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]

"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?"

[childofrebellion]

"The Corellian pilots and ships, they're always fast and sneaky. Anyone flying for the Hutts will be ruthless and might have unexpected additions to their ships."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Corellians and people flying for the Hutts, got it," Yamato says. "How many of each are we looking at?"

[childofrebellion]

"Not too many, twenty racers in all but you'll only have about five to concern yourself with."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Right. That sounds doable," Yamato says, with a quick nod, ducking around another laser cutter. "Twenty people to beat, and I just need to watch out for five of them."

[childofrebellion]

"It is and once you're back on the ground, I'll share all I know with you. I'm hoping to get more intel before the race."

He knows some possible places to listen and learn more.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Looking forward to it. Whatever intel you can get will be useful," Yamato says. "Don't worry if you can't get much, but -- you are the expert here on getting intel, I'm sure you'll get plenty."

[childofrebellion]

"Thank you, I'll get all I can. We've got the space here for a while, so you can practice as long as you need."

Cassian doesn't want to rush Yamato.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Got it. I've got a few more practice runs in me yet."

And, well, Cassian's seen how much Yamato can end up practising when he's determined to get things right.

They'll be here for a while.