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Bloodborne belongs to FromSoftware, Horizon Zero Dawn belongs to Guerrilla Games
Chapter 16: Zero Dawn
LOG: Apology: Data Corruption Extensive:
Travis Tate: [Error: Data Corrupted] - choice. I'm sorry. I need your help.
[Error: Data Corrupted]
Travis Tate: I know. Cyrus, when next I see him, I'm going to owe him the apology to end all apologies.
[Unintelligible screeching]
Travis Tate: Thank you. Tell him I'm sorry, but this was the only way.
…/…
As the two hunters stepped through the door. A synthetic voice spoke over the system.
"Wel-wel-welcome to Project: Zero Dawn." the machine satiated. "Multiple fail-fail-fail-fail-"
With a sound similar to a static discharge the machine shut off.
"We made it." Aloy said. "Project: Zero Dawn."
"Are you really so surprised?" Cyrus asked with a chuckle.
"Honestly, yes." Aloy heard Sylens say. "Your friend continues to surprise and confuse me."
"Error: Multi-ti-ti-tiple systems failures detec-det-detected. Attempting repair." The mechanical announcing system spoke up again. "Ple-please proceeded into viewing-ing-ing-ing-"
The two hunters continued forward as the voice cut out again. A few terminals were still standing. Most of them were knocked over and destroyed. Cyrus walked down the hall a little way, glancing into the side rooms. The Zero Dawn facility was in far worse shape than one would think a secret underground project facility would be.
"What happened here?" He muttered to himself.
"Cyrus." Aloy called. "I think I found the viewing room."
Cyrus rejoined Aloy. The viewing room had several rows of old folding chairs. Many rusted beyond use or outright destroyed. Cyrus stood up one that was knocked over and sat on it. The metal creaked but managed to hold.
"Initiating playback. ZD-0-1" The synthetic voice stated.
"Sounds like that's getting fixed." Aloy said.
A hologram of General Herres in front of the American flag began to play.
"Welcome to Project: Zero Dawn. I'm General Herres, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States of America." General Herres began. "I'm sure you've heard the rumors. That Zero Dawn is a top-secret superweapons program. The technological miracle that will save us from the Faro Plague - if Operation: Enduring Victory can hold off the robots long enough. The reason I'm sure you've heard the rumors is that I'm the one who spread them. And they are all lies. Zero Dawn is not a superweapons program, and it will not save us."
Aloy glanced to Cyrus confused. Cyrus just gestured to the hologram of the General. The hologram changed to show a map of earth slowly turn red with the advancing machines.
"Nothing will save us, and here's why. By the time the glitch was noticed, it was already too late. Nothing could stop the Faro Plague. Nothing can. Its robots will continue to replicate and devour the biosphere. Life on Earth will be destroyed… our planet reduced to a barren sphere. Global extinction is inevitable. No matter how many we kill, the robots just keep exponentially making more. If we had their deactivation codes, we could shut them all down. The entire swarm. But since their cryptographic protocols use poly-phasic entangled waveforms, cracking a code set would take half a century. At best, we've got 16 months." Herres explained.
The hologram changed to show several pictures of men and women fighting against the machines. Aloy recognized one that showed Cyrus cleaving through a Scarab.
"Not exactly what you'd call a survival option. The destruction of a biosphere is not the sort of apocalypse you can wait out in a fallout shelter or space station. There will be no Earth left to reclaim. Just a lifeless, toxic rock with several million Faro robots on it… hibernating, waiting for something to eat." Herres continued, hanging his head in shame. "I have had to make the best of the worst possible situation. This is the horrible truth behind the lies of Operation: Enduring Victory - my lies - lies designed to inspire millions of innocents to sacrifice themselves in battle. Why? One reason: to buy time for you and the work you will do here. The only reason we've held out as long as we have already is because of Operation: Enduring Victor and the help of the Good Hunter. Zero Day - the day that life on Earth ceases to exist - is coming fast. It cannot be stopped. The hope of Zero Dawn is that something new might come after. But I will leave it to Elisabet Sobeck to shine that thin ray of light into the darkness, I am sorry to place this on your shoulders. And should he ever hear it, Cyrus I am sorry. Herres out."
Cyrus stood up and saluted the hologram as it powered off.
"You are forgiven, General." Cyrus stated. "May your dream be one of peace."
"I don't understand." Aloy spoke up. "Life on Earth didn't cease to exist. Elisabet had to have stopped it somehow."
"The General said the swarm could not be stopped." Sylens spoke up.
"But it was." Aloy snapped back.
"Or it wasn't." Cyrus said. "I get the feeling that the next room might be a little more informative."
Cyrus gestured to a door that had lit up. Aloy glanced at him and the two entered the next room. It was a series of hallways. Several terminals were knocked over. A loud bang could be heard from the other end of the room.
"Looks like we have company." Cyrus stated.
"What is this place?" he heard the voice of one of the Eclipse soldiers.
"A tomb?" Another answered.
"That's enough. The Buried Shadow wants the Nora Huntress and her partner killed." A third voice answered.
"You take the left hall; I'll take the right one." Aloy stated.
"Aye aye, captain." Cyrus replied with a smirk, unsheathing the Burial Blade.
He dashed to the left hall. Two Eclipse grunts were present. Cyrus ran at them.
"He's here!' One of them yelled before Cyrus skewered him on the blade.
His partner watched in fear as the Hunter swung the large blade at him with the body of his comrade still on it. The impact threw him back into a wall. He stood up in time to catch a dagger to his face. He crumpled over dead. Cyrus spun and swung his blade behind him, catching the neck of a third Eclipse.
He sighed in satisfaction at the feeling of absorbing the blood echoes of his fallen foes. He walked toward the neighboring hall. Aloy stood over the body of two more Eclipse soldiers. She looked a little bit nauseous.
"What was that?" She whispered.
"What? You'll have to be more specific." Cyrus said.
"That feeling. As they died I felt… something enter me. It's almost like I can hear their voices." Aloy said.
"What are they saying?" Cyrus asked, a small smirk appeared on his face.
"I don't know. It sounds more like singing…" Aloy explained.
"That, my dear, is because you have just absorbed your first Blood Echoes. Any being, mortal or Eldritch has blood echoes. A… lingering remnant of their will. Speak with Doll next time you're in the Dream. She can take the echoes, bend them to your will and strengthen you with them." Cyrus explained.
"Does this happen all the time?" She asked.
"Only with beings that you would consider living in the traditional sense. The machines don't house blood echoes. No blood, no will, just programming." Cyrus answered.
Aloy sighed. "Shall we continue on?"
"After you." Cyrus gestured to the door at the end of the hallway.
Inside was a much smaller viewing room. The seats in this room were all destroyed. Only a couple looked to be mostly intact and even then they didn't look like they could hold much weight. Cyrus leaned against the railing as the mechanical voice spoke up again.
"Initiating playback. ZD-0-2" The synthetic voice stated.
An image of Elisabet Sobeck appeared on the platform at the back of the room. Cyrus noted how remarkably similar she looked to Aloy.
Elisabet spoke. "You've heard the bad news, and it's all true. The Faro Plague is devouring the biosphere. But does that have to be the end? What if we could give life - a future? What if we could build a kind of seed, from which, on a dead planet, life could blossom anew? This is the aim - the hope - of Project: Zero Dawn: to create a super intelligent fully automated… terraforming system - And bring life back from lifelessness. What would such a system require? At its core, it would need a true AI."
The hologram shifted to show an image representing the Earth with nine different branches from it.
"Fully capable of making the trillions of decisions necessary to reconstitute the biosphere. An immortal guardian, devoted to the re-flourishing of life. We call it GAIA. Mother Nature as an AI. But that's just the core of the system. She will need to be surrounded and empowered by a comprehensive suite of Subordinate Functions. Think of them as extensions of GAIA's mind, each dedicated to a specific purpose. Now these aren't Als but make no mistake - each presents an engineering challenge more profound… than anything the human species has ever before attempted." Elisabet continued. "Hardware that preserves and gestates the billions of seeds and embryos from which life will be reborn. The construction of underground facilities to hold it all. And that's just the start. We don't have to build the entire system. The beauty of a fully automated terraforming system is that it can build itself. Now, over the days to come, you'll learn how all these Functions - all these pieces that you'll be working on - fit together. How we'll race the clock to execute our harvest initiatives, write the software, build the tech and the facilities!"
The optimistic smile on Elisabet's face turned to a frown.
"What we are doing here is unprecedented. Since the dawn of the computer, programmers have speculated on how to create a true AI. It will be a monumental feat to teach it how to think, how feel, and how to choose for itself. To be honest, I am unsure of how we'll go about this. While each of you are working on your own subordinate functions, I ask that you also help me in creating GAIA."
"When we have her created, we can focus on how we'll lock it down and seal it up before the inevitable occurs. But even more importantly than everything else, you'll know it doesn't end here. GAIA will generate these deactivation codes General Herres talked about… and build the transmission arrays to broadcast them, shutting down the Faro robots for good. GAIA will not just build but she'll imagine any conceivable robot she needs to do her work across centuries… from detoxifying the Earth's ravaged atmosphere and poisoned seas… to the re-greening of the Earth from cryo-preserved seed stocks… to re-wilding the Earth with animal life. And then, when all that is done, a new generation of human beings, spawned at Cradle facilities around the globe… will partake of APOLLO: the greatest repository of human knowledge and cultural achievement from which they will learn of us, our world, and most important how not to repeal our mistakes. This is not an impossible dream.. It is within our grasp if we work tirelessly and stop at nothing to achieve it. We can't stop life from ending. But if you will help me help GAIA - we can give it a future. Join me and help make that future real."
"It would seem that the end of the world wasn't stopped." Cyrus stated.
"Everything was remade…" Aloy muttered.
"By a machine of creation." Sylens finished.
"But what about Hades?" Aloy asked. "What would cause him to break off? What would Gaia need with a function like that?"
"Something tells me we're going to find out soon." Sylens replied.
They continued on. A few more Eclipse soldiers that fell rather easily. They eventually reached a large circular room. A large door opened to the left, A raised platform in the center and beyond that, a large window opening into a room. Cyrus could see the glowing orange of… something in there.
"That must be Elisabet's office." Aloy stated, pointing to the room.
"Probably." Cyrus agreed.
The two entered the open door and wandered through. Cyrus didn't listen as Aloy replayed the holograms of the project heads explaining what their subordinate functions did. Cyrus did stop when they reached Travis's workshop. He only half listened to him explain Hades.
"So, he's a reset button on life?" Aloy asked.
"That's what it sounds like." Cyrus replied. "I'd guess he was also designed to monitor the biosphere as well. The way Travis explained it, Hades could take control when he detected an unsustainable biosphere."
"So, what woke him up now?" Aloy asked.
"Don't know. Something tells me that GAIA might, if she still lives." Cyrus answered. "You go ahead, I'm going to stay here and properly say goodbye to my… old friend."
Aloy nodded and continued on. Cyrus stood up the chair and sat in front of Travis's terminal. The terminal was still in decent working condition, surprisingly. Cyrus noted that there was only one other file on the system. He opened the file and watched.
Cyrus's eyes narrowed as a new hologram began playing this one started with a display of the Hunter's Mark. Then it showed Travis sitting at his desk head in his hands.
"I've looked at this problem every way from Sunday. Since Liz asked us to help create GAIA four months ago, I have tried every avenue I could. Hades is a difficult function to test. I need a working copy of GAIA to run the simulations. But therein lies our problem. We simply cannot make a working AI. Not like what Liz said this project requires." Travis explained to no one in particular.
"It's a simple impossibility. How do you teach a machine to feel emotions? How do you teach it to make choices you don't program in? How do you program curiosity? Joy? Anger? Contentment? You can't. That's what has held AI back since the beginning. AI has no humanity within it. Short of cutting one of our brains out and find a way to connect it to this system, something that probably could be done quicker than creating a full AI, we have no options… by ourselves." Travis sighed deeply and stood up from his desk.
Cyrus watched as the hologram of Travis Tate stretched his back and arms.
"I've been thinking on what an old friend of mine said. Cyrus, if this ever reaches you… yeah I didn't fear the old blood. It was our… my only hope. A copy of everything you've ever told me regarding yourself, the Hunters, Yharnam, etc. is stored in the subordinate functions in case this doesn't work. I know you'd probably kill me if you knew what I had plans for, but hey, better to ask forgiveness than permission right?" Travis chuckled. "Maybe one day I'll see you on the other side of this Nightmare."
Cyrus leaned back against the wall. Curiosity and dread pooled in his gut. What had Travis done?
He didn't know how long he stood there pondering. Only that his ponderings were interrupted by an incredibly heavy blow to the back of his head. The last thing Cyrus saw as he fell unconscious was an incredibly well-built man in black armor.
…/…
Getting into Elisabet's office was relatively simple for Aloy. The door may have been powered off, but the door had enough of a gap for Aloy to pry it open. Inside was a surprisingly well-maintained room, especially in comparison to the rest of the Zero Dawn facility. She noted a few logs of conversations between GAIA and Elisabet. The Alpha registry glowed orange on Elisabet's desk.
Aloy started copying the registry to her focus. She turned to the logs on the desk. She set one to play.
An image of Elisabet leaning over a desk with a floating orange sphere greeted Aloy's vision.
"Gaia… why Gaia?" An ethereal feminine voice emanated from the sphere.
"Gaia is the Greek goddess of the Earth, the mother of Earth." Elisabet explained. "You will be that for the new Earth that the terraforming system will create."
"It is… strange." GAIA stated.
"What is?" Elisabet asked.
"With the complete destruction of Earth, do you think there is any possibility for any current lifeforms to survive to the new Earth?" GAIA asked.
"No. The Faro Plague will eventually find any remaining underground bunkers and devour them. GAIA Prime will be the only self-contained bunker, but for all of us, it'll be little more than a gilded cage while we wait for the end." Elisabet answered.
"Ok, but hypothetically, if someone from this world survived into the next, would they be able to live in the new terraformed world?" GAIA pressed further.
"Hypothetically, yes." Elisabet said. "But that isn't going to happen. Why are you so interested in that?"
Aloy smirked at that. She knew someone who directly contradicted that statement of fact.
"Just thinking of someone who does live now." GAIA answered.
"Who?" Elisabet asked.
"Have you ever heard of the Good Hunter?" GAIA questioned.
"Mostly rumor and hearsay." Elisabet answered. "I know he exists, but we've never met."
"I believe he will find his way into the next world." GAIA stated.
"Wait, how do you know of him?" Elisabet asked.
"I…" GAIA hesitated. "browse. During the times we aren't performing system tests of running simulations, I wander the vast library of Apollo. He's mentioned in multiple history books."
Elisabet looked like she didn't quite believe GAIA but nodded anyway.
"That's enough for today, GAIA." Elisabet stated. "I'm going to turn in for the night."
Elisabet walked away from the desk. Her hologram disappeared. GAIA floated a little longer. For a brief second, the Hunter's Mark flashed inside of the orange sphere. Aloy's eyes widened.
"I am sorry Elisabet. I don't like to lie to you." GAIA stated. "You aren't ready yet."
The hologram cut off. Aloy had a feeling that Cyrus would know something more about this. She glanced at the display from her focus. The Alpha registry was copied over. She smiled and turned off the Focus display. A loud boom resonated from behind her and Aloy's world fell to darkness.
ERROR-DATA_CORRUPTION-BEGIN_FILE_RECOVERY…/…
Data Log TEH-016 Thank you to all who read this, your feedback and views are much appreciated.
Goodbye viewer; Fare thee well.
End Log S.T.K.