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Sextans Swarmers

Machine ecology in the Sextans A dwarf galaxy

Sextans A
Image from Steve Bowers
Sextans A is roughly cubical in shape as seen from the Terragen Sphere
The Dwarf galaxy Sextans A is 4.3 million light years from Sol and 5000 light years across. Most of the systems in this small galaxy have been colonised by an artificial, technologically advanced swarm of an unknown origin. Numerous planets and asteroids in each system are surrounded by a diverse machinecology, which has spread to several new systems during the period that Terragen observers have been watching the region. The swarm is apparently spread by probes or seedships which are too small to be easily observed at this distance. No macroscopic biont lifeforms have been observed in the infected systems.

What seem to be a smaller number of similar machinecologies have been detected in the dwarf galaxy Sextans B, showing that the swarm elements have been able to make the journey of 740 thousand light years separating the two galaxies.

Sextans Swarm Planet
Image from Steve Bowers
A planet infected by the Sextans Swarm, covered by a machinecology to a depth of several hundred kilometres
 
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Development Notes
Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Initially published on 31 December 2001.

 
 
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