Arcturus Stream
From FABT
 
| |
|---|---|
| Location: |
Nineteen Pillars of Ascension / Milky Way Galaxy |
| System(s): | |
| Relay(s): | |
| Population: |
Roughly 13.7 million |
| Species: | |
| Affiliation: |
Systems Alliance |
| Tier: | |
| Capital: | |
The Arcturus Stream is a cluster near the western edge of Alliance space, and formerly the chosen seat of the Systems Alliance. In the asari cycle, the Arcturus Stream lay beyond Inner Council space, and was never colonized by the Citadel Council. When humanity began interstellar colonization efforts, and later reverse-engineered the tech found at the Mars Archives, the Arcturus Stream was one of the first clusters targetted by the Alliance for extrasolar settlement. The human population proliferated across the cluster, and along with the Local and Exodus clusters, made up the core of the Alliance just before the First Contact War, and eventually was chosen to be the location of the Alliance's capital, with the Arcturus system being settled upon for a location. Finally, in 2162 CE, this dream became a reality with the commissioning of Arcturus Station, making the Arcturus Stream the capital cluster of the Systems Alliance, and by extension, humanity itself.
When the Reaper War began on June 2, 2186 CE, the Arcturus Stream was the first human territory to be invaded by the Reapers, and the first to fall after a brief but decisive engagement at the Battle of Arcturus, where the Alliance government was wiped out in a single, overwhelming attack by the Reaper fleet. The cluster remained under Reaper occupation for the rest of the war, but did not return to its status as the capital: this honor would be transferred to the Petra Nebula, but the Arcturus Stream would nevertheless remain a core system of the Alliance, and later the Systems Coalition, for centuries to follow.