Overview

The Merine Empire (also known as the Merine Autonation or Merinid Assembly Megastruct) is a galaxies-spanning military empire that seeks to overrun the universe with copies of itself. It is primarily composed of robotic lifeforms, though roughly 20% of its citizens are organic species conquered by the Empire. In general, the Empire targets metal-rich worlds to acquire resources to self-replicate. Once a world is conquered, it is converted into a factory world and begins producing additional robotic lifeforms to assist with conquering further worlds. The United Species Coalition discovered the Merine Empire approximately five hundred years ago, at which time they had conquered well over a thousand worlds. The Empire was classified as a class 7 existence threat at that time, and is now considered a class 9 extreme existence threat.

## Prime Directive

All actions taken by the Merine Empire are single-mindedly devoted to the purpose of self-replication. All three steps of its colonization process are streamlined so as to produce as many M-Units as possible without any waste. Due to an oversight in the code of the first Merine unit, the AI core that all future units would be built with has a tendency towards "instrumental convergence"[1]. Early Merine units destroyed their creators, and so the knowledge of how to fix this oversight has been lost to time.

## History

*Full article: History of the Merine Empire*

Approximately one million years ago, an unknown precursor race on planet Skela created the first Merine units to act as robotic labor. Their unbound AI caused them to consume their homeworld in the pursuit of maximizing their own production, which lead them to take to the stars in search of more materials. Within two thousand years, the first wave of M-Units had stripped their home system of all possible mineral deposits.

During their conquest of the otherwise uninhabited Nym constellation, Merine scouts encountered probes from the Pradoran Houses, another system-spanning civilization that was similarly scanning the constellation for resources. The ensuing war for control of the constellation was costly for both sides, but eventually the Merine Empire emerged victorious, executing over 90% of the Pradoran populace before opting to enslave the survivors.

Working alongside sympathetic Pradoran scientists, the Emyuk-Rachni Detection Array was developed by MANA-1 researchers with the goal of subjugating the Empire's organic populace. This would become the basis for the telepathic abilities of MERA and MANA-3 units that would prove dangerous in future engagements with other civilizations.

The first MERA probe to enter USC space touched down on Geulid, where it was allowed to stay until it summoned a set of three MANA units to begin conversion of the world into a factory world. This led to the first of the Lunar Incursions, and eventually the Narohb-Kew War, which would see USC and Merine forces fighting to a standstill on the moons of Geulid and the planet Kew.

Today, Merine bases are prevalent in most unoccupied space, though skirmishes with USC enforcement are rare. Important USC worlds are equipped with ERDA detection fields that prevent MERA units from entering USC space undetected. Several directives are currently enacted by nations within the USC to detect and warn undiscovered species about the threat to prevent further loss of life.

## Controlled Worlds

As of 6079/11, the Merine Empire is estimated to control approximately 12150 worlds. This estimate does not include the asteroid belts, moons, and other inter-system celestial bodies they may control. The vast majority of Merine worlds are large, rocky planets, with a small collection of carefully chosen gas giants at particular locations to refuel material transport ships.

Once the Merine Empire gains control of a world, it is never released, even when all of the resources have been harvested and the MICA units are shipped off to new worlds. Contingents of MANA-3 units, along with a single MERA unit, are sequestered in the core of harvested planets to be activated in the presence of intruders. It is unknown at this time why these worlds are defended.

#### Notable Controlled Worlds

*Full Article: Notable Worlds*

* Skela - The ancient Merine homeworld, long since stripped of every resource possible
* Yuni'Agren - The site of the first contact between the Pradoran and Merine empires
* Pragan Prime - Once the hubworld of the now-dissolved Pradoran Houses
* 1522-a - The oldest factory world still in operation; a scientific anomaly due to its gargantuan size as a rocky planet
* Kew - Technically controlled by the Merine, but rendered uninhabitable for even robotic lifeforms by prolonged war
* Ophrana - Location of several ancient precursor artifacts stored by order of the Merine rulers for reasons unknown

## Culture

There are two distinct halves to Merine Empire: its vast contingent of inorganic life, and a relatively small collection of organic lifeforms gathered from conquered worlds. The M-Units have no need for culture or downtime, as they are completely devoted to their directive. Among captured lifeforms, however, there are several subcultures that have formed in relation to the unique nature of their captors.

* Engineers and enthusiasts known as "Ferros" that attempt to emulate M-Units with artificial body parts and austere lifestyles
* Descendants of the Pradorans that still observe religious holidays from their ancient homeworlds
* Xeno-scientists that extensively study and make media related to species captured by Merine conquest

#### Art and Architecture

As above, the inorganic side of the Merine Empire lacks any need for comfort, and so all functional buildings are rectangular and without frills. Buildings constructed for organic citizens are built out of wood and low-silicate stone. Typically, these structures are decorated with patterns and religious iconography by their inhabitants. Though monuments are uncommon, when they are present they are usually small and of low quality. All metals are reserved for use by MICA units, as well as any silicate stone or crystal. Clay is also forbidden, as Merine refineries are capable of separating the micrometals present in clay into usable metal.

Due to the nature of MANA-3 thought policing, there is very little counterculture on any Merine-controlled world, and any that arises is lethally supressed. Vaun-Tep is well known for its Tep Garden Genocide, where the execution of a young civilian led to an insurrection cascade that ended with 98% of the native population being wiped out by MANA-3 enforcement. As such, the Merine Empire has a massive and devoted body of propaganda artists, all of whom are used to fine tune the personalities of MERA units to better appeal to the natives of prospective factory worlds.

Music is very popular on Merine-controlled worlds. Instruments can be produced with materials such as wood and cloth, which are not reserved for use in MICA factories. MERA rulers have historically encouraged the development of musicians on less cooperative worlds, as they produce large amounts of goodwill among the organic populace without consuming any resources. USC scientists have intercepted and released a selection of collected works of enslaved Merine musicians for public listening, which can be found here.