Hi Destroying Angel,
Maybe I have for you very bad news
... Nomads fighters groups are the weakest from many new NPCs in Crossfire. You must find your own way how fight those nomads, if you want to survive. About disc in Death valley is nothing to found - this is way, how is in CF created a story. Story in CF is created from clues, and if you understand this, you can found in specified locations new jumps, buoys with message or wrecks with data discs. There are also others options, but one thing is the same for all: your way is not easy, maybe better to say is very hard. And this is why many of us so love this mod. This mod is beautiful and hard and we love him, because we found here challenge and more. Without Challenges are games after time pass boring, here you can play years and still found challenges and fun.
About IC: ...I found clues myself, but it take many, many hours playing and fighting some nasty aliens. I remember well adrenaline, when I finally found searched wreck, picked up data disc, and with 1/50 hull remaining created screen-shot and next second being destroyed by alien VHF group 