Chapter 3: Red dwarf and purple planet

With this information Dotty nods to Chi, "Lets head back."

ChiHiRu nods back, copying the gesture and lead the way back to base.

Adonis nods to Scotty and Derek. Well hen let's check out this drone
They go to the place that Jerry described. The door's unlocked and with the code that Jerry mentioned they unlock the drone controls.
I think that's the steering control and over here you can control the sensor and camera.
Adonis starts the drone and sends it flying towards the camp.
I'm gonna approach the camp from the southwest so that the sun is in its back. This should prevent them from seeing us Adonis murmurs while he uses the two joysticks of the piloting station

Scott tries the camera and other sensor controls few time as drone lifts up.

He will try to collect as much visual data as possible during the flight (number of pirates, his location, the hostages, pirates armory)

Adonis flies at the camp with the drone, keeping the sun in his back.
While Adonis approaches the camp Scott looks at the range of instruments that the drone has to offer.
A wide range of spectral filters, active and passive radar as well as thermal imagery.
Not wanting to alert the pirates he deactivates the active radar and keeps the rest of the sensors pointed at the camp while Adonis makes a few fly-bys.
After about half an hour Scott is positive that he has collected enough data and Adonis steers the drone back to the launch pad.



The results are a video and several images of the camp. Adonis and Scott inspect the data together

All five pirates are visible and it seems as if they didn't notice the drone. The hatch in the north is blocked by crates and strangly the passive radar picked up bursts of electromagnetic radiation coming from beneath the hatch. Very strange.
Other than that Scott notices that the pirates don't seem to have advanced weaponry and the thermal imaging indicates that apart from the group working the ruins all other hostages are locked into the building with the satellite dish on top.

I think I see Dotty and ChHiRu coming back to us on the video we took on the way back. Maybe we should welcome them. I think we've seen everything that's important Adonis grumbles

"Yes. Let's join them and share our discoveries" agrees Scott

ChiHiRu arrives back at camp to find the others waiting for them.

He listens silently to everyone's report and update his pad with the fresh drone pictures.

He then waits. Patient or indifferent, it's hard to tell with his alien physionomy.

Just as everyone gets back together Dr. Petra Salmberg comes to you, walking in a fast pace.
Pirate's getting nervous. They just called and asked who that ship was that landed here. I told them that you are interstellar traders who landed to fix a thruster. Those pirate bastards seemed to be very concerned and said that they want to talk to you. I told them you are sleeping because of the hard journey.
I hope you all have a plan ready because I doubt that I can keep up the charade for long. We have to act tomorrow, I don't think we have much more time.
She is breathing heavily and you can see clearly that she is distressed

"I think we should listen to Doc" says Scott while checking his pockets for his tools "It would be highly illogical to wait to long as they know you are here"

Dotty pulls out the memory sim from the camera and begins to pull up images of the crash site, the interior of the ship and the camp.

"Fifteen bunks on the ship, four corpses at the crash site, records indicate that two of the crew scrammed with that subcraft we blew up in orbit so that leaves nine." She shrugs, "I mean unless these guys were hot bunking it."

She pulls out the log records and shows them to the others, "They knew what they were after, the artifacts, where they were stored and some professor, but we don't know which one." She smirks, "They had inside info, they just didn't know about the orbital cannon."

Dotty taps on the pictures of the ship, "This thing was mint, just off the assembly line, and that dorsal cannon looks pretty sweet. Someone invested a fair chunk of change in this operation and no doubt they'll be pissed it when sideways."

Finally she pulls up the images of the pirates, "These two mooks at the gate have hunting rifles, the rest of them have stun batons and there's one guy with a pistol. The only two who seem to be on top of things are these guys at the gate watching the road."

Do we know if all the bunks were occupied? The tougher question is do they still have an inside person? This is then more than pirates, they are probably at least the leadership mercs which will be harder to fool. They may know as soon as we put the comm jammer up that something maybe wrong. Still knocking out comms will be needed but it means we will have to work fast.

Taking out the guns should be a first priority then the ones with melee weapons. focus on getting the local with majority of hostages safe as our first goal then the rest. Unless someone else has an idea.

"Go talk soon. Take out guns first. Free hostages. Ok." ChiHiRu's tablet summarize out loud for no one in particular.

I don't know anything about an inside person at all. As far as I am involved everyone here is solely concerned about the scientific mission we have ahead. I doubt that anyone here is cooperating with an outside force.
Professor Aldritch and Professor Modric were both the only professors at the camp when the pirates crashed Dr Salmberg states in a tone that states both anger and desparation.

Distract the pirates, bind them, maybe even kill them. I'm not a fan of the latter but to be frank they brought it on themselves so do however you see fit. I'm mostly concerned about the hostages Dr. Salmberg states

"The bunks all looked used boss," Dotty says with a shrug, "like I say they could be hot bunking but I dunno."

Dotty grins, "I could walk up the road and tell them I want to see my grampa while you guys come in the back. I'm concerned that if we wait to long they might just try to steal our ship and skip town."