Cooperation of differently affiliated characters, see inside

[MatthewK]

I have an idea regarding forming a group of players, originating from introduction of the civilian carrier, and wanted to ask some questions, mainly regarding ID/IFF.

Let's say we have a group of individuals, coming from all edges of sirius, different professions, some lawful, some not so much. Imagine the crew from Firefly series or Luke/Leia/Han/Chewie from Star Wars, SG-1 team from Stargate - you get the idea. I'm thinking about how to reflect their individual status, while at the same time manifesting that they are part of a group, rather than individual representatives of their factions.

My rough idea is to use either Freelancer ID/faction IFF, or faction ID and freelancer IFF, along with a distinctive tag.
For this post and following discussion, I'd like to assume those chars fly only snubs, are mostly RP and not PVP centered (duh...) and would like as wide ZoI as possible. (the group would travel via blind/targeted jumps in civ carrier)

Somewhere in the rules I found that IFF should be understood as ship transponder, while ID is more like, well, personal ID - something about the pilot and not the ship. Following this interpretation it would be sensible to set my chars with Freelancer IFF and faction IDs. I see two possible problems with that. First, there is "can/cannot ally with" set of ID rules, effectively stopping my hypotetical players from cooperation (nevermind ZoI limitation). Second, a lot of players are frowning upon "hiding" unlawful IDs under freelancer IFF (the dreaded pirate ID/fl iff combo) and I'd very much like to avoid negative feedback.

Another option is - set all chars as Freelancer ID, but different faction iffs. This way they would have unlimited zoi, could "ally" in defense of another group member, and IFF would clearly state their origin. The only problem I forsee is - does fl ID allow rep suffcient enough with certain factions to allow their IFF? I know I'd basicaly strip them from their allowances (engagements, piracy, etc) but it's totally fine by me - basicaly just self defence would be fine (imagine "our" junker caught somewhere in kusari, navy/police/hogosha threatens him,rest of the group steps in - voila, perfect RP-induced pews, everyone happy)

I also know about SRP, but it was stated multiple times already - first do RP, then ask for SRP, so well, that's what I plan to do eventually.

Opinions?