Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 459: Waterways Circuit: Top Four

He began free falling through the downward turn. As he did he moved back slightly on his hoverbike as he prepared to have the bike hover at a higher height. So when he approached the ground he had a greater amount of time for the air brakes to enable.

His interface lit up as he began receiving a call. "Yeah?" He answered after seeing who it was. He really should be getting bothered today. He was supposed to have the day off.

"Sorry for calling you on your day off. I am aware you found yourself something to do. In fact I think the entire station is watching this race. But what I needed to tell you is that three missions have come up. The first is more of a publicity thing. The second one is an emergency. The third is an assignment that has been on hold and is a direct order from the Director of MILD. I also have a fourth request to get a secretary or assistant. Because then they could run all these assignments and requests through them rather than me doing it." The High Priestess quickly began explaining. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"I will temporarily assign Vana to the task while she is healing. I have some time if you want to give me specifics on the assignments." Jace told her as he looked down the tube. It would be another half a minute before he reached the bottom.

"Not the specifics, just the broad strokes. For the mission tomorrow you need to be at the publicity event. Welcoming the refugees from Sakana Nine. But another emergency mission needs you to send a crew with the Wolfsbane to go and intercept some pods of Kitinol that are on the way to former Republic territories. You do not have to go yourself, in fact it is requested that you stay back and personally handle another mission."

Jace clicked his tongue as he adjusted his bike so he could shoot right off as soon as he landed. "Those are easy enough to take care of. But I need to know what the last assignment is so I know who to hold back. Because I assume I’m sending more than just the Wolfsbane."

"You are right. The last assignment is a retrieval. It needs to be more covert. We do not care about putting our name on it but we do not want to send an entire military unit when a small one will do." The High Priestess explained. "Director Fenrir has arrived so you can ask her specifics when she comes to see you."

Jace began firing the hoverplates as he approached the ground. "Sounds good. I will be waiting. Now if this is it, I have to get back to it." He then hung up as his airbrakes began firing, releasing bursts of air and he used the hoverplates to convert some of that force into horizontal motion.

As he flew out of the bottom of the turn and arrived back at the bottom of the shipyards. He switched the mode to speed up again with the shielding forming around him and his hoverbike. Almost immediately he ran into debris.

But rather than dodging around it he just went through the debris. His shielding barely used any energy as he began picking up speed. He could see the top three contenders were already approaching the corkscrew upward spiral.

"IT LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE A CLOSE RACE UP HERE AT THE FRONT BETWEEN AZEL, BATRONE, AND BESSY! BUT WHAT IS THIS? AM I SEEING THIS RIGHT? IT LOOKS LIKE JACE IS RIDING A GOLDEN BALL OF FIRE. IF THE TOP THREE DO NOT PICK UP THE PACE THEN JACE WILL CATCH UP WITH THEM QUICKLY! HE IS TEARING THROUGH THE SHIPYARDS PORTION OF THE CIRCUIT RATHER QUICKLY! UNIMPEEDED BY THE DEBRIS THAT WAS BEING THROWN DOWN! THIS IS INCREDIBLE!"

As he approached the corkscrew he adjusted the angle of his hoverbike so he would enter and ride the wall up immediately. Just as he was about to enter the corkscrew climb. There was a small burst of his explosion and his shielding disabled as his sensors indicating the damaged hoverplate had erupted.

Jace clicked his tongue in annoyance and set the speed at a lower setting before laying down on his hoverbike’s seat and looking at the underside. He could see visually the hoverplate that had erupted and was sparking. He reached under and felt the resistance front of the hoverbike trying to push his arm down but ignored it as he touched the affected hoverplate. He then twisted it and pulled it off.

Standing up on his hoverbike as he lifted the seat up before tossing the damaged hover plate into the seat’s storage compartment. Then he closed it and adjusted his seat to the hoverbike’s speed as he did a quick check and confirmed that nothing else had been broken. He would lose a few seconds with that.

"LOOKS LIKE JACE HAD SOME TROUBLE WITH HIS HOVERBIKE! THE FRONT RUNNERS HAVE MANAGED TO SAVE SOME TIME BEFORE JACE CATCHES UP. WILL THEY FIGURE OUT A WAY TO KEEP HIM IN THE BACK OR WILL HE MANAGE TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO TAKE ONE OF THE TOP SPOTS FOR HIMSELF ON THIS LAST LAP!"

Jace began picking speed as he went up the corkscrew tunnel climb. There was a loud resonate whistle as he flew through the tunnel climb. With the shield back up he could hear the whistle get louder as he climbed. Until he eventually came flying out of the tunnel and to the pillar area.

As he flew out of the tunnel he heard a crack and explosion as he barely missed a pillar as he broke a sound barrier. He flew back and forth barely dancing around pillars with the speed he was going at. As he flew through the pillars he had to dodge around another crash that had occurred in the middle of the pillar area and had emergency workers and members of one of the pit crews going toward it.

After a few seconds he came out of the pillar area and could see the three in the front as he started to catch up to them. Several of the tents and areas where the pit crews stayed on the side of the raceway were either empty or had vehicles that were overly damaged being repaired. A few were pulling out behind the front runners. They must be the ones getting lapped.

Jace flew right past them as he approached the back of the racer currently in third place, Batrone. As he approached he saw a burst of energy emanate from the side of the vehicle but it was hidden from normal view. As it hit him the shielding around his hoverbike disabled and he began slowing down because of the air pressure.

He grunted in annoyance at the feeling. Then he heard over the open channel as he approached the back of the larger boxy shaped vehicle. "Welcome to the front of the pack, Jace!" He grinned as he recognized Batrone’s voice. "This is where the real race is!"

Jace tried to maneuver around Batrone but he just blocked him by moving in front of him. They were maintaining a higher speed. He could not just go over him because of the air gap behind Batrone’s vehicle. As soon as he would try to pass over he would get hit with a wall of air. The same thing was happening as he tried to pass by him. He had to wait for a turn or something else to pass him.

He could see just around the side of his vehicle though. The other two front runners: Bessy and Azel were in front of him. Bessy was actually in a lower to ground vehicle. It looked like from the damage that she probably went right under Batrone to get past him. Forcing the bigger vehicle to pass over her.

But she could not do the same to Azel. Azel’s vehicle was firing flames downward to propel their vehicle forward. As it was scorching the ground as she passed over. It would probably damage Bessy’s vehicle if she tried to pass underneath and Azel would not be punished for the damage.

Azel was in the lead but there were paint tracks and marks along the side of it that indicated they and Batrone were scratching paint against each other. But as he looked around he figured out that Batrone never managed to actually pass Azel. He had been caught behind Azel for the entire race.

It was probably due to his large size. Which was also the reason that he was not able to pass them. So what he would need to do was find a situation where Batrone could not exploit his vehicle’s size. Fortunately such a situation was coming up in the form of the downward turn. That would be his best chance to pass him and then gain on the other two.