Pirate Economics
The Orions are the last people to claim that robbing space vessels is a profitable operation. In fact, it is one of the most uncertain and unprofitable of all occupations. Misjudging a ship's defenses can kill a crew and getting caught by an armed warship is almost certain death. Occasional pirates are not as skilled as those who dedicate all their time to the work, but traders and military forces soon come to recognize professionals on sight. Piracy is a peculiar kind of marginal work. Profit is only half the draw; the other half is the fun and notoriety.
About a sixth of all cargoes taken by pirates are not resold. Such goods are usually either rare luxuries or bare necessities. Explorers who hit strange freighters are interested primarily in odd and choice delights either for themselves, their basemates, or their patron. Such items, whether foodstuffs, wine, art objects, or jewelry, are either too pretty to sell or too unique to be safely fenced.
By far, most taken-bu-not-resold loot consists of anonymous spare parts, food, water, fuel, dilithium crystals, and the like. Pirates are fond of 'foraging' aliens in lieu of returning to base for supplies, but all pirates keep their eyes open for usable equipment. The more desperate kinds of pirates do little more than raid for necessities, but their numbers are small.
The higher proportion of cargoes lost to pirates are ultimately resold in Orion or neutral markets for credits, gold-pressed latinum, dilithium, radioactives, or other small valuable commodities that may be transported from planet to planet without leaving a telltale trail or taking up a lot of cargo space. Pirates rarely take cargoes at random, and organized bands out of a single base have 'shopping lists' of particular ships and cargoes for plundering. Such cargoes may have been ordered from a particular buyer who does not wish to pay full price or deal through normal, legitimate channels. A speculating pirate may be anticipating a demand or stockpiling against an expected dry spell. The pirates are expected to et the requested swag and bring it back to base, where they are paid according to prearranged percentage.
Pirates do not get the full value of teh cargoes they take. The people who resell them have to take a percentage, and the buyers would not handle stolen goods unless it was substantially cheaper than market price. The ultimate market value of a stolen cargo is about 50 percent of the price that a similar, unstolen cargo would fetch on the open market, and of that amount, the pirates would get about a third.
Small wonder that quite a fw pirates work on their own, in spite of the uncertainty of repair and shifts in the market (not to mention the chance of encountering a warship). Freelancers might get to keep up to 35 percent of the cost of the goods taken. Of course, the drawback is that this amount must pay for crew replacements, repairs, the other normal costs of starship operation, and operating reserve to get them through the lean and bad times.
Every act of piracy puts crew, ship, and captain on the line. Rarely does everything work out right, but the vessel that cannot rise above minor equipment failures and occasional disputes with the crew (not to mention unplanned suprises on board their victim) is just not going to make it in piracy. Every one who tries to rob another vessel in space had better expect the unexpected and prepare for the unanticipated.
Managing a criminal enterprise that depends on high technology and violence is tricky. There can be no room for those who forget their orders when weapons come out and they start blasting. Operating costs are high and unpredictable, and they may exceed the value of any cargo. Every operation is a potential total loss-which is why the single most important factor to success is the ability of the captain.
The captain has the arduous task of simultaneously guiding a raid and calculating its costs in men and equipment. Where the cargo is known and the value calculable, this is easy, but for many pirates, the nature of the cargo may be known only generally. Based on expenses a strike can or needs to be completed. Experience is often the captain's only guide. If his guess is wrong, he must retreat, knowing (as the crew knows) that a cost has been paid that will not be recovered.
Independents worry about failed attacks more than contractors do. This sometimes makes them cautious, sometimes makes them reckless, but always interferes with judgement and threatens the success of an operation. Small wonder that successful independents are a much sought after commodity-or that unsuccessful ones have a high mortality rate.