RATS: chasing the market

A1-0
1

As her foot hit the petal and her engine ignited Mai felt the familiar feeling of being pushed into her seat and heard the booming sound of her engine coming trough the body of her racing ship.

This was the Corliss Deep Space Prix, the most prestigious open participation single seater race in the Voidsea. That ment that anyone with a spaceship that met the regulations could enter.
There ware three kinds of people that would enter this kind of race:

The first one ware rich adrenaline junkies that could afford to buy themselves a ship. Most of them ware painfully under qualified and ware eliminated in the qualifying rounds, and if they weren’t they would more often than not be far back from the rest of the pack.

The second ware career racers, wanting to make themselves a name and be picked up by a team into a proper feeder series, and one day be in one of the two prestigious sectoral racing series: the Sectoral endurance championship or Astro-formula. Of course most never make it, but no one got to the top without dreaming high.

The third was Mai’s kind: skilled pilots searching for a job. Corliss was a race well known for that. Even months before the race it was well known which racers ware there for employment. And there ware many spaceship manufacturers that ware more than happy to rent out a racing ship to these pilots to show off the quality of their shipbuilding and maybe get a contract from a proper racing team.

“And it’s lights out and away we go! Terrific start for Farril Mador as she immediately takes over the Akane of . Looks like the home favorite team will need to fight this year!”

Mai felt the G forces pushing on her as she entered the first corner. The format of a deep space prix was simple. The race was defined by a imaginary line connecting markers placed in a specific layout. The drivers needed to stay a certain distance from this line, or risk a penalty or even disqualification. Easier said than done at these speeds. Especially when trying to not collide with the ships in front and behind you

Mai didn’t have that problem currently as she was leading the race. Yesterday she had qualified second, surprising everyone. Her sponsor was Hellena steel, a company competing in the race for the first time. One of their drivers had quit days before the race, and they had no reserves. That lead to Mai getting the seat for free. She didn’t plan to waste this opertunity, so she was going to push her ship to it’s absolute limits.

Meanwhile, on one of the small space stations bordering the track, numerous spectators ware observing the spectacle…

6 Likes
2

The click of boot on metal faintly echoes in the hallway as two women and a man enter a bar and sit down at a booth. Fletchers blinks twice as her eyes adjust to the artificial lighting and bright scenery of ‘Subpar’s Bar,’ one of many establishments that serve Corliss’ tourist crowd during the racing season.

A male serniani walks over to booth after the trio aquaint themselves, “Good evening gentry, to Subpar’s Bar.” He addresses the Merilin woman closest to him, “Is there anything I could start you with, ma’am?”

“If you can boost a liter of scarlet lilly, that’ll do wonderfully for me. I’m not hungry presently.”

“And you?” his voice directed to the Serniani man tucked next to the Merilin.

“One Iradellian style pie and baked potato… You got any suggestions for drinks?”

“Honestly, your better off getting something non-alcoholic. It’s way overpriced. If it must be something alcoholic though, I highly recommend an Aelorean Whiskey.”

“I’ll try it.”

“Very good, sir…”

“And what about you, ma’am? Anything on the menu interests you?” his eyes analytically scan the human woman opposite of the Merilin, wearing a foreign military uniform.

5 Likes
3

Neva felt very much out of place, after all, it wasn’t exactly common to see someone wearing her kind of uniform at an event like this, especially one lacking the Imperial Crowns one would expect on a Service Dress Blue Uniform. Still, she elected to ignore some of the looks she was getting from the bar they had entered.

Honestly, it was sheer luck she had encountered Annete when she did, considering as a former officer of the Denvarian Imperial Navy whose ship had never visited the Voidsea, she was fairly lost trying to find her way around and more importantly, find an employer who would appreciate the skills she had learned in the Navy before her unjust discharge. And then she found Annette, or more accurately, Annette had found her, having found her via an Ad she had posted for herself to attract any possible employers. Apparently, Annette needed a crew to man the vessel she had purchased for Freelance work, and Neva fit the bill in regards to manning the ships CIC. Now, it was time to find a pilot.

Bringing herself back to reality, she turned to face the Waiter, pointing to her O2 Mask. “Unless you have something that would allow me to drink through this, then I’ll have some Pretzel Sticks with Cheese and a Cherry Cola, if you have it, to go.”

4 Likes
4

While Anette and Neva ware spectating the race, of the station the ships ware burning their engine like hellfire for lap after lap. They had a great viewing position. The station with their bar is positioned opposite the paddock station. With the provided binoculars they could easily see all the action in the start-finish straight, and the rest of the track was visible via the broadcast.

They could clearly see a pattern emerging. Three ships ware clearly ahead, with a gap between them and the rest: Mai’s Hellena steel and the two Akanes. It was a rough fight, with constant overtakes, and the comentators ware on the edges of their seats:

“The akanes have the better ship, but Mador is giving a masterclass in piloting!”

“That she is certainly, but with her background it is expected. She is a ex calerostan military pilot and it’s showing. Whilst her team mate is deep in the midfield, she is fighting for a win!”

“However the Akanes are relentless! Who is this newcomer to challenge their multi year dominance of the race?!”

However Mai’s relentless pushing was taking it’s toll on the ship. Not only was she burning reaction fuel faster than her adversaries, meaning that she’d need to pit to refuel sooner, but the ship was straining under the high g-forces she was putting it under. No first time contender expected to fight for a win in their first race, Hellena steel included, so they usually prioritized weight reduction over reinforcing components for high g turns. Hellena’s ship was made for two mid field pilots, not a winning one, and soon cracks would begin to show…

6 Likes
5

The race continued for a couple hours with the same trend; the Akanean pilots would barely keep pace with Mai, and the rest of the pack would trail behind them. Until midway through the second final lap when one of the Akanean racecraft fell from first to fortieth.

“What’s the play?” Robin asked nervously as he watched the racecraft buzz by the station.

“The Akanean racers are trying to pincer the lead craft. Melt the front thrusters, cause her to barrel off course and hopefully dq her. Worst case, crash directly into her.”

“Won’t that get the racer involved disqualified aswell?”

“Suspended, probably. But it doesn’t matter if one is out if the other crosses first.”

“So what do you think?”

“I think she’s good for what we need.”

“Neva?”

3 Likes
6

“She should work just fine, but it is ultimately your decision Senior Chief.” Neva voiced, continuing her habit of referring to Annette by her prior rank.

2 Likes
7

The race was closing and Mai was in the lead. Two more laps to go. She was entering the sharpest corner of the race, and then disaster struck.

Her fuel tank fails under the heavy g forces of the turn and colapses onto itself. Before she could even react, the safety system of her ship activates and ejects the survival cell with her in it, just in time to protect her from the explosion behind.

“What a catastrophic crash! It seems that Mador’s ship exploded! The race is red flagged in the penultimate lap! What a catastrophe for the likely winner!”

Mai just sat in silence in the ejected survival cell, contemplating what just happened, and waiting for the safety ship to pick her up.

2 Likes
8

“By the void…”

“We should move.”

“Agreed. Go get Ephyra lit, get the traffic clearances to hang around. Clear the seal as soon as you can. This place is gonna riot.”

“What about you and-”

“Trust me, we’ll get to you one way or another. I love you.” Annette gives Robin a peck on the cheek before the trio to walk out of the bar.

As Robin runs off towards the quay and berthing, Annette crouches, pulls a revolver from an ankle holster and tosses it up to Neva before taking another conceal carry out from her messenger bag.

“Six chambers double action. It fires cutdown shotgun shells. First three are stun and the other three are flechette. Don’t break it please.”

She also retrieves two tags employee tags

“As far as you’re concerned, I’m Cassandra Matrice and you’re Mabel Ilreda. We’re both new sensor operators for the teams unmanned systems.”

She puts her conceal carry into her overcoat before adjusting her attire before looking Neva up and down

“We really ought to take you clothes shopping, you’re gonna stick out like a sore thumb. Take my greatcoat, it’ll cover-” she motions to Neva’s clothes “-all this.”

“Let’s move before someone notices us.”

3 Likes
9

Neva merely rolled her eyes at the comment regarding her Uniform. She took both the revolver and the false id tags, briefly regretting not taking her own service pistol for this outing.

As she slid on the greatcoat, she wondered why the voidsea had such a love for revolvers over traditional pistols. Revolvers take forever to reload, you have a limited amount of total shots, while yes, you could chamber higher caliber rounds, it didn’t really matter if said rounds made your accuracy utter dogcrap. Thankfully, she likely wouldn’t have to use the damned thing, and was glad she at least still had her combat knife on her. Once the greatcoat was on, she stuffed the revolver into one of the pockets.

“After you, Senior Chief.”

1 Like
10

Meanwhile, in the Hellena steel paddock, Mai was fuming.

“The *#&# do you mean it was my fault?!! If you didn’t compromise core structural stability on your awful ship it wouldn’t #$#& EXPLODE!!!”

“Mai you ware aware that you ware driving a ship intended for the midfield, and you continued pushing. As per your contract your salary is nullified and there’s no arguing it. It was nice working with you even if we’d have preferred two finishing ships. Have a good rest of your day”

The team principal turned around and left. Mai went to her and dug trough it.

“Well if that asshole won’t give me my money willingly, I’ll remind him who he hired.”

Mai pulled out her service pistol: a Lirior Z-35. A marvel of calerostan engineering, it is a miniaturized helical railgun, meaning it had adjustable power. At maximum it could surpass the largest commercial revolver rounds in stopping power. Because of that, and the adjustable power, helical rail guns have been standard issue in the calerostan navy since the miraline war. Now Mai would use it to get her money.

1 Like