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He's Baaaaaack! by Killer_Fairy



He's Baaaaaack! Intro-A Swipe to the Stomach
Date: 21 October 2002, 1:35 am

Just a Note: I would like to thank a few people before I get the ball rolling on the story. Props have to go out to HuntingU for his 'ideas'. Special props go out to kiro69 just for being himself, ...no matter how weird he got, Chris Lightbrin, and the Midwest Assassins, for being the greatest chapter in the 7th Column. Keep on Fraggin!


The glittering blue plasma sword hit the marine right in the stomach. She stood for a moment, before falling face first into the snow. But this wasn't any marine. This was a Spartan. Her enemy, a tall gold elite, laughed at his kill, before moving on, finishing the last of her team members. By the time he was done, the snow had turned pink, from the blood shed. He surveyed the area, making sure that no one was left alive, before hoping in his ghost and racing off into the steadily approaching evening.
The Spartan opened her eyes, and felt the incredible pain in her lower stomach. She knew her chances of survival were very slim at this point, due to her loss of blood. During this time here, lying on the snow, her life flashed in front of her eyes. How she was taken from her family, placed through rigorous Spartan training, and the killing. Death was now a daily thing for her. She passed out, as the moon started to rise.

"This is where the signal last came from" crackled a female voice over the pelican's speakers "We haven't heard from Alpha Team in over 3 hours...I'm dropping you off here, and I expect the worse". A Spartan jumped out of the back of the pelican, and swept the area with his pistol expecting a few remaining enemies, but found none. He sighed at the lot of bodies strewn around on the ground, and his eyes fell upon the armour of a Spartan, glittering in the moonlight.
"Oh, Shit" was all that he could say, as he recognized the armour of his friend Heather. Fearing the worst, he walked over and kneeled down beside her in the snow to check her pulse. He was surprised to find a faint pulse, so he called back the pelican.
"Hey, Sarah, we have a survivor down here, and we need immediate dust-off."
"Wow, Mark. I didn't think that you would find anyone! I'll be down in a minute" Mark flipped Heather onto her back, and saw the huge gouge in her armour that streaked across the mid-section. If it weren't for her shields, she would probably be dead, like the rest of the marines lying in the field. The pelican landed, and Mark picked up Heathers unconscious body, and laid her on a stretcher inside the heated back of the pelican. He climbed into one of the side seats, and the pelican took off.
Once the pelican arrived at the makeshift hospital, a crew was waiting at the landing pad to help Mark with the stretcher. Almost immediately, Heather was rushed to an operating room. Mark sat down on one of the little hospital waiting room chairs and took off his helmet, and placed it on the table beside him. Mark looked quite out of place in the waiting room, because he was just way to big for the little chair, and the gleam of his armour caught everyone's eye. He ran his fingers through his short black hair, and looked around the waiting room. There were 5 other marines in there and most were looking at him in shock. Most of them have never seen a Spartan before, especially one with his helmet off.
"So..." Mark said, trying to break the awkward silence in the room. All the marines took their eyes off the Spartan, and quickly looked away. Mark was used to this treatment, so he though nothing of it and looked at the door where they were helping Heather.
Almost an hour passed, and finally the door to the operating room flew open, as Heather kicked it open. She had a bandage around her middle, and was already strapping on bits of her armour, with 4 doctors all telling her the same thing...
"You need to let those wounds heal!"
"You can go back to battle now!"
"You need rest!" Mark chuckled to himself, Heather was fine. Heather was a lot different then the other Spartans. She was shorter, about average height, and had shoulder length brown hair. She was also very temperamental, and that was probably one of the reasons she was one of the best fighters. Once she got mad, no Covenant stood standing. She was also a pilot, of her own pelican, 'The Crane' (she also had a weird sense of humour). Her favourite weapon was the shotgun, because you could rush up and just blow the brains out of anything. She didn't have the patience to be a sniper, and her with a rocket launcher was suicide, because Heather had an itchy trigger finger, and usually fought in tight spaces. 'The Incident at Reach' proved this. Another one of her favourite weapons was the Covenant made plasma grenades. With a shotgun and those grenades, she was a force to be reckoned with.
Heather continued down the hall, doctors dragging off of her, trying to pull her back to the room where she could 'rest and heal'. But of course their attempts were in vain, as she was stronger then any man. She had her helmet under her arm, and her favourite hat on already that she wore at all times. Mark got up, sighed, and followed the ticked Spartan, and group of doctors. He quickly caught up, put his hand on her shoulder to stop her. She flew around to face him, thinking that another doctor was going to tell her to lay down again, and instead came face-to-face (so to speak) with Marks chest. She looked up at him.
"Look, I'm going back out there to teach that bastard elite a lesson...." Mark cut her off,
"Don't you think that you should get some rest?"
"I got enough rest in that frickin' field, I'm FINE!" She spat, turning around again, and continuing on her way down the hall. "I want my pelican ready VERY soon, a shotgun, and get me some plasma grenades" she told Mark without turning around or slowing down. Mark picked Heather up, and brought her back to her room. She hated when he would do this, but he had her arm pinned to her side, so she was helpless. Not only was she shorter, but way lighter, so it was easy for Mark. He sat her down on the hospital bed.
"You need your rest...I don't want you getting cut up again."
"Yeah, but...ok, fine. Only for 12 hours though." Mark was the only one that could calm her down, so they were almost always on a team. He started to help her to take of her armour.
"Hey, um...thanks, for...you know...saving my ass back there" Heather stammered out. She never thanked people much...or admitted that she was wrong.
"Well, I wasn't going to let you die there." Mark replied, and took her helmet and set it on the nightstand. He then remembered something "I'll let you change, I forgot my helmet in the waiting room. Be right back" so Heather, changed in to a t-shirt and pyjama bottoms, and got into bed, cursing under her breath that she couldn't kick that elites ass now. She fell asleep quickly.
Mark got his helmet, and the marines were still there, watching him. He got an idea. He saw a seat in between 2 of them, walked over, and sat down.
"So, how you guys doing?" He asked cheerfully. The marines stared in shock at him again. "You guys are looking at me like I'm a grunt running around singing Christmas carols with a Santa hat on! Lighten up!" Finally, one by one the marines loosened up, and they talked for a while before Mark left to check on Heather, but she was already fast asleep.



He's Baaaaaack! Chapter 1- State Your Name to Peeved Spartans
Date: 28 October 2002, 2:28 am

It was only a month after Reach had been attacked and defeated. Earth's only hope was the Spartans, but with most missing or killed and only 2 accounted for, things were looking pretty grim. It's been a week, since Heather's brush with death. Ever since then, she has been planning 'revenge' on her attacker in her spare time.
"You know, I can't believe those Covenant bastards actually defeated Reach. Everyone though that it was the best defence Earth had, hell, even I thought it was unbeatable...crowbar" said Heather. She was fixing up her personalized Longsword Bomber out in front of her private hangar, which contained all of her 'toys'. Her Longsword was faster, smaller, and had some extra special features that most didn't have. Part of the inventory in the hangar included a pelican, tank, 2 warthogs, and the empty space that usually held her Bomber. Her hangar door was always closed, and no one knew what really went on in there. Everyone who went in though had to go through a tight security scan first. Heather loved her personalized stuff too much to have them ripped off by some thief, though it was very unlikely that would happen. Everyone knew that a Spartan owned that hangar, and the thought of what would happen if she caught them scared the crap out of most people.
Mark handed her the crowbar, and just missed the wrench that came flying from inside one of the engines.
"Look, you don't have to throw the tools back at me." Mark added, a bit agitated, "you can pass them to me.... like normal people!"
"Oh, stop your whining Mark, you know I'm not normal" Heather stated, starting to laugh, "Now hand me the socket wrench". With that said, the crowbar came flying out of the engine, straight at Mark again, hitting him in the shin.
"CRAP!! THAT ONE HURT!!" Mark shouted, while clutching his shin.
"Something wrong?" asked Heather, sticking her head out the front of the engine, "And where is my socket wrench?"
"Get it yourself" snapped Mark. He was fine now, but really mad at Heather.
"Fine..." sighed Heather, as she now had to climb down from the engine, and get the tools she wanted herself. She dropped down from the engine, covered with dirt and grease, and started to pick through the tool box, looking at tools carefully, before tossing them out of the way, not caring if they landed in the tool box or on the ground. Mark looked at Heather with disgust, he was a big neat freak, and the way she was leaving her tools scattered about was really getting on his nerves. He looked away, trying not to think about her mess, when something caught his eye out on the horizon. Something that just looked wrong, as if danger was right about to come up while no one was ready and strike a ugly claw upon Earth...It was also getting closer, and looked fairly big by the looks of it. Heather had found her socket wrench, and was already in the engine already when Mark called to her
"Hey...um...you might want to check this out Heather"
"What now...is my mess bugging you"?
"No, although your mess is quite annoying, you should come out and see this..."
"I'm busy right now. I'll see it lat....." Mark cut her off, getting really angry,
"Get your ass out of that engine, and look at this!!"
"Fine! I'm coming, I'm coming" Heather got out of the engine very slowly, just to annoy Mark even more, when he finally pulled her out, dropped her down in front him, and pointed out into the sky. It was getting bigger, and closer, and they both could see it clearly now. A Longsword in a dog fight with a Banshee.
The Longsword passed about 100 meters overhead, almost blowing Heather and Mark off their feet
"Holy Shit, Heather you had bette.....never mind then" Heather had already got in her Longsword, and was taking off already by the time Mark had noticed it. Mark sighed; knowing Heather would be back soon. He started picking up the tools, as the Banshee blew-up overhead.
"Yesssss..." cried Heather in her cockpit. She watched the Banshee fall straight down right beside Mark, who just looked over causally, and sighed, knowing Heather would leave that mess for him too. Heather clipped on her comm. system and called out to the other Longsword pilot, "Heh, you would have been toast if I hadn't came up and saved your ass!" She smiled, as she enjoyed the fact that she had some bragging rights now, and waited for the other pilot's response, but just saw the pilot flying as fast as they could in the opposite direction of which they came. "Wanna race do you..." Heather mumbled, and started her chase on the unknown pilot. She caught up easily, and decelerated a bit to fly even with the other aircraft. "Pilot; identify yourself" she radioed to the other Longsword pilot.
"Oh, just a friend" replied the other pilot. He sounded preoccupied with something. Heather was getting a bit annoyed at this guy.
"And who's this friend?" she challenged. A female voice answered this time.
"If you don't mind us asking, pilot, who are you?"
"Heather-108...a Spartan." Heather stated proudly. She always replied like that when asked her name. It usually shocked most marines, which was a sort of 'past-time' for Heather. "Now you can answer my question: Who are you?" The other Longsword just took off again, diving low, over a forest. This was really annoying Heather. She pushed up her acceleration to full, and felt the thrust as the after-burners kicked on high. Her Longsword caught up again, and this time she pulled up over top of the other Longsword. The 2 aircraft hurtled over the trees, pulling up many loose leaves and branches in their wake.
"Look buddy," Heather told the other pilot, with an edge to her voice, "tell me who the hell you are.... Or else!"
"Oh," responded the other pilot, "is that a threat?". The other pilot was obviously mocking Heather
"Damn straight.... Now tell me your name!!"
"What's the 'or else'?" The pilot pushed, causing Heather to just lose it.
"This, you asshole" Heather grinned evilly, and she eased her Longsword lower, so it was forcing the other pilot to go lower towards the trees. She kept lowering, until the other Longsword was brushing the tops of the trees. Now the wake from the 2 planes was so strong on the ground that it was knocking over small trees.
"Ok...you can stop now" replied the female voice, obviously trying to hide her nervousness.
"Not until you tell me your name! I thought I made that QUITE clear!!" Heather shouted, but she stopped lowering anyway. She wasn't really going to push the other pilot into the trees. A clearing was coming up fast in front of the 2 Longswords. Heather didn't take too much notice, but the other pilot did, and quickly slowed down. He landed in the clearing, leaving Heather still hurtling along across the tops of the trees.
"Shit!" Heather cursed. The pilot had given her the slip. She pulled a 180, still going insanely fast. The g forces involved in this turn were enough to knock any marine out, even in a flight suit, but Heather was fine. She came back to the clearing, and slowed down. She managed to land the Longsword, even though it was still going pretty fast.
The other pilot still hadn't got out of his plane. Heather, infuriated, threw off her safety belt, grabbed a shotgun a few shells, and a plasma grenade from a compartment behind the pilots seat. She opened the back door, and half walked, half ran over to the second Longsword. She loaded the shotgun.
"OPEN THE DOOR!" she shouted at the back of the plane. No response. By this time Heather had enough. She activated the plasma grenade and stuck it to the back of the Longsword. The grenade looked weird; a glowing blue ball, stuck to the back of a cold grey door. The grenade blew in an explosion of blue plasma, and metal shards. Heather didn't wait for the entire explosion to clear before running into the back of Longsword.



He's Baaaaaack! Chapter 2- Old Friends, and New Enemies
Date: 3 November 2002, 6:47 pm

Heather held the shotgun up, ready to blast anything that looked at her wrong, as she ran into the back of the Longsword Bomber. She stopped just as she entered the back, and crouched down to pan the cockpit. There was nothing there. She stayed low, as she went to inspect the pilot's seat. On the way, she past a door, and strafed around it so her back wasn't exposed. Heather reached the seat, and pointed her shotgun barrel around the corner, followed by her head. Still nothing. She stood up, and turned around. Heather held the shotgun a little closer, knowing that at any minute she was going to run into the other pilot. She looked at the door a little closer, and saw that it was opened just a tiny crack. Heather moved towards the door slowly, and quietly, hoping to surprise the other pilot. She was just about to reach out for the handle, when...*BAM*The door flew open, and Heather was thrown back on to the floor. Not missing a beat though, she rolled backwards, and landed on one knee, shotgun pointed straight at the guy who had just came out the door. The end of her shotgun came straight to the end of an MA5B Assault Rifle.
Heather looked to the face of the pilot who was so persistent of keeping his identity a secret. No Spartan training of any kind could have suppressed the look of absolute shock on Heather's face. Her shotgun clattered to the floor, as she dropped it in shock. Heather slowly stood up, and had to look up at the pilot. She started to laugh a bit.
"Damn it John, where the HELL have you been!?" Heather asked, "We're getting our asses kicked back here!"
"Um...had some business to take care of first." He replied from behind his opaque visor. He had his armour on, and looked very impressive beside Heather, who was still covered in grease from working on her Longsword.
"Oh really...want to put that in plain words?" Heather inquired. She knew she wasn't going to get many answers from John here in the back of a damaged Longsword.
"Not here." Replied John, confirming her speculation. Heather was ready with another question though:
"Who was the girl I heard in here with you John?" Asked Heather, with a grin on her face, wondering what his answer would be.
"Oh, you must mean me..." Heather spun around to look at the Longsword's control panel to see the purple holographic image of a lady standing there.
"Hi Cortana." Heather was surprised to see her here with John. Something must have happened to the Pillar Of Autumn if she was here.
"We have to get out of this area," John said all of a sudden; "it's not safe."
"Not safe? John, my hangar is not far from here, and I would know if these woods were safe or not."
"We have to go...now!" John continued, and he pulled Cortana out of the control panel, and stuck her chip in his helmet. He was looking through the weapons cabinet, when he spoke again. "Get your Longsword ready; we need to leave right away."
"Yes, Sir." Heather replied mockingly, and came to a fake salute. She had no idea why he was so uptight. She sighed, picked up her shotgun off the floor, and headed outside.
It was getting a bit cloudy out, and it looked like it might rain soon. Heather stopped in between the two Longswords and looked out into the woods.
"What the hell was John all worried about? These woods are safe...I would have seen something from my hangar if something were going on." Heather thought. But then again, John knew about stuff before anyone else, because he was the Spartan leader.
She shook her head and started towards her bomber. Heather walked slowly towards her Longsword, when a huge ball of burning blue plasma streaked in front of her, missing Heather by mere inches. Heather jumped forwards when a second blue plasma burst flew towards her. She broke into a sprint and dove into the back of her Longsword, just as another ball of plasma ripped through the air behind her. She slammed a button on the wall, and the door flew shut. Heather wasted no time on starting up the engines, before looking out the window at her attacker. It was defiantly a covie, due to the fact it had a plasma weapon, but it was even bigger than a hunter was! It looked like a type of giant monkey, because it was covered head to toe with thick brown fur, and had a big fuel rod cannon strapped onto its left arm. It also had some kind of blade on the side of the gun, which looked like some type of barbaric melee weapon. Heather shuddered; thinking about the last time she came in contact with a covenant that had a large blade.
John was pulling some weapons out of random compartments when he heard Heather power up the engines.
"Finally." He thought, "She actually listened to me for a change." He pulled out a rocket launcher and strapped it onto his back and put a few fragmentation grenades into his belt. John picked up a pistol and headed out of the Longsword.
He stood outside for a moment before he saw Heather hitting one of the windows on her Longword, trying to get his attention. She was pointing over his shoulder at something, and trying to yell something at him, which he couldn't hear. Curiosity got the better of him, and he looked over his shoulder. About 100m behind him was this huge covenant, charging up a huge blue fuel rod cannon, which looked about three quarters the size of him. The covie, let the charged up ball of plasma go, and John jumped out of the way just in time. The plasma burst slammed into a tree behind him, taking out three others with it. John pulled his rocket launcher off his back and loaded it. He kneeled down, took careful aim, and fired. The rocket slammed into the creature's stomach, and knocked it backward into a tree. It fell over with a huge crash. John stood up, and started to run towards the functional Longsword. He heard a rustling behind him and stopped to turn around and look.
The covenant was getting back up. John stood in amazement, staring at the creature, which looked only a little bruised from the rocket. He quickly reloaded the rocket launcher and was about to fire, when a grinding noise came from the Longsword, followed by the cracking of the stationary guns from the wings. The bullets ripped through the covie, blasting it backwards into the trees. The bomber lifted off the ground a few inches, and John ran to the back door that had just opened. He dove into the back, and Heather took off.
Heather's take off so fast that it almost threw John off of the back of the Bomber. He grabbed onto the wall to steady himself, and walked up to the cockpit.
"What was that thing Cortana?" Asked Heather. She had heard John's footsteps behind her.
"I don't know...I really don't know" replied Cortana.



He's Baaaaaack! Chapter 3- Friend or Foe?
Date: 24 November 2002, 1:07 am

*Sorry for this part of the story being late. I've had computer problems, and a tad of writers block. I really hope you enjoy this chapter.
      Killer_Fairy


      Mark had finished cleaning up the Banshee, which took him the greater part of an hour, when he finally heard the familiar screeching of a Longsword engine. He looked up and saw Heather's small bomber speeding towards the hangar. He stood and watched the large aircraft come recklessly down in front of the hangar, going way too fast, and land. The Bomber slid one hundred meters after coming in for the landing too fast, coming to a rest beside him. The back door flew open, and Heather accompanied with a Spartan in full armor ran past him towards the hangar.
      "Hey!" Mark called out, "Where are you going?"
      "Just RUN!!" came Heather's response. He turned around and saw six banshees screaming towards the hangar. Mark didn't need to be told twice, and he sprinted towards the small hangar man door that Heather and the Spartan had already reached.
      Heather pulled a remote control out of her mechanics clothes, and clicked a few buttons on it. The door flew open in front of them. John ran into the hangar, and Heather followed, shutting the door.
      "That was close..." Heather panted. Because her Longsword was faster than the larger models, she had to give up most of the heavy firepower for the extra speed.
      "Where's that other guy?" Cortana inquired.
      "What guy....oh" Heather replied.
      Mark had reached the door and was slamming on it to get Heather to open it. The banshees were really close now and were starting to shoot their plasma guns at Mark. The door swung open and he dove inside, barley missing the plasma rounds.
      "Took you long enough!" Mark cried.
      "Hey, at least I didn't leave you out there" Heather replied casually. An alarm went off inside the hangar.
      "Fairy, cool it. It's just me." Heather said out to a camera on the wall.
      "Fairy?" Mark, John, and Cortana all asked.
      "Oh, that's Killer Fairy. My personal AI. She helps me out in the hangar sometimes, and keeps me company." Heather answered. A holograph of a girl with blue jeans and a tight white t-shit came up. She also had a pair of little fairy wings on her back. Her brown hair was pulled back into a pony tail, and she had a k-bar** strapped to her left thigh. "Hey Fairy. This is Mark, John and Cortana. They're allowed in here."
      "Yeah, I knew who those 2 were. I recognized the armor on John, and I saw Mark's picture on the internet. John, you can put Cortana in the control panel if you want. I don't mind sharing some space."
      "Sure." John replied, and took Cortana's chip out of his helmet, and placed it in a second slot in the control panel near Fairy's hologram. Cortana appeared beside Fairy in the hologram, pushing Fairy off the hologram a bit.
      "Hi. So....thanks for sharing some space. That suit was getting a bit crowded." Cortana told Fairy. They got started in their own little conversation.
      "John, how come you went missing?" Mark asked. "And what happened to the Pillar of Autumn? I mean, you have Cortana with you, so something must have happened. Also, where did you get that new suit?"
      "Well," started John, "You may want to sit down. This could take awhile." So John went on to explain Halo, the Flood, and what happened to the Pillar of Autumn. John had gotten his new suit on a science lab ship circling Earth. It took about three hours to explain.
      "So you disabled over 10 covenant cruisers? How did you do that?" questioned Heather.
      "I sent a virus through the covenant battle net from the bridge of the cruiser that we took over." Cortana replied from the holopanel behind John. "Then we destroyed them with the cruiser we had taken over. They were like sitting ducks. We have about a day before the covenant come back regrouped."
      "Only a day?! You got to get to the UNSC command John, and tell them so they can get ready. We don't have much time." Heather said "I'm bringing my stuff with me incase the covie's decide to attack early. Are you coming Fairy?"
      "And let you have all the fun? I don't think so!" Fairy replied. "I'll get the Longsword ready and upload myself into it."
      "Hey, I'm coming too." Mark stated, and he went off to get his armor and weapons. Heather walked up to a door, and pressed in a password. The doors slid open with a hiss, revealing a small elevator. She walked in, and hit a few more buttons, and the door shut again. The elevator made its quick descent into the basement of the hangar which was deep underground.
      The elevator doors slid open to reveal a whole underground lab, which must have stretched out over 100 meters in each direction. It had many rooms leading off from the main one. Most of the rooms you had to enter passwords to get into. She walked up to the 5th door on the left hand side of the room and entered a code. The door slid open, and the lights inside clicked on. It was a smaller room, and it had lockers all down the sides, each containing different weapons. There was one locker larger than the rest. Heather opened it to show a large glittering black suit. She had made a replacement one because her main suit still had a huge slash across the middle, and this gave her the opportunity to make a newer and better one, that had more features that would help her out in battle.
      Heather got her armor ready. Her black armor was AI compatible like John's. It also had GPS system that could bring up a floor map of any building, and some special straps on the back that could hold weapons, allowing her to carry 4 comfortably. Heather also had a mini-computer built into the arm of the armor so she could send messages, and play internet games when she got bored.
      She strapped her armor on, but left her helmet off, and put it on a shelf near the door. She pulled a shotgun, assault rifle, and thought a bit before pulling out a rocket launcher out of her weapons locker. She strapped all of the guns to her back, but left an empty spot for another weapon .She rummaged through another box that was full of regular fragmentation grenades. She pulled 4 out and stuck them in her belt, along with assorted ammunition. She walked to the door, picked up her helmet, and exited the room.
      "Hey, Fairy, are we almost ready?" Heather called out once she was in the main lab. A hologram appeared on the wall beside her.
      "Not just yet Heather, Mark left to get his armor, and he isn't back yet. I let him use the Warthog with the automatic aiming, just incase those Banshees were still out there." Fairy reported
      "Ok, thanks Fairy. Is that it?" Heather asked
      "Oh, Mark just got back." Killer Fairy thought for a second. "Oh....and you left the elevator door unlocked." Heather never had let anyone down into her underground lab, she had too much stuff down there that she didn't want anyone seeing or tinkering with.
      "Fairy, can you lock the doors for me please?" Heather asked
      "Um, too late, Cortana re-opened them." Fairy replied.
      "How did she get access to the security locks?!" Heather shouted
      "Oops. I guess when she was entered in the system, I forgot to block off the security codes from her...but I was positive that I did though..." Fairy stated, and thought a bit more.
      "Who's coming down?" Heather enquired
      "It's John." Fairy answered
      "How much longer until John gets down to this level? Try to stop it"
      "He's already down here." Heather and Fairy both looked towards the elevator. They could only see the top of the door slide open, because a desk was blocking the view of the elevator. Heather lowered her voice to a whisper.
      "Is Cortana still in the system?" Heather asked. Fairy thought again.
      "No" She replied.

      **A k-bar is a knife about five to six inches long, used mostly by people in the army.





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