An Overview of Piracy in the Solar System

An Overview of Piracy in the Solar System

by Rear Admiral Jack Jacobson, Confederate Navy, May 23rd 3029

Piracy has been around since before recorded history.  By the end of the 21st century one of the oldest professions known to man had emerged as a common threat to space travel.  Just as ancient pirates had prowled the trade lanes of earth oceans and seas space pirates prowl the trade routes and supply lines of the solar system in all manner of space vessel.  

The earliest space piracy began when disgruntled miners in the Asteroid Belt commandeered their own company vessels over contract disputes and began attacking the ships and outpost of their former employers.  Operating out of abandoned mining facilities these early pirates became yet another hazard for supply and colony ships in the early days of space explorations.  To make things worse it took the various governments at that time took quite a while to negotiate new treaties that allowed them to arm their own vessels to meet this new threat and create effective anti-piracy forces.  Piracy eventually spread throughout the outer solar system all the way to the Kuiper Belt.  

Piracy is extremely rare in the inner solar system due to the strengths of the Terran and Martian navies.  Occasionally renegades steel vessels from the inner system and flee to the belt and beyond but raids and attacks on commerce and supply ships are almost unheard of.  

Even though Mars controls the Asteroid Belt pirate activity has always been a problem there.  The enormity of the region is a major factor in the success of piracy in the belt and many of the oldest and most powerful pirate organizations operate out of this region.  The belt contains the highest concentration of abandoned facilities in settled space providing plenty of places to hide from authorities.  The constant commerce traffic in the region provides an ample supply of potential targets as well.  The Hilda asteroids are particularly populated with powerful pirate bands to the point that the region is considered a bandit kingdom controlled by the coalition of pirate crews known as “The Brethren of the Belt”.  

The Jovian navy has never been particularly strong.  The Imperial fleet, under the direct control of the Emperor, has been largely regulated to a ceremonial guard and the household navies under the control the rulers of the various moons of the Jovian system spend as much time challenging each other as they do chasing down pirates.  The Jovian fleets also suffered massive losses during the attempted expansion of the Empire into Confederate territory that they have never recovered from.  Since that time Piracy has become something of a nuisance in the region.  Many of the Empire’s Dukes hire privateers to protect the regions under their protection from pirate threats but they rarely have the funds to hire the very best pirate hunters to protect Jovian shipping interest and they also have an unfortunate habit of using privateers to wage unofficial pirate campaigns against their rivals.  In the Jovian system the difference between a pirate and a privateer often depends on which Duke you are asking.    The ongoing conflict between the Empire and the M.S.S.R. over the Greek camp of the Jovian Trojan asteroids has make piracy extremely common in that region as well.  

The primary duty of the Confederate Navy involves anti-piracy activities.  However due to the sheer amount of territory they have to cover the various member governments frequently hire privateers to keep their space trade safe.  Many of these confederate privateers are actually pirates who have agreed to refrain from attacking confederate ships in order to have a safe port of call for their raids into the Jovian system and the Asteroid Belt.  Still piracy is common in the Confederacy particularly around the smaller and less populated moons that can’t afford much in the way of defense.  

Though the Kuiper Belt region is technically under the protection of the Confederacy of Outlying Systems it is basically a no man’s land and home to some of the most dangerous pirates in the Solar System.  The dwarf planet Orcus, frequently referred to as “Pirate’s Rock” or just “The Rock”, is a bandit kingdom controlled by any pirate king strong enough to rule and rulerships changes hands frequently.  Corporations that operate in this region invest heavily in private security to defend their assets.  A loose organization known as the “Kuiper Rangers” wage a private war against piracy in the region.  This vigilante militia consisting of colonist and entrepreneurs also frequently clash with corporate interest in the belt and therefore are considered pirates themselves by most governments.  The Rangers enjoy a heroic status among the colonist and minor powers in the K-Belt and most attempts to track them down have been thwarted by local sympathizers.  Pirates from the Kuiper region frequently engage in raids in other regions where they are feared above all other pirate crews because of their tendency to torture and kill anyone not worth ransoming.  Even pirates from other regions fear their Kuiper counterparts.      

Occasionally serious efforts are made by the various system governments to wipe out piracy.  Numerous joint task forces have destroyed equally numerous pirate bases.  Crew after crew has been hunted down in every corner of colonized space.  Punishments for piracy have become more and more severe but the pirates always adapt.  When a strong crew is wiped out rival crews take their place.  When a pirate base is destroyed the pirates simply find another abandoned facility.  It seems that piracy will continue to be a threat for some time.