Summary:

A larger nebula that houses Collared Pods (NSP), as well as an inhabited system, plus a megaship of the Colonia Bridge.

Description:

The Trifid Nebula (not to be confused with the Trifid of the North nebula) is located 5,200 ly from Sol, and has a number of sights worth seeing. It is easily accessible, and a frequented stop for explorers headed towards Colonia, and the Colonia Bridge has a megaship named "CB-14 Ashwin's Delight" in the Trifid Sector GW-W d1-220 system.

Additional amenities, though not a shipyard, can be found aboard the Observation Post Epsilon asteroid base in the nearby Trifid Sector IR-W d1-52 system.

This station has an Extraction and Military economy, and is run by a minor faction called the 101st Recon Company. Precious little is known about this secretive organisation, and outsiders can only guess what it is they might be observing. To date, there has been no evidence of neither Thargoid nor Guardian activity around the nebula.

However, there is life in space in the systems nearby. The Trifid nebula houses Collared Pods, which are unique to this area.

These large fauna are named after their distinctive collars, through which they absorb energy from starlight. When approached, they are rather harmless, and Commanders can gather tissue samples from them via a Research Limpet Controller. (These samples have no current use, save for selling for a few thousand credits.)

Regardless of what the recon company might be observing, in later years a number dozens of surface settlements have been built in this system, most of them being mining (or related) installations.

Image credits: nebula image by CMDR CallMeIke, asteroid base image by asd1o1, Collared Pod image by Canonn