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sablelab · 5 years

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Covert Operations - Chapter 95

SYNOPSIS: Jamie makes his way towards the monastery and takes out several guards in the process. Having found his way inside he comes across an obstacle that could hinder his progress.

This chapter has a lot of violence in it. Previous chapters can be found at … https://sablelab.tumblr.com/covertoperations

My apologies for mentioning the rodents in the last chapter but nothing happened, they were just used only to exacerbate Claire’s fear as I’m sure it would have ours as well. Rest assured Jamie will find her in the next chapter and they will make their escape. THANK YOU all for reading, liking and reblogging my story so that others may see it. I am very appreciative.

CHAPTER 95 (V) Wearing his night vision goggles and dressed in mission black from head to toe, James Fraser made his way towards the building. Less than 50 metres from the perimeter he parted the tree branches and stopped to get his bearings. From this position in the woods he could see the monastery clearly through the undergrowth. Taking out his special night binoculars he surveyed the large construction in the distance and assessed what obstacles lay in the path of his objective. Considering that Fergus had said that surveillance at the monastery was sophisticated, Jamie was thorough in his sweep of the grounds and surveyed all corners of the perimeter. What he saw confirmed Fergus’ evaluation. The triad was certainly prepared for any contingency. Surrounded with wire fencing, probably high voltage judging by the simplicity of the design, Jamie made out twelve men who were outside the monastery keeping watch. There were two guards in the courtyard, four patrolling inside the premises, another two at the door of the monastery and a four-guard rotation outside the complex. Without a thermal body count he had no idea how many were on the inside, so until he found Claire he would be exposed. However, he was confident that eliminating the guards on the outside would be just a formality. Having seen enough he lowered the binoculars and glanced down at his watch timing when the guards on the fence line changed. Jamie then did another complete sweep of the area. This time he made out two high-resolution digital security cameras to the east and west. He timed the rotation of the cameras and found that a full revolution occurred every five minutes in sync with the guard change. It was a short window of opportunity but nevertheless it was enough time for him to slip past undetected. Preparing for his assault, he opened his backpack and took extra guns out of the bag that Murtagh had given him. He slid a Walther P57k with bottleneck silencer into the back-waist band of his mission pants, he placed another under the leg of his pants and the other weapon he put in a pocket on his mission suit. He also took out a scanner and a destructive detonator timer. He placed them in his pockets as well. Just as he was about to advance further towards the monastery, a guard passed by. Dropping to the ground he rolled over training one of his weapons on the guard. Jamie thought it strange when the man reached up to check something protruding from a large tree in the grounds. Zooming in on him, he watched what he did next and saw the guard adjust some type of mechanism on the tree before walking away. The guard’s movements set him to thinking, but he was not happy with his thoughts. Had the triad strategically placed sensors in the grounds? It certainly appeared so. Were they also on the outside of the perimeter? If so ... how could he have missed them? How had he failed to see the devices? As a consequence, did the triad already know that he was here? Jamie tapped the comm. link on his earpiece hoping that communication had been restored and that Fergus would answer.

“Fergus ...”

Back at Section One in Tactical … Since they had lost communication with Jamie, Fergus had anxiously waited for any message from Section’s Level 5 operative. When he heard his faint voice say his name he answered almost immediately.

“Jamie ... I can just hear you ... wait ... I’m changing to C Band ... Jamie?”

“Fergus ... I need to get in here.” Suddenly he heard a shot ring out. It sounded like it came from inside the monastery. Jamie closed his eyes. “Fergus ... hurry ... I heard a shot.” Having heard the dismay in his voice, Fergus knew that every minute was crucial. “What can you see? ...” Jamie barely heard his questions. He brushed his fingers over his upper lip. Was he too late to rescue her? Had they already eliminated his Claire? “Jamie? ... What security does the monastery have?” When the sound of Fergus’ voice cut into his thoughts, he methodically relayed all the security devices he had observed without delay. “An electrified fence, twelve hostiles outside, hidden sensors and two digital cameras with a full sweep of the grounds every five minutes.” Quickly typing the Intel Jamie had given him into his computer as he spoke; Fergus collated this information with what Section One knew already. However, there were some discrepancies as the Rising Dragons had increased their security surveillance from his original data. The hidden sensors must have been added recently, he thought. Fergus made some adjustments then spoke to Jamie once more. “Okay ... Got it ... I’ve tuned into the cameras’ wavelengths and linked their rotation directly to the mainframe. I’ve been able to construct a picture that will replay the same images repeatedly.” He then hit another key on his computer keyboard. “Okay, we're rolling.” “Covered?” “Yeah, they're watching our feed now; they’ll think the perimeter is clear.” “What about the sensors?” Having anticipated his next question Fergus was prepared. He’d immobilized the sensor triggers by looping into the same frequency as the cameras and was able to re-jig their capabilities as well. He watched his monitor with a broad smile on his face.

“Disabled.”

“How long have I got?” “The tape runs another five hours ...You can take care of the rest ... No?” “Yes.” “Jamie ... Operations has sent a backup team. Perhaps you should wait.” “Thank ye ... but I canna wait for them. I need to rescue Claire now,” was James Fraser’s succinct reply. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Quickly making his way in the direction of the sound, Jamie knew he would have to keep to the shadows to avoid detection by the patrolling guards, but first he needed to find a way through the fence. Cutting a way through the wire was out of the question. It was far too dangerous and not time effective. He was faced with a dilemma but not an impossible conundrum. He would need to disable the electricity current somehow before he had any chance of approaching the monastery. If he could short circuit the power just long enough for him to scale the fence it would be enough. This short window would be sufficient not to raise suspicion by the guards, who when and if they checked, would think that some kind of animal had run into it. Rummaging in Murtagh’s bag of tricks, he found some fibre-optic cable, wire snipers and a metal spike. Cutting the wire, he fringed the strands, wound it around the spike and carefully laid the loose ends against the electrified fence. He heard the sizzling sound crackle first, then Jamie jumped back as a shower of white sparks suddenly exploded around him. It had worked. The power was temporarily rendered dead so he quickly scampered over the fence. Making it over with seconds to spare, he dropped heavily to the ground on the other side before rolling into the shadowy corner as the fence bounced back to life. That was too close for comfort, he thought. “Jamie, you okay?” James Fraser could feel the hairs on the back of his neck rise with static electricity. One more second and he would have been electrocuted. “I'm fine. Dinna fash, I'm in.” “I'm picking up a signal ... Jamie, do you have visual?” Composing himself he took a moment and watched from the shadows to see the reaction of the guards. He looked around and saw two men look over towards where he was. One of them signalled to his buddy that he would patrol over to the fence and check what had caused the sparks to fly. “I've got them.” Steely eyes watched as the guard advanced towards where he was hiding. Little did the triad member know, but his time was numbered. James Fraser was waiting for him. The guard looked like a body builder. He was stocky and broad shouldered and carried a lethal automatic weapon. The guard looked along the fence then bent down when he saw something that caught his eye. As he did so Jamie closed in behind him and thumped him with his gun. However, before he could shoot him, the guard regained momentum. He twisted around and knocked the silencer out of his hand. He lunged at him and threw a punch. Retaliating Jamie caught the guard off balance by throwing a punch of his own. He fell to his knees but in so doing brought Jamie down with him. Regaining their balance, the two exchanged more blows. Similarly accomplished and just as dangerous, they engaged in hand-to-hand combat for a short while until the guard gained the upper hand. One precise blow to the head caused Jamie to loll backwards. The guard then lunged at him in an effort to finish off his opponent, but Jamie was able to leverage his legs around his neck. Rolling him to the ground, he twisted his legs snapping the guard’s neck with a resounding crack. He lay on the ground lifeless. Jamie then dragged the man’s body into the bushes and covered him with foliage. “One down.” ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Taking another look around for any of the other guards, he noticed that two were patrolling the far side of the fence, while the third was now making his way over to where he was hidden in the shadows. Coming to look for his colleague the unsuspecting guard was not prepared for what awaited him near the perimeter of the fence. Hearing the sound of a twig snap in the bushes behind him, the guard looked around to the source of the noise. That’s when Jamie struck him to the throat with a blow that saw the heavy-set guard crumble and fall. Like his partner, he dragged the body out of sight. Picking up his dropped weapon, James Fraser watched as the other two guards began to make their way over to change with the two guards he’d disposed of. When they came closer and were unable to see their colleagues, the two men became a little agitated. Just as they were about to make radio contact, Jamie raised his silencer and with two quick, rapid shots watched as the two men fell to the ground one after the other. One of the men fell towards the electric fence. His body rested heavily against the deadly wire as a riot of luminous sparks filled the air. The guard’s frizzled corpse twitched uncontrollably as the high voltage current coursed through his lifeless body. “Four down.” Sprinting towards the monastery his objective was as clear as crystal. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Slipping through the night like a shadowy apparition, Jamie moved swiftly but quietly towards the monastery building. His night vision goggles made his course easy despite the darkness. Ever alert to the danger that surrounded him he was cognizant that there were still eight guards that were unaccounted for. He saw two move away to the far corner of the grounds to patrol the outskirts of the monastery boundary. It would be a while before they returned. The coast was clear. Keeping his eye on the patrolling guards who were within the perimeter he moved up several steps and into the open courtyard of the monastery. So far, he’d had clear passage towards the building but when he heard a guard approach, he ducked behind one of the larger than life-size statues with exaggerated features and grotesque expressions that were facing into the quadrangle. He then observed what the man did. The lone guard stopped to light a cigarette. Leaning his back against one of the statues near where he was positioned, he took a long drag before blowing the smoke up into the air. While the man was preoccupied Jamie made his move. Creeping up from behind the guard, he grabbed him from behind in a head lock. The cigarette fell from his lips as a small gasp of surprise was muffled when he placed his hand over the guard’s mouth. With a flick of his wrists, Jamie twisted his neck. The snap of the guard’s bones breaking echoed in the stillness of the night. As the sentry’s head lolled forward, he eased his body down to the ground and placed it behind the statue out of sight while still keeping alert for any other movement. James Fraser barely made a sound in the quiet of the night as he ran across the span of empty courtyard space to the next statue watchful for the second guard patrolling this part of the monastery. His vigilance was rewarded when the sound of footsteps echoed on the gravel surface. Taking cover once more Jamie was aware that another guard was making his way down some steps into the courtyard. Once again, he merged into the shadows and waited for the guard to appear. Standing just below the steps, the guard shone his flashlight around the quadrangle on a routine check of the courtyard. When the beam of his torch passed over the statue where Jamie was hidden, he pulled back deeper into the shadows until the beam traversed onto the next concrete monument. The guard moved further into the quadrangle shining his torch around the area. Suddenly his flashlight honed in on something out of the ordinary on the ground near one of the statues in the distance. Jamie’s eyes followed the path of his curiosity. The guard had stumbled across something where the first guard was felled ... it was the man’s smouldering cigarette. Thinking that this was strange, as he knew that his friend always smoked his cigarettes to the butt, he called out his colleague’s name, but he heard no reply. The second guard began to move toward the fallen cigarette to check it out. He called out again. However, as he did so, the guard turned around behind him when he heard the sound of a rock being thrown and shone his flashlight in that direction.

“Is that you Chen? ... Where are you?”

Another rock tumbled past his foot. “Okay ... I get it ... two can play this game!” He shone his light in the direction of the small thrown missile only to have another stone come from the other direction. Spooked, the guard turned sharply to his left and came face to face with a man clad in black ... James Fraser “What ... the ...fuck! How did you get in here?” he mouthed dropping his torch and reaching for his weapon. “Over the fence ...” Jamie replied casually as he sidestepped the guard knocking his weapon from his hand in the process. The sentry was caught off guard as he out manoeuvred him. He turned and charged at him. Sidestepping him once more Jamie karate chopped the man, but he retaliated with a blow of his own. A quick flurry of exchanges occurred before the guard pulled a knife from his shoe. With the knife raised, he lunged at the black clad intruder who managed to avoid the thrust of his blade. They fought for possession of the knife that the guard was holding but he lost his balance in the scuffle. He lunged once more but Jamie grabbed him, twisting the hand holding the knife to the guard’s chest. He tried in vain to avoid the blade piercing his flesh, however, the more he struggled the deeper the blade went until it was embedded in his chest. Blood spilled from the deep cut yet still he continued to fight off his aggressor. James Fraser, however, was far too strong and sharply twisted the blade up piercing the guard’s heart. With a cry of anguish, he fell lifeless to the ground. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Having made his way across the courtyard, Jamie climbed the stairs leading to the entrance door of the monastery and observed that the guards who were there were nonchalant about their duties. They were both playing a game of Mah-Jong to wile away the hours knowing that the perimeter and grounds were well protected. Any interlopers who had managed to get into this well fortified monastery were either dead or would have been captured without their input. Jamie bypassed the two preoccupied guards and slipped to the west side of the building from whence he’d heard the gunshot.

“Jamie ... when you are able, you’ll need to place a scanner so that I can pin point where Claire is being held.” Flattened against the wall, he pulled the scanner from the pocket of his mission suit and attached it to the building. “Done.” James Fraser slipped from window to window peering inside to see if Claire was being held in the rooms. He knew instinctively that the torture room would not be here and was more likely to be in an underground room within the monastery. Nonetheless he continued along the wall looking for an opening into the building. “Fergus ... Have ye located Claire yet?” “No ... but I’ve now got a blueprint scan on the monastery.” “Okay.” The computer whizz had worked quickly to use all the sources he had at his disposal. Once he had planted the scanner, he’d set to work immediately collating the Intel he already had. Fergus then pulled up a transparent schematic of the monastery on an overhead monitor. He relayed the Intel back to Jamie. “I did an infrared scan of the monastery off our satellite feed as well. It’s built on top of an ancient structure. Over the centuries a system of underground tunnels were built by the monks who lived there.” “Location?” “Proceed about fifty metres north of your position there’s a disused tunnel that the monks used there.” “How do we know the passageways aren't collapsed?” Fergus noted the different colour patterns to the various passageways in the schematic on his overhead monitor. “Colour saturation indicates structural density. A blue line traces a pathway through the maze that leads to what I believe is the underground torture chamber.” “How stable are the configurations?” “There is no way to be certain but our options are limited. Jamie ... There’s a hot spot in the west wing of the building three floors down.” “That must be it.” “Yes.” Armed with the Intel he needed to enter the building; James Fraser made his way to where the tunnel was located. The door was well camouflaged. It was overgrown with foliage and was nearly unrecognizable as a secret entrance into the monastery. He looked back and forth for any triad security guards but this side of the monastery was apparently deserted and although he kept watch for other guards none eventuated. He had clear passage to the tunnel entrance but when he tried to open the door sealing the opening, it was locked. Taking his laser from his hip holster he shot the laser bead over the lock in order to cut through its interior mechanisms. “Jamie! There are two guards on the north rim, coming from behind!” Although he’d not completely cut through the lock, he had damaged it enough for him to enter the tunnel. He quickly kicked the door in. The weakened lock couldn't hold against the force of the thrust and gave way. Jamie tumbled inside, and just as quickly closed the door behind him and leaned against it. “I’m in ... which way?” “The primary tunnel runs directly before you. Follow the tunnel straight ahead. It should veer to the right then there are a set of stairs that descend downwards.” “Have ye got a reading on Claire?” "She's down about three floors ... At the first flight of stairs there is a grate covering the entrance.” “Tunnel access?” “Through the grate. From there it’s two hundred meters to the next point.” ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* When Jamie reached the stairs, he was confronted with a steel frame covering the opening to the stairway. He pulled it off, slipped through the opening and made his way down a short flight of stairs until he came to another landing. Ahead of him was a long and narrow passageway. He ran along it until he was confronted with three tunnels each going in a different direction. “Which way?” “Take the far-left tunnel ... and keep moving straight.” These tunnels had not been used for a long while. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling and they were eerily quiet and cold. Moving further through the tunnel Jamie’s foot suddenly stumbled across something lying on the ground. As he looked down, he jerked back in surprise to see some human skeletal remains dressed in a monk’s robe. The corpse had long since decomposed and judging by the remains he had been there for many, many years. The triad obviously didn’t know about these tunnels which boded well for him. His detection would go unnoticed and he would be able to egress the same way when he’d rescued Claire. He continued on with renewed confidence. “Twelve meters to your right there are another set of stairs.” Adhering to Fergus’ instructions explicitly, Jamie continued on following the tunnel as it weaved its way through the bowels of the monastery until it came to an abrupt stop when he came to a dead end. All that was in front of him was a brick wall. Realising that something was wrong he spoke to Fergus who was monitoring his progress back at Section One. “Fergus ... There's no more tunnel ... there's just walls.” “It has to be there.” “Well, it’s not.” Fergus stared at his computerized schematic, trying to figure out the reasons behind the discrepancy between his program and his information. “Jamie, kick the wall.” He did. One kick and the wall began to collapse. Bricks and crumbling mortar fell onto the ground at his feet. “Got it ... That's it ... Okay.” He kept kicking at the wall until he had opened up a hole that had been sealed over for some time. Pushing at the rubble with his hands, he dislodged the bricks opening up a cavity large enough for him to be able to get through. Once on the other side, the tunnel wall zigzagged into the darkness. He followed the winding passageway and went deeper into the monastery. Straight ahead of him Jamie could see what appeared to be some kind of air duct and a beam of light filtered through a closed door beneath it. He stopped and pulled out his silencer. Checking the clip, he slid the weapon into position then clicking off the safety switch he held it at the ready. Reaching out, his hand rested on the doorknob.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ to be continued on TUESDAY 21st when Jamie finally finds his Claire.

#jamieandclaireau #Jamieandclairefanfic #jamieandclairecrossover #outlander fanfiction #outlanderfanfic #covert operations #outlanderandLFN

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tondonellie06 · 3 years

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Competency Demonstration Report (CDR) Sample for Civil Engineers ANZSCO 233211

Civil engineers design, improve, and safeguard the environment in which we live. They plan, design, and supervise buildings and frameworks such as highways, railways, airports, bridges, ports, dams, water system initiatives, power plants, and water sewerage frameworks.

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In the first Career Episode, the author describes a study he completed as a final-year student for the International Journal of Structural and Civil Engineering, titled "Studies of Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete Composites for 2100 words. " His job in this research was to define the experimental inquiry on using glass fibers with structural concrete.

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The author in-depth discusses the project "Monitoring of Civil Engineering Structures Using Digital Image Correlation Technique of 1600 words" in the second Career Episode. He completed this project while working at the Warsaw Institute of Technology. Some of the key tasks he accomplished on this project were as follows:

Present a civil-engineering structure monitoring adaption of the DIC method.

Make use of extra connections and extensions to make measurements easier and data analysis more efficient.

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Within the MONIT project, create a monitoring system that uses customized DIC sensors with varying degrees of precision.

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To establish a link between the electrochemical test results in the breaker and the findings obtained during the sliding tests. This would improve knowledge of the additives' mechanisms in creating a tribofilm that reduces friction and wear.

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After completing all three of your career episodes, you'll need to compose a summary statement. Summary statements are an evaluation of all elements of your expertise. That is why you must properly analyze your professional experience to ensure that you have covered everything. It must be well stated, connecting all of the dots in your career paths. Because only one summary statement is required for all three career episodes, your summary statement should not be restricted to one page. It should contain 1200 words for a detailed description of all competence aspects.

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captain-zajjy · 7 years

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Solstice, Chapter 25 - A Final Fantasy XV Story

Pairing: Ignis x Female Original Character

AO3 | Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

A/N: I swear to God, I am still writing this story. Actually, I'm going to try to finish it as part of NaNoWriMo before Episode Ignis comes out and makes it officially AU.

Fort Vaullerey was ensconced behind a massive wall of concrete, with the only way in or out a tall, heavy gate that had taken the Hunters the better part of the previous evening to force open.

“Don’t reckon there’s anybody inside,” one of them said to Valeria and the others as they entered the perimeter. “What with all the racket we’ve been making.”

Gladiolus, the default leader of the group, grunted in response. “Never hurts to be prepared.” He shot a look at Iris who nodded in response, likely mentally filing away the tip.

“You better take something to defend yourself,” he then said to Valeria, gesturing to what appeared to be a full armory in the back of a Hunter’s truck. “Just in case.”

Just in case. Those words sent a chill through her. She knew if she spent too long contemplating what sort of ‘case’ would require her to have a weapon, she’d fold before they even got inside.

Instead, Valeria approached the bed of the truck, examining the weapons in turn. There were axes, polearms, swords, and larger swords. Most of them looked like they’d be exhausting merely to carry around, never mind wield in any sort of useful manner. The only thing that looked remotely her size was a dagger, similar to the ones Ignis used, but simple and unadorned. Looking at the relatively short length of the blade, she thought if a daemon got that close, she’d already be dead anyway.

“I don’t...” Valeria backed away, shaking her head. “I don’t really know how to use any of this stuff.”

“I recall you being an excellent shot back in our school days,” Ignis said.

“The target wasn’t moving,” she replied. And I wasn’t so terrified I could barely see straight.

“Hey, I know.” Prompto stepped forward, apparently not hearing a word she’d just said. “Take this.” He thrust a small, odd-looking pistol into her hands, then began to dig through his pockets.

“I can’t take your gun,” Valeria said.

“Nah.” There was a shimmer and a strange, almost mechanical sound, and then a much more typical looking revolver was in Prompto’s right fist, before it dissipated into nothing. “That’s a flare gun,” he explained, finally producing a handful of large, cylindrical shells from his vest pocket (along with a good deal of lint and an empty candy wrapper).

“But those are different than road flares,” Prompto went on. “Made specifically to hurt daemons. Won’t be much use if we run into Niffs in there, though...”

“That’s okay,” Valeria said. She hated the Niffs, and their Magitek brought back awful memories, but they didn’t terrify her like the daemons did. “Thanks.” She regarded the shells for a moment, then tucked them away in her jacket pocket, placing the empty flare gun into the front pocket of her pants.

“Ah, I nearly forgot this.” Ignis produced the flashlight she’d given him weeks ago and handed it over to her. “I believe you’ll be able to make better use of it than I can.”

Valeria took it from him, trying to choke down the memories of glowing eyes in the dark.

“That was meant to be a joke,” Ignis said when she didn’t reply. “A crude one, perhaps. Val,” he laid a hand on her shoulder. “It’s going to be alright.”

It’s going to be alright. That’s what she’d told herself after escaping Insomnia, that nothing could be worse than the Imperial interrogations, their experiments and abductions and carefully crafted lies.

There were worse things. And that was what was causing her knees to quiver now - not the possibility of some concealed Imperial troops, not even the cold, unfeeling Magitek.

There are worse things... But this time, she wasn’t alone. Ignis’s presence was both comforting and terrifying, for as safe as he made her feel, the idea of those things tearing him apart, devouring him, was far more frightening than facing her own demise.

“I know you have your tasks to complete,” Ignis said, sliding his hand down to rest on her elbow. “But I would like you to be my eyes out here - if it’s not too much to ask.”

“Iggy...”You don’t have to ask that. “Of course. I only have to write down the numbers.” Valeria double-checked the pants pocket opposite the flare gun Prompto had just given her for her little notebook, pencil, and the tool EXINERIS had loaned her for the job. “I can do the math later.”

Ignis nodded, the light pinned to his jacket lapel illuminating the grateful smile on his face. And Valeria was quietly grateful too. Though she doubted it was entirely his intent, describing the Fort gave her anxious mind something to focus on, something sane to cling to.

The pair of them caught up to Gladiolus, who turned to address the group. “We’ll do a full sweep.” He nodded toward Valeria. “Just holler whenever you need to do your electric thing and we’ll stop.”

Iris gave Valeria a reassuring smile, before turning to her brother, fingering the long, slender blade strapped to her hip. Unlike their male companions, she was unable to summon her weapon from seemingly thin air.

“Okay, Gladdy! Let’s go,” she said, hot on her brother’s heels as they set out to explore the Fort. Prompto hung back, bringing up the rear. Valeria took a deep breath, wishing it would calm the churning in her stomach, and turned on the flashlight, strafing it over the area in front of them.

Though Ignis would never say as much to Gladiolus or Prompto (well, perhaps he would if his mood was sour enough), Valeria was a much better guide than either of them.

Prompto’s aid was cloying, at times making Ignis feel like an invalid, and his incessant chatter had gone from a mild annoyance to a serious distraction after Ignis found himself so reliant on his hearing. Gladiolus, on the other hand, seemed to prefer to ignore the issue entirely, as Ignis found himself running into an outstretched hand that was apparently signalling him to wait or having to ask Gladio to read something written on a paper out loud.

Valeria’s descriptions of their surroundings were succinct but thorough, sufficient to give him a sense of his surroundings without feeling as if he were monopolizing her time. And allowing him to follow her with a hand on her arm, rather than her dragging him here or there, at least afforded him the illusion of some sort of self-sufficiency.

And right now he could tell she was afraid. The muscles in her arm and shoulder were tense, her entire bearing on edge, like she’d bolt at the first loud noise. He didn’t think she actually would run, but hoped his presence would confer some sense of security, however small, in exchange for all she was doing for him.

They quickly examined the guard posts near the gate, then entered the first real building on their left.

“Offices,” Valeria explained as they walked down the corridor. To Ignis’s right, a door banged open, and he heard Gladiolus grunt. “Judging by the amount of dust,” she went on, “I’d say this place has been abandoned for a lot longer than a week.”

“After we cleared the Fort with Noctis, I doubt they would have sent an entire garrison straight away,” Ignis said. Even the Empire wasn’t that efficient. “It’s more likely that they shuffled around a few men stationed at their other Lucian encampments to form a sort of skeleton crew.”

“It’s clear,” Gladiolus said as his heavy footsteps echoed down the hall. A far lighter pair that could only belong to Iris followed in her brother’s wake.

“Yep,” Iris said. “No sign of Niffs or daemons. So far, so good, right?”

“Right!” Prompto said. “Val, do you need to check anything in here?”

“Well,” Valeria began, “Normally I’d just need to find the meters, but the Niffs don’t do things like we do. I think if we can locate the main line that connected each building to the Magitek generators, I should be able to get a decent estimate.”

“Why not just count the generators?” Prompto asked. “Seems a lot easier than trying to find a bunch of power lines in the dark.”

“It’s like Iggy said,” Valeria replied as their group turned back toward the exit. “They probably only brought a few generators with them. Just enough to power the buildings they were using. And I doubt they left what was left of the ones you guys blew up the first time you cleared this place for me to count.”

“Oh, man.” Prompto laughed. “Noct really did blow, like, half of them up. It was awesome.”

“There’s also the matter of the Magitek themselves,” Ignis interjected, not wanting to linger on the subject of Noctis for long. “They too are powered by the generators, which would skew any analysis done on the generators alone.”

Iris exhaled sharply. “This sounds pretty complicated.”

“Yeah,” Gladiolus said, sliding the door to the outside back open. “Why you should stay in school.”

Iris made an irritated sound as she followed her brother outside. “I bet you don’t understand it either,” she muttered under her breath.

Ignis let Valeria through the door first, accompanying her as they circled the perimeter of the building, trying not to feel too superfluous as the rest of the group looked for power lines.

“Oh, here it is,” Valeria declared after they’d made one right turn, allowing Ignis to conclude that they were on the side of the building facing away from the gate. “So, they run it on the ground and not in the air,” she said, more to herself than anyone else.

Ignis prodded the concrete in front of his until his cane struck upon a spot where the ground was slightly raised, covered by a sloped length of something rubber or plastic. Now that he thought about it, he vaguely remembered these things on the ground during his previous forays in Imperial fortifications, as he’d wondered if they were high enough to trip up one of those large, rickety loaders (it was not). It was certainly high enough to trip him up now. At least I can be of some use, he thought darkly, locating these things by falling over them.

Valeria took his hand from her elbow and put her flashlight in it, angling his wrist down and to the right.

“Hold it right there,” she instructed, her slightly bossy tone taking him back to the days when they used to study together and the authoritative way she’d inform him whenever he got something wrong.

“Yes, ma’am,” Ignis replied, unable to keep himself from grinning.

“Woah!” Prompto shot by him, as some device in Valeria’s hand made an unfamiliar beep. “What’s that thing?”

“A multimeter,” she replied. One of her knees popped as she bent down. “You can use it to measure electric capacity. You just put it around the wire, and - hey, move. You’re in my light.”

“Oh,” Prompto muttered. “Sorry.” From the way the direction of his voice shifted, Ignis thought that the apology was directed at him for some reason.

“So, there’s the reading,” Valeria went on. Her clothes rustled and then there was the scratching of pen on paper, all the while her device continued to ping and beep.

“Don’t break it, Prompto,” Ignis said, suspecting his friend was ‘checking it out’ by mashing all the buttons.

“I bet Cindy would love this,” Prompto said, ignoring Ignis entirely. “For batteries and, like... other car stuff.”

“Who’s Cindy?” Valeria asked. There was more rustling - likely her putting everything away - before she tapped Ignis’s arm.

“Prompto’s imaginary paramour,” Ignis said, his fingers finding her elbow once more. Behind them, he heard Gladiolus snort.

“Imaginary?” Prompto balked. “You’ve talked to her - in person - like a million times!”

“Perhaps not quite so many,” Ignis replied with a small smirk. “By ‘imaginary,’ I was referring to her status as your better half, not the existence of her person.”

“Yeah, well...just gotta get her to notice me, ya know?” Ignis was fairly certain she had noticed all of Prompto’s sputtering and blushing, but was simply too kind and too busy to call him on it. “Like, getting her a sweet present. Right, Val? Iris?”

“Maybe flowers,” Iris said skeptically. “Not...whatever-meters.”

“Oh, no. Not the Grease-monkey Goddess,” Prompto said, his tone reverent. Valeria concealed her laughter about as poorly as Ignis did.

After a cough, she said, “Well, I’m afraid it’s not mine, or I’d just give it to you after this. I’m sure she’d be happy with any sort of gift, though.”

“R-really?” And there Prompto went with the sputtering again.

“Sure,” Valeria said. “Who doesn’t like presents?” Ignis thought she was underestimating not only Prompto’s desperation when it came to the opposite sex, but his capacity to take things literally.

As they walked between the buildings, looking for more lines for Valeria to measure, Ignis’s mind drifted back to when he was here previously, with Noctis. It was ironic, perhaps, that he felt so much more in control and level-headed during this venture, now that the world had turned upside down and the person he’d dedicated his life to was missing.

Ignis had accepted that Noctis was beyond his reach. He’d accepted that his sight wasn’t coming back. But, at that time, during their first expedition to Fort Vaullerey, he had been unable to accept that the woman he loved was suffering and in danger, and there was nothing he could do to help her. That discord had festered inside of him like a wound, poisoning him slowly, filling him with anger and a directionless sense of urgency. Ignis didn’t regret torturing and wounding that Imperial commander, but he did think that, looking back on it, he never wanted to be in spot where he lost control like that ever again.

“Woah!” Iris’s footsteps skidded to a halt.

“It’s blood,” Valeria said to Ignis. “A lot. Looks like...whoever was hurt here was dragged into the building up ahead.”

“Not creepy at all,” Prompto muttered behind them.

“How fresh is the blood?” Ignis asked.

“Um...it’s dry,” Valeria replied uncertainly. “Is there more to it than that?” Yes, Ignis thought. He didn’t particularly want to explain to her how he knew that.

“Maybe a week,” Gladiolus said. “Maybe more. We gotta go in there and check it out.”

Prompto groaned as Valeria went rigid.

“We can stay outside,” Ignis said to her.

“No,” she whispered. “We should...we should help.” Ignis smiled in response, hoping that she understood that it meant he would keep her safe, that he was proud of her for being so brave.

“Don’t even think about it, Gladdy,” Iris stated. “I’m not staying behind.” Gladio’s sigh indicated that he had been thinking precisely that.

“Fine,” he grumbled. “But everybody needs to be on guard. Just because that blood’s old, doesn’t mean whatever caused it took off.”

“It didn’t attack the Hunters when they broke down the gate,” Prompto said, his voice skittish. “So, that’s a good sign, right? Right?”

No, Ignis thought. That only indicates that it’s not stupid enough to ambush a group of men with motor vehicles and power tools.

He felt the familiar sensation of Gladiolus and Prompto summoning their weapons as the group, he assumed, followed the trail of blood. With both his hands occupied, Ignis was unable to follow suit, but that was fine; his cane was sturdy enough to deflect a blow, and he’d rather have a firm grip on Valeria if something attacked, to move her behind him and out of harm’s way. She hadn’t asked him to come with her here so she could watch him attempt to fight.

The door to the building creaked open, and a few seconds later, Gladiolus whispered, “Entry’s clear.” The group followed him inside, Prompto easing the door shut behind them.

“Looks like some kind of storage,” Valeria said to Ignis, her voice so quiet he wasn’t sure if they others could even hear her. “Stacked crates on your left, almost all the way to the ceiling.”

Ignis strained his ears, listening to the echoes of their footsteps travel up to the high ceiling. It was likely a hangar of some sort, that the Imperials had converted to another use.

And there was a strange odor that he couldn’t quite place. It was certainly not the musty smell of a disused building, nor the stink of rotting flesh, but something more astringent, almost medical.

“Is there still blood?” He asked. If there was, it was not only dry, but soaked into the floor, as he felt no stickiness underfoot.

“Yes,” Valeria whispered. “There’s a clear trail.” Prompto whimpered.

“Can you hear that?” Ignis asked.

“What?” Iris and Valeria almost spoke in unison.

“Nothing,” Ignis said. “Absolutely nothing. No vermin, no insects, nothing. A week-old corpse ought to have this entire place infested.”

“They’re...” Valeria sighed. “Those things might be dead too.”

“Reaaally not creepy,” Prompto whined.

“Hush, Prompto,” Ignis chided over his shoulder.

“Come on, dude,” Prompto said, bouncing from one foot to the other. “You know how I get.”

“Indeed I do.” And this was absolutely not the time for it. More quietly, in Valeria’s ear, Ignis said, “Pay him no mind.”

“Everybody, hold up,” Gladiolus said. “I’m gonna check this out.”

“Wait, Gladdy-”

“I said wait, Iris,” Gladio snapped. “Listen to me.”

“They used the crates to make form kind of corridor where we came in,” Valeria explained to Ignis. “We’re at the corner now.”

Ignis listened as Gladiolus crept forward alone, his size impeding him from ever moving silently. His footsteps slowed, then halted, as he muttered, “Gods dammit.” A moment later, his voice rose. “Guys, get in here.”

Ignis marked the chorus of reactions from his comrades as each turned the corner into what seemed to be open space. Iris gasped and shrieked, “Oh my Gods...w-what is this, Gladdy?” Valeria froze momentarily, then let out a heavy sigh along with a swear word. And Prompto groaned, lamenting an “Oh, no...”

“They were doing experiments here,” Valeria said, probably as much to Iris as to Ignis. Her voice was laced with anger. “Just like they did in Insomnia.”

“Insomnia?” That gave Ignis pause. “You never told me about this sort of thing happening in Insomnia.”

“It’s not exactly pleasant dinner conversation,” Valeria replied.

“We saw it too,” Prompto said quietly. “In Zegnautus. Gods, it’s so horrible.”

“Guess whatever was in these cages got out,” Gladiolus said, as Ignis heard the sound of metal hinges screaming. “Turned on ‘em.” Ironic, Ignis thought.

“Experiments?” Poor Iris, the only one of their group not to have seen something like this before, was breathing in quick gasps, her voice an octave higher than normal. “What...what experiments? This is...oh, Gods.”

“Daemons,” Valeria explained. “I don’t really know what they were trying to discover, and, honestly, I don’t care. It’s wrong. And if they got killed by those things, then...then maybe they deserved it.”

Ignis could only nod his head in agreement with her assessment. Perhaps it was cold, but it was true.

“Iris,” Gladio said, his usually gruff tone more gentle, “Go wait outside. Prompto, go with her.”

“No problem,” Prompto said, but at the same time, Iris stomped her foot.

“No, Gladdy...I...I’m not a kid anymore.”

“You don’t need to see crap like this,” Gladio snarled.

“Y-yes, yes I do,” Iris retorted. “Even if it’s awful, I...I don’t want to live in a bubble, okay? I want to help.”

Gladiolus had begun to respond when Ignis interrupted him. “Outside. Hmm...”

“What?” Valeria asked.

“Were there marks on the door when we came in?” Ignis asked. “Scratches or dents, that sort of thing.”

“No,” Valeria said. “I don’t think so.”

“What’s up, Iggy?” Prompto asked.

“I think we’ve been following the blood trail backwards. Its origin is here, and it ended outside.”

“But then...” Prompto began to fidget. “Where’s the body?”

“There was nothing outside,” Valeria added. “Not even bones. Just a splotch of blood on the ground.”

“Yes,” Ignis mused. “It’s troubling, isn’t it? And I’m afraid I don’t have the answer. But, I’d wager that if you checked the inside of that door, you’d find evidence that a daemon forced it open.”

Prompto took off without being asked, and moments later there was a shout from that end of the building.

“There’s scratches!” he called. “Damn, Iggy. You’re good,” Prompto said when he returned. “But what’s it mean, exactly? That daemons dragged that guy outside and swallowed him whole?”

Ignis frowned. “I shouldn’t like to meet one capable of that.” But, they still had more of the Fort to explore.

“That should be it for me,” Valeria announced, tucking away her notebook, now filled with notes and numbers. “Only thing left to clear is this central building.”

Their exploration had yielded more blood and more unanswered questions. Just what had happened here? And where were the things that had done it?

Gladiolus pushed aside the large double doors to the structure, and it was obvious right away that it was the main hangar, three times as large as the one where the Niffs had been conducting their hideous experiments. Valeria swept the massive space with her flashlight. An Imperial mech lay toppled over on its side, while another was scattered in a dozen pieces strewn across the hangar floor, like toys abandoned by a petulant child.

Ignis’s grip on her arm tightened, and then he suddenly jerked her backwards, behind him, just as the stink of sulphur filled her nostrils.

“No,” Valeria whispered. Beams of light darted about the room wildly, illuminating glimpses of gnarled hands, razor claws and teeth coming out of the floor, the walls, the ceiling, everywhere.

“No, no, no,” Valeria repeated, backing away. Not again. Not here. Not with them.

“Look alive, everyone,” Gladiolus shouted, greatsword materializing over his shoulder. “We’ve got company!”

“A lot of company!” Prompto’s voice was high with panic, but he stood his ground, gun in hand.

“Val.” Ignis’s voice was commanding, but calm. Valeria continued to backpedal until she was out of his reach, until her back collided with the door they’d come through. Not him. Please, not him. “Just stay down,” Ignis instructed, steel glinting in his right hand.

Rather than swarming the group, the daemons rushed toward one another, colliding violently. But instead of knocking one another out, they stuck together, congealing into a twisted mass of limbs and teeth. Dozens of black eyes, large and small, peered out from the misshapen heap, blinking and rolling.

“What the hell are they doing?” Gladiolus stopped his charge, staring up at the rapidly expanding entity.

“What is it? What’s happening?” There was an edge of desperation in Ignis’s voice, but it wasn’t enough to break Valeria’s fear-induced stupor. She wanted to run to him, to tell him what was going on, to help him, but her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth and her limbs were rooted to the ground.

“The daemons... they’re merging?” Iris said uncertainly.

“Into a super daemon!” Prompto shrieked.

“Iris, get the hell out of here,” Gladiolus barked.

“And let you have all the fun? No way, Gladdy.” Iris drew her slender sword and ran alongside her brother.

“Dammit, Iris. This isn’t a game.” Gladio waved his sword overhead and sprinted for the far side of the hangar. “Hey! Ugly!” he yelled. “Over here!” It wasn’t clear whether the amalgamation had a ‘front’ or ‘back,’ but it seemed to track Gladiolus as he intended.

“Keep the light on it, Val!” Prompto shouted before diving into the fray.

Valeria didn’t want to look, didn’t want to watch as the daemons stole her friends away, as the daemons once again left her all alone. Every cell in her body was screaming at her to bolt, to run, to survive. But she remained where she was, cowering against the wall, flashlight beam trained on the horror before them.

Gladiolus hacked at the limbs protruding from the mass, eliciting dozens of screeches in unison. Iris seemed to partially heed her brother’s advice, staying on the thing’s flank, slashing it with a fierce cry. Prompto ran around it in a large circle, launching a volley of shots, probing for a weak point.

And Ignis. Poor Ignis. He was hardly like the blind monk one might read about in stories. He made his way forward slowly, hand outstretched, nearly stumbling over debris from the broken mech strewn about the floor. Help him . Help him, you stupid, useless girl. But she couldn’t. Valeria knew if she opened her mouth, the only thing that would come out was a scream; if she took a single step, she’d only run away.

Ignis eventually made his way to the monster, driving his dagger in and out of its garbled flesh mercilessly. A long, grey arm protruding from the mass swatted him away like a doll. Valeria nearly did scream then, but Ignis pushed himself up to hands and knees, then back on his feet.

“Uh, guys?” Prompto shouted above the thing’s howling. “It’s doing something weird!”

Whole sections of the monster began to rotate, independent from the rest, swapping out broken, bloodied limbs for fresh ones.

“It’s...regenerating?” Ignis ventured, bringing his cane up in a defensive stance.

“Something like that!” Iris tossed a potion to her brother. Gladio pulled the stopper out with his teeth and drank, then began to hack at the creature once more with renewed vigor.

Do something, Valeria told herself. Even with potions, their stamina couldn’t last forever. Do something or you’ll be left all alone. But what could she do? She couldn’t fight; she didn’t even have any weapons.

Wait. The flare gun Prompto had given her. Valeria could feel it in her pocket, pressing against her thigh. She saw Ignis get knocked down again, and something finally snapped inside her. Then the flashlight was between her knees, shells loaded with trembling fingers.

Valeria held her breath as she took aim, knowing that if she allowed herself time to think about it, she’d chicken out. Targeting a large, grotesque eye near the top of the mass, she pulled the trigger. Smoke arced through the air and white light filled the hangar, bright as day. The monster thrashed and screamed. And then, around the spot where the flare was embedded, individual daemons began to tumble down, like a snake sloughing its skin.

Gladiolus shouted at her to shoot it again. Valeria was still shaking, still terrified, but she took aim at the opposite end of the mass, the flare’s light dismantling it further. Gladio cut down what was left, while the others easily finished off the individual daemons that had spilled free, bodies already crumpled and broken from being mashed together.

Valeria didn’t realize it was over, not when Iris and Prompto sang her praises, not when Gladio gave her a celebratory pat on the back.

“You good, Ignis?” Prompto ran over to help him make his way through all the dead creatures slowly dissolving on the floor.

“Well done, Valeria! Well done.” Ignis put his hand that wasn't covered in oily, black daemon blood on her shoulder, pulling her into an awkward half-embrace.

“A-are you h-hurt?” Valeria’s teeth were still chattering, her body still on high alert.

“Ah. Nothing serious,” he said dismissively. “Hey. It’s alright.” Ignis touched her arm and Valeria swallowed hard, nausea welling within her.

“I...I have to...I need some air,” Valeria announced, pushing Ignis away. She turned and slid the hangar door open just wide enough to slip through, then stumbled away from the building as everything hit her at once, wild terror seizing her heart and guts.

Valeria fell to her knees and vomited. It came in several waves, until her stomach was empty, as hollow as she felt. She remained on all fours on the cold concrete, hands and knees quaking in unison. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.

She lifted her head to see her petrified face staring back at her from a darkened window. Her own reflection scared her - skin as ashen as the concrete below, eyes wide and dilated like a cornered animal. It was just like she was back on the road, in the dark and all alone...

“No,” she told the terrified woman in the glass, watching her neck muscles clench as she swallowed. You don’t have to go back there. Ignis and the others made it look so easy, like they weren’t afraid at all. They would think her ridiculous, a coward, if they knew just how frightened she was by the things in the dark.

There was a sound behind her and Valeria spun around, a vise grip on her flashlight. It was Ignis.

“Valeria?” His head drifted from side to side, as if he was unaware of her location. Unbidden, a whimper escaped her throat. Ignis immediately turned toward her, moving quickly. “What’s happened? Are you hurt?”

“No!” Valeria’s hand shot out, even though she knew he couldn’t see it. “Don’t... Just stay there. Please.” The idea of him stepping in her vomit was too humiliating to contemplate.

Ignis paused, his brows knit into a deep frown. “Talk to me,” he said. “I implore you.”

Valeria tried to rise, but her legs were shaking too badly. Could he smell that she’d been sick? Ignis was so strong, facing down MTs and daemons blind , and here she was throwing up over a little fright. You’re weak. The voice in her head sounded a lot like her mother’s.

“It just scared me,” she whispered.

“Well, of course it did.” In the glass, she watched Ignis take a slow step forward. “It frightened me as well,” he said gently. “You don’t have to be ashamed of that.”

“I just...” Valeria wiped her mouth on her sleeve. “I’m not like you. This sort of thing...” I don’t want to go back there. She hadn’t realized just how badly her entire body was trembling until Ignis reached out and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Iggy!” It was Gladio’s voice, coming from somewhere behind them.

“You three go on ahead,” Ignis called back. “We’ll meet you at the gate.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Here.” For a moment, when his hand was gone from her shoulder, Valeria felt as if he would crumple to the ground, like he was the only thing holding her upright at all. Then one of those flat, pocket flasks was dangling next to her ear. “It’s water,” Ignis clarified.

Valeria took it gratefully, swishing the water around to rinse her palate before spitting it out. “Sorry.” Gods, she felt not only cowardly, but disgusting.

In the window, she saw Ignis’s reflection shake his head dismissively. He exchanged his handkerchief for the flask, and Valeria wiped her mouth once more, along with the tears she hadn’t realized had sprung from her eyes. Ignis’s hand was then under her armpit, hauling her back to her feet.

“Everything’s alright,” he said for the thousandth time as he spun her to face him. “The danger’s passed now.”

Valeria wiped her nose, trying to stem her pathetic sniffling. “I’m sorry I left you.” Once more, Ignis dismissed her apology with a shake of his head. Valeria reached out, wiping away a bit of daemon blood on his cheek with her thumb.

“Shall we go wash up?” he asked with a smile.

Back at the gate, Ignis and the others cleaned themselves the best they could in a basin out of the back of a Hunter’s truck. Valeria sat on an overturned cooler beneath one of the floodlights, listening to Iris excitedly recount the details of her first real battle with daemons to one of her Hunter friends. Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto set about pitching their camping tent (which really just amounted to Gladiolus doing the lion’s share of the work, Ignis holding things, and Prompto playing with the tent poles), when one of the Hunters stopped by.

“I got some space in the bed of my truck,” he offered. “Can probably sleep two of yas.”

“Then that would be us,” Ignis said. Prompto whistled, while Gladio merely grunted and muttered, “whatever” before resuming his work. Neither bothered to ask whom the ‘us’ was referring to. Valeria didn’t particularly want to stay here any longer than necessary, and doubted she’d be able to sleep anyway, but figured if she had to lie awake and afraid for the next six hours, a truck bed would be marginally more comfortable than the concrete.

Valeria remained rooted to her seat even as blankets were distributed and sleeping bags rolled out. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, she felt as if she were made of jelly, if she tried to stand she’d crumple like a baby deer. Ignis must have surmised this, as he went to fetch her after the others had said their goodnights and zipped the tent flap closed behind them.

“Before we go to sleep, I’d like a moment,” he requested, then began feeling around in front of him.

“Right here, Iggy.” Valeria slid over and patted the empty space on the cooler next to her, producing a hollow thunk.

“Ah, thank you.” Ignis’s hand connected with it and he took a seat. “Tell me what’s wrong,” he said. “Please.” She could hardly refuse such an earnest, imploring look on his face.

“I told you. I was scared,” she said quietly. “That’s all.”

“Valeria.” Ignis’s voice was stern, but not unkind. “I can’t help you if you won’t talk to me. And I...I want to help you. Desperately.”

“I...I can still hear it,” she whispered. Her eyes were looking beyond Ignis, not at a their makeshift camp, but the jagged walls of an abandoned, burnt-out farmhouse, lit by a single flashlight, its bulb dim and flickering. They could do nothing but huddle around it when they heard the daemons coming, coming for them, do nothing but watch as faces were ripped from the circle one by one. Screaming and begging, gurgling, then silence. When she felt slimy, talon-like fingers on her back, she turned and ran, ran into the dark desert toward the moon, ran until her legs gave out and she was alone on the ground, thinking every sound in the distance was a prelude to her demise.

And so it went. She would eventually manage to find another rag-tag group, and the daemons would eventually manage to find them, and then she was alone once more.

By the time she had managed to choke out her story, she was crying, shaking all over, and Ignis had his arms around her, one hand stroking her hair.

“You’re not alone,” he said over and over, holding her close. When her tears finally began to ebb, he said, “Forgive me. I shouldn’t have brought you here.”

“I brought you here,” Valeria corrected him with a sniffle, still clinging to Ignis’s chest. “And, I...I have to face this. If this is the world we live in now...” Just the thought made her shudder.

“That’s very brave.” Was he making fun of her? She looked up to see him smiling, not in a cruel way, but almost like he was proud.

“I feel like a coward,” she whispered.

Ignis shook his head. “Nonsense. Cowards don’t face their fears.”

Valeria sighed. She didn’t feel brave at all. But she did feel better, like the yoke of all her awful memories had finally loosened from her neck.

They stayed like that, clutching one another, for a long time, until she finally felt exhaustion rapidly setting in. Reluctantly, she broke their embrace, walking Ignis over to the truck and placing his hand on the tailgate.

“Can we go to sleep now?” she asked.

“Indeed.” He grabbed the handle, but stopped before pulling it open. “Thank you for confiding in me. Now, my lady.” Ignis made an over-exaggerated bow and pulled the tailgate down, then offered her his hand. “Your chariot awaits.”

#final fantasy xv #final fantasy 15 #ffxv #ff15 #ffxv fanfiction #final fantasy xv fanfiction #ignis scientia #ignis x oc #gladiolus amicitia #gladio #prompto argentum #prompto #iris amicitia

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bestpeers · 4 years

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What Makes a Good Web Development Company

The reason for this post is to give some key focuses on what makes a decent web development company, and will assist you with understanding the sort of inquiries you ought to present development organizations.

Presently to continue ahead with the post. The following are the key regions we will be taking a gander at, and what you ought to be searching for in a web development company.

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We concur there is a detachment between web developers and web designers, there's a totally unique manner of thinking going on there, however the division between front-end and back-end is simply unacceptable. To be a decent web developer you have to comprehend the full development cycle and to have the option to engage in the task from beginning to end. There is additionally a lot to be gained from the working with the differing advancements, however we'll make advances on that.

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There are various acceptable back-end advances that are fitting for web development remembering Ruby for Rails, ASP.Net and PHP (and others). They all have their qualities and shortcomings and not one is great. A decent web development company in indore ought to be adaptable in which advances they use, with the goal that they utilize the most proper one for their customers' needs.

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The way to being a decent web developer isn't the innovations that you use, however the prescribed procedures that you follow. As advancements go back and forth in our exceptionally quick moving industry those prescribed procedures will remain, or if nothing else advance. As a developer on the off chance that you have a decent establishing, at that point you can move with the occasions and advancements reasonably without any problem.

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The most significant inquiry a developer can pose is "The reason?". Set aside effort to comprehend the customer's prerequisites completely, and exhort them, after all the customer doesn't comprehend the intricate details of web development, you do. Make the development cycle a two way discussion.

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In the event that you need to know whether a software development company in indore knows there stuff, just ask them what their developers have been investigating as of late. You don't need to comprehend all that you are told, note them down however and find them on the web to comprehend if the company are taking a gander at new patterns or not.

Research and development is presumably the most significant time every week for a developer. In the event that developers don't advance, the arrangements they construct will become deteriorate and dated rapidly. As a customer do you need an outdated arrangement before you even beginning?

Has a thorough testing process, including mechanized tests

Time and again we have seen the customer is the analyzer for a venture. In the event that this is occurring, at that point, to put it gruffly, the development company don't comprehend your venture all around ok, they are simply "slamming out" code.

A decent web development company ought to compose computerized tests (coordination tests, unit-tests and so forth) for all their code, both front-end and back-end. On a straightforward level, tests help developers to focus on the code they are composing at that given time, they likewise help developers to compose progressively succinct code. Increasingly brief code implies the code base is more obvious and less expensive to keep up.

Adaptable to change

We've every single heard engineer whining how their customers' change the necessities of a venture halfway idea a task. Developers need to quit whining about this, it transpires all and it's never going to change. A decent Web Designing company in Indore ought to have forms set up to adapt to change. On the off chance that you are a customer, ask how change solicitations will be taken care of.

Use source control

There are loads of reasons why all code ought to be source controlled. We're are just going to make reference to several key focuses here. Right off the bat it's an incredible method for keeping a log of changes made to code. (For whatever length of time that developers put a remark into the submit). Furthermore and above all is permits developers to change code without the dread of losing as of now work previously done. This is particularly valuable when evaluating other conceivable coding answers for an issue.

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operion1 · 5 years

Text

What Makes a Good Web Development Company

The universe of web improvement is still especially misjudged. We've even heard individuals consider it a "dull workmanship". So when you need assistance transforming your thoughts and structures into a top notch site or web application, how would you know who you can trust to complete this?

The reason for this post is to give some key focuses on what makes a decent web improvement organization, and will assist you with understanding the sort of inquiries you ought to present advancement organizations.

This will be an extremely obstinate post and we make no statements of regret for it. On the off chance that you can't help contradicting anything we are positively open to talking about it further.

Presently to continue ahead with the post. Email Marketing System The following are the key zones we will be taking a gander at, and what you ought to be searching for in a web advancement organization.

Ready to do both front-end and back-end advancement

Try not to spend significant time in one back-end innovation

Ought to follow best practices

Comprehension of advertising techniques encompassing the undertakings

Puts time in innovative work

Has a thorough testing process, including mechanized tests

Adaptable to change

Use source control

Ready to do both front-end and back-end improvement

We don't buy in to thought of engineers that do front-end advancement and designers that do back-end improvement. That is what might be compared to having a handyman who just fits funnels and leaves the fitting of the showers, showers, sinks and toilets to another person.

We concur there is a division between web engineers and website specialists, there's a totally unique perspective going on there, yet the detachment between front-end and back-end is simply unacceptable. To be a decent web designer you have to comprehend the full advancement cycle and to have the option to engage in the venture through and through. There is likewise a lot to be gained from the working with the shifting advancements, yet we'll hit on that.

Try not to represent considerable authority in one back-end innovation

There are various acceptable back-end innovations that are fitting for web improvement remembering Ruby for Rails, ASP.Net and PHP (and others). They all have their qualities and shortcomings and not one is great. A decent web advancement organization ought to be adaptable in which advances they use, with the goal that they utilize the most suitable one for their customers' needs.

The key explanation we have invested energy learning various innovations is to ready to single out the bits we like. Throughout the years the engineers associated with The League have had the option to take the great pieces of every innovation and plan various accepted procedures and use them over all stages.

Ought to follow best practices

The way to being a decent web designer isn't the advances that you use, yet the prescribed procedures that you follow. As advancements go back and forth in our extremely quick moving industry those accepted procedures will remain, or possibly advance. As an engineer in the event that you have a decent establishing, at that point you can move with the occasions and advances reasonably effectively.

So what are these accepted procedures that we are discussing. The following are a portion of the key ones we follow.

Composing semantic HTML

Adhere to web gauges for all front end coding

Computerized testing of both front-end and back-end code

Utilization of a MVC structure

Comprehension of showcasing systems encompassing the tasks

We've heard this protest ordinarily that web engineers don't consider the advertising methodology of a task. This is for the most part since designers couldn't care less. Well they should. How might they prompt customers and consider helping customers produce the correct arrangement, in the event that they aren't pondering the "master plan" (sorry, we know it's a ghastly expression, we'll go wash our mouths out at this point). On the off chance that a designer aimlessly takes the necessary steps, they are not offering the customer a help, they are simply being a meat manikin.

The most significant inquiry an engineer can pose is "The reason?". Set aside some effort to comprehend the customer's prerequisites completely, and exhort them, after all the customer doesn't comprehend the intricate details of web improvement, you do. Make the improvement cycle a two way discussion.

Puts time in innovative work

As everybody knows the web business is a quick moving industry. Things go back and forth in a matter of seconds. A decent web advancement organization gives it's engineers designated time every week to take a gander at new patterns and advances. In fact a portion of these patterns and advancements are impasses, however you won't realize except if you investigate them.

In the event that you need to know whether a web advancement organization knows there stuff, just ask them what their designers have been investigating as of late. You don't need to comprehend all that you are told, note them down however and find them on the web to comprehend if the organization are taking a gander at new patterns or not.

Research and development is likely the most significant time every week for an engineer. On the off chance that engineers don't advance, the arrangements they manufacture will become stagnate and dated rapidly. As a customer do you need an outdated arrangement before you even beginning?

Has a thorough testing process, including computerized tests

Time and again we have seen the customer is the analyzer for a task. On the off chance that this is going on, at that point, to place it obtusely, the advancement organization don't comprehend your undertaking all around ok, they are simply "slamming out" code.

A decent web improvement organization ought to compose mechanized tests (mix tests, unit-tests and so forth) for all their code, both front-end and back-end. On a basic level, tests help engineers to focus on the code they are composing at that given time, they likewise help designers to compose increasingly brief code. Progressively succinct code implies the code base is more clear and less expensive to keep up.

The significant advantage of a test suite to a customer is that when changes are made to the code in the venture there can be much more trust in the way that the change, or new code, hasn't broken whatever else.

We are not saying computerized testing is the silver slug of web advancement, and tests are just compelling on the off chance that they are composed well, however they surely ought to be a piece of any web engineers toolset.

Robotized tests aren't the main significant part of testing. The web improvement organization ought to likewise have a degree of human testing also, and this is positively something customers ought to be associated with. Client stories are vital to this procedure. As a component of the advancement procedure, customers should work with the web improvement organization to assemble User stories, so all gatherings included see how clients will collaborate with the website or application and the consequences of those associations.

Adaptable to change

We've every single heard designer grumbling how their customers' change the necessities of an undertaking halfway idea a task. Engineers need to quit whining about this, it transpires all and it's never going to change. A decent web advancement organization ought to have forms set up to adapt to change. On the off chance that you are a customer, ask how change solicitations will be taken care of.

Web designers should work to short discharge cycles, ideally 1 - 2 weeks. The most exceedingly awful thing that can happen to a venture is that the engineers get the concise, start the work and afterward 2 months after the fact they declare it's done, just for the customer to state "This isn't what I requested!". By attempting to short discharge cycles, customers can be included at all stages. Toward the finish of each discharge the customer should survey the task up until this point and present any change demands.

Use source control

Our last suggestion is a quite clear and basic one, to a great many people, however regardless we address designers who don't utilize any type of source control. This appears to be progressively common with specialists as they don't consider the to be as they are the main ones chipping away at the code. On the off chance that that is the means by which they see it, at that point they are overlooking what's really important.

There are loads of reasons why all code ought to be source controlled. We're are just going to make reference to two or three key focuses here. Right off the bat it's an extraordinary method for keeping a log of changes made to code. (For whatever length of time that designers put a remark into the submit). Besides and in particular is enables engineers to change code without the dread of losing as of now work previously done. This is particularly helpful when evaluating other conceivable coding answers for an issue.

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werank · 7 years

Text

Make Content Your #1 SEO Strategy Initiative in 2018

Make Content Your #1 SEO Strategy Initiative in 2018 was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

It’ll be 10 years ago this January that I first walked through the doors at Bruce Clay, Inc. and entered digital marketing.

I was fresh out of journalism school, which I’d studied because I wanted to write truth to the world. By making information publicly available, I thought I could contribute to the greater good. I saw myself educating readers by sharing the stories of the world. Pretty altruistic, right?

I never thought I would work in marketing. Who plans on a career in marketing? What 10-year-old says, “I want to be a marketer when I grow up, Mommy!”

Well, I’ve learned that marketers play a similar role as journalists but in the private business sector. We’re in the business of communications — crafting messaging and figuring out how to get those messages in front of as many people as possible.

We use our storytelling talents and distribution know-how for our companies and our clients. Our job is to get the right story in front of the right audience.

I’ve learned that SEO wins happen at the intersection of identifying storytelling opportunities and maximizing the visibility of those stories through search.

And yet I think it can be easy for an SEO to forget a critical role they play for clients and for organizations: that of the content evangelist.

SEOs can fall into a trap of focusing on the technical requirements for making content findable by search engines. And while crawlability and accessibility issues are key SEO responsibilities, big brands today are demonstrating that the competitive advantage lies in crafting 10x content and investing in SEO content strategy.

The Job of an SEO

Here’s an infographic you’ve probably seen before. It’s Search Engine Land’s Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors. It does a really good job of hitting on every component of an SEO’s domain.

Click to visit SearchEngineLand.com where you can download the Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors.

It’s neatly divided into on-page and off-page factors. Of course, nothing in real life is ever so neat. There’s always overlap and grey. There are no links without content. But if we accept this diagram at face value, we can still interpret a lot about an SEO’s top priorities.

For instance, look at the on-page factors. You’ll see content and you’ll see technical SEO. We know that Google has said that the two most important ranking signals are content and links. From that we can infer that technical SEO does not provide as big of a competitive advantage.

Technical SEO is more like the barrier to entry for ranking. Is your site crawlable, is all the HTML in the right place, are duplicate pages consolidated with canonicals and parameters excluded in Search Console? These technical SEO issues are critical to search visibility. Still, I’d argue they represent the lowest common denominator. You’re rarely going to climb to the first page or the top 3 rankings on the basis of clean, crawlable code. Not having these things will hurt you, but having them won’t give you a competitive edge.

Remember what Google said — the most important ranking factors are links and content. And if you have to prioritize one of those things, it has to be content, because content is what generates links.

Why Content Should Be Your Top SEO Priority

Here are concrete ways that you can empower your role in SEO by evangelizing content to your company or your clients.

1. Content is in your control.

When it comes to generating links and content, don’t put the cart before the horse. As long as you’re not buying links (and you’d better not), you’re going to need link-worthy content on your site that attracts links.

Who links to you is an X factor. It’s not as squarely in your control. What is in your control? Content.

Who links to you is an X factor not in your control. What is in your control? Content. Click To Tweet

2. Content has trackable metrics.

What gets measured gets done. While bottom-line KPIs are traffic and conversions, those results are the outcome of the effort you put in to make your site an authority with a satisfactory user experience.

Leading metrics you can focus on improving are:

The number of thin pages that you make better.

The number of new ranking pages you add to the site.

The number of pages on the site and pages indexed.

What’s awesome about focusing SEO campaigns on content is that you can truly track your progress while you’re creating more great content.

3. Bigger sites make more money.

When your boss asks you, “What’s the ROI of this content initiative?” you can say that big sites make more money.

When Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post in 2013, he brought a new growth strategy to the paper. WaPo grew WaPo traffic 28% from 2015 to 2016. The effort resulted in WaPo surpassing The New York Times’s traffic in 2015. How did they do it? By adopting a content strategy around producing a high volume of content aimed at long-tail and niche interests.

How can a small website compete with a larger one? Who are the major competitors in your space? How many pages do they have on a topic? More pages mean more opportunities to rank. More pages demonstrate depth of expertise, making you more likely to rank on a topic.

Just like a company needs to grow to make a profit, so does a website.

How to Set Content Apart as 10x

At this point, you might agree that an SEO has to prioritize content strategy. You may be thinking to yourself, “OK, I get it. I can make the push for my clients or in my group to add good, quality content to the site to see ranking gains.”

That is certainly a worthy goal. But the truth is that good, quality content isn’t good enough. Today’s bar for Page 1 rankings is 10x content.

The skyscraper technique popularized by Brian Dean is the process of looking at the top result for a query you’re targeting and then outdoing that top-ranking page with your own page. Dean calls this content marketing for link builders. See what ranks the best and then shoot even higher with your own answer to the query. Sounds like a lot of work, right? It is. Of course, smart SEO minds have refined the process.

So what is the process for creating 10x content? For a succinct answer we turn to Rand Fishkin’s classic Whiteboard Friday “Why ‘Good, Unique Content’ Needs to Die (And What Should Replace It).”

Research the pages that are ranking. Use Google to see the top-ranked pages and use BuzzSumo to see the most shared content on a topic.

Then ask these questions as you’re taking it all in:

What are the questions that are asked and answered in these pages?

How thorough is the information? What’s missing? HubSpot shared word-count analysis of its blog posts compared to organic traffic and found that a word count of 2,250–2,500 words gets the most traffic. So you definitely want content to be thorough and comprehensive.

What’s the format and delivery mechanism of these pages? You might also call this the user experience. Is it visual? Is it video? Is it rendered well for the device? Is the info I’m looking for on the page, or do you have to click to another page? Is it easy to find an answer?

What are the sources of the information and are they credible?

What’s the quality of the writing?

Once you collect all these answers and identify what search engines are rewarding and what people are sharing, you’ll know what you at least have to do to compete. And you can figure out how to better it.

My 3 Best Tips for Capturing 10x Content Magic

Here’s the sucky thing. Generating 10x content requires sweat and grind. But there are some likely sources of 10x content magic that you can mine.

Data-driven content: This is the Pricenomics model. Pricenomics is a content agency that turns company data into content and then tracks the distribution and performance of the content.

If you read the Pricenomics blog, they’re always posting this in action. It’s a really fun blog, so I recommend you check it out. Here’s an example:

Venngage, an infographics company, used the Pricenomics content marketing model to sift through all of their client data and come up with the most popular font types in America. What data can you bring to light that will make people think, “Huh, I’ve always wondered!” or “Hey, I never would have thought.”

There’s story in data and people just eat that stuff up.

Expert voice content: This is just journalism 101. You go to the expert source and you name your sources.

Honestly, if you can find a good expert, maybe someone on your staff or maybe the biggest name in your industry, and they agree to an interview, this is one of the fastest ways to 10x your content.

You get that credibility factor. You get the network effect of the expert and their followers sharing and reading.

What you want to steer clear of here is the trap of the expert round-up. I think we’ve all seen that. And those aren’t all bad, but they are kind of cheap.

We’re not going for cheap. What you’re looking for in talking to your expert is to raise your page to the next level. Bring something to the forefront that the normal person misses, but that will create that light-bulb moment in those reading it for the first time.

Start your practice of nurturing relationships with experts with this Bruce Clay guide.

Voice of Customer content: Writers start by thinking about their audience. You get into the target audience’s head to find out what they want, what they need, what they know, what they don’t know they need. And then you write to solve a problem in that audience’s – or persona’s – life.

In marketing, we’re matching the pain point with our solution. And what really resonates with your target audience is hearing or reading the thoughts that are actually going on in their head, or close to it.

There are many possible ways to gather the information used to synthesize VOC: focus groups, individual interviews, and contextual inquiries (like on-site surveys) are a few. But you’re basically using structured in-depth interviews, focusing on the customers’ experiences with current products or services. Need statements are extracted, organized into useful categories, and then prioritized and used by the business all the way from product development to marketing.

I learned about the methodology around Voice of Customer data from Copy Hackers. User-generated content, product reviews and testimonials are essentially forms of VOC content.

And maybe this is where the altruist in me comes out, because when we turn our focus on SEO content, we’re doing something special. We’re not trying to find a loophole to exploit and win on a technicality. We’re sharing stories that will enrich people’s experience. We’re teaching people about solutions that will make their lives better. And we’re making connections with people like us.

SEO has to encompass those 30-or-so factors on the Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors. But the forensic-style technical SEO is not the bar you’re holding your work up to — it’s the minimum viable SEO. Today, getting the technical stuff right is just the ticket to entry.

If you’re actually trying to reach the top, you’re going to prioritize content as the top SEO issue for you to solve.

If you like this post, please share it with your friends or colleagues. For more like this, be sure to subscribe to our blog.

This post is based on my presentation “Thin Content Is THE Top SEO Issue” which I shared at Pubcon Las Vegas last week. Check out the full deck below.

Thin Content is THE Top SEO Issue from Virginia Nussey

[Read More …] Source: SEO News

The post Make Content Your #1 SEO Strategy Initiative in 2018 appeared first on WeRank Digital Marketing Agency.

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miettawilliemk1 · 7 years

Text

Make Content Your #1 SEO Strategy Initiative in 2018

Make Content Your #1 SEO Strategy Initiative in 2018 was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

It’ll be 10 years ago this January that I first walked through the doors at Bruce Clay, Inc. and entered digital marketing.

I never thought I would work in marketing. Who plans on a career in marketing? What 10-year-old says, “I want to be a marketer when I grow up, Mommy!”

We use our storytelling talents and distribution know-how for our companies and our clients. Our job is to get the right story in front of the right audience.

I’ve learned that SEO wins happen at the intersection of identifying storytelling opportunities and maximizing the visibility of those stories through search.

And yet I think it can be easy for an SEO to forget a critical role they play for clients and for organizations: that of the content evangelist.

The Job of an SEO

Click to visit SearchEngineLand.com where you can download the Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors.

Why Content Should Be Your Top SEO Priority

Here are concrete ways that you can empower your role in SEO by evangelizing content to your company or your clients.

1. Content is in your control.

Who links to you is an X factor. It’s not as squarely in your control. What is in your control? Content.

2. Content has trackable metrics.

Leading metrics you can focus on improving are:

The number of thin pages that you make better.

The number of new ranking pages you add to the site.

The number of pages on the site and pages indexed.

What’s awesome about focusing SEO campaigns on content is that you can truly track your progress while you’re creating more great content.

3. Bigger sites make more money.

When your boss asks you, “What’s the ROI of this content initiative?” you can say that big sites make more money.

Just like a company needs to grow to make a profit, so does a website.

How to Set Content Apart as 10x

That is certainly a worthy goal. But the truth is that good, quality content isn’t good enough. Today’s bar for Page 1 rankings is 10x content.

Research the pages that are ranking. Use Google to see the top-ranked pages and use BuzzSumo to see the most shared content on a topic.

Then ask these questions as you’re taking it all in:

What are the questions that are asked and answered in these pages?

What are the sources of the information and are they credible?

What’s the quality of the writing?

Once you collect all these answers and identify what search engines are rewarding and what people are sharing, now you know what you at least have to do to compete. And you can figure out how to better it.

My 3 Best Tips for Capturing 10x Content Magic

Here’s the sucky thing. Generating 10x content requires sweat and grind. But there are some likely sources of 10x content magic that you can mine.

Data-driven content: This is the Pricenomics model. Pricenomics is a content agency that turns company data into content and then tracks the distribution and performance of the content.

If you read the Pricenomics blog, they’re always posting this in action. It’s a really fun blog, so I recommend you check it out. Here’s an example:

Venngage, an infographics company, used the Pricenomics content marketing model to sift through their all their client data and come up with the most popular font types in America. What data can you bring light to that will make people think, “Huh, I’ve always wondered!” or “Hey, I never would have thought.”

There’s story in data and people just eat that stuff up.

Expert voice content: This is just journalism 101. You go to the expert source and you name your sources.

Honestly, if you can find a good expert, maybe someone on your staff or maybe the biggest name in your industry, and they agree to an interview, this is one of the fastest ways to 10x your content.

You get that credibility factor. You get the network effect of the expert and their followers sharing and reading.

What you want to steer clear of here is the trap of the expert round-up. I think we’ve all seen that. And those aren’t all bad, but they are kind of cheap.

Start your practice of nurturing relationships with experts with this Bruce Clay guide.

Voice of customer content: Writers start by thinking about their audience. You get into the target audience’s head to find out what they want, what they need, what they know, what they don’t know they need. And then you write to solve a problem in that audience’s – or persona’s – life.

I learned about the methodology around Voice of Customer data from Copy Hackers. User-generated content, product reviews and testimonials are essentially forms of VOC content.

If you’re actually trying to reach the top, you’re going to prioritize content as the top SEO issue for you to solve.

If you like this post, please share it with your friends or colleagues. For more like this, be sure to subscribe to our blog.

This post is based on my presentation “Thin Content Is THE Top SEO Issue” which I shared at Pubcon Las Vegas last week. Check out the full deck below.

Thin Content is THE Top SEO Issue from Virginia Nussey

http://ift.tt/2hBVHOq

#Make Content Your 1 SEO Strategy Initiative in 2018

0 notes

lindasharonbn1 · 7 years