Prolougue-Championship race.
#1 of Fatal Inertia
This is based off of a futuristic racing game I have, and much of it is my own creation, save for the things mentioned in the wiki article below and the classes of racecraft.
Basic mechanics and some brief origin explanation:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_Inertia
Classes of craft: http://www.qj.net/qjnet/playstation-3/the-vehicles-of-fatal-inertia.html
In the late 22nd century, a new form of extreme sport arises. Large corporations control almost all the resources in the immediate solar system, charging extortion amounts for off-planet transit. To keep the population happy, they form a new idea of racing.
All the dangers of combat rolled into a fast paced racing scenario made for an enticing deal to stay on planet and calm. These races were to be conducted with a variety of hovercars, powered by heavy duty thrusters of varying strengths behind them.
The winner of these races would receive a large sum of money and world-renown until the next championship, which takes place every two years. The race was soon placed far away from the cities of the world as the explosive nature of mishaps and combat made for poor security in society.
The racing having taken off instantly, and going for almost 60 years straight now, the next series of contenders has arisen, the Animus. The corporation Loadharder decided that if pets could walk and talk, people would buy them more. Thus they began to breed and gene splice to make their 'advanced pets', ones who could act more like butlers than their typical feral cousins.
The dog breeds were and instant hit, with people lining up for miles to be given a puppy. The demand increased, and people wanted more and more exotic pets. Loadharder complied, taking a sample of almost all known life with compatible genes for the process, releasing millions of options.
But their tinkering had a consequence. A few owners were disturbed by their new pets asking about clothes, trying to do things on their own. Trying to read. A psychological evolution had occurred after the first few generations, where the brain achieve true sentience, and began to think like the humans who resided on the planet.
This social shift caused an outcry in animal right's activist groups, who now had a worthy mission instead of just wasting everyone's time. They pushed to get the Animus, the slang term for the genetically modified animals, to be given full rights as humans. The fighting failed, and Loadharder found itself in a position where the extreme limits of the public was now at odds with them. People were freeing their pets and trying to give them lives of their own, causing strains on the system.
The majority of them didn't want to give up their companions, but wanted to do the morally ethical thing. Loadharder provided them with the means to eliminate the question.
C: Cognitive
O: Opression
L: Limiter
R: Restraint
COLR. Or called 'collar' by the corporation, it allowed owners to have full control over their pets, forcing them to their will via neural shocks, and aggressive mental reprogramming. The brain would reset after a few weeks if the collar was removed, but it was known to have permanent damage.
The problem was far from over. A significant amount of Animus were released into the general public, and when they mated with sympathetic humans, the species was almost always that of the Animus side, making a whole new culture.
This battle still rages today, with Animus being considered lower-class creatures, and enjoying far less rights than the human creators. But some still went on to positions of notoriety, giving the humans a taste of the unique culture that had evolved over the years. Winds were about to change.
50 years after it's creation, the high paced racing sport donned 'Fatal Inertia' got it's first world championship qualifier Animus. And subsequently, lost it.
The announcer looked on the map at the contenders, three phoenix's left, a mercury, and an aurora hanging by a thread. The holographic projectors blinked with a green dot, signaling to the white haired human that they were about to air.
"Any bets on the furry?" he called. There were a few yells out of the darkness in front, and on his sides, a precaution with holographic filming. The general feel was that the Animus racer in the black phoenix wasn't going to end the race.
"Charles! You're live in five!" Charles smoothed his hair and flicked away a smokeless cigarette. He clapped his hands and a holo-table with a topographic map projecting from it rose from the floor in front of him.
The blue lines solidified and colored themselves in into the red and black stones and molten rock of Devil's peak, an active volcanic area, and a prime spot for the final race. The greed dot on the screen behind him changed to red, and the standings replaced the dot. Sending a winning smiled out into the darkness, there was no point in trying to aim at the camera, people would just watch from their living room in a circle around the projector.
"Welcome back to the world championship Fatal Inertia final! Over the quick break the racers completed three laps, and the two neck in neck are Carolina Drama and Tuesday!" Charles motioned towards the board where the two cars were superimposed over the standings. Both were phoenixes, and one was a bright yellow, while the other was black.
"These two have been duking it out for the past thirty minutes, and neither can seem to get an edge!"
The driver of the 'Carolina Drama', a woman of 23 hit the dash of the cockpit angrily,
"Move you bastard! Let me by!" She yelled. Complaints came over the race-con, the communication system that cut down on accidental racer deaths, which weren't popular in the public. She ignored them and ousted her engines to full throttle, the rumble of the reaction vibrating the craft.
She used the temporary speed, it was not easy to keep a hover car at full burn for any length of time without overheating. She drew up next to the black racer, and tried to muscle him out of the way, a turn came up, and she was forced to yield as he rolled up and over her car, showboating slightly. The maneuver out him ahead of her after the turn, and she had to back off her engines to prevent a temporary shutdown to cool.
The human driver saw the next set of glowing pads up ahead, and aimed for them, feeling the craft lurch as a random armament was teleported aboard. She looked at the indicator, it was an external rocket. She punched the 'forward fire' button, which launched the rocket offensively. It homed in on the car in front of her and magnetically attacked itself to its wing.
Switching on, the rocket sent metric tons of force in an upwards direction on the 'Tuesday''s wing. The craft went spinning out of control, and the pilot smiled. The emergency teleport had failed, just like she had rigged it earlier. She pushed her engines harder and left the out of control hovercar behind her, chucking slightly.
She crossed the line in first, and heard the word that the craft had detonated under the force of multiple impacts and g-forces. The woman, Sunny Day, was happy of course to accept the award and money. She gave a commemorative speech on the spot, and an acceptance one, quoting,
"Maybe the Animus aren't quite ready yet to run with the big girls!" she was referring to the fact that most drivers were female, due to their smaller size and reaction time.
This all happened ten years ago.
And what comes next, is where our story begins.