Randy Station

The crew gathers the components they need to create an EMP device

Detailed Summary
The date is unknown.

Previously on Swan Song, the crew accepted a mission which took them to Pitcairn Station. They quickly realized that things weren't right when they got attacked by men with glowing green eyes who did not seem to flinch when getting shot at.

The Plan
The scene fades in to the static of the Swan Song's outside camera-feed. Six disheveled bodies lay scattered around the Swan Song after having previously been pelted by the ship's sand-thrower. Amongst the blood can be seen grey fluid that, seemingly on its own accord, flows back into the bodies of the six men. After a few moments, one of the men who had his leg blown off; stands up with his remaining leg, hops over to where his other leg is situated, and brings it up to where it had previously been attached. Seemingly through magic, the leg begins to stitch itself together, and after a couple of seconds, the man continues to walk on two legs as if nothing had ever happened. This reconstitution is seen by all six men as they slowly get up and continue breaking into the Swan Song. Piani Pic looks over at Wilbur Higgins III and tells him that those things aren't something to mess around with. Higgins then suggests that the two of them meet up with Erik Fretheim and Alpharius back in the habitation block.

With the crew all together, Erik comes up with the plan to create an EMP device out of copper wiring, energy cells, and capacitors with the hopes that it will be able to disable the station's core. The crew decide to first stop in maintenance to try and get the copper wire, and then to stop in the labs to get the capacitors. The energy cells they won't need to worry about because Erik carries energy cells on him purposed for his plasma gun. Before hacking into the tram terminal and going to maintenance, Piani asks Pi how they are holding up and if they think they will be able to defend themselves for very long. A male computer-synthesized voice responds back, "You cannot stop us. The child will be ours soon and then your lives will be forfeit." Worried for Pi's well-being, Piani asks if Alpharius can go to the Swan Song and stall Pi some time while she attempts to hack into the tram's terminal. Alpharius' beard and hair hologram turn into that of a skull and heads over to the Swan Song.

An Acquaintance Revisited
Alpharius arrives at the Swan Song and the same female hologram that greeted them when they came to the station appears and says, "It was very satisfying you know. Burning your planet we mean." Alpharius stops what he is doing and responds, "So it is you... Well then I'm going to enjoy pulling you apart." The hologram then says, "We're not so different, you and us. You appreciate the kill as well. You can join us Alpharius." "Yeah if you could tell me where your home-fucking-planet is, maybe I could," Alpharius responds in a in a harsher tone then what he usually speaks in. The hologram says, "Let me tell you a story Alpharius, about a war-ship..." At this, Alpharius projects old-style Metallica out of some speaker in his cybernetic head and charges into the room where the six glowing green-eyed men lay waiting.

As Piani begins to hack the tram terminal, a woman comes out of one of the nearby residential houses screaming for Piani to stop. The woman explains to Piani that they had deactivated the trams because that's how 'they' travel. Piani reassures the woman that the crew will stop 'them' when they get to the core. After some time, the tram lights flicker and the power to the tram turns on.

Alpharius returns a couple of minutes later and explains to the crew that he had done the best he could, but that he had to retreat after a man had ambushed him and dug his fingers into his shoulder. Piani uses her psychic powers to heal Alpharius, but it is not very effective as Alpharius' cybernetic body repels a lot of her energy. Not wanting to waste any more time, Higgins puts his hand onto the shoulder of the previously screaming woman who has now slumped down onto the ground. Higgins introduces himself and asks the woman to do the same. She tells Higgins that her name doesn't matter and that everyone is going to die. She then says that the crew should have never came to the station because now, they are going to die too. Higgins gestures in some direction and asks the woman if 'that creature' is what she was referring to. When the woman turns, Higgins shoots her in the back of the head.

A woman's voice comes over the trams speakers, saying that they will be arriving at the maintenance block in three minutes. Seeing Alpharius silent in the corner of the tram, Piani walks over to him and asks if he is okay. Alpharius takes a long pause and says, "It's the fucking Warmind." Not having been previously filled in, Piani explains to Erik about their runnings-in with the Warmind and how it is a powerful and wise AI. Erik asks if it is like Pi and Piani responds that in relation to AI maturity, Pi is like a child and the Warmind is like a god.

The Maintenance Block
The crew arrives in the maintenance block and, while Erik searches for the copper wire he needs, Higgins stumbles across a box filled with resupply units that are used in a machine that dampens psychic power. He has smuggled these units before and estimates that there are at least 100,000 credits worth of units in the box. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity, he snags the box and carries it over to the tram. It takes a while, but Erik eventually finds the copper wiring that he needs for the EMP device. Once they have what they need, the crew continue on to the laboratory block.

The Laboratory Block
"You are now approaching the labs" says the woman's voice over the tram speakers. The doors are initially locked but the crew uses a keycard that they gained from the habitation block to open them. Before going into the labs, the same hologram appears on a nearby terminal and says to the crew, "I know what you're planning. It's not going to work." The crew disregard the warnings of the Warmind and continue on into the decontamination room. A nearby camera focuses on Piani's cybernetic-eye and an automated warning goes off, saying that unrecognized technology is not allowed in the room. Ignoring the warning, the crew walk into the lab.

The lab doesn't look damaged at all; in fact, it looks to have recently been in use. There are multiple ongoing experiments and machine parts moving in various places throughout the room. When Piani enters the room, she immediately feels weakened and has to support herself on a nearby railing. When she re-opens her eyes, she gets a vision of a vast starry field. The starry field quickly vanishes and is replaced by the massive horizon of a burning planet ―the Harridan's Heart can be seen passing by. More visions appear; one is of a wolf eating a ball of bright light, another is of the silvery spirals of Cabral being destroyed by green laser-beams coming from deep-orbit, the last vision is the liquid-metal face of the Warmind as seen in the Harridan's Heart. Piani says to the crew that something is messing with her MES and that it might have something to do with her eye. She temporarily disregards the pain however, and focuses on finding the capacitors they need.

While Piani looks at a computer terminal, the party hears someone walk into the labs. The entire crew turns around and a male scientist in his mid-50's casually walks into the room. The scientist then calmly asks for the crew to stop tampering with the terminal as he doesn't want them to interfere with 'their' ongoing experiments. Taking the calm demeanor of the man as a possible sign of hostility, Alpharius takes out his gun and shoots out one of his knees. Higgins walks up to the man and asks him what he is doing here and if he is aware of what is happening outside of his lab. Through pained breaths, the scientist explains that he does know what is going on, and that he is doing experiments in the lab in order to try and keep as many people alive as he possibly can. Alpharius asks him what kind of experiments he is performing and the scientist replies that 'they' are trying to see if MES can be transferred to an AI. Hearing this, Erik pulls out a pistol of his own and shoots the guy in the head. As Erik frisks the scientist for information, he suddenly notices the scientists' arm twitch. Erik leaps back just in time for the scientist (with a hole in his head) to swat at the air where Erik had just been standing. Higgins then shoots the scientist in the head for a second time which removes the majority of it from his body.

As Piani riffles through the laboratories' database, she finds that there is a reference to the V'ad that she and Higgins had come into contact with back on Subhadra. Apparently Richardson Scientific had found a way to control the alien species to some degree. After a couple minutes of searching, Piani eventually finds a machine that holds a large enough capacitor for what they need.

In a Rush
Alpharius hears footsteps and the voices of people talking in a nearby hallway. Alpharius makes his way to the hallway door and pulls his pistol out from his chest cavity. He then ever-so-slightly opens the door and sees about a dozen people walking his way. Very carefully, Alpharius takes out a grenade, pulls the pin, rolls it at the feet of the encroaching people, and then closes the door. The rest of the crew feel the room shake as the grenade explodes, causing nearby fire-sprinklers to go off. Knowing that he probably didn't kill everyone with the single grenade, Alpharius throws in a complementary grenade to accompany the first. To Alpharius' disbelief, the second grenade was not enough and a couple of survivors make it to the door. Alpharius positions his foot so that the door only partially opens, he then rolls a third grenade through the opening and a final explosion goes off. Alpharius then opens the door to check that everyone is killed, and observes one of the men who is missing an arm, walk over to someone else's blown-off arm, and then reattach their arm to his body. Alpharius shuts the door and then turns to the party and says that they had better make it quick.

Piani and Erik walk over to the machine that they need to retrieve the capacitor from. The machine has a large glass cylinder on top of it housing a human-looking robot consisting of only a torso and head. As Piani begins to take apart the base of the pedestal, two blue lights illuminate from the head of the robot where a human's eyes would be. The robot then turns to Piani and asks her what she is doing. Piani simply ignores it. "You're the one that brought the child here. It was waiting for you. It hoped you would come. Why are you doing this?" Asks the robot. Erik tells the robot that they need a powerful capacitor in order to destroy a disease inside of the station. The robot asks if Erik is referring to the Warmind and then says that the Warmind had spoken to 'them' and that it said 'they' weren't worthy. The machine then turns to Piani and says that 'they' had seen her in another place and that 'they' think that Piani has been swapped with her sister. Furious, Piani says to Erik that she doesn't even have a sister and that the robot is speaking nonsense.

Higgins hears a noise coming from behind him. When he turns, he sees multiple people running for a second entrance to the labs. Higgins rushes over to the entrance and tries to close the lab doors before anyone is able to get in. Unfortunately, one of the people manages to wedge their body in-between the doors before they are able to fully close. This allows for people behind the door to begin to pry it open. Alpharius uses one final grenade to halt the reconstitution of the people from inside of the door that he is protecting, and then goes over to assist Higgins with his side. With Alpharius' help, Higgins manages to completely close the door, preventing anyone from coming in.

The robot says to Piani that it is neither like the Warmind nor the child. Piani shrugs and tells Erik that there isn't much that she can do. Erik looks up at the robot, says that he is sorry, and then pulls the plug. The illuminated eyes on the face of the machine go dark and Erik retrieves its capacitor. The crew now have all of the components they need in order to create their EMP device.

Crew Status

 * Crew:

Ship Status

 * Hull Integrity:

Criminal Activities

 * New Crime:

Business

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