Mechans are a robotic race of sapient humanoid robots. The Mechans (more properly, the Mechan Nine) are a starfaring race of androids, originally launched from Earth in the closing days of the Old Empire (3479) as part of Project Noah, the same project that established Arth as an Imperial Colony and sent the Umanu and Lowar to the Delta Sector. The Mechans were part of the ninth Noah group (since confirmed as the last Noah mission planned). They were sent to the planet of Heaven (α145x107, p4) with the job of terraforming a marginally suitable planet into a world suitable for colonization within a year’s time, and to defend that world from the Empire’s enemies until the colony ship arrived. The Mechans had Heaven ready to go by the time the colony ship Lasthope was due to arrive. Unfortunately for the Mechans, the transport never arrived, having been marooned on a less suitable world after a terrorist attack on the ship. The Mechans waited for the arrival of the Lasthope for over a thousand years. When Interstel crews began encountering the Mechans, their programming sensed Human lifesigns and their failsafe programming kicked in (owing to political turmoil within the Empire at the time of its collapse), preventing contact until a protocol was correctly received. Though it took some effort, an Interstel crew finally responded properly in 4620, and contact was re-established between the Mechans and Humankind, though a few hundred years late. Since then, the Mechans have accepted the final fate of “Group Nine”, and have come into the service of “Group Two”, as they call the people of Arth.
The Mechans are a member species of the New Empire; for additional information on the Empire, [SF3MANWorkRequest|see their profile page].