Editing The Machine (section)

===More on the Engineers===
See, this is another of those points we were discussing back then. It seemed to start leaning toward Engineers not being hostile, but rather being very simple. There's the Machine, and then there's everything else. Everything else shouldn't be in the Machine. Their job is to get rid of everything else.

Granted, they couldn't possibly get rid of everything, and it probably takes them a while, but the general idea is that they view organic life as foreign particles that can mess with the parts of the Machine.

Of course, this isn't necessarily the case unless you get too close to vital parts of the Machine, so I guess that could work. Especially if it becomes a mystery how they even survived inside such a hostile environment.

Did some rough drafts on the fluff for Engineers, just to have it on paper rather than inside my head.

The Engineers
The Engineers (sometimes Little Engineers, but the name never seemed to catch on) is the name given to the autonomous self-repair devices inside the Machine. Each one is different in appearance, function and demeanor, but they all have one thing in common. They all keep the Machine ticking. They weld, they clean, they reattach parts that have come loose and so on and so on. Hence the name Engineers.

The Engineers seem to be the only parts of the Machine that actually react to the presence of humans. This reaction is quite unpredictable, however, and delvers are advised to stay as far away from Engineers as possible. While not hostile by nature, they have a tendency to view any foreign object venturing too close to certain parts of the Machine as a hazard, and will attempt to remove it, usually with fatal results for the delver.

Despite the obvious danger the Engineers pose, UNSERC regulations forbid the destruction of one in all but the most extreme circumstances. The reasoning behind it is simple. The Engineers repair the Machine. We have no idea whether it could produce more of them or not. If we destroy them all and something breaks down, it could have catastrophic consequences for the Machine, the planet and humanity. This doesn't mean all delvers are reluctant to destroy Engineers, however. Taking them out without UNSERC finding out has become something of a specialty among the more gung-ho delvers.