>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-0049, 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.
First I collect my belongings: a decent pair of firearms, munitions, lockpicking tools, and some small machinery tools. Finding little else of interest inside the pod I activate the door lock and the obstruction violently removes itself from my path in a way that makes me laugh.
Cipher-3 is… it's something. Far from easy on the eyes, that's for sure. The overcast skies weep sleet and the wind carries a crisp burn through the conifers. Swathes of snow careen on gentle contours. Really, it's very pretty, and would be much enjoyed from inside, behind a glass window, standing next to a fire. Here with my own leg points knee deep in snow, not so much.
I have the foresight to check my immediate area before making any clumsy moves. As I'm doing so, I catch wind of a pair of radio signals. One is much closer. Keeping my eyes on the forest, I make the easy decision of picking my first heading. Closer is good, right? I hope.
Traversing the deep snow is not easy. Far from it. I can't say I find the experience enjoyable. I half wonder if it might be more efficient to attempt swimming through it. It ends up being that my best procedure is to take one big step. Dig out a small channel by hand. Lift my leg at the hip and get its point above the snow, however high. Make a big step. Repeat.
It feels humiliating. I take solace there isn't a soul out here to witness this strange walk of mine.
Shortly after, I find myself in a clearing, and I trip over something solid in the snow. Damn it. Shaking it off, I turn around and take a closer look. Treasure, maybe? Who knows? I'm curious. So I start digging, scooping with my arms. It's cold, backbreaking labor, but it's honest work.
I exhale a breath from my puffed out cheeks when I make my gruesome discovery. A Frame corpse lays stiff and frozen beneath the snow. Face down, its black body appears to have been chipped apart by something sharp. Like bite marks, or worse. When I roll it over to get a better look, I find it to be a female based Frame.
She looks… familiar. I can't pin down why.
Her hair is shoulder length and white as the snow. It's matted and tangled, drenched with moisture. The pale synthetic flesh of her face is pallid and dead, but the cold kept it intact. There's absolutely no way I can make an estimate as to how long ago she died. Discovering the method by which she did expire, however, proves to be a simple task.
I run my hand over her armor plating, fingertips brushing across the lone bullet hole. Dried up dark blue transmitter fluid has long lost its glow. It's a clean shot, if I can stomach to call it that. Straight through the heart. She was killed by someone with precision. At least, that's the impression I get. The evisceration of her innards and extremities likely happened after the fact.
"Sorry," I tell her, picking her corpse. I find a pistol similar to mine but it's empty, and there's no trace of much else. Standing up, I give her one last look before covering her up with some snow again and moving on.
Leaving her behind, I continue toward the Northeast. The daylight wanes but it's a good way off until sunset. Admiring the scenery, which I make myself do because it's a distraction from the cold, I stumble and traipse and struggle my way through the snow.
There really has to be an easier way to do this.
I'm midway through my awkward leg lifting routine when I take notice. A lone shadow is hunched in the underbrush, low to the snow. Coiled up, it looks like it's some sort of robotic snake. A big one. A rattle on the tip of its tail chatters as it hisses, creeping toward me.
Standing my ground, I keep my eyes on it. Slowly, I raise my rifle and chamber a round, jamming the bolt into place and aiming down the ironsights. I know a nervous animal when I see one. I don't want to be the second to act. I know nothing about this beast or what it's capable of doing to me.
The way it feels having a staredown with it is one of threat. If it wasn't willing to fight, it would bolt. But it doesn't. So I risk a step wide around it. Its long tongue licks at the air. I haven't blinked for at least two minutes.
It moves and I shoot.
The rifle's shot sounds like a cannon. My aim was true but the snake moved aside in time for the shot to miss. The strange thing darts, launches, and lashes, its fangs piercing my thigh like my chassis is paper. I gasp at the pain, suddenly dizzy.
Just as quickly, the snake flees, disappearing into the snow.
I drop my rifle and fall to my knees.
I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do.
The snake is gone. It did this to me and fled.
Errors flash across my vision.
> ERROR: SYNTHETIC NEUROTOXINS IN LETHAL DOSES
> WARNING: SEEK IMMEDIATE TOXICITY TREATMENT
Already I can feel the venom coursing through me. It's seizing me up, from the leg points to my fingertips. I feel like I'm being frozen solid. I guess that part is yet to come. I hope that I'm dead before then. I don't… I don't want to freeze to death. Errors screech and whine but there's nothing I can do.
Another shadow passes near me. A man, sprinting across the snow, walking on it like it's solid ground. He shouts curses, stopping over me. "Damn you, Nep! Stop getting yourself fucking killed! Just stay in your damn pod! I will find you!"
"Wha–Wha–Wait! Who–"
"Come on, we're moving! I will drag you there if I have to! We are not doing this again, soldier!" He grabs at me, pulling my limp and slowing body through the snow. "Turing's fucking Test, I am not leaving you to die! Not this time, damn it!"
"I'm… I…" My head lulls. I'm losing my grasp. "It… Hurts…"
"Damn it! You're–" He stops dragging me, turning to check the damage. "Shit. Yeah. Yeah, you're dead. You're dead, soldier. I'm sorry. Damn it, Nep, you have such a unique and heartbreaking way of hurting people. Don't you? Close your eyes. Count to ten."
My feed goes dark. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Sev–
>ERROR: CRITICAL LOSS OF TRANSMITTER FLUID FROM CARDIAC CORE [NATURE: VITALS_PUNCTURE] nEPI-0049.bin, LINE 23885102
>ACCESS: A:\SCORPIO\OS\FAILSAFE#0049
>ERROR: RUNTIME BELOW REQUIRED THRESHOLD
>NOTICE: FAILSAFE#0049 PROCEDURE TERMINATED
>MEMORY DUMP TO A:\SCORPIO\OS\RECYCLE_BIN
>TERMINATE: ALL SYSTEMS…