"YAYYYY!" Koto exclaimed ecstatically. Everyone turned to glare at her again. "I mean, yayyy!" she said in a much quieter, though still extremely enthusiastic manner.
"Oh, Koto." said Marckus, "What are we going to do with you?"
"Nothing right now," Jesiach replied. "Let's get ready, people." Jesiach looked down at Voudka, who was still kneeling on her left knee. "All set?" he inquired.
"Mmhmm," Voudka answered with a determined smile. Marckus and Jesiach walked over and picked the launcher up off the ground, placing it as comfortably as they could onto Voudka's right shoulder. Voudka gave a nod so everyone would know she was all set.
"Alright everybody, this is it." Marckus stated. He then grabbed a firework rocket from the big pile laying nearby on the ground and loaded it into the barrel. "Take it away, Voudka."
Voudka took a deep breath, which she exhaled slowly. Then she said, "Okay...let's see how far this baby can shoot."
She fired the launcher. It let out a thunderous BOOM that made the ground beneath their feet rumble and shattered the silence that they'd been trying so hard to maintain. Not to mention, the rocket itself let out a deafening shriek as it shot towards the fortress. Voudka was sure they could hear all of this over at Aerie Peak, but they'd been pre-emptively informed of the endeavor (and told explicitly several times that their assistance would not be necessary, though the offer was appreciated), so all was well. Furthermore, the recoil was somewhat substantial, but they'd anticipated that and so Serac stood directly behind Voudka so that he could help keep her upright if the jerk back was ever too much after a launch.
They continued to watch the firework shoot farther and farther into the higher levels of Jintha'alor, until they both saw and heard the explosion upon impact. With this explosion came an array of outward spreading red and gold sparkles. It could very well have been the start of a Lunar Festival celebration right in the heart of Jintha'alor. But it reality, it was anything but.
Marckus bent down to grab another rocket and loaded it into the launcher. No sooner did Voudka yell out a preliminary "Clear!" did the rocket burst out of the business end of the launcher and rush towards the fortress, its trajectory a little to the right of the first rocket's. When they saw the second explosion, Voudka said, "And that's the end of the Chiefs' Quarters." She chuckled a little bit before continuing, "You know? I'm not usually one for wanton destruction, but this is too much fun."
"Stay focused, Voudka." Jesiach advised.
"Of course, Malv." Voudka assured. "But you gotta admit this does have quite the entertaining element to it."
"Of course." Jesiach replied, with a fleeting hint of glee in his tone. "But all the same, stay focused. This isn't target practice in the Tanarian desert. We're here doing this for a reason."
"Like I don't know that!" Voudka retorted as a third rocket, loaded by Marckus, shrieked its way towards the soldiers' barracks. "I'm all good here, Malv! Just let me do my job."
"Very well," Jesiach said in a lowly tone as he loaded the launcher once more. "Carry on."
Voudka let out a deep sigh as she aimed with the scope and fired the fourth rocket of the day. Since coming back as a Death Knight, Malv was certainly not the same Malv that existed before. Still, everyone had already grown accustomed to the new Malv...and Voudka couldn't help but feel like...well, like she was developing something almost like romantic feelings for the guy. The new guy. As bizarre as that sounds. She knew he just wanted everything to go smoothly - it wasn't that he didn't trust her ability to wield her launcher. So she shrugged off his...whatever it was (doubts? anxiety? care and concern?), and kept her mind on the present task. Blowing up the upper levels of Jintha'alor.
This phase of the plan was going rather smoothly. With each successful rocket strike, the fortress was thrown further into chaos. With the chiefs and military personnel either dead or in disarray, the entire fortress was entirely too preoccupied to send a band of soldiers out into the field to confront Voudka and gang. The surviving soldiers were busy escorting any surviving chiefs to safety, as well as to help all those in the residential sectors (the lower levels) do the same.
With each successful rocket strike, a primary target was hit, as well as several surrounding secondary targets as well. Whereas fireworks are normally shot upward into the sky and the colorful sparks fade out before hitting the ground, here the sparks were actually setting nearby huts and such ablaze. Nowhere was safe. Nowhere was unreachable for the launcher.
"Make sure yeh don't hit everything, Voudka!" Serac shouted from behind Voudka. "Jag 'n Jaina er somewhere in there."
"Don't you think I know that?" Voudka replied while Marckus loaded another firework into the launcher. "The plan, if you recall, is to aim for the upper levels. Draw the population up or away from the residential zones where we think they might be holding Jag and Jaina." she continued, sounding like she was reciting a mantra she'd known by heart for years. She fired the newly loaded rocket and watched as it shot a little to the left of the trajectory she'd intended for it to travel. "I can't help it if the fireworks have plans of their own!" she shouted over the increasingly distant-sounding shriek.
"Boy, everyone's so anxious and tense about this." she thought. "Is there something wrong with me since I'm not?" This line of thinking began to distract her away from the focus Jesiach had practically demanded of her just minutes earlier, but then she turned and saw Kotonoha standing southeast of her own position, jumping up and down excitedly at the site of the fantastically destructive fireworks display that she was performing live on Jintha'alor, and realized that she wasn't the only one enjoying this phase of the rescue.
Voudka continued launching fireworks into the ancient fortress for another five or so minutes, until it was Marckus' turn to reload and instead of walking up with another rocket, he came to her side and said with an air of anticipation as he patted the side of the launcher a couple of times, "and that, is all the fireworks."
Hearing this, Koto stopped jumping up and down like a jackrabbit, exhibiting a momentary sad face, as Voudka replied in a serious tone, "Then I guess it's time for phase two." She slid the heavy launcher off her shoulder onto the ground and began making a circular motion with her entire right arm, shaking off the sudden pins and needles. Then, as Serac and Marckus picked the launcher up from the ground, Jesiach came over and helped Voudka to her feet. They shared a moment of just looking into each other's eyes, and she could feel his apology, as he could feel her forgiveness. Meanwhile, Serac and Marck had brought the launcher over to a large, narrow chest that lay camouflaged in the middle of the field, just a few feet from where they stood. They gently placed the launcher into the chest, and then as Marckus went to lock it, he wondered, "I hope my custom key lock is good enough."
"I don't care if it isn't." Voudka replied, surprising everyone. "Let's go get Jag and his wife. He alone is worth more than all the custom-engineered firework launchers in the world." No sooner had she finished speaking were her weapons unsheathed and she briskly running towards the fortress. The others were not far behind.
And with that, the second storming of Jintha'alor was underway.

* * *