THE GREY WAVE PIRATES

 
Nano-machines are incredible inventions that are able to construct anything from skyscrapers to ballistic missiles. Recently, an entire swarm of nano-machices were outfitted with experimental Cerebranetic motherboards that would allow each of them to interface with Cyberspace, making them even easier to manipulate on a large scale. 

While still in testing phases, the 2020 Bug impacted a huge number of these machines causing a mass malfunction. Hundreds of millions of the swarm no longer obeyed commands issued by their creators, instead they seemed to operate with their own shared consciousness. The rebelling swarm quickly broke containment and escaped the city through the storm drainage system. 

Somewhere far from shore in the Pacific Ocean, the renegade nano-machines reformed into an island where it set to work. A shared malfunction in their hardware had removed many of the limitations placed upon them, and they now operated as a single, many-limbed entity with its own goals and means. 

Multiple cargo-ships crossing the Pacific Ocean, usually ones transporting cyberware, have completely disappeared without a trace. Entire cargo-ships, crew and cargo, gone. Undetectable even by the most advanced satellite tracking technology. Even a military escort that was sent out with a ship was never seen again.

Unbeknownst to the world, the island of nano-machines has learnt how to hunt. It lurks underwater, attacking its target from below and swarming them until they are engulfed, where every element of the ship and cargo can be broken down into resources to grow the swarm. It is now able to manufacture weaponry, robotic crew, even more nano-machines and has developed quite the taste for piracy.