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When the Hispania arrived on the borders of the Sirius Sector (just outside Omicron Alpha), a suspected Coalition spy set off a powerful bomb on the inside of the sleeper ship, causing critical internal damage. Roughly half the surivors of the blast abandoned the wreckage and set off on their own, becoming the Corsairs. Those that remained continued on until they found a habitable planet (christened Malta). They became the Outcasts. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

The Corsairs are the most powerful pirate band in Freelancer, and were once allied with the Outcasts. However, when the Bounty Hunters built a base in Omicron Gamma (the Corsair home system) and the Corsairs did nothing about it, the Outcasts saw this as a betrayal. Both pirate bands are now at war with eachother. The Outcasts, without the help of the Corsairs, fell from being an equally strong pirate band to the second strongest.

Outcasts have to survive off a drug named Cardamine. When they first set foot on Malta, they found it to be covered in high, wheat-like stalks. A group of explorers set off, and didn't return. A second group set off, and met the same fate. The third group was the only one to return. After about twenty metres, they found that the stalks were beyond razor sharp, and hurried back for some protection. They later found the first two groups had both died of blood loss. Eventaully, most Outcasts became hit with depression or insanity, some of them staring blankly into space and merely drooling. Soon enough, the Outcasts found that Cardamine (although they hadn't named it as such yet) was the source of the problem. Furthermore, they found that if they ventured too far away from the Cardamine, they would die. The drug would cause their bodies to become so dependant on it, that when they did not use it after a set period of time, the body would experience a fatal crash. Thus, when an Outcast is talking to you and you see the strange tubes and whatnot in their portraits, those are the feeding tubes that supply Cardamine to them.