Cygnus Verge

The Cygnus Verge is a loosely-defined region of space beginning from roughly 100 light-years directly galactic spiward of Sol.

Astrography
The Cygnus Verge is broadly defined as encompassing the region of space roughly along the galactic plane beginning at the furthest-out pre-war Cygnus-side human colonies. It intersects the shell of the interstellar medium between the Local Bubble and the Loop III Bubble and continues beyond to the "Northern Coalsack" of the Cygnus Rift and other dark molecular clouds of the Great Rift. Since the Cygnus Verge's designation is based on both human astronomy and expansion trends, no corresponding Covenant concept exists.

History
While early surveys of the nearby parts of the region were made in the early 26th century, the Cygnus Verge became strategically important as a potential site for relocating human populations and industry as part of the OUROBOROS Directive, as it is located nearly on the opposite side of human space from Covenant incursions. While these plans never fully came to fruition during the Human-Covenant War, this development continued in the post-war era as the UNSC and the newly-formed Phoenix Initiative began to concentrate their resettlement and reindustrialization programs in the Cygnus Verge, alongside the Aquila-Sagittarius side of space. Early on, the colony of New Reach served as a key waystation in these efforts. As human slipspace velocities improved in the coming decades, new colonies both official and unofficial continued to be established further and further out toward the molecular clouds of the Great Rift, particularly the Serpens-Aquila Rift. By the 2570s, military and exploratory outposts were established at distances of over 500 light-years from Earth.