So You Want to be a Pirate: Spec For

 I got into the how and why of piracy. Let me talk about about space future pirates!

You are not merely a pirate. You are a pirate in space AND in the future. Now I don't use Bold and italics lightly. What I mean is you have all manner of trappings (explosive and otherwise). Don't merely have a shuttle to send your men to your prize, use one of those fancy boarding shuttles, with the cyber can opener on the airlock. Don't use the prize's airlock -cut your own. Airlocks are easy to booby trap or set up for an ambush.

Don't just send run of the mill thugs through your breach. You can also send robots, androids, cyborgs, even uplifted animals into the fray. Anything sparing your human crew will be appreciated. By the humans at least. The robots, androids and cyborgs might have hurt feelings.

Actively recruit psionic crew. Most merchants don't want to buy expensive psi shields. Freezing or incapacitating a gunner or pilot from a distance can often turn the battle your way. for that matter they might be able to perform telepathic scans to learn the codes to shut down the computer or engines. I figure in a universe ready to jail you or give you a haircut starting at your cerebellum, why not be a real outlaw and make some money?

A fifth column is a great way to let a crew know they're in trouble and should have paid for the up to date anti-hijacking app. On the mundane side, you can have passengers secretly assemble weapons hidden piecemeal in luggage to avoid scans. A more over the top approach might be when the bots you hauled as freight all activate and storm the bridge. Having your crew beaten and captured by pet bots has got to be the worst. they pose you all trussed up with the kitten bots that sprayed you with tranq, making big kitteh eyes. Some crew keep the photos taken of them with those new <ahuh> companion bots.

Some pirates might go for selling you a cargo of robots, having them ineptly try to take your ship and line themselves up to get spaced. A pirate ship shows up, picks up the robots and resells them at another port and repeats. On the bright side, they sold the bots to you cheap!

Another popular option is stashing a couple of crew dosed with slow drug in cargo containers listed as medical supplies. They wake up a day before the ship exits jump and the fun begins. 

What about androids? They can pretend to be humans and buy low passage. As with the robots, they wake up partway through the trip and play Dawn of the Dead with the crew. 

Some pilots get by with just a space suit. They frequent high ports, step outside and help themselves to external sensors and other gear while the crew is otherwise occupied. Active sensors are a radiation hazard at such close range and radar and such is turned OFF. A clever tech can remove antennas or other parts and transfer them to a waiting ship or shuttle. the victim won't suspect anything thanks to clever bypasses (which I don't know enough to go into) until they launch and move to a safe range. 

Docking without your radar is also a real joy, when you turn around to get it fixed. For adding insult to injury, some ports might fine you for having an equipment failure resulting in a safety hazard. This sort of piracy is more dangerous than it sounds. You'd likely still stand trail as a pirate and the haul for such a spacewalk would probably be a few thousand credits tops.




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