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The independent Sky Pirates' strongholds
In the world there are people who do not belong to any nation or race. They are called Sky Pirates: do they, who fly freely in the sky and are not limited by borders, hold the key to a new world?
The Sky Pirates, who possess a deep knowledge of the ships of the surrounding nations, originated as refugees from the increase of the returnees. The Sky Pirates do not belong to a state or a nation but are proud to live according to their belief alone.
On Presters usually the interchanges between common people and the Guild were limited, but on earth the Guild became extinct, and part of their technology spread out. In fact by living together under the shelters, the Guild was slowly assimilated into the people left on earth. Although a secret organization that provides bodyguards to the emperor of Ades still survives, the actual situation is a mystery. Everything about the Guild is wrapped in mystery..
The current technology developed along different paths in each nation. But the technical knowledge of Sky Pirates knows no borders.
The main occupation of the Sky Pirates groups, where gathered those refugees who hated a foreign rule, is the capture of the aerial battleships of the Ades Federation, indeed the largest world power, which continues to expand itself by the annexation of the surrounding countries.
The Ades Federation are the descendants of those people who chose to live on earth instead of abandoning it with the Exile ships and survived during the Regeneration Plan.
Eventually it became a state with a strong military, having built several battleships in recent years.
Moreover new-model battleships conceived using diverted guild technology were also built.
The Sky Pirates built their bases in places above the battleship limit of 3,000 meters and could freely move from one place to another. They developed trades using these aerial routes and developed Vespas, small-size vanship using technologies both from the other nations and from earth. The different models of vanship developed on each Prester were subject to technological limitations by the Guild. On the contrary the Sky Pirates were able to use even the technology of the Guild. They abandoned the steam engines and used Claudia-circulating-batteries like those used for the Guild starfish fighters, so it was easy to down-size their machines.
Collecting technologies and scientific knowledge all over the world, the Sky Pirates could develop the small flying machines called Vespa. Compared to normal vanship, they were superior in agility but they had shorter flying range and could carry only limited payload. Therefore the Sky Pirates developed the Floating Docks to carry heavier loads such as the captured battleships, and to operate as vanship carriers.
Since the Floating Docks were built using the technologies developed by the Sky Pirates, manoeuvrability and altitude limits are superior than ordinary ships. The design solutions for the units used as power sources were more flexible than those used in other countries and with better operating performances, allowing the transportation of payloads and even vanship.
The capturing of battleships is known as "skyfish hunting" among Sky Pirates. They know quite well every Claudia engine model and can develop specific strategies for the captures, making good use of the agility of their vespa.
Since the target can easily learn their strategies, although there are some basic tactics such as the use of specific weather conditions or geographical features, they usually don't play the same strategy twice. So in a sense it is correct for their targets to speak of surprise attacks from the Sky Pirates.
The groups of Vespas that attack a battleship are similar to hunters who attack a whale. The Sky Pirates make a living by dismantling the captured ships, keeping the state-of-the-art components and selling the other spare parts collected in this way. Main battleship engines can be used to generate electricity for a village while the weaponry can be used to fight against the Ades Federation.
Even if the captured ships are old models, the Claudia Units can be sold at high price, but also the other parts can be re-used as spares. As nothing of a whale is thrown away, so nothing remains of a ship: even the armor can be melted in a furnace and used to produce raw material.
The Sky Pirates live in high places where the battleships cannot fly to avoid the retaliation of the nations that suffer their attacks. This is why cereals are usually obtained by trade and bread is not a common food.
