Curie: "Acknowledged. Unit's weaponry is made of common metal alloys. Nothing should impede its recycling.

OPERATOR 4-C, as well as all Units derived from it, display an unusual modification in their arms and legs. Namely, they gradually turn into long, serrated tentacles, colloquially knows as 'meat snakes'. After 4-C's subdual and capture, such mutations were deemed too dangerous, and suppressed via cautery and physical compression."

EVENTS:

Curie: "Previous experiments indicate so, but Unit cannot be sure. Unit was never allowed to grow them."


---

For a long time, the party walks in silence. The landscape is unchanging and grim, and the sand gets into every crack and crevice. Sundown comes, and you sit under a large, jagged rock to have dinner and rest.

As the rest of the group divides their rations of deer jerky and MREs, Curie speaks up.

Curie: "According to Unit's calculations, we are now roughly halfway to the outskirts of Le Refuge. By mid-day tomorrow, the spires should become visible.

Attention: Low nutrient count detected by Unit. Requesting a functional GI tract and food, or, failing that, a blood transfusion. Failure to comply may result in degradation of Unit's mental faculties."

EVENTS:

Eigla uses her sewing expertise to fabricate two reasonably functional sets of entrails from whatever Flesh she had left, and gives one to Klimt.

Klimt: "Thanks for the guts!"

He transforms his torso into tendrils, then begins installing them, while the shieldmaiden attempts to fit the other set to Curie. It's not the easiest task, considering her torso is filled to the brim with brain matter, to the point her skin looks more like an undersized vest than an actual covering.

A lot of swearing and some rather creative routing later, Eigla manages to get it all in. Curie looks even worse now, having a pulsating colon wrapped around her brain-torso, but at least she'll no longer starve. Eigla starts to feed her MRE's, of which the doll consumes as much as she's offered, completely blank-faced.


Rosa decides to remove on of Curie's leg guns. The doll allows her to do so, only stopping to warn her that the acid inside the prothesis might still be dangerous.

The gun itself is easy enough to remove, being held by several thumbscrews and a sliding lock. The mounting plate, however, seems to be bolted to the girl's leg, and takes a lot of effort to prise off. Under it, there is a rubber/kevlar bag wrapped around her thigh, slowly dripping a mixture of blood and acid.
Cutting through the caustic container with a scalpel, she gently pulls it off to reveal Curie's leg stump, a burnt, partially melted mess of rot and corroded bone. The foetid smell is overpowering, and the harem stops eating to go upwind of it.

EVENTS:

Rosa cleans up the wound as best as she can, being liberal with the iodine, then wraps it with the yellowed bandages. Not the best of repairs, but should help. She stuffs the gun into her coffin, which immediately starts humming loudly as it processes it.

Curie shrugs, looking idly at her stump and eating the food Eigla offers her.

Curie: "Unit was inactive for several decades. It is not surprising that parasites would find their way into Unit's body during that time. The brainmass's life support system held up considerably better, so it's unlikely that they'll be able to compromise it.

Unit's functions are, by design, distributed. The memory matrix is responsible for data processing and decision-making. The brainmass provides bulk storage and redundancy. The central head manages communications between those parts, and manages the UI one could call 'personality'.

Seeing as Unit's main function is to provide on-demand tactical analysis and control, and provide a repository of data regarding previous military encounters and strategies, the only non-essential part is the central head. Thankfully, it is quite light and portable."