Automata dream that took place like...sometime in C/D route, but not leading to the endings? An alternate path.

So it starts out with finishing the scanner quest 4S gives you, blah blah blah. Then the next time you visit him, there's a machine stubby on the lower floor, looking normal and staying docile like the ones at the very start of the game, and it just keeps saying "He made us. He made us."

And 9S is like "huh that's fuckin weird, but w/e dumb machine. Don't care if you mean that in he created you or he forced you to do it or who he is, probably the forest king, so LATER" because woah, this door suddenly opens? And it's weird?

Thought this was the way to the forest king, but it's actually off to the side of that, so TIME TO EXPLOOOORE.

And so 9S goes along his way, gets attacked by...really weird...things? They aren't machines and they aren't animals, they're kind of weirdly gelatinous and...shadowy

He passes through a hall of that, then opens a door to a new area simply titled The City, and it kind of looks like the Copied City in that it has all these blocky towers reaching up to the sky, but they look like the black boxes instead and there's regular cracked roads on the ground

So he is about to explore that when ALL OF THE SUDDEN

(haven't said that in a while)

4S is calling for help, and 9S is half like UGH FIIINE and half THIS IS THE ONLY PERSON LEFT WHO IS NICE TO MEEEE

So he goes back and saves 4S from a horde of messed up machines just screaming HE MADE US HE MADE US HE MADE US, but for some reason the original stubby is still docile and not being attacked by the out of control ones?

Anyway, in his overzealous attempt to clear the area, 9S attacks 4S who freaks out and retaliates, but more machines show up and it goes into that cool final sequence thing

where 9S and A2 are switching off in the same battle, but it's with the scanner units

And it's a little more...QTE-like?

Like, 9S is using a spear and can launch 4S, who is using...it's a shield of this scraggly dragon head from the new dark souls iii dlc

He has that on one arm and the other is more like a beast claw

But it's like ffxv-style friendship combo attacks, I forget what those are called

Link strikes

So it calms down and they apologize for nearly killing each other that was weird ha ha and 9S is like WELL...NO OFFENSE BUT YOU'RE PRETTY USELESS ON YOUR OWN SINCE SCANNER UNITS AREN'T MADE FOR COMBAT

BUT I'VE BEEN IN TONS OF COMBAT, SO I CAN PROTECT YOU, JUST FOLLOW ME

And you get another companion! Yay!

And then it's the adventures of scanners in the city which has tons more allusions to the original nier, and I remember the feeling I got in my dream was that it was that very first area, in the prologue

Where nier is protecting yonah in the city

anyway I'm pretty sure the point is that I really like 4S for basically no reason and scanner units make me upset

And it improved combat for people who were bad at hacking because it would be an assisted hack in those attacks, and then for regular combat you had the link strikes to boost damage