Horizon: Project Eden

 {A/N: I'm back, I felt like replaying the Horizon games before continuing this story so I did. I'll be changing the upload schedule for this story to once every two days but it may not stick to that as I have University soon.

Anyway other than this upload schedule I'll upload any extra chapters I write to my patreon at patreon.com/TheFudgeNPC check it out if you want. Thanks for reading my story though and I hope you like it, I'll try not to let down the epic story I'm basing it off of.}

1st Pov

Stepping into an ancient ruin the old metal groans beneath my metallic feet, clearing some rubble I detect some faint traces of people moving deeper into the ruins. Following the tracks I quickly run over the information I have about this place.

Known to the tribal inhabitants surrounding the area as The Grave Hoard this ancient military facility has the remains of a long finished battle scattered around, what truly got my interest though was the focus signals pinging out of here towards Hades' network.

Up to this point just over a week had passed as I travelled the region regaining control of the terraforming system, my efforts were greatly hindered though by the rouge Ai's as Hades constantly corrupted most of the machines I wasn't actively monitoring, and Hephaestus was physically cutting off any cauldrons I was able to reclaim.

The only good thing to happen in this week was for my human companions, working out of the ruins of the Gaia Prime facility Sylens had shown to be an even greater scientist than I initially thought. The man was a genius in every sense of the word, even before the end of all life Sylens would have been among the smartest people in the world.

Now with full access to the Apollo database and custom lesson plans made by me he was truly shining, already he had come up with some minor improvements to the more basic of the technologies I'd introduced him too.

Aloy wasn't falling behind either and took to her lessons better than a fish in water, even with her horrible prior education she was rapidly progressing. She was actually making so much progress with her lessons that if she didn't spend most of her days working on improving relations with the surrounding tribes, she would be on track for learning more than Elisabet.

Quickly pinging off the tall necks in the region I use them as a wireless network to connect with Aloy's wyvern over near the grand canyon. Currently Aloy was in a city called meridian, in all respects it was a very nice place if a bit primitive.

Looking in her wyvern I can only sigh in slight disappointment, it seems both my companions are absolute hoarders, Sylens up at the Gaia Prime facility at least organises his hoard, Aloy though has completely filled the storage and passenger areas of her wyvern with miscellaneous plants and machine parts she picked up in her travels.

Turning back to the present I delve deeper into the ruins of the U.S robot command facility, passing fossilised and still barely functioning tanks I slice deeper into the facility while tracking the footsteps. Around me I can hear the sound of metal groaning and wires sparking whilst ahead of me I hear yelling and sounds of machinery.

Thoughts turning grim I pick up the pace and slice through more of the frozen Corruptors blocking the passage deeper into the facility. Scanning files as I progress deeper I find one with mother, pausing I watch as the ancient holographic display comes to life and an old recording plays.

Hearing a particularly loud groan of metal I shake off my sentimentality and move deeper, saving one particular recording for the future I tear down all doors in my way. Finally, I reach my destination, opening a still slightly functional door I'm confronted with the worst possible scenario.

Streaming in through a massive hole in the roof, sunlight illuminates the small section of the ancient Horus robot actually within the facility. Around the ancient war machine cultist scamper like ants as machines slowly fall from the larger machine, worst of all though is the toxic green lights indicating the Horus is activated.

Taking a second I begin to readjust my plans, this confirms Hades is reactivating the Horus robots, if he has cultist out here I'm certain he has some working on the closer machines. Finished calibrating my plans I activate my retroreflective configuration for my shields and now invisible I slip inside.

Tagging all the cultists and machines I perform a quick scan of the room, identifying a stockpile of heavy munitions I begin calculating. Picking up a small rock I gently toss it from the elevated platform I'm on down into the large chamber, bouncing off a piece of rubble it tumbles into the munitions.

Hearing a noise one of the cultist wearing a few blaze canisters on his back goes to investigate, bending down the cultist reaches underneath the large stack of explosives. Seeing my opportunity I silently fire off a tiny electrical shot, hitting the blaze canisters on the mans back it instantly detonates.

Expanding outwards the munitions pile briefly disappear into the fireball created by the blaze before a fraction of a second later the munitions detonate. Rocketing out the explosion engulfs the entire room, instantly almost all the cultist are killed and most of the machines go offline.

Unfortunately, a few of the Corruptors, all the Deathbringers, and the Horus survive the explosion. Instantly the walkway I'm on is engulfed in machine gun fire, flipping off the platform my strong limbs propel my invisible form straight over the surrounding machines.

Landing silently, I instantly slice straight through the first Deathbringer and into its core, continuing my rapid movements there is only two Deathbringers left when they finally notice. Locking onto the tiny amount of waste energy I passively vent they begin to fire off their missiles.

Dodging the explosive barrage, I spring on top of one of the large war machines, reaching down I tear open the machine with my right hand while firing off a lightning ball with my left. Using the force of the explosion I flip like a gymnast over the top of the final machine, grabbing the side of it as I fall I use it as a pivot point to slide under the machine.

Keeping my momentum I effortlessly slide beneath the machine, stabbing my tail up into its core I quickly vent all my excess heat. This in turn causes flames to spew form every hole on the machine as it shuts down, using my arms I push myself out from under the machine and onto my feet.

Now with only one machine left I look up, above me heat begins to radiate from the malfunctioning machine as it boots up fully. Then with a ear piercing noise the ancient Horus begins to move, ice cracks and falls away as its few functioning tendrils begin activating.

Metal groans as ancient clasps open to release the broken tendrils, dodging a block of falling ice I activate my thrusters. Hovering off the ground I fly out of the rapidly collapsing facility, getting a good enough distance I stop in place.

Down below me the mountain moves as the colossal machine comes to life, all around rocks tumble and trees fall as the long dormant machines tears itself from its tomb. Scanning the mountain area below I confirm there is no sentient life in the area.

From my elevated position I begin charging my lightning gun while performing a scan of the machine. From my scans it seems the biomass converters on this Horus were one of the first things to give out which causes me to feel a surge of relief.

Waiting a few more minutes the machine finally frees itself and stands, cooling rods pop out along the length of the machine as it begins its trek. Moving down the mountain I notice its weapons activating, and deciding I left it alone for long enough, fire my weapon.

Instantly the world goes quiet as a metre wide ball of pure energy coalesces in front of my outstretched hand, upping my shields for a instant to resist the violent conditions the ball begins to move. 

With a boom the previously stationary ball of energy begins to fly, covering the kilometre distant in just over two seconds the attack seems like a miniature sun. Then with a horrendous boom the ball makes impact with the ancient machine.

For a few microseconds, the ball seems to shake unstably as energy radiates off of it, then with a flash of light the ball instantly begins expanding like a ball of pure plasma. Melting easily through the ancient war machine's armour it continues its expansion till it reaches one hundred metres in diameter.

Then with a shudder it collapses into a pin prick before exploding outwards and levelling the surrounding area, waiting a few minutes the dust begins to settle and I make my way down. Flapping my wings violently I clear the rest of the dust from the crater.

Performing a scan confirms the worst, even with a full power attack I was only able to destroy this Horus because it was so damaged. Hovering over the molten crater I make my way to the remains of the machine.

Placing my palm on the surface I pulse a scan through it, waiting a few seconds the scan waves make its way back to me and I frown. Other than the parts incinerated by the actual attack the rest of the machine only got down to 33% structural integrity at the lowest including the damage gathered over the thousand years it remained dormant.

Internally I'm forced to praise the scientists at Faro Automated Solutions, they really knew how to make a tough machine. Continuing my scans I look for weaknesses in the design or parts, rubbing my forehead I realise again how these machines were able to destroy such an advanced civilisation.

Finished gathering enough data I begin to hover away from the wreckage, adjusting my course I blast into the air and towards the Gaia prime facility. Breaking the sound barrier a few times over it takes me a few minutes to arrive.

As I fly I adjust my shields to mitigate my sonic boom and eventually I begin to slow down on approach to the facility. Flying in slowly from above I watch the small convoys of machines making their way up the mountain to the facility, arriving above the facility I watch partially fascinated as it seems to move like wager.

In reality though the facility isn't moving and it's just all my ant bots flocking through the crater removing debris, as I hover down towards the slightly functioning part Sylens set his workshop up in I also go over the back log of transmissions from the few tens of thousands of ant bots.

Opening a door, I'm greeted to the sight of Sylens hard at work tinkering away at a circuit, passing by him silently I continue my review. Freezing I reach a report that truly draws my attention, confirming it with a few other ant bots I smile happily.

Speeding up my walk I quickly exit the opposite side of the small workshop area and drop into the crater, weaving through half cleared piles of rubble I eventually come upon what I was looking for. There before me is a still intact door with a pile of ants rapidly removing the rubble.

Signalling the ants they clear away and work on another pile of debris, approaching the door I attempt to open it but unfortunately the power to this part of the facility is gone and the door is broken. Sighing I gently pierce the surface layer of the door, then with as much care as I can muster I open the door.

Groaning slightly the door opens mostly unharmed, stepping inside I begin weaving through ancient corridors deeper into the facility. As I walk I scan each room around me, other than labs I don't yet find anything interesting.

Finally, though I find what caught my interest, standing in front of a depowered door I wait a few seconds. As I wait a mechanical rustling sound can be heard slowly getting louder behind me till a swarm of ant bots enter my vision, above the ants a fresh power cell is carried along.

Moving closer to the door I pop off a hidden panel and reach into the wires within, extending my cables they intertwine with the wires within. Then for the final step I grab the power cell as my cables disconnect from me and connect to the energy device.

Hearing a slow hum the door flickers slightly before lighting up, hopping excitedly I open the door. Stepping through the door shuts behind me as the air drains from the airlock and a second door in front of me opens.

Stepping out of the airlock I activate my infrared vision and look around the lightless room, smiling widely I approach the closest interface to the massive data storage centre. Cycling through the data I find a large amount of Gaia's memories.

It seems my initial assumption was right, this room was the original data centre used by Gaia to back up her memories. It was surprisingly archaic though and hadn't been updated for slightly over two centuries meaning the memories were way out of date and fragile.

Still, I smile widely because I wouldn't have to bring my sister back memory less. Sending out a signal I connect to my nearby bot network, sifting through the nearby robots I quickly find what I'm looking for.

Sending out a priority signal to the bee bots I order them to instantly begin reconfiguring these older labs into better hard drives, I didn't want to take any chances with this and would make another copy of Gaia's memories because these current hard drives look like they'll turn to dust if exposed to the slightest breeze.

They probably would though because this place is airlocked, shrugging it off I exit the room with a large grin across my draconic face. Flying up out of the crater I move back to Sylens workshop just to watch him for a bit.

After a few hours of watching him work the sun is starting to go down when I feel Aloy trying to urgently contact me. Connecting to her focus I scan the surroundings before accepting her call, around her I notice she seems to be in a basement and there is a dying woman nearby.

"Edith please help me; my friend's sister is dying is there any way I can save her?!?" – Aloy

Sounding desperate Aloy pleads for help, on the other side of the call I allocate a bit more power for analysing the situation. Scanning through the recent recordings from her focus I piece together the situation.

It seems Aloy met up with a Oseram named Erend in Meridian, Erend seems to be the current captain of the cities guards after the supposed murder of his sister. After begging Aloy she agreed to help him investigate the ambush site with her focus in order to put his concerns to rest.

After a brief investigation Aloy discovered the one dead likely wasn't Erend's sister and was likely someone else. After a bit of sleuthing Aloy and Erend had found the camp of his sister's attacker and launched assault.

After fighting through the bloodthirsty Oserams guarding it she had made it to the leaders basement and found Erend's sister critically injured by a sound based weapon. Finished my analysis I conclude a plan and contact Aloy.

"I can help but you can't let her see her brother, it may cause her to relax and could lead to her death. From the profile I made of her I concluded if she's still alive after all this time she's probably holding on to see her brother, don't let her she her brother, keep her fighting.

What I want you to do now is quickly pick her up with one arm under her shoulders and one under her legs, don't talk to her, don't give her any reason to relax yet and keep her adrenaline running. Once you've picked her up I want you to quickly carry her up the stairs.

I've ordered your wyvern to land and have primed it's emergency healing pod, you need to put her in it." – Edith

Nodding Aloy quickly carries out my instructions, rushing up the stairs she carries the wounded warrior into the light. Seeing Erend she quickly steers around him and runs towards the descending wyvern, landing a small panel barely large enough to fit a human opens on its belly.

Placing Erend's sister into the emergency pod it folds up instantly hiding her from sight, watching this from Aloy's focus I begin activating the medical equipment and stabilising the woman. Outside she nervously watches as the large machine begins to pulse with energy.