[ericthered]

I like the mechanism you use to remove starships. Of course, the ships aren't so much gone as they are moved to the background. Starships can still feature quite prominently in the setting, they just don't have humans on them.

Do gates need to be paired, or can any gate go to any other gate? If you want 'distance' to be an issue, either physical distance between gates is an issue, or gates need to be paired from their moment of creation (which makes expansion happen just a little more slowly).

The greys seem a little out of place. I'm not seeing how they maintain their mysteriousness when they have to travel like everyone else. Unless they have a major major advantage like being able to sneak in people in the middle of shipments or access to working FTL that doesn't kill them. Yes, they have psionics, but that only goes so far when you have a major choke-point in travel.

The core idea is really quite good, but I don't think I'd play this particular setting. The exclusive (heavy is fine, exclusive is a little cinema) biotech race and the psi throw me off a little.