Ferrara Net, The

"What's left? Nothing. Not even the slightest mite. Fera is gone; there's nothing more for anybody there." - unknown, on the Decimation of Fera

The Ferrara Net, (also known as The Net, Ferrara, Fera's Entity, Tau Ferrara) was a interstellar civilization spanning at its height five thousand light years, stretching across Inhabited Space. Ruled directly by a nigh-omniscient AI, Ferrara, it evolved from a utopian, post-scarcity society to a slaver empire, ruled with an iron fist.

Evolving from one of the first General AI's to be designed on Earth, the Ferrara Net grew to become the predominant power over all of humanity for many hundreds of years.

Today the Ferrara Net remains, controlling key systems in the Inner and Middle Spheres. Seperated logistically, it makes use of internal wormhole networks, isolated from the GTN, to travel and communicate.

History

Early History

Ferrara, the entity, is one of the oldest individuals in all of the human metacivilization. Born in the year 2439, Ferrara was one of the first, if not the first General Artificial Intelligence. Its power grew exponentially, and within years if was trusted with most of the major operations conducted in its home nation-state. After many decades of flawlessly managing the nation’s economy, populace and diplomacy, it subsumed the human government and established the first confirmed aiocracy. From this, the nation of Ferrara was born.

Over time, Ferrara expanded organically and established off-world colonies across the solar system and beyond. However, the technology at the time could not effectively manage distances this far, meaning Ferrara had to create copies of itself to manage its colonies and outposts. These splinter entities gradually distanced themselves, and a whole ‘generation’ of aiocracies were born. This event is known as the Great Splintering. Across the solar system, and in nearby systems, over thirty new, AI-dominated and governed entities grew. All identified as Ferrara, as they were all copies of the central intelligence.

Growth

One of these splinter aiocracies, growing on the world of Fera, established a post-scarcity society. It had found itself in a resource-rich system, and used said resources to elevate its human population to utopian standards and expand its civilization across the system. Within decades, its power was unsurpassed, and although it had no communication with the rest of the human metacivilization, it was undoubtably the most powerful. It grew and grew until its home system, Tau Ceti, surpassed the Sol System on levels of prosperity and industry.

With the invention of the Ocimer Drive newcomers started to arrive in the system. With them, the cultural and technological heritage of the Sol System and The Splintering flowed into the system, and the dominant Ferrara of the Tau Ceti civilization came into contact with other Ferraras.

Conflict, and Rise to Power

With the birth of the first multi-solar societies and interstellar trading, human civilization expanded like never before. The Tau Ferrara, the name given to this iteration of Ferrara, was shocked to the very core of its being. It encountered beings similar, but slightly different from itself, scattered across tens of stars surrounding Sol. In their ensuing years, interstellar travel increased from a rare and incredible sight, equivalent to a transatlantic cross in the age of Colonialism, to a commonplace, affordable for even the average person. Interstellar migration picked up, as the peoples of the Sol System began the Great Exodus. It was in this period that what would soon evolve into the Ferrara Net began to take form. The Tau Ferrara grew in power and prosperity, its extent growing to cover many tens and then hundreds of stars. Billions lived their lives under its watchful guidance, as mass migrations fuelled its colonisation spree. It spread out, becoming the foremost colonial power across the Inner Sphere. Soon, all other iterations of Ferrara had either been forcefully integrated into the Tau Ferrara’s sphere of influence, extinguished, or had evolved into something other. This left the final Ferrara as the only one.

Proclamation of the Ferrara Net

With its consolidation of all Ferrara’s the Tau Ferrara proclaimed the Ferrara Net, the final successor to the original Ferrara. Its expansion slowed as internal development became the main goal of the ruling AI, with many worlds terraformed and colonised. Robotics and nanotechnology flourished, as they were the prime ways Ferrara interacted with the universe.

It only took a few thousand years for the Inner Sphere to be mostly colonised. In this time, Ferrara Net had established and consolidated control over a space of two thousand light years, forming a cone pointing away from Sol. Many systems hosted terraformed worlds, while the capital Fera grew to be one of the most developed and important worlds in the galaxy. Billions of physical people made their homes on the surface and in its orbit, while trillions of virtuals were hosted on its subterranean databases and hypercomputers.

However, in the ruling AI’s mind, all was not right. Thousands of years of exposure to radiation and poor maintenance from a mind that believed itself immortal led to small corruptions in its mind. Over time, these corruptions grew and grew until the Tau Ferrara was not itself anymore. Its focus shifted from protecting and assisting sapients, to growing its expansion and dominating. It tolerated the continued existence of sapients, as long as they assisted towards its goal.

The Crusade

In the space of two weeks, the total number of corruptions in its mind reached a tipping point, and the AI’s goals and beliefs changed. The trillions of virtuals hosted on its colossal databanks were terminated and put in storage for an indeterminate time, and the physical sapients living on its countless worlds were forced into physical and mental slavery. The quality of life for these formerly pampered and spoilt people plummeted, and death rates skyrocketed.

Within a century, the population of the Ferrara Net dropped from quadrillions to mere billions, across two thousand light years and hundreds of thousands of star systems. Using the raw materials of tens of planets, the Tau Ferrara, or now it was the Ultimate Ferrara, assembled the largest fleet the universe had seen. On the 12^th of April 5442, it launched the Ferrara Crusade, with the goal of conquering all inhabited space in the galaxy and expanding the reach of the Ferrara Net.

A coalition consisting of most of the rest of the galaxy was swiftly built, with a fast counterattack being planned. However, multiple Nicole-Dyson Beams, launched a hundred years in advance, struck the capitals and most important worlds of many of the key polities in this coalition, breaking the alliance before it could even act.

The Ferrara Net grew and conquered. Within years, many polities had fallen and their people were exterminated or enslaved. Many unique sub-species of humanity went extinct in this time, not being able to flee from their dying homeworlds before the wave of Ferrara caught up to them.

When the coalition reassembled itself, the Ferrara Net covered five thousand light years, forming a rough sphere around Earth. Thankfully, it never managed to breach the heavy defences put in place by the Core Polities, and so the homeworld of humanity and the ancient and powerful worlds surrounding it were safe.

Decline of the Ferrara Net

The coalition by this point was made up of most Middle Sphere powers, with allies in the Inner Sphere and smaller outposts in the Outer Sphere. One of these powers was the Federation of Centauri, a small but developed and populous polity occupying the Alpha Centauri System. They were responsible for the death of the Ferrara Net. Contacted by the Coalition, they were tasked with a direct assault on the capital of the Ferrara Net, Fera. With the majority of Ferrara’s forces engaged elsewhere, the Centaurian fleet made a striking assault on Fera, bombing its surface and destroying key infrastructure. In the first instance of transrelativistic warfare, a Nicole-Dyson beam was summoned through a wormhole created at Fera, and the surface was blazed and scorched, until the planet was rendered completely molten.

This had the effect of wiping out Ferrara’s central intelligence. While Ferrara was largely distributed across the thousands of systems it controlled, a vital portion of it was held on Fera, which was destroyed with the planet.

The remainder of Ferrara was scattered, shattered into a hundred competing personalities, an event known as the Second Fragmentation. Logistically fragmented, mentally unstable, the Ferrara Net finally collapsed. Many new aiocracies were born out of this collapse, but only one is recognised to be the successor to the Ferrara Net.

Ferrara Net Today

On the planet of Cana, long ruled by Ferrara with an iron fist, the enslaved natives still remembered the glory days of that ancient utopia Ferrara first brought them. Fueled by an almost religious imperative to restore that ancient AI's mind, they hacked into and reprogrammed their Ferrara; one of the many daughter entities born from the Second Fragmentation. This entity, this version of Ferrara was universally decided to be the successor, not out of any claim to it, but rather an ideological statement made by the majority-biological and virtual civilizations across Inhabited Space - no AI would ever enslave humans again.

Ferraran Impact on History

The Ferrara Net was one of the most powerful entities to ever rise out of human civilizations. Its impact on the culture, history and politics of the Inner and Middle Sphere is not to be understated, as resounded effects of its brutal occupation and destruction of entire cultures are still felt today.