Reputation

Every commander stands somewhere with the Nexus Protectorate and the Crimson Corsairs — a standing that starts neutral, moves with every kill you take and every contract you finish, and quietly decides who trades with you, who opens fire on sight, and who calls you one of their own.

Standing is never announced. It shows up at the till, in who shoots first, and in whose colours you are welcome under.

Two Powers, One Scale

Reputation with the Nexus Protectorate and the Crimson Corsairs moves on a single, symmetric scale: destroying a faction's ship lowers your standing with it and raises it with the other by exactly the same amount, weighted the same way experience is — a stray patrol hull in secured space moves it a little, an elite deep in a stronghold moves it several times more. Some contracts pay reputation on top of what their kills already move. A duel between two commanders moves nothing on its own; Piracy covers what does.

Five Tiers

Standing settles into one of five tiers — Hostile, Unfriendly, Neutral, Friendly, Allied — and it is symmetric by construction: the standing that makes you Allied with one power makes you Hostile with the other. A couple of dozen kills is enough to earn Friendly with one side, and Unfriendly with its rival; a sustained career of a few hundred pushes a commander all the way to Hostile on one end of the scale and Allied on the other.

What Standing Changes

Station access — refused outright at Hostile: no buying, no selling, no repairs, no hull resale, no contract board. Every other tier keeps the docks open, and a delivery you already accepted can always be unloaded, whoever holds the station.
Prices — an Unfriendly station charges more for what it sells and pays less for what you bring. Trust pays mostly where nothing can be sold back: hulls and repairs cost less, up to a tenth off at Allied, while market goods only fetch a sliver more — enough to reward loyalty, never enough to turn a buy-and-resell loop into profit.
Aggression — fall to Hostile with the Protectorate and its patrols stop waiting to be provoked, opening fire on sight; earn the Corsairs' friendship and their raiders leave you alone in lawless space.
Contracts — offered only by an issuer who thinks well enough of you, though every contract shipped today is available at Neutral, so a new commander sees exactly what they always did.

Permanence and Reset

Standing never resets on its own — it is as permanent as a commander's kill record, in the shared galaxy and in Piracy's lawless one alike. Only a Tournament season wipes it clean along with the rest of a run's progress, so every season starts every commander neutral again.

By the Numbers

Tiers — 5 (Hostile, Unfriendly, Neutral, Friendly, Allied)
Powers tracked — 2 (Nexus Protectorate, Crimson Corsairs)
Market goods at an Unfriendly station — about 15% dearer to buy, 15% cheaper to sell
Hulls and repairs at Allied — 10% off
Kills to reach Friendly with one side (Unfriendly with the other) — about two dozen

Falling from grace runs faster than earning trust: a patrol hull is worth more to kill than a raider at the same range, so the slide the wrong way is the quicker one.