Cannoneer

## Tactical Analysis

* **Broadside job:** Given the *copious* amounts of armor the Corsairs need to crack to get the booty inside them, it's no surprise that they have resorted to tactics straight out of an 18th-century military manual. Cannoneers themselves act as miniature artillerymen in their own right, capable of perforating the most durable of warships and outright shattering smaller boats such as speedboats and mini-subs.

* **Bird's got the word:** As artillery needs spotters to direct fire to the right targets at the right area, the cannoneers get their forward observation from specially-trained birds ordered to fly to a targeted area and back, squawking important information gained for its little reconnaissance mission.

* **Doomed by cannon:** As cannoneers' loadouts aren't canister shots, but directed more against enemy tanks and ships, infantry suffer far less from their cannonballs than armor making them easy pickings for snipers. The specific configuration of their cannons requires to be only fired when standing still, not an easy feat against faster vehicles such as IFVs. Aircraft pilots simply laugh at the sight of burly men and women trying to aim their cannons at them.

* **Shoot first, split second:** Cannoneers proving worthy of their keep (and loot) are handed out special 'canister cannonballs' - cannons that deal heavy damage to clumped groups of infantry and split every time they hit the ground. Due to their experimental nature, only a few cannoneers are chosen to equip these heavily-dangerous loadouts in their cannons.

## Background

Before pirate ships became outfitted with missile racks and main guns, they had to make do with cannons back in the 17th century. At their apex, the corsairs of the age used all sorts of cannonballs against merchant ships, rival pirate crews and even government vessels when daring enough, down from the 32-pounder to the 6. Through the Age of Sail, they have seen much usage; round shots have all been fired on land fortifications, broadsides against enemy ships, chain shots against ship masts, canister shots against rival crewmen or hostile sailors. Although not reliable when it comes to effective range, cannons were the mainstay artillery of naval warfare due to their versatility, owing to the many types of ammunition that can be launched from it for a variety of situations that call for their usage.

Now that the traditional cannon has fallen out of favor with modern armies, many coast guards are shocked to see what looks better off in a museum's war section used by the Corsairs again. In actuality, though, those cannons' only similarity with their past versions is their aesthetics. While their designers want to restore the Golden Age to today's waters, they also have a keen sense of practicality when it comes to weaponry past and present. In this case, those 'cannons' less function like their historical counterparts and more function like small, wheeled one-man hybrids of field guns and RPGLs.

The minimal materials needed to manufacture one made these 'cannons' prevalent in all Corsair fleets: the tiniest wherry has at least one of them on board, while the largest galleon typically has an entire deck outfitted with these. But as lower-ranked crew mates are only ordered to tend to these cannons and *not* to move and fire them (unless if the ship is at a battle against another one), those allowed to operate them not only in sea to defend inland beachheads and water platforms against vehicles and ships are branded as **"cannoneers"**. Almost all of these have naval backgrounds; those who wanted more adventure on the high seas would defect to the Corsairs, or those who were taken as spoils when a Corsair ship becomes victorious over a rival pirate gang or an enemy faction's ship and their respective crew are captured. From there, the slaves are whipped and beaten to be the ideal artillerymen, punishing and sending them to the brig for failed missions and either marooned or thrown overboard when not showing signs of improvement.

Those who serve as their spotters are avians captured from hijacked black market ships. As parrots are prized for their ability to mimic words in English, many of these were trained as forward scouts, to go to an ordered area and back, squawking back information they have saw and heard from there. This treatment has not done some of these cannoneers well, being treated more like uncivilized beasts than the birds themselves. More than one cannoneer sick of the Corsairs' policy towards them has started countless mutinies, mostly ending in execution or escape, the most infamous one involving a former SEAL jumping overboard as a protest against harsh treatment. While this has caused fleets to crack down on their cannoneers harder, from what INTERPOL has gathered, the Red Lady has showed herself to be disturbed by the act.