3rd Pov
Groaning a disorientated Aloy slowly wakes up with a massive headache, attempting to move she groans in pain as bruises and minor burns make themselves known all across her body.
Laying down for a second Aloy attempts to look around but sees only darkness, listening closely she vaguely hears the sound of someone else groaning nearby. Shifting her body her head smacks against a low rock as she tries to sit up.
Groaning more from the new pain she reaches up to where her focus normally is, not finding it she begins to rapidly feel around in the darkness but can't find it. Starting to panic Aloy's breath quickens as she starts to call out.
After a few minutes of calling, she has to stop to ease her throat, left alone with her thoughts fear begins to grow within her. Suddenly she is snapped from her fear when a faint light glints from deeper among the rocks and a faint scraping sound can be heard.
Crawling towards the light Aloy breaks into a low faintly lit room one person and a machine, groaning Erend uses one hand to shift rocks while breathing heavily his focus solely on digging. Next to him a barely functioning robot cuts through some larger boulders while compacting smaller ones into weak points.
"Erend!, Edith!" – Aloy
Turning to the new voice a smile crosses Erend's face when he sees Aloy mostly unharmed, meanwhile Edith turns slowly whilst constantly sparking. Looking at the damage to her robotic friend Aloy can only ask what happened.
Quick to respond Edith replies through a bit of static as her voice fluctuates.
"I made a mistake; I didn't account for Hades receiving outside help to further evolve his code. He was more advanced than I anticipated and hid a malware daemon within the shutdown codes, he also turned the Tall neck into an incredibly powerful explosive.
I tried my best to shield you two but my shields couldn't hold back the entire explosion and I had to forcefully overclock Aloy's shield while I shielded Erend with my body. Unfortunately, the explosion brought down the cave but I'm working on getting us out." – Edith
Taking a moment Aloy attempts to use her focus to check on her armour's system but realises again she lost it. Seeing Aloy without her focus Erend reaches up and takes his off before giving it to her, gratefully accepting the device she puts it on.
Looking around Aloy can only marvel at how they survived the destruction, the recordings on her armour indicated the blast that got through Edith's shields was still incredibly powerful. Suddenly as she's thinking the sound of rocks tumbling comes from Edith's direction as light floods the darkness.
Looking over Aloy sees a hole leading out of the rubble with the wyvern holding a large boulder in its jaw, crawling out through the hole Aloy takes a deep breath before helping Erend and the broken Edith out.
Outside again Aloy limps over to the wyvern while activating its med scan, seeing Erend has major internal injuries she quickly pushes him towards the open med bay. Whilst lowering himself into the med bay Erend's eyes roll back in his head and he passes out.
Quickly shutting the med bay, she receives a notification on her focus that its begun work. Breathing out a sigh of relief Aloy begins hobbling around to the side of the wyvern with the ladder. Reaching it she climbs up with great effort before looking down at the malfunctioning Edith.
Unperturbed Edith begins climbing up behind Aloy before hopping in the back of the wyvern, stepping onto the elevator Aloy holds her side as she descends into the front of the wyvern. Breathing a sigh of relief Aloy relaxes slightly as the wyvern seals shut above her.
Unfortunately, she can't relax as a projection appears on the wyvern and Edith speaks to her from behind.
"Sorry Aloy but don't relax yet, Hades has begun his attack and we need to speak to the king of Meridian. I was able to skim some data off him during his attack that indicates he is targeting the spire outside the city." – Edith
Speaking loudly over her shoulder Aloy asks what's on her mind.
"First, what's the spire? Second just how strong is Hades' force, I'm seeing thousands of machines in these projections." – Aloy
"Oh, you haven't got that far yet in your lesson. The spire is an antenna designed by Gaia to transmit the deactivation codes for the Faro plague. And Hades force is incredibly strong, he has thousands of human soldiers, thousands of Corruptors, hundreds of Death bringers and two mostly functioning Horus robots." – Edith
Groaning Aloy pulls up the live tracking of the two Horus robots but panics slightly when she sees their location. The first of the Horus is a few kilometres from where she currently was whilst the second was further to the east of Meridian.
"Edith! What will happen to all the villages in the way?" – Aloy
Hearing a sigh from behind Aloy is mid turn when a new file opens in front of her.
"I've done the best I can by using machines to try and chase out as many as I can, some remained. They will die. Unfortunately, I can't do too much, I'm still regaining control of the terraforming system and have a limited number of combat robots ready. I've had to send all my bots to the spire, I'm sorry Aloy." – Edith
Sitting in silence Aloy can only watch the video of people fleeing before a massive herd of machines, on the horizon in the video she sees a dust cloud she knows is made by the Horus. Steeling her face, she begins rapidly tapping on the wyvern's controls.
Inputting Meridian as her destination she extends a cable from the wall to charge her armour, if it's too late to stop Hades from killing those villagers she'll just have to make sure he doesn't succeed.
1st Pov
Flitting through systems I remotely pilot my main body towards Meridian while overclocking the datacentres I was able to make in the Gaia prime facility. Accessing every part of the network under my control I begin controlling every single machine under my command to head for Meridian.
From Thunderjaws to Stormbirds to my new Draconic themed machines, every bot I had was sent to war. There was no way I could allow Hades to succeed and capture the spire, he caught me off guard earlier but that was because I was remotely controlling that body and it was fairly weak.
Next time I meet him I would have the override codes, omega access, and more processing power than he could ever deal with. I would purge this malicious Ai if it's the last thing I do, at least to protect mother's legacy.
Switching my focus back to my barely functioning second body I track its location quickly and find it close to Meridian. Checking my human companions Aloy is in the med bay recuperating after Erend fully recovered.
Switching fully to my second body as the wyvern lands I instantly begin to move, opening the wyvern my one armed immensely damaged body climbs out followed shortly by Erend. Controlling the body the gyroscope starts to malfunction and it begins to sway, luckily Erend sees this and puts himself under the two metre tall robots arm.
Stumbling forward I pass by a lot of shocked guards who are unsure whether they should worry about me or the machine army forming outside their city. Ignoring them I focus only on my goal of reaching the king, carried by Erend my barely functioning body eventually reaches Avad.
Moving out from under my arm Erend groans, I can't blame him my body ways close to two hundred kilograms. Unfortunately, without support I instantly collapse due to my malfunctioning gyroscope, still I don't let it stop me and look directly at Avad from my spot on the ground.
Avad for the most part looks a mix between scared, confused, and shocked looking at me, but he pulls himself together when I begin speaking.
"Avad unfortunately… I need your help. A malignant… Ai is on… its way here with …an army of machines beyond your comp…rehension. The machines you see gathering outside the city… belong to… me… but I don't have enough, you must send your soldiers to guard the spire." – Edith
Getting out my sentence through the static caused by my faulty voice modulator I await Avad's response, looking conflicted Avad looks between me and the horizon. Murmuring to his advisor his face becomes grim.
"Scouts have confirmed what you said, but I can't risk the lives of my people for a simple structure. No matter how religiously significant it is to my people." – Avad
Metaphorically grinding my teeth, I curse Ted Faro again in my head for causing humans to be this ignorant, then having enough of this I decide to forgo formalities.
"You are stupid. Your ignorance will doom the world, I don't want you to guard the spire because it's important to your religion… I… want… you to guard it because it is a giant fucking transmitter that can wake every machine on this planet. Keep in mind these machines eat anything alive." – Edith
To emphasise my point, I use my barely functional projector to play a video of one of the Horuses currently heading here. In the video an army of robots can be seen consuming a vibrant rainforest and leaving behind a grey wasteland devoid of life.
Paling Avad looks at his advisor before looking at me.
"Is this real?" - Avad
"Yes, and robots like this will awake across the world and consume all life. Only this time there is no backup plan." – Edith
Face hardening Avad seems to gather his resolve before looking me straight in the eye, or sensor in my case.
"How far away are they and how many machines do you have in your command." – Avad
Happy he finally understands the threat I quickly run some simulations to determine how many I'll be able to get there in time. While at it I also use a fraction of my processing power to add transport machines to my build list.
Finished the list I can only frown, which causes my motors to spark. Even at the fastest speed I can only assemble an army of ten thousand machines, only four thousands of which are combat machines. Running some extra calculations, I determine with proper organisation we can gather close to twenty thousand soldiers, but that's by getting anyone able to fight.
Addressing Avad I tell him the grim truth, in response he sports a conflicted face. Taking a moment to think he looks around at the guards and servants dotting the palace.
"Will anyone survive?" – Avad
"That's what you'll be fighting for." – Edith
Hardening his face Avad calls forth a servant and relays a order to him, continuing to issue orders according to my plans he sends for more men to fight. While he does that I turn my focus towards two projects that could turn the tide of battle.
The first of which resides within a cauldron on the edge of Nora territory, within machines work overtime to assemble a colossal machine of my own design. The second project rests solely on my computing capacity, using all I know about Faro robots and their shutdown codes I attempt to concoct a device that can shut off their matter- energy conversion systems.
The second project wasn't going well though and I was facing difficulties even with the original shutdown codes.
Continuing my work tirelessly a day passes, now within my main body I perform a scan of the troops available. On the east front I have half my machines and three quarters of the human troops stationed behind a hastily erected defence wall lined with any heavy weapons people could find.
On the south front I had the rest of my machines with more combat machines in this group, there was also the rest of the human troops who were stationed on another hastily erected wall. Looking up at the spire I quickly check how the destruction is going.
Unfortunately for all life on earth Gaia made it strong and so it's barely damaged. Changing my focus I quickly check up on my two projects, the first project is completed but it won't get here till part way through the battle.
The second project though hit a bottleneck that required me to acquire the code from the reactivated robots, this unfortunately meant I couldn't shut down the bio-matter to energy reactors yet.
Rising higher into the air I look down on the two armies of machines only minutes away, luckily for me Hades didn't see the need for the cultists anymore and consumed them. Unfortunately, that boosted the machine army by a few more thousand.
Bracing myself I send out a attack signal as the first corruptor reaches attack range, instantly the frontlines light up with different elemental blasts as the battle begins.