Legion Service

The widespread use of ANF has resulted in longer enlistments and a generally higher level of competency in the Legion. Additionally in has also resulted in a generally slower rate of advancement, as openings are not as frequent as they would be in a society with briefer lifespans and shorter enlistments. The continuing expansion of the Legion has somewhat alleviated the problem with upward mobility, though it is still common for a legionnaire of decent technical and military skill to spend years if not decades as a common trooper before being raised into the rank of non-commissioned officer. Most of the members of the Legion at the higher ratings have many decades of service.
Ships used by the Legion range from the giant 250,000,000 cuft Superdreadnought ship-of-line to the tiny patrol corvette. Just because most conflicts which the Legion is involved in tend to be "small-scale" on a galactic level doesn't mean that the vessels involved are "small-scale".
Since the Legion provides both space-going transport and planetary combat troops ships-of-the-line tend to embark all manner of combat craft, as well as advanced warsuits. Legionnaires on small craft often act as both spacer technical experts and planetary soldiers.
Because the Legion fulfils so many roles officers tend to serve in a wide variety of different types of billets over their careers, as do senior legionnaires. An energy field technician is likely to find himself serving his first tour in an engineering billet on a battleship; his second tour as a boat engineer on a System Patrol Boat; a third tour as a defensive shield technician in a Legion Ground Battalion and his fourth tour with a security detachment at a Union embassy. An officer can look forward to an even wider scope of possible assignments, including some diplomatic ones.

Barbarians at the gates

It might seem reasonable that, in the Midlands at least, a world or group of worlds might arise to challenge the Grand Human Union's hegemony. After all domination has always been a strong characteristic of human interaction. Strength is often the determining factor of history rather than morality.
The propagation of superior technology from the Highland's center to its edges have resulted in a practical dominance of the Union of the worlds along its borders. They tend to be highly dependent on the Highlands and incorporation quickly becomes a foregone conclusion.
Most experts known that eventually a large enough group of worlds outside the Highlands will become organized enough and be stubborn enough to resist absorption, but this has not happened yet, and there are no polities within a hundred light years of the border organized enough or large enough to realistically worry about. Farther than that worlds tend to lag technologically behind the Highlands, so even a fairly large grouping of worlds are not really considered a threat, at least not to the Union.
These world groups are themselves sometimes targets of their less enlightened neighbors. The Union, and its Star Legion seldom take part in these conflicts, but their have been exceptions. The militant orders are more likely to take a stand, especially if the Church is threatened by these disagreements.

Subspace Travel

Estimated travel times given in the Barnes-Gutierrez Hyperspace Engine entry are averages. The Quality Factors assume specifics about both the route and the vessel. For example the 1.00 Quality Factor for Major Routes assumes the route takes advantage of natural subspace topology and artificial stabilization using hyperspace drills. It also assumes an average arm stellar density. Near the edges subspace travel will be less easy and as much as a 10% penalty due to bad conditions are possible. Unforeseen subspace storms are also possible. However storms are more likely in areas of high stellar density than areas of low stellar densities. So in High density regions vessels might go faster, but they are more likely to meet unexpected gravity shear planes. Even in the best conditions a ship will be limited to no more than 10% over the subspace Quality Factor.
Further assumptions for travel along Major Routes are that the navigation beacon system is fully operational, and that the vessel has an operational VORN system. Similar assumptions hold for Blue Highways. On these routes the marking beacons are farther apart and the subspace topology itself not as structured. Department of Roads Storm Watch are less prevalent and the lack of an hyperspace cable system makes warnings a matter of minutes rather than hours or days.
Off the routes travel time is even more uncertain. If the destination world maintains a beacon, and if the gravitational topology is well known, a properly outfitted ship, that is one with a gravscanner and a quality Inertial Navigation System can usually maintain the listed Quality Factor. A good rutter can knock 5% off that time, provided it is accurate. For a ship's master familiar with the local conditions in such a vessel 10% might even be possible.
A poorly outfitted ship, without a gravscanner, or with an inferior one, traveling though unfamiliar subspace can easily make only half the usual quality factor, less if storms make areas of subspace impassible for a time.
It is also possible for local gravitational eddies to allow one vessel to outpace another. Experienced masters can often, by using sensor information from a gravscanner, ride these local eddies to gain an advantage in combat or trade. Such instabilities are rare along the groomed Major Routes or Highways, but rather more common off the grid.