In my humble opinion the [101st], being the flagship for the Outcast NPC faction, needs to step up some game and generate some activity on their own. Leaving the old paradigm of "Outcast navy" behind and becoming something more akin to an umbrella Outcast organisation that doesn't just defend Malta, but also actively attacks, pirates, attempts to expand Outcast influence, creates propaganda, creates conspiracies to undermine their enemies, is involved in Sirius politics, smuggles, trades, mines, etc. etc. etc. would be a good start.
Official factions might not have the pull they used to have, but they are still the first thing that is seen from a perspective of an outsider, and lets face it - all potential faction players, be it indies or not, are outsiders who need to be sold on the faction "lifestyle" first, before they make the character and become part of the faction.
Also as others have said, leadership is needed so that the indies have some idea of what to do. Also, keeping with the stupidly ridiculous and outdated idea that "all indies are insufferable idiots who do not deserve to touch the ground beneath our feet" is yet another reason why the entire NPC faction population is simply not interested any more. If you spent as much time trying to integrate with indies as you spend trying to enforce a set of arbitrary laws on them, maybe they would respect you more. It may seem like a different matter altogether, but it does actually tie into the question of overall NPC faction activity.
The first step is inviting the indies into a general Outcast skype channel and not acting like holier than thou rulers of the universe in relation to them. The second is to have them involved in progression of Outcast RP. Then it all sort of moves forward on its own, even if slowly - as long as the parties involved are doing their share of the work.
