ROOKIE RACER FORCED TO DROP OUT
OVER BORDER ALLIANCE COMMENTS
By Donat LoïcOVER BORDER ALLIANCE COMMENTS
FILED TO: Space Races, Colonies Series, Mandalorians
Racers say and do foolish things all the time. They're only regular beings after all, and haven't spent their lives cooped up in a secluded temple somewhere like a Jedi. Just last month Heike Rokus was seen disrobed in videos singing a Corellian ballad on top of a police speeder on Chandrila. Pherick Jurre once stated that he thinks all Hutts should be killed, salted, and sold from little traveling restaurants as an appetizer. Even Anĉjo Mikelo has gotten in trouble for making comments crude comments about Twi'lek slave girls, and what he really deserves for winning the Alsakan Classic.
But all these racers are well established names. Sure they might make the embarrassing statement every now and again, but sponsors know exactly what they're paying for, and what they're getting out of it. Which is why when a rookie to the professional starship racing world makes political comments they're cut without second thought. Nobody really knows if it's going to be a one off embarrassment, or a running thing. Nobody knows if their performance is going to be good enough to cancel out any personality faults. It's an odd scenario where newcomers are held to a higher standard than those who have been in the sport for longer, but the simpler matter is that there are always more rookies. There's always another up and coming racer, which means that those transitioning from amateur to pro need to be a bit more circumspect in their personal lives, and need to be a lot more careful in public.
Especially when it comes to the political mess that is the Border Alliance. Plenty of racers may personally support it, but their corporate backers would prefer they didn't say that in public, lest it be construed by members of the Senate that they're de facto supporting the BA. It might not make a lot of sense from a purely legal point of view, but when it comes to public perception, who you associate yourself with is everything. Which is why those corporations in the Core tend to be a lot more skittish about anyone offering any kind of opinion on that thicket that isn't the company line.
So it shouldn't be any wonder that when Manda Ne'tra, the rookie from Concordia, gave a rather blunt and definitive answer of support for the Border Alliance, that her sponsors would start to drop like flies. Not especially well known, and with little in the way of name recognition, it was almost instant death for her career. Ne'tra fought hard to get into the professional world of racing, winning the Kalevala Open with tried and true Mandalorian garage brilliance, and a deft hand behind the controls. Not especially well loved among the more reactionary elements of Mandalorian society, she relied heavily on Core based sponsors in order to fund her way into the Colonies Series. After participating in a few exhibition races, Ne'tra's first (and likely last) pro-race was the Castell 7, where she finished 5th.
Without the funding, Ne'tra is unable to pay a variety of fees necessary to participate in the next race in the Quellor System. Entrance fees, licenses, hangar space, parts, room and board, and more among the expenses that a racer has to pay on a regular basis in order to stay in competition. Ne'tra's hardly the first racer to get cut for saying things sponsors don't like, and likely won't be the last. For these reasons the story hasn't been widely covered, you'll notice a lot of them are just links back to us with little original content. Here on the Corefeed we're dedicated to bringing our racing fans every detail down to the brand of shoes a racer wears.
Donat Loïc is veteran sports reporter, who has been covering various space races across the galaxy for over ten years. For more on the Colonies Series click here
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Manda Ne'tra
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NAME: Manda Ne'tra_|_FACTION: Border Alliance_|_RANK: Lieutenant
SPECIES: Human_|_AGE: Early 20's_|_GENDER: Female
FORCE SENSITIVE: Negative
A pilot from Concordia, Manda Ne'tra pays little regard to the whole "warrior" thing a lot of Mandalorians have going on. Or at least she did until her career as a race ship pilot came to an abrupt end due to some rather unfortunate media related incident wherein she sternly voiced support for the Border Alliance. This led to an end of her sponsors sponsoring her, bringing an end to her attempts at a professional career to a swift end. Not exactly eager to head home to Mandalore, Genet instead headed to Bandomeer and the Border Alliance. If she was going to lose her career over supporting them, the least they could do was give her a job that involved sitting in the cockpit of a ship that went really fast.
Personality
Generally easy going, Manda is most definitely not the type of Mandalorian who mutters about honor, war, and killing in their sleep. She's also not the insanely grim type who talk about war, killing, and the stupidity of honor in their sleep. She's the kind that likes to fly really fast, and considers anything that has a speed which can't be measured in MGLT "slow". She generally doesn't concern herself with the all the Clan and House nonsense, and ridiculously shaped battle arenas. It's not something that was exactly emphasized in Clan Ne'tra, and it's not something she has much of an interest in. Clan Ne'tra was always more on the practical side of things, like keeping the guns, the ships, and the armor, and such working. A Clan of mechanics, Manda was raised to do what makes sense and what works. However she can be a bit on the impatient side, and tends to what works, and what can be done as fast as possible rather than necessarily what makes the most sense for the long term.
Cheerful with an optimistic disposition, Manda can also be more than a little stubborn, and more than a rash. A perfect example of this is how she didn't really think about who she was talking to, and how many people were listening when she voiced her support for the Border Alliance that ended her career. After that she kept trying to figure out how to make it work until she was broke, and all but homeless. Rather than sit around moping, she stayed on the sunny side and put her mind to going out and supporting the Border Alliance more directly. She's never been in combat however, and is very green. She knows next to nothing about the exact situation of the BA, and really just supports it by default due to Mandalore being in it and on the front lines. Though not a warrior by any means, she does care about her family and Clan, and is willing to fight to protect them. She's certainly heard stories about the old Sith Wars and would rather not have see her home scarred by them again.
Attributes
Manda is generally more street smart than book smart. Most of her education wasn't through formal schooling with letter grades and underpaid teachers. Instead it was gained by working with her family, hanging around spaceports, and being out in the galaxy on her own. She's a very good mechanic for example, but not one who does it by the numbers and refers to reference charts. She came from the school of trial and error where, if it was stupid and it worked, it wasn't stupid. She learns much better by doing than by listening or writing.
Very much healthy, she's not particularly outstanding in any one area physically, except in the areas you'd expect. As a skilled pilot she'd pretty good at dealing with high G's, has excellent spatial awareness, and reflexes. She's no slouch in the strength department either. Contrary to popular belief, having some muscle is kind of necessary if you're going to be the piloting game. And even then, moving around heavy starship parts can be more than a little physically intensive. Manda might not have the strength of a thousand warriors, but when she hits expect to feel it.
Notable Skills
Manda is obviously a skilled pilot, having participating in races in starfighter sized craft in the general space of the Border Alliance. It obviously wasn't combat flying, but she's well versed in the ins and outs of maneuvering, and how to keep another ship where you want it to be relative to your position. She has a great deal of technical knowledge related to starships as well, but not entirely limited to them. She knows her way around fixing a blaster, or a set of armor as well. She's never done much else with either of them, but growing up in a Mandalorian clan of mechanically inclined people, it's hard not to come across guns and the classic Mandalorian armor from an age that would probably be appalling on a Core planet.
Green in the combat department, Manda nonetheless knows her way around a blaster. She hasn't used one in a long time, but she remembers which end shoots the bad guys, and that the safety is a thing. She's bilingual speaking Basic and Mando'a fluently. Her basic is a bit heavy on the received pronunciation, and even her Mando'a probably sounds accented compared to those from Mandalore itself or Concord Dawn. Her medical knowledge can be summed up as "bleeding from the chest is probably bad" and not pulling the piece of rebar out of yourself because people always die doing that on the medical dramas.
Appearance
On the tall and thin side with long brown hair, Manda's a pretty average human woman in her early twenties by most standards. No missing limbs, gross deformities, or cool cybernetics. Just regular old human. Her eyes are brown, and don't glitter like some gemstone or <insert object here>. They're just eyes. They see things, they don't need anything to describe them other than the color. She has no scars worth mentioning, just the usual small ones that it's go through life without getting. Her skin's of a lighter complexion that also doesn't need a rock, a food, or an exotic sounding color to describe. It's just epidermis.
Biography
Clan Ne'tra of Concordia was never the biggest, or most important of clans, but it was one with a rather interesting history. Earning the nicknames "The Loyal Clan" and the "Clan without a House" during the wars with the Sith, Ne'tra had previously been just another in a long list of regular old Clans. When the war came to Mandalore, the House it had been a part of was one of those that had turned its back on Mandalore, siding with the Sith, and eventually becoming a part of the Sacred Band of Ziost. Clan Ne'tra was the only Clan of this House to refuse to side with the freaks in the black hoods, and instead answered the call of Houses Kryze and Viszla in rallying to drive the invaders and traitors back in the final of the Old Sith Wars. In the century since the Clan has done little of note, save for refusing to actually join with another House. Situated on Mandalore's moon of Concordia, Ne'tra was primarily involved with turning the metals brought up from the mines into useful goods in the old days. Since the end of the Sith Wars however the focus has shifted to repair and refurbishment as the aftermath of the conflict left a lot to be fixed.
It was in this industrious little Clan that Manda was born. Life in general was pretty good. Sure there was the occasional spat of violence with some upstart group, or someone dumb enough to violate Mandalorian territory, but in general it was an era of peace, and prosperity for Ne'tra at least. From the age where she could walk and talk, Manda was involved in helping with the work carried out. On a more "civilized" planet this probably would have been somewhere between horrific, and shocking given the issues of such child labor. But no one had ever accused Mandalore, or Concordia in particular of being the most forward thinking of places. There were even Clans that sent incredibly young teenagers into combat, though Ne'tra was not among these as a tradition. Mostly it was working on big, bulky, mining equipment and the like, but as Ne'tra got older she was taught and allowed to work on some of the more dangerous and complex stuff.
In general it wasn't really a terrible life, at least as far as Manda remembers. Mostly it just more boring as she got older. The only thing available for entertainment that she really enjoyed doing was racing speeders through the mountainous regions of Concordia. The "goes fast" factor and the adrenaline were the big draws for Manda. In the pursuit of more speed, fun, and adventure, she eventually got an old, piece of crap, broken down starfighter for way too many credits. Fixing the project ship up into a racing ship was a lot of work, but it was work that Manda looks back on fondly. Even in its finished state the ship was a piece of crap, but it was her piece of crap, and before too long she was participating in races in the local system. She started to get pretty good at it on the amateur circuits, while at the same time working her ship. When she wasn't racing she was still in her hometown doing the same kind of work the last three generations of her family had.
After some fine tuning, and a long time trying to modify the fighter to actually go faster without the engine exploding, she hit it big time. Winning the Kalevala Open propelled her into the world of "professional" racing in the regions closer to the Core. It was difficult to turn down possible fortune, fame, and getting to race as your actual job. Manda didn't hesitate for a moment. Her feeling on leaving was less that she was abandoning her home, and more that she was representing it. Still there were a few of the more traditionalist types who gave her the stink eye when she left. The good life didn't last long however, and after a single race she discovered that the Core was a really touchy place. Losing the sponsors necessary to pay the basic fees associated with racing after some choice comments in support of the Border Alliance, she was forced to sell off almost everything she had just to avoid going into debt. With no ship, and no means of really getting back into the racing game, Manda didn't have a lot of options. Returning home wasn't as appealing as it might have been if she'd never raced at all, it was just too dull and too slow for her to contemplate. So she did the next best thing, and went to sign up with the Border Alliance which would hopefully have something that went nice and fast.
Gear
MANDALORIAN ARMOR
Manda's armor is less in the vein of the traditional Mandalorian armor, and more a proper flight suit that can double as light armor. With a greenish mint coloration, and the classic t-visor, the suit is sealed and designed to be able to operate in a vacuum in needed. It's nothing really all that special, with no weird metals or anything. The parts of the suit that can protect someone from blaster shots are the chest plate, helmet, and shoulder pads.
VIBROSWORD
Manda has next to no idea what to actually do with it, but she does possess a Claudin long vibrosword. It was a gift from a family member when she told them she was joining the Border Alliance, but she can't actually think of a scenario where she'd use it being a starfighter pilot and all. Still it looks really cool.
BLASTER PISTOL
It's a blaster pistol. It shoots blaster bolts. Not really much to it.
Roleplays
RPs will go here and whatnot.
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