What a space navy does: antimatter

These factories and ships are obviously tempting targets for pirates, terrorists, and state-level enemies. It’s always possible to blow up an antimatter facility and thus deny it to everyone, but everybody would prefer that that didn’t have to happen.

In most systems the factories are close to the sun. Space traffic control will be aware of unauthorised ships nearby (there’s little navigational reason to get that close, and factories have large areas of controlled space around them), and if there are enough system defence craft one is likely to be nearby. Antimatter freighters are allocated courses outside usual traffic patterns, and again unauthorised ships will be warned off.

Pirates attempting to obtain antimatter will usually try for the freighter, hoping to get aboard, retrieve the material, and force the jump point before defences can be organised. It’s a very risky business, and usually they rely on draining fuel from captured ships.

A terrorist group needs very little antimatter, and will typically try to obtain it by infiltrating someone into the production or transport crew.

A state actor invading the system will hope to capture, but will be resigned to destroying, the production plant. (Sometimes a crew can be persuaded not to set off the failsafes, especially if they think the system will change hands again soon.)

In some systems, particularly in frontier areas, a production plant is placed near the jump point; this vastly reduces the antimatter production rate, but it saves on freight costs and delays, and it can share any static defences the jump point has.