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

[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."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Everything go okay? You sounded pretty pissed off with the ship," Yamato asks, glancing up from the data for a moment.

[childofrebellion]

"There's one connection designed in the stupidest way possible but I made it work. Going by how you fly, this should be the right calibration for you."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"'How I fly?'" Yamato asks, a little amused. "C'mon, you can't say that without going into detail."

He's not too worried about the connection or calibration. If Cassian says it'll work, he has no reason to believe otherwise.

[childofrebellion]

"You've got a light touch when you're flying and quick reflexes,"

A good combination and one that would make Yamato a dangerous starfighter pilot.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Aw, shucks," Yamato laughs. "Flattery will get you everywhere, I suppose. Do we have a route planned out for a second practice run?"