Heart of a Machine

Chapter 8

In the face of dozens of bloodthirsty warriors with cause to be suspicious, what could she tell them but the truth? "My name is Aloy. I am a Nora. And I am PART machine. I got the machine parts from a being that existed during the time of the Old Ones. I needed them, to find something that could save the world, and to fight." The Tenakth around her whisper, and her Vanguard stands at the entrance to the room, tense and ready to fight.

Hekarro was the first to speak. "You told me that you were on a quest to save more people than I could imagine. Why don't you tell us about that?"
Aloy sighs. "I need to fix the Derangement. If I don't, everyone and everything will die."
Hekarro contemplates these words. "And what obstacle stops you from doing so that requires you to replace your parts with that of a machine?"
"I call them the Zeniths. People from the stars, descended from the Old Ones. They want to use what I need to save the world, to end it, and make it theirs, by any means necessary."
"And how can we trust what you say is the truth?"
Aloy is silent, before her helmet encloses her head and her hair turns blue. "I am Queen Machina, of the machines." The Tenakth are suddenly surrounded by Scavengers, Ravagers and other dangerous machines, putting the Tenakth on guard. "And if you don't trust me, I will have to go through you to get to the door."

Everything is tense, and dead quiet before Kotallo steps forward. "I will vouch for the champion... for Queen Machina. She aided me in bringing the challengers to the Kulrut, and defended us from Regalla's rebels. Should she betray us, I will bear the responsibility."
Hekarro hums, and raises his hand. "Let her stand."
Aloy rises to her feet. "Thank you." She turns to Kotallo, waving her sparking stump. "Well look at that, we match."
Kotallo can't help but chuckle. "Yes, I suppose we do." His humored smile falls. "I'm sorry you had to cripple yourself while saving our chief."
Aloy shrugs. "It's fine. Machine parts, remember? I can get it fixed." Her eyes go down to Kotallo's own stump. "You know, I could have my... friend fix that for you too. With machine parts." The silhouette of an arm is all Aloy needs to know HEPHAESTUS approves. Kotallo, however, doesn't, his eyes drifting over Aloy's mechanized form. Looking down at herself, Aloy waves away Kotallo's thought process. "Oh, you don't have to get a full overhaul. Just a replacement arm if you want."
Before the Marshal can respond, Hekarro approaches. "Champion. I believe you'll be wanting your reward? End of the world and such."

Retrieving the sub-function from the basement of the old museum was simple enough, if a bit of a hassle due to the missing arm, but the show afterwards was worth it. Very inspiring words from the Old Ones, and an Old World salute that put any great leader she'd ever heard of to shame. She prepares to mount a Charger and return to base when her Vanguard walks up to her, the stealth one reaching for the GAIA kernel. "I will take this to GAIA. You should return to Iron Heart for repairs."
Letting the smallest Vanguard take the kernel, Aloy gives the others a questioning look. "Iron Heart?"
The leader answers the unspoken question while the stealth Vanguard disappears. "It is what HEPHAESTUS has named the Cauldron."
Aloy shakes her head, exasperated. "Of course he did. Alright, let's go."
"Wait." They all turn to see Kotallo, the Vanguard's eyes flashing yellow for a moment. "I will accompany you. I have served my time as Marshal, and the chief has new blood to replace mine, and I hope to add the grand battles we will face to my skin."
Aloy looks down at Kotallo for a moment before nodding at the Charger. "Get on."

With the GAIA kernel on its way to GAIA herself, the heavily machine based group were able to reach Iron Heart with relative ease. Fun side note, during the journey, Aloy swapped out her Charger with a Clawstrider. They approach the area where the Cauldron should be nestled away from the rest of the world, only to find a grand castle of stark white metal and glowing blue veins. "HEPHAESTUS, are you kidding me?"
"It has functionality if that's the problem. The wall itself blocks off all attempted assaults and is equipped with a plethora of plasma turrets, ready to be deployed at a moments notice, the towers connect to the GAIA base and all the Longnecks in the region, and tunnels have been built to deploy machines as part of an offensive strategy."
"Just let us in."

After the exasperating discovery that the door to the Cauldron was hidden behind a THRONE of all things, the group is directed by a few Assistants, Aloy shooting a few assuring looks at Kotallo. HEPHAESTUS gives them a debrief, spooking Kotallo. "I have a few updates for you Aloy. I noticed that the Chillwater flail I made broke, so to avoid any complications, I made a new machine." A large machine, it's torso buff looking and tall enough to fit the Vanguard leader's blaze long sword. That pretty much tells you how big the rest is. It's faceless, bar two eye holes with a deep glow behind them. It's basically the Destroyer from Thor. "I call it the Centurion. A portable forge with minimal combat capabilities. Unfortunately, its fabricator uses a large sum of power, so its speech capabilities were sacrificed, and it's limited to a singular form of offense, being an intense beam from its face covering. It is capable of splitting its legs into sections to increase speed in emergencies at the cost of using more power." The large machine crouches down on its fists and its chest opens up to reveal a freshly made flail, which the respective Vanguard enthusiastically grabs.

The Centurion rises and HEPHAESTUS continues. "I've also made a few extra arm types for you, after I decided to make them interchangeable. I think the gatling attachment will be a perfect fit for you. It has an in-built miniature fabricator for ammunition that can be replenished by depositing spare metal into the provided compartment. I've finalized the design for our new friend's prosthesis. And I've taken the liberty of replenishing your arrows. Now, is everyone ready for an upgrade?" HEPHAESTUS enthusiasm was not unnoticed by his guests.

A few hours later, Kotallo was equipped with a burly metallic arm that melded seamlessly into his fleshy stump, and Aloy was repaired and outfitted with her gatling arm.

(@Grypuy helped come up with the Centurion)