Mission of Mercy

The Swan Song receives requests for aid from the surface of Andoni and Higgs manages to prove he's not a complete asshole

Short Summary
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Detailed Summary
The date is July 2, 3200. The crew had just become witness to the destruction of planet Andoni in what has been deemed as the "Night of Fire". The Pfotenhauer battleship, Harridan's Heart, controlled by the War Mind had executed planetary annihilation protocol Typhoon Epsilon just minutes before the Swan Song arrived at Andoni, or what is left of it.

Compensation For Their Hard Work
Hundreds of distress calls ping the Swan Song's communication frequency, however; there are two messages that stand out above the rest. One is an encrypted audio message to the deceased Victor Kovacs. "Cousin, I got the money you sent me. Thank you so much. Something is going on here, I'm safe for now but I think something bad is going to happen. Please, if you are nearby can you come get me?" The other message is from Mustafa Lee. "Transfer's complete. If you are still in the system I think Rajani needs a ride." The crew receives 300,000 credits for successfully smuggling out the War Mind, an ancient and dangerous AI, from a CPF digsite on Andoni and transferring it to the Harridan's Heart. With this new money, the crew decides to pay one delinquent Swan Song monthly payment, an additional three months of payment forward, no maintenance, and puts aside 100,000 credits for future ship costs. Ultimately, each crew member receives 41,780 credits. Wilbur Higgins III gives 30,000 of his recently earned credits to Connor Wu who jokingly tells Higgs that he shouldn't give him so much money or else he will go buy his own ship.

The New Andoni
The crew agrees to fly down to Andoni and pick up Rajani Van Dorne. As the Swan Song penetrates the atmosphere, they are assaulted by ash and fire. Typhoon Epsilon had created a harsh environment containing thick amounts of ash that reduce the visibility range to only meters. Due to a tempest of black clouds and thunder, the closest location for the Swan Song to land is a couple of miles away from the Madari Syndicate base that Rajani is located at. Piani Pic radio's Rajani and tells her that Mr. Sicarian and Prosper Trudeau are going to go get her and to expect them in about 9 hours. Rajani tells them to wear vac suits as the planet's atmosphere would be poisonous if directly breathed in and to make sure to bring her one as well.

Looking out of the cockpit, Higgins and Piani can just barely make out the silhouettes of Mr. Sicarian and Prosper as they dismount from the ship and walk into the swirling sea of slag and soot. Due to the reduced visibility range, Mr. Sicarian and Prosper make their way to Rajani's base as directed by the Swan Song's scanners. The majority of their journey is spent walking along flattened badlands and is rather uneventful. After nine hours of walking, Mr. Sicarian and Prosper are just able to make out the flashing green light of a pylon in the distance. The two of them use this green light as guidance as they make their way to the underground base that Rajani is located at. After refilling the air in their vac suits and giving Rajani hers, the three of them get into a jeep and head back to the Swan Song.

The Remnant Legion
Meanwhile at the Swan Song, the ship's scanners detect three grav vehicles rapidly approaching the ship. They then get hailed by someone who tells them to power down their weapons. After inquisition from Higgs and Piani, the voice commandingly says, "By authority of Legatus Corvus, leader of the Remnant Legion, we are claiming your ship!" A new voice, this time female, comes over the comms. She calmly introduces herself as legionary Cassia and explains to the crew that she would like to come on board to talk about "temporarily commandeering" their ship in order to extract Andonian people off the planet and take them to a nearby moon. Higgins and Piani eventually agree to her request on coming on board under the condition that she come unarmed and that the rest of her squad leave with their hover vehicles. These terms are agreed upon and after a few minutes, Cassia walks into the ship's cargo hold.

Cassia is wearing a grey-camouflaged exo-suit and on her breast plate is a Remnant Legion patch showing a red circle with two curving green lines representative of that of a laurel wreath. Sitting down with the crew in the mess hall, Cassia explains that there are Andonian people that have gathered at a nearby base of theirs who looking to get off planet and so they want to use the Swan Song in order to help shuttle people to the nearby moon, Gunnhild VIII-C. Piani tells her that they will help her out but only after their friends get back. Higgins asks how many people will be on board and Cassia says as many as the ship can hold. He then asks her if the legion has any gear that he can take off of their hands now that they no longer have a planet. Disgusted, Cassia tells him that they don't have any gear to spare as they need all that they have. As Higgins continues to try and gain some kind of future compensation for their work, he slowly turns his head and dead-pan stares at Piani across the table. Through an admirable continuation of barrages about getting paid for their job, Cassia finally gives in to Higgins’ requests and says that she can give him a hover craft upon safe return from the unloading of the Andoni passengers.

It takes four hours for Mr. Sicarian and Prosper to return with Rajani on their jeep. Seeing how Mr. Sicarian is dressed, Cassia asks if he is from the Pfotenhauer Society and Mr. Sicarian explains that he was once upon a time. Once everyone is ready to depart, the Swan Song begins to head toward the Legion base.

Upon proximity of the base, the ship's scanners detect that it had previously been hit by a Typhoon Epsilon ordinance shell as surrounding skyscrapers are melted into a contorted metallic work of art. Also on the scanners depict a highway that is completely backfilled with lined-up vehicles looking to get into the Legion base, presumably in order to get off the planet. When the Swan Song arrives at the Legion base, a warning goes across the ship that a missile has locked onto it. This warning quickly goes away as Cassia explains their situation to the base.

The Swan Song lands on a nearby airship and the crew is met with an uneasy sight. There are other spaceships there, but comparing these spaceships to the Swan Song is like comparing the Swan Song to the Harridan's Heart. Some of these "spaceships" simply look like cargo containers that are welded onto a rocket. Even the cargo containers themselves don't look to be fit to house humans. Higgins, Mr. Sicarian, and Cassia walk out of the Swan Song. They look onto a conglomeration of people who are huddled together trying to protect themselves as much as they can from the falling thick ash. Someone walks up to Higgins and tells him that it would have been better if they had just ion-cannoned them and that they will be talking later about their request for the hover vehicle.

Exodus
As people form into semi-organized lines and board the Swan Song, Mr. Sicarian scouts the surrounding area. As he is scouting around, he identifies a couple of legionnaires who are dressed differently than the rest. Upon further investigation, Mr. Sicarian is just able to catch a glimpse of a data pad that gets exchanged between the two legionnaires. On the data pad is the face of Randy, someone who Higgins had killed on Andoni about six months prior. Mr. Sicarian immediately lets Higgins know about this new information that he had gathered.

Higgins tells Mr. Sicarian to go find Cassia and tell her to meet him on-board the ship. When Cassia eventually finds Higgins, he tells her that he had killed Randy when he was last on the planet. Cassia says to him that if it had been during the time of the current military regime, they should have records of his killing. Higgins suggests leaving immediately and Cassia tells him that if they were to leave, there wouldn’t be any resistance to try and stop them as Ximinez had recently taken all of their space fleet and left the system. Piani asks Cassia if her family is on board and she responds yes.

With only 50 of the 100 maximum amount of people currently on board, Higgins commands Wu to shut the cargo bay doors and prepare for the ship’s departure. Currently standing a ways off from the ship, Mr. Sicarian sees the cargo-bay doors shutting and makes his signature leap into the Swan Song just before the doors fully close. Pi says to Piani that the Swan Song isn’t full yet and that everyone they are leaving behind is going to die. Piani explains to Pi that they need to leave now because Higgins might die if they don’t. She also reassures Pi by saying that they may come back later and pick up the rest of the people that they are leaving behind. Pi asks if the people of Andoni are the Swan Song’s responsibility and Piani tells them that the 50 people that they currently have on the ship aren’t the Swan Song’s responsibility.

Prosper Proves Himself
Higgins ignores all incoming hails to the ship as the Swan Song climbs through the troposphere. The 50 people on the ship, including Cassia, are currently in chaos and panic. Seeing this, Prosper climbs to an elevated position and discharges his laser rifle into the air which immediately grabs everybody’s attention. He then says in a loud and commanding French accent,

Prosper: Alright, everyone listen the fuck up! We are leaving now. There was an unforeseen circumstance that caused the unnecessitated departure. It wasn’t our intention to leave behind those who may not have been able to join this ship, but there are other ships on the ground that can help your friends and family escape the planet. You are safe. Now, it’s important that you recognize that we are not friendly people. We are doing this out of the kindness of our hearts, but we… are not nice. We are going to take you to the Richardson Scientific [base] on the moon and then we are going to leave you there for you to make your way as necessary. Until we get there, you are to remain in the cargo hold and remain calm. Is that clear?

Everybody looks up at Prosper in silence. Mr. Sicarian nods to Prosper as if to say ‘not bad’. Higgins tells Wu that he didn’t believe that would actually work. The crew and Cassia retreat to the mess hall. Higgins asks Mr. Sicarian in a whisper, how much he thinks they will be able to sell the people for. Mr. Sicarian looks at him surprised and says, “Sell the people?” Higgins tells him that it was just a bad joke. The crew hears a familiar voice from behind them say, “Who’s the fresh meat?” Turning around, they see Rajani leaning against a door frame drying her wet hair with a towel. Higgins quickly tells Cassia that he is going to go find her family in the cargo bay and leaves. Mr. Sicarian also leaves, retreating to his room. Rajani walks over to Cassia and puts her arm around her saying, “You poor poor thing.”

Higgins finds Cassia's family and brings them into the mess hall, however; when they arrive, nobody is there. Higgins comms to the crew and asks if any of them has seen Cassia. Piani notices that the camera inside of Rajani's room is covered up by something. Piani then responds to Higgins saying that she has no idea where Cassia might be.

Of Slavers and Humanity
Piani receives an incoming message from a ship called the Nightingale. She turns on the live video feed and sees a captain who is dressed like a mandarin from Majid. He introduces himself as Yang Jin Yu and says that he is there to pick up refugees leaving from Andoni. He tells her that Richardson Scientific doesn’t have any room on their moon and so he and his ship would be happy to take any refugees they might have onto a nearby mining facility of theirs. Piani recognizes this man to be a slaver and prudently refuses his offer. The mandarin captain smiles and says, “If you’re sure” before terminating the comms.

During the trip to Gunnhild VIII-C, Prosper talks with Pi in an attempt to make sense of recent events, specifically in regards to the idea of human death. Prosper asks Pi how they would feel if the crew were to further upgrade Pi's computer processing. Pi says that the War Mind was trying to show them that back on Harridan's Heart. Prosper then asks Pi if they are able to imagine what it would feel like if everything went dark forever. Pi responds by saying that once consciousness exists, it will always exist. Prosper then tells Pi that when humans die, it's like moving into a darker and darker place until there is nothing left. He then reassures Pi by telling them that they would never try to put a restriction on Pi like they had considered doing to the War Mind.

Farewell
Upon arrival to Gunnhild VIII-C, the Swan Song receives a live video feed from one of the moon's inhabitants. There is a middle-aged, half-Japanese woman on the feed whom the party recognizes to be Dr. Hiromusi Seckler, the same person who gave them their first job. She is wearing a lab coat that has the Richardson Scientific logo on it and she, like many of the crew, looks to have not slept very well recently. Piani informs Dr. Seckler of the situation on Andoni and says that they have refugees that are looking to temporarily stay at the Richardson base. Dr. Seckler tells Piani that she will try and make room for the refugees and to come down to the base. After a few minutes, the Swan Song lands and refugees start to head into a nearby warehouse. Higgins stops Cassia before she gets off and asks her what her future plans are from here. Cassia tells Higgins that she doesn't know, that she will probably stay there and help everyone get situated and try to act as a leader for them. Higgins says to Cassia that if she were to ever need anything to let them know, and that even if they may be a ways away, they will eventually get to her and help her out. Cassia tells Higgins that her situation now is better than it was on the planet and Higgins responds by saying, "Yeah, that planet's fucked."

Crew Status

 * Casualties:

Ship Status

 * Hull Integrity:

Criminal Activities

 * New Crime:

Business

 * Credits Acquired: 300,000 credits from Mustafa Lee for acquisition and transfer of the War Mind to Harridan's Heart. Each crew member receives 41,780 credits. Wilbur Higgins III gives 30,000 credits to Connor Wu.
 * Credits Spent: 1 Delinquent month - ship (8,220 credits), 3 months forward - ship (24,660 credits), 0 months - maintenance, 100,000 credits put aside for future ship costs.
 * Jobs In Progress:
 * Jobs Completed:
 * Debt Paid Off On Swan Song:
 * Current Debt On Swan Song: