Amat Victoria Curam

#1

Aloy sighed. Her friends had the privilege of returning to their lives and clans, and she...

Her burden was still great. Even greater than before. The victory they toiled over the Far Zeniths, however triumphant in itself, was ultimately trivial. Banal. Insignificant.

Compared to what is coming.

- Alloy - Gaia said in his characteristically moderate and gentle voice - we need to talk. A lot.

- It's always like that when we talk, we talk a lot - Aloy replied, standing in front of Gaye's uniquely radiant hologram.

The thought crossed her mind. Why here, in this base, in this technologically advanced place where she often talks to Gay there is no chair? If she had known she would spend so much time talking, she would have brought it up herself. Maybe next time, she thought. For now, she contented herself with gently stretching and walking around the wide and spacious room with Gaia.

- Before we start talking about what bothers us both, I have some pretty good news.

- Really? You do? - Aloy relaxed, because that sounded promising. Gaia smiled.

- I believe you will be thrilled to hear this: right now most of the machines in the service of caring for and conserving global bio-dome are destroying the remnants of an ancient army of machines created by Ted Faro.

- Those buried, ancient machines that once ate the flora and fauna of our ancestors? - Aloy frowned - I thought they were no longer a danger, because Hades no longer exists...and there is no way he will send them a signal that will reactivate them. Right?

- True, but as long as they exist, buried, not completely destroyed and in any way, even potentially capable of reactivating, and that means absorbing nearby biomass and using it for their own regeneration, the danger to our world exists. Because you never know, someone else can send signals for their reactivation. Some, say, undetected version of a mutated Hades-like module, or some individual playing with things he doesn't fully control or understand.

- Let's say, Sylens - said Aloy grimly.

- For example, or someone else. Needless to say, there are definitely many warring groups and individuals in this world ready to do anything to defeat their enemies.

- Yeah, I do not need reminding of that. And what, you hope to destroy an ancient army of machines while they are still inactive?

- Exactly. In the last few hours, I have directed all capable beasts-machines otherwise employed in other tasks to excavating buried war machines and destroying them. Primarily physical destruction of equipment that enables self-regeneration and self-replication of their parts. Because that is where the greatest danger lies.

- Hm... Does it work? I hope there's no way they'll activate and wake up before your machines destroy them? - Aloy said quickly. Gaia nodded.

- No, the chances of such a thing are zero. Because I carried out a globally coordinated action, which I directed extremely precisely and purposefully. At the moment, 85% of the war machines of our ancestors have been destroyed, irretrievably and beyond the scope of self-repair. The rest will be destroyed in the next 33 minutes.

- Great! Well done, Gaia, we will no longer have to worry about that ancient threat from the past.

- I agree. That was good news.

- You got that right. And now let's deal with the less good news.

- Yes, Aloy, let's - Gaia smiled knowingly.