K472 Interlink
A extinct hive-minded uprising within the Federation. Classified as a homogenizing swarm.
Structure
The founders provided the dominant traits in the Interlink ecosystem. However, ascension to power rendered themselves almost completely alien to their original selves, and the vast numbers of additions to the collective would've chipped away at whatever little individuality remained in those members anyways.
Ultimately, the K472 command structure functioned as a staggeringly powerful collective consciousness that could multitask so fast and think on a scale no individual or hive mind before it had ever come close to. Sometimes, there were valuable processes preserved for specialized roles, but these subunits lacked any individuality and distinguishing traits typical of a more conventional intellect.
Culture
The Interlink eschewed individual personalities and the quirks that came with them. As a whole, the hive mind was highly aggressive and bent almost entirely towards the purpose of expansion through the annihilation of others.
Public Agenda
An imperative for the K472 Interlink was the subjugation/assimilation or destruction of all outside existences that chose not to be fodder for its continual growth. There was no consistent public agenda besides said destruction of enemies and the continuation of its own survival, consistent with its classification as a homogenizing swarm. They used superweapons such as starcrackers and Nicoll-Dyson beams with complete abandon, as part of a total war strategy that was integral to their military planning.
Assets
A vast population, conceptual energy it could concentrate wherever it wished, and a fleet of weapons and combat drones that rivalled what was left of F-MAG in every way.
History
In the wake of the genocidal war with the Salyuri, there were a small, but dedicated group of influential thought leaders who believed that the individual existence was obsolete. They included everyone from politicians and researchers to grizzled war veterans. Such an evolution was widely viewed as a fate worse than death for the traumatized populace, and the idea seemed to lose what little momentum it had. Yet over the centuries, a shadowy cabal worked to set their plan into motion, building new assets and incorporating vulnerabilities into machinery and sapient alike. Their names are lost to history, because their plot succeeded.
When they struck in 3983 ME, it was with near-total surprise. Only luck, well-placed firewalls, and the sacrifices of cyberwarfare teams wounded the hive mind enough for the rest of the Federation to realize the threat and lock out the enemy. Even then, the newborn K472 Interlink had violently assimilated a quarter of the Federation's citizens in the blink of an eye. This was followed by an enormous strategic weapons exchange between the superintelligence and Strategic Strike Command.
The resulting war lasted forty years.
Disbandment
Despite their initial successes, they were unable to overcome the economic and numerical superiority of their supposedly inferior enemies. There were no attempts at negotiations or surrender.
Demography and Population
At the start of the war, the K472 Interlink assimilated approximately four hundred quadrillion sapients of various processing power levels. This number was temporarily pared down with the severe losses taken in the opening strategic exchange, but was rapidly surpassed as the cloning vats and assembly plants worked furiously to churn out more bodies for the meat grinder.
Impressively, despite sustaining continuous losses that only intensified later in the war, the Interlink maintained a positive overall population trend. Near the end of the war, a higher percentage of the drone population were concept-based entities, reflecting the increased centralization of capabilities and firepower as the war situation continued to deteriorate.
Territories
Being born from the Federation, it was entirely based in Federal space at the start of the conflict.
Military
The entire Interlink was bent towards the systematic annihilation of other existences. Every drone in its populace, whether a frail former human or entirely synthetic CBE, was technically a combatant. There was a technical distinction between non-combat roles and warfighting-oriented assets, if only for the sake of efficiency, but the Interlink was its military.
And the Interlink was, for the first few years of the war, entirely ex-Federation designs "manned" by assimilated sapients. Even the camouflage/paint schemes were identical; only IFF codes verified whether a Standard Infantry unit or naval battlegroup would be friendly or hostile.
DISBANDED/DISSOLVED
Dissolution Date
4043 ME
Demonym
Linked, Drone
Government System
Hive-mind
Economic System
Post-scarcity economy
Currency
What use would the Interlink have for currency?
Related Species
