Overview

Zoomers are compact hover-speed craft designed for people who value speed more than survival. They are sleek, fast, and stylish. They are also the number-one cause of "unrecoverable impact death" in the Green Zone. Medical staff joke grimly that zoomer riders arrive in two conditions: early or never. Most riders never get to be late for anything.

Almost everyone prefers haulers, the stable, enclosed, practical vehicles used for civilian transport. Haulers have seats, windows, climate seals, and something resembling safety. A hauler can hit debris and survive. A zoomer can look at debris wrong and kill its rider.

Zoomers are a luxury for thrill seekers, couriers, daredevils, and people who believe they are too important to die, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Advertisers call them "freedom machines." Everyone else calls them "future funerals."

Design and Mechanics

Zoomers rely on four core components, each barely engineered enough to function and absolutely engineered to kill anyone who miscalculates.

Hover Lift Pair

Two main thrusters in the rear provide lift and forward momentum. They burn bright, often hot enough to leave scorch trails across pavement. In dry weather, they can set refuse piles on fire without the rider ever noticing. When they burn too weak, the craft sinks and skids along the ground like a stone skipping once before breaking.

Experienced riders learn to sense lift strength by vibration alone. Beginners learn by meeting the road face-first.

Front Stabilizers

Twin micro thrusters under the nose keep the vehicle level. They constantly adjust to wind, altitude shifts, and terrain interference. When one dies, the zoomer pitches violently to one side. When both die, the craft nosedives in a perfect, unstoppable arc. Riders call this "the dive of regret." It lasts exactly one second.

The stabilizers are also how riders perform sharp turns. They override the safety lock, angle the jets, and pray. The jets do not pray back.

Frame Chassis

A narrow hover-body only slightly wider than a person's hips. It has no armor plating. No impact shielding. No emergency shutoff system. It is a skeleton with thrusters attached, built for speed and not much else. If a rider flies into a wall, the zoomer breaks and so do they. The machine was never meant to protect anything except the profit margin of its manufacturer.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Riders customize their frames with neon, paint, or reflective plating. None of these improve survivability.

Direct Control System

Handles and foot braces respond instantly to rider input. There is no delay buffer. No forgiveness. No corrective smoothing. If a rider twitches, the zoomer twitches. If a rider panics, the zoomer barrels forward as though panicking is a valid form of acceleration.

The system was designed for precision. It is used almost exclusively by people who do not possess it.

Civilian Use

In the Green Zone, zoomers are a luxury toy. Young elites race them through tower gaps and wide sky-bridges, weaving between automated sky lanes. Some treat them like art pieces, polishing them more often than they ride them. Others treat them like personal declarations: loud, fast, and looking for witnesses.

In the Yellow Zone, zoomers are barely functioning salvage rigs. They are cobbled together from scrap, stripped parts, and whatever thruster components remain intact after traffic accidents. They run uneven, hover crooked, and occasionally explode just from being asked to do too much.

In both places, people call them death sticks, hover coffins, idiot arrows, and "the fastest way to lose a promising future."

Most people choose haulers.

Haulers carry multiple people. They have roofs. They have doors. They have temperature control and impact buffers. They let you live long enough to complain about traffic.

Zoomers let you gamble everything on thrill and ego.

Why ride one then?

Speed. Style. And a belief that death only happens to other people.

Zoomers cut travel time dramatically, weaving between towers and skipping over rubble that would grind a hauler to a halt. Couriers adore them because speed means survival. Show-offs adore them because attention means everything. And the wealthy adore them because luxury means never having to admit you made a bad decision.

Everyone else watches them scream past and mutters. "It's not worth dying to look cool."

Military Use

Zoomers have legitimate military function, though even soldiers roll their eyes when assigned to them.

Scout Units

Zoomers can skim across battlefields faster than mechs can pivot. They can hover just above ground-fire and dart through collapsed streets or tight corridors. Great for recon. Horrible for long-term assignments. Riders usually serve in pairs, rotating duties to recover from the constant adrenal shock.

Skirmish Runs

Zoomer assault riders perform hit-and-run attacks using lances mounted along the vehicle's sides. These lances fire narrow volleys of flechettes, tearing into targets at high velocity. Riders swoop in, fire a burst, and vanish before the enemy can recalibrate.

If the rider survives, the mission is considered a success. Survival depends on reflexes, terrain, and not making a mistake while traveling at suicidal speed.

Disposable Rockets

Because zoomers are literally hovering rockets with handlebars, militaries often strip the seat, remove manual controls, lock in trajectory, and fire them as explosive projectiles.

They are cheaper than artillery shells. They are easier to produce. And in skilled hands, they are more accurate, especially when guided manually for the first sixty meters before the rider leaps off and hopes gravity is merciful.

Zoomer barrages are infamous for the bright streaks they leave in the air, tiny streaks of light before something important explodes.

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