22 minutes after it left, the rotillery came swooping back.
“New guy, look out!”
Rolo hit the deck just as the machine pulled up short and came to a stop, hovering above the pair.
“Hehe, New guy.” Fitz chuckled.
Rolo sprang back up and the two of them pulled the roto down, securing the spherical machination to the deck. While Fitz was jacking the payload up to be mounted, Rolo was doing a quick mental check of his calculations. He stopped the flywheel with his gloved fingers, then reached down to make the adjustment on the main shaft.
“Eleven degrees over an elliptical axis of 18 miles will shift the drop zone 400 feet northwest. That’s at 700 cf. Fill her up!”
The sudden rush of steam into the tanks knocked Rolo back. He looked up to see Fitz chuckling to himself again.
The blades slowly started up and began picking up speed. Rolo waited, and when the gauge hit 700, he hit the release and the rotillery took off with a rush.
“To think, I joined the Royal Airborne because I wanted to fly.”