Faster Than Angels

[Jonny]

Arc: NJRS - #008
Title: Phase Shift

11:05.21

"A new position?" she asked, finally averting her gaze from the monitor.
"Vice Technical Director." Nico explained "You would mainly assists Miss Greyson in leading the R&D ressort of Jennter."
She sighed and looked back at her work "I don't know if I would be qualified for such a position."
Nico turned away, looking to the floor "Right, it would be too much a risk perhaps..."
"I'll do it!" the woman stood up while raising her voice. Nico was surprised at how short she was.

Nico looked back at her and smiled "Then, congratulations, Miss uhh..."
"Arkana Terrenzia." she introduced herself "I just recently transferred from the Mars division of Jennter Enterprises.
"Good, Miss Terrenzia." Nico continued "Let's find you an office."
She nodded and silently followed him as Nico lead the way.
"As for Linda, she is currently in the medical office and should take some days off." he said to Arkana while moving through the floors.
"Oh." Arkana merely sighed, thinking about the situation given her previous interaction with Linda.
"She really overworked herself. It is a bit tough to imagine that she really sat on it alone for three days." his voice filled with a sense of worry and anger.
"It is not so surprising." she threw in "Linda, uhh... Miss Greyson is a prodigy on the field of engineering. But she isn't accustomed to real engineering work."
Nico shock his head "I really don't know who thought it was a great idea to put her into this position already."
"Yet here you are, dragging me along..." the woman uttered.
"What?" Nico was about to pick that remark up, but couldn't believe his eyes this moment.

Linda stood there, about to enter her office.
"Go home, Linda!" Nico yelled over at her.
She appeared worn, like someone who attended a festival for three days. She mustered Nico and the woman next to him.
"You..." she uttered "Are you going to replace me already...?"
Arkana stayed quiet.
"No." Nico sighed "Miss Terrenzia will be your assistant."
Linda glared at them "An assistant? Do you have nothing better to worry about, than how to humiliate me, Bovier!?"

Nico wanted to dismiss her already, but Arkana moved forward.
"Miss Greyson, you are a valuable ressorce in this team." she spoke, her voice being determined, but soft.
Linda laughed "Of course, I am. That's why I am here."
"Miss Greyson." she made another step forward "This is a team, Miss Greyson. The team needs you."
Linda's laugh became irregular "Naturally they do, someone got to carry it."
"But, Miss Greyson. You need a team." Arkana said, moving further towards Linda.
"I need no one." she yelled in return.

"Even the most brilliant people worked with others."
"I am-Huh-"
"It is okay, we only strife through learning."
"No, I am-"
"Linda."

Arkana stood there, embracing Linda, who fell to her knees.

---

Final Overture Update 1
As promised, I began to rework the old FTA parts of my continuity. The first 5 can be easily accessed here.
Mind that the plot of "Final Overture" is the only canonic one for my works, even if it affects NJRS!
Anyway, I am having a lot of fun with these stories nowadays, so I hope to increase my speed a bit more

[Jonny]

Arc: NJRS - #009
Title: Change of Tones

Monte Carlo Nouveau, Monte Carlo, Monaco
Friday, 17th March 2215
10:34.22


"We are ready to join the track!" a technician signalled the team leadership.
"Patrick will leave first, for overall track acclimatisation. With the standard craft, this will be a tough one." Nico gave order with a wave to which the number one Jennter craft was moved out of the pit box.
"The facilities are worse than anywhere else, unbelieveable that they hold an AG race on this track in this day and age." Linda lamented, scratching her head over a piece of simulation results and setup proposals.

Said track has been a modern twist on an old Grand Prix circuit flowing through the streets of the small country at the Cote d'Azure. Once packed with pomp and glamour, it now felt like time stopped. But this began to attact an entirely different group of clientele into the city. Unlike the old track, the modern Monte Carlo Circuit floated at low altitude over the city, mimicking the grid of old European roads, just as a size practicable enough for anti-gravity racers.


"Alright, Aurora." Nico directed his attention to the second pilot of the team "Against all odds a certain pair in our team managed to complete the next evolution step of your craft."
Arkana was found with a brimming smile, which turned out to be a bit more awkward for Linda.
"Are we going to complete a race distance today?" the android asked.
"In the second session today, yes. We'll conduct the usual tests at first."

Aurora nodded and walked off towards her new JAG-F12.212/5C. Barely different from the B-type model it's internals sported several new components.
"Send craft two onto the track as soon as the pilot is ready." the team leader spoke into his headset.

Briefly later it joined the floating circuit as the same scene from the previous race repeated. A simple auxiliary AG unit carried the craft at low speeds, until it dropped the gear of the external 'AG generator ring'.
The first corner of the track has been a narrow uphill right-hand corner, which demonstrated one of the perks of this system, as the craft sharply tilted to the side and in return angled perfectly for the corner.
"It feels very drifty now, but let me get used to it, please." Aurora reported through the radio.


Jennter Enterprises HQ, Düssedorf, Germany
Saturday, 11th March 2215
20:05.52

Linda wildly drove her right hand through her hair as she navigated through ComKonWerk.
"Dammit, where is it?" she cussed at the screen while glarring at the time of day.
"Search function...plane system extrusion. No results." she uttered, followed by her first crashing onto the desk she sat on.
Arkana entered her office with no warning, knowing what situation to expect.
"This damned, outdated, unintuitive, ******, f****** piece of ****** garbage program developed by some high on sh** c***." the lead engineer kept uttering.
For a moment Arkana stood behind Linda, observing her screen. She bowed over her from behind and calmly began to take control of the program.
"Don't." Linda yelled at her "Stop."
It didn't distract her assistant "The ply strenght there is 1.394 millimetres, right?"
"No...yes." was the snappy response.
"I hope you could follow what I did." Arkana said after letting go off the control.
"Of course." Linda tossed at her "Was about to find it out myself."
"Oh really?" she questioned her superior "So I guess the ruckus was because you spilled your coffee or something, right?"
"I don't drink that garbage." Linda tried to avert.
Arkana chuckled "Hard to believe, hearing this from someone who graduated one semester earlier from the regular schedule."
"Different times." she tried to shrug it off and faced her computer again.

"Swallow your pride and just ask someone if you don't know further." as Arkana said that, she left the office.
Linda sat there for a moment until she whispered "Thank you."

[Ace3000]

Wel, I feel as if I'm not going to get my hard drive back, and with the new story I'm writing, I honestly doubt I'll return to FTA. Maybe later, after this story is done, but it's going to be a big one, like FTA. So... here it is, the final plot points of FTA that I had planned out. It's been a good run, but I can't keep you guys holding out forever.

[FTA|s3_End: Part 109.0] We Are Pilots

---

F12000 Arc, pt. 1
The Sefaialon event. 26 craft line up at the start line. One of them is odd though. The 26th craft is exactly like an Angelus, even in it's livery, except for the colour scheme and a few details. The pure white is replaced with a deep, blood red, and where there was blue, is now bone white. The angel graphic on their craft is corrupted, now sporting a tail and trident.

This is the Shinigami Project.

Almost immediately, it fires a Repulsor-like weapon, but it's so powerful, it immediately destroys all but the pole-sitting Angelus of Gareth. From there, it's a high-risk cat and mouse chase, that ends in Gareth blowing up the unit. Enraged, Brandon rushes out to denounce the victory, as it was a matter of "survival". Angelus are then henceforth suspended from the F12000. Brandon rushes out, never to be seen physically again, after a few brief visits to the HQ.

Archangel Arc

Rei would basically continue to do his thing, research into what was obviously the Overtel Corporation, while also winning street race after street race. He would gather more and more information on the Erebus Project, even meeting up with Catherine Evans to gather information. At one point, he's forced by Riku Ichinose to attend an F12000 race, and he is so abhorred by what he sees that he runs out before the race is over. Well, I say race. This was the first of many "Survival" events, the first of which happened in Sefaialon. Through being forced to drive her car, Rei promises to give her a crash course in tuning.

The racing and the information gathering continues, until one of the last four races. Rei has spoken with and left 6 of the 7 Overtel survivors to be "claimed", the final one revealed to be a man called Michael Douglas (no relation, this is 2215). The final four are the toughest opponents Rei has to face, before his final goal, the queen of touge racing. One of these four is Riku herself, driving a car that is far newer and more balanced than the one she was usually seen in. She is actually a tough opponent, but she gets dispensed eventually.

The same with the other three, the final of which happening on the Turnpike, a stretch of fast roads seen in the series before. But, the final opponent is none other than Katsuo Tsukiko of the Syncline team. But the race never happens, as the F12000 Arc merges back here.

F12000 Arc, pt. 2

After the suspension of Angelus, the team kick off their plan to find Brandon, and work with him to destroy the F12000 and Chris Scarborough. Soon, however, they find themselves up against EG.X, looking to purchase the whole damn lot of Angelus. Finally, they get through to Brandon, via phone, who gives them a plan to go through with the sale, but only a select bit of F12000-related assets. The HQ is split in two, the EG.X owned F12000 team, and the road car division. Even then, they're heavily restricted from the R&D sector. They can only use what's been committed from there before the sale.

So finally, Sino has a teammate in Gareth Ardos. He can't seem to get to grips with the neural interface that their formerly singular pilot can control, so they modify an Angelus control unit for use in the EG.X.

So the remaining loyal Angelus team now need to look into EG.X, too. Turns out, this wasn't the first time they did this, not including the original EG.r and Xios merger. For all intents and purposes, it's just the EG.r half controlling everything. The craft's primary design is stolen off a prototype FEISAR design, before they chose the current one for the FX400.

How exactly they deal with EG.X is something I've forgotten and was lost with the HDD failure, but I know that they eventually do. And, near the end, they finally find Brandon, with the help of Ramaela De Rosa. He's in Japan... right about where this Rei Kurokawa would be.

Rei Kurokawa, doesn't exist. Rei means zero, a number closely associated with Angelus. Kurokawa means Black River, a name that... would make sense later. But needless to say, the man is actually Brandon Smith. After a small war of words, Brandon drives off in a hurry, beating the track record of Irohazaka by just a very small amount, one that Katsuo could easily take back. Brandon is done. He goes back to Angelus, and they discuss the final plan, named...

Terminatum Arc

Terminatum, the final plan for Brandon with regards to the F12000. His data collection is almost complete, but they can figure out the location of the Erebus project with the help of Snezana Stoica. It's in the old ruins of the Overtel Corporation, but there's a certain way to get in. Using the two Angelus and Crinale hypercars, Alexandra obtains two Russian hyper-SUVs to carry more people, which end up being controlled by Erebus. They all leave the vehicles after shutting down the hyper-SUVs which I forgot their name, and continue to make their way into Overtel HQ.

Ascending their way to the top, they finally find Erebus. Or Chris Scarborough. Or Viktor Antonov. The vestige of the F9000, the 216cm tall android awakens. It would be here that Brandon's real surname would be revealed, through the surname of his Information Broker alias. Brandon Douglas. Michael was his father, and as it turns out, Erebus's. He created the project to completion, just before the Fall happened. It should be noted that Douglas is a historic name meaning dark water. Black river? Yeah.

As they spoke, half the team go to turn off Erebus's duplication machine, to cripple the android. With that done, Brandon tells him to turn around. Obviously Erebus is privy to such tactics, and decides to not, fearing being shot in the back. Brandon simply reveals a water gun. That, in itself, was the trick, as a modified Angelus F12000 chassis fires a 2212 EMP Railgun right into him. Now electrified, Brandon shoots the water gun at him, which exacerbates the electrification, and immolates him.

That wasn't the end of it. With Erebus burning, Brandon and the team reminisces on the events that occurred, before someone interrupts that. Michael. A battle commences! Between Michael and some kinda electric staff, and Brandon's pneumatic air gun. Brandon prevails, the staff frying itself. Now without a weapon, Michael flees, before being taken down by one of that half who split from Brandon.

Back at Angelus, Brandon shows his true colours, interrogating and near enough torturing Michael, claiming once again that he would do anything to maintain the peace. And then... he frees him. Lets him walk... right into the grasp of his former mercenary, Snezana. Either that or Brandon kills him during their walk, I forget.

---

Look, in writing this, I think it's quite a bad plot I had planned. From the Overtel HQ bit onwards, it just sounds so cliche and disgusting, like more towards bad fanfiction territory. Maybe it would be better off this way. Either way, I'm in the process of writing and planning out my new story: ANIMA NERA

This will be a horror series, to be set in two time periods: 2025 and 2225. The latter will contain certain elements from FTA, but they won't be the focus, instead just being background details. Such details include anti-gravity technology in general, and the existence of the Angelus-Katana group, one of the characters owns an Angelus car.

Apart from that, everything will be original, not much at all to do with wipEout, so I will not be posting it here. But still, thank you all for following me and this story, even if it didn't finish, and my intentions on how I was to finish it being absolutely horrendous. I promise Anima Nera will be better, when I get to posting it.

And this is just the end of my side of the story, I know Jonny is rewriting his side of it, and I wish him all the best, even though he is also primarily focusing on his own things. But that's not in my place to be talking about that, if Jonny is ready to talk about it, then he would be doing so.

...The referenced album title of the final part was We Are Pilots, by Shiny Toy Guns.

[Jonny]

I can see how you think that your ideas are a bit cliche, but some bits really have some interesting spins to them. But the first story is always a bit of a mess, but we talked about this
Ultimately I decided to not continue rewriting FTA, as there is simply so much to do, but I also feel no more motivation to continue this project, I'd rather spend the time I commit to writing to an original project.
So yeah, thank you to everyone who stuck with us writing, discussing and dumping random side info into this thing. It was fun and a solid base to make my first steps in writing, I'll always keep that in mind.