REMEMBRANCE
Katya remembered the crash well. Not a single moment in time passed where the the sound of shredding metal and blood-curdling screams didn't echo within the eternal valley that was her mind. Besides, this girl that was her sworn enemy and ultimate rival was still a human being and at one point in time her best friend, however she couldn't allow the rest of the galaxy and especially her fans to see the sensitivity and weakness that truly remained within her. Make no mistake however, Katya was known for being vicious on the track, It's true that she took the faster and less aggressive route when it came to racing, but this didn't stop her from shredding a fellow racer to scrap metal and finely shredded pieces of meat with overcharged plasma cannons, when it came to racing, she means business.
Although Natalya's crash ultimately wasn't her own fault, she still felt somewhat responsible for the harm that came to her. Of-course they both knew the dangers and risks of the sport but she couldn't deny that there was a certain beauty to the carnage and destruction, there is nothing more beautiful that a fusion reactor erupting after a few finely placed plasma shots. Perhaps to many this would sound wrong or barbaric, but this sort of attitude was required to survive in the sporting world of Purgatory, after-all, most of tough girl speech was just for show, but that didn't stop the fans from truly believing it.
Katya did this job for the thrill and the fame. Money is a powerful thing but it certainly didn't bring her much happiness, she didn't care about the prize money, she just knew that this current race no matter how it turned out would just bring her more fame and glory... And that honestly sounded good enough for her.
Her eyes gleamed, looking back to see the ferocious looking AF-MP1 Xeikil Gaining on her, it was a terrifying sight, especially when it was blasting the living shit out of her craft with Quad Furyx Plasma cannons, cannons which in their-selves were far heavier and more powerful than her own. She gritted her teeth as her heads up display flashed red, it was her rear shields, this was bad... She knew the Valkyr wasn't one to go easy on her.
She gasped as sweat flowed down from her brow, she knew something was about to happen, it was now or never. "Mack... I'm looking at the shield statistics, she's creating a precipice hole in the rear of my shield, this isn't the first time she's tried it but I have a feeling that the Xenya Harpoons are coming out to play.. How about we have some fun and surprise her... I won't win but it will be one hell of a show, right?"
"I'm not going to argue with you lass."
With the response, a smirk would come to the side of her lips, "Let's do this." she'd say calmly as her Pupils would quickly dilate followed by the twitching of her skin as the proximity alarm screamed out as the two terrifying harpoons erupted from the Xeikil and jettisoned their-selves towards the rear of Katya's craft, with literal milliseconds to spare she erratically reversed her Pulse-engines, extended all the air intakes and the breaking flaps, the G-Forces alone felt like hitting a solid concrete wall. As soon as she felt the harpoons penetrate the rear of her ship, with a loud scream and a twist of the stick she dropped from a thrust output of 100% down to around 20% and activated the left side thruster ports on full power. The resulting manoeuvre slingshots her directly behind the Valkyr and possibly dragging Natalya along for the ride as long as the cables didn't snap. "NOW!" Kat screamed as the engines elevated back to full thrust, following with all the flaps retracting and the engagement of the afterburner kicking in.
"I hope you like plasma" Katya would say directly to Valkyr as her two cannons would quickly charge up and begin a barrage of concentrated fire towards her craft.
At this point the announcer and the rest of the watching audience and fans were losing it, at the edge of their seats and literally screaming at the unfolding events, it was almost like some sort of religious chanting. In the close distance the finish line was in sight.... It was almost over and only time would tell if they would both make it through in one piece.