Living Antiquity

~13~

I wave to the guards outside Scalding Spear as Stanely and I approach, "Here to have a chat with Drakka!" I say as I dismount from Piglet and help Stanley awkwardly flop off the side of his own Bristleback, now affectionately named Rodeo, due to the nature it expressed while he attempted to override it.
"He can parley with you up in the Commander's chambers on the Spear!" One of the guards shouted, clearly holding back a laugh as Stanley stood up to brush sand from himself.
"Its amazing how the heat doesn't affect me like back then... I know I've been genetically modified, but I can tell that the heat is also not quite as harsh as it used to be..." Stanley pointed out as we trekked in the gate.
Jetakka met us at the ramp and raised a brow when he saw Stanley, before nodding ti me, "Y/n! A pleasant surprise. I see you have no problem taming machines in the same way as Aloy by yourself."
I raise an eyebrow, but shake my head and laugh, "I also brought presents. We found a hoard of Focuses and ways to make more, so we're distributing them to every Commander and Chaplain- save the Sky Commander, he'll have to earn one. Here! And we'll show you and Drakka how to use them, as well. Hold it to the same temple as your dominant hand," I set it in his hands as he raises a brow, and watch as he tenses upon seeing the pipes under the town.
"Ah, the second sight?" He asks, curious.
"And the ability to read information left behind by the old ones. Here, I'll explain to both you and Drakka so that we don't have to say it twice," I follow him up and see Drakka standing at the edge of the lookout just absolutely talking shit to the bird that used to belong to Yarra.
"You're nothing but a bad omen, bird. Why do you always cause trouble?" He huffs.
"Well, vultures are also nature's cleanup crew in the desert," I point out, seeing him tense and whirl to look at me.
"Y/n! Uhhh..."
"I have presents," I say, holding up the Focus, "Second sight and the ability to communicate with everyone else who has one," I say, tossing it to him, "Temple on the same side as your dominant hand, so its easier ti work," I say, smirking as he yelped upon looking at the ground and seeing the Wound in the Sand the way we could.
"Whoa! Its lit up in purple. ... Leak detected?" He frowned, reading it.
"Really? We even downloaded reading modules so that people could be taught to understand the data easier... huh... Though I guess since you guys are obsessed with JTF-10's museum, it makes sense. We actually also downloaded modules about them for your tribe's enjoyment so that you could learn more about them," I point out.
"And who's this?" Jetakka asks pointedly, looking at Stanley, who was more fascinated with the architecture of the Tenakth than paying attention to the mild danger of being in the Desert Capital.
"This is Stanley Chen," I say, and give a brief explanation of events they had missed or weren't caught up with, "I brought him to you guys for a reason, actually. He's here to help with possibly fixing the Wound to get more water flow, or even come up with alternative ways of getting water- he created a giant filtration system that allows water to occupy a massive city that is now under the desert..." I say, "A system that, even when left on standby for a thousand years and surrounded by ruins, still exists and works properly."
That got their attention, both of them looking at Stanley.
"I'd be more than happy to extend my expertise and help for free... But I am told that the manpower to build it will not come free?..." He looks at me, then Drakka and Jetakka.
"We aren't capable of forging such things..." Jetakka says, frowning.
"And that is where I might overstep... I wanted to suggest getting aid from our Oseram friends and allies to get workers out here to work under Stanley and build a system that can give you guys a steady, reliable, clean, safe ti drink water source. I had initially thought about reprogramming Bellowbacks to bring a supply of filtered water from somewhere, a Bellowback for each village once or twice a week..." I frowned pacing.
"Ah, you haven't mentioned that one!" Stanley looked over at me, "That would certainly work as a substitute while we work on the bigger system. However I understand that your clan also has a system for how they have survived and earned water until now..." He looks at Drakka and Jetakka, "Y/n has expressed much frustration with not being able to help, as she feels the basic right to what you need ti survive isn't something you should have to suffer through," he rubs his head, "I understand you have lived like this for hundreds of years and have no desire to overstep." He says, sitting on one of many benches.
Jetakka nods, holding his chin with a free hand as he flicks through preprogrammed underground schematics Stanley had sent to each of us.
"Easily accessible, readily available water for all in the clan..." Drakka's eyes widen, "How do you already know where our villages are?" He asks.
"Scouting missions from before I left the Zeniths. I cross referenced the associated colors of each clan through Aloy's records and figured out which settlements were Desert Clan," he points out, "Red, black and yellow..."
Jetakka nods as Drakka walks over.
"We can talk about that later... Right now, we have a problem." He holds out a piece of string, "This is from a kid's sandal... We need to get a read on where they went so that they don't die out there..."
I nod, scanning it with my focus, "We can use DNA traces to follow them whichever direction they went,"I say, scanning the scrap and looking around, sending the other three my findings as my Focus hones in on the traces.
"Wow... Okay, let's go. Can't let them get heatstroke out there, they've already been missing for a day..." Drakka took off running, following the purple trail, "Whoa and the line just keeps going..!" He says, looking over toward where the pipes from the Wound went- and slammed face first into a wall because he wasn't watching where he was going.
I nearly collapsed, laughing my ass off and barely keeping myself upright with a hand on a nearby pole as Drakka groans.
Jetakka snorts and covers his mouth, smiling behind his hand as Stanley laughs nervously.
"You're not even gonna help me up? That hurts..." Drakka groans, pushing himself back to his feet and rubbing the side of his head where he impacted, fuming as I laugh more, nearly crying.
"You weren't even looking where you were going-" I squeaked out as I cackled, even some of the Tenakth around us laughing.
He made a sound I couldn't identify, and the next thing I knew, I was over his shoulder and he was running along, still following the path the child had taken.
"Wha- HEY!!" I yelled pounding on his back, "Put me down!"
"Nope. You lost your walking privileges," He says bluntly.
I fume and kick my feet, trying to get free, but I guess living in the desert his whole life and fighting his whole life gave him super strength... I was pretty much stuck.
Jetakka chuckles and shakes his head, following after us with Stanley in tow explaining what different information they were seeing in their Focuses meant.
I, however, was getting a headrush because I was upside down watching Drakka's feet fly across the sand, annoyed as the sounds of rushing blood fill my head and block out everything else, muffling voices and nature sounds.
Just rush... rush... whooooosssh... the pressure increasing and decreasing with time and movement...
Finally, he stopped and set me on my feel, looking concerned, "Hey!"
"What? Upside down means blood pressure in my head, which means my own blood flow becomes all I can hear. Loud, high pressure, kinda painful," I groan, rubbing my face as he frowns, "What, pouty?" I ask, looking at him.
He sighs, "Nevermind. Think we're close, though, the trail fragmented..." he points, and I see that the DNA trail is spread across an area... before continuing on with less frequency between the markers.
"Yeah, and it looks like they had to run..." I jog over to the new path... Running footprints... twisted as if looking behind them... "Come on!" I take off running, worried.
"Y/n...!" Drakka groans and follows.
"Commander. You had to have realized by now that she'd be able to track faster than us with these. However, now we'll be able to track animals and prey more efficiently," Jetakka points out as we run.
I link our four Focuses together, "Exactly. And it makes hunting down missing people a thousand times easier... And once we give Focuses to Hekarro, the other Commander, the Chaplains and the Marshalls?... Instant communication between all of your tribe, as well as, maybe... Eventual open communication between all tribes. Personally I look forward to learning more about the Banuk. They're so far away... But I'd love to see it. And there is another AI out there that could possibly help if she were pair in communication with Gaia..."
"Another AI?" Drakka says, clearly disturbed.
"CYAN. She is from a project called Firebreak. I'll compile the data from that and send it to you guys later, along with a docudrama about what could have happened had she not been created."
(Author's side note: Look up the docudrama Supervolcano if you would like to see what I'm referencing! You'll know its right if published in 2005 and directed by Tony Mitchell.)
"Interesting. Why is she not already in contact with Gaia?" Jetakka asks as we jog.
"The part of Gaia that is supposed to handle the design and creation of machines in cauldrons, HEPHAESTUS... If you've seen the black machines with purple glow, HEPHAESTUS made those to hunt and kill humans because it misinterprets humans as a threat ti the terraforming system. HEPHAESTUS reached out to CYAN at one point but took control of her, rerigged her systems, held her captive in her processors for five years. My understanding is that a friend of Aloy's who had been close to CYAN actually sacrificed herself in the effort to free CYAN... she never got to know what CYAN was or how detrimentally important she was and how amazing it was that she saved CYAN..." I frowned, "Understandably, CYAN is traumatized by what happened. She won't respond to Gaia's calls. She's afraid of losing her freedom again..." I skid to a stop as we reach a big clearing with wreckage... and sound waves coming from under the wreckage, the tracks and DNA traces leading to it.
"I feel bad for her... Oh, s'that the kid?" Drakka perks up, seeing where I was looking as he skids to a stop next to me.
"Yeah." I walk toward the wreckage, frowning.
"Wait, don't!" A tiny voice cried from under the metal, "There's a really really big machine...!"
"Stanley, sit with the kid, if anything gets close, stab it," I toss Stanley my spear, "And stab it hard. The three of us should be able to fight anything off."
Stanley nods, jogging under the wreckage and pulling the kid back out of sight and the sun, "You're alright, little one, let's just watch the show."
I ready myself, scanning everything I can... Rocks, clearing, mountain- sky.
"Stormbird!!" I yell, aiming up, firing straight into its lightning cannon as it dives at us.
The resulting explosion rocked the bird, dropping it from the air... Straight on top of me.
"Y/N!!!"