Now This Is Podracing!

[Qae Shena]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

"Yeah. Yeah. That sounds good. Best idea I've heard all day," Allaina had to admit. Her flying a pod was the best option, but that didn't mean it was a good idea. Turning a junker into a piece of working kit... not necessarily the best. And nobody had told her about the map until it was in her hands, so it wasn't something she heard, right? She could feel her stomach eating itself. This was so bad.

Slowly, Allaina let the breath she'd unconsciously been holding in for so long escape her as she relaxed into Siobhan's hand. "I need to study this map and get some decent sleep. Right after I calm the hell down some."

The pilot wasn't sure if she liked this very much. She really wasn't. But why was she second-guessing herself?

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Allaina Mare"]

It was indeed not an optimal idea. Turning a piece of scrap into a vehicle fit for a high speed, extremely dangerous race where the prize might be great, but the risks so considerable that it took a strock of madness to participate.

But then fortune favoured the bold and Omega was the awesomely Crazy Redhead Brigade. As initiation rites went, if Allaina passed this she would certainly be setting the standards pretty high!

"There, breath in, breath out. Gotta work through that tension and relax before you go out, race and win! I'll help with that. You'll wing it," Siobhan responded, rubbing down Allaina's back with her flesh hand before gently taking her by the arm and leading her away from the junk shop, then turning to pull her into a quick kiss.

Truth be told, as crazy as Siobhan sometime was, she didn't envy Allaina for the crazy ride she had to embark on tomorrow. But Allaina would win the bloody race, so Siobhan had decided, and she would help get her into the right state. Well, that and have some fun of of her own.

Fortunately, the hotel was quite close. Assuming they actually got there!

 

[Qae Shena]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Relax. Right. She could do that. She could totally do that. On their way out, she was more or less half a second from a total mental breakdown because of the total adrenaline high that came with worry about your life ending in a strange and scary way. Never mind being shot down in a fighter. Allaina was okay with that. On the ground, on her turf, it was unknown and scary. Omega Pyre was putting her there far more than she really needed to be. The pilot just didn't know how much of that she could take.

Then, for a moment, their lips met and she was stunned. Stunned enough that, when the feeling flowed back into her mind, she remembered everything she'd been trying to block out and it all melted away because everything was going to be alright. She wasn't going to die. She was Allaina Mare and she was being looked after by the best.

Everyone else was just going to have to wait until tomorrow, because there were things to do first that took considerably more precedence. Like Siobhan. Whatevercom calls she got, whoever wanted to speak to her, was getting ignored.

That door was very, very locked.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

While Siobhan and Allaina went and had a fade to black moment, Tegaea was left to finish up business. She paid Trant, then retired to the command room where she lay down to sleep for a few hours.

The next morning she rose early and armed herself with the equipment in the secret room. Then taking up a commanding position over looking the track she looked down over the city. It would be a day to remember for sure!

"@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"], go ahead to the race, I will monitor the situation from on high," she said into her helmet mounted commlink.

(I'll not start the race until everyone's ready, now we've fulfilled the criteria for the Dominion we can take it slower. Let me know at the bottom of your post when you're ready for me to move things on....)

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Allaina Mare"]

The door got slammed shut and locked very quickly. We can assume that our courageous and noble heroines used the time to relieve some tension and that Allaina found some measure of bliss before she would have to face the great risk of pod racing. Since the door had good locks, describing it in detail would obviously be impossible and inappropriate!

Moreover, Siobhan, being the comforting person that she was, had a tendency of getting violently annoyed when people snooped on her when attending to such matters, so this writer would not attempt such a thing!

A few hours later Siobhan was getting ready, putting her trousers on after coming out of the refresher, looking very satisfied with herself. She stroked Allaina's hair and then caressed her cheek, giving her a kiss.

"Hey, ready for your big race, hun?" she asked with a smile, sounding confident. "Ready to show everyone why you're the best pilot? You'll get it done. Then we'll go partying."

 

[Jak Sandrow]

Jak blinked lazily in his bunk - until he saw the time. He quickly got up, dressed, and turned on the caf. He got some breakfast ready for the others, and glanced at his handiwork gracing the garage.

He had been up late last night finishing it, but it was ready, the paint was dry, and Allaina just needed to test the response before flight. He was hoping she'd come soon; the race would be starting eventually.

 

[Qae Shena]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Well that was highly eventful. And amazing. Definitely a lot of amazing, Allaina thought to herself. She wouldn't say no to more of that, if there was time. Unfortunately, that time was being cut unmercifully short. After what felt like forever in the refresher, she stepped out to the rather glowing form of Siobhan, who made her flush for what felt like the millionth time in the past few hours.

"Ready, sure. I feel like I can take on the Empire and the Republic right now, not going to lie," she said, grinning, hand running down Siobhan's arm. "Thank you. That was just what I needed." A bit of sleep, studying the map, and the other bits, too. All of it. She felt confident and prepared, like she could actually win this race. Right. She had a pod, she had a ground crew, but more importantly she had the hope that she could do it, and the mind game was just as important as the actual skills involved. She knew that to be a fact.

Carefully, she reached for Siobhan's hand after she pulled her jacket on, shaking a few loose hair strands out of her face. "Alright. Let's go kick this bantha. I have a race to win and a lot of drinks to down afterwards, right?"

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Allaina Mare"], @[member="Jak Sandrow"]

Allaina's new-found enthusiasm was greeted with an even wider grin from a glowing Siobhan, who gave her a light swat on the arm before and then took the outstretched hand, giving her a quick kiss. She certainly would not mind a repeat performance, in fact she was rather looking forward to one.

"Awesome. That's my girl. Glad I was of assistance. There'll be a party after you've won," she chuckled a bit. At this moment her commlink beeped with a message from Tegaea. "On my way, boss. Our pilot's gonna rock this," she responded before killing the connection.

She gave Allaina's hand a quick squeeze and then led her out to the garage where they were supposed to meet Jak. Allaina could test the speeder there before going out and winning, now that she had regained her fire.

 

[Qae Shena]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] @[member="Jak Sandrow"]

"Of course you helped. If that wasn't helping, I don't really know what is anymore," Allaina shot back, very pleased with the events that unfolded for obvious reasons. Siobhan clearly cared. That much was obvious and Allaina couldn't deny that. It was nice to be cared for and looked after every once in a while. Besides, that hand-squeeze was nice. She gave Siobhan a warm, glowing smile, and went into the garage with her.

She examined her bright orange pod and found no problems with it. Yes. Very good. Vaulting into the control pod, she flicked the engines to life suddenly and ran them to max power, keeping the thing still and in neutral gear to start with just to test the systems. Power couplings, okay. Fuel feeds one through four, all green. Engines working to maximum capacity. Airbrakes. Steering vanes. Control wires.

"Okay!" she shouted over the roar of the engines, bringing them back down to idle. "Check for anything loose before we take this down to the track!" After all, couldn't have loose bits.

 

[Jak Sandrow]

Jak watched Allaina and Siobhan come into the shop. Allaina got into the pod and started it up. He saw the flaps move, and the air scoops shift. Yep, everything seemed to be working. "Test the spare fuel pod valve! Red switch on the left thumb control!" he shouted over the idling engines and the crackling binders. He assumed it worked, as shortly after, she switched off the engines and climbed out. "Anything out of place?" he asked her.

 

[Qae Shena]

@[member="Jak Sandrow"] @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

"Nope. The test went perfectly," Allaina said, smiling to herself. Yeah. This would do. This would do nicely. Her four-engined baby would carry her across that finish line in first place even if it killed her. It was a gorgeous pod now that they'd had a day to work on it. Alright.

"Siobhan, I think now is a good time to get this thing down to the track and start setting up a perimeter. I don't think we're going to do any more good here. Let's get a truck or a cart and get this to the track. I have a race to win."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Jak Sandrow"], @[member="Allaina Mare"]

Siobhan watched with a small smile while Allaina tested the pod's engines and other technical details. It seemed the pod would do just fine and Allaina's morale was back up. Now the competition just had to refrain from taking drastic measures during the race...but that was nothing a lightsabre could not solve.

"Splendid. Let's rock and win," the ex-Jedi responded happily, making a call on her comm. Shortly thereafter when Siobhan had helped herself to a sandwich and was starting to fulfil her cigarette quota for the day, a truck arrived on the spot and the pod was loaded up the ramp into it.

The streets of the city were packed, even at this early hour of the day. A Twi'lek voice, sultry in tone, was projected across the city, enticing off-worlders to come to the pod race and indulge in entertainments. Persons from varying species and walks of life streamed towards the racing track, our mercenaries would be able to make out a large queue of viewers eager to get the best places in the arena from which to survey the racing track.

Such was their eagerness that a few unfortunate souls were knocked down and then trampled upon when it looked like the officials at the counter would finally sell them tickets. Some of the viewers had been standing here since the early morning hours, such was the attraction of pod racing.

In due time a Hutt arrived with on a hover chair, surrounded by the usual assortment of lackeys and hangers-on. Needless to say the crowd was polite enough to part when such luminaries arrived, presumably with some muttering curses at certain persons getting instant access to seats.

A luxurious, armoured speeder swooped down onto the ground, bodyguards clad in red Mandalorian armour - though whether these were true Mandalorians or just mercs playing dress-up was another question - stepped out and flanked the skimmer before several ornately robed Gran, the Vice President of Massive Dynamic and a red Twi'lek female in a black dress stepped out. Brown eyes followed their movement as Siobhan kept her ganze on them whilst the truck drove towards the track, coming to a halt.

Several racers, most of them aliens, were already on the track with their pods, going through their last pre-race systems checks or were posing with groupies.

 

[Vora Kaar]

Zero had went to bed when everybody else did. He didn't like sleeping somewhere someone else could possibly kill him. He Woke up in the morning and reported to @[member="Tegaea Alcori"] where he would find out what he needed to do during the race. He didnt want to leave the Woman pilot out stranded with out any back up. Most likely he was going to take a speeder of his own and wait about half way down the track for them to arive. If everything was going okay he would move ahead of the pack to stay safe. it seemed like a good plan to him. He just hoped that Tegaea agreed with him on it.

OOC: IM ready when you are. boss lady.

 

[Hevana Martin]

@[member="Malica Drezyan"]

"Son of a..." Hevana said as she rubbed her head. How someone as short as her bashed her head on something was a mystery that she very much would like to solve. "I'm fine!" she called up. Clearly she was doing a brilliant job of impressing Malica, showing off all her brilliant moves. By slamming her head into something it should not even be able to reach.

Once the pain subsided she continued getting her stuff prepped. Given their plan, Hevana had opted to not wear her somewhat obvious armor. Which meant trying to hide all her weapons on her body, something not entirely feasible. Instead she had opted for a handful of smaller weapons. Her favorite vibroknife, as well as a couple daggers. Two blaster pistols, a few grenades, her light repeater, and a stunner rounded out the hidden armament. On her hip was a simple slug thrower so she did not appear completely unarmed.

By the time the ship arrived she was just trying to figure out if there was any way to conceal her missile launcher. Nothing seemed foolproof through, and in the end she decided the extra weight on a heavy planet was not worth it. After all how likely was it that she would actually need it for a simple pod race? That done, she heard the call from the front and realized she had let herself get distracted.

Rushing out of the ship, she was immediately greeted by being fifty percent heavier. Suddenly her normally light steps were no longer light, but at least she did not have to struggle to move. Getting her bearings, she made her way to where Malica was. "Did I miss anything?"

 

[Cira]

@[member="Jorus Merrill"] @[member="Ayden Cater"] @[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

Cira took another deep breath, dropping her hand from her face before turning over to Ayden and Jorus, "The plan is still the same. We'll roll with the punches, " she gave another grimace at the towering mud statue of Sarge. "And if we have to.... utilize this to our advantage."

Fingers motioned for them to follow her deeper into town. "Come on."

From what preliminary reports suggested, Garuba the Hutt had taken over the methane producing factories of Malastre, along with whatever slaves came around. They even had some Evocii wandering around as labor. Considering they were the new folk in town, they garndered much attention. Gammorean guards with twin broad axes patrolled this area, their beady black eyes watching them.

They soon came towards a large pourstone palace of sorts. Cira came to a halt. "There it is."

 

[Qae Shena]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] @[member="Jak Sandrow"] @[member="Tegaea Alcori"] @[member="Malica Drezyan"] @[member="Zero"] @[member="Hevana Martin"]

Race time. The pods were being dragged out onto the track and were lining up, the traditional colour march of the racer's flags following next. Allaina didn't even notice who was bearing the flag of Omega Pyre, for sh was too busy in her seat with her new crash helmet on, goggles over er eyes, looking like a predator ready to devour its prey. Her systems were ready. Her pod wasn't perfect because it didn't have some kind of baby SLAM drive in it, but it would certainly do.

The four engines roared to life as one, while the other racers did the same. The announcers went on in Huttese about the race itself. The fans were cheering. She knew only a handful of them were cheering for her, the unknown. Nobody but the Omega crew knew who she even was. There was little cheer for her. She didn't need it.

Toggles switched, power roared through her pod. Her hands rested on the control levers, thumbs resting on the five-way fuel flow feeds on the end of her control sticks, feet for braking paired engines. Her throttles were roll controls. This was going to be absolutely amazing.

Above, the numbers counted down. The crowd was practically screaming them out, anyway.

Three.

Two.

One.

GO!

An army of pods raced forward through towards the canyon and a blur of orange was already making its way through the pack.

 

[Jak Sandrow]

<A green pod was near the front. Mlukta Rotreno, a famous Gran favourite, was the local champion. He could outrace anyone on the track, and using illegal weapons was not below him. The officials turned their eyes when it came to inspecting his pod, as he was directly under the employment of the local Hutt drug lord. No upstart would dare cross him.
Already he was leading the pack. It would be no trouble at all to win this race. He reviewed the racers in his mind.

There was Chu'nte'reth, a Chiss favourite. He would be no trouble at all: he was too "honourable" to cheat.
There was also a Dug, Baltor, but he was secretly on Mlukta's side.
There was a young Gran (he couldn't be bothered with his name) who would be trying to win the Hutt's favour. He would be the first victim today.
And there was a late entry. A Human female, of all species. Her species were notorious for being terrible podracers. However, he remembered that, about 900 years ago, there was a Human boy who won a podrace at the age of 9. He would have to keep an eye on this female.>

 

[Qae Shena]

There were four pods in front of her; she didn't care about the pilots. She was going to break them all. And hopefully her heat vents wouldn't be too much of a problem to use.

The first turn. The canyon walls were high, a perfect sniper's lookout. She'd have to be careful there because it was almost guaranteed there'd be someone waiting to take out the competition.

Through a cave, into the rocks, dodging and weaving through the darkess. This high speed wasn't anything she couldn't handle. Her focus tightened. She'd need it.

 

[Malica Drezyan]

@[member="Tegaea Alcori"] @[member="Hevana Martin"]

"You got it, Tegs," Malica said, looking forward to the intelligence mission. The podrace arena was full of Massive Dynamic associates and most of them had already taking advantage of the local cantinas. The mercenaries and bodygaurds looked alert and the easiest way to get past them was to be on the arm of some higher-up, drunken commander. Malica activated her datapad and flipped through her codex, committing the faces of a few Massive Dynamic captains to memory. These men would be the gateways to the information that could give Omega Pyre an edge over the other competitors in the podrace and a grasp on the valuable Malastare fuel lines.

Malica watched Tegs, Siobhan, and Allaina march off to prepare for the race and wished them well. The group of women disappeared into the crowd as Hevana rushed up from the direction of the landing port. "Ah, just who I need," Malica said and started digging through her satchel, “We've got a job to do.” She threw Hevana a maroon dancing outfit. The color would compliment Hevana's complexion and brunette hair. Malica chose her signature gold outfit for herself. “How do you feel about seducing some valuable information out of a group of Massive Dynamic leaders?” Malica smirked, “Sound like fun?”

The arena was littered with scantily clad women perched next to wealthy gamblers who were betting on the outcome of the podrace and watching the pre-show activities. Two more groupies around the arena would hardly be noticable.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Allaina Mare"]
Siobhan had found herself a position high up in the arena, through some good use of bribing and bullying. Contrary to what one might think, she had resisted the temptation of trying to seduce the enticing groupies and servant girls who strutted around, offering drinks and refreshments to the guests on the upper levels.

She surveyed the race through her binoculars, her gaze falling on the green pod of the Gran, then to the Massive Dynamic VP and the Gran dignitaries a level below, who were laughing and enjoying refreshments.

Footsteps sounded behind as boots clamped on the ground. Two men walked up, with the arrogant swagger of hired muscle though they tried to look inconspicuous in civilian clothes, but their trenchcoats undoubtedly concealed weapons. Outwardly Siobhan showed no reaction, turning her eyes to the race.

A Twi'lek sniper was perched on the canyon walls, carefully concealed, holding a long-barelled rifle he took aim. Gradually the racers came into his crosshairs...who he was going to shoot at was another question.