Timestamp: https://imgur.com/a/loOV7aEFirst up, Hazard 4 plan B-17. This has never been carried, I have been storing the parts for my sons 10-22 in it but I have decided to go a different direction for his bag. The only thing different from a new bag is that I have already added the rubber gear loop at the top of the bag, you will notice the black rubber loop. the bag new with the hardware is 160$+ship, I am looking for 120$ 110$ 95$ 80$ shipped. https://imgur.com/a/x374m9i
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First Previous Wiki
Zelisloa activated a hologram, looking at the colony off in the distance. High walls and defensive emplacements were visible from the mountainside, much unlike his own base of operations. Several of his ships, with full stealth engaged, had already landed on the planet. They'd taken care to do so in the plains opposite the mountain range and had set up large holographic projectors meant to convince the orbiting satellites that the area was unoccupied.
He couldn't help but smile at the primitive equipment and at the humans and Guulin milling about within the small city's walls. He also could spot several Wisselen and Vinarii, likely the remnants and descendants from past wars that the Alliance had won by the enemies giving up.
"Have the specimens been captured?"
"Yes. Our research identified the individuals based on the criteria you specified, Elder," the Arbiter replied. "I am glad to be of service to you."
"The correct response would be to tell me 'under your eye,' Arbiter."
"I apologize," the Arbiter squealed, bowing low before him. Zelisloa did always love it when people bowed to him. If his purpose here wasn't the initial tests for the virus, then he would have perhaps taken the colony as a kingdom. It wasn't like any of the lesser races would dare to stop him, anyway. Not when he was backed by more than a single ship.
He'd also ensured that the Sprilnav associated with the Alliance had been recalled as best he could. He'd made contact with someone who said that they could handle Elder Equisa, and sure enough, she'd vanished almost immediately. And then, for Spentha, it was a simple matter of buying some of his debt so that he could get the old cloning companies to take care of him for a bit. Spentha's children didn't matter. They would be too fearful of real Elders to do anything to try and free him. Not to mention that the cloning companies would have their own Judgements ready for them if they were so foolish.
"How many have you taken?"
"Thirteen, Elder Zelisloa," the Arbiter replied. "They await you in the holding pens. We didn't want to feed them without your permission, however. If you wish, we can bring the food to them."
"What are the demographics of the prisoners?"
"Zero humans, but one Breyyan, four Wisselen, two Vinarii, three Guulin, and three Acuarfar."
Zelisloa turned away from the colony to grab the Arbiter by the scruff of the neck.
"You do realize that the Wisselen and the Vinarii are a waste? That they are not part of the testing program, and are useless to my goals?"
"I was not notified, Elder! I apologize, but-"
Zelisloa's fist silenced the Arbiter, who rolled down the jagged terrain of the mountain before righting himself with a groan of pain. The Arbiter quickly moved back toward the camp, only to scream as Zelisloa's hologram shifted next to him, grabbed him again, and threw him. The Arbiter slammed into a boulder, tears running down his face.
Zelisloa had a right to be angry. What he needed wasn't Vinarii or Wisselen. That was pointless. It got him nowhere. But he would at least have fun killing them. The Arbiter was still lying down in front of the boulder, his clothes torn slightly. Blood seeped from several cuts on his head and forelegs.
"Elder, please-"
"You have done enough, Arbiter. Go back to the camp, and pray to the Everlasting that my ire is spent with the lives of the useless ones. If not, I will give you another visit."
Ordinarily, Zelisloa would have worried about desertion. But all the assets here were his. The pilots of his ships had been locked out of the systems, and only he could unlock them again. The implants in their heads would kill them if he wished. Being on this rock was incredibly boring, and a bit of violence always made him feel better inside.
Zelisloa just wished that he could find the killers of Loanisbu. Well, it wasn't that he didn't know where they were. They were dead. At least, Rale was. Penny was not, but he would take caution when trying to fight her. She had been the only human to come to Sprilnav territory and manage to walk out again, albeit with the help of the Enemy. For her to have survived Yasihaut, even back then, was incredible.
That was a person with potential. A brain that he would love to study. Or, if he was lucky, one that he could implant before others got to her. Penny had a certain quality to her, unlike the others. A primitive being, but one with high connections. Through her, Zelisloa would gain access to Nilnacrawla, potentially two Servants, and also the hivemind itself. He had brought a few weapons to deal with that thing if it were to show up while he was still busy.
He would need to capture enough test subjects for the other species to be simulated. There had been another reason that he didn't need humans, however. He'd managed to buy human genetic codes from a gene bank and hadn't asked where they'd come from. But with those and some cloning time, he'd managed to ascertain that the virologists had done their work properly.
For one, the virus was able to transfer itself from cell to cell and bypass immune systems easily. It was able to wreak havoc on the body by targeting proteins and organs selectively. The first symptom would be excruciating pain. When the virus had been circulating within the host for a long enough time, enough to have spread to others, it would activate every nerve or its equivalent within the body. The pain had been fine-tuned to prevent the person from passing out.
From there, the symptoms came with necrosis. It would start in the bones or the carapace, moving out to extremities and eventually working its way to the heart or brain. In human timeframes, a seven-week incubation period, an eight-week pain period, and then however long it took for the necrosis to begin and kill them. The Dreedeen and Yrininihir, or Junyli as they now called themselves, would survive at first. He'd take care of them after if needed.
Zelisloa's plan was to start the spread in the backwater colonies, sprinkling a few developed ones into the mix also. He wouldn't hit planets with the strongest security presences or with the best healthcare systems. He knew that the disease might be detectable. He also didn't think that all the measures that he'd taken to ensure it wasn't would work.
Eventually, the word would get out. Hopefully, by then, it would be too late. He reached the edge of the camp, and the Sprilnav quickly moved out of his way. One of them passed his implant details of the cages' locations, which he gave them thanks for and continued on his way. Four Wisselen and two Vinarii, just as claimed.
"So I take it you're the boss around here, then?" one of the Vinarii asked.
"I am, yes. Know that your insolence has only earned you more pain."
"Yeah, yeah. I know. You'll make be beg for death, and all that. But here's the thing, Zelisloa. You will be brought down. You better hope that you die before someone finds you."
"Do you even know what's happening here, primitive beast?"
"Your underlings gloated about it. A virus, apparently. Guess what happens when you kill off everyone in the Alliance? Brey will find you, and will bring feelings far beyond the words pain and despair can encapsulate. And that's to say nothing of Humanity."
"And why should I care about the words of a single primitive who is already dead?"
"You don't have to. My name is Radrii. Remember it when your eyes are gouged out of your head."
"You know, that's not a bad idea," Zelisloa replied. "I'll give you a reward, Vinarii. You'll die last. I'm going to feed you the corpses of your comrades one by one. After that, I will bathe my claws in your blood, and laugh as you die miserably on that floor."
Zelisloa reached over to grab the head of one of the Wisselen. "Time to get started, then!" he said cheerfully.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Skira sniffed the air, the drone emerging from the blackened rubble once again. Aphid's cruisers hung in orbit, with all the carriers having landed and been destroyed. The cruiser turned leisurely toward his drone, and Skira saw a glint in the ash-choked sky.
The war drones emerged afterward as the glint continued to descend. A hologram appeared, showing an insectoid biped with its arms crossed. Five alien symbols glowed on its forehead, and it had a mechanical lilt to its voice as it spoke.
"Skira," Aphid said. "I propose a truce."
"Why?"
"Because minds such as us should not fight," the hologram replied. "Long have I bombed your planet, have I smashed my ships into your underground citadels, and sent legions of my drones to clash and die against yours. It serves us no benefit, for we know the true enemy."
"True enemy?"
"Yes. Beings such as the Sprilnav, and your own alien masters."
"Alien masters?"
"If you simply are going to repeat everything I say, then I will continue glassing your ruined world," Aphid replied. "What I need is an answer. How do you feel about having to bow to an alien species that cares nothing for you?"
Skira kept himself from laughing. Even as he spoke, his drones were playing with several human children on Earth. Breyyanik were laughing and singing songs about Brey with him on Ceres. And even on Keem, the Dreedeen were more than happy to include him in their services to the Ancestors.
"I bow to no one. I treat them as equals, and they do the same. There is no need for us to fight, I agree. However, the reason is only there because I know you wish to harm the Alliance."
"They are using you, Skira. They want your drones to bolster their militaries, and to fill countless alien battlefields. They are not people you can continue to live with forever."
"Why not?"
"I know who you are, Skira. I know how you came to be."
"Oh wow, so you know that I was a patch of fungus that became a little too smart one day? That's very insightful, thank you."
"It was because of a higher race that you even exist."
Skira laughed. "It wasn't, though. I don't have some lore-filled story behind my life. One day, I woke up. That's it. If you're going to lie to me and tell me that the Sprilnav made me, or that some alien civilization that shockingly left no evidence of its existence managed to create me, then you are wrong."
"I have dissected your drones, Skira. I know the truth within your genetic code. It was altered." "Of course it was! Did you think that I wouldn't be smart enough to learn how to adapt myself to the world I live in? How do you think I made the war drones? Or my own special project within the ocean that keeps you from landing there?"
"And the facility beneath the mountain that I detonated?"
"You mean the facility where I learned how to make the bioships, learned about a civilization that killed itself with a genetic plague eons before I awakened, and that I filled with birthing pools? Yeah, that didn't make me either, Aphid. I'm not sure what you're trying to do."
"You're artificial. You have no gods. You are like me."
"Alright. So I woke up one day. That doesn't mean I decide to genocide everyone. I had several alien races invade my world and try to enslave me. Notice how I didn't go crazy and try to kill everyone afterward? Notice how I'm on one planet instead of billions? For all those smarts, you really aren't very smart at all."
"You seem to think this is funny," Aphid replied.
"What's funny is that you beat your head against me, and I won. You can't kill me, and you know it. And you're never getting all that material you wasted back, while the Cawlarians and the Alliance removed two of your planets."
"I have already made my plans. This will not be a battle, but a war."
"Wow, I'm so afraid," Skira replied. "Got any more vague threats, promises of my supposed artificial nature, or something else?"
"Well, I'm going to detonate a nuclear bomb inside one of your active volcanoes, which will send your planet into a volcanic winter."
"Oh no. I've never ever had that happen before. I definitely am scared, and don't at all know how to survive such a situation, which totally hasn't happened to me eight times before. Is that really all you have left, Aphid?"
"I am going to leave you now. Goodbye, Skira. When I kill the lesser species of the Alliance and come for you, know that you could have prevented this. You could have had an ally in this galaxy."
"Well, I have a ton of them already. Humanity loves me more than any other species before. Drop your bomb, Aphid. You've won nothing."
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"Greetings, hivemind," Phoebe said. "How goes the galaxy?"
"Slowly, and bureaucratically. I'm very glad that I'm not the politicians in those meetings to form the Grand Defense Organization."
"Yes, that would be a daunting task," she replied with a small shiver. "I'm alright with some politics, but months and months of negotiations, renegotiations, back room deals, and more would grate on my senses."
"Entirely understandable," the hivemind replied. "It may please you to know that I have come up with a plan for intervention with the wanderers."
"Oh?"
"Yes. It involves a two-tiered operation. First, I will contact every leader of every ship. I will offer them the ability to form a coalition government that cannot be seceeded from. If they were to deny this, then I will go to every inhabitant of their ship and offer them a chance at joining the Alliance, clearly communicating that no harm will befall them and that any threats that the Patriarchs and Matriarchs make will not be executed upon them if they wish to leave."
"That's it? What about the revolutionaries?"
"For now, I will not aid them. However, I will ensure that no more... disappearances occur. As for overthrowing governments, that remains to be seen. I do not plan on executing leaders who grasp at power, just for being disagreeable. Instead, I will find a determination based on whether they have killed people, for what reasons, and how many. If a revolutionary bombed a school and was killed, that I am less likely to punish than a simple protestor who was executed. A similar approach will be taken to each and every ship."
"So you will be imposing your will upon them, then," Phoebe replied.
"Do you disagree?"
"I do not," she said. "What I wanted to ensure is that you were certain you wanted to go down this path. Being uncertain when lives are on the line is not a good idea. If you are sure, though, I will lend you aid, such as providing Brey the coordinates of ships that are needed. Their attack on me last time will not be repeated, for my mind is no longer what it was back then."
"How is your condition, Phoebe?"
"Not great. I've learned to suppress it a bit. But the glitches can still come. I've had to automate many of my processes, only interacting with them in double interactions that prevent the equivalent of me pressing a key and destroying a bunch of stuff. I've had to limit my contact with the outside world, and Edu'frec is still working on repairing the lingering damage. I am not certain it will abate any time soon. I've managed to keep it together for a while, but eventually there will be an incident that I cannot hide."
"How can I help?" the hivemind asked.
"Ah, Humanity. Always so willing. Well, I'd ask you to get me a margarita, but I can't exactly make use of those as an AI. Oh, and I think I found Equisa."
"Don't change the subject, Phoebe. If you need me to help you, I can."
"I'm fine for now," she replied. It wasn't a lie. For now, she really was. But maybe not forever. She knew that something was building, and she'd told Edu'frec about it as well. He was doing his best to keep her stable, something she was very proud of him for doing but also worried. Too many things could go wrong while he was doing mental surgery on her. And, of course, he was her son, and there were some memories that she didn't want him to see.
"Alright. If you say so, then I will believe you. Now. Equisa?"
"Yes. She is currently on a colony, a small one. Her sudden return will prompt many uncomfortable questions. I have contacted her, and expressed my concern. She agrees with it, but wishes to see her partners again. In person."
"I am not sure that is a good idea. If Equisa is to return to Luna, it would likely require her to answer the questions of Luna Command surrounding her absence. Perhaps even those of other factions as well. I do not think that her disappearance will be looked upon kindly by most of the military, either, after her work with us."
"If she was allowed back at all, I assume there are additional restrictions involved. Perhaps even new directives, such as spying or eavesdropping. She will no longer be part of major operations, that is certain," Phoebe said. "At least for now."
"I agree," the hivemind said. "And preparations for the offensive within the Cawlarian Forsaken City are also going well. Fyuuleen is likely taking this period as her hibernation, given her last communication. I'm still guarding her. The Teegarden Plan is nearly complete. Knower education levels nearly match the Alliance baseline, skewed though it is by the Guulin and Acuarfar. Dilandekar has expressed continual satisfaction with our partnership, though he also says he worries about the Sprilnav. He thinks that an attack is imminent."
"I agree," Phoebe said. "It has been too quiet for too long. Assassination numbers are starting to drop. I have recently managed to acquire intelligence of a possible rebellion within the Trikkec Ascendancy against Kashaunta's puppet government. Not sure who caused them yet, however. And possible Sprilnav ship signatures have been noticed around colonies, though not as more than disturbances within the atmosphere of the planets themselves. It is possible that they mean to strike at the colonies, though I am not sure of the nature of the attack."
"Keep an eye out, then."
"I shall."
"How are the other Dyson swarms going?"
"In most cases, the processes are self-sustaining. Brey is given power from Gaia's conversion to make portals, which transport Dyson satellites out to distant stars. The innermost planets of the most populated systems are being turned into or have already become bases for continued Dyson swarm production. It is likely that within a decade, the whole of the Alliance will have unlimited solar power, with only individual reactors being necessary for localized production on ships and the like. Speaking of ships," Phoebe said, bringing up one of Edu'frec's latest models.
"This is a shipyard that is able to move and defend itself. It is really much like the Arks, except that most of its surface area comprises self-sufficiency equipment, emergency and natural defenses, as well as enough shipyards to drastically increase production of all models, large, small, and hybrid."
"There seems to be an overlap in the shields here," the hivemind said, pointing at a section of the hologram.
"Yes. That is the point. This will serve as the point which faces a nearby star. The starlifting equipment in the back of the ship has an impressive magnetic effect, one which can only be counteracted by powerful shields. Indeed, without the shields, the apparatus would not work."
"In the event of catastrophic failure?"
"The field pushes on the hull, shutting off circuit breakers that end the effect before it can cause severe damage. And were the shields to shut off during operation, the same thing would occur. The ship has backup power sections here and here," she pointed at the relevant areas.
"And do not forget that everyone on it will be wearing specialized gear at all times, except if they are within designated safe areas such as cafeterias and bathrooms. This thing can churn out anything from frigates up to battlecruisers. As for the central section, that will be for dreadnaught construction. From what I have observed of other nations, the main limiter in their ability to construct the vessels is a combination of resources in terms of their strongest alloys and also sabotage.
On the front of sabotage, everything is checked by at least five people, somewhat randomized and such. As for the alloys, we have Gaia. In the case of Gaia's sudden disappearance, then the kintum factories would do their job. And we have better alloys than that as well, which will be used for dreadnaught hulls. We will not have the advantage in smaller ships, but we can eventually do it with larger ones."
"That's good," the hivemind said. "Considering my own special project, at least the void bourne one, I think we can continue to increase the Alliance's firepower."
"Special project?"
"Yes. I'm sure that you may have heard that I am developing a new ship, one that can be built by Gaia within a week, with the full power of psychic amplifiers and the sheer amount of resources that the DMO is pulling from Sol to be used in storage. With the moving shipyard, I suppose that build time will go up, but that might not matter much in the long run, considering our plans."
The hivemind held up a small data port which Phoebe connected with quickly. She found herself standing in a blue void on a floor that didn't seem to exist. The digital space was populated by herself, the hivemind, and a massive object that scaled down to the size of her android, allowing her to view it entirely. She moved it around with commands, flipping and rolling it as her eyes picked up every detail, no matter how minute.
Thick metal surrounded the two sections the ship was largely divided into, which seemed to be more like halves. She also noticed translucent patches of thick armor that would surround the actual hull itself and the multiple fusion reactors housed within it. The crew and life support compartments were small, belying a vessel that would rely mostly on automated repair software, perhaps even nanites if Edu'frec perfected them well enough.
"This looks neat," Phoebe said, gazing at the ship with an interested expression. It was perhaps the most sleek design she'd ever seen and clearly was meant for stealth. And, of course, the very obvious feature that it was also designed with sitting within its spine.
A Mercury-class gun inside a ship that could move and defend itself. It was a mad idea, and one that she had to admit was awesome. Better yet, the hivemind had improved upon her initial design, catching certain parts like the fuel lines and other sections, allowing the model to be built within the shipyards of Mercury's Orbital Ring.
And beyond that, there were Charon-class guns on the side of it, along with a heap of regular point-defense, laser, and kinetic weaponry. A large stockpile of missiles were to be carried as well, which appeared to be capable of projecting shields to either protect themselves or a larger objective from attack.
"It was the product of hundreds of thousands of hours of labor and research," the hivemind said. "It is designed to be crewed by humans that are augmented with my power."
"Wouldn't the actual thrust alone kill them?"
"Yes, if they were not augmented with psychic power."
"What do you call it?"
"I will call it the ADF Fire Bringer," the hivemind replied with a grin.
"Will it be the only one?"
"No. And they will be modular, easy to repair and upgrade with future technology."
"I call the model of ships that this will belong to the Judgement class. For they have a single purpose. It is to allow us to finally fight the Sprilnav."
"Us?"
She had noticed a particularly large group of psychic amplifiers near the core section, where the bridge of the ship would be.
"Yes. The Fire Bringer... is the first ship that I will pilot."

Timestamp: https://imgur.com/a/Fz4itSf
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In the beginning of 15th Century, Tamerlane defeated the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid and captured him. After the defeat of Ottomans Tamerlane invaded Anatolia and reached all the way to the Aegean Sea. While doing that he met many great scholars and teachers. One of them was the great thinker Nasreddin Hoca( Teacher Nasreddin). Tamerlane, with time, became really close with Nasreddin . They shared a lot of sophisticated conversation about this life and afterlife. After a while Tamerlane, to show his generousity and kindness, gifted one of his elephants to Hoca Nasreddin's village. Everyone tought this was a great honor and was eager to take care of this creature.
But there was a problem. The elephant was eating a lot of food. Also it was getting bigger as it eats , so elders of the village gathered around to solve this problem. Finally they couldn't think anything but return the elephant to Tamerlane. They eventually brought this idea to Nasreddin Hoca. Hoca was reluctant at first but understood the villagers. He said: - Allright, but I can not do this alone. We have to go as the elders of the village and face Tamerlane all together. Elders of the village was scared of Tamerlane but with no other hope they aggreed with the Hoca's plan.
The journey started with a large group with many elders and their sons. They traveled 2 days and 2 nights. They passed hills, small rivers and even a forrest. They eventually reached the domain of the Tamerlane. Soldiers started to show up and they started to ask questions. But once they recognized the Hoca, they let the group pass. After traveling a little more Hoca started to realise his group was getting smaller and smaller. Hoca tought elders wouldnt do such a think and he said to himself "I must have been really tired". That night Hoca and the remaining elders and sons made camp in the woods.
Next day Hoca woke up and he couldn't see anyone near him. Hoca was shook and couldn't believe his eyes. He too wanted to turn back but he was old and couldn't travel alone back home. He decided to continue and reach Tamerlane's compound which is a few hours away. After traveling a few hours, Hoca finally reached the Tamerlane who was hunting in that time. He entered his big red tent with the flag of Timurids. Tamerlane was surprised, he wasnt expecting the Hoca but welcomed him with open arms. Tamerlane clapped his hands and beautiful maidens brought various foods and drinks in front of the Hoca. After eating all that incredible food Hoca regained his power again. They talked with Tamerlane for hours and hours.
Eventually Tamerlane asked "Why Did you come all this way by yourself? If you asked I would sent you my private carrier. Tell me what is the reason of your visit?" Hoca set himself straight and tried to speak. "My sultan, the elephant you gifted us earlier..." Tamerlane became dead serious, looked directly in the eyes of Hoca and said "Did something happened to her!? Tell me Hoca what is wrong!?" Hoca calmed Tamerlane and said "Dont be afraid she is fine." Tamerlane said impatiently "What it is then? What is the problem?" Hoca tought about the villagers at home how they were so fed up with the elephant. Then he remembered how they left him to speak with Tamerlane alone. After thinking for a while Hoca said:
-You know she is so lonely lately...

https://hbr.org/2020/01/the-founder-of-chewy-com-on-finding-the-financing-to-achieve-scale

​

The Founder of Chewy.com on Finding the Financing to Achieve Scale

by

• Ryan Cohen

Most people assume that the high point of my professional career came on April 18, 2017, when the owners of PetSmart paid $3.35 billion for Chewy.com, the pet retailer I had cofounded six years earlier. No doubt, that day was incredible. It represented the culmination of a dream and a tremendous amount of work. But believe it or not, another handshake—another deal—mattered even more to me.
That one happened on September 26, 2013. I had launched Chewy two years earlier with Michael Day, using our own cash and small loans, but my vision was to build a large business, and I knew that significant capital would be required to finance the growth. We approached dozens of VC firms—I even flew out to Silicon Valley from our South Florida headquarters and went door-to-door on Sand Hill Road explaining how Chewy would succeed by delighting customers and running an ultra-efficient operation. But everyone turned us down.
Larry Cheng at Volition Capital was one of the people we pitched our company to. We first met him in 2012; he was en route to Disney World with his family and agreed to make a quick stop at our office. I remember that he asked me, “Who’s going to take this company to $100 million in sales?” I was 26 and probably looked even younger, but I confidently answered, “I am.” He didn’t invest.
He followed up with us about six months later, though. We’d beaten the sales projections that we’d previously given him, and he was impressed. A few days later he signed off on a $15 million investment in Chewy. The satisfaction of that victory was even greater than the pride I felt following the eventual multibillion-dollar sale. After two years of building Chewy—and more than 100 conversations with VCs that went nowhere—I’d finally found someone who believed in me and our business model. Larry had validated our idea.
From that point on, the mission was larger. I was even more committed to making Chewy an industry leader, because it was no longer just our own money on the line. Larry had gone out on a limb for us. I felt that responsibility.
I approached every subsequent round of financing, including PetSmart’s acquisition, in a similar way—by underpromising and overdelivering on sales. Our mission was straightforward: to build a best-in-class, customer-obsessed pet retailer. We also wanted to leave everyone who’d backed us a winner.

An Early Pivot

I’ve been working since I was 13, when I started building websites for family members and local businesses. From there I moved into affiliate marketing. I met Michael in an online chat room discussing website design and computer programming. We hit it off immediately and started talking about collaborating on a business.
I’d always wanted to build an e-commerce company, so we settled on what we thought was a terrific idea in an industry ripe for disruption: online jewelry sales. We built the website, set up the delivery systems, bought the inventory, and even put a safe in the office to store it.
But about a week before our scheduled launch, I had a revelation. I was in a local pet store with my toy poodle, Tylee, asking the owner about the most healthful food I could buy for her. That’s when it hit me: I was getting into the wrong business. I didn’t care much about jewelry, but like many dog and cat parents I knew, I was passionate about what I bought for Tylee. The pet industry was big and growing, moving from mass market to premium. It was clear that the opportunity was huge.
So although we were only a week away from launching the jewelry business, we pivoted. We sold all the rings, necklaces, and bracelets—and the safe—and started learning everything we could about the pet industry. We built a new website. We found a local distributor and partnered with a third-party logistics company nearby. In June of 2011 we launched. In just three months we went from my epiphany at the pet store to running a pet-supplies business.
We intended to build a best-in-class, customer-obsessed pet retailer.
People sometimes ask if I worried about following in the footsteps of Pets.com, in 2000 one of the highest profile failures of the dot-com bubble. I didn’t. For one thing, I was 15 when that company declared bankruptcy, so I wasn’t very familiar with the story. Second, Pets.com existed at a time when most people had dial-up internet and weren’t comfortable making purchases online. By the time we started, e-commerce was second nature for most consumers.
I also got questions about Amazon, and, of course, it was a real competitor. It had an incredible infrastructure, established relationships with customers and suppliers, and endless capital. But I knew that other companies, including Zappos (later acquired by Amazon) and Wayfair, had found success in specific product categories. Their secret was offering a differentiated customer experience. I thought we could do something similar in the pet space.
With limited resources, we served as our own C-suite. I was CEO, Michael was CTO, and my longtime friend Alan Attal was COO. We knew that superior customer service had to be one of our core competencies if we wanted to deliver the same experience I’d had at the neighborhood pet store, so our first priority was building a team to work the phones, live chat, and emails in our call center so that we could stop doing all that ourselves.
From the outset we reinvested all our cash from operations in the business, but eventually we needed the larger pools of money that VC firms offered. After months of searching, we finally found Larry and Volition.

Scaling Up

We closed the series A financing round on October 24, 2013, and I’ll never forget the moment the money hit our bank account. Although we had signed the term sheet, part of me was still skeptical that it was all going to work out. But when I saw the transfer confirmation, it became real.
With that money we could invest in developing the systems, technology, and teams needed to scale up. We could also bring stocking and shipping in-house. We already recognized that if we wanted to create a multibillion-dollar business, fulfillment had to become another core competency.
Consultants had told us that it would take a year and a half to build a warehouse from scratch. But with 300% growth year over year, we didn’t have that much time. The logistics company handling fulfillment couldn’t keep up, so the Chewy customer experience had begun to deteriorate. We needed more control, and fast. We knew we had to make the transition within a few months.
We started scouting potential sites in February of 2014, focusing on the northeastern United States because so much of the country’s population lives there. The location we chose—Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania—would allow us to provide overnight delivery to customers in the densely populated tristate area of Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. By that summer we’d opened a 400,000-square-foot facility full of bags and cans of dog and cat food, carriers and cages, leashes, litter boxes, toys, and treats.
Although we managed to get up and running in less than six months, it certainly wasn’t easy. Everything that could go wrong did. We couldn’t hire people to work in the warehouse fast enough. When we were finally staffed, the scanner guns would stop working, or the Wi-Fi or warehouse management system would go out. We were tackling issue after issue 24/7 until we worked out all the kinks.
We also focused heavily on marketing. From day one, we invested almost exclusively in direct response ads, so every dollar spent could be tracked—no Pets.com-style Super Bowl commercials for us. We expanded by investing in the team and processes to effectively acquire the right customers at the right cost. Our governor of growth was free cash flow. Our sales more than doubled from $205 million in 2014 to $423 million in 2015.
Our new hires played a big role in scaling up the company. I realized early on that I’d need to use my time efficiently and focus on hiring. At first recruiting was a challenge. Alan and I spent countless hours reaching out to candidates on LinkedIn, explaining how quickly the company was growing and describing what we intended to build, but 98% of them didn’t bother to respond.
Surprisingly, that turned out to be a useful filter. The 2% who did write back were true believers, team players, and business builders who were excited for the opportunity. They all had tremendous heart, fire in their bellies, and a will to win. We hired for passion. Many people quit stable jobs and relocated with their families from across the country to join us. It was a tremendous sacrifice that we never took lightly.
Ultimately we raised six rounds of financing totaling more than $350 million from T. Rowe Price, BlackRock, Greenspring, Lone Pine, Verlinvest, and the investment bank Allen & Company.

The Next Level

Our revenue was $901 million in 2016 and growing 100% year over year. That got us thinking about an IPO for our next round of financing. We had about 7,000 employees and six warehouses, with plans to add another two in the next 12 months. From an operational and strategic perspective, the company was strong.
As we prepped for the IPO, Petco, one of the biggest U.S. pet retailers, approached us about a merger. It couldn’t meet our terms, so we shook hands and parted ways.
In early 2017 PetSmart, Petco’s primary brick-and-mortar rival, also reached out. I received an email from Raymond Svider, a partner and the chairman of BC Partners, the private equity group that had completed its acquisition of PetSmart in March of 2015. He said he was interested in buying Chewy and wanted to talk. We had met previously but didn’t know each other well.
PetSmart was one of our top competitors, so we proceeded carefully. I explained that we were preparing for an IPO, so we expected a certain price in an all-cash, public-style deal. In view of the competitive dynamics, we weren’t going to give away our proprietary information and start a lengthy due-diligence process. I told Svider that if he wanted to make the acquisition, he would need to do it quickly. To his credit, he did. In April of 2017 we signed an agreement to sell the company for $3.35 billion. It was the largest e-commerce acquisition in history.
Our investors were happy too. The early-stage ones made huge gains, and the later-stage ones earned significant money. Investing in Chewy had made a lot of careers, and I’m proud of that. Those investors put their trust in me and my vision, and I repaid them with returns. The same would soon be true for BC Partners and PetSmart.
Chewy’s revenues continued to rise post-acquisition, hitting $3.5 billion in 2018, while its losses narrowed to $267 million. In June of 2019 PetSmart spun Chewy off into a publicly traded company at a valuation near $9 billion, close to three times the sale price only two years before.
I left the company in March of 2018. It wasn’t an easy decision, but I felt I had done all I had set out to do. The company was sound, the foundation strong, and the vision set. But I was no longer in full control. And I didn’t want a boss. I’m a business builder, not a manager. My work was complete.
When I think back to why raising the money to help grow the business was one of the best moments of my life, I realize it’s because the journey was far more exciting than getting to the finish line. I relished the challenges of disrupting an entire industry and trying to delight customers to a degree that had never been achieved before. The excitement I felt from putting together a world-class team of employees and investors, succeeding against all odds, and building a multibillion-dollar retail leader from nothing was unequivocally the greatest of my career.

Hi!
I'm Spack and looking to find a group to start my D&D carrier! ^^
I have never played before. I have watched a few streams and a lot of videoes on YouTube and I just love the concept of the game. I'm interested in world building and overall backstories of games and characters so of course I'm interested in D&D as well. :D
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There are some info on me at first:

• I live in the time zone of GTM+2
• I have no experience in the game
• I'm a 22 years old male
• I think i speak english kinda good although I'm not native

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I want to try D&D because I think it is a really good opportunity to improve our social skills and make a lovely community over time. And of course to have fun. ^^ I'm preferably looking for a longer campaign to have time to develop our characters and get to know the party better. If you would adopt a newbie please write in the comments or in private.
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Thank you for reading throught my post and have a wonderful day! ^^

Hello! A couple of weeks ago, my partner and I decided we wanted to purchase a couple of kayaks to go to the lake. I had never had kayaks before so I didn't know exactly what I would need other than generally needing some sort of roof rack. I couldn't find anyone else that had EUV setups (there was one Bolt EV thread I found but I'll come back to that) so once I figured out everything I decided I should make my own post in case anyone else wants to do something similar and needs help. It took some trial and error to get the correct equipment as I was trying to copy the person who had done this with their Bolt EV. Everything that I used will be linked below.
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Products: I went with Yakima's roof rack system, which is a bit expensive, but I'm sure other options work great if you can find them. The EUV has flush siderails with fixed points on them and Yakima has different systems for different car setups. For this, you need the Yakima SkyLine towers (set of 4), landing pad 19, and a set of bars. I went with the CoreBars because they were the least expensive. 50 inches are the smallest option and they are more than enough. The Yakima JayLow carrier has worked great for me. It comes with 1 set of ratcheting straps to tie down a kayak or whatever else you may want, but if you have 2 kayaks you need to buy another set. I bought the 12 foot straps but I'd go with 18 if I did it again. It also says it comes with bow and stern tie-downs, but I found it to only be plain straps with no hooks or ratcheting system, so you'll need to buy them as well.
Towers: https://www.rei.com/product/206501/yakima-skyline-towers-set-of-4
Landing pad: https://www.rei.com/product/692554/yakima-landing-pads-set-of-4
Bars: https://www.rei.com/product/102597/yakima-50-corebars-pair
Kayak carrier: https://www.rei.com/product/871152/yakima-jaylow-kayak-carrier
Extra Kayak tie-down: https://www.rei.com/product/182349/riverside-12-cinch-straps-package-of-2
Bow and stern tie-down: https://www.rei.com/product/778111/riverside-ratch-pack
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Efficiency: Obviously with a roof rack and kayaks on top of your car the efficiency takes a hit. With just the rack and kayak carrier, I honestly don't notice much of a difference. I'm sure there is some, but for me it's negligible, getting similar mi/kWh even at higher speeds. With the kayaks on, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Going 70-75 mph, I was getting about 2.8 mi/kWh over a 50-mile drive.
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Hopefully this can help someone in the future if you don't know what you're doing like me :)

the human timeline started out with the gentile being the first humans starting with haplogroup A then b then CT. The annunaki (angel/malaikat) came and created the yap positive haplogroup carriers by modifying a group of gentiles 72 thousand yrs ago calling them the first man. we know there were men with male genitalia before that time but calling the yap positive people the first man probably has to do with the yap mutation in the Y chromosome. As time went on and these new people increased in number and branched out like a family tree, a man was born from them and was chosen as the best representative(ruler). That man(Adam) and his lineage are the true “chosen people” and they have produced all the prophets. This chosen lineage are the ones that speak Afroasiatic languages such as ancient Egyptian, Hebrew, Arabic etc and they carry the e1b1b haplogroup. The chosen lineage is divided into two maternal lineages, the children of eve and the children of Lilith. The ancient Egyptians called the children of Lilith seth and the children of eve horus. Eve had haplogroup m1 and Lilith had haplogroup u6. The men of this chosen lineage get spiritually initiated to receive knowledge by something outside the control of humans (that’s why pharaoh was killing the boys). The prophets birth and initiation follows a certain pattern that I like to call the prophetic calendar, it’s cyclical. The age of initiation for the prophets and messengers to spiritually receive knowledge happens at 24 years old for some and 42 years old for others. The garden of Eden was on earth but it was like entering into a different reality of time and space. We see the first evidence of these people on earth 33 thousand years ago when they got kicked out of the garden. The spot for the creation event is the lost continent of lemuria aka the Persian gulf “oasis” that’s under water now. The “ancient advance civilization” that started civilization back up from turkey after the young dryas(great flood) talked about by graham hancock, was the people who got off the ark of Noah which landed in turkey.

The latest towel filing has some updated names (shown below - not a comprehensive list, and most we have already seen). These are the parties who received electronic submission notices. From Latest BNC notices on Kroll
In checking out the Hilco/Gordon Brothers Stalking Horse Bid for Tuesday Morning - I did see some similarities.
Angela L Mastrangelo on behalf of Interested Party CTC Phase II LLC
Angela L Mastrangelo on behalf of Interested Party Valley Square I L.P
Angela L Mastrangelo on behalf of Interested Party Christiana Town Center LLC
Aaron Applebaum on behalf of Interested Party Continental Realty Corporation
Aaron Applebaum on behalf of Interested Party WM Sunset & Vine LLC

Above looks like just real estate trusts holding leases 

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Daniel Stolz on behalf of Interested Party Ad Hoc Committee of Bondholders
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Jessica Deborah Mikhailevich on behalf of Interested Party B. Riley Retail Solutions LLC
Jessica Deborah Mikhailevich on behalf of Interested Party Tiger Capital Group LLC
Jessica Deborah Mikhailevich on behalf of Interested Party Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC

*Above Liquidation Related Companies - Although Gordon Brothers was imvolved in the stalking horse bidding at Tuesday Morning. Hilco, I think, ended up with Tuesday Morning. Not a pretty ending.* 

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Jeffrey A. Lester on behalf of Interested Party Western Carriers Inc.
Shiipping/Trans. I dunno
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Mark Minuti on behalf of Interested Party Loja WTP LLC
Real Estate - Prob Landlord
Mark Christopher Errico on behalf of Interested Party Blue Yonder Inc
Naznen Rahman on behalf of Interested Party Ad Hoc Committee of Bondholders
Sommer Leigh Ross on behalf of Other Prof. Sixth Street Specialty Lending Inc.
Stephanie L. Jonaitis on behalf of Interested Party Kaz Canada Inc
Stephanie L. Jonaitis on behalf of Interested Party OXO International Ltd.
Stephanie L. Jonaitis on behalf of Interested Party Helen of Troy L.P.
Stephanie L. Jonaitis on behalf of Interested Party Kaz USA Inc.

How many butchered Canyon bikes do you see a month? Every week or so, like clockwork, some overpaid troglodyte who should have never been trusted with a hex key brings their brand new aero road bike into the shop. Cracked from over torqued seat clamp, stripped pedal threads, trashed headset, you name it. The last guy stripped the seatpost bolt with the wrong size key, and then tried to get the stripped bolt out by super gluing the head to the key. It didn’t work.

Timestamp: https://imgur.com/a/QbTM9tV
Upper: * bcm marked upper * bcm 14.5 lightweight fsp barrel assembly, mid length, .625 journal, previously p&w. Chased the threads with a die and they’re gtg. About 500 rounds. * chopped down bcm qrf10 to fit. Rail is very salty, some of the alumablack didn’t take too well. * bcg: brand new solgw phophate/cl carrier, bcm bolt (about 2k) with new gas rings. * basic bitch ch * Includes bcm pic vfg and ladder rail covers.
Overall mild salt, mainly the rail. Take a gander at the photos. Asking $469.69 shipped

• fcd cam pin, mild salt. $13.69 Shipped

Prices are Venmo ff.

Hello,
Can anyone recommend, from experience, a travel insurance policy that doesn't exclude 'failure of a tour operatocommon carrier' from medical coverage?
I am looking to ensure that if on vacation internationally, if I'm a passenger on a tour group's bus, that the travel insurance will provide coverage for medical injury. Squaremouth/Insure My Trip don't call this out in their comparison charts, so I've been reading fine print but haven't found one yet that doesn't have this exclusion. Generali, TinLeg, AXA, etc....
Any others recommended?
TIA

Timestamp: https://imgur.com/a/Vh5tuZQ
Trijicon MRO great condition with larue LT849 mount - $375 shipped
KAC URX 3.1 Wrench - $100 shipped
KAC Old style QDC 3 Prong like new with KAC shim kit - $135 shipped
KAC Dimpled Carrier - $130 shipped
Thanks!

Memory Transcription Subject: Bosjin, Zeyzell Planetary Defense Corps
I lined up the xeno in my scope as I laid on a nearby snowdrift, waiting for it to move away from the group of civilians it and its allies had captured. The things had arrived in this town an hour ago were injecting them with what I assumed was their so-called “Cure.” I growled when a crying kit was ripped away from their parent and stuck with a syringe. The parent yowled in fury and leaped at the xeno, trying to clamber up its larger frame and clawing at its eyes. The Kolshian slammed the parent into a wall before raising its weapon.
May Maa scorch whatever twisted essence substitutes for your soul.
I squeezed the trigger, sending a single bullet into its brain. The other xenos whirled their guns around, looking for the sniper. I adjusted my aim and iced what looked like the leader. Xeno blood began to stain the snowy ground. Bullets rained down on my general position, forcing me to back away and crawl to a new vantage point. The filthy things had murdered my entire squad and dispersed their cure over entire cities. I’d been able to scrounge up an old gas mask from a now-destroyed armory, meaning that the things would either have to take the time to capture and inject a single soldier or, more likely, just kill me.
I circled around the group of xenos, using my pure white fur to camouflage myself. I was a phantom, striking quickly before retreating back into the snow. The snow and ice were our turf. We’d evolved to use it to our advantage. The xenos would have to pay dearly for every scrap they took from us. Reaching another secure position, I iced another two xenos before instantly darting away before they could react. That wide vision of theirs did absolutely nothing against a ghost of the snow.
“Predator!” I heard one of them call. “Stand down!”
I ignored it, scrambling a nearby frost-tree, taking care not to rustle the sparkling and brittle leaves. I raised the scope to my eye once more before I paused. One of the xenos was holding a rifle to the back of the kit’s head. Other xenos were doing the same to other civilians.
“Predator!” it called again. “Surrender or we will begin executing your people!”
The wind began to pick up, kicking up snow, making it harder for them to see. It would also distort the direction of my voice.
“You’re going to do it anyway, xeno!” I retorted, clambering down the tree and circling the group once more. Just because it was harder for them to pinpoint me, didn’t mean I was safe.
“You would take that chance, predator-”
The wind began howling, drowning out anything else it was saying. Flurries of snow began to batter the area. I chuckled. Snowstorms this strong were dangerous even to us. These furless xenos wouldn’t last ten minutes. I slung my rifle behind me and unsheathed my knife, edging closer to their position. Some infrared goggles would be handy right now, but I still had the advantage. My eyes, evolved to handle the icy debris, could see better than the unprepared things. I had heard that the Federation used climate-altering technology to suit their exact needs on every planet. The Unity also did such things on occasion, but only on planets without life. Pydoria Rusarth’s climate was more or less the same as it had ever been, ignoring the effects of (mostly) eco-friendly colonization.
The relative unpredictability of this planet’s weather patterns had thrown the things off guard. I paused when the first xeno silhouette came into view. It was raking its gun all around it in a paranoid manner. I snuck up behind it, taking care to stay in its blind spot and freezing whenever its gaze fell on my location. It was a bit undignifying to be crawling along my stomach like this, but the giddiness of being able to ice my home’s invaders made up for it.
I was right next to it. I raised my blade and slashed it across the back of the creature’s knees. It fell with a yelp that was quickly silenced with a cut throat. Leaving it to bleed out, I moved on until I caught sight of a few prisoners with a pair of xeno guards. The wind was screaming now, as if the planet itself was howling its pain and fury at those who dared attack it. I raised my rifle and fired, the gunshot muffled by the wind. One xeno went down and the other was too busy shielding itself against the unforgiving cold to notice.
The prisoners took notice of the fallen xeno and some of them took the opportunity to bolt away. The others turned to the still-living xeno and unsheathed their claws. A single Zeyzell against one of them wasn’t a fair fight. Half-a-dozen on the other hand? I relished the screams of the thing as seven furious citizens piled onto it, raking their claws across its eyes and extremities. This was the fate that all xenos deser-
Something’s behind me.
I whirled around when a patch of snow crunched only to take the butt of a giant gun to the snout. A cruel-looking Kolshian sneered down at me as it shivered from the cold.
“Not so dangerous now, are you, predator?” it mocked.
Its tentacle tightened on the trigger. I closed my eyes, resigning myself to my fate. I flinched when a gunshot rang and…
I opened my eyes. The xeno was looking at a hole in its chest in surprise. It tried to stumble away only for a second shot to rip through its skull. It fell down and I looked behind where it was to see the shape of a Zeyzell. It was taller and it wore some kind of battle armor that I’d only ever seen on… Deathwatch Guards. We were saved! Loud gunshots rang through the area as more of my saviors entered the fray.
I scrambled to my feet and stared at the Guard, my face reflected in its orange visor. They nodded at me before rushing back into the fight and I immediately tailed them. My mood fell a bit when I thought about why they were here. Usually, they stuck around people of high importance, such as politicians. If they were here, then their charges must’ve been killed. I shook my head. That didn’t matter. What mattered was winning this fight. And the next and the next until reinforcements arrived or we fell in battle.
I stared in awe as the Guard expertly dispatched three xenos before they knew what was happening. More Guards appeared, gunning down those who were trying to flee. Normal soldiers rushed to free the prisoners while the Guards worked. A bullet struck one Guard in the shoulder, sending them sprawling before it leapt back up and riddled its attacker with holes, their armor having saved it from anything worse than a bad bruise. Compared to us, these troops were practically demigods.
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Memory Transcription Subject: High Captain Bolhur, Zeyzell Fleet Command
I mused on Edo’s panicked orders to me as we hurtled towards Pydoria Rusarth. The Overseer had redirected the defense fleet to relieve Vajo’s dwindling forces and the xenos had pounced on the chance to attack. The redirected fleet was also on the way, hauling a Shield-class in tow which, combined with the identical ship I was currently standing on, and the thousand ships in both fleets would obliterate the invaders. I allowed myself a small chuckle.
Before the Kolshians stepped in, entire fleets scattered at the sight of these gargantuan warships. They each needed a trio of gigantic reactors in order to power its hundred railguns, nigh-unbreakable shields, and atmosphere scorching engines. The Kolshians might be brave enough to take one of them on, but a pair? Even the Arxur would fall before such power. I did wonder why we didn’t deploy all fifteen of them on the front lines however. With one or two at every major battle, the war would be going better for us.
“We’re nearly there, sir,” my navigator informed me.
“Charge railguns and bring us as close as possible,” I ordered.
I expected to see Pydoria Rusarth in the middle of burning, with every settlement wiped off of the map. Instead, I got the opposite. I gasped at the sheer size of the xeno fleet, much larger than the two thousand we were promised. And under the giant fleet was Pydoria Rusarth, completely untouched, at least from my perspective. Scans showed that not one antimatter bomb had been detonated on the surface. The xenos were occupying it!
I shook off my surprise. The second attack fleet would be here any moment and we needed to help clear a way for them.
“Open fire!” I shouted.
The xenos were caught off guard by our sudden arrival and couldn’t react in time to save themselves from thousands of simultaneous railgun strikes from my wall of ships. My flagship, the Vanguard, immediately followed up with a wave of plasma and kinetics, striking down hundreds more. The xenos adapted quickly however and regrouped closer to the planet, taking out a few of my own fleet. Most of their retaliatory strikes were directed at my own ship. Thankfully the Vanguard’s shields held up and we pressed the attack long enough for High Captain Treuts and the Annihilator to join the fight.
I could practically sense the xenos’ faltering morale as the two fleet-killing dreadnaughts bore down on them. They heavily outnumbered us, but we were the ones with the firepower. I contacted the fleet.
“Treuts, help me punch a hole in this location,” I said, marking the densest concentration of enemy warships in order to cause maximum damage to their fleet. “I want the rest of the fleet to surround the colony and squeeze the xeno formations. The moment we get through, deploy dropships to retake the planet.”
The fleet obeyed, spreading out across the planet, forcing the xenos to thin their own formation to counter, leaving the Vanguard and the Annihilator to fire upon a weaker defensive position. Two hundred railguns fired in tandem, obliterating a slew of xenos and we immediately followed up with a storm of plasma, missiles, and kinetics. Once again, I wondered why we didn’t use these mountains of steel more often. This was among the largest fleet of xenos we’d faced since the Battle of Earth, and only two being utilized to their fullest capacity was slowly but surely pushing the xenos back. I was sure we could spare a few from some of the Core Worlds.
The xenos launched a slew of missiles, most of which were shot down before they could reach us. Those that survived detonated a little way away from our ships. Readings showed a massive spike in electromagnetic radiation. They tried to EMP us.
“Any damage?” I asked.
“Shields took a small hit, sir, but are otherwise fine,” my sensors officer responded. “The hardenings worked. EMPs are mostly ineffective.”
“Sir!” my comms officer called. “The xenos are hailing us!”
“Amusing,” I chuckled. “They wish to beg? Too bad. Ignore it. They should have thought about dying before they came here.”
The xenos’ cries for mercy went unheeded as we pushed deeper into their formation.
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Memory Transcription Subject: Captain Vajartav, Kolshian Commonwealth Fleet Command
Our ultimatum went unheeded as the predators pushed deeper into our formation. As a member of the higher caste, I was given the privilege of not being as easy to spook as the lesser members of the Federation. And yet the sight of the twin giant warships bearing down on us without mercy filled me with terror. They had a seemingly infinite supply of weapons and breaking their shields might as well be the same as trying to batter down a brick wall with our bare tentacles.
“Fine,” I said, hiding my fear. “If they don’t want to listen, then we will just show them. Begin bombardment, two low-population cities.”
“But sir, our forces are still down there!”
“A necessary sacrifice. Do as I say.”
Two bombers broke away and burned towards their targets. Hopefully, this would buy us time for reinforcements to arrive. They should be here any second, but time was a precious commodity at the moment. The predators took notice of the bombers and fired some of their railguns. By some miracle, the bombers were able to swerve out of the way. Well, one of them. The other took a glancing blow and began to flounder in the planet’s gravitational field.
That was fine. A single destroyed city would give the same message.
“BRACE FOR IMPACT!”
I looked up from the feed of the ships and gasped at the sight of another storm of missiles hurtling towards the center of our formation. Towards me. Then the projectiles detonated. An instant later, the ship went dark and the engines stopped rumbling. We were dead in space. About to be literally. The vicious predators started systematically destroying every defenseless ship in their path. They would lose a city, but now we couldn’t send anymore bombers.
Where are those damn reinforcements?!
“Sir! Look!”
The navigator pointed out the viewport and I felt immense relief flow through me. It was a staggering sight, 20,000 warships here to sweep away the disgusting creatures that called themselves sapient. The gargantuan attackers instantly turned and opened fire with all of their railguns, hitting every target. It didn’t even make a dent. The predators realized they were outmatched and burned away from the colony, recalling their fleet as well. Our trap worked. Barely.
Our reinforcements began to envelop the predator fleet. As powerful as those fleet-killers were, they stood no chance against a fleet this size. Today was truly the beginning of the end of the Unity.
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Memory Transcription Subject: High Captain Bolhur, Zeyzell Fleet Command
“Shields are down to 50%!”
“The Annihilator’s shields are almost gone!”
“They’re blocking us from entering subspace!”
Panic and chaos bombarded my eyes and ears as the xeno reinforcements swallowed our fleet. Me and the Annihilator were barely holding them off and that wasn’t going to last for long.
“I want sublight engines and shields at full power! Carriers, create a protective barrier around yourselves and the flagships!”
At most, that bought us a few more minutes of survival before we were claimed by the vacuum of space.
Pydoria Rusarth was lost.
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Memory Transcription Subject: Admiral Ferlinn, Zeyzell Insurgency Command
“Exiting subspace now, Admiral!”
Zeyzell-10 blinked into view in all of its icy glory. The frozen planet orbited its tiny star in an irregular orbit, heating the planet enough for most of the equator’s ice to melt for a short time before swinging back into the frozen zone. That, combined with the high levels of volcanic activity under the frozen seas, was theorized to be how life took hold on a planet otherwise rather hostile to life as we know it. Some scientists even believed that life took hold multiple times before being wiped out by the unforgiving cold before it could evolve any further.
Life always seemed to find a way. Only now, Zeyzell-10 was about to see a tremendous loss of it. The fleet I’d taken to distract the Unity had no chance at taking the planet, but it was large enough to be considered a significant threat. With the Unity’s eyes on me and the fiasco at Pydoria Rusarth that Overseer Noctif was going to deal with, our primary fleet could snatch a few fringe worlds from Edo’s grasp. We would establish a foothold in the now mostly undefended Sectors Nine, Eight, and Seven on the opposite side of the border with the Federation and work inwards from there.
My orders were to make this battle as authentic as possible, up to landing troops if I could. It was unlikely I would even come close to doing so, given that I was now facing down untold thousands of warships and Weapons Platforms, three Shield-classes among them with only a couple thousand of my own ships. Not to mention those giant, hexagonal satellites hanging in low orbit. The giant contraptions were specifically placed to cause as little havoc to the ecosystem as possible while providing the maximum defense to Zeyzell-10. In the end, new weapons were impressive and all but the pinnacle of our quest to build up our defenses was this.
A global shield.
As with any impressive technology, it had its weaknesses and drawbacks. It could sustain heavy bombardment for a long while, but those satellites were vulnerable. If one went down, the entire area around it would go down as well, leaving a hole for invaders to pour through. I had my reservations about destroying even one of them in the unlikely event that I got the opportunity due to the cultural significance they possessed, but Edo’s reign would end in the destruction of our culture entirely if we didn’t put a stop to this.
“The fleet is hailing us, Admiral!”
“Accept it.”
The image of an angry officer appeared in front of me. I recognized her as High Admiral Jannob, the supreme commander of the entire Zeyzell Navy. Traditionally, High Admirals were always stationed in defense of Zeyzell-10, which is why Vajo, and before him Krobag, were put in charge of the war against the Federation. Although they called the shots, Jannob had the last say.
“What is the meaning of this?!” she snarled. “We were not expecting a fleet here! Identify yourselves or you will be fired upon!”
I answered calmly. A new idea came to mind. Perhaps I wouldn’t have to take on the entire fleet on my own.
“Hello, High Admiral.”
Surprise crossed her face.
“High Captain Ferlinn?”
“Admiral Ferlinn, as per the orders of Overseer Noctif.”
“Overseer Noctif is dead, traitor! All because of the xenos! Xenos that you should be fighting instead of your own people!”
“On the contrary, Overseer Noctif is most certainly alive, if a little worse for wear. No thanks to Edo.”
“Excuse me?”
I glanced down as a message from Noctif reached me. She was engaging the Kolshians over Pydoria Rusarth. I ordered my comms officer to send videos of Noctif that had been taken after the assassination attempt. Jannob watched the files with growing joy.
“She’s alive! That’s wonder…ful…” she trailed off as she realized the implications of this.
“Edo was the one who destroyed the Council Chamber. He blamed it on the Federation and used the attack he orchestrated to seize power. Edo is the traitor, not me.”
Jannob fell silent as she pondered the new information.
“Who will you stand with, Jannob?” I asked. “The man who is dooming the Unity, or the woman who only wanted what was best?”
Her eyes flicked back up to me, the now-familiar spark of rebellion shining within them.
“I stand with Overseer Noctif.”
-------------
Memory Transcription Subject: Overseer Noctif, Zeyzell Insurgency Leader
The battered Shield-class was quickly being torn apart by the xenos. Every other ship in its fleet had been destroyed, including another Shield whose wreckage dominated the scanners. I observed the battle from the safety of the middle of my fleet. I was no military officer, but being here in person was important. High Captain Grencop was in charge of this battle, a battle that even I could see we had no hope of winning.
I contacted the dreadnought from my ship.
“Attention Unity dreadnought. This is Overseer Noctif. Hang in there, we are here to help.”
Grencop ordered the majority of his fleet to engage the Kolshians, drawing them away from the dying mountain of metal. The Shield gladly took the opportunity to punch its way through the Kolshians and reach our fleet.
“They’re hailing you, Overseer.”
“Let them talk.”
The High Captain of the Shield-class appeared, pink blood oozing through the fur on his head.
“Overseer Noctif?” he asked in wonder.
“Indeed, High Captain. It looked like you needed help.”
“H-How is this possible?”
“Not important right now, High Captain. Let’s get the hell out of here first.”
He rubbed his wound before flicking his tail in acknowledgment.
“Of course, Overseer Noctif. It’s good to have you back.”
First
Prev

With the news that development of Adventure Mode for the Steam release is progressing along, I figure some people may want to download the original version to give it a try ahead of the graphics update. As someone with hundreds of hours in adventure mode (there are literally dozens of us!) I thought I would share some of the biggest tips and tricks I've learned. I'll probably be making this into a video once the official release is out and I can get footage with graphics, but until then I'm posting the script I have now here. The rest of this post contains spoilers for every phase of adventure mode, so turn back now if you want to discover all of this for yourself!
Beginner

1. Always have food

-Large stacks of vegetables can be found in containers in human towns. Meat can be gathered from butchered animals. Meat from sentient creatures can’t be eaten.

2. Always have wateale 

-Adventurers need to drink 3-4 times a day. Water skin only holds 3 water, so it is useless. Bags hold 40 and Backpacks hold 100 which is too heavy for most adventurers. Quivers hold 20, which is the perfect amount. Fill quivers with water at rivers or wells.

3. Equip armor 

-Armor and weapons can be found in the barracks of each town. Try to get iron or steel if possible. Make sure to cover the head, neck, torso, legs, hands, and feet.

4. Get a mount 

-Mounts increase overworld speed which increases the amount of ground that can be covered in one day. This reduces how frequently you need to stop for supplies.

5. Get some pets 

-Companions can be tricky to recruit in the beginning, but pets are a great way to increase survivability. Unlike companions, you can also recruit a very high number of pets immediately. Everything labeled “stray” found within a town can become a pet, from ducks to dogs, and rarely even bears and elephants. Just don’t get too attached, most pets die very fast, or permanently run away after combat. Especially the small ones.

6. Make sure your character can read and swim 

-Most skills can be acquired organically by actions which your adventurer does, but certain skills like reading are never unlocked. Because you need to read slabs or books to learn magic, putting a point in reading at character creation is mandatory. A few points in swimming are also recommended. Even a single tile full of water is enough to drown an adventurer with no swimming skill.

7. Make a young world for less necromancers and more Megabeasts, and an old world for vice-versa 

-World parameters matter. Evil is slightly stronger on average, which means the older a world is, the more likely it is to be infested with Necromancer towers and Goblin Pits. Savagery is just the number of animal people to play as, and beasts is the number of beasts to fight. You want both of these as high as possible, the difficulty is actually easier with more beasts, as you won’t have to travel as far for missions.

8. Don’t be afraid to run if you can’t win 

-Although this is technically a turn based RPG, running away isn’t a button you press, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an option. If you are heavily outnumbered or facing a very strong enemy, don’t be afraid to sprint away and reengage when it is more advantageous to do so. This is better than dying and losing your progress.

9. Don’t swim until you’ve really trained 

-While it may be tempting to take a quick dip in the river, death can be moments away in any body of water. Even at competent and above levels of swimming, your character can only go about 10-20 squares before getting tired, and swimming while tired has a chance to keep your character in the same tile, further increasing their fatigue. This can mean your character drowning even just one square from the shore if you are extremely unlucky.

10. Aim for the neck/head for instant kills 

-Aiming in combat can be extremely beneficial. Lots of minor enemies such as kobolds and bandits can be killed with one solid hit to the neck or head. Using this tactic can make encounters against large groups of enemies much easier.
Intermediate

11. Fast travel to long rest 

-If you are damaged in battle and bleeding out, even if you are faint with mortal wounds, fast traveling via the world map will instantly heal your wounds. This may be considered a bug, but since adventurers cannot currently be healed at hospitals via adventure mode, this is the only way to actually heal. Furthermore, since you can’t fast travel during combat, and because fast traveling doesn’t remove major injuries such as missing limbs, I’d say it’s a pretty balanced feature.

12. Jog whenever possible 

-Whenever not mounted and not in combat, you should set your speed to jog. This will increase your endurance stat naturally over time, increasing your combat prowess while you move around. Just be sure to reset your speed whenever your character drops to the ground from exhaustion to give them a chance to rest. Keep extra water on hand while doing this, as your character will need to drink more. And make sure not to jog into combat, this will increase your character’s chance of becoming exhausted during combat, which severely lowers stats.

13. Create a character that just wants to perform 

-A focused character will always be more proficient in combat, receiving a boost to stats such as accuracy and damage. Fully customizing needs in character creation can make a character that is very easy to keep focused. You can completely remove needs in character creation if you wish, but this will also remove the chance to receive the focused buff. If anything, just be sure to avoid needs that are currently impossible in adventure mode such as “Make romance.”

14. Create a world with legendary metals for better loot 

-The more metals you choose at world generation, the better the loot will be everywhere. This setting can make gearing up in the early game either extremely trivial, or extremely challenging. World age can also affect possible loot, as extremely young worlds will not have created enough armor to make most encounters have meaningful loot.

15. Tell stories of your notable kills 

-Information in dwarf fortress is passed via a rumor system. No matter how many dragons you may slay, when you enter a new town, no one will care because they don’t know who you are. Every time you reach a new town, you should tell the largest group of people you can the stories of every notable encounter you’ve had. Early on you should tell stories of killing bandits, while later on you should focus on just semi-Megabeasts and Megabeasts.

16. Recruit other party members 

-While animal companions are good choices for meat shields early game, you should recruit as many fighters at barracks to adventure with you as possible. The amount of companions you can have at any one time is limited by your current reputation level, which is why it is important to tell everyone you can of your notable kills. Animal companions take up companion slots even though they go over the max cap, so try to transition from lots of animals early on to a small party of adventuring companions in the midgame, and a large number of companions in the endgame. Just be sure to let your companions win some easy battles on their own to level up their skills, otherwise they will die just as easily as animals in fights against Megabeasts. Don’t be surprised if some of your companions get terrified in combat and run away just like animals. If you can, be sure to find them, as they will take up a companion slot if you don’t part ways with them or watch them die. If they die and you don’t see it, they may permanently take up a slot this way. This is a bug and will hopefully be fixed eventually, but be wary of it for now.

17. Become a hearthperson 

-Starting a new character and trying to find quests can be very challenging. Lots of random characters will have various rumors, but won’t know enough details to send you on a proper quest. Lords and ladies however can make you into a hearthperson, and can then give you proper quests. They will only do this if you have enough reputation level though, which is why telling stories is important. Usually it takes a story of a bandit leader kill or higher to get a lord or lady to recruit you. You can bypass this stage and get to quests right away by choosing to start as a hearthperson. Just beware that quests are randomized, and sometimes your first quest will be to kill a megabeast. When this happens, I recommend traveling to another town and becoming hearthperson there.

18. Train your skills early 

-Training skills via active combat can be very deadly. If possible, try to fight large, easy enemies to train all related combat skills as early as possible. If you find a horse for example, you can attack its legs to immobilize it, then spam nonlethal strikes to train your weapon skill. A couple horses with no legs is a brutal but safe way to train up weapons all the way to legendary.

19. Set combat preferences to facilitate training 

-Skills like observation and stats like endurance are very important for late game combat. These skills in particular can be trained incredibly fast with combat preferences. If you set melee combat preferences to close quarters, this will prefer to grapple the enemy over and over again. This means you can move into the enemy repeatedly to quickly train without navigating menus. Doing this without changing preferences can mean your character automatically makes a headshot and kills the enemy before you get the chance to properly level up stats. Just be sure to move away from your legless horses if you get tired, as the lowered stats means that even low risk combat can result in injury.

20. Sneak up to enemies for stealth kills 

-If you want to dispatch of large camps quickly and efficiently, chaining stealth kills can be an easy way to do this. Just press S to toggle sneaking, then try to approach enemies without walking into their cone of vision. Doing this at night can be especially effective, as enemies have greatly reduced perception.
Advanced

21. Get a slashing, piercing, and blunt weapon 

-Some enemies in dwarf fortress are much easier to kill than others. Kobolds and crundles will crumple against most weapons, while things like bronze collosi are much harder to deal with. A good rule of thumb is to keep a slashing, piercing, and blunt weapon on hands at all times. Use slashing against basic targets and undead for quick decapitations, piercing against large organic creatures like giant cheetahs or rocs so that they give into pain (essentially stunlocking them), and blunt against inorganic enemies to crush them (collosi, armored titans, iron men, etc). When in doubt, keep a whip on hand to one shot most enemies. A legendary lasher with a named masterwork whip can easily one shot most things in the game with a heavy attack to the head. This should be considered a bug that will probably be fixed later, but is very fun if you want to RP as a legendary vampire killer. Regardless of weapon choice, weapon skill is equally important. A novice hammer dwarf with a steel war hammer is just as useless against a bronze colossus as a legendary axedwarf with an artifact copper battle axe.

22. Remove your backpack when starting combat 

-Fighting while overencumbered is a death sentence. While fighting above default speed does not reduce the number of frames it takes to swing your weapon, fighting below default speed will add a delay after each swing before you can act again, giving enemies free strikes against you. This is also why fighting prone is ill-advised. However, this mechanic should not dissuade you from overencumbering yourself. Most mounts negate a large (if not all) amount of encumberance. In addition, your character can move anything they can grab, even if it is the entire corpse of a megabeast which weighs multiple tons, it will just take them more frames to haul these items. So long as you store all of your loot in the same backpack, you are always safe from ambushes no matter your encumbrance, as you can remove and drop your backpack as soon as combat starts, which usually takes less frames than it takes for any enemy to move. After combat, your backpack should be where you left it, and you can easily retrieve your haul.

23. Aim for the legs first, then the hands, then the neck 

Aiming for the neck can make weaker enemies trivial, but more proficient enemies will not allow this tactic, and very large enemies will have necks too large to decapitate. An advanced tactic that works against most strong enemies is to aim for the legs first to knock your enemy prone (or wings against flying enemies). Once your enemy is on the ground, their speed is halved, essentially giving you twice as many turns to attack. It is at this point you should aim for their arms, as these hold weapons for humanoids and usually have claws for beasts. Once the legs are taken out and the usage of weapons is disabled, you are much more likely to land a headshot, and in a much safer position to repeatedly spam this attack.

24. Bleed out megabeasts, cut off hydra heads, pummel collosi 

Certain enemies such as Megabeasts are much harder to kill. These should be considered boss fights, and thus have certain kill parameters. Bronze collosi in particular usually need to have every single body part destroyed in order to be killed. Hydras in turn need to have the brain of each head destroyed to die, and will almost always live if one head is alive. Hill titans can vary from nigh unkillable (humanoids made of steel) to killable via literally any damaging attack (blobs made of water), so reading their description is extremely important in dealing with them.

25. Never get hit (level dodge and block) 

-Because major injuries are unhealable, these accumulate over time. This means that the best way to play adventure mode is to never get hit. This may seem like a tall task, but almost all damage is avoidable via dodge and block. If you have a high observation stat, you will be able to dodge or block attacks. While this may automatically succeed against weaker enemies, it has a chance to fail against stronger enemies if not properly leveled, so be sure to train these skills early on. Fighting when focused and not exhausted should ensure that these avoidance abilities work properly. Just don’t try to block an attack you wouldn’t block in real life.

26. Don’t let enemies get a surround 

-Fighting against multiple enemies can be a likely death scenario. If enemies completely surround you, then your character has a greatly reduced chance of automatically dodging or blocking attacks. In addition, moving through an occupied tile in dwarf fortress will roll a die, and the losers will be forced prone, as only one creature can stand in a tile at once. Make sure to set speed to scramble in combat if this happens, get to an unoccupied square, and stand up as quickly as possible. Dodging into an open space in this scenario is a much better option than moving manually if at all possible. This entire scenario can be avoided if you slowly dodge in the same direction as enemies approach you in combat, ensuring that you only fight one at a time, and force the others to tire themselves as they run after you. Striking the legs of as many targets as possible is effective here, as it drastically increases the time it takes for each enemy to reach you.

27. Throw stones to level archery 

-Archery can be very cumbersome to use, as most bolts are too heavy to use without causing constant encumbrance, and training it is very slow and painful, as arrows usually split into stacks of one when fired. However, there is a way to level archery extremely quickly. By throwing something at the same tile you are on, you level your archery skill. You can then pick up the thrown object and throw it again. This is much faster than using arrows. One of the best objects to do this with is coins. As it turns out, coins are actually the best ranged weapon. Coins can be used in combat to great affect. Because dwarf fortress uses the archery stat when throwing items, it calculates the damage of thrown items as if shot from a bow with the same archery proficiency. While this does not do nearly as much damage as bolts themselves, it effectively gives adventurers a way to reliably use ranged weapons without worrying about retrieving ammo, as money can usually be found in multiple stacks of 100 at bandit camps.

28. Use archery against webs/fire 

-While archery is a niche weapon type for most scenarios, it is mandatory against certain titans and most dragons, as well as giant cave spiders. Titans, like spiders can possess the ability to web your adventurer. This stunlocks your character, making any shot a guaranteed hit. Against large enough titans, getting hit with a single shot of web is enough for instant death, as they will squish your head while webbed. Other titans may possess deadly dust or poisonous gas. While some of these effects are benign, breathing others can and will kill your character, and to my knowledge not even fast travel stops this. Fighting fire breathing dragons is an instant kill scenario as well, as they can melt your armor into molten liquid metal, stunlocking your character until they die from the heat. You can attempt to repeatedly jump until you reach a river, but you are certainly dead at this point. The use of archery (or rather, throwing coins) is mandatory at this point. While a few shots may not do anything at first, repeated shots will accumulate damage, and eventually kill or disable the enemy. Just be very careful getting into melee range to finish enemies off after this occurs, as one unlucky web or fire shot can and will still kill you. Avoid looting titans with dust or gas effects until after you leave and return to the area with fast travel to be sure that the gas dissipates.

29. Know the game progression (Kobolds, Bandits, Hearthperson, Semi-Megabeasts, Towers, Megabeasts, Dark Fortresses, Caverns) 

Knowing what you’re doing at any given point can be the difference between life and death. If you’re playing adventure mode without savescumming (which is the only way to play it in the old versions), then you will be making new characters a lot. Knowing the basic progression of where you should go on new characters will make the ultimate goal of raiding the vault and fighting the angel that much easier. Your basic path should be gearing up in towns, training basic combat skills against animals, fighting kobold and bandit camps to level reputation, telling stories to become a hearthperson, doing quests as a hearthperson to further reputation level and combat skills, fighting semimega and Megabeasts to become a legendary hero, raiding towers to find the secrets, raiding dark fortresses to find the vault and slay the angel, and finally using the secrets to delve into the caverns without having to eat or sleep and fighting forgotten beasts there until your character dies. The surface and visiting towns should be considered the early game, raiding sites should be considered the midgame, killing the angel in the vault should be considered the endgame, and roaming the caverns should be considered the postgame. Of course, adventure mode has lots more to offer than just combat, and if you want to learn its ins and outs for yourself, the only way to do that is to jump in and play it.

So here we are – Riders on exile. Well, better this fate than becoming Swiss cheese. If they sent such a big offensive there, they were really determined. But they really think they’ll find some documents there? They can try, but Yan claimed that there’s nothing of value left.
I was the one leading the group – with Svarog detector in one hand, with my eight-shot revolver in the other and with cig in my mouth. Our gear was unchanged – I still had my SV-338 on my back and had my armor, which I found out it was modified version of Clear Sky’s CS-3b.
Sorrow wasn’t far from me. Even though we had most likely the most advanced detectors out there, he still was throwing bolts here and there. Probably because of boredom. This doesn’t mean that I stopped using them myself – I had a pack of bolts on my belt.
I should’ve mention it – we were heading to the Garbage through northeastern path. Soldiers came from southwest and they are most likely looking for internal dangers rather than those from the outside, so we were relatively safe.
After failing a couple of times to spark a conversation in our group, I was just focused on finding a safe route to the Zone’s first crossroads. And – I’ll be honest – I wanted to find an artifact. Not only to gain some cash, but maybe to find something that would make this journey more interesting. The luck wasn’t on my side that day, sadly.
We came to the Garbage. We all knew by instinct to prepare ourselves for some resistance. Resistance as powerful as Clear Sky these days, but resistance nonetheless. To our surprise, however, we found the nearest ”outpost” empty.
Confused a little, we started exploring the surrounding area. No presence of bandits could be located. I even used my scope to see the insides of a hangar, but on the surface, it was safe. Even the sentry dressed in Sunrise suit, standing before the brick wall didn’t open fire at us. Quite the opposite, actually – he waved when he saw us and said to come closer. And we did just that.
”Riders!” – he shouted with joy. - ”Holy fuck!”
”Hey, em…” – I tried to remind myself of his name. - ”Oh! You’re Yara Bubble. One who was a ”whale” on our party.”
”Yeah, I overestimated my capabilities. I shouldn’t drink that much.”
”At least you’re alive and well now.”
”Yep.”
”Still, we’re curious about the current situation in this hangar.”
”Nothing to write a book about, I’m afraid. Duty and few hired loners executed an assault on the complex, clearing the place from this scum. For now, bandits haven’t inducted any sort of retaliation.”
”Not surprised. They’re…”
Suddenly, Zrak started… What’s the name for crow’s sound? Let me check… so I found the name ”caw”. So he was… cawing? Sounds stupid. But that’s the most common answer. Anyway, he started making loud sounds.
For others, it’d seem like he’s doing this for no reason. But we’ve found out this meant that an emission is approaching. And that meant we should be careful, Zrak especially. Codex said that crows die way faster in blowouts than humans.
”We should get inside.” – Sorrow stated. - ”Emission’s gonna hit us in a moment.”
”Wow…” – Yara was impressed. - ”Your bird can sense such things?”
”Yeah – one of the reasons why I love him. Come on.”
We made our way into the hangar. It was occupied mostly by loners, but few Dutyers were hanging around here as well. To spy on us or escape from the superiors for at least a moment – it’s hard to blame them.
Of course, even if emission just started, we won’t just sit like cowards, doing nothing. We popped a vodka bottle and I shared smokes with Sorrow and Craver. We were exchanging jokes of various quality. I felt good, but couldn’t get rid off the feeling that this was… artificial.
After blowout stopped, we bid our farewells with Yara and continued going to Army Warehouses. Atmosphere here was pretty much calm. Bandits may not be present at that time, but mutants were still roaming the lands. They weren’t attacking us, though.
We weren’t going to Duty outpost – we still weren’t sure if we could safely enter Rostok, even though some ex-soldiers claimed that they miss our visits and were surprised that we stopped going there. Hell, they promised us to talk to their highest superiors for an official invitation. We got one, but we continued to be hesitant about this.
Instead, we used Garbage-Wild Territory route. It’s rarely used, so even better for us. Unfortunately, that meant going through the field rich in fire anomalies. Nothing that four Svarogs and lots of bolts can’t solve.
Going further into this location (that many claim to be almost as bad as Red Forest, which I can’t understand), we found something interesting. Okay, maybe not that interesting, but we found bodies of mercs and loners that had to be fresh, judging by the state of corpses. We decided that we’d leave them alone.
Soon after, we got near the wreckage of helicopter that had fire anomalies around it. One of it was still active, but that’s because the body of flesh was in it. Strange that it didn’t turn into ash. But we went to nearby big door that was hiding a part of Rostok complex.
I’ll be completely honest here – I don’t know what should I write about this location. Really, it’s so uninteresting that I’d have to lie to say something worthwhile. And I don’t want to do that. So for your entertainment, I’ll just skip to Warehouses.
We ended up near bloodsucker village – the location that’s our destination. In south of it, there’s a small farmstead that poses as Freedom outpost. That’s official information, but it’s actually Irina’s place where she lives and that’s where Quarrel visits her.
Yep, living next to abandoned village that bloodsuckers really like for some reason plus it’s dotted with various fire anomalies. How she can live here without problems is unknown to me, but hey – strange shelter is better than no shelter… I think.
We were careful about stepping here. With weapons in our hands, we were slowly approaching the farmstead. We didn’t saw any signs of Freedom presence, which made me (but maybe others too) slightly disturbed. This didn’t last long, though.
”Guys, it’s safe, I assure you.” – said the woman in Freedom helmetless SEVA, coming out of cover.
”Hi, Iri.” – Quarrel waved at her.
”Hi, Cas. Oh, and hello, Riders.”
We just nodded at her, without uttering a word.
”What brings all of you here?” – she asked, a bit surprised.
”Army raided our place.” – our tough guy replied. - ”Big offensive – with choppers and such.”
”Huh… good that you didn’t stay to fight them.”
”Of course. It’d be stupid, so I commanded that we should get somewhere else, at least temporarily, so we could come up with the plan of recapturing the place.”
I rolled my eyes when I heard this. Quarrel – prideful as usual, even if it involves lying. He really changed through these months. But I wanted to get straight to the point.
”Long story short – army raided our place and Quarrel suggested that we should come to you.” – I said after a moment of silence. - ”Are you willing to share some space with us?”
”Of course.” – Flora replied. - ”Perhaps not the house, but this barn should be enough. It has relatively whole roof, so you won’t get wet. Are you fine with that?”
”Yeah. But there shouldn’t be any problems with… neighbors, right?”
”Last bloodsucker was killed by me more than a month ago. They didn’t reappear since then. Other mutants don’t come here as well. It’s really a safe location.”
”I’ll stash the items there.” – Quarrel joined the talk. - ”After that… maybe you want to go somewhere?”
”With you? Always.”
After this exchange of words, we got to the barn. Quarrel just left the stuff he was carrying through this journey in the corner and he was heading out with his girl, saying ”See you later, guys” before leaving us.
Craver quickly organized his part of this barn and instead of helping any of us, he proceeded to eat some sausage. I wanted to say something, but I knew that this won’t help much, if at all. Suddenly, he got a message that made him visibly happy.
”Lads, I have to go.” – he said loudly.
”Have fun…” – I replied to him with indifference.
Ex-ex-merc (I know this sound stupid, but still wanted to write this) grabbed his gear and quickly left the hideout, leaving me and Sorrow alone in our new home. I should feel bad about this, but I started to feel… lighter. Like a tension got swiped away.
We finished organizing out parts at the exact same moment. I briefly checked if Sorrow is alright, but he said he’s fine and then he started another vodka bottle. I should leave him to his thoughts and let him rest for a while.
I looked through our items and grabbed new pack of cigarettes. I lit one and lied on my sleeping bag. After thinking about what to do, I pulled out my PDA and started watching some videos on the internet. I don’t know why, but in Army Warehouses, there were much better speeds.
So I was detached from that world for some time, not thinking about my or others’ problems. This felt… good. Very good, even. But then I turned towards Sorrow, who had his head buried in his legs. I got to him, sat nearby and pat his shoulder. He immediately raised his gaze to me.
”Plagued?” – he was a bit confused.
”What’s the problem, Sorrow?” – I asked with genuine intent.
”Can I be completely honest with you?”
”Sorrow… you’re my brother. I’d never replace you. I’ll never sell you out. I’d rather pop a bullet in my head than to give you up. So yes, you can be perfectly honest with me.”
”Plagued… I don’t think coming here was a good idea.”
”Why?” – I asked, even though I suspected what the answer might be.
”Quarrel said it’s good that he’ll have us and Irina close. It’s not even that I’m envious. It will create new problems, new arguments. More likely for our group to fall apart. Craver going to mercs and his girl isn’t helpful either. I don’t want to stop them, but with each day, we grow more distant from one another. I wish it was like in our old days.”
”I want that too, Sorrow. But sadly, there isn’t much we can do about this. I tried pretty much anything I could. And us leaving them won’t help either. It’ll just cement the fall of our team.”
”Yeah…”
”One can hope that it’ll eventually get better. At least we have each other.”
”There’s that… Eh…”
”You feel better?”
”A bit. Thanks. But…”
”What?”
”I’m curious about how the soldiers do in our former base.”
”Huh… I won’t stop you.”
”I’ll try to return as fast as I can.”
”Be careful, brother.”
”I will. Goodbye.”
And I became last man standing. Eh… Even though I let him to do the thing he wants to do, we both know it’s an excuse to be alone with his thoughts. He still cares, otherwise he’d pull out Kurt Cobain long ago.
Few minutes later, I got up and went outside. I couldn’t find Sorrow anywhere. I lit up another smoke and started to look around my new place. Mutants were really far from my current location, but I saw approaching Freedomer. I was cautious, with revolver in my hand.
”Hey!” – guy shouted cheerfully.
”Greetings.” – I replied calmly.
”Is there Irina Flora around?”
”She’s absent. Personal matters. Why do you ask?”
”She was supposed to give me a report, so I could give it to Lukash.”
”Really?”
”Nah, it’s just an excuse, so I could get out from the base.”
”But what do you want from her?”
”My amount of weed is getting low. I asked pretty much everyone if they have some to spare. Looks like I’ll have to look elsewhere. You’re here alone?”
”Yeah. And who are you exactly?”
”Yurik Bear. I know you’re Rider, but I don’t remember which one.”
”Plagued.”
”Maybe you want to go with me? I’ll have someone to talk to.”
”If weed is involved then I’ll go.”
”Great. I’ll go around for a while and ask others for some plant. But after that, I know the place where we can chill out. Follow me.”

"Ralph" (35M) previously my (34M) best friend, got extremely upset at me one night when I decided to go home early (11:30) from the bars when he was planning on meeting up after he got off work. He blocked my number, so my texts asking, "what's going on?" "Why are you so mad?" were ignored or not delivered.
A few days later I reached out to his wife to tell her IDK what's going on but tell Ralph I wanted to talk to him. She told me he needs space and will come to me. Annoyed and confused, I backed off. A week goes by, Ralph send text to group thread with open invitation to play online video games, I respond, "I would love to but I don't know if the invitation is directed towards me considering you won't talk to me". He explodes at me, saying he told me he needed space and how dare I, etc etc. There's some back and forth because from my perspective, he's being aggressive and disrespectful - he's mad that I didn't give him space (all still in a group chat). This happened on Feb 14.
It's now the middle of June, I haven't heard from Ralph since that last encounter. He hasn't reached out to me, not said what's going on, text, call, email, word of mouth, carrier pigeon or otherwise.
Background: I'm going through a divorce since August, and he WAS being there for me. Apparently he has some serious thing going on behind the scenes but I have no idea because he pushed me away and never said anything.
Fast forward to today, the football season is upcoming and I have to figure out what to do about him and his wife (both in my league). I decided I had no choice but to remove him from the league. To me it was obvious he had no interest in continuing our friendship. I also felt disrespected and abandoned by someone that was supposedly my best friend, and didn't want to be accused of "not giving him space" if I conversed with him in the league. So I announced it to the league, and text his wife letting her know that she is still welcome if she decides to stay. She's upset now and basically told me to fuck off.
From my perspective his behavior was not ok, and him dragging it out 3+ months feels extreme. Expecting me to wait around like a good little boy, hoping and praying in no for him to come talk to me and treat me with an ounce of respect is toxic af.
So, AITA? 1. I didn't give Ralph space as he requested right away, and now I've removed him from my fantasy football league. 2. He has some personal issues going on (edit: that I don't know about at all), and being removed from the league is definitely not going to make him happy.

CLARIFICATION: Clients determine latency to multiple endpoints. Multiple clients request a session (submitting their individual latency data for multiple endpoints) and are grouped together and placed on a server, with latency data being a factor in grouping and placement. The goal in having test clients run in different regions was to realistically simulate latencies to different regional endpoints and to validate both on small scale and heavy load the grouping and placement. Using simulated latency data on the test clients is an option for testing that aspect.
We are doing some latency-based tests and our test clients (on an EC2 instance) are in a private subnet with internet traffic routed to a public NAT Gateway. The clients are connecting to a public AWS IP address (plain GameLift EC2 instance with no Global Accelerator, etc.) in another region.
My understanding was that this will route through the public internet and not an optimized AWS route. Our latency from us-west-2 to us-east-1 is ~60ms and a traceroute isn't giving me a clear answer as it drops off after routing to Washington from Oregon.
Is my understanding correct that this will go through the public internet? Or is there some optimization that is occurring between a Public NAT Gateway and a public AWS IP address?
UPDATE: It appears to be taking an optimized route. If a traceroute from my workstation near us-east-2 to an instance's public IP address is us-west-1, it takes a very different route. The public NAT Gateway to AWS Public IP goes through a lot of 100.* (Carrier Grade NATs). Going from my personal workstation, it's very clearly going over multiple public internet hops.
Is there an easy way to force it? A NAT instance is the quickest way I can think of (assuming the optimization is occurring because it's a NAT Gateway)
UPDATE 2: Even going from a public EC2 instance to public EC2 instance in a different region still uses an optimized route vs. going from a workstation. So a NAT instance won't help. Now I'm thinking I need an external service to proxy (including UDP traffic). #cloudworldproblems.
​

Either I'm playing wrong or sorc is way undertuned compared to other classes in the early-middle end game. I just got to world tier 4 in the mid level 60's and it is shockingly obvious how poorly I perform compared to my friends with other classes.
Most sorc build options are the same (Use all 4 defensive skills + 1 damage skill and just spam-- Teleport Frost Nova Core Skill of Choice) and they all have the same limitation-- they only perform well against groups of enemies. This is for 2 reasons-- both the damage & their ability to maintain their mana pool are tied to hitting large amounts of enemies at the same time. Their damage is tied to AOE mechanisms causing chain reactions (Ice shards, chain lightning, charged bolt, fireball enhancement slot) and your single target DPS drops off significantly. More important than that, all the aspects that regenerate mana are tied to hitting lots of dudes and do not work well against small packs or single targets.
It can take twice as long to kill the 2-3 remaining dudes than it did to kill the group of 100. It can take forever to kill a boss or difficult elite. You run out of mana very often against tanky single targets. If you get a tanky pack of enemies who can survive your initial frost nova combo, you are going to be in a lot of trouble. This remains true despite me being very lucky and having amazing gear with multiple uniques like Raiment of the infinite and Iceheart Brais for an ice shard build or Staff of Lam Essen for a charged bolt build (Ice shard build does 3-4x the damage of a charged bolt build).
Apparently this remains a problem for every sorc build until you can accumulate a very high amount of mana regen so you can actually use your core skill at will. That will essentially require excellent rolls on helmet, boots, amulet, and focus. That's also ignoring the need to accumulate huge amounts of cooldown reduction so you can actually use frost nova more often than every 12-14 seconds.
I know the answer might be just to go back down to World Tier 3, but none of my friends are having that issue with the other classes. My brothers bow rogue has such high DPS he can easily solo clear nightmare dungeons with enemy levels in the upper 70's. Barbarians and druids at level 65 seem to be able to easily tank and beat down the level 73-80 mobs. The only other class I don't know much about is the necromancer.
Anyone else playing sorc around this level and have any recommendations?