As for the Freelancers, they're designed to be tough... And I don't know HOW many missions you've done against the BHG, but I've never heard of anyone going red to Freelancers via missions. Only if you shoot them. They're meant to be a challenge for the more experienced players while newer ones can simply ignore them.
No, I mean my ship crashes into the inside wall of the base because it doesn't make it outside the base before the docking doors shut. The game itself doesn't crash. This doesn't happen with smaller ships.
My reputation with the Freelancers went gradually down as I took Corsair missions against the Bounty Hunters, I must have done a few dozen of them. It definitely wasn't from shooting at Freelancer ships. I was able to make the Freelancers neutral towards me by paying bribes to the Bounty Hunters and Zoners. Even though the game says the Freelancers have no allies or enemies, it's clear that they are friends with both the BHG and Zoners and that attacking either group will annoy them.
Edit: it may be that the Freelancers hate the Corsairs and that was why my rep went down?
