Heart Like a Machine

Chapter 47

Beta and I got what we needed ready before heading out to the front. Aloy had two Sunwings ready for us.

"I'm going to have Beta ride with me today, Y/N. Are you ok with that?"

"Yeah," I nodded and got onto the other Sunwing.

Aloy got onto the other and helped Beta up. We flew up into the air and headed towards the Zenith base. While we were flying, we flew above some of the settlements. Some of them recognized Aloy, which I found impressive since we were high up. When we reached the base, we landed in the middle of what once was the battlefield. There were dead machines everywhere and dead Specters. We got off the Sunwing and headed towards the base.

"It hasn't been that long since we were here last," I said as we continued to walk.

"We need to find the place where Kotallo and Alva were. There might be something there," Aloy said.

"I know where they were," Beta said and walked us in a direction that was nearby.

We entered a database room that was filled with hundreds of monitors and there was even stations that had computers there as well. 

"Better start searching," Aloy said as we all looked at the monitors.

Since there were three of us, things were going to be a bit more quicker than if just Aloy and I were here.

"How are you feeling after what Sylens said?" Aloy asked Beta. "I know he was a little accusatory towards you."

Beta shook her head, "I did not enjoy him pointing his finger at me. But," she looked up and over at me, but I was sifting through some of the data. Even with the search word 'Nemesis' helping, there wasn't much there that we already knew. So I wasn't looking her way when she looked up at me.

"But I was glad Y/N stepped in front of me in case Sylens did try to do anything."

I looked over at her as she said my name. Both Beta and Aloy smiled at me. I smiled back at them. Seeing two of them was a bit hard to wrap my head around, but the even bigger issue I have with them creating Beta was she was created to serve the Zeniths and nothing more. While Aloy was meant to serve something greater. Now, with the Zeniths gone, both Aloy and Beta can serve something greater.

"I will still fulfill my promise even after Gemini," I said. "I'll always do my best to not only protect you, Beta, but to protect Aloy. You know how reckless she can be," I chuckled and went back to searching.

"You're the reckless one," Aloy chuckled. "You're the one who has more scars than I do."

"I wasn't the one who almost marched into Tenakth territory," I chuckled, "Even though I did go with you on that one."

"So I'm not the only reckless one here," Aloy smirked.

"You got me there," I said and continued searching. 

"Find anything?" Aloy asked after a few hours of searching.

"Nothing," I said. "Well, nothing that we already know."

"Same here," Beta said.

"There has to be something," Aloy said, bringing up the conversation she had before Tilda lost her mind.

"Tilda said they were the minds of the Zeniths who wanted digital immortality. So it's not like we can take down their shields that keep them from dying. There has to be like a database almost. A database where we can get in and see what we can do."

"If there is something, it had to be back on Sirius. And that was wiped out a long time ago and it would take eight years to get there. By the time we get there and come back, Nemesis would have already wiped out Earth," I said.

"That means we have to figure out a way here," Aloy said. "We might have to go with your idea first, Y/N. But the backup plan would be containment and destroying Nemesis once and for all."

"I hope that's possible. Sylens made it sound impossible."

"Things are never impossible. It may seem as it is, but there has to be a way for us to figure out how to defeat Nemesis. But one things is true, we need to get HEPHAESTUS back to GAIA. Once that's finished, GAIA will mostly be complete. Unfortunately we had to get rid of HADES, so there is no failsafe for GAIA if something were to go wrong. But hopefully there won't be a need for that. GAIA is most likely ready for another merge with HEPHAESTUS. But is HEPHAESTUS willing to go so easily after what happened at Gemini? We need to find a way to merge them with ease."

"At least we don't have to worry about the Zeniths finding us," I said. "We can merge HEPHAESTUS with some ease at least."

"That's true. But we need to go back to where we both can merge it so it won't take as long. Gemini was really the only place to do that."

"And we saw the state Gemini was in after what happened," I said. "There has to be another way to merge them without it taking forever. What about when you went to get the other subordinate functions? They weren't as rampant as HEPHAESTUS were they?"

"No. They were contained in one singular place. HEPHAESTUS has numerous cauldrons it can control. And it won't go quietly, even before Gemini it wasn't willing to go quietly. Even when I was with the Banuk and they had problems with HEPHAESTUS there," Aloy said.

"The Banuk?" I asked.

"It's a long story."

"Was that where you were in that six month period you were gone?"

"Yeah. I was with the Banuk. I had to get some information on Sylens, which they provided very little. That was where I learned HEPHAESTUS reached all the way up there. It took control of another AI called CYAN. The Banuk called it the Daemon. So even HEPHAESTUS reaches that far north."

"That's scary to think about an AI being capable of doing that," I said.

"We need to figure out how to get it under control enough so it can merge with GAIA. I think that's our first priority is getting the merge done once and for all. Afterwards, we can get an idea on how we can defeat Nemesis."