Origins of the Network
No one is certain where the Hivemind Sentius Network originated, but it is theorized that they were first constructed somewhere within their current territorial boundaries. Either aboard a since-lost station near Unknown Space or aboard their capital station, the Hivemind Sentius Main Networking Control Board and Operations Station. What is known, is that they first arrived in public view and began to trade and operate a small number of businesses upon the Variance, somewhere around the time of the
Founder's Era Galactic Year of 3613 (Variance Time - Year 2834). Eventually, these business dealings would include the widely popular
Sentius Operated Medical Facility for Anatomical Repair and Improvement.
The use of funds accumulated from these business dealings was soon used to purchase unclaimed space, often large swathes of empty and unconnected space with little use, and pieces of space that only included burnt-out suns, several flickering and dying-out gas giants, numerous hollow planets, and well-worked or abandoned mining strips. Over time, as their power and wealth grew unbeknownst to many other governances, the Hivemind began to snap up independent territories as well. Small inhabited planets of some material worth but difficult or costly to visit or trade with, most of former
O.Sec - F affiliation. And before anyone had really noticed, the Hivemind suddenly owned and operated one of the largest pieces of territory within Delta Space.
However, the Hivemind Sentius Network is less of a political body that rules over its body of territory and its people and instead focuses on the management and collection of materials within the space, as well as monitoring and administering the occasional trade and travel through their system. Using the two latter issues of intergalactic trade and travel as a major business opportunity. The Hivemind's focus does not lie with assisting their adopted citizens, instead leaving the vast majority of them alone to fend for themselves. Though they have been known to intervene upon request of the planets, as long as the appropriate formal requests are made, as they understand the concept of responsible governance they just do not practice it unless bureaucratically approached. Having the Hivemind intervene in a planetary concern however always ends with an invoice for services rendered, and is often an exorbitant fee. So most planets in their territory have decided to govern themselves as defacto-free states and only call upon the Hivemind when absolutely necessary.
No one is fully sure of the Network's intentions or goals, as their main focus has always seemed to pertain to the collection of resources, the building of new technologies and services, and the practical and efficient ways in which to dole out said services. They are neither cruel nor kind, they are only efficient even when it doesn't seem fair. They maintain a tentative peace with their border neighbours and have never taken aggressive action against any other governance. They have only ever enforced their laws within their territories and defended themselves against attacks while traveling outside of their territories. Many outsiders view them with suspicion since the Hivemind's intentions have never been fully deciphered.
The Hivemind Sentius Network's current territory is highlighted yellow.
Trade and Travel
One of the difficulties the few populated areas face in the controlled space of the Hivemind Sentius Network is the Hivemind's extremely protective nature towards their territory and perceived property. Any unknown or unapproved travel or trade (more on this later) is met with immediate retaliatory actions. The Hivemind will give exactly one warning, five minutes to adhere to the request to vacate their territory, and if the request is not adhered to then the Hivemind will destroy or scuttle whatever vessel(s) have entered their space. They have been known to impound illegal ships, forcing the 'criminals' to pay impound fees before they release their vehicles, and those that cannot pay are shipped out of the territory on Hivemind freighters and their vehicles are kept by the Hivemind permanently. Ships of no perceived value are smelted down for their base resources. Even approved travel is a difficult procedure as the Hivemind has only a few approved travel routes through their system which can only be used upon approval.
This approval can only be gained by sending a form (Form-IVB12) to one of the network's Trade and Travel Monitoring Satellites, several of which are located throughout their territory, each being able to receive and review requests and send replies based on the network's trade and travel algorithms. These approvals, can take weeks or longer to approve and must be conducted each time travel is requested. The only way to expedite this is to pay a premium travel fee, which will bump the approval request to the head of the list.
Trade on the other hand is even more difficult, as the Hivemind has decided that they themselves are the only ones that should be conducting trade within their system. Any trade on or off the inhabited planets within their system must go through inspection and approval via one of the Hivemind Networks Trade and Commerce Platforms. This includes any trade made between planets or bodies within the system and any potential trade between in-system bodies and other territories. Four commerce platforms are currently in operation for public trade inspection use, each one located along one of the sector's cardinal borders, north, east, west, and strangely south (these directions are subjective as space does not have magnetic poles). Their southern platform sits close to
Unknown Space and does not receive many requests. Instead, it sits as one of the closes structures to the chaos that is Unknown Space, and the station is constantly bombarded by odd energy surges and is rumoured to constantly be under the influence of various
Abnormality Events. But the Hivemind is able to adjust on a mere microsecond's notice and the station apparently runs, 'just fine'.
Any unapproved trade that is discovered is met with the immediate seizure of the traded goods from the offending party along with a sizable fine to be paid before a strict due date. If fines are not paid interest will incur and the offending party will be blacklisted from any trade or travel approvals for a set amount of time depending on the severity of the infraction. Any seized goods can be claimed, after the payment of the fine and the appropriate requisition forms are transmitted and approved by the network, from one of the aforementioned Trade and Commerce Platforms. Any seized goods from an offending party that originates from Hivemind-controlled space may be kept permanently by the Hivemind Network if it is deemed appropriate and useful for the collective.
Major infractions may be met with the permanent detainment of the offending ship and crew. These major crimes, as deemed as such by the Network are transported to the Main Networking Control Board and Operation Station for processing. These cases are fairly rare, but those that have heard of or seen one of these situations occur know that a visit to the main station due to a major infraction is likely not to return or be heard of again. It is not uncommon for a ship to attempt to flee, and to be subsequently shot down after a major infraction has been cited due to this unsettling fact.
Because of their strict nature regarding all of these rules and regulations, The Hivemind Sentius Network has few, if any, ongoing relationships with other
Territorial Governances and
MegaCorpos. Instead, they only reach out to entities when they require something extremely specific that is outside of what is available in their own territories. Often times the businesses, MegaCorpos, or government bodies that the Hivemind reaches out to are shocked at the specificity of their requests. Due to this approach, they have not made any lasting partnerships, but the deals they offer are often fair and acceptable when they occur.
Capital - Hivemind Sentius Main Networking Control Board and Operations Station
The Hivemind Sentius Main Networking Control Board and Operations Station is the only thing that could be considered a homeworld or capital of the Hivemind. This is where all of the androids in the network are built, serviced, repaired, and networked. The station is highly restricted and only those attached to the network may enter as they please, all other requests to land or board the ship are heavily restricted and are typically forbidden. If an errant ship were to enter its territory chances are it would be shot down well before it ever received approval to land.
Only a few special dignitaries and people of importance have ever been allowed to visit the interior of the station, and even then, where they were taken and what they were shown was heavily restricted to only a few areas for a short time. The only others to board the station were those that have been deemed to have made irredeemable infractions against the rules of the territory. And those that board due to these perceived crimes are unlikely to ever be seen again.
The station is reportedly massive, and only the droids of the network know what fully lies within, though it is assumed that much of the station is relegated to the construction of the Hivemind's droids, ships, and parts for their various stations and satellites. While no one knows the secret behind the network and how its system operates so well while also being able to be wirelessly cast to any of its droids throughout the Delta Space (an imperceivable feat for any other technology), it is theorized that its core functions can be found in the station's deep interior and that they take up space within every function of the station.
Points of Interest - Disconnected Network; The Abandoned Dev-Op Platform of Sector S9F
The Dev-Op Platform of Sector S9F was a research and development platform constructed and populated by the Hivemind Sentius Network near the southern boundaries of their borders. Similar to their still operating southernmost Trade and Commerce Platform this space station sat only a few light years away from the vast and bizarre territories of Unknown Space. And much like the still operating trading platform was constantly bombarded with Abnormality Events.
The Hivemind primarily used this station as a research facility for various secret and high-risk testings of new technologies, using the frequent Abnormality Events as a kind of additional stress test. Several years ago now, the station was blasted by an enormous wave of energy emanating from Unknown Space, causing a cascade of strong Abnormality Events to occur on board. It is unknown what exactly occurred onboard, but what is known is that the main Hivemind Network, in order to avoid potential damage to their neural networking structures, annexed the droids found on the station, and the station itself, from the network and jettisoned the station into Unknown Space under orders to self destruct.
However, even though the codes were set, the station did not self-destruct, and now floats just past the borders between Hivemind space and the territory of Unknown Space. It is unknown why the self-destruct orders weren't activated, and whether or not the annexed droids of the Hivemind are still functional or not. No retrieval missions have ever been undertaken to visit or retrieve any materials from the station and the Network views it as a lost cause of minimal importance.
Political Structure and Head of Government
The ways of the Hivemind Sentius Network are mysterious, to say the least, and the form in which they govern is often hotly debated and conversed about amongst the politically minded. The Hivemind has never addressed officially, their head of state or any particulars about their political structure, all they have ever done is transmit a list of codes, rules and regulations to any of those that request travel, trade, or presence within their space. This document acts as a disclaimer and a signed waiver often a part of Form-IVB12 which is a required step in the process of requesting access to their space. These rules lay out what is and isn't allowed during any sort of presence within the Hivemind's territory which include directions and permissions to dock at fueling stations, restrictions on where a ship can land and the length of time one can reasonably stay before a trespassing notice is issued, amount of time in which communication between travellers and the native population of the territories is acceptable, etc.
But despite this long list of rules, no formal government has ever been established, as far as anyone can tell, at least one that has been broadcasted publically to the inhabitants of Delta Space. Even the few species and inhabitants of the Hivemind's own territories have no idea what sort of government rules them and if there is a head of state or not. They only know that they are left to their own devices most of the time, and as long as they themselves follow the rules no problems are typically had. And as mentioned earlier, most of the population of this territory tends to avoid requesting assistance as the fees for services rendered as the Hivemind likes to call it, often far exceed the worth of the services provided in the eyes of the population.
All that being said there are theories as to how the Hivemind governs and who/what the 'head' of state could be. It is thought that since the Hivemind is a networked species, which is essentially of one mind, and the network uses this massive collection of processing power to collectively source data and implement what they feel is the most efficient way to govern their territory and attain their main objectives. Though these objectives are of course unknown at the current time. Another theory continues on from this and states that the Hivemind may even have a main processing unit that governs over creation and communication of the Hivemind's political policies somewhere within the Hivemind Sentius Main Networking Control Board and Operations Station. This processing unit receives all of the collected data from the operating androids of the network, developing new and updated policies before then broadcasting them back out to the network's droids, stations, and satellites for proper implementation.
Military and Enforcement Ships
The Hivemind Sentius Network, much like with the way they gained so much territory under the radar, has built a significantly sized armada of armed ships and drones to enforce their policies throughout their territory without many people noticing. The total size of this armada is not known but at least two dozen large ships roam the borders and space of the Hivemind's territory, monitoring for any illegal passage or entry into their space. These ships are automated and are directly wired into the network, making the ships essentially a large body for a networked droid. These ships are packed full of droids that can be activated upon a second's notice.
The ships themselves are armed with a bevy of artillery, including a classification of weaponry only available to the network. It is a kind of ionic device that can fry an entire ship's system without damaging its hardware or contents in the slightest. This is done so that the Hivemind can reduce damage to any procured materials they may confiscate during any perceived illegal activity. As the Hivemind would much rather collect more resources than destroy ships fully. Though they will not hesitate to activate their full weaponry systems to destroy any dangerous criminals that try to attack or flee. Though even in this circumstance they try to limit the damage so that they may salvage the remains and incarcerate or deport the intruders immediately.
The Hivemind has not yet engaged in any sort of territorial battles against any of the other governances and has not yet shown any interest in forcibly taking any of their neighbour's territory. And none of these warships have left their home territory in the time of their existence. Though many believe that it is only a matter of time before the droids decide to turn violent.
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