Flight Of Icarus Pt. 3

The young cat flew across Ashford Plain at breakneck speed, eyes scanning every rock, tree or bush nearby on its path. Passing Exterminatus HQ and coming upon Charr’s Triumph, the charr bolted past the last boulder near the monument. Suddenly a black blur leaped out at the running cat from the right, tackling him with the two rolling across the ground in a hissing, fist pounding, claw ripping fight.

So much dust was kicked up soldiers from the nearby fort saw and heard them, and wandered over to see what was going on. They didn’t see any weapons, so they simply stood watching the ball of cat fur fight, cheering them on. After a few minutes, one joked that if he could tell who they were, he might take bets on a winner, getting a laugh from the growing crowd.

When they finally broke up their scrapping and jumped back from each other, stepping in a low circle and ready for anything, the smaller one grinned and said breathing heavily, ‘You gettin’ tired yet, Grim? Hehe…’ Dinky began touching a few bloody claw marks across his snout that was swelling, from being punched several times. He grimaced.

‘Why, are you ready to stop, you female?’ Grim sneered at Dinky with a half closed black eye. As soon as he finished his sentence, Dinky leaped at him, tackling him and pinning his arms to the ground then proceeded to pound on Grim’s already cut and swollen snout several times. ‘Call me a female again and I’ll rip your tail off. If you weren’t my friend I’d do it now.’ Dinky rolled off Grim, and they both sat up.

Grimcrotch grabbed Dinky and pushed him back, then sat on his head saying, ‘Oh yea? Well if you weren’t my friend I wouldn’t do this! You should feel special, BAHAHAHA!’

‘Gah, get off me you big ape!’ Dinky hollared, pushing Grim off him and wiping the side of his face. They began nursing their wounds, then looked at each other and began to laugh hysterically, sometimes interrupted by painful grunts and an ‘I think it’s broke. You have a hard head….’

Exterminatus HQ & Charr’s Triumph, scene of the fight w/ Dinky and Grimcrotch

During the rocket engine testing, the primitive fuel injector could give it a little over a minute of flight, barring mistakes. And Poppler wasn’t having any mistakes, his life literally depended on it. The centurion was present at six of the firings, all of which went flawlessly. After seeing the last one, he spoke with his engineers and they set a tentative date.

Grimcrotch and Dinky sat outside Black Citadel proper near a fire after the date was set, enjoying some of their signature sour mash. ‘We used to have so many fights out here, Grim. I mean before the warband, you know. Was great fun.’ He took a sip and continued staring at the fire. ‘I don’t remember when you and I weren’t fighting, Dinky. I still have a lump back here from over by Charr’s Triumph down the road.’ Grim massaged the back of his head.

‘Yea, you sat on my head you bag of meat. Ugh, still can’t believe you did that.’ Dinky scowled and took another sip. ‘BAHAHAHAHA!’ Grim burst out in laughter and slapped his knee at remembering that fight, then sipped his drink. ‘So do you feel special because I sat on your head, or do I have to do it again?’ Grimcrotch grinned broadly.

‘I dare you, Grim.’ Dinky turned to him with a serious look on his face. The centurion rubbed the lump on the back of his head again, and said ‘Mmm, how about not.’ The best friends chuckled and turned back to the fire. ‘Everything looks good, Dinky. This is going to be big if we can make it work. Great job on those wings, less drag the better the flight.’

Dinky nodded,’Those are two remarkable engineers, Grim. And you know I don’t say things like that lightly.’ The centurion poked at the fire with a stick. ‘Nothing ever gets done unless you shake things up, Dinky. By just conforming to norms and not thinking out of the box, you decay. If the three (legions) had stayed subjugated to flame legion and not fought back….’ he shrugged,’…that would be it. We wouldn’t be forging our own path and have them all but on the run.’

——

‘Engineers like those two are what will keep us several steps ahead of them and other enemies. To keep them sharp you have to keep them on their claws. Give them tasks that have never been done before, and you expand their learning capacity, and charr knowledge as a whole. This rocket can not only be used as a vehicle but can easily convert to ordnance. That’s why I had Grimpaw use rivets on several panels instead of welding, I have some ideas for the future.’

Grim slugged down his half empty glass, threw it in the fire, then turned and grabbed the bottle of sour mash.

He held it up, offering to Dinky. His legionnaire stood and held out his glass, paused, then killed it and threw it into the fire as well, and grabbed the whiskey from his boss. The centurion turned back, grabbed & popped open another, and took a long draw. Dinky tipped his back, then turned to Grim, ‘Glad I met you in the fahrar, buddy. It’s been an honor watching you rise to the level you’re at. You’re skirting genius with me.’

‘Don’t go there, Dinky. Neither one of us would be anywhere if we weren’t the blaze raisers in the fahrar, nor would either of us have gotten anywhere if we sat back and took any guff in our warband. We’ve had each others backs this whole time, my friend. It wasn’t just me.’ Grim held up his bottle to Dinky, his legionnaire held his out as well, then tinked them in a cheers.