As a (ex? not sure if we disbanded...) member of the Slaver's Union, we did this sort of thing a lot... we were fully aware that blanket powergaming results in blanket powergaming, so we would either A) threaten to gas all of the slaves if people continued to fire on our ship, B) jettison and shoot some of the slaves (if you shoot cargo, it dies. Period.) to show we're serious, C) discuss the implications of this and get people to "let us off" with a fine, or with "liberating" only as many as they could hold, or D) wtfpwning them since we're in frigging Slave Liners. Pilgrims and Fireflies 1, Liberty Gunboats 0...
I've never seen a Slaver RP that they put all of the slaves into stasis cells that would survive explosion of their ship. Ever. You have to be pretty twisted to be a slaver, and the ones that don't enjoy whipping and beating their slaves in transit just for the hell of it realize that being able to negotiate with the lives of the slaves is worth any food costs... and somehow I doubt that stasis cells are less expensive than the measly amount of food and water we give them. If we feed them at all, that is.
Saving some of the slaves, from parts of the wreckage that retained containment for long enough for you to tractor them in? Sure, that's fine (unless we gassed them, anyway). Saying that your dinky little fighter carried 5000 slaves four systems away all by its lonesome? Not bloody likely. Athenian's abolitionists usually played, like us, that you can save as many as you can carry (usually). Ah, good times...
The moral here is to be concerned about it and to not powergame. If your character believes that they'd rather die than be slaves, and that actually matters to him (the Outcasts probably think that too, after all, but they're our second biggest consumers...), then play that way. But if your character is a bleeding heart moral guardian, then they should be trying to save them rather than be okay with 95% of them dying. Paying the slaver to let the slaves off at a Freeport can actually work if you make it worth their while (a gun and a bribe gets you farther than just the gun, after all). Don't abuse game mechanics in either direction, for or against the slaves. Play along, have a good time, and try to make sure that they can at least accept whatever you send back.
The XTF for a major part are made up of x slaves who have won or bourght thier freedom and let me say this, not one of them would prefer to be spaced, I recall reading somwhere that slaves are taken to Malta for a better life and indeed jion the outcast comunity who welcome them as new blood into thier nation seeing as the outcast them selves are becoming sterile due to long term cardimine use.
Admittedly a slaves life is not a happy one in the beggining but they soon learn it is far better to be a slave than to starve in the back streets of Liberty where a corrupt government would sooner see them dead than propperly employed and fed not to mention condoning the ilegal sale of these people into slavery in the first place by the even more corrupt LPI
Now to address the fact that a slaver does not answer when haild ,in my youth i was a bit of a tear away as they say and once or twice along with others found my self in the sights of the Law often being called upon to stop and answer a few questions and of course we did so,,,, NOT WE RAN LIKE HELL in complete silence [unless you count the immortal words leg it] as all self respecting crims so it is not unreasonable for a smuggler or slaver to do the same or even to try an make a fight of it in extreme conditions.
Conditions that should get an XTF smuggler / slaver to part with thier cargo.
you have them surrounded with shields down and are chomping into thier hull and there is a transport nr by to take slaves into safe custody or you offer to compensate for thier safe release whilst taking no more than your ship can carry.
It is worth noting that an XTF ship will not surrender untill you have at least its shields down and also the fact the slaves onboared are considerd future brothers in arms and not to be lost without some small struggle on thier behalf.
This condition is posted on our forum and should be universal to all XTF transports.
Oh yay, XTF.
That made the funniest attempt to pirate me in honshu.
Let resume it:
Me: *in lane*
ME: *Disrupted*
Me: Oh sh--!
Me: *Looks at scanner, see two XTF 6K away*
Me: Olol
XTF: Halt!!
ME: *Cruise upward*
Me: See ya guys
Still, when a slaver is stopped by a police officer, it is just nice to RP a bit. Even if that RP is.
Police: Halt!!
Slaver: Na
Slaver engage cruise
Police: HALT!!!
Slaver achieve to cruise away
Slaver: See ya.
Its better than
Police: Halt!!
Slaver engage cruise
Police: HALT!!!
Slaver achieve to cruise away
' Wrote:Oh yay, XTF.
That made the funniest attempt to pirate me in honshu.
Let resume it:
Me: *in lane*
ME: *Disrupted*
Me: Oh sh--!
Me: *Looks at scanner, see two XTF 6K away*
Me: Olol
XTF: Halt!!
ME: *Cruise upward*
Me: See ya guys
Still, when a slaver is stopped by a police officer, it is just nice to RP a bit. Even if that RP is.
Police: Halt!!
Slaver: Na
Slaver engage cruise
Police: HALT!!!
Slaver achieve to cruise away
Slaver: See ya.
Its better than
Police: Halt!!
Slaver engage cruise
Police: HALT!!!
Slaver achieve to cruise away
Of course its nice to have Role play and i did not say it wasent ,I did say its not unreasonable to be silent in thier efforts to get away and mostly i guess it comes down to how panicked the pilot is as to how much Role play you get and i doubt you have ever had a situation from the xtf that they did not role play to some degree