The TV series "The Expanse" has done a little world-building in this area -- specifically, they've thought about what might be involved in aligning two ships moving in free-fall along various courses, with and without acceleration, and in connecting them (semi-violently) in order to enable boarding without loss of atmosphere or catastrophic failures of structural integrity for either vessel. Also show boarding of a large, inhabited orbiter by teams from small vessels.
Even a tiniest, crummiest ship is worth so much more than its cargo. Smart pirates are not looking for booty, they are after the prize. Some of them lie in ambush, broadcasting emergency signals on a seemingly cold ship. Others use tractor beams and intercept maneuvers to board their prey. But by far the deadliest are the ones who fly tiny broadcasters just into comms range and hack your ship's mainframe. Using emergency tightbeam communications, wide broadcast malware or even oldschool phishing methods, these cowardly scoundrels can take over control of your ship, have it fly to a specific rendevous point and wait for days until you're salvaged without ever firing as much as a turbolaser. If you're lucky, the pirate malware will activate once you're safe in cryo and might even blast you off in an escape pod. The nasty ones vent all decks into the vaccuum as soon as you enter frontier space. You might fly with malware for months and never realise, a deadly trap lying in wait for you to come within range of a pirate salvager.
And we did see something real similar happen in game: PCs started pretending to be a government body, and claiming they'd reimburse people. Or they could be shot.
Those PCs upgraded their ship a few times, finding new ones. Because why bother taking all the cool stuff from one ship onto yours when you can just move your crew onto the new ship?
While ships are likely more valuable the cargo, they are also likely much more dangerous to take. If you only take the cargo, the crew is more likely to surender, but taking the ship pushes the crew into a corner, it also makes it more likely scuttling charges and spite will destroy everything. The more deadly you are, the more opposition you are going to face.
Can't find a picture, but a space pirate ship is not built for aesthetics or symmetry. It's a giant snapped together collection of ships, drop-tanks repurposed as cargo containers, hollowed out asteroids, and anything else that'll get the job done.There are a dozen fighters strapped to the outside pointing in all sorts of directions. They can fire as stationary guns, or they can detach for ship-to-ship combat.
There is one particularly wicked looking flexible appendage sticking out at an odd angle. It's an airlock surrounded with magnetic harpoons and saws and torches. Once a victim-ship is nicely disabled, the pirates 'poon it, the airlock bores its way through the side of the ship, and pirates plunder whatever cargo is around. Coming in through the front door is a good way to get killed, so it's better to drill your way in through the side.
And if the victims are lucky, they'll be found before running out of air. Because the pirates also took any ship externals that they think might be better served as part of the pirate ship.
The TV series "The Expanse" has done a little world-building in this area -- specifically, they've thought about what might be involved in aligning two ships moving in free-fall along various courses, with and without acceleration, and in connecting them (semi-violently) in order to enable boarding without loss of atmosphere or catastrophic failures of structural integrity for either vessel. Also show boarding of a large, inhabited orbiter by teams from small vessels.
ReplyDeleteThe Expense. Of course. Here I am on pinterest looking for cool things, and it hadn't occurred to me to go look specifically at the Roci
ReplyDeleteDoy.
Even a tiniest, crummiest ship is worth so much more than its cargo. Smart pirates are not looking for booty, they are after the prize. Some of them lie in ambush, broadcasting emergency signals on a seemingly cold ship. Others use tractor beams and intercept maneuvers to board their prey. But by far the deadliest are the ones who fly tiny broadcasters just into comms range and hack your ship's mainframe. Using emergency tightbeam communications, wide broadcast malware or even oldschool phishing methods, these cowardly scoundrels can take over control of your ship, have it fly to a specific rendevous point and wait for days until you're salvaged without ever firing as much as a turbolaser. If you're lucky, the pirate malware will activate once you're safe in cryo and might even blast you off in an escape pod. The nasty ones vent all decks into the vaccuum as soon as you enter frontier space. You might fly with malware for months and never realise, a deadly trap lying in wait for you to come within range of a pirate salvager.
ReplyDeleteYes, Sławomir Wójcik! That's creepy, of course.
ReplyDeleteIt's also why I don't network my computers.
And we did see something real similar happen in game: PCs started pretending to be a government body, and claiming they'd reimburse people. Or they could be shot.
Those PCs upgraded their ship a few times, finding new ones. Because why bother taking all the cool stuff from one ship onto yours when you can just move your crew onto the new ship?
Captain Harlock.
ReplyDeleteThat is most def a space pirate, and one with which I am not familiar
ReplyDeleteI'm talking to you guys, watching DS9, looking at spaceships on pinterest and reading up on the stuff from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun night.
While ships are likely more valuable the cargo, they are also likely much more dangerous to take. If you only take the cargo, the crew is more likely to surender, but taking the ship pushes the crew into a corner, it also makes it more likely scuttling charges and spite will destroy everything. The more deadly you are, the more opposition you are going to face.
ReplyDeleteShips may be more valuable, but also much harder to sell, even as parts. And not every ship makes a good pirate ship.
ReplyDelete"Give us your rowing machine and treadmill" is much easier to get people to agree to than "Give us your ship".
ReplyDeleteCan't find a picture, but a space pirate ship is not built for aesthetics or symmetry. It's a giant snapped together collection of ships, drop-tanks repurposed as cargo containers, hollowed out asteroids, and anything else that'll get the job done.There are a dozen fighters strapped to the outside pointing in all sorts of directions. They can fire as stationary guns, or they can detach for ship-to-ship combat.
ReplyDeleteThere is one particularly wicked looking flexible appendage sticking out at an odd angle. It's an airlock surrounded with magnetic harpoons and saws and torches. Once a victim-ship is nicely disabled, the pirates 'poon it, the airlock bores its way through the side of the ship, and pirates plunder whatever cargo is around. Coming in through the front door is a good way to get killed, so it's better to drill your way in through the side.
And if the victims are lucky, they'll be found before running out of air. Because the pirates also took any ship externals that they think might be better served as part of the pirate ship.
https://plus.google.com/photos/...
ReplyDeleteSwords Without Master prepared me somewhat for this eventuality.
ReplyDeletehttps://plus.google.com/photos/...
Neat. If not quite my preferred aesthetic, certainly gets the imagination going.
ReplyDeleteDerek Balling Oooh yeah. I didn't see the show, but a Google Image Search on it brought me this, which is exactly what I'm envisioning. us.v-cdn.net
ReplyDelete