History Main / StealthInSpace

* In ''[[FanFic/SovereignGFCOrigins Origins]]'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]''[=/=]''[=Halo=]'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, ''Normandy SR-2.5'' receives a hyper-advanced cloaking device from the Republic Intelligence Service. It uses the traditional AppliedPhlebotinum for "no-blind" ''Star Wars'' cloaking devices ("stygium"), with all its attendant downsides (burnout through use, inability to conceal emissions exceeding normal running, high power consumption relative to ship reactor size). Cerberus uses subterfuge to get their hands on the more-common "hibridium" type (as stygium is specifically noted to be extremely rare), but the whole plan fails as the platform it is mounted on [[StuffBlowingUp explodes]] due to improper construction. The Trans-Galactic Republic also likes to gather intelligence using ''[[VideoGame/TIEFighter Vorknkx]]'' spy ships which have cloaking as well (both hibridium and stygium).

* In ''Fnafic/AnimorphsRedux The Extreme'', a complex chain of events sees the Animorphs acquire an invisible spaceship during a mission, but Ax explicitly notes that this ship would only be invisible so long as the Animorphs do nothing to draw attention to its presence, such as start shooting at other ships.

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'', which makes a real effort to keep the physics plausible apart from the eponymous 'addition', has a prototype system on the SSV ''Normandy'' that works by storing the excess heat into an internal heat sink - which can only be done for a limited period of time before it needs venting, or else the personnel will be cooked. The ship's own mass-effect drive is then used to create gravity wells that the ship "falls" into, thus propelling it without the need of physical emissions. The ship is thus rendered "heatless" and invisible to IR scanners, but does not employ optic camouflage and is still visible to anyone peering out a window. But because the stealth system is extremely new and extremely secret, no one has yet developed countermeasures against it (until the sequel, where more ships are using this technology; in the third game, Reapers can also track you once you've sent out enough radar pulses). However, the stealth systems only work while not moving at FTL speeds since any energy passing through the ME field automatically gets blue-shifted. A sudden flare of blue-shifted energy indicates the presence of an FTL mass effect field.

** Also of note is the black globe generator. Looking to make DeflectorShields "realistic," what they came up with was barrier that absorbs all energy. Hence, no traces and total stealth. However, it also means the ship is surrounded in a field of darkness, so while you couldn't see the ship, the mysterious black sphere would occlude the stars behind it, so it could be detected by sight, if you knew what to look for.

** Completely averted by orks: the last thing is want is for their enemies to ''not'' see them coming (as this would a downright ''sneaky'' thing to do, and only gits and weaklings are sneaky), so their ships are deliberately as large, loud, and flashy as they can. The closest thing they have is that one of their main forms of transport involves finding asteroids, fitting them with engines and weapons and living quarters and making them more or less airtight, and fire off in the general direction of an inhabited planet, yelling WAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHH! all the way.
*** Though again, Orks being Orks, this is not so much the Orks being stealthy, but rather accidental stealth thanks to the hubris of their enemies. To the Imperium of Man's Navy, which while using advance technology, barely understands said technology anymore, with a religious faction dedicated to keeping them in some semblance of working order and interpreting them, would simply see an asteroid heading for a planet on long range sensors/telescopes, and sends out a Defense Monitor ship to go out and hit it with it's guns to divert it's course. It's not until they see the thing is sporting thrusters and weaponry, and a transmission with said shouts of "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!" that they realize what's really going on and much too late to stop it. To the Orks, a "Rok" is just an incredibly efficient (by Ork standards no less), and properly Ork way of launching the planet fall by combining orbital bombardment, troop/equipment lander, and a "Beachhead" operating base all in one.

** The Tau take a much more realistic approach, and use electronic warfare and other high tech devices to help screen their ships.
** Ships dedicated to Chaos have the advantage that thanks to being worshipers of the demonic gods of the Warp (a literally Hell Space and the most common form of FTL travel), mean's flying through Warp Space is ''slightly'' safer and more predictable for them. Many a Chaos Traitor Fleet invasion is only first announced at a Warp Storm that cuts off a planet or sector of space appears out of no where, and expels the fleet out into real space to begin it's invasion.
* Explicitly averted in Ad Astra Games' ''Attack Vector: Tactical'', the first chapter of the rulebook of which is available [[http://www.adastragames.com/downloads/AVT_Tutorial.pdf here]]. Ships are visible long before they reach effective guns range. In other Ad Astra titles, stealth in space is allowed, in large part because they're not aiming for as hard science an impression.
* Really hiding a starship in ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' is essentially impossible without [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien superscience]], instead you have to rely on being so far away that sensor locks are nearly impossible. While some degree of stealth is possible the heat generated by engines is a serious problem. Closer in electronic counter measures can prevent a ship that has been spotted from being easily hit.

* ''TabletopGame/StarFleetBattles''. Being based on Franchise/StarTrek, of course Romulans vessels have cloaking devices that make them invisible. However, to give opponents of the Romulans a chance the game designers made some changes. It takes a while for the device to turn on and off ("fade out" and "fade in" periods) and explosive detonations reveal a nearby cloaked ship's position (the "flash cube" effect).

--> So which one is you, Joey, and which are the aluminum balloons? ('''Seven''' dots grew on the screen, all had slightly different vectors.) Now you know [[FrickinLaserBeams my heater can take you in one flash]] and you also know that one zap is all I'm going to get. And if I take it you've got a perfect excuse to blow me up for the honor of the company rather than recapture valuable property for the accountants. So what's it going to be? I think you shot off too many balloons too early Joey -- cause the other ones aren't making the course correction you just did. Ain't that you, Joe?

* ''Anime/StarshipOperators'' has a plausible example. The stealth ship moves by initial speed before the jump, and runs with most systems off to reduce emission. Having said that, it takes so long to close to engagement range that the ''Amaterasu''[='s=] crew is able to find and pre-emptively destroy it.

* ''VideoGame/{{Battlezone|1998}}'' had the RED (Radar Echo Dampening) Field that masked the tank's radar signature, hiding it from non-visual detection and making radar-tracking missiles useless.
** The sequel added the Phantom VIR which makes you invisible and makes image-locking missiles worthless.
** Also, a vibrating topographic map is the sign of a Scion Jammer operating within radar range; it messes with every enemy that can detect it so that their radars only show friendlies.

* ''VideoGame/CryingSuns'': Stealth Fighters will automatically drop into stealth if nothing attacks them for a few seconds and will remain invisible until they attack something. House Akibara-Sung loves these things: their battleship core systems allow Stealth Fighters to start a fight in stealth mode and [[BackStab do extra damage]] on the first attack they make when they come out of stealth.

-->'''Jaina's Astromech''': "A STEALTHX EMITTING COMM WAVES IS NO LONGER A STEALTHX. IT IS JUST A POORLY ARMED, LIGHTLY ARMORED X-WING SAYING COME GET ME."

* Averted in ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager''. It's pointed out that even when ''Voyager'' doesn't have its Cochrane Drive engaged, they can still be detected by the heat of their power and life support systems. Later the Caretaker shows them an experimental cloaking device which he points out is useless for any practical purpose, as the user can't see out either.

* Averted in ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager''. It's pointed out that even when ''Voyager'' doesn't have its Cochrane drive engaged, they can still be detected by the heat of their power and life support systems. Later the Caretaker shows them an experimental cloaking device which he points out is useless for any practical purpose, as the user can't see out either.

* Averted in ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager''. It's pointed out that even when Voyager doesn't have its drive engaged, they can still be detected by the heat of their power and life support systems. Later the Caretaker shows them an experimental cloaking device which he points out is useless for any practical purpose, as the user can't see out either.

* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' has cloaking that renders units invisible to the naked eye and to non-specialized sensors. The Terran Wraith and Ghost can cloak temporarily, while the Protoss Observer and Dark Templar are permanently cloaked (they can cloak indefinitely, so they don't bother to put an off-switch into the game). The Protoss Arbiter can cloak other units, but not itself; this tends to strain WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief - who the heck would make a unit that can't cloak itself? Yeah, yeah, gameplay mechanics, we know - but still (supposedly, it involves creating a reality-warping field that requires itself to remain anchored in reality to generate it). Also, almost all Zerg ground units can burrow underground (even if that ground is the hull of a space station), which has the effect of immobile cloaking. The Protoss explain cloaking with psionics and reality warping. The specifics of Wraith and Ghost cloaking are never fully explained (PsychicPowers for the latter). The one staple is that all of these are easily overthrown if sensors are put into play.

** In the sequel, the averting of blindness is (somewhat) justified in Terran units: when they cloak, a visor descends over their eyes, implying they would only see darkness without it.

** Kirk manages to avoid detection by Khan in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' by directing the ''Enterprise'' into a nearby [[SpaceClouds nebula]] which was flooded with sensor-jamming electromagnetic radiation and severely limited visibility.
** In ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'', the ''Enterprise'' rigs a torpedo to follow a Klingon Bird-of-Prey's exhaust trail, seeking it out despite its being cloaked. In the novelization at least, this is explained as that particular ship's schtick (firing while cloaked) requiring a massive power plant, which exceeded the cloak's ability to hide/contain the exhaust.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' has [[InvisibilityCloak cloaking devices]], mostly used by the Romulans and Klingons. They can be detected by someone who suspects they're there and has good enough sensors, though. These cloaks have limitations, like the extreme power consumption and the inability to do certain things while cloaked, like go at high warp without being detected, raise shields, or fire weapons. Some vessels over the franchise are exceptions, mostly in the movies.

** In ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'' the idea of a ship that can fire while cloaked, the Reman ''Scimitar'', comes up. However it becomes especially implausible here because the ship does not just fire a few shots here and there. It fires almost constantly as it attacks the ''Enterprise''. By any logic this should reveal its position, speed and trajectory even if the ship itself were invisible; and, in fact, it does, and the ''Enterprise'' is able to maintain fairly accurate return fire. However, unlike other ships in the franchise, the ''Scimitar'' could retain its shields while cloaked, so taking a few hits wasn't a big deal the way it was with other ships, and it would never be quite clear to an attacker what if any effect the hits were having. (It also has a much bigger power plant than most starships, turning into a LightningBruiser that can -- and does -- have the defenses and weapons to win three-on-one fights.)

-->-- '''J. Daniel Sawyer''', ''Free Will and Other Compulsions''

** In ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'' the idea of a ship that can fire while cloaked, the Reman ''Scimitar'', comes up. However it becomes especially implausible here because the ship does not just fire a few shots here and there. It fires almost constantly as it attacks the ''Enterprise''. By any logic this should reveal its position, speed and trajectory even if the ship itself were invisible; and, in fact, it does, and the ''Enterprise'' is able to maintain fairly accurate return fire. However, unlike other ships in the franchise, the ''Scimitar'' could retain its shields while cloaked, so tanking a few hits wasn't a big deal the way it was with other ships, and it would never be quite clear to an attacker what if any effect the hits were having. (It also has a much bigger power plant than most starships, turning into a LightningBruiser that can -- and does -- have the defenses and weapons to win three-on-one fights.)

** In ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'' the idea of a ship that can fire while cloaked, the Reman ''Scimitar'', comes up. However it becomes especially implausible here because the ship does not just fire a few shots here and there. It fires almost constantly as it attacks the ''Enterprise''. By any logic this should reveal its position, speed and trajectory even if the ship itself were invisible; and, in fact, it does, and the ''Enterprise'' is able to maintain fairly accurate return fire. However, unlike other ships in the franchise, the ''Scimitar'' could retain its shields while cloaked, so tanking a few hits wasn't a big deal the way it was with other ships. (It also has a much bigger power plant than most starships, turning into a LightningBruiser that can -- and does -- have the defenses and weapons to win three-on-one fights.)

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': When Diana is running an interplanetary revolution against the Sangtee Empire her tech people come up with a very practical way of implementing stealth in their attacks on Sangtee ships and convoys; remotely hacking the enemy ship's scanners and sensory equipment prior to approach.

** A ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode starts with the titular ship being under attack from a ''D7''-class Klingon battlecruiser, a TOS-era relic. Naturally, they're able to quickly defeat the cloak and cripple the enemy.