In a space battle, thousands of starships would have glamorous competitions with all their barrels glowing. It was the most brilliant, splendid, blood-boiling, and soul-stirring form of war in the history of mankind!
The universe was a boundless place. Both human beings themselves and the warships, the seemingly enormous war machines created by them, were nothing but insignificant specks of dust in the grand universe.
If two fleets did not intend to run into each other, they would be like two needles floating in an ocean. It would be practically impossible for them to detect each other, much less hunt each other and get involved in a fight.
The Imperium of True Human Beings had gathered a lot of troops in the past thousand years to capture a tiny Firefly, but none of the attempts had succeeded, which was the best example.