"Do you expect me to talk?"
"No Mr. Bovier, I expect you to die!"
...sorry, I had to... I'll let myself out now...
But not before giving you guys a little early present! Enjoy!
The referenced album title of Part 8.0 was Music Has the Right to Children by Boards of Canada
[s2_1.0: Part 9.0] Speed for the Racing Generation
<22100205>
Monday, February 5th, 2210
Vertica, Cayman Islands
09:18:36
The Angelus team were getting ready for their first race of the 2210 season. Kicking the season off was a simple race at Vertica.
"OK, First race of the season, of course they'd start off with one of the easiest tracks in the world!" Brandon told the team, "Still, we need a lot of preparations before we can race."
09:25:16
Taking the #2 position on the grid, Angelus and the rest of the 12 qualified racers took their place:
01. Wyvern
02. Angelus
03. Icaras
04. Jennter
05. Piranha
06. FEISAR
07. AG Systems
08. Triakis
09. Crinale
10. Auricom
11. Qirex
12. Assegai
"Heh, Crinale sure seem to be down on their luck!" Gareth said, seeing the grid, "Still, though, it can be anyone's race" He started up Angelus' valued craft, the Xygen4, finally ready to race...
>>ANGELUS AGR_OS v1.6
>>BOOTING...COMPLETE
>>INITIATING PRE-RACE CHECK...
>>SYSTEM... OK
>>THRUST... OK |ENABLED|
>>LIMITER... OK |VENOM ENABLED|
>>AIRBRAKES...OK |ENABLED|
>>SHIELDS...OK |ENABLED|
>>32X_B.M....OK |ENABLED|
>>WEAPONS... ERROR_482
>>DISABLE? y_
>>WEAPONS DISABLED.
"Damn it. Oi Smith!" Gareth informed him, "My weapons system spat out an Error 482, I've disabled them for now... WAIT, WHAT IS IT DOING?!"
The countdown started, prematurely, starting to count down from not 3, but 6.66. At that moment, Brandon thought "482? That's a weapons jam, why would... oh crap, THE COUNTDOWN!"
Thinking quick, he connected to the AGRC, "Brandon Smith, Angelus, why's it starting, it's too early!"
3...
"There's nothing we can do, we're not doing it!"
2...
He connected back to Gareth.
"...I'm sorry."
1...
Gareth grabbed the thruster, and yanked it to full power
GO!
<09:26:18_>
<vertica: white run_>
<venom class_>
<lap 01_>
<nitro witch | samplingmasters aya_>
The Xygen shot off at full acceleration, Gareth could not, and was not going to, back down from it.
"Smithy, I don't need weapons to win, I have a fast ship. I will win with the weapons disabled."
"HAH! That's the spirit!" Brandon replied back.
Due to the lack of weapons the Xygen had already, and his great racing skill, Gareth adapted to the complete absence of weapons fairly quickly and easily.
"[sigh], Venom is so slow." Gareth said in a bored manner, maxing the craft out at Venom speed, 462km/h.
As expected, the unmistakeable sight of Crinale's new 2210 FX400 racer, the F0-RG7.2 (aka Valkyrie), appeared behind Gareth. They kept their position, waiting at the ready to pounce...
And then they just raced past him, using a turbo.
"Well... that was unexpected." Gareth thought, who was just about to dodge whatever attack came from the dark matte-grey craft
Apart from the lack of weapons and the premature start, the race continued without a hitch, until the second to last lap.
<10:53:48_>
<vertica: white run_>
<venom class_>
<lap 29_>
Gareth flew past the Crinale ship after the horizontal loop, which had actually slowed down to let him past. The dark, aggressive looking ship tailed him, hunting him down.
"Rockets."
Gareth tried to sideshift out of the way, but instead caught his ship against the rightmost rocket, taking damage and slowing him down. Crinale were even so determined to eliminate him, they even slowed down to let Gareth past. As he did, however...
"Plasma."
BOOM.
"Energy Critical."
"How am I not eliminated?!" Gareth wondered.
At that point onwards, he raced more carefully, as he did not want to suffer further damage and cause a self-elimination.
"Gareth, this is urgent!" Brandon yelled quicky at him. "You were shot by Crinale with a Plasma, yes?!"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Have you suffered any unexpected shield loss? Any other loss in power?"
"No. Seriously, why the hell are you asking me this?"
"Do you remember the Fort Gale race last year? Crinale fired a Plasma equipped with the KX-SI virus. I do not want that happening again, especially to us!"
"Ah, gotcha. Well, nothing anomalous to report, except for 'I really need my shields restored, mate'!"
"Look, you're a good racer, a great one, in fact! You can do this, just one more lap!"
Gareth paused for a few seconds, before saying, "Alright Smithy, LET'S DO THIS!"
<lap 30_>
<final lap_>
Gareth was able to avoid every single wall, obstacle, weapon and ship he flew past, and that lap was seeming to be both a perfect lap and the fastest lap in the race, but just at the last corner, at the 3 speed pads, Wyvern's craft was at the wrong place at the wrong time, directly in the line of the speeding Angelus craft. Gareth pulled open his airbrakes and swerved away in order to clear both the ship and the wall to his left. After keeping the airbrakes open for the shortest time, he closed them and gave the ship full power, but even then, it was too late...
<11:02:37_>
<race complete_>
<second place_>
"Damn it! I almost had it!" Gareth yelled in frustration, then calmed down and thought about the situation logically, but Brandon talked to him before he could say anything.
"Gareth, calm down. See, it doesn't matter if you didn't come in fi-"
"I know." He cut Brandon off, "For one, I had no weapon use whatsoever, not even to restore my shields. It takes a great pilot to even come close to the end, and I did, even coming in the top 3. Second, no-one's perfect, we aren't going for a perfect 1st place victory, because that's impossible. Lastly, It's only the first race in the season! It's anyone's game!"
"At least you see why I don't care about a first place victory today. At least we're on the board" Brandon said.
"I have just one question though...
Who was that Crinale racer? I thought you told us their #2 had been killed?"