Ch: 114 Fear (Patreon)

Edited.

First, let me apologize for all the spelling mistakes. I'm exhausted, but that kind of exhausted that makes you too tired to sleep. You know that feeling? Second DM Chapter out this week. I think this makes me caught up. The new Sage chapter will be out this Wednesday.  Be safe and healthy everyone. 

Chapter 114

Fear

“By Tom’s balls.” The tank commander muttered as the battlefield came into view.

Freya looked past the driver and the weapons station to the screen in front of them and saw devastation. There were dead bodies everywhere mixed in with all sorts of alien things. Some of the constructs had wings, some didn’t. There was a huge dead worm the size of a 100-floor skyscraper on it’s side with its mouth open and a huge hole in its side not far from the tank.

What was worse was the dead worm wasn’t the biggest bio construct on the battlefield. That honor went to what looked like a crab/clam thing. The construct had thousands and thousands of sharp pointy legs and a huge, flat shell that kind of looked like a crab shell. It had black eye-looking things, but one of them looked like someone had popped it and there was a bluish stain just below it. It also had two giant claws that kind of looked like crab claws. The biggest thing that caught Freya’s attention was that the shell opened like a clam and inside it were thousands of layers of teeth. It took her a few seconds to see what killed it, but once she saw it, it was really obvious. There was a large crater in the middle on top of the thing's shell.

Taking her eyes off the huge crab/clam thing, she looked around and spotted dark shapes of marines moving among the dead constructs. It took her a second to figure out what they were doing. They were gathering the dead. She tracked a pair of marines who were carrying a limp body towards a field of bodies neatly lined tightly next to each other, like they were in formation. Freya started to count the bodies, but stopped at twenty-five. She hadn’t got to the middle of the first row yet. She couldn’t help but count the rows at a glance. She counted six rows. What was bad was that they were currently about to finish that row and start a new one. There didn’t seem to be an end to the dead bodies as she spotted more and more people carrying limp bodies towards the collection area.

Her eyes were drawn away from the neatly lined up rows of the dead to some smoke to her left. Looking out her window she spotted a burning assault ship. It was mostly gone, with only blackened hull pieces still standing and the fire still burning in its tail section. There was a ton of very dark smoke pouring off the rest of it. She knew it had been an hour since they had taken the fort, yet the assault ship was still burning. There were a bunch of marines standing around it looking up at it, not doing anything.

“Magic, what are you doing?” Sergeant Kruz said sharply, cutting through the silence in the tank. “Get your team out there and secure that fort or I swear to Tom I’ll replace you with someone who can. Sergeant Duggar, drop the back gate, and get this tank moving again once my squad disembarks. I think we are expected at command, wherever that is. I think we really should get there, and not gawk at the dead like tourists.”

“Yeah, you're right. Sorry Sergeant.” The tank commander replied and started giving commands. Freya turned her head as she heard the loud click and the whistle of the door being lowered.

“My team, up. We got a job to do.” Freya said as she stood up and shuffled her way down the really thin aisle towards the door.

Unlike her dropship ramp, the tank’s ramp was very steep. It was easier for Freya to jump down than to walk down the short ramp. She pulled her Nester off her back and brought it up to the ready position. The last thing she wanted was to be attacked by a construct that looked like it was dead. She scanned the immediate area as the rest of her team dropped down and took up position on either side of the tank. Almost as soon as she heard Monkeyman drop down next to her, she heard the ramp whistle as it closed behind them. Seconds later the tank was in motion and moving at a steadily increasing pace towards the fort.

She led her team towards the fort following the tank at a steady jog. She refused to look too closely at the dead, both the unusual and striking alien bio constructs and her fellow marines, who were laying where they fell around her. She saw the tank change directions and move to the west. Looking at where it was going, she spotted a bunch of vehicles parked in a semicircle surrounding a command vehicle before her view was blocked by a blackened and smoking tank. She ignored the obviously dead blackened husks of the tankers, who looked like they had tried to bail out of their tank but failed. She turned her attention back towards the fort, glancing around her at the dead constructs all around her to make sure they stayed dead.

Then they were passing some hastily-assembled fortifications that ringed the fort. The fortifications had been created by throwing sandbag walls up in front of foxholes. Between the foxholes were auto turrets that were actively scanning the fort for any movement that did not send the correct identify friend or foe signal.

She glanced at the marines as she passed them by. They looked shell-shocked, moving like robots as they manned their foxholes. She ignored their stares as she passed them by. As she passed the fortification line she wondered if she had ever looked like that. She didn’t think that she had, but couldn’t help but wonder.

The wall she was running towards had a nice big hole in it. Freya didn’t stop as she ran through it to get inside the fort’s walls. There were marines inside the wall in a smaller, but more heavily armed fortification. They encircled a smaller dome in the center of the courtyard. It was the only structure inside the fort. A warrant officer standing about fifty feet from a hole in the dome waved at them. Freya led her team towards him.

“You the people from Spec Ops that Command sent?” He asked them, as Freya and her team stopped in front of him.

“Yes, sir” Freya replied, nodding to the skinny warrant officer.

“We cracked it open, but didn’t send anyone in, as ordered. I sent some drones in. We get a nice feed of the inside, right up until we get close to a hole in the middle of the thing. Then we lose the drones. We blew a hole in the top and tried to get a visual from above, but for some damn reason we can’t seem to find the hole from there. What’s weird is that it’s right on top of the stupid thing. I can see the hole from the dones that we still have inside. We just can’t see it from outside the dome. I would have thought it was under active camo, but if it is then it's directional. You can see the hole from outside the dome from where we made the original entrance.” The warrant officer told them, looking frustrated.

“They got some weird camo things going on.” Freya told him. “You know about the hockey puck spy constructs?”

“The ones you have to use biological eyes to see?” The Warrant asked, frowning. “You think this is the same thing?”

“Might be.” Freya replied, looking at the hole over the warrant officer's shoulder.

“Should have sent someone on top to get a visual.” He replied, looking angry at himself.

“I don’t think it would have been worth it, sir. Not with us on the way.” Freya said, only to mentally curse herself as she heard what she said. She hadn’t meant what she said to be so cocky-sounding. She had meant that they were already coming. It wasn’t worth the life of a marine to send them up there just to get a look. To her relief the warrant officer didn’t take it the wrong way. He chuckled and smiled at her.

“I love you Spec Ops people.” He said, his gaze taking in all of her people. “Get it done, Marine.”

“Yes, sir.” Freya replied, feeling her checks get a little warm.

“Lurch, get me a drone in. Monkey, you take point, but don’t go down the hole just yet. Let’s get the warrant a nice view of what's down the hole.” Freya said, turning to her team.

“On it.” Lurch said as he brought up his arm and started messing with his cloud forge.

“It’s Monkeyman.” Whined Monkeyman, as he pointed his gun at the hole in the smaller dome and started walking towards it.

“Drone is out.” Lurch told them on his external speakers. “Feed is live.”

Freya thought what he said was unnecessary because the feed was already up on her HUD. She watched it as she followed Monkeyman to the hole. He stopped and leaned on the dome wall to the left of the hole. She knew he was waiting on her signal, but she didn’t give it right away. She waited until the drone slipped through the hole and she saw that it was indeed empty except for a dark oval shape in the middle of the dome. The dome wasn’t dark as there was a thick stream of sunlight coming in from the hole in the top of it. Just like the warrant officer had told them, the hole in the ceiling was directly over the dark hole in the floor.

She slapped Monkeyman’s shoulder and followed him in, with Lurch coming in behind her. Monkeyman turned right and she turned left while Lurch followed her with his gun pointed at the hole. Once everyone called out “Clear”, she turned towards the hole. She waved at Monkeyman to back her up as she dropped to her stomach and crawled towards the hole. Monkeyman took a few steps towards the hole, but stopped and kept his gun aimed at it. Lurch rushed to the other side of her and did the same.

It took Freya a few seconds to get close to the hole She stopped just shy of it, and rose to her knees with her gun still pointing at it. She shuffled closer so that she was right at the edge of the hole. She leaned forward and glanced in then she quickly pulled back, not seeing anything but darkness. She waved at Monkeyman to move to the right, then waved for Lurch to go to the left. Once they were in position, she stood up and leaned forwards, leading with her gun. This time she didn’t pull back, but remained where she was as her dark vision kicked in. She saw a floor below her about ten feet down. Other than that, she didn’t spot anything.

“I have eyes on the hole.” She said, speaking over the command channel before she switched over to her team’s talk-around channel. “Lurch, send a drone in while I got eyes on it.”

“Drone coming in now.” Lurch replied, but Freya wasn’t listening to him. She watched both the hole and out of the corner of her eye she watched the drone lower itself into the hole. She was halfway surprised it didn’t get destroyed.

“Maybe the other drones lost signal and self-destructed?” She wondered as the drone went deeper into the hole. It hovered about three feet down and slowly spun in a circle giving them a good look of a fifteen foot circular tunnel. One end curved off to the left roughly twenty feet from the hole while the other end curved to the right.

“We got a tunnel with two exits.” She said over the command channel. “What direction would you like us to go?”

“Let’s see what the drones tell us, first.” Sergeant Kruz replied over the same channel. “Send down a second drone. Have them go both directions for about three hundred feet and stop. Let’s hope these aren't escape tunnels.”

“Understood.” Freya replied before switching to her team’s channel. “Lurch, get me a second drone in. I want both directions covered. Do it fast, Kruz thinks this might be an escape tunnel.”

“Drone out.” Lurch told her and a second feed appeared on the other side of her HUD. Monkeyman walked up to the hole, standing on the other side of it from her. She watched the feed of the second drone as it entered the hole and went towards the tunnel end that curved right. Their first drone started moving towards the other side. The both feeds showed a sharp curve in the tunnels. She waited to send Monkeyman in until both feeds were out of the curve.

The one which went left kept curving to the left a lot longer than the right one did. Then it opened up into a big room where four different tunnels intersected. The drone stopped at the edge of the four tunnels. The second drone went in the opposite direction towards the right-hand curve. The curve was much shallower than the other one. After the sharp curve, the tunnel had short, slow curves so that they couldn’t see that far down it. About two hundred or so feet later, the second drone came across a hole in the floor of the tunnel which continued on past it.

In the feed, Freya watched as Lurch raised the drone and flew it over the second hole. It pitched downwards. Freya only got a glimpse of an unremarkable grey floor about five feet below before they lost the feed. There were no signs of what killed it. One second it was on, the next she got a no signal sign on her feed.

“Get another drone down, ASAP!” Kruz yelled over the radio.

“I got two minutes before the next one is built.” Lurch told her quietly.

Freya checked her cloud forge even though she knew she didn’t have any set up yet. It was a stupid thing to forget, but she hadn’t really used any drones since she met Lurch. He was the drone guy. She was the backup for him. Still, she admitted that she should have one ready at all times. She immediately started a surveillance drone, but it would be five minutes before it would be ready.

“We have a two minute delay for the next drone.” Freya admitted over the command channel.

There was a few seconds of silence before Kruz started speaking again. “Understood. We are getting you a metal shield. I want you to block off the tunnel that faces the multiple tunnels, and set up an auto turret to cover your escape route. Then I want you to get as close to that hole as possible. By then, you should have another drone up and ready. Send it down and hope it’s just their cloaking field.”

“Copy that.” Freya replied checking the other feed. It was still going out live, and there was nothing showing on it.

She looked at Lurch until he looked up at her. “Keep an eye on the first drone.” She told him then turned to Monkeyman, who was still covering the hole, to make sure he was paying attention to her. “Once the shield gets here, I’ll set up the shield with Lurch. Monkeyman, you drop first and give us cover. Once we’re done, we switch. You set up the auto turret while we give you cover. Understood?”

She got an “Understood” from both of them in turn. She turned away and headed towards the exit only to find a couple of marines running up to her with all the parts for the shield. She nodded her thanks as they dropped their burden in a pile in front of her. She ignored their curious looks as she bent down and grabbed the stuff. They were already backing away as she stood up. Two of them were walking backwards, looking at the hole, while one of the guys ran for the exit. Freya ignored them as she brought the stuff to the hole.

She dropped the stuff she was carrying down the tunnel before going for the rest. It took three trips to get all the parts down the tunnel. Once she was done, she signaled Monkeyman. He didn’t hesitate. He took a step into the hole and dropped down, clearing the metal parts with ease. He moved off toward the tunnel where they didn’t have a drone anymore and took up a position to cover it.

Freya slung her rifle over her shoulder and dropped next. She landed a bit closer to the metal parts than she was comfortable with, but she still cleared it. She pulled the big metal plate forward in the opposite direction to the one Monkeyman was covering. She leaned the shield on the wall before going back to get the bracers. As she did, Lurch dropped into the tunnel. As soon as he was settled he grabbed a brace and handed it to her before grabbing the second one. She leaned hers against the wall and pulled the metal plate up while Lurch screwed it in. Then he held the plate while she did the same with the second brace. As soon as she finished screwing in the brace they were done.

She went up behind Monkeyman and tapped him on the shoulder. He backed away, keeping the tunnel covered, until he was past her then turned around and made his way out of her sight. She scooted up until she was in the same place he had been, then waited for him to finish with his installation. Lurch took up a position behind her, but on the other side of the tunnel.

“Done.” He said a few minutes later.

“Tunnel is blocked, and the turret is set up to cover our exit.” Freya said not bothering to turn around and check Monkeyman’s work.

“I’m getting some static on your end.” Kruz replied a few seconds later. “Have one of your team report in. In case it’s something to do with your armor.”

“Lurch.” Freya ordered, still covering the curving tunnel.

“Com’s check. One, two.” Lurch called over the command channel.

“It’s not any better.” Kruz replied a second or so later. “Be aware we still have good feeds from your armor, but your radio transmission is staticy. We are still a go for the mission.”

“Sergeant, please be aware, we are not getting any interference on this end. I can hear you clearly.” Freya told her over the radio.

“I didn’t… Are you saying you can hear me just fine, Magic?” Kruz asked.

“Yes, ma’am.” She replied.

“Understood.” Kruz replied a second later. “If anything goes sideways, back out. This is making Command uneasy.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Freya replied once more.

She motioned for Monkeyman to go first. He had the best armor on the team currently, with his heavy armor. Lurch was wearing his medium armor, while she had her scout light armor on. She went second after Monkeyman, and felt Lurch’s back bump into her as he covered behind them. She took a quick peek at the feed from the drone behind them, but all four tunnels were still empty.

The tunnels progressed just like the drone which had been destroyed had shown them. They crept slowly down the slightly curving tunnel with Monkeyman in the lead. She looked behind her to see Lurch following them, walking backwards. Behind him the tunnel, at least as far as she could see, was empty with no signs of the enemy. It made her nervous. This, she felt, was too easy. She felt dread start to rise in the back of her head. She wasn’t sure if it was because they hadn’t seen an enemy yet or if it was her instincts talking to her. Not knowing what else to do, she turned back around and continued walking behind Monkeyman. They didn’t bump into anything, and nothing jumped them from behind as they rounded the last gentle curve before the hole in the floor.

“I’m getting a bad feeling. Keep your head on a swivel.” She ordered her people.

“A bad feeling as in things will definitely go bad, or just a bad feeling?” Monkeyman asked.

“Not sure.” She told him honestly. “It could be just that we haven’t seen anything yet, or …”

“Gotcha.” He replied. She noticed that he grabbed his rifle tighter as he rounded the last bit of the curve.

“Magic!” Kruz called out frantically. “We just lost all your feeds. We are not sure if it’s the same interference or something worse. If you are under attack, retreat. We have alerted everyone outside just in case. We are en route to the first hole.”

Freya and her entire team froze and dropped into a crouch as soon as Kruz started shouting over the radio. She looked around, but didn’t see anyone hurt nor did she see anything wrong with anyone’s armor. She turned back to Monkeyman.

“Everyone ok?” She asked.

“I’m good. I can see the hole from here. It might be that interference that killed the drone.” Monkeyman told her.

“Lurch?” She asked, turning her head to see he was still watching behind them.

“I’m good, Magic.” He replied. “Spooked, but fine nonetheless.”

“Do we keep going?” Monkeyman asked.

Freya turned her head back around and leaned out past Monkeyman, trying to see what he saw. She had to lean pretty far, but she was able to see the hole. She couldn’t see anything around it, nor did she see anything inside it. Biting her lip she stepped around Monkeyman and leaned on the wall across from him.

“I can see the hole. I’m taking point. Monkeyman, stay ten feet behind me. Get your big gun out. Blow the hell out of anything that pops its ugly head out.” She told him using the command channel, hoping something of their conversation would get through. She waited to the count of three, but Kruz didn’t respond.

She dropped to her belly and started crawling towards the tunnel like she had before. She didn’t look behind her to see if Monkeyman had taken his big gun out, trusting him with her life. The hole was roughly twenty feet from the curve in the tunnel and it didn’t take her long to reach it. It just felt that way as she crawled forward. She stopped about five feet from the hole then motioned Monkeyman up to join her. She leaned on the left side of the tunnel making sure He had a good line of sight on the hole.

She didn’t look at him as she kept her Irish Nester pointed at the hole. It felt like forever before he reached her, but she had to admit it couldn't have been more than a few seconds. Unlike her, he didn’t belly crawl towards the hole. There was no point. Lurch was covering their rear, so he didn’t have to worry about being in someone’s line of fire.

She motioned him to stay as she slowly edged closer in a crouch with her gun pointed at the hole. The tunnel was about fifteen feet wide so she stayed close to the wall as she got closer to the hole. The hole didn’t take up the entire tunnel. In fact it was maybe ten feet or so wide. She circled to the left of the hole and looked down. She didn’t see anything but the ground below which was about five feet from the top of the hole. She remained where she was as she motioned for Monkeyman to circle around to the other side. A few seconds later she could see him out of the corner of her eye.

Glancing at the feed from the drone covering the four tunnels, she didn’t see anything, so she clicked her radio trying to get Lurch's attention. Looking to her side, she saw him looking at her. Motioning for him to deploy his drone she then pointed it towards the hole. He nodded his understanding. A second later she got a second feed as he launched a second drone. She turned back to the hole and watched the feed as it flew towards the hole.

The drone seemed to go faster than she expected and soon it was hovering over the hole. Taking that to mean they hadn’t lost its signal, she motioned for Lurch to lower it into the hole. It went down slowly, but the moment it reached the threshold of the hole a pink tentacle whipped out and then the feed was gone.

That wasn’t all the tentacle hit though. She could see Monkeyman from where she was, so she had a clear view of the tentacle hitting him and passing through his body. She looked up, horrified, as Monkeman’s ghost went flying out of his body sideways. Freya didn’t think about anything as she saw the terror on his ghostly face as his soul went flying. She saw him reach out to his body but he couldn’t reach it as it was too far from him. She reacted. She jumped.

Her jump carried her over the hole and she landed beside Monkeyman’s body even as it started to fall. She hit his body towards his soul even as it started to fade, then she bounced off the wall and fell towards the hole. She heard Lurch calling over the radio, but she was too busy to react to his panicky voice. She turned her head as she fell and saw Monkeyman’s soul pull itself back into his body, then she was inside the hole.

She didn’t have much time to appreciate it as something hit her. Pain exploded all over her body and she felt something tear inside her. She reacted again. She did something and the world turned into a swirl of colors for a couple of endless seconds then she felt herself hit the ground. She couldn’t stop herself as she rolled to her side uncontrollably. She slammed into a wall and bounced off of it. With her adrenaline roiling through her veins, she was up less than a second later on her knees with her rifle pointed down the dark tunnel. Then she saw the Ketica.

It was huge, it was bigger than her single story house back on Earth. Much bigger. It looked like a blob with thousands of tentacles sticking out of it. The tentacles were all different sizes and stuck out in all directions. She also could see right through it to the huge room it was hiding in. A room that had no exits. In fact, she realized that it wasn’t really a tunnel she was in at all. She was leaning against the far wall where she had thought there was another tunnel.

She was still caught up in the realization when it attacked her again. She had just enough time to dodge a tentacle as it came for her. Once it passed her, she looked up and saw that she was near the hole above her. She took a single running step and jumped even as the tentacle that it shot forward came back like a boomerang and tried to strike her again. It missed. She, on the other hand, shot out of the hole to safety.

Her jump took her out of its reach and she landed halfway down the tunnel towards Lurch. He almost killed her when she was flying through the air, as his shots came near her as he shot into the hole. She was still alive, so she ignored it as she picked herself up off the floor. She turned around to see Monkeyman on his feet shooting into the tunnel where the Ketica was. She took a second to appreciate the fact that he was still alive before she forced herself back into the fight.

“Retreat!” She yelled. “Monkeyman, time to go!” She yelled over the radio. He immediately stopped shooting and ran for it, towards them.

She saw a thick tentacle rise out of the hole as Monkeyman caught up to them. She pushed him in front of her and started walking backwards shooting her rifle from the hip. She only missed once. The tentacle retreated after getting hit four or five times. Once she saw it retreat back into the hole she turned and ran for the gentle curve in the tunnel. She kept glancing behind her making sure the Ketica didn’t try for her again with its tentacles. She lost sight of the hole as soon as she rounded the curve in the tunnel, but she didn’t stop running. In fact she started to run faster.

She saw both her teammates waiting for her just past the curve in the tunnel. “Go!” She shouted, waving them onwards. She stopped to let them get ahead of her and looked back towards the curve in the tunnel. All she saw was an empty tunnel behind her. She turned and ran after her friends.

“Confirmed sighting of Ketica! It is aware of us. We are retreating to the tunnel's exit.” She yelled over the command channel hoping that Kruz heard her. When she didn’t get a response she repeated it. She was on the third repeat when Kruz replied.

“Say again?” Kruz asked.

“We have a confirmed sighting of a Ketica. We are en route to the tunnel’s exit. It’s in a large room just below the second hole. It reacted as soon as something passed through the hole.” Freya said loudly over the command channel as she took the last sharp curve in the tunnel, and nearly ran into Captain Thompson.

“Are you being followed?” The Captain asked her as she slowed to a stop and took cover next to the opposite wall.

“I don’t think so.” Freya replied not taking her eyes nor the end of her rifle barrel away from the curved part of the tunnel.

“Can we get closer?” The PsyOps agent asked from behind her.

“What?” Freya asked, stunned. She was so surprised that she turned to look at the woman.

“Buck up, Marine.” The woman told her. “We have a mission to complete. Now, answer my question. Can. We. Get. Closer to it?”

“No!” Monkeyman said, sounding right on the edge of hysteria.

“Yes.” Freya replied at the same time.

“Good, Thompson, lead the way.” The agent commanded.

“No, wait.” Freya said, reaching out to stop the Captain. She turned towards the Agent and continued. “Normal people don’t seem to see it until it attacks.”

She nearly didn’t say the rest of what she needed to tell the agent because she was so scared. “I can see it before it attacks. I should take point.” She finally told the agent after a few seconds.

“Magic, no!” Monkeyman yelled. “I saw it take your soul. If you didn’t pull yourself back into your body, you would have died. For real, dead.”

The agent reacted so fast that Freya didn’t see her move. One second she was standing behind Lurch, the next she was ten feet away from where she had been standing. She paused right in front of Monkeyman for a second and just looked at him. Then she pushed him, making him take a few steps backwards.

“Grow a spine, Marine.” She yelled at him. “We get paid to take these risks. It’s part of the job. We risk our lives so that others may remain safe. If you hadn’t noticed, people are dying up there.” She said, pointing upwards.

“If you didn’t notice the fucking battlefield up there, we are losing this war. We are winning the battles, but they are costing us so many lives to do it. What is worse, we haven't killed a single Ketica yet. We can’t sustain this forever. We need to know how to stop this now, before it grows beyond this planet. What happens when it hits your home planet? Do you have any idea how many people will die, then?” The agent said, poking Monkeyman in the chest. “This is for the survival of the human race, boy. Get yourself together, and be there for your platoon mates.”

Freya didn’t say anything as Monkeyman stared fearfully back at the agent. She knew his fear. She had felt the pain and the tearing sensation, but she hadn’t realized that she nearly lost her soul. She did not want to go back to where the Ketica was. She had done more fighting in that second than her entire life. She knew she was going to die if she went back there. She opened her mouth to tell the agent to go to hell, but Sergeant Kruz interrupted her.

“We need to move. Now, before it gets away.” The sergeant said in a very calm voice. “Magic, take point. I’ll follow you. Monkeyman, if you can get your head out of your ass, take the rear. Lurch, behind me. I want a drone back on that hole, and by Tom’s nuts, do not let it enter that hole. Let’s move out, people.”

Freya stood up and did as she was ordered. She felt like a coward as she nearly disobeyed her orders. She was still scared, more like terrified, but she wasn't run-away-scared anymore. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and buried her inner little girl, which wanted to turn and run. Opening her eyes, she started back towards the Ketica and its ability to rip her soul out of her body. She didn’t look back because she was too afraid that she would lose her nerve if she did. She led the way.