GblaRCS Chpt 7

==Guided by the light of a (Red) Cameron Star - Chapter 7 -==
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"Star's End shipyard. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. I mean except for Ingvolstand, and Lackhove, and Oberon, and Butte Hold and... hell, let's face it that entire region of space is just pirate scum from one end to the other. Except for Von Strang's World of course, they're Amaris-Loyalists who named their planet after a ****** war criminal."Captain Simon Mitchell - 2830 CE
===Flashback - Slipping into Pirate's Port===
Vicinity of Star's End Shipyards – Star's End System – 2825
If the yard had ever been equipped with a holographic comms system it certainly wasn't working anymore, so after spending an hour putting together his most piratical looking outfit Captain Simon Mitchell found he didn't need it yet when contacting the orbital facility yonder from the bridge of his JumpShip. At least it helped him get into character when he hailed the local authorities over the radio, these being the people working for the self-styled 'Pirate King of Star's End' whose palace was to be found down on Novo Cressidas, the only habitable planet in the system.
It was pretty unusual for any, but the most highly populated and advanced systems in the Inner sphere to possess such a shipyard, let alone one like Star's End out in the periphery. This was a holdover from the days it had been a major mining colony of the Rim Worlds Republic, not to mention once hosting a fleet base and supply depot for the Star League Navy.
What was left of the old naval facilities had not survived the Amaris War when the RWR military and SLDF were at each other's throats, but the civilian shipyard itself remained intact and operational, which was useful for anyone stuck way out here that needed repairs. It had a bay large enough for most any civilian JumpShip as well as smaller ones for DropShip maintenance along with a manufacturing plant sufficient to keep them all supplied.
When the Rim Worlds Republic ceased to exist as a polity, a combination of a vengeful SLDF, followed up by an invasion by the Lyran Commonwealth had made damn sure of that, Novo Cressidas, had become the de-facto capital of an independent system. One that prospered thanks to its mineral wealth and the fact they were perfectly happy to fix the JumpShips and dropships of anyone willing to pay.
The Lyrans had annexed around a hundred worlds of the Rim Worlds Republic between 2773 and 2775, taking advantage of Kerensky having already broken their military. Officially it was in support of the SLDF's campaign to take back the Hegemony, but in reality it was a shameless land grab. If not for the Succession War breaking out in 2786 the Commonwealth would have probably gobbled up the rest of the former RWR eventually, including Star's End, but the worlds of the Terran Hegemony were seen as the far greater prize.
With the Rim Worlds Republic gone, and the SLDF off their backs, Star's End effectively became a pirate hub. A place where buccaneers and the more intrepid of periphery traders went to get repairs. It was great for the local economy, not so much for the worlds the pirates lived off like parasites.
Admiral Bremman had assigned Mitchell to this resupply mission, giving him temporary command of the Carrack class Transport, Dobrev, because of all the officers to choose from he had the most experience at dealing with such pirates, albeit decades ago from his pre-Exodus Star League Navy service. Naturally Mitchell made a joke about his being so old he vaguely recalled being a midshipman on the sailing ship that caught Blackbeard, to which Bremman responded that explained why the first few pages of his personnel file were written on parchment in what looked like ink from a quill pen. Not wishing to be outdone Mitchell then countered that it must be a copy because originally it was cuneiform on a clay tablet.
Since he became a centenarian if anyone ever asked Mitchell if he still remembered his SLDF service number he would invariably reply, 'Sure I do, it's zero-zero-zero-zero-zero-zero-two. Shandra Noruff-Cameron got in there just ahead of me'.
Although not actually the oldest person in the fleet the youth culture of the clans, and Nicholas Kerensky's desire to get rid of those with deeply entrenched and old-fashioned SLDF sensibilities, had resulted in Mitchell being the oldest Wolverine still in uniform. If he hadn't been the captain of the Badger, an aging Vincent Class Corvette, he would have been retired long ago, but the Badger was a relic that had somehow avoided any major refits or being upgraded to the latest model at least three times. It was therefore a decidedly non-standard and quirky vessel that didn't even mount the same main armament as other Vincents, carrying Light Naval PPCs instead of Naval Autocannon. Most relevantly, many of the systems including the navigation computer pre-dated the Reunification War of the 2500s. Mitchell was the only person that could reliably re-boot it when it went haywire, or honestly even understand how the thing even worked to begin with, having been originally trained as a navigator himself under an aging instructor who insisted on her students learning about the systems used when she was a cadet.
Every time someone suggested handing a younger man or woman command of the Badger, Admiral Bremman sighed. He then told them it was just easier to keep Mitchell than it was to replace the electronics with ones that didn't pre-date the Golden Age of the Star League.
It was however mere common sense, rather than his many decades of experience, that ensured Mitchell wasn't stupid enough to jump the Carrack class Transport, Dobrev to Star's End under its real name. For the duration of this mission she was the Whydah Gally, a pirate ship that operated out in the Deep Periphery and was only visiting Star's End for supplies. By periphery standards Star's End saw an awful lot of traffic and monitored the jump-points carefully so they noticed the Whydah Gally jumping in immediately, relaxing when they were told the armed JumpShip didn't belong to some navy or another it was just another corsair.
This was just one of those rare systems where self-professed pirates jumping in did not result in mass panic from the local population but rather a friendly hail and an invitation to visit the local bars and brothels.
"Not seen a Carrack for a few years." the manager of the Jumpyard signaled after contact was established. "Should still remember how to service one though if you want to book some time in the yard." he continued. "We've already got a Merchant class in the dock, and a couple of Intruders queued up already, so it'll be at least few weeks before we can slot you in sorry." he apologized. "Of course, if you're willing to pay triple the fee I can always get you preferential treatment and see you sooner."
"Not here to use the yard." Mitchell radioed back from the bridge of his temporary command. "Only looking to stock up on basic supplies and see what spare parts for JumpShips and dropships you might have for sale. They're difficult to come by out where we usually work."
"We've got plenty of spares, keep a big mixed reserve because we never know what'll turn up looking to get fixed." the manager of the shipyard replied. "Won't even overcharge ya, it's bad for repeat business and I'm not looking to make you consider a Naval Laser discount anyway." he joked. "As long as you're smart enough to steer clear of Paran you must swan about in the boonies like you're in a ****** McKenna or something carrying those guns." he suggested. That was actually the main reason Bremman had chosen the Dobrev for this job. Most transport JumpShips were either entirely unarmed or carried merely enough light weaponry to make only the least intrepid of pirates steer clear. A Carrack however boasted batteries of Naval Lasers and Autocannon, albeit ones falling on the lower-end of the firepower spectrum by warship standards, and was unlikely to be messed with. Mitchell did wonder about the mention of Paran though, what was special about that system, he wondered, making a mental note to low-key investigate.
Mitchell laughed. "There's a reason I don't usually visit civilization, I'm the lord of all creation out there. I don't want to run into a real warship again. Must have been fifteen, maybe twenty years back, out in Drac territory, I ran into a Narukami class destroyer and barely escaped with my ass unviolated."
"If you think Star's End is civilization then you're from even further out than I thought man" the shipyard manager responded, laughing himself. "As for running into a warship in the Combine or the Commonwealth I wouldn't worry about it. From what I hear they're having trouble keeping the ones running that survived the war and most didn't."
"So the war really is over now? Last time I poked my nose into the Inner Sphere the Steiners and Mariks were still kicking the shit out of each other and so were the Kuritans and the Davions. Who won in the end?" Mitchell asked, playing along with his cover story.
"Shit. You're really out of the loop aren't ya?" the shipyard manager asked rhetorically. "Nobody won, but the Hegemony worlds sure as shit lost the most" he said. "Guess you were from there originally, judging from your accent?"
"New Dallas." Michell lied, not exactly the biggest one he told that day.
"No shit? Sorry, man." came the response, it even sounded genuine. "Where did you find that boat you're on anyway? Just curious."
"I didn't find it. They gave it to me, I just decided to keep it." Mitchell told him.
"SLDF deserter huh?" that would hardly be a unique case of that happening.
"I didn't desert the SLDF, the SLDF deserted me when Kerensky ****** off with most of the rest of the fleet" Michell replied, making himself sound bitter about it all.
"Let it go man. I used to be in the Rim Worlds Republic Navy myself, it's all in the past now" the shipyard manager advised, Mitchell actually starting to like the man. "If you want to come over in a dropship I'll have one of my boys direct you to a free docking port and meet you there. You can talk to him about what supplies you need and arrange payment."
"You take gold and silver I guess?" Mitchell checked.
"That's fine, prefer germanium of course. Or slaves, got any slaves? Brothel down on Novo Cressidas is always looking for a pretty girl or a young boy."
Mitchell didn't like the man much anymore. "Just the gold and silver" he replied, trying not to sound angry.
"Ah well, had to ask. Anyhow, might see you in the bar later. Shipyard out"
"Whyda Gally, out." Mitchell replied, ending transmission. "Anyone that's not sure he can resist blowing the nearest pirate's head off if he sees slaves over there had best sit this one out" he told the bridge crew. "And if I hear so much as a single 'quiaff' or 'query negative' or whatever then the man or woman responsible gets to clean the head with their tongue."
"Aff" the communications officer couldn't resist responding, trying to maintain a straight face.
"You're a pirate. Act like it!" Mitchell told him sternly. "It's 'Arr' and don't you damn well forget it."
With the rest of the fleet, including Mitchell's usual command, waiting in an uninhabited system one jump to spinwards of Star's End, the Dobrev, having first been disguised with a new paintjob and fake IFF transponder code, had been dispatched to see what it could lay its hands on in terms of supplies. Several of the fleet's JumpShips sorely needed replacement parts and every pirate's favorite shipyard was the only game in town way out here.
Later as he prepared to board one of the two Mule cargo dropships, the Dobrev was hauling with her before heading over to the yard, Mitchell idly considered that if his people hadn't run into the 295th he would not even be here right now. It had been an implausibly unlikely encounter several months prior, one only made possible because of the Wolverine diversion away from the Exodus Road to Columbus base. This detour had placed the largely unexplored, and virtually unpopulated, periphery region known as Draconian Drift between them and the Inner Sphere when the fleet resumed its journey home. The computer database the Wolverines found at Columbus had listed Buffalo Meadows within the Drift as habitable, with fresh water and edible native plants, hence the Wolverine's stopover there intending to resupply. Finding it actually inhabited, and by another SLDF remnant, understandably came as a bit of a shock to all concerned.
To her credit, Jenna Romanov herself had taken it all in her stride, in fact the reaction of practically all of the 295th when the situation was explained to them by the newly-reconstituted 331st was basically 'If it's alright by you we'll tag along then'. Mitchell suspected this was as much due to not having enjoyed being farmers and laborers in a colony in a state of gradual decline facing eventual demographic collapse, as it was to patriotically signing up to be the SLDF reborn.
They had immediately faced a transport capacity problem though. The jumpdrive of Romanov's Potemkin, the Ulithi, would require a naval shipyard to fix properly. Even manufacturing parts for a kludge that might have enabled it to limp back to the Inner Sphere was far beyond what they could manage to produce under the circumstances so they were going to have to leave a couple of thousand volunteers behind, along with almost all of their war materiel.
Fortunately, unlike the Ulithi the rest of the JumpShips and the two other warships belonging to the 295th still worked well enough. Getting them out of mothballs and running again went quickly, and eventually the now expanded Switchback Fleet once again set sail for the Inner Sphere, albeit now under the overall command of newcomer Jenna Romanov. She, of course, was an actual Major-General in the SLDF, not merely an acting one like Franklin Hallis, and had him beat on seniority anyway, by a long way. She did at least formally promote him to the rank of Brigadier-General (and acting Major-General of brevet rank), telling him that both his father Frederick Hallis, and the man's successor to command of the 331st was James McEvedy, had been there in the room when General Mohammed Nagenda, overall commander of the 11th Army which had included both divisions, pinned on her first star.
Resupplied, reinforced and underway again a few more jumps brought them close to the borders of Draconis Combine territory. Clandestine scouting missions being dispatched into the Inner Sphere to gather intelligence and determine the lay of the land.
Running into some pirates operating out of Santander, a periphery system located just coreward of the Draconis Combine, had been fortuitous, the pirates providing much useful information given the right motivation. After an extremely one-sided fight of comically short duration, during which the pirates received an almighty shellacking, the survivors were captured and interrogated. According to what they had to say, after Kerensky's Exodus the Successor States had gone all 'Age of War Two, Thermonuclear Boogaloo', beating each other senseless for thirty-five years squabbling over who got to take over the former worlds of the Terran Hegemony.
Literally billions were dead thanks to widespread deployment of every kind of WMD, much of the Inner Sphere's industrial base and interstellar trade was a fading memory, somehow the freaking phone company now controlled Terra and the Combine had apparently decided that butchering millions of innocent civilians with swords was a perfectly reasonable response to one of their nobles being assassinated.
Presented with the dilemma 'So what the ****** do we do now?' a few of Romanov's people suggested somewhere they might be able to hole up for now while they made the final decision on that. For a while during the Amaris War they had been based at a top-secret Star League Naval Base hidden in the Dark Nebula in what used to be Rim Worlds Republic territory, but was now inside the borders of the Lyran Commonwealth. If it remained undiscovered the installation known as 'Camelot Command' would make for an ideal base of operations.
Barring any better suggestions the fleet set sail, heading anti-clockwise around the outskirts of the Inner Sphere, heading for the Dark Nebula and sticking to periphery space as long as possible to avoid 'Successor State' entanglements. A pair of ships equipped with lithium-fusion batteries that could manage more than one jump per week were sent on ahead to make sure the base was still there and intact while the rest plodded on.
The pirates from Santander had known all about Star's End, it just happened to be on the way, and it did have a shipyard, so it seemed like a decent place to stock up on supplies and collect a little more intel. The pirates being exhausted of useful HUMINT were executed by being put unceremoniously out the airlock. Traditionally pirates were hung of course, but it being surprisingly tricky to hang someone on a JumpShip, even one equipped with a gravity deck (it's a centrifugal force issue), consigning them to the vacuum of space without a helmet was the generally accepted alternative.
Speaking of Human Intelligence, Mitchell was pulled from musings by his 'wife' swiping at him with a noteputer. "Terra to Captain Lomas" she said, using his cover name. "Come in, Captain Lomas."
"What is it, Gloria?" Mitchell replied, as she lowered the datapad.
"Just making sure you hadn't had a stroke, you were really zoned out there." she told him. "I've briefed everyone that's coming over with us again just to make sure they know how to behave and what to listen out for" she told him. "And try and call me 'Honey' or something would you" she requested.
"Gloria even if we were married I wouldn't call you 'Honey', it's cloying" Mitchell opined. "I'm not a good enough actor to be that out of character."
"So I guess 'snookums' is out of the question too then?" Gloria replied, grinning.
Mitchell shook his head, smiling gently. "I'm still going to go with 'Woman', as-in 'Make me a sandwich Woman' or 'Don't make me tell you twice, Woman'."
"Good thing we're not really married then because I'd make myself a widow twice over by the end of the week" Gloria told him, all too convincingly.
If Mitchell hadn't known that earlier in her life, decades ago, she had been in Star League Intelligence, with a résumé that included what she called 'wet work' as well as other spooky spy shit, he would have found that a lot funnier and a lot less disturbing.
Gloria was a few years younger than him and had run a diner with her husband in Great Hope as part of Clan Wolverine's Laborer Caste. Her husband had been killed when the city was nuked, though fortunately she, her daughter and grandchildren had been far enough away from the blast zone to survive.
Acting Major-General Franklin Hallis was smart enough to learn from his own mistakes and those of others. Back in Clan Space, before the Secession the Wolverine's had not dealt with the spying upon them by the Widowmakers very well at first because, frankly, 'spooky spy shit' was just not their forte. He had therefore asked around the fleet if there happened to be anyone on any of the ships with actual experience in that area, this being how he learned why a doting grandmother named Gloria was so good with knives. It wasn't because she worked as a cook in case you hadn't guessed.
It had been Gloria that made the pirates from Santander talk, her methods of quickly breaking them and ensuring full cooperation being why Mitchell was not alone in being absolutely terrified of her.
She did make a damn good burger though, he had to admit. Her own cover story was that she was the captain's wife and ship's cook for the Whydah Gally and would be purchasing fresh food over there as well as surreptitiously gathering intel.
"When we get over there ask around and see if you can find out what's notable about Paran." Mitchell told the retired, or rather unretired intelligence operative.
"Never heard of it." Gloria replied.
"I had to look it up on the charts myself. It's seven jumps to corewards and anti-spinwards of here. Used to be a big food producer for the RWR. Not much if any industry, but that might have all changed in the half century or so it's been since the records were updated" Mitchell told her.
Gloria looked at him quizzically. "So why are you curious about that place in particular."
Mitchell shrugged. "Jumpyard manager made an off-handed comment about the place. Piqued my curiosity" he explained. "Seven jumps is far enough away that it's not really that local to here, and he thought we were based even further out in the periphery than that, but he said it like he expected me to know what he was talking about."
"Meaning it's something interesting enough for word to spread pretty far" Gloria surmised.
"That was my thinking on the matter" Mitchell confirmed.
"Well, if they used to export food, or maybe still do, that gives me a reason to bring the place up in conversation when I'm talking to the merchants over there" Gloria replied, thinking ahead.
"Fruits and fish, they exported fruits and fish. It was mentioned in the notes for the place in the star charts" Mitchell told her. "If you find out anything particularly interesting that can't wait until we're back aboard you'll find me in the bar over there after I've negotiated for spares."
Gloria nodded. "Always a good place to pick up random pieces of information and overhear interesting conversations" she concurred with his thinking on the matter.
"Sure, I might find some time to do that between drinks" Mitchell replied. "Hey, I'm supposed to be in-character as a pirate captain" he defended his intentions when the woman glared at him, probably thinking something about him being unprofessional and a rank amateur at this business.
"Alright but if you look like you're getting drunk and might blurt out something we don't want them to know then I'll drag you out of there in-character as the wife of a pirate captain and I won't be too gentle about it" Gloria vowed.
"I want a divorce" Mitchell joked.
"Pirates don't have divorce. One of them is either sold into slavery or gets thrown out the airlock" Gloria told him. "And I don't think anyone would buy you."
Mitchell was about to ask why she thought he would be the one getting sold, or flushed into the vacuum of space, but quickly thought better of it. Like himself she was armed, being so constantly was very much a part of pirate culture, and unless you were carrying something excessively powerful that represented a serious threat to the integrity of the hull of a ship or space station nobody would kick up a fuss.
Once they got over there to the station, yardship traffic control directing their Mule to the assigned port, Mitchell was initially surprised at how clean it looked inside, expecting a pirate shipyard to look as dirty and unkempt as much of the clientele. The metal bulkheads, corridors and doors however were polished to a gleam, the signs were freshly painted and the posters advertising the goods and services available on the station professionally made.
Then Mitchell realized that was because they had slaves doing all the work when he saw a broken man wearing a tattered jumpsuit and with an uncomfortable looking collar around his neck carrying a mop.
Piracy had existed even during the Star League era of course, along with slavery. It was just far less prevalent at a time where, if a pirate band or kingdom gained too much notoriety, a SLDF Task Force would turn up intending to send a message by stomping the crap out of them.
Not every intended stomping was successful of course. Not long after he graduated Annapolis in the mid 2740s a great source of mirth was provided gratis to the Star League Navy by the utter failure of the 44th Mechanized Infantry Division of the SLDF Army to deal with the pirates basing themselves out of Cerignola, a planet in the outskirts of the Free Worlds League. Thanks to the myriad caves and tunnels which made that world a veritable warren the pirates continually evaded capture, humiliating the 44th so such a degree that they eventually gave up and left after collapsing every cave entrance they could find with explosives.
Almost as soon as the dropships carrying the 44th left Cerignola, their commander claiming triumph, the pirates reemerged and went back about their business. Needless to say navy personnel like Mitchell found it a whole lot funnier than the army did.
After haggling down the price of a fair few pieces of equipment that the fleet would benefit from, including much-needed replacement seals for the helium tanks on an old Tramp class JumpShip that had belonged to the 295th, Mitchell settled the transaction with a hefty bag of gold coins stamped with the heads of a few long-dead Steiner Archons. The coins were actually forgeries made by a machine-shop on Zughoffer Weir, but they were made from real gold so it was unlikely anyone would look too carefully at the quality of the stampings. That would not have been true of forged paper currency of course, and pirates weren't big fans of electronic transfers, hence the coins.
While waiting for the rest of his people to finish up their business, one of them was buying up all the old newspapers and magazines he could find, Mitchell found a spot at the bar, being grateful the shipyard had a grav deck because he hated drinking booze from plastic squeezy bottles.
A lot of the chit-chat in the bar was about the Combine recruiting criminals from its prisons, including captured pirates, into so-called 'Chain-Gang Regiments' and sending them off to attack the Lyrans and Fed Suns by dribs and drabs in crappy mechs. The fact the war had supposedly ended back in 2821 did not seem to enter into the thinking of Jinjiro Kurita, which indicated to Simon Mitchell that a second full-scale succession war breaking out could only be a matter of time.
Of greater interest, and also concerning the Draconis Combine, was a story very recently arrived from there of a rogue warship of unknown origin appearing in their territory and extorting supplies from merchant JumpShips and small settlements. That definitely required further investigation, Mitchell decided, wondering if it was a part of the clan fleet searching for them which had become separated from the main force and which had run out of supplies, being forced into banditry as a result. For that matter they might have even taken the opportunity to desert, given they were a long way from Strana Mechty and it wasn't just the Wolverines who weren't entirely happy with the way things were going in Nicky K's supposed utopian society.
It would be pretty funny if it was another bunch of Green Turkeys kicking up a fuss, Mitchell considered, grinning to himself as he ordered another drink. In order to demonstrate her unquestioning loyalty to Old Nick their Khan had resorted to mass executions of many of her own people because, after Klondike, the staunchest of Jade Falcon supremacists were so aggrieved by Kerensky choosing to join Clan Wolf instead they were publicly questioning his judgement.
While Mitchell drank at the bar, ending up having a conversation with a couple of pirate captains that asked if he would be interested in adding the firepower of his ship to a raid they planned into Lyran space, Gloria learned that the reason why the pirates operating in this region were so leery of Paran was that a few years earlier an honest-to-god Avatar Class Heavy Cruiser with Star League markings had jumped into the system there and never left.
Since nothing short of a battlecruiser, or ideally a battleship, could take on an Avatar just the damn thing being there kept most pirates well clear, even if nobody was sure if the weapons on the damn thing still worked.
It was certainly a story worth investigating once they were established at Camelot Command, and a mission organized to do so, although not with one of the faster lithium-fusion ships which would have shaved quite a lot of time off the journey to Paran. This was because they also learned not long afterwards that the rogue warship strutting around the Draconis Combine wasn't a Jade Falcon deserter, or from any of the other Kerensky-loyalist clans, it seemed to be the freaking Yukon somehow, and they needed to make contact before anyone else caught up to them.
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*;Notes from the Author : Star's End in the former Rim Worlds Republic (part of which ended up conquered by the Lyran Commonwealth during the Republic-Commonwealth War of 2773-2775) enjoyed a fairly unique position of being an independent system possessing a shipyard which could service and repair jumpships and dropships. It became a repair hub for pirates operating in that region of the periphery with its asteroid mining operations another valuable source of income. With much of the former RWW being made up of Bandit Kingdoms Star's End does pretty well for itself.If you're heading from the vicinity of Santander (another pirate hangout just corewards of the Draconis Combine) to Camelot Command in the Dark Nebula then Star's End is very much en-route and one of the few places you can pick up spare parts for spaceships while staying in the Periphery,The Dobrev is a Carrack class vessel, arguably a warship but in reality a heavily armed transport jumpship that happens to carry enough naval weaponry to keep your average pirate very polite. Pirates tend to employ unarmed or lightly-armed jumpships like the Merchant or Invader class, relying on their aerospace fighter complements to provide firepower in the arena of space when needed. As such the Avatar class Heavy Cruiser, the Pioneer that ended up in the Paran system in 2819 is something that no pirate in his right mind would risk messing with and word of it would spread fast (particularly to a place like Star's End that sees a lot of pirate traffic).Running behind the rest of the Switchback Fleet, trying and failing to catch up with the rest of them on the Exodus Road because of their diversion to Epsilon Pegasus (Columbus Base) , thanks to its lithium-fusion battery the Yukon actually arrived in the Draconis Combine than the Minnesota Tribe would have in canon (word of this mysterious vessel spreading as far as Star's End by the end of 2825).Incidentally, with a few drinks in him Mitchell would probably make a pass at Gloria if she wasn't still mourning her husband (and didn't frighten him so much).
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