Vex

"So there are the crews crawling all over the ship when it first comes in," Roan Hackney said, pointing to a screen. The Tower Security technician was helping Detective Logan Goodwin review footage from the hangar. "Routine check ups and maintenance. After that, no one comes near until it gets impounded."

The video sped up as Hackney skipped to the time he had mentioned. Like he said, no one approached until security arrived and secured the craft, with several people entering and exiting the plane.

"I'll need the name of everyone who entered that ship both times," Goodwin said.

"You really think someone would have stolen a hand cannon from a Guardian's ship?"

"Maybe. What about after this."

"Once it was impounded, no one should have come near it," Hackney said, speeding through the tape again.

"Then who is that?" Logan asked as a lone technician entered the frame, walking directly to the ship. Whoever it was was carrying a long, rectangular package. They quickly boarded the ship, then emerged a few minutes later, broke down the box, and ditched it with other scrap.

Hackney scrolled back the footage, trying to figure out where the person had come from. Careful scrutiny of different angles showed that the person walked where the cameras could carely spot them for most of the journey, just an arm entering the frame here, a shoulder there. Someone had figured out limitations in their security coverage and exploited it as much as they could. No where was there a shot that could get any sort of identifying image of the individual.

"Why would someone have been putting something on the ship?" Goodwin asked himself, watching the person go through their actions for a second time. "It's not like we've been looking for a murder weapon and someone wanted to plant it on him. Nothing illegal was found in the ship. I'll need to go through the inventory of the ship again, see if there is anything that Jackal didn't expect to be there. For now, go back to the other footage. Maybe there's something we're missing with the original searches."

Hackney complied, going back to the original docking and lockdowns. Goodwin stared at the footage as it played over and over again, focusing on a different person or portion of the video each time, looking for the slightest hint of anything. Eventually, he spotted it.

"There!" he said, jabbing a finger at the screen. "Back up just a bit, then play it at a slower speed, please."

The footage of the repair crew checking over the ship reversed, then rolled forward at half speed. One of the crew members was pushing a cart with several containers weighing it down. Checking the logs had revealed that to be Vex parts, collected as a bounty for the Future War Cult who wanted to study them for… some reason. The FWC didn't exactly share their reasoning for anything with anyone. However, this time Goodwin spotted something.

"There's something between those containers. Does that look like it could be a gun to you?" the detective asked.

Hackney looked at the screen, tilting his head and squinting. "I suppose it could be. And that technician matches up fairly well with our intruder. Impossible to be certain from these camera angles, but the build is nearly identical."

"So," Goodwin said, straightening, "it looks like someone took something off the ship, then snuck it back on so that no one would notice that it was missing. Now we have to figure out who, what, and why."

…

AN

So, I was keeping up with this fairly well, but then things got a little crazy with work and I was struggling to think of how to fit the prompts in with the story. It will get a resolution, however, fear not.