[color=gold][center][h2][i][b]Off Camber[/b][/i][/h2][/center][/color] [img]https://cdn-2.motorsport.com/images/mgl/68yJvoQ0/s8/dynisma-dmg-1-motion-simulator-1.jpg[/img] [center][h2][i][b]Jamie Hart[/b][/i][/h2][/center] [b]Soundtrack: [url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJup2MD7MM8 ]PINES - Lost[/url] [/b] Jamie sat at the terminal, running the sims, running it all again. A terrible result in qualy, and the pressure was mounting. Auckland was below par. South Africa had an incident that internally, had been under review, and was sketchy. And now, a terrible qualifying session, not even making the top ten. But one he was going to figure out, one way or another, as he seemed pensive, plugged in, quite literally, running the lap back, again and again. "You alright?" Callum Wallace, his Lancashire-accented Race Engineer said, looking over, the vacant look in the Canadian's face revealing it all, for a moment out of the system. The blonde haired, slim Canadian seemed to be a little withdrawn, even though he knew that in his heart, he had to stay upbeat. In his third year, after two at Nordic Call as the cream of their most recent crop, competing with Astrid, he had to admit, he wasn't here. Competing with Amy was scary. Having a lot of new augs, from his synthetic eyes to the new heart, it felt like something inside of him was lost, yet...somewhat not entirely replaced by what had gone in. "The lap wasn't good enough. I get it, Amy ain't on pole, but...that wasn't there. And I don't understand how. It's like nothing I can do works. And I'm on her setup." Jamie said, frustrated, the young Canadian's pale face clashing with his short blonde hair, a pair of clean augmented legs and hands clashing against the tight silvery-white of his race suit, adorned with Silver Apex's litany of sponsors, and clean, smooth industrial design. "Well, look at where you lost time. Jamie, you're overdriving the ship. Copying her setups won't work. You nearly binned it in Sector 3 on that hairpin, that flutter cost you seconds, and making it up elsewhere isn't going to work. Take a moment, mate, run it back again, smooth and to your setting." Callum had clearly said this before, but well, it had to be repeated. "I know, I know. It feels like the ship's built around her, you know. How do I put it.....the ship is ridiculously twitchy. It's like it wants to handle like a needle, the ELS shoots hard rather than smoothly ramps, and the cornering is just lucid. The sims I can keep up, but in reality, it's like there's something missing, that no neural link setting I have will ever do properly. Like I can't find that last bit to tame the ship." Jamie's words felt concise, yet Callum knew the deep root of him. "Well, it is. But you need to adjust. This isn't a Nordic Call ship, this is a thoroughbred, race-winning ship, and Amy's got it to such a fine tolerance, you'll need to get close to that to make the most of it, or else you'll never push it. That's what your augments are for, and we knew a few races would be ropey. Chin up. You need to focus on that, just get comfortable. Overdriving isn't going to help." Callum said, as Jamie nodded. "Yeah. Got it, Cal. I'll go back in." Jamie replied, as he sighed, instead of that, taking a look at his glass phone. Half redundant with a neural link as powerful as Silver Apex's spec, but well, able to link together. Sitting up, he looked into the abyss, outside the window of the trailer, watching on at the rain come back. He brought up links of the commentary going on, and immediately turned it off, not wanting to hear it. His phone on that note, buzzed, the text coming up. With a sigh, he replied. Dad. Back home in Saskatoon. He was just as curious on how things were going, and with a message back, he put his phone back, and plugged back into the sim. And again. And again. Each corner. Each little bit the ship he tried to bring in, and it was a fight, not a sail. He wondered if Astrid was right. This was a big step. A big move. And he felt alone, even in spite of that text. He had so much more to do, and even if there was time on his side, he knew how they were here. There had to be something he could do. [hr] [center] [h1][b] Round 3 of Formula Anti-Gravity Racing Sunday April 2nd, 2094 Race Day Japanese AGP Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan 2000 JST [/b] [/h1] [/center] [center][img]https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ilKjtTjvIjE/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEhCK4FEIIDSFryq4qpAxMIARUAAAAAGAElAADIQj0AgKJD&rs=AOn4CLB3g2vhiaapOqKymgdjoS2wYsxn-w[/img][/center] [color=gold][center][h2][i][b]Midnight Club[/b][/i][/h2][/center][/color] [center][h2][i][b]Amy Stirling[/b][/i][/h2][/center] [b]Soundtrack: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZog1xSt7ng]Art of Rally OST: Race[/url] [/b] The commentators were in position, Rory and Rosie providing the feed to the audience at home. Not that it mattered, the Delta Hyper camera following Amy on this one, the view from behind her helmet transposing into her first person view. The rain was fully in force, and even with a neural link, the pilots could hear it clattering against the windowed cockpits. Of course, with an in-built repulsor for cockpit safety, it intermittently activated and sometimes spat the water away when a collision was possible or close in a manner that was akin to a windscreen wiper on steroids, but more rainy water replaced it fast enough, draining across the nanite-reinforced polyglass on the ship tiself. No spray emitted from the rear of the ships, but with the night sky in Shibuya's neon glow, it meant that the amount of rain meant you relied more upon neural aspects than you would your eyesight. Looking through rain meant a reliance on the ship's various systems, and something of pilot skill. An equaliser, that somewhat negated the ships themselves, and rewarded pilots who were both brave, and consistent. And for Amy, it felt like another night to set things straight. The half British, half Korean pilot exhaled, hearing the murmur in her ears, the ship rolling on the start line, her breaths almost in tandem with the ship's gentle hum. Four. Three. Two. One. As the lights went out, Amy shot off the line, using her pole position advantage to maintain the lead. Kais, though, was right on her tail, refusing to let her build a gap. Harrison and Astrid slotted in behind, the top four already beginning to separate from the chasing pack. However, it didn’t take long before Kais made his intentions clear. In a daring move, he swooped past, rushing by with a well-timed ELS move in the tunnel section, in even way she wouldn't have seen coming. It was an audacious overtake, and whatever Kais was doing, it seemed like he was on the ragged edge of the ship. Not clean with the ELS, more as if he was just finding tenths that just couldn't be found by anyone else in Sector 2 and 3, and in the section around Shibuya, even in spite of the ship's lesser handling capabilities. Behind them, chaos ensued. In the midfield, Jamie immediately began climbing through the grid, making swift work of Ava and Dorian. Bea made impressive progress, clawing her way up from 13th to break into the top 10 early on, remarkably, not through the use of ELS but pure pace on the straights of the Shuto expressways and Sector 2, which rewarded the Carrera Condor's pace. It was like watching someone with a mission charge, still giving it everything with a ship that certainly felt on edge. Not much strategy, just attack, all the way. But whatever the crew at Carrera Condor had done, they'd gotten the strategy right for Bea, and she'd delivered. As the race reached its midpoint, tension was palpable. The tight corners and technical sections of the Tokyo circuit demanded precision, and a single mistake could prove costly. For the front-runners, the battle for the podium intensified. Amy was zoned in, yet she now found herself under immense pressure from Harrison and Astrid, who were fighting, the latter in particular using her ELS in a way that almost seemed incredible, her poor ship speed made up for by the electrical whine that screamed, a slow burn that on its current setting, offset the speed loss with how well she was stealing it from Harrison and Amy. Harrison made an aggressive move in the sector by Tokyo Tower, squeezing past Amy to take second place, yet Astrid capitalised on the moment of the two bickering. She surprised everyone by darting through an opening and sliding past on a full dump of the electrical power, rocketing her Nordic Call ship into second place with a bold double-overtake that had the crowd on their feet. And she held it. Astrid did not relent in letting Amy past, defending from each ELS surge, using her energy to sap out Amy's, whilst defending from Amy's efforts to take it back by knowing when to push forwards, and when to hold up traffic. It was the only way to win- the speed differential was significant, even if the rest of the ship was giving Astrid what she wanted. Further back, Layla found herself in a fierce scrap with Nora. The two had been battling since the start, and by Lap 10, they were dogfighting over fifth place. Nora eventually managed to edge ahead, but not without several close calls that had both crafts brushing the barriers. Layla may have been better on ELS, but Nora kept up through pure pace alone, making her ship count where it had to. Paul also put in a commendable performance, finishing 8th after a quiet but solid race. Meanwhile, Ulrich from MMR achieved a respectable 7th place, his best finish this season, as he capitalized on being a master of ELS and using it to pick the lock of Cassie, Han and Paul. The setup of Zygon in Japan was not living up to at all what the ship should have, or could have done- whatever it was, the pilots just didn't have the right edge here, and neither did Valkyrie, with Dorian making no ground at all, if anything, dropping back after getting rinsed on the straights and never making it up in ELS. The same was true of Bjorn Waldgard, whose lack of ELS experience meant he couldn't put the Nordic Call ship to use, and Ava had felt the same, just unable to make the most of Carrera Condor's ELS to push through, especially since Jamie Hart had been forcing overtakes in a ship that felt like it was being driven by someone after a few too many Canadian Clubs. Cassie should have done better too, given her experience, but it hadn't come to avail. Max Wedgewood, considering his team-mate's performance wasn't giving it much either. The results were perhaps not a shocker, but some pilots had clearly gained massively, some had lost, and nobody had crashed, even if a few had perhaps not made the most of the rain and not kept up their pace. But nobody perhaps was more enthralled than Kais, who Amy could see in front, her disappointment visible on her face, inside the cockpit. She sighed out hard, listening into the click of her comms bring her race engineer into audio. "P2, Amy. Not much more you could have done there. Bring it back to pit." Amy heard from her race engineer, Keira's voice reassuring, even though she knew Amy wouldn't react in turn. "Yeah....good for him. Taking it back in now." Amy seemed a little disillusioned, but still, didn't want to come across sore. And P2 was good. Brilliant. But no undefeated season for her this time around, it seemed. She hoped she'd get one someday, but well, this ship wasn't going to do that. And she was going to need to defend. [hider=Race Results for Tokyo] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qF6cn-eA0G0sumgf79TvEnPjOHyQP-vZSFV6LNrn_OY/edit?usp=sharing [/hider] [hr] [color=gold][center][h2][i][b]Cooldown: Tokyo[/b][/i][/h2][/center][/color] [b]Soundtrack: [url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjNgZ55vTAA]Art of Rally OST: Kanagawa[/url] [/b] The feeling felt almost cobalt, given Amy wasn't on top. Astrid had actually broken, she was actually smiling, actual, genuine emotion was on her face, given this was just beyond her wildest dreams. And Kais? Well, he was...well, we'll leave that to him. Astrid watched on, looking at the overtakes, giddy even. "Told you I'd be back. Right track, right time." Astrid said to nobody in particular, watching her overtake Amy, then Harrison as they tangled over 3rd, and her finding it easy as ever to just dump the entire ELS store in one straight, capitalising on the ship's ability to accelerate on boost rather than outright speed. An impressive overtake, many, many laps in the making and well thought out strategy-wise. Compared to Kais, who looked like he was very much skating on ice at places, but something he was doing, well, it was clear he was benefitting from what Al-Saqr had done to the ship. It was more stable, and cornering even tighter than before, but that speed was what defined it, the look of the white and green ship roaring on the highways an iconic sight, bursting in and out of tunnels, and leaving a trail of disturbed water behind it, almost like a wave chasing his ship with the amount of rain, and the suction of the aero and the pulverising effect of the pulse engines. Amy shrugged, brushing her platinum-blonde hair, with a green fleck in it from her stylist's personal recommendation over her shoulder, looking over to the Egyptian supersoldier. "Not bad at all. Kais, fair play to you though. Pushing on like that.....I wonder if you were flying through your neural dampers or something, pushing that glass cannon that hard!" Amy half knew something was a little fishy with Al-Saqr's neural dampers. Did she know all of it? It was impossible to tell, as a steward came through, Amy nodding in response, and the group moving through. She wasn't afraid of Kais. Supersoldier or not, she'd be able to handle them. Walking through the small tunnel, the three headed out onto the podium, non-alcoholic champagne at the very top step for Kais. What triumph must have felt like in that moment, for the most unexpected P1, was well, something that must have felt like a childhood dream. Like a lifetime of impossiblity had come to a reason here. The drones took camera shots, and the crowd upon his announcement went wild, even more so than Amy's. It was like someone had broken the deadlock for this season, proven she wasn't invincible, and his talk had been justified. The Meteor had crashed the party. If there was talk that Kais was perhaps the weaker of the new rookies, right now, he'd smashed every expectation. Set things on fire, metaphorically speaking, and this moment was his, and Astrid was just as over the moon, hugging him after the champagne was popped, so much was her extraversion out after this. A complete 180 from what sometimes was seen, but then again, from poor results to this, well, that was the other story below that of Kais's victory. [hr] [color=gold][center][h2][i][b]Analysis with Rosie Appleyard[/b][/i][/h2][/center][/color] Rosie sat up in the chair, this time her position in the analysis box brought in to think over the race. Her pale skin, and pink hair clashed against her press vest, looking on at Aurora, and coming back at her question. "Kais Zenix. Now that was not a name I expected to hear of the rookies winning first. After a bit inconsistency, what he's doing in that ship is incredible, especially on a circuit maybe that wouldn't have suited him. It may be unstable, but he seemed to push lap after lap, finding a flow that certainly will raise other title contenders hairs." "Then, I guess there's Astrid. Nordic are a midfield to backmarker team this season from their outline results, and whatever they did, they found a setup that she just nailed, and Astrid's ELS talents coupled to that ship were always going to be a threat here. They found what they needed to do, and everyone knows just how that Nordic Call ship has been built to her spec. Is it weakness in Amy to let up to those two? Or, just perhaps she's been unable to fight against that many people who are coming for her crown, yet holding a podium in spite of the fact so many teams were coming close, seems remarkable. Not being able to hold pole after the start perhaps shows the ELS on that Silver Apex ship isn't as good as we thought, but, never rule her out for future races. Then Nora. It's hard to say how she couldn't make more out of her ship, but still an admirable performance. And after that, Bea coming back from 15th to 9th, is just proof she's also got talent. Shame about Valkyrie and Zygon, I think a lot of people expected more, and no doubt their Team Principals are scratching their heads over getting dented by some smaller players." "Any favourites for Italy?" "Speed, and handling on a circuit that feels more like a road course than a proper circuit. I'd say Nora, Kais and Bea are in for a rematch. But not if Amy has anything to say about it." [hr] [color=gold][center][h2][i][b]Delta Hyper Post Race Interviews: Sponsored by the Anti-Social Social Club[/b][/i][/h2][/center][/color] [@MrSkimobile] Aurora had Kais first to interview, the actual, in person, real life Aurora, rather than some hologram out here under a rainy parasol in the paddock, beneath the glowing lights of Shibuya Central. "Kais, what a race! Your very first P1 and what a way to lay down a marker, it looks like you came within a tenth of a second of the circuit record on Lap 5! How are you feeling after that incredible effort and your first win?" [hr] [@Sylvan] "Nelly, you and Layla were fighting the entire way, it looks like you certainly have your way with ! Even though you didn't have your ELS down, how did you feel about keeping Layla behind you and taking the P5? [hr] [@LadyAmber] "Paul, a respectable result, up from P9 to P8. Valkyrie however doesn't look like it performed as well as it could have this weekend, any lessons learned from this weekend?" [hr] [@Enzayne] "Han, you bagged a point but it seems like it wasn't the best race for you or your team-mate, even in spite of your ELS knowledge, it looked like you couldn't defend from Beatrix, Ulrich and Paul today. Where do you think yourself and the team could have done better?" [hr] [@Starlance] "Bea, what a race that was! We thought your ELS pace wasn't enough, but it looks like you managed to make the best of the woes of the racers in front of you and make it on pure pace. Looks like Ava's advice has come through for you, how do you feel getting your first points in Formula AG?" [hr] The other pilots had also shuffled in. Astrid was of course, her typical self. But a little bit more buzzing. "Yes, what an incredible night! The team did an amazing job on my ship, and our strategy and our ELS deployment metrics couldn't have been better. We earned our party tonight! Woo!" Astrid yelped, out of the frame as soon as she was in it. Amy was a little down, but well, had to put her hand up to Kais on that one. First Nora, now him. This new group were pushing her, that was for sure. "Kais did an amazing job, I mean where did that come from? But seriously, we have more to work on, and one slip up when he was on form like that, and I paid the price. But we'll get him back. I won't take comment on Jamie, those affairs are his. Jamie was in next, and sighed, looking even more so dejected. "Yeah, real shame not to get more out today, but traffic is hard to navigate here, and I'm still bedding into the ELS systems of the new ship. Real shame but we'll take it and move onto the next." Harrison was losing position from qualifying once more, but holding up a half decent race when it was clear that Astrid and Amy had tangled up. "It's a tricky one, and I ended up losing that ELS fight. Still happy with our pace, and in Italy, I think we've got one hell of a package right now with the ship. We're only three points behind Silver Apex in the constructors, so we have a lot to look forward to. We're keeping the pressure up and we are consistent, which is great, so good takeaway and we'll be smashing it in the races to come!" Max wasn't that happy either, perhaps the wonderkid's season taking a tail off given how results in the last two had gone. "Yeah, not the best result for us there, Ulrich's ELS knowledge was incredible, but I just couldn't get past the traffic on track, and couldn't make the most. Glad to overtake Dorian, but we weren't getting much more out of it today." Cassie was similar, feeling disappointed in the craft, but mostly herself. Even she had to reflect on that. "Genuinely? We should have done better. We had the pace, but just the wrong fights, and some pilots deciding they'd turn it up to 11 got us. Me and Han have work to do." A common theme seemed to be felt by Dorian, hands on hip, shrugging in frustration. "I had no response there sadly. Just got left for dead by a lot of pilots, Jamie, Beatrix, even Max were gunning today and I ran out of steam on ELS more occasions than I should have. A shame, but Paul is doing well and he got some valuable points back for us." Ava was, however, somewhat more upbeat. "I did what I could, but nothing to hold Jamie back was going to work. Well done to Bea though, she's got a couple of points for the team with an incredible drive, a lot of overtakes and a lot of making her way through a lot of experienced pilots. An incredible drive, so kudos to her today, looks like she picked up my ELS knowledge!" Henry hadn't turned up for his interview, given he was inside with the team. But Kofi had, the big man also following in a shrug. "It is what it is. We have a lot of work to do, our ship needs a lot more but we're still a young team, so development will take time. We'll be better soon."