Feeling Blue

When forces of the Royal Family bombard an Onintza Libre base, the crew is forced to choose sides

Short Summary
The Onintza Libre base gets bombed by a Royal battle-cruiser Base Star. The Swan Song picks up some Onintzan forces out of fuel, and some people Madari Syndicate (including Mr. Falcon). As the Swan Song flees it is grazed by a large bullet from the Base Star taking heavy damage. They proceed to drop of the Onintzan passengers on a island of the coast of the mainland. Then they travel to Frois where they unload the Syndicate men. After they buy stuff on Majid, get in touch with captain Escobar and sell the spike drive, and hire a crew to salvage the pizza party.

Detailed Summary
The date is February 4, 3200. After having previously visited the Pizza Party and gotten Pi onto the Swan Song, the crew is currently witnessing a Royal Family battle cruiser firing on the Onintza Libre base that they had been at earlier that day.

The party can hear the loud thud of the battle cruiser's many cannons firing on the mountainside as they see the battle cruiser simultaneously engage with smaller ships that are swarming around it. The Swan Song receives two messages on its terminal. One is a mayday distress call from the Onintza Libre base requesting help. The other is a pre-recorded message from the commanding officer of the battle cruiser (OSV Bay Star), Kaeko Savedro, telling them to stay away and if they were to interfere, that it would be a shame for the Royal Family to destroy them. Disregarding the battle cruiser's warning, the crew decides to try and help the Onintza Libre base by sending out a short encrypted message to the base that offers a rendezvous location for the Swan Song to pick up anyone who wishes to leave. Soon enough, two ships get into visual range of the Swan Song.

Piani Pic patches one of the ships through and a woman responds, saying that their ship has no fuel and that her crew of 35 people wishes to board the ship and take them to a secondary Onintza Libre base on the planet. Wilbur Higgins III tells the woman that they are okay to come on over and Viktor Kovacs tells them to come through a side-door and to not step into the cargo bay (that is currently housing a radioactive spike drive). Piani patches the other ship through. This ship is called the Tom Jones, a registered freighter to the Madari Syndicate. The crew knows that the Madari Syndicate are a group of 36 tribes all over the sector who specialize in crime and drugs. Mr. Sicarian says over the comms that the Madari Syndicate ship is not welcome here. Piani patches in the Tom Jones over the ship's display and a Korean-looking man comes up and says that his name is Bang Jul Silk and that his crew of six is there for extraction and he will pay the crew 100,000 credits to get them and their cargo off-planet, no questions asked. Higgins raises the price up to 150,000 and as they are talking, notices that his mouth is blue. Higgins asks the man if he can keep his cargo a secret as one of the crew members aboard the Swan Song does not take kindly to Blue Fever.

Mr. Sicarian stands outside, ankle-deep in snow with a heavy wind blowing additional snow across his face. Green flashes of light splash across the night sky from the OSV Bay Star's large cannons as the two ships land in proximity to the Swan Song. The Tom Jones opens up its cargo doors and out stops a man in warn Pfotenhauer gear that's had it's medals removed and in their place is a patch of fabric depicting a bird of prey grasping a snake. The man walks up to Mr. Sicarian, lowers his visor, and says, “Sicarian! Well shit.” The man is Mr. Falcon (portrayed by Bruce Willis) whom Mr. Sicarian had known back when he was working for the Pfotenhauer Society. Even though the man is pushing 50, he still looks at Mr. Sicarian as if he's seen a ghost. Mr. Sicarian says, “Mr. Falcon, good to see you.” Mr. Falcon shakes hands with Mr. Sicarian and tells him that after what happened with Titan, he didn't want to have anything to do with the Pfotenhauer Society, and so he left and took up mercenary work with wherever he could get it, which for the past couple of years has been with the Madari Syndicate.

In total there are 45 people on board the Swan Song that already has the majority of its space taken up by a radio-active spike-drive as well as now additional Blue Fever cargo. Once everyone is has squeezed on board, Piani receives a message from the OSV Bay Star. She patches through the message and sees a woman wearing a naval garb who is looking perplexed. The woman asks who she is addressing and Piani responds, “Hello, I am Piani Pic. Who are you?” The woman says back, “I am captain Kaeko Savedro of the Bay Star. It appears that you have taken on some cargo?” Piani says, “Yes, we have a few people that we are going to run away from here because there are some assholes just shooting laser beams all over the side of the mountain, and we are going to, well frankly, take them away from here.” Savedro says to Piani that the people whom she are harboring are terrorists who have recently killed many people by destroying an airport and that they are not there to murder innocent people, only to bring them justice. Piani responds by saying, “And that is exactly what we're going to do my dear. We are going to get them out of here, of course we can't let you be killing them with your laser weapons. We need to take them to a proper trial and then we will, you know, float them once we find out how bad their crimes are. And obviously you have some things you'd like to say to us but really we're short on time. We've just loaded things up. It looks like you've still got some ammunition left in the ship. So we'll be on our way. Thank you so much for contacting the Swan Song.” Piani immediately hangs up and yells, “Let's get the fuck out of here!” As the Swan Song attempts to make a hasty retreat, ammunition that is much bigger than the size of the ship grazes the side of the Swan Song causing massive damage but not preventing their retreat as they leave the OSV Bay Star behind them and head to the secondary Onintza Libre base.

Higgins walks into the Mess Hall and looks down to see the five crew members of the Tom Jones dressed in mismatched, scrappy-looking flight suits. Two of the crew members are read-heads and look to be brother and sister. One of the crew members is a lengthy black woman. Another is a stalky, bearded Slavic-looking guy. And finally there is the Korean-looking captain Bang Jul Silk. Bang Jul Silk looks up at Higgs, nods his head and says, “Captain.” Higgins walks over to him and asks where they would like to be dropped off at. Bang Jul Silk responds, “Frois.” Higgins then asks for 50% of the payment now and 50% later. Bang Jul Silk turns around his comm pad and shows Higgins that the ship's comms are disabled.

The Swan Song arrives at an island just off the coast of the mainland. When they land, they notice that the island looks completely uninhabited. Despite the lack of civilization, the female captain thanks Higgins for getting them to the Onintza Libre base and says that if they ever need help they can contact Fabiana Mori. The crew gains 375 experience.

The Swan Song is in travel for two days and arrives at Frois midway through February 1st, 3200. Piani enables the hologram inside of her computer room and a blue pizza appears. She asks for a status report and her only response is, “Darkness.” Piani asks how she can give it light and in her HUD appears a cargo-manifest containing a bunch of computer equipment that looks to incorporate more processing speed into the ship's computers. Piani then gathers the crew together and tells them that it will probably be safe to open up their comms because the processor is maxed out, but if they want to take advantage of Pi, that they'll have to spend some credits on upgrading their computers. Viktor and Piani then successfully end up containing Pi and opening up their communications. Afterwards, the captain lets Higgins know that he has made a request for money and that once they land, his superiors will make sure that Higgins gets his money.

The Swan Song lands at an abandoned metropolis on Frois. Frois used to be a TL4 planet until it got hit by a meteor and has since had a dark atmosphere full of ash and storms. The crew steps out and sees the faint glow of headlights from many vehicles through the dark falling ash. Ten people start approaching the Swan Song dressed in gray urban camo with shrouds on protecting their faces. Bang Jul Silk tells Higgins that they only have 70,000 credits and so instead of paying them the planned 150,000 credits, they are going to let Higgins keep the Blue Fever cargo and that has an estimated value of 1 million credits. Mr. Sicarian tells the captain that he does not want Blue Fever aboard the ship and will take the 70,000 credits as well as the employment of Mr. Falcon. The captain says back to Mr. Sicarian that Mr. Falcon owes their organization a great deal of money and that they can give them Mr. Falcon only, without the credits. Higgins says that they will take the 70,000 credits and that he will just owe them one. The captain says back that they are actually even because he had just been in contact with a Kalaya Bia. Higgins doesn't wait for more information as the crew loads up onto the Swan Song and leaves Frois. The party receives 375 experience. Now with the comms open, the Swan Song receives two new messages. One message is from captain Escobar on the ship Salt Lick asking for a status update on the spike-drive acquisition for Ximinez Shipyards. Another message comes from the Swan Song lease employer Sunbeam Multistellar also asking for the spike-drive in exchange for 50,000 credits, 40,000 more than what Ximinez is offering, but without providing claims for salvaging the Pizza Party worth 280,000 credits. Higgins responds to Sunbeam Multistellar, saying that there aren't any hard feelings, but that they are a crew that wants to be known to keep their word. Shortly after, Higgins gets a reply back saying that it's a shame that they couldn't make a deal with them, but they won't hold a grudge as they have been paying their lease for the Swan Song on time. The message also says that if they ever need anything, to contact Jebediah Salt whom works for Sunbeam. Higgins then replies to Escobar with Ximinez asking him where they would like to meet and Escobar says that a ship named the Crow River will be in orbit over Onintza in three days and to deliver the spike-drive then.

While waiting for the Crow River to arrive, the crew goes over to Majid in order to try and find computer parts for Pi. The Majid Mandarinate controls the planet through bureaucracy and as such, the planet is a paradise for lots of shady business practices. Majid has no skyscrapers, ships that have landed on it and hadn't had enough fuel to leave have been converted into buildings. There are many cheap power lines strung up everywhere connected to illegal salvaged dishes that sell bandwidth. Stores sell everything around five times more expensive than what can normally be found due to the economic boom of the planet. Higgins knows a man on this planet named Lee who he last saw 2-3 years ago smuggling the last tiger in existence and has since became a thriving merchant on Majid. The crew arrives at a borderlands-looking shop with strung up Christmas lights and a dog tied to a post. In front of the shop is an LED with a crack in it that says 'Mr. Lee's' with a prospector-looking guy wearing a big hat who is missing a tooth and holding two ak47's shooting into the air. The crew steps into the shop and inside they see the walls crammed with various armor and armaments. One wall is covered with all kinds of different grenades, another wall has a large section of assault rifles in various colors and styles. The only person in the shop is a girl sitting at the counter who looks to be no more than 12. Her hair is up in a bun and she is wearing a mechanics outfit. Higgins notices that she looks a lot like Lee. He goes up to the girl and asks if he can see Lee. The girl points above her to a large laser cannon mounted on the wall and tells the crew not to steal anything while she's gone. A few moments later a man walks in who is quite a plump fellow. He is a bald man who is not wearing a shirt but has an apron on revealing glowing tattoos on his arm. The man lifts his welding mask up off his face, looks at Higgins, and says “Wilbur fucking Higgins.” The man introduces his daughter as Hu Jun Lee. Piani presents the list of computer parts that they want to buy and Lee says that he's a very smart man and that the list is even above his head. Lee asks to have a copy of the list and that he'll talk to his cousin about getting the parts. Viktor sees that the computer parts could raise some red flags and asks to keep the deal on the down-low. Piani buys some thermal flares. Higgins buys 25 grenades (holds 4 at all times on a bandolier) and also buys Mr. Sicarian a power suit, paying 5,000 credits for everything and even tipping Mr. Lee an additional 1,000 credits. Lee adds Higgins on Spacebook. Higgins decides not to buy a metal plate in order to increase his armor class even more than his combat armor.

Later that night, Viktor and Piani go out “drinking.” While walking through the streets looking for a bar, the two of them get accosted by 15-16 year old beggar who is missing a leg and holding a sign in one hand that says, “Victim of mining accident, also suffering MES, please help.” The kid has an abnormal growth on the side of his head and his eyes are completely white but he doesn't seem to be blind. Piani and Viktor realize that this person is probably in this state due to having MES and not being treated for it like Piani is. Piani gives the kid 20 credits and her and Viktor both receive a flashback from a positive memory of their past. Piani remembers a guy who she slept with that had three arms. Viktor remembers walking on an Andoni beach with someone beautiful before the Andonian Cultural Protectorate took over. The two of them get to a bar. Viktor pays 100 credits upstairs at the legal brothel and offers to pay for Piani as well. In response Piani says, “Oh Viktor, I may not have had a lot of money here, and didn't get to experience all of these fucking extravagant things that you're experiencing now. But there is one thing I know about this planet, and that is, it's got STD's that'll eat your fucking prickin tits off, so be careful my son.” Piani decides to stay at the bar and drink instead.

The next morning, the crew meets with captain Escobar aboard the Salt Lick. The captain seems extremely relieved to get the core back. While a Hazmat team is removing the core of the Pizza Party, Piani notices that their ship is being scanned super invasively and deeply. Piani succeeds at adding misinformation to their computer systems and hiding Pi from them. However, the captain does notice that they have something anomalous with their computer systems and that it is running very hot and so he brings this up with Higgs and asks him if he would like to have a tech team look at it. Higgins responds, “No, we're actually... we've got another meeting just... south of here... but thanks for the offer.” The core gets removed from the ship and everyone gets 10,000 credits as well as 1,500 experience and levels up to level 2. The party then goes to Majid and hires a salvage crew to salvage the Pizza Party and finds that it will take them two weeks to salvage and that it will cost 35,000 credits. It then takes an additional two months in order to process all of the money and 58,025 credits ultimately go to each party member. Piani mentions to the crew that they will need to pay approximately 125,000 credits for the computer parts that they are getting from Mr. Lee in order to upgrade Pi.

The crew looks at two job offers that they receive after the two months of waiting for the salvaging of the ship. One of them is posted from The Department of Xenosociology at Anaximander University and reads, “Wanted, reliable cargo ship and crew for delivery of sensitive material to secure research facility. Self-defense capabilities a must. Payment on safe delivery. Pick up and drop off details provided upon job acceptance. No references required.” The location of the research facility is not provided and payment is 50,000 credits. The other job is posted from Richardson Scientific Society that reads, “Missing: Dr. Earnhardt Subich. Last seen November, 3199 on Thoe. Dr. Subich was on sabbatical studying the social organizations of the inhabitants of Protagoras-5 when contact was lost. Reward for safe return of the doctor to the Gunnhild System.” Payment is 65,000 credits. Viktor pushes for the employment offer at Anaximander University saying, “It's a simple pick-up, drop-off. It'll be super easy. We can just do it in one session, no problem.” Adam chuckles after hearing this.

Crew Status

 * Casualties: None

Ship Status

 * Hull Integrity: 11/20

Criminal Activities

 * New Crime: Aiding terrorism (against The Royal Family of Onintza)
 * New Crime: Smuggling Blue Fever (Net worth 1,000,000 credits)

Business

 * Credits Acquired: 58,025 credits per crew member
 * Credits Spent: 40,350 credits (Debt + Maintenance) + 6,000 for gear (assault suit, 12 grenades, and 2 thermal flares)
 * New Contact: Fabiana Mori (Onintza Libre)
 * New Contact: Lee Jun (Independent Arms-Dealer, Majid)
 * New Contact: Jebidiah Salt (Sunbeam Multistellar)
 * New Contact: Mr. Falcon (Mercenary, Madari Syndicate)
 * Jobs In Progress: None
 * Job Completed: The Pizza Party's core delivered to Ximenez Shipyards (10,000 credits)
 * Job Completed: Salvaging the Pizza Party (245,000 credits)
 * Job Completed: Dropping off Onintza Libre forces on secondary base
 * Job Completed: Dropping off Madari Syndicate members on Frois (70,000 credits)
 * Debt Paid On Swan Song: 24,660 credits
 * Current Debt On Swan Song: 742,120 credits

Trivia

 * The original stream on July 28 at 8:00 PM ECT was cancelled due to Geoff Robinson's absence.