It's easy:

fragile cargo + huge explosion = bad!

You can be lucky that some cargo survives the destruction of the ships at all.

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"In all likelihood you're going to die out there. We're all going to die out there, but none of us needs to be reminded of that fact. So you die, you never existed." - Lt. Cmdr. 'Angel' Devereaux

Which is why pirates who are neutral to you will demand you drop your cargo instead of outright attacking you for it.

And that's also why it's so sad that you can't demand dropping their cargo yourself. I guess it works that way for balancing reasons. If you could get a huge payload that way, being a pirate would be too lucrative and no one would trade or do other things anymore.

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"In all likelihood you're going to die out there. We're all going to die out there, but none of us needs to be reminded of that fact. So you die, you never existed." - Lt. Cmdr. 'Angel' Devereaux

Exactly. Also, if all onboard survived, you'd have every gun, thruster, minedroppper, and shielding as well. How much stuff you get, and prices for things on bases was very much done and redone by the devs to make sure that one way of playing the game wouldn't outdo another.

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The Next Thing I Say To You Will Be True
The Last Thing I Said Was False

say....when do you get to go on ur own? after what mission because i want to raid stuff....

-Nuff Said-
-Hell is only a place you visit when your not living, thats why when you meet me your in hell-

I thought I heard around mission 3.
Dont have the full so I'm not sure.