I hear you, and as always, you make a very wise point. But it is also true that they elected to run from the IISS, rather than communicate and operate with them. The marlinists were more forthcoming with NMLA suspects and much more cooperative to the federal authorities than they were to the Emperor's own security agency. In some respects, it seems like they have turned their back on the empire and nailed their colours to a different mast. I guess there is the possibility my judgement may be clouded as I probably still feel anger at the betrayal of Imperial citizens bombing Imperial starports.
To borrow from Commander Jeffrey Sinclair
The Guilty run because they don't want to get caught
The Innocent run because they don't want to be blamed for something they haven't done.
The response from Imperial Authorities has been swift, brutal, and without any consideration for nuance or scope.
Imperial Army troops have replaced local security forces, and potential NMLA sympathisers are being arrested for interrogation
There has been Military strikes carried out against whole factions under the premise there were any small number of NMLA in their ranks.
It took a defeat in Eurybia to have the IISS accept a
cooperative sit down as opposed to an interrogation.
And finally the Marlinists systems were blocked before they fled.
One could understand why they might not felt they could
cooperate with the IISS, when the furore for revenge might blind any given IISS operative to the potential that not all Marlinists are NMLA.
Take the forum posts found in the other threads, condemning all the Marlinists, guilty by association, and a capital punishment was all that was fitting for them, to possibly gauged the reaction the Marlinists might be facing even from the expected professionalism of the IISS.
How many would become forced delatores lets it show their own gulty, real or not.
The Federal Security Service, on the other hand, would be a cooler head, detached from the collective grief of the Empire, and thus might be trusted to at least listen to the Marlinists before condemning them.
With all that said, one too, could wonder if from the Marlinists point of view, the Empire had already torn down their colours, before they fled.
Any safe harbour in a storm.