or do you prefer a bunch of independent states, who each keep their distinct laws and cultures and ensure there is always a place for dissenters to flee to from their station, but at the cost of frequent conflicts and no common goals?
I'm generally indifferent at the moment, especially because the execution of the relationship between the Protectorate and the Free Drones are, as you said it, rather under represented. However, I don't see how supporting the Drones would lead to 'frequent conflicts and no common goals'. If you pay attention, in South Underrail specifically, most, if not all of the station have no qualms between one another whatsoever. Each stations have their own functionality and sustainability. Camp Hathor hunts animals in their region and export them to the rest of South Underrail by way of South Gate Station. Junkyard had lots of junk that ended up as another man's treasure and they export it through the rest of Underrail (North included, as one of the resident mentioned). The Foundry has its mines, and from the looks of it they aren't running out of ore anytime soon and, with the conclusion of the Beast problem, I'd say they're going to dig deeper and deeper. Core City act as the only gateway between the North and the South while also simultaneously connect Lower and Upper Underrail, it has its Arena which, iirc, is also broadcast to North Underrail. We also have Rail Crossing, which is unfortunately admitted to be the weak link of the South, though I always get the impression that Buzzer's shop alone could carry it to the future. And then we have South Gate Station, which act as the one place that export Camp Hathor's produce to the rest of South Underrail, while also act a hub for settlements and stations connection, like the Foundry had no immediate access to Junkyard so they go to SGS first, vice versa.
The only human-v-human conflicts in the setting, as we now see it, is just the Protectorate vs. Free Drones. And the raiders, with the Ironheads especially which terrorize Rail Crossing and the Foundry, and the pirates. If we didn't have the Protectorate-Drones conflict, the stations and the settlements will just go merry on its way just trying to survive and perhaps expand their life goals until one day some random schmuck transcend into a powerful individual with lots of resources and ambition to do something that might fuck with everyone else's life, and with the default conflict with other humans would be the raiders and the pirates, of course.
