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Post by Belle Starr on Mar 7, 2015 12:54:08 GMT
Belle Starr turned back to the Volge Elite Viscera, making more of the guttural sounds that passed as their language, then turned to Vo, the red glow fading from her eyes. She was all smiles as she walked back and mounted her ATV next to Vo sitting on his runner. "Looks like we can accept it as a yes", Taffer said to the team, "but I still don't like it. If they needed the Core, they could just take it while we were in the space. Let's play along, but be leery. Mech squad, don't aim your weapons on the Volge yet, but be ready to aim and shoot". "Looks like we have peace in our time to me! Let's not look a gift Volge in the mouth!" Belle said happily to the team as she watched the Volge move up the hill, then transmitted to Taffer, "They may be just playing it safe expecting us to double cross them! Do you want Vo and I to stay here as emissaries of good will or head back to the base and play mobile rear guard?"
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Post by Lady Christianna on Mar 7, 2015 13:35:07 GMT
Lady Christianna circled her red ATV around to the back of the space ship, finding Daiden Simaro already waiting on his runner there. Lady had painted red the ATV she had claimed as hers during some downtime on their way to the moon because she was absolutely certain that red vehicles go faster. She didn't have any empirical proof of that fact, but it certainly felt that way to her. She would rather have done the recon on her own, because Daiden on his white bread runner was surely going to slow her down, but Taffer was the one giving the orders, so she gave Daiden a thumbs up sign, then accelerated towards the far side of the moon ark fall. Lady kept the rocky terrain between her and the ark fall, although she figured they probably had radar sophisticated enough to pinpoint her ATV's signature, but still stopped her runner behind a concealing dune before dismounted. She looked around, but didn't see Daiden, and wasn't sure where she lost him. She was sure her red runner must have outrun his, and now they were separated; furthermore it was her fault, as she should have kept better track of the new guy. Still, Lady had a job, so she unstrapped "Baby," her Crime Fighter shottie crawled up to the dune top edge, peeking over the top and spotting the Volge artillery with wide pink eyes. Lady counted the artillery pieces and the Volge around them, reporting the numbers to Taffer via their EGOs as she fingered the "magic" locket given to her by Atticus. Ever since Atticus gifted her with the heart shaped locket she hadn't been injured in battle, not even scratched, when those team mates around her were maimed and almost killed, even her beloved Atticus. If she could - no, would - destroy the Volge artillery, it wouldn't have a chance of hurting Atticus and the rest of her team mates. Lady pouted as she thought about what to do next, and only hesitated because she held Taffer in such high regard. Taffer had taken time to notice her when she first joined the team and even taught her how to pilot an aircraft when she was socially invisible to everyone else, except Atticus of course, so Lady liked, and more importantly in this instance, respected him. Lady smiled enigmatically as she determined what to do next, contacting Taffer before acting and asking, "Attack?"
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Post by Daiden Simaro on Mar 7, 2015 14:33:45 GMT
Daiden ran slightly behind the Lady who apparently forgot their task: "stealth recon". Or, more precisely, she forgot the first part. She rushed through the terrain on maximum speed with all lights on and clouds of raised moon dust marked her route better than any alarm call. "May be this is 'recon' but this is definitely not 'stealth'" Daiden thought to himself but said nothing. She already gave herself completely so he decided to keep stealthy as possible. If any fights starts, stealth could give him a possibility of some surprise attack. He drove his runner trying to hide his movement inside the quickly collapsing dust clouds from Lady's race. When she dismounted he did the same, hid the runner behind a rock and turned on his cloak. He was not sure if Lady still remembers their main goal. She even did not put her cloak on. "Stealthy indeed." Daiden thought, then counted the artillery pieces and the Volge around them and reported this to Taffer. Then he hid in the terrain hollow trying not to be seen and to keep an eye on Lady and Volges. Lady looked like easy target on that terrain so he tryed to estimate her survival chances if Volges would attack her. "Nothing and never go easy" he thought and readied to fight.
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Post by Volodja Uljanov on Mar 7, 2015 15:04:01 GMT
Volodja could not help but eavesdropped Daiden's conversation with Taffer. That cursed curiosity again. But hearing about Volge cannons made him worry even more than he intended to. If you plan to evacuate then bloody artillery is the last thing you want to aim your back. Especially when guns are manned with bloodthirsty and trigger-happy crew. Volge have that reputation. But he kept quiet and waited orders as good soldier must do. Unless they are given too late. But until that moment it was time for another flashback...
...Old river made it's way towards the sea. Birds were singing in the air and sunlight was reflecting on water. A boy and a girl walked on riverbank hand in hand, when she spotted single water lily and nudged a boy. "I want that water lily over there. Bring it to me," she demanded. Boy hesitated. He was not a good swimmer at all but pleasing her was most important thing in his life. He was in love after all. A puppy love, to be more precise and this girl was most beautiful girl in the world.
"If you bring that to me I will give you a kiss," girl persuaded. Boy sighed. He wanted that kiss more than anything, so he gave up, undressed and stepped into water. Swimming like a dog he reached to water lily and grabbed it. Then he started his way back to shore. He was tired already and when he draw some water into his throat, he panicked and started to sink. Somehow he managed to survive and finally he climbed to shore, feeling proud about his heroic deed. He reached out his hand, water lily squeezed in his fist. "Here you are. Can I have that kiss, you promised?"
Girl laughed at his face: "I never kiss you, stupid. I just wanted that water lily. I can't believe that you are so gullible." She grabbed plant from his hand, pushed him back into river and threw his clothes into water too. Then she just laughed some more and run away, leaving miserable boy alone crying from pain and disappointment although nobody could see his tears because he was soaking wet already. In that day this poor boy learned his first lesson about love - never expect it to be mutual...
...Volodja shrugged inside his mech. If you travel too much in time, you might forget about your presence. And his presence was full of Volge. Lot of them.
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Post by Taffer on Mar 7, 2015 16:14:48 GMT
"Do you want Vo and me to stay here as emissaries of good will or head back to the base and play mobile rear guard?" "Rear guard please, we have the team split up enough already", Taffer replied to Belle and Vo, starting his own runner to get back to the base. He found the base empty with Chloe already shut down most of the equipment except the defense grid. "I'm at the bridge Capt'n", he heard Chloe's voice over the comm, "ready to take off, waiting for you to board". Taffer was about to send "all clear" and command his team to board the ship, when he received the report from Lady and Daiden. "Attack?" he smiled for the first as he thought it was a good joke from Lady, but on second thought he remembered her longing for battle she expressed earlier at the briefing and shuddered at the thought that she could be serious at asking his permission to attack an entire heavy artillery unit alone. "Not yet", he replied to Lady in a most serious tone, deciding it would be better if she'd make fun of him if she were joking than having her killed if she was not, "Can you make your EGO calculate their trajectory and see if they are aiming at the base, the ship or different targets?" "Not math", Lady replied with disappointment, but the second later she chimed in again, "All five are aiming at the ship!" "Dammit", thought Taffer as his worst suspicions were going to come true. "Listen team", He sent to everyone of the team and to the bridge of the ship, "We got deceived. They don't want the base, they want the ship. They have five artillery units aiming at it to force it to land once we power it up. They are waiting for us to turn off the defense grid and pack our mechs for attack. Now the plan. Chloe, don't wait for us to board. Once the crew and guards are there, command everyone to fasten belts and power up the ship. First shield, second antigrav, third thrust engines. I repeat – shield, antigrav, engines in that order. Expect the ship to get shot with artillery once you start the engines. Stabilize the ship and get away from their line of fire. Do NOT engage in combat until we destroy the artillery. Mech squad, Volge's first shot is the signal. When they start shooting, Get to Lady's position and attack their artillery. Daiden and Lady, wait for the mechs to arrive, and then pick up low armored targets, especially bombers. Engage hit and run tactics, do not draw much attention to you. Belle and Vo, we'll have to distract their main squad until the artillery is destroyed. We'll try to lure them close to the base to use it as cover and engage the turrets and scrappers to help us. Everyone ready? Executing!" The ship closed its airlocks, its outline glowed blue for a second as it charged up its shield, and then the engines threw out a burst of hot gas. Right at the same moment, as Taffer predicted a bright orb of hot plasma came in an arc and hit the ship making its shield flash and send sparks around and throwing now weightless ship away from the explosion. Several consecutive shots hit the place where the ship was a moment before but missed. Chloe quickly regained the controls of the ship as it turned around and flew away to the horizon, away from the artillery's reach. Volge units were now moving from their cover, trying to get a clear shot again. Several bombers which were waiting on the hill sent their missiles at the ship, but were quickly distracted by the powerful explosion of the Taffer's Mass Cannon which gained a wider range of emission given the lower lunar gravity. Taffer quickly changed his position, engaged Cloak and pulled up his Lightning rifle which he started to shoot charged shots at Bombers, using the charge time to change his position after each shot.
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Post by Volodja Uljanov on Mar 7, 2015 16:30:56 GMT
"Now!" Volodja shouted, and his first burst made Bomber's shield to vanish. His bullets crumbled Bomber's helmet next and hit it's face sending that Bomber into eternity really fast. "Say hello to my little friend!" And bullet rain made two Troopers follow Bomber's example. "Always wanted to say that on a suitable occasion," whispered Volodja. After killing another Bomber he started to make his way to Volge artillery with rest of their mechanized battle unit running by his side. As soon as they reached to the Volge cannons he opened fire again, starting to take out one Volge after another. Erika and Atticus did the same thing.
His next target was a Viscera, obviously in command. He waited until Viscer begins it's blur charge attack. Then they are most vulnerable, because blur effect seems to be feeding on their shield energy. Viscera didn't fail his expectations, turned bright blue and started to rush towards his mech. Volodja's aim was precise and bullets hit as they should be dissipating it's shield, when he suddenly felt strong blow from behind and...Click Click Click...His darn Gatling guns were disabled, because one of Volges managed to deliver an accurate shot to the back of his mech and create a short circuit in it's electronic system. That was not fun at all.
Only thing Volodja could do was to get his mech to crouch, making attacking Viscera to stumble and fall at high speed. Volodja got his mech back up to it's feet right away, run to Viscera while it got himself from around of the Moon, smashed his mechanical fist into iscera's face and grabbed it. Viscera did almost the same - he didn't hit him, but gained really strong hold around Volodja's mech and started to press it's arms tighter against it's corpus. Two minutes they "hugged" each other, both trying to push their opponent backwards. "First sumo wrestling match on the Moon," thought Volodja, almost feeling huge pressure of Viscera's arms to his mech with his own skin. Seemed only to be a matter of time when mech will be squished and Volodja with it. It was perfect time to add an unexpected component to their wrestling match, if he wanted to win and Volodja just got an idea how to do that. When Viscera concentrated on destroying his mech, Volodja popped out from it and jumped to Viscrea's shoulders like a crazed monkey, grabbing Viscera's head between his thighs. He crossed his legs right away to gain a better hold and while holding Viscera's head with them and his left hand, he used his right hand to grab his Chimera Fang from his back and stick into Viscera's face. Viscera fell backwards pulling mech along and ended up on ground, half buried under Volodja's metal monster.
During Viscera's fall down Volodja bounced away from it, landed to his feet, removed Viscera's helmet and ended it's life with a single shot from Giant's fragger. "No standing ovations, please," he muttered with a bit of irony. Who could see his act of survival when everybody were busy with fighting? Nobody. But there was always a vain hope that someone notices. After that remark he studied his damage of mech with most concern. He got really lucky there. Things went as he hoped - mech shield and armour absorbed most kinetic energy of the hit and inner damage was not very bad. Nothing that little rewiring can't fix as long as Sophie reads him manual. He sent an EGO message to others: "Keep me covered while I do some mouth to mouth to my tin soldier and do a better job than earlier." and started to work, whistling a little tune to keep his spirits high and pulling his head down to avoid fire.
After few minutes of intensive work (and more intensive cursing when he did something wrong), mech's Gatling guns seemed to be functional again. Only problem to remain, was the hole on mech's back. Small possibility that he gets hit into same place twice in a row but it was better to avoid that chance and protect his mech from moon dust as well. He had to find something to use as a patch. Suddenly he saw something, grinned, grabbed Viscera's helmet from the ground, turned overcharge on and squashed helmet into a primitive metal plate. Not the best patch in the world, but at least it was better than nothing. He hammered his "masterpiece" into it's place, climbed back into mech and gave his Gatlings a test whirl. They worked! He was back in business. Now he could only hope, that his repair work will last while he takes out Volge cannons and their crew. He never can perform that kind of miracle twice.
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Post by Daiden Simaro on Mar 7, 2015 17:46:07 GMT
"Well, Lady," Daiden murmured as the first mech came in sight and all Volge's attention turned to it. "Time to dance." He rushed to Lady, grub her and rolled to his shelter with her in his hands. Battle blazed around the artillery unins, all kind of Volges tried to deal with the unexpected attack so no one seemed noticed his trick. "Listen to me, girl" Daiden said to Lady, pressing her to the ground to be sure Volges won't notice them. "Now put on your cloak and and sneak to that artillery unit. Let your EGO sabotage it. Then go to the next. I'll start from another side of artillery battery. Don't shoot. Don't draw attention. Don't let them notice you. Be cunning, swift and invisible. Do as I say and your man will be proud of you. Now go while they all are so busy with those mechs."
He made sure Lady is cloaked and then ran to the battery. Daiden rushed to the cannon which he choose to himself trying to avoid any encounter and hoping Lady's doing the same. His EGO hardly could operate Volge machinery but he was not going to operate anything, he need to break it and his EGO could do it quite well. Soon enough first cannon had been broken. Of course, Volges became very interested in it but mechs kept them busy enough so Daiden just rushed to the next cannon wondering how Lady is going with her task.
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Post by Volodja Uljanov on Mar 7, 2015 19:27:37 GMT
Sweat dropped into Volodja's eyes blurring his vision but he could not wipe it off, so he asked Sophie:
"Soph, dear. Handle that sweating problem of mine before I get blinded. I cant feel the Force, even if I try so hard that I crap into my pants, so I must use my eyes."
Sophie just giggled, but started to work with his glands. And she did it on time so Volodja could spot a Volge Trooper appearing behind Lady, who was busy sabotaging one the cannons and killed it quickly. After that he did his best to lure Volge away from cannons so his student and his Castithan friend could finish their job once they started it. He could not see two of his mechanical team mates nearby, so he started to worry about them and shouted during his power play:
"Erika! Giant! Is everything all right?"
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Post by Erika Widowmaker on Mar 7, 2015 19:38:49 GMT
Taffer ordered, "Mech squad, Volge's first shot is the signal. When they start shooting, Get to Lady's position and attack their artillery."
The Volge's first shot was fired, and Volodja engaged a nearby Volge bomber, then two troopers, then another bomber.
"What the hell is your man playing at, Captain!?!?!" Thought Erika Widowmaker to Sandy, her EGO's psyche, "We were ordered to go straight to the artillery and attack there!"
"Please don't leave him behind," Sandy begged.
Erika cussed a blue streak, but maintained her Mech's stride towards the Volge artillery in back of the ark fall, reversed her guns to point to the rear, using her EGO's radar for visual reference as she fired them, covering Volodja's Mech as it followed. When she got to the artillery sight, she noticed that several of the big guns had stopped firing, and their Volge crew seemed to be confused over it. Erika noticed the blue dots at either end of the artillery line, and realized that Lady and Taffer had disregarded Taffer's orders to "pick up low armored targets, especially bombers" and instead were engaged in sabotage of the Volge cannons.
"If they were in the Votan Collective's army", Thought Erika as she frowned, "They both would be court martialed for flagrant disregard of orders."
Erika targeted the artillery units in the middle, working her way left to the right, taking out one artillery unit at a time, cannon and crew both, trying not to fire too closely to the blue dot on the far right of her radar. In the swirling moon dust, she lost track of Atticus' and Volodja's mechs, until she saw Volodja in his Mech in a life and death struggle with a Viscera. When he emerged successful and was repairing his Mech, Erika's Mech gave covering fire until it was up and running, then she began systematically eliminating the Volge Bombers. If and when Taffer gave the order to retreat, Erika would, but until then, she would do her duty to destroy as much of the Volge rank and file as possible.
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Post by Lady Christianna on Mar 7, 2015 20:02:05 GMT
Lady Christianna was breathless after Daiden grabbed and rolled with her to his shelter, landing on top of her holding her to the ground. She wasn't really sure that she was breathless because her wind was knocked out of her or because of his current position and his commanding voice were so forceful. She was so taken aback by his show of power, and a feeling in her loins that she had only had for Atticus before, that she merely widened her pink eyes and nodded her chalk white head in agreement to his orders. Lady cloaked, strapped "Baby" to her back, and carefully moved to the last artillery piece on the right using her EGO to sabotage the cannon, suppressing a giggle as the Volge crew ran about aimlessly trying to figure out what had happened afterwards. She moved to a second artillery piece doing the same thing, but as she moved to the third, a sudden explosion in front of her blew her up into the air. She smiled during the brief sensation of flight, but it quickly turned to a pout when she painfully landed breaking several bones in both arms and legs, and looking like a broken china doll on top of the ark fall as she decloaked. As her tiny mouth coughed up pink blood from her internal injuries, Lady's last conscious thought was, "Sorry Atticus," but whether it was because her death would leave him alone once more or because she felt she may have betrayed their love with her disturbing longing towards Daiden, though it lasted but a moment, even she would not be able to say.
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Post by Volodja Uljanov on Mar 7, 2015 20:28:25 GMT
Seeing that Lady was down, Volodja took her gently to his mechanical arm, and screamed exclusively to his Castithan friend: "Daiden! Put Lady on your ATV and get the HELL out of here! Carefully! And don't mention it to Giant yet! He goes MAD! I ll keep you covered, while you get yourself here."
He started to clear path for Daiden and his ATV, moving towards to meet him while he was protecting Lady with his mechanical body from enemy fire, asked Minx to take care for her wounds and handed over to Daiden.
And then he started to think about NEAREST future perspectives:
"If Giant goes mad on Volge then its good for us. If he goes mad to everyone around we all are screwed. The WHOLE Moon will be screwed! Think I may have chosen wrong Moon to explore."
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Post by Belle Starr on Mar 7, 2015 21:08:53 GMT
Belle Starr fired from her ATV, more as a distraction to the Volge force on the hill than as a way to eliminate them. That is until a Volge Bomber hit her ATV, blowing it to smithereens. She rolled to her feet unharmed, pulling her pistol and charge blade as she did so. She lost track of the others in the fog of battle, but she ducked an weaved through the battlefield, hitting first with her Carver charge blade with its bio nanos to cut through the Volge natural armor, then changing weapons to the powerful Demon Hunter pistol with its fire nanos to burn the flesh under the armor.
Belle's eyes began to glow red and her arms orange with overcharge as she began her deadly ballet of death working her way up the hill, killing Volge Troopers and Bombers right and left with her deadly combination, but avoiding the more deadly and thicker skinned Viscera. Someone in her team must have been concentrating on the Viscera as well as other Volge, because by the time she reached the top, she was the only visible living being standing on the hill.
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Post by Daiden Simaro on Mar 7, 2015 21:14:01 GMT
"Fucked volgeass's fucking spready shit!!!" But Volodja was right, mechs is more useful in the fight than common weapon so Daiden was the weakest unit there and he was the best choice to get Lady back to the base. "Taffer! We have injured here! I am going to the base!" Daiden rushed to Lady lying like a broken doll, took her on his shoulder and run to his ATV dodging between explosions. Thanks to Volodja and his covering fire, they - Daiden and unconscious Lady's body - get to the runner fast and and without additional incidents, so to say. Daiden put Lady's body on the saddle in front of him and rushed to the base hoping some medical equipment is still working and wondering why Lady's EGO did not work on her body properly.
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Post by Volodja Uljanov on Mar 7, 2015 21:42:17 GMT
"And now keep on firing. Lets take last of these Big Bertha's out and when Chief calls us home we follow the bread crumb road," said Volodja after Daiden took Lady to a joy ride. "Nice and EASY. No sudden violent moves, please. Especially from some of us. And let's keep each other covered again. I don't want to get my bottom being shot second time today."
He was ready to go and he was prepared to stay. As long as it helped his team mates, both actions were acceptable.
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Post by Atticus Batman on Mar 7, 2015 23:30:36 GMT
While fighting the volge, I see Lady's blip on my radar start to fade. My rage starts building, as I charge my mech towards the Volge. When my guns jam, I grab a long chunk of metal debris and quickly fashion it into a makeshift blade. As I am slicing the Volge apart, my rage is building more. I quickly ask over comm how Lady is, everyone is quiet, and I hear mostly static and some garbled noises. Then through the static, I hear Uljanov mumble, "Not good Giant..." then all I hear is the static and incoherent noise again. My rage builds up enough, that everyone can see my angry blue aura surrounding my mech, and it starts changing in color as it gets more intense.
As my rage grows the blue starts getting more intense, and Lady's locket also starts to grow very brightly from my rage and undying love for her. I start ruthlessly slicing away at everything near me, barely able to keep my focus on the Volge. Hopefully my team doesn't get to close. Before long, I try my guns again and one works again. So I start firing it in my mech's left hand, while still ruthlessly cutting down Volge with the sword in the right. After a few minutes, my blue aura has grown so intesense that it has turned green for a few seconds, then as it got extremely intense it became bright white.
All that is driving me now is revenge as I am afraid Lady may be gone, but a small part of me is still hoping otherwise. And that small part is all that is keeping me focused on Volge and away from my team. Heaven help them all if it can't keep guiding me to kill only Volge. As my mech and I glow very bright white, I lung it forward fas. Within seconds, Iam slicing through the center of what is left of the Ark, still shooting every running Volge with my gun as I do. As I enter the center of the Volge forces in the middle of their destroyed Ark, I manage to think clear long enough to send my team a message over the open comms.
They hear me growl very angrily, as I talk to them. "Get everyone clear! If Lady is still alive keep her safe! My monster.......I can not hold back the rage much longer! If Lady survives and needs me then... I PROMISE I WILL be back! If not then, you will never hear from me again!! Fool get them to the ship, NOW!!! Farewell, my friends!!!"
Just after I send the message, my pure instinct and rage start to take over. With a last somewhat clear moment, I send Lady an EGO message as well as a mental one, relayed through the Grid piece in her locket. "Snow Angel I love you. You need to get better! Everyone needs you! I NEED YOU! Please don't leave me! I can not and WILL NOT LIVE WITHOUT YOU!!!"
After sending the message, and not hearing a response and barely sensing her life through the locket, I drop my weapons and start ripping Volge apart using the Mech's 'bare' hands. As my rage takes complete hold, I leap out of my mech with my blade in hand, no longer feeling pain, partly because my leg is partly healed now, but mostly from the bloodlust, rage, adreneline and Grid instinct starting to take complete hold.
As I slice through Volge, Dinara my EGO's psyche turns on the comm in my suit and starts broadcasting a live feed to the team's EGOs over her channels. She also addresses the team. "I am losing him! I am afraid that all that will help him now is Lady's voice. If she is alive! If she isn't or she can't get through to him, then get to the ship and evacuate as soon as you can! He is no longer listening to me! Not even Kakusi, his Grid conscious, can get a response of him!! I am not even sure how much longer, I can stay active! His electrical aura is so powerful that it will force me to power down soon! His comm will stay on until his helmet is destroyed or it runs out of power. I will keep fighting to stay on and try to help him as long as I can. But you must do something and quick!!! His pain and rage is sooooooooooo strong!!!!!!"
(Link to lyrics for those that can't understand the band)
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