I'm in a situation right now where I need my Pirate to intercept a sub. The problem is, you have to target the enemy sub first... by which time the Time Machine has already begun pushing them towards their objective. I can't put my Pirate in the sub before I've targeted it, so because of the Time Machine, I can't catch the sub to be able to put the Pirate inside in order to catch it

Sorry if this is a confusing report. Basically what it boils down to is that I need my 2x speed to intercept a sub with an Admiral... but I can't apply my Pirate 2x speed to a sub before it's targeted, so I can't target him before he reaches his destination

When you drag your finger to launch a sub that has a potential Pirate specialist on it, the game takes it into account and the world moves at half speed in relation to your finger.

In other words, if you can't reach a sub with your Pirate is because the Pirate would have been too late and wouldn't reach its target, even at 2x normal speed.

Ahh that's good to know. It would be great if the game showed the variable time '7h 25m - 10h 23m' that displays when looking at enemy movements, because it's very unclear xD

There is a way you can somewhat view the timing of a sub with a Pirate.

When you dragging the sub around, the time shown (2x) is assuming you're attempting to target a sub. If you drag the sub so it 'attaches' to an outpost, you will see that the time shown become 1x.