Mocha's Story
The Western Republic is a place of extremes, and not just because of the political tensions. An enormous nation state nearly the size of a continent with some of the hottest and coldest, wettest and driest that the planet has to offer.
Other extremes, however, are entirely of an artificial nature. Crafted by society for thrills, spills and excitement... and to generate loads of advertiser revenue.
The Western Republic Rally Championship is one of these things, racing along dirt or gravel tracks, over snow and ice, between trees and generally just pushing the limits of consumer vehicle technology and their drivers.
Mocha squinted into the sunlight from under the canopy at the Gallop Rally Team tent. It was a pretty hot day, but visibility was fantastic. A small contraption sat on her head, holding her normally lopped ears upright so they caught the cooling effects of the nearby AC better.
Her car was up on a jack as the mechanics gave it a final once-over.
She was the favorite to win the stage, and leading the whole championship in points. One more stage, and the championship would be hers.
"Ok Mocha, once more. This is a very rough stage with lots of jumps, loose gravel and debris. I feel like we're going to be in the air a lot this time round." a voice came from behind her.
Turning round to greet the voice, she was met with her racing suit clad co-driver, and fiance, Michi. Abrasive, assertive, and absolutely wonderful, their wedding was planned for a month or so after the rally season finished, victory or not.
"You know me Michi, I love driving by the seat of my pants almost as much as I love you!" Mocha beamed.
A nearby mechanic made a faux retching noise and was met almost instantly with a death glare from Michi.
"You shush!" she snapped, the mechanic quickly turning back to work on the car. Turning back to Mocha her smile returned and she wiggled her pad of pace notes, "Just do as I say, and you'll win this one."
"Hey, I'm the one doing the driving!" Mocha laughed, patting Michi on the back as they walked towards her car.
It was hotter in the car than it was outside, especially with their racing suits buckled up fully and their helmets on.
"Radio check." Michi's voice crackled across the comm.
"Driver, receiving." Mocha responded, her attention mainly focused on making sure the car was idling ok, and that the heat wasn't doing anything weird to it.
"Control, receiving!" a response crackled down the line from the pits.
"Radios ok. Mechanical check?" Michi queried, leafing through her pace notes.
"All seems ok to me, batteries are a bit hot, but that's just this weather. Management systems OK, and ECU reporting no faults." Mocha always sounded relieved at this stage, as if the car was the largest hurdle rather than the multi kilometer run ahead of them.
"Clear to start, await race coordinator. Best of luck you two, win us this championship!" the voice from the pits came through again.
"That's what we're here for!" Mocha practically growled, squeezing her hands on the wheel and doing one last check of the cars systems.
The race coordinator outside held a flag across the bonnet of the car, Mocha switched the power plant from "idle" to "race".
The flag lifted a moment later and Mocha put her foot down, all four wheels spun up and the car took off, the motors in each drive train screaming as they each dumped nearly a thousand kilowatts of power onto the track.
The world around them was a blur, Mocha's eyes were locked on the road ahead, Michi's danced from road to pace notes and back again several times a minute.
"400 straight, into K left 2, tightens, crest, 100 flat square right no cut..." Michi rattled off her pace notes as the car went screaming across the track.
"Forest section next, 50 K right 3, into easy left maybe tightens, 100 flat, crest immediate square left don't wide don't cut..." Michi continued, the trees lining the road seeming more like a wall than individual trees, the gravel surface below the car was kicked up into plumes of thick cloud behind them, small stones and pebbles rattled in the wheel arches.
"Long straight flat, over jump caution, into hairpin left..." Michi turned a page as the car went sailing through the air and landed with a rather unsettling thump.
The dashboard lit up with error codes and warning lights almost the instant they landed. That landing had dislodged something. Michi took little notice as she continued to read from her pace notes.
"...into long K right 2 tightens 4..." she glanced up to see the wall of trees fast approaching, "Mocha, Trees, TREES!"
Mocha wrenched the wheel to one side, the car sliding across the gravel surface sideways at over 300kph, "I HAVE NO CONTROL, I HAVE NO..."
The sound of crumpling metal is never a pleasant one, the sound of metal shearing apart as it loses a fight with a several hundred year old tree is a less pleasant one.
Mocha snapped bolt upright and screamed.
A nurse came sprinting into the room, "Miss Loppe!"
"What, where, how!? MICHI!?" Mocha spluttered as she attempted to climb out of the hospital bed.
"Miss Loppe, she's fine! She's fine! Please remain calm!" the nurse placed her hands on Mocha's shoulders and pressed her back down onto the bed.
"The last... the last thing I saw... I heard... trees... metal... Did I crash!?" Mocha's eyes darted around the room she was in as her mind raced. A pretty standard hospital room in a high-end Western Republic hospital. Probably run by whoever her team had a medical contract with.
A large, flat-panel TV hung from the wall opposite her bed, it was off. On one side of her bed was a simple set of locking drawers for a patients personal effects. On the other side was a selection of rather comfortable looking chairs for visitors. She was hooked up to some kind of IV, probably antibiotics and painkillers. The bed-side table had a massive bunch of flowers in a large vase along with a huge "Get Well Soon" card, she couldn't see who it was from.
She locked eyes with the nurse, a large, but kind looking woman, some kind of canid, but Mocha's vision was still swimming a little.
"You were involved in a high speed incident whilst rallying. Your car left the track and hit a tree. Amazingly your co-driver, Michi, was fine. She literally walked away from the accident with only minor bruising. You, on the other hand..." The nurse seemed to pause, as if thinking about how to phrase the next part of her sentence... or if she'd already said too much.
"On the other hand what..." Mocha's eyes narrowed as she attempted to push herself further up the bed with her legs... her legs that were not responding... her legs that she couldn't feel... her heart sank. "Do I have a paralysis injury?"
The nurse took a breath, side-eyeing Mocha's steadily rising pulse, "The way that your car hit the tree, resulted in your legs being crushed... they couldn't disentangle you from the wreckage, so the EMT's had to amputate on site... I'm sorry..."
Mocha just blinked a few times, her mind not fully processing what she'd just been told, "Say that again please... If I look under this quilt, I'm going to see that I have, no legs... did I hear you correctly?"
The nurse side-eyed Mocha's now rapidly rising pulse, "...yes."
Mocha glazed over, thoughts rushing through her head. The crash, racing again, walking again... Tears welled in her eyes, "B-but I need them..."
"Hey! You're making my fiance cry! Back off!" Michi shouted from the doorway.
The nurse bristled, "That is highly inappropriate!"
"I'm inappropriate!? You made my fiance cry! Get out of here!" Michi snarled as she marched into the room, placing herself between Mocha and the nurse before leaning over and holding Mocha tight to her chest.
The nurse huffed and stormed out of the room, muttering something about calling a doctor.
"Hey, hey, hey, bunbun, stop crying. Please. I'm here now." Michi muttered, squeezing Mocha tighter.
"I'm never going to race again... am I?" Mocha sobbed.
"Hey, HEY! NO! None of that! There's car adaptations, augmentations, and more. People have continued racing with worse injuries!" Michi held Mocha away from her, a soft smile spreading across her face, "We always pull through, this will be no different! I promise."
Michi glanced around the room and spotted the flowers, "Hah, more than I got!" Keeping one hand on Mocha and reaching out with the other Michi picked up the oversized greetings card and had a look inside it. "It's from the team at Gallop!"
"That's nice of them..." Mocha smiled softly through her sobs.
"What else is nice is how much your insurance is paying out!" a voice came from the door. A tall man in a long white coat, feline, big cat, panther of some sort. The great "resident doctor" stereotype. He exuded an air of smug self importance and smarm.
"Who the fuck are you?" Michi snarled.
"I'm the fuck that's going to get your girlfriend behind the wheel of a rally car again!" a smug grin spread across his face, "My name is Dr. Tallak Hall, and I'm the resident cyberneticist at this hospital."
Dr. Hall explained his proposal elegantly and professionally, a massive departure from how he'd presented himself when he initially slithered into the room.
It was a new-ish procedure, where the entire leg below the hip was replaced with a full cybernetic prosthesis, spinal shunts and a neural interface would be installed to facilitate the control of said leg. Nothing fancy about those augmentations, just the legs. Specifically designed to be as close in performance and form to the organic parts they were replacing, users found themselves recovering from the surgery, and up and about much faster than with traditional reconstruction surgery or using augmentations to reinforce damaged limbs.
In Mochas case, both of those options were unavailable, as her field amputation hadn't left her with much leg to work with.
It was expensive, somewhat experimental, and the team's racing insurance was covering it... she asked for some time to think.
Dr. Hall nodded and handed Michi a business card with a net address on it before excusing himself from the room. They were to let him know what they decided, sooner was better so the legs could get manufactured promptly.
RallyNews//MediaNET : Carnage on WRRC Stage 10!
Article by RallyNut28//MediaNET
High drama today on the final stage of The Western Republic Rally today as fan favourite Mocha Loppe appeared to suffer some kind of extreme mechanical failure, crashing her Tsuyoda Polaris GT-Four sideways into a tree at over 300kph!
Near the start of the forest section of the infamous Verdant Raceway stage Mocha's car went flying over a large jump and apparently lost control shortly after.
Incredibly, Michelle "Michi" Flora, co-driver and fiance to driver Mocha walked away from the smash with only minor bruising. Emergency services were on the scene in minutes to extricate Mocha from the wreckage. She has been described as "gravely injured, but stable".
Gallop Racing boss Matsumoto Mayu has commented on the incident:
"Gallop Racing take all mechanical incidents incredibly seriously, especially now with the serious injury of our top driver. We will be launching our own internal investigation, alongside Tsuyoda engineers, into the cause of this accident once the FIA complete their own and release our vehicle to us. We wish Mocha a speedy recovery."
Matsumoto-san refused to comment further citing the situation as "developing".
From what RallyNews can tell, it appears that Mocha's injuries are severe and may threaten her rally career. An incredible shame for the rising star.
FIA investigators who do not wish to be named have stated that the car appears to have been at fault, the impact on landing dislodging a critical component resulting in the throttle controls being locked open. There were also murmurs about the future of Class ES rallying as a whole.
FIA chief investigator Stian Nilsen refused to answer any questions stating curtly that "ongoing investigations should not be commented on" before demanding we reveal our sources of information within the organisation.
We will have more on this story as it develops. Everyone here at RallyNews wishes Mocha a fast recovery and we hope to see her behind the wheel of a car again soon!
Mocha tapped the screen of her PDA, the video played again. Overhead drone footage of her crash. Her car sailed over the jump, landed hard and appeared to accelerate. It twitched and squirmed across the track as she attempted to regain control before going completely sideways and smashing into a tree.
She winced every time she watched it.
A moment or two later, the passenger door opens and Michi practically leaps out of the car, moving a short distance away from it before realising that Mocha had not done the same. She then sprints back towards the car again, the camera drone getting closer to examine the scene. Michi leans across the passenger seat and appears to be moving around, but it's not clear what she's doing.
Mocha taps the screen again, rewinding the video back to the jump.
Jump, landing, acceleration, crash... jump, landing, acceleration, crash...
"Are you still watching that footage hon?" Michi grumbled from the chair at the side of Mocha's bed, she'd dozed off for a bit. It had been a long day.
"I'm trying to figure out what I did wrong..." Mocha muttered, rewinding the video again. The sounds of shearing metal once again playing from her PDA.
"It was a freak accident hon, nothing you could have done differently." Michi straightened up a bit, pulling her own PDA out and checking her messages, there were lots, she decided to read them later.
"I could have taken that jump slower, or insisted the engineers look over the car again, or..."
"No, you stop that right now! We were racing for the championship, and we didn't have any maintenance time left." Michi rapidly interrupted Mocha's impending ramble, "It was an unforseen mechanical failure, don't get yourself caught up in this self destructive thinking, please..."
Mocha sighed and dropped her PDA onto her chest as she lay back in the bed again, "I don't think it's the accident I'm constantly walking myself through. It's this surgery..."
"I don't really see any down sides," Michi picked her PDA up again and started deleting unread messages from media outlets demanding comments about the crash, her personal life, or about Mocha. "Shiny new pair of cool robot legs, and we get you back behind the wheel... Nair is insisting that he come visit us in the hospital."
"I don't want to drag him away from his work... he's got a lot going on..." Mocha picked her PDA up again and started tapping on it, not watching the video again but looking at the technical documents on the legs she was being offered.
"I don't think he's going to take 'no' for an answer..." Michi smiled softly as another message came in.
"Tell him that he can come visit once I get these new legs."
"You going for it then?"
"Onwards and upwards Michi. That and I'd still rather be able to walk than need a wheelchair."
The Northwoods Racing Facility in the Eastern Union was always a treat to visit. Several hundred acres of expansive estate owned by some barmy multi trillionaire with a passion for all things motorsport. Lord Darren Burnes, the most upper of the upper class and with more money in pocket change than the entire GDP of some nations. He permitted most motorsport enthusiasts and professional organisations use his facilities for free, as long as he got access all areas whenever they were running events, of course. It was a very fair trade, at least he thought so, and nobody in motorsport was going to question it.
The Gallop Racing team car pulled up at the enterance to the rallycross track, the hum of the power plant faded as the driver turned the ignition off and set the hand brake.
"We've arrived Miss Loppe, do you require assistance getting out?" the driver swiveled in his chair to look into the back of the car.
Mocha sat gazing out of the rear window at the scenery. She'd raced here, and won, several times in the past in most diciplines. She took a few deep breaths. "I think I'll manage Charlie. I'm about to get back into my car, I need to make sure my legs at least work on their own!" she laughed a little to herself, the humor masking the near paralyzing fear that something was going to go wrong.
(This Document is a Work in Progress)