Tam looked up. Salvaging the scrap. she answered. Are you sure this area is restricted? There wasn't a beacon, that means wreckage is fair game to be salvaged. It states so very clearly in Imperial law.

"Do you have a permit? It requires a tier I permit to salvage the sites of Imperial military engagements. No one has put down a beacon yet, so you are technically correct. Congratulations! It's free game. Several scavengers without the proper permits have already tried to strip anything useful from these wrecks. Most of them had what little licensing they had revoked, and either paid hefty fines or went to jail."

Tallo! Kebiin yelled at Tam, Tallo, you told me you submitted those permits!

Tam threw her hands up in frustration, I did, get off my back Kari! Tam yelled back. You know how much red tape there is, I just figured they would be approved by now.

The officer grits his teeth and mutters something under his breath about paperwork, "Then I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave. First, have you taken anything from this location yet? Think about your answer very. carefully. Let's not make this harder on both of us."

Kebiin looked at the officer, This location? she asked indicating the AT-AT, Nothing yet, just giving it a quick once over.. she tilted her head slightly. Wait, wait, wait... My history may be off, are you saying that the Empire fought a battle against droids that would be what, 20 to 30 years old?

Maybe it was a drill.. Tam muttered.

Kebiin waved her off, A skirmish with 30 year old droids, and they took out an Imperial Walker? Kebiin swore, and whistled to get Naz's attention, Are you hearing this? This wreck isn't worth salvaging if B1's managed to take it out.. Come on, let's get out of here. Officer, sorry to waste your time on this matter, we'll be leaving now. Tallo, your write up will be waiting for you when we return to the Guild.

"Fine. Get out of here before I change my mind. You've got 30 minutes. We've got eyes on this place, and I don't want to hear that stuck around or came back." He mutters under his breath about more paperwork and comms the gunship, which comes around in a lazy arc, drifting back to the ground to pick up the squad, which turns and begins to walk towards their ride.

Naz grumbled to himself as he left the wreck of the ATAT, sad to leave all the armor plating behind. “ B1’s or not, that’s a lot of metal, ” he said as they walked back towards their ship, loud enough for the imperials to hear. “Kriff Tallo, the Guild just sent us a reminder about having our paperwork ready to show. Do you even check your holomail? ” It was all nonsense but since they Imperials had bought it, he might as well hop on the bandwagon of being pissed off at ‘Tallo’.

“That could’ve went a lot worse,” he said quietly once they were out of earshot of the imperials. “We should look into those salvaging licenses, maybe they aren’t too hard to fake.”

————

Arde emerged from the wreckage of the ship, expecting a firefight to be going on but was surprised to see the others calmly walking away. Eyeing the black box, in his hand, he hung it from his belt under his Kama and started walking quickly back to the ship as well, glancing towards the imperials from time to time. He wasn’t too far behind the others as he arrived, quickening his steps to reach them.

” What happened? ”

We bluffed our way out with the Power of Red Tape Kebiin sighed in relief. I can't believe that worked..

Imperials are di'kutla when it comes to bureaucracy, tell them enough technical sounding words and they generally believe you. Tam said, a small smile touching her lips.

Kebiin sighed, You got away with the B1's didn't you, vod'ika?

Yup! Tam exclaimed, smiling wide. Don't worry, I'll have them up to spec in no time.

“ And I got the weapon components of the AT-AT. We’d need a lot heavier equipment to salvage the rest of the wrecks, ” Naz added as they closed up the ship.

” All in all, not bad. A shame we didn’t have more time to investigate the other wreck. By the way Arde, where were you. ”

The mandalorian scoffed and pulled the black box out from under his kama, showing it to the others. “ Any of you think you can pull the flight paths off this? ”

Tam perked up, Oooh, interesting! she said, enthusiastically rubbing her hands together, Come into my parlor gentlemen.. She led them into her workshop and began plugging her datapad into the device as soon as Arde placed it on the workbench.

Kebiin knocked the doorway as she passed, I'll get us out of here while you work on that.. If you find anything, I'll set a course.

As Kebiin brought the Wayfarer clear of the atmosphere, Tam called her from her work shop, I've got some coordinates for you vod'ika! her voice crackled over the comlink.

Kebiin watched to numbers appear on her navigational display and routed them through the navicomputer. Got it! Kebiin called back, pulling the control back , bringing them into hyperspace.

A little over an hour later, a panicked alarm sounds on the bridge and the Wayfarer drops out of hyperspace in Chrellis, nearly in the middle of an asteroid field. Upon checking the coordinates, Kebiin realizes that her calculations were so precise that they nearly dropped out right into orbit of the planetoid, which is in the middle of the asteroid field (oops?). Well, at least they're nearby. The planetoid is a big, mostly round rock amid the relatively light asteroid field. As Kebiin gazes out the window, she realizes that a lot of the asteroids aren't asteroids. She sees the remnants of a couple Separatist capital ships (probably more remnants of the fleet that retreated from Agamar, she thinks), pummeled by turbolasers, ordnance, and now asteroids. She picks out a red-striped engine module, apparently all that remains of an Arquitens-class light cruiser. She picks out the front shell of a Munificient, the port and starboard halves barely hanging together, with the bridge completely obliterated. She sees two-thirds of the engine module of a Recusant and a couple wing-pieces of the Separatist's landing craft. Interspersed about are the wrecks of fightercraft, bits and pieces of Vulture droids, Tri-Fighters, and even the remains of a few V-wings.

“ That’s a lot of scrap, ” Naz commented, whistling at the sight of it all. “ Does this ship have any scanners? I’d like to check if the Empire has some kind of sensor out here. I’d hate to get interrupted again .”

I'm getting a faint power signature from the far side of that planetoid . Kebiin said, pointing to the icon on the sensor monitor.

Kebiin continued the scan, I'm not showing any active Imperial sensors or signatures.. Let's be careful though.

As Kebiin carefully pilots the Wayfarer through the asteroids and the wreckage, she brings the ship in closer to the planetoid, flying against the rotation and approaching the power source. As the ship nears the source, it crosses a ridge that drops away into a huge crater, clearly caused by a large asteroid impact. Down near the bottom, at the end of a long rut, lies a Recusant-class light destroyer, the source of the power reading. It is missing its engine module and the underside of its bow has been sheared off and scattered across the furrow it carved into the planetoid when it crashed. There is a gaping hole in the starboard armored shell that used to be amidships before the ship lost its back end, but the bridge appears to be intact.

“ Don’t suppose anyone’s armor is vacuum sealed? ” Arde grunted.

Kebiin and Tam raise their hands. Buir kinda insisted on it.. Kebiin told them apologetically, Never wanted any of us ad'ike to go leaving atmosphere without it.

" Sounds like you just volunteered yourself, " Arde replied with a chuckle.

" I designed our armor to be compatible with it, but I'd need to take time to make the modifications for them to work, " Naz added. " Never had to worry about it before now. "

Kebiin and Tam grumbled briefly before heading to the tender, making a quick stop to their cabins to suit up in full armor.

Once the tender was detached, Kebiin piloted it over to the crashed Recusant as Tam showed her droids the structural plans on a handheld holo device. Alright ad'ika, we're looking for Vulture and other droids.. Since this doesn't seem to have a hanger, any Vultures might be attracted to the hull, so scan the best you can. Other droids to look for; B1's, B2's, BX's and Tactical droids. I know that's a big list, but do your best, ok?

The droids chimed in with enthusiastic affirmations.

Kebiin let out an exasperated sigh, signaling VT1 to come over. See if you can find salvageable ship components; armor plating, weapons, anything that matches Tam's Bes'uliik plans.

VT1 saluted, Yes ma'am!

When they finish the process of docking, it takes Kebiin a moment to get the door into the Recusant to open, but it does open, and they enter the ship. The light from the system's sun barely still lights the Recusant, buried deep in the crater as it is, and they are hit by a wave of cold as they enter the destroyer. The corridor is pretty wrecked, plating bent and scattered around the deck or hanging from the ceiling and walls, revealing wires and various other technical bits in varying states of damage. A sparking wire hangs next to the airlock, suggesting that the ship does still have some power at least, even if not much, though its hard to tell what might happen if they were to fully restore power to the ship. Possibly an explosion. A big one.

VT-1 picks up a piece of the plating and holds it up to his photoreceptor, turning it back and forth as if studying it closely. He beeps in "disappointment" and shakes his head, "Buir'ika, ba'vodu, ibic me'sen shuk'yc." He gives them a very serious look before tossing the plating down and heading down the hall whistling, carrying out his directives.

The little droid floats down the corridor towards the front of the ship, whistling to itself as it looks for anything interesting. As he rounds a corner away from Tam and Kebiin, he sees a small droid access point and climbs through, hoping it'll help him get around faster. After half-floating, half-crawling along the tunnel for a while and going down a few levels, he comes to a blockage where it caved in. He whistles sadly to himself and goes back the way he came, exiting through the last access point he saw. He keeps going, but then he sees a breath mask just lying on the floor further down the hall. He floats over to it and picks it up in his manipulator, curiously. It is damaged beyond use and its oxygen supply is depleted, but from the looks of it, it definitely hasn't been there since the ship crashed. He estimates that it hasn't been there for longer than a few months. He hears a distant screech and makes a worried noise before continuing down the corridor, looking for anything useful, but still carrying the breath mask.

Kebiin and Tam decided to check out the power source, trailed by the pack of VT-0's. When the reached the reactor room, it was a mess. Only one reactor was operating and it was leaking coolant. Kebiin let out a low whistle over the comlink. Either this leak is new, the coolant tank is huge , or the leak isn't very bad.. she motioned for the droids to come closer. Alright, there is way too much radiation for my tastes in there.. I'll walk you through the repairs. Let's see if we can get the other reactors up as well..

Tam was looking around their surroundings and glanced in the reactor room. Not to jinx this, but.. this could be a decent hidden base if we can get some shielding installed to mask the reactors...

Kebiin slowly turned her head to glare at Tam. You sound like Cade.. stop it. Kebiin paused, and glanced around.

Tam started to shake her finger at her. I can't see your face, but I know that look! She scolded, That's the look Cade gets when hes thinking about acquiring a ship!

Kebiin held up her hands, Fine, let's clear the ship first.

With Kebiin's expert direction, the little droids manage to finish quite quickly. As the lights flicker momentarily and then get stronger, they hear a distant screech and a nearby clank and clatter, then a distant popping sound, but the power has been boosted significantly. From their position in the Wayfarer, Arde and Naz would see many of the windows on the Recusant light up, though some quickly flickered back out again. The VT-0s floated back to Tam and Kebiin whistling happily at their success.

As VT-1 continues on, he comes across a battle droid smashed against the wall and entangled with a piece of plating and the wires behind it. He trills sadly and starts trying to extricate the droid to analyze its condition, when suddenly the lights flicker and the wires send a jolt of electricity through his manipulators. His beeps in alarm and backs away as the lights flicker and go out, plunging the corridor into darkness. He backs away and turns on his comlink, "Buir? Tion ibac gar? Ni ne haataylir. Would you please add a glow rod to the list of components to add?" He extends the antennae for his scanner and starts scanning his surroundings as he floats along, leaving the mostly demolished droid to its fate.

Tam's voice crackles over the com, You hurt ad'ika? I'll add it to the list of updates.