Federation of United Planets

The Federation, which is centered on Earth, is the closest thing to a direct outgrowth of modern human culture, and is, at least in form, a representative democracy. Although most of their policies at the time of their founding slightly less than 250 years before the start of the game sound reasonable enough, the secretive Bureau of Internal Investigation, whose (internally) stated goal is "unifying all of Known Space under the Federation banner," now wields a great, although uncertain, amount of influence in the affairs of the Federation government. There is a great deal of anecdotal evidence to support claims that the Bureau has little regard for human rights, including those of its own citizens, and this is one of the major reasons the organised rebellion against the Bureau began.

The Federation requires that you obtain licenses before purchasing certain weapons, upgrades, and ships, and is very strict about enforcing its laws against certain technologies. Its storyline begins with resuppply missions in the systems surrounding Sol.

Strengths:

Federation ships are technologically superior to their Auroran counterparts. In most ship classifications, the Federation ship either matches or outmatches an Auroran ship of similar cost.

The Federation has a strong economic base in the systems surrounding Earth, and its central territory is protected by a powerful navy, leaving it mostly free of piracy and internal warfare.

The Federation controls powerful Vell-os reinforcement fleets which outmatch all enemies except perhaps the Polaris.

Federation warships are superior to most pirate and rebel ships, and the Federation has more capital warships than either of those two groups.

Weaknesses:

Federation technology is no match for that of the Polaris.

The Federation is facing an internal rebellion, which is equipped with certain amounts of Auroran and Polaran technology.

Collusion between the Bureau of Internal Investigation and certain pirate factions results in a certain amount of piracy in the less-patrolled areas of Federation space.