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Challenger #001
26th September 2010, 05:33 PM
http://wipeout-game.com/resource/images/teams/mirage_1.png

11 - Mirage (United Arab Emirates)

Team Principal:

Sheikh Mani Al-Attun Tamuka Zayed (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/Flag_of_the_United_Arab_Emirates.svg/22px-Flag_of_the_United_Arab_Emirates.svg.png)

Slogan:

"Seeing is Believing"

Backstory:

When Sheikh Mani Zayed announced his intention to enter an Arab team into the FX300 league in early 2208, people thought he was mad. The Middle Eastern oil barons has suffered the most since the boom of AntiGravity technology, and in many countries the use of AG-craft was banned. The men who had got rich off their crude oil took their fortunes and ran to distant countries to brood and curse the name of Pierre Belmondo.

True to most expectations, Zayed’s plan did not go well at first. Mirage was the laughing stock of the grid with sponsors that changed race by race, a dire craft and a list of pay-pilots that did nothing to enforce the idea that the Emirati team could be a genuine contender for good race results. Unlike some other new hopefuls that had fallen at the early hurdles though, Mirage took its’ time and showed up with a proper craft raised in a proper facility for the FX350 league, after some craft support from Icaras.

Zayed had spent a fortune on the Mirage Anti-Gravity Excellence Centre but it took him less than a year to make it all back. Wealthy Arab parents who believed in their sons’ talents were more than willing to pay for much more than Assegai asked for with the promise of good housing and a genuine Arabian team to fly for instead of a distant South African one. This meant that there was no end of pilots for Zayed to choose from and Mirage passed through the season with a whirlwind of pilots passing through the doors.

Thomas Sheppard, the editor of ‘Float Nation’ magazine, suggested that because of a lack of any decent singular pilot to base the team around, Mirage was suffering. On paper, the oddly shaped Mantis-1 craft was the most balanced craft on the grid, which meant it was easy to learn for newcomers but lacked anything special. Sheppard pointed to the hyper-aggressive Piranha gunship that Leona Silvaris slips into like a glove or Sibrand Van Saur’s Icaras being almost tailor made for him and suggested that Zayed needed to find a decent pilot so they could start making a real racing ship.

Fortunately, for the FX400 league, just the man turned up. Malik Al-Tamassal has become almost an adopted son to Sheikh Zayed and the rock on which Mirage started working towards this year’s FX500 ‘Fury’ season. The published stats for the ship seem to suggest that this is one of the most improved craft this year, with boosted shield capabilities to cater for the new line-up’s addiction to barrel rolls and an improved thrusters to go with the sleeker body that has already won the ‘best looking Fury Ship’ vote on the series’ official website.

The fairly peaceful Mirage team also does not have to worry about much in the way of inter-team battles, but Assegai have expressed their displeasure with Zayed for ‘stealing’ some of Northern Africa’s better talent from them. On the other hand, both Icaras and Harimau are staunch supporters of the new team and believe that the green team can become as strong a force as they are today having started from the bottom of the grid. One other thorn in Mirage’s side is Auricom, who regularly decry the Emirati team for their lack of adherence to the ‘spirit’ of the rules and the fact that Zayed forbids any women from entering the team garages.

Allies: Harimau, Icaras
Rivals: Assegai

Ship Details:
The Scarab-2 ship turned quite a few heads when it was first unveiled – Mirage has been hard at work to turn the oddly shaped and thin Scarab-1 ship into something that can hold its’ own in the FX500 series. The Scarab-2 is a much bulkier ship than previously to account for its’ more powerful shielding ability (up another ten GSU), and also to house its’ more powerful ion drives, believed to give it at least another 50km/h top speed. On paper, it looks like Mirage have the most improved craft aside from Qirex, and the demonstration they did in the desert outside Sharm-El-Sheikh that left a hundred-kilometre trail of vitrified sand in its’ wake has surprised several racing journalists. Mirage is no longer just a hanger on – it is a genuine contender this year.

Lead Pilot – Malik Al-Tamassal (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Flag_of_Egypt.svg/22px-Flag_of_Egypt.svg.png)

The son of a hotel owner in Cairo, Malik had originally signed up to join Assegai’s young pilot programme when a high ranking South African official left the Pharaoh hotel without paying for the considerable bill he’d racked up and Sufan Al-Tamassal switched his son to MAGEC for tutoring. Malik proved to be fast if a little twitchy behind the joysticks and had a habit of barrel rolling too much for his tutors. However, he impressed them enough to get a run in the Mirage towards the end of the FX350 season. Taking the team’s first ever fourth position at Metropia, Zayed signed him on for the next season as a permanent pilot.

Malik did not astonish at first, and many believed the pressure was too much on the young man. The naysayers were soon quelled though by a stellar performance at Anulpha Pass in which Al-Tamassal took Mirage’s first ever fastest lap, first elimination and first podium position. Race reports admitted that he looked even happier than Chang on the top step during the ceremony. He followed this up with silver in a time trial at the same circuit a few months later and then in the Meltdown series he won the memorable silver at the Ubermall that was one of the nominations for ‘flight of the year’, bringing Mirage to 11th in the standings ahead of Triakis.

Al-Tamassal begins the Fury season as Mirage’s lead pilot and the only one who is getting paid for his flying. He is now a poster boy in most of the Middle East and his father’s hotel is undergoing a rename to honour Cairo’s brightest star in the sporting world nowadays. Unfortunately, not all is smiles with Malik.

As the only epileptic on the grid, Al-Tamassal is the only one exempt from Zone events. He attempted only one event last year and needed to be pulled out of the simulator by medical experts before reaching zone thirteen. With the Fury series introducing Zone-esque Detonator and Zone Battle events, it seems that Mirage’s golden boy is going to need to fly hard in the events he is participating in to bring the Emirati team a good points haul.

Second Pilot – Cahit Kaet’yrun (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Flag_of_Turkey.svg/22px-Flag_of_Turkey.svg.png)

Cahit is an oddity on the grid. Nobody had heard of him in any AG-school and as a result the tabloids offered up money to anyone willing to provide information about the mysterious black-haired Turk with hazel-brown cats’ eyes. The truth came from the man himself when approached in a press conference and it stunned the room into silence. Cahit had been a decorated member of Istanbul Police’s flying squadron and had been sent to prison for a misplaced rocket that had hit a civilian air-bus during a chase, killing nearly two hundred people on board.

Having seen the footage of the chase (in which Kaet’yrun did in the end successfully apprehend the suspect), Sheikh Mani Zayed had hatched an unusual plan. He offered to pay Kaet’yrun bail for him, but in return the Turk would fly for Mirage for free and perform well. If Cahit’s results are poor this season, he will be sent back to prison. Auricom officials exploded at the news, accusing Zayed of slavery and abuse of general human rights, but there is no rule that forbids this arrangement and Kaet’yrun has his own home and papers – he is by all rights a free man that wears the green Mirage flight suit.

In pre-season tests, the ex-policeman has shown good technique in Zone Battle simulations, and his aggressive use of weapons has made him another in the ‘danger’ factors for Eliminator events alongside the Triakis pilots, Rory Pinewood of Qirex and Tauban Ferrai of Goteki 45. His racing lines however have been said to ‘need work’.

Third Pilot – Mahmud Abakan (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Flag_of_Morocco.svg/23px-Flag_of_Morocco.svg.png)

As the more cynical of the grid would undoubtedly mention – where is Mirage without a pay-pilot. One of a dying breed with the necessity of good pilots on a rotational shift with the new pilot select system, Mahmud is the only pilot on the grid paying for the privilege of flying if one dismisses the rumours of Chiaki Hitomi’s token payment to AG-systems every season. Mirage’s test pilot in the previous season, he was elevated to the position of third pilot due to the fact that – according to Zayed – he is the best team player out of the prospects.

Hardcore racing fans and Auricom supporters are likely to scoff at a weak excuse, but compared to Al-Tamassal’s team mates last year who rarely shared set-up strategies and jealously guarded themselves during team and press meetings, perhaps someone as open as the young Moroccan will be what is necessary to help Al-Tamassal and Kaet’yrun to better things in the future.

Abakan’s pre-season racing form is below average but not as poor as some of Mirage’s previous pilots, but viewers have noted that he shares his team-mates’ affinity for stunts and is able to pull out barrel rolls in very unlikely places. The only problem remains landing them.

Kyonshi
26th September 2010, 07:25 PM
I really enjoyed reading this, and i must say your writing style and technique is well coherent and credible. Another thing that attracted me to read it is that Mirage is one of my favorite team to race with!:P

I'd like to read more on other teams, like Feisar and Auricom, which i liked the implication in your story.

MetaKraken
26th September 2010, 10:53 PM
That is AWESOME! I usually have my own pilots named for original and new Wipeout teams, but I wonder if I can make it a new thread....

Challenger #001
27th September 2010, 05:41 PM
I've got finished profiles of Triakis and EG-X as well, and I'm working on Auricom. ;3

Dark_Phantom_89
27th September 2010, 07:05 PM
Another fantastic team profile there Challenger. I love your writing style, and although I've read it before, it was an absolute joy to read again. :)

MetaKraken
6th April 2011, 11:04 PM
Looks like MIRAGE now has an arch-rival (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8092). :o