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Challenge #03058-H135: In Deep

A: Captain the ship is being drag into the ocean!

B: How deep we’re in now?

A: 4,500... 4,800... 5,000...

B: Dear lord, that’s over 150 atmospheres of pressure!

A: How much can the ship take?

B: well it’s a spaceship, so anywhere between 0 and 1 -- Anon Guest

The good news was that the superstructure was holding up. The bad news was that it wasn't going to continue doing that for long. They were sinking fast and air balloons weren't going to work to refloat them. This required some very quick jiggery-pokery.

"Rerout the feed to the floater envelopes from the synthesisers and pump them full of simple hydrocarbons. Get everyone into their battle livesuits." Captain Bae was already buckling on their greaves. Everyone had theirs ready by their stations, and a spare by their sleep niche. Bae sounded all alert with the same instructions.

Engineers were scrambling, one team per floater envelope. Bae could only get in their way and stress them out even further. When it came to doing a good job to survive, Bae considered the best motivation to be 'tomorrow'. As in, living to see it with everyone else.

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Challenge #03057-H134: A Wilful Sacrifice

It was a race against time. Despite the Dereggers giving a weak attempt at a blockade, refusing to believe there was any danger, the alliance ships swooped in to yank every man, woman, and child off of the two colony planets before the sun engulfed the entire system. The colonists had asked for help but the CEO's had been rejecting their requests, saying there was no danger, CEO's hate being proven wrong. -- Lessons

The CEO's of Planetary Domains Inc. swore up

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Challenge #03056-H133: Must Love Cats

They took in unwanted stray cats and dogs from around stations, especially taking them away from DeRegger places, and took them to a massive new station that, once they were spayed / neutered, they lived happily and were well loved, and learned to love, until they were adopted out. Unfortunately, not all visitors to Humane Station were the friendly sort. However, not all the unfriendlies were... all that unfriendly. Especially when two new faces saw a group of spacers bullying caretakers, and cruel

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Challenge #03055-H132: Worked Stone

It was an old custom on Earth that was once popular. Humans would paint stones with pretty pictures, happy sayings, and then, when they had a fairly large collection done, would take all of these intricate stones and scatter them all over the place so other people could find them. Often with a URL on the back for people to log in with a picture of the stone to show it was found and where. A way to brighten a person's day.

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Challenge #03054-H131: Irrational Therapy

They are a therapist helping those who have severe phobias. How do they do this? They help the person through careful exposure therapy. If the person is afraid of something that is actually quite dangerous, they simply help the person learn to control the fear so they can think clearly if confronted by it. For those that are terrified of that which is actually quite harmless, tiny exposure times, coupled with therapy and mild relaxants, seem to help. -- Fighting Fit

[AN:

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Challenge #03053-H130: Wrong With Authority

They were a DeRegger CEO on their own private ship with the usual, mistreated, crew hauling a load of captured, unwilling, women to the new Dereg colony. The ship, trying to take a short cut by sneaking through the edge of Alliance space, went down due to several micrometeorites getting through, it happens when a person cuts corners on safety. The CEO learned quickly that, once on an isolated, if somewhat safe, haven-like planet, no way to force obedience and all the

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Challenge #03052-H129: From One Cog to Another

You can’t break a man the way you break a dog or a horse. The harder you beat a man the taller he stands. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Link leads to an audio clip from a video game where the quote is from (I think?) that is all edgy tough growling with a warning at the end]

There's a saying in the Edge Territories: You can only try to break a Human. This is a warning, not an instruction. Many have

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Challenge #03051-H128: The Little and Fierce

Actual quote from an actual three-year-old: "Children fight the bad guys! I sharp him with my little teeth!" -- Anon Guest

[AN: I did briefly play with the idea of this being a Pib line, thank you for wondering]

The universe is a big place. There's plenty of areas that haven't heard about the inherent dangers of Deathworlders in general and Humans in particular. Therefore, it's understandable that the same mistake can happen in several different places during several different time periods.

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Challenge #03050-H127: Fate, Destiny... a Basket...

They had been born, and abandoned. This small child, a babe in the woods, taken in by others who found their odd appearance undaunting. Who did not care about appearance, all they cared is that they were a child and needed someone to love them. They looked like a tiefling, but had the white, soft, wings of an angelic. One eye a beautiful sky blue, the other flaming red. They projected strength, and kindness at the same time. They had horns, and

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Challenge #03049-H126: To Find a Good Teacher

They worked hard to find out who this person was. The one who could not be harmed, the one who never needed a weapon, they WERE a weapon. And once the person was found, the seeker, and their siblings, went to them and said, politely. "Please, teach us, we wish to be your students."

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02669-g112-the-immortal-master -- Fighting Fit

Fel was a long time in finding hir. The Immortal Master didn't advertise and, in fact, preferred to stay

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Challenge #03048-H125: They Don't Need Weapons

Anything can be a weapon if you’re reckless enough -- Anon Guest

[AN: For the unlimited version of this, check the collected works of Jackie Chan]

Humans. The aggressive warrior race who will go to any extreme to protect and enrich their pack. Any single one of them is capable of creating a phenomenal amount of destructive chaos on their enemy. When no weapons are available, they will create their own. Often in an instant. A fact not lost on anyone

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Challenge #03047-H124: Free Time

"Human, you don't need to sleep every night outside of my door. This station is quite safe."

The human, looking upon the galactic while they sat upright in a chair, their lifesuit programmed to hold them in that position even if they fell fast asleep. "Two weeks ago my mother and I were dying dereggers. You saved us, I will protect you." -- Anon Guest

Humans, among many other qualities, are illogical. Those rescued from Deregger space have the worst logic. It's

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Challenge #03046-H123: To Win at a Loss

They are a good lucker, but a scoundrel. True they could be quite kind, benevolent even, but they loved breaking the rules and getting into mischief. They'd been kicked out of more casinos than they cared to count, and had been escorted from stations more than a few times for bilking people for their time via gambling. After all, it's hard to catch a lucker at such antics if you don't know they're a lucker!

Then they met a bad lucker whose

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Challenge #03045-H122: Medicinal Purposes Only

Stranded Human: Does this look infected to you?

Stranded Alien: It looks...abnormal?

Stranded Human: Yeah...I don't think treating this can wait for rescue...

Stranded Alien: (starting to panic a little) How do we treat it????

Stranded Human: We start by collecting some of those plants that were too toxic for me to eat.... -- Anon Guest

"The ones we have to handle with gloves, or the ones that we need a livesuit to go near?"

"The ones we have to

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Challenge #03044-H121: Unclean! Unclean!

Militant vegans, for years after she managed to escape their world, attempt to kidnap Harro, and later their children, and their grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to "pay for crimes against their world". Each time they try, they're stopped rather firmly and placed into prison. Good thing Harro, and their family, are quite fierce about self-defense and have a lot of defenders. The militant vegans, within their cells, and the ones from their homeworlds, both refuse to accept their "heros" have committed crimes and

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