Pirates

The pirates in EV Nova are relatively organised and powerful compared to the pirates in EV and renegades in Override. Rather than destroying the player like in the previous scenarios, these pirates will now disable the player's ship and steal their money and cargo. Many of their ships are modified versions of ships stolen from other governments, including the Starbridge and the Auroran Enterprise. However, they have also designed some of their own ships, including the Pirate Carrier seen in the desktop images and the famous Manticore. The pirates are located to the north of the Federation.

The Guild of Free Traders, which has ties to the Federation's Bureau of Internal Investigation, is dominant, but its enemy, the less-aggressive and now less powerful Association of Free Traders, is also still in operation. In the Pirate Preamble that accompanies EV Nova, it is the once-proud Association that is attacked by a Federation fleet sent with the help of the Guild, who took over the Association's power with the help of the Bureau.

There are two other pirate factions. The Marauders, who operate inside Federation space, are a disorganised group. They are equipped mostly with civilian ships, primarily upgraded freighters, although they also have the occasional Valkryie or Starbridge. The other pirate group operates in the south of the Auroran Empire. These are the Houseless Warriors, who fly standard Auroran fighter- and gunship-class vessels.

The only pirate group that has a mission string is the Association of Free Traders. Their storyline begins on Viking in the Tichel system.

Strengths:

The Pirates have an interesting blend of technology specifically designed to disable and board enemy ships.

Pirate technology is available without any Federation licences from the station Harbour north of the Federation.

Weaknesses:

Pirate ships are generally overpriced, presumably because many of their customers have few alternative choices.

There are only two pirate ports, one belonging to the Guild of Free Traders to the north of the Federation, and one belonging to the Houseless Warriors to the south of the Auroran Empire.

Pirates risk attack by the Rebellion, by the Federation if they are actually caught pillaging freighters, by the Bounty Hunters' Guild, and by mercenary captains or anyone else with sufficient firepower.

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