Some more thoughts concerning "gritty":
IIRC you mentioned that the ore-processing plant will be active on Empok Nor, as there are a lot of mineral rich asteroids around. Why don't you say that the Cardie government has leased the processing plant to private interests to pay for the costs involved in maintaining such a station? That would allow you to have all kinds of conflicts between station personnel, factory owners (less that honest capitalists) and independent miners.
As an extension of the above, why not place the conflicts that make the setting "gritty" outside the station and have the station personnel trying to maintain a position of neutrality and/or lawenforcement in all the conflicts that would be brought to the station by outside influences? IMHO it would be a lot easier (for you and us as well) to have the conflicts that we have to deal with come come to the station from the outside, rather than to establish a gritty setting on the 'inside'.
If you combine the two ideas Empok Nor could be the "gold rush" frontier town that sees all kinds of strive between mine owners, independent prospectors, settlers who would rather not have their colony turned into a big stripmine, etc. etc.
In a "wild west" sense that would place us in the role of the "honest lawmen" trying to cope with all the difficulties a frontier setting brings to town. There could be claim jumpers, greedy businessmen (with political influence maintained by healthy bribes), new settlers, etc. etc.
I think the key point here is to keep the "gritty" influences as an outside element that has to affect the station, instead of centering the conflicts on the station personal (at least initialy). That should allow us enough room to develop our characters, while at the same time allowing you to introduce the "gritty" elements of the setting at whatever pace you feel like and fits our style of gameplay.
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