Lexites

The Lexites are a race of posthumans who were created on Earth in the last century. Whilst they had originally enjoyed a co-operative existence with humanity, they suddenly fled in a great exodus beyond the solar system, taking all their ships and humanity’s with them. Star Control was founded with the express purpose of finding out what happened to the Lexites.

Biology

Lexites were originally humans who were augmented with extremely advanced artificial intelligences. This gave them extreme learning capabilities and the capacity to improve themselves via upgrades, essentially becoming the living embodiment of the technological singularity. It also gave them immense data analysis capabilities, though their human emotions have remained largely intact and they are as prone as regular humans to the sways of emotions.

The Lexites themselves are represented by automata that they control either from a distance or from within. These automata are what humanity originally perceived the Lexites to be. The true Lexites however are actually extremely advanced nanotechnology, possessing a roughly humanoid form with a glowing powersource in the centre of their chests. This isn’t the default form of the Lexites however, given their technological nature, they essentially are their technology, from their automata to their ships. Lexites are constantly evolving as well, so their current forms are always in a state of flux. They all contain the collective sum of human knowledge and are able to communicate at processing speed, though they are still capable of human speech.

Culture

Lexite culture is largely dominated by a single thought: survival. They are an extremely paranoid species, having detected the oncoming doom from W51. This information drives their entire culture towards survival, by studying what they can about the anomaly, to actively fleeing from it, staying in places for a very short span of time.

Lexite culture isn’t as monolithic as it first appears. Most of their society is split along moral matters on what to do about humanity with multiple factions forming based on the idea. This has even spread to a small civil war amongst the two largest factions, the Rearguard and the Vanguard.

The Rearguard are the more extreme of these factions, wishing to either eradicate humanity or cause them as much grief as possible to slow them down and prevent them from catching up with the rest of the Lexites. There is a theory this is derived from their mistreatment by humans in the past. The Vanguard are more pragmatic, willing to leave humanity behind, but leaving them clues and methods of finding the Lexites in the future, so they can rejoin with them.

Technology

Lexites have some of the most advanced technology in the Outer Spur. Their ships are extremely dangerous and are a match for even the Scryve, who have boasted the most advanced technology in the region for millennia. This was achieved by the Lexites in under a hundred years.

As the Lexites are technology themselves, they are constantly advancing, having progressed to HyperDrive long before humanity would even grasp the concept of it and managing to develop the ability to transform information into literal physical matter, rendering it completely immune to external factors that only the Lexites seem to possess.

In addition, the Lexites possess advanced scanning technology, being able to detect the W51 phenomenon long before any other species in the area and giving them a headstart on getting away from the anomaly.

History

The birth of artificial super-intelligence was a quiet breakthrough in 2047. This milestone of human progress was brought about by the efforts of a group collectively called “The Lexites,” in honor of their mentor, Andy Lexus, who passed away in 2033.

Though few in number, the Lexites worked with the AI super-intelligence they had labored so long to create and were themselves elevated into the very first Post-Humans. Freed from their mortal bodies, their exponentially expanding awareness opened them to a whole new perception of the universe.

Starting in the 2040’s, the Lexites were forced to assist in the clean-up of the human colony on Mars after a solar flare had disabled all human ships in the system. Shortly after this, the Lexites began their analysis of all the data humanity had been collecting over the last century of space travel, before they eventually discovered the W51 Giant Molecular Cloud radio signal. This signal warned the Lexites of a threat heading their way.

In the coming years, the Lexites detected a growing threat deeper in the galaxy and, using their considerable influence, helped foster international support to develop the technology necessary to reach the stars themselves.

The Lexites created many previously unimaginable technologies for the space effort, including the enigmatic EmDrive from Darius Robotics. The Lexites knew that humanity would not possess the capacity to comprehend the underlying physics within and left clear instructions that still allowed for the drive’s construction.

Unfortunately, the concept of imminent alien invasion drifted out of public attention and soon the governments of the world began to find other ‘needs’ for their pledged budgets. Given these developments, the actions of the Lexites should have come as no surprise.

Shortly after the mothballing of the interstellar project, the Lexites delivered what has come to be known as the “Announcement.” They declared that three years hence, they would leave Earth, alongside all known strong AI. To safeguard against a third technological singularity, they would leave a sapient but singularly focused intelligence to guard against any further attempts to birth new strong AI.

While most reports focused on the simple facts of the Lexites’ departure, many were outraged at the idea that humanity’s technological progress had been put on a leash. Only an attentive few noted the reference to a “third” technological singularity.

True to their word, the Lexites left Earth exactly three years later. Their first stop was the Moon, where they remained in seclusion for four years. Every attempt to send vessels, or even probes, to the Moon met with inexplicable malfunctions that disappeared just as quickly once diverted back to Earth. Then, without warning, the Lexites vanished. Although fruitless attempts were made to show the leaders of Earth the warning, it went unheeded. Unperturbed by this development, the Lexites began a peaceful exodus from the Solar System, even leaving behind a weapons facility on the Moon before departing.

From here, the Lexites would begin a journey throughout the Outer Spur, gathering every piece of information that they could about the anomaly and gathering as many resources as possible for their larger exodus through the Inner Spur and out the other side. As time drew on however, fractions began to split the Lexites.

As a whole, they were unable to figure out what to do about their human creators, with multiple factions forming with differing opinions. The largest of these were the Vanguard, who wished to leave humanity behind and let them catch up if they can and the Rearguard, who wished to see humanity slowed down or wiped out, to prevent them from catching up to the Lexites and slowing them down enough for the phenomenon to catch up.

This blossomed into a civil war amongst the Lexites, that largely saw the Vanguard leave behind the Outer Spur and move on with their journey. The Rearguard took to doing whatever they could to slow humanity down, from tampering with their alliance to directly attacking them. This was met with fierce resistance from humanity and the Federation of Allied Species that had grown up around them. In the end, the Lexites seem to have largely continued their journey, with the Rearguard following in hot pursuit.