Re: [TML] How to disable a parked ship? Bill Rutherford 10 Jan 2015 15:53 UTC
Fellow Travellers, As usual, thanks! You've just provided a bucketful of ideas, most of which hadn't even occurred to me, in addition (Thanks Leonard) to explaining some holes in my initial thoughts (nothing unusual there, BTW - the holes, I mean... ;-) Again, thanks! - Bill Rutherford At 02:26 AM 1/10/2015, you wrote: >On 9 Jan 2015 at 23:39, Bill Rutherford wrote: > > > All, > > > > The players are landing at a D starport which is pretty basic. > > > > The bad guys want to disable the players' ship to keep them from > > leaving but it's not politic to simply bombard it from space or turn > > the weapons of another parked ship on the players' ship. A couple of > > thoughts that sprang to mind ito disable the ship include: > > > > a) Fry the ship's electrical systems by running a vehicle with a > > large capacitor aboard into one of the landing legs. > > > > -- Is this even practical? > >Nope. You can't fry the electronics in your car by dropping a high >voltage power line onto it. That's because the body acts as a Faraday >cage. > >Ships will be even better protected. > > > -- Thoughts re: how this could be done without also frying any crew aboard? > >The voltage would never get *into* the ship in the first place. > > > b) EMP... > > > > -- Nukes would likely be off the table but could this be done with a > > high-voltage low amperage electrostatic discharge from the vehicle > > that contacts the landing leg? > > >For close range, an eMP bomb is rather smle to make. And doesn't >require a nuke. doesn't even require huge amounts of explosives. > >But again, the ship will be pretty well shielded against that in the >first place. > > > c) Simply ram the ship with a vehicle, collapsing a landing leg, > > possibly breaking seal integrity around the gear door? > > > -- Any thoughts about likelihood of breaking integrity? > >If the ship falls over, a lot of things will break. > >If it doesn't then you'll have to inflict enough damage to prevent >retracted the leg properly without causing the ship to fall over. >Tricky. > >Things that will prevent the ship from lifting fall into several >categories: > >1. legal. they *could* lift off, but might be in big trouble if they >do. Maybe even enough to get the locals to send something to force >them down. > >2. "practical". Maybe some of the crew, passengers or supplies aren't >on board. Lifing off may still be *possible* but would lead to >various levels of problems. > >3. "physical". something is broken/missing/whatever. the ship is >*unable* to lift until the problem is corrected. > > >-- >Leonard Erickson (aka shadow) >shadow at shadowgard dot com > > >----- >The Traveller Mailing List >Archives at http://archives.simplelists.com/tml >Report problems to xxxxxx@travellercentral.com >To unsubscribe from this list please goto >http://www.simplelists.com/confirm.php?u=CdnU0EhBjfjjIb8YPy01fwnA9pxhJWpq Bill Rutherford xxxxxx@comcast.net