by Sean Kennedy
“It’s your bounce bro, nobody’s seen a zero before. They all think you're fakin’ it.”
“But you said you can’t fake it,” Jacob said.
‘Where there's a will there's a way, an’ it's easier to think you’re fakin’ than admit you’re gonna kick their ass!” Teeva said a little too loud and Jacob looked around to see a few of them turn away.
“We can brag later,” Joni said, “we’ve got to qualify before we can win.” She set the drone case down. Jacob looked into the other racer’s stalls. Most had elaborate chairs and custom electronics with antennas spiking the air above their stations.
Each pilot was in their pit, wearing transmission helmets and resting in portable cots as they waited for the race to begin. They were already projecting their consciousness into the racing drones that rested in front of the stalls, facing the illuminated scoreboard and broken brick building beyond the holographic barrier.
Joni popped open the Kowazuki Case, gently lifting the drone out and walking a few paces ahead of the stall before setting it down on the asphalt.
“Five-minute warning! All racers! You have five minutes!” A voice blared through Jacob’s helmet. He looked down the row of pit tents to see the various crews scrambling into position. Teeva bounced forwards and closed the hard case, snapping the latches before and bringing it to Jacob.
“Sit on this bro,” he said.
Jacob looked down at his hard case, then back to elaborate racing stations stretching away to his right, bristling with tech. Kage’s voice came from the t-droid standing beside him, “all the gold in the world doesn’t make you a king.”
“Right,” Teeva said, “and everyone loves an underdog bro, just hook in and get ready to roll.”
Jacob sat down, half crossing his legs over the edge of the low hard case and settled himself, holding his back straight and resting his hands on his knees. He heard a few barks of laughter from behind the fence and tried to pretend they weren't directed at his crew. Joni stood up from over the droid and gave Teeva the thumbs up. Teeva pushed her tool case around to make an impromptu back rest against the Kowazuki case. He took a deep breath, pressing the specters from his mind.
“You can lean on this if you want bro.”
“No, it's okay, I’ll be fine,” Jacob said and closed his eyes. He opened them in time to see Joni kneel beside him, and felt the warmth of her kiss on the side of his helmet.
“For luck,” she said, and Jacob was glad she couldn’t see his face flush under his visor as he felt another kiss, turning to see Teeva pulling back.
“The more luck, the better bro!” He said and all three burst into laughter. It was just what he needed to break the tension. It didn’t matter what happened here today, what mattered was his friends believed in him; that was all the victory he needed.
Jacob lifted both his fists into the air and both Teeva and Joni bumped them while Butai and Kage’s scanned the crowd beyond the fence.
The prompt appeared, 'Transfer to Kowazuki Racing Droid?’ Jacob confirmed it once, then twice, and slipped away into the spectrum.
Chapter 20
“Can you hear me?” Joni asked as Jacob looked out from his Kowazuki body.
“Loud and clear,” he said.
“Okay, I can see what you see. Just ask any questions you have, but unless you need something I’m going to stay quiet so you can focus.”
“Can Teeva hear me?”
“We all can, but only I can talk to you.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Twenty Third Annual Wreckage Festival Drone Races!” The announcer's voice blasted out over loud speakers, echoing through the crowd beyond the fence as spectators logged in, gorging on bandwidth.
“We have eighteen new challengers vying for positions in the main race, and the drone racing format will be…” The announcer paused, bringing the crowd to a hush, “Junkyard Pursuit!” The crowd exploded into a roar.
“What's that?” Jacob asked.
“Just listen!” Joni said.
The announcer spoke rapid fire over the dulling roar of the crowd. “Pilots will follow the marker beacon through the course while being pursued. If a drone breaks the three-meter ceiling or are caught, they will be disqualified.”
Jacob pivoted his lenses to the right to see runners dressed in black coveralls wheeling steel crates out into an extended line ahead of the racing stalls. The graphics on the coverall backs had the animated text, ‘The 23rd Annual Wreckage Festival’ circling the image of a snarling dog trying to chew his way off the fabric.
The runners spaced one steel crate in front of each drone pit, and Jacob realized the vicious snarling he heard wasn't part of the shirts augmented display, it was coming from steel crates.
“Are those …dogs?” Jacob asked.
“Yes,” Joni said, “there will be augmented gates on the course, and you’ll have to fly through each gate to activate the next. If you miss a gate or can't find it, or if you fly above three meters at any point, or if the dogs catch you, you're out.”
“Got it,” Jacob said, feeling a combat calm settle as he spun up his rotors. He focused on the steel box snarling in front of him. The crowd’s roar built into something as savage as the noise coming from the crate.
“Pilots! Take your positions!” The announcer called, building a new level of crowd frenzy. Jacob saw the line of drones lift off and slowly float forwards. He likewise floated up and locked his altitude display into the top right corner of his HUD with a three-meter alarm.
A new runner came from the sidelines, jogging through the holographic barrier and carrying a short steel bar. The crowd's frenzy grew even higher as Jacob watched the figure stick the bar into the ground and pivot, straining his muscles to lift a thick steel manhole cover from the old parking lot.
“No way!” Joni said, and a pulsing ring appeared around the narrow concrete opening.
“That’s the first gate,” Joni said, composing herself.
“Got it,” Jacob tried not to think about eighteen droids trying to cram through a one-meter tunnel.
“Pilots ready!” The announcer said, doubling the roar of the crowd.
“On your marks!“Jacob felt the air sliding through his rotors.
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
“Exactly!” Joni said, “Don’t let yourself feel rushed, most racers crash due to pilot error.”
“Get set!”
Jacob exhaled, feeling his pulse slow.
“Go!”
The metal crate burst open beneath Jacob as he launched into flight. He heard a terrible crash to his right as a large dog had already caught a racer and it thrashed its head, smashing the drone against the asphalt.
Jacob didn’t look back, but he could feel the steel teeth snapping behind him. His altitude was under a meter as he flew, tilting his body forwards and powering his enhanced rotors. He watched two drones race above the illuminated sewer entrance. A third slowed to avoid a crash, but its pursuers jaws got a hold on its rear rotor arm, taking it down with a sickening crunch.
Jacob pushed past the entrance, pouring on speed and dared a look behind him. The dog was close, it’s wide steady eyes reflecting an unholy green. He pivoted his lenses back in time to see to see the shattered brickwork wall ahead. Jacob pulled back, letting the rotators push off the bricks as he banked sideways along its vertical surface.
His canine pursuer followed, defying gravity for six strides as it ran along the wall. Jacob raced the width of the building and glanced back at the illuminated entrance. With a few drones already down, the extra dogs were leaping over the hole, snapping at drones that circled like a whirlpool of birds.
Jacob banked towards the hole, dropping close to the deck and pressing full speed as he flew straight for the glowing ring. The other drones kept the dog’s attention until it was too late and Jacob passed over the entrance. It distracted the dogs just long enough for two drones to fire themselves down the tunnel, with three frenzied dogs jumpin
g after them. The other dogs were so disoriented by his pass that a few collided in their scramble, buying time for another drone to drop.
Keeping low, Jacob arced around the entrance, and the dogs abandoned the other drones for Jacob as he made his circle. Keeping his speed pinned, the last of the dogs guarding the entrance gave chase, focusing on him.
His rotors blew dust from the asphalt cracks, as a dog came dangerously close to side swiping him, snapping its jaws only inches away as Jacob led the pack in an ever-wider circle track.
Another drone circled before making a dive at the entrance, but a sly muscular canine with a dark eye patch sprang, snapping the drone from the air. In the opening made by the drone’s demise, Jacob charged the entrance and inverted at the last moment to drive down through the glowing ring into the tunnel, the sewer pipe wall close to his rotor tips.
At the bottom of the tube, he saw the striped fabric of a mattress set as a cushion for the dogs landing. Flipping horizontal but not daring to decrease speed, he almost bounced off the mattress as he pulled up and caught a view of a distant ring of light down the dark tunnel. A rain of dogs came thundering down the tube behind him, falling on each other and the mattress as Jacob raced along the passage. The sounds of snarling rage echoed into a cursed monk’s chant, as the light ring beckoned.
A sudden flash of blue-green came as a dog leapt from the passage ahead. Jacob kicked to the side, rotating around the wall as he spiraled in a corkscrew roll to slide past its augmented jaws. Jacob continued the spiral until he burst through the top of the glowing ring, staying flush with the ceiling and emerging into a decisive sewer pipe junction.
He swerved right and thought he saw the flash of movement as another drone flew past along the top of the tube. He followed the drone around a bend to see an illuminated circle over a hole smashed through the wall. It was a dangerous opening because its size and location meant he had to drop low to pass through it.
The drone ahead passed through the hole, but as it did, waiting steel jaws snatched it out of the air, and Jacob heard the dying screams of its rotor turbines. Jacob dropped to the center of the tube and wondered what the point was of having a throttle in these races. He punched through the gate and another dog leapt for him and missed, clapping its jaws with an artillery breach slam as Jacob sailed under the animal.
A flash of augmented light came from the right, and Jacob banked hard towards it. Now in a black abyss, the other drone’s LED lights left streaks like scars on his cornea. Jacob came up close behind two drones and dared a look behind him to see the bouncing reflections from six sets of eyes promising destruction. He rotated his lenses back in time to see the wall, and he turned skimming flat against it.
The buzz of drone turbines overpowered the sound of the dog’s pursuit as Jacob followed the flock, keeping tight against the subterranean wall. He saw a flash as a few drones in front of him dared to illuminate the next turn and Jacob instinctively dodged as other jaws just missed him. Jacob slid, rocking back to angle his body for a greater push around the ninety-degree turn.
This wasn’t a race; this was survival.
There has to be another exit! He thought as he saw the flicker of drones pass through the broken entrance as they rushed into the buzzing chamber trap. He banked the next corner, feeling the canines behind amassing in the darkness to snatch them from of the air.
“There’s no way out of here,” Jacob said, surprised by how calm his voice sounded.
“It’s a holding chamber, they use it to keep the race tight.” Joni’s voice gave him confidence. Two sickly green orbs flashed in front of him. A dog leapt but missed as Jacob spun away to the side.
He felt a jarring bump on his underside as another dog’s nose hit him, its jaws snapping shut on empty air. Jacob recovered from the impact, barely avoiding being thrown into the wall and pivoted his lens toward the center of the room. Another crushing scream came, and Jacob saw brief sparks as another drone perished in the darkness.
Columns were evenly spaced throughout the chamber to support the building above, with exposed rebar where chunks of concrete had fallen away. The rebar gave Jacob and idea. As he pivoted through another turn, he kept turning in the arc to fly towards them. He raised as high as he dared, veering to avoid a column, and saw an exposed section of rebar in the strobe flashing of the other drone’s lights.
Holding the image in his mind, he swung his claw forwards, catching the rebar and pivoting his body to a sudden halt. For a moment, he felt the pincers slip against his momentum, but the mono-claw held. Jacob pulled himself tight against the column like a bat hugging the safety of a stone crevice and powered down his rotors.
He was closer than he wanted to be to the altitude limit but still hadn't crossed the line. He imagined the crunch of enhanced jaws crushing his body, but the sound never came, only the streaking lights of frantic drones as they passed.
He waited, clinging to the rebar, willing time to go faster as the howl of the drone herd circled in the darkness. Time slowed to the point of insanity; there was too much space between his heartbeats, but still, he clung to the column
A feeling said it was time, and with a lurch he released, retracting his claw and dropping off the rebar. Then, Over the howl of turbines and past the terrible growls and rattling claws, the sound of metal gears roared in the chamber.
The noise conjured light from the wall across from the room’s entrance and the new gate ring appeared. Jacob dropped his nose and sped towards it as another drone ahead of him did the same, but it smashed against the raising door beyond the gate and exploded into a shower of sparks.
The sound of the collision echoed like a warped gong as Jacob veered away, sliding into another wide lap around the dark chamber. Jacob risked a lens pivot to see a bar of light appear under the glowing circle’s base, growing as the metal door slowly raised. The light bar cast long shadows across the mottled floor. He passed in front of the protesting metal door as it continued its sunrise climb, revealing a tantalizing opening in the lower illuminated gate’s circle.
Silhouettes flashed as the more experienced hounds left the underground to wait on the other side. Jacob banked another corner and in the rising light, his saw something on one of the columns.
A piece of rebar had peeled away from the pillar, and Jacob saw another drone had hooked itself on it. It was undamaged, but couldn't pivot its turbines to free itself. The rough edges of the rusted rebar held the drone as though it was harpooned through a narrow gap in its frame.
A glance at the door showed he still had time, and Jacob veered towards the hooked drone, keeping a wary eye for hounds still lurking in the stygian black. He dared a slow pass, watching it thrash tiny dual claws, unable to push itself free.
Jacob veered away and looked again to the rising light. He had only moments before there would be enough space to race into the light, but a moment was all he needed. He flew at the column, stretching his single claw forward as he veered dangerously close to the concrete support, and grabbed one of the drones grasping claws, jerking it off the rebar and releasing it.
It fell for an instant before stabilizing and it rocketed forwards, flying straight for the half circle of daylight growing through the gate. Jacob was right behind it, flying under the rising door. Both of them passed through the gate ring with others close behind.
Like a stream of angry wasps, drones raced up a gradual ribbed ramp and Jacob thought of the dried lake bed boat launch as they raced towards the blue sky past the ramp’s horizon.
As the lead drone crested, monstrous shapes bounded over the ramp’s peak. The extra height let the savage animals pounce on the drones from above, their metal teeth glinting in the sun. Drones tried to arc up and away, but the dogs caught them with outstretched paws, driving them down into explosive disassembly.
Jacob flew under the leaping dogs and skimmed over the ramp’s edge to emerge at the far side of the brickwork building. With only four drones ahead of him, a wide rectangle was
flashing in front of the roaring crowd just beyond the fence.
The Finish Line!
With a clean shot in front of him, Jacob dropped his nose letting his body fly vertically, willing his blades to spin ever faster as he hurtled towards the glowing banner. He didn’t have the extra claw, he couldn’t take a hit, but on the open ground with a straight shot to victory, Jacob only needed speed.
He passed the fourth drone halfway across the lot and was closing on the next as each pilot dumped all they had left to their rotors. He was beside the third drone, creeping up to pass and focusing on the finish line, forgetting the crowd and the savage hounds. Everything melted away into the howling crowd, and just as Jacob nudged ahead of the third-place drone, they rocketed through the holographic finish line.
“Yes!” Joni screamed so loud that Jacob almost lost control, but he was able to swerve into a shallow loop before flying toward his racing stall.
“You did It! You did it!” Joni screamed and as he came close to stall eighteen, he could see Joni and Teva hugging as the crowd went wild beyond the chain-link fence. Butai and Kage’s t-droid high fived in the air just as Jacob lowered himself into the stall to touched down. He confirmed the disconnection prompt just in time to feel his friends pile on him in a victory heap, smothering him with crushing hugs.
Jacob wanted this moment to last forever
Chapter 21
“What are you playing at space man?!”
Jacob looked up to see a red-faced man with blue eyes filled with rage.
“You think we need your bush pilot help? Huh? Look at you! You’ve no right to be here!” He raged, but before he could get closer Kage and Butai’s t-droids stepped forward like steel grating at the edge of the stall. Butai pushed him back with enough force to show he meant business.
The action sent a ripple through the crowd clustered behind the fence. Drone cameras, hunting for targets in the time between races, flew in like vultures to capture the heat of the conflict.
