The Alien Machine
Device that froze Tau Volantis
The Alien Machine was a colossal device built by the ancient inhabitants of Tau Volantis to freeze their world and halt a Convergence Event. Buried beneath a mountain, it held the dead alien city and could be reconfigured by the Codex to crush the planet's Moon.
The Alien Machine, also known as the Alien City, was a colossal device built by the ancient inhabitants of Tau Volantis to freeze their entire world and halt a Convergence Event. Buried beneath a vast mountain overlooking the abandoned Sovereign Colonies research base, the city-like structure entombed the corpses of the dead species and their Necromorph counterparts. Through a device called the Codex, the Machine could be reconfigured to crush the Tau Volantis Moon rather than merely stop its formation. (Dead Space 3)
Structure#
The Machine was a maze of paths and catacombs ringed by pillars that led to the control center for the Codex. The bodies of the aliens themselves seemed to have become part of the structure, standing erect or hunched along the pathways, their limbs fused with the stone they pressed against. Scattered throughout were special platforms that amplified the use of kinesis and stasis, often placed before doors that required the decryption of the aliens' modified language to open. A promenade ringed by an arch stood before great doors and monoliths, where a kinesis boost could launch a traveler across long distances. (Dead Space 3)
Eroded by time, the city was choked with thick, sticky webbing when the Sovereign Colonies rediscovered it, the likely remains of the Corruption left by the Necromorph life form. By 2514, the remnants of the Deep Dig Team's incomplete work, scaffolding, construction material, and generators, still lay scattered through the structure. After the original Convergence Event wiped out the aliens, the Machine was hidden beneath a great mountain, with the Sovereign Colonies later building Facility One at its base and Facility Two on the peak, ringed by a perimeter wall and linked by lift and tram systems that were cut off when the base was abandoned. (Dead Space 3)
Halting Convergence#
To prevent the completion of the Convergence Event triggered by the Markers, the aliens built the Machine to freeze the planet and then pull the incomplete Moon down onto Tau Volantis to kill it. For reasons unrecorded, they never finished the Machine, and the planet was left frozen, arresting the Convergence in the process. The aliens created a language that future species could use, warning of the danger and explaining how to complete the Machine if it were found. The incomplete Moon, meanwhile, began calling to lifeforms to deactivate the Machine and finish Convergence, demanding that it be made whole. (Dead Space 3)
Rediscovery and the Scenario Five purge#
Roughly two million years later, in 2311, the Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces found the planet by triangulating the signal of their own Red Markers. Research teams led by Dr. Earl Serrano made their way underground and found the frozen alien city and its vast corpses, along with a wealth of artifacts. As they unearthed more Markers and lifeforms, they drew closer to the truth. Serrano eventually understood what had happened on the planet and tried to finish what the aliens had begun, but the Necromorph life form spread through the bodies of fallen soldiers and researchers. His efforts were thwarted by General Spencer Mahad, who issued the Scenario Five order: the eradication of all personnel and the destruction of all information on the aliens, including the Codex that could complete the Machine. The planet and the expedition were lost for two hundred years, until Marker researcher Damara Carver rediscovered old Sovereign Colonies records on Uxor in 2514. (Dead Space 3; Dead Space: Liberation)
The final reactivation#
Ellie Langford, a friend of Damara, set out to finish her work, joined by Robert Norton and Damara's husband John Carver. When Isaac Clarke was brought out of hiding, his command of Marker script let the team reach the planet. Believing Tau Volantis to be the Marker homeworld, Isaac was plagued by hallucinations demanding that he turn the Machine off, a deception meant to convince him the Machine was the source of the Markers. Hounded by the Unitologists under Jacob Danik, the team pieced together Serrano's broken records and rebuilt a Codex from the memories of a preserved alien specimen named Rosetta. (Dead Space 3; Dead Space: Liberation)
Isaac and Carver descended into the heart of the Machine to stop Danik from restarting Convergence, but the Unitologist leader used the Codex to free the Moon from hibernation, reviving the event. The Moon seized the Machine, and the two fought the massive Necromorph until they could disable it long enough to reactivate the Machine with the Codex and kill the Moon. Its signal was silenced, but before its death the Moon contacted its kin, who restarted the Marker signal and turned toward Earth. (Dead Space 3; Dead Space 3: Awakened)
Frequently asked questions
- What was the Alien Machine?
- The Alien Machine, also called the Alien City, was a gigantic device built by the alien species that once inhabited Tau Volantis. They constructed it to freeze the entire planet and halt a Convergence Event triggered by the Markers, and it housed the corpses of the aliens and their Necromorph counterparts.
- What was the Codex?
- The Codex was a device that could interact with and reconfigure the Machine. With it, the Machine's function could be changed from merely halting the Moon's formation to pulling the Moon down and crushing it. Isaac Clarke and his companions rebuilt a Codex from the memories of a preserved alien specimen named Rosetta.
- What happened to the Alien Machine?
- Jacob Danik used the Codex to free the Tau Volantis Moon and restart Convergence, but Isaac and John Carver reactivated the Machine with the Codex and used it to kill the Moon. The Moon's signal was halted, though before its death it called to its kin, who turned toward Earth.
Sources
- GameDead Space 3, Visceral Games, 2013
- ComicDead Space: Liberation, Ian Edginton and Christopher Shy, Titan Books, 2013
- GameDead Space 3: Awakened, Visceral Games, 2013
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
Facility One
Facility One was a vast military and archaeological compound built by the Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces at the base of a mountain on Tau Volantis. It served as the nerve center of the Galactic Expedition, coordinating the search for the source of the Marker signals.
Facility Two
Facility Two, also called the Research Compound, was the Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces science base built atop a mountain on Tau Volantis to reach the Alien Machine buried beneath it. It was abandoned during the Scenario Five purge in 2314 and lay frozen and forgotten until 2514.
Tau Volantis
Tau Volantis was a frozen planet where, two million years ago, an alien civilization flash-froze their own world to halt a Convergence Event. Mistaken for the Marker homeworld, it became the site of the final clash over the Brethren Moons.
Convergence
Convergence was the final stage of the Marker cycle, an event in which a Marker pulled every corpse and Necromorph into the sky to merge into a new Brethren Moon. It was the true goal behind every Marker, every outbreak, and the doctrine of the Church of Unitology.
Damara Carver
Doctor Damara Carver was a data archaeologist assigned to Uxor to study the Shroud 4 Marker, and the wife of John Carver. Her research uncovered a vast government cover-up of the Markers, and her recovered work set in motion the expedition to Tau Volantis.
Earl Serrano
Doctor Earl Serrano was the Sovereign Colonies Science Division's Civilian Head of Archeology who led the Tau Volantis expedition from 2311 to 2314. He uncovered the truth of the alien Machine and the Brethren Moons before dying on the frozen world, leaving behind logs found two centuries later.
Mentioned in16 entries
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The Dead Space story from start to finish, in story order. The prequel novels, the three main games, the films and the key spin-offs, with how each one ends and where the saga stands now.
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The full Dead Space chronology, from a Convergence frozen on Tau Volantis two million years ago to the Brethren Moons arriving over Earth in 2514. Events are grouped into eras, oldest first, and every entry names the game, film, novel or comic it comes from.
Facility One
Facility One was a vast military and archaeological compound built by the Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces at the base of a mountain on Tau Volantis. It served as the nerve center of the Galactic Expedition, coordinating the search for the source of the Marker signals.
Facility Two
Facility Two, also called the Research Compound, was the Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces science base built atop a mountain on Tau Volantis to reach the Alien Machine buried beneath it. It was abandoned during the Scenario Five purge in 2314 and lay frozen and forgotten until 2514.
Facility Two Marker: the caged Red Marker of Tau Volantis
The Facility Two Marker was a seemingly SCAF made Red Marker kept in the Marker Containment hall of the Sovereign Colonies Science Division on Tau Volantis. Two centuries after the expedition that gathered it was purged, the artifact turned the voice of Damara Carver against her widowed husband John, who broke its hold over his mind and left it cracked inside its cage.
Marjorie Graves
Admiral Marjorie Graves commanded the Sovereign Colonies fleet sent to Tau Volantis to trace the Marker signal. Driven mad by the Red Markers stored aboard her ships, she left behind a hidden message about a key to shut down the Alien Machine that Isaac Clarke and Ellie Langford deciphered two centuries later.
Medusa: Zero Gravity Necromorph of Tau Volantis
The Medusa was a Necromorph form found only in the zero gravity spaces of Tau Volantis, a drifting mass of limbs and yellow sacs believed to be raised from a native lifeform of the planet's ancient oceans. Survivors learned to avoid it, for its limbs could tear a person apart and its sacs launched projectiles that chased targets through the void.
Nexus Organism
Nexus organisms, also called Hive Minds, were massive Necromorphs that received the control signal of the Markers and Brethren Moons and relayed it to the smaller Necromorph forms. They served as the second in command of an outbreak, coordinating the horde across whole worlds and ships.
Research Compound Silo: Gateway to the Alien City
The Research Compound Silo was a sector of the Sovereign Colonies' Facility Two on Tau Volantis. Built around a vast elevator shaft, it was the main entrance to the Alien City below and the route by which artifacts were raised from the Machine.
Rosetta: The Preserved Alien Specimen
Rosetta was the name given to a perfectly preserved alien corpse found in the ice of Tau Volantis. Its unaltered DNA held the key to building a Codex capable of interfacing with the Alien Machine.
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