I'll reply to both of you here.
@Ice Hellion: There are slaves, and then there are slaves. For many in the IS, at least in the "post-2nd Succession War" era, being nabbed by the
right kind of pirate might easily be seen as liberation - the population of Butte Hold comes t mind immediately, since there seems to be a fairly substantial settlement that at least tolerates Redjack Ryan, if not openly welcomes him....Kind of makes you wonder who the last overlord was,
quiaff?
@Takiro: "Loot" is like any other cargo -- it all has certain handling characteristics.
* There is "bulk" (grains, raw minerals, chemicals, etc.; water is a special category), which is generally low-value, unless it is either water or some exotic chemical; either way, its pretty tough to handle if it isn't pre-loaded into something like a railcar
* There's "break-bulk" - think of the inside of a UPS/FedEx van - which would be smallish things like personal computers/electronics, jewelry (emptying a Zales is more difficult than it might seem), designer clothes, etc
* There are palletized loads - ICE engine units, mainframes, air conditioners, refrigerators, etc - all on pallets that can be grabbed by a forklift
* There containerized loads, where the loot is all nice and packaged for the taking:
* Then there is RO-RO - "Roll-On, Roll-Off": vehicles, mechs...and people...that can move under their own power.
Unless you're after something very, very specific, bulk goods are pretty useless to a pirate....now, once the raw minerals are processed into
billets....different story. The vast majority of loot will fall into the other categories.
Raiding someone's mail (i.e., Break-Bulk), is hit or miss, since most of the packaging is nondescript, and you'll probably never know what you have until you open the box...jewelry, consumer electronics and kitchen goods, OTOH....
The key thing with most of these is cost-to-value: for the pirate, there needs to be a large score just to cover operating expenses..at the same time, from the instant they hit dirt, they are usually on a VERY tight clock - get too tied up with marginal loot, and you're screwed when the 57th Dragoons - the "Pirate Gutters" - show up to feast on you. You have to smash and grab the most valuable stuff as fast as you can, and get out -- but it has to be in large-enough quantities to be worthwhile.
Since neither troops nor mechs - figuratively speaking - can carry much on their own, and since they need to grab so much mass, and quickly, to make the whole operation worthwhile, they need something better than their hands...but they can't count on vehicles being intact on the ground. RF's, OTOH, fill that gap, while retaining a LOT of capacity.
Now, you wouldn't use these in every single dirtside raid, but you would use them in many, if not most such operations - pirates have to go where the loot i, and if they can't seize a ship in space, hitting the perimeter of a town/city is their best bet, since urban areas have all the things pirates want: slaves, and loot. The countryside is just a place to land in.
Remember: pirates only "take" territory for as long as they need to, and nothing more.
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Topic: Radio Flyer... (Read 9346 times)