Pirates
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While a rare issue in the Core Worlds, spiracy, as some amusingly refer to, is a significant force of social decay in the Wayback. In recent years, the Planetary Jingwei's grasp of the pirate problem has severely weakened. Nowadays, pirates run free, operating in bands that raid and pillage defenseless colonies.
Pirates spend lots of time in space and are slightly out of their element when fighting on the ground. They are bad guys, albeit often bumbling and incompetent, with a sense that the smarter pirates are probably running the show off-stage. They obsess over trinkets, a catchall term for loot, with a primary want for goodies that come from outside the system.
As mentioned above, Pirates encompasses many different groups of outlaws, criminals and looters roaming the Wayback, trying to prey on the weak. Their roster focuses on high mobility and reckless assaults. Weapons are usually improvised and repurposed—rarely accurate but packing a lot of raw firepower, especially when firing on the move.
Pirates use a variety of transport vehicles to quickly move across the combat map and close in on their enemies. While these vehicles offer some protection, pirates are especially vulnerable when disembarking. Anticipating when and where they will land and keeping a squad ready to react is essential to prevent an overrun.
Pirates tend to use two primary transport vehicles depending on squad size. Larger squads ride in heavy trucks, while smaller squads use light jeeps.
Pirate Units
Infantry
| Name | Squad Size | Squad Weapon | Special Weapon | Hit Points per soldier | Armor | Armor Durability | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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6-8 | Pirate Assault Rifle | Workshopped RPG | 10 | 30 | 30 | A gang of regular space pirates equipped with makeshift assault rifles and frag grenades. Against armored targets, they also use improvised RPGs. They come in large squads and try to overwhelm enemies with reckless aggression and firepower. |
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7-8 | Pirate Pipe Gun | N/A | 10 | 10 | 25 | A loose group of outlaws armed with various weapons and possibly under the influence of illegal substances. |
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8 | R14A2 ARC | EMP Rifle | 10 | 50 | 40 | By pure luck, experience or even skill, these scavengers survived longer than others in the wayback. Their veteran status makes them especially determined and dangerous, and their equipment is usually of much higher quality. |
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3 | Pirate Assault Rifle | Flamethrower | 10 | 30 | 30 | A small team of pirates with a flamethrower to smoke out enemies in close combat. |
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3 | Pirate Assault Rifle | Light Chaingun | 10 | 30 | 30 | A small team of scavengers with a portable chain gun. Lacking accuracy but making up for it with sheer firepower, perfect for suppression while advancing. The makeshift nature of the gun makes it prone to jamming. |
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3 | Pirate Assault Rifle | EMP Rifle | 10 | 30 | 30 | A specialized pirate team normally tasked with disabling automated defense mechanisms when boarding spaceships. Their EMP gun disables enemy mechs and vehicles on the battlefield. While not dangerous to infantry, they can easily take out vehicles caught out of position. |
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4 | Pirate looted PDW | N/A | 13 | 75 | 60 | A team of heavily armored pirate outlaws specialized in boarding and pacifying spacecraft through violent means. |
Vehicle
| Name | Hit Points | Armor | Armor Durability | Vehicle Weapon | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
140 | 90/70/50 | 250 | Laser Lance | A specialized version of the pirate truck with a repurposed spaceship laser cannon mounted on top. This truck is a major threat to heavily armored vehicles. The cannon generates extreme heat and must vent periodically to remain operational. |
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140 | 90/70/50 | 250 | Mounted Chaingun | Using the same chassis as the rocket truck and basic transport, this vehicle delivers mobile suppressive firepower. The truck-mounted version of the chain gun is heavier and deals more damage but is still prone to jamming. |
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140 | 90/70/50 | 250 | Rocket Organ | A wheeled truck equipped with multiple unguided rocket launcher tubes. Inaccurate, but with long range. |
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200 | 120/100/80 | 300 | Flamethrower (Vehicle) | A heavy truck with high durability but minimal armor. The flamethrower mounted on top covers large areas in fire, devastating entrenched infantry. However, the flammable liquid inside the truck makes it prone to catastrophic explosions when damaged. |
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300 | 130/110/90 | 450 | M6 CMG | An up-armored civilian truck fitted with a twin-linked heavy machine gun turret. It is surprisingly durable and can threaten infantry and light vehicles. |
Transports
| Name | Hit Points | Armor | Armor Durability | Vehicle Weapon | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
120 | 90/70/50 | 150 | N/A | An unarmed version of the Pirate Truck (Modular) used as a transport by small squads of pirates. |
|
140 | 110/90/80 | 200 | N/A | A Heavy Truck used by pirates to move large squads around. |
Turrets
| Name | Hit Points | Armor | Armor Durability | Weapon | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
140 | 110 | 250 | N/A | Fixed emplacement with large EMP emitters that can disable and damage vehicles over range. |
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140 | 110 | 250 | M6 CMG | Fixed emplacement with twin-linked heavy MGs to suppress advancing enemies. |
Unique Units
Unique units includes non-standard units that can be found in MENACE belonging to the Pirate Faction, typically encountered as parts of mission objectives that only spawn for these purposes.
| Name | Squad Size | Squad Weapon | Leader | Hit Points per soldier | Armor | Armor Durability | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
6-8 | Pirate Assault Rifle | Workshopped RPG | 10 | 0 | 0 | Disguised as ordinary civilians, these elite pirates wreck havoc behind enemy lines. |
|
3 | Pirate Assault Rifle | Light Chaingun | 10 | 0 | 0 | A small support team armed with a chaingun disguised in civilian clothing. |
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6-8 | R10A6 K-PAC | Workshopped RPG | 10 | 0 | 0 | The Saboteur Ringleader is especially ruthless and experienced. He also carries advanced equipment. |
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5 | Pirate looted PDW | 13 | 75 | 60 | A pirate ships first Mate leads a squad of reckless killers equipped with heavy breaching armor and deadly corridor sweepers. | |
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5 | Pirate looted PDW | 13 | 75 | 60 | An especially hardened squad of Pirate veterans pulling security for higher ups in the pirate ranks. | |
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5 | Pirate Assault Rifle | 10 | 30 | 30 | The infamous bombmaker spreading terror in the area. Armed with a variety of explosives. | |
|
3 | Pirate Assault Rifle | EMP Rifle | 10 | 30 | 30 | A pirate ship's first engineer, equipped with an EMP rifle and EMP grenades to take out any kind of machinery on the spot. |
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6 | Captain's PDW | Gr331 ESG - Grenade Launcher | 15 | 90 | 80 | The leader of any pirate outfit, equipped with the best looted gear and surrounded by his most loyal mates. Known to use so-called 'Pirate Speed' stims. |
Pirate Missions (TBD)
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| MISSION NAME | Description of Mission |
| MISSION NAME | Description of Mission |
| MISSION NAME | Description of Mission |
| MISSION NAME | Description of Mission |
Strategies
Pirates are numerous, lightly armoured, and equipped with weak weapons. They are easily suppressed and routed. They pose a real threat only at the very start of the player's journey, before acquiring proper gear to fight them. From the mid game onwards, they usually crumble under any real firepower. It is also very easy to chain-break their morale once you start mowing down their ranks. The only strength they have is their numbers.
On some missions (usually defense, but sometimes also on offense), they will field many vehicles to transport their troops. You can shoot at these vehicles with regular infantry weapons and kill the passengers before they disembark. Their non-transport vehicles are also soft enough (apart from heavy trucks) that regular infantry weapons will punch through and disable them with a couple of salvos, so do not be afraid to engage them.
Just watch out for their boarding commandos. They have grenades to disable your vehicles and will counterattack to catch you off guard. It is best to either "tank" their counterattack with a vehicle or armoured infantry, or shoot at them from outside their range.
Because of their large numbers, it is advised to have the Decoys upgrade, the Stand-By skill on your SL, or any other way of forcing their turns before the player's on defense missions. They tend to force the player to waste an entire round by first moving units outside of view range, then swarming the objective once the player has no units left to activate.
Notes/Trivia
TBD
