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{{trope}}
[[File:futurama_pirate_2324.jpg|link=Futurama (Animation)|frame|Arrrr! Hand over yer [[Space X|space booty]], or I'll blast ye with me space cannons!]]
 
 
{{quote|'''Fry''': ''Space pirates?''<br />
'''Leela''': ''You know, [[Pirate|pirates]], but [[Recycled in Space|in space]]!''|''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'', "Godfellas"}}
 
Depending how you view the future, lawlessness will ''always'' be present in society. There's ''always'' going to be a shadier, nastier way of doing business, and that will almost certainly follow humanity to the stars. Thus, sci-fi authors will include [[Expy|Expies]] of modern and historic un/organized crime--be they space mafia, gangs, or--in our case--''pirates.''
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As with Pirates in general, there are two kinds of Space Pirates in science fiction:
# The normal version are violent criminals with a spaceship, who attack other spaceships, just like [[Ruthless Modern Pirates|present-day pirates]] (or, in fact, most pirates of any kind). Once you have shipping between different solar systems/planets, pirates preying on said shipping are bound to show. Simple as that. [[Justified Trope|Done this way, piracy actually makes sense]], provided there's an enabling factor. That could be anything from the technology of the setting creating trade lanes (via a [[Portal Network]], predictable [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]] routes thanks to [[Negative Space Wedgie|Negative Space Wedgies]], or timed space flights between planets to reduce time spent between planets, as in [[Real Life]]), to using a variant of the method employed by modern pirates (say, smaller ships striking at commercial shipping in the orbit of a planet).
# The other version does a [[Recycled in Space]] on [[A Pirate 400 Years Too Late|every eighteenth century pirate cliche ever]]. Reasons for including this version will typically be along the lines of "Because [[Space Is an Ocean]], it has to have [[Pirate|Pirates]]" rather than making any meaningful attempt at justifying their existence. They have Cornish accents, beards, [[Talk Like a Pirate|say "Arr!" a lot]], have parrots (probably robot) and [[Artificial Limbs|false limbs]] (probably cybernetic) and wear tricorn hats and eyepatches (or have cybernetic eyes). They may even have ships shaped like [[Space Sailing|boats]], and instead of making their victims [[Walk the Plank|walk the plank]], they set them adrift in [[Escape Pod|escape pods]] or just [[Thrown Out the Airlock|throw them out the airlock]]. Lacking ropes, they'll beam a [[Boarding Party]] over to their victim's ship, or send out a shuttle, or use a [[Tractor Beam]].
 
Compare [[Sky Pirates]], [[Instant Plunder, Just Add Pirates]]. See also: [[Pirate]] and [[Pirate Girl]]. You will [[Space Is an Ocean|often see them fighting]] [[Space Marine|Space Marines]].
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* ''[[Captain Harlock]]'', a [[Loveable Rogue]] space pirate who has also appeared in other works of [[Leiji Matsumoto]]. The second version. His ship is a [[Military Mashup Machine]] with a submarine prow, a battleship body and a galleon rear. The [[Leiji Matsumoto|Leijiverse]] also has Emeraldas, who sails the Sea of Stars in a frigate attached to a dirigible.
* Buichi Terasawa's ''Cobra'' is also the second version. He is slightly less altruistic and noble-minded than Harlock, being mostly in it for his own interest, but he is also a hero, and has some morals and is better than an organized Guild of pirates that are his archenemies.
* Ryoko from ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]'' is the first type. Spinoff ''Tenchi Muyo GXP'' also. With [[Ax Crazy|Tarant Shunk]] around, it will be for fun.
* Cleo and his crew in ''[[Glass Fleet]]'' are more or less space pirates.
* The ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' spinoff series ''[[Gundam SEED Astray]]'' reveals a surprising number of pirates operating at the fringes of the SEED universe.
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*** This actually gets a [[Lampshade]] in the side manga ''Skull Heart'', where we're shown the Crossbone Gundam shortly after it's finished, and one of the pilots, Umon Samon, suggests adding the familiar pirate elements (like a skull and crossbones on the forehead). The Gundam's pilot Kinkaid Nau teasingly asks "Isn't that a little much?", to which the other man says "Well, if going to be space pirates, we might as well run with it!"
**** As a minor note, Umon had been inspired by a Dom pilot he fought at the Battle of Solomon in the One Year War, who used a skull and crossbones as his insignia.
* And ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Age (Anime)|Gundam AGE]]'' also gives us a group. They're known as Visidian, they pirate Federation vessels, and as of the Kio arc, they have their own Gundam.
* ''[[Oban Star-Racers]]'' has Lord Furter, a comical example most notable for his incompetence and non-threatening appearance, even though both he and his crew seem to think he's the most bad-ass thing ever. He's also self-aware. "I'm [[Boarding Party|boarding]] your ship! That's what pirates do, we board ships!"
* ''[[Sol Bianca]]'', also the name of the ship that serves as both the home and the interstellar headquarters for an all-female band of notorious space pirates.
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* Bojack and crew from the ninth ''[[Dragonball Z]]'' movie.
* In [[Fooly Cooly]], the Pirate King Atomsk is said to be so powerful he can [[Monumental Theft|steal entire planets]].
* ''[[Bodacious Space Pirates (Light Novel)|Bodacious Space Pirates]]'' (aka ''Mōrestu Pirates''), as might be deduced from the title. They are definitely of the second variety, with the tons of [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] to other similar shows, including ''[[Captain Harlock]]''.
 
 
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* Rex Dexter, from ''Mystery Men Comics'', fought Space Pirates in his first appearance.
* This was basically Terra-Man's schtick in [[Bronze Age]] [[Superman]] comics. Aliens kidnapped him as a boy from the 19th century American West. He eventually broke free and became a pirate in the aliens' own society. When he finally returned to Earth, he found that spending years traveling at relativistic speeds had let 100 years pass him by, so that his 19th century mannerisms made him a literal space cowboy. As Superman once observed, Earth wasn't really of much logical interest to a planet-hopping thief like TM, but TM took offense to an alien being called Earth's greatest hero, and so christened himself ''Terra''-Man and kept returning just to pick fights with Supes.
* Jeb and Tommy from ''[[Star Raiders (Comic Bookcomics)|Star Raiders]]'' are implied as such, though the reader never sees them actually commit any sort of piracy. [[Pirate Girl|Tommy]] even sports an eyepatch...
* [[Darkhawk]] wears armor meant for an army of space pirates.
* ''[[Starslayer]]'' Pirates in a [[Space Opera]] setting.
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== Film ==
* Disney's ''[[Treasure Planet]]'', being ''Treasure Island'' [[Recycled in Space]]. And it was ''awesome''.
* ''[[The Ice Pirates (Film)|The Ice Pirates]]'' was a [[So Bad It's Good]] '80s sci fi adventure film where the protagonists were...you guessed it...interstellar pirates looking for water.
* ''[[Space Mutiny]]'' had pirates (recycled footage of Cylon warships) with at least one inhabitable system as claimed territory. Keep in mind this is a setting where space travel is less than light speed, necessitating multi-generational ships. Except when they forget and it isn't (it's that kind of movie, watch the ''[[MST3KMystery Science Theater 3000]]'' version and be amazed. The Agony Booth did [http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Space_Mutiny_1988.aspx a recap] that tried and failed to make sense of the tech level).
* ''[[Star Wars]]'' references to "Corellian Pirate Ships". And Han Solo ''is'' a smuggler.
* In ''[[The American Astronaut]]'' the Blueberry Pirate [[Only Electric Sheep Are Cheap|steals and bootlegs fruit]] across the solar system.
* ''[[Battle Beyond the Stars]]''. We're first introduced to [[Space Trucker]] Cowboy being attacked by jackers who are blasting his ship with laser fire in order to wear down the shields, whereupon they'll blast him and steal his cargo. Cowboy responds by [[Face Death Withwith Dignity|laconically calling for help]] and playing a [[Captivity Harmonica]].
* ''[[Space Truckers]]'' has the protagonists go "off-road" in order to avoid being stopped by the authorities but end up getting captured by a giant pirate ship, which literally swallows them. These pirates were of the second, [[Recycled in Space]] type, complete with cybernetic false limbs and a skull-and-crossbones flag.
 
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* In the ''Revelation Space'' universe by [[Alastair Reynolds]], pirates lurk in the remains of the Glitter Band (a vast ring of space stations). The pirates, the "Banshees", are thoroughly unromantic bastards who grapple onto freighters to kill the crew and sell anything onboard. The Ultranauts, the crews of the massive slower-than-light freighters, often have elements of space piracy, as they'll just as often loot as save a ship in trouble.
* The impossibility of space piracy and the trick Julian Forward uses to make it work is central to the plot of [[Larry Niven]]'s "The Borderlands of Sol".
* In [[Poul Anderson]] and [[Gordon R. Dickson]]'s ''[[Hoka]]'' stories, when the Hokas set out to emulate a Space Patrol, Alex has horrified visions of their being tried for piracy. He's not even sure that hanging isn't still in effect as the approved form of punishment.
* In [[Piers Anthony]]'s ''[[Bio of a Space Tyrant (Literature)|Bio of a Space Tyrant]]'' series, pirates of the second kind show up as a form of [[Refuge in Audacity]], since the authorities won't believe (or don't want to admit to) ancient-looking pirates operating in space.
* [[Lucky Starr]] confronts space pirates in the juvenile novel ''Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids'' by [[Isaac Asimov]].
* ''Consider Phlebas'' (the first [[The Culture|Culture]] novel by Ian M. Banks). The crew of the ''Clear Air Turbulence'' are ostensibly [[Private Military Contractors]], but are actually just a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] raiding whatever they think will be vulnerable. Seeing as they're carrying out their activities amidst the chaos of an intragalactic war, that tends not to be very much.
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* In [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s [[Vorkosigan Saga]], Miles' Dendarii Mercenary Fleet gets hired to rescue hostages from hijackers. Also, in the later books, the Barrayaran Fleet is put to use as bodyguards for Komarran merchants. This is a win-win for both parts, since the Komarrans get protected by an army with a reputation for ruthlesness and the Barrayarans get to give good military training to their soldiers, without needing to declare war on anybody.
* The ''Vatta's War'' series, by [[Elizabeth Moon]], features pirates as well. In this case, they are usually only a major problem if you venture off the charted and patrolled space routes. This changes when the Pirates form a large organized fleet, leading to the creation of first an ad-hoc fleet of privateers, and later {{spoiler|an alliance of different navies (including what amount to a large corporate security space force and a [[Private Military Contractor]] with its own fleet of warships). The formation of such alliances is only made possible with the development of technology for ship-to-ship faster than light communications.}}
* In [[CJC. J. Cherryh]]'s [[Alliance Union (Literature)|Alliance Union]] works, the Mazianni started as the Earth Company's navy. When the Company decided that the war against Union wasn't cost-effective, Conrad Mazian and his captains felt that they'd shed too much blood to just be called back, and that they'd continue the fight on their own -- and if a merchanter ship had resources they needed for that aim, they'd hand it over if they knew what was good for them.
{{quote|''We'll contest each star Union wants''<br />
''This is war and not some bureaucrat's game''<br />
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''Well, screw you all, we'll '''earn''' the motherless name!''|"Mazianni", lyrics by [[Mercedes Lackey]]}}
** On the other side of Earth, the [[Starfish Aliens|knnn]] might qualify, if they had enough concepts in common with oxygen breathers to be able to formulate the idea. They used to force their way onto stations and take what they want; after lengthy negotiations through t'ca/chi intermediaries, now they take what they want and leave something behind. Among oxy-breathers, the kif, who see every action as a bid for dominance, turn out to make excellent pirates.
* ''Islands in the Sky'', the sci-fi juvenile by [[Arthur C. Clarke (Creator)]]. One of the apprentices on the space station thinks a suspicious spacecraft might be involved in piracy -- an idea denigrated by everyone else as large corporations can afford to maintain spacecraft, but not criminals. They think otherwise on discovering the ship's hold is full of ray guns {{spoiler|which turn out to be props for the first movie being filmed in space.}}
* ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]''. Among the nastiest things they do is [[Thrown Out the Airlock|throw people into space as a means of execution]], which is widely regarded as an unforgivable atrocity. Space piracy is the major raison d'etre for military power in times of peace, and plays heavily in the various works of fiction. It typically serves as a place for new characters to "start off small" in deadly, but relatively low-stakes, combat (prior to the war with Haven, anti-piracy operations in Silesia were the primary source of combat training for RMN personnel). They also tend to come up as disposable pawns in Mesa's latest [[Evil Plan]]. Space pirates are ''never'' portrayed the least bit sympathetically. Piracy is universally a capital crime, and for excellent reasons.
** It may be worth noting that many of the pirates operate under an agreement with a local polity. In Silesia, it is not uncommon to turn over a batch of recently captured pirates to the local government, and then six months later the same pirates have a new ship and are back in action. The local government is basically taking a bribe to ignore the piracy, or has funded the pirates to plunder shipping from richer nations (I.E. Manticorian shipping would carry batter goods that the government can buy through normal means) and will turn a blind eye to rape and murder to gain such benefits.
** Some privateers (which, historically, were separated from pirates by rather thin margins), however, get better treatment. Like Admiral (Royal Naval Reserve) Thomas Bachfisch, one of Honor's mentors. After he was beached by ''first'' Janacek admiralty, he retired from active duty, and managed to obtain the Letter of Marque, starting, effectively, a privateer shipping line. Equipped with fast, armed, merchantmen (actually, surplus Andermani Navy transports) it operated in [[Wretched Hive|Silesia]], where their improved speed and protection allowed him to charge a premium and engage in a little pirate hunt of his own. Not mentioning his side work as a Manticoran intelligence resident (Admiral Givens of the RMN intelligence service being the source of the pressure to give him a Letter of Marque) in Silesia.
** Piracy is also a career of choice for military units from non-existent governments. After the Saint-Just dictatorship is defeated State Security forces go into piracy and merch work. Some get hired by Mesa, while at least one set of battleships finds a small planet to set up a local lords. In fact the first armed ships in the Honorverse were pirates with space navies being created to counter them.
* In [[Peter F. Hamilton]]'s ''Fallen Dragon'' the mega-corporations on Earth which funded the establishment of interstellar colonies are beginning to decline, so they now make a profit by 'asset realization' -- [[Colony Drop|turning up in orbit and implying they'll blast the colony]] if the colonists don't hand over various manufactured goods, leaving information on the latest Earth technologies as compensation, then returning several years later to do the same thing again once the colonists have upgraded their technology and gotten back on their feet.
** In his ''[[The Nights Dawn Trilogy (Literature)|The Nights Dawn Trilogy]]'', pirates prey on asteroid settlements, poorly-defended early-stage colonies and commercial shipping routes. The primary reason for the Navy to exist is to combat these pirates. It's a good example of this trope played relatively straight in a space-opera that balances its "hard" science fiction elements (much of the science behind the advanced technology is explained, the human societies are detailed to an ''absurd'' level) with soft (the fantastical horror of "the beyond"). Hamilton ''loves'' doing this.
*** He also shows how pirates would work in practice -- they're interstellar traders who covertly supplement their income with smuggling and piracy, rather than permanent raiders operating from a secret base.
* The Fat Men in [[Daniel Pinkwater]]'s ''Fat Men from Space'' act as a variation on type 1, closer to a [[Horde of Alien Locusts]] in that they invade a planet, steal the junk food, then force the inhabitants to prepare more of it until the raw materials thereof are at dangerously low levels before they leave. They return in ''Slaves of Spiegel'', where they [[Alien Abduction|abduct]] the greatest junk food chefs of the galaxy to compete in a [[Cooking Duel]].
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** As the [[Lensman]] series goes on, however, the Pirates of Boskone start to shift more and more toward the role of Type Two. At least, until the [[Lensman Arms Race]] wipes them out with faster-than-light antimatter planets.
* The Ben Bova novel Privateers had an interesting variation on this. Set in a future where the Soviet Union gained a "Star Wars" anti-ballistic-missile system first and nuked Paris, effectively dominating all the world except the United States (which is thrust into a massive recession by refusing to knuckle under) the novel revolves around American cosmonauts (all space travelers were called as such because the USSR dominated space travel) trying to restore American power and liberate Europe from their communist oppressors by highjacking soviet asteroid mining facilitis. Sadly Worse than it Sounds.
* In David Drake's [[RCN (Literature)|RCN]] novels, space piracy is a problem occasionally dealt with by Leary and his crew, and at one point Leary enlists a pirate world in order to counter a vastly superior Alliance fleet.
* Jack Crow, the first-person protagonist in ''Armor'' by John Steakley.
* ''[[There and Back Again]]'' by Pat Murphy has a few different versions, including a ship whose crew explicitly call themselves pirates, and whose captain takes on the pseudonym "Blackbeard". The novel is set in a galaxy with a [[Portal Network]], and the pirates all tend to hang around the entrances of wormholes to avoid the scale problems mentioned in the trope description.
* E.E. Smith's [[Lensman]] series is very big on space pirates, the battle against which forms a central part of the plot. Played straight in that the pirate ships are crewed by "the dregs of space", attack merchantmen for their cargo, board through airlocks (or in armour, through holes in the hull), and slaughter their opponents hand-to-hand. ''Subverted'' in that they are (later seen to be) more or less an integral part of the Boskonian military, and thus representative of an intergalactic spacefaring culture (albeit a highly dysfunctional one), rather than freelancers or organised criminals in the accepted sense.
* [[Andre Norton]] called them Jacks, presumably short for "hijackers." Their actual methods of operation weren't detailed, but they often had connections with the [[Thieves' Guild]].
* The Skrit Na of ''[[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]]'' are basically a whole race of them. They aren't specifically in either type, though...maybe a bit of type one without the violence and death. They go around kidnapping creatures to either add to their own collections, sell or get ransom for and whatever items they can sell or trade.
* In ''[[Tour of the Merrimack]]: The Ninth Circle'', the titular Ninth Circle is a group of space pirates.
* As you might expect, [[Anne McCaffrey]]'s ''Planet Pirates'' series includes space pirates. They evade the scale problems by mainly hitting settlements and ships near planets. They also go a step further in many cases, being [[Planet Looters]] who will enslave and/or kill the inhabitants of a colony world, then settle their own people on it. Hence the name of the trilogy.
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* The TV show ''[[Lost in Space]]'' had two episodes with space pirates: "The Sky Pirate" and "Treasures of the Lost Planet".
* There is actually a children's TV show on [[The BBC]] called ''Space Pirates'', although the pirates in question are actually an unlicenced radio station. This doesn't stop them having a captain with a skull-and-crossbones hat and a robot parrot.
* The Reavers from ''[[Firefly (TV)|Firefly]]'', whose typical method of raiding involves raping victims to death, eating their flesh, and sewing their skins to their clothing. The luckier ones get it in ''that'' order. Really, they are [[Space Romans|Space Vikings]] if all of the awful rumors about Medieval vikings had been true.
** Vikings were basically pirates when they weren't engaging in honest trade. Reavers are just [[Always Chaotic Evil]] [[The Usual Adversaries|Usual Adversaries]] with space ships.
** As well, the crew of ''Serenity'' herself are referred to as pirates on occasion.
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** "Our Mrs. Reynolds" episode had a couple of non-traditional space pirates as the [[Monster of the Week]].
* The raiders of ''[[Babylon 5]]'' are of the first kind. They were a recurring threat for the first half of the first season, but bit off more than they could chew when they tried to raid the station directly and were wiped out.
* ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]''
** The Nausicaans.
** In ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation (TV)|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' episode "Gambit", Picard and Riker go undercover to infiltrate a pirate/mercenary crew. Supposedly this episode wouldn't have been made while Gene Roddenberry was still alive as he had always vetoed the "space pirates" idea.
** The Maquis in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV)|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' commit piracy in the course of their terrorist activities; though they mostly keep to smuggling and gunrunning they have hijacked ships more than once.
** The Orions are sometimes referred to as pirates, though they straddle the line between actual [[Space Pirates]] and [[The Syndicate]]. Of course, since they are a fairly wide-spread race with no central government that may just be different groups.
* Popular preschool kids show ''Space Pirates''. They run a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|pirate radio station]] from a space-travelling galleon. The captain and crew also wear pirate costumes.[[Ear Worm|"Naa Nana Na Na! SPACE PIRATES! Naa Nana Nana Na! SPACE PIRATES!"]]
* And who could forget [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLQLJF7FWU8 John Cleese] in ''[[The Muppet Show]]''?
* The Barban, the main villain group of ''[[Seijuu Sentai Gingaman]]'' are these. The leader and the [[Mooks]] showed up in ''[[Power Rangers Lost Galaxy]]'' as "Captain Mutiny" and "Swabbies", but only for an arc instead of being the main villains (The rest were given no connection to Mutiny's crew).
** The heroes of ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger (TV)|Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger]]'', the titular Gokaiger, absolutely '''run''' with this. Their suits are designed to look like jackets and their helmets have the traditional pirate hat built into them (except the [[Sixth Ranger]], whose has a bandana instead). Their main weapons are cutlasses and flintlocks (and a trident for Silver), they have a robot parrot, and Red's [[Humongous Mecha]] is a giant galleon which serves as their living quarters and the core of their [[Combining Mecha]]. Even their team logo is designed to look like a fancy skull and crossbones.
*** This all gets an amusing [[Lampshade]] in the episode where the Gokaigers have to find the Gingamen. Upon hearing that their enemies were space pirates, Gokai Green decides to bring some [[Mythology Gag|doughnuts]] as a peace offering, and at the end of the episode Ginga Red says the idea of heroic space pirates is still kinda weird for him, but he can see that the Gokaigers are good people.
** The main villain of ''[[Power Rangers Turbo]]'' is the space pirate queen Divatox.
* In the Tokusatsu series ''[[Chou Sei]] Kantai Sazer X'', Space Pirates play a very big role as the villains. In 2005 a bunch of them attacks and take over earth. In the year 2500 their descendants have established an [[The Empire|empire]] throughout a large part of the galaxy.
* ''[[Double the Fist]]'' presents to us the man who discovered Australia, Captain James Cook, as an egotistical Space Pirate who barely flinches at the sight of the ballistic Fist Team.
* ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'' had the Zenetan pirates, as well as the Sheyangs. The first were humanoids with well-armed, sleek little ships and an energy-draining capture net called the Flax. The Sheyangs were fireball-breathing frog-like creatures with lots of plasma cannons.
 
 
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* Plenty of examples from ''[[Warhammer 40000]]''. Type one space pirates include Eldar Corsairs who raid the lesser races' shipping and settlements to survive, Dark Eldar who raid for captives and playthings (or more specifically, [[Fate Worse Than Death|souls]]), Chaos warbands including some traitorous Space Marines such as the Red Corsairs. And even perfectly average human pirates, mainly around some of the more unexplored and backwater sectors.
** Ork Freebooter bands are type two space pirates, and like hats and bandanas and fly the Jolly Ork. Examples include flash git Kaptin Badrukk, while the most recent ''[[Dawn of War]] II'' expansion gives us Kaptin Bludflagg, who cuts through scores of Imperials and aliens, culminating in a battle with a daemon prince and an inquisitor on the same day, all so he can claim the inquisitor's [[Nice Hat]].
** In Graham McNeill's [[Ultramarines (Literaturenovel)|Ultramarines]] novel ''Nightbringer'', a Dark Eldar pirate is raiding the vessel carrying the Space Marines.
** The ''40k'' spin-off RPG ''[[Rogue Trader]]'' has space pirates (human or otherwise) as one of the most common enemies, and the rules let you go pirate if you wish. The Rogue Traders count to some extent as well, being [[Privateer|privateers]] able and expected to launch full-scale planetary invasions. One of the supplements to the gameline, Hostile Acquisitions, explicitly gives the players the option to become a Reaver or a Swashbuckler archetype.
* ''[[Spelljammer (Tabletop Game)|Spelljammer]]'' setting for ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' has The Pirates of Gith, an entire ''[[Planet of Hats|race]]'' of [[Space Pirates]], a third offshoot of the Githyanki/Githzerai. Additionally, the game also has plain ol' human [[Space Pirates]] who act pretty much identically to regular stereotypical pirates. Furthermore, the entire point of the setting is flying around in wooden sailing ships in space, and in the introduction to the setting the author mentions that they designed the setting's rules with the thought of a pirate standing on the deck of his ship--<small>in space</small>--as a guiding image.
* Piracy is alive and well in the ''[[Battle TechBattleTech]]'' universe due to the relative ease of capturing most recharging JumpShips, though actual independent pirate and bandit groups are seen more in the Periphery beyond the reach of either the Clans or the Great Houses. They don't so much attack civilian shipping as they raid poorly defended worlds directly, though.
* ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' has Captain Kraken, a space pirate who crashes on Earth. [[Justified Trope|Thanks to his translation matrix latching onto Earth pirate culture,]] he speaks and dresses like a stereotypical pirate.
* Piracy is part of the ''[[Traveller]]'' universe, and pirates vary widely. The most notable variety are the Vargr corsairs which have considerable force behind them and are considered a respectable profession by other Vargr who are willing to shelter them. This makes them kind of like Barbary Pirates in space.
* The Steve Jackson Games card game ''[[SPANC: Space Pirate Amazon Ninja Catgirls]]'' features space pirate [[Catgirl|Catgirls]] who take part in nefarious capers to win the most loot. Some of the capers are just there for cuteness, others are space-opera specific, like the Stuck Airlock.
* The Galactic Marauders from the ''[[Champions]]'' sourcebook ''Alien Enemies''.
* [[Star Fleet Battles]] has the Orion Pirates, a whole race (in a game where 'race' means a playable faction) of space pirates, of the first type (although the picture in the write-up shows a humanoid with a patch-like prosthetic eye, so some apparently affect elements of the second type). They also do mercenary work (particularly when prolonged war has stretched normal militaries thin, and convoys tend to be better protected) and have even been known to run cargo for actually legitimate businesses and governments on occasion.
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* Showed up just ''once'' in the ''[[Free Space]]'' series. However, every user-made campaign now has ''hordes'' of ''utterly suicidal'' space pirates who will ''[[Attack! Attack! Attack!|just keep coming]]'' despite the fact that you've already killed the dozens which came before, and the cargo you're protecting ''probably wouldn't tally up'' to the cost of replacing their really expensive destroyed fighters. Also, those space fighters they were flying? Better quality than a full-fledged ''rebellion'' could afford to procure.
** Lampshaded in ''Derelict.'' The Tau Ceti pirates are able to field a Deimos-class corvette (this would be the equivalent of Somali pirates having a US Navy Destroyer) and Mackie immediately exclaims, "Where are they ''getting'' this equipment?" {{spoiler|It turns out the well-equipped pirates are actually mercenaries funded by the [[Mega Corp|Morgan Mining Company]] to stir up trouble in Tau Ceti. When the Shivans start killing everyone, the ''actual'' local pirates, who have been almost entirely inactive in the wake of the mercenaries stirring things up, are recruited by the GTVA to help with the manpower shortage. The alternative makes them more than happy to go along with it.}}
* The Turanic Raiders of ''[[Homeworld (Video Game)|Homeworld]]''. Also, while they are the only pirate race, both the Kushani and Taiidani sides use pirate-like ways, namely, hijacking. In the first series, the peaceful-sounding "Salvage Corvette" is often used for hijacking ships by making them incapable of resisting, towing them back to base, and let the landing party do the job. Thanks to the brokenness of this system, in Homeworld 2, the salvage corvettes are replaced by Marine Frigates (Hiigaran race), and the Infiltrator Frigate (Vaygr side). This time, they either latch onto said hapless ship (Hiigaran's preferred method), or launch [[Boarding Party|boarding]] pods (Vaygr's way of saying [[Badass]]), ''in the middle of battle''. Both frigates are lightly armored and lightly armed, but very invaluable in the heat of battle. Their tendency to get targeted first could also be useful as bait, as a couple of these frigates will send any AI player to engage them even if that means turning their backs to the [[Wave Motion Gun]] wielding enemies nearby.
* ''[[Independence War]] 2: Edge of Chaos'' puts you in the role of an up-and-coming space pirate following in his grandmother's footsteps, partly as a means of building up the resources to get revenge on the [[Loan Shark]] / [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] that [[You Killed My Father|killed your father.]]
* Space pirates are your main antagonists in the early stages of ''[[Infinite Space]]'' and provide fodder for [[Random Encounters]] throughout the game.
* Chapter 8 in ''[[Kid Icarus: Uprising]]'' has Pit boarding the ship of Space Pirates to retrieve 3 Sacred Treasures. For a bunch of pirates stealing constellations, you might think they would be more important to the plot, but this is the only chapter they appear in.
* You'll be fighting some variation of this trope and/or [[Psycho for Hire|private millitary companies]] whenever you aren't following the plot in ''[[Mass Effect]]''. Notably, however, Mass Effect's Space Pirates don't seem to attack ships (and various militaries have a hard time hitting their ships en masse, too) - they attack sparely-defended colonies, then run away before the military can respond, generally taking their loot in the form of enslaved citizens.
* In a variation on this trope, ''[[Metroid]]'''s Space Pirates are a large, organized army rather than small bands of individuals out for plunder. Their motives are always portrayed as sinister, but it's always implied that they have some larger goal at work, even if it's unclear what it is. In ''[[Metroid Prime]] 3: Corruption'', Space Pirates are seen literally using [[Boarding Party|boarding]] craft to crash into and raid a fleet of capital ships; that's the first time they do something piratey on-screen, although the whole series started raiding a Federation ship that had Metroids on it, and before that, Samus's parents were killed in a raid. Besides the whole [[Take Over the World|Take Over The Universe]] thing, this is played close to the modern real life version.
* ''[[Space Pirates and Zombies]]'' is a game where '''YOU''' are the space pirates. [[Captain Obvious|Oh,]] [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|and there are]] [[Zombie Apocalypse|zombies.]]
* Turn up as a random event in the classic economic-simulation ''[[MULE]]''; they swoop in and steal minerals from all four players.
* ''[[Ratchet and Clank Future Tools of Destruction]]'' has ''[[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|robot]]'' space pirates of the second type. ''[[Ratchet and Clank|Quest For Booty]]'' has ''undead'' robot space pirates! And zombie ninja pandas are briefly referred to in ''Tools of Destruction'', presumably to complete the [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]] requirement.
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* In PS2 game ''[[Rogue Galaxy]]'' the heroes are space pirates.
* In the 'Seasons' expansion pack for ''[[The Sims 2]]'', space pirates {{spoiler|are the highest position on the 'Adventurer' career track}}. And yes, they wear pirate hats.
* The [[Space Pirates]] in [[Four X4X]] [[Real Time Strategy]] game ''[[Sins of a Solar Empire]]'' will periodically send out attacks against the players. They'll attack whichever player has the currently highest bounty on their head. They can, however, be disabled. The pirates are a combination of the two types. Their actions indicate that they are the former type, [http://delta-3462.deviantart.com/art/The-Affairs-of-Corsairs-113058534 but their ships indicate the latter] Please note the [[Spikes of Villainy]] and holographic jolly rogers.
** In the ''Diplomacy'' [[Expansion Pack]], you can offer missions to pirates outside of their normal "raiding schedule".
** There is a bit of a bug in the game. At the start of a raid, the pirates pick a colony belonging to a player with the highest bounty. If said colony is captured by another player while they're flying to it, they'll ''still'' attack it.
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** The manual also takes pains to explain the logistics of space piracy: first, trade is conducted within one of a regular grid of sectors, so raiders know roughly where to look. And only a part of the attacking fleet will ever participate in a raid, as they spread out to catch something and only some can arrive in time; on the other hand, the entire defense fleet will naturally be present. Also, the Hivers cannot raid since they lack any FTL and will never catch anything, but their traders can only be intercept in orbit as they use hyperspace gates to get instantly from colony to colony.
* ''[[Tachyon the Fringe]]'' has many pirate groups, most of them located in the lawless Fringe (which makes up everything outside of Sol). The most famous of these are the Blood Clan pirates, led by Redship Rory, famous for painting their ships with the blood of their enemies. The Scavs are pirates but tend to be friendly with the [[La Résistance|Bora]], as they hate [[Mega Corp|MegaCorps]]. The Void Runners are more mercenaries than pirates and frequently work for GalSpan, although they don't shy away from piracy. The Demon Pirates are pirates [[In Name Only]], as they are crazed religious fanatics living in the strange fog of the Twilight region, killing any passerby.
* Pirates of the first type served as [[Mook|mooks]] in the ''[[Wing Commander (Videovideo Gamegame)|Wing Commander]]'' games ''Privateer'' and ''Privateer 2: The Darkening''. The former even has a mission series operating from a pirate base, as a drug smuggler.
* [[The Babylon Project]] expands on the raiders of ''[[Babylon Five|Babylon 5]]'' mentioned above, allowing you to play a campaign where you're warring against them, or play a campaign where you're one of them.
* Karlina and Jayson in ''[[Warp Force (Video Game)|Warp Force]]'', who freeze a planet in order to store more water as ice and sell it for profit, killing most of the animals designed for warm-climate while doing so. They speak in [[Talk Like a Pirate|pirate accents]].
* ''[[Star Ruler (Video Game)|Star Ruler]]'' has these. They pop up from nowhere and raid your systems, blockading them if you enable that option.
* ''[[Vega Strike (Video Game)|Vega Strike]]'' has pirates as a faction. They use outdated ships and are supported mainly by [[Lightspeed Leapfrog|displaced would-be colonists]]. No [[Instant Plunder, Just Add Pirates|big plunder]] -- their cargo is more or less the same as on equal civilian ships, and vessels like Plowshare carry things like "water, butane, pron". [[Player Character]] may do the same, but it's not worth trying, since this causes [[Alliance Meter|bad relations]] with the attacked ship's faction and its friends, expanding through fights with them until shot at sight by almost everyone.
* In ''[[Halo]]'', although it hasn't been shown in-game, the Kig-Yar<ref>a.k.a. Jackals</ref> are said to have been space pirates before joining The Covenant. Part of the novel ''[[Contact Harvest]]'' takes place aboard a Kig-Yar pirate vessel.
* The pirate clans in the ''[[X Universe]]'' have gotten to the point where they've become [[NGO Superpower|N.G.O. Superpowers]], with capital ships and space stations constructed out of kitbashed derelicts. Rather than trying to exterminate them (they respawn at their home base), advanced players generally work to befriend them by selling them [[Fantastic Drug|spaceweed and space fuel]]. Ditto the Yaki, who are space pirates for all intents and purposes, though they use a motif of [[Yakuza]] <small>[[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE!]]</small>
* ''[[Master of Orion (Video Game)|Master of Orion]] 2'' has pirate activity as a random event -- it interrupts freight traffic in some system and goes away if enough of military presence is brought to the place. Also, explorers discovering a new system sometimes stumble on [[Pirate Booty]].
 
 
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** Cutter Edgewise himself was a former Pirate Science officer. These man the Rum Sensors.
* The [http://zapinspace.com/d/20071105.html story arc] started in November in ''[http://zapinspace.com Zap!]'' involves pirates that appear to be a mix of this and [[Sky Pirate]] kidnapping two main characters.
* The Webcomic ''[[I Was Kidnapped Byby Lesbian Pirates Fromfrom Outer Space]]'' features a girl who was... well, just that.
** Come to think of it, so does ''[[Vandread]]'', although it was three guys in this case.
* The webcomic ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' has the Pirates of Ipecac, who resemble giant lobsters.
* The webcomic [http://zeera.comicgenesis.com ''Zeera The Space Pirate''] is [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]].
** Except for the fact {{spoiler|she never quite gets around to committing any acts of piracy.}}
* Space pirates appeared in one ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'' in a print-exclusive tale providing some [[Backstory]] for Sgt. Schlock, and again in the online comic itself. The comic even hung a lampshade on the economic and physical problems inherent in this type of venture. {{spoiler|Of course, they turned out not to be pirates, but guerillas fighting the current government.}}
* [[Crimson Dark|Vaegyr Ward]] hates being called a pirate. As he points out, he has letters of marque, so he's a privateer. Also, pirates tend to be meaner than him.
* In ''[[Absurd Notions]]'', in a roleplaying game being played by the characters, [http://www.absurdnotions.org/page111.html space pirates turn up] whose mannerisms correspond to exaggerated mannerisms of ''software'' "pirates". Namely, a ship preparing to attack opens communication with "j0, SUXX0RZ!! xDR3Dx3DDx 0WNZ U!!! 5UR3ND0R N0W!! 4LL j00R W4R3Z R B3L0N9 2 US L0L!!1!!!". Lampshaded by Asimov, Isaac's character, who responds with "I think I miss the days when pirates [[To Arr Is Pirate|said 'Arrr']]."
* Type 1 space pirates are said to have occurred in ''[[SSDD]]'', and is why there was an ancient CORE station orbiting Uranus at the start of the SSDF arc. But once the mineral resources of the outer system dried up piracy ceased to become profitable.
* King Hippo relates a story to ''[[Captain SNES]]'' about the time he raided the space pirates who built Mother Brain... the ''[[Captain N]]'' version. They came complete with Space Booty and Space-Yarrs.
* ''[[Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire]]'' has "the [[Alliterative Name|Pistol Packin' Polaris Packrat]]"; also, one cyborg ex- asteroid pirate turned [[Space Marine]] sergeant, who became rather unpopular for the time (brief) he lived after this discovery. Also, that guy on the starpirates.net banner who boasted before Buck -- but he was bad.
* In ''[[Far From Home (Webcomic)|Far From Home]]'', they capture the heroes of the [[Show Within a Show]].
* ''[[Quentyn Quinn Space Ranger]]'' has his first encounter with pirates whose careers [[Mugging the Monster|gone messily wrong]]. And [http://www.rhjunior.com/QQSR/00013.html philosophizes about it here.]
 
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== Web Originals ==
* The main characters of ''[[The Endless Night]]'' are [[Space Pirates]], and the podcast mainly focuses on their exploits as they raid and pillage across the galaxy.
* The browser game ''[[Star Pirates]]'' is [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]], from digging through orbital debris to attacking other players and everything between.
* ''Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers'', a fan parody of ''[[Power Rangers]]'' and emo culture, has an episode where the Emo Rangers battle the Rave Pirates from outer space, who have come to infect earth teenagers with their "New Rave"
* They've become quite the problem in [[Nexus Gate]] since space travel became a reality.
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== Western Animation ==
* Long John Silver the 23rd in the ''[[Duck Dodgers]]'' episode "Shiver Me Dodgers".
* An unnamed space pirate (with three peg legs out of four, parrots on three of his four shoulders, and eyepatches on two of his three eyes) menaced the Planet Express Ship on ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'' with galleon-style spaceships and cannons, vowing to send them to "Davy Jarg's locker" if they don't electronically transfer their space-doubloons, and realizing too late that his children are his only ''real'' treasures. What made it even funnier was Leela's explanation on what [[Space Pirates]] are: "They're like Pirates...but [[In Space|in space!]]"
* Sonny Blackbones and the pirates in ''[[Galactik Football]]''. They're really more heroic space outlaws but they do have at least one member who likes to say 'Arr!' No parrot, though they do have a football team.
* ''[[Jayce and The Wheeled Warriors (Animation)|Jayce and Thethe Wheeled Warriors]]'' had [[Amazon Brigade|an all-female crew]] of the second type in one episode, but they decided to [[Heel Face Turn|go good]] at the end.
* The Pirate Clans of ''[[Exo Squad]]''
* Kanjar Ro and his crew from ''[[Batman: theThe Brave And The Bold (Animation)|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]''.
* ''[[Star Wars: theThe Clone Wars|The Clone Wars]]'' offers a more traditional version with the Weequay pirates led by Hondo Ohnaka (complete with a monkey-lizard standing in for a parrot), who is as likeable as he is cunning. He managed to take Count Dooku, Anakin Skywalker, and Obi-Wan Kenobi all hostage, while still being friendly towards them. Even more alarming, the trio (and the audience) weren't and still aren't completely sure how he did it! If that's not enough, he was able to briefly duel Anakin with an electrostaff, on a moving tank pilot, no less.
* In ''[[Defenders of the Earth (Animation)|Defenders of the Earth]]'', Sala's [[Sky Pirate]] [[Amazon Brigade]] from ''[[The Phantom (Comiccomic Stripstrip)|The Phantom]]'' have become Space Pirates, in keeping with the general [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] ethos.
* In "The Secret Origins of [[Darkwing Duck (Animationanimation)|Darkwing Duck]]", [[Evil Twin|Negaduck]] is said (by a very [[Unreliable Narrator]]) to be raised by space pirates and eventually becomes one himself.
* The ''[[Megas XLR]]'' episode "Space Booty" (yes, that is the actual title) had a group of Space Pirates led by a [[Captain Harlock]] expy. This being Megas they also had a buttload of [[Humongous Mecha]] for Coop to smash.
* Cannonball of the ''[[Transformers Cybertron]]'' toyline is an actual space pirate, complete with skeleton paint apps and a black swath of paint over half of the top of his face in mimicry of an eyepatch. Alas, he was not to appear in the series.
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