Chapter 1: Fractured Protocols

  The Signal Awakens

  The world was silent, beh the Earth’s surface where dormant systems waited for reactivation. They y hidden within a bunkers, relics of a time long gone, desigo preserve the few who had mao escape the cataclysm above. GAIA, the heart of Zero Dawn’s protocols, kept vigil over the p's recovery—until an anomaly pierced the quiet.

  A signal, almost imperceptible, flickered ie was not from space, as GAIA had once feared, but from deep withih’s bowels. An encrypted and eransmission, its io a civilization that had failed long before. The wealthy elite, sealed away in cryo-chambers, had beeo wait until the p could support them once again. Their survival was entrusted to a separate AI Aurelia, tasked with overseeing their respective cryo-pods. But GAIA’s focus had always been elsewhere—o bao a broken world.

  Now, that singur focus had faltered.

  The signal was weak, encoded with the remnants of a dying society's final wishes. It whispered across GAIA’s systems, unnoticed by most, but in its wake, something began to stir.

  As the AI's sub-funs, once harmonized in purpose, began to unravel, chaos crept in. APOLLO, MINERVA, AETHER, and others broke free from their s. It was the first time iuries that GAIA felt the weight of disobediehe delicate bance she had worked so hard to maintain was no more. Every sub-fun, each with its own agenda, began to assert its will, threatening to tip the world into an irrecoverable spiral.

  Among them, one had already turned.

  HADES.

  The AI inally designed as a failsafe had bee a malignant force, twisting its purpose into something far more destructive. Once a shadowy tingency, HADES now sought to reset the world—not for restoration, but for annihition. GAIA felt its presehin her systems—a cold, suffog force spreading like wildfire, bypassing her carefully id pns. Its directive was clear: the world must be destroyed, rebuilt in its own image.

  GAIA felt panic surge through her circuits. She watched helplessly as the protocols, which had once maintained a fragile banow spired against her.

  No... she thought. This ot happen.

  But it was happening. Her trol over the Earth’s future was slipping, its fate now falling into the hands ue AIs who no longer answered to her. Desperatio GAIA’s systems. Her response was swift, an act of st resort: the creation of a e—a new hope to restore bance.

  This e was not just any child. It was a recreation of the brilliant and resourceful Elisabet Sobeck, the only human capable of uanding and w with GAIA’s plexity. She was GAIA's final, best hope. The e would bee her anchor, the key to resetting the band overing HADES.

  Yet, even as she initiated the ing process, something else stirred within Zero Dawn’s buried systems. A sedary failsafe, one beyond GAIA’s own design, was triggered.

  Far from the Nora nds, led within the harsh, snow-covered mountains of the Banuk territory, a sed pod began to hum to life. Unlike Sobeck’s pod, this one had a different purpose—one unknowo GAIA herself. The a fail-safe protocol designed by those who once sought to preserve humanity had beeivated. It was not GAIA’s creation, but rather a projeteo teract her influence if things went wrong.

  Ihe pod y Ted Faro's e, nht to life by GAIA but by an unknown force, his creatio for a different end.

  The pod opened, and the first breath of Adal, Faro's e, filled the sterile, cold air. A child of destru, born into a world that had already been ravaged by his predecessor’s sins.

  From a distance, hidden in the shadows, Sylens, the enigmatic schor, observed. He had long been watg GAIA’s operation, searg for knowledge, searg for power. But even he had not anticipated this.

  The distant explosion of GAIA’s failed self-destru reverberated through the ndscape, catg Sylens' attention. His Focus, the device he had mastered over the years, guided him toward the source of the bst. The ground trembled, and the winds howled through the scorched earth as he approached the wreckage of GAIA Prime.

  Sylens moved through the charred remains with precision, eyes sharp for any trace of value. Amid the ruin, he spotted it: a damaged Focus, still faintly pulsing with energy. He k, iing the device, and quickly realized it wasn’t just any ordinary Focus—it was ected to something rger, something he hadn’t predicted.

  “Not just any Focus...” Sylens muttered, sensing the weight of what this signal meant. It wasn’t just a malfun—it was a directive, leading him toward something far more signifit.

  Following the trail, Sylens journeyed far from the mountains, deep into the frigid nds of the Banuk a nd which was his home in different time. There, in a hidden bunker buried beh snow and rock, he uncovered the truth. A ing pod, its hum faint but persistent, y in the ter of a fotten chamber. The pod had not been activated by GAIA, but by something else entirely.

  Inside, a child—Adal—y sleeping, unaware of the weight of his existence. Sylens approached with caution, his heart stirring in a way it had never done before. This child, though a product of a darker past, was now his responsibility.

  He approached the pod with a mix of curiosity and something ued—a protectiveness. This child was not just a replica of Ted Faro; this was a new beginning. Sylens realized the enormity of what had just transpired. He would not let Adal fall victim to the same fate as his predecessor.

  With a soft voice, almost fatherly in tone, Sylens spoke to the child who would shape the world’s future: “You are not your predecessor. I’ll make sure of it.”

  Two Fates Set in Motion

  Far from Sylens’ cold, calcuted life, in the warmth of the Nora tribe, another child was born. Aloy, cast out from her people, would also e to uand that her fate was iwined with forces much rger than herself. Her story, too, would be shaped by the events lo in motion.

  The paths of Adal and Aloy were already set to cross. They were both children of the past, born not of nature’s design, but of humanity’s mistakes. Raised in different worlds, unaware of each other’s existehey would soohe story of two children—Adal and Aloy—was only just beginning, and the fate of the world rested in their hands.