Stories you wish were told?

Stories aboard ships of the diaspora that has yet to reach their destinations having to awaken from stasis and deal with unforeseen impending doom from natural but dangerous galactic phenomena.

dscott8 wrote:

Jonathan_S wrote:I guess you could go radically the other way, and (if you've got access to Manticore-Lite tech) go for a somewhat smaller and much more survivable Wayfairer layout, where you use LACs to actually run down and force the pirates to surrender. But you can't go too small and still carry more than 1 or 2 LACs. If you dock nose first, a LAC is longer than a CA is wide; you'd probably want something in the 2 mton range as even an escort-CLAC. Still even if the ships aren't much different from everyone else's warships the training and culture of a anti-piracy force could still be an interesting difference to read about.

I like the idea of a Q-ship fleet of LAC carriers. Give them armor, military compensators, grasers, missiles and the biggest EW suite you can cram in, and half a dozen LAC bays. The Q-ship plays "bait", acting like a merchie target, and when the pirates pop up, lure them in and whack'em. You would need extra brig space, accommodation for prize crews, and facilities for a court of law on board to try the pirates on the spot. Also, medical and housing for freed slaves.

I also think that proper intel would do wonders for the effort. Treat it like an organized crime investigation, monitor high-value cargoes and even cruise ahead of a likely target's itinerary, using EW to imitate its signature. Track the buyers and collaborators in local government.

A LAC carrier and armor/weapons are the next best thing to nearly mutually exclusive. Whether it's a super-dreadnought or a Q-ship, LAC bays are great big humongous weak spots in any armoring layout.

dscott8 wrote:I like the idea of a Q-ship fleet of LAC carriers. Give them armor, military compensators, grasers, missiles and the biggest EW suite you can cram in, and half a dozen LAC bays. The Q-ship plays "bait", acting like a merchie target, and when the pirates pop up, lure them in and whack'em. You would need extra brig space, accommodation for prize crews, and facilities for a court of law on board to try the pirates on the spot. Also, medical and housing for freed slaves.

The huge pirate problem that justifies a fleet of specialized ships, which incidentally most other star nations will not allow inside their systems, is where?

Vince wrote:A LAC carrier and armor/weapons are the next best thing to nearly mutually exclusive. Whether it's a super-dreadnought or a Q-ship, LAC bays are great big humongous weak spots in any armoring layout.

Well if you're maximizing LACs carried armor is almost impossible. But if you were willing to have a 5 mton Q-ship, but just carry the 6 LACs Wayfairer did you could have them dock parrallel to the ship's keel; instead of nose in. That would give you enough hull depth to put in a BC(L) (or waller) style secondary armored hull.
The LAC bays would still be totally vulnerable, but they'd be backed by non-trivial armor; making it harder to punch through to the critical internal systems of the ship.

OTOH ktz has a significant point that the piracy threat doesn't really justify building and operating these big expensive ships. You'd be better off with a tweaked DD or CL if you need to project anti-piracy patrols at all. And if you just need to keep your home system patrolled the majority of that can be done cheaply by LACs (no carrier needed)

Jonathan_S wrote:

Vince wrote:A LAC carrier and armor/weapons are the next best thing to nearly mutually exclusive. Whether it's a super-dreadnought or a Q-ship, LAC bays are great big humongous weak spots in any armoring layout.

Well if you're maximizing LACs carried armor is almost impossible. But if you were willing to have a 5 mton Q-ship, but just carry the 6 LACs Wayfairer did you could have them dock parrallel to the ship's keel; instead of nose in. That would give you enough hull depth to put in a BC(L) (or waller) style secondary armored hull.
The LAC bays would still be totally vulnerable, but they'd be backed by non-trivial armor; making it harder to punch through to the critical internal systems of the ship.

OTOH ktz has a significant point that the piracy threat doesn't really justify building and operating these big expensive ships. You'd be better off with a tweaked DD or CL if you need to project anti-piracy patrols at all. And if you just need to keep your home system patrolled the majority of that can be done cheaply by LACs (no carrier needed)

Now that Silesia is under control, other Pirate havens will pop up or become more popular - these will be a Manpower transfer point, an old space station, or a small lightly populated planet a warlord can control. However, none of these will offer what Silesia did, a huge area with an ineffectual navy, official assistance, repair and refit yards, lots of shipping, and "quasi-legal" places to dispose of loot and captured ships.

Most places either have a small navy and little merchant traffic, or a large navy and lots of Merchant traffic (Prosperity = shipping = taxes = Government protection), so piracy is going to be a much riskier proposition. Since Piracy really only happens in normal space, anyone with the finances and ready to protect their system appropriately can make it easily unprofitable for Pirates (Place 1 CL and a squadron of LACs on the least time route from the nearest trading partner, and what pirate would want to try their luck?) Anyone who can't afford it, probably doesn't have anything to protect, and Pirates can't make any money anyway.

In addition, any available fences will be trading any haul at rates of pennies on the dollar, because they have a captured audience due to their rarity (And they will have to be careful not to attract attention themselves, so they will have a lower margin of profit, as well.)

So with the loss of Silesia, Piracy took a big hit.

Theemile wrote:In addition, any available fences will be trading any haul at rates of pennies on the dollar, because they have a captured audience due to their rarity (And they will have to be careful not to attract attention themselves, so they will have a lower margin of profit, as well.)

So with the loss of Silesia, Piracy took a big hit.

Indeed. I think the short story with Abigail Hearns at Tiberian indicated that the pirates there were using fences based in Silesia.

Now, Tiberian isn't that far away from Silesia, all things considered. But it does suggest there may not be a major pirate haven anywhere in the eastern third of the Verge. Consider that those pirates would have had to fly between Manticore and Haven's territories, neither of which are particularly hospitable to pirates, and had their comrades behind them been captured, an ambush force could reach their destination in Silesia quicker via the wormhole network.

munroburton wrote:

Theemile wrote:In addition, any available fences will be trading any haul at rates of pennies on the dollar, because they have a captured audience due to their rarity (And they will have to be careful not to attract attention themselves, so they will have a lower margin of profit, as well.)

So with the loss of Silesia, Piracy took a big hit.

Indeed. I think the short story with Abigail Hearns at Tiberian indicated that the pirates there were using fences based in Silesia.

Now, Tiberian isn't that far away from Silesia, all things considered. But it does suggest there may not be a major pirate haven anywhere in the eastern third of the Verge. Consider that those pirates would have had to fly between Manticore and Haven's territories, neither of which are particularly hospitable to pirates, and had their comrades behind them been captured, an ambush force could reach their destination in Silesia quicker via the wormhole network.

First check a star map. Tiberian is clear on the other side of Manticore from Silesia, it is in the area between Erewhon and Haven. Secondly the world's in that area are dirt poor and would be on the level of stealing chickens or shoplifting at a dollar store.

First check a star map. Tiberian is clear on the other side of Manticore from Silesia, it is in the area between Erewhon and Haven. Secondly the world's in that area are dirt poor and would be on the level of stealing chickens or shoplifting at a dollar store.[/quote]



I don't know about that. The ship itself would be worth plenty.
If you didn't shoot it up too badly.
Of course this implies you can find a fence to broker the deal either for the whole ship or for parts.

saber964 wrote:First check a star map. Tiberian is clear on the other side of Manticore from Silesia, it is in the area between Erewhon and Haven. Secondly the world's in that area are dirt poor and would be on the level of stealing chickens or shoplifting at a dollar store.

I did. All things considered, I mean, it's even more of a trek to Mesa or somewhere south of the League, for example. That they were going all that distance to Silesia and back instead of somewhere more convenient(less h-travel time, especially with a merchie's h-generators) was my point.

The thing is that Maya sector. If Barregos was simply a regular OFS governor, Maya might have become a nice place for pirates to drop by. Instead, the region of space has gone the other way.

I'd certainly like curling up by a fireplace and enjoying this! Pirates so plundering bad, there was a class of battlecruisers designed just for them! Arrrrr, them thar pirates were doing some serious booty lootin'. I know what their motto was, "Loot, scoot and bogey."

From wiki...

The Ranier Pirates were a pirate group that officially called itself the "navy" of the Ranier System, and harrassed shipping in the Phoenix Cluster in the 17th Century PD.

The Ranier War was an armed conflict between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Ranier Pirates from the eponymous star system, fought from 1660 to 1662 PD.
Ranier was a pirate enclave which raided commerce around the Phoenix Wormhole Junction. In response, the Royal Manticoran Navy deployed heavy escorts to its commerce and fought numerous cruiser actions against Ranierian pirates between 1660 and 1662 PD. Its effort culminated in Commodore Edward Saganami's punitive expedition with five modern Manticoran battlecruisers against the Ranier System itself. He ended the war by terminating the Ranierian government.

After the pirates were defeated, there was a growing movement in the Manticoran Parliament to merge the Royal Manticoran Marine Corps into the Royal Manticoran Army for cost efficiency reasons. (Companion)

The Ranier War and the following anti-piracy campaign in the Silesian Confederacy convinced the Star Kingdom that it needed a more offensive military force, leading to the development of the Redoubtable-class battlecruiser.