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AP-0110 (or Arctic Protogen #0110) was created by an extra-terrestrial civilization to explore and catalog a frozen planet in a far-away solar system. The AP line was bred and designed specifically for tasks of this nature, with a thick fat layer and fluff to endure the bitter cold and sharp claws to grip and tear the ice. Like all protogens, AP-0110 was trained and taught via VR on what he needed to do to accomplish this task and how.
Once AP-0110 was deemed ready, he opened his eyes to the world for the first time. He was prepped and launched from his homeworld in a mini rocket and delivered to the icy planet, containing mostly-frozen seas and a land divided between strange bioluminescent forests and barren rocky plains. All blanketed in snow.
The elevation level between land and sea was rather…EXTREME, here. And on the rare occasion where land and sea didn’t meet as a cliff, they met as rough, gravelly beaches.
The protogen faithfully cataloged every life form he could find; checking in regularly as his programming required. Having never known otherwise, the thought of straying from his assigned tasks never even occurred to him. After all, this was his Mission, his purpose; what he was created to do.
And then, the incident that changed everything. AP-0110 didn’t escape an encounter with one of the more hostile life forms unscathed. Only, unlike the other times such a thing had occurred, this beast was strong enough to shatter the nanites in his visor - and the connections wiring his comm along with it.
And for the first time, the protogen was alone.
Unbeknownst to him, his creators believed him dead and turned to other projects without a second thought; meanwhile, AP-0110 was frantically trying to reconnect with said creators, panicking at the sudden situation he found himself in. He was supposed to check in, to report on his findings; how was he supposed to complete the Mission if every attempt to contact his creators resulted in silence?!
With his programming unable to come up with an answer for the situation, the protogen fell back on his coding to survive. He continued to catalog whatever he found in hopes of updating his creators when they found him again, and as a measure of comfort, doing what he was meant to do.
And yet, at a protogen’s core, there is a single basic command entwined with their very being.
Adapt.
Slowly but surely, AP-0110 began relying less and less on his programming and more and more on the biological side of himself. He began exercising parts of his brain that he’d never had before - he began to become more and more curious, to discover likes, dislikes, favorites and more as the protogen slowly became more self-aware.
And…were there anyone else around to tell him, ‘AP-0110’ might be referred to as what his letters and numbers spelled, if you squinted: Apollo. A name, rather than a serial number.
He doesn’t know it, but his creators would consider AP-0110 corrupted for this growth. The very people he longs to reunite with would scrap him in a heartbeat after seeing the extent of his personal growth.
And so here AP-0110 wanders, on land and in sea, searching for a way to contact home even as he strives to complete his Mission, his purpose. But now, it’s not just for his creators. Nowadays, it’s because he’s curious too, about what this frozen planet has in store for him to discover.
