Upward Bound: II

Upward Bound: II

In-universe date	Era Nova, April–May, Year 6
Real-world date	2026-10-10
Author	Henry Westcroft
Category Type	Character News

Working with raw ghast fluid outside of the creature’s body is a volatile endeavor. For three days, my engineers and I worked behind closed doors in the Grand Warehouse, building a heavy, airtight metal canister to hold the core safely without letting the gas escape.

By late evening, we were ready to run a simple test.

We bolted a small, light iron frame — about the size of a lantern — to our newly sealed canister. The goal was simple: prove that the gas could still lift heavy metal from inside a container, and measure how much weight it could carry.

We pulled the locking pins.

It didn't just float up slowly. The metal frame ripped itself right off the workbench with a heavy shudder, hissing loudly as the gas flared up inside. Before my men could even reach for the rope tethers, the whole rig shot straight up into the air like a rocket. CLANG.

The prototype slammed right into the spruce beams of the ceiling, over fifty feet above the warehouse floor. Now it's stuck way up in the dark rafters, spinning quietly against the roof trusses.

My team stood there in complete silence, heads tilted back, staring up at the ceiling. We lost control of the test in less than three seconds, and our prototype is currently pinned against the glass of the roof of the capital's biggest storehouse.

Still, as I stand here looking up at that floating piece of iron dangling near the roof, the truth is clear — the lift is real and the science works.

Now we just have to figure out how to steer it — and how to get it down before someone notices.