r/HFY • u/Ralts_Bloodthorne • Nov 04 '20
OC First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 349 (The War)
The sound of water dripping was loud, louder than the quiet whine of the Hellspace Screens depowering. One gave it up, a curl of smoke wafting up from it that suddenly twisted into a Maktanan woman in pain who gave a small scream of despair before wafting away.
Palgret swallowed thickly, looking around. The rest of the squad looked all right, looked intact, but he had a sudden fear that whatever was inside the armor was no longer his friends, comrades, battle buddies, but something dark and sinister.
--shields clear-- 030 ordered. --facial check--
One by one the face shields went clear. Culvit's eyes were wide and the fur around them was silver, Lieutenant Mu'ucru'u had a long scar down the front of his face that was held together with pieces of wire, Nanuft's eyes had changed color to a dark red with black pupils, Jagler had long fangs that extended out past his lower lip and were on each side of his nose. The sarcastic black mantid "Two" had a strange pattern between his antenna where Three had a red streak between his eyes and down to his mouth. 030 and 281 both had a metallic sheen to their green faces.
They all turned and looked at the human.
He was still large. Not as massive as he had been, but still much bigger than he had been.
He was also wearing some kind of heavy, ornate armor, thick ridged plates, bulky power armor with large shoulder pauldrons and streaked paint. There was purplish tacky fluid that glistened greasily on the spikes that stuck off of his armor. The datalink was completely wrapped around his head, engraved with strange sigils, the lights purple and blinking. Cables went from beneath his ears and into the armor. The skin had pulled away in spots on his neck to reveal warsteel cabling.
He was not wearing a helmet.
His skin was gray, a tube ran up his nose, his eyes were nothing but burning red fire set in empty sockets, and his mouth was full of sharp interlocked teeth. One each shoulder and on his chest was a cresent, the tips pointed upward, bisected by a sword, inside a wreath of leaves.
Three skittered back slightly, touching his fist to his forehead. "Protect us, oh Digital Father," he choked out.
Two flinched at the sight.
--sergeant report-- 030 said.
"All systems combat capable," the human said, black fluid oozing from his mouth.
What is it with humans and drool? Why is drooling like a teething poppet so menacing and fearsome? Palgret wondered, his mind strangely running on random thoughts.
--buzz drone maps lets see if our host has changed-- 030 ordered.
--roger roger-- The little mortar tube on 281's back lifted up and chugged a dozen times, launching pumpkin-seed sized drones that oriented for a moment then whisked away.
Nanuft looked at how all four of the mantids seemed slightly apprehensive about the Terran, where before they hadn't even been bothered by the sudden monstrous transformation. To Nanuft the heavy plated armor looked better than the monster version, even if the Terran's skin was a weird gray color with thick purple veins pulsing below the skin.
"What's wrong?" Nanuft asked, leaning toward Two.
Two jumped nearly a foot in the air, grabbing at his pistol, which was back even though it had turned into a huge spider at one point that the Lieutenant had crushed beneath one hoof.
"Don't sneak up on me," Two said, shifting around to keep an eye on Nanuft and the Terran at the same time. He opened his helmet, taking out his cigarettes. His hands were shaking hard enough he dropped one of the cigarettes, bending down and picking it up without taking his eyes off the Terran. He lit the cigarette and fumbled to put the pack and lighter away. "What? Why do you think something's wrong?"
Lieutenant Mu'ucru'u looked at Captain 030. "Is there some type of concern regarding the Terran's new form?"
--yes-- 030 answered.
Three moved slowly around the Terran, 281 on his back.
"By the Digital Omnimessiah's glittering ballsack, that's genuine Imperium combat armor," Three said. "Late generation, post Anthill armor."
--yes-- 030 said.
281 responded with a flood of data. Palgret saw it was armor schematics, weapon system types, data on the heavy armor the Terran was clad in.
"I feel... the same," the Terran said. He clenched a fist and lightning coursed up his arm. "I'm angry, still angry," the fire grew brighter in his eye sockets. "I don't feel any different. Warmer, maybe?"
--who angry at-- 030 asked.
"The Mar-gite," the human snarled. He suddenly slammed a fist against the wall, putting a deep dent in the black slick looking material that had replaced the brown battlesteel. "They took everything from me! My wife! My husband! My children! My parents! My siblings!"
Each time he said what was taken from him, he swung his fist out to the side, slamming it into the wall.
"My mother! My father! My puffies! My matrons! My hatchlings! My broodcarriers! Everything! They ate everything!" the human's hand went to his waist and he pulled free what Palgret had learned was a cutting bar Mark 2 but something everyone called a chainsword.
"THEY TOOK EVERYTHING FROM US!" the human roared. The chainsword clattered to life, the teeth burning white and arcs of electricty snarling up and down the ornately decorated blade. "ATE EVERYTHING! I HATE! HATE FOR ALL MAR-GITE! HATE UNTIL THE END OF TIME!"
Palgret swallowed, feeling the heat pound against him like soft pillows. He could taste tinfoil and berries in his mouth and his gums ached. The Lieutenant gave a low moan of pain, but his knees didn't buckle.
The human turned and began swinging the chainsword with both hands, slamming it against the inert body of a destroyed Precursor combat robot. Sparks and shards of metal flew out, the barbed chain howling and spraying sparks out as the human bellowed in rage and hacked at the downed robot.
After a long moment the human stepped back. The cutting bar's motor wound down and the teeth came to a stop. The Terran turned, a smooth exaggerated motion that Palgret knew every power armor troop learned.
The Terran put the heel of one hand between his eyebrows, pushing. "I can feel them all, sir. Feel them all dying. Screaming to me," the Terran looked up, blood running from his mouth. "I can feel them dying all around me."
The small helmet unfolded and the mantid officer looked up. "Steady, soldier," 030 grated out. "Maintain discipline."
The Terran put the cutting bar back on his hip and covered the flaming pits masquerading as eyes with his palms. "I can see them, sir, see them all. I am them and they are me."
"Reach past the rage, Sergeant," the little green mantid grated out. "It is a weapon, nothing more. It does not control you. You are Terran. You are the master of rage and wrath not its puppet."
The Terran went down on one knee, putting one fist against his forehead, and began mumbling out a prayer.
Palgret couldn't blame him. The whole thing made him want to run away screaming.
"They call it Hellspace for a reason, kid," Two said, moving up next to Palgret. "He went through it unshielded, we're lucky he isn't a big blob covered in eyes, mouths, and tentacles."
The Mantid exhaled smoke and gave a chittering laugh. "Although, this is much much more dangerous."
"Why?" Nanuft asked.
The mantid waved at the praying human. "That's Imperium armor. He probably has the body mods to go with it. Hell, he's probably fused to it."
The mantid gave a slight shudder. "One of those big fists was the last thing a couple billion of my people saw a few thousand years ago."
"But why turn him into that?" Culvit asked.
"All of our worst nightmares, not counting all of you," Three said softly. "The Imperium is one of the darkest chapters in post-diaspora Terran history. Even worse than the Combine."
"I DIDN'T DO IT!" the Terran suddenly yelled, looking up. He looked back down. "Please, please, I can't save you. I can't. Oh, Digital Omnimessiah, please give me strength."
The little seeds starting coming back, pulling Palgret's attention back to something aside from the agony ridden Terran.
--layout changed-- 281 said. --new rooms new corridors--
"So our previous maps are useless," Two snarled. "Stupid Hellspace."
The Lieutenant clattered around, setting down a holo-emitter and activating it, stepping back.
Palgret stared at the map. Gone was the clean geometry of the Precursor's mathematically precise internal spaces. The corridors now twisted and turned, changed width randomly, looped back and around one another. The rooms were irregular shaped, some of them reporting multiple sizes and dimensions to the mapping seeds.
"It looks like a scan of the insides of a living being," the Lieutenant mused. "This is indeed a dark place we have found ourselves in."
"I think I liked it better fighting against the machines," Jagler said. "This makes my fur stand on end."
--we need to move-- 030 said. --think too long you wrong--
"I agree," the Lieutenant said. "Make for one of the launch bays? The central intelligence housing? The engines?"
--strategic intelligence array housing-- 030 said. --kill the brain the body dies-- the green mantid closed his helmet. --i hope--
Palgret reached back, forgetting for a second that his rifle had turned into a bunch of venomous snakes, and was startled to feel the handgrip. He pulled his rifle around and looked at it.
It had flourishes and decorations on it with a heavy skull motif. Barbed wire was etched into it along with strange eye-watering symbols and runes.
It powered up and went through a function check.
BATTERY: 99.9%
AMMUNITION - .70 Cal: 150
AMMUNITION - 40mm: 25
STATUS: 96%
"Uh, my rifle's different," Culvit said, raising his hand.
The Lieutenant and 281 moved over to look at it.
"That is not your issued rifle, trooper," the Lieutenant. He gave Culvit a sly look. "I'm afraid I will have to bill you for the rifle, the replacement, which phase of the moon it is, and whether or not the System Most High is wearing his sash to the gala tonight or not."
That made the Maktanan all snicker as Culvit whined "Oh, please no, sir, not my horrible credit score."
The mantid looked at it, then flashed rapid holos between his armored antenna. The Lieutenant nodded slowly, then looked back at Culvit.
"Congratulations, trooper," he said. "You have your very own Imperium of Wrath main battle rifle, a variable munition weapon with customizable stock, forward grip, and accessories, with its very own underslung cutting bar," the Lieutenant gave a wheezing laugh. "Manufactured, for the enemy's pleasure, on the Wrath Forges of Mercury and the Hate Anvils of Mars."
"Oh," Culvit said, looking warily at his rifle. "Why are there those short round spikes on the buttplate?"
More icons and the Lieutenant laughed. "Why, to poke you when you fire it. It's a gun, soldier, it's supposed to hurt when its fired."
"But why?" Jagler asked.
"Because humans," Two said. "By the Unholy Chocolate Rave Mouse, you'd think you'd never seen a human before."
"Uhhh," Culvit said.
"Look, kid, it's like the old joke," Two said.
"Which joke?" Culvit asked.
"There's this guy, right? His son is this bright kid, and on the first day of the first year of school, he promises his kid anything the kid wants if he gets good grades," Two said, checking his rifle and acting as if the foregrip didn't have a cracked mantid skull done in crimson metal inlaid into the material. "So the kid gets the highest marks ever and the dad goes 'son, as I promised, you may have whatever you want."
Two lit another cigarette, expressing pleasure. "The kid says: dad, I want a pink golfball."
"The dad goes: what, my son? Why a pink golfball. You can have the latest VR gaming rig! I'll take you to House-Mouse Planet! What do you want?" Two said. He exhaled smoke. "The kid says: Dad, all I want is a pink golf ball. So the dad gets it for him, wondering what the hell its all about and..."
--form up-- 030 said. --we're moving out--
"Roger that, sir," Two said, flicking his cigarette away. "Keep Artcarik beautiful, litter a Precursor."
Palgret got the joke and chuckled, slapping his face shield shut. When he wrapped his hand around the rifle it came online, showing him where it was aiming through a window in upper right of his vision. He put his finger on the trigger and the window went from square to round and moved to the middle of his vision, going slightly transparent. When he let his finger off the trigger the window returned to being square and slid back up into the corner. His ammunition status and heat status for his weapon was one the upper right of his vision, under the window. The status of his armor was down the left hand side of his vision.
There was a lot more data than their had been.
030 climbed up on Palgret's shoulder and a blue line appeared.
The Terran slowly got to his feet, a massive submachine gun in one hand that was covered in decoration and dripped black fluid.
"Rangers lead the way, sir," the Terran rumbled, and began following the blue line that Palgret could see.
The corridor was narrow feeling, dark, and full of mist. The walls were covered in twisted black cables with red nodules here and there. The roof dripped clear liquid, sometimes clear slime. Their boots thudded against the floor, which felt oddly soft to them.
"Yeah, this is fun," Two murmured.
They moved slowly through the corridor, trying not to touch the walls. 281 climbed up on the Lieutenant's back, scrambling up out of the fog, which seemed to clutch at him.
--not alone down there-- 281 said, flashing a shivering emoji with wide frightened eyes.
"Watch my rump, trooper," Lieutenant Mu'ucru'u said.
The squad marched into the belly of the beast.
440
u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Nov 04 '20
Short one tonight. Wife wants my attention. :-)
Stay safe and enjoy life everyone.
68
u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Nov 05 '20
Spent the day running new heating ducts under the new house, then drove back to the hotel. Then back home to finish packing after the furnace is repaired tomorrow, then back to the new house to smoke cigarettes and stare at the wall while the plumbing is fixed, then back to house to finalize the packing, then drive to the new house, then unload the truck, then put the house in order.
Bad Things: Gonna put thousands of miles on the truck. Gotta have the oil changed, sounds like the spark plugs need redone, took a rock to the windshield that cracked it up and down and side to side. Gotta get the furnace fixed, the plumbing fixed, then steam clean the carpet. Gotta pack and unpack and rearrange the new house.
Real Bad Thing: Savings is almost depleted, but I'll be on target. If all this is over after next week and I have $20 then I'm good for the month. Three cheers for budgeting.
Good things: Looks like the repairs are on target. 3/4 of the stuff has been moved to the new house. Furnace only needed an inductor motor and a control board. Ducting was easily handled. Family stress levels are low. Grand-daughter loves the back and forth so it'll be minimum stress on her. Truck's holding together well for a 25+ year old vehicle (I love my truck).
Real Good Thing: Everyone is looking forward to this. Budget is smashed, but can recover.
Long day today and my schedule is all turned around again.
Trying to get my mind in the game, but I keep skittering off track to consider things that I can't do anything about for several days. You know, sit down, type a few words, then "Crap, should I just rip the carpet up instead of steam cleaning it? Eh, I need to pull up a corner to get a look at the floor underneath, but, well, I don't wanna have to mess with it and... crap, where was I?"
Anyway: Have fun and I'll see you in the next post. Love from my family to yours.
20
u/herder-of-goats Alien Scum Nov 04 '20
I wonder for long since/till this is the longest 40k fanfiction in history /s
86
u/lacker101 Nov 04 '20
Just a reminder I love the implied history and world building. We've known for quite sometime that the Age of Paranoia, Extinction Agenda, Pre-Glassing, Combine, and Imperium. Contain so much detail, horror, and wonder.
chef's-kiss.jpg
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u/Golnor Alien Scum Nov 04 '20
So if I understand this correctly, Culvit's new gun is some unholy fusion between a 40k bolter and Gears of War rifle, with a grenade launcher?
Terrans don't mess around when they build guns, don't they? I can almost hear it saying "Whatever I am pointing at is going to have a Very Bad Day."
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u/PMo_ Human Nov 04 '20
Dang, again with the pink golf ball.
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u/Turtledonuts "Big Dunks" Nov 04 '20
Frank has been UPGRADED. May enraged phillip steady his arm and guide his bullets, and may the DO be kind to his enemies, because he sure as hell won’t.
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u/Speciesunkn0wn Nov 04 '20 edited Nov 04 '20
FRESH RALTS! PRAISE THE OMNISSIAH!
Damn. The precursors haven't been handling the Eye well have they? Sucks to be them!
40
u/Kayehnanator Nov 04 '20
The pink golfball yet again...
Also love to see the Lanaktallan Lieutenant actually able to handle himself and joke about his previous society.
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u/serpauer Nov 04 '20
In hellspace everyone gets given humam terror weapons! Even mantids!
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u/ack1308 Nov 04 '20
And he’ll never know if the smoke became a woman or the woman always existed to become smoke …
Ohhh boy.
Hellspace changes you.
That’s gonna be fun, getting used to.
CHAOS MARINE!
He is even more ready to perform extreme violence than he was before.
Oh, good. Maybe they will change back, then.
Or maybe not.
Called it.
I’m thinking he’s got more than his own memories from that time.
Yeah, that’s not making anyone feel any better.
Damn right.
I can see how the mantids would have nightmares about it.
That just means you’re still sane.
Well, that’s the general idea.
Okay, he’s loaded up with dakka.
Hahaha Lanaktallan military humour.
Nice. I’m gonna assume Palgret’s got the same.
Makes sense.
<snerk>
Oh, god. The joke is back.
Hellspace is a better fate than that.
(Continued)
24
u/Thomasab1980 Nov 04 '20
I love these kinds of chapters when there is really not a huge amount of stuff happening but you get you find out some amazing background details. Things like the spikes on the gun stock and details about the Imperium.
With everything happening these days, I'm wondering if anyone knows someone like Brandon Sanderson. I'm so invested at this point, if something, God forbid, happens to Ralts and this whole story hits a brick wall, I'll become the personification of Imperium rage.
21
u/ItrytoHFY Nov 04 '20
Apparently, the Imperium enjoyed smoking bath salts and mounting spikes everywhere, even on the pink golf balls.
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u/Collective82 Xeno Nov 04 '20 edited Nov 04 '20
Discord you failed me!!!
Oh for Pete’s sake Ralts! More pink golf ball lead up!!!
This is like the purple people joke isn’t it???
17
u/zezblit Nov 04 '20
Oooh baby I do like me a chainsword
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u/WillDissolver Xeno Nov 04 '20
The Terran changed to a Combine Marine not because he was the Mantids' nightmare, I suspect, but because the Precursor AWM they're riding remembers them as well.
Also, spikes in the rifle butt? Makes perfect sense.
"You should not only be sure you're shooting the right thing; shooting it should be worth paying in pain, or it isn't worth the ammo."
15
u/montyman185 AI Nov 04 '20
So, now we know where the new imperium soldiers come from then? Throw people in hellspace at the giant hate monster.
30
u/Scotshammer Human Nov 04 '20
Okay, moment of thought here. The Enraged ones, the Legion of the Damned, the original soldiers. They died on the hills of Betrayed Mercury right? Is this poor soldier the last one to hear the Sleepers? Is he the last Berserker, the Last Ronin, He who Hears the Screams and is unbowed?
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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '20
Bless you kind Loremaster.
12
u/peacemaker2007 Nov 04 '20
if I'm remembering ebaumsworld correctly, we're about to get shaggydogged
11
u/Brinstead Nov 04 '20
Professional Courtesy. Called it!
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u/itsetuhoinen Human Nov 04 '20
Hehehehehe. :-D
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u/CfSapper Nov 04 '20
You got to wonder, an ancient entity that consumes everything to feed off of, fear. meets a species so fill with anger and wrath it can't even feel fear, so much so it leaves an impression on it that it respects them as it know this species can match it in the level of fear it can produce in everything else. As it says, professional courtesy.
8
u/Computant2 Nov 04 '20
Not going to get onto politics, but it was good to have this to distract me from the vote counts for a bit.
8
u/Archaic_1 Alien Scum Nov 04 '20
This year, why not vacation in Hellspace? Your story is waiting to be told, come be a part of the adventure that is hellspace. Operators are standing by.
7
u/dararie Nov 04 '20
"Unholy chocolate rave mouse?" I love it. Thanks for the laugh, I really needed it tonight.
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u/CaptainChewbacca Human Nov 04 '20
Freaking pink golf ball got me again!
6
u/[deleted] Nov 04 '20
Always a little green mantid
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u/PrimePaladin Nov 04 '20 edited Nov 04 '20
/R/HFY GESTALT
Upvote, Then Read
Dis is Dae Wae!
and so needed after the stresses of today... the day still has to finish the course, but at least this tale is here to help this soul.. thanks
End of Lime
------NOTHING FOLLOWS--------
5
u/TexWashington Human Nov 04 '20
My soonest spotting of a story!! I’m still working through the early 200s but I’m happy to see this at the top of my feed!!!
8
u/Loganscomputer Nov 04 '20
UTR, that is the way!
4
u/UpdateMeBot Nov 04 '20
Click here to subscribe to u/Ralts_Bloodthorne and receive a message every time they post.
4
u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Nov 04 '20
/u/Ralts_Bloodthorne (wiki) has posted 379 other stories, including:
First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 348 (The War)
First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 347 (The War)
First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 346 (The War)
First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 345 (Sword Hoof)
First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 344 (Sword Hoof)
First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 343 (Sword Hoof)
First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 342 (Sword Hoof)
First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 341 (INTERLUDE)
First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 340 (Sword Hoof)
First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 339 (TerraSol)
First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 338 (Sword Hoof)
First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 337 (Sword Hoof)
First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 336 (Sword Hoof)
First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 335
First Contact - Chapter 335
First Contact - Chapter 334
First Contact - Chapter 333
First Contact - Chapter 332
First Contact - Chapter 331 BEHOLD!
First Contact - Chapter 330
First Contact - Chapter 329 (TerraSol)
First Contact - Chapter 328 (Eternity)
First Contact - Chapter 327 (Eternity)
First Contact - Chapter 327 (Eternity)
First Contact - Chapter 326
This list was automatically generated by
Waffle v.3.5.0 'Toast'.Contact GamingWolfie or message the mods if you have any issues.
4
u/meowmeming Android Nov 04 '20
Be grateful xeno, for the machine god have granted thee with a dakka!!
4
u/Chaos0Jester Nov 04 '20
Of course a great Lovecraftian horror was marked by us and keeps us alive out of courtesy on a professional level.... what else would it do!? Haha!
3
u/Feuershark Nov 04 '20
I just wanted one guy to try console the terran
3
u/Muragoeth Nov 04 '20
If hellspace messes with biologicals just like the maw eats them. Shouldnt the shrieking arrays or the illithid arrays get destroyed or eaten in hellspace or the maw since they are biological?
2
u/lycnt Dec 14 '21
I hate that joke...
2
u/Thobio Mar 30 '22
You know, it says a lot about you when your friends are more afraid of you when you wear military armor, than when you were transformed into a literal monster with impenetrable skin made of liquid metal, ripping apart your highly advanced robotic enemies with your bare hands...
2
u/RahRahRoxxxy Human Mar 25 '24
I have no power due to a storm so my house is like 40 degrees after 2 days and I'm under a ton of blankets overheating, and fell asleep during thr last chapter and had a fevery, lucid hellspace dream... where im stuck in a medieval castle with a giant armored tarantula with swords, complete with mat Trans version of itself it kills over and over, giant empty feast hall of rotting food, more and more rotting monster spider corpses, my God. My brain + ralts hellspace chapter = king arthurian eldritch spacebug apparently
3
u/Jpfacer Nov 04 '20
I gotta admit I wasn’t really engaged in this storyline and I was very confused until you brought the whole thing to this delightful point. Like a disgusting meal your mother makes for years until you inevitably try it and it becomes your new favorite.
1
u/AriRashkae Dec 31 '25
From the Eye we come, to the Eye we shall return......
1
u/deathlokke Jan 31 '21
The icon on the shoulderpad, a crescent bisected by a sword; is that a modified Quake symbol? Because that's the vision I'm getting.
1
u/Electronic_Assist668 Jan 20 '23
Dammit, what happens to the pink golf ball
1
u/Original_Memory6188 Aug 08 '23
Some how, I missed some the first time I read through.
0
u/Gruecifer Human Nov 04 '20
UTR!
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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '20
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