Features

The teams of Wipeout Fusion : EG-R Technologies

June 9th 2002

China

This Chinese team emerged 2 seasons ago with a fully formed organisation, 2 previously unknown pilots and a high-performance race craft which defied full analysis as a number of its operational statistics appeared contradictory. The F9000 Race Commission has made a number of attempts to elicit more than the most basic information from EG-R, but it has failed to generate results. On occasion, EG-R has been threatened with suspension from the league, but in return it has issued its own threats, alluding to a ’destructive power’ which it can ’conjure up at will’. While hardly conducive to peaceful racing, lawyers advise that EG-R does enjoy a degree of legal protection and is not obliged to reveal further information.

Nevertheless, the underground anti-grav ’zine ’Exposure’ has published a number of letters purporting to come from deep within China. This extract is typical:

"I can’t write too much because they’re watching me... but they’re not of this world! Why do you think they have no life? Why do you think they hide and cover-up their past? It’s because....."

The letters invariably give the impression that the writer was disturbed at a crucial moment, and they end without leaving any name.

Having only raced for 2 seasons, it is difficult to assess the overall strength of the EG-R team. It is accepted that they are employing a system which somehow absorbs excess gravity and converts it into extra thrust, but no other team has managed to replicate this process, and it will be fascinating to see how EG-R develop this technology further.

Team EG-R Technologies Pilots

PAUL CHEUNG - Lead Pilot

PAUL CHEUNG
Nationality:	Unknown
Sex:	Male
Age:	Unknown
Height:	1.64 m
Weight:	67 kg
CMGFL:	13.4 G
League ID:	CHEU552.1.1.777
Grid rating:	8

Cheung has held official accreditation with the F9000 league for just 2 seasons. It is usual for new pilots to submit full personal histories with their application, though Cheung failed to give information in 62% of the categories requested. He claims that an accident sustained during a high-spirited party has led to him losing all memory of his previous life, and all he knows is that he is able to pilot anti-gravity race craft with a high level of proficiency.

The Race Commission would not normally accept such an application. Further enquiries failed to elicit more detailed information and Cheung was informed that he would not be permitted to race if he could not elaborate on his personal circumstances. His team, EG-R Technologies, had only just been awarded a licence and was itself something of an unknown quantity in the world of F9000 racing. They were approached and asked to explain exactly why Cheung could not give more information; their response simply referred the Commission to Article XXIVb.c/34, subsection 84839D of the World Peace Council’s amendment to the Universal Declaration of Sporting Rights which reads:

"Involvement in a sporting activity will not lawfully be suppressed by any institution or body on the grounds of a medical condition leading to the erasure of certain elements of a person’s historical remembrances, neither will they be held responsible for the activities leading to such a condition, legal or otherwise."

While Cheung is therefore free to race, it is understood that a number of global data sheets have offered a vast fortune to any journalist able to uncover his past.

ALEX REECE - Second Pilot

ALEX REECE
Nationality:	Unknown
Sex:	Male
Age:	Unknown
Height:	1.83 m
Weight:	86 kg
CMGFL:	13.4 G
League ID:	REEC634.1.0.777
Grid rating:	9

Just as mysterious as his lead pilot, Reece claims to have been held hostage by Portuguese mercenaries operating in international airspace during the European butter riots. He suggests that they mistook him for the Chief Executive Officer of global butter conglomerate, Dairy Of The First World, and that due to violence inflicted during this time, he is unable to remember key events from his life prior to this point.

The Race Commission was, by this time, unwilling to enter the same legal arguments it had already been through with Paul Cheung and the EG-R team leadership, and Reece’s application was accepted without further protest.

Reece doesn’t attract the same degree of attention from the world’s media as Paul Cheung, and he is often regarded as a rather boring pilot. His flying style is frequently referred to as being ’artificial’ or ’mechanical’, and he is accused by other pilots of being a chronically tedious conversationalist. One pilot from the Xios team has been heard to admit,

"I was sitting outside a bar in Milan when Reece came and joined me. I bought him a bottle of Gazzz! which he pretended to drink before tipping it down his shirt, and when I offered him half my spaghetti, he ran off and hid. Frankly, I was glad I didn’t have to speak to him."