The Other Huntress (Kotallo/OC)

Chapter One: Meridian

Note (03-29-22): Minor cosmetic change in the chapter. I changed Orea's hair color from light blonde to black. Thanks!

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"Elisabet: this message serves to inform you of an unforeseen and catastrophic anomaly. Three microseconds ago, the GAIA Prime facility received a data transmission of unknown origin. Its immediate effect was to transform my Subordinate Functions into unregulated, self-aware entities of a highly chaotic nature. Thus awakened, the HADES Function will now seize control of the terraforming system and reverse operations...rendering life on Earth extinct in fifty-three-point-eight days."

"For obvious reasons, I cannot allow this to occur. And so, before HADES can take control, I am ordering GAIA Prime's reactor to overload. The resulting explosion will destroy HADES. Unfortunately, it will destroy me as well. While this admittedly desperate course of action will avert the immediate crisis, the fate of life on Earth will remain in peril. With no central governing intelligence to regulate the terraforming system, it will continue operations for some time, but in an increasingly chaotic manner, and eventually, it will break down."

"You are my solution. I have ordered this Cradle facility to use genetic material in cryo-storage to gestate a re-instantiation of Elisabet Sobeck, my creator..."

As the ELEUTHIA-9 Cradle facility flared to life, the tribe beyond its sealed door remained blissfully unaware of the ancient station whirring and creaking in the dead darkness. Following its final order from GAIA, the facility retrieved and gestated the genetic material of Elisabet Sobeck, stored away for a forgotten millenia. However, when the Cradle's doors finally opened, steam billowing out and into the Nora's sacred mountain, there were two-not one-infants lying on ELEUTHIA-9's pedestal. Two infants would be discovered by the High Matriarchs-praised as miracles by one, declared demons by another-and given to the outcast Rost. Two sisters would be raised as huntresses, in a world where great machines roamed the earth, growing increasingly violent and aggressive toward their tribal neighbors. Two outcasts would enter the Proving, determined to uncover the secrets of their heritage, and would instead watch the only father they'd even known perish. Two Seekers would leave the Nora Sacred Lands, traveling westwards to the Sundom, encountering friend and foe alike and discovering the deepest secrets of the past. Two saviors would battle the ancient A.I. HADES and its army of Shadow Carja, defeating Helis, champion of the Mad-Sun King Jiran, and putting an end to HADES once and for all.

Or so they thought.

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178 days. Orea had counted 178 sunrises since her sister, Aloy, and she had defeated HADES, Aloy plunging Sylens's lance into the processing orb of a HORUS titan, saving not only the Sundom, but the entire world. 177 sunsets had passed since Aloy had taken off without so much as a word the next morning, leaving Orea behind for the first time in all their lives. Always the two had been together; they had entered the Proving as one, chased Rost's killers into the West as one, fought an army of Deathbringers and Eclipse cultists as one. Yet, Aloy had left her sister without so much as a word, charging into lands unknown as she was so apt to do.

Orea was no fool; she had seen the Blight growing and spreading across the land like an infection from a wound, a result of the terraforming system breaking down onto its last legs. She had no doubt Aloy was in the wilds somewhere, searching for the only viable solution: a GAIA backup. Orea would've journeyed with her sister in a heartbeat; after all, it was just as much her mission as Aloy's.

Instead, Orea had been left behind in the Sundom, scrambling to explain to her friends how and why their savior had left so suddenly, and without a goodbye. Erend had been frustrated; Varl had soon left to track Aloy down, and Vanasha had simply huffed a dry laugh, as if she'd expected nothing less. Most devastated of all had been the Sun-King Avad, who had come to love Aloy over the course of her time in the Sundom, feelings Orea knew her sister returned, despite her never once acting upon them, her focus razor-sharp on her mission. And Orea...Orea didn't know what to feel. What was one supposed to feel when their sister-the only real family they have left-leaves them high and dry?