With a heave, I lifted the fish out of the water, leaving it flopping on the land. A moment later, I had it safely secured in a small tank, ready to be returned home.

That made five goldenfry. Let's see if I couldn't get a King Marlin whilst I was at it!

….I wonder if my probe's had found anything? Sure, an odd thought, but one that deserved some examination, nonetheless.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Probe examined the data it had acquired - the collective knowledge of mankind. Millennia of learning compressed into immeasurable bytes of code. Only a drop in the sea compared to what the commander had acquired, but a drop mankind had fought hard to defend.

And, now, so close to being lost forever.

This was all that remained of the one known as Apollo. When the Probe had found the weakened form of Elisabet Sobeck, it had placed her in a modified cryo-pod, desperate to ensure she, at least, survived. At least one of those who had saved the world deserved to see what they had salvaged from annihilation. Yet as it had hidden Sobeck away, it had come to realize that there was so much more that could be done - it could save the Alphas, as well as Apollo. All it needed to do was act.

The probe had found itself too late to save the Alphas, though - Faro had acted too soon for them to be spared. Yet it had managed to spare Apollo from the sword - the subroutine had been assimilated into the Probe when it had, by chance, found an access port to Project Zero Dawn, exposed by a falling satellite. It had not been able to save the other version of Apollo, though - the port had burnt out after the data had been downloaded, and then a signal sent from another facility had caused the nearby wall to self destruct, sealing the facility once more from outside interference. Even though the knowledge of the world had been saved, there was no way to spread it to others - the Gaia facilities had been rigged not only to ignore outside communication, but self destruct if successfully hacked. There was no way to disseminate the knowledge back to the other facilities.

….Well, then it would need to find a different way to spread this knowledge to others. Perhaps it could use humans of its own?

Acting with speed even GAIA could not match, the probe began to modify its facility, making the outer design a replica of the Zero Dawn Cradles. Within, meanwhile, schools were added, as were ectogenesis pods and farming areas.

If it could not disseminate knowledge to the new humans using Apollo, it would find its own way to do so.

As the human habitation facilities were assembled, the Probe also began readying a Cauldron of its own - the Commander had provided it with terraformer machines. It was time those were put to good use.

Within hours, soil purification machines whirred to life, set to begin healing the world around them. Joining them were stitches and military craft, meant to protect them whilst they did their work. Yet however much they outmatched the Faro machines, the Progenitor devices could only do so much - the Probe had lost much of its control networking capacity during the arrival to this universe, and had yet to fix it all. Analysis indicated this, and the other glitches it had experienced, had all come from the attack launched by the creature within the Empyrean Sea.

Said attack no longer looked like an act of predation. It looked like a deliberate effort.

Something had been trying to destroy the probe. But why?

...That didn't matter at the moment. The Commander would figure it out. Right now, the Probe needed to fix the world.

XXXXXXX

Three months had passed. Sobeck had recovered, and was now in a room all her own, though as she was still in cryosleep, she couldn't really enjoy its creature comforts.

Stronger machines had now been created, ready to repair the world anew. It had taken the Probe one week to realize it had a hard counter for the Faro Plague - Sentient war machines, which could adapt to whatever was thrown their way. Furthermore, it didn't need to control them - they were alive and intelligent enough to act on their own.

Thus, a small horde had been deployed, and was now circling around the world, doing what they could to fix it. The Faro plague was still out in force, so this was still going to be a long slog, but eventually, it would end in the favor of mankind.

Perhaps sooner, given that Faro Plague would soon shut down due to GAIA's actions.

Yet as the machine thought over its victory, it soon found a problem: if it wanted to teach the new humans it was creating how to live, they would need to be taught directly. And being taught directly meant they would inevitably want to no more about the probe.

And the probe didn't have a name.

The probe thought on this for a moment, then began devoting its reserves to building a multiversal communication network. It was time to ask the Commander for help. He would know what to do.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Got that Marlin! Now to get ready to go back to Astera..wait, what's this incoming notification?

….One of my probes is calling me? What does it want.

...It ended up on a post apocalyptic world, and now its a teacher for a bunch of kids, and needs a name for them to call it by.

Now let's see, what good knowledge gods can I use? Apollo, Athena, Artemis, Minerva...Coeus?

…..Coeus it is!

XXXXXXXXX

The Probe sputtered back to life. A reply had finally been sent... about seven hundred years after it had sent out the request. Just about when GAIA had finished fixing the world...how come it hadn't happened faster?

...Seriously? A metal devil had woken up on its own and started fighting the sentient drones, which the GAIA programs had SOMEHOW noticed and decided not to finish rebuilding the world until the devil was scrap.

NOTE: Send commander more information on attack prior to entering this universe. Odds were, something was now watching them.

Ignoring the oddness of the events around it, the newly christened Coeus began activating its ectogenesis pods - it was time for life it to start giving rise to humans. Hopefully, they could impart its wisdom onto others.

Hopefully...

XXXXXXXXXXXX

AN: Sorry about the butterfly nets, but I really want to explore the Horizon Zero Dawn universe as it is, plus important stuff for the upcoming arcs.

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!