To be perfectly fair, there is some truth to what Protege says. Even if the Core is being bankrolled by big money, the fact still remains that the Core is currently hostile to every other faction in the Omicrons. The Core does not even approximate the populations of Crete and Malta, the Order roughly equals them in power, and the Nomads are a wildcard that also attack everybody. Given this, I find it highly questionable that a faction, who through lack of personnel alone should have their backs against the wall is actually expanding, or trying to. If anything, the Core should be more concerned with keeping what they currently have going. This is the only powergamey thing I see here.