Bootleggathon

"The entire history of man and you can still make a killing running alcohol places you aren't supposed to."
-Jerry Riggs III, bootlegger

Despite alcohol being illegal in most parts of the galaxy, many still desire to partake, and are willing to pay exorbitant prices for it. As such, organized crime handles most of the manufacturing and shipping of alcohol, and under the protection of the sheer vastness of space. The Bootlegathon was derived from this practice as a race and festival celebrated across the galaxy.

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History

The Bootlegathon was accidently started by a bootlegger, Jerry Riggs III. Legend tells that Riggs had spent a week partying and was running late for several shipments of alcohol. The exact number of shipments has never been known, but many songs in his memory sing "thirty one on fourteen planets in four systems". Riggs in a rush to complete his shipments, or perhaps as a decision based on drunken stupor, decided to forego the traditional discretionary methods of smuggling, and instead opted to race past any law enforcement and airdrop the liquor to the customers. What should have been simple delivery tasks turned into a galaxy wide police chase with some reports stating at least 40 law-enforcement vessels in pursuit, including a Juggernaut-class cruiser from Earth.
Following Jerry Riggs eventual capture and persecution, many systems saw protests for the legalization of alcohol and some escalated to full riots. Although the protests were quickly put down, the criminal syndicates thought it might make good business to celebrate once a year in Riggs' name, and invented the Bootlegathon; a race from one end of the galaxy to the other, all while supplying liquor to the populace of many systems. The surge in popularity and uncontrollable amount of participants forced many systems to come to a compromise, and liquor became almost universally legal one week a year.
Since it's conception, the Bootlegathon has been run by the larger criminal organizations of the galaxy. Anyone with a fast ship is invited to participate and prizes are given to the fastest racers. Most law-enforcement won't interfere based on sheer volume of participants and many systems even consider the day a holiday. Perhaps ironically, the bootlegathon also results in less demand for alcohol in general, which has allowed many systems to lower the degree of offense for bootlegging.

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Execution

The exact course for the race changes every year, usually including between 11 and 15 planets with at least one being in a system where alcohol is banned, even during the Bootlegathon. The only restriction on racers is they cannot engage in combat with other participants. The goal is to airdrop all of the provided liquor crates at the predetermined locations and return to the starting point.

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Components and tools

Racers' vessels need to be extremely fast ships, but because of the need to haul a large amount of cargo they are usually retrofitted barges. The vehicles used to race are often expensive custom ships, only run for the race, and given that the reward for first place is well-over several million credits, it is worth the investment if one can win. All racers receive payment for successful deliveries they make which helps offset the cost of racing.

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Jerry Was A Bootlegger

A song in remembrance of Jerry Riggs III

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Was a long weekend drinkin'
Jerry had to run
To drop off that sweet moonshine
But he was also seeking fun
So across the Milky Way he made
Johnny Law was on his tail
Four days of running liquor and they
put Jerry in jail


But not before he made his rounds
He raced on those four days
Dropping crates of alcohol and
Tearing off in a blaze
Poor Johnny Law thought he'd seen it all
But there never was a sight
Like Jerry racing through the atmosphere
And raining booze in the night

Huge shout out to all the great people in the Happy Sun Lodge who participated in the Summer Solstice Drink and Write xD