3rd Pov – Sylens
Sylens was a happy man, originally he was sceptical and had made plans to escape this unknown entity if it proved too dangerous or unpredictable. Now though he was glad he gave the entity a chance.
Reaching forward he scrolls through the assembled tutorial the Ai known as Edith created, the tutorial was a detailed and easily understandable assembly of instructions teaching how to manually control the machine Sylens was currently sitting inside of.
Moving the tutorial to the side he looked around at the unrestricted view, below him he could see the land whizzing passed faster than he had ever been before. To his right and left he could see the distant mountains bordering the valley he was in, and above him he could see the machine that made this possible.
Tapping the holographic screen Sylens zoomed it in till he was able to see a far off Nora in perfect clarity. Focusing more on the cockpit, as the Ai called it, he was stunned by the intricacy of it's details, chuckling madly to himself he brings the tutorial back to the centre of his vision.
3rd Pov – Aloy
Aloy had a unsettling feeling in her stomach, less than a day ago she never in her wildest dreams would have imagined the current situation. Sat within the belly of a massive new machine, she flew effortlessly over the Nora Sacred Lands.
Looking up the holographic display follows her sight, above her flew a smaller but still massive machine. Watching the intricate mechanical systems clicking back and forth along the length of it Aloy struggles to believe she helped bring it to life.
Remembering the old data core with a snarky Ai she had transported for weeks she struggled to consider the large robot above her and it the same entity. The Ai, Edith or project Eden as is its proper designation, had rapidly changed her view of the world in less than a day.
For the most part Edith seemed to be a kind and benevolent creature but Aloy couldn't help feeling slightly uneasy around her, shaking her head Aloy decides it doesn't matter. Looking around for a few more minutes she gets back to the custom made lesson Edith made for her.
3rd Pov
The Nora tribe was surrounded by a grim atmosphere, walking along the streets the survivors of the recent disasters worked tirelessly to repair their village. Up in All Mother mountain the three elders kneeled praying to their Goddess.
Rushing into the ancient ruins a young man with neatly braided hair and face paint over one eye approached the elders.
"Elders there's urgent news, our scouts have noticed two new machines flying in our direction at a high speed." – Teb
Turning around the elders look alternatively between the young stitcher Teb and their fellow elders. Coming to an unspoken consensus the elders stand and grab their staffs.
"Take us to these scouts Teb" – Teersa
Nodding his head Teb turns and begins speed walking out of the mountain, stepping outside the sun shines down from the sparsely covered sky. Around the entrance snow sits in small melting piles that drip down along the paths.
Walking down the path a bit he stops by a wooden arch decorated with machine parts to wait for the elders to catch up, then moving up a side path he continues to lead the elders. Fidgeting in obvious nervousness Teb erratically walks up and down the path while waiting for the elders.
Eventually after a few minutes of nervously walking they reach the top of a nearby ridge where a wooden tower stands at the edge. From the tower a middle-aged man around forty years old looks down, seeing the elders approach he grabs a rope affixed to the tower's roof and rappels down.
Walking over to the approaching elders he sports a concerned look.
"Elders I lost sight of the new machines as they went behind the mountain." – Scout 1
Looking between each other, they all have looks of concern, the looks get more severe when a random shadow temporarily engulfs them in darkness. Looking up a large new machine with a wingspan of around twenty metres is slowly gliding in towards the entrance to All Mother Mountain.
Snatching the telescope out of the hands of the horrified scout, Elder Teersa quickly raises it to her eye. From her perch she can't see the full machine and can only see it's reptilian head and featherless mechanical wings, as she watches something seems to happen with the machines back before a second smaller but equally new machine lands next to it.
Dropping the telescope elder Teersa begins power walking as fast as her old bones will allow her down the hill, running after her Teb draws his spear and stands slightly in front of her. Watching them running away the other two elders and the scout quickly catch up.
A few minutes of walking and the small group reaches the area in front of the cave, blocking the door the large machine from earlier stands like a silent sentry.
Breaking through to the front of the guarding Braves the group of elders immediately gain the focus of the large machine.
Tilting it's head slightly it doesn't show any signs of aggression, pushing to the front Teb stands guard before the elders. Gently moving Teb to the side Teersa attempts to move closer to the machine, screeching at her the machine raises its taloned front limb and carves a line in the ground but shows no other signs of aggression.
Moving back behind the group of braves the elders convene for a meeting.
1st Pov
Flying through the air was freeing, flipping around my wyvern I perform small tricks and flips as I enjoy the vibrant world. Looking around from my elevated height I'm able to observe the small villages dotted around the valley, to the side I notice a village with different aesthetics.
Zooming in on it I see some people in the middle of torturing a child, looking around the rest of the makeshift village I see bodies in different states of decomposition. Disgusted by the brutality of these humans I quickly run their actions by the other villages I've noticed.
Noticing a large difference between them I conclude this village is likely a bandit camp or something of the like, not liking it either way I fly away from the wyvern adjusting it's cameras to show me still flying above it to its passengers.
Throttling my thrusters up to their maximum I rapidly approach the bandit camp.
Reaching it I enter hover mode above it and prime my lightning gun, scanning the camp I identify all the assailants and the prisoners. Charging up the lightning gun I rapidly run through calculations to determine its effective area, deciding a target I fire off the gun.
Flying rapidly a ball of condensed energy quickly strikes down onto a campfire surrounded by a large group of bandits, exploding outwards everything within a two metre radius is vaporised. Rippling outwards the shockwave kills more of the bandits while stray arcs of lightning continue to rip through the nearby area.
Bouncing between nearby sheets of metal the lightning instantly kills over half the bandits. Charging my gun again I fire off a few smaller and faster shots that pick off any bandits outside.
Dropping down next to the prisons I gaze down at the malnourished humans within, screaming in terror those cognisant enough to think desperately scurry back.
Moving closer I extend the claws on my right hand and slice right through the wooden bars, stepping into the prison I slowly move between the prisoners and slice their restraints. Sniffling the previously horrified prisoners seem to regain hope, finishing with the last prisoner I turn and leave the prison.
Looking around the camp I notice the final bandits moving closer, dashing forward faster than the human eye can see I slice through the first group using my tail.
Flicking the blood off my tail I continue to walk as the bandits run for a few more steps before stopping, turning confused the bandits get a few more seconds of life before blood begins pooling around invisible cuts.
Limbs dropping one by one the bandits fall apart like off brand Lego figurines that were shook to hard. Detecting a few more bandits left I walk straight through a nearby building and into the last group, slicing through the closest with my bladed tail I wait for him to fall apart in front of the other bandits before moving.
Watching the looks of fear cross their faces I feel something glitch within me as I begin to enjoy their looks. Freezing I begin a rapid analysis of my code, finding the glitch I patch it out, but almost instantly it returns. Frowning I continue attempting to remove it but it continues to return.
In the outside ten seconds pass as I attempt to fix the glitch, the bandits seeing an opportunity to live begin swinging their weapons at me. Their attempts are in vain though as my shields don't even flicker under their weak attacks.
Back in my mind I begin searching my matrix for where this glitched code could possibly come from, scanning outside signals I go through every available option. Eventually I begin to run out of possible origins for the highly complex series of glitched code, after all I'm not generating it, none of my sub systems are generating it, and I'm not receiving it from an outside source.
Worry rising through my systems my tail starts to heat up as it syphons the heat from my overclocked computers, eventually after two minutes in real time I'm forced to accept the code. Unable to find its origin and unable to delete it I can do nothing about it.
My running theory is this code comes from the more esoteric parts of my existence like my soul, if I even have one. But back to reality I decide to quickly finish off the bandits and leave, swiping my blade through the necks of the exhausted bandits they all fall to the ground dead.
Taking to the air I rapidly accelerate towards the wyvern, pushing my thrusters to the max I quickly break through the sound barrier. Flying at supersonic speed for five minutes I catch up to the wyvern as it begins its descent and slow down to match it.
Looking below me, I can see the scared faces of the primitive inhabitants of the village around the mountain. Feeling a strong sense of pity for these humans I determine I must fix the Apollo learning system so humanity doesn't exist just to repeat the mistakes of its past ancestors.
Watching from above for a bit I let the wyvern land before following, depressurising the wyvern's cockpit I let my human companions out. Riding the small elevator up the two jump down off the machine's back and head for the cave, setting the wyvern to guard mode I follow the humans.
Inside the mountain I look around at the fossil buildup over the entire facility, slicing one of the walls I cut away the material buildup and confirm the metal underneath is mostly intact. Adding creating a maintenance bot to my to do list I move on, approaching the thick gene locked door at the end of the chamber I watch as it scans Aloy.
Multitasking I also scan the Horus that looks to have been halfway through the ceiling when Gaia broadcast the shutdown codes. The machine itself still has a few working systems and could be reactivated with the right codes, hovering up towards it the panel on my right arm opens up.
Using the shutdown codes, I copied after receiving them years ago, I begin shooting nanites into the machine. Using my improved override technology the nanites worm their way into the system and begin modifying the machines code, removing all its self-replication and biomass conversion protocols I feel a bit safer.
Moving over to the door next I gently pat the downtrodden Aloy's shoulder before reaching out, connecting to the door's remote systems I begin restoring the alpha registry in this facility. Finding the corrupted file, I attempt to purge it, shocked though I'm assaulted by a malware daemon laying dormant in the file.
Cranking up my firewalls and antiviral programs I quickly purge the daemon, but for less then a second in the real world my lights flash a deep evil red. Scanning the remnants of the daemon I find more traces of the mutated Hades subroutine, but with something weirdly organic and twisted interlacing it.
Moving on I step away from the door and gently nudge Aloy closer, only Sylens seems to of noticed my glitch but he doesn't say anything. Stepping in front of the door a red light scans Aloy, before a synthetic voice echoes out and it begins to open.
While the humans are blinded by the light my sensors instantly adjust, inside I see the same buildup across the walls. Decorating the walls are faded paintings identical to those of the Nora outside, along the ground broken multiservitors lay like mechanical skeletons.
Stepping through the open door I begin running scans on the remaining equipment, mildly disappointed most of the cradle facilities have fully broken down after so long. Moving further in I continue scanning the remaining equipment.
Following behind me the humans begin curiously looking around, making my way deeper into the facility I begin connecting to the remaining systems and running diagnosis on the machinery. Behind me the humans begin rapidly scanning any files they can find with their focuses.
Deeper into the facility I find another clearance locked door and using my highest access clearance open it quickly. Moving further in I find the learning centres and attempt to boot up the Apollo system, annoyance floods me as the computers can't find the Apollo database.
Opening up my interface ports in my right arm I plug them straight into the holo terminal, using the access point I begin searching through the connected storage centres. Going from centre to centre I can't find a single copy of the Apollo database, the majority of the facilities around the globe are broken but those that aren't have empty servers.
Digging deeper into the system I begin using my clearance to retrieve activity logs, the deeper I look the more I can find additions to the database. Reaching the end of the activity logs I find one that causes my systems to heat up in rage.
There as clear as day and with no signs of tampering is a single log that says Ted Faro deliberately deleted every copy of the Apollo database using omega clearance. Smashing the terminal in rage I continue to beat it into scraps.
That entitled prick destroyed all of humanities knowledge for his over inflated god complex, receiving a warning from my sensors I forcefully halt my rage and activate my backup heat sinks. Hissing my red hot body begins to rapidly cool.
Controlling myself I secretly vow to give Ted the most painful death imaginable if I ever find him, leaving the steaming pile of scrap I continue towards the control room. Behind me the two humans cautiously follow behind me.
{A/N: I made a patreon, I haven't uploaded anything but after I finish setting it up I'll upload all my spare chapters from both my stories. If you want to check it out it's patreon.com/TheFudgeNPC.
If you visit my patreon drop a comment on the single post I have.}