Living Antiquity

~37~

Landing at Sigma, I led the way inside, Naltuk and Enjuk shocked by the machinery inside the Cauldron, enough that I let Zo hop on comms to help calm them. Aratak was at least cooler and more collected due to helping deal with Thunder's Drum...
"Repair Bay Tau was much the same. Especially with the Hephaestus infection raging back then," she explains.
"Thankfully, he is under control and back in my heuristic matrix," Gaia says softly, floating beside Cyan as we head toward the center of the cauldron to check on the creation of the Blazebird, "The printing of the exoskeleton is almost done, and then Phoenix will be ready for their first flight."
I grin, stretching out my arms and cracking my knuckles, "I can't wait!"
"You like flying better than being on the ground, don't you..." Drakka sighs.
"Of course?!? I am a hovobike racer, Drakka," I gave him a look, raising an eyebrow.
He sighs and rubs his face, "Right..." He looks around, observing the walls of the cauldron, various machines hopping to and fro on their tasks- no longer hostile like they were before, and no longer skittish the way they'd had to be under the original Gaia.
"Ah, Y/n! I do believe you're in the Cauldron north if the Nora lands, yes?" Teersa rings cheerfully out over the comms.
A form in the dark above me... But not hostile, so, moving on.
"Yep. Gaia's making a new flying machine for us to be able to travel warmly up into Banuk lands," I explain, hand to my Focus so I could summon up her hologram and speak face to face.
"Wonderful! Might Nakoa and I accompany you?" She smiles, "We're already on the way, of course, but I do believe Avad sent Marad your way as well..." she says pointedly as I look up and see the man himself sitting atop a vent.
"Interesting architecture, this. I see more function than anything else.. Difficult to sabotage if you know not what you're doing," he jumps down and bows, a sly smile on his face, "Don't think I didn't see you look up before answering Matriarch Teersa, however. That observation skill if handy to have."
"Heh..." I shake my head and return ti the conversation with Teersa, "Not entirely sure how much room there is gonna be, but come on up!"
"There should be adequate room for up to fifteen people to sit comfortably," Gaia responds, "That was the largest I could go without endangering the flying ability of the design. I'm already working through possible designs to compensate for that, but Phoenix will be a 15 person transport machine."
I nod as we continue, "I'll leave a path trace for you and Nakoa to follow when you get here. Just track it with your Focuses."
"Sounds good," Nakoa pipes up, "Getting the hang og these and getting the tribe to acknowledge them as anything other than sin was... Interesting," she sighed, clearly rubbing her face.
"How did it go when you opened the Cradle?" I ask as we walk out into the open core room, the others staring around at the massive space.
"It was equally interesting. And a bit heartbreaking, our Focuses showed us the depth of the suffering of the ancestors without the knowledge of their progenitors," Teersa frowned, "And the way the... servitors... were treated? They did their utmost to fulfill their programming and be good mothers and fathers, but it wasn't enough, when they ran out of food, and set the children free. Finding the record showing Aloy's birth, and the message from the first Gaia, the All Mother."
"I guess she really did fit the bill for the role," I say, sitting on a railing as the others explore, while I watch the last pieces of the fuselage of a truly massive bird be printed and snapped and welded into place on the bird's body, "The All Mother, who gave her life for her children, great grandchildren, and the hope of every future generation, and the hope of being reborn as soon as possible."
"'In you, Elisabet, all things are possible'," Teersa whispers, the faint whir of a Charger's joints in the background of her whisper, "Elisabet is the true All Mother. She created the scaffold for Gaia and our Gaia. Though I guess that maybe just makes her the mother of All Mother," she says thoughtfully.
"She probably wouldn't want to be seen as a god of any kind," I laugh softly, "Any more than Aloy would," I point out.
"Oh, likely not." Teersa laughs softly, "The discomfort when she was named Anointed was glorious."
Nakoa chuckles, audibly shaking her head, by the rustling of her hair. "She looked like she'd rather be in a Thunderjaw's belly every time someone called her that."
I laugh and cover my mouth, watching as Naltuk and Enjuk stare at the printing process in amazement. Marad just watches with mild interest as Drakka sits to finally begin work on reapplying his face oaunt now that we're somewhere decently warm. I had actually used some of the database helped him rework the formula a bit so it would help him maintain his body temperature instead of freezing his face in cold weather or overheating him in the desert... it also seemed to go on easier than it used to. Maybe he wouldn't be so grouchy now that he was putting his paint back on. He hated being without it...
"So then the mission this time is outreach to the Banuk in the north?" Teersa asks.
"Yes. We're hoping to be able to establish contact, trade of information and understanding," I explain, "Part of me is afraid that they won't want to help, or will want to remain obscure... Or try to kill us."
"I'd like to see them try to kill the Zenith destroyer," Nakoa snorts, "If we get you a new hovobike you'll be sniping them from above the range of their bows."
I smile and cover my mouth, "Ok, maybe."
"They will respect you for the enemy you slayed and the things that you have survived," Aratak said, "Not many would have survived the attack you threw at them, even with the tactics you chose to use. Many of the shamans will be curious of the ferocity of your attacks, considering the ancient, soft world you came from."
"Even with how rough my teen years were? Really?" I tilt my head, looking at him, "Actually wait, yeah. The folks in the tent town did take care of me."
"Exactly. Though they operated quite like a werak. There are weraks who put their community and the safety of the individuals before the battle. They are simply few and far between," Naltuk breaks his focus on the metal printer to turn and look at me.
I nod, seeing Drakka look up from applying his paint, "A clan worth remembering."
"Yeah. I used to try to bring them food even after I left. Especially the gal I gave my tent when Trav adopted me," I yawn, remembering.
"You should rest. We'll be there in a few hours, and I believe the machine can wait a while if you're still asleep after we arrive," Teersa says in that familiar, gentle, no nonsense tone.
"Okay..." I sigh, climbing down from my railing and spreading my travel furs out on the floor, thinking.
We passed the Grave Hoard on the way here. And on the way up into the Cut.
Tracy.
Crushed under a Horus Titan tentacle and screaming...
Squeezing my eyes shut as I burrow my face into the furs, I slowly feel my mind, eyes and body getting heavier...
-----
"Stop, Y/n... Stop doing this to yourself..."
Hearing the data hurts...
"So stop listening to it. I'm okay, its long after my death. I don't care that they lied to us to keep us hopeful- it worked! In the end, we won, didn't we? And you're here. I know your life wasn't what your parents told us it was. I wish I hadn't believed them, but its in the past and there's nothing to forgive you for..." Tracy's voice, hand squishing my cheeks until I was puckered and felt like I was being flattened into a flounder, "And look how strong you got!!"
"Heh... She won't hear it from anyone other than you."
Trav.
"Well of course!" He laughs and a hand slaps against my back, "You still need us, if you're beating yourself up this bad. The Banuk will listen. Silens' crimes against them are history compared to impending doom. Sure, there's bound to be some morons that don't listen. But trust me, they won't last against the judgement of the masses."
"Y/n."
Soft glowing light and two more hands gently rest on my shoulders.
Elisabet.
"Focus on your sanity and happiness. NEMESIS and the unification of the world are equally important, but worrying yourself to death serves no one. You and Drakka aren't anything to put on the backburner, and while your worries are well founded, don't fear the outcomes your can't control. You always figure something out. Old Faithful? Ghost? The Quen? Look how far you've come alongside Aloy. Look how you reunified Gaia. You can enjoy your life, and still fulfill the mission. Don't take a page from my book. No one else needs to volunteer as a sacrifice."
I gulp, but nod, rubbing my face.
"No tears? No tears. Good!" Tracy ruffles my hair, and I'm back in the house she and my aunt and uncle lived in. The walls, the floor, the QT 9, Tracy's gaming console, already old and sputtering, as we play Book of the Ancients 8: Empire United.
Exploring the full breadth of  the continent sized map, the massive difference between my screaming QT 8's graphics evident.
Especially in VR...
But we broke a hole in the wall that day.
Her parents ended up laughing while the repair drone did its work, confused how two tweens even managed to break a home that big with our small controllers.
"Heh. You were just as good as breaking shit as you were at building shit." Tracy's face swam into view, a grin spreading across her face.
"I still don't know how we did that. Did I trip or did you push me?" I tilt my head.
"Both. I think? Maybe?" She tilted her own head, and laughed, shaking her head gently.
Trav is in the background laughing his ass off as we watch my trip over a toy on the floor just in time for Tracy to accidentally slam into me, sending me almost rocketing into the wall, and through it.
"Yep. Both," I laugh, doubling over.
"Well, keep in mind this is only a year before you started beefing up from sifting through scrap metal to make Old Faithful 1.0." She grins, "Cause I remember you fixing the controller by hand after it snapped on impact.
I let out a breath and sit up again, Elisabet even looking the other way to hide a smile.
"At least it wasn't burning down a tree," she says.
"A fair point." I nod, and yelp when Trav lifts me up.
"Enough play! I wanna see you go blow shit up or sock someone for saying the mission's dumb. Wakey wakey!"
"Trav, damnit, I was having fun-"
Opening my eyes and looking up st the distant roof of the core room.
"You were talking about Trav again," Drakka says gently from next to my and I turn ti see he'd adjusted me so my head was in his lap, "Sorry, desert flower. You had your neck twisted funny so I fixed it."
I relax and let him grip my hand, "... I think Trav, Tracy and Elisabet were all there..."
He smiled, "Yeah, you were talkin' a lot, so I figured. Teersa and Nakoa are just coming up the hall.
I sit up, grunting slightly when my joints pop,  and turn to face the hall out into the Cauldron, recognixing the footsteps of Chargers.