The human race has always been a species of explorers. As such, when the ability became available to them, they set sail for new worlds. First on rickety boats across dangerous seas; then in winged craft that traversed the sky; submersibles to search the seas; rockets to their closest neighbor, the moon; and then they made a greater step: the System Gate.

The System Gate allowed the immense distance between the planets in a solar system to be traveled in moments, by tunneling through subspace. It’s a wormhole, of sorts, that is held open by two devices, one at each end. When this device was created, it opened up a whole new arena for humanity. They could colonize Mars, and the distant moons of gas giants.

Yet the System Gates had a flaw: they had to be constructed together, then one of the Gates needed to be towed to their destination first. This often took years, towed by rocket ship. It would be millennia before the first System Gate could be towed to another system. Obviously, that was no way to go.

Humans are rather ingenious folk. They found a way to duplicate some of the properties of the System Gate on a small scale. Not only that, but the new Jump Drive, which could be installed on a ship, did not need an end gate. They could open the System Gate on their side, target a system, and go. However, due to the nature of gravity wells and the lack of an end gate, they needed to be well out of the way of any massive bodies (planets, stars, etc.) before they started the Jump Drive. To not do so would run the risk of the wormhole looping on itself, or the other end landing in the heart of the planet or star.

This was easily remedied. Extra system gates were towed out beyond the edge of the system, to allow starships a Jump Point to depart from.

And depart they did.

Numerous reasonably habitable planets were found and colonized.

The rapid expansion opened lucrative markets in trade, and allowed for a new age for the mercenary; governments on the fringe worlds often hired mercenaries to protect order. Bounty hunters came back in style. Criminals would flee from one planet to another to avoid capture. Bounty hunters went after them. Robotics came into play, as well. The rapid expansion often spread the population rather thin, so robots of all shapes, sizes and purposes were built to help.