03-2180 Carter

Introductions

Star System forming the foundation of the human exploratory efforts in the Third Sector (one known by most starfarers and explorers as the Howling Abyss), due to being located close to the relatively well-chartered and stable HH Andromadae-Carter Hyperspace route and possessing both an asteroid belt and a gas giant that can be used as a source of fuel.
There are also no local threats to speak off, which contributes to the system's nature as a defensible frontier base for the survey ships in the region.
It is estimated to be located about 128ly from the Solar System towards the Galactic North-West.

Star System

03-2180 Carter is a star system composed of following objects of note:

03-2180 Carter - Red Giant.
Carter I - Iron Planet.
Carter II - Hothouse Planet
Carter IIa - Barren Moon.
Carter II/III - Asteroid Belt.
Carter III - Gas Giant
Carter IIIa-h - Barren Moons

None of those planets can be terraformed without Sidhe' nanomachines that - unfortunately - are no longer available. None of those planets and moons are in any way or shape notable - the closest thing to a curiosity in the Carter system is the fact that both the star itself and the gas giant are rather small (the gas giant, for example, is barely half the size of Jupiter).

Places of Note

Carter II/III - The asteroid belt that acts as the main hub of human presence in the Carter System. One of the asteroids was hollowed out and rebuild into a large space station with about twelve thousand permanent inhabitants. It has an official designation, but to its inhabitants and those passing through the system is known under an ironic name of Carteropolis.
It contains a repair dock and everything needed to resupply and refuel passing ships, together with basic industry providing its inhabitants with consumer goods and the ships with spare parts and ammunition. There's also a hydroponics section that produces enough of food for the station which prevents it from having to rely on sometimes unreliable deliveries from Earth.
The station also acts as a main hub for asteroid mining in the system that provides it with the necessary materials. As a result, the station is largely self-sufficient. It's also heavily defended with many artillery emplacements, missile launchers, point defense systems and shield generators. It is believed to be an equivalent of a modern battlecruiser in terms of firepower and resilience.
Carter III - A gas giant about half the size of the Jupiter, with several hydrogen extraction stations that allow ships passing through the system to refuel. Two of the moons also possess hidden listening stations that are supposed to record any signals coming from the Carteropolis in case of it being attacked so that the ships arriving in the system after the attack will know what happened.
This is done with the assumption that Carteropolis itself won't survive the attack. It has a secondary utility in the form warning new arrivals that the station has been taken over by something that can pretend to be human.

History

03-2180 Carter was first discovered in year 2180 by the survey fleet under the command of Adm. Sirius Carter, greatuncle of the current president of the Mercurial Confederation. His fleet arrived here after being the first one to successfuly traverse the HH Andromedae-Carter Route, which makes it the official date of the Third Sector's discovery.
Given the right to name the system, admiral decided to immortalize himself, and named it after himself. This is what lead to the local space station (constructed in 2186) receiving the moniker of Carteropolis - while his action wasn't something unheard of, it still led to some jokes about his supposedly overblown ego.
Admiral Carter kept using the station as his base of operations until his fleet disappeared in the Hyperspace in 2188. His heirs have sold their shares in Carteropolis to the Commonwealth soon after, the space station remaining in the Commonwealth's hands ever since.