Year 3460 after Rostdor's foundation, frontier castle of high Martalaz. Nearby shore.
Caesar was looking with a stern expression at his fleet. He was now almost 16 years old, a couple months were away for him to become a "proper" adult and wear the toga virilis: a garment that indicated he was of age. Usually, this birthday had a symbolic value that meant a ceremony (because he was of royal blood) and a whole lot of "duties" being assigned to him. "Duties" being in quotation marks because usually, they nominally assigned him a small private army to command but he wasn't the de facto leader. Even his brothers and sisters nominally led small armies for two years, just so they could say they had military experience.
This didn't mean he wasn't taught about the logistics of war, just meant that he wasn't really doing anything. The captain led the small fleet of 6 destroyers and he did nothing. He was also assigned an entire Legion to his command. 4'800 people, just the combatants, assigned to him. Well, Rostdor was the most populated country in the world, with an estimated 400'500'000 people living in it. So it was but a spec of dust, but still.
The main problem radicated in the state of his troops. He was assigned to them three months ago and it took all of his efforts and influence just to get them to follow the standard drills. He made sure his soldiers trained, stopped harassing the local towns in search of fun, and managed to get the fleet to actually listen to him.
And today was the main day. He was set on using his 6 destroyers to start hunting some small merchant vessels turned pirates.
His legatus, leader of the army, and his nauarchus, leader of his 6 ships, were with him.
-It is time -said Caesar, calmly.
He had used the funds he got from his father and the church to save quite the sum, without ever spending a dime, to get some sailors to talk through some of his men. He knew the pirates were going to attack a small merchant convoy of three small vessels, and he wanted to ambush them. The weather was clear, the wind was favourable and his ships were made out of iron.
Out of iron. In the big 3460. Most navies in the world had already switched to steel god damn it. Well, the Rostdorian navy did too, long ago, it's just that his ships were old because no one would assign actual important military assets to a barely 16 years old (although he was yet 15).
So he was stuck with old ships, lazy soldiers and marines, and even lazier staff in charge of supplies. It didn't matter tho. He had a perfect plan.
He was going to improve this land. Maybe becoming emperor was a bit too far fetched, but he'd use every card he got to make people's life easier. This life, he would really make a change in history. But without making too many enemies.
One thing that every faction agreed on was that pirates were bad, no? So if he could make people's life easier while not displeasing every single person that could kill him was the best he could do at the moment.
Year 3460 after Rostdor's foundation, Gulf of Martalaz, pirate ship.
Kalepfoi was a skilled pirate. Or so he thought. He had managed to live as a Corsair for a couple years, and now that he had no contracts going, he kept his live going through the extortion of nearby merchant ships.
He had some talks with the Yuleen republic, but no money was to be seen as of yet, so he resorted to gathering his 13 corvette fleet, and do strike and run tactics. Gathered info, ambushed some naval convoys, scared them into giving him some money, let them go and kept doing his thing. Life wasn't great, but he was fed and could pay his crew. Hell, he was even infamous and respected.
-Cap'n we've spotted da bounty. Merchants be like 8 miles away. We've seen 5 vessels, the lads are eager and raring to go.
8 miles was about half an hour distance, or just barely 20 minutes before their effective shooting range was clear. The weather was wonderful, so they would shoot at the merchant ships a little, give them a scare before making demands. Everything seemed perfect. Which made him cautious. He had never once had a "perfect" raid.
-You, give the order, tell three of our ships to go on patrol and make sure there are no imperial navy funny businesses going around. We pay them, but it's never late to be sure. And as soon as they are within 3 miles, fire those goddamn cannons. If we see them, they've probably seen us. Try to not hit them, just scare them. They're no good to us dead nor sunken.
-Aye Cap'n!
After the short exchange, he sighed. He wasn't sure why, but he felt the exhaustion of years of piracy slowly catching up to him. There should not have been any imperial ships around here, for the navy was bought off, but he had heard of the new eccentric imperial prince going around. Bad for the business, he actually tried to make soldiers do their duty. Bad stuff, bad stuff.
Everything seemed to proceed as planned. The ships he sent as scouts slowly faded on the 15 mile spot horizon, and should be back in a couple minutes to report, the shots fired from their cannons made the merchant vessels to stop moving.
Suddenly, the cannons were heard. And then he cursed. They weren't close enough, those weren't their cannons.
-FULL SPEED, PREPARE TO ENGAGE THE MERCHANTS! We need hostages. God damn it, I knew that prince was bad news.
What shitty day to have such a clear weather.
The horns started sounding, and they started approaching the merchants. And then he noticed. Those merchant ships were armed to a teeth. It was a trap. They've been sold.
-For fuck's sake.
10 against 5 wasn't that bad of an odd. Problem was he wasn't sure how many enemies were there. Another 5 merchant vessels would be easy, 5 imperial corvettes could pose a problem.
-Cap'n! Three destroyers were hiding on the other side of the gulf! They are coming straight to us!
They were being surrounded. Another three destroyers appeared from where he sent the scouts to.
-THEY BROKE THE FUCKING DEAL.
His head started racing. This had becom an unwinnable situation extremely fast. He was pretty sure he could outmanoeuvre the merchant ships and even win against the Imperial navy. But the loses would be too big. Every ship was now trying to make the other ships engage first, so that they could end on a profit even if some ships were sunk.
-Ah fuck it, let's retreat boys. Nothing to get out of this one.
As soon as they saw nothing would be gained from engaging, the fleet started to disperse. It wasn't worth it.
Year 3460 after Rostdor's foundation, Gulf of Martalaz, Imperial destroyer.
-Well, that was anticlimactic.
-It was to be expected, your majesty. There's no reason for them to fight to the death, they want money and to live. Risking everything for a fight that would prove unprofitable is not something they would do.
For some reason the nauarchus seemed resigned for some reason. As if he already did a big mistake that couldn't be undone.
-I understand that. But I still can't believe they are doing this so openly. And we managed to stop one of the pirate's ships and sink another one, so it's a rather good outcome isn't it? I've heard no pirates had been apprehended at all for the last two years.
The nauarchus lowered his head. The Imperial navy hadn't been patrolling at any of the relevant merchant lines at all due to orders of the nobles.
-We sure are a hopeless country.
-Your Highness! You can't say that out loud!
-Nauarchus, aren't you ashamed of speaking an oath and doing nothing about it? Weren't we supposed to protect our people? How is not being able to stop pirates in any way a sign of a great country?
While gazing the horizon, he just hoped to make his people happier.