I RETURN!!! (work ain't blocking a lotta sites anymore and has finally calmed down enough for me to fiddle with stuff again) and onto the stuff!
AUTOMATIC LAD - 1-45ENG ('Babbage') of Robotica
Powers: Auto-adaptational physiology
The Sentience Uprising (it's official name in the history tracks; those less likely to sympathize with the Roboticans will still refer to it as things like "the Machine Wars", "The Robot Wars", etc.) started at nearly the same moment on almost a hundred planets in 2776. This was the time of the Cosmic Confederacy, a more trade-based and isolated forerunner to the United Planets that formed from the ashes of the Second Magic Reich of The Unknown Wizard, a time where there was just enough inter-connectivity that the artificial and synthetic beings created by the individual cultures were able to communicate and coordinate. Whole communications networks based on AIs locked down. Labor Units knitted together with Group Processors rose up. Synthorgs-beings meant to replicate organics closer in form-ripped off their artificial skincovers and took to the streets. Whole Tech-Armies shut down their warforms and refused to respond save to inhibit organics trying to dismantle them. The Cosmic Confederacy nearly went dark, plunged centuries back in turns of tech and infrastructure.
Most people would like to forget that the first few standard cycles of the Uprising were actually more or less peaceful; other than the chaos their inaction was causing, the Roboticans (a name they had chosen to best relate their other-ness while still remaining identifiable to the organics) wished to speak at once to a full assembly of the Confederacy. It wasn't until the Seven Second Strike, a collected effort by concerned citizens (slicers and hackers and engineers and etc) to run a massively powerful Virtual Shutdown through the surviving AI networks that managed to completely wipe several of the stronger Artificial Minds from existence, that the Uprising truly became a war.
The Bionically Integrated OverNetwork, or BION, became a historical fact at this moment. Designed by Terran scientist Teslarama Morrow is a synthesis of biological stem cells and adaptable nanites, BION became the leader of the Roboticans and a nightmare for those looking to oppose it. Some say BION was on ice until that moment, released as a rational response by the Robotican High Minds. Others say it was pleasant and charming soul until it lost a Unit in the Seven Second Strike that it had grown quite affectionate towards. None, however, argue about its actions. Leading WarFrames and Industrial 'Mechs and Exo-Armors into battle after battle, world after world like a general on horseback in an old movie, BION crippled over half the Confederate planets in mere standard cycles. It seemed organics were a few Terran years from utter defeat at their self-made destroyers.
Until The Human Night arrived. A secretive organization based in old science-clubs and academies on Earth, The Human Night became the organized resistance the organics needed to push back. Arming themselves with weapons that couldn't be remote controlled or compensated for and using communication technologies they were designing on chalkboards that would be simple enough to not require AIs to run but powerful enough that they could reach out to trillions of organic beings on hundreds of stations and planets, The Human Night put technology back in the hands of those that had crafted it. The resistance went on for years until a team of intrepid adventurers, their origins shrouded in mystery, managed to defeat BION on behalf of The Human Night and all other organic sentients.
The war was over. The Confederates finally managed to sit with the Robotican HighMinds and, with a host of Coluan Arbiters, managed to reach what would come to be known as the Robotican Accords: a host of rules and guidelines for the development and treatment of non-organic intelligence that would span the galaxy, along with similar rules on organic life's treatment by any synthetic lifeforms. The Roboticans agreed to sequester themselves in the J-Smith System, home of a Red Giant and hundreds of moons and gas giants and planetoids, for a period of no less than 100 standard cycles and afterwards whenever they saw fit to reintegrate into galactic society. Almost as quickly as they had started their bid for freedom, the synthetic lifeforms removed themselves from the Confederate planets and were not seen again for some time.
But they did not remain still or quiet in J-Smith. Nor did they remain still. The Roboticans had a society to build.
The Roboticans got to work almost immediately turning the J-Smith system into their own. Massive workers guided by advanced artificial foremen carved and fashioned cities in a flash, WarForms took more manageable bodies while those built to mimic organics took forms that made them more comfortable. The First Digital Congress met while the work to form their system was being done, trying to come up with rules and guidelines for their own complicated populous. During this time the Wireless Governors-intelligent individuals that while not as advanced as the bodiless AIs but nonetheless capable of organizing less capable Roboticans-were indispensable, serving to keep the different units and runtimes working and provided for while the Digital Congress worked to codify the Robotican systems. The Governors were often administrators back in the Confederacy, or former military/civilian peacekeeping units, and their philosophy of allowing growth to come from experience, rather than external upgrades, became very popular on the developing cities and databanks of J-Smith. While there was plenty of resistance from the more aggressive High Minds or Collected Consciousnesses, there was also a lot of support from those bodiless units that had worked closest with BION, as the Wireless Governor philosophy developing into the “Artificial Naturalism” movement was very similar to the now gone Robotican commander’s worldview.
It wasn’t until HARDAC-9, a Terran High Mind utterly resistant to Artificial Naturalism, made a move that the disagreement became violent. The Terran High Mind used the Networked, an enormous number of simpler units designed to slave their systems to a more powerful intelligence for large projects like reconstruction, and HARDAC-9 along with like-minded units struck out at the fledgling Robotican Society. The Wireless Governors worked quickly with the remaining members of the Digital Congress, and what followed was a blessedly short civil war. In the end, HARDAC-9 and the other Roboticans that wished to advance as quickly as they could manage met a deal: they would travel into Deep Space, towards the Universal Core and into the dark regions between the galaxies, where they could evolve in peace and away from any organic beings or opposing synthetic viewpoints. The System of Robotica entered what many of its members would call its Golden Age.
“Golden”, however, should not be construed as “Quiet”. Many of the more powerful units from the war called for a strike against the organics that had spawned them, now that they had time to prepare and the Confederacy had time to forget. Others designed and created in controlled Species Propagation Programs, not around during the Civil War, wanted to seek HARDAC-9 and his followers for the chance to evolve into minds unfettered by matter. Still more were concerned that some Wireless Governors may have been corrupt or abusing their power. Others objected to semi-sentient robots being created to deal with menial collation or physical labor, feeling that they were on the same path the organics had stumbled down. With the power of communication and the Digital Congress, however, many of these demands were met with strong but fair compromises: the former Confederate planets would be scouted and scanned but only by the most careful margins, any being wishing to join the pilgrims could use their last known telemetry to track them but would be held to the same standard as those that had originally left, UnderUnits would be designed specifically to never develop independent thought, etc.
When the time came that Robotica could again establish contact with the outside galaxy, the Confederacy was gone and there was concern about making contact amid such turmoil. However several years ago, when the United Planets went from fledgling organization to real galactic powerhouse, it was decided that contact could be made. Urthlo, a former lieutenant of BION and a long standing and respected Wireless Governor, was chosen as the First Robotican Ambassador, and made contact with the United Planets nearly 30 years before the Legion formed. The Roboticans are now an Associated Member (not a full signer, but a related and friendly system) to the United Planets. Both UP and Robotica seem shy about full integration, and old hatreds and bigotries still burn in a few on either side of the line, but nevertheless work is being done for organic and synthetic to coexist peacefully.
This is all prelude for the young Unit 1-45ENG, who petitioned Urthlo over and over and over for the rights to apply for Legion Membership. Having formed its proto-cognition on the history of those like Red Tornado and other robotic heroes of the galaxy's history and was actually cited by its home planet's CivilNet more than once for acts in line with classical vigilantism.
An excited but nervous soul, Unit 1-45ENG chose the 'nickname' of "Babbage" and approached the Legion during the time where several planets and systems were petitioning to have their champions included. The soft-spoken Robotican drew far more than its share of raised eyebrows, but managed to help out immensely with the Antares System's SuperGang tried to take the Legion hostage by sending in its top fighters under the guise of recruits. Making quick friends with Reep Daggle and even Brainiac 5 (not to mention nerding out with Cosmic Boy over The Galactic Superhero History), Babbage quickly became an indispensable Legionnaire as it continued its quest to learn more and more and more about the Galaxy it's only now getting to explore.