Adam sighed as he began to drop. It wasn't as if he expected this to go perfectly, but falling from 1,000 feet wasn't his idea of a good time. Before coming up, Adam had thought of different ways to survive a high fall or collision, so he wasn't feeling afraid of the fall.

No, it wasn't frustration because something had gone wrong, more because he had been hoping to use an engine restart as a quicker way to change directions without relying on the jetpack's steering. It looked like that possibility was out.

Thoughts casually passed through Adam's mind as the sky whipped past him and the buildings and land approached rapidly. Just the thought that Brittney might do a drop like this on purpose made him chuckle. She might intentionally crash, just for the amusement of walking away from it thanks to such high vitality.

Concern at possibly flooding the engine, like with a car, had prevented him from hitting the ignition button repeatedly right after the drop began. However, once he was about halfway down, he tried the button again. This time he felt it turn over.

The fuel combusted in the engine and the rotors inside began to spin. Heat burst from the spinning blades and Adam's descent increased in speed.

As soon as the power was on, Adam pushed up on the joystick. He felt the jetpack turning. By now he was only about 300 feet from the ground, not enough to completely curve upwards, and only a few seconds from impacting the ground at this speed. Not wanting to get a road rash, Adam did the only reasonable thing.

"[Kinetic Impact]!"

His feet began to glow. There was a strap, kind of like the front of skis, to hold his feet into place. Adam removed his feet from the footholds.

With the gradual turn, he would approach the ground at about a 70-degree angle, face first. That meant his feet wouldn't be positioned to land. Of course, he also didn't want to risk damaging the jetpack, even if Garrett had said it was durable.

Timing it, Adam waited until just before he was about to impact. He could hear screams from the onlookers. They just barely registered.

"[Arc Shockwave]!"

A sphere of force blew out from Adam. The pseudo-skill's power hit the ground just before Adam, blowing the asphalt and ground away from him. The rebound from the pressure hit the windshield and wings, rotating him upwards enough for Adam to shove out his legs.

Glowing feet cushioned the impact and bounced off the bottom of the crater his shockwave had created. With the pseudo-skill's help, Adam jumped off the ground. He put the engine's power on high and blasted diagonally upwards, out of the dust storm he had created.

Cheers and clapping sounded as Adam rocketed through the debris and back into the air. Adam took a deep breath from the air tank and smiled inside the mask, not because he had been concerned, but because that tactic had been kind of fun. Brittney would be jealous she didn't have the skills to try it.

From there, Adam slowed the jets to see how low-powered he could still cruise in the air, before turning back to where all the crafters were waiting. He slowed above them, angling his body vertically, and then used the jets to hover as he sank to the ground.

As he casually unstrapped himself and stepped off the jetpack frame, noise erupted all around him. The crafters and engineers who worked on it got close, patting him in congratulations or peppering him with questions.

"That was amazing!"

"I never knew it would be able to do those things!"

"Incredible to watch!"

Adam gave a few high fives and nodded to those praising him as he went over to where Garrett looked like his legs were trying to buckle and deposit him onto the ground. The man looked so relieved after the stressful moments.

"That was a bit reckless, Adam," stuttered Garrett. "What happened?"

"I just tried a maneuver. Please find a way to quick start the engine when in the air."

"R-right. We'll work on that for the next iteration. D-did you have any other suggestions?" asked Garrett, clearly not wanting to hear the answer.

"A few," smiled Adam. "Make some wingsuits for the pilots in case they need to bail. It'll also protect their skin. If someone's vitality isn't high enough, they'll lose their skin to the wind shear, and if they don't have high enough strength, then they won't be able to go very fast. The steering pulled to the right, but I can manage that for now. If you can make steering tighter in the future that would help too."

"Ok," acknowledged Garrett. "We'll try to design those changes, but I doubt we'll have them in time for the battle with the Drathan."

"Yeah, about that. How many of these can you get built in the next few days?"

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Days?!" snapped Garrett in surprise. "That was just meant to be a prototype, and it took us a week! I didn't expect some crazy joy rider to pilot it so hard. Frankly, I'm shocked it performed that well."

"I fully look forward to the future models," nodded Adam, "but for now, we need them asap."

"With the extra parts we put together, and what will still need to be manufactured, at most we could assemble three more in the next five days."

Adam looked over at Golgarn, who shrugged and nodded, confirming the time frame.

"Ok, then we'll do what we can with four. Now, I have a few other things I need done in the next week."

"I don't think you understand, Adam," said Garrett after swallowing hard. "Building three more will take all those who worked on this one all their time. We don't have enough here to do additional work."

"If that's what you think then you are the one who doesn't understand, Garrett," said Adam, putting on his serious face and radiating intensity. Many people stepped back. "This is an all-hands-on deck situation. Two hostile armies are waiting for us. Two! Just stopping the Drathan won't be enough. Pull in anyone you need to get these tasks done. Even if you need to get military engineers and every single craftsman involved."

Garrett let out a sigh and looked exhausted.

"Alright, Adam, what else?"

"The cargo ship chains need to be made as light as possible. Increase their durability too, if you have time, although I think they should be up for the task as they are. Next, those tow trucks. Make them as heavy as possible while being able to drive. It doesn't require runes, though I'm sure those would help. Just load them down. They don't need to go fast, just to stay on the ground no matter what!"

"What can pull a tow truck off the ground?!" asked Garrett in surprise.

"At my full strength, I can, for one," said Adam wryly. "The winches need to be reinforced as well. Then we need to make sure the rivet drivers can be carried by the jetpack pilots without throwing off the balance."

"That's crazy, Adam!"

Adam looked over at Golgarm, who shrugged again. "I no be knowing what those be. I shall look at them."

"Good. Thanks," said Adam curtly. "That should be it for now. If something seems impossible once you work on it, then let me know as soon as possible and we'll try to find a workaround. Otherwise, I need all these accomplished in at least a week."

"That's asking a lot, Adam. Even with more workers."

"Good thing vitality reduces our need to sleep," Adam said flippantly. Then he grew more serious and put a hand on Garrett's shoulder. "I appreciate the work and support. It's obviously a lot to ask for, but we're fighting for survival. It needs to get done."

Garrett looked down and sighed before looking back up at Adam.

"I understand. We'll put our nose to the grindstone for this one."

"Besides," said Adam with a mischievous smile, "once you get this stuff done, think of all the more amazing things you can make combining our technology with the [System] magic."

Garrett's eyes unfocused and he looked up at the sky, deep in thought.

"We do have a lot of confidential designs downloaded in the Rift library. I bet we could really revolutionize a lot of them. Hmm…"

"Great! Quite a lot to look forward to. At least once we aren't fighting to the death."

***

"Jetpacks?!" gasped Brittney in excitement. "We get to ride jetpacks for real?!"

"I can't believe you made all of us jetpacks," said Nick, also showing his excitement.

"Yeah, about that," said Adam sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.

He was at the defensive area near the Drathan floating base. His friends had gathered around while he tried to tell them the plan. The explanation was stopped after the first part.

"They will only have four ready. I had to choose who will be part of the first wave based on their skills and stats."

"I half excepted us to be launched up using catapults," joked Carlos. Adam's lack of reaction stopped his laughter.

"I considered it," admitted Adam. "But once we were in the air, there would be no way to prevent being knocked off course by the dragons. Besides, it would take too many catapult attempts to get the velocity and angle calibrated. By then the Drathan would know what we're doing."

"So, boss," asked Tom while wringing his hands. "Who gets to go first?"

"First is you, Tom," said Adam.

Tom burst into a smug smile. He looked at everyone as if he were the only choice. "I knew you trusted me the most, boss! That's why I have the highest loyalty."

"So that if something goes wrong, we don't lose anyone important," continued Adam with a deadly serious look on his face.

Tom's shoulders slumped and his head sagged. His whole body nearly crumpled. Adam laughed and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Of course that isn't why," teased Adam. "Your illusion skills will give you the best chance of going unnoticed, even with the distraction."

"Oh, thanks boss!" gasped Tom in relief. He stood tall, showing his pride with his hands on his hips.

"Next will be Brittney, since she has the most vitality. A crash or impact won't hurt her, and she has the defensive skills to keep the jetpack safe if she gets into an aerial fight. Finally, Lucas will take one. His skills will allow him to control it the best. He'll probably be the most maneuverable out of us all. When I tested the jetpack, I got the feeling strength and vitality are the most important while using them, so the support and mages won't be able to get in on this part of the fight."

"Tch!" expressed Nick with a pout. "I have plenty of strength."

"This is only for the initial assault. You can all play with the jetpacks later. For now, I need the rest of you guys to help set up other things. Lucas, Tom, and Brittney should head back to get some practice with the jetpacks before it's go time."

They had to wait several more days for all the items Adam needed to be available. He worked with engineers and his friends to set up the tow trucks and boat chains. The jetpacks were the last to be finished, which gave those planning to use them more time to practice.

The military oversaw the fireworks, setting up a dozen sites to launch them from. They set up snipers and protectors at all of the sites, to prevent enemy attacks from ruining them.

The Drathan weren't idle either. They routinely tested the limits of the Sentinels' attack range, trying to scout from outside the Tennessee territory where the bullets couldn't exist. Several times they tried dive bombing the humans, to see if they could fly faster than the fatal attacks.

A few Drathan scouts tried to drop down, using stealth and speed to avoid the guns. Fortunately, Adam was on top of that thanks to the Rift Menu. He received the alert and quickly found them before they even landed.

The Drathan even dropped barrels of poison. The first created a mess, and rendered the landing spot unusable, but they used ice magicians to freeze the barrels after that. The piece of land that was poisoned also didn't matter much, since they had set up their own forces a safe distance from the edge of the floating base.

Once all the parts of Adam's plan were ready, they got a short night's sleep and then began their assault.

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