The Church of the Machine is a apocolyptic religious cult that believes the Eristicon is the manifestation of God, and that it's return and the subsequent destruction of Humanity is imminent.  COM members (often referred to by the epithet "Commies") subscribe to the belief that worship of the Eristicon entity is the only means of salvation when the judgement day arrives, and that furthering the spread of the Eristicon is an important mission of the Church.

    COM is known to have active branches on several worlds, including Terek and Vember.  The organization is considered illegal by the terms of the Stanton Resolution, and raids of known COM headquarters have been a frequent occurrance over the past 25 years.  COM activity has been blamed for several Eristicon Relapses, in which COM members deliberately introduced Eristicon code into government computer systems controlling critical systems such as mass transportation and power generation.  The Church has been known to send out scout ships of pilgrims to areas of known Eristicon activity, in the hopes of contacting the entity.

    It is also believed that COM church members may have successfully established a relationship with one or more Eristicon controlled ships, and perhaps the virus is harboring Eristicon members, or even possibly providing a base of operations within an unidentified Eristicon-controlled world.  A large number of former church members, including many of in leadership roles, have been missing and are presumed dead after unsuccessful attempts to establish a relationship with the Eristicon.  It is possible however that some of these missing members are still alive, and are working in concert with the Eristicon.

    The Church of the Machine has few allies; they are opposed by most large political, corporate, religious, and private organizations.  Certain terrorist organizations (and extreme factions of more legitimate organizations) that oppose the Republic may be sympathetic to the COM, since their activities tend to disrupt and cause social, political, and economic damage to their joint enemy.

    COM membership is unknown but is estimated to be in the tens of thousands, scattered across several worlds.  The Church is known to posess illegal communications and computing equipment and pre-war artifacts, and use these devices to maintain an illegal communications network to coordinate their efforts in certain areas.

    It is also rumored that Rychar Milints, the former CEO of MS/Interstar, was a Church member or sympathizer, and may have made large donations to the Church.  Milints was charged with embezlement of an undisclosed amount from MS/Interstar, but was killed in a antigrav vehicle accident while evading arrest.  A subsequent investigation of Milints finances turned up three accounts totalling 1.2M credits, but it is widely believed that this money was but a fraction of the total amount lost by MS/Interstar.  Connections between Milints and the Church of the Machine were never substantiated.

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