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| "Freeboters" are people who have elected to declare themselves independent of the UGC and other various states; Legally, they are a city-state within the territory of the Council. Most freebooters are hard-rock miners and most are orbital communities (asteroid mining), though this isn't strictly required. The colony of Bespin, for example, is a tibanna (refined and processed metallic hydrogen), while most Olympic-Class ships are either agricultural or agricultural and industrial; The colony of FBX 21555320 started out as a freebooter colony. The UGC only holds them to a 1% income tax (the UGC wide standard) and the regional property taxes, and sales taxes when buying or selling outside the freebooter system; Freebooters are allowed to vote in UGC elections, most systems also allow them to vote in regional elections. Many don't, usually as an act of defiance. Some freebooter colonies are criminal in nature; The UGC simply doesn't have the resources to patrol every system, even intermittently, thus "secret" colonies of pirates, slavers, smugglers, etc. is fairly common. Some are spacewreck survivors; These cases are NOT prosecuted under any circumstances (especially since the "Solider Todd" incident). With extremely rare exception, the survivor-settlers aren't forced to leave, though it has happened. Establishing A Freebooter Colony; Use Space Stations stats even if it's a landed colony or Random Interstellar Empire at one planet. | |||
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| Done Dirt Cheap." |  | |
| The Galactic Information Bureau has used so-called freebooters as front companies, providing start up funding and in some cases arranging initial inventory (ships, defenses, and sometimes heavy industrial equipment). Freebooters, being technically outside the UGC, can trade with non-UGC systems, meaning they can engage in diplomatic and other communications with them as well. This provides the GIB a ready made outpost beyond the Council's territory without the usual risks of discovery- After all, they're not spies they're just shop keepers in unaligned colonies. Freebooter colonies that later join the UGC are no longer as useful as GIB assets, but smuggling networks can still be set up. Escape routes for GIB personnel in these outposts are set up as part of the initial funding; The first leaders are invariably GIB assets in order to ensure that no attention is given to irregularities in initial procurement. Most often the leader will buy the equipment for their own use, then quietly transfer it to the individuals it was actually purchased for. The overwhelming majority of the colony is NOT part of the agency, and they are considered entirely expendable. Homeless people, criminals, and any other social outcasts are recruited to help fill these ranks (as normal for a freebooter colony) to ensure that any special crisis (invasion) must push to a much larger mass before effectively reaching the GIB staff- "Meat shields." Less than 1% of Freebooter colonies are GIB, but more than half of all GIB operations involve a Freebooter colony, either as the entire operation of as a base for one. | |||