Across States Pt 1
-To write the narcotics code, Aloy and Vale must find the AI Minerva in Vale's homeland.
Having set up her own little space in the middle of the hologram floor, Aloy laid out all of her devices and started to delve into the inner workings of the Master Override, unlocking its programming so she could understand it better and hopefully, alter its function to their specifications.
Rewriting an AI's entire program seemed like a daunting task, and rewriting part of an entire worldwide system almost seemed impossible. But there was nothing else for them to do. Hephaestus wouldn't listen them, even if they found where it was hiding and tried talking to it. They would have to replace the subordinate function with a 'new central processing matrix' as Cyan had put it. The plan involved three steps.
Step one: make the code. Designated the Narcotic, they would have find out how to make an entire AI system before even attempting to create the cure. Cyan explained it in the best possible way so that Aloy and Vale could understand; the Narcotic would separate Hephaestus from the terraforming system briefly and delete the hostile AI before replacing it with the new one, one that would understand that humanity was not a threat to his machines, but in fact the species that they were trying to help restore. But this posed the problem that humans would still hunt machines for metal and parts. Vale suggested creating a trade system with the AI, that way the humans could still get the metal they needed and not hunt the machines that terraformed the earth into a habitable planet again. While the idea was sound, they didn't have the knowledge to create the protocols or the codes that would implement the idea. That's why they needed Minerva.
Step two: find and corner off Hephaestus. Minerva would be able to locate him through the Spires that stood all around the world, since they were her creations. Vale had only briefly spoken to Minerva, but he had guaranteed that the AI was waiting for his return at the ruins of the fallen Spire back in his homeland. This meant traveling to new land. While the idea excited Aloy, Vale wasn't a fan of returning home. And he never elaborated more than that his relationship with people back home was difficult.
Step three: plug in the Master Override. The Narcotic – created by Minerva once they found her – would be downloaded into the little module mounted onto Aloy's spear and primed for action. Aloy was certain that they would only need to do this once. Hades, with all of his scheming and viruses, couldn't protect himself from the Master Override when Aloy stabbed him with it. Hephaestus would be much the same. The idea was simple really, but she was certain that, like Hades, Hephaestus would have an army of machines in front of him to defend himself with. And goddess forbidden another crazy cult of humans as well.
So most of the next day was spent looking into the Master Override. Even though she knew that it had purged Hades completely, Aloy didn't know how it had worked. Of course the codes were written in an infinite line of numbers, an algorithm that she could hardly make sense of. But Aloy was a fast learner, and while Vale was off tinkering with his weapons in the other room, by the end of the day she had looked through half of its coding and learned how to write a simple command code on the side, things like setting patrol routes or gathering resources. These codes were uploaded to her Focus and she created a shortcut for them on her HUD, so that she could command her overridden machines easily and with more precision.
Vale eventually came around with a bowl of stew, which stunned her.
"Found a cache of frozen food in one of the rooms in the back. Courtesy of your friend Ourea," he explains. He hands one of the bowls to her. The contents smell delicious – meat and diced vegetables, kept frozen in the old storage units in the back. Ourea must have been prepared to hide out in this place for a long time if there was food frozen in the back.
"How goes the studying?" he asks.
"Aloy is an amazingly adaptive student. She has already learned several post-secondary computer programming courses," Cyan answers. Even though her hologram isn't visible above them, her voice can be heard throughout the room.
"Post-secondary, huh? Guess that's a step up from post… primary," Vale says as he begins digging into his food. Aloy smiles amusingly.
"It's nothing really. Once you understand the basics the rest of it just builds on what you already know," she replies, examining her food idly before biting on a few chunks of meat.
Another thing had been sitting in the back of her mind while she was working. She had yet to hear any stories of the west. Vale's home was completely unknown to her, and now that she had established that they had to go there to find Minerva, she wanted to know what it was like, or at least get a vague idea of it before they got there.
So she waited until the man finished his food, watching him eat in silence before she blurted out; "Tell me a story of you're homeland, Vale."
The man looks up at her with an off-guard expression. "Huh?"
"Tell me what your homeland is like. Is there a name for the place you come from?"
Vale continues to stare, but his face softens as he begins to understand what she's asking and nods. "Depends on where you're from. Where I'm from, we simply call it the South."
"The South? Does that mean there's a North, too?"
"Yes. The land is divided up into three territories: North, Central and South. Most of the tribes unified under a treaty of peace a long time ago, and a different tribe governs each kingdom."
"Who governs the South, then?" Aloy asks, fascinated that so many tribes could live in peace with one another.
"The Balkek tribe. Small, but nobody else raised their hand to lead the kingdom. The Lakota kind of like to sit to the side."
"But the Lakota are builders, aren't they? Couldn't they build their own kingdom?"
Vale gives her a strange and amusing look, as if the question was silly. "Then who would we work for? Besides, my tribe isn't even big enough to rule a kingdom. We're smaller than the Nora."
Aloy's eyes widen. "Really?"
"Yeah. There's only three settlements that are home to us, and they all sit along the coast. People like to mock us and call us 'seagazers' because of it."
"Why would they say that? Sounds like a dumb insist."
"Well when you're the only tribe that lives close to the ocean, you're sort of asking for it. It doesn't help that when my people aren't working, all they do is sit in the sand and watch the waves roll in."
Aloy tried to imagine what that would be like, but she had no experience to go off of. "I wonder what that's like. Is it too much to ask if you could take me there one day?"
Vale chuckles to himself. "Maybe one day, when we're not busy trying to stop a crazy machine mind."
Aloy grins and finishes the last of her food. The stew warms her up and calms her shivering from the chilly air. The ruins were ventilated, but it barely had any heating. She suspected that the heaters had long ago lost power in their ancient age, as had most of the power to the facility. The Banuk lanterns around the bunker were an insufficient heat source, bright as they were. In her Nora furs she would have been just fine, but sitting on the floor and playing with her Focus for hours on end only required a blanket, and soon she would retire to bed.
"I heard you hammering away at something earlier," she decides to say, breaking the silence. "What were you making?"
"What? Oh. Carved myself a new knife. And I made this," Vale pulls a device from behind him. It's a component of some kind with a bunch of leather straps looped around a brace, and at the centre of the device is a module that's vaguely familiar to Aloy.
"Isn't that…"
"The shield module I got from a Shell Walker. I pulled it off my shield and decided to turn it into something else instead, using that wire harness I had bought back in Mainspring. It projects a force field of light that stops projectiles and such," he explains, pointing at the device at the centre.
"Oh, cool. So you have two shields now," Aloy grins and dismissively plays with her spoon.
"Actually…" Vale turns the device around and holds it out to her. "It's for you."
Her head snaps back to look at him, but he refuses to meet her gaze. She stares down at the device and then back up to him, noticing how his face turned the slightest shade of red.
"Really?" she says, her heartbeat suddenly noticeable in her ears, rising in excitement.
"Yeah," he replies and clears his throat. "I, uh… thought about the fight the other day, how you could have used a shield of your own. But I know you don't like carrying around big heavy weapons, so I figured I'd make this for you."
Aloy gently takes the device from his hand and examines it. The leather straps make sense now; it mounts to her arm for easy carrying and a switch is visible under the brace. When she activates it, a circular wall of light materializes before her in the similar hexagonal pattern that Shell Walker shields have. Vale plucks a chunk of leftover potato from his bowl with his fork and flings it at the shield. It bounces off the light with a small static burst and falls to the ground.
"You can optimize it to cover a wider area, but that means less strength to the shield," Vale explains. Aloy sees another switch that must control the shield strength and size that he's referring to. She deactivates the shield.
"Vale, this is amazing," she gleams. She can see Vale smile, happy with how well his gift was received. Aloy gently places her hand on his arm, which finally earns his gaze. "Thank you. This is really thoughtful of you."
His smile broadens as the pounding in Aloy's chest accelerates. She wonders what it is that's causing such a reaction, why this little moment feels so precious to her…
"May I make a personal inquiry?" Cyan speaks suddenly, which pulls Aloy away from her strange thoughts.
"What is it, Cyan?"
"Are you two mates?"
Vale's eyes pop open and Aloy can feel her whole face burn red. Both of them flinch away and stutter out a cluster of excuses and denials, fumbling over their words, saying that they were both just friends and traveling partners.
"I apologize… I did not mean to cause either of you distress."
… … …
More studying follows that very uncomfortable situation, and Aloy goes on well into the night. The food and the rest does her good, as she slowly feels her strength coming back to her body. Standing up no longer causes dizziness and Vale keeps a close eye on her wound, changing it for her when the dried patch becomes too soiled. He introduces a new healing salve and the wound heals considerably. By the second day, he decides they're ready to leave the facility, and this brings about a whole new problem.
Which Vale claims to have solved already.
"Are you sure we can get away?" Aloy asks as she picks up her spear, her last piece of gear. Her companion is already geared up and going through something on his Focus.
"I'm sure. I kept watch through the windows. None of the machines are close, but they've set up a perimeter around the area. Once I detonate my trap, it'll create a breach we can slip through."
They both stand at the entrance to the Keep just in front of the door. There are no windows here, but Aloy can feel the chill of the winter air outside. Vale puts his helmet on.
"Ready to go?"
Aloy nods. "Ready."
"Cyan," the face plates on his helmet move into place, "open the door."
The door clicks and a holo lock appears on the middle of the door, glowing blue with the red dial.
"Good luck on your journey, Aloy and Vale," Cyan says over the coms of the facility.
"Take care Cyan, and say hello to Aratuk for us the next time he comes by," Aloy replies. Vale reaches for the holo lock.
"I will give him your regards…"
The door opens and the cold air rushes in. The first thing Aloy hears is a machine cry and it concerns her how close it sounds. Even in the distance over the peek of the mountain, she can see the silhouettes of a few Glinthawks flying in circles. Vale points towards the path that circles around to the back of the facility.
"We can sneak out that way. I don't wanna go back through the caves."
"Neither do I," Aloy quips, and she swears she only shivers because of the cold. The both of them quickly make their way around the Keep. A quick scan reveals that there are machines close by: Scrappers, Watchers, a Sawtooth even. They surround the Keep on all sides, and the only reason they haven't been spotted is because of the old weathered down railings and crates that are scattered around the landing pad out front and the jagged rocks that lead to a drop around the side of the building.
Vale stops and taps his Focus. Aloy stops next to him, wondering what he could be doing.
But a few minutes pass by and Aloy notices a change in the machines. With curious yellow eyes, they start to converge on the one side of the mountain, towards the caves of the Shaman's trial. The field with the control tower was over there, where Aloy first encountered the Frostclaw. But she remembered destroying the tower and the machine. She couldn't think of why the machines would be running towards that area.
"Now we gotta move. Once they get too close to the lure, the bombs will detonate," Vale says, which alarms Aloy.
"Lures? You know how to craft lures?"
"Yeah, it's easy," he responds in a matter-of-fact tone. Aloy stares at him and blinks.
"Once they realize it's a trap, they'll come running."
"We'll be long gone by then," Vale turns around and keep going as Glinthawks fly overhead. He isn't telling her something, she can tell. The backroad down the mountainside is a long downwards slope. They weren't going to get down that very fast.
Aloy follows him regardless. They both creep around over the rocks and flee into the mountainous tundra beyond. There's a sliver of a path that's barely visible due to the snowfall. But Vale doesn't head down the path. Instead he waddles through the snow up the slope further until he's about as high as he can get.
"We're not flying away, are we?" Aloy asks.
"No, the air is too cold for that. And I think this will be more fun," Vale grabs his shield from his back. The metal plates expand, giving him the most cover it can provide.
"What do you mean?" Aloy inquires. Vale throws his shield unto the snow face down and dislodges the cannon from the backside.
"Have you ever gone sledding?" Vale asks.
"Sledding? Like sliding down a slope? I used to do that as a kid before I started hunting," she recollects. "Why? We're sledding down the mountain?"
"How else would we make a quick getaway?"
Just then they both hear a rumble in the distance. A cloud of white snow and black smoke arises from the other side of the mountain as several explosions go off. It's enough to bring down the entire cliffside and the rock and ice crumble and collapse.
"Time to go!" Vale says, waving her over frantically. Aloy gets there and is handed the cannon. "You're in charge of shooting. I'll steer."
"Shooting? Steering?" she stutters uncertainly. Vale reaches for his arm-mounted blade.
"Get on! Let's go before they get here!"
Aloy jumps onto their makeshift sled quickly, finding her place up front. Vale sits behind her and pushes them off with the blade, and soon they're sliding down the side of the mountain, gaining speed quickly. Aloy can feel the cold wind start to whip past her face and she braces herself for probably what's going to be a wild ride.
The shield actually slides along smoothly, and they cut through the snow like a knife, leaving a cloud of snow in their wake. Fortunately for them, there aren't a lot of trees around the hillside, but further down Aloy can see the blue headlights of machine eyes.
"Machines!" she cries.
"You got the gun," he reminds her. She lifts the weapon and scans it quickly, identifying a trigger and a charge clip. Amazingly, the weapon connects to her Focus and a holographic aiming sight appears, showing her where she's aiming. Ahead, machines come into view. "Snow Grazers!"
"They're not…" but Aloy stops herself. Something is definitely different about these Grazers. Instead of the usual blaze canisters mounted on their backs, four containers of chillwater are there, and the horns on the Grazers' heads are pointed, to cut through ice. She's never seen them in the Cut before.
Aloy aims the cannon and fires. Her first shot misses, even with the help of the holo sights, but it startles the machines as they bring their heads up to observe, eyes yellow. She shoots again and this time blows a chillwater canister right off, which spurs the herd of machines into a gallop. Aloy and Vale slid past them as the machines cry and run down the slope. Just as the pass them, they catch air and fly through the sky. Aloy can feel her pulse accelerating as Vale let's out a cheerful whoop. The landing is rough, but Vale keeps them straight by digging his weapon into the ground, which slows them down and steadies them.
They weave left and right through the snow as the slope gradually starts to level out. They jump over another well-beaten footpath before Vale slows them to a stop, bringing them to the edge of a high-current river at the bottom of the valley. Vale gets up and blushes the snow off of his winter robe.
"Hah! I kinda want to do that again!" Aloy says and spring up to her feet. The thrill of the ride has given her some unexplainable energy that she can't shake off, not even with the long walk back to Song's Edge they have to pull off now.
"Same here, but I don't think it would be worth the climb," Vale replies, gazing back up at the mountain. Aloy follows his gaze in disappointment, but quickly turns away from it and faces the road.
"So, shall we get going? We're gonna have to travel fast since we took the long way around."
After Vale picks up his weapons, he joins her on the road and quickly scans the environment around them with his Focus and points ahead.
"Are those Striders?"
Sure enough, Aloy spots the figures of machines around the bend, a herd of them all trying to dig through the snow to get to the grass.
The two warriors look at each other.
"The excitement can't stop today, can it?" Vale says. Aloy grins.
Ten minutes later, both of them are upon their own Strider, galloping towards the south.
… … …
Traveling back down into the Sacred Land from the Cut is much easier than traveling the other way. After passing the mountain range that separated the two lands, they found themselves close to the Grave Hoard that housed the ruins of project Enduring Victory. The long road to the gate of Dawn's Sentinel is a tense one, especially after the attack they fell upon shortly after crossing the Red echoes.
Two of Hephaestus' assassin machines appeared from the rocks above, the same kind that first attacked Aloy at the Nora gates. Normally this would have put them in a dire situation. With the machine's ability to self-repair the battle would have been drawn out into an exhaustive scramble for survival.
But thanks to Aloy's knowledge of the land and Vale's superior Focus capabilities, they were able to set a trap for the two machines that came searching for them. Blast wires and charges were set in hiding all around the jagged outcrops of stone, and when the machines came, they led them into those traps. It was still a challenge to take them both down, but by the end the two machines were dead and Vale and Aloy had only a couple minor bruises and cuts on them, and they left the battlefield smiling at each other. The Nora huntress even had a chance to test her new hardlight shield, which proved very effective when one of the machines proved to be capable of generating a cannon out of light. No doubt the device had probably saved her life.
Now they were cutting through the field of ancient towers at the edge of Nora land on a hot summer morning. Aloy was busy telling a story about the ruins around them as they made their way to the border.
"Wind fans?" Vale says, giving her a weird look. Aloy scratches her head coyly.
"Uh, yeah. I found some data in these ruins once. It said that the wind would turn the giant fans and generate energy for people to use."
Vale stares at one of the fallen towers as they pass it by. "But… they're so big. How does the wind push them?"
"I imagine it's like the current of a river pushing a water mill. The Oseram use the rivers for all sorts of things. You see them around Pitchcliff."
"I guess…" After that, he falls silent for minutes as they cut through the field. Aloy thinks on the idea a little more; a strong breeze is blowing in from behind them, racing through the valley. It made sense to her to put wind-powered devices here. The amount of energy that could be generated would be incredible. "Aloy?"
The huntress snaps her head back around at Vale. "What?"
"Where are we going exactly?" he asks. "You told me we have to find Minerva, but how do we get our hands on the codes for Hephaestus?"
Aloy plays with the reins in her hands. She already had a plan in her head, even though she dreaded the idea she came up with. "Well, it's kind of a multi-step process. To write a code for an AI, we first have to understand how the AI was made. There's a lot of programs and numbers that are involved."
"So how do we find the right one?"
"There's a facility that everyone went to who were involved with Zero Dawn. There might be some information there, copies of code we can take with us. Each sub function had its own dedicated team working on it. I'm hoping that the creator of Hephaestus left something behind for us."
"And where's this facility?" Vale inquires, noticing Aloy's drop in cheerfulness. But she raises her head to look at him when she answers.
"Right underneath the Citadel. We have to go to Sunfall."
OH! It's back to the fallen Carja city next week to see if they can find the codes necessary to make the Narcotic. See you then!