Beyond - Legends The New Empire 4: A Powerful Ally (NJO AU, COMPLETED AT LAST 030704.)

Page Seven, anyone?

 

And I'll fourth the "Go, Jerrica!" I'll also add that I actually found myself leaning to one side during part of this post, a testament to the excellent description by the author. Now, it should be interesting to see where the race takes us from here. Maybe those pesky guys riding Jerrica will take a plunge???

Force be with you,

Tych_sel

 

Geez, looks like Jerrica's got her own cheering squad going in here. I wonder if any or all of you would care to do some rooting when Supporting Female OC comes up at the awards? Hmm? Can I twist your arm?

RebelMom - [Luke]Don't worry, RM, we're going, we're going![/Luke]

Saché - Leave it to you to steal the next page. Lines like that one, they're all about word association. I hope nobody's afraid of heights during the bridge scenes.

Luney - Thank'ee. Look for her to get her chance soon.

Tych - Don't fall out of your chair there, buddy. I think the race will next take us through some, ah, familiar territory.

 

The end of the bridge was perpendicular to the opposite wall of the cavern, and the only way to avoid a crash was to cut the port throttle and boost the starboard. Jacen managed it--since the Desert Rat Race, it wasn't an unfamiliar maneuver to him--and all he could do was hope that it was familiar to Jerrica as well. Sensing his move, she took the risk of turning earlier, willing the Pedrovia's repulsor field to hold for just a few extra seconds. She sped precariously off the edge of the bridge, spanning empty space for a heart-stopping second before she finally reached solid ground again. Having closed the gap with Jacen by a few meters, she edged closer to the wall, keeping well away from the ledge.

Just ahead, the ledge canted upward steeply and curved to the right. His teeth grinding together, Jacen spotted the slope a poor second before hitting it, and hastily boosted to avoid losing too much headway. As it was, his speed held steady as he shot up the incline, which took on a near 50-degree angle--quite steep enough for a pod to go flying into thin air and crash into a stalactite at the top. Jacen's instincts were quick to warn him of this, and he cut the boosters a few meters from the top of the slope, applying the brakes for a split moment. That was enough to keep him from shooting out of control into the air, but it was just barely enough for him to take the hairpin turn at the top of the slope and squeeze the Pondrat into a narrow passageway. This one sent him rocketing downhill at an angle even steeper than the one he had just ascended, and Force alone knew how deep it would delve into the mountain.

In the meantime, Jerrica had caught the reduction in flame from Jacen's afterburners, and she had picked up on the split-second braking right away. She matched the move, but she wasn't as prepared as Jacen for the hairpin turn into the passageway. Her heart stuck fast in her throat, and she nearly leaned halfway out of her cockpit in her efforts to flip the Pedrovia onto its side and race it along the wall. Vona nearly gained position ahead of her before she presently reached the passageway, slammed the throttles in opposite directions, and wrested the Pedrovia through the portal. With Jacen once again in view, she gave her engines a few seconds to cool down and then boosted again, nearly obsessed with catching up to him.

The passageway twisted, turned, dipped, and soared as Jacen and Jerrica led the charge through utter darkness. In too many places, the ceiling hung so low that they had to duck so as not to be decapitated. Jacen found an odd sort of comfort in hearing the high-pitched clamour of Jerrica's engines behind him--it meant that she was still in one piece and still in the game, even if she was trying to relieve him of his lead. Down the hole they went, swerving their way through a sharp S curve just above the bottom end of the passageway. Without the slightest notion of their depth, they blasted clear, whereupon Jacen promptly had to lead the rest of the racers into a 90-degree right turn. He hadn't even completed it when he was forced to veer again in the opposite direction, avoiding a towering natural pillar that stretched from floor to ceiling.

It was but one of hundreds of pillars that supported the ceiling of another abysmal cavern. Jacen led the way into the black void, listening to Jerrica close the distance ever so slightly on his starboard quarter.

"We might be able to get rid of at least one of 'em down here," Jerrica hollered, gesturing at the two hostiles riding herd on them.

Jacen glanced at his mirror and then looked over his shoulder, sizing up Jerrica's proposal. Vona and Franiskin were uncomfortably close behind, but not too far behind them were a dozen other racers, pouring out of the passageway and taking infinitely various paths through the cavern. As irritating as those two dirtbags were, it was too risky to try and eliminate them while trying to steer through these pillars and stay ahead of the rest of the pack.

"Yeah, nerfs might fly," Jacen yelled back, retur

 

Whoooeeeee! My heart was about as rapid as Jerrica's

Jacen needs to learn to look for the fork in the road, yes? That was pretty intense. And very vivid.


I was a good girl and read carefully so that I could picture it right in my head.

 

Wow, excellent post there Sebulby! *pacifies faint heart* You definetly add a lot more to podracing than TPM ever did, I love the way you write it.

 

Up?

 

*sigh* Yep, we're back to the salt mines.

Saché - Ahhh, then my work here is done. So is yours, it seems, if you read the whole post thoroughly.

Luney - I dunno what to say. I just write whatever images come clearest into my mind, then onto the keyboard it goes, as if I have no power over it. My mom would never be able to finish this post.

 

**whips out Naboo Royal Slingshot ®**

Hehehe... I really love using this thing

Of course, now that I'm the Queen of the Amazons for a little while, perhaps I should use a bow & arrow, hmn?

 

Jacen definitely does need to look ahead for forks in the road. But then again, it could have been worse. This race could have been taking place on Bespin. No solid ground for Jacen to land on!

Great race so far, looking forward to how you're going to bring us through the next two laps.

Force be with you,

Tych_sel

 

Oh, geez Tych. Don't give him ideas

 

Just couldn't help thinking of parts from the N64 game Star Wars: Racer. I recalled all the times I'd somehow gone sailing off into nothingness.

 

Ack! I missed the update. Need to reset my notifications.

 

Saché - ACK! Please no bows and arrows, reminds me of one miserable summer I spent working at a Boy Scout camp. As to Bespin, no worries - after playing the Ord Ibanna races on Ep 1 Racer, I have no intention of writing any gas-mine races.

Tych - Oy, do I know what you mean...read above.

RebelMom - I was wondering what happened to you...

 

Up, anyone?

 

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!! YEEEEEESSSSS! YES! YES! YES!

This puppy won Underrated Story!!!!! W00T!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaand, our heroine was one of the runners-up (admittedly, one of four runners-up) for Supporting Female OC. Ohhhhhhh, this is quite a day. [Vader]This will be a day long remembered.[/Vader]

Oh, dammit, I have to update this story. We'll see about that later.

 

**sets of Fireworks ala Gandalf**


Yahoooo!!!!

Congrats Seb! Congrats Jerrica! (and don't downplay her runner up status. She was the first runner up )

**polishes Jerrica's shiny silver medal and hangs up in thread for all to admire**



And first place in Most Underrated. No story deserves that claim to faim more


**also hangs up pretty polished gold medal**





Congratulations Sebby **jumps up and down all over thread**

 

Congrats Sebby! Your stories deserve the awards! Let's hope others stop on by to see what all of the fuss is about!

*Pops bottle of champaign to celebrate*

 

Congratulations!!!!

You deserve it.

 

Thanks, everybody. It means more to me than you can possibly imagine. I'll let y'all celebrate with a new post.

**********

"Jacen Solo takes a two-second lead out of the Caverns of Korsst," Fode said. "Sixty-odd years haven't slowed down that old Collor Pondrat too much. Looks like Franiskin's off his case, but Sertt Vona and Jerrica Sulvecto are all about tenacity!"

"With Franiskin out of the picture, that gives Fudd Teralea a chance to advance to fourth, with fifth place just about owned by Kari Sleen," Beed added. "Five sure seems to be her lucky number this tournament."

"Maybe she'll win her fifth race this year," Fode snickered.

Biting his lip, Jacen looked down the slope toward the foot of the mountain, a fair distance below. The bottom of the mountain leveled out into a nice, wide, open plain that should make for some decent boosting. To get to it, he would first have to make it to the foot of the mountain, wrenching his orange giant through chinks and nooks it could never negotiate without the hand of a Jedi. This side of Mount Gorstebb was rugged and shelved, with a few narrow trails slicing through the rough terrain and winding down toward the plain. Jacen just hoped and prayed that he was taking the shortest trail as he struck out onto it, hearing tiny pieces of rock and shale ricocheting off the sides of the pod as its sound waves blasted them loose. He had no time to think at all, much less think about the implications as he rocketed down the mountain, yanking one throttle or the other to bang another sharp turn.

Given the infinite number of paths she could take through the rock formations that covered the mountainside, Jerrica waited until Jacen had wrested the Pondrat into a fairly wide cut before she veered to the left, entering a narrower one. It didn't matter to her where she came out, so long as she could boost across the plain and get a leg up on him. Teralea and Sleen followed her; Vona was still determined to eliminate Jacen, and sped after him. The mountainside shook with the thunder of their engines, but it was the racers in the rear whose hair--if they had any--stood on end as they heard the crackling of breaking rocks.

In terms of erect hair, Jerrica topped them all when she shot around a sharp curve and found a sharp spire of stone directly in the middle of her trail, no more than a few meters ahead. Yelping in surprise, she swerved, bringing the Pedrovia onto its side and against the wall on her right. She squeezed her eyes shut and ducked, hoping against hope that the spire wouldn't split her head open upon impact. Blessedly, she felt nothing, and opened her eyes just in time to avoid crashing into the opposite wall as she zipped around the next bend.

Not too far ahead of her and to her right, Jacen shot a glance in his mirror to see that Vona was gaining, without Jerrica around to keep them separated. He roared down a fairly straight cut through the rocks, boosting in the same moment as he saw that the track diverged up ahead. He clenched his teeth and cut off the boosters, edging over to the left, hoping to make Vona think that he was going to take the track on the right. Needless to say, it was a feint--as soon as he saw that Vona had followed, Jacen kicked to the right and cut to the left. It was too late for Vona to react without proper preparation, and he was forced to take the track on the right and lose Jacen for a spell in the process.

They sped down parallel tracks around a wide, sprawling plateau and took due notice that its top seemed to drop lower as they proceeded. Jacen had a feeling he knew what that meant; dwelling on it was out of the question, however, as his track suddenly converged with another one. He very nearly broadsided Jerrica as she emerged from it, but as it was, she was climbing his tail yet again on the way down the final stretch of the mountainside.

Indeed, from his current vantage point, Jacen could see the ground levelling out into the broad plain, and he boosted down the remaining kilometer to the foot of the mountain. Kno

 

Great post, Sebby, and I'll also offer my congratulations on the awards. So the Hutt's betting on Jacen, huh? And why do I have this feeling that Sebolla's about to do something really stupid?

Force be with you,

Tych_sel

 

Probably because he IS going to do something really stupid in the foreseeable future. And thanks for your thoughts on the awards - we can both see this story earning its award even after the fact.

 

Go Jerrica!!!!
I hope she hangs on to win. Jacen's ego is a bit too big and needs deflating. Of course, that will spoil the Hutt's plan and Jerrica could be in big trouble. I wonder what kind of trouble Sebolla is going to stir up?

Go Jerrica!

 

**Sache rushes in unfasionably late**

Thanks for the pointer in this direction Seb. Sorry I didn't get around to it till today.

OMGosh... I loved the little friendly competition mind flirting between our two favorite racers. It actually caused me to give a honest-to-goodness genuine LOL, something which I haven't done for awhile since turning into an internet geek.


**New word alarm** What exactly is a berm? I'm not familiar with the term. From the descriptions, it strikes me as a canopy tunnle of trees, but I'm not sure.

Yahoo, go Jerrica!!! Even if she doesn't win this race, she's already taken her first step towards it. I'm betting that smaller pod of hers helped her gain an upper hand


And yes, I do not like the implications of Sebolla's skulking around.... I'm very very curious to see how Sebrona is going to handle this situation. His values are being severely strained. But it's conflicts like this that always turn out in the most interesting and memorable literary resolutions. Can't wait to see what happens.


This little handmaiden is going to try and get some writing done now....

 

Getteth thee up there!!!!

**reads previous feedback** Hehehe... berm rhymes with term. Sorry, that just struck me weird.