Something that happened many years ago when I was A Traveller Player and that may happen again is The Pcs faking surrendering to A Pirate, letting them dock and board then The Pcs using Poison Gas pumping booby traps that they've took the antidote to and claiming the pirate ship. What I want to know is how can they return to Imperial Space and claim legal ownership of A Ship registered as A Pirate Ship without being attacked by Navy Ships and either destroyed or captured and spaced without trial?
How to not get spaced
- Thread starter JMISBEST
- Start date
steve98052
Mongoose
First point is that no one registers a ship as a pirate ship. Maybe as a privateer, but then you're safe as long as you head for the jurisdiction that issued (or recognizes) your letter of marque. If your ship is on a wanted pirate list, then you need to take care.
In the situation described, the players should set the transponder to the same codes as their original ship, jump to a safe system, and broadcast a message that they captured a pirate ship, and set it to the same transponder codes until their claim to the pirate ship can be legalized, and that it will be in system in a day. Then when the pirate ship jumps into the system a day later, no problem.
Finally, when sending written message to Imperial authorities, be sure to use standard capitalization and paragraph breaks, so they don't blast you out of spite.
In the situation described, the players should set the transponder to the same codes as their original ship, jump to a safe system, and broadcast a message that they captured a pirate ship, and set it to the same transponder codes until their claim to the pirate ship can be legalized, and that it will be in system in a day. Then when the pirate ship jumps into the system a day later, no problem.
Finally, when sending written message to Imperial authorities, be sure to use standard capitalization and paragraph breaks, so they don't blast you out of spite.
Yes, to what EwanS said - a pirate ship captured can be returned to Imperial space. But, as you say, the scanner signature is one that is on record, so law enforcement may fire on it without warning if it comes in their range. It may take some time for the new records to be distributed across all star systems that its no longer a pirate ship.
phavoc said:
But then how can Pcs cash in the bounties on captured Pirates and Pirate Ships when in some systems simply appearing in A registered Pirate Ship is a guaranteed sentence of at best 1 and a half to 2 decades in a maximum security hell-hole of a prison and more often then not death by spacing, often without trial?
JMISBEST said:
Ow... your run-ons can be painful...
The ship would, if accompanied by another ship, radio the authorities and then heave to and either let them board while they are in space, or do so when they land. With space piracy such a big thing in Traveller (hence all the armed ships), it's not an unknown occurence. But patience and doing exactly what the nice man with the large weapons pointed at you is going to save your skin.
Reynard
Emperor Mongoose
Time to send in a ship fitted with a Shallow Penetration Suite and Deep Penetration Scanners, flanked by ships with impressive firepower, to survey the ship while having a boarding shuttle on standby. Once secured, interrogation begins to determine the veracity of circumstances. Hopefully the prize crew is believed.
JMISBEST said:
Presumably there is some sort of surrender protocol unless nobody every accepts surrenders. For instance, the moment you jump into a system you start blasting "We surrender! Please don't kill us!" (or codes/words to that effect) on the recognized frequency. Now, since nobody trusts pirates and they might be lying, you'll probably also want to look as helpless as possible, so simply drifting on a ballistic course with no maneuvering to make targeting you as easy as possible is also advisable. As is NOT using any active sensors while waiting to be boarded and inspected.
This is no guarantee, of course. You pays your money and you takes your chances.
Pyromancer
Mongoose
If you want to be extra careful, don't take the pirate ship with you! Jump into a civilized system with your own ship, make an appointment with the authorities, endure the interrogations, do all the paperwork (it's a lot!), register the upcoming retrieval of a known pirate ship with the system defense authorities, then jump back to where you left the pirate ship (hope it is still there, perhaps park it somewhere in an empty hex, it's unlikely someone will find it in the few weeks it will take) and fetch it. The Imperium runs on red tape. Deal with it.
