The next few days were long and filled with hard work. The entire crew and people from the settlement joined in on building the frames. Even people who did not work on the frames were sorting the other supplies and preparing the settlement for the oncoming battle. They all knew that it was going to be soon. So, they all worked as fast and as hard as they could to prepare.

  Tal directed the assembly of the frames. His eyes had quickly grown bags under them over the course of the last few days. After directing the overall assembly, he had to go in and work on the finer details with his drone. His days were especially long because he had to spend time after everyone else was done working. It had been a long time since he had worked long hours, and coffee was the only thing keeping him going.

  The work was all being done in the garage. The garage had been quite spacious and could fit the frames along with the ships. Despite the spaciousness and height of the garage, the frames easily reached the top. The skeleton of the frames had been built. The skeletons of the frames were made of a dark silver metal and could be compared to a human’s skeleton. Each joint of the metallic skeleton was connected by thick bundles of red and blue wires. The bundles of wires almost gave off the appearance of muscles.

  Everyone gathered next to the frames, Tal standing at the center of the group with a tablet in hand. He let out a wide and exaggerated yawn before he took a sip of his coffee. As he waited for the effects of the coffee to hit, Tal rubbed his eyes.

  “Alright, today we will be placing the armor on the frames,” Tal said. “This will be the easiest part. You just need to place the armor at the right spot and attach it. Everyone has their tools, right?”

  Everyone patted at their tool belts in response to Tal’s question. Each person was outfitted with a variety of tools so they could properly attach pieces. They also each wore boots with jets installed. The crew regularly had jets already installed, but most of the people of the settlement needed special boots to do so. The boots came as part of the supplies that were brought over from Nubleas.

  “Perfect, I expect multiple of you to hold the piece in place and multiple of you to bolt them in. I will come in with my drone to finish the attachment,” Tal explained as his metallic orb-like drone flew next to his head. “Now, everyone, get to your assignments. I’ve categorized each piece and given out your assignments on the paperwork on that workbench.”

  The workers all swarmed to a steel workbench that stood against the garage’s wall. As they rushed to the workbench, Franz and Elio stood behind. The stampede of people walked around the pair. Franz wondered why they were so eager to work. Maybe they thought if they finished their work quicker, they could go home quicker?

  “Pretty impressive,” Franz said as he patted Tal on the back. “I’m not used to seeing you manage others.”

  “Agreed, you are better than I expected,” Elio chuckled.

  “I don’t know whether to take that as a compliment or not,” Tal rolled his eyes before he looked down at his tablet screen. “Apell told me to let you know that he wants your help with other preparations. We should be done with the frames soon. So, you should go meet with him.”

  “You got this covered then?” Franz asked.

  “Yep, we are almost finished, so no worries,” Tal nodded before he gestured his hand to the exit. “Get going. I don’t want Apell telling me that I kept you too long.”

  “Fine, we are going,” Franz replied as he walked towards the exit. “You don’t have to be so damn pushy.”

  Franz and Elio exited the garage to be greeted with a transformed settlement. The inviting coziness of the town had been replaced with weapons and armored structures. Towers were scattered across the town with large automatic blasters affixed to the top. Other towers had blue glass-looking domes attached to the top. These domes could create an energy shield around various parts of the town. For even more protection, there were several temporary metal walls brought up around the town for cover. Finally, throughout the town were several stations filled with various guns and grenades. Each gun sat on its own rack and was organized by the same type of gun. Grenades were shaped like tiny orbs and sat inside crates next to the racks. The stations throughout the camp allowed someone to arm themselves at any time.

  Several people were scattered throughout the settlement at each arming station. Inventory was done three times a day. Nothing ever really went missing, but it was a general safety procedure that was started.

  Apell joined in on the inspections and was at a station checking over equipment. Franz and Elio quickly joined him. They stood and waited for him to finish his inspection. Both of them knew that there was nothing worse than losing track during inventory.

  After inspecting the guns, Apell took his time to carefully check and count every grenade. As he inspected, he made notes on his tablet. Once he was finished, he turned off his tablet and placed it inside his jacket.

  “Good, you two are here,” Apell said as he turned to look at Elio and Franz. He stood tall with a straight, militaristic posture. “I have specific assignments for both of you. I do have a question for you, Franz. Where is Lutz?”

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  “He should be out on his morning hunt,” Franz replied. “Why do you ask?”

  “My assignment for you involves both of you. So, we will wait for him to return,” Apell said before turning to Elio. “I want you to run some military drills with everyone. You have the experience. Now that we have the equipment, I want to make sure everyone is used to using it.”

  “That’s fine with me,” Elio said with a grin. “I already have some ideas.”

  “Good to hear,” Apell said. “I have sent a group to the outskirts of the settlement. I’m going to have people rotate for the rest of the day. Make sure you are mindful of time.”

  “You got it,” Elio gave a thumbs up. “I’ll run them through the basics.”

  “That works. I plan to have you run exercises until the battle. So, make sure to escalate the difficulty as you find appropriate,” Apell said before he directed his hand to the outskirts of town. “Now go get to work.”

  Elio nodded and turned in the direction Apell pointed to. He gave Franz and Apell a quick wave before he started to sprint to the outskirts of town. Franz watched for a moment as Elio took long and fast steps. Before he knew it, Elio was already far gone.

  “Well, I don’t want to waste time. Can Lutz easily find you through your bond?” Apell asked.

  “Uh, yeah, we can kinda sense where each other are,” Franz replied.

  “Good, let’s get moving then,” Apell said as he started to walk. “Holoss has something he wants to discuss with you.”

  “Holoss? Why?” Franz asked with a raised eyebrow. He then quickly followed after Apell, taking two steps for Apell’s one step.

  “Beats me,” Apell shrugged. “He just said that he needed to talk to you and Lutz.”

  The settlement was busy with people working. Everyone had a job, and everyone worked hard at it. An outsider would definitely be able to tell that the settlement was preparing for something big. This came in stark contrast to when Franz and Apell arrived at Holoss’s house. Holoss casually sat in a wooden rocking chair and smoked a thin pipe. The thin pipe was as thin as a stick and looked like it could break at any moment in Holoss’s large hands. Holoss’s features were obscured by the heavy white smoke. Franz had long ago given up smoking, but the sweet smell of a pipe made him want to take it back up.

  “Thanks for bringing him here,” Holoss said to Apell. “I appreciate you breaking your busy schedule. You can leave us now.”

  “No problem,” Apell said dryly before he turned to walk away.

  Holoss waited for a moment as he watched Apell walk away. Once Apell was no longer in hearing distance, Holoss began to speak. “Eventually, I hope that young man is going to learn to stop being so uptight.”

  “Sometimes you need serious people to keep everyone else coordinated,” Franz shrugged. “I don’t think it’s that bad of a trait.”

  “You might be right, but he needs to learn to relax every now and then,” Holoss said before he took another drag from his pipe. He then let the smoke out in a large cloud. “Is Lutz out on a hunt?”

  “Yep, he should be finished soon,” Franz nodded. “Sometimes they take a little longer because he wants to play around.”

  Holoss let out a hearty chuckle. “I guess even if he has grown much larger, he is still a child.”

  “I am definitely impressed by his growth, but I do agree. He still very much is a child at his core,” Franz said.

  “That’s okay. It is good for people to enjoy their youth, whether they are humanoids or dragons,” Holoss said before he sucked on his pipe once more. “I have a spare pipe in my house. Do you want one while we wait?”

  “I would love one, but I can’t,” Franz laughed with a wave of his hand. “I quit a while back.”

  “Can’t blame you there,” Holoss said with a smile. “I never could bring myself to. Over the years, I became more and more attached to it. In its own weird way, my pipe became like my friend.”

  “Honestly, that does not sound all that weird to me,” Franz said. “Quitting was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I still find myself missing it every now and then.”

  Holoss sighed as he took another drag of his pipe. Franz was certainly tempted, but he swore it off long ago. It became hard to justify when the crew took long trips. Franz tried to focus on something else, and that was when he noticed a book sitting on Holoss’s lap. The book had a dark brown leather cover, and Franz could even see that the pages within were yellowed and worn.

  “What’s that book? It looks pretty old,” Franz asked. “I don’t think I have ever seen a book that old.”

  Holoss lightly placed a hand on the cover of the book and smiled gently. “This old thing is what I wanted to talk to the two of you about. I wanted to wait until Lutz was here before I said anything, though.”

  “That dusty old thing is that important?” Franz asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “Of course, you know that most digital information has been deleted by the Imperium on dragons. Well, a book cannot be easily deleted like that,” Holoss explained. “This has information that the Imperium could never hope to get rid of.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” Franz said. “What’s in that book then?”

  “Patience,” Holoss raised a single finger in front of Franz’s face. “You two need to hear about this together.”

  “Fine,” Franz sighed in frustration. “We’ll just wait here then.”

  Franz and Holoss waited for Lutz to arrive. Holoss continued to smoke his pipe until it was finished, while Franz stood and tapped his foot impatiently. Waiting was one of the things that truly irritated Franz. After almost an hour, Franz could feel Lutz’s presence getting closer. His silhouette could soon be seen in the sky, and a gust of wind was sent out as he landed next to Franz.

  “Good, now I can tell you both the truth about this moon,” Holoss smiled as he opened the book sitting on his lap.