ROBOTICA	ATLAS
Created by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Tom McCraw, Jeffrey Moy and Olivier Coipel

PLANETARY INFORMATION

Name: Robotica
Space Sector: Unidentified
Dominant Lifeform: Roboticans
Prominent Inhabitants: Babbage
First Appearance: Legionnaires #78 (December 1999): "Emissary"
Creators: Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Tom McCraw, Jeffrey Moy and Olivier Coipel

HISTORY

Robotica was a machinekind haven created by C.O.M.P.U.T.O. - the AI created by Brainiac 5 while the Legion was stranded in the 20th century, which was shut down by its creator after it tried to eradicate carbon-based lifeforms from the face of Earth. While the Legion returned to the 30th century, C.O.M.P.U.T.O.'s consciousness fled the Earth and escaped out of the solar system. For millennia it wandered in space, fleeing farther and farther away as organic life expanded its culture into the galaxy. In the 25th century, the event known as "the great shutdown", put a stop to the rise of machine-kind sentience, when the robots volunteered to shut themselves down to protect humanity from the Metallo Virus. The shutdown was meant to be a temporary measure until a cure could be found, but, with time, humanity ceased searching for a cure and the robots remained extinct. These events prompted the C.O.M.P.U.T.O. A.I. to gather robots and awake their programs. On a far removed planet, COMPUTO offered refuge to machine life from all over the galaxy.

For centuries, the machinekind haven of Robotica was rumored to exist somewhere, but it was mainly the stuff of legends until one day, at the dawn of the 31st century, the Legion encountered Robotican emissaries aboard a cargo ship. A few months later, Robotica made its first move toward the United Planets with its brutal invasion of Xanthu in the Khundian protectorate. The blitzkrieg invasion of Robotica lasted only a few days. Xanthu was rendered sterile and devoid of organic life, only a handful of escapees managed to flee their native planet.

The Robotican fleet then left Xanthu and headed its vessels in the direction of Earth. An interception armada led by the Legion was sent by Earthgov to stop Robotica before it could reach the planet but the robot invaders took everyone by surprise when they downloaded their entire army directly on the ground. To perform this inhumanly uncompromising but highly effective tactic, Robotica had to have a device previously implanted on Earth to receive the download. This emissary was Mr. Venge and the device was secretly implanted in the robotic half of Tharok that M'Onel had imprisoned earlier in the year. In a matter of seconds Earth was subdued and the Legion trapped in space outside Earth's polymer shield. On the surface, Robotica captured Brainiac 5 and Mr Venge finally revealed to its creator that he was COMPUTO.