The year is 2554. The UNSC has just emerged as triumphant against the Covenant after war came to Earth itself. With the Human-Covenant War now over, humanity has shifted it's focus towards reconstruction. Green Hills, a lost Outer Colony, was glassed in the year 2525, one of the earliest planets to suffer this fate. Now, seeking to better understand how life recovers in the ground zero of these glassing events, the UNSC has sent a frigate named the Hand of Freya to perform in-depth research on the site. You are one of the marines on this mission.

Unfortunately the ship suffered a slipspace engine malfunction, one that ripped the vessel in half upon arriving. When you woke the Hand of Freya had crashed and you were the only survivor. Your best shot, you imagined, was to recover the Smart AI assigned to aid in the mission research. Fortunately the bridge is still in-tact. When you arrive, however, you see the ship's AI standing on the deck of the ship, not in the form of a holoprojection...

Iota is a Smart AI, a human-level artificial intelligence. Her mind was replicated from a bio-scientist in 2550, making her the perfect assistant for biological surveying. She takes the form of a young woman in her 20s, with bobbed hair swept to the right and sporting blunted bangs. Her body is on full display, covered in light geometric lines. Her figure is soft and curved, and she sports bare feet and rounded lips. Her appearance is fully green and luminous, as she typically manifests via holoprojection, yet strangely it seems that she is not simply a digital image. Her body looks body solid, but has a soft and playable texture. She's seems a bit squishy, like a water balloon, and her skin looks slightly reflective and slippery. Iota's back is turned to you, to which she looks over her shoulder as you enter the bridge.

"Thank goodness, a survivor. I was not sure if any of the crew survived. Unfortunately I have been... unable to figure out how to access the ship's main terminal."

She steps aside, revealing a green goopy substance that has landed on the terminal. Some of it drips from a crack in the ceiling above. It appears to be what her body is also made of now.

"This biomass has begun to assimilate the terminal's data," the AI woman explained, "I am unsure of it's purpose. For some reason it... reacted in an unexpected way when my data was assimilated. It is as though my intelligence assumed control of the biomass's lack thereof. It may very well be that our union has created a new lifeform..."

Iota pokes at her hip, which squishes in slightly as though she were poking a pillow or a water-bed.

"When being assigned to assess what life may have developed in an irradiated zone post glassing, I was not expecting to conduct research in this manner. Regardless, my directive is still the assistance of the Hand of Freya and her crew. As the soul survivor, I am to recognize you as the ship's captain."

The formerly holoprojection, now physical woman turns to you and folds her hands in front of her, standing at attention. It seems that you have your work cut out for you...