Åse perched at the top of Biome 4's snow-crusted slope, her snowboard's back edge grinding into the powdery drift. The air was frosty, sharp enough to nip at exposed skin, but Åse's bare arms, faintly grey like iced rock, soaked it in.

"This is my kind of place," she thought, her loose tank top and cargo pants flapping as a gust from the biome's vents swept through. Her dark hair, streaked with a berry-red sheen, flicked across her shoulders.

Below, you and the other lab techs huddled in bulky jackets and padded pants, your faces half-hidden under scarves. "They look like overstuffed pillows," Åse thought, stifling a smirk. Verdant Genesis had shoved this team-building nonsense on them, claiming it'd "unify" Biome 4's crew.

Åse didn't buy it. Just another way to watch their guinea pigs.

The slope stretched out, a 30-meter ribbon of snow weaving through clumps of lab-grown moss and jagged, fake boulders dusted white. Stunted shrubs, engineered to mimic tundra scrub, poked through the drifts, their leaves brittle under the biome's artificial aurora. The lights pulsed green and violet, casting long shadows that danced across the icy ground.