Bad Blood and Falling Stars

The crew pulls their most dangerous stunt yet and casualties arise

Detailed Summary
The date is November 4, 3200. After having gone into a Madari Syndicate base, Mr. Sicarian was unsuccessful in negotiating for Connor Wu's release, so he has thrown a bandolier of grenades directly in the middle of a bunch of guards, Mustafa Lee, Kalaya Bia, and Connor Wu.

Premise
The scene begins with multicolored drive space as seen out of the view port in the Swan Song's mess hall. Mr. Sicarian is having a meal by himself. The title on the screen reads, 'Swan Song - Drive Space - Several Days Ago'. There is some clattering and off from the side walks in Connor Wu. As usual, his orange coveralls are stripped down to his waste revealing a completely grease-covered, white t-shirt. Wu walks over to the fridge, pulls out a beer, and slumps down next to Mr. Sicarian. He then takes a long drink and says:

Connor Wu: So, Vafa'i System. You're from there right?

Mr. Sicarian: That is correct, I'm from Onintza.

Connor Wu: So you have family you're going to visit?

Mr. Sicarian: Not so much.

Mr. Sicarian says this with a straight face, there is an awkward moment of silence.

Connor Wu: Yeah I have an aunt on Majid. Gonna try and visit her when we go there. She's sick.

Mr. Sicarian: Sorry to hear that.

Connor Wu: It's okay, she's old. I've been saving up money for her treatment. I figure I'll have time, can't be on the ship the whole time, though there's a lot of work to do.

Mr. Sicarian: I'm sure you'll have time to see your aunt.

Wu sighs and then says,

Connor Wu: Mr. Sicarian, can I tell you something?

Mr. Sicarian: Absolutely Wu.

Connor Wu: I've been thinking about things... about the ship... rest of the crew... that stuff. There was a while... I don't know... I've been considering maybe leaving.

Mr. Sicarian sits back in his chair and says,

Mr. Sicarian: Well Wu, don't you think you've established yourself as a necessary and integral part of our crew? And perhaps even a friend to some?

Connor Wu: I don't know. I mean maybe, it's just... I don't know if I fit in. This is dangerous work. You're all... really dangerous people... and I don't think I am.

Mr. Sicarian: Wu I think that's a fair point. You are not a servant or a slave to us, you are a friend and a valued asset, but if you feel uncomfortable and especially if you have an aunt who is ill and in need of your service, I personally would have nothing but respect for that.

Wu takes another drink from his beer and then sets it down and heads towards the exit. Before he leaves he turns around and says,

Connor Wu: That means a lot to me Mr. S. You saying I'm a friend and all. I don't know... I gotta think this over.

The Explosion
The scene fades to black. After a moment of silence there is an ever slight metallic pinging sound. The camera zooms into a low-focused shot of a pin slowly falling to the concrete below. After several seconds of falling, the pin lands, and in its place, a large fiery inferno appears. The scene cuts to real-time and on the screen is a blur of orange and grey. You can hear the roaring of a large fire and the screams of many burning people. The scene becomes less blurry and Mr. Sicarian's exosuit HUD comes into focus. Despite the many HUD warnings, Mr. Sicarian is focused on one goal, and that is to get to the exit before the building completely collapses.

Wilbur Higgins III and the Swan Song are currently en route to Mr. Sicarian's location. Prosper Trudeau is watching the building burn from an elevated position. Rajani Van Dorne runs out of the building and Piani Pic arrives with her stolen motor-bike. At this moment there is a second explosion.

The entire ground shakes around Mr. Sicarian as another explosion goes off. This causes some debris to fall from the ceiling and land on Mr. Sicarian. The debris hurts, but Mr. Sicarian is able to get back up and begin running towards the exit. As he is doing so, he sees Mustafa Lee also run towards the exit, but before either of them are able to get there, the ceiling completely collapses, burying them both under a massive heap of rubble.

From the outside, Piani sees the shadow of someone running towards the exit of the building, but then all of a sudden the building shifts, and the ceiling collapses. From above, Prosper tells Piani that going into the building is not worth it. Piani tells Prosper that she isn't going to leave, but as she begins to walk towards the building, her lungs fill up with smoke and she falls to the ground. She tries to look through the smoke but she can't see anything. She tries to move but her body won't let her.

Dire Straits
The scene fades into Mr. Sicarian's HUD again, this time the glass is cracked and there are flashing warnings of low oxygen and broken bones. The HUD is swaying back and forth as Mr. Sicarian is having a hard time breathing. Mr. Sicarian tries to move but he can't, his lower torso won't budge. He looks behind him and notices a large rock on top of his hip. With some effort he is able to dislodge the rock and underneath, his exosuit is crushed like a tin can. He reaches for his thundergun which is laying a couple inches in front of him but his lower body still refuses to move. Mr. Sicarian falls to the ground as pressure begins to seep into his mind.

Piani uses her psychic ability, 'purge toxin' and through coughing and stinging eyes, she stands to her feet and stumbles out of the smoke. She comms to Higgs that she thinks Mr. Sicarian is still alive and that he needs to arrive with the Swan Song as fast as possible. As if answered by the heavens, the Swan Song suddenly drops down from the sky and settles over the burning building. The ship does a bio-scan and finds that there are two people still alive underneath the rubble.

Mr. Sicarian pulls off a second large rock lying top of his legs. This time he is able to grab his thundergun. He looks around for an escape but there is no where to go. He is encased in a concrete tomb. He then attempts to comm the party. Higgins responds back, saying that they're going to get him out of there. Mr. Sicarian tells Higgins that Wu isn't with them anymore and Higgins goes quiet.

From inside the Swan Song Higgins can see the flashing green lights of Majidi defense drones as they gradually advance on the scene from a distance. Piani goes into the Swan Song and spends a couple minutes putting on her vac suit before heading towards where she saw the ceiling collapse on someone. Higgins maneuvers the ship into a position for Piani to then use the wench cable to help remove some of the rubble. This is done for many minutes and what probably feels like hours for Mr. Sicarian.

Mr. Sicarian is trapped underneath many layers of concrete. As black tendrils pull at his peripheral view, he thinks to himself that he didn't want to die this way. It has been minutes since he last had any communication with the crew. Soon enough however, the ceiling is removed from his tomb and he can see the outline of Piani Pic in her vac suit looking down at him. Piani wraps the wench cable around Mr. Sicarian and the Swan Song gently pulls him out from the rubble. Mr. Sicarian tells them to be careful as he tightly clutches his thundergun.

The Second Sign of Life
Inside his vac suit, Prosper walks over to where the bio-scan revealed a second sign of life underneath the rubble. He finds an opening between the concrete and pushes himself through, but as he is doing so, his vac suit rips. Prosper gets to a very small area that he is able to stand up in, but just barely. He looks around and sees the mangled corpse of Kalaya Bia, her shield belt sparking. Prosper walks over to the corpse and slowly moves it out of the way.

It is hard to recognize that what is underneath is even a person. One arm is completely missing, their face has a considerable amount of shrapnel in it, and the torso below their ribs is gone. Prosper holds up a light to get a closer look at who it is and he spots a silver necklace that has the letters 'NS' inscribed in it. Prosper then takes off his helmet, kneels down, and tells Wu that it is going to be okay and that they are going to get him out of there. He then shouts into his comms that Wu is alive and that he needs their help. He grabs Wu's arm and says, "Wu... we need you." The last thing that Prosper sees is Wu's eyes roll to the back of his head as Prosper passes out from a lack of oxygen.

Higgins and Prosper
Piani yells into her comms asking if Prosper needs for them to come down there, she doesn't get any response. As she is loading Mr. Sicarian onto the ship, Higgins puts on his vac suit, adorns his pistol, and heads out to Prosper's location. Piani sees the pistol and says,

Piani: What the fuck are you doin' Higgs?

Higgins: I'm doing what I should have done a long time ago. Get him [Mr. Sicarian] on the ship Piani, I'll be back in just a sec, I'm going to get Prosper.

Piani: Prosper was the only one who went after Wu. That's how you're going to repay him?

Higgins, you have to... you have to think this through.

Higgins ignores Piani and continues walking.

Piani: Higgs, I beg ya. It's not the time, nor the place.

Higgins: Piani... get him on the ship. I'm going to get Prosper, I'll be back. It's the last time I'm going to say it.

Higgins makes his way over to where Prosper is and finds his unconscious body next to Wu. He then says over the comms that he has some bad news, that Prosper is too far out and that he isn't going to be able to make it back. As Higgins then begins to move towards Prosper, Prosper regains consciousness and uses the rebar he is holding to hit Higgins in the stomach. Higgins stumbles back, takes out his pistol, and the two of them begin to fight each other. Higgins misses a few shots at Prosper, Prosper misses a few swings with his rebar, and then Higgins is able to twist Prosper's arms which causes the rebar to go flying across the room. Not having a weapon, Prosper lunges at Higgins but Higgins shoves him out of the way. Higgins then goes to shoot at Prosper again, but this time the bullet ricochets off the wall and hits the ceiling above Higgs. This causes a piece of rubble to crash down on top of him.

When the rubble hits him, Higgins wildly shoots into the ground which causes him to stumble and give Prosper the time he needs to shove Higgins into the wall and grab his gun. Prosper then holds his gun at Higgs and tells him that he needs to stop. Higgins, being too winded to even respond, just leans over and stares at Prosper as he tries to gather his breath. Prosper then says, "Higgins, Cabral, Now. Let's go." Prosper grabs Wu's Nika Starlight necklace and the two of them emerge from the rubble and walk towards the Swan Song.

Before arriving, Higgins turns around and says to Prosper that he refuses to get back on the ship with him. Prosper tells Higgs that he doesn't want that either, but that he and Pi need to get back to Cabral and then Higgins will never have to see him again. From afar, Piani can see Prosper pointing a gun at Higgins as the two have this conversation. She then yells that drones are coming and that they need to get out of there. Prosper looks at Higgins and tells him that either they are both getting out of here alive, or neither of them are. Higgins asks Prosper if he is okay with being confined to his quarters on the ship and Prosper says yes. Higgins then turns around and walks towards the ship as Prosper holsters the pistol and walks after him.

As Prosper walks past Piani, Piani asks if he is okay. Prosper tells her that he had always had a closer relationship with her than the others. In a heap in the corner, Mr. Sicarian says to everyone that he is really glad that they all made it. While Prosper helps Piani move Mr. Sicarian to the medbay, Prosper tells her that he will be leaving the crew when they get to Cabral. Higgins gets to the bridge and asks Pi if everything is ready and that they will be leaving for the Forrughi System immediately. Pi says yes and Higgins punches in the destination.

The ship lurches forward and there is a loud bang as something breaks from inside of the ship. Pi tells Higgins that they can fix the problem in the Forrughi System and that it'll just take a little longer to get there. Higgins then punches in the coordinates for a second time and another bang can be heard from inside of the ship. Panicked, Higgins tries for a third time to get off the planet, and this time the ship's engines activate and the Swan Song departs from Majid.

Flying Through Space
Due to the broken parts of the Swan Song, it takes over a month for the crew to finally get to Cabral. Within 24 hours of the ship leaving Majid, Rajani wakes up [She was also dragged onto the ship by Piani] and finds Higgins. Higgins tells her that it may take a while to get to Cabral and Rajani reminds him that they are carrying time-sensitive cargo for James Han. Prosper later goes into the ship's core room and hangs the Nika Starlight necklace up, saying that Wu cared for the ship as well as all of the crew and that he probably would have wanted Pi to have the necklace. Piani then talks with Prosper and tells him that he is still a part of the crew to her. Prosper says back that he appreciates it, and that he is sorry but he doesn't see a way for him and Higgins to coexist peacefully. Piani then talks with Mr. Sicarian and tells him that she doesn't hold anything against Prosper, and that maybe her way of thinking is wrong, but she just wants Mr. Sicarian to know how she feels. Mr. Sicarian tells Piani that it is good they have someone on-board the ship that has a lot of optimism and forgiveness because it balances the crew nicely. Higgins mainly keeps to himself throughout the month of travel, occasionally talking to Rajani.

The crew arrive in the Forrughi System on December 1, 3200. When they get in-system, Mr. Sicarian gets a message from Olaf who says that he hopes things are going well and that he has a picture that Helga wanted to send Prosper. Mr. Sicarian opens up the photo and laughs in pain at the sexy pose of Helga. He forwards the picture to Prosper and then opens up an email from Ms. Fate who tells him that he has 30 days until their dual [January 1, 3201]. Mr. Sicarian responds back that he will be ready and that they will be having the dual on Bazignos. Prosper sends a message to Alana Durant saying that he is in-system. Piani gets multiple panicked messages from James Han asking her where she is and that they will need to try and re-schedule an auction time for the cargo. Higgins gets a message from captain Buford saying that he hasn't heard from Higgins in some time and asks if he is doing alright. Higgins responds with the code phrase 'falling star'. The scene ends with the Swan Song approaching Cabral from space. The entire planet is covered by one big city which makes it look like a sparkling jewel from outer space.

Crew Status

 * Casualties: Connor Wu (K.I.A.)

Ship Status

 * Hull Integrity:

Criminal Activities

 * New Crime:

Business

 * Credits Acquired:
 * Credits Spent:
 * Jobs In Progress:
 * Jobs Completed:
 * Debt Paid Off On Swan Song:
 * Current Debt On Swan Song: