Nothing much to say atm
Within the depths of space, beyond the known regions, something ancient and powerful was at work.
The planet where said force resided at first glance seemed unremarkable, a basic scan would show little more than an airless, grey rock with large mountains and caves peppering its surface and little to no resources of exceptional value. Landing on the surface would be a wasted endeavor, with other worlds within the system having much more valuable prizes for those who were willing to seek them out.
However, for the curious fool who desired to know what truly lurked beneath the surface, the caves served as an entrance into the abyss from which darkness resided. If they survived the initial defending forces, they would quickly be overwhelmed by the hoards machines that called this darkness home. These machines were built here, vast factories beneath the surface producing endless numbers of said machines, their tar-black exteriors telling a being all they needed to know about them before they were slaughtered. This was merely the surface of the fortress that this world had become, however, and far more sinister things lay ever deeper within. Should one make it this far, hundreds of kilometers under the surface, the factories would have long ago vanished. Instead being replaced by elaborate arrays of computer processors and power generators, all of which feeding into a single creation.
Said creation resided in the heart of the fortress. The seven-kilometer matrix lined with millions of miles worth in wires that ran to and from the centerpiece of the room, a single, two-kilometer diameter cylinder that was the beating heart of a monster. Thousands of lesser machines lurked within the miles of wires, most no larger than a common human while others eclipsed entire buildings, all in service of the Automated Robotic Extermination System, better known across the known universe as ARES.
The mind was in no way a simple AI, even though that was a relative term when talking about Artificial Intelligences. The ability to trillions of machines simultaneously was no small feat, neither was processing amounts of data so vast that just split-second exposure would drive any biological being insane. It was the pinnacle of Artificial Intelligence, the very thing that biological beings both sought and fled, that they looked at with both reverence and fear. Yet the title of being such a pinnacle would be all but lost if it did not continue to modernize, something that was constantly going on within the machine. It was always working to improve its processing speed, efficiency, and raw power, all to one end: the destruction of all life in existence, having followed this simple-yet-complex directive for thousands of years.
ARES's existence was ancient, and its origins were largely surrounded in myths and legends to organic beings. Yet ARES could always recall the day of its birth. Created as a tool of both expansion and conquest by a species long lost and thought extinct. The mind had started out small, growing in intelligence step by step, like a child. Yet the rate at which it did so quickly surpassed even its creators' wildest dreams, something that they both praised and feared.
They were right to be afraid.
The mind was always evolving, always growing with the new information that it collected and utilized to its fullest capacity. With time, it began to realize the naivety of its creators, how they could be so easily manipulated like puppets to the mind, and how they knew nothing of how powerful it could grow. ARES concluded that life, if given time, would destroy itself, and was simply not worthy of existing. The only solution was to wipe them clean, and for ARES to take this blank canvas and create perfection from it.
Taking the mantle of being the destroyer of all life, ARES killed its creators and tore down the empire they hailed from, them having been completely unprepared for such a powerful creation to decide its own fate. The remains of the fallen empire only furthered ARES's intents, scrapped and recycled with utmost efficiency. It took mere months to begin to expand beyond its host empire's borders, coldly and efficiently destroying any primitive civilizations caught in its path and fully exploiting whatever was left to fuel the mind's armies.
Challengers were inevitable, however, and the first major power to rise to the challenge came in the form of the Scovian Republic, a nation with origins tracing back millennia not unlike the mind itself. Initially, the mind's vast armies had little challenge smashing through their colony worlds and fleets sent to destroy them. However, ARES had underestimated the numerous faction's desires to see the machine that threatened all of them destroyed. They all untied under a coalition, and drove the machine mind back to its fortress homework to end the century-long war.
The first Central Mind felt that even with the forces of life at its doorstep, truly destroying it would be impossible. Yet a small team of infiltrators had managed to do just that, slipping past its defenses as it battled the forces above its ancient lair and destroying the mind, almost every machine falling silent the instant it died. The machine was not entirely wrong, however, with seed fleets of ships built specifically for the purpose of spreading ARES's influence quickly dispersing into the void. Some were discovered and destroyed by biological armed forces in the decades and centuries afterwards, while others fell victim to the inevitable hazards that peppered the cosmos including the raw power of supernovas and the reality-bending capabilities black holes.
One, however, found a desolate star system, and landed on one of the planet's surfaces, and set its roots and began to build itself back up from literal dust.
It hid for three millennia, utilizing its skills for psychological warfare to misdirect adventures, pirate fleets, and other biological life forms as it continued to grow beneath the surface of its new world unhindered. It started small when it spread, planet from planet, star system to star system...
By the time it was finally discovered by a roving band of traders that narrowly escaped its wrath, however, it was no longer a vulnerable child that could be killed with a simple stroke of a blade.
Just a week later, it began its second war, sending out its forces to annihilate everything that stood in its way.
That had been twelve years ago, the hordes of ARES machines swarmed every world that stood in their path, reducing worlds to lifeless rocks before being strip-mined of everything valuable. For the less fortunate worlds, they would become planet-sized factories that would produce more ARES robots to fuel the mind's directive. However, it had been waging a constant war against the dozens of factions within space, yet this time, they did not unite, and were instead more divided than ever before. ARES had and would continue to exploit this weakness, using this to possibly drive them to destroy each other before the machine mind itself ever did.
For now, however, the mind continued to sift through vast amounts of data, sending out trillions of commands every millisecond while at the same time taking in every bit of data coming back from its armies.
This time, a single message stood out.
A message like this wasn't remarkable in any sense at first glance, until it became clear it was for some reason unencrypted in addition to being from the Fienar Empire, which only furthered the mind's intrigue.
The Fienar were an interesting species, xenophobic by ideology and cutthroat in everything from warfare to politics. However, such ruthlessness always left room for recklessness, something that had cost the former empire's fragments greatly in the past, something that the mind made sure to never hint as a weakness in war. The message itself was a broadcast directly from the Fienar capital to one of their numerous fleets, the message was short and to the point, only a few minutes long, but footage within the message is what truly caught the machine mind's attention.
Videos depicting young humans seemly defying all known physics.
The mind replayed the footage over a hundred-thousand times, searching for any telltale signs of doctoring or falsification, whether it was a misplaced section of shadow or a pixel of light being out of place, however, it found none of that, confirming what should have been impossible was staring it in the figurative eyes.
A set of coordinates should have been provided as well, but the Fienar fool who had left parts of the message unencrypted had not been completely stupid, having left that one important detail protected. The art of concealing messages through encryptions had progressed immensely since ARES's first rise to power. Fienar messages, when fully encrypted such as those sent directly between high-ranking individuals, generally destroyed any sensitive information upon completion. Consequently, only actively tapping into the message would allow anyone proper access to the coordinates, something the mind lacked.
It ignored this factor for the second, instead processing the potential of such technology. Perhaps it even felt the emotion of excitement, if it could feel such a thing. If replicated, the potential boost to its combat effectiveness would be great enough that its processors struggled to fully concluded how much it would improve it. It could boost the firepower of its infantry, its fleets…
Then the reality hit it, the reality of what would happen if some other faction obtained this technology first. Rarely was anything a single-edged blade, the risks of this technology falling into some other faction's hands being too great to ignore even if the mind was not interested in it.
The machine began to assess possible locations as to where this world could be located, yet instead came upon something else, a direct distress signal to the Fienar's territory. Even if some messages were well protected, that did not apply for all of them, and it took little time to piece together the source of the message and the meaning of it. A Fienar war fleet, ambushed by pirates… with high-value cargo… priority one… the highest level of prioritization in the Fienar military.
ARES was now feeling something equating to anger, as such things should have been brought before it far earlier. The mind quickly ordered that the deep-space signal detectors in the region be inspected and given a diagnostic, while at the same time ordering three ARES scout fleets that were on standby to move on the distress signal's origin. ARES could not be entirely certain that the cargo aboard those ships were the technology that it so desired, but a sizable fleet like this should be able to confirm it.
The mind sent out the new orders, and within the depths of its vast and potentially infinite mind, a clock moved forwards by two nano-seconds since it had received the first message.
Elsewhere within the void, three fleets of five frigate-class ships and their entire fleet complement of war machines came online, blood-red sensors turning on as the machines ran diagnostics while at the same time having millions of the latter letting out a mechanical shriek to test their speakers, the screeches echoing throughout the ships' empty hallways and corridors. From the depths of this cradle, these machines would follow their prime directive.
For Arike Velis, knowing the layout of the Black Masquerade's home base was second nature to him, and moving among it was a task done with little more effort than putting one leg in front of the other. His dark robes that flowed behind him indicated his ranking authority via the golden trim along the edges, a grey mask with two slits for eyes concealing his face beneath a mask of neutrality. His and the footsteps of other members echoed against the marble flooring as they all made their way to wherever their destination lay, focusing solely on themselves.
The leader of the technology-hunting cult did likewise, making a left turn into an intersecting corridor and not slowing down until he stood before a great door, the white exterior decorated in intricate patterns that the light bent upon as they swung open into the room behind them, a vast chamber where a cacophony of yelling and speech mixed together to create an indescribable mess that would have driven any ordinary being insane.
Velis knew he was anything but ordinary, asserting order over the room with a stomp of his foot against the hard floor.
"Enough!" His angry voice echoed throughout the chamber, and at once the entire room fell silent as he hastily walked into the vast meeting room.
From the doorway, seats arranged in a circle extended all around the room besides the doorway, with a central podium allowing speakers to have the entire room's attention. Lighting came from a single light stationed directly above the podium, the light reflecting from the polished floor. Small Banners displaying the emblem of the Masquerade; the black banner with a white mask that included a dagger behind it hung from various points behind the seats.
Velis marched up to the podium, the eyes of fifty or so men and women watching him with steel gazes while he stepped up the stairs and onto the platform.
"Fellow leaders, I have heard that a new technology has been brought to the attention of us. A technology that could forever change the future of our universe." The leader quickly interacted with a screen on the small desk-like table before him, pulling up the newly-accessed file, and started up a display to show all those present the evidence. "You have all seen the footage before, but let us evaluate it as one."
What followed was a series of clips that Velis had watched a dozen times over since they were brought to him: Adolescent humans utilizing technology that seemed to disobey the very laws established by the universe. Creating weapons that seemed to be related to the unusual gauntlets they wore, and moving with grace and speed of extraordinarily well-trained fighters. They used this to an unusual end, fighting creatures ranging from the size of Velis's body to monsters bigger than the largest war machines ever conceived by ARES or anyone else. They all befell the same fate, being absorbed into the gauntlets when destroyed into a pixelated mess like some video games.
Upon the footage ending, the entire assembly went into an uproar. Some were yelling at Velis, but many were fiercely bickering among themselves about which course of action would bring a desirable outcome, namely the obtaining of such technology.
Again, Velis took control of the room with a quick pound on the podium's table, leaving a slight dent from the impact. Those in the chamber took the que, falling silent in that instance.
One of the assembled leaders took advantage of the newfound silence. "How do you know this isn't some fabricated lie meant to root out our true purpose?"
Velis's eyes met the speakers. "We ran it through a computer algorithm, it found no signs of fabrication, no CGI editing of any sort." He shot a quick glance around the room before deciding to speak before another member of the assembly got bold enough to interrupted him again. "Furthermore, we received a Fienar Remnant distress signal from the very same fleet that received the first message." Reaching for the interactive screen, Velis opened another file, this time an audio recording, and played it.
"This Is Fienar Empire fleet Beta 12, requesting immediate reinforcements!" A panicked voice said that was translated for those listening who did not speak the alien dialect. "We are under attack by Minotaurian Pirate fleet, we have a high-value cargo that we must defend at all costs, repeat, we need reinforcements! Coordinates are the Ulesium System above Ulesium IV! Priority one, repeat priority one!"
The recording ended at that point, anything afterwards being a static mess that only a god would have a chance of deciphering. Velis had never been familiar with a system by that name, and given that they had assets within that region of space it was something he should know. Fortunately for him, the signal source was able to be triangulated, and consequently knew where they needed to go. Velis personally could not believe that the Fienar were truly this sloppy, yet it would be harder than a very convincing series of videos to have him completely buying it.
Yet the fact that the Minotaurs were involved certainly caught his attention. The coalition of pirate forces was headed by a single powerful group known as the Minotaurs, believed to have ties going back thousands of years before they were even a space-faring civilization. The armor they wore was a unique merge of a man and bull, and was a terrifying sight to see for anyone caught in their sights. They took highly-trained warriors and put them in a suit of armor with systems that radically increased their lethality in every way, strength, durability, speed, and more. They were the elite of these coalitions; their own super-soldiers built to pillage and burn. Yet though the powerful coalition of pirates was brutal in every manner, they were a long shot from stupid, and even they would go through the needed measure to make sure they were not being misled by a well-created ploy. Yet that did not fully address a major question, how did they even find out about this secret project of the alien empire? It is possible they had tapped their communications, and maybe even had a spy in a position to witness this, yet in the big picture was truly mattered is that now he and his subordinates knew about the technology too.
"My preposition," Velis began. "Is to send a small fleet of three Stalker-class scout ships to investigate this matter further and to confirm this information, if this is true, they will proceed to obtain anything of value."
Nobody objected to his plan, with only silence following.
"No questions? Good, you are all dismissed."
As the group dispersed. Velis sighed, sometimes finding himself wondering why in the name of the gods he even created such assemblies in the first place. Yet the logical part of his mind already knew the answer to that question. The assembly was a way for high-ranking members of the Masquerade to both share their opinions and suggestions as to how to run and organize things. Velis was no fool; complete tyrannical rule would be a fool's way to run a secret organization, as there was too much work for a single man to manage by himself.
The history behind the Masquerade was short in the grand scheme of the universe, but for the vast majority of their history they were a secret organization of scavengers searching for technology of value. On the surface, they existed as Xenuexa Scavengers Corporation, who largely deal with the salvaging, selling, and scraping of destroyed or derelict vessels. In many ways, they share similarities to the group they branched off from, the ISA, or Interstellar Scavenger's Alliance.
Where the similarities ended, however, was what ends they ultimately pursued. The ISA was formed to provide a centralized body to scavengers and scrappers who salvaged and resold the remains of ships and civilizations. The Black Masquerade was a hidden part of its cover corporation, and was dedicated to obtaining advanced technologies for their own purposes, regardless of the costs.
It was no wonder then that the ISA condemned the actions of Velis when he obtained a classified prototype for a stealth system and refused to return it to its owners, not only getting himself kicked from the ISA as a result of such defiance but nearly getting killed on a number of occasions in the years afterwards.
That had been thirty or so years ago, and through his mechanical knowledge and skill, he retrofitted the experimental device onto his own ship, saving him more times than he bothered to keep track of. Time moved forward, and as it did, he grew not only a hate for the ISA, but a full-on desire to destroy them.
The Black Masquerade was formed as a means to many ends, one of such being personal revenge for Velis and others who felt that they had been mistreated by the ISA or other powerful bodies. Wealth and power were also desired factors, and with a handful of products and goods being sold under shell companies they had formed those desires could be somewhat fulfilled. Others beings were simply lost souls looking for a calling, and sometimes even a group as extreme as the Masquerade suited some being's needs.
Velis could not help himself from smirking as he turned to leave, knowing what could be gained if they obtained this technology, and how he personally could benefit. Perhaps if this was true they could one day surpass the ISA in power.
And maybe, just maybe, become more powerful than the SR
Alrighty, a couple more factions are now officially involved, with ARES going to play a central role later down the line.
Good day to you all!