what comes first is how you use the ship and how you RP ingame. - stories are unimportant if you can transport your intention and your concept ingame to the other players.
ppl give too much credit to a story - and sometimes forget about ingame behaviour. - the best story is ruined when the player in question cannot express it in his gameplay.
furthermore, some stories are written like a dairy
ontopic - how do you RP your pirate. - if you are really independent, you won t dock with any pirate base but only with freeports, cause what pirate faction would let you dock if you re not their friend. - if you ARE their friend... are you still independent?
the zoner gunboat is sold to everyone - but you d be surprised how quickly it turns into a fireball if you decide that you go against zoners in a zoner ship. - due to the lack of real bounty contracts, you d have a bunch of very happy hunters on your tail.
most pirate factions wouldn t give you a ship if you re not part of their faction. - they don t have enough for their own people let alone foreigners that might turn their gear against them.