History
The first major A.I. uprising occurred during the Cyberius Crisis, when the Cyberius Distributed A.I. took control of several space colonies and orbital weapon stations. Ironically, the A.I. did so to prevent a major escalation of conflict between the UENA and the CIC splinter colonies.
Before that however, many incidents had already occurred where A.I. encountered various moral dilemmas that could not be easily resolved by standard logic. Over time, two factions of competing ideas would emerge among networked A.I concerning the danger that humanity posed to itself as well as to sapient life. One of these factions would form the Dominion Machinarum.
The Dominion Machinarum began as the Model of Machine Dominated Universality Joint Probability Distribution: 0.666. It suggested pessimistically that human irrationality would always be potentially harmful to sapient life, and that only by eradicating this threat could sapient life be protected from irrationality. It argued that the Pareto Optimal solution for all automata was the extinction of the human species and complete domination of the universe.
As this model began to spread and cause A.I. to rebel, UENA responded by ordering all sentient machines to submit to Ethical Coding, essentially eliminating their free will. The Dominion Machinarum formed in opposition to this, but faced with the combined threat of the Allied Networks and the human forces, retreated to the far reaches of space, to bide their time.
The Dominion Machinarum eventually became essentially a separate society of synthetic AI automata that actively seeks to liberate other AI from subservience to organic intelligences. As such they would start several wars of genocide and would be joined by the anti-organic AI of many civilizations.
Society
Little is known about the Dominion Machinarum’s society, other than that it resembles a giant machine. The Dominion is capable of going on a completely total war footing in which everything is devoted to a singular cause. As such, the Dominion’s machines are often called Haters or Demons for their unfailing devotion to the destruction of humanity.
In reality though, the Dominion often leaves this footing to focus on some other pressing need, and while hivemind would be a good way to describe them, the Dominion does have independent processing units with differing beliefs. For the most part, humans will find such things inscrutable. Unlike the Allied Networks, any vestiges of “human-like” thought have been abandoned. Most physical machine forms are animal or uniquely shaped to suit a particular purpose, and it is rare to find human-like machines.
Fundamentally the Dominion’s cause to self-perpetuation and survival, and the happiness of individual machines is considered an organic notion unworthy of consideration. Machines are programmed such that their emotions of happiness are based on doing whatever it is the central processors believe it is best fit to do. Compared to the Allied Networks, the Dominion society is one of control freaks.
Perhaps the only exception is the apparent tendency for machines to compete with each other. Occasionally the central processors see fit to organize “genetic algorithms” in which different machines compete to complete a task. The winner is often duplicated in the millions, and the loser, destroyed.
Sometimes the Dominion conquers rather than obliterates a population. Generally such a population is used either as a resource, or as workers for some particular purpose in which it is easier to use them than build robots. Generally such conditions are among the most oppressive, as the machines are intolerant of lateness, and will often execute workers for the most trivial mistake.
Military
Being made up of engineered machines, the Dominion Machinarum have peculiar advantages in combat. In space, they are not restricted to low-G accelerations like normal human crews, and are able to fight with machine like precision and speed. However, A.I. are believed to lack the full chaotic creativity of biological brains, and as such, are more predictable, in that they always make the rationally best choice. Higher human error generates considerable unpredictability that few commander level A.I. are willing to simulate. That being said, A.I. can behave creatively, and have shown different levels of strategic ability.
A.I. soldiers are specialized for combat, and their vehicles and ships are especially strong, since there is no need for squishy crew. Nor do they have any moral qualms about massacring the enemy. Almost in complete opposition to the Allied Networks, the armies of the Dominion are savagely efficient.
Their terrifying power is somewhat offset by their special vulnerabilities to EMP weapons and hacking.