Freelancer

Sidh citizenry is traditionally dominated by the Clans - fraternal organizations of military veterans (i.e., full citizens) with considerable political influence. A minority of eligible citizens, however, refuse to join any Clan and thus become Freelancers. More generally, Freelancers encompass all Sidhae regardless of citizenship status who refuse to live by the rigid strictures of traditional Sidh lifestyle.

## History

Freelancers are as old as the Imperium itself. Already during the Great Pilgrimage, Sidh ancestors who had difficulty adopting the rigorous military discipline prevalent throughout the exodus fleet would volunteer to serve as advance scouts and inter-ship supply runners, spending most of their time on their own away from the prying eyes of their superiors.

In the early Imperial era, after the establishment of the Clans, the Freelancers would form as a distinct social group that explicitly rejected the Clan domination of Sidh politics. This consequently led to resentment of Freelancers by the Clans, sometimes even culminating in violent altercations. The Clan-Freelancer antagonism reached it's apex during the Sidh Civil war, when the majority of Freelancers became the most ardent Loyalist supporters, perhaps hoping that the Empress's victory would bring the Clan domination to an end. Their efforts were understandably frustrated somewhat when the Empress instead reformed the existing system after the Age of War rather than doing away with the Clans entirely. Understandably, an element of society with so much political influence could not simply be ousted from power entirely, especially seeing how four of the Great Clans and numerous minor Clans had supported the Empress during the Civil War. With that being said, the reformed Statutes did recognize the contribution of Freelancers and thereby entitled Freelance candidates to 1% of the seats in the General Assembly.

Freelancers again proved invaluable before and during the Reconquest Wars, where they served as valuable advance scouts, inconspicuously charting target worlds of Imperial invasions posing as human merchants, smugglers and mercenaries. Contemporary Freelancers generally continue to serve in their traditional roles as space explorers, merchants, privateers, mercenaries and smugglers.

## Overview

The traditional lifestyle of a Sidh is strict, bound by many laws and social norms, leaving little room for individual expression or personal freedom. While most Sidhae are content with such life, having never known any different, there are still those rebellious souls who come to be disaffected with such a life.

In order to provide society a vent and still make constructive use of any such malcontents, Sidhae who seek a life of liberty and adventure are free to join the ranks of Freelancers, who serve the Imperium in a much more relaxed and informal manner.

Generally speaking, the Freelancer community is composed from all the rebels and misfits of Sidh society along with more conventionally-minded Sidhae simply looking for a fresh perspective or adventure. While often spoken of as a unified group in political contexts, nothing could in fact be further from the truth, the Freelancers consisting of numberless independent groups with few common points of interest beyond a general disdain for the rigid ways of mainstream Sidh society. Freelancers are an entire social class rather than a particular interest group.

The traditional occupations of Freelancers are space exploration, trade, privateering, mercenary work and smuggling. In the largely-lawless Frontier regions, different groups of Freelancers are both the good and the bad guys along with everything in between, Freelance bounty hunters hunting Freelance smugglers and criminals.

Given their general independent-mindedness and disdain for authorities, the mainstream Sidh society views Freelancers with suspicion, especially the Clans who regard them as unruly bands of rebels, misfits and other assorted troublemakers best kept out of civilized space, a sentiment that isn't helped by the Freelancers' very liberal interpretations of Imperial law and their involvement in occupations that straddle the boundaries of legality, oftentimes crossing into the illegal. This resentment is mutual, Freelancers in turn despising "clanners" as dull, dense and corrupt, promoting self-serving laws for their personal interest.

As a solution for this social conflict, the Imperial authorities offer Freelancers a chance to legitimize their lifestyle by purchasing various Articles, documents that certify them as independent contractors of the Imperial government, thereby subject to legal protections and duties. Article of Trade or Article of Colonization entitle the holder to carry out trade or settlement on behalf of the Imperium. Article of Exploration authorizes the holder to claim any newfound worlds and riches in the name of the Empress, also entitling him to a share of the riches. The most popular Article, however, is the Letter of Marque, which sanctions the holder to wage war against enemies of the Imperium and allows him access to Imperial Navy facilities for rest and resupply in exchange for a share of the loot. While many hardcore Freelancers frown upon such collaboration with the Imperial authorities, most however do obtain one or several Articles, especially those involved in privateering and piracy - if caught by the enemy, a Letter of Marque will at least identify them as PMCs in the Imperium's employ, thereby granting them prisoner-of-war status (if not necessarily better treatment for that) rather than outright execution as common criminals.

Freelancers are traditionally associated with crime, especially organized crime, although they are by no means exclusively involved in it, Clan Sidhae actually having much more influence in the Imperium's underworld than the Freelancers. This association exists because of Freelancer domination of the smuggling trade, being the only Sidhae likely to own starships not subject to regular inspection by legal authorities. Freelance smugglers supply the majority of the Imperium's black market of foreign goods, and are also responsible for most of the exports abroad. In a way, smugglers have become indispensible to the Imperial economy. Due to ideological and political reasons, no formal trade can be carried out between the Imperium and her neighbors, but pragmatic concerns dictate otherwise, hereby enlisting the services of Freelancers. The result is a sizable unofficial foreign trade despite formal embargoes against Imperium's neighbors.

Space exploration and scouting is another job where Freelancers have proven indispensible. Regularly travelling regions of fringe space, their navigation charts are very often much more accurate than those compiled by formal cartographic expeditions, so Navy crews whose business brings them to uncharted or poorly-charted space will gladly pay premium fees to buy navigation charts from the local Freelancers or hire an experienced Freelance navigator. Freelance mercenaries who are often highly-experienced soldiers with many years in the Imperial Army behind them are likewise highly-sought after by private contractors at home and abroad, and also by the Imperial government, usually for black ops and other jobs that require plausible deniability. Freelance agents can also infiltrate and extract valuable intel in places that would be difficult if not downright impossible for proper government agents to access.

Unlike mainstream Sidhae, Freelancers are unusually open-minded and tolerant, their ranks generally being open to all who have something worthwhile to contribute to their group of choice. Humans and even xenos are welcome in most Freelancer crews, the only condition being each crewmember having to haul his own weight. This unusual degree of tolerance makes them all the more suspect of enemy sympathizing and heresy in the eyes of the authorities, but at the same time, few even amongst the most fanatical Sidhae would decline their unquestionably useful services simply over the group in question having a few human or alien members.

Unbound by the many strictures and conventions of traditional Sidh lifestyle, Freelancers are easily recognized by their colourful and flamboyant attire and boastful, swashbuckling manner. They recognize no authorities asides from the Empress herself (more probably in gratitude for her sympathetic treatment of them than genuine deference) and leaders selected from their own midst. However, despite their rebellious attitudes, most Freelancers are still loyal subjects of the Imperium and will readily flock to the Aquila Standard in times of need. Few will ever take contracts that would pit them against the Imperium - though the practical concern of inviting the wrath of already unsympathetic authorities has at least as big of a role here as patriotism.