Depends on what kind of action you desire to portray.
Lets try this on for size...
Lets assume that you have a player character in your group for whom you can count on to role play instead of roll play. Let him know that he has a brother in the Space navy (System Defense Boats). Furthermore? Have the brother show up on leave happy to show his brother/sister/sibling off to other NPC's and have them help the player characters out in some fashion. Hell, make it as simple as the fact that the NPC SDB crew takes everyone out on the town in celebration of being released for a time from the pigboats.
In the meantime, have the other players part of a crew for a *small* tender. It carries say - 8 400 dton ships that are designed to be canibalized for colonization. The player's job is to do the ho hum transportation of various equipment etc. But make it so that the SDB crews are HUMAN and ALIVE for the PC's.
Then comes that awful moment. The PC's are the nearest ship that can help a stricken SDB. Some raiders (pirates or perhaps corporate sponsored mercenaries - or what have you - it is your story after all!) attacked the system and lost 3 ships against the defending SDB's. The raiders are out to nail the last surviving SDB in the area (there are other SDB's elsewhere in the system mind you, but the squadron of SDB's is the only one in the area). Your "tender" has a contract to deliver these modules to the planet safe and sound. Problem is? The tender is the only craft capable of getting to the battle site where two derelict SDB's are floating/tumbling. The only other ship that had a better chance of rescuing any survivors has mysteriously developed radio trouble. It isn't responding to your hails and it isn't altering course to help the SDB's.
Will your players go to help the survivors? Will they turn tail like the other merchant craft? What if it is the brother of the PC who is assigned to the SDB squadron that got hit? What if it isn't - how would the player respond when his/her brother confronts them asking "Why didn't you go to help the SDB?!!!"
If you want to make things more tense? Maybe the players do go to rescue the stricken craft. With their ability to transport such craft - they could jettison two cargo/pods and stop the tumbling craft - bringing them home for repairs before the raider returns (you somehow just KNEW the raider would return didn't you?). Now, do you want to add one more agonizing choice for the players to have to deal with? One of the survivors of the SDB is a crack sensor operator. He offers to help the PC crew by acting as a sensor operator. Or perhaps he stands behind the sensor operator at the bridge as the PC sensor operator scans surrounding space. One of the crewmembers of the SDB was thrown from the damaged SDB and the PC's can't find him (or can if you feel like it) but the crewmember is drifting in space helpless.
If you're nasty enough - make it a choice between rescuing that helpless navy bloke but placing the ship in EXTREME danger - or run for safety. And if you want to heighten the tension? Have the sensor operator who has navigation as a skill, bang his fist in frustration on the console panel as the PC captain struggles with the decision. Have the NPC tell the captain "If we rescue <insert name here> the raiders will get into engagement range inside of 10 minutes maybe 20. We can't rescue him unless you want to trade shots with a raider who just killed two SDB's"
You have all sorts of potential plot lines to follow from there. Maybe one of the modules they jettisoned was carrying a cargo for the Local Crime syndicate. Maybe the cargo they jettison is expensive war materials the Imperium was trying to hide from enemies so that they could build a forward base at this planet. Maybe the ship gets drafted into a war of sorts where the players have to deal with the Imperial Navy or subsector navy. Maybe they just panick and run for the safety of the deeper territory. It is all up to you
