A group of former Degreggers, with their galactic friends, compiling their resources, purchased a trading ship, and outfitted the two largest holds with large, comfortable, reclining seats, blankets, and other creature comforts, each one being able to hold at least a hundred people, and the third largest hold with tons of nutrient packs that would last for long periods of time. The other holds aboard the ship were used for normal storage with many types of trade goods, the three turned into multi-guest sleeping areas and excess food storage were disguised. Why? Very simple. They made a plan to visit as many deregger planets and polities as possible, and start helping people escape. But to do that, well, sometimes to save souls from hell, you have to trade with the devils. -- Lessons
There are, in the universe, necessary evils. Most of them happen in the Edge Territories, and it's because of plausible deniability that they continue within. The Cogniscent Rights Committee turns a blind eye to it, as does the Fair Trade Commission. If they were dealing with Galactics then the accommodations and business deals going on would be quashed in a cold second.
Greater Deregulations refuse to be part of the Alliance because they don't like the rules. Therefore, they shouldn't expect anyone else to follow those rules either. If planned obsolescence and lying about the safety and longevity of your product is okay in Deregger space, then that's the kind of dealing they should expect. And anyway, any polity willing to sell off their population for shiny trinkets are getting what they deserve.
They call the ships Horse Smugglers and they regularly swap subpar technology for the "free" citizens or indentured servants of Deregger spaces. They even go so far as swapping expendable porter-bots for the cargo workers. The Dereggers don't immediately complain because the bots don't need to eat or breathe. They complained in exactly a month and a half, when the porter-bots broke down at exactly the life expectancy of every single piece of Deregger tech on the market. By then, the Horse Smugglers have moved on. Yet, the Dereggers fall for it every single time.
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