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]

"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.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"If I push back more, I'll push someone straight into a canyon wall, or the side of a cave, or just send their shitty go-fast-who-needs-control ship into a tailspin," Yamato says, testily. "There's barely any room for error here, and we both know the actual race will be even more dangerous."

[childofrebellion]

"I know."

And Cassian doesn't have a good solution yet because at this point, there are too many factors that he can't control.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato gives a frustrated noise, rubbing his hands through his hair.

"Right, so I can't be as aggressive as them," he says. "So I'll just have to be more skilled. Skilled enough to make up the difference."

[childofrebellion]

"And we might be able to make some modifications on the ships to provide some assistance too."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"We could probably boost the speed, but that'll make it more difficult to control. It's already a finicky little thing," Yamato says. "I think I can keep up with it, though, if we do that."

[childofrebellion]

"I might have some ideas on how to improve that but we'll need to into the ship itself. And do a few runs there for the best adjustments."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato makes a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat.

"It's a trade-off, right? We can mess around with the delicacy of the controls, make them more stable, but we're going to lose some responsiveness if we do."

Leaving things as they are makes it difficult to control, changing things means it might not be able to make quicker, smaller movements.

[childofrebellion]

"Yes, there are always trade offs but the fact that your reaction time is so good will help."

Pan reenters the hangar, looking tired but satisfied as he walks towards them and the sim.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Now you're just trying to flatter me into letting you make the ship safer," Yamato notes wryly.

He gives Pan a quick nod of acknowledgement, turning towards him.

[childofrebellion]

"I wouldn't do that. I'd make it do what we needed it to." Cassian never makes his own ship safer, just mods it sometimes even taking things like hyperdrive limiters off.

Pan smiles and says, "You're in."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"That's one problem dealt with, at least," Yamato says, in response to Pan's announcement. "That just leaves us with -- ah, however many we have left."

[childofrebellion]

"Many, let's take a quick break to eat and then look over the ship. Do you have the route?" Cassian asks Pan who nods.

"Yes, I have it."