Lines of communication

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One of the recurring subjects in my small classes for new operatives are a discourse on the most common means of communication. Without communication, no effective organization and coordination is possible. The Republic HoloNet

On one end of the scale, there is the HoloNet. In theory, this allows instantaneous holovideo communication with any mainstream planet in the galaxy. In practice, Palpatine's crackdown has split the HoloNet in irregularly-sized sections that are semi-isolated from each other. The Imperial Military HoloNet is believed to be almost coherent in the whole "Slice", but less useful elsewhere. In any event, the HoloNet is heavily monitored and filtered for "treasonous communications". And I haven't even mentioned the enormous expenses and power requirements of operating a HoloNet receiver and transmitter yet. In sum, the HoloNet is very infrequently used by the Alliance, and short and heavily encrypted messages embedded in other transmissions is the only safe use. Even then, one might find that the world is "temporarily offline". Private HoloNets

Certain corporations and organizations are known to have set up private HoloNets at great expense. We suspect that the CSA is running a private HoloNet in their part of space, but have not been able to find proof yet. These nets commonly do not reach far, and are only useful for in-network communications. If you find you have access to one of these, use at your discretion, but be aware that uncommon traffic is much easier to detect on these nets. On the positive side, these entities are a bit less likely than many to shout for the Empire when they detect intruders.

HoloNet transceiver Mass: 500 tons (minimum) up to around a cubic kilometer filled with machinery. Cost: 200,000 - 20 million credits (new)

Note: The most advanced models are those big, hulking arrays found on some worlds that functions as two-way gateways between subspace communications and holonet messages. Restricted to intra-government / intra-corporation use, these permit an indirect, almost-but-not-quite instantaneous communication to take place between two ships within subspace range of one of these tranceivers, no matter how far it is between those tranceivers.

GM Note: Of course you do not tell your players that such a thing exists, but let them find out when they wonder why the huge intergalactic corporation enemy of theirs is able to always spoil their plans in time... and watch them lay desperate plans to a) take a subspace-forwarding transmitter out, or b) gain access to it themselves.

(Stats liberally stolen from SCS and expanded upon.)

HoloNet Satellite Cost: 200,000 (new) Scale: Walker Body: 1D Note: You need something like 1D of these large, expensive satellites per cubic light year for a 99% reliable private HoloNet coverage. (Subject to local variations such as nebulas of course). If your target is having a point-to-point (base-to-base) communication link only, you'll need a satellite at each end, and one relay per 1D light-years. (Minimum one relay.)

Imperial HoloNet Monitoring Satellite Cost: 600,000 (new) Scale: Walker Body: 2D Shields: 1D Note: This satellite is programmed to relay any encrypted, non-authorized traffic to the nearest Imperial listening post, and _not_ let it through unless instructed to. It is also programmed to listen for treasonous keywords on unencrypted channels. Many other conditions usually are programmed-in as well. Has a 8D skill at recognizing encrypted communications. If the sender knows about this and wants to work around it undetected, he must make two rolls, one communications roll and one forgery roll, and the lowest of these must be equal to or higher than the satellite's detection roll. This way, _very_ skilled communications operators can fool the satellite into thinking that the message is unencrypted and harmless. These satellites are usually set up as "firewalls" between HoloNet segments and block unwanted inter-segment communications. Their existence is a very closely guarded secret. Hypertranceivers (Hyperradio)

The hyperradio is considerably cheaper than the HoloNet to set up and use, although still ridiculously expensive for everyday communication. Realtime communication to any other point in space connected by the satellite network, a much larger region than that spanned by the HoloNet, is possible by this medium, but limited to audio and video. We reckon this is a much safer medium than the HoloNet, since even the Empire is unable to monitor the millions of information transfers going on each second. But this is still a somewhat exotic and largely unavailable means of communication for the average Alliance Spy Cell.

Hypertransceiver Mass: 200 tons (minimum). Cost: 100,000 - 1 million credits (new)

Hyperradio Satellite Cost: 80,000 (new) Scale: Speeder Body: 3D Note: You need something like 1D of these satellites per cubic light year for a 99% reliable private HoloNet coverage. (Subject to local variations such as nebulas of course). If your target is having a point-to-point (base-to-base) communication link only, you'll need a satellite at each end, and one relay per 1D light-years. (Minimum one relay.) Important observation

All the by-hyperspace-communications technologies have one serious flaw in common: They can be quite easily jammed or broken by a search-and-destroy of the required satellites. Redundant or spare satellites can lessen this effect, and alternative ingenious relay methods can increase the link's uptime in hostile action somewhat, but not indefinitely. A full-scale blockade can, with enough effort, isolate any world totally even today. Subspace transceivers

Subspace transceivers allow faster-than-light audio, video and holographic communications, but their ranges are quite limited. A standalone transmitter can reach somewhere in a range from five to over a hundred light years, but beyond that relays are needed. Many sector governments maintain subspace satellite networks for a sector-wide communications grid. In theory, messages can be relayed across the galaxy by skipping them across several subspace networks, but this is quite difficult to set up and unreliable. And also quite insecure for our purposes. Subspace communications travel at about a light-year a minute, subject to local, badly understood, variations. And if they have to be relayed en-route, they can suffer quite large delays (hours to weeks), (or even disappear) especially when traversing networks. In less Empire-infested sectors this can be a great way of communicating, but in the more paranoid sectors this is heavily monitored. Most starships have emergency subspace beacons, with a max range of perhaps 10-50 light years, depending on ship model and travel environment. (Outer Rim-running ships tend to have longer-ranged emergency beacons than Core-running ships, due to the lesser frequency of inhabited worlds.)

Interesting technique that can be useful in tense situations: Intermix a communication signal "on top of" a source of perfectly-regular natural noise, such that the noise must be subtracted on the other end to get any understandable signal. Very Difficult communications, adds +2D to hostile detection difficulties. "Sir, the subspace-emitting nebula has changed the pitch of its noise!" "Nonsense!" Coms, comlinks etc.

Your standard speed-of-light voice/video/hologram communications technology. Useful for on-planet communication, frequently somewhat monitored. Useless for interstellar communication. Dirt cheap. Basic technology found on all starships. Tight-beam laser communication

Tight-beam laser communications is a rare but occasionally useful technology. It is useful for line-of-sight communication only, and not very long ranges at that, usually no more than a few klicks out of atmosphere, and a very few klicks in atmosphere. But as far as we know, it is eavesdropping-safe, and difficult to detect. The right equipment might be hard to come by, however. NewsNet drone ships

A number of these drone ships have been picked up and modified to suit our purposes better, which travel on regular schedules from system to system with packages and news. Modifying these to drop certain packages at certain points can be a quite safe and rather cost-effective way of communicating. But of course rather slow. Private courier ships

Of course this is by far the safest option, barring the eventuality of a blockade to be run. The fastest ships in the galaxy can sometimes get messages through quicker than subspace transmissions, especially over longer distances. Private "Bulletin Board" satellites

A means of communication used to great success in systems where many Alliance-aligned starship captains pass through. One sets up a satellite on the extreme outskirts of a star system, programmed to only reveal itself when prompted by an encrypted passphrase, which is confirmed by an inquiry of the ship's transponder code. Or a variant on this. Then, whenever an Alliance operative passes through and has the opportunity, he picks up and leaves messages on the satellite to other operatives. Local, private newsnets

These can be useful in the right circumstances, but can also be effective traps. This works both ways, however. So used with care, local business nets, trading post nets, et cetera, can be of great use. Unaware Courier Droids

Another interesting take on the message transferring problem is mounting a storage unit inside a droid without the droids knowledge, and sending the droid back and forth on legitimate errands. Perhaps not too safe, but uncommon and therefore seldom checked for. A regrettable practice used by a few of our more shady operatives is outfitting the unwitting droid with a self-destruct bomb to be triggered on discovery of the secret storage unit.

Copyright ©1997-2001 Erik Inge Bolsø. Comments? Questions? Praise? Mail me at [email protected]!