Across States Pt. 2
Looking back at their trip as a whole, Aloy was beginning to see how much change was occurring in the machines.
Upon entering the dry landscape of the Sundom's northeastern territory, Aloy could see the bolstered defences of the machine packs; more machines, bigger machines. It even came to the point where they couldn't gaze across the land without spotting a yellow or red headlight in any direction. They were everywhere. Camping up on top of a mesa one night and seeing all the lights really put into perspective how outnumbered humanity was against the machines, and how easily Hephaestus could order all of them to hunt down humans across the land. It only made her drive to stop the AI much more powerful.
Passing through the jagged terrain into Shadow Carja territory, the pair came across a rather large herd moving across the sand. It's the largest group of Tramplers Aloy has ever seen. They move slowly, but with a purpose and as a unit. Aloy and Vale sit at the top of a sand dune and watch them migrate across the desert and Aloy notices that when one of the machines stop, either to excavate the ground with their horns or when the encounter another machine in their way, the rest of the herd also reacts to it. They deal with the threat/problem with an efficiency that she's never seen in a herd this size before. But then again, she's never seen a machine herd this size before.
"We call this an exodus back home," Vale explains, which forces Aloy to suddenly pull her gaze away from the machines and ask him to repeat himself.
"Your tribe has a name for this?" she asks.
"They do. They happen all over the land, but the Lakota have a special term for them. Most people think that the machines are all possessed by one spirit, which is their way of explaining how they all move together, I guess. I just figured the machines were really smart."
Aloy smirks and turns herself around to look at him.
"I envy them in that regard," he continues. "Being able to work as a team like that. It's what I pushed my mercenary band to do. We'd run drills just to practice that when we weren't on a contract."
He fell silent, but it left Aloy wanting to know more about his old company. But the look at Vale's face made her think otherwise. In that instant he looked like he had grown forty years old, absorbing all that knowledge and emotional weight lost by all of his friends, aged by the impact of their deaths. Aloy liked to think that it was a similar pain to how she felt about Rost. His death still affected her to this day.
"Do you wish we had that compatibility?" she inquires, which compels the man to stare at her. Not with longing, but with assurance.
"I think we already do," he says. Surprise must be evident on her face, because he adds; "think about it. Our fighting styles are so different but they compliment each other so well. You fight with ranged weapons and I fight more close distance. You're agile and quick, I'm steady and planted. My shield protects you and your spear gets us through a door."
Aloy smirks. "It's sounds lame when you put it that way."
"But you see what I'm talking about, right? We cover each other's weaknesses."
Aloy gives it some thought and discovers that he's right. Vale had always been the one to cover for her while she fired projectiles at their target, whether it was a machine or a human. And his strength and skill up close made up for the lack of weapons Aloy had for close range. Of course she didn't think her spear skills were lacking in any way. She had taken on more than enough people in close quarters combat with her spear. Helis was one of those people, and he was the most dangerous man she had ever faced, that anyone had ever faced. But Vale was the one with the metal and armour. He could take the hits whereas her leather and animal skins couldn't.
She smiles at him. "I think you're right, Vale. I don't think I've realized how well we've worked together until now."
"And in a world like this, that's important," Vale nods, referring to the large herd in front of them, which has mostly passed them by now. Aloy decides to bring herself to a stand and looks around her. There's part of an old structure sitting in the sand nearby, revealed by the winds. Desert lay ahead of them and a sandstorm that cloaked their view of Sunfall much further away.
"I need to change into different armour," she announces.
"Why?"
"Because once we get to Sunfall, anyone who recognizes me will call the whole Shadow Carja army upon us, and then we'll be in trouble. I have a disguise that will help me blend in as one of their Kestrels," she explains. She whistles for her mount and it comes running.
"That sandstorm is coming fast. We might want to take shelter and let it pass," Vale suggests as he rises to his feet.
"You might be right…" Aloy looks up at the sky; the dark sand cloud that was blocking the sunlight was a telltale sign that a heavy storm was brewing, and as much as she wanted to get to the Zero Dawn facility as soon as possible, she didn't want to fight through a wall of sand every step of the way.
So they bunked down inside one of the hollow ruins and set up their tent leathers to block as much of the wind as possible before the storm hit. Aloy was thankful that they had picked up some chillwater canisters in their last fight in anticipation for their trek across the desert. Vale was able to turn the liquid into regular water with his metal canteen device and it kept them hydrated through the dry storm and the dry rations they had to snack on. Too bad they didn't have enough to wash themselves with. Aloy was sure that the wrinkle in Vale's nose was caused by her stenches leathers.
The storm passes by late afternoon and left them with fading sunlight as the sun disappears behind the western mountains on the horizon. Aloy finds her bag of gear and started changing into her Kestrel armour, careful with all the pieces that were sewn together to not get them tangled in anything, especially the headgear that liked to get caught in her hair so often.
Vale was already waiting for her with their Striders, finishing up packing the rest of their gear when Aloy came out into the open. The mercenary turns to her and freezes and his eyes widen.
"What?" she asks.
"Uh-nothing. The mask looks good," he replies quickly and turns away. "Shall we get going?"
As he saddles up on his Strider, Aloy swears that there a hint of a blush on his face. She doesn't know why, but it makes her smile in a cheeky sort of way. She quickly tames it though and gets up on her ride.
They make it to Sunfall when the moon rises. The red torchlight reflects off the red sandstone and makes everything else look red, which works in favour for Aloy. She can't hide her long braids with her mask. They leave their Striders behind in a field of cactus and approach the large fort with caution. Since the attack, Aloy had never heard of how the Shadow Carja were fairing. But she assumed that it wasn't good. Losing their city and then losing the battle to take it back must have dealt a blow to the people.
There were no Kestrels on guard when they came to Shadowside, where all the tents of the common, poor people stayed. Aloy didn't think that things could get any worse for those who couldn't live inside the fort, but as she walked through the tents, she could count more people laying on the ground, sick and dying, more than the last time she was here. It was a terrible thing to see.
"It's worse than before," Vale says, his voice warped because his helmet is on and down. "I'm actually afraid to breathe in the air around here or I'm afraid I'll get sick."
"The nobles in the fort are keeping to themselves," Aloy observes. "We have to pass right through the Citadel to get to the entrance to Zero Dawn."
"How do we sneak through the palace?"
"As mercenaries," she replies and grins at him. "The Shadow Carja are always willing to pay to have someone stabbed in the back."
"Is it really that simple?"
"We're gonna found out."
They make their way up to the entranceway of the Carja fort and the dramatic shift in sovereignty surprises them. Kestrels stand on guard like statues as people explore the small market area near the entrance. A squad of soldiers practice in the corner of the level, whereas on the next level up they can see nobles and the wealthy gather at the edge of the railing, watching something exciting.
When Aloy and Vale join them alongside the railing they can see it, the grand sight that got them all riled up.
The Sun Ring was still being used for sport.
A Ravager was running around its target; a defenceless man in dirty worn rags and leather for clothing. He only had a spear with him, but by the way he cowered in his spot and ran away from the machine, he probably didn't know how to use it. The two of them watch in stunned silence as the machine dances around its prey before pounding on him. The man doesn't stand a chance against the might of the bigger machine. Aloy turns away, but finds herself facing the crowd next to them, who are cheering, and closes her eyes instead.
"Monsters, all of them…" she seethes quietly. She feels a hand on her arm and finds Vale, but its hard to tell how he's feeling with the helmet on.
"Come on. Let's see if we can get into the Citadel," he says. She follows him without another glance at the nobles as they begin to disperse.
On a higher platform, a very different group of people are gathered at the front gates to the main palace. Most of them are wearing armour and have weapons strapped to their backs. Mercenaries, all from different tribes. Aloy almost forgot; Sunfall was also surprisingly culturally diverse. Banuk hunters and even Tenakth warriors could be found in the city, and some of them were waiting in front of the gates now. A pair of Kestrels stand guard as they seem to await instruction to let the mercenaries inside. Aloy and Vale join the back of the group.
Another guard steps forward. "If you are looking for today's bounties, head to the throne room. The noble Castor will read off the list of available missions for you to choose from."
Vale's head turns to Aloy. "Do we bother with the bounties?"
"No. Once we're inside we can sneak by the guards. They won't be paying attention, anyway," she answers. The man nods and they follow the group into the Citadel. It's not surprising to see that the royal court is the only place kept in shape in Sunfall. The curtains and tapestries hung on the walls don't have a single flake of dust on them and the decorations are as vibrant as ever. Where the throne sits is empty, but a priest in Shadow Carja robes stand in front of it, with a scroll in his hands. At least eight guards stand around them and the entrance to the balcony in the back is guarded by four other Kestrels. "This way, to the back," she says.
"Hold on. I want to hear this," Vale replies. She relents and stands by him as the priest steps forward and unravels the roll of parchment.
"The Noble Castor has offered a bounty on the woman who has plunged us into shadow and darkness, for her defiance of ritual in the Sun Ring and her interface in our conquest over our city Meridian. To the man who should bring her head to us, the total of four thousand shards!"
The crowd grew into whispers and cheers. Aloy was almost shocked. She didn't think that the Shadow Carja nobles would offer so much. The bounty on Uthid had been only two hundred.
"Someone pissed off the Carja," Vale mumbles. "What I would do with four thousand shards."
"I thought you send your earnings back to your family?" Aloy replies.
"I can afford to keep some of that. You know who offers four thousand shards for a job? No one, that's who."
Coming from a veteran sellsword, she decided not to argue against that. The priest unrolls another scroll.
"The name of this blasphemer – and the assassin who kidnaped our fair Prince Itamen, is Aloy of the Nora!"
"Aw dammit…"
Aloy feels her jaw drop and her blood run cold. She turns to Vale who's still looking ahead.
"You're not gonna—"
"Of course not, but you know what this means, right?" Vale snipes. It takes a moment for her to figure out what he's talking about, but she finally understands.
Machines aren't the only thing hunting for her now.
"We've heard all we've needed to hear. Let's go," he says, a little louder this time so that maybe the people around them could hear, and he turns around. Aloy follows him, but she skips in front to lead him to the Sun Ring balcony while also trying to get out of the building as quickly as possible, because every hunter sense she has is telling her that she needs to get out of there before she becomes trapped.
She rests her hands on the railing and takes a few slow breaths to calm the rapid heartbeat that she's never noticed until now. Her hands are shaking too.
"They'll all be looking for me. Hunting, like I'm some rabid animal," she murmurs, the horror of the situation hitting her in full swing. She feels a hand on her shoulder.
"I won't allow them to get to you," Vale confirms. She shakes her head.
"But don't you see? I did this to them!" she hisses, whacking his arm away from her. "Their nobles are so coddled and keep everything to themselves now more than ever, and the people down in Shadowside are suffering for it. I made them afraid, and now this tribe is going to tear itself apart!"
Vale holds a finger up to his face. "Shh. They attacked Meridian and sacrificed people for no reason. They deserve it."
"Not all of them. There are innocent people down there are are dying of starvation and sickness right now. Those people need help, our help."
"What can we do?" Vale asks her, which finally makes Aloy stop and think. "They're beyond help at this point. They can only help themselves, and we can only hope that they'll come to their senses in time. And we have more pressing matters to be concerned about."
He was right. Damn the goddess, he was right. Who would the Shadow Carja except help from? Definitely not the Sun Carja, but nobody was closer to them than they were, and the Shadow Carja were hated by every other tribe.
She sighs in defeat. "You're right. I just hate seeing them all in pain."
"Even an enemy like this?"
"Nobody deserves to suffer like that…"
"It's why you saved the world," Vale pats her on the arm once. "Let's go save it again so we can deal with smaller issues like this."
"Right," Aloy scans the area and finds that the broken railing to the lower balcony has been fixed, but the platform is unoccupied, which allows them to jump down without being questioned or arousing suspicion. She can see the same trail of rocks and ledges that she used last time to get down safely and she uses that path again. Vale keeps up, skipping over the rocks and following her down the walls until they are on the ground. It doesn't look like the Carja have ever discovered this entrance at all as it lacks footprints in the sand, but the wooden cover that blocks the small gateway is still there.
"You think the Shadow Carja have found this place?" Vale voices quietly.
"Probably. Last time I was here, the Kestrels and Eclipse found there way down and attacked me. If they're still interested in this place, we'll probably run into trouble."
"Aloy, the Shadow Carja just announced that they're looking for you. Maybe I should go alone on this one, so they don't find you."
But Aloy shakes her head. "I'll be fine, Vale. As long as I have this mask on. And I think I can control the facility with my credentials so we can separate ourselves from them."
Vale stares at her for a few seconds before he raises his palms questioningly.
"What do you mean by that?"
She was just about to explain herself but stops, and realizes that this little detail was forgotten when she was explaining her travels to Vale. He didn't know about the giant triangular door that guarded Zero Dawn. Or how it only allowed her access because her blood was so similar to Elisabet Sobeck's. This was going to be difficult to talk around.
"You'll see," she finally assures him and delves into the tunnel. At the rappel point, they slowly rope downwards into the ruins, always on the watch for enemies. Though Aloy thought that anyone who might have found their way down here would have quickly turned around, realizing it was a dead end or was denied entry into the facility when the Identascan refused them. Vale has his shield mounted on his arm ready to go and is only one step behind her as she approaches the door.
"Hold for Identascan."
Vale almost jumps.
"What was that?" he quips, but watches silently as a red light washes over Aloy and disappears. Metal clicks and the facility opens.
"Greetings, Doctor Sobeck. You are cleared to proceed."
"Sobeck?" Vale glances at her. "Like, Elisabet Sobeck?"
"Yeah," she says with a sigh and walks into the facility.
"What—"
"Come on, we have to find the branch that made Hephaestus."
Vale doesn't ask further questions, and Aloy's isn't sure if it's because of her obvious discomfort or not. But she's relieved. Besides, the holovids in this facility could do a better job explaining everything than she could.
They walk through the main foyer room into the waiting room, and than through the first holo theatre. The video doesn't play, and that's when Aloy first notices that most of the power to the ruins is off. Only a few lights on the ceiling flicker white and barely give them enough light to navigate the rooms without stumbling on the limestone-covered ground. And it proves that the doors to the next waiting room is also powered off. Aloy finds a hatch and plays with the wires, but nothing has power going through it. With Vale's Focus, much like in Cauldron Sigma, he's able to find the right wires to cross and powers up the door, allowing them through.
"This is where the terraforming system was built?" Vale asks as they walk through the facility.
"Yes. Project Zero Dawn started here."
"So everything out there, the machines, the cauldrons, the Spires. They were all made here?"
"No. All the subordinate functions were created here. Hephaestus, Minerva, Hades. Teams of scientists and builders worked together to create artificial minds that would survive past Zero Day and start recreating life on earth," Aloy explains.
"What's Zero Day?"
"The day that all life on earth went extinct."
"Oh…"
It's still a sobering thought, to think that the whole earth was once so barren and toxic that nothing could survive. And it awed Aloy how in just under a thousand years it could all come back again with the help of machines, fully flourishing. And then it angered how how their little human squabbles could bring it all crumbling down again. Did the danger ever go away?
In the next room, Aloy stops and activates her Focus. She swore she heard something on the other side of the door, and a scan revealed she was right. There were bodies on the other side.
"Three of them, armed with two spears and a bow," she whispers. "I'll tag the archer. The two spearman are yours."
Vale nods and grabs his hammer. Aloy sets an arrow to her bow before unlocking the door. As soon as it opens, she steps in and finds the archer, planting an arrow in the back of his head. The other two enemies turn around, but one of them is shot by Vale's cannon immediately. He swings his hammer and the spearman attempts to block, but the heavier weapon breaks the shaft like a stick and smashes into the man's head and throws him to the ground.
"Kestrels."
"They'll be more of them," Aloy warns. "Let's try not to announces ourselves. We don't want to get cornered."
"Right." Vale mounts his shield back up and finds his gauntlet blade. They pace through into the next room where a hologram pops up out of nowhere, making the man jump.
"Hello. I'm Margo Shen, and this is Hephaestus…"
"What the…?"
"The Alpha, or the leader of the sub function. Margo oversaw everything to create Hephaestus," Aloy explains. Vale still looks startled.
"So is she the one we're after?"
"No. They're all long dead. Hephaestus runs by himself now, but this is where we should start looking." Aloy scans the area around her. She wants to curse. Even if she hadn't remembered every little detail of this room, she could tell that objects had been turned over, moved or taken, recently. The Shadow Carja has been down here at some point and swept through the place. That meant bad news for them.
"What are we looking for exactly?" Vale asks, gazing up at the large piece of machinery that sat in the middle of the large area.
"Information, data storage of any kind. There has to be something here that can tell us how to make an AI," she tells him. Aloy searches the desks near the walls of the room, but there's nothing there except the odd device and objects that have since then lost their power. This was an ancient metal world, and most information had been stored on digital devices. But if half the facility had lost its power, would they even be able to find what they were looking for? Or was it lost?
"There's a door with power to it here," Vale points out, which grabs her attention. It's a door that Aloy hasn't checked before, sealed because of the rock and hardened clay that had formed around it. When Aloy reaches for the lock, the door doesn't move, but they can hear clicking happening in the door. There's a window to the room that Aloy peers through; more desks and small metal boxes with blinking lights.
"It might be an office room or something. We have to get in there," she stresses.
"If we bust the door open, anyone in here with us will hear it," Vale warns.
"We can pry the door open," Aloy replies and grabs her spear. She wedges the tip into the seal in between the two doors and starts pushing the doors apart. Vale sticks his weapon in there too and helps. The rock cracks, the metal groans, but eventually they push the doors open wide enough that the mechanism can pull them apart by itself.
Inside the room, Aloy can see more lights, but a lot of them are red.
"That red glow can't be good," she mutters. "Be careful in here."
"Those devices are marked with data," Vale says, pointing to the devices on the desk. Lights envelopes them through the Focus with glyphs that Aloy doesn't understand because they're missing figures, making them incomplete from years of degradation, or because of the red text that replaces it with glyphs that don't look like they belong. But she touches the lights on the device, and an interface pops up for her. And luckily, nothing seems to be missing.
She looks into all the files she can find, reading paragraphs of text to find any information on making artificial intelligence. The first several files she scrolls through reveal nothing but progress reports and maintenance updates and the status of the Hephaestus branch coming to fruition. But there's mention of the Alpha's personal data library, so she backs up and searches the other files. One of them is marked 'Coding scraps'. It sounds promising.
"Did you hear that?" Vale says suddenly and Aloy lifts her head and stills herself. For a moment there's nothing but the hum of the devices around them, but then they hear it, barely audible, but the unmistakable sounds of shouting.
"We'll have company soon," Aloy murmurs. "I'm not finding anything useful here."
"Keep searching. I'll set some traps," Vale answers, and before she can argue he disappears behind the door, leaving her alone. But Aloy lets out a nervous breath and continues searching. She doesn't have time to worry about him. She has to focus on finding data.
She traces the scrap files to several other unnamed files, but when she clicks on one of them, nothing pops up but an alert that says '3D software required to view data'. She activates her Focus and finds her wireless connection setup and traces it to the device in front of her, where all the available data comes from. She then opens the files through her Focus and is bombarded by the image that pops up.
A large tangled mass of light and lines takes up most of the room, escaping the boundaries of the room even though it's just a hologram. But the image moves slightly, and the light in the centre flickers, almost like its… alive. This has to be the matrix of an AI.
Aloy is certain that this is what she's looking for. She pulls up another file and finds the same thing, but it's slightly different somehow. The lights are more spread out and the lines are more jagged. When the file said 'scraps', this must be what it meant; unused matrix processors that never got used. If any of these files were close enough to Hephaestus, this might be what they were looking for. She downloads the files and shuts down the large device.
Vale bursts through the door.
"You done? Cause they're almost here!"
Aloy curses silently but nods and picks up her bow. "Yes, I got what we need. Now let's—"
Suddenly all the lights in the room, the ones that glowed white and blue, all turn red. The door closes and locks on its own. Vale pounds his fist up against it, but it doesn't do anything. A voice speaks to them through the old intercom system that still works.
"Priority target located. Eliminate Elisabet Sobeck."
It was Hephaestus.
"Grr, why does everyone want to kill me?" Aloy shouts in frustration.
"The door's locked," Vale says. Aloy looks around. On a monitor mounted on the wall, numbers appear. They count down from ten minutes. Vale must know what she's looking at, because he asks; "what are those numbers for?"
"I don't know, but I don't want to be in here when it reaches zero," she responds quickly. "Take out the door. We have to get out of here!"
"But the Carja outside—"
"Just do it!"
Vale takes up his hammer in both hands and swings at the metal door without another second wasted. It takes a few swings, but the door eventually busts open with a bang and flies into the next room. Aloy already has two fire arrows ready and fires them at the first Kestrel she sees. There are two more in the room, but Vale has already set his sights on one while the other fires a firespitter missile at her. She activates the hardlight shield on her arm, and the missile explodes on contact but completely protects her. As the Kestrel stares in awe, she fires back an arrow into his chest.
They race through the ruins, but everything is on lockdown. Aloy notices something strange is happening to the facility as well: as they pass by a series of exposed pipes, she can see them letting off steam, like they're hot. One of the pipes has a hole and is hissing out steam. She never remembered that being the case last time she was here. Something was happening here. Hephaestus was doing something to the facility.
She blasts the next door open and come to the room where Elisabet's office is visible through the glass window. But ever since the ambush, the glass was gone and half the room was destroyed.
But Aloy remembers that her at-the-time captives had found their way down here through the roof. That meant that they could find their way out of the facility the same way. She finds a hole in part of the roof that's collapsed, but it looks like it leads somewhere. Wires hang down from it which would be a great way to climb up.
"This way!" Aloy exclaims and grabs the wires. They're thick and secure and she quickly shimmies her way up. A labyrinth of access tunnels spreads itself in the ceiling of the entire facility, but hatches block their path that can be opened with a handle. They aren't locked with any type of power so the deranged AI that's trying to trap them can't stop them from escaping this way. The hatches are small and require them to crouch, but they find that they lead up towards the surface. Far enough and Aloy can start to feel a draft blow through the hatch, which gives her hope.
Finally, Aloy opens the next hatch and fresh air blasts her in the face. They've made it to the surface. She climbs out of the access tunnel and scans her surrounds with her Focus quickly, finding no Shadow Carja soldiers. They're just outside the Sun Ring, on the far side from the fort where the sentries don't bother patrolling. She helps Vale out of the hatch and they both make a break for it. She isn't sure how much time they had left from that countdown that was displayed in the ruins, but they were out, and they were safe…
The ground suddenly rumbles and shakes violently. Dust rises from the sand at their feet and the walls of the Sun Ring starts to collapse.
"Run!" Aloy screams and starts sprinting. The rumbling gets louder until explosions could be heard and dust envelopes the entire fighting arena behind them. The force of explosions push Aloy and Vale to the ground and clouds of red dust blow over them. Metal clashes and earth explodes behind them, and when the noise quiets down, they get to their feet and find a frightening sight before them.
The Sun Ring had collapsed into Zero Dawn. Hephaestus remotely blew up the ruins of the Old Ones.
OOH, mic drop and... arena drop I guess? I mean I made the ring fall into the ruins under it and... nevermind.