TBD.
In 2448, in what has been near universally regarded as one of the most inspired and underhanded moves ever attempted on the galactic stage, the League prompted a coalition of freelance worlds to unite into a third interstellar human government.
At the time of the Declaration of Confederacy, the Republic and the League were at the uneasy end of a cease-fire agreement reached some 30 years prior to the end of the Third Interstellar War in the 2410's. Since that cease-fire, both governments had been building up their military presence once more, and had begun waging a shadow war in the freelance worlds. Both governments found, or made, armed militias that would follow their goals and work to destabilize the entire region. The Republic was making more headway in bringing freelance worlds into their sphere of influence, and in response, the League made a move that would go down in history.
Upon the Declaration of the Confederacy, and the League's unanimous vote (only the third unanimous vote in League history) to recognize them, the Republic declared all freelance worlds to be rebellious colonies of the Republic itself, and thus little more than wayward children to be reigned in, harshly if need be. The League took exception to that, exactly as both sides had intended.
The Confederacy of Freelance States was initially seen as little more than a cat's paw for the League, or at worst, a paper tiger of an opponent. It was understood by both the Confederacy's founding states and the League itself that this new government was never intended to be more than a pleasant fiction that would allow the League to deny the Terrans easy access to the dozens of settled Freelance systems. That the Confederacy has now become a functioning, if frustratingly inefficient, government in its own right was a surprise to everyone.
The Declaration of Confederacy was not the document that set off the next war between the Terrans and the League. That honor falls to the Republic's counter claim known as the Renlei Zhimindi Xuanyan, or Declaration of Human Colonies. This decree claimed every single freelance world as a rogue colony of the Republic and its release officially marks the start of the Fourth Interstellar War, or the Confederacy War.
This war would rage into the 2490's until the Confederacy threw together a fleet of their own and, with the backing of the Nor'Aellians (Literal backing. They sent three of their own ships in support of this third rambunctious child making waves in their pool, along with a message to both the Terrans and the League that essentially boiled down to "You children need to calm the fuck down. Now.") forced the Republic to recognize them and the League to respect that they were an independent Government in their own right. They declared themselves neutral in any future conflict so long as their borders were respected and then opened the doors for mutually beneficial trade deals with every other galactic government.
TBD.
TBD.
TBD.
TBD.
TBD.
TBD.
Freelance culture is, in no way, monolithic. It would not be a stretch to say that every single Freelance settlement has a culture almost wholely distinct from any other.
That said, there are a few hallmarks that are shared by most Freelancers.
Self-sufficiency - Freelancers are almost never 100% confident that any external support that they may have access to today will still be there tomorrow. They need to know that they can grow, find, make, or trade for anything they need.
Autonomy - Freelancers will, above all else, handle things themselves when- and wherever they can. They don't want or need some far off authority to tell them what they can and can't do.
Independence - If there's such a thing as institutional wanderlust, most Freelancers have it. You're not going to find travel papers in Freelance space, and one of the only assumed, universal rights is the right to go where you will, when you will. Something like 43% of Confederacy citizens have their own interstellar-capable ships, a sharp increase from the League's 22% and the Republic's 27%.
The premiere source of information for Freelancers. One part newspaper, one part database, and one part vast informant network. Access to the daily update feed, the most newspaper part of the Scope, is completely free to everyone. Access to the database is granted through a small yearly, or much larger lifetime, subscription fee.
For direct access to the infoNet, you either need to invest a significant amount of credits into the Scope or pay a yearly subscription that would make most financial agents blush.
However, there exists another option. For most people,direct access to the infoNet is an overwhelming thing. There are no real filters available, and even searching by topic, informant, date, or really any means of filtering the data, is almost impossible. For a one-time fee, you can submit a request to the infoNet and have a skilled analyst comb through the data for you and deliver you a neat, orderly bundle of linked and cross-referenced documents.
Every year, on the anniversary of the conclusion of the Confederacy War, Confederate Planets and stations hold an national holiday known as the Independence Revel.
TBD.