Favorite In-Game Quote: Tie Between "Let the interns do it" and "At least wash it first."
The crew had just succeeded in their capture of Dr. Dolbert. While they were resting at the Zenna City Starport, Dr. Vespers returned to the Providence toting a new intern: Joey. He is a young med-school graduate looking for a good mentor. Dr. Vespers is the best around. Dax decides to get an intern of his own and recruits a homeless man named Kim out of an alleyway.
Halic, after reviewing interplanetary trading data, concludes that the best way for the crew to make money (illegally) is to steal radioactives. Most radioactives are enriched and consumed in the Iron Triangle. After a pit stop on the Micallo black market for Dr. Harrison's new AT weapon, Providence sets out to their heist target. In jump space they encounter a trade ship carrying wheeled cars. Abandoning all plans of complex nuclear heist, the crew formulates a new plan to steal the trader. Using a false emergency signal, the crew lures a medic aboard. While the trader crew is distracted, Dax sneaks aboard, hacks the ship, and knocks them all out.
Upon arriving in the Iron Triangle, the trader ship is stripped of its markings and cereal numbers. The shuttle that comes with the ship is stored in Providence's hanger. The crew is put in cryo-stasis and later used as cadavers to train Joey. The ships travel to Zenna, where Dr. Vespers contacts his father-in-law to find a buyer. The Dog is pretty pissed that his "son" is running around with his old gang instead of providing for Mrs. Vespers. Eventually, Vespers convinces Dog to give him the name of a fence on Providencia.
The meeting with the fence takes place at the Tery and Teri Bar. The fence is a gruff old man named Joel. After some resistance Joel buys the ship for 65 million credits. While the transaction takes place, the crew watches the 8 PM pirate broadcast of "The Red Ring of Blood." Masked men in red robes pit faceless fighters together in battles to the death. The end goal is to reach 100 kills and earn the rank of Centurion. At that point, the fighter enters into "the Legion." Losers are unmasked and executed. Each fighter has an ID number and a blood count for how many kills he has. Killing another fighter steals his blood count. During the fights the arena can throw in unpredictable variables like rabid alien monsters.
With all of their newly found cash, the crew invests in some upgrades for their ship. Providence is outfitted with brand new lasers for future killing and better armor to avoid being killed. They name their new shuttle the Messiah and upgrade it with heavy lasers. The modifications will take at least two weeks, so the crew sets out for some fun on the town. They fall into three groups:
Group one consists of Halic. He goes off on his own until noon the next morning. When he comes back he complains about shrapnel wounds from a long time ago to Dr. Vespers and gets the old injury repaired.
Group two consists of Dax and Harrison. They wake up in a serial killer's apartment surrounded by cop corpses. They had spent the night helping this madman kill police officers on patrol. The body count was around 12 officers. Later the intern gets drunk, rents an apartment next door, and inadvertently gets the man arrested.
Group three consists of Vespers and Kim. They wake up wearing blue combat armor with only certain parts of their gear. They are in prep tubes about to be launched into the Red Ring of Blood. Vespers has his syringe gun, an EMP grenade, a hatchet and a guass pistol. Kim has two revolvers. Their enemy is the red team: a muscly man with a guass rifle and a thin man with a chainsword and pistol. At the start of the battle, Thin Red uses active camo and disappears while Big Red puts a nasty shot in Vespers. Thinking quickly, Vespers tosses the EMP grenade and disables all of the red team's gear. In desperation, the red team charges the blue team: Big Red brings Kim to the ground and Thin Red bumps into Vespers. Soon afterwards the arena twist kicks in and the ground shakes violently. While red team is detracted, Vespers and Kim cripple them with their pistols. They proceed to unmask and execute the two defeated fighters. Their night in the arena brings their blood count all the way up to 56.
The next day, Dax sneaks into the Red Ring of Blood and sets the broadcasts to always play "Let's Get It On" when a fight begins.
