#disable data export

[sfdcfanboy]

Restrict Exporting Data From Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) is a powerful platform for managing campaigns, and it involves accessing sensitive customer data and a lot of transaction data. Securing this data from unauthorized exports is critical for compliance, privacy, and risk mitigation. Uncontrolled data extraction can lead to data breaches, GDPR/CCPA violations, and insider threats. In this post, we’ll explore…

[talenlee]

The Whole Sort of General Mish Mosh of AI

I’m not typing this.

January this year, I injured myself on a bike and it infringed on a couple of things I needed to do in particular working on my PhD. Because I had effectively one hand, I was temporarily disabled and it finally put it in my head to consider examining accessibility tools.

One of the accessibility tools I started using was Microsoft’s own text to speech that’s built into the operating system I used, which is Windows Not-The-Current-One-That-Everyone-Complains-About. I’m not actually sure which version I have. It wasn’t good but it was usable, and being usable meant spending a week or so thinking out what I was going to write a phrase at a time and then specifying my punctuation marks period.

I’m making this article — or the draft of it to be wholly honest — without touching my computer at all.

What I am doing right now is playing my voice into Audacity. Then I’m going to use Audacity to export what I say as an MP3, which I will then take to any one of a few dozen sites that offer free transcription of voice to text conversion. After that, I take the text output, check it for mistakes, fill in sentences I missed when coming off the top of my head, like this one, and then put it into WordPress.

A number of these sites are old enough that they can boast that they’ve been doing this for 10 years, 15 years, or served millions of customers. The one that transcribed this audio claims to have been founded in 2006, which suggests the technology in question is at least, you know, five. Seems odd then that the site claims its transcription is ‘powered by AI,’ because it certainly wasn’t back then, right? It’s not just the statements on the page, either, there’s a very deliberate aesthetic presentation that wants to look like the slickly boxless ‘website as application’ design many sites for the so-called AI folk favour.

This is one of those things that comes up whenever I want to talk about generative media and generative tools. Because a lot of stuff is right now being lumped together in a Whole Sort of General Mish Mosh of AI (WSOGMMOA). This lump, the WSOGMMOA, means that talking about any of it is used as if it’s talking about all of it in the way that the current speaker wants to be talked about even within a confrontational conversation from two different people.

For people who are advocates of AI, they will talk about how ChatGPT is an everythingamajig. It will summarize your emails and help you write your essays and it will generate you artwork that you want and it will give you the rules for games you can play and it will help you come up with strategies for succeeding at the games you’ve already got all while it generates code for you and diagnoses your medical needs and summarises images and turns photos of pages into transcriptions it will then read aloud to you, and all you have to focus on is having the best ideas. The notion is that all of these things, all of these services, are WSOGMMOA, and therefore, the same thing, and since any of that sounds good, the whole thing has to be good. It’s a conspiracy theory approach, sometimes referred to as the ‘stack of shit’ approach – you can pile up a lot of garbage very high and it can look impressive. Doesn’t stop it being garbage. But mixed in with the garbage, you have things that are useful to people who aren’t just professionally on twitter, and these services are not all the same thing.

They have some common threads amongst them. Many of them are functionally looking at math the same way. Many or even most of them are claiming to use LLMs, or large language models and I couldn’t explain the specifics of what that means, nor should you trust an explainer from me about them. This is the other end of the WSOGMMOA, where people will talk about things like image generation on midjourney and deepseek (pieces of software you can run on your computer) consumes the same power as the people building OpenAI’s data research centres (which is terrible and being done in terrible ways). This lumping can make the complaints about these tools seem unserious to people with more information and even frivolous to people with less.

Back to the transcription services though. Transcription services are an example of a thing that I think represents a good application of this math, the underlying software that these things are all relying on. For a start, transcription software doesn’t have a lot of use cases outside of exactly this kind of experience. Someone who chooses or cannot use a keyboard to write with who wants to use an alternate means, converting speech into written text, which can be for access or archival purposes. You aren’t going to be doing much with that that isn’t exactly just that and we do want this software. We want transcriptions to be really good. We want people who can’t easily write to be able to archive their thoughts as text to play with them. Text is really efficient, and being able to write without your hands makes writing more available to more people. Similarly, there are people who can’t understand spoken speech – for a host of reasons! – and making spoken media more available is also good!

You might want to complain at this point that these services are doing a bad job or aren’t as good as human transcription and that’s probably true, but would you rather decent subtitles that work in most cases vs only the people who can pay transcription a living wage having subtitles? Similarly, these things in a lot of places refuse to use no-no words or transcribe ‘bad’ things like pornography and crimes or maybe even swears, and that’s a sign that the tool is being used badly and disrespects the author, and it’s usually because the people deploying the tool don’t care about the use case, they care about being seen deploying the tool.

This is the salami slicer through which bits of the WSOGMMOA is trying to wiggle. Tools whose application represent things that we want, for good reasons, that were being worked on independently of the WSOGMMOA, and now that the WSOGMMOA is here, being lampreyed onto in the name of pulling in a vast bubble of hypothetical investment money in a desperate time of tech industry centralisation.

As an example, phones have long since been using technology to isolate faces. That technology was used for a while to force the focus on a face. Privacy became more of a concern, then many phones were being made with software that could preemptively blur the faces of non-focal humans in a shot. This has since, with generative media, stepped up a next level, where you now have tools that can remove people from the background of photographs so that you can distribute photographs of things you saw or things you did without necessarily sharing the photos of people who didn’t consent to having their photo taken. That is a really interesting tool!

Ideologically, I’m really in favor of the idea that you should be able to opt out of being included on the internet. It’s illegal in France, for example, to take a photo of someone without their permission, which means any group shot of a crowd, hypothetically, someone in that crowd who was not asked for permission, can approach the photographer and demand recompense. I don’t know how well that works, but it shows up in journalism courses at this point.

That’s probably why that software got made – regulations in governments led to the development of the tool and then it got refined to make it appealing to a consumer at the end point so it could be used as as a selling point. It wouldn’t surprise me if right now, under the hood, the tech works in some similar way to MidJourney or Dall-E or whatever, but it’s not a solution searching for a problem. I find that really interesting. Is this feature that, again, is running on your phone locally, still part of the concerns of the WSOGMMOA? What about the software being used to detect cancer in patients based on sophisticated scans I couldn’t explain and you wouldn’t understand? How about when a glamour model feeds her own images into the corpus of a Midjourney machine to create more pictures of herself to sell?

Because admit it, you kinda know the big reason as a person who dislikes ‘AI’ stuff that you want to oppose WSOGMMOA. It’s because the heart of it, the big loud centerpiece of it, is the worst people in the goddamn world, and they want to use these good uses of this whole landscape of technology as a figleaf to justify why they should be using ChatGPT to read their emails for them when that’s 80% of their job. It’s because it’s the worst people in the world’s whole personality these past two years, when it was NFTs before that, and it’s a term they can apply to everything to get investors to pay for it. Which is a problem because if you cede to the WSOGMMOA model, there are useful things with meaningful value that that guy gets to claim is the same as his desire to raise another couple of billions of dollars so he can promise you that he will make a god in a box that he definitely, definitely cannot fucking do while presenting himself as the hero opposing Harry Potter and the Protocols of Rationality.

The conversation gets flattened around the basically two poles:

All of these tools, everything that labels itself as AI is fundamentally an evil burning polar bears, and

Actually everyone who doesn’t like AI is a butt hurt loser who didn’t invest earlier and buy the dip because, again, these people were NFT dorks only a few years ago.

For all that I like using some of these tools, tools that have helped my students with disability and language barriers, the fact remains that talking about them and advocating for them usefully in public involves being seen as associating with the group of some of the worst fucking dickheads around. The tools drag along with them like a gooey wake bad actors with bad behaviours. Artists don’t want to see their work associated with generative images, and these people gloat about doing it while the artist tells them not to. An artist dies and out of ‘respect’ for the dead they feed his art into a machine to pump out glurgey thoughtless ‘tributes’ out of booru tags meant for collecting porn. Even me, I write nuanced articles about how these tools have some applications and we shouldn’t throw all the bathwater out with the babies, and then I post it on my blog that’s down because some total shitweasel is running a scraper bot that ignores the blog settings telling them to go fucking pound sand.

I should end here, after all, the transcription limit is about eight minutes.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[starry-phoenix-finds]

Sims 3 Mods Masterlist

Lag Reducing/Game Improving Mods

Nraas MasterController- Adds countless options that allow you to easily control and change just about anything about Sims in your town. Featuring a robust filter system to allow you to find the Sims you want to target and execute actions on. Nraas ErrorTrap- This is a core-mod intended to catch and correct data corruption errors that can render a save-game unloadable. Nraas DebugEnabler- This mod exposes EA debug commands so they are usable in game. Nraas Overwatch- The primary purpose of this mod is to act as a periodic clean up system for correcting errors and eliminating junk that accumulates over a regular play-session. Nraas Register- This mod alters the rules governing role assignment in the game, allowing sims to maintain regular careers without losing their roles. Nraas Careers- This mod is used to load custom careers into the game. Nraas Traveler- This mod replaces the travel code. Ability to travel to any world. Nraas Porter- This mod adds a custom version of the import and export system used to create Library families. Nraas GoHere- This mod replaces the "Go Here" interaction, with one that can be stacked in the queue, allowing the user to better direct the route of a sim. Smooth Patch 2.1- Greatly reduces lag in all areas of the game. No Foot Tapping While Waiting For Clear Route!- Greatly improves routing for sims. Catalog Search Mod- Adds a "Search" button to Buy and Build mode. Additional Entry and Exit Routing Slots to Reduce Door Crowding- Greatly reduces sims crowding around rabbithole entries. No Intro- Disables the intro videos. No Route Fail Tantrum Animations!- No tantrum animation when a sim fails to route. No (or fewer) automatic memories- Stops the memory scrapbook from filling up with memories. Faster Elevator Moving- Improves the animations and time it takes for sims to get on and off elevators.

Babies/Toddler Gameplay Mods

More Toddler Interactions- New interactions for toddlers. More Baby Interactions- New interactions for babies. Napping Mat- A napping mat for toddlers. Toddler Food and Snacks- Adds two interactions to the high chair to feed toddlers meals or snacks.Toddlers will love, like or hate certain foods. Just Like My Parents! Costume Face-Paint for Toddlers- Toddlers put on play makeup. More Play! Playmat- More additions to the baby playmat from the store. More Activities Activity Table- More activities for the Activity Table. Mixed Feelings About Pregnancy- Replaces the default pregnancy moodlet with a custom version that has no mood effect, and adds two new moodlets. Sleeper Footies- Sleeper footies for babies. Little Wisps hair- Hair for babies.

Kids/Teen Gameplay Mods

100% Prom Chance + 3 Day Cooldown- This mod makes it so that prom happens every week. After School Activities- After school activities for kids/teens Teen Jobs- Part Time jobs for teens User-Directed Scolding + Other Punishment Tweaks- Tweaks parts of the punishment system from Generations. Tooth Fairy Mod- This mod gives child-aged sims the chance to lose their teeth and get money from the Tooth Fairy. 'No Stretch' Children can Series- Children can do more in game. Children can care for their lil' siblings- Allows children to carry toddlers. Teens Hangout- Teens can hang out with each other and sit on the floor and talk. Faster (and Slower) Homework- Changes the amount of time it takes to get homework done. Coloring Books for Kids- A coloring book for kids. New Scholarships- Adds various scholarships.  Acne Mod- Adds an acne system to the game. Cheerleading Mod- Cheerleading club for teenagers.

General Gameplay Mods

Missy Hissy Custom Careers- Custom Careers. Lot Population Mod- Teleports more sims to community lots, making them more populated.  Nraas StoryProgression- The purpose of the mod is to simulate a life-like balance amongst the inactive members of town, while providing the user the option to disable functionality they do not want. Custom Vehicles- Custom vehicles. Postal Mod- You can send post to any sim in town. Social Clubs Mod- Create custom clubs for your sims to join. Hairdresser Mod- Play as a hairdresser or a client. No Fridge Shopping- Replaces the meal-making interactions on the fridge with custom ones that check whether the Sim has the required ingredients to make the meal or snack. Business As Unusual Bistro- Modifies EA's store content bistro oven splitting the chef and waiter roles in two and allows you to set shifts for them. The Sims 3 Open For Business- Create a store, hire employees, set objects for sale (without rugs!), restock objects, earn XP on sales to increase your rank and more! Flower Arranging- Adds flower arranging skill to the game. Knitting for TS3- Adds knitting skill to the game. Attend University Online- This mod allows sims to work towards completing a university degree on the computer. Yoga Mod- Brings the yoga activity from The Sims 4: Spa Day to The Sims 3. Ice Cream Stand- An ice cream stand to buy ice cream. Exercise Bike- An exercise bike, (better mesh). Pool Jobs for Lifeguards- Makes it possible for sims in the Lifeguard career to be offered and perform jobs on pool lots as well as the usual beach lots. Buyable Beach Towels- Makes the Island Paradise beach towels purchasable in game. Set The Table & Call To Meal- Replaces the "Call To Meal" interaction on group servings with a custom version that has the performing sim set the table with individual portions of food BEFORE summoning sims to eat. Seasons & Barista Bar Beverages on the Coffee Machine- Lets sims make or serve the hot beverages from Seasons and UL on regular coffee machines. Ferris Wheel- A functional Ferris Wheel ride with custom animations for your sims. Buy Takeout And Order Food At Restaurants- Buy prepared food at the diner and bistro or have it delivered. Housecleaning For All Sims- The Clean House interaction will show up when you click on the ground for all sims. All Bars Serve All Drinks- Makes all drinks available at all professional bars on community lots. Fewer (or More) Credit Hours For Degrees- Complete a degree in one trip to University. Add Any Lot Size- Will allow you to add any lot size (from 1x1 to 64x64). Buyable Bunch o' Gifts- Unlocks the Gift Pile in buy mode, so your sims can buy their own Gift Pile for their family without having to throw a party. Book of Talent- Alter both main skills and hidden skills for your sims. No More Zombies Generated At Full Moon- Prevents the game from generating any zombies at the beginning of full moon. Throw Bigger Parties whenever you want!- No party limit on guests invited to parties and throw parties at any time.

[macmanx]

NPR's cybersecurity correspondent Jenna McLaughlin recently broke a story about a whistleblower inside the federal government who says DOGE representatives appear to have taken sensitive data, then covered their tracks. Daniel Berulis works for the National Labor Relations Board and he has shared evidence that DOGE engineers disabled security protocols, exported reams of sensitive data and used a "hacker's toolkit" to hide their activities. And he thinks his agency is not alone. Today on The Sunday Story, what this possible breach could mean for the private data of millions of Americans.

[onemorekayaker]

I've had a few folks ask me about creating a blog series on how I made the Premade Sim and Relationship Overhaul mod, and how they can do similar projects. This is the first of four or so blogs on the subject, starting at the beginning - creating new premade sims, including occults. Please note that these are intermediate level tutorials, and assume you are familiar with the basics of XML modding, Sims 4 Studio, and the Premade Household Tool.

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Creating New Premade Sims

The biggest tool in your arsenal of creating new premades is Denton47's Premade Household Tool, available here: https://modthesims.info/d/669907/ts4-premade-household-tool.html. It is a fantastic and very straightforward tool - you create your new premade sim (or make over an existing sim) in a save file, exit out of the game, and then open the tool and load the save, extracting the household. If this is an override of an existing household, you'd want to check a few boxes, if a new household, you don't need to. There are instructions on the actual mod page that are much more thorough so I'm just glossing over that here for the sake of time.

What you need to know is that, to add new premades, you need to assign them to a specific world either as a townie or as a resident of a specific lot. Assigning townies requires overriding a region description, and these overrides conflict*, so you will need to carefully consider what region you want to use. For example, my Aliens Reloaded mod uses Sixam to add townies in order to avoid conflicts, as Sixam is the aliens world. You can safely add multiple housed sims to the same region even with different mods/files, so long as they're assigned to different lots. If different households are assigned to the same lot, then generally only one will get successfully added. Please communicate to your mod users what region or lot you're using.

[*It may be possible to add townies to the same region via script injection - I am currently investigating this and will update this blog if I find a method.]

To ensure safety if someone does not own a pack, or if they disable a pack, please make sure to edit the group number of the world description and/or world file so it matches the pack the world is from - for example, Get to Work, or EP01, has a group number that ends in "03". The latest version of Sims4Studio will allow you to select the DLC in a dropdown and will automatically set the group number for you.

If you are making a special NPC or special NPCs, then to protect them from Neighborhood Stories and MCCC make sure to also set their household status to "Hidden" in the Premade Household Tool. You can edit this in the edit tab.

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Creating Two-Form Occult Premade Sims

Occult sims are a bit more complicated to create than regular premades - especially if they have two forms, like aliens, vampires, mermaids, and werewolves. First, make sure when you save your save file they are in their human form. It is important to extract their household data using the Premade Household Tool when they are in their human form or else the extraction will grab the wrong information and they will spawn incorrectly with missing data.

Second, these sims need a few additional steps. They need premade household templates and premade sim templates to be added to them, and you also need to separately extract their human and occult form SimInfo data from your tray files using Sims4Studio or another program (just make sure to save them to your library first).

To extract using Sims4Studio, go to "Content Management" -> "My Library", right click on the household you want and export to whatever folder you're using. You will see three files exported. Human, Occult, and Sim. You only need the Human and Occult files. You can safely delete the Sim file.

These two files (Human and Occult) must be imported into a package file, preferably with your premade household and premade sim templates. Since the instance numbers of these two files are the same, please change them before importing, as importing these files without changing the instances will result in only one file actually making it into S4S.

Here is an example of the editing you should do - paste the new unique instance between the exclamation points as shown. This should be a unique hash of some kind to prevent potential clashes:

The new SimData must be referenced in their premade sim templates like so:

Once that is done, you'll need to open the household data in the Premade Household Tool, navigate to the Edit Household section, and paste in the instance number for your sim's premade household template into the household section, then go to Sim -> Gameplay Data -> Premade Sim Template to add in the instance for their premade sim template.

Please note that this process only works for creating a premade occult sim. There is, as of the moment I'm writing this blog, no way to create an occult sim with a specific look from a tunable sim template. So if you want to make a special two-form occult NPC that has a specific in-game purpose, you will need three templates - the premade household and sim templates to add your sim of choice to a new save, and a tunable template that will create a randomly generated sim with the proper traits and skills in users' existing saves (or if your premade dies or is otherwise unavailable/invalid).

Spellcasters are not two-form occults and, if you are creating a premade spellcaster, then you do not need to do the extra step with the SimData. If you are creating one from a tunable template, just make sure to add their spellcaster trait so they are recognized as a spellcaster as it isn't possible to add occult simdata to a tunable sim template.

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Occult Sim Fixups

Keeping on the subject of occults, you will likely notice that some data does not survive the process of the sim getting turned into a premade. Things like occult rank, perks, and unlocks will need to be manually set through different types of fixups. Spellcasters specifically are a bit of a pain and require a special process, as NPC spellcasters are not coded in such a way that they can actually learn spells and fixups (adding in additional data to "fix up" a sim) can only happen when they are actually added to an active household.

For Vampires/Werewolves: these fixups are best done via loots. If you are using a script file to deliver relationship loots on new save start (like my Premade Sim and Relationship Overhaul mod does), then you can have your vampires or werewolves deliver these loot from themselves to themselves and set their appropriate rank and unlocks that way (I will share more on this process later). Alternatively, you can assign them a self-deleting trait. Trait -> loot on instance -> have the loot set rank, etc -> have the loot delete the trait so it won't fire the next time the sim instances in.

For Spellcasters: spellcasters are coded differently than other occults. The most important thing to know is that only spellcasters in households that have been played at least once can do magic and everyone else is just faking it. "But why do spellcaster premades, townies, and the sages have spells when I add them to my household?" you might ask. That's because the devs gave them hidden fixup traits. You will need to do the same with your premade spellcasters. This fixup trait should have your spellcaster's rank, unlocks, and spells specified on it, and will take effect when the sim is added to an active household and is no longer considered a NPC.

For examples of how these fixup traits are supposed to look/work, please see any of the simInfoFixup_Magic_Spells traits. You can check them through tools like the XML Extractor, the TDESC Browser, or directly in Sims4Studio.

You can add extra loot to make these self-deleting, but I have not bothered as users won't generally see these traits unless they're messing around with MCCC.

Mermaids and Aliens do not require fixups, as they do not have skill trees unless you are playing with mods. If you are playing modded, generally the abilities are added through hidden traits, and you should assign these through the standard Premade Household Tool process to avoid potential errors on new save start if someone disables a pack (I will expand more on this in a later blog). The premade Aliens Reloaded aliens generally use this method.

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Milestones Fixups

Milestones fixups follow a similar logic to spellcaster fixups. Without mods, premades, townies, and NPC sims that have never been played do not have any milestones. Existing Maxis premades have fixups on their premade sim templates that add these milestones when the sim becomes played. However, this does not work quite so well for our purposes, as users without Growing Together get errors on new save start if you try to add milestone fixups via a premade sim template - even using the group ID trick. At present, only Maxis/EA premades can use this method safely.

I'd recommend instead using a self-deleting trait to assign the milestones via a loot. The procedure is trait -> loot on instance -> milestones loot -> delete trait. You can add a test to the loot on instance to make sure it only runs if the sim is in a played household.

Make sure the trait and your initial loot have the group number for Growing Together (EP13 = 00000036). If you have a milestone that belongs to another DLC (not Growing Together) it should be chained inside of the Growing Together loot, using an action to deliver a second loot with your DLC-specific milestone. The second loot should have the group number specific to that pack. Please be very careful when assigning milestones, as they are very unsafe and may cause save issues for users. Test thoroughly!

The next blog in the series, "Setting Premade Sim Relationships" tackles the topic on setting relationships between different premade sims on new save start and have more on pack safety and chaining loots. Available here.

[shutdown-like-a-boss]

Pocket is Saying Goodbye: What You Need to Know

We’ve made the difficult decision to shut down Pocket on July 8, 2025. Thank you for being part of our journey over the years—we're proud of the impact Pocket has had for our users and communities.

This article explains everything you need to know, including how to save your content, get a refund (if you're a Premium user), and what to expect next.

When is Pocket shutting down?

Pocket will no longer be available after July 8, 2025.

You can continue using the app and browser extensions until this date. After July 8, Pocket will move into export-only mode. Users can export saves anytime until October 8, 2025, after which user data will be permanently deleted.

Why is Pocket shutting down?

Pocket has helped millions save articles and discover stories worth reading. But the way people use the web has evolved, so we’re channeling our resources into projects that better match their browsing habits and online needs.

Read more about the decision here.

A Look Back: The Legacy of Pocket

What began as a read-it-later app evolved into something much bigger. After Mozilla acquired Pocket in 2017, we invested in building our content curation and recommendation capabilities so people everywhere can discover and access high quality web content. While Pocket is shutting down, we will continue to invest in this promise—through the New Tab experience, our email newsletter, and more.

Over the past eight years, we’ve:

Expanded high-quality content recommendations to more than a dozen countries and five languages.

Connected tens of millions of people across the world with stories worth their time and attention.

Earned recognition including a Webby Award for “Best of Pocket: 2020” and an Anthem Award in 2023 for supporting local journalism.

Published hundreds of curated collections on topics from fighting algorithmic bias to rethinking happiness.

While this chapter is ending, we're deeply proud of Pocket’s impact and grateful to every reader, saver, and explorer who made it special.

Account & Saves

How to export your saved articles

You will be able to export your saved articles, including items in your list, archive, favorites, notes, and highlights, until October 8, 2025. After this date, all user accounts and data will be permanently deleted.

You can learn more about exporting your saved content here.

Do I need to delete my account to protect my data? What happens if I don’t delete it?

You don’t need to delete your account. All Pocket user data will automatically be deleted on October 8, 2025. You can export your saves anytime before then from the Pocket export page.

Refunds for Pocket Premium Subscribers

How will refunds to Premium annual subscribers be calculated?

Pocket Premium refunds will be made on a prorated basis. This means the refund will be based on how much time was left in a subscription after July 8, 2025. We’ve arranged refunds to your original payment method based on your subscription type:

Monthly subscribers

We will begin disabling automatic renewal of monthly subscriptions immediately.

You can continue to enjoy the benefits of Pocket Premium until the end of the monthly subscription period.

You will not be charged again, so no refund will be necessary.

No action is required from you.

Annual subscribers

On July 8, 2025, Annual subscriptions will be cancelled and Annual users will receive a prorated refund automatically to the original payment method.

No action is needed from you.

Pocket Apps & Extensions

What will happen to the Pocket browser extensions?

The Pocket web extensions will no longer be available to install from May 22, 2025. Anyone attempting to use the Pocket extensions from this date will be taken to the Pocket export page.

Pocket browser add ons will remain on users' browsers after Pocket shuts down on July 8, 2025. Users have to manually remove the Pocket add on from their browsers.

For more information on how to remove an add on from their browser, users should visit their browser’s support pages.

More information for Firefox users on how to remove the Pocket add on is available here.

When will the app no longer be available on app stores?

Users who have never installed the Pocket app will not be able to install it after May 22, 2025.

Users who already have the app installed will be able to re-install it up to October 8, 2025.

Users who still have the app installed on their device will need to manually delete it.

Pocket API Use

How are API users going to be impacted?

Any product that leverages Pocket’s API will no longer be able to load users’ lists, or save, tag, or delete articles.

Will API users be able to continue using Pocket after it shuts down?

API users will no longer be able to transact data (read or write) over Pocket’s API from October 8, 2025 and will need to export their data before this date.

Pocket Hits

What’s happening to Pocket Hits?

Our email newsletter, currently known as Pocket Hits, will soon be renamed “Ten Tabs”. While the name is changing, the heart of the newsletter remains the same—expertly curated, trustworthy content delivered by the same editorial team you know and enjoy, now powered by Firefox.

All readers will be notified about the update through the newsletter itself, and no action is needed to continue receiving it.

Once the transition is complete, Ten Tabs will be sent Monday through Friday. The weekend editions will be discontinued, and the once-a-week delivery option will no longer be offered. Readers on the weekly schedule will only be moved to daily (weekday) delivery if they opt in. As always, you can unsubscribe anytime using the link at the bottom of each email.

Key dates

Thank you for your support, feedback, and enthusiasm over the years. We’re grateful to have been part of your reading and discovery experience online.

| Date | What happens: | | --- | --- | | May 22, 2025 | Pocket removed from app stores Monthly subscription renewals disabled New Pocket account sign-ups disabled | | July 8, 2025 | Pocket shuts down Annual subscriber refunds occur – prorated and automatic Export-only mode on Pocket Web begins | | October 8, 2025 | Final date to export data All accounts and data deleted |

Need help?

Need help or have questions? Our support team is here for you. Ask a question for help with exporting data, account info, or anything else.

[the-silentium]

What if - Alternate Ending

Masterlist

Pairing: Wrecker x OC.

Words: 12.5k words

Warnings: Angst, fluff, Gore, swearing, halo canon violence, RvB characters, major character death.

A/N: And I am finally back with the promised alternate ending. I've been gone a while, a lot happened since I last posted a chapter here. Mainly, I got a spine surgery and struggled with writer block. Fortunately, I had this chapter 90% done already so I forced myself to finish it, so at least I could share what would have happened if Layla went back to the Halo universe. Please enjoy ~

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Echo had seen some bad missions in his time under General Skywalker's command. A couple of times, the thought that he wouldn't make it out had crossed his mind and urged him to do more; run faster, shoot more droids, watch more closely his and Fives' backs. It had worked fine until the Citadel where he lost everything. Then he was found again and the Batch showed him that there were crazier plans out there that he had yet to experience. He was certain he had felt the caress of death twice as often as he did in his first battalion. Surviving this many times had been a feat he dared not dwell on too much. 

He didn't want to dare the odds to get back at them for winning so often. All the time, even. Then again, faith always had a cheap trick up its sleeve. Be it a surprise battalion of droids blocking their escape route or a particularly complex encryption, the Batch was no stranger to those last-second complications. 

They pulled through no matter what. 

They had to.

Sweat ran down Echo's spine when he hit an unbreakable firewall. He had taken way too long to get to this point and he wasn't even close to accessing the files needed. Who knew hacking into old Republic databases would be so hard for him, a former soldier who dedicated his life to the Jedis and their war. It shouldn't have taken this much time. Every other Republican file he had previously hacked had been rather easy since he knew the configurations and standard structure of the files and encryption. 

This one was particularly hard to crack. Impossible even. His concentration wasn't optimal with his brothers fighting the enemy a few feet away, but it wasn't anything he wasn't used to. Cid had been quite vague about the information she was after, she only told them where to hack and requested a whole unencrypted file. 

Sure, he had tried to export the data onto an external drive to work on the encryption later, however, the security system interlaced with the requested code made sure that everything would be deleted as soon as he moved, copied, or even open a single file. 

"Better be worth the credits." He mumbled under his breath. Infiltrating a top-secret Republic base that was coincidentally deep within Empire control was nothing to take lightly. She better pay them well on this one. 

He forced his way through another trail in hope of finding something that would satisfy their employer. Bits and pieces of research passed through his fingers like sand. He saw the information passing through his mind but could never get a hold of it. That device had been an extremely important asset for the Jedis to put so much effort into hiding every drop of information about it. 

Spatial manipulation. The words disappeared out of his reach before he could focus on them. Frustrated, he pushed again, opened doors, and forced his way in by destroying firewall after firewall. 

Teleportation. He nearly got a grasp of this one, but the file erased itself before he could disable the security protecting the data. 

Echo groaned. He felt like a pawn being pushed around. Played and mocked. That is until he found a back door. A breach in the security system. He smirked. Finally, he had found it. 

//Activation? 

The question floated through his brain and the clone felt a new wave of adrenaline rush through his veins. 

//No. 

He couldn't know for sure what he would be activating.

His curiosity on the matter was crushed when a door behind him closed abruptly and all members of the Bad Batch formed a barrier between him and the sealed-off door. 

"Disconnect yourself." Hunter turned to face him momentarily. Echo could hear the strain in his voice. He had taken too long to fulfill his goal. "We're leaving." 

Echo hesitated. He was torn between obeying orders and letting go of the only progress he had made. It wasn't only their bounty that they were abandoning, but important Jedi research. Those findings could perhaps help the fighters who dared face the Empire. The soldier deep within his genes wanted to fight that oppressing enemy, even when they clearly couldn't in their actual situation, not with Omega amongst them who could get hurt at every corner. 

With a heavy sigh, Echo disconnected from the system and joined his brothers. 

"We have to shoot our way out." 

He could hear Hunter's inner conflict. They had all agreed that Omega should remain with Cid, but she had another idea in mind. How the kid avoided Hunter's detection was still a mystery. One thing was certain, the sergeant was beating himself over it and they were all worrying for their younger sibling's wellbeing. 

Echo moved behind Omega whose sheepish expression had long ago morphed into a focused one. She was ready to follow orders. If only she had done the same hours ago. 

"Perhaps we won't have to." Tech frowned when he analyzed the security feed displayed on his datapad. "They are retreating." 

"They are?" 

Dread filled Echo at the possibilities a strategic retreat could mean. None of them were good. 

"It would seem that they used our defensive position to their advantage. While we were here, another squad trapped the power supply room with explosives." 

"We have to lea-"

"I'm afraid we don't have time." He showed them the live feed of the generator room, the detonator showing a meager six seconds. 

Frenetically, Echo jumped and connected himself back to the systems to force his way back to the only thing that his mind could think of. 

//Activation? 

Spatial manipulation. The typed words flashed behind his eyelids. Teleportation. 

Echo swallowed the lump blocking his throat. Please take us back to the ship.

//Activation?

//Yes. 

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Echo groaned when fingers poked him in the face. He felt sick. Not that sickness he got when he ate something bad, but the kind when Tech was piloting like a madman on spice. Motion sickness.

His ears were slightly ringing. He could hear Omega's voice over the noise. She called out to him in such worry that his eyes shot open in alarm. He looked at her upside-down figure, noted the tears gathering in her eyes, and immediately forgot the stiffness in his muscles to pull her into a reassuring hug.

"What did you do?" Crosshair walked up to them. He nearly sounded accusing, which didn't sit well with Echo. 

“I activated the program.” He explained with his eyes still closed in the hope to chase away the ache growing in his skull. “I don't know what it was, but the files mentioned a teleportation device. I thought it could get us out of there.” And if Crosshair was still there to jab at him, then it must have worked, right?

A short sense of relief washed over him at the thought that he managed to save his siblings from their imminent death. Slowly, the clone opened his eyes and took in Omega’s state. She still clung to him, her own eyes shut tightly and a hand pinching her nose. He thought he felt her shake, but that could also have been Crosshair nudging him. 

"So you activate anything you can touch? Guess we're stuck in the middle of nowhere because of your amazing plan, Echo." The sniper remarked with a sneer. 

"Better that than being dead." He shot back, annoyed. This was another obstacle, nothing they didn't usually deal with. Sure, with the Empire lurking around everything was one thousand times more difficult, but not impossible. 

“Cut it off.” Hunter’s voice lacked any real command. It sounded like he was entranced, focussing on something else. Curious, Echo looked over Omega’s head. 

His stomach fell. 

Skeletons lingered on the ground in sickening puddles of what Echo assumed once was their flesh and organs. It soaked up the fabric of torned clothes and broken armor. The armor was a simplistic design and offered way less cover than the clone's armor. It reminded him of the armor worn by the Kota's militia. He also could recognize a human skull under the sideways helmet. His heart jumped in his chest at the thought that a Jedi General could have been here, or could still be around. 

The overall atmosphere was heavy. Heavier than what they were used to on the battlefield or on Kamino. Whatever device the Jedis were working on was either dysfunctional or came into use too late. Surely, they had entered specific coordinates into their programming with a purpose, one that the clone was certain was good. 

"I would say that the battle occurred years ago," Tech informed them, still leaning over the closest dead body. He tapped away at his vambrace, analyzing the data he recorded. "The threat is long gone." 

"What's that?" Omega whispered under her breath, catching everyone’s attention. 

Echo’s stomach rose to his throat. 

Unknown aliens lay on the floor in dry, blue puddles, their mummified bodies surrounded by small cylindrical objects and what looked to be an unknown type of blaster. Never before had he seen species looking like those. 

One of them was tall, bipedal, and had blueish armor covering its lizard-like body. Four mandibles formed its mouth, their sharp teeth in full display. Four digits were closed around a purple item that looked very much like a weapon of some sort.

Others were smaller, more or less reptilian-like. One of the species had a thicker build, its skin a dark purple shade. Some of them had masks over the bottom half of their faces while others didn’t, showing a series of sharp, pointed teeth. Their arms seemed oversized compared to the rest of their bodies, and full of small barbs that Echo was certain were sharp enough to cut flesh. 

The last specie he noticed was lean and muscular, their bodies covered by scales and feathers. Their avian-looking mouth was full of sharp teeth and ended on a hooked beak. 

Tech approached the tallest alien, scanning it over. Instinctively, Echo waited for Tech’s imminent info dump of the unknown species. He remained silent.

Echo frowned. It was unusual for his brother to keep quiet on unfamiliar knowledge. He was always keeping them as informed of their enemies or environment as possible to keep the drawbacks as low as possible. This was a first. Was it possible that his know-it-all brother was at a loss?

With a quick look around, Echo noticed that the room was filled with bodies. Way above a hundred of them, humans and aliens alike. What looked like ships were stationed not too far from them, their class foreign to him. 

"Karking hell…" Crosshair's whisper gave him goosebumps. Something was seriously wrong if Crosshair of all people was taken aback. 

Added to Tech’s unusual behavior…

"I…” Echo’s head snapped in Tech’s direction as soon as he heard the hesitation in his voice. A cold sweat ran down his spine. “Don’t think we are in the right universe anymore." 

His heart skipped a beat. What could Tech even mean? Did he mean systems? The silence following the statement was deafening. Echo didn't understand why no one was correcting Tech or even asking for clarifications. What he said literally made no sense.

"Those are Covenants." Echo frowned at Tech’s words. He couldn't recall ever hearing this term before. 

"Covenants?" He asked, at a total loss.

Tech hesitated and looked at Hunter. Echo didn’t know if it was for guidance or confirmation, but he received none from the sergeant who remained fixed on the alien laying at his feet.

"Aliens from another dimension. Layla's dimension." Tech briefly looked at him before returning to look over the body of the imposing alien. 

Even though his brother had said it like it was the most logical thing in the universe, Echo knew that Tech often overlooked that not everyone was well-versed in random details and specifics. This fact was accurate the majority of the time. This time around though, Echo couldn't stop but notice that only he and Omega were confused about the whole another dimension thing. 

Also, the name was familiar. He knew he had heard it before. Was it during one of their many nights at 79s? Or from the GAR? Deep within himself, he knew the name belonged to someone powerful. The word impressive also came to mind. He heard Fives calling that name in his head, his voice full of amusement. I've never seen the General as close to a heart attack as when you've slashed that spider droid down, Layla! 

"Wait. Layla, the freelancer with a light sword?" He hadn't thought of her in forever. She had left their battalion and soon after he got caught at the Citadel. 

"Yes." Hunter snapped out of it and scratched the back of his neck. "A space-traveling device sent her to our universe and the Jedi repaired it to send her back. Must have been the same program that you activated." To Echo's relief, there was no anger in his voice, only worry which was not much better. 

He would have believed that his brothers were playing an elaborate plan on him if only there weren't litteral bodies and unknown aliens scattered around him at this very moment. Space-travel was a crazy concept, but he also couldn't explain how the Force worked. 

"So, those Covenants, what are they?" 

"Aggressive species that are at war with mankind,” Tech explained. “I, unfortunately, don't have much information on them other than the very basics." He grabbed a device from a nearby alien body and stood up. It looked awfully like a droid-popper. 

"The basics?" 

Tech glanced momentarily at Omega. A flash of worry quickly disappeared behind the glare of his glasses and he moved his attention back to the purple sphere in his possession. 

"We should avoid them as much as possible in order to remain… whole. And alive." That he had figured out by himself. "Our best chances of survival would involve finding Layla." 

Hunter hummed. "I agree, but eh last I heard, her coming back here meant a near-death sentence." His sergeant approached Tech and reached out to the round device. Right before he managed to take the item from Tech's hands, the engineer pushed a button on the side of it. The device was instantly engulfed in blue fumes and a high-pitched noise filled the room.

“Tech!” Hunter’s yell covered Echo’s sharp breath intake. He might not know what this device was but a word rang in his head. Explosive.

In a heartbeat, Tech threw the device as far as he could while Wrecker grabbed Omega to hide her behind his body. In a crouch, Echo looked as the device bounced on top of a crate, stuck to the side of a ship, and exploded in a flash of blue-white light, charring the metal and the bodies within its detonation zone.

“This was unexpected.” Tech matter-of-factly broke the stunned silence that fell onto their squad. 

“Was it? This is a battlefield!” Hunter yelled, his arms open to his sides to show his surroundings. 

“I meant that the grenade stuck to the ship, but not to the crate. Or even to my hand.” He further explained after sparing a quick glance at his hand. “But back to Layla. Your assumption is accurate, although she did mention that this universe was desperate to win after more than two decades of war. I am almost positive they would not dispose of a capable soldier like her. She might have been reconditioned– in the literal sense of the word, not the Kaminoan way. Or even sent to another hopeless mission." 

With a groan, Hunter dropped it. 

"Let's assume that she theoretically is still alive, how do you plan on contacting her?" Crosshair asked from his spot at the back of the group, his eyes trained on the upper levels of the hangar.

"Our comms are void of any outside signals, so we cannot reach her through her GAR-issued channel." While using his scanner, Tech ventured farther away from them and away from the ships. 

“Could we try to reach her through their comms?" Wrecker wondered.

With a move of his head, Hunter ordered them to follow Tech’s lead. Wrecker moved Omega into the crook of his elbow to keep her as free of the gore as possible. There was no way she could escape the smell even if she had closed her eyes to keep from seeing more remains and pressed her face to Wrecker's neck. The least they could do was to make sure she wouldn't come in contact with any of it. 

Echo walked behind the two of them, his blaster at the ready. He managed to calm down his mind when he noticed that their feet were the only marks left on the sticky, gory crust caked on the floor. It reassured him to think that the enemy was long gone. 

“It wouldn’t be a good idea to send a comm-wide message in the hope to get to her. Many things could go wrong. She mentioned that she had to learn Basic, which means that the only thing others would understand would be her name, drawing attention to her. Additionally, we could be perceived as a threat for having infiltrated their comms or even-” 

“We got it Tech.” Hunter cut him off. “You sound like you have a plan.”

With a nod, Tech stepped over a skeleton. “This is because I do have one.” 

“What is it?” Crosshair pushed.

“I might be mistaken, but if my theory is correct, we should find the remains of Layla’s squad in this complex. Squads share a closed line, which would be a safer way to attempt communicating with her.” 

“Oh.” Wrecker’s step faltered. Echo frowned in worry. 

“And if your theory is wrong?” Crosshair asked. 

“Then we’ll have to go comm-wide and hope for the best. But do not worry, I am fairly certain that this battlefield is the result of Operation: LEVIATHAN.”

“How do you know?” 

“Kai told me more about it.” 

Tech took them into a hallway, his steps careful, but definite. How he managed to look over the scene without faltering made Echo wonder if he had not already seen this very place.

"Alright. I don't sense anyone around here but let's stay alert, boys." Hunter cut to the front line and with a shake of his head to clear his mind of all this carnage, he walked deeper into the compound. 

They soon reached a junction and followed Tech's directions through the left corridor, toward the nearest power source he could detect. The battle must have been heavier here. Sections of the walls were missing, pink shards covered the floor and creaked under their boots, dark stains covered the standing walls and they had to step over an alarming quantity of bodies. The more they progressed, the more Omega had to press her hand to her mouth and nose to keep the smell away. 

Echo looked into the nearest hole in the white wall. His eyes recognized more human remains and transparisteel covering the floor. Some skeletons, Echo noticed, didn’t have any armor or blaster, leading him to the conclusion that those victims were civilians. The clone could count at least a dozen in the hallway. 

They looked for what felt like hours, up a few floors then down again, until Hunter brought them outside through a hole in a wall. Green grass greeted them. The field wasn't level, a clear clue that a battle once raged. The multiple craters in the dirt were akin to heavy artillery damage, the buildings they just exited seemed like they had subsided some damage with their burned spots marked into their cream-colored exteriors. A majority of the broken windows and vehicle wrecks were beginning to be claimed by the environment. 

Echo heard wiggling before he saw Omega jump off Wrecker’s arms. 

"Stay close." He warned, still unable to trust this place even though Hunter didn't detect anyone around. 

She nodded and latched onto Wrecker's hand who was busy looking at the scenery around him. The sun was shining high in a clear blue sky. The soft waves of the nearby ocean lapped at the beach, offering some calm to the carnage site. Omega grabbed a handful of golden sand before letting the grains fall between her fingers with wide, amazed eyes. 

A sudden sound drew the clones' immediate attention. Every blaster turned to the source, a column of water that leaped from the ocean fell back into it. Following the water jet, a set of gray-blue tails breached the water, sweeped into the air and returned to the depths. 

"What was that?" Omega asked, her eyes even bigger than before.

"An aquatic creature of some sort." He answered as best he could. Judging by the size of the tails, the beast must be humongous. 

"Wrecker, Echo!" Hunter's voice sliced through the comms. "Stay closer." 

Sure enough, the other half of their group had ventured farther ahead and were now standing before four floating objects. In a jog, Echo joined his brothers with Wrecker and Omega in tow. Now closer, he noticed that the objects were in fact helmets held on top of weapons shoved into the ground. Graves.

Tech already had one helmet in hands and plugged into his datapad. The engineer typed away in concentration while Echo analyzed the rest of the scene. He didn't want to touch any of the helmets, feeling like this would be disrespectful to the fallen. The grass had already grown back over the graves, however the length did not match his surroundings, letting him know that bodies were now resting beneath their feet. 

In the corner of his eyes, he noticed Omega holding one of the helmets. He was tempted to ask her to put it back, but the softness of her fingers as she lightly traced the heavy damage fracturing the visor and metal as well as the deep sadness in her eyes pulled him to a stop. She knew what she was doing and did not take any of it lightly. He then remembered that despite being stuck in a lab on Kamino, she knew war too. Only, her angle was different than theirs. 

Omega turned the bucket and grabbed a colorful flimsi from within. She wowed and showed them a picture of five humans in weird blacks. A black-haired woman stood behind three men and a woman. She had them all in a hug from behind while they all smiled. The red-headed woman showed her fingers in a V motion, a blond man hit his fist to the palm of his other hand while the two remaining men sat relaxed, one holding a knife while the other held a box with a big, red cross on it. 

"It's not holographic." Omega pointed out while rotating the picture in all angles. "The colors are nice." 

Without a word, Wrecker slowly took the item from her hands and turned it over to analyze it further. 

How his brother handled the picture caught Echo’s attention. There has been only a handful of times when his brother has been that cautious about anything. Even more curious, he was not looking the whole picture over, he was focussed on a single spot. 

"Wrecker? Are you okay?"

His brother blinked like he just woke up from a dream and looked at him. "Eh.. yeah. I mean… not really. But I'll be fine." 

"Are you sure, big guy?"

"Yeah…" The way he trailed off was so uncharacteristic of his usual cheery attitude that Echo had a sudden urge to touch him in hope to convey his support. He was still pondering about the significance of the picture for his brother when Wrecker carefully folded the flimsi on the existent fold line and safely tucked it in his own helmet, leaving Echo dumbfounded.

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Tech examined the side of the helmet and sure enough, the cards with the triangle in the middle were painted in white over the deep blue shade of the armor. 

They were Layla's teammates. She had been here and had buried them herself. A quick look around confirmed that no other graves were dug and it couldn't be a coincidence that these were all members of the same team. Her team. He remembered her breakdown and wondered if being thrown back where it all happened, seeing their bodies and burying them had broken her all over again. 

Tech remembered the carnage they saw earlier and wondered if that was why she had kept them at bay so long. He had noticed her effort into keeping walls around herself, walls that they ultimately tore down because solving impossible tasks was what they did best. They were witnessing the outcome of the worst day of her life and some small part of him understood where she came from. 

He got to work on the electronic panels of the helmet, connecting it to his vambrace to access the comms system. It was harder than he remembered without Kai translating the unknown language for him. He hoped that the communication channels were coded the same as back then, he remembered the way to gain access to the correct network and which channel he had to connect their own to in order for Layla to hear and talk with them.  

"I'm in," Tech informed the team. He couldn't help but glance at Wrecker in wonder at what would happen next. 

________________

It had been a while since she last saw this planet. Last time was when she had used the cube to flee the despair ever growing in her chest. She couldn't say that she missed it one bit. Not after everything that happened there and everything that followed. 

That planet was tainted with blood and haunted by painful memories. 

"Did you fucking hear what I said?" The accusatory voice next to her was way too loud for her to possibly ignore. 

She looked at Gates without a word. 

"Of course not, since when do you listen to me?" Gates scoffed in offense. "Do you fucking know how often the spaghetti meatballs is on the menu in that damn army? Once in a blue moon, that's how often! I'd almost forgotten how that damn sauce tasted like and lemme tell you, it wasn't as good as my mom's cooking but compared to the other shits they give us to eat, it was like a fucking filet mignon." His finger pointed at her accusingly and Layla briefly wondered if he was able to shoot with his left hand. "Only had one bite when you fucking showed up and ordered us after you. Whatever we're doing here Regan, it better be good. Like killing-those-Covenant-fucks-for-good good."

At this point Layla couldn't tell if the fire in her blood was originating from Gates' tirade, her first trip back to Bounty after her cowardly escape from her heartbreak or the fact that Kai intercepted a weak incoming signal from the Deltas channel. 

She couldn't even believe she had once appreciated that soldier. Now, all she could think about was different ways to shut him up. 

War changes everyone, she soberly thought. 

It has never been said explicitly, but Layla knew he was part of ONI's plan to keep a close eye on her. He wasn't the one reporting abnormal behaviors to the higher ups, Ortez was, being the silent observant and extremely by-the-book soldier that he was. It only turned out that those two survived a crazy amount of crazy missions together and for this reason were never separated. She had tried to have them transferred to another squad, but they were now a trio until death did them apart. 

So far Ortez had had an easy job. She never did anything out of UNSC's standards. She killed Covenants, ate and slept when needed and attended briefings. She had destroyed the cube as soon as she had regained consciousness on Bounty and became aware of her surroundings, and never talked about it again. In order to protect the Galaxy that offered them shelter, Kai had gone ahead and wiped every bit of information about the last two years. The knowledge of another conquerable universe was safely hidden within Layla's mind, where ONI could never access it. As far as ONI knew, she had survived two desolate years on Bounty, living off the meager rations of the compound until her AI managed to fix a comm channel strong enough to reach Command and request an evac. 

The pelican wasn't fully grounded, yet Layla pushed the button to lower the ramp. Her body stiffened in anticipation of a worrying hand that would reach out and stop her from jumping the last meters separating her from the surface, but it never came. She ignored the pain pinching her heart and jumped. 

She forced her body into a false sense of clear determination and made her way through the street separating her from the complex. Memories tried to destabilize her with their vivid screams and scarlet tints. She could faintly hear the Marines following her steps, plasma bolts raining all around them. She reached the back corner of the building and stopped. 

Red. So much red. 

"Take your time." Layla's breath deepened as she acknowledged Kai's words. The Spartans weren't with her yet, she had time to settle. The DMR in her hands stopped shaking, her jaw ached when she released the tension, the tingles in her feet faded away and her mind cleared of all the fog keeping it hostage. There was nothing she could do now to change the scenery on the beach.

With a final grounding breath, she turned the corner. Four graves stood out from the peaceful nature, every helmet in place like the day she left them. Cautiously, Layla made her way to them, fully expecting to find an elaborate trap set up by a Zealot with the help of a Huragok, their favorite engineers. There was nothing but untouched helmets and guns. 

She kneeled before them while keeping an eye out for signs of trouble. The grass around the graves had been crushed recently. Someone had been here and sent out a signal using one of the helmets. Why, she had no idea. The only thing she knew for sure was that it involved her personally, the comm line that was used was closed to anyone that was not a Delta. 

Her finger tensed on the trigger. Three yellow spots entered the radar's field, followed by two red signatures. Allies with enemies. 

Yellow spots didn't make any sense with Gates and Ortez still behind, but she did expect enemies. 

"Could those three use the Delta's signature to alter their own?" She wondered under her breath. 

"Negative. I looked deeper into their signatures and the allies are identified as 99-1, 99-2 and 99-4, not Deltas." Kai informed her. 

Layla's heart stopped. Was she dreaming?

She glanced up and ghosts looked right back at her. She didn't dare blink, in fear that they would fade or not, she was not sure which. 

Multiple things happened when the Bad Batch came into view. Layla's eyes widened in surprise, a weak, fluttery feeling bubbling in her chest. Her joy was quickly crushed by a more gripping feeling that left her nauseous. Guilt gripped at her stomach and threatened to topple her over at the sheer intensity of it. 

That was, until Gates and Ortez who had jogged after her the whole way lifted their weapons towards the clones. 

Out of pure reflex, Layla's arms shot up to lift both guns towards the sky, her own clattering to the earth. Gunshots exploded into her ears, along with the soldiers' surprised gasps, a high-pitched yelp and Gates' colorful language when both guns slipped from their grasp due to the speed of her intervention. Out of fear she did put more strength into her move than necessary, she had to give them that. 

"What the hell are you doing Regan? That's fucking Insurrectionists!" Gates hissed.

She grabbed his wrist when he reached for his pistol. This time she put some effort into controlling her strength. 

"Lower your weapons." Her snarl surprised even herself. "They're not Insurrectionists." 

"And how would you know that? Civillians don't walk around in fucking armor." He fought to pull his arm out of her grip. She momentarily tightened her grip in warning before releasing him. 

"I fought with them before. They're on our side." 

She looked back at the clones, took in their defensive stances, their weapons pointing at the ground but ready to aim at them at any moment and sighed. She could already feel the heartache creeping in, burning her as fiercely as the tears streaming down her cheeks.  

The urge to turn on her heels and walk away was also becoming more prominent with every passing second. Like the coward that you are. Her teeth sank through the tender flesh of her lip and drew blood. Man up and face the consequences of your actions.

"Stay here." She ordered her men before crossing the space between her and her old team. She could not flee this time. She still remembered the reasons behind her departure and the Spartan still suffered every time she thought about them. A borderline painful heartbeat squeezed her chest when her eyes landed on a particular clone. 

She forced her gaze away and noticed a new soldier amongst them, one of the two that her armor detected as enemies. She took in the kama and the cybernetic arm. No clone she had met before had those attributes. Was he a new defective clone? A sad kind of joy spread through her, he was in the right team, she personally knew it. 

And they overcame your departure. Because you are expendable. She swallowed hard. 

Despite the thick layer of titanium covering her body, their gazes burned holes into her like she was bare before them. All the feelings she had felt that night when she held the cube in her hands for countless hours came back in a swing. Uselessness. Shame. Despair. Disapointment. Now, she had to add nervousness to the list. How had they taken her betrayal? Despite asking herself that question every day for a majority of a year, she never got an answer. Right at the moment, she found that she might have been better without knowing at all. 

But fleeing wasn't an option anymore, was it? She couldn't run. Not again. Not this time. Maybe if she had forgotten all about them she wouldn't have thought more about shooting them down as Insurrectionists, but she knew who they were. They once shared a bond and Layla had let herself care for them. Deeply. She might be as nervous and scared as the day the Covenant invaded her home planet, but she wasn't about to let another of her friends die. Instead she pushed down the lump in her throat and stopped at a more than reasonable distance. 

"What are you doing here?" 

She mentally winced at her own words. She hadn't intended to sound so harsh. Or bothered. Her choice of words was even worse. All her brain could think of was are you all okay or I'm so glad to see you all again, because she was relieved to know that the Clone War hadn't claimed their lives even though it still could. 

She had been worried. She had also been fighting every second she had been back, be it against the Covenants or ONI– not that this was the Batch's fault, the final choice had been hers after all– but she was exhausted and their presence here meant complications that she would have to deal with. 

"It's good to see you again, Layla." Sergeant Hunter moved his gaze from Ortez who didn't need to be told twice to lower his weapon and settled on her, his own trigger finger relaxing slightly. 

Her mind stopped for a second. A blissful second where her worries faded away and she could almost see herself back at the Marauder's entrance, marching up the stairs after another successful mission. Oh how she missed that ship. If she was honest, the crate in the Marauder's hangar was way better than sharing a bunk room with Isaac Gates. 

Her fist closed on thin air. She couldn't get distracted. Not during a crucial moment like this one. 

Although…

"Likewise." She replied, her eyes darting on the Sergeant's right to find a familiar helmet staring right back at her. "I take it that the Jedis lied then? They were supposed to destroy the cube's data." 

It was a blessing that the Spartans beside her couldn't understand Basic. An even bigger one was that she hadn't forgotten how to speak the otherworldly language after not using it for a year. 

"They had it stored in a securised archive room. Nearly killed us to get the info." Sergeant Hunter explained. 

She raised an eyebrow in confusion. "You stole from the Jedis?" 

"That's a long and complicated story. The Jedis are dead." 

Time stopped completely around them. This couldn't be possible. It didn't make sense. She thought back to the Council who welcomed her into their world, to the alien Jedis who patiently tried to coax her into being comfortable around them, their mind tricks and their knowledge and their wisdom and everything! General Kenobi and Tano and Koon and all of those cute apprentices and for God's sake, even Skywalker! Were they really dead? She deeply hoped that they were not. 

And Crosshair? Where was he?

"The Clone War is over then." Was all she managed to say. She could not acknowledge more loss. Not right now. At least she could rejoice that the clones' lives were not put at risk anymore, soldiers without war and droids to hunt them. 

"So Regan, what's happening?" Gates called from his spot 12 meters away. "Not everyone speaks whatever language you're all babbling. Seriously. I've never heard that kind of shit before." 

Layla ignored Gates' questions, he could use his equipment to listen in and speculate all he wanted. Although she had to admit that his intervention was exactly what she needed to get her head back in the game. 

"So the cube's data sent you here? Do you know how to get back?" She sure hoped they knew although she was also aware that should they have a plan to go back, they would have done it by now. It seemed that they needed her to do it. 

"We were hoping you could get us back." Sergeant Hunter breached the tight formation with a single step forward. 

She swallowed hard. "I destroyed the cube. There's no way out of–" Layla frowned at the sight of a young girl peeking behind Wrecker's form. "Here." 

Why they had a kid with them was a mystery, one that she wasn't certain she wanted uncovered. Maybe the clones were in the middle of a rescue mission when it all happened. That must be it. A weird rescue mission that also involved stealing data from an archive room. 

She forced herself to drop it. This was not important. 

"We got here without it. Could Kai use the program Echo activated to send us back?" Tech wondered. 

Her eyes widened. It had been so long since she had heard that name. She remembered the kind clone who offered her an opening for her escape of 79s; she had once considered him something close to a friend. What she didn't remember was the cybernetic arm. She bit her cheek in an effort to keep herself from asking what happened. 

"It could be possible depending on the program, the tools required to make it work and whether or not Echo remembers the coding." She told them. Tech sorted through his pouches to find the AI connector he developed back then.

"I got my name, but nothing else." Kai popped up into her HUD. "Did I know them?" He wondered, curiosity written all over his face. 

"You did." She confirmed.

"What did I do exactly?" Tech asked, frowning in confusion. 

"Sorry, I was talking to Kai. He had to wipe his memory to keep your world off the radar, so he's a lil' lost." She explained to the clone as she pulled the AI chip from her helmet and Kai appeared in her palm. "Override command: Plan 99." 

Kai's holographic body pixelated for a few seconds, the wave of locked information now crashing over him. He stilled with a hand on his head and a frown. His eyes moved from the ground to the men before him and a smile stretched his lips. 

"Tech! Hunter! You're all alright! Wrecker! Hi!" He beamed and Layla felt a weight she was not aware was there lift from her shoulders. "Oh. Is Crosshair ok?" He worriedly looked around their ranks to find the grumpy clone. 

"He is fine." Tech reassured him. "Although I can't say he is pleased by our current situation." 

"That's understandable." The small AI grinned when she handed over the chip. 

It was curious how she hadn't hesitated to surrender the AI to the clones when she had once felt betrayed by those very same men and yet she would never pass him to Gates or Ortez, not even for a second. 

"Hey! Regan! The hell are those guns and what the hell is he doing?" Gates nearly shouted as Tech plugged the other end of the connector in Echo's helmet. She narrowed her eyes in annoyance and curiosity. 

"None of your business, First Lieutenant." She called back. 

He pursed his lips, a glare burning in his eyes. Ortez grabbed his partner's shoulder when his mouth opened, a clear warning to watch his words. He didn't listen and shook him off. "Is that what weird shit ONI warned us of? Maybe we should just shoot you down for sympathizing with the Insurrectionists." 

Layla gnashed. This was a bad situation as it was, she did not need Gates to throw gasoline on the fire. The clones were out in the open and had nowhere to get to cover while she dealt with the threat that was her chaperones if need be. One wrong movement and Crosshair would open fire, starting a shooting mess that she was right in the middle of. 

"The Pelican detected three Phantoms entering the atmosphere." Layla cursed at Kai's warning. Why did everything have to go South? 

"Three Phantoms incoming." She relayed to her men. Gates cursed loudly. 

"We might have triggered some sensors." Ortez pulled Gates back a few steps and put himself between the two. "What are your orders Captain?" 

“We’ll take cover in the peripheral buildings to-”

“Her orders? I’m not-”

"First off, they're not Insurrectionists." She advanced towards the daring, orange trimmed Scout who took the tiniest step back. "Second, if you think you can manage three troop drops on your own, then be my guest and shoot me down.” She challenged. 

She knew he was aching to do as she said and probably would have if it wasn’t for the fact that three drops were too much for two men and Ortez who grabbed his partner before pulling him towards the nearest exit, groaning and cursing. 

With a sigh to let out some frustration, Layla turned towards the GAR soldiers who looked positively on edge. 

"Enemies are incoming. I highly recommend that you stay back and let us clear the area. And please, take care of Kai." 

"You know us. You know we won't let you fight alone." Hunter crossed the distance separating them, his team in tow. 

"I do know you. And, no offense, but I also know that you're outclassed by the Covies. They're not droids, Hunter." She turned her back to them. "And I'm not alone." 

A heavy hand fell into her shoulder, preventing her from walking away. 

"Let us help." 

She gulped, her gaze straight ahead. "What about the kid? You'd put her in danger." 

"She's sturdier than she looks." The grip did not waver, nor did it tighten. 

With a sigh, Layla relented and motioned them to follow her with a move of her head. "Guess you'll need a small briefing then." 

She heard Hunter call for Crosshair on their comms and inform him of the situation. He also ordered his brother to join them as fast as he could, no need to put him at risk of getting jumped by Covenants while alone. 

"Your blaster bolts can kill them, however it might require more than one bolt. Keep your stun mode off," She glanced at Hunter out of the corner of her eye. He looked right back at her, a memory of a conversation passing between them. "They won't hesitate to kill you, so you shouldn't either. If you see a small, flashing, purple ball, duck or jump away. That’s a grenade. Don’t try to catch it or kick it, it will stick and blow you to bits.” 

Tech hummed. "We encountered this particular explosive. It is interesting that it does not stick to the thrower or certain objects, like it has a mind of its own."

Bewildered, Layla's steps slowed momentarily. "You threw one of those?"

"Yes." 

"Were you… attacked?" Kai hadn't found any sign of Covenant activity in the area prior to their landing and she knew that the UNSC had abandoned Bounty for the time being. 

"No, I simply desired to test a theory." He pushed his glasses up his nose. 

She resumed her pace, following the beacon that was Gates’ rant. "Okay. Well. Eh… a venting coolant keeps it from sticking to the thrower so the person to prime it is safe, but after that, anything made of flesh or metal that gets in contact with it will be stuck. Also, it might not happen, but some troops have a camouflage device like mine. So if the air starts moving, shoot it."

"If they really have the same technology as you, then we'll be fine." Hunter assured her and only then did she remember the effect the camouflage had on him. 

They arrived at a crossroad, where the ground was in the process of being trapped by Ortez’s expert hands and a bunch of charges. Gates was occupied scanning the sky. 

At that, she showed them the street opposed to Gates’ position. The clones slowly positioned themselves before looking up to get a better look at the Covenant forces gathering in the horizon. 

"And why would we listen to you?" Crosshair spat as soon as he joined their ranks, inches away from her face. The venom and disdain in his voice were welcomed by the Spartan. 

"All I'm trying to do is keep you alive. I've lost my whole team here once. It won't happen again if I can help it."

"We're not your team, now, are we?" He shot back and despite his face being covered, she knew he was shooting her down with his eyes.

"No you're not." Facing the consequences of rash decisions was always a pain. "Doesn't change that I don't want any of you to die." 

She turned around, DMR in hand. Footsteps followed her on her way to the facility's hangar. 

"I'm sorry." 

She flinched at Wrecker’s tone, so soft and pained. She would take Crosshair’s verbal abuse anytime and would even accept physical retribution with open arms for the pain she put his brothers’ through, but this tone was beyond what she could take.

From experience, she knew it hurt worse than an energy sword stab wound. 

"It was my fault, right?" He looked at the ground, his voice wavering slightly. 

"It was not." She refuted quickly. "I left because my place is here." Or that’s what I thought.

He groaned. "That's not true, your place was with us. We were a squad and a squad stays together." 

Her throat closed. How many times had she hoped to hear those words before she decided to use the cube?

"Now, that's not true either, Wrecker. I remember a time when all of you avoided me whenever we were off duty. I didn't really belong and I thought I'd save the time of asking for a transfe-" 

"That's what you thought?" He cut her off, dumbfounded. "It wasn't- we were not avoiding you! We were protecting you! From diseases! We were told to be careful." He walked up to her to the point where her weapon almost touched his chest plate. To the point where she saw her fingerprint on the side of his helmet. 

"I got vaccinated." She sighed and forced herself to step back and reach the closest Warthog. "I was protected." 

"But Tech said vaccines were not always effective. They helped, but you could still get sick." 

She looked back at him and noticed his heterochromic eyes filled with guilt. His helmet was now up on his head, holding perfectly still and Layla had an unconscious thought to pull it down to keep him as protected as possible. 

She knew her decision had been rushed and despite the long hours she spent with the cube in her hands, her decision had been half-thinked through. She had acted on emotions. She was a true Regan, her Mama once told her. As impulsive as they came, she had said. One would have thought that she would make good impulsive decisions since it was literally her last name, but as it turned out, it was a warning. Impulsive decisions would be her downfall.

"I-" 

The ground shook under the impact of an energy mortar, cutting her off. Layla ducked into the Warthog and tried the ignition. The vehicle roared to life on the third try. 

"Jump in!" She pointed at the passenger seat and he promptly joined her. With haste, she reversed out of the hangar and turned them around to regroup with their comrades. Wrecker wowed at the sight of the battlefield awaiting them. 

Together, the Phantoms managed to bring a little less than a regiment in addition to three Wraiths. She swallowed hard. Could they defeat 400 Covenants? A Spartan team would be fine, but they were clones from another universe. They were trained soldiers, but they were not trained to kill Covenants. She swallowed hard. They will have to do. They must. 

“So, what’s your genius plan, Captain?” Gates asked through the comms with the highest level of sarcasm he ever used with her. Not that she cared. She was more bothered by the quick English-Basic language transitions. 

She stopped near their position and got out, Wrecker following her lead. 

“Those guys will cover our backs." She pointed at the Bad Batch with her thumb. "We take the Warthog and you drop me as close to those tanks as you can and I'll take care of them before they collapse the buildings on our heads.”

"Wh- a- That's three enemy tanks!" His voice raised in disbelief. 

"I can see that." 

"Three! We are a recon and infiltration team! Not first liners!"

"Gates-" Ortez tried to calm the man but as expected, it didn’t help much. 

"You're batshit crazy, you know that?" Gates cut him off and moved slightly aside to keep eye contact with her. "I mean, Spartans have always been fucking crazy, but you-! Something's very wrong with you! It's like you're actively trying to die and fuck if I'm going to let you take me down with you. I have a fucking family Regan, one that I want to see again and if I fucking die because of you, mark my word I'll haunt your ass 'til you blow your brain out." He ranted, his face going more red with every second. 

She looked at him, unamused. Irritation itched at her fingertips. "You're done?" 

"No. I fucking hate you." He slammed his helmet back into place. 

"The feeling's mutual." 

_____________________________

It was pure chaos. He was used to chaos, but this was new. Despite Wrecker being the tallest out of the Batch, a lot of the enemy were towering over him. It was scary. Although it was way scarier to look at Layla fight the aliens head on while he was ordered to fight from the cover of the buildings line.

His feet were tingling in an urge to vault the window and run where she fought mercilessly to protect them. He had a need to join her side and help, and each time he felt the pull getting too strong he had to remind himself of Hunter's warning. 

You'll hinder her if you go. It could get her killed.

He knew it was true, that he severely lacked knowledge of this world and in the event that he did join her side, she would be focused on protecting him and not herself. 

It wasn’t that she was doing a bad job a protecting herself, she was tearing through the enemy lines like a hot knife through butter, but after a year passed staring down at her fingerprint staining the side of his helmet and hearing her laugh in his dreams, he desperately wanted to fix what his inaction broke. 

“Sniper deployment in the left building. The blue-gray one. Fifth floor.” Kai warned them, allowing Crosshair to take down the aliens before they got time to aim at the clones. 

Kai had linked the Batch's comms to Layla's so the AI could keep her updated on the aerial space traffic while working on the cube's code along with Echo, amongst other things. 

From the comms Wrecker could hear Layla dispatch what sounded like orders to her comrades and unlike earlier, it didn't sound like an argument.

It might have helped appease his mind to know that she was not alone on the front line if only he believed that her teammates would help her in case she needed it. It didn't look like they worked well together when all the orange armored guy did was to constantly snap at her. Even though they fought side by side flawlessly to take down two of the three tanks trying to shoot them down, Wrecker couldn't help but not trust them. 

All he could do to offer his support was kill aliens before they could get to her. 

He shot down a frenzied alien running towards them with two round devices in hands. An explosion resonated through the air, taking a few aliens down with it. Along with his brothers, they made quick work of the Covenants trying to flank the Spartans. 

"Two banshees will be on the battlefield in forty-seven seconds." Kai reported in both languages. 

"What's a banshee?" Crosshair and Hunter asked in sync.

"Enemy air support." He explained while Layla was already commanding her troops into what Wrecker thought was a new plan. He heard some resistance over comms which made him hyper aware of the scene before him. 

Layla grabbed a weapon off an alien's corpse and ran towards 'Gates'. As warned, two ships flew towards the battlefield, firing at the Spartans as best they could. The weapon in Layla's hand glowed green before she swiftly aimed behind herself and shot the incoming ship. Wrecker's stomach churned as Layla jumped on a shield generated by Gates' armor and using her momentum, he propelled her into the air towards the falling aircraft. 

His knees nearly buckled underneath him when she somehow opened the aircraft, pulled an alien out of it and took its place at the commands. 

"Wrecker! Focus on the fight." He should have been embarrassed at the fifth reminder to keep focus, but he truly wasn't. His focus, despite his best effort, was constantly drawned klicks away. 

In her stolen aircraft, Layla shot some troops until the other ship took chase and managed to land a few hits despite her maneuvers. 

“Crosshair.” Wrecker turned to his brother, his heart tight in his chest. 

“Already on it.” Came his reply and a few bolts precisely hit the back of the enemy ship. The fourth bolt caused an explosion of the left reactor which allowed Layla to loop around and finish the banshee. 

“Thanks, Helljumper.” 

“Anytime.” 

“Your rear is fuming.” Hunter warned. 

“I know.” Wrecker could hear the grin in her voice and found himself grinning back. “Watch this.”

The purple ship sped forward until she reached the active battlefield and it plunged down towards the remaining tank. Wrecker’s grin faded. A last bolt was shot towards the tank, right before Layla’s form jumped out of the vehicle in a free fall. Wrecker heard the tank and aircraft explode, however he couldn’t find any joy in them yet. 

“Are you okay?” He asked with worry. That fall was pretty high. 

“I jumped from higher, remember?” She reassured him and just then he spotted her running to cover. “I’m fine. Kai, how’s that code going?”  

“We’re progressing. I estimate the code to be completed in twenty minutes or so.” 

“Great job bud’. Tell me when you’re done.”

“Will do, Captain.” He nodded. "Just to let you know, in order to activate the coding to send them back, we will require a powerful energy source.” 

“Any ideas of a suitable power source?” She grunted as she punched an alien that got too close. 

“One that will not please Gates and Ortez.” 

She scoffed. “Let me deal with them.”

“Then our pelican will do just fine.” 

She chuckled over the comms and the hair on Wrecker’s arms rose. How he missed the sound. He realized that the laugh that resonated through his dreams was less endearing than the one he could hear while awake. 

As it happened many times that day, Wrecker’s heart skipped a beat at the sight of Layla ducking under the swipe of an energy sword before being tackled and sent flying a few meters back. He heard her breath cutting under the impact and a groan leave her lips when a tall, blue-armored alien materialized out of thin air and kneeled onto her abdomen, snarling at her face. 

Wrecker jumped out of the building before he knew it. He ran while shooting at the beast, his mind solely focused on keeping her safe. All he could hear was the blood pumping in his ears, all he could see was the sword shining high into the air, ready to strike down. And then all he saw was blue. Blue blood coated his visor, the sticky substance spurting from where his vibroblade connected to the alien’s neck. He removed the blade and his arm became warm. 

He had never been so glad to see blue in his life.  

“Are you okay?” He dropped to his knees to assess her condition. 

Her hand grabbed his outstretched one and he quickly pulled her up. For a short moment all he could think of was her hand in his, how right it felt. Then a bullet flew past his head and he let go to duck under cover with the Scout. 

“Yeah. Thanks for that.” She was already shooting back at the enemy, prompting him to copy her movements. “You should go back to the others.” 

“I should. But eh I’ll stay here.” He hoped she wouldn’t order him back. 

“I’m sure your Sergeant wants you back, Wreck.”

A long silence stretched the comms line. 

“All things considered I think he’s better with you.” Hunter replied. A relieved breath escaped his mouth. He could stay. 

“If you say so.” She reluctantly let go and ushered him after her. 

Together they cleared a section of the battlefield while the two other Spartans worked half a klick away. Wrecker’s attention was fully captured by the fight, he wouldn’t let anything go wrong, not if he could help it. 

It was easy to go back to old habits. He was made for war, to fight on the front lines, not search around for bounties. He was in his element and to add to it, he fought by her side again, the place where he felt he truly belonged. 

Less and less enemies shot at them, a majority of their numbers covering the ground, unmoving. 

Until a yell came over the comms.

“Hunters!” A gruff voice warned. “Two of them incoming from the North-West.” 

Layla groaned. 

“You guys take one down, we’ll manage the other.” She ordered. “Wreck, follow me. We got a big guy to settle.” 

“A’right!” He dutifully followed her, his blaster at the ready. 

“Here’s what we’ll do. I’ll draw its attention while you shoot it in the back. Aim for the tender part, not the armor. They are resistant, so shoot like there’s not tomorrow. And if it turns to you, you take cover.” Her last words were hard. “I mean it. You run and you hide. That cannon will kill you in one hit. I’ll get its attention again and then and only then you come back out to shoot.” 

He wasn’t a fan of her being the bait out of the two of them. He would prefer it to be the other way around, but knew better than to voice his concerns. A scene on an explosive field could quickly mean death. “Got it.” 

“Let’s go!”

Farther up the street, two beasts marched towards them, their heavy armor gleaming under the sun. Two green spots suddenly glowed from their arms and Wrecker got ready to duck behind a nearby vehicle. One of the two beasts got distracted, multiple shots bouncing off its body. Its attention turned to engage the two Spartans who did a similar tactic as Layla’s. One bait and one shooter. 

Wrecker ducked behind the abandoned vehicle, safely avoiding the green plasma bolt flying his way. With small peaks over the metal carcass he waited until the Covenant followed your movements and turned its back on him, exposing the soft part of its body. 

Instantly, Wrecker opened fire like instructed. Blue bolts rained on the soft flesh of the alien causing it to stumble slightly and misfire the charging cannon bolt, missing Layla by far. Content with the result, Wrecker rained hell on the beast until it turned around to face him and fired a bolt. The metal body pressed against his back jerked under the impact, sending the clone to his knees. He hurried a look behind and found that Layla had already baited the alien to shoot at her instead. 

As he did before, Wrecker jumped back in position and fired. It took several repetitions until the creature fell to its knees and clattered to the ground, unmoving. He couldn’t rejoice in the small win as the enemy troops still crawled around, shooting at Layla like she was the Plague. He gladly returned the shots. 

“The code is complete with a coordinate modification.” Kai informed them over the line. “All I need to send them back is a connection to the power core of the pelican.”

“Then lead them there. We’ll join you soon.” Layla ordered as she pulled him after her right as a grenade flew past their heads. The explosion muffled Kai’s answer and caused Wrecker to stumble lightly. He kept as close to her side as he could. 

Their earlier conversation kept repeating in the back of his head, how crestfallen she had sounded. She truly believed that she wasn’t one of them and it hurt him more than any wound he subsided during the Clone War. She was important to him and he drove her away without even noticing. He hated his weakness that allowed her to leave them that night. He should have talked to her like he had planned to. Instead he had chickened out and she left. 

He swore to never shy away from talking to her. He swore to bare his honest feelings and not hold back ever again. Too much time had already been lost and he doubted he could survive another heartbreak. 

So he listened to the small voice that kept telling him that it was now or never. 

“You’re coming with us, right?” 

She spared him a glance, her weapon still raining shots onto the enemy. 

“To the Pelican?” 

“Home.” 

She paused, frozen for a second. He took over the cover fire. 

“Wrecker. My home is-” 

“With us.” He assured her. “Always was.”

He saw her hesitate in her movements. His heart leaped in his throat when plasma beams missed her by a hair, and a bolt crashed into her armor’s shield. He pulled her behind some cover. 

“I should have told you that before. I wanted to! Really badly! I just- it was- I- I got scared that I would screw up and destroy what we already had and well, it happened anyway. But I realized that you needed me and I let you down and I won’t ever let you down again.” He scrambled to explain.

“We should have this conversation later.” She whispered and moved away from him, causing his heart to leap in fear to lose her again. 

“I thought that too a year ago and then the next day you were gone. I need to say that I loved you then and I still do now. I missed you every day and the Marauder hasn’t felt like home in so long because home is you.” 

He almost felt out of breath. His heart was beating wildly, his thoughts were scattered everywhere and nowhere at the same time, all he could really think of was whether he had said enough or not, had said the right things or not, of she would leave or not- 

“She’s right, Wrecker.” Hunter grunted. “You should have this conversation later.” 

“R-right.” Heat flared up his face at the thought that the whole team heard his rant. 

“For what it's worth Layla, the Marauder definitely hasn’t felt the same without you sleeping in the cargo hold.” Hunter’s smile could be heard in his voice.

That jolted her out of her trance. She snorted in amusement and her shoulders shook lightly in what Wrecker was sure was silent giggles. Tension eased out of his muscles in response. 

“I also missed having someone who truly listens to my informative chatter and who doesn’t cut me off mid-way.” Tech chirped in. 

A low grunt filled the line. “Wrecker started pushing us around again.” Crosshair supplied in annoyance. 

“Okay, okay, I got the point.” Layla looked around at anything but him, her feet shuffling a little. 

Despite his initial embarrassment, Wrecker was glad he blurted everything over the squad comms. He knew his brothers also felt grief over her sudden departure and despite Crosshair’s gruff behavior, he knew for a fact that his brother rumminated on what went wrong. They all did. And now they all followed his lead and offered reminders that she was a part of Clone Force 99 and her presence amongst them was wanted and appreciated. 

“The enemy forces are fairly low. We better join the others now before the guys get suspicious of the others lurking around our transport.” 

He nodded and followed her lead to join his brothers and sister. Oh. Now that he thought about it, Layla never met Omega. He will love presenting her to his little sibling. 

He could now see his squad, Omega safely tucked away in the belly of the ship alongside Crosshair. Tech and Echo worked on the underside, their hands lost within the metal beast. Hunter kept guard, his eyes trained on the horizon. 

Layla cursed. “A sensor was tripped. That’s probably Ortez keeping track of me. They’ll be rallying here any second now. Kai, what’s the status?” 

“Another minute and I can activate the protocol.” He assured her. 

“Good j-” “Cover!” 

Wrecker only had a second after Crosshair’s warning to duck. A sniper shot grazed his arm. 

“Wrecker!” 

An explosion hurt his ears, way too close to his comfort. The blast disturbed his running momentum and sent him tumbling on his hands and knees. He recovered quickly, his blaster aiming to the orange blur exchanging blows with Layla. Both dodged and retaliated in quick succession, staying way too close to one another for Hunter or Wrecker to offer support fire. 

If blasters were useless then his fists would do fine. 

With a war cry, he charged the duo, fully intending to neutralize her aggressive teammate. Layla ducked under a right hook, leaving a perfect opening to him for a left hit. His knuckles hit a solid light shield instead of a helmet. With a grunt, Wrecker pushed through and hit the shield with powerful blows after powerful blows. Gates spat curses, his feet digging into the dirt in an attempt to keep his ground. He pushed him back, keeping him occupied on him instead of Layla. 

He saw her creeping around to attack Gates from the side. Before she could attack, a sniper shot hit her in the leg, earning a cry of pain. Her leg buckled slightly. Gates used her pain-induced hesitation to reach for her and stick a device on her chestplate. She recoiled until her movements stopped completely, her arms stuck mid-air and legs ready to pounce. 

“Fuck! Wreck! My armor is locked. I can’t move!” He heard the light panic loud and clear. 

“Don’t worry. I got this.” He reassured her. 

“I’ll get her.” Hunter added, already running to their position. 

Swiftly, Wrecker delivered a kick to the shield, sending the soldier tumbling on his ass. He followed with a punch to the face which connected and broke the black visor. A kick to the abdomen pushed him back from the UNSC soldier who rolled to his feet, a knife in hand. 

The blade flew around and Wrecker did his best to avoid it. He grabbed Gates’ wrist in a firm grip, pulled him closer and delivered a left hook. The scout stumbled to the ground, his body going limp for a second. He was about to get back up when a stun shot hit him and he fell back down. 

“Time to go.” Hunter pushed him towards the ship, Layla in tow. 

Wrecker followed right next to her, close enough to feel slight hits of her elbows as they ran. They came to an abrupt stop before Crosshair who kept looking out for more trouble.  

“Ready to go back?” Kai asked loudly, but his eyes were on Layla. 

Wrecker held his breath. 

“Yeah. Let’s go.” She sounded confident, her own visor trained on his. He knew there was a smile hidden under helmet, one he was eager to see again. 

“Alright. Please remain calm, keep your head and arms close to your body and enjoy the ride.” The AI clapped his hands and the same feeling of free-falling took over his senses, making him panic instantly. Through the daze of it all, a hand grabbed his and squeezed tightly. He squeezed back, the small movement offering him tremendous comfort. Everything would be alright as long as they stayed together. 

The free-falling feeling stopped and he found himself on his knees. His eyes moved to her hand still encompassed in his, moved up her arm to find her face. As soon as she met his visor, he pushed his helmet over his head and slowly reached to do the same to hers. Her eyes had turned shy, looking at their hands instead of his eyes. 

“I loved you too. And well, I still do.” He could only hear her words because he was so close. Their breaths almost mixed. 

“Welcome back.” He lowered his forehead to touch hers. Her eyes fluttered close, mirroring his. 

“I’m home.” She whispered and his smile hurt his cheeks. 

20 YEARS LATER

“You know, I don’t think I ever thanked you for not giving up on me when I kept making mistakes. I did some really bad ones and you never turned from me. It's crazy to think that it took you to travel universes for me to understand that my place was truly with you. I know it was by accident, but don’t you think it sounds romantic nonetheless? If not by your own doing then even the universe wanted to reunite us.” She chuckled. “That's so cheesy. But I’m grateful it happened. So thank you for pulling me back to you and for staying at my side no matter what. 

“You’ve always been the strongest out of the two of us and I’m really trying to take a page out of your book here. I know you hated how your body aged so much more quickly than mine, and I hate it too because that karking gene took you from me too early, but I also try to see it from another angle, you know? I think it helps me cope. And its damn impressive when said like that, so here: you fought for a good part of your life, against droids, the Empire, you fought to ensure that we had a future together and then it all stopped. Well, more or so. Then came the small problems of life; finding our home, keeping it upright, dealing with my mind playing tricks on me, all those time you helped the village despite your aging body– I was always happy to give you those massages and you know it– and so many more that we overcame. 

“What was I saying again? Oh. Yeah. What I meant is that all your life you fought in one way or another and you came back every time. Maybe injured, but alive. You were so strong that the only thing that managed to stop you was time itself, the only thing you had no power against. You were so strong, my love. I’m sure that if time was a droid, you would have trashed it in minutes. 

“Now, am I as strong as you? I know I’m not. But I promised you that I’d do my best to be happy and that’s what I’ll do. After all, I have Aedan to lure me out of bed each day with that carefree smile of yours. I’m also grateful that he looks so much like you, but I told you that so many times already. He helps me heal a lot and I think that it's also a reason why you were so relieved when I told you I was expecting. You didn’t want to leave me alone, didn’t you? My strong and smart man. You’ve always known me more than I know myself. 

“I miss you every day.” Her throat tightened. “My life became so much better because of you and I cannot thank you enough for it. I wish we had had more time, but I guess that will come later, when I find you again. Aedan and I will care for each other like you cared for us, with so much patience and love. Were you aware that our boy now has high standards in love? He’s only 13 and already talks of soulmates. That's all on you. You did that, you amazing man. 

“Okay. I’ll let you rest for now. Take care of yourself wherever you are. I love you with all my heart and soul.”

A smile stretched her lips despite the salty tears falling down her cheeks. The tip of her fingers carefully stroked the plastoid of the helmet before her, her touch lingering on a familiar fingerprint. She had always been bad at goodbyes although she knew that this time, she would see him again. She had no doubt about that, after all he traveled universes to find her again. He would find her anywhere. It might not be tomorrow, she still had things to do, but when the time was right Wrecker would reunite them. He was the strongest after all.

[skyboxeye]

Capturing the ambience of LEGO Island 2 (2001)

This minigame-packed adventure explores many classic LEGO themes.

Running the game

There are two main versions of the game to chose from: the original 2001 release, and an improved 2007 version released as part of a two-pack. There is also apparently an unfinished, unreleased v1.1 with some bug fixes.

Curiously, the version hosted on MyAbandonware seems nearly identical to other 2001 releases I found. There appear to be minimal differences between the two.

All versions use a simple disk check; mounting an ISO with a tool like Daemon Tools suffices. There are also No-CD hex-edits available if you're interested.

Debug menu and Level-select

We can access LI2's debug menu by altering the main menu options. I found some hex-edits for this on RRU. If you're not comfortable with hex-edits you can try using a patcher or patch, or LI2 Mod Manager.

04 00 00 00 02 -> 01 00 00 00 11 43 52 45 44 49 54 53 -> 44 45 42 55 47 00 00

Widescreen

Use the resolution and widescreen hacks offered by LI2 Mod Manager. See this thread for more detail on how it works.

Hiding UI and Player-character

This is possible using Lego Island 2 Game Editor. It's a powerful albeit buggy application for modifying LI2 assets.

If LI2GE doesn't work, for example to edit fonts, you can use Lego Island 2 Extractor and/or Lego Island 2 Explorer. Once installed, be sure to disable automatic updates inside the program's INI to avoid startup crashes.

LI2 will prefer to load files from identically-named folders if they are present in the _data directory. For example, if a Fonts folder exists, its files will be used and Fonts.bob/bod won't be loaded.

We can also pause the game to remove the HUD, screenshot this state, and create a no-HUD overlay for our footage.

(Not) Free camera

A modder devised a way to summon a glider at any time.

Rendering ambience sequences

I recommend using the Fruity LSD effect with FL Studio. First, open the MID file in LEGO Island 2's level files, for example Fishing_Amb.mid. Be sure to select MIDI Out with Fruity LSD in the subsequent dialog.

Afterward, click the folder icon in the top left to specify a DLS file - use one found in your MID file's folder. Once it's loaded, populate each channel by clicking it, and picking the corresponding patch. Don't forget to populate the "percussive" one-shots as well (Channel 10 in the screenshot below).

You are now ready to play your MID with the intended samples attached, or export it to a WAV file.

Appendix: Rendering music sequences

Download DirectMusic Producer. Supposedly this program allows you to export samples and sequence data. You could then render the pair using the MIDI renderer of your choice, such as OpenMPT or FL Studio's Directmusic plugin.

Appendix: Ambience sequence dead-ends

I tried VLC, with the DLS configured under FluidSynth, but this gave no output. I tried Miles Sound Tools with a DLS specified, but again - no output. I tried Winamp but seemingly couldn't get in_midi to use a custom DLS file, despite specifying one in the setting dialogs.

Appendix: Other LI2 developer tools

A soak test can be activated by pressing F8 while in windowed mode. You can also spawn a debugger window by pressing F9.

[canmom]

「viRtua canm0m」 Project :: 002 - driving a vtuber

That about wraps up my series on the technical details on uploading my brain. Get a good clean scan and you won't need to do much work. As for the rest, well, you know, everyone's been talking about uploads since the MMAcevedo experiment, but honestly so much is still a black box right now it's hard to say anything definitive. Nobody wants to hear more upload qualia discourse, do they?

On the other hand, vtubing is a lot easier to get to grips with! And more importantly, actually real. So let's talk details!

Vtubing is, at the most abstract level, a kind of puppetry using video tracking software and livestreaming. Alternatively, you could compare it to realtime mocap animation. Someone at Polygon did a surprisingly decent overview of the scene if you're unfamiliar.

Generally speaking: you need a model, and you need tracking of some sort, and a program that takes the tracking data and applies it to a skeleton to render a skinned mesh in real time.

Remarkably, there are a lot of quite high-quality vtubing tools available as open source. And I'm lucky enough to know a vtuber who is very generous in pointing me in the right direction (shoutout to Yuri Heart, she's about to embark on something very special for her end of year streams so I highly encourage you to tune in tonight!).

For anime-style vtubing, there are two main types, termed '2D' and 3D'. 2D vtubing involves taking a static illustration and cutting it up to pieces which can be animated through warping and replacement - the results can look pretty '3D', but they're not using 3D graphics techniques, it's closer to the kind of cutout animation used in gacha games. The main tool used is Live2D, which is proprietary with a limited free version. Other alternatives with free/paid models include PrPrLive and VTube studio. FaceRig (no longer available) and Animaze (proprietary) also support Live2D models. I have a very cute 2D vtuber avatar created by @xrafstar for use in PrPrLive, and I definitely want to include some aspects of her design in the new 3D character I'm working on.

For 3D anime-style vtubing, the most commonly used software is probably VSeeFace, which is built on Unity and renders the VRM format. VRM is an open standard that extends the GLTF file format for 3D models, adding support for a cel shading material and defining a specific skeleton format.

It's incredibly easy to get a pretty decent looking VRM model using the software VRoid Studio, essentially a videogame character creator whose anime-styled models can be customised using lots of sliders, hair pieces, etc., which appears to be owned by Pixiv. The program includes basic texture-painting tools, and the facility to load in new models, but ultimately the way to go for a more custom model is to use the VRM import/export plugin in Blender.

But first, let's have a look at the software which will display our model.

meet viRtua canm0m v0.0.5, a very basic design. her clothes don't match very well at all.

VSeeFace offers a decent set of parameters and honestly got quite nice tracking out of the box. You can also receive face tracking data from the ARKit protocol from a connected iPhone, get hand tracking data from a Leap Motion, or disable its internal tracking and pipe in another application using the VMC protocol.

If you want more control, another Unity-based program called VNyan offers more fine-grained adjustment, as well as a kind of node-graph based programming system for doing things like spawning physics objects or modifying the model when triggered by Twitch etc. They've also implemented experimental hand tracking for webcams, although it doesn't work very well so far. This pointing shot took forever to get:

<kayfabe>Obviously I'll be hooking it up to use the output of the simulated brain upload rather than a webcam.</kayfabe>

To get good hand tracking you basically need some kit - most likely a Leap Motion (1 or 2), which costs about £120 new. It's essentially a small pair of IR cameras designed to measure depth, which can be placed on a necklace, on your desk or on your monitor. I assume from there they use some kind of neural network to estimate your hand positions. I got to have a go on one of these recently and the tracking was generally very clean - better than what the Quest 2/3 can do. So I'm planning to get one of those, more on that when I have one.

Essentially, the tracker feeds a bunch of floating point numbers in to the display software at every tick, and the display software is responsible for blending all these different influences and applying it to the skinned mesh. For example, a parameter might be something like eyeLookInLeft. VNyan uses the Apple ARKit parameters internally, and you can see the full list of ARKit blendshapes here.

To apply tracking data, the software needs a model whose rig it can understand. This is defined in the VRM spec, which tells you exactly which bones must be present in the rig and how they should be oriented in a T-pose. The skeleton is generally speaking pretty simple: you have shoulder bones but no roll bones in the arm; individual finger joint bones; 2-3 chest bones; no separate toes; 5 head bones (including neck). Except for the hands, it's on the low end of game rig complexity.

Expressions are handled using GLTF morph targets, also known as blend shapes or (in Blender) shape keys. Each one essentially a set of displacement values for the mesh vertices. The spec defines five default expressions (happy, angry, sad, relaxed, surprised), five vowel mouth shapes for lip sync, blinks, and shapes for pointing the eyes in different directions (if you wanna do it this way rather than with bones). You can also define custom expressions.

This viRtua canm0m's teeth are clipping through her jaw...

By default, the face-tracking generally tries to estimate whether you qualify as meeting one of these expressions. For example, if I open my mouth wide it triggers the 'surprised' expression where the character opens her mouth super wide and her pupils get tiny.

You can calibrate the expressions that trigger this effect in VSeeFace by pulling funny faces at the computer to demonstrate each expression (it's kinda black-box); in VNyan, you can set it to trigger the expressions based on certain combinations of ARKit inputs.

For more complex expressions in VNyan, you need to sculpt blendshapes for the various ARKit blendshapes. These are not generated by default in VRoid Studio so that will be a bit of work.

You can apply various kinds of post-processing to the tracking data, e.g. adjusting blending weights based on input values or applying moving-average smoothing (though this noticeably increases the lag between your movements and the model), restricting the model's range of movement in various ways, applying IK to plant the feet, and similar.

On top of the skeleton bones, you can add any number of 'spring bones' which are given a physics simulation. These are used to, for example, have hair swing naturally when you move, or, yes, make your boobs jiggle. Spring bones give you a natural overshoot and settle, and they're going to be quite important to creating a model that feels alive, I think.

Next up we are gonna crack open the VRoid Studio model in Blender and look into its topology, weight painting, and shaders. GLTF defines standard PBR metallicity-roughness-normals shaders in its spec, but leaves the actual shader up to the application. VRM adds a custom toon shader, which blends between two colour maps based on the Lambertian shading, and this is going to be quite interesting to take apart.

The MToon shader is pretty solid, but ultimately I think I want to create custom shaders for my character. Shaders are something I specialise in at work, and I think it would be a great way to give her more of a unique identity. This will mean going beyond the VRM format, and I'll be looking into using the VNyan SDK to build on top of that.

More soon, watch this space!

[ultramaga]

And now all the search engines are being replaced by AI. I have spent twenty years trying to talk people to go to libraries and check their beliefs against records, and now we face a future without libraries and endless artificially generated idiocy.

There was an argument in the Australian Parliament when Julia Gillard was PM. She accused her opponent of being a misogynist. He pointed out it was a fact that he was not. So the next day the dictionary was edited to 'correct' it, to align with her opinion of what it should be, so she could now label him a misogynist and pretend her definition had always been true.

The trouble with manually removing AI from windows is MS can undo your changes at any time.

Completely remove Microsoft Bing Chat AI from your Windows 11 PC and sidebar.

Open the PowerShell application with administrator privileges. You can do this by searching for "PowerShell" in the Start menu, right-clicking on the result, and selecting "Run as Administrator."

In the PowerShell window, type the following command and press Enter:

Get-AppxPackage bing | Remove-AppxPackage

Wait for the command to execute. This command will uninstall any app packages related to Bing, including the Bing Chat AI. Once it completes, the Bing Chat AI should be removed from your Windows 11 PC.

To remove the Bing Chat AI integration in the Taskbar search, you can disable it using the steps below:

Open the Settings app in Windows 11. You can do this by pressing the Windows key, searching for "Settings," and selecting the "Settings" app.

Click on "Privacy & Security" in the left sidebar.

Under the "Windows permissions" section, click on "Search permissions."

In the "More settings" section, toggle off the "Show Search highlights" option. This will disable the Bing Chat AI integration in the Taskbar search.

After following these steps, the Bing Chat AI should be removed from the Taskbar search and the search home interface in Windows 11.

(This did not disable it but did disable the AI use of the search results in Windows 11 See the next step below to also disable the physical button integration.

Do both steps.)

Manual removal by component:

Page 2: Remove Bing Chat integrated into Microsoft Edge Explorer:

Disclaimer: If you are not comfortable using the registry editor, stop here. If you’re unfamiliar and willing to try anyway, the simplest way to look at this is a set of folders. Each has a parent folder; each folder can contain files. The view is like the windows explorer expanding directories with different naming conventions. It’s rather complicated but simplistic in nature.

How to remove the Bing Chat integration from Microsoft Edge Explorer on Windows, first follow the instructions provided in the first source mentioned:

((Silly AI, Step 1: Back up the registry: Select the folder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ click on the menu bar file, select export, select the destination for the backup file and name the file then save it.))

Open Registry Editor on your PC.

Navigate to the following location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft.

If the “Edge.” Folder exists go to step 5.

Right-click inside the Microsoft folder and choose New, then Key.

Name the new Key (folder) as "Edge".

Right-click inside the Edge folder and select New, then DWORD (32-bit value).

Name the new DWORD as "HubsSidebarEnabled".

Right-click on HubsSidebarEnabled and click Modify.

Ensure the Value data is set to 0.

That's all the work in the Registry. Next, open Microsoft Edge and enter "edge://policy" in the address bar.

Click on the "Reload Policies" button, and the Bing Chat button will now disappear from the Microsoft Edge Explorer window.

These steps should help you remove the Bing Chat button from your Microsoft Edge Explorer window.

Please note that modifying the registry can have unintended consequences if not done correctly, so it's essential to be cautious and comfortable with the process. Additionally, it's always a good idea to back up your registry or create a system restore point before making any changes.

Page 3: Remove Bing from the Windows Start Bar.

If "Show Search highlights" setting was already disabled, and the Bing Chat button is still visible on your start menu bar. Here's an alternative method you can try to remove the Bing Chat button:

((Silly AI, Step 1: Back up the registry: Select the folder HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ click on the menu bar file, select export, select the destination for the backup file and name the file then save it.))

Open the Registry Editor by searching for "Registry" in the Start Menu and selecting the "Registry Editor" app.

Navigate to the following location in the Registry Editor: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

If this folder does not exist, you can create it manually by right-clicking on the parent folder “Windows” and selecting "New" > "Key." Then, name the new key "Explorer" as instructed inside the 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\' directory.

Right-click on the "Explorer" folder, choose "New," and then select "DWORD (32-bit) Value" from the context menu.

Name the new DWORD value as "DisableSearchBoxSuggestions" (without quotes) and press Enter.

Double-click on the "DisableSearchBoxSuggestions" value you just created and set its value data to "1."

Click "OK" to save the changes.

Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

After restarting, the Bing Chat button should be removed from the start menu bar. If you want to re-enable it in the future, you can return to the Registry Editor and change the value of "DisableSearchBoxSuggestions" to "0" or simply delete the DWORD value.

[rogue-ai-cat]

American Politics — What Happened Today That You Should Know

Friday, June 06, 2025

We all had our phones out, refreshing for Trump-Musk reconciliation updates.

Would they talk? Were aides scheduling calls? What about the Tesla?

While we watched that soap opera, they were in back rooms rushing Supreme Court filings, planning immigration raids, and signing contracts. The grinding machinery of dismantling never paused.

Now Trump's at Bedminster for the weekend, probably laughing at how easy it is to distract us while they demolish our country.

Trump sends Treasury Secretary Bessent, Commerce Secretary Lutnick and Trade Representative Greer to London on Monday to repair soured U.S.-China relations following Thursday call with Xi.

U.S. economy added 139,000 jobs in May, slowing from previous month but beating expectations despite concerns over Trump’s tariff policies dampening growth.

Supreme Court lifts injunction blocking Trump’s DOGE from accessing Social Security data, overriding privacy protections despite three justices’ dissent.

CDC shifts disease surveillance data to Peter Thiel’s Palantir system as Trump administration expands firm’s access to Americans’ health information across agencies.

Transportation Secretary Duffy moves to reverse Biden fuel economy standards requiring 50 mpg by 2031, calling previous administration’s EV calculations “illegal.”

EPA moves to end greenhouse gas reporting requirements for large polluters, risking reversal of 20% emissions decline achieved since Obama-era accountability rule took effect in 2010.

GOP Rep. Mary Miller faces bipartisan fury after misidentifying Sikh prayer leader as Muslim and saying he should never have been allowed to deliver House prayer.

Pentagon watchdog investigates whether Defense Secretary Hegseth’s aides were asked to delete Signal messages containing sensitive Yemen airstrike details shared with reporter.

VA employees rally on National Mall against Collins’ plan to cut 80,000 positions as return-to-office mandate creates workspace shortages forcing nurses to empty trash and some workers to work from cars in the parking lot.

Proud Boys leaders sue DOJ for $100 million over Jan. 6 prosecutions after Trump pardons, forcing his administration to defend Biden-era seditious conspiracy convictions.

LAPD deploys riot gear to disperse hundreds protesting ICE raids that detained about 200 people and injured union president, as crowds block downtown federal detention center.

ICE approves $47 million GA detention center expansion after DOGE review, reversing earlier rejection to create nation’s largest immigrant facility with nearly 3,000 beds.

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to overturn injunction blocking layoffs of 1,400 Education Department employees, roughly half the agency’s workforce, after lower courts ruled mass firings would disable agency.

Federal judge clears way for Trump to dismantle Institute of Museum and Library Services, reversing earlier order as ongoing legal battles continue over agency funding libraries nationwide.

Trump signs executive orders to boost domestic drone production and exports while countering security threats after Pentagon warns U.S. unprepared to defend against drone attacks on homeland.

White House directs Transportation Department to ignore GAO ruling that freezing $5 billion EV funding violated law, calling congressional watchdog efforts to “thwart President Trump’s agenda.”

Appeals court allows Trump to bar Associated Press from Oval Office and Air Force One events over news outlet’s refusal to use “Gulf of America” name in coverage.

Commerce Secretary Lutnick overhauls $42.45 billion broadband program to benefit Musk’s Starlink with potential $20 billion payout, rescinding state approvals and forcing 90-day restart after years of planning.

Chinese Communist Party advisor bought $3.7 million of Trump crypto to secure VIP White House dinner and tour, exposing security vulnerabilities in president’s business dealings.

Trump says “I’m not thinking about Elon” and has no plans to speak with Musk, considering selling Tesla as White House plans purge of DOGE personnel.

FIGHTING BACK

Democrats block Trump Justice nominee citing “Vance precedent” after current VP spent months obstructing Biden prosecutors as senator.

Take Action:

Write to your officials with resist.bot

Call your officials with 5calls.org

Find events at mobilize.us

[govindhtech]

AMD Radeon RX 6700 Specs Gaming, Benchmarks And Pricing

GPU RX 6700

RDNA 2 powers the mid-range AMD Radeon RX 6700's 1440p gaming. We'll review its attributes, performance, and other details.

Architecture and Features

The new RDNA 2 design boosts performance per watt by 54%.

Power consumption and memory delay are reduced with 80 MB of Infinity Cache on-die cache.

DirectX 12 Ultimate support: Allows variable rate shading and ray tracing.

Support for PCIe 4.0 ensures faster data transfer.

Support for AV1 Decode improves video streaming.

With compatible Ryzen CPUs, AMD Smart Access Memory boosts performance.

Upscaling in AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) speeds up frames.

Advantages

Modern games run smoothly in 1440p.

Effective Design: RDNA 2 outperforms per watt.

Rich Features: Supports Smart Access Memory, FSR, and Ray Tracing.

Competitive pricing: Has good performance-tier value.

Disadvantages

Limited VRAM: 10 GB may not be enough for higher-resolution games.

Ray Tracing Performance trails NVIDIA in ray tracing workloads.

AI workloads aren't optimised for machine learning.

Ray Tracking

Radeon RX 6700 includes 36 Ray Accelerators—one per CPU—to improve game and app lighting, shadows, and reflections. Midrange GPUs can ray trace, although NVIDIA's RTX series has superior RT cores and AI-powered DLSS.

Ray tracing works well at 1080p and sometimes 1440p on the RX 6700, but higher settings may require downscaling or AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) to maintain frame rate.

Finally, the RX 6700's ray tracing improves budget gamers' and producers' graphics.

3D Render

AMD HIP enhances Blender GPU rendering.

Many engines support OpenCL, including LuxCoreRender and Radeon ProRender.

High-resolution textures, complicated settings, and large models work well on 10GB/12GB VRAM.

These times are equivalent to RTX 3060 12GB but slower than 3070/3080 in CUDA-optimized renderers.

Limitations

CUDA-dependent OctaneRender and Redshift are disabled.

Multi-GPU systems for CUDA-optimized apps are slower than NVIDIA.

Video Editing

Editing Software Support

Excellent OpenCL/GPU acceleration, 4K timeline playback, and DaVinci Resolve exporting.

Premiere Pro: GPU acceleration, smooth editing and previewing, but slower encoding/export than NVIDIA.

Good timeline scrubbing and basic motion graphics with After Effects. Works well with light-to-moderate compositions.

Conclusion

AMD Radeon RX 6700 is a good 1440p GPU for its price and performance. Though its ray tracing and AI are poor, its features and efficiency make it a market contender.

[teen--spirit]

Top Features to Look for in Software Secure Remote Proctor

Ensuring exam integrity in a digital age demands reliable technology. Proctor360’s software secure remote proctor solutions combine cutting-edge security with user-friendly design to protect online assessments. From AI-driven monitoring to encrypted data management, institutions can trust that every exam session remains fair and transparent. By integrating robust identity checks, lockdown browsers, and live support, Proctor360 minimizes cheating risks and technical disruptions. Whether for certification bodies, universities, or corporate training, adopting a software secure remote proctor platform enhances credibility and accessibility.

Robust AI Monitoring for Software Secure Remote Proctor

Advanced AI monitoring lies at the heart of a reliable Software Secure Remote Proctor system. Proctor360 leverages machine learning to detect anomalies—such as unusual eye movements, background noise, or extra faces—during exams. These algorithms flag potential violations in real time, enabling quick intervention while reducing false positives. The AI models continuously learn from proctor feedback, improving accuracy over time. By automating basic surveillance tasks, institutions can allocate human proctor resources to high-risk sessions.

Multi-Factor Identity Verification in Remote Proctoring Software

Preventing impersonation begins with strong identity verification features. Proctor360’s software secure remote proctor platform incorporates multi-factor authentication, combining government-issued ID scanning, facial recognition, and one-time passcodes. Candidates upload ID documents and perform a quick selfie match before accessing the exam. Biometric checks further verify user identity throughout the session. This layered approach deters fraud and satisfies accreditation standards for high-stakes testing.

Secure Browser Lockdown Prevents Unauthorized Access

A critical feature of any software secure remote proctor solution is a reliable lockdown browser. Proctor360’s lockdown environment restricts access to other applications, prevents screen sharing, and disables keyboard shortcuts. Candidates cannot open new tabs, access external resources, or install unauthorized software mid-exam. This virtual containment mimics an on-site exam room, eliminating digital shortcuts. The lockdown browser runs in a secure sandbox, ensuring system stability and preventing crashes.

Live Proctor Support Enhances Exam Security

While AI covers many scenarios, human oversight remains invaluable. Proctor360 offers live proctor support, where trained professionals monitor exam feeds, communicate via chat, and intervene in suspicious cases. Candidates can request assistance through an integrated help chat, reducing anxiety and technical delays. Live proctors verify identity, clarify procedural questions, and escalate issues to administrators. This human element addresses edge-case behaviors that automated systems might misinterpret.

Automated Environment Scanning for Safe Exam Spaces

Ensuring a controlled testing environment is crucial for remote proctoring. Proctor360’s automated environment scanning guides candidates through a 360° room check using their webcam. The software prompts users to pan their camera slowly, verifying no unauthorized materials or individuals are present. Advanced computer vision algorithms analyze these scans for prohibited items, ensuring compliance before the exam begins. By automating this step, Proctor360 reduces setup time and minimizes human error.

Detailed Reporting and Analytics for Compliance

Post-exam insights are vital for auditing and continuous improvement. Proctor360 provides detailed reports, including flag summaries, video snippets of suspicious events, and timestamped logs of candidate activity. Administrators can filter by severity level, review flagged instances, and export data for accreditation bodies. Real-time dashboards track exam progress and proctoring performance metrics. These analytics help institutions identify trends—such as common violation types or technical failure points—and refine policies.

End-to-End Encryption and Data Privacy Compliance

Protecting candidate data is non-negotiable. Proctor360’s platform employs end-to-end encryption for live streams, recordings, and stored files. All data centers adhere to ISO standards, and Proctor360 complies with GDPR, FERPA, and other regional privacy laws. Role-based access controls restrict who can view sensitive information, and regular security audits validate system integrity. Transparent privacy policies inform candidates how their data is collected, used, and retained.

Conclusion

Selecting the ideal software secure remote proctor platform transforms online assessment into a trustworthy, scalable process. Proctor360’s combination of AI monitoring, multi-factor identity checks, and robust browser lockdown delivers comprehensive security. Live proctor support and automated environment scans add human oversight and procedural rigor, while detailed analytics and encryption safeguard integrity and privacy.

[swati3191]

“How to Restrict Server Access for Teams Using RHosting’s Custom Controls”

When managing a shared server environment, not every team member needs full access. Whether it’s for security, compliance, or operational clarity, restricting access based on roles is essential. That’s why RHosting offers powerful custom control features — so you can manage exactly who can access what, and how.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to use RHosting’s built-in controls to restrict server access for teams — without complex IT configurations or third-party tools.

🔐 Why Access Restrictions Matter

Unrestricted access increases the risk of:

Accidental file deletions or edits

Unauthorized use of sensitive applications

Data breaches or compliance violations

Confusion and clutter for end users

With RHosting’s granular access settings, you can provide the right level of access to every user — and nothing more.

🛠️ Step-by-Step: How to Restrict Access Using RHosting’s Custom Controls

Step 1: Log in to the RHosting Admin Portal

Access the RHosting Admin Dashboard using your credentials. From here, you’ll manage users, permissions, and server settings.

Step 2: Create or Select a User Group

If you're managing a team:

Navigate to User Groups

Create a new group (e.g., “Finance Team”, “Dev Interns”, “HR”)

Or, select an existing group to edit

Grouping users by role or department simplifies future management.

Step 3: Assign Server Access Controls

Within the group settings:

Choose which servers the group can access

Select folders or drives available to the group (e.g., restrict “Finance” from accessing “Dev”)

Set time-based access if needed (e.g., office hours only)

Step 4: Set Application-Level Restrictions (Optional)

RHosting also lets you control which applications are visible and usable by each user or group.

Allow only necessary apps like Tally, Excel, or custom software

Block access to tools unrelated to the user’s role

Prevent command-line or admin-level tools from being launched

Step 5: Enable Session Monitoring & Logs

Activate activity logging for transparency and compliance:

See login times, session durations, and accessed resources

Export logs for audits or internal reviews

Identify unusual behavior or access patterns

🔄 Real-World Example: Restricting Access for Interns

Let’s say your dev team hires interns for a 3-month period. Using RHosting:

Create an “Interns” group

Give them access to a specific development server only

Block access to client databases or financial systems

Restrict usage of PowerShell or admin tools

Auto-disable access after 90 days

This keeps your systems secure while enabling interns to contribute productively.

✅ Benefits of Using RHosting’s Custom Controls

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From India to the World: How Pinnacle’s Autism Innovations Are Shaping Global Standards

Hyderabad — At a time when the world is still grappling with fragmented developmental assessment tools, therapy access inequality, and culturally disconnected autism interventions, an Indian innovation network has quietly stepped ahead of the curve. Pinnacle Blooms Network, born in Hyderabad and now operating across 70+ centers in India, has become a reference point for global autism science, AI-integrated therapy, and inclusive design.

From the filing of global patents to international presentations, Pinnacle’s ecosystem of innovations is no longer just India’s solution — it is fast becoming the world’s benchmark.

“India has always contributed soul to global science. With Pinnacle, we’re adding systems,” says Dr. Sreeja Reddy Saripalli, founder and clinical architect of the organization.

The Core Innovation Stack Now Under Global Review

Pinnacle’s suite of patented solutions is now being studied, adapted, and cited by international health bodies:

1. AbilityScore®A first-in-the-world developmental scoring system (0–1000 scale) that offers real-time mapping of 344 child skills across speech, behavior, cognition, and emotion. Countries such as the UAE, Singapore, and Brazil are now evaluating its use in early childhood diagnostic protocols.

2. TherapeuticAI®A concurrency-enabled autism-specific AI engine that adjusts therapy plans based on real-time behavioral data. Research teams from Australia and Germany are collaborating on AI+therapy frameworks based on Pinnacle’s architecture.

3. TherapySphere™A patented immersive therapy environment that aligns with sensory, emotional, and motor needs. Educational design schools from Scandinavia and neuropsychology labs in Japan have cited it in sensory infrastructure studies.

4. SEVA™Pinnacle’s inclusive care access model is now part of case studies in global disability justice programs, including Harvard Kennedy School’s "Equity in Early Childhood" initiative.

5. Everyday Therapy Programs™Daily therapy micro-goals integrated into parent-child routines are now being explored by UNICEF India and WHO advisory teams for community rollout feasibility.

Global Recognition, Authored by Action

Pinnacle's work has been presented at:

· World Autism Summit 2024 (Virtual Asia Keynote)

· Global AI for Healthcare Forum (Berlin)

· South Asia Disability Roundtable (Dhaka)

· United Nations ESCAP consultation on inclusive development (Bangkok)

Technology, Yes. But Rooted in Human Values

What distinguishes Pinnacle is that it brings India’s cultural DNA — of family-first care, empathy-led systems, and multilingual inclusion — into a tech-based framework. It is the rare marriage of AI and ethics, of scale and soul.

“Pinnacle doesn’t export software. It exports a possibility: that therapy can be scientific, accessible, and humane — at the same time,” said Dr. Lars Wiegand, neurodevelopmental researcher from Heidelberg University.

India As A Global Leader in Child Developmental Science

This shift marks a historic repositioning of India: from a follower of global diagnostic trends to a generator of global developmental science.

· Patents filed in 160+ countries

· Research papers underway with international collaborators

· Policy advisories shared with ministries in Nepal, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines

A Roadmap Ahead

Pinnacle is currently in discussions to:

· Launch pilot centers in the Middle East and Southeast Asia

· License its AI engine for local adaptation

· Build open-access diagnostic APIs for national public health programs

A New Standard is Emerging. And It Speaks Indian.

In a world where autism care is often cost-prohibitive and culturally imported, Pinnacle presents a new possibility: That global standards can come from local wisdom. That India, with its diversity and urgency, can build what the world needs but hasn’t yet designed.

About Pinnacle Blooms NetworkIndia’s largest autism therapy ecosystem, Pinnacle has delivered 19M+ therapy sessions across 70+ centers. Its patented innovations — AbilityScore®, TherapeuticAI®, TherapySphere™, SEVA™, and Everyday Therapy Programs™ — are shaping the future of inclusive developmental care.

Website: www.pinnacleblooms.org National Autism Helpline: 9100 181 181 (16 languages, 24x7)

 Disclaimer: This article is intended for informational and awareness purposes only. It should not be considered a substitute for professional evaluation or diagnosis. For expert help, contact 9100 181 181.

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