In the mirror universe, Vega IX was a colony world of the Terran Empire. Unlike in the Federation universe where Vega IX was colonized sometime before the 2150s and was a major United Earth settlement, mirror Vega IX was colonized later, in 2230, and was a far more desolate and backwater of a world. The empire's Bureau of Interstellar Hegemony chose Vega IX for strategic reasons even though its barren Class M surface offered colonists little in the way of resources.