The Starfox team was greeted by a sea of orange jumpsuits swarming around the various simulator units. Due to the size of a race track, the team would be training, not in a real size holosim, but a pure computer simulation in VR, wearing instruments that would trick their minds and bodies into thinking they were piloting the vehicles, but were in fact not. There were four units, arranged in a square formation, and in the middle of them, a large 2D holoprojector. This would allow the engineering team, and Peppy, the acting pit chief, to observe everything going on in the simulation.
Each of the riders took a position beside a simulator, and waited as an engineer placed their bikes into the units. Each simulator consisted of a platform with a sunken strip in the middle a few inches wider then the Hyperbikes' tires. A few taps of the sim units' consoles, and clamps grabbed the plates covering the tires, and a section of the middle of each bike, locking them in place. The platform would tilt the bike sideways to simulate the vehicle cornering. Right now, the platforms would tilt freely if not for each machine having its kickstand holding it upright. After the bikes had been secured, each rider jumped on their machines. The same personnel that had brought in the bikes now was outfitting the team with their VR gear. They were equipped with an eyepiece, which consisted of a clear visor which projected images directly into the wearer's eyes, and a headpiece which projected soundwaves into the wearer's brain. On top of this, the gear also would stimulate their brains to make their bodies respond to various environmental things. For instance, if their machine collided with something, the simulator would tell their brains that they had collided with something, and their bodies would react accordingly. Theoretically, given the right stimulation, your brain could be tricked into thinking you had had a fatal accident, but of course that risk had been removed from the simulation.
Aegis finally broke the silence, and began briefing the team on their Hyperbikes' basic functions. "Firstly, I'm sure you've all noticed the large, shiny black surface between the grips of your steering mechanism. Those of you who are quicker minded may have even discovered that it is a computer screen."
Suddenly a beeping was heard, and one of the bikes powered up. A female computer voice spoke up from the machine. "Thank you for activating the CSF/SpaceDynamics HB-01 Hyperbike. Welcome, Krystal."
Aegis chuckled as all eyes fixed onto Krystal, who was clearly blushing. "All I did was touch it!" The lynx informed the others of what was going on.
"Your machines are pawprint activated. The computer screens are touch sensitive, and also a paw scanner. The rest of you, touch your screens and power up your bikes."
The room suddenly filled with noise of the power up sequences. One thing that everyone seemed to protest was that the bikes, after a few seconds of silence, raised up a little, the suspension system having been activated.
Aegis assumed a warning tone suddenly. "You all might want to duck down now, since your bikes' canopies are going to close on you in a second."
Each team member frantically hunkered down, hugging the seat, as the glass slid down over them, leaving some open space behind them, but filling their vision with the illusion of being inside a glass tube.
"Your computers should all be on a menu giving you a set of options," Aegis called to the team, knowing he'd need to be a bit louder with the riders nearly sealed in their bikes. "These options will be listed as follows: Race Mode, Simulation Mode, Bike Systems, Messages. Touch Bike Systems now." The team did so, and was flooded by yet another list of options. "You should now be looking at another list, with menus as follows: Weapons, Engines, Shields, Computer, Communications, Bike Configuration. From this menu, you will be able to view the capacities of each system, its functionality, and current hardware information and configurations. Bike Configuration allows you to change technical things about the way your bike operates. Like suspension height, brake sensitivity, etc. Weapons is pretty self explanatory, but I'll say it anyway. It will allow you to view each weapon installed on your machine, and change their settings. Back out of your current directory and check out the weapons menu."
Falco was the first to speak as he found out what they had installed on their machines. "Holy shit! We have Nova Bombs on these things!" The other team members made similar comments as they saw for themselves rotating 3D images of the most potent weapon ever developed in Lylat on their screens.
Aegis nodded. "Yes, you are equipped with Nova Bombs. However, due to limited physical space, each of your bikes can only carry two at a time. You'll also notice the warning on the bottom of your displays."
The team did. A bright red flashing "Warning! Long distance use only! Do not attempt launch at less than 1000 feet."
Aegis felt more explanation was in order. "Since the bombs were developed for space use, we were able to launch them out of straight tubes. With the limitations of gravity to deal with, they now launch in a 45 degree arc. Keep that in mind when targeting something specific, although it would be easier to simply lob one into a pack of racers and not target anything per se. You will also find another familiar face in your arsenal. Your Arwings' twin fire hyper lasers. And, just like in your Arwings, they have the ability to lock on and fire a homing burst of energy. Since your targets are all moving in the same direction as you, you may find simply blasting them with rapid fire shots to be more effective. Your machines also have the same type of blasters equipped on the rear. This will allow you to fire at anyone following too close."
"I have a question!" Slippy called. The team shook their heads, expecting something technical to fall out of his mouth.
Aegis pointed to him. "Yes, Slippy."
"What's a Gattling Cannon?"
The engineer smiled. "That would be a more powerful version of our Gattling Gun, which you all should be familiar with. It has the same limitations, however. It is only effective at close range. It's a good weapon to use when attempting to pass someone. Blast them as you go by. But at a distance, you'll only pick at them. We have also added another weapon that you may not be familiar with. Swarm Missiles. The system allows you to lock onto one target and hit them with up to 8 missiles at a time, or lock onto multiple targets. The missiles individually aren't very powerful, but four of them hitting a target dead on would cause serious damage, and all eight would almost definitely destroy the target. The system also has a secret weapon. If only one target has been selected, it scans the target vehicle's shield strength, and calculates the number of missiles needed to eliminate it. When the missiles are fired, they target, not the rear of the vehicle, but one of its sides, so the impact and resulting explosion throws the target off balance. And if that happens to a two-wheeled machine, you can safely assume that it will not be recovering from the fall. But be aware, if you cause a machine to go out of control instead of destroying it, you're going to have a large chunk of scrap to get out of the way of."
Fox's eyebrows went up. "Wow. Maybe you should be driving one of these things. You know more about them than any of us."
Aegis smiled and shook his head. "I'm too old for that stuff anymore. Now I build the machines. But thanks for the offer."
"Hey!" called Falco impatiently. "Can we like, race now? Or are these things just for sitting on?"
The lynx shrugged. "Okay." He turned to one of his colleges in a booth above and behind him. "Load it up!"
A female golden retriever put on a headset and spoke to the team through the radio link. "Okay Starfox team. My name is Amy, I'll be your pit chief today. I'll help you through the startup sequence for the simulator, and answer any questions you might have. Are we ready to get started?" The team gave various acknowledgements. Suddenly the retriever remembered something. She hit the button on a console, and her voice carried outside into the hangar. "Aegis, can we get their pit chief up here, so I can show him what's going on?"
The lynx nodded, and turned to Peppy. "You're needed up there. Amy will show you how to use that." He pointed to the device Peppy had been given. The hare shrugged, and headed up to the control booth with a sigh.
Amy cut the intercom and went back to the team. "Okay, sorry about that. Now, all of you need to go back in your menu and enter simulation mode. When that happens, your bikes will power down, and we'll go over the startup again, this time in the simulator."
The team followed instructions, with a groan out of Falco. "We just did this! Man, I wanna ride already!"
Amy tried to ignore the impatient avian. Soon the team had their bikes powered up. "You will notice that you display has changed from blue to green. This indicates that you're in simulator mode. Now, go to race, and I'll upload the units with the environment data."
Fox looked around, and at first all he could see was black around him, except for his computer screen. Then, suddenly the environment loaded. He was on the starting grid of a race track. He looked ahead and up a bit, and noticed there was a holobanner floating above the track. "SpaceDynamics Virtual Speedway" it read. Fox rolled his eyes. Couldn't they think of anything more creative?
My thoughts exactly an accented voice said in his mind.
K- Krystal? Get out of my head! Leave my brain alone!
But your thoughts are so clear! I can't help but hear them. Don't think so loud if you don't want me to hear you!
Grr... I hate that you're a telepath sometimes!
She laughed telepathically. Sometimes I hate that I'm a telepath! I have to tune it out when I go into the city, because there are so many people who direct perverted thoughts at me!
Fox's eyes widened. I can't imagine having to deal with that. Why don't you just fry their brains or something?
She giggled. Because I'm not mean, silly! They're just thoughts! They're not saying it to my face. Besides, sometimes it's nice to know what people are thinking. It tells a lot about them, you know.
Yeah... right.
They were both snapped out of their conversation by an impatient sounding female voice. "Ahem? Fox and Krystal, are you two paying attention?"
Fox struggled to say something. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, we're all ears, um... Amy."
"Then explain why you two are the only ones who haven't activated race mode yet?"
Peppy groaned. This was not the first time the two had decided to have a telepathic conversation at the wrong time. He motioned to Amy to cut transmission. She did so.
"What is it, Peppy?"
"Those two... they're, um. Talking to each other. Krystal's telepathic, and they do this tuning out thing a lot. They're just conversing, but to us it looks like they're not engaged in anything. So could you, maybe cut them a little slack if they zone out?"
Amy was still turning over the "Krystal's a telepath" bit in her head. Part of her wished she could secretly talk to people like that. "Yeah. Yeah, sure." She clicked back over to the team's frequency. "Uh, okay Starfox, are we all ready to go?" Fox and Krystal were the first to answer, and the other two acknowledged soon after. "Okay, then."
"Hey! What's this do?" Falco had been eyeing an icon in the corner of his display for some time, and decided to tap it. He wasn't ready for what was going to happen. Tapping the icon disengaged his bike's kickstand, and the machine toppled over, since he hadn't put out his feet to catch himself. "Whoa!" He fell off the machine, as the others looked over at him laying on the ground, both in the real world, and in the simulator. "What the hell! What's the point in putting in a function that makes your bike fall over? That's just stupid!"
The others were laughing at him, and even Amy let out a giggle before regaining herself. "Actually, Falco, that icon disengages your kickstand. It's what holds the bike upright when there's no one on it. I was actually just going to have you all do that when you decided to do it yourself without a warning. So I'll say this to the rest of you, put your legs out so you can hold the bike up when the kickstand retracts."
"Yeah, yeah, kickstand, put out your legs, blah, blah, blah," Falco muttered getting back onto his bike. The rest of the team put out their legs and retracted their kickstands. All but Slippy managed to hold up their bikes easily.
The frog's short legs quivered as he struggled to hold the bike upright standing on his toes. "Um, you guys did a really great job building these things, and not that I'm complaining, but I can hardly touch the ground!" Then he gave up and his bike toppled over. "Aw, flies! This stinks! But strangely, this is the only design flaw I've seen so far."
Aegis was shaking his head. "I don't really know how we can fix this, other than redesigning your bike completely. The engine is only inches under the seat."
Slippy was still sitting on the ground, but seemed unaware of this as he became lost in thought. "I only need a couple more inches. Just enough to get my feet flat on the ground."
The lynx nodded in agreement. "But that doesn't help us now. We still need to go over racing operations, and your team will need to train on these machines rigorously. That includes you."
"Um, sir?" a voice said over the intercom.
Aegis looked up at the control room above him. "Yes?"
The voice continued. "I believe the platforms on the simulators are adjustable. We can raise the platform on Slippy's simulator, but that's only a temporary solution. I don't know how we can deal with the bike."
The lynx's eyes narrowed. "Well, we need to do something about it, Garrett. We can't have Slippy falling on his rear every time he tries to get on the damn thing!"
"I understand that, sir. I'll do what I can after the team trains for a bit. Right now that's more important. I'm going to raise Slippy's platform."
Slippy had just gotten back onto the platform to hold up his bike when the ground under him suddenly jerked. He felt himself rise a bit, and then the platform jerked to a stop. He got back onto the bike, and his feet were planted firmly on the platform. "Yeah. That's better."
Aegis seemed satisfied for the moment. "Alright, then. Amy, you can resume the training session."
Amy nodded. "Okay, team. I've uploaded the course map to your bike computers. As you can see, it's relatively simple. Just an oval. The corners are mildly banked to assist you in cornering, and there are no hazards to speak of, unless one of you decides to start shooting at your teammates. I'm going to put up the starting signal, so you all know when to go. Run a system diagnostic as you would on your Arwings. It's the same system. When all of you are green, I'll start the countdown." Each team member checked their systems and one by one gave the signal that they were all clear. A small holographic display appeared in front of the group that counted from 3 to 1. After the 1, the display turned bright green and read "GO!"
The Starfox team punched their bikes' throttles and shot down the first stretch of track. Each of their displays showed their speed, lap time, total time, weapon charge, shield strength, and their positions on the map. Amy's face also appeared on each of their displays as a small window in the corner.
"Your current HUD images are what you will see in a real race. Anyone who contacts you, be it teammate or opponent, will appear where my face is on your displays. You are approaching the first turn. I don't think any of you are going fast enough to need to, but your airbrake controls are the switches under where your thumbs go on the handle grips. The left and right switches correspond to the respective airbrakes. The key to winning races of course is to take turns as tightly as possible, so I would advise you to try to stay as close as you can to the inside of the turn. Don't try to be a hero and take the turn so close your shield kisses the wall. Stay about a quarter of the track width from it. This turn has a mild bank. About 30 degrees. The second turn is about 50, so staying close to the inside isn't as necessary. There are tracks in the league that bank a full 90 degrees. The bike's momentum is the only thing keeping you upright in those situations, so it's wise to take those turns at the highest speed possible."
The team came around the first turn without incident. "I hate to feel cocky, but that was too easy," Fox said smirking. "I hope there's more to this than taking turns."
"Even a simple turn could wind up being a bad day if someone decides to wipe you out, Fox. Those turns are hunting grounds for track predators." Amy's voice carried a hint of warning.
Fox chuckled. "Track predators, huh? How do you know all this stuff?"
Amy smiled. "I watch the races. It's why I was picked to train your team, because I have made detailed observations of what goes on out there. Some people choose to just race, but everyone's out there to win, and if you get in their way, they won't hold back removing you from a race."
Fox frowned. "This doesn't sound like racing to me. It sounds like war."
Amy shrugged. "That's how they treat it. You'd benefit if you treated it like any other mission Pepper gives you."
Fox was starting to object. "But this is different. Those missions send us into hostile territory with people trying to kill us."
Amy's next comment made the Starfox team's blood chill. "What did you think you were getting into? When you're out there, people will try to kill you. It's just that it's legal when you're racing."
"How can they allow that?" Krystal protested.
"The same way everything else bad in the galaxy happens. You sign a waiver," Fox answered, chuckling slightly at the simplicity of signing your life away.
"We never signed any waiver!" Slippy whined. "Fox, no one said our lives would be in as much danger as on a mission in hostile territory! We might as well go pick a fight with Star Wolf and ask Pepper to pay us if we come out alive!"
Amy coughed to get the team's attention. "Boys! It's not as bad as you think. It's dangerous, but not that bad. The chances of you actually dying are pretty minimal, since you will be equipped with life support systems that are designed to preserve your life in the event of a crash, or the destruction of your vehicle."
Slippy was still not satisfied. "Unless that means you put a secondary shield around us capable of holding up against the detonation of a plasma engine, I don't think it qualifies as life support."
"Yeah, no crap!" Falco finally spoke up. "I mean, fighting for the freedom of the Lylat system, that's one thing. But dying in a race to earn some money doesn't sound like my idea of fun."
Amy was shaking her head. "Look, it's not that bad. Once you all become professionals with your machines, as you have with the Arwings, you won't see the risk as anything but more of a challenge. You all went out against the best of Andross's forces mere weeks after you first set eyes on an Arwing. This is nothing compared to that. After you've trained, you'll all feel different about it. Trust me. Just train. You all have completed one lap. Feel free to experiment. This is a simulation, so nothing will happen to you if you mess up. This is the time to make mistakes, and learn from them. Challenge each other, just as you did during the War. You guys are the best we have. None of those XGRA hotshots can claim to have taken down fleets of the toughest ships in the galaxy. This is a cakewalk. I'm going to go for a bit, so continue training."
Fox sighed. "Understood."
Amy pulled off her headset and backed away from the console. She tossed the datapad she was holding onto it, and ran her paws through her hair, letting out a deep sigh.
"How are they doing?" General Pepper appeared from the door behind her.
Amy glanced at him. "Well, sir, their training is going better than expected. They all have an excellent grasp of the machines, and they seem to be operating them as well as they do any other vehicle. But they're having doubts about the seriousness of the mission. I think they've forgotten that it's a mission, not a recreational activity. They were expecting something like a typical race, where the only risks involved are speed related."
The General nodded. "That's partly my fault. I made it sound that way, though I honestly thought they would all treat it the way they usually do. They are professionals. I thought they would have viewed it as if they were going into potentially dangerous territory, as they have been in the past. They'll get over it, though. Once they've gotten the hang of the Hyperbikes, they'll treat it as they would any other mission. I give them missions that are too risky for the defense force, and they know that. They know that I recognize their skills, and because of my faith in them, I give them missions I know are delicate or especially dangerous. And judging by the report you wrote about the XGRA races, this definitely qualifies."
"I just hope they don't decide to change their minds, sir." Amy tried to keep the worry out of her voice.
"Oh, what are you worried about, Major? SpaceDynamics is the one to worry about Starfox dropping out. They're the ones who need the money."
"I understand that, General. But the team needs money, too. I'm more concerned about them. They're good people, just trying to make a living. Since the Aparoid conflict, they've been without work. I've read up on all of their files. The team ran into serious debt getting the Great Fox rebuilt. They need this."
Pepper nodded again. "Well, let's see how they feel in a week. After they feel comfortable training, and feel confident in their abilities with the Hyperbikes, we'll see if they still want to drop out. But Fox isn't a quitter. That young man doesn't know the first thing about quitting, even in the face of overwhelming odds. That's why he's a Lylat War hero."
Amy sighed. "I hope you're right, sir."
"I'd bet my life on it, Major."
A/N: Sorry this update took so long. I hope it was worth the wait. I know it's still a bit slow. But I'm planning for this story to be a long one. Just a side note, by the way, I recently played through Starfox Assault, and I found out that Great Fox was destroyed at the end of the game. I didn't remember this when I started writing this. Was anyone confused as to why the ship is still around? Should I write in a side story to clarify? Because I simply hadn't thought about it until now. Just wondering...
Also, Silver Meta Dragon – no, I don't know what the aegis is. Perhaps you can educate me? I know it's the name of the allied anti-aircraft naval unit in Red Alert 2, which is where I heard the name, but somehow I don't think that what you were getting at. Glad you are all enjoying the story.