Gatekeepers

The Gatekeepers were an enigmatic series of robots created by the Old Race. During the pinnacle of their civilization, the Old Race feared that other sentient species could arise and compete with them for resources. Worse still was the possibility of a sentient species that could use their technology against them and topple their empire.

In their paranoia, the Old Race created robots known as Gatekeepers. Sent forth in teams of ten to fifteen, these colossal guardians would take up position in planets with a high probability for life to form. They would then prevent any species with spacefaring capability (aside from their creators) from exiting the system.

After the disappearance of the Old Race, the Gatekeepers continued their steady vigil, trapping numerous sentient species within the confines of their own systems. The Alinteans, Heil, Rhurni, Zetans, Ragans and Ene'tami were all encapsulated for thousands of years. The Heil engaged in battle with the Gatekeepers and lost. As a result, the surviving Heil fell from a space-age civilization all the way back to a period of medieval darkness. The Heil are considered the foremost experts on Gatekeeper technology, which seemed to revolve around a "phased extra-dimensional halo" effect. The result of such a weapon was a circular emission of light which hyper-accelerated all particles of a solid target into extradimensional branes, erasing it permanently from this universe's spacetime. Whether this was a component of all Old Race technology or not is unknown, but it is a trait that, so far, has only been observed with the Gatekeepers.

The Alinteans, trapped as they were in their home system, eventually discovered the Archives hidden on the desert planet of Vormaga. Within the Archives were billions of storage units containing the compiled knowledge of the Old Race (or a portion of it). Using this information, the Alinteans built weapons that could fight the Gatekeepers, and freed themselves from bondage. They then went on a Galaxy-wide crusade, destroying the Gatekeepers wherever they found them, liberating the other races. The Heil saw this as an affront, as they viewed the Gatekeepers as THEIR hurdle to overcome, and felt as though their glory had been stolen. This prompted the First Great War between the Heil and the Alinteans.

Much to the Alinteans' surprise, the Rhurni had also found an Archive - one sixty times larger than the one on Vormaga. Hidden near the north pole of one of their moons, Erorythis, the Rhurni eventually located and entered this "Mega-Archive". With it, they defeated the Gatekeepers around their own star before retreating inwards, becoming reclusive in their quest to understand the Old Race and their technology.

As far as physical appearance goes, the Gatekeepers were described as large, spherical constructs which orbited the systems just beyond the Oort Clouds. When unknown craft tried to exit the systems, they would unfold into a different shape, their bodies coming apart into eight identical wedges and revealing a massive glowing orb in the center. This orb was apparently a weapons hub, as it could fire omnidirectionally and rapidly. Upon the termination of contacts, the Gatekeeper would reseal itself.

If damaged, Gatekeepers could sever their eight symmetrical wedges. Each of these operated individually, and carried three magnetohydrodynamic lasers. The central sphere could continue to fire even without the wedge-shells in place. Finally, if antagonized enough, the Gatekeepers could propel themselves through an impulse-drive system. They could enter the atmospheres of a target world and unleash a swarm of tiny, twelve-sided drones. These dodecahedronal menaces could fire hard-light pellets from any of their surfaces, move in ways that defied conventional flight patterns at the time, and possessed robust shielding. They were also known to have cloaking abilities, as well as the ability to scramble radio communications. These drones were the downfall of the first Heil Empire.

It is not known if all the Gatekeepers have been destroyed. It is assumed, however, that some still remain. Upon examination, Gatekeepers follow orders from a central computer, located elsewhere in the Galaxy and presumed to be a part of an "Arch-Gatekeeper". This computer was never found, although all of the Gatekeepers that were known at the time (and even some that were accidentally discovered) were destroyed.