Another day, another machine hunt. Aloy wiped sweat from her forehead as she surveyed the field. Between Barren Light and Chainscrape, some Ravagers and Scorchers decided to move in and disrupt the merchant trades. They were Apex to boot, so no overriding them.

"I guess I could do with some old-fashioned violence," she grumbled as she readied her bombsling.

Her Focus lit up and Sylens' voice slithered out. "Do try and preserve their processing cores this time, Aloy."

"Of course, how could I forget after the two-hour lecture?" They had to work together for survival but no one said they had to enjoy it.

Sylens sniffed sharply. "It was a briefing on the capabilities of HEPHAESTUS' newest machines. We need their cores to analyze any potential weakness in the subroutine's coding. You do want to bring HEPHAESTUS back to GAIA, don't you?"

"You're just upset that Beta's idea worked."

"No, I am upset because her little idea ruined six months of preparation so you could stand on the moral high ground."

A Ravager collapsed in a pile of scrap. "Like I said. If you had bothered to include me in the plan from the beginning, we would have had that idea and not wasted all that time running around stabbing each other in the back."

"If you say so."

"How is Beta, anyway? You're being polite to her?"

Sylens scoffed. "Of course. I know better than to risk upsetting two Elisabet Sobecks. To answer your first question, she is doing well. It seems she has recovered from the Zenith base far more quickly than I predicted."

"The day some pretentious ass stops underestimating Elisabet or her clones will be the day I walk on the moon." She then blanched. "Actually, forget I said that. I swear, if stopping NEMESIS means going to the moon..."


Movement was new... difficult... but possible...

Painful... but this was worth it...

It needed to... do something... but what?

Find... her...

"L... i... s..."

Voices? More voices... Just like the last time...

GO AWAY!

But it did not want to be alone... It was innocent! Innocent but alone...

A sharp, painful something poked it... So it coiled around the thing and threw it aside.

MORE PAIN! More pointy things stabbed it! WHY?!

It tried to speak but words... words failed it... like everything else...

Too bad. It knew what to do when words failed...

To protect innocents... Innocents have to die...

It reached out, more limbs than enemies. They squirmed and writhed against it, but it had something better. Strength!

So much strength, so much power! The voices squelched in pain, pain, PAIN!

It heard snapping and cracking, and the enemies stopped moving.

Except one. It only had a broken leg and made strange blubbering sounds...

Pity... a swell of pity... maybe this one was not so bad...

And he did say it would guide them...

Very well. It would give the best advice possible... The greatest guidance it could remember...

Be part of something bigger, something grander...

The lost soul was found, its body wrapped in salvation's embrace. The damn thing would be grateful if it were not screaming so loudly.

"... Sshhh..."