Purity Planet Protocols

The crew arrive on Onintza to escort an exemplar of the Purity Initiative to Rajani on Vinaya

Detailed Summary
The date is January 28, 3201. The crew's current mission is to pick up Loren Desoto, an exemplar of the Purity Initiative, and escort him from Onintza to Strophios. The catch however, is that the Swan Song is not Loren Desoto's designated passenger ship, and that the crew are not taking him to Strophios, but Vinaya instead.

Preface
Onintza is a planet where the Purity Initiative have recently risen to power after a struggle between former organizations Onintza Libre and the Royal Family of Onintza. The Purity Initiative believe that humans should be humans, and that any alteration to the body via cybernetics or drugs is immoral. They stand undecided on the topic of psychic abilities and are also against artificial or virtual intelligence of any kind. This being said, Alpharius with his cybernetic body, and Piani Pic with her MES and newly-installed cybernetic eye, would not be welcome. Because of this, Wilbur Higgins III calls previous contact Raul Valdez to see if he or any of his Onintza Libre friends can help smuggle Alpharius and Piani onto the planet.

Unknown Man: Well I have bad news for you friend, Raul Valdez is dead.

Higgins: I don't care. I still need to talk to you about the import/export business that you may run.

The man tells Higgins that if he is willing to pay for help, then he must come to their location and talk about the details in person. The Swan Song eventually arrives at the destination and when the crew steps out of the cargo bay, they are met with half a dozen armed men. These men don't appear to be aggressive as one of them walks over to Higgins and introduces himself as commander Ivara Wakin. Ivara begins the conversation by saying that he recognizes the Swan Song and that he's seen it on the planet before. Ivara then says that the crew is lucky that he's underfunded because he's willing to part with 4 one-time-use visas, two for getting onto the planet and two for getting off, for only 10,000 credits each. Higgins talks it over with the crew and they ultimately come to the conclusion that doing this favor for Rajani Van Dorne will be worth far more than the 40,000 credit investment, and they pay for the four visas.

Getting Onto the Planet
After the Purity Initiative scan their ship and give them the green light to land on the planet, the Swan Song touches down at the planet's embassy. The crew's plan is to wait for someone to come and do a personal inspection of the ship, and then they will go into the embassy, get their visas scanned (hope that the visas for Alpharius and Piani are legitimate), and then contact Loren Desoto telling him that they have arrived on planet and are ready to pick him up.

After a few minutes of waiting, a customs officer comes on-board the Swan Song and asks Higgins if he has any contraband on the ship. Higgins tells the man that he likes to get drunk but that's about it. The man looks around the ship, does a couple cotton swabs of various places, and then tells the crew that they are okay to head to the embassy. Before leaving the ship, the customs officer warns the crew that even with official passports, the people of Onintza may not take kindly to Alpharius or Piani. Alpharius finds and puts on a random pair of sunglasses that have a star in one corner of them and a heart in the other, and then leaves with the rest of the crew towards the embassy to get their visas scanned. Other than the occasional glare from the people around them, there are no problems as the crew successfully pass through the embassy and head to the nearest phone booth to let Loren Desoto know that his ride has arrived.

Very nervously, Erik Fretheim picks up the phone and dials the contact number. A woman answers and after Erik tells her that he is ready to pick up Mr. Desoto, she tells Erik that he and his crew are invited to his estate where they will meet and pick him up there in a couple of hours. With the extra time, the crew spends 750 credits each (250 extra for Erik) in order to get a matching pair of Japanese-style suits to look more "official".

Loren Desoto
The crew pass by sports-cars, water fountains, and other expensive commodities as they pull up to Loren Desoto's mansion. From the front, the crew spots a small crowd of people gathered towards the back of the estate. When they head over, they see that the crowd of people are surrounding two men who are stripped down to their waist and fighting furiously with wooden swords. As the fight goes on, it is obvious to the crew that it is not the fight that is the center of attention, but yet a man who is watching the fight. This man is wearing a white linen shirt that is unbuttoned down to his sternum. He has his sleeves rolled up and he looks to be of Spanish decent. He is in his early 50's but has a decent tan and his hair is mostly black with parts of it turning grey. When he laughs, everyone else follows suit and when he seems flustered, everyone stays silent. Once the fight finishes, Erik walks over to the man and introduces himself as the diplomat who will be escorting him to Strophios.

Desoto tells Erik that he needs to have a few unpleasant conversations before leaving and that Erik and his crew are welcome to go into his study and wait for him there. The crew walk into the study and find themselves in one of the fanciest places that any of them have ever seen. The study contains several large sofas, a bookshelf with many old-looking books in it, a couple humidors housing a wide array of delicate and wide-bodied cigars, a bar mostly full of brandy bottles, a crossed wooden flintlock and saber in a case mounted on the wall, and many other 'rich-people-study' accessories.

The room smells of affluency and comfort (as well as a little bit of cigar smoke) and after a few minutes of waiting, the door to the study clicks open and in walks Loren Desoto, barefoot and with a white blazer set over his shoulder with only but a finger to hold it up. Not having been introduced before, Piani shakes Loren's hand and as she is doing so, she spots a distinguishable tattoo on his arm belonging to the 'I-Ching' of the Mandarinate. Desoto tells Piani that he spent some time studying philosophy on the planet and that he only got the tattoo because it looked cool. Loren then looks at Higgins who has a cigar held up to his nose and asks him if he would like to smoke it. Higgins tells Desoto that he's never smoked a cigar before and Desoto tells him that it would be an honor to smoke with him.

After the two are done smoking their cigars, Desoto finally notices Alpharius who has been in the room the entire time trying to keep to himself. Desoto apologizes for not having introduced himself sooner and extends his hand towards Alpharius. Alpharius extends his hand back but before he is able to shake Desoto's hand, Desoto notices the cyber-ware of Alpharius and lets his hand fall. He then turns to the rest of the party, says that he needs to get prepared for the trip, and then walks out the room leaving Alpharius with his hand still extended outwards.

An Unwelcomed Guest
After a few minutes, a Japanese guy (who looks like his favorite past-time is working out) walks into the study, introduces himself as Ichiro, and tells the crew that Desoto is ready to leave. Everyone gets into a limo and takes a quiet ride back to where the Swan Song is docked. When they arrive, Ichiro asks to see the inside of the ship before Desoto goes on-board. When Ichiro walks into the cargo-bay, he sees Pi and tells Higgins to have the machine locked away somewhere. Higgins tells Pi to go power itself down and Pi walks out of the room. When Ichiro gets back to the limo to tell Desoto that they are ready to board the ship, the crew sees a couple of cars pull up ~100 meters away from them of which twelve people get out of and begin to head towards the limo. After walking a few meters, one of them pulls out an RPG and points it at the crew.

Erik runs to the Swan Song and feigns helplessness as he tries but fails to use telekinesis to wrench the RPG out of the man's grasp. Alpharius activates his shield and says, "Protect the VIP" as he rushes towards the man with the RPG. His chest opens up and he pulls out his mag pistol with which he shoots the man holding the RPG. The man's aim swerves as the RPG lands 10 meters past Alpharius and sticks into the concrete beside him. The grenade does not blow up however, and instead it beeps for a few seconds and then lets out a loud 'hissing' sound. This causes Alpharius to immediately drop to the ground and Piani to have a large amount of pain stemming from her cybernetic eye. Seeing this, Higgins asks Pi to prep the Swan Song's sand-thrower, and then walks towards the men with his hands up and his pistol hanging from one finger. He watches as the closest goon to Alpharius takes out a rivet gun looking to dismantle him into pieces.

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