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I feel like... I remember seeing a gif of engineers assembling new machines, and some robot came along (not sure what class) and started it up... hmmmm
Anyways, yeah, I think having mechanics monitor and activate or stabilize machines would be a neat... concept, although I wonder how well it would work with how relatively stationary mechanics currently are. Perhaps there could be additional mechanics that just wander about, without being coupled to a repair machine.

As it's written just with those snippets, engineers look like they only build new machines. Having mechanics gain new mechanics (stablizing/activating machines) may not really be a big deal, since they are far-less commonly seen than engineers, so giving them new functions wouldn't conflict with previously-held expectations of behaviour as much. Then again... far less common on the floors, so it would mean "wandering" mechanics on the hunt for machines to fix/activate for that new function to ever really be seen in a normal run.

I agree that the standard assembled are hastily-composed machines meant to be fast glass-cannons with low material cost, but even the golems themselves utilize technology that is sub-par compared to, what appears to be, standard Sigix technology. But this is not a major objection, really, and has a few resolutions already mentioned.

While the z-units and assembled are in close proximity, the Golems and assembled appear to stick to there own regions, so may simply not attack one another simply due to not really coming into contact. After all, still have to consider the vast number of dead derelicts in the Golem chamber. It may be possible to actually test this in game, with good luck; If assembled spawn in the entrance zone of zdc, avoid fighting them and instead trigger Imprinter to appear. Then, attempt to see if imprinter and company fight the assembled, or if they simply ignore one another. Another method would be to gain the attention of the z-lights in the upper or lower part of the z-facility cavern, and then move further towards the Golem chamber to find a group of assembled, and see if they fight one-another or not.
Main problem is that both hypotheses are compatible with what we can see, although I would object to the idea of Assembled having communicated with Imprinter and are actively cooperating simply because this introduces something for which we have no need of; No assembled are known to have communicated, outside of the Golems, and even this is a single message that is encrypted. Instead, the imprinter using assembled-based technology could be due to her salvaging GUs from the chamber, which would explain the mass grave in the chamber itself, and fits more simply with less assumptions.

When I said unlikely, that was a mistype on my part  I meant likely; I certainly don't think the Imprinter to be a trustworthy and forthcoming individual 
Otherwise yeah, the rest of that post I agree with.

The Architects are an interesting group, and one major issue I have with them is that I'm not entirely convinced A2-9 are "true" architects like The Architect is.
First, the tile itself is quite different, as are the innate traits and abilities. The tools they use are far-above those used by the other "architects," and it has perfect command over the others with it's ability to over-write their thoughts and intentions on the fly, as demonstrated with A7. They also installed emergency codes into all of A2-9, should they ever manage to rebel; I don't think this could have happened if they were all made at the same time, from the same base, as MC originally did with his architects. Not to mention that in that same log from archives, MC states that he destroyed all of the Architects. Him believing to have destroyed them all, with one escaping somehow, versus 9 escaping detection, I find only 1 escaping to be much more reasonable.
Instead, I think that A2-9 are/were manufactured by Architect themselves, after they escaped, with later numbers being more recently created. This could go some ways to explain why lower-numbers are stronger; they would have been around longer, done more for the Architect, and be upgraded and "promoted" over time with better tools and utilities to become more effective agents.

Tangent aside... I don't know if Imprinter was once an a-series robot or not, but I think it's not likely. Not really sure what she is... and there really is very little to go off of. I'll have to wait a bit to try gathering more information before I provide a better proposal on that issue :p

Regarding assembled origins and Z-tech:

Spoiler

I think that's a good hypothesis on the origins of the Assembled, although I'm not sure then why the technology utilized by the assembled is so "low" or ineffective when compared to standard Sigix technology found in Q or on the Leopard. Perhaps a built-in limitation on the "Sigix Assembled Fabricator" itself?

The line mentioned by the Golems every time is very interesting, and I'm not sure what kyzrati's response was when I brought this up a long while ago on the Discord. I don't think it's a simple substitution code, but if it's like the Sigix terms, then I think each "word" is indeed as long as a standard English term. We need a professional decoder on this case stat!

I'm not sure about the idea of an "alliance" between Imprinter and the Assembled. As can be seen in the Golem Chamber, it's usually filled with multiple broken derelict robots and damaged parts, implying large amounts of previous fighting occurred. Rather, perhaps instead Imprinter simply used the assistance of many derelicts to obtain samples of Assembled technology, perhaps even some Golem Units, which were then used as prototyping materials for the z-light, z-heavy, and even z-experimental. Looking at the sprites of those robots, compared with assembled, it can be seen that there is a striking similarity between the z-light and the standard assembled, and between the z-heavy and the Golem. The only Z-tech robot to not have a comparison is the z-experimental, though this may be a case of novel design without a direct assembled analogue.

Z-tech itself also shares many similarities with Assembled technology: blue + black colour scheme, structural similarity in biocells, legs, weapon designs, etc., which combined with the deep caves environment and context, makes it almost certain that z-tech is derived from assembled technology.

Regarding the use of biocells tying golems and assembled to sigix, I think this is somewhat tenuous. While they are the only "faction" to use something with obviously biological/organic components, the nature of this organic substance is very different from the biological matter found in LRC-V3. Organic materials are also not unlikely to be simply found in the surface of Tau Ceti, and so could simply be a consequence of the "Sigix Assembled Fabricator" utilizing available resources, or the Life Worm doing like-wise if we wish to consider that hypothesis.

Assembled technology, however, appears to likely be related to Sigix due to CRM reaction as well as GU producing Assembled Alloy parts. The Assembled Alloy parts, such as the legs, possess very high durability comparable to Centrium legs, and are of a similar blue shade to said legs. From this, we could infer that the "alloy" these legs are made from is perhaps an alloy of Centrium and other common metals; This is still consistent with both the SAF (Sigix Assembled Fabricator) hypothesis, granting that the SAF is able to manufacture Centrium, and the Life-Probe hypothesis, where in the Life Worm consumes and recycles an old Sigix Probe/faulty Von Neumann probe and creates robots (assembled) that are made of centrium + other available materials. Either way, Assembled are related to the Sigix in some manner.

Also, Z-units that appear before cave seals can be made blue-allied if you use the CRM when they are summoned from a dispatch. Later dispatches will not summon blue-allied Z-units, however.

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On the Imprinter:

Spoiler

It does seem unlikely that the Imprinter has not told us what the Imprinting machine does in full; Why it reacts the way it does, how it is able to provide LRC-V3 with a method of subverting terminals and reaching out to the Conduit Teleporter in Zion, and the nature of the Mark it gives Cogmind that is somehow visible to other robots, are all unexplained. There is simply a large lack of information on that topic.

Zion dialogue 60 does seem to be confirmed by A0 log. It would be interesting if Architect somehow erased the memories of the derelicts; the only reason I can see for this is to remove traces their existence from MC, although this does not seem to have been perfect given the mentioned dialogue, as well as another dialogue in Zion where a zionite mentions a robot capable of regenerating their core and parts.

The lab order about imprinter and her imprinting machine is... very interesting. This may serve as a possible explanation for why the machine reacts to LRC-V3 the way it does, however subverting terminals and summoning Z-allies is inconsistent with that explanation due to A0 log L.K:

I haven't confirmed whether it's coincidence or not, but ever since LRC-V3 visited Zion, a variety of advanced technology of unknown origin has been leaking into the vicinity of Ob10. It seems like yet more intriguing events are taking place deeper in the caves. It's probably about time to send A3 on an intel-gathering mission.

This seems to indicate that the Architect is unaware of the Imprinters actions in deep caves, as well as the existence of the Assembled Gate and Golems, and so would have no reason to make the Imprinting machine give access to the Conduit Teleporter or the Z-factory. As an aside, there were also no unique logs in A0 for going into Deep Caves and using GU...

Whether or not Imprinter is one of the A-series... maybe? Looking at her tile, she is not like the True Architect, nor like the A-series programmers; instead, she appears to be most similar to the assembled/z-unit faction in appearance, having a pseudo-organic and rounded appearance which is quite unlike the more square and regular appearance of derelicts and complex robots. However, we do know that there was previously an A9, from the Lab Reminder log:

Do not retain in memory the contents of any more than one single order at a time. On confirmed completion, delete the order and retrieve the key to decrypt the next. I don't want a repeat of what happened with A9. As per protocol, all orders from the previous cycle have been archived. If referencing past data is necessary, wait until our next scheduled rendezvous and request it then.

This, however, implies that they may have simply been intercepted by MC's forces, and acting as a severe data breach for Architect. Unclear...
The likelihood that Imprinter = A9 is very low, so I would not consider this as a plausible hypothesis. Instead, Imprinter seems like an outside force, and a separately-originated faction entirely.

Zion dialogue 71 seems not-unreasonable. The Imprinter may require standard robotic cores to make use of z-tech, as Assembled cores can't be rewired/reprogrammed, and GUs are autonomous and like-wise can't be rewired/hacked. Instead, she likely requires standard cores to synthesize with z-tech parts to make functional z-units.

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Glad to see more thought being put into the [REDACTED] lore, need more thinkers to hopefully get a clearer picture of how these things all fit together...

tho cogmind 2 could settle these issues a lot easier...

*pssssst*
Archives lore is from MC perspective, not Zhirov
Zhirov just decodes the logs in the Archives...

Oh, awesome! A lore corner.
Life worm seems to be a verified entity, and depending on the timeframe that it operated in (still is operating in?), it may have something to do with the assembled... maybe.
However, I'm curious to know if that derelict was really made by the life worm, or if it was manufactured in Zion and simply incorporated memories from a robot that was created by the life worm, and passed on its memories into the imprinting machine. After all, the derelict that gives that dialogue is either a pretty standard looking zionite or derelict variant of a complex bot, nothing particularly interesting or special about it.
Grand spoilers!

Spoiler

pasting wall
Architect is aware of zhirov, they just don't know his location. But they absolutely are looking for him to kill him, since he's another potential enemy. MC created the Architects, only one of which survived the final conflict between MC and his Architects. To me it's clear from the model form of the A-series from A2 and beyond that they are not true architects, but are instead what appear to be different models created by Arch themselves, who is an original architect. Then again, could just be looking into things too much. But the higher-number As are progressively weaker, implying perhaps more recent construction/fewer resources for manufacture, which MC would have no shortage of.

I'm not sure on the purpose of the cave seals. They seemed to me like an easy access to various cave systems from C, so perhaps MC would just use them for immediate access to various forms of robot specimens for experiment and analysis. After all, it only really hurts him when LRC-V3 comes into play as imprinted, in which case the unknown force of z-tech breaks through the seals, or sufficient hack-power is brought in to open the seals.

For Warlord, I'm not sure why the long hallway of Warlords exists, or his particular origin. Their is some reference to open warfare in the past with MC, but this seemed to be on the part of all derelicts with the aid of the Architect; Now that the Architect has withdrawn their support and gone into greater seclusion, most of the derelicts have given up asides from Warlords forces. Whether warlord is a personal creation of MC or not, I don't know. But if he was, I feel that the Architect would be more wary of using his help, even if only remotely; Considering the Architect's power and awareness of the situation, that seems like something that would present a dangerous variable if MC could just switch and power-down W and his troops. Instead, we see from A0 lore that W takes control of research-> access and all of the branches in research, which is a tremendous amount of damage and control-loss on MC's part. So... W probably unrelated to MC, but perhaps "Warlords" are just things that appear over time naturally. If that were the case, though, Arch would probably be less apt to lend support to a "project" that has failed repeatedly many times over.

In humanity's past, they were quickly killed off by the sigix by 2210, who invaded in 2198. the ISC and the 4 titans were launched in 2140, so much earlier than the invasion. Of those 4 vessels, only the Centaurus seems likely to have been destroyed/"disappeared", as it suddenly ceased communication and a check-probe sent to confirm it's presence failed to find and sign of the ship. It also hosts a planet slightly larger than earth within a likely known-habitable zone, so... Sigix homeworld?!?  Or just a colony who saw the ship and went smack "nope." OR... perhaps something else, something alluded to by the A0 logs where the sigix mention the presence of... even worse things roaming the galaxy. The other 3 ships have simply passed beyond communication range, and are presumed to have reached their destinations. The ISCS Eridanus is a ship of particular interest, as it's cargo was classified, being primarily controlled by the military branch of the ISC, and is also the final destination of LRC-V3 when simply escaping without CRM. This makes some sense, as MC would have then provided Humanity with access to a large amount of functional and pacified Sigix technology, as well as a working sigix vessel capable of FTL travel.
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Hopefully this becomes the go-to place for lore questions + "answers," then the forums may get more proper activity