The North PacificBoard

British forces across the world, from humanitarian missions in anea to counter terrorism operations in the deep jungle of fusean received the order. "Come home and dig in." The alarm had been raised, with rising tensions in north anea and moblization of The Austro Germanic Union, all militia forces in the empire where being called up. Every unit in some forgein lands where drawn back to the empire borders.War was drawing near and britsh werent gonna be caught unprepared.

The roar of engines invaded the deep forests on the eastern fringes of Ryshun. Deep within these seas of green, there lie vast stretches of road, unmarked, with kerbs lining the edges of it's many twists and turns. Going up and down the rolling hills, below the earth and above it, these roads make up the bulk of data gathering for the Racing Point ZERO Research and Development facilities. From a 'turbine' corner banked at 80 degrees, to your standard oval racing corners, to the windy, up-and-down rollercoaster of the southernmost parts of the circuit's many layouts, the R&D facilities of Racing Point ZERO are some of the most costful - in general - of the many teams participating in motorsports. This, however, does not mean that the vehicles they make have always been the best. Low points were had during the development of the XJ-GSX and it's successor, the SA/01. But, even those got their high points, as the GSX would eventually go on to win a championship - thanks to it's driver more than the machine's capabilities - and the SA/01 would eventually be developed into the SA/01D that rocked last year's Cyber Formula Grand Prix Championship, taking a record-breaking 7-victory streak, landing itself the title of the Blue Comet.

But now, it's a new year. The Super Asurada 01-D's development has ceased, and, in it's stead, a new successor machine has been created. The DCS (Dual Control System) of the previous car is still present in the form of the racing AI 'Asurada', but the internal and external similarities soon begin to disappear. A new, hydraulic-based active aerodynamic system called the 'Mode System' has been introduced, which allows the car to turn the rear wings onto the side of the car, eliminating drag - and downforce - on the rear of the car, and the front part of the vehicle has the pods to the sides of the canopy extend, covering the four front wheels and reducing the drag they generate as the tops of them cut through the air. The front wing's end boards do deflect some of that air, but such air deflection is more present once the pods extend, as the car's front lights go on to cover said end boards, extending them so that they too, connect to the wheel cover part of the pods.

The entire rear end of the car is similar to that of a massive wing, with the canopy and it's extension going as far back as the car's body goes, even if it is just a silhouette. Atop the rear wheels, separated by some centimeters, are the car's boosters. Boosting has been an integral part of Cyber Formula racing, and the cars with the longest boost periods tend to have the upper hand in the rather high-speed circuits that the CF GPX races at. In this case, two YF-20 Two-Stage High Pressure boost units do the job of propelling the car past the 12-cylinder, 4998cc, supercharged and turbocharged hydrogen engine's limits. A 6-speed trigger-shift, automatic clutch engagement transmission delivers the over 1400 horsepower to the rear wheels, and there even are plans to make the cars all-wheel-drive for ease of driving, as the current rear-wheel-drive ones do tend to be easily upset during hard acceleration from lower speeds.

Admiring the beauty of this piece of engineering, happens to be it's driver. A champion in her own right, that has lived through the very worst that Cyber Formula has gone through - the Al-Zard incident. Though she was out of the sport for a whole year as her wounds healed, with a scar going diagonally through her right eye, it being a different colour from her left one, is #11 driver, Victoria 'the Supersonic Knight' von Bismarck.

"...Victoria." - A woman, no much older than 35, approached her, something shiny in one hand, and a notepad in the other. She had a coat on, which covered up most of the race mechanic attire she was wearing. The two blondes' matching hairstyles was no coincidence, given the fact they both raced - One slightly less than the other - and so short hair was just about the only hairstyle that wouldn't bother their eyesight or make the helmet uncomfortable.

"Ah, Claire. I was going to ask about AKF-11's development, seeing as... Well, it seems finished, doesn't it?" - Victoria turned her head to meet Claire's gaze, taking a step in her direction. A gentle smile appeared on her face, as she spoke calmly to her race mechanic. - "I'll let you decide on that. This is yours from now on. What with Hayato's and Henri's testing runs starting tomorrow, today is... Well, unless you plan on moving testing to next week, the only day we'll get to get you partially acquainted with AKF-11's various new features. I promise, I didn't do anything too drastic to the car's balance. I saw the way your eyes lit up after driving Super Asurada Zero-One-D, so I made sure that it's successor would do the same. Consider it... a gift~" - With an exchange of smirks between the both of them, Claire raised her right hand towards Victoria, whom took in her own hands the keys to AKF-11. - "You're as much of a tease as ever. I won't lie, you're a special kind of terrifying. Guess that's why we get along, eh?~" - Claire nodded to Victoria's comment, giving her a simple 'Indeed' as a reply. She then turned around, and pointed towards the exit to the tall garage that they found themselves in. As she did so, she sank her right hand onto one of her coat's pockets, and the door to the garage started to elevate. - "I'll be up front on pit wall. Good luck."

Victoria gazed at the woman as she walked through the door she came in from, and only once she was alone with the car, did she get close to it. She stepped to it's side, noting the fact that the canopy's opening latch was now much more flush with the car's silhouette. She reached over the sidepod of the car, and pulled on the latch, the canopy hissed, a notable amount of pressurized air turned into vapour as it slid forward. Victoria noted the way that, as she pulled the canopy open, the pods to the sides of the canopy extended outward, allowing it to move further forward. She then placed a foot on top of the sidepods of the body, and landed her other foot inside the cockpit.

It took her a moment to sit down, and the first feeling she got was that everything was a bit too close. The boost lever to her right seemed to press against the side of her waist, and though the active aero lever had ceased to be, exchanged for a voice command system, the steering wheel now became a bit of an issue as it rubbed against her thighs. Maybe she'd grown in that year that she spent healing from Al-Zard NP-1's wreckage, or AKF-11 wasn't necessarily planned for her. However, she decided to toughen it out. She'd been worse, the Exssuperion Z/A-8 wasn't a very comfortable racecar either and it was her claim to fame after all.

She put the car's keys on their rightful place, and gently turned them to the right. Suddenly, the cockpit lit up. Unlike your standard car, the steering wheel of AKF-11 and SA/01D were mounted via two struts that also held the gear shift triggers. This allowed for the center of the steering wheel to be unobstructed, and it allowed for a center panel to be placed there. Said center panel lit up, the words 'ASURADA CYBER SYSTEM ACTIVATION' in all caps greeting her. Soon, the center panel shut off, and, a little pod to the side of the dashboard seemed to awaken.

"...System all-clear. Initiating driver lock system." - It was a small orb, with two ‘ear’ like pieces to its sides. These had six lights, three per side, that looked like volume levels on a studio tracker. It had four very clear cameras that pointed towards her seating position, and to be honest, they looked like eyes. Given the fact that the DCS often had a 'pod' that indicated the driver of the vehicle's condition and sometimes gave driving information to them, that must be Asurada's pod.

"Please input your name.” - A gentle, noticeably robotic but otherwise vaguely standard male voice emerged from the pod. The blonde’s eyes visibly opened up as she gazed in wonder, doing as she was told. - “Victoria von Bismarck.” - Not a mere second after she said her name, the pod’s cameras started cycling, spinning around slowly, capturing silent images of the car’s set driver.

“Adjusting seating position…” - Victoria soon found herself sinking down as the seat lowered, the steering wheel being pulled up a little bit, and the various other gizmos of the cockpit moved too to give Victoria the room she needed to drive the car in a more comfortable manner. She sighed, a little relieved about it all. Clearly, Claire had gone and done quite the job with this instance of technological advancement. However, her gaze in wonder at Asurada was stopped as the aforementioned race mechanic returned to the garage through the now fully open door to it. She ran to the car, with Victoria's racing helmet in hand.

"Almost forgot to give you this! Wouldn't want you getting hurt. Take it easy from a standstill, the twincharging system may be incredible but it doesn't create miracles. Still oversteery on hard acceleration, and always, ALWAYS, utilize Circuit Mode when going around a turn any harder than 25 degrees over 400 metres. Otherwise, you'll understeer like a truck off circuit. Aside from that, drive it 'till we figure out the main faults. Your input is the most important for this particular venture." - Victoria nodded, taking her helmet and putting it on. As she did so, Claire pressed a few buttons on the left side of the steering wheel, continuing her speech - "Start off giving Asurada control of the smaller wings of the car. Keep the rear wing under your control until you feel you can go faster by more properly utilizing the DCS. You want to work with him, rather than fight what he does. In general, he'll try to give you around 100 milliseconds of error time. Sure, it isn't much, but at the speeds AKF-11 will go, that's a lifetime. Now then, champion, good luck on your phoenix-like return. I'll be watching~"

Victoria laughed as Claire left once more. She lowered the visor of her helmet, and scanned the many buttons for the ignition switch. Once she found it, she put some pressure on the brake pedal, and slowly let her index finger press the button. As she did so, the center console lit up again, revealing the tachometer, aero modes - with the current one being lit up in red - gears, with the current one lit up in purple, and the fuel levels - for the engine, and for the boosters. A small screen popped up, which revealed itself to be a speedometer. A small note on that panel also indicated the pit lane speed limiter and the set speed limit.

With everything sorted out, the last thing that Victoria was able to hear was the gentle whine of the starter motor, as suddenly, it was drowned out by the angry roar of the V-12 behind her. She noted the fact that the supercharger's whine was vaguely notable from within the cockpit, and that it'd only get louder as the car revved up higher, and eventually, the turbocharger's whine would overpower the supercharger's. T'was such a complicated, but extremely powerful system. Asurada's 'eyes' began to cycle again, as the canopy began to close.

"Automatic canopy closure. Nice." - A gentle giggle escaped her lips as she got a good grip on the steering wheel. Once the canopy closed, several circular panels - two behind and to the sides of her seat, one down by her knees, and another on the free space behind the steering wheel, almost at the bottom of the dashboard, revealed themselves to actually be the A/C and air pressurization systems of the car. Once again, a gentle hiss - this time, deafened by the engine - could be heard.

Slowly, she lifted her foot off the brake, and onto the gas. She felt, through the car's vibrations, the way that the triple-plate clutch automatically engaged, and soon enough, she was rolling. And as the light of the outside invaded the cockpit, a confident smile was painted on Victoria's face.

It was about time for that 'phoenix-like, triumphant return'.