Intra-Heliosphere Smugglers

While sublight-capable starships have been a common feature of the Humanverse for centuries, the problem of sublight smuggling remains a widespread issue among the Hundred Suns. In essence, as long as illicit operators or criminal organizations can readily acquire sublight-capable cargo haulers, they are able to pick up or deliver goods between isolated hideouts separated by petameters of space, all while reliably evading law enforcement by relying on sheer speed.

Although many star lanes and slip points in proximity to well-established planetary settlements may have free-floating, long-range scanners that can track suspicious, unregistered, or blacklisted ships as they move between planets and stations to refuel or restock, newer settlements usually lack such advanced monitoring systems, making them susceptible to sublight smuggling operations.

Local law enforcement is left with two options: search vast sectors of space for signs of a smuggling base, or capture a smuggler and compel them to reveal the coordinates of their base. Among crime syndicates, choosing the latter option can cause a smuggler to be marked for a sizable bounty or an outright assassination.