#backup system configuration

[techdirectarchive]

How to upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication to version 12.2

Veeam has recently released an update to the Veeam Data Platform on the 27th of Auguest, 2024. This release introduces new features and integrations. This release significantly expands the capabilities of the Veeam Backup and Replication platform. In this article, we will discuss How to upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication to version 12.2. Please see how to Set up Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure,…

[ourjobagency]

5 Essential Tips for Maintaining Top-Notch Salesforce Org Health

Introduction: Salesforce has become an indispensable tool for businesses to manage customer relationships, streamline operations, and drive growth. However, just like any other complex system, your Salesforce organization requires regular attention and care to ensure it remains efficient, effective, and aligned with your business objectives. 

In this blog, we'll explore five essential suggestions to maintain a top-notch Salesforce Org health, helping you get the most out of your investment.

Best Tips for Managing  Salesforce Org Health 

Regular Data Cleanup and Maintenance: A cluttered and disorganized Salesforce Org can lead to decreased user productivity, slower system performance, and inaccurate reporting. Regularly conduct data cleanup exercises to eliminate duplicate records, outdated information, and irrelevant data. Implement validation rules, workflows, and data governance processes to ensure that data entered into the system is accurate and consistent. Consider archiving or purging old records that are no longer needed, which can significantly improve system responsiveness.

Optimize User Training and Adoption: Even the most powerful tools are only as effective as the users who operate them. Invest in comprehensive user training programs to ensure that your team fully understands the features and functionalities of Salesforce. Regularly assess user adoption rates and address any issues or challenges they might face. Encourage the use of best practices and provide ongoing training as Salesforce releases updates and new features

Govern Customization and Configuration: Salesforce offers an array of customization options to tailor the platform to your specific business needs. While customization is valuable, an excessive amount can lead to complexity, slow performance, and difficulties during upgrades. Establish a clear governance framework for customization and configuration. This includes guidelines for when to use declarative tools (like Process Builder) versus custom code, as well as regular reviews of custom objects, fields, and processes to ensure they remain relevant and effective

Implement Robust Security Practices: Data security and privacy are paramount in today's business landscape. Regularly review and update your Salesforce security settings to ensure that only authorized personnel have access to sensitive information. Implement strong password policies, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and role-based access controls to minimize the risk of data breaches. Regularly audit user permissions and deactivate accounts for employees who no longer require access to the system

Stay Informed About Salesforce Updates: Salesforce continuously releases updates, enhancements, and new features to improve the platform's functionality and security. It's crucial to stay informed about these updates and assess their potential impact on your organization. Create a process for reviewing and testing new releases in a sandbox environment before rolling them out to your production Org. This practice helps identify any potential compatibility issues with your existing customizations and allows for adjustments before affecting users.

Conclusion: 

Maintaining a top-notch Salesforce Org health requires a proactive approach that involves regular cleanup, user engagement, customization governance, security measures, and staying updated on platform developments. By following these five essential tips, your organization can ensure that Salesforce remains a powerful tool that contributes to your business success, helping you drive growth, streamline processes, and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

[nornities]

How to use DXVK with The Sims 3

Have you seen this post about using DXVK by Criisolate? But felt intimidated by the sheer mass of facts and information?

@desiree-uk and I compiled a guide and the configuration file to make your life easier. It focuses on players not using the EA App, but it might work for those just the same. It’s definitely worth a try.

Adding this to your game installation will result in a better RAM usage. So your game is less likely to give you Error 12 or crash due to RAM issues. It does NOT give a huge performance boost, but more stability and allows for higher graphics settings in game.

The full guide behind the cut. Let me know if you also would like it as PDF.

Happy simming!

Disclaimer and Credits

Desiree and I are no tech experts and just wrote down how we did this. Our ability to help if you run into trouble is limited. So use at your own risk and back up your files!

We both are on Windows 10 and start the game via TS3W.exe, not the EA App. So your experience may differ.

This guide is based on our own experiments and of course criisolate’s post on tumblr:  https://www.tumblr.com/criisolate/749374223346286592/ill-explain-what-i-did-below-before-making-any

This guide is brought to you by Desiree-UK and Norn.

Compatibility

Note: This will conflict with other programs that “inject” functionality into your game so they may stop working. Notably

Reshade

GShade

Nvidia Experience/Nvidia Inspector/Nvidia Shaders

RivaTuner Statistics Server

It does work seamlessly with LazyDuchess’ Smooth Patch.

LazyDuchess’ Launcher: unknown

Alder Lake patch: does conflict. One user got it working by starting the game by launching TS3.exe (also with admin rights) instead of TS3W.exe. This seemed to create the cache file for DXVK. After that, the game could be started from TS3W.exe again. That might not work for everyone though.

A word on FPS and V-Sync

With such an old game it’s crucial to cap framerate (FPS). This is done in the DXVK.conf file. Same with V-Sync.

You need

a text editor (easiest to use is Windows Notepad)

to download DXVK, version 2.3.1 from here: https://github.com/doitsujin/DXVK/releases/tag/v2.3.1 Extract the archive, you are going to need the file d3d9.dll from the x32 folder

the configuration file DXVK.conf from here: https://github.com/doitsujin/DXVK/blob/master/DXVK.conf. Optional: download the edited version with the required changes here.

administrator rights on your PC

to know your game’s installation path (bin folder) and where to find the user folder

a tiny bit of patience :)

First Step: Backup

Backup your original Bin folder in your Sims 3 installation path! The DXVK file may overwrite some files! The path should be something like this (for retail): \Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin (This is the folder where also GraphicsRule.sgr and the TS3W.exe and TS3.exe are located.)

Backup your options.ini in your game’s user folder! Making the game use the DXVK file will count as a change in GPU driver, so the options.ini will reset once you start your game after installation. The path should be something like this: \Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 (This is the folder where your Mods folder is located).

Preparations

Make sure you run the game as administrator. You can check that by right-clicking on the icon that starts your game. Go to Properties > Advanced and check the box “Run as administrator”. Note: This will result in a prompt each time you start your game, if you want to allow this application to make modifications to your system. Click “Yes” and the game will load.

2. Make sure you have the DEP settings from Windows applied to your game.

Open the Windows Control Panel.

Click System and Security > System > Advanced System Settings.

On the Advanced tab, next to the Performance heading, click Settings.

Click the Data Execution Prevention tab.

Select 'Turn on DEP for all programs and services except these”:

Click the Add button, a window to the file explorer opens. Navigate to your Sims 3 installation folder (the bin folder once again) and add TS3W.exe and TS3.exe.

Click OK. Then you can close all those dialog windows again.

Setting up the DXVK.conf file

Open the file with a text editor and delete everything in it. Then add these values:

d3d9.textureMemory = 1

d3d9.presentInterval = 1

d3d9.maxFrameRate = 60

d3d9.presentInterval enables V-Sync,d3d9.maxFrameRate sets the FrameRate. You can edit those values, but never change the first line (d3d9.textureMemory)!

The original DXVK.conf contains many more options in case you would like to add more settings.

A. no Reshade/GShade

Setting up DXVK

Copy the two files d3d9.dll and DXVK.conf into the Bin folder in your Sims 3 installation path. This is the folder where also GraphicsRule.sgr and the TS3W.exe and TS3.exe are located. If you are prompted to overwrite files, please choose yes (you DID backup your folder, right?)

And that’s basically all that is required to install.

Start your game now and let it run for a short while. Click around, open Buy mode or CAS, move the camera.

Now quit without saving. Once the game is closed fully, open your bin folder again and double check if a file “TS3W.DXVK-cache” was generated. If so – congrats! All done!

Things to note

Heads up, the game options will reset! So it will give you a “vanilla” start screen and options.

Don’t worry if the game seems to be frozen during loading. It may take a few minutes longer to load but it will load eventually.

The TS3W.DXVK-cache file is the actual cache DXVK is using. So don’t delete this! Just ignore it and leave it alone. When someone tells to clear cache files – this is not one of them!

Update Options.ini

Go to your user folder and open the options.ini file with a text editor like Notepad.

Find the line “lastdevice = “. It will have several values, separated by semicolons. Copy the last one, after the last semicolon, the digits only. Close the file.

Now go to your backup version of the Options.ini file, open it and find that line “lastdevice” again. Replace the last value with the one you just copied. Make sure to only replace those digits!

Save and close the file.

Copy this version of the file into your user folder, replacing the one that is there.

Things to note:

If your GPU driver is updated, you might have to do these steps again as it might reset your device ID again. Though it seems that the DXVK ID overrides the GPU ID, so it might not happen.

How do I know it’s working?

Open the task manager and look at RAM usage. Remember the game can only use 4 GB of RAM at maximum and starts crashing when usage goes up to somewhere between 3.2 – 3.8 GB (it’s a bit different for everybody).

So if you see values like 2.1456 for RAM usage in a large world and an ongoing save, it’s working. Generally the lower the value, the better for stability.

Also, DXVK will have generated its cache file called TS3W.DXVK-cache in the bin folder. The file size will grow with time as DXVK is adding stuff to it, e.g. from different worlds or savegames. Initially it might be something like 46 KB or 58 KB, so it’s really small.

Optional: changing MemCacheBudgetValue

MemCacheBudgetValue determines the size of the game's VRAM Cache. You can edit those values but the difference might not be noticeable in game. It also depends on your computer’s hardware how much you can allow here.

The two lines of seti MemCacheBudgetValue correspond to the high RAM level and low RAM level situations. Therefore, theoretically, the first line MemCacheBudgetValue should be set to a larger value, while the second line should be set to a value less than or equal to the first line.

The original values represent 200MB (209715200) and 160MB (167772160) respectively. They are calculated as 200x1024x1024=209175200 and 160x1024x1024=167772160.

Back up your GraphicsRules.sgr file! If you make a mistake here, your game won’t work anymore.

Go to your bin folder and open your GraphicsRules.sgr with a text editor.

Search and find two lines that set the variables for MemCacheBudgetValue.

Modify these two values to larger numbers. Make sure the value in the first line is higher or equals the value in the second line. Examples for values: 1073741824, which means 1GB 2147483648 which means 2 GB. -1 (minus 1) means no limit (but is highly experimental, use at own risk)

Save and close the file. It might prompt you to save the file to a different place and not allow you to save in the Bin folder. Just save it someplace else in this case and copy/paste it to the Bin folder afterwards. If asked to overwrite the existing file, click yes.

Now start your game and see if it makes a difference in smoothness or texture loading. Make sure to check RAM and VRAM usage to see how it works.

You might need to change the values back and forth to find the “sweet spot” for your game. Mine seems to work best with setting the first value to 2147483648 and the second to 1073741824.

Uninstallation

Delete these files from your bin folder (installation path):

d3d9.dll

DXVK.conf

TS3W.DXVK-cache

And if you have it, also TS3W_d3d9.log

if you changed the values in your GraphicsRule.sgr file, too, don’t forget to change them back or to replace the file with your backed up version.

OR

delete the bin folder and add it from your backup again.

B. with Reshade/GShade

Follow the steps from part A. no Reshade/Gshade to set up DXVK.

If you are already using Reshade (RS) or GShade (GS), you will be prompted to overwrite files, so choose YES. RS and GS may stop working, so you will need to reinstall them.

Whatever version you are using, the interface shows similar options of which API you can choose from (these screenshots are from the latest versions of RS and GS).

Please note: 

Each time you install and uninstall DXVK, switching the game between Vulkan and d3d9, is essentially changing the graphics card ID again, which results in the settings in your options.ini file being repeatedly reset.

ReShade interface

Choose – Vulcan

Click next and choose your preferred shaders.

Hopefully this install method works and it won't install its own d3d9.dll file.

If it doesn't work, then choose DirectX9 in RS, but you must make sure to replace the d3d9.dll file with DXVK's d3d9.dll (the one from its 32bit folder, checking its size is 3.86mb.)

GShade interface

Choose –           

Executable Architecture: 32bit

Graphics API: DXVK

Hooking: Normal Mode

GShade is very problematic, it won't work straight out of the box and the overlay doesn't show up, which defeats the purpose of using it if you can't add or edit the shaders you want to use.

Check the game's bin folder, making sure the d3d9.dll is still there and its size is 3.86mb - that is DXVK's dll file.

If installing using the DXVK method doesn't work, you can choose the DirectX method, but there is no guarantee it works either.

The game will not run with these files in the folder:

d3d10core.dll

d3d11.dll

dxgi.dll

If you delete them, the game will start but you can't access GShade! It might be better to use ReShade.

Some Vulcan and DirectX information, if you’re interested:

Vulcan is for rather high end graphic cards but is backward compatible with some older cards. Try this method with ReShade or GShade first.

DirectX is more stable and works best with older cards and systems. Try this method if Vulcan doesn't work with ReShade/GShade in your game – remember to replace the d3d9.dll with DXVK's d3d9.dll.

For more information on the difference between Vulcan and DirectX, see this article:

https://www.howtogeek.com/884042/vulkan-vs-DirectX-12/

[lonestarflight]

Cancelled Missions: Apollo-Soyuz Test Program II, with a Salyut Space Station

"The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) had its origins in talks aimed at developing a common U.S./Soviet docking system for space rescue. The concept of a common docking system was first put forward in 1970; it was assumed at that time, however, that the docking system would be developed for future spacecraft, such as the U.S. Space Station/Space Shuttle, not the U.S. Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM) and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in operation at the time.

A joint U.S./Soviet space mission served the political aims of both countries, however, so the concept of a near-term docking mission rapidly gained momentum. In May 1972, at the superpower summit meeting held in Moscow, President Richard Nixon and Premier Alexei Kosygin signed an agreement calling for an Apollo-Soyuz docking in July 1975.

NASA and its contractors studied ways of expanding upon ASTP even before it was formally approved; in April 1972, for example, McDonnell Douglas proposed a Skylab-Salyut international space laboratory . A year and a half later (September 1973), however, the aerospace trade magazine Aviation Week & Space Technology cited unnamed NASA officials when it reported that, while the Soviets had indicated interest in a 1977 second ASTP flight, the U.S. space agency was 'currently unwilling' to divert funds from Space Shuttle development.

Salyut Apollo docking diagram

Nevertheless, early in 1974 the Flight Operations Directorate (FOD) at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, examined whether a second ASTP mission might be feasible in 1977. The 1977 ASTP proposal aimed to fill the expected gap in U.S. piloted space missions between the 1975 ASTP mission and the first Space Shuttle flight.

The brief in-house study focused on mission requirements for which NASA JSC had direct responsibility. FOD assumed that Apollo CSM-119 would serve as the prime 1977 ASTP spacecraft and that the U.S. would again provide the Docking Module (DM) for linking the Apollo CSM with the Soyuz spacecraft. CSM-119 had been configured as the five-seat Skylab rescue CSM; work to modify it to serve as the 1975 ASTP backup spacecraft began as FOD conducted its study, soon after the third and final Skylab crew returned to Earth in February 1974. FOD suggested that, if a backup CSM were deemed necessary for the 1977 ASTP mission, then the incomplete CSM-115 spacecraft should get the job. CSM-115, which resided in storage in California, had been tapped originally for the cancelled Apollo 19 moon landing mission.

FOD also assumed that the ASTP prime crew of Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand, and Deke Slayton would serve as the backup crew for the 1977 ASTP mission, while the 1975 ASTP backup crew of Alan Bean, Ronald Evans, and Jack Lousma would become the 1977 ASTP prime crew. FOD conceded, however, that this assumption was probably not realistic. If new crewmembers were needed, FOD noted, then training them would require 20 months. They would undergo 500 hours of intensive language instruction during their training.

FOD estimated that Rockwell International support for the 1977 ASTP flight would cost $49.6 million, while new experiments, nine new space suits, and 'government-furnished equipment' would total $40 million. Completing and modifying CSM-115 for its backup role would cost $25 million. Institutional costs — for example, operating Mission Control and the Command Module Simulator (CMS), printing training manuals and flight documentation, and keeping the cafeteria open after hours — would add up to about $15 million. This would bring the total cost to $104.7 million without the backup CSM and $129.7 million with the backup CSM.

The FOD study identified 'two additional major problems' facing the 1977 ASTP mission, both of which involved NASA JSC's Space Shuttle plans. The first was that the CMS had to be removed to make room for planned Space Shuttle simulators. Leaving it in place to support the 1977 ASTP mission would postpone Shuttle simulator availability.

A thornier problem was that 75% of NASA JSC's existing flight controllers (about 100 people) would be required for the 1977 ASTP in the six months leading up to and during the mission. In the same period, NASA planned to conduct "horizontal" Space Shuttle flight tests. These would see a Shuttle Orbiter flown atop a modified 747; later, the aircraft would release the Orbiter for an unpowered glide back to Earth. FOD estimated that NASA JSC would need to hire new flight controllers if it had to support both the 1977 ASTP and the horizontal flight tests. The new controllers would receive training to support Space Shuttle testing while veteran controllers supported the 1977 ASTP.

The ASTP Apollo CSM (CSM-111) lifted off on a Saturn IB rocket on 15 July 1975 with astronauts Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand, and Donald Slayton on board. The ASTP Saturn IB, the last rocket of the Saturn family to fly, lifted off from Launch Complex (LC) 39 Pad B, one of two Saturn V pads at Kennedy Space Center, not the LC 34 and LC 37 pads used for Saturn IB launches in the Apollo lunar program. This was because NASA had judged that maintaining the Saturn IB pads for Skylab and ASTP would be too costly. A 'pedestal' (nicknamed the 'milkstool') raised the Skylab 2, 3, and 4 and ASTP Saturn IB rockets so that they could use the Pad 39B Saturn V umbilicals and crew access arm.

Once in orbit, the ASTP CSM turned and docked with the DM mounted on top of the Saturn IB's second stage. It then withdrew the DM from the stage and set out in pursuit of the Soyuz 19 spacecraft, which had launched about eight hours before the Apollo CSM with cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Valeri Kubasov on board. The two craft docked on 17 July and undocked for the final time on July 19. Soyuz 19 landed on 21 July. The ASTP Apollo CSM, the last Apollo spacecraft to fly, splashed down near Hawaii on 24 July 1975 — six years to the day after Apollo 11, the first piloted Moon landing mission, returned to Earth.

The proposal for a 1977 ASTP repeat gained little traction. Though talks aimed at a U.S. Space Shuttle docking with a Soviet Salyut space station had resumed in May 1975, no plans for new U.S.-Soviet manned missions existed when the ASTP Apollo splashed down. Shuttle-Salyut negotiators made progress in 1975-1976, but the U.S. deferred signing an agreement until after the results of the November 1976 election were known.

In May 1977, the sides formally agreed that a Shuttle-Salyut mission should occur. In September 1978, however, NASA announced that talks had ended pending results of a comprehensive U.S. government review. Following the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, work toward joint U.S.-Soviet piloted space missions was abandoned on advice from the U.S. Department of State. It would resume a decade later as the Soviet Union underwent radical internal changes that led to its collapse in 1991 and the rebirth of the Soviet space program as the Russian space program."

-Article from "No Shortage of Dreams" blog: link

Drew Granston: link

source, source, source

[sentientcitysurvival]

Basic Linux Security (Updated 2025)

Install Unattended Upgrades and enable the "unattended-upgrades" service.

Install ClamAV and enable "clamav-freshclam" service.

Install and run Lynis to audit your OS.

Use the "last -20" command to see the last 20 users that have been on the system.

Install UFW and enable the service.

Check your repo sources (eg; /etc/apt/).

Check the /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow lists for any unusual accounts.

User the finger command to check on activity summaries.

Check /var/logs for unusual activity.

Use "ps -aux | grep TERM" or "ps -ef | grep TERM" to check for suspicious ongoing processes.

Check for failed sudo attempts with "grep "NOT in sudoers" /var/log/auth.log.

Check journalctl for system messages.

Check to make sure rsyslog is running with "sudo systemctl status rsyslog" (or "sudo service rsyslog status") and if it's not enable with "sudo systemctl enable rsyslog".

Perform an nmap scan on your machine/network.

Use netstat to check for unusual network activity.

Use various security apps to test you machine and network.

Change your config files for various services (ssh, apache2, etc) to non-standard configurations.

Disabled guest accounts.

Double up on ssh security by requiring both keys and passwords.

Check your package manager for any install suspicious apps (keyloggers, cleaners, etc).

Use Rootkit Scanners (chkrootkit, rkhunter).

Double SSH Security (Key + Password).

Disabled Guest Accounts.

Enabled Software Limiters (Fail2Ban, AppArmor).

Verify System Integrity via fsck.

Utilize ngrep/other networking apps to monitor traffic.

Utilize common honeypot software (endlessh).

Create new system-launch subroutines via crontab or shell scripts.

Ensure System Backups are Enabled (rsnapshot).

Check for suspicious kernel modules with "lsmod"

[ak-vintage]

Quarry - Chapter 22

Pairing: Din Djarin (The Mandalorian) x f!reader

Summary: Din Djarin is on what he expects to be his last bounty hunt for Greef Karga. After all, Nevarro is swiftly moving away from its previous reputation as a Guild member’s paradise, and Din has more important concerns now, like finding a Jedi to train his mysterious foundling. However, after capturing a wanted starship engineer who would rather go anywhere other than “home,” the Mandalorian is forced to reassess his priorities.

Your taste of freedom had been brief but glorious. Now you are a prisoner of the most infamous bounty hunter in the Outer Rim – it’s only a matter of time before he turns you in. There isn’t much you would not do to keep from being sent home, but as you find yourself growing closer to your captor and his strange little companion, you start to wonder whether escape is really what you want.

Set after Chapter 13: The Jedi but before Chapter 14: The Tragedy.

Chapter Tags & Warnings: 18+ MDNI! Reader is Mando's live-in starship engineer, second-person, no use of Y/N, minimal descriptors of reader character, light angst, canon-typical violence and peril, lots and lots of mostly made-up Star Wars technobabble

Series Masterlist | Read on AO3

Note: This chapter features events from season 2 episode "Chapter 16: The Rescue." You will notice borrowed dialogue and synced plot points.

---

Of the seven-person team that Din had assembled to rescue Grogu, you were the only one who had never had the experience of waking for the day only to immediately begin preparing for battle. However, as a pale sunrise bloomed over the horizon of this nowhere planet where you had found Bo-Katan, as the inhabitants of the Firespray all began to roll out of their bunks, you could feel the shift in energy like a tangible thing. The comfort and the softness of sleep, the comradery of your friendships, even the tender intimacy of your shared quarters with Din all dissolved as the ship’s lights flickered on and instead were replaced with an intensity of focus you had never encountered.

It was militant and almost entirely silent, the way each party member prepared themselves, and the lack of easy conversation that had become so normal on the Firespray over the last weeks set you on edge. Blasters were wiped down and loaded, armor was donned, and every belt, pocket, and holster was filled with backup supplies and secondary melee weapons. Everyone took turns in the mess, moving around one another quickly and efficiently like a well-oiled machine. They all seemed to favor light, nourishing breakfasts of nutrient-dense ration bars, canteens of water, and – in Fennec and Cara’s case – strong carafes of caf. You, however, could barely stomach your food, so tied up in knots was your body at the thought of the approaching challenge, but you forced down a few mouthfuls anyway at Din’s insistence.

“Epar, cyar’ika. Eat,” he bid you, hitting you with a hard stare through his visor. “You will need your strength.”

You did not have the same arsenal of supplies as the others, but you did take some time to back up your schematics of Gideon’s light cruiser onto a palm-held holoprojector you borrowed from Boba’s supplies. You also tucked a couple of datasticks into your pockets with some cyphers you recalled from your days of installing and configuring starship security and defense systems. Other than that, all there really was for you to do was to lace up your boots, whip your hair into a tight braid, and wrap your beloved scarf around your head like a headband. You didn’t really need it here, you knew, but at this point, it felt almost foreign to dress without it.

Just before you disembarked to board the Lambda shuttle with the rest of the group, Din took you aside and inspected your blaster while Cara Dune fitted you with a slick black leather utility belt from her own wardrobe. She fastened it snugly around the flare of your hips before slipping a matching leather holster onto the strap.

“Safer than keeping that thing in your pocket,” she quipped with a wry smile, nodding toward the blaster Din was currently polishing and reloading for you. You huffed a laugh and thanked her, but not before she slid three additional tibanna cartridges into your belt loops.

“You really think I’m going to need all this?” you asked warily.

The dark-haired woman shrugged, and you noticed that she had lined her deep brown eyes with kohl this morning, giving a fierce, predatory look to her striking features. “Maybe not, but better to have it than wish you did.” You swallowed thickly, nodding, and she clapped you warmly on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ve got your back.”

“Cyare.”

At the sound of the endearment, you glanced over at Din and found him extending your blaster back to you. You took it with a murmured “thank you�� and slipped it into the holster, feeling the cool, steady weight of it against your thigh. It was already more comfortable than having it shoved in your pocket.

“Are you ready?” the bounty hunter rasped.

“As I’ll ever be.”

Inclining his helmet at you solemnly, he pressed his hand into the small of your back and steered you toward the ramp. “Then let’s go.”

---

Mere hours later, in the depths of hyperspace, the boarding party clustered around the helm of the Lambda shuttle as you neared your destination. The recycled air was thick with anticipation, with the knowing that the moment you dropped out of light speed, there would be no more time for preparation. Of course, this was precisely the kind of thing that everyone had been trained for.

Everyone but you.

Shifting on your feet, your palm fell to the grip of your blaster, and you could feel the sweat on your skin slip against its textured surface. Your heart was hammering against your ribcage, your stomach heavy and acidic in your abdomen, and you struggled to keep yourself present – in the moment rather than in your head, lost in your anxieties. At the heart of it all, however, was frustration with yourself. You had fought for this chance, this opportunity to exercise your skills, to contribute, to be kriffing useful for once, and you refused to throw all of that away out of fear. This team needed you; Grogu needed you. You had to get it together.

And so instead of hyperventilating, as you thought you might have done otherwise, you focused on taking deep, steadying breaths and drying your palms against your boilersuit.

“Moff Gideon is mine,” Bo-Katan emphasized from her seat at the helm, hands steady and sure as she manipulated the controls without even hardly looking. “Got it?”

“He’s ex-ISB. He’s got a lot of information.” Cara adjusted her grip on her heavy-repeating blaster rifle, the butt of which sat propped on the toe of her boot. “I need him alive.”

Bo-Katan smiled icily. “I don’t care what happens to him as long as he surrenders to me.”

At that moment, Boba Fett’s low, gravelly voice crackled through the comm system. On one of the readouts on the console in front of you, you could see the vague outline of the Firespray pursuing you through the hyperspace tunnel. “Prepare to exit jump space.”

“Copy that,” the red-head replied. “Get the hell out of there as soon as they clear us to dock. And your shots have to look convincing.”

“Power up those shields, princess. I’ll put on a good show.” You smirked at the sound of his gentle condescension in spite of yourself.

The expression was echoed on Bo-Katan’s sharp-featured face. “Watch out for those deck cannons.”

There was a brief pause, and Boba sounded genuine this time as he responded, “Don’t worry about me. Just be careful in there.”

On the console in front of Koska, you watched as the glowing icon indicating your target coordinates grew ever larger in size.

This was it. It was time.

On instinct alone, you reached out, took hold of Din’s hand, and squeezed, suddenly desperate for something to ground yourself. All broad palms and long, thick fingers, he gripped you back with a ferocity you didn’t expect from his calm, collected exterior. Somehow, knowing that he was just as strung out as you over this eased your fears even more than the touch would have otherwise.

Koska, however, was the picture of composure as she narrated your approach. “Exiting hyperspace in three, two, one…”

The tell-tale, stopped-time sensation of dropping out of hyperspace tugged at your navel, and then –

Bright red blaster cannon fire lit up the forward viewport, Bo-Katan poured on the acceleration, and you took off at the fastest sub-light speed the Lambda shuttle could handle. Dodging Boba’s attacks with expert precision, you noticed that each round only narrowly missed the long, fin-like wings of your hijacked Imperial shuttle. The proximity of a few of them had your heart jumping into your throat, but each time, she managed to evade them.

Up ahead, looming pale and angular and absolutely massive against the inky blackness of space, precisely as you had pictured her, was Moff Gideon’s Imperial light cruiser. And you were headed straight for her.

Bringing her palm down on the comm controls, Bo-Katan hailed the cruiser and shouted into the receiver, affecting a distressed tone, “This is Lambda shuttle 2743, requesting emergency docking!”

Her distress call was met only with silence, and you couldn’t help but glance around at the others’ faces as the subspace connection remained dormant. Would the cruiser really ignore them? They looked like an ally, why would they not –

“Repeat – requesting emergency docking. We are under attack!” Bo-Katan echoed.

This time, a commanding, feminine voice responded. “Copy, Lambda shuttle. Request received.” Another pause, this one much shorter than the last, and then, “Stay clear of launch tube. Deploying fighter squadron.”

Bo-Katan shot a significant look at Koska, and the dark-haired woman clenched her jaw and nodded once. You realized they must have come to the same conclusion – the plan would need to remain the same even in the face of this new hurdle. In order to board the ship where it was most vulnerable, the Lambda shuttle would be facing down the TIE fighter squadron head-on – at the mouth of the launch tube.

Just as this thought occurred to you, a single silver TIE fighter streaked from the opening of the launch tube, rocketing out into space through the narrow walls of the aperture. Through the viewport, you watched as the fighter drew closer, closer, closer still. Bo-Katan held her course, however, continuing to dodge Boba’s cannon fire while never once wavering in her aim. For a moment, you thought the fighter might not adjust course in time, but then, at the last second, it veered hard to starboard and only barely missed clipping wings with the shuttle.

You swore you could feel a collective breath of relief being released across the room, but the feeling was short-lived as another TIE fighter appeared at the mouth of the launch tube.

If the first of the squadron had cut it close, this one was downright reckless. Blasting at top speeds through the narrow mouth of the tunnel, you were certain you could see the black reflective surface of the pilot’s helmet through his own transparisteel viewport before he finally dropped into a steep dive and ducked beneath the Lambda shuttle.

And still, Bo-Katan and Koska held steady. The aperture of the launch bay glowed bright blue in the distance, visible through the long, thin tunnel right at the nose of the light cruiser. Another fighter was being brought out – you could see it clearly now; another was about to launch, and the shuttle was nearly at the tunnel’s mouth.

You were coming in too hot. If Gideon’s crew launched that fighter, you would meet in midair, trapped in the restrictive space of the launch tunnel with nowhere to go, and no dodging or maneuvering – no matter how expertly done – would be enough to stop a collision.

The crew on the light cruiser seemed to have noticed the same. Bursting through the comm lines with urgency, the communications officer barked, “Request denied! Please clear launch tube until fighters deploy!”

Bo-Katan grit her teeth and responded, a bit of real anxiety beginning to creep into her façade. “Negative! Negative! We are under attack!”

You braced yourself against the nearest bulkhead as the shuttle dodged another volley of rounds from the Firespray, and in that moment, bright green blaster cannon fire joined the red. The two TIE fighters had joined the fray. Your pilots were left then to dodge both assailants and somehow still thread the needle into the mouth of the launch tube.

Gripping Din’s hand in yours even harder, you swallowed the ball of fear that had begun to build in your throat.

You had talented pilots at the helm of your ship – experienced fighters, cunning warriors both with nerves of steel, you told yourself. You had to trust their timing, their skills. Otherwise, you would be a harried mess before you even had the chance to step foot out of the shuttle and begin the mission in truth.

“Clear launch tube immediately!” the comm link commanded, and although she knew they could not see her, Bo-Katan shook her head, red bob dancing along her jaw.

It was miraculous, truly, what the would-be Mandalorian ruler was able to accomplish over the next few seconds. The sequence of events began to blur together, dissolving into one long, chaotic moment, but the next thing you knew, the entrance to the launch loomed directly in front of the viewport. You felt the ship shift with the mechanical vibration of the shuttle’s wings lifting into their vertical position, narrowing the ship dramatically, and just as they locked into place, you breached the mouth of the tube with mere inches to spare on either side.

But you were still coming in too hot, too fast. The short distance between the mouth of the tube and the ship’s shield-guarded launch portal was quickly disappearing, and there was no way the bulky wings of the Lambda shuttle were going to make it into that tiny opening unscathed.

“Hang on!” Fennec warned, seeing the same thing you did. Din dropped your hand and wrapped his arm around your waist, pulling you into his side as though preparing to shield you against the inevitable collision. You hid your face in the crook of his shoulder, unable to watch, as the aperture swallowed the shuttle whole.

The impact was immediate and brutal, clipping the edge of the portside wing and sending you, Din, and Cara all flying across the cabin and slamming into the unforgiving deck plating. Din cushioned your fall somewhat, though you couldn’t say the beskar was a much more comfortable place to land. The shuttle trembled violently around you, and bright sparks flew as both wing joints dragged along the inside of the launch tube. The belly of the ship bounced once, then twice, the vibration ringing through your teeth, and finally – after what felt like an eternity but in reality was a mere handful of seconds – you skidded to a stop at the end of the launch tube.

The moment the shuttle stopped rumbling beneath your bodies, Din and Cara were on their feet, and you scrambled to follow. This was the moment – time to execute the next phase of the plan. And time for you to leave the bounty hunter’s side and pray that you would reunite on the bridge unharmed.

Gripping the side of your face in one hand and drawing his blaster with the other, Din yanked you to him and pressed his forehead to yours one last time.

“K’oyacyi, cyare. Come back safe.”

“You, too,” you whispered, breath fogging his visor. “Go get him. Bring him home.”

“We’ve got her, Mando,” Cara assured him as she raised her blaster rifle, pushing her dark, disheveled hair out of her face. “C’mon. Time to go.”

You nodded once, drew your own blaster from your holster, and stepped back as Fennec shouldered her way to the rear of the cabin. With sharp, determined eyes, she did a quick inventory of the room, ensuring that all members of the boarding party were prepared to disembark.

When her gaze landed on you, she said, “Remember the plan, girl. Keep to the center of the formation, wait for clear windows to shoot, and for kriff’s sake, don’t try to be a hero.”

Releasing a huff of laugh, you agreed with a glib “yes, ma’am,” and then Bo-Katan’s sharp voice rang out behind you, the sound modulated by the sudden addition of her helmet vocoder.

“Drop the ramp – let’s go.”

As the ramp began to descend, dense, white coolant steam billowed from the shuttle’s undercarriage, obscuring your view of the bay ahead. In the distance, you could hear a Storm Trooper shouting, “Clear the launch tube! What are you doing? Get that thing out of here – ”

Whatever he was meant to say next, he never got the opportunity. With steady precision, Koska raised her blaster pistol and shot twice through the fog, and instead of more protests, all you heard was a pained “argh” and the sound of two armored bodies hitting the deck.

Then chaos erupted.

Shoulder to shoulder, Fennec and Koska led the charge down the ramp while Bo-Katan and Cara brought up the rear. You stayed tucked between them, blaster drawn, head down, the marshal’s broad form shielding you from the bright red bolts of light that filled the air. In the distance, you could see more than a dozen Imperials charging at the shuttle – some in full Storm Trooper white, others in officer gray, all with blasters drawn, raining fire on your boarding party.

But the women who surrounded you moved as a unit – like one that had been fighting arm-in-arm for years rather than days. It was tactical, the way they divided the oncoming hoard of combatants, and in perfect synchronicity, they cut through the launch bay like a hot knife through butter. The sound of it was overwhelming – the overlapping shrieks of volley after volley of blaster rounds, the whip of a grappling line from one of the Mandalorians’ vambraces, the flare of heat from a jetpack, the echo of heavy boots sprinting across durasteel deck plating. You kept your head on a swivel, your own blaster at the ready, but by the time your party had made it to the far side of the launch bay – leaving a trail of Imperial bodies in your wake – you found that you hadn’t even needed to fire it.

They had eliminated everyone in their path with such deadly precision, your presence had been entirely superfluous.

However, you hardly had the opportunity to feel self-conscious about that fact. Just as you had predicted, just as Mayfeld had warned you as you sat huddled over datapads and schematics in the depths of hyperspace, the moment the ship’s internal sensors detected blaster energy signatures, the launch bay doors slid shut. Emerging from the depths of the bulkheads on either side, two blast doors slammed closed over them, and a series of forbidding red lights flared to life around the metallic doorframe. The control panel to the right of the door also glowed red, and you felt the faintest surge of satisfaction at the sight.

The first security checkpoint had been activated. No one would be leaving the launch bay without passing a genetic scan and a chain code verification. You had been right.

“You’re up,” Fennec beckoned as the group approached the foreboding door, and you nodded silently.

This was what you were here for. This was something you could do.

Slipping to the front of the group, you took notice of how the other members closed ranks around you, placing their own bodies between you and any potential threats. The room around you was silent, almost eerily so, and you knew that none other than your team had been left alive. But still, they protected you.

For now, however, you shoved all of the warm feelings that realization elicited to the side and instead dug one of your arsenal of datasticks out of your pocket. You gripped it between your teeth to free up your hands, and then, digging the tips of your fingers into the frame of the control panel, you wrenched it open, exposing the inner workings of the terminal. The wires and switches and flashing lights before you might have looked anonymous and random to others, but to your eyes, it was a puzzle waiting to be solved.

Plugging the datastick into the open port, you went to work.

Slice into the internal security system. Access the secondary protocols. Isolate the launch bay terminals, cut them off from the rest of the system. Identify the unique override sequence. You frowned, drawing your lower lip between your teeth in concentration. The press of bodies around you shifted restlessly as the seconds ticked by. You resisted the urge to reassure them – you were close, you were almost there, just one more redirect and –

“That’s it,” you breathed, removing the datastick, replacing the control panel cover. With quick fingers, you entered a series of commands into the panel, and suddenly, all of the lights surrounding the blast doors flickered blue. With a loud, mechanical thunk, every layer of the barrier retracted back into the bulkheads, and the path ahead looked back at you, clear and open.

Behind you, Cara released a breath of relief, and Bo-Katan swept an impassive stare from the bottoms of your boots to the top of your head, as though appraising you. “Well done,” she said, brusque but earnest. “Now fall back.”

You tucked your datastick back into your pocket and withdrew your blaster from your holster as you retreated back into formation. Koska took point once again as the party charged down the open corridor, and you encountered no enemies along its length. After a handful of minutes, you came upon a path that branched perpendicularly to the left, and Koska held up her fist for you all to slow to a stop. Blaster drawn, she peeked around the corner and scanned the area quickly. “All clear.”

Bo-Katan rounded the corner ahead of her, taking in the new corridor for herself. “A little too clear,” she agreed. Beckoning the group forward, she proceeded cautiously, and as you advanced, you realized that you had come upon an open-air catwalk connecting two sections of the ship. Above and below the narrow strip of decking that stretched out before you was nothing but open, vacuous space, and if you dared to glance down, you could see the infinite blackness twinkling back at you from beyond the life support system’s ray shields. Swallowing the wave of anxiety that washed over you at the sight, you kept your eyes on the back of Bo-Katan’s helmet instead.

“Keep your eyes open,” she cautioned as you began to traverse the catwalk. You were back to the center of the formation, as planned, allowing the others to keep themselves between you and the unfamiliar surroundings, but your blaster remained firmly gripped in your hand anyway, ready to defend yourself should you need to.

You made it about halfway across the catwalk unmolested. Just as you were beginning to think that this leg of your journey might prove to be blessedly simple, four Storm Troopers emerged from the open door ahead.

As if they had planned such a synchronous maneuver in advance (which, to be fair, they probably had), both Koska and Bo-Katan fired up their jetpacks and dove off opposite edges of the catwalk, leaving you, Cara, and Fennec to face the oncoming assailants alone. The marshal was quick to dig her fingers into the back of your boilersuit and tug you bodily behind her, but that didn’t stop you from raising your pistol. On instinct alone, you thrust the muzzle of your blaster into the space between the other two women’s bodies, and your fire joined theirs in gunning down the troopers. You couldn’t be certain whether any of your rounds landed, but by the time all of them had either crumpled to the floor or fallen off the edge of the catwalk, the unlucky Storm Troopers had only managed to get off a single round. No one from the boarding party had been harmed.

“Freeze! Drop your weapons!”

A sharp, modulated voice rang out behind you, and your stomach dropped, all of the bravado you had felt mere moments ago slipping away as quickly as it had come. Turning slowly, you found six more Storm Troopers equipped with sleek black blaster rifles spilling onto the catwalk.

“Dank farrik,” you swore under your breath, icy, paralyzing fear gripping your spine for the first time since leaving the shuttle. There had to be too many of them. You didn’t have the element of surprise like you had with the others; these troopers already had their weapons trained on you, and on this narrow walkway, there was nowhere to hide.

Should you surrender, you wondered? Drop your pistol to the floor, put your hands in the air? The idea had your stomach rolling. No, you couldn’t give up, not now –

The distinctive rumble of jetpacks reverberated off of the nearby bulkheads, and a rush of relief so powerful it nearly had your knees buckling washed over you as both Koska and Bo-Katan shot out from their hiding places under the catwalk. From several feet in the air, they rained blast fire down on the unsuspecting troopers, red light and white sparks flying with each impact, and in a handful of seconds, all six of your would-be captors had collapsed into white plastoid heaps on the deck.

You sent the two Mandalorians grateful smiles as they landed smoothly back on the surface of the walkway, and then you were off again, proceeding with haste through the open archway ahead.

---

The deeper into Moff Gideon’s cruiser the boarding party penetrated, the more confident you became. The adrenaline racing through your veins felt less unsettling, rattling on your nerves; instead it seemed to focus you, blocking out all other concerns and fears and narrowing your field of vision to just the mission at hand. Keep your head down. Shoot when you have to. Override every barrier, disable every checkpoint in your path. Trust your comrades to keep you safe, but watch their backs, as well. It reminded you a bit of the Razor Crest’s pursuit of Kevok Teklolq, the way you found yourself able to sink into this role, to concentrate only the task in front of you to the exclusion of all else.

As you made your way across a densely-packed cargo bay, surrounded on all sides by Fennec and Cara’s blaster fire and crumpling white-armored bodies, you felt as focused and in-control as you did behind the helm of a starship. So when one of those anonymous plastoid helmets rounded the corner in front of you, blaster at the ready, you didn’t hesitate, and at this close of a range, even you couldn’t miss.

You shot once. Twice.

The soldier let out a pained grunt and toppled to the floor, and if bile rose in the back of your throat at the sound, you were too focused on reaching the next checkpoint to notice.

Unfortunately, that next check point appeared to be at the far end of an endless series of corridors, and each one seemed to be filled with more Imperial forces than the last. The closer you drew to the bridge, the tighter the defenses. Keeping tight to your formation, the five of you cleared each hall as you entered it, the occasional round bouncing off of Bo-Katan and Koska’s armor as you advanced. It wasn’t until you reached the last turn that the endless wave of combatants became too much to bear.

“Split up!” Cara barked, breaking away from the group. Her massive blaster rifle propped firmly under her arm, she placed herself in front of the rest of you, strong shoulders broad and centered as she took on the oncoming troopers like a force of nature. You tucked yourself behind a support beam, pressing yourself against the bulkhead to steady your aim and did your best to back her up, but next to her oversized rounds, the ones coming from your little pistol seemed to almost inconsequential.

However, as Cara reached the end of the corridor, you heard a distinctive whirring, seizing sound coming from her rifle, and you watched as she quickly found her own support beam to take shelter behind as she cried, “My gun’s jammed!”

Fennec was quick to jump to her aid, yelling, “I got you!” The assassin was nimble, light on her feet, dodging shot after shot as she cut down the corridor toward where Cara had hidden. She was good, great even as more and more Storm Troopers fell at her feet, but it wasn’t enough. The two Mandalorians were occupied with forces approaching from behind, and while the marshal wrestled with her uncooperative weapon, Fennec was outgunned.

A sickening bolt of fear broke through your concentration as you watched yet another trooper round the corner into the corridor, raise his blaster, and take aim directly at the Rebel dropper at his feet.

“Cara!”

Again, you didn’t think, didn’t hesitate. You shot off three rounds, two of which arced wide, but the third one kept true and collided with the trooper’s chest. He staggered back with the force of the impact, a hollow “ugh!” ringing out through his helmet, and then Cara Dune was on her feet once more. Having given up on repairing her blaster rifle, she deftly spun the thing around and wielded the stock like a bludgeon. Lifting the gun high, she shattered the trooper’s helmet in a deadly blow, and white shards of plastoid sprayed through the air as the man collapsed, motionless on the ground.

The marshal shot a wild grin over her shoulder at you, pride gleaming in her dark eyes. “Thanks,” she huffed breathlessly.

You weren’t certain how you felt about that sentiment just now, knowing that you were being thanked for helping her to take a life, even if it had been to save hers. But you could unpack that another time, you decided. Now, your expertise was needed at the doors to the lift that loomed ahead – the lift that would take you to the cruiser’s bridge deck. You were nearly there.

You didn’t wait to be prompted. While the others polished off the remaining troopers, you darted over to the lift, outlined as all the other checkpoints had been in bright red lights. You got to work immediately – peeling back the control panel cover, plugging in one of your datasticks, everything just as you had done for the previous checkpoints. However, as you felt the rest of the boarding party fall into formation behind you, you noticed that each time you thought you had disabled a set of protocols successfully, the effects seem to only last for a moment or two. The layers of security would fall away, and then they would surge back into place, as if you hadn’t just spent long, precious seconds systematically taking them apart.

“Fuck.” The curse came out breathless, and you could feel sweat gathering on the back of your neck and across your forehead as the realization shot down your spine like a livewire. “They’re changing it.”

“What is it?” Bo-Katan asked sharply, her modulated voice sounding just over your shoulder.

“The ship’s crew is countering. The security algorithm has started to vary – they’re trying to stop us from reaching the bridge.”

“Can you compensate?”

You weighed your answer only briefly before nodding. “Yes.”

The new cypher was complex, more nuanced and layered than the first, as though designed to test the limits of your knowledge and see how far you could push them. As you keyed through the terminal, you dug through your memories, your experiences with programs like this one. You pictured your father’s starship database, the endless stores of information, wishing you could remember even half of what you had studied at his side. You had always been more of a hardware girl, anyway; more than anything, you wished you had your plasma torch just so you could see how the security team on the bridge would respond to you simply cutting through the doors they erected in your path.

“Not to rush you, engineer, but if we need to find an alternate way to the bridge, we need to know now.”

“Shh,” you whispered, keeping your eyes on the open terminal before you. You were so close. You could feel it, you just needed to focus, you just needed –

There.

Your hands flew to reassemble the control panel, dropping your datastick back into your pocket once more. One quick command sequence, the foreboding red lights flickered blue, and the lift doors slid open without prompting.

All of the breath left your lungs in one loud exhale, and then you were all piling into the lift car. You input the bridge level number before anyone could ask, and as the car began to rise, you collapsed back against the durasteel wall in relief.

That had been too close for your comfort.

The near-complete silence in the narrow walls of the lift was jarring after the sounds of battle. You could hear the pounding of your heart for the first time since you had left the shuttle, and your own breath sounded too loud in your ears. In the quiet, Bo-Katan turned to you and demanded, “Did you shush me back there?”

Stars, had you? You supposed you had. Perhaps not the wisest choice – to be so disrespectful to the future Mand’alor. It hadn’t been consciously done, but still…

Thankfully, you were saved from needing to answer for this slight by Marshal Dune banging the butt of her blaster rifle on the floor and cursing loudly. “Dank farrik!” She fussed with the action, opening and closing it multiple times, blaster parts clanking against one another in a way no one in the lift could have ignored. “Son of a mudscuffer!”

“Are you sure you don’t need any help?” Bo-Katan asked wryly.

With gritted teeth, Cara slammed the stock of her gun down once more, this time with enough force that you could feel the vibration of it through the floor. A distinctive whirring sound emanated from the depths of the rifle, and you breathed a sigh of relief as she said, “I think that did it.”

Just then, the lift arrived at the bridge level, and the marshal swung her oversized weapon around toward the opening lift door. “Excuse me,” she muttered under her breath, and then she was leading the charge, teeth bared, pouring a never-ending stream of glowing yellow blaster fire down the enemy-filled hallway.

“Hostiles! Stop!”

The command from one of the Storm Troopers ahead did not deter you. The four of you followed in the marshal’s wake, unleashing every ounce of aggression you had left, and just as before, the dense press of armored bodies fell in the face of your party’s sheer force. However, as you gained ground toward the bridge, which shone in the distance, you watched as one final security checkpoint – one you hadn’t planned for – flared to life around its entrance. Warning lights glared red in the frame, two layers of blast doors slammed shut at the end of the corridor, and you swore you could feel the leaden finality of them reverberate through your bones.

Somewhere off to your right, Fennec shouted your name through the deafening roar of blaster fire.

“Go! Get that door open!” she shouted, her low, warm voice hoarse and strained. “I’ll cover you!”

Wordlessly, you nodded, and then you were off like a shot, sprinting down the remaining distance between you and the door with single-minded focus. You did not allow yourself to look as troopers fell around you at the end of Fennec’s rifle, did not allow yourself to hesitate as you jumped over their bodies, as you ducked their flying blaster bolts. You trusted the assassin. Your teammate, your friend. She would keep you safe as you ran. She had to.

You nearly skidded to a stop by the time you made it to the bridge’s entrance. Bracing yourself with your palms against the durasteel, you curled your shoulders inward and tried to make yourself as small a target as possible as you got to work. There was no four-fighter squadron shielding your back this time. You would need to be fast.

As you sliced into the system, you found even more modifications to the algorithms than you had seen on the lift. Brows pulled low, lip between your teeth, you took deep, steadying breaths as you worked. You kept the peril of your situation at arm’s length, knowing that if you allowed yourself to experience it, to really hear the fight going on around you, you would freeze. Instead, you kept your eyes on the terminal, and you ripped the protocol to shreds.

You were putting the control panel cover back on when you heard it – Cara’s voice, then Fennec’s, then even Bo-Katan’s cutting through the chaos. Your name, repeated over and over. “Get down! Get down!”

You hit the deck on your knees, legs collapsing beneath you.

And three blaster bolts collided with the durasteel blast doors right where your head had been.

You felt as though your stomach had fallen clean out of your body as you stared up at the glowing hot dents in the metal, all clustered together right where you had been standing. Sweat poured down your face, fatigue settling in your bones. Stars, that had nearly been the end of you. Your mind flew to Din and then to Grogu, thankful down to your core that you hadn’t seen the last of them.

So overwhelmed were you that you barely noticed Cara coming up behind you until she hauled you to your feet.

“You’re all right, sweetheart, shake it off,” she encouraged, brushing imaginary dust from your shoulders. “We took care of that guy, don’t worry. Let’s get in this room, huh?”

You nodded gratefully. With the other woman’s arm still tucked protectively around your shoulders, you entered the final command sequence, and the security system disarmed.

The party made quick work of the few Imperials left on the bridge when the doors opened. Fanning out across the room, it took only a handful of quick, efficient shots to have the entire bridge crew on the ground.

Koska charged straight for the security station, withdrawing an abandoned code cylinder from the console. “Weapons systems disarmed,” she said. “Secondary security protocols also disabled. Everyone should be able to move freely now.”

Thank the Maker. All that was left now was to wait for Din to rendezvous with you all, and with any luck, he would have Grogu in tow. Your relief was all-consuming, and you found yourself sinking into one of the officers’ chairs with a sigh.

However, there was one member of your party who did not seem especially pleased with the results of your efforts. After taking a full tour around the perimeter of the bridge, Bo-Katan Kryze came to stand in front of the viewport, confusion and fury pouring from her in palpable waves even through her impassive helmet.

Shoving both of her blaster pistols into her holsters with force, she hissed, “Where’s Gideon?”

You glanced around at the bodies that littered the floor, seeing a handful of troopers, a couple of officers in gray... But no one in command black.

Moff Gideon wasn’t here.

---

Mando'a Translations:

epar - eat k’oyacyi - Cheers! Hang in there! Come back safely. Literally, "stay alive"

[daleeltrading]

Low Voltage Switchgear for Commercial Buildings: Key Requirements, Standards, and Best Practices

In the construction and modernization of commercial buildings, low voltage switchgear plays a critical role in ensuring safe, reliable, and efficient power distribution. From office complexes and retail malls to hospitals and data centers, these buildings rely on robust electrical infrastructure — and low voltage switchgear is the backbone of that system.

Whether you’re an electrical panel manufacturer, a building contractor, or a facility manager, understanding the key requirements for selecting and integrating LV switchgear in commercial buildings is essential.

What Is Low Voltage Switchgear?

Low voltage switchgear is an assembly of electrical devices designed to control, protect, and isolate electrical circuits under 1,000V AC. It typically includes:

· Air Circuit Breakers (ACBs)

· Molded Case Circuit Breakers (MCCBs)

· Miniature Circuit Breakers (MCBs)

· Contactors and Relays

· Busbars

· Metering and Protection Devices

Why LV Switchgear Is Critical in Commercial Buildings

Commercial buildings demand:

· Continuous power availability

· High energy efficiency

· Electrical safety for occupants

· Scalability for future expansion

Low voltage switchgear delivers:

· Protection against overloads and short circuits

· Isolation for maintenance and fault conditions

· Load management for energy optimization

· Monitoring via smart metering and IoT integration

Key Requirements for LV Switchgear in Commercial Applications

Safety & Protection Standards

Must comply with IEC 61439 or UL 891 depending on the region

Must include overcurrent, short-circuit, and earth fault protection

Arc flash safety features (like arc fault containment) are crucial in populated buildings

2. Compact Footprint and Modular Design

Space is often limited in commercial utility rooms. LV switchgear should be:

Compact to fit tight electrical rooms

Modular for easy expansion as building loads increase

3. Smart Metering and Monitoring

Today’s commercial buildings demand energy-efficient and intelligent systems. Choose LV switchgear with:

Integrated smart meters

IoT-based energy monitoring

Remote control via BMS (Building Management Systems)

4. High Service Continuity (Form Segregation)

To ensure maintenance without full shutdowns, opt for:

Form 3b or Form 4b segregation

Withdrawable ACBs or MCCBs

Dual incomer and bus coupler arrangements for redundancy

5. Scalability and Flexibility

Commercial facilities evolve. Your switchgear must too:

Allow for load expansion

Be compatible with renewable sources (like solar panels)

Support future retrofits and upgrades

Standards to Follow

Ensure LV switchgear in commercial buildings is compliant with:

IEC 61439–1/2 — General and Power Switchgear Assemblies

UL 891 — US Standard for Dead-Front Switchboards

NEC (National Electrical Code) or local building codes

Also factor in:

Ingress Protection (IP Ratings) — IP54/IP65 for dusty or humid environments

Short Circuit Withstand Ratings — Ensure it matches building fault levels

Best Practices for Installation in Commercial Building

Centralize the switchgear for easy maintenance and reduced cable runs

Provide ample ventilation or forced cooling

Use color-coded wiring for clear identification

Ensure emergency shutdown mechanisms are accessible

Document the system with single-line diagrams and load calculations

Applications in Commercial Buildings

Office Buildings: Smart load shedding and energy metering

Hospitals: Redundant systems for life safety

Data Centers: N+1 configurations and continuous monitoring

Malls & Retail: Segmented load distribution for different zones

Hotels: Backup and emergency panel integration

Choosing the Right LV Switchgear Partner

Look for a supplier who provides

Customized switchgear assemblies

Fast lead times and local support

Engineering assistance for layout and specs

Pre-tested or type-tested assemblies

Future Trends in Commercial LV Switchgear

Digitization & predictive maintenance

Energy-efficient, low-loss designs

AI-assisted load forecasting

SF6-free eco-friendly designs

Need Help Choosing LV Switchgear for Your Next Commercial Project?

At Daleel Trading, we supply certified, compact, and smart low voltage switchgear solutions tailored for commercial buildings. Whether it’s a small retail site or a multi-floor office tower, we deliver performance, compliance, and reliability — on time.

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[bugged-ubuntu]

My non technical roommate just asked for antivirus recommendations and I didn't know what to say. I told her antivirus is a waste of money and the true antivirus is being smart about what you do and download, plus windows defender when properly configured is going to do far more than Johnny Drugmule's software ever could, but I don't know if that's a fair recommendation.

Is it fair to ask people who know jack shit about computers to engage in smart online activity? To purge their operating system and restore from clean backup every six months? To install Linux on their 2021 laptop with the top-tier 365 subscription they've been dutifully paying this whole time?

Probably.

[sekiro-mod]

Best Sekiro Mods to Transform Your Gameplay Experience

Introduction

Sekiro mod Shadows Die Twice is already a challenging and rewarding game, but mods can take it to an entirely new level. Whether you're looking to change your character's appearance, tweak the combat system, or make the game even harder (or easier), the modding community has something for everyone. This article explores the best Sekiro mods, how to install them, and how they can enrich your experience.

1. What Are Sekiro Mods?

1.1 A Quick Overview

Sekiro mods are user-created modifications that alter the game's content, visuals, or mechanics. These can range from simple texture swaps to complete gameplay overhauls.

1.2 Why Use Mods in Sekiro?

Mods allow players to customize their gameplay experience add new weapons, fight new bosses, or even play as iconic characters like Vergil from Devil May Cry.

2. How to Install Sekiro Mods?

2.1 Downloading the Right Tools

Before installing mods, you’ll need tools like Mod Engine or UXM to unpack and run mod files safely. These utilities help inject mods without altering core files permanently.

2.2 Installation Process Step-by-Step

Backup your game files.

Use UXM to unpack the game.

Enable mod override.

Place downloaded mod files into the specified directory.

Launch the game using the Mod Engine loader.

3. Best Visual Mods for Sekiro

3.1 Character and Costume Mods

Change Wolf’s appearance with popular skins like Sekiro Naruto, Ryu Hayabusa, or even Shrek for a humorous twist.

3.2 Graphics Enhancement Mods

Visual upgrade mods like ReShade or HD Texture Packs bring richer colors, lighting improvements, and better detail to environments.

4. Gameplay Changing Mods

4.1 New Combat Styles

Mods like the Sekiro Combat Arts Pack or Move Sets Expansion introduce new fighting styles and techniques for a fresh experience.

4.2 Difficulty Adjustment Mods

Want more challenge or a bit of relief? Use mods like Sekiro Survival Mode or Easy Mode to tailor difficulty to your preference.

5. Boss and Enemy Mods

5.1 New Boss Battles

Add new bosses or replace existing ones with tougher or entirely different enemies using enemy swap mods.

5.2 Randomizer Mods

The Enemy and Item Randomizer changes the placement of items and enemies, creating unpredictable gameplay for seasoned players.

6. Crossover and Fun Mods

6.1 Play as Iconic Characters

Become Geralt from The Witcher or Cloud from Final Fantasy VII using character swap mods.

6.2 Funny and Meme Mods

Inject humor with mods that replace enemies with Thomas the Tank Engine or insert unexpected sound effects.

7. Audio and Music Mods

7.1 Custom Soundtracks

Replace in-game music with custom themes—from epic anime openings to calming lo-fi tracks.

7.2 Voice and SFX Swaps

Change Sekiro's voice or enemy dialogue for a hilarious or dramatic shift in tone.

8. Sekiro VR and First-Person Mods

8.1 VR Mod Support

Experience Sekiro like never before with experimental VR support, though it requires a powerful PC and additional configuration.

8.2 First-Person Perspective

Add more immersion by switching to first-person view using camera mods, turning the game into a whole new experience.

9. Safety and Compatibility Tips

9.1 Always Backup Your Game

Before installing mods, make sure to copy your original game files to avoid any corruption.

9.2 Check for Updates and Conflicts

Some mods may not be compatible with others. Read mod descriptions and user comments to avoid crashes or issues.

10. How Mods Affect Game Performance

10.1 Impact on FPS and Stability

While many mods are optimized, some may reduce performance or cause glitches, especially on lower-end systems.

10.2 Recommended Specs

For heavier visual or gameplay mods, a high-end PC with good GPU and RAM is advised for the best experience.

Conclusion

Modding Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice can greatly enrich your gameplay, whether you want a fresh challenge, enhanced visuals, or just some fun character swaps. With careful installation and the right tools, you can experience the game in a completely new light. From gameplay enhancements to hilarious crossovers, the world of Sekiro mods is vast and worth exploring.

FAQs

Q1: Are Sekiro mods safe to use? Yes, if downloaded from trusted sources and installed correctly with backup precautions.

Q2: Will mods get me banned? Sekiro is a single-player game, so modding won’t result in bans. However, always play offline when using mods.

Q3: Can I use multiple mods at once? Yes, but ensure they're compatible. Use Mod Engine to manage multiple mods effectively.

Q4: Do mods work with the Steam version? Yes, most mods work seamlessly with the Steam version of Sekiro.

Q5: Is there a mod manager for Sekiro? Mod Engine acts as a mod manager and loader, making it easier to add or remove mods.

[imageits-blog]

Preventative IT Maintenance: Keeping Your Business Running Smoothly

With technology moving forward so fast, your business can’t operate without it. Computers, servers, cloud systems and software platforms have to be running smoothly to keep your team productive, defend confidential information and make sure customers receive a good experience.

Unfortunately, IT systems don’t manage themselves without attention.

This is why we need preventative IT maintenance. Regular car servicing makes sure your car avoids breakdowns and preventative IT support does the same for your systems. Here at Image IT, we know that companies who focus on IT before issues arise benefit a lot. We’ll now look at what preventative maintenance means and understand why it helps your business run smoothly.

What Does Preventative IT Maintenance Mean?

Taking care of your IT infrastructure ahead of time is called preventative maintenance. With preventative maintenance, you take action to make sure your systems are in good shape all the time, so you don’t have to rush to solve emergencies.

Such tasks refer to:

Tracking how the system is running

Putting security patches and new versions of the software into use

Regularly using antivirus and malware software

Testing the use of backup options

Updating both your device’s drivers and firmware

Checking the configurations for firewalls and networks

Exchanging ageing equipment to prevent any breakdowns

At Image IT, we set up specialized maintenance services that guarantee your technology remains in top condition and reduces the chance of risks and downtime.

Why Taking Care of Problems in Advance Is Crucial for Companies in Ireland

1. Minimize any time when your business is not working effectively.

Problems with your IT systems such as servers failing, networks breaking or bugs in software, may bring your work to a halt and cost you in both time and money. Doing preventative maintenance lets you catch and manage issues early and this means your business avoids the stress of dealing with major problems.

If a server begins to overheat, it’s possible to handle the issue before it crashes, so you won’t have to deal with expensive downtime and loss of data.

2. Prevent or Stop Cyber Attacks

More and more, businesses in Ireland are facing cyberattacks, most often small and medium-sized companies. Many attackers use old software, unpatched versions and networks that have not been properly set up.

Ongoing upkeep of security tools such as firewalls, antivirus software and system updates, makes it much less likely for your system to become a victim of ransomware, phishing or a data breach.

3. Increase the Lifespan of IT Assets

Just as changing the oil in your car lengthens its engine’s lifespan, looking after your IT equipment in the same way will help it work longer. Regularly taking care of computers stops them from wearing out and prevents too many replacements.

4. Raise the effectiveness of your staff.

This kind of slow work is frustrating and influences how your team feels about their work. If technology runs smoothly, your team won’t have to worry about systems or spend time finding IT solutions.

5. With time, the cost of IT will decrease.

Though it might feel like a pricey addition, upfront maintenance helps save money and prevents serious IT problems. One data breach, meeting replacement or lasting period of downtime can often be more expensive than all your ISP’s services put together.

Important Parts of a Well-Made IT Maintenance Plan

We create preventative maintenance strategies for your business that fit its individual requirements at Image IT. The method we use is:

We watch your systems around the clock.

We watch over your systems around the clock, spotting problems early and fixing them so they don’t impact your work.

Timely Updates and Patch Upgrades

We make sure your operating systems, applications and antivirus are always running on the latest versions.

Test the backup and recovery of your data.

We ensure your backups are properly configured and we regularly perform tests to see how fast you can recover data.

You can do a Network Health Check here.

We examine your network for good speed, serious security flaws and technology issues to confirm your system operates safely and properly.

Managing Assets and Deciding on Their Life

We watch over your equipment and make sure you can update your technology before it starts causing issues.

Support from the users and helpdesk

If your team has any IT questions or concerns, our friendly team is there to lend a non-technical helping hand.

Why Is Image IT a Great Solution?

Operating out of North Dublin, Image IT has been supporting company’s in Ireland for about 15 years. Our knowledgable team delivers helpful, consistent and friendly IT assistance to the companies here in New Zealand.

We are dedicated to forming long-term relationships with clients so we can do more than just address issues; we can help avoid them.

You will gain the following benefits when you work with us:

Transparent pricing

A quick response from the team

Customized maintenance services

Expert opinions offered in a personal way

If you have just a few devices or a complex IT structure, our solutions are designed to match your requirements and your budget.

Benefits You Can See in Life: An Example

There were many issues at one of our clients, a small financial services firm in Dublin, involving downtime in the network and software that was past its update. Following their sign up for our preventative maintenance, we set up a monitoring system, cleaned their network and ran scheduled updates.

The result? A 90% drop in IT issues reported by staff, faster systems, and peace of mind for their management team knowing their data and systems were protected.

Your Next Step: Secure Your Business with Preventative IT Support

Don’t wait for a system failure, data breach, or productivity drop to remind you of your IT vulnerabilities. Preventative maintenance is one of the smartest investments you can make in your business.

Let Image IT take the stress out of managing your technology — so you can focus on what you do best.

[christanworkshop]

The Legendary ThinkPad T480s

I recently got myself an old Lenovo ThinkPad T480s for just $230—a real steal for this iconic machine. The model I got had the i7-8650u and 16GB RAM. Even though it’s about 7 years old, the ThinkPad T480s still holds legendary status among laptop enthusiasts. A quick search on YouTube and you will find a ton of recent videos praising its robust build, exceptional keyboard, and solid performance. There's almost a cult like following for this ThinkPad.

Right after purchasing, I opened up the laptop for some essential maintenance. I disassembled the heat sink/heat pipe/fan assembly and thoroughly cleaned the fan with a brush and compressed air duster. After cleaning off the old thermal paste from the heat sink and CPU using IPA, I reapplied some Kryonaut Thermal Grizzly paste to ensure optimal cooling performance.

Over the next two days, I set it up with Ubuntu and installed a bunch of development tools like Visual Studio Code, Python, Jupyter Notebook, and Arduino IDE. Additionally, I configured VirtualBox to run a Windows 10 Pro VM for flexibility.

To enhance seamless workflow between my ThinkPad and Mac, I configured Syncthing for effortless file synchronization and CopyQ for shared clipboard functionality. For backup, I am using Timeshift for system snapshots and Déjà Dup for user files. Installed Gnome Sushi and Imagemagick to make file preview work like on a Mac. It's also nice that the Ubuntu dock can be configured to look similar to a Mac.

On top of that, I also installed xremap to do some key remapping for things like copy, paste, quit, etc. to make Ubuntu work more like a Mac, just because the Mac is my main machine and all those key strokes are like muscle memory already. Keep having to change as I switch between using the 2 was a real pain.

That’s it, a brand new old ThinkPad. The ThinkPad T480s remains a fantastic laptop even after all these years, providing stellar performance and an exceptional Linux experience. It’s the perfect budget-friendly yet powerful laptop for developers, makers, and Linux enthusiasts alike.

Below are some videos you can check out:

[ceausescue]

Hi, can you tell me about btrfs? It was a default choice for the filesystem when I installed fedora on my laptop and I read little bit about how it is different from like ext4 and what cool stuff it supports etc. But I newer, like, utilised all that stuff in it. So, if you don't mind, can you tell me what am I missing and how do I utilise it potential?

btrfs! what is btrfs? btrfs is a copy-on-write journaling filesystem with various other goodies. my experience is mostly using it on one disk on my personal machine, which seems to be what you're doing with it also. you may have heard some bad things about btrfs eating your data silently and then the mailing list being really mean about it, and all that is true but it's only true if you're using btrfs raid4 or raid5, which you aren't. for our use case there's absolutely nothing to fear- btrfs is an absolutely rock solid filesystem and i wouldn't accept any other for my daily driver

i was planning on writing this whole long thing summarizing my notes because when i was learning all this stuff i couldn't find any source that had everything i needed in one place. but that was 4 years ago, and since then fedora switched to using it by default. nowadays there are a bunch of articles explaining all the fundamental concepts and commands and such. the two linked at the bottom ive read and can vouch for, and they cover basically all the intuition for the concepts and commands and such. so im going to focus on cool things you can do with a COW filesystem

basically all the cool things you can do are snapshots. snapshots, better explained in the links, are lightweight copies of entire file trees. you can, for instance, take a snapshot of your home directory and then be able to access all your files at the time of the snapshot whenever you want, even if you change them in the "real" version. but you can do better than this. if your subvolume layout is correct (and don't worry, fedora's is), you can rollback to a previous snapshot whenever you want. with a little configuration you can make all your root snapshots bootable, so you can select in grub or whatever which version of your filesystem you want to boot into. with a little bit of doing, which im not sure is easy on fedora but certainly might be, i got my computer set up so that my boot directory is just a btrfs subvolume on my regular filesystem. if an update breaks my setup, which does happen from time to time, i can go back to exactly the state i was in, files packages kernel and all

you can and should use btrfs for your backups also. not local snapshots, those aren't very good backups, but incremental backups to an external drive or over ssh to another machine. for this i use btrbk, which is a pretty simple script that just makes use of btrfs features to make safe, fast, and reliable backups to wherever you might want them. then, because it's using native features of the filesystem, recovering from just about anything is dead simple. you can send over the subvolumes and mount them wherever. the one thing is that for most of these you need a bootable drive with btrfs and enough drivers to work on your system. whatever you used to install fedora should work fine

and with that you basically need fear no file loss event, big or small. i mean i wouldn't give up git or anything, but now you can retrieve your desktop layout, your browser settings, your /etc, whatever you want. its absolutely magic. since doing an install with this btrfs setup 4 years ago i have had absolutely nothing break in a way i couldn't fix in under 15 minutes, even running arch objectively badly. imagining life without snapshots feels barbaric now. its one of a handful of things which are just objectively better on linux for any user at any skill level. data loss is a choice, and it has been for almost a decade. take my hand

additional notes:

APFS: yeah apple has this too. time machine is a brilliant piece of software and the apple ppl are lucky to have it. however! i have needed to actually go back and use my backup like 2 times ever. most of the time i just use the snapshots locally. plus afaik you don't have the same range of options to deal with snapshot size- i dont hang onto my steam directory for very long

ZFS: if you need raid id say zfs is definitely better (zpool is awesome). but a lot of the things you can do with snapshots and subvolumes on btrfs aren't actually possible on zfs. a rollback on zfs is a very specific action which invalidates everything that came after- it's not to be done lightly. with btrfs you just move subvolumes around and they're available whenever you need them

encryption: its annoying but you should put your filesystem inside of lvm inside of LUKS and it'll work fine. its the same as using LUKS normally, and once it's open it's the same as using btrfs normally. this would probably suck for multiple disks, in which case you should use zfs

hibernation: use LVM to have a swap partition and call it a day, storage is cheap these days. ive heard swap files are improved somehow (?) but i dont use one and there really isn't any reason to

compression: imo not a showstopper or anything but it comes in handy. i wouldn't expect huge gains in space usage (storage is cheap anyway) but a lot of modern cpus are good enough at compression that it's actually faster to store everything compressed bc the bottleneck is disk IO. you can test what algorithm and level works best for you, and tune it by subvolume. on my nvme i dont notice a difference, but my server has some hard drives and compression speeds things up

[burning-brightly]

HOLY SHIT.

They figured out the cause of the East Asia Blackout. It's that game that KaibaCorp made called Legendary Heroes! Apparently, Korea and Japan traced the source of the infection back to several computers who were running the game illegally. Illegally because the game was technically banned in those countries due to mistrust in the full dive technology.

Even America was apparently affected, but analysts say it's only because a quirk in the IP configuration that the people illegally running it were left unscathed.

KaibaCorp and Prime Minister Kaiba naturally deny the accusations and state this is obviously China and Korea's attempt at throwing mud at them, and they are highly disappointed that their long term ally America is slandering them; they will have to reconsider their alliance. Admittedly in KC and Japan's favor, the game doesn't really explain why brand new computers, completely unrelated to the Legendary Heroes, continue to fry once they're turned on in Japan - despite not being connected to internet.

Japan's barely running at this point, which makes sense since it's ground zero of the disaster that's romantically named as Pluto's Kiss. People are stranded at airports. The train system, which Japan relies on, has shut down completely. Hospitals are running on emergency backup systems.

The only type of computer that's working in Japan is this stupidly tiny brand called ALTIMIT, which is mostly used in high-precision uses that can afford no mistakes. This is the brand that's currently being used in Japan's nuclear power plants - and is the sole reason why Japan is not without power country-wide or suffering from a nuclear meltdown.

This is also the same brand that Lils's guardian said she was investing in a couple weeks ago - solely because she liked the idea of having a secure computer brand incompatible with the major three brands ( I bet she reads the EOL. lol ). Their kryffin stock shot up from like $14 a share to $325.

KaibaCorp and the government of Japan have literally ordered every chip factory in Japan to start producing ALTIMIT chips and computers. If this lucky break doesn't push Lils's guardian to billionaire status, I don't know what will.

[sonicasura]

They had been anticipating Soundwave attempting to escape from the moment he came back online. The Omnitrix was running interference on his weapon systems for a reason… What had slipped their mind was his ability to access ground and space bridges. Contrary to popular belief, Soundwave did not possess the ability as a baseline—instead he synced up to nearby bridge stations.

Breakdown had powered down the medical berth in a well meaning yet ultimately poor decision to offer the spymaster some kindness.

Dart barely had a moment to chase after Soundwave when he entered a flickering Ground Bridge—except they knew that he would immediately turn around once realizing what was on the other side. Said somethings made them curse under their breath as they provided very reluctant backup for him.

Really, he should’ve realized his processor was partially synced up to the Shadowzone!

————————

‘Fuck every single zombie movie and universe out there!’

The Omnitrix user swore mentally, aiming the psychic abilities of Skystinger at Soundwave who was panic trying to open another ‘Bridge. Hundreds of Terrorcons were swarming around them and only kept at bay by their electro-magnetic forcefield. Could they have easily ended the threat with Lodestar? Sure! And yet, Soundwave wouldn’t learn why opening portals after you went spent ages in a dangerous dimension was a terrible idea…!

Especially when a certain being was mechanical and thus made for subconsciously collecting data. Like say the coordinates to a dimension chock full of the livid undead.

Things took a slight turn for the worse when a groundbridge did activate because of the beings back at the Inertia base.

An issue being the portal was right behind the wall of Terrorcons forcing Skystinger to manipulate the forcefield to part them.

Soundwave skittered forward as they floated after him—

Only for a surprise Terrorcon to slam one of its Energon funnels through a slight gap painfully pulling Laserbeak out of being docked.

Dart swore once again as they extended their powers to push Soundwave through, then went to go rescue Laserbeak.

The ground bridge predictably closed.

[Preservation protocol initiated.]

—————————

It was a mad scramble among the Vehicons to open the Shadowzone bridge configuration.

Breakdown had been scolded by his conjunx severely even as the medic patched him up.

Starscream stood tensely from the side, rays ready to blast any Terrorcons that came through alongside some very shaky Vehicons.

…The Seeker nearly blasted Soundwave on principle for causing this mess. All neutral Cybertronians grew worried when the Bridge proved too finicky to open again so soon. Their young leader was stranded in the Shadowzone facing off against who knows how many undead. Meanwhile, Soundwave was firmly sputtering static at Laserbeak being stuck.

—ROB’d Anon.

Dart isn’t in any real danger. They just need to keep Laserbeak safe while crushing Terrorcon spines in.

Once again Dart's opinion on Cybertronian incompetence has been proven. Like seriously Soundwave, you really should've double checked the coordinates considering what had happened last time. Thankfully an eldritch scorpion is making sure Laserbeak doesn't perish due to this foolishness.

However I bet this is the last straw for the bird.

[forever-stuck-on-java-8]

Someone from the security team brought down our entire production system for 15 minutes today because they updated (and rebooted) all of our discovery servers at the same time.

for the uninitiated, the TLDR is that a discovery server keeps track of were every other service or server is network-wise so they can all talk to each other. instead of every server keeping is own map of where everything is (that all needs to be update when something changes), the discovery server is a central place where everything is managed.

So basically the main discovery server and all of our backup/fail-over discovery servers went offline at the same time. The result was that every service could no longer talk anyone else in the network.

needless to say, our meticulously configured fail-over failed.

[shakthi-lahiru]

Professional IT Support Services: Troubleshooting, Setup, and Solutions for Your Business

I offer professional IT support services to help solve all your technology problems, whether you're a small business, freelancer, or individual. I specialize in providing fast, efficient, and cost-effective solutions for a wide range of IT issues. With years of experience in the industry, I’m here to make your technology work for you!

🔧 What I can help you with:

Tech troubleshooting for software and hardware issues

Network setup and configuration

Virus/malware removal and protection

Operating system installation and updates (Windows, macOS, Linux)

Remote IT support for quick and easy fixes

Cloud setup and management (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.)

Email and website setup

Data backup and recovery

Wi-Fi setup and optimization

Software installation and updates

Printer and peripheral setup

Link