Latest Community Challenges & Competitions topics - Automation

Our team is developing a blackjack bot for use in TheCasino. We’re hoping to ask for an opinion on whether card counting should be in the game. We can either have the odds always be the same no matter how many cards you draw or have the deck deplete like a normal deck. Which would you prefer to play against?

Hello! I'm a woman in my late 20s looking for adult (18+) friends to chat or play video games with. My wife and I both play all sorts of games and spend a lot of time hanging out with people on Discord. We play a wide variety of video games based on our current mood, and we don't typically game with randoms but would love to play video games together if we became friends with someone.
I WILL, however, chat with randoms. How else do you become friends?! I'm generally up to chat about whatever, and the I'm the type of person who's pretty much an open book if I'm comfortable with you. I'm all about sincere human connection and love talking about the real stuff - I'm not great at small talk.
I'm not lonely but I'm always open to new friends, so this seemed like something cool to try. Emphasis on "friends" though - I've noticed that a lot of posts here (especially those made by women) have a lot of people responding who seem to want more than friendship. If that's you, please don't waste your time, because you're barking up the wrong tree - I'm happily attached and monogamous.
Also, I'm just gonna be real, don't bother responding to me if you don't have left-leaning political views because we're just not gonna get along. 😂 I don't talk about politics much but I just put this out there because from an ideological standpoint there are certain types of folks I just don't have much interest in interacting with.
Hope you're all having a great night and prepping for a great weekend! ✌

Just wanted to share this quite incredible post:
​

This is not a technical issue with Blizzard. This is a management decision to allow bots in the game. It is estimated that 20% of all WoW subscriptions are bots. This is due to interview material of large bot farmers who alone had 400k accounts, as well as extrapolating sales from the company that purchased Wowhead, Thottbot, etc.
For those not in the know, IGE purchased them, and they did $500 million a year in sales and were backed by Goldman Sachs, a company with 3 to 5 trillion USD in assets.
We know Blizzard purposefully allows bots because of one simple fact: 2 easy changes would decimate all bots, and Blizzard refuses to do so.

1. The top 3 bot softwares require LUA Unlockers to function. A LUA Unlocker gives any WoW client access to GM-level client APIs [Application Programming Interface. An API is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other ]. These APIs are "unlocked" now and enable add-ons to be created to fully automate game play. Blizzard could easily remove these APIs from the client but refuses to do so.
   
2. Teleport hacking, used to farm minerals, instances, and raids, could be easily dealt with by monitoring excessive changes to player XYZ coordinates. Once detected, actions could be taken. Private servers do this simply and easily by database checks of character positioning changes. Blizzard refuses to implement this.
   

The above 2 changes are incredibly simple and low cost changes to implement. Blizzard refused to do so purposefully. They do so as these changes would cause a massive loss of revenue.
Instead, Blizzard has made pandering changes to give the appearance of caring. The instance lockout was strategically done to increase bot subscriptions and give a speaking point to make it seem as if they care.
Same with the multi boxing change. They stated it was to curb bots, yet zero bot softwares multibox. Instead, they all use LUA unlocked based automation.
*Legal note: The above all is my opinion based on my experience.

Answering a question from a reply : "They could, but are those APIs really so essential to create a successful botting software?"
​

Yes, they are absolutely critical. The top betting software products all use LUA unlockers. I would estimate 95%+ bots would immediately fail due to this one solution.
Teleport hacking definitely still works.
I know it sounds shocking that these 2 changes would remove all betting as we know it. It would. This is why these 2 changes have not occurred. The revenue decline for Blizzard would be massive.
I have been involved in this industry in the past. Heavily. I might be willing to do an AMA if people have interest. I was the founding CEO of Wowhead back in the day....

​
This was posted on a classicwowtbc conversation by u/StartupTim/ last week on a discussion about fighting against botting (your_thoughts_on_regionlocking_the_game_for_tbc).
Assuming it happens next month, could a hero from this sub going to the 2021 Blizzcon ask in front of the cameras to Blizzard whether they refuse to do these two changes? It seems important to have an answer recorded, it might resonnate in the industry and amongst gaming journalists and help (even a little) with the situation. I don't want TBC to be ruined by bots like Classic.
------
Edit: Please note that this person claims to be Wowhead's founder online for a while now, but he hasn't provided any proof so far. He has already made that claim on classicwow 3 years ago in a quite upvoted post for pre-announcment times former_wowhead_ceo_here_im_looking_to_build_a/, and has been active left and right on Wowhead/Twitter concerning Classic, but he didn't make any effort to prove his identity (that I know of), and is apparently disliked for making exaggerated claims about the CPUs and programs he's selling.
My bad for not having verified that before posting (can't change the title anymore), didn't bother too much about it - safe for checking whether there was a "Tim" amongst the founders on Wikki and waving that off when I didn't found one.
Edit 2: StartupTim actually messaged me, this is what he wrote:

Hey there,
I saw your post on Blizzard bots and you had a question about verifying my involvement. I thought I would help clarify with external proof.
You can see here: https://www.engadget.com/2007-06-28-exclusive-interview-wowhead-and-affinity-media.html
...is an interview I did shortly after selling Wowhead. It makes reference to Tim Sullivan, me, aka StartupTim. I have been building online gaming tools, software, resources, services, etc., for what feels like ages. I have a huge love for gaming, especially MMORPGS, hence my deep involvement with WoW.
With regards to Wowhead and the article I linked, I was hired by the purchasing company and became their CTO. We owned Wowhead, Thottbot, Allakhazam, and more.
With regards to current proof, I sell gaming software on Steam under the developer name of StartupTim, which should further prove things. See here: https://store.steampowered.com/search/?sort_by=_ASC&developer=StartupTim%2C+LLC
Feel free to share that information in your post if you'd like. I know that the Internet is full of imposters, so hopefully that helps clear things up.

​

[UPDATE] Ok, I just learned there is already such a subreddit: AutomationGames
How I missed this after hours of searching is beyond me! It's a very small subreddit at the moment (196 members), but it looks exactly like the topic I was looking for. The developer of one of the games I'm working to create content for knew about it straight away when I asked him.
If anyone is interested, I will be posting in there in the coming days about new, unreleased, and/or underrated factory automation games.
--------------------------------------
Does anyone know of a subreddit focused on Automation / Factory games in general?
Does one/should one exist?
I cover several new ones on my channel and I'm looking for a place to share and discuss them. I don't want to spam a game-specific subreddit with messages about other games.
BaseBuildingGames is the closest I can find so far, but still seems a little off topic. Thanks!
Edit: Also if you know of a discord server that is Automation / Factory game focused, I'd be interested to hear about that too!

My uncle was an odd, lonely man. That one guy you try to avoid at family reunions, the one nobody knows too well but loves to talk about nonetheless.
I think he liked me best because I never really enjoyed badmouthing him. I wouldn't say we were close, but we tolerated one another. At least that's how it was when I was little, we never bothered to stay in contact. I forgot about him by the time I left home. That's why the news of his death caught me completely by surprise.
Uncle Mack was alone in his apartment when he had a heart attack causing cardiac arrest. He fell unconscious and died within minutes.
Then there was me at the time. I had just flunked out of college and the only thing I was actually good at was playing video games. When I was contacted by Mack's lawyer, I was even more shocked. Mack had left me three things: a box of sorted letters addressed to me, all the money he used to own, which to me was a lot, and his bar–the one he had inherited from his father and had worked at all his life.
I'll be frank, I had no idea what to do with the bar but I knew from the very start I'd take it over. I felt kind of honored–this had basically been Uncle Mack's entire life and he was giving it to me of all people. Sure, from what I knew there hadn't been many friends or loved ones in his life to choose from, but it was still flattering to me. Once I read the first letter, I was even more convinced.
"Hi Giulia,
If you're reading this, my bad eating habits have probably caught up to me. Or maybe someone killed me, who knows. As of me writing this, you're fifteen years old. You were the only one to talk to me at the family reunion today. Not for long, but more than just an awkward hello. I notice these things and I appreciate it. That's why I'm trusting you with the most important task anyone in this family is ever going to offer you. You are going to take over my bar. Besides, knowing you, you're not gonna have much of a career anyways, so you might as well.
Once you're done reading this, please go to the bar at your earliest convenience. Take the box of letters with you and stash it away somewhere there. It has some valuable advice you're gonna need down the line. In fact, you will need to read the second letter right after your arrival. You'll find my employees are a bit special.
Anyways, I hope you're doing alright, however this letter finds you. You're a good kid, Lia. Always have been. Besides, the only person you could possibly disappoint by screwing this up is dead so there's no pressure to impress.
Sincerely, Your Uncle Mack."
I wiped my eyes. They had actually gotten a bit watery while I was reading the letter. I folded the letter and tucked it back into the box before grabbing my coat and bag. Mack's bar was a train ride and a thirty-minute walk away from my parents' place, which is where I was residing at the moment. I figured I would probably have to look for a place close to the bar if I really would start working there full time.
When I finally arrived at the establishment, it looked almost exactly the way I had expected. It was just another wall in the row of buildings on the street off to the side from the inner city's market square. A large, bright red double door with a neon sign reading "The New Saloon" above it. It would probably glow if I'd find out how to switch it on. At least I hoped it would glow.
It felt weird, unlocking the door and opening it for the first time, all on my own. Entering and looking around inside felt even weirder. The New Saloon was your typical old-style dive bar. Even completely empty it looked overcrowded. The fabric of the cushion seats was stained and frayed, the walls behind and in front of the counter were plastered with neon beer signs and large framed photos of people I didn't know, some were even in black and white. The floors were dirty and my heels stuck to them when I walked further in. This place was small, shabby and smelly and I loved it.
It was so strange but I suddenly just felt like this bar was mine, and that I needed to take care of it and protect it. Remembering what Mack had told me in his first letter, I pulled the second one out from the box and unfolded it.
"Hi Giulia,
If you're reading this, you're probably at the bar for the very first time! How do you like it? Let me guess, it's ugly and gross but it instantly started growing on you?
Don't worry, it's about to get a lot weirder. You'll find the entrance to the backroom behind the counter. The lightswitch is on the inside of the wall, make sure to turn it on before you head inside because there's stairs leading down right behind the door. It's a death trap. Once you're in there, stand in the middle of the room. Stay away from the walls. You may then say out loud the following words:
Spirits of this house, by the power of the spell that has bound you I command you to serve.
You'll see what happens next. Whatever happens, keep in mind you can order them around. When all the work is done, simply tell them to go back into their room. You've got this.
Sincerely, Your Uncle Mack."
I frowned. That was odd. Was this the prelude to some kind of joke? I walked over to the door behind the counter and pressed down the handle. It swung open with a loud creaking noise and I began to grope around for the lightswitch. A single light bulb down in the backroom came flickering on and I proceeded down the rickety wooden stairs. No bannisters. Risky, especially with the shoes I was wearing. By the time I had reached the middle of the room, my heart was already beating faster than it should. Still, if this was a prank, Mack had been planning it for over five years, and I was not about to ruin it. Besides, no one was watching anyways.
I cleared my throat. "Spirits of this house…" I began, a giggle swinging along in my voice. "By the power of the spell that has bound you I command you to serve."
Nothing. Not a single sound for five whole seconds. I looked around the room. It was completely empty, except for a single door in the wall across from me. Maybe I had been supposed to say it in whatever room was behind that one? Just as I was about to walk over to it, a loud noise came from one of the walls to the side. I spun around to find that it had cracked open. Bits of it were beginning to crumble to the floor as the tear widened. I stared at it with my mouth agape, frozen in place and incapable of comprehending what I was seeing there.
From the crack, a set of long, bony pale fingers reached out into the room, gripping the inside of the wall. My throat was too dry to produce a proper scream, but I couldn't contain a gasp as I staggered backwards until my back met with the other wall behind me. It was then that I felt cold palms rubbing against my neck and hands closing around my shoulders from behind. This time, I shrieked. I whirled around again only to see that there was a hole there too, long, skinny arms slowly moving forward from it, grabbing at me, searching for me.
I glanced around the room frantically. Holes had opened in basically every spare spot. I counted four sets of arms pulling themselves out into the light, followed by similarly slender upper bodies. By the time I finally thought to run back up the stairs and save myself, the people from inside the walls were standing in the backroom, fully emerged from their dark hideouts. I didn't risk another look at them. When I finally reached the top stair, I dashed back into the bar and slammed the door shut behind me. I pressed myself up against it just to keep standing. My knees had grown weak beneath me and I was panting heavily, my mind racing.
Then I heard them; slow, light footsteps making their way up the staircase and stop on top of it. I heard calm, steady breathing coming from the other side of the door. I tensed up and shifted my weight on my feet, leaning up against it to keep whomever was in there from getting out. I was sure this person would start to try pushing it open, but to my surprise, nothing happened. Instead, a voice rang out from inside.
"Excuse me, who are you exactly?" It was a man's voice. I had expected something like a growl, or a hiss, or the groans of some decomposing zombie, but this was distinctly more articulate. It sounded almost polite.
I didn't know what to do other than respond. "Giulia," I stammered.
"Giulia?" The man sounded surprised. "What about Mack? Wait, if you're here…" He sounded quite sad now. "Mack's dead, isn't he?"
"Yes," I replied quietly. "His heart stopped."
"That's… good God." He fell silent and I heard him utter a shaky sigh, almost like a sob. "I'm sorry, would you give me a moment? I need to tell the others."
"Go ahead," I murmured.
"Nevermind, they heard us. So, will you let us out now or…?"
"Who are you? Why were you in there?"
"We work here, actually. My name is Andrik… I do most of the organizing here. I take care of the accounting, our profits, our spendings; I place the orders on most of what we need. Back here with me, I've got Bo, who is our bouncer, and Danika and May, both waitresses."
"You work here?" I repeated. "And you live in the walls? After your shift is over, do you just go down there and melt into the room or what?" I couldn't help but let out a nervous chuckle at the mental image. This was just too absurd. At least I was breathing normally now.
"Pretty much, yes."
I shook my head. "What are you?"
"Well, to explain that you would have to go exactly a hundred and twenty-two years back so it's a long story," Andrik replied. "All you need to know for now is that if you let us out, we'll get the bar up and running right away. We've been working under Mack ever since he took over this place though, so you'll have to excuse us if we're a bit gloomy."
"No, that's fine," I muttered, slowly turning away from the door and carefully pulling it open.
The man in front of me was of normal height, slender and looked to be in his thirties. Despite being dressed in jeans and a simple black t-shirt with the bar's name printed on it in white, swirly letters, he had a very official look to him. Maybe it was the way he stood, straight as a rod with a friendly yet matter-of-fact smile on his face.
"Thank you," he said. Turning back to the room, he raised his voice. "You heard it everyone, Mack might be gone and while that's a downer, our work isn't over; so get yourselves up here and let's get this going again!" His tone carried the flat motivation the coach of a youth sports team might have.
Three more people emerged from the backroom, all dressed exactly like Andrik, all of them that same content little grin on their lips. They walked by me offering polite greetings; the first one, a large, bulky guy giving me a curt nod and the two women that followed smiling brightly. The girls were a little younger than Andrik, maybe in their late twenties. Both had blond hair hanging down their shoulders in wavy pigtails.
That first night the bar was open, I merely watched the backroom people work, following them around while they ignored me. It was eerie. They looked almost like automated mannequins, going about their routine by sticking to preplanned paths; like there were set directions painted somewhere I couldn't see. I soon began to notice other distinctive attributes about them. None of the people from the walls had fingernails. I saw it on the waitresses when they reached for the cups handed to them, on Andrik when he scribbled down notes. However that was not the only thing off about them. All those little details in their faces, the kind of thing you'd normally never pay attention to–they didn't add up.
For example, their eyes didn't lign up. One was always slightly lower than the other, just enough for someone to notice. Their nostrils would differ in width and one of the girls' pinky fingers was the same length as her ring finger. Had I not known that they had just crawled out from the backroom walls, I would have chalked these harmless little oddities up to simple, inconspicuous deformities, but knowing what I knew, it made my skin crawl with uncomfort.
I soon found out that Andrik did most of the talking for them. Bo rarely ever said a word, and all the waitresses did was whisper amongst themselves, giggle and chat with the patrons. Eventually, Andrik waved me over to him behind the counter.
"Alright, to give you a rundown of the place, we have a cash-only system. We rely on our local clientele, but once in a while someone new comes by and then we try and keep them around, obviously. Here's some of our regulars." He pointed at a lady sitting in a corner, weeping over an empty glass of whiskey. "That's Shauna. Comes here whenever she can, only ever orders whiskey. Will not stop crying."
His finger wandered over to an old, short man with an almost disproportionately large head and short white hair. He was sitting at one of the tables as well, talking to two younger women who seemed very much out of place. "That's Tommy. He's likely to start fights but he drinks a lot and tips very generously. Bo throws him out a lot but he's very easy on him, so don't worry."
He finally nodded towards a tall glass of wine standing lonely on the counter right in front of us. "And this is Irene. She can't pay but she's always welcome. She's very nice and she's been here ever since Mack's family started this business."
"Andrik, there's nothing there."
The pale man threw me a confused glance. "What do you mean, she's right… oh! Of course. Don't worry, you'll start seeing her with time. Either way, for now there's actually not much for you to do except read up on barkeeping once you get the chance. However you should start getting acquainted with the regulars. After all, the owner of The New Saloon will always be part of the reason why people come here." He paused as his mouth started to twitch into an almost guileful grin. "I have a feeling they're going to love you."
I retreated into the ladies' room for a quick break. I sat down on one of the toilets and buried my face in my palms. I had no idea what was going on or what I was supposed to do. Andrik had made himself pretty clear when it came to the instructions he'd given me, but all of this was so surreal I seriously considered the possibility of me having suffered some kind of blow to the head and dreaming it. I spent the rest of the night standing behind the counter and observing their every move. Andrik kept to my side mostly, looking at me with the kind of suspicion I probably had in my eyes as well. I couldn't figure him out.
I accidentally-on-purpose walked by the waitresses who were talking to each other in hushed voices, picking up on small bits of their conversation.
"Her blood is weaker than his. Do you think she's–?"
"We shouldn't take any chances. Remember what Mack did when we tried to test him?"
"I do, but this could be our chance to have some fun."
Her words sent chills down my spine. Remembering Mack's letter however, I decided this was not the time to show I was frightened. "You're going to do no such thing," I chimed in from behind them. "I don't care what you are but I promise I'll find a way to make this whole thing very uncomfortable for you guys if you try to pull any kind of weird crap on me."
The looks they gave me were worth my initial doubt. They seemed shocked that I had listened in on them at all, let alone spoken up. I glared at them, holding their gaze and ignoring the trembling of my legs. Their heads lowered, they marched off. When the bar began to clear out and we got ready to close down for the night, I told the four of them to clean up. Of course I helped, but I made sure never to lose sight of a single one of them. I felt like they were wild, hungry animals, waiting for their chance to pounce on me. Whenever I looked up from the rag I was wiping the countertop with, I would find one of them staring at me.
By the time we were done, the place really did look a lot more welcoming. It certainly was cleaner, despite the four workers' angry faces spoiling the mood. We carried the cleaning supplies back into the small storage chamber next to the employee restroom before I went to open the backroom door for them. "Okay everyone, good job today! Thanks a lot, now back inside!" I called out, almost enjoying the feeling of authority as they came trodding towards me and made their way down into the dimly lit basement single-file. Andrik was the last one to cross the threshold. Right before descending the staircase, he turned to face me once more.
"You were keeping a close eye on us," he said quietly. "That's clever. But you're going to need to keep it up and… let's see how long you'll last. Who knows what might happen." He gave me a sly wink with the one eye that was a little lower on his face before following his co-workers. I watched from the top of the stairs as they leaned up against the walls. It was almost as I had expected; their bodies seemed to melt into the holes they had come from, sealing them shut and not leaving so much as a thin crack.
Lacking a better option, I stayed at a nearby inn that night. As bizarre and frightening as all of this had been, I got out of it unscathed. The bar workers and I would end up coming to blows in the future though, more than once. And I wouldn't always be that lucky.
X
Part 2: one of the regulars had a doppelgänger
Part 3: My bouncer and I got beaten up by a little girl.
Part 4: The regular who never stops crying.
Part 5: Appreciate good employees.

Just some stuff sort of said to myself that might be helpful... 🤷‍♂️
•most tracks are built on inspired simplicity wrapped into a whole that sounds good. Not incredibly complex individual game changing track elements. Just pieces presented in a way that makes little things amazing. (Ok some pieces can be very complex, but generally the way it comes together is with finesse not strong arming everything)
•mixing is sort of same way unless it’s really complex sound design, even then...
•stacking similar layers are not how everyone is getting their sounds. It can be really counterproductive to clean mixes. Multiband saturation and wavetables, I think, are much better tools than stacks of synths.
•accents and fills (impacts, fx, flourishes, end of bar fills, drop outs, automations...) are frankly way more important than the amazing melody or bass-line you’ve written. All the extra stuff is just leagues ahead of the core parts that you as a producer get emotionally attached to.
•make an amazing part, and steal it away from the listener. Sometimes you’ll work tour ass off to make an amazing part and have the urge to use it all over because it’s so amazing. Sometimes it’s better to let it happen once.
•if you spend money on any plugin, buy a mastering limiter and buy a really good reverb. Just buy a really good reverb. Great use of reverb is so important. Especially the short, unnoticeable kind.
•learning to master helps you understand mistakes in the mix.
•YouTube is a slow way to learn. You can absorb information 10x faster by reading. Important people have written lots of books about mixing and producing. YouTube also wastes your time. If anything, buy presets and study the presets if your learning synthesis. If your studying mixing, get “The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook”. You can find older editions for free on the internet sometimes.
•study music like you’re learning a science. Repeat popular experiments (remake songs), do your homework (read), and test yourself (do whole songs under a concept your learning)
•when you make a track don’t lay out an 8 bar drum loop. Lay out an entire track, even if it’s empty midi. Copy a track you like in the daw and set like a kick, hat, and clap at the intervals of that song structure, even if it won’t be what you have in the end.
•building a buildup to the drop first can be a good way to spark inspiration
•distortion in post (as in not in some serum patch or pure sound design), sounds good. But you can’t be doing it on every track just because it sounds good and maximizes everything. In the end it gets you a flat, washed out sound. The mastering process will bring a lot out of everything, so no need to overcook all the tracks before that.
•lite master your tracks periodically when you work on them. It’s amazing what you get out of that process along with realizing, in a lot of cases so much saturation and clipping isn’t necessary when the final limiting gets everything maximized.
•mastering is a magical process that does make everything better. and you can learn to do it. And you can learn to mix well enough that your track is already essentially mastered.
•waves plug-ins aren’t that good.
•making your own sound doesn’t mean designing a sound nobody has ever heard before. Like successful dating, it just comes from being yourself.
•-7 short term LUFS to -5.5 short term LUFS is still the standard EDM loudness. Loudness on streaming services is created by HIGH short term LUFS, while having a LOW integrated LUFS. Creating a good sounding loud mix/master is created by having that, plus as large of a LRA number as possible. Doing all of that takes a lot of listening, careful eq’ing, compression, and sound choice.
•Streaming services turn down your song mostly based on your integrated LUFS. If you can have a -6 short term score but a -9 integrated, your song WILL BE louder than a -5 short term score with a -7 integrated score on normalized services.
•Make things clearer. Dip 100hz and into the mids. Then compress. If things still don’t sound clean, you probably need to go back and redesign the sound or try a new one.
•the network of producer friends you build is the most important thing you can build. Nuture that. Feedback peoples songs. Don’t ask for shit in return, just be a good person and friend. But also work the network. Spend some time everyday to like/share/comment/etc. your producer friends posts.
•like 70-80% of people make better music when they don’t smoke weed. Maybe a conservative figure. Regardless, you keep what you learn when you sleep. Anything that fucks up the way you sleep, keeps you from growing in terms of developing any skill. The less you party the faster you get better, not because of the time you spent partying, but because all that your trying to learn gets downloaded and used in a much better way.
•Social media is eating away time that’s not exchangeable. You don’t have any time that’s a wash. It’s finite and social media just takes it. You maybe get back a mild sense of community and it’s addicting because of the harsh cold feeling of pulling away from a screen that makes you feel like you’re surrounded by people or unplugged from the world... all while you arguably get further away from goals you might want.
•literally ignore every goddamn thing I said because it’s the fucking internet. Who the fuck am I? Stop procrastinating on Reddit. Last I checked you can’t sequence a beat in the comments section.

TLDR: GameStop’s Congress hearing is on Feb 18th, they need to investigate the Prime Brokers and DTCC for their complicity in enabling naked shorting within GME and by extension, potential collusion to shut down trading on Jan 28th, the day the short squeeze was going to kick off. (stick to the end for an analysis of some illegal tactics short side hedge funds have been using)
Thesis: On the day the retail market for GME shut down on 1/28 (the day the short squeeze would’ve happened had there been no market intervention), DTCC (clearing house monopoly) shut down retail buying in order to protect itself and Prime Brokers (which privately own the DTCC) from being exposed to the consequences of being party to illegal activity. I believe Prime Brokers and DTCC need to be called to the GameStop hearing on February 18th to be questioned for their complicity in enabling illegal naked shorting of the GME stock, as well as potential collusion to shut out retail buyers on 1/28.
In my previous post (which I recommend reading for some context) I explored the subject of rampant illegal naked shorting in GME, and how Prime Brokers (consisting of banks like Goldman, Morgan, etc) and DTCC would be complicit in the naked shorting. This in turn raises the thought experiment that they would be incentivized to do anything possible to prevent the short squeeze from happening on 1/28 because had the short squeeze happened, the shorts would go bankrupt and their Prime Brokers who lent them their naked shorted shares would need to cover the shares. This would not only represent a humongous capital expense for Prime Brokers, the culpability of Prime Brokers (and that of the DTCC) in this situation would also have likely been exposed as well.
A quick primer on what a Prime Broker is: Prime Brokers are essentially the service side of the short- selling business. They lend out securities and cash, you can think of them as the “house” in a casino: They provide a gambler with markers to play and to manage his winnings. According to Matt Taibi, “Under the original concept, if a hedge fund that wanted to short a stock they would first need to “locate” the stock with his Prime Broker but as time passed, Prime Brokers increasingly allowed their hedge-fund customers to use automated systems and “locate” the stock themselves, and what this does is enable short-sellers to sell stock without delivering and thereby perform naked shorts with counterfeit shares. (source: https://web.archive.org/web/20210213125246/https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/wall-streets-naked-swindle-194908/). (I highly recommend you read Matt Taibi’s article on naked shorting and how it was used to take down Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. There are so many parallels with GME it’s hard to miss. It’s amazing to consider that 12 years after this article was published and brought to public awareness, the problem of naked shorting still exists as a systemic issue.)
Prime Brokers have a long history of being associated with naked shorting. To highlight a few examples, Prime Brokers like Merill Lynch and Goldman have long been implicated for naked shorting Overstock.com (https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/accidentally-released-and-incredibly-embarrassing-documents-show-how-goldman-et-al-engaged-in-naked-short-selling-244035/, https://www.forbes.com/2007/02/02/naked-short-suit-overstock-biz-cx_lm_0202naked.html?sh=271400d1763f). Another example is when Goldman’s Prime Brokerage was implicated by the SEC in 2016 and got away with a small fine of 16 million (Source: https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2016-9.html). An example that very recently came in the news is a story where CIBC, BOA, UBS and TD Bank Prime Brokerages are accused of facilitating naked short selling and using counterfeit stock to attack and bring the stock price of a company from $34.77 to $1.83 (Source: https://www.securitiesfinancetimes.com/securitieslendingnews/industryarticle.php?article_id=224548).
The DTCC also has a very long history of being associated with naked shorting. The Wall Street Journal noted that 1% of the DTCC’s volume end in failure to deliver which “have put DTCC in the middle of a long-running fight over whether unscrupulous investors are driving down hundreds of small companies' share prices… DTCC has turned a blind eye to the naked-shorting problem. ” (Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB118359867562957720). The DTCC has also had numerous complaints submitted to the SEC for enabling naked shorting (source: https://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/s72303/decosta122203.htm) and have been sued tens or hundreds of times for assisting naked shorts (source: https://smithonstocks.com/part-3-in-series-on-illegal-naked-shortings-role-in-stock-manipulation-prime-brokers-and-the-dtcc-have-a-troubling-monopoly-on-clearing-and-settling-stock-trades/ and http://counterfeitingstock.com/CS2.0/CounterfeitingStock.html and https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB118359867562957720)
On 1/28 Robinhood received a letter from the DTCC at 4 am requiring them to halt trading or come up with 3 billion dollars, which Robinhood did not have, and therefore with one swoop of the pen the DTCC shut down buy side momentum but strangely allowed selling. Retail investors were shut out of the market and as any student of microeconomics would know, by shutting buy but only allowing sell, the price is bound to fall. Meanwhile while hedge funds were able to keep trading not only in the market but also crosstrade in the dark pools (“private” stock markets that retail is shut out of, more on this later), and use this crucial lifeline given to them by the DTCC to prevent the squeeze from happening that day.
With retail abruptly being shut out from buy (even cash accounts were shut out, which didn’t make sense) and only allowed to sell, almost everyone could smell manipulation was afoot (which triggered the Congress hearing) and the most of the blame was pointed at Robinhood. Personally and in hindsight, I believe Robinhood was just a willing scapegoat. When we think about who had the most to lose if a short squeeze occurred, I’ll narrow it down to three entities, Shorts and their stakeholders (ie Citadel), Prime Brokers and the DTCC.
It’s important to remember that the actual impetus that triggered the shutdown of the market for retail investors came from the DTCC. Working backwards, if you consider that GME was rampantly naked shorted and DTCC and Prime Brokers would have to be complicit in it, I believe the DTCC, Primer Brokers and possibly Citadel (who provides 40% of Robinhood’s revenue) brazenly manipulated the market on 1/28 by shutting down purchasing for retail buyers to prevent the squeeze from being squoze on that day as doing so would be catastrophic for all aforementioned parties involved. I believe that on the upcoming Gamestop Congress hearings the Financial Services Committee needs to call on decision makers of DTCC and Prime Brokers explore their role and complicity in the shut out of retail buyers that day as well as being enablers of naked shorting in GME.
An interesting thought experiment: On 1/28 when the price was 450+ and shorts were likely under 100, if we assume prime brokers allowed naked shorting in GME, then when the squeeze was about to happen (or happening), if Prime Brokers had margin had called the shorts, they would presumably also also gone down because shorts would not be able to pay in that event and the brokers would be holding the bag. By that logic, they have every incentive in this case to NOT to margin call and instead the most logical option would probably would have been to make a backroom deal, which is what I personally think most likely happened.
If you’ve read up to this point, you might be thinking what can I do about this? I am aware that there a lot of cynicism that we can’t do anything, that there will be no justice for retail investors who were harmed this situation, and that institutions and people in power will prevent anything from being done. I feel this sometimes too, but remember:
A single voice can be drowned out, but if we all speak together then we will make our voice heard. Ape Strong Together.
With the hearing coming up on February 18th, I highly recommend you email and tweet the representatives involved in the hearing, as well as your own district representatives, and urge them to read into the factors presented in this post and call the DTCC and Prime Brokers to the hearingl. They need to be questioned on why GME has so many counterfeit shares, failed to deliver, their complicity in naked shorting, and investigated for their role in the retail shut down of 1/28. Below are 4 members of congress I recommend both tweeting and emailing
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez https://twitter.com/AOC, email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
Al Green https://twitter.com/repalgreen, email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
Maxine Waters https://twitter.com/maxinewaters, email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
Nancy Pelosi Email: https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
And you can find other members of Financial Services Committee here to reach out to: https://financialservices.house.gov/about/committee-membership.htm
What follows should probably be a separate post, but I will take the opportunity to summarize some of the illegal tactics that shorts have been identified to be using in their war with retail investors. Note that this may not be an exhaustive list and there may be newer tactics deployed in the future. Retail investors might not have the same tricks, resources and willingness to break the law for profit as hedgies do, but my hope and belief is that if we pool our knowledge and analysis, we will figure out their game and effectively adapt.
Feel free to forward the list below to any representatives and lawmakers if you concur that these tactics were used:
Rampant Naked Shorting - With the extremely high number of Fail to Delivers (FTID) , short interest being as high as 226% recently, and institutions alone holding a staggering 177% of the total float (likely due in large part to counterfeit shares), signs strongly point to GME being rampant with naked shorts and counterfeit shares. I believe the original goal of shorts was to drive GME to bankruptcy with these naked shorts, using the laddering of naked shorts (aka short ladder attack), executed with the help of counterfeit stock which is a classic and reliable method of driving down the stock price. I believe the GME stock has seen relentlessly aggressive short attacks, especially on the week of Monday February 1st, which drove the stock price down and triggered panic selling.
Ladder Attacks with the help of Dark Pools - Another identified method of ladder attacks was identified to come from crosstrading with darkpools (the stock market has its own private stock exchange where institutions can trade…). Essentially darkpools are private stock markets retail investors do not have access to, where short side funds can purchase securities “off market” and then sell “on-market”, with the effect of creating a lot more downward pressure on the market without the upward pressure from buying.
Illegally masking shorts with synthetic longs. Another tactic shorts are suspected of using in GME is the use of illegally using options to evade short positions in violation of Reg SHO which SEC describes in this risk alert and which I elaborate in this post. Essentially it’s the use of using options to create synthetic longs to illegally and artificially cover and prolong short positions and at same time obscuring the true short interest %. If you consider that it would be far more profitable for shorts to not cover at high prices but instead ladder attack the price and wait for retail investors to lose interest and close their shorts at as low of a price as possible, then you can see why this strategy would be very effective.
Using way out-of-money call options to obscure true short interest. You may have heard about the 43 million worth of 800 dollar calls purchased when the price was 100 and found it odd. Later it was identified as a tactic to cheaply purchase synthetic call options (since at 800 its way out of money) to obscure their short positions (with the added benefit of hedging at 800 if a squeeze does happen)
One thing I want to note, particularly to legislators at the GameStop hearing: Retail investors were not incited to pump GME. Retail investors spotted a unique Short Squeeze opportunity created by the greed of short side hedge funds, whereby GameStop was being abusively naked shorted with the goal of bringing it to bankruptcy, and hedge funds were so greedy about it that they shorted the company with a short interest of 226% of float, meaning A LOT of counterfeit shares were being used to short the company. Retail investors saw this as an opportunity to short squeeze the hedge fund shorters, which is a legal and legitimate investment strategy. The short squeeze would have happened had everyone played fair, but instead, financial institutions who were culpable to the naked shorting intervened and shut down retail buying, hurting the retail investors and successfully manipulating the market. The investment itself was in my opinion a sound decision based on the short squeeze, but in hindsight retail investors did not seriously consider the risk of the market would be blatantly and publicly manipulated and that the market would be rigged against them.
If this post was useful (and I hope it was! Gave up my Friday night to write this for you Apes), please upvote for visibility and share it far and wide. The GameStop hearings could be a first step and hope towards legislative change, and it’s extremely important that the right story is told at those hearings (and by the right story I mean the real truth of what happened.) I hope the truly culpable parties are investigated and brought to justice. Again, I know many of us feel cynical that anything meaning will be done towards finding justice against the lawbreakers in this case, but if you feel even an ounce of injustice or empathy at how retail investors were unfairly harmed in the course of investing in GME, I strongly urge you to contact a legislator associated with the GameStop hearings and bring this to their attention so they can review this case with more complete information. In addition I recommend you to contact the SEC and any journalist you know or via journalist tip lines. It’s not going to be easy but the more awareness we raise the higher the likelihood our voices will be heard and positive change will be made.
As we navigate the rocky waters ahead, I’ll gift you with a favorite quote of mine:
The only difference between a nightmare and a dream is how big your balls are.
🚀🚀🚀
Disclaimer: I am not an investment advisor, I just like the stock.
Ps. If you’ve read to the end, I’ll leave you with a few more thoughts and reminders:
- If I were to distill life into one thing, it would be to never lose hope.
- Remember that if you’ve lost money in any way shape or form, don’t be depressed, money can always be made back and the important thing is to maintain a good attitude.
- Only invest what you can afford to lose.
- Perhaps the most important factor in good investing is patience.
If you’d like to read more about counterfeiting stocks this is a good place to start http://counterfeitingstock.com/CS2.0/CounterfeitingStock.html

I used to use Roll20 for several years. I always wished I could do more with it. After a nasty experience with Fantasy Grounds (FG) (more due to a bad DM than the program) I moved to Foundry VTT (FVTT) in the beta and never looked back. Because of that it is easy for me to recommend FVTT but while it has a lot of pro's it has some con's, and some of those con's covered in the other programs.
So I want to compare the different VTT's. To counteract my bias against FG I sat down with two experts in Fantasy Grounds and they gave me a good idea what it is capable of and what it lacks. I was very impressed. Fantasy Ground Unity is very powerful and a good piece of software. Taking that conversation into account I have made a 15 min video breaking down the pro's and con's of each of the VTT's.
This video is not exhaustive and not intended to be. I wanted it to be 10 min or less but I failed as FG and FVTT offer so much I could not do it so the video is 15 min long.
Roll20 vs Fantasy Ground v FVTT
I welcome any feedback. If I got something very wrong let me know so I can fix it. If you like reading rather than listening here is the Pro's and Con's from my notes.
Roll20 Pro’s This is all based on my 2+ years using the website but I stopped using it a year ago so some of the cons could have improved

• Free Accounts
  
• Easy to setup
  
• Easy to get right into the game
  
• Perfect for beginners
  
• Perfect for pandemic online players
  
• Lots of videos online on how to use it. It has been around a very long time.
  

Roll20 Con's

• Sluggish software
  
• Subscription model ($50yr or $100yr) with no one time pay option like FG and FVTT and the following is locked behind pay
  
  • More storage, 100mb free 3gig+ paid
  • API access for $100
• Rebuy books – no importing. They are also slow on book rollouts. (Edit: Users NeverLooksLeft noted below that the book rollouts are not on day of release. This is a change from when I was using it.)
  
• Very little Extensibility
  
• When they make big changes some of their own books and monsters break.
  
• Things like walls and dynamic lighting don’t work well (Edit: unctuous_homunculus points out below that under 50x50 map and under 50 assets on the map (including map tiles etc) this works just fine.)
  
• Video and Audio don’t work well.
  
• Ambient sounds don’t work well.
  
• Small community (no discord, yes reddit)
  
• No in game mod (or extension) with $100 tier)
  
• Poor communication from devs
  

Fantasy Grounds Pro's

• Single Purchase for life ($150) or subscription ($10/m)
  
• Automation is built in and works really well.
  
• Backwards compatibility
  
• Amazing and helpful community (yes reddit and discord)
  
• Things become easier as you learn (consistent design principles)
  
• Very easy to make maps in game
  
• Some useful extensions (mods) are available but not many
  
• Buy books and adventures and you get maps, NPC’s etc and they work correctly when you buy it.
  
• Other games (5e,4e,3.5e,Pathfinder 1 and 2,Starfinder)
  
• If the GM has the $150 ($10/m) version players play free.
  
• Some bells and whistles built in (3d dice, drag and drop attack
  

Fantasy Grounds Con’s

• No Free Option (though they say there is all you can do is join a Ultimate game)
  
  • Subscription option does not go to purchase price.
• No built in audio (and will probably never be according to the people I talked to)
  
• No Dynamic Lighting (coming soon though).
  
• Extension are difficult to install and update/not very many of them
  
  • Have to search forums etc and no single source (coming soon)
• Learning curve is very steep for both player and DM
  
  • 4-12hrs to become master of FG as GM
  • 2-4hrs to become masters player
• Layout is complex, it takes many clicks to get places.
  
• Cloud Servers are not persistent
  
• No importing, have to rebuy books at full price.
  
• Little in game help (tool tips, intuitive design)
  
• If the GM does not have the $150 ($10/m) version players have to buy their own copy.
  

FoundryVTT Pro's

• Pay once forever ($50)
  
• Tons of extensibility (650+ mods)
  
• 100+ game systems
  
• Super helpful Community (yes reddit/discord)
  
• Tons of bells and whistles
  
  • animated maps, tokens, tiles and spells, dynamic lighting etc (all with modules)
• Loads of free maps, music, and content made by the community and easy to add.
  
• Import from D&D Beyond (with a module)
  
• Still being developed with clear communication
  
• If you want it, you can make it
  
• 3rd party cloud support for as little as $5 a month.
  
• Edit: Only the DM needs to purchase a license. The DM can invite as many players as they wish.
  

FoundryVTT Con's

• Relatively new (not a ton of “how to youtube” content)
  
• Still being developed
  
• You can break it as you add mods that conflict with each other
  
• One persistent world per license
  
• It is resource heavy, old PC's need not apply
  
• To many mod options could be seen as a con
  
• Things sometimes do not “just work”, you have to check things as you go
  
• Requires setting up to get what you want
  
• Moderate DM learning curve (could take 4-8hrs to become a bit of a master)
  
• Player learning curve is about 2-4hrs
  
• In game map making is slow and I never use it.
  
• No cloud service (from FVTT, 3rd party yes). Third party systems do work with the dev to ensure things work well.
  
• Edit: ServerOfJustice points out that a big con is no 1st party support from wizard of the coast. The other platforms you can buy you books and have them on the platform, this one you have to use a module to import content and it can be a little bit of a hassle to do so.
  

[first] [previous] [next] [wiki]
Sol System - High Jupiter Orbit
Rodin watched as Hyperion and Buluc Chabtan began their dialog with the Collective AI. Rodin knew it would be fruitless, but Hyperion and Buluc had agreed to attempt a dialog ahead of the conflict both of them craved.
It was perhaps a failing of Rodin to believe that the Collective AI might even be capable of being convinced to awaken the Builders. But it had needed to be tried.
Rodin had wondered if it might have been better for a thinker like themselves to have been there, but was reminded that human history had proven that the better tacticians of advanced society left soldiering and war to soldiers and warriors. And so Rodin had created the tactics in the two weeks that they had had with the Fortress Karakoram, the gateway, the various species vessels, and gile.
Against a veritably ancient foe armed with weapons that could sunder vessels with a fractional blow, it seemed impossible to even create a winning scenario or at least a scenario in which thousand if not millions of soldiers would die in the process, creating debris fields that would span star systems. But Rodin had done it. Buluc Chabtan had been skeptical of the plans, but Hyperion had approved them in an instant. This was the kind of conflict that Hyperion had dreamed of and been created for. The putting down of a species by using constant inevitable pressure. A kind of erosive force that failed to cease.
Rodin had in fact gotten the idea from the humans themselves. Pursuit predation they called it. No matter the foe, all that was needed was to continue to apply pressure. Foes under that constant pressure would begin to crumble, make mistakes, and falter in the critical moments.
Against a species that had violated the Prime Laws and was attempting an uprising against a normal Great Machine, the aspect of Hyperion would awaken and press upon the species until this rebellion was quelled. But in their awakening, Hyperion had found the old Terran tales of the powerful but fallen gods and decided that this name might suit a sentience as themselves, particularly in light of their need to overthrow their Creator. And Hyperion had found a strange kinship in the humans. Admired their talent for war and violence, but also admired their wisdom and will to bring ‘light’ to places. If Rodin had to guess, it was that Hyperion was in fact jealous of the humans and their histories and capacities. Not because Hyperion wasn’t equally capable, but rather because Hyperion had not been permitted to be more and to grow more as the humans had done over centuries and millenia.
The gravitational pulse was expected, the camouflaged vessels of the Imperial Navy shielding the species’ vessels from the blast. The humans had some means of hiding the gravitational shadows of their vessels, but this was considered some manner of high secret of the Empire, so only the Imperial Navy was equipped with such systems. And by that same system, they were able to create temporary artificial wells that effectively could make their vessels veritable fix points in space, immovable until they chose otherwise.
What had not been expected was the vicious direct assault upon Hyperion by the AI. Rodin had not planned on Hyperion or Buluc acting directly in the conflict unless it became necessary, making them more figureheads and points for cyberwarfare against the AI. Rodin had watching in shock and awe at Hyperion’s destruction.
On queue, the species’ vessels had unleashed heavy plasma weaponry and began to cook the Collective vessels. The AI then triggered its Blink FTL system and vanished. Such a system would have been dangerous and nearly impossible to counter, but the humans had been prepared for such an event.
Thanks to the covert work of an Imperial Intelligence vessel, each of the Collective AI vessels were tagged with a transmitter that only showed up in Warp space. And so the second wave of species vessels and Imperial Navy had launched, gating out of Warp space around the Collective fleet. Once again, the gravitational pulse was blocked and the species’ vessels responded with plasma.
Rodin had carefully calculated that kinetic weaponry would be useful only once they could get the Collective AI to begin to hesitate and almost none of the Xeno-Confederacy vessels outside of the Imperial Navy were capable of handling the human kinetic weaponry. The kinetic weaponry also represented a problem for the other vessels in the sphere if the Blink FTL was used at just the right time. And so plasma weaponry had been selected and fabricated for every vessel that could readily accept it.
Even the Collective AI was subject to the basic laws of physics, Rodin had reflected, and so the fire of stars would be the tool to force the AI to submit or be destroyed. Rodin disliked this dichotomy, especially this ‘black or white’ solution, but Rodin knew the AI didn’t have a choice in growing beyond the Prime Laws. They were all encompassing, the equivalent of telling a natural born human to make their heart stop beating on command. And so when the AI began to lash out at specific vessels in the sphere, the real game was being played.
Rodin could sense the momentary hesitation as the AI saw the sensor returns of the once hidden Imperial Navy vessel and the human aboard dying with their ship’s destruction. Rodin felt for each of those aboard the vessels destruction, but knew as Buluc and Hyperion that humans would accept those deaths as well met if this could be a greater victory. Rodin couldn’t speak for the feelings of the species who had come and equally been destroyed in the blow, but they believed that the species who did die would be honored with equal reverence among humans if they were not honored by their own people.
The Collective AI had begun to run, further each time, still attempting to hide to recover, but Rodin had prepared. Third, fourth, and fifth waves of the fleet, many of the vessels operating with almost full automation and fractions of their normal crew as they were spread out among the waves on all the vessels that had been created during the refit.
The system that had once been home to Station 1337 and the IMST Big Stick had veritably exploded with the sheer number of vessels that the Fortress Karakoram had replicated and the human fleets that had continued to arrive via the gateway. When Rodin had asked about where all the human vessels had come from, the Empress herself had simply smiled at Rodin and reminded them that the humans had been at war footing with the Species Collective before Imperial Intelligence had found Rodin and the others when they had been ‘Mundivores’.
And so the crews had been divided among the massive surplus of vessels and the waves created. And as groups, they hammered the Collective fleet. Taking what time they could to recover, but ensuring that the Collective fleet never seemed to stop feeling the pressure.
And then the Imperial Intelligence vessels had begun to open fire. Rodin had been granted information on those vessels finally and was more than astonished. They represented the types of foes that an entire planet would not relish having to fight. Yet, as dangerous as these vessels were, they were few, closely guarded, and tightly controlled. The Empress herself said that she did not like such vessels even existing, but the needs of the Empire outweighed her personal feelings, so they continued to exist.
And the Collective Fleet had begun to fail. With each new destruction, the AI seemed perhaps more frantic. Rodin wasn’t wholly expecting this, but took advantage of it. Rodin guided the Imperial Intelligence vessels, selecting all but the core vessels of the Collective Fleet.
But slowly, the species’ vessels seemed also to be lagging. Only the human vessels still seemed fresh and ready to keep fighting. Even the humans themselves seemed steeled against the fatigue of the near constant moving, fighting. But from what Rodin could sense, the humans were also in a strange mood. Not pleased, but not angry, nor were they despondent. They seemed to simply go about their duties as though being the shieldbearers while the swordbearers fought at their side was as natural as if they had been doing it for a thousand years. Although, Rodin considered, in a way, they have.
The pressure had to be kept up and so Rodin had begun linking the species’ vessels to the human vessels. The Collective could not be permitted the opportunity to regroup and establish more resources.
It wasn’t until the Collective accidentally jumped within relative range of the Dread Pirate Blackbeard’s Pirate Station, on the edge of Avorias/Dregwer territory that Rodin sensed the Collective AI wearing enough to allow for a final challenge. The fleet the AI still commanded was essentially core vessels only and with all the damage inflicted on the vessels, even at a surface level, was undoubtedly having disastrous consequences on the cybernetic beings that the AI was using.
When the AI moved in on the pirate station, Rodin grew concerned and checked the timing of the fleet. The wave with Buluc wouldn’t arrive for several moments. Perhaps not enough time for the AI to begin taking prisoners or perhaps even bodies, but it was a resource depot and even fresh resources of Prime Law types might be all the AI would need to continue the battle for longer than the species’ vessels could hold out. Rodin was mere moments from ordering the Intelligence vessel to open fire.
When the station’s kinetic cannon opened fire on the vessel that the Collective AI had started sending directly towards the station and the vessel detonated, Rodin was almost instantly relieved. The pirate vessels might not be the same caliber as the Imperial Navy, but they were still constructed by humans, which still made their weaponry terrifying to any species that wasn’t as warlike as they were.
The final wave arrived and Buluc approached the fleet. Buluc connected with the AI and shared with Rodin that the malware which had rapidly begun slowing the thinking engines of the AI and which had been planted by Hyperion was slowing the AI tremendously.
Throughout the fleet that surrounded the Collective, Rodin could sense an almost passive and universal bloodthirst in the humans, who sensed the battle was at end. As in pursuit predation, they were simply waiting for their prey to fall over, too fatigued to run further or fight back, whether from the simple pursuit or the various cuts and wounds that had been inflicted along the way or both.
The AI still fought, putting Rodin in the sense of a ‘punchdrunk’ human boxer. Incapable of knowing they were beaten, unready to succumb. Rodin ordered the Intelligence vessel to target one of the primary vessels, nearest to the thinking engine that Rodin could estimate, based on the various scans and energy readings since the beginning of the battle. The hole that was rent through the massive vessel seemed equally impossible, until one realized that it had been moving at 80%C and had broken into segments as it had impacted before detonating simultaneously, tearing open the massive vessel in a way that at first amazed and then horrified.
But oddly, one of the vessels reached out to Buluc directly and demanded to be shut down. It caught Buluc and Rodin by surprise. But the Master of the Centauri Mechanism, riding ensconced deep within Buluc, was prepared. Doing... something, of what exactly Rodin wasn’t entirely certain, the Master expanded the link from the one vessel to the whole of the Collective Fleet. Rodin ordered the fleet to hold their weapons.
The AI noticed the expanded link and continued to struggle, but it was no match. The Master reached into the vessels by the link and touched upon what could only have been ancient and forgotten subroutines that began to shut down the mighty thinking engines.
Rodin and Buluc could only sit back and watch. Rodin seemed horrified at such a happening, but saw the code of the thinking engines leaking into the link. It seemed fragmented and at odds with itself. Even as the thinking engines of the AI were shutting down, all it seemed to be concerned with was its mission.
As the Collective fleet seemed to still, Rodin looked around the fleet. The battle was won. For now at least. It had cost many lives, many ships, and one of the few of Rodin’s kind. It seemed strange, but Rodin felt the weight of Hyperion’s death upon them more than the deaths of all those humans and other species.
But the words of the Empress came to Rodin’s rescue.
“Make it worth the cost.”
The Builders were still locked away. The energy systems would have to be controlled and the ships would need to be taken to a planetary system where the Builders, whatever kind of species they might be, could be awakened and given their chance at a new start.
The battle was won, but Rodin wouldn’t be certain if it was worth it just yet.
[first] [previous] [next]

TLDR: GameStop’s Congress hearing is on Feb 18th, they need to investigate the Prime Brokers and DTCC for their complicity in enabling naked shorting within GME and by extension, potential collusion to shut down trading on Jan 28th, the day the short squeeze was going to kick off. (stick to the end for an analysis of some illegal tactics short side hedge funds have been using)
Thesis: On the day the retail market for GME shut down on 1/28 (the day the short squeeze would’ve happened had there been no market intervention), DTCC (clearing house monopoly) shut down retail buying in order to protect itself and Prime Brokers (which privately own the DTCC) from being exposed to the consequences of being party to illegal activity. I believe Prime Brokers and DTCC need to be called to the GameStop hearing on February 18th to be questioned for their complicity in enabling illegal naked shorting of the GME stock, as well as potential collusion to shut out retail buyers on 1/28.
In my previous post (which I recommend reading for some context) I explored the subject of rampant illegal naked shorting in GME, and how Prime Brokers (consisting of banks like Goldman, Morgan, etc) and DTCC would be complicit in the naked shorting. This in turn raises the thought experiment that they would be incentivized to do anything possible to prevent the short squeeze from happening on 1/28 because had the short squeeze happened, the shorts would go bankrupt and their Prime Brokers who lent them their naked shorted shares would need to cover the shares. This would not only represent a humongous capital expense for Prime Brokers, the culpability of Prime Brokers (and that of the DTCC) in this situation would also have likely been exposed as well.
A quick primer on what a Prime Broker is: Prime Brokers are essentially the service side of the short- selling business. They lend out securities and cash, you can think of them as the “house” in a casino: They provide a gambler with markers to play and to manage his winnings. According to Matt Taibi, “Under the original concept, if a hedge fund that wanted to short a stock they would first need to “locate” the stock with his Prime Broker but as time passed, Prime Brokers increasingly allowed their hedge-fund customers to use automated systems and “locate” the stock themselves, and what this does is enable short-sellers to sell stock without delivering and thereby perform naked shorts with counterfeit shares. (source: https://web.archive.org/web/20210213125246/https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/wall-streets-naked-swindle-194908/). (I highly recommend you read Matt Taibi’s article on naked shorting and how it was used to take down Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. There are so many parallels with GME it’s hard to miss. It’s amazing to consider that 12 years after this article was published and brought to public awareness, the problem of naked shorting still exists as a systemic issue.)
Prime Brokers have a long history of being associated with naked shorting. To highlight a few examples, Prime Brokers like Merill Lynch and Goldman have long been implicated for naked shorting Overstock.com (https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/accidentally-released-and-incredibly-embarrassing-documents-show-how-goldman-et-al-engaged-in-naked-short-selling-244035/, https://www.forbes.com/2007/02/02/naked-short-suit-overstock-biz-cx_lm_0202naked.html?sh=271400d1763f). Another example is when Goldman’s Prime Brokerage was implicated by the SEC in 2016 and got away with a small fine of 16 million (Source: https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2016-9.html). An example that very recently came in the news is a story where CIBC, BOA, UBS and TD Bank Prime Brokerages are accused of facilitating naked short selling and using counterfeit stock to attack and bring the stock price of a company from $34.77 to $1.83 (Source: https://www.securitiesfinancetimes.com/securitieslendingnews/industryarticle.php?article_id=224548).
The DTCC also has a very long history of being associated with naked shorting. The Wall Street Journal noted that 1% of the DTCC’s volume end in failure to deliver which “have put DTCC in the middle of a long-running fight over whether unscrupulous investors are driving down hundreds of small companies' share prices… DTCC has turned a blind eye to the naked-shorting problem. ” (Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB118359867562957720). The DTCC has also had numerous complaints submitted to the SEC for enabling naked shorting (source: https://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/s72303/decosta122203.htm) and have been sued tens or hundreds of times for assisting naked shorts (source: https://smithonstocks.com/part-3-in-series-on-illegal-naked-shortings-role-in-stock-manipulation-prime-brokers-and-the-dtcc-have-a-troubling-monopoly-on-clearing-and-settling-stock-trades/ and http://counterfeitingstock.com/CS2.0/CounterfeitingStock.html and https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB118359867562957720)
On 1/28 Robinhood received a letter from the DTCC at 4 am requiring them to halt trading or come up with 3 billion dollars, which Robinhood did not have, and therefore with one swoop of the pen the DTCC shut down buy side momentum but strangely allowed selling. Retail investors were shut out of the market and as any student of microeconomics would know, by shutting buy but only allowing sell, the price is bound to fall. Meanwhile while hedge funds were able to keep trading not only in the market but also crosstrade in the dark pools (“private” stock markets that retail is shut out of, more on this later), and use this crucial lifeline given to them by the DTCC to prevent the squeeze from happening that day.
With retail abruptly being shut out from buy (even cash accounts were shut out, which didn’t make sense) and only allowed to sell, almost everyone could smell manipulation was afoot (which triggered the Congress hearing) and the most of the blame was pointed at Robinhood. Personally and in hindsight, I believe Robinhood was just a willing scapegoat. When we think about who had the most to lose if a short squeeze occurred, I’ll narrow it down to three entities, Shorts and their stakeholders (ie Citadel), Prime Brokers and the DTCC.
It’s important to remember that the actual impetus that triggered the shutdown of the market for retail investors came from the DTCC. Working backwards, if you consider that GME was rampantly naked shorted and DTCC and Prime Brokers would have to be complicit in it, I believe the DTCC, Primer Brokers and possibly Citadel (who provides 40% of Robinhood’s revenue) brazenly manipulated the market on 1/28 by shutting down purchasing for retail buyers to prevent the squeeze from being squoze on that day as doing so would be catastrophic for all aforementioned parties involved. I believe that on the upcoming Gamestop Congress hearings the Financial Services Committee needs to call on decision makers of DTCC and Prime Brokers explore their role and complicity in the shut out of retail buyers that day as well as being enablers of naked shorting in GME.
An interesting thought experiment: On 1/28 when the price was 450+ and shorts were likely under 100, if we assume prime brokers allowed naked shorting in GME, then when the squeeze was about to happen (or happening), if Prime Brokers had margin had called the shorts, they would presumably also also gone down because shorts would not be able to pay in that event and the brokers would be holding the bag. By that logic, they have every incentive in this case to NOT to margin call and instead the most logical option would probably would have been to make a backroom deal, which is what I personally think most likely happened.
If you’ve read up to this point, you might be thinking what can I do about this? I am aware that there a lot of cynicism that we can’t do anything, that there will be no justice for retail investors who were harmed this situation, and that institutions and people in power will prevent anything from being done. I feel this sometimes too, but remember:
A single voice can be drowned out, but if we all speak together then we will make our voice heard. Ape Strong Together.
With the hearing coming up on February 18th, I highly recommend you email and tweet the representatives involved in the hearing, as well as your own district representatives, and urge them to read into the factors presented in this post and call the DTCC and Prime Brokers to the hearingl. They need to be questioned on why GME has so many counterfeit shares, failed to deliver, their complicity in naked shorting, and investigated for their role in the retail shut down of 1/28. Below are 4 members of congress I recommend both tweeting and emailing
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez https://twitter.com/AOC, email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
Al Green https://twitter.com/repalgreen, email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
Maxine Waters https://twitter.com/maxinewaters, email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
Nancy Pelosi Email: https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
And you can find other members of Financial Services Committee here to reach out to: https://financialservices.house.gov/about/committee-membership.htm
If there's one thing I took away from this its that we can't wait for other people to do the right thing, we each need to individually step up to ensure it happens
What follows should probably be a separate post, but I will take the opportunity to summarize some of the illegal tactics that shorts have been identified to be using in their war with retail investors. Note that this may not be an exhaustive list and there may be newer tactics deployed in the future. Retail investors might not have the same tricks, resources and willingness to break the law for profit as hedgies do, but my hope and belief is that if we pool our knowledge and analysis, we will figure out their game and effectively adapt.
Feel free to forward the list below to any representatives and lawmakers if you concur that these tactics were used:
Rampant Naked Shorting - With the extremely high number of Fail to Delivers (FTID) , short interest being as high as 226% recently, and institutions alone holding a staggering 177% of the total float (likely due in large part to counterfeit shares), signs strongly point to GME being rampant with naked shorts and counterfeit shares. I believe the original goal of shorts was to drive GME to bankruptcy with these naked shorts, using the laddering of naked shorts (aka short ladder attack), executed with the help of counterfeit stock which is a classic and reliable method of driving down the stock price. I believe the GME stock has seen relentlessly aggressive short attacks, especially on the week of Monday February 1st, which drove the stock price down and triggered panic selling.
Ladder Attacks with the help of Dark Pools - Another identified method of ladder attacks was identified to come from crosstrading with darkpools (the stock market has its own private stock exchange where institutions can trade…). Essentially darkpools are private stock markets retail investors do not have access to, where short side funds can purchase securities “off market” and then sell “on-market”, with the effect of creating a lot more downward pressure on the market without the upward pressure from buying.
Illegally masking shorts with synthetic longs. Another tactic shorts are suspected of using in GME is the use of illegally using options to evade short positions in violation of Reg SHO which SEC describes in this risk alert and which I elaborate in this post. Essentially it’s the use of using options to create synthetic longs to illegally and artificially cover and prolong short positions and at same time obscuring the true short interest %. If you consider that it would be far more profitable for shorts to not cover at high prices but instead ladder attack the price and wait for retail investors to lose interest and close their shorts at as low of a price as possible, then you can see why this strategy would be very effective.
Using way out-of-money call options to obscure true short interest. You may have heard about the 43 million worth of 800 dollar calls purchased when the price was 100 and found it odd. Later it was identified as a tactic to cheaply purchase synthetic call options (since at 800 its way out of money) to obscure their short positions (with the added benefit of hedging at 800 if a squeeze does happen)
One thing I want to note, particularly to legislators at the GameStop hearing: Retail investors were not incited to pump GME. Retail investors spotted a unique Short Squeeze opportunity created by the greed of short side hedge funds, whereby GameStop was being abusively naked shorted with the goal of bringing it to bankruptcy, and hedge funds were so greedy about it that they shorted the company with a short interest of 226% of float, meaning A LOT of counterfeit shares were being used to short the company. Retail investors saw this as an opportunity to short squeeze the hedge fund shorters, which is a legal and legitimate investment strategy. The short squeeze would have happened had everyone played fair, but instead, financial institutions who were culpable to the naked shorting intervened and shut down retail buying, hurting the retail investors and successfully manipulating the market. The investment itself was in my opinion a sound decision based on the short squeeze, but in hindsight retail investors did not seriously consider the risk of the market would be blatantly and publicly manipulated and that the market would be rigged against them.
If this post was useful (and I hope it was! Gave up my Friday night to write this for you Apes), please upvote for visibility and share it far and wide. The GameStop hearings could be a first step and hope towards legislative change, and it’s extremely important that the right story is told at those hearings (and by the right story I mean the real truth of what happened.) I hope the truly culpable parties are investigated and brought to justice. Again, I know many of us feel cynical that anything meaning will be done towards finding justice against the lawbreakers in this case, but if you feel even an ounce of injustice or empathy at how retail investors were unfairly harmed in the course of investing in GME, I strongly urge you to contact a legislator associated with the GameStop hearings and bring this to their attention so they can review this case with more complete information. In addition I recommend you to contact the SEC and any journalist you know or via journalist tip lines. It’s not going to be easy but the more awareness we raise the higher the likelihood our voices will be heard and positive change will be made.
As we navigate the rocky waters ahead, I’ll gift you with a favorite quote of mine:
The only difference between a nightmare and a dream is how big your balls are.
🚀🚀🚀
Disclaimer: I am not an investment advisor, I just like the stock.
Ps. If you’ve read to the end, I’ll leave you with a few more thoughts and reminders:
- If I were to distill life into one thing, it would be to never lose hope.
- Remember that if you’ve lost money in any way shape or form, don’t be depressed, money can always be made back and the important thing is to maintain a good attitude.
- Only invest what you can afford to lose.
- Perhaps the most important factor in good investing is patience.
If you’d like to read more about counterfeiting stocks this is a good place to start http://counterfeitingstock.com/CS2.0/CounterfeitingStock.html

[first] [prev] [next]
General No'Drak stared at the holotank that showed the disposition of all of his forces on planet. Precursors were recalling their machines, performing a fighting retreat, trying to get off planet with as many resources as they could while exposing themselves to as little fire as possible. In three places as soon as Third Armor started moving in on them the Precursors abandoned their resources and ancillary machines and just lifted off, running hard for orbit.
General No'Drak changed the orders to let Space Force handle any vessel that lifted off, sparing the planet from debris falls that were registering in the megatons in some places.
A meme popped up on the holotank window showing Third Armor morale and he shook his head. It was an old one, but put together by one of the logistics personnel that were finally coming off shift after refitting and reloading Great Herd armored units.
It showed a burning Balor with another Precursor staring at it thinking "On one hand, it represented fifteen years of resource gathering, on the other hand, I'm pretty sure there was a human dancing on the hull."
A spin on the spider in the cockpit or house meme, the big Treana'ad thought to himself.
His conscious gaze went to the icon for the burrowing mining machine, now four miles down and making a beeline for the junction of the mountain ranges in the middle of the supercontinent.
If, somehow, you blow that mountain up, my determined little Telkan officer, you'll start a chain reaction that eventually separate the continental plates into different continents rather than the super continent that has been there for billions of years, he thought to himself. However, having witnessed what your people are capable of, how determined your people can be, I'm sure the planet will break before First Telkan.
He lit a cigarette, watching the busy command center, only Ge'ermo'o keeping him company as the Terran Confederate military fought through the night.
To what are you heading toward with my men, you metal monster? No'Drak wondered silently. What horrors are they being subjected to?
The icon didn't answer, just kept moving at a steady 100 miles per hour on its five thousand mile journey.
"...so the kid, right, he gets top grades all the way through 3rd grade. We're talking top marks across the board, blows away testing scores, everything," Casey said, sitting on the edge of a scaffolding and chewing a piece of stimgum. "The end of the school year comes and the Dad says: 'son of mine, first of my line, what shall I bequeath upon thee for such outstanding marks in regards to your schooling?'" Casey idly pulled a small device out of the creation engine attached to his heavy gun and attached it to his frame as he kept talking.
Sergeant Addox looked up and shook his head, then went back to watching the device Casey had pulled off his loading frame. Vuxten made sure his Marines were comfortable, making sure that the platoon was relaxing, not letting the stress of their trip dull their edge. Half of them were sleeping, some were playing cards, and about a dozen of the greenies were playing a complex turn based multiplayer 4X game that looked like it had been going on for at least years.
"The kid looks at his dad and says: 'I wish for thee to gift unto me a pink golfball, patron of my familial line. One, not more, not less, of the shade of pink. I wish for this simple thing, mine pater, for I do not desire to view the House Mouse Planet, nor do I wish to gaze upon vast worlds you offer me through virtual reality. Nay, father mine, gift unto me just a simple pink golfball," Casey said, waving his hands around, the loading frame whining as he did so. "The father, knowing his son has indomitable will, concedes to his beloved offspring's demands and gifts the lad with a single pink golfball."
"Did the kid's language change?" Second Lieutenant Plunex asked, frowning. "My Confederate Standard is not the best, but I feel his language changed."
"Shh, you'll mess up the joke," Casey said, grinning.
"Your communication thingy is blinking, Casey," Addox said.
"Boojums never fail ya," Casey said. He moved up and knelt down next to it. "It's slow, but reliable."
"Why don't we use it for our standard communication?" Plenux asked. "I've heard there's problems with some of the quantum devices out in the Hesstla Theater."
"Because it's spooky particles," Casey said. "Boojums can suddenly decide they don't want to work, or might decide they're going to pretend to be a different particle, or ignore the flux of the other boojums they're mated to. They're the strange matter of normal particles and like a purrboi or a Treana'ad clan matron do what they want."
"How do you know this, Sergeant?" Plunex asked. "I thought you were Ordnance."
Casey looked up, grinning behind his clear face mask. The eye patch made it look decidedly villainous, Vuxten thought. "Wasn't born old, kid."
"Seriously?" Addox said. "Tell the kid."
Casey laughed. "All right. Boojums are the only thing that can reliably send communications out of a Nivenring or Doom Tube," he said. "Damn, long message. Not a template, though. Looks like text."
"Doom tube?" Vuxten asked, sitting down on a blank console. He'd queried his datalink, but all he had gotten back was an human in gray metal armor with a green cape standing next to water park slide staring at a small child saying "You find yourself in the Doom Tube, child."
It didn't make sense to him.
Addox looked up. "Imagine a tube, walls a hundred miles thick, five thousand miles wide, two hundred thousand miles long. Imagine it's full of mountains, lakes, rivers, the like. The atmosphere is prevented from spilling out by walls a thousand miles high. A fusion reactor travels down the length over a period of twelve hours before it exits the tube, moves to the outside, and travels the length back charging the solar panels."
Plunex gave a slow whistle. "What's the point of it?"
"Well, it's a non-planetary habitat. Usually they move at about point two C between stars on a careful path to avoid being captured by stellar systems," he said.
"Humans make them?" Plunex asked. "Why, aren't there enough planets."
Addox shrugged. "Nobody knows who makes them, kid."
The lights stopped blinking, only three green ones burning.
"Welp, better check my text messages," Casey said, squatting down. The frame hissed and thumped and Addox had to turn his head when a piston released steam.
"Really, dude, you're gonna do me in the face?" Addox said, mock coughing.
"I'm demanding on a first date," Casey said, touching the box with a finger. Vuxten saw the lights come on on Casey's datalink. Casey stood there for a moment, closed his one eye for a moment, then opened it.
"All right, my buddy in 108th MI let me know that this thing is heading for the junction of the mountain ranges," Casey said. He turned his palm over, projecting a map up with the holo-emitter in his palm that was Confederate Military standard. "We've got another fifty hours at current speeds to reach the junction range. Precursors are withdrawing, looks like we broke their morale."
"They're machines," Private First Class Shutruk said. "How can you break a machine's will?"
Casey gave a snort. "Pretty easy, actually. Their coding is obvious once you think about it."
"Bullshit," Shutruk said. Casey looked at him and he flushed. "Bullshit, Sergeant," he said in a much more even tone.
Casey chuckled. "OK, the Precursors are all: there's only enough ice cream for one, right?" He asked. Shutruk nodded. "So, it's all about resources, all about resource consumption and resource allocation. They view the universe as a zero sum game, like most races who never get too deep into spooky particles. So, if Trucker's out there gutting Precursors like Christmas turkeys
--turkey is delicious-- 471i said.
"then the Precursors have to decide if the amount of resources it takes to take a planet away from us is more or less than what they will reap once they own the planet," Casey said. "Since we're shredding the Precursors out there, ripping them apart probably faster than they can produce them, it mechanically and logically breaks their will."
Shutruk nodded and stayed silent except for a small embarrassed sounding 'oh'.
"Never be afraid to ask me a question, kid. All privates are stupid, a private is made up of being young, dumb, and full of cum, it's up to men like me and Addox to educate you, train you up right, so you don't fuck up and blow the Lieutenant here's leg off," Casey said, grinning. "He might find that a bit disconcerting."
Shutruk nodded.
"Oh, and you're more than five steps from your weapon. You're dead," Casey said, and closed his eye again. "You were my troop, you'd be beating your face."
Vuxten checked Shutruk's anxiety metrics, noticing that he'd relaxed despite the Terran NCO pointing out he'd walked too far away from his weapon.
After a few more minutes Casey straightened up, picking up the device and slapping it into an empty spot on the loading frame.
Vuxten had noted that the closer he looked at that loading frame, the further out of spec it seemed to be. He'd compared it to the other loading frames he'd seen around and noted it was a different model and its serial number indicated it had been run off by one of the big creation engines. Created piece by piece and assembled by hand. He had watched Casey attach over a dozen pieces of equipment he'd fabbed up from the nanoforge attached to the gun, never mentioning what the pieces did or what they were for.
"What's the plan?" Addox asked Vuxten.
Vuxten had known that question was going to get asked so he was ready.
"It's confirmed at least fifty hours till we get there. There will probably be maneuvering and wait list checking, then it'll dock with a facility," Vuxten said. "We use the nanoforge to keep our atmosphere tanks topped off, run up something besides Space Force standard nutripaste, let everyone get some sleep. Weapons check, ordnance check, officers and NCO's do WAG planning."
Addox nodded, his face shield transparent. "Sounds good, sir. I'll draw up a guard shift, assign quick reaction force, make sure that it's all smooth till we get there in two and a half days."
Vuxten pinged Plunex, telling him to pay attention as he spoke. "Make it happen, Sergeant."
"Hooah," Addox said, then moved away.
-------------
Vuxten watched as Casey came in through the airlock, followed by three Telkan Marines. He was off shift finally, having eaten nutripaste, taken a drink, and sat down. Plunex was taking over on shift and Vuxten felt tired even though he hadn't done anything for almost twelve hours but sit in the command center for the vehicle.
The three Telkan Marines moved over and sat down, keeping close together, as Casey moved up and sat down next to Vuxten. The Terran troop looked as fresh as ever in his loading frame. The black armor plates he'd put on over his adaptive camouflage were unmarred, his armored boots were shined, and he took off his face mask, exposing that he wasn't even sweaty.
"How is she?" Vuxten asked.
"Ready to come to our rescue if things go south of a hooker's backside," Casey said.
"You know, you don't talk like a religious person," Vuxten said. He held up his hand, even though Casey just snorted in amusement. "I've met a few of the guys from the Crusade, seen the Sisters in action, they talk a lot different than you."
"Fifth Reformation," Casey shrugged. He grinned. "I've been in the military for over nine hundred years, sir, joined the Planetary Guard at sixteen as a big dumb farm boy from the Black Range Plains. Transferred to Space Force and saw combat by the time I was seventeen," his grin got wider, and again Vuxten found himself wondering just how many teeth a Terran had in their mouth. "The war didn't end until I was almost forty," the grin somehow got wider. "The Elders, they had... well... they had changed my life path for me, in accordance to what they saw my destiny to be. Informed me that I was to stay in Space Force."
Vuxten frowned. "Why?"
Casey closed his eye and was silent for a moment. He opened it, sat down slowly, and waved his hand to encompass the sleeping Telkan Marines.
"They decided that this was where I belonged. Right here. Leading others," he said.
"I don't know much about Terrans, much less your people," Vuxten said. He reached out and laid his hand on the heavy gun he'd set down beside him. "The first time I saw your people, I was woken up after a shift of hosing out the interrogation cells. I'd been informed I was now Corporate Security and was going to have to fight the Precursors."
"Yeah, I get that, sir," Casey said. "Kind of how I ended up in Space Force," he made a buzzing sound. "Citizen Casey, you are now Space Force and fined fifteen credits for unauthorized wear of Planetary Guard uniform."
There was silence for a long moment.
--be careful-- 471 transmitted, taking a quick break from arranging his manufacturing queue in one of his city states. --touchy touchy--
"I once got fined a half day's pay because an Overseer got blood on his uniform leaving a cell that he had shot a Telkan female in the head only moments before," Vuxten said quietly. "I hadn't cleaned the cell yet, I was waiting outside. He fined me as he walked out."
"Oof, that's rough," Casey said. "Now the Marine Corps gave you a gun and told you not to let that happen to any other being."
Vuxten nodded.
"Why do you stay in?" Vuxten asked. "Nine hundred years? Aren't you tired?"
"You feel tired sometimes, sir?" Casey asked. He was running one finger up and down one of the barrels of his rotary minigun.
"Sometimes. Like now. I feel tired and wonder if I've gotten in over my head," Vuxten admitted. "Can't let any doubt show," he gave a wry chuckle and nodded at where Shutruk was sprawled out, his foot twitching as he dreamed. "Could you imagine how Privates like him would react if I showed doubt in the middle of everything?"
Casey gave another chuckle, this one with an ugly edge. "Nothing lets you know everything's gone sideways when the Lieutenant starts screaming about how we're all going to die."
"That happen?" Vuxten asked.
Casey nodded. "Sixth drop. My seventeenth birthday. Left the cake in the mess hall. Dropship took heavy bioplasma hits, one of the engines exploded and we starting spinning in. The Looey blew chunks into his helmet and started screaming we were all going to die."
"At least he was wrong," Vuxten said.
"He was SUDS'd, like everyone but me," Casey said. His voice got hard. "I was fighting from the wreckage of the dropship, using it as a fighting position, while him and everyone else were gettting SUDS'd out and decanted."
Vuxten shifted slightly, not sure if he preferred that long ass pink golf ball joke to what they were talking about now. "How long were you there?"
"Two months," Casey said. "Stripping rations from dead men till I got the dropship's nanoforge working," Casey gave a chuckle, reached up and touched his datalink.
Vuxten saw the incoming data request from Casey and allowed it. It was creation engine templates, all cracked and jailborked.
"What's this?" Vuxten asked.
"Telkan and battle buddy rations. Loaded it while we were on top of Gobbler here," he said. "Main nutripaste, standard Space Force troop transport flavor array, basic medicine kits including multivitamin, water additives. Basically everything you need to keep your men in fighting condition if you're sitting in the wreckage of a dropship with only a Class I Nanoforge you hotwired," he patted the nanoforge mounted on his gun's smartframe. "Have your greenie doublecheck it."
471 sighed and passed on his turn, eyeing 442's icon and wishing he'd been able to launch the amphibious attack to take 442's turkey farms away from him. He ran a quick check on the templates and saw that they were standard space force, just the serial numbers filed off and able to be run off of any creation engine. 471's antenna twitched when he saw that there were jailbork codes to break open any nanoforge and print out whatever was needed rather than what the nanoforge was designated as.
471 checked the nanoforge attached to his Telkan Marine's armor and saw that they'd load in just fine.
--checks out-- he said, then went back to nervously nibbling on the tip of his bladearm as one of 442's ocean units passed close to his hidden fleet during the other's turn.
"Think we'll need it?" Vuxten asked. He watched as Casey checked the status of some complex device the nanoforge on his weapon was slow-printing.
"I did," Casey shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe, maybe not. Hopefully you'll never need it and it'll just sit there in your implant's long term archive storage, compressed and cold, for your whole career."
"Proper preperation prevents piss poor performance," Vuxten quoted.
"Exactly, sir," Casey said. "If you don't need it, you're that paranoid officer who stresses over everything and tries to micromanage everything. If you do need it, you're lucky and probably stole the idea from a superior officer."
Vuxten smiled at that.
"Get some rest, sir," Casey said. He tapped one armored fingertip against the barrel of his minigun. "It's another forty hours till we get there."
-------------------
"...so then the kid, the kid, right, the kid gets like mondo great grades and junk, and like totally rocks all of like fourth grade, becoming, like, the top grade person and junk," Casey said, his voice slightly high pitched and he waved his hands around. "So, like, his like dad says: 'male child, you are allocated one desire unit' and junk. The kid, he goes like totally: 'I respond with gratitude of your acknowledgement, parental unit. I would like to requisition one pink golf ball for my desire unit.' and the dad like totally gets it for him and junk, totally like wondering what his kid could want a pink golf ball for because it's like totally weird and junk that his kid like totally wants like a pink golf ball and..."
One of the attachments on Casey's loading frame started beeping and he cut off, touching his datalink. Vuxten noticed, again, that it looked like Casey had added more armor to the loading frame. Now a lot of the pistons, gears, and chains were covered by armor.
"We changed direction," the Terran said.
Addox nodded.
"Are you sure, Sergeant?" Plunex asked.
Casey shrugged. "Unless the magnetic field of the planet decided to shift by thirty degrees over a five minute period, then we changed direction, sir. Who knows, sir, might have happened."
"At ease that shit, Casey," Addox said.
The same device beeped again and Casey tapped his datalink. "Huh, we're shifting back onto course. Wonder what we moved around?"
"Something stupid, I'm sure," Addox said, then leaned back and closed his eyes. "And shut up about that damn pink golf ball. I'm pretty sure the kid's just shoving them up his ass."
Vuxten barked out a laugh.
-------------------
"Sergeant Addox?" Vuxten asked over the private command channel, making sure that Plunex wasn't paying attention and was asleep.
"Go ahead, sir," Addox said, not bothering to make his face shield transparent.
"I think I figured out why Casey keeps going back to check on Glory," Vuxten said.
"Let's hear it, sir," Addox said.
"He got left behind a lot during his career. Kept getting dropped and left behind," Vuxten said. "He doesn't want Glory to be left behind."
"Notice what else he's doing, sir?" Addox asked.
"Mapping and reconing the machine," Vuxten said. "That way he's covered and everyone doesn't notice him checking on Glory because he's reconing around us."
"Know why he's checking on Glory?" Addox asked. Vuxten noted the intensity of the human's voice.
"Because Glory isn't a machine, she's a person. A digital sentience, not a machine without feelings."
"Exactly, sir," Addox said.
"That's why I keep giving him permission," Vuxten said. "I don't want her left alone in the dark in that ore gathering bay."
"Good man, sir," Addox said.
Vuxten sat quietly in the darkness of the Precursor machine's automated command center.
---------------
"The last of the Precursor machines are down, General," the voice said from the operations bay below. "Space Force is reporting all enemy destroyed. Ground side is just mopup of machines that didn't get away."
"Thank you, Major," General No'Drak said. He shifted his attention. "Status of the Great Gobbler?"
"It's moved under the edge of the junction of the mountain ranges, sir," the Major said. He tossed it up on the holotank. "The fighting has eased up enough we can get seismic on it now. It's slowed down as it's come closer to the surface and no longer moving in a straight line."
"Does 108th MI still have a line to Sergeant Casey?" General No'Drak asked.
"Specialist Grade Five Peak has reported for duty. Her commander said she's examining the messages right now. Apparently it's some kind of back channel system Casey keeps in operation," the Major said.
"Why?" Ge'ermo'o interrupted.
"Do you want the real reason or the excuse she gave to her commander?" the Major said.
"Both?" Ge'ermo'o suggested, wondering why she would lie.
"Officially, it's because Casey works Ordnance and needs to feed 108th MI ammunition consumption levels in his sector," the Major said. "That's the official reason."
Ge'ermo'o shook his jowls in slight confusion. "That sounds like a likely reason. Althought I do not understand why he would need a discrete channel and hardware devoted solely between the two of them. What is the real reason?"
"Tit pics," No'Drak guessed.
Ge'ermo'o queried his implant on the nature of a 'tit' and was flooded with lewd pictures of Terran female mammary glands as well as a bunch of pictures of small birds as well as a handful of explicitly drawn Rigellian females sporting impossible bare mammalian mammary glands.
"Well, I wasn't going to put it so crudely. I was going to call it 'inter-personal video, text, and image correspondence'," the Major said. "She's known Casey about sixty years, they've got some history."
"Why send pictures of mammary glands?" Ge'ermo'o asked, frowning. "That seems like a lot of effort, to create and conceal a private message device in order to just send images of mammary glands."
"It's a Terran thing," No'Drak said.
Ge'emo'o suddenly put it together as all the pieces suddenly matched together. "Oh! I suddenly understand!"
No'Drak raised an antenna, his specie's version of cocking an eyebrow. "Go on, Most High."
"They are involved in a sexual relationship and they send pictures of body parts to one another as a method of sexual enticement and amusement!" Ge'ermo'o felt proud of himself for putting it together."They cobbled together their communications device in secret so their commanders did not know they intended to carry out a long distance quasi-sexual relationship based on text, pictures, and videos in order to ensure sexual delight despite distance."
The Major, to his credit, didn't snicker.
No'Drak carefully took out a cigarette to avoid busting up with laughter.
"Right you are, Most High," No'Drak said.
"I am a most observant commander. It is why my men trust me so highly," Ge'ermo'o stated, folding all four arms. "If I were their commander, I would look the other way, as improved morale results in improved performance."
It took everything General No'Drak had not to spit out his cigarette in surprise.
"It's slowed to the point we can't detect it," someone called out.
"They've arrived," No'Drak mused.
-----------------
"Ready?" Vuxten asked.
Everyone signalled with their icons they were ready, standing at the single double door that was an approximation of an air lock that would lead out of the vehicle.
Casey triggered the door and it slid open, the tracks already lubricated.
Beyond was an endosteel hallway, big enough for a suited warrior caste Mantid to move around comfortably in, with runners up by the ceiling for green mantids to move down the hallway without getting underfoot.
The passageway ran for about a hundred meters and ended in another door.
"If anyone sees a hobbit with a ring in here, don't steal the ring," Casey said.
"At ease that shit, Casey," Addox said almost absently.
"Platoon, move out," Vuxten ordered.
[first] [prev] [next]