The Race

[childofrebellion]

The stands are a mixture of good quality and finding seats where you can. Thanks to the help of Pan, Cassian was able to get Barry, Cisco and Gabe seats with a good view of what's visible of the track and then the screens showing the other sections.

Cassian's down with the ships with Yamato, Pan came by to help them but is now up in the stands.

Comments

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Okay. Let's get into position."

Starting up the ship and getting it out of the garage is easy enough. Once he's out there, Yamato settles at the starting line, ready to hit the accelerator as soon as the starting horn sounds.

There's an unpleasant, gnawing anxiety in his chest, less because of any danger and more because of the idea of failing in front of a crowd -- and a crowd that has people he cares about in it, too. He tries to keep it down, taking a few deep breaths, listening out for the sound of the race starting.

[childofrebellion]

There aren't stalls or anything for the ships so there's some jockeying for position as they reach the line. The crowd yells as they see their favorites until there's a shout from the loudspeakers, "Go!"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato avoids most of the jockeying, settling in the least favourable position, furthest back and behind all the other ships. It's only fair, after all: He's the latecomer who only signed up at the last minute, so if anybody has to start from disadvantageous position, it's him.

As soon as he hears the shout, he hits the accelerator, picking up speed as he heads down the first section of the course. Despite starting in last place, he starts overtaking ships quickly, weaving gracefully (if a little recklessly, dodging each ship he encounters by only a couple of feet) around them, going from sixteenth place to fifteenth, fourteenth, thirteenth, twelfth ...

By the time he starts drawing up on the first obstacles section of the course, he's just about hit ninth place.

[childofrebellion]

As soon as the ships get slightly beyond the stands, the jockeying is more intense. One ship uses deflector shields to try and clear space around it.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

It takes Yamato until he reaches that first obstacle section to encounter that ship using its deflector shields, which is about the worst time to encounter it.

He ducks and dances around the obstacles easily enough, even if a laser cutter or two veer dangerously close, but every time he tries to get ahead of that ship, those deflector shields block his way, and if he tries to move any further around it he'll run straight into a blockade or a piece of industrial equipment.

He gives a short snarl as his third attempt to fly around that ship is blocked by its shields, before forcing his frustration down, trying to keep an eye out for any kind of opening to get around it and ahead.

[childofrebellion]

Yamato's not the only one who doesn't like those shields. A ship with spikes on it comes from above and rams the shielded ship, the shields sputter out.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

That's all the opportunity Yamato needs. As soon as those shields sputter out, Yamato darts through the space where the shields were. There's a visible shower of sparks as some of the spikes from the other ship scrape over the top of his hull and the glass of the cockpit, but no serious damage other than some scored cladding and a long scratch along the cockpit.

He keeps a mental tally in his head of where he is in the race, as he keeps darting through obstacles: Eighth place, now seventh place, and with the next ship to overtake just a little ways ahead.

[childofrebellion]

Just past the obstacles another ship uses some not completely legal engines to pull ahead but their steering is wobbly as they dart ahead.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato's glad that ship waited until they were out of the first obstacle section to kick those engines into high gear -- that wobbly steering would have got them killed otherwise.

As it is, though, they've pulled ahead of him and shunted him back down to eighth place, and he doesn't plan on letting that stand.

He gives the afterburners a quick burn, surging forward until he's flying alongside that ship, then slowly inching ahead until he's ahead of them, even if he is aware of them nipping at his heels.

The course veers upwards now, into its ascent towards the upper atmosphere, and he swings about sharply to start flying straight up.

[childofrebellion]

In space the race changes as everyone positions themselves, using the room to bring in afterburners. There are some unexpected obstacles in some space debris that's drifted into the course.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato hits his afterburners and rushes forward, darting around pieces of debris as he goes, leaving trails of coloured light behind him. As he catches up with a ship ahead of him, he curves around it, giving an easy barrel roll as he goes.

Sixth place, he counts down in his head.

Then the course is heading down again, back towards the surface, and he turns sharply to start rocketing down through the atmosphere, picking up more and more speed with every second as the air around the nose of the ship heats up to a burning orange.

[childofrebellion]

On their way through the atmosphere, most of the ships are giving each other space, but one tries to dart ahead.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato grimaces as it overtakes him and shunts him back into seventh place, and gives chase, using the speed picked up by plummeting downwards to draw up alongside the other ship, until the two are spiralling around each other, taking turns overtaking each other.

As the ships start nearing the ground, this part of the race rapidly turns into a game of chicken: Pulling up and out of the descent earlier means less risk of crashing, but pulling out later means more time to build up speed.

Yamato runs the calculations in his head and holds out for as long as mathematically possible, getting dangerously close to flying nose-first into the ground at the top speed, before he turns sharply out of his descent, slingshotting ahead of the ship that overtook him and the next ship ahead.

Fifth place.

Then he's flying into the narrow cave system, rapidly gaining on the ship in fourth place just ahead.

[childofrebellion]

Back in the garage, Cassian holds his breath as Yamato descends until he pulls up. The comms don't work as well in the cave system which means other than the camera droids, its quieter. This is where a few more tricks come into play, briefly lighting up and shaking the caves.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato holds his own during one or two flashes of light and one or two violent shudders of the cave -- it's when both come at the same time, a flash of light bright enough to momentarily blind him, and a sharp shaking of the cave, that he's in trouble.

He just barely avoids a pillar of rock, a shower of sparks flying from the hull of his ship as he skates across it. The force of it nearly sends him careening into the nearby cave wall, and it takes all of his skills to control the ship enough not to crash straight into it, instead scraping one wing over the wall with another shower of sparks.

It all only takes maybe two seconds at most, and then he's back in control, zooming ahead through the caves, but that's still enough time for the fourth place ship to put some distance between them.

[childofrebellion]

As the ships emerge from the cave system, Cassian radios out, "Status?"

There's space now to gather up speed as they head back towards the starting line.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Paintwork's looking pretty bad, cladding's taken some damage, and the stabilising flaps on the left wing are banged up," Yamato rattles off in reply. "Nothing too bad, though, the ship's still fully operational."

He's gaining on the fourth place ship, but since it's picking up speed too, Yamato doubts he'll be able to overtake it before the second lap of the race starts.

[childofrebellion]

"Good, if you need it, I'm ready to do any quick repairs."

A couple of ships are pulling away into their garages for some fast fixes.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Yeah, let's get some of the cladding damage sealed shut and replace this stabilising flap," Yamato says, pulling into the garage for a pit stop.

The cladding on the bottom and wing of the ship was scored pretty badly, after all. He doesn't want to get up to space and find that the damage is bad enough for the ship to start losing heat.

[childofrebellion]

By the time that Yamato lands, Cassian has the supplies he needs out including a spare flap.

He's working as fast and efficiently as he can, "Test the flap and then you're good to go."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato gives the flap a quick test, then gives Cassian a thumbs up to indicate that it's working.

Then he accelerates out of the garage, rejoining the race for the second lap as the other ships also accelerate out of their own pit stops.

He's still in fifth place, with a significant gap between him and the fourth place ship, but over the first leg of the lap, he works on closing the distance.

By the time they're at the first obstacle section, he's practically alongside them, and as that first obstacle section finishes and they start their ascent up towards space, he overtakes them with a burst of speed.

Fourth place, he mentally notes, readjusting his mental map of the race and its competitors.

[childofrebellion]

Up ahead, speeds change once again as everyone adjusts to space. Afterburners come out and one ship has stronger ones, that they'd been holding off using.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato growls as that ship pulls ahead of him, leaving him back in fifth place as it rushes ahead.

He kicks his own afterburners into maximum output, giving chase and managing to keep on its tail, even if he doesn't catch up just yet.

It's when they enter the descent back down towards the surface that he starts making gains. He keeps his afterburners activated, gaining more and more speed, far more than his last dive down, and as he does he starts overtaking ships.

Fourth place, he notes as he overtakes one, before spiralling around and overtaking another. Third place.

He keeps getting faster, and when he pulls out of the dive -- as late as he did in the last lap, but with the added speed this time around sending dust and rocks flying up in his wake -- he slingshots ahead of another ship.

Second place.

He can see Altax's ship now, as they enter the caverns, although it still has a hefty lead over him. He does, at least, switch off his afterburners as he enters the caves, letting himself slow down a little.

[childofrebellion]

Cassian holds his breath during that perilous entry down and waits for the comms after the caverns. In the caverns, Altax is taking a slightly different route that shaves a few moments off his time.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato considers following him, but these tunnels are so narrow that he doubts there would even be any room to pull ahead of the other racer.

Instead, he takes the same route as before. This time, he knows what to expect, and despite the flashing and shaking in the caverns, he manages not to lose control or scrape up against obstacles.

Nevertheless, Altax's shortcut means that by the time they've both emerged from the caves, his lead over Yamato has grown significantly.