Birth of the Lichbane

[Thresco]

Some time had passed since his accident at the Drulfashe facility, and due to the bargain Thresco had struck with Sil Bog, no one was any the wiser. Not a single member of the board or the work crew was aware of the fact that he had been injured in a fight against a large Fefze beetle warrior. Aside from the men he was working with now that he had temporarily been blocked from working the Gang shifts, no one was even remotely aware of his weakened arm. Uri, Ollesus, Zogee, Rogr, Branzim and Thuungo had their issues with his moaning whenever he had to carry something heavy around, though he could not tell them the truth if he was to keep up his part of the deal with the Neimoidian. Not willing to risk losing his additional privileges at Drulfashe, he kept his mouth shut and just did his work. As the weeks went by, his shoulder eventually healed right back up, allowing him to keep working under the tutelage of the metal-smiths and metallurgists. Finding the field particularly interesting as an engineer, he could see great potential in further understanding how to work various metal alloys.

Patching up damage to his ship, making new innovations to his belongings, the amount of things an engineer could do with such knowledge was almost unlimited, and likely to make him quite a wealthy man. With the partial destruction of his former armor, he had come to see that an old armor made from scraps and pieces would not do for someone with his line of work. Whether it was smuggling or the hunting of creatures or people, a potent suit of armor was simply a requirement. That said, he had no idea where to start when it came to creating a Mandalorian beskar'gam. Thresco knew how to fold beskar, knowing that folded beskar was about the most impenetrable metal in the galaxy, he knew how thick the plates would need to be to endure sustained blaster fire or direct contact with a lightsaber, though he was also quite aware of how heavy wearing a full suit of folded beskar would be. For someone who took pride in his own agility and un-augmented combat prowess, being weighed down in battle was a potential death sentence, even if it was going to be a very slow one.

 

[Thresco]

When going through the materials he had access to at that point, he knew for a fact that there was plenty of carbon, a full shipment of durasteel, several kilograms of Mandalorian iron and a small amount of ultrachrome. Even though they were meant to be used for the creation of starships by Drulfashe employees, his deal with Sil Bog made him an exception to the real, at least until the point where he was no longer liable for any damage done to his employee. There was no doubt in Thresco's mind that the Neimoidian would retract the offer the moment Thresco was healed back up and had his damaged armor redone, so he had to make the most out of the time he had. Spending entire days with the Mandalorian work crew, he got to study their work while receiving pointers of his own, letting Torgost record various forging processes that he would be able to watch back once he got back to the ship at the end of a long day. He wasn't complaining though. This way, he got to learn a lot about metal-smithing and metallurgy alike, all the while creating a personal connection to the other Mandalorian workers.

Learning that many of them had a background related to the battlefield, it was mostly Thuungo that had seen a lot of battle and had built up a reputation as a feared and widely renowned bounty hunter. Going by an alias during the time he spent actively hunting and assassinating people, he had been feared as the dreaded Nightshade, a Mandalorian known for his up-close and personal approach and brutal kills. Telling the story now because he was old and no longer cared if he was to be killed or not due to a progressed state of lung cancer. Even though he had spent his life staring death in the face, it was only now that he had been stricken with an illness that he no longer cared about giving away his identity. As it turned out, the workforce and Sil Bog were the only people that knew of Thuungo's background, and that it was one of the main reasons as to why he had been taken on in the first place. It was never just because of his metallurgist and metalworking skills, those things just came as a secondary bonus that they had only learned of after hiring him as captain of the guard.

 

[Thresco]

Once the group had grown closer to him in the next couple of months, the amount of self-study Thresco had been able to do on board the Jiriad Kadiilir with all of Torgost's recordings of the Mandalorians working various kinds of alloys had reached the point where he was quite confident that he could pull off quite some metalworking feats. At this point, he knew a thing or two about the combination of various alloys and the effects it would have on the final product, the ingots and plates that would later be used to either carve out of or cut to size. He knew that folded beskar became just about the densest metal in the known galaxy, even though the result was somewhat heavier than ordinary beskar. Just like that, he had also heard about mesh woven beskar, which could be used as an interior weave, being remotely similar to cloth, even if it was less comfortable, but a lot more durable. Than there was micronized beskar, a treatment used during the creation of gear such as crushgaunts, adding a tremendous amount of hand-arm strength to the wearer, a thing most Mandalorian warriors were more than familiar with. The final act of beskar treatment was the carbonized form, creating a slightly less durable form of mandalorian iron, though making it a whole lot less heavy.

With so many different forms of alloy treatments available and having enough of the metals laying around to afford messing up a couple of times, he figured that the best way to go about it was by doing it the way the rest of the universe learned how to do things, through trial and error. In the three months he had spent at Drulfashe, he had forged several plates of folded beskar to be used for the outer hull of some ships that were currently in their prototype phase, as well as carbonized beskar for fighter type ships and even the mesh weave for special suits used in the vacuum of space. The micronized version of beskar had been something he had never had the privilege of working on, though the previously stated had become about as special as the forging of durasteel. Trial and error had been how he had learned, as well as constant supervision and tutelage of Thuungo, who had taken a particular interest in the young Mandalorian. As much as he had tried to hide it, Thuungo knew that Thresco had not gotten injured while lifting stuff.

 

[Thresco]

He also knew that Thresco was a smuggler, something Sil Bog had told him as he was still the captain of the guard aside from also being the main Mandalorian metalsmith. Taking him aside one day, he let Thresco know that he had spoken to the Gand, who believed that something might have happened to the young Mandalorian while he was hunting Fefze with them. Having done a bit of private investigating, he had learned that it was he who had taken down the Fefze warrior, believing that it had been the same creature that had injured him. Knowing Thresco well enough to not pursue it and talk to Sil personally, he did share with him that he knew about what had happened, which in itself meant a lot to the younger of the two Mandalorians. Telling him that he would share everything he had learned in his long-lived life as a bounty hunter now that he would no longer need to keep them for himself, Thresco let the old man in on his little scam regarding Sil Bog, Drulfashe and his accident. Causing Thuungo to laugh and commend him for his sharp with and his approach that had been cunning enough to trick a Neimoidian out of his money, he decided to also let him in on some other related secrets.

Following Thuungo to his personal quarters, the old man pulled up his old gear, as well as the armor he had used back when he was actively killing people for no reason other than money. Claiming that his full name was Thuungo Vizsla, he explained that he had started out living as a member of the Death Watch organization, a group Thresco knew only by name and reputation. After breaking away from his clan, he had started using what he had learned to make a living for himself as a bounty hunter that was used against his former clan surprisingly often. Showing him his armor, he told Thresco that he would be allowed to strip down the plating to see how it functioned on the inside. A Mandalorian allowing his own armor to be stripped down was not something that happened, not ever, that was why this peculiar situation was so very special. Even though Thresco had no clan of his own anymore and had never really gotten the chance to come to the age where he would get to officially hunt with them, he had been raised with true Mandalorian values and pride.

 

[Thresco]

Before they started stripping the armor down to reveal the inner workings of it all, they went to the Jiriad Kadiilir, allowing Thresco to show Thuungo some of the sketches he had made in regards to his new and improved armor. Looking it over, he half-expected the man to be somewhat proud of what he had written up, though that too was but half of the situation. While interested, the old metalsmith let Thresco know that this particular suit would be far too heavy for him to wear and still be able to move properly. The sheer weight and manner of metal the initial sketch used was primarily folded beskar, a synthetic mesh inner clothing and rather messy wiring. Claiming that his weight would restrict his movement, the synthetic mesh would rip apart due to the heavy plating and the wiring would become exposed as a result, thus creating a heavily unstable and entirely useless suit of armor that would get him killed before it would get the chance to protect him. Taking his sketching equipment from the table, Thuungo took the integrated pencil and started drawing on the virtual pad. Activating Torgost, Thresco watched as the old man started cutting out portions of his sketch, replacing them with smaller sections made from lighter materials.

Replacing every piece of armor at his joints with carbonized beskar, Torgost created a simulation hologram, showing the level of mobility this would give to the armor. It was at times like these that he was happy to have connections allowing him to use an advanced AI with expensive hologram simulation tools, courtesy of Drulfashe. While his mobility went up, they still had to figure out a way to keep the armor from coming apart, which gave Thresco an idea. Replacing the synthetic mesh bodysuit completely and replacing it with mesh woven beskar, the armored plating could be soldered onto the bodysuit at key locations, thus creating an immensely powerful link that would not be broken easily. That was when Torgost started making some innovations of his own, altering the internal wiring in a way similar to what Thresco had seen on Thuungo's Nightshade armor. Having completely forgotten that his helmet was still recording when they entered Thuungo's quarters, it seemed that Torgost had not missed the opportunity. As it added the internal wiring, it cut out some portions of it, only to add it back in a manner that only a computer could think of in terms of efficiency.

 

[Thresco]

At a steady rate, Thuungo, Torgost and Thresco spent the better part of the night coming up with additions that would improve the overall functioning of the suit. Constantly trying to step up the other, it eventually became a contest between Torgost and Thuungo that the young Mandalorian was no longer really a part of. Becoming a clash of mechanical efficiency versus years of experience in the field, an armor entirely different from the one Thresco had originally come up with had started taking shape. Being smaller in frame, sturdier in the spots that mattered the most and being more maneuverable than he could have imagined, he saw the implementation of a jetpack, jet boots, flight stabilizers and even crushgaunts, among other things. Finding it hard to believe that they old man and the machine were capable of such inhuman efficiency when they put their minds together, Thresco could only watch closely for a moment where his input was required, hoping that him paying attention would allow him to pick up on a thing or two. Three months spent working with metalsmiths and metallurgists, and still he was outclassed this hard by an artificial intelligence and an old veteran.

When the two had finally finished with the exterior and the interior of the armor, they started working on the Heads-up display, something so intricate even Thuungo took a backseat. Watching as Torgost connected all of the armor's systems through the same program, a display was created that could interact directly with Torgost itself, just like his current helmet could. While Torgost was working, Thresco saw his chance to rise from his seat and do some last minute work to the appearance of the armor. Believing that his reputation would be important if he was to go back to being a smuggler and a bounty hunter after working for Drulfashe, he needed something that would inspire fear in his targets and his employers alike, causing them to never forget about him. As he thought about it, he realized that to truly become feared in the field, he would need to become a symbol that represented the most primal form of fear, the fear of imminent death. When thinking of death as a concept, every race, every religion or cult had a bringer of death, a Grim reaper of sorts. And just like that, he decided that the color theme would be white and black while the helmet and visor would be shaped like a skull, covered by a mesh woven beskar hood.

 

[Thresco]

Waking up the very next day in the comfort of his own bed, Thresco woke up to see that Torgost was still running every drive of the ship for the sole purpose of writing programs that would be integrated into a new and improved HUD for the armor. Getting dressed and heading in for work, the Mandalorian work force did what they always did during the day, forge plates made out of various alloys so the Durosians could manufacture them into the ships they were creating. This time however, decent sized portions of around one meter in size were kept aside to be used during their break. As soon as their break started, Thresco and Thuungo finished their food quickly before heading back in, surprising the remainder of the crew that usually sat around telling tall tales for a while longer. Starting to work the metal plates and cutting them down to size, they soon learned that such work would take more time than they had anticipated. If they were to keep things up the way they were, they would lose their break time for a few days to come, which was not exactly something either of the two men looked forward to. While Thresco had nowhere else to be, Thuungo did not have any reason to keep working on the suit aside from his own sense of responsibility for his workers, of which Thresco was one.

That was when out of the blue, Uri, Ollesus, Zogee, Rogr and Branzim joined the two Mandalorians in the crafting hall. Taking a look at the schematics, they got a glimmer in their eyes. As they too were Mandalorians that had never proven themselves in battle, nor had the background to ever really become a warrior, working on a true Beskar'gam was likely to be the closest thing to combat they would ever get. Eager to prove themselves to Thuungo, as the man was their superior for a reason, he started re-distributing the work to the other metalsmiths, thus pushing the whole thing along quite a bit. Taking one of the beskar mesh suit cores that were meant to be fashioned into space suits for making repairs in the vacuum of space, it became the base for the rest of the armor, which was connected to it through means of true Mandalorian craftsmanship. Using the mechanized precision and efficiency of the workforce droids, Torgost uploaded the schematics and layout of the internal wiring into the system, after which the droids started rapidly integrating the wiring while soldering them all in place.

 

[Thresco]

While the droids were working on installing all of the wiring and connecting it to the beskar mesh suit with maximal efficiency and precision, the Mandalorian metalsmiths continued doing what they did best. Creating portion after portion, the greaves and the gauntlets were among the first to be finished, requiring the most attention due to one existing out of micronized beskar and the other functioning as jet boots. Trading some of the extra beskar with a group of Durosians that believed they could sell it on the black market for a few top-notch flight stabilizers, the droids installed them and connected them with the internal wiring before installing the first of the armored plating over the finalized portions of the armor. With the feet and hands done, the next plates that got installed were the ones directly covering the newly installed stabilizers under the elbow, leg and arm guards. It was very important that these areas were well covered and protected from any exposure to potential damage as they had direct impact on how well his armor would be able to take off and fly in case Thresco ever encountered a threat he would not be able to overcome. If his stabilizers took damage, he would be unable to fly properly, which in turn might result in his death, and that was unacceptable.

In the first day of actual work aside from the work done at the drawing table, the foundation for the armor had been put into place, as well as a few sections of beskar plating. As the armor forging continued, Thresco focused his attention on the front side of the helmet, the portion that would be attached to the helmet itself and the visor. Bring his A-game, he modeled the folded beskar plate with special tools after it had been bent into shape, carving out eye sockets and modeling the blank slate into the appearance of a skull. Complete with teeth and a hole for a nose, he did his best to recreate the image he had drawn back in the Jiriad Kadiilir. Though it could not be painted yet, the mask itself was as good as done, and so he handed it over to the droids in charge with connecting the HUD hardware into the helmet itself along with the rebreather and the tactical visor that had to be installed directly into the now open eye sockets. With the mask portion of the helmet finished, all Thresco could do now was go back to working on the raw material and create more beskar to work with.

 

[Thresco]

Weaving beskar threading into what would soon become another section of mesh for his helmet, the hood he was working on was there purely for aesthetic purposes, adding to the whole Grim Reaper theme. Since he could not weave the thin beskar threads by himself, he had to create various strands of roughly two meters in length, just to create a single hood. Luckily, the machines in the droid section of the building were capable of weaving the strings together into a one by one meter sized woven cloth. Since they only got to work on their personal project whenever they were on break, and Sil Bog became a bit more cautious about the Mandalorians working together and even taking the inactive droids with a program that overruled the settings made by Drulfashe. Doing his best to get involved and figure out what was being made, the creation process got slowed down quite a bit. Having to transport the completed portion of the suit into the cargo hold of the Jiriad Kadiilir, properly connecting the armored plating to the armor and connecting such vital systems as the life support and the rebreather became a lot more tricky. Feeling like they would do more harm than good by soldering the plates on without artificial guidance, they continued making the plates in tightly fitting sizes and leaving them in the Jiriad Kadiilir too.

Since creating the remaining plating and trading with the Durosians for starfighter parts they needed for the suit, they only had work left for three days. At the end, all of the plating had been created, as well as the woven cowl. Now, all that had to be done was to get the plates attached to the armor without Sil Bog or the other leaders of Drulfashe knowing about it, which was going to be a lot harder than they thought. When they learned that a few of the Mandalorians had even been approached and offered money to tell the Neimoidian what they were working on and why they were all spending their free time on it, they knew that they had to tone it down to where they only worked on it once a week or maybe even once a month. On the plus side, Torgost had finished writing the programs required for a fully functional HUD that would make the one in the Nightshade armor, as well as the one in Thresco's former suit look like a piece of crap that had been left to dry in the sun for a few days.

 

[Thresco]

After the completion of the HUD programming, the project fell silent. With the armored plating finished, the internal wiring all put into place along the inner mesh suit and literally everything else just needing to be put into their proper position, it was there that the problems were. With the armor being on hold until they could figure out something that would get Sil Bog away from the complex for a few hours up to a day, the Mandalorians went back to the thing they got paid for. As they prepared plates and ingots of beskar and durasteel for the Durosians and the assembly droids, Thresco kept watching the upper walkway leading out of the office section, as it was where Sil would stand, watching over them like a greedy little hawk. Due to the agreement between Sil and Thresco, there was really nothing the Neimoidian could do, though there was something that could potential undo all of the work they had done. When he came to work for Drulfashe, he had signed a document that allowed Drulfashe to take possession of any blueprints and prototypes made under their roof as their response to also allowing people to create their own machinations, weapons, starship designs and even droids.

The way Thresco saw it, it was a way of promoting personal growth and their innovations, only to grasp them in a tight, corporate grip once they were done and proved functional and profitable. Thresco would not allow the blueprints to the armor to fall into Sil's hands as it would completely defeat the purpose of creating an advanced suit for personal use. If everyone could potentially purchase his armor, he would no longer have the upper hand, thus making it a pointless and fruitless endeavor. As much as he hated to admit it, he had to wait, even if it took a few more weeks or even months, the armor had to be created without Sil's knowledge of it. That was why he continued spending time in the Jiriad Kadiilir, doing what he had been doing before the armor had been created, drawing up rough blueprints for potential attachments to the armor, anything that felt like it might be of use. By the time he was done, he ran his designs by Thuungo in the confines of the personal quarters. Now that the entire Mandalorian work force had been pulled into Thresco's antics, there were more minds to go over the designs that could add their own unique perspective to the process.

 

[Thresco]

Starting to work on a pair of new guns that would function well in the hands of the armor dubbed Vsin'ah due to the skeletal appearance of the helmet with Thuungo and Uri, who had some knowledge on guns after working for BlasTech before getting fired for taking some of the guns home in order to test some new innovations, Branzim and Zogr started working on something altogether different, yet still useful. They had plans for a shield that could be attached to the arm-guards of the Vsin'ah suit, making it easier for Thresco to protect himself from enemy blaster fire. Working on it in their own quarters, Thresco only saw Thuungo and Uri during his fourth month at the company. Listening to Uri as he gave a small demonstration in regards to the military grade blasters and riffles made for the imperial army a long time ago, he also brought up an era directly before it known as the Clone Wars. Telling them about pistols and riffles that used tibanna gas based Ion bolts, which was unheard of in current society and was a practice used only with starship weaponry, Thuungo left the room. Unsure what it was about, Thresco kept listening to Uri as he kept explaining what he knew about blasters and slug throwers, elaborating on it as he moved along.

By the time Uri had explained to Thresco the workings of tibanna gas and Ion bolts, Thuungo came back into the room with something hidden under his shirt. As he shut the door behind him, he revealed a pair of guns that seemed to have been from a very distant past, but had been kept in great condition. Explaining that they were pistols of the DC series that had been made for the republic clone army, most had been torn down for parts or had been destroyed in bulk when the republic army became the imperial army. With what he knew now about Tibanna, he started running ideas by the two Mandalorians, mostly by the former weapons manufacturer. Being more of a slug thrower person, Thresco liked the good old fashioned hard projectiles over laser weapons, though the talk of Ion bolts made him rather interested in the subject as well. Knowing way less about the Clone wars era than he should, he just tried to take in as much about the conversation between Uri and Thuungo as he could. Among others, he learned that the two guns owned by Thuungo had been taken by Mandalorians of the Death Watch organization after a large battle on the planet Kashyyk.

 

[Thresco]

Taking the guns apart, they took a look at the plasma cells and the tibanna gas cells, letting Torgost scan the inner workings of the gun will cross-referencing with other weapons on the Holonet. Taking into account the workings of tibanna gas, Uri said that he would keep Thresco's liking for slug weapons in mind, though they did not really have the means to work on such things at this time. All they had were the two DC-15s side arm blasters and Thresco's own blaster pistols. Taking both apart around the time Ollesus got himself involved, they all took a look at the parts and discussed the whole thing once more. Again, Thresco let people know about his affinity for slug throwers, even though he knew that they did not have the means to create one of their own at this point in time. That was when Ollesus shared his bit of input, telling them about a prototype he had been working on, special bullets with a beskar casing that had a special combustive mixture in it that allowed it to penetrate body armor with relative ease. Also stating the problems he had ran into during the initial testing of the prototype bullets, he claimed that the first thing he had ran into was the fact that the bullets would not propel forward properly, which was a problem caused by the volatile inner mixture.

The second problem he had ran into was one of the guns firing the slugs bursting apart in his hands, which could have cost him a finger or two if he had not been wearing protective gear. After the first couple of guns burst apart, a stronger casing had been used to contain the blasting power of the bullets, only to bring about yet another problem. The massive amount of recoil had broken both of his wrists when he tried to fire with the stronger gun casing, making the bullets currently useless. Seeing a chance in using this new armor and combining the bullets with the weapon that was currently in the process of being developed, Ollesus left the room for a moment, returning to bring the armored casing of the gun that currently missed inner functions. Considering it a compromise, Ollesus and Uri discussed the separate ingredients making up the volatile combustive mixture inside of the bullets, asking Torgost to run them through the net in order to figure out more about them. While Thresco and Thuungo worked on putting together the inside of the guns by connecting the inner workings of their old guns and creating a more powerful whole, Torgost came up with a more potent mixture that would not only straighten the travel path of the bullet, but would also allow it to maintain all of its raw force.

 

[Thresco]

Noticing that there was a slider inside of the gun's handle, Thresco asked what the purpose of having a hollow handle was, to which Ollesus answered that it was where the special slugs would be able to slide in. Looking at the finished gun, the men were starting to get slightly upset as they were not able to work in a system for the firing of slugs and one for the Ion rounds. Luckily for them, Torgost's earlier discoveries in regards to the mixture inside of the bullets allowed it to share some insights with the group. Pulling up a hologram of the current gun, he took the tibanna gas cell and put it into the back of the weapon. That way, the gun would be able to fire Ion bolts normally, yet could act as a firing mechanism for the slugs. As shown on the hologram, the magazine sliding into the handle would bar the Ion bolt process, making it so that when the trigger got pulled, the tibanna gas would be injected into the bullets, activating the mixture and causing the bullets to self-propel them forward. Considering it a good idea to create such a hybrid weapon as it would be among the first of its kind, Ollesus left the room to continue working on his bullets.

With him gone, Thresco and Thuungo crafted two guns exactly similar to Torgost's design. With some inner workings still in need of fine-tuning, Thresco left Thuungo to deal with it since he was better at it while taking a walk around the complex. Moving along the walkway, he was approached by Grax Zulgu, one of the Mandalorian members of the Drulfashe board of directors. At first, Thresco believed that he was going to make an attempt at figuring out what he was working on too, though this did not seem to be the case. As it turned out, Sil Bog had taken a leave of absence in order to visit a new mine he had purchased in the outer rim. Claiming that he would be gone for at least a week, he made it sufficiently clear that he was not interested in anything Thresco had or was working on, and that he only wanted for his fellow Mandalorians to be able to do their work without having to constantly look over their shoulders for someone who might take away the prototypes they had poured their blood, sweat and tears into for a small profit. As soon as he had, he returned to his office, letting Thresco get back to the personal quarters of the Mandalorians and share the good news.

 

[Thresco]

Kicking into high overdrive, the Mandalorians took the core and the armored plates to the assembly droids after making sure that Sil Bog was indeed gone. Still finding it odd that one of the men that could make a profit on the armor would work in their favor as opposed to the favor of his bank account, Thresco decided not to dwell on it. Grafting the taozin nodules in between the spots where the internal wiring did not reach, they too got covered by the final wires that were in need of connecting the final equipment pieces. Watching as the flight stabilizers and the life support systems were put into place, the armored plating was placed directly over it and soldered into position. In a matter of minutes, the final pieces required to complete the Vsin'ah got put together like it was nothing, though such was the efficiency of droids. By the time the helmet was finished up too, there was only one thing that still had to be done. Leaving the pair of guns in the care of the assembly droids to finish them up properly, Thresco and Thuungo took the armor back to the Jiriad Kadiilir. Once there, the first thing he did was put it on and plug it into the AI.

Uploading the programming written by Torgost, all of the armor systems started booting up, all linked through the HUD created by his AI. Linked to Torgost through comms, Thresco would now always have his AI with him when on a job, meaning he would no longer need to rely on sticking close to the Jiriad Kadiilir. Taking a moment to get used to all of the new functions Torgost had come up with, he saw that the arms even had sensors that could tell when the guns currently being assembled were in his grasp. Accurately tracking the amount of bullets left and the amount of time it would take for them to recharge, it was no longer a guessing game for the young Mandalorian, something he was quite happy with. When Uri returned an hour after Thresco had put on the suit, he brought him the two guns that had been completed by the droids. Finding that they were nothing more than Ion weapons at this point, Uri told him that Ollesus was still working on fine tuning the bullets and the sliding mechanism on the magazines. As such, it would be some time before he would get to use the full brunt of his equipment, though that did not matter much. His new armor was completed and his guns were finished, and for a Bounty Hunter, those were the most important.