Piracy
The Bane of Shipping
Ever since the earliest times of maritime and space travel, there have been individuals who have preyed upon those they saw as helpless and likely to yield a profit. They have gone by many names, privateers, reavers, brigands, buccaneers, marauders and 'alternative entrepreneurs'. However, most traders and the police force of GalCop know them as pirates.
These outlaws make their livings by attacking trading ships, forcing them to dump their cargoes, so that the pirates can scoop and sell them at their leisure. It is a brave trader that refuses to dump his cargo as the predatory pirate ships rake his vessel with laser fire. One reason some traders refuse to lose their cargo is the enduring story that many pirates will not allow an attacked vessel to escape to inform the authorities of the piracy, thus forcing the pirates to take extra care should they end up facing squadrons of Vipers.
For this reason, entrants to the Flight Training Academy on Lave are trained in combat tactics and even use sim-combat to learn to defend themselves at least to a basic level of competence. On top of this there is the Federation of Elite Pilots' ranking system, with full endorsement from GalCop, to spur starry-eyed young combateers from the ignominious rating of 'Harmless' up to and including the immortal heights of 'Elite'.
Many Pirates live in systems where the law is decided by the strongest, Anarchies and Feudals, and GalCop has little presence. While most pirates remain in these systems, many venture out and raid the space-lanes of more affluent neighbouring systems where trading ships are less likely to have squadrons of escorts accompanying them, and then fleeing back to their home systems when the heat gets too high. Squadrons of pirates roam the space lanes freely in these systems, their usual formation being one or more large cargo-carriers equipped with fuel scoops, and accompanied by a bevy of small fast fighters to swiftly tear apart the target.
Pirate Coves
Some exceptional pirates manage to gather up a band of cutthroats and take over either abandoned or manned Rock Hermits, slaughtering or inducting those who they find inhabiting them. From this point, the Rock Hermit is referred to as a Pirate Cove and are considered real navigational hazards to trade shipping. The normal tactic of a Pirate Cove is to remain powered down until a likely target comes onto their scanners, then the pirate ships power up, mass-locking the target's in-system hyperspeed drive. From this point, only the most skillful or lucky pilots can fend off or escape them. The usual result is the target is overwhelmed and destroyed, their cargo scooped and any evidence of the combat cleared away before the police arrive on the scene.
Renegade Pirates
A new and fearsome prospect for the young 'Jameson' is the emergence of the so-called Renegade Pirates. Where these individuals came from is unknown, but speculation is rife. Some say they are the embittered leaders of pirate bands that have been destroyed by GalCop police Vipers, some say they are combat-maddened initiates of the shadowy Assassin's Guild, while still more claim them to be undercover agitators from the Empire or Federation trying to stir up dissent in GalCop space. The most laughed-at rumour is that they are actually members of the 'Dark Wheel', an organisation of expert pirates with an unknown agenda mentioned in the popular fiction novella of the same name.
What is known is that these Renegades are highly-skilled, highly-driven pilots. Their skill would indicate Elite ratings of at least Deadly while their callous disregard for their own safety makes them rightly feared. They favour ships of the old 'Serpent' classes, as apposed to younger pirates who tend to favour the growing numbers of faster and upgraded ships coming onto the market.
These Renegade ships are heavily upgraded with multiple forward lasers and cruiser-grade Twin Plasma Cannon turrets mounted on the flanks. These weapons however appear to have been fitted at facilities unable to properly mount them and as such they are vulnerable to careful laser fire. Regardless, GalCop has placed massive bounties on these individuals' heads, dead or alive, and this alone ensures there is no end of young and hopeful would-be bounty-hunters trying their guns against them. And every so often one of these youngsters actually manages to damage a Renegade before they die.
GalCop are still at a loss as to how they can avert the atrocities of these psychotic and merciless killers, their only resort being to heap greater and greater bouties upon the Renegades' heads, an act that only causes them to become boastful and, if anything, more active as they force their bounties higher. In the run-down space stations of many Anarchies, groups of Renegades cheer each other as their names and ships appear on GalNet news bulletins, along with the lists of their crimes and increasing bounties, while sneering and joking at the deaths of their less fortunate colleagues.
