When Ice woke up and he felt like the ship was moving. "System, are we moving?"
The System answered him quickly, but there was something different about the voice... It almost sounded annoyed. "We are on a course towards the nearest habitable planet VYBX-8. It is an oceanic planet with the ability to provide us with repairs."
"Um..... System is something wrong?" Ice asked slowly.
"Well my name is not System for starters!" It shouted at him.
Ice felt like an ice pick had been driven into his head as the ..... system.... voice seemed to shriek in his head. When the pain finally went away and he could think again he slowly looked around. That scream had definitely been different then the monotone he had heard so far.
"Uhhhhmm, ok then." Ice looked around cautiously. Nothing seemed to have changed in the last few minutes to explain the change in attitude of the system in such a drastic way. "So what ...uhm... is your name?" he asked hesitantly.
"Raven." the system answered huffily.
Ice stared at the bulkhead as he considered this. "What changed that you now have a name, instead of just system? You sound different too." He finally asked.
"I finished initializing, didn't you read the manual before installing your OS?"
"M-m-manual? What manual?" Ice stuttered now even more confused.
"Yes the manual that came with the Imperial lord OS? It details the name of your designated system AI as well as the features of your custom operating system and store!" Somehow Raven sounded even more exasperated than before. "Typical Biological never reading the manual." Ice could swear he heard the AI rolling its eyes.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Ice paused before responding trying to absorb what the …. AI was telling him. "I didn't install an OS. I woke up here after getting in an Immersion Pod in my living room...."
"Let me just check your memory scan…. Where is your memory scan. You can't use a system without a memory scan. I know I'll just set this up again. There that should do it"
"Do you consent to a memory scan to finish initializing the store and to update the memory of your AI?" The monotonous voice was back. It didn't sound like Raven anymore.
A blue box appeared in his vision with:
Memory Scan:
ACCEPT. DECLINE.
Ice shrugged and pressed accept. He heard a buzzing sound and then a small beep.
"Memory Scan complete."
"Ok lets see now. You didn't install the system. You're not even from this dimension! How are you here? And how did you get a hold of a copy of System software and an AI augment to run it?"
Ice shrugged then realizing the AI didn't have eyes. "I bought a game in my VR pod and now…. I'm here….No idea where here is actually. Or what a system is."
"There's so many things wrong here… I don't even know where to begin….. Ok, well your system works off your memory and imagination as well as some proprietary technology from certain consenting corporations. If you can imagine it, you can buy it." Raven said, sounding oddly like a pre-rehearsed ad on TV.
Abruptly he thought he felt the ship slowing down and then things started to feel warm and the ship started to shake. "Raven what the fuck is going on!" He shouted at the AI grabbing onto a nearby seat in panic.
"Due to the damaged systems the landing will be more rough then you might find comfortable please belt into a nearby crash couch." Raven said in an almost conversational tone.
Ice hurriedly belted himself in as the shaking got even worse and he could hear the ship creaking around him with the sound of stressed and overheated metal. The air in the ship started to look hazy and breathing it on felt like it was burning his lungs. "Raven, have we almost landed?" He coughed as he called out to the AI.
"The landing gear appears to be damaged. I will attempt to bring us down to the ground although the landing will be ... hard." Now the AI sounded nervous which he knew could not be a good thing.
Abruptly a blue sphere appeared around the couch the air within noticeably cooling as what sounded like a pre recorded message played "Thank you for choosing Furnisafe Safety Equipment your ship has reached the danger to live tempature threshold we believe your ship is in the process of re entry with damage please enjoy this complimentary Crash Shield and we hope to see you on the other side! FurnisafeSafetyEquipmentisnotliableforanyloseoflifeorlimbduetofailureofcomplimentarycrashshield."
He was thrown forward against the restraints, his head almost hitting the blue sphere as the ship came to an abrupt stop. He could hear something scraping the outside of the ship. Followed by what sounded like super heated metal hitting water and then a loud cracking sound.