"Yeah, all right," Soldier said with a bit of a grumble. He rather thought the maggot was stalling, but one more demonstration wouldn't hurt him. Much, anyway.

Soldier leveled his weight out and then said, "Watch how I time this." He jumped, marking his ascent with an "up!" and his fall with a "down". "Up, down! Up, down!" He did this a few times, to get Sid acclimated to the rhythm. Then he aimed his rocketlauncher at his feet, jumped and fired as he said "Up!"

And up he went.

"Doowwwwnnn!" Soldier shouted as he fell back to earth with the usual cracking noise.

"All right! Your turn, private!" he said with an encouraging boisterity that did not belie the fall damage he'd taken.