The Minute Hand Turns!

"How are you done?! It's been like four hours!"

"Well you wanted it done quickly so I designed it to be easy to build, it's not the most efficient structure-wise though, just don't put anything heavy on it," Laveki said with her hand on her chin.

"As long as the propellers don't fly off," I said as I picked it up.

It wasn't heavy at all and my artificial arm could handle it.

"Wait up!" Fabiru shouted as he jogged up beside me. "You have to be careful, it's fragile."

He grabbed it by the seat and held it with both hands.

'He's trying to reassure me of its structure, little does he know I trust Laveki too much after her lessons. She's great at quick, dirty engineering, though I doubt this thing could handle more than one flight.'

I reassured myself of the helicopter's sturdiness and once we got to the deck I started work on attaching the engine.

"Just a little flow-weld here, and a rivet there." I whistled as I worked.

It took a few minutes but the makeshift gyrocopter was ready.

"What'llya call it Laveki? It's your creation." I asked.

"I'll call it the Minute Hand-X cause I don't know how long it will fly."

"Haha! Good name, you're lucky you aren't the test pilot!" I laughed,

Laveki blushed a little from the banter but was ultimately just as excited as me. "Well, you'd better get on with it!"

"Alright kiddos, let's get this thing off the ground!" I turned up the collective and wobbled around as the gyrocopter reacted to my movements.

'You know, a simpler solution was probably to have dad carry me.' I mentally facepalmed but decided against that method, after all, I already had the helicopter.

I started to veer off to the side and overcorrected, nearly crashing.

"Whoa, girl!" I corrected my course and started descending below the ship, near the forest.

'This is the difficult part.'

I used intuitive manipulation to carry the logs to the ship. This was no easy task, I had to carry four logs and keep the gyrocopter stable. Nevertheless, I positioned myself and began attaching the logs.

'Wait, couldn't I have just used a rope for this?' I thought as another alternative popped into my head. 'Or maybe a crane?'

I finished attaching the first horizontal mast and lowered my altitude.

'There were so many safer ways to do this, why did I make a helicopter?' I asked myself as the second mast attached before my eyes.

'That one is obvious.' Orin said nonchalantly in my head. 'You wanted a helicopter.'

'Ha! You're right, I guess this way works too anyway.' I made my way to the opposite side to attach the remaining masts.

It took only a minute.

'The helicopter should in theory have-' My train of thought was cut off when I heard a sound I really didn't want to hear.

Clunk! Snap!

One of the propellers snapped off as the engine ran out of power, it was unable to handle the stress of the transition and fell to bits.

"Crap!" I shouted as I bailed from the craft and deployed my wings. I flew away from the crash site and no one was below me.

BANG!

The Eneru battery shattered and the Eneru inside went wild, causing a large pressure explosion audible for miles.

"Alright, boys and girls! We are taking off as soon as the sails are attached! Leave has been canceled!" Bella immediately started giving orders, quickly retreating to the war room.

'We have to have this done by the end of the day, the scouts have to be onto us.'

"Over here for loaner swords!" Fabiru synced up with the situation.

"Dad, Laveki, you're on me, we need these done ASAP!"

They both got their hammers and started work on installing the other set of pullies.

--------

While the crew prepared for battle and rushed to escape, unwanted ears listened in on the area.

"Did you hear that?" One of the replacement scouts said over his Telespeak.

"Well of course I did, it sounded like a dragon just burped! Form up on the squad lead, we are checking it out." The scout ended his link and made his way to his squad leader.

"What's your orders, sir?" He asked once he arrived.

"The old guy wasn't cautious enough, if we attack now we won't know how they make their ship disappear. Let's watch from a distance." He landed in a tree, unaware of the watchman who had spotted him.

--------

"They're here already, and they are watching us," Bella said after getting a report.

"Don't worry about it, we will take them out," I said back.

I closed the Telespeak and opened another to Larry's squad.

"Pretend you are going training elsewhere, I need you to split some forces."

'We can't let them call for reinforcements, the only reason they haven't yet is because they are out of Telespeak range and they must not have a spatial mage for some reason.'

I kept working for a bit, but then made my way below deck to the war room.

"Once you are pretty far away, make a portal back to us and attack the enemy scouts," I said, reflecting the "defeat in detail" strategy Bella taught me.

"Ok commander, what are your orders? The scouts are split and the glider troop is going to attack." I addressed Bella.

"Go get Nurse Nalep, James, and Jordan, it's time for some proper ground warfare."

"Sure thing," I called my mom over the Telespeak and had her grab James while I brought Nalep with me.

"Alright crew, here's the plan, while the scouts are occupied with the air, you guys will be on the ground. Nalep, your Eneru is plant right?" When Nalep nodded she continued. "You will start the fight by trapping the scouts in their trees. James, you are an ice mage so you will be shooting them down and engaging them on the ground with your golems."

She took her arms off of the table, "So what about me?

She started putting on some light armor and she turned to me. "You will be with the ground fighters, you will dart from tree to tree ripping people from the air with your grapplehook. Bring Laveki with you, she can blind the enemy and use her chakram from a distance."

My armor shapeshifted into its Wyrmling form and I grabbed another spear from a weapon rack. "Can't use my half-finished one, so it's better to use a disposable."

"Alright!" Bella said with her bow on her back. "Move out!"