TFL/Piracy

Piracy is the act of stealing the cargo of a Spacecraft and possibly the spacecraft itself. Piracy occurs in Star Systems with little or no legitimate authority, such as Seelluggue, or in Hyperspace anywhere in the Fringe but mostly near Pirate havens. Piracy is obviously illegal in most systems and harshly punished, but the difference between piracy and a military confiscating a ship's goods as contraband can be kind of academic. Under international treaty and admiralty law piracy is punishable by death.

## Realspace Piracy

Piracy in Realspace is hard. Spacecraft travel mostly by drifting at the maximum rate achievable by their engines and reaction mass, decelerating only at the very end of the trip. A pirate ship has to accelerate on a reciprocal course to get close, coast fairly close the target, decelerate to a stop, accelerate back up to a matching speed, and then rendezvous with the target ship. Should the pirate manage to capture the target ship, the pirate still needs to decelerate again to come to a stop. Although there are some tricks a pirate can attempt to simplify this process, the fact remains that a successful pirate attempting to capture a ship in Realspace generally wants 4-5 times as much delta-V as its target, and that is often an unreasonable amount of reaction mass for a fighting craft.

Pirates can somewhat simplify the process by capturing a ship at the end of its journey when it is braking anyway. Instead of having to do multiple burns at 40-100 mps of delta-V, the pirate just needs to burn for 10-20 mps. The difficulty is that most ships choose to end their journeys at planets or orbitals where the legal authorities have substantial presence. Matching speeds with a slow freighter isn't particularly helpful if there is a heavy missile cruiser coming to the freighter's rescue.

Realspace piracy works best in systems where the pirates are the legitimate authorities or there are almost no legitimate authorities. However, in both cases, any freighters or passenger ships in the system tend to expect pirates and often have sufficient weapons to make fighting very risky.

## Hyperspace Piracy

Most pirates prefer to acquire their targets in Hyperspace. Starships moving through Hyperspace have effectively unlimited reaction mass and are under constant thrust. It is relatively easy for a small, fast starship with high Hyperfactor to match course with a larger, slower starship with low Hyperfactor. After the target ship is in the pirate's weapons range, the pirate can order the ship to surrender or be destroyed. After the ship surrenders, the pirates can take it over and transit to a pirate haven, then sell the ship's cargo at a Black market and turn the ship into parts for future pirate ships.

There are two problem with Hyperspace piracy. The first is that while it is easy to match course with a slower ship in Hyperspace, it is hard to find *any* ship in Hyperspace. Even the best informed pirates can miss a ship and uselessly spend their time patrolling empty space. The second problem is that large ships can easily carry hidden weapons that are extremely powerful. The *Kaminaro no Oni*-class Q-ship freighter looks nearly identical to the stock *Oni*-class slow bulk freighter and carries 99% of its cargo load, but has 6 turreted 5 GJ particle accelerators, each of which that can slag many pirate ships in a single shot.

### Ideal Hyperspace Piracy

Most pirates have undercover agents stationed in star systems within their reach. The agents monitor the commercial markets for freight and cargo and try to determine when a particularly profitable ship is leaving. The agents then send an encrypted radio message to a pirate data courier that is lurking near the system's T-K point. The data courier travels rapidly through Hyperspace to a pirate base in a nearby brown dwarf star system and radios the fast pirate starship that is lurking there.

The starship enters Hyperspace and moves to intercept the target ship. Ideally, it finds it, matches course, and overawes the target. Many pirates carry a variety of Starfighters, which are the vehicles that will actually confront the target ship without risking the pirate ship itself. After the target has been verified to not be a Q-ship, the pirate starfighters or boarding shuttles match Necklin Fields and enter the target ship's reality bubble, then individual pirates board and secure the ship. The pirate ship then arrives with a prize crew, takes the target ship's crew prisoner to sell into slavery or for ransom, and heads for the nearest pirate haven to dispose of their loot.

## Pirate Ships

Pirates prefer small to medium sized ships ships, usually in the 6,000 to 25,000 ton range - fast enough to catch most things in Hyperspace while also being fast enough to outrun any anti-piracy task force. Typically, any cargo holds are replaced by hangar bays, reaction mass tanks, or weapon systems. Pirates greatly prize matter-anti-matter-annihilation power plants, as they are lighter and more compact for the same power than fusion plants, and pirate ships tend to require extreme amounts of power for their powerful engines and numerous weapons. Typical speeds are 35-100 HF, though the starfighters are capable of reaching 130 HF or more.

Most pirates ships have hangar bays sufficient for at least few starfighters, 1-2 boarding shuttles, and often a dedicated tower/tug to retrieve lost starfighters. More than 6-8 starfighters is rare, as larger ships opt to carry a mix of small, fast starfighters to catch and slow a fleeing target and larger, slower, but more powerful starfighters to force the target to surrender.

### Pirate Targets

Pirates tend to avoid bulk freighters or slow tramp freighters, despite the pirates' massive speed advantage, because Q-ships are always a risk and most bulk freighters do not carry particularly valuable cargo. Although fast tramp freighters are hard to catch, blockade runners are even harder and often very well-armed, and fast couriers and data couriers are nearly impossible to intercept, they are the preferred targets. The most valuable cargoes such as MAMA power plants, medical supplies, precious metals, and luxury goods get transported on fast ships, and while successful interceptions are difficult and risky, the rewards are much greater. Thus, the crews of fast ships fear pirates more than the crews of the slow ships.

also see Smuggling and Blockade running.