The referenced song title of Part 55 was The Tempest by Pendulum.

[FTA|s3_16.0: Part 56.0] Approaching the Darkness
<22150410>

Monday, April 10th, 2215

São Paulo, Brazil.

The city of São Paulo was abuzz, the seventeen teams that comprised the competitors of the F12000 were about to arrive in the populous city for the next leg of the championship. The planning and strategy for that race, like all others, was still being worked on, even possible contingency plans in case something caused that initial strategy to no longer become viable.

"...medium reverse. The fastest of the circuit's courses. Some say unfairly biased, towards the more powerful craft. That middle bit there, with the double hairpin, that's where I'd disagree. There are faster courses than this one. Omega Harbour comes to mind."

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"This course does favour the more powerful craft. Take this to your advantage. The corners can be taken at a higher speed than the layout suggests. We have a three-way tie for the fastest team on the grid. Yet, no-one else can match our handling. Your move, Icaras."

"And Jennter?"

"Their handling is comparable to when our craft was much heavier. Just with 50% less shield. I'd be surprised if they get through one lap, let alone 66."

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"Total domination is what we have strived for. A few races have resulted in eliminations, but victory will be attained here. Speed is everything. So, the true limits of the hive-type unit will be made known here!"

"So we crank systems to max?"

"Not necessarily. There is still risk of complete system failure if maximum power is applied. We still have vast top-end speed, we can apply slight more power, but not 100%."

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"We expect to qualify around the midfield. Our engines are not as powerful as several other teams, so we need to make the time up elsewhere. I do, however, believe you know where exactly in the course the time is to be made up: In the corners. I think, except for the double hairpin, we should be able to navigate every corner without losing even a single kilometre per hour."

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With the initial briefs over, the actual analyses and strategies began to form...

"Keep your speed up, take the hairpins as wide as you can go to maintain your speed. Watch out especially for corners 4 and 6, they're a lot more subtle about their relative sharpness than you'd think. Apart from that, this is a super easy circuit, the hard part is just maintaining maximum speed."

"So what about the race?"

"Simple enough. Focus your attacks on the more vulnerable places. So, before or within corners 4 and 6, and the 12-13-14 double hairpin. You should try to defend as much as you can elsewhere, and always remember to keep your speed up. There's a reason why the Brazilian Piranha love this course, aside from it being their home course."

"Yet they still have the double hairpin as their weakness."

"Used to. I've noticed a... well, I guess a right word would be anomalous, increase in their cornering speed over the course of the season so far."

"...Like Jennter?"

"Sort of, I don't think they're using a similar system, though. They've not even been investigated, let alone banned. Either way, it's evidently not illegal, so how they achieved it is not important. What's important is just how they perform right here, right now. Everyone else, too. All we have to go off for now is their performance from Altima VIII. With that said though, these are two completely different tracks. This one is more about all out speed, yet Altima is very twisty and technical, so extracting their performance data and applying it here is a little difficult."

"So, have you done it?"

"Of course. I've had two weeks to get it done. Immediately after the race, I gathered all I could by way of all the teams' performance data, and started to apply it to this very course. It's naturally not 100%, but it's close enough that I have a very good idea of how it'll play out."

"Okay."

"Piranha and Tigron are right up the top. Piranha is at the very top if we're going strictly by Altima's data, but I'm still wary of Tigron's hive-type system. We're next ahead of Jennter, because their new airbrakes are crap, the extra speed they have just doesn't cut it. Crinale are right in the middle of the bottom half, so I don't think they'll be that big a threat."

"But, weapons."

"Precisely. But that's for the race, Qualifying's first..."

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"The end is now. Win or lose, Erebus shall provide the most exciting race the entire world has ever seen. So, shall we begin?"

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Unknown Date.

Unknown Location.

Unknown Time.

>>EREBUS OS V3.7.564

>>LOADING DATA FILES...
>COMPLETE

>>LOGGING IN...
>>WELCOME, EREBUS.

>>DOWNLOADING UPDATED AVAILABLE TEAM DATA...
>COMPLETE

>>PROJECT: SHINIGAMI PROGRESS:
>"SG_R-000": INACTIVE
>"SG_X-043": COMPLETE

>>INITIATING ACTIVATION PROCESS ["SG_X-043"].
>SHINIGAMI AXC ACTIVATED.
>DEPLOYMENT: SEFAIALON