Editing The Machine (section)

===Biological Life Inside the Machine===
Roaches range in form and size from the smallest insect, which here is around an inch long, to the largest wyrm, up to a kilometre long. Bacterial life, indeed anything smaller than around an inch, seems to die off if isolated. It is known that one way in which the Machine deals with hostile life of this type, corrosive bacteria being one example, is the generation of a massive electromagnetic field in the area. Natives know to keep on the move, as do Roaches. 

The Wyrm is massive, observed at up to a kilometre in length, and resembles nothing more than a cross between a centipede and a dragon. It tears through the Machine on a thousand legs, without damaging components. It seems to have been incorporated into the workings of the Machine, a kind of cleaning systems to weed out smaller biolife. When smaller examples of the Wyrm were brought to the surface, they died in a few days.

(A Reply)

No, I really think the Machine should be utterly devoid of life and utterly static. Sterile, unchanging, completely ALIEN. Giant bugs and robots aren't horror, they're fantasy. This is not a fantasy dungeon. This is The House of Leaves.

Machine components would be more than enough danger for explorers. Have seemingly unnatural (BUT NOT LIVING) phenomena occur the farther in you go. Unexplainable pockets of electromagnetism, cold, heat, un-illuminable darkness, vacuums, places that drive men insane instantly etc. Could just be the workings of the Machine, could be something more horrifying. But none of it is alive. It is a Machine, it is vast, it is ancient, it is a mystery, and we are microbes.