The Alien Machine

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.