FourtyTwo

SPEARHEAD - A military, special forces RP in the almost modern-day

@Rhona W

*smacks chamber release*

I'm keen!

DELTΔ HYPER (An F1 Drive to Survive inspired Anti-Gravity, Slice of Life, Cyberpunkish/Solarpunkish RP)

History

The History

TLDR:

2020-2030: F1 experiences a golden era, with a growing fanbase and competitive racing.
2030-2040: The sport faces challenges, including commercial rights issues, safety concerns, and a recession, leading to a decline in popularity.
2040-2050: The introduction of "Formula Future" regulations and the emergence of Helena Starcross, a dominant driver who wins multiple championships and becomes a legend in the sport.
2050-2060: F1 faces a "dark decade" with external factors like wars, climate change, and pandemics affecting the sport.
2060-2069: The last decade of true F1, the series plateaus but yields the last, most incredible combustion based racing cars ever made. The first anti-gravity racing championship, AGRC, is established in 2071.
2070s: AGRC gains popularity, and F1 teams begin to transition to anti-gravity racing. The sport experiences growing pains, including safety concerns and debates over pilot modifications.
2080s: AGRC becomes the dominant form of racing, with the introduction of new technologies like MAG strips, neural links, and repulsor systems.
2090s: The sport continues to evolve, with the introduction of new teams, technologies, and innovations like ELS (ELS Battles).

Soundtrack: London Grammar- Higher

The camera takes a moment to follow through the exhibit.

From Fangio to Hill, Lauda to Villeneuve, Senna to Schumacher, Hamilton to Verstappen, much of this is the story you've seen of greats, top level drivers that won many championships and awed by. By 2094, this is like looking through textbooks of the Victorian era by 2024's standards, given how old the pictures seem to be, and how primitive the cars seem to be, displayed holographically.

So the carbon composite may remain, but what has changed, is literally everything else.

You get to 2024-->, and 2020-2030 is up on the wall. The text explains an AI-driven summary, of course, with a fun twist, narrated by Aurora.

2020-2030:



This era represents a sport that was in the ascendancy- with a growing fanbase due to social media, streaming and on-the-wall documentaries, F1 became global and started to truly grow out of an old boys club and into an international phenomenon. Three more titles for Verstappen, three for Piastri, one for Norris, and one for Russell, outlining a dominant period shared by a variety of top-running teams including Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes. The cars under a new electrical power and active aero regulation become more competitive and more competitive, and the trend continues throughout the decade for fan engagement and racing. Cars don't really get faster, but competition is very good, and that is all people want.

2030-2040:



A decade introducing more electrical power into F1, racing begins to plateau from historic highs in the late 2020s, as strains over commercial rights and tension related to safety and new circuits, particularly in rich oil states who are now getting tangled into proxy wars and beginning to lose their influence, begins to bubble. And in late 2037, due to a recession, the bubble of popularity bursts- overegged commercial contracts with broadcasters, rights holders and tracks just doesn't work anymore because nobody has the political will to reform FOM (F1 Management) and the teams that expect virtually untapped money. The market for F1 basically crashes.

Three mid-table teams leave in late 2038, prompting a management crisis from discovered corruption, top level mis-management and bribery which began to shake the foundations of what F1's fair, respectful racing looked like. The FIA and FOM Management nearly split into two over this with many other series of racing gaining traction such as Formula E, Formula X (a niche Asian-spin off including V10s and relatively low levels of aerodynamics) and the WRC in this period, a lasting, sustainable growth that provided a healthy alternative to the dominance of F1.

Drivers such as Norris, Russell, Piastri, Verstappen, Antonelli, as well as newcomers such as Arvid Lindblad, Gabriel Bortoleto, Alex Dunne, Louis Sharp and Leonardo Fornaroli started to emerge and fight over championships of their own, as well as new drivers not on the grid in 2024 that emerged from in Ross Vale, Pavel Hradecky and Juha Virtunen, who followed suit.

Yet little did anyone in the sport know, that due to a significant technical change to F1 in 2040 in the making for over ten years, mocked up as "Formula Future", a new driver would set her own legacy. One that made almost everyone else redundant.

2040-2050:



The world in this period went through significant change- minor recessions, wars and conflict over resources beginning in the end of the decade. There is nostalgia over the "Fast Forties" still felt to this day given how positive the start of the 2040s were, and then how they ended poorly, from everything in music, fashion, cars, to clothes and accessories, like the Roaring 20s but far weirder. But in F1, they were probably as good as the 2020s, and late 80s/early 90s, yet one champion came out of it that settled the question of who the GOAT was.

A golden era. A golden girl. And cars that at this time, proved to be the best technical directive ever produced by Formula One, producing incredible sounding, incredibly fast, competitive and relatively safe racing that still produced one dominating racer.

The ships went from open-top to closed canopy, wide-tyred, adaptive aero, grip monsters capable of accelerating as fast as modern-day rallycross cars, with four-wheel drive fusing Formula E technology to Formula 1 grip, power and performance as the two series coalesce and technology-share. Cars are covered in invisible, paintwork level solar panelling that naturally regens the battery, visual gesture controls, as well as virtual datastreams. Five cylinder, twin-turbocharged, small-batteried hybrid engines make this era one that sounds utterly incredible, and by 2094's standards, the cars go ludicrously fast with very little technology for what they are on the last generation of conventional pneumatic rubber tyres. A V4 was considered, but the five-cylinder was lobbied for successfully as part of partly a fan-service gesture as well as that of a technical directive to improve flat engine performance, which shrank the engine down to just 1.3L and 1400bhp (without the hybrid, which is rumoured to increase it by another 600bhp!).

Jamie Bird, Eduardo Piquet, and Martin Liepeja always provided a stiff competition to Helena Starcross, but history remembers her and Casper Lundstrom keenly.

Helena (Helen) "Stargirl" Starcross was the first woman to ever win an F1 Championship, driving a McLaren-Porsche to victory at Brazil for her first title in 2043. And in her career, going from BMW-Sauber, McLaren, Red Bull and Porsche, she showed that no matter what team she was in, she was a force of nature. Helena was quiet growing up, and kept that reflective nature throughout her career. They described her as having a certain timeless class, a charm that always was seen outside of the car....yet in it, became a monster capable of the extraordinary. She did what was unthinkable, because it was like she was from twenty years ahead in terms of her thinking.

Women in F1 had always been seen as impossible, but Helena was born in the right time, right place, and was lucky enough to fall into the system when cars became easier to drive than ever before with better power steering and G-Force support for drivers. Once that was in, her pure talent shone through. Her wet weather skills, and a car that seemed almost born for her conservative and gentle technique, blended with her absolute ability to find time where others couldn't when pushing, then setting up the car with AI and her genius-like engineering background, meant that she combined a Senna-esque talent with a Prost-level intelligence to win races in bad cars, and dominate in good ones. Oh, and did this all with an artificial heart and actuated joints, the very first neurological enhancement technologies available on the market. The image of her driving the Gulf-liveried 2048 McLaren, or the incredibly ornate Red Bull in 2049 around Silverstone at full pelt are canvases that any self-respecting racing lover puts up in their collection next to Senna at Monaco, or James Hunt at Fuji.

Within five years, she wins four titles, matching Vettel. Within ten, she's won seven, matching Hamilton. By retirement in 2055, Helena has won nine world titles, and at this point, it seems like a total revolution has taken place, even in spite of world tension and corruption bubbling over, Helena using her platform to speak up for women's rights, fairness and transparency in racing, and cultivating a culture of young, aspiring dreamers to change the world, going against the system and proving many, many, many people wrong. In a time of crisis, Helena's soft spoken voice is one that almost ironically, screams into history. Helena even whispers a bit of discontent, the FIA were too terrified to let her go, and did anything to keep her on side. Perhaps it was single-handedly her doing that revived the sport from falling apart, but Helena's commitment to perfectionism ignored other driver complaints about the growing difficulty of racing, and the need to take on augments that were still risky and untested.

After Helena left the sport in 2055, the ratio starts to divide up for men and women joining the sport spurred on by initiatives in the 2020s, to roughly a 60/40 rate into F1. Beforehand, there were less than two women within the 2030s, and none were ever even remotely successful. Ironically, as she left some said the best days were over- and with the world going badly, you might have believed them.

In a world on the brink, Helena grew to become a humble girl from Manchester that became the Rain Queen, pulling out drives and pushing increasingly unstable racing cars to new heights as the initially safe regulations were pushed to their absolute limit, ironically, due to her tolerance. The racing despite Helen's dominance is competitive, and her every championship win was never a guarantee given she sometimes ended up in sub-par machinery- her rivalry with Casper Lindstrom made into movies and TV shows, given how relentlessly the two pushed each other in everything from analytics to even the early dawn of pilot modifications, though ultimately showing respect. She retired in 2055, but made occasional appearances, always tempting the sport with her presence before ruling it out after having twins in 2058.

Helena's sometimes consulted by Silver Apex and in her 70s, is still as polite, lovely and utterly talented in an old racing car as she was thirty years ago. Many would see her as not just a pioneer, but a woman born in 2020 that utterly broke any idea of what dominant, talented racing looked like.

2051-2060:



F1's "Dark" decade happened as races are interrupted by missile and drone attacks, and thankfully, no driver is killed from external factors, but support crews, engineers and CEOs are targeted, and many great designers and principals are killed in the process. While races continued to be competitive generally, this is not considered a good decade for the sport, and humanity in general. Climate change disrupts seasons, with a particularly dark set of years between 2053-2055 when a major pandemic broke out and nearly ended a season entirely, as did the destruction of half the paddock in 2058 in Saudi Arabia due to a drone strike- a reason why even in 2094, VIP cluster areas are protected by active defence systems, often invisible to most. The world was on fire, and whilst researchers were working to advance humanity, ecological collapse and some irreversible damage already starts to show face.

In 2054, 2055 and 2058, the death of three drivers- Franco Fola, Joshua Marnier and Marie Forestier from high-speed accidents caused by a poor technical regulation begins to mar a decade that due to factors beyond F1, takes off the sheen from the glory years of the 2040s because nobody wanted to stop their speed and despite the advances in safety, the show was too important- ironically, driven by Starcross's utter brilliance and control. The cars are simply too fast and the circuits are just not capable of hosting them, and nobody wants to stop them going faster- the human factor is a limit because drivers, even with very basic mods, cannot even think that fast.

Trials to introduce AI to help drivers underperform, creating more serious injuries and demonstrating that without a total fusion of the pilot and the car, nothing can really happen that will stop them. Some fixes later and people complain when it works too well that overtakes and AI virtually saps all the fun out, creating "Drones" rather than drivers that race, with drivers annoyed by how much they are restricted. Nobody can really win, because AI-driven racing series are doing utterly poorly for ratings. Nobody cares about a machine going around a circuit without a person inside, putting their life at risk. Nobody cares for code. Everyone cares for the human behind the wheel.

So development seems to halt, fuelled by global recessions that has like a wave, dried up interest in such a sport. The sport shrinks in response, and fan engagement reduces. This is a slump until the investment until the sport itself is bought by a Japanese hedge fund, saving it from bankruptcy. As a result, ships are designed back to safer limits but aren't to the same glorious spec of the 2040s, so little meaningful development happens- electrical systems are improved and new advancements in tyres, gearboxes and adaptive suspension improves some aspects, but four-cylinder engines are not considered an improvement on the screaming five-cylinder versions prior.

Champions include Dietrich Faust, Xavier De La Fuera, Alejandro Neves (uncle to Cassie Neves), Brad Collins and Samir Rajapaksha, all taking titles at various teams and keeping seasons relatively competitive, even if the format was drying up. Other drivers, like Leon Alonso started in this era, and raced through into the 2050s and 2060s- his three time championship and dominating drives as a young driver in this era living up to the family name.

2060-2069:



The introduction of a new generation of Formula One cars in 2061 creates a revival in the sport, now considered the last vestige of old carbon-emitting sports, even though F1 has been using carbon-neutral racing fuel for decades now. The world still sits in turmoil, but is the last decade of major conflict, war and resource stress, as desalination, the very early geoengineering and carbon reduction schemes, as well as asteroid mining begins towards the end of the decade and starts to slowly turn the tide.

This is one of the most impactful decades in human history- and arguably, the one where humanity tames what could have been catastrophic climate change and survives at the end. Fundamental shifts in economy and society begin- as the very beginnings of Universal Basics schemes roll out from 2068 onwards, the formal agreements for the Arabic Union's member states are signed into law as are the Federal American States, and society licks its wounds from a terrible time. Converse to the 2040s, we entered this decade in the worst we've ever been, and left it with an untold optimism and a Solarpunk future that beckoned, and one we actually in the end, got.

For F1, this is considered the last technical era that ever was- the regulations are known as the Nova Regulations given the introduction of cutting edge driven impeller ground-effect, three cylinder twin-turbocharged 1.0L machines that scream their way to 15,000RPM containing advanced magnetic and electrical anti-lag and energy recovery, AI-supported aerodynamics and drivetrain. Most interestingly, this also includes the precursor to the pilot's neural link- a mindreading device bedded in within drivers' helmets that can support decision making and provide a virtual race engineer. This isn't too restrictive, actually allowing drivers to react faster and work better- though hard-wiring through modifications is still a decade away.

Drivers such as Aurelie Loeb (grand-daughter of Sebastien), Sam Stirling (father to Amy), Audrick Mulder, Yuki Soo-Han, Liam Freeman and Silvie Norgaard dominate this period, and whilst the world is in a very dark place, the signs of recovery change in the sponsorship that the teams carry, from early geoengineering firms to new tech companies committed to a new way of doing business.

Audrick is among the last great dominant drivers- winning in 2068 and coming close in the three years after, piloting a red and yellow Porsche-TAG ship, a free-spirited, party-loving driver in spite of his absolutely analytical, focussed driving style.

By now, F1 cars look more like the ships you would recognise in 2094, incredibly complex aerodynamics masterpieces, but limited by tyres, imagination, and the surface they go over. F1 is struggling, going through another boom and bust, as interest wains as people are more interested in other, more sustainable forms of motorsport, the WRC in particular leading in this field as spectators want to see the outdoors and wider world. Running out of ideas, F1 was successful, but at a plateau- the escape many needed after a difficult few decades, but not enough.

Yet decades compress to years, as things start to get a bit more specific.

Because in 2069, the world changed forever as Anti-Gravity technology matured in a perfect storm and accelerated what we now know as modern racing.

---

Soundtrack: Hyper- Accelerate

2069:

Born from developments at multiple universities, anti-gravity technology finally breaks free of theory and becomes a commercial reality in 2069. This is an incredible revolution- previous anti-matter experiments had yielded nothing, but in the 2060s, getting closer and closer to the technology had yielded results that were stable enough to share.

In a moment for physics probably as impactful as discovering the Higgs Boson in the 2010s, the development of nuclear fusion in the 2040s, the massive AtlanticFast geoengineering scheme in the early 2060s, the condensing of barely a sand-grain sized grouping of antimatter inside an Anti-Matter Drive meant that craft could be held aloft with however much, or however little you wanted. Doctor Petter Karlson won a Nobel Prize for his work on this- safe, self-containing and most of all, ridiculously expensive anti-gravity technology was now on the horizon. This was them amplified by NASA, the ESA, Honda, Toyota and Ji Motors, of all people, who collaborated on a unique platform that continued to make it cheaper, and more easy to access.

Of course, funding is very generous, with every space agency and every transport company throwing more money than sense at this avenue of technology, but one man sees a very interesting opportunity to develop something out of this. With wars dying out, and contractors interested in putting their money into the next big thing, a competition is born. Doctor Karlson builds a ship under Royston's funding, one the likes of which the world has never seen.

2071:

Anti-Gravity Racing is born on Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, led by a research team funded by Royston Pearce, testing speed and handling. The ships are slower than F1 cars, incredibly hard to pilot, and can't turn easily. But some modifications high-speed run leads to a ship accelerating to twice the speed of sound, shattering the record of any land-based vehicle. This is of course, an easy thing to do when you haven't got friction to worry about and a pulse jet, but still raises eyebrows. The ships at this phase are incredibly primitive- like the beginning of the Wright Brothers, progress is on the horizon and most geopolitical blocks take note.

The Arabic Union, European Union, and oddly, the Oceanic Whanau, a small geopolitical bloc, throw money at this trial too, captivated by what this may look like in spite of the fact that many would rather see that money go to fixing wider ecological and environmental concerns.

2072:



The first season of the Anti-Gravity Racing Championship, AGRC, takes place at ten venues across the globe under FIAR, the Federation for International Anti-gravity Racing which is also run by Royston. The first race takes place at Brands Hatch, Kent- a small beginning for what would soon become an enormous discipline.

The sport catches viral attention, but most F1 drivers choose not to shift to the sport yet. Until a thrilling race takes place at Silverstone alongside the existing F1 racing as a support series, displaying the slightly smaller ships exhibiting classic F1-style characteristics, the handling dialled in by pioneers such as Dorian Hornfleur, Alexander Knight, Audrick Mulder, Pierre Faust, Kasumi Takakura, James Norris and Laura Muller, and showing that against F1 craft, in only a year they've come leaps and bounds. The first series is a testbed, and many ships look strange, feel odd, but most of all, are distinctive and a refresh from the F1 format. Social Media in particular is very inclusive, and the tech is paraded around, and made for investors to throw money at. Most of all, very limited bounds on biomodification (unlike F1, following Starcross's mods) exist- so, people throw themselves at it.

The first exhibition races of AG ships versus F1 initially lean towards the tyre-based counterparts, before mods and changes mean that the future is inevitable. AG ships truly are unbeatable when reliable and able to steer. And from that, the drops become a pour as many within the media sphere realise that AG racing, with higher cornering speeds, and sheer grip works for them.

The first champion is James Norris- and yes, we will come back to him later.

2073:

The shift starts to happen, as more and more F1 drivers come into the Anti-Gravity Racing Championship, with Royston working with the Arabic Union and Oceanic Whanau who want to see AG tech popularised, and the sheer amount of money brings drivers over- as well as most media broadcasters who see this as the future.

New locations, such as Cape Town, Tokyo, Istanbul Park and short-lived races in London and Paris display what the ships can do, aweing spectators due to their ability to climb and accelerate.FIAR73, the first technical regulation is published and this is the blueprint that F1 teams, and new geopolitical blocks run after it because the future is seen to be Anti-Gravity in delivery, transport and space sectors, and everything beyond.

FIAR 73 is seen as a turbulent era- incredibly novel and awesome to watch, given the ships were diverse, weird and wonderful, yet is like the 1970s of the F1 era. Serious injuries, massive crashes, and ships that were insanely difficult to fly, yet satisfying as hell to pull off made this seem like a bit of an iconic era for AG racing, even if that's the nostalgia talking- as many ships had significant reliability problems and races relied on you actually finishing.

2074-2075:

The Years of Mergers.

So called as conveniently, many teams started to refocus their efforts out of F1 and into AG Racing- but due to the astronomical costs of anti-matter at this point, as well as the concerns, many started to group together.

Ji Motors, a rival conglomerate to Hyundai, Samsung and Kia developed Zygon out of old Honda and Hyundai F1 teams, with the Korean-super team a dominant constructor that still races today, Williams and Mercedes and fragments of Red Bull F1 teams merge creating the super-team that is Silver Apex.

Red Bull, Ferrari, Renault and Sauber all contribute engineers to the pan-European Valkyrie AGR team, supported by the ESA. McLaren stays independent, and remains fiercely so for the next couple of years.

Nordic Call takes on Red Bull's junior assets, but is rebranded by a Swedish billionaire, while Dragon Racing forms in Indonesia, as well as Carrera Condor's predecessor, Cordillera AG, in Chile. A few other teams come and go, including the Russian Gagarin-59, Chinese NOVA, as well as the Indian-based Garuda Racing teams. This explosion of teams dies out a little faster than some hoped, due to a bit of a bubble and rushing into the first generation of rules.

Why? Many were representing national or regional pride, and "pilots", as they became, grew into heroes locally- something that they could invest themselves into after war, conflict and as many know, the more you throw at competition, the faster development happens. FIAR offered an outlet that F1 had stagnated in for decades- and the investment was too willing for something completely groundbreaking and remarkable.

Cole Marnier, nephew of the deceased Joshua Marnier from 20 years prior goes onto win his second title, alongside Natasha Bearman and Esteban Velar who fight with him in the next few seasons.

2076:
A veritable legend in Formula AG, Audrick Mulder is killed in a crash at Spa-Francochamps alongside fifteen bystanders, marshals and fans, and the pending investigation creates a very black mark on AG- being the worst accident since 2056. Tributes pour in, and the rest of the 2076 series is modulated to account for this, with an outpouring of grief from the community. Ships are slowed down, and debates rage over if F1 is still the best series due at least having well-understood safety implications, and worries over the 2050s dark period come back.

Engineers and Designers work rapidly to to make the sport safer, and work to innovate, but racing is a bit more mused as spectators are banned and circuits are redesigned to reduce potential collisions. Pilots are asked to take on more and more mods, and many rebel against this. But where those who won't walk away, those who will become able to push ships beyond anything any normal human could do. Norris is one of those who did. The sport suffers badly, but agreements with the FIA mean that AG Racing is already on track to all but replace F1 next year- so the regulations have to be good.

2077:
Formula One's final season, as the official title of the top motorsport related to Formula One switches to Formula AG, which adopts it as a successor series- won by James Norris, ah yes, grandson of Lando Norris, multiple-time F1 winner in the 2020s, who went back to F1 for the last time. Historic Formula One continues as a parallel series, at most European and Asian tracks as a support to Formula AG, now rebranded from its old name of the AGRC.

Al-Saqr Racing, a very small team entering AG in the midst of this absorbs the failing NOVA and Garuda teams into its own structure in Abu Dhabi, and suddenly becomes a much bigger player, backed by significant oil-fund money.



2078:
The introduction of the FIAR-78-1 regulations brings in a brand new regulation, sparked by Mulder's death and FIA insistence- but is a little rushed. 2nd Gen AG ships are directed and to be designed with the first semi-integrated, and extremely basic neural link comprised of an AR-enabled AI that helps buffer pilot information (imagine a Nokia 3310 compared to an iPhone), a significantly improved safety cell, as well as track-side repulsons for the spectator areas (but not the ships) coming into force.

Ships are significantly faster to turn and track design now gets a lot more freeform given spectators are watching virtually. The heyday of AG begins, as investment, money and fan support pours in.

However, these ships were difficult to fly, buffered by AI significantly, and concerns over pilot modification has grown, creating unequal paths for pilots and lots of poorly implemented rules in the next decade.

2079:
The very basic introduction of MAG strips means that races at older racing circuits are made slightly safer to carry ships without sending them airborne off track. This doesn't work out perfectly given it stalls ships at times, and many refinements are made before the system is perfected for good racing.

2081:
Sami Lipponen wins three titles on the bounce, and abruptly retires, wanting a sabbatical as he leaves McLaren in their last season before being the team is divided up between Silver Apex and a small team in New Zealand that bought their car factory and rights, called Southern Cross.

2083:
Silver Apex begin their rampage of constructor wins- dominating the second half of the FIAR-78 regulation field. Fitzroy Orbital AG Racing joins the fray, replacing Gagarin-53, and initially takes on a lot of its staff, albeit ramps up spending significantly to a Top 3, before funding gradually drains away as Maxwell Fitzroy turns his attention elsewhere.

2085:
MAG technology is fully introduced at almost all venues where it can make a difference, revolutionising the way that racing is seen- making it possible to invert ships, take tight corners flat out, and literally loop ships. This is demonstrated at Auckland, Tokyo and Sao Paolo to positive reception. Dorian comes 2nd for the 5th consecutive time in Formula AG racing- and this is the highest his career goes, as French two-time championship winner Maxine Lacroix puts Silver Apex back on top.



2087:
The third generation of AG Technology emerges- known as FIAR 87. A ground-breaking revolution, the many already neural-linked pilots are harmonised with a system that works on all ships, that has fixed neural dampers to stop pilots being overloaded, as well as ships coming with personal repulsor systems baked into the anti-gravity unit- making the ships go from having extremely complicated fighter-pilot style cockpits to incredibly minimal areas that mean ships can be flown with a fighter-styled stick, and mostly neuron-fired thought, making them bounce off each other and off the track for lower-degree impacts. Design such as enhanced active aero, airbrakes, as well as a more coherent set of regulations that standardises the rule set is brought forward and fixes the wrongs of 2078.

This means that while the ships are easier to fly, and some detest the lack of "challenge" (the same people who likely believe that the 1980s was the best period of F1), they can be reliably pushed to the limit in overtakes, "dogfighting" can happen more frequently, and they now require a significant amount of mods to even try and keep on the MAG tracking. In every way, these are the ultimate ships, and offer something that can be pushed reliably to the limit- albeit wobbles still exist when on the very ragged edge.

The other design changes mostly pertain to pilot suits, optics, aero changes, and changes to the underlying anti-gravity unit that overall, are received very positively and make for more competitive racing that reins in Silver Apex. The repulsor system inside the ship is contributed to be the main reason Dorian Hornfleur walked away from a big crash in Monza, ending any debate about safety very quickly.

Fairness and balancing systems are put in for augments and implants via FIAR regulators, but this is merely creates rules that teams try to bend and via pre-existing augments and implants, as well as medical contingencies. This makes it nearly as bad as the Tour de France once was, but some teams are allocated this for research purposes given how novel much of it is and thus, are left alone. Ships also come with a new engine system- replacing wasteful jets with an efficient pulse engine fuelled by biofuels. This is the current master for all ships right now, and Zygon initially dominated this period, followed by Silver Apex reclaiming their spot.

2088:
SuperCat, as well as MMR join the sport as candidates, with the former officially entering in 2092, and the latter maintaining a small programme, as the recovery process in the Federated American States takes place.

2089:
The introduction of AG racing on Luna sparks mass viewership- with the first race won by a young Amy Stirling in her Zygon ship in her first year.

2090:
Florence Mason wins her second title at Silver Apex, but retires after- becoming a mother but seeking to stay in racing, so she switches to Endurance Racing with a less strenuous calendar. She's the second woman to win the Triple Crown in history with a win at Le Mans and the Indy 500, but now remains as a technical advisor to Silver Apex.

2091:
The introduction of Strada Alpina through innovative drone-delivered MAG tracking and virtual spectating happens, and it is the same year Amy goes and wins her first title, her first of three.



Soundtrack: Go- The Chemical Brothers

2092-2093
The introduction of ELS as part of FIAR-514 (named as such because it's a smaller technical change), comes with controversy, as the initial system creates far too many "ELS Battles"- something many contest as it allows Amy to sweep the first half of the series with ease. FIAR-514 is seen as a step between big regulation changes, with ELS brought in to create more competitive races being then perfected in 2093. It more than achieves this, growing the viewerbase even more- and this makes Formula AG the world's biggest sport going into 2094.

The collapse of Dragon Racing, a Malaysian-Thai-Indonesian team shrinks the grid to 10 teams total- with the majority of their staff joining Southern Cross. This contributes to Southern Cross's best season yet, the backmarker now becoming a staple at the top with many mouths and almost not enough factory space. The first series of Delta Hyper begins, focussing on Dorian, Kofi, Jenny and Harrison, becoming a smash hit with viewership almost topping a billion.

2094.
We are here, today. It is the fastest, the safest, the most exciting the sport has been before.

Four new rookies are on the grid. And the F1 trophy, now part of Formula AG's cabinet, has one last space left on it, since being made by a silversmith in London in 1995. Schumacher, Hakkinen, Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel, Verstappen, Piastri, Lindblad, Starcross, Lindstrom, Lipponen, Mason, Stirling all dot this trophy.

Who's on it next?

DELTΔ HYPER (An F1 Drive to Survive inspired Anti-Gravity, Slice of Life, Cyberpunkish/Solarpunkish RP)

The Top Dog

Sitting down in the couch, the early-60s, silver haired, polo-shirt wearing copy of what some would have said was a little Richard Branson, a little Bernie Ecclestone, yet all English guru of the sport, was here to be interviewed and Aurora was fast to open.

"Royston Pearce. Thank you for your time, we understand you are extremely busy, so..."

"The pleasure is mine, Aurora."

"So, take us through it, for the audience at home, who may not know the history. How did we get here with AG racing?"

"Well. It all started in 2072. So, I used to run a team, Williams-Porsche in the old Formula One series, but heard from an old friend of mine in the grapevine there was something I had to see. Something transformative. Through him, I met Doctor Petter Karlson, a quantum physicist whose team had come up with the prototype anti-gravity ship that turned mere dreams into an actual craft that could be piloted, perhaps raced, and well...... as you know, the rest is history. Most major automotive manufacturers now offer an anti-gravity model, and we have carbon-negative, as well as incredible efficient ships. It was too good an opportunity to pass up, and what started as a limited series came on to replace Formula One entirely with ships that go even faster, turn quicker. The FIA simply let FIAR take the reins, and whilst historic Formula racing exists, we're the top level now."

"Did you have any idea how big it would get?"

"Of course we did! Look, what makes this sport incredible is not only our incredible commitment to pushing the boundaries of what our AG technology, and engineers can do, but also, the pilots and their love for the sport. Whilst we could put AIs to the test, this way, pilots are being pushed to their limits, at speeds that even 20 years ago would be considered impossible. And who doesn't like a little competition when the ships can go hull to hull, like open wheelers can't?" Royston seemed to be confident, yet an underlaying poke back at older formulas there, with his showman-like bravado.

"What did you think about the sport being the most tuned into across 2093 across most major sports channels, and what do you think sets it apart?"

"Well, the commercial opportunities from the sport are now immense. I copied what Formula One had done in the mid-2010s, so perhaps I'm not that original. But I recognised just how good the sport could be when competitive, integrating fan involvement, and working on innovation rather than stifling it into an old boys club. Rather than an alternative to Formula One, I positioned this sport as an exciting, engaging discipline. Our introduction of on-boards for neural link users at home literally puts you in the point of view of pilots' ships, and well, the addition of ELS has made for closer and more competitive races. I know we had some tough periods at the start, but the technology came to us, and we're still playing with some really exciting developments that I think the public are going to love."

"Outside of Amy, who stood out to you as the one of the best pilots of the series so far?"

"Well, Audrick Mulder, he was an incredible pilot. A true prodigy, he....he was so, so on the edge and a showman, driving with this Senna-like tenacity, and in the wet, completely blind, he still lapped as if it wasn't there. Then Sami Lipponen, two-time champion, he was something else too. Ice cold, but like me, reliable. But, I have no true favourites really. I let the fans decide that one."

"And what would you say to those fans who say your changes have been controversial?"

"I'd say give it a chance. ELS wasn't liked at first, but this season it's made some of the best content. So our decision stands. FIAR is a democratically run organisation, but my oversight got us here, and believe me, we listen to what you ask for, but are willing to keep pushing the boundaries of what we can do with the sport."

---

Fanview

"Joao, up here! Found the seats!"

"Thanks!" Joao replied, passing across a reusable metal cup to his friend, filled to the brim with Sagres, like his own.

Looking on, the Portuguese fans headed up into the stand, possibly the most stereotypically named two, Jorge and Joao long time fans, and indulging their yearly pilgrimage to the Portuguese temple of speed.

Tickets for Formula AG were hard to come by, but being lucky enough to bag a couple even in this heat, well, it was a treat to say the least, and wearing Zygon merch head to toe, a new purchase given Valkyrie merch wasn't really relevant to them anymore. Lucky the takeback scheme had been happy to reproduce the polymer-based clothing into something else, with a small refund to boot. Whilst those in the paddock lived a life maybe akin to what the old school may have lived up there, given the wider socio-ecomomic contexts, Joao and Jorge representing the fans that followed the sport that went worldwide, but right now, was in their patch of land.

It was a treat, and whilst capitalism meant they could buy a ticket, the rules around payment were a little different for some in society. Universal Basics as a concept was implemented differently across different countries- but in effect, made normal work for about 60% of people a redundant concept, down from 40 hours a week to barely 20. Automation and AI had caused significant recessions in the 2040s, 2060s and 2070s to gut jobs and coupled to water shortages and extreme heat, had started to collapse many states across the world, and supply chains with it. And given such circumstances, governments shifted their model from tax, to benefit, larger companies footing the bill with progressive policy on AI and automation making sure the dividends were shared equally. Not since the early 20th Century had such dramatic upheaval taken place- with Georgist-style reforms on land tax and a UBI-adjacent concept, work had become a freedom of workers to choose, pick and delve into for benefit, not cost.

Whilst some jobs in the traditional sense of course, existed as they did just with reduced hours, the nature of it had evolved a little more. Lesser work hours and contractor-styled piecemeal work for most replaced a normal nine to five, giving people more time to commit to other projects. Of course, Lunar engineers and workers, as well as many of the engineers in Formula AG and associated medical staff didn't ever have that luxury, continuously being transported around the globe, the pay that came with it was significantly higher and rewarded them in other ways. Of course, people moaned in relative terms- but everyone was guaranteed a place to live, healthcare, water, energy and a basic standard of food and education, with a small supplement of money that came from the Basics Support that felt like a quasi-job programme, made up of piecemeal work that turned most into contractors specialised in transforming communities. It came in different packages, but this is what a utopia looked like when the previous conglomerates, so shaken by climate change and the protests that had followed, realised they'd need to give up a sliver of gold if they wanted to continue into the next century without anarchy ensuing.

Piecemeal work ranged from fixing AI models to technology transfer to less developed countries and states affected by climate change, coming in varying packages dependent on need. Graphic design, arts, and sectors that could be automated, but were better left in human hands still remained. You could watch an entirely AI driven film, for example, but still, the traditional remained, as it did with music and art- widened if anything, with local goods made from local supply chains that came with a community-led solarpunk utopia. Given basic needs were met, entertainment and leisure came out of that small budget, and the net benefits of a society that seemed to run out of problems here on Earth, and rather now focussed on the Solar System. Instead of being bored, more community-led initiatives had nicely filled the void left behind, Joao's old career as an Environmental Consultant replaced by piecemeal voluntary work and supporting high-tech permaculture that restored the arid badlands of the inland back to their former glory, led by communities that put people back in focus, rather than as an afterthought. Jorge's work as a doctor was more as an oversight to the machines that operated on people, and as such, gave him time to work on his real passion, grassroots junior racing, and part of the wider piecemeal programmes that he could find. Society's dividend from immense mineral wealth and automation had given humanity a respite from thousands of years of hard graft, labour and work, and given those who wanted the opportunity the chance to invest into other things, and many others to tune into Formula AG. It offered a bit of escape. Conflict in a world that offered non-stop drama, that simply made itself.

It was not perfect, of course- some wanted more and wanted to be greedier, and of course, the inequality at the top was vast- almost gulfing 70 years prior, but for most, the basics of life were provided for in everything from healthcare to education. A missing generation between the 2050s and 2070s, the near collapse of many nations and humanity teetering on the brink had perhaps made some wake up to the reality, and once technologies such as asteroid and lunar mining hit, alongside nuclear fusion, the cat was truly out of the bag. Companies like Zygon sometimes had more predatory piecemeal contracts and strings to Universal Basics, but by and large, the sheer shortage of workers, coupled to the relatively little work that was actually needed meant completing tasks, rather than a performative joke was the standard of work.

Untapped accelerationism felt like an AG ship roaring forwards, any any normal model of working in that society seemed misplaced- so perhaps, society had somehow veered into something else altogether. A little utopian, yet if you desired more, off-world work was where you could find it. That, or something that AI, robotics, automation or sustainability hadn't knocked out. The other 40% probably didn't enjoy fixed hours in work, but with virtually untapped flexibility, enhanced benefits and the ability to enjoy voluntary work of their own meant most were able to follow their passions. It was strange that for such a bleak past, people were generally optimistic, and community led.

The other bit of course, was sitting down in 30C heat was near unbearable. It felt strange how the Algarve was still the Algarve- the geoengineering efforts that resulted in the gentle drizzle earlier now fading from the more forceful cloud seeing methods to more broadly engineered carbon sequestering and cloud production from saltwater. Portugal and Spain had nearly collapsed in the wake of the 2060s water crisis, and whilst some of those younger may not have remembered those times, hellishly hot 45C summers were common, and countless people had died from heatstroke and the natural disasters that had flooded vast chunks of Florida, Bangladesh, parts of the Netherlands and western Africa, creating a demand for change.

Water had become a major topic of war in the 2050s and 2060s in particular, with the Arabic Union's wars in Egypt being particularly bloody over the Aswan supply, one that was the lifeblood of agriculture projects in the Lower Nile and deserts surrounding it. Migration, populist governments, rogue terror cells, society had gone through the wringer and many would have been right to say it could have escalated at any moment as the great former powers cowered under the pressure of it, and many were on the brink of completely falling apart. The innards of Australia, China, Russia and western Africa still were, in some ways, lawless and abandoned.

Yet desalination plants that were powered by cheap electricity, and that electricity then powering massive geoengineering schemes, coupled to most people having access to carbon-neutral or even carbon-negative produce, emissions were rapidly turning back down and even in spite of the artificiality of it, actually made sure humanity kept itself at bay. AG racing was no exception- the carbon-absorbing process of the concentrated biofuel coming from an energy crop that was basically on steroids. Massive companies were replaced by upstarts and governments wanting change, meaningfully delivered and most of all, wanting to survive again. So society rebuilt, either a little like in Auckland's case, or in Cape Town's, nearly entirely, as did much of the United States, Russia and China, which still had much to finish. The world had certainly tamed the beast of climate change....but that had meant compromises for most.

Actual steak or meat from cows was a luxury akin to buying a fancy Rolex, products were produced either become infinitely recyclable with relatively few plastic types, or be bought as one-off, highly expensive reusable items that were made to last, be sold, reused and mended over and over again, making fast fashion or fast consumption a thing of the past. You had your coffee cup in the same way you had a set of house keys, your refillable cup for beer, and clothing and electronics that could be mended freely, and so simple it could be fixed by an average ten year old. Soil erosion had been reversed through a mixture of lunar mining and deep-sea recovery, rewilding had helped halt ecosystem collapse, as well as high intensity vertical farms mixed in with permaculture and sustainable farming practices helping to mend the land, but meant that in some places, the landscape wasn't exactly left the way nature might have looked like 100 years ago. But for it, rewilding, and true restoration had taken place, driven by multi-billionaires buying land and returning it to free use, a remarkable turn of events given their wealth had come from extraordinary gains in the space and engineering industries. Growing up, a child would have access to more green space than in the last 100 years that was emerging in bloom,. Solar panel-like coating on every window and roof mixed in with cheap nuclear fusion and wind power, meant that electricity was cheap, so that meant industries requiring power to recycle, or simple operate the geoengineering schemes had no such issues, nor did anyone else in buying it. It meant a change in mentality and some hated of course, this idea of being told what to do- but in the end, it meant people weren't obsessed over new things, but bought what was needed and often recycled sustainably what they didn't.

A tangent? A little bit, but the two at the top were beneficiaries of this, and in the teeming crowd here to watch a race, got to enjoy their favourite sport, that frankly everyone in the Taverna or the croft or the virtual office or wherever they were talked about, on social media or in their own sims at home.

And as Joao and Jorge sat in the top of the stand, watching the ships get pushed onto the grid and their frames then removed, the Delta Hyper camera captured that look of awe on their faces, and of course, the chant that simply waved from the crowd.

"Neves, Neves, Neves!"

---

Round 5 of Formula Anti-Gravity Racing
Sunday 7th May, 2094
Race Day
Portuguese AGP

Autodromo Internacional Algarve
Portimão, Portugal
1300 GMT

Hitting the Tarmac

Soundtrack: Digitalism- Blitz

Amy Stirling

Hard, deep inhales almost seemed to have an echoing effect when the neural link plugged in, taking Amy out of her calm, meditative state into the link that connected her ship and her consciousness into one, a feeling that felt like coming alive somehow. At least, she tried to make sure that routine came back. The smell still seemed to taste in her mouth, the gentle drizzle that had interrupted the morning now gone, with the wet track drying fast with the warm sunshine, not that it would matter much given the ships didn't really need the tarmac at all.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

GREEN.

The ship however, did not do what Amy expected. With a stall, the other six ships accelerated, and Amy was back on throttle again half a second later, as the connection faltered.

GREEN.

Other ships were dodging her stall on the grid before she was whisked to their speed as it reestablished, further back than she would have liked.
"What the fuck was that!" The unfiltered anger raged out, as she gripped her way through the first corner, barely dodging Kais and tightening the line, fixing things up and wanting answers.

"Software glitch, head down Amy, we'll talk after. You can get this back." Keira's voice was reassuring, firm, but Amy was not in the mood. And the part of her that turned inside out was pouring out.

"No talk. I'm taking those positions back."

And that was what Amy did. She blitzed Han into Lagos in the next lap, and then after that, her own team-mate, Jamie, who was actually trying to put the power onto Nora. Not that Amy was even remotely interested. She overtook them both through the last turn and first three turns respectively, almost as if the ship itself was powered by pure rage. Pure frustration. But Amy knew how to use that. Even when it seemed lost, she wasn't going to let up now. It wasn't clear how the glitch had happened, but with a neural link, the wrong receptor being sent maybe sent something off. Or something on the ship had malfunctioned. Or Amy's internals had themselves reacted wrong. She didn't know. She did not care. She was taking whoever was in front of her and the way she was going, you could frankly hear the boss music playing if she was chasing you down.

Next person up, as the ship bucked over the crest into Portimao, and the right hander that looked like it could send an AG ship into oblivion, if it wasn't for the brakes slowing the ships down with such an intensity that it physically looked to be vorticing air off them. Even if you hated her with a passion, there was something to be said that even with a ship that seemed to have had a thrust issue on start, and a few seconds dropped back on grid, she was an absolute warrior when it came to mentality. She was willing to put the ship in places others dare not try, and make sure that the absolute needle-like feel of the ship, a feeling only paralleled by Valkyrie in Portugal, was able to sow corner after corner as efficiently as possible.

She carved forwards in a recoup of some charge for her ELS that put her side by side with Paul, cursing as she watched him slip by after a long fight, Amy swiping across and denying that move with Nora trying to follow through with a level of aggression bordering on insulting. But you did not play fair with Amy. And she was going to keep her behind, stalling the ship through Torre VIP with the hard pull of an airbrake that she just imagined in her head and saw come to life, the white ship tailing right behind the gray and yellow of Paul, Amy going toe to toe. It would have been an unthinkable pressure for the young rookie, because Amy was giving it everything. Every corner, trying to dive, every straight, trying to unwind the ship's superior pace, but none of it was working on Paul. He was driving like a man possessed, but when the reflection of Amy was visible breathing down his neck in his rear-facing sight camera, in a metaphorical way, then Paul had every reason to either fight harder or go faster.

But if there was one person she was more angry about, it was Harrison. She could hear it from Keira over her comms about the distance, the only one Amy wanted to hear. Like it fuelled her. Maybe like Kais. Love was a powerful emotion, but hating the fact you weren't where you wanted to be was like petrol on a fire. And every time she just felt things slip, she found focus in that. This was not what she wanted. Not by any long shot. But she had a race to take back. And despite the bad start, the commentators had the same thought.

"Well, it has been an uncharacteristic start for Stirling! With all the talks of upgrades, the three-time champion's stall at the start seems to be claiming positions, and is putting Mulder under pressure after sweeping past Kelly, Hart and Zenix, she seems like she's channelling something else! I would not want her breathing down my neck right now, she's not looking to give up!" Rosie called out, the roaring whine of the metallic white ship despite the stall showing why the pilot behind the interface was so feared.

Amy's tongue curled against her cheek, in focus and absolutely locked in making Paul's life hell, keeping Nora back at the same time Her heart closed and opened on corners that almost seemed to amplify that want, that focus in the same way the ship did given the g-force being pulled, but Paul must have been doing something to not fall victim. He must have found his own Shangri-La, corner after corner coming.

"Unbelievable, Mulder is fighting for position hard with her, he must be feeling the heat! Whilst Valkyrie has just lost its iconic designer, Felix Burkhardt a week ago, to see Paul holding back such a fierce talent in this sport so calmly shows such maturity for the young racer." Rory replied, as Rosie piped up, watching the Portuguese home hero lead- after all of the changes at the start, Cassie had lucked out and pushed through, but was making that advantage pay.

"Yes yet would you look at Neves, we know her for her aggressive, attacking racing style, all on the line. She is putting on a show for sure it's like the crowd are carrying her ship faster!" Rosie commented back, the sight of other ships barrelling through the now old-school race-circuit putting on a show that displayed on a little more of a human scale how fast these ships were. Rather than the hyper-fast circuits that Formula AG normally travelled to, just how short the laps were coupled up to make laps fly past, and Cassie Neves actually on a second place position, by merit. The crowd and Joao and Jorge had a definite favourite.

"A national hero, and she's been underperforming at Zygon, but is this finally her time? We'll have to see, as Wedgewood makes a lovely move on Al-Nadir..."

---

Ava Villarosa

Pulling back in line with Bea, she followed her team-mate past Ulrich out of the last corner onto the hilly start-straight, the Carrera's superior speed here making up for the handling, and even Ulrich's ELS couldn't beat two ships onrushing past. And it was all going well coming into turn one, well, until.....a loud clatter could be heard behind Ava's ears.

"Ship's compromised! Lost power, going to have to stop!" Ava yelled out, the warning blaring in her mind, seeing just what had gone wrong. A nasty engine burnout had basically killed all power, and the system seemed to collapse rapidly, Ava very aware of what this meant for her race.

Rey's voice on the other end was a calming tone, looking on at the telemetry and well, knowing Ava's safety was critical. They could fix the ship later, but Ava wasn't expendable.

"Okay, steady now Ava, stop the craft and get out on the sand." Rey's response was not answered by Ava, who very quickly pulled that in, the mag-enabled gravel trap pinning the ship to a halt, and the AG-system below deactivating as she could see the fire engulf her rear camera.

As the ship crawled on the magnetic sands, Ava immediately unhooked from the ship and pulled the Carrera ship to a total stop, releasing her harness and popping the canopy, the smell of the engines roasting away as she clambered very fast off to the side, the ship buried in gravel and giving her the chance to get away. The ship's internal extinguisher had done most of the work to take out the flames, but given how volatile the biofuel was and energy dense, as well as the battery next to it, the ship was like a lithium battery being set afire, albeit even more quick to rise.

From the highs of Italy, to the lows of having her ship catch fire behind her, the drones and soon, marshalls coming over to extinguish the flames, and with that, marking the end of her race, as the prosthetic-legged Chilean clambered over the barrier, a deep sigh audible on comms.

Not the best day. And not a day Carrera were grabbing points on, it was a reminder things didn't always work out.

---

The resultant virtual safety period, and the restart hadn't changed much of the order- Max being the main disruptor after it came back, managing to make moves from 11th to 9th in a ship that was now being pushed to its limit, the American unlucky not to have overtaken Kais, given he was nipping away with his superior handling through the corners.

But as for the rest, it had turned processional. Not every race was a world-beater, not like Races 1 and 2, because Harrison had disappeared into the distance whilst Cassie had made a decent gap from Paul, caught up in alternating from defending like a lion to having to put down lap after lap to try and break Amy's flow. She was good, but in this moment, his relative calm prevailed. Behind that, Nora had kept Amy honest but didn't have enough to break their flow, whilst Jamie Hart, despite not messing up this time, really did not have the talent to just break through on his own and content higher up the grid. Han and Kais had been fighting all race, but in the end, the order stayed as it had begun- netting Zygon even more valuable points, given Al-Saqr's decisions with the neural links.

Max and Layla finished out the top ten, and the disappointment that was Dorian's race had finally come to an end- it turning out it was caused by a faulty airbrake system, reducing his braking capacity and making him a sitting duck towards the latter half of the race, the aim to at least get a handful of points reduced to finishing ahead of Beatrix, who had quietly overtaken Ulrich and held the lone position as the Carrera ship on circuit. He'd been more than a little pissed off, given the change in engineering management, no doubt the team that remained would have that to fix because it had cost Valkyrie points. He had done everything he could, but

And with it, the chequered flag had fallen.

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qF6cn…

---

Post Race, Portugal: Cooldown and Podium

"So, you think I made the wrong call again?" Cassie sassed back, Harrison shrugging, smirking, looking at the move Cassie made legit on Paul, whistling. The two of them certainly were a little more friendly than Amy and literally anyone else, but at this point, a newcomer to their little gang had joined, and was watching on at all of this. Wearing their respective team hats, Harrison a yellow variant on his team's navy blue and yellow, whilst Cassie wore a special edition red and green Zygon hat, for the team to tap into the European market a little

"Well, the amount the fans are screaming out there for you, I'd say you have a boost. Damn, I thought I heard them through my cockpit when you crossed the line!" Harrison chuckled, looking across to Paul, the new Mulder on the block showing an impressive performance today.

"Those moves on Amy were impressive, Paul. She wanted to really get past you, but you gave no quarter....damn, you are going to be sinking in the ice bath after this!" Harrison smirked, as Cassie shrugged, looking over, knowing that no doubt that level of work had probably exhausted Paul, but then again, who was he to know. Rehydration had come a long way, so he probably had enough in his tank for now.

"Not bad at all. Looks like we will be in for some competition later this season. But, welcome to the podium, Paul. Good to have you here. And I think it won't be the last time either. But, save some steps for me." Cassie smirked, giggling as Harrison nodded.

"Well, come on then. They'll be screaming your name. Fish and Chips after this?" Harrison led the way, the crowd noise picking up, as Cassie shook her head, the red-green haired pilot not really giving much quarter to that reply.

"Caraho, fish and chips....you have no culture." Cassie stung back, as the noise grew louder and louder, fans opposite the podium screaming once they saw Cassie. Trophies were picked awarded, with Paul's getting plenty of shouts given his status as the song of a legend too, followed by Cassie, and then Harrison, who held up the cork-embedded silverware in the sky, before the champagne was broken out by Cassie and blasted across his face, nearly taking his hat with it, and he responded with his own blast of champagne back to both of them.

It was good to be winning.

---

Pulling into the booth, it was back to post-race interviews once more, in the now sweltering afternoon heat of Portugal.

The cheers from the crowd came in for the Zygon team, given the Portuguese link that now connected Zygon, as Han came up, a solid race with more points for the team.
"Han, a solid race for Zygon, with good points positions, and your first podium of the year for Cassie. Do you think the move has finally worked out and she's settled in?"

"Nora, a good finish for Southern Cross, but do you think you could have done better here than in Italy? It seems like you were struggling to hold back Amy, did you feel she was quite intense on the circuit?" Aurora asked Nora, the Southern Cross pilot this time not on podium yet still keeping her end of the bargain up when it came to getting points. The rivalry would intensify between the two no doubt given it was both of them chasing Amy, and turning it into a three-way fight.

"Bea, not the best weekend for Carrera Condor, and the fire for Ava had us all worried. How do you feel about the risks in Formula AG- following your crash and this recent fire?" Aurora's question harkened back to Cape Town, the risks Bea took in rally significant yet still comparing a little differently to those in Formula AG- and likely seeing her team-mate pull in with an engine fire would raise some pulses.

"Paul, congratulations on your first podium! This is quite a momentous occasion- do you think this silences the rumours that you weren't ready for the step up into the sport?" The crowd cheered, and of course, a loaded question by Aurora was set up for him with an answer that she knew he would likely give, one that was likely to cement Paul rather nicely in that growing pool of rookies.

"Kais, a difficult weekend out there after two podiums in a row for yourself and the team, it looked like you and Layla are struggling with focus on the ship. What do you think happened out there?" Aurora asked, aware Kais probably wouldn't be able to divulge the complete truth, but the audience at home would likely be asking why Al-Saqr hadn't done as well as anticipated- particularly Layla, who was more fruitful on technical circuits like this finishing 10th. Behind the scenes, no doubt Al-Saqr were scratching their head why that neural mod hadn't quite worked the way they had, but the migraines had continued and that among poor luck had been a factor.

---

"Not our best today, outside of that start, and being caught in an ELS trap, the pace was good but simply not enough. We're looking into the fault but taking the best from it, we know the other upgrades are working nicely." Amy replied, curt in her reply, leaving after that, keeping it short.

Harrison beamed a smile.
"Hell yes, back on the top step! Well, yeah, it was great. We're opening our lead up against Silver Apex, we're showing our result. And while I've overtaken Nora by a point, we're working well as a team to get the job done and extend our lead in the constructors. Stock in us is off to the Moon...speaking of!" Harrison left on that note, cheers from the crowd responding as the naturally charismatic Aussie indulged them with a wave or two.

Dorian sighed, a grim look across his face, another bullshit weekend but still, a weekend that felt like he'd done all he could.
"Well, the right airbrake failed, and that was that. Every corner was a fight to get through, but we have to move on and find the fault." Dorian did not give off positive energy, but he didn't blame the team too harshly, just merely stating what his media-trained self knew had to be said. This wasn't the time for it. They could get points again, but he was somewhat glad deep down that Paul had gotten his.

Ava gave much a similar response, the usually stoic Chilean pilot not letting disappointment go.
"Engine fault meant a full burnout, and well, that was that. Not much I could do, but all safe and sound. We'll go again at Luna, and outside of that, we have lots to be optimistic for as we are on a positive trajectory."

The contrast to Astrid though, who gave even less of a fuck was clear.
"Well, that was a penalty I don't agree with, but it is over now. I did well all the way, but just couldn't keep the momentum going to get higher up the grid. But our pace is good, and it shows we can compete. On even terms."

Max was in another opposite, smiling as he came into camera, blue and orange hat on, a smirk on face.
"Another points paying finish, and it proves on race-day, we can really bring it up to standards. We don't go backwards often, well, not at least when we can't help it. Looking forward to the next."

And finally, Cassie, who like Nora in Auckland, got a deafening roar.
"Yes, it's amazing! P2 at home! I'm so, so happy, Obrigado Portugal, this is a dream come true!"

DELTΔ HYPER (An F1 Drive to Survive inspired Anti-Gravity, Slice of Life, Cyberpunkish/Solarpunkish RP)

TRADING PAINT

Episode Five: The Atlantic Breeze

Kartodromo, Autodromo Internacional Algarve, Portugal

A collab with...
@Enzayne
@LadyAmber
@MrSkimobile
@Sylvan
@Starlance

Florence Mason
Nora Kelly
Paul Mulder
Beatrix Ward
Kais Zenix
Han Hyeon-Ae
Max Wedgewood
Cassie Neves

Soundtrack:
ODESZA, MARO- Better Now

Standing in the middle of the kart track, the youngest of the Delta Hyper and commentary crew, Rosie Appleyard, was not the usual pick for Delta Hyper, but still one nonetheless that stood out from the others- her punk-like, short pink hair and alabaster complexion not meshing so well with the late spring sun, so, lucky for them, they’d managed to get the almost century-old unchanged kart track for the late evening- blended with her navy polo top and jeans that made her seem significantly more casual than most.

The floodlights were on at the kart track at the edge of the Autodromo Internacional Algarve, the first circuit that was well, actually on a real, purpose-built racing circuit. And in AG ships, it was like racing in a shoebox, compared to Italy. The kart track was like a matchbox, inside a shoebox in terms of relative size. But for a kart? Maybe a bit more to scale.

The camera gently opened from black bars opening apart, focussing in on Rosie, her characteristic grin back on face. She seemed to have a bit more swagger about her than say, Aurora, who was definitely a bit more conventional. She could rein it in during commentary, but for these bits? She was a little more youthful.

“Welcome all to Delta Hyper, and we’re in Portugal for Round 5 of the Formula Anti-Gravity championship, here in beautiful Portugal. The sun may be out, but let me tell you, this place is wonderful. Beautiful beaches, amazing seafood, and oh yes…our first bit of tarmac this season.”

“Now while our AG ships don’t need any surface really to work, what happens when we take our pilots out of their ships, and into something….a little more old school?” Rosie kept on grinning like a Cheshire Cat, as the camera followed and she stepped over some tyres, meeting all eight of the drivers that had assembled, in front of a kart each. Kart racing meant no bulky gear, or oxygen breathing kit. Just a simple racing suit, and a full face helmet, because for these karts, even though they were significantly more advanced than the type from the mid 2020s, they were still methanol powered, and had four teeny tires, a teeny seat, two pedals, and a steering wheel.

“These are go-karts, with 250cc of ethanol power, and today, we’re going to put eight AG pilots to the test in these, to introduce us to our tarmac show. Almost all of our pilots would have started in one of these, albeit maybe a much newer model! For our pilots, there’s nowhere to hide, so it’s down to pure talent and ability to get the most out of the momentum, and limited grip these offer.”

Florence was an interesting addition- given Jamie was busy in the sim and Amy was feeling anti-social, she was out here representing Silver Apex. An old champion in AG, and arguably a bit more humble than Amy, she was now an endurance racing champion and now someone with a lot of stake in the game- here for fun though, and to pick up a paycheck. She was 6”0 or so, with brown hair and a Scots accent that seemed to carry even more strongly than even Cassie’s, who was a bit further down the group, in a white racing suit and wearing a white baseball cap to match. Most were still mystified she wasn’t in the sport as she could probably have the pick of any seat, including Jamie’s that was particularly under scrutiny, but she was enjoying endurance racing and her personal passions a lot. She was on a “hiatus”, as some would call it- perhaps she’d come back, but it was clear after winning two titles, she was bored and wanted to do more.

So, Florence, plus Cassie, Max and the rookies made up the group.

“Evening all! How are we feeling about these?” Rosie asked, the crowd assembled a little diverse.

“Yeah, it’s a bit older than what we’re used to…but I can’t wait to give this a go! I remember this a while back….”

Paul was standing in front of his cart with his helmet tucked under his arm. He smiled at the camera looking dashing in his racing suit. “I love this idea. I can’t wait. I got my start in karting as you well know. Let’s do this!” Paul sounded excited and eager. He had zero doubts that he would do well on this track. Paul had driven this track before when he had been in competitive Karting.

”I skipped karting unfortunately, but I’m still convinced there’s more fun to be had in these little things than a whole Junior series ship.” Bea joined the ‘excited golden retriever’ corner, despite the uninspired-looking track layout. The idea being a bit of a quick brew, her racing suit was the standard Carrera Condor black and white, but non-antigrav racing helmets being more standardized she had a few to reach for, opting for a cracked mirror-like design, each of the shards showing a rally car across the sport’s history.

Kais had no idea how he had ended up in the golden retriever corner, but at least he was glad he wasn’t the only one who didn’t have any background with these… ‘karts’... Unfortunately, that could prove to be a terrible disadvantage here. The tiny wheels looked like they would provide barely any speed, he thought as he kicked one of the tires which buckled under the force, much to his dismay. The scowl certainly would have been caught by the cameras to which he paid no mind at the moment, captivated by what strange situation he found himself in this time. Kais felt the things looked like they could fall apart the moment there was any contact with someone. Still, he had to admit: with a well-picked target, that might actually prove to be a viable tactic. All in all, they were ridiculous contraptions. “Old school? No kidding. I’ve worked with bikes that are more robust than these things. But as long as the accelerator works I’ll make it work,” he grumbled, and in his head he was already planning the perfect angles for attack.

”A bit old and a bit timeless, I don’t think I’ve been in one of these since I was an ankle biter! Deffo not since I could drive something with a little more juice than these little blokes can put out… Sometimes you just gotta bog in and have a bonzer time with the classics though.” Nora was wearing a suit with her usual color scheme, but someone at Southern Cross seemed to be taking the piss, and had replaced the waka in Southern Crosses logo with an exquisitely-designed Go Kart. She was practically bouncing in place, clearly looking forward to revisiting her childhood.

Hyeon-Ae, stood a bit away from the peppy Australian, took a few moments to look her way while trying to parse what she was saying. She was wearing a new fit, all black and sleek with an embossed Zygon logo on the back; no doubt up for sale for those who wanted a similar one in the near future. Eventually she settled for just smiling and nodding, falling back on the humble-and-kind-foreigner stereotype to let others take up space.

Max wore a teal blue suit, with a helmet that had his number and personal logo on the top of his dome, gloves already on too.
“And yeah, it’s been a while too! I guess I’m keen to get started….nothing beats the smell of methanol in the evening!”

Cassie gave a grin, backing up Hyeon-Ae, knowing she would probably take up more words than Han would here, given the heritage she had to this place. Though even that wasn’t much.
“We’re in Portugal. We have karts. I mean….get us out there!”

“Yes Cassie, that sounds like a plan. So we had an idea. Each of you has a kart. Each of you has ten laps of this old-school kart track, and we’ll put you against each other in a race. Shall we see what you make of this?”

With all the introductions done, the scene cut with Florence firing hers up, and cutting to her immediately taking it out on track, barrelling on a practice run, followed out by the other karts. The experience was something weird. After all, karts were not anti-gravity racing ships, they were significantly slower, more exposed and actually went on rubber. So each pilot would be able to get used to this, bit by bit. Maybe even have a cheeky race between each other in the practice. It was like a lawnmower, but a teeny bit louder, a lot bumpier, and more than anything…..

This was fun as hell, analogue to the max.

Paul enjoyed and loved racing in Formula AG. It was a whole different skill set with all you had to manage to fly one of those ships. He enjoyed the challenge and thrived on the speeds. He would forever be a fan of automobile racing though. He loved driving on tarmac as Rosie put it. It would be interesting to put his skills to test against his Formula AG competitors. Who would really challenge him? He suspected Nora could give him a run for his money with her background. He was almost certain Kais could as he was a former supersoldier and all. Paul listened to the others and Rosie. He waited until they were told what the plan was. A practice lap, that was an excellent idea since he had not been in a Kart in years. He put on his helmet and jumped into his Kart. he fired it up. He smiled as he hit the throttle and shot off onto the track in pursuit of Florence. He smiled as he drifted around the corner. Yeah he still had it!

Her laughter unheard over the high-revving engine, Bea was having the time of her week, and that was saying something considering there had been a team-wide paid time off period. Despite the almost ‘corporate royalty’ upbringing - what little of it actually stuck - there was something about this more ‘rough and tumble’ style of racing that spoke to her. Karting, rally, rallycross, hill climb… The surgical precision of AG racing contrasted with wrestling the wheel and steering with the throttle pedal as much as the steering wheel. Maybe that was the magic. Keeping a healthy balance in life. Not that many would call what they did for a living ‘healthy’.

Kais almost grew overconfident as his helmet went on. The smaller field of view compared to the full 360-and-then-some degrees that AG racing gave was a bit of an adjustment, but he was used to it from his biking among… other things, and was interesting to see how he’d fare on such a course. He revved the gas as he went to test out the responsivity, and in the first few corners already seemed to bounce all over the place before getting a good grip on the thing. Luckily, that also meant other drivers had to be on the lookout or be swept right along, and underneath his ridiculously too-green helmet Kais smiled ever so slightly. That’s the spirit.

Invisible beneath her helmet, Noras face was split by a wide, slightly crazy smile as the combination of the screaming engines and the twin smells of ethanol and burning rubber brought her back to an earlier time and she took off, pinning the engine to its max almost immediately as she shout out of the starting line like a bullet from a gun. Roaring into the first turn she nearly bounced off the inside wall, laughing like a maniac as she raced to catch up to the frontrunners.

Paul was happy as the kart sped along bouncing occasionally. He floored the throttle and angled the kart so it steered into the corners and the rear drifted out following along as it skidded around the corners. He was closing in on Florence. She was not going to make it easy on him. He approached on a good line. He was slowly pulling up closer to her. Their karts contacted and then parted again causing him to bounce a little at the impact. Paul kept control even as his adrenaline spiked. Karting had always felt more like fighting to him than anti gravity racing. There was more friction and physics involved. It was more visceral in a way. He floored the accelerator trying to get a little more speed out of his kart. He was slowly inching past Florence. He pulled away from her on the next curve as he attacked it brutally fast, almost spinning out but managing to maintain a ludicrous amount of speed coming out of the tight corner.

Hyeon-Ae hated this. Right? Yeah. It was too slow, the tiny machine - if it could even be called a machine - was sluggish at best, and the roar of motors was unbearable. Worst of all, everyone looked so goofy. She struggled at the start, trying to ease into the feel of it. She totally hated it. Definitely wanted to hate it. Refused to smile or acknowledge that there was a simple delight in this safer version of playing speed-demon. She skidded behind a few others, doing her best. Taking it seriously. Don't enjoy it; that was the goal.

Paul laughed as Nora flew by him when he braked for a tight corner. He had no idea she had been behind him. He took off in pursuit, loving every minute of their dog fight. He laughed when he took a corner too fast and ended up in the sand. He came out of it covered in sand. He was ignoring the suggested track speeds as he simply had a good time and was competitive as hell.

In the interim, Rosie looked on to the viewers at home, as the rest of the pilots now turned go-kart racers got ready towards the red lights now on, ready to form up on a tight grid, after their little practice shenanigans.
“All very exciting, and they look as competitive in karts as they do in ships, unwilling to give an inch! What they don’t know, is that we may have put a ringer among them…..” Rosie giggled gleefully, as a couple barrelled past, and Cassie barely overtook Max, with a bit of a bump on the turn as she mounted the kerb and used it to get him off line.

One thing that each pilot would probably know deep down, was that due to the reduced speed, and even though the risk was probably perceived as a hell of a lot more given no seatbelts are present on such a kart, going wheel to wheel was actually a ton more viable. You could clatter a lot easier, and given overtaking relied on momentum, it usually meant contact if someone was stealing your line. It usually meant a lot of friendly taps, and bumps. It was also significantly bumpier, and while neural mods might have made some difference in an AG ship, here none would really work, given most of them had mods that were quite neutral. It was also a friendly race too. Not exactly much at stake, bar pride….

This was going to be hysterical, as they all formed up on the short grid, and in a significantly more low stakes, comical way, readied for the green lights. Ten laps, and it was likely to be carnage. Contact, and a lot of try-hard, elite level pilots in karts that would whine at the top of their revs and barely go faster than 50kph. Apart from one more kart that now snuck out onto track and joined them at the back….

Alexander smiled happily as he put on his helmet and zipped up a nondescript racing suit he had been provided. He was wearing white head to toe that covered every inch of his skin. He was going to be a surprise entry at the end of the race. He would be just another Kart on the track racing alongside them. He climbed into his kart which was being held in the maintenance area. He had not been in a Kart in a long time but he still felt that surge of adrenaline and excitement. That feeling of competitiveness and the drive to be the fastest. Alexander would be just rolling straight into the track as the race started. When Delta Hyper had approached him about this, he started to decline but he missed racing. He was past his time as a racer in AG but he would always love racing karts. It was where he had gotten his start. He decided to do it. Would he still have what it takes behind the wheel? Either way he was guaranteed to have fun. No one else knew he was here. He waited patiently for the go signal. He knew it was coming soon. The Delta Hyper staffer gave him the go signal. He floored the gas pedal and sped out onto the track to line up behind the rookies who were on the starting line. All they would see was a tall fit figure in anonymous suit with racing gloves and a helmet that hid their identity very well. They would have no clue who was driving.

And the lights once they were assembled, like a Formula AG race, went through four red lights, and then, green, green, green.

They had comms in their helmets, so of course, this was going to be even more comical than usual. Bragging rights? Yeah. A bit of fun? Sure? But you put nine pilots on the grid who were normally used to going toe to toe, and now had to do so in zippy little karts? Well, it wasn’t going to be clean racing when the rules had not really been defined….

Paul waited anxiously for the red lights, Red, Red, Red, Red, Green. He punched it as the kart struggled to get that friction. The wheels slipped a little before catching and off he sped. He smiled even as he wasn’t the first off the starting line. He sped forward passing Bea as he entered the first turn. He laughed and waved as he hit the straight and picked up more speed.

Hyeon-Ae had been quick off the line but slow on the uptake. She wasn’t as aggressive or particularly “into it” as others were. It was almost like she hadn’t really gotten the full idea of what they were in for, and so focused entirely on driving nice, fast and clean early.

Alexander hit the gas pedal and was hit by Max from the side which pushed his kart sideways. It cost him a few moments while he got his kart turned back around. He was towards the back of the pack but that didn’t stop him from flooring the accelerator. He sped forward and drifted around the first turn. He floored the throttle on the straight away as he passed Hyeon-ae. He braked hard for the tight corner. Hyeon-ae flew past him and he charged after her again.

Nora practically leapt forwards, her chaotic style of racing meaning contact was inevitable, quickly exemplified as she bounced off of Cassie on her way forward, bouncing the poor woman off the wall in turn as Nora sped into the first corner, already trying to claw back her speed as she leaned into the turn, as she started gaining on Hyeon-Ae.

Bea got off the line quick, being one of the if not the smallest person in attendance and weighing under 55 kg even with shoes and soaking wet likely helping out. Which was why the sight of Kais zooming past on the exit of the first hairpin surprised her so. No, she didn’t think he was fat, God, but the 30 kilo difference practically defined their fight. She may have been more nimble, but wherever Kais decided to be, that was where he was and there was no way between heaven and hell she could move him without also- ”Who was that pushing a kart out of a tire barrier?” The Brit giggled over comms, the distraction costing her the hard-won place she regained from the former soldier.

Kais had launched off, but it wasn’t long indeed before he found himself stuck against the tires again. “Shut it Beatrix,” he bit back as the featherweight blew past him, “you’re next! Damned [censored] tires,” Kais said, now on a mission. If this was how the game was played, then this was how he would play the game. Hopping back into the little machine, he revved the engine like the mad man inside, and he shot back out. ‘Shot’ being a relative term of course, sluggish things… Still, push had come to shove, and so that was what he’d do..

Paul took a turn too fast and spun out. His kart went off the track into the sand slowing him down. He righted and got back on the track but it was enough that Bea and several others had passed him. He just shrugged and laughed as he charged after Bea again. He floored it on the straight and was catching up. He was weaving back and forth trying to find a good line to pass Bea. He grinned and rammed into the back of her kart trying to throw her off her game.

Having had a Hart Moment(tm), Paul started nipping at her heels just as Kais chained several corners so well he was practically in another time zone, leaving her free to focus on the Belgian behind. She rewarded his first ramming attempt with a brake check…
…and timed it so bad she sent herself into the tires, actually having to get out and push like the unlucky soul before her. A reminder of the good old days of trying to get their car out of a ditch while Gazza was complaining that he read “brake, brake” before the corner in an accent that would make even Florence blush.

Nora left chaos in her wake, confident that she could keep ahead of anyone trying to capitalize on it as she took an outside line to avoid Florence as she saw Kais gaining in her mirror. ”Don’t spit the dummy when I beat you again Kais, not gonna catch me taking a sickie or a smoko on the track!” Nora called out over the driver comms, feinting an overtake to get Florence out of position to block before pulling neatly onto the racing line and shooting ahead.

“I think I have a problem with the translator,” Kais said as Nora’s -assumed- taunt hit him.

”Then how about this.” Nora said, then switched to Arabic and roughly translated her taunt. “Do not complain when I win, you will not find me falling short on this path either.” Noras accent was not what you might expect, however, sounding like a posh, private school prep girl instead of her usual punk aesthetic.

"Heh. That so?" Kais retorted "أنت تشرق الآن، لكن هذا النهار لا يدوم إلى الأبد. تظهر القوة الحقيقية عندما يصبح الطريق مظلمًا," he said as he flew past Nora, offering some of his own native-language poetic-waxing for her consideration... until she took him back over, of course.

Alexander was passed by Cassie on a straight line. He was not surprised since he probably weighed the most out of all the racers today. His kart was having to work harder. He chased after Cassie. He caught up to her on the curve. Their karts contacted against one another as Alexander reclaimed his lead against Cassie. He sped out of the corner in pursuit of Hyeon-ae once more. He drifted easily around the next corner. He was gaining on the Korean.

Now it was Bea’s turn to make up lost ground. She snuck up on Cassie like a burglar in the night, taking half a page from Paul’s book and giving her a little love tap on the rear as the Portuguese woman turned into a corner aaaand there she went. ”Sorry!” She radioed over basically on reflex even if this time the contact was very much intentional. Normally she would have raked anyone intentionally racing like this over coals, but this was less a race and more of a party game.
Knight was next up, or rather the mystery driver in a nondescript suit as far as bea was concerned, showing there was still a lot of racecraft left in him, but she had learned from her scrap with Kais, waited a few corners for one where heavier drivers struggled and snuck her kart through in what would only barely not constitute a track limits violation instead of fighting and risking being pushed around. ”Excuse me, thank you!”
Next on the menu, Hyeon-Ae…

Paul had an opportunity to pass Bea as she was thrown into the tire barrier. He waved at her as he passed her. He laughed and charged hard towards Kais now. He was making up ground. He had a better pace through the corners. He was on a breakaway now and everything was feeling right. He was in the zone. He had almost caught up to Kais when Bea got past him at a corner. Damn it now he was chasing her again. Paul laughed as he took a page out of Bea’s book and cut the corner over the edge. He passed her again and was into another curve section. “I hope you like seeing me from behind Bea!”

Alexander pushed his kart hard to make up the distance between him and Hyeon-ae. His racing skill was on full display as he attacked corners aggressively. He did not shy away from contact either. He was catching up to the lighter Korean but it was taking a bit of time. His kart was more sluggish than hers because it was pulling probably almost twice her weight. It gave her a very real advantage. He was closing in on Hyeon-ae when Cassie hit him on the side and knocked his kart clean into the tire barrier. His kart stalled. He had to get out and pull it out of the wall. Cassie laughed and waved on her way by. Alexander just shook his head and freed his kart and jumped back in. He sighed and hit the gas pedal. Now to try and catch everyone again. He hit the throttle and off he went. He flew through the chicanes. He was slowly catching back up to Cassie. She was still pulling away from him on the straights. He was making up time in the corners. He chuckled, not willing to give away his identity by shit talking the others.

That advantage was running out however. Hyeon-Ae, despite her guardian angel behind, was finding it a struggle to stick to her pure driving strategy that had made her keep sailing so far. When she was bumped from behind by a certain someone for the fourth time in a row, she growled a committed ”Jenjang! Have any of you even taken driving lessons?” Painstakingly she redirected her efforts to stabilize, dropping hard in momentum and speed.

“One would think you’d appreciate a little push, Han…” Kais threw over the comms.

”Stop bullying poor Hyeon-Ae, she’s having flashbacks to Italy.” Bea cackled, sneaking past the distracted Korean driver in a repeat of her move on Cassie, this one executed with the grace of a drunken cow and nearly losing the kart on rejoin, giving ample opportunity for reprisal.

Hyeon-Ae was on her like a hawk - either for the pure intention of not losing a position, or getting into the competitive spirit after all. The first contact was a little harder than intended, leading both herself and Bea poorly into the right far-side of the next corner before she recollected herself. ”Maneuvers like that won’t work on me,” she bragged, momentarily in an upper hand that she had no business keeping.

”Bet?” Bea replied to Han without pause, repeating that same move - or so it looked, in reality a half-hearted feint meant to make her react before switching over and sending a wild one down the inside of the following corner, practically the same kind of pass that scored her first JFA victory in Turkey three years ago. ”I guess not, thanks for the tip.” She would’ve waved back, but the competitive haze wouldn’t let her risk that.

The verbal response from Hyeon-Ae was censored for home audiences.

Paul laughed and charged hard towards Kais. He floored the throttle on the straight away. He was pulling closer and the two of them went into a corner section. He managed to sneak past Kais on the outside at the turn. He flew away from him in the straight section. He was making good time and was looking to try and catch the next racer. It was Florence. He was so focused on Florence that he forgot that Kais was behind him. He braked for a tight corner when Kais sideswiped his kart. The momentum throwing the kart off the track and into the sand. Kais sped away as Paul was trying to get out of the trap. He saw Bea pass him by. He shook his head laughing as he got back onto the track. He was in hot pursuit of Bea once more.

Alexander charged hard and was making up time. He was fluid through the corners taking them like the pro he was. He was inching closer to Cassie as they raced almost side by side down the straight away. He managed to get the inside line at the corner and passed her. He waved at her as he hit the throttle and was now hunting for the next racer he needed to pass. He saw Hyeon-ae ahead as he inched closer to her. He was creeping up on her as he drifted around one of the corners. He faked an overtake on the outside. When Hyeon-Ae moved to defend he flew down the inside thinking sucker! He was laughing and having a great time. God did he miss this sometimes. He would have to remember he could race for fun occasionally. He was catching up to Bea when she pulled a slick maneuver and pulled away from him again. He was smiling and grinning from ear to ear. He wished he was close to Paul. He would have to remember to challenge him to a one on one kart race another time. He put his focus back on the race. He was managing to keep his position at the moment.

As hard as she was racing, Nora was finding it difficult to keep Florence behind her, having already traded back and forth twice with the two-time champion as they grappled to be the one to overtake Max, who was making the best of their competition to keep them both behind him. Either woman could probably pass him on their own, but neither was willing to simply allow another racer to pass them. With that said they were also, perhaps unintentionally, working together to make it just as hard for anyone else to pass them to have a go at Max either.

Paul charged after Bea. She was pulling away from him on the straight away. He managed to make up some time in the corners. He was slowly gaining on her once more. He drifted around the corner and was picking up speed. He shot out of the corner and into the straight away already accelerating away. He waved to Bea as he pulled up next to her. “Ready to see from behind again, Bea?” He taunted Bea mockingly as he stole the inside line into the corner, forcing her kart to take the outside as they bumped together at the corner. Paul laughed as he told her “See ya!” as he accelerated out of the corner. He pulled away from her. Paul managed to hold onto his lead crossing the finish line in front of Bea.

”Oh, no, I’m being threatened with a nice view!” She shot back with mirth in her voice as she got distracted by the fight for the lead she could see in the opposite direction, Paul taking advantage of it without delay. ”Go get him, Nora!”

If Hyeon-Ae had learned anything from her not-so grueling duel with Bea before, it was to be more aggressive in her driving. Like a snapping crocodile, she charged up behind their mystery driver and smacked the side of their kart’s wheelhouse with her own, a clear attempt to throw all balance and stability out of (unbeknownst to her) Alexander’s momentum. She was coming back like an angry rat trying to reach the cheese, loosening up finally to get aggressive. Her goal was very clearly to pass, but it seemed to be to leave a mark as well, probably incensed by the golden retriever who won their last duel.

Alexander defended his position as Hyeon-Ae came charging up behind him. Her kart made contact with his causing it to bounce. They were in a corner so his kart bounced up and off the track due to the angle and momentum of the hit. He laughed as she flew away from him. He corrected and took off after her. He just managed to get back on the track in front of Cassie. He was now having to defend from Cassie behind who stayed on his bumper. She tried to get around him in the next corner. He managed to shut her overtake down. He accelerated out of the corner looking to try and catch up with Hyeon-ae. Before he knew it the race was over and he crossed behind Hyeon-Ae with Cassie behind him.

A point to prove? Yeah. A bit of fun? Sure? But you put nine pilots on the grid who were normally used to going toe to toe, and now had to do so in zippy little karts? Well, it wasn’t going to be clean racing when the rules had not really been defined…and as Max took it over the finish line in first, barely followed by Nora and Florence, there was certainly plenty that had gone on behind that had proven to be carnage. It was clear that the race had been all over the place, overtakes everywhere, and while it was nearly impossible to track, the pure pace of all of them had kept them together- so Max had gotten away with overtakes everywhere past various racers, from . That was followed by Kais, Paul, Bea, Han, the mystery racer and then Cassie, who had taken a pretty bad hit- purely bad luck of the draw, all karts coming in to a close, winding down and coming back into the pits.

Rosie was already out, a grin on her face, seeing all of them come back.

She wasn’t going to interfere. There would be a bit of content here naturally, she just made sure she was in the vicinity as they would probably complain, moan about contact, and do what racing drivers did best- make excuses.

But, they’d all probably see the funnier side given the cameras were on them and this was a kart track, and with time, she’d be able to interview them once set. Oh, and the mystery racer could reveal themselves.

“How was that, all of you? Looks like you gave no quarter….oh, and would you like to know who gave you all a run for your money?” Rosie asked, looking to the collective group, Florence’s own suspicions having half an idea of who it was already- and Max almost certain he knew, grinning from ear to ear from taking the win.

“Bloody hell Nora, you did well at holding me back! Max attack, all the way!” Florence commented, happy to not be taking this too seriously, as Max had to hold back from gloating, Cassie even chuckling despite being last- and wanting to definitely have words with Nora and the gang for being sent to the shadow realm, though that would teach her for not being aggressive enough herself. The one time she chose to be calma….

Paul couldn’t help smiling and laughing as he climbed out of his kart. He pulled his helmet off and turned to Bea. “So you like the view huh? Well that explains a lot then.” He couldn’t resist teasing the plucky Bea. “That explains why you keep losing to me then.”

Climbing out of her kart, Bea rolled her shoulders and stowed her helmet under her arm, saved by her cybernetics from the go-kart sore arms. She was still a little bit winded from the exertion and adrenaline though. She spun to face Paul as he spoke, drawing a sharp breath and raising a finger in protest before balling her hand up in a fist. ”I walked right into that one, I don’t know how I didn’t see that coming. Bloody hell.” She laughed.

Paul grinned at Bea.”Well you already have my shirt. I don’t know about making anything official you understand. It's not like we are still in high school. But if you wanted a date, we are all progressive in 2094, just ask.” He winked at Bea knowing he was probably about to be hit or throttled. He was waiting for the explosion to happen.

The grin grew only wider. ”I recall Hyeon-Ae saying something about a honeymoon in Tokyo, so I’d rather not risk getting on her shite list.” Bea shook her head after briefly considering taking him up on the offer to see the reaction. Or at least half for that reason.

Alexander climbed out of his kart and was laughing. Alexander looked over around wondering if they even cared about their mystery racer. He pulled his helmet at Rosie’s urging. He turned to Max and Florence with a smile. “Nice race.” He shook Max’s hand as he offered his congratulations. “Congrats on your win.” He turned to Florence “A pleasure Florence, Nice performance.” He turned around to look over the others to see what was going on.

”Too right! You didn’t exactly make it a sunbake to keep you there either. Couldn’t get you to rack off even a little, hard yakka the whole way!” Nora replied, matching Maxs’ grin as she did before turning to see what the others were starting to stare at. Realizing that one of the team principals, Valkyries Alexander Knight, had been the mystery racer that had been keeping everyone on their toes while Paul had flirted his way through the midfield Nora started laughing, her sense of mischief tickled pink as the pro-turned-principal revealed himself.

Alexander overheard Paul’s comment and his head whipped in that direction. He just hung his head. He shook it laughing ruefully to himself. Between Dorian and Paul it was a minor miracle Valkyrie was not known as the team for lovers and one night stands. Sheesh! He sighed and looked at Rosie apologetically. “The only excuse I can make for that is youth!” He winced a little. He looked over at Paul and yelled “Good race Mulder!”

Hyeon-Ae took her sweet time - others were already out and chatting by the time she stood up and removed her helmet, whipping her hair gently for the perfect shot later for zoom-happy fans. Her expression was hard to parse; between the shock reveal of their mystery driver and the chatter, she seemed happy to stay on the outside of the main event, though did not look entirely displeased. Eventually she strode straight towards Alexander, and bowed her head in a graceful show of respect. ”I apologize for my violent behavior, sir.”

Paul started laughing at Bea’s reply when he heard Alexander’s voice “Nice Race Mulder!” His head whipped around and he saw Alexander standing in the white race suit holding the white helmet. He had obviously been the mystery racer. He blushed scarlet. That was not something he had wanted Alexander to overhear. He looked embarrassed as he called back “Thanks boss.” He made his way over to the group around Alexander. He offered Max a handshake, “Nice race.”

”Sounds like your boss’s a larrikin, Paul! Maybe he can give me tips with the ladies, give it a burl.” Nora managed, greatly entertained by the lover-ly reputation that Valkyrie seemed to be building with their sponsor campaigns and paddock antics.

Alexander turned his attention to Hyeon-ae. He gave her a bow of respect back. He chuckled as he replied. “Any good racer has to be somewhat aggressive to be competitive, Miss Han. No offense was given or received.” Alexander was a very fit guy for a team principal. He kept in shape. He was on the taller side for a racer at 5 foot 10 inches tall. He had a nice fit and muscular physique. His long blonde hair was matted from being under the helmet. He offered Hyeon-ae a smile. “You did pretty well. I could tell this was your first time in a kart. You picked it up really fast. Congrats.”

Turning to the mystery driver, Bea offered a respectful nod. ”I’m starting to see the logic here, Valkyrie saves money by not having to hire a reserve driver.” She jested before turning to Han. ”Not bad at all if that was your first, you pick things up quick.”

Rosie let them all get a chat in, before she came over, the results rather obvious from what had been just posted, and their conversation that of course, was like all of them had been transported back into youth. There was something so silly, so funny about a go-kart that it just made everything seem so much lower in stakes, relative to the AG ships that they flew at races. It felt like the purest form of racing there was, no crap, no technicals, just pure, on the line, aggression and speed.

Maybe they’d need to do this on lawnmowers next? The editorial team were making notes on just how good the content had been, given the absolute carnage that had unveiled itself.

For now, Rosie approached the group, and butted in, the reveal certainly getting them talking.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I just wanted to say, what a race! Maybe we should get you in karts every weekend, that was thrilling! How did you all find going toe to toe with each other? And do you think you’re all going to want a rematch?” Rosie asked, the question open to the floor.

"That was good.” Kais opened. “I can see potential in allowing more contact in AG Racing," and smirked as he remembered the last race’s crash and glared at its participant nearby.

”If there is ever a rematch; I need to study Beatrix’s moves more closely. She is more sneaky than you think at first.” Hyeon-Ae began without any doubt, seeing an opportunity to seize some attention in a wheelhouse more to her typical skill set.

”Oh God, no, don’t copy anything I did here.” Bea laughed uneasily, ”If this was anything but a no-stakes, friendly race I’d have to slap myself in front of a mirror for some of these moves.” She mimed a backhand against her cheek before addressing Rosie’s question. ”Fun is fun, but if people want to go through with it it might be worth trying more categories, for variety’s sake. Maybe monster trucks for Nora?”

Paul heard Bea and Hyeon-ae’s comments. He smiled mischievously as he got his two cents in. “Some of the moves used today would be illegal in karting. We also didn’t pay attention to track speeds. They usually have a posted top speed. I agree with Bea, driving for no stakes is a lot more fun but it does give rise to a different decision making process.” He winked at Bea before giving Hyeon-ae a friendly smile. “Did you have fun, Hyeon-Ae?”

Hyeon-Ae offered Paul a brief smile, before turning her head away theatrically. The icy pout was definitely for show. ”I will accept any challenge that comes my way, even one such as this.”

Alexander chuckled at the question and the comments. “If I get a rematch I want the warm up laps. My tires were cold and didn’t grip at the start. I had a horrible start because of it.”

Bea caught Paul’s wink, returning it in kind before nudging him with her elbow and gesturing to his team principal. ”Even has the excuses down, you better listen when he’s teaching you something.”

”I’m always ready to give something a fair go, but would you believe I’ve never seen a monster truck? Even for the Interior they’re considered a bit much.” Nora said, intrigued, then replied to Rosie’s question. I think Paul and Bea are right. Not to earbash but I think it only worked this well because it was unique. That said, I’m always ready to kick ass and take names. Just keep em short, I’ll only be in earshot for so long.” Nora replied, smiling wide to show that no real hurt had been intended.

Paul elbowed Bea back gently. “Shhh don’t give him any ideas for new lectures! I get enough already!” He looked confused for a moment and then asked Bea “Wait what is a Monster Truck?” He gave Hyeon-Ae a friendly smile.

Florence giggled at the thought of the bet, looking to Max, who shrugged, a grin following on his face.
“I think I’ll take my win! Way you guys were pushing me…..” Max replied, Cassie breaking in and interrupting.
“Well, literally, in Bea’s case!” Cassie added, getting a chuckle from the two, the look on Florence’s face showing maybe, just maybe,this sort of thing was still a bit in her blood.

”Oh, like I was the only one.” Bea grinned at that, interrupting Cassie’s interruption.

Hyeon-Ae cut in when she saw the opportunity to defend her honor. ”Everything underhanded I did in this race, I learned from Beatrix and Cassie.” she offered with an increasingly smug expression.

“Hey, aggression is one thing, I tried to be chill! On track, not sure how well that works…” Cassie replied to Han, giving a chirpy look to her team-mate, the media training definitely kicking in to stay on the right side, in spite of the clusterfuck going on behind the scenes at Zygon.

Florence gave the same look, shrugging to both Bea and Han.
“Well, you know, rubbing is racing. Definitely can get away with more here than at speed….” Florence noted, looking to Alexander and Paul.
“And you two, honestly, it’s like you’re both pilots in the team right now! Gave it a go back there!” She commented, her Scots accent dragging significantly harder than Cassie’s, who had been lucky not to be receiving a Aberdeenshire inflection like Florence had.

Alexander gave Florence a cheeky grin. “Aww Florence are you feeling jealous? Paul can’t help that he actually has a team principal that has skills. I did give it a go. You were just ahead of me and I had a whole field to go through to get to you. I might be a retired racer, but still a racer at heart.” He gave her a wink.

“Well, it sounds like you’re all putting each other under pressure on the kart track, we’ll see what it’s like on the much bigger circuit in the coming days! Any last comments?” Rosie asked, the mic in the open.

Bea waited for everyone else to go first, addressing the whole group as opposed to the camera or audience. ”Good fun, everyone. Now, that food truck by the entrance smelled absolutely wonderful, so if anyone else is hungry and wants to tag along, I’m buying. Team principals and Delta crew included.” She pointed over her shoulder with her thumb.

Alexander laughed and slung his arm around Paul’s shoulder. “Come on lad. Let’s go get some food with the nice lady. She said she’s buying.” He tugged Paul along. “I hope it's not something messy.” He looked down at his all white outfit with a look of mock horror on his face.”

Paul’s stomach started growling about the time Bea made her offer. He ducked as Alexander slung an arm around his shoulders and began to tug in the direction Bea was going. “Hey!” Paul protested pushing Alexander’s arm off. He was guided along behind Bea. “You know Alexander, Bea hides that competitive spirit behind that niceness. It is a ruse to lure us all into complacency.” He was grinning from ear to ear. “I am trying to win her over as a friend though. So I should follow along and nod like a good man.”

”Not that I’m usually one to turn down a free lunch, but at least let me spot half that! It’s not only your fault that Cassie got binned into the walls.” Nora called out to the exuberant brit. Friends make the best competitors, after all.

”On behalf of my teammate, I accept your apology. We will order expensive food.” Hyeon-Ae remarked sharply, with a sordid chuckle coming from Cassie soon after.

“Yeah, she accepts it, but watch your back on track!” Cassie giggled, nudging Nora in the shoulder with a reaction, not taking it too seriously, even in spite of how tense someone else could have taken it, Cassie was at least able to look past it. And well, Nora was like what Cass was like a couple seasons ago. Raw, and lacking in patience at all. Not that Cassie really had developed any really….and maybe not in a good way.

“I’ll take that offer of food! I saw what they had, Peri-Peri and rice….oh my word, you guys have no idea.” Florence replied to Bea’s offer, the older Brit replying to Bea, and generally, as Cassie looked over.

“Sure, it’s good but nothing on Pastel de Natas for after. My mum makes an amazing recipe at home, and if this truck has that, just saying, local Portuguese, I’m not gonna hold that to standard…” Cassie bit back, Max getting between the two.
“Whatever they have, I am starving! Rosie, I think that’s us. A few of us are getting hangry, and I mean, you should come too!”

Rosie nodded to that offer, following along, turning back to the camera to keep some semblance of professionalism from all the banter.
“Well, that’s us then! Welcome to Portugal, and if it’s not our fiery racers wanting to put it on track, or the return to circuits- call that an appetizer for what’s to come!” Rosie excitedly ran the last segment, and on that note, the camera roll stopped there.

Off that camera, she had the chance to exhale, and at least accept that even for how crazy that had gone, she’d mostly held it together, the Producer behind the drone giving a thumbs up. With it, she turned and saw the pilots all together, and ran over to catch up as they headed to the food truck at the entry, catering a must for keeping pilots happy. The energy was even off-camera, off screen, and well, it wasn’t some filtered media.

—



With the conclusion of that scene, the camera peeled back after the pilots had all gotten their share, revealing the quiet of the circuit, the paddock that was filled with stationary, dormant for now AG ships, the crews packed up for the night, in each pit box, ready for tomorrow. The lights flickered, in a cinematic fashion inside the boxes, revealing the subtle curves of each ship, the sponsors, the fins and thrusters, and their attachment to their static metal racking now with the AG unit turned off.

The engineers that worked tirelessly to make this happen. The ships were dormant, but soon, they would be up and running, and roaring on ship. As the footage cut back to.

An intersperse of historic racing at Estoril, then occasional 2020s races at Autodromo Internacional Algarve cut in, followed by the most recent races. Without MAG tracking, ships were incredibly skate-like on tarmac, not glued to surface but rather drifting out a lot more and reliant on aerodynamic grip to nail down the ships to the floor they were not bound to. Held in the mid-day beating sun, the hot Portuguese tarmac had been home to race after race of both the old F1 series, and for some reason, FA since the series had been invented.

The circuit came back, the warm tarmac, the floodlighting illuminating the track and the vibe reminding everyone at home of what a real circuit looked like. Zero MAG tracking had been setup at this circuit, it made the place truly feel old-school and made even the hairpins at Fedaia look like they weren’t much. Airbrakes and full send, but not too much full send mattered. It meant high speed ships didn’t really have the same effect here as ships that could rotate, and pull through corners faster. It also meant that the racing was like the kart track here compared to Italy or Cape Town.

The wider area was beautiful- southern Portugal had beaches, rolling hills and countryside with more wind farms than you could count, and beautiful little villages with seafood and cliff-strewn shores and sandy beaches at the bottom with boats moored out into the ocean. This place was timeless. It was like it had never advanced for a hundred years, it was still stuck in the past, and the circuit sat in the midst of all of it. Yet the shrill of a five-cylinder Audi Quattro, the sound of a turbocharged whine and a clank of gear changes on gravel with thousands of cheering fans in the rally stages gave way to Senna in a turbocharged McLaren at Estoril, the same gear noise clicking with the high pitch V6 that screamed its way through throttle, which then shifted to the ungodly whine of the Formula AG ships from last year, the air-breaks so violently piercing the drizzly Algarve sky that it created half a plume when did, akin to Tokyo.

Algarve was not a stupidly fast circuit - it had been once, but in Formula AG standards, it may as well have been the size of the kart circuit for how fast they accelerated and braked and then cornered. Laps were completed in barely a minute, but the tarmac surface with zero MAG tracking on the actual circuit itself meant that the ships were racing in not a fashion that was like Tokyo or Italy, on highly-advanced, clinging circuits that threw them up mountainsides or into loops, but rather a more conventional rollercoaster.

But more than that, this was the start of the juniors series too. So as a result, all of the younger blood of FA was here too, racing in the lower-power, lower aggression ships that were also on track, a starting point for the pilots of tomorrow.

The pilots that could replace, or be alongside the current grid now.

The camera peeled back to the wider circuit, and on that, the titles rolled, ready for the coverage under Delta Hyper.

DELTΔ HYPER

Interviews +1

Pre-Qualifying

Academy Pilots of the Grid

The interview format had changed. Again.

This is a thing that tends to happen a bit more with Delta Hyper, examining different aspects of pilots, and their answers.

This time around, unlike the standard interviews, they were paired up with a Junior AG racer, from their own academy. Junior AG teams operated either independently, like Moving Shadow Racing, a Welsh-based outfit or Cossack AGP, a Ukrainian-Turkish team; or were subsidiaries entirely run by teams, namely Valkyrie Junior, Nordic Call's North Lights, or Southern Cross's Kiwi AGP. What team they were in was less relevant- but their connection to the team shone through more than that.

---

@Starlance

The first one up was Beatrix- and she was paired up with Elise Annabelle Vogel, the eighteen-year old, apple blonde, ski-girl turned Carrera Condor junior. Akin to Beatrix, Elise's father owned Haute-Gris, a major Andorran geoengineering firm that sponsored Condor, with a small placement on the nose- their logo like a minimalist design that seemed to fit their overall theme.

"Beatrix, Elise, welcome to Delta Hyper. Elise, are you excited for your first round in Junior AG? How's the team been?" Aurora asked, her usual chirp coming in, knowing the beaming smile on the footage was definitely not fake.

"Oh yeah, it's really exciting. Bea has been really busy so we haven't really caught up much, but her sim data has been great, and it is so cool to see the team on top. First season here after Formula 3, so I'm excited to see what I can do!"

"And Bea, anything for the journey you would suggest to Elise to know from your experiences so far?"

---

@LadyAmber

Paul had been partnered up with Scarlett- the young JAGF racer a product of Valkyrie's incredibly successful academy, outside of Anna, who was on sim duties.

"Welcome to Portugal, Paul. Your family's foundation helped get Scarlett into racing- any comments between you both on how that has progressed for young pilots entering the sport?"

---

@MrSkimobile

Kais was back in interviews, even if it was reluctantly- and was in with Hamid, almost a complete, total polar opposite to Kais. A loyal Arabic Union pilot, even if Morocco was at the far fringe and still had its Monarchy, he was proud of it and his Berber roots, which he kept with his racing suit's theme. His hair was a short shaven kind with a tiny bit of stubble. He was rather good looking, and within the Arabic Union, was a bit of a poster-boy for the team as their test pilot and third-time JAGF racer, primed for the top spot if he got it this year.

"Kais, Hamid, welcome to Delta Hyper."

"Thank you for having us. It is a pleasure to be here. And among winners, too!" Hamid had a lot of energy. An anti-Kais, because frankly, he was more the Dorian style of racing rather than the Kais type. In about every way.

"Absolutely, and you have two older, wise pilots to learn from and work with."

"Yes, Layla and Kais are pushing boundaries, and they are an inspiration."

"Well, that is very nice of you, Hamid. Kais, do you think from being a little older on the grid, you are a good mentor for younger pilots?"

---

@Sylvan

Nora had been paired up with Tane, the Maori teenager representing the passion of an entire country on his shoulders, his dark, long hair well kept as he sat up, seeing Aurora set herself up.

"Nora, Tane, welcome to Delta Hyper. For the first race of the Junior AG series, have you got any thoughts on how "

"Well, Junior AG is a different kettle of fish to mag-karting. But, I think I've got some ideas. I've gone into Junior and plan to push on into what's next and stay, but I hope I can get the raw speed she has, she's definitely roasted a few of us in the sim lab!" Tane replied, a grin like he was pulling volcanoes out of the ocean like some Polynesian God, a young one but full of confidence.

"Hah, and well said, Nora is certainly lighting things up. Nora, how do you feel about the Oceanic talent pool that seems to be going on at the moment? It seems like you are all obsessed with it, why do you think that is?"

---

@Enzayne

Han was set up with Olivia, the dark-haired, Hong-Kong born resident one of the big lights of Junior AG last year- but unfortunate not to get a seat. Han had been the priority on her performance, but some would say she lived up to Han's talent on pure pace, yet nobody was suggesting it given Zygon's pace.

"Hello Han and Olivia! Welcome to Delta Hyper you two, and welcome to the couch. Olivia, what's your goals for this season, after coming so close to the top last year?"

"I'm hoping to get the title. And I am sure that while there are few seats on the grid, I can find somewhere for next season. Han has been amazing, and her data, and the team are amazing. The Queen of Korea is a very good mentor!" Olivia politely beamed, playing her own PR, the interpretation left open on how much Han fed into that.

"A bit of glowing praise there! Han, how are you finding the approach as a young pilot yourself, dealing with press, media and all of this. You can be honest!"

---

Round 5 of Formula Anti-Gravity Racing
Saturday 6th May, 2094
Post-Qualifying
Portuguese AGP

Autodromo Internacional Algarve
Portimão, Portugal
1500 GMT

Home Hero

Cassie Neves

With qualifying complete, the results had trickled in from the circuit, as Cassie sat in the Zygon pit box, inside the modernised yet still relatively ancient building watching away the holo-display. The juniors were about to go on track for their race, and that would follow as soon as the last qualifying pace had been set.

The sun baked at a crisp 30 degrees Celsius, and the tarmac radiated even more heat back out, without air conditioning, making it toasty- though the summers even in Canada and the UK were basically like this almost always too. The ships were back in racking inside the pit box, and whilst hyper-advanced, with holo-displays and quasi-android like robots carrying tools and performing optically-led inspections, the place felt as any old school racing circuit would be.

Things were not so bad today, so, so much better than last time- even if it felt like the hot knife of politics breathed into everything at Zygon. She felt distant from Han, given all that, yet appreciated her friend standing up for her. It made it all more bearable, as she sighed, looking at the results, and nodding. Ahead of Dorian. Fuck that guy, she thought. This was home to her. She knew this circuit, and she'd done well, taking the cable out, as the engineers came over, wanting to ask something, the noise and hubub of engines roaring in the pit boxes, and in the pit lane fading.

Results

The camera turned to the Delta Hyper couch again, Zygon-branded Cassie on it, her hair coloured with a green and red streak in the curls akin to the Portuguese flag, her nails following the same.

"So, was it the homecoming you were looking for? Or, would you expect more?" Aurora asked inquisitively, Cassie shrugging.

"It's pretty good. I know this circuit well, so I punch the ship above its weight. I qualify well, but the race is hard. But with the local fans behind me, I'm keen. I'm super excited for this, and honestly, just being back home is making this all worth it."

---

The other pilots shuffled in after qualifying, on the couch also.

"Back to pole, yeah, it's good. And well, Florence has sort of been a mentor to me so it was fun to see her out there with the other pilots on go karts, reminds me of last time. I beat her record, but, I have a long way to go to be the best. But, she's getting me there." Amy smiled, as Florence chuckled, nudging her back. "Yep, she'll drag me in at this rate!"

Harrison seemed cheerful, as usual, knowing tomorrow would be the bigger test.
"Second to Amy, it'll be hard to get her out of the blocks, but, it'll be a duel all the way." Harrison replied, the camera cutting slick to the next, that of Dorian.

"Portugal is uhh....old school. A lot of elevation change for ships configured for the flat, it means corners are blind and while there is run-off, the gravel traps are lined with magnetic compounds that stall the ships to a crawl. It's bad to go off the tarmac, as it feels like a leech is hitting the ship. So no room for mistakes. Just pure handling and control. Patience."

"This is total bullsh*t." Astrid replied, crossing her arms.

"No more comment?" Aurora asked, as Astrid shook her head.

"Maybe this is race is.....not my best focus. But, we'll do what we can here in Portugal. We can still surprise." Layla replied, as the scene cut to Max, nodding with a turn.

"We keep surprising. And I love old-school circuits. It's a real test, you know. A real pit box, with real pit walls, with fans and a stadium section and man, it's awesome. Before my time sure, but this place rocks." Max smiled, half PR, half genuine charm.

"And I guess we have more work to do here. Me and Bea are not happy, but the engineers knew this circuit would be tricky. We will do the best we can, with the ship we have here, and that is all we can do." Ava replied with her stoic, almost humbled demeanour, honest yet not hyping.

"We have improved a little....by which I mean not in qualifying pace. But we will try tomorrow." Kofi never seemed to drop his smile. Even if he could have been screaming inside, he was lucky enough to be racing in Formula AG. For an African team. That never got old.

"And we haven't really got much more. And we lost Cavan. So yeah, mood isn't great, we have Greg Harris joining us from MMR next week, so we will likely need to regroup and work out everything then." Henry seemed pensive, yet tried to mask as best as he could. Anyone even without a holographic display could tell he was failing.

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

---

The End of the World

---

Somewhere

The rainy scene outside the modernist villa poured on down, revealing little of the landscape.

"Rose. We have a thin window of time. And you think it will work?" The voice was Spectre's, clearly the Dane's reservations still holding. In a white woolen pullover sweater and a pair of tights, the doppelganger to Skye seemed as pointed as her own sister, or genetic copy would be, brushing her red hair aside as she leaned up in the chair.

"We do. They know I'm alive. And, they know I have you. Sooner we move, the better."

"Does it change anything?"

"Not like that stopped them before." The redhead turned, sighing, Christian's thoughts pointed on the events of the last 72 hours. The events that had unfolded not quite the way anyone imagined. This should have been the end. They'd been prepared, geared for it, and yet right now, here they were, everyone alive, everyone hunting them, the dream of a future moulded by Artemis, unfulfilled. It felt cartoonish evil, but then again, to them, it was a world that they believed in like the sun rising to achieve, given how far they'd gone so far. And to Rose, it was more than a little bit personal.

"So, I never got to ask. This is the part of the film where you didn't get your way, so you suggest some insane shit....even for what I know we want. You kidnapped me and let them torture me so you would have your way inside Artemis. Screwed everything we worked for, all my friends for twenty years, because I let you inside something forbidden. Then you rescue me, as if to prove your point and letting Raven dismantle the remains of Artemis? And you had a perfect moment to kill all of them after that, and you squandered it on your own pride. So, if you're going to rip me apart, I'd like to die knowing why I held out. Either we disappear into the shadows, or look like we're going to be arrested, or killed." Christian sat up in the reclined chair he was in, looking out at the night sky beyond, and the redhead he wanted to take to task. The original plan was one thing, but now what was next, it had to live up to that.

Rose exhaled hard, looking back, coughing a little, a gentle splutter as she walked across, sitting down.

"My father was a great, great man. Even if he never disclosed it, in me, I suppose they came true. He must have had a vision, a design of utopia that just can't be understood when you see it from the lens you see society normally. Bigger than you, or Pavel, or anyone. No. He had an idea that doesn't die, in me. Once you taste a bit of immortality, even the pain, the screams, agony, all of it, makes you realise just how it all interconnects. When you've got an AI that parses bits of you back together, you start to see the trends in the numbers, in nature, in humanity. And look at it. Every piece of the problem we made, all of this ruins itself worse than anything we can control. If not by a design, this will all fade into bits. You all believe that in Artemis. Except for you, because you invited me along, seeing something greater, even if you didn't know. You are a believer in what needs to be actually done, Christian. That's why you stay." Rose remarked, sitting at the end of the sofa. She continued, knowing this was a reminder to him. But a pointed one.

"You believe that this consumption, this continuous use cannot continue. Yet how many billionaires backed Artemis quietly? Pavel is just the highest profile. All of them bought estates in Argentina, Yukon, Norway, just waiting for the end. Waiting for it, because they have to tell themselves their doomsday bunkers were more than tax-write offs. But that is part of the problem. You know that deep down too. Billionaires use, contribute, make more emissions than thousands would even do so themselves, and feudalise the world as they see fit, perpetuating the very system that leads them to destroy it worse, like the waves eroding the bedrocks of the castle they chose to build at the shore. It contributed to me, made me even, and now you look at what you have got." She paused for breath, as if addressing Christian's own origins, Artemis in whole, and perhaps, the wider world beyond the window.

"You're the worst hypocrisy there is, and money can't even really fix that. So no, the entire thing needs a clean slate. We nearly had it. And we still can. Just means there's no version of me to carry things on. We now have to spin the roulette wheel that society might restart a little better....without my guidance. To say I am disappointed is an understatement. But unlike some of you, I'd die to see it still happen. Better than the alternative at least." Rose's vision was a terrifying one, to say the least. For anyone else, this was outright insanity. But for Christian, he was bought into the ideal.

"Artemis planned on 90% effectiveness. What you and me are.....and were proposing, was to take humanity down to thousands. Without you, I don't see a point now. That was what it was based on. Guiding what came next. Rather than a repeat. Even I agree with you there. But this? This is....this is nothing." Christian replied, as if to almost rebuff, yet check her there. She did not take it kindly.

"And maybe it's what we deserve. Nothing. But then again, Artemis got its power from politicians, ministers, chief executives, terrorists with nothing to lose, and those greedy enough to hoover the money up." Rose mused, sitting up, continuing.

"And you previously, seriously thought you could just eradicate most of civilization, just like that, sweep in, and take everything? Set up some order? Rule the ashes? Please. You don't understand people. You don't understand hurt. You don't understand that the moment you treat human beings like sacks of clay, they start to lose everything that made them what they were. And what they did to me was....well, worse than that. Like an object. Radiation was agony, but then to experience fire, that was the worst. I suppose it's perhaps, like a fable, that I had to be the one to correct all of it. And now, we can't even try and nudge it in the right way. What happens now, is random. Lucky for them that Sol Hestia is relatively painless." Rose's voice pitched, as she continued.

"All great civilizations begin, and end. Perhaps we are now one big civilization that needs something to stop it. We let this go unchecked, and you get a nuclear hellhole when people start running out of water. Oil. Gas. Aluminium. Soil. Lithium. You know the numbers."

"I know the metrics."

"Anything short of a true reset makes this exercise pointless, whether I live or die. None of it works if you keep the population numbers higher to what you wanted before at your 10%, because you'll just keep the thing going and not really effect anything meaningful. You won't be Kings and Queens from your bunkers, or as people fail to bear children as your previous model to sterilise half of the population had in mind. For something like that, you'll be hated. Despised for merely existing on top of them. So no. None of it can exist really. Not our version of life under people like you, and Pavel fucking Andros. So don't sit there pretending you can put your head in the sand. There's nobody to fucking serve you in your doomsday bunker anyway. But we can't bear the alternative either. The status quo buries us deeper." Rose started, a certain shimmer still holding in her voice. As if she was repeating the creed, one more time.

"So we go back to basics. Starting again, anew. It's as if, the person that brewed the thing in my veins knew what they wanted, because the compound doesn't touch the rest of life on earth. As if by fate. It corrects us and starts us anew, able to at least pick some other trajectory, and perhaps a better future comes out of that. Shame I can't live to see it, but, I suppose I know my morals better than some of Artemis did. That I can at least die happy knowing it's still going to happen. It's why you'll be one of few to live in it to see out your remaining days in what happens. In a morbid curiosity, I suppose. Doing what you know is necessary. And because for humanity's sake, we deserve a full reset."

"And you think Zhao is the last key to saving this." Christian replied, with a nod back from Rose confirming that.

"He is. He's the only thing we have left. And, he knows me. Fucking made me. He's the one that....he'll die first once we're through."

"And how exactly, do you plan on turning that key then for someone you intend to kill?"

"That is where you come in. I need some fire to cover the setup to this. He is clever, but not clever enough to understand how this works."

"Rose....we have no assets left. Nothing. Your....sister, copy, if I can call her that, has wiped us out. We lost almost everything in Greenland and Ferrovia Two. Most of our leadership is dead, arrested, or wanting to slink away back into wherever they came from after what you did. Truth bleeds out, and there is nowhere for us to run. Even if your idea works, I don't see us making it long enough to see that dawn of a pest removed."

"A pest that refuses to die. I'm done. Or will you be? He is loyal to Artemis and as far as he knows, just got very high up." Rose asked, threatening in her aura, despite the fact that Christian knew far worse, he had to admit, she could do damage to him.

"I don't have a choice, you make that clear."

"People like you lack what is required, Christian. You may not see that dawn. But that's okay. Artemis was born to die. So be ready to do so, same thing I've been doing all this time. I'll send co-ordinates. Short, sharp, attacks buy us time. We dump the entire Raven file out to the last moles we have in the intelligence communities. They'll be so interested it'll be like sand falling through a sieve." Rose was clear about her method, Christian still having one last comment to make.

"And was she born to die, Rose? You didn't answer my question from earlier. You hesitated. I know what's needed to happen, but tell me you're not going to push things the wrong way. If she exists in it, none of this functions.." Christian asked that, as Rose turned and looked away from the rainy window.

"Skye is incapable of understanding what she is. And she'll never understand just how much worse than me she is. I hoped to reason with her, hoped she'd come through without us breaching the subject....but I suppose that was my final mistake. Never realises she needs to lose it all to become free. I realised she's too far gone....too broken. They made her into what she is. And left me to what I am. And then, there's the matter of...well, there's still a bit of an elephant in the room. She'll get sorted out soon enough." Rose commented, Christian nodding, seeing the text back.

"Zhao will be ready to take the launch site when you are ready." Christian's response gave Rose a certain moment to absorb it, as she sighed deeply, in her own thoughts about what had been said. Doing what she was doing beforehand, that would have been simple, and it all had come together so perfectly. But she'd underestimated Skye and her team. Now, this was the last ditch that Rose had, and that meant she was if anything, even more dangerous. After all, she was on Skye's level now...

---

Skye Rosalind Lyons

Raven's Rock, Camp Hannula, Pöyrisjärvi National Park, Finland

2200 Local Time

Ebrima's presence back gave Skye a chuckle, as she responded to him first.
"No, she doesn't. But, doesn't stop me from trying to annoy her." Skye smirked back, watching them all chat, then turning back to Sophie.

"Sophie is good. Shame she can't be here, she's got some other work to do. But, I have a lot of time for her. Just sometimes...you know, I kinda treat it as in one ear, out another. I am lucky to have a good metabolism. And be far too stubborn to die." Skye smirked, looking to Sam, smiling back at her.

"Hell of a set of scars you got there, Sam. But glad to have you in one piece. Seriously happy you're back to things. And while this isn't over....we will make sure it will be soon." She commented, Purna nodding, wrapped up in his warm puffy jacket.

"This whole mess isn't over. I keep sitting here, thinking, the job isn't done. Rose is unpredictable. And have we got any idea of what next?" Purna asked, Adam shaking his head, shrugging.

"Agreed. But all we can do is wait. We all did a good job. Now we just need to hope this plays in the favour we wanted, and either she slips up, or we get to her first." He stoically added, Athena not so keen on even that idea.

"And I'll be smashing her head in when I see her. Fucking bint. Sorry Skye." Athena cursed, Skye giggling.

"I like it when you talk dirty, Athena. Your sister might not." Skye smirked back, as Athena shrugged, knowing Chuck had a glaring look at her, so she responded.

"Look, you could probably guess how these things go...word gets around. Family and all. But words are small things when you have you know, the capability like mine." Athena quite literally flexed on that note, Antti poking the fire a little more and looking across.

"You can't even fit your ego inside of a Volvo, perkele." Antti added, as with it, Skye, Adam and Purna chuckled, Athena shrugging and taking the loss there and then.

On the other hand, Tahlia looked up to Chuck, smiling.

"Pleasure was mine, Chuck. Duke's a cute thing. He is a very good boy." She commented, ruffling his ears, getting a tongue out, huffing from the latent energy Duke still seemed to have, and the affection for being back with his owner again.

---

Two Weeks Later

The Horseman's Trumpet

1200 Local Time

Adam pushed through the hollow room as Skye followed, clattering a couple more targets, Skye using her exo's enhanced potency to leap forwards in the woodland out of the shack, as Adam clattered a couple of AR-enabled targets with the MSBS, firing blanks as Skye clattered her two. Tahlia followed on Skye's lead raising her L129A1 DMR, clattering a couple more down range, as the Scot moved around the tree, blasting a few ore more rounds down. Skye and Adam's exos had been modified- the former for agility and with an open-face arrangement giving her now almost a ludicrously quick movement and jump ability, the latter having their field generator augmented and bulked up with armour and a grenade-launcher like device on his shoulder, copied but dissimilar to Luisa's. Adam's exo took on a satin black colour, whilst Skye's seemed to have a gentle grey gradient to it, worn in tandem with her MTP fatigues that were now a bit better adapted to the exo's plates and use.

Sharpness was important. And a bit of tactical training to demonstrate all of their new gear, as Athena had her own opportunity to stomp like a rampaging ram through the forest, nearly taking out a tree as she used her jump jet to blast into spot, saving the Tesla coil on her VR targets because she'd already have them out. Purna was joining in and sticking with Tahlia, this exercise a quick demonstration of everything the team had. It was like they were fighting ghosts, because to anyone else, there was nobody in the forest they were firing blanks at, but to the team, the simulated environment was quite vivid in the Finnish forest.

This would be the moment everyone in the team had a chance to play with what they had now that was new, and everyone was in one spot, on the rampage, going after it.

They kept going past the next emplacement of virtually projected enemies, well, it all was continuing until the sim suddenly stopped, the AR link ceasing to broadcast for a moment.

Because someone was getting a phone call.

The buzzer vibrated against Skye's side, as she looked to the other team.
"Sorry, just for me. Keep going without me. Sorry, I know, immersion...." Skye commented, with it, running back, and out of the vast, endless green pine forest back towards the base, the call urgent.

Running into the briefing room, Oracle stood at the head of the table inside the wooden structure. The look on Skye's face, still wearing her exo, rifle slung on her back, helmet off and in her hand presented the look of a Scot that wasn't casual here, but far more tactical, mean and vicious. Skye in that look seemed to have that aura of inducing fear to the people she met, tall, and seemingly like she just had the confidence to keep going even if inside, it was melting away.
"We have a situation. A lot of them. Look."

"Shit." Skye's response was clean, as she picked up the tablet on the table that displayed it. And every worst nightmare that due to Raven's focus away on Rose, had dropped the ball on a series of unconnected, yet all so pointed events.

The Thames Barrier in London had been hit by a tugboat during a storm surge and disrupted the city, flooding half of it and doing untold amounts of damage.

A major car-bombing in Paris.

Another in New Delhi.

A Chinese naval ship had been hit in the South China Sea.

A major bank had been bombed on Wall Street in New York.

And nobody knew who was behind any of it. A co-ordinated attack on everyone, at the same time. This wasn't a terrorist attack like any other kind. This was a message, a point proven that with Raven hunting Rose so hard, as well as many others wanting a slice of her now, they'd lost sight of the unconnected, yet oh so linked, connections back to her redhead form.

"Yeah. She's thrown all of most major intelligence agencies into confusion, given this all connects, yet none of the culprits make sense. Sown chaos...."

"It's her last play. Reason she didn't use the nerve agent is because the game would be up then, but this is enough to force a response in the next week. This serves her perfectly. And for what?"

"Because now, a lot of them have intel leaks that relate to our old file, from what she stole from us. And it details all of you, and Rose's presence. Look at how many calls I have had. We are very fucked. They took their eye off the ball for you, and she punched." Oracle added, looking to his phone. The phone that nearly never rang, was off the hook. How the base hadn't been levelled by a B52 yet was a miracle. It was perhaps speaking to Oracle's respect in the community he would do the right thing. Yet he knew better than that. Thankfully. Because Skye knew what that had meant. What had followed when that file went out.

"Oh...oh fuck."

"Right now, I should be putting a bullet through your brain if I followed any logic. Again. It all leaks to a redhead that they want to rip apart to figure out how to make you again. Cat's out of the bag now if it wasn't before, and it pushed the ball of wool over the edge, and across the floor. The person they connected to this looks a lot like Skye Rosalind Lyons, who now they know was the product of a NATO-sponsored genetic engineering programme, and our supposed allies are going to be turning knives on each other for what it is worth to them to get out of this, given they believe that's how they get to Rose....and everything else that could mean for their own programmes." He took a break, breathing out a hard exhale for a moment, thinking back on earlier. "We are so fucking lucky Sam deleted that data, or else we'd all be dead already, because it hasn't got an equivalent monetary worth. Immortality is priceless. And they have everything about your history, shit, it may as well be broadcast on TV now for what it's worth in the intelligence community. Rose realised she doesn't have to hide behind your mask anymore given what happened. But...."

"You know I'm needed. And you know that Rose is hoping you follow protocol. Because if you do..."

"Then there'll be no reaction to what she's doing. I think she's waiting on us to still strike anyway, because she knows she set us a dilemma. It takes the venom out of us, for sure. I'm not fucking stupid. Rose is realising if she can't have her lives to skulk among us, she'll take you with her. Also, because honestly, it proves her point. They'd treat you like a plaything. I thought better by protecting you, but no, the way they reacted....none of them can be trusted. Even at this point, Blue Sword is one NDA away from being wiped. The people we save are the ones that want to swallow us."

"So tell me where, when, what needs to be done. Tell me we have an edge of some kind. Because time is running out."

"We know where she has to be, and where Zhao, and the remainder of Artemis are holed up if she's played her cards like this, because intel points to only one thing she can do. It's a bit rushed, but we think her last option is a private Vulpine Space launchpad, located on a small volcanic island off the coast of Reunion, in the Indian Ocean. Amidst the smoke she's put up, a contingent of Zhao's PLA forces and Artemis mercs took it last night and are settling in."

"And what do you want me and my team to do?"

"Do what you do best. Wipe the slate. Find her, and Zhao, and take them both out. And then some. But there is one element on top of it. Take a look at this." Oracle's tone seemed confident in Skye as she looked on, and went over the plans.

"That's a mechanised People's Liberation Army company, just sitting there, a PLAN corvette, plus a shit-ton of Artemis mercs, and from satellite imagery, good ones too from the vehicles and tools they have laying around."

"Zhao's remit means the men under his command are not in the know.....but, Zhao has his free rein where he'd like with Artemis, and he has a significant faction within China and the North Korean government that bows to him. If we do this backed by anybody else, it's war....even if he's taken a bit of Reunion in the process. Rose knows if we hit with any support from anyone even willing to work with us, it'll get framed as the Americans going after Chinese-backed interests."

"Very smart. But she knows if we go alone, she'll have enough blunt force to stop us as we are right now. Unless we hit them with everything we have. And something a little more." Skye narrated, as Oracle pointed out something else.

"And kook at this. They have an Arianne 7 rocket on the pad. One they were looking to launch. If that's loaded with Sol Hestia...." Oracle's observation was good, but Skye had something of her own.

"Wait. That isn't a cargo rocket. That launcher has a crew module on it. Look. The nosecone is slightly different." Skye pointed out, zooming in.

"Does it matter? Fill it with canisters of Hestia and you load it up, and it's potentially billions still dead if you have a primer. It becomes an ICBM at that point."

"A bad one. Or, Rose is waiting to get off Earth quickly."

"Well, there is one aspect to it....if your theory is right...maybe it gets worse than that. That rocket on the pad is the kind that Pavel Andros used to launch a telecoms network and saved on costs with, and now, a private space hotel for access. Ark Angel. One that if you are right, is the only place Rose can go to now, because that rocket with Sol Hestia wouldn't be enough to achieve what she wants, it's just enough to kill a few countries worth, at most."

"And that station is the kind that we can't just zap out of the sky now without creating a massive diplomatic incident given the fallout. Or worse, if there's any store of Sol Hestia there, who knows what happens next."

"Exactly. Even if she hasn't got a body she can link into anymore, but she had copies left there.....she's basically got a biolab she can fling tungsten-reinforced canisters of Sol Hestia back at us with, at will over populated areas with little recourse for us, and over a few weeks with a few canister drops..."

"Game over."

"Exactly."

"Not her first choice and why she turns to it now, considering it's a one way journey and puts all her eggs in one basket, but it's the only way she gets what she wants. If she's down to one of her older bodies, she'll last maybe a few months before she breaks down altogether. Especially if she's peeling blood out of her severed bodies, and it isn't a process she can't complete without inducting it herself through her own one, given what's in our blood. There is a window coming up in four days and it's the only time it would intercept the station's orbit, and, if we're lucky, we're able to stop her. If not, we are chasing her to a dead end. Up there. And that means...."

"Well......"

"Oh fuck, Oracle, I rode on Freya's inflated arse and thought that was bonkers enough! Holy shit.....right. So, let me get this straight. Every intelligence agency wants a piece of me, no matter what we do, despite saving billions. You want us to go off grid, go into an incredibly risky area of military build up with no support, raid a launch site, take out a rogue Chinese general, then steal a fucking Arianne without getting shot at, go into space, take out a space station to stop a plan we don't even know about that Rose might, and I mean, *might* have, then come home and not die? Please tell me you understand me, when I think you need to check whatever pain medication you're taking." Skye seemed even lost for words, as she shook her head.

"And I don't know any other operatives that could do it. We call this in, and the by the time the PLA, the CIA and anyone else has authority to act, we are out of time. Right now, I'm the only one keeping anyone from closing the jaws on us. Do you know how close Blue Sword is to getting investigated? So I suppose yes, we are out of choices."

"So this is it then. No more help. No more support, to take on a world-ending fucking threat. Within the space of a month. You have to be kidding me. At least the first time you wanted my guts for garters, at least everyone agreed."

"And it's why you're the only person who can run this op, alongside your team. I believe in you. And I know you have a certain experience to all of this." Oracle said, leaning across the table as Skye sighed, looking back.

"That crash course with the ESA when we were thinking this sort of incident might happen...and someone in the community might need to react. But doing it live, actually out there, is another thing. Guess I'll need to teach a few of the team too. If it comes to it, I'd rather not go alone. For the love of all that's holy, I hope not." Skye added, as Oracle shrugged.

"I thought a few ICBMs back in my day was a threat. I remember we fought our way through Idaho and Kerala like there was no tomorrow to stop a threat that felt like this. But Rose is different. So if she is counting on us ripping you apart, she has another thing coming. I was a stickler for the rules, but this time, maybe we're so fucked that I think we do what needs doing." Oracle said, a grin forming on Skye's face.

"The only person that can kill Skye Lyons, is Skye Lyons. Your words." Skye replied, as she shut the tablet down.

"No honeymoon in Reunion then."

---

Île de la Tempête

Skye had called everyone to the briefing room, the air sombre given the events of the past few months. It had come to this. The last time felt final, yet this felt as if it wasn't an epilogue, but like the culmination. The crescendo.

"Right, we have a situation. You've probably seen the news, and we're not deploying to any active event, but the one that's been smoked out of the coverage. We've got a privately-run orbital launch site in Reunion to hit, and while I am aware I put you against it sometimes....this one, this is more difficult than most. The world is teetering on an edge, and whilst I appreciate your efforts before, this one might be a bit more difficult due to current circumstances. I know it feels like we won. It's not quite over, I'm afraid. But, you are all rather unbreakable. So let's get down to it." Skye said, the elephant in the room clear. There was a certain silence, and a look at Skye. The news had leaked from Oracle.

It was best the team had known, given the circumstances. Most of them would now understand that whilst the events of a couple of weeks ago had nearly killed some of the team, being rewarded with bread and a pile of shit and being asked to make sandwiches was about to mean the team were no doubt weary, but aware of the stakes.

"There is a chance that Rose has undertaken these attacks to cover up a launch taking place in three days, using the chaos to get away and deploy Sol Hestia either via a rocket, or potentially worse, from an orbital platform with her going up on it. It's an option that certainly kills her, so we need to pin her down before she can execute it, and with it, the majority of humanity. The irony isn't lost on me anymore we were here two weeks ago." Skye started, knowing the looks she would likely get.

"We will be outnumbered, and there is a significant Artemis, and PLA presence on the island. They are trained, cohesive and have the backing of a structure rather than an assortment of bodies. We've got one clean shot at the facility, but we are up against a significant resistance, aerial, naval and infantry-based series of threats." Skye added, looking the team over, bringing the map in tighter.

Île de la Tempête, or Tempest Island was one of the smallest of the islands off the eastern coast of Reunion, closer towards Mauritius than the main island itself, and was an anomaly on most maps- given it was a former French Navy installation that had now been taken over by Vulpine Space as a remote, suitable site for military and civilian rocket launches. It must have been about 20km2 in size, with an active, occasionally spewing volcano at the dead centre of it, that almost made the site feel more . Outside of that, the entire island was blanketed in a thick, dense rainforest that broke into pines in the higher elevations of the volcano, albeit at the coast where it broke up with green, grassy plains and clearings. It was a perfect tropical volcanic island, albeit the section that had been razed and now had a spaceport on it with a small harbour adjacent large enough to bring rocket stages in, cinematically backed by the orange plume of the volcano. The former European Space Agency site, built as a contingency for Kourou in French Guiana and modelled upon it, had two launch pads and sat on the eastern coast, now owned by private money with a command bunker, a large warehouse-like hangar for rockets and assembly, as well as a warehouse and supporting fuel and supplies. A hell of a site, flanked out by newly assembled barracks and defences that made the place feel less like a tropical paradise and more like a fortified position. A system of tracks and trails dotted around the island, providing access to an otherwise inaccessible world.

"There's a number of things we can do to swing the odds in our favour. A couple of mechs here, brought in by Artemis based on the model series found in Marrakesh, can be flipped if we are clever about it. And here, there is a frigate that needs to be rigged to blow, so it can't interfere with our operation. There's a lot of aviation that needs suppressing, but we can likely flip a set of SAM system to do that for us. And lastly, a significant portion of enemies and armour are concentrated around this part of the lower base, who are likely to be aware of how we attacked in Greenland, so could probably take on a force ten times our size. All of this needs clearing out first, so we can take back a control centre where the staff on site have been taken hostage, and we need to secure. Lastly, we have one, potentially two HVTs to eliminate. Only then, are we done." Skye flicked up the picture next, a little tremble in her hands. Zhao and Rose came into view.

"General George Zhao commands a serious asset in the People's Liberation Army, and is one of the last Artemis bigdogs left. Do not expect him to back down. Capture him or kill him, but whatever you do, if you see Rose, don't hesitate to shoot. She gave up willingly on that airship because she knew there was one final roll of the dice we didn't know of. She will gnaw through you if it's what it takes because this is a desperate act. Do not expect her to give up lightly."

Skye stopped, looking about the room.

"There is something else. If Rose isn't there, or the situation evolves, then there's another job we need to do. If it comes to it.... there is an orbital space station, Ark Angel, we need to clean house at, and neutralise all Sol Hestia compounds, as well as all remaining bodies that could produce the toxin. And given there is an Arianne rocket on the launchpad, and that a launch could be configured within an hour to go, means we're first responders that can cut it off before any other method. And I can't go alone. Ebrima, Sam, Athena, Freya, Eloise, I want you four with me. There's probably a degree's worth of content I got taught in a week. I have to teach you that in about four hours. The latter two, I'll expect your suits can manage EVA, given the CBRN sealing. The former two, they have suits at the site from their last inventory that you'll need to switch to once we secure the compound. Plus, Sam is the most likely to know how to actually manage the avionics of a rocket, outside of the centre's staff. You two are the most likely to adapt to it given you've used jump jets and that sort of tech before." Skye added, looking around.

There were probably a million and one questions.

"The situation is evolving. And it's likely that all of us are out on this one. Purna, Eloise, you are are on the ship to take that out, whilst Sam, you and Adam are on the mechs and seeing if we can turn the tables on them by eliminating their guard crews, and hijacking them. Chuck, Freya, you two are on clearing duty, securing the main barrack and security areas. Me and Ebrima will secure any vehicle pools, and anything we can use as a force multiplier. Our job is to turn their arm into them. Jamie, Athena, Tahlia, you two I'll deploy where I need you, as a rapid response. So if you have any creative ideas on how we can force multiply, I'm eager to hear it. The techs have the latest upgrades for your gear, so now I imagine you're all at your most lethal, or as far as you can be. We are going to need every last bit of it." Skye said, sighing a little, knowing no easy options were left right here, right now.

"Given the size of the island, and the concentration of the forces, getting ashore is easy enough, but our fighting will need to be guerrilla like. We'll need to disable all of those elements at the same time, before hitting the main target itself in a combined push, hitting them hard enough to destroy their capability to hit back. We can't leave anyone standing, or at least, leave them in a state so that Blue Sword reinforcements can manage anyone captured." Skye finished, looking across the room, taking in the look of everyone.

"Any additions? Anything you want to set yourself up with on this island?" Skye's comment felt like it didn't really fill out the rest of how bonkers this was. A lot of different strands needed hitting, then it needed to be brought together in one, larger, massive final assault.

Words came slow.

"You are joking about space, aren't you?" Adam asked, as well, Skye may as well have just turned around and told the team the moon was blue and made of cheese.

"I wish I was."

"Holy shit...."

"Well. While you lot think of that, I can perch up and run recon through the forest." Tahlia added, looking up the map. "I can get you fire support. A couple of remote drone snipers, and a hook-in, and I can set that up." Tahlia crossed her arms, a confident nod back, as Raph gave the same response.

"Enri and I can kill and jam their comms, if you can get into their systems. Perform some electronic warfare. The PLA aren't stupid, they have their own countermeasures, but we can do some damage."

"My new blimp, that big ol' flying butt has got a lot of missiles. It's anti-radar coated, so we have a fire support tool, but it'll need to go dark after it unloads. We can use it as a mobile base once we're closer, instead of the VTOL, and it can sling-load the hovercraft and carry reinforcements for later. Should reach there in time, three days including fuel. Might even be a better staging area for us if we can meet it at a fuelling stop in Tsavo." Athena pointed out, as Tahlia nodded, Skye holding back her giggle for Athena's new nickname for it.

"This is an incredible amount of force we need to take on. And ready like ever for infiltrators like me. If we need to launch, what happens to the rest of us?" Purna commented, looking across to Skye.

"Sit tight, and hold off anyone that wants to counterattack. By then, we're on a countdown." Skye's response was clean, as Oracle sat at the end of the room, looking in to Skye, who seemed to be calm in her instruction, yet beneath the surface, clearly had plenty to worry about.

DELTΔ HYPER (An F1 Drive to Survive inspired Anti-Gravity, Slice of Life, Cyberpunkish/Solarpunkish RP)

Rory looked incredibly sheepish, the look one that had been cut to, sitting by the booth, watching it all unfold on the cameras. He was VERY quickly given a note to explain what was going on, as he had remained silent the entire time.
"Uhhh...FIAR forgot to tell them they were shooting Raven 2: Double Vision. We uhhh.....we also forgot. That.....that happened. Yeah. Sorry folks!"

---

Emptied the Popcorn

The crowd looked on in horror, as the notification popped up on their viewing devices, more than a heavy sigh of relief coming out, as the two actresses clambered back up, one completely deactivating the nanite-enfused mask she'd worn, looking over with a sigh as she got back up, cold as all hell, hoping it was right, and now, her face completely different to the redhead on the other side, not a literal copy but someone back to her own self. They all cheered, as the drones filming also peeled away, the Delta Hyper cam actually realising that well, this was a film. It had happened so damn fast that no real focus had been made, but yes, somebody had fucked up big time. Someone hadn't told someone, and even in an age of VI and monumental piles of scheduling, someone had forgotten to tell someone that this was to be cancelled due to the crash, and reshot later. Instead, it had gone ahead, and well, the kerfuffle had now played out.

The director came on in a ship following not too far behind, open-topped, more like a jeep of some sort.

"Perfect! Y'all did amazing! We'll fix that last hit in post, but you all hit your marks, and we got what we wanted Perfect work from you there Maddy, and you too, Silvie. Now, we should probably git the hell out of here before we get shouted at. All in one take, that's what we love to see!" The Director's look was one of awkwardness, but well, when you were making art, you were making art.

---

The director seemed to cooly sit in the chair, the Delta Hyper one of all of them, given how this segment had just played out. Marvin Ellis, two time Oscar award winner, going from writing epic coming of ag stories of growing up in the Sahel during the Water Wars, to the documentary covering the first landings on Phobos, a crime-thriller related to a killer who merged into his victims, and then, what was an adoption of an old Sebastian Klonowski novel from decades ago, the film that lit up two years ago as one of the most action-packed indulgent movies he'd ever shot with a blockbuster budget. The Liberian-born, American raised, superstar producing film-maker aware he was probably gonna get yelled at beyond just the people who saw him recoil genres, but any publicity was GOOD publicity.

"Yeah, so we filmed the sequel y'all are begging me for at the Italian AGP. See, in this day and age, you can get an AI generated film, create an entire scratch from just your thoughts and live in it, viscerally. But I'm a fan of the old movies, and doing things...you know, properly. Yeah, I get it, some people want to view it from first person, but I'm a big fan of a classic experience. The emotion, the feeling, sure, you can't be immersed in but you can see it, and it brings the story of them to life."

"Wow, and....well, that was unexpected! Marvin, you think you changed the tone of Skye from the original novel, on your second film? And what happens in that scene?"

"Well, you know how it is. Authors have one view, but I think I got the spirit right. She's tougher. Done with Rose's....can I swear on this?" Marvin asked, as Aurora shook her head off camera.

"Bullcrap, you know what I mean? So, we needed a big action sequence to show she's still got it. Like, she gets hurt, she's outgunned now, but still has her team. Keira is also playing Sam incredibly, I know some people weren't sure about her casting but like you get to see what I mean, she's got this range, she brings her to life."

"Amazing. How does this relate to the story generally?"

"Well while those who watched got a little spoiler, we'll be releasing the full thing, ready to go, in two months time. Can't say any more. Stay tuned!"

"Thanks Marvin. And well, we'll let you see the FIAR on your own terms...." Marvin was very fast off camera, and almost running away, as if to add to the whole drama of the thing.

---

La Dolce Vita

"Well, that was an explosive, if not even more intense end to the AGP! What a race. And well, we hope you enjoyed this. From us here at Delta Hyper, thank you ever so much for tuning in, and we'll see you again in Portugal, where we are headed to the first circuit based round of the Formula AGP. Will we see a resurgent Valkyrie or Zygon come back, or are we in for more domination from Silver Apex, Al-Saqr and Southern Cross? We'll see you then!" And with that, Aurora's cut was completed, the footage playing back.

Soundtrack: Ludovico Einaudi- Nuvole Bianche

And from an explosive end, a soft, gentle piano starts to play in, as the edit plays. It's soft, going from ship to ship, following the best scenes of the race. A highlights reel, rolling through the limited crew that made Delta Hyper, but most importantly, each pilot. Each of their looks, in ship, out of ship, the highs, the lows, the fierce look on Astrid's face, the gaze of Kais, the youthful, drilled eyes of Paul, and the cheering of Bea, pulled away from her liquid breathing getup, struggling yet on top of that world, and then, the triumph of Nora. It's a beautiful cut, interspersed with racing footage, and some might say, even if artificially, it feels more cinematic than the actual film that had happened.

Harrison's near barelling overtake upside down on MAG stripping inside the glacier past Kais, the leap at Forcella and the crash of Astrid and Han, the vying ships on the hairpins and corners of Dorian and Ava, and well, then everything else that came with watching this type of racing. The music slowly came to a halt, as the scene faded to black.

One more scene left though. You could tell there was still runtime left, so no point tuning out yet.

---

The Interview

Sitting down, wearing a blank white polo shirt, the German engineer knew there were a million and one questions, and he had barely any to answers to freely give away now. Aurora was getting one hell of a scoop, and behind the camera, her voice asked the one that even he couldn't entirely explain. No Valkyrie affiliation anymore, nothing at all, an engineer that after the race, a few days now past, he could speak a bit more openly.

"Felix, thank you for your time. Can we ask, publicly, why did you leave Valkyrie?"

"There is not much I can say. Alexander is one of the most stand-up, principled Principals there is. But I wanted something more. And that happened. I want to make it clear, this was a decision made by me, not the team, and I am excited for the next opportunity."

"Can you give any flavour as to where you're going?"

"I've signed an NDA, so I can't. But, I know that some people would suggest I would be working with Silver Apex, with Simon Calder. That is nonsense. I have a lot of respect for him, but once I reveal where I am going, I hope all will come well. I have said this before, and I say it again. This is an art form, it is to be respected, and I think my next steps will give me something new that I have wanted to try."

"That sounds cryptic. Any last words for your team-mates, engineers, and crew?" Aurora's words seemed to hold forever, as Felix looked into camera.

"Thank you. I wanted to say it has been an incredible journey. And this was one of the hardest decisions of my life. Harder than dealing with personal, great loss in my life so far. I....I wish them all the best, and whilst we may be rivals, I owe them a great deal. Whoever comes into the role, I hope they understand that too. This is not a job of just numbers. This is a job for those who love it. AG is that. No more, no less. Champions may be made on circuit, but they exist off it, too."

On that, the questions stopped, and the scene cut to black.

---

The Exhale Before Sprint

In the post race, most teams had packed up. Figured out their game plan for Portugal, and beyond it, Luna.

There were some teams that had suffered badly. Some that had lost a ship chassis, others that had lost something even bigger.

But no matter what, the wheels kept turning, or rather, the ships kept on flying off the surface of the dirt.

It was time to debrief, get ready for the next race, get shipped out to home, and then, in three weeks time, hit the circuit once more. A lot of prep was going into the work to head to Luna during the additional week's break, so this wasn't like most- and most teams had gotten that, thinking through what was to come next.

But that would come around even quicker. The weekend was beckoning. And the next story of this championship would unfold then, as Southern Cross returned to Christchurch and to a slowly revamping facility, Valkyrie grappled with a new Chief Engineer, Carrera exhaled hard after a sprint for the ages from the lower midfield, and Zygon licked wounds that the corp had certainly never wanted to feel again.

Four races in, and whilst some had made the mistake of thinking Amy Stirling was invincible, the midfield, and others in the pack had made it clear it was nothing predictable.

DELTΔ HYPER (An F1 Drive to Survive inspired Anti-Gravity, Slice of Life, Cyberpunkish/Solarpunkish RP)

Round 4 of Formula Anti-Gravity Racing
Sunday 15th April, 2094
Post-Race
Italian AGP

Strada Alpina
Marmolada, Dolomiti, Italia
1400 CET

Fast Ten Your Seatbelts

Soundtrack: Hans Zimmer- The Mole

The race had come to a close, with the feeling of ecstasy for the pilots, gaining their applause, as were even those further down the grid, and the ships being brought in for inspection. Spectators still in the stands, still watching as craft came into bear, and well, the podium celebrations were going. It was all good fun, but something else was going on down at the bottom of the mountain, right at the base in the tunnel. Something someone wasn't entirely expecting. Out of the tunnel, there were still vehicles on track.

The supercar skated through the circuit, chased by what looked like another one, both skating across the surface of the circuit merely minutes ago raced on, the sight of it very certain. The camera peeled in, watching it all unfold, the two ships slower than a normal AG racing ship, but still, no slouch at all, given they were Southern Cross make-supercars, and being piloted by two very mean drivers.

This was a car chase, with the way one was trying to ram the other, and they were going through corners like a superheated knife in room temperature butter. Not enough to make say, any of the pilots blush, but if they were taking out other people for a ride in a supercar like this on the sections of non-MAG tracking it could race on, then well, they'd be raising a hell of a pulse.

But this didn't look like some excursion on track. One was hunting the other down, fast, and that was confirmed as they came out of the tunnel, the sudden look of a missile roaring out of a hidden compartment on the black one chasing it down, as the defence on the orange supercar in front barely caught it, but immediately leached out all of the power out of the drive with the secondary payload, the driver bailing out as it seemed to just go dead straight.

Straight towards a cliff-face, and the driver knew better than to sit tight, yanking the door open and diving out, their tactical getup barely stopping them from being shredded on the deactivated MAG stripping as the ship hurtled towards a cliff-face now with a deactivated repulson field, and detonated.

They coughed as they stood up, thrown into the snow from how far they'd slid by the gleaming white and blue cover on the icy lake, the mountain in the background, the race well and truly still a factor here, albeit one that had just passed. Their rifle far away and nothing in her hands bar the gloves of her slick tactical suit, like something Sam Fisher might be found wearing, her hat still on, her fierce look in her eyes giving off the look of someone who wasn't going to give up fighting. She'd earned this, after all, was the expression she gave.

The redhead stepped out of the black car as it came to a half next to her, dressed up in what looked like a tactical getup with an exoskeleton, the other pilot not wanting to run over, but merely coming to a halt, getting out with a gentle hop onto the snowy terrain.
"You never give up, do you! Time to end this!" The redhead yelled, not even going for her advanced carbine-like gauss rifle, but instead, a tactical knife that was basically like a very short shortsword, serrated and all. She had her reasons. Deep seated. This was personal.

With it, scattered on the ice, the redhead charged and the other one, dressed significantly less ready for this fight, yet no less trained. The two clashed as she countered with her own Kukri, bullets or missiles forgotten, but back to what almost looked like a medieval fight. The armoured up redhead looked to be winning, given she had an exoskeleton and could literally hurl the other girl into ice or floor, but the other one seemed to hold her own using an optical cloak to dodge the biggest hits, unarmoured redhead's hat getting knocked off as the more tactical looking one swung her around, revealing her own darkened red hair, a look that revealed her to be near identical to the pursuer that she was next to.

With another move, the other swung her tactical sword and was countered even in site of the force with the other's Kukuri, yet the armoured up redhead throwing the other one into the ice on that counter, a gentle crack audible in the ice as she was pushed hard into it, before drawing it to her throat, pushing her into the floor.

"Nowhere to run, Skye. Got you where I wanted. Give up what's in your brain, or I'll cut through you till I get it." The redhead in armour seemed to be definitely the villain here of the two, even if the victor. Even if identical looking to Skye, on the floor, well and truly screwed and outmatched here.

But, a characteristic grin always came back.

"Come on Rose, I got you where you wanted too. See you later."

And with it, the sound of what must have been a loud sniper crack whistled, the armoured redhead's body falling limp as the shot rang out, the woman on the floor clambering up, pushing her over, pulling a set of keys off her tactical rig, as well as the rifle, peeling a few mags of ammo.

"I did always say you needed to be more open minded." Skye gave a wry smirk to maybe nobody but the hole-in-head having copy of her on the floor, finishing up, hearing the audio flitter through her nanite-infused earpiece.

"We have more of them, incoming. Get your ass out of there, Queen." The voice was a male one, a concerned tone, as the main protagonist of this story, it seemed, shrugged. Like another day.

"Good. Gotta say, she really has a flair for the dramatic today. Don't know where she gets that from." The reaction was to a faceless audience, her smile growing as she walked across the ice, towards the beckoning supercar.

"CUT!"

DELTΔ HYPER (An F1 Drive to Survive inspired Anti-Gravity, Slice of Life, Cyberpunkish/Solarpunkish RP)

Friday 14th April, 2094
Rifugio Capanna Piz Fassa di Bernard Guido
Piz Boè, Dolomiti, Italia
1700 CET

A Couch in the Sky

The interviews got all manner of chuckles from the pilots and the pundits alike, including Paul and Bea's various antics. But, as the main batch finished up with thank yous and goodnights, the next batch came in. The other pilots had been trickling into the rifugio, Max rubbing shoulders with Astrid, Amy with Harrison, and all of them passed by the other pilots. Perhaps they weren't talking to our crew of pilots, the cameras following various conversations and interviews, but, they'd be in direct contact, and would see it, there and then. Cue the hypercut.

"Strada Alpina? Yeah, it's an absolute menace of a circuit. So, so unrelentingly fast. It's a pilot's favourite for a good reason." Harrison replied, a smile on his face, the next interview cutting in from Ava.

"Thoughts on the team's growth? Sure, we have got more to do in the R&D department, we know we haven't got the resources. But like Valkyrie and Zygon are showing this year, sometimes you need small. We're a tight knit bunch, not sure I'd call us a family, much more a bit more a dysfunctional set of siblings but uhh....yes, it works!" Ava replied, a smile forming on her face- perhaps even her iron cold heart warming to Bea's approach of being more open. Like Lando Norris being opened up by Carlos Sainz, she was actually growing even beyond her history.

"For the race? Hmm...I would say we maximise the ship. As Paul says, we have an incredible handling ship, but we need to make the most. People underestimate those hairpins!" Dorian spoke in near perfectly fluent Italian- the European of the grid showing his mastery, no Earworm needed to verbalise what he wanted to say, he just said it in a near impeccable tone.

"Well, Tokyo proves our ship can make it work when we have to. We'll just attack in the race. And I expect if some mistakes happen, we can take advantage." Astrid seemed actually more upbeat than usual. Like for some reason, getting a podium had lit a fire under her normally stoic demeanour, yet she still seemed very matter of fact.

"I mean, we can't say what'll happen. Our ship is a good balance, so here we might not dominate, but, I've done well on the grid and I think I can take us higher. Forza Zygon!" Cassie smirked, candid to camera, her qualy result actually quite positive considering everything.

Kofi seemed to be shivering. "I always get cold here! Why do we come here, I say, it's too snowy and wintery up here! Haha, I joke, but yes, I do have the heater on in the ship, even with all of the systems connected, nothing really prepares you for it!"

Then the American, in his teal blue puffy jacket and his cool blonde hair, manicured like he was out here shooting an advert of his own. And cool as Max would like to be. "Yeah, I guess we were not sure either, I mean our pace in practice so far isn't great but we can make that up in the race. We have some ideas to counter pure speed, and here, it rewards talent a hell of a lot. So better make that work, am I right?"

"It's a lot of nasty rumours, and look, I want to dispel now, we're still hiring, we are still functioning as always, and I wouldn't believe everything you read, Aurora." Henry's reply seemed drilled, and once again, absolutely none of the pilots on the veranda believed it.

"Losing my streak? Nah. I think we just hit upon a bad tune at the end of practice, but that's just from trying to make up positions that would fit us both. We risked and failed. It happens. You only get points on Sunday, and we'll need to qualify well tomorrow. We'll see what happens then." Amy's smile was almost a threat, like a "we are coming", sort of look, one that never faded with how competitive she was.

---

Round 4 of Formula Anti-Gravity Racing
Saturday 15th April, 2094
Qualifying
Italian AGP

Strada Alpina
Marmolada, Dolomiti, Italia
1400 CET

Episode Four: Azzuro Alpina

Max "Wedge" Wedgewood

Soundtrack: EOB- Shangri-La (Spike Stent Edit)

Sitting in his teal-blue suit inside the MMR cabin, Max was going through his telemetry, pouring over data on the lap with Carl, his engineer, sitting inside the start-finish adjacent pit box, parked on top of a mountain. The heating was on full blast, warming up the cabin to a degree that would feel toasty compared to the polar-like cold outside.

"Right, so we haven't got the power here. Or handling. What have we got?" Max asked, Carl nodding, looking at the same glass tablet and wall of AR-enabled data as he was, but seeing something else.

"There's going to be a lot of gain you can make here. Deployment is good here too. And, Sector 3 is where you can make it up. You are posting good times in the glacier section, and overtakes can happen there. So let's target that." Carl added, running the footage back again. He was supportive, that much Max could say about Carl- like an adoptive dad almost, and if Max knew he got any offers from anywhere, he was going to follow him. Carl continued, going through the next bit.
"See, here you can tailor your line in a bit tighter. The ship can give. Think you can do that tomorrow?"

"Sure."

With it, Max once again ran through the numbers, and with it, made his tweaks, using the other pilots data to find their weaknesses, and like a game of chess, unpick them.

Cue the montage, and running it back, and then paired that up with some physio, and some light augment review, MMR's doctor checking his heart, vessels and neural link, all of which were green light and good to go.

It was repetitive, but soon, he had what he wanted. And walking outside, all finished for the day as the sunset came in, he took in the view once more.

Racing was beautiful, but in a place like this, it was cinematic. Stunning, if not even more like a drama than usual, then here, it felt like it. Sometimes, he reminded himself just how lucky he was.

Staring into the horizon, the sight of Dorian coming in between the cabins up to the snowbank caught him by surprise, the esteemed gent of the grid standing by Max's side, wearing the team's grey with yellow, featuring pink-stitches puffy jacket. A whiteout had hit on one side of the mountain, creating an empty void of absolute grey nothing- with features barely visible beyond it.

"Enjoying the view? Or what is left of it?" Dorian asked, Max shirking a smile, shaking his head, seeing Dorian come to join

"Yeah. And with what we did....what do you want me to say. Future isn't now, old man?" Max chuckled, shoving his shoulder gently in response to the qualy results, Dorian shrugging in return.

"Well, I did speak to you and Ulrich a lot back when you were in the Junior AG leagues, so yeah, I knew you guys were coming after my position. Now look at you both. How's he doing?" There was an element there that may not have been as visible, but well, it was clear Dorian at one point had been involved in their development. A mentor of sorts, even if that meant things had changed now, and he couldn't talk direct, he was always interested in them. Now he had to go toe to toe with them.

"Ulrich? Yeah, he's....he's okay. Got a lot of issues with debt. But, he worked out a payment plan. Poor guy told me back in Tokyo, broke down to me completely. Shit, it was bad, Dorian." The American's usually chirpy demeanour seemed to bare all, Dorian shaking his head in response. He knew, deep down, something wasn't right. Even from that first chat in Auckland.

"Dammit. I knew he had something going on. He never told me. Explains a lot, actually. His father was the most stressed looking man I have ever seen." Dorian added, leaning against the cabin, looking across to Max.

"Yeah, well, it's not looking like such a problem now. Ulrich is doing what he has to, he's got enough money in this contract of his to pay it back, but he's crashing in Montreal in a place I helped him find until it tides over, far as the people he owes money know, he's under contract and it's being paid out. You know, doing the right thing and all that, keeps his head down. So, tell me. What's it like being under Alexander? Like, really. Come on. Don't give me a media response." Max's American drawl curled, the Colorado-bound native not really cold up here on top of a mountain in the early spring.

"It is uhh....different. He wants different things. He's read a lot of books on marginal gains, I can tell you that much. Forgets sometimes you know, pilots are still human. And it's weird given we raced together, it's hard to listen to a boss who was on the other side of the grid you know, it's a strange voice and I still can't get used to it. But he is a breath of fresh air. Good even compared to last year's shitshow. Cassie and the Principal made it a mess. No idea how Felix bailed our asses out then." Dorian mused, thinking that year over. It was still a solid constructors finish, but not exactly amazing.

"And Paul? He was a machine in the Junior AG league. Dude was relentless." Max joked, Dorian again, shrugging.

"He's like you. A lot like you. A talent, but, he has a lot to learn. I think you picked it up faster, but we'll see. And between me and Paul, we can wrap up a podium on the constructors for the next few races, and...yeah, we'll make it work." Dorian cooly replied, Max chuckling in reply.

"Yeah, well, this retirement tour you can enjoy old man, but after, we'll be coming after you. MMR has big plans. Serious money being thrown in. And, turns out that engineers are just running from Fitzroy are coming in."

"Really?"

"Yeah, a lot of them are leaving. You heard the rumours, right?"

"I thought their engineering department was terrible?"

"Yes, but not the ones that kept them afloat. I think there's going to be some serious changes in the grid. Lot of people want to go join other teams. And there's gonna be some changes."

"You took to paddock rumours like a duck to water, Max. Careful."

"Well, you gave me some juicy ones on your boss. But I respect you too much to tell anyone else. That stays with us. But...you know. Gossip is fun."

"Always is." Dorian smirked, as Max let there be a break in conversation, before asking what next.

"So, when you retire this season, then what? You aren't exactly going to go have a family. What are you gonna do?" Max asked, Dorian shrugging.

"Not this. I've done this for at least 20 years. It's all I know. Maybe I'll try endurance. Or classics racing. Or something else. Find someone permanent. I mean, there's a guy I'm talking to at the moment. Really cool. Laurent."

"You're actually going to settle down? Woah, Playboy 2080, you're gonna stop?"

"Maybe." Dorian mused, Max shaking his head in return.

"Nah, you're addicted. I bet you'll sign for another team again. Maybe go ask Silver Apex if they want to kick Hart out?" Max replied, the two laughing as Dorian's lips turned to a curling smile.

"Well....who knows really. Or perhaps someone else will. I don't see him staying long." Dorian seemed to speak what every pilot was thinking, as he looked into the horizon. "You know what they do to their pilots. Amy is harder to work with than any pilot I know, and that ship is even more tricky. This time though....maybe they'll rethink their approach. Right now, it's their championship to still win. If they want to take it, Amy alone will not win that for them. Not with the other teams hunting them the way they are. Even if Southern Cross slip, Al-Saqr have their cyberwoman and their supersoldier to keep the heat on them." Dorian added sighing, as he went somewhere with this.

"So you don't know but....Cassie wanted that seat at Silver Apex badly this year. That's why she was so difficult. They picked Jamie over her early in last season, because he was like Bea, a talent that just consistently scored points and followed orders even when Astrid didn't get it quite right. So, Cassie got mad. She was under the belief the team biased the ship to me. They didn't, it just prioritised a high level of grip and corner stability over speed. Cassie is just impatient. Talented, but she wants the top spot now. And no amount of PR hides it." Dorian commented, tapping his feet into the snow, Max looking even shocked to hear that from his mentor.

"Shit. Didn't realise it went that badly between you two. I thought it was all just hype?"

"Nope. She decided she wanted out. Nobody stopped her. And she picked Zygon of all places. Literally the worst call she could have made for who she is as a person. She's not a corpo, she's a free-wheeling environmentalist who'd be out as much as Harrison is. I mean, is she gonna modify herself like Layla is to do what's gonna get her the top spot? She's placed well in that ship in qualifying. But in the race, I know how to pick her lock, she goes for flashy, not for smooth. I think I'm not alone." Dorian was open, almost as if in retirement, he didn't care he was telling a rival this, given that was how deep the rift was between them. Deep like the crevasse in the glacier ahead.

"You two not even going to talk it out? Man, I've never seen you like this. Thought you were Mister Cool, you know." Max commented, Dorian shrugging like he did not care a bit.

"What is there to discuss? She could have made something more of herself at Valkyrie. And instead, she wanted the glory. This is not about just you as the person, Max. Learn that from me. It's about the team you are in, that takes you places. The bigger whole. A lot of people at the factory rely on you to do well not because they want some extra money after their Universal Basics (a modified version of UBI that includes food, water, most housing, as well as a small volume of relevant currency for goods/services based upon small, contract-like piecemeal fixing works now present in most sectors), but because they believe in you, they tell their kids about you, and they want to be part of that story of you taking the top spot. Least you can do is take the big paycheck and make sure their hard hours of paid off, because they are the reason you go anywhere. Even if I don't agree sometimes with how management may do that." Dorian wisely mused, as Max looked into the abyss again, at the closing in whiteout.

"I know. You told me before....yet what's the point if you don't make something of yourself on talent? You don't become champion by being selfless. Not like you know. No offense." Max replied, Dorian shrugging. A lot of P2s would be a stain on his career, but, the sheer amount suggested Dorian was once the very top level, even if a tiny bit shy of it.

"None taken. But you can't become a champion without a team that will make sure your team-mate helps you. Or will give you upgrades, and most of all, believes you will do it and will work 80 hours in a week to rush an upgrade to make you gain half a second in a lap. And belief is more powerful than an engine we can make. You'll find out soon when MMR upgrade. People leave. Things change. And belief, belief that you're not a committee but a cohesive unit of people willing to do what is necessary to win, that changes more than you ever know. I still want Valkyrie to be like that, but, changing all the time is going to stop that. So don't listen what they have to say. Come on, let's get out of this cold. And away, before cameras catch us."

With that, the two headed out of freezing cold whiteout that hit the top of the mountain, and back to their huts, as if the conversation never happened.

---

Round 4 of Formula Anti-Gravity Racing
Sunday 16th April, 2094
Race Day
Italian AGP

Strada Alpina
Marmolada, Dolomiti, Italia
1300 CET

The Overtakes You Don't Make

Astrid Thorsdottir

Soundtrack: Koven- Chase the Sun

"Are we going to try our launch strategy, see if we can run the ELS heavy?" Astrid asked, merely wanting confirmation.

"Go for it, Astrid. Let's snatch some positions, hold to the end. You know what to do. Go get them, Asti." The reply from Magnus Vagurson, her Race Engineer was a definitive one.

Sitting inside the cockpit, the canopy shutting in, Astrid looked across to her side, more regular programming than Tokyo, given that she was 12th on the grid, and behind an ascendant Carrera Condor that now seemed to be hogging the share of points Nordic Call usually took. This far back, she had to take some risks. And as the red came on, the ice queen zoned into what she had as a strategy. Same as what Max did. Push hard in the first lap, and take risks in the glacier section.

The sky was lightly clouded, the tempurature at 3000m was -4, and down in the valley below, a balmy 4C. The ship hummed, and the neural link gently burned into Astrid's mind, her literal psyche as if she was a sprinter in the blocks, about to accelerate like a bullet from a gun. Quite literally, AG ships accelerated close to that.

And the lights in sequence, went out one by one.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Rushing through Sector 1, they were accelerating fast- Dorian and Cassie arguing over position after the latter's poor start letting by Paul and Ava, and the former now tangled up. Astrid took it for all of what it was, flying past the two in the Rifugio Padon section, using a nice ELS leech to latch onto Han who had escaped that, with an even better overtake, nailing down the overtake in Sector 3, almost carting the ship upside down through the most recurved bit of the glacier run, the whine echoing even inside the cabin of the AG ship.

This was some incredible flying from Astrid, but she was flying the ship with an incredibly volatile setup, the usual stability of the ship traded for what looked like a more unstable, shaky setup that was making every corner horrible to run out of and demanding everything of the ship's ELS system. No other pilot was going to bare something like this, but Astrid knew it was her only way of keeping ahead. Another lap passed, and the toll of that was showing, because she had nothing left to steal, and nothing left to defend in Sector Two.

The speed was closing. It was neck and neck. And Han was going to take that position back, dogfighting with the Faroese the entire way through, the two close together in such a way that they were merely feet apart. If Han took it back, the others would stream through, because once that fight was lost, Astrid may as well have not bothered. Astrid put the ship in a place knowing at the best, she could leech Han on the way past, and at the bottom of the jump, slingshot at Rifugio Pordoi. A risky move, but one that had to be made, and she'd have to repeat, a lot, to keep her very inferior ship in position. The ship was not going to go faster than hers, and if she wanted even a vague chance of points, she had to master her ELS here, to the full. And as they crested, and went into the sky, Astrid made her move to leap back forwards from their side by side position, Han on the brink of overtaking before but Astrid in front.

It should have been a nice move, if on landing, the two were split and Astrid would hold the rest of the lap on ELS alone, ready to repeat a difficult move one more time.

But that was not how it played out. It was a bad error, but Han attacked in a way that Astrid wouldn't have expected over the crest. This would be a massive point of contention. Had Han just made a rookie error of overtaking at an exceptionally risky spot, with nowhere to go? Or should Astrid have realised in a slower ship, she was going to get gapped here?

At the jump, the contact with the circuit again had an larger effect towards the ships already just too close to each other and playing too hard, correction just not enough when the two ships hit the MAG tracking, instead actually flinging them into each other given Astrid was looking to shut the door into the long hairpin and force Han on a bad line, not to make her crash, but to at least maximise her own attempts, as any racer might have done- but in this instance, led to them closing on each other. The repulsor field couldn't do anything to stop the two closing speeds from interacting. Astrid's eyes turned to horror, realising what was next.

The impact may not have been like Bea's in Cape Town, but at this speed, nearly flat out completely, shielding wasn't going to do enough but merely act like a magnet getting thrown at another magnet, just slowing it down before the inevitable happened. The repulsors at the side of the track were not in place here given the open layout and the fact the mountainside was just too exposed and was devoid of spectators, so the crash was actually more spread out, paint being rubbed and the impact sandwiching them into each other. That meant that instead, the clatter sent the two ships into each other, and rubbed along off circuit, spraying snow and ice everywhere and beaching the ships as they separated apart from their sandwich like crash.

"Fuck!" Astrid yelped, the nausea building as the AI tried to correct, but the ship feeling weakened, the engines nearly totally dead, as the anti-gravity unit at least held firm, keeping the ship level, but the side of the ship taking a massive gash, ripping out nearly a good chunk of the hull in the process, ripping one of the airbrakes to pieces. Power was dying, fast, and the ship went from top speed to nothing, a crawl, instantly, buffered by the internal safety systems of the ship. The AI disconnected her neural link nearly instantly, but the feeling right in the end, as the ships rubbed was like getting a really bad cut in your finger.

The ship did not have a soul, but the soul inside certainly felt that one.

"Astrid, are you okay?" Comms chatter replied back in turn from Magus, Astrid shaking her head, pulling her ship to the side of the track, the immediate sight of a recovery drone rushing over, alongside a camera.

"Yeah, I'm fine. All power loss, lot of the chassis is broken, so is Hyeon-Ae's. Do we try and make it to the pit and recover power?"

"Negative, stop immediately. Hull integrity is compromised, stop immediately, repeat, stop immediately, ship is not suitable on circuit. That was a big one, thrusters are dead and the AG matrix and power output is in Code 12, backups. Shut it down and let it cool, or else you'll trash the ship."

With it, Astrid sighed, huffing, but realising that it was time to get the hell out. With a pull of the oxygen supply from her throat and a pop of the canopy, she pulled herself out, and threw herself down the steps, the extent of the damage now visible as the ship barely sat a millimetre off deck, the anti-gravity unit in a emergency function, a parked stasis as the heat dissipated and sizzled the snow below it, the energy shielding of the ship's cockpit barely holding the structure together, given how much in the way of Gs had gone through the thing. Unlike Bea's crash, where it took a lot more work to put it together and it had nearly been reduced to a safety cell, this was a chassis that was in damage, but if not for her deactivating it, the ship would have burnt up its composite shell and ruined it to a similar level.

But they were right. Astrid's ship was half ruined. Han's looked even worse, and it had clattered her down the hillside in the snowfield that made up the Rifguio Pordoi sector, barely 20m away from Astrid's. She looked across from her own purple-like aurora ship to Han's, across at the red and blue of Zygon, the cockpit opening at least indicating that Han was mobile, and not injured. Astrid had a certain death stare on her. Like she just couldn't believe Han.

Helmet off, the drone checked on Astrid's state as she walked and confirmed yes, she wasn't concussed or injured, as she walked over towards Han's ship, a scowl on her face, the cold not really stopping her. Seeing she was okay, Astrid didn't stop. She kept going towards Han's ship. Not running. Just a slow, pissed off, angry, walk through the deep snow up to her thighs. She was okay in snow. And she was cleverer than this. Normally the Icewoman did not react to things like this, but that was stupid, and at that speed, even more insanely dumb in her view. Astrid felt she could have easily had a much, much worse accident there if it wasn't for a lot of luck and the ships rubbing off track- and in her view, Han should have been more careful.

It was a rare moment from Astrid, as she saw Han get out, and with no regard, just emptied her adrenaline filled, immediate thoughts, right there and then.

"Next time, are you going to push in the worst part of the track and take us both out again?! Or are you going to fly thinking nobody defends because you're spoilt generally? Unbelievable!" Astrid barked, disdain as she walked back, a recovery ship coming along and offering a lift, with an actual medic riding aboard. She took the ride and stayed silent, and hoped that Han would take hers coming out towards her and go a separate way.

"Astrid, calm down. We need to be careful on optics. Don't do anything too silly like that, keep it to a minimum. Please." Her radio called in her ear, of her race engineer begging for a bit of calm right now. This was not looking good from a PR perspective. Cameras had followed all of it. Astrid was known for not giving a shit, she had a cult following for that after all. And she'd said something aggressive in a presser sure, but like that? That was new.

"When she learns to race properly, we can talk optics because she needs them to see where she is going. Forget it. Get me out of here. This is bullshit." Astrid said, sighing, the truck bringing the ship safely into tow, the energy systems deactivated wholly as it was levitated up onto another lift, making the ship inert and the volatile AG system inside.

With it, Astrid sat inside and waited for the automated truck to leave and take the safety road back down the mountain track and to where it could be hauled back to the pits, knowing that fuck it, all of Korea could be angry right now. She lost points because of Han's stupidity, in her mind. The cameras however, would portray precisely how it happened, for what happened. Penalties? Probably. Astrid would probably regret it later regarding that. But not what she felt right there and then, the metaphorical Faroese's ice snapping like a glacial outburst.

---

Italian AGP

Soundtrack: The Qemists- Crevasse

The race was yellow flagged, given the ships were off the racing line almost 200m in the snowfield, and were recovered fairly quickly- ships ordered to slow to a relative crawl of 80kph over the jump until all the shrapnel, parts and ships were collected, before it went green again, completing a lap under a Virtual Safety Ship as a hologram on their AR displays that quite literally, bunched the field up and vanished the moment the incident had been completed. Astrid and Han's incident had been flagged as a racing incident, albeit Astrid's remarks were under investigation.

And what a shake up it had made, the yellow locking in the advances and losses made.

Max's strategy to push some riskier overtakes early in the race had now paid off, putting him higher in the chain, and his ELS management and talent in the corners meant he could hold off Dorian and Cassie, the latter of whom having an awful start again had absolutely pushed her out of contention. The two rivals nearly looked like they were about to detonate each other on every other corner, but it seemed that rivalry had paid off massively from Ava, Max and Paul- all of whom now were building gaps and out of ELS distance, able to sit comfortably and in a rare moment for an AG race, actually build good lap times on pure pace alone without any hull to hull racing.

Jenny Lowry had somehow taken the utter trap of a Fitzroy ship through the order into 13th, capitalising on mistakes from Ulrich and Kofi, and Jamie Hart had barely made any progress himself either- he had the pace to just roar past most ships but in a photo for the ages, got stuck behind Jenny who defended like a lion, over 13th. That just about surmised the back half of the grid, and the photo there would probably be iconic for Jamie Hart's career in general at Silver Apex.

The front remained remarkably unchanged. Kais had lost a position to Harrison after a very, very long duel, Harrison finally getting him in the glaciers where the Australian's comfort in flying upside down got him the jump, whilst further down, Amy got Layla back in the lakeside road on Lago Fedaia, pushing a risky overtake of her own, but having the ELS to make Layla almost look like she was going backwards. Nora had pulled away. If anything, it was possibly one of the most uneventful races of Nora's career, apart from the track itself.

In amidst all of this, Bea had somehow actually managed to benefit from Amy fighting Layla, and stayed within a few seconds of Layla, but given the extent of the track, gaps built massively. It was easy for it to become a time attack, and focus was crucial. Nobody wanted to follow Astrid and for that reason, the racing became a bit less overtake driven, a little more simple....safe even. A few changes had happened, of course, like the leap of Ava and Max, Cassie falling out of the points making a bad day for Zygon truly awful after losing her fight with Dorian, and the remainder of the field picking up what they could. The sight of craft pacing through the tunnels, the glacier walls, the tops of the ridges and over the Forcella jump were always a sight to see, and even if it didn't produce the best race, it had produced a really good spectacle.

And in the final lap, the chequered flag dropped down on the racing in Italy, waved by Valentina Amara, five-time Gold medal winning Italian Winter Olympic ski racer.

It was a victory for the pole sitter, Nora Kelly, followed by Harrison and Kais on the podium in 2nd and 3rd. Amy was off it for the first time in two years in 4th, a shock to many, but then again, a bad tune and just the sheer dominance of Al-Saqr and Southern Apex here had set the marker down. Layla in 5th, followed by Beatrix, a record high for her, was followed by Paul Mulder, Ava Villarosa, Max Wedgewood scoring important points for MMR, and lastly in the top ten, Dorian.

The Pilots all had gone through a race that whilst not dramatic, had seen a big order shake in the first few laps, had mostly died down with a couple of overtakes and catch ups in the last sectors. What did they see? That's left to them...

The final results are below:

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qF6cn…

---

Post Race, Italy: Warm Room and Podium

Soundtrack: Linkin Park- Heavy is the Crown

The "Cooldown" room had been replaced with a pop-up ski lodge like room, that was covered in heaters. More like a Warm Room.

Of the three podium finishers, Harrison was happy to keep his streak going.

Two rookies were here, and Harrison, even though he was a little repelled by Kais's rumoured past, not exactly hidden by his sheer capability, was still bubbly as usual, watching back the footage of the crash, and overtakes throughout. He was a bit concerned about some of Kais's flying it looked....well, that must be a hell of a neural connector, because that looked almost too twitchy, even to his trainer eye.

"Ooo, that is a nasty crash for them. Yeah, Han pushed in an area Astrid wasn't looking, but not like Astrid was going to hold her back.....I mean that's a dirty move, but they probably both didn't help each other." Harrison's take was balanced, playing back the rest of the race, smirking at his overtake on Kais, and hoping he didn't get decked for it. Instead, he turned to Nora, happy to be joining her team-mate up here. This was it. They were clear of Silver Apex by 28 points. Championship lead.

"This is your moment, Nora. Enjoy this, you deserved it with that pace. Now you've got your win though, don't forget I'm gonna get you next time, yeah?" Harrison smirked, giving her a gentle bump on the shoulder, looking to Kais, who was probably still stoked for his third place

Stepping outside, the podium looked down on the major grandstand up here at the Strada Alpina, and the swathes of glacier on the mountain beyond, the cheers ringing out for a new race winner, Nora Kelly, flanked by Harrison and Kais. The latter could hold his head high that he'd fought well, and Al-Saqr because of his efforts were clambering up the points leader board against Silver Apex and Southern Cross at a much faster rate than before. They were merely 9 points away from P2. That was one more Jamie Hart level windowlicking incident from dethroning a team most people considered the holy grail of the sport.

Heavy is the Crown? The trophy definitely was for Nora, but for a moment, doubt was put to rest if Nora was streaky in her first two races, here, she'd proven herself in the gauntlet. But Kais on the third step had now stepped very much into the light. If their initial fight in the beginning of the race had anything to say about it, it was that they would be fighting for some time to come.

---

Post Race, Italy: Interviews

Back to the booth. The pilots knew the drill, you knew the drill, but inside the cable car station out of the cold, in the glass-fronted building with the snow behind, an opportunity to interview each pilot came up.

---

@Enzayne

[b]"Han, that must have been a gutting result for Zygon after both you and Cassie qualified so well. How are you feeling after that crash, and anything to salvage from this weekend?"[/]

---

@LadyAmber

"Paul, congratulations today on your result, it seems like another reliable points haul for Valkyrie. Do you think you got lucky with Cassie dropping back and the crash playing into your favour?"

---

@MrSkimobile

"Kais, what a race it was from you and Nora! How did it feel going toe to toe with another rookie?"

---

@Starlance

"Bea, an outstanding result today! It seems like you managed to put down some impressive bankers- and are putting Carrera firmly into the midfield. How do you feel that this projects for the rest of the season?"

---

@Sylvan

"Nora Kelly, what a win! You must be over the moon after so many close attempts, and pundits are now labelling you as a new wonderkid in the sport. Many are talking about this more and more- do think you have what it takes to go all the way and challenge Amy Stirling this season for the title?"

---

The others trickled on through. To say the reactions were mixed would be an understatment, but AG racing never let people down when it came to drama.

Amy was up first.
"No, not happy at all with that. We compromised the ship too heavily and Jamie didn't really make any inroads. Not a great weekend. We move onto Portugal. We have more in the pipeline and I think we'll be back to where we need to be then, because we need to shut down Southern Cross, and Al-Saqr."

Harrison followed.
"Well, Amy seems pissed! Amazing weekend. Genuinely in disbelief about that. We did an amazing job start to finish, and the icing on the....uhh, icing, was overtaking Kais."

Layla had a smile once again, the Jordanian upbeat about the outcome.
"Well, a shame to lose a spot to Amy, but no shock considering her talent. We did well today. We are 9 points off Silver Apex. We are close in their mirrors now!" Layla's response was more chirpy than her usual self would be, actually upbeat rather than gravel. Beating Silver Apex would be satisfying as all hell on that chart.

"Yes, this is a great result. Really, really happy with how far the team has come. When I joined Carrera two years ago, we were still fighting for points, and now we have managed to get into joint P5 this early in the season! I am hoping that we can continue this, but yeah, we'll have to see." Ava seemed chirpy too, a comment not really followed next.

"Seriously awesome, yeah we did amazing- a few mistakes by ships ahead and I just cut through, I love that tunnel and glacier run so much, honestly it's the coolest part of any track....hahah, no pun intended! But yeah, great fun and good to get points on the board." Max's two points may not have been much, but for a team with poor speed, this was a hell of a result.

"I know you are trying to ask that question about us two, but no comment. Cassie and I raced well, absolutely fair, in rules. That is all." Dorian's comment was cryptic- but you could probably read into it and realise he wasn't happy to talk about his dogfight with Cassie, not that it would have any impact on him getting to anyone else, but right now, after the show with Astrid blowing off some steam, it was best to keep shut.

Astrid had vetoed an interview. This was considered, by pretty much everyone, a very smart call. Remember, this bit is televised, so damage limitation was considered best by the Nordic Call, and even FIAR's own brand. Probably best not to have someone who just verbally abused another pilot on.

Cassie was, however on to at least defend Zygon and she was under strict orders to not do anything stupid herself. Controversy made clicks, but controversy also got you cancelled, or your sponsors in an incredibly upset mood. This included the Formula AG sponsors themselves, who did not take kindly to childish behaviour.
"Yeah, really disappointed this weekend. We started off promising in qualy but honestly, it just didn't happen just due to bad luck- my start was compromised and I had nowhere to go, got stuck and that was it, nothing I could do. Did what I could but Dorian got me, and I'm sure I'll get him back for the next. And uhh yeah, really sad to hear about Han, she's alright from what we can tell, no injuries but we'll bounce back for next race. Portugal is home so I know that circuit, and I'm sure we can improve!" Cassie tried to strike a positive tone, but even her usually fiery attitude had a lump in its throat.

Like she was getting taken down a peg by the racing gods, or perhaps, just really, really bad luck.

Jenny was up, instead of Henry for this interview, the now pink pixie-short haired Yorkshire lass having a smile on her face. Quietly, she was impressing even in an utter shitbox that was the Fitzroy ship- she was averaging a slightly higher rating than Henry, and she had only been there for a second year.
"Yeah, nowt wrong with 13th and really happy. Beat a Silver Apex ship too, and yeah, that picture is doing the rounds on social media right now, me mam was over the moon with it!"

Kofi seemed a little more like he wanted to chuckle at the situation, 12th being so close yet so far to points this season. SuperCat were not developing well, but, he never stopped with his optimism.
"Not our day, but we are closer, we are closer. More corners please, that's where we thrive, so we will see you in Portugal. Ciao Regazzie!"

---

Analysis with Rory Andrews

"So, thoughts this far into the season on the teams?"

Rory shook his head, shrugging, looking to Aurora's off camera presence.

"I guess it's the commentator's curse, isn't it? We all expect Amy to just sweep things. Yet something's stalled at Silver Apex. All a lot of talk, but they must have a pipeline of upgrades fit for later in the European leg, because they have been caught up by Al-Saqr, who, let's not forget, have proven an incredibly capable team. And Southern Cross. What a demonstration. We thought they were a one hit wonder, but they have taken P1 in the constructors, and I bet that Silver Apex are feeling that now."

"And what about the other midfield teams? And Zygon's woes at the moment?"

"Zygon are doing terribly this season. Nobody's going to be feeling more bitter today than Jinwoo, he had an opportunity to get the team clear into P4 and both of his drivers have let him down there, Cassie's performance in particular being absolutely shocking. That top midfield fight is incredibly tight, Nordic Call's shock result in Tokyo suddenly puts Valkyrie, Zygon, and even Carrera Condor are in contention at most races and Zygon are hurting because of it. I think Cassie looks unsettled, she was not flying today in a way that showed confidence, Dorian seems to just be hunting her because of it. I think she's just not a fit at that team right now, and Han must feel annoyed not to bring home points today either. Whatever will be said of that crash, I think Han had the opportunity to wait out Astrid because she was eventually going to lose that position, but sometimes, rookies make errors."

"As for Miller Motor and Nordic Call? The former seems to be consistently stealing points, really well run, compared to Nordic Call, who just can't find anything beyond Astrid's seemingly magical ELS capabilities and Bjorn Waldgard is not developing at all. And Carrera? Blimey. That is a success story. Beatrix Ward was not hyped at all in any of our estimations, but, her and Ava seem to be making quite the team, and they are clearly getting the upgrades done after a lackluster season last year, and off-season recently. We knew Ava Villarosa was a late bloomer too, but the two of them seem to be an unlikely partnership that seems to balance risk and reward."

"What about the pilots in general that stand out to you right now?"

"Hmm, that would be harder to say. Some standouts now, like Beatrix Ward, who people are now beginning to notice after her crash and weaker start in Auckland, she seems to be finding her home with the craft and making the most out of it. Nora Kelly seems to have her demons, if you listen to all the paddock gossip there is a lot of baggage with her old self, but she seems to fly faster than anyone right now and act as if it doesn't exist. We've never seen a rookie this good since....maybe Helen Starcross, for sheer impact, she's just racing without any fear, any restrictions, her style is so ragged it's like she's almost drifting the ship in hairpins and that style is immensely fun to watch. And Kais Zenix, from starting the season slow to now doing what he's doing, he has found his feet. He's monstrous when he wants to push on people, just relentless and watching him behind Nora, you can tell he just doesn't let go and with refinement, he'll be an incredible pilot. Paul Mulder too- not a lot of people talk about him outside of his family link, but he is doing a very serviceable job in that Valkyrie ship, very collected, calm, but ultimately, fast. He is contemplative, you can tell, he just seems to have that patience about him his father did. Lastly, Jenny Lowry. She put an incredibly uncompetitive ship into 13th today. Holding back Jamie Hart in his Silver Apex ship, now that takes some doing."

"And the pilots that don't stand out?"

"On the other hand, Cassie Neves is really not proving herself at the moment. And neither is Jamie Hart. What an utterly terrible finish. I can't imagine he lasts till the end of the season like this, watching him fly that ship is utterly difficult, it's like watching a stag on ice. Literally! And of course....Astrid did not do herself any favours. What an opposite race for her, to go from a podium to a FIAR mandated penalty for the next race, due to her behaviour, and they are still reviewing severity. Not the smartest move from a pilot we sometimes think is one of the geniuses of ELS on the grid."

"A broad insight there! What do you think about the next races? Do you think that order will change?"

"I think Amy seemed bitter in her post race interview. She seemed to want to get back at the rookies, and her compromised setup for Jamie did absolutely nothing to help him- I wonder if it was hubris thinking they'd sweep Southern Cross and Al-Saqr here. And whilst she hasn't had the strongest start, Silver Apex must be looking to now target Portugal, Luna and the European leg with upgrades, because they need to win again. Valkyrie look to have made slow progress so far this season, but that ship handled incredibly through Sector 1 and 3- posting some very impressive times. I wouldn't be shocked to see them climb, and given the team's stability, even at tracks that don't suit them, they seem to be consistent, even if it's quiet. Carrera will likely struggle unless they begin targeting those tracks too, and that might take some time- and Southern Cross might need to work out how they keep their momentum going. It's a difficult call- but right now, the Constructors looks fluid among the top three, and I wouldn't be shocked if we see even more movement soon."

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

Raven's Rock, Camp Hannula, Pöyrisjärvi National Park, Finland

Skye Rosalind Lyons

1730 Hours Local Time

Loading rounds into the magazines, Skye sat there with a meticulous look, the jacket shed and the blue-fleece wearing, blue jeans having Scot contemplative, quiet, on her own and keeping her thoughts internal. Her hair had been tucked into a gentle bun, auburn as ever, a strange choice that her father must have made. He must have known that gene made redheads. He must have. And to pair it with blue eyes? That explained a hell of a lot of weirdness.

Still, there was more to do.

Skye was not one to sit there and be idle. She had another test to run, since the light barely was out, and the hours were still passing by. Dinner had come and gone, a mixed affair given everyone was in and out of Sophie's, but not her. Not even whisky this time around. There was likely to be another job, soon, and she wanted to be ready for it. Even though the events of yesterday morning had hit, and the team had their day off, being seen by medical staff in various phases, now they were back out and on free time. Raph was the only one really back to work, but the others had been pretty drained by even Raven's standards, an operation that had gone all sorts of haywire.

So for Skye, it made sense to keep her knife sharp and her mind following that.

The new exo was back on, without a combat uniform, but it felt even more reactive, even more explosive in pace, like she could break into sprint harder. And with the AR headset on, a new toy, she was able to drill movement with it in the small, tiny little killzone that Camp Hannula had on site. With pre-programmed targets, she was able to use her training rounds loaded into her FNX, the .45 cal spitting pistol with its tactile grip and raised sights to clatter target after targets as part of a room raid. Turning around the corner, she used the overcharge to leap forwards and into a room with a skid, clattering two more with a slide through the floor, her red-hair pouring from her helmet messily given she hadn't bothered to tie it back up. A mag slid into the empty well as fast as it left, as she finished the course with three more targets, walking out, clearing up the mess, and with it, heading back to her next task at hand.

There's this air about Skye, that even though she had been involved in an op that had saved the world, she wasn't celebrating too soon. She had routine. Comfort was found in routine. It ensured you kept being invincible, kept you going. And the way that Skye seemed to be, doing cardio.

She hadn't done her usual mileage, she forgave herself given what had happened yesterday was still just about sinking in, but she was going to get time on the bike today. Set up in the gym of the base, and she was back to it, wearing her usual exercise shirt and tights to follow it, a crank below where she'd like but in line with the routine she wanted to follow. That cardio was interrupted by Athena, who came in, the giantess's more casual approach comprised of a now tight-fitting t-shirt that had clearly been outpaced by her arm days, a leather jacket, jeans that seemed to frankly be screaming at the amount of work they did to keep her back end in check, and her as usual, ridiculously large sneakers. For a girl that seemed to live in fashion, she seemed to be picking as bland as she could get away with.

Sighing, Skye stopped, clambering off, about done, not really intimidated by the sight of Athena, but of course, respecting the fact she was a full foot and a half taller.

"Hey, Skye, uhh....I never meant to say. Thanks." Athena's respect seemed earned, even by her brash standards, she had to give the Scot that.

"For the blimp?" Skye seemed almost a bit pointed, a little rude yes, but direct.

"Well, that and everything else. You're a crazy bitch, you know that?" Athena giggled, her ice breaking getting the same with Skye, as she shrugged.

"Part of the job. You too." Skye smiled, as Athena leaned against a wooden pillar in the wall, physically straining it almost like she was some herculean stress member of the building with her lean now. Skye seemed tight lipped, as she grabbed her t-shirt from earlier, and her jeans to go with, heading to a tap to wash her face, Athena the usual goddess she seemed to be just looking on stone faced.

"So, you always give the silent treatment to your team? Or, am I in the shit? Should I be scared?" Athena could tell Skye was a little in routine, but well, she couldn't help herself talking, the blonde just bored and curious at this point.

"You're seven and a half foot, and could mash me into a pulp. Athena, I guess I'm deep in thought." Skye seemed a little bit on edge, and Athena got that straight away.

"You seem to have been for a while. Look. I don't know you well enough to ask, but you ever thought that after this is done, you could find private work? I promise, the hours are better." Athena seemed to be selling it like a sales pitch. Shirt on, Skye chuckled, shaking her head.

"Honestly, I thought about it. But still no. It's not as simple as that, Athena." Skye replied, Athena shrugging.

"I think it is. We kicked a lot of ass together." The reply was expected, Skye lacing up her shoes on the bench next to her, looking across to the lady expecting response.

"I got into this because it was service. I suppose, to something greater than me. Athena, everyone loves you for who you are. I mean, look at you. Jesus, I'd have a poster of you on my wall if I was younger. Which, I guarantee someone does have somewhere." Skye chuckled, Athena's eyebrows immediately raised.

"But that doesn't mean I would want to be that. What do you add to all of this, exactly? All the attention, everything on you. A bunch of guys who'd drag their balls through a mile of glass to hear your voice through a tannoy. And you can smash, fuck shit up, on another scale, but this isn't just for me. Neither is a price to what I do." Skye didn't particularly care, adding to the list on one hand that might find Athena's presence not so intimidating, even though Athena seemed to be able to take one stride to close the distance, if she would have liked.

"Rude." Athena called back, Skye shrugging.

"You don't often get people telling you that, do you? And the people that do, you can often kick their ass." Skye replied, Athena nodding silently.

"You're pretty fucking cool, Ath. Like, I get it, you can be all of this. You're literally everything your sister said you were, and more. Capable as hell. But, I wouldn't convince you into this. I wouldn't want to. You do you, but that isn't something I can sign up to personally. You know, some people are keen on that. And that's a good thing. All eyes Athena, so none to me." Skye replied, forming a smile back.

"Nah, I get that. You like this life. But keep it in mind. You don't have to be the boss lady just in Raven, you know. Someone like you could point towards something a lot bigger. Just think about it, 'kay?" Athena replied, walking over, head turned as she headed out of the room.

"Oh, and Skye?" Athena caught Skye's look, as she put away the rest of her training gear.

"Yeah?"

"I'd probably say you were everything Freya said you were too. Glad we have you on our side."

"Appreciate that. I'm sure once this is done you'll be on Instagram again." Skye smirked, Athena nodding, breaking back into her energetic self.

"And you know it!"

---

Tahlia looked down at Duke, as the tech passed by with Duke frankly leading the man straight to Tahlia. If ever a dog had a sense of direction, Duke was it, and the Belgian Malinois had spent time on base with the techs, but particularly with Tahlia when not with Duke. And Tahlia had taken a liking to him. He reminded her of her Labrador back in the Otago farm, albeit with a jaw that wasn't made for recovering game, but for just gnawing away at anything it latched onto. A fierce boy, but, no less handsome.

"Hello there Duke!" Tahlia gently brushed him behind the ear, at this point, very accustomed to how he was about his business. He gave a gentle bark back, as the lightly blonde Kiwi gave him some attention, heading over towards where his bowl and his food were, on the hour, at the hour that he needed it.

"Now, I'll be honest." Duke seemed to give an inquisitive look, as the helicopter left, Tahlia looking down to him, talking to him. As if he was a person. Like he'd give a response, after he'd chowed down.

She must have been going crazy here.

"We somehow managed to save the world, and now, your owner, your dad is going to go find out if he can spend time with a very cute looking redhead. And if he can't, he is going to get his dick cut off. Yes, yes he is!" Tahlia added, leading him along with a subtle command, the obedient Belgian Shepherd following, as Tahlia rustled his hair again.

"You know how clever he is, and he won't answer you back."

"Fuck!" Tahlia nearly jumped out of her legs, as Purna chuckled, a wry smirk on the Nepali's face, gently brushing his hand over Duke, as if HE was just as surprised.

"You enjoying this?" Purna said stone faced, as Tahlia shrugged, Duke enquiring about Purna's ability to sneak up on a trained scout sniper, someone who regularly did the creeping more than Purna did. And how had Duke not realised he was coming? Dressed in a plaid shirt and cargo trousers, the pale-faced, shaven Nepali seemed to not really emanate right now some level of Sam Fisheresque stealth, but more some guy who just looked innocent enough.

"Yeah, time with Duke is always fun. Why the hell did you scare me like that?" Tahlia asked, Purna leaning against the wall, shrugging.

"Honestly, I always wanted to see if I could. Dogs are incredibly observant. But, there's things I heard might work on guards in particular. Like, carrying this around. It's a nullifier for scent, or basically, like a cloak for their senses. Outside of course, of noise and vibrations. Anyway, thought to check in on how you were doing. Duke might not listen. But I'm happy to, given this is your first serious operation back." Purna pulled the small brick, an innocent looking shard of grey.

"And me? Jesus Christ, Purna. Yeah. Yeah, all good." Tahlia replied, the two walking through the corridors, and heading outside, finding a bench, Duke in tow.

"I mean, it went alright. The operation happened, we got it done, my legs held out and we completed three serious assaults in the space of three hours. Sounds like a loose end with Skye's uhh.....well, many, many twin sisters. So yeah, we'll be busy."

"That we will. But, I thought to ask. Why did you come back to service?"

"Because it's the right thing to do. Or some shit like that. Sitting in an office isn't my idea of fun. I mean, killing people is miserable, shitty, horrible work. But...." Tahlia said, Purna recognising that tone.

"You snatch life from a mile away. And are good at it. And you know that. It helps the team, and somehow, you prefer it to being a desk warrior. Not many people like that. But I can tell from a mile away." Purna's response was quick, Tahlia unable to answer, as Purna provided another conversation piece.

Drawing the kukri, Purna swung it in his palm, passing it to Tahlia, and pointing to the hut.
"This is all my life was up till now. In there, there's someone who killed my brothers in arms, and has a knife just like it. These are incredibly ornate...more than that to us. And it was the first time I truly felt something. I felt this strange hate, Tahlia. Yet, a feeling that I respected the man too much to do anything to him. Like a greater good meant it pulled our fibers one way. Not another." Purna said, as Tahlia inspected it over.

"Perhaps he made me realise that the object of that hate, has something that keeps them going. Even when he seemingly doesn't inside. So, as someone good at this, what do you suggest, Tarly?" Purna seemed dethatched, as Tahlia shrugged, thinking about the scale of the question.

"It's hard. My dad was tortured in a Chinese prison when he was working with the CIA, and a few other groups at the time, and he wondered how he'd go back to reality after everything settled down after his work. And he told me, what got him over the line, was to accept it. Understand that we're people who want to affect the world around us normally, and we do through what we do. Yet sometimes, we need to let that part of us run. If the only justice in the world is the kind we make, then sometimes it's better to let it flow. Let him keep that knife, because it'll never bring anything, or anyone back. Or any honour. We've killed far too many people for that to be applicable. And, you're mindful enough to do that, Purna. Calm like a monk." Tahlia was serious and then a little jokey, knowing she'd get through to him. But was still curious why he would ask. "You know this. So why did you ask?"

"Because I suppose it's the first time I've not made that justice myself."

---

Interlude: Last Campfire

2200 Local Time

The arrival of Sam brought a smile to Skye's face, the question amongst the hubub getting caught, and getting a reply.

"Nothing much." Skye called back back, as Adam looked across, poking two sausages over the fire, pulling one off and putting them into a communal plate. The fire was life out here, keeping the cold at bay and crackling as the damp sometimes caught.

"How's your day been, Sam?" Skye asked, curious to hear it, the redhead sitting up and looking over, Adam and Athena making conversation, as they knew the others would soon be making their way across. Athena broke that bit of conversation, bringing in her own bit of gossip.

"Well, my brother, get this...." Athena started, telling the tale of what she'd heard on the grapevine from Jamie....and well, the laughs followed rather quick.

No surprises there, because Mama Kaantario was not a woman to be messed with.

DELTΔ HYPER (An F1 Drive to Survive inspired Anti-Gravity, Slice of Life, Cyberpunkish/Solarpunkish RP)

Friday 14th April, 2094
Rifugio Capanna Piz Fassa di Bernard Guido
Piz Boè, Dolomiti, Italia
1700 CET

A Couch in the Sky

---

@LadyAmber

"There are plenty of red Ferrari coats out there on the grandstands even in Practice so I imagine they'll be cheering for you in full force, whatever the weather! How have you found Dorian's support with getting used to the circuit?"

---

@Enzayne

"That sounds like a certain shout out! How have you found settling into Zygon, Han- your branding has come everywhere with the team, so what's it like with the fame and visibility you're getting?"

---

@Starlance

"Well, it sounds like a dream for an ex-rally driver such as yourself. It seems like Carrera in particular will enjoy this circuit- with the upgrades brought to the ship, it seems like the team seems to be more well oiled this year than in previous years. What do you think has been the main factor?"

---

The interviews played out, the pranks in the background not masked entirely.

And with it, the interviews would be over as soon as they began- the pilots having an opportunity to enjoy the views on the mountaintop, and in the hut. This was a hell of a place to hold it, and whilst a cloud rolled in and killed some of the view, it was gone as soon as it had arrived, revealing the glorious, golden sunset in a white sheet landscape.

Either way, no matter how cold it was here, there was this understated feeling of rivalry kicking in. They may have been joking now, but soon, they'd be going toe to toe, and they'd be putting it on the line on a circuit that rewarded those willing to push a little bit further.

---

Round 4 of Formula Anti-Gravity Racing
Saturday 15th April, 2094
Qualifying
Italian AGP

Strada Alpina
Marmolada, Dolomiti, Italia
1400 CET

La Forza

Soundtrack: UNKLE- Keys to the Kingdom



The spectators had certainly enjoyed the session, the timesheets getting rocked with each pass. The circuit being so long led to some wide degree of variation- and whilst the circuit massively rewarded fast craft, it could be said that due to the tighter corners requiring an almost 180 degree run of the ship without any MAG-backed walls and just snowbanks and grass run-off, as well as pure pilot skill. Like Cape Town, Italy rewarded patience under highly undulating bits of circuit, especially the kinks and high speed turns and carves that were almost mind-bending to most. But, incredibly cool to an ultra-high megapixel camera that could catch the ships in action.

Qualifying Results for Italy:

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qF6cn…

The conclusion was a surprise to many, however. Jamie Hart had crashed in Sector 1, pushing too hard up to Rifugio Padon, unlucky enough to cut the corner and wipe the ship out with a tumble that even the ship's AI couldn't really fix at all. Amy not being able to set a fastest time, surprisingly low in the standings reflected that it might have been a bad setup here for Silver Apex- perhaps the ship being twitchy had finally come back to Amy, but even so, it was a surprise to most to see her get knocked off the top spot.

"And that is qualifying complete, and what a session!"

"Absolutely, and take a look at Kelly and Zenix on the top two spots. Two pilots with something to prove, for two top teams and what a showdown this is looking like. Nora Kelly seems to be an absolute fiend in setting lap times, but Kais Zenix is a hard racer, and the two will be going hull to hull through every Sector if they can't help themselves."

"Well, we will be in for a treat tomorrow, folks. Makara, Al-Nadir, and nobody can write off Stirling, not from any position. This track punishes mistakes, but you need to be so, so confident with the ship at top speed for almost a third of a lap here, even in spite of the corners and massive undulations that seem their best to slow down each ship. Rory, what do you think of the other Silver Apex ship, down in 20th for tomorrow's grid?"

"It seems like the pressure is certainly mounting on Jamie Hart, and whilst nobody wants to say it yet, this performance simply can't be acceptable to the team at Silver Apex. It's hard to know what's going on there, but we'll have to see how things play out."

"Well, from me and the rest of the commentary crew, thank you for joining us today- and we'll see you tomorrow afternoon, for the stunning views and speed of the Italian AGP."

---

The teams had much to address. A lot to prepare, and the day after, with the race, was certainly going to have some tension, prepping the ships, setting up strategy for tomorrow, and more importantly, debriefing it all.

Nora lining next to Kais, two rookies in hyper-fast, hyper sketchy craft on a circuit that required complete bravery rather than tactics.

Beatrix in another top 6 must have felt like a dream, but again, she had Amy Stirling and Cassie Neves wedged between her, and that was going to certainly fuel a little tension on the start.

And well, Paul and Han had each other again to fight, the two craft less suited to the higher speed and this particular circuit, the latter having the slight performance gain.

The tension felt palpable. But, as the sun set on another Dolomites night, the crews, the teams and the pilots had an opportunity to plug in, arrange, rest up, and most importantly, come back tomorrow fighting.