History of Orion Piracy
Piracy was an old and established way of life to the Orions. Pirates were the first Orions in space, and the savior of Botchok (the Orion homeworld) during the Orion War. Though their depredations slowed colonial growth, it was not enough to dull their luster. During Rigel's New Days, Orion pirates lived beyond the sphere of the Colonies, plundering the ships of unknown races beyond, and selling the booty to worlds in the Orion interior. Though a little hazardous, it was a comfortable way of life and perfectly respectable-if you were Orion, and not on the receiving end of a pirate raid.
The Reverse ended all that. When the Colonies fell into anarchy, the pirates were deprived of their support, and their forward camps became isolated. Most moved into Orion Space and took legitimate jobs, but those remaining banded together to form large pirate fleets. The huge planetary raids that marked the end of the Reverse capped off their descent from respectability-what little was left to them.
The pirates of those days were mostly a sorry lot. Likely as not, they were men without prospects, family, or future and with precious little to lose. Orion civilization had long-since begun its collapse, hundreds of millions of Orions were dead; dozens of Colonial planetary populations ceased to exist, and there didn't seem any way to stop the decay. The pirates stole for survival more than they stole for profit, as the goods they sold on miserable tradeworlds brought only a fraction of their value-usually they sought food, clothing, tools, and spare parts. Modern Orion historians often remark that given the conditions, the average Orion in those days could have been considered a pirate, ship-owner or not. So called 'pirate kings' who gathered covens of captains and ships were many and usually short-lived, their riches always coveted by someone a little smarter, a little crueler, and a little faster on the draw.
Nevertheless, when most Orions were reduced to mean subsistence, pirates seemed like kings; free to go where they wanted, and answering to no man but their own inscrutable law. Though their work was low and dangerous, it was no worse than what most people had to endure throughout their working lives, and it held the promise of a lucky haul just around the corner. Orion piates never went out of business. Ships, captains, and recruits were always available (though never very plentiful-maybe one in 20 lasted 10 ten years), and there were always those merchants and fanciers willing to loan seed money to collect a handsome percentage of the take. Although piracy might have been a chancy business, it paid.
The Romulans were not tempting to the later pirates-quite the opposite. Poor and not very technologically advanced, the Romulans shipped mostly raw materials or half-finished basic goods, valuable to the Romulans, but not to any market the Orions could hope to reach. Worse, the Romulans were also pirates. Soon after capturing a rich haul near the Star Empire, the plunder-laden Orion ship would disappear. Furthermore, the Romulans were utterly intolerant of aliens and destroyed them without compunction or mercy. An Orion pirate vessel was the first to discover that the Orion colony on Farx had been obliterated, resulting in over 22 million Orion deaths. Only the great skill of the captain and crew saved them from death at the hands of the Romulan task force that lurked in the space around Farx. Orions retreated from the Romulans wholesale, and the Orion pirates followed suit.
When the Klingons began to impinge on Orion Space, it was the pirates who first met them. Invariably coming off second-best to the larger, better armed Klingon ships, the pirates soon learned to keep clear of the warships in favor of Klingon merchant vessels visiting already conquered worlds. The Imperial Navy labored mightily to keep their trade ships inviolate and spared no effort to seek and smash all pirate bases, but is was a losing effort. The Klingon Empire was rich, and its shipping too tempting to be pillaged.
When the Federation races began to expand near to Orion pirate enclaves, they came with a great wealth of goods and hardly any armament at all. Rich and innocent, they openly traded with Colonies near to them and distributed maps to their principal worlds. In particular, Humans and Andorians were fond of planting new settlements, far from their homeworlds, lengthening their trade routes and increasing their vulnerability. The Orion pirates had a field day on the supply ships and traders that blundered their way. Of course, as their identity as Orions was inviolate, the pirates took pains to ensure no one ever lived to betray their identity.
The creation of Starfleet Command put a definite crimp in the Orion pirate operations of the era. With its centralized command and support structures, Starfleet was very effective in patrolling areas at risk. Because many of the early crews included Andorians, encounters with pirates tended to be short, sharp, and fatal. Starfleet's standing orders were to engage all pirates, seek out their bases, and destroy them.
Because the total Federation merchant tonnage increased every year, piracy remained profitable. In addition as long as the Orion Colonies existed and the take increased, the pirates hung on-sometimes going so far as to base themselves on Colonies under some legitimate pretext. This practice didn't die out (so far as is known), until Rigel and the Orion Colonies in Federation Space applied for, and was granted Federation membership. Prior to membership, unwary traders in lonely stretches of space would still find Orion pirates quite some distance from Rigel. Starfleet discovered around the time of the Four Years War with the Klingons, when fleets, task forces, and squadrons were milling around Orion space, that some pirate bands even had mobile base facilities, and could appear anywhere without warning.
As settlement increased near traditional Orion holdings however, pirates fled the more densely populated regions. Too many people and ships meant secrecy was harder to maintain, mobile facilities or not. As a matter of course, the pirates gradually retreated from the core of Federation space, and away from the major trade lanes between Rigel and the Federation's nearest major member worlds.
During the Four Years War, pirates profited handsomely by turning smuggler or mercenary, but the greatest boon they received was the creation of the Neutral Zone between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. In the space between the two expansionist powers, the Orion pirates found a paradoxically safe haven and ventured forth on both sides to plunder merchants, freighters, and the occasional small outpost. Even Starfleet and Klingon warships were not entirely safe from attack. In most pirate attacks on warships, it was often impossible to tell whether the attackers were the enemy-or pirates.
As Federation settlement along the border increased after the Four Years War, the Klingons struck a diabolical agreement with the Orion pirates. In exchange for Federation ships and cargoes, pirates received immunity from Klingon reprisal and even safe havens and bases inside Klingon territory. The Federation protested strongly, and naturally, the Klingons professed no knowledge of such arrangements-and continue to do so to modern times. As neutrals, the Orions could trade with anyone-without saying how or from where the merchandise came.
Officially, piracy is outlawed within Orion space, and the Orion Colonial Council and most planetary governments assist Starfleet in tracking down pirate bands that seeming appear overnight and from out of the ether. Piracy is still a profitable business, but has become extremely dangerous with the advent of newer starship technologies in Starfleet and Klingon Defence Force inventories that can make a relatively small and seemingly innocuous Starfleet or Klingon vessel quite the deadly adversary in a one-on-one or multiple pirate vessel engagement. Pirates, the few that are known to exist and elude capture (there are always a few), are more selective about their targets since the result (if they are lucky) is imprisonment and reeducation in a Federation penal facility, or the infamous Rura Penthe Penal Colony if they are unlucky enough to be captured inside Klingon space.
Orion observers (and there are many), remain somewhat suprised at the precipitous decline of Orion piracy since admission into the Federation. The formal Federation recognition of the Orion Space Navy, even though a token force compared to Starfleet, the Klingon Defence Forces, or the Romulan Space Navy, lures a great many Orions into military and exploration service, particularly those who possess the hope of one day applying for admission into Starfleet Academy or Starfleet enlisted service. In this sense, the Orion Naval Academy on Rhinate acts rather like a prepratory school, and its most promising applicants often move into Starfleet service after 5 years service in the Orion Space Navy.At any rate, the Orion Space Navy is regarded as a viable deterrent to those youngsters so anxious to get into space that they would join a pirate band, or those hard bitten spacers looking for their next line of work, and with enough experience to know piracy is a losing proposition, regardless of how well it may pay.
Still, the astute non-Orion observing Orion culture would realize Orions do nothing without sufficient motive. Prior to Federation membership, consideration on how Orions percieve their place among the major starfaring governments and races has increased, and curiously enough, has produced no real single answer from external observers except the notion that the Borg and Dominion must have frightened the Orions as a race into a frantic, practical response. Piracy may well have declined to nearly nothing as the Orions reorganize their priorities, but it is hard for many students of Orion culture to believe that the vessels and crews simply disappeared or 'went home', and many feel it quite conceivable that the pirates are still there, plying a respectable profession, until the day they are needed to defend Orion Space, whether from Romulan, Borg, or Dominion assault.
Of course, given the normalcy of relations between the Orions and the Federation and Klingons, perhaps this is a tacit acknowledgement from Orions to their two largest neighbors that they, the Orions, know who their friends are-and who they are not.