Starlance

Mechwarrior: Disposable Heroes

Marit turned to the best way she knew to calm her nerves.. Perhaps the song of choice was a little bit pessimistic, but it fit in a way. She wiped the sweat off her palms into the fabric covering of her cooling vest for what felt like the millionth time, cursing that this was her body’s response to nervousness. Just when she needs a solid grip the most. Note for the future: Steal some gloves somewhere. A lot was riding on their shoulders on this sortie - they were about to fire the shot that would start the fall of the Crimson Fists and possibly the NPDRE - and she probably hasn’t been this nervous in a BattleMech since her first one ever. Even during their flight from the city or the land train with the nuke on board while stuck in mud, she felt like the fate of the objective was in part in her hands. But here, it was someone else doing the work entirely, while they get shot at by something that can hardly threaten the prisoners without also wiping out their own.

“...Bring about their downfall,
let's end this once and for all.
Our true calling and just a,
push of a button away.

Tonight's the night,
we'll let the fire rain.
Nowhere to run,
nowhere to hide.
And everyone will be lost,
whether sinner or saint.
So let it be done...”

She hammered on the dashboard next to the push to talk and external speaker switches with her fist as she got back to the song to make sure they were off as they were supposed to be, not wanting to end up taken out of context in a NPDRE propaganda piece or repeat her sticky Push-to-talk accident from the depot raid.

At Ingrid’s command, she advanced the throttle, Archie breaking out into a run as she continued where she left off. Slightly lagging behind the rest of the lance, sticking close to the scrapper and her Catapult, Marit raised Archie’s arms to give the cockpit a bit of extra protection within the range of his shoulder actuators, looking for hills or other things she could use for cover once the missiles started raining as her sensors started pinging in her ears as the turrets started waking up.

Go time.

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

Friday March 26th, 2094, 17:20 local
London, UK

Bea Draws Stuff @BeaDrawsStuff:
"I know today was supposed to be an art stream, but… cognitive technical difficulties happened.
Head on over to the main streaming channel for an explanation and today’s replacement content, start at 05:30 PM as usual.”

#BrainFail #BeaDrawsStuff #FormulaAG #Q&A

GalwayGirl: Ah, our favourite orange cat. Never change.
MadBea: I can neither confirm nor deny the brain cell was temporarily misplaced.
UwU-chan: You mean “I can meowther confirm nor deny the brain cell was tempawarily misplaced.”
DohnJoe: i took psychic damage reading that

Bea sat at her computer, leaning back in her chair with her feet up on the desk out of shot as she waved to the camera. ”Welcome! We weren’t supposed to be here. But we are. Whyyyy? Well, after the last art stream, I was going to clean everything like I normally do… but then GalwayGirl dropped her bombshell in the Discord. By the way, Galway, you were this close to catching a negligent manslaughter charge,“ Bea held up her hand, thumb and index finger almost touching. ”I couldn’t breathe reading that. If you guys don’t know what I’m talking about, head on over to our Discord server, link in the description, and have a gander, it’s the last pin in the ‘Storytime’ room. Anyway, I got distracted by that, and then I just forgot what I was going to do like a complete knob, aaaand now my airbrushes are full of dried-up paint.“ She held one of the tools up, visibly gunked up. ”So I found a sacrificial bowl, filled it with paint thinner and we’ll see if I can salvage this in time to do at least something today.
In the meantime, since the stream with Amy, there was a big spike in subscriptions. Welcome to the madhouse, new people, we’ve got fun and games.“ She held her arms open in a welcoming gesture, ”And with new people came old questions, with a vengeance. So initially I thought I’d go through the evergreens and answer them so they’re all in one place people can go to and neither I nor others have to repeat the answers over and over ad nauseum. And then this happened, and although I might regret this, I thought why not do this live and post an edited version later, plus the ones that are unasked here. And we’re doing it here because let’s go with all questions, not just art.
So get your questions sorted out, I’ll go get some tools, and we’ll get right into it.”

MrZombie999: Who or what made you want to race?
”I and every other racing driver in the world answer this one at least once every year in official interviews at the start of the season you lazy bugger, you didn’t even try.” Bea grinned as she started disassembling the airbrush, ”Though I suppose that’s the definition of an evergreen, isn’t it?
There wasn’t really a person or a racer I idolised. Once I was racing I obviously read up on the sport’s history, so names like Walter Röhrl, Michelle Mouton, Einar Englund and Karri Talo entered the picture, but no one that actually stood behind my decision to race.
Instead, when I was two, three years old, I’d sit on the living room floor playing with LEGOs and my dad would be there working from home and he’d have the telly playing on our home cinema as background noise. Dad always liked boats, so I was playing with LEGOs, imagination in overdrive, under this four by two wall of Sailing Unlimited, Olympic Sailing and maritime documentaries and before long, I was no longer building houses and animals, I was making boats and ships. And when I inevitably asked dad if I could join a sailing club, he obviously said yes and those will always be some of my most treasured memories, those father-daughter bonding moments of preparing and launching our boat or discussing the club races.” Bea recalled fondly, placing several pieces of the airbrushes into the paint thinner bowl.
”If you ever have to do this, remember to never soak the whole thing, just the metal parts. Paint thinner and rubber seals don’t party well together.”
CryptidX: So why the switch from sea to land?
”You get wet, you get cold, if there’s no wind there’s no race, it’s not a comfortable affair.” She shrugged, ”Bit of a weird reason to switch to karting I guess, but there it is.”
CryptidX: Do you still sail?
”Occasionally, when the weather’s nice. Speaking of, I’ve got something related to that planned for the summer break for the art channel, too. All of you who have been with me since the sailing days will love that.”

NineIron: Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized Kais’ or one Kais-sized duck?
”I’ll take the Kais-sized duck and anyone who claims otherwise is either lying or fucked in the head.“ She laughed, ”You have no idea how happy I am Kais was just another victim of maple syrup terrorism and not the perpetrator of that incident, because I am not looking forward to chatting shite about Kais for any reason. I’m quite attached to my front teeth being where they are.” She wasn’t trying to say he’d do it, but she wasn’t entirely convinced he wouldn’t either.

To be continued…

---

Friday April 2nd, 2094, 07:30
Tokyo, Japan

5500 meters above sea level

”I can’t overstate how happy I am that they aren’t making us say the patented name of this gizmo.” Bea tugged at one of the small devices attached to the harness, sitting cross-legged in the side door of a helicopter in a company-provided white jumpsuit with black highlights and black full-face helmet.
”Still can’t get it right?” Ava wore the same except with inverted colors, slipping on her helmet and stretching while the HUD confirmed the gizmos in question were working right.
”If it has more syllables than a week has days it’s not a word, it’s a tongue twister.” When they first got the script the previous day, both pilots spent their lunch stumbling over the long Japanese name the company chose for their new line’s unique selling point.
The video coordinator looked up from his tablet. “Camera drones ready for jump one!”
“Sound checks out.”
Both racers gave the crew a thumbs up and stood in the door.
“Aaaaand… Go.”

— — —

Framed by the rising Sun, Ava and Bea stood in the door, the camera doing a close pan of the parachutes on their backs before Ava looked over her shoulder into the camera.
”As a former test pilot, I know the importance of precision and reliability. That’s why I trust Fujikura parachutes.”
Then, as one, they both turned to face into the helicopter and fell backwards with a slight push away with their legs, arms spread as wide as the smiles on their faces, over the edge and out of view.

Several quick cuts of freefall acrobatics followed, both solo and the two in close proximity; plain and with smoke canisters attached to their ankles, and including shots of the pair performing a synchronized routine together, all with an upbeat, inspirational track in the background.

The fun was interspersed with closeups of the sensors around the harness, on-screen graphics explaining all the helpful features they enable, and CGI-modified visor cam shots of the two skydivers showing the HUD giving them real-time data on wind, speed, sum of speed vectors, acceleration and more, essentially allowing for IFR skydiving.

The camera cut to Bea levelling out of an inverted corkscrew and deploying the parachute, the canopy featuring a sun setting over a mountain range in vibrant colors. Ava followed soon after, her canopy adorned with intertwined red dragons on a white background. An overhead shot showed both women landing standing up on small cardboard markers, high-fiving each other after stowing their chutes and doffing their helmets.
”And with the new guidance system,” Bea turned to the camera, ”You can dive right into the fun without worry, whether you’re a seasoned skydiver or just starting out.”

“Fujikura Parachutes” The narration closed as the screen cut to the company logo, “Your adventure awaits.”

---

Bea Ward @MadBea:
[Selfie of Bea and Ava in their skydiving gear, arms around each others’ shoulders and smiling into the camera.]
Amazing day out at the shoot with @FlyingAva, even worth the 6:30 AM wake up.

#FujikuraParachute #Skydiving #Tokyo #CarreraCondorFA #FormulaAG #AGRacing

Shel1: Ah, what the hell, I needed to upgrade anyway. I can live on instant ravioli and tap water for a month, right?
HotStuff: I have no idea how theyr allowed to do this
NineIron: Man, Imagine someone telling you you can’t do a dangerous hobby so you don’t injure yourself and can do your dangerous job instead.
Crossfit_Crusader: Which, to Bea, is also a dangerous hobby. :D
Richie: Man, imagine trying to tell Bea to do or not do something. I’d rather herd cats.
MalvinasMatias: Wow. Blasts Spirit over being “unsafe” last year because their planes were found SLIGHTLY rusted and now she’s shilling this? Really? Hypocrite.
Javi: wish her parachute failed
Darkstar69: Damn, those jumpsuits…
TruckerTim:

Bea Ward @MadBea:
It’s waiting, @ValkyriePaul :P
[Image of the most garish shirt the Carrera Condor merch shop offered with Bea’s signature across the front and a sheet of A4 paper with ‘Large/52’ written on it on a table next to it.]

#CarreraCondorFA #FormulaAG #AGRacing #JapanAGP #PaulMulder #TeamValkyrieAGR

---

DELTΔ HYPER

Episode 3: The Neon Bath

---

Bea sat on comfortably the Delta Hyper set, clad in the usual jeans, team polo and sneakers, listening to Aurora’s explanation. Seemed easy enough.

”Who is the most likely to eat noodles with a fork?” She read the first question, ”Starting controversial, the answer is: Anyone with a shred of sense.“ She grinned mischievously, ”But I’ll say me, because I know for a fact I don’t know how to use chopsticks.”

”Who is the worst at keeping secrets? I think Amy and Han would be pretty bad choices to tell yours, not because they’d accidentally tell someone else but because they’d do it intentionally if they thought it could help them.” No malice, just a matter-of-fact statement.

”Who is the best Christmas gift giver? Definitely Han. She strikes me as the type of person who has entire Excel spreadsheets for birthdays, previous gifts and whatnot.”

”Who is the most fussy eater?” After reading the question, Bea simply raised her hand in silence.

”Who is the most likely to climb Mount Fuji? Oh, that’s Harrison. Although I think Jenny does bouldering, she might go as well.”

”Who is the most likely to get speeding tickets? Nora.” Bea fired off immediately, not even elaborating. ”Maybe Henry. Rich kids, am I right?” She added a second option, the sarcasm dripping from her voice.
“Paul thought it’d be you.” Aurora added.
Bea raised a finger. ”Look, in my defence, a lot of times the speed limit is complete horse manure. But he’s not entirely wrong.”
“Would you share how many?”
”Nooo, I think I’ll take the fifth. Next question! I don’t like where this is going.” Bea laughed.

”Who is the best drifter? Either me or Ulrich. I’ll say me, because I’d been rallying for longer. To quote Walter Röhrl: ‘Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows.’” She flashed a toothy smile.
“Paul wasn’t sure who would be better between you and him and suggested you two find out.”
She drummed her fingers on the tablet. ”I know what he’s doing, and I hate that it’s working.”

”Who is the biggest classic car fan? Oh, that’s easy, that’s Paul. Dorian probably has a few, but Paul I know for sure.” Bea knew he inherited his father’s collection, but didn’t explain her reasoning. Audrick’s death got brought up every other time Knight was in the news, she didn’t need to add to that.

”Who is the most likely to be the first to die in a horror film? Henry. Rich playboy kid never makes it past Act one.”
“Does that mean you two would be the first to go?”
”I like to think I’ve seen enough horrors with my dad to recognize I’m in one early and leave, but maybe that is what would do me in. ‘Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.’ after all.” She shrugged with a smile.

”Who is the most romantic of the pilots on the grid?” She actually paused to think, ”Well Dorian definitely thinks so, he’s French.”

”And the last one: Which pilot would you most want to be stuck on a desert island with? It says ‘desert’ island, so I’m assuming there aren’t all that many resources to go around, so either Harrison, Nora or Ulrich. If I’m going to die of dehydration, might as well make those two days fun.
If it’s like Robinson’s island, survivable, then Ava. She’s had training for it, I know we can tolerate each other and I’m almost sure she wouldn’t whack me with a rock to preserve resources and then blame it on an unfortunate fall when she got rescued. Kais is also a valid choice, but the jury’s still out on the last two points.”

”Your turn now.“ Bea reached over with a smile, handing the tablet over to Aurora, ”You’re as much of a star of the sport as any of us are.”

---

Friday April 2nd, 2094, 21:00
Tokyo, Japan

BioCHO sponsor event, Hakone Izakaya Bar

The event was in full swing, a mix of pilots, sponsor representatives and both paying and invited VIPs milling about under the rainswept energy shield and beats of the music. And with the fruitiest, most colorful drink being offered in hand, clad in a black pantsuit with white-colored accents - she needed full sleeves since she couldn’t be bothered to swap out her prosthetics for the backup set to keep up with dress code guidelines on visible body art - and giving the cameras the occasional wave, Churchill’s ‘V for Victory’ or a blown kiss, Bea was right in the middle of it, the inkpens she brought along getting mileage on them as, knowing she had nowhere else to be, many people were asking for sketches in addition to the regular photos and autographs and in the breaks between, she kept herself busy dragging the Condors’ resident introvert out of her comfort zone. Although her plan to make it a bit more bearable for Ava by finding the similarly-outgoing Astrid to start with crashed harder than she did in Cape Town as Astrid beat them to the event by about fifteen minutes and that was enough to get the Faroese pilot going.
”Bit of a shame we already did the Fujikura ads.” She noted, ”That would've been some publicity stunt. ‘Alright, time for bed.’ Grab stashed parachutes and throw ourselves over the edge.”
”I think you've had too much to drink.” Ava replied from behind a glass of Chilean red, ”Or maybe not, I've lost the ability to tell with you.” She added a friendly jab.
Bea was about to reply when Astrid got their attention, the group merging with some of the other pilots.

"What do you drink by the way? I know they're free, but I'm gonna make a run to the bar!"

”I still have some, thank you.” Bea raised her glass, still half-empty, when Cassie offered to make a booze run. ”Have to pace myself.” This wasn't a secondary school house party, she had a qualifying session to knock out of the park tomorrow. The unconstrained merriment would have to wait until Sunday evening.

"I don't think we've met yet. You did well in Cape Town. Till uhh...yeah."

”’Yeah.’ about sums it up.” She nodded in agreement with Harrison, reaching out to shake his hand. ”But it wasn’t my first, it won’t be the last, such is life.” Bea shrugged.
”So, is this finally your year or are we in for another snoozer?” She turned to both Southern Cross drivers and more cheerful topics, nodding her head in Amy’s direction at the last word.

Her eyes visibly went slightly wide in surprise when Astrid mentioned bidding on her art for the painting itself as opposed to the charity, and kept growing when Dorian joined the club. ”Thank you, but you do know that our facilities are just down the paddock from yours on a race weekend, do you? You can just pop over to say ‘hi’ and ask. Any of you.” She offered with a smile before turning to Astrid specifically, ”I’ll trade you one for some gin, I had one of yours a few-.” She paused, ”For legal reasons two years ago at a wedding, like liquid liquorice candy.”

“Does anyone else wonder where they come up with these questions to ask us?”

”They most likely have interns scour fan sites. It tracks with the style, especially of younger fans, the secrets and drifting for example.” She shared her opinion when Paul asked, ”Oh, and regarding that: You’re on.” She jabbed a finger in his direction, referring to the drifting challenge he proposed. ”Manager at the Brooklands Mercedes World in London owes me a favor, I could get us a few hours on the attached test track.”

Wizard Mafia (Harry Potter Organized Crime RP)

She nodded to the name, making a mental note of it for now as she finished her breakfast, huddling up close to the others while somehow keeping distance from Aurelia’s serpent.

Apparition never felt right, a strange and uncomfortable sensation compared to the majesty of flight, which also allowed one to survey the destination before arrival. ”Either they found a very generous donor, or they have an amazing transmuter on retainer.” She noted idly as she ran her hand along the wood paneling of the hidden speakeasy, gesturing toward a menu posted on an enchanted chalkboard floating across the room. ”Look at the prices. They’re undercutting the family.”. She drew her secondary wand - reasoning charms would work better than transmutation in the situation - when the boss did and started blasting, chaining the summoning and repelling charms to send furniture smashing into walls and other furniture.

Following into the backroom, she was already casting as soon as she stepped into the door. ”Duro.” She cast the hardening charm on a nearby mobster, the man turning to stone in less than a second. A mix of Reductos, Bombarda’s and the occasional Incendio followed in rapid succession, Alícia trying to make up for her wanting martial magic skill with speed, unpredictability and violence of action, focused on moving constantly or having cover rather than protective spells. One of the Blood Pack began to shift, her human body morphing into a vaguely dog-like shape the size of a large chair. ”Homorphus!” She called out, the hostile animagus reverted back almost instantly, just in time to look confused as she was obliterated by a curse from one of her compatriots. What a way to waste a Wolverine Animagus. Amateurs, these people, changing mid-fight.

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

Monday March 22nd, 2094, 08:10 UTC (11:10 local)
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Carrera Condor HQ

It was mostly the same scene as two weeks prior. Alonso, Suárez, Flores and Villarosa in person, joined by Bea - this time well rested - by remote, the pilots seated next to each other. Only Frederick Ward was missing, his presence not required this time.

”...Unfortunately, the crash has put the brakes on our upgrades.” Suárez finished his segment, ”We have the spare chassis ready, but building the new spare takes priority.” Normally a team could get away with having one shared backup craft between both drivers as nobody expects both drivers of this level binning it in practice or qualifying so bad the ship couldn’t be rebuilt overnight, but the specifics of Bea’s suit meant that each driver had their own spare and although Pridwen was paying for it, nobody could increase the amount of hours in a day.

Even Pridwen didn’t have a working time machine. Yet.

”So, off to the sim for us.” Ava quickly came to her conclusion.
”Surely the entire engineering team isn’t busy building the new ship?” Alonso addressed the head engineer.
”No, but nothing is that simple. Adjusting the flight control system for example is an IT team task, but they must work with aerodynamicists and the neural link specialists to ensure it performs as intended.” Suárez explained. Alonso was a solid team principal and an accomplished racer in his time, but he was no engineer. At least he was aware of it and listened.
”Is the entire team needed for the build?” Bea tried another angle, ”Handling isn't important in Tokyo, but it could aid stability too with some tweaks. Could a smaller detachment manage?”
”You cannot rush engineering.” Suárez said firmly, silently lamenting another person without a technical bone in her body. ”We could have done it with the new engine and then both ships would have retired due to overheating. It takes time to do it right, time we are currently short of thanks to Silver Apex. Not to mention the biggest impact on stability comes from repulsors and mag packs, both of which we have purchased from Southern Cross last season to save money and development time.”
”Okay. This is your lawn Ronaldo, you’ve convinced me.” The team principal made a full stop behind that point of the agenda before moving onto the next. ”Ava, Bea, where do you think we stand the most to gain in the simulator?” He had his opinion, but wanted to hear from those piloting the ships first.
”Energy deployment. We're in the top four on speed and are mid-pack on ELS, but the differences are so tiny that even a small improvement will put us in the top few on speed and energy-heavy tracks.”
”Yeah. Stability is so abysmal that nothing we do in the short term will make a big difference unless we change the ship, and I'd rather be competetive at some tracks and take the loss in others than be equally underwhelming everywhere.”
”Three for three, ELS use it is, then. Flávia, anything from your side?”

”Only a few concrete things. For Japan, Fujikura wants both of you for an ad shoot of a new civilian parachute.” The Colombian woman turned to both pilots.
“Do we get to jump?”
Chuckles were heard around the table at the simultaneous, almost synchronised question. Fujikura Parachute Ltd. was initially Ava’s personal sponsor in Junior Formula Antigravity as she used and even helped test some of their equipment in her previous career, the Chilean Air Force being a major customer, before becoming a major partner of Carrera Condor with Ava’s signing and multi-year contract as the team’s number one when the team replaced both drivers in 2093, now supplying several safety systems as well as the standard racing suit Ava used. Between Ava - a former test pilot who still flew as a hobby and was therefore a voice in the aviation community - and Bea - both a skydiver and BASE jumper with a large following - available to them, the Fujikura marketing department had probably the happiest employees in Japan.
”Despite León’s protests, the company wants airborne shots as well and insists you be identifiable in them.” Bea offered Ava a reciprocated fist bump, as much as the matter-to-hologram interaction allowed, quietly mouthing ”Best. Job. Ever.” to the senior pilot.
”The shoot is planned for the afternoon of Wednesday 31st, but depending on the weather we might need to reschedule until after the race.“ Flávia explained, the faces of both racers a mirror image of Alonso’s frown.
Such a high-risk endeavor right before the race? Seriously?
A free jump, maybe more, and an extra day in Tokyo? Yes, please!
”Mr. Hayes also informed me that the Arbor Collective want Bea for a day in Italy. Wednesday 14th.”
”I was wondering when they’d call, they had the new bindings in the oven for a while.” Arbor was one of her first personal sponsors, dating back to 2086 when a mid-level marketing executive’s wife who was a fan of Bea’s art channel showed her husband a stream where a 13 years old Hoverkart racer painted her snowboard, and her designs have been available on some Arbor snowboards ever since.
”I’ll also need both of you for the marketing meeting in three hours.”
Bea didn’t look happy, but at least she was home and could better spend the time until the meeting.
Ava actually groaned.

---

Tuesday March 23rd, 2094, 15:32
London, United Kingdom

Highgate, Fitzroy Close

”Sorry, I’m back. What did I miss?” Bea said as she returned to the living room.
”Who’s Paul?” Akela Ward asked before Bea could even sit down.
”Someone interesting by the looks of it, is this what you call ‘be right back’?” Evangeline Ward looked up from her cards while tapping her watch, neither sister ever missing the opportunity to rib the other about their mother’s hounding about grandchildren.
”Simmer down, both of you. It was a work call.” Bea aimed to shoot down any speculation still on the launch pad before spotting an opportunity to parry. ”Actual work call, not the type of private meetings you hold every friday.”
Evangeline barely had time to give her sister a ‘You win this time.’ look as she turned to defend against what would be the first of many series’ of questions on that topic, silently plotting revenge.

Later that evening

Frederick and Bea remained up last, both sitting by the living room’s fireplace a few glasses of brandy deep and with another in hand. For all the advantages the prosthetics brought, having less body mass and less blood in her body did no favors to Bea’s alcohol tolerance. The sacrifices one makes for their dreams.
"I wish the Pegasus had come through in time. Perhaps if I’d assigned more company engineers to the team, then you would not have been in that position." Federick noted, notably downcast.
”No.” She said as firmly as her voice allowed with a shake of her head, ”The CMG would not have helped, I had no time to do anything there and Ronaldo is right, the engine is not something that could be rushed. The cooling system is at its limit already, I had to stick that pass or back out of their wake to keep the engine cool. I’m even willing to say Hart just made a mistake, even if he’s being a pure dick about it.” She took another sip, ”But the next time he does something like that, he’s going firewall deep.”
"Beatrix…"
”I know, I know… Maybe a little bit mad about it still.”
"You were ahead of Ava, though." He turned the page.
”There is that.” The fire in Bea’s eyes seemed to grow a bit.
"Takeaways?"
"She races smart and has bollocks men should be envious of as per for a test pilot, but as soon as the ship starts dancing under her she pretty much closes her eyes and prays. She’s made ‘slow and steady’ into an art form, and that’s why she trounced Ibanez like she did. He tried to beat her at her own game, you can see it on his onboards." Bea paused, having gotten a bit too carried away with her gesticulating and nearly spilled her drink. "But it hurt her in Cape Town. She rode the ship low to the ground to keep it stable and then couldn’t push in banked corners for fear of bottoming out. I sacrificed that for cornering speed and Bob’s your uncle, P7 and gaining."
"And the prognosis?"
"Handling will be the most useful in the upcoming races. After Italy, speed can pretty much wait until the last three races, and we’re quick as is already. We would benefit from a stability increase, but it would be more for Ava’s benefit than mine. I can handle an unstable ship.
Now the team needs to get their arse in gear on the pilot mods. What we have at the moment makes pirate hooks look cutting edge. There really is nothing we have that could help?”
"Short of buying out a biomechanical company, no. And I’m still not sure about that approach. Surely the benefit can be offset by the actual machine rather than turning yourself into one?" He sounded worried. Limbs were one thing, heart transplants were available when he was just a child and even simple neural links were becoming a thing as he left university, but he was old enough to still be wary of excessive augmentations, particularly of complex structures such as senses and the brain; an opinion that would be familiar to anyone who knew Bea’s. The two were not quite ‘like father, like daughter’ as much as osmosis of two initially vastly different characters: If the youngest Ward could ever treat a situation short of death or serious injury with complete seriousness, it was due to the Ward patriarch’s influence over the years; whereas the latter’s shift from a prim and proper businessman to the man he was today over the last 15 years or so were solely the effect of the former’s golden retriever energy.
"I’m not saying I’ll poke my eyes out or replace my brain with a computer just because I can. I’m not Layla." She quickly reassured him, aware of his opinions of the subject and consequently the pilot in question. "But if we could get more out of the neural link, the faster response time and greater fidelity of information from the ship’s sensors would be great. I’m also looking into artificial lungs."
"Why, the breathing liquid takes care of both acceleration protection and respiration."
"The breathing liquid is precisely why, because I’m risking pneumonia every time I get out of the ship. Being able to get all the liquid out of my lungs faster and more easily would be both a comfort and safety improvement."
"When?" The safety argument worked.
"Start of summer break. That will come with some recovery time."
"Anything else?"
"…togglable sense of taste and smell?"
"Is it that bad?" He laughed.
"Absolutely rancid." She shuddered.

---

Saturday March 27th, 2094, 14:54
Buenos Aires, Argentina

El Rancho del Sud

”I know I said in some interview somewhere that I’d love to have LEGO as a sponsor, but my poor ship looks like it was built out of it. And someone dropped it.” Bea noted as she looked over the debris field in the hangar below, cup of tea in hand, the scene reminding her of airliner crash documentaries where the investigators spread out a million pieces across the hangar floor in the shape of the original craft so they can figure out what and how went wrong.

"Sorry I never got to chat to you much after the race. I can't believe they dropped that interview on you so fast. You need to say no, Bea. Even if your head is fine. They'll get a feel for it."

”Nothing to apologise for. You scored half as many points in one race as the team did in the last season, you had stuff to do.” Be waved her hand over Ava’s concerns, her words sounding genuine. ”And the interview was a good distraction. Even if they were inevitably going to ask about the crash, it beats sitting in my hotel room thinking about it too much, and I couldn’t really lose by taking it. Even if they asked something stupid.
If you answer a stupid question seriously, you come out looking like a professional for not laughing at them. If you have fun with a stupid question, either they don’t release it and waste time or they do and most people will find your witty reply entertaining and the interviewer will have egg on their face for asking stupid questions.“ Bea explained her reasoning, ”Plus Aurora and Rory are actually good at their jobs. If it was RTL calling, that would be going to voicemail.” She chuckled, remembering Hans Bakker’s media faux pas.
”Still, it was nice of you to turn up.” She said with a warm smile. It sucked knowing people were worried about you, but on a selfish note it would be worse if they weren’t.

"You are definitely better at that than me though. But if you don't mind me asking....how exactly did you work out Amy was going to get Silver Apex to help us? Do you wonder why they did? I mean, I guess there must be some technical help, but our craft now goes faster than theirs on the speedtraps when we were in South Africa, because we have a speed-focussed craft. I'm just saying, they know we may not take the title, but do you think they saw an opportunity to undercut others?"

”How I figured out it was a possibility? That one was easy, she told me as part of her sales pitch.” Bea sat down opposite her teammate, ”Why she did it, and whether she would at all? 15 minutes couldn’t go by since the moment she approached me during the grid photo to the moment I saw the performance data from the upgrade that I didn’t ask myself that.”

"I just wonder what she's doing, that's all. I am taught to look for patterns, so I wonder if she sees a chance to screw other people over. And if she's offering that to anyone else now. I think she was sincere with you. But it just raised my pulses. And after your crash too. Not that anything in the telemetry says it caused it. We just had a rockship, that's all."

”With hindsight now, I think you’re right, it’s a proxy war. Before, we were inconsequential backmarkers. Now, we can stand our ground against teams up to and including Valkyrie on some tracks, and that helps them. And if she’s handing out upgrades like Father Christmas? Well, nothing we can do about that, is there?” Bea shrugged, in keeping with what she told Rory on Sunday about things you can’t change. ”If that’s the case, I’d expect SuperCat to catch up next. No point bothering with Fitzroy.
Have you seen the data comparisons for next week yet?”
”Zygon close ahead, Valkyrie behind. You look at data in your free time?” Ava said with genuine surprise.
”I can be smart. I have my days.” Both chuckled. ”Zygon will make it interesting. Slower than us, but blowing us out of the water with their augs. Plus some of their fans are absolutely bats, so be ready for those, win or lose.”
”Don’t you call your own community ‘MadLads’?”
”Yeah, in the same vein I call myself mad. But not unhinged. None of mine announce in a public forum they’ll propose to me on the weekend, the crazies I get try to keep their insanity behind closed doors.” Until she drags it out into the light to laugh at it with the normal ones.
”Don’t discount Valkyrie either. Dorian still beat us in Cape Town, and the gap will be tighter next week.”
”We’ll have two ships to fight them this time.”

And she was not losing that bet.

"Aside from that, there is an Asado tonight with the team. You coming? I can't remember if I ever went to a decent steak place in London, but muy bien, the real stuff, here you cannot beat it. Leon is cooking, too."

”Of course I’m coming!” Bea blurted out as if she had ten milliseconds before someone else beat her to the figurative last ticket, ”Oh, before I forget, I had a few questions about ELS if you don’t mind…”

---

Carrera Condor NPCs

Wizard Mafia (Harry Potter Organized Crime RP)

Still here, just terrible at time management. Aiming for a post by Tuesday.

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

Boraro
Fireteam Poseidon

---

”I’ve never even met this one.” He verbally shrugged at Chuck’s comment. He never met her and she never met him, but they both knew the other. Okay, maybe she knew less than he thought since she mispronounced his callsign. But it was generally sound thinking to keep track of the competition in their line of work. He knew she was ruthless, he knew she was brutal for brutality’s sake, he knew she saw people as resources rather than a team, but he also knew she had a short fuse and an ego the size of Manhattan and durability of a soggy paper tissue.”Wasn’t worth my time or good enough money. She’s just jealous of my reputation and record, that’s all.” He added, loud enough for Luisa to hear.

If the indignant Spanish screech was of any indication, it worked.

Luisa knew Ebrima was a mean son of a bitch in close quarters. She knew trying to tire him out was suicide. She knew he fought dirty and liked to keep his opponents off-balance and that he was used to being outgunned. But Artemis had eyes and ears everywhere, and through them she knew things few did. Not the whole story, but more than most, even if in disjointed pieces that were still sure to get him off balance when used at the right time.

The shoulder mount indeed kept the Cameroonian moving, from small dashes to leaping between catwalks, the micro missiles blasting them apart and sending them down below, hopefully away from the other two Raven operatives. Not like Chuck would even notice something like a piece of grating falling on his head, but Ban might struggle with that. He took a few pot shots back at her with his shotgun, the AP slugs harmlessly deflected away. Fortunately her gizmo wouldn’t protect her from one of mankind’s first scientific advancements as Ebrima switched to the M 25 - no, not an automatic grenade launcher, fire - launching two grenades at the apex of a flying cartwheel between an adjacent catwalk and the one Luisa was on. Luisa expected frags which she thought would be caught by the field generator, but some sixth sense compelled her to move anyway, however, and it ended up saving her life as the fireball didn’t engulf her unprotected face and respiratory system, but suddenly finding parts of herself on fire was enough to allow Ebrima to close in. Kukri drawn, Luisa just barely withstood a flurry of attacks against her face, shoulders and hands, her still-smoldering BDUs leaving faint smoke trails as she moved and only realizing many of his attacks were feints when the blade smacked the fingers of her right hand. The armored glove made sure she kept her fingers, but it hurt enough to make her drop her Pecheneg, the sling severed by one of the preceding attacks, Ebrima immediately sending the weapon clattering down among the catwalks with a kick. Luisa took advantage of that brief drop in his guard, grabbing a hold of the hand that wielded the curved blade. “That will make for a nice souvenir.” She hissed. Seeing the open-faced helmet Luisa wore, he smiled, ever so slightly, under his helmet and pulled the pin of one of his flashbangs while it was still in the pouch.

Ebrima patted out the burning grenade pouch, unaffected by the flashbang inside his armor, except a little sore under it where the grenade exploded, taking further advantage of proper choice of equipment and headbutting Luisa in the face. “Hijo de puta!” she growled through her now broken nose, intercepting the kukri clawing at her throat as her vision cleared up from the flashbang. She kicked the Cameroonian in the chest and stepped back to get enough distance between them to launch a micro missile volley and end it right there and then...

LNCHR ERR
CHCK SNSR

Both of the targeting cameras on her shoulders and the backup one on the side of her helmet had a spiderweb of cracks running across them, crippling the system. By the time she realized what he had done, she had just enough time to draw her machete before the relentless albino was upon her once again. Her blade was bigger and had a nasty spike on it, allowing for a nice bit of versatility with false edge strikes, but his was faster and more nimble. An external observer might have seen two figures in exosuits dueling with cold weapons and assumed two knights have warped into the future, even their fighting style matching that of people trying to deal with full plate armor. Realizing their weapons couldn’t penetrate directly, the fight devolved into trying to wrestle their opponent into a position where they could ram their knife into a weak spot, Ebrima’s weapon better suited to the task against Luisa’s roid rage and brute power. “I’m gonna make a fortune selling parts of you.” She hissed, “I wonder how much people made from your sister?”

It worked just as well as she thought. In that moment, the Cameroonian saw red. His attacks increased in frequency, but the execution suffered. Luisa did get hit, a strike drawing blood from her left arm, but it was well worth the opening she found. Feinting low to set herself up, Luisa switched back mid-swing, the spike finding its target in the shoulder joint of Ebrima’s exoskeleton, disabling that entire arm. This was starting to go South, somewhere around DRC, and although Ebrima had a brief excursion up to Sudan as he managed to nick her armpit and draw blood, Luisa quickly sent him back down to Antarctica when she stuck her machete between the exoskeleton and his right arm, physically immobilizing it for the time being and before he could wrench it free, she drew her sidearm, leveled it at his head and fired.

It felt like sticking his head into a metal bucket and having someone hit it with a bat. His HUD disappeared, there was a spider web of cracks across his field of view, something smelled like an electrical fire in the helmet and he found himself on the ground on his back all of a sudden with a killer headache. At least the machete fell out of his armor, a saving grace as the Colombian woman stood over him, his kukri in one hand, her Mateba Model 6 in the other ready for a Coup de grâce.

Bang, bang.

Two shots rang out. The knife and revolver fell to the ground as Luisa stumbled backwards, holding onto her stomach where a blood stain was growing with both hands.

Ebrima held his Origin in one hand, pointing up from where he lay. Shooting at that range, the deflector field simply didn’t have enough time to alter the slugs’ trajectory in a meaningful way, and at less than two feet between the muzzle and the target she would have had to be wearing a hippo for a ballistic plate to withstand a double tap.

The Cameroonian picked himself up, disconnecting the shoulder servo to regain the use of his left arm. He was hoping the mission would wrap up fast, carrying the weight of the now-dead part of his exoskeleton on his arm would get tiresome quick and his head wasn’t feeling right either. At least he could consider the fact his face would have the color it was supposed to for a few hours a silver lining, until the bruise decided to change color from black to blue, green or some other color it fancied.

But first there was something else that had to be taken care of. Picking his knife back up, he caught up to Luisa who was stumbling along the catwalk, trying to get away. One swift kick that could have won the FIFA world cup downed the bleeding Colombian. “¡Eres un pedazo de mier-” A stomp on her neck cut her off, making a sound like breaking a few days old baguette.
Throwing his destroyed helmet aside, he hauled her body over to one of the others, using them as macabre sandbags as he switched to his rifle to provide covering fire to whoever needed it the most, taking a few seconds to steal a regular kevlar helmet from the dead Artemis rando and plug its headset into his radio. ”Boomer, Shimura, say status when able.”

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

Sunday March 19th, 2094, 14:00
Cape Town, South Africa

SCENE

”Green green green!”
The ship shot forward so fast Layla’s ship was pretty much a blur as she shot past the Jordanian racer. ’WOO! Goodbye!’ Despite the subvocalization usually being more subdued and monotone than actual speech, it still conveyed pure excitement.
”Nice move, keep them going.”
She stuck close to Jamie’s rear, probing the defenses with a few feints, all the while aware of the engine running hot. Unlike non-neural linked ships, there was no Nagging Nora going ‘Engine temps: high!’ instead she felt it like one felt the sun on their skin.
”We need to get out of their engine wash. Get past or find a clean line.”
Then it came: Jamie made a slight mistake. Bea found the culvert in the proverbial Deeping Wall. Sticking her nose in before the next corner, she forced him to give up the ideal line for the next corner, entering it side-by-side with the Canuck. Hart ended up half boxed in - Bea on his right, Kais in front, wall on his left - leaving her free to get her foot in the door on Kais without Jamie being able to do much about it.

And then Kais jinked right. Too close to do anything about it. It was an unthinkable move until one noticed the presence of Jamie’s ship on the outside of the corner forcing the supersoldier’s hand. Kais’ ship tagged hers, sending her into the inside barrier. She cut the throttle and deployed all air brakes in a doomed attempt to slow the ship, flinching at the jolt of the neural link automatically disconnecting when the ship’s AI realized a crash was imminent. Teeth clenched, feet braced against the pedals, arms crossed on her chest out of reflex…

Bang!

The ship’s nose disintegrated upon impact. The high repulse, weak magnet setup meant the ship bounced high - if it even would have mattered as both systems died almost immediately, the repulsors shutting down for safety when the magnets failed - and struck the track-side repulsor boundary rear-on, ripping the engine and fuel cell off and throwing the ship back to the ground, rolling over a few times before finally coming to a stop, the tumbling and repulsors gradually absorbing the ship’s kinetic energy. Terrifying to look at, but about a thousand percent more survivable than stopping abruptly.

For a few seconds there was silence as the last few ships went past, Bea still tensed up in anticipation of another impact as she collects someone else, an impact which fortunately never came. She raised her arms straight forward in front of her, both hands slightly yet visibly trembling despite the thick gloves until she flexed her fingers and rolled her wrists a few times to get rid of the tremors, then held one finger in front of her face and moved it side to side and close and far to check her vision.
’Fucking maple twat….’ She thought, seeming almost calm to the uninitiated.
”I’m here. Think I’m good. *BEEEP*.” She tried to let Allistair know how she was doing, feint gurgling of the breathing liquid heard through the radio as she breathed rapidly, unaware the antenna was in two pieces some 30 meters apart. Another thing that wasn’t working was the canopy, but she didn’t even bother with that one. Undoing her straps, she reached for a pair of levers in the front corners of the cockpit, pulling them back to jettison the canopy and pushing it aside to climb out. Standing on the seat, legs wobbling a bit from the impact and standing on the soft gel seat, she turned to the nearest camera drone and gave it a thumbs up before climbing down and starting toward the medical craft parked nearby.

In the garage, Alistair raced over to where the team heads were sitting and all but knocked the phone out of Alonso’s hand. ”No,” He didn’t let the team principal speak, ”She’s alright, let her make the call herself. If it’s anyone but her calling, you’ll just needlessly scare her.”

---

Later that day

The call connected on the first ring.
”Hi mum! Before you ask, I am alright.”
”Bea! I knew you were calling early! What happened?”
”Since when do you want to know?”
”I don’t, you’re right. Just as long as you aren’t hurt.”
”Really, I’m fine. The safety features are designed to handle worse, and with the liquid immersion I have the safest ship out there.”
”I know, but you-”
”...know that you’d rather I wasn’t out there at all, but you won’t dissuade your children-”
”...from pursuing your dreams because I will not repeat my mother’s mistakes. Do not interrupt me, Beatrix Viola. You may be an adult but you’re never escaping the title of my little girl.” A smile returned to Mrs. Ward’s voice.
”Wouldn’t dream of it. I’ll see you at dinner on Tuesday.”
”Remember to drink enough water when it’s that hot out.”
”I’ve got Bridget in my ear about it all the time. I’ll bring you some post stamps.”
”Thank you. Look after yourself. See you soon.”
”I am. Say hi to Eva for me if you speak to her before I can. Love you, bye. And dad sends a kiss.”
A voice came from further away from the phone. ”And hoping for a big return on the investment.”
”DAD! Call mum yourself or take the phone, but I don’t need to be here for this.”
In response, the dignified businessman let out the most ‘dad’ laugh imaginable.
”Take me back to the hospital, let me out of this Hell.”
The call ended with laughter on both sides of the line.

DELTΔ HYPER

Episode Two: Hunting Apex

---

With the interview taking place later, Bea showed up in her civvies with a can of Good Hope Pale Ale and half a dozen of Mosbolletjies’ - she basically got a sick day, by God she was gonna use it - offering one to Rory as soon as the camera started rolling.

"Bea, thanks for joining us. How did you feel after that collision? It looked like a really big one, so we are all really glad to see you're okay."

”Yeah, thanks, I’m happy to be here. Still a little sore in places, you can tell it was a rough one because I was stunned instead of raging after it, but all things considered that could’ve been a lot worse. The Pridwen Solutions Liquid Immersion Suit clearly works, available to the defence sector and a slightly different version is coming to the public sector soon if you’re in need of peerless acceleration protection for all land, air and space applications.” Bea said with a grin, ”Definitely one of those that look scarier looking at it from the outside, for me everything outside of the cockpit was a blur.Didn’t really know what happened until I saw the replays.”

”Is there any silver lining to your race from your positive moves in the opening laps do you think, and any lessons learned?”

”Lessons learned, yeah. ‘Just because they’re in a top team doesn’t mean their bloody eyes work.’ Last time I checked it’s up to the passing driver to make the pass safe and clean, and Kais has a hole in his ship and I have about 3000 pieces of carbon fibre and aluminium that have something to say about Jamie’s stunt. Lad came in like diarrhoea: unexpected, lightning fast and at the worst moment possible.” Bea shrugged, ”Unless you’re trying to tell me Kais got scared of something appearing next to him suddenly, to which I say it’s Kais we’re talking about, is that word even in his vocabulary?” She shrugged with a smile.
”But the team knows who’s to blame and I’m in one piece so it’s a reference for the future and little more. Next time I’ll know Jamie does stupid stuff when he’s struggling.
Over and above that, we also know the upgrade works and Ava pulled off a stellar recovery drive for the team’s first points of the season, so even with the crash this weekend has been a big boost to morale and confidence, both mine and the team as a whole.”

Rory took a moment to come back to Bea, letting her spill it out, her response clearly not very happy at all with what had just occurred. But, well, she was in better shape.

“Well, we’re happy to see you all in one piece….and on that note, I thought I’d surprise you a little. There’s someone here who did want to catch up with you though, so we’ll let her by.” Rory replied as Ava came into frame, a smirk on her face, running over and hugging Bea. The usually contained, focussed, militarised Ava even had to give into her weakness here, Bea being wholesome and probably feeling very shaken after that being something Ava understood well enough. Her team-mate may be a rival, but after that, it was important to come by and see her. And it made a good bit of marketing, according to the team, apparently, to have Ava drop on by during this interview in particular. Socials were blowing up for Carrera Condor even more than Bea’s initial pre-Auckland content had, to some shock.

”Thank God you’re okay! Crap, you had me worried! And pressers before? They got you good!” Ava smiled, Rory inviting her onto the sofa, after all had been said.
“Well, good to see you’re fine. And with a beer in hand. So, definitely fine.” Ava chuckled, barbing back, as she sat down, Rory clearing his throat, looking over at the two Carrera Condor pilots, the contrast between the two more striking in person.

“For a first major crash, we’ve never seen a pilot this positive after, Ava probably hasn’t either! Bea, do you think that’s down to your background and approach, or something else?” Rory asked, Ava even smirking at that, her usually calm demeanour broken by just how positive Bea was. Like it was infectious or something.

”I would’ve brought you some had I known you’d be here.” Bea returned the hug, careful not to headbutt Ava in the chin on account of their height difference. ”Great job out there, picking up the torch where I dropped it.”
”See, I promised Aurora I’d get her to smile.” She turned to Rory, pointing at Ava with her thumb, ”Not the way I had it planned, but results are results, eh?” The salt seemingly forgotten or at least shuffled off to a far away corner.
“Well, we have points, so we got something!” Ava was even a little excited by the prospect, considering that yes, while Bea had just had a pretty awful day,

”I’d say down to the background, yes. I’ve wrapped a car around a tree before, with fewer safety features and just me and Gazza to sort it out afterwards. Like you said, no one was hurt, that’s the important part, and the lost points blow, but you have to draw a line somewhere and not waste energy on what you can’t control. You’ll live a happier life.” That being said, revenge was one Hell of a motivator, but she kept that to herself for now.

Rory listened and paid mind to her thoughts, given it was relatively considered for what she could have said. Media training helped, yes, but a good response should have felt natural, easy even, and Bea had that in hand based on just life experiences, less a robot, still actually a person.
“That sounds like quite a mature way to take things on, and no doubt it’s a positive attitude to keep for races going forward.”

”Wow, I’m used to being called a lot of things, but ‘mature’ is a new one.” Bea snickered.

“I am not so sure I was this calm after my first crash. It’s a difficult thing to deal with. But, importantly, safety has come a long, long way. And for that, I am glad to see Bea is her usual self.” Ava smiled, albeit the low key, Rory chuckled in response, looking back to the shorter Brit on the sofa, knowing this was probably quite a series of events coming through now.

“She seems so! Okay, perhaps it’s a little too soon to ask, but it seems like you were cutting through the field, both of you. What do you expect going forward for the team?” Rory added, knowing it was a pretty splitting question, and Ava sat up first, answering it before Bea did.

“Well, we need to regroup, figure out what we can maximise in Tokyo, and we’ll be back to it. The craft is fast. We know that now. Just how fast on the highways, we don’t know yet. And well, getting some more points would always be helpful. Two of us to do it this time, and we’ll certainly make the most of the next race.” Ava replied, professional as usual, perhaps removed a bit more now the emotion had faded away, as she took her hat off, the Chilean placing it on her lap, the rainbow and black coloured hat an interesting combo, considering it was all the colour, yet none of it in the team’s apparel at times.

”Plus I've had a few hours to get the mental sommersaults of ‘Damn, I could’ve died then.’ out of the way.
When you say your first crash, I assume that includes the Air Force? Seems like that would’ve prepared you for some of this.” Bea deflected some of the spotlight onto Ava, aware her teammate could use some PR boost.

”As for Japan, well… Speed is nice to have there, yes, but it is still an energy-heavy track that also demands stability. The ship’s about as stable as a high-strung mountain goat and although Ava might as well have written a book on it, I am still pretty bad at ELS use so I’m going in with tempered expectations.” Bea explained her side, happily letting Ava go first. ”And a lot of sim time. Let’s not break it this time.” She shot a cheeky sideways glance at Ava.

Ava didn’t blush, given what she knew what Bea was doing, but well, it was an area she could at least poke back at.
“Ah, well, you just kinda deal with it. In your own way. Beats punching out of a hypersonic jet out of control. But it’s probably worse knowing you got hit by another pilot.” Ava gave a small chuckle, shrugging, looking back at the Brit.
“We’ll need to keep it running or else you’ll be drawing again!” She set Bea back up again, in her characteristic way.

“Well, sounds like you have a game plan and we look forward to seeing you again in two weeks. Any last comments for the viewers at home?”

There was a short pause as Bea thought about an answer, a rare sight. ”Drive safe.” She deadpanned, just a slight hint of a smile shining through.

---

News

SkySportsFA: “Carrera Condor rumoured in talks with Al-Saqr regarding a protest against Silver Apex driver.”

PlanetAG: “Carrera Condor launch a formal protest with FIAR against the Jamie Hart decision.”

AGFans: “Carrera Condor protest denied. ‘Regretful misstep by the stewards.’ says team principal Alonso.”

---

Bea Ward @MadBea:
Ow.
Thank you to everyone who sent kind words and well wishes. I am completely fine and will be back on track in two weeks time.
[Image showing the medical report with personal information blurred out, clearing her for release with no injuries noted]

Not what we were after here, but data was gathered and lessons learned. Probably won’t be as close in Japan, because energy circuit, but I’m looking forward to a proper rematch in Italy, @ASZenix.

I don’t expect this to be necessary, but just in case: Please nobody go bother Hart about this. For one, as much as I appreciate your support, leave it between us and the teams and two, I already spoke to him in person and I know brick walls more receptive to arguments.

#CarreraCondorFA #FormulaAG #AGRacing #CapeTownAGP

Richie: I don’t know who’s more deluded: The people who still think the Earth is flat or those who think that move was on.
DohnJoe: words cant describe how much i wanna punch hart rn. “Im here to get points” get these knuckles shithead
ZenixRIsing: As a Kais fan, I’ll hold him for you.
ChesterFromChester: As a Silver Apex fan, I’ll be your alibi.
HotStuff: Dont know why they bothered to protest, this shits clearly rigged
Zero: Clearly having a fast ship isn't a substitute for talent or skill.
GaryFromIndiana: Did she do a fucking ad read in the interview?
Shel1: “Drive safe.”? What? How?
DadManWalking: Glad she’s OK. Can’t imagine having to explain to my daughter that she just watched her idol get seriously hurt or killed on live TV.

Superfan2075: Hart should be fined for that stunt he pulled.
MadBea: IMO punish off-track infringements with off-track penalties (fines, development time…) and on-track incidents with on-track penalties (time, drive through, stop&go…). A fine doesn’t really hurt Hart and getting grid dropped because a team member forgot to wear PPE in the pit lane during qualifying doesn’t seem fair either.
Papabear34: Paul did better but even he admitted he screwed up by letting Villarosa get past him.
MadBea: You also have to take the ship and the track profile into consideration. If a Valkyrie ship had been in Kais’ place it likely would've shrugged the dirty air off where the less-stable Al-Saqr stood no chance, but your lad did pretty well today considering what he's driving.
GeorgeFly: That crash was scary to watch in person. If the repeller field had not been there, that debris would have hit spectators.
MadBea: A thing to note is that the repulsor fields allowed track designers to put grandstands into places where they couldn’t before due to safety reasons. On the flip side, this way you don’t get to bring a souvenir home.
Nobody404: Why was the crash ruled an accident? Corruption in the Racing Commission?
MadBea: Occam’s Razor says ‘no’, but the last time I said something about AG racing stewards I got fined £5’000.

Briat77: Bring! Back! Joaquin! Then this wouldn't have happened.
Richie: Because the ship wouldn’t have gotten an upgrade and the Condors would’ve been nowhere near Hart or any points.
Javi: go drown in some tea!!
Mate0: Nah, I agree with the Limey on this, there was nothing anyone could have done in her place, nor in Kais’ place without a more stable ship.

Timothy Hill @TruckerTim:
@FIAR So when Hart does it it's ‘hard racing’ and ‘a racing incident’, but when I do it it's ‘reckless endangerment’ and ‘$650 and 35 demerit points to my license.’ Fucking mental, mate?

#FormulaAG #WhatTheFuckIsUpWithThat?

---

Carrera Condor NPCs

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

Saturday March 18th, 2094, 13:00
Cape Town, South Africa

Carrera Condor contracted hotel

An inspirational orchestral track played to a backdrop of scenes of South African nature and important moments from its history. ”Officially the Republic of South Africa, it is the Southernmost country of the mainland Old World, home to over 70 million people, 1500 known animal and 23000 plant species across over 1 221 000 square kilometres. Historically an important navigational landmark in the form of the Cape of Good Hope, the world’s largest producer of gold for nearly a century until 2006 and current third largest exporter chrome and iron ore, it has always been a keystone nation to Humanity.”

The music fell silent as the video cut to Bea wringing water out of a towel before wrapping it around her head. ”Who in their right mind chooses to live here?” She groaned.

The music swelled again, the voiceover returning. ”South Africa has had its ups and downs across the years, and between apartheid, crime rates through the roof, ANC mismanagement and the resulting energy crisis, it was about time this beautiful piece of land caught a break. After decades, South Africa has finally capitalised on its potential, becoming a vibrant place and the beer… the beer here is to die for.”

The music fell silent again, cutting to Bea with her head in the fridge. ”I mean, there’s Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Canada… and you choose to live here, where you can tell it’s lunch time because the road surface starts to boil?” The British woman definitely a winter enjoyer rather than a summer fan.
”Well, we’re here, at least the food is great and the views are spectacular.” She pulled her head out of the fridge, picked up the camera and moved to the balcony to demonstrate the latter, ”But I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the upgrades we brought for this race since they were announced and why I haven’t covered them yet. Simply put, there isn’t anything to show off because it’s just ECU software. There aren’t any new parts, we’re just using what we had a lot more efficiently, and bloody Hell were we doing something wrong, because going by the data we have we’re suddenly the second fastest thing under the Sun alongside Al-Saqr. And right on time, too, because this track demands it.
That being said,” She grabbed a backpack and a straw sun hat, ”Let’s see what we can do with it.”

---

Saturday March 18th, 2094, 14:22
Cape Town, South Africa

Qualifying

”And as Fitzroy pulls into the pits, we’re watching Ward about to start her hot lap.”
The rainbow-on-black livery caught the sun’s rays as the ship straightened out, shooting out of the final corner notably faster than it ever did in Auckland.
“489 kilometers per hour at the speed trap, that is night and day from Mensah!”
“Those upgrades they brought are already paying off.” The pundits noted as Bea pulled back on the throttle, thrust reverser flaps flaring out at the back to help the air brakes slow the ship for the stadium section.

”Heavy tailwind expected when you reach the summit.” Bea’s engineer cautioned over the radio.
There was no response as the ship climbed the mountain, but eagle-eyed viewers watching the onboard would note a quick flick of the stick to the other side mid-corner as she reached the top to keep the ship pointed where it was supposed to be as the wind tried to rotate the rear of the ship.

“Purple sector one for Ward.”

”Engine mode ‘high’ please, and full deploy.”
”Mode high, full send.” Bea read back, slightly changing the fuel mixture and angle of fan blades to better work at higher altitude as the ship tore across the flat mountain top.

“That’s sector two purple as well, she’s on an absolute flyer!”
“She’s three tenths up on Mensah already.”
“Well, she did say she wanted to make it a proper fight with SuperCat here.”

”Mode ‘low’ and do not charge.”
”Mode low.” Bea confirmed the setting as she seemingly fell rather than drove off the mountain toward the sea level.

“And that’s Ward’s lap, over six tenths ahead of provisional P2.”
“Where did they find that form?”
“Maybe the Highlanders sent some nice whisky as thanks for Bea’s promotion to pour into the tank? Anyway, here’s the radio.”
”Nice job, you’ve beaten them all.” Alistair said in reference to the five that had their runs before Bea as she slowed down and moved aside to let Lowry past her on her outlap. ”Mode ‘slow’ as usual, and radiator to ‘auto’.”
”That was *BEEEEP*ing spectacular.” She cheered as several flaps opened on at back of the ship to help cool the engine in the hot African air, ”Mode slow, radiator automatic.”

---

Lowry was exactly where Carrera Condor expected her to be. But then went Mulder. Then Kovalenko. And then Ava, and then Neves and with each one, cheers could be heard from the Carrera Condor garage and Bea’s side in particular. Zenix couldn’t put a damper on the mood, especially since Hornfleur, Wedgewood and Han put the smiles back on.

---

DELTΔ HYPER

Episode 2: Hunting Apex

---

”How does it feel? The team had to make me wear diving weights to stop me from bouncing off the walls, that’s how!” Bea was indeed one big, wide grin, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees and bouncing on the balls of her feet. ”When you and I were talking after the race in Auckland, I almost said I expected this to be worse because I know where I’m strong and where I’m not and this track has the latter in spades, so you can imagine my surprise.”
”As to where it came from, you’ll have to take a rain check and I’ll tell you once I know, because I have no clue.” She shrugged, leaning back again. ”I don’t even think there’s that much to be brave about on this circuit, there’s less proper corners than cheat days in a meal plan, you take half of them either flat out or just with a lift.“ ‘Lift’ wasn’t an entirely accurate term for AG ships with their HOTAS control scheme, but why change things that work? ”I think the difference between us is down to the setup. I’m running my ship with stronger repulsion and weaker magnets - less stable, but riding higher lets me push harder in the bankings without worrying about bottoming out.
But with where the ships are now and what this track demands, we’re definitely looking forward, not back.”

---

GalwayGirl: >“I expected this to be worse because I know where I’m strong and where I’m not and this track has the latter in spades.”
>Qualifies 7th.
TruckerTim:

CarreraCarmen: Now that was a LAP! Double points tomorrow, let’s go!.
AndesAG: right? that was clinical
Sol_de_Mayo: She was pretty cocky in that interview, let’s see her actually capitalise.
Richie: Finally some fire. Get your elbows out, let’s gooo!
Mate0: “If all you have is one flash in the pan it means nothing, doesn’t matter who you beat.”
Laugh_Ness: hate to say it, but the argie’s git a point.
Zero: If you look at the ships only, she only got beaten by Southern Cross and Al-Saqr, both of which are better than Carrera Condor at this track. And Silver Apex, because Silver Apex.
DohnJoe: lmao i see it now, kitties dead last at their home track on ship performance. rip
Hotstuff: just me or was Villarosa not happy about being outqualified
Javi: just u
DadManWalking: “I don’t think there’s much to be brave about here.” 600 km/h top speeds. These fucking people.
Crossfit_Crusader: #RallyBrave!
GalwayGirl: Built. Different. :D

---

Carrera Condor NPCs

Mechwarrior: Disposable Heroes

Marit nodded along Ingrid’s realization with a mostly-suppressed grin. ”Cover your approach, clear the road as needed. Got it.” She read back, taking solace in knowing it was possible to stay beyond medium range of all of the turrets at the same time and hide behind a hill as they traded fire. Given the possible mine-clearing duties, it looked like lasers would get to do some talking. Running right up to LRM turrets and giving them what’s what was probably the smart thing to do anyway. ”But since we’re all being gloomy and you brought it up, what’s the line of succession after you if it all goes to Hel? Rivers, Ziska, then Tarak?”

”I’ve trained extensively for that exact model as a kid, know my way around the cockpit blindfolded.” Marit turned to Dinah, not really trusting the scrapper in a fight but maintaining a genuine, friendly tone. Who knew, maybe she had experience. ”Need help with anything, let me know and don’t be afraid to use me for cover. Archie can take a hit or two.” But having more guns on the field was nice, especially since the Marauder got sent elsewhere, and the Catapult was a competent machine. She just hoped everyone could understand her over the radio. It’s been a while since Marit heard her father’s native tongue, much less a heavy accent like that.

---

Coming out of the briefing, Marit had a thought. ”What kind of a weapon are you that Ingrid is trusted with a nuke, but not you?” She turned to Jon with a chuckle. ”Bring all three of you back in one piece, yeah? Enough empty chairs here as is.”

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

Tuesday March 16th, 2094, 10:28 local
Buenos Aires, AR

”The Ranch” (Carrera Condor Formula AG Team headquarters)

Ava and Bea sat on a couch in team-branded polos and capris, a window with a view of the actual ranch near the team’s facility and the loops of the city’s AG circuit as their backdrop.
”Hello. I am Ava Villarosa.” They both waved to the camera.
”Hi, I’m Bea Ward, and we’re doing this, because… long story short, we broke the sim.”
”You broke the sim.”
”It was your idea.”
”You were driving.”
”You’re supposed to be the wise, level-headed one here.”
”They can’t pay me enough to keep you under control.”
Throughout the exchange, both drivers were cracking up, Bea finally losing it.
”That’s fair. Long story told in full, we wanted to see how fast the ship can go with some of the new upgrades we’ve got cooking, that meant no braking for turn one, wall… and we broke the sim.” She explained after calming down.
”It ran out of memory computing the physics of the impact and crashed.” Ava clarified.
”And in the meantime, PR had an idea to pass the time while it gets reset.”
Bea turned to someone off camera. ”You didn’t just google ‘is driver name’ and ‘does driver name’ five minutes ago and copy whatever it suggested, did you?”
“No… Not quite.” Came a Spanish-accented man’s voice off-camera.

“First question: Would you rather drive a ship that oversteers or understeers?”
”Oversteer is faster.”
”Oversteer is more fun.” Both replied without a pause to think.

“Permanent course or street track?”
”Permanent course, they tend to flow better, street tracks like to get awkward because you have to work with the corners you have.”
”Permanent course. I like space on the outside.”
”I need to get you in a Rally car for a stage one day.” Bea smiled at Ava.
”No.” The Chilean replied unamused by the offer.

“Beat the reigning champion once, or beat your teammate consistently throughout the season?”
”Beat my teammate.”
”Betrayal…” Bea shook her head with a gasp, ”No, same answer. If all you have is one flash in the pan it means nothing, doesn’t matter who you beat.” She gave the serious answer.

“Win from first or win from last?”
”Win from last.”
”Really?”
”The end result is the same, but the journey to get there is more fun both for me and the fans.”
”I’ll take win from first. A win’s a win, and from first is less stressful.”

“Win by a large margin or by last lap overtake?”
”Large margin. Same reason as previous question.”
”Last lap overtake. Also the same reason.”

“Give up your favorite meal for life or have to eat it every day for a year?”
”Ooooh, that’s diabolical… But I’ll take eating it every day.”
”I’d give it up. You’d get sick of it in the first few months.”
”Yeah, but it’s only a year, I can look forward to it ending, not eating it for a year and then it’s all back to normal.”
”True.”
”What is your favourite meal?”
”Tomates rellenos. Stuffed tomatoes, best with sweetcorn, tuna and hardboiled egg. Yours is definitely going to be something sweet.”
”Stargazy pie.”
”What?!” Ava almost gagged at the thought.
”Got you.” Bea snickered. ”Battenberg cake. It’s an almond sponge cake with jam, covered in marzipan.”

“Be a scientist or an artist?”
”Scientist. Or engineer, that’s just applied science.”
”Already am an artist, so that’s that. I don’t have the brains for the smart stuff.”
“Leadership might not be happy to hear that.” The off-camera team member joked.
”They knew what they were getting into.” She grinned in response.

“These last two are from Bea’s social media comments-”
”Oh no, it’s going off the rails.” Bea laughed, only half-joking.

“Hold a snake or a large spider?”
”The only way to win is to not play.”
“You have to choose one.”
”Uuuhh… If it’s a constrictor, the snake, otherwise the spider.”
”The spider. They’re adorable.” Bea shot Ava a puzzled glance, shaking her head in disbelief.

“And the final one: Would you prefer a tall or short partner?”
”Is this something you’re asked regularly?”
”I get worse.” Bea shrugged, ”You don’t?”
”You’re the social media creature, there’s a reason I’m not too active there.” Ava shook her head
”Maybe Matías wants to know but is scared to ask you directly?” She pointed at someone off-screen, almost immediately breaking out into giggles, accompanied by a few off-screen chuckles. ”Shame there’s no camera on you, mate, that was quite a face.”
”Someone my height I guess.”
”If that was what it came down to, tall. Those high shelves in my kitchen can be a battle.”

“And we’ll end this with a challenge.” Hands appeared from each side of the screen, handing each of the racers a sheet of A4 paper. “Each of you will have 60 seconds to make a paper plane. Whichever one flies farther wins.”
”Already won.”
”Confident. I know you were a test pilot, but I’ll have you know I have recent and extensive practice in making paper planes.”
”From where?”
”Physics and maths class.”
”Should’ve guessed.”
Both drivers turned to face away from each other, Bea immediately getting to work while Ava just sat there, reading the paper she was given. ”I like how this is just notes for organizing yesterday’s meeting.”
“We reuse and recycle here at Carrera Condor AG.”

Bea spent the minute working, Ava simply throwing something together in 20 seconds.
“Time’s up. Let’s see how you did. Since Ava answered the last question first, Bea, you’re up.”
It was a respectable effort at just shy of four couch lengths, or so it seemed until Ava stepped up to the line, scrunched up her plane into a ball and launched it clean across the room like a baseball pitcher to a chorus of laughter.
”You win.” Bea shook Ava’s hand while still wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.