UNIT

[jack]

Would procedures would you follow as UNIT (special alien hunting army task force) to avoid having people get nobbled? If you pretend you might at any moment meet a shape-changer, or a mind-dominating effect, what could you do to try to decrease the single-point-of-failure-ness[1]?

Eg. Passwords and things don't work against telepaths, but do against shape-changers. They have to simple enough to remember under fire, and complex enough that you can't find the right challenge simply by walking up to one guy, seeing what he says, eating his face, and saying that to everyone else.

Eg. You need to be especially careful of top brass with lots of authority.

Eg. If you can manage any surveillance, say guards carrying real-time video uplinks, that's probably good, so you can see when they go offline or meet something dangerous and die without reporting. But you must be careful not to rely on this so much you're in trouble when it's subverted.

[1] Of course, an organised opponent could probably still do something, it might even be a plan for interesting watching, if they first must find a weak spot where people are sloppy, lure someone away to create a single point of failure, and then take over the remainer quickly.

Comments

[ptc24.livejournal.com]

I would have suggested mitigating the problem by assuming that people being nobbled is going to happen anyway, and structuring your forces accordingly. Decentralisation, lots of autonomy and initiative to lower ranks, training exercises where people are secretly told "you've been replaced by a shapeshifter" halfway through, look at the structure of guerrilla forces and resistance movements and other infiltration-vulnerable movements.

These may not actually be enough to survive infiltration by shapeshifters and telepaths, but it would be interesting to see the results.

[tienelle.livejournal.com]

You'd need to use all three of passwords, biometrics and ID cards (preferably implanted somewhere about the body, to make them harder to steal). Checking all of these before trusting a word someone says would cripple a force, though.

[saraphale.livejournal.com]

Two technological additions spring to mind initially:

Regular checkpoints looking for non-standard issue equipment or technology.

Having an EEG built into your helmet or radio headset, transmitting data back home.

You're right, though, something that will work under all conditions has to be built into the standard operating procedures, be quick and decisive.


I would modify the standard team deployment so that each individual group would consist of at least three people, and that each group of three would have a twin unit, performing the same duties at a distance behind. The teams would keep an eye on each other, as well as team mates. Each team would be able to report on whether the other was missing members, or whether they'd been out of line of sight, or experiencing communication difficulties. Everyone would know that if you turned up alone, or without a team member, then it would be quarantine time.

Small units who've regularly worked together also get to know each other quite well, and non-nobbled members are then more likely to notice changes in behaviour. Having capable team members utilising heuristics would seem to be a broader, more effective approach than techniques against a specific technology.

[theinquisitor.livejournal.com]

Assign two 'minders' to any given officer, (junior officers, bodyguards, or whatever) - and give the two together the power to nullify orders from said officer. In particular, require passive consent, and presence, of at least one of them before any given order is valid.

That's then resistant against any one shapechanger/mind control/etc.

[tienelle.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, and a radio system that is frequently polled by the central station, and makes a fuss if it fails to receive such polling, would help a lot with "Gosh, looks as though we're out of radio contact!" problems.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Gosh, they've brought back UNIT ?

With one thing and another I've seen none of the new Who, though one of these years I shall indulge in whole-box-of-Turkish-Delight fashion.