On 13Apr2019 1737, Richard Aiken wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 8, 2019 at 12:30 PM Christopher Sean Hilton <xxxxxx@vindaloo.com>
> wrote:
>
>> In this second case I'm assuming that it's hard for a pirate to sack a
>> ship before it gets a message off which flags the pirate's transponder
>> attacker. If that's true, once the message goes out, the message would
>> travel at the speed of the X-Boat network.
>>
>>
> Which is why - IMTU - most "pirate" attacks are (at least in part)
> hijackings. The pirates plant someone aboard the ship who can spoof or jam
> the transmitters, with the aim of blocking any distress signals.

I assume that most occur in systems where there's a crappy starport with
crappy in-system sensor coverage. Thus the authorities won't notice a
ship with no transponder (or they're paid off and it doesn't matter),
and as most merchants have awful sensors by the time they spot a pirate
it's close enough to jam their radio or shoot them if they act up (or,
again, it doesn't matter if the victim yells because the authorities are
being paid to be deaf).

Yes, I'm assuming spaceships aren't star-bright objects visible to all
from halfway across a system. It's my TU, and I'll break the laws of
physics if I want to (we already have FTL and contragrav and
reactionless thrusters, so what's a few more violations between friends?)

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>
Chief Assistant to the Assistant Chief