I was going to keep going with the very basic history to introduce the careers but that seems destined to just be confusing. So I presented the Unification War from how it started to who won and why. The aftermath saw a very disorganized union of worlds faced with ruling their foe who were a much more culturally unified block of 15 or so worlds. Real problems start almost immediately. The Tiber-Beltaine Referendum only has the power to demand military support from it's members to face a threat once that threat was dealt with that power diminishes. With the war over it doesn't take long before most worlds want to bring their forces home and stop spending to support the war effort. There are also those worlds pushing for brutal reparations and other draconian measure against the Kingdom of Kent. It takes around 100 years for this to all shake out with the realization that the Referendum has to be more intrusive than originally set out and the KoK has to be integrated into the TBR to eliminate having more wars in the future. Mostly this happens because the driving forces in the TBR are merchants and a stable and relatively peaceful state with uniform trade rules is the best way to make huge amounts of cash. The requirement to provide military forces to the TBR cause changes into a mandatory four year enlistment into the Referendum Defense Forces. This quickly changes into a more general four years in service to the Referendum not merely the RDF. The PR version of the tale is to foster a sense of brotherhood and provide universal employment for all 18 to 22 year olds. The unspoken reason is that demographic is the easiest to influence so while they will always think of themselves as a native of their homeworld, hopefully they will also develop a sense of duty to the TBR or at least an acceptance of TBR rules.
So the first change to the character Generation system is the Draft table is altered
Roll Draft Career
1 Military Space
2 Military Planet
3 Civilian Space
4 Entertainment
5 Government Service
6 Forgotten
You roll on the Draft table as step 1 of your career resolution on your first term only. Your result allows you the opportunity to enlist in a subset of careers if you fail to enlist you randomly get assigned to one of the careers.
Military Space You can try for Navy (1-3); Marine (4-5) or Scout (6) the number in parenthesis is to determine which service you end up in if you fail to enlist.
Military Planet Available careers are Surface Defense (1-4); Maritime Defense (5); Aerospace Defense (6).
Civilian Space careers are Merchant (1-3); Belter (4); Scientist (5) and Scout (6).
Entertainment Careers are Athlete (1); Entertainer (2-5); Hunter (6);
Government Service careers are Agent (1); Bureaucrat (2); Diplomat (3); Physician (4); Noble (5) and Technician (6)
The Forgotten are those unfortunate enough to fall through the cracks none of these fulfill the a character's service requirement and allow another roll on the Draft table on the second term if desired. The fates possible are Barbarian (1); Colonist (2-4);Pirate (5) and Rogue (6).
Two careers do not appear above Mercenary and Drifter. Mercenary is available to anyone serving at least one term in a Military Planet career and Drifter is available to anyone with no Qualification roll even in place of submitting to the initial draft but it does not count toward the term of service to the Referendum.
So why require a restrictive start to character generation? It is to set the tone for the citizens of the TBR expecting to serve the government for at least 4 years in some sense. All except the Forgotten and Drifter careers are government services. You leave serving the Referendum and start putting yourself first when you leave the character creation process. Even knowing the metagame reason why it is required people being what they are will resent it which I also think represents how the common person would view it in my fictional universe. I will expand on why I think some jobs can be explained as government service but for the most part the descriptions provided work fine.
Scout shows up in both Military and Civilian Space because they are tasked with two different jobs. Exploration which falls under the Military in case you run into someone else and courier carrying messages to known worlds. Keep in mind that the TBR knows there are a bejeezus load of human worlds out there anyone of which could have jump tech. Also there where many Forerunner races that no one knows what happened to them so unknown space is viewed with an amount of paranoia. Government mandated happy fun time? Are you for real? With little to initially tie the worlds of the TBR together fairly early on the government started making Nat Geo specials and then Wide World of Sports finally sinking to its nadir with reality tri-vee from 400 worlds. There is a not unrealistic need for the TBR to try and produce information that people will actually watch and again using ourselves as examples that will be Sports and Game Shows. It does not represent the civilian efforts which are just as pervasive. It can be argued everyone serves as a government entertainer for a short while as the mustering out benefits are won during the separation games. Scientist is a Space career because they serve aboard a lab ship doing researching or supplementing a worlds educational system. Physician and Technician are careers where the TBR sends well trained people to assist worlds that are lacking in either of the areas to assist. The Forgotten are people who aren't integrated into interstellar society for one reason or another, Barbarians are literally just missed by a government who doesn't know they are there. Pirates and Rogues are those who didn't fit in or where raised by those outside society. Colonists are just screwed. To expand it's territory the TBR finds it necessary to colonize worlds and no one in their right mind wants to go to an uncertain fate on a world that either can't support human life or worse used to. The Colonists are almost all made up of people who are completely dependent on a world government for some reason and that government fills it's colonist quota with them. Mercenary is a specialized enough career that I think it is reasonable (considering mandatory service) to only recruit ex-military. And Drifter is just that someone wandering along not being in one place long enough to end up as a colonist. The reason this is a no roll option is to avoid figuring out what to do if a PC fails to qualify for a different career and then fails for this one as well. A few other house rules to finish this section off the DM-2 for each prior career doesn't apply within the career field you are currently serving in. For example your first term you end up as Bureaucrat the next term you can try and qualify for any other Government service career without getting a DM-2. But you have the heart of a loin and your inner beast was not meant to prowl the cube jungle poorly lit with fluorescent light while stalking the wily expense report so you instead Try to Qualify for Hunter and succeed. On your 3rd term you can try and change to any other entertainment job with no DM but if you miss your desk if would be a DM-4 to go back. The Forgotten and drifter careers do not count as previous services so you can more easily escape from what is essentially the Referendum failing you in the first place.
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