The Star's End Deep Space Facility is a large space station set in this desolate region. It has a staff of approximatey one hundred personnel. Once, it had been built with Old Cygnian technology, powered by a forced chamber compresion fusion core and with synthetic gravity throughout it. The mutiny, however, hit this area fairly hard, and during the fighting the power core had to be ejected. Lacking power for the synthetic gravity systems, the station was quickly rebuilt. It now rotates upon its axis, providing rotational gravity for its personnel. The gaping space that once held the power core has been renovated into an ersatz hangar deck. Slowly but surely, Star's End is being rebuilt.
The station's duties have not changed. It is a scientific research center, as well as a supply base and major listening post and advance base. The CSA Calypso is based out of Star's End and frequently makes six-month-long voyages out into the Horizon. Star's End is also the site of the proposed MIKADO deep space very large sensor array. Currently, the array consists of a single passive sensor reciever, set up as a test to determine the suitability and estimate the potential gains of the Mikado Project. Star's End has mainly defensive armament consisting of laser arrays, plasers, and point-defense missiles. A squadron of Nebula Starfuries, nicknamed the 'Keepers of the Way,' is also stationed here, though because of the mutiny they are at half-strength of their usual eight fighters and pilots.
DEVIL'S STAR
The exact location of the Devil's Star penal colony is classified. It is, however, known to be an asteroid, drifting in deep space. The asteroid has been carefully honeycombed with tunnels and passages and compartments, and a pair of centrifuges have been installed to provide sections of standard albeit rotational gravity. Life support and power systems have been provided, as well as a minimal laser array for defense, meteor protection, and escape deterrence.
Devil's Star's inmates are generally personnel who have committed extremely serious crimes; current CSA policy does not endorse capitol punishment, though it is called for in certain unusual circumstances. Mitigating this is a policy of no parole. When asked what would happen when the number of prisoners threaten to fill Devil's Star to capacity, the current warden noted that Devil's Star can be expanded indefinitely.
Devil's Star is a completely self-sufficent colony; it is technically designated as a colonial district, although it is under the jurisdiction of Security rather than CSA Colonial. The CSA Orion escorts a flight of small long-range dispatch shuttle couriers once a month to deliver messages, supplies, and new inmates and staff. The inmates are involved directly with the daily operation of the colony and must rely on each other in order to survive. Prison riots are remarkably easy to deal with: if everyone's rioting, the hydroponic gardens, power plant, and life support system remain untended. Only prisoners in the Isolation Block, which is physically separated from the rest of the colony, have no standard duties. The prison staff is in a tower that can physically separate from the asteroid itself.
NORTHERN COAL-SACK NEBULA -- SWANSWING NEBULA
Drifting on the edge of the sector, spanning the Horizon as a sort of ethereal bridge, the Northern Coal-Sack Nebula was visited early in the history of the CSA by the scoutship CSA Erma Felna. The Felna's captain likened the vast nebula to a swan's wing, and the name held.
Swanswing has been the focus of great attention lately. The most important event was the loss of contact with the jumpgate in this region. It is not yet known how this happened, though many visits by the CSA Orion have yielded no results, and only proved that the jumpgate is missing.
CYGNUS X.1 -- GREAT COLLAPSAR
The Great Collapsar is one of the most impressive sights in the sector. A large, spinning black hole, with plasma streams erupting from its poles, the collapsar is a titanic whirlpool of gravitational forces. Swirling about it are the detrius and remains of a nebula that once enclosed X.1 but which now is reduced to ribbons that feed the hunger of the collapsar. While the jumpspace route to the X.1 collapsar was among the first jumpspace routes to be certified as safe, the region is extremely unsafe. What makes it doubly so is the remains of a Cthulhi probe that were recently discovered in the area.