The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours.