Author Topic: World of Steam  (Read 3517 times)

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Offline BlazeFox2

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World of Steam
« on: June 20, 2016, 04:40:55 pm »
Prologue

Kaiga looked at the gears with contempt in his eyes. He grumbled and growled as he tried to get the machine running again. With a screwdriver and hammer, the thick-furred wolf attempted to apply brute force to the recalcitrant gears. Not only did his screwdriver snap, one of the gears got its tooth broken out. Kaiga sighed explosively and threw his tools aside.

"Mother of mercy, this is the fifth time." He lifted his goggles and rubbed his tired eyes.

"You're doing it wrong, Kai," his jackal friend said while patting his shoulder. "You gotta give her a little love, like loving a baby."

Kaiga slugged Jaqqa and said, "Get outta here, scrapper. The only way you can give love to a machine like this is by smacking the jeegus out of it."

"A little softness and care goes a long way, Lemme show you how it's done," said Jaqqa. She rolled up her sleeves and grabbed a screwdriver from the toolbox. She then approached the engine and began poking and probing through the nooks and crannies.

In the meantime, Kaiga retrieved a brass flask from his tool belt and drained it dry in one gulp. Right after he put his flask away, his ears perked up when he heard the engine come to life. The familiar sounds of rotating gears and venting steam made his jaw drop.

"How'd you -"

Jaqqa smiled. "Like I said, love, a little softness and care."

"Fixed that darn thing in 2 minutes when I can't fix it in 2 hours."

He wore his goggles and grabbed his dirty old scarf from the table. While Jaqqa went to the coal storage to make sure they had enough coal for the journey, Kaiga went to the bridge and examined the flight control instruments. He checked the gauges for signs of abnormality, running multiple diagnostics until he was satisfied that nothing was out of the ordinary. The grey wolf did find a leaking steam pipe, which he easily fixed by hitting the pipe with a wrench until it dented enough to cover the leak.

Jaqqa helped him load some foods from the sky docks, stacking crate after crate of dried meat and pickled fruits until the food storage could not fit a pin between them. After paying the dockmaster the docking fees, Kaiga signaled a dock worker to release the clamps holding the skyship. The ship jolted as the clamps released their grip on the sides, dropping the steam-powered air vehicle into open skies. When Kaiga pulled a lever, the ship's engines roared with power and propelled the craft forward.

When everything was stable, Jaqqa joined Kaiga in the bridge with a map in her gloved hands.

"Where to, oh venerable captain?" Jaqqa asked with a playful chuckle.

"Keep that up and I'll make you walk the plank, scrapper" Kaiga said. He smiled and nodded his head. "Set a course for Torraine. We got plenty of scrap to salvage."
He who commands the past, controls the future.