Aaron Herres

"The lesson will be taught in due time, Aloy. Until then, we wait." This article contains heavy spoilers. Read ahead with caution.

Aaron Herres
General Information
Culture	Old Ones
Gender	Male
Affiliation(s)	Operation: Enduring Victory Project Zero Dawn U.S. Robot Command
Position	Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff
Relatives
Family Members	Jane
Production
Portrayed by	Keith Somers (model) Toby Longworth (voice)

Aaron Herres was an American Lieutenant General, which can be seen from the number of stars on his shoulder boards. As shown in the recordings that can be seen, he was addressed as General -- his full rank would not have been mentioned except on very formal occassions, which was correct protocol. He served as the Chairman of the United States' Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJC) and the commanding officer of U.S. Robot Command during the mid-21st century, in which capacity he would certainly have been called CINCROBCOM. The breast badge on his unform doesn’t match any known real badge. It appears to be a futuristic version of a parachute qualification badge, an astronaut qualification badge, or perhaps a badge for those qualified to descend from space by drop capsule. He was the final person to ever hold this rank and these positions, as the United States and every other country in the world were subsequently obliterated and their people consumed by the Faro Plague. Briefed by the engineer and roboticist Dr. Elisabet Sobeck as to the existential threat to all life on Earth the Faro Plague posed, and the absolute impossibility of stopping it before it eradicated all life, Herres spearheaded an offensive dubbed Operation: Enduring Victory to provide time for the implementation of Zero Dawn, which prevented life’s permanent extermination.

History

Background

General Aaron Herres as seen in Horizon Zero Dawn.

Herres became the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff in the year 2060. He was a shrewd senior military officer who was well versed in the relationship between U.S. politics and senior administrative military rank.

Sensing the change from human forces to mechanized, autonomous robotic forces that was poised to sweep through the United States military, Herres did not resist it; indeed, he embraced and advocated for it. His appointment as U.S.J.C.S. Chairman and head of U.S.R.C. made him the commander of the largest mechanized force in the history of the world.

The Faro Plague

However, Herres ended up bitterly regretting his embrace of the complete automation of the U.S. military. When he learned of the Faro Plague and how hopeless it was to stop in a meeting with Elisabet Sobeck and the other joint chiefs, he decisively overrode any objections to Sobeck’s coldly logical, yet necessary plan to grant Zero Dawn adequate time to be completed and implemented. The plan entailed having the doomed global human populace sacrifice itself in a futile effort to stop the swarm, in order to slow its advance. Herres personally undertook the task of starting and propagating a campaign of lies to the world’s civilians and human military forces being assembled against the Faro Plague, known as Operation: Enduring Victory. This campaign propagated the falsehood that Zero Dawn was a superweapon that would ultimately destroy the robots, if only their advancement was slowed enough for it to be completed. Furthermore, he provided Sobeck with a staging area for Zero Dawn, and oversaw the recuitment, or in some cases, abduction, of the most brilliant scientists in the world from their respective countries of residence according to a list Sobeck had drawn up, to be brought to the facility, told of the true nature of Zero Dawn, and offered the opportunity to work on the project. He himself recorded a holographic presentation for the prospective candidates, which was shown to them on their arrival. One of the projects under his purview during Enduring Victory was the development of a set of body armor that utilized a protective energy shield.

As the Faro Plague began advancing on U.S.R.C. Headquarters, Herres recorded a testimonial, which he intended to be heard by anyone in the future using APOLLO to research him or Enduring Victory. In this testimonial, he took full responsibility for the millions of civilians and military personnel worldwide who sacrificed themselves as part of Enduring Victory solely due to the lies he had leaked to the world about Zero Dawn. Though the global population had certainly been doomed and therefore its sacrifice at least served a vital purpose, he was anguished over his part in it, and moreover, for being one of the champions of the culture of military automation that encouraged technology developments such as what became the Faro Plague. Finally, he gave a heartfelt apology to the people of the new world, and expressed a devout hope that this new world would have no need for men such as him. On January 15th, 2066, he asked Sobeck to archive the testimonial within APOLLO and that it be cross referenced with any mention of him or Enduring Victory. However, by the time it was received, APOLLO’s data stacks had been closed, thus it was unable to be archived, so it was left in the Zero Dawn Project Facility.

Death

What happened to Herres after his final meeting with Sobeck on January 15th, 2066 is unknown. The terminal containing his final conversation with Sobeck is close to an unidentified body, possibly his left behind after suicide.

Trivia

• As with several other names in the game, Aaron Herres appears to be a reference to the real world, both past and present.
  • General Robert Tralles Herres was the USA's first Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and he was born in Denver, Colorado, a location which figures prominently in the game's landscape.
  • Given the developers' propensity for choosing names very deliberately, it is further likely that his given name is a reference to Aaron in the Old Testament of the Bible, who was brother to Moses and husband to Elisheva.