Ever since the accident that destroyed most of her upper torso, her arms, a leg, and replaced them with cyborg parts she’d been one with the vehicle she drove. She could feel every part of it as if it had become her own body. The air around her and the ground below was more tangible than they’d been before. Thankfully, the pain receptors had never been implemented in her robotic parts. Someone could rip her arm off and she wouldn’t feel it. It was not standard procedure, pain does serve as a warning system, but she’d wanted it so she could race again. They’d told her that she shouldn’t, that there was no point for her to continue her career as a racer. Natalya had had enough money to live a life of some luxury for the rest of her days, but she’d spent the majority of it on the best cyborg parts she could afford.

Now she was finally back on the track, next to her enemy and speeding towards the finish line. Nat had kept a couple of her plasma cannons firing on the Phoenix’s vehicle for a while, but her shields appeared to have more stamina in them than she’d initially expected. The rear cannons were firing on everyone behind her, attempting to keep them at bay. It was doubtful anyone would be deterred by it for much longer when they were all nearing the finish line. They would get desperate, even though she’d already taken out at least two other racers in this race alone.

She noticed the Phoenix gaining speed, and heard Katya’s voice taunting her over the comms. “A few hundred years, and you’re still using ancient insults. Maybe you should get with the times.” All of her plasma cannons were aimed at the Phoenix’s rear, which should open a hole in the shields and give her a chance to use her harpoons. If she timed it right after hitting it with a harpoon, she should be able to carry out a maneuver that would spin the Phoenix’s vehicle around into the other racers. It’d require a lot from the Valkyr for her to win after such a stunt, but she’d rather make Katya lose than watch her win. The fans would love it as much as if either of them had won, maybe even more if it was played right in the media.

When she thought she saw the shields begin to give under the pressure her plasma cannons were putting on them, Nat aimed both of the harpoons at the spot they’d been firing at. It was tempting to shout an insult back at Katya at that moment, but she didn’t want her to realize what she was doing. She fired the harpoons and waited for them to connect, before she would try to execute the maneuver to spin them both around, then detach herself from the Phoenix when she had been turned the wrong way.

Katya remembered the crash well. Not a single moment in time passed where the the sound of shredding metal and blood-curdling screams didn't echo within the eternal valley that was her mind. Besides, this girl that was her sworn enemy and ultimate rival was still a human being and at one point in time her best friend, however she couldn't allow the rest of the galaxy and especially her fans to see the sensitivity and weakness that truly remained within her. Make no mistake however, Katya was known for being vicious on the track, It's true that she took the faster and less aggressive route when it came to racing, but this didn't stop her from shredding a fellow racer to scrap metal and finely shredded pieces of meat with overcharged plasma cannons, when it came to racing, she means business.

Although Natalya's crash ultimately wasn't her own fault, she still felt somewhat responsible for the harm that came to her. Of-course they both knew the dangers and risks of the sport but she couldn't deny that there was a certain beauty to the carnage and destruction, there is nothing more beautiful that a fusion reactor erupting after a few finely placed plasma shots. Perhaps to many this would sound wrong or barbaric, but this sort of attitude was required to survive in the sporting world of Purgatory, after-all, most of tough girl speech was just for show, but that didn't stop the fans from truly believing it.

Katya did this job for the thrill and the fame. Money is a powerful thing but it certainly didn't bring her much happiness, she didn't care about the prize money, she just knew that this current race no matter how it turned out would just bring her more fame and glory... And that honestly sounded good enough for her.





Her eyes gleamed, looking back to see the ferocious looking AF-MP1 Xeikil Gaining on her, it was a terrifying sight, especially when it was blasting the living shit out of her craft with Quad Furyx Plasma cannons, cannons which in their-selves were far heavier and more powerful than her own. She gritted her teeth as her heads up display flashed red, it was her rear shields, this was bad... She knew the Valkyr wasn't one to go easy on her.

She gasped as sweat flowed down from her brow, she knew something was about to happen, it was now or never. "Mack... I'm looking at the shield statistics, she's creating a precipice hole in the rear of my shield, this isn't the first time she's tried it but I have a feeling that the Xenya Harpoons are coming out to play.. How about we have some fun and surprise her... I won't win but it will be one hell of a show, right?"

"I'm not going to argue with you lass."

With the response, a smirk would come to the side of her lips, "Let's do this." she'd say calmly as her Pupils would quickly dilate followed by the twitching of her skin as the proximity alarm screamed out as the two terrifying harpoons erupted from the Xeikil and jettisoned their-selves towards the rear of Katya's craft, with literal milliseconds to spare she erratically reversed her Pulse-engines, extended all the air intakes and the breaking flaps, the G-Forces alone felt like hitting a solid concrete wall. As soon as she felt the harpoons penetrate the rear of her ship, with a loud scream and a twist of the stick she dropped from a thrust output of 100% down to around 20% and activated the left side thruster ports on full power. The resulting manoeuvre slingshots her directly behind the Valkyr and possibly dragging Natalya along for the ride as long as the cables didn't snap. "NOW!" Kat screamed as the engines elevated back to full thrust, following with all the flaps retracting and the engagement of the afterburner kicking in.

"I hope you like plasma" Katya would say directly to Valkyr as her two cannons would quickly charge up and begin a barrage of concentrated fire towards her craft.

At this point the announcer and the rest of the watching audience and fans were losing it, at the edge of their seats and literally screaming at the unfolding events, it was almost like some sort of religious chanting. In the close distance the finish line was in sight.... It was almost over and only time would tell if they would both make it through in one piece.

Natalya was surprised by the stunt that Katya pulled before she even had a chance to carry out her own plan, most of all because the EV-RG4 Momentum Aegis slowed down and got thrown behind her AF-MP1 Xeikil. She hadn’t expected Katya to surrender the victory that easily, especially not to her. Maybe the Phoenix had miscalculated some part of whatever she’d had in mind. Either way, Natalya detached the wires that connected the harpoons to both vehicles.

“Wrong call, has-been.” Natalya laughed into the comms. “Got those upgraded, no more unwilling attachment to the target for me.” The upgrade she really wanted for her harpoon guns was two-directional targeting. One to connect with an opponent’s craft, and one to connect with someone else or a wall. Nat had learnt the hard way that firing harpoons without any fast way to detach the wires from herself was a horrible idea. It could put as much of an obstacle

She didn’t expect it would stop Katya or anyone of the others from coming. In fact, she’d seen everyone gang up on the leader in moments like these, and the last thing she needed was a few missiles blowing her to pieces. Nat quickly checked her inventory for what weapons she still had left, and luckily there was a few mines ready to be deployed.

“I’m more of a fan of explosions.” She responded to Katya’s comment about plasma, as she felt the barrage of plasma bringing her shields down. She didn’t have much of a visual interface in her craft anymore. It had been made unnecessary when she learnt how to interface directly with the AF-MP1 Xeikil. Her consciousness was everywhere. Nat unloaded all of the remaining mines at the same time onto the track, and fired her own plasma cannons at them. Yes, it would cause quite the explosion. No, it wasn’t something she’d be able to avoid entirely. The one advantage she had was that she was in front of the explosion, and it would propel her towards the finish line.

Natalya felt her shields go down as the mines exploded. She ignored it for a second, hoping they would restore themselves, and routed power to the Z4 boosters which resulted in a lovely green explosion of fire behind her. The increase in speed was a shock to the senses, but not as bad as it had been once. It got incredibly hot inside the Xeikil, but she didn’t care if her skin melted off. She’d replace that as well if it did.

As soon as she’d crossed the finish line, which went by in a flash after she’d combined an explosion with boosters, Nat made a status check on her craft. The rear engine had taken major damage due to her stunt, as had the hull, and the shields were still recovering. Everything else seemed to be in order. She wouldn’t be able to race again before she’d fixed up her engine and hull. She’d won though, right? It was hard to tell what happened when everything went up in flames around you. There were other crafts that had passed the finish line, but there was clear devastation on the track after the explosion as well.

She breathed out and slowed down, as she waited for the results to appear on the scoreboard or from the announcer. Her AF-MP1 Xeikil was still more intact than a number of other crafts she’d finished a race with. Nat installed all of the upgrades on her own, and did all the repairs. She’d always been interested in assisting the mechanics on her team, but ever since gaining the cyborg connection system it felt odd to have someone else work on her crafts. It was too personal, and she could tell better than them what the damage was anyway. Not to mention that sabotage was rather common when anyone could pay off a mechanic.