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Hovercycle

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Hovercycle
Ambush by Ernanda Souza.jpg
by Ernanda Souza
Type Aircraft
World of Origin Canticle
Universe Cosmere
This page or section contains spoilers for The Sunlit Man!
This information has the ability to potentially ruin elements of the plot for the reader. Proceed with caution if you have not read this book.

“Impressive, can everything on this planet break apart into smaller, functional pieces? If we crash this thing, is it going to disintegrate into a hundred even smaller cycles?”

—Nomad on hovercycles[1]

Hovercycles are a class of airship on Canticle primarily used for personal or small group transportation.[2] Hovercycles have both 4-seat and 6-seat variants[3][4] (the former being called a quadcycle)[5] with each seat able to detach from the central fuselage and operate independently.[1] Like all other ships on Canticle, hovercycles are able to attach themselves to other ships to create larger structures.[6][7][8][9][10]

Design and Use[edit]

Hovercycles are open-air vehicles, with only short windscreens at each seat to protect against the elements.[3][2][8] They are able to move faster than the sun across the planet[3][6] and can maintain flight from as little as a few feet above the ground up to a height of approximately fifty or sixty feet.[3][6][4][9][11] Flying low to the ground is typical while flying near to the sunrise to stay out of the light.[6][10] Hovercycles are highly maneuverable vehicles, though there are some other ship types on the planet that can outpace their speed.[2][12][13][14]

Cycles are turned on by pulling a lever and pushing a button, a sequence that is not immediately intuitive.[4][15] Flight controls include an accelerator operated by the rider’s left foot [12] and a throttle which likely controls steering and may also play a role in acceleration.[2] Hovercycle controls are relatively simple to learn, likely a result of necessity in a society that is in nearly perpetual flight.[1]

Hovercycles typically have no headlights making navigation through the dark and stormy areas of Canticle dangerous and presumably rare under normal circumstances.[8] However, floodlights can be fitted onto them for specialized purposes.[16][14]

Multi-Seat Cycles[edit]

Unlike many of the other ships on Canticle which are bulbous in construction,[5][17] hovercycles are long and thin machines with a central fuselage and either four or six saddle-style seats in rows of 2 each with their own controls, windscreens, and propulsion systems. [3][2]The central core houses a hatch in which a sunheart provides the machine power.[2] While attached to the core, the seat in the left front position acts as the operator for the larger fuselage.[4][5] While hovercycles are large enough to hide behind to block line of site, they cannot withstand bullets when fired upon[4]

When attaching to a city, a cycle moves in sideways and locks into the city's edge.[6] The engines remain on and add their lift to that of the city.[6][7][15] After locking onto a larger structure, hovercycles can be altered to more seamlessly blend with the city for long term storage. Panels are placed above each seat and the windscreens are folded down. While folded in, the hovercycle looks like a thick rectangle of steel bolted to the side of the city, reminiscent of a closed multitool.[15]

Single-Seat Cycles[edit]

Each separable cycle is approximately five feet wide[10] and has a single leather saddle-style seat.[15] The crafts each have their own windscreen, controls, and engine as well as a strap or belt to secure the rider.[3][2][8] The seat can be lifted to reveal a storage space below for a tow cable.[18][19] A single-seat cycle can operate normally carrying two people, though there is not much room to maneuver while doing so.[10]

To detach one of the seats, the rider turns a nearly flush handle on the side of the seat which splits open a portion of the fuselage including the seat and some of the surrounding metal. After detaching from the central core, sections at the front and sides simultaneously fold out to form into an independant hovercycle.[1] Each separable seats contains a battery which draws power from the main body that can last for approximately one Canticlite hour before needing to reattach to charge.[1][16]

Engine Design[edit]

Hovercycle engines are approximately the size of a large melon and are powered by a sunheart.[2][20] While active the engines and the resulting ejecta glow the same red-orange color as the sunhearts themselves[2] and produce a noticeable roar while climbing, dropping, or accelerating.[6][4][12][9]

The engines draw in a large amount of air through intakes and use Investiture from the sunhearts to superheat the air in some kind of compressor, possibly generating plasma. The superheated air and possibly also some Investiture in the form of raw energy then pass through nozzles and out the jets on the bottoms of the cycles to provide upward thrust.[11][20] The ejecta has a fiery look and produces enough heat to warm metal or fry plantlife while flying near the ground.[3][6][4] Because the atmosphere is unusually thin on Canticle due to the planet’s size, this use of heated air as the propellant limits the maximum height that ships can reach.[11][20]

Instrumentation[edit]

Hovercycles are equipped with a number of instruments set into a console dashboard with lights that allow for their use even in poor visibility.[8] These include a navigation system that can guide the rider toward a broadcast signal,[8] a time-keeping instrument,[14] and a gauge that displays how much flight time remains in the battery of a single-seat cycle when detached from the main fuselage.[12] The cycles are also equipped with a radio or a similar Connection-based communication device. The radio has a green on black indicator screen housed on the cycle’s dashboard and blinks when receiving an incoming signal.[8][1][12][18]

History[edit]

Nomad and Auxiliary arrive on Canticle and hitch themselves to the hovercycles of the Cinder King’s Charred to escape the sunlight. Nomad is dragged along behind the cycles as they make their way to Union.[3][6]

At Union, the Beaconite’s execute their rescue operation from a squadron of hovercycles, dropping seed bombs into Union’s arena. Rebeke and Divinity bring their quadcycle down to the floor of the arena to rescue Elegy and are fired upon by the Cinder King. Divinity is killed and Rebeke is forced to hide behind her hovercycle for protection. Nomad offers to use Auxiliary as a shield in exchange for passage off Union, a proposition Rebeke is forced to accept. Rebeke drives them toward Beacon carrying an incapacitated Elegy and an injured Thomos while Nomad shields the back of the quadcycle.[4][2]

Nomad pretends to stumble and drop a rifle earlier stolen from the Charred, really storing it on the underside of Rebeke’s hovercycle using Auxiliary for later retrieval. The cycle arrives at Beacon and locks into the city. After meeting with the Greater Good, Nomad retrieves the stored rifle, noting that the hovercycle had been converted to become part of Beacon’s deck.[2][8][15]

Nomad and Rebeke take the quadcycle along with other Beaconites on their own hovercycles to scout the area where they believe the Refuge of Stone to be located. Nomad spots a scout on a hovercycle sent by the Cinder King and gives chase. Rebeke kills the outrider with her rifle and his cycle crashes. Rebeke gets out her tow line intending to salvage the crashed cycle but is interrupted by the arrival of the Cinder King’s own ship. After a short parley, Nomad and Rebeke escape on Nomad’s cycle but are forced to leave Rebeke’s behind.[5][1][12][18][9][10]

Nomad uses an engine extracted from a hovercycle to learn how Beacon’s engines work so that he can figure out a way to get the city over the mountains. He learns that the engines use the surrounding air as a propellant and that they will not work in a vacuum without some modification. With the help of Solemnity Divine, Nomad creates multiple prototypes for the modified engines using hovercycles, resulting in at least one explosion. He takes a final prototype cycle on a stress test of the design and determines that the modifications work.[11][20][21][16][14]

Notable Examples[edit]

Trivia[edit]

  • Nomad has flown similar vehicles in the past and can likely figure out the controls with only a little instruction.[22][1]
  • After the death of their mother, Divinity installed his and Rebeke’s mother’s sunheart into Rebeke’s quadcycle so that she could have it near her.[1]

Notes[edit]

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i The Sunlit Man chapter 13#
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k The Sunlit Man chapter 6#
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h The Sunlit Man chapter 1#
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h The Sunlit Man chapter 5#
  5. ↑ a b c d The Sunlit Man chapter 12#
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h i The Sunlit Man chapter 2#
  7. ↑ a b The Sunlit Man chapter 3#
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g h The Sunlit Man chapter 7#
  9. ↑ a b c d The Sunlit Man chapter 16#
  10. ↑ a b c d e The Sunlit Man chapter 17#
  11. ↑ a b c d The Sunlit Man chapter 19#
  12. ↑ a b c d e f The Sunlit Man chapter 14#
  13. ↑ The Sunlit Man chapter 18#
  14. ↑ a b c d The Sunlit Man chapter 28#
  15. ↑ a b c d e The Sunlit Man chapter 8#
  16. ↑ a b c The Sunlit Man chapter 27#
  17. ↑ The Sunlit Man chapter 33#
  18. ↑ a b c The Sunlit Man chapter 15#
  19. ↑ The Sunlit Man chapter 30#
  20. ↑ a b c d The Sunlit Man chapter 20#
  21. ↑ The Sunlit Man chapter 23#
  22. ↑ The Sunlit Man chapter 11#
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