Piracy: ok or not?

[Dusty Lens]

but targetting lawfuls, not smugglers: you demand cargo, and destroy them if they don't go away. I certainly understand the RP reasons for doing this, and I certainly see the appeal of being "more than a pirate", having a political agenda. I'm just wondering if it's ok that traders become smugglers everytime a Xeno is around. Sort of... "If we wanted to play smugglers, we'd get a smuggler ID and buy cardamine", you know?

Well, I think that you're mistaken on a few points. The Xenos nail everybody. Kishiro to Slaver to Ageira to Cardamine smuggler.

We do not touch Zoners or IMG, based on our need for their ports of call.

Take a look at some of my message dumps, I'm honestly completely baffled where you're getting your information from in regards to the Xenos. The notion that we do not touch smugglers is really confusing me. My character as a specific loaths slavers and I go through a lot of trouble to focus very specifically on interdicting the slave trade, in addition to going well out of my way to see those unfortunate souls find their way back to a safe harbor.

Again, check out our message dump if you'd like to see some tangible evidence of this.

As to the rest of your post, I don't really know what to say. From the Xeno perspective your presence is unwelcome if you're a foreign concern. Your business is a spit in the face if you're a domestic concern. Both parties are made an example of to skyline our cause. If you are within our ZOI you will be hunted. That's the tall and short of it.

The tradeoff is that everyone hates us and we're stuck in small ships.

So there you go. If you don't have a Xeno, Universal, IMG, Zoner, Order or Phantom ID you are a potential target. Hell, most of those IDs are still subject to attack depending on the cargo they're hauling. Zoner slaver? Time to be put to the blade.