BLOG #4 THE ANCIENTS

The Ancients’ artifacts first came into the Earthlings' view in 2297 when the second automated mission returned from the Ariadne system with collected samples. Having studied the artifacts, the Association classified all the samples of artificial origin as secret. The researches gave rise to teleport development.

The humans do not know practically anything about the Ancients. According to the preliminary estimates made at the extraordinary meeting of the expedition, the Ancients' military power is a match for the humans’, but the expedition cannot carry on large-scale armed hostilities due to the enemy’s probable numerical superiority.

However, there is still no data available on the Ancients’ fleet. The first captured samples of battlesuits and dead bodies (after the mission when some artifacts were stolen) demonstrated a high life expectancy of the bodies and a long service life of the equipment: up to three hundred years. This is where the name of “The Ancients” spread from, first at the SLF department, and then among the entire expedition.

THE HISTORY

This is a biologic humanoid race that has undergone total cybernetization. In spite of the physiological differences, their society used to be similar to the humans’ one, with the same milestones in the history.

Self-appellation: Gishakheli

In the distant past, the Ancients encountered problems that were similar to those of the Earth, and solved them in a similar way. The bifurcation point became the creation of the Artificial Intelligence. The Gishakheli had more success in this area, creating the Absolute Cybernetic Intelligence. Soon after that, the race underwent total cybernetization to solve the issues of procurement and resource allocation. The Gishakheli’s bodies and minds became subordinated to a common schedule, which allowed for solving the economical problems.

Several hundreds of years have already passed since then: the progress for the Gishakheli has stopped. A single, though complex, cycle keeps repeating inside the Absolute Intelligence. The Ancients’ expeditions discover resources and extract them in different systems, sustaining the existence of their species. They cannot understand that they go round in circles, and the Absolute Intelligence, despite the seeming freedom and “creative element”, has turned out to be deprived of full life and of the real creative power.

The Gishakheli’s settlements are located in the central system of Allai, which is not known to the humans. During the Intelligence Era, the settlements were reduced to the function of creating new “extraction cells” (ships-processing plants). A few abandoned temples on the Ancients’ two historical planets remind of the bygone era.

IN THE ARIADNE SYSTEM

The Gishakheli have explored a significant quantity of resources in the galaxy and discovered several types of them that are not known to the humans, and also methods for energy extraction or production. In the Ariadne system there is a “standard extraction cell” consisting of five extraction ships, each of which is a flying plant, a complete automated complex for extraction and processing of several resource types. With the aid of a large teleport, the Ancients transfer energy capsules (a sort of “energy preserves”) to a network node, and from there they are distributed over the Gishakheli’s entire network to provide for the settlements’ equal needs.