Copernicus Research Center ("The Cop") is a massive, translucent Dyson sphere controlled by the Void Engineers. It surrounds one of the stars of Alpha Centauri and extends to one AU in radius.
Overview[]
The Void Engineers, growing dissatisfied with their dreary Darkside Moon Base, began looking to the Deep Universe for a new base of operations. After over forty years of continuous effort, the Cop was dedicated in the early 1970s.
Within a year of its grand opening, the Cop was attacked by Nephandi and nearly destroyed. To improve its defenses, two enormous gravitational lenses were placed on either side of the star, warping it into a torus. The lenses serve to focus the star's energy into tremendous laser beams, which can be refracted in any direction to defend the sphere from outside attack. The only way in or out of the sphere is to use the same vents through which the lasers pass; sloppy pilots are not welcome.
The Cop rotates around the two lasers so that a band along the equator has Earth-like gravity. Nearly the entire volume of the sphere has a breathable atmosphere, and above the inner surface a swarm of planetoids, research stations, and exotic ecosystems float in zero-G. Many young Void Engineer recruits are trained at the Halley Academy on the Cop for at least a short period of time.
Speculation[]
Some have suggested that the Cop it too massive to have been built from scratch in roughly forty years, no matter how many resources or powerful magics were thrown at it. Potentially the Void Engineers did not create the Cop but merely found it.
This is supported by references to seemingly alien technologies, such as the patterns for the organic Vivo Voidships, emerging seemingly fully formed from the Cop.