Ril did say that the Tique Amara crew launched all three escape pods, so apparently they’re still floating around the Gamelon Cluster.
One thing I don’t see in sci-fi very much is people actually worrying about money. So I wanted to show Hamron’s crew picking up a pod to convey the idea that every little bit of potential income helps in their line of work. While they may be notorious pirates and often make off with a big score, that doesn’t mean they’re above cashing in on a relatively small salvage op.
What I wanna know is who’s in Pod 3? Maybe you could follow that up in a story some day. That would make that panel more ominous and foreshadowy.
A tiny bit more info on Pod 3 is given at the end of the story arc, and the contents WILL feature prominently in the bigger storyline. I don’t think I’ll get to it anytime in the next few arcs, but when it does factor in, it will be pretty key to the overall story.