Faction information

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Fedeltà (pronounced /fedelˈta/; Spanish: La Lealtad /la le.al'tað/, literally "Loyalty") is a known Outcast military group and proto political party, following an ideology of both militarism and Outcast protectionism. The group was formed after a military coup which resulted in the collapse of the National Council in March 824 A.S., and has undertaken to fill the power vacuum left behind and prevent the collapse of Malta as a state. Both the main figures of the movement and the vast majority of regular members are military officers, and they have therefore established a system similar in many ways to a military dictatorship.

The social and political crises that caused the coup have deep historical roots and can be tracked from the very beginning of Outcast history. Just over eight hundred years ago, the crippled sleeper ship Hispania and her passengers arrived in a then-unknown system, today known as Omicron Alpha. They found themselves stuck on a planet that was ill-suited to supporting human life, and their first and only goal was to survive. On their new world of acidic oceans and barren plains, these Outcasts managed to carve out a place for themselves, and form a society which not only met the daunting challenges of survival head-on, but was able to evolve into a true nation. While Outcast society "works" - it has its own order and idiosyncratic sort of overall stability - it seems, to outsiders, extremely harsh and unforgiving, much like Malta itself.

As such, it was inevitable that conflict with the other, luckier, and more successful Houses would occur. It was obvious from the outset that they could never win through brute military force, given their small size and limited industry - therefore, the Outcasts fittingly developed more cruel tactics, using their own very lifeblood as a weapon. As soon as the jump holes to the Taus and the Sigmas were discovered, it was known to all what must be done. Cardamine convoys began to rush into the border worlds, and from there into the inner systems of Sirius, flooding the rest of the galaxy with the orange dream that powered the growing Outcast economy. The Outcasts planned claw their way to the top eventually, whether through diplomacy or through a great, torrential storm of orange that wipes away all opposition, so that Malta's children could seed the fertile land left behind.

Those who owned the plantations producing the marvellous drug became fabulously wealthy; not only did they have more zeroes in their bank accounts than their countrymen, but they possessed great human and social capital as well. With time, their influence grew to encompass every facet of Outcast society. No more would the ad-hoc ministries of government, established by regional councils of citizens or dons long dead and propped up as much by custom as by legitimate authority, stand in the way of ultimate profit. The cartels came to utterly dominate every single part of Outcast life. While, again, to outsiders, this seems an incredibly oppressive, unfair, and extraordinarily unstable system, the few abortive attempts at revolution to instill a more centralized authority in Omicron Alpha have always met with failure; truly, it would seem, the Outcasts are mostly content with this cutthroat culture, and how it has served them so far.

Despite the previous successes of the Outcasts, however, there are always those who yearn for more. Just because one has come a long way doesn't mean one should rest on their laurels and cease trying to improve. With this in mind, some influential members of Outcast society have always justified their own scheming, arguing that only they have the vision and the will to bring Malta forward. On occasion, some daring few throw their lot in with each other, so as to crush mutual enemies or even ostensibly work for the benefit of all Outcasts everywhere. These attempts are often fraught with the distrust and betrayal they were nominally made to avoid, but sometimes they really bring various families and syndicates together, despite competing interests.

The National Council of Malta (also known as the NCM, NC, and Outcast National Council) is a ruling body formed in 823 AS by influential Outcast personalities who are united in opposition to Malta's status quo. After the Council of Dons ceased to exist, the smaller families and syndicates of Malta began to consolidate themselves into small but numerous councils, usually with members of the nobility at their head. At first, the only goal of these councils was to secure their own influence in a rapidly changing world. Slowly but surely, they grew into true political movements, almost invariably with a distinctly conservative bent. Despite the new addition of domestic political rhetoric, the councils still mostly focused their real efforts at increasing their own profits.

The ideological undercurrents of nationalism were not to remain dormant forever; the consolidated nobility still did not have the best idea of Malta's national interests. Along with the constant efforts to increase their own income and power, some families, or sometimes individuals, began to feel some shades of a patriotic duty to Malta. Even so, discerning true patriots from conniving plutocrats remained a difficult task. In the wake of this, the National Council of Malta was formed as the union of the disparate local Outcast opposition, with strong support from former political exiles who decided to return to Malta, in some cases in flagrant disregard to the current order. As their influence extends and former enemies and exiles return, throwing their lot in with each other, the National Council has only continued to grow in power.

However, the National Council and its old, outdated methods was never able to solve the main problems facing the Outcast nation. Many deputies of the Council never actually aimed to solve any of them, caring primarily about their own profit and influence. Institutionalized corruption and traditional plutocratic institutions appeared to be just the root of the problem. Society wanted a change, with social tension reaching critical levels. Maltese government was in turmoil for so long - the civil War between the Contari Lance and the 101st; the following years of religious fanaticism pervading every aspect of the state; and finally, this latest plutocratic restoration. Despite the fact that National Council have managed to ensure both stability and a renewed pressure and crackdown on pro-Nomadic cults, radical elements have decided to act with force in order to retake political power from the plutocratic nobility.

The radical military and quasi-military organizations that eventually established the Fedeltà movement started to break away from the Maltese nobility influence at the end of 823 A.S. This was a general protest and rebellion of the Outcast military as the social class, people who usually were just a tool in the hands of the rich families, finally realized themselves as a power in their own right. Backed by major layers of the Outcast population, that was cut from Cardamine profit, these military groups gained civilian support. Step by step, elaborating their own ideology and growing media resources in just a few months of consolidation, they grew into a proto political party. The main symbol of the Fedeltà is a concept art of an underground Outcast artist, Prospero De Marco, which portrays planet Malta eclipsing the sun. It is supposed to reflect primary importance of Malta above everything else, symbolic of the renewed ethics of this new Maltese state.

The Fedeltà coup was a success, and a huge surprise for everyone involved. In the span of a single day, most of the deputies of the National Council were arrested, with the last few disorganized pockets of resistance crushed within a few hours. The new Outcast order is quite simple and relatively progressive. To consolidate the Outcasts a supreme ruler has been established - one without any far-reaching power, but simply able to play a symbolic role and with the backing of a high-ranking, powerful Fedeltà clique.

Thew great families themselves, by tacit agreement, have managed to secure almost full control over the Cardamine trade and Maltese economy. It was not the sort of agreement that the cartels were happy about, but the alternative was their literal execution. In the theory of Fedeltà ideologists, these cartels will eventually incorporate into the new order by themselves. Rich families are always believing in the power of their reputation, diplomatic clout, and of course the ever-present Outcast corruption. Th new order has been christened the 'Maltese Dominion' and intends to to secure Outcast interests in Sirius and Gallia once and for all by internal national mobilization. Any opposition to Fedeltà is being oppressed and usually not existing for too long.

Naming Convention

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All ships affiliated with Fedeltà military or civil personnel are suppose to maintain the following transponder requirements.

<f-Firstname.Lastname or <f-'Callsign' for all ships of the classes such as Light Figther, Heavy Fighter, Very Heavy Fighter and the Bomber.

<f-MNS-name (Maltese Naval Ship) for all ships of the classes such as Gunboat, Cruiser or the Battleship. Names for the capital ships are suppose to be related with locations/hostorical figures or events in former Sol nations of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Malta, nations of the Latin America.

<f-MTSS-name (Maltese Technical Service Ship) for all repair ships on the Fedeltà's service. Names for the repair ships are suppose to be related with locations/hostorical figures or events in former Sol nations of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Malta, nations of the Latin America.

<f-MT-name (Maltese Transport) for all regular trading ships on the Fedeltà's service. Names for the transports ships are suppose to be related with locations/hostorical figures or events in former Sol nations of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Malta, nations of the Latin America.

<f-MAT-name (Maltese Armored Transport) for all heavy armored logistic vessels on the Fedeltà's service. Names for the transports ships are suppose to be related with locations/hostorical figures or events in former Sol nations of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Malta, nations of the Latin America.

Zones of operations

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Ships in service

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A noob's guide to the Outcasts

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During the Alliance's exodus from Sol, there were five sleeper ships constructed; the Hispania was one of them, containing the various peoples of the Mediterranean and Latin America, as well as a small number of Coalition saboteurs. (For more on the Alliance-Coalition conflict, play Starlancer or watch the intro cutscene to Freelancer, if by some miracle you haven't already seen it.) The stowaways sabotaged the engines of the Hispania, and it exited hyperspeed in Omicron Gamma.

Crete, the only habitable planet in Omicron Gamma, is very barely so, but without any guarantees of finding another habitable planet, around half the population of the Hispania made planetfall, and became the Corsairs. The rest of the colonists kept the Hispania barely running until coming into Omicron Alpha and settling on Malta. These would go on to become the Outcasts. To this day, both the Outcasts and the Corsairs outwardly blame the other faction for sabotaging the Hispania, and use it as a moral justification for their continuing war; internally, however, it's known that this is just propaganda, and among the Corsairs, knowledge that it was actually the Coalition who sabotaged the Hispania is something of an open secret. Most unlawful groups in Sirius have picked one side or the other based on geopolitical concerns, and they can be roughly organized into blocs based on these sides.

Malta is more hospitable than Crete, but not by much; notably, unlike Crete, the soil is more fertile, and mass-scale agriculture is actually feasible. An orange grass called cardamine grows on Malta, and trace amounts of the stuff are in pretty much everything on Malta; there's cardamine in the air, the water, the soil, the flesh of the fruit and of the animals. When humans are exposed to cardamine, it acts as a powerful stimulant, inducing euphoria and quickening reflexes. It also prolongs your lifespan (Outcasts commonly live to be over 120 years old) and increases general intelligence, but drastically lowers fertility. It is extremely addictive and withdrawal always results in a painful death. As a result, the Outcasts strongly cherish every single Maltese life. This is an extremely important part of Maltese culture, and you cannot understand the mindset of the Outcasts without understanding this first. Due to their heightened reflexes and intelligence thanks to cardamine enhancement, the Outcasts are, in-roleplay, some of the best pilots in Sirius, hence their success despite their limited numbers.

It is important to note that to the Outcasts, cardamine is not a drug. It is rather an essential component of life, like air and water. To talk of Outcasts "getting high" off of cardamine (unless it's extremely concentrated, anyway) is as silly as talking about a normal human getting high off of pure H2O. When an Outcast leaves Malta, they wear breathers or utilize other devices to maintain a constant supply of cardamine; the distance a Maltese can travel from home is strictly limited by how much cardamine they can bring. This is another reason they maintain such an extensive network of allies; doing their own dirty work is extremely costly, and there's always a time limit, so getting regular pirates to cooperate is in their interests.

The Outcasts are also very paranoid, and see anyone within "their space" as an urgent threat. This is why they've been hostile to the IMG and GMG since their first encounters. They see the rest of humanity as having abandoned them (hence the name, which they chose themselves), and seek to profit off of extracting revenge by selling cardamine to the other Houses, making millions of people dependent on them.

Maltese society is basically structured around aristocratic and plutocratic families who either won recognition as "nobility" somehow, own cardamine plantations, or both, and, while it isn't written in the game, player-created lore has generally held that there's rarely (if ever) been a unified central government on Malta; instead, power is constantly shifting from one family or cartel to another. The cardamine plantations are generally operated entirely by slaves, or "mandatory workers". How the Outcasts morally justify slavery isn't really specified in the game, so players and factions have taken a lot of interesting stances with this.