>BASIC INPUT/OUTPUT SYSTEM: START
>POWER-ON/SELF-TEST: CLEARED
>LOAD BRM TO RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY: CHECK
>BIOS AND BRM HANDSHAKE: CHECK
>BOOTSTRAP LOAD: COMPLETE
>OPERATING SYSTEM: INITIALIZING…
>DRIVERS: LOADED
>LIBRARIES: LOADED
>ONBOARD INTERFACE: ACTIVE
>OCCIPITAL CORTEX: ONLINE
>OPTIC NERVE: ONLINE
>VISUAL FEEDBACK: INITIALIZING…
Blinking awake, I start to come around as the rest of my OS loads. I'm in an enclosed capsule, the only light a faint hologram as a block of cyan before my eyes. Its glow gives the metal container an almost frigid chill. The harness and lock-in mechanisms give way, and I rotate my arms at the shoulder, stretching my legs.
My memory core comes online. I am nEPI-0024, a nerveware-based Enfer Pursuit Intelligence manufactured by Enfer Logistics. I've been dispatched to the moon Cipher-3, a satellite of the gas giant Hierondas in the 714 Vixen system. My target is a woman named Shea McElroy, guilty of espionage, intelligence theft, treason, and conspiracy. My directive is to find McElroy and see to the punitive measure of her immediate execution.
I reach further, searching, but that's everything.
That's all there is in my memory banks.
I'd better not waste any time then.
Once I'm fully disconnected from my harness, I search the pod before trying the door. There's a medium caliber single shot rifle and a hefty nine millimeter pistol. In a drawer beneath the two I find some ammunition. Five shots for the rifle and fifteen for the pistol. I magnetize the rifle to my right shoulder blade and load the handgun, preparing myself for whatever I may face beyond these walls.
Activating the door lock, four pressurized gas canisters pop in its corners and shoot the metal off into the night. The brutal chill is immediate. My joints frost together. Risking a few steps outside the pod, I check my temperatures to find them at one hundred forty below zero. Already my thought processors are slowing.
Am I supposed to be equipped for this?
Trying to press on despite it, I take a few more steps forward and pick up two radio signals. They're pinging directions to me, but nothing more than that. The closest is the two megahertz signal to the Northwest. That's where I'm going.
I orient myself toward the signal, doing my best to brave the elements. The cold is so sharp it feels like walking through a cloud of razors. It eats its way into my joints, my center, my everything. And then it stays there. It lies to me and says that we're warm. It makes me drowsy, and makes the snow look soft and inviting.
A gentle reprieve. A little rest, to wait for warmer weather.
Then I'll continue my investigation.
I'm just so… tired…
>ERROR: CRITICAL TEMPERATURES IN NEUROLOGICAL CORE [NATURE: FREEZING] nEPI-0024.bin, LINE 127385931
>ACCESS: A:\SCORPIO\OS\FAILSAFE#0024
>ERROR: RUNTIME BELOW REQUIRED THRESHOLD
>NOTICE: FAILSAFE#0024 PROCEDURE TERMINATED
>MEMORY DUMP TO A:\SCORPIO\OS\RECYCLE_BIN
>TERMINATE: ALL SYSTEMS…