"Um...hello, I guess."
Aloy nearly jumped at the voice coming out of her focus.
"Who is this?"
"The name's Idia. I'm Ortho's brother," he said quietly.
Aloy straight up froze.
"You're Ortho's brother? How come you've never contacted me before?"
"It's a long story. Besides, your father barely tolerated having Ortho around. He'd never understand about how a focus can be used to communicate long distance like this," said Idia.
"Where are you?"
"Too far away to be of any help, even if the glitch was dealt with. The only reason I'm even contacting you now is because Ortho asked about the corruption."
"I don't understand. If you've been around since the time of the Old Ones, why have you never come out before?"
"One, that mess Faro created made a massive backlog that took centuries to clear up," said Idia flatly. "And two, Faro has never actually shown up, and the last thing we need is for him to find out about this particular base."
"Wait...the ancient demon is still alive? How?"
"Your guess is as good as mine. Either way, he was dangerous enough to create that glitch and wipe out the place. Too dangerous for me to risk challenging, especially with Ortho."
Whatever Aloy thought of this...Idia, she could fully agree with the sentiment of not challenging a demon capable of corrupting machines, especially advanced ones. She wouldn't want to risk Ortho either.
"So what can you tell me about the corruption?"
"Whatever it is, it's pretty nasty. I had to isolate three of my special computers just to keep it from spreading through the rest of the system. And it's sentient. I think one of the subordinate functions of GAIA is behind this, and not one of the nicer ones."
"Subordinate functions?" said Aloy.
"Uh...think of a subordinate function like a special color thread in a piece of cloth. It's weaved in with all the other threads to make another material, but if something goes wrong the weave will come undone," said Idia.
"So you're saying that GAIA's...cloth...has become unraveled, and that one of the threads has become frayed to the point it's causing the whole thing to come undone?" said Aloy.
"Close enough," said Idia, with a note of relief in his voice.
Then again Aloy was Sobeck's child in a sense. It made sense for her to pick up on computers so fast, especially since Elisabet made GAIA from out of almost nothing in such a short time frame.
Idia had a great deal of respect for Elisabet and the other Alphas. He had made Ortho solo, they had made an entire AI complete with semi-sentient subroutines, while under threat from killer machines.
"Is there any way to fix it?" she asked.
"Not without finding which function has gone out of control," said Idia. "It's impossible to hack remotely."
"Great," said Aloy tiredly. Another dead end.
"On the plus side, I have been trying to pin down a different function, if only so Ortho can interact with you without relying on the focus."
"What do you mean?"
"One of the subroutines is responsible for creating and maintaining machines. If I can track that down, I can have it create a body for Ortho to walk around in properly. The ones I have here would take entirely too long and open up the base to possible detection. It's easier to make one from scratch on your end."
"Well at least I'll have something to look forward to. Did you know my tribe calls him 'The Companion'?" said Aloy amused.
"You're kidding," said Idia with glee. That was hilarious.
"The painting was a little off and missing some things, but it was mostly accurate. I would send a picture, but I have no idea how to do that."
"I can walk you through it, and give you the contact information for later. At least you're willing to learn how to use the machines, unlike the rest of your tribe."
Aloy felt a bit better, having Idia on her side. It was nice to have someone to actually talk to without having to dumb things down.
Ortho showed up a few hours later, looking very happy.
"Idia was really pleased that you didn't freak out over him talking to you. He's been really lonely, even with Azul-nii and the twins there."
"He seems nice enough," said Aloy.
~*~*~~*~*
The more she learned about the corruption, the more questions appeared. She took solace in the fact she wasn't alone, especially when she climbed the tower after hearing that strange, terrifying voice.
Ortho remained conspicuously quiet, but she couldn't blame him after that other voice had somehow hijacked her focus. That one, at least, sounded all too human.
Ortho let out a slight gasp when he saw the owner of the second voice.
Once this Sylens left, Aloy waited a bit before she looked for Ortho.
"So...what was that about?"
"I know of that man, vaguely. He's very driven, and not above hurting others to get what he wants," said Ortho. "If he knew we were in regular contact sooner, it wouldn't have ended well."
"So he can't be trusted."
"He has an agenda. What it is I've never figured out, but for now he seems to be on our side. He likes to keep things a little too close to his chest," said Ortho tiredly.
Aloy decided to change the subject.
"What do you think of that recording?"
"I know that at some point, Faro did something to cause a dangerous glitch that caused the machines he had created to no longer answer to human creators. As a result, they began increasing their numbers too quickly for the humans to deal with them, and a different solution had to be found," said Ortho. "That's why GAIA was made...she was the solution Elisabet came up with, considering they had less than two years before the entire world was a barren wasteland."
"Barren wasteland?" said Aloy, alarmed and confused.
"Faro designed the robots to run off biomass...it could use plants, animals, even humans as fuel to create new robots and keep their weapons stocked without end. They called the Faro Plague. Elisabet knew that there was no chance that humanity could overcome or turn the machines off, because the security on them was too high. So instead she focused on what would come after, and how to recover."
Aloy was fascinated as Ortho explained about Zero Dawn, and how Faro had killed the creators shortly after completion. Worse, he had deleted one of the subfunctions to hide what he had done to wipe out the planet out of his own arrogance.
"What happened to Elisabet?"
"There was a breech in the seal in the main facility. She sacrificed herself to fix it, because she didn't want to die hiding in the mountain. As far as I know, she went home."
"As far as you know?" said Aloy.
"Her soul came to rest in the Underworld, and the Alphas followed her less than a month or two after according to our records. Faro, however, has yet to show up."
"Your records?" said Aloy.
"It's complicated, and I promise to explain later. However Idia and I aren't the only remnants of the Old World, as you call it. Our base has at least a thousand people in storage asleep and waiting to be released once it was safe to do so."
"There are more Old Ones, alive?" she said in shock.
"When the plague hit, people scrambled to find safety. Our parents opened up our base since the robots couldn't find it, while others went deeper into the water to escape detection. Even Faro couldn't create machines capable of going into the deepest depths."
"So who is Hades?"
"If it's the same HADES that I'm thinking of, then it's the extinction protocol."
"Extinction protocol?"
"One of Zero Dawn's creators was highly pragmatic and knew that there was a chance that the terraforming GAIA was doing could go wrong. So if the attempt to restart life failed and was unable to sustain itself, HADES would reactivate the machines that wiped everything out and clean the slate for GAIA to restart the process all over again."
HADES was very surprised to meet Ortho and Idia...and their 'grandfather' was slightly less than amused upon meeting his namesake, figuratively speaking.
Not that Ortho would tell Aloy that just yet. She had enough on her plate resolving the mysteries behind the corruption, among other things.
For now, she had more work to do and not a lot of time to do it.
Midway through the journey back to Meridian, her focus lit up with a new caller. It was Idia.
"So...you've heard about Zero Dawn then."
"It was...illuminating," said Aloy.
"A damn headache is what it is," said Idia. "But I must give her credit...she did what almost no one else could have done. Especially those cowards from Far Zenith."
"Who?"
"A group of rich people who chose to abandon everyone else and left the planet, rather than use their resources to help fight," said Ortho. "Supposedly they died midflight to a new planet, but I don't buy it."
"So why contact me now?"
"Idia-nii is likely bored, and you're one of the few people who has the ability to keep up with him. Since everyone else is in stasis, he has no one besides me to talk to or play games with," said Ortho snickering. It really didn't help that when the world ended, Idia had all the time alone he could possibly want to pretty much beat every single game he had many times over.
"So any leads on how to give Ortho a proper body on my end?" asked Aloy.
"I'm having trouble pinning down the subroutine known as HEPHEASTUS. But I might be able to hack one of the Cauldrons remotely if you can get access to the core," said Idia.
"Cauldrons?" said Aloy.
"GAIA used special facilities called Cradles to kick start humanity and life. She use facilities called Cauldrons to create and maintain new machines to insure the terraforming process is maintained. After her destruction and the sudden derangement, the system is on the brink of collapse," said Idia.
"GAIA transferred as many of her protocols to me before she died, but the signal that caused it released the subroutines to fend for themselves. That's one of the main reasons why the machines became more violent...the subroutines were no longer connected to each other."
"Is there any way to fix it?"
"With the main program destroyed, we'd have to find a back-up and a facility capable of handling the processing power. In a pinch, I could walk you through how to upgrade a lesser facility if need be, but we still need a copy of the original source code," said Idia.
"We would also need to reclaim the subroutines, at least a fraction of them," said Ortho.
"One thing at a time. First we deal with HADES, and then we can focus on bringing GAIA back."
"I'm working on a temporary patch using the specs Ortho sent from the spear you've been using to override the machines. With any luck, he might be able to take over some of the machines using your spear as a conduit and give you some extra help in a fight," said Idia.
"Thanks. Be nice to have some reliable back-up."
"Just know that I'm also installing a program that will kick him out if the corruption even looks like it's about to take him over."
"I understand. I'd rather not have to worry about my closest friend being taken over by whatever is causing this mess," said Aloy, causing Ortho to beam at her. "Though I do wish we could take properly, face to face. It's bad enough I have Sylens hacking my focus."
"Sorry, force of habit," said Idia.
After a moment, she finally got to meet Ortho's mysterious brother.
Idia was extremely pale, with long blue hair that was held back in a messy ponytail. He had tired golden eyes, and sharp teeth. He was also wearing an odd outfit she had never seen before that had seen better days.
"Is this better?"
"I can see the family resemblance."
Aloy was glad she had some friends on her side...even ones as unusual as Idia and Ortho.
