Who does IMG like?

[Juan_Arquero]

When on board Friestadt Base in Omega-7, use F8 to read the base description (or use F6 to get the same information from a character's PDA who has been there), which mentions that Red Hessians sometimes dock there to sell ore. How could Red Hessians dock on an IMG base if the two factions are hostile to each other?:crazy:

I've never seen Hessians who were attacking IMG, and I don't think that you would see much hessians on the freistadt base, because its full of bounty hunters.

Dragan: Bounty Hunters can probably be found on any freeport, as can any local criminals. Yesterday, I killed a Lane Hacker that was trying to dock on the freeport in Magellan. I've seen both Corsairs and Bounty Hunters docking on FP9 in Omicron Theta, but they generally don't approach the base at the same time! :P

Juan_Arquero

[Panzer]

Freistadt operates on a similar basis to a freeport - FFA

The stance towards the Hessians is a relict of the 1.0 political structure. Hessians weren't (yet) officially allied with the Outcasts and the common miner origin (lots of modern IMG are former Rheinland miners, who left the house after the 80-years war) This common ancestry makes IMG neutral at least - same situation with the Mollys - former BMM employees. Only that IMG did not criminalize itself completely.

The discovery political changes made the situation far more complicated. Previously, the infocard stated, that IMG was at war with BOTH Outcasts and Corsairs - currently, it would seem, they are drifting towards the Corsairs. What happened to the Mollys and Hessians created a rather inconvenient situation - on one hand, IMG competes witrh BMM< bretonia and the Outcasts are constantly threatening them in the Taus. That indicates why the pro-corsair policies. On the other hand - does an official alliance between Mollys, Outcasts and Hessians mean, that the common ancestry with the independent miners should be forgotten?

As Doom said - IMG is stepping a thin line between both great sides of the current conflict. It has potential supporters and enemies on both sides and is haveing a very hard time maintaining that precious neutrality, that is key to their prosperity.

The Tau-31 war is a turning point for IMG, it's future depends on it and on who wins (if anyone does) Should it be Bretonia, what's the guarantee, that the house won't simply seize all IMG mining operations in the Taus should BMM request it? Should it be Kusari, the same scenario as with Bretonia might occur, Samura and Kishiro would certainly prefer to own the ore-rich taus. Maybe however - instead of clashing with the Outcasts themselves, they'd turn over the captured Bretonian installations to the IMG, hoping for a profitable contract concerning supplying Kusari with minerals. Rheinland's intervention cannot be ruled out either - previously, they've lobbied in favour of both warring houses ceasing hostilites and making Tau-31 a buffer zone under IMG's control. Either way, IMG cannot act in the war directly - The many bases around Bretonia are vulnerable to retaliation in case IMG supports Kusari openly. However, this lack of support might mean far less profits for the IMG should Kusari be victorious.

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