My name is Aloy.

I was born into an age of ignorance, primitive and isolated.

Humans clustered together in tribes, frightened of the ruins of a world we couldn’t possibly comprehend around us, deemed to be the remnants of those we called ‘the old ones’.

We didn’t know who they were.

We didn’t know what they had done.

Some thought their existence, wiped from the face of the earth, was punishment for their way of life and atrocities.

Others believed them to be the strength that kept safe the people of the earth.

In a way…they are both true.

A thousand years ago, a plague of robots consumed all life on the earth. Nothing was left. Not a strand of grass or burrowing creature, not man, woman or child…and the world that had once been teeming with life was rendered a void. A lifeless lump of rock.

But before all hope was extinguished, a woman called Elisabet Sobeck, envisioned a future where humanity could survive, hidden as a seed to be planted when the robot plague had been vanquished.

She gave that seed to an artificial intelligence called Gaia who, with her many subfunctions, could restore the earth, replant the seeds, rebirth the animals and finally, when it was ready, release humans born in artificial wombs into the world, imbued with the knowledge of their fallen forefathers and mothers and wise to know how to avoid making the same mistakes.

But it was not to be.

The knowledge was wiped when one man put his agenda before all others.

And the humans, ignorant of what had come before, began life as primitive beings ejected into a new world when the cradle facilities could no longer support them.

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Many perished.

Others formed tribes and for a time, though the knowledge was lost, humanity looked as though it would crawl out of the ashes of the fallen world. Though they didn’t know what their lives had cost, they lived as best they could.

But the selfishness of humans has a way of catching up with the present though it was buried in the past…across the expanse of space itself.

Humans, who thought themselves so superior that they called themselves ‘Zeniths’, escaped the extinction of all life on earth on a spaceship called the Odyssey. Though their flight was successful, they made it look as though the ship had exploded for they didn’t want anyone following them, such was their greed.

And it didn’t stop there.

They established a colony on another planet and, having obtained a type of deathless existence, they started dabbling in things they should never have touched…trying to become immortal. And in a terrible sense, they succeeded.

They uploaded their consciousnesses, trying to leave behind their fleshly human bodies and the experiment, though abandoned, festered for years before lashing out and killing most of them. Those that were not killed, fled on the Odyssey, heading back to earth to obtain a copy of Gaia who could help them rebuild on yet another planet.

But the consciousness, Nemesis, had other plans.

It possessed, not only the combined power of the Zenith’s brilliance but also, their selfishness, cruelty, greed and heartlessness.

Knowing what they would do, it sent a signal to earth to waken HADES, one of Gaia’s subfunctions that was designed to clean slate the earth should the seed fail to give Gaia another chance. Nemesis’ signal separated it from Gaia and it operated without her guidance and it did as it was programmed to do.

There was nothing any of the humans on the earth could do to stop it.

They didn’t even know their lives were under threat.

But Gaia, before sacrificing herself to slow HADES abilities, instructed a cradle facility to create just one more baby.

Me.

The clone of Elisabet Sobeck.

The only one who could open doors, master overrides and save the earth.

And, against the odds, I did it.

Against overwhelming ignorance, I found my way.

I defeated HADES and saved the earth and then, with other likeminded humans, we also killed the Zeniths who were going to grab the backup of Gaia and abandon us once again.

But Nemesis wasn’t content with that.

It set out right after the Odyssey and on the heels of the deaths of the Zeniths, it reached the earth.

There’s no reasoning with it.

No parlay or treaty to be made.

It’s here to kill us.

And I will not let that happen.

Not while there’s a breath left in my body or the will to go on.

I refuse to allow everything that was sacrificed to be lost.

And so, here I am, crossing the breadth of what used to be America to an ancient city called ‘New York’, armed to confront and disarm Nemesis…and I have already decided that if I need to die to do so, then I will do that too.