I is for Icon
There was an unusual visitor at the lake. It was small, at least small for an aircraft, with big wide eyes and little floats on either side of its stubby little body, which almost looked a second set of tiny wings. The moment that the smokejumpers had spotted the white and red plane winging its way across the National Park's flyways, they instantly knew that they needed to see this aircraft up close…the challenge was the knew that aircraft rarely stayed within the park for long, so they needed to act fast, but there was no way in slag that Blade was going to let them off base until they got their chores done.
This wouldn't have been too bad of an issue if they had kept up with their chores in the first place. Between the fire season, training, and expertly executed procrastination, the smokejumpers had accumulated at least 48 hours of solid work. Things around the base were getting bad enough that Blade had finally put his tire down and banned the smokejumpers from heading off base for any reason other than medical visits or fighting fires. The ban had finally forced the jumpers to slowly start picking away at the massive list of tasks in front of them. It was a half-hearted process because the jumpers had everything that they needed to keep themselves entertained right on base…or at least they did right up until when they spotted that fascinating aircraft soaring through their skies.
Now for the first time in weeks, the smokejumpers had somewhere they wanted to be and something that they wanted to do, but because of their backlog of chores, they were not allowed to set a tread off of the base. Frustrated, all five little vehicles gathered behind one of the hangars to try to hash out a plan of attack.
"We might be able to get away with it if someone stays behind and does some highly visible chores to distract the Chief." Drip suggested the first possible plan of the meeting. At the little skid steer's suggestion, four sets of eyes instantly started staring at Avalanche with great intensity.
"WHY DO I HAVE TO BE THE RESPONSIBLE ONE?" Avalanche gave his fellow smokejumpers the stink eye.
"Well…" Pinecone, the only member of the team that had enough decency to look embarrassed, spoke up after a few uncomfortable rotor beats. "In order for this plan to be believable, we have to make enough noise to convince Blade that the team is hard at work…and you do have to admit that you are loud enough to pull that off."
"Especially if we pull together an awesome playlist for you to jam to!" Drip added while grinning with way too much enthusiasm.
"NO." Avalanche's glare intensified.
"But…" Drip attempted to use his best puppy dog eyes.
"NO." Avalanche was clearly unwilling to budge on the subject. "WE EITHER ALL GO, OR NONE OF US GO. I AM NOT GOING TO BE LEFT OUT OF THIS EXCURSION JUST SO THAT YOU GUYS HAVE A DECOY."
Several of the smokejumpers were about to open their mouths in protest when a dangerous purr interrupted them. "And what would you need a decoy for?"
Nearly all of the smokejumper's engines nearly seized on them as they whipped around to see the Chief looming over them with a nearly predatory curve on the edge of his lips.
"UM…" The other smokejumpers may have also said something, but they couldn't be heard over Avalanche's nervous utterance.
"I am listening."
The five vehicles exchanged glances with each other, with each vehicle willing someone else to step up and take the brunt of the Chief's ire. Finally, when it became clear that no one was going to volunteer to take the hot seat, Dynamite sighed heavily. She closed her eyes for a moment to steel her nerves and rolled slightly forward.
"Chief." The little ATV said with deliberate precision. "We would like to go down to the lake to get a closer look at the Icon A5 that is currently parked down there. It is an extremely rare model, and I think it would be educational for all of us."
"Educational." Blade raised an eyebrow towards the smokejumper captain.
"Yes." Dynamite did her best not to allow a quiver to enter her voice. "I believe it would be educational."
"And what about the chore list." As Blade spoke, he allowed his eyes to sweep the base, allowing himself to pause slightly whenever he spotted a chore that had been left undone for far too long. "I believe my orders were that you and your team would not leave the base until you were caught up with all the chores."
"That is true." Dynamite didn't meet the helicopter's eyes. "But we know that the chores will still be here when we get back and we have no clue when we will get another chance to see an A5 up close…so I was hoping that we could make an exception?"
Blade's lips were pressed into a thin line and for a few rotor beats, all of the smokejumpers were convinced that slag was about to come raining down on them. Then the Chief spoke. "I suppose I might be able to make an exception…for education's sake."
There was a cheer that came from the jumpers, only to be quickly stopped by a cold look from the Chief.
"But if I give you an exception, there will be a cost." The helicopter looked each of his people in the eyes. "First, the procrastination of chores will end. You will have until the end of the week to have everything caught up, and you do not allow it ever to get this bad again. To ensure this doesn't happen again, there will be no TV, games, or outings until your chores are done for the day. Understood." There was a choir of yes. "Good. This brings us to our cost. I do believe that the main hangar is due for a new coat of paint."
"But…" Pinecone surprised everyone by interrupting the Chief in protest.
"But what?" Blade's voice was harsh and dangerous, daring any of the smokejumpers to argue with him. "You got yourself into this mess through your own procrastination. You can either deal with the consequences of your choices and miss this opportunity…or you can pay my price."
The smokejumpers didn't need to be told twice as they scampered to their hanger to grab their day backs and then headed at there best speed across the tarmac to the base's road. In under 15 minutes, there were off on their adventure.
"You know that you have gone soft." Maru chuckled as he rolled up on Blade, who was watching the brightly painted little dirt movers book it down the mountain.
"Really?" Blade smirked down at his friend. "How so?"
"You know, when you started as chief, you never would have bent the rules like that." The tug took a long drag of his coffee. "You would have put your tire down and not let it up until all of the work was done."
"I also would have micromanaged the heck out of them." Blade said with a shrug of his rotors. "But Cabbie did teach a few precious truisms about personal management."
"Oh…do tell."
"You catch more flies with honey than vinegar, unmotivated personal do shotty work, and always put a good crisis to work." Blade had a full smile stretched across his lips as he gave a deep chuckle. "I suspect that the smokejumpers will eventually regret going on this outing without getting their chores done first because I fully intend on burying them up to their axles with every task I can think of for the next two weeks."
Maru looked his friend up and down with an appraisal look. "You are a very cheeky devil."
"Thank you." Blade practically purred, then he gave his friend a wink. "Well, I better go be a good example for the jumpers and make sure that all of my chores are done before our ground pounders get back."
ICON A5: The Icon A5 is a small, two-person amphibious sport aircraft. This tiny flying boat is a relatively new on the market, with the first plane delivered to a customer in 2016. Currently, there is just over 100 of the little craft in operation. The Icon was designed to be easily transported, and as such, its wings can be folded back, and it can be loaded onto a boat trailer. This plane is also interesting because it has a whole airframe ballistic recovery system parachute that can help the aircraft safely make it to the ground in the case a catastrophic event in the air. This was an aircraft that was built with recreation in mind and is notoriously slow, with a max speed of 90 knots (~100 miles per hour).