Inarra moves away from the scout craft.  When Tump does as well, Irin scans the ship one more time.  "No life signs.  Let me try to grab it with the tractor thingie."

GDI also reports no life signs, but does report some sort of droid-like brain.  He keeps his cannons trained, complaining that he still hasn't fired any shots in over a thousand years.

She tries the first time, but doesn't quite get it right.  After a second try she grabs the scout.  It does not react, though the droids and the ships' scanners all pick up some kind of ongoing activity aboard.  "Good to go, Captain.  We should be able to land normal.  I've got it just above the plane of the Falcon so once we get down, I can set it down gently and we can get to work."

"Alright folks lets move this party back down to the surface. Vyc, wingman. Tump, point. Innara, rear guard".

The Falcon chugs forward waiting on everyone to align.

"On it!"

Tump accelerate into position and sets a heading for the surface. "Cap'n, you wanna take this thing back to our landing zone, or somewhere more remote?"

"Remote. I'm sure Mechis will detect us, and we know it can't not record what happens, so the less Mechis knows, the better".

"Alright, give me a sec to scan for a decent spot."

Tump starts scanning the surface for an open, yet remote location, many miles from where they launched from.

A spot is found on an island amidst a rust-covered desert.  The island is of metal and rises out of the rust-sand with nothing else for hundreds of kilometers in every direction.  The island is wide enough for all the ships to easily and safely land.

Once down, Irin sets the scout down within an alcove that will allow easy access, but make it near impossible for the ship to take off, even if its engines were working.  It's front faces the metallic alcove with its rear section poking out.

Django patrols around the area, establishing a perimeter that he'll keep an eye on while the tech saavy portions of the crew do their work.

"First thangs first, figure out how it transmits data and disable whatever it has for that. There's no telling if we've kept it a hundred percent jammed properly this whole time. Slice as much info as you can from it, and then we'll get the heck outta here".

Tump cocks his head to the side as he examines his quarry. "Can't say I've ever tried to slice something like this." He shrugs it off. "First time for everything, I guess."

He leans in and begins to work, but within seconds the input port begins to whir and sputter. You can almost catch the faint hint of ozone. He recoils back quickly. "Well, that ain't gunna work."


20:11, Today: Tump rolled 22 using 1d20+17.  Slicing attempt: scout ship.

"Django, come here and look at this."  Inarra points out a set of cables to both men.  "These...are old.  The whole system is a relic.  Tump, your main issue was going at this as if it was a standard piece of equipment in working order.  It's not.  Look at these circuitous routes.  They've bypassed so many main systems to keep this running, that there are actually very few main systems online.  You plugged in to this trying to slice through the main control board.  It doesn't even exist mostly.  There are five sub-boards keeping this thing afloat."

She leans down into the cockpit area, which does have a seat for a pilot, but there is some kind of spherical droid(?) with wires coming out of it all over.  "This thing is the main brain now, whatever it used to be.  It can't withdraw from the ship or else the ship simply won't work."  She tinkers a bit, drops a spider-like droid into the console, and hooks up her own datapad.  "Hyperdrive is rated at a four.  For reference, the Falcon is at point five past light speed.  Smaller the number, the faster you travel.  Tump and Vyctor's ships are point eight.  It's sublights are barely five megalight units whereas Vyctor, the slowest of us, is at twelve."

She opens up a hatch and taps a smoking console.  "That used to be the hyperspace transceiver, which was sending, but not receiving.  What does that tell you?"

"Sounds like it was just a recon drone. Expendable, they didn't expect to get this sucker back. It was putting all its juice into sending back reports."

"Django, what do you conclude?"

"That whoever sent it probably ain't a Star God. I've seen the inside a one of their ships. It's all clean and new lookin'. This heap here looks like it's been pulled outta death's door six times over. Probably as old as the cans we're all flyin'. Can you get a bead on where it's transmitting to?".

Inarra looks frustrated with the men.  She crosses her arms and says, "no.  Why not?"

"Because... you shot it?"

"This tech looks old enough to be on par with what Mechis 3 would be able to jam, and it appears to be working if there are no inbound signals." Tump scratches his scruffy chin. "I don't know much about this communications system, but this thing was supposed to be reporting back, whoever's listening can't be too far away. So, I reckon we can't just destroy this thing and call it a day... they'd something was up and send more. This time with firepower."

He looks over at Inarra. "Once we get what we can from this thing, you think between you, me, Aice, and Mechis that we could slice in a false report of 'nothing out of the ordinary found' and send it back out there. If it works, it would keep a few more prying eyes off of this planet."

"I don't know that I agree with that assessment.  If we do nothing but a passive grab of info then put it back up, it reports all that it has witnessed here.  If we grab the info, wipe it, and send it back, then they know something.  If it stopped sending and never returns, then the possibility is that the scout was destroyed or," she gives the old mess inside a contemptuous glance, "fell apart.  At worst, they send another scout after we've gone, and Mechis III can throw them off to the best of its ability."

She looks up at Django.  "That's just a recommendation, Captain.  Whatever you decide, I'm in."

"I think out of all those options, destroying it probably the last I'd go with. If they just sent another, it would certainly report back that Mechis 3 is active again. That may be a little premature for our current circumstance. If we sent it back out there, just flat out wiping its memory would throw up red flags that would just lead to the first problem. However, if we planted false intel on it to report back that everything's status quo, that could buy us some valuable time without raising any alarms."

Tump also looks over to Django. "Whatcha wanna do Cap'n?"

Django folds his arms, thinking. "I still say somethin's fishy about the condition it's in. The Star Gods rule planets with an iron fist apparently, and if Vexember showed us anything, it's that getting labor or materials for upkeep would be at the push of a button". He pauses further. "Wait a minute.. do you two think you could extract the brain of this ship? What if we didn't have to just poke and prod.. what if we slapped it in a droid chassis with a vocal modulator. Could probably tell us way more than just trying to slice data and sift through it. If that don't seem feasible, then get what you can from it. I'll let GDI get that target practice he's been itching for". He looks back at the massive turret hanging from the bottom of the Falcon. Turning back, he says "At any rate, I wanna know where it came from. Lemme poke around in here for a sec though".

16:27, Today: Django Blint rolled 17 using 1d20+16.  Perception roll to search the cockpit area for clues.

As Django leans in, he bangs his forehead on the rim and lets out a slew of curses.

"That's an interesting idea, but probably more up Inarra's alley. Now that you mention it though, what if this scout didn't come from Vex? If that guy is always using the latest and greatest tech to keep his thumb on the galaxies, maybe this came from another group that can't get their hands on that sort of stuff, like us. We can't be the only ones in the galaxy trying to take this guy down. What if they're a part of that resistance Guri was supposed to be a part of?"

Django steps away and lights a cigarette while holding his forehead, a sour look on his face.

"What's the matter? You find something in there?"

Tump walks over to the cockpit to see what Django is so miffed about.

15:46, Today: Tump rolled 25 using 1d20+11.  perception check.

Trying not to grin, Inarra looks into the cockpit then back at Django.  "You okay, Captain?"

A mumbled "Never better..." comes from a cloud of smoke underneath his wide brimmed hat. "You find anything interesting in there?". Another plume of smoke wafts up, followed by a heavy sigh.

Inarra flips back over the edge partially and starts digging around.  The droid thing in the middle moves back and forth in its cradle, but without a proper body it looks like nothing more than a head, or maybe an eyeball swiveling back and forth in fear at what is about to happen to it.  Inarra finds a switch and shuts the thing down.  "I think we can remove it now, if that's what you want.  Want some practice?  There may be some parts in here we could upgrade RX with."

Django looks at Innara. "I'd rather not personally touch nothin'. Stuff has a habit of breakin around me".