The Barrier is one of the four dominant physical features present in the Sirius Sector. Stretching across the western side like a great wall, its abundant ice and rock asteroid fields created a formidable barrier to trade and commerce between Bretonia and the other colonies until the relatively recent arrival of Trade Lanes.

Plagued by the powerful Edge World criminal organizations, the Barrier Border Worlds are not a friendly place for a rookie freelancer. Only more experienced pilots with advanced ships dare venture forth into these often hostile systems. The pirate problem in the Tau region has now reached crisis levels, forcing the Bretonian Armed Forces and the Kusari Naval Forces to permanently station battleships in Leeds and Kyushu and conduct daily patrols into the adjacent Tau Border Worlds.

The Tau Systems
Consisting of a cluster of star systems anchoring the northern end of the Barrier, the Tau systems all share one thing in common: dense asteroids fields of ice and rock, and very few planets. In fact, there is only one known planet of appreciable size within the entire region.

The Sigma Border Worlds

The three Sigma systems straddle the eastern edge of the Crow Nebula, also encompassing elements of the mysterious Edge Nebula which traverses the entire eastern side of the Sirius Sector. Sigma-13 and Sigma-19 are both binary systems, while Sigma-17 has three stars, the only known tertiary star system within the Sirius Sector.