Flight Of Icarus Pt. 5

‘No, wait Grimpaw. Let’s test this again before I let you go. I want to be positive nothing has broken during transport here.’ Grimcrotch waved his engineer down from the rocket vehicle. Grimpaw unstrapped himself with one click, and climbed down saying, ‘You got it, sir.’ Poppler turned off the radio and trotted back toward the group of charr near the centurion. ‘Alright everyone back. I’m going to fire this up,’ he said, shooing them away.

Poppler reached under the wind shield and pulled a small lever back. A quiet hum and whine started, and began to grow louder, then he pushed a button. Suddenly a loud KAPOW! when the fuel injector released, and the vehicle began blasting a long flame tail behind. The asura stepped back a few feet after checking to make sure the dials under the shield were working, crossed his arms and cocked his head, listening for any abnormalities.

He turned to Grimpaw and tapped his wrist. The charr looked at the pocketwatch in his paw again, and held up a finger….one min. The flame kept burning as strongly as it had started. Ten seconds later it petered out; ‘One minute ten, Poppler.’ The little engineer nodded. The two turned to the centurion. ‘Ok, as long as you two are good with things right now, I’ll let you take over. Good luck, Grimpaw. For Blood Legion, soldier!’ Grimcrotch saluted his engineer.

‘For Blood Legion, sir!’ Grimpaw replied, smartly returning the salute. The charr engineer went to the fuel supply and grabbed a couple containers, then returned to the vehicle, popping open the panel where it was to be poured in. After the containers were emptied he wiped down the metal body around it then returned the containers. ‘You ready, Grim?’ Poppler asked his friend. Grimpaw took a deep breath and nodded, ‘Let’s do it, Poppler.’ he said.

——

The asura trotted back out to the radio and turned it on, tested it with a few lines to his friend who returned them, then Grimpaw strapped himself into the seat again. ‘Ok, fire it up Grimpaw you’re in control, my friend. Good luck, and I’ll see you back here in a few minutes.’ Grimpaw turned and gave a quick salute to his friend, who returned it, then leaned forward and pulled the small lever. The quiet hum and whine began again.

He waved over Dinky, who brought a sledgehammer over to knock the lockdown pins out of the way, saluted quickly then trotted back from the rocket. ‘Here we go…’ he said to himself, and pressed the button. At the KAPOW! the rocket began slowly moving down the ramp, then quickly picked up speed. The charr engineer on the rocket vehicle roared down the launch ramp, dropping the wheeled cart under it off the end into Blackblade Lake.

‘….kay so far Poppler, tem….ormal.’ Poppler began to worry about the radio. The centurion ran over to Poppler, ‘It looks good, what’s he saying?’ The asura nervously replied, ‘Uh, the radio is breaking up a bit, sir, but he said things look normal so far.’ Grimcrotch nodded, then turned back toward the flaming dot slowly getting smaller over the lake.

On the rocket, Grimpaw kept a steady pressure on the ailerons and rudder, but it was becoming harder to hold them in control. It appeared to be going faster than they planned. Thirty five seconds into the flight he passed the last under water boulder near the Flame Temple Tombs. Suddenly a small flame appeared licking out from under a riveted panel in front of the wind shield. ‘Uh, Poppler we have a problem..’ he said. ‘A fire in the front.’

‘….pler we…ve a prob…’ came over the radio, then static. ‘What did he say, Poppler?’ the centurion turned and asked of the asura with a scowl. Turning back to watch, the rocket was flying over the cliffs where the radio interference cut out the signal in earlier tests. ‘He said…’

A blast jerked Poppler out of his sentence as he watched the rocket explode in the distance with parts falling away onto the cliff, and a flaming parachute popped out of the back of a burning ball that slowed its fall for a moment, then the ropes burned through and the fireball dropped onto the cliff top, disappearing from view.

Cliff between Diessa Plateau and Fireheart Rise, where Grimpaw landed

The centurion’s arm snapped out so fast the little engineer never saw it coming, and grabbed the asura by his neck half strangling him at charr eye level, while Poppler struggled to pry the paw off his throat. ‘YOU BETTER HOPE HE IS ALIVE, YOU LITTLE BASTARD!’ Fangs dripping with vengeance, Grimcrotch threw the asura back to the ground and shouted to his soldiers to get up to the cliff, sending some to the other side to Fireheart Rise. Poppler sat up trying to breath again, rubbing his throat.

The centurion ran to a tank and took off at full speed toward the end of the lake. The asura engineer ran to another tank, figured out how to use it quickly, then jerked forward several times until he got the gears shifting correctly and sped off toward Fireheart Rise, knowing the area up on the cliff where his friend came down. He had no fear any longer of what the centurion would do to him if Grimpaw was dead, but he was afraid his friend may very well be….