I woke up laying on the floor, surrounded by my friends and Corwin's team. They were all facing out with their weapons drawn pointed at an encirclement of dwarves who were holding all sorts of weapons and I could hear Travis screaming and making threats. It was getting annoying quickly as I heard the dwarves scream back, they were all talking in a language I didn't know, I had no idea what they were all saying.

"Shut up!" I roared as I rolled over and pushed myself into a sitting position on my knees. That's when I noticed Trevor had been kneeling next to me.

"Kim, do you have the Federation Translation App?"

I glanced at him before quickly manoeuvring through the prompts on my HUD and purchased the translation app before downloading it.

"Shut up, yourself, you damn human! For the last time, you humans have no right to be down here, this is our planet! Get off it right now!"

"And I told you the Twiddles' clan owns this planet and have pissed off enough people to launch an invasion! Surrender now, and you will be allowed to continue living here!"

"You can't lie to us! We know this planet is part of the free independent Merchants!"

I noticed lightning crackling across Corwin's fingers as he stiffened like he was preparing to throw a bolt or something. I quickly stood up and shouted as loud as I could.

"Stand down, a Moot is here by called!" I felt like a fool, but I was hoping a dwarf movie I had seen ages ago wasn't full of shit and by calling a moot I would be able to discuss our options with these dwarf's leader.

"A moot? What the hell is that?" the dwarf responded, causing me to deflate and feel embarrassed.

"What? You don't know your own most sacred traditions?" Brendan shouted as he turned his head slightly to give me a wink.

"What! How dare you! Of course, I know my race's own sacred traditions!

"Then how do you not know of the great moot!"

"Because there is no such thing!"

"Of course there is, my friend, in fact it's so well known even our squad leader could tell you all about it!" Brendan declared as he turned to indicate me with his hand.

"Uh, oh! Right, yes, I could tell you…"

"Well, get on with it, human tell us already!"

"When a moot is called a truce is immediately formed, no one can attack anyone, to do so is to bring the greatest shame to the persons' leader. Only words may be used and only words of truth may be spoken, the leaders of each party must sit down at a table and come to an agreement that benefits both parties… uh, well the end part that I have not mentioned yet is a bit troublesome to us."

"What? Why? What is the end part?"

"Uh, it's, no matter how long it takes, even a century or two is fine."

"Haha. What's the matter, human, are you on a time crunch? Haha. Whatever, let's do this, it sounds good. Ugdrimb go fetch a table and chairs, we are attending a moot!"

All the dwarves suddenly started banging their weapons against the ground. A few even had to squat to bang the bottom of their smithing hammers on the ground. A few on my side shifted nervously as they watched, I flinched. I am not sure how long this lasted for until they started parting and allowing two dwarves carrying a large luxury table through and two more came running behind them caring expensive looking high back chairs. They were soon set up and the dwarf that had been speaking to us moved forward and sat in one of the chairs. I glanced at Zeo before I walked forwards and sat down in the other chair.

"Alright human, we are at the traditional Moot now what's your plan?"

"Oh, I'm going to tell you a story first, can't lie, can't embellish, and I have a captivated audience, the best time to have a whinge right?"

"Uh, only if you want to-"

"I do, thank you for understanding. So, picture this, you grow up in a very large family-"

"I am a dwarf, large families are common, And ha, was my turn to interrupt."

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I bowed my head slightly in acknowledgement of his win before I continued what I was saying.

"Young girl, big house, no one to stop you wandering around, you tend to see things and learn at a young age to not comment, and you become callus to the experience, I suppose."

"Sounds natural, what's your point?"

"Well you would get fed up with it after a while and decide you needed a vacation to like a university on another continent, although you might not know what a continent is, I didn't see much water on my way to your planet."

"Ha! So you admit the planet is mine!"

"I admit only to the fact you live on the planet and I do not."

"…fine, we Have kingdoms and Territory lines, is your continent like that?"

"Mmm I suppose, but the territory lines are separated by water, but that is not always the case and a continent Is called that because it is separated by water on all sides."

"Okay, I can picture that."

I could hear the dwarfs around us shuffling as they got a little closer and continued to listen, they had not lowered their weapons though and kept my people in their watchful eyes.

"So, off to a university for some higher educatio-"

"What's a university? And why do you need higher education?"

"It was my turn to interrupt, not yours."

"Right, I got curious and had to know, can you tell me …please?"

I sighed as I watched his face for A few moments. As I got my thoughts into order as the best way to explain a university in my own opinion.

"Well, many people seem to believe that a university is just and extra school where you pay a lot of money to go and pretend to learn while you actually goof off and throw parties and get drunk all the time-"

"HA! You have alcohol! You must share some of this with us, yes, you humans think you can make booze, but only dwarves know how to make real booze." he chuckled as he had a sort of gleam of curiosity in his eye

I narrowed my eyes and glared at him for a few moments until he realised he had interrupted me twice now. His face took on an apologetic look, but I could still see the smug look he was trying to hide.

"Yes, we have many kinds of alcohol, and I am sure I could export it… hold that thought."

"Uh, okay, but how do I hold a thought?"

I ignored him as I quickly turned to my HUD and started writing out a letter to my uncle. Telling him to start getting breweries up and running or finding a way to get booze off the planet. So, our guild, which now had all of our clan members in it, could start exporting Earth alcohol to the universe. Once I had finished the letter and sent it to my uncle, I turned back to the dwarf and smiled.

"Apologies, you gave me a great idea, and I had to send a letter home."

"Uh, sure, you're welcome?"

I smiled at him before I started talking. "Back on topic, there are many that disagree with this perspective of a collage experience, and they acknowledge that it is actually where you go to learn about the career you want to spend the majority of your life in."

"Ah! Like an apprenticeship."

"I am not sure if that was an interruption or not, as I was finished with that line of thought. However, I shall warn you if you interrupt me again out of turn, I will slap you."

"Are you done whinging yet?"

I was about to open my mouth and say no when my hud gave me a ping and displayed the message my uncle had sent back. It only said three words, already on it, I just smiled and shook my head slightly before turning back to the dwarf.

"No, now you spend a good amount of time in this higher education learning and relaxing away from home and all its bullshit, when if you please some ass goes and shoots up your home."

"Shoots… like with a crossbow?

"More advanced version, more compact, and carries more ammunition. We call it a gun."

He nodded his head slowly as he rubbed his chin. I could see I had given him an idea, and he was trying to work it out in his head.

"Yea… So, you run for your life, end up shot and then wake up in a hospital. Only to find out you're back home and your dads pulling the same bullshit again. But you love him, and he is now showing you his new toy, and that toy comes with a lot more people that don't care if you have had time to process or not and throw you into a huge heap of more shit that you have to sort and take care of."

"Certainly sounds like a lot."

"Yea, anyway, I recently had time to stop and process all of it, and I'm still processing I guess. It's been full on, but we are here today, because the jack ass that's been trying to kill me owns this planet. Don't argue the point. It won't matter, there are thousands upon thousands of people crawling all over this planet, and they won't turn away because of an oops. Basically the planet is invaded so It's either get on board or find a new place to live if you don't end up dead first."

"And with that sudden flip, you paint a very grim picture."

"Yes, well I was meant to be a pilot not a soldier on the ground shooting stuff up, which brings to light a realisation." I turned to look at Zeo and gave her a smirk before I continued. "I haven't shot anyone yet"

Zeo smirked back before she replied. "Invasion is still young, plenty of time."

I nodded slowly as I considered if I actually wanted to be responsible for ending someone's life or not. I came to the conclusion that I really didn't, but I wasn't about to let them take mine.

"Riight, well, basically we are here to set up some beacons that will let us take ownership of this town, the rent you currently pay will go to us instead of the twiddles' clan, and it will help bolster us instead. Now I assume you will want something to switch from them to us, so what is it?"

"I have already told your people, we are independent merchants we don't belong to any clan, but as you said, the invasion has begun, and they are not going to turn back because of an oops. Very well, you can set up your beacons, and we will pay this rent you ask for. However, you are right that we will want things in exchange, it will need to make our lives easier and help us generate more income so that we can afford these new payments that you will take from us."

He paused there as he looked around at the dwarves surrounding him. He looked back at me and started to tilt his head, I assumed he was thinking about what he wanted and waited for him to finish his thoughts.

"We will need more excavation equipment and a better way to offload what we make to a wider market. I have heard rumours of an orbital launch system that can fire cargo from a planet into orbit that will then dive into subspace and deliver its cargo to a destination. Can you get us this? That way, we can pay our rent by sending you shipments that you can then sell and make your profit by taxing the sales. You will need to of course wire the payments back to us, but our rent will be the tax you collect. You need not worry, this will be a bigger deal than just this city, as the king of this entire kingdom I am willing to pull products from across the entire kingdom to increase my profits in this way. Is this agreeable?"

I smiled and slowly extended my hand to shake his. "It is." I agreed.

He shook my hand, and the next second I was nearly blinded by the system screaming at me and flashing windows in front of my face.

GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENT: CONGRATULATIONS!! Kenna Mackenzie has single-handedly conquered the planet! A trade agreement was made with the Planetary King in exchange for ownership of the planet!

CONGRATULATIONS! You are now the Planetary King of the planet! You have received two small perks and one medium perk!

In accordance with the trade agreement you have established, would you like to spend a small perk on constructing the Orbital Launch Systems and freight shuttles?

In accordance with the trade agreement you have established, would you like to spend a small perk on constructing advanced mining and excavation equipment?

"Eeeh? How the fuck am I going to hold onto a planet that's being invaded!"

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