Memory transcription subject: Ilona Zolya, the First of the Bloodline
Date [standardised Aurigan time]: Linden 12, 1 AA
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My senses were still numb from the cryosleep, but I could hear the alarms blaring around me. Had we made it? Were we safe?
I didn't have time to orient myself before someone grabbed me by the arm and pulled me behind a cryopod, projectiles whizzing past my head. The adrenaline brought me to my sense, and I recognized Opbot as the one who saved me.
"What- Opbot, what's happening?" I managed to respond, flexing my fingers to restore some motility to them.
"Zolya, thank goodness. We seem to have been boarded." the old surgical droid informed me, before peeking out from behind the pod and shooting at our unseen assailant with uncanny accuracy. "They restored power to the ship, and myself. They were really friendly until they saw you. Then they started killing everyone."
Opbot then handed me his crossbow, before pulling out a pair of daggers. "Here, you'll need it more than me." He then said, and without another word he leapt out from behind the pod, and the room filled with gurgling, alien screams.
I took another moment to steel myself, and activated my shield projector, before stepping out, crossbow at the ready. Opbot had killed every alien in the room, some sort of hedgehog beast, and had already run down the hall.
I followed after him, seeing more of the enemy. They were trying to kill everyone that had been awakened from cryostasis- I had no idea why, but whatever the reason, Opbot didn't seem to spark their ire, it was the sight of my people that triggered them.
Taking aim and nailing two of them through their skulls, I continued to skulk after Opbot. Moments like this were ones I was happy we forgave him for his crimes.
"Zolya! We need to secure the cryobays. You take aft, I'll go port!" The bot then called back. I signaled confirmation and made my way towards the back of the ship, while he went left.
Making my way towards the second cryobay, I heard the sound of survivors clearly fighting off the invaders. Readying my crossbow, I leapt out from around the corner and fired an explosive bolt towards the hedgehogs, sending them flying from the blast.
"Zolya, thank the ancestors. What's happening?" One of the survivors spoke up, I recognized him as Raudd, one of the ecologists. He had been instrumental in fighting off the Necrophage on Auriga. I'm glad he was still alive. Wherever the Argosy had taken us, we would definitely need ecologists.
"I wish I knew, soldier, but whoever these aliens are, they started attacking on sight. We need to beat them back and retake the Argosy first, then we can worry about who and why."
Raudd nodded, along with the other soldiers with them. There were no other women here, which left me in charge of these men. Raising my crossbow I gave the sign for them to follow, and they complied, skulking after me, crossbows and axes ready.
The rest of the cryobay was easy to clear, small groups of hedgehogs were trying to open pods and execute people, but the Mezari technology was proving too tough for them. So glad the protocol awakens our warriors first.
Once the cryobay was clear, we made our back towards the bow, and therefore the bridge. Seems that while I was clearing the cryobay, Opbot had taken more survivors up to the bridge with him, and had already reclaimed it.
"Ah, Zolya. We've retaken the bridge. But there's a problem..." Opbot pointed to the viewport, where we could see a dozen alien ships surrounding us.
"Can we get the Metafolding engine running? Get us out of here?" I asked.
"We can... but it will drain the last of the power. We'll be drifting in space... again." Opbot responded, eliciting mumbles from the survivors.
"Alright, do it. I won't have us sit here and be destroyed instead."
Opbot nodded, before jacking into the controls of the ship and spooling up the metafolding drive. The ring around the ship spooled to life, and the aliens immediately began firing upon it.
"Brace yourselves, the drive is taking hits!"
Everyone grabbed onto what they could as space folded around us, and we were sent tumbling into the unknown.
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Memory transcription subject: Governor Tarva of the Venlil Republic
Date [standardised Aurigan time]: Linden 12, 1 AA
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When we heard that the Gojid had encountered some sort of predator "worldship" out in the void it was a shock to everyone. Every planet in the sector was due to be evacuated, should the Gojid fail to contain the predator infection.
When the predator ship vanished without a trace, some wanted to celebrate, cancel the evactuations... but then the ship reappeared just a few hours later, right in orbit of our home.
“Governor Tarva... Governor Tarva!” My military advisor, Kam, snapped me out of my trance. “Please, I beg you. We must continue the evacuation. They're just sitting there, dead in the water. Are we even sure there's anyone on board?”
“And what if it's a trap? What if they shoot down or capture any ship we send up? We need to hunker down in our bunkers and wait for the Gojid to get here.” I asked.
Kam sighed. “And what if they just vanish again when the Gojid get here?”
"Everyone knows they can do that now, they'll be on guard. Until then, get the civilians to bomb shelters immediately.” I stared at my paws, cursing the day I chose to run for office. “And contact the predator ship. I—I will personally offer our unconditional surrender.”
“Surrender? Without firing a single shot?!” the advisor growled.
“Perhaps they’ll be kinder than the Arxur. My hope is they’ll spare the children. At worst, we can buy some time. But if we fight, they’ll kill us all.”
To my surprise, the giant ship accepted our transmission, but nothing could prepare me for what was on the other end. A gaggle of predators, all wearing black and white pelts in artificial patterns, brandishing axes made of pure energy, and holding crossbows with their arms mounted the wrong way around. It was surreal. The words of our surrender were almost to my lips when the predator in the front locked its forward-facing eyes with mine. There was an odd calm in its features though, unflinching, unmoving, almost like a machine.
It then uttered a few words in a guttural dialect, which I assumed was an announcement of our impending doom. The translator tingled by my ear, pressing the meaning into my mind. I took a shaky breath, certain the machine was wrong.
"Plese do not shoot. We are mere refugees, and we come in peace."
I stared at it, lost for words. “Refugees? What?”
The translator spit out my question in the guttural language.
The predator blinked, the stern expression never leaving its face. “So you understand us. We require asylum. Our people fled a dying world and have been in cryosleep for countless years. Our power supply is nearly drained. Without aide our life support will soon cut off. Please, we need your help.”
“Yes… I know what seeking refuge means.” I stammered. “Why would you want our help?”
"Why would we not? You are not our enemies."
"Not your enemies? You're predators! Our kinds are natural enemies!" Kam spat out, causing the predator's steely gaze to fall onto him, and he immediately shrank, despite how calm the creature was.
"Predators? What are you talking about?"
"H-He means you eat flesh." I managed to stammer, eliciting a confused expression from the predator. "People..."
"People? I assure you, we don't eat people. In fact, our own people have been eaten in the past by other races on our homeworld."
"Other races? You mean more predators?" My words seemed to confuse the predator even harder, causing it to look around to its companions. They all muttered amongst themselves for a few secondes, before the leader addressed me again.
"My people are mezari, our ancestors were stranded generations ago on the planet Auriga. There we met many other races, some friendly, some not. such the Necrophage, a sapient infection that consumed all living matter and converted corpses into more Necrophages. We have some non-mezari races on board, such as the Minotaurs, which are herbivores like you, or the Elves, which are more like us."
The screen was then filled with what I can only assume were holograms. Robots, holograms, teleportation. These predators possessed technology we'd only ever dreamed of in fiction, yet there it was, right before my eyes.
Dozens of portraits flashed on the holograms, some of them were of mezari-like beings, others were of creatures with impossible forms and natures, some were even of prey with side-facing eyes, and even others still were of clearly carnivorous predators.
Kam nearly fainted at the sight of a massive, quadrupedal predator amongst the images, and I had to grab the edge of my chair so as not to fall over, my knees feeling weak.
"A-Are these your slave races?" I sputtered out, immediately regretting my decision as anger filled the predator's face.
"Slaves? I assure you that slavery is a crime punishable by death amongst my people. No, these are fellow refugees from Auriga, they were our allies, and we helped as many as we could in leaving the planet." The predator paused, before dispersing the holograms with a hand gesture.
"Will you help us? We have children on board, and we're running on emergency power." The predator- No, mezari's eyes seemed desperate as it asked the question. If these beings were capable of having alliances then they surely possessed empathy.
I prayed I was not making a mistake, and with a shaky breath, I responded. "How much power do you have left?" I asked, looking up at the screen again.
"A few days worth, but we can't move the ship without completely draining the last of the emergency power. We had to take everyone out of cryosleep in order to make our supply last longer, and disabled everything that's not life support or communications."
With another deep breath I nodded and looked over to Kam. "Kam, prepare an escort, we have guests coming."
"Are you crazy? Tarva, you can't let them set foot on Venlil Prime!" Kam spoke up again, my words shaking him out of his terified trance.
"What am I to do, Kam? Let them crash into the planet when they run out power!?" I responded sharply. Before looking towards the predators one last time. They were all patiently watching us squabble, reminding me of the Venlil's reputation as too emotional, filling me with shame.
"I-I apologize for that. Please-" The mezari intrerupted me with a raised hand. "We don't need an escort. Don't worry, we will land our ship on the night side of your planet, on the edge of the ring ocean. Our people are used to arctic conditions, and this will keep us out of sight of your citizens. Is this agreeable?"
"I- Yes, that is agreeable." I replied, really hoping that I wasn't about to doom my entire race.
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Memory transcription subject: Ilona Zolya, the First of the Bloodline
Date [standardised Aurigan time]: Linden 12, 1 AA
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The sheep aliens were going to be... interesting to deal with. Seems their culture was incredibly terrified of meat eaters. Maybe it was due to the predators on their world?
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
No matter, we were lucky they accepted to take us in, at least for now. If all things went well we'd be able to find some Dust and power the Argosy back up, before leaving this sector of space for somewhere quiet. What a horrible way to wake up this had been...
After we landed the Argosy on the edge of the arctic twilight, we received another communication from the aliens. Their leader wanted us to meet and discuss further, so we obliged.
Getting into our sole scout shuttle, I took Raudd and Opbot, as well as two Minotaur guards. The presence of the lumbering herbivores would hopefully calm the weird sheep down.
Stepping into the angular Faering, I steeled myself for what was to come. It was clear that paranoia and mistrust ran rampant in this part of the universe, wherever we were. I was just glad the sheep didn't open fire first like the hedgehogs had.
After a short flight over the alien cities, we landed at the given co-ordinates, where the two aliens I'd talked to were waiting for us, alongside a third.
They all looked nervous, which is why I told the Minotaurs to go first. That may have been a mistake... The sight of the lumbering giants with their massive horns seemed to scare the aliens more than we had, though they quickly steeled themselves after a few seconds.
Stepping up behind the two, I gave a curt bow to the sheep that was leading these people. "Greetings, I hope my Minotaur friends didn't scare you too much. They are merely here for my protection. I am the Zolya Ilona, first of the Bloodline, these are Opbot DV8, an old friend of my people, and Raudd Klapatch, one of our seekers."
The small, wooly alien stammered a bit before answering. "N-Not at all, they're just... really tall. I am Tarva, Governor of Venlil Prime, and these are Kam, my military advisor, and Cheln, my diplomatic advisor. We welcome you and your allies to our world."
The 'venlil' were clearly nervous, though I wasn't sure if it was normal nervousness or irrational fear. My brow furrowed with worry for a moment, but I tried to ignore it. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Governor Tarva. As you can see, we do indeed have all manner of species on board."
The two young minotaurs huffed and looked unimpressed with our alien hosts, staying silent as they looked them up and down. Cheln seemed to faint from their mere presence, eliciting a distraught noise from Tarva.
"Is he going to be ok?...." I asked with a tilt of my head, which caused Tarva to give a nervous response of “Yes, he’ll be fine. This is just—a bit overwhelming.”
Tal, one of my guards decided to hoist the unconscious venlil over his shoulder without warning "We can carry puny sheep." He proclaiemd proudly, making Tarva shudder. She didn't say anything in response, just awkwardly pointed to the inside of the manor where she had invited us.
While Tal was carrying Cheln inside and the rest of us were following after, everyone seemed to be focused on their own thoughts. Opbot was looking around at everything, Tarva was nervously fidgeting, Kam was gawking at the Minotaurs, and Raudd was gazing at every single planet we walked past.
After sitting Cheln down on a comfy couch, the Minotaurs posted themselves by the door, sternly holding onto their axes, becoming almost like statues, while the rest of us sat down around a table.
"So, governor Tarva. What was it you wished to discuss first? I assume there are many things that need to be hashed out about our stay here?" I began, which snapped Tarva's attention back to me.
"Y-yes, about that- When your ship first arrived, we sent out a distress call. Now the entire federation, three hundred species of herbivores, know you were here, and we have no way to hide you. We have to find a lie to feed them, and fast."
I raised a brow at her proclamation. "Federation? Please explain."
"The Venlil are but one species out of hundreds of known species. Together, the prey species are part of the Federation, an interspecies alliance for the common good. When the Federation first discovered a predator species, the Arxur, we tried to uplift them, but they turned on us and started eating us, and we've been at war with them ever since. They raid our planets, take our people as cattle, eat our children alive.... We feared you'd be like them, due to... your eyes." There was a lot of pain in Tarva's voice. I was more than sure she had lost someone to these Arxur.
"Your ship was found floating in space near our borders, and the Gojid, one of the military species in the Federation, were called to wipe you out. When you vanished and reappeared above Venlil Prime, we panicked, and sent out a distress signal. Now they're coming here to finish what they started." Kam then added.
"So you sold us out?" I asked calmly, though Tarva panicked nontheless. If this is how Venlil acted around mezari, I dreaded to see how they panicked around Arxur.
"N-no! No! We didn't know you were different, we just knew there was a new predator species that was found nearby! We need to somehow divert attention away from you, keep your presence a secret, at least for now."
"Well, that's simple, you can just say that the Argosy vanished again." Opbot spoke up, and I nodded at his suggestion.
I hummed softly. "Is that why your cities were deserted? Everyone was hiding?"
Tarva seemed to shrink at my question, giving a pitiful nod. "Yes... We thought you were here to conquer and eat us."
Tal huffed in amusement. "Conquer? Zolya is friend, not conqueror. Friend to Gauran, and Bos, and Urces. And everyone!"
"Gauran is the minotaur word for their kind." I whispered softly upon seeing Tarva's confusion.
"Yes, yes. Minitaur, Gauran. Same thing." Tal said sagely, before letting out a small huff.
Tarva chuckled a little at Tal's antics, before focusing on Opbot. "We already rescinded the distress call, but we now need to hide your presence from the wider galaxy, and prove to others that you're not a threat."
"And how do you do that?" I asked, leaning forwards in my seat. This seemed to unnerve Tarva for a moment, seeing my face draw closer, but she steeled herself regardless. "We need to run empathy tests, on every species on board. This will give irrefutable proof to naysayers, at least on Venlil Prime. After that... we'll see."
I nodded softly, before squinting in thought. "The Arxur... Can you send us everything you have on them? We might be able to help each other. Consider it payment for your generosity."
Tarva gestured for Kam to do so, before we said our goodbyes and parted amicably. With a data tablet on the Arxur in hand, we headed back to the Argosy. Hopefully, there wouldn't be another Exodus in our near future.
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Memory transcription subject: Slanek, Venlil Space Corps
Date [standardised Aurigan time]: Harvest 21, 1 AA
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Instead of enslaving us, the Aurigans pledged military aid, and showered us in new technologies. Our citizens slowly warmed to the alien refugees, touched by their generosity and earnestness. The sum of their good works quieted the voices calling for their extinction, and Empathy tests proved to the public that they were true sapients.
Not only had they not allied themselves with the Arxur, but they seemed disgusted by the grays and their behaviour. According to them, Auriga was plagued by a similar threat, a bioengineered race that consumed all others, and they were no strangers to fighting an all consuming foe.
After reading testimonials from the aurigans, I volunteered for the first joint military program between our peoples. While the mezari they teamed me with was terifying to behold, he seemed to be incredibly gentle. Now we were drifting along the federation border, me acting as his co-pilot, while he learned to fly our ship, something their Argosy had 'spat out' when asked for an agile attack ship.
"You ever fly a ship before, Serz?" I asked the mezari, snapping him from his daydreams.
"No, no. The Argosy and its scout ship are the only ships we had until now. And the Argosy is mostly automatic." The painted mezari replied.
"But your people are so much more advanced than us. How come you didn't have other ships?"
"Well, a lot of our technology is reclaimed from our ancestors. We're still trying to figure it out fully. The Argosy brought them to Auriga, and we were able to exhume and refit it to fly again as the ice age drew near."
"I read about that. Your winters kept growing longer and longer, to the point where it was almost year round winter. I guess I should feel lucky that Venlil Prime doesn't have seasons..."
"Yeah, it was really bad towards the end. Every species was trying something different to save themselves or the planet, but as far as we can tell, only the Argosy and those on board actually survived. Sensor data from when we left showed the planet kept icing over."
"Do you... fell bad for all those deaths?"
"I know I should, but I learned not to let the past weigh me down. We should be thankful for the people we still have with us, rather than focus on past sorrow."
I mulled over the predator's words in silence for a few moments, only for the silence to be broken by our comms link. “Prime Outpost, we’re reading nine Arxur bombers en route. Figure they have you as their target.”
“Fuck. We have to stop them at all costs.” General Kam answered back, his voice easily recognizable. I couldn’t imagine how much stress officers were under, monitoring the Aurigans. “The first joint exercises with aurigans and the Arxur attack them. What if they all end up dead? They’ll never forgive us!”
“Um, sir, my mezari partner can hear you,” I said.
“Oh. Right. This is General Kam from Venlil Command, we copy you. I’ll ask the mezari to position their so-called ‘Karves’ on an intercept course, while we evacuate personnel here. Stall for time if you can.”
I drew a shaky breath. “Yes, sir. We’ll do our best.”
Nausea swelled in my throat, as I synced the ship computer with the disruptor beacons lining the border. My mind strayed to its usual dark corner: replaying my brother’s funeral. The shock was still as fresh as it was months ago, when I first learned that his transport ship was gunned down. There wasn’t a trace left to remember him by; no body to recover.
Would I be the next to fall by the Arxur’s claws?
Our disruptor pulse going off without a hitch, we managed to yank the Arxur ships out of FTL and force them into real space. Covered in plasma railguns, turrets, and anti-matter missiles, it was clearly a thing of war, not beauty.
“Hideous ships, huh?” I quipped, causing a low chuckle to emanate from Serz. "What's so funny?"
"And I thought the Argosy's boxy ships were ugly." The mezari quipped back, smirking at me. The sight of his teeth made me shudder for a moment, but I shook it off. I was about to respond when I realized that the Arxur had spotted us. This was definitely going to be my funeral!
"Serz, floor it! They're training railguns on us!" The predator immediately turned to look back out the cockpit window and immediately accelerated, sending us flying in an arc downwards relative to the arxur fleet, out of their line of fire.
Despite our timely escape, the Arxur gave chase, sending two of their own ships after us. Serz didn't seem distraught at all, and the way he maneuvered was like a madman, arcs, spins, twirls. My stomach was soon in my throat, as our inertial dampeners were struggling to keep up with his piloting.
I don't think he realized he was flying us straight into Federation space...
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Memory transcription subject: Serz Kersho, Venlil Space Corps
Date [standardised Aurigan time]: Harvest 30, 1 AA
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The gojid had not been friendly hosts. After picking me and Slanek up from our patrol craft, they had locked me up in one of their holding cells. They had stripped me of my clothes, and tried to beat me into submission. Thankfully, years of meditation allowed me to ignore the pain, and it seemed they had given up on trying to torture me.
My meditation was broken by Slanek shouting my name. I opened my eyes, and saw him on the other side of the observation window. I flashed a smile, and the other aliens with him recoiled, but he seemed more than happy to correct them on their stupidity.
"That's how they show happiness!" He growled at the gojid captain.
I stood up and walked to the observation window, causing the other aliens to step back from the glass, but Slanek held firm. "Hey, glad you're ok." I croaked, my throat dry from the lack of water over the past weeks. Thank the endless for the Sisters of Mercy and their training, else I'd be a mess on the floor.
Placing my hand on the glass, Slanek reciprocated, tears starting to well up in his eyes. The captain, Sovlin I think his name was, started to question the poor kid's sanity, started making baseless assumptions about the mezari-venlil relation.
They argued about the merits of our alliance, and the empathy tests, but my mind was mostly numb, and I missed most of what was said. "Can I have some clean water, please?" I managed to blurt out, and Slanek tried to force himself into my cell.
I couldn't help but chuckle a little, and walked myself over to the door of the cell, much to everyone's dread. Gojid guards came to the other side of the door, and Slanek demanded they open the door.
Falling into his arms I finally let myself relax for the first time in weeks. He stroked the tattoos on my temple for a moment, before I managed to croak out another request for some water.
With Slanek shouting at the guards to bring me clean water, Sovlin relented, and ordered them to bring me some, all while the weird doctor of theirs watched in shock as a grown man was being babied by a venlil half his size.
It wasn't long before water was brought to me, and it was the best damned water I'd ever had, that was for sure. I could hear the aliens arguing behind the glass pane of the holding cell, but couldn't really understand them, too focused on drinking. This must've been what a Kassai steed felt like stuck in the desert.
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Memory transcription subject: Serz Kersho, Venlil Space Corps
Date [standardised Aurigan time]: Harvest 31, 1 AA
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I don't remember much else, but the next morning I woke up with Slanek snuggled up to me, though I was still on the cell floor. Had they locked him in here with me?
Standing up and looking around, I saw the crazy doctor arguing with a squid-like male, reminded me of the Morgawr to some extent, albeit nowhere near as frightening to behold.
Slanek seemed to stir when I did, and he was not as content to observe as I was, instead speaking up. "Hey! I'm not a pup!" he rebuked the squid's words, causing the two to turn and face us. We were both standing there, staring at the duo, but I was content to keep my mouth shut, it was already dry again after what little water they gave me.
"Let us out of here, now." My wooly comrade demanded. "Serz commited no crimes, he doesn't deserve to be here."
They tried to convince Slanek that we'd duped his kind, or some other bullshit, but he was quick to retort that the Mezari had herbivore allies with them, some even stronger and fiercer than a Mazic, whatever that was.
"That's rich, coming from the crew willing to throw me into a cell with him. If you really thought he was a mindless predator, would you really have risked my life like that?" Slanek retorted, causing me to chuckle drily, which turned into a coughing fit. Slanek seemed worried and grabbed my arm, but I motioned that I was fine and croaked out that my throat was dry.
“That was Sovlin’s doing. And he didn't exactly inform us." the squid alien explained, followed by the doctor opening his mouth as well. “Listen to me, Slanek. That thing is twisting your compassion against you. The Arxur allowed us to uplift them, and only then did they attack. I’m sure your, um, Serz mimics very well, but it’s not real. These mezari are just playing along to their benefit.”
“You don’t think any Venlil considered that? The tests we did literally analyzed mezari brain activity.” The venlil's reply made the squid blink in confusion. “What tests?”
“Sovlin didn’t tell you?” Slanek gasped. “Our experiments recorded how mezari and the other aurigans respond to violence, and guess what? Their brains lit up with pain. You can’t fake empathy on a biochemical level.”
The two aliens were quiet for a bit, before the doctor decided to open his mouth again. “You’re either misinterpreting the results, or the mezari altered them.”
"The Mezari come from a medieval world, they only managed to leave their planet because they found an ancient ship buried under the soil. They barely understand technology. There's no way they faked such complicated readings... No offense, Serz." Slanek's response made me chuckle, but I waved his concerns off.
The doctor seemed to shut up after that, while the squid took a deep breath. "That's it, I'm letting them out, Zarn. I don't care what you say, or Sovlin." And with that he hurried over to the door.
"What?! Are you crazy! That thing'll eat you!" Zarn, what a weird name, responded, prompting the squid to shoot back. "He hasn't eaten Slanek, so I highly doubt that!"
"Please, there is no need to risk your position for us." I managed to respond, my throat still scratched from dehydration.
"Well, that's my choice to make." Our benefactor responded, before glaring over at Zarn. "Now either help me, or report me to Sovlin. Your choice."
I'd have to find a way to thank this one some time later. When I wasn't slowly mummifying alive.