After making a joke picture on the discord involving evil Fallen Spire and another picture of a Friendly AI (see attached photos), I thought up a “Mirror Universe” where almost every faction alignment is reversed, except for Humanity. Here’s my write up so far:
Background
After centuries of Humanity undergoing a civil war, the top scientists from both sides created an AI that helped repair the broken bonds between fellow humans. Now, they ally with the AI, Dark Spire, and Nanocaust to prevent the reeling Imperial Spire from recovering its strength and to hold back hostile Zenith factions.
Humanity: basically unchanged. The one constant in both universes, except here they are not on the brink of extinction. Both sides united and have sufficient forces to fight an open war.
The Benevolent AI: After the Scientists created the AI, it reasoned with both sides of the Human Civil War and convinced them that peace is indeed an option. After the deceleration of peace was signed and hostilities ceased, the AI began to improve living conditions and calculated the most efficient ways to build society back up after it was ravaged by war. Soon, civilians started to refer to the AI as the “Benevolent One.” Being an artificial intelligence, it didn’t really care what it was called, only that Humanity prospered. With Man and Machine working together, there’s nothing they can’t accomplish.
Human Resistance Fighters: These are humans that do not subscribe to the idea of an AI being equal to Humanity. After the Human Civil War ended, some soldiers went rogue and created their own group. They believe that the AI is inferior and should be subservient to them. They warp in to attack AI structures, and warp out if they accomplish their mission or are outgunned. Despite their ability to teleport almost anywhere, they are a cowardly lot and easily countered by…
The Marauders: Once upon a time, these people were pirates during the Human Civil War. Once the war ended, they were offered jobs to patrol Human space and protect important installations. They took it, of course. Because the only thing better than blowing shit up, is blowing shit up and getting paid for it. They were folded into a new branch of the military named the “Rapid Response Fleet” (RRF). Just like the Resistance Fighters, the RRF is in possession of state-of-the-art teleportation technology. If a station is under attack, a distress signal will be sent out, alerting any RRF ships in the nearby systems to jump in and assist. So far, this arrangement has been working pretty well. They may be crazy, but they're really good at what they do.
The Imperial Spire: Wants to conquer the universe. Exterminates anyone not Spire and not aligned with their goals of what amounts to universal genocide. Currently engaged in an Inter-Galactic War against the Milky Way Coalition: Humanity, the Benevolent AI, and the Dark Spire. The AI struck a crippling first blow by interfering with the Spire warp gates, but there’s a slim chance that the Spire can recover their lost brethren. And that is a possibility that could lead to a prolonged bloody war, something the Coalition will stop via any means necessary...
The Dark Spire: Were initially pacifists, but now they are explicitly Anti Imperial Spire.
After speaking out against the Imperial Spire and one failed rebellion later, they were imprisoned in Vengeance Generators and then referred to as the Dark Spire. The VGs are still “activated” by death. This is because the Spire are mocking the Dark Spire’s pacifism. The generators charge up as the Spire cleanse entire sectors of life. And when the Dark Spire are “freed” from the VG, the Spire kills them for good. Basically letting them out of a cage to execute them. But unknown to the Spire, the Dark Spire have undergone drastic changes. They are now consumed by vengeance and are hellbent on completing their goal: the eradication of everything Spire.
Current Dark Spire situation: As of the game start in the Mirror-verse, the Dark Spire have managed to spread their generators to the Milky Way galaxy, in the hopes that someone will take notice and find a way to release them. And the Humans can. By hacking a generator and “stealing” some Dark Spire ships, it breaks the containment field, allowing the former pacifists to pour out of the cages they were once confined to.
The Nanocaust: My headcanon for the regular AI War 2 Nanocaust’s existence is that it was created by a group of scientists on one side of the Human civil war to act as a DRM of sorts, to destroy any unauthorized parties from anyone misusing the AI(‘s) and also attack the Rogue AI(‘s) should it/they get out of control. However, with both sides defeated and merged into one group, the scientists in charge of Nanocaust died and the failsafe override code went with them. Now the Nanocaust does not recognize the new “Human Remnant” as an authorized group and will not hesitate to wipe them off the face of the galaxy.
My Mirror-verse Nanocaust has a similar origin, but is physically different. After the Benevolent AI ushered peace between Humans, some scientists were wary of the AI. An Almost-All-Powerful AI is never a good thing in their minds. In secret, the scientists performed grotesque experiments to create a biological virus formed from biologically immortal
Hydra DNA spliced with other unknown genes that can beat the AI and can’t be hacked by it. Unknown to them, the Nanocaust is alive and yearns to be free. It may be granted that wish sooner than it thinks.
The Nanocaust views/beliefs: Being made of flesh and designed to be the “ultimate weapon” against hostile technology, it has taken it upon itself to protect anyone and anything that is alive, in the biological sense. It hates any machine that pretends to be alive as they are mockeries of “real” living beings. It does not bear any ill will towards the Benevolent AI because it doesn’t state that it is alive. Whether the Benevolent AI
is technically alive or not is a philosophical question not relevant to the Nanocaust. As long as a machine doesn’t declare itself to be alive, it’s okay in the Nanocaust’s view. This belief leads to the Nanocaust being deployed by the scientists in its first conflict, that being against the Zenith.
The Zenith: As opposed to their Canon isolationist counterparts, the Mirrorverse Zenith are interventionist, getting involved in other Species’ affairs for no reason other than to spread the superiority of bio-mechanical life. They abduct various members of a species, forcibly graft robotic parts on to the victims, brainwash them into thinking that living metal is the way to go, and release them back into the populace to praise the Zenith for their abundance of wisdom in an attempt to trick the population into subjecting themselves to more brainwashing. Of course, with the Zenith having “evolved beyond simple morality”, it almost always fails. Because having your cousin show up at your door with a Swiss Army Knife for an ear and 1/4 of their body replaced with scrapped together parts does not say “upgrade.”
The Zenith views/beliefs: The Zenith can graft and discard parts on themselves as they need. They view biological life as a bottleneck to achieving perfection. How can one live with just hands? How about a wrench for a hand instead, which can be switched out for scissors if needed? To the Zenith, they
are the tools. If you need to make tools, you live a sad existence and need to be uplifted. Forcefully, if need be.
Conflict with the Nanocaust: The existence of the Nanocaust threatens to prove the Zenith wrong. A biological organism that is able to morph into any shape it wants, when it wants? Plus it can infect machines to create its own biological version of it? Heresy! It must be destroyed. As for the Nanocaust’s motivation, it views the Zenith as abhorrent. Not only do the Zenith spread the idea of living machines and identify as such, they forcibly convert living beings into mechanical monstrosities. As the self-proclaimed protector of biological life, the Zenith must be eradicated. The Zenith believe that the Nanocaust is inferior by being flesh. The Nanocaust believe that the Zenith are insane monsters who subjugate unwilling participants to false life. A series of skirmishes between both sides is quickly heating up into a full blown conflict that will reveal the definitive answer to the age old question: In a war between Biology and Technology, which side wins?
The Zenith Dyson Sphere: A bunch of giant Zenith golems that grew into rings to envelope to sun close to the middle of the Mily Way galaxy. Being that it literally wraps around a star, the Dyson Sphere is the pinnacle of the Zenith species. A true Zenith. It cares not for any lower life forms that surround it. It’s actually asleep and any “interaction” with the Dyson Sphere is with subsystems of subsystems of a subsystem. Basically automatic responses to outside stimuli. But there are threats on the horizon. Some that may be able to do actual damage to the Sphere. The Imperial Spire. Whatever the true Zenith being behind the Zenith Onslaught is. Both of these are potential threats to the 3D Circle of Superiority. The two mentioned tfactions may cause the Dyson Sphere to wake up and let’s just say, it will be
very, very mad when it does. The Dyson Sphere’s true capabilities may be needed to wipe out whatever pisses it off.
History of the Dyson Sphere: Long, long ago before the Zenith almost went extinct, a few of them decided to transform into rings around a local sun. Much time passed before they managed to encompass most of the surface. But they succeeded. An actual, physical Dyson Sphere was created. They were proud. Much like the rest of its species, the Dyson Sphere believes it is superior to every other life form. And it kinda is. The Dyson Sphere was unaffected by whatever happened to the rest of its species all that time ago. A fact that the Sphere automatically relays to anyone listening, because “I thrived while a mass extinction of my species was going on” is a good skill to put on your resume when applying for the position of “EDdneicdtmbtAPaaoyabm” (Extremely Dangerous, do not engage in conflict due to me being the Apex Predator also all of you are beneath me). While each ring around the sun was originally an individual Zenith, they merged into one being after millennia of sharing the same space. Of course, every immortal must deal with their worst enemies: time and boredom. As civilizations rose and fell, time for the Sphere became a blur. So it went into a dormant state. Now it coasts along in life without a care in the universe. Nothing can destroy it. The rest of the Zenith are gone. And there are no more
redacted trying to crack it open like an egg.....................right?
The Scourge: In canon AI War 2, the AI finds some ancestors of “The Last Federation” races hanging around nearby and quickly moves to experiment on them, surgically combining them into what is known as the Scourge.
In the Mirrorverse, the Benevolent AI found the races like in canon, but did not conduct experiments on them. Instead, it recorded their brain waves to create robotic simulacrums. The AI designed them as a secondary “black ops” faction. If there is a threat that the AI can not deal with for some reason, whether it be because of resources, time, or another threat is taking up its attention, the newly dubbed “Scourge” are sent in to deal with it. And in a show of good will, the Benevolent AI has brought the Alien races to the attention of the Nanocaust. Which is a good thing for the races, as the Zenith appeared soon after with the goal of forcibly uplifting them. Over a planet home to Evucks, the first shots of the Zenith-Nanocaust conflict were fired.
DLC 2 Factions
The Z-Verse: This is the name of the universe where the Zenith Architraves come from. While a rather unoriginal name, it is simple and straight to the Point: This is a universe where the Zenith reign supreme.
Dark Zenith: It seems that the Dark Spire are not an anomaly. Something else had its hand in making them into the Forces of Righteous Vengeance that they are now. The Dark Zenith are proof of that. Like the Dark Spire, the Dark Zenith have immense hatred towards their “normal” counterparts. Anything Zenith must be destroyed. They also have an unfamiliar energy signature emanating off of them, which is eerily similar to the energy given off by the Dark Spire. With the Zenith-Nanocaust conflict in full swing, they’ll be a big help for the Alliance.
The Zenith Architraves: These Zenith are to the Dyson Sphere that the Dyson is to the rest of the Zenith. They are the peak of the Zenith in their universe. That’s right, universe. The Zenith Architraves come from a Universe where the Zenith extinction never happened. Their glimpse into the Mirror Verse has horrified them. The Zenith brought low by other species? An extinction event that nearly killed every Zenith in the Universe? Whatever the Dark Zenith are? In light of these revelations, an Architrave has taken it upon itself to help the Mirror Verse Zenith attack the Alliance and claim the Milky Way Galaxy for themselves.
How the Zenith Architraves work: When faced with a common enemy, the Zenith band together to fight it. But in the home universe of the Zenith Architrave, there are no enemies that can threaten them. The entity that made the Zenith go extinct was fought off, possibly even killed. The Imperial Spire were snuffed out before they could get going, the Milky Way is under Zenith rule. There are still enemies out there, sure. They will be crushed under the metaphorical boots of the Zenith. Anyway, since there are no enemies, the Zenith look inward for conflict. Every Zenith wants to be the strongest of their species and the Architraves are no different. Once an Architrave carves out too much territory for itself, all the other Zenith Architraves jump on it and give it a beat down. There’s no set amount of “too much territory”, though. One Architrave randomly decides that another Architrave has too much territory, gets extremely agitated over it, attacks the target Architrave, and all the other architraves join in. These attacks aren’t just sending some strong ships and that’s that. We’re talking galaxy-spanning conflicts that can absolutely crush every faction in the Milky Way Galaxy. It’s a good thing most of them are content with fighting each other in their own universe.
How did the Zenith Architrave hop across universes: As stated before, a Zenith Architrave is absurdly powerful. It’s a Dyson Sphere’s Dyson Sphere. With all this power, it has the rare ability to punch through reality and cross to another universe. However, it needs an “anchor” to keep the connection open. The Architrave kept opening holes to the Mirrorverse but they were unstable and quickly closed. But the Mirrorverse Zenith were able to briefly talk to it and build a Portal to serve as the anchor. Now the Architrave has a foothold in the MirrorVerse. That’s not good.
The Zenith Miners: Massive Zenith golems that are equipped with specialized mining lasers. They crack open planets and gorge themselves on the energy emanating from the cores. The Miners were exiled way back when because they kept blowing up planets with Zenith still on them! This was before the mass extinction though, and some managed to hide in the pieces of the planets they broke apart. With the Zenith undergoing a resurgence in their population, the Miners have come out of hiding. The Zenith have welcomed them with open arms and pointed them towards the Milky Way Galaxy, hoping the Miners will distract their enemies (see: die in the line of fire) while a series of coordinated assaults are made to cripple the Alliance.
Nomad Planets: Thanks to the Miners, the Zenith were losing millions of lives every time a planet blew up. They devised a new device to counter them: The Nomad Beacons. With the beacons, the Zenith were able to move their planets to different locations in order to confuse the Miners. A Miner would attack, the other Zenith would repel it and move the planet to somewhere else. The Miner would come back with some buddies only to find empty space. The Nomads were eventually used both offensively and defensively against whatever killed the Zenith. During the last stand of the Zenith, a few Nomad Beacons were damaged, causing the planets to drift out of their home galaxy and wander the empty void. Could this be the source of the Zenith’s “miraculous” recovery?
