I awoke with a grown and sat up in bed, my mechanical joints whirring in the quiet of the early morning. I looked over to see Autumn still sleeping peacefully and smiled before getting up, putting my clothes and armour on, and walking to the balcony of our room. Since we’d returned to the Jörmungandr we now had a smaller set of quarters, located towards the front of the ship, rather than the rear of the ship the captain’s quarters was located in, which Blazewing now slept in. Oh, that wasn’t to say our new quarters weren’t large, far from it, they were large enough for myself, Autumn, Ruby Garnet and Thel (not ‘the Arbiter’ Thel) to share comfortably, it had the sort of proportions of a British bungalow, rather than the American two-story house that was the captains quarters. I heard the door to the balcony next to the one I was stood on open and Thel walked out.

“Morning” I said, she just grumbled in response “What’s up?”

“The sky” she said, a hint of a smirk making its way onto her face.

“Oh, hardy-friggin’-harr” I said.

“Seriously though” she said “I haven’t been feeling too good recently, the whole time the ship was under attack I was in the bathroom vom…”

“Okay” I said, cutting her off “I think I get the picture, but I hope you haven’t caught something bad”

“Probably just some alien illness that’ll pass in a few weeks” she said.

“Still” I said “it would be better if you got it checked out”

“Will do” she said, at that point I decided to head outside, I walking back into the bedroom and left a note for Autumn before teleporting outside.

On the ground was a T.U.A. MK.1 Dragon drop ship; in essence a U.N.S.C. Pelican drop ship that had been redesigned to suit the needs of the Terran union army. The aircraft was longer, with a cargo area that could hold up to 40 individuals plus equipment, rather than the 15-20 individuals of a normal Pelican. This particular drop ship was one of three that had been supplied to be used exclusively by the Neue-Toa, one for each team. Each one was painted in the colours of the leader of that particular team, in this case red, silver and gold, to signify its assignment to my team, Vapaa’s was gold and white, and Orca’s was blue and silver. The standard Dragons were painted gold, blue and white, just like all other standard T.U.A. vehicles. Our intention wasn’t to blend in, it was to stand out, we were gonna make sure the Covenant knew we were after them. Dragons weren’t the only T.U.A. aircraft out there, there was also the Manticore, which was in essence a flying tank, literally. They basically got a Wyvern; the gunship version of the Dragon with missile launchers and machine guns mounted on the wings, and bolted the arcane equivalent of the turret from a U.N.S.C. Scorpion onto the top, it had a much shorter gun barrel so that it wasn’t too unstable in flight, it still looked ungainly as fuck though. But hell, if it looks stupid, but it works, then it aint stupid. One of these Manticores was parked off to one side ready to act as a heavy escort for when we flew to the Temple that the Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior usually stayed at.

I waked over to the pilot, a Germane unicorn-mare called Glück Bolzen. She had dark blue fur, a scruffy, off white mane and a spanner and bolt for a cutie mark. She was leant against the hull of the Dragon smoking a cigar, and looking like she would much rather be asleep right now.

“She all set to go?” I asked, nodding towards the Dragon

“Jawohl” she said, tiredly, giving a half-hearted salute with a hoof. That’s the thing with Germane-Equestrians, they are really care-free and half-arsed about everything, the exact opposite of stereotypical Germans. One of your friends dies in war? ‘Das Kriegsglück* my friend’. Glück Bolzen took a drag on her cigar before levitating it away “She’s all set to go, just vaiting for you and your friends” her gaze lingered on the Furious Five and Po, who were still asleep, as she said this, before looking at me.

“Vhere do you find such odd people?” she asked.

“Luck” I said.

*a few hours later*

Luna stepped inside the Dragon and the hatch closed behind her, all of the Neu-Toa were currently inside, along with the Furious Five and Po, who were looking out of the windows nervously.

“Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Glück Bolzen, I’ll be your pilot for however long ve're on this planet” Glück Bolzen said through the inter-com, flipping a switch and causing AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ to begin playing “regulations designate this as a non-smoking Dragon drop ship, for those of you enrolled in our freedom flyers program; you’ll be earning 100 free credits, and as alvays the nearest sick-bags are located underneath your seats, and to the civilians on this flight, don’t touch anything” as she said this Monkey quickly drew his hand away from a red button. A few seconds later I heard the engines dull whine change to a roar and I felt the whole aircraft shift as it took off.

“Hey, Vuur Koning” Natrix called over the intercom, sounding smug “we’ve got some bad news” I sighed.

“Loco is a word, Natrix” I said “I don’t want to hear about it!”

“It is not a word” Natrix said “it’s an abbreviation of a word”

“Loco is a word in common usage” I said “that is they key phrase in scrabble, my good friend, common usage”

“No! It is not in the dictionary” he said “it doesn’t count”

“It doesn’t have to be in the dictionary!” I said.

“It does have to be in the dictionary!” he said “when we get back, it’s going off the board”

“You touch my ‘loco’ and I’ll deck you, Natrix” I said “you hear me?”

“Yeah” he said, chuckling “promises” Tigress looked confused.

“What are you two arguing about?” she asked.

“Scrabble” Autumn explained “it’s a word game, all of us play it, friendships have been broken, and wars have started because of it” Tigress’s eyes widened.

“It’s not that bad” I said.

“It is with this group” Scar said. Autumn looked out of the window at the forest we were flying over.

“Nice forest” she said “wouldn’t mind going for a walk through it”

“Yeah” Mantis said “it’s nice this time of year, and crawling with wolves” I chuckled as the two aircraft flew towards the temple.

Next Chapter: Chapter 15 Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 49 Minutes