AN: Time for this again, eh? Enjoy everybody. And thanks to all who have reviewed. May the next WipEout game arrive sooner than we hope.
Extra Note: Please donate to any Japan relief Fund you can find. That is all.
WipEout DAWN
"No Chance to Lose"
LAP 24 of 40
1. ICARAS
2. GHOST ORIGINAL
3. BELKAN-G
4. WAR TALON
5. NEO-LILIM
6. BERKUT UNITED
7. LHOTUS-AKKAN
8. SATTAHRI
9. SHISHIGAMI YOMA
10. CISCA FOUNDATION
Daisy was badly damaged. And the previously-passed Sattahri knew it. With bloodthirsty abandon, the mobility geared ship knifed through the turns and closed in behind the wounded larger craft.
'D-dammit! Give me a chance!' Milli spat, stealing a glance at the rear camera for a second; showing the Sattahri inching closer and closer. The smaller ships' hull was slightly dented from the crash earlier, but as far as Milli could tell, its performance was totally unaffected. She could almost see the sly grin of its pilot as the ship came nearly nose to nose with her own.
'You can't let him pass you just yet. If you pit when he's ahead, you won't be able to catch up in time. Try and stall him somehow, Mil. It's our only chance!' Yuno yelled over her helmet radio.
Milli grunted in response, too busy concentrating on keeping Daisy on the track. The missile hit from before had fried many of its systems, including the left stabilisers. This meant that Milli had to continuously fight against Daisy's sudden penchant for veering left of its own free will. Her ship's handling overall had also plummeted to barely tolerable levels, and considering how badly it handled even in prime condition...
Still, she did everything in her power to keep surging forward, ignoring the various warnings her HUD bleeped at her obnoxiously.
The Sattahri continued hounding the Lhotus-Akkan without pause, firing off various weapons at every opportunity. It was part luck on Milli's behalf that none of it connected, and the rest on the rival pilots awful aim.
The ship showed obvious signs of frustration now. If it couldn't hit the Lhotus-Akkan at range, it would just swoop in point blank.
'He's tail-zoning!'
'Ugh.'
'You know what to do.'
Sattahri acquired a rocket pick-up just then, making a devilish smile crawl over the pilot's face. With wicked precision, he accelerated and came closer and closer to the damaged craft right in front of him. Two more turns and he'd have that ugly ship on the straight, just begging to be ripped apart.
The opportunity came, and the pilot started squeezing the trigger on his flight stick.
A crushing impact followed, but one the Sattahri did not see coming.
Just as it was about to fire the rocket barrage at the Lhotus Akkan's back, the huge ship suddenly decelerated dramatically.
The Sattahri had no time to slow itself down. With a totally one sided crush, the crafts nose just crumpled like paper into the back of the Lhotus, catapulting the ship forward over the straight!
The pilot screamed as his ships now useless stabilisers could do nothing to right the mass inertia. It hit a left hand turn at a bad angle, lifted up a raise and barrel-rolled itself into a bright yellow holoboard; shattering the Piranha logo apart.
'That's it! Time for a booster!'
Milli gagged a bit before she answered.
'Wugh...allright. That hit almost blacked me out...'
She steered Daisy deftly, coming up just before Yuno's pit craft above. Milli wondered to herself for a second how she would fare at his rate. Laps were trickling away faster and faster. And the ships ahead were far from amateurs. 5th maybe 4th place if she kept her act together. And this pit would slow her down...
'Yuno! Forget the hull regen gel! Give me a 20% charge to forward shields and the rest to thrusters 1 to 4!'
'Mil, that's a bit much. You'll be flying a kite if I don't weigh Daisy down with the regen gel.'
'Exactly. I want her to fly.'
'You mean...?'
Milli didn't elaborate, she just swerved underneath the Pit Craft and slowed down a fraction as it attached its various parts and omni-hoses to her ship. Because of her request, she didn't even have to stop as Yuno went to work. Normal pitting required a five and a half second standstill to properly replenisha ship. Daisy went through at two without stopping.
CHNK!
Yuno's Pit Craft disengaged just before the no-fly zone, and Daisy zoomed ahead with renewed purpose.
Milli knew what to do now. Daisy was handling even worse than before, but more importantly she was faster. With barely any shielding and much of its hull chipped away, the Lhotus-Akkan was hell on hover drives. One bad crash, one bad weapon hit and she'd fall to pieces.
And Milli was terrified. With the rate her heart was beating, the sweat clamming up her forehead under her helmet, she wondered how she was still conscious, let alone flying a ship at such insane speeds.
With this fear came a startling clarity to her. She'd always been scared to death in previous races, but unlike back then, it didn't cloud her mind with self-doubt.
It wasn't about winning the race anymore. It was about showing herself, showing everybody what could happen when a quiet girl like her just snapped on the track.
Lost in these thoughts, Milli just casually passed the V-shaped Berkut United with ease by flying over it upside down.
The pilot of the ship just watched with bugged out eyes as she flew overhead. His shock was as much her own. Milli couldn't even tell what kind of expression she had at the moment.
Berkut United's surprise was so severe, that when the pilot lowered his head back to the track, a sharp turn loomed out of nowhere. He was going too fast to negotiate it properly, so he swore up a storm as his ship clanged off the titanium guardrails and righted itself with both airbrakes, dramatically losing speed.
By the time it picked up the pace, the Lhotus-Akkan was already gone tomorrow.
'Payback, Jerk! You're doing awesome, Mil!'
Milli's hysteria died down a little at Yuno's encouraging words. She smiled a bit and focused even harder.
LAP 31 of 40
While the previous laps had some surprising twists, this sole one turned the whole race on its head.
Many things happened all at once. The Shishigami and the Cisca, both furious at their misfortune and bringing up the rear, took their frustrations out on each other. They'd locked horns at one point, each driving to force one another into opposite walls. Their bad luck only got worse when they activated Plasma Shields at the same time. Shields are meant to ward off weapons and collisions, not other shields. What this resulted in was both honeycomb walls of energy warping into themselves like a shockwave before blasting apart in a rainbow coloured plasma display that completely fried the systems of both ships. Without power, they were nothing more than flying hunks of metal, and so they unceremoniously dropped to the ground and screeched to a pathetic stop.
The Neo-Lilim, tailing behind War Talon and Belkan-G who were unfairly racing as a team, decided to try his hand at passing them both.
They'd have nothing of it.
Just as the Lilim tried to swoop past, the military-grade ships cut in on both sides and viciously viced the fragile ship between them. A three-way struggle ensued as the mess of AG technology roared across the track as one. The cluster smashed against the walls again and again, all the pilots too stubborn to break free.
Not too far ahead, Ghost-Original was racing easy, but thought it best to make it even easier by deploying a Thermite Bomb at the peak of a narrow turn.
It was carnage.
The only one to even notice the bomb was Lilim's pilot. But with nowhere to go, he could only gesture wildly to the pilots blocking him, who only took it as a feeble attempt for truce.
Three ships collided into the explosive at top speed, instantly blasting them apart in different directions. War Talon and Belkan-G were effortlessly swept off the track; their respective pilots screaming hysterically.
Neo-Lilim was destroyed on the mark, now a burned out husk scraping against the wall. SOS drones were dispersed quickly, scooping the Lilim's pilot core off the track and catching the other two ships before they crashed into any adjacent buildings. Due to the heavy damage on the craft however, the drones followed their programming and whisked them away back to the pits as both pilots swore up a storm.
At Lap 39, the ladder told a very different story:
1. ICARAS
2. GHOST ORIGINAL
3. LHOTUS-AKKAN
4. BERKUT UNITED
5. BELKAN-G
6. WAR TALON
DNF. NEO-LILIM
DNF. SATTAHRI
DNF. SHISHIGAMI YOMA
DNF. CISCA FOUNDATION
'This race is INSANE!'
'Yeah.' Milli responded quietly. Her heart wasn't beating out of her chest anymore. Why was she so calm now? She felt so...tired.
'It's all you, Mil and no one else's. As far as I'm concerned this is a victory for us.'
'Hm.'
'...You feeling okay? You life signs are kinda weird.'
'I dunno.'
'Well, the race is nearly over. Don't strain yourself.'
'Sure, Yuno. Get some soda ready.'
'See you soon!'
LAP 40 of 40
Just speaking was exhausting. Milli wondered absently what would happen if she just closed her eyes for a moment. Just for a moment.
But no, there was one last thing she wanted to try. Milli hated making Yuno worry, so she felt a little bad for keeping something like this from her.
Whatever. Milli was going to try it. Something only two Teams before her had tried but countless others had failed...
And now was her chance. The Speed Boost she'd been saving up had prevented her using any other items, but it was far more important.
C'mon, let this work...
The wrecked and battered Lhotus-Akkan surged onward, coming up to the crest of a steep climb...
Sorry, Yuno. I just want to win. Just this once. That's all I'll ever need.
Milli engaged the boost, instantly being squashed back into her seat with overwhelming acceleration. Daisy hit the climb and soared upwards off the track, making those in the crowded stands who had been following her progress gasp collectively in shock.
Now...left, right, LEFT!
Lhotus-Akkan rolled, passing cleanly through a hologram display arch far above the track, bypassing several turns and corners. It continued flying, seemingly losing no altitude...until gravity took its course and dropped the heavy machine downwards at a savage angle.
Icaras, who had for the entire race being clear of any opposition, did a double-take when a barely held together AG craft landed brutally next to him; shooting shrapnel on impact that pinged off its duraglass canopy.
'MIL! You've LOST IT!'
They were on the final straight. Pristine Icaras and ravaged Lhotus. The finish line was right there...
…...
Lhotus-Akkan dipped downwards into the track nose first, slicing into the floor. Total power failure. Stabilisers destroyed. Shields depleted. But still it powered forward with blind abandon. Icaras recovered from the initial shock and went full power towards the finish line.
'MIL! MIL, NO! NO, NO, NO!'
Sorry, Yuno
Her ship was ripped apart. She'd been going too fast for even a ship with full shields to handle. Colours and screaming folded together in a twisting mass as the entire world around her spun uncontrollably.
Impact. More painful than anything she'd ever felt. A deep piercing agony stabbed at her chest. No time to think. No time for inner revelations. Just unbearable hurt. Burning white filled her vision-
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Did I Win...?