Alpha
From FABT
  Bottom: The Kurinth theme, one of 139 of the interconnected asteroids that comprise the Alpha megapolis by 2234 CE.
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Location: |
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Commissioned: |
18 September 2221 CE (as Alpha) |
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Role: |
Capital of the Alpha Republic (2221 CE - 2254 CE) |
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Length: |
44.7km (main asteroid) |
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Diameter: |
52.6km (main asteroid) |
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Population: |
351 million (by 2900 CE) |
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Defenses: |
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Type: |
Megapolis |
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Power: |
Twenty centralized eezo cores (main asteroid) |
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Shielding: |
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Manufacturer: |
Project Alpha (main asteroid) |
- "Nothing of Omega remains in this place. Nowadays, its a sprawling utopia. Sata T'Loak took a pisshole and turned it into a space-borne oasis. It's little wonder they want to associate with the station's sordid past as little as possible. The rebranding was the first necessary step."
- — An asari resident describing Alpha.
Alpha (known as Krugase to the krogan), also known as the Sahrabarik Megapolis, is a massive network of interconnecting asteroid-based space stations centered around one large central asteroid in the Sahrabarik system of the Omega Nebula, former capital of the Alpha Republic and Galactic Sanctum, current capital of the Federation of Alpha, and formerly known as "Omega". Having originally constituted the space station of Omega, built into the eezo rich asteroid of F89, Alpha is not only a rebranding of the original station, but is also the name for the sprawling megapolis that expanded out from it and now encompasses hundreds of asteroids, all tethered and linked to the main asteroid to create a gargantuan mega city amongst the stars. Following the defeat and death of Aria T'Loak at the end of the Third War for Omega in 2221 CE, her daughter, Sata T'Loak, would take over briefly as Ruler of Omega, although only to announce the abolishment of the title and the dissolution of the Omega Republic. Believing that Omega's history was holding the station back from a better tomorrow, a fact that sullied the efforts of Sata's mother to change it, Sata decided to rename the station "Alpha", and formed the Alpha Republic in the wake of Omega's dissolution, declaring her intentions to thoroughly modernize and rebuild Omega and see the station's potential through to the end. With the financial and political backing of the her newfound allies, the Raloi Federation, Sata began Project Alpha that same year, wasting no time in beginning the realization of her dream for the station. Starting with the interior, Alpha was thoroughly modernized across the board, with a huge work force enlisted to clean out the streets, demolish slums to replace them with new districts and much of the dated architecture cleared out to be replaced with new ones. Omega's former district system was replaced with themes, and a standing law enforcement agency was established, replacing Aria's syndicate enforcers with the Alpha Peacekeepers, a dedicated police/militia force. Sata ditched Afterlife as her seat and ordered the formation of an official government, headquartered at the Palace of Eden, one of many structures that existed within the Spire of the New Federation, a massive tether that connected to Alpha's ceiling and ran the entire length of the asteroid's interior down to the bottom, making it the dominant landmark of Alpha's city skyline. The Alpha Project proved to be the largest and most ambitious construction project in the entire Dominion Era, transforming Omega in a matter of years. By 2226 CE, Alpha was almost completely unrecognizable from what it had been as Omega, its cities not only heavily modernized, but also its docks, exterior platforms, mining facilities and even its defenses, which were supplemented by state-of-the-art directed energy turrets and pulse lasers. Shipyards that had been built during Aria's reign were expanded upon and newer ones built, allowing Alpha to be used as a shipyard to build a vast new fleet for the nascent Sanctum navy. Its population grew too, exceeding Omega's peak of 7.8 million to reach close to 24 million by 2226 CE, a large portion of the newcomers being raloi and refugees from the fallen New Council races.
From the onset, following the Post-Apocalyptic War and the dark shadow of the Galactic Dominion and Titan Covenant falling over the Milky Way Galaxy, Sata and the Sanctum government began to envision the Sanctum as presenting one of the only safe places left in the galaxy that wasn't conquered by the Dominion or Covenant, a visage that proved alluring to many New Council refugees who came to Alpha seeking a new beginning. To this extent, in 2228 CE, Sata announced the Project Alpha II, which constituted a further expansion of Alpha by towing asteroids into position around the station and tethering them together to create a chain of asteroids, which could then be hollowed out and more urban settlements built. The project proved extremely expensive and ambitious, but the Sanctum's coffers proved substantial, and by 2229 CE, roughly 50 asteroids had been hollowed out and construction begun in their interiors, and by 2234 CE, this number exceeded 167, with roughly 83 of those finished and inhabited. The introduction of this network led to new themes being added, and Alpha being declared a "megapolis", its population by 2235 CE being roughly 52 million, dwarfing even that of the Citadel. While construction would start to slow down as demand shifted, what had been built was an enormous achievement of engineering, one marveled across the galaxy, even by the Dominion and the Covenant. Alpha's development was a megapolis was also left unmarred by the conflicts surrounding Sanctum space, and remained safe from the fighting of even the Dominion Civil War, despite a Dominion incursion in Sanctum space that led to Sanctum formally declaring war on the Dominion in the last month of the civil war. By 2254 CE, when the Sanctum and Alpha Republic was dissolved and the Federation of Alpha rising in its place, joining the UGR as a member state, Alpha's network totaled 356 asteroids with 298 finished and inhabited, and its population capping at roughly 78 million. With the Citadel and Titan destroyed in the civil war, it was left as the largest space station in the entire Milky Way Galaxy, with even Normandy Memorial Station, the new capital of the Milky Way Galaxy in the Citadel's absence, only encompassing a quarter of Alpha's overall size. It had become one of the greatest marvels of the galaxy, and tourists from across the Milky Way flocked to see it. Even following the Great Precursor War in 2826 CE, many of the new Andromeda species who visited the Milky Way found Alpha to be the most impressive space station they had ever seen, which at that point numbered a completed total of 1,300 asteroids, all finished and inhabited, with at least 137 of them maintaining military facilities and fleet yards for both the Alpha and the UGR's militaries. The central asteroid of Alpha, the epicenter of this honeycomb of interconnected structures, was lost within the chaos of the seething metropolis and navigation for ships meant that Alpha's traffic control agency had extremely sophisticated systems, regulations and protocols for managing high volumes of traffic, whether it be skycars or massive starships. Alpha remains the greatest achievement in galactic history, with little remaining of what once had been the lawless slum-riddled asteroid station of Omega, with an oasis replacing it. Artificial lakes, recreational and amusement parks, museums, convention centers, art centers, schools and universities, and more dominated Alpha's vast cityscapes, making it the galactic center for art, architecture, education, politics and social progress. It had become everything Sata T'Loak wanted it to be: a beacon of hope for the entire galaxy, and a shining example for the gargantuan achievements made possible by a united galaxy.
As of 2900 CE, Alpha numbers 1,300 asteroids plus Alpha itself, and has a population of 351 million. It remains the capital of the Federation of Alpha to this day.