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]

"It's okay for the moment, but I haven't accelerated to top speed yet," Yamato says. "I'll be burning the afterburners to accelerate in a moment, we'll see how it handles then -- but you said you'd fixed the stiffness, so I'm sure it'll handle just fine."

[childofrebellion]

"Then if you're ready, let's see how the speed goes."

That and the handling will tell a lot about how everything goes.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Increasing thrust to fifty percent, giving a short burn on the afterburners," Yamato says, accelerating some. This was around the point where he first noticed the stiffness, but it's handling noticeably smoother this time around. "Handling's holding up okay for the moment."

[childofrebellion]

"Over, don't be afraid to push it."

There won't be time for that during the race, it has to be ready.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I'm not afraid to push it," Yamato chuckles in return. "Not thirty minutes ago you were cautioning me against flying directly at the ground at well over top speed, remember?"

[childofrebellion]

"Yes but now I know where you're headed and its not straight down."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Not yet."

That part of this practice run will come eventually, but Yamato does at least intend to make that sharp turn a little earlier.

"Don't worry, I'll be more careful with the descent this time. Don't want to fry those old nerves of yours before the race."

[childofrebellion]

"I don't want you crashing but thanks."

His nerves are used to difficult times.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Yeah, yeah, I know, if I crash, then Pan gets killed and you lose a contact," Yamato replies wryly. "All right, I'm preparing to make the approach to the first obstacles section of this route."

[childofrebellion]

"Over," He expects Yamato to be faster through on this run.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato curves towards the route on his nav-computer, burning the thrusters to give him a boost to top speed, and soars into the first obstacles section, an industrial area not too dissimilar to the one on the race route.

He ducks around most of the obstacles easy enough, keeping his movements light to avoid losing any speed, dodging each by the minimum amount of space possible.

[childofrebellion]

Cassian watches, Yamato's doing a good job of not giving any gaps or giving up any speed.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato is actually pretty quiet on the line, hyper-focusing on spinning around obstacles, keeping close to the ground or to walls -- in the actual race, he'd rather hope that doing that will ward off the more cautious racers from trying to cause problems for him, even though it'll probably present a golden opportunity for the more reckless or confident racers to try to force him to crash.

[childofrebellion]

Cassian approves of how he's flying and stays quiet, glad to see that hte handling is acting as it should.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Glad we did something relatively clear for the first route," Yamato murmurs. "If we'd done this before we'd found out about the stiff handling, I'd definitely have clipped something by now."

[childofrebellion]

"I thought it might be useful."

Time to practice is rare so Cassian thought out the routes to help the most.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"It was. And I appreciated having something easy for my first flight," Yamato says, ducking around a few more obstacles, almost skimming across them. "I'm, er. A tiny bit less nervous now."

Although only a tiny bit.

[childofrebellion]

"Over, some nerves are useful but not too many."

They're helpful for focusing.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Yeah, well, I'm not sure I have the perfect ratio of nerves to calmness yet, but I haven't crashed into anything yet, at least."

[childofrebellion]

"You'll get there. You have the flying down."

And that's the hard part.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Yeah, well, we'll see how my flying measures up against the other racers' when the actual race comes around," Yamato murmurs.

[childofrebellion]

"We will and I'll get you as much data on them as I can."

Yamato will be as prepared as Cassian can get him.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"What data do we have about them so far?" Yamato asks, weaving around an industrial laser cutter as it goes about its business of slicing metal.

[childofrebellion]

"Name, species, what type of ship they're flying and if they're flying for anyone,"

He'd like more but its a start.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Anyone particular I should look out for?"