//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: War Between Gods // by Verathuum //------------------------------// After breakfast, Jolterix called the Gluhwurmchen and requested a shuttle. He placed his disc on the table with Luna present so she could hear the conversation. The reply was not something he expected or one he wanted to hear. “Sorry, Yolter,” Dezler’s voice came since he finally made it onto the ship, “I can’t really allow anyone to come aboard here right now. It seems there’s been some odd activity over in Discordia.” “What does that mean?” Luna asked. “We don’t know what’s going on yet,” Dezler replied over the radio, “But what I can do for you all is bring Yolter up here, give him some weapons and vehicles, then send him back. Then he can fly you all to some place safe.” “Are you sure about that?” Jolterix asked, “I mean I really shouldn’t leave them alone like that.” “They’ve got their own castle guard, right?” Dezler told him, “Plus Tennerac’s there so it’s not like you’re leaving them completely alone. Just come on up here, I’ll see you get a fair amount of swords or something for everyone, and then send you on your way. It’ll be less than half an hour.” “But why just me?” Jolterix asked. “We really can’t have any Equestrians seeing our tech, you know. They’re supposed to achieve all of this on their own, and showing them too much might be helping them,” Dezler said. Jolterix looked at Luna, “What do you think?” he asked her. “Wouldn’t giving us weapons be considered ‘helping?’” Luna asked. “No, not these weapons,” Dezler said. “They’re a bit advanced for your culture, yes, but from what I’ve heard, you have seen them before.” “Well, if we’re getting weapons and transportation,” Luna pondered, “We can defend ourselves for half an hour without you; we do have magic.” “Right, I keep forgetting about that,” Jolterix admitted. “Very well. Dezler, just send a shuttle down for me whenever and I’ll be up there.” “Good to hear,” Dezler said, “I’ll send one down right now. Wiedersehen.” “Bis spӓter,” Jolterix replied and he turned off the radio. “Well, perhaps you should get some sleep?” “I’ll be fine,” Luna said, “I should stay awake for now, anyway.” “Alright,” he said, “care to walk with me to the front doors?” “Sure,” Luna replied as she stood up with Jolterix. He escorted her from the breakfast room, through the opulent halls and finally into the foyer. When they reached the grand doors, Luna removed her hand from Jolterix’s arm and stood straight as he did. “Keep an eye on your disc,” he told her as he opened the doors, “It’s a powerful tool.” “I will,” she said. Perhaps there really was something to that disc? “As soon as you leave I’ll go get it.” “Good,” he replied, “Oh look, they’re here.” He looked outside at the small Gauner in the yard, “You be safe.” “We will,” she said. Jolterix turned around and walked towards the Gauner and his helmet arose over his head. He climbed in the craft and the door closed. Luna turned around and walked back into the castle. She walked through the halls and climbed the stairs back to her room on the top of one of the towers. When she entered her room, she immediately closed and locked the door behind her. She walked to her bedside table and opened the drawer, where she immediately began digging through the ancient papers and books. She removed the false bottom where her diary and other keepsakes lied, along with her disc. She pulled it out and looked at it. It was dormant currently and looked like a harmless metal circle. Luna found a switch on it that she activated and the disc’s sides glowed briefly. A hologram appeared of all the information the disc had on Luna, which at present was not very much as she had only worn it once, for a few hours. Only her name, age, and other minor traits were present. She sighed and placed the metal disc on her back, not knowing why Jolterix would be so bent on her using this thing. All it did was make clothes and store near-useless information; although the combat skins they made were very strong, even if she already had her own armor. She commanded the disc to make her combat skin and to also raise her helmet over her head. The familiar sensation induced a flashback of her short time on Auflorsung, but it was short-lived and only of Jolterix’s house. Luna snapped from her tangent and looked at her self. The black combat skin molded to her figure as it had in Auflorsung, and her helmet arose over her head as she had expected; nothing out of the ordinary or significant. She dropped her helmet and dissolved her combat skin where she removed the disc from her back. The memory of Jolterix’s house spawned another memory specifically about the disc. She made the hologram reappear and swiped her hand through it, where the image followed and a new image replaced it. “They can do more than I thought,” she thought to herself. She sat down on her bed and patiently swiped through the disc’s menus looking specifically for anything that might be able to translate the words into Equestrian. Eventually, after a small amount of time and random swiping, she finally came across a list of languages. The only way she knew this was because “Florian” was written in Florian, “Equestrian” was written in Equestrian, and so on. She quickly touched “Equestrian,” and she swiped over a menu, happily seeing it was readable to her. She did some exploring through the disc the “correct” way and found a menu she didn’t expect: weapons. “Extensions of the combat skin and other potential weapons,” read the top line. She knew the Florians would reserve the most powerful weapons to independent objects, such as a projectile launcher; however it may be possible she could forge a sword with the disc. “That must be one of the things he was so concerned about,” Luna thought as she thought of all the uses this disc had. “It’s still not that great of a discovery,” she thought, “It’s not like I can’t get myself a sword at almost any time. Ah well.” She made a mental note of the weapons page and began swiping through the rest of the disc, searching for anything that might be of use that wasn’t already of access to her. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. “Coming,” she called as she hastily placed her disc underneath her pillow. She walked to the doors and opened them, seeing Jolterix just on the other side of the threshold. “I must’ve lost track of time,” she thought to herself just as she noticed the almost sad expression on Jolterix’s face.