the GC, bunch of lonly, angry chicks... ohhh yaaa!!!

If I had a nickel for every time someone told me that my idea for melting down coins to make a giant robotic parrot was a bad idea, I would have one kicka$$ giant robotic parrot.

lol hairfarmer, Go to Ainu, pretend you're female, hook up with them and get blown up by me and my almighty eagle . Okay, no kidding.
I like the Corsairs and Outcasts. If I had the allies/enemies of one of them, I think I'd prefer the Outcasts, as this would make you accepted by the Outcasts/Rogues/Hackers/GCs/Blood Dragons, all (except Rogues) are nice factions I think. And thus you'd not have to stay in Gamma/Omega 5/Omega 41

I can't wait until I find a really good mod where I can fly the Liberty Cruiser... Ah... Sweet dreams Buffalo Base, 'cause here comes the almighty Projectile in the Dorsetshire (yeah, I'll call her so) to blast your puny base to tiny pieces! WAHAHAHAHAHAAA!

I'm going to have to go with the Corsairs at the top. They just drip coolness, and pretty much blow the Outcasts right out of the water.

The Outcasts are cool too, but they won't let me land on Malta because I... 'accidentally'... keep blowing up their fighters. Repeatedly.

The Blood Dragons also rock. But they're just too easy to upset.

Lane Hackers have to rank pretty high up there, just because of what they do, and how they do it.

The topic should be 'favourite' though, not best.

I must say that Corsairs rock!! I fought against them about 100 times so I know them pretty well. Also their ships and other stuff are good.

the outcasts, if only for there bartender on malta

The Corsairs. Best ships.

Even though it's not a rogue, the faction you really don't want to be an ENEMY of, is the Bounty Hunters. They will hunt you down wherever you go with their distinctive ships and they certainly love to ambush pirates around jumpholes. For some reason, even with NPC ships, the Bounty Hunters with their Hammerheads are able to clean the clock of Corsairs with Titans. NPC Titans only have Level 9 weapons---no different from the NPC Hammerheads, and the Hammerheads are more agile.

I like taking missions from the Bounty Hunters. If they say they will send you help, they do it with competent ships like Piranhas, Barrucudas and sometimes Hammerheads depending on the severity of the mission. The worst people to take missions from is the IMG, even though your reputation is only affected with the Junkers, Outcasts and Corsairs, but not with any other pirate group. The IMG will send Startrackers as your "help" when your opponents are mainly Outcasts in Stilletos. (Once in a while they do send Hawks and Falcons, but they will still send Startrackers more often.)

The Zoners are probably the most useless faction there. They don't fight with anyone unless their Dromedary freighters are attacked by someone. It's very rare to ever see Zoners in combat. But one time, I saw Outcasts trying to attack a Zoners Dromedary and got their clock cleaned by Zoners in Eagles and Falcons. Generally the Corsairs don't mess around with the Zoners either whose bases are also full of Bounty Hunters patrolling.

It's rare to see NPC (non playing character) Eagles in combat, and the best place to see it is actually in Tau 37 with the IMG. Occasionally an IMG Eagle will lead IMG Falcons into combat against swarming Outcasts, and you see Eagles and Falcons fight against Outcast Stilletos and Sabres. The IMG Eagles are usually based from Falklands base, which looks like a pirate base.