The Cauldron

With the guarding Stalkers gone, the way to the cauldron was free. Except for a watcher, that hid behind some rocks close to the triangular door. Aloy heard it, before she saw it, and turned to her companion to make sure she’d stay silent. The girl was not behind her any more. When she turned her attention back to the Watcher, which hadn’t noticed her yet, she saw Paige between the trees. The girl was moving quickly, but in absolute silence. Before Aloy could raise her bow, the girl had jumped up a rock behind the watcher and dropped herself onto the beast’s back. When the creature noticed her, it was already too late. Paige rammed a long dagger into the watcher’s eye with an astonishing amount of force for someone so small. The watcher screeched, and collapsed. Aloy ran towards her companion

“What are you waiting for?” Paige said in a playful tone. “Don’t you want to open the door?”

“That was impressive.” Aloy stated.

“Best way to deal with a watcher. Sneak onto them from behind, and smash the eye. Kills them every time. Plus you don’t get into the range of their weapons, if they carry them.”

“I prefer an arrow from a safe distance.”

“That’s because you’re a better archer than me.”

“If you’re seeking the thrill of mêlée combat, you’re stupid. It will kill you.”

The look she earned from Paige was unsettling for Aloy. It was the same intense stare she would have expected from the matriarchs.

“I had too much thrills in my life to be seeking them out. I know what I’m doing, or I wouldn’t do it at all.”

“Alright.” Aloy replied. “Sorry, I just thought it was a little dangerous.”

“It is, if you’re not trained to do it. Now are you going to open that door or not?”

Aloy sighed and went to the gate. She was used to being alone out here. Having this girl around already stressed her out. She was capable, Aloy had to give her that. But why in the world did she think GAIA’s message was directed to her? It seemed strange. On the other hand: The girl said she grew up in the ancient ruins. So most likely, she was an outcast herself.

“Maybe I should give her a chance.” Aloy thought, while working on finding the right settings to the door locks. When she found them, she pushed her spear in the lock.

“This is your last chance to quit.” She told Paige. “You really want to come along?”

The girl nodded.

Aloy twisted the spear, and the heavy door slowly began to open.

The inside of the cauldron was warm and moist. The cave was dim and eerie industrial sounds echoed from the walls. Many of the floor panels were shattered and broken, and mushrooms grew between the cracks.

Aloy picked up those of which she knew were usable for medical purposes and put them into her pocket. Then she headed into the gloomy world.

The cauldrons were quite the opposite of the outside world. While in the outside world, all traces of the ancient civilisation were ruined and overgrown by lush nature, in here plants and animals were few and far between. Everything in here was artificial. And even more so, as this world had not been designed by a human. The old underground bunkers, as strange as they were, all wore the unmistakeable signature of humanity. Even though they had lots of things most people today had no idea what they were used for, a chair had been a chair back then, even if it was made from an unknown material.

The cauldrons were not designed by humans, so all of these points of reference were missing. There were neither chairs, nor steps or walkways. The structure of these automated workshops strictly followed the needs of their artificial masters. This world had no need for humans, and they were actively kept out.

When Aloy and Paige reached the end of the tunnel, they found themselves near a broad, steep ramp. Below, they could see two watchers guarding the path that led deeper into the cauldron. On the opposite end of the great hall an upside down conveyor belt was transporting broken machine parts deeper into the facility.

Aloy pointed towards the conveyor belt. “That will carry us inside. We need to find the core.”

Paige nodded. “You see those cables over there? Below the conveyor? They lead to a data hub. We should get access to a wiring diagram there.”

“You’ve been inside one of these before.” Aloy noticed.

“Let’s say, I’m not a stranger to strange places.” Paige grinned.

Aloy ignored the remark and put up her bow. She touched her focus and it made contact with the machines. There was a lot of information visualised, but she could easily make out the paths, the watchers would take. The first one was an easy shot. It made a sharp turn, and it’s eye was facing into the right direction. She carefully drew her bow, waited for exactly the right moment and fired the arrow. The arrow smashed the watcher’s lens and went straight into it’s machine brain. It collapsed on the spot.

The sudden death however, alerted the second watcher, and it walked over to it’s collapsed comrade. It looked around, but not up into Aloy’s direction.

“Damn, I can’t get a good shot.”

Paige got up, and drew her dagger. “I’ll bring it to you. Cover my back!”

With that, she slid down the ramp. She could get quite close to the second watcher before it noticed her. The already alerted machine had turned around before Paige could attack. To Aloy it seemed, Paige had anticipated the move and turned around. Jumping in zig-zags, she ran back towards the ramp. The watcher didn’t follow her. Instead Aloy heard the familiar humming the watchers weapons made when charging.

“Redeye!” She thought.

She took aim. Although she knew she had only a few seconds left, she took her time. Bringing the lens into the perfect target position, she exhaled slowly and drew her bow. Her mind was clear of everything when she reached her anchor and released the string. The arrow zipped towards the machine, and smashed it’s lens just as it was about to fire. Aloy held her breath and remained in her position, her drawing hand resting above her shoulder.

“Good shot!” Paige’s voice made time return to it’s normal pace.

“Since when are there redeyes here?” Aloy asked.

“Maybe you pissed off the cauldron’s AI by breaking into them, and stealing stuff.” Paige returned.

“Let’s hope there aren’t any more nasty surprises in here.” Aloy now slid down the ramp herself.

The lights were dim down here, and the two women carefully progressed through the shadows. By using her focus to predict its behaviour, Aloy could avoid contact with another watcher. They reached the conveyor belt undetected.

Paige started messing with the cables, which grew from the wall like vines. It took her a while, until she pulled up a small box from between the cables. It was wired into the mess of cables, and slightly glowing.

“What’s that?” Aloy asked.

“Network repeater.” Paige answered as if that would explain anything. “Scan it with your focus.”

Aloy activated the small device by her ear and looked at the box.

::: quoting JTAG-W maintenance interface.
Address: fd8b:f5a:7c6d:e519:67d4:42d0:bc64:1ca0
Connect? YES NO :::

Aloy had no idea what that meant, but usually the Focus would grant her access to information, not harm her. And she had found out that when things were to be dangerous, extra warnings would show up.

She selected YES.

In an instant, her field of vision filled with the shape of a giant tree. Although, unlike a tree, many of the branches were interconnected. At first she was a disappointed, because the focus didn’t give her control over the cauldron. She had visited facilities were she could operate everything just through her focus. But cauldrons are not made for human control. It took her a while until she realised that what she saw was a schematic of the network of cables and wires that connected every piece of the cauldron. If they followed the wires to their point of origin, it would lead them right into the heart of the cauldron. Where the machine parts she needed would be.

“I could have used that earlier.” She said to Paige.

“It’s a remnant of the ancient technology this is all based on. If need be, you could open these boxes up, and connect them with wires. The basis of this is a lot older than AIs, cauldrons and even the network technology itself.” Paige answered. “But without reading the manual, you cannot possibly know that.”

“What’s a manual?” Aloy asked, puzzled.

“That’s the same question the ancients would have asked.” Paige laughed. “Never mind.”

Although they had a full map now, that showed every single line that lead to the centre of the cauldron, getting there was far from easy. The cables would sometimes disappear into walls, and emerge on the other side, or run across deep ravines, with no bridges to pass. So the pair had to take several detours, and climb steep rock cliffs. Sometimes they had to remove metal panels, to open a way to the other side of a wall.

Finally, they reached the inner chamber, where the machines were finally assembled. Below it, was the central computer hub, the destination, because the memory stones were located, at least that was Aloy called them, the ancients surely had their own fancy name for them. But the ones inside Gaia were burned, and Aloy needed a lot of the green and black little bricks to replace the lost ones.

They had reached the edge of an overhang, that opened the view into the chamber. It was a circular chamber that was enclosed by a giant dome. The only way out was a platform lift, that lead back to the entrance gates of the cauldron. It was how new machines were released in the world above. Aloy knew this because she had found out a long time ago that, besides all the chaotic and organic structure of the cauldrons, their overall layout was the same. And it made sense too. This way, the cauldron needed only one gate, that could be used to transport damaged machines or raw materials into the top level, while serving as an exit for the finished machines. Given that they were build to be sealed in completely to stop the Faro-Plague from finding them, it seemed the best decision. Doors are always a weak point, so having as little of them as possible was preferable.

Now, the problem was, that between the computer core, and the platform that could take them outside, was a fully assembled Stormbird, sitting on the platform ready to be activated.

It would be activated inside the cauldron, once the AI spotted the intruders. And then, Aloy thought, the four watchers, patrolling around the sleeping giant, were the least of their problems. Of course they could wait until the Stormbird was released, but then the platform would be occupied by whatever creature the cauldron thought the world would need next. And in Aloys experience it would be even worse than the Stormbird. A Thunderjaw maybe.

While Aloy was still pondering her options, Paige rummaged through her backpack. She produced a small metal contraption.

“Do you know how to use these?” She handed the device to Aloy.

It was the smallest rope caster Aloy had ever seen. Unlike her own rope casters, it’s shaft was made from metal instead of wood. And it was a lot smaller. Instead of a rope, it used a thin steel cable. Something that Aloy thought to be a little wasteful. The only people who were able to make steel cables were the Oseram, and even their steel was not of the quality than anything the ancients could produce. But in this case, the tiny rope caster was just what she needed.

“Impressive,” Aloy said and took the rope caster.

“You tie the Stormbird’s legs, while I take out those watchers.”

“Are you sure, you can get them? They are red eyes.”

Paige just nodded. Aloy looked for a place to anchor her abseiling hook.

With the hook in place, Paige was the first to get down to the factory floor. It was tricky timing to get down in the small time window, the watchers wouldn’t be able to see them coming down, but she made it down.

Aloy looked at the four watchers through her focus, and knew that getting down now meant she had to rely on Paige to keep the watchers busy for long enough for her to get to the floor and disable the Stormbird’s legs with the rope caster. If she took too long, the Stormbird would attack, and certainly kill the girl.

She sighed, and went after Paige.

Aloy could not see what Paige was doing, while she was gliding down the rope, but whatever it was, it seemed to work in keeping the watchers from looking up. She reached the ground safely, and –without looking what Paige was doing– headed for the Stormbird, which seemed to just wake up. It lifted it’s giant head and started spreading it’s wings. Aloy used the wings as cover, and made her way behind the monster. Out of reach of the creatures powerful beak, she prepared the rope caster, and fired a steel cable at the creatures legs. It tangled around the clawed feet, and before the creature could react, Aloy had bolted the other end of the cable into a crack in the ground, preventing the creature from getting airborne.

She fired a second rope around one of the giant wings, attempting to tie the machine to to the ground. She could here the roaring of the engines underneath the wing, as the creature tried to break free.

She aimed for the other wing, when she heard the hissing sound of a red-eyed-watcher’s weapon charging to her right. Instinctively, she let go of the rope caster and rolled to the side.

The hot bolt of plasma missed her by inches only. In one swift motion, she got back to her feet, picked up her bow, and pulled an arrow from the quiver at her side. Almost as if in trance, she stepped to the side, drew her bow and fired the arrow into the single giant eye of the watcher, who had just begun to charge another bolt. Electric sparks flew, as the watcher collapsed.

" Watch out, 10 o’clock!" Paige shouted.

Aloy had no idea what that meant, but instinctively turned left just in time to see the Stormbird turn towards her. It still tied to the ground, but the missing third rope gave it enough room to turn it’s head around. Aloy jumped to the side, but wasn’t fast enough. She escaped the beak, but the side of the giant creature’s head hit her hard enough to send her flying. Years of experience had taught her how to dampen her fall. It still hurt, but she was sure nothing was broken.

“Didn’t you say, you’d take care of the watchers?” She shouted over the hissing of the Stormbird.

“Sorry, I thought I had that one’s attention. They were hardier than I thought.”

Aloy didn’t lose any more time. Instead she pulled out tear-arrow, and fired at the creatures lighting gun. That got it’s attention. She could feel the static as the gun, although slightly damaged now, charged.

“Grab the rope caster and tie down it’s wing!” She shouted towards Paige, while she kept firing arrows at the creatures beak. In it’s tied down state, the ability to throw lightning bolts was the creatures most dangerous ability. At least if you didn’t get too close.

She could see Paige dive behind the machine to retrieve the rope caster.

“Watch out!” She cried, when the beasts tail swung around, crackling with electrical charge. Paige was flung across the room and let out a loud moan, as her body crashed into the wall. She fell to the ground motionless.

At this moment, Aloy was pretty sure she was dead, but she was too busy not dying herself, to think about it. She jumped to the side, evading the lightning bolt the beast spat at her. It missed, but the thunderclap was so deafening, that Aloy’s ears rang. On her feet again, she aimed, and fired another arrow at the creatures beak, just to dive out of the range of it’s lightning gun once more.

Suddenly, the beasts remaining free wing was pulled down, and Aloy could see Paige lying flat on her belly, frantically trying to fix the steel cable with it’s hook in the cracked floor before the creature could free it’s wing again.

The beast reacted by pulling up the wing, and attempting to turn towards Paige. Aloy reacted immediately. She dropped her bow, and instead pulled the spear, that she carried tied to her back. In mêlée combat against a Stormbird it was useless, but she was not aiming for an attack.

While the creature turned it’s flank towards her, she slid towards it, and pushed the metal cylinder on top the spear into a small hole in the beasts side. Her focus showed a glowing ring around the hole, which slowly turned blue, too slowly for Aloy’s taste.

The beast’s wing beat down, and Aloy got hit in the head, but she managed to keep the spear in place, and finally, the ring was all filled with blue light, and the creature stopped attacking and calmed down.

Aloy allowed herself a moment to hold her head and moan, then she patted the Stormbird’s side.

“See, it’s not that bad.” She told the beast.

Then she turned around to see how Paige was doing.

The girl was sitting on the ground, the rope caster still in hand. Aloy could see that she was covered in machine oil, but she wasn’t bleeding.

“Are you alright?” She asked.

“Did you just hack a Stormbird?” Paige asked, instead of answering the question.

“No idea what that means, but I know how to override machines. The large ones are harder, and they tend to restart after a while, so we don’t have much time.” Aloy relpied. “So, are you alright?”

“Yes, don’t worry about me. If we only have a moment, make use of it, and grab what you need, before this beast turns Mr. Hyde on us again.”

Aloy nodded, and stepped toward the Stormbird.

“I need you to move, and let me access the core.” She told it.

As if it understood her, the creature stepped aside, and rested it’s giant head on the floor beside the room’s wall.

Aloy used the sharp end of her spear to open a hatch and slipped inside the computer core, that was just below the mechanics of the platform lift. There were no defences here, no weapons, no watchers. Just a small room, big enough for a maintenance machine to access it for repairs. It was quite small for a human, but large enough that Aloy could crawl inside, and begin dismantling it.

She had learned enough about the structure of the AI system to know which parts she needed, even if she still had no clue how they actually worked.

The damage to the cauldron was minimal. Even though she robbed it of it’s master brain, effectively disabling it, she knew from experience, that this complex system had an astounding ability of repairing itself. Within days whatever machines repaired the cauldron would have replaced all the parts Aloy took. Repeated visits to cauldrons she had previously disabled had shown her, that it only stopped them from a while. Elisabet Sobek had created a truly resilient system, that was able to recover even from being robbed of it’s brain after thousands of years.

When she emerged again, Paige had gotten back up to her feet, and was operating a column which –Aloy knew– could be used to move the platform upwards. She looked a bit shaken, but she was determined. Aloy collected her gear, and stepped to the Paige’s side. But the girl was already done with overriding the platform.

The platform began moving upward, and the Stormbird stirred a bit, but lay still. The readings in the focus were still glowing blue, so the beast was tame. Once more, Aloy marvelled at the elegance and beauty of the machine. Even though she knew much more about what the machines were, and how they worked, their aura of myth and magic never went away. They served a clear purpose, and even with all the knowledge she had gathered, Aloy could not entirely understand them. The Nora saw them as gods and guardians, and in some way, this was true. GAIA, the AI that had designed and created them, had long since evolved past even the superior intellect of her creator, and thus had become a goddess in the true sense of the word: A being of unfathomable intelligence, that had created life out of death. Only that the goddess herself had been the product of human imagination. But wasn’t that the nature of a god?

When the platform reached the top level, she turned to the giant machine, putting her hand on it’s beak. The machine stared back through mechanical eyes.

“Wait here, until you’re ready.” She whispered. “You have an important task to do.”

The creature laid it’s head back down and kept looking at her. But as the two women left the cauldron, it did not follow them.

Aloy took her attention to Paige.

“You’re limping.” She observed. “Did you break anything?”

“I told you, I’m fine!” Paige replied in a mixture of defensiveness and aggression.

“Hey, I’m just concerned.” Aloy raised her arms in defence.

Then she pointed to a small path that led up the mountains surrounding the entrance to the cauldron.

“There’s a small cave up there.” She said. “A good place for a camp. It’s getting dark soon.”

Paige nodded and followed her, but didn’t say anything.

Not long after their climb began, Paige began to fall behind. She moved slower and slower, although she did her best to keep up. She dragged her right leg behind, although her face didn’t show the pain she must be in.

Aloy stopped and raised her hand. “Stop!”

“Did you hear something?”

“No, but we can’t keep climbing like that. The slope gets steeper higher up, and you can hardly walk any more.”

“I told you, I’m…”

“You’re not, you’re hurt, and we’re going to see to your wounds.” Aloy’s tone made it clear, that she was not willing to discuss the matter any further.

“We need to get higher up, at night this place will be crawling with machines.” Paige argued.

“I’ll carry you up that mountain, if I have to.” Aloy returned. “But it’s not of much use, if you’re dead when we reach the top.”

With that, she turned to Paige, and pulled her hands away from covering her leg. Then she stumbled back.

The leg was covered with machine oil, both dried and fresh. The leg of her trousers had been torn and the flesh underneath ripped open. Below that, Aloy could see the source of the machine oil. The blue liquid was dripping from a torn tube, that connected artificial muscles, which looked identical to those she knew from the Chargers and Broadheads she had repaired before.

For a moment she simply stared at the girl.

“You’re…, you’re a machine.” She muttered.

For a moment, Paige looked, as if she was going to cry.

“I’m sorry.” She said quietly.

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