#dark ops

[coolcomicbookcovers]

[changingourdestiny]

Coronation Part 3: Long Live the Queen

Summary:

With Marcia sealed in a mysterious Taken dome and a surprise Taken attack, the Dark Ops find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place. Meanwhile, Marcia speaks to Paragon for the first time in centuries.

Previous Part: Here

Next Part: Here

“I’m starting to see why the Vanguard sealed this place off. This is like Mega-Gambit!” Blaze called out as she fired a few round at a Taken Legionary before muttering, “Here’s hopin’ Drifter doesn’t get any ideas…” Rae lobbed a Solar grenade at a group of Taken Thralls, “This makes no sense. First they were nowhere and now there’s loads of them!” “Maybe they planned an ambush?” Adam suggested as he rammed into a group of Taken Dregs before shooting his pulse rifle at a Taken Knight. “There’s no way the Taken are that smart!” Cayde replied as he activated his Golden Gun and struck down a group of Taken Goblins in seconds flat, “Plus, even if they were, how’d they know we were comin’?” “True.” Adam agreed as he fired a rocket at the Taken Knight, dealing the final blow to it as it dropped its sword. “I’m borrowin’ this!” Drifter grabbed the sword and rushed up to the Taken dome that had surrounded Marcia. “Uh, Drifter? I don’t think that’s a-” Rae went to warn Drifter but was cut off as Drifter took a swing at the dome with the sword. But as soon as the blade made contact with it, an invisible blast of energy was emitted from the dome, causing Drifter to go flying backwards. “…idea.” Rae finished as she sighed and fired a few fiery projectiles from her palm at a Taken Acolyte. “What the hell’s goin’ on in there…?” Drifter muttered as he glared at the dome. Meanwhile… Marcia faced Paragon with a surprised expression before looking to the side awkwardly, “So…I, uh…haven’t heard from you in a few centuries…” “You haven’t needed me in a few centuries.” Paragon replied, “Nor did I need to interfere with your life…well, until now.” “Not gonna lie here.” Marcia began, “I may have thought you abandoned me.” “Why would I do that?” Paragon asked, cocking her head to the side. Marcia just pointed to her corrupted arm. “Oh, Marcia…” Paragon chuckled softly, “I wouldn’t abandon you over things you can’t control. After all, it was my power that saved you.” “Wait…what?” “When you were taken, you’re body went into a limbo state – the Taken corruption and the Light you were born with fighting each other for control with the Light on the losing side. So I gave you some of mine, overpowering the corruption, but it was only enough to give you limited control of yourself. I was relived when I found out you were one of the Traveller’s chosen, even if you’re not fully trusting of the Traveller itself.” “So why are you interfering now?” Marcia asked, “Why call me here?” “Well…” Paragon began, lifting up her tail to reveal a strange orb of Taken energy balancing on it, “I saw the Taken War. I saw what Oryx did and the suffering the Taken brought to all races in the solar system. When Rae and her friends struck him down, the Taken were left without their king; without the keeper of their will. So they’ve continued to do what their king had always commanded of them – take and destroy. But I think I’ve thought of a way to turn the tides of this war against the Darkness…or at least, aid the side of Light anyway.” “I’m listening.” Marcia nodded. “You know of the Sword Logic that the Hive go by, yes? Since Rae, Blaze and Adam killed Oryx, one of them should have taken his place as king or queen. However, they didn’t, thus breaking the Sword Logic and leaving the throne open for the taking. Yet no one has claimed it, because no one had the ability to wield the powers Oryx had or knew how to achieve them. Thankfully, I was able to preserve a bit of the power here. And there is only one person I know that could wield the power without being corrupted.” “Y'mean...me?” Paragon nodded, “Marcia, Starlight of Tribe Claw, I want you to become the new ruler of the Taken. I won’t force it upon you, but this could shift things into the Light’s favour.” Marcia thought for a moment before speaking, “Why me?” “Pardon?” “Why save me? There’s nothing special about me compared to other Paragonialans. My Starlight abilities would just get passed on to another worthy Paragonialan. Why go through such lengths to bring me back?” Paragon chuckled again, “Young Marcia…you don’t give yourself enough credit. You are much more different than you realise. Think about it. While other members of your tribe were content to stay in safety, you sought dangerous. They thought they had all the answers, you knew there was so much more to know. While they shielded themselves in a bubble, you fought for their safety. They hid behind lies, while you sought out truths. Even if you were never recognised for it, you kept risking your life for your people. Not a single member of your tribe had the bravery and devotion you possess – traits you still hold to this day and carried with you when you became the leader of the Umbrialyx. You lead a group of rogues and misfits with honesty, devotion, courage and justice; the true traits of a leader…of a queen. Like I said, the choice to lead the Taken is yours, not mine. I will accept whatever answer you give me.” Marcia glanced between the orb and her arm for a moment before sighing, “The Darkness is gonna come for us anyway. It’s unavoidable.” Paragon nodded in understanding as Marcia continued, “However…even if it’s only for a while; even if it only prolongs the inevitable…I’ll protect those I care for. I refuse to keep hiding and watch more people suffer.” ——————————————————————— “GYAH!!” Rae winced in pain as a Taken Phalanx blasted her into the wall. It went to shoot at her but was stopped when a Void shield embedded itself in its head, killing it. Adam rushed forward, grabbing his shield as he went, and helped Rae back onto her feet. “Thanks, Adam.” Rae grunted. “No problem.” “Damn it!” Blaze cursed as she finished off a Taken Vandal, “There’s too many of ‘em. We can’t kill ‘em all!”

“Enough!”

A voice echoed through the court as the Taken suddenly stopped attacking at gazed at where the dome was…or once was. Cayde’s optics darted between each of the remaining Taken, “Uhh…why’d they stop attacking?”

“You guys might wanna see this…” Drifter called from behind followed by a faint tink as something metal hit the ground. Everyone turned to see what Drifter was looking at. Rae’s eyes went wide as she gasped at what she saw. Marcia’s Light-amplifier crystal was lying at her feet. She stood there, still in one piece, but she looked different. She wore a long dark purple and pink robe that was jade on the inside over a black, short-sleeved one-piece suit and had a large, pointed jade collar that reached up to her ears. The robe was sealed closed by a clasp in the shape of her insignia – a four-pointed periwinkle star with a jade curve going through it – and a periwinkle sash around her waist. A jade and periwinkle loincloth protruded from the sash that bared a completely periwinkle version of the insignia. The robe had ivory spikes curving around her sides – one pair below the sash pointing down and two pairs above it pointing upwards – and shoulder pads made of the same material. From the shoulder pads flowed a long, torn cape made out of a Taken Blight-esque material. She wore dark purple and pink gloves and dark purple, pink and jade boots with metal soles. The outfit showed her semi-corrupted markings in near-full view – parts were covered by the sleeve of her suit and her glove. In her hand was a scythe similar to the one she wielded in her Darklight form, except it was mostly greenish teal with a periwinkle dragon curled around the main pole and the insignia on the handle. The blade that was once made of silver energy with black markings was now made of Taken Blight with dark flames protruding from the top.

Marcia stared out at the Taken for a brief moment, a stern look on her face, before tapping the bottom of the scythe on the ground twice, “No fighting. The next Taken to harm a Lightbearer has me to answer to.”

Rae glanced back at the Taken and nearly did a double-take as she watched the Taken, one-by-one, kneel to Marcia. Rae turned back to Marcia who had turned her attention to her fellow Dark Ops. “So good news.” Marcia smirked, “My hunch was right, and it turned out to be outcome A.

Hail to the Taken Queen, baby!”

To Be Continued…

[stellargas]

I’m not into the victim thing. When someone is sharing their experience with me about some unfortunate thing or circumstance, I generally see them as someone strong who has endured something, or perhaps they’re telling me as a forewarning.

That’s what this is. It’s not boohoo stuff. It’s frustration stuff, and anger stuff, and “how can people be so stupid” stuff, but it’s not victim hierarchy…

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[riseuptimes]

Jeremy Scahill | Seymour Hersh Blasts Media for Uncritically Promoting Russian Hacking Story

Jeremy Scahill | Seymour Hersh Blasts Media for Uncritically Promoting Russian Hacking Story

The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill speaks with Seymour Hersh at his home in Washington, D.C. two days after Donald Trump’s inauguration. Jeremy Scahill  The Intercept  January 25, 2017

 Journalist Seymour Hersh in Perugia, Italy on April 1, 2009. Foto: Tania/ A3/Contrasto/ReduxPULITZER PRIZE-WINNING journalist Seymour Hersh said in an interview that he does not believe the U.S.…

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[kicksaddictny]

adidas Football Unveils the Dark Ops Cleat Collection

adidas Football Unveils the Dark Ops Cleat Collection

  Paying tribute to the U.S. military, adidas Football today unveiled the second pack in the new Dark Ops Collection, inspired by the footwear and accessories worn by the elite forces of the U.S. military. Built for speed and performance, the Dark Ops Collection of cleats features the 2016 adizero 5-Star 5.0 x KEVLAR® and Freak x KEVLAR®.   Taking design inspiration from the U.S. Army’s Delta…

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[dreowyn]

Chuck Baldwin: Who killed Joan Rivers?

Chuck Baldwin: Who killed Joan Rivers?

Chuck Baldwin is a radio broadcaster, syndicated columnist, and pastor dedicated to preserving the historic principles upon which America was founded.

The following is from his column of Sept. 11, 2014, “Who Killed Joan Rivers?.” I added the video of Rivers and the embedded links.

Chuck Baldwin

That most of Joan’s peers did NOT crucify her for her statement that Michelle Obama is a transvestite…

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[suryaray-blog]

Hey IT — embrace, don’t stifle, developers’ flight to cloud

#SuryaRay #Surya You’re stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. No one’s moving. It’s hot, the air conditioner is busted and next to you is a tempting escape … a wide-open breakdown lane. Sure, you could move over and jump ahead. You’d get where you wanted to go faster, but you’d be breaking the rules. Shadow IT projects crop up in much the same way. Gridlocked by the processes and protocols imposed by IT management, developers very often give in to the temptation of moving their projects outside where they can progress faster. These “shadow IT” or “dark ops” which happen when developers go outside the firewall — spinning up and provisioning their work on beyond-the-firewall cloud resources to support time-sensitive project delivery. These efforts typically happen without the knowledge of IT (or accounting) departments. Dark ops: a symptom of impatience, colliding objectives Dark ops emerge when dev/devops teams hit communication breakdowns, governance constraints, and resource limitations. The whole rationale for the devops movement — in which company developers and operations people — who often work at cross purposes — are encouraged to work together to build, then deploy,  incremental software updates and improvements. It sometimes doesn’t work that way, hence the rogue developer.  sometimes that’s because IT management has implied or stated outright that it doesn’t have the time, in-house skills, resources, or desire to deal with their projects. At the same time, developers are under pressure to innovate to keep the enterprise competitive. The public cloud breakdown lane: tempting, but risky Look at it from the developer’s perspective. Would you jump into the dark ops breakdown lane? Cloud offerings such as Amazon’s Web Services are tempting, quick options for developers looking for bandwidth, scale, and resources, without having to go through time-consuming IT channels. But without IT’s involvement, issues abound. For instance, think of the “success-failure” scenario: What happens if the shadow project is a successful trial, and corporate end users demand broader rollout? IT has to integrate that shadow project back into the corporate network, connecting it to legacy applications, databases, and service frameworks. Trying to do that after the project is already under way is far more difficult and resource-intensive than if IT were involved in plans from the start. Even worse: What if the third-party service provider suffers an outage or a security breach? IT is a corporate risk manager, and determines maximum tolerable failure windows, necessary protections against data theft/loss, and how often to back up data on-site. In addition, IT constantly measures corporate cloud utilization to avoid overage costs that can get out of hand. It’s not likely that a developer would consider these critical factors when purchasing immediately available public-cloud VMs. In most organizations, the developer’s understandable lunge towards Shadow IT can expose the company to risk and unnecessary expense. So, how do you foster developer creativity and still maintain IT control? 1. Embrace dark ops culture Resolve the culture wars being waged by your development and IT teams. In spite of their respective biases, developers and IT management share a common goal: to do what’s right for the company. If your devs are going rogue, review your deployment administrative processes. It’s a problem if they aren’t following the rules, but it’s a much bigger problem if your rules are hindering developers’ ability to innovate. Acknowledge the developer’s lament: “Don’t make me write another report! I’d rather be coding!” Then empower them: They want to be able to provision their apps. Take advantage of virtualization technologies to enable that. 2. Invest in the cloud Instead of imposing arcane processes on the dev team, establish new infrastructure to support the best way for them to work. If your devs want to go to the cloud, give them a cloud to go to. If you need to keep data in-house, get a private cloud and give your devs control over their own piece of the sky. Otherwise, outsource your hosting to a public-cloud provider. The important thing is that your devs can spin up VMs and not have to wait weeks for approval to do so. On the IT side, set up management and control procedures— as non-intrusively as possible—to make dev cloud work visible. Middleware in public or private PaaS models can provide sophisticated cloud management solutions for IT without burdening devs with overhead administration. 3. Collaborate Hold a hackathon. Bring your teams together for a day or even a week to brainstorm on new ideas, build prototypes, and learn from each other. Make multi-day quarterly hackathons open to all employees and impose just one rule: work must benefit the company. Hackathons can get your teams thinking creatively, boost morale, and make your company and products better. 4. Open up your enterprise’s breakdown lane With mutual respect established, virtualization options made available, and team collaboration under way, you’ll see positive changes in the enterprise developer/IT relationship. That unity will lead to faster, more cost-effective, and less-risky research and development. Open communication and mutual respect will focus your team on what’s important: moving the enterprise forward. You just have to open up that extra lane to get past the traffic. _Bart Copeland is the CEO of ActiveState, a cloud software provider, will be speaking at GigaOM’s Structure Europe in Amsterdam later this month. _ _Feature photo courtesy of Shutterstock user Viktor Gladkov_ http://dlvr.it/2F3Tk5 @suryaray