WipEout HD Fury - AG-Systems Team Profile

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1 – AG-Systems (Japan)

Team Principal:

Sakura Tanaku

Slogan:

“Friends in Speed”

Backstory:
The reigning champions, the Oldest Team in the Book, Belmondo’s Team, the Transcendants, the Rising Suns. All these and more are titles that have been bestowed upon AG-Systems, the second most successful team in AntiGravity racing with seven championships under their belt, the most recent added in the FX400 league. Much like FEISAR, it seems that after their shaky start to AntiGravity racing, they have finally managed to find a driving force that has sent them right to the start of the field. Some say it’s a lead pilot and a development team that finally work hand in hand instead of one having to deal with the other, some say it’s a decent budget at long last. Whatever it was, the black and yellow squads that first called themselves the team of the Father of AG-Racing are now at the head of the pack in red, white and cyan.

AG-Systems was initially set up to be the commercial arm of FEISAR in its’ youthful form as FEAR, Pierre Belmondo wanting to keep a truthful monopoly on the technology in case it fell into the wrong hands who wanted to use it for greed, or worse, for military applications. One saving grace for the Frenchman was an approach from the fledgling Japanese consortium that had decided to leap onto the use of AG-Technology quickly. ‘Forever Floating’ as the consortium translated into English had already begun constructing lifts using Belmondo’s technology to reach the gigantic skyscrapers that Japan had slowly begun to develop. Over teppanyaki at the consortium leader’s home in a Kyoto penthouse, Pierre saw the potential for his company to become what he wanted it to be, away from the constant intrigues of Europe.

AG-Systems moved to Kyoto within the year, though some of its’ members were lured back to FEISAR by the promise of better pay. This arguably left some of the more ‘pure’ members with AG-S, those that treasured either the freedom to develop limitlessly, or to work truly for the name of purity rather than money. For about three years, Belmondo operated AG-S with his two most trusted advisors, Holst McQueen as head of technology and Delia Flaubert as head of design.

Unfortunately, the two began butting heads as soon as their quarterly bills came through and Holst started pressurising for more work to be done on refining the current AG-devices rather than spending money on creating brand new things. Flaubert got behind her mentor until the Canadian and the Frenchwoman were roaring at each other across the table at volume enough to knock over the vases of flowers on the table. It was after this happened once too often that Belmondo declared that enough was enough, and the two had to leave the company. His sympathies went with Flaubert, but he didn’t want to create a rival team to AG-Systems filled with malice from only firing McQueen. Instead, by sending them both away, he created Qirex and Auricom and kept AG-Systems out of the years of warring between those two.

In the early F3600 and F5000 leagues, AG-Systems and their pilots were plagued with difficulties between the two, for AG-S would never allow a single design to be used more than twice, forever changing the setup of the craft or making new adjustments to make it faster and handle better. Despite the appreciation most pilots showed for such a dedicated engineering team, it was at the cost of any sort of consistency and it needed extraordinarily skilled pilots to keep up with the constant development, which ironically was denied to AG-Systems. After all, the best pilots knew they wanted a position at either Auricom or Qirex. It was the most spiritual and purist pilots who came to Belmondo’s old team for a job, and though this kept the Japanese squad very happy, their only championship in those first years came from Mitsoto Gato in the Venom F5000 leagues. It took a different tactic to approach the hotly contested F7200 league.

The man for the job was Katsuogo Muro, a graduate from FEISAR study who moved to the Japanese squad half from pressure from his own public and half because of his long-time adoration for the Rising Suns, as they were known in their home country. Taking both Vector and a Venom championship in the F7200 league, Katsugo wowed the crowds and was a much adored pilot, even by Qirex and FEISAR who had historically been the most wary of AG-Systems in the past. There was global shock and a great ceremony in Japan after he fell to his death when taking part in an ‘extreme sports’ challenge on Japanese Datacast. Without their most skilled of pilots, AG-Systems was in disarray and from then on never stood on the podium, the technologically advanced ships at least able to keep the Piranha and Assegai teams away at first before their money woes began to catch up with them. The constant development had eaten away at the team’s funds and now that Pierre Belmondo was dead as well there was no central, influential figure to rally the troops and convince investors to pay up.

Much like Qirex, the Japanese-based squad were forced to look for a new buyer and also like Qirex, they ended up taking the wrong peoples’ money. Nobody is quite sure who set up or where G-Tech was founded, but as investigations after the end of the riots caused by the fall of the F9000 league, many members were from Overtel and Tigron to perpetrate their idea of a hyper-violent league purely to create datacast ratings. G-Tech ships were slow, pathetically shielded, and had no handling whatsoever, but some pilots just had no choice but to fly for them and cough up sums to fly each month, all of which went straight into the pockets of the corrupt businessmen who owned them. The only person who seemed to like G-Tech at all was Englishwoman Naomi Turner, who was so determined to keep racing that she didn’t care where she had to do it or what magazines she had to pose for to keep her seat.

Given that the G-Tech crew were ‘sleepers’ so to speak, it was believed that they would escape the fall of the F9000 league and be able to retire, but a drive by loyal and honest lawyers found each and every one of them and forced them to pay up the damages they’d caused to the sport. It was an impossible sum, but there was nobody else to blame after the members of Overtel and Tigron were all dead. Most members of G-Tech lived out the rest of their life in a penal camp on Mars, and not one is still alive.

The AG-Systems name took a while to resurface, but the idea came about with two graduates from the University of Kyoto discussing what they wanted to do for their final year dissertation. With underground AG-Ship racing all the rage at this point in time, they decided to create a new ship and race it under the ‘Forever Floating’ tag. The ship was of course red, white, and cyan and the two engineers soon found a couple of eager pilots to fly for them. Sakura Tanaku and Inatu Itsua soon became well known amongst the underground AG-community as a hard-working, intelligent and creative couple who held Pierre Belmondo and many of the great names of before as inspiration. The couple were engaged shortly after achieving excellent marks in their dissertation, but they have been unable to marry, forever focussing on their newly formed AG-Systems team. The money that they had intended to be for their wedding went to buying and restoring the old AG-Systems buildings in Kyoto. They invited most of their friends from the underground leagues to join them and so AG-Systems was reborn once more, to the delight of many AG enthusiasts. It was perhaps this rebirth of one of the classic teams that caused the AG Race Commission to announce the new FX150 league, with AG-Systems given automatic entry.

Tanaku and Itsua were somewhat overwhelmed by the proposal but soon got to work – Tanaku made herself Team Principal as Itsua took care of the design and construction of the ship. With a team of eager young enthusiasts, they lacked the knowledge and experience that Auricom, FEISAR and even Assegai had, but they made up for it with good hard work. Their first breakthrough came with a sponsorship deal with the popular ‘Joy Noodle Bar’ chain in Japan that also settles their catering needs. Even today, Joy Bars in Japan and across the world will offer ‘AG-Systems Special’, which consists of leek, lamb and garlic.

Their pilot lineup was somewhat poor at first – part of the Joy deal meant that they needed to use a pilot picked by the noodle company, which neither of the team heads was happy about. But Hitomi flew for the team in the first three leagues under the new ‘FX’ setup. It wasn’t until they got their dream boy in Calursoso that the squad has truly come into its’ own, and the results speak for themselves. Constructors’ and Pilots’ championships in FX250 and 400, most perfect laps in all leagues, three times top of the ‘preferred team’ public votes and best livery for Croshaw’s cyan ship. Now coming into the FX500 league on a high, it’s doubtful if anyone can stop Belmondo’s legacy from eclipsing Qirex as the most successful team in the history of the sport.

However, not all is rosy. While in the past the only enemy AG-Systems ever had was money worries, the new teams in the newer leagues have brought new and worrying challenges to the more pacifist of teams. After Triakis entered and began bothering Auricom for wins, it looked as though the Americans were going to go to war with the Australians once more, but Auricom has been nothing if not predictable, and when Qirex rejoined the championship they got the stars and stripes pointing at them with all barrels on auto. This left Triakis to duel with AG-Systems for the leftover places, and slowly a bitter anger came from this constant abrasion. Victory in the FX250 league was only a hair’s breadth between the two ships at times and all pilots and team members felt the strain. FX300 pushed this even further, though Triakis emerged victorious in the end.

Before this, the teams had fought hard but had always managed to congratulate each other in the style of exhausted and firm rivals who respect each other, but when Triakis’ Reverse-Inertia Decelleration System was found to be illegal and they were exempt, both teams were shaken. Triakis was furious that they had been denied their legal victorious rights, and AG-Systems were also shocked that their honourable rivals had been so dismissed by the courts. To this day, AG-Systems and Thierry Caluroso officially disregard the inherited victory in the FX300 league from Triakis, but the Australian military squad are still bitter and hyper-aggressive when they can be. It doesn’t help that AG-Systems have made a firm rival out of Harimau International as well after some close scrapes from FX300-400.

Allies: Assegai, Auricom
Rivals: Harimau
Arch-Rival: Triakis

Searching AntiGravity Racing Archives for Subject ‘AG-Systems and Triakis’
681 Matches Found...
Opening File...

WM: Vince? Vince, can you hear me?

*radio silence for a long while*

WM: Vince? I know you’re alive, I can see your vital signs. Can you hear? Can you move? I can’t see any broken bones…

VS: For the love of God, you t**t, of course I can hear you. If anything’s going to survive a holocaust, it’s one of these.

WM: How are you feeling?

VS: I’m s**ding p***ed off, what the f*** did you expect?

WM: *laughs* Same as always, huh?

VS: *dry chuckle* I guess you could say that. Don’t put me back onto the wall again for a while, will you?

WM: No worries Vince. I know you prefer to be alone with your thoughts for a bit.

VS: My thoughts and Nelson maybe. Who got me?

WM: *sigh* Samirsdøttir, of Qirex.

VS: Cheers. I appreciate you doing this for me.

WM: You’re an old drinking buddy of mine, Vince. We grew up together. Rules and regs are meant to be broken for people like you.

VS: I grew up with a lot of people. Doesn’t mean they bend the rules for me all the time.

WM: I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times, I had no say in the dealings. I may be your friend, but I wasn’t willing to sabotage my job here. Neither was Thierry.

VS: The frog was in it?

WM: *long pause* S***. I guess it’s out now. Thierry tried to lodge a private appeal for Triakis to be re-instated. He was told he would have his pilot’s licence revoked if he didn’t.

VS: What the hell was Caluroso trying to get out of letting us back in? Deny himself a championship?

WM: AG-Systems took it badly, Vince. I know you cut off contact, and you don’t like hearing, but nobody on that team wants that victory. As far as they’re concerned, Triakis won fair and square, and Caluroso believes that as well. He wants you to start talking to him again Vince.

VS: I don’t believe that for a second. What sort of team wants to throw away a world championship?

WM: Whatever you may think man, it’s true. Anyway, my mouth is running away again. I’ve said too much, Vince. You give this a long, hard think. Switching you back to the wall.

VS: Thanks Will. Pint on Thursday again?

WM: As always, my friend.

-Ship Radio Transmission between Triakis pilot V. Stephenson and Race Commissioner W. Maybank, after Stephenson’s elimination in 2200 at Vineta K

Ship Details:
The imaginatively named AGS-500 suffers from something of a lack of development time. Much like the major players of the previous leagues (FEISAR, Icaras and arguably Harimau), the constant tweaking of the AGS-400 to win them the FX400 league has left them with little time to test and develop a brand new ship. Much like the two European squads, it seems that the Japanese squad has enlarged the older ship to the new specifications and kept most of the shape of the ship fairly similar. Differences to the old ship are more than just cosmetic though.

AG-S has abandoned the air-cooled system from the previous years after reliability issues at low speeds meant they lost a lot of ground to other craft in the early leagues. Instead of the rotating propellers at the back to help force air through the back part of the ship, it now uses a circulating coolant system similar to that in the Piranha craft, though with less distance to travel, it doesn’t take up as much power as the Brazilian solution.

In addition, deciding to abandon the fight for maximum top speed, it appears that AG-Systems has turned its’ attention to the maximum output from the thrusters. This was never an issue with the old craft, but now it seems that there is at the very least another three GigaNewtons of thrust coming out of the back of the ship, meaning that of the entire grid, only the Goteki 45 can get off the line faster. Inatu Itsua and Jason Croshaw have both said they look forward to an AG-S vs Goteki 1v1 race to settle the matter for once and for all. So far, Goteki has declined the offers.

Lead Pilot – Thierry Caluroso 

There is a common saying amongst AG-Pilots the world around that if you want first places, you need a Frenchman. It was Pierre Belmondo that pioneered AntiGravity technology to begin with, and Sofia De La Rente that set the record for the longest and highest solo AG-flight in the world. Many years later, Belmondo’s great-great-granddaughter, Natasha Belmondo, took the world by storm as an Auricom pilot and then as a Xios champion all the way to the bitter end of the F9000 series. Throughout the history of the sport there have been other less well known names who still provide close and nail-biting racing, and unlike some teams who limit where their pilots come from, the door is open across the world to a Frenchman.

This legacy’s Gaul of the moment is a young man from Bordeaux who began his life right beside a popular holiday destination’s AG-karting track and spent a lot of his young life learning the art of flinging one of the small, metre-square devices around the track best he could. It didn’t take long for a couple of eyes to catch the skilled young Frenchman and he was offered a place at FEISAR Study. A regular sight as a reserve pilot at race weekends, the young man often impressed in practice sessions but was always sidelined for the more popular Italian in the team. He became close friends with a lot of the paddock during this period, most notably Vincent Stephenson of Triakis whenever he came to the tracks for testing purposes. His patience with FEISAR only lasted for a short while though before he set out to find a place to fly at the same time as his friend after Triakis confirmed an entry.

Caluroso found a place at AG-Systems as the team was undergoing some experimentation. They had run in the first two seasons with Croshaw and Hitomi, the former a great development driver but not a race winner, and the latter almost purely there for the sponsorship deals. Deciding to take a risk, the couple running AG-Systems gave Caluroso the main pilot’s seat, and let Croshaw take over Hitomi’s ship in Friday running for practice sessions for ship development. The Japanese pilot would race as second pilot, and keep the crowd’s attention as well as the money of the sponsors. Tanaku and Itsua took a big risk, but it paid off.

Thierry took to the lighter AG-Systems with more powerful engines like a duck to water and began to astonish everyone with his laptimes, not to mention the barrel rolls he could pull out. He claimed his skill came down to a friendly rivalry with his friend Stephenson in Triakis, though as the season went on and the weapons and close weapons began to put stress on the two pilots, the relationship between the pair of them became unbearably tense. This came to a head halfway through the FX250 season when the two pilots had a shouting match on the podium much to the surprise of Nyoko Kassan, who was trying to enjoy his first ever win for Assegai Developments in a Flash race.

However, it seemed the relationship was shortly patched over a week later when the two turned up on a beach in north-eastern Makana covered in bottles of beer, wine and a couple of scantily clad women. The tabloids of course had a field day with it, and both teams had a hard time trying to cover up the problem with reserve pilots – Croshaw and Acosta weren’t the skilled masters of their art that the Frenchman and Englishman were and there was much rejoicing when the two returned to a series of wins for Triakis and AG-Systems. AG-S won the championship by a whisker and the joke between the two used to be that the one second between the two was due to the one extra bottle of beer that Stephenson had downed on the beach. Despite the easy friendship, both teams were on edge after such a close finish and wisely, AG-S swapped Hitomi for Croshaw for the FX300 league.

The full race series on Makana proved testing for the two pilots and tensions began to rise once more, as the championship progressed harder and harder, and with Harimau beginning to nip at their heels (Auricom and Qirex were of course too busy fighting each other to mount a decent challenge) there were more than a couple of cases of stress leave for some engineers. Of course, the outcome of that championship is history now – Triakis’ illegally deemed Reverse-Inertia-Decelleration system meant the championship was gifted to AG-Systems.

Caluroso seemed to be hit hard by the ill-gotten win and his flying focus was lost for FX350 for the most part. Certainly he had a lot of detractors saying he had lost his touch by the time AG-S ended up only 4th in that championship. When FX400 came back though, he decided to strike back hard. With most perfect laps, most wins, most barrel rolls and the pilots’ championship easily sewn up, it seemed that Thierry had his mojo back and he looks to carry it on into the FX500 league.

Unlike some of the other popular pilots on the grid, Thierry is a much quieter man than his peers. He is fairly young for an AG-Pilot at only twenty-three, and has no end of admirers judging by the banners waved in the crowd sometime and the amount one woman offered for a night with the pilot. She was turned down for that offer, but the gift that Caluroso gave his fan as compensation, a data slate complete with a series of shots he did for a modelling company in Japan, were soon on the internet and getting rather a lot of popular comments, particularly the elaborate tattoo work of a panther with a rose in its’ teeth between his shoulderblades.

Second Pilot – Jason Croshaw

The ideal test pilot with no qualms whatsoever about saying his mind, Jason was picked for the AG-Systems role early in the team’s return to the sport after he came from the University of Auckland to the underground racing league many years prior to FX150 with the aim similar to that of his employers, of working to achieve recognition as an engineer. Unfortunately, his barbed manner and caustic criticism of other engineers, pilots, and ships whenever he flew one himself made him somewhat unpopular amongst the underground league.

Despite this, the two Japanese who began AG-Systems began asking Croshaw to fly for them again and again, claiming that the more aggressive the criticism, the better they could make their ship. Croshaw claims that he is amongst the reasons that AG-S was actually ready for FX150 to begin with, and that if every team had a development pilot such as he, they would have been untouchable.

This somewhat unhumble approach has gained Croshaw few fans amongst his fellow pilots and he is seen as something of a loner, though not thanks to a lack of conversation – he simply alienates everyone with his tone. A lot of newcomers to the sport haven’t even tried to approach the man in his trilby for fear of what he might say to them.

The fact that Jason has been a useful rock in the AG-Systems team is undeniable, but rumours have abounded that if he doesn’t perform in these leagues on track, he may be reduced to a reserve and testing pilot for the rest of his career to allow newer pilots with potentially more skill to be allowed time with the new toys. The ‘Friends in Speed’ junior team has been slow to set up, but it is coming into its’ own slowly and the two pilots there are eyeing a new race seat after this season.

Third Pilot – Chiaki Hitomi

Adored by the public with a fanbase most people would kill to have, Chiaki Hitomi is the only major embarrassment to AG-Systems, their black sheep. Chosen by Joy Noodles for sponsorship deals as a mediocre pilot with a huge fanbase thanks to her form and personality, AG-Systems were a little wary at taking on the untrained woman from Osaka. Every race she attends there are men and women along the sides of the track screaming their love for her and her fan page on the FX500 datacast pages has the largest number of suscribers and fans. 

It is believed that she first began attending the underground tournaments prior to the FX150 as a singer and dancer, and was talked into having a go at some of the slower speed vehicles by a whooping public. When it turned out she could do a three lap race without hitting the walls, she began to do it more and more often as a curio, eventually purchasing her own ship (which to the dismay of some hardcore AG-Systems fans turned out to be an F9000-era Vector G-Tech craft) and regularly racing, to few results.

Her luck in the big leagues has been equally poor, and she claimed only one gold medal in the entire FX400 series, that being at a Venom Time Trial at her home track of Metropia. The crowd was believed to have been louder than any of the ships when she ascended the podium. But aside from that, she has been a poor pilot, especially at higher speed classes and AG-Systems are desperately looking for other popular Japanese pilots to replace her for Joy Noodles. Her only real contacts who take her seriously in the paddock are her fellow pay pilot, Mahmud Abakann of Mirage and Buster Harding of Triakis, who is believed to have a soft spot for her.

WipEout HD Fury - Piranha Team Profile

5 – Piranha Advancements (Brazil)

Piranha enter the FX500 series bearing their old number once more, as team number five in the lineup, the ones just outside of the spotlight and yet always harrying the heels of the established squads. Now a veteran team itself, Piranha is here and back on the FX grids with a bright and bold ship that is destined to perform the role of ‘bouncer’ to the upper echelons of the race series. If you want to get noticed, first you have to beat Piranha.

Piranha’s origins are dim and little evidence exists from that point in its’ history, a few years after the beginning of the F5000 league. With Qirex, Auricom, Feisar and AG-Systems established as the big four players in the AG-Leagues there was talk of the need for a fifth team that would help to do ‘dry’ runs on tracks to test them before the established teams went out, with power to match the full-sized ships unlike the J3200 league for rookie pilots.

An artefact that is proudly on display on Piranha’s Datacast site is a 360-degree viewable copy of the contract that was signed by Pierre Belmondo himself giving the contract to make a hyper-powerful, weaponless ship to a Chinese consortium calling themselves ‘Piranha’. Their ship, which was given the artistic name of the ‘Crimson Flash’ was a ship the speed of which beggared belief amongst new viewers to the sport and even Qirex officials were seen whistling at the stats. Piranha was the business, and set about ruining a lot of lap records in the early stages of the league. However, it was never quite placed within the leagues themselves due to the lack of weapons technology. After getting approval from all four teams to join them in Phantom class series, Piranha hit the tracks with pilot Tao Liu at the helm and despite all hype about their incredible speed of the ship, it was left for dead by the established squads.

With a lack of results, the Chinese backed out of the deal hurriedly and left Piranha up in the air towards the final third of the F5000’s series run. The purchase of the squad was done in equally mysterious circumstances to the formation of Piranha, though enough was found out by expert sleuths amongst the tabloid reporters to reveal the identity and nationality of the buyer. A Mr Aries Piermont, of São Paolo, Brazil.

AG-Systems in particular breathed a sigh of relief with the disappearance of another Asian team to take their staff – Qirex was close enough for comfort in Irkutsk and a team in Shanghai would only prove to rattle the Tokyo-based team further. It certainly gave them breathing space for F7200 as Piranha got themselves their own sparring partner in the form of fellow newcomers (albeit ones with pedigree and talent) in the form of Assegai Developments. The 7200 season proved to be a fierce one with rivalries springing up everywhere except for AG-Systems and FEISAR, who were often forced to weave out of the way to avoid the sprayed weapons of Piranha and Assegai as they duelled over fifth place. It was something of a shame amongst most teams therefore when Assegai was bought out by Piranha, which seemed to put an end to another series of good on-track battles.

The meshing of two rivals was never an easy task to manage, but as Piermont stated in his autobiography ‘The Fish That Bites’, he never attempted to treat the new African engineers in any way different to his own employees. They got exactly the same benefits and pay, worked the same hours and were offered the same options at the cafeteria. In his own words:

‘I had the vision of a perfect Piranha. I had saved this team from the death it would surely have suffered at the hands of bankers and stockholders and raised it up into a force of its’ own. Piranha. We were accepted by the great Mr Belmondo into his league and we were given a rival to prove ourselves against. Assegai were a worthy foe but they fell. To have them working with us is an honour, and I had no right treating them worse than my own employees. And yet I could not treat them higher than my men, who made the better ship. So they are equals. We strive as one, all as one, towards the goal of perfection. I repeated this over and over again as I stared at the image of our new ship for the upcoming league. The Swiftkiller.’

The rest, as they say, is history. Hiring the Tibetian AG-Pilot Myima Tsarong was a bold move by Piermont, but the woman did not let him down and Piranha began domination of most of the F9000 ‘Fusion’ leagues, winning five manufacturers’ championships and as many pilots’. And yet Aries never seemed satisfied much to the disappointment of his pilots and staff. This only egged them on to work harder and harder to leave Xios, Feisar and Tigron in the dust however, and the race wins were monstrously in favour of the red-and-yellow squad. Eliminations on the other hand... the less said about those, the better.

After the fall of the F9000, Piranha seemed to disappear off the map in the same way that their spiritual cousins eG-r seemed to, retreating to their underground base in the underhive city of Jamanha, just outside São Paolo. The gates would let nobody pass for many, many years, with very few visitors to the factory. Mostly these visitors were in driven in hover-limousines, and the men stepping out of them dressed either in ornate suits or military fatigues, all of which showed the green, blue and yellow Brazilian flag.

It wasn’t until 2193 that the door finally opened before a swarm of reporters called before Piranha’s front gate. The man who strode out was the popular pilot who had flown for Piranha in the closing stages of the F9000 league after Jann Shawdeckler’s death in the Temtesh Bay disaster, Zack Vilmã. When Myima Tsarong left Piranha after the fall of AG racing to return to her temple in Tibet, Vilmã was all that was left of the team. With the death of Aries Piermont in 2178, the popular pilot had been given new command over the tea, named in Aries’ will as the successor to the team.

Vilmã has been typically secretive as Piranha always has been, saying little in team press conferences and not appearing publically with many other team bosses – something that Aries Piermont possibly taught him. His leadership skills are not the same powerful ones that brought Piranha to their five world titles during the F9000 seasons, but he has brought a team back from the dead to race again, and for that a good deal of people in the paddock have great respect for the man. That said though, he is not without enemies.

Vilmã has done nothing to quell the fires between Assegai and Piranha, and he has been outwardly rude about Icaras and their ‘so-called’ powerhouse of an engine. His scathing remarks about Qirex to the end of last season when Piranha beat them to fifth in the constructor’s championship haven’t helped either, and Harimau have made queries about Piranha’s involvement with the ‘Azteca’ casino in Las Vegas, near the site of the Amphiseum circuit. Rumour has it that Vilmã has provided rare Amazonian panthers and jaguars as live exhibits in the hotel/casino, yet this has never been proven. It hasn’t stopped several Harimau pilots and team members trying to break into the casino though in an attempt to find out what abuse may be being done to their beloved felines inside though.

Ally: Auricom
Rivals: Qirex, Icaras
Arch-Rivals: Assegai

Searching AntiGravity Racing Archives for Subject ‘Piranha and Assegai’
68 Matches Found.
Opening Selected File...

Sol 2? Love that track. Such a huge view, so exhilarating to fly and such a risk too. Not to mention we do well on that track regularly. Are Mirage flying there too? The Egyptian is a damn fine flier there...

Ah, they’re not going there? I suppose monetary issues... unfortunate for them. Who is going? Feisar, AG-S... usual suspects... oh, Piranha too? Excellent, I hope they pick Silvaris. Hm? No, why should I be angry at them going to Sol? They’re a racing team, right? They’ve got a right to fly there... hey, no! Bad Suhi... bad girl...

*Subject proceeds to calm a snarling one-tonne lioness with a scratch behind the ears.*
Easy girl, easy... Heh, not the only lioness who needs to take it easy, let me tell you. That’s the main reason I like to take on Piranha. Nobody flies like Silvaris does, she’s just a goddess at the helm. Always a challenge, maybe not so much on Sol given how twisty it is, but Metropia’s a great place to play cat and mouse with them. The engineers seem to like the challenge as well.

*subject is informed of the rivalry between the two teams reaching back several years*
You’re kidding, right? They’re fighting over something that happened nearly a hundred years ago. Jeez... stupid. All this fighting is just getting to me. It’s bad enough with Auricom and Qirex at each others’ throats every race, and we could do without AG-Systems and Triakis glaring at each other on the starting grid. It’d make the whole place a bit safer to race. I don’t want to have to keep looking over my shoulder for Piranha mechanics trying to sabotage my ship when I’ve got to deal with their pilots chasing me already. That Harimau contract can’t come...

*subject stops talking abruptly, and busies himself with brushing a large lion male’s mane, avoiding any more attempts to bring up the subject*

-Pilot N. Kassan of Assegai Developments, private interview with ‘Float Nation’ magazine, Nairobi 2202

Ship Details:
The FX300-400 ‘Rockettooth’ series of ships got critical acclaim for looking fantastic and possessing one of the most powerful thruster systems in the league along with enough shield to suffer quite the battering. The problems caused by initial launch thrust power and poor handling capabilities limited Piranha’s climb up the table with the second and third pilots sometimes having trouble getting the heavy ship off the grid and control issues at high velocities.

Piranha has been hard at work though and have certainly pulled off an interesting craft in the ‘Razorfin’. The longest of all the Fury Ships, it seems that Piranha’s aim in this is to cram as much long-boost technology as they can into the allocated chassis, meaning that the crash structure is somewhat thin and long (easily visible on the Zone Battle Razorfin). The Razorfin is about as wide as the Rockettooth, but that is mostly due to the bodywork and brake systems this time located underneath the wings. In addition, the Piranha boosts the only air-cooled engine system on the grid this season, having ditched their sometimes unreliable cooling system from last year that cost Dominguez the win at Anulpha Pass once.

That said though, there have been doubts raised as to the effectiveness of the Razorfin at high speeds once more – with such an odd centre of gravity, turning will become quite difficult at Phantom class speed. Piranha as a whole have said that that’s a problem they’ll deal with when they get to it.

Lead Pilot – Leona Silvaris

‘Float Nation’ magazine is no stranger to wanting a nice juicy piece of gossip to talk about, and once ran a survey to try and work out just which lead pilot the money-paying public wanted to find out more about. The winner by a clear mile was the enigmatic new pilot that Piranha Advancements had picked for its’ return to AG-racing. Silvaris had said very little in the press conferences she had attended and rarely mingled with the public in keeping with Piranha’s secretive nature second only to EG-X in terms of how much they keep their mouths shut. She had been seen sometimes in the garage working on the ship along with the mechanics occasionally, but it was unsure if she was aiding them or simply looking on. The magazine’s spies pulled strings to find what they could, and have produced the only working biography of the pilot herself which Leona has grudgingly accepted is mostly correct. 

Silvaris was born into a Catalonian biker gang, and never attended school. Instead, she learned how to spell and read from watching the many racing championships the biker gang would crowd around a great hololithic projector to watch. From the Cross-Atlantic hoverbike series to F9000, the young Silvaris was enthralled by AntiGravity racing. Her mother reportedly said that the question she got most from her daughter was why they didn’t have a hoverbike instead of the ones that ran on wheels and petrol engines still that gave such a rocky ride at times.

Whenever taking on odd jobs in towns her gang passed through, Silvaris made a habit of keeping the money she made and guarding it jealously with her life. While her peers spent their money on tarting up their own bikes, Leona kept her own money and her own, broken and forever failing bike that she was underneath as much as on top of. On her eighteenth birthday though, after persuading her friends she didn’t want the trip to a male stripper’s club and would just want the money instead, she packed up and left the gang, riding to Seville and its’ great hover-port.

Leona and her bike took a bargain cargo transport system to Brazil, and in particular to Jamanha, the subterranean city that was the home of Piranha Advancements. Despite the fall of the F9000, Piranha had never fully set up shop, only going into silent contemplation as they allowed the Assegai technicians to return to Africa. It was when getting her first taste of Brazilian cuisine that she noticed a business-suited man desperately looking at a dead cellular device and calling for a taxi.

Finishing her meal, Silvaris approached the man and asked if he needed help. The businessman promised her ten thousand reals if she would simply follow his instructions to get him where he needed to go within half an hour. Twenty minutes later, Silvaris and her passenger found themselves outside the gate to Piranha Advancements Headquarters. Realising that the man worked there, Leona asked him if he could get her a job instead of the reals. Zack Vilmã, still trying to hold on to his own lunch after the speed that Silvaris had shown, motioned for her to follow him indoors. Five days later, Silvaris was testing the ‘Rockettooth’ prototype.

Leona is the only pilot to double up in terms of what she flies – as well as a permanent pilot for Piranha Advancements AG-team, she also participates in the Andes Endurance Hover-Bike championship yearly in a custom built device that uses the chassis of a Florida Panther hover-chopper and the engine out of an old FX300 Piranha prototype which she maintains herself, giving rise to the assumptions that she works on the ships along with the mechanics herself.

A loner amongst the pilot community, Silvaris prefers to keep to herself and her mechanics, though their recent boorish behaviour towards Assegai has meant she has drifted from the Brazilian squad of late. She has few friends amongst her fellows going into the FX500 league and one particular enemy in the form of Sibrand Van Saur of Icaras, whom she has almost come to butting heads with in terms of flight technique. Her racing talent is obvious for all to see, but with the Eliminator matches putting stress on pilot relationships it seems that Silvaris needs friends outside of Piranha to see her through the tough matches.

Second Pilot – Esteban Dominguez

An antidote to the quiet and withdrawn Silvaris, Esteban Dominguez is forever being heard including when he doesn’t need to talk. Verbose to the point of being a constant nuisance, the Mexican at least is willing to tell the engineers how he wants the ship rather than insisting that he does it himself. A lot of people in the paddock can’t quite make up their minds whether they’re irritated by Esteban or love him – for every time he’s made a public outburst or gone on incessantly about himself in a press conference, he’s managed to kick life into another meeting that’s going downhill, diffused a potentially dangerous situation between rivals or simply told a genuinely good joke.

Fifth son of a fifth son, Esteban grew up in Tijuana, Baja where the second race of the newly formed FX150 series took place, looping between Baja in Mexico and California in the United States of America on the imaginatively titled Death Valley Sprint race. As one of the few reliable restaurants about the Mexican part of town, Esteban came into contact with a lot of AG-race personell, particularly members of FEISAR who set up shop in Mexico to keep costs down from the expensive and primarily Auricom-focussed USA.

The young cook got himself involved in carrying food personally to the lead pilot of FEISAR at the time, the Grecian Thanos Ikrausus. Spotting the lad’s lust for more information about the leagues, Ikrausus asked Esteban’s father if he could let his son accompany him as a personal cook and aide over race events given how unpredictable the ones he was given by FEISAR could be. Mrs Dominguez complained loudly, but Diego gave his permission and Esteban was soon touring the world with Ikrausus. During the middle of FX250 though, there was a scuffle and an argument from inside Thanos’ quarters, and Esteban ducked out and fled the circuit.

He has taken after his new Piranha masters quite well in that he says little as to how he got to wear the red and yellow overalls, something he is at least quiet about and remembers to shut up concerning, but speculation says that he was hired by them for advice on the ship and was installed as first a test pilot and then a second pilot behind Silvaris when his knowledge of Ikrausus’ setup was determined to be accurate and useful.

Though he is obviously thankful for the break given to him by Piranha and the fame he receives back home in Mexico, there are dark clouds that follow the most talented chef on the grid around. His acceleration and timing is lacklustre and has left him either trailing the pack at the first corner off the line or overcooking the thruster like he did at Anulpha Pass during the FX350 series. He also is rather openly vocal about his dissatisfaction with the way the team always puts Silvaris first, claiming that on his lacklustre performance. But whatever is keeping him at Piranha’s door must be tempting, for he was not ignored when it came to retaining pilots this year...

Third Pilot – Morgan Victius 

Aries Piermont once famously went on record stealing one of Qirex’ most notable quotes at the height of their performance in the F9000 league that ‘not just anyone’ can fly for Piranha. Vilmã seems to have taken this to heart, and Piranha is only one of the mainstream teams that does not have a junior squad. When all squads at the beginning of the FX300 were told they could use their FX200 and 250 ships and any craft built to that specification for running a junior squad, Piranha was one that refused on principle rather than any monetary worries such as Qirex or Icaras had.


The old saying goes that what the fans want, the fans will get, and a private interest purchased an old Assegai ship under the claim that it was truly a Piranha with what the Africans had stolen from the Brazilians. The ‘Jaguar’ was painted bright red with yellow and white teeth marks and entered under the title ‘Amazon Fury’. Considered a curio by most of the established teams, with Piranha giving little to no assistance to their unofficial squad, it was little surprise when few pilots volunteered for the mock-Piranha squadron. The one who did make the cut was a boy who’d grown up racing jet skis around his home island of Antigua and had fancied himself as something of a pilot.

To the surprise of everyone, Morgan’s skill in the pirated Assegai was impressive, and aside from the Van-Uber squadron who dominated the proceedings with their light, nimble craft that aided the newcomers and gave rise to the new Korean star Park So-Gun, was ranked amongst the biggest surprises of the season. It was almost no surprise when he sealed the championship in the year of the FX350 and like a parent whose bastard child turned out to be a gifted student, Piranha snatched up the laid back and quiet Morgan.

Though ‘Amazon Fury’ has dropped back in the JX leagues now, Morgan is settling comfortably as a very unintrusive and capable pilot in the Piranha family. Like Esteban, he lacks assistance from his team in favour of Silvaris, but unlike Domingues he is unconcerned, saying that it was his job to impress the team enough to give him equal terms. This however is proving more difficult than he thought, trying to get used to the heavy Piranha from his paper-light Assegai days.

WipEout HD Fury - Harimau Team Profile

2 – Harimau International (Malaysia)

AntiGravity racing has never really been a nice easy subject to tackle. It is rare to find any team that is perfectly understood; whether it be the numerous dark deals Qirex/Tigron used to perform, eG-r/EG-X’s mysterious technologies or Piranha’s quiet about their in-house business. But everyone could make their assumptions and fill page upon page of speculation about what evils the above teams could be up to. But the AG-Commission got a shock in 2192 when a new team entered – at first there seemed nothing untoward about that, it was seen as good for business with a newcomer in along with Triakis’ second season. But never before had the team met such an open and friendly reception as with the Malay team.

Harimau International was an international peace organisation started at an unknown date by an American psychologist and a Malaysian writer who began making plush tigers and distributing them along with free care to disadvantaged children. The two women soon began selling extra books and toys on their website, with all the money going to one of the biggest genetic clinics on the planet with the idea of bringing back tigers into their wild after their extinction in 2100.

Mrs Speed and Mrs Suruni were eager to beat off the hordes of businessmen who clamoured to fund their business and triple output of toys. All of them were instead told to send their money into the building of a tiger reserve on the grounds of the old racing circuit in Sepang. The two women’s vision was completed in approximately 2179 with the birth of the first pair of tiger cubs for almost eighty years. There was quite the turnover (and huge amounts of successful reviews in the press) when the park was launched as people flocked from all over the world to see the newborn cubs and enjoy the leafy paradise outside of the bustling metropolis of Kuala Lumpur.

One of the visitors to this park was none other than Nicolo Testa, the head of operations of the Federal European Institute for Science And Research, one of the few teams to have survived the collapse of the F9000. He was fascinated by the work of Speed and Suruni, and to his surprise the respect was responded by the former, being a FEISAR fan during the days of AG-Racing.

Through a series of meetings between Testa, other FEISAR officials, interested Malay businessmen and the heads of Harimau International, the idea was initially set up for FEISAR to have a branch in Malaysia, but this was scrapped after objections were raised from the FEISAR board of executives about having a European branch in Asia. The plans were then instead changed for FEISAR to provide assistance for a new starting team in Malaysia. With the arrival of FX150 soon, FEISAR was finding that some of its’ old locations from the F9000 still had technology and skilled personnel who did not have a place on FEISAR’s new team due to the team member limit enforced as one of the new rules.

Instead, all these engineers were sent to Malaysia to begin work on Harimau’s take on the world championship. It was a slightly rocky ride, partly due to the difficulties the FEISAR employees had with suddenly working together in close conditions but mostly due to the fact that Harimau was mostly working on a budget with strict environmental guidelines. It meant that the team wasn’t ready to enter the world championship until FX250, along with Van-Uber. As newcomers to the league, their unveiling ceremony was not as hotly anticipated as their fellow entrants, and indeed the crowd was fairly small for the unveiling of the second Orange and White ship to grace the starting grid. Only Testa from FEISAR and Levovitch of Qirex attended the ceremony from other teams, though in light of the championship afterwards it has been debated if more praise was deserved for the Malay underdogs.

In a season that was surprisingly dull by historical records, Harimau managed to beat their rivals Van-Uber to the punch at seventh place, but few people took note of the achievement. In a season that had mostly seen squabbles between various teams instead of any flat-out racing, the tradition of Triakis-AGS on the front row followed by Qirex-Auricom, Assegai-FEISAR, what was another fight between the two new teams whose pilots weren’t quite as well known as those of the more established squads? It took the much more impressive FX300 season to turn that impression of Harimau International on its’ head though.

On the island of Makana throughout what was the most ambitious league since the fall of the F9000, Harimau thrust a light, compact ship with excellent handling into the mix and it did not disappoint. The H5 ship was a perfect balance of everything the pilots needed and they began to leave the heavy squabbling Qirex and Auricom ships behind to nip at the heels of the all-conquering Triakis and AG-Systems. And with Triakis disqualified at season’s end, that allowed Harimau to put the number two on their ship from next year. That if nothing else made the punters sit up. In only its’ second season of AG-racing, Harimau had gone from seventh to second. No team before or had made such strides in such short a time including the world title taken by Daniel Johnson in 2163, given that FEISAR itself only finished fourth in the constructor’s championship thanks to Carlos Beneto’s dreadful form.

With Triakis taken out of the picture thanks to the Reverse Inertia Decelleration System, when FX350 rolled around it seemed as though Harimau was the favourites for the championship – after all, their defeat to Triakis and then the shame of being ‘gifted’ the championship grated heavily on AG-Systems’ morale and they could do no better than fourth. But their rivals were still Harimau, the white and red duelling with the orange and yellow for third place. The lack of preparation for FX350 had not produced much advancements with the H6 ship and they lost out to Icaras and firm allies FEISAR, who took their fourth world championship.

Both AG-S and Harimau were back on track soon though, and put the Europeans back into third and fourth. Though the two teams became stern competitors, it never devolved into any sort of animosity or aggression between pilots or engineers. In the words of Thierry Caluroso himself ‘It’s difficult to hate a team when they’re being so damn nice to you.’

AG-Systems therefore is about the only thing Harimau has to any sort of serious rivalry as relations with almost every other team are good. Their old allies FEISAR are close friends on the grid, and Harimau has shown great support to their other newcomers to the grid, especially the shaky Mirage squadron. Qirex has also been a surprise recipient of a lot of Harimau’s goodwill, with Felix Levovitch being given a snow leopard cub to raise as an expansion of the Tiger Programme that Harimau ran throughout the FX400 season. Assegai have also been in talks about the possibility of helping the dwindling lion population in Africa, though not every team is as fond of Harimau as they are of everyone else.

Jessie Fairbank, the head of Auricom has called Harimau a ‘fad’ and nothing more, and Piranha have been aggressive towards Harimau’s attempts to gain access to their funded casinos and hotels where it is rumoured they have zoo exhibits with South American panthers and jaguars within.

Allies: FEISAR, Mirage

Rival: AG-Systems

Ship Details:

The H8 craft has undercut one of their rivals in a critical manner – Icaras now no longer has the lightest ship on the grid. Using spaced lattice composite technology, the wider ship is now flatter and sharper, giving it unbelievable handling ability and the lightness means that it is the perfect ship for ambitious jumps in, something that isn’t lost on Harimau’s lead pilot.

The 100% bio-fuel technology is not reaping the benefits it was intended to, and more typical energy sources are proving more efficient – that said with the new regulations, a lot more teams are looking into the options of powering their ships with regenerative technology and Harimau is more than willing to share what it finds, though this has lead to some competition – namely between Qirex and Mirage, as to whose solar-recuperation panels will have the best effect.

Lead Pilot – Foster Goh En Lai

Foster Goh En Lai was a surprise announcement for the lead pilot for the FX500 season after the departure of Zhara Preest of Switzerland, the development pilot that helped to win Harimau their respect in previous seasons. FEISAR’s old protégée returned to Europe to help the team privately, in particular with winter testing in the Alps on the site of the old Cubiss Float track. Given that Harimau always had an affinity with the Sebenco Mountain Range when they were in Makana and even had a small base built there, Preest looks set to help the European squad with preparations for the rumoured FX600 series which will feature races in differing weather conditions.

What it left Harimau with was a slight problem though. Sekhar Sahib had always been a good second pilot, and being very superstitious had begun to believe that his craft was the lucky one, being the second Harimau ship whether it be number five, eight or even when it was sixteen. So when he was offered the place of first pilot, he turned it down point blank, refusing to step from his #2 position. Instead, Harimau had to turn to their third pilot for promotion.

While there is some worry about how he will perform in race trim, the decision was met with widespread enthusiasm. Foster is possibly one of the best-loved pilots on the grid for his do-or-die approach to the tracks and his enthusiastic commentary style whenever he isn’t flying and takes the commentary box for SEA Radio, the main broadcasting channel for much of South-East-Asia. With his willingness to take a big leap in his career and wear the number four on his overalls, respect for the young Singaporean has risen greatly amongst his fellow pilots as well. Caluroso of AG-Systems was amongst the first to clap Goh En Lai on the back when he first heard the news and quite a few others joined in afterwards.

Despite his enthusiasm and support from the fans and team, Foster is known for being terrible at Zone Mode, and his highly-strung attitude will not lend himself to Detonator mode at all. As with their friends Mirage, Harimau may have to rely on their other pilots for expert flying in the Zone Battle events to come.

Second Pilot – Sekhar Sahib

One of the pilots from the first days of Harimau, Sekhar Sahib is an oddity amongst the grid as being the only non-rookie pilot to have never scored a clean race win. The golds he has won have mostly been due to other pilots’ mistakes, penalties, disqualifications, or the memorable moment when both Mika Repo of EG-X and Vincent Stephenson of Triakis hit a ‘lapped bomb’ on the last corner before the line at Sol 2, allowing Sahib to power through and take the gold, much to the fury of the latter.

The reasoning behind this is irritating to a lot of Harimau fans, but somewhat understandable. Harimau’s first ship in FX250, the H4, was a notoriously fragile beast and in his first ever race, Sekhar’s craft was eliminated by a well-placed shot from Torogu Ukantu’s Auricom and though the H4 had passed most of the necessary safety checks, Sahib was left frightened and shaken by his half-kilometre-long drop off the track until one of the rescue craft could pick him up. Ever since then, he has preferred single events such as time trial, speed lap and zone and lacks confidence in Single Race series.

In particular, Sekhar has developed a deep-seated fear of the Auricom team and doesn’t like to race with them when possible. The team are somewhat concerned about his prospects for Eliminator and his reluctance to take the #1 position has not given him a huge boost of popularity from the public. This looks to be a difficult season for Sahib, with the exception of Zone mode – Sahib is possibly the only pilot on the grid who likes Pro Tozo.

Third Pilot – Ishak Bin Yusof 

Bin Yusof comes to the FX500 grid with high expectations, being the reigning champion of the JX250 junior series, using old H4 craft for the Harimau Cadets team to take the championship and earn a place in the three-pilot ‘full’ series. Ishak was named as a ‘next big thing’ in most of the AG racing publications after his win, and his acceptance into the full Harimau team does not come as much of a surprise. However, there is some wariness about his performance by some experts. The following is an extract written for ‘Float Nation’ Magazine by race analyst Tieran Hawker.

“My congratulations go out to Ishak Bin Yusof for a fantastic victory at Talon’s Junction for Harimau Cadets, with which he seals the junior title ahead of main rival Mercutian De Gautet in the Van-Uber. With that performance, it will be no surprise at all if he gets the seat in the FX500 series with the H8. I wouldn’t go so far to say as that he’ll be very good at it though.

Bear in mind that almost all the previous graduates to FX from JX have not had too much of a gap to make – last year’s winner, Gabrielle Zuzovnitch for EG-X, had to move from a modified FX250 machine to an FX400 machine. Given EG-X’s lack of overall development over this time, it did not take too long for the Pole to slip in to the role comfortably. Bin Yusof however has to deal with switching from an H4 ship to the brand new H8, with almost twice the power and half the weight. It’s lucky that he’ll be starting at Venom speed and even then, he’s likely to be taken aback at just how fast the things are.

Not to mention he has to deal with the new modes, which will be completely alien to him, especially Eliminator. Why the organisers of the JX league didn’t think of putting Eliminator events in when they were there in FX400 escapes me. To be honest, Ishak would have been better staying in JX for another season, but the die is rolled. I wish him the best of luck, but I am not putting any money on the fellow.