Kaa Pirates

==The Kaa Pirates==
Group Name:   Generally called The Kaa Pirates. The Kaa Government objects to this, but most members are Kaa
Created by:  Jay P. Hailey.
Appearance:  2016, trying to adventure up the Fulcrum region somewhat.
Number of Members:  Over 100,000. Perhaps more if one counts their reward support.
Nature of Members:  Kaa and others who are willing to steal and murder to enrichen themselves. 
Organization:  Cellular. Although there are a few multi-ship organizations, generally each ship is generally it's own command. They run on any number of formats, but usually it's basic Kaa Stuff. Rule by strength, provide the crew victories and booty, or get killed and eaten. 
Game Role:  To complicate and enliven the Fulcrum region
World Role: A Violent Threat.
Relative Influence:  Large in the Fulcrum region. Losses are increasing and everyone is making moves to counter this threat
Public or Secret?:  Their existence is public.  Their exact locations, organizations and methods are very secret.
Publicly Stated Goal:  "Give me your cargo and no one gets hurt... much."
Relative Wealth: Huge, they have a fleet of new ships and more coming.
Because they have an energy based economy, they can afford an energy credit bounty on doing damage to enemy shipping and infrastructure.  This can lead to raids that don't make sense from an "acquiring loot" perspective, but do make sense in a "Harm everyone not Kaa" context.
Group advantages:  Secrecy, stealth, dis honor and violence. 
The Kaa Pirate ships are generally new construction, or seized prize ships. The Kaa Pirate Ships borrow from all over known space, and result in unpleasantly good ships. Ton for ton they can fight as well as any Federation Starship. Fortunately the Federation is much much richer and can afford a LOT more ships. 
The Kaa Pirate ships are in several types, from light raiders and couriers to heavy hitting battlecruisers. 
But the ecology of the pirates means that they have have 100 light ships to 1 heavy one. Occasionally they'll gang up on anti-pirate cruisers and inflict heavy losses.
Special Abilities:  They have good cloaking technology and hidden bases. 
Group disadvantages:  No one else likes them.  Even the Kaa!
Special disadvantages:  They're rousing a large response. 
Those who favor them:  Fences, Kaa Strategic planners and Game masters
Those opposed to them:  Everyone else.
Area of Operation:  The Fulcrum region and beyond. 
Headquarters Location:  Extremely Unknown
Public Face:  "Give me your cargo and no one gets hurt... much."
Notable Members:
*Slasaur the Hungry.  Ship crews who resist, get eaten, except for one survivor. 
*Leamur the Wreckless.  Appears where least expected and unleashes massive chaos. has raided United Planets core worlds. good at analysizing systems, and identifying their weak spots.  has a crew of adrenaline crazed whack jobs. 
*Kralak, the Savior: takes sad sack Kaa no one else will.  They come out shaped up and ready to die for Kralak.  Has a cult that advertizes Kralak as a semi-divine Kaa, who will lead the Kaa to greatness. Emphasizes treating all Kaa well and all non-Kaa.... not so well. His followers are insane and devout. 
History of the Organization:
About two years ago, 2405, the first of a new run of Pirate ships appeared.  fast, advanced and well armed they started out small and then increased and kept increasing. 
Local navies are drilling and practicing to counter this threat.
====Meta:====
This project actually started 10 years ago, 2396.  A down and out Pirate, Not Lee  (Not Lee?  Notlee  Nolee. Okay.  Nolee) , and a down and a out Ferengi (Jargo) approached the Kaa with a plan to give the Kaa a deniable force with which to punish their enemies and reward their friends. 
The Kaa High Command took the duo up on their offer. 
They recruited people from all over the Pirate underground and promised every enemy of the Federation that they'd be a thorn in the Federation's side.
Technical Schematics are cheap, so the new crew, we can call them "the Kaa Pirates" had a good set of technology to work with.
Then they hired mercenary engineers Kaa, Orion and Ferengi to design their new run of ships.
As design and testing progressed, scouts were sent to find good pirate hide outs. The ones inside the Fulcrum Region were already known.  however they discovered good places outside. One inside a nebula inside the Thasite area, one brown dwarf on the edge of Thasite territory and one Inside a Nebula between the Bendarri and the Kaa.  Instead of big Solar-to-A/M converters, these guys have Thermal-to-A/M converters and use the heat of hot rockballs close to thier system primary to make Anti-Matter, which drives the whole rest of their system. 
Now, the Kaa were all over this.  All of the things the Kaa Pirates can do, the Kaa Space Navy can do as well.  They've just been better at keeping it under wraps.  Also all the vile things the Kaa Space Navy used to do were off loaded to the Kaa Pirates. 
The Kaa Space Navy has run the innovations and technological enhacements they've gotten through filters to make them LOOK more Kaa and less Pirate. But a spy inside the Kaa Space Navy who knew what he was looking for could spot that the Kaa were using similar advancements. 
The Kaa Space Navy's new run of ships are a military match, ton for ton for many Starfleet ships. they lag behind in speed and sensors. 
Using previous Pirate experience as a template Nolee, Jargo and the Kaa designed a set of processes to keep hide outs hidden and temporary bases mobile and light.  Find one and destroy it, and they'll just set up two others. 
The Kaa allowed the Pirate Organization to set up ships yards and full support economies on each of their hidden worlds - and then they adopted these innovations back, too. 
Recruiting was easy.  There are far too many Kaa who are desperate for a chance to score money, status and power. 
Once safely operational and  operating, the Kaa Pirates began raiding.  Ships organized into cells and things got out of hand.
Because the control the Kaa Imagined they would have did not exist.  What the Kaa had done was to create competing centers of Kaa power.  
The original runners of the Kaa Pirates Project either went along with their semi rebellion or were killed and eaten.
The Pirate hideouts were armored to resist Allied Assault,  But this made them hard targets for the Kaa Space Navy. 
The Kaa Pirates pay some tribute back to the homeworld.  Enough to make it less attractive to attack them and smash them.  The Kaa emperor is enraged that they are not obedient, but likes the occasional shipments of slaves, money and resources. 
By far the largest number of Kaa who are employed by the Kaa Pirates are actually technicians and workers.  They live in hidden cities making ships and weapons. These cities were build on Energy economies not unlike the Federation's.
The Pirates are run by a cabal of successful Pirates and the original project managers.  There are shifting alliances and betrayals and drama. 
Sometimes the Kaa Space Navy is called in to stomp a pirate leader who is too big for his britches.  Sometimes the Kaa Pirates raid Kaa Targets. 
Although unintentional, this intra-Kaa violence is used as evidence to deny Official Kaa involvement in the Kaa Pirates... An Assertion that is getting closer to true.
The Kaa Pirate Bases are known to Orion Pirates and are part of the Orion Pirate Network.  Orion Pirates see the Kaa as cousins and tools to be used.  The more Starfleet ships head to the area to patrol against the Kaa, the fewer there are in Orion Pirate zones. 
The Kaa Pirates recruit from the dregs of Kaa Society, cast offs and dishonored people and have discovered a gold mine of people who are motivated to make their lives better. These have made the hidden planets grow quickly in terms of wealth and capacity. 
They have also had a break.  The Thasites are reeling from a string of defeats, and so this end of Thasite territory is not well controlled or patrolled.  The Thasites see themselves as raiders and pirates themselves, so they don't put a lot of effort into the sorts of defense in depth more regular nations need.
This has opened up space for the Kaa Pirates to expand and operate.  A big Thasite push could threaten the Kaa Pirates, if the Thasites could find them, which, so far, they haven't.
The Thasites give zero fucks about deniability or any of that garbage.  If the Kaa Pirates take too big a bite of their territory, they'll attack the Kaa Homeworld to put an end to it. 
But the Kaa Pirates haven't gotten their attention that hard, yet. 
So now, there's this mix of a Kaa Empire and Kaa Pirates who are sort of inside the same skin, but not always on the same side.  The Kaa Pirates have a fleet of Kaa cargo ships, they slide in and out of the Kaa traffic flow.  This is how Kaa Pirates come and go from main stream Kaa society. 
The Kaa emperor doesn't give a crap about what the peasants do, so he doesn't care about mobility between Kaa Empire (KE) and Kaa Pirate (KP) zones, so long as it is kept on the down low and the hated Mammals and Avians don't come down on HIS neck. 
He IS extremely annoyed that now there are new Kaa Power centers that he can't murder-face in person.  This is an annoyance that could quickly become a civil war. 
So far, though, the KP faction is mostly good about taking bites out everyone ELSE'S action.
Nolee and Jargo skimmed a little off the top and are now rich managers in various areas of the Kaa Pirate Zone.  Jargo is converting wealth to GPL in preparation to retire back to Ferenginar.  Nolee has a harem of Orion girls and he's good.  Both know that if they become impediments to the Kaa Pirates, they'll wind up Snake shit, so they are careful to avoid this. 
By the time the raids started and everyone else became aware that there were newer and more dangerous pirates afoot, the Kaa Pirate System was already in place and mostly built up. 
Although raiding enemies is a paying proposition, the Kaa Pirates are also paying for scouts to set up their next hidden redoubt and gathering materials to set up KP4. 
Category:Groups
Category:Fulcrum Space
Category:ST-OM