FILE_RECOVERY_COMPLETE

PARTIAL_FILE_RETRIEVED

Bloodborne belongs to FromSoftware, Horizon Zero Dawn belongs to Guerrilla Games

Chapter 40: Mechanical Facsimile

LOG: Waking Up: Data Uncorrupted

Cyrus Bishop: As time marches forward, I grow increasingly sure that Aloy is being prepared to replace me. Its subtle, but the looks she gives show hints of distrust and curiosity… I think the Moon Presence is muddling around in her mind. I do wonder, will it be the same situation that I found myself in when I fought Gehrman? If she doesn't submit, will we fight over and over until she eventually wins? That's what happened the first time I refused Gehrman.

Except, I doubt she'll be stuck in the same loop that I was. Once she kills me, and the Moon Presence imprisons her…

There has to be another option. There are too many variables in play to say for certain that this is what will happen.

…/…

Cyrus was really getting tired of traversing mountains. While the cold was hardly a problem, climbing was not his forte. Hunting beasts, slaughtering men, and destroying machines are where his strengths lay. Climbing near vertical cliff faces? Not so much. And yet, their chosen headquarters was in a mountain a range. Normally, both entrances were easily accessible, with paths into the mountain. Cyrus even had the option of teleporting himself into the headquarters whenever he pleased.

But instead, he was grumbling to himself as he climbed up the side of a mountain that was a good distance north of the base. The reinforced siderite of the Blades of Mercy made for excellent climbing picks at least, easily biting into the rock face and holding his weight. Admittedly, they were less than ideal compared to actual professional climbing equipment, but Cyrus had been in the hunt for millennia. Having to make do has always been a part of the hunt.

"M- GAIA, how much further up do I have to go?" Cyrus asked, as he stabbed into another solid rock.

"You're about halfway there." Mergo responded.

"Brilliant." Muttered Cyrus.

"I am." Mergo said.

"I wasn't complimenting you." Cyrus replied.

"I know, but you have to admit, it was a mark of brilliance that has lead to this situation." Mergo responded.

"I think you've confused brilliance and paranoia, dear." Cyrus grunted, as he hauled himself onto a small ledge.

"I learned from the best." Mergo said.

Cyrus rolled his eyes and leaned against the cliff face. He looked over the Blades of Mercy. Reinforced siderite they may be, but they were still wearing from the constant stabbing of rocks.

"You know." Mergo spoke. "I've finished analyzing the data from DEMETER and figured out exactly why things are happening with the subordinate functions, and it confuses me."

"Enlighten me." Cyrus said as he began to climb once more.

"Well, when I did some reprogramming back during Zero Dawn, I added a function for the subordinates to transmit a locator signal whenever they were active. DEMETER was transmitting until you contained her. POSEIDON, HEPHAESTUS and AETHER are still transmitting. HADES was even transmitting until you and Aloy stopped him." Mergo explained.

"And how… is that confusing." Cyrus questioned, stabbing into the rock again.

"The functions are only supposed to transmit that signal if they are actively performing their function. I made the signal so that only I could actually receive it. I had assumed that the functions had found a work around to transmit without performing their function, but everything I've found so far is saying that no, they haven't." Mergo said.

"Which is why ELEUTHIA confuses you?" Cyrus asked.

"Indeed. ELEUTHIA should only be functioning in a cradle facility and when there is a need for a new generation of humans. The last time ELEUTHIA was active was when Aloy was born. The facility you're climbing to is not a cradle facility." Mergo continued.

"So, why is she transmitting?" Cyrus questioned as he neared the edge of a cliff.

"I don't know. Believe it or not, despite our extradimensional existence, no Great One or Old One is truly omniscient." Mergo answered.

Cyrus just grunted a vague sound of agreement as he hauled himself up onto the cliff. The ledge he found himself on was wider than he had thought. Part of the rock wall in front of him had fallen away, leaving a passage in the rock just big enough for a man to squeeze into.

"Cyrus, the signal is coming through there." Mergo said.

"Of course it is." Cyrus grumbled.

The hunter turned himself sideways and began squeezing through the small passage. The cold unfeeling rock soon transformed into cold unfeeling metal. The metal lining of an old-world facility. Whatever had damaged the rock on the outside of the facility had also damaged the metal wall inside.

The facility had power, low power but it was still lit. Flickering lights provided little illumination. Cyrus lit his old Hunter Torch and held it aloft. The fire light provided enough light to see and served to slightly warm his bones.

The first thing that Cyrus took note of, was the coloring of the place. Instead of the cool greys of metal, everything was a mix of grey and a crimson dark enough to be almost black. Cyrus ran a hand along the wall. Some of the dark crimson covering came off onto his gloved hand. A cautious sniff revealed that it was blood that coated the interior of the building. Blood that was long dried.

"A massacre happened here." Cyrus muttered, sweeping the torch around.

"I've marked where the signal is originating in your focus." Mergo said. "It seems to be coming from deeper in."

Cyrus didn't say anything as he began walking through the facility. Blood wasn't the only major point of interest he found. It didn't take long for him to find the cause of the blood. A long dead Scarab unit. Its tail colored as dark as the walls. Cyrus growled and stabbed the dead machine through the eye, just to be safe. It confirmed his suspicion. This facility had not been secured.

Cyrus continued following the Focus guide through the facility. A few more dead Scarabs were stabbed, but otherwise nothing dangerous. Eventually he found himself at the heart of the facility. A large room filled with pods. Cryogenic pods. Lifeless cryogenic pods. There were several more dead Scarabs and many of the pods were covered in the dried blood.

"Do you know what that place is?" Mergo eventually asked.

Cyrus walked to the nearest pod and knelt down. He rubbed dried blood off of plaque on the front of the pod. The plaque read:

Solomon Prudens

Frostburn volunteer #3381

This shall pass and we shall be reborn

"It's a cryogenics facility." Cyrus said.

"Like the one you were at?" Mergo asked.

"No." Cyrus said. "This is a different project. Ice Cap knew theirs wouldn't work. They promised a peaceful death with a snowball's chance in hell that we would wake. Project Frostburn actually thought they had a solution."

"Did they?" Mergo asked.

"Almost." Cyrus said. "Cryogenics failures generally fell into one of three categories. Unfreezing, preventing death, and stopping time. Frostburn were the pioneers who figured out how to safely unfreeze humans from a cryogenic sleep. They were also the ones who developed the proprietary technology that would allow humans to keep functioning while frozen."

"But they didn't stop time?" Mergo questioned.

"No matter what they did, they could not figure out how to stop aging." Cyrus said. "Their first successful human trial was frozen for a year. When he was unfrozen, he had serious medical problems. His hair had grown wild, but his muscles had atrophied, and his organs were weak from disuse. He died of medical complications a few days later."

"It looks like they thought they had solved the problem of aging." Mergo stated.

"Yeah, but something allowed the swarm to get in. These people didn't die in their sleep." Cyrus replied as he stood up from the pod.

Mergo didn't respond. Cyrus walked deeper into the large facility. Nearly every pod was coated in dried blood. Some on the outside, most on the inside. Several had holes through the front metal. Holes that would have matched perfectly with the tails of the Scarabs. Eventually, his focus lead him to a single active cryopod. The pod was one of the few that wasn't covered in dried blood. His Focus pointed him towards it.

Cyrus approached the pod. The metal wasn't cold, indicating the actual cryogenic process was inactive. Yet the hum of machinery said that something was working.

"ELEUTHIA is transmitting from there." Mergo said.

"How do you expect me to bring her back?" Cyrus asked as he began searching the pod. "We can only transport and contain a single subordinate function in the spent GAIA cores."

"I think you'll be fine." Mergo replied. "This isn't ELEUTHIA's original hiding place."

"So, someone else brought her here." Cyrus muttered looking pointedly at the pod.

"So, it would seem." Mergo said.

Cyrus eventually found a latch to open the pod. He pulled it and the lid lifted away. Cyrus raised a questioning eye at the sight inside the pod. It was a young woman. She was slowly coming to consciousness. But what really caught his eye was the appearance. It was the woman who looked like Aloy… or Elisabet, he supposed. However, she looked a little worse for wear. Some bruising on her uncovered arms and a black eye attested to a rather unfortunate jaunt to this facility.

She slowly rubbed her eyes as she returned to consciousness.

"It's you." She said when her vision focused. "We have to hurry. My keepers can't be far behind! They have ARTEMIS and APOLLO, and they will want ELEUTHIA back! We have to merge them with GAIA and all the other subordinate functions fast or they'll take them!"

"Hold on now." Cyrus said, grabbing her by her shoulders. "Calm down."

"We have to hurry!" She insisted.

"And we have more time than you think." Cyrus responded. "Right now, the only living beings in this entire facility are you and me."

"But-" The woman began, before taking a few fortifying breaths.

"Good." Cyrus said. "Now, how about an introduction. I am certain you know who I am, considering who you've been staying with."

"You're the Hunter." She said. "They call me Beta."

"You can call me Cyrus." Cyrus said. "And I believe that you have a subordinate?"

"ELEUTHIA." Beta said.

She pulled a drive out of the console on the back of the pod she had been in. The lights shut off as she held the drive out for the Hunter. Cyrus took the drive.

"That's ELEUTHIA." Mergo said happily.

"You knew more about this than I thought." Cyrus said to her.

"What?" Beta asked.

"Not you." Cyrus said to Beta. "GAIA."

"You've reactivated GAIA? How many subordinates have you reconnected?" Beta questioned.

"One." Cyrus answered.

Beta's face fell.

"Only one?" Beta asked. "At least tell me its HEPHAESTUS, right?"

"No. MINERVA." Cyrus answered. "We don't have any options for HEPH-"

Cyrus jerked his head to the right. A distant hum was approaching their position. A hum that was distinctly not one of the pods. The hum became a tune. A familiar haunting tune.

"Crap." Cyrus growled.

He grabbed Beta and pulled her behind the row of pods. He placed a gloved hand over her mouth when she made to protest.

"Keep quiet." He whispered. "We're in bigger danger than the Zeniths."

"Is it that song?" She asked quietly.

Cyrus stared at her in shock and relief. If she could hear the song, then they weren't Eldritch. That relief turned to horror as an implication struck his mind. The song was close now. Cyrus chanced a glance around the corner.

Stalking between rows of inactive cryogenic pods was a mechanical monstrosity. The machine stood on four thin, spider-like legs. A cylindrical body rose straight above the legs. Three quarters of the way up that body, were four arms. Two of the arms ended in claws arcing with electricity while the other two ended in small guns. Above those arms was the worst part. A large bulbous head supported by rods that extended from the body of the machine gazed out around the room. The head was covered in the same camera-like eyes that many of the machines used. The tune that he had heard before was more mechanical and appeared to be made by the screeching of metal underneath the armored plates on the main body. Unlike many of the machines HEPHAESTUS produced, this one was colored a dark black, with purple light glowing from underneath. Overall, it was a bastardized mechanical version of a Winter Lantern. Cyrus did not imagine the revelation boding well for the future.

"Gonna have to fight that." Cyrus muttered as he withdrew the burial blade. "Stay here and stay quiet. If I'm right, then that shouldn't be a problem."

Dashed towards another row of pods, avoiding the machine's sight as much as he could. He stalked along the complex until he was decently far enough ahead of the machine. He steadied his breathing and prepared for an attack. The machine neared as Cyrus shifted the Burial Blade into a Scythe and pressed the shaft onto his back. He grabbed the shaft with his empty hand and tensed as the mechanical song drew near.

The mechanical Winter Lantern barely had time react as it passed the row Cyrus was waiting in. Cyrus swung the Burial Blade into the machine. The siderite weapon bit into the bulbous head of the machine as the eyes focused on Cyrus. The Hunter released a little tension as the familiar feeling of frenzying madness didn't come. If was a façade.

Cyrus smiled as he yanked the Burial Blade out of the machine and swung it in a calculated horizontal arc. The Burial Blade cut through the metal and decapitated the machine. Cyrus found it fortunate that the machine fell more easily than a standard Winter Lantern. Unfortunately, the machine's dying screech did not go unheard. The same screeching tune could be heard from the rapidly approaching clanks of many more machines.

"Just like the real thing, there is NEVER just one!" Cyrus growled as he started running back to Beta.

He rolled to the side as a bolt of electricity arced through the air. Cyrus glanced in the direction the bolt originated from. Two more of the false Lanterns were approaching rapidly. Cyrus growled and ran down the aisle of pods next to the two machines. An explosion rang out behind him. He glanced over his shoulder to see the commotion. One of the pods had been blasted open by a third Lantern that was now chasing him.

Cyrus rounded a corner. Three more lanterns had caught his scent. Cyrus groaned. He had already killed one, but this was ridiculous. In this relatively open space, the Lanterns had the upper hand. He had no clue how many there were, he had to get Beta and ELEUTHIA out of the building safely, and the Lanterns could utilize the wide-open arena better than he could.

He was torn from his thoughts as he crashed into a human body. He fell and rolled back to his feet, his gaze fell upon a rather dazed Beta. She was being chased by another Lantern. The six that had been following him were catching up and still firing bolts at him. Belatedly, Cyrus realized that their aim was abysmal while they were in motion. Something he could work with.

Cyrus hoisted Beta over his shoulder and began running down another aisle of pods. He would forever thank the Doll for his superhuman stamina and endurance. Ducked to the side as another explosion rang out above him. Another pod rained fire down below. Cyrus glanced back and saw a projectile racing towards them. He growled and let loose a beast roar. The projectile was deflected into another pod.

"Sorry Beta." Cyrus muttered as they neared the winding hallway that had initially led him into the heart of the facility.

Cyrus rounded a bend when he felt the cool air of the outside. He spotted the crack he had used to access the facility and angled towards it. He set Beta down in the crack, just beyond view before running further up the hall. He pulled out the Holy Moonlight Blade and willed Eldritch energy to gather along the blade. More and more energy gathered as the grating songs drew near. He fed the blade a few quicksilver bullets to further bolster the blade. He rounded another corner and turned around.

Holding the charged blade was more stressful than he would have liked, but he had to grin and bear it. When the first false Lantern rounded the corner, Cyrus unleashed an Eldritch explosion from the blade that would have made Ludwig proud. A shockwave of Eldritch energy radiated in all directions, obliterating any metal and stone in the way. The floors, walls, and ceiling of the hall were not spared the destruction. Cyrus stumbled as he fell into a new depression in the cave. The Lanterns had been blasted into spare parts.

"A lot more aggressive and a lot less smart." He muttered.

He felt some dust on his ear. He stood up and reached for it. He groaned as he realized that his Focus had also been destroyed in the explosion. He had the rest of his effects were spared. A consequence of their more Eldritch make up, he thought. He made his way back to Beta and the exit. The rest of the crew needed to know what had happened.

ERROR-DATA_CORRUPTION-BEGIN_FILE_RECOVERY…/…

Data Log TEH-040

Once a month is less updating than I would like, but Shadow of the Erdtree is great and the house is coming along quite nicely.

Thank you to all who read this, your feedback and views are much appreciated, and thank you for sticking with me.

Goodbye viewer; Fare thee well.

End Log S.T.K.