Think about it. The third part of your grinder (where the dust is stored) can be used for a "free" joint after you grinded a certain amount of weed.

Just tonight I heard a loud buzzing sound and then smelled some smoke, so I pulled over. I haven't read the codes yet, but it threw a red triangle in mid-cluster. Any ideas?

Live in Alberta, CA. We have a Nortron AC8W smoke alarm that won't stop beeping.

Pictures here and here.

It won't stop chirping, and I know hardwired alarms still have batteries, but we cannot find the compartment to save our lives!

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A'armo'o tried to remember when he had ever, in his long life as a tank commander, been in the situation he was now.

It was an uncomfortable situation. A new one. He did not like new and uncomfortable.

It was, he decided after a long period of reflection, an unusual situation.

He stood on the tarmac, staring at the lines of armored vehicles.

Just over a thousand tons of armor, engine, guns, tracks, defenses. All black, except for the yellow warning stencils. It practically oozed malevolence. From where he was standing he could hear a faint growling and knew it was the 2.75 inch rocket pods snarling at the 80mm mortar tubes, which were growling back. It was massive, implacable, a mobile cliff of armor and weapons.

He also didn't trust it.

A'armo'o looked at the datapad in his hand, going over the specs again.

Eight percent faster than his last tank. Eleven percent more range. Six percent more point defense. Nine point two percent thicker battlescreens. Five percent better heat dissipation. Five tons lighter than his old tank, which was five hundred tons heavier than the one before that. The same armor thickness, but thirty percent upgrade in protection from standard threats and a seventy-two percent upgrade in protection from phasic energy. An additional nutriforge. Lanaktallan ergonomics and crew comfort additions.

He narrowed his eyes, glaring at the tank.

The software was faster, better. The screens designed for Lanaktallan visual acuity. All of the external guns could be run from inside, each with a dedicated munitions nanoforge.

According to the datapad, it was a marvel of engineering.

But he didn't trust it.

How could he?

Look at it!

Its armor was unmarred. The end of the barrel was shiny and unblemished. The paint was in perfect condition. The stencils were all sharply defined and clear, easily able to be read. The back deck was clean and almost sparkling. The treads were all in perfect condition, not even scratched.

No. He didn't trust it.

No wise commander would fully trust it.

He peered at the dataslate again suspiciously. It was full of praise for the tank in front of him. Even infographics and animated edu-memes about how great the tank was. How amazing its new armor

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The tank was massive. Over a thousand tons of armor, weapons, engines, defenses. Its tracks were two feet wide and there were six of them, three per side, that rattled and clattered as the tank roared down the damaged and bombed out freeway. It crashed over wrecked cars, crushing the vehicle bodies into fragments and thin layers of pressure welded plasteel. Its battlescreens came on, blowing apart larger wrecked vehicles that had been destroyed by an Atrekna autonomous war machine strafing run in the opening hours of the war. The turret kept rotating in circles, first one way, then the other, with the massive main gun bellowing out flame with a roar as it fired practice phantom 'munitions' at targets that didn't exist. It had a flag attached to one of the radio antenna, a black flag with a pair of lightning bolts bracketing a mantid skull, all in white.

White smoke was pouring from the port side of the back deck, indicating a fire somewhere inside of the engine compartment. Two of the point defense system infinite repeaters kept pointing at each other and shooting phantom practice munitions at each other. The 4.2 inch mortar tube kept banging against the 60mm mortar tube, which screeched and kept trying to fire blanks into the body of the 4.2 inch mortar tube. One of the heavy Madame Three-Eighteen guns was spinning in a circle, firing blanks wildly. Two antenna were broken off and one of the external maintenance hatches was jammed open, the corpse of the equivalent of a hawk stuck between the hatch and the body of the tank.

It hit a set of massive craters in the freeway, went nose first into the crater, then tried to back out. One track caught the body of a crushed cargo hauler and pulled it up into the skirting of the running gear. There was a loud crack from underneath even as the cannon fired again.

With the scream of overstressed warsteel the turret jumped the ring and slid six inches off the track. The linked metal plates of the treads suddenly screeched and bunched up, binding together. A running wheel blew off, ricocheting around the crater and hitting one of the external gun mounts, knocking the gun clean off the mount as the endosteel bolt failed, leaving the gun and the mount intac

This actually happened last week, but I still haven't talked about it with anyone, not even the main character on this story (you guessed it: my boss).

So, to give you a little bit of background, I've worked in an office for the past 6 months. Kind of a receptionist to be fare. But I actually love it there, the people are great, there's a really comfortable atmosphere, the boss is young and really close to us. There's only one minor problem.

Everyday I put my stuff in my locker and proceed to leave my food and some other things (like my tobacco) in the employee's brake room. I smoke hand rolled cigarettes so I leave my filters, tobacco and paper in a tiny compartment with my name. Recently I began to notice that I ran out of tobacco faster than ever. I began to try measuring the amount I had every time a left and came back. One day I even went all day without smoking to confirm that someone was stealing from me.

I told my coworkers that if someone wanted tobacco he or she only had to ask, there was no need for going through my stuff and stealing it. To my surprise, all of them (4) said they didn't do it. Obviously I thought someone was lying. I thought about it, and I came up with what now I see as a terrible idea. I bought a bit of weed, mixed it up with the tobacco and left it in my place.

Now I see how stupid and crazy the idea was. Anyway, somehow the stealing happened again. So I went around the office waiting for someone to show up with red eyes or something.

My surprise and terror arrived when I saw my boss coming out of his office with his eyes half-closed and red as a tomato.

So... I found my thieve... Hurray... God, I hope I don't get fired...

TL ; DR Someone was stealing my tobacco so I hid a bit of weed in it for the thieve to smoke it, only to find out it was my boss.

The first stop of our journey was on a pull-in near a large gas station with a store and a place where you could pick up food and coffee. There weren't too many other cars parked there apart from our caravan. The others were already there when we arrived. The sun was high up in a bright blue sky at that point. Manuela had been driving with the windows down to let in the fresh noon air. While we were still disturbed from what had happened, we had all considerably calmed down.

We parked next to Bill and Reuben. The latter was lying sprawled out on the patch of grass beside the lot, surrounded by several burger wrappers and drained cups and bottles. In a way, he reminded me of the bloated corpse from earlier. Upon exiting the car, I took a moment to yawn and stretch before walking over to him to say hi. He turned his head lazily to the side to look up at me, flashing a weak smile. "Hello, you."

"You okay?" I asked.

"I ate my anxiety and now I'm too full to move." He rolled over, letting out a groan. "It helped though. I'm good, really, my stomach just hurts a little. The human body wasn't made to consume this much fast food."

"I'll make you something better once I get within arm's reach of a stove again. Hey, listen, about what happened earlier…"

"Yeah, I was an idiot. I don't know what got into me. I've gotten some sleep now though," he replied, awkwardly turning to look up at the sky. "Sorry I freaked you guys out."

"No, that's fine. You know, after you left, something happened. This is gonna sound crazy, but… we saw a body on the road."

Reuben quickly sat up. "A body?"

"Yes, it was there one moment, and then it was just gone. It was this old guy, he was completely naked, lying in this huge pool of blood. I didn't see him from the front, but he was definitely dead, he didn't move at all. Anyways, we were about to call the police but then we looked at the road again and he'd disappeared. The blood wasn't there anymore either, it was like it all hadn't happened in the first place."

"What? That's… is that a joke?"

"No, I swear, I'm serious. Ask Jesse and Manuela, we all saw the same thing." I pointed over at my two travel companions, both of which were talking to Rob. Reuben's gaze fluttered from me to them and then back to me. Biting his lip, he reached up to wipe his forehead. "Well, that's something," he

Title says it all dosen't it?

Hey, everyone!  Thanks again to everyone for the upvotes, support and encouragement you have shown me with the first two installments of the Kevin in a Big Rig series.  When I first decided to share these stories here on Reddit, I never would have imagined that an old trucker’s tales would be so well received.  So many of you have left comments asking for more of these stories and I am not one who likes to disappoint.  On that note, on to Part 3:  Frozen.

Backstory:  The following takes place about a month after First Kevin (FK) and I were first paired up.  If you’ve read Part 2 of this series, then you have some idea of the kinds of Kevin-esque things FK was capable of; and you’d probably be right.  But what he did this time resulted in what the absolute worst nights sleep of my entire life; and the closest I ever came to committing legitimate murder.

By this point, I already had FK pegged for what he was; an incompetent buffoon who shouldn’t be allowed near a soap box car; let alone an 18-wheeler.  But worse, in his obviously demented mind, he thought he was the absolute top-dog of the trucking world.  This is in spite of the dozens of times he would have to wake ME up and get him out of another bad situation.  However, at the time, I was more of the “Grin and Bear It” mentality because I was broke and afraid that any screw-ups or boat-rocking on my part would get me fired.  But that was about to change…

One day, after picking up a load close to the company’s home terminal, we received instructions from dispatch to relay the load in the company’s drop-yard and take the truck sans trailer to a local dealer in town for scheduled maintenance.  This was essentially a gloried oil change and lube job with a few other items on the checklist just to make sure the truck was in good shape.  This was normally handled by the in-house mechanics, but because of some serious backlogs, they decided to contract it out.

The plan, as relayed by dispatch, was for us to drop the loaded trailer in the yard, bobtail to the dealership for a late-morning appointment, get the service done (it would take 2 hours maximum), pick the back up when finished and continue on to the destination.  Easy in, easy out.  Unfortunately, FK was the driver on duty during the shift in which we were SUPPOSED to arrive.  But, in typical FK fashion, he got lost because his infamous system of navigation failed again.  As a result, he wasted half a day back-tracking and ran out of drive-time; leavi

Just wanted to post some badass quotes from one of the most underrated Primarchs.

• From Deliverance Lost (P:106):

’I am Lord Corvus Corax, Primarch of the Raven Guard, Saviour of Deliverance, Commander of the 27th and 376th Expeditions, acting Marshal of the Therion Cohort and lauded conqueror of a thousand worlds. Please come aboard and I will show you my other credentials.’

• From Corax: Nevermore (P:63):

Pale flesh burned through camouflage, revealing a ghost-white face, Corax’s eyes becoming orbs of utter darkness. He held up his claws: a mental command sent blue fronds of energy crackling along their length. 'Should I wish it, I could kill you all now and depart. From here I would leave with my foes none the wiser, to return with my Legion to raze this planet and eradicate any threat it presents. No world is beyond the jurisdiction of the Emperor and his agents. Seven Legions were sent to destroy me at Isstvan, yet I survived. Do not think for a moment that this world possesses the power to destroy me. Any that move against the Nineteenth, as sure as iron rusts and flesh fails, I will see them slain by my own hand.

EDIT: More badass moments from Corax:

• From The First Heretic:

The ground murmured with his landing. Claws slashed from their power-fist housings with silver flashes, and shimmering wings of dark metal reached up from his shoulders into the air above. Slowly, so painfully slowly, he raised his head to the traitors. Black eyes stared from a face whither than Imperial marble, and written across the pale features was the most consummate, complete anger Argel Tal had ever seen.

It was an emotion truer and deeper even than the rage that ruined the faces of the daemons within the Warp. And Argel Tal realised it was not anger, nor rage. It went beyond both. This was wrath, in physical form.

The primarch of the Raven Guard turned with an inhuman cry, letting the thrumming wing-blades affixed to his smoking jetpack slice out with their killing edges.Word Bearers tumbled away in droves, shredded into lumps of armoured flesh. The claws followed, rending through any of the grey warriors unlucky enough to be within range of the warlord’s landing. Once he was in motion, Corax never slowed. He was a blur of charcoal armour and black blades, carving, chopping, dismembering without effort, mutilating with the barest movement, butchering with an ease that belied his ferocity.

• *From Corax (Anthology) Weregeld:

Hi yall! this just started today. i pulled into the lot at work today and smelled something burning and noticed the smoke. i popped the hood and it was kinda smokey, but not like billowing scary "oh shit" smoke. im not overheating and my oil pressure is pretty normal - a little over halfway on the gauge. ive got plenty of oil in there. does anyone know what could be causing this? thanks for reading!!

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Oddly enough, Vuxten recognized the barely visible name on the tank's barrel.

Black Betty was barely visible through the black carbonization, the soot, and the warping of the warsteel, the barrel twisted and sagging slightly. There was a hole clean through the tank, silently showing everyone that the crew compartment had been completely blown out. The armor was pierced in three other places, not counting the jagged teeth formed when the engine had blown out through the back deck.

The tank was still smoking, the insulation, molycircs, and other synthetics still burning inside the heavy 1,000+ ton hull of the heavy tank.

It was surrounded by destroyed PAWM, sitting in the middle of a crater that Vuxten could see the striations of, showing that the crater had been pounded deeper by no less than four other detonations.

Barrel bull? Something new? Vuxten wondered as he opened the channel.

"All troops. Ahead slow, keep an eye out. Whatever's tough enough to take on Third Armor could eat us like popcorn," he warned.

One by one the icons flashed.

His men were rested, heat and slush were back down, repairs taken care of. The Division had taken 297 casualties, all WIA, not a single KIA, although Second Lieutenant Yrektarm had made a good attempt at it when a Whipsnapper Dwellerspawn had broken the Telkan's neck.

Another tank slid by, then another. Then a pocket of a half dozen, all backed up together, facing outwards, all of them missing their tracks. They were in the middle of a cluster of craters that were full of the slowly liquifying bodies of the Dwellerspawn.

"Something bad happened here," Vuxten said softly to nobody in particular.

--bad feeling boss-- 471 said.

"You and me both, buddy," Vuxten replied. He looked around. Here and there were the sprawled bodies of troops of V Corps. He frowned, looking at them.

None of them were in heavy armor. Not even adaptive camouflage with protective plating.

They were all wearing OD green cloth, white name patches, large rank on their sleeves, and what looked like metal helmets.

"Recognize that gear?" Vuxten asked.

--nope nope helmet steel not warsteel steel steel-- 471 sent back. --no armor no personal protective fields some wearing gas masks

My name is Amy and I'm still stuck on the Midnight Train. Last time I left you with a pretty mean cliffhanger, where my friend Lilly got infected with the rotting plague we had encountered while visiting a small town.

If you have no idea what the Midnight Train even is, you should start here: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/o7xhqn/the_midnight_train_part_1/

And if you missed the last update, check here: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/oarwzw/the_midnight_train_part_4_the_rotting_village/

Now, let's not waste any more time. You want to know what happened to Lilly and maybe also who I had dinner with and why the hell that would be important enough to name this update after it.

As you already know, Lilly stumbled into my compartment in the middle of the night, obviously suffering from a fever, and collapsed on the floor almost immediately. Now you have to understand that this happened about five minutes before one a m. Therefor I had no way to get help right away. Yes, the Hunter had basically said he was in my favour, but I thought that was meant as "you can ask me for a favor once" and not "you're free to roam around whenever you want".

I was stuck for the next three hours with my fatally sick friend.

I feel like I have to reiterate that I am not stupid. I did not touch her directly, since there was a high possibility that she was contagious by now. There was a lot of clothing in my cabinet and I wrapped fabric around my hands before I lifted her up and lay her down on my bed. The whole time I was very careful not to touch her with my bare skin.

I could feel the heat of her skin even through the fabric, so much that I was honestly worried the fever would fry her brain before the night was over. There were not a whole lot of options to cool her down, but I had a few bottles of water and a bunch of fabric, so I soaked a random shirt and draped it over her forehead. I wasn't sure if it made much difference, but I changed the cloth every thirty minutes or so.

Lilly was unconcious most of the night. She woke a few times, but when she did, she was delirious. Unable to keep her eyes open, muttering my name and coughing like she wanted to push her lungs out.

I couldn't do much for the three hours we were locked in and that made me terribly anxious. Th

The Puppet Carver

The Puppet Carver (He Told me Everything 2) Summary, following up from the previews:

Sage is writing a novel about a puppet named Sylvester, he was created alongside many other “Wooden brethren” and he discovered he could not feel pain, nor any touch or emotion, thus he desired to gain the ability to feel. He attempts to touch objects around him, but cannot feel. So he hires someone by the name of “The fixer” to make him feel alive, suddenly he feels pain and suffering when an electrical shock goes through him, and after the pain stopped. He could suddenly feel real, he was able to touch dogs, tree bark, etc, all with emotion, over time he eventually had a daughter of his own that he could feel and touch. “This is what it felt to be real”, as the book says.

The story then cuts to Porters debut to show off the puppet carver to Jack, but it fails miserably after the machinery breaks. Jack then fires everyone in the building out of his rage and tells them to clean up the mess.

Later that night, Jack hears a ticking noise, and discovers it was coming from within The Puppet Carver, he goes inside of the machine to investigate it and suddenly the door shuts, saws and blades come at him. A “bang” is heard and then the blades stopped, Jack survived the blade attack and walks out of the Puppet carver with the new perspective of surviving something terrible, he decides to go back and apologize to all the people he hurt through his life after being close to experiencing death.

As a change of heart, he goes to a donut shop to buy donuts for his family. When he parks in a parking garage across from the building, he hears footsteps coming from behind him, and suddenly they become wet sounding and sloshing, he then hides in an abandoned office building nearby. Suddenly, after he feels safe, Pink goo starts coming from under the cracks of the door, he begins running from the being, and time to time checks to see what it is, all he can get glimpses of is pink slime following him. He’s then to a dead end , and suddenly gets a full clear visual of the being. It’s a being between the mix of pink slime, organs, and mechanical parts. And it shifts into an upright being. Suddenly the being reaches out to Jack and he feels unimaginable emotional pain— the same emotional pain he felt when he casted it onto people all throughout his life, and it was unbearable. The pain suddenly stopped and the creature disappeared

For the rest of the story, it’s just

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Vuxten followed Casey as the Terran went over to the waiting suit of armor. Casey put the weapon back in the compartment and sealed it shut, then turned around. When he saw Vuxten waiting he raised one eyebrow.

"Yes, sir?" Casey asked, his voice empty and expressionless, but his eyes still red.

"Can you still follow orders? My orders?" Vuxten asked. He waved around himself. "There's still an entire planet to save here."

"Of course, sir," he looked at the armor. "I'll follow orders, sir, that's one of the things I'm good at."

"And Trucker? Do I have to have him guarded?" Vuxten asked.

Casey stepped forward and put his hand on the thick armor of the power armor suit. He sighed. "I'll follow orders, sir."

Vuxten nodded, looking at the armor. It seemed like it was waiting eagerly for Casey to step back into it.

"Do you know what the kid wanted on his twelfth birthday, sir?" Casey said softly. Vuxten stayed silent. "A pink golfball. That's all, just a pink golfball."

Vuxten stayed silent and watched as Casey stepped into the armor. He shuddered slightly as the human picked up the datacable and pushed the three inch long needle back into his eye socket. The armor suddenly closed, sealing up, and the eyes went red. The armor stood up to its full height.

"Awaiting orders," Casey's voice was synthesized.

"Stick with HHC right now. I need a sitrep update," Vuxten said. He turned and walked through the mud to the flitter, climbing in the back, the Marine who's hand he grabbed practically snatching his arm off to pull him into the vehicle.

A quick check via the radio, double checking against the holo-projection from his palm, and he had the Division moving again. He gave the orders, making sure to shift everything.

Trucker sat on the bed of the flitter, watching Vuxten work, his eyes red rimmed and sunken into dark rings. Despite the fact the cybereyes were clear and bright, they gave off the feeling of being bloodshot and red.

Finally Vuxten was done. He took a couple deep drinks of the flat and tepid water, tabbed up a piece of stimgum, and looked at the Terran General.

"I've managed to make contact with Fleet. They're sending a dropship for you, sir," Vuxten said.

Trucker nodded. "Of course th

https://preview.redd.it/ytysfods3vy61.png?width=1100&format=png&auto=webp&s=d00c5043a34a2bf1e3efe92b8b6ca98a22595e69

In this update we have added several missions in the Battle of Moscow and Invasion of Normandy campaigns, as well as implementing many of your requests and improvements.

The way AI-soldiers detect enemies has been thoroughly reworked. Now they will rely more on hearing enemies on their flanks and from behind, and will be much less effective at spotting hidden enemies.

Mobile rally points will no longer be breakable by allies and respawning at those points will not grant immunity anymore. You will also not be able to aim while jumping.

Many bugs have been fixed, including damage models for vehicles and secondary shrapnel damage to modules after a successful penetration.

Read the full patch notes and leave your feedback on the forum!

MISSIONS

• The “Vysokovo Village (Assault)” mission in the Battle of Moscow campaign has been added back into rotation.
• A new version of the mission “Le Bre (Invasion)” in the Invasion of Normandy campaign, has been added, in which allies are attacking.

WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT

• You will no longer be able to drop special items and weapons, like the engineer’s hammer.

AI-SOLDIERS

https://preview.redd.it/f3ni26nv3vy61.png?width=1100&format=png&auto=webp&s=c6b082ae373464701bde81e29a81f12c7dea37ea

• AI-soldiers no longer prevent players from building anymore.
• Improved system of AI-soldier enemy detection:
  • AI will be less effective at detecting enemies from behind and from flanks, if they do not shoot. This should make their behaviour more realistic, and allow for greater efficiency in flanking maneuvers.
  • Sounds will affect the chance of being detected by AI much more. If the target does not move and does not shoot - it will have a low chance of being detected if not in direct sight.
  • Reduced AI alertness for crouching and crawling players over long distances.

ECONOMICS

• Bronze orders for logistics are no longer awarded for completing battle tasks. You can now obtain them for every 3000 campaign experience points earned, orders for weapons and for troops are granted in turns.
• The amount of battle tasks each player can complete per day is limited to 9 with the Elite Battle Pass, and to 3 without.
• Battle Pass: added ability to skip levels and get battle pass rewar

Previous one: https://www.reddit.com/r/Warthunder/comments/niv340/251143_26018_changes_part_3/

2.5.1.143 → 2.6.0.18 dev changes Part 4:

• Commander camera's orientation is no longer locked.
• Added the shell follow camera for naval.
• (Tank) gun barrels are now slower to repair.
• The maximum possible field repair time of the following vehicles was lowered – most battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers.
• The maximum possible field repair time of the following vehicles was increased – most destroyers and frigates.
• Ship superstructures now take more damage from fire, burn out in max 2 mins instead of 90 secs, but have a higher extinguish chance.
• Ship torpedoes now take more damage from fire.
• FX changes.
• Automatic sight correction by rangefinder enabled in RB.
• Oculus UI FoV scale – 0.9 → 0.765.
• Ship shell tracking:
  • max draw distance: 10 km → 13 km
  • max calibre: 203 → 400 mm
• SACLOS ATGMs now have a max aim angle parameter of 20°.
• New sound events:
  • tank collision (suspension)
  • tank collision (wheels)
• Coaxial MG sight changes.
• AP, APC, APBC, APCBC, APHE, APHEBC shells:
  • stability reduction after ricochet modifier: 0.5 → 0.3
  • stability ricochet modifiers increased
• APCR:
  • stability threshold modifier: 0 → 0.5
  • stability calibre to armour threshold modifier: 10 → 5
  • stability reduction after ricochet modifier: 0.25 → 0.5
  • stability reduction after penetration modifier: 0.3 → 0.15
  • stability ricochet modifiers increased
  • it can now also get stuck in the armour
• APDS:
  • stability threshold modifier: 0 → 0.5
  • stability calibre to armour threshold modifier: 10 → 5
  • stability reduction after ricochet modifier: 0.15 → 0.5
  • stability reduction after penetration modifier: 0.2 → 0.15
  • stability ricochet modifiers increased
  • it can now also get stuck in the armour
• APFSDS:
  • stability threshold modifier: 0 → 0.5
  • stability calibre to armour threshold modifier: 10 → 5
  • stability reduction after ricochet modifier: 0.15 → 0.5
  • stability reduction after penetration modifier: 0.05 → 0.15
  • stability ricochet modifiers increased
  • it can now also get stuck in the armour
• ATGM (HE), SAM:
  • stability threshold modifier: 0.05 → 0.5
  • stability reduction after ricochet modifier: 0.5 → 0.3
• ATGM (HEAT), ATGM (tandem):
  • stability threshold modifier: 0.1 → 0.5
  • st

Some years back, I was on a month-long business trip in Beijing, China when I decided to visit an old friend of mine (I’ll just refer to him as Liang here). Liang’s family migrated to China after we graduated high school because of his dad’s work; we lost contact for a while until I chanced upon his Facebook profile. Since then, we exchanged a few messages and well-wishes, and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to pay him a visit IRL since I was in the country.

When Liang knew that I was in China, he was also eager to see me in person. We agreed to meet at his place in the city of Xinyang, some 1000 kilometres away from the capital. The only way to reach there was by train, and back then the high-speed rail didn’t exist yet. Thus, I booked myself a ticket on an overnight sleeper train. The ticket was dirt cheap considering the distance, and I understood why when I saw the rickety communist-era train waiting at the platform. Many of the passengers were migrant workers heading back to their hometowns, and I could feel curious glances thrown in my direction as I squeezed through the cramped corridor onto my bunk bed. We departed from Fengtai at dusk, the golden rays filtering through the grimy grease-covered windows.

I caught a whiff of cigarette smoke wafting through the stale air and scrunched my nose. The stiff padding that made up my “mattress” had a funny smell, and I wasn’t sure if I would want to lie down on it for even a second. The guy occupying the bunk above mine had gone to sleep despite the constant vibrations and jerks, his snores matching the rhythmic rumbling of the train. A man sitting on a folding seat along the corridor slurped away at a steaming cup of instant ramen. Somewhere out of sight, the Nokia ringtone rang loudly for a few seconds before being silenced.

“Xiong di,” the young man sitting cross-legged on the opposite bunk said in a coarse voice as he pointed at the plastic bag on my pillow. “Please?”

I gave him a brief stare. He wore a cheap grey oxford shirt and denim jeans, and held a pack of cigarettes in his wrinkly hand that proudly displayed the Communist emblem.

I sighed and passed him a can of beer. I had bought a pack of them from the convenience store at the station as a gift to Liang, but I figured I could always buy more at the next station.

He popped the green can open and gulped down the lukewarm booze. Watching him, I felt the urge to drink too and opened my own can.

“You can speak English?” I asked.

“A littl

Given the recent revival of the Ultramarine's primarch I find more recent notations of Primarchs interesting in the current timeline. Not as any hint of another returning, but just as an update to them outside of the direct context they have in the HH series.

Below we see an Iron Warrior dreaming of the time that Corax ended up sparing him, for reasons he does not know even 10k years later.

> > Cradled in Dracokravgi's warm embrace, Lokk's present receded, and he remembered another day, and another world. A war of a different age. > > Isstvan V. > > Boltguns flashed over black sand. Lokk's company roared after the fleeing Raven Guard. Corax's sons rode swift combat bikes, but for all their skill at evasion, they could not resist the guns of the Iron Warriors tanks. Las-fire lit up the knight. Heavy bolter rounds cut fiery tracks over the black. > > He remembered with a Space Marine's perfect clarity every kill, the bikes hit and flipped into the air, the bodies blasted to pieces. They fled, the sons of Corax, but they were doomed. > > 'Finish them!' Captain Kayth commanded. His voice came to Lokk as if he heard it again, right then, nine thousand years later. he had a singer's voice, Kayth. He and Lokk had been friends once. 'Finish them!' > > Lokk, a driver then, accelerated. > > The sons of Corax split and split again, weaving complex patterns as they accelerated away, but the Iron Warriors were too many, their bloodlust too great. The end was in sight. > > And then it was not. > > One of the Predator tanks lifted up to Lokk's front as something large hit it. Lokk had the impression of sparks and claws, and blue-hot jets, spread wings and a vengeful white face, and then his own vehicle stopped, rammed hard into the back of the stricken tank. > > 'Corax! Corax is here!' one of the others voxed. > > He could see him. Corax was not two yards away, feet planted on either track guard of the stricken Predator. Its tracks churned up black sand, and it shifted, but Lokk's tank was tangled with it, and the two were locked in place. Lokk's commander shouted from the turret, urging him to pull back. The tanks slewed about, threatening to toss the primarch from the roof, but he stood firm, face straining as he heaved at the Predator's domed turret, power claws carving through plasteel. He stood up suddenly with a roar Lokk felt in his bones, and flipped the turret clean off. Lightning bur

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The elevator whined as it rattled its way up. It paused, shuddered, then started moving again.

Dee gave a frustrated sigh and shook her head.

"What's wrong?" Dhruv asked, leaning against the wall.

"Your people are fucking children," she said. She pulled out her cigarettes and pulled one from the pack, staring at it for a long moment. "Half a pack. Shit."

"What do you mean?" Dhruv asked. Daxin glared at him, willing him to stop engaging with the obvious lunatic in their midst, but he just smiled back.

Dee touched the button panel, where it was all mechanical push buttons with light up rings around them. "Look at this. This was installed before my tits started sagging, and here it is," she glared at Legion. "Tell me it's the temporal dissonance problems."

Dhruv shrugged. "Could be. I've always presumed Crying Anne was temporally locked to keep the enemy from using temporal munitions against it. A temporal stabilizer would explain this."

"Hmph," Dee said, turning away. "Fucking kids."

"I don't understand why you are upset," Dhruv said, watching her light the cigarette.

"This place should be manned. There should be hundreds, thousands of specially trained military and civilian experts handing this area. It's the central defensive facility in the entire solar system and we're apparently the only living thing here," Dee snarled.

Dhruv shrugged again. "Might be inhospitable to people after a period of time. We're fine, but Daxin and I, we're immortals, and you're whatever you are. Besides, if it had been manned, the crew would have dropped dead when everyone else started dropping like flies."

"Wait, do what now?" Daxin asked, looking up from where he was scratching FIDO's neck.

"Something caused a tissue and engram mismatch in the SUDS, everyone started dying," Dhruv said.

Dee made another noise of disgust. "That's not what happened. The cerebral tissue and DNA reverted somehow to pre-Glassing, which meant the neural overlays you use when you 'reskin' burned the neural tissue. To top it off, the body's immune system went crazy and started attacking the body as well as bioware and cyberware implants," she shook her head. "For someone who's supposedly so s

Sudden Lee

Go post NSFW jokes somewhere else. If I can't tell my kids this joke, then it is not a DAD JOKE.

If you feel it's appropriate to share NSFW jokes with your kids, that's on you. But a real, true dad joke should work for anyone's kid.

Mods... If you exist... Please, stop this madness. Rule #6 should simply not allow NSFW or (wtf) NSFL tags. Also, remember that MINORS browse this subreddit too? Why put that in rule #6, then allow NSFW???

Please consider changing rule #6. I love this sub, but the recent influx of NSFW tagged posts that get all the upvotes, just seem wrong when there are good solid DAD jokes being overlooked because of them.

Thank you,

A Dad.

So far nobody has given me a straight answer

*****Another chapter is here! Also a bit longer than the last couple have been, enjoy!*****

FIRST

NEXT

DWS Angry Spark narrowed his digital eyes and ran through the information he had downloaded keying in on the term ‘Swifant Horde’ or anything he could find about their emperor ‘submitting’ to anyone. He found it highly unlikely that a race like this made a habit of losing and submitting to anyone. They were too arrogant, aggressive, and powerful for that to have happened more than a few times.

He found nothing in the system.

That alone was strange but not unheard of. Many species hid their failures or tried to erase history. As if acting like it never happened would change the reality of the past. Even humans were guilty of this and had tried to cover up their failures and poor decisions. But someone always knew something.

He noted that lack of info in his search and sent it out to the intel and interrogation specialists. Maybe they could ferret out what the truth of that statement was when they processed the remaining 1.85 million Kretark. He copied Captain Johnson on it as per his chain of command and sat back as the newly arrived ships started sending over combat shuttles full of nanite enhanced super soldiers in combat power armor.

Hopefully the Kretark didn’t get frisky. Those marines carried enough firepower on their power armor to level cities. And were resistant to a downright mythological level of damage.

Each suit was 9 feet tall, weighed around 2500lbs depending on loadout, and could fight independently for weeks at a time. They were coated with a matte black and gray shielding material that ate up signals and emissions. They were hard enough to see with the naked eye that they were typically referred to as specters or shades. The only thing not that color was the eyes of the helmet that glowed with a deep crimson glow.

They looked like monsters.

They were shielded against all environmental threats, biological, energy weapons, had a thick layer of kinetic dampening gel, radiological/nuclear protections, and had psychic dampeners. They all carried God-Box equipped guns as well as a secondary hip mounted God-Box that could make micro drones and other specialty equipment they needed dur

I am currently in the hospital. I had a back operation yesterday. The surgical nurse came in my room and started asking questions about my back. She asked me if I had any falls during the last year. I responded just one. It was after summer.

She laughed and said in 20 years of doing this she never was told that joke.

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With Aldanti saved, Dukkarin must return to Chuustil and James to Avalon, but the Heptarchs have other plans.

Aldanti burbled with alien joy and squirmed as she lay on her back on the grass, beaming away at her mother and father.

James and Dukkarin stood back, the former leaning against the open doorway with his arms crossed, a pleasant smile on his face. "I know I've made things difficult for you back on... Chuustil you said? Yeah... sorry. But still, to see this?"

Dukkarin nodded. Once, he would've been - he had been - repulsed by the idea of a natural birth. "It makes it all worthwhile, doesn't it."

"Yup. I'm sorry this place is all smoke and mirrors," James said, waving around to the little slice of Earth - or Avalon - he'd conjured up in a disused factory, "but I thought it best that they keep a low profile, and a garden under real sunlight might've attracted too much attention."

"Hah! Yes, just a bit. Ah well, it'll come in time. I'd best be letting you get back to your war, much as it was nice to see you again."

"Likewise, Dukkarin, likewise." James gave Dukkarin a salute, pushed himself off the wall and concentrated on the wall, but to his surprise, no portal appeared. "Huh. Well, guess that means they're trying again."

"What's the matter?"

James motioned with his head, and Dukkarin left the new family in the garden and followed James inside. "It's the Heptarchs: they're trying to seal Avalon up in a bubble of warped space. It stops the portals from working when they do it."

"But you can beat them, right?"

"Well we did last time," James said, looking thoughtful. "This time however... do we want to?"

"So what's the problem?" Tom asked. "Just punch through like James did last time, and deal with the generators."

"We're not sure that's a good idea," Natalya said, speaking for (as?) both herself and James. "We've spotted two of those Dyson shells so far, and there may be more we've yet to find. Every time we smash their machines they just up the ante, and eventually we'll hit our limits - remember, just seven generators were enough to create the entire Null Zone."

"Right, but Earth doesn't have Songcasting Spires, and we do. Plus, Hiroaki and James are outsi

Phil

Previous one: https://www.reddit.com/r/Warthunder/comments/njbgu1/251143_26018_dev_changes_part_4/

2.5.1.143 → 2.6.0.18 dev changes Part 5:

• AMX 30 (all), Leclerc (all), Kürassier (all), KPz. 70, Leopard (all), Ariete (all), OF-40 (all), OTOMATIC, Type 90 (all), Strv 121, Strv 122 (all), Challenger (all, except A.30), Olifant Mk. 2, TTD, Vickers Battle Tank Mk. 7, M60 AMBT, MBT 70, Merkava (all), XM803, T-80B, T-80U – track sound: default → MBT.
• AMX 32, AMX 40, XM1 (GM) – track sound: heavy → MBT.
• AMX 32, AMX 40, XM1 (GM), ZSU-37-2 – turret turn sound: manual → servo.
• Leclerc (all):
  • commander: 2nd gen thermal → 3rd gen IR
  • driver: 2nd gen IR → 1st gen IR
• MARS 15, Lvrbv 701, Pvrbv 551 (all), Stormer HVM, HSTV(L) – track sound: default → modern light.
• MARS 15, Striker – loader changed to commander.
• MARS 15 – the coaxial MG can no longer be depressed independently from the turret
• Kürassier (all) – added 4 more ammo racks, but the number of usable ammo remained the same.
• Begleitpanzer 57, Fla.Rak.Pz. 1, TAM (all) – the strangely strong part of the UFP: 32 → 11 mm.
• Begleitpanzer 57:
  • 2 new 20 mm half-internal armour added here
  • fire chance of engine increased
  • fire and explosion chance of fuel tanks increased
• Inf.Pz.Kpfw. 750(e) [aka German Churchill], Churchill Mk. III:
  • bottom of the tank: 19 → 19.1 mm
  • new 25.4 mm armour in the side
  • new 15.9 mm armour under the engine, because there was a hole there
• J.Pz. 4-5, Leopard 1, Leopard 1 A1, Class 3, VT 1-2, OF-40 (all), OTOMATIC, STA (all), STB-1, Type 16 MCV, Type 74 (all), Type 75 HSP, Ikv 91 (all), Pvkv (all) – zoom-in FoV: 4.6° → 4.63°.
• J.Pz. 4-5 – the smoke grenades now deploy in two salvos of 4 instead of a single salvo of 8.
• M 48 A2 G A2, Super M 48, Radkampfwagen 90 – new 60 mm armour around the breech.
• Panther II – commander now has 1st gen IR.
• Pz.Kpfw. III M, Pz.Kpfw. III N, Pz.Kpfw. IV H, Pz.Kpfw. IV J, Pz.Bfw. IV J – roof MG max elevation: 25° → 20°.
• Jagdpanther (all) – sight changed: WZF 1/4 → Sfl.Z.F. 1a.
• Nashorn – new 10 mm armours in the fighting compartment.
• E 100, Maus – sight FoV: 6.5° → 3.7°.
• Maus – tracks: 60 mm → 30 mm.
• Ersatz M10:
  • new 30 mm armour between the engine and the crew
  • new 30 mm armour to the sides of the engine
• Sturer Emil – new 10 mm armour in the fighting compartment.