the yard personnel don't have to know the purpose of the upgrade either, only that it is being done. Software upgrades are all that are really necessary whether the sensors are passive or active provided you're looking at distinctive signatures.
A radar pulse that hits a "black fleet" ship is going to produce a return of some kind barring some super-stealth features. That radar return, if it is strong enough to register on the sending or other receiving ship's systems will produce a "blip" on the screen. This type of radar is called a primary radar and current "RL" era military radars work on this principle.
Civilian radars on the other hand do not attempt to register a return pulse, but rather interrogate the aircraft's or ship's transponder to get a "return" from that. This method provides much more detailed information of that vessel - it's own ID, its altitude, course, speed, and such forth. This information can be spoofed by that vessel to provide false information to the radar systems that inquire it.
There were, prior to this discussion, 2 ways that I know of to "spoof" primary radars. The first is to use stealth materials in the construction of the vessel. The idea being to either reduce the radar return to negligible levels or to redirect that return away from the radar receiver of the sending unit. The second method is to actively jam or spoof the radar in question. Jamming I assume we're familiar with in broad principles ... it's an attempt to overwhelm the radar with the power of your own emitter, or to produce false images on the screen, or any number of other confusing effects. But, some years ago the French came up with another method - "active stealth" - in which the vessel (aircraft) being targeted would, send a reverse polarity, or mirror image signal back to the sender. The idea being that the two signals would overlap and cancel each other out. While fairly simple in theory, because the vessel is moving its a bit complicated in
practice so I think that they have a dedicated, if simple, computer system to handle that.
Passive thermal detection or possibly gravitics, and or other passive systems are more of a problem. All vessels (land, air, sea and space) produce some form of energy, often heat, sometimes combined with something else - wake or turbulence. Heat is very problematic in that it's going to stand out as it's rather hard to keep a convenient sun in the "eyes" of the opponent.
One method that may work is to radiate that heat away from the expected direction of the opponent attempting to deny him that "visual" look at your presence. This of course, requires that your opponent cooperate by not being on the side that you are radiating that energy to.
Another method along these lines would be to somehow store the heat energy for a limited time and then radiate it later when it's more convenient, or safer to do so.
Thoughts, comments?
Regards,
Tim
On Monday, November 3, 2014 7:33 PM, "Todd Kes [Traveller_TNE]" <> wrote:
It would be tricky, as passive sensors should be able to spot the thermal image of a ship, even if the radar was updated to ignore them.
The people that would be in the place to pull off such a scam would be in the department that handles the hardware updates on the various ships, so they can insert the code package into each ship. This would have to be paired with the shipyard personnel in the affected area, as those upgrades would be part of the mandatory (and free) sensor updates. You land at a starport in a system near where the illegal stuff will be going on, and they inform you of a mandatory sensor package upgrade to help identify the ships in the sector. It is free, and they throw in a free refueling. The free refueling encourages anyone who stops by to get the upgrade package, and you will need a 'diversion ring' so you can have a mix of ships with and without the black fleet upgrades, but your black fleet doesn't operate (in case a ship without the upgrades spots a black fleet ship).
The overall authority will need to be someone with sector authority, either completely in charge and making money from this side business, or close to it who can conceal the sort of operations this requires. Very powerful person relative to the PCs, so if they try to go up against this evil overlord I expect the PCs to be expanding vapor or bloody smears. Now taking down a few of the minions might be possible, if it allows the PCs to escape.
The other detail is needing to figure out the goal of the person running the black fleet. Is it used for deep cover operations? If so, this fleet could be technically legal, even as they do illegal stuff (KGB/CIA equivalent). Is it used for smuggling, slavery, or other stuff, in which case the overlord is relying on a relatively few people to buy the illegal stuff to keep the network functioning. Or is it used to ship dissidents to a hidden prison (low berths on a Jump 6 courier, or some sort of drug to slow down the prisoner).
Virus could do this, if a 'friendly virus' strain was working with the local ships. They are inoculated against other Viral strains thanks to the current one in residence, but that strain has plans that are better if the organics don't know about them. So it has its own hidden ships conducting its own operations in areas that organics don't often get near. Perhaps a brown dwarf star that is little more than a giant ball of hydrogen, that Virus ships use as a fueling stop? An automated repair yard that is fabricating Von Neumann machines to consume local planets to take care of the puny humans, so they can feel free to do research? This research is then sent via Viral couriers, so the main Viral control/coordination gets the upgrades as well. The Virus is keeping pet humans to steadily uptech itself, in an attempt to reach TL 16. Its goal is to eventually upload itself into the structure of space-time.
One way to reveal a dark fleet type ship would be a new vessel getting into the area, not having the upgrades, seeing a black fleet ship, and deciding to raid it. Another ship in-system sees the newcomer accelerating towards empty space, and opening fire. Then explosions start occurring in the empty space.
Todd Kes
On Monday, November 3, 2014 2:55 PM, "Scott Nolan wrote:
I like this latter point a lot and am thinking of ways to use it in my TNE game, but I'm not sure how. Maybe villainous elements in the RC want to trade with the Guild or Solee or the Vampires? or maybe it's the Guild or Solee or Vampires that operate as the black fleet?
The more important question is how, with RC security procedures regarding computers, do the "routine updates" get into the system? I'm thinking that only RCES or RCSA has access to the systems to perform the updates, which could point the PCs in the direction of the culprits.
Whaddya think? How to make this plot work in the world of Virus? And who's the best villain to pin this on? I'm kinda thinking hardline fuedal technocrats in the Oriflamme government, but I'm not sure what they'd be up to.
Scott