Chapter Text
The air is thick in the crowded stalls, permeated by a low murmur of anticipation, every attendee’s eyes glued to the large electrope screens scattered around. Then, electric silence- ripped through by the cutting keen of electrope-field ships searing past the crowd at lightning speed. Instantly cheers break out as the crafts lean almost horizontal into the tough corner, some scraping the edge of the track with a visible trail of lightning sparks. A projectile flies past the corner directly into the side of fourth place as they crest the corner, exploding violently and sending the ship tumbling over the barrier towards roofs of buildings far below; drones speed out to rescue them as the perpetrator, weapons still smoking, whirrs past the corner. A digitised voice booms out- “CONTENDER ELIMINATED.” The crowd roars- enraged supporters and gleeful opposition alike- as the last few racers go past.
In the middle row of the stands, straining on his tip-toes to see out past the sea of fans, a young Hhetsarro boy looks starry-eyed out at the track. The speed, the finesse, the danger, Shematto knows at that very moment- one day, it’s going to be him leading that pack.
Electrope-field racing will never know what hit it.
ELECTROPE-FIELD ENGINE
A remarkably inventive spin on the familiar electrope engine that powers the air-wheelers and other vehicles that we use every day. Where conventional electrope engines convert lightning aether into wind and fire aether for propulsion, the electrope-field engine creates a steady field of umbral energies that is repulsive to the electrope with which most of Everkeep is built. The result is level hovering, and smooth, fast propulsion when multiple fields are combined.
Unfortunately, the design has drawbacks. It can only be used effectively on electrope or otherwise lightning or astrally charged surfaces, they struggle with heavy loads, and they are purely terrestrial, where conventional engines can also power flight- they remained more or less unused outside of demonstrations for many years. However, some decades ago, the concept was rediscovered by hobby engineers and fitted to lightweight single-passsenger vehicles, which are now the basis of the electrope-field races enjoyed by thousands across Alexandria today.