Breaking into a red zone

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So, my campaign is finally underway -- now watch, I've jinxed it and it'll stall out again -- and the players and their NPC pirate crewmates are heading to dig up stashed contraband weapons and hard currency stashed on a moon in a red zone.

I just read the Interdiction Zone entry in the Library Data book and it says that there are a variety of ways interdictions are enforced, from a naval presence, to attack satellites to satellites that just record the transponder information of ships that enter the area.

This particular moon is in a red zone adjacent to the Vargr Extents, so I figure that there would be a periodic patrol by sector fleet, just to keep an eye out for pirates and raiders crossing the border. At the same time, though, this moon is not in orbit around the world that is actually the source of the interdiction, but a gas giant in the system. While the navy is likely not thrilled with the idea of travellers popping in and out of the system, I imagine they don't need an armed presence at the gas giant, so much as something to keep an electronic eye out for vargr fleets refueling there.

Assuming that there are just buoys recording transponder information and recording other ship data, how hard would it be for the pirates on the players' ship to disable the transponder or modify it to send out false information? How major of a crime would this be considered by the Imperium (probably based off real-life naval law)? And what safeguards would be in place to prevent buoys from just getting blasted to smithereens by vargr, pirates or wayward Travellers to begin with?

(And obviously, YMMV, YTU, and all the rest. I'm not looking for an absolute answer, but merely what people have done in their own games and what they'd suggest for mine.)

Thanks.

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

IMC starships must by law be equipped with a Worm. (Worm stands for write once, read many.) The Worm logs everything seen on the ship's sensors, every use of its weaponry, every cycling of its airlocks, and in fact everything else the ship's computer knows about.

In case it's helpful, here are the relevant rules cut and pasted from one of my campaign files.

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Worms can be destroyed or disconnected. Unless the Worm is actually destroyed, then the data on it cannot be affected. It can't be overwritten or changed in any way.

It is possible to disconnect a Worm, and to reconnect it later, so that there is no record of what happened in between, but there is very little point in doing this. Disconnecting the Worm will leave a trace on the Worm indicating when, and for how long, it was disconnected. Disconnecting a ship's Worm is a serious offence in Galactic law, and if detected it will lead to the ship's owner being arrested and the ship itself being confiscated by the authorities until it can be established what went on.

Destroying a Worm takes considerable force but is certainly possible. The Worm itself is about the size of a man's thumb and made of industrial diamond.

It is also possible to clone a Worm, and then fill the clone copy with perfectly innocent data. Certain illegal organisations have the necessary equipment and expertise; if such an organisation can be found, it will charge a base price of Cr 150,000,000 (MCr 150). Note that the cloned Worm has to run at the same time as the original, in order to keep consistent timestamps, so at some point the Worms will have to be switched in order to anonymise the starship.

Player characters with both Computer-3 and Forgery-3 will be able to clone a Worm for themselves, using equipment costing at least Cr 100,000,000 (MCr 100). Naturally, such an act will bring very severe penalties if detected.

An individual's personal Worm contains their transaction record (and therefore all their personal money), but no other data. The reasons for a transaction are not recorded -- only the identity of the parties and the amount of money. Cloning an individual's Worm is detectable because a transaction will always appear on two Worms -- the payer and the payee -- and will be cross-checked against one another.

The practical upshot is that it is impossible to forge credits. Only other documents.

There are two main limits on data on a worm:-

1) Medical anonymity: The ship's medical bay and regen tank may lawfully be disconnected from the Worm in order to preserve patient confidentiality. This is routinely done.

2) Right of access: The authorities have no automatic right to requisition a starship's Worm unless a crewmember is arrested or the ship is salvaged.

Code can also be held in the root sector of a Worm. This code is often used for a starship mortgage, such that if the starship mortgage payment is more than a month in arrears, then the Worm will disable the ship's drives.
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[TheYeti1775]

I like that WORM idea.