Ihir, the collective.
General Galactic Location: Northern Rim
History:
Orbiting at the average speed of 66 km/s a piddling pale yellow orange sun situated in the as much utterly insignificant outer zone of the dwarf galaxy of the Boote (the second one, as there are another two as irrelevant in addition to the former) exists an average aquatic world; this - perfectly round and blue as a Christmas ball - planet's only superficial landmass is composed of three rocky volcanoes and an atoll situated in the middle of nowhere in particular. The only achievement of these highly-metallic waters has been managing to create non-carbon based organisms of self-adapting and photosynthetic jellyfish-like beings, vaguely humanoid in outer shape, from which descended the modern Exul.
As time passed, these relaxed and absolutely carefree entities eventually evolved and managed to develop, somehow, a hydration system capable of supporting their first ascension to those few land masses they had. Hundreds of years passed, and these tungsten-based life forms, virtually endless, self-sustaining, lived exactly as their ancestors did: taking sunbath on iron-plated palm foliage, diving and frolicking freely in the seamlessly infinite sea. In short, minding their own business.
What interrupted this golden age was the inevitable arrival of their neighboring sentient species. These aliens, more scientifically and culturally advanced than those little neuronal systems could image, showed great interest in this race, and after many referendums and wasted Hjiornian-coffee afternoons, in agreement decided to elevate them, avoiding direct contact in the process. It was in those times that started existence the modern Exul race.
In order to avert highly probable alteration of their original evolution, thus eliminating all the fun in seeing such an odd species develop as initially planned, the Makers (as such modern Exul define this ancient race) biologically enhanced through implants their neuronal and physical system - both young and primitive - incapable of complete and defined rationalization the former, still mostly bound to the water the latter. Moreover, they modified the original genetic data of the species, easily allowing each individual to biologically and naturally develop those implants, given their similar metallic and semimetallic composition. As they came, the Makers left, establishing a small research station orbiting the spinning blue ball.
As predicted, no trace of their passage was spotted, nor did the Exul note any difference in their bodies. What left the Makers gravely perplexed was the apparent absence of alteration in their way of living. No civilization sprang from the tides, no words replaced the bubbles, no exchange or property flourished. The project lost rapidly funds, and their presence manifested scarce to no interest in the Makers. They put their efforts in something else, showing increasingly higher attention to the life forms that were developing, in the meanwhile, in the neighbouring galaxy. However, this would have subsequently permitted time to do its course.
In fact, of the initial crew operating on the research facility were reduced to only a few few souls after a short period; those who remained felt linked to the Exul by motherly apprehension. They watched carefully their every day life, their love for a race whose population barely scratched the thousands, recording data as they had always done since the first days of their arrival.
As said before, time took its course, and whilst the Makers' civilization rapidly reached its climax and started descending in a self-crafted inevitable oblivion, a first sign of consciousness was spotted in the Exul. In that time, the benefits granted by the implants rapidly manifested: in a few hundreds of turns of the cyanish planet around its dull young sun, the jellyfishes evolved drastically, skipping dark ages and periods of mourning, revolutions and wars alike, acting like one. They manifested their aptitude to symbiotic and eco-sustainable evolution reaching in few centuries an advanced state of evolution.
However time grew short for the Makers, and chaos slowly reached the scarcely charted outskirts of the galaxy where the blue planet boringly spinned around its own orbit. The growing uneasiness and the difficulty of recovering data from the core worlds showed that first contact with the young civilization had to be done, and fastly.
The Makers, or what was left of them, foreseeing the inevitable doom approaching them, tried to save what they could of their civilization. Few years before the mayhem erupted, an exploration probe sent out in the neighboring galaxy discovered the existence of a particular under-developed type 0 civilization, living on their own, unimportant and uncharted planet. Expecting those aliens to reach space travel in a short amount of time, they organized a one-way expedition in a system not too distant from them. They loaded few cruisers with their left technology and the Exul, with the goal of preserving them from their mistakes. Infinitely sorry for all the troubles their civilization had caused them, they wiped out their memories and put them in cryogenic sleep. They lastly designed an informational AI with the goal of aiding the slumbering colonists, containing all necessary data about the past, who they were, but most importantly who the Exul had been. And what they, the Makers, wanted them to be.
Completed the urged preparation, the fleet activated its machines, and dived through space and time to its destination, where laid dormant until the neighbouring civilization reached space travel.
Once again, in uncharted backwaters of a galaxy, some worthless yellow sun harbours an uninteresting green planet - much resembling an unfashionable Christmas ball - which is deemed, or at least is hoped, to reach a certain importance throughout the galaxy. This giant terran world hosts since one month the extra-galactic species, which, after having descended from the stars between which sleeped for centuries, nicknamed itself 'the Exul', being outcast of its original homeworld.
Unaware of their role in the galaxy, perfectly conscious of their actual technology possibilities and limits, they feel as new children in what seems to be a galactic playground. It will be their choice what they will do with their just re-discovered freedom.
An enhanced Exul.
Other:
Self Replicating probes:
During the golden years of the Maker's ascension, shortly after the discovery of the Exul firstborns, many decentralized governments took interest in the exploration, and the subsequent exploitation of the near-off Milky Way galaxy. Although their internal political and civil situation could not permit anyone to leave Bootes dwarf galaxy, various researchers companies launched a wired network of robots; their goal was simple: explore the galaxy, whilst the internal conflicts would settle down. Almost parallely growing with the Exul project, the latter's discoveries in the unknown fields of inorganic biotechnology permitted the construction of self-replicating probes. Designed with an hyperspace drive-battery to increase ductility and velocity in the normous task they were created with, the robots were ordered to explore the Milky Way, periodically retrieving data to the researchers through the use of neutrino communications. Moreover, in case signs of sentient life were to be spotted on a system, the probe would alert the Makers; in the improbable case of type 0 civilization, the probe would simply remain dormant for a certain amount of time. With the collapse of the Makers' civilization, return signals had been moved along with the Exul dormant fleet.
This probes are robots designed with the only purpose of tactical and scientific exploration, equipped with little armaments. They are able to fulfill their task through the ability of replicating themselves through occasional strip-mining of dead moons or asteroid fields. Having built a mimetic-factory from the robot's body, several new probes are crafted and sent to adjacent systems, whilst only one would remain on the 'base' system to explore it and remove any traces of their passage. Space travel works not differently from bigger crafts, using a space-time distortion to rip miniaturized black-holes to hyperspace, allowing seemingly distant travel between enormous quantities of space, with little and constant amount of energy to perform the task. On the other side, when in an unknown system, the probe used as propulsion system the gravitational field of the chosen star, using as well small and unlikely noticeable rocket motors.
The Makers, foreseeing the possible (and dangerous) possibility of computing or systems error, or even an alien interference with the program, made use of their highly advanced knowledge of nanotechnology and nanothermodynamics. To the probes were implemented 'colonies' of self-replicating subscale machines, able to live only between the circuits of the probe, due to a certain crypted signal reverberating through the mechanisms. Though significantly less resistant to high pressures and near-zero temperatures, their physical ineptitude is compensated by highly sophisticated circuits and hive-networks that permit them to slim their error possibility percentage to decimal very close to zero. Also, in case of the unlikely possible system error of one of these minidrones, the 'queer' one would be deleted immediately by the others, and its materials re-utilized. The main purpose of these drones are two: first of all, safeguard of their host probe; in case of error or alien manipulation, the drones will try to hack back the intrudes and restore the original program; in case of unsuccessful operation, the minidrones would destroy their host, thus perishing in few seconds after the end of the process. The second, is auto conservation of their individual self and of their owners (firstly the Makers, now the Exul). For example, in case of an Exul being attacked nearby, the implanted systems in their bodies would send an alarm signal to the nearest probe. Its drones would change operational system, activating the armaments in order to rescue the endangered master.
A self replicating probe.
Black Hole exploitation:
Creating an aperture in 4D space (a wormhole) between A and B locations can allow instantaneous transit between the two; a common comparison is that of a folded piece of paper, where a hole punched through two folded sections is more direct than a line drawn between them on the sheet. Easy, right? Not really.
Though not as experienced as their creators in the field, the Exul have been able to feebly unlock the secrets behind the Maker's space travel abilities, allowing the spacecrafts to cut for extremely short amounts of time two intertwined holes in the space-time fabric. Moreover, combined with extremely advanced mastery of the forces of gravity and time, it permits properly equipped platforms to harvest materials from the edge of the Event Horizon of bigger wormholes; thus, the limit between existence and pure nothing ness is conquered, allowing essentially 'free' energy and materials to be constantly harvested.
Playground Theory:
It comes the moment when you may realize you're nothing more than one of the countless other individual that sweep the interstellar vacuum. Achieving this humble consciousness, let alone so incommensurably hardy, combined with a generally ironic view of the universe, will probably lead you to believe life is just a game, whose outcome is meaningless on whoever wins it (ah. ah.). In all seriousness, Exul are perfectly aware of the role diplomacy and understanding play in this game. Many things may influence the outcome of a negotiation--what the other wants, who influences them, how important it is, etc. Every alien race has different values, beliefs, and assumptions; studying these beforehand provides an enormous advantage.
Lyric Species:
Exul language is composed of a mix of singing, drumming, winnowing, and otherwise displaying sounds. Probably the first born developed it naturally as a logical adapting to the wide dimensions of the ocenas where the swelled; once landed on dry earth, these vibrations would evolve into thrilling and ductile calls to impress mates and proclaim territories.
As their civilization developed, their repertoire enlarged, sounds transformed into songs, and language sprung from seamingly senseless noises. The Makers estimated that an enhanced Exul would be able to remember up to three hundred thousands songs, playable in ten different tonalities to express syntactic and logical values, and in three varying rithms (kept by their twitching mandibles) for emotive and un-apophantic ones.
Songs are often loud and giddy, though melodious and tuned. One Maker researcher remarked that an Exul can sing 'with remarkable vehemence, as if he were trying to burst his lungs. These tiny songsters weigh just one-third of a Vuhool, but sing with 10 times the power of a crowing rooster.'
Planetary Exploitation/Terraformation Dome of Jessa, homeworld of the Collective.
