Just under a week later, Fred Farrows and Andre Simons, Maddison Jacobs and Sasha Gershwin gazed at the storyboard display in the CEO’s office. Simons was reclined in his chair in a position of superiority while Farrows leaned forward, his blue eyes hungrily consuming the story as Ally explained it while Karl moved the images, which he’d created to follow the plot, on.
“Aloy farewells everyone on the platform of the Zenith base, giving Seyka a passionate kiss before she boards the rocket and heads to the Odyssey,” Ally explained as she read from her tablet, “those who remain realise that Aloy has used her Alpha authority to override Gaia’s transparency protocol and disguised the true chance of her survival re-entry in the pod. Without any way to reach the Odyssey, they have no way of helping her or changing her decision. When Aloy reaches the Odyssey, she enters what I am calling Tilda’s house of horrors,” Karl’s artwork showed Aloy navigating a purple hell, “with voices of her past calling out to her and datapoints spread throughout the ship to assemble Tilda’s final thoughts about Elisabet and how she stole her genome. Aloy plants the mines through the Odyssey which is, of course, quest imperative.”
“Naturally.” Farrows nodded.
The images shifted and Ally continued her narrative. “Sylens, possessed by Tilda’s consciousnesses, ambushes her and chases her through the Odyssey, pinning her down and attempting to rape her…” She heard her audience breathe in sharply. “Aloy manages to escape by kneeing Sylens,” Ally looked at Simons at that moment, “in his…”
“I get it.” Simons said darkly, letting slip that he had, indeed, realised who Sylens had been based upon.
“Which triggers consciousness through pain and Sylens begs Aloy to kill him, giving her back her FOCUS which he took from her earlier. When she hesitates, he impales himself on her spear and she runs, thinking he is dead.”
“But consciousnesses can move almost dead bodies to do their will.” Farrows chuckled.
“Sylens gives chase but Aloy enters the bridge and locks the door. She sets the self destruct, thinking she didn’t set enough mines to destroy the Odyssey and when Nemesis arrives, she activates it and gets into the escape pod.”
“And…” Farrows urged excitedly.
“Because Nemesis possesses the Odyssey, it can release the bridge lockout and Sylens enters, spear in hand and breaks the glass of the hatch. The release mechanism is disabled and the self destruct is aborted. With no other option Aloy opens her FOCUS just as Sylens impales her on her own spear. She slumps forward and he steps back, thinking she’s dead but she opens her eyes and triggers the mine explosion.”
Karl’s artwork showed the Odyssey exploding in space, purple, gold and white tearing out of its sleek design, shattering the ship against a starry backdrop.
Ally swiped to change pages.
“The explosion is seen by those on earth and Gaia is able to report that Aloy did not make it off the Odyssey. Months later we see Beta handling new recruits with Zo, Alva and Seyka’s help, Erend and Kotallo training them to go out into the field to reach tribes that live in the vicinity of a cradle and educate them on their past and how to utilise the technology. When asked about Aloy, Beta doesn’t know what to say. Alva and Seyka tell her that eventually, Beta is going to have to start telling everyone the truth that she was killed.” Ally looked up from her tablet. “The end rolls with trained up missionaries, so to speak, heading out across the world to the far corners so that the future Aloy died for can be realised. The end.”
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Farrow let out an exclamation and clapped his hands. “That’s perfect! Exactly as I envisioned it!” He turned to Simons. “Don’t you agree that this answers all questions posed by the focus groups?”
“While it does, is it needlessly brutal?” Simons asked, standing up. “I’m speaking about the attempted rape scene. Is that necessary?”
“The problem with Nemesis is that it lacked a physical form when Aloy was onboard the Odyssey,” Ally explained, “Tilda’s consciousness possessing Sylens gives more background to Elisabet that Horizon Nemesis was missing prior to this moment and answers the question as to how the Zeniths ended up with a viable genome from Elisabet. It revisits a previous enemy, one who is completely out of lustful control for Aloy but also puts Sylens back into the fray.”
“It’s dramatic and violent, climatic and concludes the game brilliantly.” Farrows gushed then turned to Sasha. “I can see a spinoff game or series with Seyka as the protagonist.”
“I’m not going to say no to that,” Sasha beamed then looked at Maddison sorrowfully, “commiserations on your death though…”
“I knew my time with the Horizon series was coming to an end…” Maddison admitted bravely.
“Commando looks after its people,” Farrows promised, “we’ll have memories in Seyka’s spinoff with Aloy in them, possibly wrestling with moving on from Aloy with a new love interest and we do intend to produce a DLC for Nemesis. We could even have consciousnesses of Zeniths that broke from Nemesis and hid on earth to continue the threat of infested machines…the possibilities are endless with a successful conclusion to Horizon Nemesis.”
“And just in time for the press conference.” Simons cleared his throat. “Shall we?”
Fred Farrows stood up, patting Karl on the arm. “Excellent artwork as usual. I’ll have Ava set up a meeting between yourself and our publications team about a hardback copy of ‘The Art of Horizon Nemesis’.
“Thank you, sir.” Karl stepped back as Maddison and Sasha followed Farrows out of the room as he continued to gush, spouting ideas about spinoff games, Ava racing after him, taking notes.
Ally closed the cover on her tablet as Karl shut down the storyboard display.
“It’s amazing what you can do if you put your mind to it.” Andre Simons said in a condescending tone and Ally looked at him, quietly calm. He took his phone out of his pocket and made some notations. “You will receive a final wage from Commando as well as a bonus for completely the Nemesis story plot.”
“Wait,” Karl looked up, “you’re firing Ally?”
“Not at all,” Simons said airily, “it is simply the conclusion of her creative contract.”
“But what about the DLCs? The other games?”
“Those will be handled by our focus group writing team.” Simons answered as he walked out of the room. “From all of us at Commando, good luck on your future endeavours.”
Karl gaped at his back and turned to Ally who picked up her satchel and tucked her tablet inside.
“I’m so sorry Ally! I had no idea they’d fire you once this was finished.”
“Simons was right,” Ally said quietly, “I wasn’t fired. It’s the end of my contract. The story is over. Aloy will die in glorious sacrifice and be a martyr of the new world.”
“But surely…”
“Take care of Jo, Samuel and yourself, Karl,” Ally held her hand out and shook his cold grasp, “and thank you for capturing so many extraordinary Aloy moments. You really brought her to life.”
Karl held on for a moment longer. “You’re the one who gave her life…I just put pictures to your words.”
Ally’s smile was small. She nodded, turned and walked out of the CEO office.