Can't Take The Sky - Spacewestern, Firefly

Earth-That-Was got used up, humanity moved out into the black, searching for a new home. They colonized and terraformed dozens of new planets. The core planets sophisticated and rich with technology, flourishing, but under control by the Alliance. But further away terraforming didn't always settle so well on planets, those are what we call the border and rim planets.

The Alliance decided all planets had to join under their rule and control. People not under their control didn't give in without a fight. What came after is now known as the Unification War. But we lost. The Independents, Browncoats as we were called, who had fought scattered to the edges of civilization. Far from Alliance prying eyes.

And then there's the case of the Reavers. I'm sure you heard of em, called it stories to scare children. But they are real. I've seen the broadcast, it was horrible, they did experiments on the people on this planet called Miranda, dying in the process. But not all died, some turned into Reavers. Maniacs, killers, eating manflesh. The Alliance denies everything, saying it's a hoax, but do you truly believe what the Alliance says?

But to get by on the rim, you take on a code, be that a good or bad one, or somewhere in between. Here on the frontier life is hard, and we get by with the basics of technologies, the scrap, the junk, the leftovers. Many planets are rat-infested dust holes, where terraforming didn't fully go right. A job will earn you money, be it legal or not. A gun will help you keep that job. A ship will provide income, find a crew, find a job and keep flying.