The Machine is the ancient device assimilated in the Earth's core, used by super-ancient beings to repel the Dark Sun.
History[]
Early History[]
At a currently unknown point in Earth's history, a race of Super-Ancient Beings discovered the Dark Sun and through their research learned that it comes closer to the central Sun every few million years, but its' deadly radiation was blocked from hitting Earth by Jupiter and Saturn. However, they predicted that on rare occasions the gaseous planets would not protect Earth, and that any life on the planet at that stage would be wiped out.
The Super-Ancients then set about constructing a machine, comprised of six vertices containing an inverted pyramid, which would work in conjunction with six oblong diamonds to fire a concentrated lasers at the Earth's core, which would then send out a sonic vibration that was powerful enough to keep the Dark Sun at bay.
Though they were able to prevent the Dark Star from approaching in their time, the Super-Ancient Beings realised that even after they were gone from the Earth (by extinction, or otherwise departing the planet), there may yet be intelligent life, and so set about making the Machine's restoration their second trial to determine if a new sentient species did arise and were worthy of existing.
At some point during the rise of human culture, the Super-Ancient Beings provided a collective group with knowledge of the Dark Star, as well as the tools that would allow them to find the Vertices of the Machine, as well as the six Pillars and the Six Sacred Stones. Eventually these Machine components came to be kept in Egypt under the Pharaoh Khufu's keep (himself apparently being a King of one of the Four Legendary Kingdoms). However, the priest Thuthmosis stole the Pillars and the Sacred Stones, unwittingly putting the Earth in danger of being destroyed by the Dark Sun as they were scattered around the world.
Before The Six Sacred Stones[]
Even as the Pillars and Sacred Stones were distributed around the world over the next few thousand years, various individuals who knew of the Machine, such as Laozi, made various inscriptions and carvings about it around the world. However, most of these would be weathered away or broken.
The Four Legendary Kingdoms would pass on what knowledge they had maintained regarding the Machine on through the generations, while also attempting to locate the lost Machine components, without success.
Towards the present day, after the Americans took possession of Diego Garcia and the fifth Vertex beneath it, they were able learn much regarding the Machine, and so set about their own attempts to rebuild the Machine so that they could claim the Pillars' rewards. By the present day, the MiT researcher Felix Bonaventura became their leading expert on the Machine.
Meanwhile, a few archaeologists discovered some of the remaining inscriptions and carvings, but most were unable to determine the true meaning of what the Machine was for. The only one who did, Max "Wizard" Epper, was able to figure out some of the truth, and so set about researching the Machine for most of his life, including his colleague Yobu Tanaka to help.
However, Wizard would become side-tracked by the events of the Capstone mission and the threat of the Tartarus sunspot. Only one the Tartarus rotation was concluded in March 2006 did Wizard return his focus to researching and uncovering the Machine.
Tank, in fact a member of the Japanese Blood Brotherhood, saw the Machine as the Brotherhood's chance to destroy the world and redeem Japan's dishonour. With their approval, as well as the support of Japan's government, Tank began researching the Machine with Wizard to seek opportunities to sabotage its restoration, and thereby cause the world's destruction.
At around the same time, Wolf's Commander-in-Chief's In Extremis Force (under the influence of the Kingdom of Sea's Caldwell Group), the Chinese and Saudi Arabians made an alliance to restore the Machine, not only so that they could keep the world from being destroyed, but also to obtain the Pillars and their rewards. Also, the Russian Royal and King of Land Carnivore made his own plans to secure the various Machine components for himself. The King of the Kingdom of Underworld, Anthony "Hades" DeSaxe, however, made no effort to take part in the mission, believing that if humanity had lost the knowledge for completing the Machine and failed as a result, then they did not deserve to exist.
Toward the end of 2007, Wizard had managed to deduce many of the truths regarding the Machine, identifying the Six Ramesean Stones that would assist in the Machine's restoration in unison with the topmost Piece of the Capstone, the Machine's true nature as the Earth's core and its construction by the Super-Ancient Beings who existed long before mankind, and determining that the Machine would need to be rebuilt just before the Dark Star's return on March 20th of 2008.
The Six Sacred Stones[]
On December 1st 2007, Wizard and Tank entered a chamber beneath Witch Mountain, where they believed the Philosopher's Stone was kept. Finding several carvings relating to the Machine, soon Wizard found one that noted that the first Pillar had to be set within the Machine 100 days before the Dark Star's return, which was a little over a week from then. Realising that they were about to be accosted by Mao Gongli and his men, Wizard decided to send his notes on the Machine and Dark Star to Jack West Jr.
After looking over Wizard's notes, Jack called together a new meeting of small nations to detail what the Canadian had discovered about the Dark Star, and iterate the necessity of restoring the Machine to repel it. Needing Wizard's full knowledge on the Machine, Jack led most of the team to free him from Xintan prison.
Zoe, Lily and Alby, on the other hand, were sent to England to rendezvous with Julius and Lachlan Adamson and use the Altar Stone of Stonehenge with the Firestone during the next Titanic Rising to discover the relative locations of each of the Machine's six vertices.
Later, the team headed out to the first vertex, discovered to be somewhere beneath Lake Nasser near Abu Simbel. After discovering the doorway into the Vertex hidden beneath the lake's surface, the cleansed first Pillar opened the entrance when placed into the Machine symbol's carving. Jack, Wizard and Zoe proceeded through the Vertex, and when the time came, Jack placed the Pillar on the inverted pyramid's tip, activating its laser and readying the first corner of the Machine.
Following a series of confrontations over the next week, Wolf and the CIEF managed to obtain the second Pillar and made their way into the second Vertex beneath Table Mountain, unaware that one of their soldiers, Switchblade, was a Blood Brotherhood operative. Having unwittingly given him the task of placing the Pillar, Switchblade instead prepared to drop the Pillar into the abyss below, which would keep the Machine from being able to be restored. It was only thanks to Jack's last-second intervention that the Pillar was placed and the Machine's second Vertex was initiated and ready for later activation.
The Five Greatest Warriors[]
In the course of the three-month gap between the placing of the second and third Pillars, Jack's team continued their research to locate the remaining Machine components. During this, they uncovered much of the history of most of the Sacred Stones and Pillars and how most had ended up where they were, and that the final three Pillars would require a second cleansing from the Basin before they could be placed in the Machine.
A couple of days before the third Pillar's due placement, the CIEF prepared an invasion force to enter the Hokkaido Vertex, encountering heavy resistance from the Japanese Navy and the Blood Brotherhood. Agreeing to a temporary truce with Jack, Lily and Zoe, the group made their way through the third Vertex, continuing to fight off the Japanese forces trying to keep them from restoring the Machine until they managed to place the Pillar and ready the third Vertex.
Once Carnivore had gathered most of the people involved in the Machine's restoration in his base, he asserted that they would be working for him and provide him with the Pillars once they had finished restoring the Machine.
As a result, the manipulated members of the Coalition of Minnows were forced to work on Carnivore's behalf, knowing that their refusal would result not only in the imprisonment of their friends, but in the failure to restore the Machine and save the world. Working at the same time, they managed to place the fourth and fifth Pillars beneath their corresponding Vertices at Lundy Island and Diego Garcia simultaneously, leaving only the final Vertex needing to be restored before the Machine was completely rebuilt.
At the exact moment the Dark Star drew close enough into the solar system to threaten the Earth, Jack and Lily set the sixth Pillar in place within the Easter Island Vertex. With the final Pillar set, the Machine initiated, and all of the Vertices around the world activated at once, striking the Earth's iron core with their beams of light and causing a wave of harmonic waves that quickly spread out from the planet and struck the Dark Star. The energy of the impact was able to force the Dark Star further out from the planets, ensuring that it would not be able to draw close enough to Earth to wipe out all life there until the Dark Star resumed its usual orbit patterns.
The One Impossible Labyrinth[]
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Purpose[]
The Machine and the six Vertices on the planet's surface were made by a race of super-ancient beings to stop the Dark Sun from coming too close to the Earth so that its unique radiation won't destroy life on Earth. Each of the Vertices are massive underground Temple-Shrines, each connecting to a corner of the Machine at various locations around the globe. The centerpiece of each Vertex is an inverted pyramid made of a bronze-like metal which has magnetic properties, suspended above a deep abyss.
The six corresponding Pillars must be placed in the Vertices during a Titanic Rising, a celestial event which occurs when Saturn's moon, Titan, rises and sinks behind Jupiter. Doing so causes a beam of light to hit the iron core of the Earth, which in response sends out a vibrating hum that counteracts the Dark Sun's zero-point fields effects.
Vertex Locations[]
The First Vertex - Abu Simbel[]
The First Vertex is located beneath Lake Nasser in Southern Egypt near Abu Simbel. The Pillar for this Vertex must be placed at 6:12 am (African time), the 10th of December 2007.
The Second Vertex - Table Mountain[]
The Second Vertex lies beneath Table Mountain, at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. The Pillar has to be set at sometime just after 3:00 am (African time), on the 17th of December 2007.
The Third Vertex - Hokkaido[]
The Third Vertex is located beneath Hokkaido Island in Japan. This Vertex's Pillar must be placed at 12:02 am (Japan time), on the 11th of March 2008.
The Fourth Vertex - Lundy Island[]
The Fourth Vertex is located beneath Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel, England. The Fourth and Fifth Pillars have to placed simultaneously at 2:31 am (Greenwich Mean Time) on the 18th of March 2008.
The Fifth Vertex - Diego Garcia[]
The Fifth Vertex is located beneath the island of Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean. The Fourth and Fifth Pillars have to placed simultaneously at 2:31 am (Greenwich Mean Time) on the 18th of March 2008.
The Sixth Vertex - Easter Island[]
The final Vertex is located beneath Ahu Vai Mata, the North-Western corner of Easter Island. The Sixth Pillar has to be placed at 6:00 pm (Mexican time) on the 20th of March 2008, not during a Titanic Rising as the others were, but during the Dual Equinox, when both the Sun and the Dark Sun are shining on the Vertex.
Trivia[]
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