Daza Pit Fight

After the ambush post buying from Kious, the crew found themselves in a strange room with a low roar above. "Doc" was the first to awake since he was only tazed unconscious while the others were effected by something else that made them sleep. "Doc" recalled seeing the ambush go down and thought it was odd that the canisters looked like normal smoke grenades, yet this crew all began to pass out along with Kious. He also noticed as the bola's came out and struck him it had hit Bob as well, but he more or less just feign himself being tazed and incapacitated while "Doc" felt all that voltage move through his circuits causing an overload and actually knocking him out.

Didn't take "Doc" long to start to wake up his crew upon finding that they are all wearing odd collars. As he does this he notices a lashuntameditating against a wall while over what looked like a staff. When about almost all the crew is awoken a Veskis pushed into the room. While everyone is confused from waking up in what appears to be a holding cell, this new Vesk is approached by Atvar whom makes the introductions for mainly himself, but not so much the rest of the crew. His name is Bossk whom nearly instantly recognized Atvar as Blitz from his infosphere days as a gladiator and the continue to exchange pleasantries but noted he also was in Eighport when he was abducted. While this happens Vitaly and "Doc" inspect these collars everyone seems to have, they both have seen something like these before. They are retrofitted with bombs and are setup so that if forcefully taken off they detonate, looks like they are forced to partake in what ever this holding cell is meant for. Worse yet they are missing all their gear.

Vitaly curious about the lashunta approaches him and asks what his deal is, to the lashunta's surprise he hears Vitaly telepathically and keeps in his meditative state and more importantly closed eyes. He gives his name as Semil and explains that he is a professional gladiator for this pit arena they are in with great charisma! This upsets the uplifted bear and he loses interest and begins to walk away, but Semil opens his eyes and instantly understands why he was having a telepathic communication with someone. He then begins to boasts more about his career and pose for the crew and Bossk, explaining their situation and what was on the screens.

Midway through explaining "Doc" tries to Daze Semil as he is unsettled by this much energy and positive attitude given the fact that they are in a holding cell., but it fails. Unfrazzled by the spell he continues and reassures his friendly nature by doing so. He explains that the collars are for forcefully "volunteered" fighters like the crew and Bossk which is why he doesn't wear one, he is more or less born and bred into this lifestyle. He notes that the amount of non collar combatants have increased drastically since the new manager took over the arena. Semil reassures them they have nothing to worry about as they have to just defeat their opponents, more or less to the death, and they'll be freed. Plus in Semil's eyes this is a shoe in given his victory streak and his Vanguard abilities as he begins to boast further and literally glow to show off.

After a brief wait post Semil's speech the blue laser wall they have been staring at in the front opens and on the other side they see a platform and chests. Semil sprints to a chest and kicks it open and quickly jabs his staff into it and twisting, an energized hum can be heard. Turns out it was a spear all a long and gives a strong hint on what happened to everyone's gear.

Once geared up the platform begins to lift and sand begins to bellow in from above as they are brought into the arena. From that alone confirms to at least Falk that they are at least still on planet. The bright light from the sun, screens, barriers, and camera blinds them as the reach the arena floor and the crowd's cheers are deafening. Semil sprints into action and begins to pose once again as the camera drones swarm him and announcer introduces him and the others. A drone will fixate on Atvar then the swarm will move from Semil to him, the announcer in surprise will introduce Atvar as his alter ego Blitz and the crowd will erupt louder than before. Semil jealous and confused will try to lock eyes with Atvar and start a pose off since he was unaware of Atvar's former pain but alas he was out posed by this mighty lizard man.

The announcer will then introduce what this crew will be fighting as the floor begins to rumble on the other end of the arena and two green plant like beasts will be brought into the battle zone. Through coms someone is able to at least identify them as ksariks, plant like mutable monsters that begin to charge. One climbs the ancient dragon skeleton in the middle of the arena while the other stay's low, both lobbing acid at the fighters. Shaken the fighters engage and miss a lot of shots on the creatures thankfully the melee hitting fighters Atvar, Vitaly, and Semil get in to surround the low ground beast and begin to poke and proud. Semil taking heavy blows while being cocky drags the attention of both creatures. Vitaly is struck by the low ground beast's tentacles and feels it rip at his very core and from what he can understand incorporate it into itself. Skitty always at the ready to helps props up his bear father figure and cracks off a few shots while Bossk does the same to the high ground beast.

It retaliates by hitting Bossk with some thorn barbs and dig into his skin the crowd loves the bloodshed and even better the death of the first beast. With a single target now they dispose of the second one quickly, however Semil being cocky is struck by the tentacles and the beast gains his limited telepathy from the hit and cries out into all their minds with it. But since it was unintelligible the fighters regain their footing and the announcer comes on and praises their work... for only Act 1 and the platform begins to rise again.

This time only one beast, very armour plated and larger than the last two Bossk knows what this is, however noting how sickly it looks. It's a crest-eater known for their corrosive stomach acid, strong enough to eat through starship hulls but they have a taste for bones. Semil charges it to his dismay as he gets to feel the true power of the beast's jaws and get's chomped hard but it was odd, looks like it was a mild bite then almost a ripple in reality happens as the beast re-bites even harder onto him. The others rush in but take a mild thrashing while Semil taking most of the heat slowly manage to murder the enraged beast to the crowd's delight as they slowly make it bleed over the arena floor. Again the announcer praises their work as Semil stumbles to his feet, the platform raises again and the last challenge is shown.

Falk in shock recognizes this beast, it's a Nyssholora and thankfully for them a younger one. It comes up biting and swinging it's tail at Atvar and thankfully only gets hit once and staggered but he hears a voice in the shadows. It tells him his deepest darkest fears and tells him that his career was a joke and he's a fraud of a fighter. Mistakenly Atvar looks up to the stands and curses Swartz Lighting his old nemisis while the others, mainly Semil is left to deal with the raging beast. Semil is mortally wounded as he is impaled through his torso and is just thrown aside, thankfully the crew used that as a distraction and already had been stabbing the beast.

After a few more close brushes with death they slay it to the crowd's pleasure and their relief, it has been a long past few days for them. A fog envelopes the stands and the camera drones fly off after the announcer praises their victorious match. A man appears once the stand and sky is filled with the fog, the fighters are put at ease but also given an uneasy feeling at the same time, a rare sensation.

He claps, claiming he's shocked to see how well the fight went and is pleased on their performance. He hands out credits to all standing combatants besides Skitty, noting he has no use for these credits, Vitaly calls him out saying he's and equal, the man chuckles quietly. He then approaches Atvar handing him a custom warclub with Blitz branding all over it while also giving him the laminate sheets he needs for his antique projector, a long sought after item by Atvar since his first purchase.

Turns his attention to Bossk and gives the Vesk more credits as he denotes that he doesn't fully know him yet but will which at an odd point he'll introduce his name as Gift. For Vitaly he receives a ring of resistance, for Skitty a ring of whispers, for Falk a serum of enhancement, and for "Doc" a corpse lantern even as Gift approached "Doc"'s android prejudice didn't kick in. Gift truly living up to the name then releases them from their collars and snaps his fingers, Semil begins to breathe for the first time in several minutes and Gift holds his right hand up with the left still tucked behind him. "Do you care if this man lives or dies today?" he asks the crew. Both "Doc" and Vitaly said he fought well and they have no issues with him. Gift lowers his hands and some more shadowy Androids come to whisk Semil away, hopefully to medical treatment.

Just as mysterious as the man entering the ring he leaves wishing the crew well and bows as he exits stating his "full" title that he is "Gift, avatar of the Gods". Soon as he is gone the mysterious fog is gone and the stadium is emptied already, looks like some time has passed. Bossk asks them where they are heading, hoping to catch a ride. Thankfully they are all heading back to Absalom Station so they all agree Bossk can come for the journey, potentially taking over as pilot for their ship if need be. Very oddly, the crew at no point try to see where Bob or Kious had vanished too as they too where at the exchange and jumped by the same people, but asking Bossk to pilot sounds like they are moving on from silent Bob.

A quick ride back to Eighport they get to Jaber's spaceport and machine shop, there he seems a little panicked and worried. He explained that some men showed up calling themselves the order of the gate were there and that they were looking really, really close at the crew's ship, noting he didn't want to stop them as they were heavily armed. Jaber pleads with the crew to not be upset as they are also heavily arm. They do a fast sweep and very quickly find a tracker on the inner side of the loading door. They then plan to leave world with it but jettison the tracker soon as they leave orbit.

But they wait too long as the Hellknights's hail them almost immediately in space. Quickly "Doc" fires off a scan on one of the two space vessels as their aggressive message comes through demanding the crew to surrender and be boarded. The Hellknights notice the scan and engage while "Doc" relays the info on the one vessel, it's as fast as them, heavily shielded but not too armed. They quickly realized the other ship was the ringer as it was not only fast but had a lot of fire power.

The space battle ensues with many arguments from the crew on who to do what and the ship feels it's first blows by weaponry and things rattle all over the place. It was a dirty brawl but a good one as they manage to take out the better ship first, focusing their efforts. The second tries to flee soon as the first fell but Vitaly was boosting their engines too much and they quickly gained on and destroyed the last Hellknights ship. It feels like for the first time in a long time the crew can properly rest, and head back home safely.