The shuttle flight only took around 20 minutes, but it gave Eirik time to lean back, put on some music and relax for a short while. Hitting the shuffle key on the AUX player, he smiled as he heard the melodious chorus of Sabaton's "Lost Battalion".

He couldn't help himself as he realized that his situation was going to become much the same. He started to despair again. Always Haunted by the god's seemingly endless want for entertainment. As the chorus played again, he started becoming angry. He wouldn't stand for this. He was not about to roll over and die because a race of miniature space lizards got the knickers in a twist over a single individual. He didn't even want that pain on board his ship, but it was out of his hands and now he was left dealing with the fallout.

His anger continued to build as the song crescendoed in the guitar solo and his despair started dying out. "They want a war with the craziest Terran alive (according to our newspapers no less. overpaid tabloid writers one and all!), They will get one. I don't know where this started, but I'm ending it. Peace if possible. If not, Genocide or blaze of glory"

Hanging on to that thought a smile slowly crept onto his face, leaning more towards maniacal than happy. He looked to the ceiling and yelled with a newfound strength "you want a grand story for me to tell old One-Eye? Then by all the gods, I swear, here and now, I shall do my part in making this the grandest tale of my life. I shall carve my name into the legends of eternity in your names. And when I finally arrive at your gates, you and I are going to talk about the thread of my life." The cabin was filled with almost hysterical laughter after this as Eirik grabbed the control and switched to manual steering again. It was time to live again

__________________________________

He put the shuttle down around 25 km North-East of Nedre Soppero. He had built a few cabins in the middle of the forest near some small scattered lakes that made for great fishing. He was happy to see that both the door to the workshop and the Cottage were intact. You never knew with the damn bears and he had already replaced and reinforced them several times over. Last time it had been the windows and if it kept up he would soon be able to use his retreat from the world as a regular fortress. After grabbing his bag and footlocker, he locked down the shuttle, unlocked the door to the cabin, and continued to open all the windows, so the fresh air could circulate. A quick sweep of the broom cleared out the dust and after unpacking he closed the windows and left the cabin to repeat the routine with the workshop.

Satisfied with his immediate work, he set about making everything ready for tomorrow. It was going to be long hard work, but things had to be done right if he was to have any chance of getting through the trials ahead.

At sunset Eirik retreated to the Cabin, bringing a healthy haul of firewood from the shed in the workshop with him. He lit the old stove and started preparing a simple meal of pork meat, potatoes, and a mix of carrots and green beans. If he wanted meat beyond dinner tomorrow he had to hunt and he didn't bring enough vegetables to go vegan for a short time. Snorting at the thought of going vegan he sat down to eat his dinner with only the sound of the burning wood on the stove to interrupt his thoughts.

The next day he rose early, ate a hearty portion of oatmeal and dried berries, and grabbed the rifle above the door to go out hunting. deciding on moose, since that was pretty much the only prey animal of any reasonable size in the area, he headed out to check out the surrounding clearings in the woods.

As the day passed and the sun reached its zenith, Eirik was becoming agitated. Not a single sign of anything moving. He knew from experience that anger would not help him in this situation, so he decided on a short break at one of the lakes in the area. When he arrived, he climbed a tree, to have a better view of the surroundings while resting.

"Never hurts to keep an eye out," He thought, as he settled in amongst the foliage. After 10-15 minutes, as he was gathering himself to continue his hunt, he spotted a slight movement across the small lake. A moment later a juvenile moose emerged. no more than 200 kilos at best, it was far from its full size yet But would provide more than enough meat for his short expedition. As he watched in anticipation, the young bull moose looked around and sniffed the air. Then it walked into the lake and started eating the plants growing under the watering. He slowly unslung his rifle, lined up the shot, and took aim.

Breathing out slowly, he muttered a prayer "Ull, god of the hunt and wilderness survival, let my aim be true and my shot find its target lest I starve"

The woods echoed with the shot of the rifle, The young moose jumped towards the safety of the treeline but collapsed after a few dozen steps. Eirik quickly scampered down the tree and made his way to his kill. Approaching the dying moose, he noted with satisfaction the bullet wound that indicated he had hit the lung.

As he drew his hunting knife and ended the suffering of the animal, he cut out the heart and liver of the animal and built a small fire. As soon as the fire had a good grip on the firewood, Then placed the heart and liver in the middle of the flames and muttered "Please accept this offering in gratitude of your goodwill, Ull, god of the hunt". Afterward, he hurried to gut the moose and dump the innards a couple of hundred meters away. this would keep other predators busy. Why bother with a moving meal when this was lying still. he made a crude sled to drag it back the carcass and looked to the sky. If he hurried, he could hang the moose to bleed out overnight and prepare the forge for the coming days. The evening could be spent making and carving the handles of the new weapons and digging the titanium chainmail vest out of the storage along with the classical iron-rimmed, oak wood roundshield with a small shield generator in the shield buckle. He would have to dig his crew's shields out of storage on the ship at some point.

After his dinner, he stayed up late, carefully carving runes and patterns into the new knife and axe handles.

Rising early on the morning of the 3rd day, he spent the first hour before breakfast setting up the little smoking alcove with juniper wood shaving to smoke the venison from the moose and the first hour after breakfast going over the tools and forge from top to bottom. Finally, he began to work the bellows and anvil. The hours started to meld into each other as time became an abstract in the forge. Only the dim light of the burning coal and the rhythmic *thunk* *thunk* *ping* as he hit the anvil on every third strike to cool the hammerhead existed until exhaustion took over and forced his work to a halt. This continued during the 3rd, 4th, and 5th day.

On the 6th he took the time to carefully engrave the 3 axes and the new Seax that he had managed to make. He also took the time to blacken his chainmail vest so it wouldn't stand out against a black shirt if he needed to wear it out in public and it was too hot for long sleeve clothing to hide it with.

On the 7th and last day, he called the ship in the early morning.

"This is the captain, do you receive me? over"

"This is the "Void Wolf" we read you captain. you were starting to have us worried. over" came the soft reply From David.

"Bring the ship down here, I'm activating my locator beacon. Make a camera ready and prepare a line to broadcast on every single channel we can reach. Get Jesper and the packs suited up and ready and prepare the prisoner to be taken outside with us. over"

Silence reigned for the briefest of moments before David spoke again, his tone uncharacteristically harsh as he did so "Eirik, what are you planning? Over."

"Just do it, David. You have my word that I will not dishonor my morals. over"

With that, Eirik cut the connection and went back to the cottage to inspect his new weapons one last time and pack up his gear.

Looking over his work he nodded, satisfied with himself. He packed up his bag and footlocker, plastic-wrapped the now smoked venison he had acquired (the crew was would love it, juniper wood give it a unique flavor), and strapped on black army pants, his combat boots, black T-shirt, his chainmail, and a leather jacket. He strapped the new Seax to his right thigh, hung the 2 new ornate hand axes from the loops in his belt, slung the shield over his shoulder, and grabbed the large Dane axe with the exquisitely engraved axehead and beautiful woodwork carvings. He had spent extra time making it look special.

Moving all his things to the shuttle was done quickly and he locked down the cabins again after securing them. Grabbing the Dane axe he walked over to a large tree stump a little ways from the Cottage. he Usually used it for splitting wood, but for the next long while it would have quite a different purpose. Reverently he placed the axe on the stump and began setting up torches around the stump, making a closed half circle on one side, facing the woods.

After lighting the torches he looked to the sky and muttered "I hope you are watching because this show is going to be spectacular. You desire entertainment? you got it"

Hoping that what he had planned would be enough to at least gain some favor with the gods in the coming times he stood in front of the stump and waited patiently.