This page is for listing the tropes related to the factions which appears in the Freelancer game.

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Liberty Factions

Liberty Police Incorporated

Liberty Police, Inc. (designation: Liberty Police) is a private company that handles the policing of Liberty space to interdict the importation of contraband and to prevent attacks on civilian and commercial traffic.

Kill the Poor: Downplayed. The rich wants to get rid of the "economic undesirables", so the police arrests them and ships them to prison.
Landfill Beyond the Stars: They use one planet as such for dumping Toxic Waste.
Prisoner's Work: So much they have 2 Prison Stations dedicated to this purpose, but it is also to separate groups of inmates so that they not start killing each other.
Private Profit Prison: The LPI is private company after all.

Liberty Navy

The Liberty Navy (designation: Navy) is responsible for protecting the economic well-being of Liberty through military force, both within the boundaries of the colony and in the independent systems that border its territory.

Military Academy: West Point Academy.

Liberty Security Force

The Liberty Security Force (designation: LSF) is the intelligence branch of the Liberty Armed Forces, operating in secrecy to ensure the free flow of goods and services in the Liberty economy.

Ageira Technologies

Ageira Technologies (designation: Ageira) is one of the "Big Three" Liberty companies and is responsible for the development of Jump Gate and Trade Lane technology.

Hyperspace Lanes: They developped the technology and built the parts.
Portal Network: Ditto.

Cryer Pharmaceuticals

Cryer Pharmaceuticals (designation: Cryer) is headquartered in Liberty and markets a wide array of both commercially avaliable and restricted-class drugs.

Deep Space Engineering

Deep Space Engineering (designation: DSE) is a Liberty company with the exclusive contract with fellow Liberty corporation Ageira Technologies to build the vast network of Trade Lanes and Jump Gates throughout the Sirius Sector.

Hyperspace Lanes: They are the builders.
Portal Network: Ditto.

Interspace Commerce

Interspace Commerce (designation: Interspace) is one of the "Big Three" Liberty companies and insures cargo carried within the colonies and into the Border Worlds.

Synth Foods

Synth Foods (designation: Synth Foods) is the Liberty Corporation responsible for the revolutionary Food product Synth Paste and a highly successful line of food-producing biodomes.

Future Food Is Artificial

Orbital Spa and Cruise

Orbital Spa and Cruise (designation: Spa and Cruise) operates an array of resorts and luxury liners throughout the Sirius Sector.

Lane Hackers

The Lane Hackers (designation: Hackers) are a criminal organization composed of former Ageira Technologies employees, using their knowledge of Ageira Trade Lane technology to steal cargo from passing ships.

Liberty Rogues

The Liberty Rogues (designation: Rogues) are a motley assortment of petty criminals who operate mainly in Liberty, attacking targets of opportunity or occasionally working for larger criminal organizations.

Xenos

The Xenos (designation: Xenos) are a loosely affiliated terrorist organization opposed to any trade or other interaction with foreign entities.

Animal Theme Naming: Their weapon lines, the Scorpion and the Tarantula are named after arachnids.
Fragile Speedster: The civilian ships they fly will crumble to any serious firepower. The problem is actually hitting them, as they're devilishly maneuverable and their guns pack quite a punch despite their short range.
Hated by All: Nearly every faction in the Sirius sector hates the Xenos, and the feeling is mutual. The only exceptions are the Zoners and the Bundschuh.
Lethal Joke Character: The Xenos only fly light fighters (Starfliers, Startrackers and Hawks), but these ships are very maneuverable, and the Starflier in particular is very hard to hit because of its small profile. In addition, the Xenos sell and use the best particle guns up to Class-6, so if they hit you, it will hurt.

Bretonia Factions

Bretonia Police Authority

The Bretonia Police Authority (designation: Bretonia Police) is well-trained, well-armed, and widely considered to be a bastion of incorruptibility.

Space Mines: Their Prison Station is protected by one, with only a narrow corridor to allow passage.
Token Good Cop: Along with the Bretonia Armed Forces, their Alliance Meter is not scripted to switch to hostile after you assist the Blood Dragons with capturing Tekagi's Transport. This may also be a case of Gameplay and Story Integration since they are considered "a bastion of incorruptibility".

Bretonia Armed Forces

The Bretonia Armed Forces (designation: Armed Forces) has a long history of serving as the first and last line of defense for the great nation Bretonia.

Token Good Cop: The Armed Forces is the only other house faction, besides the Bretonia Police, who maintain their Alliance Meter with you after you assist the Blood Dragons with capturing Tekagi's Transport.

Bretonia Mining and Metals

Bretonia Mining and Metals^note (designation: BMM) is one of the largest commercial concerns in Bretonia, a network of semi-autonomous operations that range throughout Bretonian space.

Bad Boss: They treated very poorly the gold miners of Dublin, which caused them to form the Mollys.

Border Worlds Exports

Border Worlds Exports (designation: Bowex) is a pioneer in the exploration of the Border Worlds and the exclusive supplier to the Bretonian Military and Police.

Gateway Shipping

Gateway Shipping (designation: Gateway) is a Bretonian firm catering to smaller companies that hauls raw materials accross the Border and Independent Worlds.

Planetform Incorporated

Planetform, Inc. (designation: Planetform) specializes in the terraforming of non-viable planets in bretonia and elsewhere.

Mollys

The Mollys (designation: Mollys) are a separatist group committed to freeing the Dublin system from Bretonian rule through violent attacks on civilian, commercial and military targets.

Gaians

The Gaians (designation: Gaians) are a terrorist faction opposed to any alteration to the natural environment of a planet, specifically those brought about through terraforming.

Eco-Terrorist

Kusari Factions

Kusari State Police

The Kusari State Police (designation: Kusari Police) is a disciplined force of career personnel assigned to guard the borders of Kusari space and protect Kusari commercial interests.

Prisoner's Work: Their prison station is also a mining station.

Kusari Naval Forces

The Kusari Naval Forces (designation: Naval Forces) is highly organized and possesses all the considerable technological advantages inferred by Kusari industry.

Kishiro Technologies

Kishiro Technologies (designation: Kishiro) is one of the great Kusari keiretsu

— sprawling, vertically integrated compagnies that control whole industries.

MegaCorp

Samura Industries

Samura Industries (designation: Samura) is one of the great Kusari keiretsu

— sprawling, vertically integrated compagnies that control whole industries.

Corporate Warfare: They manipulate the Farmers Alliance into attacking their competitors in Kusari Space.
MegaCorp

Blood Dragons

The Blood Dragons (designation: Dragons) are a terrorist organization supposedly descended from the royal guard of Shogun Hideyoshi — desposed during a coup several centuries before — and are dedicated to the overthrow of the current Kusari government.

Praetorian Guard: They are the descendants of the royal guards of a deposed Shogun.

Farmers Alliance

The Farmers Alliance (designation: Alliance) is a Kusari political organization to lobby for the government subsidies and restrictions on the sale of foreign food.

Golden Chrysanthemums

The Golden Chrysanthemums (designation: GC) are a terrorist organization seeking to the overthrow of the Kusari governement and institute a matriarchy.

Amazon Brigade: Downplayed—while the GC is the only faction where every member is female, the ships they fly and weapons they use are not as good as those of their nearest ally, the Blood Dragons.
Better to Die than Be Killed: The GC inherited this trope from their founder—in-universe, members of the GC would rather commit suicide than betray the faction.
Distracted by the Luxury: They want and are willing to pay for Luxury Consumer Goods.
Fantastic Drug: They use Cardamine for their rituals and as a security measure against infiltrators by addicting their members.
Gameplay and Story Integration: As this is an Amazon Brigade, there are no male GC NPCs. Ever. Mission Commission doesn't count.

Hogosha

The Hogosha (designation: Hogosha) are quasi-legal organization that ostensibly exists to promote the "welfare and prosperity of the Kusari people".

Yakuza

Rheinland Factions

Rheinland Federal Police

The Rheinland Federal Police (designation: Rheinland Police) is an impressively well-equipped organization acting as the primary security force in Rheinland space.

Rheinland Military

The Rheinland Military (designation: Military) continues a proud of military service that stretches back several centuries.

Former Regime Personnel: The Military was greatly downsized after the 80 Years War (and after the events of the game), and their remaining members aren't paid on time. Many of them then turned to bounty hunting.

ALG Waste Disposal

ALG Waste Disposal (designation: ALG) is based Rheinland but operates throughout the colonies due to its outstanding reputation for industrial clean-up.

Daumann Heavy Construction

Daumann Heavy Construction (designation: Daumann) is the largest mining and manufacturing firm in Rheinland.

Arms Dealer: They sell the Side Arms commodity.
Bad Boss: They claim its Red Hessian propaganda. Others (mostly their competitors and and the Red Hessians themselves) says it is true.
Patriotic Fervor: Some of their employees exhibit this: hating Kusari shippers, calling ALG unpatriotic for allying and dealing with foreign companies.
War for Fun and Profit: They built the Rheinland Fleet for the Eighty-Years War, which brought a lot of money for the share holders of the company.

Kruger Minerals

Kruger Minerals (designation: Kruger) works in partnership with ALG Waste Disposal to mine the valuable resources within Rheinland and its neighboring territories.

Republican Shipping

Republican Shipping (designation: Republican) manages a substantial majority of all vargo transported within the borders of Rheinland.

Bundschuh

The Bundschuh (designation: Bundschuh) are a populist faction that has been declared "enemy of the State" by the Rheinland Reichtag.

Full-Circle Revolution: They attempted to avert this but failed, so they continue to operate outside the law.
Great Escape: Unlike other criminals who seek to free their brethren, they also free political prisoners.
The Team Benefactor: They were this during the rebellion against Rheinland Imperial Government.

LWB

The LWB (designation: LWB) or Landwirtrechtbewegung (farmers' rights movement), is believed to be engaged in attacks on Synth Foods operations and sympathetic goverment officals in retaliation for Rheinland concessions to the Liberty Food conglomerate.

Eco-Terrorist: Synth Foods is terraforming Planet Stuttgart so it can only grow Synth Foods crops, so LWB actions can fall into this.
Occupiers Out of Our Country: They want the Synth Foods corporation out of Planet Stuttgart.

Red Hessians

The Red Hessians (designation: Hessians) are a criminal group composed largely of unemployed miners operating out of Rheinland space who attack civilian and commercial targets of opportunity.

Motive Decay: They were fighting for the workers of Rheinland in the beginning, but then devolved into piracy and turf wars against the Corsairs to expand said piracy operations.

Unioners

The Unioners (designation: Unioners) are a terrorist group composed of dispossessed Rheinland shipyard workers who engage in brutal reprisals chiefly against Republican Shipping.

Even Evil Has Standards: They could participate in Cardamine and Artifact smuggling to fund their operations, but they choose not to.

Hispania Factions

Corsairs

The Corsairs are believed to be the largest criminal organization operating in Sirius — frequently attacking civilian, commercial, and even military targets.

Cruel and Unusual Death: If they don't kill their targets, they can disable the ship engines and let the pilot dies of asphyxia. Or maroon the pilot on an asteroid and let him die of asphyxia. Or keelhaul the pilot by attaching him to a ship going through a Jump Hole.
I'm a Humanitarian: They had to resort to this at one point. To many mouths to feed, not enough food.
Mighty Glacier: The Corsair M fighter is this in general—a little sluggish versus comparable ships, but having a better powerplant to support more powerful, energy-demanding guns as well as a stronger hull. Their M7 Centurion heavy fighter and M10 Titan very heavy fighter exemplify this trope by having the best hull rating and powerplant of their ship type in the game. In the gun department, the Corsairs sell the best pulse and neutron guns from Class-7 upwards, all of which have the same shot speed as the Class-10 CODENAME and Nomad guns for maximum compatibility and accuracy while having an average fire rate.
Pintsized Powerhouse: The Titan very heavy fighter is also this on top of its Mighty Glacier status, in that it has a smaller target profile than both the Civilian Eagle and Borderworlds Sabre, while also having the better powerplant of the three, allowing it to fire the heaviest guns in the game for a longer sustained duration.
Rite of Passage: They have a dangerous one. Young Corsairs must go into a radioactive nebula and bring back an Artifact. Some of those who succeeds come back sterile, those who die are left there, forming the Graveyard of the Innocents. Justified because they have limited food supply, so they have to remove weak members of their group.
Space Pirates: Justified—Planet Crete does not have the resources to support the Corsair population, so once the Corsairs began exploring adjacent systems, they took to piracy and raiding to procure the resources they needed to continue growing. The Corsairs still continue this practice in current-day Sirius on top of their long-distance artifact smuggling runs.
We Used to Be Friends: The Corsairs and Outcasts are the modern-day descendants of the inhabitants of the Hispania after it was sabotaged at the edge of Sirius. The half who chose to abandon the sleeper ship would settle down on Planet Crete and form the Corsairs, who do not see the Outcasts as brothers-in-arms due to 800 years of separation, even though they acknowledge that both factions share a common ancestry.

Outcasts

The Outcasts (designations: Outcasts) are the producers of the drug Cardamine and are dedicated to smuggling it to all of Sirius.

Fantastic Drug: Cardamine.
Long-Lived: A side-effect of the drug Cardamine. Average lifespan is 124, record is 177.
The Cartel: The entire faction is this, dedicated to smuggling Cardamine.

Other Factions

Bounty Hunters Guild

The Bounty Hunters Guild (designation: Bounty Hunters) originally began in Texas but has spread to almost every system in Sirius, providing a broad array of security-oriented services for a reasonable fee.

Butt-Monkey: Bounty hunters are barely tolerated by lawful factions and usually take on the riskiest assignments, while they are also usually the second target of choice for unlawful factions.
Fragile Speedster: Bounty Hunter guns sacrifice damage and energy efficiency for the ability to hit at longer ranges, and Bounty Hunter ships tend to be more agile and smaller than comparable ships while having less hitpoints and a weaker powerplant. In dogfights, Bounty Hunters are usually the first to fire at the maximum range of their guns, but if the battle escalates into a short-range gunfight with more jousting than turning in circles, they will also fall very quickly without supporting fire.
The Friend Nobody Likes: Members of the Bounty Hunters Guild can move freely in house space, and the faction has a considerable presence on bases owned by most lawful factions. However, the Bounty Hunters Guild is not strongly allied to any lawful faction (although attacking them constantly will put a dent on most House police and military factions), and in-game lore frequently mentions that they are only barely tolerated by lawful factions because they are the only faction that polices the independent, border and edge worlds, and since most of them used to be criminals, they have knowledge of the same jump hole network that the unlawful factions use, making them the most suitable group to hunt down their former allies.
Mirror Character: To the Xenos. Similar to how constantly attacking the Xenos will put you in good standing with nearly every other faction apart from the Zoners and IMG, constantly attacking Bounty Hunters often will put you in good standing with most unlawful factions over time. Both factions can also play a significant role in enhancing the player's offensive arsenal, with the Xenos providing some of the best early- to mid-game guns, and the Bounty Hunters having some of the most agile ships in the game at any point of progression.
Recruiting the Criminal: Many of them were former criminals who chose to hunt their former allies.

Independent Miner Guild

The Independent Miner Guild (designation: IMG) is a loose confederation of miners who work those fields that have remained underdeveloped by the larger mining companies.

Bold Explorer: They are always looking for new ressources to exploit and don't wait the completion of Jump Gates, thus securing these ressources away from their competitors.
Truce Zone: Some of their bases acts like this.

Gas Miners Guild

The Gas Miners Guild (designation: GMG) is a tight-knit professional organization that acts as the primary supplier of H-Fuel to the four major houses.

N.G.O. Superpower: They patrol the Sigma Systems on the behalf of the Kusari government, destroyed the Rheinland Imperial Fleet invasion during the 80 Years War, and are currently interested in expanding into Outcast territory to obtain their Alien Organisms. They even used to launch raids on Rheinland after the war.
We Used to Be Friends: They were once part of the Artefact trade route, being the middle man between the Hogosha and the Corsairs. But then an opportunity enabled the other two to cut them entirely from the trade by dealing directly together on board the Luxury Liner Hawaii. The GMG is trying to provoke an incident to break their deal to get back into the trade.
Corporate Warfare: They secretly back the Blood Dragons and provide military training to them. However, it is mostly to prevent Samura from expanding their H-fuel extraction operations in Hokkaido, rather than overthrowing the Kusari Governement.

Junkers

The Junkers (designation: Junkers) are an itinerant population of unknown origin who comb debris fields looking for scrap and equipement that can either repurposed or sold for cash.

Black Market: Their bases are these for unlawful factions.
Landfill Beyond the Stars: Played with. Their bases are located in debris fields, not on planets used as garbage dumps.
Robbing the Dead: That's what they are doing in the ruins of the 80-Years War, with corpses still floating inside the wrecks. ALG Waste Disposal even pays them for doing that, because the company doesn't want to risk their employees well-being.

Zoners

Zoners (designation: Zoners) are a diverse group of individuals who, for various reasons, have decided to live in the wild and unregulated systems outside of colonial control.

Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The Hispania factions hold this opinion on the Zoners close to their homeworld:
- On one hand, they can trade with the Zoners for easily accessible supplies.
- On the other, the Zoners also host Bounty Hunters who are a constant thorn on their side.
Odd Friendship: The Zoners are officially a neutral faction with no allied or hostile factions. That said, their history has resulted in them showing empathy for some factions, and vice versa. Some standout factions include:
- The Xenos: Probably the most infamous example, the Xenos generally interact with the Zoners around Ames Research Station and Freeport 2. The Xenos' fight against foreign entities, despite them being one of the poorest criminal factions in Sirius, draws interesting similarities with the Zoners choosing to settle regions outside House control.
- The Unioners: Freeport 2 was historically the Unioners' home base in the decades following the Popular Revolution, until the Unioner population grew too large for the Zoners to sustain and were evicted. Despite this, both factions still interact with each other on cordial terms around Freeport 2.
- The Bounty Hunters Guild: As the only faction that actively hunts criminals outside House space, the bounty hunters rely almost entirely on the Zoners' Freeports to rearm and repair their ships while hunting bounties far away from their home bases of Sheffield and Deshima Stations. On the Zoners' end, they sustain their operations at Ames Research Station by trading with the bounty hunters at Deshima Station.
- Synth Foods: The most striking feature of almost every Freeport is the one or more biodomes forming part of the station's structure. These biodomes are manufactured by and purchased from Synth Foods and provide the Zoners with the food they need to sustain their bases, as well as produce enough on the side for trade. The Zoners believe that their early years would have been much more difficult if not for Synth Foods and credit the Liberty-based faction for playing a major role in their growth.
Team Switzerland: The Zoners are this, officially neutral to all factions with no allies or enemies. This also makes it impossible for the player to gain reputation with them except through the occasional bribe when they are neutral or hostile. The bases they operate are built in remote and/or contested systems, serving as a Truce Zone for all factions.
Truce Zone: All of their bases acts like this, enabling both lawful and unlawful factions to dock in the same place whether to trade or repair their ships.

The Order

The Order (designation: Order) is widely described as a terrorist organization of unknown size whose agenda has not yet been determined. Playing through the singleplayer campaign will eventually reveal that The Order was founded to protect the colonies from the Nomads.

All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Order's base on Planet Toledo gets bombed from orbit by the Nomads towards the end of the singleplayer campaign. Its eventual fate is unknown.
Heroes "R" Us: The Order sits somewhere between the scale of "organization of heroes" and "heroic organization", but it leans towards the latter. While it has its core members, such as Orillion, The Order also employs proxy members, affiliated with other factions, to discreetly watch over most systems. These proxy members can be as distinguished as Lord Hakkera, who is the Prefect of Honshu, or as insignificant as a Liberty Rogue pilot.
The Order: Played straight, all the way down to the faction's origins. When Orillion escaped Liberty and his would-be Nomad abductors with the Battleship Osiris, he set about forming The Order with anyone in the colonies who was willing to protect humanity from the Nomads. The Order then grew from a one-man show into a Heroes "R" Us faction that has a finger on every corner of Sirius through proxy members in other factions.
Ridiculously Fast Construction: In-universe example—The Order's base on Planet Toledo, which has the necessary facilities to support its operations far beyond Omicron Minor, was built from scratch by Orillion's Corps of Engineers in only a few months.
The "The" Title Confusion: The faction is officially known as The Order, and the full title of their signature ship, the Anubis, has the suffix "The Order Very Heavy Fighter". However, their comm designation, weapons and bases all only have "Order" in their name, without the "The".

Nomads

The Nomads are alien beings living in the Sirius Sector before the arrival of humanity.

Puppeteer Parasite: The first step is "planting a seed", in the terminal stage the parasite replaces the heart, the brain and the eyes without any visible indication, whether in appearance of behavior.

Characters / Freelancer Factions

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