Several years before the game's storyline, some sort of freak accident happened in the Texas system. Apparently involving some horrible Jump Gate malfunction, the system itself was shaken to it's very foundation. The results: two massive dark matter clouds (Pequena Negra and Grande Negra, Spanish/Portuguese for Little Black and Large Black, respectively), where scanner function is reduced to zero and where radiation levels are so high they will destroy even the best ships in the game within seconds and are, ironically, the most memorable landmark in the system; and the West Dallas Debris Field, the apparent remains of the malfunctioned Jump Gate.