Sci-fi-esque techy question...

[Schlosser85]

I'm looking for ideas about ways to knock out a spaceship's power system, or at least its engine power, from the inside.

+ for a way that this could be made to look like an outside attack (this is being done by a mole onboard who is attempting to frame outsiders).

 

[The Squirrel]

Are they currently under attack from an outside source?

 

[Schlosser85]

No, it's an insider trying to make it look that way.

 

[Victarion]

Would a synchronized attack seem too coincidental? If you're good at building tension, you could have the Mole's attack timed with the detonation of some explosives planted outside of the ship. In order to draw attention off of the Mole, you could have an Expendable Character sent in to act as a distraction. For the sake of plausibility the bombs would need to be planted in an area under less surveilance than some other area of the ship.

Maybe the EC could be someone the Mole doesn't trust entirely. Hence sending them on a suicide mission. The explosives could be from another ship/company that's antagonistic to the Mole, or that the Mole would have reason to frame.

It would let you play around with a few moral questions, which are always fun.

 

[KevanG]

What's the tech level at? Do they have transporters and phasers like Star Trek?

 

[Schlosser85]

Well the set-up is that there are two races, the Carn and Koovs, who have a long history of tension.

There is a radical hardline underground Carn group trying to provoke a war. They have already orchestrated the crash of a Carn warship onto a Koov moon in an attempt to frame the Koovs, and now there is an emergency conference with Carn + Koov representatives to avoid conflict.

The radicals are trying to give another push by planting their mole among the Carn diplomatic envoy, who plans to assassinate the leading Carn official and frame the Koovs.

 

[Thundercrack85]

You writing sci fi?

The thing is, a physical bomb would be too obvious. An EMP might work. Though really, any advanced spaceship would be hardened to withstand that kind of an attack.

You could also always go another route, and have the mole plant a virus which destroys / shuts down the engine indirectly (if it's computer controlled / networked).

Virus would be the most plausible, I think.

 

[Schlosser85]

What's the tech level at? Do they have transporters and phasers like Star Trek?

Not transporters.

Not phasers exactly, but close enough.

 

[Schlosser85]

You writing sci fi?

The thing is, a physical bomb would be too obvious. An EMP might work. Though really, any advanced spaceship would be hardened to withstand that kind of an attack.

You could also always go another route, and have the mole plant a virus which destroys / shuts down the engine indirectly (if it's computer controlled / networked).

Virus would be the most plausible, I think.

I'm working on a sci-fi trilogy, yea.

Hmm.

 

[Thundercrack85]

Or a nanotech-based weapon.

 

[Doctor Evo]

I'm a firin' mah laser!! SHOOP DA WOOP!

 

[Silvermoth]

This might be crazy but what about an undetectable gas which, once activated, condenses and turns into rain inside the spaceship, causing the tech to malfunction?

 

[Pythenis]

"Mynok chewing on the power cables" .....have the "mole" smuggle in some sort of creature that could be dismissed as a castaway from the cargo hold?

 

[knowsbleed]

Have the mole model an explosive device that is similar to a device that the Koov might use, plant it in an area that would be vulnerable to attack and that an outsider would have access to. Device goes boom, spaceship gets ****ed up, people blame the Koov.

 

[Pink Ranger]

This is the second such thread that Schloss has started. I'm beginning to wonder if he's really a writer at all, or if he's a supervillain trying to get ideas on how to conquer the Earth.

For the record Schloss, I am strong from my size and would make an ideal "taskmaster" for your tyrannical regime, helping to maintain order with an iron fist in your massive network of underground spice mines. Just putting my name out there.