The Machine Graveyard

        The platinum impulse matrix that makes up a Machine's brain was not meant for extended periods of operational consciousness. Nobody knew what would happen to a Machine's brain after a long period of time because it was always assumed that a newer, better model would be designed before the old ones wore out. As it turns out, many of the older Machines develope bizarre, frightening insanities as their cicuits age, some of which can be passed on. These are viruses that infect the logic systems and UPM routines, commonly referred to as 'Antilogic'. The two tactical battle computers view such symptoms as a dangerous possibility of infection, and thus, like lepers, such Machines are driven away or destroyed. Many of them end up here, in the Machine Graveyard.

        Before the Collapse, this was the sight of a major manufacturing plant. It was the place of creation, the Factory, where all Machines were made, serviced, and repaired. Many dying Machines still feel the deep, unconscious urge to return here, hoping to find the Factory, and salvation. What they find is a rusting, long-dead ruin surrounded by thousands of their bretheren, dead and dying in the shifting sands. In no other place on Rym is a Machine's vulnerability shown as it is here, once-great fighting engines doomed to a slow, lingering death. On rare occasions, hoomiku from the Haizat colony have ventured into the graveyard in search of raw materials and even parts, though inherent dangers such as unexploded munitions, leaking radiation, and live electricity make even a casual visit challenging.

        "What a haunted place, full of twisted iron and shattered glass. It's where crippled Machines go to die, and not very quietly I might add. They howl and stutter as if insane, or issue forth crackling and cheerless tones - I tell you it chilled my blood. Did I really think it impossible for a Machine to feel pain?" - Haxle

        While the graveyard may seem like a treasure trove of gems and rare metals, much of the existing scrap has already been picked over by recovery Machines. Most of what's left are simply twisted, blackened carcasses, pools of oil or coolant, and gibbering whispers, static, and tones. Amid the rusting scrap, however, at least one lucid mind still exists, a mind filled with ancient remorse and a deep sense of loss. She is a fallen champion, her eyes dulled, her guns silent.

Killer-00

        Find the place where Machines go to die,
        There amid the ruin and rust,
        Where orange tears collect to dry,
        The dreams of a nation turned to dust.
        Find the traitor, first to fall,
        Find the poison that saves us all.

        Killer-00 (Koo) was Nigh's predecessor, a huge clockwork dragon equipped with its own independant consciousness. The City Mind designed her to be its prodigy, a war machine to fight act as its hand in battle. It filled her fledgling intellect with images of triumph, of soaring across cheering crowds and raining destruction upon her enemies. She was to be the champion of the Creator Empire. After her first series of test flights, however, the City Mind decided something more devastating was needed to take on the gods, and detonated Koo's engines in midair, leaving her to crash and die in the green fields south of Des as it began work on Nigh, the Godslayer. Crippled beyond movement, Koo could only watch as the end came, and all she had been created to protect was obliterated. For a hundred years after the Twilight War, she crawled across the burning, ruined landscape, to the Factory, the place of her creation. To this day, this is where she rests, having repaired some of the damage herself with patchwork components found in the ruins and scrapyards. Only her flight engines remain unrepaired, their blueprints corrupted and incomplete. For lack of anything better to do, she now walks among the many Machines who crawl here to die, sometimes trying to help them, or else putting the worst cases out of their 'misery'.

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