Epsilon Indi is a triple star system (K-type main-sequence star, ε Indi A, and two brown dwarfs, ε Indi Ba and ε Indi Bb) approximately 12 light-years from Earth. Since the 140 BFCs the system has been the focus of sustained scientific and cultural attention due to anomalous high-albedo features, pigments, and lattice-like ridge networks detected on the moons of ε Indi Ab.

ε Indi has been studied since antiquity as a bright southern star, and the gas giant ε Indi Ab was first discovered by radial velocity studies and later imaged directly with a space based telescope. Phase-curve anomalies and persistent reflective glints suggested that two of its satellites, Ab I (Yutu) and IV (Takuata), had unusual surface properties resembling cryovolcanic ice. In 142 BFC these two moons became a focus of exoplanetary science when the New World Imager coronograph mission reported albedo spikes recurring at the same orbital phase and inconsistent with cloud chemistry on both moons.

In 137 BFC the United States launched probes powered by a newly developed second generation Fusion Engine and lightsail propulsion system, accelerating up to 0.03c for a 400 year voyage to ε Indi. In 104 BFC the Auburn Ring observatory was completed and began to confirm the spikes corresponded to stable high-albedo rectilinear patches. The Indi Anomalies entered public discourse, and the Eurasian Bloc subsequently increased funding for Semiotican to complete its contracts for the components of the Étoile-Kōkai crewed interstellar generation ship. Étoile-Kōkai had already had its destination changed multiple time during the 38 years it was in development and LEO assembly. It launched in 95 BFC, accelerating up to 0.01c for a 1200 year voyage to ε Indi.

In 98 BFC the US launched a MagnetoPlasma sail probe which eventually accelerated up to 0.07c, as part of President Schaefers promise to solve the issue "within our lifetimes". Later that year the first ships launched carrying components for the long awaited Solar Gravitational Lens which was a joint partnership between the US and Ångström to stitch together Einstein‐ring light from an array placed 550 AU from the sun and able to produce kilometer scale direct imaging of exoplanets. In 78 BFC the partially completed array generated a test image of Yutu suggesting that the patches were simply frost lenses which had formed into rectangular shapes. A combination of cost overruns and waning public interest led to President Alfaro-Elder cancelling further US missions to complete the array. The partial array limped along for nearly a decade, capturing images much more slowly than planned, and before failing uncovered other unusual features of the two moons such as lattice-like ridge lines over much of their surface.

In the last several decades there has been a resurgence of interest in ε Indi. The spiralling failures of Étoile-Kōkai in the last decade BFC due to genetic disorders generated increased interest in the mission of the doomed ship along with alternative theories of the SGL images such as self-assembling biology and extinct technosignatures. Better analysis of the spectroscopic data now suggests surface deposits rich in dark pigments, which xenobiologist Guillaume Boucher claims are melanin analogues, theorising these could be from organisms harvesting the moons intense ionizing radiation as an energy source and even as a power source for travel between the two moons rather than life evolving separately on both. In the aftermath of the First Contact Event there was a great desire to resume human extrasolar exploration, and the US has now begun the development of a crewed mission to ε Indi, using an Antimatter Engine and MNex developed cryo-preservation rather than a generation ship. Since 11 AFC interest has been amplified by data arriving from the MagnetoPlasma probe. As of 18 AFC the probe has reached approximately 70% of the distance to ε Indi, and has been returning multi-angle photometry and polarimetric data suggesting that not only are the ridge lines inconsistent with silica plain cracks, but that the high-albedo patches seem to behave like thin, planar reflectors; more like giant sail-like structures than frost lenses.