Creating a THOR node Options

[Moon-Hawk]

Never mind the fact that adding a human element rarely increases security.

The human could be wrong. The human can be spoofed by a good social skill. The human requires regular shipments of food and supplies, each of which present additional vulnerabilities.

[Kyoto Kid]

...well good security does not come cheap. Keep in mind this is a weapon that can level part of a city (or your own corp HQ). I would see it as a "no expenses spared" situation to keep it out of the wrong hands. Space is still the best countermeasure against magic (including that of Dragons).

[Buster]

I don't know if cost is an issue. An Ohio class "Trident" sub is essentially just a mobile nuclear missile platform with similar environmental problems as a manned Thor platform and those cost more than $50 million a year EACH to maintain. With no defense against a Thor strike, I would think that countries would spend even more on security than on the Trident subs.

[Ravor]

Sure, but we are talking about a huge difference between a sub and an orbital station given that in order to resupply the sub you don't have to lift everything out of Earth's Gravity Well.

[Moon-Hawk]

Also, the sub can manufacture it's own air and fresh water from it's surroundings. Space station can't do that, and thus needs lots and lots more resupply.

[Kyoto Kid]

...as with the RL space station, resupply can be performed with unmanned robotic "tankers". When you don't have to provide LS, accommodations, and training for a crew, the transport cost drops. Given the level of technology SR proposes, unmanned "Flyback" vehicles could be routinely launched from specially fitted cargo aircraft ala the X15/X20.

Depending on how developed you make Near Space, there could even be "farms" on the lunar surface or underground using refracted sunlight, where biomass is used to create oxygen. Now you have a much smaller gravity well to deal with. Heck, I think Tiger Woods could even launch a golf ball from the Lunar surface.

Also, this is why when you evacuate the module the intruders are in, the air goes into storage tanks instead of out into space. Once they're down re-pressurise & it's out the airlock.

[Tarantula]

Again, how does the corp actually order their unmanned THOR station to fire? All the hacker has to do is get that, and spoof a fire command to it to fire at whatever target you want.

[Buster]

Well you can't just hire Rich Little to impersonate the president of the United States on the telephone. There are layers and layers of passcodes, counter passcodes, verifications, and protocols to dance through before the launch is initiated. The hacker wouldn't know any of those. A magician though...

[James McMurray]

It is completely and utterly impossible for a hacker to cause a THOR launch unless the GM wants them to. It's an area that should have practically impossible to bypass security, so if it doesn't it's because the GM wants to see the aftereffects of a PC-driven THOR shot.

[Tarantula]

[Begby]

[Begby]

No one mentions a possible way to do this could be to take an orbital cruiser up there, spacewalk to the THOR, rip it's guts out, rewire and install your own guidance software and launch software. I mean, at it's most basic it's gonna have x,y and z thrusters, some optics, probably some imaging software, maybe IR sensors and thermal sensors, but after positioning it to fire, all you really have left is to... shoot the thing. Probably a solenoid crossing two massive wires to complete the firing circuit.

This seems a great way to do it if it is not connected to the matrix.

By the time they had response teams there, hopefully you'd be able to get the thing to fire.

Nevermind that for destroying a city, a dragon or a whole arcology you'd now be the most famous criminal EVER. :|

[Begby]

No one mentions a possible way to do this could be to take an orbital cruiser up there, spacewalk to the THOR, rip it's guts out, rewire and install your own guidance software and launch software. I mean, at it's most basic it's gonna have x,y and z thrusters, some optics, probably some imaging software, maybe IR sensors and thermal sensors, but after positioning it to fire, all you really have left is to... shoot the thing. Probably a solenoid crossing two massive wires to complete the firing circuit.

This seems a great way to do it if it is not connected to the matrix.

By the time they had response teams there, hopefully you'd be able to get the thing to fire.

Nevermind that for destroying a city, a dragon or a whole arcology you'd now be the most famous criminal EVER. :|

Sorry for the double post there.

[kzt]

It's hard to do that while the orbital lasers turn you into plasma, but a good try!

[Anythingforenoug...]

There would not be a node on the orbital portion of the Thor system at all. There is no need for anything that complicated on board, it would only add cost and reduce capability-not only increasing the potential for hijacking, but also making the system more vulnerable to disruption.

The system only needs to be told once (it would be a one shot disposable system, for practical reasons as well as security and safety concerns, the essentially destroyed launch mechanism would automatically de-orbit after the shot was fired as part of the launch sequence) where to go and in what direction to point before firing. There is no need to have any other communication with the orbiter and the system would be set up that way.

All there would be is an activation sequence. This would be an alpha-numeric sequence that must be broken up in exactly the right manner and sent on exactly the right frequencys at exactly the right time intervals. Then the target coordinates, and you are good to go.

The difficult part would be to get the activation sequence, but that would be in a corp host. That is where you design your killer node-probably with site limited access as the first step. This would be part of the "Crown jewels" for any corp, so the security would literally be the best that exists in your game.

afe :nuyen:

[l33tpenguin]

For all intents and purposes, I would simply make the THOR platforms unhackable.

THORs are strategic weapons platforms. Having a Shadowrun team be able to take control of a THOR would be the equivalent of a modern organization taking control of a nuclear missile silo. despite what the movies want to show, it isn't possible. Security measures are ridiculously redundant and safeties are more than numerous. Even if a Shadowrun team were able to penetrate into a control center, they would be incapable of firing the weapon.

Even if a team had the capability to commandeer a THOR, should they even consider the thought, gov. or corp. would be all over them. They would be so high profile, staying off the corp. radar would be impossible.

Lets say a team was allowed to use a THOR and fired it, they might as well write up new characters. The response would be worse than what we saw in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[Ravor]

Sure, but as we all know, at least in the Sixth World, taking over nuke silos is possible.