Convention III-Yamato's practice flights

[childofrebellion]

They're on the edge of the city after hauling the ship in transport behind them. Now they're at a little used landing pad which one of Cassian's other connections told him about.

He sets up some lights as its late afternoon but night will be coming soon. The weather's clear and the city is a rosy glow on the horizon.

Comments

[childofrebellion]

"It should."

The way that this has become Yamato's focus worries Cassian. He knows that space travel isn't common in his world but building ships to survive re-entry is one of those pieces that has to be right.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato would say that his concern over it is entirely warranted: Atmospheric entry is, after all, a process that strips meteorites down into pebbles, among other things that usually involve explosions or violent acceleration.

"All right, I think I've been up here long enough. Preparing for the trip back down now."

[childofrebellion]

It is dangerous but in a new ship like Yamato's in, it shouldn't be a problem,

"I'll be following your progress."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Thanks," Yamato says.

He lets the ship's own inertia turn it over, enough that he can activate the afterburners and go blasting down towards the surface, the force of gravity amplifying its acceleration as it drops.

He does not that the ship is holding up okay, even as it punches through the thermosphere and down into the mesosphere, the air ahead of it lighting up orange as its heated up by his rapid descent.

Yamato is fairly quiet on the line, but on the inside, he is definitely feeling almost overwhelmingly excited.

[childofrebellion]

Cassian stays quiet, letting Yamato initiate communication again when he's feeling secure.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato keeps an eye on the ship's systems, watching how they hold up with the ever rising amounts of friction, heat, and g-forces. He's picking up speed fast, and before long he punches through into the stratosphere, and the stress on the ship starts to ease up a little.

"Through to the stratosphere," he says, "I'm going to keep accelerating downwards -- in the actual race, I'm going to have to make a pretty sharp turn as late as possible, and try to preserve as much speed as possible."

[childofrebellion]

"Understood and good idea. Want to make certain that its doing what it needs to for the race."

The cladding and everything seem to be holding up.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"That, and we want to be sure I can actually make that sharp turn," Yamato notes. "It's going to be difficult."

Turning on that sharp an angle while moving that fast is a recipe for colliding nose-first with the ground, after all.

[childofrebellion]

"I know, ones like that always are, but races like these always have them."

They add to the excitement and crashes.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Got to get the punters excited, after all," Yamato notes wryly, as the ship drops through the stratosphere.

He holds out until the last possible moment before he hits the ground, then swings the ship around, sharply curving just late enough that it throws up dirt and dust from beneath it as it gains altitude again.

[childofrebellion]

"Kriff," Cassian breathes out as he almost hits and makes the turn.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato laughs a little, throwing a grin at his comms unit.

"What, did you think I was going to crash?" He asks playfully.

[childofrebellion]

"Don't cut it that close, but good flying," That was reckless.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Fair point, I'll make the turn earlier next time," Yamato grins. "Anything else I need to cover in this first practice flight, or should I come back so that we can set up for the second?"

[childofrebellion]

"Come back for now so you can review it all."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"On my way, hold tight."

[childofrebellion]

"Understood,"

Cassian's hopeful so far but Yamato still has to land and there are a number of issues that can be improved.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Eventually, the ship comes swooping in, making a turn around the area to lose speed before settling above the landing pad and slowly floating down, deploying the landing gear and eventually settling into place.

Yamato clambers out almost as soon as the cockpit is open, shoulders tense and fingers flexing against the air.

"So, how'd it go?"

[childofrebellion]

"Good from my end. I'll show you how it looked from down here."

Cassian pulls up his data for the flight and shows it to Yamato.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Doing okay for speed, at least," Yamato says, looking over the data. "Didn't have any unwanted bursts of acceleration, either, so thanks for fixing that."

[childofrebellion]

"Now to get the handling fixed to where you want need it to be."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Thanks, that'll be useful. That handling could mean the difference between winning and losing."

[childofrebellion]

Cassian nods and moves to get inside the ship and see what he can do. There's a lot of data for Yamato to look over.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato gives Cassian some space while he works, going over the data and memorising it all instead.

[childofrebellion]

He knows what he needs to do but the ship isn't behaving so some cursing emerges from the engine before Cassian finally comes out, "I think that should do it."