I'd like to propose to drop the requirement for commanding a starbase to Commodore, but increase the requirement for commanding a Border Zone to Rear Admiral. This goes in hand with Forward Defense doctrine, accurately represents our ship distributions, and reverses the top-heavy dynamics where we require so many Rear Admirals to require more Commodores, which can be promoted from Captains more easily.
To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)
- Thread starter OneirosTheWriter
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
-
- Tags
- star trek exploration fully automated luxury gay space communism top level canon (canon) #hashtagcontent all-encompassing space amoeba cardassian boy bands cardassian magical girls darkest bureaucracy debate makes the qm cackle like palpatine hoh is an empire quest it has to be foreign infiltrators more ships ship happens singers delenda est starfleet this is not an empire quest ur waifu is collective?
aeqnai
Nerdy Homu
- Location
- Laniakea Supercluster
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Come to think of it... I probably can add Combat to my chart. I was also thinking of adding sector commanders, actually. Also, the chart is accurate and up-to-date to the best of my knowledge.
Though the gdoc thing is p convenient.
Though the gdoc thing is p convenient.
I think some modification of the background for better GDoc integration would help, as would figuring out how jiggle the box sizes to fit ship names as well.
I had an idea for a similar mod to @Nix 's star charts, where you could have movable markers for fleets. I think if you're like me and like sort of physical interaction and visualization of this stuff it'd help.
The Thirishnar is not "out of order". You've got to distinguish, "Sad noise, Event failed" results from actually being out of service for repairs beyond the time period of the log.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Well, with war mobilization, what you need to do is group the ships into "numbered fleets" that then operate under the discretion of flag-ranked (commodore and up) commanders. That actually worked quite well in the Kadak-Tor incident once we figured out it was what we needed to do, because it reduced the number of individual units we needed to command from "thirty plus member world ships" down to something more like "five."
The problem is the transition from "fleet organized by sectors" to "fleet organized by numbered fleets." To be effective in wartime, the numbered fleets need to be larger than almost any sector fleet we've ever assembled, and there is often very little correlation between where ships belong in peacetime and where they need to go in wartime (i.e. we can't just say "take all the ships from Andor, Ferasa, and Vulcan sectors and call that Fourth Fleet")
Plus there's the issue of wanting to make sure we have some kind of reserve force, which in this system corresponds to designating a numbered fleet that is going to be small and sitting the opening phase of the war out.
So I think there's unavoidable complexity in the transition from peace to war, but both peacetime and wartime maneuver orders can be handled gracefully.
Leslie does not, on some level, want out.
Leslie has turned the symbolic associations of the red shirt right around and started a Redshirt Pride movement. And it appears to be working, as measured by advances in key doctrinal areas like "basic common sense" and "reduce redshirt casualties by disproportionately skipping to the episodes where the charismatic captain has a love interest."
Of course, he could never have done it alone. He had a lot of help. People like Kyle, Hadley, Martine, and Palmer.
You've never heard of them?
Exactly.
A good first draft. Not a particular fan of the dark colors and you'll need a proper base image, one without any existing ships on it. Ship names are definitely necessary, especially because different ships have different Combat values even of the same class.
Yeah it's really rough, I basically picked default colors + the addtional ones at random without concern for good looks/color design. If @aeqnai's willing I just need a blank base image from him -- trying to recreate that base image with Google Images shapes would take forever and would probably cause browsers to lag.
Shipnames is going to be interesting. I don't know how big I can make the image before it starts setting people's phones/laptops on fire.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
It might be easier if we had a grid of boxes (say, 3x5) showing all the sectors we have to park ships in, and smaller "counters" to represent the ships. The individual counters could be pretty big; we only have about fifty ships total at the moment, and we don't put more than four or five of them in any one box. Maybe on the safe side.
There's no good way to make this image fit on a mobile phone without a lot of scrolling, but on a laptop monitor it shouldn't be a problem to have 50-60 squares with names, defense and combat printed on them, which can be dragged around between 15 or so larger boxes.
At the moment, the diagram uses space very inefficiently, which is why the font has to be so tiny.
There's no good way to make this image fit on a mobile phone without a lot of scrolling, but on a laptop monitor it shouldn't be a problem to have 50-60 squares with names, defense and combat printed on them, which can be dragged around between 15 or so larger boxes.
At the moment, the diagram uses space very inefficiently, which is why the font has to be so tiny.
aeqnai
Nerdy Homu
- Location
- Laniakea Supercluster
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I made that iteration after a question of what our deployments would look like if it was out of commission. Never did get a confirmation either way there but you're probably correct (in which case the previous chart should be correct).
The diagram is good because it clearly shows requirements and how those requirements are filled through visual space and size, something that would be lost with boxes.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Yeah, but the catch is that the individual ship 'counters' are so small you can't read the text printed on them unless you have a fairly big monitor.
So something's going to need an edit, one way or the other.
Me, I'm pretty good at juggling numbers in my head without benefit of visual aids, so when I do design a visual aid it usually doesn't have much numbertude. Such is life.
So something's going to need an edit, one way or the other.
Me, I'm pretty good at juggling numbers in my head without benefit of visual aids, so when I do design a visual aid it usually doesn't have much numbertude. Such is life.
- Location
- Australia
Of course the fleet is stretched thin, you guys haven't kept up on escorts. 
Anyway, vote will close in three hours!
Anyway, vote will close in three hours!
- Location
- Patriarchova
Of course the fleet is stretched thin, you guys haven't kept up on escorts.
- Location
- USA
We are working on that.... we have two starting next quarter.Of course the fleet is stretched thin, you guys haven't kept up on escorts.
Anyway, vote will close in three hours!
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
[puts number hat on]Of course the fleet is stretched thin, you guys haven't kept up on escorts.
Anyway, vote will close in three hours!
Oddly, I'm not sure we'd be doing a lot better with escort spam. With escorts we get Defense 3 in 2 years of build time, with cruisers we get Defense 5 in 3 years, and with explorers we get Defense 6 in 4 years. In terms of defense points available, none of those options is all that much superior.
What's really hurting us is a few things like:
1) Not being able to construct outpost networks to partially fulfill Defense requirements anymore. We have them in Tellar and Amarkia sectors and that's it.
2) Having roughly half of our Excelsior production run to date go to the Explorer Corps, which doesn't contribute to anyone's Defense requirements.
3) Not having gone hardcore crazy on building one-megaton berths and escort spam to fill them, which if we'd pushed it might help a LITTLE, but mostly just because we'd get more Defense points per crew. And we'd have had to spend a lot extra on political will to get the extra berths.
- Location
- Australia
When it comes to the Starbase commander being Rear Admiral, Sector fleet commander is Commodore, it may be less intuitive from a military point of view, but from a civilian administrative point of view, there's a bit more going on. It's not actually designed as a system where the Admiral goes and takes the field on a ship. Instead, the senior officer sits on the fucknormous Starbase infrastructure, but are kept away from the field manoeuvre units.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Ahh.
So basically, the "sector commander's" job title would more accurately translate as "Sector Commander, Apinae Sector Mobile Forces," while the rear admiral on the starbase has a job title like "Sector Commander, Apinae Sector." The starbase admiral isn't personally responsible for leading the ships of the mobile forces, but has administrative responsibilities up to their ears.
This actually makes a lot of sense now that you mention it.
So basically, the "sector commander's" job title would more accurately translate as "Sector Commander, Apinae Sector Mobile Forces," while the rear admiral on the starbase has a job title like "Sector Commander, Apinae Sector." The starbase admiral isn't personally responsible for leading the ships of the mobile forces, but has administrative responsibilities up to their ears.
This actually makes a lot of sense now that you mention it.
Night
Widow Null
- Location
- Hoff
It still places a sector asset, the starbase and its attendant infrastructure and resources, out of reach of the sector's responsible officer. This is particularly noticeable given that Starbases are counted towards sector defense requirements; their sensors and ability to project some kind of power are involved here, if only in the form of swarms of armed small craft, and they coordinate with fleet assets to meet that need. That relationship really doesn't work properly in this case.
And it also really opens the system up to a number of abuses and absurdities in any situation that has fleet units be around the Starbase. The Rear Admiral may not be their direct report but ship commanders do have to listen to a flag officer.
AKuz
Been Better
- Location
- A Rising Tide of Horrors
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I think it's because Starfleet has a long history of cowboy captains and officers. They already assume that whoever has command of the mobile units is going to just run around all over the place anyway. Giving the officer who has to command a stationary area and maintain continuity of command the excuse to go gallivanting around will just end up with paperwork piling up and unhappy civilians.
Having a flag officer whose official duties mostly involve "Fucking off and doing whatever" if they feel it's the right call probably solves more headaches than it causes.
Having a flag officer whose official duties mostly involve "Fucking off and doing whatever" if they feel it's the right call probably solves more headaches than it causes.
On that note, if anyone's curious what an IRL Rat Race post looks like, check out this release by the Canadian Ministry of Defense about Flag Officer retirement, appointments, and promotions:
Chief of the Defence Staff announces Canadian Armed Forces General and Flag Officer senior appointments, promotions, and retirements - Canada News Centre
Kinda neat! Also @OneirosTheWriter u can always use the names in your own posts if you start running out
Chief of the Defence Staff announces Canadian Armed Forces General and Flag Officer senior appointments, promotions, and retirements - Canada News Centre
Kinda neat! Also @OneirosTheWriter u can always use the names in your own posts if you start running out
Omake - Yrillian Pirates - Briefvoice
Yrillian Pirates
FROM: Rear Admiral Scott Linderly
TO: Captain Onyeka Sun, Office 30
TOPIC: Re: Draft general information briefing on Yrillian piracy
Captain, I did an initial read through. -Comments RAL, additions, anddeletions included below. The Sydraxian stuff I took right out; what were you thinking? Overall the psychology stuff might be useful if you find yourself in the way of Yrillian pirates, but I think you got too wrapped up in your subject matter in places. Take another pass, consider my comments, and we'll wrap it for distribution.
----
FROM: Captain Onyeka Sun, Office 30
TO: Rear Admiral Scott Linderly
TOPIC: Draft general information briefing on Yrillian piracy
Sir,
Per your instructions I have prepared a general information briefing on Yrillian pirate activity for distribution to all relevant Federation organizations. While avoiding discussion of specific intelligence operations we have underway, this should provide background on typical pirate tactics and the cultural and psychological imperatives driving pirate activity.
Despite the potential usefulness of this information, I have some unease at the potential consequences of distributing this document. Yrillians are already too firmly linked with the concept of "piracy" in mind of your average citizen. The fluid relationship between 'independent ship' and 'pirate' may lead to all Yrillians being treated as potential pirates until proven otherwise, which could have serious detrimental effects on diplomatic relations.
The draft document is presented below for your review.
FOR DISTRIBUTION TO ALL FEDERATION ORGANIZATIONS
Summary of Methodology, Psychology, and History Behind Yrillian Starship-Based Pirate Activity
Disclaimer
I. What is a "pirate"?
A. Planet-based activities
B. Space-based activities
C. Organization
D. Ports of Piracy
II. Motivations
A. Psychological/Cultural
B. Material
C. Sydraxian Provocation
III. "Privateers"
A. History
B. Active status
IV. Conclusions
Disclaimer: As with nearly any species, the majority of Yrillians live peaceful, ethical lives. This information should be used only for situations where evidence supports suspicion of criminal activity and not as a profile for all Yrillian interstellar activity.
-This should help. RAL
I. What is a "pirate"?
For purposes of this document, Yrillian 'pirate' activities should be considered use of violence to forcibly extract valuables when said violence is supported by a vessel capable of interstellar travel (or "starship" in the common parlance). This may include activities both in space and on inhabited planets or outposts. It should be noted that though a number of Federation ships and colonies have suffered pirate attacks, the typical victims of these activities are in fact other Yrillians.
I-A. Planet-Based Activities
Planet-based pirate activity may be further sub-divided into extortion and raids, with extortion being more common. Most small colonies have extremely limited weaponry and space-capable vessels will be limited to small in-system ships not capable of warp travel and hence nearly helpless to interfere with a starship. The typical pattern is for the Yrillian ship to at first visit the colony amicably, offering to utilize their ship in conducting various tasks for the colony in return for some payment. Gradually, however, the resource value of the requested payment will be increased and the return service will be delayed, with the Yrillians dangling out the hope that if only their demands are satisfied they will leave peacefully. Threats and limited violence are used to encourage compliance.
Xenopsychologists believe that in many of these cases the initial offer may be genuine, and the ambitions of the Yrillian crew grow towards extortion only after they believe it is possible to do so with minimal risk. It is possible that with Yrillian colonies who understand the cultural imperatives at work, the opening stages of this represent a typical negotiation. However this is not to excuse the actions of the pirates, who are most assuredly not acting ethically even by their own standards when they take advantage of the situation. Given that there have been peaceful incidents of very similar Yrillian ships providing the requested service and leaving, this cannot be attributed to a cultural misunderstanding.
Raids are less common and represent a fast and violent intrusion onto the planet to quickly grab valuables by force, followed by an equally sudden departure. Target valuables are often artwork or cultural artifacts or anything else unique and therefore valuable. The best one can say for these events is that the pirates are there for plunder, not glory, and show no inclination to escalate violence beyond the minimum necessary. These raids typically do not involve the taking of captives,unless the Orion Syndicate is involved. This is believed to be due to conflicts with the psychological profile behind pirate activities (see Section II-A).
-Drop any mention of the Syndicate. I won't risk compromising anti-Syndicate operations with even the mention of what we know about their work with the Yrillians. RAL
The most potentially damaging cases are those when piracy is directed against pre-warp civilizations.Even mainstream Yrillian culture has nothing comparable to our Prime Directive; needless to say pirates feel no compunctions about interference in less technologically advanced cultures. Fortunately, pirate activity is normally oriented towards quick profit rather than long term cultural contamination. Barring late industrial cultures with recording technology and worldwide communications, most such raids lead to nothing more than legends and myths.
-Let's play nice with comments about mainstream Yrillian society. RAL
I-B. Space-Based Activities
Over ninety percent of reported space-based pirate activity is conducted against in-system ships without warp capability. The preference of the pirates in such cases is to lurk at the edge of the system scanning for a likely target, then move in fast and force it to submit, preferably by threats alone. Targets in such cases are mid-size colonies with enough in-system traffic to present worthwhile targets, while not so large as to have armed warp-capable vessels reliably in-system.
Though warp-capable ships are occasionally attacked, this is rarer. Unlike the equivalent Federation cargo vessels, warp-capable Yrillian ships are almost always armed and prepared to put up resistance, leading to an understandable caution on the part of pirates. In fact, the typical Yrillian pirate ship is itself basically an armed freighter. Occasionally more heavily armed pirate ships will attempt to force a warp capable victim into submission. In such cases, the prize is usually the ship itself more than what it is carrying. Pirates have been known to quickly and efficiently cut away nacelles and force the ejection of a warp core, which they then tractor awayfor use in a Yrillian shipyard.
-Assumption. We've never been sure just what they do with them. RAL
As with planetary raids, casualties are usually low. The pirates make it a point to leave life support systems intact and have been known to carefully damage subspace transmitters just enough that they can be repaired in hours to days. Some victims report being treated with an odd politeness. Of course, entrusting one's life to the sometimes mercurial whims of a Yrillian work gang is still not recommended.
I-C. Organization
To review, the primary social structure of Yrillian society is the work gang, a voluntary association of individuals working towards a common purpose. Unsurprisingly the crews of Yrillian starships almost always represent a single work gang, often with additional members who hold responsibility for organizing maintenance and provisioning in ports. They operate democratically, with all major decisions being put up to a vote by the crew. There is typically what we would understand as a "captain" with authority to give unquestioned commands in an emergency situation and some ability to organize and settle disputes in non-emergency situations, but their authority is far less than their Federation equivalent. In some cases the captain and the work gang member invested with authority to speak on behalf of the crew in negotiations will be different individuals.
The structure of a Yrillian pirate crew is the same, and this illustrates an important point. The majority of Yrillian pirate ships are not ships and crews organized with the intent to engage in piracy, but rather ordinary ships whose crew have elected to engage in opportunistic piracy. The line can be disturbingly blurry in many cases, with ships that spend the vast majority of their time engaging in legitimate interstellar trade or other socially useful tasks and then on some rare occasion seize upon an opportunity to use the force of their armed starship to impose their will upon others. A combination of cultural and psychological factors, discussed in more detail in Section II, make it all too easy for even crew members that would consider themselves normal moral sapients to slip into the pirate mindset.
That said, there are what we might consider dedicated pirate ships. These ships are typically more heavily armed than typical Yrillian ships (though not so much as the Privateers like which they aspire to be; see Section III). They are also more typically despised by other Yrillians and treated more like actual criminals, depending on a few ports of call that are willing to tolerate their activity. These ships often have much stronger leadership than a typical Yrillian starship, having been organized by a charismatic individual who dominates their crew with force of personality and occasional applied violence.
-Reemphasizing the point that Yrillian 'tolerance' of piracy is overblown. RAL.
I-D Ports of Piracy
Law enforcement among Ethur II and its colonies is weak and inconsistent by Federation standards. Nevertheless, piracy is illegal* in most locations and work gangs have been successfully convicted on piracy charges in the past. Many pirates, especially those who engage in piracy regularly rather than opportunistically, take advantage of two Yrillian ports which are known to specifically turn a blind eye to such illegal activities. The ports provide a place to dispose of illegally obtained goods, obtain repairs which will not be recorded or reported, and even change unique identifying features of ships to avoid later prosecution.
*At least when not conducted by a licensed Privateer (see Section III).
The first such port is Daasruz, an orbital complex the size of a large city orbiting a Type M moon which in turn orbits a gas giant. Daasruz is many centuries old, and it's full history has been deliberately obscured. The fact that the name Daasruz is of Orion etymology hints at connections to the old Orion Empire. Daasruz's existence is disliked by most Yrillian governments, but it occupies one of the most defensible positions in known space. Ultra-rare materials found in its gas giant are compressed by the world's gravity and energized by its magnetic field to create a unique pattern of subspace wakes that allow only a few specific safe approach paths for ships, which are easily defensible. The complex itself is believed to have the firepower of multiple starbases, and the ability to draw resources from the Class M moon it orbits means it's capable of surviving a siege of indefinite length. Daasruz prides itself on its neutrality and cosmopolitan nature, and members of many known sapient species can be found there.
The second such port is Cor Cewri, which is the name of both a sprawling orbital complex and an ancient settlement on the only habitable plateau on the Class L world it orbits. Cor Cewri is a place of great spiritual importance to the Yrillian people. It is home to a cultural sub-group known by a term that translates to "the Gardeners" and who seem to revere space travel itself. The importance of these Gardeners to the Yrillian people is not well understood, though they have also been spoken of as 'guardians of civilization'. Regardless, making a pilgrimage to Cor Cewri is considered the right of all space travelers and its neutrality assured by deep cultural taboos. These taboos do not seem to dissuade pirates from taking advantage of the port's guaranteed neutrality to have a safe port of call where no one will ask them any questions and repair of their ship is a sacred rite.
-Not too sure about this level of detail. I won't make you take it out, but consider if this is really useful information for the audience of this document. RAL
II. Motivations
In this section we will explore the psychological drives and practical motivations that make pirate activity relatively more common among Yrillians as compared to other sapient species. This analysis is based extensively on interviews with captured Yrillian pirates as well as a xeno-cultural analysis of Yrillian media. As always, caution should be taken in assuming a generalization applies to any specific individual.
IIA. Psychological/Cultural
Space travel, especially interstellar space travel, holds a high degree of cachet in Yrillian society. Specifically the common cultural image is of space travelers as a work gang of daring explorers, venturing forward into the void with only themselves to depend on and bringing back valuable knowledge and resources. Actual starship crews know that work in space can often be tedious and unromantic, especially for cargo haulers. However even Yrillian work gangs assigned to such task will frequently go out of their way to do some small bit of exploration or take a detour that promises something interesting, in between travel on their regular routes. It is also common for such groups to devote a large portion of their time to productive economic activity in order to build up resources for a 'holiday' in which they will travel to some location they have never visited before, whether inhabited or not.
Many of the Federation's peoples find this "spirit of adventure" (for lack of a better term) to be an admirable quality. Yet the dark side of this same spirit that can lead to pirate activities. With a view of themselves as daring risk takers, a work gang can come to feel themselves entitled to whatever 'treasure' they find, even if it is already in the possession of other people. Resentments for real or imagined slights, combined with an inflated sense of their own worth, can lead to a psychological spiral of reinforcement among work gang members where they assure each other that they are perfectly justified in taking whatever they wish from potential victims.
This cycle is well understood by Yrillians themselves and is one reason that opportunistic pirates are judged less harshly and punished less severely then they might be in other cultures. Unfortunately this also provides a measure of cover for anti-social career criminals that set out to quite deliberately to engage in criminal activity. By channeling their anti-social impulses into piracy they can masquerade for a time as merely misguided.
A number of other factors exacerbate this impulse to piracy when dealing with non-Yrillian sapients. Being physically larger than most humanoids can engender feelings of superiority and a temptation to bully smaller races. Additionally many Yrillians find the laws of other races to be fundamentally illegitimate, as they are not voted on by the population at large. Even the system of elected representatives used by the Federation is viewed with some suspicion. Though it makes very little logical sense, this sense of illegitimacy can provide more self-justification for pirate activities.
Finally the existence of the Privateers, discussed in Section III, provide a cultural 'template' to follow for pirate activities. This is the case even though a work gang locked in a justification spiral would have to rationally admit that they have no similar privilege to hold themselves above the law.
IIB. Material
Pirate activities are constrained by resources. To conduct piracy, one must be in possession of an armed starship, preferably while not being answerable to any higher level authority that also has say in the ship's usage. This situation is more common among Yrillians than among other interstellar powers. The Yrillian economic system is as yet not fully understood, but large scale resource allocation is on some level controlled by public vote and influenced by the perceived prestigiousness of the allocation. Given how space travel is viewed among Yrillians as well as their skill in building starships inexpensively and quickly, it takes a shockingly low level of justification (by our standards) for a work gang to gain ownership of their own starship.
The majority of Yrillian starships are freighters less than 500k t in size with nothing but a basic navigational shield and a disruptor installed for self-defense. In terms of combat, one would be easily outmatched even by the recently retired Soyuz class. Nevertheless, such a ship still far outclasses having no weapons and no warp drive at all. In addition, combat-focused refits or entire new ships with higher combat ability are believed to be obtainableat Daasrux, Cor Cewri, and more rarely at other ports.
II-C Sydraxian Provocation
This subsection is highly speculative but is included for completeness. Federation intelligence indicates that
(deleted by order of the Rear Admiral)
-No! I understand it seems like common knowledge in your office, but consider how widely this will be distributed. No mention of the Sydraxians, that is not a suggestion. RAL
III. "Privateers"
In the Yrillian sphere of influence there exists a small number of starships which are "legally illegal", which is to say they have special permission to engage in activities that would be illegal for anyone else. Translation has settled on "Privateers" as the proper term. They are largely unconnected to the pirates described in the previous sections, except as a source of inspiration, but are described here as it is critical for any Federation entity interacting with them to understand what they are and how they differ from ordinary "pirates".
Though the ships themselves are quite old, these Privateers are heavily armed and manned by elite crews capable of coaxing near miracles out of ships they have maintained and customized for literally generations. Despite being nominal 'outlaws' they spend a majority of their time acting on behalf of various Yrillian government work gangs or socio-political oriented work gangs of similar influence. Under the protection of their 'letter of marque' they conduct activities too varied to properly describe*, but which often benefit from their lack of concern for sovereign territory and willingness to engage in armed exchanges as necessary. In at least some cases for payment they are allowed to conduct pre-approved 'piracy' which has more in common with a carefully managed stage show than armed robbery.
*It is in any case somewhat difficult to separate fact from popular fiction.
Even many Yrillians admit that the arrangement is needlessly convoluted, open to abuse, makes very little sense, and only encourages emulation by genuine pirates. Unsurprisingly, it originated in a time of war and enormous social upheaval as described briefly in Section II-A. Like many cultural features that make little sense, it persists on inertia and the presumption that it will fade out on its own as the original Privateers are gradually destroyed.
-I could tell you were resisting the temptation to describe some examples of 'cultural features that make little sense' from our own member worlds.
RAL
II-A. History
Approximately 120 years ago, Yrillian space was caught up in the most recent of their civilization-wide civil wars, which reoccur every three or four generations. Causes, motivations, and sides would be far too complex to go into here and are irrelevant in any case. However as the war reached its most destructive phase, nearly all shipyards had been destroyed on all sides and vast amounts of infrastructure had been devastated. Unable to make more ships, the governments at the time attempted to entice civilian ships into the struggle by issuing letters of marque allowing them total legal immunity as long as they would direct their aggression at the enemy. This was the origin of the Privateers.
When the war sputtered to a halt and efforts turned to preserving their technological and cultural civilization, the Privateers were instrumental in turning back opportunists who had carefully kept out of the war, but now came forward in an attempt to dominate what remained. It is likely these efforts more than the war itself that cemented their special status in Yrillian society today and made their letters of marque effectively irrevocable.
-Not really sure this is necessary either, but it's interesting stuff and not as incendiary as current events. RAL
II-B. Active Status
There are at least four Privateers still regularly active, and possibly more that operate too discreetly for us to note their activities. The letters of marque are attached to the ships themselves, meaning that all of the hulls are over 100 years old. Undoubtedly they have all been refitted and customized so extensively as to be considered the same ship only because replacements were done one piece at a time.
The one Privateer that has been positively identified by Federation witnesses is known as the Gentenmaru. It was reported to be around 1m t in size, though extensive sensor-jamming and distortions by the Gentenmaru during the encounter make certainty difficult. This is larger than most Yrillian ships, and it's uncertain if this represents larger ship sizes in general in the pre-war era and if other Privateers should be expected to be of similar size, or if possibly the apparent size was a sensor trick.
The nature of the encounter should demonstrate the caution with which these Privateers should be treated. The Gentenmaru soundly defeated the Riala, pride of the Amarki fleet, albeit not with weapons fire but by some sort of sensor distortion utilizing local stellar phenomena that left the Riala effectively blinded for nearly 15 minutes. This was long enough to pick-up the fugitive Amarki scientist they had been tasked to retrieve and which the Riala had been pursuing. It also would likely have been long enough to destroy the Riala if that had been their objective. The captain was described as an impossibly young Yrillian woman who is presumably a tactical genius.
-No. Again, this may be common knowledge in your Office, but the Amarki are extraordinarily proud of the Riala and they went to great efforts to keep this humiliation private. Let's not undermine that. RAL
IV. Conclusions
This document is intended to aid in the understanding of the phenomenon of Yrillian piracy, which will hopefully aid in crafting proper and appropriate responses if pirate activity encroaches on the reader's areas of responsibility. As has been made clear, pirate activity is largely an emergent phenomenon of Yrillian psychology, culture, and resource distribution, and there are no easy answers.On the other side, nor do Yrillian pirates represent an organized criminal syndicate. Federation resources must be oriented to treating the symptoms while we hope Yrillian culture will change enough to effectively treat the disease.
-Don't even allude to the Syndicate. RAL
FROM: Rear Admiral Scott Linderly
TO: Captain Onyeka Sun, Office 30
TOPIC: Re: Draft general information briefing on Yrillian piracy
Captain, I did an initial read through. -Comments RAL, additions, and
----
FROM: Captain Onyeka Sun, Office 30
TO: Rear Admiral Scott Linderly
TOPIC: Draft general information briefing on Yrillian piracy
Sir,
Per your instructions I have prepared a general information briefing on Yrillian pirate activity for distribution to all relevant Federation organizations. While avoiding discussion of specific intelligence operations we have underway, this should provide background on typical pirate tactics and the cultural and psychological imperatives driving pirate activity.
Despite the potential usefulness of this information, I have some unease at the potential consequences of distributing this document. Yrillians are already too firmly linked with the concept of "piracy" in mind of your average citizen. The fluid relationship between 'independent ship' and 'pirate' may lead to all Yrillians being treated as potential pirates until proven otherwise, which could have serious detrimental effects on diplomatic relations.
The draft document is presented below for your review.
FOR DISTRIBUTION TO ALL FEDERATION ORGANIZATIONS
Summary of Methodology, Psychology, and History Behind Yrillian Starship-Based Pirate Activity
Disclaimer
I. What is a "pirate"?
A. Planet-based activities
B. Space-based activities
C. Organization
D. Ports of Piracy
II. Motivations
A. Psychological/Cultural
B. Material
III. "Privateers"
A. History
B. Active status
IV. Conclusions
Disclaimer: As with nearly any species, the majority of Yrillians live peaceful, ethical lives. This information should be used only for situations where evidence supports suspicion of criminal activity and not as a profile for all Yrillian interstellar activity.
-This should help. RAL
I. What is a "pirate"?
For purposes of this document, Yrillian 'pirate' activities should be considered use of violence to forcibly extract valuables when said violence is supported by a vessel capable of interstellar travel (or "starship" in the common parlance). This may include activities both in space and on inhabited planets or outposts. It should be noted that though a number of Federation ships and colonies have suffered pirate attacks, the typical victims of these activities are in fact other Yrillians.
I-A. Planet-Based Activities
Planet-based pirate activity may be further sub-divided into extortion and raids, with extortion being more common. Most small colonies have extremely limited weaponry and space-capable vessels will be limited to small in-system ships not capable of warp travel and hence nearly helpless to interfere with a starship. The typical pattern is for the Yrillian ship to at first visit the colony amicably, offering to utilize their ship in conducting various tasks for the colony in return for some payment. Gradually, however, the resource value of the requested payment will be increased and the return service will be delayed, with the Yrillians dangling out the hope that if only their demands are satisfied they will leave peacefully. Threats and limited violence are used to encourage compliance.
Xenopsychologists believe that in many of these cases the initial offer may be genuine, and the ambitions of the Yrillian crew grow towards extortion only after they believe it is possible to do so with minimal risk. It is possible that with Yrillian colonies who understand the cultural imperatives at work, the opening stages of this represent a typical negotiation. However this is not to excuse the actions of the pirates, who are most assuredly not acting ethically even by their own standards when they take advantage of the situation. Given that there have been peaceful incidents of very similar Yrillian ships providing the requested service and leaving, this cannot be attributed to a cultural misunderstanding.
Raids are less common and represent a fast and violent intrusion onto the planet to quickly grab valuables by force, followed by an equally sudden departure. Target valuables are often artwork or cultural artifacts or anything else unique and therefore valuable. The best one can say for these events is that the pirates are there for plunder, not glory, and show no inclination to escalate violence beyond the minimum necessary. These raids typically do not involve the taking of captives,
-Drop any mention of the Syndicate. I won't risk compromising anti-Syndicate operations with even the mention of what we know about their work with the Yrillians. RAL
The most potentially damaging cases are those when piracy is directed against pre-warp civilizations.
-Let's play nice with comments about mainstream Yrillian society. RAL
I-B. Space-Based Activities
Over ninety percent of reported space-based pirate activity is conducted against in-system ships without warp capability. The preference of the pirates in such cases is to lurk at the edge of the system scanning for a likely target, then move in fast and force it to submit, preferably by threats alone. Targets in such cases are mid-size colonies with enough in-system traffic to present worthwhile targets, while not so large as to have armed warp-capable vessels reliably in-system.
Though warp-capable ships are occasionally attacked, this is rarer. Unlike the equivalent Federation cargo vessels, warp-capable Yrillian ships are almost always armed and prepared to put up resistance, leading to an understandable caution on the part of pirates. In fact, the typical Yrillian pirate ship is itself basically an armed freighter. Occasionally more heavily armed pirate ships will attempt to force a warp capable victim into submission. In such cases, the prize is usually the ship itself more than what it is carrying. Pirates have been known to quickly and efficiently cut away nacelles and force the ejection of a warp core, which they then tractor away
-Assumption. We've never been sure just what they do with them. RAL
As with planetary raids, casualties are usually low. The pirates make it a point to leave life support systems intact and have been known to carefully damage subspace transmitters just enough that they can be repaired in hours to days. Some victims report being treated with an odd politeness. Of course, entrusting one's life to the sometimes mercurial whims of a Yrillian work gang is still not recommended.
I-C. Organization
To review, the primary social structure of Yrillian society is the work gang, a voluntary association of individuals working towards a common purpose. Unsurprisingly the crews of Yrillian starships almost always represent a single work gang, often with additional members who hold responsibility for organizing maintenance and provisioning in ports. They operate democratically, with all major decisions being put up to a vote by the crew. There is typically what we would understand as a "captain" with authority to give unquestioned commands in an emergency situation and some ability to organize and settle disputes in non-emergency situations, but their authority is far less than their Federation equivalent. In some cases the captain and the work gang member invested with authority to speak on behalf of the crew in negotiations will be different individuals.
The structure of a Yrillian pirate crew is the same, and this illustrates an important point. The majority of Yrillian pirate ships are not ships and crews organized with the intent to engage in piracy, but rather ordinary ships whose crew have elected to engage in opportunistic piracy. The line can be disturbingly blurry in many cases, with ships that spend the vast majority of their time engaging in legitimate interstellar trade or other socially useful tasks and then on some rare occasion seize upon an opportunity to use the force of their armed starship to impose their will upon others. A combination of cultural and psychological factors, discussed in more detail in Section II, make it all too easy for even crew members that would consider themselves normal moral sapients to slip into the pirate mindset.
That said, there are what we might consider dedicated pirate ships. These ships are typically more heavily armed than typical Yrillian ships (though not so much as the Privateers like which they aspire to be; see Section III). They are also more typically despised by other Yrillians and treated more like actual criminals, depending on a few ports of call that are willing to tolerate their activity. These ships often have much stronger leadership than a typical Yrillian starship, having been organized by a charismatic individual who dominates their crew with force of personality and occasional applied violence.
-Reemphasizing the point that Yrillian 'tolerance' of piracy is overblown. RAL.
I-D Ports of Piracy
Law enforcement among Ethur II and its colonies is weak and inconsistent by Federation standards. Nevertheless, piracy is illegal* in most locations and work gangs have been successfully convicted on piracy charges in the past. Many pirates, especially those who engage in piracy regularly rather than opportunistically, take advantage of two Yrillian ports which are known to specifically turn a blind eye to such illegal activities. The ports provide a place to dispose of illegally obtained goods, obtain repairs which will not be recorded or reported, and even change unique identifying features of ships to avoid later prosecution.
*At least when not conducted by a licensed Privateer (see Section III).
The first such port is Daasruz, an orbital complex the size of a large city orbiting a Type M moon which in turn orbits a gas giant. Daasruz is many centuries old, and it's full history has been deliberately obscured. The fact that the name Daasruz is of Orion etymology hints at connections to the old Orion Empire. Daasruz's existence is disliked by most Yrillian governments, but it occupies one of the most defensible positions in known space. Ultra-rare materials found in its gas giant are compressed by the world's gravity and energized by its magnetic field to create a unique pattern of subspace wakes that allow only a few specific safe approach paths for ships, which are easily defensible. The complex itself is believed to have the firepower of multiple starbases, and the ability to draw resources from the Class M moon it orbits means it's capable of surviving a siege of indefinite length. Daasruz prides itself on its neutrality and cosmopolitan nature, and members of many known sapient species can be found there.
The second such port is Cor Cewri, which is the name of both a sprawling orbital complex and an ancient settlement on the only habitable plateau on the Class L world it orbits. Cor Cewri is a place of great spiritual importance to the Yrillian people. It is home to a cultural sub-group known by a term that translates to "the Gardeners" and who seem to revere space travel itself. The importance of these Gardeners to the Yrillian people is not well understood, though they have also been spoken of as 'guardians of civilization'. Regardless, making a pilgrimage to Cor Cewri is considered the right of all space travelers and its neutrality assured by deep cultural taboos. These taboos do not seem to dissuade pirates from taking advantage of the port's guaranteed neutrality to have a safe port of call where no one will ask them any questions and repair of their ship is a sacred rite.
-Not too sure about this level of detail. I won't make you take it out, but consider if this is really useful information for the audience of this document. RAL
II. Motivations
In this section we will explore the psychological drives and practical motivations that make pirate activity relatively more common among Yrillians as compared to other sapient species. This analysis is based extensively on interviews with captured Yrillian pirates as well as a xeno-cultural analysis of Yrillian media. As always, caution should be taken in assuming a generalization applies to any specific individual.
IIA. Psychological/Cultural
Space travel, especially interstellar space travel, holds a high degree of cachet in Yrillian society. Specifically the common cultural image is of space travelers as a work gang of daring explorers, venturing forward into the void with only themselves to depend on and bringing back valuable knowledge and resources. Actual starship crews know that work in space can often be tedious and unromantic, especially for cargo haulers. However even Yrillian work gangs assigned to such task will frequently go out of their way to do some small bit of exploration or take a detour that promises something interesting, in between travel on their regular routes. It is also common for such groups to devote a large portion of their time to productive economic activity in order to build up resources for a 'holiday' in which they will travel to some location they have never visited before, whether inhabited or not.
Many of the Federation's peoples find this "spirit of adventure" (for lack of a better term) to be an admirable quality. Yet the dark side of this same spirit that can lead to pirate activities. With a view of themselves as daring risk takers, a work gang can come to feel themselves entitled to whatever 'treasure' they find, even if it is already in the possession of other people. Resentments for real or imagined slights, combined with an inflated sense of their own worth, can lead to a psychological spiral of reinforcement among work gang members where they assure each other that they are perfectly justified in taking whatever they wish from potential victims.
This cycle is well understood by Yrillians themselves and is one reason that opportunistic pirates are judged less harshly and punished less severely then they might be in other cultures. Unfortunately this also provides a measure of cover for anti-social career criminals that set out to quite deliberately to engage in criminal activity. By channeling their anti-social impulses into piracy they can masquerade for a time as merely misguided.
A number of other factors exacerbate this impulse to piracy when dealing with non-Yrillian sapients. Being physically larger than most humanoids can engender feelings of superiority and a temptation to bully smaller races. Additionally many Yrillians find the laws of other races to be fundamentally illegitimate, as they are not voted on by the population at large. Even the system of elected representatives used by the Federation is viewed with some suspicion. Though it makes very little logical sense, this sense of illegitimacy can provide more self-justification for pirate activities.
Finally the existence of the Privateers, discussed in Section III, provide a cultural 'template' to follow for pirate activities. This is the case even though a work gang locked in a justification spiral would have to rationally admit that they have no similar privilege to hold themselves above the law.
IIB. Material
Pirate activities are constrained by resources. To conduct piracy, one must be in possession of an armed starship, preferably while not being answerable to any higher level authority that also has say in the ship's usage. This situation is more common among Yrillians than among other interstellar powers. The Yrillian economic system is as yet not fully understood, but large scale resource allocation is on some level controlled by public vote and influenced by the perceived prestigiousness of the allocation. Given how space travel is viewed among Yrillians as well as their skill in building starships inexpensively and quickly, it takes a shockingly low level of justification (by our standards) for a work gang to gain ownership of their own starship.
The majority of Yrillian starships are freighters less than 500k t in size with nothing but a basic navigational shield and a disruptor installed for self-defense. In terms of combat, one would be easily outmatched even by the recently retired Soyuz class. Nevertheless, such a ship still far outclasses having no weapons and no warp drive at all. In addition, combat-focused refits or entire new ships with higher combat ability are believed to be obtainable
II-C Sydraxian Provocation
This subsection is highly speculative but is included for completeness. Federation intelligence indicates that
(deleted by order of the Rear Admiral)
-No! I understand it seems like common knowledge in your office, but consider how widely this will be distributed. No mention of the Sydraxians, that is not a suggestion. RAL
III. "Privateers"
In the Yrillian sphere of influence there exists a small number of starships which are "legally illegal", which is to say they have special permission to engage in activities that would be illegal for anyone else. Translation has settled on "Privateers" as the proper term. They are largely unconnected to the pirates described in the previous sections, except as a source of inspiration, but are described here as it is critical for any Federation entity interacting with them to understand what they are and how they differ from ordinary "pirates".
Though the ships themselves are quite old, these Privateers are heavily armed and manned by elite crews capable of coaxing near miracles out of ships they have maintained and customized for literally generations. Despite being nominal 'outlaws' they spend a majority of their time acting on behalf of various Yrillian government work gangs or socio-political oriented work gangs of similar influence. Under the protection of their 'letter of marque' they conduct activities too varied to properly describe*, but which often benefit from their lack of concern for sovereign territory and willingness to engage in armed exchanges as necessary. In at least some cases for payment they are allowed to conduct pre-approved 'piracy' which has more in common with a carefully managed stage show than armed robbery.
*It is in any case somewhat difficult to separate fact from popular fiction.
Even many Yrillians admit that the arrangement is needlessly convoluted, open to abuse, makes very little sense, and only encourages emulation by genuine pirates. Unsurprisingly, it originated in a time of war and enormous social upheaval as described briefly in Section II-A. Like many cultural features that make little sense, it persists on inertia and the presumption that it will fade out on its own as the original Privateers are gradually destroyed.
-I could tell you were resisting the temptation to describe some examples of 'cultural features that make little sense' from our own member worlds.
RALII-A. History
Approximately 120 years ago, Yrillian space was caught up in the most recent of their civilization-wide civil wars,
When the war sputtered to a halt and efforts turned to preserving their technological and cultural civilization, the Privateers were instrumental in turning back opportunists who had carefully kept out of the war, but now came forward in an attempt to dominate what remained. It is likely these efforts more than the war itself that cemented their special status in Yrillian society today and made their letters of marque effectively irrevocable.
-Not really sure this is necessary either, but it's interesting stuff and not as incendiary as current events. RAL
II-B. Active Status
There are at least four Privateers still regularly active, and possibly more that operate too discreetly for us to note their activities. The letters of marque are attached to the ships themselves, meaning that all of the hulls are over 100 years old. Undoubtedly they have all been refitted and customized so extensively as to be considered the same ship only because replacements were done one piece at a time.
The one Privateer that has been positively identified by Federation witnesses is known as the Gentenmaru. It was reported to be around 1m t in size, though extensive sensor-jamming and distortions by the Gentenmaru during the encounter make certainty difficult. This is larger than most Yrillian ships, and it's uncertain if this represents larger ship sizes in general in the pre-war era and if other Privateers should be expected to be of similar size, or if possibly the apparent size was a sensor trick.
The nature of the encounter should demonstrate the caution with which these Privateers should be treated. The Gentenmaru soundly defeated the Riala, pride of the Amarki fleet, albeit not with weapons fire but by some sort of sensor distortion utilizing local stellar phenomena that left the Riala effectively blinded for nearly 15 minutes. This was long enough to pick-up the fugitive Amarki scientist they had been tasked to retrieve and which the Riala had been pursuing. It also would likely have been long enough to destroy the Riala if that had been their objective. The captain was described as an impossibly young Yrillian woman who is presumably a tactical genius.
-No. Again, this may be common knowledge in your Office, but the Amarki are extraordinarily proud of the Riala and they went to great efforts to keep this humiliation private. Let's not undermine that. RAL
IV. Conclusions
This document is intended to aid in the understanding of the phenomenon of Yrillian piracy, which will hopefully aid in crafting proper and appropriate responses if pirate activity encroaches on the reader's areas of responsibility. As has been made clear, pirate activity is largely an emergent phenomenon of Yrillian psychology, culture, and resource distribution, and there are no easy answers.
-Don't even allude to the Syndicate. RAL
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Gentenmaru captain. Actual height 2 meters.
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I'd say that the system worked in the past as we would have one Starbase per sector and all mobile assets under the jurisdiction of one fleet commander. However we're getting to the point that this frame work is getting stressed. The Sol Sector has Sol, Berazed and Gaen which all have or will have Starfleet infrastructure in them not to mention the Amarkua Sector. We might want to flip the structure where the local installation commanders have operational command while the Sector Command has overall strategic command.
As soon as I'm not working 14+ hour days and can scoop my brain back into my skull I'm getting back to my Orion privateers.
And I'm stealing a small handful of the those setting details. Always good to have an actual pirate port handy.
And I'm stealing a small handful of the those setting details. Always good to have an actual pirate port handy.