Attack Strategy to Cripple Spaceship

[Jester85]

So the premise is a group of space pirates/slavers attacking a cargo vessel transporting refugees to sell the passengers as slaves.

The pirates are a pretty ragtag band with scraped together technology, but their target (picked for its helplessness) is basically a rusty bucket of bolts without any significant defenses to speak of.

So, what would the most quick and effective game plan for crippling and boarding the cargo vessel? I assume knocking out power, but they can't afford to knock out life support.

 

[Foxbat]

So the premise is a group of space pirates/slavers attacking a cargo vessel transporting refugees to sell the passengers as slaves.

The pirates are a pretty ragtag band with scraped together technology, but their target (picked for its helplessness) is basically a rusty bucket of bolts without any significant defenses to speak of.

So, what would the most quick and effective game plan for crippling and boarding the cargo vessel? I assume knocking out power, but they can't afford to knock out life support.

Target the engines?

 

[Tyburn]

I agree. Hit the engines, leave it dead in space. If you have something which can make a decent seal on the target's hull, cut your way in rather than rely on airlocks. An airlock is easily defended.

On the other hand, what is the cargo ship's design? Modular? Self-contained? Is there a sci-fi movie ship anything close to what you're thinking? Certain tactics could depend on what sort of ship it is. If the cargo bays are external (think a container ship) then the pirates could simply cut several of the containers free and steal those without even having to disable it.

 

[tinkerdan]

Depends on what you mean by ragtag.

But there are a number of issues that might show up in this scenario.

One would be that the engines and the atmosphere in the ship may be tied together so if you risk one you risk the other. On the other hand they may not be so tied together because of just this point and it might vary so the pirates would need to know this.(are they intelligent but just ragtag as in not much resources and we cobble things together)

Damage to the ship might be less important because there might be suits and one ploy might be to get them to suit up before you board. That way you get x number slaves and x number of good suites.

Either way forced entry might mean blowing a hatch or two which would only work if the potential slaves were in suits in case you blow the internal atmosphere out.

They might try knocking on the door and waiting for someone to answer. Basically if you want to get in with the least amount of fuss it would be best to pull some sort of ruse to get someone inside to ensure the least amount of damage to the merchandise.

Probably the best bet if the ship and cargo itself is not the prize. Is to do enough damage to force them to abandon ship in escape pods and then neatly collect the pods. You still take the risk that there will be loss of life from the attack.

Read some of David Weber's stuff-he does enough thinking for ten people when it comes to things like this.- I'm not remembering the exact book but there is one where the pirates destroy a ship and take hostages from those remaining alive, but in that case I don't think they were normally that keen about leaving survivors.

If the ship being pursued can't escape easily then it might only need a chase and a show of power from the pirates. If the pirates show enough determination they might just need a few good shots across the bow to convince the captain of the target to allow them to board with the notion they mean to steal cargo. They can inform them of the human slave trade after the fact. Last resort would be to hole the hull unless they were certain of easier retrieval of the escape pods.

Really though if they are doing this on a regular basis then it's a known factor and the captain and crew might have to make an informed decision based on what they know about pirates and the slave trade(they could just empty the air themselves to get out of it the easy way.) This happens a few times and then the pirates have to find a way to get someone on board to subdue the entire crew before they approach.(some sort of nerve gas or such.)

Really though the cost of getting around in space and the dangers it's more like trying to comparing the notion of whether merchants and pirates would be using submarines below the sea and then trying to figure out how to board each other. Because spaceships and space travel is more like submarines.

As an exercise you might want to get a couple submarines and take them down and see how much trouble it might be to board one by force.

.

 

[Biskit]

I assume knocking out power, but they can't afford to knock out life support.

Surely this depends on the mindset of your pirates and the scale of the ship being attacked? Why not hit them hard in the engines, not worry about what else gets damaged, and make off with any of the occupants who survive? They probably don't care if they are selling crew or passengers, so long as they make a profit.

 

[Juliana]

Go watch some Firefly episodes on Netflix... Pretty sure Mal's ship counts as a rust-bucket! And I seem to remember at least one or two episodes with boarding scenarios. (Serious suggestion, by the way. I often find that visuals help the writing ideas)

 

[SleepyDormouse]

a slight aside from the question.. but would these pirates we wanting to take any technology/components or fuel from the disabled vessel? It could increase their profit.

I would take Juliana up on her suggestion of watching Firefly, aside from perhaps being useful it is a great series

 

[Locrian]

High power radio pulse to scramble the software on the ship. Leaves all the hardware intact. I theory, the pressure doors wouldn't work either, so that the pirates could just cut straight into the cargo hold and take what they want.

 

[Bowler1]

Where are all the Somali pirates when you need them?


Why risk life and limb, send the robots in and capture the bridge. Or, depending on the ship, cut away the sections with the refugees. But blowing up a spaceship engine risks blowing up the whole ship and killing off all the soon to be slaves. It would have to be a focused attack taking out the crew only. The rest sounds like RAY GUN fun to me.

 

[The Storyteller]

Considering these are made up spaceships, it depends on their designs and what technology you have going for you! Maybe the pirates have some tool or technology which can disable the others ship's computer or cause them to lose power, or fancy space harpoons they can shoot into the other ship or force field to immobilize it. That is a little silly, I know, but point being in a world where there is the technology for people to fly around in spaceships who knows what types of weapons and other tech they also have? Seeing as a pirate's whole living would come from boarding other ships and plundering, they would probably have ships built or altered specifically for this purpose, so it would make sense that they had tech/weapons that would help them in disabling/boarding other ships.

Another thought (though this may not be what you are going for) but if the ship they are attacking is really a rust bucket with no defense, the pirates could just contact them and say if you don't surrender we can and will blow you into a zillion pieces. Seeing as the inferior ship would not have the means to escape or outfight the pirate ship (depending on how advanced it was), they would probably have no choice but to surrender. Especially if the pirate's were able to knock out their other communications so they can't call for help. That way the pirates wouldn't have to risk killing any of the 'cargo' and they would be able to plunder the other ship for parts and goods as well. This would depend on how the scene was set up and what you were going for though; if you want a space showdown this probably isn't the way!

And lastly, yes to watching Firefly! I also recommend this.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Check out this old thread:

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/foru...el-boarders-marine-ship-defense-tactic-2.html

On page 2 there's a really useful post by MNPaul (I think) that I go back to quite often for these sorts of musings.

 

[Jester85]

You guys have given me a lot to consider, thanks.

 

[Jester85]

Depends on what you mean by ragtag.

Interspecies motley crew of lowlives with their own vessel and possibly some smaller boarding craft, tech and weaponry probably scavenged and/or cobbled together from their own homeworlds and previous piracy. The leader at least is relatively technically-proficient and strategic, while a lot of his goons are dumb hired muscle.

 

[Overread]

Dumb hired muscle suggests that boarding is going to be the best attack plan since that maximises the crews skills whilst at the same time reducing the potential damage to the target ship (you don't want trigger happy people shooting at a ship you want in-tact with the crew alive). Also if the target is mostly civilians chances are it won't take too much to break their defence against an attack (if you don't manage to do it with stealth). You'll get a few ring-leaders but once they are lost a show of force will get most to surrender.

How you get to a boarding state is your choice. You can fire warning shots and show a face of hostility and superiority to get them to comply, however a smart opposing ship might well only give in so far as to let you board before then trying to counter-attack. That suggests that even if you're allowed to dock you might want other options on the table.

Eg you might use the main boarding airlock, but at the same time have a secondary boom swing out from the ship to allow you to attach and then breach a separate part of the hull; by which you can then enter with reduced opposition (no auto-defences - no chance for them to de-pressurise the airlock since there won't be one on their end). Course cutting through the ship could take time depending on their armour and your tech.


If you know the ship has liferafts you could try forcing them to use them by crippling the ship; however that runs a much greater risk of a stray shot or chain reaction destroying the whole vessel.

 

[ralphkern]

It depends totally on your level of technology and how 'realistic you are being.

Lasers would be fairly precise, but over thousands of km targeting might be tricky. This is a real life anti ballistic missile laser test using what's called a YAL 747 (a 747 equipped with a laser)

New Airborne Laser TestBed Footage, Missile Shot Down 2/11/2010 First Successful Test - YouTube

Kinetic kills (bullets) can be massively destructive but easily avoided over any significant distance.

What drive system do they use? If it's something exotic, like a warp drive (Alcubierre drive), can they disrupt it?

Stealth technology, can they board without the enemy even being aware there's an aggressor ship?

Hacking the other ship? making it stop (well, stop accelerating) or drop its cargo?

Threats of force would be the simplest. 'Strike your colors fella or we're gonna end you.'

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Boarding pods. Basically larger, armoured escape pods. They impact the target, chew through the hull, and the slavers exit their pod and run riot through the ship.

Or maybe the whole pirate "ship" is nothing more than a big cluster of boarding pods. Try shooting back at a target that falls apart into hundreds of little targets, all zooming towards your very chewable hull...

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

First don't watch Firefly - it's Joss' badly flawed masterpiece, and part of its flaw is that it has no realism to it. You have no idea of how any of the tech on it works, starting with the drive, and you also don't know if they're travelling through the planets in one system or between the stars.

How to disable. Before you ask that ask yourself, how do they even find the ship in space? Space is big - mind bogglingly big - to quote Hitchhikers. Finding a ship in a solar system is probably harder than finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. Much harder. And if you leave the system that problem becomes a billion times worse. You need some reason for the ship to be in a specific location within the system - hyperspace conduit tubes (like railway lines), jump points which everyone has to use. Or failing that some super tech.

Next I would go for the power. Don't shoot holes in the ship - that'll just lead to large areas of the ship being depressurised - and I don't think slave's will get space suits. My thought would be some sort of EMP. If life support goes down, no one's going to die instantly. They can probably survive at least a number of hours, maybe many days, simply on the air that's in the ship, and by wearing warm clothes. Remember the crew of the Kirsch were assumed to have survive until nearly a week later.

Also destroying the power means they can't call for help.

Next step is boarding through a hatch. Yes they might be expecting you, but if you're armed and armoured, perhaps have some mechanical marines, and they're a freighter crew, the advantage is yours. How do you think the Somali pirates keep taking ships? Small arms all the way. They face no opposition. Freighters are unarmed by international law.

Now if space law allows freighters to be armed, the chances of piracy being successful become very small. Every gun battle even if your pirate vessel is much better armed, is a risk for the pirates, and the chances are that there will be no reward since the chance of survival of the freighter is very small. You'd need a new career.

As for shooting the engines off, unless the engines are completely external to the ship, you'd lose the ship. You might be able to use directed laser strikes (pin point accuracy) to shoot off hull mounted equipment - which would I assume include communications arrays and sensors leaving them blind, deaf and mute. But the EMP should do that for you.

As an alternative strategy I'd suggest having a co-conspirater on the planet where the ship leaves from who can send routes, manifests, defence details etc to the pirates and maybe arrange some sabotage.

Cheers, Greg.

Hope that helps.

 

[Overread]

Hi,

First don't watch Firefly - it's Joss' badly flawed masterpiece, and part of its flaw is that it has no realism to it. You have no idea of how any of the tech on it works, starting with the drive, and you also don't know if they're travelling through the planets in one system or between the stars.

Last I checked I don't have any idea how Warp Drive works - or the ships in Battlestar - or really any sci-fi So Firefly is about the same as the others, indeed I'd say that in most the method of locomotion is only important in so far as to how it affects the ships; otherwise its nearly always stuff far more advanced (or physics breaking) than most people can worry about.

Also Firefly is still one of the very few sci-fi I can recall watching that at least mades an attempt at real world space physics in some form in a sci-fi show.

 

[Locrian]

Last I checked I don't have any idea how Warp Drive works - or the ships in Battlestar - or really any sci-fi So Firefly is about the same as the others, indeed I'd say that in most the method of locomotion is only important in so far as to how it affects the ships; otherwise its nearly always stuff far more advanced (or physics breaking) than most people can worry about.

Also Firefly is still one of the very few sci-fi I can recall watching that at least mades an attempt at real world space physics in some form in a sci-fi show.

Agreed, firefly makes a pretty good go of it, despite some flaws like the relative speeds of serenity and the reaver ship in one of the first episodes. A lot of the time you don't really need to know specifics, its infodumping and it clogs up the story telling.

 

[Colbey Frost]

Or maybe the whole pirate "ship" is nothing more than a big cluster of boarding pods. Try shooting back at a target that falls apart into hundreds of little targets, all zooming towards your very chewable hull...

That sounds awesome!