Unverified. These sightings come from single, damaged sources and have not been confirmed by a second instrument.
The bestiary lists only machines confirmed by at least two instruments. The three records below do not meet that standard. Each comes from a single damaged source. They are kept because the archive would rather be wrong in the open.
# Field record U-1: “Gravedigger”
A long, low machine studded with conical spikes and fitted with a rotary drill at its front. It appears in footage recovered from the tether platform that returned scarred in 2195. If it exists, it may be the excavator that cut the terraces of the Magma Mines. Its spikes match no scar on any recovered hardware.
# Field record U-2: “Lantern”
A white spherical frame with one large cyan lens, surrounded by four floating blade-like vanes. It projects a cone of light downward. The C-9’s rear camera captured one frame of it above the carrier, following it down. Its shape closely resembles probe K-1 from 1.4 kilometres of shaft in 2189, rebuilt by someone who had only seen it once. See Eleven minutes early.
# Field record U-3: “Foreman”
A heavy bipedal frame in rust-orange plating, with one arm ending in a spiked crushing drum. It was captured by a thermal camera during a 2216 survey of a cache site and stood motionless beside the cache for the full eleven seconds of recording. Some at Asterion believe it was guarding the cache. Others believe it was stocking it.
Related articles
ARCHIVE RECORDRift machines: an overviewHow the expedition classifies the machines of the Rift: maintenance, haulage, courier, control, support and guardian frames.
WORKING THEORYThe cachesSealed Directorate supply crates found where no Directorate vehicle has been. Their scratches match crates still sitting in Asterion’s stores.
WORKING THEORYOpen questionsWho built the shaft? Why does it remember? What is the Heart? Can the carrier return? The questions the archive keeps open.