On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 11:31:19AM -0700, Jim Vassilakos wrote:
> Yet another dumb question from yours truly...
>
> Imagine that you're in the middle of a shipboard combat aboard a small
> merchant or scout vessel. IYTU, how important is it to take the bridge?

Not very important in the short term, in most cases.

There are primary control systems physically located near the bridge,
but there are nearly always backups elsewhere, typically in an
engineering room.  Those will usually be less comprehensive and
convenient, but still usable.  Eventually, access to the systems will
yield control over those systems to someone who knows exactly what
they're doing and are willing to make physical changes to do it, but
it nearly always won't be just a matter of using the controls to do
whatever they like.

Control over the ship's systems is far more important than the bridge
itself, and can be established from elsewhere -- though perhaps with
greater difficulty.  There are great variations in what systems there
are or how they can be used or abused between different ships.  Even
purely passive things like internal sensors can give a large tactical
advantage to the side that can read them.  Typically the degree of
control will be roughly correlated with tech level, and the most
advanced ships may even have the onboard facilities to create new
capabilities to some extent.

The usual advantages will involve actions like removing most of the
air from chosen rooms, introducing airborne drugs, corrosives,
visibility or other sensor blockers, remotely locking or opening
hatches, altering the gravity or inertial compensation, sonic attacks
or propaganda through internal speakers, allowing their own bots
through ducts and denying the reverse, jamming communications, calling
for external help, and having the capability of putting the ship as a
whole into a situation more unfavourable to the other side.  They can
also destroy the ship more easily, though it's likely that either side
can do that to a smallish ship given the will to do so.

A well prepared enemy should be able to negate most of the effects of
these actions, but they will make everything significantly more
difficult.

- Tim