Every citizen vessel’s transponder now offers four settings. DARK broadcasts nothing; you can be found only by another vessel’s sensors, at close range, and you look like any other hull. ANONYMOUS announces that a vessel is present and nothing more; it will appear to others as an unidentified contact. IDENTIFIED adds your registered callsign. OPEN adds your vessel’s name.
Broadcasting means you can be seen well beyond sensor range. Going dark is legal, free and reversible. Vera Space Command reminds pilots that whoever finds a dark vessel has to decide for themselves what it is.
VSC vessels always broadcast, to everyone. Please note that a vessel running dark or anonymous cannot request clearance at a VSC station. The Command does not admit unidentified contacts to its hangars, and it would rather say so now than at the door.