It was not too long ago that seven bands of independent traders, prospectors, freighter pilots, and mercenaries in the Elrood sector of the galaxy decided to give their common goals a formal basis to work on. Seven hands, claws, and flippers were stretched out and laid upon each other on a round table in a plain conference room on Meris V, and people who had gone their own way before united their destinies under the symbol of the seven-pointed star. With the hope of freedom, peace, and prosperity for what they had come to love as their rightful homes, the members of the freshly born Red Star Alliance have since pushed back the remnants of their oppressors, the Galactic Empire, with unexpected effectiveness and success. They draw their strength not from greed for mundane trash but from the