Between The Empire And The Roidhunate

The planet Starkad, while it exists, is in the Cis-Betelgeusean Orionis Sector, according to an excerpt from a Pilot's Manual and Ephemeris quoted as a foreword to Ensign Flandry. It becomes the scene of a proxy war between Terra and Merseia whose realms are on opposite sides of Betelgeuse.

The Betelgeusean System is a buffer state maintaining its independence between the two rival imperialisms of Terra and Merseia.

The Merseians maintain a base on Vorida, a rogue planet in the Betelgeuse sector. They also had both a scientific base and an intelligence base on the eccentrically orbiting planet, Talwin, in the inter-imperial wilderness but Flandry's intervention closed down their intelligence activities and transformed the science base into a joint Merseian-Terran operation which also became a convenient venue for discrete negotiations.

On the Terran frontier facing Merseia, there are:

Varrak and Dennitza in the Taurian Sector;

Daedalus and Imhotep in the Patrician System;

Irumclaw, near Talwin.