After being subjected to the business end of an absolute maelstrom of weapons fire, the final ganger falls and the tranquility of the park is restored.
With the gangers defeated, you are free to collect Ceren. The hacker seems oddly unperturbed by the gangers’ appearance, confident that your work at falsifying her death should throw off future investigations into her whereabouts. She is quick to get to that point, though and asks you for the information pertaining to her new identity. After looking over the files, she smiles and thanks you all for your help.
A short while after Ceren departs, Historia-7 contacts you remotely. She relays that Ceren feels comfortable enough in her new identity to risk a return to public life. In fact, the aged hacker claims this is the most alive she has felt in ages and offers to assist the Dataphiles if they ever require her skills. She also confirms that she has received the files Ceren unintentionally obtained from Bluerise Tower, and that the Dataphiles will be combing through the data to see if there is anything of value to the Society.
On your way back to the Lorespire Complex and your next mission, a rudimentary courier robot greets you and presents you with a gift box containing a standard datajack and 200 credits. A simple electronic message from Historia-7 indicates that the datajack is a token of thanks from the Dataphiles. The box also contains a frostbite-class zero rifle, along with a note from Jubair.
"Hey there Starfinders! Thanks again for helping me and Gran out. I found this while cleaning out the old house, and thought it must've been something from Gran's past. I thought it would better serve you all. Thanks again for all that you've done. Best of luck!"
With that, you are ready to move on to your next assignment!
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"We have left Fitch or Radaszam. Radaszam's a vesk, and so probably needs more help. You know that vesks can always use a few friends to make them feel better!" Xeeter beams, thinking about giving Radazam a six-armed hug.
Then Xeeter quickly runs off to give Korl a hug too. "I didn't watch you to feel left out!"
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"Now, Ceren, you just remember that if any of those Bluerise goons show up again, don't hesitate to call, the Starfinders will take care of our own! Let us know if you need anything, absolutely anything at all in your new life."
Diralynn thumps Ceren on the shoulder, perhaps a little harder than she should.
"Let's go see Radaszam!"
As if responding to your decision to go meet Radaszam, your comm units ding, notifying you that an auto-cab is on its way to deliver you to the vesk's office in the Nyori Palisades, a luxurious neighborhood located in Absalom Station’s transparent central dome.
When you arrive after some uneventful travel, the plain white doors of the office slide open to reveal a stark, dimly lit room. The chamber is bleak and expressionless in its emptiness—no vanities line its smooth black walls, and no signs of use mar its smooth black furniture. The only occupants of the suite are a bug-eyed tadpole wriggling in a glowing blue aquarium and a reptilian vesk seated behind an onyx desk. The vesk gestures to a number of chairs in front of him, his features sharply illuminated by the light of his desk’s green holoscreen.
“The new graduates,” he greets, in a low and pleasant voice. “Good day. I am Radaszam, though since you are here, I should hope you already knew.
“I trust you are aware of our Society’s traditions, so I will cut to the point. I have a minor situation that needs resolution. One of our members, a human named Laboni, had a rather public altercation with a junk scavenger from the Spike. You might be more familiar with the scavenger than I, actually; he is a ysoki who fancifully calls himself Ratrod. I am told he runs a popular racing competition that has, hmm, several hundreds of thousands of viewers on the station’s infosphere. For some reason, Laboni felt the need to tell him that any ‘real’ mechanic could easily beat the garbage that Ratrod and his associates slap together. Now that Ratrod has issued an infosphere-wide demand that she race him and prove it, Laboni doubts she can back that claim up.
“Embarrassing, isn’t it? Not really the sort of troublemaker that suits our Society. Perhaps she would be better suited to the bottom of a trash compactor... Well, we cannot afford to throw her out, not after so many Starfinders were lost in the Scoured Stars. Besides, we can’t let people think we are so weak that we can’t control our own members, or that we cannot stand up to a scrapyard junker. No, I would like you to assist Laboni in winning this race. Show our detractors that even the least of our Society is not someone to be trifled with. Any questions, Starfinders?”
Radaszam looks down suspiciously at Xeeter, "Ehm...no. Thank you."
Clearing his throat, the vesk turns once again to the rest of the party and nods his approval at the everyone's readiness to begin the mission. He give you directions to the race’s location in Botscrap and hands you badges marking you as Laboni’s official pit crew.
"Now do not delay," he suggests, "You'll need as much time as you can get to help Laboni win this race."
Ratrod’s racing circuit is a hollowed-out section of a mountain of spare parts in Botscrap, the track specifically sanctioned by the ysoki-dominated Salvage Union that controls most of the yards. When you arrive at the competitors’ entrance, a small, hovering robot drifts out to block the entrance.
"Racers and crew only," the bot warns in a polite but firm tone. You show the robot your badges, however, and it quickly scans them to confirm their authenticity. Once you are verified as Laboni's crew, the robot asks if you are familiar with the rules for the Junkrace.
With the explanation completed, the robot's functions are complete, and it drifts back to its post beside the stadium's entrance.
Once you enter the stadium and begin searching around the maintenance docks, Laboni is easy to find in the crowd due to her paisley clothes and bright white lab coat. She appears to be a young human woman, maybe only in her late teens, and she is tinkering half-heartedly with her junkracer.
As Guli greets her unexpectedly, Laboni jumps up and drops the tool she had been fiddling with. "Oh! H-hi there, guys," she mutters shyly, "I uh...I guess I'm the reason you're all here then? G-great."
She gazes down at her shoes for a moment, avoiding eye contact with you at all costs, until she finally screws up enough courage and finally addresses you again, "Listen, I'm sorry about this whole thing. I was just kinda following along with what some of the senior agents were saying and got carried away. I really appreciate you all coming out to help--though I'm sure this isn't something you're doing out of charity. And I know I should probably apologize to help smooth things over." Her face suddenly grows determined as this notion comes to her, and she pounds a fist into her opposite palm, "But I don't think I should until after I beat that jumped up junker! Help me beat Ratrod in this race, then I'll apologize to him for calling him out. Be a good sport and all that, right?"
She listens to each of you as you begin offering assistance, and a broad smile spreads across her face. "Awesome! You guys will be a huge help! Unfortunately, I don't really know too much about the other racers. Maybe that's where you could help me out. I've got some other ideas too!"
• The vehicle’s base speed increases by 5 feet.
• The vehicle gains a +1 Piloting modifier.
• The vehicle gains a +1 attack modifier.
• The vehicle gains a +2 bonus to its EAC.
• The vehicle gains a +2 bonus to its KAC.
• The PCs install a basic energy weapon on the vehicle (imposes a –4 base Piloting penalty on a hit).
• The PCs install a basic kinetic weapon on the vehicle (imposes a –4 base Piloting penalty on a hit).
• The PCs upgrade a weapon to impose an additional –2 penalty to enemy Piloting checks on a successful hit.
• Lemgem (Female Feychild Gnome Technomancer)
• Nyizin (Female Ryphorian Soldier)
• Orsis (Male Damaya Lashunta Mechanic)
• Ratrod (Male Ysoki Technomancer)
• Velocity (Nonbinary Android Envoy)
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Zapp lets the others work on the racer so he can do what he is best at - socializing! Unless Diralynn finds out something particularly useful regarding another pilot, he starts with Orsis.
"Good Sir Lashunta! I come bearing a branch of peace, with the hope it will grow into a tree of friendship. Are you a longtime pilot, or just starting out? Regardless, you look right at home here."
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Xeeter spends a few minutes checking out all the racers. He knows nothing about engineering and vehicles, but he does know people! Once he's done his look around, he'd like to talk to Nyzin, because she is furry.
"Hello Nyzin! How are you? Can I help? Well... actually I can't, because I am better at growing things than fixing things, but I thought I would say hi because you are furry like me. Are you okay?"
Guli and Al set about helping Laboni with her racer, while the others venture out to scope out the competition.
Laboni, to her credit, is a skilled mechanic and has worked hard to pull together a decent racer from the piles of junk in Botscrap. Unfortunately, despite her heroic efforts, Laboni’s machine is not a match for vehicles that have been tested and improved over the course of multiple junkraces. Worse still, she is not a pilot and has no experience with weaponry. If Laboni is going to have a chance, she admits to Guli as the dwarf works on tuning up the racer's engine, she is going to need all the help she can get to improve her vehicle.
Thankfully, she has two expert technicians working alongside her, and both Guli and Al are quickly able to make improvements to the junkracer.
Meanwhile, Diralynn, Xeeter, and Korl try to get a feel for some of Laboni's competitors.
Lemgem is a blue-haired gnome covered in piercings, tattoos, and augmentations. A short conversation reveals she is obsessed with continual alterations to herself and her racer, to the point where her vehicle modifications skirt the bounds of common sense.
Still bearing the scars of the fight that killed her dragonkin partner, Nyizin is a racer with an obvious death wish. Unstable black-market mods made of dragon bone and elemental energies fill Nyizin’s vehicle. So long as she is alive, she intends to win in honor of her fallen companion.
Orsis is a stoic, dark-haired lashunta who looks unfairly good in black and gold.
Ratrod is a ysoki with mottled gray-and-white fur. He has a showman’s personality to match his icon status. People in the Spike consider him something of a hero to the ysoki-dominated Scrap Union.
Velocity is a beautiful android with silver hair and skin. They have self-modified to have both masculine and feminine attributes, and have decorated their clothing, eyelids, and lips with bright, colorful patterns. While the android is a very good pilot, they struggle with engineering and have never won a race—they have mostly sought entertainment by shooting at other racers during previous competitions.
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"Laboni, I found a cool part for you!" Xeeter holds up a random part. "It can make you speedier!"
"Velocity, will this help your vehicle?" Xeeter holds up another random part. "Should we find out?" Xeeter offers the part to Velocity to help the android speed up his vehicle. "I figure that we're all here to beat Ratrod, right?"
As Zapp is about to turn to leave Orsis behind, the lashunta calls out from behind him, "Next time, focus on the machine instead of the man. I may be proud of my racer, but that's only because she's the best thing running, and she's got one of the best pilots behind the wheel. Don't be surprised when your little piece of scrap ends up losing to Orsis! Aha. Ha. HA!"
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After checking out the competition, several of you head off into the junkyard to start gathering materials to help build out Laboni's kit. Xeeter finds a discarded injection system that works way more efficiently than the one Laboni had in her racer before, giving the vehicle even more speed!
Diralynn also finds some parts that seem to be in good shape, though she's not sure what effect they'll actually have.
While Diralynn and Xeeter manage to find some good parts, Korl simply gets himself lost in the maze of garbage heaps.
Al and Guli find themselves similarly flustered by the machines they are working on. Guli's laser focus on improving the speed of Laboni's racer makes him forget to shut off his laser welder, and he ends up boring a hole in the cockpit instead. Al's attempts to overcharge Velocity's racer ends up causing a short in the vehicle's primary ignition system.
After leaving Orsis behind, Zapp listens to what Ratrod is actually saying, and he comes to the realization that the ysoki takes offense at the challenge to his legitimacy. Zapp thinks the group could use this knowledge to raise the stakes on the race by further trash-talking .
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After helping Laboni out, Xeeter decides to spread the help around. He finds another injection system like the one he had given Laboni. The android is overjoyed at the improvement. "This is it! This is the piece I've needed to go THE FASTEST I'VE EVER GONE!! Oh, I owe you big for this, little guy! Listen, I don't care about winning, I just want to go fast. So I'll tell you what, I'll set up to take second place behind you, and no matter what, I'll shoot down anybody who tries to take the lead ahead of you, okay? This is the BEST!"
The steering column Laboni had built into her junkracer was...let's say vintage. The one Diralynn finds to replace it, though, is a much more modern design that helps balance the speed-control dynamic of the whole system through a clever set of locking gears that ratchet up or down depending on the current speed.
Diralynn also found the doors off of some old commercial refrigerators that she figures would help add some defense to the vehicle. She is not wrong about that!
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Zapp closes the distance to Ratrod. "You'll be riding this? I mean, we can't all be proud, or winners, but it puts the 'hideous' in 'junkracer!' Junk is too good a word to associate with this abomination. I don't understand why Laboni, who has little to no experience, hasn't already declared victory."
With that, he stalks off. He decides to help a bit with the racer, despite any protests. Finding or cobbling together a suitable projectile launcher, he puts it on with liberal amounts of glue. And...connecting the wires lets the gun fire, right?
As Zapp's burn sinks in, Ratrod flinches for a moment before screaming back, "You shut your mouth, ya no good Starfinder fleem! You just watch out on the track! Ya gonna be choking on my exhaust before the end!"
Despite Ratrod's sharp words, Zapp can tell that he got to the ysoki, and imagines it just might even affect him during the race!
After throwing a few zingers at the competition, Zapp joins the rest of the crew in helping to improve Laboni's racer.
Zapp finds an old t-shirt cannon that he thinks could be rigged as a ballistics launcher for the match and manages to mount the device on top of the racer.
Karl manages to get himself un-lost again, and even finds some useful scrap. But what could it be used for?
Al diverts some of the racer's excess power into a low-level energy field that should deflect energy weapons somewhat.
Guli gets a little over-excited in wiping the sweat off his forehead and ends up with a face full of grease. He has to run and take a break to wash up somewhat before he can get more work done.
Piloting boosted +1
Speed boosted 10ft
EAC boosted +4
KAC boosted +2
Kinetic weapon added
[i]Racer's Influenced
Befriended Velocity - she will take second place behind Laboni, and will fire on anyone ahead of Laboni
Intimidated Ratrod - he will take penalties or gain bonuses on checks depending on where he is in relation to Laboni
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Bringing his scrap back to the pit, Korl passes Lemgem and stops for a brief moment "You know...we've got our racer upgraded pretty good, I'm not sure if you'd stand a chance with yours looking like that."
Korl offers the gnome a toothy grin and nod, waving the scrap in his hand as he moves past the pit entrance, hoping to goad Lemgem into something silly.
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Zapp is a little nervous about installing the cannon, but must to improve the odds. "This might be too dangerous for the event. A good hit could kill.
"...You know, if it causes you to drop 20 feet, and emergency services are somehow delayed."
He returns to the junkyard in search of another weapon. Preferably an energy-based, less lethal one.
Korl wanders by Lemgem's pit and taunts the gnome, who looks somewhat downtrodden, but still determined to have fun in this race. Xeeter follows after the vesk a short while later, though, and tries to see if he and the other Starfinders could have fun together with Lemgem. "I LOVE Strawberry Machine Cake," she exclaims, "Especially when they put out that experimental xeno-folk album! Sure, let's race together!" She dances around for a minute, then suddenly stops, "Oh! I almost forgot! In the race, watch out for Ratrod's energy absorbers!"
Meanwhile the rest of the crew piles on more and more equipment to beef up Laboni's racer, adding to its arsenal, beefing up its physical protection, and giving it a massive boost to speed. This is a race after all!
"Great work, everyone," Laboni cheers as Al puts the final rivet in place on the racer's new armor. "Now we just need to give her a name! Any suggestions?"
Piloting boosted +2
Speed boosted 20ft
EAC boosted +4
KAC boosted +4
Kinetic weapon added
Energy weapon added
Racer's Influenced
Befriended Velocity - she will take second place behind Laboni, and will fire on anyone ahead of Laboni
Intimidated Ratrod - he will take penalties or gain bonuses on checks depending on where he is in relation to Laboni
Befriended Lemgem - She will take second place behind Laboni, and will fire on anyone ahead of Laboni
"Haha! That's perfect, Korl! Now, here's we're going to do this..." Laboni launches into a detailed explanation of the rules for the race.
Each turn of the race includes two phases: First, all the competitors fire their weapons at their chosen targets. Second, all the pilots attempt Piloting checks to determine their positions in the race. Any number of players can each control a single weapon during the firing phase, whereas only one player can act during the piloting phase. If any PCs have nothing to do, the GM can allow them to take control of any racer with whom they have made an alliance, using that racer’s statistics. Actions during each of the race phases occur simultaneously, so there is no need to determine an order or initiative.