A-GRL

A Red Flash at Olympian

Natasha gets away nicely but the Macaw ship somehow gets between her's and Victor's. She lightly presses a rudder pedal and almost immediately, the three ships grind against each other.

SCREEEEEE- go the three hulls. The Macaw ship's shield shines sky blue and Victor's shield glows an angry red. Coming out of a slight right turn, Natasha breaks free and pulls away.

"Aiko behind, 3 seconds. Rockets," Dimi-3 says.

Natasha turns in for the second corner with the inside airbrake fully open. She enters the corner sideways and fires two rockets at the apex of the corner. She lays off the airbrake and perfectly corrects the yaw with some fancy footwork. Her competitors grind against each other and the walls, unable to see through Natasha's smokescreen.

"Citrus behind, 7 seconds."

"Fighting?" she asks, a little out of breath.

"Tsukune 3rd, close."

With clear track ahead of her, she has the best view of the corners as she accelerates toward them. She turns in for a corner at 654 kmh true airspeed, a little slower than the speeds she turned in at in the sim. It's expected - as advanced as anti-gravity technology has come, the rain will always beat down everything that moves in the world. The rain will always make stuff wet and then-

RRRRRRRRRRKK-

Natasha jerks awake. She doesn't ever remember taking her hands off the ship's controls. With shaking hands, she slams the throttle back to maximum and tears the ship off the barrier.

Up ahead is the one part of track she feared wasn't next - Olympian. She yanks the throttle down to 0% and pulls the airbrakes. At the speed she was going, she was never going to complete the loop.

She brings her ship to a stop in the middle of the track, accepting whatever fate follows.

My name is Natasha Chernova. I am the Marux Industries A-G Team primary pilot. I am-

The wind is knocked out of her in the first impact. She gasps for air and pulls on the safety harnesses that nearly cut her into pieces. Dimi-3 freaks out after the second shunt: "Thruster damaged! Shield 2%!! Eject now!!!"

Natasha, her ship now facing sideways on the track, looks out of the cockpit and sees a third ship speeding toward her. A fourth ship whirs past, flying the wrong way and firing all its machine guns at the racers flying the right way. It's Victor, scaring away the backmarkers from hitting Natasha.

She instinctively pushes the throttle forward - wanting - yearning to chase her adversary. Her ship's thruster spits and spats, then shuts off. The Marux ship drops like a stone and sparks to a stop on the track surface. Rainwater drips into the cockpit and onto Natasha's hand.

"Why are you just sitting here? Eject," Dimi-3 orders.

"Shut up!" Natasha yells, throwing open the canopy. In the distance, the Redline ship loses out in a head-on gunfight and grinds against the track barrier. It turns around slowly, an airbrake out and thruster idling. After a thunderous burst of power, the ship gets up to speed and zooms over Natasha's head.

"He's not going to make it," she whispers to herself, "He doesn't have enough speed!"

She loses sight of the ship on track and turns to one of the trackside holovisions. The back of Victor's ship peels away from the track near the top of the loop, but the pilot keeps the nose pointing to the sky.

She hears the ship's thruster power down and sees its airbrakes open for just a moment. She holds her breath as the Redline ship plummets tail-first toward the earth. "He's going to crash!" Natasha exclaims.

The roar of Victor's red thruster is met with the crowd's cheers. Somehow, Victor brings his ship's nose back down to land cleanly and continue the race, facing the right direction.