HOW TO STEAL A SPACESHIP

Notes for Repo Agents and Thieves

by Arlani Chee as told to David Ellis Dickerson

SIZING UP THE TARGET

Generally speaking, thieves and repo agents focus on confiscating small to medium ships in the
100- to 500- displacement ton range, and usually the low end of that range. Larger ships than
this are more likely to be owned by governments, militaries or megacorporations, and the
security involved often requires the resources of a government or another megcorporation to
bypass. Theft on such a scale is almost impossible to accomplish without at least one inside
assistant, and probably several, in addition to requiring a larger than normal force of a dozen or
so agents (at least) in order to cover all the stations a larger ship requires. (Most large-ship
thefts are more accurately characterized as mutinies.) This is rarely cost effective for a repo
company, and so this document will focus on the 100- to 300-ton ships that constitute the bulk
of independent removal operations.

THE IMMEDIATE ENVIRONMENT

We will discuss this is more detail later, but of course the actual disposition of the target ship
matters, whether it’s in a private hangar, a public parking area on a space station, off on its own
in a wilderness area, or simply floating in the vacuum of space. Before we get to this, we need
to discuss the basics of ship design. But bear in mind that professionals consider where the ship
is first of all, before everything else.

GETTING IN THE DOOR

Most small commercial ships have one or at most two entrances. A crew of ten or fewer rarely
requires more. Ships tend to be either ​side-loading​, with an entrance or entrance on the upper
level at a midpoint along the hull (in which case the door often folds out into makeshift stairs, on
the model of 20th century commercial aircraft, or they dock by attaching to a scaffold set at door
height), or else they are​ bottom-loading,​ meaning the ship itself rests on extensible legs and the
entrance is usually a ramp or hatch that raises to close and lowers to open and which can be
accessed at ground level. Merchant ships--most notably the Ladybug class--often have their
loading hatches double as entrances, making for very large doors indeed. These are usually on
the aft side between the engines. They not uncommonly have a regular human-sized
sub-entrance built into the hatch so that getting into the ship isn’t necessarily a big production.
But cheaper merchants will have no such amenities, and this has its advantages and
disadvantages. A hatch-only entry usually has a big lock, but a simple one, in order to expedite
cargo transfer. But you can’t open a hatch without a lot of noise, and an open hatch the size of
an entire ship’s side is obvious to even a casual observer hundreds of meters away. Work
quickly.

There are three main ways that a starship’s door may be opened. The first, most primitive and
most reliable, is with an actual physical key that must be inserted into a lock somewhere on the
ship’s surface. Anyone with the key may access the ship, and such keys will need to be stolen
and copied. Sometimes these locks can also be “picked” with computer override (if you can get
to an access port) or with a “mag-key”--a series of three to six heavy electromagnets the size of
egg skillets that are usually carted in a sturdy backpack that also holds the power cell. It’s not
subtle, but a skilled magsmith can crack a ship faster than any other method.

The second type of ship’s key is a proximity trigger, where the possessor of the key sends out a
signal that unlocks the door remotely as the key’s owner approaches. This is by far the most
common form of commercial lock, because it’s so convenient for the crew. Usually the ship’s
owner sets the combination, the ship’s algorithm establishes an encryption, and then copies of
the key are easy to distribute to all the crew, being little more than a button on a fob. It is usually
much easier to steal a key, or obtain a copy, than it is to break the signal’s encryption, though
both approaches work.

The third type of ship’s “key”--usually limited to more expensive yachts and the like--is the ship’s
own onboard AI, which monitors anyone approaching the entry and only opens for profiles it
recognizes. If it uses facial recognition, it may be possible to fool the AI with sufficient disguise
skill. It the detector uses blood or DNA, it will of course be much harder. The good news is that
most of these systems have emergency workarounds for those times when the captain has a
black eye and needs something besides a retinal scan, and there’s often a predictable order
among manufacturers. Ramanujan Industries, e.g., uses retina, voice, and then face, in that
order, but you need to know the bypass keyword.

If you can’t get past the door, bear in mind that certain models of ships have other entries. The
aft exhaust ports on the Velez and Galaxo comercial transports, especially at 250 displacement
tons or more, are wide enough that they’ve been known to be vulnerable to child
thieves--though for safety, one hopes they wear radiation gear. The ventral compressor on an
Iblis-class scout--which is usually left open when docking--is still large enough for certain drones
to enter, and the interior access panel is easy to bump open. Aftermarket alterations on any
commercial ship often leave gaps or weak points where available parts don’t quite match, and
this is especially true for pop-up turrets. Some patience with a laser drill can often make it
through the average pop-up cover, and if they’ve changed out the missile rack for a pulse laser
(a very common cost-saving measure), there’s likely to be a naked hollow back where the
ammo used to be.

Speaking of laser drills, a heavy duty mining drill can be very expensive, but pays for itself in
only a few jobs if you can be guaranteed a few hours without being observed. Why worry about
a locked door when you can simply grab a publicly available floor plan and install a new
doorway of your own? With enough time and a powerful enough laser, you can break into
anything.

It’s worth noting that if the owner of the ship is not expecting trouble, it is very likely that the
ship’s door is unlocked. Even if a strange person wandered aboard, the average person couldn’t
fly a spaceship any more than they could operate a zero-gravity mining drill. This is especially
true for ships in space or alone in remote terrain, where the occupants might have simply left in
a hurry. In a volcano-studded wasteland, a crew might well decide that swiftness of escape is
more important than security from thieves on the ground. Similarly, getting onboard a ship is
often enough to gain access to the piloting controls--any keys such controls require are often left
in at all times.

Theft is an arms race, with your resources, and your determination to take the ship, being
measured against the owner’s resources, and their fear of it being taken. So any of the methods
listed in this document may be circumvented by a sufficiently paranoid ship owner, whether
they’ve upgraded the onboard security with interior autocannons, or simply welded a thick
titanium plate over a standard fuel lock. These are rules of thumb, not guarantees.

THE SHIP’S LOCATION, OR THE PROBLEM WITH SPACE STATIONS

It was mentioned earlier that the target ship’s actual environment is the first and most important
consideration when contemplating an acquisition. This is because, especially for a repo team, a
swift exit is essential. There’s no point in seizing control of a ship if you can’t get it out of the
hangar. With this in mind, the actual preferred order of operational arenas is as follows: 1.)
alone on a planet with atmosphere; 2. alone in space; 3. alone on a planet with hostile
atmosphere; 4. In a public class C landing area; 5. In a private hangar; 6. In a space station.

Space stations are the most difficult arena to steal a ship from, because--unlike landing on a
planet or in a public landing area--in a spaceport, the ship is usually physically secured by
mechanical arms or magnetic clamps, and the hangar doors are often closed except when a
scheduled ship is entering or leaving. This adds two more layers of difficulty beyond simply
obtaining the ship’s key--you have to free the ship and then open the exit doors--not to mention
the very high level of security monitoring present in any insurance-minded space station: when
the hangar doors open, the cameras are watching, and even if you get away, someone will have
footage and a timestamp. Even in a private hangar, you generally only need to steal one set of
keys. In a starport, you could be dealing with as many as four separate people and companies.

It’s still possible to steal such ships, of course. But it’s more of a multi-person job, with one
person finding the ship owner’s key and codes, another person accessing the starport doors,
and someone else disabling the surveillance. Another person setting up a distraction for any
human or robotic security couldn’t hurt. At any rate, it’s a job for a full team, and the ship needs
to be worth the trouble.
Far easier, then, if you can, to steal a safari ship when its owner is actually on safari, and has
temporarily abandoned their ship in a grassy clearing with no clamps, no doors, and no cameras
within miles. This is, of course, rarely possible, but if the option arises you should absolutely
take it. Civilization always makes getting away with theft magnitudes more difficult.

Special note: Keep an eye out for gravity locks! Since they were rolled out by CySec Labs two
years ago, more and more of the fancier space stations are finding gravity locks an attractive
upgrade, since they require no mechanical arms or other devices. You just establish a local
circular area of around 5 Gs and put up a warning sign. Unless the generator is turned off, it’s
almost impossible to achieve escape velocity without disabling a ship’s safety overrides and
then--even if you manage to pull it away--most likely crippling the ship’s engines in the process.
If it looks too easy, get close enough to check the local gravity.

SHIP DEFENSES

Speaking of difficulty, be aware that in frontier areas, war zones, or other regions with a
compromised law level, it is quite common for cowpoke types to retrofit their ships with
automated defenses that would never be street-legal in a conventional city. If you’re casing a
ship that’s in a remote area and that looks comfortable there, watch out for popup turrets,
electrified hulls, actual exploding booby traps, and keep an air sensor handy against poison gas.
Some especially obsessed gadgeteers work to make their ships look easy to steal in the hopes
of killing some malefactor with their proof of concept.

A common nonlethal option to watch out for is an intruder containment program that is a
common component of many computer security systems. When someone the computer does
not recognize accesses a sensitive part of the ship, these systems often alert the user to a fire,
gas leak, or other mechanical problem in some other room on the ship...and then, when the
intruder goes to check, the door closes and locks them in the room and then the computer
sends out a general alarm. Be suspicious of any “cargo problem” blinking at you from an empty
hold!

High-security targets will often hire human guards to patrol the ship’s exterior, and of course the
difficulty of getting past these troops often depends on their level of training, their quality of
equipment, and their willingness to risk their lives for their employer. If you have the time for
reconnaissance, it can be worth it to figure out when shifts change, who goes for lunch, and who
has trouble staying awake. If they’ve hired robots, this is just another form of electronic security
requiring usually no more than an additional access code and perhaps a few command
protocols. If your security expert can’t handle robots, you need another security expert.

Be sure the ship is actually empty when you attempt to steal it! Obtain a crew manifest, camp
out, and account for everyone. You do not want to be startled by the second mate coming out of
the latrine. In the same vein, while you’re examining the manifest, look for supplies of pet food.
A guard animal can be an unpleasant low-tech surprise.
EQUIPMENT

Besides the equipment alluded to earlier--including, should you have the resources or
commitment, a set of mag-keys and a laser drill--a well-equipped repo team should have vacc
suits and hazard gear for the occasional hostile-environment snatch, a number of costumes and
fake ID tags (since repair personnel can often access places that civilians cannot), and at least
one devastating emergency device like an explosive charge or an EMP generator can be a
literal life-saver. Although you shouldn’t need sidearms as a rule, having at least one armed
security member can ease everyone else’s mind and allow them to concentrate on their own
tasks. Masks or helmets are extremely useful for anyone who might wind up on camera. Finally,
they’re expensive in some regions, but a good tractor-beam setup can make it possible to tow a
small starship without breaking into it at all--though of course you still need to find an exit route.

GETTING AWAY WITH IT

If you’re a legitimate and licensed repo operation, you don’t need to worry too much about long
term repercussions: the client (bank, investor, whatever) is on your side, and the law is too. Your
only concern should be surviving immediate retribution long enough to reach your client and get
paid. If you’re an actual thief, of course, your problems are more acute. But in the immediate
aftermath of a theft, the SOP is the same: get invisible. Either swap out the ship’s electric
identity for a clean one (itself a major crime, of course, but few will check unless they have
reason for suspicion), and then stay in space where the only way to communicate is through
electric handshakes, or simply go to ground somewhere obscure and stay off everyone’s radar
for a few cycles of activity. Go off into the frontier! Maybe drop into a chaotic war zone for a
while. Let other crimes appear on law enforcement’s radar. Become less urgent. Change your
look, go somewhere no one expects, don’t seem to be in a hurry...all the usual deceptive tactics
apply. The important thing is to avoid drawing attention until you’ve had time to be forgotten.
This is one reason to keep your heists relatively colorless and unimpressive. Just lift the ship
without creativity, with no fanfare and without sending a message, and no one will vow eternal
vengeance getting back at you. They’ll just collect the insurance and buy something else. It’s
the best way out for everyone. Unless, of course, you want to stage a memorable heist in order
to make a name for your crew and draw future criminal gigs. If that’s your aim, you probably
don’t need any of the information in this document. You need help from the gods. Good luck.