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#0, H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by Gryphon on Oct-11-14 at 01:11 AM

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There are a lot of pirates in the galaxy, and in most cases, the prudent hitchhiker will avoid them if at all possible. This is for several good reasons. First, hitchhikers tend not to have much on them of value, which makes pirates... tetchy. Second, while some types of pirate are fairly solicitous of the passengers of ships they're raiding (the cargo pirates of the Corporate Sector, for instance, recognize that today's victim might be tomorrow's customer), they generally aren't that bothered about people who have no more legal right to be aboard than they do. And third, the hitchhiker who doesn't end up getting spaced or shot in the course of a pirate raid may well get... let's call it "recruited". None of those scenarios is very encouraging (and if you're thinking, "Hang on, recruited by pirates sounds pretty badass," keep in mind that it's generally not the kind of recruitment where you get paid).

The pirates of the Salusian Empire, on the other hand, can be a hitchhiker's best friend... because they aren't really pirates at all, in the traditional sense. They call themselves pirates, and most of them adopt some or all of the popular "trade dress" of same, but in legal terms they're really privateers - licensed and bonded professionals. Each Imperial pirate captain holds a special commission from the Salusian monarchy known as a letter of marque and reprisal, which authorizes them to own and operate privately registered warships against the enemies of the Crown.

Many governments around the galaxy have sanctioned privateers of one kind or another at various points in history. What sets the pirates of the Salusian Empire apart from most of them is that Salusian admiralty law sets down an extremely broad and discretionary definition as to what constitutes an "enemy of the Crown". Unlike virtually every other letter-of-marque convention in the galaxy, Salusian Imperial pirates are not confined to operating solely against the warships and commercial traffic of polities with which the Empire stands in an outright state of war.

Instead, the Salusian letter-of-marque law essentially leaves the decision of whether any given starship constitutes an enemy of the Crown up to the letterholder - that is, the individual pirate captain. Should ambiguity exist, it becomes a matter for the Admiralty Court - the same body which rules on prize-of-war matters - to sort out. If the Court concurs, no further action is taken. If it does not, sanctions are meted out against the offending captain, up to and including revocation of the letter of marque and possible criminal proceedings.

Offsetting this extremely broad latitude of action, Salusian letters-of-marque are very difficult to get. Technically, they are impossible to get most of the time, as - except by special executive action of the Crown - they may only be issued during declared periods of national emergency, and can only be inherited by direct descendants of their holders.

(One should perhaps note that, though they're called "Salusian pirates" because their letters of marque emanate from the Salusian Crown, not all of these individuals are actually Salusians. In fact, many are human. The last round of letters of marque was issued during the 22nd-century Covenant War, and many of them went to the captains of starships homeported in the Rigel, Vega, and Centaurus sectors.)

Further, Salusian letters of marque must be kept active - at least once every fifty Standard days, each letterholder must log at least one properly documented action with the delightfully named Royal Salusian Bureau of Piratical Affairs. Failure to do so will incur a warning; two warnings result in the letter's revocation, at which point it cannot be reinstated except by a personal act of the monarch (which is generally not forthcoming).

With those two stipulations in place, attrition has thinned the ranks of the Imperial pirates considerably since the last time Salusian letters of marque were readily available. Regardless, as you might imagine, there are a more than a few other bodies in the galaxy that are not entirely comfortable with this state of affairs; but as it has been a matter of settled Imperial law since the Standard Year 1074, there is little recourse for anyone who isn't prepared to attempt the wholesale overthrow of the Salusian legal system.

Since the Federation Charter is crystal-clear on the priority of local statute, Salusian pirates may operate with impunity (except for the Imperial Admiralty's own review policies) anywhere in Salusian space, and in a number of other territories whose governments have reciprocal agreements with Salusia, including the Republic of Zeta Cygni. Outside these areas, Salusian pirate ships operate under a Federation legal status similar to that enjoyed by registered hunter-investigators, which permits them their armed starships, but more closely circumscribes what they may shoot at and when.

As such, the modern Salusian "official pirate" functions (for the most part) as a particularly colorful version of the fairly commonplace armed mercenary, undertaking the usual run of missions such vessels tend to carry out - from straightforward freight haulage and courier tasks to escort and bodyguard assignments, spiced with more exotic fare like high-risk extractions and interdiction activities against actual pirates. Many are contracted through the Empire's large insurance syndicates to provide these services to syndicate customers.

One interesting sideline that some Salusian pirates have taken up in recent decades has been a sort of "piracy theater", wherein they will raid luxury starliners for the amusement of the passengers. These encounters are meticulously arranged with the shipping lines (again, generally through the insurance syndicates) and precisely choreographed to minimize risk of injury to anyone. The valuables they take are either returned to their "victims" later, or paid for by the insurance companies as part of the cost of doing business (which is more than handsomely offset by the premiums the starlines will pay for such premium entertainment).

Underlying all of that, however, is the most significant and yet least well-remembered clause of the Salusian letter of marque: The one that binds its holder to the service of the Crown. In practice, this is hardly ever invoked, and virtually never outside times of national emergency, but at any time, regardless of anything else, if the monarch calls, a licensed Imperial pirate must answer. They are, at their most fundamental core, royal irregulars, like a particularly motley branch of the Imperial Guards.

The pirates of the Salusian Empire are thus a curious breed - part indie spacer of an earlier age, part literal corporate raider, part hunter-investigator. They have a loosely collegial culture based largely on an ideal of rugged, devil-may-care individualism, but by their very nature they can't be the lawless tearaways they often wish to resemble. The result is a strange combination of rulebending and punctiliousness, infused with a strong but flexible honor code.

Salusian Imperial pirates are hardy, independent folk who know that most of the galaxy either thinks they're extinct or regards them as bizarre anachronisms whose usefulness, if any, has passed. This makes them, virtually alone among the galaxy's many kinds of pirates, the hitchhiker's natural allies. Many a hitchhiker has found a haven, and a perfect balance of rootlessness and security, among their crews.

This Guide entry was written by Captain Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts (1682-1722), the scourge of Martinique.


#1, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by BZArcher on Oct-11-14 at 10:03 AM
In response to message #0
I had a feeling that's the form that Marika and the Bentenmaru might take upon their arrival. :)

Thinking out loud, what's the difference between the Salusian Letter of Marque and the Queen's Warrant that Mars Division was issued?


#7, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by Gryphon on Oct-11-14 at 01:58 PM
In response to message #1
>Thinking out loud, what's the difference between the Salusian Letter
>of Marque and the Queen's Warrant that Mars Division was issued?

Basically:

- Despite the popular use of the phrase "the Queen's warrant", Mercenary Warrants aren't issued directly by the Crown - they're government documents, issued by the Home Office.
- They're issued to organizations, not individuals.
- They're issued only to foreign organizations - mercenary forces flagged in countries other than the Empire. (By contrast, letters of marque may be issued to Salusian subjects or otherwise.)
- A Mercenary Warrant simply signifies that the organization holding it is considered sufficiently trustworthy to be hired by Her Majesty's Government. It does not indicate any connection or allegiance between its holder and the Crown. The holders of letters of marque, on the other hand, are in effect royal retainers - minor members of the Queen's court.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#9, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by Peter Eng on Oct-11-14 at 03:14 PM
In response to message #7
> - A Mercenary Warrant simply signifies that the organization holding
>it is considered sufficiently trustworthy to be hired by Her Majesty's
>Government. It does not indicate any connection or allegiance between
>its holder and the Crown. The holders of letters of marque, on the
>other hand, are in effect royal retainers - minor members of the
>Queen's court.
>
>--G.
>

Ah. So if there was a need for forces, the holder of a letter of marque would get a polite message to be there, while somebody with a mercenary warrant would get a contract offer if they were not already on the payroll.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.


#14, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by BZArcher on Oct-12-14 at 05:51 PM
In response to message #7
Very neat. I'm actually glad to know the difference - I'm not exactly sure what kind of nerd that makes me. :)

#2, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by Bushido on Oct-11-14 at 10:56 AM
In response to message #0
I might be missing a reference here, but how did a 17th century Welsh pirate submit an article to the guide? He also refers to organizations (Federation, Republic of Zeta Cygni) that wont exist until centuries after his death.

#3, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by SpottedKitty on Oct-11-14 at 11:37 AM
In response to message #2
>I might be missing a reference here, but how did a 17th century Welsh
>pirate submit an article to the guide? He also refers to
>organizations (Federation, Republic of Zeta Cygni) that wont exist
>until centuries after his death.

Could be this is proof that James Burke really does know how to have fun on the rare occasions he goes on a bender and gets A Brilliant Idea half-way down the third bottle...

--
Unable to save the day: File is read-only.


#4, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by The Traitor on Oct-11-14 at 12:42 PM
In response to message #2
It's been asserted in previous H2G2 comments' sections that the people who write these articles are, er, not necessarily who they claim to be. =]

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.


#5, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by Gryphon on Oct-11-14 at 01:29 PM
In response to message #2
>I might be missing a reference here, but how did a 17th century Welsh
>pirate submit an article to the guide?

Presumably either time travel or a certain raffish inaccuracy is involved. The Hitchhiker's Guide is not known for its strict attention to factual detail; other Guide entries we have seen claim to have been written by the 17th-century English diarist Samuel Pepys and a WWII Soviet naval cruiser. :)

--G.
That is not to say that none of those citations is true, mind you. Only that the book has a certain reputation. :)
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#6, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by mdg1 on Oct-11-14 at 01:58 PM
In response to message #0
LAST EDITED ON Oct-11-14 AT 01:58 PM (EDT)
 
The scary thing is... what with the Right Of Return and all, there's a non-zero chance that there's a Corellian Corvette out there captained by a fellow who is almost as difficult to figure out as the CINC of the Raalgon Imperial Navy, Justinian "Justy" U. Tylor.

Said Corvette is, of course, the Black Pearl.


#8, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by Gryphon on Oct-11-14 at 02:07 PM
In response to message #6
>Said Corvette is, of course, the Black Pearl.

Captain Sparrow would probably be surprised at that assertion. I mean, he's had his command usurped dozens of times by this point, but he has no memory of anybody called Tylor. Then again, Jack is drunk a lot of the time. All the time, actually.

--G.
Or, if you prefer the concise Lex Luthor response, "WRONG!" :)
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#10, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by Peter Eng on Oct-11-14 at 03:18 PM
In response to message #8
>>Said Corvette is, of course, the Black Pearl.
>
>Captain Sparrow would probably be surprised at that assertion. I
>mean, he's had his command usurped dozens of times by this point, but
>he has no memory of anybody called Tylor. Then again, Jack is
>drunk a lot of the time. All the time, actually.
>

I think that Tylor was mentioned as a comparison for "people so twisty they have to screw their hats on," rather than a person who took one of Captain Sparrow's ships.

Peter Eng
--
In any case, Captain Tylor was a Freespacer the last time his name came up.


#11, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by Gryphon on Oct-11-14 at 03:34 PM
In response to message #10
LAST EDITED ON Oct-11-14 AT 03:35 PM (EDT)
 
>I think that Tylor was mentioned as a comparison for "people so twisty
>they have to screw their hats on," rather than a person who took one
>of Captain Sparrow's ships.

Oh, I see what you're saying. It's difficult to tell from the original phrasing whether the bit after the comma is supposed to be an elaboration on the bit before it, or if that's the person being compared to the bit before it, at least if you're me and have only the faintest familiarity with either bit. I thought it was postulating that Tylor was the Black Pearl's captain, which is, as far as one knows, not the case.

In any event, the Black Pearl isn't a CEC corvette; she appears to be a modified Swan-class solar sailer. This occasionally causes confusion, since without direct visual contact or a transponder return, it is sometimes difficult for the uninitiated observer to know whether he or she is looking at the sensor return of a ship with black sails that's crewed by the damned and captained by a man so evil that Hell itself spat him back out... or the HakuĊ Academy Yacht Club out on a training cruise.

--G.
In either case you probably don't want to mess with them.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#12, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by mdg1 on Oct-11-14 at 04:56 PM
In response to message #11
Sorry about that. I just sort of threw it out there, and was a little vague. Peter called it correctly.

And I just picked a random ship that might work. I'm sure the Swan-class (almost certainly NOT named after the former, and possibly current, King of the Brethern Court, Elizabeth Swann-Turner) is quite satisfactory.


#13, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by Mercutio on Oct-12-14 at 00:42 AM
In response to message #0
LAST EDITED ON Oct-12-14 AT 00:43 AM (EDT)
 
> Second, while some
>types of pirate are fairly solicitous of the passengers of ships
>they're raiding (the cargo pirates of the Corporate Sector, for
>instance, recognize that today's victim might be tomorrow's customer),

Charlie Stross once posited that the most likely kind of space pirate in a universe at least vaguely resembling the "real world" would be insider trading pirates.

Basically, the idea is that actually stealing cargo and then moving it would be such a preposterously high risk endeavor (you don't just show up with billions of tons of water or rare earths in a star system in a gigantic freighter whose registry you cannot adequately account for and expect to find buyers) that instead the action of boarding would be, not to seize the ship, but to audit the cargo.

You go through the entire ships manifest. You physically inspect the holds. You physically inspect the ship to ensure that you've found all the holds. If you're extremely lucky, you've found a smuggler, someone who is shipping cargo in contravention of the laws of the destination.

Then you pile back into your own ship (which really couldn't hold any appreciable amount of stolen cargo anyway, being a military-style vessel)... and send all that information on to confederates in the destination system.

Who make the appropriate stock market or investment moves based on their now-advance knowledge of what is being shipped into their system.

>and if you're thinking, "Hang on, recruited by pirates sounds pretty badass,"
>keep in mind that it's generally not the kind of recruitment where you get
>paid).

I find this admonition supremely ironic given the supposed provenance of the entry, as Bartholomew Roberts began his career by, in fact, being "recruited" by pirates.

Six weeks later? Captain.

> Each Imperial pirate captain holds a special
>commission from the Salusian monarchy known as a letter of marque
>and reprisal
, which authorizes them to own and operate privately
>registered warships against the enemies of the Crown.

I have to imagine the "reprisal" part is either a mistranslation from the Salusian by overly romantic human speakers of Standard, or that it doesn't get used very much; I can't imagine that many nations that enter into diplomatic relations with Salusia don't demand that Salusia not allow any idiot to whose ancestor they issued a letter of marque to cross international borders and take reprisals with the full legal backing of the Crown. That's the sort of thing that starts wars.

> Regardless, as you might
>imagine, there are a more than a few other bodies in the galaxy that
>are not entirely comfortable with this state of affairs; but as it has
>been a matter of settled Imperial law since the Standard Year 1074,
>there is little recourse for anyone who isn't prepared to attempt the
>wholesale overthrow of the Salusian legal system.

Well, you could embark on a campaign of murder or ship-sabotage. That would also work!

Also too: I'm pretty sure there's an extra word in there somewhere. "there are a more than". Sadly, H2G2 has never been known for rigorous editing.

>This Guide entry was written by Captain Bartholomew "Black
>Bart" Roberts (1682-1722), the scourge of Martinique.

Interestingly, I just last month finished my full-completion playthrough of Black Flag, which prominently features a functionally-immortal Captain Roberts.

(The gross, evil kind of immortality where you hop from body to body, though. Not the fun kind. Well, not fun for other people.)

I would like at this point to recommend A General History of the Pyrates (yes, that was how he spelled it, it was 1724, cut the man some slack) by Captain Charles Johnson, generally but not conclusively thought to be an alias of Daniel Defoe. You may want an annotated edition if you find the language of the period to be hard going, but if you understand Shakespeare you'll probably be fine.

This book (whole swathes of which are entirely fictional, it is to be noted) is the seed from which nearly every romantic story and notion about the life of gentlemen of fortune at sea grew. Any book or movie you've ever seen or read in which an overly dressed fellow posed Captain Morgan style on a rocky point with a black-flagged ship resting at anchor behind him owes its genesis to this three-centuries-old work that was quite possibly written solely as an attempt to make money in order to satisfy some rather dogged creditors.

-Merc
Keep Rat


#15, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by Malkarris on Oct-12-14 at 07:04 PM
In response to message #0
One of the many things I like about UF is that, unlike the real world, it has governments that still issue letter of marque. Which is something I sometimes think the real world still needs.

#16, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by Mercutio on Oct-12-14 at 07:57 PM
In response to message #15
... really?

I mean, using mercenaries has worked out horribly in the real world, and mercenaries are at least theoretically under the control of their paymasters. Privateers are actually a step down from mercenaries, as they have state imprimatur but don't operate under state control, and their profit incentive was (and would be again) to find as many excuses as possible to kill people and take their ships.

Also too, you'd be unlikely to find any takers. Hunting pirates off the coast of Somalia and the straits of Malacca is unlikely to be at all profitable (modern real-life pirates tend to be deeply poor) and we haven't been at war with any nation-state who a private person could field their own private warship against with any expectation of profitable success since... I'm gonna say since the American Civil War.

-Merc
Keep Rat


#17, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by Croaker on Oct-12-14 at 08:37 PM
In response to message #16
>we haven't been at war with any nation-state who a private person
>could field their own private warship against with any expectation of
>profitable success since... I'm gonna say since the American Civil
>War.
>
>-Merc
>Keep Rat

I dunno. WW1, even WW2, armed merchant "cruisers" played a big role in commerce raiding. Subs just get all the glory.

Now, most of them weren't "privateers", they were 'naval auxiliaries', with a civilian crew supplemented by navy personnel to handle the guns, boarding parties, and such.

But it wouldn't have been too hard for the occasional privateer to do the same.


#18, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by Malkarris on Oct-12-14 at 08:59 PM
In response to message #16
Well, I will say that I'm a romantic about such things, so take my statement as you will. And I also know this is a doomed wish, since privateering has been illegal since the mid 1800s or so I think.

But beyond that, privateers were fairly successful. In general they were no more or less ruthless than the regular navy of the times. And you could say that both regular navy and privateers were motivated by profit. Both took prize money of some sort, the only difference is that the navy paid out as determined by the admiralty court or other official, and the privateer had to actually sell the stuff.

Also, privateers don't fight pirates unless they have to, they fight cargo ships. It wouldn't take much to take one of those over, they have so few crew. The harder part would be fencing the cargo.


#19, RE: H2G2: Pirates of the Salusian Empire
Posted by Matrix Dragon on Oct-13-14 at 03:04 AM
In response to message #16
>Also too, you'd be unlikely to find any takers. Hunting pirates off
>the coast of Somalia and the straits of Malacca is unlikely to be at
>all profitable (modern real-life pirates tend to be deeply poor) and
>we haven't been at war with any nation-state who a private person
>could field their own private warship against with any expectation of
>profitable success since... I'm gonna say since the American Civil
>War.

Well, that's boring.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter