#it's been a very long time since i watched diu so i hope it works!!

[the-jade-mage]

As Bright as the Sun (drabble)

Description: Santana Awakes from his slumber after years of hibernation. Takes place post-DIU.

Warnings for themes of suicide and suicidal idealization. 

It was 10:00 pm and there was a low rumble in the earth, and the ground started to shake.

The few employees working at this hour, inside the Speedwagon facility clung to the walls and some dropped to floor. The earthquake was natural with no supernatural origin, and was an 7.5 on the Richter scale.

The epicenter was a few miles away but this natural disaster still managed to knock out the all the power, including the backup generators. Leaving the whole facility in a state of utter darkness, except the moonlight that shone threw the few windows that dotted the halls.

Once the quake finally halted, the building was mostly in tact. The main mess was furniture and other miscellaneous things that were scattered everywhere.

The lowest level of the complex had the biggest mess and was completely dark, on account it was below ground level and had no windows.

The few employees that were there carefully were picking themselves off the floor and trying to get their eyes to adjust to the pitch black. Stumbling to perhaps find their phones to use as flashlights.

That's when they heard it, the cracking, almost if egg were hatching, if it were made of stone. The sounds of rock crumbling and falling away. Their hearts started to pick up pace, and they went completely stiff from fear. They weren't lucky enough to have the building fall on them, it was too well built for that. No, it was something far worse.

Then was the sound of something groaning, like an animal, and stretching. He had awakened.

The Pillar Man Santana.

After nearly 80 more years of slumber, he awoke once again.

These few workers couldn't do anything but say silent prayers, because there was no way of stopping him, not until someone could get one of the backpack UV lamps and either kill or incapacitate him. They knew with every fiber of their being that they had no chance of survival unless he showed mercy, which they knew he wouldn't. They wouldn't blame him.

The muscular demigod stepped from the box that had contained him for the past 79 years, hardly any time for him in comparison to the rest of his life, but during the duration of those years much had changed.  

He walked through the people who were standing in the halls, fear struck. Devouring, with his entire being not even flinching. Gathering his nutrients, hardly without a second thought.

He made his way to an air vent, the sounds of his wailing victims trailing behind him. He contorted his body shape to squeeze through the open vent and began to work himself through, to make his way to the upper levels.

He arrived at the ground floor and he began to billow out of the vent and started to take humanoid form again.

He began walking, not really having anything to fear. Not a single person he had encountered had even tried to oppose him since waking up.

When the demigod heard a voice coming from a nearby room. "Yes sir. We're sure he's awake. Y-Yes sir."

Santana walking into the room and turning to face a young man on a satellite phone. The young man's eyes widened and grew glassier as he looked over the Pillar Man who seemed to practically glow as the pale moonlight kissed his muscular skin.

There was indistinct chatter from the phone, and the man clutched it tighter, before horsely whimpering in reply, "He's right in front of me."

Santana grunted before turning towards a nearby window, braking it and exiting. Not bothering to listen to what the man was saying. Probably about how he had left the building, and was now free.

Santana walked up the hill said that overlooked the facility, and just stood there, taking in the changes of the world now, thinking.

What was he to do? His original "mission" was to guard the stone masks in his cave in Mexico, until Kars came back for him.

He knew that that prospect of that happening was probably long gone now. He wanted to know how it had happened though.

'No more then a hundred years must have passed.' He mused. The Hamon user Joseph who he had encountered, and no doubt was the one who had also encountered and befelled his brethren should still be youngly and alive. He hoped that he could speak with him, perhaps take revenge if he felt it necessary. He knew if his family had still been alive, they would've came back for him already, or at least taken control of humanity as they planned.

He waited there a few more hours as he watched as people pooled at the bottom of the hill, wondering if he should go somewhere else in the meantime. He very well knew that Jojo was personally attached to Robert Speedwagon, and by extension the Speedwagon foundation so that's perhaps why he stayed put.

Soon a car pulled up, and a door opened up, out filed a handful of people.

He turned his attention elsewhere until he heard an older woman's voice call out, "Jojo, wait!!"

His head snapped back, he heard someone sprinting up the hillside towards him. The feet hitting the ground and the slightly heavy breath headed his way.

the light breaths and quick footsteps he had thought were Joseph's at first, clearly belonged to someone younger and smaller.

Soon there was someone standing no more then 15 feet away, but they were not visible, he could not only smell them, but hear their uneven breaths. Now invisibility wasn't something hamon users were able to do last he remembered, but it wasn't something entirely new to him either, it was an ability his bother Wammu had.

"I can sense you there, show yourself!" Santana demanded in a low voice.  

Then, as if from thin air a young Asian girl appeared. "I'm, sorry, sometimes it just happens when I get stressed, or nervous." There was a slight pause, as he was practically devouring her with his eyes, trying to read and learn everything he could about her. "My name is Shizuka, but I go by Jojo. My dad told me about you, he said your name was Santana."

There was someone else working their way up the hill, much slower and having a more difficult time, with heavy breaths, he listened but payed attention to the girl in front of him.  

"Your father?" Santana stated more then asked.

"Joseph Joestar." She replied. "He told me about told me about you, and the other Pillar Men. He especially respected Whamu even after everything that happened."

Santana subconsciously took a few steps towards Shizuka  "Where is you're father? Where is Joseph Joestar?" he asked slowly.

"I'm right here." A gravelly and exasperated voice breathed from behind Shizuka Santana brought his gaze to meet the eyes of the old man.

"Joseph." The Pillar Man started as he outstretched his arm. "You've aged, you must've stopped practicing Hamon." He tried to form his sentence into a question but it again came out as a statement. It didn't make any sense to have stopped performing any form of his training, Hamon extends the life of the user and even just by breathing he could've corrected any of this.

"Do you come to me completely defenseless? Why would you stop? Was it because you believed the danger had passed?" Santana asked confused, surely the human had to have known that he was kept by the speedwagon foundation.

"I didn't see a point in it anymore." He replied simply leaning on his cane, and putting a hand on his young daughter's arm. "Why should've I continued? I didn't have any reason to, not anymore."

Santana squinted, he could easily read situations and learn very quickly. He had met Joseph before he had any formal training, he knew since then he had definitely had some sort of time when he learned more. His life had already been prolonged, though his age clearly showed.

Had Joseph been foolish enough to think that he, the last survivor of an ancient spices of demigods no longer posed a viable threat? Perhaps.

"I wanted to put everything behind me." Joseph started. "I wanted my own life, my own family. As does anyone I would think. I asked you then to become a friend because I did not believe that we were all that different." He said with a sincere chuckle.

He was starting to catch on there was more to why he had stopped, as if the reason to continue had no longer been a factor, but he no longer believed that it was the danger of him or the other Pillar Men. Perhaps a close companion or even multiple had perished at the hands of his family, but he couldn't detect even the hint of anger or resentment.

"You've lost friends." Santana stated, trying hard to gage  Joseph's reaction and gain some more insight.

He could see the hurt in his eyes, the way his pupils dilated and his eyes grew wet, he knew. "Yet, you do not intend to fight unless I instigate it."

He could also read from Joseph that this too was the truth.

Santana shook his head. "Why? It isn't logical."

"Had I struck you as someone logical the first time we met?" Joseph laughed.  

Santana furrowed his brow.

"I've met many people throughout my life. You were the first one who did not see me and immediately think that I needed to be used or killed. Honestly you are one of the only things I have a difficult time reading." He said clenching his jaw.

Joseph laughed, this startled the Pillar Man. "I will take it as a compliment." He said stepping closer to Santana, so he now stood between  him and Shizuka. "But what about you?" Joseph asked.

"What about me? I had hoped that at least my brother Whamu was alive, or that Kars had just forgotten about me. Or perhaps you would still be a worthy adversary to fight again. But, there's nothing left at all. Perhaps there's no point for me either." Santana growled. "Everyone I knew, aside from you, is gone. I failed my only mission Kars had entrusted to me and they-" Santana swiftly brought down his arm to strike Joseph. Breathing in Joseph conducted Hamon and brought his arm up to sheild himself. Still the sheer force of it knocked over the old man.

Shizuka readied her pose to fight. Santana could sense that her fighting spirit had even increased. But Joseph stretched back his arm, telling his daughter not to do anything.

"They left me alone, again." Santana said kneeling in front of Joseph "I should've taken your offer back then, instead of believing that Kars intended to return for me. He was my father but he had his own ambitions."

Santana looked at his own wounded arm glowing like embers as it began to heal.

"I know that whatever you had to do was because you had no other choice, I know because the way you had treated me then and the way you are still treating me."

The next few hours pass, and Santana had asked questions about his family and how things had transpired. Joseph answered him, letting him know how how honorable Esidisi and Whamu had fought and acted during battle. He tried to embellish Kars, but Santana knew better that Joseph tried too hard. And it hadn't surprised him that Kars had cheated his way through his fight.

"Why don't you come back inside, and we can figure out what we can do next. I wish uncle Speedwagon were alive he would've loved this." Joseph chuckled, trying to stand up.

Santana guided him, helping the elderly man to his feet. "I don't think so Jojo."

Joseph looked up at the Pillar Man in shock. "What? Why?"

Santana remained as expressionless as he could. "There isn't any point in it anymore. Is there?"

Joseph got angry, and the fire that his eyes held when he was young could practically be seen again. He griped Santana's arm as tightly as he could, which in all honesty wasn't that tight.

"Don't use my words against me." Joseph growled, trying not to sound like he was pleading.

"My family is gone, I am the only living Pillar Man left. Why else should I continue?"

"Because, that's who've you've been as long as I've known you, a survivor. whatever the circumstances."Joseph said sternly.

"Jojo, I have survived for a very long time, but now I am done. I want to be with my family, I want to be at peace. Stay with me and watch the sunrise."

Joseph was quiet for a moment looking into Santana's solemn eyes, before quietly replying. "Sure, I will do that."

Shizuka had left them awhile ago. Leaving the two of them standing side by side, facing east in silence knowing that dawn would soon arrive.

The sky on the horizon began to glow. "This would be the time we would have to go inside, underground, until the sun set. I always thought the sky looked beautiful at this time, and imagined that the sun would be as well." Santana had always stollen glimpses of the sky when he could, and when he hid inside people he had to stay where it was safe, in the dark. Kars had similar feelings about the sun. Except his father wished to transcend the sun. He chuckled to himself thinking that he guessed his father did actually fulfill his dream, even if it was short lived.

The sun began to crest over the horizon line, and he felt his skin began to burn. "It is beautiful. Thank you Jojo." he said as the burning grew more intense, he thought about how bright and beautiful it was, It almost reminded him of the harmon user beside him, when they had first met. Santana welcomed the brightness and warmth, as his body started to give way and disintegrate into a pile of burning ash.

Joseph silently wept for the god and hung his head.

[sciencespies]

Defense market a safe haven for space companies during pandemic

https://sciencespies.com/space/defense-market-a-safe-haven-for-space-companies-during-pandemic/

Defense market a safe haven for space companies during pandemic

With the global economy in the grip of the coronavirus crisis, investments are grinding to a halt, creating deep uncertainty for a commercial space sector that has seen more than $25 billion in venture capital pour in over the last decade.

Since the pandemic hit, Pentagon contracts have been a lifeline for companies in the space industry, said Chris Quilty, president of Quilty Analytics. “The Department of Defense has gone out of its way to cultivate commercial relationships and to leverage the investment in talent that exists in the commercial domain,” he told SpaceNews. “In the current emergency, the Pentagon is supporting the industry from a financial perspective through contracting practices and accelerated payment terms.”

It is somewhat ironic, said Quilty, that many commercial space companies and investors have shown a bias against the government or the military for being too slow to make decisions and award contracts. In today’s reality, Quilty said, “many companies have discovered the government in some cases has the ability to move faster than commercial entities.”

Josh Hartman, a partner at the venture firm The Flying Object, described the current business climate as a “very shaky time.”

Right before the pandemic took hold, Hartman was working to raise funds for a small company in the space sector that had drawn interest from strategic national security investors. A deal was in the works but investors pulled back, and that is happening across the board, Hartman told SpaceNews. “When the entire economy is overshadowed by something like this, all companies become lower value. It’s much more difficult to raise money.”

Hartman, who also is a senior executive at Geost Inc., a supplier of electro-optical sensors to the U.S. military, said measures taken by DoD to soften the blow to the industry puts contractors in a stronger position to weather the crisis than companies that only rely on venture capital or commercial sales.

To keep money flowing to suppliers, the Pentagon on March 20 ordered contracting officers to increase the rate of progress payments from 80 percent to 90 percent for large companies, and to 95 percent for small businesses. The payments are for work already performed, so what DoD is doing is accelerating the cash back to companies. To date, DoD said, the boost in progress payments has injected $3 billion into the defense supply chain.

Another key move intended to avert layoffs was to allow for “equitable adjustments” so contractors are not penalized for poor performance caused by the pandemic. This means companies can request adjustments to contract schedules and costs, Hartman said.

This is going to help a lot of small businesses, he said. Inevitably schedules will slow down and that will drive up overhead costs. By offering to make adjustments, said Hartman, DoD is providing a safety net to companies that, without that kind of aid, would default on their obligations and likely go out of business.

DOD’S STAKE IN COMMERCIAL INDUSTRY

In key technology sectors including space, DoD has a huge stake in the health of commercial suppliers, said Tara Murphy Dougherty, CEO of the data and analytics firm Govini.

“The picture continues to look bleak across the board,” Murphy Dougherty told SpaceNews. The economic fallout on commercial business, she said, “could undermine progress DoD has made building bridges to the small business and startup community. Those bridges I don’t think are cemented in place yet.”

Organizations like the Defense Innovation Unit and the U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center have been working to bring more nontraditional suppliers into the defense sector but only the companies that have actual DoD contracts have a financial safety net right now, said Murphy Dougherty.

When DoD issued a memo March 20 identifying defense contractors as “critical infrastructure” that needed to keep working during the pandemic it sent a huge message, she said. “The biggest benefit was reducing uncertainty for industry and creating some financial security.”

Despite these government actions, the long-term outlook is still blurry, Murphy Dougherty said. “Until we have a vaccine, we’ll still have to absorb the impact on operations and on the workforce, even for mission-critical companies.”

“If you look at the airline industry as a proxy from a timeline perspective, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks it took two and a half years for air travel to reach the level that existed prior to 9/11,” she said. “It’s not a perfect analogy by any means but I think we need to start thinking of compounding delays and impact that could last years.”

RISK OF FOREIGN INVESTMENT

With many U.S. businesses facing financial distress, the influx of foreign capital to companies that develop technologies for national security is a major concern, Murphy Dougherty said.

“It is hard to identify what those vulnerable companies are without really good data,” she said. “If a company is publicly traded, there’s a lot of high quality data.” With non-publicly traded companies, it’s more difficult to identify their sources of funding but not impossible.

The Pentagon is anticipating that foreign capital will target cash-strapped U.S. technology firms during and after the coronavirus crisis, Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and technology, told reporters March 25.

A member of the California Air National Guard’s 216th Space Control Squadron sorts pears at a food bank in early April. Meanwhile, the Pentagon is using its contract authorities to provide a different sort of aid to space companies hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Credit: U.S. Space Force

The Defense Innovation Unit is watching this issue closely, said Brig. Gen. Steven Butow, who oversees the space portfolio at DIU and works with many startups in the sector.

DIU was created in 2015 to speed up the adoption of commercial technology across DoD. In addition to space, its other key areas of focus are artificial intelligence, autonomy, cyber and human systems.

Even before the pandemic, DIU had been working to identify what commercial businesses might be targeted by foreign investors, particularly from China. “The current state of affairs caused by COVID-19 does not affect this process,” Butow said in a statement to SpaceNews. “DIU has proactively engaged with our partner companies to determine how COVID-19 is affecting them and their ability to meet deliverables under current contracts.”

It’s too soon to say what the ultimate impacts might be, Butow said. “DIU continues to actively open new solicitations and execute new agreements in support of our mission to accelerate commercial technology for national security.”

CONTRACT AWARDS HELP PRIVATE FUNDING

Quilty said DoD contract announcements can make a huge impact during distressed times. For a commercial entity that is venture funded or private-equity backed, the news of a contract award, even if it hasn’t yet been executed or funded, is a major boost, he said. “If you’re an investor or a prospective investor, the fact that the company has been awarded a government contract gives you confidence to put in place bridge financing or go out for another round of fundraising.”

U.S. Air Force and Space Force procurement officials said they plan to do what they can to support suppliers. The commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center, Lt. Gen. John Thompson, told SpaceNews March 25 that SMC is issuing contracts and accelerating awards as much as possible. “Many of our nontraditional small contractors have commercial solutions that we want to try to bring into the defense acquisition ecosystem,” said Thompson. “It’s definitely a priority for us to keep those innovative small companies in play as much as possible with the available budget we have.”

The senior acquisition executive for the Department of the Air Force, Will Roper, told reporters March 27 that he worries about small businesses that have developed important technologies for national security and are now struggling.

The Air Force in recent years stood up venture-style programs aimed at attracting small businesses that have technologies applicable to national security. “We’ll continue to award every SBIR [Small Business Innovation Research] we have available,” Roper said.

Industry consultant Jo-Anne Sears, a partner at Velocity Government Relations, said many venture-funded companies in the space sector develop cutting-edge technologies that the Pentagon needs to stay ahead of rivals like China. If these companies die, the implications would be significant because of their talented workforce, she said.

Sears credited the Air Force for stepping up “out-of-cycle” SBIR projects during the coronavirus pandemic. “This program was designed to rapidly fund meaningful national security projects focused on space, hypersonics and an assortment of technical challenges,” she said. This is one way to help prevent some of these critical companies from throwing in the towel.

Hartman, the venture fund partner, said there is a chance that the landscape in the space sector will be permanently changed.

“I’m fearful that COVID-19 on the heels of a couple of bad news stories like OneWeb and Bigelow will stop the flow of capital that has sparked the space boom we have seen of late,” Hartman said. “We’ve already seen that capital is drying up but I hope it comes back within months. Otherwise, we’ll see the end of the renaissance era.”

This article originally appeared in the April 13, 2020 issue of SpaceNews magazine.

#Space