Prologue

No one knows from whence they came or how they came into being. All that is known about the Robo Pirates is that their unquenchable greed led them out of their homeworld on an odyssey of plunder throughout the galaxy. In the early days of their raids they were mildly successful in their goals and were only seen as a mild threat to the peace of the worlds they assaulted. This all changed once Admiral Razorbeard came into power.
Razorbeard’s origins were humble; as a youth he was merely a deckhand on the Claudia, a warship owned by one of the era's independent captains. Always mocked for his diminutive stature, Razorbeard developed ferocity and cunning to make up for his weakness. He began to gain prominence among the pirates and eventually, when his captain disappeared under mysterious circumstances, became Captain of the Claudia. His hunger for power did not end there: in four years he had united the rag-tag Pirate crews into a fleet through force, secret diplomacy and assassinations.
Wasting no time to declare himself Admiral of the Robo Pirate fleet, Razorbeard led savage, coordinated attacks throughout the galaxy. His power grew rapidly as wealth flowed to his homeworld every day and prisoners were shipped as slaves to toil for their robotic masters. The Claudia, renamed the Buccaneer by its new master, was the largest of these slave ships, bringing a grim cargo back to the Pirates’ planet after a successful series of raids.
During one of his conquests, Razorbeard attacked a small, remote planet with his fleet. He expected it to go the same way as his other conquests; it didn’t. A hero named Rayman escaped from the Buccaneer, united the four legendary Masks of Polokus and drove the Pirates out of his world. This is not his story. Instead, this is the story of the Buccaneer and her inhabitants, both Pirate and slave, observing history as Rayman’s adventure unfolds…

                                         Chapter 1  

It was another day on the Buccaneer. Ragged prisoners awoke from their dreams as their mechanical captors roamed the halls. In one small cell, the morning was felt the same way as in all the others; miserably. This cell was home to four captives: two Teensies, one young, the other old, a small, blue amphibious creature and a strangely reptilian creature with rocklike skin.
“Wake up, you mangy dogs! It’s almost time for you to work, so eat up and be ready to move!”
A Pirate close to the cell slid a bowl half filled with gray, watery gruel under the door. One of the inhabitants, an elderly Teensie, picked up the bowl and moved it over to the others.
“Come on, eat. You need the energy more than I do, you know.” He said with a weary smile. A younger Teensie moved over to the gruel and looked at it before turning away with a queasy look on his face.
“Come on, son. I know it looks terrible, but you need to eat. It’s not so bad once you’re used to it.”
The young Teensie, still hesitant, dipped his right hand into the gruel and placed it to his lips slowly. The other creatures in the cell were less eager to try the gruel, although not because of hesitation. The small amphibian sat in a corner of the room sobbing.
“I miss daddy…” He sniffed. “Where are mommy and daddy?”
“I know how you feel, Gublub,” The old Teensie said gently. “but you need to keep up your strength as well. What would your parents think if you didn’t take care of yourself?”
The baby Globox sniffed as it thought about these words before it rose to join the young Teensie. Satisfied, the old Teensie slowly moved to where the reptilian was sitting.
“Poor kids.” He said sadly. “Look how scared they are. It’s terrible that the Pirates are capturing kids as young as these.
“Yeah.” The reptilian said quietly.
“You know, we’ve been cell mates for about a month now and you haven’t told me your name yet.”
“Marco.” He replied. “What about you?”
“Me? My name’s Sam. I used to raise my grandchildren down by the Fairy Glade until… well, they caught me. I don’t know where they are now. It’s so sad to be separated from them…”
Before Marco could reply to him, a shrill voice began to boom through the corridor.
“What?!? What do you mean, ‘They escaped’?”
“Um… exactly what I said, sir.” Another, more timid voice replied. “I think they broke through the grate in their cell and escaped through a vent.”
“But nobody has ever escaped from the Buccaneer before! How did he manage to break through the grate, anyway?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know! One minute they were there and we started to play cards, and the next minute…”
“Well, that settles it. You’re telling Admiral Razorbeard that Rayman and that frog thing escaped.”
“But… But I can’t!” The voice sobbed hysterically. “You know what he’ll do to me! You’re his first mate! You tell him!”
“How dare you talk back to a superior officer! You were on guard duty, you let them escape, and now you’re going to tell the news to the Admiral.”
All four of the prisoners turned their heads as the conversation went on. As they watched, two pirates came walking down the corridor. One of them was dressed in blue while the other, noticeably distressed, was wearing the normal red uniform of a Pirate commando. The Pirate in blue, seeing hundreds of prisoners staring at him, decided to exert his authority.
“Mind your own business, slaves!” He barked at no one in particular. “Because you can’t mind your own business, everyone gets half rations for a day!”
The prisoners turned away, but even the thought of half rations was not enough to dampen their newfound spirits. Urgent, whispered conversations sprouted in every cell as the Pirates went by.
“Rayman… escaped!” The old man whispered, his eyes moistening with tears. “There’s hope for us after all! With Rayman fighting for us, we’re as good as rescued!”
“Uncle Rayman and daddy are gonna beat up the bad guys and save us!” Gublub said excitedly. “Just you wait.”
“Hrmph. What foolishness!” Marco cut into the conversation. “I don’t know about you, but we tried to fight as our world was overrun. The ones who weren’t killed were taken as slaves. You really think that this Rayman can save us from those fiends?”
“Yes, I do.” Sam said resolutely. “When I was young, the world was attacked by a man named Dark. He led an army as mighty as this one, but Rayman was able to defeat him. He saved us once, and I believe he can save us again.”
The young Teensie listened to these words, a wistful look on his face. “Freedom…” he whispered to himself.
“That’s the spirit!” Sam said, trying to boost the boy’s confidence after hearing his first words. “I don’t care how hard the road will be for us, we will be freed!”
Before they could converse more, a Pirate came up to their room and deactivated the laser gate in front of the cell.
“Get up, you louts! Get on over to the boiler room and start shoveling coal!”
Weary but oddly joyful, the four cellmates got up slowly and followed the Pirate into the boiler room, the thought of freedom never leaving their minds. Even Marco entertained the possibility. It was still foolishness, of course, but what if…
“No, no.” He thought. “I’ll go mad if I think of that.” Shrugging his shoulders, he joined the others, still unconsciously hoping that Sam were telling the truth.