Throttle Fifty-One

The Cerberus hit its first patch of turbulence far above the planet’s surface. It started as a faint rattle, metal parts clunking together and the ship pitching around uncomfortably. Diana ignored it all for the moment. The ship was no longer aerodynamic, so of course their re-entry was going to be fraught with trouble.

“Found anything yet?” she asked.

“Nothing conclusive, I’m afraid. Some evidence suggests that the government ruling over Bolgia is somewhat authoritarian, but it is also a relatively small colony, with multiple species inhabiting the same space. These are in some locations divided into communes, but there seems to be an emphasis on mixing and on a unique cultural heritage that doesn’t focus on one species’ values.”

“Sounds downright idyllic,” she said.

“It isn’t,” ChaOS said. “There are rampant issues with corruption and crime rates are much higher than what the Federation considers the average reported amount. The world is turbulent and new, though that doesn’t mean that it’s a terrible place by any means.”

Diana processed all of that while the ship shook and shivered around her. “ChaOS, let’s make a point not to target any civilian locations. I want to win this, but I’d like to come out of it with a clean-ish conscience.”

“Noted.”

The ship’s spinning stopped as some of the manoeuvring thrusters fired for the last time.

“Preparing for the correction burn in three,” ChaOS said.

Diana sank into her seat and nodded. “Go ahead,” she said.

One of the Cerberus’ primary thrusters fired long and hard. The ship’s gradual downwards acceleration was shifted to the side, and the ship’s arc changed to a longer, more oblique angle that would have them crashing just past the capital. If they ever reached it.

Diana was keeping an eye out on the other racers, her competition. A few were over the capital already and they had to deal with the Bolgian air force as well as the focused fire of ground-based AA platforms.

“How long before we arrive over the capital?” Diana asked.

“Nine minutes.”

She settled back to wait. There wasn’t much she could do for this part of her plan. It was probably something of a mistake. She liked taking a hands-on approach to things, and being on the backseat while ChaOS did all the work annoyed her a little. It was only the fact that the next part of the plan would rely on her a lot more that had her holding back her impatience.

Diana winced as a chunk of armour flew off the front of the ship. Then another broke off. She watched as the ship’s health display had more and more sections of the ship flick to black as they were blown off.

A glance through the cameras around the ship showed an increasing number of parts flying off the Cerberus until they were surrounded by a cloud of debris.

Then they hit the atmosphere in earnest and everything caught fire in a blink. Metal heated until it cast an unhealthy glow, and the more flammable components lit up and left trails of smoke lingering in the air behind them.

“Can we still tune into Yu’s channel?” Diana asked. She took a last sip from her drink. It was about time to put that kind of thing away.

“Certainly. The announcer has been going on since they jumped into the system,” ChaOS said.

“—Abatrath’s taking the lead right now, but there are others not far behind! The blockade has turned into one steaming-hot mess! The Bolgians are pulling ships back to the centre of their formation, leaving the edges nice and frail for the racers clever enough to wait. But will they be able to catch up to those ballsy madbeings who charged right in?” ChaOS opened a screen for her to see Yu flailing his arms around in excitement. Half the screen was taken up by a similar plotter to what she had, though it was far less detailed.

“He’s pretty good at this,” Diana said. “Hey, where’s my icon?”

The hologram next to Yu that showed the location of every racer the excitable announcer could keep track of was updating every half-second, tiny icons moving ahead or around each other. Green dots representing the Bolgian armada were filling most of the space; their neat blockade was a mess, but they still had plenty of ships.

“Oh, let’s check the highlights! Team Nova Cavali is racing planet-ward, but they’re heading straight to the northern sector and they’re trailing flames!”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The hologram was replaced by a distant capture of a corvette with the planet as a backdrop. The ship had clearly seen better days.

“Still impressive! They took out two destroyers and twice as many corvettes already, giving them a heavy lead in the space-combat points. Not to be outdone, the Rising Sun of Comcompan is charging down to the planet wearing its own kill as a trophy!”

The camera switched to the lone Federation frigate in the race. The decommissioned and refurbished ship looked intact. The Bolgian cruiser behind it less so. Lasers flickered, barely visible, around the ship to tag out the Bolgian fighters chasing after it.

“But that’s not the most impressive fighter we’ve seen today! Zil Rossi in her Foxtail and the Romantic Ionosphere piloted by Aicia the yovar—the pilot with the lowest odds in the entire race!—are neck-and-neck for the most Prober kills!”

The camera shifted to a wide-shot of two ships racing through and around entire flights of Bolgian Probers. Diana instantly recognized the Foxtail. The little fighter craft was flashing blue as stray lasers slipped across its shields, but they looked alive and well. Even as the camera fixed on it, a brace of missiles flew from the ship’s tail and rammed into a passing Corvette. Some of the backsplash from the explosions ripped apart some of the fighters following her.

The Romantic Ionosphere was even more impressive. The ship looked like a hunk of junk. It could have been one of those scrap-heap builds for all Diana knew. Still, the pilot was weaving and ducking around shots with preternatural ease and returning fire with a trio of heavy lasers that never seemed to miss. Diana nodded as the fighter flew around a screen of debris left in the Foxtail’s wake, using it to lose some of the ships following them.

“Good pilot,” she acknowledged. She wondered how much better they’d do in a newer, less junky vessel. It was unfortunate that some of the most skilled pilots were hampered by terrible equipment. Good gear was a force multiplier, but the best pilots could make up for that difference with sheer skill and a lack of care about their own wellbeing. At least, that was her experience.

“That fight’s going to be one for the highlights!” Yu cheered. “But let’s not just bask in the victories. Let’s check out the failures! Some of you back home have money in this race—gambling’s legality aside—so let’s see who’s going to need to pay up!”

The announcer played a few clips of racers getting blown apart, some with their ships exploding, others taking too much damage to continue, and even a few which were captured by Bolgian navy craft.

She snorted when she saw the Cerberus exploding apart.

“Too bad!” Yu said without it sounding like he felt bad about it at all. “But look at the beautiful wreck they left behind!”

The camera cut to the Cerberus breaking apart in the planet’s atmosphere. Diana sat up. “Is that live?”

“It is.”

“Phase two, now,” she said. Her feet jumped to the right pedals and she gripped the controls so hard her knuckles went white. Her attention shifted from the broadcast to the ship’s controls. The readouts went wild for a moment and the number of pops, clangs, and tremors the ship went through redoubled.

And then it all stopped, and Diana started to cackle as she suddenly felt a thousand times lighter.

She slammed her hand forwards, shoving the throttle to max, and the Hercules instantly responded by shoving her back into her seat even as it blasted ahead.

Yu was about to shift to something else when his sixth-sense as an announcer kept him focused on the video they were capturing. The Cerberus was exploding apart in a spectacular way, after all. Some demographic of viewers loved that kind of thing.

A streak shot out from the debris: a ship, long and narrow, with an aggressively boxy form painted in a red so glaring it was impossible to miss. All along the ship, openings appeared, and turrets slid out from their hidey-holes and interior compartments.

Massive thrusters fired, and the ship exploded forwards and out of the field of debris behind it, a field that was far, far too small for a vessel the size of the Cerberus.

“What is that?!” Yu shouted with renewed enthusiasm. “Has Diana Slowbane’s ship transformed into a new vessel right before my many eyes?! Oh, this is new!”

***