Now This Is Podracing!

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"I got your signal. I'm coming up right now," Siobhan declared to @[member="Tegaea Alcori"], running up. Guests and thugs parted before, picking up on the fury that was emanating from her. As she bolted she activated her comm, alerting the crew at the ship.

As she moved upward she found her path blocked by more Mandalorians. One of them levelled his light repeater at her, his voice came across as mechanical through his helmet. "This area is restricted. Please return back down and enjoy the race."

Siobhan glowered at him, then without further warning her sabre flared to life and flew out of her hand, separating his head from the rest of his body below the neckline. As he tumbled to the ground like a headless puppet she stretched out with the Force to retrieve the sabre, but one of the thugs threw himself into its path, knocking it down.

She felt a hard pain in the back of her head when another Mandalorian slammed his gun into it and reeled, but then jumped when a third came at her with his blade, thrusting out her boot to kick him in the neck. She landed on the ground, dodging a strike to her side and grabbing her knife from her boot to throw it at an attacker.

The weapon bounced ineffectively off his armour, but this was the opening she needed to retrieve her sabre with a telekinetic grip and bring it up to spin fast when blaster bolts came shooting her way. One attacker was riddled with reflected bolts and fell down, then Siobhan stormed forward, slashing at her assailants in a fast, merciless flurry.

The first, coming at her with a blade, died when she sliced down from his midsection into his legs, the other got caught by a slash into his right shoulder. Undeterred he forced him up and came at her with a blade, striking hard but clumsy due to his wounds, but Siobhan dodged and with a tug from the Force slammed him into a wall so hard she heard his helmet's visor crack, blood splattering it.

Siobhan did not spend time catching her breath, but advanced upward, sensing that Tegs was getting closer.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Still holding her side, Tegaea eased herself down the stairs, leaning on the wall for support. The sound of the battle came through to her, and when @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] has entered she'd had her gun ready, then lowered it.
"I'm here, Siobhan," she said. She tried to look strong, as though this was just another normal say, but the side of her armour was sheeted in blood.

 

[Qae Shena]

"That's a last resort, Jak," Allaina said quietly. "That guy shot, he was the big cheater, and now he's out of the race. He'll come at us afterwards. Just get me through the last two laps."
Allaina waited for Jak to be finished. Kark, what was taking so long?

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"Good to see you." Siobhan deactivated her lightsabre, breathing a sigh of relief upon seeing Tegaea and gave her loose hug, before pulling away to scrutinise her wound with a concerned look on her face.

She tore off most of her sleeve to wrap it around the bloody parts of the armour as an improvised bandage, then helped prop Tegaea up, leading her down, with her gripped tightly in one hand. "Got a medic on ground level in a safe room."

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Tegaea let herself be helped into the safe room and then painfully removed her armour. Underneath it and the bodyglove she was only wearing a tanktop and some gym shorts.
"Anything to get me out of my clothes, huh?" she asked Siobhan with a chuckle.
The medic came and assessed the wound. It wasn't especially dangerous, but it would be painful for a while, and she had lost a fair amount of blood. A bacta patch, a dressing and some pain killers later and Tegaea was back on her feet, but in no condition to fight.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Despite herself Siobhan could not resist chuckling a bit at Tegs' lame joke. After all, given the fact that her own lines tended to be as corny as a maize field, she could hardly complain.

"Well, that armour does not like kinda uncomfortable," she responded with a small smile. "You ok?" She watched over @[member="Tegaea Alcori"] as the medic applied bacta patches and gave her some painkillers. That's my girl. "Looks like Massive Dynamic's taking the gloves off. Took out a few lackeys. You heard from Allaina?"

For a moment Siobhan wondered where Cira and compnay were. She had not heard from them since they landed on the planet, when they thought about it. But they were probably doing just fine.

 

[Jak Sandrow]

(OOC: Been taking so long b/c I need to sleep!)
Jak finished the repairs and signaled for her to go. She left the pit in a cloud of dust and debris.

 

[Malica Drezyan]

@[member="Hevana Martin"]

"Your body is your weapon." Malica responded. "Bring what protection you can conceal, but don't rely on it to get you through this mission."

Malica quickly changed into her outfit and waited outside for Hevana to finish changing into hers. She was pleased when Hevana emerged. The fabric, or lack thereof, hugged Hevana's curves and complimented her delicious body, despite the two women's difference in height. With her arms crossed, Malica circled Hevana, making sure the straps were fastened correctly. She spotted a loose one on her shoulder and deftly retied it.

“You look perfect.” Malica whispered from behind into Hevana's ear, satisfied with her work. She strode forward to face the woman. “Let's head down to the arena.”

Of course, Malica could sense Hevana's apprehension, but as Malica had often learned, the best way to conquer your fear was to jump right in and experience it. Malica wouldn't allow Hevana think too much about whatever it was that kept her from being the bold seductress she knew she was. As the two women weaved through the crowd, Malica responded to cat-calls and jeers with colorful curses. She winked at Hevana, hoping the woman was having a bit more fun.

Malica stopped at the back edge of the arena and pointed down. “You see them?” She asked Hevana, “Those are our guys.” A small group of Massive Dynamic members, protected by three Mandalorians, were absorbed in the podrace. On a datapad in the middle of the group was Jorn Nise, the engineer of the Massive Dynamic pod. Malica recognized him from her codex due to his striking Chiss features. Davik Katsure, a Corellian human and the second engineer, sat close to Nise. He spoke into a comm, which kept them in contact with the engineer working on the track. While their comrades got drunk and shouted at the passing racers, Katsure and Nise were calm. The graphs on Jorn Nise's datapad rose and fell. He was tracking the pod's heat level and the stats of the Massive Dynamic racer.

“There's a reason why our racer is the the local favorite, sir" said Katsure, relaying the last message from his commlink to Nise. "Our man on the track said he just destroyed a rookie not far from the canyon.” Davik assumed Nise hadn't heard over the crackling signal and rowdy crowd. Sure enough an announcement echoed over the arena: "GRAN ROOKIE DEFEATED AND THEREFORE DISQUALIFIED."

“That young racer deserved his fate.” Nise said nonchalantly in his smooth Imperial accent. He knew their racer had demolished another pod when the datapad graphs spasmed. His long fingers slid across the screen to continue to monitor every inch of the pod. “Rotreno will do the same to Omega Pyre.” Nise spoke into his headpiece to Rotreno [@[member="Jak Sandrow"]] "Minor damage recieved on left engine. Repair at your earliest convience." The pod could withstand a few more loops, but with Massive Dynamic's reputation on the line, Jorn Nise would take no chances. They were far from amatuers. Nise to turned to Katsure and demanded, "Tell the Dug to prepare for a left turbine replacement." Katsure immediately transfered orders to their Dug repairman via commlink.

Malica frowned for a moment to think and then turned to Hevana. “This is the plan: we are employees from Club Ishtar, it's a cantina not far from here. Siobhan mentioned that Massive Dynamic members are frequent customers there. We will act as complimentary service to thank Massive Dynamic for their patronage. Let's say our proprietor wishes to have them join him back at the club following their victory in the race.” Malica felt pretty good about that part. It was common for cantina owners to badger associations during the race to come to their establishments following it to spend their credits. She'd done it at several swoop races on Tattoonie. Now for the specifics. “You go for the human, I'll go for the Chiss. He's calling all the shots here because he made that piece of junk Massive Dynamic is riding on.” Malica said. “I'll pay attention to the info on his datapad and get him to brag about how he plans to destroy Omega Pyre on the track.”

"It's your job to get info out of the guy next to him. He's his assistant and knows everything about that pod. This way, we can report the weaknesses back to Tegaea and make sure they don't fall for any of Massive Dynamic's traps. If you have any problems, I'll be right next to you." Malica squeezed Hevana's hand for good luck. "Let's do this.” Malica grinned like a crazed Jedi Apprentice about to slay a Krayt Dragon and gestured for Hevana to follow her.

On the way down, Malica managed to swipe a discared drink tray that belonged to an unaware dancer, who was busy sitting on the lap of some wealthy politician. She handed it to Hevana, but not before redistributing the alcohol so it looked like there was more to it than dregs. They approached the Massive Dynamic group and Malica was about to announce a snarky greeting when a Mandalorian drew a blaster so close to her face she could kiss it.

“Udesii, ori'vod,” Malica said, jaw trembling, “Mhi laandur, olar copaanir vencuyanir.”

“Ulur, ad'ika.” The Mandalorian responded, his muffled metallic voice serving as a threat itself. He lowered his gun and made it clear that she and Hevana would be closely watched as they interacted with Nise, Katsure, and the group of Massive Dynamic commanders.

 

[Qae Shena]

@[member="Jak Sandrow"] @[member="Malica Drezyan"]

Apparently detonating an engine with a bolter round in a pod wasn't evnough even though she'd seen them explode from less. He'd still never, ever catch her because taking out one engine block on a pod was going to wreck its speed and balance and it would never be the same. Right then. Time to kick it up a notch or five.

Allaina keyed fuel to max.

Her pod raced through with that additional bit of thrust, having to gain a position or two against the losers on the field. She was going to have to work hard to fight the G-forces and keep at her task; her total skill as a pilot was going to be necessary here. She might not have Jedi reflexes like Siobhan, but she was Allaina karking Mare. Nobody, and she meant absolutely nobody, could out-fly her. A dedicated lifer pilot in the prime of her career was going to damn well act like it. Her face was starting to go white and her body shaking, but she'd make this race. She'd see out every last second.

Through turns, canyons and caves did her amazing vessel of glorious victory run, carrying the only human pilot that could pull this off in all of Omega Pyre to her final victory. She would raise the flag. If she didn't? She'd be dead.

 

[Jak Sandrow]

<Mlukta swore as he pulled into his pit. He was somewhat surprised at his swearing, but he knew the RP staff wouldn't mind too much, because it was his character, right? Anyway, he managed to pull out of his pit just behind the female. Unfortunately, he couldn't seem to get around her at all. So he shrugged and flipped a few switches on his control board. His engines burst into life with new vigor, and began to exceed the maximum safety speed. He pulled out a blaster pistol and was about to fire directly through the female's pod, drilling her through the skull. He aimed. He squeezed the trigger, just slightly, in anticipation.>

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Tegaea Alcori"]

While Allaina was showing the Galaxy her prowess as a pilot and Malica and Hevana were conducting a deep infiltration mission in Club Ishtar, Siobhan was spending her time in the safe room with Tegaea, where the boss had just been patched up by a doctor after her impressive fight with the Mandalorian assassins.

A few holographic projectors and monitors had been set up in the room. A technical team had been working on intercepting broadcasts and hacking into cameras, giving Siobhan a view of the race. Apparently a Gran rookiee had been knocked out, but Allaina was still well in the race, hence Siobhan studying it quite intently.

She felt a surge of excitement when she saw Allaina's pod, as much as she would have liked to go out and teach the senior managemt staff of Massive Dynamic a lesson about not messing with Omega. By now the Massive Dynamic Vice President would have learned that his assassination attempts had been foiled.

For now she kept her eyes upon the computer monitor, watching Allaina. She would win, Siobhan was certain of that. As for afterwards, well, one should not get too far ahead of matters.

 

[Jak Sandrow]

@[member="Allaina Mare"]
<Mlukta hesitated, lowering the blaster pistol. He finally decided against shooting. That would be going too far, even for him. He swered to dodge an obstacle, and found himself even farther behind the female. He grinned in a challenge. Blaster, no. "Accidental" bump, definitely yes. He grinned even more as he positioned his engines beside the female's control pod. He would bump her pod, jostling her, he decided. Then, while she was off-balance, he would move up slightly to bump her engines into a wall. It would look like a complete accident. He readied his controls, noticing for the first time that his palms were sweating in anticipation of the finish.
For some reason, he also felt a bit of dread. He pushed it aside as a paranoid fear of losing.>

 

[Qae Shena]

And in the interest of finishing this thread in a timely manner, things continued on.

Allaina was guaranteed this win now. There were some rookie pilots behind her, but only one in all the other laps had given her any kind of challenge. Good. This race was hers. Barring the sudden incursion of, say, some mercenaries, she had this one in the bag. Wealth, fame, glory. Wenches, maybe, if she didn't collapse of exhaustion. Her palms were sweating and her body shaking hard for a damn good reason.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Allaina's triumph seemed inevitable, something which caused considerable consternation in the booth where the Massive Dynamic Vice President Qassim and the Gran dignitaries were seated.

To say that the Vice President was unhappy was a gigantic understatement, he was seething. So many credits had been invested in this venture, now it seemed the cowardly Gran were flailing and rethinking their bargain.

His security chief walked in slowly, handing the Vice President a note and whispering into his air. "Our operatives were terminated. The assassination attempt failed, sir."

The Vice President reddened and clenched his fist, trying to maintain control. He shot the Gran a sharp look. "And the blasted Mare woman is in the lead. We invested considerable sums in this operation. But our deal still holds, we bought a majority of the council and we have arrangements with the Hutts."

A Gran representative, elaborately dressed, shook his head. "That deal was based on the premise of you guaranteeing that Omega wouldbe crippled and unable to intervene. We have to think of our own interests."

Quassim jabbed his finger at him. "Consider who you're dealing with. You're in too deep to back out now. We have enough compromising information to ruin every councillor. This race is just a minor impediment."

The Gran got up and headed to the door. "And we made tapes of every conversation. I'm sure your competitors would be interested in hearing the details, if you try and threate us. Malastare backs winners....as long as they keep winning."

With that he walked out. The Vice President shot his security chief, who had remained silent, a furious look. "This is outrageous? I hope you have a damn good explanation for CEO Gandal. It was you who hired those Mandalorians."

The security chief shrugged. "And your man guaranteed us our racer could beat anyone, sir," he said calmly. "The Mandalorians were hired through a third party. We maintain plausible deniability and will deny everything. I'd be more worried about Ms. Ran Diso's judgement."

The Vice President paled for a moment, then brushed that statement aside, taking a deep breath. "Get me a secure line to the Board. The traitorous Gran will get what's coming for them and Omega will rue the day it encroached on our turf."

While this converstion took place Siobhan had left the compound and out on the racing track, waiting for Allaina to arrive at last.

 

[Qae Shena]

For the sake of simplicity? One lap later and BAM! Victory! Nobody messed with Allaina Mare.

The crowd was cheering, screaming victory. All the other racers were dead or out of the race thanks to damage. She was the only one who made it across and the people were cheering for her. Her name. Her win. Omega's glorious dominion.

Except she never heard it as, white-faced and her pod in the middle of the track near the finish line, she collapsed from over-exhaustion. Her body just couldn't handle it the way she'd hoped she would. She was a space pilot, not a ground pilot - but she'd won. She had won. Absolutely won the greatest challenge of her life... and the riskiest, too.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Victory was Allaina! If there were bells on Fondor, they would be ringing, the stocks for OP skyrocketed and the crowd cheered the glorious racer. Well, except those that had backed Massive Dynamic and the other competitors, but then nobody cared about them. With this victory Omega control over Malastare was assured.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the winner is...Allaina Mare!"

Needless to say Siobhan was at the race track when Allaina's pod arrived and rushed straight to her. She arrived just as the pilot collapsed from exhaustion. She was in a bad way, white-faced. Siobhan quickly opened the pod and took off her seat belt, gently picking Allaina up and cradling her in her arms, looking concerned.

"Allaina's won, like we knew she would! She's unconscious, taking her to the medbay. Be ready." Cheering fans had raced to the pod as well, eager to get a look at their new idol but a glare from Siobhan of the 'don't mess with me variety' meant they parted ways and let her walk through. A medical team was already there to greet her as she quickly carried the unconscious pilot through the crowd and the mercenaries that were watching.

Vice President Quassim was standing next to a speeder, engaged in a furious holo-conversation. He scowled at Siobhan and Allaina when they walked past, feeling cheeky Siobhan gave him a wave!

 

[Qae Shena]

She woke up.

The room was stark white and Allaina could feel the cold press of durasteel against her spine. There was a distinct antiseptic smell to the entire room, too. And there was an IV plugged into her arm, making sure she was re-hydrating and functioning. Bacta tanks on the wall. Her vision was blurry but started its glorious return.

Medbay. Figures.

"Unghh..." Her groan was low and quiet as she sat up, hand running through tangled fiery locks. She'd won the race, no doubt about that. She remembered that from right before she'd passed out. That couldn't have possibly been a dream. Now, however, she had to deal with two very important things: the outcome of Omega taking the planet, and the matter of her winnings. That money had one very important purpose. Well, two. She wanted a resort house and a new ship.

There was Siobhan. Glorious, beautiful Siobhan. She always looked after her. Slowly, she turned to the ex-Jedi, a smile finally creeping along her lips.

"Did we do it? Did we actually secure Malastare yet?" How long had she been out? She still sounded groggy. She still felt groggy. How much work had the others done? Massive Dynamic? The fleet? The pod? Her winnings? Too many questions, not enough answers.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Allaina Mare"], @[member="Tegaea Alcori"].

Siobhan, who would certainly like being described as glorious and beautiful, had been watching over Allaina in the medbay for quite some time. The Omega leadership had been handling the political matters. From what Siobhan had heard, apparently the Gran had suddenly decided that maybe they were not so keen on Massive Dynamic after all. Nonetheless she had stayed vigilant, in case more assassins showed up. Fortunately for them, their company leadership had showed sense.

Poor Allaina had not been able to see just how popular she had become. Hundreds of fans, well wishers, prophets and groupies had demanded to see their new idol. For a while quite a crowd had gathered outside the building, before they had been shooed away. Siobhan had been so thoughtful to get the numbers of a few girls, but took security seriously enough to let no one in. After all, she knew all about evildoers sneaking into hospital rooms and trying to murder you.

So she had been sitting at Allaina's side, flipping through a magazine that contained illuminating articles about the 'religious rituals' of the Eldorai that somehow managed to show an enticing amount of naked skin, but put it away when she sensed the pilot awaken, even before she spoke her first words.

"Look who's woken up. You won. You were amazing, hun," Siobhan said happily with a broad smile, getting up. She felt like hugging her, but then settled for a kiss on the forehead and with gently patting her hand, mindful of her condition. "You can relax. Malastare's as good as ours. Bosses are hashing out the details. Massive Dynamic jackarses are pulling out. I knew you'd beat 'em."

 

[Qae Shena]

She managed a weak grin. Sure, she felt like poo, but that didn't stop her from feeling a flush of pride at Siobhan's words. Considering her choice of... lifestyle, Siobhan was probably as close to a significant other as the poor little woman with commitment issues was going to get for a loooong time. Which was extremely counter-productive, but that was a thing as it stood. And, worse yet, she was technically spoken for! But that was neither here nor there.

She pulled the IV out of her arm. Not gonna need that any more, screw you, medical droid.

"Good. I'm glad."

She took her extreme time sitting up, trying to get her bearings again. It wasn't every day she blacked out like that; G-forces weren't a thing pilots experienced much thanks to inertial dampeners. They could negate most of the effects of G-forces on their bodies from the safety of their cockpit. It helped when you were hurtling around in things like the Ranger.

"Can we just go home now? I want to go spend all that money I just won on a new house. And a new ship. I want a nice little cottage on Naboo where I can just go and relax away from all the fighting, and maybe spend some time in a hydrospeeder along the Solleu River and..."

Sleep threatened to take her again, but she fought it. Barely.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"Hey, don't exert yourself. You've just been through a hell of a race. I was...worried when I found you," Siobhan admitted with a small smile, pulling Allaina into a loose hug. In all fairness, Siobhan would hate lying around in a medbay just as much as Allaina and be just as eager to get out.
"You'll get the cottage. The nicest on the river. The hydrospeeder as well. And we'll have a big victory party. But for now you gotta rest, understand? You're a very brave girl."