Copernicus Research Center

The 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 Umbra for a new base of operations. After over forty years of continuous effort, the Cop was dedicated early 1970s. (It has been suggested that the sphere could not have been built from scratch in that time span, 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.)

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 laser 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.