Space Pirates: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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{{quote|'''Fry''': ''Space pirates?''
'''Leela''': ''You know, [[
Depending how you view the future, lawlessness will ''always'' be present in society. There's ''always'' going to be a shadier, nastier way of doing business, and that will almost certainly follow humanity to the stars. Thus, sci-fi authors will include [[Expy|Expies]] of modern and historic un/organized
It's not as anachronistic as it might seem. After all, pirates themselves <ref>Now referred to by many governments as maritime terrorists</ref> have made a [[Real Life]] comeback in Somalia and South East Asia, and it's a lucrative enough "business" that it's taken a multinational military response to fight back. Surely an established society in outer space with significant trade and commerce would suffer similar problems!
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As with Pirates in general, there are two kinds of Space Pirates in science fiction:
# The normal version are violent criminals with a spaceship, who attack other spaceships, just like [[Ruthless Modern Pirates|present-day pirates]] (or, in fact, most pirates of any kind). Once you have shipping between different solar systems/planets, pirates preying on said shipping are bound to show. Simple as that. [[Justified Trope|Done this way, piracy actually makes sense]], provided there's an enabling factor. That could be anything from the technology of the setting creating trade lanes (via a [[Portal Network]], predictable [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]] routes thanks to [[Negative Space Wedgie
# The other version does a [[Recycled in Space]] on [[A Pirate 400 Years Too Late|every eighteenth century pirate cliche ever]]. Reasons for including this version will typically be along the lines of "Because [[Space Is an Ocean]], it has to have [[Pirate
Compare [[Sky Pirates]], [[Instant Plunder, Just Add Pirates]]. See also: [[Pirate]] and [[Pirate Girl]]. You will [[Space Is an Ocean|often see them fighting]] [[Space Marine
{{examples}}
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* The main characters of ''[[Vandread]]'' are female examples of this trope.
* ''Space Pirate Mito''.
* ''[[One Piece]]''
* They are seen in ''[[Kurau Phantom Memory]]'' when Kurau and Christmas attempt to return to earth from the colonized moon.
* Bojack and crew from the ninth ''[[Dragonball Z]]'' movie.
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* During his first abortive return to the main X-titles in 2000, Chris Claremont introduced a vast number of new characters. They were given the umbrella term "the Neo", and most of them were possessed of an extremely fragile glass jaw (since they tended just to turn up, say their names and give a description of their powers in typical Claremontian fashion, and then get punched into oblivion, never to be seen again). Amongst the Neo was a faction of slave traders called the Crimson Pirates, one member of which actually had a giant comedy cannon on his shoulder. No, really.
* Captain Fate in the [[Marvel Universe]] is a [[Flying Dutchman]] [[Space Pirate]]. He occasionally visits Earth and acts as a [[Sky Pirate]].
* Roxxas from the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' comics, which also gave us the Sklarian Raiders; an [[Amazon Brigade]] of space [[Pirate Girl
* In ''[[Wonder Woman]]'', the "Silver Serpent" saga featured an [[Amazon Brigade|all female cadre]] of Space Pirates who travel from planet to planet to steal that world's technology, recruit a small group of the females for membership and the remainder of the planet's people for food stock.
* Despite the name, Star Pirate, from ''Planet Comics'', did not do much pirating. Blackbeard, from the same comic, fits the Space Pirate motif better.
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* In [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s [[Vorkosigan Saga]], Miles' Dendarii Mercenary Fleet gets hired to rescue hostages from hijackers. Also, in the later books, the Barrayaran Fleet is put to use as bodyguards for Komarran merchants. This is a win-win for both parts, since the Komarrans get protected by an army with a reputation for ruthlesness and the Barrayarans get to give good military training to their soldiers, without needing to declare war on anybody.
* The ''Vatta's War'' series, by [[Elizabeth Moon]], features pirates as well. In this case, they are usually only a major problem if you venture off the charted and patrolled space routes. This changes when the Pirates form a large organized fleet, leading to the creation of first an ad-hoc fleet of privateers, and later {{spoiler|an alliance of different navies (including what amount to a large corporate security space force and a [[Private Military Contractor]] with its own fleet of warships). The formation of such alliances is only made possible with the development of technology for ship-to-ship faster than light communications.}}
* In [[C. J. Cherryh]]'s [[Alliance Union]] works, the Mazianni started as the Earth Company's navy. When the Company decided that the war against Union wasn't cost-effective, Conrad Mazian and his captains felt that they'd shed too much blood to just be called back, and that they'd continue the fight on their
{{quote|''We'll contest each star Union wants''
''This is war and not some bureaucrat's game''
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''Well, screw you all, we'll '''earn''' the motherless name!''|"Mazianni", lyrics by [[Mercedes Lackey]]}}
** On the other side of Earth, the [[Starfish Aliens|knnn]] might qualify, if they had enough concepts in common with oxygen breathers to be able to formulate the idea. They used to force their way onto stations and take what they want; after lengthy negotiations through t'ca/chi intermediaries, now they take what they want and leave something behind. Among oxy-breathers, the kif, who see every action as a bid for dominance, turn out to make excellent pirates.
* ''Islands in the Sky'', the sci-fi juvenile by [[Arthur C. Clarke]]. One of the apprentices on the space station thinks a suspicious spacecraft might be involved in
* ''[[Honor Harrington]]''. Among the nastiest things they do is [[Thrown Out the Airlock|throw people into space as a means of execution]], which is widely regarded as an unforgivable atrocity. Space piracy is the major raison d'etre for military power in times of peace, and plays heavily in the various works of fiction. It typically serves as a place for new characters to "start off small" in deadly, but relatively low-stakes, combat (prior to the war with Haven, anti-piracy operations in Silesia were the primary source of combat training for RMN personnel). They also tend to come up as disposable pawns in Mesa's latest [[Evil Plan]]. Space pirates are ''never'' portrayed the least bit sympathetically. Piracy is universally a capital crime, and for excellent reasons.
** It may be worth noting that many of the pirates operate under an agreement with a local polity. In Silesia, it is not uncommon to turn over a batch of recently captured pirates to the local government, and then six months later the same pirates have a new ship and are back in action. The local government is basically taking a bribe to ignore the piracy, or has funded the pirates to plunder shipping from richer nations (I.E. Manticorian shipping would carry batter goods that the government can buy through normal means) and will turn a blind eye to rape and murder to gain such benefits.
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* In [[Peter F. Hamilton]]'s ''Fallen Dragon'' the mega-corporations on Earth which funded the establishment of interstellar colonies are beginning to decline, so they now make a profit by 'asset realization' -- [[Colony Drop|turning up in orbit and implying they'll blast the colony]] if the colonists don't hand over various manufactured goods, leaving information on the latest Earth technologies as compensation, then returning several years later to do the same thing again once the colonists have upgraded their technology and gotten back on their feet.
** In his ''[[The Nights Dawn Trilogy]]'', pirates prey on asteroid settlements, poorly-defended early-stage colonies and commercial shipping routes. The primary reason for the Navy to exist is to combat these pirates. It's a good example of this trope played relatively straight in a space-opera that balances its "hard" science fiction elements (much of the science behind the advanced technology is explained, the human societies are detailed to an ''absurd'' level) with soft (the fantastical horror of "the beyond"). Hamilton ''loves'' doing this.
*** He also shows how pirates would work in
* The Fat Men in [[Daniel Pinkwater]]'s ''Fat Men from Space'' act as a variation on type 1, closer to a [[Horde of Alien Locusts]] in that they invade a planet, steal the junk food, then force the inhabitants to prepare more of it until the raw materials thereof are at dangerously low levels before they leave. They return in ''Slaves of Spiegel'', where they [[Alien Abduction|abduct]] the greatest junk food chefs of the galaxy to compete in a [[Cooking Duel]].
* Pirates are major villains in the [[Warchild Series]]. One of them, Falcone, could even be considered the [[Big Bad]]...as much as anyone in such an [[Grey and Gray Morality|ambiguous]] universe. Lowachee never goes into detail about how the pirates find their victims. Most of the ships they prey off of, however, are running through the notoriously hard-to-police DMZ.
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* Averted in Eric Frank Russell's "And Then There Were None": interstellar travel is so prohibitively expensive that a would-be pirate has to become a millionaire first.
* [[H. Beam Piper]] took this trope one step further in his book ''Space Viking''. That's right. Vikings, [[In Space]]!
* Though we never see any up close,
* ''The Pirates Of Zan'' by Murray Leinster. The protagonist is from a planet whose sole occupation is space piracy. He tries moving to another world and going legit, but when things go badly wrong he has to resort to the traditional methods of his kin. Serialised for ''Astounding'' in 1959 as "The Pirates of Ersatz" with its famous [[Zeerust]] cover of a space pirate climbing aboard a rocket with a slide rule [[Cutlass Between the Teeth|clasped between his teeth]]. (A portion of this cover can be seen [http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/images/respectscience/respect04.jpg here].)
* In Andrey Livadny's ''The History of the Galaxy'' series, most
* Type one shows up in the first part of [[Lensman|Triplanetary]], and have no qualms with filling the ventilation system of a passenger liner with nerve gas.
** As the [[Lensman]] series goes on, however, the Pirates of Boskone start to shift more and more toward the role of Type Two. At least, until the [[Lensman Arms Race]] wipes them out with faster-than-light antimatter planets.
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*** Captain Kaliko and her oil-rig raiders in the ''Totally Doctor Who'' animation "The Infinity Quest". Baltazar in the same story fits the trope to some extent, if only because he has a robot parrot.
*** The novel ''The Resurrection Casket'' features robotic space pirates, and some extremely reminiscent, not to say [[Recycled in Space|recycled]], names and/or characters. (Let's just say it involves a young lad named "Jimm" and "Captain Glint's treasure" and leave it there...)
*** Blurring the line between both types (and the line between
* The TV show ''[[Lost in Space]]'' had two episodes with space pirates: "The Sky Pirate" and "Treasures of the Lost Planet".
* There is actually a children's TV show on [[The BBC]] called ''Space Pirates'', although the pirates in question are actually an unlicenced radio station. This doesn't stop them having a captain with a skull-and-crossbones hat and a robot parrot.
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** In ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' episode "Gambit", Picard and Riker go undercover to infiltrate a pirate/mercenary crew. Supposedly this episode wouldn't have been made while Gene Roddenberry was still alive as he had always vetoed the "space pirates" idea.
** The Maquis in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' commit piracy in the course of their terrorist activities; though they mostly keep to smuggling and gunrunning they have hijacked ships more than once.
** The Orions are sometimes referred to as pirates, though they straddle the line between actual
* Popular preschool kids show ''Space Pirates''. They run a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|pirate radio station]] from a space-travelling galleon. The captain and crew also wear pirate costumes.[[Ear Worm|"Naa Nana Na Na! SPACE PIRATES! Naa Nana Nana Na! SPACE PIRATES!"]]
* And who could forget [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLQLJF7FWU8 John Cleese] in ''[[The Muppet Show]]''?
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** Ork Freebooter bands are type two space pirates, and like hats and bandanas and fly the Jolly Ork. Examples include flash git Kaptin Badrukk, while the most recent ''[[Dawn of War]] II'' expansion gives us Kaptin Bludflagg, who cuts through scores of Imperials and aliens, culminating in a battle with a daemon prince and an inquisitor on the same day, all so he can claim the inquisitor's [[Nice Hat]].
** In Graham McNeill's [[Ultramarines (novel)|Ultramarines]] novel ''Nightbringer'', a Dark Eldar pirate is raiding the vessel carrying the Space Marines.
** The ''40k'' spin-off RPG ''[[Rogue Trader]]'' has space pirates (human or otherwise) as one of the most common enemies, and the rules let you go pirate if you wish. The Rogue Traders count to some extent as well, being [[
* ''[[Spelljammer]]'' setting for ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' has The Pirates of Gith, an entire ''[[Planet of Hats|race]]'' of
* Piracy is alive and well in the ''[[BattleTech]]'' universe due to the relative ease of capturing most recharging JumpShips, though actual independent pirate and bandit groups are seen more in the Periphery beyond the reach of either the Clans or the Great Houses. They don't so much attack civilian shipping as they raid poorly defended worlds directly, though.
* ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' has Captain Kraken, a space pirate who crashes on Earth. [[Justified Trope|Thanks to his translation matrix latching onto Earth pirate culture,]] he speaks and dresses like a stereotypical pirate.
* Piracy is part of the ''[[Traveller]]'' universe, and pirates vary widely. The most notable variety are the Vargr corsairs which have considerable force behind them and are considered a respectable profession by other Vargr who are willing to shelter them. This makes them kind of like Barbary Pirates in space.
* The Steve Jackson Games card game ''[[SPANC: Space Pirate Amazon Ninja Catgirls]]'' features space pirate [[Catgirl
* The Galactic Marauders from the ''[[Champions]]'' sourcebook ''Alien Enemies''.
* [[Star Fleet Battles]] has the Orion Pirates, a whole race (in a game where 'race' means a playable faction) of space pirates, of the first type (although the picture in the write-up shows a humanoid with a patch-like prosthetic eye, so some apparently affect elements of the second type). They also do mercenary work (particularly when prolonged war has stretched normal militaries thin, and convoys tend to be better protected) and have even been known to run cargo for actually legitimate businesses and governments on occasion.
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* In PS2 game ''[[Rogue Galaxy]]'' the heroes are space pirates.
* In the 'Seasons' expansion pack for ''[[The Sims 2]]'', space pirates {{spoiler|are the highest position on the 'Adventurer' career track}}. And yes, they wear pirate hats.
* The
** In the ''Diplomacy'' [[Expansion Pack]], you can offer missions to pirates outside of their normal "raiding schedule".
** There is a bit of a bug in the game. At the start of a raid, the pirates pick a colony belonging to a player with the highest bounty. If said colony is captured by another player while they're flying to it, they'll ''still'' attack it.
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* The Palm OS game ''[[wikipedia:Space Trader (Palm OS)|Space Trader]]'' has these in droves. The player can even become one, if they want, but it comes with some side effects (like losing 10% of your profits when you can no longer sell your goods in person).
* ''[[Star Trek Starfleet Command]]'' features occasional random encounters with the Orion Pirates, complete with [[Crowning Music of Awesome|awesome]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOSuFia9K2w pirate-y theme].
* Space pirates show up in ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'', where they are the bane of your merchant fleets. Oddly enough, these pirates will use ships and technologies belonging to a random faction used in the current
** Random nothing - those are ''other players''. They look like random encounter ships because ([[All There in the Manual|according to the fluff]]) raiding parties fly without colors to avoid diplomatic fallout (you can even harass AI allies and they won't figure it out, even if you're the only faction of a race in play). It also states that Humans and Zuul use regular relativity engines when trading and raiding as trade posts in a sector are guaranteed to be connected by node lines (and in the case of Zuul, a dedicated node ripper would be prohibitively expensive).
** The manual also takes pains to explain the logistics of space piracy: first, trade is conducted within one of a regular grid of sectors, so raiders know roughly where to look. And only a part of the attacking fleet will ever participate in a raid, as they spread out to catch something and only some can arrive in time; on the other hand, the entire defense fleet will naturally be present. Also, the Hivers cannot raid since they lack any FTL and will never catch anything, but their traders can only be intercept in orbit as they use hyperspace gates to get instantly from colony to colony.
* ''[[Tachyon the Fringe]]'' has many pirate groups, most of them located in the lawless Fringe (which makes up everything outside of Sol). The most famous of these are the Blood Clan pirates, led by Redship Rory, famous for painting their ships with the blood of their enemies. The Scavs are pirates but tend to be friendly with the [[La Résistance|Bora]], as they hate [[Mega Corp|MegaCorps]]. The Void Runners are more mercenaries than pirates and frequently work for GalSpan, although they don't shy away from piracy. The Demon Pirates are pirates [[In Name Only]], as they are crazed religious fanatics living in the strange fog of the Twilight region, killing any passerby.
* Pirates of the first type served as [[
* [[The Babylon Project]] expands on the raiders of ''[[Babylon 5]]'' mentioned above, allowing you to play a campaign where you're warring against them, or play a campaign where you're one of them.
* Karlina and Jayson in ''[[Warp Force]]'', who freeze a planet in order to store more water as ice and sell it for profit, killing most of the animals designed for warm-climate while doing so. They speak in [[Talk Like a Pirate|pirate accents]].
* ''[[Star Ruler]]'' has these. They pop up from nowhere and raid your systems, blockading them if you enable that option.
* ''[[Vega Strike]]'' has pirates as a faction. They use outdated ships and are supported mainly by [[Lightspeed Leapfrog|displaced would-be colonists]]. No [[Instant Plunder, Just Add Pirates|big plunder]]
* In ''[[Halo]]'', although it hasn't been shown in-game, the Kig-Yar<ref>a.k.a. Jackals</ref> are said to have been space pirates before joining The Covenant. Part of the novel ''[[Contact Harvest]]'' takes place aboard a Kig-Yar pirate vessel.
* The pirate clans in the ''[[X Universe]]'' have gotten to the point where they've become [[NGO Superpower|N.G.O. Superpowers]], with capital ships and space stations constructed out of kitbashed derelicts. Rather than trying to exterminate them (they respawn at their home base), advanced players generally work to befriend them by selling them [[Fantastic Drug|spaceweed and space fuel]]. Ditto the Yaki, who are space pirates for all intents and purposes, though they use a motif of [[Yakuza]] <small>[[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE!]]</small>
* ''[[Master of Orion]] 2'' has pirate activity as a random
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* Type 1 space pirates are said to have occurred in ''[[SSDD]]'', and is why there was an ancient CORE station orbiting Uranus at the start of the SSDF arc. But once the mineral resources of the outer system dried up piracy ceased to become profitable.
* King Hippo relates a story to ''[[Captain SNES]]'' about the time he raided the space pirates who built Mother Brain... the ''[[Captain N]]'' version. They came complete with Space Booty and Space-Yarrs.
* ''[[Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire]]'' has "the [[Alliterative Name|Pistol Packin' Polaris Packrat]]"; also, one cyborg ex- asteroid pirate turned [[Space Marine]] sergeant, who became rather unpopular for the time (brief) he lived after this discovery. Also, that guy on the starpirates.net banner who boasted before
* In ''[[Far From Home]]'', they capture the heroes of the [[Show Within a Show]].
* ''[[Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger]]'' has his first encounter with pirates whose careers [[Mugging the Monster|gone messily wrong]]. And [http://www.rhjunior.com/QQSR/00013.html philosophizes about it here.]
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== Web Originals ==
* The main characters of ''[[The Endless Night]]'' are
* The browser game ''[[Star Pirates]]'' is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]], from digging through orbital debris to attacking other players and everything between.
* ''Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers'', a fan parody of ''[[Power Rangers]]'' and emo culture, has an episode where the Emo Rangers battle the Rave Pirates from outer space, who have come to infect earth teenagers with their "New Rave"
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== Western Animation ==
* Long John Silver the 23rd in the ''[[Duck Dodgers]]'' episode "Shiver Me Dodgers".
* An unnamed space pirate (with three peg legs out of four, parrots on three of his four shoulders, and eyepatches on two of his three eyes) menaced the Planet Express Ship on ''[[Futurama]]'' with galleon-style spaceships and cannons, vowing to send them to "Davy Jarg's locker" if they don't electronically transfer their space-doubloons, and realizing too late that his children are his only ''real'' treasures. What made it even funnier was Leela's explanation on what
* Sonny Blackbones and the pirates in ''[[Galactik Football]]''. They're really more heroic space outlaws but they do have at least one member who likes to say 'Arr!' No parrot, though they do have a football team.
* ''[[Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors]]'' had [[Amazon Brigade|an all-female crew]] of the second type in one episode, but they decided to [[Heel Face Turn|go good]] at the end.
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