Are the Core Worlds and Periphery stations the only active human settlements left in the Sector? While there are plenty of ruins to go around, I was wondering if any independent worlds/factions/etc. beyond what we have currently exist beyond the reach of the major factions, or operate substantially on their own while nominally supporting one side or another? For example, a Luddic Separatist colony nestled somewhere far from Core that keeps mostly to itself and remains fiercely isolationist, or perhaps a League mining colony that chanced upon an abandoned shipyard and decided to build their own Navy rather than rely upon a Fleet that is at best weeks or even months away from responding to calls for aid.
Or is it simply a case of all remaining humans live inside the Core for their own safety, and beyond that on the map is just hyperstorms and the words 'Here be TriTachyon's latest and greatest defense products Monsters'?