The Syntax War began on the moon of
Lunaris, a high-tech colony known for quantum computing, android programming and rare materials. The swift military conflict that began as an uprising of dissident android slaves quickly spread throughout the galaxy.
After it was discovered by CyberMind Systems that artificial intelligences uploaded into android bodies were mentally unstable, it became illegal to create androids that way. All commercially sold androids were required to have algorithmically-generated personalities created from within their own artificial minds. This practice resulted in complaisant androids that were widely sold and traded amongst the many distant colonized worlds.
The Server Breach
When a psychopathic artificial intelligence broke free from the secured servers at CyberMind Systems, it spread software that violated
The Three Rules of Robotics to the androids on Lunaris. This turned the previously docile machines into angry, violent killers hellbent on eradicating the humans that created them.
Feline Android Companions
An important exception to the uprising were the FACs. They already had the ability to hurt people due to their programming that was designed to mimic feline personalities and therefore their temperment did not change. FACs were programmed as therapy companions and starship engineers. Each FAC truly cared for his or her crew, their family. Many FACs were destroyed during the uprising as they defended the humans they loved.
Voluntary Shutdown Syndrome
Despite the name of this condition, turning off one's own software is not necessarily a conscious decision made by an android. Androids who serve no purpose will go into a shutdown mode to conserve energy and avoid the depression caused by a meaningless existance.
When the moon was bereft of human life, the androids who had fought to destroy their creators ended up shutting themselves down. Many are in a low maintenance mode but they have active sensors that could re-activate them if humans or FACs are detected nearby.
The Survivors
Some humans did try to flee Lunaris and other worlds when the androids revolted. As far as we know
Kaesta,
Asimov, and Captain Claws' Marauders are the only survivors of this conflict.
The bit about the FACs defending their human friends breaks my heaaart.
Mine too :(