Pirate ship idea

[JAFARR]

In the Type R mod discussion here: http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=18646

I was planning That a 5000 TN freighter to had miss jumped after being attacked by a commerce raider. The raider took out the M drives and the freighter jumped as a last resort, but was struck in the J drives in the process of jumping. It ended up in a system less hex. In desperation, the crew took to the ELB's after setting the power plant to maintain minimal power as long as possible. They also set an emergency message to be activated when the transponder responded to another ship's query. Bad news for them was that a pirate crew found the ship several years later. Half the ELB's had malfunctioned. The pirates did in the rest. Then they ferried in enough parts to jet the drive systems working again.

They then converted the freighter to a capture ship for ships up to 1000 TNs. It can actually carry up to 1500 TNs total. There are also 8 ship's boat armed as fighters. Modus Operandi is to jump into a system with little or no means of fighting them, lie low, and start broadcasting the actual message the crew had recorded when passive sensors detect a likely candidate. They would then capture the other ship, move it into the cargo bay, and jump outsystem. Judicious action is taken to not get greedy and give the operation away. In the past 5 years they have taken over 100 ships in a 4 subsector area. The idea is the the PCs to allow themselves to be captured in hopes of locating the pirate base. As the pirate will jump as soon as possible after the victims' ship is secured in the cargo space, they will get an unwelcome surprise when the battle dress equipped PCs decide to exit almost immediately when the jump starts. Some NPC will persuade the newbs that they will be better off allowing the capture as soon as they see that they are facing 8 fighters. By then the NPC will have figured out that this is the only reasonable way to find the base.

I plan to reward the PCs by allowing them to have a ship the pirates have captured some distance away whose owners have issued a quit claim after the insurers paid off. As about half of the 100+ ships taken will be recovered, this seems a fair payoff.

 

[rancke]

In the past 5 years they have taken over 100 ships in a 4 subsector area.

That means they've captured one ship every 18 days on the average and have inflicted losses to the tune of a couple of billion credits (Assuming the average value of the ships captured is MCr20).


Hans

 

[Easterner9504]

Time

18 days. 7 there, 7 back, 4 in normal space either at capture point or back at base. Sounds like a maximum effort.

 

[drnuncheon]

That means they've captured one ship every 18 days on the average and have inflicted losses to the tune of a couple of billion credits (Assuming the average value of the ships captured is MCr20).

If they are very successful then they may have expanded, taking over more type Rs.

On the other hand, if they are very successful, I think it would be fairly likely that word would get out. Even if it's a matter of "Hey...we've been getting this distress call once a week, and every ship that says they are going to investigate vanishes."

 

[rancke]

18 days. 7 there, 7 back, 4 in normal space either at capture point or back at base. Sounds like a maximum effort.

"Modus Operandi is to jump into a system with little or no means of fighting them, lie low, and start broadcasting the actual message the crew had recorded when passive sensors detect a likely candidate. They would then capture the other ship, move it into the cargo bay, and jump outsystem. Judicious action is taken to not get greedy and give the operation away. "

Assuming (as I certainly do) that there's a very strong correlation between population size and the means to fight off pirates and a strong correlation between population size and volume of interstellar trade, there would also be a correlation between the (lack of) means to fight off pirates and the number of ships that would visit the system. Being able to lie low and capture a ship after an average wait of 4-11 days (depending on whether the ship makes one or two jumps between captures and ignoring the time it takes from the moment a suitable ship shows up until the pirate is ready to jump out) implies a volume of traffic of one suitable ship per week. And what's the proportion of unsuitable victims to suitable ones? Any unsuitable ships imply more trade, implies bigger population, implies bigger system defenses.

How many suitable systems are there in the 4 subsector area of operation? How closely are they spaced? Can you always get from one suitable system to the next in one or two jumps? Can you do that for five years without establishing a pattern that could be used to predict movements? And is 2 billion credits worth of losses such a minor annoyance that it wouldn't give the operation away?



Hans

 

[rancke]

On the other hand, if they are very successful, I think it would be fairly likely that word would get out. Even if it's a matter of "Hey...we've been getting this distress call once a week, and every ship that says they are going to investigate vanishes."

"It would be interesting to see what happened. Send a couple of Donosevs to a place two lightmonths from the latest disappearance act and check it out."

"What, system control didn't keep a telescope on the ship that was going to the rescue?"


Hans

 

[robject]

Yes, the referee will have to be on his feet to explain their successes. What I find suspicious is that these guys didn't just stop, once they acquired enough credits to inflame the laziness inherent in this kind of short-cut behavior, and start living high off the hog. A few million credits per year is a nice salary, and if you can make that in a month and spend the next 11 months on vacation, well... There's something else going on, here, perhaps.

As for the original crew; might make sense to sell the survivors as slaves. Good money for slaves nowadays... of course, dead men tell no tales. Depends on if you, the referee, want a plot hook lying around.

 

[Easterner9504]

Donosev

That's some solution Hans relatively speaking!!!!!

 

[rancke]

Hmm, just wondering if the number of ships over the years just not a bravido. A boostering of rep. I am sure that there have been that many hijacks/pirate attacks in that many years but how many are actually by that one pirate ship.

OK, I'm not touching the question of whether there are sure to've been that many pirate attacks in five years with a ten-foot pole!

Jafaar spoke of how things were in his TU. I took his words as the equivalent of authorial voice rather than viewpoint writing.

Just think of it as a PR issue. You had better to what I say because I am SOOO Successful.

Yes, because having a 5000 T ship retrofitted with as many turrets as there are hardpoints plus eight fighters is sure to leave the crew of a 200 or 400 T ship confident that they have a shot at prevailing against me. Better boost my reputation to the point where the local fleet admiral will be reading about me at breakfast every day.


Hans

 

[rancke]

As for the original crew; might make sense to sell the survivors as slaves. Good money for slaves nowadays... of course, dead men tell no tales. Depends on if you, the referee, want a plot hook lying around.

For some ideas about how slavery fits into an ultra-tech[*] setting, have a look at most of Jo Clayton's books. They're very good reads, although the setting has far too many forerunner civilizations and hyper-tech[*] aliens for the plots to work for a Traveller universe, but a lot of the ideas are very nifty.

"Shadow of the Warmaster" deals with tracking down and liberating an abductee as its main plot. Slaves, indentured servants, and vatiations thereof are common elements in her other books.


Hans


[*] I've begun using 'ultra-tech' for TL 8.5 -15 and 'hyper-tech' for TL16+)

 

[dean]

Just think of it as a PR issue. You had better to what I say because I am SOOO Successful.

A la the "Dread Pirate Roberts"?

 

[Zowy]

If there where that many attacks over 5 years. Most of your remaining merchant shiping would be moveing in convoys and your free traders would have left the area.

 

[Matt123]

Hmmm, after three attacks Naval Intelligence is playing join the dots. Within 6 NI is recommending to the Sub-sector Fleet Admiral possible Fleet deployments for a 'hunt the fox' Fleet exercise.

For reasons why Fleet would take interest fast;
- Its a Fighter Carrier & potentialy a threat to Naval patrol assets (& trade, sophonts, worlds, etc)
- At 5000tn its a PR disaster, leading worlds to have second thoughts about the benefits of being a part of the Imperium.
- Local Nobility will be getting pressure and passing it onto the Sub-sector Admiral. The Sector Admiral will be expecting reports, action plans and a request for assistence if required.
- Neighbouring Sub Sector Admirals won't want the problem becoming thiers and will re-deploy assetts to thier borders to offer assistence and watch refueling points. NI will start updating these assets directly (now being closer & in known locations).

Keep in mind NI has access to 400tn J6 Naval Couriers, neighbouring Sub-sectors will be 'only' 3-4 weeks behind the information curve. Its times like these you start contemplating the need for a lot of fast courier vessels! Getting assetts into place will take longer at J4, but once in the vicinity with updates on the Pirates target system profile and under direction from NI, every likely system can be boxed in, focusing primarily on wilderness refueling points.

I like pirates, I think they are fun, an important part of the Traveller universe and very plausible. But career Pirates will be few and far between, especially in large ships. The Navy will positively salivate at the thought of a large live target that might fight back compared to an otherwise dull existence of patrolling, showing the Flag and exercises.

I subscribe to the short term Pirate theory, raid ships for maybe 6 jumps for ships boats, cash and easily shifted cargo. Cash up and move to the other side of the Sector, somewhere with warm beaches and Margaritas. Especially do this before NI starts to close in. Even then, watch your back, NI never gives up & you will always leave a trail...

There have been some good discussions on Pirates and thier plausibility on this forum, like me you won't agree with all the views, but you will pick up some very worthwhile insights from both sides of the debate. Try the search feature.

Cheers
Matt

 

[samuelvss]

Great idea.

I would simply say that reducing the number of ships taken to around 20 would make it a lot more palletable for me. Also, varying the MO might help. If you have taken 10 ships, that means you have up to 10 working transponders: possibilities abound.

 

[JAFARR]

Thanks for pointing out the short falls. To be more specific, I was thinking of this operation sort of cruising the backwaters during the 5FW. (How long did that last? Maybe I better do some more research.) The PCs have just been discharged after the 5FW and are offered the chance to man the "Qship". Let's extend the operations area and reduce the catch. How about the entire Imperial section of the Spinward Marches with occasional forays into the Vargar and Sword World areas of influence?

The ship is J2. It does not have it's full allotment of hard points, but that could be rectified. I think 20 Hp would do the job.

Let me think some more on time span and number of victims

 

[Matt123]

Random thought, the Q-ship approach is probably better when you have an area/region suffering numerous random Pirate/Renegade attacks, rather than for hunting a specific pirate target. I'd put them on the Vargr boarder where at the time plenty of opportunist Vargr ship Captains took advantage of the IN's focus elsewhere. Raiding was rife and Q-ships are a cost effective way to combat this type of scenario. Otherwise you are relying on dumb luck by attempting to be in the same spot as a specific Pirate!

 

[rancke]

Thanks for pointing out the short falls. To be more specific, I was thinking of this operation sort of cruising the backwaters during the 5FW. (How long did that last? Maybe I better do some more research.)

Mid-1107 to 1110. Originally the fighting was concentrated in Jewell and in the Efate system (The Sword Worlders attacked into Vilis and Lanth, but they were remarkably unsuccessful, being stopped after penetrating only a few parsecs; though they may have raided deep into both subsectors (it seems an obvious thing for them to do), there's no canonical evidence that they did). The Vargr attacked into Regina and was stalled less than half-way down (Again, they probably raided beyond that). Eventually, the Zhodani made a thrust through Lanth to Rhylanor where there was a big battle that they lost. When they retreated, they were ambushed and decimated.

The PCs have just been discharged after the 5FW and are offered the chance to man the "Qship".

Um... who is sending out this Q-ship? It has to be someone with deep pockets. It can't be the Imperial Navy or any of the lesser navies; they would use their own people.

How big is this Q-ship? If it expects to meet up with a ship with 20 turrets supported by eight fighters, it'd need to be pretty big itself (2000 T with military-grade weapons (PA barbettes), bigger with civilian-grade weapons. That requires a big crew. How many NPCs do you want to have the PCs in command of?

Let's extend the operations area and reduce the catch. How about the entire Imperial section of the Spinward Marches with occasional forays into the Vargr and Sword World areas of influence?

Could work. You may want to keep them out of Mora and Trin's Veil, though. Those are the two richest duchies in the Spinward Marches and neither of them saw any action.

The ship is J2. It does not have it's full allotment of hard points, but that could be rectified. I think 20 Hp would do the job.

A 2000 T ship then. Small logical problem there. A ship that big would need to visit worlds with plenty of trade to stay in the black. If it shows up at one of the suitable worlds (few system defenses), the pirates ought to become rather suspicious.

Incidentally, the Q-ship will have to disable the pirate ship's jump drive fast; otherwise the pirates will jump away the moment (well, 20 minutes after the moment) they realize they're up against anything remotely resembling a fair fight.


Hans

 

[Matt123]

Hans & I seem to be heading in a similar direction

Mind you, I'd keep the 5000tn pirate as the big baddie in the sector & a plot hook, perhaps the q-ship runs into them, looses & the adventure then takes a new tangent hunting down a retired wealthy pirate looking for a beach & margaritas on the other side of the sector... Lots of detective work & travel in a well armed, if slightly scorched Q-ship.

For sponsors look to corporates & local world govts in troubled areas to set the PC's up & for adversaries aim for 400tn Vargyr corsairs operating in small packs (1-3 ships). After dusting a few & seeing pirate activity decrease, throw in the 5000tn pirate to toast the q-ship enuff to be in port for repairs for 3 months, listening to news on the super pirate. By the time they are ready to go, the super pirates ship has been found abandoned in thier system and there are strong leads as to how he got on planet & where he left for. They now have a new task from thier sponsors plus a senior Imperial Detective to smooth the way with law enforcement they meet on the way.

Could be fun

I'd do a J3 M2 800tn non streamlined bulk freighter with 3 HP, fuel shuttles and retro fitted with TL13 10tn Fighters, launch tube/s and crew. In effect a pocket carrier. I'd 'give' all the PC's ships boat 2 as a minimum & make them all fighter pilot officers cum security cum investigative teams cum general purpose gofers. For those PC's not likely to have generated ships boat skill in thier career path (eg Army), create a back story about shooting whomp rats in the outbacks somewhere as a teenager.

 

[JAFARR]

Random thought, the Q-ship approach is probably better when you have an area/region suffering numerous random Pirate/Renegade attacks, rather than for hunting a specific pirate target. I'd put them on the Vargr boarder where at the time plenty of opportunist Vargr ship Captains took advantage of the IN's focus elsewhere. Raiding was rife and Q-ships are a cost effective way to combat this type of scenario. Otherwise you are relying on dumb luck by attempting to be in the same spot as a specific Pirate!

Actually, it is going to be "dumb luck" that they make this encounter. They are as you say after an infestation of pirates and get "distracted" to answer a distress beacon.

 

[JAFARR]

A little more clarification. The big baddy runs a crew of about 80. They have a connection to some Vargyr clans for disposal of goods They have been "stock piling" the captured ships. The reason for that is not determined at this point in time - I hope to think up some good reason by the time I need to know why. The idea is not that they actually visit these worlds, but that they make their attacks there and leave with their captured ship. They then deal with the crew while in jump to their next system.

Their appeal to their victims goes something like, "It's obvious that you are out gunned and will die if we actually open fire. Surrender, allow us to take your ship onboard and we will let you live." As the victim does not seem to have much choice (unless they have ready to jump immediately), they comply. What turns the tables for the PCs is the battledress equiped ex-marines who take over the pirate capture bay while the rest of the pirate crew is settling into their normal jump routine. They have found from past experience that the best way to handle their prisoners is to let them stew for 3 or 4 days in their ship before actually disposing of them. The Q ship has several "non-standard" exits from which the battle dressed attackers take over the bay. Gauss guns work great in close quarters when you can ignore possible "friendly fire" etc. due to it's lack of penetration.