Living Antiquity

~32~

Keeping him coming after me was one thing.
Keeping from getting hit was another.
At least Old Faithful has some good speed on him.  Visser's attacks would actually have a chance of landing otherwise.
That being said, he's been keeping a steady distance. No telling how much power he's actually got behind whatever thing is keeping him in the air.
I take a breath, diving for the ground, zig zagging and dodging between trees as he fires maniacally behind me, striking trees, attracting Glinthawks that threw ice after both of us.
"Y/n, if you can lead him all the way ti Gemini, I may be able to disable his shield," Silens says, "I've finished testing the weapon..."
"Hehe... Shieldripper,"I grin, dodging another if Erik's attacks and swaying the course off toward Gemini, "This better work, though, I don't want to risk everyone..."
"It will. It may even tear down the shields of a few nearby machines..." He smirks at the other end of the line.
"Where are you going Y/n?! It was getting fun! And all this after you spent days taking away our multiservants! You're no fun!" Visser screamed after me.
"Its almost like you're too fucking slow, Visser! Erik Visser, unable to keep up with a street racer rat! Hah!" I dodged another attack, grinning as I spun Old Faithful through trees and out over the open, following my Focus' map and returning ti the others, grinning as he chases me on and on, ither voices mingling. "Five."
"Yes."
"Four."
Closer... I can see the mountaintop that hid Gemini from the world...
"Three..."
Come on, come on-
"T-Two..."
Shit, my confidence is wavering. Think of the others.
"One!" I growl, crossing the peak, seeing the great crowd of people below ready to fire.
"Zero."
A great blast of bright light, and I look back, seeing the faint forms of the shields on the Zeniths' bodies fade away, "All fire, all fire!!"
Arrows surged upwards from the ground, Zenith's being filled with holes, Visser choking on an arrow as he glares at me, blood pouring from the new hole in his neck as I bring Faithful around and line up an acid arrow with his face.
"Eat shit."
Milliseconds later and the arrow is bursting in his face, the splash moving in slow motion for me as I duck over him, coming face to face with another angry blonde face, "Hi, Tilda. By, Tilda... Liz is waiting to kick your ass in purgatory. Best not keep her waiting..." I flip the knife I'd ben keeping myself from using, jamming the front hovowheel against her chest so I was driving her into the ground, burying the blade in her eye as far as it would go and twisting, watching the good eye go blank as I  pull back, letting the knife go, wincing and putting on the brakes as she slides off the disc and begins to fall, limp.
"Y-Y/n..." I hear Beta stammer.
"I'll be having nightmares about that for a while, but it needed done- Liz'll have some special words for her for stealing her DNA, lying about her own death, making you, how she treated you and then tossed you aside when you weren't Liz... I mean, that's basically pedophilia when you think about it, how old were you?" I frown, circling overhead.
"Uuuugh... urk..." I hear Aloy groan.
"That's ok, I swiped a repaired Focus from her pocket... Your old Focus, Aloy. The one you smashed in Latopolis. It looks like she was also keeing notes on you."
"Gross." Aloy groans and I hear her facepalm, "We're nearly done, just another terabyte or two. Another minute or so."
"Go for i-"
Old Faithful's engines exploded under me, and I began to fall, starting to catch up with the raining Zenith corpses.
"Y/n!!" Drakka screams, and I year running footsteps.
Turning my head, I saw a single floating form, snarling at me, "Gerard. Ready to burn?" I yell, flipping him the double bird as I fell, Avalanche swooping and letting me land on her back, standing more than a bit unsteadily as she circled, facing the bald shitshow of a man.
"You little-" he spat.
"Little? I weight at least half again what you do, eat a burger, you nutri-gel fetishist," I say, kneeling and taking aim, "Let's see, what's the bet of you being able to dodge me, hm? And how long can you dodge?"
He spat, lashing out with his weapon again, Avalanche having to toss me off her back and catch me again to dodge.
"Would you shit up, you little brat?!"
"Shiiit you're pulling out the distressed adult words? Oh my, whats' the special occasion?" I cackle.
"I'll-"
"Kill me? Sugar I've been frozen a thousand years and training my body into a weapon for months. I think you forgot what determination and spite can accomplish... We'll kill you, and then we'll destroy NEMESIS, and all of it just so we can erase everything about your selfish ass and the others," I snarl, switching to my spike thrower and lobbing them a couple of directions, Avalanche ducking and dodging as I rode about on her back.
Eventually, my plan worked- the spinning spikes had blades that flipped open and made them float. And I'd worked hard to make them-
BOOM.
Slowly, I look up and see his body, or at least the pieces, falling.
"Y/n, are you still up there?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, hon... Whoooo, remind me... To take it easy for a while..." I lean forward onto Avalanche's back.
"Is that... all of them?" Beta asks, and ai hear chirps and whirling sounds, Avalanche's blue wires disappearing as she gently flew toward the ground, leveling off and landing, letting me crawl off and take a few tentative steps, Drakka running toward me and holding my shoulders to keep me upright.
"Y/n!"
"I'm okay, Drakka.... And yeah, Beta, they're gone," i grin, resting my chin on Drakka's shoulder with a shit eating grin as so many of the others pant, no doubt having been trying to figure out how to aim at Gerard without hitting me, now finally getting to take a breath.
"I have fully absorbed and integrated HEPHAESTUS... Due to the nature with which it had edited itself, I've been able to spread over the global network and will begin rebooting all machines back to the system, and spread the corrections I've made int he region over the entire planet," Gaia says soothingly, "I'll be able to access any Cauldron from now on- I'll be moving Overrides across the Focus network to allow access to any machine."
"We found a Sunwing Override!" Beta says excitedly, "And they seem to be rideable!!" She squeals.
"So we could fly?" Drakka asks curiously.
"We could fly more easily than on a Glinthawk or a Stormbird," I laugh weakly, heart still pounding from the nonstop action of the last couple hours, "Hey why'd it take so long, it it took me a couple hours to get the Zeniths agitated?"
"We had to block off every available escape for HEPHAESTUS," Aloy groans, "We'll have to open it all back up-"
"Unnecessary. I've already already over the network. The only real problem is returning to the Base- Ah, nevermind. I've regained access through repair bay Tau," she almost seems to let out a breath.
"One of the machines got me good," Varl groans, "Before anyone says anything, he managed to build a Stalker and it was able to get behind me."
Soma frowns as she walks toward us, "So then this part of the battle is over?"
"Yes, for now... It almost feels anticlimactic. They were weak as hell once we peeled their shields..." I look over at Tilda's corpse, "... Yeah, I'll be having nightmares..." I groan, leaning so I couldn't look at her anymore.
"When did you even get a knife?" Drakka asks.
"I made it before Zo and Aloy helped me make my bow. But I was clumsy and couldn't use it well. Always had it on me just in case... Never really needed it," I sigh, stretching as I hear grunting, Aloy and the others climbing out of Gemini.
"And now comes the fun part..." I take a breath, "We might investigate their base more, try absorbing their tech and combining it?" I suggest, "Cause they can also nano-print machines in seconds. That could be improvised for Cauldrons and other purposes."
"My thoughts exactly," Gaia responds, as Aloy and the others climb out, pulling Varl up to where we see the bleeding hole in his shoulder from a Stalker dart.
"Uugh..." Varl groans, stumbling forward, Zo quickly following and catching him before he can fall on his face.
"You need to rest and heal when we go back to the base..." Zo says sternly.
Sona walks over, grabbing her son by the shoulder and staring at him.
It doesn't take an idiot to realize she's checking him fir other injuries in her own way... she was worried.
Over the next few hours, we all just tried to settle down and relax, burning the bodies of the Zeniths and trying to clear our heads, the Oseram and Tenakth celebrating with kegs and sharing war stories.
Aloy and the other 'main' group began really setting plans out in earnest- trying ti think of ways to reach out to other tribes, find other tribes around the globe.
"I feel like the best way would be to use machines to spy on them for a while when they're found so that we can determine their culture, their exact way of life so that we can prevent as many disasters as possible while trying to spread awareness..." I point out, seeing a few nods, "Especially given that there are tribes such as the Quen, who's beliefs are entangled with knowledge of the past- what if there are also other tribes out there who participate in a belief system like the Tenakth's, whose beliefs surround a group of people from the past?"
"A fair assessment. There has to be other museums..." Alva says over the connection, obviously pacing, "Which- I was wondering, Chief Hekarro, Kotallo, would it be alright if I came and examined the servers under the Grove? We may be able to fully repair every single Vision. Even get Faraday's to play on command?"
Chief Hekarro seems to take a pause, "That would actually be appreciated. Aloy also mentioned that there may even be other displays stored in the systems that weren't activated?"
"Exactly! They'd have had different displays for certain occasions and stuff like that," Alva says happily, all but flapping her hands in excitement.
I laugh, watching everyone as Drakka just holds onto me as if I had died and come back...
To be fair, he did see me fall several times...
I lean against him, feeling him tense but adjust so he could practically wrap around me, "Pfff.... Really?" I poke his forehead, hearing him just groan and pout against my hair.
Kotallo chuckles, shaking his head as some of the others look at us and laugh.
"You fell. Twice," He growls.
"Avalanche was there," I point out.
"You still fell..."
I sigh and ruffle the back of his hair, "I know. Trust me, seeing the ground approaching at high speed isn't fun..."
He just huffs and hugs tighter, clearly annoyed.
Aloy and the others laugh, seeing us as they stand from the other side of the fire.
Jetakka chuckles as he walks over, helping us up cause Drakka had managed to get his armor stuck to mine. All the pokey bits were dug into places where mine interocked...
I ended up accomoanying him and the Tenakth squads back to Scalding Spear fir the night, partially to mourn the loss of Old Faithful.
I'd have to find his pieces and rebuild him.
And keep the Oseram from salvaging him for themselves.
Fun times.

---
From this point there'll probably be some filler, or even space between chapters, as I haven't yet played Burning Shores, and I'm scared to progress my game past Gemini right now- I might just so ai can get it over with, but I absolutely hate seeing Varl die and Beta kidnapped. It wrenched my heart out the first time... and still does every time I play.
I've also got to try and come up with stuff to really keep the story interesting!
I'll he working more on writing for side missiom stories and stuff like that.
I hope everyone continues to enjoy the story!