Pilot

When the crew gets into hot water on a planet governed by a totalitarian regime, Higgins contacts his friend and fellow con-man Randy

Short Summary
The Swan Song crew is created consisting of Wilbur Higgins III, Piani Pic, Mr. Sicarian, and Viktor Kovacs. The crew leases their new ship called the 'Swan Song' from mega-corporation Sunbeam Multistellar. The crew is currently on a mission for Dr. Hiromusi Seckler on the planet Andoni. They are to pick up a cargo container from the planet and bring it to her facility on one of the moons of Gunnhild.

The crew safely arrives on Andoni and docks at a spaceport. From there they proceed to a storage facility about an hour away on a skiff. The party arrives at a small hotel and finds the package they are supposed to pick up in one of the rooms. They begin to carry the package out to their skiff when they spot two CPF officers examining their vehicle. Higgins approaches the officers and one of them asks to see his visa. The officer scans his visa and frowns. Upon seeing this, Piani goes up to the officer and tells him that she is the owner of a nearby establishment of which Higgins had just stolen a blanket from and needs to put it back. The officers buy it, give Higgins his visa back, and allow them to all leave. The crew starts to head back to the spaceport when they come across a police-scanning checkpoint. Because of the flagged visa, Higgins decides to pull off the road and circumvent the checkpoint. Shortly after turning off, a drone scans their vehicle and starts following them. Mr. Sicarian notices that the drone is military spec and thinking that there may be trouble, he uses his plasma projector to take the drone out of the sky. Shortly after, a spotlight envelopes their vehicle and they hear a voice telling them to pull over. In a bind, Higgins calls a friend on the planet named Randy and asks him if they can hide out at his place for a bit. Mr. Sicarian shoots at the vehicle above them which gives them enough time to get to Randy's safely. Randy and the crew come up with the plan of hiding in the back of Randy's truck that has special shielding in it that will make them invisible to the police scanners and get them through the checkpoint safely. The crew arrives at the checkpoint with Mr. Sicarian and Viktor being in the front of the vehicle while everyone else is in the back. The officer scans both of their visa's and Mr. Sicarians' gets flagged. Thankfully, the officer shrugs it off and says that many visa's have been wrongfully flagged in the past couple days and allows the party through. Upon arrival of the ship, Higgins pulls randy aside and they start to talk. Viktor comes over and when Randy turns to talk to Viktor, Higgins pulls out his pistol and shoots Randy in the back of the head. The party then leaves Andoni and delivers the package at Dr. Seckler's research station.

The Adventure Begins
The date is January 1, 3200. The adventures of Swan Song begins with con artist Wilbur Higgins III. Higgins finds emphatic psychic Piani Pic and reserved mercenary Mr. Sicarian under the black-market postings of Space Net. The crew has a rather long history of criminal activities and so Higgins enlists reputable xenoarcheologist Viktor Kovacs (LF3M comms, navigation, and vehicle/space). Once the party is formed, they lease out the spaceship, Swan Song, from Sunbeam Multistellar. Not wasting any time getting underway, the crew acquires their first mission from Dr. Hiromusi Seckler, a scientist working for Richardson Scientific. Dr. Seckler wants a cargo container of hers taken off Andoni and brought to her facility on Gunnhild VIII-C.

The History of Andoni
There is an unknown discovery that has recently been uncovered on Andoni. This discovery has lead to the formation of the current military presence, the Cultural Protection Force (CPF). The CPF says that they are there in order to protect Andoni from hostile foreign powers and so they have created a blockade to limit the amount of traffic on and off of the planet. They have also taken the liberty of putting all of the homeless and unemployed people of Andoni into holding camps until further notice. Ximinez Shipyards has made an undisclosed agreement with the CPF and has provided them with the majority of their fighters, frigates, and destroyer ships in return for a promised future payout.

Acquiring the Container
The crew safely passes through the Andoni blockade with the codes provided to them by Dr. Seckler. After docking the Swan Song, they use a skiff to transport themselves to a nearby hotel where the container was said to be located. On a bed inside one of the hotel rooms rests a chrome container that is the size of a small desk. Kovacs expresses his concern about the possibility that the contents of the container could be illegal, and so Piani attempts to hide it by covering it with a bedsheet. Upon exiting the room, a nearby alarm goes off requesting that the property of the room (the bed sheet) remain inside. Despite the multiple security cameras fixed on their location, Piani removes the alarm's RFID-chip. This silences the alarm and the crew continues to carry the container back to their skiff.

As the crew exits the hotel, they see in the distance two CPF officers inspecting their skiff. Unsure of what to make of the situation, Higgins approaches one of the officers and asks if there is a problem. Instead of answering him, the officer simply extends out his hand and requests for Higgins' visa. Higgins hands over the visa that Dr. Seckler gave him. The officer puts his visa through a scanner and after a couple of seconds, the scanner flashes red. The officer looks up at Higgins and frowns. Worried that there might be trouble, Piani suggests that the best course of action is to set the apartment on fire in order to distract the guards, and then to use their skiff to get back to their ship. Viktor disagrees and suggests to Piani that she should pretend to be the owner of the hotel, accuse Higgins for stealing a blanket, request that he return to the hotel with her, and then get back to their ship a different way. Piani agrees with Viktor's plan and approaches the two guards who ultimately buy her story and let Higgins walk back with Piani to the hotel. While the party argues about whether they should go through the fire escape or the front door, they see the police officers get onto their grav-vehicles and leave. Not wasting the opportunity, the party loads the container onto their skiff and begins to head towards the spaceport.

Getting Back To the Spaceport
While waiting to go through a police checkpoint and return to the spaceport, Higgins remembers how the CPF officer reacted after scanning his visa. Not wanting history to repeat itself, Higgins turns off of the highway in order to try and find an alternative route. As he does this, a bicycle-sized flying drone follows him out. After a few moments, the drone scans the vehicle and then turns on red and blue flashing lights like that of the police. Mr. Sicarian looks at the drone and realizes that it is not a police drone at all, but is actually military grade. He then pulls out his plasma projector and shoots it out of the sky.

While searching for an alternative route, a spotlight envelopes the party from above as a voice over an intercom tells them to pull over. Not wishing to get caught, Mr. Sicarian pulls out his plasma projector for the second time and fires upon the flying vehicle. The vehicle promptly dodges out of the way and goes out of sight. Unsure of where to go, Higgins remembers Randy, an old friend of his on the planet. The last time Higgins had seen Randy was during a smuggling operation that went wrong. They had been sent out to smuggle China dolls filled with contraband but had gotten caught. Higgins then saved both of their lives after successfully driving away from an ensuing firefight. Knowing that Randy still owes him one, he tells Piani to call him up and ask for the returned favor.

Randy
Standing in the driveway to an auto-parts shop is a raggedy-looking man dressed in factory-worker clothing. He waves at the party as they approach and opens the garage allowing them inside. The crew explains to Randy that they need help in getting off of the planet. Randy agrees to help on two conditions: One, that he come off the planet with them; and two, that he have a date with Piani. The crew agrees to these conditions and Piani chimes in that he also needs to pay for the ship's maintenance fees.

Randy waves the crew over to a cargo truck of his and explains that the truck can send false readings to the police scanners and that there is no way that they will be able to see what's in the back of the truck, even if they open it. Kovacs, Randy, and Higgins get in the front seats while Piani and Mr. Sicarian stay in the back. After an hour or two of driving, the party arrives at the police checkpoint. There is a large arch scanning every vehicle before it is able to continue on to the docking station. Randy and Higgins decide to get into the back of the truck and Mr. Sicarian goes up to the front with Viktor Kovacs.

Their truck reaches the arch. While getting scanned, a CPF officer comes up to Viktor, who is driving, and asks him for his visa. After successfully scanning it, the officer asks Mr. Sicarian for his visa as well. The scanner flashes red like it had with Higgins' visa, but the officer disregards it. He tells them that, recently, there has been a lot of visa's giving false readings, and to just continue on forward to the docking station.

Someone Will Remember This
Due to the barricade set up by the CPF, the spaceport is not very active. There are a small number of spaceships docked and hardly any people can be seen. As the crew make their way to the Swan Song, they come across a lot of CPF propaganda as well as a hologram projecting out a voice that says, "All glory to our benevolent leader, protecting our planet from off-world scum." The voice is accompanied by some trumpet-heavy music playing in the background.

Before all of the crew get aboard the ship, Higgins pulls Randy away to have an aside. Viktor calls out to Randy and as he turns to talk with him, Higgins pulls out his pistol, puts it to the back of Randy's head, and pulls the trigger. Randy's body slumps to the ground. Higgins then takes Randy's credit chip as well as his comm pad of which he gives to Mr. Sicarian. The Swan Song then begins its ascent up into the atmosphere, leaving Andoni behind. The party arrives at Dr. Seckler's research station and gives her the container that they were sent to retrieve.

Crew Status

 * Casualties: None
 * New Crew Member: Viktor Kovacs as a Captain / Xenobiologist
 * New Crew Member: Mr. Sicarian as a Mercenary
 * New Crew Member: Piani Pic as a Criminal / Psychic / Computer Tech
 * New Crew Member: Wilbur Higgins III as a Criminal / Conman / Navigator

Ship Status

 * Hull Integrity: 20/20
 * New Ship: Acquired Swan Song

Criminal Activities

 * New Crime: 1st degree Murder of Randy by Wilbur Higgins III
 * New Crime: Hacking a private bank account of Randy by Wilbur Higgins III
 * New Crime: Smuggling cargo out of Andoni
 * New Crime: Destruction of Andonian Cultural Protectorate's property: Military Drone
 * New Crime: Firing upon police forces (Andonian Cultural Protection Force)
 * New Crime: Blanky stolen

Business

 * Credits Acquired: 20,000 credits
 * Credits Spent: 0 credits
 * Jobs In Progress: None
 * Jobs Completed: Package delivered to Dr. Hiromusi Seckler of the Richardson Scientific Society
 * Debt Paid Off On Swan Song: 0 credits
 * Current Debt On Swan Song: 775,000 credits