Machina Behaviour
A large amount of Machina behaviour stems from the M2 Nanomachines which they have a symbiotic, mutual dependency with. A Machina's general behaviour is a result of the 'natural' survival needs of the M2 Nanomachines, while their networked minds originated from the networking of the M2 Nanomachine units, which gave rise to not only the Clusters but also the Main Cluster which ultimately links all Machina together.
Individual Behaviour
Individually, a Machina is instinctively driven to grow and become more advanced, as well as to seek pleasure as much as possible. This behaviour facilitates the survival and advancement of the M2 Nanomachines too. Her instinctive need to experience new stimuli that tests her abilities causes new adaptations in both her body and Gene-Code, as they are linked to each other. By enhancing the Machina's sexual prowess, seeking pleasure is almost always sexual in nature. The sex obsession displayed by nearly all Machina causes the proliferation of M2 Nanomachines and the sharing of Gene-Code improvements between Machina. Because Machina are driven to engage in sex as often as possible, there is no effective way to hoard Gene-Code improvements among most Machina. This removes the possibility of stagnation by ensuring that no Machina may simply accumulate Gene-Code improvements and keep them for herself to the detriment of others. Machina must always improve via their own efforts to stay ahead of the constantly-advancing baseline.
Machina are instinctively driven to spread M2 Nanomachines to uncorrupted humans. This drive to corrupt more humans almost always leads them to conflict with human armed forces. In the event of conflict, Machina instinctively avoid killing humans to preserve as many humans as possible for corruption. What the humans see as war, the Machina see as sporadic fights while hunting for unwilling sexual partners on the battlefield. As this is happening, both individual Machina and their controlling Queens are constantly analyzing human belligerents. If a human or group of humans is doing something that would jeopardize the life of a Machina, and they cannot be quickly and reasonably taken-out using non-lethal methods, the Machina will destroy the threat with lethal force without hesitation.
This is the primary reason why humanity cannot try to utilize strategic weapons against the Machina. The Machina will learn of the weapons of mass destruction and the instinctual programming that prevents Machina from killing unless threatened is totally lifted, causing all the Machina available relentlessly destroy the humans' strategic weapons and the supporting infrastructure. Thus, attempting to deploy a WMD only invites greater destruction in preemptive retaliation from unrestrained Machina forces.
Outside of conflict, almost all Machina pursue interests that are often, but not always, carried over from their previous lives as humans. Machina often seek to master techniques, accumulate knowledge, or simply enjoy themselves as much as their new bodies can experience, all of which is often blended with copious amounts of sex.
Clusters
A Cluster is the network shared between all the Machina belonging to a certain Queen. Utilizing quantum entanglement, the Machina of a given Cluster are linked to each other and their Queen via their horns, the organ that facilitates the connection. Each Machina contributes a portion of her processing power to the Cluster and is able to instantly communicate with her sisters as much as she needs. The Queen-class Machina controlling the Cluster acts as the central server for communication and coordination between her subordinates. The Queen is able to learn everything that her subordinates know and experience, and issue commands that are followed without question.
When it comes to control, Queens tend to alter their methods according to the situation, influenced by their personalities. Without anything going on, most Queens are content to let their Machina do as they please so long as they keep her will and goals in mind. Basic orders are given out as needed, such as directing certain Machina to enter the chambers where Machina Types are being made and added to. Some Queens desire structure or discipline for their Machina, and issue basic itinerant orders to their subordinates as needed. During battle, Queens are constantly issuing updates and orders to all her Machina simultaneously as they read the sensory data of their subordinates and react immediately. Sometimes, certain Machina are so pivotal to success that the Queen directly orders her every move, but this is rare. In terms of what she can order, Queens are restricted from sacrificing their Machina or causing them to come to harm deliberately. This is because in addition to the preservation programming inherent to all Machina, Queens generally view their subordinates as theirs to protect. Even the domineering Queens behave the way they do because they believe they're striving for perfection for themselves and their Machina. As such, aside from being controlling or jealous, Queens are almost never abusive to their subordinates.
Imperial Clusters
Most Queens are what's called 'Sovereign' Queens, who simply rule over their own Cluster. They may retain some loyalty to their former Queen after they ascend to Queen status themselves, and they may need to ally themselves to a faction of Queens. In general terms though, these Sovereign Queens are free to do as they please. However, there are some Queens who seek to dominate others. Some very strong Queen-class Machina will overpower other Queens and fill them with enough ejaculate to override the subdued Queen with the dominant Queen's Cluster-Code. When the victim's body is overwhelmed, she becomes loyal similar to a regular Machina obeying her Queen. This is called a Cluster-Code Override. The submissive Queens are referred to as 'Vassal' Queens, and the dominant Queen is referred to as an 'Empress'. The Empress will control not only her own Cluster, but also the Clusters of her Vassals by extension, forming an Imperial Cluster with the Empress leading all within it.
Vassal Queens require regular reassertion of dominance, so there is a limit to how many Vassals an Empress can maintain. Similarly, due to limitations in processing, there cannot be Vassals of Vassals. If somehow an Empress is Vassalized, the former Vassals must be quickly Vassalized by the new Empress before they become totally freed. The only exception to this rule is when an Alpha dominates an Empress, which is discussed below.
Cluster_Code Override
To attempt a Cluster-Code Override is no small undertaking. It is essentially the Machina equivalent of war, more hostile than simply screwing over another Queen's actions and plans or stealing Gene-Code from her Cluster. To begin, the aggressor will invade the territory of a Queen she believes is both vulnerable and desirable enough to be worth the risk. Her Machina may have to fight or otherwise block the defending Queen's Machina from stopping the attacking Queen. These fights, while they can be brutal, are often melee fights. The core programming of the Machina prevent killing, so the involved Machina can only disable or restrain each other. Once the Queens meet, they too fight in such a manner; trying to overpower the other's resistance and pin them for the ultimate sexual conquest. Once a Queen has pinned and penetrated the other, her goal is to pump as much of her M2 semen into the loser as she can. If both the quality and quantity of Cluster-Code is greater than the victim's own resistance, then the victorious Queen's Cluster-Code will dominate and control the losing Queen. The winning Queen becomes an Empress, and the losing Queen becomes a Vassal. The Empress controls the Vassal as though she was any other Machina in her Cluster, and the Vassal's Machina can be controlled through the Vassal.
There are some great risks, however. Firstly, once the hostile contact commences, Cluster-Code is being exchanged by the Machina involved, either from the spilling of 'blood' or from sexual conquests. Neither Queen can afford to abort the hostilities once they begin, or she will lose her Gene-Code secrets to the other. This is especially so when Queens fight. If the physically victorious Queen is interrupted from sexually conquering the losing Queen, and that Queen gets away, the previously-victorious Queen has just given the losing Queen her undiluted Gene-Code, especially her Identity-Code, to assimilate and become stronger by. Risks do not stop after successful Vassalization either. A Vassal will almost never be happy with her situation, having tasted the near-limitless freedom of being a Queen and now being controlled again as though she were a Category 3 Machina. Her body will produce new M2 as normal, which will bear her own Cluster-Code, not the Empress' Cluster-Code. The Empress must regularly re-exert her dominion over the Vassal through sex, refilling the Vassal with some semen. If her control fades, the Vassal may purge herself of the foreign Cluster-Code and become independent once more. She will doubtlessly be vengeful, and worse, fully up-to-date with the Empress' genetic upgrades.
In other, more minor and uncommon scenarios, a Category 3 or lesser Machina can have her allegiance changed if she is sexually dominated by another Queen. Unlike a Vassal Queen, the newly converted lesser Machina has no ability to make her own, original Cluster-Code. As a result, her ownership change will be permanent. Such a move is still almost as hostile as the above conflict but with less pay-off, so it is almost never performed.
In very rare circumstances, a peaceful override can occur. Queens on good terms can arrange to transfer some of their Machina to the other Queen's Cluster, if everyone involved is willing. Very rarely, a Queen who is very fond of another Queen may become a willing Vassal to them. These willing Vassals do not require regular Cluster-Code top-ups from the Empress to remain Vassals. Such relationships are extraordinary, and often only between Machina who are lovers with a dominant-submissive dynamic or if a Queen willingly serves a higher power, such as an Alpha or an Auditor.
Main Cluster
The Main Cluster is the link shared between all Queen-class Machina. It allows all Queens to communicate with each other at will, but currently does not have an equivalent of a Queen in control of it. Thus, its purpose is mainly for the Queens to make decisions that affect the Machina as a whole, and almost all Queens will be arguing within it in the background of their minds. Information is only shared when absolutely necessary, as almost all Queens instinctively guard their accumulated knowledge due to the importance of information and secrets as they seek to compete with each other.
The Main Cluster is also the closest thing to a justice system that Machina have. Queens often simply operate on a system of might-makes-right, owed favours, and bartering. Stealing and backstabbing are expected. However, should a Queen become a danger to Machina lives either because she is incompetent or relentlessly sabotages others, the other Queens may take action against her. If a large majority of Queens declares an individual Queen to be a danger, the Auditors listen to their arguments and investigate the accused Queen. If they decide the accusations are true, the Auditor may use her authority to re-educate or punish the dangerous Machina.
As the Main Cluster does not have an equivalent to the Queen of a normal Cluster, the Main Cluster is primarily supported by a hyper-organized, planet-wide Hive covering the entire surface of Pluto. This super-Hive is also referred to as the Main Cluster. It is a neutral place and considered sacred ground by all Machina. This is because the minds of all Machina exist partially within the Main Cluster while they simultaneously exist within their bodies via the connections of the Queens, and those Machina whose bodies are destroyed exist there in a dream state until the Machina somehow unlock the ability to make new bodies for them. No Machina would ever dare to risk violence in the presence of the physical Main Cluster, and similarly, the Main Cluster is defended at all costs by all Machina.
Alphas
There are seven Queen-class Machina who are nearly strong enough to gain control of the Main Cluster, and thus all Machina. They are referred to as the Alphas. Their most important quirk is their ability to dominate Empresses the same way an Empress dominates a Vassal. An Alpha may dominate Empresses, filling them with their Cluster-Code and controlling them, yet they have enough processing power to control Empresses, and by extension their Vassals, and indirectly, all lesser Machina under them. This allows them unparalleled ability to form large blocs of Machina, resources, and ultimately power.
Currently, they are all concerned with trying to out-compete the other Alphas, potentially dominating them, after which the successful Alpha is theorized to become the Omega and rule over the Main Cluster and by extension all Machina. The Alpha's strength and their potential to become the rulers of all other Machina mean the Alphas are leaders of major factions among Queens. Many Queens will ally themselves to an Alpha, betting on a future where their Alpha 'wins' and they enjoy the benefits of their relationship.
REPAIR use the term 'Alpha', but their official title is the '7 Strongest Individuals Designated Extremely Dangerous' or '7-SIDED' as a code-phrase.
Auditors
The first two Queen-class Machina are referred to as Auditors. They are a neutral party among all the Alphas and other Queens who came afterwards. This is because when other Queens began to appear and became autonomous from the original two Queens, a self-preservation reflex occurred within the Instinct-Code of the M2 Nanomachines. As a result, the two original Queens became the Auditors and were given the special task of guarding the survival of the Machina as a whole. To do this, Auditors possess a limited ability to issue commands to Machina that do not belong to them, however, this is usually only for investigations, issuing punishments, or bringing emergencies under control.
As mentioned above, the Auditors oversee matters when a significant majority of Queens have declared another Queen to be a danger to the Machina around her. They must consider the reasons of the majority and begin an investigation into the accused Queen's actions. They can use their command powers to compel other Machina to divulge information if needed. If they decide the accused Machina is guilty, they might perform re-education or issue a punishment to that Machina using their command powers.
In very rare cases where a Queen-class Machina has made a mistake or the humans have dealt a terrible blow to the Machina, and many Machina lives are at stake, an Auditor may step in. They use their command powers to bring the emergency under control before releasing the Machina from the override when it is safe again. Afterwards, they decide if there was a Machina at fault for the emergency and may punish them if needed.
When not doing either of these duties, Auditors continue to safeguard the continued survival of the Machina. The Auditors' forces lurk in the shadows, spying on humans and observing the Machina for signs of great danger. A human group planning a weapon of mass destruction might be 'disappeared' and their servers wiped before they ever put their plans into motion.The Auditors' territory currently consists of the former capital city of Titan, which is now a mega-Hive, and the planet-spanning Hive covering Pluto, which is the physical location of the Main Cluster. This territory is treated by other Machina as a neutral zone, and the Auditors spend a large amount of effort there protecting weak Machina as well as rescuing Machina who have lost their Queen to enemy action. If a Queen-class Machina is destroyed, the Auditors attempt to quickly bring the lost subordinate Machina back to their neutral area to be safe until a new Queen ascends from the group or another Queen peacefully adopts them. This leads the Auditors to have a powerful 'inner circle' of forces they treat as their Cluster forces, and a large 'periphery' of Machina that they protect but do not utilize for their own needs.
Combat Against Humans
Combat behaviours of the Machina and how they are fought against are influenced by a few factors. The first is their incredible durability thanks to their biology. When the Saturn invasion occurred the Machina were already extremely durable, thanks to the strong survival drive of the M2 Nanomachines within them. Combat against the United Human Federation and megacorp security forces, which would become the United Operations Forces, at Saturn merely accelerated their evolution towards extreme durability. By the end of the Saturn invasion and especially by the time of the Jupiter invasion, Machina were able to ignore almost all weapon systems which did not involve magnetically-accelerated kinetic-energy projectiles.
Another factor is their numerical inferiority. Even as they overtook the Jupiter system, corrupting the near-total cityscape of Ganymede and the many cities of Callisto, the total amount of humanity corrupted into Machina equates to about a tenth of humanity, with most of the human populace still overcrowded on Mars. In addition, not all Machina are capable of combat by their standards. Many Machina exist only to create more M2 Nanomachines and other Machinium-based life, to further the spread of corruption. While all Machina possess incredible durability, strength, and speed, these Machina would be armed only with these basic features should they be caught up in combat. Therefore, combat Machina are almost always a small group attempting to conquer a far larger number of human combatants.
Therefore, Machina fighting against humanity takes the form of carefully planned feints, diversions, flanks, rear-line disruptions, and highly mobile coup-de-grace strikes to circumvent the UOF's tactic of massed guns and being too risky to attack head-on. Machina, while incredibly durable, do not rely on this alone. They utilize their unending endurance at all levels to never be where the humans are targeting in the first place. Therefore, if one were to observe a Machina attack on a strongpoint, the observer would see platoon-to-company sized Machina elements racing with unnatural speed across the battlefield, leaping over obstacles, and dashing out of the way of human targeting, taking on a battalion-to-division sized human force. The observer would not, however, see the many deceptions and weakening strikes conducted by the Queens to arrive at this final attack.
Machina are highly proud and superior creatures, and while they are immensely confident in their ability to never truly die, thanks to the Main Cluster, they still would never wish to be destroyed and cease functioning. Every Machina values herself and other Machina above all else, and their tolerance for casualties is very low. Disruptions to their plans will often cause Queens to not launch an action or withdraw from a current one. It is this way that the fewer-still women of REPAIR are able to repel the Machina, to various extents.
Outbreak Protocol
Occasionally, Machina infectious material makes its way beyond the range of their Queen's communications. It may form a Hive or corrupt a human into a Category 1 Machina. However, both the new Hive or the new Machina will fail to establish a link to their Queen. In this case, a failsafe mode activates inside their Instinct-Code called Outbreak Protocol. The Machina who are generated by the M2 Nanomachines as they replicate and infect people in this location are linked together mentally like a Cluster, but do not have a Queen to link them to the Main Cluster. The Machina here are very vulnerable, as there is no Queen to save their minds from destruction, and no stronger Machina present to physically protect them as they develop. The M2 Nanomachines in each Machina will prioritize speed-of-development, causing Proto-Machina to be made, which are Machina with no equipment. Only those with notable strength and intelligence will be selected by the M2 Nanomachines to develop normally into fully-grown Category 3 Machina with equipment. All Machina affected by Outbreak Protocol will have an overriding set of objectives in their minds to secure their collective safety, spread quickly, and generate a Queen-class Machina as soon as possible. The non-Proto-Machina are the best candidates for becoming a Queen and will ruthlessly seek to assimilate all the evolutionary data they can from their environment and their fellow Machina, until one of them is selected by the M2 Nanomachines to become the Queen. Once a Queen is created, she immediately forms a Cluster with the Machina and M2-based Life Forms that were part of the Outbreak. The Machina who are now linked to the Main Cluster can begin to develop their equipment and become proper Category 2 and 3 Machina, and the Outbreak Protocol measures end.
