The Shostak Institute Entry

Catalogue Classification
SISS Catalogue Identifier:  Galactic Civilization (GC)-02, provisionally called the "Big Blue" Civilization.
Indigenous Identifier:  The Galactic Assembly.

Astrometrics
Galactic Location:  Roughly centered on the Sagittarius Arm, approximately 17,000 light years distant, with the nearest portions a scant 5,000 light years away.
Polity Dimensions:  Roughly ovoid territory, constricted by the Galactic Core, spanning approximately 10,000 light years wide and deep, and 30,000 light years long.
Home System:  ESUSC 3600212-8743-11 System, F5 V primary.  Primary planet of Naklemis.
Known Worlds:  Tens of thousands of claimed star systems.

Systematics
Species Time Frame:  Earliest interstellar presence 5.2 million years ago.
Current Status:  A multi-species polity which is still very much extant, and which is believed to be expanding in various directions, including towards the Local Neighborhood, at roughly 0.00125c per Standard year.
Client Civilizations:  80 Interstellar Civilizations, 160 Interplanetary Civilizations, and 300+ World Civilizations.
Impact on Sol System:  No direct impact on Sol.  Knowledge of the League of Worlds is likely, due to transmission leakage and possible probe observation, as well as knowledge via the Tsubar'ey.

Biometrics
Classification:  Magnus semotus galactica, the largest distant Galactic Civilization.  Termed "Magnus" and "Magni" by Humans.
Biochemistry:  Carbon and water-based
Morphology:  Species holotype is a radial, nearly spherical body with several sets of retractable limbs, used for locomotion, manipulation, and other items.  Sensory organs are clustered along the equatorial line of the body, beneath which lies a toroidal brain.
Environment:  BathyGaian planetary conditions; semi-amphibious, with adult forms (save for the third sex) completely terrestrial.
Reproduction:  Sexual reproduction facilitated by a third care-taker sex, with up to 500 young being born to a single couple.

The Magni species is one of a rare group on Naklemis which inhabits both aquatic and terrestrial environments, depending on the phase of their life cycle.  Adolescent and adult Magni live on the surface, where they had long lived as hunters and gatherers beneath the great bioluminescent forests, utilizing both floraform and faunaform life for everything from food to building materials.  During this phase of life, the species possesses a roughly ovoid-shaped body based on radial symmetry, with a dorsal and ventral shell, providing the rigidity needed for surface life.  The upper shell is domed, with a variety of natural hexagon-based patterns.  The lower shell has various hinges and rigid bridges, connecting it to the upper shell and providing a high level of strength as well as flexibility.  A single opening in the center of the lower shell is the location of the oral cavity, which posses seven rigid, beak-like teeth used for food rendering and consumption.  These teeth, set into a muscular ring set within the cavity, are also quite dexterous, and can manipulate food particles quite deftly.  The mouth hole itself is rigid, but the muscular ring can easily clamp shut, and tightly, when needed.  This mouth also serves as a waste discharger, as the two different digestive tracts share the single opening.

The seven Magni limbs extend out of joints between the upper and lower shells.  The limbs are fleshy, supported by an internal skeletal structure, and are derived from soft organs in place during the aquatic youth of the species.  These limbs may still be retracted within their shells for their protection due to the unique nature of the skeletal structure, which is not calcium-based, but rather is composed of a rigid set of muscles.  In moments, these muscles can go flaccid, and the legs may be withdrawn.  The skin of the Magni, where exposed, is leathery and rough, with an underlying scaly texture designed for water retention.  Magni do not sweat, and neither do they have hair or other such items.  The skin is unbroken and thick.  The feet are thickly padded, the bottoms quite rough and providing added protection to the sides when the limbs are withdrawn.  There are also five toes on each foot, actually being extensions of the internal supporting muscles of the legs.  The skin between these toes is webbed, aiding in swimming, invaluable as the adults do not swim with even a hint of the proficiency of the young.

Protruding from the mid-line of the Magni body, and also retractable, is a row of eye stalks, allowing for a full 360-degree field of vision.  Magni possess eyes all through their life cycle, but the acuity changes with age.  While the young can see only dim shapes in the upper levels of the ocean (which is still quite dark in Human terms), adults have a much greater acuity which extends into the ultraviolet range, much as some Earth insects have.  This increased ability is due to the nature of adult communications, which will be discussed below.

Magni hearing is a much more complicated matter.  As sound is the primary source of sensory input in the young, their entire bodies serve as a vibration receptacle.  Attuned to the auditory ranges of the species, as well as other frequencies which typically hold indications of danger, their ability is very fine indeed.  But in the adult form, sound is much less important.  As the eyes develop, the hearing decreases, reduced to a series of fine hair-like structures along a thin region of shell on either side of the upper body.  While not deaf, the average hearing capability is somewhat less than that of a Human.

The manipulatory limbs, like the legs, are derived from juvenile tentacles.  However, unlike the legs these limbs do not develop rigid muscles, but instead remain quite flexible.  There are two such "arms", and each one ends in three "fingers", non-rigid extensions of the tentacles.  In the young, these are also used as manipulatory organs, but only for rudimentary purposes.

The internal organs of the Magni are set in a toroidal pattern, largely surrounding the brain, itself a toroid-shaped organ.  A thick layer of tissues separates the organs from the inner shell, within which the nervous system is embedded.

The Magni are, technically, a tri-sex species.  There is, of course, the typical fertile male and female of the species.  But there is also a sterile third sex, whose sole purpose is to oversee the young of the species in the oceans.  The male and female breed by means of a specialized organ that both sexes possess, albeit modified for different purposes in the two sexes.  In the male, this organ protrudes from the side of the creature when needed, and meets the somewhat smaller organ of the female, through which egg fertilization occurs.  When not in use, these organs are fully retracted.  The female then internally gestates the eggs, and is fully capable of holding off on giving birth until environmental conditions are appropriate.  When ready for both, the female will move into the ocean and discharge the young from the oral orifice.  Up to two thousand young will be born into a sheltered region just off shore, typically surrounded by rocks or reefs.

It is here that the third sex comes into play.  Serving solely as a caregiver, this sex (or several representatives, depending on the size of the community) will herd the hand-sized young, keeping them from straying into the open ocean, and feeding them with excretions from the skin of its body.  Indeed, the third sex lacks any kind of a hard shell, and is more similar to the young themselves, rather than the terrestrial adults.  When not charged with any young (a rare but not unheard of occurrence), the third sex will move out into the open ocean, living more as a wild animal rather than a part of a sapient species.  The scent and calls of the young, however, will bring back these individuals.  Out of a typical brood, less than 70% will survive despite the ministrations of the third sex, and of these there may be upwards of 50 individuals which will develop into the third sex.

The young themselves, when first born, resemble nothing so much as Terrestrial jellyfish or squid, and operate almost solely on instinct, clinging to the third sex for sustenance and protection.  As they grow, they become more adventurous, until a brief phase of life is achieved when the body begins to develop the muscular and shells of the adults.  Previous to this, however, the young learn to communicate with each other and the third sex, all of which utilize sound, the perfect method for an aquatic medium.  Upon entering into the transitory stage between juveniles and young adults (roughly analogous to Human puberty), chromatafores begin to develop on the surface of the legs and arms, as well as the centerline of exposed soft skin.  The complex use of colors, including both simple skin pigment and the more intricate use of bioluminescence replaces sound as a communication method, as sight is a more important sensory medium than sound above the water.  Indeed, some mentally challenged individuals may never fully develop this new means of speech, and in extreme cases never ceases to use sound.

Updates

January 27, 2007

• Completed the written update to this page.  Next on the list are some illustrations!

January 23, 2007

• Began an update to this page, utilizing new information provided by Neal Aaron.  This is an ongoing update, and is concentrated on the Big Blue point of view.

November 7, 2006

• Updated Neal's older, computer-sketch of the Magni with a newer sketch.

August 14, 2006: Completed this entry.

July 20, 2006:  Finally found some time to start working on the Institute's point of view write-up.

July 13, 2006:  Continued work on this page after establishing the Magni System within Celestia.

July 3, 2006:  Established this page and the first bits of its data.

....................................

In the late 23rd Century, the discovery of the Lost Civilization had, of course, hinted at the outside presence of non-Human intelligence, but nothing concrete had been discovered or could be proven.  The scientific community began to despair as their directed attempts, far more advanced and with more available resources with every new incarnation, failed to discover any sign of intelligences.  While it was well known that even purposefully sent signals could and did degrade significantly over even nearby interstellar distances, it had been thought that such interferences had been overcome by the modern technologies of the times.  However, others were heartened by the fact that radio detection of even the nearby colonies of recent decades and centuries could not be discerned against the cosmic background.  More pessimistic members of the scientific community, of course, took this to mean that those colonies in question had simply failed to survive.

Ironically, as the decades moved on and Mankind colonized the Solar System to a greater and greater degree, the ability to detect interstellar signals became more and more problematic.  It wasn't until the construction of the Astronomical Research and Galactic Unification Station (cleverly entitled the Argus Observatory) in 2664 CE by the Exploration Society that hope was renewed.  Set into a high solar orbit, and well above most interference caused by Human activity in the Sol System proper, Argus was a fully functional station with a supporting population of nearly one hundred researchers and their families, designed to not only search for non-Human intelligences, but to perform advanced astronomical research.  While the station would become little more than a tourist resort with the advent of the League and its advancing technologies, during the Hegemony Era it remained the premiere site for astronomical discoveries.  And it would provide the means for the greatest discovery in Human history, as well.

While researching the curious spectral and luminosity fluctuations of a series of G and K-type stars nearly 6,000 light years away, Argus began to receive radio interference that made those observations all but impossible to clean up.  Because it was demonstrated that the radio noise was originating at the same general region that contained the stars under observation, it was assumed that the two were related, and that the noise would not be able to be reduced without a better understanding of it.  As such, radio telescopic time was allocated for the project, and observations were made the following week.  Almost immediately, the Argus' instruments were inundated by a blasting amount of noise, and the unmistakable undertone of music.  The year was 2649 CE, and though many people suspected it, the eventual and undeniable truth would be announced that Humanity had, at last, detected the presence of alien intelligence.

The Known Extent of Big Blue
Nicknamed the Big Blue Civilization (the instruments indicating radio signal strength operated on a red to blue color ratio indicator, and the detection of the signals sent the instrument far into the blue end of its spectrum), this far distant alien species at once turned around theories and speculations on Man's place in the universe, both on a religious and a scientific front.  The New Church Ascendancy debated and later hailed the discovery as proof of God's universal hand in creation, while the scientific community furiously studied the signals in an attempt to utilize them to discover further events.  Indeed, this latter effort eventually, if not overly swiftly, mapped out the expanse of Big Blue.  Signals far older than those that had initially been discovered were gleaned from further observations, indicating that the species inhabited a region of space at least 10,000 light years across.  The musical signals seemed to stretch outward towards the rim of the Galaxy, were they faded into quietness in an indication of ever decreasing population.  Coreward, the signals were lost in the chaotic noise that surrounded the Galactic Core.  Big Blue, it seemed, was indeed huge.

Today we also know that Big Blue is moving, as all prosperous interstellar civilizations do, and that it is doing so at a very deliberate and almost absolutely measurable pace.  New radio sources have shown that the nearest portion of Big Blue, some 5,000 light years away, is expanding outward at roughly 0.00125c, fairly consistent with a leisurely but constant flow of interstellar colonization.  At such a pace, Big Blue will likely come into contact with the League of Worlds territories, as they are today, in the year 3501 CE, within 3.3 to 5.2 million years.  Likely, of course, first contact will come much sooner as the League continues to grow at its own vital pace.

Direct Observations of Big Blue
Very few direct observations of Big Blue have been made, aside from the detection of their wide-ranging signals, but those that have been detected have shown just how advanced this polity is.  The first direct image of Big Blue came in 2664 CE when telescopic observations of a major source of transmissions, the closest to the Hegemony at some 6,500 light years away, revealed an image of a K3 V sun, surrounded by what appeared to be a Dyson Sphere.  unlike the popular image of such a construction, this was actually made from swarms of materials surrounding the star, absorbing much of its energy.  Indeed, before this direct observation, the star had previously been thought to be an M2 V sun, so much of its ambient energy was being absorbed by the construction.

A second, much more disconcerting observation was made in 2734 CE with the observation of the so-called Nova Blue event.  A star known to be a single and passive G-type sun was seen to erupt into a major nova, an event which surely would have sterilized any worlds within its system.  The sun, located within the Big Blue region, may well have been made to erupt by the Magni themselves, but the reasoning is not known.  Some have speculated that it was an experiment that failed, others think it was one that succeeded.  Some scientists believe it may have been an industrial accident of sorts, while more alarmist factions of society believe it to have been a punitive action by the Magni, perhaps in response to some localized threat.  While the true cause may never be known, what is certain is that the event was not natural, and that the Magni must have had a hand in it.

Modern Thought on the Big Blue Civilization
Today, most of the League's knowledge of the Big Blue Civilization comes, secondhand, the Tsubar'ey.  With their usual levels of obscurity (either purposeful or simply the result of trying to communicate with such a radically different species), they have indicated that their race and the Magni have indeed been in contact.  Whether this has been through transmissions (entirely possible considering the vast age of the current Tsubar'ey civilization), or through direct contact facilitated by hypothesized wormhole or ArcWay-like links has never been revealed.

Some ascribe this obscurity on a somewhat belligerent mindset by the Magni, while others believe that the Tsubar'ey simply met with them, and then moved on to other things, as often seems to be their methodical attitude towards life.  Of course, it is entirely possible that the Magni, while the younger of the two species, are so far in advance of the Tsubar'ey that it is that familiar species which was briefly examined and then ignored.  If so, then what would the Magni think of Humanity and the League, where they to be aware of us?

It is this question that often concerns scientists and laymen alike the most, and which has caused the most debate among the scientists of the Exploration Society.  No official message has been sent towards Big Blue, and none are planned as of the year 3501 CE.  While there is no way for the species to arrive within range of the league for nearly 6,000 years, many people are not yet ready to reveal the existence of our primitive - by comparison - society.  Even 6,000 years seems scant time to develop technologically in order to stand up to such beings.

For the present, we can only imagine what the motivations and day to day ideals of such a species and their society might be.  While we receive technical detail on aspects of the Magni biology and other such items, thanks to the Tsubar'ey, it seems unlikely that we will ever know enough about the species to make any qualified statements regarding their true nature.  And the day will come when, one way or another, the League and Big Blue will become aware of each other.  The questions remain:  will there be any degree of xenophobia?  And if so, from which species will it first originate?  Humans fear what they do not know or understand.  And the Big Blue Civilization is one of the great unknowns out there.

The Big Blue Civilization Point of View

Ultimate Beginnings - The Prehistory of Naklemis
All things have a beginning.  Even something as far reaching and as grand as the Assembly had a beginning.  Lost to a distant past, this beginning was as primal in nature as it was fortuitous, and the core of events took place upon Naklemis, geological ages before the Gruy-koi had even begun to evolve.  But it was those events which caused them to arise, and to eventually dominate a great portion of the Galaxy.

Over 50 million years ago* the world of Naklemis was a wild place, covered with expansive jungles and filled with a great variety of creatures, both terrestrial and marine in nature.  Typical of its type, Naklemis is a world with a standard atmosphere rich in oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide.  While many other such worlds have restricted biomes due to such atmospheres (indeed, most forms of life evolve on garden worlds which have, by comparison, far thinner atmospheres and surfaces with a relative paucity of liquid water), life upon Naklemis developed and evolved with a richness and a variety that is indeed remarkable**.

Terrestrial biomes on Naklemis have always struggled to adapt more than those in marine environments, and so it is no surprise that the greatest diversity of life could be found in the oceans.  This is not to say that life on land was struggling from day to day or that it was rare.  But in general, changes in environmental conditions have always affected land life far more than marine life.  During this period of time, life on land was largely restricted to thick regions of plant life, and animals based on skeletal structures, but which never grew to any great size.  Far more common were airborne forms of life, some of which did indeed achieve large sizes, and which either fed on the jungle canopies, each other, or the great amounts of airborne algae-clouds.  In the oceans, however, a wider variety of creatures lived, filling nearly every available ecological niche.

For millions of years, the dominant marine life form was a variety of eel-like free-swimmer, which had developed a species of apex predator, as well as other species of predators which were adapted to take advantage of bottom-dwelling prey and prey which inhabited continental shelves.  These predators had literally directed the evolution of most other marine forms for tens of millions of years, and a supremely balanced ecosystem had thus long been in place.  But it was a balanced system which did not allow for the advancement of evolution.  Indeed, most animal forms were essentially unchanged throughout the fossil record.

This changed 51 million years ago when a comet, having been a regular visitor to the inner Saaqmakaal system for several hundred thousand years, passed close enough to the system's major gas giant to alter its orbit just enough so that it slammed into Naklemis.  As is the usual case with such events, the environmental effects were extreme, and resulted in a mass extinction event for the entire planet.  Other life bearing worlds are subject to extreme climate change during such occurrences, due to the extreme amount of dirt and debris thrown up into the atmosphere, but on worlds such as Naklemis the atmosphere is thick and robust enough to largely mitigate such consequences.  What did effect the planet, however, was the pure chance meeting of the impact point and a major tectonic rift zone.  The comet itself was over 10 kilometers in diameter***, and it left behind a crater nearly 200 kilometers in diameter.  This was more than enough to cause a major upwelling of magma from the rift, which consequently became active for along its entire several thousand kilometer length.  Much of this rift, at the time, was beneath the ocean, and as such the planet's waters were heavily infused with tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide and sulfur.

As a result, nearly 90% of all life in the oceans died off, including the apex predators and their kin.  On land, the effects were much more benign; worlds such as Saaqmakaal have their biomes based on both oceanic and atmospheric micro-forms, and as such one major region need not be dependant on the health of another.  The atmospheric micro-forms sustained terrestrial biomes.  But the oceans, with their base of micro-forms driven to near extinction, were devastated.  Still, as is so often the way with life, many forms managed to survive, and in doing so they found the room to adapt and expand into newly vacated niches.  It would become literally a biological race to gain the upper hand, and of all the species left behind after the impact, an unlikely successor rose to the top of the pile.

Within a few thousand years after the eventual cessation of volcanic activity along the rift zone, a species knows as Korrema became so populous that they could be found in any continental shelf region.  Korrema were bottom-dwelling shelled creatures, exhibiting a seven-fold radial symmetry, and before the mass extinction could only be found within muddy plains, where they would bury themselves for camouflage.  However, they soon came to move beyond those regions, and eventually they would diversify and adapt to nearly every aspect of marine ecology.

By 35 million years ago, these Korrema-descended forms had split into two lineages.  By far the most successful of the two were the Hitikki family, which had since lost their shells and had largely dominated the marine environment.  The shelled Duragaatha family remained numerous, but had lost out in many areas of competition to the Hitikki, and as such remained restricted to continental shelf regions.  By 32 million years ago, further pressure by the Hitikki had driven a subfamily of the Duragaatha to adapt to a more amphibious lifestyle.  These creatures were the beginning of a new biological family, the Atha-gaaldi, a line which would eventually lead to the Gruy-koi themselves.

The Evolution and Development of the Gruy-koi
By 30 million years ago, the shell-less Hitikki and their descendants had by and large completely taken over the oceans and seas of Naklemis.  However, the coastal regions were the predominant realm of the Atha-gaaldi, as were fresh water regions.  Through these creatures, and by 17 million years ago, a new form of life had evolved.  This was the Gruy-dagba species, the earliest ancestors to the modern Gruy-koi.  Their environment was the placid coastal waters of Naklemis, sheltered from the strong currents and the tides so prevalent in the open waters, an environment conducive to the advancement of more than just biological adaptations.  Complex social structures were beginning to appear, likely including the earliest concepts of family, possibly even simple ritual.

The Atha-gaaldi had continued to evolve, with many different forms arising and falling over time, until finally some 7.8 million years ago when the Gruy-jimni appeared.  This species was the first true form of Gruy-koi, albeit still a relatively primitive one.  But they were different from their ancestors in that they were able to spawn in fresh water, running or brackish.  The species was no longer dependant on the ocean, as as such they were free to move well beyond the coast, and to colonize nearly every portion of the continent now called Hovalaaj.  Suddenly, the species found themselves in a world were they were almost completely supremely dominant.  There were a few species of aerial hunters which found the Gruy-jimni as prey, but by and large their shelled bodies offered protection from even this.

By 5.3 million years ago, the Gruy-koi had evolved.  Physically virtually identical to the modern day representatives of the species, they were to be found all across Hovalaaj, within a few days walk of any permanent source of water.  There were many different centers of population, and each one possessed their own unique cultures, their own rituals, their own religions.  But all had begun to create clay pottery, simple stone tools, and a few may have even possessed the earliest forms of agriculture.  Many cultures were semi-nomadic, and over the millennia interactions between the many groups grew more and more frequent.  With the exchanging of ideas and primitive technologies, an early homogenizing of the species was begun.

Some 5.28 million years ago, the Gruy-koi made another leap as they moved from one continent to another.  Almost certainly by accident, or under some unknown pressure to migrate that has been lost to prehistory, the caretakers of the Magni young transported themselves and eggs across the Great Strait of Shouffa, from the continent of Hovalaaj to that of Seevis.  Even had a single individual performed this movement, it would have been enough to establish the species on the new continent, which would have been as empty of any detrimental form of life as had been Hovalaaj.  Perhaps 600,000 years later, and inexplicably on both continents, various cultures began to ornament their pottery, to develop simple music, and to create rock paintings within caves, on cliffs, even on large isolated boulders.  It was a renaissance of culture, and it swept the world.

Agriculture was swift to follow.  By 5.205 million years ago, the Gruy-koi began to foster the growth and harvesting of many varieties of plant life, known to be edible or otherwise useful, and before now only gathered when needed.  But this reliable source of food and materials allowed for an explosion of the population, as well as the leisure time which would lead to new scientific innovations.  By 5.202 million years ago, a metallurgy based on copper and brass was taking off, in concert with the development of a written language.  While the language of the Gruy-koi has always been in the form of chromatophoric skin color changes, the written language was comparatively easy to develop, being a sort of "short-hand" representation of the most common language aspects.  But this written language would swiftly grow more complex as it raced to keep up with the more complex ideas and technologies that the Gruy-koi were coming up with.  Iron-working, for instance, soon developed and required the formation of an alphabetic written language, necessary to convey more complex ideas.

These changes, while extreme and very swift, were nonetheless achieved with little conflict.  Naklemis was a world rich in resources and land, and even with the growth of the Gruy-koi population, there was little need for contention over these things.  In addition to this, the species itself was, through millions of years of specific evolutionary development, and the result of a rather benign environment, a very gregarious and cooperative species.  Simply, it was not their nature to fight, and when it could be avoided, it was.

This spirit of cooperation swiftly aided in the globalization of the Gruy-koi culture.  By 5.2004, a network of trade and interrelations among the populations of the two continents lead to a single governmental body, the Gruy-koi Sovereignty.  Under this government, a new leap forward in visual and written languages appeared, further solidifying the Sovereignty.  Technology, science, a greater understanding of their universe slowly unfolded.  Within 200 years the creation and utilization of electrical technology appeared, and with it came the use of radio communications.  This single invention bound the planet even more tightly, and with this the rise of technology hastened.

Within another 100 years, the earliest rocket technologies appeared, and for the first time the Gruy-koi sent mechanical emissaries above the perpetual cloud cover of their world.  What they saw, an entirely new universe, entranced them.  Soon followed the first satellite, then the first Gruy-koi in orbit.  Astronomical research expanded and advanced, and extrasolar worlds were discovered.  Robotic probes explored their solar system, and manned vessels followed.  A mere 5.2 million years ago, the first interstellar probes reached a nearby star system, and discovered a world suited for Gruy-koi inhabitation.  Within five years the Gruy-koi did indeed send a colony to this system, which had since been named the Jhulaka System, and the world of Dharyiis.  While terraforming is required, it is achieved easily and swiftly.

Dharyiis became the seat of a new government, the Colonial Dominion.  It was a success that inspired more extrasolar colonies to be sent out into the solar neighborhood.  The Gruy-koi had become a true interstellar species.

The Rise of An Interstellar Species
With the construction of a space elevator on Naklemis, some 5.1999 million years ago, the Gruy-koi began to expand into their solar system and the surrounding solar neighborhood with even greater ease and prolificacy.  Their exploration of surrounding systems, of the great nebulosity in which their local neighborhood was imbedded (called the Hosha Expanse), and the Galaxy at large (however remotely) was unabated.  For their entire history, they had been the masters of their world.  And now, it seemed, they were the masters of their universe.

Until a deep space radar received, one seemingly inconspicuous day, a signal from far beyond their interstellar realm.  The signal was rich with data, and while not specifically sent to the Sovereignty, it was nonetheless designed to make contact with possible other major civilizations.  It originated with a species called the Tsubar'ey, located over 17,000 light years away.  However, despite the enormity of the discovery and what it contained, there was no crisis in Gruy-koi society.  The Sovereignty continued, and it advanced.  Within two years, it had achieved a method of two-way interstellar travel.  Their local neighborhood became correspondingly smaller.

As they expanded, they came into contact with various sapient alien species in their local neighborhood.  While none of them were even close to the level of the distant Tsubar'ey, or even the Gruy-koi themselves, they were still sources of wonder and were treated accordingly.  Over time the Gruy-koi integrated themselves into some of the more technologically advanced alien cultures, often finding themselves in the role of administrators, gently guiding the aliens to a greater technological and cultural level.  Eventually such aliens were considered "clients" of the Gruy-koi, cultures who owed their well-being to their benefactors, and who continued to advance because of them.

One such alien polity was the Semu-vox, a species that, while already established on a minor interstellar level, still allowed virtual control of their state by the Gruy-koi.  Much of the future expansion of the Gruy-koi would come about because of the lessons learned while interacting with another interstellar species.  Among these lessons was the knowledge that even fairly swift interstellar travel was not enough, especially when dealing with issues that demanded strict attention, but which spanned tens of light years.  So, some 5.1994 million years ago, the Sovereignty began construction of an interstellar beamrider network, which would eventually come to bind their local neighborhood together most securely.  And it also set the stage for the creation of the Interstellar Assembly, a governmental system that, with the aid of the Semu-vox, would serve well as a method for settling disputes among the many client species, peacekeeping, and improved administration.

The Assembly Takes Shape
After centuries of slowly growing and moving out into space, the Assembly began the first steps of taking its current form when, 5.1987 million years ago, the first Starshell, a Dyson sphere, had construction begun.  To date, it was the most ambitious and advanced form of engineering ever conceived or undertaken by any of the Assembly members, and required the resources of most of them.  By its completion, 5.198 million years ago, the Starshell was producing stable quantum singularities, which allowed for even faster and cheaper interstellar probes.  New opportunities arose for the members of the Assembly, in trade and cooperation.  The Starshell also began sending out a repetitive, introductory signal towards the Tsubar'ey.  The hope was to establish contact with this advanced race, and to open a dialogue with them.

Even so, 5.1955 million years ago a second Starshell was begun.  Far more sophisticated and generating far more power, this construction was capable of examining the very fabric of space-time itself.  In time, this Starshell began to produce stable wormhole pairs, and the more it produced the tighter the Assembly became.  instantaneous travel across the gulfs of space became the norm, and with a long time lag no longer necessary, the Assembly underwent a massive transformation.  The new, Galactic Assembly had been born, as had the newest Galactic Civilization.

As such, a new phase of exploration was begun 5.193 million years ago as the Assembly began to build and send out relativistic, self-replicating probes.  These probes would travel to star systems, explore, replicate, and move onward to other stars.  While a long term program, it would still have great benefits, the most intriguing one being the eventual, physical contact with the Tsubar'ey.  This contact occurred some 5.1735 million years ago, and it was a scant 5.168 million years ago that the Tsubar'ey responded.  But this response was to the original deep space signal sent out by the Assembly's first Starshell, and it held the promise of eventual, true contact and cooperation.  By 4.94 million years ago, the Galactic survey by the Assembly was completed, and with great confidence the Gruy-koi began a leisure, paced program of Galactic colonization.

As they advance outward, the Assembly would come into contact with more species of alien intelligences, and some of those were actively hostile.  In response to these cases, the Assembly developed advanced memetics allowing them to quickly and relatively painlessly subdue the opposition.  By 4.902 million years ago, all effective opposition along the frontier of advancement had been eliminated, leaving room for more constructive usages of time.  One such new innovation was the beginning of a practice of orbital ring habitat constructions throughout their wormhole network.  Soon after, they began to build more Starshells, as well as administrative Jupiter brains.  By 4.4 million years ago they were regularly constructing Matrioshka Brains, necessary to handle the ever-increasing complexity of their polity.  The Galactic Assembly was in a golden age, it seemed, and nothing could stop them in their advancement and social, cultural, and technological evolution.  Or so it seemed.

The J'ryx'ta Wars
It was 4.34 million years ago that a new species came into contact with the Assembly, a species which had been traveling ship-board for thousands of years.  They were swiftly intercepted when they began to enter into Assembly territory, and contact was achieved easily and peacefully.  The aliens were called the J'sai'ta, and were in actuality made up of several different species living in concert and cooperation.  They had come from across the Galaxy, refugees from a polity called the J'ta Imperium, which had finally collapsed under its own, millennium-old weight.  During the Imperium, the J'sai'ta had been a "labor-class" set of species, and had begun to flee the ever-restrictive polity when the signs of collapse had begun to be apparent.  But they were not free, not even with the collapse of the Imperium.

Behind them, claimed the J'sai'ta, at an unknown distance, came the military client species and organization of the old Imperium, the J'ryx'ta.  Still following imperatives that were issued thousands of years ago, by a polity which no longer existed, the J'ryx'ta were bent on retrieving the J'sai'ta and returning those to the Imperium that they could, and eliminating those who would resist.  And nothing, claimed the refugees, would stop them.  The Assembly, even as they took in the J'sai'ta and began to integrate them, broke no delays and swiftly launched relativistic probes by the hundreds into that region of space, attempting to retrace the steps of those who had fled, and to detect any hint of those who might have been pursuing.  It did not take long.

The J'ryx'ta were first detected 4.33 million years ago by an automated probe, a spread out and vast force that may have had a population of millions.  Immediately the Assembly began to strengthen its borders along the frontier which would first encounter these attackers.  But the J'sai'ta and the Assembly probes themselves had terribly underestimated the coming enemy.  When the J'ryx'ta first encountered the outlying Assembly positions, 4.325 million years ago, they devastated Assembly settlements and military forces.  It was not a one way victory, however, and the Assembly managed to hold off the enemy forces for a time.  In return, the J'ryx'ta began to establish deep footholds in the border regions, from which they began to launch attacks deeper into the polity's territory.  No species or colony was safe; the enemy had recognized a rival Galactic power, and they knew it to be a threat.  They would play for keeps, and attempt to wipe it away.  The Assembly, while hard-pressed, was not helpless.

The Assembly's first major victory came 4.321 million years ago, turning the tide of war into their favor.  Many worlds and systems were recovered, while others where left in enemy hands.  Nevertheless it became a rallying point for the Assembly forces... until further J'ryx'ta vessels began to arrive along the front, reinforcing their predecessor's positions.  By 4.313 this second wave had added such strength to the enemy that they began to penetrate further into the Assembly, where even member homeworlds became threatened and, in some cases, depopulated as mass relocations were performed by the Assembly.  Species that had known no fear for thousands of years were now unseated from their worlds, and planted in great refugee settlements on distant worlds and habitats.  The Assembly itself had been shaken to its core by this event, and it seemed that, for a time, they could not hold the line.

The Assembly responded the only way that they could - with all of the force that they had to muster.  It was 4.308 million years ago that an Assembly strike force intercepted a new J'ryx'ta wave of reinforcements beyond the borderlands, launching a nanotechnological blight.  While the strike force itself was destroyed, the J'ryx'ta themselves had become heavily infected with the blight, and the reinforcements were nearly completely destroyed.  Without reinforcements, and facing a renewed fight from the Assembly, those J'ryx'ta that remained were forced to abandon most of the systems that they had thus far captured.  The war-front retreated, and it seemed that a lull had come to the conflict.

However, the J'ryx'ta had merely secreted themselves in obscure systems, such as low mass red dwarfs or brown dwarf systems, and from there they began a new wave of attacks.  They were sporadic, but they were often crippling.  Yet the nanoblight continued to hold them in check, until 4.301 million years ago, when they managed to develop a cure for it.  Freed of this weapon, their attacks into the Assembly surged, and once more they began to take colonies and settlements.  It became clear that reinforcements were coming from a single source, the location unknown to the Assembly, but close enough to keep the J'ryx'ta armed and supplied.  It was this source that the Assembly began to search in earnest for, and in time they did indeed find it.  A system beyond the frontier had been converted into a literal factory, creating new ships, breeding new fighters, constructing new weapons.  The Assembly realized that the elimination of this system was all important, for while it existed the J'ryx'ta would continue to be able to beat at the polity, until it was finally worn away.

Utilizing the most advance technologies in the field of stealth, an Assembly strike force arrived within the J'ryx'ta source system 4.285 million years ago.  The system's infrastructure was decimated, and the enemy was severely crippled.  It was assumed that they would begin negotiation with the Assembly, but instead the J'ryx'ta struck back, more viciously than ever.  They fought with a desperation, with a daring that did indeed tell of their own dire straits.  The Assembly itself was shocked at this renewed fight, and fell back before the J'ryx'ta fury.  In short order the enemy managed to breach the security of the Assembly wormhole network, and the war was suddenly ignited throughout the entirety of the Assembly.  No world was safe from potential attack, and for a time the J'ryx'ta were feared on every world.

Yet, after a time, the attacks became less frequent, although they did not stop.  Untraceable as they flitted from wormhole to wormhole, the J'ryx'ta seemed to disappear after their raids.  Indeed, they had begun to construct a new source, within a system that was well inside of Assembly territory.  From there, the attacks again began to increase, and this time, with wormhole technology in their hands, these attacks were truly catastrophic.  Once again the Assembly trembled, and seemed on the verge of collapse.  Only a new and desperate gamble, spearheaded by the Gruy-koi themselves, offered any hope.  But the destructive price would be on a stellar scale.

It was 4 million years ago that the Assembly performed a test.  The detonation of a single weapon was performed within an uninhabited G-dwarf system.  The result was a supernova which vaporized the entire system, and sent shock waves throughout the entire polity, and beyond.  The J'ryx'ta attacks abruptly ceased, and the wormhole network was made secure.  The war had effectively ended, and the Assembly had the J'ryx'ta effectively contained.

And yet, kept informed through long-term communication networks, the distant Tsubar'ey were displeased.

The Post-War Expansion
The power to destroy an entire star system was a powerful one indeed, and even after hundreds of thousands of years of war, the distant Tsubar'ey regarded the capability as both immoral and unclean.  So troubled were they, an envoy was sent to the Assembly, utilizing newly established wormhole connections between the two polities.  Arriving at one of the outermost administrative centers of the Assembly, the Tsubar'ey immediately embarked on an intense program of negotiations, with tensions which ran high.  The Assembly itself was a polity filled with war-weary populations.  Entire planets which had been evacuated or otherwise depopulated were slowly regaining their inhabitants.  Systems devastated by destruction were in a period of rebuilding.  Species driven into near extinction were being slowly and carefully succored.  Few populations wanted to consider the possibility that their method of victory could possibly be removed.

And yet, as the negotiations continued, something startling came to be realized by the Assembly.  It had always been known that the Tsubar'ey were a more expansive, older species.  But now it became apparent that that they were not just millions of years old, but they were hundreds of millions of years old.  Individuals themselves were often many millennia of age.  The technology that they commanded was astounding, capable of terraforming worlds in mere decades.  Constructing massive megastructures of exquisite beauty and durability.  And they were indeed capable of destroying suns themselves.  To the Assembly, it was as if a stranger had suddenly been revealed as being a demi-god.

Even through this shock, however, treaties were eventually created, and the Tsubar'ey and the Assembly swiftly returned to better, even closer relations.  The demi-god had become, instead, an older brother.  Once again the Assembly began to look outward into the Galaxy, wondering what else might be out there, beyond the outline given to them by their now ancient Galactic survey.  Nearly unanimously, the member races agreed that the polity should once more reach outward.

The J'ryx'ta, however, needed to be dealt with.  They had been largely contained, but now it was decided that they should not be allowed free reign.  The J'ryx'ta Quarantine Zone was established, keeping the one-time invaders confined to a region of three light years and two systems, including their source system.  This, 3.799 million years ago, truly marked the end of the War, and the beginning of the Post-War Expansion.

Often considered a new golden age for the Assembly, many new programs and efforts were instituted.  Sapient species within the Assembly that had previously been too primitive to fully appreciate, or even comprehend the Assembly were now being gently initiated into an interstellar age, with positive after-effects more often than not.  On other worlds, species that held the potential for sapience, but which had not yet been selected by evolution for that distinction, were provolved and brought into the Assembly as well.  Perhaps most excitingly, new and exotic forms of life were being discovered, their status as such now being recognizable as the Assembly refined its science so that such things could indeed be positively identified.  Some of these included "plasma cell"-based life in the upper atmospheres of low mass stars, crystalline subsurface life forms on hyper-volcanic worlds, atomic-nuclei life on the surfaces of neutron stars, and even forms in hyper-dimensional space.  By 1.55 million years ago, intelligent forms from such exotic environments were being integrated to within the Assembly itself, and even efforts to provolve potential such life forms were initiated.

As it turned out, these efforts lead to a new crisis for the Assembly, which had begun to think of itself as invulnerable.

Strangeplague Crisis
Most exotic intelligences were quite problematic to communicate with, and among the most so were a species native to the surface of a neutron star.  Their name, to the Assembly, was translated as the NXXX-YK7 Continuity, a polity which had previously been confined to their star.  But the coming of the Assembly had set them free, and it had made them viable members, if rarely heard from.  Nevertheless, there came a day when the Continuity desired to provolve a lesser native species on their star, the KVQ-0000000000001.  The intent was to increase the computational power of the species as a whole, and indeed this was achieved as that life form was upgraded into the KVQR-00000000000010.  However, what was not immediately realized, until much later and to the horror of those involved, was the accidental creation of a parasitic and self-replicating strangelet-based virus.  A strangeplague.  And the neutron star was being decimated by it.

In response, the Continuity assimilated the provolved KVQR-00000000000010, the unwitting creator of the plague, and as such they gained the ability to eradicate it.  Indeed, the plague was removed completely from neutronium environments, but by this point it had mutated itself and was able to pass through the local wormhole.  The Assembly was suddenly infected, and only the Continuity could stop it.  Thus they further upgraded themselves and became the LGMR-13 Continuity.  Literally overnight, the entire length and breadth of the Assembly became a battleground between the strangeplague and the Continuity.  All matter was destroyed by the plague, leaving behind a series of explosions often comparable to nova eruptions.  And in its wake came the Continuity, eradicating the plague with methods of femtotechnology which were often just as violent.  But left on its own, the plague could quickly destroy all life, all matter within reach of the wormhole network.  And so the Continuity was given free reign to do what they must.

But the plague was intelligent, and continually adapted to the new methods of the Continuity.  As the surrounded Assembly was devastated by both disease and cure, entire populations were once again on the run.  Habitats were constructed in deep space, away from star systems and wormholes.  An entire Galactic civilization lived in fear.  But the tide was turned when the Continuity upgraded once more, this time into the LGMR-60 Continuity, which was unable to eradicate the plague any longer, but which was capable of collecting and holding it.  By 1.47 million years ago, the Continuity had collected and stored the strangeplague into an artificial quark star, establishing the Strangeplague Quarantine Zone.  Saved, the Assembly turned to its greatest threat and began to observe it, watching for any benign evolutionary traits.  The Continuity itself upgraded into the enlightened LGM-X Continuity, and though once again retired to their neutron star and other neutron star colonies, continued to be a fully participating Assembly member.

Once again the Assembly began a program of recovery, and once again populations began to return to their homes, those that still existed.  It was by far the worse disaster to beset the polity, but it would not be the last.

The Provolution Crisis
Since the early days of the Assembly, the Gruy-koi had spearheaded a program of provolution, whereby species with either the potential for, or who were on the cusp of true sapience, where genetically or socially altered so that they might become truly intelligent beings, and functioning members of the Assembly.  No race had ever questioned the practice, especially those who had benefited from it.  Indeed, the Assembly itself was made stronger by the number of intelligent races that made up its framework.

And so it remained when, 757,000 years ago, the Assembly discovered a world that, at first glance, seemed biologically primitive.  Advanced multicellular life had never arisen on this planet, which had been named Simumadaal, and instead the oceans were dominated by vast tracts of plasmodium-like organisms, looking like nothing more than vast slicks of ooze.  What was discovered, however, was that this plasmodium-species had a surprisingly complex cellular structure itself, capable of altering that structure itself when conditions warranted.  What was more, the plasmodium exhibited definite signs of intelligence, interacting with its environment in meaningful ways, and even cultivating vast bacterial mats in artificially sheltered bays and tidal zones, which were then used as food.  The Assembly, thrilled at discovering such an unusual intelligence, designated them the Sqmaak, and began to formulate plans for cultural and technological provolution.

When this program was finally initiated, nearly a thousand years later, the Assembly was struck by how readily and how swiftly the Sqmaak absorbed the new information which they were given.  A further investigation into this ability revealed that the Sqmaak were not separate individuals, but in fact were a single planet-spanning network of symbiotic plasmoid "nodes", working in concert as a single intelligence.  This gave it a profound intellect, and the self-altering abilities that it had evolved aided in its own plans and desires.  Indeed, the intelligence had long since discovered the true nature of its surrounding local cosmos, and had developed the ability to form and launch "spores" at its planet's escape velocity.  propelled by the solar wind, these spores were being sent to other worlds within the system, where they would be able to adapt to different conditions and to found new colonies.  Quite literally, these colonies acted as "children" of the Sqmaak, and due to a unique chemical memory system, they were already in direct possession of their parent's memories and the knowledge that it possessed.  The colonization effort had not been underway for long, but it did possess the staggering possibility of total solar system colonization within only a few thousand years.

Indeed, over the next thousand years, and utilizing the Assembly's biotechnology to increase its own knowledge and capabilities, the Sqmaak began to send out interstellar spores, at first colonizing only nearby systems, but then spreading well into the surrounding Assembly systems.  The sheer ability of the Sqmaak to completely "overgrow" a solar system alarmed the Assembly greatly when this was discovered, and the home system was immediately put under quarantine, and a program to find and stop the interstellar spores was begun.  However, because of the genetic memory capability of the Sqmaak, the technological abilities "learned" from the Assembly could not be simply removed.  All systems that had been colonized (and many in the Assembly began to think of them as "infected" systems), would have to remain under indefinite quarantine.

The efforts were a failure.  Even to the Assembly, interstellar space remained vast, and served as an excellent place to hide.  The spores, when cruising, possessed almost no radioactive signature, and so despite the quarantines, by 722,000 years ago the Sqmaak had spread across the Assembly like a plague.  Any world encountered would find itself environmentally altered and covered with the rampant plasmoid within only a few decades, no matter how small the initial infection.  However, by 717,000 years ago the Assembly had discovered a means to contain and purge the Sqmaak, and a vigorous program was begun to transport all examples, all traces to a handful of systems, all within three light years of the original plasmoid homeworld.  by 710,000 years ago, this goal had been achieved, and the Sqmaak Quarantine Zone was tightly in place.

While yet another crisis seemed to have been dealt with, it was in fact only the first step of a greater concern which would have consequences across the Assembly.  Many member species began to question the wisdom of provolving lesser species, especially without deep investigation, and with only the goal of improving the Assembly itself in mind.  Fairly soon, the Assembly put a close to any such further efforts, although those underway were allowed to be completed.  The moratorium was in place indefinitely, but to many it represented a complete halt that would likely not change any time in the near or distant future.  While the Assembly at large was pleased with this decision, there were those elements who believed that a fundamental right of life had been curtailed.  Some believed that all potential species had the right to be advanced artificially, even swiftly, and that the new policy of the Assembly was little more than a totalitarian act against nature.

Because of this, 650,000 years ago several groups within the Assembly were discovered to have been covertly providing more primitive species with technology, and genetic provolution.  Immediately two vocal camps of thought began to vigorously debate the issues.  There were those who believed that life had a right to Assembly provolution methods, and they called themselves the Provolvists.  The other camp had shifted from a fear of provolving species, and possibly ending up with results such as what had happened with the Sqmaak, to believing instead that all species should follow their own natural course of evolution, and that they would join the interstellar community on their own.  These were the Free Evolution Conclave, and the tensions that rose between they and the Provolvists soon grew to a major ideological rift within the Assembly.  By 645,000 years ago the rift had evolved into full sectarian violence, often prompting the intervention of the Assembly military.  Peace would be brokered often, and just as often it would be broken.

By 644,000 years ago, that peace was brutally broken indeed.  The Free Evolution Conclave, ironically becoming far more militaristic in nature, launched a devastating biological attack against an Assembly member homeworld, which had been a major bastion of Provolvist support.  The Assembly itself was immediately in a fervor, and the Conclave was branded an outlaw organization.  In response, the Conclave itself seceded from the Assembly and cut itself off from the Assembly wormhole network, colonizing a relatively tight open star cluster.  Effectively shielded from the military, the Conclave soon after began to launch long range attacks against Assembly interests via shielded wormholes.  While their rallying cry continued to be fore the free advancement of sapient species, their goal had become the eradication of the Assembly and its warping of natural evolution.

The Assembly itself was not about to stand for another major disruption of their society, especially after the still relatively recent Sqmaak incident.  Thus they turned to the Tsubar'ey, and via the treaty between their polities, negotiated permission to construct a second supernova weapon.  The talks were performed secretly, and permission was granted.  Just as swiftly the weapon was constructed, as was a shielded wormhole terminus in the heart of the Conclave's stellar cluster.  At the same time other shielded wormholes were established at various points along the outlying regions of the cluster, with Assembly fleets waiting.  And then the weapon itself was sent through, and it was detonated.

The cluster, and the Conclave, were devastated.  The destruction of the central-most star sent out a massive shockwave which sterilized all habitats and surface settlements within twenty light years.  The cluster itself, only twenty-five light years across, no longer could support the Conclave.  The Assembly, opening its other shielded wormholes, were ready to evacuate those who wished to flee.  The threat from the Conclave, and the Conclave itself were largely eliminated.  However, the general public held strong objections to the methods employed, even with a largely positive outcome.  Thus it was soon after announced that the supernova weapon program would be disassembled permanently.  By 642,000 years ago, the entire crisis initiated by the Sqmaak and their provolution seemed to be at an end.  The Assembly once more began these efforts, only now their requirements and methods would be far more rigorous.

The J'ryx'ta Galactic War
By 500,000 years ago, the Assembly was once again in an upward spiral, a third golden age, having recovered from the Provolution Crisis and once again expanding their holdings.  Many inhabited systems were being converted to new Matrioshka Brains, while others were being deconstructed to create new Starshells.  More and more uninhabited systems were being linked to the wormhole network, and communication links throughout the Assembly were increased as well.  As a Galactic civilization, the Assembly had by now become the largest in the Milky Way.

In the latter part of this expansion, in 35,470 BCE, Assembly explorers encountered a system that was heavily inhabited by what appeared to be a group of J'sai'ta refugees.  They had found this star system and had hidden within it before the main group had encountered the Assembly over four million years earlier.  Ever since, they had been building up a civilization, and had eventually grown complacent and had assumed that the danger of their old enemies, the J'ryx'ta, had long since passed them by.  This discovery came as a shock to the still racially distinct J'sai'ta of the Assembly, and they were quite eager to welcome their long lost brethren into the great polity which had saved them.  However, contact with the Assembly awoke deeply ingrained xenophobia within the pocket civilization, and negotiations, performed over long-range communications, did not go smoothly.  For the time being, they were simply left alone.

A second attempt at negotiations began in 35,110 BCE, these being somewhat more successful.  The Assembly, in response, began to conduct extensive observations of the system in accordance with their relatively new attitude towards alien species integration and, when applicable, provolution.  But these observations yielded a major surprise.  The supposed J'sai'ta civilization was, in actuality, an isolated J'ryx'ta civilization.  Apparently having founded their civilization rather than aid their brethren when they learned of the Assembly's highly successful nanoblight attack, they had initially survived by conducting raids on civilizations, minor and major, in the direction opposite of the Assembly.  in many cases, entire species were driven into extinction as the J'ryx'ta consumed their planetary resources in order to build up their own.  The Assembly, learning of this, forced all negotiations with the civilization into abeyance.

In 25,700 BCE, the Assembly reached a referendum, allowing for renewed negotiations.  However, because of the history with the other J'ryx'ta, these negotiations were to be conducted under a probationary setting.  However, once this was passed, the Assembly began to provide technological assistance, eager to both prove that they remained a forgiving and benevolent force, while hoping to appeal to what had apparently become a somewhat more even-tempered J'ryx'ta civilization.  This is met with mixed response in both the Assembly and the J'ryx'ta community, and matters proceed quite slowly until 25,350 BCE when a new government comes to power among them.  This highly charismatic, and more than a little belligerent leadership begins to foster feelings of jealously and envy among their people for those of the Assembly.  The Assembly, they began to advertise, is a greedy monopoly of power, doling out technology only as they see fit, and with no regards to the needs or wants of those that they claim to help.  The Assembly, attempting to combat this, allow the J'ryx'ta travel through the Assembly via the wormhole network.  It is a move that proves beneficial to the J'ryx'ta, but disastrous to themselves.

As they travel through the Assembly, the J'ryx'ta become regarded as little more than ungrateful pariahs, who continually refuse full membership in the Assembly, but who will happily reap the benefits of the Assembly's aid.  Even the J'sai'ta, who had believed these J'ryx'ta to be "reformed", began to lead the calls for concessions against them.  Many systems reused them entry all together.  The J'ryx'ta themselves began to play up these feelings as they began to become more and more vocal about vilifying the Assembly and its "corrupt" and "greedy" leadership.  Tensions continued to grow, until finally in 18,190 BCE the J'ryx'ta breached the old J'ryx'ta Quarantine Zone, freeing their long lost brothers.  At almost the same time, other J'ryx'ta agents gained access to the Strangeplague and Sqmaak zones, freeing them as well.  The Strangeplague was almost immediately infused with the ability to bypass all LGM-X Continuity containment methods, and the Sqmaak was given the biotechnology which would allow it to create small units of itself, units which could mimic Assembly species members for the sole purpose of internal Assembly subversion.  The Assembly military, taking action as soon as the breaches became known, was too late.  A J'ryx'ta-led Galactic war had begun, and the Assembly would soon be embroiled in a battle for its ultimate survival, confronted by all the great enemies of its long history.

By 11,220 BCE the J'ryx'ta and their allies had spread across most of the Assembly, infiltrating all but the highest levels of governance.  In reality, the Assembly had already become a fractured polity, operating as many independent parts, and often doing so under the highest levels of secrecy in order to keep their actions from being discovered by their enemy.  Fear was the norm on all the Assembly worlds, and it had come to be widely believed that the last days of the polity were in play.  The Sqmaak itself had lead the most devastating of attacks, being able to turn even the most advanced of Assembly memetics against that government and its members.  Only the biologically exotic species remained unaffected by this particular ploy.  But it was not enough.  The J'ryx'ta themselves began a series of suicide attacks on exotic interests, cracking the last bastion of loyalty to traditional Assembly methods and leaders.  indeed, by 7700 BCE the attacks began to reach the member homeworlds, leading to an internal crisis of leadership in the military.  Ironically, the result was the most effective response by the Assembly thus far, as they were able to utilize new and secret memetics to implant double agents, memetic virii, even terror-like strikes against the enemy.  This new Assembly Security Net holds off further deeply internal attacks for a time.

Nevertheless, in 5951 BCE, the most devastating attack of the war, and indeed the most horrific attack in the history of the Assembly occurred when the Strangeplague managed to strike Naklemis itself, which had long been considered the de-facto homeworld of the entire Assembly, both politically and culturally.  While the world is eventually purged of the strangeplague, the damage is so severe that it will take centuries of terraforming to make it fully habitable once again.  The remaining intact portions of the Assembly are stunned, and in response give the full power of the remaining Jupiter and Matrioshka Brains at the disposal of the Security Net.  It was as if a sleeping giant had been awoken.  With almost god-like efficiency, the newly created Net is able to track and locate the Sqmaak agents, completely eliminating.  The first major victories in the War, for the Assembly, are achieved as no mercy is shown to those agents which had begun to tear down the polity.  Even so, the J'ryx'ta are able to develop their own memetic attacks, which generate some sympathy for them within the Assembly itself.  It reaches the point where entire systems begin to provide assistance to the enemy, systems which still profess allegiance to the Assembly.

By 3775 BCE, the Security Net concluded that the only way to end the war, once and for all, was to deploy a new supernova weapon.  As per treaties, once again the Tsubar'ey were contacted, who surprised all by not only agreeing to the idea, but who would provide the aid to expedite the creation of the new weapon.  It was decided to target the J'ryx'ta central sun, for that system had become the rallying center for both the Sqmaak, and the Strangeplague.  It was also here that the centers of production for the entire enemy war effort were concentrated, and many in the Assembly began to suspect that the Sqmaak had infiltrated even their ally's governmental system.  Regardless, the plans were laid, and with Tsubar'ey aid the super-weapon was detonated in 3760 BCE.  At the same time, the Tsubar'ey themselves sent in military forces, targeting specifically the surviving regions of Sqmaak.  The end result was the complete collapse of J'ryx'ta society, as countless billions were killed, and hundreds of millions more were suddenly without resources or support.

These survivors the Assembly granted clemency to, and though they were very careful, they began the long process of integrating them into Assembly society.  The remains of the Strangeplague were returned to their quark star, where the Continuity began to bind them with some of the most powerful restrictions that they could create.  The Tsubar'ey, sweeping through the Assembly like vengeful demons, had gathered all examples of the Sqmaak, stating that they would be transferred to an entirely different galaxy where they would be able to expand, evolve, and eventually become a productive member of an intergalactic community.  The Assembly, upon hearing this, felt even more awe for that alien race; surely they were the most advanced beings!  By 2950 CE the last echoes of the War had faded as the J'ryx'ta entered into mainstream Assembly life, their past instincts literally purged from their genetic make up, their only intentions being to aid in the recovery and betterment of the Assembly.  In 2920 BCE the Security Net was shut down, save for standard measures, having been deemed no longer necessary.

By 2710 BCE the Assembly had swiftly regained much of its former glory.  The Security Net had been transformed into a new communications network, and the frontiers of the polity were once again on the move forward.  To this day the Assembly is recovering from the Galactic War, but it is also once again strong and powerful, and remains the largest polity in the Milky Way.  In time, they believe that they will be able to bring the entire Galaxy under their benevolent rule, and indeed it is true that they have become resistant to those threats which had nearly toppled them in the past.  Some philosophers of the polity question this, though, wondering if perhaps such a goal is not over ambitious, even arrogant, and whether or not smaller polities would not regard such advancements as being threats to themselves.  Time will tell, but in the meantime the Assembly lives, and it thrives.