Zackery Taylor looked out at the curvature of the Earth as the spaceship he was on sat in low orbit. The hanger bay of the carrier was filled with ancient warriors. From Samurais to Spartans, and even an Aztec Shorn one.

He sat down on a bench and rested his bare feet on a golden disc with sixteen points jutting in every direction, a device that he couldn't praise enough for it's wondrousness. For the past month Zack had been in numerous simulators and logging almost a hundred hours in preparation for this moment, yet now that it had come he didn't feel like he could go through with it just from the sheer insanity of it.

The golden starshaped device called the Celestial Disc connected to the nerves in his feet. Getting feeling from something that had never been a part of his body was creepy and unnatural. But given that Zack had barely scratched the surface of some of the forms of Eidolan Symbiosis, he knew that he was going to have to get acquainted to the feeling.

Zack stood and tested the controls. First he hovered in the air. Then ascended and descended. Rotating caused him to wobble a bit but he got it under control. Finally he tipped the Celestial Disc to the side so that it was completely vertical and his body was horizontal. He kept going with the motion until he was upside down. Blood gathered in his head, causing it to redden slightly, but it was nothing compared to standing on his head for ten minutes straight with the monks. After completing the test and finding nothing wrong with the disc he reorianted himself and sat back on the bench.

The other jumpers began to exit the hanger bay. Their Celestial Discs created a stable environmental bubble for them to survive the vacuum of space. Immediately dropping straight down after getting clear of the carrier. After a minute's delay, Zack could see orange and gold streaks trailing across the Earth's atmosphere.

Zack was the last one to jump, the other low-tierman humans in training already having gone ahead. He guessed that being an elite ancient warrior came with nerves of steel. The former E-sport athlete knew now that he didn't as he slightly quivered while hovering by the edge of the hanger bay door.

Akma said "Time to jump Zack. You've done this before in the simulations and there are plenty of safety measures in place to save you if you mess up."

"There's still a chance that all of them fail and I end up burning up in reentry."

"When Ozone surfing, the Celestial Disc does 97 percent of the work. Now jump before I dropkick you out of the hanger bay."

Zack's brow scrunched "You can do that?"

"Yes. But the willpower expended will come out of your favor."

With lips held terse, Zack leaned forward and pushed off with his legs. Passing through the two foot thick barrier that kept the air inside the hanger bay. Immediately he began testing the Celestial Disc for malfunctions. Starting with things like rotations, then turning the throttle up and bringing his speed up to one percent the speed of light. Bright gold wispy emissions trailing behind him as small pieces of space debris bounced harmlessly off the low strength barrier that was installed into the device.

Then he stopped as he looked straight down at the Earth from sixty kilometers above sea level. The sun reflected off of the blue sea. White pillowy clouds rolled across the mountain ranges. Brown deserts encroached on the lush green forests. A view that only astronauts and absurdly rich people could experience. Videos of it didn't do it justice.

Akma floated by him while doing the breast stroke, he pointed down and Zack nodded.

Zack slowly dropped. Falling until he made contact with the top of the Earth's atmosphere. He lurched forward as the Celestial Disc got caught up with the rotation of the ozone layer. Then he sent a signal through his feet to increase the throttle and he accelerated to the maximum speed for ozone surfing. Zack sent another signal to the disc, causing it to release a downward pulse. Dark gold lightning momentarily shone on the surface of the atmosphere and his momentum suddenly pressed him down as he rose vertically.

Below, millions of people looked up into sky to see what they thought to be an orange meteor shower.

 After five minutes of surfing, a singsong voice appeared out of nowhere "Rubber duckie, you're the one. You make bath time lots of fun."

Akma passed him on a rubber duck inner tube as he sang. Spinning around and around while tubing across the atmosphere.

Zack stared blankly at the sight and forgot what he was doing. His balance was lost for just a fraction of a second and he face planted. For a brief second his skin jumped off of him but then a white light covered his vision.

He stood back in the hanger bay of the ship. A few moments of disorientation passed before he remembered that the carrier had a short range teleporter and the disc he was still standing on had a tracking device to enable it.

Zack said "Akma, you like screwing around far too much."

The little blue goblin just grinned widely and let out some laughter "Hehehe, you had to experiance the teleporter for yourself. The system is the purpose of this carrier after all."

With his mind going back into strategist mode, Zack said "The recall teleportor seems incredibly useful. It's the perfect tool for a quick escape."

"It doesn't work for anything moving above a certain speed. Computers and their controllers have their limitations when it comes to tracking. In fact, the recall teleporter only works for people using Celestial Discs. Stronger signal you see."

Zack raised his eyebrows "Interesting....wait, speed is everything in warfare. I was told that the vast majority of Mid-tierman go way faster than what these discs can get up to. So who would these recall teleporters be meant for? Low-tierman?" then waved his hand in a gesture towards the other Ozone surfers.

Akma smiled "Do you like math equations? What do you get when you add Lightswords and Celestial Discs?"

"Space infantry." Zack couldn't help but smile "And with the adaptive nature of those lightswords, you could have a hundred people turning them into shields and stack them on top of each other. Just like the Roman legion's tortoise formation." He let out a chuckle and jumped again.

Bayei floated in the darkness. Unable to see, hear, feel, taste or smell anything.

'Did I die? Is this what it's going to be like for me...forever? What was that gray thing?'

She had thought about death before. The best she could understand it as the complete cessation of consciousness.

To perceive nothing. 'So why can I still think?' She contemplated it for several minutes without anything else to do.

Then a light shown in the distance and she stared at it intently. It came towards and she started to see something of a world. Endless miles of blue sea stretched all the way to the horizon, and the waves lapped up against the white sand of the shores at her feet.The sun hung high in the sky and a cool breeze blew across her face.

But then all of a sudden she felt herself get pulled away at a great speed. The world that was forming disappeared and was quickly replaced. Opening her eyes, she found herself on a metal pedastall. A white light shining overhead but other than that she couldn't see anything. The entire room was kept in the dark.

An incredibly strange and chopped up voice said "I have given you another chance at life. Logic dictates that your life now belongs to me."

The lights came on. Revealing what looked to be several benches and computer terminals that looked more advanced than anything she had seen in the schematics she had managed to steal from the Dirske technicians. There were powered screw drivers plugged into the wall. A few of the other tools had blue diamond tips. The screens on the wall were made of a material that was much more clear than anything her people made.

Bayei said "Who are you? What do you want? No, screw that. What are you?"

Speaking to her was a red orb fixed to the wall, flashing brighter and dimmer with every word "I am Deity Xarkris. Confusion is normal for newly acquired minions."

"Minion?" Bayei blinked in thought 'That's what Akmadouric called the diplomatic envoy he sent.'

The red orb flashed again "Your purpose is now to use your creative processes in order to invent whatever you are able."

What was happening to her was far too surreal to her.

Xarkris said "Failure to produce enough inventions in a timely manner will result in your termination."

'Oh shit.' Bayei's eyes widened "I suppose that's fair. You did give me my life back."

The red orb dimmed slightly but no sound came out for several seconds, then it spoke again "The terminals will give you a list of problems that your inventions may be geared towards solving."

"But I can't read. The Dirske Lords barred me from getting educated."

The Deity was silent for five seconds "New function enabled. Every word you look at will be played audibly."

'This person...no this Deity is unlike anyone or anything I've ever met.' Bayei said "What do you have to gain from this?"

Ignoring her question, Xarkris said "There is also information on the terminals that will educate you. So you may get inspired and eventually build more advanced inventions." then the Deity spent the next hour explaining all of the facilities of her new home, but everything said sounded like it was being read from a script.

After he/she/it was done with the tour, the red orb went dim and Bayei's initiation seemed like it was over.

She sat down on the couch in order to collect her thoughts on everything that had happened. Then a short blare caught her attention. Bayei turned to look at the source of the noise.

A timer had appeared on the wall. Counting down from one week. It could only mean that she had that much time to present an invention to Deity Xarkris. If she failed to do so in the allotted time limit, it would be death.