History Main / SpacePirates

* ''The Pirates Of Zan'' by Murray Leinster. The protagonist is from a planet whose sole occupation is space piracy. He tries moving to another world and going legit, but when things go badly wrong he has to resort to the traditional methods of his kin. Serialised for ''Astounding'' in 1959 as "The Pirates of Ersatz" with its famous {{zeerust}} cover of a space pirate climbing aboard a rocket with a slide rule [[CutlassBetweenTheTeeth clasped between his teeth]].

** In his ''NightsDawn'' 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.

* 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 ''MetroidPrime 3: Corruption'', Space Pirates are seen literally using [[BoardingParty boarding]] craft to crash into and raid a fleet of capital ships. Maybe Retro decided the Space Pirates should [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything actually live up to their name for once]].
*** The entire series started with the Pirates raiding a Federation ship that had metroids on it. Before that, Samus's parents were killed in a raid to steal afloraltite. They've always been true to the name.
*** It's kinda weird, though, that ''Space Pirate'' seems to be the only way to call an entire race of space aliens. It's like TheFederation thinks "They're nothing but dirty pirates, their race doesn't deserve a proper name!"
*** It may be what they call ''themselves''. However, the Japanese Metroid Prime 3 names the main Grunts Urtragians (after Urtraghus, the Japanese name for the Pirate Homeworld), and the pirates seen outside of the Prime trilogy are called Zebesians (after their base on Zebes, were it is shown in the manga that they were genetically modified into a new kind of whatever they were).
*** Also, the Space Pirates are not just one race or species; the Ki Hunters, Kraid, and Ridley are clearly something different.

** On the other side of Earth, the [[StarfishAliens 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.

* Elite, one of the earliest space trading games, featured pirates who would attack you between hyperspace jump-points and your destination. Or you could become a pirate yourself.

*** It's kinda weird tho that ''Space Pirate'' seems to be the only way to call an entire race of space aliens. It's like the federation thinks "They're nothing but dirty pirates, their race doesn't deserve a proper name!"

*** Also, the Space Pirates are not just one race or species, the Ki Hunters, Kraid, and Ridley are clearly something different.

* Space piracy is a viable if risky career choice for ''{{EvE Online}}'' players.

* Roxxas from the ''LegionOfSuperheroes'' comics, which also gave us the Sklarian Raiders; an AmazonBrigade of space {{Pirate Girl}}s.

* ''Islands in the Sky'', the sci-fi juvenile by ArthurCClarke. One of the apprentices on the space station thinks a suspicious spacecraft might be involved in piracy -- an idea denigrated by everyone else as only 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.]]

* And then there's Crossbone Vanguard in ''[[CrossboneGundam Mobile Suit Gundam Crossbone]]'' who operate under the guise of pirates (employing all the standard pirate tropes, including spaceships that look like sailing ships and a robot parrot, apparently for no other reason than that they can) but actually preventing the Earth from being attacked by the Jupiter Empire.

* The impossibility of space piracy and the trick Julian Forward uses to make it work is central to the plot of LarryNiven's ''The Borderland of Sol''.

It's not as anachronistic as it might seem. After all, pirates themselves have made a RealLife comeback in Somalia, and it's a lucrative enough "business" that it's taken a multinational military response to fight back. Surely an established society in outer space with significant trade and commerce would suffer similar problems!

* ''Spac ePirate Mito''.

* In the juvenile sci-fi novel ''Islands in the Sky'' by ArthurCClarke, the apprentices on the space station think they've uncovered a gang of space pirates, but it turns out to be the first movie made in space (which is being filmed in secret).

* 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' -- [[ColonyDrop 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 ''NightsDawn'' 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.

[[{{Futurama}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SpacePirate.jpg]]

* In ''TheAmericanAstronaut'' the Blueberry Pirate [[PuppiesArePreciousStrawberriesAreSteep steals and bootlegs fruit]] across the solar system.

* ''CaptainHarlock'' is the second version. His ship is a MilitaryMashupMachine with a submarine prow, a battleship body and a galleon rear.
** The [[LeijiMatsumoto Leijiverse]] also has Emeraldas, who sails the Sea of Stars in a frigate attached to a dirigible.

* The main characters of the anime, ''{{Vandread}}'' are female examples of this trope.

* ''{{One Piece}}'' - a few appear during Enel's coverstory.

* The Starjammers of the ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'' comics; not particularly prone to pirate cliches, but their leader ''is'' nicknamed Corsair.
** Who wore a headband, thigh boots, and a handlebar mustache, and fought [[SwordAndGun with a blaster pistol in one hand and a cutlass in the other.]] Nope, no pirate cliches there.
*** Indeed the Starjammers were a huge mashup of pulp space opera and swashbuckling tropes...remember that Corsair used to bang a furry alien (Mam'selle Hepzibah, in a nod to Walt Kelly's Pogo)? Cyclops and Havok should have had a hard time getting used to all that {{Yiff}}!

* Roxxas from the ''LegionOfSuperheroes'' comics.
** Which also gave us the Sklarian Raiders; an AmazonBrigade of space {{Pirate Girl}}s.

* ''StarWars'' had Han Solo (a smuggler by trade), and references to "Corellian Pirate Ships".
** Although smuggling isn't piracy. In fact, the two are natural enemies.

** 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 his ''NightsDawn'' 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 intersteller traders who covertly supplement their income with smuggling and piracy, rather than permanent raiders operating from a secret base.

** Not to mention Ork freebooters, which are type 2 pirates, at least as best can be found in the grim dark universe of warhammer 40k (type 1 by any other standard), the most famous of which is Kaptian Badruk.
*** Ork pirates even wear hats with traditional pirate logos, with bandannas for the lower ranks.
* The Pirates of Gith in the ''{{Spelljammer}}'' setting for ''DungeonsAndDragons'' are an entire ''[[PlanetOfHats race]]'' of SpacePirates, a third offshoot of the Githyanki/Githzerai. Additionally, the game also has plain ol' human SpacePirates 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--[-in space-]--as a guiding image.
* Rogue Trader (a warhammer 40.000 roleplay) has them as some of the most common enemies in space combat (with alien space pirates as the other space enemies available) and allows you to play one if you wish.
** A Rogue Trader is basically a privateer set on the Imperium's enemies anyway. A privateer that is fully able, and indeed expected, to occasionally launch full-scale planetary invasions.

* The SpacePirates in FourX RealTimeStrategy game ''SinsOfASolarEmpire'' 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.
*** It should be noted that 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.

* ''{{Spore}}''. Alert: Hostile [=UFOs=] are attacking planet Nortaxesir! Alert: Pirates are stealing your spice on planet Nortaxesir!
** And on planet Oremastiz!
** Planet Quaralax too!
** And guess what? Your allies with a much vaster empire than you need your help killing a half-dozen animals that are carrying a deadly disease!

* ''RatchetAndClank: Tools of Destruction'' has ''[[NinjaPirateZombieRobot robot]]'' space pirates of the second type.
** And "Quest For Booty" has ''undead'' robot space pirates!
*** Zombie ninja pandas are briefly referred to in ''Tools of Destruction'', presumably to complete the NinjaPirateZombieRobot requirement.
* ''EscapeVelocity'' and its sequels has a lot of pirates. EV has straight up pirates, EVO has the Renegades and Strandless, Nova has pirates, marauders (weak pirates hated by everyone, including [[EvenEvilHasStandards other pirates]]), the Guild (a more organized group with a semi-legal veneer), the Association (technically; they are the Pirates mentioned below as being one of the major mission strings, only they aren't so much pirates as semi-legal free traders that PayEvilUntoEvil with ''actual'' pirates and smuggle stuff because TheFederation's laws are blatantly MegaCorp-slanted) and Houseless (Auroran [[FantasyCounterpartCulture Ronin]] pirates).
** It's also notable that you can ''be'' a pirate in any of the EV games. EVN even made it one of the possible primary mission strings.
** You could also attack, disable, board, steal from, and even ''hijack'' (basically everything the pirates themselves do) [[PayEvilUntoEvil the pirate's own ships]] without getting a bad rep for it. They had some serious cash, too...

* The Turanic Raiders of ''{{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 [[BoardingParty 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 WaveMotionGun wielding enemies nearby.

* A little know (and proabaly for the best) [[{{Full Motion Video}} FMV]] Light Gun game called...''Space Pirates''.
** [[{{Seanbaby}} CHECK OUT HOW AWESOME I AM! CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS S** T?]]

* Jeb and Tommy from DCComics' ''StarRaiders'' graphic novel are implied as such, though the reader never sees them actually commit any sort of piracy. Tommy even sports an eyepatch...

* The [[DoctorWho Whoniverse]] provides many examples:

** The [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot genetically-engineered badger pirates]] in the novel "The Pirate Loop", who wear gold earings and space-suits with a skull-and-crossbones.
** Captain Kaliko and her oil-rig raiders in the ''Totally Doctor Who'' animation "The Infinity Quest". Baltazar in the same story fits the trope to some extent, if only because he has a robot parrot.

** The novel ''The Resurrection Casket'' features robotic space pirates, and some extremely reminiscent, not to say [[RecycledInSpace recycled]], names and/or characters. (Let's just say it involves a young lad named "Jimm" and "Captain Glint's treasure" and leave it there...)
** The first kind of space pirates appear in the serial "The Space Pirates".
** Blurring the line between both types (and the line between SpacePirates and {{Sky Pirate}}s) is the ExpandedUniverse novel ''Sky Pirates!''

* The browser game [[http://www.starpirates.net/ Star Pirates]] is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, from digging through orbital debris to attacking other players and everything between.

*** It may be what they call ''themselves''. The Space Pirates are not just one race or species, though the Japanese Metroid Prime 3 names the main Grunts Urtragians, the KI Hunters, Kraid and Ridley are clearly something different.

** And "Quest For Booty" has ghost robot space pirates!

Compare SkyPirates. See also: {{Pirate}} and PirateGirl.

* TheBible [[CaptainObvious does not have them.]]