Lurking in the deepest and darkest depths of space are the ever roaming marauders of the stars, the plunderers of planets, the laser-blaster wielding buccaneers. I’m talking, of course, about pirates. During your voyage across the vast, open space of Sector 99, you’re more than likely to encounter a number of pirate ships that will ambush you, whether you’re cruising in the clear, fighting against the heat of a nearby star, or even navigating through a debris field.
All pirate ships are equipped with three primary weapons and have shields and engines comparable to the Chaser, making them a a constant threat to traveling ships. Their weapons can be any combination of laser cannons, ion blasters, concussion missile launchers, and ion missile launchers. Surviving each combination will require different strategies along with some quick thinking. Lasers and concussion missiles can be stopped more easily by shields, but can shred through your armor and knock out any of your systems’ components, requiring you to repair them mid-flight. Ion blasts and Ion missiles, on the other hand, will chew through your shields and also have a chance to reboot systems, which will drain all power from them and you will need to manually put power back into the drained system. Part of becoming an ace pilot will be knowing when to put power into your weapons to activate your missile defenses, divert power into your shields, boost your engines to outrun them, or risk focusing on the auxiliary systems to make faster repairs.
What’s important to remember is that pirate ships work off the same power system as the Chaser. They have a limited amount of power that they need to distribute to their weapons, shields, engines, and auxiliary systems. While trying to run away and avoid them is always an option, you can also power up your weapons to have Tai deal some damage to them. You may break their weapons, giving yourself the edge in combat until they are repaired. You can also knock out their engines, which can give you time to crank your own engines up to full speed and get away. Be careful though, if they fix their systems fast enough, they can catch up to you.
As I said a couple of weeks ago in the Guide to the Galaxy – The Grand Galactic War and Factions, the frequency that you can encounter pirates will be partially based on which territory you’re in. They’re obviously more common in pirate territories, but due to policies the UGS and Empire have set, they are quite common in UGS territories and rarer in Imperial territories. However, the type of client you are carrying will also determine how frequently you might encounter pirates. Since pirates are after treasure and other goodies to plunder, they often target merchants and supply officers who hire you to transport their valuable cargo. You’ll also find that pirates have a strange hatred of those who claim royalty. No one is quite sure why.
Luckily, the kind of shady nature in which your clients hire you means sometimes your clients have connections. In some circumstances, your client can ask one of your crew mates to let them talk to the attacking pirates. It’s a big risk, since you need to power your auxiliary system to level 3 in order to communicate with others (meaning you’ll most likely have to draw power away from your other systems) and it’s a not a guarantee to work. But if your client can convince the pirates to leave you be, it’s a quick way to help you avoid a fight.
As your adventures transporting clients from planet to planet continue, you’ll start recognizing your typical pirate archetypes and start accumulating entries in your crew journal containing more and more history of piracy in the galaxy and, more importantly, your relationship with one of the five pirate lords of Sector 99, the dreaded Pirate Lady known as Styx.
These pirate archetypes include the classical pirate buccaneers, the mob and business obsessed underworld pirates, the ruthlessly posh privateers, the conniving, lying treacherous pirates, the Draugmeer worshiping cultists, and the sorrowful reluctant pirates who wish there was another way. You can find a showcase of the fantastic voice performances for our bunch of pirates on our Twitter.
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