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Piracy is fairly common in the Milky Way in the year 3152.
Pirate tactic classification
There are four main classes of pirate tactics.
Zombies
Zombie pirate ships work around the idea of looking like a long-destroyed ship, setting a trap for potential explorers. Zombie ships usually use anomalous materials to reduce their heat emissions to near-zero, and then "run cold" in addition, with minimal heating and life support, engines offline, and the like. They try to look as dead as they can, often employing decorations such as busted windows, clearly visible battle damage (often intentional), and may even set up a few debris fields in which they intentionally space prisoners and low-value goods, giving the appearance of a ship that had an "unfortunate accident". Zombie crews then typically wait until some explorers board the ship before cranking on the engines in a hurry and going full-pirate, blasting out the other ship's engines so they can't get away and following that up by taking out their weapons. After that, the unfortunate explorers are easy pickings.
Cloakers
Cloakers, like Zombies, rely on negating their heat signature, but they're significantly better-equipped. Rather than waiting for an adventuring ship to fall into a trap, they try to sneak up on idling ships - a risky proposition, because while they approach, they're completely defenseless: no shields or active guns. If they can manage to get close enough, their tactics vary. Some rely on opening fire, while others rely on boarders, and there is even a subset that relies on ramming the target vessel apart.
Vultures
Pirate ships that are better off usually simply use better technology. Good engines mean they're maneuverable, and good guns mean they can pack a punch. The most effective pirate ships are built as long-range glass cannons, capable of dishing out powerful damage at extreme distance, and then coming in when the ship can no longer defend itself - feeding on the dead like they're vultures.
Pounders
Some pirate ships, especially the most powerful ones, forego any real strategy and simply attack their enemy head-on with powerful guns and boarders. For the most part, Zombies can be avoided, Cloakers can be spotted, and Vultures can be escaped, but if you come across a Pounder ship, you're gonna have a bad time.
Tonner
A variation of the Pounder classification. Pounders go in it for the thrill of combat. Tonners are a lot heavier than Pounders - more boarders, more guns, heavy gear. They aren't here for battle. They're here to harvest your goods, with or without you. Tonners have streamlined systems for disabling of ships, killing of crews, and collection of goods, as well as clients they regularly sell things to. They often take hits on other ships and are formidable enough of opponents that local militia may give them a wide berth out of respect. They blur the line between pirate and mercenary, and oftentimes end their career by serving as mercenaries and ships-for-hire instead, which is not only sometimes more lucrative, but also perfectly legal.
Life on a pirate ship
Except in the most far-flung areas in the Rim, docking at a port as a pirate is a surefire way to get captured for whatever bounty you have on your head. This means replacement parts don't come easily, and dry-docking a ship to repair the hull usually isn't an option. As such, mechanics and engineers typically make up the vast majority (if not the entirety) of the pirate crew.
By the standards of most communities, pirate life is highly uncivilized. Drinking water (or any water) is usually scarce and hard to come by, as water purification and reclamation systems typically require frequent replacement of filters. Bathing is kept to a minimum, when they bathe at all. Hygiene is poor, with most pirates being dirty, often with rotting or missing teeth (if they're human). Infection from wounds is common, especially if they run short of medigel or alcohol. Pirates missing limbs isn't an uncommon sight, and many pirates make use of prosthetics - sometimes more than one, and often of varying qualities. It's not uncommon to see a pirate with a stiff peg leg and a cyborg arm at the same time, or a powerful cyborg leg and a hook hand. To some degree, augmentations like these are a sign of prowess and bravery, and a revered symbol of your courage. "Earning your augs" is a common phrase in pirate circles. Due to all of this, medics and doctors are usually the highest-esteemed members of a crew, and if captured by a rival pirate ship, are usually treated akin to royalty to curry their favor. It's not uncommon for pirate doctors to serve several ships during their lifetimes.
At least half of all pirates are addicted to substances such as drugs or alcohol. Alcoholism is far less common than drug addiction, however - brewing alcohol can be done on a ship, of course, and it's a tastier (and often safer) alternative to drinking water, which can grow bacteria and algae - but drugs are often easier to acquire, as well as being more addictive. Stims, flake, powders and pills are almost a form of currency on pirate ships, and there's an entire subset of merchants devoted entirely to trading with pirate gangs: drugs for gold. These ships are known by a number of terms, but most frequently "Drug Forts" for how well-defended they are: positively bristling with guns and often sporting multiple layers of armor.