Twenty-four
Guardian Command
Area 51, Nevada, Earth
26 September 2017
Sonya sat at General Hammond's desk waiting for the call to be routed through to his phone. She felt self-conscious about sitting in his surprisingly comfortable chair. This was a symbol of his command. His office. His chair. And here she was -at his behest- sitting in it at his desk waiting for the call he cashed in a favor or two to make happen.
While the nightmares have abated for the others, hers remain intense and disturbing. Sonya had a bad feeling about the coming mission. She had been frightened the first time she went into battle with Hawk after recovering the suits from the sanctuary moon. Her fears quickly faded as the six learned and trained to work together. Fight together. But this new, or rather old, enemy was different. Something about it frightened her more than that first real mission to Eternia.
The sudden ringing of the red phone startled Sonya, jarring her from her morbid thoughts. Hesitantly, Sonya reached out and picked up the handset. "Hello?"
A sergeant on the other end said, "Ma'am? The call you've been expecting is coming through now."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. Standby."
Several clicks, then a familiar voice said, "Hello?'
"Papa!" Sonya exclaimed. "Tis good to hear your voice."
"Ah, Sonya. It has been a long time since you last called," her father said.
Sonya sighed, chiding, "Papa, that was last month."
Chuckling, her father said, "Well, it seemed like a long time."
"Is mama there?"
"Oh, she is off with her friends shopping for fabrics for her new quilt. She's always making something. But if she's happy, I'm happy." He turned serious. "But that isn't why you called, is it."
"I never could fool you," Sonya replied, smiling. His father had been an ambassador at one time in his long diplomatic career. His instincts were unparalleled in the Russia diplomatic corps. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Sonya continued, "I have a mission coming up. Tis dangerous, papa. Probably our most dangerous yet. This enemy – worse than the Horde. I-" Her voice faltered. Showing all the patience of the diplomat he used to be, Sonya's father waited her out. He knew when she needed someone to just listen. This was one of those times.
"I am scared, papa. Really scared," Sonya confessed, tears welling up in her eyes. "I may, may not…"
"Oh, Sonya. You are not alone. You have companions to watch out for you. Did you know that meeting at the World Government Headquarters was televised here?" her father said, changing the subject a bit. "I know, we could hardly believe it. That Adrian Cobretti is something. Put those diplomats in their place, he did." He chuckled remembering what transpired.
Sonya nodded, gripping the phone tight with both hands. In spite of her tension, she laughed with him, draining a bit of the tension that had built up inside her. "He can be a little off at times."
"Rumor has it he's nuts. Some think he's insane."
"They may be right on both counts. But he is one you want by your side in a battle."
"Then lay your fears to rest, my Sonya. Your companions will be there for you. Whatever it is you face, you'll survive it. I know you will," her father promised. His instinct was rarely wrong about these things. Perhaps that was why Sonya asked General Hammond if he could arrange this call. "We were so proud when we heard you were chosen by Hawk to operate her. We are so proud of you. Never doubt that."
"I know, papa." Sonya spotted the general appearing on the other side of the large rectangular pane of glass that held a map of the galaxy etched in the opposite side. That was his signal time was almost up on the call. "I have to go, papa."
"I understand. I used to work for the government. I know about these things."
"Love to you both," Sonya managed to choke out, voice cracking just a bit.
They hung up at the same time.
General Hammond watched Sonya bury her face in her arms. He waited for several minutes before knocking on the door and opening it. "Time to, Sonya."
Nodding, Sonya dried her eyes, pushed the chair back and stood. "Thank you for arranging that, general."
"No problem, Sonya. I know what is like to be away from family for long periods of time. It's never easy."
While she couldn't be with her biological family, her surrogate family was always there. And it was time to join them.
Castle Grayskull
Adrian slouched in the chair before the primary console in the command-and-control chamber, idly turning the clear data crystal over and over between his fingers. He discovered the crystals were color coded based on whatever was stored on them. The clear ones were for general data storage and retrieval. This particular one contained the data sent to him by the mysterious woman he had encountered on Val-kyre.
On the one hand, Adrian wanted to know what the mysterious woman – if the female could be called that – had sent. On the other, he didn't want to know. There was only one way to find out. While knowing was half the battle, there was always the possibility the information was either false or woefully out of date.
The Sorceress quietly appeared at his left shoulder. "'A coin for your thoughts?' I believe the saying goes."
"That's 'a penny for your thoughts' and it seems an excessive price," Adrian corrected her.
"Is that the crystal you wanted to look at several days ago?" she asked.
"Yes. But you dragged me off to an evening picnic up on the east tower," Adrian groused. "Uh, not that I'm complaining about that," he added, hastily.
Sorceress failed to completely suppress a smile. "So, are you going to continue playing with your crystal? Or are you going to see what is on it? There is still time before Sonya arrives."
Sighing, Adrian straightened up, dropped the crystal into one of the slots in the recorder/reader panel, touched a control and sent the data to the console's screen. It was still unnerving to him being able to work a control console he had never seen before but was reasonably familiar with. His hands worked the controls as if on autopilot. The filled slot lit up from within while a holograph formed above the back edge of the console.
There wasn't much to look at. Several datafiles were contained in an unmarked folder. Adrian's second feeling about the information being nothing useful came back. Opening the first file did nothing to change that opinion.
They read through the first two pages and gave up. Adrian surmised the documents to be reports about some sort of experiment that did not go anywhere close to the desired results. Failure after failure was chronicled in exacting detail. With each new test, the results got closer to the desired outcome, but the sequence ended before that came about.
The other file contained far less information. It detailed a project the Horde scientists worked on feverously during the war. Something they hoped to would hasten an end to a war that had lasted hundreds of years. Adrian glossed over the technical stuff that Gabe would have a better chance at understanding. There was one thing that resonated with the memories both he and the Sorceress inherited from the battlesuits. The project's designation.
OPERATION: DEMIGOD
"I do not recognize the name," said the Sorceress. "Do you?"
"I know demigod from an old movie," Adrian admitted, flashing on the movie Saturn 3, "but as far as Kragor's memories, I got nothing."
"Do I want to know about this movie?"
"Let's save that for another time." Adrian filed away the thought for a future movie night feature. Shutting down the console and pulling the crystal from the slot, he shoved it into a pocket of the jumpsuit uniform they had adopted for the Guardians as he stood. He thought they really needed to come up with something more – comfortable. A task for another time.
"It is almost time to go," Sorceress reminded him.
Nodding, Adrian headed for the double doors leading into the castle's main chamber. It was almost time for the Sorceress to open a portal to Earth for Sonya to join them. Then the Sorceress would open another to the starship Eternia. The ship waited in the landing bay of the battlestar Defiant, currently enroute to the Orellian star system.
The scout ship dispatched by the Val-kyrie had discovered what appeared to be a small base on the surface in the area of a vast plain, the probable site of the battle that took place there over a thousand years ago. The structure was the equivalent of a small outpost. On the surface at least. The scout crew found a massive underground "void" that was masked by an interference field, so they had no idea whether it was a cave or a massive staging base.
Orellia's location was one of several offering a good jumping off point for attacks deeper into Horde space. There was no record of a base ever having been established after the war. In fact, both the Horde and Val-kyrie made an agreement to leave the planet as a memorial to the senseless battle that had been fought there with no winner at the end. Neither side had broken that agreement. So, someone unaware of the agreement may have built anything from an outpost to a formidable forward base.
Defiant was being sent in with two other battlestars to investigate. Eternia and the Guardians were going along for two reasons. The first was to use Hawk's stealth and infiltration systems along with the code breaking software to discern the truth of the base. Blitz and Claw would go along in support. The second reason was if the mysterious black machine the size of Guardian showed itself, War Wing, Gatling Arm and Falcon were to feel out its capabilities and find out more about it. Maybe even get detailed scans of the beast.
Approaching the massive magical screen, Sorceress opened a portal with a wave of her hand. Seconds later, Sonya Boradni stepped through. The portal to Earth closed and the Sorceress opened another to the starship Eternia. Once confirmed the area was clear, the trio stepped through.
Orellian Star System
Battlestar Defiant soared through the vacuum in the direction of Orellia. Commander Mundu chose to drop out of hyperspace outside the system's ecliptic. Cerberus and Triton were approaching from different angles; the common mistake many combatants make in space combat is fighting on the same plane. The other ships approached from above and below the ecliptic on courses that converged at Orellia.
Scout ships continued to monitor the planet under cloak. So far, the activity has been minimal. A small structure had been spotted in a vast plain with nothing else around. There was, however, a massive subsurface void their passive sensors could not penetrate. It appeared to be an interference field set up to deflect sensor sweeps.
"What is that?" the Sorceress asked, studying the images printed out on flimsy sheets.
Adrian pressed bullets into a magazine clip for the FN2000. He had already loaded three of the seven waiting to be filled. A stack of ammo cases lay within reach. "No idea. I'm not a geologist. Could be an underground base or a really big cavern."
"It could be nothing," she suggested.
That was an ongoing debate. The discovery of a small surface structure could be an outpost, the visible signs of a much larger base, or an elaborate trap. Adrian harbored the idea that it could be either the first or second, but was definitely the third. Colonel Markson was undecided but leaned toward some sort of trap to gather information. Commander Mundu suspected someone broke the agreement to leave the world as a monument to the ancient battle and built a staging base to support attacks deeper into Horde space.
"Well, it's a little too convenient to have the coordinates of this world in a demon memory bank," Adrian grunted. He finished loading the magazine, rapped it against the tabletop, and set it with the other filled mags.
"Why do you do that?"
"Strike the box against the table after filling it."
"It's called a magazine and it helps to line up the cartridges. If a bullet is not seated properly, the tip could catch on the wall and cause a jam."
"And this method works?" Sorceress asked, sounding dubious.
Adrian shrugged indifferently. "Most of the time."
"So, what is the plan?" Brad asked as he sat down in a vacant seat at the table.
The other Guardians joined them. Activity in the armory went on as if the six were not present. Weapons were stripped and cleaned, magazines for rifles and clips for pistols were loaded, while several armorers made new cartridges to replenish stocks.
"Well, Colonel Markson is taking a minimal crew down in an APC. Two dropships, only," Adrian explained. "Jake and the Sorceress will help me with Black Beauty, if it shows up."
"You are sure it will?" Jeromy asked.
Adrian nodded. "A feeling. Something about that machine worries me."
"And the others?" Sonya prodded.
"Claw, Hawk and Blitz have the job of getting into that structure and find out what is really there." Adrian paused in his task to hand a flimsy over to Brad for the others to review.
The sheet contained a list of assets the Val-kyrie were sending to the surface. Shrike APCs and Firehawk mobile missile carriers deployed from all three battlestars along with support troops would land at three different points around the structure. In case the mass underground was a massive hangar, the forces will land ten kilometers away. Hopefully, that would give them time to analyze the situation and adjust accordingly.
The three battlestars would take up station outside the planet's gravity well to deal with any capital ships that materialized. Commander Mundu was sure they would come. After the unexpected engagement with the Logoss, the enemy would need to get more information about the capabilities of a Mark XX. Although it wasn't stated, Adrian was sure she had a plan for that.
"Use only as much energy as needed to disable or destroy anything that gets in your way," Adrian said. "It took a lot of energy from Falcon and War Wing to kill demons. Particularly with energy weapons. Their armor is tough, but the Shadowdemons and Servators are still built to deal with forces utilizing energy-based weapons."
"That's why you had us comb the archive downloaded from War Wing for non-energy-based weapons," Jake stated.
"Two points for you. Any luck?"
Jake shook his head. "Nothing. Seems we will have to build our own."
"Which we do not have time for. I can use the gauntlet blade box you improvised," Sonya said. "Hawk has already added that to her combat form. However, I will need escorts."
"Well, the battle mode should get us there easily enough," Brad said.
"Except I should not waste precious time switching from one form to the next even though the change has been shorted as much as possible."
"Then we should go in using combat mode with retroreflectors engaged," Jeromy proposed. "Save battle mode for the escape. I presume once the security system is breached, they will quickly be all over us."
"Their system may react quickly, or it may not. Hawk's hacking abilities are scary. We could penetrate even the most hardened security systems on Earth in seconds, if we chose," Sonya said. "It depends upon the enemy system."
"Given that everything we have seen thus far dates to the Great War," Sorceress replied, "I suggest you concentrate on anything from that time."
Sonya nodded. "Hawk's programs are up to date. Should not be a problem."
It was the unknown that tended to make for a bad day. All they could do was what they did best. Adapt to the situation as it changed and hope they all came back in one piece.
Eternia launched while the battlestars were still several astronomical units out from the planet. Six ground assault craft soon followed along. with six from the other battlestars. Eighteen craft converged on the planet with a squadron of Bladewing fighters escorting each group.
Thirty minutes out from the planet, Colonel Markson and his crew boarded their assigned APC and dropship over bay one. Across from the dropship, a similar crew boarded the craft over bay two. Drivers backed the carriers up the ramps into position, and the copilots hit the control to close the ramps. Landing struts retracted, leaving the dropships suspended from the powerful lifting arms.
Jon listened with only partial attention to the comm chatter from the bridge. He reviewed the plan once more, hoping he hadn't overlooked something.
The site of battle had been overgrown with a combination of fertile plains and several impressive forests. There were three underground bases the Horde had established long ago to use this planet as a forward supply base in what had been a region of contested space outside the area controlled by the Horde. Those bases were situated a long way away from the site of battle. Of those, the scout ship detected the interference emissions at only one installation, but records of the facilities were lost after the war. It could just be misinformation. Or it could be a base full of Shadowdemons waiting to lay waste to anyone foolish enough to encroach.
Jo-jo announced orbit in five minutes.
Vibrations soon bled through the hull of the APC from the dropship pilot firing up the engines. At two minutes to drop, armored inner bay doors split into four sections as they retracted. Heavy lift arms lowered the ships into the drop bay. The APC shook and rattled when the dropship came to rest on the panels that would drop the craft out through Eternia's ventral hull.
Jon glanced into the troop bay. Jake and the Sorceress were strapped in with an empty seat between them. Despite the battlesuits being in their combat form, the quick-release belts had enough slack to accommodate the armor. They were the only occupants besides a driver, and a soldier in the gunnery chair beneath the twin Gatling gun mount.
Brad, Jeromy and Sonya occupied the other APC with Lieutenant Thomas Garber manning the command console, a driver and a gunner. Jon had been concerned about throwing the man back into the field, but those fears abated somewhat after a private talk. His platoon – Beta – and Delta platoon took heavy casualties on Etheria. Garber fared better after writing letters to the families of the fallen. Lieutenant Kent Howard, however, was still shaken up. General Hammond suspected he may have to relieve the lieutenant of his command and send him to the reassignment pool. It happens sometimes after combat action. No one really knew how they would react until they were under fire. It was the fallout from that action that usually took its toll.
Jon requested the general gather up a pool of names from which he would select a replacement for Delta platoon once the current crisis was resolved. Of course, he could be dead before the crisis ended; in which case he wouldn't have to worry about the mind-numbing hours he would spend reviewing bland personnel files trying to come to a decision.
Jon broke out of his reverie when Lieutenant Feril, his ship's pilot, requested, "Confirm cross lock and drop stations secured."
"Affirmative. All drop stations secured," he replied. Jon twisted the chair around to face forward and pushed back to the aft end of the rails it was mounted on until it locked in place.
Lieutenant Denton, the tactical specialist, confirmed the two dropships were ready.
Lieutenant McCloud announced, "In approach corridor. Auto-drop sequence initiated. Thirty seconds to release."
Eternia rotated until the curve of the planet became the horizon. Right on cue, the computer opened the outer drop bay doors, releasing the dropships five seconds apart to prevent an accidental collision.
The ride was normal for a drop; enough turbulence to make even the most steadfast flier want to blow chunks. Fortunately, most of the soldiers and flight crews got used to combat drops after a short period of time. General Hammond had the platoons running combat drops on a regular basis to get everyone involved proficient in prepping, launching and recovering the dropships.
Adrian relaxed in the troop compartment behind the cockpit. Feril was an excellent pilot, so he was not worried about the drop. Using a relay set up between the APCs, he placed a call to the three Guardians soaring toward their assigned rally point. Three faces popped in small windows in his field of vision while an image of his face popped up in theirs.
"Sonya, remember the plan. Get in, access their computers, download what you can, and get out. You three are in combat mode. The Servators are easy pickings. Do not engage a demon if you can avoid it. They hit harder than Val-kyrie records indicate." Which was yet another indication that someone had survived the war in order to upgrade the new model to take on a Guardian even after the Val-kyrie rebuilt all the battlesuits. "Brad. Jeromy. You guys load the retroreflective system from the database?"
Both nodded. "Hawk had some advice on adapting the system," Brad said.
To date, only Hawk had actually used the system during the mission on Etheria. Several minor issues cropped up after its initial use, but those were easily corrected.
"Don't stop to analyze the data as you download it. Chances are you won't have a lot of time once they figure out someone has penetrated their computers. The nearest vehicle will dart in to pick you up. Good luck," Adrian said, closing the channel. He kept it short and to the point; any longer and the feeling he had about this setup might have caused him to alter the plan. He opened a channel to Jake and the Sorceress.
"Any last words of encouragement?" Jake asked.
"Don't get dead. Don't be careful. Treat this like any other battle," Adrian responded, failing to keep his voice light.
"In other words, be myself," Jake grinned.
Sorceress shook her head. "I still find it amazing you have managed to survive this long doing that." Addressing Adrian, she asked, "Are you sure that big machine is here?"
"No. But if this is even partially a trap, this is where I would be." The memories and experience inherited from his predecessor, and Colonel Markson's assessment, backed that up.
"So, we just hang around, destroy as many demons as we can, and see if this guy comes out to play?" Jake asked, still skeptical about such a simple plan.
"We get this guy to come out and see what he's made of while the Sorceress comes in through the psychic back door. Then we'll have a few answers," Adrian said.
Sorceress sighed. "You make it sound so easy."
Stunned, Adrian replied, "That sounded easy?"
The pair knew it wasn't. This would likely be a fierce fight since both sides were more familiar with each other, now. The enemy did not have experience with four of the Guardians, but, like War Wing and Falcon, their capabilities were not far off from the historical record. The only differences were ungraded battlesuits and different operators.
Wishing them good luck, Adrian closed the connection, opened the faceplate and shoved himself out of the troop seat. Despite the shaking and rattling of the dropship, the man walked confidently to the sealed cockpit hatch thanks to his boots magnetizing to the deck. The hatch slid aside as he tapped the control panel on the right side of the frame.
Feril and her RIO – rear instrument operator – scarcely spared the Guardian a glance as he stepped into the cockpit. Beads of water smeared the front windscreen, droplets sliding up and to the sides, pushed along by the slipstream. Suddenly, the craft dropped below the storm clouds into a steady downpour. The ride got rougher, but the crew was very experienced at flying through changing weather patterns. A novice on their first drop would be on their third or fourth barf bag right about now.
Lieutenant Jacobs flipped four switches. A whirring of motors and gears signaled the opening of lower weapons pods while the upper ones slid out on struts and rose into attack position. The dropship was an older model with stationary lower pods that rotated open to release smart bombs on command.
Breaking through the wall of falling raindrops, the dropship burst into partly cloudy skies. Directly ahead lay their assigned rally point. Val-kyrie heavy lift craft settled down long enough to drop their forward loading ramps, disgorge their charges, then liftoff and move back to the waiting area further out of range.
The dropship flared out, twined floodlights igniting in the leading edge of the fuselage on either side of the lowered bay ramp. Feril dropped the craft down into a perfect three-point, landing with nothing more than a mild bump.
"Down and clear," Feril announced.
Two seconds later, the APC roared out of the bay and raced to join the formation of Val-kyrie APCs and missile carriers. Once away, Feril's deft touch had the dropship practically leaping back into the sky. Instead of retreating to the assembly area for the landing craft, Feril followed Adrian's direction and continued closer to the solitary structure in the target area. She pulled up approximately ten kilometers and started her orbit. The display screen in front of Adrian was set to the primary starboard camera.
"That was impressive," Adrian commented, referring to the release of the APC. He had often wondered what the view was like from the dropship cockpit. Now he had his answer.
Feril commented, "It's even better watching stuff blow up." After circling the site three times with no activity to show for it, she added, "Now what?"
Jacobs interjected, "Are we sure it isn't one of the other two sites?"
Since they were on open comms to the APC, Colonel Markson answered. "Commander Mundu just sent an update. Teams investigated the other locations and verified they are deactivated Horde bases with no signs of activity. Seems they were in pretty bad shape."
"Time to escalate," Adrian said to himself. Before anyone could ask, he transmitted to Gatling Arm and Falcon, "Go to Plan B."
Having been briefed on several parts of Adrian's part of the mission, the APC driver slowed to a halt long enough for the two Guardians to exit. Jake punched the door control. The hatch snapped out and split apart. Moments after jumping out, the APC took off in a cloud of dust.
The pair strode calmly across the barren plain in the direction of the base. As they moved, each switched to battle mode. Converted to their towering fifteen-foot forms, Sorceress and Jake prepared to do battle. At a coordinated signal between the AIs, the MASC system was switched off.
War Wing received confirmation from the other AIs Plan B was under way. "Come out, come out whatever you are," Adrian sang to himself.
"Um, I think that's 'wherever you are,'" Feril corrected him.
Adrian shook his head. "We know where he is. We just need to find out what he is."
Unit Six Sixty-six
Everything was falling into place nicely. It had taken the Val-kyrie longer to mount an operation than expected, but the point was to get them here. No doubt they were expecting a trap of some sort, which it was, but the base was positioned in a location too good to pass up using it as a foothold into Horde territory.
Sensor platforms equipped with stealth fields to prevent detection monitored the star system along with the surrounding space out to several astronomical units. They detected three battlestars dropping out of hyperspace just outside the system. Each proceeded inward on different vectors. Whoever commanded the task force knew their tactics. Most commanders made the basic mistake of applying planetary tactics to space battles. In space, there were three axis in which to maneuver. A lot of battles tended to take place on a plane, as if there were ocean-going vessels. Historical records indicated the Val-kyrie were very adept at fighting space battles. They took a lot of casualties, but caused at minimum four times as many losses to their enemies.
"Smaller objects leaving the three battlestars," the gold-colored command Servator reported. "Confirmed three squadrons of Bladewing fighters. Eighteen heavy lift transports. One starship matching the description of the Eternia."
Six Sixty-six waited patiently while the command unit monitored the data coming in from the sensor platforms.
Three separate groups of fighters and transports continued toward the planet. The other starship skimmed the surface long enough to release two dropships before entering the atmosphere itself. Two more small ships left the battlestars approaching from above and below the ecliptic. They quickly engaged some sort of cloaking field but not before tracking estimated the probable destinations as the other two mothballed Horde installations. All they would find were bases in such a state of decay as to be unsalvageable.
Val-kyrie forces gathered at three points around the active base. Transports retreated to rally points further away while the two dropships from the Eternia touched down long enough to release their cargo before taking off again. One ship settled into an orbit of the only surface structure marking the location of the base.
Six sixty-six checked on the status of its own warships a short hyperspace jump away. They were ready to come in when called. There were also three battlestars ready to back them up, which was likely to happen. The warrior women would not stop until all enemy warships were eliminated. Acceptable losses in order to gain more information on current Val-kyrie capabilities.
Their deployment was quick and orderly. Armored carriers with twin Gatling guns mounted on top in a swivel mount, along with mobile missile launchers for long range support. Missiles to soften up the enemy, then the APCs move in to finish the job with the Gatlings and maybe foot soldiers.
Still no sign of even one Guardian, however. Surely this warranted one or two to investigate. All six would have been overly optimistic, but within the accepted percentage. The dropship continued to orbit the field in an attempt to draw activity. Shameless, but a less disciplined army might have taken the bait.
After the third obit, the dropship abruptly veered away to the southwest in the direction of the Val-kyrie forces forming up there. Maybe the Guardians weren't going to show after all. No matter. There was still intelligence to be gathered.
An alarm Six Sixty-six knew all too well suddenly rang throughout the base. Since this new body was too big to pass through human-sized corridors, it relied on the Servators for updates. "Report," the ancient machine demanded emotionlessly.
The command Servator answered moments later. "Two primary targets have suddenly appeared to the southwest."
"Elaborate."
"Unable to elaborate without further information. One moment there were only Val-kyrie forces on the ground and the next, two Guardians appeared," the golden machine reported.
"Identities?"
"Gatling Arm and Falcon."
A surveillance camera pointed in that direction zoomed in on the fifteen-foot battlesuits striding across the twenty-kilometer wide no-man's land around the surface structure. Their gait was leisurely as if they were simply out for a stroll across a dusty plain.
Enticing bait. Enticing enough that even the logical computer mind had to acknowledge the tactics involved. Tipping an imaginary hat to its enemy, the rebuilt demon gave the expected command. "Engage."
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