Having finished reading the details of the first part of the competition and preparing himself mentally for it, Avery brought up a private site only meant for use by the competitors and certain officials.
Before it was announced to the public, the order in which the nine competitors would go was to be decided.
Seeing as how the obstacle race was going to be a timed trial and not a head-to-head contest, it was necessary to determine when each of the pilots would go.
Naturally it would be forbidden for any of those participating to view the race of anyone going before them to avoid an unfair advantage. They would all be going in blind.
"Looks like they’ve finally started the randomization."
Avery watched as the tokens representing each company began rapidly spinning around.
It was a superfluous part of the program since it merely could have picked the order and displayed it instantaneously, but people often enjoyed things . It helped to build a sense of anticipation.
For now, it would only be watched by a few dozen people, but just a couple minutes before the start of the race, a recording would be given to the networks, and they would display it for everyone watching.
Once the program had finished, it picked out the corporations’ vessels one at a time and lined them up in order.
"We’re going second. I’d say that’s pretty lucky." Kasandra said, seeing Storren Corp.’s emblem showing up right after the first.
Considering that everyone was going into the event blind whether they were going first or last, Avery understood why Kasandra said they were lucky.
Only once a participant went would they be allowed to watch the proceeding attempts.
This meant that Avery and Kasandra would get to view seven out of the nine races. And considering that they would be participating in one of the attempts they would not be able to view, this meant they were really only missing out on one. Which they could just watch the playback for later.
With nothing better to do, the two of them ran some diagnostic checks to make sure that everything was in working order and pulled up the virtual training mode and practiced flying through a dense asteroid field.
While the first contest was being called an obstacle race, it was most likely going to simulate flying through an asteroid or heavy debris field. Seeing as how the Alliance Police wanted a new fleet of small ships to help combat pirates or other criminals hiding in places that were difficult for larger vessels to reach, it only made sense to assume that most parts of competition would be related to testing the entrants’ effectiveness in such scenarios.
Soon enough it was time for the first participant to go, and Avery was asked to move to the standby location.
As soon as the first vessel went, Avery started a timer. He might not be able to get an exact measurement of how long it took them to clear the event, but he would at least get a good estimate.
"You’re really taking this quite seriously." Kasandra observed.
"Well, I figured I might as well. It’s not like I’ve got anything better to do right now. And considering how much money I still need to pay of the carrier ship I ordered, I wouldn’t mind the bonus Storren Corp. promised if their ship design is the one chosen."
When Avery finally received notice that it was his turn to run the course, he stopped the timer he had set.
It had gone just a bit over twenty-five minutes, so he figured that was probably a bit longer than it took the first pilot to clear the course.
’I should aim to clear it in under fifteen minutes at the latest. But hopefully even less than that.’ Avery thought, starting up the Dauntless and following the instructions displayed on the main viewscreen.
When he exited the enclosed hangar, he had been waiting in, he found pretty close to what he had been expecting.
Hundreds of thousands of drones of differing shapes had been lined up in two separate groups with an open stretch of space between them.
"Those must be used for training officers of the Alliance Police. They’ve certainly got a lot of them. I wonder how much they all cost." Avery mused.
For around a minute he sat waiting in the cockpit before he received another message. The course was now going to be assembling itself.
Using their propulsion systems, the uniform drones began breaking up and assembled themselves in the open space to create a mock asteroid field.
Once they had finished, Avery received another transmission that told him where the starting position was and that he would be free to start after the countdown had ended.
’I guess that they’re making sure that everyone begins in the same place, but the only other rule is to stay within the boundaries while completing the course. We’re all free to choose which route we want to take to get to the other side.’
Naturally, it was easy enough to let the ship’s sensors plot out the fastest path through, but Avery highly doubted that it would be this easy.
The moment his timer started, he would be surprised if the course did not start shifting around rapidly to impede his progress.
"I don’t think that this will be more difficult than what we had to do during our fight with Doyle and his men. There won’t be dozen ships chasing us around and trying to kill us this time." Kasandra said, looking unworried by the first event.
"There might be some surprises waiting for us though. It’s not like we know exactly what they have planned. Just having us fly through this simulated asteroid field might not be the most entertaining for the audience. I bet that they’ve prepared something to keep it interesting." Avery surmised.
As the two of them conversed, it did not take long for the countdown displayed on the Dauntless’ viewscreen to reach its end. Signaling the start of Avery’s time to complete the course.