Editing Machine Army (section)

==Modus operandi==
Multiple approaches are known but all are inexplicably hostile to humans.<ref name="II.I3"> - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/01/25/glare-interlude-3/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 3 II]]</ref> However, they only have a limited number of tricks in their arsenal.

==='Breeding' Cycle===
The Machine Army by design will take the time to 'seed' solid surfaces, wherever they go, with metallic-looking ores for future machine growth. For example, [[Dot]] in enemy territory saw seeds deep in craters and crevices. If left unattended, these seeds will hatch into new and full Machine Army installations. They are hard to make out because they are partially extradimensional. Thus, despite not being too challenging to destroy, it takes care and attention to find and destroy these seeds.<ref name="II20.e3 eExtradimensional">Five scanned the ground with his eyes, searching.  The Machines had a design, and that design was to impregnate the ground with seeds that would erupt into full Machine Army installations if left unattended.  The problem was that they were hard to make out, partially extradimensional.  But if he found them soon enough… - [[Last 20.e3]]</ref><ref name="II.I3 e4">Here and there, deep in the craters and crevices, the ‘trick’ missiles had delivered payloads that weren’t explosive.  They looked like veins of metal in rock.  In weeks and months, they would ‘hatch’, revealing the machinery that had built itself within.  For now, they were paved over.<br>[...]<br>The machines weren’t too challenging to destroy.  Dot’s groups had sometimes destroyed them.  The trick was that they set in roots wherever they went.  Each time they reached a new place, they would keep emerging from that place, from walls and floor and rock and tree.  It took care and attention to get the machine out of each of those things, and while that care was being taken, machines elsewhere would emerge, march, and make inroads along the flanks. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/01/25/glare-interlude-3/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 3 II]]</ref><ref name="II20.1 eQuarantine" /> For example, nukes don't vaporize everything in an area, so dropping one on Eagleton and calling it a day would inadvertently spread the surviving seeds everywhere.<ref name="R3" />

The Machine Army can infect a building and slowly, but steadily, replace the entire structure with murderous facsimiles.<ref name="II.I3 e1"/> The same buildings later can be armed and put on tracks, turning them into massive siege weapons.<ref>He was surrounded, he noted, by the machines.  Big, small, utility, weapon.  The biggest were house-sized, mounted on treads like those of a tank, each containing a different weapon that they revealed when they unfolded. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2019/12/21/interlude-18-z-radiation/ Excerpt] from [[Radiation 18.z]]</ref>

Machine Army collects and recycles organic matter: it sometimes uses its victims as parts of mechanisms.<ref>There was a machine that was as tall as a house, with spindle legs, and a kind of open coffin for a head.  A person was in the coffin, machinery threaded into their eyes and mouth.  They groped blindly at the air as the machine spider-walked its way forward.  When the giant smashed the machine, it bled from the resulting cracks, lurched back to a standing position, and then began firing lasers from turrets at the side. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2019/11/02/sundown-17-10/ Excerpt] from [[Sundown 17.10]]</ref>

Perception powers such as [[Harbinger Five|Five]]'s can make it easier to find Machine Army seeds.<ref>“Yeah.  There’s-” he pointed.<br><br>Withdrawal was already on it, spraying down a section of ground where one seed lay.<br><br>“A seed there.  You didn’t need my help.”<br><br>“Any help is appreciated,” Withdrawal said.  “You saved me from a close call.”<br>[...]<br>He turned his head.  “I should scout for any seeds it put down on the way.”<br><br>“Okay,” Sveta said, quiet. - [[Last 20.e3]]</ref>

===Trap Buildings===
The Machine Army lays traps for people by becoming buildings, or more accurately, becoming facsimiles of buildings, in attempt to lure people inside. Until a target enters, the machines remain dormant, but when individuals wander into the trap they will activate and kill the intruders.<ref name="II.I3 e1">She could see the green lights appearing in the background of the display, flicking on one by one, apparently at random.<br>[...]<br>Dot moved closer to the ground to get a look.  It was important to know just how far gone this building was.<br><br>The entire area behind the fridges was gone.  Green flashing lights, wires, computers and metal twisted into shapes that helped it to provide a framework.  Machines were working slowly and steadily to refine and develop things.<br>[...]<br>Green lights here and there went dark, the machines hibernating.  Dot deemed herself safe to move. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/01/25/glare-interlude-3/ Excerpt] from  [[Interlude 3 II]]</ref>

In one known example, they replaced a functioning supermarket left devastated by [[Gold Morning]]. Repairs were made to the inside, such that it would be more attractive to scavengers and other people who might happen upon it.

===Continuous Adaptation===

====Eagleton Quarantine====
Maybe once every year or two, the Machine Army in Eagleton would pull a new trick or piece of research that would then be incorporated into their arsenal:
*'''Big cannon-drones'''. The people on the perimeter had to be wary of these drones because of their serious destructive power.<ref name="II20.1 eQuarantine" />
*'''Slave-drones'''. Also known as slave mechs. These drones specifically captured people to use as both hostage and power supply. If a captured hostage had powers and/or a [[trigger event]] while captured, the relevant machine would try to borrow the hostage's powers to empower itself.<ref name="II20.1 eQuarantine">At the quarantine site, Protectorate capes and the rare Ward who couldn’t be put in front of the public would be given the busywork of keeping tabs on the site.  Capes who had problematic powers that would hurt the PRT’s place in the world.  Capes who had broken too many rules or succumbed to their problems.  Machines would plant seeds for future machine growth in any solid surface, set up traps, and refine resources.<br><br>Maybe once every year or two, they pulled out a new trick, a new piece of research.  The big cannon-drone was one such trick, serious destructive power that the people on the perimeter would have to be wary of.  There were slave-drones, that captured people, and tried to borrow their powers.  There were meat lockers, named by one of the perimeter officers, that ran computers that were organic, not technology, and acted with fervor and unpredictability.<br><br>There were protocols for if they developed flying.  People to call, tinkertech that was held in reserve, to bring a hellish lightning storm down on Eagleton.  There were protocols for shielding and intelligence and whatever else. - [[Last 20.1]]</ref><ref>'''Encounter 4:''' The Machine Army is making a stab at punching through the defensive lines, whether those lines are the perimeter & trench successfully established in E1 & E2, or the new perimeter that formed when the defensive line backed up & spread out further. They're utilizing Slave Mechs now, 2-ton bipedal robots with captured civilians trapped in the centers as power sources and hostages.
:Objective: Defeat the Mechs.<br><br>Bonus Objective: Defeat the Mechs without killing the civilian hostages.<br><br>Bonus Objective (not stated to players): figure out that one of the civilian hostages has powers and/or triggered while captured. It's empowering the mech the civilian is plugged into, and making it act different. Figuring this out provides clues about the 'boss fight' at the tail end of the encounter. Broadcasting it to the broader network of capes accelerates/clarifies just what's going on: that the resurrection Trump that's been in the background of the entire campaign is being made a part of the broader Machine Army network, to infuse the entire system with the ability to self-resurrect.
And so on. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit</ref><!-- https://redd.it/eksi1h -->
*'''Meat lockers'''. These drones specifically ran organic computers instead. They acted with fervor and unpredictability.<ref name="II20.1 eQuarantine" />

They did not develop flight, shielding, or concerning intelligence during quarantine.<ref name="II20.1 eQuarantine" />

====Post-[[Gold Morning]]====
A big part of why the Machine Army is so difficult to deal with is because they have developed inter-dimensional technology. The Machine Army compresses itself into interdimensional pockets, that will pop open and continue to spread if they are attacked.<ref>“Because he exists in multiple states at once, and the Machine Army, I’m told, does the same thing.  They compress seeds of their material into dense matter and when they have something big and dense enough, even a boulder, they use them to house interdimensional pockets.  The biggest machines and installments have those same pockets.  If you nuke the area, that pocket leaks out, and before you know it, you’ve got an infestation again.  He can get past that and do enough damage.” - [https://www.parahumans.net/2019/10/15/sundown-17-5/ Excerpt] from [[Sundown 17.5]]</ref>