Imagine a new WipEout team....

[c92]

I'm not good with concept art so instead I wrote a vague history of a team that's been braincrack for a few weeks now.

A UK based team starting as a project among universities and higher education engineering establishments.

2156 - Engineering undergraduates Alex Tyven and Jessica Ashley found a university based amateur AG society to commemorate the start of the inaugural F9000 Anti-Gravity Racing League season. Basic AG is covered as a joint module within a Physics department and so with some help from staff and institution funding, a small "go-kart" craft is constructed using parts from commercial vehicles over the following 12 months.

2158 - The project is opened up to other establishments, becoming the UK-H.E.A.G. (UK Higher Education Anti-Gravity), a non-profit organisation aimed to give students with an interest in AG additional practical experience in the field. A guest lecture given by Natasha Belmondo rockets the organization into the public eye, and additional funding is granted by a coalition of higher-education funding bodies to allow development of a basic prototype race craft.

2160 - The prototype ship is unveiled to the public, with the return of Alex Tyven to demonstrate the craft. Several notable features of the vehicle catch the attention of the AG racing community.

The first is the crafts bizarre juxtaposition of highly developed parts, and an extremely low end construction. The organization had concluded that funding should be focused on allowing students to creatively develop their own variations of key components, resulting in huge manufacturing costs. As a result, the craft has near to no external shielding, with a largely open chassis leaving mechanical components exposed. This has some benefit in allowing viewers to see the unique construction and components, but makes the craft almost entirely unusable in even underground races.

The second was the unique thrust system. Physicists within the team had developed a unique system known as "dual-stacked lock-in-phase" thrusters. The mechanism is essentially very precisely stacking two thruster systems, and allowing the phase of the engine cycles to lock resulting in a kind of resonance. One thruster would add to the other, and this would add back, and so on and so forth. This positive feedback look allowed to extreme speed to be obtained, however the engines take a long time to lock phase, and mechanical shock can throw them back out of phase. For this reason, acceleration is extremely slow until the phases lock, and careless piloting can reset the engines resulting in dramatic and sudden loss of speed.

The final, though less immediately obvious quirk was a slight asymmetry in the ships stabilizer wings. A manufacturing defect left the front left and right wings slightly different from one another, and budget constraints prevented this from being fixed. The solution to this was the development of an extremely powerful, though inefficient, computer system to compensate. Without this, the ship would naturally and unpredictably shift left at high speeds. The computer system constantly analyses the ships system data and counters this natural movement with no pilot input. This allows for piloting that feels natural even with this mechanical instability.

The team give no illusion of quality, with Alex Tyven infamously explaining "it's all kinds of s**t, but she's great fun to fly."

2161 - The team officially register as a commercial research organisation, still focused on bringing university graduates into the sport. Renamed to GB-HERO (Great British Higher Education Racing Organisation).

2162 - To aid development of a new version of the GB-HERO craft, investment requests are made to investors within Overtel. All are unsuccessful, with one investor having said "Europe needs no more teams. This is nothing but an idea run by kids. Call me when Feisar falls". Development continues, despite budget constraints.

2170 - The F9000 league falls. All competing teams under heavy investigation. This apparently constitutes as Feiser falling, as the disgruntled investor calls offering funding opportunities. Many claim this was a crude attempt to distance himself from the Overtel controversy. GB-HERO accept the money.

2170 - 2184 - The team develops several prototype ships, with focus remaining on developing new and novel technologies. Creativity is at the heart of the team. The downfall of the league allows underground racing to blossom, a setting in which such novel technology is praised due to lack of regulation and increased enthusiasm for innovation. The unfortunate result of this is a series of notoriously unstable ships. The DSLP thruster is refined to near perfection, however part of this included attempts to prevent de-phasing from sharp turning and jumps. The computer system first designed to compensate for wing-asymmetry is developed to automatically adjust navigation to prevent shocks to components. This made navigation unpredictable and often failed to prevent de-phasing anyway.

The ships become famous for demonstrating new technology but being almost comically unstable.

2185 - The Anti-Gravity Rebirth Festival is held as an amateur racing event in Tule Desert, Nevada to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Pierre Belmondo's historic flight. Part of this included a charity event hosted by GB-HERO in which renound ex-pilots would compete in a 3 lap race in various HERO prototype ships. The expectation is naturally a hilarious show of pro-pilots struggling to handle the unpredictable ships. This is generally the case with one exception.

The most recent model, the HERO Sigma, had been developed by a closed group within the team. Funding had often been diverted to the Sigma team to develop the craft in great secrecy. The unpredictable software stabilization had been replaced with a state of the art shockmount for the thrusters, allowing a level of secondary suspension to prevent de-phasing shocks. The wings had been connected up to an entirely separate system to work in perfect unison with the movement of the shockmount, allowing for a more natural feeling navigation system while still maintaining the crucial engine phase.

To the worlds disbelief, Natasha Belmondo is quoted as having said "it's the single most stable craft of it's kind. The creativity that went into that system is phenomenal."

Many more pilots, both professional and amateur were given the opportunity to pilot the Sigma. While the navigation system takes getting used to, and de-phasing does still happen occasionally, the unique shockmount put the Sigma in a class of it's own.

Comments were frequently made about the unique acceleration. The ship would accelerate excruciatingly slowly until the engines locked phase, at which point the ship would lurch forward, and every aspect of the handling would change. Many claimed it like piloting two entirely different ships, one slow with tight navigation, and one almost uncontrollably fast with a twitchy, unpredictable but strangely stable navigation system. The change between these being almost instantaneous.

2185 - 2197 - The Sigma, and subsiquent variations, go on to compete well in many underground and semi-professional tournaments. The team become financially independent during this time, and continue to hire many graduates using their money to further fund creative and innovative research.

2197 - The computer aided navigation system and DSLP thruster system are deemed unsuitable for the FX300 Anti-Gravity Racing League, going against many agreed standards. The team no longer compete in professional leagues, but continue research in systems for the sport, and work with students and graduates to develop them in the field before going on to work for competing teams.