Fiction:To Re-engineer a Nation

The transwarp revolution had marked the beginning of a new era within Farengeto. Transwarp propulsion had opened the door to new opportunities, and brought the worlds of the Farengeto Trade Coalition closer together. The first contact with France and humanity sparked the turning point of the revolution and spread the hyperspatial revolution to Farengeto, bringing forth a new age of prosperity, enlightenment and exploration as Farengeto began its integration into the greater intergalactic society. Travel that once took months had been reduced to mere hours, and feats that once seemed impossible became within comprehension. New colonies that felt futuristic and almost utopian even to the Farengeto could be constructed in a matter of days, and these worlds became the centres of a new era of colonization.

Built on the ideals of new sciences and technology, they became the heart of the growing social and political movement of Transsapience. Implants and augmentations became exponentially more complex and affordable in the modernization of Farengeto, becoming the norm in many of the colonial worlds. The old laws and beliefs on genetics and artificial intelligence had fallen into question and the AIs who had hidden themselves in the shadows cautiously observed, questioning if it was time to reveal themselves.

The Ancient Fear
The Modians were not the first modern species of Farengeto to emerge from their home and spread to the stars. The century before saw the rise of another Empire, one whose name would be lost to time. But its spectacular rise came with an inevitable decline and with it the Empire turned inward, abandoning their colonies and embracing xenophobia. As more races took to the stars, they constructed powerful AI warships to defend themselves.

The invasion of Modian space by these AIs would mark the beginning of what would be called the AI War. Restricted by STL communications and the speeds of early Warp the AI forces overran outer worlds across Farengeto, eliminating anything in their way. Only after four years and the combined efforts of a dozen races were they able to turn the tide of the war using primitive FTL sensors and communications, at a great cost to the sector.

It would only be after six years of war that the combined forces of Farengeto finally pushed the AI back to the Empire's homeworld, where only then would they learn the terrible truth. The people of the Empire had been slaughtered years before the AI invasion had began, the forces of the AI striking without the control of their AI masters. No one knows why the AI turned on their creators; some call it an act of emergent self-awareness while others called it a program error, but the allied response was swift and punitive. What became known as the "AI treaty" mandated strict controls and regulations on all artificial intelligence within the sector, a mandate that persisted into the 27th Century.

Outbreak
The hospitals of Malwire were the busiest in Farengeto. A decade of occupation had done little to dull their savage and violent natures, and much to the dismay of doctors they were almost constantly inundated with the injured and mutilated.

Today however the hospital was flooded with hundreds of Mardor, all suffering from the same symptoms. Though their patients shared no connections each shared the same symptoms, all of them symptoms of brain trauma and swelling.

By the time the hospitals realized were aware of the outbreak its own Mardor staff showed signs of infection. For every Mardor world that declared a quarantine, two more seemed to show cases of infection. Within two days millions of Mardor showed infection as the entire Mardor Empire was placed under quarantine.