OTU Only: Blowing Up a Civilian Starship with a Computer Virus?

[kilemall]

The other 16EP/100Td/Jn come from the Jump Fuel burn (overclocked powerplant). IMTU the PP contribution is just to top off the caps

I could buy that. It would be 32 EP. The 4 EP would be to initiate the big burn.

 

[Spinward Flow]

I could buy that. It would be 32 EP. The 4 EP would be to initiate the big burn.

You know how it's a good idea to "warm up" a ground car battery pack before fast charging it?

The "jump warm up" EPs from the power plant to prepare for jump are like that. The "warm up" EPs to be able to jump are used to condition the jump capacitors in preparation for the "full bore power burn spike" used to actually initiate jump (that consumes 10% fuel fraction per parsec).

So a 100 ton J2 starship may only have 1 ton of jump capacitors installed for a 36 EP maximum capacity and only need 4 EPs "stored" in the jump capacitors to initiate a J2, but that's just to "warm up" the jump capacitors so they aren't doing a cold start when jumping. The remaining 32 EPs of capacity are used to "contain" the massive power spike needed to jump.

And then there's THIS mildly famous bit of sci-fi history to draw upon for inspiration ...

 

[MrBlipvert]

Hi everyone,

Wow! Thanks so much for all the responses. FWIW, this is very much a "destroy the evidence" scuttle--more at the burned out hulk or even "smoking crater" end of the scale.

The forthcoming adventure revisits a location from several (actual/ IRL) years ago.

1. A ship, fleeing a planet devastated by war, crash-landed on an ice planet, about 80 standard years ago
2. The PCs discovered the ship in an adventure early in the campaign. They left it for the authorities to investigate.
3. The wreck has since ("mysteriously") exploded. The evidence the PCs find--months after their original adventure--is a recording of an official investigation team booting up the surviving computer systems, a sinister message on those systems, and then ... kaboom!
4. The ship was infected by the computer virus (that scuttles the ship) on the war-torn planet from which it jumped; the virus is a measure intended to cover up evidence of (now 80-year old) war crimes.

I am sure that there are problems with this set up. But these are my notes and I'd like stay true (okay, "true-ish") to the original idea.

 

[MrBlipvert]

The ship in the scenario is "borrowed" from the old White Dwarf (#68) Classic Traveller adventure, "Lone Dragon," by one Mr. Phil Masters.

I hope it's okay to cut and paste the stats (which I have from an OCR'd scan) -- it seems like they might help with people's answers? I'm leaving out the deck plans and plan keys, obviously; they are a thing of beauty, however, and I highly recommend that people track down the issue!

LONE DRAGON

High Guard statistics for this ‘armed trader-yacht’ are as follows:

Lone Dragon MYN-31323S1-020000-20002-0 300 tons, Batteries bearing 1, 2, 1; TL-14 Batteries 1, 2, 1: Crew-8

Fuel:100. EP:9. Agility:2. Cargo:51 Passengers.2.

Construction: 'Dragon' class vessels are constructed by GSBAG to the special order of the Koan nobility hence limited volume/ standard design' techniques are applied. Most models have minor variations.

Hull: 300 ton ‘needle’ with extensive aerodynamic surfaces.

Crew: Nominally 8; pilot, co-pilot/ navigator, two engineers, two gunners, medic steward

Electronics: Ichiban Model/2bis main computer with extensive security features, both bolt-on and incorporated into the comprehensive software package by ProbeLogic Systems LIC. Terminals on bridge and in all cabins, the latter also linked into an Ichiban recreational games system. Independent security systems by Interstellarms-Ward LIC.

Armament: Dorsal double turret with beam laser and sandcaster. Integral fire control. All standard Instellarms LIC equipment. Ten missiles (6 nuclear, 4 HE) and five sand canisters are carried. [EDIT: Oops! I'm seeing the nukes in the description, now. But let's see if we can do this without firing them into the ground? ]

Craft: One light air-craft. Fuel Treatment: None.

Drives: All standard GSBAG systems, giving jump-3 and 2-G. These, and the (factor-3) power plant, are all sophisticated, if temperamental, designs.

 

[infojunky]

Hi Travellers,

In preparing for an adventure, I'm scrambling for a way that a grounded interstellar starship -- that is engineered along the lines of ships in the OTU -- could be convincingly scuttled while on the surface of a planet. The framing ideas are that:

• this is intended to be a scenario background detail -- something that happened in the past and for which the PCs will discover evidence and I have no intention of inflicting this on the PCs themselves;
• the ship is a civilian ship, so should not contain a built-in system for scuttling a ship that one might expect to find on a military vessel (cf. the USS Enterprise)
• the destruction is caused by somehow using the ship's own engineering/ structure/ systems against it (nobody slipped a bomb on board);
• while the setting is not OTU, the ships are built along OTU lines.

I will be grateful for any and all ideas. I'm running the session on Sunday.

How big a boom?

 

[kilemall]

Well given that rundown I don’t think any kind of power plant/capacitor play will work via malicious program after 80 years. The equipment itself would likely be broken down especially after crash landing.

So given your timeline and sequence of events I’d say onboard saboteur, plan is virus locks out control to generate wreck then nuke set to explode, this leaves a mystery as no detonation in space but on a remote planet people would find decades later. Whatever witnesses or proof is wiped out.

The sabotage is partially neutralized, perhaps by shutting down the computer and attempting a manual glide. The ship crashes killing everyone on board including the saboteur, but is not destroyed. The nuke scuttle cannot run due to damage and/or computer shutoff. When the investigation crew turns on the computer, the program is able to fulfill its function.

Two options-

* the nuke has been sitting for 80 years, probably damaged in the crash, and therefore wasn’t full yield, more of a fizzle (in case you want some irradiated leftovers).

* even if there were survivors they have perished or left long ago and quite aged. The old frozen berth could leave you someone to add to the scenario depending on a very low fizzle, but the other survivor could be a saboteur robot that injected the virus in the first place. If it is recharged, perhaps it regards the players as more evidence to be eliminated….

 

[MrBlipvert]

Well given that rundown I don’t think any kind of power plant/capacitor play will work via malicious program after 80 years. The equipment itself would likely be broken down especially after crash landing ... [Snip]

Yeah, I'd clearly just come off of reading old Metamorphosis Alpha/ Gamma World setting materials in which pre-collapse tech was engineered to last for 80+ years. Safe to assume that this doesn't fly in the OTU?

Thanks for your suggestions (and apologies for the delay in replying)--I'll keep one of the nukes in operational order (as I do want the big bang) but will use everything you suggest as part of a (very short) description of the video recording (and perhaps include a transcript of computer error messages?).

And thanks to everyone else! There's a good chance that I'll steal the other ideas for later adventures.

 

[Condottiere]

 

[MrBlipvert]

[Media snipped]

Love it!