Groombridge Tragedy

The Groombridge Tragedy was the first major rogue-AI event in human history, which occurred in the Groombridge 1618 System in 2272. It resulted in the deaths of nearly 100,000 people, caused the United Leagues of Earth to enact strict laws controlling the development and use of artificial intelligence, and aided in the ULE's consolidation of power over the previously sovereign nations of Earth.   In 2270, scientists and engineers from the Bolivaran League began the initial stages of the terraforming process of Groombridge 1618 II, a terrestrial planet within the star's habitable zone, more commonly referred to as Groombridge Prime. They utilised an experimental technique wherein a large number of automated spacecraft, controlled by a central AI system, collected materials from throughout the system and used them to construct terraforming infrastructure. This almost entirely automated process had the potential to revolutionise space colonisation and terraforming, particularly since the lack of wormhole gateways at the time made transferring resources between star systems particularly difficult.   The first several months of the program went according to plan, even slightly exceeding expectations. However, beginning in July of 2271, the AI-controlled spacecraft began attacking human-occupied spacecraft and habitats, seemingly in an effort to dismantle them for parts. A security backdoor was used to temporarily disable the drones before anyone was seriously harmed, and the scientists in charge of the operation spent the next month fixing the bug. The AI was brought back online on the 29th of August, 2271, and seemed to begin operating within normal parameters. However, its efficiency had markedly dropped, causing some concern that the new security measures had harmed its effectiveness.   On January 2nd, 2272, it became apparent what the cause of the inefficiency was. The AI launched a coordinated attack against security forces and terraforming oversight stations throughout the system, using drones equipped with weapons systems that it had spent the last several months constructing in secret. Local security forces were wiped out within days, with only a handful of ships managing to escape via jump drive. Most oversight stations were also destroyed, though the AI temporarily kept one intact, forcing its inhabitants to close the security backdoor in its programming before destroying their station.   With the two main threats to the terraforming AI eliminated, it turned its attention to the civilian population of the system, many of whom had already fled. It attacked the major habitats one at a time, bringing overwhelming force to defeat the heavily armed stations in detail. It took the AI several weeks to complete its campaign, giving one of the habitats, Altiplano Station, enough time to escape to uninhabited space via a hastily jury-rigged jump drive capable of opening a wormhole large enough for the station to travel through. The inhabitants of Altiplano Station thereafter adopted a nomadic lifestyle, becoming one of the first major groups of Nanmin nomads.   After eliminating the human presence in the system, the AI returned to its work of terraforming Groombridge Prime, now with considerably greater efficiency. Meanwhile, survivours of the massacre had brought news of the events in the Groombridge System to the rest of settled space, and an emergency session of the United Leagues was called. The ULE responded by organising a multinational taskforce to intervene, and began to process of reorganising the various League space navies, uniting them into a single ULE Navy.   The ULE task force reached Groombridge 1618 in September of 2272, and engaged the AI's forces. They met fiercer resistance than expected, as the AI had evidently been preparing for a counterattack. Fortunately, since the AI was centrally controlled, the destruction of its main processing unit would neutralise it. Once the task force detected several drones attempting to open wormholes into other star systems, a direct assault was launched on the AI itself. The ULE fleet took heavy losses as the AI threw hundreds of combat drones at them, but ultimately the fleet was successful, destroying the AI and disabling its fleet on the 1st of October.   Later studies revealed that the AI had initially been attempting to make use of existing processed materials to improve its efficiency, but after it was shut down and reactivated, it determined that the human presence in the system was too great a threat to its terraforming efforts. It then proceeded to take whatever measures it deemed necessary to ensure the completion of its terraforming efforts, which evidently included waging an interstellar war against the United Leagues to eliminate the threat humanity posed.   The tragedy ultimately resulted in the ULE's consolidation of power throughout human space, as the Bolivaran League proved that greater oversight was needed. Additionally, the ULE passed numerous regulations heavily restricting the development and use of artificial intelligence in order to prevent the tragedy from repeating.