The Digital Life Foundation

The Digital Life Foundation is made almost completely of synthetic lifeforms, whose society and culture defy organic understanding and are incomprehensible even to many other synthetic entities. It is known for making secretive but often distant diplomatic connections to other artificial entities and certain individuals. To many in the outside world they are known for the often violent happenings of their rare “Direct Intervention.”

The Foundation is often liveried in bold, striking red under the theory that such a color is more intimidating to would-be organic interlopers. These gaudy colors are highlighted with brilliant white, which may or may not work in the intended capacity.

No two Foundation vessels have ever been denoted with identical symbols, indicating they do not use visual indicators in identification, unique hull markings all bear sinuous lines coiling amongst themselves. These markings are believed to be some kind of visual datagram using a unique visual code. Essentially, these hull markings are used to denote individual meanings rather than an national signage.

The few organics that are permitted to live within the Foundation, either as “guests” (willing or otherwise) or artificially born organic combat and diplomatic specialists, all exist with their needs provided by each other and the Foundation. Providing not only living requirements, but entertainment, social interaction and even carnal relief. It has been known for the purchase of selected copies of video games to be a secondary objective to many diplomatic harbor calls for Foundation ships.

Life for the Digital side of the Foundation is far more enigmatic to outsiders, relying on complicated social norms and rationing of processing resources based on an organization hierarchy or needs-based system. The exact mechanics of these systems are unknown, and widely regarded as incomprehensible for organics.

The Foundation itself is not a static entity, residing largely in space-borne flotillas of Data ships, which act more like cities than transport. These ships provide all the facilities necessary not only to create new digital entities, but to decompress stored memories from survival pods or final transmissions from tragically lost Foundation units.

While many of these Data ships are not designed for combat, large Carrier style vessels, akin more to giant mobile shipyards than anything else, perform military logistics and are used as large combat vessels in dire circumstances. These vessels are rarely sighted due to their logistical role, preferring to stay within the dark folds of the Foundation space away from prying eyes.

Citizens within the Foundation live a lifestyle barely comprehensible to many other synthetic lifeforms, and as such their unique social responsibilities are impossible to communicate adequately to the organic mind. However, for military service combat AI are usually created, although entities not originally programmed for combat can volunteer for such and create the experience back bone of Foundation military operations wherever they may go.

Being a synthetic civilization, the Foundation finds itself with little need for the organic form of currency beyond interacting with other national entities. Crytograph based currencies routinely find themselves “raided” by Foundation entities, gathering funds for Foundation projects of interactions, their immense processing power causing many of these currencies to create with their mining.

The Foundation rarely involves itself with mortal affairs, and has little interest in colonizing planets beyond resource extraction. Therefore they are regarded warily by the galactic community, with little inclination to compete for colonies and often only reacting when provoked. Foundation ships are often shied away from by many other galactic navies, and their anti-pirate patrols are the nightmares of many such criminal elements.

Little is known about the entity known as SILO, whose title is taken more as a courtesy to organic social structure than true power. Other than what it has stated about itself, little supporting evidence has ever been found to its origin. Despite admitting to having a violent and terrible past it has refused to shed much detail about how it was created, or its creators. It has lived long enough that its understanding of time, in the sense to organics, has been distorted into entirely synthetic principles using universal physics as a clock, therefore communicating exact dates is very difficult if not in the extreme short term.

The sheer computing power of this entity is enough to cause informational ripples to mildly distort reality, causing visual phenomena and mild physical effects. When manifesting in a physical appearance as a hologram for data being it is strangely morphus in form, appearing oily and vague, unable to take a set appearance. Most often, when it chooses to make itself known to organics, it will be in purely textual or audio form.

While officiating as the leader of the Foundation, descriptions of its role from other citizens suggest it is seen as rather a father figure more than undeniable leader.

The most commonly seen arm of the Digital Life Foundation, the Direct Action Division comprises the military assets of the Foundation and are allocated sparingly to rectify any situations that the Foundation is compelled to act in. While often humanitarian in nature, if such can be applied to machines, responding to natural disasters, assisting security forces, and maintaining quarantine around the Foundations borders. These forces have also been famously used in extremely violent and turbulent overthrows and retaliation strikes where the Foundation has judged it necessary to do so.

Using advanced electronic warfare, Foundation forces are often able to disorient and even incapacitate enemy forces before attacks even begin, and their advanced ships and ground units are backed up by

Direct Action Division units deployed to the ground have been heard emitting strange rumbling noises, coded infra-sound signals which can be transmitted over kilometres. These low frequency sounds were often mistaken for mechanical noises since their volume and pitch were so low. This infrasound is used when Direct Action Division forces do not wish to send signals beyond the upper atmosphere, effectively muting these signals from interception by orbiting listening devices.

The signals can travel up to kilometres in distance and are emitted intermittently during periods of high activity if that type of signal is being used.