On the subject of slaver raids being official Imperial business or “renegades”, I asked an associate back home to go looking and within mere hours I received these in return:
She had to bid a retreat from that final fleet, her Thrasher not up to the task of surviving even the cursory attention of that slaver fleet, but was assured by her handler that the matter had been kicked up to higher authorities. Of course, her combat capabilities were sufficient to gather proof of identity from the outlying clusters of both Imperial and State forces one jump out of Rens. That’s quite a lot of “Renegades” from two different nations working together in unison, performing slaver operations deep into Heimatar. Oh, wait a second. Renegades?
My my, the Imperials are sure reacting oddly towards someone clearing out renegade criminals. It’s almost as if she just interrupted and destroyed official Imperial Navy forces or something. How very odd. So are they criminals, renegades or Imperial Navy, I wonder?