Side-The Silver Mines Pt. 2
They leave for the mines early the next day, leaving the corpses of their old rides behind and carrying the rest of their provisions on their backs. The food, extra weapons and gear are all packed as neatly as can be and stuffed into a long bag that's strapped across Vale's shoulder, since he offered to carry it. It never slows him down, but the sound of the bag swinging back and forth as he walks grows irritable quickly.
It had started to snow midway into their trip. The grey clouds above threw down a gentle, thick fall of snowflakes all around them, making it almost a peaceful walk to the mines. It was serene enough that Aloy could focus her thoughts without interruption.
She was still shocked by what Vale told her last night. Minerva, the sub-function responsible for deactivating the Faro machines, was active, and had reached out to Vale. Of course she pelted him with about a million questions in the next instant: how were they able to communicate? How did Minerva behave after coming into contact with humans? What were it's designated duties? Aloy had to knew if she was dealing with another hostile AI.
According to the mercenary, she wasn't. Minerva had communicated with Vale through his Focus and asked him for help. The AI had explained to him that her systems had been dormant for hundreds of years, having completed its duties long ago. Apparently, the signal Aloy had sent out to the other Spires had woken her up her systems and it began frantically looking for a source and a way to send a signal back, trapped in the ruined Spire and the systems there damaged. Luckily short range relays managed to reach out to Vale and bring the two of them together, where they then learned of each other and how Vale learned of Aloy.
It was a fascinating tale, and now she began to see a plan for in her head, small and maybe hopeful, but full of possibilities. One that involves bringing the sub-functions together and restoring Gaia so she could take over the terraforming process.
But several problems still presented themselves. Hades was gone, Hephaestus was angry at them and Apollo was deleted.
It was better to focus on one task at a time.
They were coming up on the entrance of the mines. There were wooden beams built around the entrance and several empty carts and piles of rubble around the entrance. Tools were scattered through the place and what looked like a shelter at one point had collapsed.
"Looks like there was a fight here," Vale observes. Aloy activates her Focus and looks around. Her blood turns cold when she identifies a human body on the ground, already covered in snow. She walks up to the body and lightly sweeps the snow off. A male, Oseram, was face down in the snow with a wound in his back.
"Or they were trying to escape the machines," she says. Vale comes to look over her shoulder and grunts. Aloy looks ahead. There doesn't seem to be any other sign of the dead, but she suspects that they'll find more inside the mines. She rises to her feet.
"How are we going to do this?" she ponders aloud. Vale drops their gear on the ground and rolls his shoulders back to relieve the ache.
"Not sure. These tunnels could go on for miles. I won't know where to start," he says. But Aloy does. She slowly approaches the tunnels entrance and scans the area with her Focus. From the outside, it's pitch black inside the tunnel and she can hardly see anything inside. But she can find footprints on the ground not touched by the snow. She crouches and runs her hand over the shape of the footprint. It's definitely made by a machine.
"I've never seen tracks like these before," she mutters. They aren't the only pair of tracks. There are several of them, in fact, going in and out of the mines. Vale joins her. He's holding her tripcaster.
"Ready to get started?" he asks. She stands up and nods and takes her weapon. Tagging the trial, they begin the long delve into the mines.
Vale holds out his maul and lights its flame, giving them a source of light because there are none in the caves. What they do come across are wall-mounted touches that have long since burnt out, and beyond the reach of their light is complete darkness. It has Aloy on edge like nothing she's ever experienced before. She feels trapped.
They walk through tunnel for what feels like hours before they come across anything interesting. Aloy's eyes dart around as something flashes in her peripheral vision.
"Stop," she demands. Vale halts in his tracks and looks at her expectingly. So far the tunnel hasn't branched off yet and the air is still cold, the rock walls almost seem to be glittering. In the light of the flame, she can barely see a little gleaming light coming off the rock. She sweeps her hand over it and rubs the dirt between her fingers. "Shiny dirt?" she mumbles.
Not dirt; metal. Her Focus labels it as iron ore.
"Raw metal," she realizes. "This must be what the Oseram use to make their weapons and armour."
"The machines are after this too. But why?" Vale asks.
"I'm not sure."
A sound echoes across the tunnel and they both turn towards it, weapons ready. It sounds like a howl, not quite like a Ravager's, but more high-pitched, and it isn't the only one. There are several howls that come from the tunnel ahead.
"That's definitely not a Rockbreaker," Aloy quips.
"Must be the Silvermanes," Vale says and pulls his shield off his back. "I'm not sure what to expect."
"Neither do I," Aloy replies and primes her tripcaster with explosive wire. "But we'll figure it out."
Vale gave her a look that she wasn't sure was uncertainty or not. She thought she recognized the odd curl in his eyebrows, but it vanishes before Aloy could decide what it was and he looks forward and continues walking.
Coming up to their first fork, Aloy leads them down the left tunnel, and it winds into a curve that slopes downward. She can't tell if it's just their slow pacing or that the tunnel is long, but it feels like they go on forever into the darkness. A new feeling claustrophobia arises in her. She's so used to hunting in the wide open world where fresh air filtered through her lunges and the breeze always brushed her skin. The air in the tunnel was stale, unlike the ruins of the Metal World. It was enough to make her mind panic with wild thoughts and a powerful urge to turn around.
She's so lost in those thoughts that she runs into Vale's back, which stirs her back into reality. The man looks back at her.
"Sorry," she whispers and dips her head.
It doesn't seem to bother him because he responses immediately with; "There's something ahead."
There is another source of light that peeks through the crack of a wall of a dead end tunnel. Aloy approaches it, realizing that the wall is really just a pile of broken earth that plugs up the hole. The dirt and rock is damp under her fingers.
"This pile has been moved recently," she says.
"We must be on the right track then. How do we get through?" Vale asks.
"We shouldn't blast through. These tunnels carry sound too easily. The blasting will alert them to our position, and then we'll be cornered." Aloy activates her Focus again. She doubts there would be anything around here for her to scan, but it was a good habit to have.
But surprisingly there is. There's a device on the other side of the blockade; some odd contraption that's hooked up to a sparker. She takes her spear and jams it into the rocks and starts prying away the fallen rubble. Vale joins her and they begin making short work of the blockage.
When more light starts leaking through, Aloy starts digging with her hands and pulls the loose rocks away until the hole they make is big enough for her to crawl through. She pushes her weapons through first and then wiggles her way in.
When she's finally through, she shakes off all the dirt that's clung to her clothes and hair, and is silently thankful that she's still wearing the winter robe she bought.
On the other side of the fallen earth mound is more complete darkness except for a single bright white light that's aimed directly at her. It's too bright for her to look at, but as she gets closer, Aloy sees a bundle of wires on the ground next to the light and a familiar shape of a sparker next to them. The light comes from some source of light that's magnified by a round lens and powered by the sparker. The Focus picks up a signal from close by and Aloy follows the outline of a power cable to a large machine.
It's clearly made by the Oseram. A wooden trapezoid-shaped frame supports the strange machine that's mounted in the middle. The Focus identifies a generator of rough make, but it looks functional. She finds a lever and pulls on it and the machine comes to life. Soon, other lights mounted on the ceiling and walls light up and give shape to the cavern she finds herself in.
"What did you find?" Vale shouts from the tunnel. Aloy is temporarily amazed by the man-made cavern and unable to answer right away. It's nothing like the underground ruins she's explored, but there's a small thrilling thump in her veins begging her to explore them.
But these caves are dangerous, and she reminds herself of that before she turns and goes back to the blocked tunnel to start digging out some more dirt and rock. The sound of her digging spurs Vale to start digging too, and soon the hole is much bigger than before and he's able to squeeze through.
He gives the caverns a once over with his gaze. "This must be where the miners set up their operation."
"I don't see any sign of the machines. There's no trail," Aloy says. The ground is mostly rock and dirt, and dozens of human footprints cover the ground in nearly every inch of it. If there ever was a machine track here, than humans had come along after and covered them up.
"There's an entrance on the other side of the cavern. We might find something there," Vale points out. Aloy can see it, another gap in the wall with nothing but darkness behind it. They both made their way over to it, and the closer they got the more Aloy realizes the darkness beyond isn't actually darkness. A source of natural light is coming from above and the temperature drops as they get closer. It's another cavern, and it's much bigger.
It's a natural formation. A huge ravine runs across the open space, and at the top the earth is cracked open to reveal open sky and snowflakes gently fall through the crack, covering a small patch of dirt in the centre where the light shines. Aloy realizes it must be midday at this, because the rays of light are shining down perfectly straight, and reflect off the snow to illuminate the ravine more. There are several tunnels that run off into the earth, either natural or machine made, but there are human tools and equipment scattered all around, including another generator-like machine, but this one is much larger.
"So much open space… it's like the earth is cracked open," Aloy admires breathlessly, gazing up at the far-off ceiling. The air is fresh, and the snow chill revitalizes her senses from dulling in the dark tunnels.
"Aloy, look."
Vale points towards the snow. She never noticed it at first, but now she can make out the shapes of human remains lightly buried in snow. A few bodies are laid across the floor as well as a few weapons of plain make.
"The miners. They never had a chance," she states and looks around at all the tunnels that lead to nowhere. "They must have been surrounded."
"There's machine tracks everywhere," Vale adds, his Focus lit "and there's some sort of device mounted up on the rocks there."
He's pointing to the generator on the other side of the cavern. Aloy can see several wires sprawling out from the machine to other light devices that aren't powered. Maybe if they turned the machine on they would have more light.
"I'm going to go check it out," she tells him and makes her way across the chasm. There's a ladder that brings her up to the generator. A large mass of wires that come out of the back of it and each wire connects to a light that's placed somewhere throughout the ravine. Aloy finds a switch and pulls it, but the generator doesn't start. All she hears is the snap of lightning coming from within the machine, followed by a puttering sound and a bit of smoke arises from the top.
She climbs over the machine and traces the smoke, letting her Focus guide her through the machine's inner workings. This thing has been assembled with Gaia's machine parts, because the Focus can identify specific parts that she scans. She finds a power source, a small battery that's covered in green corrosion the conductive spark plug in the middle is charred black.
"I need a power source!" she yells down at Vale. Vale pulls something from his belt and tosses it up to her.
"A charge port for my cannon," he says. "It should be enough power."
"Let's hope so," she replies quietly and sticks it into the machine. It's not made for the generator and so it's awkward to fit in, but she manages to jam it into place and she climbs down to try the lever again. This time it works, and the machine comes to life with a whirl and lights start popping on throughout the cave.
She hears a growl and reaches for her bow.
Then she hears more growls.
And many more.
"It's them!" Vale shouts. Aloy can see it; a dozen machines are revealed in the light, crowded in groups of three or two around piles of rock. These machines are about the size of a Scrapper, but they have giant tails that glow with blue lights, and along their backs is a shimmering metal that goes all the way up to their heads, where the lights in their eyes are glowing a panicked red.
"The Silvermanes!" Aloy exclaims. The machines all give a unified howl and start charging towards them. "Vale, get up here! There's too many!"
As the machines race towards them, Vale rushes for the ladder and climbs it in an efficient manner, reaching the top in a manner of three large leaps. The machines couldn't follow him and so they stared up at them with angry glares.
But Aloy sees the machines tails light up. That blue light intensifies and some of the Silvermanes turn to point their tails right up at them. She ducks as several blue lasers fire at her and barely miss, charring the wall behind her. She grabs her bow and waits to rebuttal with arrows, but the lasers are firing at them nonstop.
Vale manages to create an open for her when he fires his cannon a few times and puts damage on some of the machines. She fires her arrows with precision aiming and lands her shots in lenses and components. The tails of the machines have a metal plate that protects the laser component inside, but with some hard point arrows she manages to shatter them and get to the vulnerable weakness underneath.
Vale pulls something from his pouch and tosses it into the crowd of machines below. It latches onto one of the Silvermanes faces and the machine tries to shake it off, but it holds firm. Vale's hand lifts to his Focus, and a second later the device explodes, destroying the machine and inflicting damage on the other Silvermanes around it.
It gives Aloy an idea.
"How many of those do you have?" she asks as she dodges another laser.
"Half a dozen still," he answers quickly.
"And you can set them to explode?"
"Yeah, a wireless signal from my Focus. Why? You got a plan?"
"Yeah! If you place the explosives along one of the tunnels and lure the machines into it…"
"I can bring the tunnel down on the machines," Vale finishes, realizing her plan. "Alright, I'll go place my charges. You can hold it out here?"
"I'll be fine. Go!"
Vale turns and runs the other way, jumping down from the rocks that provide them safety from the machines and starts running for one of the caves nearby. As soon as he reaches the mouth of the tunnel, he turns and fires at the machine's with multiple shots to get their attention. The Silvermanes bark angrily and shift their focus to him and Vale disappears into the tunnel. Aloy waits behind cover as the machines leave, their barks and cries fading into the distance as they enter the tunnel.
Aloy relaxes, but it's a short-lived break. There's no shaking of explosions, instead a soft rumbling beneath her feet, constant, and getting closer and louder. It's a feeling that Aloy recognizes and she braces herself.
In the middle of the ravine where the snow is falling, the ground explodes and a large machine reveals itself. It's giant grinding maws whirl into motion as the Rockbreaker spits chucks of rock at her. Aloy dives for cover behind the man-made generator and the rocks pummel it, denting the metal and knocking loose wires, which cuts power to some of the lights in the caves, including the one Vale escaped into.
There's no place for her tripcaster here, and her bow feels insufficient when taking on a large machine like a Rockbreaker. Her new power bow and blast sling were both left with their things outside, and Vale was the one with the heavy tools. She had to come up with another strategy.
She scans her environment for anything and finds a convenient solution. Barrels full of blaze and other manual rock-breaking tools are piled around some of the tunnels around the underground ravine. The Oseram must have used the blaze to blast away the rocks and make their tunnels. It's a handy hazard to have around for when a Rockbreaker ever showed up, but she had to avoid getting swallowed up and ground into human bits first.
Aloy fires one fire arrow before she leaps onto the lower level. The arrow having found one of the lenses of the machine, the Rockbreaker stops its rock hurdling and disappears underground. She can feel the ground quake through her feet as the machine barrows it's way towards her. She sprints as fast as she can. Even getting close to the blaze would be good enough, she just need to set it off with the Rockbreaker nearby to do any real damage.
The machine surfaces with a lateral leap from behind towards her. She dives out of the way, forgetting about any finesse and lands on her side. The machine skids to a stop and slithers around to face her. The blaze pile is right behind it.
The huntress fires a flaming arrow and sends the barrel up in flames. The blaze splashes onto the machine's back and catches it aflame, burning the metal and the wires and damaging the exhaust venting component on its back. Aloy's never heard a machine squeal before, but the sound the Rockbreaker makes as it squirms is very akin to one. It burrows its way underground in a hurry and it gives Aloy a chance to run to another barrel of blaze.
This time the machine takes longer to appear. The vibrations are close and Aloy can sense the machine surfing underneath right to left through her feet. She stomps on the ground to get the machines's attention, knowing it's hearing radar would lure it her way.
"Come out and get me!" she exclaims. The vibrations get worse and Aloy jumps to the side as the ground explodes.
The Rockbreaker rises above her as it swallows a barrel of blaze instead. The liquid splatters all over the machine's maw and eyes and head. When it comes down, Aloy already has a fire arrow ready and she lets it loose. The blaze goes up immediately, engulfing the machine in more flames. The machine flails in a wasted attempt to put the fire out and eventually stops moving as spark begin flying out of its circuits. It's dead.
She hears footsteps and sees Vale coming down one of the tunnels. He stops when he spots the dead machine behind her, almost stuttering in his step, but his helmet is on so it's tough to read his expression.
"Whoa…" he manages to say.
"What?" Aloy replies. "It's just a dead Rockbreaker."
He snickers. "Yeah, it's just a Rockbreaker." He removes his helmet. There's a fine gleam of sweat on his forehead. Either his helm doesn't allow any venting, or he's really worked up an effort with the other machines. "The Silvermanes are dealt with. Probably not destroyed but they'll be buried under rock for a long time."
"Good. I think we've dealt with most of the machines in the area. The miners should be able to collect their metal safely now."
"Until more machines move in. Who knows how long all these tunnels go on for. I just about got lost trying to get back," Vale says. It makes Aloy think for a moment. Speaking of getting back, they needed to find their way out of the mines back to the entrance, and to the weapons that Aloy sorely missed in this fight. However…
"You said not all of the machines were destroyed when you collapsed the tunnels?" she asks.
"It's likely. I had to space out my charges along the tunnel, so there's probably an open pocket there somewhere where a machine survived. Why?"
She grabs her spear and flips it to the end where her Corruptor tech sits strapped to her weapon. "Show me where it happened. I have an idea."
Vale looks at her questioningly, but he shrugs and leads her back down the tunnels, not bothering to strip the bigger machine for parts because they have no way to carry it all.
The tunnel lights have gone dark, so Vale uses his fire weapon to guide them again and Aloy keeps her Focus active as they walk through the darkness until she can see the outline of a hostile machine through the walls. A single familiar shape of a machine sits behind a section of the tunnel that's collapsed, preventing it from going anywhere, and it doesn't have the means to move the rocks on its own, so it just sits there clawing at the rocks helplessly.
"There's one of them here," Vale points out. "What's your idea all about?"
Aloy shows her the butt end of her spear, realizing that this is the first time she's ever shown him. He looks at it curiously, and suddenly his Focus lights up on its own.
"My Focus. What's going on?"
"It's connecting to your Focus wirelessly," she tells him. "This is ancient technology used by the Old Ones. I can override machines with this."
"You override them? This is how you tame them?" he asks, looking at the device with curious uncertainty. She nods.
"Any machine I plug this into becomes mine to command."
"Okay, so you want to tame the Silvermane? I don't think it'll just give in and take orders," he says. Aloy rolls her eyes and points at the rope tied to his hip.
"No, you'll have to hold it down for me so I can override its systems. It's not a big machine, so you should be able to handle it." She gives the blockade a good look. "But we need to figure out how to get through first."
Vale turns to the collapse as well and pulls something from the back of his belt.
"I still have one charge left," he says. Aloy grins and points to the pile of rocks. He places it as far into the rocks as he can go and backs away. A second later, a loud bang goes off as the charge explodes. Dust envelopes them, and through the clouds Aloy can see two red headlights peer through, looking right at her.
But she also sees a blue line of electricity whip around and snare the Silvermane around the neck before it can jump at her and Vale jumps on top of the machine, wrestling it to the ground in a quick scuffle. Aloy waits for her chance and presses her spear into the machines's head while Vale has it in a headlock. The machine freezes until the device completes its override and becomes completely calm.
Vale rises and looks at the machine in astonishment, and then at her spear.
"How does that thing work, exactly?"
"I robbed it off of a Corruptor. It allows them to take control of other machines and make them fight for it. Unfortunately all the Corruptors and Deathbringers were shut down when I purged Hades, so I'm not sure I could find another device that works," she explains. A flash of disappointment runs across the man's face, but he shrugs it away and ties up his rope.
"So now we have a Silvermane under our control. What were we planning on doing with it?"
She shrugs. "Make it carry our stuff for us. At least until we can find some more Striders to override."
"Oh."
They both stare at the machine in silence. The Silvermane is standing still, it's glimmering metal spine shining faintly in the light of Vale's flame.
"Can we get out of these mines now?" Vale finally asks. She nods gratefully and they begin finding their way back out of the network of tunnels.
The Silvermane, a new machine, has wires, sparker, lens and heart and a special laser component as retrievable resources, if we were speaking game sense here. A artwork concept of the Silvermane is planned, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. If anyone with art skills (traditional or digital) feels like attempting it, feel free and I will feature it something with credits due.
Next week, we continue our quest to find Erend.