Dead
Machines
A Novel about Giant Robots and Ghosts
Io Suta
She was a mother and a relic of the Last War. A hard-wire robot pilot using a hard jack system to access her giant bipedal war machine. After the Final Crisis, she found a lost population of migrants and fell in with them doing the only thing she had ever been any good at.
Io and her suit, the Areol ended up the migrant's first and last line of defense against the dangers in a universe in chaos.
Her story starts when a dangerous new kind of Jack, an uncontrollable enemy, drives the migrant fleet to crash on an abandoned terraforming experiment. A new life? New hope? There was no way to know, and no turning back.
Dead Machines is a novel set in a distant future after the collapse of a vast space-faring human culture and the end of a perpetual war.
The machines of war, giant bipedal robots originally designed for salvage and contstruction, mean the few pilots left alive who can control them have an edge. But not for long. It's a time of aging technology and few resources to maintain them.
Whole populations, huddled in multi-generational transport ships, drift from broken planets to destroyed space colonies looking for a safe place to start over. Io Suta, along with a few other pilots, defend one of these populations.
This book follows the story of the migrants early days on an abandoned planet and the struggle for old war machines, both metal and flesh, to find a new way to live. Every one left alive is haunted, in one way or another. Some ghosts are more literal than others.
The Beginning
Read the first 2 chapters of Dead Machines yourself, and be pulled into a story of survival, forgiveness, and the specters of the past we cannot safely ignore.
Did you like what you read? Please consider:
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Picking up a copy of Dead Machines in print or digital formats here!
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Tell your friends about it!
Content
Things that don't happen in Dead Machines:
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Sexual assault or menace.
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Violence against children save for previous implicit violence as is common in war.
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No animals are harmed in scenes, with limited discussion of eating animals between characters. Almost vegan, but not quite.
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Transphobia, homophobia or racism. Bigotry exists and is portrayed in a negative way.
Thing that happen in Dead Machines that might bother or upset some readers. This list does not contain spoilers but may reduce the tension or surprise of some in story events. Not all items mentioned imply an judgment call on their existence. (Overall, for most people, childbirth is a good thing, for example) but are listed because some readers might be sensitive.
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References to war and genocide. Characters may describe their experiences with the cruelties of war.
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Mention of non traumatic child birth.
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Mention of child death, the deaths happen off screen.
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Physical violence and death of adult combatants.
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Supernatural violence and gore.
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Brief mention of suicide.
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Bigotry against 'clones' as an in universe conflict.
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Blood.
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Brief mention of consensual sex between consenting adults.
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Brief moments of ableism. (Characters using the word 'crazy' as a negative in one scene.)
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Violence against robots. A lot of that, honestly.
Readers can be sensitive to material for a variety of reasons. Life is too short to consume media that hurts. If you have any questions about this or any other media, contact me. I will mess up at times, but whenever possible I choose to actively make room in my worlds for those who don't get the same treatment in real life. Comfort the afflicted, afflict the too comfortable.
-Mena
The Writer
I've spent the last ten years writing freelance fiction, non fiction, and game design as well as independently publishing my own game work. Now that I have the time, I've returned to my first love, fiction.
I live and teach English as a second language during the day in rural Japan, birthplace of all things Mecha. (Giant Robots.) I'm raising three clever future mech pilots, though hopefully more Gundam Build Fighters than Gundam Universal Century ;)
Contact me!
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Fanmail! Ask your questions, get some answers!
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Facebook! What I up to? Maybe even free stuff!
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Instagram! Amazing 'behind the scenes' pictures of a writer's life in beautiful Japan.
Would you like irregular updates on what I'm writing or what else I'm up to? Sales, new stories, new goodies, and more? Drop your email in the box and I'll keep you updated. (I won't stuff your inbox and I won't share your information.)
The Characters
