Paint me an interested third party, if you can. I'd rather run a relatively small mercenary/neutral faction so I can have fun playing both sides for maximum profits, but also steeper costs when it all hits the hyper-drive. Kinda like a privateer from our own 12-1800s

I'd be willing to play with less starting points due to my lack of official backing, and thus a reduced force. I don't expect to be able to go toe to toe with a player from either faction. However, if I allied, however temporarily, with another player, that player would have a slight edge, or perhaps simply something to help mitigate their losses until they earned enough points to replace what they had.