So, with the amazing translation by u/matt_aegrin finished, I finally beat Berwick Saga, which I've been playing in 1-2 chapter pieces, when the translation was in progress. And I can say with certainty that it was an amazing experience, which honestly eclipsed all other FEs (and frankly SRPGs in general) for me. This game is unlike anything else on the SRPG plain and it saddens me to no end that there will probably never be a game like this, at least in my lifetime.
Okay, that's a bit overdramatic, but seriously, at least in terms of gameplay, this is one of my favourite games period. The mechanics of Berwick are great and work so well, that I'm baffled how the developers managed to think of and competently implement so much unique stuff on their first try. Of course, there're also some... questionable decisions, but compared to the whole picture my problems with Berwick are very minor.
I played the game half-blind, if you can call it that. I only looked up recruitment and promotion requirements, plus food info.
My final team.
So, my kinda-sorta-not-really review.

Story

The story of Berwick Saga is pretty decent medieval fantasy political drama. It's not anything groundbreaking, however it's rather well written. The game focuses its main plot on the political intrigues both inside and outside the Berwick League, a totally equal military alliance, led by the Kingdom of Veria... which has been conquered and its king is now in exile in one of its duchies, Narvia. The protagonist, Reese, is the son of a margrave under the Kingdom, who comes to the capital of Narvia, Navaron to answer the king's call for more troops. And then Reese is stuck in a losing war, where the situation is getting more and more dire with each passing month. To give you an idea of how dire, on about half of the main missions, the final objective is either defend or escape. Overall, I found the main narrative rather satisfying and I like that it overall down-to-earth.
The game also focuses really heavily on the effects the war has on everything. How it destroys lives, separates families, embitters people, affects trade and supply chains for the production of everything from food to weapons. There are a lot of side quests and missions where you have to actually try to at least alleviate some of these effects for the people of Navarron. The fact that the game actually has you take care of these problems actually makes them more than just background noise imo and adds a lot to the worldbuilding of the game.
Speaking of worldbuilding, if you've beaten the game, I recommend that you visit Matt's tumblr with some translated and organised info from Kaga's blog. Plenty of interesting backstory info, but there are definitely spoilers there.

Characters

I actually like pretty much all the characters. All of them get some development and/or rather interesting backstories. Most of them have arcs that are actually tied to gameplay: some of them give side objectives on the main maps and some give access to side missions (paralouges basically). And guess what, some characters actually appear in the main story cutscenes, despite the fact that permadeath is in full effect in Berwick.
I genuinely adore the fact that characters go through their arcs in parallel with the progression of the main story through events in the city and on the maps themselves. I think this is far superior compared to the support system that FE seemingly can't try to even take a step from since FE10 and 11. Town events/Base convos >>> supports, fukken fight me.
I'd say my favourite characters were Ward, Larentia, Enid, Ruby along with Clifford, Christine, Dean and Axel. Also, can't not acknowledged 150, he's pretty badass, even if he's kinda useless.

Soundtrack

It's amazing. Go listen to it. My favourites probably are: Cloud of War, Prelude to Battle, For Whose Sake, Crusade, Resolution, Knight's Pride, With Noble Eyes, After the Rain, Determination, Ancient Oath, Daybreak, On the Other Side of the Road.

Gameplay

Okay, so this is probably going to end up pretty long.

Battle flow

I love the battle flow. Don't know if there's a better or more wildly used name for it, but in a typical FE it goes as such:
[AttackCounterattackPursuit Attack]
Where pursuit is the double attack performed by any unit with enough speed to double an enemy.
In Berwick Saga, however this system is completely different. If your unit hit an enemy and they don't have any additional attack granted by a weapon or a skill, they don't get to counterattack at all. If, however, the unit misses or deals no damage to an enemy, they get a counterattack. If the enemy misses or deals no damage on counterattack, your unit get another chance at hitting them, then whatever additional attacks happen and then the round of combat ends.
What this means is that you can't simply place a really bulky unit in front of 4 enemies who deal 1-2 damage to that unit and simply kill them all. Also, weapons with additional attacks are rare and rather expensive, so, for the most part, units can't simply ORKO enemies when they reach a certain threshold. As such, ORKO and OHKO command skills/capabilities give certain characters really valuable niches, even if those characters aren't bulky. This system strongly incentivizes the player to take the initiative, because otherwise they would be at a constant disadvantage.

Simultaneous turn system

The battle flow synergizes incredibly well with the turn system, that I think is completely unique to Berwick Saga. Player units, enemy units and ally units all act based on the number of units on the map. So, if the player has 10 units and the enemy has 30, you are able to move 1 unit, after which 3 enemies move, than you move another unit, etc. This changes... basically everything. This system feels great, it opens up opportunities and strategies that would be completely insane in any FE, like placing a thief that can be OHKO'ed by a ballista in its range to open a vital door. You can delay using your thief until ballista has finished its turn, go into its range, open the door, and then immediately move the thief outside the deadly range. On the other hand, something that would be completely safe in a normal turn system can be rather dangerous in Berwick. For example, killing a strong enemy unit in the very begging of a turn, while placing you unit in range of many enemies can be completely safe, since you'll be taking care of those enemies on the player phase anyway. Not so in this game. Honestly, I'm not nearly smart enough to articulate why exactly I like this system so much, but it just... clicks with me.

Units, Skills and Classes

Okay, so this going to be incredibly biased, but I personally have come to dislike how FE in general handles all three of the above. Why? Because despite the fact that we are in an era of Skill Emblem, there's barely any difference between units in the same classes besides stats. Since I'm one of those weird people who doesn't enjoy reclassing, the fact that all characters in the same class have the same skills, really detracts from my enjoyment of the games. And no, personal skills are just a fart in the ocean, especially considering that, for the most part, they don't make an enormous difference in how I might use two units, nor do they really grants some rather useful niche that is exclusive to that particular unit.
So, how does Berwick Saga handle these three elements? The classes determine what equipment a unit can use and whether it can use a horse. So, if you look at 2 mounted units the only actual difference between them is stats... But only at a first glance. If we take a look at Leon and Adel, the first 2 units we get in the same class in the very first chapter:

Name	Class	Lvl	HP	Str	Def	Spd	Skills
Leon	Spear Knight	1	28	6	4	7	Deathmatch, Robust, Supporter
Adel	Spear Knight	1	29	4	3	8	Vantage, Throw, Fork, Supporter

So, if we only compared their stats, there wouldn't be that much of a difference between these 2, Leon is just a bit bulkier and deals higher damage. However, the skills they posses put them in completely different niches in Berwick.
From the very first chapter Leon is able to ORKO some enemies thanks to his deathmatch skill, which is a command skill that you have to use on your turn and it triggers 5 rounds of combat that are much more akin to the usual FE battle flow with guaranteed counterattacks and doubling if any of the units has higher Attack Speed. Of course, 5 rounds of combat can be extremely dangerous against stronger enemies, so this skill is not even close to a delete button against anything.
Adel, on the other hand, has the unique (or at least innate) access to Vantage, which is a passive skill more akin to the Tracia version of the skill, except it also requires Adel's AS to be higher than the enemy's. But remember, in a normal round of combat in Berwick, if your unit damages an enemy, that enemy can't counterattack at all and that means the end of their turn. So, Adel has a niche completely different from that of Leon's, which is to aggro slow enemies that he can damage, weakening the enemy and also completely robbing them of their turn. And again, Vantage isn't a magic pill to trivialise all the enemies in the game, since enemies will often have higher AS than Adel or defence that he can't get through ~~(Not to mention his spear growth is so low he'll have trouble hitting anything when he's outside of Leon's support range)~~.
And trust me when I say that practically all units have their own, actually useful niches, be it combat, or pure utility, while also not being gamebreaking. Berwick makes units feel like actual unique characters even in terms of gameplay. This is the kind of stuff I just love to see in an SRPG.

Horses and the Flier

I won't go too deep into this, but horses are equipment with their own HP in Berwick. The damage they take is equal to the damage the mounted unit takes. And while most horses have more than 100 HP, they do not heal naturally. The only way to heal your horses are either buying a specific dish in Navaron, or by giving a damaged horse to Christine who is the only unit in the game with a skill that allows her to heal 20 HP to a horse at the end of a chapter (note: most chapters are 3 maps in length).
This makes horses a really valuable and limited resource that give +3 movement, Canto or even bonuses to some other stats (Speed, Defence, +1 mov on top of the +3), but you can't put mounted units in constant danger, since even if you heal the unit themselves, the damage will only accumulate for the horses and eventually you'll have to replace them. And the really good horses cost a lot. This adds a really interesting layer to the usual differences between mounts and infantry, since it's not the usual high move good, low move bad situation. You have to make meaningful decisions on when to mount/dismount and how much danger you're willing to put a mounted unit in.
To add another layer onto this some units have access to lances. And, yes, in Berwick there is a difference between lances and spears. Lances can only be used while mounted, cannot be countered and they have an enormous bonus to damage, dependant on how many hexes a unit moved. There is a lance that has 1 might, but gives +5 damage/hex. This can translate into insane damage, as high as almost 60 per hit (at least on a certain unit). The downside is that units equipped with lances cannot counterattack at all and weigh at least 15, which translates into basically 0 AS and no avoid. So while it's an incredible OHKO tool, it's not a panacea.
While I'm talking about mounted units, I might as well mention Larentia, who is your only flier for the entire game. She's a really interesting unit, who, while not being incredible in combat, provides enormous utility throughout basically the entire game. She can move above enemies (works like Pass) and enemies cannot end their turn on her hex. She cannot be attacked by enemies at all at range 0, which makes melee only units a complete non-threat to her. This means that she can reliable be used to choke some vital points, despite the fact that she has rather mediocre bulk. She was essential to me on the maps, where enemies have to escape through their own escape point.
And, she ignores terrain, naturally. She's pretty good against pesky enemy mages who are out of reach to most units. She has Windsweep, which can only be used instead of moving and prevents any kind of counterattack an enemy she attacks could've made otherwise. She has Mercy which can help with crippling and capturing enemies. And one of the best skills she has imo is Watchful, which allows her to reveal any hidden enemies within three hexes, which can normally only be done by standing right next to an enemy. Overall Larentia has some limited combat and amazing support utility. How someone can come up with all this amazing stuff, I don't know. But I love it.

Bows and Crossbows

Bows and crossbows work basically like they do in FE10: crossbows have higher might than bows, but ignore strength in damage calculation. Bows have 1-2 range, meaning archers can attack from 2 hexes away or an adjacent hex, but still cannot counterattack in melee. Crossbows have 0-1 range, so a crossbow user can counterattack in melee, but cannot do so from 2 hexes away. One other thing that Berwick Saga adds to the equation is arrows. There is a large variety of them: some have higher might, some give additional accuracy, some deal magical damage, and one type even ignores shields. Arrows make bows one of the heaviest damage dealing weapon types in the game. This, in addition to the fact that juggernauting on enemy phase is impossible for the most part, makes bows a weapon type that is on par, if not even better than them, without giving them 4-5 range or close counter.

Stats, growths and weapon skills

If Adel's and Leon's base stats made you think: "Wow, those are low", you would be right. Stats and growths in Berwick Saga are really low, especially compared to modern FE. It seems inflation hasn't hit the continent of Lazberia at all. Lucky bastards smh. What separates this game from Kaga's other ones is the bracketing system, which basically sets a lower and an upper cap on a unit's stat, depending on their averages at a certain level. Brackets differ depending on units and two units don't have brackets at all, but that can only affect one unit. So, for example, if a unit's current stat is 11, they level up and their average for that level is 13.2 and their bracketing for that stat is +/-1, they are guaranteed to level up this particular stat, no matter what the RNG decides. This also means, that this stat could not be above 14 at the same level.
This seems like kind of a compromise between the usual complete randomness of level ups and FE9's fixed level ups. I quite like this system and it basically guarantees that you'll always have reliable units, who have +/-1 brackets, such as Dean, Arthur and Volo. Brackets also guarantee that a unit will never have extremely high stats, beyond what you would expect at a certain level, which, I think, also helps in balancing enemies, not making them complete pushovers, nor complete buckets of overinflated bullshit that are overcompensating for the developers' desire to allow players to see 4-5 numbers go up with satisfying tings.
Weapon skills are really interesting. Unlike basically any FE, there is no generic skill stat that adds hit to any weapon a unit uses. Instead all weapon types have individual skill values that go up as that type of weapon or shield is used (and on level ups). This means that you can have a unit who is really accurate with swords, but cannot for the life of him hit anything with a spear. Or a unit who can block pretty reliably with a small shield, but has trouble with reliably hitting enemies. Honestly, once I got used to this system, I actually started to quite like it. My main issue with it, are not the skills themselves but the really steep requirements of them for promotion of certain characters, combined with their stupidly slow gain of those skills. ~~Looking at you, Adel, Aegina, Elbert~~

Mercenaries

Unlike in most other SRPGs (and RPGs in general), mercenaries in Berwick aren't just faceless fodder you hire inbetween missions to replace the ones you've lost. Every mercenary is a unique character with their own arcs. Some of the most powerful units you'll get in the game are also mercenaries. So, what's the deal with them?
You have to rehire all mercenaries each chapter and, of course, they don't come for free. Some characters cost a lot to hire from the very beginning, others become more expensive as you level them up. As such, you'll always spend a good amount of money on mercenaries and hiring the good ones can really add up in the long term. Fortunately, most of them will permanently join your army as you use them on maps and level them up. I think this is a really interesting way of handling recruitment and a good way of giving the player access to some really powerful units early on, without trivialising the game, or making other units useless (although imo nobody is completely useless... except 1 guy).
An issue I have is that I have no idea how successful I would've been at recruiting anyone without knowing the requirements. So, while I think this is a really good system, I wish the game was a bit more transparent about how to recruit particular units. Because I would've never guessed that you need to kill 60 people with Dean. While I think it's a pretty good example of gameplay-story integration, I read, how some person got this unit to promotion, but never manged to recruit him.

Maps

You could discuss Berwick's map design for day, probably. I'm gonna be honest and say that I'm bad at map analysis, but I'll try to describe what stood out to me.
I really like the fact that many main maps have hard turn limits (usually 24). This makes turtling practically impossible, and the maps really know how to put more and more pressure onto you as they progress. The game isn't afraid of throwing tons of strong enemies at you to make you hurry. Many maps feel extremely intense and have you make meaningful actions/decisions almost every single turn. I like the variety of main objectives: seize, escape, defend and, surprisingly, I think escort/evacuate missions are really good.
The main maps also have a large amount of side objectives, be it citizen requests from Navaron, special character events, chests, special hexes that can be searched with a thief or a pirate, etc. Completing most of these gives pretty good rewards, so while ignoring them is possible, I wouldn't want to do that, so I think side objectives do their job of making the maps even more interesting rather well.
Side maps are more of a breather between the main ones, since most of them aren't as intensive. Though that doesn't mean that they're easy. They're mostly well designed as well imo, some better than others, but I honestly can't remember any maps that I actively disliked or found really boring, but I'm sure I would probably find some once I replay the game.
What I think the game does really well, no matter the map is the differentiation of terrain and movement types, which gives further utility to both the mounted units and the infantry. Cliffs in particular are one of the reasons mounts don't dominate the entire game. They can be a really big game changer, since horses can't scale them at all, while light infantry is twice as fast on them as dismounted units. This can make you divide the team, which I think SRPGs should do more in general.

Some miscellaneous thoughts and complaints

I also have to say that Berwick is peak RNG shenanigans. The game is definitely designed around the fact that things may go either horribly wrong or terrifically right for you, and as such gives saves every 5 turns. I actually found myself rather enjoying the fact that RNGog is a fickle deity, because the game is never outright unfair, it gives you tons of tools to improve the odds in your favour. Sometimes you may get completely and utterly screwed, but I found that it can also be rather hilarious, instead of frustrating.
So, specifically what I'm talking about is rather low hitrates in the earlygame. Some people might find this frustrating, but enemies almost always have even lower hitrates, and you are almost always given sufficient tools to make a comeback from a bit of bad luck. You have Reese's Commander skill that gives +10 hit to every ally in 3 hexes, access to rather cheap, durable and accurate swords and lances in Navaron, you immediately get two units who have really good hitrates because of their Supportive skill. And as the game progresses, and the enemies get higher hitrates, you are given access to more and more really strong units, weapons, shields, magic and items to help take on the rather steep challenge.
The two aspects of screwy RNG I'm rather conflicted about are the fact that weapons can just break randomly once they reach less than 61% in durability, and the injury/cripple system also being very random. I honestly can't say that I like either of these, because a strong weapon or unit that you were going to rely on being completely taken out of combat based on stupid chance is rather... disheartening. And while weapons breaking is more or less easy to adapt to, cripple, especially before you get a certain unit to promotion, is rather messy and just expensive to deal with in the early game, since the items to cure the condition are almost as expensive as the most powerful weapons.
Additionally, capturing some enemies is essential if you want to get all the money from bounties and collector's items. And to capture an enemy unit you need to cripple them, which is incredibly annoying, because you basically have to simply rig it, even if you're using all the right skills/weapons/characters. You can definitely beat the game without those rewards, but money is always useful for any kind of player, and in the case of a ranked run you need that money, because furniture is stupidly expensive. And capture relying very heavily on RNG is one of the reasons I don't really see myself doing a ranked run ever, even though I love this game.
Of course, all this works both ways, since the enemies can get crippled from single lucky hit or break their weapons and/or shields and become complete non-threats, just because they got screwed. But, you know selective memory and all that jazz.
All that said, I still had some positive experience with my units being crippled ~~this sounds really wrong~~. For example on one of the escape maps I had Dean crippled on turn 19. Everything before that turn went perfectly, so I didn't want to reload the save and simply went with the flow. It definitely made the end of that map much more intense, which I think the developers wanted to achieve with this system... It can also, ironically, save a unit that would otherwise die, since if that unit is captured instead, you can ransom them back from the enemy for some denarii, instead of finding a new grave upon your return to Navaron.
For the most part, I think that the interface is pretty well organised and works surprisingly well for a console game dealing with hexes. The only complaint I have is that working with bags and organising items can be a bit of a drag, but it didn't frustrate me or anything.
Berwick also has problems with transparency in 2 particularly annoying cases: food and furniture. To figure out whether I want to feed a unit a certain dish, I have to scroll through a huge list, figure out what's on the menu in this chapter and what effects a dish'll have on a particular unit. It's just a huge waste of time imo, and not telling the player this info, when they're just capable of savescamming and figuring this shit out without a guide, is just stupid. Furniture... it costs a shit ton, yet I have literally no clue of what it's going to actually give me? Why? Like, okay, treasure chest is easy to figure out, it gives you money randomly every chapter. But how tf am I supposed to know that the Porcelain Vase gives +1 happiness to female mercenaries, instead of +0.5. It can actually be pretty useful, to make recruitment somewhat faster, but if I were playing the game completely blind I would think that I wasted my money on completely useless garbage.

The End

Okay, yeah, this turned out to be waaaaay to long and probably no one will read this disorganised mess of thoughts, but yeah.
I'm genuinely glad that I got to experience this game. This is probably the most fun I've had with an SRPG and I think that's definitely going to be the case for a long time.
I love Berwick Saga... I love Kaga. The power you give me I will lay down when I train Derrick to level 30.
TL;DR Give Berwick Saga a try. You're not guaranteed to like it, it's a pretty niche game. But there's so much incredible stuff packed into it, it's very complex and engaging, gives a lot of freedom in terms of whom you can use to beat the game ~~just look at whom I got level 30~~, and the difficulty feels just right to me. I can't recommend Berwick enough.

Borrasca - II

Part I
Underneath the Triple Tree there is a man who waits for me and should I go or should I stay my fate’s the same either way.
“Good morning.”
The words faded back into the ether and I awoke with a start. Jimmy Prescott was lounging against the wall near the door, an amused yet disapproving look on his face.
“Shit, sorry Mr. Prescott. I didn’t hear you come in.”
“You know, I worked here when I was a kid, too. I installed the bell on the door for this very reason. Didn’t seem to wake you up, though,“ he laughed. I mumbled another apology and idly straightened a stack of business cards in front of me.
“Late night?”
“Ah…kinda.” Very.
“I hope you weren’t out at the bonfires with all the other underage drinkers.”
“No, sir.” Yep.
“Good. Anyway, I’m just here for my lunch. I’ll take a parmesan chicken with avocado on rye.”
“Yes, sir.” Happy that the conversation was over, I walked over to the sandwich counter and unwound the twisty tie from the rye bread.
Jimmy Prescott stepped back from the counter and idly studied that pictures on the wall, though he’d seen them a thousand times before. More of the photos were of the Prescott family, taken over the last century. I’d always though it odd décor but then, the shop was named after them after all.
“Is Meera here?” Prescott asked as I wrapped up his sandwich.
“She’s in the back.”
“Ah, I thought she’d still be in St. Louis. Well, when you’re finished would you mind getting her for me?”
Shit.
“Yes, sir.”
I handed him his sandwich and went to the back to find Meera. She was in the office, furiously punching the keys on her accounting calculator.
“Uh, Meera? Jimmy Prescott is out front. He wants to talk to you.”
She turned and gave me a dubious look. “Did he say what about?” I shook my head.
“Okay,” she sighed. “You can go home for the day, Sam.”
”But…are you sure?” I still had three hours on the clock.
“He’s the only customer we’ve had since we opened. Don’t worry, I’ll pay you for a whole day, kiddo.”
“Thanks, Meera. Um, good luck I guess.”
I gave her a sympathetic shrug and she patted my arm. I didn’t know how she did it. Meera was perhaps the most burdened and stressed out woman in all of Drisking but she never failed to be unbelievably kind. There was a hopelessness about her, a sadness that she hid very well.
I left the store out the backdoor so I wouldn’t have to see Jimmy Prescott again. His weird, yellowed amber eyes always set me on edge. Not to mention he was a total tool.
I hopped in my car and texted Kyle that I was off work. He answered immediately and told me to come meet him. I happily whipped my apron off over my head and threw the car into reverse. Crystal Lake was my favorite place in all of Drisking.
I had to park almost a mile away since the lake was so packed. I eventually found Kyle and Kimber sitting on a rock that jutted out over the beach.
Kimber was sunbathing in a blue, floral bikini and Kyle was wearing his ‘no one can tell where my eyes are looking’ sunglasses.
“What’d I miss?” I asked, sitting down next to Kimber.
“Not much,” she answered, stretching and sitting up. “Just more beer.” She dug into the cooler behind her and tried to hand me a Blue Moon.
“Ugh, no.” I waved it away. “Got any Excedrin?”
“Oh no,” Kimber gave me her ‘I’m sorry’ pout.
“Okay, then I’ll just take those sunglasses.” I held my hand out to Kyle who looked back at it in horror.
“What? No, fuck off!”
“Oh, come on, Kyle, give him your sunglasses. Sam didn’t get to sleep off his hangover like we did!”
I smiled at Kyle and he tightened his lips. We both knew exactly what I was doing. Kimber stroked Kyle’s arm in encouragement. ”Please?” she asked.
“Fine,” he said and shoved his BluBlockers at me. I put them on and sat back, turning my head to watch the girls on the beach below. Phoebe Dranger – Dark-Haired girl - was there lying on a towel next to Round Face and giggling. It still seemed unnatural to me to see the two off them without Rude-Nose. The three had been inseparable, working as fluidly together as the gears in a watch until Kristy had fallen in love with some college kid and run away.
“So why’d you get out of work early anyway?” Kyle asked.
“Prescott came in.”
“Ew,” Kimber squirmed. “He totally freaks me out. He’s been staring at me since like 5th grade.”
“Next time he stares at you let me know and I’ll knock him the fuck out.” Kyle had always been protective over Kimber but ever since they’d started dating it’d gotten 10 times more unbearable.
Kimber winked at him. “So what did he want, Sam?”
“He wanted to talk to Meera. Probably about the sandwich shop.”
“You mean about how no one goes there and the business should have closed years ago but it won’t because the Prescott’s are stubborn and vain?” Kyle said.
“Yeah, probably, I mean she looked pretty worried. I can count on one hand how many sandwiches I’ve sold in the past month. “
“Ouch.” Kimber grimaced.
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure she’s going to get chewed out. I really don’t like that guy.” I thought about the squirmy, yellow-eyed freak yelling at sweet, little Meera and it made my blood boil.
“You should have met his dad,” Kyle snorted. “He was a piece of work.”
“His dad?”
“Yeah, Tom Prescott.,” Kimber said. “The family put him in a home a few towns over.” “Why is he in a home?”
“I heard he got dementia and he was embarrassing the family in public.” Kyle said.
“I heard that, too,” Kimber brushed her long curls off of her shoulders. “I always liked Tom Prescott. It was a pretty shitty thing to do.”
“Hey kids!” We turned in unison so see Phil Saunders come stomping out of the bushes behind us with Mike Sutton following behind. “So this is where the cool people hang out. High above the kingdom on Pride Rock.”
“Sup Mike,” Kyle said ignoring Phil, whom he‘d disliked ever since Phil had briefly dated Kimber. Phil was either unaware of or uninterested in Kyle’s feelings. Of course, that may also have been because Phil was stoned out of his mind most of the time, and now was no exception.
They sat down next to us and Mike offered me his pipe.
“Wanna hit this?”
I did want to hit it, and pretty badly too. I reached up to grab it but Phil swatted my hand away.
“Careful, guy, you don’t want to get the Sheriff’s son high. For fucks sake, Mike.” Mike nodded knowingly and shoved the pipe back into his pocket.
I scowled. “Really?”
“Sorry, Sammy. Hell the only reason I’m even smoking around you is because today is my cousin’s deathiversary and I don’t give a shit about anything else.”
“Your cousin Hannah?” Kimber asked with a sympathetic look.
“Yep. 5 years she’s been gone.”
“Too many people disappear in these woods, man,” Mike said as he exhaled a cloud of smoke.
“Yeah, man,” Phil nodded. “You know sometimes, when I’m high, I can see them all. And I feel like I know the answer to the mystery, man. Like I’m so close to solving it. It’s just something I can see. Like they’re all puzzle pieces and in my mind I see the puzzle put together but I can’t tell what the picture is of, you know?”
“You’re fuckin’ high, Saunders.” Kyle said.
“We all are, man. We all are. Everyone in this town is drinking the fuckin’ kool aid.”
Kimber raised an eyebrow at him but said nothing.
“Everyone except the dead ones. I can see what they looked like before they went into the ground. Or is it the grounder?”
“Shit, I dunno, man.” Mike said to the space in front of him.
“Yeah. I see all those people. Hannah. Paige. Jason Metley. Hell, I ever see your sister, Walker.”
Kyle, who I knew had been monitoring the conversation for mention of this very thing, sprang to his feet and opened his mouth to yell at Phil.
“Nah, Whitney Walker ran away to St. Louis. Remember?” Mike said.
I saw Kyle and Kimber exchange a quick look as I tried to remain impassive from behind the BluBlockers.
“That true, man?” Phil asked. And there it was.
I knew Kyle and Kimber had always wondered what I thought about Whitney and if I’d ever accepted the official statement that she and Jay had run away together. They were kind enough not bring it up but I knew they wanted to know what I believed, what I thought had really happened.
I loved them both and I wanted to talk to them about it but I just couldn’t. Everyone thought that I had spent the last seven years quietly grieving and that I’d put the incident behind me. At least, that’s what I’d tried to show them.
The truth was that I’d never given up on Whitney. I’d waited years for Jay to show up on social media and when I finally found him last year, I’d been devastated. I’d always hoped the official report was right and that Whitney was somewhere far away from here, alive and happy with Jay Bower. But his Myspace page showed a thriving teenager, still living at home with his parents, his ex-girlfriend Whitney the furthest thing from his mind.
When I’d brought the evidence to my dad he read the pages I’d printed off and then shut the door to his office with me on the other side. I heard him crying in there for hours as I waited for him to reopen the case and bring the smackdown on the Butler County sheriff’s department. But justice had never come and we never mentioned Jay Bower again.
For whatever reason, I never told Kyle and Kimber about any of that. Maybe it was because I was worried they’d blow it off like my dad had or maybe, and far more likely, I didn’t want them to know how obsessed I’d become with the Borrasca and the Skinned Men. I knew, as assuredly as the sun would rise tomorrow, that Whitney’s death had happened at there; just like all the others who’d gone to the Triple Tree.
I was suddenly very aware of 4 pairs of eyes staring at me.
“Yeah, it’s true. She ran off with this guy Jay from our hometown.” I answered. That was enough for Kyle.
“Alright, guys, seriously, he’s the sheriff’s kid. What do you think’s gonna happen if he gets caught with weed?”
“The little man is right, Phil, let’s bounce. I don’t need any more trouble with the cops around here.” Mike said.
“Later, Walker. Kimber. Little man.” Phil stood up, brushed off his pants, and jumped from the boulder onto the sandy beach below. He sprayed sand all over a couple of freshmen girls who squealed and called him an unthoughtful ass. Phil tipped his invisible hat to them and said “Ladies” before walking off.
Mike followed him down and as I watched them make their way down the beach I became aware of the conversation going on behind me.
“I didn’t say I wanted to go, I said I had to go.” Kimber said.
“It’s only 2 o’clock! And it’s Sunday.”
“I know but my parents have been fighting a lot lately and I don’t want to leave my mom alone too long.”
“I thought she was doing better?”
“A little, but she’s still depressed, Kyle.”
“Do you wanna stay over at my place tonight?” Kimber’s voice dropped into a whisper. “I just don’t…I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.”
“What- no, wait, that’s not what I meant! I’d sleep on the pullout in the basement and you would have my room.” Very awkward silence. “My parents love you, you know,” he added.
Kimber laughed. “I know. I just want to be there for my mom right now. But thank you, sweetie.” And then the absolutely disgusting sound of my best friends kissing. I would never get used to it.
“Ugh, on that note, I’m outta here, too.” I stood up and gave them both a shaming look.
“Oh, come on Sam, don’t be jealous, we’ll find you a girlfriend someday,” Kyle joked.
“I really don’t need your help with that,” I muttered, glancing down the beach to where Emmaline Addler was sunbathing. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” “Last week of school!” Kimber yelled at my retreating back. Thank god.
Tomorrow was the last Monday of the school year and while I should have been thankful my sophomore year was ending, I wasn’t. The summer meant no distractions, more time to think and even more hours of boredom at Prescott Artisan Sandwiches.
But I wasn’t looking forward to tomorrow for another reason: besides it being Monday it was also Sophomore Ditch Day. My dad had caught on to that several weeks ago and warned me to “set a good example” and go to school that day. Sometimes I really hated being the son of a cop.
Kimber and Kyle were sympathetic and had offered to share in my misery. I had, of course, said yes, much to Kyle’s sadness.
As I’d expected my dad was waiting for me when I got home. We shared a brief, strained conversation about our respective days and then he finally got to it.
“Remember, Sammy, we’re cracking down on truancy this year. I want to see you at school tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I got it Dad.”
“And I hope I won’t have to write a ticket to Kyle either.”
I sighed. “It’s just a tradition, even the teachers sort of encourage it. On Friday they said-“
“I don’t care what they said, Sam; besides the fact that I’m the sheriff, I’m also your father and I want my son in school.”
I laughed and shook my head. What a joke. “I can’t control what Kyle does.” “Fair enough but you can control what you do.”
I said nothing and Dad sighed.
“It’s almost over, Sam. Just get through these last five days and you can be done with school for a few months.”
“Fine.” I walked out of the kitchen rudely ending the conversation. I climbed the stairs and passed by Whitney’s door on the way to my room. The light was on and silence was behind it. I knew my mother was in there. She was always in there, doing god knows what.
I walked to my own room, shut the door behind me and locked it. The next day at school ended up being more embarrassing than anything else. There were a few other people that hadn’t skipped, maybe a total of ten of us, and the looks they shot at me made it clear that my dad was the reason they were there.
Kimber, great friend that she was, happily went to her classes like it was a normal day. Kyle attended all of my classes with me. The teachers, who had been looking forward to an easy day, couldn’t have cared less.
Just before lunch an officer came around to all the class rooms and asked for copies of the attendance sheets. Dad really wasn’t kidding about cracking down this year. I was going to get shit from people all summer.
At lunch Kyle and I went out to my car to smoke. Usually we were hidden by dozens of large pick-up trucks but today we were out in the open and vulnerable. I moved the car back to a shady corner of the parking lot and Kyle pulled out his bowl.
“Did you text Kimber?” I asked him while he hit it.
“Yep,” he said through tight lips as he let the smoke sit in his lungs and then blew it out all over my dashboard. “She went home around 4th period. She said her mom called her and she was going home to take care of her. I don’t know, man.”
“Doesn’t her mom hate you?” I asked, taking my turn with the bowl.
“Yeah. I mean that’s a fairly new development, ever since Kimber and I started dating. But I’m pretty sure she’s always hated me and just hid it better before. Now that she’s all depressed and whatever she doesn’t give a shit.”
It was hard to picture anyone hating Kyle. “Why can’t Kimber’s dad take care of her?”
“I don’t know.”
I hit the pipe again.
“Hey man, let’s not even go back today.” Kyle said.
“You think?” I asked.
“Yeah, I mean you put in 4 periods, you’ve been a good son. And Officer Dick Ass already came around and collected the attendance sheets.”
“Dick Ass? Really? You’re better than that, man.”
“Officer….Ass…Dick?”
“You’re fuckin’ baked, Kyle.”
“Seriously, man, let’s go.”
I thought about it a second. Kyle was right, I’d done my duty as a son and if I left now I’d have enough time to go to Gamestop before work.
“Fuck it.” I turned on the ignition.
Kyle sat up in his chair and rolled down the window to clear out the smoke. “Hey man, can you drop me by Kimber’s?”
“Sure but how’re you gonna get home?”
“Can you come get me after work?”
“What if her mom throws you out again?”
Kyle rolled his eyes. “That was one time.”
“Why can’t I just drop you at home and you can take your own car?”
“It needs new tires.”
New tires, of course. What Kyle really meant was that his insurance had lapsed and he didn’t have any money for gas, anyway. He’d bought the car last summer after working double shifts at the convenience store for half a year. It was an okay car, newer, but I knew he’d only wanted it to impress Kimber, something he’d vehemently denied. Had it worked? Not in my opinion.
They’d started dating in the fall and Kyle quit his job to spend more time with her. Kimber didn’t seem like the kind of girl to be impressed by a Pontiac Bonneville but Kyle was convinced that was how he’d won her over. I was sure all the car had really done was give him the confidence to ask her out. And now that its part in their romance ended, the car sat in the garage of the Landy home collecting dust instead of memories.
Gamestop didn’t have what I wanted and neither did Drisking Games and Media. Since I had nothing else to do I decided to show up to work early and hope that Meera would let me leave early too.
I parked in front and walked in the door, unsurprised to see no one at the front counter. There were only three of us that worked at the shop and sadly I never got to see the other girl, Emmaline, who worked on the days I didn’t. This was disappointing to me since she was half the reason I’d applied there in the first place.
I went into the back to tell Meera I was there and found her slumped over her desk on a pile of receipts and paperwork. This wasn’t an unusual way to find Meera but something seemed different today. I immediately felt a disturbance in the force but before I could run away she turned toward me and I saw I was right to flee; Meera was crying.
“Are you, um….um, are you-“
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she said quickly, wiping her eyes. “Is it four already?”
“No, it’s 2:15. I just thought maybe if I came in early-“
“Oh right, it’s your ditch day.” Meera wiped her eyes only to have them fill with tears again. “I don’t understand, Sam, this store had been operating in the red ever since I was hired to manage it. What am I doing wrong?”
“I don’t…know,” I offered lamely, the instinct to escape never stronger.
“No one comes in here – ever - and Mr. Prescott refuses to let me put signs up to advertise! He says they’re unsightly, but how does he expect me to pull in business! I need this job, Sam, god, I just…”
I must have looked like a frightened deer because when Meera glanced over at me she seemed to subtly collect herself. “Go ahead and go out to the front. I’ll do your timecard.”
She didn’t have to tell me twice. I really liked Meera and I hated seeing her like this.
The front didn’t end up being much better. I could hear Meera crying over the store’s dated music track. Her sobs went from painfully audible to muffled whimpers. After half an hour I decided I had to do something. Since I was entirely unequipped to deal with an adult woman’s emotions I decided to call Meera’s husband Owen. He was thankfully at home and answered on the second ring. “I’ll be right there.”
I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard a car pull up outside and saw the tall, girthy Owen get out of it. He walked in during a quiet lull in his wife’s breakdown.
“I’m sorry to call you at home, Mr. Daley, I just didn’t know what else to do...”
“That’s okay, Sam, you did the right thing.” He looked tired and I could tell this situation wasn’t new to him.
“Is she ok? I mean like, will she be ok?”
“Oh…yeah.” He nodded. “We’re just going through some things.”
“Oh. Meera said the store is going bankrupt, too.” I winced as soon as the words were out of my mouth.
“Yeah,” Owen ran a hand through his hair. “That’s part of it, although I don’t think Jim is going to let that happen. Meera is more upset about...” he sighed. “Has Meera told you about her, ah, appointments?” “Ah…no.”
“Well, we’ve been trying to get pregnant for years. Long, painful years. It’s just so goddamn important for her to have a baby. And you know she blames me for our problems?”
He walked around the room, staring at the pictures, not really talking to me anymore.
“I understand why it’s important to her, I just don’t understand the obsession with it, you know? Because she’s the last one in her family? Because she’s the last McCaskey on the planet? I mean, does she even realize that our baby wouldn’t be a McCaskey? He’d be a Daley! I tell you Sam, never marry a woman with a crazy father and four dead uncles. They develop these obsessions with lineage and-“
“Four dead uncles?”
“What? Oh, yeah. The famous ones. You know the four brothers who died in the Drisking mines? Well that only left her dad. And her parents were only able to conceive her. Which leaves her as the last McCaskey and hope for the family line. So of course you see how this is all my fault.”
I looked at him blankly and he sighed.
“I’m sorry, kid. These aren’t your problems and they’re way over your paygrade anyway. I’m just very stressed out these days. Our fertility issues and Meera’s absolute abhorrence to our only other option, it’s-“
“But how did they die?” I was desperate to talk about anything else and the story of Meera’s uncles interested me.
“The McCaskey boys? I don’t really know. They died on the mountain somewhere.”
“Oh. Well, um, have you heard of the Skinned Men?”
“Skinned men?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t think so.”
“What about Borrasca?”
Owen Daley squeezed his eyes shut and pushed in on his temples with his fingers. “What? What does a borrasca have to do with anything?”
“Owen?” Meera voice squeaked from the doorway.
“Oh, baby, are you okay? Sam called the house-“
“I want to do it.”
“You do?” Owen asked dubiously.
“I called him.”
His eyes flicked over to me and I immediately looked away. Another conversation I didn’t want to be a part of.
“Sam, why don’t you take off for the day? Meera and I will handle things here.”
“Okay,” I mumbled and bolted for the door. Once I was in my car and backing away I called Kyle.
“Dude, fucking weird shit is going down in this town.”
“What happened?”
“I can’t explain it over the phone. Where are you at?”
“I’m at Kimber’s. Are you off work?”
“Yeah, I’m coming to get you.”
By ‘at Kimber’s’ Kyle meant sitting on the curb in front of the house, kicked off the property again. When I pulled up Kimber came out and met us at the curb.
“I’m so sorry, Kyle,” she said. “She’s really upset today, she wouldn’t even let me leave the house to sit with you.”
“It’s okay,” he said. “Don’t worry about me I just want to make sure you and your mom are okay.”
“We’re okay. And my dad will be home soon.”
“Text us when he gets home and we’ll come get you.” I said.
“I wish I could, I’m babysitting tonight until 7:30. Maybe after that?” “Sure.”
Kyle and Kimber hugged goodbye and then Kimber rushed back to her house as something crashed inside.
“So what’s going on?” Kyle asked, taking a drink of a warm Dr. Pepper sitting in my cup holder. “You’re still wearing your apron, you know.”
“Meera had a breakdown,” I said, peeling it off.
“Really? What happened?”
I told Kyle the full story giving particular attention to the four uncles.
“Yeah the McCaskeys. I’ve heard of them. Didn’t know Meera was one, though, I thought they were all dead.”
“Yeah, she’s the last one. So like…do you think the McCaskey deaths have anything to do with the other disappearances?” It had been awhile since I’d mentioned anything about Borrasca and Kyle choked a little on the Dr. Pepper.
“I don’t…I don’t know, man. I mean maybe if the disappearances started around the same time?”
“How can we find that out?”
“Maybe the cops? There have to be police reports.”
“Okay, but what if I couldn’t ask my dad?”
Kyle shook his head. “I don’t know then.”
“What about like records? The historical society people, maybe?”
“Oh yeah,” he said, nodding. “We can try them. They’re over on 2nd. They share an office with Drisking Arts and Antiques.”
I made a u-turn and started back toward town.
“Hey, ah…why are we doing this?”
I’d known the question was coming. I’d hoped to have more answers myself before I had to give him one.
“Just…Whitney,” was all I could say. Kyle didn’t ask anything more. The Historic Preservation Society of Drisking was at the back of the building and we had to walk through the Antiquities shop as the owner, Mr. Dranger, eyed us warily. At the end of a short hallway we found a small room with two desks pushed together. One was empty and the other was stacked high with books and folders of loose paper. We could hear someone typing behind the stacks.
I cleared my throat. “Hello?” A small woman popped up from behind the desk. I recognized her as the same woman who had given the us a lecture in 5th grade. “Hello. How can I help you boys?” She asked, walking out to greet us.
“Um, yeah, I have a few questions about Drisking’s…history, I guess?”
“Oh great! Is this for an end of year report? Have a seat, boys.” She gestured to the empty chair sitting behind the other desk. I nodded at Kyle and he sat down, looking uneasy.
“Yeah, it’s for an essay we have to write. Hey, I think you gave a lecture to us like seven years ago. At school.”
“Oh yes! I give that lecture every year with Mr. Prescott,” she smiled.
“Yeah it was you and one other guy, too. A bald guy.” Kyle said, shifting uncomfortably in the wooden chair.
“Yes, that was my fiancé Wyatt Dowding. He passed several years ago.”
“Oh.” Kyle said.
“So, ah, Miss- Miss-“
“Scanlon. But you can call me Kathryn.” She said.
“Kathryn,” I tried. I hated calling adults by their first names. “Um, we want to know about the McCaskey kids.”
“Ooh,” Kathryn said shaking her head. “A dark part of history there but still history nonetheless.”
“Yeah, so when did that happen?”
“And how did they die?” Kyle added.
“Well they didn’t die. I mean, they certainly perished in the mines but their bodies were never recovered so we don’t know the answer to that. I would think dehydration, starvation and exhaustion killed them within days of getting lost down there. And to your second question that was…1953, I believe.”
“And the mines closed that year?”
“Well actually the mines officially closed the year after. There was a legal spat between the city and the Prescott family who wanted to leave the mines open until the bodies were found. The city won and the mines were condemned.”
“Wait, why did the Prescott’s care?”
“Don’t you want to write this down?” Kathryn asked.
Kyle tapped his head twice with his finger. Kathryn shrugged and continued.
“Well, the Prescott and the McCaskey family were closely related. Tom Prescott was paying teams of unemployed miners to go down in the mines and search for the bodies. The city had had enough of it, the mountain was unstable and they didn’t want any more deaths. The mines had been abandoned years before and were structurally unsafe. After the city banned the Recovery teams from the mines, members of the Prescott family started going down there themselves. Finally the city had had enough and they had the mines collapsed.”
“With bombs?” Kyle asked.
“Well, with explosives. And that’s what led to the ‘incident’. By this time the mines had been unprofitable for a few years and the city was quite broke. They hired a less than reputable company to collapse the mines and, well, when they set off the explosives, they accidentally broke into Drisking’s water table. The city went into debt trying to purify the water of silt and iron ore. It wasn’t until two years later that things started getting better, thanks to the Prescott’s who truly did revitalize Drisking.”
Kyle’s phone chirped and he pulled it out of his pocket. “It’s Kimber. She wants us to come over.”
“Okay. Thanks Ms. Scanlon. I mean, Kathryn”
“Sure! If you have any other questions feel free to come by. We’re almost always open during the day. Oh! Or you can email me.” She dug into her jacket pocket and pulled out a loose business card. It was creased and had a dusty smudge on it.
“Thanks.”
“So what do you think?” Kyle asked when we got in the car.
“I don’t know. It’s weird isn’t it? I mean why would the Prescott’s give a shit if the town suffers after they refused to help him find their family and were actively working against them?”
“Maybe they forgave and forgot.” Kyle shrugged.
“Does Jimmy Prescott seem like a guy to forgive and forget to you?”
“Ugh…no. And his dad is even worse.”
“Exactly. Maybe we should-“
“Turn here! Sorry, Kimber’s still babysitting and she’s over on Amhurst.” When we pulled up Kimber was out in the front yard with two young boys who were playing in the driveway. She was holding a sleeping baby and waving to us. We parked in the driveway and she introduced us to the two older kids. They gave us shy hellos and then ran off to continue their game.
Once they’d left we explained everything that had happened to Kimber while she listened and rocked the baby in her arms.
“Sam is right, that doesn’t make sense. But why are we even concerned about something that happened decades ago?”
“Whitney.” Kyle said so I didn’t have to. A flash of surprise crossed Kimber’s face and she walked over to put the baby down in his playpen. Then she walked back and pulled me into one of her famous Super-Comforting-Not-At-All-Awkward hugs. When she released me she began to pace around the driveway. “Okay, so we think Whitney somehow got involved in all of this and, you’re right, if we want to figure this out we need to start at the beginning. Phil is right: every mystery in this town is one piece of a larger puzzle, it’s all related...” She stopped and looked over at us. “We need to go to the source if we want answers.”
“Yeah that’s not a bad idea,” Kyle agreed. “I know he likes to hang out in the Hide-away and get drunk with ex-Sheriff Clery.”
“Ah, no Kyle. Not Jimmy – his dad.”
“Tom? He’s so crazy they put him in a home!”
“He’s the horse’s mouth, though, isn’t he? Jimmy isn’t likely to know half as much as his dad.”
“But-“
As Kyle and Kimber argued I watched the kids chase each other around the tree in their front yard. There seemed to be something carved in the bark, words, not unlike the Triple Tree at Ambercot Fort. I was too far away to read what it said.
“He got you, he got you!” I heard the youngest one call to his brother. “The Skinned Man got you, now you have to die.”
“Na-uh, Peter, I was touching the tree.”
“No you weren’t! You’re a liar! One of them got you and now you have to meet the Shiny Gentleman!”
“No I don’t!”
“Kimber, Josh is cheating!”
I shuddered and turned away from them. “Where’s the nut house?” I interrupted them. “Is it close?”
“It’s not a nut house, it’s more like a hospice,” Kimber chided. “The rumor I’ve heard is that he’s at Golden Elm and that’s in Cape Girardeau.”
“That’s about 40 minutes away,” Kyle said and pull out his phone. “I’ll check the visiting hours for Tuesdays. Sam, do you work tomorrow?”
“I work every day but I’ll get out of it.” I promised.
“Ok cool. Let’s plan to leave after school.”
The following day dragged on like any last Tuesday of the school year. Most people talked about what they did with their ditch day or complained about a cop showing up at their house to issue them a ticket while sliding less than pleased looks at me.
When the final bell rang at 3:30 I grabbed my bag and booked it out to my car. Kyle and Kimber were already waiting for me.
The drive took longer than we expected when I got lost in Cape Girardeau. The town was bigger than Drisking and the streets weren’t laid out with any sort of planning or logic. By the time we arrived at Golden Elm we only had 20 minutes left for visiting hours.
“We’re here to see Mr. Thomas Prescott,” Kimber told the nurse at the front desk. We let her do the talking since she had a disarming, old-fashioned charm about her that put people in a friendly mood.
“Old Tom? Wow, he hasn’t had a visitor since Christmas when his son came up. Sign the check-in sheet and take a visitor sticker. You’re family then? Do you know where his room is?” The nurse arched a thin, suspicious eyebrow.
“I’m sorry, we don’t.” Kimber apologized. “My mother has been asking me to check in on my great uncle while she’s away doing Doctors without Borders. I should have gotten more information from her but you know, she only has so many minutes to call home.”
“Oh, of course dear! Let me get someone to escort you.”
An orderly led us to Tom Prescott’s room which we found empty. He pointed down the hall and said “He likes to read in the sunroom.”
We walked down the hall and found an old, thin man with sitting alone and whispering to himself. He was sitting at a table in front of a backgammon board moving chess pieces around it.
“Tom Prescott?” Kimber said, smiling.
He didn’t look up and I wondered if he’d heard her at all. Kimber took a deep breath to try again but the old man suddenly slammed his fist on the table.
“I’m him, goddammit, I’m Mr. Thomas Prescott. Don’t call me Tom; people’s kids used to have more respect.”
“I’m sorry, sir.” Kimber said gently as she sat down in the chair opposite him.
“You kids have no respect. Do you even know who I am? It’s my son that’s done it. That boy’s momma shoulda whipped him but she was soft and now he’s runnin’ around my town spreading his vulgarity and disrespect.”
“Our apologies, Mr. Prescott, we never meant to be disrespectful. We greatly admire you. You’re the man who built our town into what it is today! Everyone remembers that. Drisking was suffering and the town was dying and then you fixed it. We know that.”
“I did what I had to do,” the old man grumbled. “It was my town. It still is. Who are you, little girl, to come in here and suggest otherwise?”
“Ah, no, no that’s not what I said.” Kimber changed tactics. “And as for who we are, we’re Meera McCaskey’s kids. Do you remember the McCaskeys?”
“Huh. So you’re Aida’s granddaughter. That explains why you’re not there.” We exchanged puzzled looks. “We’re right here, Mr. Prescott.” Kimber said.
“You know what I meant, young lady! They all know. They know I rescued the town, that’s my town. Of course they were going to let me do anything I wanted as long as the money kept coming in. That’s why it’s my town.”
“Is the money still coming in?” Kimber tested.
“Well, you’re here aren’t you? They didn’t like it but they took the money. They didn’t know. Not everything, they didn’t, but they suspected some. And they must have been okay with it because they kept electing Clery and they kept taking the money.”
Prescott picked up a pawn and ran his fingers over it as he talked. “It’s just a powder, you know, so unassuming. A fine, soft powder. The powder doesn’t know what it is, it doesn’t know it’s bad. It’s the people who say it’s bad. But it needed to be done. You know that, Aida, you know we had to do it.” Kimber hooked him in. “I know. I know we had to it but it’s your son. I don’t think he’s doing it right.”
“Well of course he isn’t!” The elderly Prescott slammed his fist on the table again and two rooks tumbled to the floor. “They were mine! He took them from me. He thought he could do it better but he took mine and he ruined my legacy. Decades of work and now it’s all run by the powder. It’s the dust of the crumbled empire!”
“What about the Skinned Men?” I asked, caught up in the moment.
“What are you talking about, boy?” He growled.
“And the treehouse! The Triple Tree, what is it? What is it for?”
“Triple Tree? I didn’t authorize that. We paid triple the price but it was only for a short while, when things were slow. We certainly never charged triple, that’s bad business.”
“Where is Bor-“
“Has my idiot boy been telling you that? Did he offer you triple for them? He’s ruining my town, isn’t he? Goddamn it, Jimmy, you get him in here! Aida, get my boy on the phone, you tell Jimmy I wanna talk him! You tell him they’re still mine! Aida! Aida, get Jimmy on the phone!”
Kimber jumped up and Kyle pushed her behind him as the old man rose to his feet, tall and imposing. We were backing toward the door when the orderly came in with a disapproving look on his face and shooed us out. Long after we’d made it to the lobby we could still hear Tom Prescott yelling for his son.
The ride home was quiet and I spent it trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. The Skinned Men, the Triple Tree, the Shiny Gentleman, the powder. These things seemed to have been pulled blindly from the ether, random and meaningless. The veil over my eyes was thick and heavy but I was closer to Borrasca than I’d ever been before. I could feel it all around me but I couldn’t see it. I could almost touch it but I couldn’t yet comprehend it.
I suddenly realized that Kyle was pulling over off the road and I snapped out of my contemplation. He put the car in park and turned around to look at me in the backseat.
“Is this really about Whitney, Sam?”
“Yes.”
Kimber watched us with worried eyes.
“Why do you think that? The cops, I mean even your father confirmed that Whitney ran away.”
“I don’t believe them.” I said through clenched teeth.
“Look, Sam, we’re getting pretty deep in here and I am with you every step but I have to know that there’s a reason we’re doing this. And pulling Kimber in too…I have to know this is important to you for the right reasons and not just an…obsession.”
I looked out the window and realized he’d pulled over near the West Rim Prescott Ore Trailhead. He was right to worry and even more so to be protective of Kimber. Kyle was thinking it and so was I: the powder…if Borrasca really did involve moving mass amounts of drugs did I want to involve my friends any further? This wasn’t their fight. I loved these people, could I really risk their safety for my own curiosities and vendettas? But as hard as I wished I could let them go I knew I needed them.
“I have to know what really happened to Whitney.” I whispered.
Kyle turned back around without a word and Kimber placed her hand on mine. I jerked my hand away and crossed my arms and then immediately apologized. Kimber just smiled in a forgiving sort of way.
Kyle sighed. “Sam…“
He was interrupted by the piercing ring of Kimber’s phone. She scrambled for her cell to silence it but when she saw the name on the screen she quickly answered.
“Dad?”
…..
“What? Wait, what- what do you mean?”
…..
“Dad?”
……
“No, wait, slow down. Hello?” She took the phone away from her ear. “Something happened to my mom and she’s at the hospital!” Tears filled Kimber’s soft, green eyes.
Kyle threw the car in gear and screeched of the parking lot. We made the 10 mile trip to the hospital in as many minutes, which was criminally fast on surface streets. Kyle stopped the car at the emergency entrance and Kimber and I ran inside.
A deputy was there waiting. He refused to answer Kimber’s desperate questions as he led us to her father. When the deputy swung open the doors I saw my dad standing next to Kimber’s and I braced myself for the worst.
Kimber’s dad took her in one direction and my dad took me in the other. Before he said a word I saw Kimber crumble to the floor on the other side of the room. I looked at my dad helplessly and he gave me a sympathetic nod and pulled me into a hug.
We sat down in a corner and I stared at my hands as he quietly explained that Mrs. Destaro had gone grocery shopping at around 1 o’clock, come home, put the groceries away, made two lasagnas and a meatloaf and put them in the freezer. Then she got in her car, drove to the hospital, parked in the shade, took the stairs up seven floors to the roof and jumped off of it. She lived long enough to apologize to the EMT who found her.
I watched Kimber fall apart as her mother’s body slowly grew cold in the morgue one floor beneath us.
Part III

[SPOILERS] The Grave Theory Thread to Put Grave Theory Threads in the Grave

Dynamic multipliers - an approach to limit double teaming and/or zerging?

HorseRacing Sheets update

Kara Zor-El #22 - Mechanical Mobility

Calculation	Affected mechanic	Comment
Territory control, global	Base capture timer	Slows timers for faction with <<25% up to e.g. ~2-fold for enemies and increases the rate for re-securing them; conversely reduces capture timers against the faction owning >50% to~50%
Continent pop., global	XP & resource gain	Increases the XP and resource gain continent-wide based on population, e.g. +0-50% starting at around <30%
Hex pop, local	XP & resource gain	Increases the XP and resource gain in the hex based on population, e.g. +0-50% with the midpoint around 50%
Hex pop, local	Revive timeouts	Scales the revive time around the 50% midpoint, skewing the gains for <40% to be prolonged, and the conversely causing the timeout to be reduced for the overpop; makes death with overpop more consequential by giving medics less time
Hex pop, local	Respawn timers	Scales e.g. 0-5s additional respawn time (>60%) while reducing them for low pop (<40% hex)

^{^<<} ^{^First} ^{^|} ^{^<} ^{^Previous} ^{^|} ^{^Next} ^{^>}
Author: Lexilogical
Guest author: SqueeWrites
Book: Kara Zor-El
Arc: Prospects
Set: 22

°¤«§»¤°

The ocean was cold and vicious today, but it didn't deter Kara from her mission. A secret base on the ocean's floor was less than convenient, but it did mean that she was the only person who could easily access the base.
Except for Superman, of course. And Aquaman, wherever he'd gotten to.
Come to think of it, it was sort of weird that she hadn't met Aquaman before. Perhaps someone should arrange a metahumans meet and greet. The Justice League was sort of that, but given how many metas were running around, and how few were actually in the league, it seemed to be lacking a bit. At least, she assumed there was more metas than just those in the league. Especially given Poison Ivy, handing powers out to college girls like free samples in the grocery store.
She still hadn't seen Alysia since before Christmas. She hadn't forgotten about the girl either, she'd been out looking for her last...
Last...
Had it been before or after the battle at the dome?
Oh Rao.
She had to keep better track of her life. Kara swam through the roiling ocean, counting the days and nights on her fingers. Had the battle at the dome really been less than a week ago? It felt like months since then. But it was just barely days. Still, in the darkness of the ocean, time seemed to slow down, meaning less and less the deeper she went.
Still, if she didn't find her fortress soon, she'd run out of breath.
She spotted the red glow just as she started to get a little lightheaded, pushing forward with a burst of flight, coupled with a powerful scissor kick through the waters. She dove through the glowing portal in a shower of water, breathing in deeply as small, disgruntled robots mopped up the mess she left on the front steps. A blast of warm air surrounded her, drying her costume and hair off in seconds.
"Hello, Kara Zor-El," a musical voice said, ringing off the ruby walls. "I've missed you, daughter."
"Mother," Kara said, a smile creeping over her face. "I almost forgot you were down here."
Her mother's hologram laughed, the sound making Kara feel like she was 6 years old again. "Where else would I be, my dear? It's so good of you to come visit."
The smile refused to leave Kara's face. She walked through the hallways of the fort, finding the small version of a living room just a short distance from the doorway. She sat down on the couch there, her crystal tablet already set up on the coffee table where she'd left it. "Thanks Alura. But this is more of a scientific research mission than a social visit."
Her mother frowned. "Does that mean you'd like to speak to your father?"
Kara shrugged, trying to hide her discomfort. "You both have the same information, don't you?"
"Oh no," the hologram said as the face shifted to that of Zor-El, "You see, experiences and knowledge defines who were are as personalities and people. If Alura knew everything I did, she wouldn't be the person she is."
"The person she was, you mean," Kara said with a sigh. "So I guess any time I want to know something in here, I'm going to have to talk to you?" Her expression made it clear precisely how little she thought of that idea.
"Well, not anytime," her father replied. "Your mother has a wealth of knowledge of Kryptonian history and folklore that you may be interested in learning."
"The history of a dead chunk of rubble in space?" Kara asked. "I'm sure knowledge that will come in handy, right after my knowledge of all the extinct species on earth."
It might have been the lighting in the base, but Kara could almost swear she noticed her father's cheeks growing pink. "I've heard that your cousin actually has quite a knowledge about extinct earth species."
"Well, maybe he wants to learn about Kryptonian folklore then," Kara retorted. "But for now, all I want to know about is why I'm some sort of superhuman!"
"You are not superhuman!" Zor-El replied, biting back anger. "You are Kryptonian!"
Kara glowered at the hologram, her fists clenching at the soft purple cushion beneath her. She had to hold herself back from launching one of those fists straight into Zor-El's smug face, before she remembered he wasn't really there. None of this was real. He was just a projection of a man who had died a long time ago.
She slumped back into the sofa, face turned to the ground. "I know. But what does that mean? I can... I can lift cars over my head. I can fly! I can shoot lasers out of my eyes, I can hear a heartbeat across town, and if Kal is any example to go off, I should be able to see through walls and breathe ice. Kryptonians couldn't do that. Not unless my memories of home are seriously lacking."
"Kryptonians can't do that," Zor-El said. "Not on Krypton. But on Earth? Beneath the power of this yellow sun? We are incredible."
"But why?" Kara said. "What's so special about Earth that Krypton didn't have?"
"It's the yellow sun," her father repeated. "Rao gave us many gifts, Kara, but it also held Krypton back in many ways. Our cells are like mini solar-powered batteries, Kara. They take in and store daylight, even if it's just the thinnest shred of sunlight. And on Krypton, beneath our red sun, that sunlight was weak. The sun would barely even reach the horizon, and already lights would be coming on because the roads were dark. But here, on Earth, the sun is bright and always shining. And our cells take that in and turn it into a superpower. And with all that energy, well... We become something powerful. Something superhuman, as you put it."
"Is that why you picked Earth?" Kara asked. "Because of the yellow sun?"
"Goodness, no," Zor-El replied. "I picked Earth because Krypton was dying, Kara. And Earth was the closest planet to us that was similar in culture and appearance."
"Except for Argo."
"Argo?"
"Yeah," Kara said. "You know the one, sister planet with a near identical orbit to Krypton, circling the same sun, shows up on the horizon twice a week looking pretty in purple, ancestral home of the Kryptonian race? Mom did a play on it once, about Nightwing and Flamebird, I wouldn't stop singing the songs for a month? Why didn't we go there?"
The hologram flickered slightly, the expression changing to a worried one for a split second before it flickered back to a more neutral look. "Can we not discuss Argo?"
"Why not?" Kara asked. "Isn't this something you should be able to explain? Why you made the decisions you did?"
"I'm not comfortable with this discussion," her father replied. "It's unimportant."
"Oh great, that isn't distressingly ominous," Kara retorted.
"What's that supposed to mean, young lady?"
"Just that this sounds like a bad set-up for a movie," Kara stated. "I ask a computer copy of my father for information, and the program is too uncomfortable with the topic to explain it? How the hell does that work?"
"It's embarrassing," her father replied. "And unimportant."
"Embarrassing?" Kara said. "You're a computer program. You don't get embarrassed. You don't have feelings!"
The hologram stared at her with her father's look of disappointment and hurt. "I'm sorry that you feel that way."
The bite of shame that Kara felt was almost enough to make her apologize for her words. Then she remembered who, or rather what, she was talking to. She crossed her arms, not making eye contact. "Well, you don't," she said. "You're just a bunch of if statements and pre-programmed sentences."
"And you're just composed of nerves and flesh," the hologram replied. "Yet we both feel emotions.'
Now Kara really couldn't look at the hologram. "Well... If you feel embarrassment for decisions my father made, then maybe you should feel guilt too, for sticking me on that ship all alone."
"You don't bear this same hostility towards the Alura program," Zor-El said.
"Mom didn't abandon me on the ship the same way you did."
"Correct," Zor-El replied. "If Alura had been in my shoes, she wouldn't have hesitated to launch like I did. Your mother always was the bolder of the two of us."
A confused, half sob escaped from Kara's clenched teeth.
"She was almost as brave as her daughter," Zor-El continued. "But alas, Alura never did travel halfway across the galaxy in a failing spaceship, then throw herself into the role of hero and protector for her new home."
Kara's bottom lip quivered slightly, and she sucked in her breath past her teeth. "Not like I had much of a choice."
"Oh Kara, there is always a choice," Zor-El said. "And your mother and I couldn't be prouder of the ones you're making."
She was trying to hide it, but Zor-El could see the tiny smile threatening to break over the girl's face. "This isn't even why I came here," she said with a huff, even if it was a happier huff. "I wanted to ask you about this cut I got a few days ago, and why it wouldn't heal."
"A cut, you say?" Zor-El replied. "How fascinating. Tell me what hurt you."
Two hours later, Kara walked away with more knowledge than she'd ever expected to learn about Kryptonian physiology... And a couple ideas about human physiology as well.

°¤«§»¤°

"Karen!" Winn's voice sent a shiver down Kara's spine, forcing her to stand up straighter and freeze. "Where the heck have you been? You promised we'd talk about our class project four days ago!"
Kara plastered a smile onto her face, turning to face Winn, Babs struggling to catch up through the throngs of students moving in and out of the classroom. "Sorry! I've just been really busy with another project I'm working on."
"Uh-huh," Winn said. "This drama essay again? Karen, you can't just slack off to go spend all your time on another course! This is for your major! Unless you're planning on changing majors to drama..."
"No!" Kara replied. "Just... It's a really important project."
"Well, maybe you shouldn't have put it off until the last minute," Winn said. "Which is what you seem to be doing with our group project. So tonight, you are making time for this meeting, okay? At least so we can knock out who does what part of the assignment. Then you can bugger off and do drama or whatever else."
Babs had just caught up to the two as Kara was nodding her agreement. "It's settled then," Winn said. "Two hours, computer lab. No excuses! Babs, watch her and make sure she doesn't go flying off to some other important project while I'm in class."
"On it," Babs said, pulling up beside Kara. "You can go get to English now, I'll watch her."
"Thanks!" Winn replied, turning around to run off. "Two hours, computer lab, sharp! I don't care if the world is in damned jeopardy, be there!"
"So uhh... He doesn't know about... You know what...?" Kara asked Babs as they waved goodbye.
"Not unless you told him," Babs replied with a grin plastered on her face. The grin fell away the second her chair was turned. "But seriously, Karen, what gives? You've been avoiding us both for days."
"I'm not avoiding you guys," Kara replied. "I really did just get sucked into a project."
"Uh-huh," Babs replied. "Would this project have anything to do with why you've been spending all your time off campus?"
"Why do you think I've been off-campus?" Kara asked.
"Well, I'm a bit of a detective," Babs replied, as the pair walked down the sidewalk. People dodged out of Babs’ way, shooting her dirty looks, but the redhead didn't even look up on her path. "You see, I noticed you've been coming into class with your hair soaking wet most days."
"The dorm rooms have showers," Kara replied.
"And that the bathrooms are generally deserted just before class."
"The pool has showers too," Kara replied.
"And that the swim team practices are scheduled for two hours before class begins."
"I could have joined the swim team," Kara said.
"Also," Babs said, "I still have a GPS tracker set up on your phone, and lately whenever I check it you're in the middle of the ocean."
"I... lost my phone on the way back from Africa?" Kara said hesitantly. Babs pulled out her own cellphone, tapping through a few buttons before Kara could think to react. The familiar ringtone sounded from Kara's purse, and the girl sighed. "Okay, I didn't really lose my phone."
Babs cleared her throat and Kara continued. "Or join the swim team."
"So what are you up to?" Babs asked. The sidewalk gave way to a quieter path, lined with trees along the side. In the spring, it would have looked gorgeous, or even the fall or summer. But right now, it was still just arcing black branches, scratching away at the grey skies. Luckily, that meant that the pair was further away from any curious eavesdroppers. No one was taking the scenic route in the dreary Gotham winter. Babs continued her line of inquiry. "Is it independent hero business? Because if so, I get it, it's not like you need me on call. You're Supergirl, after all. Just let me know, okay? I sleep better when I know I'm not on the clock."
"Aren't you always on the clock for Bruce?" Kara asked.
Babs shrugged. "Yeah, but so is Alfred. I'm more like a second line of defense there."
Kara looked away, towards the grey clouds in the sky. Gotham always felt dreary around this time of the year. If she was solar powered, maybe the constant cloud cover had something to do with how tired she constantly felt once the seasons turned. "Well, you don't have to worry anyways, I'm not off heroing alone."
"Oh," Babs frowned. "Okay."
"I mean, unless you want me to be," Kara said quickly. "I didn't know I was disrupting your sleep schedule."
"No, no!" Babs said quickly. "I don't get that much sleep at night anyways. My brain is always too active."
"Okay, good," Kara breathed a sigh of relief. "I always feel better knowing you're just a call away."
"Yeah, but... So is Superman," Babs replied. One hand clutched at the blanket covering her legs, almost instinctively. Did she even know she was doing it?
"I hate bothering him," Kara said "I always feel like he has something better he could be doing with his time."
Babs let out a snort. "And I don't?"
"Well if you want to be sleeping-"
"No," Babs said, cutting her off. "I'm happy with this arrangement, you're happy, let’s move on. So... you aren't out doing hero stuff."
Kara shook her head. "I probably should be though. We still have no idea what happened to Alysia, or where Pamela is hiding, or-"
"Yeah, I know. I've been working on it."
"You have?" Kara asked, incredulously.
Babs shrugged. "There's some stuff I can do from my room without having to get out there myself. It's not like you're going to spot them just flying around the city at night."
"I might!"
"You won't," Babs repeated. "Because they're both smarter than that. So then, not on the streets... Have you been out partying?"
"In the ocean?"
"In the frat houses," Babs replied. "I mean, I'm pretty sure your phone has been in the ocean the last few nights, but you had that base thing down there, you could have just left your phone behind. And there's always a party somewhere on campus."
"Look at me," Kara said, gesturing to her pink sweater and jeans. "Do I look like I get invited out to parties?"
"I mean, yes?" Babs replied. "You may try to hide that figure under baggy sweaters, but it's not that hard to see you're smokin' hot, Kara. There's no way you haven't been invited to at least one frat party since we got here."
"Now I feel almost insulted that I haven't been," Kara replied. "No, no partying."
Babs pulled her chair to a halt just before the path led back to the main sidewalk, thinking hard. "Okay, now I'm stumped," she said. "Not out partying, not out saving the world, I know you aren't just studying because you could do that on campus, and it's definitely not a drama class..."
Kara couldn't meet her friend's eyes. "Do I have to say?" she asked. "I'm not trying to keep secrets, but it's a bit of a risk, and I don't want to hurt anyone if it doesn't work out."
Babs studied the girl's face intently. "This doesn't sound too safe."
"It's safe," Kara assured her, still not making eye contact. "If it fails, the only person disappointed is me."
Babs continued to stare at Kara, trying to wrest the secret out of her weaseling eyes. "Am I going to have to make more excuses to Winn?"
"Just tell him you don't know," Kara said. "It won't be a lie. And I won't miss any more team meetings."
Finally, Babs broke off her stare, pushing her chair back into motion. "Works for me. Speaking of Winn, do you think we have time to grab lunch before his big meeting?"

°¤«§»¤°

"How was your long weekend?" Babs asked as the pair walked to class, last week's snow turning to black slush around their feet. "Did you go back to Metropolis with Clark?"
"Yeah," Kara said. "It was fun, though I don’t see what that day had to do with your presidents. Did you catch Superman and Supergirl in the papers? We stopped a robbery!"
"Yeah," Babs replied. "But I figured you'd be more excited about him being back again. You know... from space."
Kara blushed a little. "I am. But I'm not sure he really wants to talk about that yet. And he was more interested in getting reacquainted with Lois. Intimately, if you know what I mean."
"Ew," Barbara made a face. "I did not need that mental imagery, Kara!"
"Neither did I!" Kara said. "So I spent most of my time in my base. It's quieter down there. If you know what I mean."
"I do!" Babs said, closing her eyes and throwing her hands in Kara's direction. "So stop saying it! Ew!"
Kara laughed. "Why does this bug you so much? It's not like he's your cousin."
"No! It's just- He's like- Ew!"
"So Barbara Gordon is a bit of a prude," Kara said teasingly. "I didn't suspect that. I always figured you would be more sex positive."
"I am sex positive!" Babs replied. "I just don't need to hear about all the sex your cousin was having last week!"
"I found a Wonder Woman costume at one point," Kara said. "Just lying on the couch."
"Now you're just mocking me!"
"Maybe a little."
"Well stop!" Babs said loudly. Her expression fell a little. "I really don't need to hear about how great sex is when I'm probably never going to have it again."
Now it was Kara's turn to lose the smile, her face turning to a look of concern. "Never going to have it?"
"Well yeah," Babs said. "No one wants to make love to a girl in a wheelchair. And even if they did, where would I meet them? At a party? No one invites the girl in a wheelchair to those."
"I'm sure that's not true!" Kara said. "I mean, you're the one who said there's parties happening all the time on campus! How else are you hearing about them if you're not invited?"
"That's obvious," Babs said. "It's college. I can see the red solo cups in the garbage cans when we go to class. Hell, last night there was a party so loud even I couldn't sleep, just outside the building. Didn't you notice?”
Kara looked away from her friend.
"Right, you were probably off again," Babs said. "Back in your base, working on some top secret project?"
"Not that top secret."
"Secret enough that you won't tell me about it." Babs clutched at the blanket on her lap. "And you're the one willing to tell me all about your secret double life, and all the superhero sex you overhear."
"Trust me, if I could turn that bit off..." Kara said. "But you're right. Meet me in your room after class? I have something I need to show you."

°¤«§»¤°

The moment class ended, Kara was out the door, promises on her lips that she’d meet Babs in her room in “just a few minutes.” It bugged Babs that she would just run ahead like that, since the girl was normally so good at matching her pace to Babs’ but she tried not to let it show as she wheeled her way across campus alone, riding the elevator up to her floor and letting herself into her room to wait.
"Ta-da!" Kara announced when she crossed the threshold, stepping out of the way to reveal two steel leg husks, standing upright on her bedroom floor.
"Uh," Babs said, raising an eyebrow. "What is it?"
Kara's smile faltered, her frustration showing through. She'd clearly expected a better response. "It's an exoskeleton. Barbara, you can walk again now."
It was sweet of her friend, but a empty feeling gnawed at her stomach. She sighed. She'd try to let her friend down easily. "Kara, I know you're trying to help, but sensors for the nervous system are still decades away from anything that could be useful, I don't even see a battery pack, and the frame is much too light. What is that some kind of aluminum? I appreciate the thought I really do, but don't you think I've looked into this?"
"I'm not an idiot, Babs, I thought of that. Listen, I used one Arduino-"
Barbara smirked, her eyebrow raising again. Kara started again a little louder.
"I used one Arduino as the main switch. It translates the signals that I receive from the sensors into actions into almost a hundred different muscles. These actions are controlled by two more Arduinos housed in the thighs."
"Sensors?"
Kara's arms were crossed now and she adopted that stubborn set to her jaw she sometimes got. Well, Babs had to make sure she understood it all. Had she not even tested them?
"For the sensors, I adapted the training interface from my ship. It's set up to receive different signals from the body. A little hacking and it reads legs just fine."
Kryptonian tech, huh? She'd never considered that. That was pretty smart, but still a system of motors to pull the exoskeleton would be heavy. She maybe could overcome that though. Maybe steam or another liquid perhaps?
"Motors?"
"No motors," Kara said, shaking her head. "So there's a type of crystal on Krypton that when provided voltage will flex in a manner you can plot linearly. They also shed light when it has current running through it so we normally use them for decoration. So I took those crystals and created what I call a muscle lightweave underneath these plates. It should be able to apply about as much force as your legs did before. I made a few calculations based off some tricks I've seen you do."
Barbara realized her mouth was hanging open and Kara's frustration had been replaced with excitement, maybe a touch of smugness. She had been a bit of a bitch, she realized.
"Kara, I'm sorry. This is... amazing! I had no idea you were even working on this." Babs wheeled over to the metal legs, picking up one of the plates. Lines of what looked like meticulously shaved crystal seemed to crisscross the underbelly of the plates. She could just make out the basic shapes of the major muscle groups and dozens of smaller muscles that she had no idea what they were. "Oh my god, Kara. This had to have taken-"
"A hundred hours so far. I never realized I had so much patience in me."
"Me neither." The two shared a grin.
"How's it powered? Battery backpack? And what other shields are you using? There's no way an Arduino is shifting that much power."
Kara knelt beside the armor and tapped the metal. It made an odd hollow ringing sound. "This is a special type of Kryptonian metal that naturally stores starlight or, in our case, sunlight. It's naturally occuring on Krypton, but this is a special alloy of another type to provide it strength. The way it stores heat and energy makes it great material for Kryptonian spaceships."
"Kara, this is from your spaceship? You shouldn't have taken it apart for this."
Kara shrugged. "It's just a ship. Besides, I can fly now. The really cool part is how I use the Arduinos. That took me a bit to figure out, but I didn't have access to a better chip. You see, the Arduinos feed output to these tiny LEDs, which feeds into the crystals which close the circuit between the light metal and the light weave. I nick a little bit of the excess power from the light metal to two small battery packs that help run the Arduino. In direct sunlight, these could run all day with no issues."
"You mean it's analog?"
"Yup."
"Whoa." The two girls just stared at the legs. Barbara had a dozen more questions about it's construction and Kara looked so excited to answer them, but what caught Babs more was that these legs were real. Not only were they real, but they could help her walk again. The enormity of that consumed her in that moment and she felt tears spring to her eyes. She didn't even bother wiping them away as she turned to Kara. "Can I try them?"
"I'd be offended if you didn't."
Kara went to grab the legs, but Babs put a hand to stop her. "Thank you." Kara smiled up at her and pulled her into an embrace. Barbara had only ever had two best friends, but now her heart felt full to bursting realizing that she had three. "Thank you."

°¤«§»¤°

Kara sat in Alysia’s empty bedroom, the pieces of the girl’s old life covered with the pieces of Barbara’s new legs. The testing had gone… Not great. As well as anything she could have expected from a first pilot run, but well…
“Whoa, whoa!” Babs’ voice said, playing out in tinny quality from the laptop on the floor. Kara rewatched on Babs’ computer as the girl stood for the first time in a year, her arms flailing out to grab at anything, landing in Kara’s arms as she fell. The pair giggled nervously, the mechanical legs glowing and whirring around her.
“How does it feel?” video Kara asked, still holding the weight of the girl.
“Weird,” Babs replied. One of the legs spasmed, the ankle flopping about like a fish. “Is it supposed to do that?”
“I… um… don’t know?” Kara replied. “I haven’t had a chance to test on like… a human yet.”
“So what were you testing on?”
“Myself? I mean, I did a lot of research on what the muscle groups should look like and where the sensors should be but-”
The other leg spasmed out, leaving Kara supporting the entirety of Babs’ body weight with her legs sprawled behind her. Babs smirked up at her. “But you haven’t ironed out all the kinks yet.”
“No.”
On the bedroom floor, Kara paused the video, holding an ankle joint in front of her. She had watched the video a dozen times tonight, and she could see the minute twist in the ankle that caused her friend to go sprawling, but she couldn’t see what was causing it yet. Sighing in frustration, she cued the video on her own laptop, watching a video Bruce had sent her from earlier in their days at the orphanage. On the screen, a younger Barbara Gordon shadowboxed angrily in the gym, her legs a dance of motion even while her feet remained planted on the ground, her ankles flexing smoothly.
“Where is that kink?” Kara asked softly, floating into the air and shifting her own ankle. The mechanical exoskeleton around her own ankle shifted smoothly, mirroring the motion of the joint she held in her own hand. Would she notice though, if it had given her some resistance? She had Kryptonian strength, it would take a lot more to give her kickback than Bab’s atrophied legs. She hadn’t even realized how small Bab’s legs had gotten, beneath her pants and blankets. She hadn’t wanted to mention it out loud, but she was worried they’d have to pad out her legs with blankets just to fit the exoskeleton around her.
“Are you still here?” Babs asked with a yawn from the other room. Kara could hear the creak of the bedsprings as the girl sat up.
“I’m here,” she said, loudly enough so Babs could hear her, floating over to the doorway. “No need to get up.”
Babs already had one hand on her chair, the covers already pulled off her legs. She gave Kara a dirty look, but tossed the covers back over herself. “It’s 4 AM, Kara,” she said. “I would have thought you’d gone back to your room by now.”
“I can’t pull this thing apart in my room,” Kara said, holding up the ankle joint. “Lena would kill me, more than she already wants to.”
“Not to work on the legs,” Babs said. “To sleep.”
“Oh… I don’t do that.”
“You don’t… sleep?” Babs said.
“Not unless something is really wrong,” Kara said nervously. “According to my dad I’m solar powered, so unless I’ve been had a really rough fight or have been away from the sun for months… No? Clark says it’s important, but he grew up here and I spent years sleeping in space anyways...”
“Well then, just go to relax or something,” Babs said. “Or, I don’t know, save a family from a house fire.”
“It’s been a quiet night,” Kara said, though she did instinctively turn one ear towards the city, listening for trouble. “And I think I’m really close to figuring out this problem.”
“Go relax, Kara,” Babs said, sounding exhausted. And as she should, the pair had been up until midnight, with Babs trying and failing to get the legs to respond to her properly. “You’ve already done enough for tonight.”
Kara shook her head in a vigorous no. “No, I haven’t,” she stated. “Maybe if this was still a secret in my base, but now that you know, I have to get them working. I can’t just tell you ‘Oh hey Babs, I fixed your legs!’ and then have them not work. That’s would just be mean. Now that you know, I have to get them working!”
A small smile played across Bab’s face. “Come here,” she said, beckoning to the girl who floated in the doorway.
Kara looked confused, but floated over anyways. Babs beckoned for her to come lower, and stand beside the bed.
“Okay,” Kara said hesitantly. “But I’m wearing the ankle so I really shouldn’t put too much weight on-”
Babs wrapped her friend into a hug, pulling her towards the bed. “Thank you, Kara,” she whispered into the girl’s ear. “This means more than you can imagine. But you can go relax now. We can work on this bug together, in the morning.”
Kara’s smile threatened to break her cheeks as she hugged Babs back. “Not if I solve it first,” she replied.
Babs laughed, smacking Kara’s shoulder good-naturedly, and Kara just stuck her tongue out at her. “Go back to sleep,” the blonde said. “I promise I’ll spend at least a little bit of time relaxing.”
“You better,” Babs replied. “You’re going to have to give me all the hardware deets in the morning.”

°¤«§»¤°

The morning sun streamed through the rain slicked window, illuminating Babs as she took two hobbling steps towards the bed, before falling down in a heap. She sighed in frustration, clenching at the bedsheets while Kara’s pencil scritched in the background.
“Okay, I think I see the problem,” she said, hitting pause on the recorder. “Take off the Arduino on the right leg again?”
“If I’d known you were going to practically live in my dorm room for weeks afterwards, I wouldn’t have made you tell me about the legs,” Babs huffed, not getting up from where she’d fallen face first into the mattress.
“Yeah you would have,” Kara replied, floating over and removing the panel herself. “You’re just grumpy because it’s early.”
“I am grumpy,” Babs replied, flipping herself over onto the bed as the right leg flopped uselessly. “And tired, and sore, and everything hurts.”
“Don’t get frustrated,” Kara said, looking up from the panel and resting one hand gently on Babs’ shoulder. “We’re getting closer.”
“No we aren’t,” Babs said, flopping backwards away from her friend. “How am I even this sore? I don’t even having feeling in my legs.”
Kara frowned, settling onto the bed beside her. “What hurts?” she asked, moving her hand to the girl’s abdomen.
“Everything. Nothing,” Babs moaned. “Stop pitying me, I don’t deserve it.”
“It’s not pity,” Kara said. Babs shot her a look from beneath her arm and Kara clenched her jaw. “It’s not. It’s well… If some specific muscles are hurting, that could mean you’re using them in ways you aren’t used to. But that shouldn’t be happening because I designed this thing so that it only requires a bare minimum of physical input from you.”
“Because I’m useless,” Babs said.
“Stop that,” Kara said. “You are not and have never been useless. You’ve got one of the keenest minds I know, so help me and together we are going to figure out what the hell this thing is doing.”
Babs glowered at the girl, pushing herself upright with her arms and one leg. “It’s too early in the morning for this kind of pep talk,” she groaned, reaching for Kara’s notepad. “Show me what you found.”
Kara held up the Arduino panel, pointing to a tiny LED. “I think this light is off by a few shades of red,” she explained, “Meaning that when you try to take a step, your knee is just a few degrees out of alignment and therefore your foot is just a few fractions of an inch further ahead from where you’re expecting it to be.”
“I thought we solved this calibration issue last week.”
“No, that was this LED,” Kara said, pointing to the neighbouring point of light. “I fixed it by setting it to be a few more points of red all the time but I think now-”
“That light is bleeding over into the other sensors?”
“Yeah,” Kara replied sheepishly. Babs took the panel away from her, plugging it into her laptop and pulling up the code.
“Well here’s your problem,” she said after a few minutes. “You have a rounding error on line 413 that’s accumulating, meaning that LED 605 is always just a little off. The extra points would have helped for a bit, especially with these short tests, but eventually that leak would have meant that the whole system gets less reliable over time and would have to be rebooted.”
Kara sighed. “Guess I should have known that was too easy of a fix.”
“There,” Babs said, her fingers clacking across the keys. “It’s compiling now so we should know if it works in just a few moments…”
The two sat in silence as the code loaded, Kara helping Babs to get the panel into place on her hips. She pulled Babs to her feet again and took a few steps back, looking at the girl expectantly.
Babs took a deep breath, looking at the space between her and Kara. Just a couple of steps, but they may as well have been a chasm, for all that it felt crossable.
“Hey Babs?” Kara said, making Babs’ head snap up. “Do you think if we show your legs to Professor Holt, we can get some bonus marks on our final grade?”
The two burst into delirious giggles, Babs taking a few wobbling steps before falling into Kara’s arms.

°¤«§»¤°

Continued in Minutes to Midnight!
Jump to Booster Gold #20 - Twelve Minutes to Midnight

[Analysis] Which Destiny cards appear viable?

Now that we know the details about all 7 of this set's special cards, here's a write-up looking at the prospects for each of them. As you can tell from the post title, I've taken to calling them Destiny cards -- here's why:
These cards belong to the Trials of Mythron set. But so will 93 other cards, so it didn't feel right to call them “Trials cards,” even though Trial is half of their paired keywords.
Calling them Mythron cards was tempting, since they are all of Mythron rarity. but then CPG had to go and name one of them Mythron Wanderer, and I wanted to avoid confusion.
Then I landed on "Destiny" cards. That's a common factor for all 7 from the other half of the Trial and Destiny keyword; no other cards have Destiny in their name; hopefully it remain clear which cards I'm referring to.
So, on to the Destiny cards. Please recall that these will always take your 6th action-bar slot after you mulligan, you cannot replace them into deck until your fulfill the Trial, and once the Trial is complete the Destiny takes effect & cannot be stopped (except for Vet).
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Lyonar / Grand Strategos
Body -- 5/5 for (5)
Trial -- Summon 10 minions with 1 or less Attack..
Destiny -- Promote other friendly minions at the end of your turn.
Viability -- 3 out of 10.
Reasoning -- The math for this just doesn't pencil out. I ran some calculations and found if you made a deck that reserved 32 out of 40 slots for minions that count toward the Trial, you could expect to have drawn your 10th qualifying minion by the end of your 3rd turn (when you have 5 mana going first, or 6 going second).
That's with mulliganing or replacing non-matches whenever they turn up. And again, with 32 qualifying minions, your General & this Mythron, all you have room for in your deck is “panic button” slots, e.g. 3x Martyrdom and 3x EMP. Nothing else.
So congrats, you'll probably draw 10 qualifying minions by the end of your 3rd turn... But you still have to play the critters which I figure will take your first 5 turns playing as Brome, more like 6 or 7 turns as another General. (You may get lucky with some minions that summon an extra guy like Zyx or Jaxi, but probably can't count on that.)
You have to outlast at least 5 turns of playing sub-optimal minions, and by the time the Destiny kicks in, you may not have much of a board to capitalize with. Recall that most of your other cards are more 1-Attack minions; sure they'll promote every turn, but it may be too little, too late to salvage a win.
Sample Deck Code (the artifact is a placeholder for Grand Strategos): MTo1MSwzOjExLDM6MTMsMzo0MCwzOjEwMDIwLDM6MTA5NTQsMzoxMTAxNCwzOjExMDQ2LDM6MTEwODMsMzoxMTA5MywyOjExMTMzLDM6MTExMzgsMzoxOTAyNiwzOjIwMDkwLDE6MzAwMjQ=
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Songhai / Hideatsu the Ebon Ox
Body -- 5/5 for (0)
Trial -- Summon 7 minions from your action bar with different mana costs..
Destiny -- Summon friendly minions to deal their cost as damage to an enemy.
Viability -- 4 out of 10.
Reasoning -- I think Songhai will have a slightly easier time meeting the condition for its Trial than Lyonar will... but only slightly. That's why most of my sample deck's minions are mechs: As you work toward the Trial, hopefully you can also drop down at least one Mechaz0r, and I've included enough guys to potentially summon 3.
Most of the remaining cards are removal, and if you do get your Destiny, each will have more removal stapled to it. But I sure do hope that CPG reveals a 0-mana neutral in the Trials expansion.
Sample Deck Code (the artifact is a placeholder for Hideatsu): MToxNTIsMzoxOTAwMiwxOjMwMDA3LDM6MjAwODEsMzoxOTAwMywyOjE5MDA0LDM6MTkwMDUsMzoyMDMxNCwzOjE5MDA2LDM6MjAyNDAsMzoxMTYsMzoxMTEyOCwxOjExMTI3LDE6MTExMjksMToxMzcsMzoxMTA5MywzOjIwMDg0
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Vetruvian / Notion of Starless Eternity
Body -- 3/3 for (5)
Trial -- General reaches the other edge of the battlefield with an equipped artifact.
Destiny -- Each equipped artifact gives your General a tier of ascension. (1st adds Frenzy; 2nd adds Flying; 3rd adds Celerity)
Viability – 6 out of 10.
Reasoning - The Trial seems simple enough, right? Vet can march their General from one end to the other in 4 turns. But if the opponent is smart about putting minions in your way, you might never get to the other end. Or he might plan to deploy one Provoke after another right next to the Vet General (and when I pilot Lyonar, that's half my gameplan anyway).
So to succeed as Vet, you need to tilt the odds in your favor. In the sample deck I've provided below, I've added 3x Silhouette Tracer to port the General closer to the other end (and out of Provoke lockdown situations), plus 3x Neurolink and 9 good Flying minions to help too. Also a big pile of Artifacts & Imperial Mechanysts to keep them healthy; when the expansion launches you'll want to make room for 3x Obdurators as well.
Sample Deck Code (will need to swap something out to add the Mythron): MToyMjMsMzozMDA1MCwzOjIwMzUwLDM6MjE4LDM6MzAwMDgsMzoyMDM0MiwzOjE5MDQ0LDM6MzAwMjksMzoxMTExNSwzOjIwOCwzOjIzOSwzOjIwMjU0LDM6MTEwOTMsMzoyMzc=
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Abyssian / Underlord Xor'xuul
Body -- 6/1 for (6)
Trial -- Cast 6 spells that destroy a friendly minion.
Destiny -- Whenever a friendly minion dies, re-summon it on a random space.
Viability -- 5 out of 10.
Reasoning -- For this one, you've got a double-shuffle problem; even if you balance correctly between qualifying spells and minions to target them, your draws may stick you with all spells & no targets, or vice versa. Playing as Maehv at least gives you her BBS to use most turns as well, and as far as I know using it will qualify.
In the sample deck below, I've included 15 targets (some of which summon more stuff, for more targets), plus 15 qualifying spells and also 3x Wraithling Swarm to provide even more targets. As usual, you'll need to swap out 1 card to add the Mythron.
Sample Deck Code: MTozNTUsMzozMjAsMzozNDEsMzozNTAsMzozNTEsMzoxMDAxMiwzOjIwMDU3LDM6MjAwNTksMzoyMDA3MiwzOjIwMjI2LDM6MjAyNDMsMzoyMDMzNCwzOjMwMDAyLDM6MzAwMzk=
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Magmar / Hatefurnace
Body: 5/4 for (4)
Trial -- Cast 5 spells that give a minion +Attack.
Destiny -- Minions summoned from your action bar gain Rush and Frenzy.
Viability -- 5 out of 10.
Reasoning -- A double-shuffle deck like the Xor'xuul one; you'll need a good balance of buff spells and targets and hope you keep drawing both. For my targets I went with Golem synergies because that big beatsticks with Makantor style that can't be dispelled just make me smile.
Sample Deck Code: MTo0NDksMzo0MzIsMzo0MzQsMzoxMDIwNCwzOjEwMjA3LDM6MTEwOTIsMzoxOTAzOCwzOjIwMTEzLDM6MjAxMTYsMzoyMDExOSwzOjIwMTIyLDM6MjAyOTcsMzoyMDM0NCwzOjIwMzQ2
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Vanar / Oak in the Nemeton
Body: 6/6 for (6)
Trial -- Have 5 token minions with different names.
Destiny -- Friendly token minions have +4/+4.
Viability -- 6 out of 10.
Reasoning -- Five at one time isn't so bad, and I don't think your double-shuffle is as bad. Sure would be good if you had a General that could create minions out of thin air like Ragnora can. Keep in mind your spells are nearly all Transforms or "create a bunch of walls", and the Transforms have to pull double duty as removal.
Sample Deck Code: MTo1MjcsMzo1MzgsMzo1NDAsMzo1NDgsMzo1NTQsMzoxMDMwMywyOjEwOTY2LDE6MTEwMTMsMzoyMDE0NCwzOjIwMTQ1LDM6MjAxNDcsMzoyMDE0OCwzOjIwMTQ5LDM6MjAyNzYsMzoyMDMyNA==
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Neutral / Mythron Wanderer
Body: 6/6 for (6)
Trial -- Have no duplicate cards in your deck.
Destiny -- Your minions have +1/+1.
Viability -- 10 out of 10. (in terms of, can you activate it)
Reasoning -- As others have noted, this one has a Reno Jackson-sized condition (really bigger since you're looking at 40 cards not 30), but nowhere near a Reno Jackson-sized payoff. However, unlike all the other Trials, this one is guaranteed to happen as long as your deck qualifies. Just make the deck, hit 6 mana (as early as T3 if you go second and get lucky with a mana tile) and you're good to go.
Because this can work with any faction, I'll finish off the post with two sample decks. (No, not doing one for each faction, I got HS card reveals inc in less than 15 minutes). First one is what I termed the Obelysk Golem Mechaz0r Artifact ExSand Wanderer Vet deck:
Deck Code: MToyMDEsMToyMTQsMToyMTUsMToyMTYsMToyMTgsMToyMzgsMToyMzksMToyNDAsMToyNDMsMToyNDYsMToyNTAsMToyNTEsMToyNTMsMToxMDIwNCwxOjEwMjA2LDE6MTAyMDcsMToxMDk3OCwxOjExMDM3LDE6MTEwOTIsMToxMTA5MywxOjExMDk4LDE6MTExMjMsMToxMTEyNiwxOjExMTI3LDE6MTExMjgsMToxMTEyOSwxOjE5MDAyLDE6MTkwMDMsMToxOTAwNCwxOjE5MDA1LDE6MTkwMDYsMToxOTAzOCwxOjE5MDM5LDE6MjAyNDQsMToyMDI1NSwxOjIwMjY1LDE6MzAwMDgsMTozMDAxMSwxOjMwMDI5LDE6MzAwNTA=
The other uses Magmar, which honestly I like better for the mix of heals, AOEs and OP faction minions. It uses Ragnora for the eggs, but really I think Starhorn would be fine too for the draw. Vaath has the punches but with the Destiny's minion buff, hopefully you won't have to punch much.
Deck Code: MTo0NDksMTo0MDIsMTo0MDMsMTo0MDQsMTo0MDUsMTo0MDYsMTo0MDcsMTo0MTAsMTo0MTIsMTo0MTMsMTo0MTQsMTo0MjQsMTo0MjgsMTo0MzAsMTo0MzIsMTo0MzQsMTo0MzUsMTo0MzYsMTo0MzcsMTo0MzgsMTo0NDQsMTo0NDUsMTo0NDYsMTo0NDcsMTo0NDgsMToyMDExMiwxOjIwMTEzLDE6MjAxMTYsMToyMDExNywxOjIwMTE4LDE6MjAxMTksMToyMDEyMiwxOjIwMTI1LDE6MjAxNTcsMToyMDIyNSwxOjIwMjM0LDE6MjAzMzksMToyMDM0NCwxOjMwMDEyLDE6MzAwMjg=

Morrigi

This is the rough draft for the Morrigi article that I'm working on for the Wiki, thought I'd throw it up here for public comment for a while. It still needs some work, some playtesting, and some math checks. For example, by my calculation an end game Morrigi fleet should be able to hit 21 light years a turn, but that seems a little nuts. I also remember reading that Morrigi get 33% less money from planetary taxes but get 33% more money from trade taxes, but I can't cite that.
EDIT: I now know for a fact that DE fission ships cap out at 4ly/t. This is regardless of the presence of a gravboat. This makes no sense and requires more testing. In the meantime, assume most of what I wrote about strategic speed was wrong.
Edit2: Refer to MSCowboy' comment on Morrigi travel mechanics.
So, here is. Target audience is somebody who is looking to read up on the race before purchasing the game, playing the race, or is just really confused about why everyone else has so many more spaceships than they do.
The Morrigi are an ancient race of psionicly gifted draconic aliens featuring radical sexual dimorphism. The females live almost exclusively on planets, and have a bulky, reptilian form. The males live almost exclusively in space and have delicate, avian features.
Advantages
The Morrigi have a number of advantages, particularly in trade, xenotechnology, and expansion. A further economic benefit is their unique Habitat Station, which allows additional planet customization relative to the other races. Further, they have several 100% acquisition chance technologies quite deep into energy weapon and shielding trees. Their drive system is a bit of a mixed blessing, making spreading rapidly a challenge, but also making late game deathball fleets incredibly fast. In tactical combat, their dreadnoughts are uniquely vertically aligned, which brings several interesting quirks. Finally, they have very powerful drones, and they field drones on several ship sections besides the dedicated drone carriers, including the CnC ships and the Repair and Salvage ships.
Xenotechnology
Morrigi start with the first four Morrigi Xenotechnology unlocked from the start, the same way that the other races start with their own first four racial xenotechnologies. However, Morrigi Xenotech comes with powerful and unique benefits. For one, Translate Ancient Morrigi allows whoever has researched it to more easily undo the traps that the Morrigi left in their wake during their retreat from the Suuligi. These include the Colony and Asteroid Tricksters and the Alien Wreckage, all of which are instantly disarmed upon encountering them, and the Alien Wreckage gives money and research bonuses as if it were defeated conventionally. Asteroid Monitors will still fire upon Morrigi ships until they’re hacked, but hacking becomes much simpler if you can understand the language that the Monitors were coded with. Further notable is that Trade Creole, Female Dialect, and Ancient Morrigi each give a 25% bonus to subsequent Xenotech research, meaning that Morrigi start with a 75% bonus to Xenotech research. Other races can acquire this bonus by researching those technologies, but if all other Xenotech is researched before the Morrigi player is encountered, it won’t be of much use.
This means that Morrigi are incentivized to research the Accommodate and Proliferate technologies much earlier than other races. The additional civilian population can help make up for the other early economic disadvantages, and it also means that the Morrigi will start much earlier on slow to accumulate alien populations.
A final note and leading into the trade section, all other races (excepting the Zuul, obviously) require the second tier of Xenotechnology for a race and a Non-Aggression Pact (NAP) with a specific player in order to engage in foreign trade with that player’s colonies. Morrigi Players only require the first level of Xenotech and a Ceasefire agreement in order to engage in foreign trade.
Trade
This is a bit of a double edged sword for the Morrigi, and it partially negates out the early game advantage in Xenotech in exchange for a massive edge in the later stages of the game. The Morrigi receive 33% less income from planetary taxes, but they receive 33% more income from trade. This means that Morrigi will always be operating at a loss compared to other players until they bring their trade networks online. It also means that a Morrigi economy is particularly vulnerable to commerce raiding. However, that 33% bonus stacks multiplicatively with the Trade Station, meaning that Morrigi colonies with maximized trade and a Trade Station will generate more income than a colony of any other race with maximized trade and a Trade Station. Further, the Morrigi have more stations to play with.
Habitat Stations
The Morrigi are able to build a race specific station, the Habitat Station, capable of housing 100 million Imperial and 100 Million Civilian population. They are able to have two Habitat Stations at any one of their colonies. The extra population is counted normally for all intents and purposes, including for planetary tax income, maximum trade route count, and industrial output. While other races with planets that have enough population to support 4 stations, the choice comes down to which of the five standard stations they wish to not have. The Morrigi have many more options.
Let’s say that a Tarka wants to set up a shipyard planet, caring only about industrial output. Clearly, he’ll build the Repair and Command stations first, as they provide a direct boost to output. The choice then comes down to Trade, Science, and Sensor stations. Trade is right out; any industrial output devoted to trade directly slows ship production. The other two have no effect, so the Tarka player may choose to build or not build them, depending on his priorities and the location of the planet.
Let’s say a Morrigi wants to set up a shipyard planet. All four stations which he wants will be clear, he’ll build a Repair, a Command, and two Habitat stations. All four of these will directly contribute to industrial output.
Let’s say a Liir wishes to set up a cash cow planet, caring only about income from any source. The first three stations are obvious, they will build Trade, Repair, and Command stations. The whether the last station is a Science or Sensor station will depend on whether the planet is close enough to the front lines to make a Sensor station useful.
Let’s say a Morrigi wants to set up a cash cow planet. The choice will come down to whether he wants an extra Habitat station or a Command station. On lower population planets, the additional 200 million citizens may outweigh the multiplicative effect of the Command station, on high population planets the Command station will certainly outweigh the extra labor.
For the reasons of trade emphasis and space station variety, Morrigi have a stronger late game economy than any other race, though it may take them some time to get to that point.
Another way to think about the Habitat Stations is to pretend you're upgrading the planet size. A size 7 planet has a maximum capacity of 700 million Imperials and 700 million Civilians(before Arcology Construction). A size 8 planet has a maximum capacity of 800 million Imperials and 800 million Civilians. A Habitat Station increases both population categories by 100 million, which can allow a size 7 planet to have 800 million of each. With two stations, there can be 900 million of each on the size 7 planet, allowing it to effectively become a size 9 planet.
Factors to consider include the resource base of a planet. You may occasionally come across a planet that's only size 3, but is pushing 10,000 resources. You could mine it, but 2/3rds of the resources will not be able to be transferred. A Morrigi can make the size 3 behave as a size 5 with two habitat stations, more efficiently utilizing the high resource count than mining ever could.
On the other hand, a planet with poor resources, say below 3,000, will never be very productive regardless of how many Habitat stations are built there. Consider the Science station if the planet is deep in your territory, or the Sensor station if it's near a border. Neither of these are particularly affected by the properties of the planet they orbit, and so can utilize even the poorest and smallest planets.
Do note, even uninhabited planets can support a station. If you've got a prohibitive dustball on your border, consider building a Sensor station there. If the dustball is further inside your territory, look into a Trade or Science station. Trade stations will have routes that reach out and connect to any two colonies that a Morrigi has a Ceasefire with. Everyone else needs an NAP agreed foreign player. Trade stations will not spawn domestic routes. If there's no appropriate foreign targets in range, a Trade station on a dustball does nothing. In those cases, you might as well build a Science station.
Void Cutter Drive
EDIT This is a composite of my original writing and the comment by MScowboy

As for speed, I don't know about the math, but I know their speed tiers by heart. You can verify all this by using them in-game:
The maximum speed of a fission destroyer fleet is 4, even with Gravboat.
The bonus speed per ship up to 10 is counted independently per ship size. 10 destroyers and 10 cruisers together will go faster than 10 of either alone. You can get to 6 speed in fission, but you need 10 DE and 10 CR together, with one of the DE being a gravboat (the gravboat also counts toward regular flock bonus, so you never need 11 ships). The max speed in Fusion era with destroyer and cruiser fleets is 9.5, 8 with only CR. In endgame with the 20 ship limit and all 3 sizes you can get display speeds over 30, but the effective max speed is 25, because they will not move farther in one turn than their fuel stat. With all tech unlocked, a fleet of 20+ DN, 20+ CR, and exactly 5 DE, with no gravboat, will hit 25 speed, which will allow you to go max speed while avoiding incorrect ETA numbers generated by a higher but unusable display speed.
Flock bonuses utilizing multiple ship sizes means that cruiser and dreadnought technology for Morrigi are simultaneously upgrades to fleet power and speed. A Morrigi player can rush for cruisers in the early game for the military advantage while putting expensive fusion tech on the backburner, knowing that they'll be able to field 6 speed fission fleets that will stay strategically relevant into the fusion age, while other races will need to squeeze out both cruisers and fusion as fast as they can. In the fusion era, going for early dreadnoughts can bring you up from 9.5 to 14. You won't be making many of those fleets, but the ones you do will last.
Similar to the flocking bonus, bonus command points for fleet size are also awarded separately for each ship class. Having a set of 10 or 20 of your smaller ship types tagging along while the opposing side only uses their largest can net you an extra ship on the field.
I would never say they have a disadvantage in speed at any point after the DE phase. They are the speed king. They can use tanker and gravboat latch fleets to ferry smaller task forces around, and any significant fleet after that will easily max flock bonuses. They are generally the fastest on the board. They only lose out in terms of very small raiding forces, like 2- or 3-ship biowar raiding fleets, but even small fleets can be brought up to par with other races just by slapping a gravboat on, and the expensive gravboat can always be split off and retrieved if the fleet is suicidal in nature.

25 light years per turn top speed. Humans top out at 15, Liir at 14 under perfect conditions, Tarka 12, and Zuul 12. However, always remember that the Morrigi’s fastest drive will only ever go 4 light years a turn when alone.
Practically speaking, this drive system is truly a double edged sword. On any sort of distributed, mass land grab affair, or in situations where a distributed defense is required, the Morrigi will find the other races running circles around them. However, when it is time for the Morrigi to go on the warpath, his enemies will be unable to run. Even the Hivers will not have time to respond, the Sensor Station has a strategic scan range of 9 to 12 light years, depending on race. The Morrigi attack shuttles will be strafing the Princesses before the Queen even has word of the threat. Further, interception may prove challenging. If you’ve ever tried to intercept an FTL race as a Hiver, it’s only a bit better when you try to intercept a Morrigi doomfleet as another FTL race.
Unusual ship design
Morrigi ship design in general is an odd thing. While other races follow a general convention of engines at the back, command in the front and mission in the middle, the Morrigi do things a bit differently. Their Destroyers and Cruisers have a generally arrowhead shape with swooping wings. These wings are the engine and glow appropriately. The point of the arrowhead is the mission section, from the tip to the part where it connects with the engine. The command section occupies a relatively tiny portion of the ship, wedged right through the middle of the mission section. This can be considered a bit of a disadvantage, as all sections but the command section can be hit from all angles. However, this means that a Morrigi can use fragile Shield Command Sections a bit more liberally than other races, because the small piece on top of the ship is difficult to hit, and a ship can be made to roll to protect it with the bracket ([ and ]) keys. Whether this is an advantage on net is up for debate.
Morrigi Dreadnoughts are even weirder. They are composed of a single large vertical crosspiece, crossed in three places by three bars. At the back of each of the three large bars is the engines, and the middle horizontal bar is the command section. This design packs more ship into a smaller horizontal space, and it also results in a much more effective Deflector and Disruptor section. With the other races, forward shielding on dreadnoughts results in the front third of the ship being covered. Morrigi Dreadnoughts sit perfectly within the center of the half sphere, enjoying protection from 180 degrees in both horizontal and vertical planes. In order to damage a Morrigi Dreadnought that fields a Disruptor section with energy weapons, it is necessary to actually get behind it. This can be frustrating, as Morrigi ships tend to be highly maneuverable and able to present that giant shield in any direction they please. That’s not all they present, nearly every weapon on the Morrigi dreadnought is able to fire on a target directly in front of the ship, resulting in catastrophic damage focused on exactly the target a Qu’ann wishes removed from the battle. As if this were not enough, Morrigi dreadnoughts enjoy faster strategic movement than Morrigi Cruisers and Destroyers. As mentioned previously, each Dreadnought increases the strategic speed of a Morrigi fleet by 15%, potentially stacking 20 times to result in a 300% speed bonus. Morrigi Dreadnoughts, especially in large numbers, can appear anywhere, destroy anything, and see the majority of hostile damage dissipate harmlessly off their massive Disruptors.
One last note, Morrigi DN tend to be relatively inexpensive in terms of savings and industrial costs. In DE and CR categories, Morrigi almost always are the most expensive race. In DN categories, the Liir and Hivers tend to be more expensive, the Tarka are roughly tied, and the Humans tend to be cheaper. The Zuul manufacture with literal spit and literal prayers and are therefore able to spit out their discount scrap heaps quite quickly.
Drones
Morrigi like their drones. Even when there is no dedicated drone carrier, the Morrigi will still field a couple from their CnC and Repair ships. These can be specialized into point defense or harassment roles, depending on need. Further, Morrigi drones are arguably the best. Their light drones have the best top speed and have 3 light weapons instead of 2. The Liir win out in turn speed, and the Zuul may win out in damage by having a single medium gun, but it’s hard to argue that this, or the slightly higher health of Tarka, Human, or Hiver drones results in a greater overall advantage. The Morrigi also have access to the endlessly frustrating Trickster drones after researching Autonomous Drones. These are single section destroyer class ships which fly to a target planet and set up an exact replica of the colony or asteroid belt trickster alien menace. The destroyers are consumed in the process of setting up the trap. Colony tricksters deploy a potentially unlimited number of drones equipped with tractor beams. Every enemy ship in the first wave of the trap will spawn at least one drone, and bigger classes of ships will spawn more drones. These drones will use their tractors to pull enemy ships into the planet, where they are destroyed upon entering the planetary atmosphere. The enemy can counter these drones with laser, phaser, or interceptor missile point defense, but UV lasers and above can intercept some of these drones. This trap is useful for guarding planets which are outside the Morrigi player’s habitable range, but which may be within the range for less picky races like a Zuul.
Asteroid belt tricksters are built by a different single section destroyer than the colony trickster, and sets up the same trap as the alien menace of the same name. While the colony trickster can set up on any planet, the asteroid belt trickster needs some asteroids to work with. The trap triggers when a mining ship tries to harvest resources from a planet. It simply activates a gravity mine in the middle of an asteroid field on top of the harvesting ships. The gravity pulls both ships and asteroids into the center of the trap. The resulting collisions usually result in a complete loss of a fleet. Theoretically, it is possible to have enough firepower to destroy the asteroids as they approach and prevent damage, but such firepower usually won’t be found on a fleet of mining ships. Practically, a mining fleet will be told to retreat, so that the next wave of ships will not spawn into the deathtrap.
The Alien Menace version of both these traps will be disarmed automatically when encountered by any player who has researched Translate Ancient Morrigi. It is unknown if this is the case for player laid traps. It is untested as to whether a Morrigi who laid a trap can trigger it himself.
These traps are a prime example of the dark and ironic Morrigi sense of humor. If you would like a planet, they so graciously help you land. If you would like to harvest resources, they kindly bring them to you. They're just so considerate like that.
Technological aptitudes
The Morrigi have a very strong preference for energy weapons and shielding. Their lowest chance on any node in Shielding is 85%, and their Energy Weapons tend to stay above 80%. They also almost always access all of the C3 tree, and as mentioned above get a 75% boost to all Xenotechnology. Further, they’re very adept in the industrial and terraforming branches of Industry and Biotechnology. Finally, they have excellent chances to get into AI technology, and 90% once in that tree. For this reason, late game Morrigi tend to be able to research faster than even the Liir, who have relatively bad chances of unlocking AI technology.
However, Morrigi have three critical technological weaknesses. They suck at armor, ballistics, and bio-warfare technologies. It’s quite likely that they will never develop a lot of very important vaccines, and so will always be vulnerable to biological warfare. Their difficulty with armor tech means that they’re always terrified that someone will just bring a shield breaker and a bunch of ballistic weapons, obliterating them.
Disadvantages
Morrigi are optimally effective in large fleets of dreadnoughts at the end of the game after they’ve built lots of stations and freighters. At any other time, the Morrigi will have a difficult time keeping up with the “Children of the Dust” economically, scientifically, militarily, or even on strategic speed. Even at the end of the game, it may be difficult for a Morrigi to churn forth enough ships to keep up because they have, by far, the highest savings and industrial cost per ship of any race.
Starting Disadvantages
Economic
Morrigi get 33% less money from all planetary sources, but get 33% more income from all trade sources. This means that the Morrigi will be behind an equivalent economy from any other race until FTL economics are researched. The freighters themselves are quirky, with DE Morrigi freighters costing more in savings and industrial costs than any other race, but with CR Morrigi freighters costing less in savings than any other race, but more in industrial capacity. Even once a Morrigi gets to building freighters, he’ll still be behind right up to the point where he maxes out his routes.
Scientific
Money is Science. While Morrigi are on the faster side of technological progress per credit spent, they’ll still be behind the Liir, Tarka, and Humans just because they’ll have less money to spend on their projects. This is evened with trade technology, but is blown out of the water by AI technologies. However, it also means that Morrigi must flirt with the terrifying AI rebellion just to keep up.
Militarily
The Morrigi ships do fine, even above average, in one to one comparisons. They tend to be a bit lighter on armor, but with a good amount of guns that can dish out potent forward fire and they’re quite quick and maneuverable. However, they’re incredibly expensive, laborious to produce, and they’re coming out of an already cash strapped economy. Morrigi ships do fine in one to one comparisons, but in the early game they may find themselves needing to measure up in one to two or three comparisons.
Strategic Speed
This is more of a mid game disadvantage than an early one, but it is marked. The average speed for starting ships is about 2.5 ly/t. The Morrigi clock in at 2 going it alone, up to 6 with a DE gravboat and 10 ships in the fleet. Again, Morrigi ships are expensive, and the fleet speed bonus is going to be a Morrigi’s last resort in the early game. However, while other races find they’re moving 6 ly/t and above with fusion technology, individual Morrigi ships will be moving 3 with a Fusion Void Carver. In order to even match the other races, a Morrigi will either need to include a CR gravboat for +3 ly/t or they’ll need to gather together 10 cruisers for 100% faster movement. It should be noted, if a Morrigi is willing to go to the expense of a CR gravboat and 10 cruisers on Void Carver technology, they’ll top out at 12 ly/t. As with everything, if the Morrigi is willing to work through the expensive option, they will achieve much greater things than the other races can. However, they’ll also find that being unable to spread quickly has its own drawbacks.
In Summary
A Morrigi player is vulnerable at the start of the game, vulnerable as he colonizes, vulnerable as he builds freighters, vulnerable as he researches AI, and vulnerable as he builds space stations. However, once he has all these assets in place, he will quickly catch up in money, technology, and ships. There’s a reason why the Morrigi from the lore avoided contact for as long as they did, it’s because that’s precisely how a Morrigi would play in the game if given the opportunity.
A Morrigi player should look for three phases in their game. The first phase is where they should be scared of everything. They can utilize their Xenotech bonus to avoid conflict as much as possible while also quickly grabbing up independent colonies. They’ll also be able to get an occasional cash and research prize as they stumble across alien wreckage. If it comes to blows, they can shelter behind captured Asteroid Monitors. Finally, they’ll enjoy a bit more security in colonizing and mining, as they can disarm ancient Morrigi traps.
The second phase of the Morrigi game will feel like the Liir, but it’ll be as if they started late. The Liir use their technological aptitude to design the perfect countermeasure to enemy technology in order to make their weak and expensive ships maximally effective, and the Morrigi will look to do the same. Look for this transition after acquiring the CR Freighters, AI techs, and after maxing out at least one trade sector. Bonus for getting Orbital Complexes. In this stage, every spare unit of industrial capacity needs to be used to produce freighters, every spare credit of savings needs to be building space stations, and the order of choosing technologies needs to be based around increasing, ideally in this order:
Scouting capability, cloaking and deep scanning.
Industrial capability.
Shielding technology.
Heavy Combat Lasers through Cutting Beam.
Tractor through Pulsed Graviton Beam.
Once the Morrigi have Cutting Beam, Pulsed Graviton Beam and Deflectors, they can start constructing the most terrifying Dreadnoughts in the game and mass them into nearly unstoppable fleets. This is the first phase where it’s essentially the Morrigi’s game to lose. In the first two phases, the other players held all the cards and were able to eliminate the Morrigi if they chose to commit enough resources. In the third phase, the Morrigi only needs to be careful not to overextend his forces.
The Races Compared
Vs Hivers
Before the Morrigi were introduced, Hivers were the race that wanted to sit back and turtle until they had an unbreakable economic advantage. Now, the Hivers will find themselves pushing their slow ships to the limit to attempt to crush a Morrigi before he can get his six legs under him. The Hiver will also curse his inability to raid commerce as the Morrigi’s economic powerhouse reaches its full potential.
However, in direct combat, the Crows have reason to fear the Bugs. The Morrigi have absolutely terrible odds at unlocking advanced armors, which is the only thing that can prevent a volley of Mass Drivers from cracking them open. If the Hiver unlocks from the start, salvages or is taught Shield Breakers or Energy Absorbers, a Morrigi player will dread the grinding fights which Hivers look for.
Vs Tarka
The Tarka do the same thing to Morrigi that they do to everyone else. They proceed directly to the enemy and bludgeon him to death. However, they’re operating on a timetable against the Morrigi, if they leave the Crows alone too long, the Tarka will find themselves outgunned and outrun by a Morrigi dreadnought fleet.
A Morrigi player may also come to enjoy their sensor superiority over the Tarka. Tarka EW sections and sensor stations have a strategic range of 7 and 9 light years, while Morrigi EW and sensor stations have a strategic range of 9 and 12. In fact, only the Zuul beat the Morrigi on 10 range for EW sections, but Morrigi are tied with the Zuul for 12 range on their stations.
Vs Liir
The Liir have an early technological advantage against the Morrigi, but that only lasts until the Liir fail to unlock some of the AI technology. From that point on, the Liir will find themselves losing ground to the Morrigi. However, a Liir tends to keep one advantage through the entire game. The Morrigi have terrible odds to develop bio-weapons and their vaccines, while the Liir are very good at both. Plagues will always be a gnawing terror in the Morrigi mind, they shut down trade for several turns and can even flip a planet without the need for a colonizer.
Vs Humans
Humans have the same early advantage against Morrigi as they do against everyone else, they move two to three times as fast as the competition. This gives them a much better chance than most to shut down the Morrigi before the Morrigi has a chance to get his infrastructure up. However, if the Humans don’t succeed in crippling the Morrigi early, they’d best hope that they didn’t make a lasting enemy either. A Human who is sufficiently ahead may be able to drown the Morrigi in Dreadnoughts, but the Morrigi will have the same benefit of cheapish Dreads, on top of the rest of their late game advantages.
Vs Zuul
The Zuul delight in tearing into their ancestral foe. The Morrigi are weakest when the Zuul are strongest, just after cruisers start to show up. In addition, the Zuul are very proficient with ballistic weapons and most importantly have a very good chance to unlock the Shield Breaker. It’s almost as if the Zuul were purpose built to kill the Morrigi.
That's the end of this article, I'd really appreciate observations or corrections. If you want more like this, check out the already posted articles on the Wiki for Hivers and Liir
http://swordofthestars.wikia.com/wiki/Hiver(SotS1)
http://swordofthestars.wikia.com/wiki/Liir

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Faster than a calculator Arthur Benjamin TEDxOxford ...