As I see it, Trent's character has no option as the whole game is based on a murder/death/kill (MDK) scenario due to the fact that Trent is forced to take on missions in an attempt to bring order from chaos.
but there's more to Freelancer than meets the eye, many of the battles, whilst using fictional characters / scenarios, are based on real events that happened in the real world, for example, the Corsairs were, in real time, the most vicious pirates from the Barbary coast, The Red Hessians were German elite Soldiers employed by the British as mercenaries against the Americans in the 1700's, whilst the the Bundschuh movement (1493-1517) was a loosely linked series of localized peasant rebellions in southwestern Germany. It played an important part in the German Peasants' War of the early 15th and 16th centuries. It was so called because of the peasant shoe (Bundschuh = tied shoe) the peasants displayed on their flag.
As stated on Microsoft's website, the whole game is based around a distorted view of their own culture.
As Isaac Asimov one said, "The basis of all science fiction is science fact" therefore, in my opinion, "All fiction is based on fact" especially so in Freelancer, depending on how you play your game, but as for Trent being a hero, it's YOU who are controlling his actions.