Junkers and Piracy:

[Rudo]

This is not about Junkers being pirated. That's straightforward enough.

This is about Junkers conducting acts of piracy. I've been receiving comments lately about some people doing it wrong, and instead of first taking an in-RP approach to a problem that stems from slightly OOC behavior, I'm going to post a small guide first.

This is about those Junkers that knock out tradelanes in capital systems to try and hijack a full load of ore, only to fly two lane hops and sell it at a lawful destination while playing dumb about the blue message that the whole server saw. They're straining peoples' RP by doing that. Common sense is in order.

My faction, the Congress, the .:j:. - we pirate fairly frequently. People just never hear about it because we do it right.

RP Background:

Junkers are a grey-area faction. They do business with companies, lawful authorities and criminal elements alike. Acts of piracy are canon for the faction, which combined with the ability to land on lawful bases and not be aggressed on sight by lawful authorities makes it seem like the ideal powerpirating faction to the untrained player. They see Junker NPCs pirate everything in sight, but willfully ignore that those Junkers that do the pirating are very quickly scrubbed out of existence afterward if they do it at a lawful base. Junkers as pirates act with subtlety and good judgement. They always have an alibi and an escape route, and use their minds over their guns.

The Goofus Junker's Piracy:

- When smuggling, they have a full load of contraband that they through trade lanes run right up to the planet's mooring point in plain sight of military and police players.
- When robbing ore haulers, they hold a gun to the head of the hauler while demanding the whole load in a capital system, over system chat.
- They chase after house corporation transports across capital planet orbits, shooting and demanding while base defenses and patrols remain neutral.
- When confronted by lawful authorities for the above activities, they dock at the nearest friendly or neutral port of call while taunting them.
- Most importantly, they do nothing to balance out the bad acts. No running "salvaged" cargo to planets or shipyards, no playing along with interrogation RP, nothing. Just flat-out piracy.

The Gallant Junker's Piracy:

- When smuggling, they remain as out of sight as posslble, taking jumpholes and using a Junker or other base's dropoff point.
- When robbing miners and ore haulers, they do it outside house borders and make it a point to be merely inconvenient as opposed to devastating when they catch said hauler. Best to avoid bad press. Don't be greedy. Even better yet, tip off a pirate, let him do the dirty work and then split the profits with him.
- They are civil toward house corporations in house space along tradelanes, keeping the sanctity of in-house Junker bases in mind. Junkers are a barely tolerated presence as is, the worse and more blatant the piracy, the less tolerated they become. Outside house space? Maybe. If the corporation is carrying embarassing cargo? A bit better. If it's a freelancer trader, independent or indy smuggler? It's a turkey shoot. As long as it's out of sight.
- They don't get caught by lawful authorities. If questioned, they have an alibi, a fall guy and are prepared to jump through full legal hoops along with this. A fine is small potatoes if it preserves your reputation.
- The good Junker resolves to be extremely visible about his moving salvaged goods to lawful bases, being helpful and courteous to lawful officials and doing his best to keep any images of bad behavior out of their minds. He balances his bad acts with good useful ones.

It'd be great if more Junkers learned the art of subtlety and moderation that makes them fun to play. They're not a faction that can do everything a pirate can do while preserving special privileges. The Junkers that continue to give my faction a headache and full-faction repercussions will soon find that in-game actions earn in-game reactions.

The saying that Junkers "take care of their own?" That can be interpreted in more ways than one.

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