It looks beautiful, but don't drink the water, and certainly don't breathe the air.
Settled in 2049, the colony on Alpha Centauri was the second extraterrestrial settlement established by the Earth Federation. It grew rapidly, thanks to its near-Earth like conditions. However, in 2227, an outbreak of a virulent infection known as the Sakras Plague spread quickly to all residents. The Sakras Plague was a serious threat to the early Federation and they ordered a quarantine of the planet. It is assumed that all the residents died as all communications with the colony ceased a year later. To this day, a quarantine stays in effect, and the few attempts made to resettle the planet were destroyed. Combined with the nearby G2 Hyperspace Disruption Zone, this quarantine zone effectively blocks human expansion and settlement to the galactic north and west of Earth.
In the wake of the Sakras Plague, the Disease Control Board (DCB) was established as an arm of the Federation Government. Modeled after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the pre-Fed American government, it was tasked with preventing another such disaster by monitoring virulent disease outbreaks and conducting biomedical research into possible disease vectors and cures. Part of this work involved mandatory genetic registration of all citizens of the Federation. Many in the Resistance claim the Sakras Plague was all a smokescreen, to provide the excuse to form the DCB and get genetic samples from everyone, the better to locate and conscript into the Tech Infantry everyone with the potential to be awakened as a mage or werecreature.
Recent History[]
In April of 2243, during the Third Civil War, the forces of the Christian Federation cracked the codes of the military jumpgate and seized the system from its depleted Earth Fleet picket force. Not even the fanatics of the Righteous Army were willing to venture down onto the surface, but they did seize the data and researchers from a small biomedical research station in orbit over the planet. "Bad Andy" Tremont issued a press release later claiming that a cure was very near to being discovered, and promised that the planet would be open for resettlement in a matter of months. However, his faction ultimately went down to utter defeat within a year, and the data was never recovered. If there was any truth to his claims of a cure, it was lost in the rubble of the war.
In the later stages of the Third Civil War, an Earth Fleet counteroffensive by Task Force David under Commander Xinjao O'Reilly invaded the system. Despite the Righteous Navy only defending Alpha Centauri with a lone Luzon-class frigate and a half-dozen "gunboats" (really just cargo freighters with box launchers bolted to their hulls), almost a third of Task Force David was destroyed when it entered the system and plunged straight into a cleverly improvised minefield set up around the incoming jumpgate. Once the task force's starfighters broke out of the minefield, however, the Righteous Navy defenders were quickly defeated and the system was successfully liberated for the Federation.
The new Federation government of Arthur Clarke was more interested in seizing worlds from the Bugs than in reclaiming a failed colony of humans, so the research effort into a cure for the Sakras Plague was given a very low funding priority, and little to no progress was made. Bypassed by the Vin Shriak and Caal, the tiny research station and quarantine picket force declared their loyalty to the Holy Terran Empire early during theAscension War, and no fighting took place in the system. Once his grip on power was secure, Emperor Vin Dane took a bigger interest in Alpha Centauri than his predecessor had. But despite significant resources being put into research, no cure for the Sakras Plague has yet been found and the quarantine remains in effect.
Behind The Scenes[]
There is of course a real star system of this name very near to Earth, but no real effort has been made to ensure that the Tech Infantry universe starmap bears any resemblance at all to a real starmap.