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weerd1 · 4 months

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ENT Rewatch Starlog, 18 February, 2024: Episode 3.12 “Chosen Realm”

As Travis and Trip complete a recon mission inside the cloaking field of a sphere, a small alien ship observes them heading back to Enterprise. The leader, D’Jamat remarks that this is what they have been waiting for.

Later on Enterprise while T’Pol is reviewing the Sphere data, the bridge alerts Archer that a small ship is sending out a distress signal. They rescue the ship and the people on board. Soon it becomes apparent that D’Jamat and his people worship the Sphere builders and consider their presence how the Builders are making the Expanse-The Chosen Realm-into a paradise for their followers. T’Pol is disdainful, but Archer tries to get along. Soon after though D’Jamat reveals his entire crew are basically suicide bombers as they are biologically modified with explosives. One of them detonates to prove the point.

D’Jamat reveals he will destroy Enterprise unless they can use it as the advanced technology that will allow him to end a century long holy war against heretics on their planet of Triannon.

D’Jamat also tells Archer he must choose one crew member to pay for the sin of violating the sphere as he deletes the database with the Sphere information. Archer chooses himself, convincing D’Jamat that the transporter serves as an execution chamber. He has T’Pol beam him to a secluded location.

In collusion with Phlox, Archer realizes there are two members of the intruding forces that have issues with D’Jamat’s tactics. Yarrick and his wife Indara have enough problems with this war that Indara approached Phlox to give her an abortion since she does not want her child to be part of this madness. Archer gathers the data Phlox needs to neutralize the explosives, but someone will have to go to the bridge to route the system Phlox needs to sickbay. Archer approaches Yarrick and convinces him to do so. (He also discovers the holy war is a result of one faction believing the Sphere Builders created the Spheres in nine days; the other say it’s ten and this has caused a century-long war.)

Meanwhile, Enterprise is approached by Triannon ships from the other faction, and D’Jamat commences to use Enterprise to start destroying them. While distracted by this, he does not see Yarrick come on the bridge and relay the controls to Phlox he needs, rendering the explosives useless. Archer frees Reed, and in turn, they MACOs, and they begin to retake the ship deck by deck, seizing the bridge just before the last of the other faction are destroyed.

Back in control, Archer takes D’Jamat and his people back to Triannon where they discover that the two factions had a nuclear exchange eight month previous. There are no major cities left. The war is indeed over, and there are no winners.

Certainly a dig at fundamentalist ideology in true Star Trek fashion. Recognizing this episode was made just a couple years after the US started a “war on terror” in response to ideologically motivated terrorism, the imagery of the suicide bomber cannot be a coincidence. This episode may not explore those themes as deeply as Ron D. Moore’s “Battlestar Galactica” did around this time period (where the HUMANS were using suicide bombers against CYLONS), but it is an interesting look. Add in the discussion on abortion, written in a world that never dreamed that within a couple of decades the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, Enterprise here continues to prove as I have said many times that “Star Trek is always relevant.”

A couple of things this episode also brought to mind for me: The Holy War being fought over whether the period of creation was nine days or ten reminded me of the great Cat exodus from the Red Dwarf in THAT series over whether the novelty hats the chosen should wear would be red or blue. The ending here also echos the ending to one of my very favorite Classic Star Trek episodes, “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield,” where two members of ethnic factions on the planet Cheron have been chasing and fighting one another for thousands of years, and finally return to their homeworld…to find that world destroyed. Lokai and Bele chose to keep fighting in the ruins of their people; I wonder if D’Jamat’s people would do the same?

Next Voyage: Hello, Pinkskin. Everyone’s favorite Andorian captain returns to help Enterprise out in a “Proving Ground.”

(Images taken from the main website for @trekcore; I am happy to remove the images if asked.)

#Star Trek #Star Trek Enterprise #Enterprise Rewatch #Enterprise Season 3 #xindi saga #Star Trek is always relevant

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trek-tracks · 2 years

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Star Trek, "The Mark of Gideon."

Airdate: January 17, 1969.

Sigh.

#star trek #star trek tos #jim kirk #the mark of gideon #hodin #captain kirk #image source: trekcore #transcript source: chakoteya #i can't believe the us is going fucking backwards on this #i'm okay in canada but as a us citizen it's killing me #star trek has always been political #between the episode about antimaskers and this one the third season should not be this goddamn painfully relevant #anyone who wants to clown on this post: just don't #you will be instantly blocked

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dreadark · 1 year

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I always knew the ak gamepress “lore” articles were full of shit

but I didn’t realize they literally plagiarize wikipedia

#arknights #and for what purpose..#there's like 1 sentence of this that's maybe tangentially relevant #like okay this isn't a college essay you're not gonna get points docked or smth #but cmon. have a little self respect #i always thought they sorta had the vibe #of someone regurgitating wiki info to sound smart #but it's literally that... bro......#how can you make analysis #when you can't even tell star trek isn't relevant to kaltsit's character #...that sure is a sentence

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zincbot · 1 year

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forgot i love sci-fi a normal amount

#like look ok. i always think like: man i don't like stuff with dense specific lore. i'm a themes and concepts guy over everything #and for some reason i'm sat here thinking sci-fi is all dense worldbuilding all the time #but whenever i get back into smth sci-fi i'm like. Oh. I ACTUALLY love this forever and ever? and ever?#and i have done this cycle multiple times #look i enjoy both star trek and star wars pretty shallowly but both were important to me growing up #and like i think sci-fi is such a perfect vessel for xenobiology concepts and relevant social commentary #while also just having one of the Coolest aesthetics #i love spec bio and i love applying current world issues to far-flung but still grounded situations #and i love robots and androids and ai and mutants and aliens and cyborgs #i love space #sci-fi! man!#this is cause i watched the first episode of starstruck and i'm pretty sure from the teaser that the captain just got brainjacked #by a parasite #and i think it would be such a cool character turn if zac started playing as said parasite instead #especially as we just came out of skipper like yelling at and being so mean to his whole crew and saying he was gonna fire them #i think it would be sick to do a 'they like the parasite better' thing #though i've gotten a kick out of skipper so far especially just how fuckinh done he is

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vermin-disciple · 2 years

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I finally started watching Strange New Worlds, and I've mostly been enjoying it so far. But I just watched Ghosts of Illyria (1x03), and I have to say that the way they've decided to position eugenicists as victims of discrimination makes me... deeply uncomfortable.

#I'm going to hold off saying more on this subject until I've seen the rest of the season #I've been trying (not always successfully) to avoid spoilers #but this does fit with ST's troubling pattern of failing to demonstrate any real understanding of this topic #and if you're going to invoke an ideology that has had devastating ramifications in recent history with any degree of nuance #I really do think you need to put in some effort to engage with the relevant history and science #not to mention the history of the relevant pseudoscience #I'm willing to reserve judgement for now and see where they go with this #but my initial reaction is definitely on the side of trepidation and discomfort #star trek #meta #snw #eugenics #vermin rites

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trillscienceofficer · 1 year

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There is a cynicism about [Star Trek: Voyager] that truly troubles me. We loved DEEP SPACE NINE. We loved the show. We loved all the characters. There are actors that always give you trouble, and there are always times when the producers and actors are sometimes at each other, because, ‘You don’t understand my character.’ ‘No, you don’t understand the character I am writing.’ That’s fair game. On VOYAGER, there are characters they have given up on. They will just say that to you, flat out. I started asking questions about B’Elanna, who she is. I was saying, ‘I’m having a little trouble watching episodes and getting a handle on her, and what she is about.’ The response was, ‘We don’t have an idea. The past doesn’t matter. Just do whatever you want.’ What are you talking about? How can you give up on your own show? How do you give up on your characters? There is such a cynicism about the show within the people that do the show. I’m not just talking about the writing staff. It permeates the production.

— Ron D. Moore, from this interview that he gave shortly after leaving Star Trek: Voyager (originally published on 18/01/2000)

I'd like to add that in the time since this interview Moore has considerably softened his opinion on the Voyager production, but I still think what he says here is relevant as someone who had the experience of being in both writing rooms.

#i don't love ron moore as a writer #and he and I have VERY different priorities re: trek #but this interview is as scathing as i remember. definitely recommend reading even if it's long #voy #ron d moore #in many ways he was the original 'ds9 fan watching voyager and being disappointed'#which is basically its own subset of the fandom

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tnt-tourney · 11 months

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welcome one and all to the 2023 t+t tournament!! despite the long wait for the final bracket, the day has finally arrived. due to the size of the text, the list of contestants will be under the cut. due to how many contestants there are, i wont be able to tag everything, but i will tag as much as i can.

now, since it's been a while, a quick rehashing of the relevant rules!

1. be polite to others participating in the vote

2. do not Rig the vote -- propaganda is more than welcome and the askbox is always open for it! i just dont have the energy to deal with botting

3. dont be rude if the contestants youre rooting for are voted out!! sometimes thats just the way things go. theres always next time!

4. have fun !

the polls will start rolling out sometime next week. thank you!!

left:

Hexsquad (The Owl House) VS. Vault Hunters (Borderlands 1+2)

The Bad Kids (D20: Fantasy High) VS. FloweringPassionFruit (Ride the Cyclone)

Barbie + Ken (Barbie) VS. Dwarves (Deep Rock Galactic)

Mabel Pines + Dipper Pines (Gravity Falls) VS. The Fantastic 4 (Marvel)

Klaus Hargreeves + Viktor Hargreeves (The Umbrella Academy) VS. Spiderband (Spider-Man: Into/Across the Spiderverse)

Lup + Barry Bluejeans (The Adventure Zone) VS. Cleo de Nile + Deuce Gorgon (Monster High)

Spideypool (Marvel) VS. Gomez Addams + Morticia Addams (The Addams Family)

Team Rocket (Pokémon) VS. Rashmi Jamil + Amelie Macon + Loam Arnault (Entropic Float)

Link + Zelda (The Legend of Zelda) VS. Peter Parker + Harry Osborn (Marvel)

Huey Duck + B.O.Y.D. (Ducktales 2017) VS. Golf Ball + Tennis Ball (Battle for Dream Island)

Lewis + Vivi + Arthur (Mystery Skulls Animate) VS. Horokeu Usui + Pirica Usui (Shaman King)

Paulkins (Hatchetfield) VS. Magnus Chase + Alex Fierro (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard)

Bill Preston + Ted Logan (Bill and Ted) VS. Leonard Church + Agent Texas (Red vs. Blue)

Ariel + Prince Eric (The Little Mermaid) VS. Polypirates (JRWI: Riptide)

Cody Goodwin + May Goodwin (It Takes Two) VS. Frank-N-Furter + Magenta + Columbia + Riff Raff (The Rocky Horror Show)

SpaceDolls (Ride the Cyclone) VS. Kim Possible + Ron Stoppable (Kim Possible)

---

right:

The Guardians of the Galaxy (Marvel) VS. Julian Bashir + Miles O'Brien + Jadzia Dax (Star Trek: Deep Space 9)

The Murder Crew (Clue) VS. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Vash the Stampede + Nicolas D. Wolfwood + Meryl Stryfe + Milly Thompson (Trigun) VS. Team Chaotix (Sonic the Hedgehog)

Steve + Alex (Minecraft) VS. Gyro Gearloose + Lil Bulb (Ducktales 2017)

Phantom Thieves (Persona 5) VS. Wright Anything Agency + Apollo Justice + Klavier Gavin (Ace Attorney)

Westley + Buttercup (The Princess Bride) VS. Shin + Noi (Dorohedoro)

Kermit + Miss Piggy (The Muppets) VS. The Mechanisms

Jeremy Heere + Michael Mell + Christine Canigula (Be More Chill) VS. The Solve It Squad (The Solve It Squad Returns)

Harleyberts + Crockenglishes (Homestuck) VS. Sonic & co. (Sonic the Hedgehog)

Mulder + Scully (The X-Files) VS. Steph Lauter + Pete Spankoffski (Hatchetfield)

Main Cast (Omori) VS. Ben Tennyson + Gwen Tennyson + Kevin Levin (Ben 10)

Ashe Ubert + Claude Von Riegan + Sylvain Jose Gautier (Fire Emblem: Three Houses) VS. Birdetta + Yoshi (Mario)

Prime Defenders (JRWI: Prime Defenders) VS. Strilondes (Homestuck)

The Mystery Gang (Scooby Doo) VS. Billie Logan + Thea Preston (Bill and Ted)

Splatoon Idols VS. Lexthan (Hatchetfield)

Sex Bob-omb + Ramona Flowers (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) VS. Jonathan Sims + Martin K. Blackwood (The Magnus Archives)

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writingwithcolor · 1 year

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Jews (and Muslims) in space! AKA fun with halakhic hypotheticals

@whiteraven13 asked:

Hi, I'm writing a sci-fi book that involves a long spaceflight before arriving on a new planet. How would being in space affect things like Shabbat (since no sundown) and praying towards Mecca? I want people's faiths to be important in the book because it always drives me up the wall when sci-fi stories are like "In the future people will be enlightened and won't need religion any more." Thank you!

Oh boy are you in luck, because this is actually something we talk about all the time! An astronaut in our current world doesn’t have the option of taking a full 25 hours off work, but they have in fact marked the beginning of shabbat by lighting electronic shabbat candles. Jewish astronauts have generally observed the shabbat times of their point of takeoff; lighting shabbat candles in orbit therefore has a set precedent.

We don’t yet have a precedent for which direction to face while praying; Judaism and Islam treat this issue differently, since in Islam they face toward the actual direction of Mecca, while in Judaism we face due east even in places where Jerusalem is to the West or North of us. My instinct says that on another planet we would face toward planetary East, but on a long spaceflight my thought is that we would likely not worry about what direction the Jewish prayer space faces, since we also have the convention of facing toward whichever wall the torah scrolls are stored on, regardless of which direction it is. Speaking of which, there has been a torah scroll in space, on more than one occasion.

Judaism has a lot to say about time. We don’t only mark the beginning and end of Shabbat at certain times, we also pray three times a day, at set times, and we observe holidays linked to the seasons--the seasons as they are in Jerusalem, regardless of which hemisphere of the Earth we’re standing on. It might be a jar for characters who have been observing the shabbat times of Houston for years to finally set down on a planet where their sense of time might be completely different--and narrative-wise, that’s not a bad thing: an American Jew stepping off a plane in Australia might have a similar experience.

The question of whether pork products created by a Star Trek style replicator would be kosher is open for constant debate: my gut says that when it came down to it there would be some people who do and some people who don’t accept the kosher status of a replicated pork chop, just as there is now for Impossible or Beyond fake-meat cheeseburgers.

Thank you for your discomfort with the trope of an enlightened future where the traditions of our ancestors have been eradicated, and for wanting to paint a picture of a better future, one where we are valued and given the resources and freedom to preserve and develop our living cultures.

- Meir

I agree with Meir - the good news is these are very realistic dilemmas and you will find lots of relevant commentary online; the bad news is, you will find a lot more questions than answers! But that’s also good news, because you can pick and choose the decisions and outcomes that suit your story. The line of reasoning will matter more than the conclusion.

Not much to add except I answered a slightly similar question with some pointers on things to google and why:

Jewish Character Stuck in Time Loop

Thanks for including our religion and culture in a highly technological future world 😊

- Shoshi

#Jewish #Muslim #science fiction #religion #prayer #holidays #Shabbat #Mecca #asks

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seananmcguire · 1 year

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Hey, I understand if you're sick of the questions and don't want to answer this, but given the recent discourse I've been ruminating the possibility of a website where people could submit prompts and by submitting relinquish their rights to the idea. The submissions could be sorted by genre etc and tagged for specific franchises like Star Trek or The Simpsons or whatever. The understanding would be that these ideas are now free to use, for anyone from fanfic authors up to the shows creators themselves and so long as an author can show they took the original prompt from this creative commons-esq website they should be protected from legal action.

I'm sure there is something I'm missing as to why a website like this wouldn't work, but I was just wondering about its potential as a person who has many ideas for how shows should go and not enough executive function to make my own version.

So ideas are not the issue. Ideas have never been the issue. Creators have ideas by the truckload, or we wouldn't have become creators. At the end of the day, we have the same excess of ideas as the most invested fans, and we don't need the help.

So why the avoidance? Contamination. That's where the issue comes in. If we execute an idea the same way someone else did, we open ourselves or the IPs we're working on to lawsuits. We create doubt. "Oh why do you have to be so careful not to steal ideas if you don't need them?" Because sometimes we won't know we've done it.

Look. I am a songwriter, in addition to prose, and I've released several CDs. I don't need anyone else's ideas. I am also not a huge Green Day fan. This is relevant because I once spent a month working on a song with a really cool hook that had just popped into my head one day. I was very pleased with the song as a whole!

And then I realized I'd stolen the hook wholesale from "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day, and had to scrap the whole thing. Theft is not always intentional. The chance of contamination from such a site would be dangerous enough.

But what happens when you make your perfect site, and then someone takes your free-to-use ideas and writes a bestselling novel from them? And then the book gets made into a movie, and the lawyers for the movie studio go after everyone else who took that idea? I'm sure you could set up the initial site in such a way that they'd be in the clear, but lawsuits still cost time and money, and it's better to avoid them when possible.

So many stories have been born from ideas for specific IPs that then wind up nowhere near the final creations, I would hate to see you pouring that much passion into a platform that no sensible IP holder is going to touch, and most creators are going to avoid, because you only want to do the fun, easy part. Let us work uncontaminated, and hopefully we'll make you happy.

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1960z · 7 months

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it’s wild sometimes realising just how big trek was when tng was at its peak. like since its inception star trek has always had a massive cult following of course but during the height of tng it just had this kind of cultural relevance it never had before or since. like seeing that hallmark ad for christmas ornaments and trying to imagine an equivalent existing today feels unbelievable to me.

#part of this might just also be trek generally being bigger in the US than the rest of the world but idk #shut up abe #tng #star trek

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badbatchposts · 18 days

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Quiet Corners of the Galaxy, Chapter 13

While on a routine mission for Cid, the Bad Batch encounter a woman fleeing from the Empire. Crosshair suspects her seemingly free-spirited, nomadic existence is actually a cover for something else, but struggles to keep his attraction toward her in check as their personalities and ideals clash.

Relevant tags/content warnings: Slow Burn, Enemies to Lovers, Periodic Smut, Canon-Typical Violence, Alcohol Use

Chapters posted 1-2x weekly!

Read the full fic so far on AO3

Read previous chapters on Tumblr: Ch. 1 l Ch. 2 l Ch. 3 l Ch. 4 l Ch. 5 l Ch. 6 l Ch. 7 l Ch. 8 l Ch. 9 l Ch. 10 l Ch. 11 l Ch. 12

Chapter 13 summary: Dara is in a strange mood. The Batch makes their move to infiltrate the villa.

When she stepped out of the Marauder into the cool night air, Dara took a moment to look up at the sky, taking in the glittering stars, uncanny in all their unfamiliar positions. She wondered, as she always did, which one was her sun—the one belonging to her home system, lightyears and lightyears away. It always made her feel a little lost, not knowing. Often, when she traveled to a new planet, she would consult an adjusted star map on the first night, find her sun so that she could point out toward the galaxy and think, There. That’s home.

Not that she’d ever be able to go back again.

Trying not to think about it further, she tore her eyes away from the stars and cast them back planet side, adjusting the glasses that were settled on the brim of her nose.

“Steal those, too, burk’yc?” Crosshair’s voice came from above her. He slid down from the roof of the Marauder, landing in the field next to her on cat-like feet.

Dara hit the button to retract the ship’s ramp and strode off into the night. “They’re mine,” she muttered. “I need them for reading.”

Crosshair stalked after her. “How cute. What about this?” He gave the scarf she’d wrapped around her hair a tug, earning him a glare at his juvenile antics. Dara readjusted it, making sure all the strands were still tucked safely under.

“Half the town was staring at us yesterday,” she fumed. “I don’t want to make it easy to be recognized.”

As the pair trekked up a hill in the direction of the villa, the sniper frowned and fiddled with the toothpick in his mouth, evidently deep in thought. “You shouldn’t be going in there alone,” he finally grunted.

Glancing in his direction, Dara scoffed. “Like you give a bantha shit.”

He flicked the toothpick at her. “What I give a bantha shit aboutis the mission. And I don’t feel like rescuing you when you kark it up.”

Breathing deeply, Dara looked up at the sky again. She tried counting to ten. It was too early in the evening to commit a murder. When she looked back down, Crosshair was still glaring at her. They finally crested the top of the hill, where Wrecker and Hunter were waiting, macro binoculars trained on the villa.

Hunter glanced at them before returning to his surveillance. “Everything’s normal. Two guards stationed at the front entrance, next rounds are due in half an hour. Tech and Echo should be back in ten.”

Dara nodded and took in her first view of the mansion from close-up. She had spent much of the afternoon memorizing its floorplan, but was still somehow surprised at just how big it was. What a waste of space for one person, she mused. She seated herself a few feet away to wait, back resting against a boulder, and soon found herself once more searching through the stars for a familiar twinkle.

Almost immediately, her view was blocked by Crosshair’s scowl.

“What?” she demanded.

“Why do you keep doing that?”

She clenched her teeth with irritation. “Keep doing what?”

The sniper sneered at her. “Looking at the sky. Expecting a ship to arrive soon?”

This brought out an eye roll. “Kriff, are you paranoid. I’m just looking at the stars, asshole.”

“Why?” Crosshair squinted at her suspiciously.

“What do you mean, why?” A look of genuine bafflement wiped the annoyance off Dara’s face.

Crosshair gestured with his toothpick at the sky. “I mean, why? They’re stars. You said you were looking at them last night. You’ve seen them before.”

Dara hesitated for a moment, unsure if he was even looking for a real answer—or if he deserved one. She looked up again, tried to at least find a sliver of sky that might belong to her, but couldn’t differentiate it from every other.

“They’re different on every planet,” she began haltingly.

The sniper furrowed his brow, puzzled, then followed her gaze. “Yeah. So?”

Dara sighed. Rather than tell him the whole sad truth, she settled on a close-enough answer. “So I can’t recognize them. I don’t know the constellations here. They all tell different stories.” She glanced at him a moment, found his eyes examining her intently, and continued. “When I did fieldwork, I used to record the stories sometimes. Every culture has ancient myths about the shapes the stars take in their sky. It’s what got us up there in the first place. The whole reason we ever left our planets to begin with—to go where the stories are. Find out what’s out there. I like looking—trying to recognize them. Guessing what shapes they make. And…where the systems I’ve been are.”

The sniper opened his mouth—surely, Dara thought, to say something snarky, or accuse her of lying—but a chirp over their comms signaled Tech and Echo were approaching. Dara stood, adjusted her headscarf, and made sure her blaster was fully concealed beneath the lab coat.

“Ready?” asked Hunter.

She grinned. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

***

Crosshair watched Dara closely through his scope as she met Tech and Echo by the road at the bottom of the hill. Hopping into the speeder they had commandeered, she drove off in the direction of the villa, tonight playing the part, not of a honeymooner camping in the woods, but a hassled scientist rushing over from town. Despite what he’d told her earlier, he no longer had any doubts that she could handle herself—and handle herself well at that—although he still worried about what she might encounter once she got inside.

She was in a strange mood tonight. Maybe he’d pushed her too far.

That had been an unexpected moment of vulnerability from her; for barely half a second, he could see her features almost take on some of the otherworldly calm he had found so fascinating when she was facing down her death. But then they’d twisted back into her usual mask, and now, as he watched her park the speeder in front of the villa, she was someone else entirely.

Tech and Echo both settled into position, joining the others in studying Dara intently as she parked the speeder and approached the guards. Tech finished typing away at his datapad and looked up, satisfied.

“Comms for the villa are officially jammed,” he announced.

In contrast, they could still hear every word being exchanged between Dara and the guards from the woman’s earpiece. Her voice was convincingly frantic.

“I need immediate access to Dr. Prium’s laboratory,” Dara huffed breathlessly as soon as she gained the guards’ attention. “We have an emergency at the lab in town and Dr. Raab needs me to review some of the data that’s stored here.”

The men looked at one another uncertainly. One of them—taller and broader than his companion—folded his arms. “Access to the laboratory is restricted. Raab will have to come here himself.”

“Obviously he’s trying to hold things together in town, or he wouldn’t have sent me. I have his access card.” Dara adjusted her glasses and waved the keycard at them agitatedly.

The tall guard snatched it out of her hand and scanned it. He squinted at her suspiciously, then turned to his companion.

“Comm Raab. See what he says,” he instructed.

As the batch had planned, the call was met with nothing but static. The shorter guard shook his head.

“It’s not connecting for some reason. Interference, or some sort of problem in the control room, maybe.”

Dara tapped her foot impatiently and looked pointedly at her chronometer. “I don’t have time to wait around here. We’re on the verge of disaster. We could lose months of work!”

The taller man looked at her doubtfully, weighing his options. Finally, he sighed and jerked his head toward the entrance to the villa. “Take her in. Stop at control on the way down and check in about the comms.”

Dara scoffed. “I don’t need an escort. I’ll be in and out in no more than an hour.”

The tall man scowled and stroked his blaster menacingly. “Don’t let her out of your sight,” he insisted.

The batch exchanged concerned glances as they heard Dara sigh and watched her allow the smaller guard to lead her into the mansion.

“That’s not great,” Echo murmured.

Wrecker furrowed his brow. “Yeah. Didn’t we plan on them sending her in alone?”

Tech shrugged, eyes back on his datapad. “Ideally yes. However, Dara will have to stun the workers in the control room in any event. She will simply have to stun the guard as well.”

He was the only one looking unperturbed. Hunter, on the other hand, was scowling. “Yes, but the workers in the control room weren’t supposed to have blasters. We don’t exactly want her to get caught in a firefight.”

While they no longer had a visual on Dara as she made her way through the villa, over the comms they could still hear everything that was happening to her. After a period of silence, they heard the beeping of a keycard and the guard begin to speak.

“Hey, is there a reason comms aren’t—”

The man was interrupted by the telltale, wavering chirp of a stun blast. A thud and two more chirps immediately followed.

“Control room secured,” Dara reported. “Tech, I’m plugging in now.”

“Ah. Lovely. Thank you, Dara.” He adjusted his goggles as he set to work monitoring the progress of his programs.

“My—pleasure—Tech,” Dara grunted back. Judging by the dragging noise and slight strain in her voice, she was settling the unconscious guard safely behind the control room door, away from prying eyes.

“Patrol is passing the infiltration point on their rounds now,” Crosshair murmured, eyes glued to his scope. “Our entry window’s open.”

Tech looked up from his datapad and tucked it away safely in his belt, exchanging it for his pistols. “Automated security systems are offline. We may now enter.”

While the others stole their way across the darkened landscape that separated their hilltop from the villa, Crosshair settled in with his rifle perched atop the boulder, ready to keep watch as the rest of the team completed the infiltration. He allowed himself only the briefest glance up at the stars, wondering for a moment what constellations Dara was looking for.

Tag List: @stardusthuntress @skellymom @megmegalodondon

#the bad batch #star wars #bad batch #clone force 99 #clone wars fanfiction #tbb crosshair #tbb hunter #tbb fanfiction #sw tbb fanfiction #the bad batch fanfiction #tbb fanfic

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hyperlexichypatia · 2 months

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("Elaan of Troyius," 1968)

Broke: New Star Trek is Woke(TM) and Political(TM), not like TOS.

Woke: Star Trek has always been political, especially TOS.

Bespoke: James T. Kirk, Space Asshole Extraordinaire, speaking about the necessity of suppressing the universal murder impulse is the most directly politically relevant message of our time.

Stop trying to kill each other! Then worry about being friendly.

Somehow the fact that this gem is embedded in an overall episode made of 19 levels of misogyny adds something.

#star trek tos #star trek #elaan of troyius #stop trying to kill each other #kirk looks so done #if you would just stop trying to kill each other i could go back to bed

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lephamquynhnhu · 10 months

Text

Millennial Aegis

Chapter 4

Jing Yuan x Fem! reader

WARNINGS/ TAGS: Arranged marriage, the reader has a default name, OOC, MINORS DO NOT INTERACT. (This is a work of fanfiction, events are not aligned or relevant to the original work)

Word count: ~2300

Summary: He is so stubborn to give up on you, and you are too hard-headed to reciprocate his affection. When do you both stop torturing each other?

Not long after, you were recruited as his Strategic advisor and responsible for internal affairs. At first, you thought there would be disputes and inefficiency when working with Lord Jing Yuan, but the fact reverses. You and the general surprisingly harmonized in working together. Hence, the next fifty years of marriage continue to flow smoothly.

When you start thinking this is what happens for the rest of your life, the wheel of fate fails astray its railway, once again.

One day while you and Lord Jing Yuan were supervising the Artisanship Commission, mara-struck Cloud knights ambushed you. After just a millisecond of exchanging thoughts in silence, you two have agreed on the proper course of action in this urgent situation. He actively blocks and takes the enemies down at the front line as you evacuate innocent citizens and protect them with Baritsu or even Jujustu if a quotient enemy manages to get past the general's defense. It is supposed to be a perfect plan as Jing Yuan could easily fend off the attack to stall time for the evacuation and reinforcement. Nevertheless, the table suddenly turns when foes actively change to target your swing, which makes the circumstance dire.

"A Zhi, watch out!" - You only hear the general shouts a warning. As soon as turning around, you see red.

Your pupils squeeze at the dreadful sight of Lord Jing Yuan shedding blood because he used his body to shield you from the mortal wound. Before staggering, he quickly decapitates the said enemy with sublime swordsmanship. Time seems to freeze, and everything is immovable as you witness the fearful scene since you never see him in this state. A wrathful aura with bloodthirst he gives off sends a chilly shiver down your spine. However, Jing Yuan draws his sword into the ground to refuse to kneel.

You will never forget the moment rushing toward to support him. The slash runs from his left back shoulder to his right hip, and the smell of rusty iron intrudes your nostrils as the bright red stains your hands. Those things make your blood run cold and leave you incapacity.

"I'm glad you are okay." - the general now completely lean on your figure and only murmurs the last sentence in your ear before blackout due to blood loss. Fortunately, the reinforcement finally comes in time to suppress the chaotic situation.

"That fatal blow intended to reap your soul. If Lord Jing Yuan did not shield you, it would massacre you into two pieces."

The statement of Lady Bailu keeps roaming over and over your head, as you sit beside the bed and hold his hand dearly. After the assault, the general was hospitalized at Alchemy Commission and stayed limp in a coma for five days. Jing Yuan's body temperature is hot, and his palms are always cozy against your skin, but now, it feels like you are touching a marble figure. Cold and lifeless. Your heart aches whenever skimming over his pale complexion to see a feeble breath that looks like his longevity emits through exhalation. It must be your illusion since you barely sleep these days and vitality drains from your brain. Negative thoughts start overwhelming your mind as thinking the worst scenario. "What if...he never wakes up?" - That question replays countless times as you bring his hand to cup your cheek to seek solace. The burning sensation in your tired eyes accumulates to form woe tears.

Meanwhile, the general had a bad dream in his comatose status, in other words, a nightmarish one. His mentality treks across a vast sea of twinkling stars and finally arrives at a flowery blooming hill, roseate pastel petals looming freely at the landscape. Jing Yuan sees a man from afar, and he is mourning. His feet automatically take control as he dashes toward the man and backpedals to recognize his other essence.

"Lord Jing Yuan, are you crying?" - You abruptly appear in a spirit body with a glowy halo luminance, and a sad smile decorates your feature.

"I am sorry." - You gently mumble while wrapping your arms around his other essence, but he seems unbothered. Or rather, he cannot sense it. Too close yet so distant. Jing Yuan's mind goes wild at the scene, but unable to move. The last thing he sees is a blazing crimson ray shining bright under sunlight from your red Camillia hairpin.

His Highness is pulled back to the present and finds tears threatening to fall from your lower eyelids.

"I don't like seeing my lady cries."

Your lashes fly open at a familiar low-tone voice. The gentle Autumn glint in his amber orbs never changes when watching you. Jing Yuan uses his thumb to attempt to wipe your tears but only makes them roll faster. They finally burst out and cascade like two small springs on your face as you are paralyzed.

The general thinks every cloud has a silver lining because the proximity between you two shortens, and the invisible wall begins crumbling. His dream is no longer a fleeting fantasy as you comply with his childish requests, even receiving his affection. If trolling around the hellscape is the external push factor bringing you to his arms, a worthy price to pay.

"Why did you shield me, your Highness? We are immortals, so the ordinary wounds will not kill us?" - You finally give out curiousness while feeding him with an oat porridge bowl. Lord Jing Yuan answers as a matter of fact that he wants to keep you away from any harm at all costs.

"What kind of legendary general cannot protect his wife?" He adds and chuckles at your inquiry.

Warmth blooms over your heart. Perhaps, you eventually felt for Jing Yuan after two hundred years.

Three months later.

"You should stay at Alchemy Commission for at least one following month." - Thanks to his prime, the injury healed quickly, and his recovery process was shortened than anticipated. He is supposed to stay longer at the Alchemy Commission for advanced monitoring, yet he decided to discharge sooner.

"I knew that, but I want to sleep with my lady." - the general tightens his embrace around your waist, nuzzling your hair.

You two keep silent for a while and lie still as a bizarre mellow tranquillity nestles in your mind. If it were you back two centuries ago, you must be pondering what kind of this feeling. However, you of the present tense acquire the answer that you miss him and wish to sleep by your husband's side too.

"About the ambush..." - Jing Yuan's voice arouses the serenity of the night veil - "It was an organized crime" - you looking at the void when completing his sentence.

"Pretty sharp as always, are we?" - A low chuckle escapes his lips and resonates behind your back.

When connecting the dots, that is a proper conclusion you can draw. The mara-struck occurred accurately when you two were at the center as traffic and the crowd were at a peak. Moreover, the comms signal was more sluggish than usual, which indicates an anonymous party dipped its hand to hinder information connection. That explains why the reinforcement arrived late and pushed you into a passive state by prolonging your defense time. On top of that, the most convincing factor was the enemies' movement. Ordinarily, Cloudknights with Mara-struck would attack any living identities in their eyesight, but they changed target to you as if somebody commanded or manipulated them to shift behavior. In addition, there was a high possibility that they were domestic criminals because they knew you were always the general's weakness and familiar with your schedule. Only people who stay long enough in Xianzhou Luofu recognize this point. Or even worse when treacherous power hides among your authority.

You give out an exasperated sigh thinking about the subject. You silently hope the criminals did not conclude with foreign factors because things gradually grew more complex. The event feels like a bell that prophesies a vicious storm to Xianzhou.

After fully recovering, you two begin to investigate the ambush and explore the existence of an organization called Disciples of Sanctus Medicus. They followed the path of Aeon Abundance and plotted a grand scheme to overthrow the current government. There was also convincing evidence pointing to their failed attempt to assassinate the Abitrary-General. Not long after, Lord Jing Yuan and the Internal Bureau opened an expanded operation to eliminate that organization. All the data and files from this performance were saved as the utmost military secrets and unpublic. However, as soon as the underground battle successfully ended, his Highness got the intel that the Abundance's evils were devasting the other ships. Hence, the Xianzhou Alliance summons him to partake in their purging expeditionary.

The two of you do not measure the duration of his absence, but the general will not return before several upcoming decades. You suspect the ensnarement was just a catalyst of the event sequence, or maybe you are too skeptical to theorize a nonsense hypothesis.

You sigh softly as your hand is placed flat on his chest armor before seeing him off but say nothing. Lord Jing Yuan takes it and squeezes a little, still keeping silent.

"General...please take good care of yourself from now on and return to Luofu safely."

He scans over your face and cannot read your mind yet. Perhaps, both of you have tangled thoughts and do not know how to display what kind of expression. He suddenly snuggles you into his embrace, and you hug him back firmly after a second of surprise. The usual scent of cedar wafting as you breathe in the base of his neck for one last time.

"You will always be here for me, right?" Jing Yuan's voice cracks slightly while your eyes start to tear up.

"I will wait for your glorious triumph and be here for you."

Your cheek presses against his chest armor as you whisper the response.

He feels light-hearted and looks down with a soft smile. His eyes seem to sparkle with affection and admiration towards you.

"Thank you...for everything. And please take care of yourself too. I will see you again someday."

With that short farewell, the general and you depart different paths.

All the Luofu's affairs are now your responsibilities and execute with Lady Fu Xuan. Since the absence of Lord Jing Yuan, time seems to stop flowing, and the four seasons no longer hold any meaning. To you, they are now the linear of weather morphing. Spring with hundreds of flowers blooming synergized with the honeyed love songs of birds does not reach your interest anymore. Summer comes along the blue sapphire sky, and the symphony of cicadas is a mere trait of fiery weather. Even the mellow Autumn hue used to remind you of his amber irises now seeming arid and tasteless.

"Your Ladyship...Your Ladyship!"

There is a concerned voice calling you desperately. It seems familiar, but you cannot figure it out as your clouded mind is incompetent now.

"Master Jin!"

The title finally does the trick when a sugar cube flops down your tea as you are back to reality.

"You space out again, your Ladyship." - Yanqing points out with a pout on his face.

You and your musical disciple have been playing chess, and it would be shameful if he finds out you are not concentrating on his movement. However, the young boy is far intelligent to hit your nerve with another fact. He beams before you recover.

"My master Jin must miss General too much."

Your dark frown at Yanqing sends him quivering a little.

"Since when did you become this audacity?"

He would be doomed if provoking you any further, so he says his apologies and excuses himself quickly to evade your forthcoming reprimands. Looking at the boy jump with joy, you assume Lord Jing Yuan was too lenient with him. Maybe, so were you.

Either way, your shared disciple hit your bullseye as you thought about Jing Yuan more frequently lately. Due to the attribute of every war, you must avoid all electronic devices with short wavelengths to prevent line-tracking. Moreover, to secure leaking any secrets, you incinerate every letter Lord Jing Yuan sent once done reading. It has been nearly one hundred-odd year pass, and you lost count of the letters exchanged. You cannot help but ponder what he felt when waiting for you to reciprocate his love because it is unbearably painful now. You divert concentration on the snow-besieged yard where frost blasted every bud except for one thing. Red camellia still prominently blossoms at the ethereal white despite the harsh weather. Whenever looking snowflakes fall ceaselessly like this, you imagine them as dandelion clocks dancing around the ambiance. Your mind starts drifting back to the old memory when the two of you drank wine and contemplated the full moon.

"Have you ever seen any shooting stars, Lord Jing Yuan?" - You asked him while watching a burgundy maelstrom swirling in your crystal glass.

"Not yet. Something in your mind?"

A halation crowned above Jing Yuan's head when drawing attention to you. He looked like a divine creation when bathing under that hazy moonlight then. You might be drunk as seeing the blurry silvery locks adorning his face.

"People said that wishes will come true if you finish your sentence before they disappear." - You zoomed out your eyesight to the endless celestial bodies skyward, shining like hidden gems - "I...want to be your hero for once."

You finally closed your dreamy eyes and dozed off on the general's shoulder.

Finally, the expeditionary finished with a victory when the cherry blossom flourished. All of Xianzhou Loufu's corners sing the triumphal hymn to welcome back their legendary general as swallows levitate in the high sky. As soon as Jing Yuan returns to his estate, you jump on to hug him. Being crashed surprisedly, he loses his balance leading you both to land on the floor. After some moments, he manages to get himself up, and he feels like his heart nearly explodes with joy as clinging to you once more.

"A Zhi, I am home."

#hsr x you #jing yuan x reader #honkai star rail x reader #jing yuan x you #hsr fanfic #honkai star rail fanfic #honkai star rail x you

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