Podrace Serolonis Riot Racing 5000

[Ronhar Tane]

Apparently I don't know how to use this site.

Spoiler: Roll log

Rolled once on July 30th, got a very lucky 17 to start.
Rolled twice (on accident) on August 2nd. Got a 15 and a 14.

Ronhar was feeling rather confident as he proceeded to the second leg of Podrace, though he hadn't been able to secure the lead. He was just behind two other podracers, Damien Dooku and Tansu Treicolt . Still, he was confident that he would be able to secure victory, as his neural implants allowed far faster reaction times than most comparable beings. With them, he could even keep up with a Jedi...not that he really wanted to!

Regardless, Ronhar made good progress through the so-called "Hall of Misfortune", easily navigating between the swinging turbine blades and old security turrets. Not even the discharge conduits could slow him down!

Yet still, he was unable to take the lead. That would have to change.

Ronhar tried to line himself behind both Dooku and Treicolt, aiming his laser cannons the best he could. He had to be careful, for even a single stray laser bolt could obliterate his own engines if he misjudged his shot. Of course, aiming the cannons were easier said then done as Ronhar's podracer sped along at high speed. Every time he had them in his sights, he had to make an adjustment to his course to serve away from some sort of obstacle on the track. Not to mention, someone had released a bunch of lizard creatures all over the place, though they didn't seem especially interested in Ronhar.

Regardless, Ronhar knew he had to make something happen. If he could just get a shot...

There, an opportunity! For the briefest of moments, Ronhar found his podracer perfectly aligned with that of Dooku and Treicolt.

He fired, sending green blasts of laser energy hurtling down the track at his competitors. With some luck, he might even hit one of them, maybe even both!

It would be up to Lady Luck to decide for him...

 

[Nala]

Location: Seralonis

Tags: Everyone

A cloud of grit and engine smoke blasted over Nala's canopy, caking the glass in a thin film. Through the grime, someone's ( Davik Haize ) pod zipped past, a smug, bobbing silhouette as he pulled ahead.

Her face remained impassive, hands steady. Only her arm shifted. Slowly, methodically, she unholstered the blaster tucked beside her seat, adjusted its angle over the dashboard, and squeezed off a clean bolt.

KRRAK!

The shot sailed wide by mere centimeters, sizzling against the track wall just behind Davik's engine plume. He didn't even flinch. If anything, Nala was pretty sure she saw a mocking wave. The blaster vanished back into its holster.

"Fine," she murmured. "Let's play."

She slammed her heel down on the boost pedal, shoving the podracer forward. The cockpit snarled angrily, the engines screaming in protest before obeying her command. The Hall of Misfortune yawned open ahead.

Fan blades the size of gunships rotated with lethal indifference. Nala didn't hesitate. She counted beats in her head: one, two, drift. Then she cut the throttle just enough to let the first blade pass by, air screaming as it grazed her hull. The second was trickier, she barely threaded the needle, sparks licking across the left stabilizer fin. The third set came faster than expected. She corkscrewed just under the first blade and banked sharply, her tail fin scraping the tunnel wall with a crunch that shook the cockpit.

A red light blinked: Stabilizer misalignment. Again.

"Not now," she spat, punching the diagnostics panel. It didn't help, but the gesture felt good anyway.

The tunnel flared again. Conduits lined the walls, pulsing erratically like veins ready to burst. Blue arcs of electricity jumped across the corridor, snapping wildly through the air. Nala ducked low in the seat on instinct as a bolt of energy cracked just over the canopy. Her pod dipped, and for a moment she felt weightless, skimming the bottom of the track. Too close. Her jaw clenched.

Then came the turrets.

Rusty and long-forgotten, the first one jerked to life and loosed an ion bolt at a Rodian racer ahead, striking clean and spinning the poor soul straight into the wall. Flames bloomed. Cheers erupted from the spectators above.

Nala didn't smile, but her targeting visor dropped into place.

She swung her podracer sideways around a banking turn, sighted a clunky, too-bright podracer with flared wings and fired.

KRANG!

The blaster bolt sheared off the left wing. The racer wobbled, spun once, then crashed into a column with an explosion of fire and twisted durasteel. Nala surged past, eyes focused, heart steady.

Two more racers ahead, green and gold pods moving in tandem. Idiots. She swung wide, drew a line, and sent two bolts into the lead one's rear thruster. It erupted in sparks, careened into its partner, and both spun out in a tangled knot of flame and limbs.

Her path cleared.

Her goggles were streaked with soot, a stabilizer shrieked for calibration, and the pod itself groaned under the strain. But Nala pressed forward like death in motion.

She exited the Hall of Misfortune trailing smoke, bolts, and shattered dreams. Back in the pack? Not anymore.

Spoiler

Section 1 - 3/20
Section 2 - 11/20
Total - 14

 

[Koda Fett]

Personal honour and code be damned, Fett was a sore loser. This was no hunt.

He trailed behind from the start and cursed something foul beneath his breath, beneath his helmet. He made up for some distance once the pain of the initial blundered start passed, but it was not going to place him in a position to win that Black Crown. Not yet, at least.

Passing into the Hall of Misfortune, Fett gunned it. He tore between the spinning blades and watched as the sparks of electricity littered the ground around him, reflecting in the black T-visor as he leaned further forwards. The old security turrets almost struck him with their ion blasts, causing Fett to weave aside and lose his pace. He could have sworn again but seeing that Dooku kid, he opted for something else.

Fett drew a gun and began blasting.

Damien Dooku

Dice Roll (Re-Roll from @Razmir Tezhyn ): 15

Total: 21

 

[Damien Dooku]

SEROLONIS RIOT 5000
theme

Damien's eyes tunneled into the track ahead of him, his grip on the sticks vacuum-sealed around the grips as he pressed down on the pedals just enough to stabilize his speed within the margins of dangerous of suicidal. To the average denizen of podracing, the all-black repulsorcraft was moving like a demon stuck within a Class One Hyperdrive jump, its sleek frame and all-charcoal aesthetic making it indistinguishable from a blur. The pilot inside was even more of a mystery, the cameras surrounding the venue most likely having a tough enough time to peer through the tinted glass that kept the dust and sand from pelting his face throughout the race.

A smile remained planted on his face through it all, with Damien veering in danger-close to the only racer who'd kept up with him from the start. He peered across to their pod, spotting the long golden-locks and eventually catching a brief glance at a pair of eyes that immediately brought a blush to his face. Damien shook the feeling off a second later, refocusing back onto the track despite the urge to call out and say something witty ,or maybe funny-- anything really to impress that woman again while the adrenaline was coursing through his vein. His game plan would come to a halt immediately upon feeling his pod shake beneath him, a stream of green bolts of energy pelting the dirt around both him and Tansu Treicolt as the next closest racer decided to take the opportunity to fire at them from behind.

"You Hutt-suckin' rancor bait!"

Damien yelled over his shoulder, though likely his words were drowned out from by the thrum of their engines. Damien veered to the left, dodging antoher set of green bolts before deaccelerating just enough to line himself up with Ronhar Tane . The scoundrel whipped his pistol out from beneath his jacket and lined his gun up to the pilot behind the glass with devilish grin curling up to his lips. His finger pressed down on the trigger for a few seconds, charging the shot until a disruptor bolt was ready to fire.

Right before he let the shot go free, Damien veered his gun away from the racer and let loose the disruptor blast towards one of the struts connecting their pod to their engines. He slid the pistol back into his jacket, bringing his hand to the corner of his brow in a quick salute towards Ronhar for the sole purpose of being petty. Both hands returned to the controls right after, his boots slamming back down on the pedals as another radiant burst of light erupted out from his pod's engines.

The sudden entrance of a fourth interloper, who himself also began to shoot at Damien as well, made him decide against continuing his petty streak in favor of making a move to regain his lead. Damien's chest pressed back into his seat once more as he jetted past Tansu once more, but this time purposefully swinging his pod to the right and pushing up yet more dust to throw into the path of both her and the growing number of racers coming up behind them.

His engine's gauge was pushing thoroughly past the red, yet still he maintained his momentum despite the warning klaxons starting to threaten him from the dashboard. Damien leaned forwards, forcing himself to lock-in to the track ahead of him, and more importantly the rotating blades that would probably kill him if he were a bit off his game. Instead of slowing down to counteract their presence, Damien waited till his window of action was nearly over before reacting.

BOOM!

At the very last moment the scoundrel slammed down on the auxiliary boosters, accelerating his pod to a velocity that made everything from the bolts to the panels start to rattle across his vehicle. He deactivated the auxiliary thrusters on each wing, barreling past the blades with speed and finesse whilst intermittently weaving from left to right to throw off any incoming blaster fire from behind him. He was sitting in a comfortable lead for now at the head of the pack, and was showing no signs of wanting to slow his roll.

Morrow Tansu Treicolt Talin Treicolt Koda Fett Ronhar Tane Nala Klar Braze Davik Haize Kyric

Spoiler

​

 

[Klar]

✦ Serolonis Riot 5000 ✦

A pretty boy in a nice-looking podracer slammed into the wall behind Klar and stalled out - she couldn't help but feel a little bad for him, considering she was out here in the equivalent of a stripped-down tractor strapped with jet engines. But then, that was the essence of podracing, wasn't it? Suicide machines strapped to a tiny seat and thrown into a combat zone to see who came out alive the fastest.

Stupid, but she didn't hate it. The wind in her hair, the gunfire and explosions, the way Goon Squad ate the road and turned good fuel into crude velocity? Deeply intoxicating. She never felt as connected to the Force as she did when she was on a speeder, swoop, or in a podracer. Though that connection felt a little muted, today. There was something about the track that was dulling her edge, likely either sabotage or a balancing factor.

That was fine, though. Klar's secret was that even at her best she wasn't very strong in the Force anyway. Like subtracting one arm from each contestant, Klar would be hindered but much less so than most Force-wielders.

Belching smoke and grime, the four massive engines of Goon Squad rattled menacingly as Klar pushed the throttle. Davik Haize was directly in front of her, taking fire from somewhat behind. Klar jinked and angled, trying to find a way to get around the man she'd been following for most of the race - but he was faster, more agile. He had superior agility. Frustrating. Worse, some of the shots Nala intended for him were zinging off of her engines!

Intellectually she'd understood that this was an anything-goes podrace where people would be trying to kill each other. She hadn't really emotionally processed that until blaster fire zanged past her ear.

Gloves were off, then. And after Coruscant? Ronhar Tane and his TIE-themed podracrer felt like a fair target, at least while they were out in first where Klar had to look at them.

Pushing the throttle open, Klar got out of Nala's line of fire and started pushing her approach on Ronhar's TIE podracer. Four massive crossed engines linked by a crackling energy binder, trying to get ever-closer - to pull Ronhar in to the energy binder, suck him into an engine, or simply flatten him.

The Codru-Ji adjusted her goggles and leaned over the controls, eyes on her target.

◈ Total Speed: 26 ◈ Position: 5/8 ◈

 

[Jonath Kago]

A simple farm hand now exposed to a larger galaxy as some muscle. All for helping out a friend in getting even with some scum back from the Drop. This simple purposed quest sure branched out to different mishievous activities the gang ran. Unnecessary risks they could avoid, but they managed to be worthwhile for him. The thrill of the adventure was just a bonus addendum to him and it helped with his demeanor.

However, they could be doing something more worthwhile than racing and sharing the peace with the filth of these criminals. At least that was Jon's unnanounced opinion.

Granted it did make him anxious to see Tansu and Damien out on the track, like the feeling of being on the edge of his seat. He only stood up in a knee-jerk reaction when the two of them were taking fire from the other racers.

"Is there anyway we can, I don't know, feth shit up for the competition?" he looked at his companions for a brief moment, under his shades, hoping for a good answert to his question. His attention returned to the screen, observing Tansu and Damien while trying to find a solution to their problem. Deep down Jon knew he could make a good shot with a marksman rifle. He didn't why, but he knew he could. Only thing for a firearm was a blaster pistol tucked behind his dark denim jacket.

Talin Treicolt | Morrow | Tansu Treicolt | Talsin Lota | Damien Dooku​

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

Shameless with her joy, Tansu whooped and laughed as she took the corner to her sister's suggestion: Wide and fast. Having a familiar face on the track made it feel lighthearted almost, like there wasn't a threat in the galaxy, and certainly not on this track and —
Nevermind.

Green bolts whizzed at the back of her pod, and rippled shudders through the entire chassis. Tansu jerked forward with the impact, mouth snapping shut mid-laugh. The mirth drained quick, replaced with grit as her hand danced over the stabilizer toggles.

She didn't have time to check who dared to shoot at her, because her engines were screaming under sudden strain, and ahead loomed the gaping maw of the Hall of Misfortune.

But before that entrance, she had another problem: Damien.

His pod skimmed past her rightside, and with the finesse of a showman and the manners of a nerf herder, he blasted up a wash of dust and smoke in his wake. A blinding haze bloomed over her cockpit, grit scraping the transparisteel, ash on her tongue, visibility gone.

"Aw c'mon—" she coughed, and smoked the side panel, "You pretty, petty son of a—" Well. She couldn't insult her aunt like that.

The trick was effective: The smoke didn't clear until the Maw's first trap was right on top of her.

A massive blade sliced the air in front of her by the width of a breath. She dropped the throttle, then punched it at just the right beat. Her pod whump-whumped between two blades, her hair lifting from the sudden draft.

"Yeehaw!" she whooped, throwing her weight into the yoke, hungry for the next.

But something was off.

Her gut didn't spark with its usual sharp clarity. No precognitive flash. No whisper of the Force. Just the pounding of turbines and an odd, dragging silence where instinct usually lit up.

Her brow furrowed. "The kark…?"

She was half a second late on the second turbine.

The edge of the spinning blade caught the outer ring of her left engine guard, and ripped it clean off. The piece spun backward in a sparking arc, clattering off the wall behind her.

Tansu flinched hard and cursed. "Dammit! That was so cute!" Talin had gone to the extra effort of painting a whole herd of horses racing along the arch of the piece, and now it was gone, broken into tiny pieces.

The pod shook, but held steady. The engines themselves were fine. Guardless now, uglier, but still cookin' and ready to rev.

What had thrown her timing? It felt like more than rust in her bones or nerves fried. It felt like something was obfuscating her ability to see — like her reflexes were...dampened?

She didn't have time to dwell. She'd would have never suspected the lizards from Jerec Asyr anyway.

Sparks splashed across the walls from discharge conduits, writhing like hungry eels. A turret powered up overhead. Tansu juked hard right to avoid both, scraping just close enough to catch another bolt of static to the frame.

"This shoulda been a rental." She muttered.

Tansu kicked hard into the next throttle burst, breaking out of the electric tunnel and onto Damien Dooku 's right side—close enough to see the scorch marks from Ronhar's last barrage still steaming. Close enough for him to see her chit-eating grin through the smear of dirt he'd kicked up in her face last time, and the quick toss of hair over her shoulder.

Then she cut left, sharp, fast, blasting past him with the curl of her broken engine guard still sparking wildly and white-knucklin' the turn to tear ahead.

Spoiler

Round 1: 19
Round 2: 19

____________________________________________________________
IMMEDIATE: Damien Dooku | Ronhar Tane | Koda Fett
UPCOMING: Klar | Nala | Davik Haize | Braze |
CHEER SQUAD: Talsin Lota | Talin Treicolt | Morrow | Jonath Kago
____________________________________________________________
​

 

[Rathmar Praji]

The holographic feed from the Hall of Misfortune proved to be quite captivating, as the podracers appeared to understand that the Vigo was seeking some much-needed chaos to reduce the numbers and guarantee that the Black Crown would be awarded to an individual of significant talent.

A gradual smile emerged on his face as he reclined into the soft cushion of the chair, with the only sound in the booth being the clinking of ice in his glass. The turrets and conduits had effectively fulfilled their roles, transforming this otherwise mundane race into a matter of survival.

"Ah, it appears that racer Braze is wholly unqualified for a career in podracing. Perhaps they should consider a position at the package office on Imperial Coruscant," he mused, his voice tinged with disappointment, as he had anticipated that each racer would possess at least some level of skill in the profession rather than being complete novices.

His eyes shifted to the real players. The young Dooku was a showman, so full of bluster and skill, yet easily drawn into a petty brawl with Tansu Treicolt. He found it entertaining but ultimately disappointing. But then there was Nala.

The Vigo's gaze sharpened as he replayed the footage of her systematic dismantling of two other racers. It was a cold, efficient culling of the weak. She was a professional, and Rathmar made a mental note of her. He also noted Davik Haize's curious, inexplicable luck, which had kept him from harm yet again.

"They're a pack of wild animals," Rathmar said to the Majordomo. "Keep the bounty on Dooku. He amuses me. But keep an even closer watch on the woman in the black pod. The one who shoots to kill."

The Majordomo nodded, the commands being relayed through his comm. The race continued.

Section 3: The Krayt Dragon's Maw

Chasm Sandfall: A massive subterranean chasm where racers must navigate through a constant torrent of sand pouring from the ceiling, obscuring vision and battering pods.

The Swarm: A small swarm of Bonegnawer's taken from Tatooine have made their home in the third section of the tunnel. Black Sun Enforcers have made them enraged and so they attack any podracer that enters into their territory.

Rancor Pit: Racers must pass through a narrowing cave system where a Rancor currently resides.

Spoiler: Race Place

Damien Dooku - 40 Points

Tansu Treicolt - 38 Points

Ronhar Tane - 31 Points

Davik Haize - 28 Points

Klar - 26 Points

Koda Fett - 21 Points

Nala - 14 Points

Braze - 12 Points

 

[Ronhar Tane]

I need...more speed!

Spoiler: Roll log

Rolled once on July 30th, got a very lucky 17 to start.
Rolled twice (on accident) on August 2nd. Got a 15 and a 14.

If Ronhar had been any other man, he'd be dead by now.

By all accounts, he should have been out of the race, the disruptor blast fired by Damien Dooku severing the cables connecting his podracer's engines to his podracer's cockpit. But, Ronhar Tane was no ordinary man. As the blast exited the barrel of Dooku's weapon, time seemed to slow down for Ronhar. Of course, Ronhar wasn't able to actually slow the passage of time, but he was certainly capable of changing the way he perceived it. His neural implants kicking into overdrive, Ronhar pulled hard to the right, titling his podracer to a 45 degree angle. The deadly blast of energy passed harmlessly between his Steelton Control Cables as Ronhar righted his racing vehicle. It had been one hell of a maneuver he pulled...and not something he wanted to try again!

Still, Ronhar's troubles were far from over. Another racer by the name of Klar was charging at him with deadly intent, apparently trying to crash their energy binders into the back of his cockpit.

Not on Ronhar's watch!

Ronhar cycled through his available weapons and selected his Magna-spike launchers. From other side of his engines emerged rectangular spigots that began deploying hundreds of red hot metal spikes. If even a single spike got into a racer's engines...the results would not be pleasant, to say the least. A barrage of molten metal sped downwards behind Ronhar, intersecting into a deadly crossfire. Anyone brave or stupid enough to try and traverse it would soon rather wish they didn't. Ronhar didn't even bother to look behind him as he sped off toward leg three of the race.

Much like the other two legs, they weren't especially challenging to a cyborg like Ronhar. Granted, the Bonegnawers and Rancors were a nice touch, but they had been easy enough to avoid. The sand might have been a problem if Ronhar was in an open cockpit, but didn't prove too much of an issue, though Ronhar did ocassionally have to wipe sand off his transparisteel viewport.

Still, the previous disruptions had caused him to lag behind, unable to catch up to the frontrunners, Damien Dooku and Tansu Treicolt . Ronhar fired another round of green laser blasts at them, desperately trying to take out either or both of them...

 

[Damien Dooku]

SEROLONIS RIOT 5000
theme

Tansu had caught up momentarily, maintaining speed with his pod long enough to set him up with a chit-eating grin that briefly through him off-guard, his thrusters maintaining speed if only to enjoy that brief moment of seeing her visage through the dust. That would come to an end once she blasted off ahead, cutting ahead of him and forcing him to swerve out of the way to avoid a brief collision. "Oooohhhh... I'm gonna get'cha back for that one, lady." His lips curled into a devious smirk as he brought the pod back centered on the track, drifting his gaze across to the mirrors to make sure the competition wasn't about to overtake him as well.

He pulled back on the sticks, the large turbines activating in tandem with the auxiliary boosters from before, and braced himself for the inevitable gambit that would either see him crashing and burning on the side of the track, or living up to his reputation as a scoundrel of extraordinarily lucky potential.

Damien was thrown back into the seat of his cockpit, the force from the combined thrust of the engines and boosters being felt immediately upon their firing up to life. His tunnel vision grew acutely even more narrow for the first few seconds, and where he'd previously been moving at breakneck speeds before, the scoundrel had decided to turn things up to the suicidal, to put it bluntly.

"Whooooo-hoooo!!" Damien's arms trembled beneath the pressure that would've forced an average pilot to lose control of the sticks, yet his grip was firm and kept the thing pushing ahead across the sands as a barely imperceptible silhouette to the crowds lined above. His pod dipped to the left side of Tansu, skirting so close to where she was seated that Damien could see the color of her irises from behind her goggles.

"Gotcha." He mouthed out, yet if she saw it was another question.

Damien buzzed past her within seconds, dipping beneath the arena into the next stage of the track and entering the tunnel system like a bat-out-of-hell with a grudge against the devil. His boosters died down, switching back to just the engines for power in order to maximize his already fleeting maneuverability to get around the falling waves of sand. He swerved left to right, moving his feet to the brakes only when his instincts waned momentarily and forced him off-course from where he intended to move his pod towards. He'd noticed previously that he'd nearly been caught-off guard by that one racer's blaster cannons before, and the presence of crashing waves of sand along with their accompanying obstacles within would quickly lead to a fiery death without dropping his speed enough to compensate.

Eventually he would clear that segment, the only lasting impact on his pod being the scuffed-up cockpit and hull from the unending grains of sand that pelted him from above. Yet there were many more surprises in store for him to come, with the next one being a swarm of winged creatures that he truly had no idea how they managed to keep in one spot. The beasts were enraged by his presence, clearly, as they swarmed around his pod like buzzards spotting a dying animal in the middle of the desert.

Swerving to either side had only been minimally-effective, and so he was forced to be a bit more....creative. He decided to kill two birds with one stone-- no pun intended, but the hilarity of his next course of action would make him chuckle before it happened. He pushed his turbines to full power, then swerving the back of his pod into a deadly spinning motion that proved more disorientating than it was worth. The front turbines did their job by sending him rocketing through the swarm faster than they could keep up, but for the next several seconds it appeared as if his cockpit's gyro had been stuck, at least until a quick fist to the dash would somehow fix the issue and level his pod back to center.

That would've been the end of it, were it not for him spotting a fething Rancor almost a bit too late, narrowly avoiding a large fist hammering down upon his cockpit by pushing his pod towards the wall and gliding across it the long way around the track. Damien lowered down the visor, the tip of his blaster sticking out just long enough to deliver a disruptor shot towards a group of stalagmites in the ceiling above it. The bolt smashed dead-center where he aimed, triggering off a domino-effect that dropped dozens upon dozens of stalagmites down onto the Rancor's head and torso. Whether it killed the thing or just irritated it wasn't his problem anymore, as it'd distracted the beast just long enough for Damien to cut around it at full-speed and shoot towards the end of the cave.

Immediate Threats: Tansu Treicolt Ronhar Tane

Secondary Threats: Klar Nala Davik Haize Braze

Crowd: Talin Treicolt Morrow Jonath Kago Talsin Lota Jerec Asyr

Spoiler

Round 1: 20
Round 2: 20
Round 3: 20

​

 

[Braze]

TAGS:

Sure enough, Braze was not having a good time at the race.

Somehow, against all logic and probability, the young man was entirely unconscious , slumped down with in the cockpit of his battered podracer, limbs slack, goggles askew, mouth slightly open. And yet… the death trap machine persisted.

It limped through the Chasm Sandfall, sputtering and jerking with every gust of cascading grit. The sand obscured everything, but the pod, through sheer luck (or spite), managed to bounce off jutting rocks and avoid a complete nose-dive. It scraped a support beam, pinged off another stone, and kept tumbling forward.

As for the Swarm? Apparently they were very busy. Some unlucky frontrunners had stirred the hive into a frenzy. Bonegnawers swarmed, shrieking up a head like a black cloud of hate but they didn't so much as glance at him already preoccupied with other potential targets much farther in the lead. Or perhaps it was just because his pod smelled more like ozone, burnt metal, and carbon scoring than blood and sweat. Either way, he slipped right through.

By the time the pod coasted into the Rancor Pit, it was already trailing smoke with one of the one repulsor engines flickering like a dying star. The tunnel narrowed, and the Rancor roared charging him, but Braze's podracer didn't slow or halt as it veered about in an un manned cruise. It scraped the cave wall screeching loudly as sparks flew off in a dazzling display causing the whole thing to veer sharply… narrowly skimming the beast's claws as it lunged too slow, too late having been miraculously blinded just enough by the vibrant sparks. With a snort of frustration, the Rancor turned to swipe at the ground charging after.

Unconscious yet still perhaps... unbelievably lucky he wasn't dead yet.

Dice Roll Results
• First Roll: 8
• Second Roll: 4
• Third Roll: 11

---

Total: 23

​

 

[Davik Haize]

Sand hissed along the hull of Davik's podracer, trailing off the engine grates harmlessly as Davik guided the machine out of the chasm unscathed.

So far, so good.

Then, a screech resounded throughout the tunnels; a swarm of bonechewers diving down from above erased the brief smirk tugging his lips. He yanked the yoke hard, veering into a side tunnel at the last moment. Bones crunched and blood gushed; the swarm slammed into the cavern walls behind him. His blaster materialized in his hand for the next wave and he picked them off one by one.

So far, so great.

Eyes narrowed sharp for the next wave suddenly snapped open at a massive, clawed hand that quickly filled his sight. It grabbed the whole machine like a toy, the sudden break of velocity nearly snapping Haize's neck. The rancor twirled him in circles with the unexpected grace of a ballerina.

The Warden could've sworn he heard the rancor giggle in its little game of merry-go-round.

His head was swimming when the ADHD-induced rancor lost its interest and tossed him and the podracer into a wall.

Only instinct saved him.

A deft hand conjured miracles with the repulsors and stabilizers and the podracer hit the wall, bounced, and somehow survived.

But he had lost so much time.

Damn it!​

--
Round 1: 11 (rerolled by Kyric from initial roll of 6)
Round 2: 17
Round 3: THREE, MAN?????

 

[Skeevi Merrill]

Doc Merrill, Skeevi to their friends and patrons, hung out in the stands under a patch of shade they had all to themself because they were snacking from a bucket of pungent fried morrts and drinking from a large covered mug of Devaronian Blood Pissin,' a local ale. Wiping their fingers on their poncho, Skeevi got the macrobinoculars up in time to see

By the time the pod coasted into the Rancor Pit, it was already trailing smoke with one of the one repulsor engines flickering like a dying star. The tunnel narrowed, and the Rancor roared charging him, but Braze's podracer didn't slow or halt as it veered about in an un manned cruise. It scraped the cave wall screeching loudly as sparks flew off in a dazzling display causing the whole thing to veer sharply… narrowly skimming the beast's claws

This was all honestly pretty great.

 

[Klar]

✦ Serolonis Riot 5000 ✦

The race was ongoing, but it was becoming increasingly clear that not all of the pods could race equally. Several members had jumped far, far ahead of the pack - and no amount of banging Goon Squad's engines or stressing over it was going to be able to make up the difference. The old Ardennian was likely already working on a backup plan to get the money for his son, and Klar wished him well - because the Force wasn't with either of them today.

Ronhar cycled through his available weapons and selected his Magna-spike launchers. From other side of his engines emerged rectangular spigots that began deploying hundreds of red hot metal spikes. If even a single spike got into a racer's engines...the results would not be pleasant, to say the least. A barrage of molten metal sped downwards behind Ronhar, intersecting into a deadly crossfire. Anyone brave or stupid enough to try and traverse it would soon rather wish they didn't. Ronhar didn't even bother to look behind him as he sped off toward leg three of the race.

The half-chaff, half-caltrop weapon Ronhar Tane deployed forced Klar to back off, swerving away to avoid getting any of the deadly spikes in her engine manifolds - she only needed a glance to realize how badly that could shake out for her. Unfortunately, doing so plunged her podracer into a sandy cascade from which she momentarily struggled to get out of. Blinded by the dust, Klar swerved back onto the road at a poor angle and lost a great deal of momentum. Ronhar was able to escape her grasp.

The Codru-Ji shook the sand from her hair and pushed all four control rods forward, blasting through sand and debris as she tried desperately to catch up - plowing through a nest of Bonegnawers in the process.

Now being hounded by angry birds, which she warned off by waving her lightsabers at, Klar struggled to set a straight course down the racetrack. The wooshing warning of her blades was only warning and mostly just infuriated the Bonegnawers. Klar soon had a long train of vicious raptors swooping her as she drove.

This really wasn't her day!

◈ Total Speed: 31 ◈ Position: 5/8 ◈

 

[Talin Treicolt]

"Yeah," Talin answered Jon. "If ya don't get caught."

Leanin' forward, Talin watched the racers makin' their way 'round the track. Damien was keepin' up better than she exptected, him and Tan vyin' for first. As they came on the obstacles, Talin dropped her datapad, movin' to cover her face. She could barely watch. First, the shots at her sister the most imminent danger - quickly overtaken by the loss of that panel work.

Su, you gotta be m-.....

Su?

Suddenly, she realized she could barely feel her sister in the meld, just the ghost of joy and exhilaration. Talin glanced around the stands, eyes narrowed. How the kark was this possible? She was right there - alive and well. Even when they tried to dampen the bond, it still was shaky at its best.

"Someone done got there first - they're messin' with us." She informed their party of four worriedly. "Hope she's faster than that rancor."

-----------------------------------------------
Talsin Lota | Morrow | Jonath Kago | Tansu Treicolt
​

 

[Koda Fett]

The sound became an echo as the thin, narrow tunnels bore down around the racers. Fett was somewhere in the middle, and his aspirations of being the victor were being dashed against the rocks that lined the Ruusan caves as that Dooku ran far at the head of the racing pack.

From the corner of his helmeted gaze, a Devaronian sneered a fierce grin and withdrew a blaster pistol from his belt, taking aim at the front of the bounty hunter's speeder. The warrant from the High Republic invited challengers from all over, and this was but one of many in a long line of opportunists. The caverns split off into multiple paths and Fett broke off to the left, swerving just in time to avoid the blaster fire that may have otherwise riddled his pod. A distant, echoing curse rang out, "Poodoo!"

He was uncertain as to whether this route would cut off into a dead end or not, but raced ahead regardless. It seemed to grow wider, with rapidly passing time, littered with small spires of stone that rose up from the ground or descended from the cavern ceiling. Some even glowed, shimmery in the lowlight like crystals. But there was a foul, horrible stench that lashed out and struck his helmet's filters like a foul plague.

Then, a roar.

At the tunnel's mouth, the rancor stood defiantly blocking his path. Large, clawed hands reached up, as if trying to climb in. The stone, dirt and sand gave way beneath the weight of it, unable to find sure footing.

"C'mon," he winced, lowering the rangefinder over his T-visor - the targeting system was slow and gradual, a red square shifting on the HUD as the podracer caused it to shift and add an annoying degree of difficulty. He neared the mouth, about to become a tin can meal when the wrist-mounted rocket launched towards the roaring mouth of the rancor, erupting in a fiery explosion. The rancor bellowed, knocked backwards and stumbling over as Fett flew through the smoke spilling into the air.

He chuckled, grimly, and passed through the rancor's nest.

Dice Roll: 7 (Sabotaging Damien Dooku )
Total: 28

 

[Nala]

Location: Seralonis

Tags: Braze

Sand hammered the canopy like a barrage of tiny, furious fists. The Chasm Sandfall reduced the world to a swirling tan blur, grit grinding against the glass and sifting into every gap in the controls. Nala leaned into the yoke, keeping her line steady while the pod shuddered against the constant drag.

Not graceful or clean, but alive.

She punched through a break in the torrent, engines whining under the weight they'd just shed, only to find herself staring into the black chittering mass of the Bonegnawer swarm. The things moved like a living dust storm, slicing through the air in jagged arcs.

The lead few peeled toward her, fast and teeth first. Nala jerked the pod into a sharp banking roll, skimming along the outer wall where the swarm was thinner. Claws scraped the hull with a nails-on-glass shriek, but she managed to knife her way through before they could completely surround her. Her stabilizer alarms chirped again, but she ignored them.

The tunnel squeezed tight ahead, rock closing in like a throat, and then it roared. The sound hit first, deep and resonant enough to rattle the bolts in her seat. The Rancor's hulking silhouette lunged into the opening, claws scraping the walls as it charged.

A flash of movement to her left: a battered, half-painted podracer limping along on mismatched thrust. Smoke belched from the rear, sparks dancing from a hull scrape.

Braze. Unconscious. Goggles crooked. Mouth hanging open like he'd fallen asleep at a café. She stared for half a second, disbelief flattening into irritation. This idiot's still alive? As the Rancor swung for them both, Nala dipped low, letting her pod skim under one claw. In passing, she yanked a side panel lever, firing her undercarriage grappler into the mess of loose cabling hanging from his rear engine.

It wasn't the full kill shot she'd wanted, but it would be enough to give her a gap as she raced ahead of him.

She throttled up, leaving him wobbling in the Rancor's dust as she threaded the narrowing cave exit. The engines snarled, the stabilizer wailed, and the walls streaked past in dark blurs.

She didn't look back, not for Braze or anyone. The next section was already waiting.

Spoiler

Section 1 - 3/20
Section 2 - 11/20
Section 3 - 11/20
Total - 25

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

Tansu hadn't even cleared the grin off her face when Damien's shadow slid over her canopy. A flash of teeth, smug, and then he was gone. Boosters flared in her peripheral, the wash of their thrust rattling her whole chassis.

"Oh no you don't," she muttered, kicking the throttle open. "Y'aint leavin' me in your dust twice." Especially if it meant taking the racer directly behind them's fire solo.

The track dove down into darkness, lit only by the green laser flare of the shots fired, and then the hissssshhhh hit her ears.

Every single grain fell like a storm. a constant curtain of grit pouring from the ceiling, so thick it blurred the edges of her cockpit and sounded like a thousand needles against the transparisteel. She could barely see her own engines. Every instinct said to slow, but slowing meant losing Damien.

She dropped one stabilizer flap and tilted her pod into the fall, letting the sand sheet over the canopy instead of against it. Vision narrowed to a dim golden glow ahead — just enough to follow the vague shadow of Damien's pod through the storm.

When the shadow split, it shrieked.

"AAH! What the chit?"

Ugly little leathery flaps with teeth. And there were dozens!

"You don't want to touch me, you don't want to touch me, you don't want to touch me." She repeated over and over again, willing the beasts that surrounded her to find some level of familiarity, listen, and obey. Or at least hesitate. It had worked on a rancor before.

But not today.

Her Force connection seemed completely out of whack.

They wheeled into her path, screeching, claws raking at the pod's frame. One latched onto her starboard engine cowling and started chewing.

"Git!" she barked, half tempted to swat at it over the plasteel. Instead she toggled the right rudder into a sharp half-spin, dragging that engine's wake through the sandfall. The grain-blast hit like a shotgun, ripping the pest off and scattering the rest into chaos.

"That's right, sugar," she called over her shoulder, voice swallowed by the roar of her engines and partway through coughing, "—you keep your talons off my sister's paint job."

Tansu burst out of the sand curtain coughing grit, she didn't even have time to spit before the cave ahead moved.

Out of the dark, and without warning, a too-big arm came out of the dark. She hadn't sensed it coming. Of course she hadn't! Those stupid lizards were still effective. She dropped low to slide under — too slow.

Claws the size of speeder doors hooked her port engine brace and the world turned into a violent, spinning blur.

"Whoa—whoa—WHOA!"

The pod whipped sideways, her head snapped back into the headrest as the rancor's claws clamped tight around her port engine brace. Even over the engines she could hear metal screaming under the pressure. Not good.

Then the beast dragged her pod clear off the track, slamming it into the cave wall with the force of a wrecking ball. She nearly threw up at the sudden motion of it all, and the impact that rattled her skull in her helmet.

Stone fractured, dust rained down in choking curtains. Before she could recover, it yanked her back and smashed her into the opposite wall — left, right, again — until sparks sprayed from the coupler housing.

Angry kaleidoscopes of red lit up her dash. The stabilizers groaned, threatening to shear clean off.

The release came without warning. The pod dropped hard, the landing a bone-jarring slam that rattled her teeth. Skidding sideways across the rock, scraping a line of sparks in her wake, she wrenched the yoke to keep from plowing nose-first into the tunnel wall.

One stabilizer strut on the port engine was bent ugly, the coupler line hanging half-ripped from its mount.

The pod still ran, barely, but every attempt to straighten her path sent the nose yawing toward the wall. If she pushed it, she'd rip the whole engine loose.

"Ugh, you mother karkin' overgrown fethin clawed tadpole," she spat through gritted teeth, white-knuckling the controls. "How in the feth did they even get you in there my stars what a stupid trap."

She knew what it meant but she didn't like it: Throttle back, nurse her pod through the next stretch, and patch that coupler before it tore free. It'd cost her time.

It'd cost her the lead.

But it wouldn't cost her the race.

Jaw set, she reached for the emergency repair kit wedged under the dash, bracing her elbows against the shaking frame.

"Alright, alright pony" she murmured, as if the pod could hear her, "—bandaid's a comin', we'll getcha right on the fly."

Ahead, Damien was a streak of shadow in the tunnel's gloom. She'd get him back.

Spoiler

Round 1: 19/20
Round 2: 19/20
Round 3: 8/20

____________________________________________________________
IMMEDIATE: Damien Dooku | Koda Fett | Ronhar Tane
CLOSING IN: Davik Haize | Nala | Klar | Braze
CHEER SQUAD: Talin Treicolt | Talsin Lota | Morrow | Jonath Kago
LIZARD MENACE CRAMPIN' MY STYLE: Jerec Asyr
____________________________________________________________
​

 

[Arris Windrun]

BOUNTY HUNTER'S LICENSE #49
Pursuing an active target: [X] Morrow
Other Mentions: Damien Dooku | Davik Haize | Talsin Lota | Rathmar Praji
DM's Open!

Moving away from the pit and into the front stands, Morrow swiped Talin's unattended Huttaburger cup. The nearly empty beverage rattled loudly as he drank what was left out of a straw, receiving very little relief from Serolonis's desert heat. Sitting, he watched the race, hoping for the sake of the credits on the line that whatever he did to fix that ignition regulator would hold up.

Oh, what's that? Arris spied one little bounty enjoying a beverage at the races.

The cyborg wandered around behind the pits and climbed her way up into a row behind where Morrow sat and watched. She elected to lean against the railing rather than sit.

The seats around her were mostly empty, but there was one particularly nasty Dug who kept telling people that his great-great-great-great-great something or another uncle was a big-time racer, and all this was in his blood. That he, too, would race if the league weren't full of amateurs.

Yeah, she stayed away from him.

"You got any creds on this?" She called down.

 

[Rathmar Praji]

Rathmar shifted uncomfortably on his lounge, observing the scene at the Krayt Dragon's Maw with unease, contemplating the possibility of one racer decisively outpacing the others. He was aware that the audience would rush to the betting stations to request refunds, given the dubious manner in which Damien Dooku was dominating the competition.

He soon found himself fascinated by the sheer, unrestrained fortune of the unconscious Braze . Despite his mangled podracer, a sputtering wreck, he somehow maneuvered through the perilous chasm, dodged the rancor's claws, and was even utilized by the strategic Nala to create a diversion.

However, his focus shifted to Damien Dooku and Tansu Treicolt . Dooku, ever the showman, cleverly outsmarted a rancor with an inventive and explosive tactic. Tansu, whose pod was already damaged, endured relentless attacks from the same beast, yet Rathmar perceived something beyond mere misfortune in her gaze.

He recognized the steely determination of a survivor, a professional who, even as her pod was being torn apart, was already reaching for her repair kit. He replayed the moment in his mind, noting her subtle shift in focus from the race to the immediate challenge, and nodded in acknowledgment. She was a gifted competitor, a true talent.

Meanwhile, Ronhar Tane , a man who considered himself a cyborg deity, found his technological advantage neutralized by Klar aggressive tactics. Even Koda Fett the bounty hunter, had to rely on a precisely aimed wrist rocket to confront a rancor obstructing his path.

However, it was the alarm button beside his chair that captured the Vigo's attention most; the Sabotage Button indicated that Koda viewed Dooku as a significant problem and Rathmar was more than happy to ensure the man's downfall.

"Ah, the Ghishi are on the move," Rathmar remarked, watching the massive Vesper Dux pods enter the feed from a side tunnel. "The race is a game. Our frontrunner Dooku must be reminded that this event is hosted by criminals, and criminals never play fair. " The racers were now exiting the Krayt Dragon's Maw, preparing to enter the next leg of the race which was the Sarlacc's Pit.

Section 4: The Sarlacc's Pit

Sarlacc's Tentacles: A massive, dormant Sarlacc has been disturbed by the commotion of the race. Its long, whip-like tentacles extend from the walls, blindly lashing out and attempting to ensnare any pods that pass by.

Caustic Geysers: The tunnel floor is riddled with small vents that periodically erupt with highly corrosive geysers. Hitting one could melt through a pod's hull or blind a pilot with acidic vapor.

Tractor Beam Gauntlet: Black Sun enforcers, bored with mere sabotage, have rigged a series of industrial-grade tractor beams. Racers must time their movements perfectly to pass through the alternating fields without being yanked into a wall of sharp stalagmites.

(Special Sabotage from Koda Fett ) Black Sun Racing Team: Rathmar has sent an elite team of four Ghishi Podracers on the track, driving massive Vesper Dux Ultra-3's in order to push the Frontrunner Damien Dooku off the track and have them crash. -3 to Next Roll

Spoiler: Race Place

Damien Dooku - 60 Points

Tansu Treicolt - 47 Points

Ronhar Tane - 46 Points

Davik Haize - 31 Points

Klar - 31 Points

Koda Fett - 28 Points

Nala - 25 Points

Braze - 23 Points