The Independent Faction was the name of a group that fought the Alliance during the Unification War. The group was nicknamed Browncoats, due to the brown coloured trench coats they wore. (Alliance troops were nicknamed 'purple bellies' due to the colouring of their own armour.)

One of the reasons they were formed was to attempt and prevent the alliance from creating "better" (submissive) and more peaceful people.

The faction was created when the core worlds formed the Alliance and declared war on any planets that resisted efforts to unify the rest of the planets under their control (thus the name Unification War). After the war ended, surviving faction members migrated towards the outer planets, where Alliance control is more tenuous.