Hey there! Fae back again with another Void Dreaming crosspost from before the Itch page went live!

Last time we took a look at the important work the Astrogation Guild does with regards to mapping warplines, warpspace distortion, and dove into the mechanics of the setting’s FTL travel. Today though, we’re going to look at the seedier underbelly of star travel, and one of the most omnipresent dangers of fringe space: star pirates.

Yarr, Harr, Fiddle-Dee-Dee

Star piracy is very different to the nautical variety that plagued many peoples in the pre-ascension days of their societies, and neither v-sims nor holoreels really portray the reality of interplanetary crime. Part of this is deliberate, of course; even with the market for such content, the last thing the Galactic Authority would want is entertainment that could instruct law-abiding citizens in how to flout their rule.

As a result, most entertainment media - and accordingly most public perception within the Galactic Authority’s zone of influence - romanticizes, humorizes, or otherwise tints the viewer’s view of such things. On the lighter and fluffier side of things, star pirates represent freedom from authority both literal and figurative, or feed into the notion of a noble thief or privateer. On the harder side of things, they’re simply portrayed as bloodthirsty villains who would sooner strip the flesh from their captives to feed their replicator units than hold a conversation.

All of this comes together to muddy the public view of what exactly a star pirate is, and what they do. The reality far more complex than most living in the core realize, and even midders who live in the comfortable mid-rim of the galaxy find themselves with a skewed opinion of these outlaws. So what, then, is the reality?

Shades of Black

It’s unfortunately complicated, because there’s no hard and fast rule. Pirates could be part of larger organizations, or they could be small crews, or even lone rogues. For the average sole operator or one-ship crew, pirates tend to be creatures of necessity, not desire. They do what they do to survive in a galaxy that all too often has let them slip through the cracks. They are parasites, raiding stations, ships and fringe colonies in the hopes of keeping themselves alive and keeping their ship in the black. Some might turn to smuggling, but the most desperate small operators prefer not to risk the sort of attention that it might bring. That attention isn’t the Galactic Authority and the Authority Star Fleet, but the attention of larger criminal bodies who might see them as smaller players in a bigger game.

More commonly, pirates operate as part of those larger organizations. For as long as the ascended have sailed the black, there have been pirate outfits that terrorize the starlanes. Each one does it for different reasons and each one has different values; running afoul of one organization doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll run afoul of another.

Those values and reasons ultimately tend to define organizations, and these organizations can be grouped together under a shared umbrella: flesh traders, mercenaries, raiders, and jackers. Depending on who you are, one variety might be far more worrying than the others.

There is always a need for bodies, and when that need arises there are fleshtraders. Considered by most an abhorrent practice, organizations dedicated to the flesh trade are known for raiding colonies for the people, capturing ships to steal the crew, and then selling them off to the highest bidders. While mechanical processes are sufficient for replacing manual labor, there are always roles for a sapient body that cannot be adequately expressed by machines. Few pirates engage in the flesh trade because of the inherent danger; of all forms of piracy, the capture and exploitation of GA citizens is a good way to invite the wrath of the Authority Star Fleet. At the time of the story taking place aboard the Void Dreamer, the preeminent fleshtraders of the galaxy are the Sons of Serimosh.

Mercenaries and privateers are how many pirate outfits start out. In the more lawless outer reaches of the galaxy where there’s little protection to be had and warlords carve out swathes of stellar real estate for themselves, whoever can bring the most weapons to bear is often the most powerful person for a kilolight or two. These pirates feed on their fellows based on the needs of their current employer, but are loyal only to the payment they receive. This payment need not be creds; mercenary and privateer organizations often are more happy to deal in raw resources and equipment that enable them to better their prospects. The notorious White Fang pirates began in this manner, and have grown into the power that they are on the fringe in large part because of how effectively - and ruthlessly - they fulfilled their contracts.

Raiders don’t serve any masters but themselves, and their whole reason for doing what they do is perhaps the most selfish of all pirate types. More likely to target static settlements than wayward ships, raiders are known for dropping out of warpspace, assaulting a target quick and hard, loading up anything that they can carry, and blasting off again before reprisal can strike them. Speed and efficiency are the order of the day for raiders, but the more exceptional outfits tend to also delve into mercenary work; targeting the holdings of a specific target in order to retrieve for themselves or their client some valuable item or other. The Orum’ka (no relation to our goodboy medic Bromm’ka, I assure you) are perhaps the most successful and pervasive raiders in the galaxy, daring even to venture to the edge of the core in their search for greater riches. How they continue to evade the best efforts of the Authority Star Fleet and GalSec combined continues to be a question on the minds of many.

Jackers are the final general category of pirate that roams the galaxy, and for their fellow starfarers they are also considered the most worrying. Jackers have no interest in raiding targets for supplies, nor in smuggling goods or dealing in flesh. Their interest instead lies in starships themselves; the disabling, the boarding, the slaving and the breaking of otherwise owned ships, to their own profit. Jackers, or shipjacks, are the only variety of pirate in the galaxy that’s more likely to be encountered solo rather than as part of a group; you can’t exactly break a ship down to pay out the catch evenly between multiple members, can you? The most basic jackers steal their prey while dirtside or station-locked, but the true elites among them - most predominantly the legendary shipjack known only as Nova and never positively identified by GalSec - claim their prey while in flight. In the best case scenario, such as with Nova, the previous occupant is also claimed and safely conveyed to the nearest livable location. Many other jackers are more than happy to simply blast the hapless crew of their targets and vac them.

Use of Weapons

No discussion about pirates would be complete without touching briefly on the role that they’ve played in the seemingly never-ending conflict between the Galactic Authority and the Rashemai Cluster. Ever since the (alleged) black-flag operation conducted against the Rashemai that resulted in the galaxy’s first true war, pirate outfits have been used as intermediaries between all manner of entities wishing to keep their paws clean while taking their rivals down a peg.

This phenomenon is not reserved simply for Authority/Cluster conflicts, it must be said. Authority politics and interplanetary relations are entirely difficult to manage at the best of times, and it’s the worst-kept secret in the galaxy that the administrations of several worlds are more than willing to make use of the services of raiders and mercenary outfits in the interest of inhibiting their rivals in whatever way pirates might see fit to do. The pirates in question often don’t mind, and they certainly don’t ask questions of their own; why would they, when they’re getting paid a tidy sum and often get to keep the spoils of their nefarious activities? No one looks gift creds in the muzzle, pirates least of all.

Similarly, and in regards to some political matters touched on a couple of entries ago, the Galactic Authority has been known to surreptitiously (though never with evidence) make use of pirate raiders against the colony worlds on the fringe that are a little less interested in maintaining a presence within the GA system. Some colony worlds grow quickly and develop an individualistic streak, choosing to become independent systems outside the Authority. When diplomatic channels fail to bridge this gap, it’s not unheard of (though, again, difficult to prove) for the Authority to make use of pirate forces to prove the dangers of fringe colonies, and how essential their benevolent guidance and protection is to any burgeoning colonial effort. Few are the colonies that withstand this pressure for long.

In a more mundane sense, pirates are also occasionally contracted to perform less morally-questionable acts than those above. If Trade Coalition ships are to pass through a region of space frequented by a specific pirate operation, for example, said operation might have a visit from a Trade Coalition negotiator who seeks to sue for the convoy’s safe passage through the area. The price is often less than the pirate would score from taking on the convoy, but absent any of the risk involved if they went after it with their instincts and weapons bared. Similarly, if the convoy is to travel through a region of space occupied by multiple groups, often the negotiator will seek audience with the most mighty of the various criminal groups.

This is preferable for the Trade Coalition, as it allows them to employ the might of said pirates in place of their own security forces (a not insignificant saving on their part, more often than not) and suffer no losses should the convoy come under attack (sacrificing the paid pirates to make their escape). GalSec is happy to look the other way; when local groups skirmish like that, it’s all less work that they have to undertake themselves. Most consider this to be lazy on GalSec’s part. They would claim that they merely work smarter, not harder.

But this simply the most benign method by which these “independent contractors” might find themselves engaged. All too often, worlds and administrations looking to curry favor with the galactic community as a whole will seek to do this by knocking down the ambitions of their immediate neighbors in an effort to lift themselves up. After all, even the most quiet backwater can look like a major player if those around them have been suitably taken down in the galactic standings somewhat. Endurance, and the ability to leverage local resources, displays a degree of command over one’s region that is looked most favorably on by the Galactic Authority.

On The Other Side

And finally, the Rashemai. The situation there is not as clear-cut and simple as it might seem, at first glance. On the one paw, it might appear a viable option for Rashemai forces to strike back at their hated oppressors in the Galactic Authority through the use of the same pirates that were once (allegedly) used to so terribly upset the balance of galactic peace. This would be apt, if not for one tiny, niggling problem: Rashemai pride.

The Rashemai can be counted on to never, ever, ever be the ones employing privateers to strike against the Galactic Authority, purely because such a thing wouldn’t sit right in their collective cultural outlook. To engage in the tactics of their enemies would be beyond dishonorable; it would be unthinkable. It would be so far beneath them that it would never be possible for it to see daylight. And worse, it would so utterly taint any victories achieved. Rashemai, after all, would not have won those victories. Pirates would have. Rashemai would not have struck back. Pirates would have. That those pirates might have acted on Rashemai’s behalf would be irrelevant. Such a victory would only show that Rashemai are so weak that they must stoop to letting others do their fighting for them; that they are so cowardly that they would spare themselves a respectable death in the name of freedom and let someone else take that fall for them.

This is, incidentally, something very well known within the Galactic Authority and its various intelligence agencies. They know they won’t ever fall prey to the same sort of black flag operation that Rashemai accused them of enacting. They can count, quite literally, on the Rashemai belligerence and pride keeping them from accessing a potentially valuable weapon they could use against the Authority. And since pirates do regularly patrol Rashemai space just as surely as they do that of the Galactic Authority, it’s widely believed that this is part of why the Authority doesn’t crack down as hard as they could. Why, after all, deprive yourself of a tool your enemy refuses to utilize?

There is however, as ever, one final and interesting data point to be noted. While Rashemai do not make use of pirates to do their fighting for them, it is not uncommon for Rashemai instigators and firebrands with slightly lower volumes of moral fiber to join these pirate outfits. They’re very choosy with whom they serve, and they certainly don’t allow themselves to be used against Rashemai targets. This serves two purposes: the Rashemai firebrands are able to strike meaningfully against the Galactic Authority (often through their civilians, which is why only particularly nasty Rashemai do so), and the pirate organizations gain a zealous and dedicated new recruit. Said pirates are often glad to restrict Rashemai targets as a result, and since Galactic Authority targets are often more valuable anyway, there’s no effective harm done. Everyone wins, except the Galactic Authority, which suits the firebrands just fine.

And this is just the pirates! There’s all manner of crime in the galaxy, and it’s far too much to put in this post. Maybe, if later stories touch on such things, I’ll dive into it in greater detail. We’ll have to wait and see, but for now this should serve as a great primer to the seedier figures lurking in the black and making fringe space as dangerous as it is.

Next time though, we’ll take a step mostly away from piracy and into the real stars of any sci-fi setting: ships! We’ll go over classifications, analogs, role, and find out just where in the grand constellation of star craft in the galaxy that the titular Void Dreamer happens to sit.

Until then, stars guide you.

 - Faora