Leaked Messages from Nimbus Hint at Piracy Epidemic

Leaked Messages from Nimbus Hint at Piracy Epidemic

Though the Nimbus Relay has no yet been opened to the public, leaked communication logs from the Asari Republics seem to indicate that the cluster is suffering from an epidemic of pirate attacks on in-cluster shipping.

The leaked communications, which have been verified by information brokers on Illium, Noveria and the Citadel, as well as several prominent Undernet profiles, seem to indicate a rash of piracy caused by the relays isolation from the rest of the asari government. Mentions are made of local military coming into contact with 'hostile elements' as well as repeated incidents of convoys, including vital supplies, being lost to 'foreign agitators'. Estimates put the damage described in the leaked communications at at least twenty million credits, and note that it does not include anything not mentioned in the communicaes.

The Asari Republics, meanwhile, have downplayed the claim, calling them 'wild speculation by opportunistic information brokers'. Matriarch Namani, a respected official in the republic, claims that the leak 'vastly exaggerates a minor, local problem' and 'is blatant, immoral fearmongering on the part of the guilty parties'.

It's ringing.

And I do believe it's for you.

How do I know you might ask?

Because I

fucking

called it.

My sides.

They are in orbit.

Okay, I'm not going to try and defend the Cadres as the perfect elite anti-piracy force that many claim it to be.

but

The isolated republics are only currently ineffective due to a lack of funding, as they're currently stricken and in need of galactic aid. This of course, means that the cadres in the cluster are basically running on militia equipment after the Reaper Wars. And with some of the pirate raiders managing to do quite well for themselves in the aftermath, resulting in better firepower then the Cadres this is, for all intents and purposes, a perfect storm that capitalizes on the shortcomings of the Cadre.

Yes I will admit this could have prevented through centralization.

Yes I know this won't change because the matriarchs are stuck so far up their collective [REDACTED] that they could probably meld with them.

I'm saying this doesn't prove total incompetency with the local command structure. In fact I'd imagine they're simply acting to the best of their ability.

I suppose it's not a surprise that there'd be more piracy in an area cut off from a larger support fleet. But it's not like that's a problem that can't be reversed. Hopefully it wouldn't require long-term patrolling like we needed in the DMZ, but it's not like the pirates have had a huge period of time to get entrenched.

Two years is, frankly, more than enough. Especially if they're deserters/ex-military types.

Thank you I can-
Wait, wait a minute.
An argument that would hold more weight frankly if they hadn't all been trapped behind a sealed relay for the past two years or so years. I won't pretend that it was a level playing field but it is the kind of situation that a cluster, particularly a core cluster, must be able to handle on their own.

Precisely for this reason really.

And honestly they'd be able to act better if their hands weren't effectively tied by tactics, strategies, and levels of organization that were last relevant when the asari were hunters and gatherers.

Hell, it's a miracle piracy hasn't spiked everywhere that's cut off from the relay network. I mean, come on, guys. We're talking colonists who probably had functional ships with weaponry and the inclination to not die. When your back's to the wall like that, you'll jump the first fuckers you see. A piracy epidemic isn't that surprising.

Two years with the same resources as everyone else. There's worse out in the Terminus, and there was worse out in the DMZ.

That's not counting possible gangs that existed before and were hiding out, but even counting them, we just need to secure major shipping lanes, which is something we know how to do well.

And now I know where to go with the Horn. Piracy and ship to ship combat? That's where the big credits are. Not that abandoned habs aren't wonderfully tragic places to scrounge but all that high end ordinance and tech just floating there? Grease a few warlord palms and we all get rich!

Distressing news, but I'd imagine stretched as the local republics' resources are, if we're hearing about this, there are measures already being taken to scuttle the pirate operations. It certainly won't be as swift as anyone'd like, but even if the situation is closer to what the brokers are suggesting, I'd be confident the criminals will be stamped back down in time; if there's a bright side, such as it is, it's that the pirates will be as crippled by isolation as their victims, and once that changes they'll have a far more difficult time securing support. Until then, one more storm to weather and mourn.

(Not that it wouldn't be lovely if some more relays can get brought back online and eliminate these astrographic isolation pockets, but it's not as if the Council can just speed-dial Reaper Relay Repair and offer them a bonus to put their backs into the job a bit faster.)

Yeah, not really. The moment you end up in actual combat you're sending one ship to millions of separate parts of the galaxy at high speed. I mean, sure you can salvage some scrap, but that's all you're getting out of it. Scrap. And unless you've got some amazing repairmen, you're not going to get a lot of credits out of that.

From what I've heard, a lot of the new Geth-built electronic warfare defense packages are crazy effective, and basically rendering the chance to shut down a ship without firing a shot next to impossible. And when you're dealing with anti-pirate patrols (like I was a part of in CDEM), you rarely get more than one chance to surrender before the guns start opening up.

So really, what I'm saying is that once you're into ship-to-ship, you're in do-or-die. The pirates I saw/heard of that made the most credits were raiding stations, not trying to blast ships.

FUCKING GETH

With what pray tell? Some of the Republic's ridiculously decentralized paramilitary militia units and a handful of functional commando cadres? Some of the ships that are marvels of engineering and also a complete nightmare to manage and maintain precisely because of their nature.

Go on. I'm listening? Except they won't and clearly aren't because they don't have static targets and vast, unarmed civilian populations to defend.

But not to learn from I see.

Lovely.

We will make a sensible man of you yet.

I mimic this sentiment.

Mechanical-chemical procreation is not currently a means of geth reproduction.

Wait, you fuck geth?

BAHAK ALL THE BOTS

Do people go [blocked] TURIANS when they see some of the new weaponry that's rolled out onto Hierarchy ships? No. If the component is the best, it's going to be the best. I can understand why some people don't want to put Geth-made gear into their ships, but an attitude like that's not going to get you anywhere when it comes to ships.