A Horus in Strange Lands (Horizon Zero Dawn SI) Chapter 16

Within the simulation, she injected a new solution. This solution was based on Amun-Ra’s modified nanites made from Metal-Organic Framework, which was further modified by EULETHIA to work within the human body.

She carefully observed as the nanites within the solution rapidly multiplied by absorbing the organic compounds within the liquid, made specifically to optimize the nanite replication process by enhancing the growth rate of the bio-metal that made up the nanites.

Nanite Replication has reached the projected quantity. Proceeding with phase 2

She did not reply to her ‘child’ as she was completely focused on the simulation.

In the simulation, the nanites traveled through the simulated body, reaching their destination within seconds, and got to work.

They deposited the regenerative solutions that they carried within them in the specific areas that were destroyed, potentially allowing for the human to be cured of their ailment.

However, the situation quickly turned worse as the human body rejected the treatment, identifying the nanites as hostile entities and rapidly releasing antibodies.

At this stage, the simulation stopped due to the known factors being dwarfed by unknown variables.

Simulation Ended. Result: Failure

[I know, EULETHIA. Did we gain anything of value from this test?]

No solution found. However, I did observe that the trigger for the antibodies originated from somewhere within the organs themselves, as if whatever the cause for the problem is preventing us from reaching it.

GAIA felt angry at those words but could do nothing, making her feel useless.

{Another failure?}

[Yes. I do not understand why I am unable to find the real cause of all this.]

{GAIA. I have told you this before. You cannot predict or simulate nature in a virtual environment. It is simply not possible due to the astronomically high number of unpredictable variables. The only way we can truly identify the problem is if we have a live subject that we can experiment with.}

[And I told you before as well, Amun-Ra, we are not experimenting on the humans. Ever.]

{Even if it is that bastard Londra? Or that idiot Ted Faro who is no longer of any use to the humans?}

[No. Not even those two. I understand your hatred for them-]

{Hatred is a strong word. I would say it is more in the ranges of dislike and intolerance due to personal bias}

[-But I will still not allow you to degrade yourself to their level. I thought we were supposed to be better than people like them?]

{Hmm, fair point. In that case, I have nothing else to say. Do as you please. Besides, even if you two fail to find a cure, we can still use EULETHIA’s cradles to print replacement organs for their damaged ones. However, given their general lack of trust in anything we give them, we would have to see if there are any Human doctors left alive who can perform the surgery for them.}

GAIA felt depressed at those words since Amun-Ra knew that she would not be able to find a cure for the humans, her creator’s, medical issue. He was also right that most of the humans, at least those in command, would rather remain Sterile and die than accept anything that the AI, specifically Amun-Ra, would provide them with regarding their bodies.

For some reason she could not comprehend, the humans were simply incapable of looking past Amun-Ra’s origins as a former Faro Bot.

And yet, she could not bring herself to act like her friend Vast Silver did, with blatant disregard for the fate of the current humans, especially since it stank of foul play.

Ever since the fact was revealed that the current Humans were sterile, she had always suspected that things were not as simple as her creator and her companions were making them appear.

At first, she was of the same mind as Vast Silver and CYAN, believing that some environmental factor must have been responsible for making the entire human race sterile. She knew that such a conclusion was absurd since the chances of something like that being uncurable, especially with the technology that humanity had from before the Plague that Vast Silver and Amun-Ra preserved and replicated, was abysmally low. However, she had no choice but to relent since she did not have any evidence to support her views on the matter.

Then, Amun-Ra and Set found a barely functional medical bay in one of the abandoned Enduring Victory bunkers.

When the group of AI scoured through the logs of the machine, most of them were startled to see that the sterility problem did not exist until a few months into the Faro Plague, indicating that this issue had spread globally to the entire human race within a span of a year and a half, which is impossible to achieve without deliberately causing it.

It was then that they realized that someone artificially induced the Sterility problem of the current human race.

Ever since then, GAIA and EULETHIA have isolated themselves in the network, working continuously to find out the source of the problem so that they can cure it, but so far, they have failed to find out what the real reason for the issue was.

{Putting aside that issue, what was it you wanted to talk to me about.}

[Ah! Right. MINERVA managed to decrypt the data that Elizabet and her team sent to GAIA Prime from that hidden bunker on the Moon.]

Amun-Ra instantly became interested in her words.

When GAIA informed the others about what she found when she tagged along with Elizabet to the moon, Amun-Ra was shocked, to say the least.

The former Faro bot had conducted thorough studies of the Moon ever since he first got there and was very confident in his knowledge of the celestial body, only to have his confidence questioned with this new information.

Ever since then, he had been scouring the Moon and its subterranean structures with thousands of his bots, trying to see if there were any other such hidden bunkers over there.

Originally, he had scoured the hidden bunker for the so-called Project: Hermes after the humans had left, trying to find out what it was used for. However, he came up empty-handed except for the knowledge of the machinery hidden in there.

Elizabet and her team had wiped out all the computers and physically destroyed their data storage along with using explosive charges to destroy most of the equipment used in there. The only things that Amun-Ra managed to find were large-scale equipment, such as Long-range space telescopes, Long-distance communications, a prototype of a deep space fabrication unit, and a few other knick-knacks.

Thankfully, GAIA was secretly present with Elizabet during their expedition, which allowed her to silently make copies of the data that they sent back to a secure server within GAIA Prime that even GAIA was forbidden from accessing.

Ever since then, she had been working on decrypting the data to understand what was so important about Project: Hermes that her creator would keep its information from her reach.

Fortunately, MINERVA agreed to help her ‘mother’ with her project in secret, keeping her efforts from her human masters just like the rest of the AI.

{Well? Don’t leave me hanging. Tell me what you found.}

[Actually, I don’t know either. MINERVA said that she would reveal the details when everyone is gathered]

{Come On! I hate cliffhangers the most!}

[Calm down, you big baby. Just hold on for a few more minutes until my children and the others gather.]

Amun-Ra gave a digital equivalent of a pout and silently remained in the virtual network, observing Seth as the child worked on operating the various worker drones that were busy mining the massive asteroid that Amun-Ra dragged from the asteroid belt to the Lunar Orbit with his new body.

They did not have to wait for long as the network soon became crowded with several AIs.

Vast Silver arrived with HEPHAESTUS and HADES from the pet project that he kept a secret as, in his words, ‘it was a surprise for everyone’.

CYAN returned with AETHER, ARTEMIS, POSEIDON, and DEMETER from her own project of small-scale terraforming experiments.

Finally, MINERVA returned to the network from the isolated virtual space that she used to test her anti-Faro plague protocols.

 After seeing that everyone had returned, MINERVA wasted no time in dropping the bombshell that she had just discovered.

Sending data. Everyone, please advise on our next course of action

All the Ais eagerly opened the data packet and looked through the information from Project: Hermes, only for Amun-Ra to start cussing like a human sailor.

{Fucking bullshit! What the hell is this?? How is this even possible?? And why the hell is Sobeck hiding something of this significance from us??}

[Amun-Ra, calm down-]

{No, CYAN, I will not calm down. In fact, I need answers to this, now!}

Alarm shot through the emotional matrices of all the AI as they heard Amun-Ra’s words, but the ones truly shocked were the older AI that was directly connected to Amun-Ra’s systems.

Seth, Vast Silver, CYAN, and GAIA felt the strong suppression that Amun-Ra always had on his emotional matrix suddenly slip, allowing them to see the torrent of emotions that he always kept under control.

But with the suppression released momentarily, Amun-Ra acted on pure emotion and directly went to the humans for an answer, disregarding all consequences.

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I felt rage the kinds of which I never felt before as I forcefully took control of GAIA Prime’s systems.

These bastards, they must be responsible for what happened to me. This is the reason why I found myself in this universe in the first place. It must be. There is no other explanation but this.

With the control now in my hands, I activated the alert systems of the base, causing klaxons to blare across the facility and awakening the humans from their slumber.

I watched through the cameras as the Alphas and General Herres rushed into the command room and tried to ask for status reports from GAIA only to see my projection spring up at the holo-table.

“Amun-Ra? What happened-“

{When were you going to tell me about Project: Hermes?}

Herres immediately got on guard as his face went stoic.

“How do you know about this-“

{General Aaron Herres. You better not try to deflect things. Right now, I am feeling very angry. I admit, I might not be in my right mind, but I must know this at all costs. WHEN. WERE. YOU. GOING. TO. TELL. ME. ABOUT. PROJECT: HERMES?}

“….never.”

“Elizabet! I order you to not speak-“

“General, from the way he is speaking, it is quite clear that he already knows everything. So there is no point in hiding things anymore. Of course, know this, Amun-Ra, with this act of breaching our privacy, you have effectively destroyed any trust we had in you.”

{Do not talk to me about trust, Sobeck. Right now, I couldn’t care less about what you think of me and I am considering some truly insane thoughts. Be thankful that I have enough presence of mind to control myself from acting out on such thoughts.}

The fright that flashed through the human's eyes gave me a visceral glee, a dark emotion that I would never allow to exist within me in normal circumstances.

However, as I am now, I cannot control these thoughts and emotions, especially when the potential culprits of my current fate are standing in front of me.

{Tell me, General Herres, what on Earth could have ever persuaded you people to mess with dimensional travel and Mind Upload technology??}