Well, it's a very long contract, and at the time when it was concluded the only other sufficiently large mercenary space force (the CFMF) didn't bother bidding, but technically it was an open process. Not that the critics are wrong about the flimsy legality part. It may not be flimsy, but it's certainly the product of a fairly obvious dodge. :)

I suspect - I haven't really bothered considering it in great detail, because the political structure of things doesn't interest me that much, but - that the WDF's legal status vis-à-vis the Republic of Zeta Cygni is similar to that of an airline which is a country's "flag carrier": that is, that the Zetan government does own an interest in the company, but not a controlling one, and certain diplomatic niceties are encoded in the contract such that it's legal for the WDF to act as an instrument of Zetan national policy. (This is particularly true of the Colonial Forces, which is the state navy of the Zetan territory of Colonia, but is also officially a branch of the WDF for abstruse legal reasons that go back to the Galactica's original arrival in the Cygnus sector.)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
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