Flight Of Icarus Pt. 1

Inspired by the song Flight of Icarus by Iron Maiden

They first inspected the guidance rails for strength, after grinding the surface rust from them. He may have been young when he made the structure, but it was clear Grimpaw knew his metals even then. Given the ok, the rails and most of the rail support already made were stacked separately on the prep deck. With Grimpaw in charge and Poppler assisting, the Grimcrotch Warband was about to take the charr to new heights. Literally.

Centurion Grimcrotch liked to fish on his off time. He didn’t like poles, he just waded out to waist deep water and stood patiently, for hours if that’s what it took, for his prey/dinner to innocently swim by and be scooped up. On several of his trips to fish at Blackblade Lake, he noticed the slowly rusting rocket vehicle launch ramp Grimpaw had made as a young charr. The more he saw the ramp, the more ideas began swirling around in his head.

A few days ago Grimcrotch had come back from another fishing trip at the lake, gathered his warband together, and told them of his idea, then asked the asura Poppler how much he knew about rocketry. ‘I can make anything you want concerning a rocket, Centurion. Turn Grimpaw and myself loose on this project, and I can guarantee you a working one. How it’s used, however, is a different story.’

The centurion laid out his plans to the chief engineer Grimpaw and his assistant Poppler, he wanted a controllable rocket vehicle. The two engineers looked at each other at this proposal, then Grimpaw turned to Grimcrotch, ‘Yes sir, we can do it. As long as there is no hurried timeline, since this has never been done before.’ The centurion agreed, and the two engineers left to begin their project.

Grimpaw Grindgear looking out over the Blackblade Lake launch area

First thing Grimpaw decided was the way he went about doing it as a young charr was all wrong, and Poppler agreed. They drew up plans for an extended launch ramp, to be used by a wheeled cart holding the vehicle. Poppler worked on the propulsion system while Grimpaw sketched out an approximation of the vehicle size to accomodate the engine.

Grim handed Poppler the first sketch, that had a giant charr head on the front. Poppler sighed and shook his head; the charr shrugged and said, ‘What? I like it.’ The asura then went on to explain why it wouldn’t go over well doing a nosedive.

When the vehicle design was agreed on, they both worked on downsizing the engine to fit. Legionnaire Dinky was assigned the wing design, and after several failed attempts came up with one satisfactory to the engineers that could be smoothed out and worked with, having little drag. Grimpaw then set out to stamp and cut the outer shell while Poppler created the drivetrain. Things were coming along nicely within a few months.

For the launch ramp, the rest of the warband went to the lake and did some landscaping, then assembled the nearly 100ft. iron structure in a few days, the end stopping just a few feet short of dropping straight down into the waters of Blackblade.

——

When it was done and nearly assembled, Poppler disappeared to his college and returned a few days later with a pair of communication radios that would fit on his and Grimpaw’s ears during the flight. They both thought it was best if the test pilot Grim could describe the flight and what, if anything, went wrong.

‘Thanks, buddy,’ Grimpaw said. ‘We are meeting with the centurion later tonight to discuss the details with him. Since you created the power plant you’re going to have to break it down for him; he’s not technical, but he will understand the intricacies, just don’t go too deep. He’s a warrior, not an engineer.’ Poppler set the earpieces on the worktable. ‘You got it, Grim.’

This was the most ambitious project he had created yet, the little asura wanted to make sure the charr knew what to expect. He had a feeling they didn’t.