Conflict was eternal in the galaxy. Space was vast and covered such stupendous distances that hardly any authority possessed the ability to exert absolute order in their territories.
In general, only well-developed star systems with populations surpassing a billion residents featured decent patrols.
The less populous star systems and the ones devoid of any people featured much worse security conditions.
As a result, the starships traversing the stars constantly faced the risk of attacks.
In the current age, trading companies saturated the logistics industry. Hardly any planet or star system were self-sufficient these days. It was too difficult to cover every possible need when there were specialized trading partners who could cover the same need better at a substantially cheaper price!
Rural planets provided food and raw materials. Industrial planets converted raw materials into finished products. Highly populated planets consumed goods en masse.
