i don't know what i'm doing wrong, and have been trying to find a thread where someone asks this question, but i can't.

i'm doing a beginning mission where i have to scan a bot with volatile chemicals, leave it alone, and scare the other bots around him away. how do i do this? it says to put the scanner in a weapon group. so i do, but i have to unequip the scanner to use my weapon because i've only got one weapon port. so what do i do? it seems to me that i have the choice of scanning the bot but not shooting anything, or shooting everything, including the bot with the volatile chemicals. what am i doing wrong? what am i missing? thanks in advance for your help.

Before you take up this mission, you need to get a ship that has 2 or more weapon slots like a Vulture, Warthog, or Wraith.

yeah, don't take scanner missions until you have a better ship, or run around defenseless

A word of advice, even if you have 2 weapon ports wait until you get a tachyon. If you don't kill the bots fast the volatile one will bump into one of his buddies and go boom.

i figured that i needed a better ship, but it seems like a beginning mission wouldn't require it, seeing as getting a better ship is contingent on getting more licenses. kind of strange. it's like i have to leave a beginning mission for way later, which also impedes my progress towards getting more licenses. not very intuitive. thanks for the help though.

the missions are still placeholders and not totally complete, they havent been arranged into specific trees yet.