//------------------------------// // Chapter Seven: Stars // Story: Fallout: Equestria - Gaia Prevails // by John Colt //------------------------------// Chapter Seven Stars “Aideen’s Audiolog. February 14, 1247. Going above the cloud cover is a bad idea...” > Memorhedron is fully charged and ready to use. > Next memory in queue: Untitled – May 29, 991 > Length: 0 hours 11 minutes 39 seconds. > Load memory? > load <=======ʌʌɅ Ʌʌʌ=======> The now familiar zebra-unicorn stallion feeling came over me. It would have surprised me if I would be somepony other than Spellfield. He was walking around at a place I had to identify as a marketplace. It wasn’t like any marketplace I have ever seen: Everything was tidy, nopony was selling guns or ammunition, and there is a truly impressive number of fruits and vegetables I can’t even name. Spellfield carried a basket with a, what do you call it, cluster of long, curved, pentagonal yellow things. But grapes, dandelions, and daisies I recognized. “Dr. Spellfield!” Oh, I know that voice. Spellfield turned around and saw Bright Skies trotting towards him. “Dr. Spellfield, what a coincidence to run into you.” “A coincidence indeed.” He replied sarcastically, and bowed shortly. “Miss Bright Skies. A pleasure to see you again. I trust yesterday’s event is the reason you searched for me.” She nodded. “Indeed.” “A flare at her age, it’s quite impressive.” “Yes, it is. I wish I could have watched her whole test.” “You know you could have had done so? Well, for the price of being present at all the other foals test’s too.” “Do you have any idea how nervous they would be if I am watching them?” My heart would explode if I would have to take a test in front of Celestia. “You have that effect on everypony. You are... you, after all.” Nice way of comforting her, Spellfield. Good job. She sighed. “This is why I have Bright Skies.” “I assume you haven’t come out of common courtesy. You want something from me again, don’t you?” I felt Spellfield forcing a smile. It was almost as if he had to bail a friend out of trouble again. Which is pretty accurate when I think about it. Celestia doesn’t need a lot bail-outs, but whenever she does, she asks something pretty serious of him. “I’m afraid so. You see... I talked myself into a corner.” He frowned, and hard at that, before he relaxed his facial muscles again. “What have you done?” His voice carried a sadness, disapointment. “I agreed to- No. I... I... ahm... I told Twilight Sparkle I’d take her as my personal protigee.” She had her eyes closed and waited for a shitstorm raining down on her... A shitstorm that didn’t come to pass, because Spellfield had found interest in some orange-pink furry balls. The sign at the market stand said ‘peaches’. Spellfield floated a few of them up and checked for their density. Celestia opened her eyes again, he silently pressured her to explain further. “I don’t know how to teach kids, especially as young as her. You two kids, one of them is Twilight's age, and I... I thought... Oh, I don’t know. You have got to help me.” “Ryde is two month younger than Twilight, and I claim to be a good father to him, but... Wait, what are you planning on? Should I copy your spell and... play princess, teach her for you?” Apropos copy-spell: I should pay a little attention at what he feels when having her in front of him. That spell could get useful a second time. “No, I just could use some advice. I cannot ask somepony else. I would...” “You made a promise you can’t keep up.” Was it common for ponies of that time to publicly squeeze their food? Hey Spellfield, it’s a fresh fruit; they are all fresh fruits! Why are you checking them? “Oh, what would the ponies think?” She ignored his mockery, after all she deserved some of it. “I’d like to give you a teaching job at my school.” Spellfield walked up to the merchant, and gave him seven peaches worth of bits, only then he answered to Celestia. “I agree.” He started walking again, and floated a peach towards her. She caught her peach as he dropped it. “I have the feeling it is a long time since someone gave you a meaningless present.” He levitated another peach up. One for himself this time. He bit into the peach- OH MY GOD, IT’S DELICIOUS! Sweet delicious moistness. Oh please, keep chewing, don’t swallow just yet. Ohnonononotyetitstoosoon. He swallowed his bite. Oh, sweet aftertaste. He sucked the peaches juice that was already in his mouth onto his tongue and swallowed again. “May I ask you a personal question?” Just take another bite out of that sweet deliciousness floating right in front of you. “I owe you that much, Dr. Spellfield.” “Is it hard for you not being able to talk to ponies? Having to disguise yourself?” Just eat the peach. “Yes, very much so, but I got used to it.” Celestia took another bite of her peach before she continued. “You are the first pony I told so, you are not however the first who ‘dared’ to ask me that question. I assume you already knew that.” He nodded, and finally took another bite of his peach. “Means you didn’t want the truth, but honesty. So let me ask you a question. Do you hate me?” He continued eating his peach. I would have done the same thing. Eating delicious fruits is way better than answering such a question. But, of course, he didn’t hate her, he can’t... can he? “Yes.” He can... “More than anything in this world.” She winced. Yeah, it was brutal. “You made me break up with the mare I loved, you made me make a job I don’t like, you made me throw away all my potential, you ruined my life. I cannot even defend myself to my wife, she knows I’m wasting that potential. And the only truthful explanation isn’t rational. So yes, I hate you.” “I understand.” “But then again I’m quite a loving person, you are not in contest with anything. And if I would have somehow else acquired the information I got from you, I would have probably done the same thing. Then the pony I would need to hate is myself. After all I am already denying the fact that this thing started because I spied on your memories. The only thing I really hate about you is your courtesy. You might want to try ‘please and thank you’, every once in a while.” “I...” She was shocked. “I never..?” “Nope.” The memory ended. <=======vvV Vvv=======> > Save position in queue. > Memorhedron is charging. 1% > Not ready for use. I pushed the brushes off of me where I took cover. Although I doubt anything lives this high up at the mountain, directly under the cloudcover, with no friend or real cover it is still dangerous to sink into a memory. Craft hadn’t caught up to me yet. I walked out of the brothel maybe 20 minutes before her, and she had two days time to catch up with me. I even got caught up talking to Crimson. Crimson! Of all the possible ponies to help Craft, it was him. How? Why? There are enough questions and Craft is going to hear a piece of my mind. I can only assume she is deliberately trying to avoid me. I have always assumed that clouds were something more... ‘material’, how else would pegasi be able to live up there? In truth clouds are nothing at all, but when you reach your hoof inside of them, they only feel cold and little water droplets are collecting on your hoof. I actually felt disappointed that clouds didn’t live up to my expectations. They just seem so solid from farer away, and even up close they appear quite dense. I couldn’t see what’s on the other side, and honestly, it scared me. As it was daytime the sun would be up, but I have no idea what to expect when I walk further up the mountain and see it for the first time. The clouds have been disappointing, and my entire life I have also made out the sun to be something... divine. I don’t know if I could handle another disappointment. I’m not even sure what my definition on divinity is. However, I know that the sun is a big orb of pure light somewhere up in the sky, there is not much to go on so, how could it possibly disappoint? I looked around again, the whole way down the volcano. No Craft in sight. Ahh... I’ll just go on ahead! The feeling of sticking a hoof in a cloud was rather refreshing actually, but walking through them was just eery. The clouds became increasingly brighter the higher I got, and when my head popped out of the cloud cover I had to close my eyes from the brightness surrounding me. If there was an obstacle before me I would just bump into it, but I had to leave the cold clouds first. Darkness was so much easier to adjust too. Light... hurts. The rocks on the ground were practically glowing from the light they were reflecting. There was nothing above me, no clouds, no... I don’t know... no anything, the sun maybe, but I don’t know yet what the sun is for real. Come on, Aideen, just look up, it’s not going to hurt you. Meditation works to lessen fear, it should also work for building up courage. Wait, isn’t that the same thing? Courage is only overcoming fear. Don’t philosophize, just meditate. Breathe. I looked up into the sky to see nothing, only blue, it was a really nice gradient of blue, I have never seen a blue this... blue before. The brilliantly clear shadow that was shown infront of me, told me the direction of the light. I turned around to look for the source, the sun. It was way too bright to look at directly, but I did it anyway. It was just too overwhelming, and I looked away from it pretty soon after. Like every light I could still see it burned into my eyes. Blinking should do the trick, like it always does... except this time. Then I heard a scraping sound. “You know that the sun can actually burn away your retinas?” Craft was sliding down on gravel. That was a risky stunt, I had bad experience with ‘sliding’ and ‘mountains’. “Hi, Aideen!” She was in her usual happy mood, a mood I wasn’t buying anymore. “Hello... Craft. Where you up here the entire time?” “Yep, after all we agreed to meet at the peak of Mt. Mustang.” She pointed up to it. “Peak is the geological term for the top of a mountain, or in this case, volcano, not ‘below the cloudcover’. You know that, right?” “Right, but...” What am I even trying to say? “I mean, what about the Enclave?” “What would the Enclave do? Look at us grumpily? We only need to go below the clouds and they wont bother us anymore. Didn’t you get to know me, Aideen? I have an exit-plan, I always do.” “And what was that when the Company caught me?” “Rephrase: I have an exit-plan for myself. But you should be able to pull off this trick yourself, too. What took you so long to come up here anyway?” Sure, now I’m at fault. “Hmm... let’s see. A city-guard stopped me and I had an interesting conversation with Crimson.” “That’s not a valid excuse, same thing happened to me.” “You... what?” “Oh, don’t act so surprised, you could have put two and two together and knew that they would have found me too.” “Then you also know you have some explaining to do.” “Do I?” Oh, she is not getting away. “Yes! Let’s start easy: What’s your name?” She narrowed her eyes. “It’s only a name.” “Aideen, look... You owe me, not to mention I literally own you now, and planned on setting you free again. Our scales are unbalanced, and everything is on my side. And, let’s be honest, all I need to do to get the whole facility for myself is to stop saving you.” “Then how am I supposed to trust you, Craft? Crimson knows you, and everything he said to me indicated either he knew we were together the entire time, or he knew you would recognize the Memorhedron. And I thought the Memorhedron is one of a kind. He likes you and gave it and my saddlebags to me, when he assumed I was you.” “The circumstances change nothing to the deal we made. We kept the Crimson Company from getting to the Facility. I honestly did not know they weren’t going to be this small of a problem, but I helped you escape. I completely held my end of the bargain.” As much as I’d like to deny it Craft had a point. “But why did he give... ‘me’ to you?” “Okay, on that point I’m as surprised as you are. Crimson does not want the facility for money purposes, not for the Company. There has to be something in there he wants for himself, while his minions don’t know about it. That means the Crimson Company is no problem, but Crimson, the pony, is. It means trouble.” “Is it... better or worse than having the whole Company as an enemy?” “Well, I believe you know how he works. It’s not his style to go in guns-blazing. He prepares everything and...” Craft gestured me to continue. I only know of one of his plans. “One surgical strike when the time is right.” “And we will see him coming.” “Yes sure, but he will know that we will see this coming, right?” “Of course, we see his plan of us seeing him coming, coming, which he will see coming too. So we...” “Wait one second.” Rephrase what she just said: He knows, that we know, that he knows... Everypony knows everything, okay. “Continue.” “I know his style and he knows mine. That is why we have to bring in additional factors.” “Additional factors, like..?” “Like you. You are no mastermind. Exactly what we need. If we have a stupid plan... ‘it’s a trap.’ No offense.” “Okay...” “And another thing he won’t expect.” She paused, maybe for me to make an suggestion, but I couldn’t think of anything. As she said, I’m no mastermind. “Why do you think we are above the clouds?” “The Enclave?” “Yes, I’d like to bring the Enclave into the equation.” “What for?” “I don’t know, you decide. And if you say we don’t need them, then Crimson will still think we did something with them, and he over-complicates it.” “Okay, let me try to come up with something. Oh! I don’t know. I don’t know about Pegasi, about Crimson, and what he wants from that facility; I don’t even know about about my so-called ‘partner’. How am I supposed to come up with a plan?” “You’ll figure something out.” Craft patted me on the shoulder. *** *** *** One step after another. It’s not so hard in theory; it has proven to be easy in practice too, on solid ground at least. I trust that Craft wants me alive, I trust her capabilities as a caster too, but walking on clouds is supremely weird. I have the feeling I could fall through them at any given moment. Cloudwalking, it was a spell every unicorn in the Enclave was capable of. I don’t even bother to ask Craft where she picked that spell up, or how she came to know that there are apparently unicorns living with the pegasi in the clouds. The unicorns living up here are descendants of those who have used this spell once upon a time, or those who survived on these giant towers. As the pegasi pride themselves to be a pure race, the minority of unicorns and maybe even some earth ponies became increasingly more inbred over the last 200 years... We were walking towards a pegasi settlement about two hours away from the peak of Mt. Mustang. Muse must have struck the pegasi when they named it after the quadrant it lies in. ‘Cloud Nine-Two’ was quite small, I didn’t know anything about pegasi-architecture, or how densely they usually settle, but I don’t think there are more than 100 pegasi living there. “Incoming.” Craft rather needlessly stated, as we saw two pegasi flying in our direction. “You are sure this is a good plan?” The pegasi had spotted us, and the nearer they come the more nervous I get. “Well, too late now.” She had a confident smile on her face... Well, Craft always has a confident smile on her face. “You only live once, right?” “You know that’s the phrase for idiots to justify that they are about to do something stupid?” “I was being sardonic, and I did justify that we are about to do something stupid. BUENAS TARDES!” She shouted the last part out to the pegasi. They flew near us and shouted their own “hello” without having to scream. Two stallions, one had a sea green, the other a deep blue coat. They seemed quite surprised to see us, but weren’t afraid as they landed quite near. “Who are you?” “Great! Just what I need, civilians.” Craft sighed. “Look, you are not authorized to know who I am.” As we planned we just walked by them. If we would have been picked up by an Enclave patrol, we would have asked about their ranks, and then told them the same thing. They looked at each other rather puzzled as we walked by, but then simply stared after us. I could tell because I had a sixth sense for stallions staring at my flank, and I know how a voice transforms if I the speaker is smiling brightly. “Okay, but allow me to introduce myself. I’m Skysoarer.” We turned around again, the pegasi that has spoken was the blue one. “I... I’m Glide.” I like the seagreen one already. He wasn’t grinning stupendously at seeing a pretty mare. He was afraid of what unicorns might do here and what we said implies. He was the smart one of the two. “A name can’t hurt, I guess; call me Craft.” Keep conversation to a minimum. “Aideen.” “Are you guys man enough to be an escort to Nine-Two?” She was playing right into them. “Of course we are!” Skysoarer stated and jumped into the air, before he realized we wouldn’t be able to fly after him. He tried to elegantly land again after his take-off, but it resulted only in an awkward move. “Just follow us.” “You are some kind of Enclave Special Forces right? You have been down... below the...” Glide can’t even bring himself to say it. The Enclave has strict rules about not telling their civil population that there is anything below the clouds. But, as it seems, there are pegasi who doubt their story. “Below the clouds. You’re undercover...” Is it just me or does this feel like a pun? “Of course they would send a unicorn, I mean there are no pegasi down there... right?” Craft shot him a petrifying gaze making him instantly freeze in place. “Glide, right?” He nodded. “You seem like a smart kid.” He seemed older than her. “You understand there is information out there that you shouldn’t have. You are protected, simply by not knowing them. You understand.” “You can tell me, but you would have to kill me, or something like that?” “Well, do you want to know?” “I think I’ll pass, thank you.” *** *** *** There was no real member of the Enclave here. Sergeant Cirrus, she was the only one who ever had Enclave basic training, so she was assigned head of the police station in Cloud Nine-Two. She had an almost perfectly white coat, and a deep indigo mane and tail. There was something about that high contrast of coat and mane I thought of as rather attracting. As the pegasi have a weird governmental system she was the de jure mayor too. They don’t really have a separated civil government and their military... No, that’s not the right phrasing... They have no civil government. The pegasi are like a military dictatorship without a single pony in charge, but a caucus. An exclusive group you can only become member of if you know one of the other members. Yes, that’s a pretty accurate description. Cirrus believed us to be Enclave Special Forces, but following protocol she had to lock us up until somepony could prove our story. We weren’t in a cell, but in her home-office under constant supervision, so all I could do was planing a ‘I told you it’s a bad idea’-speech for Craft. Just after nightfall one of Craft’s methods of getting rid of her seemed to take. “I’m hungry, can you make us something to eat?” “Sure, I usually eat a little bit later, but having a guest is a special occasion. What would you like?” Then Craft started telling her a list of instructions how to make the seemingly perfect daisy sandwich. I would have almost called her rude, but then I figured out she only did this to get us more time to talk alone. Cirrus blinked twice, then her view trailed off as if to remember the instructions clearly. “Okay, do you like your crust cut off too?” “Of course you cut off the crust, we are not animals.” “Right.” Cirrus nodded somewhat painfully, and left the room; she wasn’t, like me, used to Craft being so... crafty just yet. Mental note: Do not make terrible puns. As soon as the door closed I started whispering: “Okay, Craft, have you noticed the point where this plan backfired? We got locked up! We are under supervision, just waiting for the Enclave to show up and blow our cover. Do you realize how much trouble we are in?” “Maybe she’ll cuff you to her bed if you ask.” “I err... she... what?” “I need you to distract her,” Craft was not kidding. “for about 3 minutes...” Okay, maybe she is. Craft was way too good of an actress. “Or what can you do? An hour would be great.” “I... Craft, listen! I’m not into mares.” I sighed. Thankfully Craft didn’t seem worried, she has got to have a plan. “What are you planning anyway, please include me. You have a plan, right?” “I’m including you, and that’s the sacrifice you have to bring for the greater good.” “Wha- I...” Stop stuttering, Aideen. There has to be a way out of this. “Why would she do it?” “Oh, she checked you out alright; more than once, actually. Didn’t you notice? Maybe you have a blind spot for mares doing so. And she definitely made bedroom eyes at you.” “Plan, Craft, the plan. Focus.” “Right. I’m just saying you may need some therapy. Anyway, this is the best situation we could have ran into. No real Enclave here and the big kahuna in town seems to like you. We only need to push a little bit, gain her trust and we are free.” “Yeah, until ‘the real Enclave’ arrives.” “We need ‘the real Enclave’ for our plans, and then we will use my exit plan.” “A plan you still haven’t told me.” “You have to become a better actress first, you would give it away, Aideen. Sorry.” Craft walked over to the window and looked out. “But I think the real reason why I came up here was to show you this. You totally have to check that out.” From my angle the window had a great view to a parking lot with two police-skycarriages, but the angle Craft was standing she could see the night sky, the moon and the stars. I’ve already seen the sun, how the sky... the real sky looks like at day. Beautiful, but really just a gradient of blue. The sky at night is rumored to be way more beautiful than the at day... Yeah I had to check that out. I walked up to the window. I was still looking down, the same procedure as with the sun. My nuzzle touched the cloud-glass-material-thingy, I was ready to look up ant take the whole view in at once. Then I felt something... “Hey, stars are up there.” “Yeah.” My heart was beating faster. Something was happening... I lifted my hoof and investigated it, I couldn’t see anything, but my skin crawled when the moonlight touched it. It wasn’t an unpleasant kind of crawling, quite the opposite, it felt somewhat like a whirlpool. I lifted my hoof higher, investigating it... I could see exactly where my coat was shorter, I could see exactly where I had my scars underneath them, I could remember exactly how I got them. I opened my mouth and looked up into the sky, as if to catch a snowflake. A feeling of clarity flew through me when I saw the stars and the moon above me. The moon was a big orb, but unlike its counterpart, the sun, was clearly visible, even pleasant to look at; and the stars were millions of lights scattered all over the sky, forming patterns everywhere you look. The longer I stared at the stars the more patterns I could make out. I know ponies before the war liked to play connect-the-dots with the stars and come up with new constellations. I always assumed they were overly creative, but you really only have to stare a few minutes, and you were able to come up with hundreds more. Cirrus entered the room again. “I have some sandwiches here.” Her voice was carrying a singing tone. Happy mood, perfect, she really had no clue we were not telling the truth. I just had to smile that she was believing my lie. She placed the plate on her desk, and waited for a little while, as I didn’t respond she tried to make herself noticed again. “Craft? Or Aideen, or whatever? Uhm... Food.” “They are beautiful aren’t they?” I had to let her partake in this beauty. “Come here.” “The stars?” “Yes, the stars.” Turning around to see where she had placed the plate wasn’t needed, I simply knew it where it was. Maybe because the moonlight had strengthened my senses I could tell everything that is going on. “Come here.” I levitated the plate towards me and placed it on the floor, where I sat down. “On the floor? Uhm... okay.” Cirrus walked over, and sat herself next to me. The window wasn’t very big, so she was closer to me than I usually would be comfortable with, but at the moment I couldn’t care less about her presence, as long as I could see the stars... “They are pretty.” “You can see them everyday, do you take your time for them everyday?” “I... ahh... no. I can watch them every day, I mean... every night. I don’t really...” “You don’t appreciate them as much as you should. Imagine somepony would just cover them up, if you could never see them again and you know there is somepony responsible.” She was silent for a while. “You were down there for a long time weren’t you?” I didn’t respond, just continued watching the stars, and chewing on the sandwich. “Look, I know it’s... not quite okay, but we can’t change anything about that. I mean, you got into Special Forces to change something, didn’t you? You can change the world way more than anypony else in this town.” “Change the world? Huh... I’m actually just trying to get my life in some sort of order.” I took another bite of the sandwich. “You made them perfectly. Thanks.” “Thanks, Your gratitude is very much appreciated. You had high demands, but knowing I made them correctly is nice.” I turned away from the stars to look at her. Cirrus was smiling, and she was so close to me... This is a kiss-moment. Nonono, I’m not even into mares! I stood up, and stuffed the rest of my sandwich in my mouth. “Whersh yer bashroom?” Aaand the moment is over; crisis averted. “Err...” Cirrus was startled by my sudden move. Craft only shook her head. I know what she was thinking. ‘Bad move, you should have totally kissed her.’ Maybe because I am thinking it a little bit myself, but... no... Where was Craft anyway? I got the feeling she wasn’t present a second ago. Was she messing with my head? Making me think I’m alone with Cirrus so I wouldn’t be bothered by anyone watching..? Why the hell did I even think about kissing her? Did Craft do anything? Oh, that manipulative bitch... “I need to brush my teeth before I go to sleep.” I explained to Cirrus. She nodded. “Okay, sure. Bathroom is right this way.” *** *** *** I wrapped myself in the super-comfortable cloud-blanket Cirrus had provided me with. What would I give to simple be able to sleep in now. “What was that all about?” I couldn’t place Craft’s tone, and as I was facing away from her so I couldn’t see her expression either. “What do you mean?” I know, of course, what Craft means. She wanted to know why I blocked Cirrus. “It’s nothing...” What? “Good night, Aideen.” “No, it’s not nothing! You wanted to tease me because of Cirrus again, didn’t you?” “Aideen... As much as I like it to tease you, I do it only if it is in good fun now. I have gone too far with you before, and I do not want to hurt you again. I need you.” I turned around to look at her. ‘She needs me.’ What a great friend. “Did you manipulate me into thinking you’re not present and I’m alone with her?” “I’d like you to be happy, and I think you should work off all your sexual tension... Yes I did, but you kinda trust me with your life already, I have no right to tell you how to live the part I’m not already controlling. I’m not going to do that again” That’s right... Craft is already controlling most of my life, and she actually sounds sorry about it. “Okay, I uhm... Thanks, I guess.” Maybe she isn’t so wrong. “I think you are right, but... It’s just that I’m not into mares.” “That’s actually kinda surprising, considering your experience with stallions.” “Yeah, maybe... I just... I don’t know. I’m free now so I kinda want... foals one day?” “Practically respectable.” “They can’t all be... like what I experienced. Quick Shot was nice, my brother is nice. There has to be somepony out there I can start a family with, and that can’t happen with a mare.” “Oh... I understand. You don’t have to settle down with Cirrus. Just fuck. A day or two until the Enclave arrives, and then we dramatically exit the stage.” “Wouldn’t that break her heart?” “You’re too soft for the wastelands, Aideen. You’re too soft...” She yawned, as those things are contagious I had to yawn too. “Did you know that yawns are more contagious if you are closer to the pony who yawns? Sociopaths, who are completely incapable of forming social bonds, can never feel like having to yawn because of somepony else.” I didn’t know what to make of that information. “Is that so?” “It means a lot to me Aideen, thanks for yawning. Good Night.” “You spurting out information without wanting me to pay for it means a lot to me too, thanks.” I snuggled into the blanket again. “Good Night, Craft.” *** *** *** Footnote: Level progress 50% Perk updated: Touched by Nightmare Moon: You permanently gain +1 Intelligence and +1 Perception, and gain an additional +1 Intelligence and +1 Perception when standing in the direct moonlight. Quest: Memories of the Future [ ] Find out why the Memorhedron has planted on you. [ ] Optional: Watch as much Memories in the Memorhedron as possible (4) Quest: Above the clouds [X] Meet Craft at the peak of Mt. Mustang above the clouds. [X] Go to Cloud Nine-Two. [ ] Gain the trust of the pegasi of Cloud Nine-Two.