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Author Topic: Ramshackle Titans - Knights Reliquar Thread - M2 Deployment  (Read 9855 times)

Empiricist

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Re: Ramshackle Titans - Arehan Frontier Union Thread
« Reply #45 on: August 14, 2020, 11:35:42 am »

The Fuck's This?
A for-profit merc group specializing in keeping Titans operational by making them channel ghost ships to enhance their own capabilities and restore functionality to parts too broken to work without the help of magic anymore.

Why The Fuck Should I Care?
Quote from: The Naval Historian Argument
Imbue Titans with aspects/capabilities of historical naval ships and events!
Power a binocular railgun with Rozhestvensky's raw fury!
Channel the Yorktown's raw tenacity!
Quote from: The Novelty Argument
Harness depleted ghost ships to empower giant robots!
Titans can have a metal as fuck mecha revenant aesthetic, battlescarred machines that enter combat burning and sparking!
Quote from: The Weeaboo Argument
Mecha that integrate the bastard lovechild of Fate and Kantai Collection/Azur Lane!

Lazarus Security Consulting/Tsushima Memorial Squadron (Provisional Name)
Sometimes a Titan simply stops moving. It's not really destroyed, but it's not operational either. Maybe its reactor took a bad hit. Maybe its wiring got fried. Maybe its pilot lies dead with no clue as to why save for the profound terror frozen on their face and the fact that they've gouged out their own eyes. Point is it's not working but it's not a write-off either. In these situations you don't just abandon it. No, you retrieve it, you repair it, you strip out what's broken and put in something that isn't.

You don't call Lazarus for that. No, you call Lazarus for is when it's dead. When it's kaput. When it's less a Titan and more a scrap fire that just so happens to exist in the general shape of a Titan. They're bring it back to life. Turn that wreck into, well really still a wreck but alive and vengeful, a mechanical revenant brought back from the dead to finish the fight. All they ask in exchange is a modest retainer, and that they get to keep the Titan afterwards.

Lazarus Security Consulting is a Ysian private military contractor specializing in reanimating Titans. Leveraging the modular design of their Titans and the AFU's considerable industrial capabilities, the typical Arehan PMC's approach to Titan repair consists of simply replacing damaged parts. Lazarus begged to differ. Not really out of any innovative spark but rather because back then money was tight and replacements were looking pretty pricey.

Cash-strapped in the wake of some truly impressive fiscal mismanagement, the then-named Atlas Security Group made the smart financial choice - they resorted to witchcraft.

Calling in favors from some more eccentric labs the group donated their more damaged Titans to experimentation aimed at restoring their function as cheaply as possible. The first few came back super haunted. The next few also came back super haunted but in a more beneficial way.

There were three key problems with trying to reanimate broken machinery with ghosts. Firstly, ghosts especially fresh ghosts are highly erratic which is rather problematic when you're trying to make sure they make something work better not worse. Secondly, the ghosts of destroyed machinery don't have the strongest sense of self and so have trouble behaving coherently. Thirdly, the idea was batshit crazy.

The first problem was solved through the use of depleted ghosts. See, it turned out that the reason why fresh ghosts are unstable is because the sheer violence of them separating from their material forms leaves them charged with necrotic energy which they randomly emit like radiation. Thus these problems can be avoided by using far older ghosts which have already reached their ground state. They found that ancient warships worked particularly well due to having a high degree of compatibility with Titans, particularly those under distributed control schemes. These ghost ships also had the added benefit of being readily summonable through the use of netherlight emissions to beckon them towards "port".

The second problem was solved through the use of human ghosts. By synchronizing a human ghost to a ghost ship, one can create a gestalt entity that tempers the raw power of the ghost ship with the identity and agency of the human. Any human ghost will do but depleted typically result in higher quality results.

Armed with this new technology the PMC rebranded as Lazarus Security Consulting, and was able to quickly recoup costs by skimping out on repair costs and later on creating the novel (and rather lucrative market) of reanimating the Titans of other paramilitary groups in exchange for being able to keep them afterwards, further skimping out on the costs of actually buying the damn things themselves.

Nowadays this insurance-like business model is responsible for the bulk of the company's businesses, with small squads of Titans and support engineers attaching to other paramilitary forces to reanimate anything too broken down for proper repair.

Lazarus was awarded the Sommet contract for two main reasons. Firstly, because they can keep a Titan running, running on fume and scrap if need be, and if their intel was on the money that, was very well what they would have to do. Secondly, because they're inoffensive, look past their gimmick and they're a pretty standard merc outfit with no strong corporate ties, no particular ideology, and no noteworthy backers. They weren't anyone's first choices sure, but they weren't anyone else's puppets either making them a solid second or third preference for many AFU factions, enough so for them to win the contract in the end.

Lazarus has dispatched one of their few remaining solo operation units on this mission, the Tsushima Memorial Squadron, named in honor of one of its main patron ghosts, the vengeful spirit of Admiral Zinovy Petrovich Rozhestvensky. A spirit that is only the more vengeful from being fused to, of all possible ships, the accursed ghost of that lecherous slut Kamchatka, the very bane of their past existence.
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<Caellath>: Emp is the hero we don't need, deserve or want

Madman198237

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Re: Ramshackle Titans - Mech/Magic Side Thread
« Reply #46 on: August 14, 2020, 08:14:54 pm »

Quote
The Blood-Red Cross (3): Cronos5010, TricMagic, Madman
Guérillas sans Frontières/Happy Days (1): MoP

I have finally read all of these close enough to make a decision.
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We shall make the highest quality of quality quantities of soldiers with quantities of quality.

Strider03

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Re: Ramshackle Titans - Mech/Magic Side Thread
« Reply #47 on: August 14, 2020, 08:17:11 pm »

Quote
The Blood-Red Cross (4): Cronos5010, TricMagic, Madman, Strider
Guérillas sans Frontières/Happy Days (1): MoP
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Within that world, she was God. But here, outside of it, her name was Yoake o-Shiri. That was unimportant. She was a Godslayer. That too was unimportant. But what was important, was that she had a motherfucking boat.
And by God, was she going to use it.

"But deceleration is for pansies. We're headed for the stars. Bye, Burnsie. Bye, Mission Control. Bye, Sol. See you at heat death" -Blindsight

Empiricist

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Re: Ramshackle Titans - Mech/Magic Side Thread
« Reply #48 on: August 14, 2020, 08:20:38 pm »

Quote
The Blood-Red Cross (5): Cronos5010, TricMagic, Madman, Strider, Empiricist
Guérillas sans Frontières/Happy Days (1): MoP
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Quote from: Caellath (on Discord)
<Caellath>: Emp is the hero we don't need, deserve or want

Twinwolf

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Re: Ramshackle Titans - Mech/Magic Side Thread
« Reply #49 on: August 15, 2020, 10:09:36 pm »

Quote
Blood Red Cross (6): Cronos5010, TricMagic, Madman, Strider, Empiricist, Twinwolf
 -name them the Knights Reliquar instead (1): Twinwolf
Guérillas sans Frontières/Happy Days (1): MoP
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Sigtext!
Of course, Twin is neither man nor woman but an unholy eldritch abomination like every other Bay12er. The difference is they hide it better.
Quote from: Caellath on IRC
<Caellath>: Twinwolf, your thirst for blood has been noted.

Madman198237

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Re: Ramshackle Titans - Mech/Magic Side Thread
« Reply #50 on: August 15, 2020, 10:20:23 pm »

Quote
Blood Red Cross (6): Cronos5010, TricMagic, Madman, Strider, Empiricist, Twinwolf
 -name them the Knights Reliquar instead (2): Twinwolf, Madman
Guérillas sans Frontières/Happy Days (1): MoP

I haven't got a necessarily better idea yet.
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We shall make the highest quality of quality quantities of soldiers with quantities of quality.

Empiricist

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Re: Ramshackle Titans - Mech/Magic Side Thread
« Reply #51 on: August 16, 2020, 05:40:54 pm »

Quote
Blood Red Cross (6): Cronos5010, TricMagic, Madman, Strider, Empiricist, Twinwolf
 -name them the Knights Reliquar instead (3): Twinwolf, Madman, Empiricist
Guérillas sans Frontières/Happy Days (1): MoP
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Quote from: Caellath (on Discord)
<Caellath>: Emp is the hero we don't need, deserve or want

TricMagic

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Re: Ramshackle Titans - Mech/Magic Side Thread
« Reply #52 on: August 16, 2020, 06:27:37 pm »

Quote
Blood Red Cross (6): Cronos5010, TricMagic, Madman, Strider, Empiricist, Twinwolf
 -name them the Knights Reliquar instead (3): Twinwolf, Madman, Empiricist
 - keep the name: (1) TricMagic
Guérillas sans Frontières/Happy Days (1): MoP
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m1895

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Re: Ramshackle Titans - Mech/Magic Side Thread
« Reply #53 on: August 16, 2020, 06:50:51 pm »

Quote
Blood Red Cross (6): Cronos5010, TricMagic, Madman, Strider, Empiricist, Twinwolf
 -name them the Knights Reliquar instead (4): Twinwolf, Madman, Empiricist , m1895
 - keep the name: (1) TricMagic
Guérillas sans Frontières/Happy Days (1): MoP
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cronos5010

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Re: Ramshackle Titans - Mech/Magic Side Thread
« Reply #54 on: August 17, 2020, 06:07:48 pm »

Quote
Blood Red Cross (6): Cronos5010, TricMagic, Madman, Strider, Empiricist, Twinwolf
 -name them the Knights Reliquar instead (4): Twinwolf, Madman, Empiricist, Cronos5010
 - keep the name: (1) TricMagic
Guérillas sans Frontières/Happy Days (1): MoP
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"I guess I gotta get all funky if I'm gonna make this work."-Stretch Armstrong

AzyWng

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Re: Ramshackle Titans - Arehan Frontier Union Thread
« Reply #55 on: August 18, 2020, 05:06:14 pm »

Quote
Of course, some may point out that their assessment of who the "good guy" in any given situation is is flawed and largely influenced by whoever can afford the biggest "donation", and sometimes just whoever happens to be on the defensive when they arrive. These people in some regards may be right. These people are also evidently the bad guys, if they're bad mouthing a god of protection and safety, and are worthy of scorn at best and heavy firepower at worst.

I think I know who I'm voting for.


Quote
Blood Red Cross (7): Cronos5010, TricMagic, Madman, Strider, Empiricist, Twinwolf, AzyWng
 -name them the Knights Reliquar instead (5): Twinwolf, Madman, Empiricist, Cronos5010, AzyWng
 - keep the name: (1) TricMagic
Guérillas sans Frontières/Happy Days (1): MoP
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Powder Miner

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Re: Ramshackle Titans - Knights Reliquar Thread
« Reply #56 on: August 18, 2020, 08:06:36 pm »

Preliminary Phase Four - Blueprint

The Arehan Frontier Union has its fair share of hypocrisy, that is very much for sure. The teeming mob of factions that lie within their borders and/or fight under (or adjacent to) their flag have a wide bevy of ideologies, mission statements, and methods, and these often contradict each other flagrantly. There's a level of deniability that goes into that: the Arehan Frontier Union can and does state repeatedly that it is not responsible for the ideologies of the groups that it takes under its wing, for its acceptance of refugee groups is notoriously not based on their ideology. But these factions --some immigrant, but some also very much home-grown, as far as "home-grown" goes for Areha-- do have influence over the Arehan Frontier Union, and years of conflict from an undeniable aggressor have led the more imperialist and/or interventionist factions of the AFU to gain enough influence to send one of their number out to the Sommet Sector.

One of the older interventionist factions, one that contradicts itself on whether or not it's an imperialist faction but very much is an interventionist faction, one which represents part of the core of that group, is the Knights Reliquar. Somewhere between a religious order, charitable NGO, and paramilitary, the Knights Reliquar follow Le Blason, the god of a once-medieval and magical kingdom in the Jumble Sector which had its heyday a thousand and a half years ago but which was long ago wiped out by invaders from outside of the sector, a rare and notable occurrence. The Knights Reliquar are actually a rather large organization, something which only adds to the controversy that surrounds the actions that the organization takes -- often meant well, but often blunt and sometimes being aimed at entirely the wrong individuals. The group sent over to the Sommet Sector is just an expeditionary fragment, sent on the command frigate Le Bouclier with a set of smaller shuttles on which operations such as Titan work or landing are conducted. This consists of an extremely experienced commander, and then a largely fresh set of members of the order around them, sent in part to prove themselves.

Notable personnel of the Knights Reliquar:

Commandeur des Chevaliers Žaneta Vasiliauskas - Commander

Žaneta Vasiliauskas is by far the most experienced of the expeditionary group sent by the Knights Reliquar, once a Titan pilot herself but now relegated to office duty now that she is in her 40s. Veteran of the conflict with the Kingdom of the Unrivalled Archaeologist, Žaneta is primarily notable for her fervent nature, being a strong adherent of Le Blason, and viewing her duty in the Knights Reliquar with all of the zeal that one would expect. Žaneta is an aggressive commander, something which the more zealous members of the Knights Reliquar admire greatly but which can rub some of the less devout or more cautious members of the order very much the wrong way. Her experience means that her estimation of combat odds is, at least, actually fairly calibrated, and her ability to pick her fights and keep driving forward with minimal resources is why she was picked to lead the expeditionary force.

Connétable Christel Lachapelle - Second-in-Command

Whereas Žaneta comes from a direct combat background, Connétable Christel Lachapelle hails from a different aspect of the Knights Reliquar -- the side of the order responsible for religious rituals and magic. Sent in order to make sure that the expeditionary force does not stray from its purpose, Christel is adamant that she will not allow the expeditionary force to commit acts of barbarity... but the issue is that she is actually terribly naive and has not experienced a combat front before, meaning that she is not actually difficult to convince or fool so long as you word things the right way. On the bright side, she strongly prioritizes the safety of the members of the expeditionary force, and the reason she actually does get involved with mundane command tasks that a second-in-command normally should, rather than just act as a moral advisor, is in order to ensure that the expeditionary force doesn't lose people. In fact, she goes above and beyond, helping with religious work, with command, and with counseling members of the force when needed.

Frère-Chevalier Moos Rademaker - Chief Engineer

Frère-Chevalier Moos Rademaker is an individual that finds himself something of a difficult fit within the expeditionary force of the Knights Reliquar, but who is more than a little bit vital. Moos is a recent addition to the Knights Reliquar, having joined after they helped save his town on the planet Gurney III (a neutral planet but one of strong strategic interest to the Arehans, being near to Areha, and of great archaeological interest to the Kingdom), and he feels a strong loyalty to the group -- but he's not actually that devout, and is used to a more mundane lifestyle and worldview. His demeanor flips between casual when he's talking to people who don't outrank him and extremely awkward when he's talking to those who do, and he's a rather young guy (being only 21), but his heavy technical expertise makes him one of the best at working on the mechanical side of the Titan work that the expeditionary force obviously greatly needs. For that reason, it's not much likely his issues will have serious consequences, especially as they're not actively harmful.

Connètable Spirituel Diesel Engine B27XD5 - Machine Union Head

Diesel Engine B27XD5, or Diesel for short, is the spirit of a diesel engine -- and a very old spirit indeed, coming from a machine present in Areha from its very founding days as a bunch of struggling and dying colonists. He's also a bit of a Presence, with a capital P: having had a long time in Machine Unions, he has a very good idea of the kind of leverage he can bring to bear, and when to do so, and because he's something of an elder statesman of machines, he's got a long patience and an iron will. However, he is also aware that the wellbeing of the machines in his union is directly tied to the wellbeing of the group they're with (a Titan getting shot to hell is bad for the machines in it) and thus also makes efforts to be actively helpful so long as his conditions are fulfilled, in effect supervising and assisting with a great deal of the magic work on Titans in the expeditionary force. He's seen a lot of magic and spirit work over his time in life, and has become extremely knowledgeable on it. (Resanctification is often handled by Christel, however.)

Frère-Chevalier Jalen Elliott - Pilot

Much like Moos and the other pilot, Frère-Chevalier Jalen is a recent addition to the Knights Reliquar, having joined in order to go out there and do something good in the galaxy. Going out to a sector that almost nobody from the Jumble Sector goes out to and doing kinds of good nobody from the Jumble Sector has done was just even better, and Jalen jumped at the chance to do so. Jalen is still very much naive, also not being a combat veteran and without having seen combat or murder on his home colony ship, the Troy... and this has also led to a rather awkward personality trait of his. Jalen seems to have found a kindred spirit in one of his commanding officers, who is also very naive and ideological, and quite caring, and he seems to have become primarily loyal to her. Actually, it's an embarrassingly obvious crush that almost everybody simply prefers to not get involved with.

Sœur-Chevalier Yana Nikolaeva - Pilot

Sœur-Chevalier Yana hails from the Avalon, and has much of the spirit of military adventurism found on that ship -- her primary goal is to get out there and really just kick some fucking ass, very much eager to prove Arehan mettle and extend its influence out into another Sector. She is, in fact, not really even religious, having joined the Knights Reliquar only when her relatives (in high places in the Avalon let slip to her that they were going to be chosen to go out into the Sommet Sector). She is not yet a combat veteran, having seen this deployment as a chance to gain some Titan piloting experience and combat experience, but she has grown up around military officers her whole life and fits into the strictness and combination of waiting and action of a military surprisingly well for a newbie. She figures herself to have command potential (and isn't entirely wrong), but has decided that she would prefer to pilot even if she were recognized for her natural leadership abilities.



Space is a premium on the Rapid-Pair Ship Sojourner, with only so much storage space and only so many docking points for ships. The Knights Reliquar were forced only to bring the Le Bouclier and a pair of landing craft/shuttles -- one for crew and storage primarily, the other holding a Titan. This Titan is solid in its capacities for its size, but the size is quite small and light, and some sacrifices had to be made in order to make it compact easily. Still, as it's of Avalonian make, Žaneta, Moos, and Diesel are confident in its abilities to hold up for the early part of their tenure in the Sommet Sector, although there is a desire for later expansion.

Spoiler: Starting Titan (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Parts and Equipment (click to show/hide)

You were also granted a more unique piece of technology by the Knights Reliquar, to help give you an edge in combat. But just what is that piece of equipment?

Design a single Blueprint (reference the rules for what a Blueprint is). The Equipment or Part you create will be the first Blueprint you have access to, and it will be present on your Titan from the start, replacing something on the Titan. (Designing an arm would replace both arms with the new arm, designing a medium shielding device or weapon would replace the railgun, etc.) Designing a Large piece of equipment will actually alter the mech, as it will remove one Small mount and change the Medium mount on the Torso to a Large one. Designing Carryable Equipment will remove the Medium weapon but keep its Mount. You can't design a Torso this phase. Utter Failures will be rerolled just this one time.
« Last Edit: August 18, 2020, 08:15:49 pm by Powder Miner »
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Man of Paper

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Re: Ramshackle Titans - Knights Reliquar Thread
« Reply #57 on: August 18, 2020, 09:29:16 pm »

Arsonist Custom Legs

Arsonist Customs are legs not dissimilar to the Arquebusier models in that they are fairly light and not too tough, and don't move real quick. What they do have are series' of thrusters on them powered by some angry ghosts or whatever our magic system is which allow the mech to leap in any direction, adjust trajectory midflight, and reduce impact when landing. The legs include a stabilizing ghost thing or something that keeps the legs pointed down so the mech doesn't flip around (unless it's intending to).

They're called Arsonist Customs as the immense heat blasting out of the thrusters can start fires.
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TricMagic

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Re: Ramshackle Titans - Knights Reliquar Thread
« Reply #58 on: August 19, 2020, 07:50:33 am »

Hyperborea [Leg Part]

Crafted from light materials, angled to cut through the wind and easy stabilization when needed, and filled with fans, adjusters, turbines, and jets,  the Hyperborea is shaped like a skirt going down the titans waist, with a flat-ish bottom for landing upright. Wind and lightning spirits inhabit it, wanting freedom from earthly bounds but are never quite able to fully escape the grasp of the earth. It replaces the legs, and allows for movement over all terrain. The Hyperborea is a single part as a result of it's build, replacing both legs, and offers great speed and maneuverability in all situations. However, it is not without flaw, for it does not do well when wielding melee weapons that Require footing to use. Heavier Swords, some Lances and pretty much anything in the Axe or Hammer class are not viable for use with the Hyperborea, for weapons that use kinetics to deal a good deal of their damage have no footing to push against any opponant on the ground. That isn't to say they cannot be equipped, just that equipping them will not have very positive effects compared to weapons that are smaller/lighter and make more use of speed than power. And the Hyperborea at the end of the day excels more at keeping the range and dodging than fighting with melee weapons close up. It will do well just about everywhere else as a workhorse for Titans, just not in most melee weapon categories.

« Last Edit: August 22, 2020, 06:17:02 pm by TricMagic »
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ConscriptFive

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Re: Ramshackle Titans - Knights Reliquar Thread
« Reply #59 on: August 19, 2020, 11:12:54 am »

Wielded Equipment: Spirit Infecting Nunchaku (SIN)

As we have long proven, all life is imbued with a certain immortal spirit.  From an eternity in a void, a being is born only briefly into the mortal world, before it again returns to slumber.  The best spirits (for our purposes) often hate living things.  Often their life was tragically cut short, and they've spent a relative eternity obsessing over how they were wrong.  Those spirits will never find the powers that robbed them of life, but they're more than happy to take out their undying rage against anybody else.  If they couldn't have a long and happy life, no one else should.

These spirits are too dangerous to serve as loyal workhorses, but they make great munitions.  The Spirit Infecting Nunchaku (SIN) weaponizes these anti-social malevolent spirits.  The SIN is a melee weapon which contains a magazine of particularly destructive spirits who can be literally beat into an adversarial titan.  Watch as a raped and murdered schoolgirl redefines "girl power" as she take out her rage on the psyche of some testosterone-fueled titan jock.

... Wow, can you say daddy issues?

Who knew misguided retribution could be so useful?  As the old Knight adage goes, "SIN to win!"
« Last Edit: August 19, 2020, 11:15:35 am by ConscriptFive »
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