Ripped From the Headlines, A Run at Sea!? Options

[Earlydawn]

Supertanker hijacked off the coast of Somalia.

Just some food for thought. Would be a fun run with several different elements to it.. you could work in sea spirits, rigger electronic warfare on the approach, and the actual boarding action. Add in a helicopter-inserted corporate recapture attempt, and you've got yourself a metal run. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

[Delta56]

....So many ideas.

... And my players would simply want to blow it up. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[Fuchs]

Cyberpirates detailed such runs years ago.

[Earlydawn]

Who's to say that wouldn't be the objective? You know, some of those pesky toxics have pretty big budgets. Hell, why does it have to be full of oil, for that matter? Nothing like uploading something to the boat's system and then blowing it up, just to find out that it was a floating nanohive, and you were just hired to digest a competetor's aquacology on the sea floor (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Aaron]

The US Navy recommended that the ships have "embarked security forces" to protect them from pirates. Is this another step toward the mainstreaming of private military forces?

[DWC]

The US Navy recommended that the ships have "embarked security forces" to protect them from pirates. Is this another step toward the mainstreaming of private military forces?

This is hardly a new thing. Spend a few minutes looking around and you'll find several private security firms that specialize in maritime security operations.

[Earlydawn]

With the acceptable militarization of corporate security forces, I wonder what kind of defenses, say, an Aztechnology freighter, would carry?

[PBTHHHHT]

another ripped from the headlines...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7733818.stm
israeli mob boss taken out by a car bomb. But what's interesting is at the end of the article detailing other means used in mob warfare including anti tank missles, etc... wheee.

[FlakJacket]

Cyberpirates detailed such runs years ago.

Although this time the pirates didn't botch the job. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

The US Navy recommended that the ships have "embarked security forces" to protect them from pirates. Is this another step toward the mainstreaming of private military forces?

Unfortunately there are some problems with the idea. First and foremost shipping companies are notoriously cheap bastards, this is going to cost money and possibly open them up to liability - just think what would happen if a genuine fishing boat got too close and due to language difficulties some over eager mercenary shred them with a 50 cal.? Which feeds into the second point that it's a business and all about money, aside from three people all the people that have been kidnapped and ships seized have been recovered fine after the paying of a ransom.

From what's been observed the pirates are actually running a kind of rota system, there's always ten or twelve ships being held hostage at a time and whenever one is ransomed back the next group of pirates goes out and hijacks another ship. Plus they've been reinvesting their profits in better boats and gear. Both of which are smart since it means whilst they're making a tidy profit they don't get so greedy as to scare away their targets or make a large enough of a problem of themselves that governments feel the need to actually seriously deal with them and increases the amount of ships they can potentially target. And since there's currently only something like a one in thirty chance of your ship being hijacked owners feel it's better to simply pay slightly higher insurance premiums and take their chances since at most it'll cost them five to ten percent of the ship and its cargo's value to buy them back if they're unlucky. Another problem is that different countries have different attitudes towards ships carrying guns, which would mean that you couldn't visit certain ports any more or have to dump the guns over the side if you wanted to enter them.

All of which is leading to a lot of shipping countries to seriously think about stopping using the Suez canal and go back to going south the long way around Africa and past Cape Agulhas. Sure it increases travelling time and costs but they just pass that on to their customers, who in turn pass it on to the consumer. Best solution to the problem I've heard so far is to continue current anti-piracy patrols and possibly reintroduce some sort of convoy system between the canal and the Indian ocean.

A possibly more Shadowrun alternative is to allow private military contractors to become involved. We already have Blackwater so why not a naval variant? Thanks to the Paris Declaration most major western countries agreed to not issue Letters of Marque any more although the US never signed up to it and there's nothing to stop the current signatories to pull out either. Egypt stands to lose a lot of money if people stop using the Suez canal so they could be provided to issue them and allow organisations to operate there. All it would need would be for a PMC to buy up a couple surplus Patrol Boats, slap on a 30 or 40mm gun and a few 50 cals and start offering escorts from Suez Port out into the Indian ocean and back the other way. This would however run up against the ship owners are cheap bastards problem so unless it cost less than taking the ships around Cape Agulhas they're more likely to simply do that or take their chances with the pirates.

Israeli mob boss taken out by a car bomb. But what's interesting is at the end of the article detailing other means used in mob warfare including anti-tank missiles, etc... Wheee.

Huh, they're getting sloppy. I can remember the story of a similar car bombing from a few years back that used a shaped charge attached to the bottom of the car underneath the targets seat. The target got turned into shredded meat whilst all the other passengers walked away with only superficial scratches and one hell of a shock. Now that's how you do a car bomb.

[PBTHHHHT]

Only problem with that is if the target checks for such devices therefore it would be harder to pull off the shaped charge. It is a lot harder for said target to avoid the roadside stuff. Granted that means the perpetrators would have to weather through public outcry and scrutiny for such tactics, especially in their disregard to the public. That said, it's not like the mob of the old days which supposedly are supposed to keep such things quiet from the public.