Collan and Niil: Seekers

[Niil Spaar]

Niil gave the vehicle a dubious look and shot a glance towards where the dealer went.  Why did that smile give him a sinking feeling?

Shrugging, he nudged Collan and muttered, "Well, let's get our bags stuffed inside.  We need some gear before we head out into the Big Whoosh."

[Collan]

Collan nodded. He'd been silent as the Warrant haggled.

"Oh yeah...rations...water. Definitely."

[GM Craig]

You arrange for some supplies, making some good deals. By the end of the day, you are well equipped to venture into the Bladesea.

[Head out now or in the morning?]

[Niil Spaar]

Niil motioned Collan to get into the truck, and turned on the radio (OOC:  assuming the truck has one).  Once seated, he said quietly, "We could stay the night, or we could leave now and pick a place to camp out in a few hours.  I've got a funny feeling that the longer we stay here, the more time some informants could have to I.D. us and call in Imperials or bounty hunters.  What do yo figure?"

OOC:  If we opt for leaving now, I'll use a map to pick out a likely point for parking for the night.  Don't want to try and drive while we're passing out at the wheel.

[Collan]

"Let's get out of here. The sooner we go; the less time any land pirates have to try and tail us too."

[Niil Spaar]

Niil nodded.  "You got it.  Seeing the drek we ran into last time, we'll keep our weapons handy up here in the cab."  He grinned and handed Collan the macrobinoculars.  "Since you're navigator, you get the fun part of keeping a lookout."

OOC:  On our way.

[GM Craig]

The vehicle, while rough around the edges, does appear to be mechanically sound. The electronics, while not pretty, are also functional. You have sensors, a navigation computer, environmental controls and communications all in working order.

The cargo area is accessible from within the cab, though it involves a little crawling over seats and reaching to get access to things in the storage compartment.

Using the navigation computer, you plot out a route to a small cluster of low hills not far from the edge of the escarpment. It's not much cover, but it should hide your vehicle from most sensors.

A couple of hours later, you are approaching the small hills, and looking forward to turning in for the night, when your sensors pick up an active contact in the spot you were looking to park in.

It's faint so they likely haven't detected you.

[Actions?]

[Niil Spaar]

Niil brought the vehicle to a stop, then chuckled.  "Doesn't that just figure," he muttered.  "Collan, keep an eye out; I'm gonna check the navicomp and try find us another spot to hole up for the night."

OOC:  Looking for another spot, preferably out of the other contact's sensor range.  Can I tell if the other contact is running active, or passive?

[Collan]

Collan had the macros up, scanning the surrounding area for any signs of...welll...anything.

"Got it. Think it might be worth going active to see what we can find?"

[GM Craig]

[OOC: It's active scans you are picking up. The navigation computer doesn't show any other features of significant size for at least an hour around you.]

[Niil Spaar]

Niil thought for a moment.  "Depends on who's sitting out there.  They might have their active scans up just to keep watch for the night, or they might be hammering away looking for someone.  Probably not pirates, since they wouldn't be advertising themselves.  Unless they're using reverse psychology.  Let's see how far away they are ."

OOC:  How far away is the other contact?

[GM Craig]

Hard to say on passive, but somewhere around 3 km according to where the hilly area is. Get closer than 2km, they stand a not bad chance of detecting you.

[Niil Spaar]

Niil checked his sensors, and chewed on his lower lip.  "That contact's probably about three klicks from us.  Now if they're civilians, why the hell would they broadcast themselves by pinging away on active sensors?  With the amount of highway robbery around the Bladesea, that's just careless.  I mean, why not run passive and travel a few hours more and get to town?" 

He thought for a moment, and shook his head.  "I don't like this, Collan.  I'm gonna see if I can plot a course around them and keep out of their scanning range.  In the meantime, maybe see if you can pick up any comm chatter around this area."


OOC:  I'm going to try and find an alternate place for us to camp for the night, and plot a course to keep us out of range of that contact's sensors.  Also, we'll try and see if there's any comm traffic going on.

[Collan]

Collan frowned...

"What do you want to bet that the signals we're getting are just a beacon? That it's a lure with nothing there. Can you determine if they're scanning in a pattern?"

In the meantime, Collan began to look at different parts of the spectrum both on com and EM. He also did a subspace an hypercom check to see if anyone was actively broadcasting on amy possible channels. He also took a look around to see if anyone was trying mirros or potential stray photons from laser coms (really any collimated EM signals).

[Niil Spaar]

Niil paused.  "Good point.  Let's check that out."

OOC:  Try Collan's suggestion first.