RP Squid League

Kennewes
Kennewesian Raceways

Tucking her dark purple hair into the baseball cap around her ears, Mineko looked up from the air bike and off into the horizon, past the outdoor canopies and tents temporarily propped up around Kennewes' racetrack entrance. There was a thick haze coming in, sap green in color and putrid in thickness. The analyst seemed to take heed of it, then turned to the white-haired woman, Erika Elster, working on the same air bike near her.

"Weather's turning. Might benefit you during the race." Mineko added, "You think you're ready?"

They both knew doing well in the race was important only in getting Erika close enough to one of the other racers to fulfill their SAINT mission. Winning wasn't as important as looking ready to win.

The silverhaired neko gave her counterpart a smile "Born ready." There was a flash of copetitive determination in her eyes. Erika didn't need to fake it, she wanted to win, she was going to win, and accomplish her mission at the same time.

The operative made some final adjustments to her clothing; a form fitting 'plug suit' not dissimilar from the Army's body suits coloured red, with an irridecent shine. Over it she had a jacket of the same colour, fitted with safety technology. There was a link between the jacket and the bike which would detect if it or its rider were in a crash state, at which point it would deploy its inertial dampeners, or if they were over come, an air bag. A large number "38" was printed on its back.

"Watch out for your biggest competition," Mineko said as she jutted her chin towards one hyper-focused group of Delsaurians. "Custom air bike controls meant specifically for the Delsaurian physiology on Ralto Realdo's mount. Then there's Kita Vonburge next to them. She's not even prepping her own bike, but it and her team is best money can buy so why should she?" Mineko said, sarcasm lacing her words. "She's been racing since she before she could walk, though, and is probably as competitive as you. Then the darkhorse. You know all about her," Mineko's last word carried a tone of injustice.

The racer in a fuchsia bodysuit of their own wasn't truly a Neko as her appearance let on but a body-swapped Mishhuvurthyar that enjoyed their racing hobby perhaps a bit too much. Perhaps the Advanced Mishhuvurthyar created this body just to race or, more likely, transferred into one of his underlings' NMX Nekovalkyrja bodies to take on the humanoid form, it wasn't something that had gone unnoticed by SAINT for long.

"He's at his most compromised on the track," Mineko said telepathically, not wanting this bit of information to be overheard. "I would never let my guard down so much just for a hobby, would you?"

"Whats the point of a hobby if it doesn't let you escape reality for a while?" Erika answered with her own question, a mirthful inflection colouring her telepathic response "Still, in this specific circumstance, in compromised territory..." the operative sighed "Mishhu aren't known for flawless judgement. Most of the time they seem to be their own worst enemy."

She cleared her helmet and placed it over her head. She was careful to pinch the padding on the sides as she slid it over her pointed ears, though it was still uncomfortable for a moment. She had to wiggle them before they were seated in the recess carved out for them.

"Did they end up deciding how they wanted me to extract him? Force him off during the race or wait until the after party." Erika asked telepathically.

"Intelligence was able to get a headcount on his security," Mineko replied as she brought her face in close to Erika's helmet, double checking the looping underneath the operative's chin. "It'll be way too tight at the party. Better on the track where he's alone. I'll be in your ear telepathically but also am going to relocate to one of the ancient spires to plant explosives. I'll mark which one in our shared map digitally now."

"Good idea, but make sure you're ready to extract us. I don't know what state my bike is going to be in."

Erika grabbed her bag, conceiling some equipment, including her drone. She disconneted the communications module and brought it over to the bike. Bending down she placed it under a faring, adhearing it to the side with doublesided tape and connected it to the bikes battery.

"Alright, wish me luck." Erika said with a slight nod before kicking her leg over the bike.

She grabbed hold of the grips and started the bike with a lought. There was an immediate gust of air as its thrusters kicked up sand and dust. She slowly made her way to her position on the starting grid. As she was a last minute subsitute organised by an untimely accident to one of the other racers, hers was right at the back.

The others were soon to follow, making their way just as slowly to the starting grid as she did and staggared out infront of her. All aside from the target of their operation, who sped past to their starting position, earning a look of disapproval from the other racers.

"Its a wonder they let him compete." Erika said over the link. "This is not a cheap hobby, and I imagine most Neps love the idea of STing about as much as Sanda does."

A racing official came out, a blonde ID Sol with muscles streaching his white shirt to its limit and a large headset over his ears. In his hands were a pair of flags, one red and one green, with the red one held high. Once he was in position he lowered it and the vehicles began revving.

Underneath her gloves Erika's knuckels were going white from her grip. She almost forgot to breath as she stared at green flag, waiting for the offical to drop it, while at the same time making sure her vehicle was revving at the best RPM for the start. There was an odd whine as the harmonics from each racers bike settled in and began interfering with each other.

As the green flag was lifted Erika let go of the breath she'd forgotten about, the pitch of her bike raising ever so slightly. Then it dropped, and she was hit by the back blast of the bikes ahead accelerating off as fast as they could. She tucker her arms and head behind the fairing and pulled back on the throttle, launching herself after them.

"Steady, steady," Mineko was whispering to herself as she watched the racers prepare. Her focus was torn between Erika and the Mishhuvurthyar in the Neko body. Something told her the race officials were unaware of the bodyswapper in their ranks, but part of her wondered about what Erika had said about hobbies being escapes from reality. If this warlord needed to do as much, what did that say about how it felt about its day-to-day dealings as Yamatai's least favorite enemy. They were thoughts for another time as the race had begun.

Even as she closed up the bags and tools around her, Mineko double checked all the readouts for the bike and its connection to Erika in her digital mind. Though the operative was soon out of site, jumbo holographic screens projected the racers as they throttled through the swampy marshland of Kennewes.

"On your tail." Mineko reported in to Erika once she was moving. "Taken the lead yet?"

Erika send back a frustrated emotion along the link. From the start she was hot on Ralto's tail, though the wider frame of the Delsaurian bike made it difficult to over take, a fact that Ralto exploited to the best of his ability. He did his best to block the Operative from passing. She noticed his eyes focusing on his mirrors too much, and not enough on the road. She made it look as though her line was going to go wide around the next bend to pass, and he predicatably moved to block. Then his eyes returned to the track and Erika saw her opportunity, using latteral thrust to move to the inside of the corner she blasted past him.

Receiving the emotion alone, Mineko tuned in to the race as she flew in a straight line to some of the faraway ancient ruins. Seeing Erika overtake the Delsaurian in real time made the operative pump her fist in the air and send back an elated emotional response of her own.

"Born ready," Mineko sent Erika. "Just like you said!"

The lizard had hampered her, but in focusing on her had let the gap between them and the leaders widen. The track did little to aid her in closing the distance, filled with tight turns and sudden dips, and she had only a few rounds in VR to get a feel for the track before mission start. Instinct and her Neko reflexes had to make up the difference. Endurance came into it too as she hit the corners at several Gs, grazing the sides of the track as she attempted to close as much distance as possible.

Meanwhile, Mineko was setting up at one of the old ruins, loading the spire's base with nitroglycerin blocks. She stepped inside, taking in the wonder momentarily before setting back to work. The "Offensive's Respite" racetrack Erika was currently racing on spanned 200 miles and had several possible points of change. Even as she worked on manually setting charges, Mineko was continuing to keep herself past the rather relaxed cybersecurity of the raceways, making sure all of the track changes that would take place led Erika and the other racers to the piece of road just below this currently still-standing spire.