the Zoners

[McNeo]

In my view, Zoners are not that powerful, and they aren't organised, hence they have little grip on that power. Their military fleet in NPC/Rumour terms, if they by some miracle managed to gather it all in one spot, would be smaller then the fleets of the Hessians and the Liberty Rogues, and probably about on par with the Dragons, except the Zoners would be poorly trained and organised.

Zoners shouldn't be disregarded however. Their main weapon is their purchase and sale of any and all goods, allowing many unlawful factions to live much more comfortably than they should (that list includes Corsairs, Unioners, Xenos etc), which outweighs the dislike of those factions for enterprising businessmen charging premium prices. They aren't key to the survival of any of the factions they barter with though, as most of those factions were getting along okay before the Zoners showed up.

Something I do think, however, is that any military activity from the Zoners should be purely defensive. I never agree with Zoners attacking any faction because they percieve a threat. Their only military actions should be reactive, not proactive.

Zoners also aren't filthy rich. If you want filthy rich, look on Planet New London. Apparently, even the most impoverished citizen is comfortably middle class on that planet. Serious money is made with stocks and shares, not trade. Unfortunately, the idea of stocks and shares is one that was tried, but failed quickly. As traders deal in millions of credits per shipment of goods, retailers here in the real world do so too. Compared to currency investors and the purchase and sales of shares, that kind of cash is pretty meagre. The only ones who are filty rich are the select few in the four main houses.