Galactic CyberNet
Taken directly from the book "Your First Steps" by Athlon M. Topia II


     The Galactic CyberNet or GCN for short, is a moon sized supercomputer which basically stores and catalogues everything in the PS. The Humans accidentally reactivated it when they first arrived in the PS. Now it allows users from across the PS to access cyberspace and communicate with each other, access info on billions of subjects, and oh wow, the sheer volumes of porn is mind boggling. I never realized the things Humans are willing to stuff into their orifices. Ah but I digress. This is the short of the GCN.

     The long of it is, nobody knows exactly who or what built the GCN, and quite frankly we didn't even know the GCN moon was artificial. The planet it orbits has been used for centuries as a mining colony by every race in the PS. The moon had been scanned, rescanned, probed and shot at repeatedly for centuries as well and it always came back as a hunk of rock. The only thing out of the ordinary about that entire sector of space was there tended to be more than an average amount of ships to go missing. But nobody ever thought anything of it, and to this day ships still tend to go missing more than average in that sector. Another anomaly about that sector is that there is only one star system in that entire sector. Which really that's not strange, the rest of the PS is strange because there is an inordinate amount of systems pretty close together compared to the rest of the galaxy.
     When the Humans first came into contact with the moon they were actually trying to call home, they were using a system of communications that fired off data packets using nutrino bursts. The GCN moon even though it was dormant was still recording everything around it, and some of it's ancient programming found something familiar about the data packets and it reactivated. All data communications arcross the entire PS was shutdown as the GCN's programming was force fed into billions of computers and when everything started up again there was instant FTL communications. Now 5 years later very few beings could picture life in the PS without the GCN.


Notes for anyone wanting to make this pretty.

The GCN moon is at least 2 million years old.

The moon is somewhat hollow, a being can go inside it and explore. Inside the moon you can find entire cities of many different times and places, from what appears super advanced, to cave like dwellings, they all appear to be in suspended animation with their populations stopped in mid stride as they walk.

The GCN moon itself is a hub and controller, most interplanetary computers can talk to each other without ever accessing the moons databanks, but they still rely on the moon's software.

The GCN moon does allow FTL communication, but with the vast distances it can still take days for info to get from one place to another.

The moon encourages the free sharing of information. Everytime a being uploads info the GCN reminds its users that the info can be intercepted and the GCN itself will not interfere in the free flow of info. However, the GCN has provided the entire PS with the code required for individuals to write programs compatible with the GCN so they can encrypt and protect their info as they see fit.

The GCN encourages all beings to visit the GCN moon regularly for a backup scan. The moon will scan a being and store their genetic code and memories. The moon will also implant a transponder so that if a being is killed the GCN moon will then clone you from your last backup. Anything that happened after the backup will be undone, memories, new skills etc the clone will not know. However all assets will be transferred to the clone automatically. The GCN customer service daemon would like to remind you that the transponder can be damaged and the death signal may not be sent. It would also like to remind you that dying from natural causes does not transmit a death signal and you will not be cloned.

The GCN moon is a tourist hotspot and many a scientists dream. There are thousands of cities and millions of beings held in suspended animation. The GCN doesn't allow direct access to these cities, but you can view them on a maglev train that runs through the exhibits regularly. The GCN also doesn't allow access to any information it may have stored before it reactivated. Only info it has learned in the last 5 years.

Even though the GCN allows FTL communications, many beings still rely on data couriers. A ship in hyperspace can generally get to a destination 25% faster than a GCN signal, and with less chances of interception. Usually financial data is what's most commonly carried. Many a being has made their fortunes doing nothing but carrying data back and forth. The GCN customer service daemon would like to remind it's users that financial data can be safely transmitted across the GCN if proper encryption protocols are in use.

The GCN "Customer Service Daemon" is an androgynous looking humanoid being that works as an avatar to communicate with beings using the GCN. It can be 100% voice activated and recognizes every language in the PS except MonZa. The Customer Service Daemon admits that the MonZa langauge, spoken or otherwise is beyond its abilities. A being can read, or have the Customer Service Daemon read data aloud, or a being can use a keyboard or ID to input data, an ID (Interface Device, not to be confused with the "iD" virus) can also be used to push data straight into a beings brain.

The GCN gave the Patrolled Sectors (PS) the ID technology which allows any being with the appropriate cybernetic modifications to access the GCN by plugging themselves in and creating avatars of themselves in cyberspace. It has literally opened up an entire new world and culture.

The GCN can not create backups of MonZa, but the MonZa have that capability on the Blackship.

The GCN can defend itself. After the initial data blackout the TCR, or Terran Corporate Republic sent an armada to the moon to investigate. They determined the only way to stop the GCN was to destroy it so they fired on it. The GCN moon defended itself by hacking the individual ships and causing them to self destruct. The moon itself suffered no damage, the surface, even the dust at the sites of several torpedo impacts appeared undisturbed.

Recent scans show that there is at least a mile thick layer of dust and debris on its surface from the eons of its existence. However, it's widely theorized that the GCN moon is quite capable of making scans appear to show anything it wants.

The GCN moon launches probes into uncharted space every 12 hours. They move much faster than any vessel in the PS (except perhaps the MonZa blackship), none have yet to be intercepted and the probes trajectories appear to take them out of the Milkyway galaxy.

The GCN Customer Service Daemon encourages users to try and hack GCN data nodes. A substantial and still unclaimed monetary award of 5 billion credits goes to any being that can crack a GCN data node. The GCN Customer Service Daemon would like to remind it's users that failure to hack a node could result in a flatline. Attempt at your own risk.

Anyone willing to take this info and clean it up and make it look more professional? I'd be forever thankful.