This is a list of Battle School students who attended Battle School in Orson Scott Card's fictional Ender's Game series.
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This list refers to the students who were handpicked by Battle School teachers to be led under Ender Wiggin during the Third Invasion in Ender's Game. The Third Invasion was a battle where the children were commanders of a number of International Fleet starships. The word jeesh is first used in the novel Shadow of the Hegemon and is derived from the Arabic word for "army."
Alai (pronounced ah-lie) is a Muslim of North African descent. In Battle School, he was an exceptional student, adroit in the battle room, and was one of the first children to befriend Ender, with the word "salaam" and a kiss on the cheek. They became best of friends. He also helped lead the special training sessions Ender conducted, and later becomes one of the most trusted members of Ender's jeesh during the Third Invasion due to his innate talent. After his return to Earth, he is eventually elected Caliph of a unified Muslim world.
Bean is a student of Greek and Igbo descent from the streets of Rotterdam. Though the smallest and youngest member of the jeesh, he is also the smartest and most fair-minded person. Ender initially notes that he is isolating Bean as Ender himself was once isolated, in order to force Bean to flourish. Though nothing more than a supporting character in Ender's Game, Bean becomes the lead character of his own set of books, revealing his role as the behind-the-scenes facilitator of most of the main events of that time period (the victory against the Formics, the uniting of Earth under Peter Wiggin, so on); being "behind the scenes" is a central theme in these works, as Bean realizes at the end of Ender's Shadow that he will always be the sub-commander to save the supreme commander from his own errors and never receive recognition for the brilliant strategies that his superiors will.
Dink Meeker is a Battle School student of Dutch descent. He is portrayed as one of those who refuses to play the teacher's game. He says that he was offered command of an army twice, but refused to play. He was paranoid of the game, convinced that the teachers were the enemy and that the Bugger War was fake so that all children with ability for command were in the hands of the International Fleet; however, he loved the game, so he stayed as a toon leader. He also tells Ender that the Battle Room is made for the armies to hate each other and to be prepared for a civil war between the Americans and the Russian Second Warsaw Pact. Dink asked for Ender Wiggin to be transferred into Rose de Nose's army under his command as a toon leader after he had watched Ender. He sees Ender's new strategies, such as blocking vital parts of the body with his legs, and recruits him, teaching his own toon Ender's tactics. Dink refrains from protecting Ender, instead inciting independence in him. Later, he is sent to Command School along with the rest of Ender's jeesh. His ability for command is commented by Petra Arkanian, who jokingly states that he has the "mind of a child".
After the war, Dink is sent back to Earth. However, he is quickly captured, along with the rest of Ender's jeesh, by Achilles. He consoles Petra and talks with her often, but they are separated when Dink and the others are rescued but Achilles keeps Petra with him. When Graff gives the jeesh the opportunity to leave Earth and govern a colony to save the world from the inevitable warfare that will come if they remain, Dink is among the first to accept.
Carn Carby is an Australian veteran who commands Rabbit Army. In the original short story version of Ender's Game, Ender held a low opinion of him: in the novella, when Bean was transferred into Rabbit Army, Ender says, "How can they put you under an idiot like Carby!", but in the expanded novel Ender's reply is, "Carby's a good man; I hope he recognizes you for what you're worth." Carby's Rabbit Army were the first to battle Ender's Dragon Army and were beaten badly. When Carby told the other commanders of Ender's new tactics, they didn't believe him, so Carby told Ender "to beat the snot out of them" in battle, as a personal favor. His honest and sympathetic behavior made Ender "mentally [add] him to his private list of people who also qualified as human beings." He is transferred to Command School and serves under Ender during the Third Invasion, one of the few Jeesh members who was never in an army with Ender during Battle School.
Crazy Tom is a British student. He is a veteran soldier who leads the "C" toon in Dragon Army. He got his nickname due to his temperament, as he couldn't stand to work under commanders that he considered to be stupid. He wrecked rooms and once sent a message to every kid in the school about how bad his commander was. (And apparently a few students received the message before the teachers were able to intercept it.) As a result, he was constantly on the transfer lists (soldiers that commanders were willing to trade). He was also the most transferred soldier in Battle School history who hadn't been sent home. However, once he was under Ender, he cooled down and performed well. He later forms a sort of friendship with Bean, even helping him capture Achilles along with several other soldiers from Bean's army. Bean expects him to be the next to "blow out" after the others during the simulation against the Formics but instead he seems to become "saner" as the stress piles on. He later became a commander in the Formic War where they lead a "Third Invasion" and attack the Buggers to ensure the survival of humanity. By the time of Shadow of the Giant, he has become a lecturer on strategy at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
Dumper is the leader of "E" toon in Dragon's Army. He is described by Bean as being among the most worshipful of Ender. Along with the other toon leaders, he is part of Ender's "jeesh," the group that works under Ender in fighting the Formics.
After returning to Earth, he drops his Battle School nickname and is referred to in Shadow of the Giant by his real name, Champi T'it'u. He becomes a leader of his people, the Quechua natives of Latin America, in their search for independence. After being contacted by Peter Wiggin, T'it'u becomes one of the early supporters of the Free People of Earth, and the Quechua are one of the first two stateless peoples to be given a homeland, a nation called Runa, by the FPE. Some of their territory was voluntarily donated by FPE members Bolivia and Ecuador, the rest liberated by force from Peru. Rather than using Champi T'it'u's troops or the Brazilian military, the FPE sends Rwandan soldiers under the command of "The Giant" Julian Delphiki to emphasize that to war with one member of the FPE is to war with all of it.
Fly Molo is a veteran soldier who leads A Toon in Dragon Army. He is portrayed initially as being contemptuous of Ender's five-toon formation, but later accepts it as wise, after arguing the concept with Bean. He was acting blatantly insubordinate and saying that it was a real "loser strategy," and when Bean stood up for Ender, who was at the time a very young commander, he got mad and almost hurt Bean, but finally he had to accept that Bean was smarter than him and that it was a good strategy. He becomes the third person (after Petra and Vlad) to "blow out" and no longer can command a whole fleet of ships in the "simulated conflict". Instead, he has control of smaller groups of ships, not fleets, in the "game", after going hysterical and laughing after his fleet was destroyed. He comes back the next day, but Ender does not rely on him as heavily. In Shadow of the Hegemon, Dink says that Fly Molo has an extremely retentive memory; in one exercise where the teacher asked for a quote, Fly Molo recited the quote and pages after it. In Shadow of the Giant, it is revealed that he is from the Philippines.
Han Tzu (nicknamed Hot Soup) was a veteran soldier from China who commanded D Toon in Ender's Dragon Army. Eventually, he was shipped to Command School to become a member of Ender's jeesh, and was one of the commanders that served under him during the end of the Formic War. After the war Han Tzu returned to China before being kidnapped by Achilles. He later returned and became involved in military planning; however, the Chinese military's unwillingness to accept hard truths (such as the fact that The Middle Kingdom was not actually the center of the universe, and should act accordingly) led them to despise him for his practicality. In Shadow of the Giant, he leads a single-handed military coup and becomes Emperor of China, before eventually departing on an interstellar colony ship.
Petra Arkanian is an Armenian student who is the only female in the jeesh. During the Earth's invasion of the Bugger worlds, Ender relies on her heavily, often giving her complicated and critical assignments; she is the first student to burn out, falling asleep during a battle. She is a major character later on in the Shadow Series. She and Bean travel around the world, to stay alive, and eventually get married. Together they have children (nine embryos; one implanted in Petra and the other eight were stolen by Achilles. All but one are recovered by the end of Shadow of the Giant) and facilitate the downfall of Achilles.
Shen is a Japanese student who is part of Ender's group of launchies. He is introduced as the kid who has a big butt that wriggles when he walks and is constantly mocked by Bernard and his gang. Ender steps in and sends a number of messages under pseudonyms (such as "Cover your butt. Bernard is watching. - God") to break Bernard's control over the room. He becomes Ender's first friend in Battle School. He later guides Bean and tells him why the students love Ender.
Born in Belarus under the New Warsaw Pact, Vlad is known as being a solid student who was always passed up in favor of more ambitious students in the various Battle School armies. Vlad is one of the 40 students chosen to serve in Dragon Army under the command of Ender, where he is made one of the five toon leaders of the army (in charge of "B" toon). Vlad is one of the dozen or so students that were chosen to be in Ender's jeesh, helping command the warships of the International Fleet against the Formics in the Third Invasion.
After the Formic War, Vlad is returned to Earth, where he is later recruited into the Russian military. He appears later in the series as an assistant to Achilles de Flandres. Achilles uses Vlad during his stay in Russia but drops him as soon as he is exposed by Bean. Vlad does not agree with Achilles's ideas at first, but after he manipulates Vlad by using Vlad's love for Russia, he is ready to do anything for Achilles.
Eventually, Vlad grows tired of being the pawn of the Russian government. He is ordered to draw up strategies for a purely-hypothetical invasion of China, only to discover that the Russians plan to enact them when the Indians invade. Using the escape hatch offered to him by Hegemon Peter Wiggin and the International Fleet, Vlad escapes from Russia to warn the Free People of Earth of the planned Russian invasion of China, as well as the battle plans against Armenia and China from Muslim and Indian governments. Following the defection, Vlad, along with many of his fellow Jeeshmates, leaves Earth on one of the many Colony Ships going to recolonize the former Formic worlds, preventing themselves from being used by their countries' international politics and causing ever-increasing wars.
William Bee is a minor character who is primarily notable due to his involvement in one of the more unusual battles in the "Battle Room". In the Battle School's first numerically handicapped battle, Ender Wiggin, commander of Dragon Army, was required to face both Bee's Griffin Army, as well as Talo Momoe's Tiger Army. With a two-to one disadvantage and an unfairly stacked battle room, Wiggin's odds to win are nearly impossible. In an inventive maneuver, Wiggin sends all of his soldiers into the battle room in extremely vulnerable positions (incurring heavy losses), but manages to win by carrying out the "victory ritual" without disabling all of the enemy soldiers. This was the only time anyone had used such a strategy, and it was banned thereafter. When Ender gets upset at Anderson, the Game Administrator, William Bee notes that "Ender, if you're on one side of the battle, it won't be equal no matter what the conditions are."
Bernard is part of Ender's launch group and treats the precocious Ender with great contempt (partly due to the fact that Ender had broken Bernard's arm on the shuttle to the Battle School). Bernard is also seen as a ringleader and the main antagonist in the first few chapters of the book, and he takes great delight in picking on Ender and Shen, a young boy who is also in the launchy group. However, his stranglehold on the clique falls apart when Ender and Alai become friends in the battle room, and after Ender manages to hack into the computer system and posts a message saying "Cover your butts, Bernard is watching," signed "God." Later Ender also writes another note, seemingly by Bernard, saying "I love your butt, let me kiss it. - Bernard." Bernard is one of the six students who accompanies Bonzo Madrid when he fights Ender in the bathroom.
Nikolai Delphiki is a major character of the book Ender's Shadow and a side character in Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card. He is based on the Greek boy Nick Zoeckler.
Nikolai is one of twenty-four fertilized eggs produced by Greek natives Elena Delphiki and Julian Delphiki, Sr. A defect in one of Elena's fallopian tube and an ectopic pregnancy in the other made it impossible for her to conceive. In their hopes for a child, Elena had several eggs taken out, and Julian's sperm was harvested to produce numerous fertilized eggs. The healthiest were cloned, and then the twenty-four healthiest of those were chosen. One was implanted, producing Nikolai.
However, a man named Dr. Volescu, the illegitimate son of Julian's father, stole the twenty-three remaining fertilized eggs for use in his experiments involving the modification of a human genome. Volescu later chose to exterminate the babies instead of being discovered, and twenty-two were killed. However, one child escaped, hiding in a toilet tank. The child then was discovered by a janitor, and was later named Bean.
Nikolai was later chosen for Battle School, where he met his (although not known at the time) biological twin brother Bean.
A native of Belgium, Achilles (pronounced, as in the French manner, ah-SHEEL) grows up in the dangerous streets of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, crippled, but not helpless. Achilles is established as an enemy of one of the main characters, Julian "Bean" Delphiki, another street urchin of Rotterdam. Both Achilles and Bean are considered for Battle School, the training ground for Earth's interstellar military; Bean is accepted, but Achilles is deemed too unstable and violent. Achilles is later sent to Battle School simply as a test for Bean - Colonel Graff wants to see how Bean will deal with the resurfacing of his old nemesis from Rotterdam. Bean tricks Achilles into a trap in an air shaft, forcing him to confess all of his murders onto a recorded tape, which Bean shows to the school's administrators. This results in Achilles' expulsion and placement in a mental institution.
He soon escapes, and is the main focus of the books Shadow of the Hegemon and Shadow Puppets, in which he nearly takes over the world in a series of brilliant political maneuvers. He nearly succeeds, and is only countered by Peter Wiggin's desperate attempts to unite the world peacefully. Finally, to secure his escape, he kidnaps Bean's and Petra's unimplanted embryos and attempts to trade them for freedom. Instead, Bean kills him, though Bean also provides for his funeral and gravestone.
Bonzo Madrid (pronounced "bone-so", as stated by Petra Arkanian when Ender incorrectly pronounces the name as "bahn-zoe") is an antagonistic supporting character, serving to bring out Ender's brutal nature while at Battle School.
Bonzo, whose real name is Bonito de Madrid, is described as a strikingly beautiful boy of aristocratic Spanish lineage from the town of Cartagena. As commander of Salamander Army, the autocratic Bonzo suddenly has Ender Wiggin thrust upon him when Ender is promoted from his launch group. Bonzo was forced to give up a veteran soldier (a toon leader) to make room for Ender, is further furious because Ender has virtually no experience in the Battle Room. Bonzo takes out these frustrations on Ender and as a supposed punishment, he forces Ender to do desk work when his army is practicing. He also prevents Ender from participating in battles until after 4 minutes have elapsed, and, even then, Ender is forbidden from firing his gun. This causes Ender's individual soldier ranking to be high, and Bonzo hopes that this will help him trade Ender to some other army.
Desperate to gain experience, Ender begins to practice with many "launchies," younger students at the Battle School who have not yet been assigned to an army. After Bonzo orders Ender to stop these practices, Ender antagonizes Bonzo by privately threatening to have Bonzo "iced" (kicked out of Battle School) if Bonzo does not rescind the order. Ender inadvertently makes the situation worse by explaining to Bonzo how Bonzo should rescind the order. Later, Ender disobeys Bonzo's standing order to not fire his weapon during battle, turning a defeat for Salamander army into a draw. Rather than being grateful that, by firing his gun, Ender helped the team, Bonzo hits him for disobeying orders to not fire his gun and transfers him to Rat Army. This backfires on Bonzo, however, and he loses the discipline he had with his army because they understood that Ender's "disobedience" had been beneficial.
While still at Battle School, Bonzo has a couple of encounters with Bean. The first of which involved Bean playing along with Bonzo's pride and honor to learn about Ender Wiggin, and showed a possibly more friendly side of Bonzo. When asked about the continuous comparisons between Bean and Ender, Bonzo warmly replies that it only means he is younger yet expected to perform at their level; a pathetic joke to him. In his later encounter, where he and his friends attempt to intimidate him. Bean replies with insults, causing Bonzo to act out in anger. He pins Bean against the wall by his neck. Bean's reach is too short to defend himself and Bonzo strangles him almost to the point of fainting. Bean then believes he has fed Bonzo's anger and made things worse for Ender. He realizes how crazy Bonzo is and attempts to tell the teachers, who do not deal with the problem, allowing it to escalate.
Following a battle where Ender, now a commander, defeats Salamander Army, Bonzo is finally provoked beyond sanity. Ender, enraged at the Battle School teachers, accidentally humiliates Bonzo during the end of battle ceremony. Bonzo and a group of his cronies corner Ender completely naked in one of the Battle School showers. Ender manages to use Bonzo's honor against him and shame Bonzo into engaging him in one-on-one combat. Taking advantage of the slipperiness of his still-soapy skin, Ender evades Bonzo and quickly wins the battle, accidentally killing the boy. Bonzo is sent home to his family in a bodybag, ironically on the same shuttle that transports Ender back to Earth on short leave. Ender does not know what happened to Bonzo, but he dreams about the fight when he is being trained in Command School. He vocalizes his fear that he thinks he killed Bonzo, and his realization is confirmed during Hyrum Graff's court martial, where vids taken of the fight are used in an attempt to prove that Ender was abused by the Battle School staff.
The Bonzo incident is pivotal in Ender's development, as it forces him to realize that he must fend for himself at all times, as the teachers refuse to offer him help — an attitude fostered by Graff. Believing isolation was the environment under which Ender would become the military genius needed for the Third Invasion, Graff attempts to put a psychological barrier between him and the other Battle School students at every opportunity. Despite this goal, he never intends to endanger the life of any student of the Battle School. By forcing Ender to take on Bonzo alone, without any adult intervention, Graff makes a mistake that stays with him through the rest of his career, one he continues to think of when making future decisions, and validating his own work.
Bonzo is also the main character of a short story, released in the second issue of "Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show", called Pretty Boy. This short story, taking place before Ender's Game, explores Bonzo's childhood, detailing some of his family life and some events that contribute to his sense of honor and eventual downfall.
Talo Momoe is the commander of one of the numerous armies at Battle School. He is paired up with William Bee's army in a battle against Ender's undefeated Dragon Army. Momoe favors a very direct approach, and argues with Bee that, because they outnumber Ender, they should do a frontal assault. Bee's disagreement leads to a prolonged war of words. After Ender comes out with a formation, Momoe orders his army to rebound and assault the army directly.
Rose de Nose, although his first name is Rosen, is the commander of Rat Army when Ender is transferred there. Rose de Nose is also the only Jewish commander at the time in Battle School, which he uses as a crutch of sorts, as military legend has it that Jewish commanders never lose. Rose de Nose treats Ender with considerably more decency than does Bonzo Madrid, the commander of Ender's first army, Salamander Army. He is also much more lax about rules; the Rat Army barracks are messy when compared to the discipline and order of Salamander. Rose attempts to impose rules on Ender, but Dink Meeker tells Ender not to listen. As a result, Rose sends Ender out on what is, in essence, a suicide run at the beginning of Ender's first battle with Rat Army so that he will get immediately frozen. Instead, due to his unique "legs first" strategy, he is able to disable or freeze many of the enemies' soldiers to give Rat Army a sizable advantage. Rose gives up picking on Ender, and leaves him to do things his own way. By the time Ender and his group of companions rise to prominence, Rose de Nose has already graduated from Battle School.
Pol Slattery is a recurring commander that Ender twice faces at Battle School. In their first known battle, Ender was still a soldier in Bonzo's Salamander Army and Slattery was the new commander of the lowly Leopard Army. What everyone expected to be an easy battle turned into an upset by Slattery. Ender, who had been given orders by Bonzo to stay in the corridor until four minutes after everyone had gone through and then stay in the corner of the battle room, begins to observe Slattery's strategies and is impressed. Despite being young, Slattery is sharp and has new ideas; he always keeping his army moving against the stolid Salamanders who are unable to adapt to the situation. Eventually Leopard annihilates the entire Salamander Army, not including Ender. When Slattery is about to send his remaining men to open the gates, Ender ambushes them and takes out enough men to end the game in a draw. Despite helping Salamander Army achieve a tie, Bonzo is furious at Ender for disobeying his orders and would later cause more troubles for Ender.
Years later, Ender faces Pol Slattery again in the battleroom. This time Ender leads his Dragon Army against Pol Slattery's Badger Army. Despite winning most of their previous battles with ease, the battle is a grueling affair that takes a lot out of Dragon Army. This is because Slattery's Badger Army has been given the unfair advantage of having their soldiers thaw out after 5 minutes when their soldiers are only damaged or disabled. Only by completely freezing them do they stay out of action the whole time. However this gradual thawing does not work for Dragon Army and thus becomes another wrinkle by the teachers to see how Ender handles a disadvantageous situation. Thanks to Crazy Tom's quick realization, Dragon Army eventually figures out whats happening and wins the battle. Afterwards, Pol Slattery graciously shakes hands with Ender and tells him, "I'm glad you won. If I ever beat you, Ender, I want to do it fair". When Ender replies that he should always use any advantage given to him, Slattery grins and replies, "Oh I did. I'm only fair-minded before and after battles." Nothing more is written about Slattery as he was not part of Ender's jeesh.
Suriyawong is a graduate of Battle School who served in Dragon Army. Following the Formic wars, Suriyawong has been given a place of prominence in the Thai military. Although initially threatened by Bean's presence, Suriyawong and Bean quickly become friends as they train and lead their elite company of Thai soldiers. The two of them lead their company on several daring raids. He participates in the successful operation to rescue Petra Arkanian from the grasp of the expansionist Chinese.
In Shadow Puppets, Suriyawong is ordered by the Hegemon Peter Wiggin to rescue Achilles, the psychopath whose actions resulted in the occupation of his homeland. Suriyawong disobeys his orders slightly: instead of rescuing Achilles directly, he instead slides him a knife, telling him to solve his own problems. Fearing for the life of Virlomi, whom he has come to love, he warns her to flee from the compound before Achilles arrives. After successfully bringing Achilles within the Hegemony compound, Suriyawong serves Achilles faithfully, to such an extent that all other characters in the story begin to question his allegiance. However, it is revealed that he has served Achilles only to be in a position to betray him and cement his downfall, which happens during the fateful confrontation between Achilles and Bean. Achilles, weaponless against Bean's gun, orders Suriyawong to shoot Bean, but Suriyawong once again slides Achilles a knife, telling him to solve his own problems.
He is absent during most of Shadow of the Giant. He leads the troops trained by Bean in defense of Nubia, after which he is mostly involved in the Thai resistance to foreign control, and is the commander of the force that defeats Virlomi's Indian army, and successfully returns Virlomi to her senses.
Virlomi is an Indian girl whose prominent role is in Shadow of the Giant.
Virlomi's home country, India, through alliances with Caliph Alai's Muslim armies, works to repel the Chinese invasion. However, upon successful repelling of the invading forces, India was subsequently occupied by their Muslim allies. When Battle School disbanded, Virlomi becomes the spiritual and physical reawakening of India by assuming the role of a goddess. Standing on a bridge, she blesses Hindu India as Mother India. She denounces the Islamic faith as one that is not "true," since practitioners cannot stop being Muslim without being killed by radical Muslims. At the same time, she rejoices in the trueness of Hinduism for allowing that choice. On international television, she declares that true Islam requires freedom and peace. She draws the mark of Shiva the Destroyer upon her forehead and calls upon the subjugated continent of India to rise up against the Muslim occupation.
Han Tzu proposes to Virlomi, in an attempt to secure an alliance against Alai's Crescent League. Virlomi rejects him, as she has decided that only one man is fit for her hand in marriage - Peter Wiggin, the Hegemon of the FPE. However, Peter knows that a marriage with Virlomi would ruin his chances of bringing the world into the FPE, and rejects her. She then tempts Alai to marry her, and uses him to effectively take control of the Muslim League. She allies India and the Muslim league with Russia, and invades China. Suriyawong's Thai army thwarts the attempt, and Virlomi agrees to surrender. At the end of the novel, she goes to the Indian colony world of Ganges, the first planet that humans colonize that was not originally colonized by the Formics.
At some point after this, Virlomi becomes head of a colony called Andhra. She then becomes caught in the struggle between Randall Firth and Ender (as depicted in Ender in Exile).
Zechariah Morgan is an American boy, mentioned only in the novella, A War of Gifts. Zeck is a member of Rat army, but due to his orthodox Christian upbringing, is a pacifist and refuses to fire in the Battleroom. Throughout the novella, he comes into conflict with Dink and Ender, ruining Dink's latest rebellion, but at the end, he is accepted as a person and treated as such. His future after Battle School's closing is unknown.
Pinual is a minor character mentioned briefly when Ender encounters the Giant's Drink puzzle in the Fantasy Game, a puzzle meant to determine how suicidal a person is. Major Anderson mentions that Ender seems like Pinual because he keeps returning to the Giant's Drink, to which Hyrum Graff replies that "Everybody looks like Pinual at one time or another. But he's the only one who killed himself." When Ender returns to Earth after Bonzo Madrid's death, Major Imbu mentions that Pinual is the only student in the history of the Battle School to have committed suicide.
Wu is the only girl in Dragon Army. She is given the nickname "Woo-hoo" during her time in battle school. Because of her name, she is most likely of Asian origin. She is one of the few soldiers that Bean managed to nab for the Dragon Army roster. Wu is a brilliant soldier both academically and physically, but always refuses to become a Toon Leader. When a commander asks her to, she puts in a transfer request and refuses to fight until it is granted.
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