Sorry, but as a freelancer, brown-coated pilot who generally tries to stay out of the pointless, life-wasting conflicts of the Big Boys, I simply cannot support the NMLA in this one.
My reasoning is simple:
1) I cannot condone any sort of attack on innocent civilians who, for the vast majority's part, have absolutely no say in the machinations and politics of the rulers they live under. Particularly in the Empire, of which I'm not a huge fan, where life seems to be mainly about trying to make a living and not going into debt enough that you find yourself in "indentured servitude", to use the least offensive term for Imperial slavery that I can think of.
Imagine that you go to bed one night after having worked your hind end off in the mines or the office, only to find yourself, very briefly before hard vacuum kills you, woken up, because some faction that you couldn't care less about decided that your death was a worthy "sacrifice" for their sacred agenda. Easy enough to sacrifice somebody else's life to advance an agenda, isn't it, somebody who might even support your agenda. Certainly easier than going up against people who might be able to defend themselves and shoot back.
Be careful when you fight an oppressor that you don't turn into an even worse monster than the one you claim to fight.
2) Why in the name of Randomius would they, if they had to choose between the two major factions in the Empire, choose to go attack Princess Soft Touch instead of, say, that cold-hearted block of ice Arissa? Maybe they were thinking that if they got caught by Princess Aisling, they might meet a slightly less horrendous fate than if they were to get caught by Emperor Arissa? Cowards, the whole bloody bunch of them. Not to mention that of the two Imperial factions, Princess Aisling's is the one that is the least removed from the NMLA's alleged goals and imperatives. Sounds to me like they just chose to hit the target least likely to hit back in a way that hurt, and I don't cotton too well to that. Folk what don't like hitting a target that might fight back aren't worth much to me, no matter how noble their goals might be, and I'm not at all against the Marlinists' attempt to turn the Empire into a proper Republic at all.
I will stay out of this one except to help the poor, unfortunate civilians caught up in this pointless act of mass murder but, if pressed into the middle of it, I will KOS any NMLA ship I come across, because I don't adhere to the "by any means 'necessary'" philosophy.
Sometimes the cure really IS worse than the disease and, having spent several hours just now trying to rescue poor innocent people from the flaming station McKenzie from being roasted to death in a conflict they had no choice in, I hold no sympathies for the terrorists. Come out and fight in the open and I might even join you, but leave the other folk alone, or we're going to have a problem.
Don't be shooting at folk what can't shoot back, or you're a worthless coward in my book, no matter how "noble" your cause.
. I heard chatter about many groups and individuals congregating towards Cemiess. Looks like I might even stay longer now that most of the slaves in Colonia are freed, just found a few on the markets yesterday to liberate. Our enemy is also not that strong and busy in their own systems soon. It will be fun to pay back the Imperial two-faced slave-traders and their little helpers for what they did to my brother, one plasma salvo at a time. Combine all that with the start of Operation Talvisota and the bubblecation will be the blast.
