the Zoners

[Kuraine]

Well that is certainly the case, Zoner manufacturing capabilities are going to be slower and fewer than most House manufacturing capabilities. However, Houses do have to rely on a military budget as well, and Zoners have lots of cash (although yes, not as much as a House's income). Zoners also would not possibly be able to replenish any losses anywhere near as fast as a House, but since nobody really fights them, this isn't really a problem, and they can continue slowly building up what military forces they possess. Their military would not be concentrated like a House military, and likely wouldn't be nearly as well trained, though I daresay they're better trained than many pirate organisations.

Each Freeport would have its own defence forces under the control of that Freeport. It might only be a dozen fighters wings, it might even include a few destroyers. Occasionally a Freeport (like Freeport 9) might even have a Juggernaut. Put all together in one place, it might potentially rival Bretonia or Rheinland's navy. But its all over the place, and could easily be taken down single handedly by most organisations if they concentrated a reasonable amount of firepower at any given Freeport.

The only "Freeport" that would be able to put up a very serious fight would be Gran Canaria, at which there would be located a fairly large Zoner fleet. But they don't really work together, they only look out for each Freeport by itself, unless some organisation declared war on the Zoners at large in which case they'd probably all start banding together and fighting back to protect themselves, and using their economic strengths to choke the opposing faction (if its a pirate group they would simply cut off all supplies to them). Otherwise, each Freeport is in a sense a single entity. But if you took the Zoner movement/nation as a whole and put it in one place and forced them to all work together, it would rival the power of a House. But they don't, because they're Zoners and they look out for their own Freeport only, unless there is a threat that directly threatens ALL Zoners regardless of where they come from (Wild, Harvesters, Nomads, Phantoms).

---

Kuraine (Zoner tagged Trader)
Ravenholm (Zoner tagged Zoner Destroyer)
Bill Mason[Arms.Dealer] (Zoner tagged Arms Dealer)
LR-Drax (Liberty Rogue tagged Cruiser)
LR-Dravis (Liberty Rogue tagged VHF)
[RHA]Wilhelm.Wettin (Red Hessian tagged VHF)
[GC]-Ai.Takeda (Golden Chrysanthemum tagged VHF/Bomber)