Number: 73

Title: Race or Die

Type: Original Fiction


Synopsis:
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Ultra high-octane racing.

Plot? We don't need no steeking plot.



He's the most feared racer on earth.

Those who eat his dust usually dine on it in the afterlife.

Wanted in every civilized country.

A hero to the people.

Hunted by the Government.

What can he do? Go fast. Real fast.

Set in Japan, 2015 (not related to Evangelion). Richard... whatever his
last name is, has a profitable and illegal business of moving highly
sensitive goods and data over great distances. He is a courier who is
the last of a dying breed, dedicated only to his work and his hobby.
Naturally, both involve going fast and staying out of trouble.

The first part is easy to accomplish. The second... he has some trouble
with. Together with a skilled computer hacker, an experienced master
tuner, and an impeccable front woman, Richard manages to eak out a
living in this complicated, increasingly industrial world.

The focus of the story is threefold. First, it focuses on the people
who make up this team, their relationships, and their interaction with
various customers and the many different racers littering the
futuristic Japanese roadscape. The second aspect of the story focuses
on the driving itself. The adrenaline-injected illegal street races and
delivery runs, the glacially tense cat-and-mouse games with the police,
the rolling battles with the various criminal factions that have it out
for our heroes.... The third and final aspect of the story centers
around a background plot about society simply falling apart. In true
Fight Club fashion, the heroes of this tale come to be involved in a
plot to push humanity's technological achievements back to the stone
age, but perhaps a better solution can be found... if Richard can beat
his opponents to it.

The technology is a cross between the more reasonable Bubblegum Crisis
hardware and some extrapolated automotive designs that are just
becoming practical now.