Convention with Yamato II

[childofrebellion]

A nice benefit of this hotel is they will bring caf up to their room in the morning along with breakfast to give them some privacy in the mornings.

Cassian has pulled up the itinerary of the day, "Part of our entry allows access to the hangar with the ships and that's up for today. So you can properly look into the engines."

Comments

[childofrebellion]

"Yes, the handling's sensitive but this should prepare you. I'll go get you entered. Thank you."

Pan's still slightly in shock as he goes back to Cassian and the ship. Where Cassian starts talking logistics of entering with him.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato doesn't climb into the sim yet. Instead, he leans against it, watching Pan and Cassian, and quickly running over the controls he saw on the ship in his head, marking out in his mind each one and what they do.

[childofrebellion]

Cassian's slipped into his neutral working face as he's trying to not get frustrated as the situation but finally a message is sent out, "Now you go and take care of the credits and I'll take care of this end."

Pan nods and they both come back over to the sim and says, "I have to go take care of some business but Willix knows what needs to be done here."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Good. I'll see you before the race. Stay safe."

[childofrebellion]

Pan nods and head out, not running but almost as Cassian leans against the sim, "You won't have much time. Do you still want to do this?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato sighs, lifting a shoulder in a shrug. "I don't plan on letting someone die over gambling debts of all things."

He cocks his head, folding his arms.

"Question is whether you want me to do this," he says. "We can talk about how much time we have or if there are any other plans all day, but in the end it comes down to whether you trust me or not. And your track record there isn't the strongest."

[childofrebellion]

"I know, I don't either. I do, I just wish there was a better plan."

And that he could be the one risking himself instead of Yamato who's already fighting one war. Trust is difficult but there are layers of trust and Cassian trusts Yamato to complete this mission.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Don't we all," Yamato says briskly. "Everything's fine so long as I win, right?"

No big deal, surely!

"All right, let's test this out," he says, climbing into a sim. "Can you bring up data for the legal race, or the legal races in previous years? I want to see what the winning time was, how many minutes and seconds the person in first place took."

[childofrebellion]

Cassian checks his datapad before adding the information to the sim,

"Previous winners will be up against your time."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato gives Cassian a quick headtilt.

"... You mean, in the sim, right? Not that the actual race is comprised entirely of previous winners?"

On one level, that sounds exciting enough to get Yamato's blood pumping. On another level, it makes the plan that much more difficult to pull off.

[childofrebellion]

"Yes, in the sim. I'm sure there will be some previous winners in the race, but not all of them. We can find out."

He knows the race will be talked about if they can find out the best place to listen.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Good, because while an all-winner race sounds really fun, that's the kind of thing where I'd rather a man's life not hang in the balance."

Nothing saps the joy out of competition like the looming threat of someone else's murder.

"All right, it's all loaded up. Keep an eye out for any ways I can cut time."

[childofrebellion]

"No, we want this to be exciting but not that way. I will."

He has possible routes to look over and will also follow along with the sim.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato shakes out his wrists and breathes out slowly, shuffling a little to get comfortable, then starts the sim.

He's used to practicing (intently, whenever he can, because Yamato's never done anything by half-measures) on Yokota Air Base's F-15 Eagle sims, or on Milliway's similar Eagle sims and its X-Wing and A-Wing sims, or (when he has enough cash for it) on commercial flight sims -- and luckily, this craft doesn't handle so differently from either an Eagle or an A-Wing. It's just more ... delicate.

He's pretty deft with it, dodging around obstacles and picking up speed as he flies from marker to marker, but he's also playing it somewhat uncharacteristically safe, avoiding taking too many risks.

When he finishes up, his time is pretty great -- compared against the list of winners' times, he sits somewhere in the middle -- but Yamato furrows his brow as the sim menu pops up.

"Twenty-nine-point-seven seconds short of the top time," he says.

[childofrebellion]

"I can see some places where you can shave off time, but this time let's add other racers in."

That will be useful for figuring out what's possible.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Yeah, let's," Yamato says, opening up his wrist computer and linking it up to the sim. "I'm going to randomise their behaviour along three axes: Aggression, Skill, and Creativity. That should give us a decent spread of the kind of stuff I might have to deal with."

[childofrebellion]

"And a variety of ships with different modifications."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Right. Hopefully that'll give me a wide range of situations to respond to. There's no way we'll be able to cover even a fraction of the possibilities, and we don't even know the full route, so the only thing to do is cover as many possibilities as we can and hope the stuff I learn is broadly applicable."

[childofrebellion]

"Its a beginning that we can build on with more intel. Ready?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Yeah, ready," Yamato says, settling his hands onto the controls. "Hopefully I can do this and cut down my time."

Although his expectation is that the complicating factor of other pilots means that he'll be losing time.

[childofrebellion]

The other pilots crowd him, some darting ahead, others pushing for space so that its harder to get to the best line on the course.

Cassian watches and winces as one pilot ends up taking another one out with a side swipe.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato's accustomed to the course by now, enough that he's deft enough at darting around the other pilots, or tricking them with clever manoeuvres.

He is, however, hamstrung a little by his unwillingness to actually take out any other pilots with more brutal tactics -- these ones may just be AIs, but since he'd be unwilling to use those kinds of tactics on living pilots, using them here would be pointless.

He manages to keep pace with the pilots at the very front, but every time he looks like he's about to overtake, someone gets in his way and forces him to cleverly dance around them to avoid being smashed into a wall.

There's three laps in the race, and as he rounds the second lap into the third, he's fifth out of twenty racers, but struggling to get any further ahead than that.

[childofrebellion]

Cassian frowns as he can see that Yamato isn't being as ruthless as he could be. One of the other pilots bumps Yamato's tail trying to get him off balance.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato darts away from that bump, arcing about to evade that other pilot, but it costs him another opportunity to get into fourth place. By the time he's halfway through the third lap, he's still in fifth place, with the more aggressive pilots consistently making sure he never gets out of that spot.

Just before the race ends, he manages to just about overtake the pilot ahead of him, and as he passes the finish line he's just about in fourth place.

As the sim goes back to the menu, he gives a frustrated growl, leaning back against the seat.

[childofrebellion]

"That was a tough race. I think you need to push back more."

Cassian looks around the hangar to see who might be listening and to see if Pan's come back.