Murder Pods

The crew solidify more details for their still unnamed fight attraction after much discussion. After a brief moment they check their bounties available for the first time, there are two which both are in the Diaspora asteroid system. First is to prevent a racer named Trisha from winning a murder pod race that is going to happen in a few days time, however she at least needs to start the race unharmed. Second is to capture someone named Irate Dancer for delivery unharmed with a potential bonus if they yield good information. They were in luck as the crew was already heading to Diaspora for this murder pod race as they had a parlay with Nova.

Falk then begins to wonder the best way to inhibit Trisha from performing and he gathers a sedative and a poison called Amblaree from a local source, if they can get her to somehow ingest either or these items it might do the trick.

Meeting up again with Turb and Skitty, Turb informs them that he did some upgrades to the ship also allowing to vend basic rations to them for the same cost as they were to buy on station or another vendor. Making their way on board and setting course to the Diaspora the crew familiarize themselves with the new interior upgrades to the ship, Skitty also showing off his new engineering prowess to his adoptive parents from learning what he could from Turb in a few short hours. Also during the flight Falk is wracked with terrible nightmares bringing up issues from his past and always involving tentacles, he's unfortunately shaken from these constant night terrors as he has over the course of the 3 days travel.

Midway through their trip they encounter three ships, one being a very large capital looking ship with two others that resemble Hellknight fighters in the past. Turns out they are Hellknights but from a different order, the Order of the Nail which hail the crew's ship. They recognized the ship's signature from the logs of two recovered ships of the Order of the Gate and began to lightly interrogate the crew about these ships. Quick scan by "Doc" at least showed the capital ship wasn't heavily armed but had an interesting launcher time weapon attached to it, they figured it was best to be diplomatic as possible with these patrolling knights. A few choice words from Atvar and Falk they were able to convince the Hellknights that they had no involvement with what happened to these ships as they merely ran into them leaving Akiton. They also confirmed they had no involvement with demonic entities directly more so bushed against them doing their own work on Akiton.

Thankfully the stories added up enough to appease the Hellkights for now, but for how long is the better question. They noted they are marking their ship's signature beacon down into their logs for further inquiry however after a few quick words yet again convinced them just to have it noted just in case. They did warn that if this ship enters Hellknight airspace investigating cult or demonic activity that they would be fired upon without hesitation.

On the last day of travel they approach the rock holding the murder pod race, notice the glowing green hue on large sections of it and multiple heavy turrets guarding it. Again hailed they crew accepts it, it's just audio of what sounds very much like a pirate inquiring about their business on the rock as they didn't show up on the list of beacons to expect in the area. After a quick double check they see them on the list but not for the race, for other Free Captain business and notes they are to talk to Nova. Warns them they are allowed to keep their weapons but says any funny business and they'll be blasted and moves the turret around to show their intentions on this. Falk inquires if they get attacked first and they simply retaliate if they will be blasted? The pirate chuckles and says well we'll see you sweat for a bit but on good faith we'll eventually break it up for you, no worries were there for that use case.

Upon landing they tell Skitty to watch the ship and make their way to an open landing pad on foot noting the makeshift atmosphere to suit their needs on the walk over. They see four racers either waiting or working on their speeders and five other empty speeders being looked after by one mechanic. Bossk gets to work fast and walks over to the first racer he sees and introduces himself under the falsehood as a better more or less looking for the best racer her can find here today. Turns out Bossk was in luck and eventually get's a name from the apprehensive racer and it's Trisha, one of their bounty targets.

Quickly hatching this plan Bossk sells the idea of performance enhancing drugs to her, quickly learning her disgrace from the main circuit forcing her to enter lower level and potentially more dangerous races after losing her sponsors. The desperate racer bites into the idea as she states she's put worse things in her system an at least will hear this Vesk out. Bossk calls Falk over to help better sell the idea to her over in the corner, thankfully he's a natural at selling drugs to others and is able to easily convince the Amblaree is a legit booster and not a poison that can blind her. She pockets the drug in her right sleeve to use as Falk instructed only once the race starts.

Meanwhile the others inquire about the empty speeders, the mechanic notes that the racers meant for them didn't make it in time and were probably intercepted by something else as Diaspora is known for holding many hostile forces. The group show interest in racing and he points them towards the inner bay of the landing pad to talk to Nova, which in their own luck was the pirate they also need to talk to. Vitaly makes the charge as he's excited to race with Atvar and the at first hesitant "Doc" to enter the race. Atvar was able to swindle with his fame to lower the entry fee of 100 credits to 50 leaning into his Blitz persona and current fame. The new racers quickly check over their bikes to ensure they are in perfect working condition and they are, Vitaly on the other hand was able to enhance his speeder to support his specific and large frame allowing him easier usage of the speeder.

Bossk finishing up the details with Trisha sees and talks with the crew over coms confirming the bounty setup and walks into the bay area as well to sign up for the race too following suit with the others, Falk chooses to stay behind just in case. During these exchanges Atvar convinces Grog to sign up for the fights back at their bar and also runs into another female presumed pirate in the bay area. However Grog fighting for their arena was only going to happen if the parlay with Nova goes well.

Soon after they settle on their speeders the intercom system calls out for the driver's meeting and pulls everyone into the bay area. Nova leads into a speech about what is expected today and the rules. She wants a clean race but not too clean it is murder pod after all, no intent to kill but if someone seriously gets hurt that is fine. Non lethal damage is preferred, she notes as this is a bit closer to the normal rules for murder pod. She points to the camera drones that are now hovering around the drivers meeting to convey way.

Quickly after that the racers setup at the race line over the dangerous acid pits and soon take off. Only half our four man crew seem to proficient enough on the speeders Atvar and Vitaly. "Doc" and Bossk manage to keep pace, Bossk eventually gaining some speed up later in the race. With each lap of the race a new racer seems to drop out of the race, first to go is Danika as her speeder took a barrage of damage from the other racers. Next was Scrappy as his larger pod meeting the same as Danika's as well as brandishing his own wound from Trisha laser pistoling him in the shoulder.

However the majority of damage to all pods (including a few fellow crew members) is from Vitaly throwing three grenades he had purchased a week back from Kious. This dis massive damage and helped disable three speeders this race. Enraged Bob Ricky tries to smash his speeder into Vitaly's unfortunately totaling in the process.Yet this didn't slow Trisha down as she easily snagged first place. As far as the crew can tell and Falk watching from the sidelines she did take the drug but nothing happened to her, potentially so many party drugs in her past boosted her immunity to the poison.

Atvar and Vitaly came in second and third place respectively as Atvar was able to make a few daring short cuts in the last few laps to gain more ground. Awarding the crew members their new earning Nova suggested they are able to talk whenever their ready, but first praising them enjoying the show from Atvar's shortcuts and Vitaly's ballsy play with the grenades inviting them to race again when they can. Bossk still plays into his bluff from earlier and congratulates Trisha on her win noting how their enhancement must have helped, maybe it was a placebo but Trisha agreed.

Meanwhile Atvar attempts to recruit Bob Ricky seeing as he could have potential as a fight, however he walks up to him a crying mess over the damage to his speeder. He notes he's note much of a fighter but is a better mechanic and racer, Atvar still seeing something in him potentially offers him a position too if they were to move that way as a business.

The parlay finally begins with all the crew attending and Nova's crew. She notes that Baba reached out and was confused as she had no idea what was going on. After some back and forth they were able to piece together mostly what happened being very careful on both sides not to reveal to much information on the inner workings of what went down (what did he actually steal and why, etc). Stoker or as the crew somewhat knew him by his nickname the Rat Pirate lord was a lower tier member of the Free Captains who wasn't touch much of after he started to let his crew use drugs very hard and stopped a lot of his normal duties. As Nova put it good riddance towards his death and could see why Baba was worries about the potential bad blood. She patched up any issues saying as they more or less did them a favour and said they were all clear as far as she was concerned giving a head nod to Grog, he fist pumps in joy now being able to fight at the crew's arena.

With business finished on Diaspora the crew head back home to their arena to a nearly finished renovated place, it was almost a week's worth of work after all. Upon arrival and inspection of the place they see Baba cleaning things up behind the bar as a Ysoki at the far left end sits waiting for them, it turns out it's Atvar's manager Ratio. He informs the crew he as both a line up of fighters and staff member waiting for interviews as he heard they were on their way over, the crew sets up at the bar and being the interview process with the fighters first.

A list of these interviewees for fighters can be found here. After the fighters a similar process happens with potential staff members here. Very pleased with the fighters and most of the staff the crew now have to formulate the first night opening for the arena by making brackets and have staff members fill specific roles whom they choose to hire. As delegation starts Gift shows up inspecting the renovations and the entire establishment in general as it seems to be his first time there after investing into it. Not much is said besides he looks forward to the opening night and not to worry about cost of staff as he's covering the first month. As he walks he makes interesting gestures and touches to thinks only a few notice, "Doc" specifically. Almost as if "Doc" was in another timeline he become upset at Gift's actions but upon further reflection he recants that and allows him to continue as he mistook a person who was there mainly for a cook interview as doing the things he was doing.

The crew work into the night to delegate the place's name, sponsors, and fighter/staff lineups for their soon to be opening night.