Hello Sci-fi fans and writers, I hope that this here is the correct spot to ask this question regarding a conundrum I have come about during my work on a sci-fi short Story.
Outline
In said Short Story, I have some people (Agents) chasing after some other people (Heroes). The heroes stumbled upon some critical information that could damage the faction (Bad Guy) that employs the chasing party. The information got intercepted in time, but to make sure that the information wouldn’t be leaked again, they would need to silence the heroes.
Technology
In space there are two modes of flight: conventional reaction based propulsion and a higher speed propulsion which uses a so-called jump drive which flings the spaceship along a predetermined trajectory at high sub-light speeds (max speeds would be 0.5c). There is near instantaneous communications, but you would need to be in coverage of the network itself, which is flaky at best.
Conundrum
So how would agents be able to intercept / interdict the heroes in a plausible fashion? Would it be reasonable to have a micro wormhole generator or some other way to deploy gravimetric wells, which would destabilize the entire star system? Would it be anticlimactic to just have the agents wait for the heroes to finish their jump, as they would know where they would drop out?
I would love to hear opinions and suggestions from you.
Just hit 'em with an EMP. Your ship isn’t going anywhere while unpowered, even the jump drive will have a “spooling up” period that can be interrupted, and even the most basic, disposable form of thrust - being a solid fuel rocket - can’t be fired without a spark. You either have an electronic starter, disabled by the EMP, or else someone crawls up the exhaust tube with a Bic lighter and sacrifices every component atom of their existence to the gods of fiery speed.
The game Starsector has a neat play on this, where certain ships can fire off an “interdiction pulse” which is a short range directed EMP that shuts down the engines of whoever it is pointed at. You can outrun it with a good heading and good tactics, you can juke it with careful positioning, or you can go dark and camp in an asteroid belt and hope the space cops miss you on their search. But if you get got by the interdiction pulse you’ve got a good 60 seconds or more of being a sitting duck in space. No engines, no comms, you’re lucky if the life support even keeps pumping oxygen while the corvettes close in.
If you don’t want to deal with the plot holes that massive EMP bursts bring (how do you shield your ship against it’s own EMPs? How do you pierce a shielded ship with one?) you could make an “interdiction module” be a legally mandated piece of equipment in every ship, which when activated, cuts power to all major systems. Sort of like how ID transponders are usually handled in space operas - hell, combine the two together. Any ship running dark without a transponder active can be considered a threat to be removed on sight, not only because they aren’t broadcasting an identity but also because they may not have an interdiction module installed. Skip the pulling over part of the traffic stop and step right to torpedoes, because they are probably pirates.
Naturally, real pirates won’t have an interdiction module and will be attacked on sight by most security forces. A hypothetical protagonist would be able to sabotage their own module to escape capture, at the cost of being assumed to be a pirate until getting it fixed or replaced at, more than likely, a less-than-reputable shipyard.
Now that sounds like an excellent passage to write
Nice explaination on why the heroes wouldn’t be trackable by the agents. They are flying in a pirate ship.
EMPs would be perfect for ruthless agents, they just want to make their boss happy. Cleaning up afterwards could net some valuable resources as well.