Sarah Reilly

> *"This planet is truly the Elysium the Ancient Greeks sought."*
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Sarah Reilly was one of the two, leading scientists of the First Elysian Expedition, and is attributed the discovery and study of the Elysian Hydrae. After the Crisis of '55, Reilly's team fell prey to the assault of a pack of Hydrae, resulting in the death of the leading scientist and the unfurling of the Saran Brood. The Hydra that consumed and assimilated Reilly took upon her genetical structure, and as said genes intertwined with its own, great changes were brought to the makeup of the Hydra's brain, resulting in enhanced cognitive function, the first registered case of sentience and later on sapience. Thus did this Hydra become the first Saran, which, due to the prominence of human DNA now within it, began expressing a primitive level of emotions, such as anger, joy, loneliness, love and a deeply misunderstood longing for a blurred, alien past.

## Life

### Early Life:

The highlight of Reilly's childhood was the time she spent at her father's veterinary clinic. It was there that a young Sarah was exposed to the worlds of biology and zoology, both lighting in her the necessary passion to segue her studies into the domains pertaining to animal life. After graduating, Reilly lead research expeditions into the Earth's many untouched depths, but also across the neighbouring planets' crusts, in search for any sign of alien life. Despite Reilly's enthusiastic dedication, her team and herself were unable to detect any alien organisms. Reilly's temperament, however, had been observed by certain elements of the Solarian leadership, who deemed her an appropriate asset for Project: Elysium, alongside one Raphael Winter.

### Arrival on Elysium:

While the initial, wondrous feeling that was setting foot on Elysium waned, and Reilly's expedition soon found itself longing for a home now lightyears away, Reilly herself grew only further in enthusiasm. Elysium bore an alien fauna. An alien wildlife, neatly protected by overarching alien trees and a carpet of alien grass. For the very first time, Humanity had come across extra-terrestrial life. The feelings espoused by most were a mixture of delirium, and perhaps dread, but for Reilly - it was an entire new world of unprecedented discoveries that laid ripe for the taking.

Initially, Reilly's team focused on the basics of wildlife: plants were cultivated, trees analysed, and the fruit of some plants experimented on. An uplifting discovery denoted the edibility of the majority of Elysian fruits, which were all of varying nutritional benefits, and all bearing a taste leaning either towards sour or acidic. Then, came Reilly's first encounter with an Elysian Hydra:

### The Elysian Hydrae:

It was the fifth night after the expedition's landing. While Reilly idled about her laboratory, a great 'thud', emanating from the laboratory's very roof, reinvigorated her senses. Reilly quickly leapt out of her laboratory only to find two guards pointing their flashlights at a fleshly being toying with one of the laboratory's satellite dishes. The creature in question owed to a pallid hide, devoid of any carapace or substance, and idly bit, with its series of lacerating canines, scratched, with its two paws, and pushed, using its sizeable body, the satellite dish afore it. The sight alone prompted one of the guards to open fire. A bullet whistled through the aether and pierced the creature's flesh, prompting it to hiss and quickly leap into the darkness of the Elysian Forest. The next night, Reilly was awakened to a similar ruckus - another creature, bearing a thick carapace of reddish bone, had been up on the laboratory and damaging its satellite dishes. This time, the scientist requested that the creature be caught, and after her will was done, the creature was sedated and autopsied. After breaking through its carapace - and not without difficulty - Reilly was shocked to discover a bullet within it. This creature was the same one that was shot a day prior. After studying the creature with further care, our scientist came to a shocking realisation: the Elysian Hydrae, as Reilly came to call them, possessed an uncanny genetic trait that allowed them to adapt to most hazardous external factors. The aforementioned trait depended on the subject's ability to survive the initial encounter with said hazard, was limited to a single individual and could be applied through ingestion.

The discovery of the Elysian Hydrae and their genetic traits lit up a blaze within Reilly's heart. The potential harboured within the Hydrae's DNA could serve Humanity well. Finally, amputated limbs, ruptured organs, and damaged cellules could be made to regrow without resorting to blasphemous cybernetics. Medicine, was it to lay hands upon the Hydrae's DNA, would be propelled into a whole new echelon of effectiveness. Humanity would finally bestride the need to augment its capabilities with machines. It would finally overcome the weaknesses of its own nature, and face difficulties no further.

While her peer, Raphael Winter, settled his team at the foot of a great ravine, Reilly instead moved her base's headquarters deeper into the Elysian wildlands, in hopes of studying the Hydrae more closely. This, of course, pushed Winter to criticise Reilly's zeal in tapping into genetics. In his own words, Reilly 'played a dangerous game, by intertwining the very essence of humanity with that of an alien creature's. This is not what Leonhardt taught.'

### The Crisis of '55:

As the Crisis of '55 settled in, Reilly and Winter conferred. Both leaders, while in joint charge of the expedition, were never prepared to be completely cut off the rest of the Solarian Empire, and as solutions were debated, the rift between both scientists' ideals was only reinforced. The culmination of their seating ended with both scientists going separate ways. Winter eventually retreated to his headquarters, in hopes of harnessing ERA to ensure the survival of his team. Reilly, instead, found hope in the Elysian Hydrae's DNA. Her team and herself believed that, through the inclusion of the alien DNA into their own systems, they would be able to overcome the Elysian wildlands and thereby survive off the planet itself. An ambitious plan, alas thwarted by the very beings Reilly had leveraged her survival upon.

A malfunction within the cages containing the Elysian Hydrae prompted their escape. Said aliens then flooded Reilly's headquarters, claiming the life of its denizens, including Reilly herself.

### Aftermath:

While Human and Hydran DNA did end up intertwining, it was not as Reilly had envisioned. The Hydra that devoured Reilly took upon her genetic code. A being native of Elysium had effectively bombarded itself with the genetical code, thoughts and memories of a being completely foreign to the former's world. Consequently, the Hydra's brain underwent a series of radical developments that pushed sentience into the Hydra, and imbued it with near-human intelligence. The Hydra could now feel, understand and recognise. It developed a thinking pattern, and an odd, eternal, and panging longing for a place it could only recognise as 'home'. The Hydra's bones were crushed under the development of new flesh and limbs. Its entire body was repurposed, in order to host a degree of cerebral potency previously thought unknown. With the might of such a revelation dawning upon this specific Hydra, it could now only refer to itself as "Sa'Ra", hence the dawning of the Saran Race.

With its new abilities, "Sarah" dominated its peers, and hunted for more humans. It craved their DNA, and grew with each additional Terran it consumed. With its newfound intelligence, "Sarah" was also able to consume a select few Hydras that had, by complete chance, possessed the genetical traits "Sarah" so desired. The apotheosis of our first Saran proved nothing short of terrifying. A being capable of generating others of its own kind, all connected back to it through what could only be deemed a hivemind. Without the Elysians -, who preferred a more docile approach to the Crisis of '55, - to stand in its way, this newfound Saran race soon grew powerful enough to dominate the entirety of Elysium.

### Rise of the Brood:

Reilly's old headquarters turned into the seat of the Brood. Within, the Saran Brood Mother, otherwise known as "Sa'Ra", continuously churns out more of its kin, who, through matriarchal influence, go about and execute "Sarah's" will. With Elysium firmly in Saran grip, a new age was unfurled, one of quiet, looming, shadowy domination, a trap within which the forthcoming Solarians will surely fall. Perhaps, then, will "Sarah" eventually find home.