The field of forensic analysis is one of the many tools a detective can use in order to prove the identity of a guilty party when a serious crime has been committed, and can be invaluable for determining whether foreign elements have invaded. Identity cards may say a person is John Smith, but if that person doesn't have John Smith's fingerprints, it can be very telling indeed.
The ship's medical records include a hex-pattern fingerprint and DNA identifier for every crewmember currently on the roster, although late arrivals need to be added and those who have had their DNA altered may have altered hex-patterns as well.
Fingerprints may be found on objects that have been picked up and/or used, on computers or machines that have been used, on doors that have been opened by hand, on objects or bodies that have been hauled about, on storage containers that have been touched or rummaged through, on individuals who have been touched with grappling attacks, and more. The forensic scanner may not be able to get prints from all objects, but when it can, it's the first step towards determining the identity of a criminal or victim. Partial prints, in particular, may not conclusively match an individual, but may at least eliminate some individuals or provide some clues. Gloves can prevent fingerprints from being left behind, but there is a chance (although a lower one) that other evidence will still be left behind.
DNA from skin cells can sometimes be found on a victim who was fighting back with bare hands, and DNA from hair or skin may occasionally be found anywhere, particularly on items the user spent a lot of time working with/on/searching through/etc. DNA from blood can easily be found on a body with open wounds, spattered on the floor or walls, or on the attacker if they were using a weapon that caused a lot of blood spatter. Even a corpse reduced to a pile of semi-unidentifiable paste may be identifiable by blood DNA.
Interestingly, DNA can also be detected in many common food items, allowing a particularly retentive detective to determine just who or what is in the chef's Mystery Meat surprise, or whether the strain of deathweed found in a corpse's hands came from the botany department. Note that cooking and blending is likely to eliminate these traces.
A particularly filthy individual may leave behind many traces of their dirty deeds behind, whereas an impeccably groomed man will leave far less behind, and anyone in a fully encapsulating suit or spacesuit will almost never leave traces.
Fibers may be left behind from clothing or gloves that the assailant was wearing. Note that identical gloves or clothing from identical sources will generate identical fibers (most notably, the assistant's everyman grey jumpsuit always leaves the same fibers behind unless someone made their own). However, some distinctive fibers may alert you that treachery abounds, and people with poor hygiene may leave behind partial prints or sweat that may give them away.
Some examples:
| Type | Material | Typically worn by | Other Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fingerless Gloves | black leather fibers | ??? | These do not hide fingerprints, nor are they particularly useful except for appearing cool. Maybe. |
| Polyethylene Gloves | clear polyethylene fibers | Food service | These cheap disposable gloves are very flimsy but better than nothing. |
| Latex Gloves | white latex fibers | Medical staff | Latex gloves are commonly used during surgical procedures. |
| Nitrile Gloves | blue nitrile fibers | Medical staff | Usually used when patients are allergic to latex. Tougher than latex and valued by surgeons. |
| Black Gloves | black leather fibers | Detectives, quartermasters | Lightweight leather gloves for ease of handling. |
| Work Gloves | brown leather fibers | Miners, botanists | Sturdy leather gloves that are resistant to cuts and jabs. |
| SWAT Gloves | high-quality black synthetic fibers | Operatives, ERTs, Deathsquads, Military | Nobody aboard the ship should have these by default except the Military. |
| Boxing Gloves | red leather fibers | Boxer | Seldom found outside the boxing ring. |
| Insulated Gloves | yellow insulated synthetic fibers | Heads of staff, engineers, mechanics, QM | Often 'acquired' by anyone who needs to do some creative rewiring. |
| Budget Insulated Gloves | yellow [thin, (no comment), thick, shiny] insulated synthetic fibers | Desperate hackers, engineers on a budget | Found in most electrical engineering toolkits. Note that the comment hints at what quality level they are! Shiny gloves increase electrical damage, thin fibers reduce damage by half, normal gloves reduce damage normally, and thick gloves reduce damage by more than usual! |
| Stungloves | [material], electrically charged | Vigilantes and bored engineers | These typically qualify as contraband, although bored hobbyists sometimes make them for self-defense. |
| Power Gloves | black insulated nano-conductive synthetic fibers | Operatives and traitors | Again, nobody should have these by default. |
| Concussive Gauntlets | industrial-grade mineral fibers | Miners | Miners can acquire these with some research to help them mine more quickly. |
| White Gloves | white cotton fibers | Clown, Mime, Inspector | Used to give someone the white-glove treatment. |
| Cursed White Gloves | greasy polymer fibers | Cluwne | Rarely found unless something truly evil is afoot. |
Add other uniform fibers and specialty fibers…
Most weapons have a unique forensic signature when fired; this signature can be detected on the bullets fired (if it is a firearm) once recovered from walls or victims, and in distinctive burn patterns (if it is an energy weapon). Likewise, bullets made from a particular material (someone getting tricky and making their own alloys for higher lethality) will also be distinctive in this way, and burn patterns can indicate the type of weapon used even if they don't provide enough information to match against a specific weapon.
Ballistic firearms also leave behind shell casings after being fired; if left lying around, you can visually identify the general type of bullet from the casing, and your forensic scanner can provide specifics as well as a forensic signature.
| Type | Caliber | Typically fired by |
|---|---|---|
| Small handgun | .22 | .22 pistol, zip gun |
| Medium handgun | .38, .357, .41 | .38 revolver, .357 revolver, zip gun, derringer (casing looks 'fat and stumpy') |
| Rifle | .308 | AK, tranquilizer, hunting rifle |
| Shotgun (blue) | 12 ga | Shotgun (rubber slug) |
| Shotgun (orange) | 12 ga | Shotgun (Frag-12), flare pistol |
| Shotgun (red) | 12 ga | Shotgun (buckshot) |
| Grenade casing | 40mm | Grenade launcher |
Add Syndicate and military weapons…
Barring security, most people should not have firearms. There are specific exceptions; the barman and detective, notably, have personal weapons as part of their job, and the Military often carry firearms when carrying out their duties. Occasionally personnel and passengers may receive special clearance to open-carry personal sidearms, which require registration with Security of the specific permitted weapon. Personnel and passengers are allowed to carry small personal handguns (beam or bullet) for personal defense, which can complicate investigations.
Users of firearms tend to get gunshot residue on themselves; if close to their victim, the victim may also get residue on them. This won't help you identify a specific weapon by themselves, but combine the residue with the fact that very few people -should- have firearms and it does provide probable cause for further investigation.
Do up a section on various injuries that can be found on a corpse, for autopsy aficionados and observant detectives.
A competent coroner can be a detective's best friend, providing more information about cause of death and other trauma.
So how do you get away with murder, figurative or literal, when a skilled detective is on the scene?
Handling evidence
It's quite simple. If you touch something - you get stuff on it. Fingerprints if you didn't even bother to wear gloves, fibers if you're wearing clothes (please do), or blood if you're a blood-drenched axe murderer. If that's not what you want, use Evidence Bags to put things in for safe handling, and cordon crime scenes to prevent pesky onlookers from contaminating it.
Types of evidence
Fingerprints
Most straightforward thing - people have fingers, and fingers have very specific patterns on the tips. And since they tend to leave greasy imprints of them everywhere, these can be used to find out who touched what.
Problem with these is that more often than not people only leave a fragment of whole print, so you'd need to collect enough of those before you can with any degree conclude what the actual print is.
Upside is that once you've gotten past that, it's a matter of a simple search in Security Records to connect the name to the print. Assuming no one tampered with those, of course…
Fibers
Less telling, but much more often encountered cousin of fingerprints. What happens is whenever you touch something, tiny bits of fabric from your clothing might fall off and stick to the items. It's nearly impossible to prevent it aside from not wearing any clothes (but then you'd still have to worry about fingerprints) or wearing fullbody sealed suit (prevents DNA transfer, but the suit would still leave fibers).
You will encounter these most often, but the problem with them is that unless you're very lucky, they only help to lessen the number of suspects, as many jobs on station wear same uniform and there is no way to tell the specific one that left this fiber.
Gunshot Residue (GSR)
Guns are messy. Their results are messy, and their workings are messy. When a gun fires, it creates a cloud of tiny burnt-up particles, that stick to just about everything - especially your hands. By swabbing hands (or gloves) for said residue, you can find out if owner of said gloves (or hands) fired a gun recently, and even what type of bullet it was.
DNA samples
Nature was kind enough to make your job easier by sticking an unique identifier on all bits of humans - DNA. In this line of work, you'll find it in body liquids - most likely in swabs of either blood or saliva from (unidentified) victim or potential criminal's mouth if you need it.
Tools
You get all kinds of nifty toys to collect those things with, all fitting nicely in a crime scene kit that should be lying somewhere in the lab. Or stick them on your belt if that's your thing.
Evidence Bag.png Evidence bag
Sealable plastic baggie to hold all kinds of nasty (or not) stuff. You should get any evidence in there as soon as possible so people can carry it around with contaminating with fibers or fingerpints. Isn't scannable in any machinery by itself, take item out and use other tools on it.
Luminol.gif Luminol & UV light
Fun for rave parties and murder investigations. Luminol is a magical chemical compound that reacts with blood traces that are invisible to naked eye. Spray it where you think blood was supposed to be.
Said reaction makes them visible in UV light (that's what it for) as cool-looking blue glowing stains. That is, of course, if the culprit didn't clean thoroughly enough.
Fprint dust.gif Fingerprint powder
Aluminium powder and a fine brush. Let's you collect those pesky fingerprint fragments off various surfaces. Just use it on anything you need, and if there's any kind of prints there, fingerprint card will appear.
Fingerprint cards
Nice white plastic cards with a malleable layer, used to hold full set of fingerprints. Click in hand or aim at someone else's hands to take nice and complete fingerprints. Analyze in Microscope for details.
Mag glass.gif Fiber collection kit
Cool magnifying glass for finding small bits of fibers, and tweezers for picking them up. All findings go into tiny baggies. Can be used to get fibers off pretty much anything - just click on thing and if there are some fibers on it, they'll appear. Analyze in Microscope for details.
Dnakit.gifSwab.gif Swab kit
Cotton swab and and airtight vial. Used to get all kinds of sticky liquid (or powdered) stuff sampled and secured. Can be used to:
get DNA from saliva - target mouth on mob;
get blood off something - click on item, select Blood if prompted;
get GSR off a clothing item - click on item, select Gunshot Residue if prompted;
get GSR off someone's hands - target hands on mob.
Analyze in Microscope for GSR or DNA Scanner for blood / DNA.
Machinery
Microscope Microscope.gif
Advanced machinery for looking really hard at really small things. Stick GSR swabs, fingerprint cards or fibers into it for full analysis. Attack with sample to put it in, empty hand to start scan. Drag machine sprite on yourself to remove sample.
DNA Scanner Dna scanner.gif
Machine for figuring out the DNA of sticky icky things you put in it. Accepts swabs with blood or saliva. Attack with sample to put it in, empty hand to start scan. Drag machine sprite on yourself to remove sample.
Forensic science is the application of science to criminal and civil laws. In other words, it's the art of confounding culprits by shoving their face down the evidences they inadvertently left on the crime scene. A detective's job is not to remain constantly on the hunt for antags, but to be ready to intervene whenever a crime has happened on the station and an unknown crew member is on the run. If they claim they are innocent, it'll be your job to prove that they're not. If you do your work properly, you'll be every antag's nightmare without even having to chase them gun in hand.
And remember, “It's not what you know, it's what you can prove.” -Denzel Washington
Detective'sOffice.png Contents 1 Tools of the trade 1.1 Forensic Scanner 1.2 Medical Laptop and Security Records 1.3 Evidence bags 1.4 Those things? 1.5 Other items that might come in handy Tools of the trade Scanner.pngForensic Scanner If there was only one thing to carry at all times, that'd be this scanner.
Things you can use it on to obtain DNA info:
Blood slatters Drips of blood Bloody footprints Bloody items Bloody mobs (such as humans covered in blood) Things you can use it on to obtain Fingerprints info:
Items Doors Walls (if people have been pushing them) Chairs (if people were buckled in them) most Computers most Buttons Humans(although you should be able to obtain their fingerprints from the Security Records in your office) A crime occured in a room? Scan the doors, scan any tool/clothes, that the murderer might have touched, don't mix them up with the victim's prints/blood. Gloves have a high chance of blocking fingerprints.
Medicallaptop.gifMedical Laptop and Security RecordsSecurityRecordsDetective.png The medical laptop on your desk lets you check the DNA of every crew member, while the Security Records computer lets you check the Fingerprints of every crew member.
By using Search Records you can instantly find whose fingerprints/DNA were on that knife found at the crime scene.
Box.pngEvidence.pngEvidence bags Hold a bag and use it directly on an item to pick it up without adding your own fingerprints. Very useful to carry and show evidence.
Forensic.gifFingerprint.pngThose things? Forget them. The High-Res Forensic Scanning Computer's code is nonsense for the most part, you can use it to scan items but the Forensic Scanner can already do that. Those items might get reworked in the near future.
Other items that might come in handy Polaroid.png Camera Lets you take a picture of a crime scene. Photos can be attached to paper, a must for anyone looking to play around with paperwork. Securitydet.png Security Cameras Lets you check for happenings around the station or look inside rooms you don't have access to. Remember that you can use a Camera to take pictures of areas that you are currently watching through Security Cameras. Coatrack.png Coat Rack Lets you hang your hat and coat so you can feel great about yourself as you grab them before heading out to solve a crime. Detflask.png Detective's Flask Fill it with whatever liquor you think can help you get through the day. Hardcore ones will go for whiskey. Clever ones will go for Doctor's Delight. Traitor ones will go for chloral hydrate. Detgun.png Revolver Fires .38 rounds that deals about 10 brute damage and stuns your target for 8 seconds at most. Long enough to cuff them if you came prepared, or to make them take a sip of whatever's in your flask. Health analyser Not part of your standard equipment, but this baby can give you some insight to what did in the victims you're investigating. Don't forget to check the listed time of death to help you piece together what really happened! In addition, detectives have access to the medbay morgue. In here, you can perform autopsies to dig a little deeper in the case of who dunnit and find valuable clues like what object or weapon inflicted the wounds. You can find a small guide to autopsy here.
For syndicate agents:
Kit.png Revolver Conversion Kit Allows your revolver to fire .357 rounds that deal a deadly 45 brute damage but don't stun. DON'T FORGET TO REMOVE THE AMMO FROM YOUR GUN BEFORE CONVERTING IT OR IT'LL FIRE IN YOUR FACE. Lets you convert it back to .38 rounds as well.
Handling evidence It's quite simple. If you touch something - you get stuff on it. Fingerprints if you didn't even bother to wear gloves, fibers if you're wearing clothes (please do), or blood if you're a blood-drenched axe murderer. If that's not what you want, use Evidence Bags to put things in for safe handling, and cordon crime scenes to prevent pesky onlookers from contaminating it.
Types of evidence Fingerprints Most straightforward thing - people have fingers, and fingers have very specific patters on the tips. And since they tend to leave greasy imprints of them everywhere, these can be used to find out who touched what.
Problem with these is that more often than not people only leave a fragment of whole print, so you'd need to collect enough of those before you can with any degree conclude what the actual print is.
Upside is that once you got past that, it's a matter of simple search in Security Records to connect the name to the print. Assuming no one tampered with those of course…
Fibers Less telling, but much more often encountered cousin of fingerprints. What happens is whenever you touch something, tiny bits of fabric from your clothing might fall off and stick to the items. It's nearly impossible to prevent it aside from not wearing any clothes (but then you'd have to worry about fingerprints) or wearing fullbody sealed suit (suit would still leave fibers).
You will encounter these most often, but the problem with them is that unless you're very lucky, they only help to lessen the number of suspects, as many jobs on station wear same uniform and there is no way to tell the specific one that left this fiber.
Gunshot Residue (GSR) Guns are messy. Their results are messy, and their workings are messy. When gun fires, it creates a cloud of tiny burnt-up particles, that stick to just about everything - especially your hands. By swabbing hands (or gloves) for said residue, you can find out if owner of said gloves (or hands) fired a gun recently, and even what type of bullet it was.
DNA samples Nature was kind enough to make your job easier by sticking an unique identifier on all bits of humans - DNA. In this line of work, you'll find it in body liquids - swabs of either blood or saliva from (unidentified) victim's mouth if you need it.
Tools You get all kinds of nifty toys to collect those things with, all fitting nicely in a crime scene kit that should be lying somewhere in the lab. Or stick them on your belt if that's your thing.
Evidence Bag.png Evidence bag Sealable plastic baggie to hold all kinds of nasty (or not) stuff. You should get any evidence in there as soon as possible so people can carry it around with contaminating with fibers or fingerpints. Isn't scannable in any machinery, take item out and use other tools on it.
Luminol.gif Luminol & UV light Fun for rave parties and murder investigations. Luminol is a magical chemical compound that reacts with blood traces that are invisible to naked eye. Spray it where you think blood was supposed to be.
Said reaction makes them visible in UV light (that's what it for) as cool-looking blue glowing stains. That is, of course, if the culprit didn't clean thoroughly enough.
Fprint dust.gif Fingerprint powder Aluminium powder and a brushie. Let's you collect those pesky fingerprint fragments off various surfaces. Just use it on anything you need, and if there's any kind of prints there, fingerprint card will appear.
Fingerprint cards Nice and white plastic cards with malleable layer, used to hold full set of fingerprints. Click in hand or aim at someone else's hands to take nice and complete fingerprints. Analyze in Microscope for details.
Mag glass.gif Fiber collection kit Cool magnifying glass for finding small bits of fibers, and tweezers for picking them up. All findings go into tiny baggies. Can be used to get fibers off pretty much anything - just click on thing and if there are some fibers on it, they'll appear. Analyze in Microscope for details.
Dnakit.gifSwab.gif Swab kit Cotton swab and and airtight vial. Used to get all kinds of sticky liquid (or powdered) stuff sampled and secured. Can be used to:
get DNA from saliva - target mouth on mob; get blood off something - click on item, select Blood if prompted; get GSR off a clothing item - click on item, select Gunshot Residu if prompted; get GSR off someone's hands - target hands on mob. Analyze in Microscope for GSR or DNA Scanner for blood / DNA.
Machinery Microscope Microscope.gif Advanced machinery for looking really hard at really small things. Stick GSR swabs, fingerprint cards or fibers into it for full analysis. Attack with sample to put it in, empty hand to start scan. Drag machine sprite on yourself to remove sample.
DNA Scanner Dna scanner.gif Machine for figuring out the DNA of sticky icky things you put in it. Accepts swabs with blood or saliva. Attack with sample to put it in, empty hand to start scan. Drag machine sprite on yourself to remove sample.
Making the arrest While you, The detective or forensic investigator do not have the power to make arrests, you're a pretty helpful hand in the process. If you have enough evidence, please present it to your fellow security team and hope they're competent enough to believe you if you figure out who the primary suspect is for the case (If you have any)