Games PC TRIBES User Manual

A W H O L E N E W U N I V E R S E O F 3 D C O M B A T S I M
“The game is fast and fun with dazzling 3D landscapes.”
“The game is fast and fun with dazzling 3D landscapes.”
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- G A M E P O W E R
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Tab l e o f C o n t e n t s
1. Overview and Introduction 3
2. Quick Start 4
3. Timeline and Fiction 5
4. Menu System 28
5. Playing the Game 35
6. Personal Digital Assistant 52
7. Mission Types 59
8. Advanced Reference Section 61
9. Credits 76
Index 79
What is Starsiege TRIBES?
Starsiege TRIBES is a unique first-person shooter set in the Starsiege universe. Combining breathtaking visual displays with seamless gameplay, TRIBES will revolutionize the world of multiplayer squad-level games.
With never-before-seen features like the "commander view," full support for team multiplayer games and worlds that stretch out for kilometers, TRIBES will revolutionize the way you look at and play first-person shooters.
Installation Instructions
Insert the Starsiege TRIBES CD-ROM into your CD drive. The Autostart program will automatically begin the installation procedure. Follow the instructions listed on the screen to install and begin playing Starsiege TRIBES.
System requirements and a troubleshooting guide are found in the “README” file on the T RIBES CD-ROM as well as the Starsiege TRIBES website at http://www.tribesplayers.com, in addition to an on-line manual containing the most up-to-date information about TRIBES setup.
2 3
Note: If this is your first time playing TRIBES, it is highly recommended you start by playing the single-player “training” missions in order to acquaint yourself with the controls and feel of the game. Once you feel comfortable enough to jump into a multiplayer game, follow the steps below:
• Dial up your ISP (Internet Service Provider) to get connected to the Internet.
• Open TRIBES, either by double-clicking on the TRIBES icon on your desktop or by selecting it from your START menu.
• Select the PLAY GAME button.
• Type in a name for your player and click on DONE.
• Click on the NEXT button in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.
• Select JOIN MULTIPLAYER. Click on N EXT when done.
• Select a server from the list that is not grayed out. The server list may take a few moments to appear. For the best performance, choose a game that has a green or yellow circle in the Connection Quality column. A red circle indicates that you may suffer from “lag.” (see PING and Lag on page 33)
• Click on JOIN GAME to join the server.
• Kick some butt.
• You can disconnect from the server and quit from the game at any time by pressing the Esc key and choosing DISCONNECT.
Newblood
by Blake Hutchins
Minax Phasma III Month of the Burning Swan, 3940 Old Earth Reckoning
“Pay attention, new­blood!” Minerva yells across your comlink. Too late, you spot the Blood Eagle hoplites waiting on the rise below. Instinctively, you cut power to your flight pack and plummet downward. A spinfusor disk slices overhead in a blue-hot whirl, instant death miss­ing by an arm’s length. Around you, your tribes­mates engage the scarlet­armored Blood Eagle in bright candle flare bursts of plasma and the
4 5
Tr i b e s F i ct i o n Tr i b e s Fi c t io n
sharp, popping crackle of laser bolts. Someone to your left screams and explodes in white fire.
Remember your train­ing, your father’s voice
whispers from memory, and you realize you must follow your lessons to the let­ter if you are to survive this day. This is no training game, and you’re not facing the prospect of bruises or embarrassment. These are Blood Eagle, your people’s ancient foes, and they will kill you if they can.
You fall through a deceptively peaceful blue sky toward rocky hills covered with the barbed, brittle stuff that passes for grass in this place. Dry alien air stings your nostrils despite the filter plugs. The sun is a distant white glow, and you hold the hard, reas-
suring weight of a Telamonian-made minigun, mul­tiple barrels poised to begin their deadly spin. The familiar tingle of a phased-shield aura across your skin indicates your Hoplite armor is active, but right now the nano-threaded polybronze breastplate and
greaves feel like small protection amid the chaos erupt­ing around you.
Keep moving, Minerva told you as the warband’s dropship creaked and rocked its way down from the blackness of orbit only a few hours ago. It’s the
main thing that’ll keep you alive -- that and not panicking! Trust your instincts, newblood! Phoenix knows enough scroffin’ time’s been spent developing them, ayia?
Triggering your flight pack again, you arrest your fall with a jolt and swing the minigun at the foe. The
Telamonian’s barrels blur; explosive flechettes shred alien soil into chaff around the Blood Eagle. The hoplites acti­vate their flight packs, and they’re agile enough to evade the brunt of your deadly spray. Only a few of your rounds hit,
sparking harmlessly off the shield-reinforced crimson armors. A warrior in heavy Myrmidon-class armor simply stands there, grinning behind his transteel faceplate. You curse your poor aim, and land with bone-jarring impact in a soft crunch of dry pseudo-grass, your powerful legs absorbing the shock easily.
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Tr i b e s F ic t i o n Tr i b e s Fi ct i o n
Your lessons. Yes, you remember how you sat with the other children on the training ground of your birthworld, listening to Old Kantele as he lectured in his rasping whisper ... There are only three foes wor-
thy of our mettle, young ones. The Starwolf, who
favor swiftness and dar­ing. The Diamond Sword, who weave strategies of shadow and steel. And the Blood Eagle, butchers who laugh in the face of fire...
Minerva swoops up on a blue trail of phosphores­cence and fires a brace of grenades at the myrmi­don. The Blood Eagle warrior leaps ponderous­ly aside, but the grenades’ staccato explosion swats him away like a broken doll and hammers you back a few steps. A Blood Eagle hoplite scores Minerva with a laser as she descends
onto the hillside. An instant later, you regain your balance and hose the bastard down with your minigun. The Blood Eagle staggers under the incandescent hail and falls as your flechettes finally penetrate and find meat to explode in. You have marked your first kill, and you
scream in triumph, but there’s no pleasure in it. The stench of blood and ozone and burnt flesh fills you instead.
It is better to die than suffer capture by the Blood Eagle, you once told your father’s sister years ago.
She looked into your eyes serenely and replied,
Ayia! Fear is their weapon, true. But you are of the Children of the Phoenix, the first tribe, the eldest tribe, the pure ones sprung from the Blessed Harabec himself, hero of the Cybrid Wars, savior of humanity. Such knowledge will spur you above fear.
A couple of laser pulses hit you in the back, searing even through the shield aura, and you grunt in pain, but the armor holds. You look over your shoulder and trigger your flight pack to thrust you into that indifferent blue sky. Another bolt scorches a fur­row in the ground under you, and you vector toward the sniper, a female hoplite, emptying the Telamonian at her as she tries to maintain cover in the rocks of the hilltop. A bellyful of fear gives your hands speed as you let the useless minigun snap back to standby on the warharness while you pull up your plascannon. The Blood Eagle raises her longrifle too late as you drop directly onto her and crash a boot into her faceplate. The next instant, you unload white-hot plasma into her at point-blank
range. You can’t even hear her scream under the roar of the flames.
Minigun. Longrifle. Disker. Grenade launcher. Blaster. Hellshot. Lascarbine. Hawktorps. Plascannon. Sword. Shockchain. Knife. Tetrahook. Club. Hand. Foot. Teeth. You’ve trained with all
these weapons since you were old enough to walk, and their use is now deeply instinctive for you. Still, you remember your father’s words to you upon Presentation after your received the Dragon Marks of adulthood: Your life, too, is a weapon.
You land on your belly and skid down a slope in a dry cloud of dirt, through charred patches where blaster bolts scored the ground. Two Blood Eagle peltasts snipe at you, first one, then the other, as you scramble to reload the minigun with a second ammo canister. Your shield aura won’t hold much longer, and you’re bleeding from a half-dozen minor wounds. The flamer is lost, dropped by the smouldering remains of your last kill. Come on! you pray. You’ve done this hundreds of times before, under fire, underwater, in the dark -- all in training -- but now your fingers can’t get a good grip on the canister. Then you fetch up against a rock and the ammo’s gone. Dust is everywhere. A hyper-vee round whangs off your cuirass, and you
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Tr i b e s Fi ct i o n Tr i b e s F i ct i o n
know you’re going to die. Two standard weeks back, the Blood Eagle dropped
onto a world held by your people, slaughtering the populace and setting the flayed bodies of their vic­tims on spears around their LZs. The ghosts of our
people cry out for vengeance, the elders said.
The famed Scar Captain assembled a battalion of warriors to strike in retri­bution. You joined quick­ly, eager to serve your people and win glory in the eyes of Phoenix.
One way or the other, you’re high in the favor of Phoenix today. One of the two Blood Eagle about to destroy you erupts in a spinfusor explosion, and the second one breaks off to meet the new threat. Harach’Xu. -- another newblood of your tribe -­salutes you as he skims by.
“That’s three for me!” he calls with a grin, chasing the Blood Eagle into a gully with another spinfusor shot.
Even you, newblood, should be worth any four of these Empire-loving scrofs, Minerva joked as you
disembarked from the dropship. I’ll have four
markers on my belt by moonsrise, you boasted.
She’d replied with a raised eyebrow. You know now you hadn’t any idea what you were in for.
You grope for the ammo canister, find it, and slam it into place on the Telamonian with a sharp, metallic click. Relief fills you, but it’s only momentary. The Blood Eagle peltast rockets back out of the gully with a minigun leveled and buzzing. Caught off­guard, Harach’Xu tum­bles out of the sky in pieces. You leap aside as flechettes reach for you in a wake of fury. A quick thrust from your flight pack scoots you beneath the Blood Eagle peltast, and you open up with the Telamonian, but the peltast is too damn fast ...
You remember the bruises left by your weapons instructor, Azendai, and how he taught you to focus through the pain, to keep your attention on the tar-
get. But never lose your awareness of your surround-
ings, he would say. Always know where the nearest
ditch is, and grow eyes in the back of your head. The
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Tr i b e s Fi c t io n Tr i b e s F i ct i o n
enemy does not forgive blindness or laxity.
“Left, newblood! Left, damn it!” Minerva’s voice screams in your ear and you tear your gaze away from the peltast to see a battered scarlet myrmidon drawing a bead on you with something big and black. You roll up and boost hard for cover. The myrmidon sidesteps to avoid fire from Minerva as she pokes a longrifle over the crest of the hill and snaps off a couple of shots. The Blood Eagle peltast, her true target, never makes it to the ground. The laser pulses blow his head off neatly; the sudden blast of blood reminds you fleetingly of one of the roses in your mother’s garden, its petals dissolving into gentle red mist. You glimpse the slumped body drifting downward on its flight pack’s thrust as you drop over the rocky lip of the hilltop. A heartbeat
later, before myrmidon’s rockets shatter the world and turn your day into night.
Dawn casts long shadows over you as the last war­riors climb laughing into the dropships. Beyond the mobile landing pads, golden hills roll gently down to a calm sea. Your mother is there, and your sisters, offering you a luck gift: the blaster pistol your grandfather won from the Starwolf -- what? Two jumpgates ago? Three? You tell Mother not to bother, that you were killed on Minax Phasma III, but she just smiles. You are of the Phoenix, my
bright one, she says. We more than any other tribe return reborn from the ashes of defeat. Go now, and return.
“We’ll strip their armor after we’ve destroyed their
brethren,” the Scar Captain orders in his gravelly voice. The Blood Eagle myrmidon’s blackened corpse lies in a small crater at the foot of the hill. You rest your head on your knees while Minerva plays a knitterbeam over you. Your helmet lies nearby, blown off from the force of that last explosion. You’re exhausted, your head hurts, and your burns pulse raw agony, but you’re almost too tired to cry out, and pride keeps your teeth gritted. As the nanodocs do their work, blackened flesh flakes away to reveal pink new skin spreading across your wounds with incredible speed. The pain fades. You relax and stretch gingerly. Around you, Phoenix warriors reload their weapons and run nano-repair kits over their armor. The sight of their gleaming wingmask helmets fills you with resolve. Minerva grins and winks as she spies you clipping the Telamonian back onto your warharness.
“Welcome back ... warrior,” she says, and tosses you your helmet. “Remember, you owe me two more by moonsrise, ayia?”
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Tribe Descriptions
regiments called Pyres, and squads called Flames.
Children of the Phoenix
“Someday, perhaps, the tribes will be one again. Let us keep that flame burning. Until that day comes, we
must remain vigilant against those who would extinguish the light and cast us into the darkness of anarchy.”
— Renn Gistos yl-Harabec, Phoenix Prime
he oldest and most traditional of the tribes, the Children trace their ancestry back to the
T
legendary Harabec, the immortal Phoenix. Their ultimate goal is reunification of all tribes under the Phoenix banner. The Children adhere to a body of custom called "The Tenets of Harabec" and expect other tribes to follow it as well.
Although the Children speak of peace among the tribes, they are warriors without peer, and finish their battles with terrifying finality. The Phoenix take pride in their elite status. And so far, no other tribe has succeeded in shattering that reputation.
They organize themselves into armies called Wings,
On the Starwolf: "They turn disadvantage to advantage, adversity into asset. A worthy ally and a dangerous enemy, they are yet too fond of roaming to accept the wisdom of our teachings."
On the Diamond Sword: "Everything is a question to them, a puzzle to solve, a mystery to unravel. But not everything is gray, and the Sworders lack the strength of conviction necessary to act decisively."
On the Blood Eagle: "Butchers united only by bloodlust and their preposterous claim to be the oldest tribe. How they have fallen from their noble origins."
On lesser tribes: "Those who join us are welcome. Those who choose otherwise will suffer. We can only hope to show them the truth."
On the Empire: "Let it rot in decadence and greed. Someday Phoenix will return, and we will raise some­thing infinitely finer in place of mere Empire."
On Immortals: "Some deny that Harabec and other ancient warriors still walk among us. Fools! Have they not listened to the histories? The Immortals exist!"
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Tr ib e D e s c r i p t i on s
Starwolf
“Victory is within our jaws today. The Great Wolf walks with us this day, and those who fall shall walk with him for all eternity.”
— Viktor Abanath, Great
Sergeant, Third Claw, Hepta
Ourubis Pack
The Starwolf tribe evolved from humble
origins. But adversity bred strength, and the
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Starwolf eventually exploded into the tribal wars and carved out a large holding with predatory swiftness.
The Starwolf follow a shamanistic religion, with "The Great Wolf" as their tribal totem. Warriors who fall in battle are said to "walk with the Great Wolf." Starwolf holdings spread across vast regions of space, and Starwolf warriors are the first to explore new worlds and follow jumpgates into the unknown. This great dispersal makes massing large armies difficult, and so the Starwolf favor fluid, guerrilla-style tactics and mobility.
Claws, and then into Squads.
On the Children of the Phoenix: "The Phoenix want everyone to suck up to them, but they'll never make
us bow our heads. Never. We choose our own way." On the Blood Eagle: "They favor slow and heavy
fighting, which makes them our meat. Don't let them
capture you, though."
On the Diamond Sword: "Too much thinking, not enough fighting. The quickest way through a knot is a sharp knife."
On the Empire: "Feh! Crabs. Crack their war machines, and it's all soft flesh inside."
On lesser tribes: "If they cross us, we cut them out of the herd."
On Immortals: "Make the sign of the Wolf when
you mention Harabec. Not that I believe that scrof about Immortals, but you never really know, ayia?"
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Starwolf organize themselves into Packs named for their world of residence. Packs are broken down into
Tr ib e D e s c r i p t i on s
Diamond Sword
“The sharpest sword cannot compare to the sharpest mind.”
— Wylim Totoro,
Warrior/Philosopher
he Diamond Sword craft the most innovative
and dangerous strategies of any tribe. They say
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the mind is the greatest weapon, and practice a philosophy derived from the Zen Buddhist teachings of ancient Terra. Tribe members tend to be enigmat­ic, even cryptic. When not fighting, they are usually meditating on obscure riddles. The phrase "talking to a sword" comes from the Sworders' reputation for answering with a question.
The Diamond Sword tend to rely overmuch on their elaborate plans. If caught unprepared (a rare event), they become surprisingly disorganized and vulnerable.
Diamond Sword forces fall into three main armies: the Unyielding Facet, the Reflective Facet, and the Pure Facet. A Facet contains from three to eight Bolts, which in turn contain up to fifteen squads called Blades.
On the Children of the Phoenix: "Their aim is true, but the distance is far greater than they think."
On the Starwolf: "There is a time to fight and a time not to fight. The Starwolf have yet to learn the second lesson."
On the Blood Eagle: "Their dark past devours their hearts."
On the Empire: "Hollow and blind, wrapped in the gilded veils and perfumed smoke of illusion."
On the lesser tribes: "In the forest there are many paths. Those without light lead to oblivion."
On Immortals: "They need to exist. Logic alone cannot answer all the questions of the universe."
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Tr i b e D es c ri p t i o ns
Blood Eagle
"There's one simple rule in war: Win and live, or lose and die. If the other tribes are too weak, we'll carve the blood eagle on their sorry carcasses and carry the remains as banners into battle."
- Brakus D'Vehne, Blood Eagle Talon Prime
he Blood Eagle claim descent from an Order
of Imperial Knights sent to conquer the tribes
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long ago. They maintain a formal military hierarchy marked by byzantine politics. Rumors say they maintain contact, perhaps even trade, with the Empire. Blood Eagle technology is the most advanced of any tribe.
In combat, the Blood Eagle are unmatched for sheer ferocity. They use the flayed bodies of fallen enemies as banners, follow a scorched earth strategy, and never accept or offer surrender. Despite their brutali­ty, they follow a rigorous code of honor and are the most courteous of hosts during a parley. They never break their sworn word. Never.
sions called Talons. Talons are divided into Squads. Most units use colorful titles, for example, the Second Pennant, Third Talon, is known within the Blood Eagle as "the Eviscerator Talon of the Wolfslayer Pennant."
On the Starwolf: "Don't waste my time. I have a wolfskin rug in my quarters."
On the Diamond Sword: "Words make poor weapons. The sandrakers pose little threat with their mumblings."
On the Children of the Phoenix: "Dreamers easily placated with honeyed words. Beware, though, for they fight almost as well as we do."
On the Empire: "We remember our roots, and the Empire respects our strength. It's enough... for now."
On the lesser tribes: "Target practice." On Immortals: "Give me a break. My plascannon says
no one's immortal."
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Blood Eagle forces are precisely organized into Pennants, which are in turn broken down into divi-
Tr i b e s T i m e l i n e
TRIBES Timeline
ca. 2832 — Starsiege ends. 2845 — Beginning of the
defeated Cybrids to other star systems using new FTL technology.
3245 — Beginning of
discovery of first interstellar transfer conduit, or “jumpgate.”
Chase
. Humans pursue
Cyberstorm
corporate wars;
3289 — Discovery of first “meta-jumpgate,” allowing
travel over far greater distances.
3291
of the meta-jumpgate.
3350 — Meta-jumpgate discovered to be part of a
network of such gates. Beginning of the humanity begins to spread throughout the galaxy. “Those Who Jumped,” the first people travelling through the jumpgate, forsake the security of the Great Human Empire to journey into the unknown. These pioneers develop a nomadic tradition and find new pride in their ability to survive away from the trappings of civilization.
ca. 3400 — Settlers begin to refer to themselves
as a “tribe,” the follow the teachings of the renowned warrior Harabec Weathers, hero of the Cybrid Wars.
3450 — A powerful force of Imperial Knights, the
Blood Eagle, appear in tribe space to “subdue” the
Children of the Phoenix
The conflict fractures the Children as groups break away to form their own tribes. This event becomes known as the Splintering.
Cyberstorm
Children of the Phoenix
corporations battle for control
for the Great Human Empire.
Diaspora
, claiming to
, as
3455 — The
from renegades of the
Blood Eagle
3480 — Tribal culture is now a perpetual state of
war.
The Blood Eagle
decades, begin to consider themselves a “tribe.” Finding Hercs impossible to maintain, they adopt the flexible armors used by the many tribes.
3530 — Formation of the
under the tutelage of the Enlightened Master.
3641 — First Firetruce held by the
Phoenix
each century on a planet chosen by the collective tribes gather on these worlds in an event similar to the ancient Olympics on Terra.
Much is accomplished. A convention of up, and all tribes agree to abide by them.
3670 — Using innovative strategies and striking
with precision and economy, the rapidly carve out a large holding for themselves.
3741
battling some “scourge” abound, as Imperial advances
. They declare this event will take place twice
Starwolf
.
Third Firetruce
tribe forms, supposedly
Children of the Phoenix
, far from their home bases for
: Whispers of the Empire
Diamond Sword
Children of the
Diamond Sword
tribe
Children
tenets
and
. The
is drawn
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Tr i b e s T i m e l i n e Tr i b e s T i m e l i n e
into tribal space falter and fade. It is a time of much prosperity among the tribes, and a lengthy period of peace ensues. Many smaller tribes fall back in line with the
Children of the Phoenix
3831 — Hector
Komarosu, Great Eagle of the
Blood Eagle
assassinated. The cul­prit is never caught or identified, but the
Eagle’s
nemesis, the are blamed.
3841 — The ultimate
purpose of the
Firetruces
has been to try to reunite the tribes, but the harsh reality is that little progress is ever made toward unity, and splinter groups from larger tribes often take the opportunity to be recognized as independent tribes.
This year is no different, as the
age-old
, is
Blood
Starwolf
historically
.
,
Blood Eagle
leadership,
still undecided, is unable to hold the allegiances of the
Wolfsbane, Excelsior, and Shadow Stalker
skirmishes break out between warriors.
of 106. His son, Renn Gistos yl-Harabec, is elevated to Phoenix Prime.
3904 — Alexandre Konovalev, grandson of Illya Ajax,
The Diamond Sword
Blood Eagle
champion humiliates the
chief of the
Killers
peace at this “time of reconciliation.”
3844 — Illya Ajax
Konovalev is named Great Eagle of the The rejoins the but the
Shadow Stalker
choose to remain inde­pendent.
3903 — Phoenix
Prime Alexi Stefanos yl-Harabec, leader of the
Children of the Phoenix
dies in his bed at the age
groups. Many
and
Starwolf
Gorgon
. There is little
Blood Eagle
Wolfsbane
Excelsior
tribe
Blood Eagle
and
tribes
assumes the mantle of Great Eagle. In an effort to rec­oncile age-old differences with the Freya Cloudchaser, daughter of a chieftain, as his wife.
3905 — Birth of
Ulysses Konovalev to Alexandre and Freya.
3922 — The
tribe settles on Theta
.
,
,
Draconis IV after lengthy battle with
Sword
the planet.
3924 — The union
between Alexandre and Freya decays to the point where she leaves him to rejoin her pack. Ulysses Konovalev takes command of his father’s Marathon Pennant to recapture her.
3925 — Most of the Marathon Pennant dies in
battle with the Konovalev is not found among the survivors. An incon-
over possession of
Starslayer
Diamond
Starwolf
Hepta Ourubis Pack. Ulysses
Starwolf
Starwolf
, he takes
solable Illya Ajax Konovalev vows to destroy the
Starwolf
3925 — The
on Hepta Ourubis II.
entire Ourubis Pack, nearly 80,000 strong, is wiped out. The resort to using ecocidal weapons, outlawed for
once and for all.
Blood Eagle
Starwolf
Starwolf
are outraged that any tribe would
Wolfslayer Pennant,
including the elite Eviscerator and Deathbringer talons, begins an offensive against the Starwolf holdings in the Hepta Ourubis system.
3929
tribe vanishes from Theta Draconis IV. No trace of the 100,000 tribesmen remains, and no clue sheds light on their disappearance.
3932
forces prevail in the Hepta Ourubis system following use of ecocidal weapons losses are high, as the
Starslayer
Blood Eagle
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