Inedible

Chapter I

Another wave of war had stricken my home. It was left in shambles. I was away when it happened, off fixing bodies from another war zone. When I came back, the ground was strewn with wires and metal. It was a mild annoyance since my homeland’s ceiling had hardly any cracks, so there was little light, and I often tripped on the extra body parts. On the plus side, as a medic, these severed parts were a jackpot.

In the dark, I see a faint, blue, blinking light. I walk toward it, stepping over the various sparking wires in an attempt not to electrocute myself. But with the amount of limbs I possess, it’s difficult to be mindful of all of them. A small jolt runs up my leg and through my core to my circuit, crippling me for a moment.
I lay on the ground and rebooted myself. A beeping noise echoes through the cave and I mentally cringe. I am usually on top of updates, but I haven’t been able to find the time to remove my beeping due to the increase in war recently. Finally, it was over. No mobile person was in earshot, and I was safe. I continue toward the light.
As expected, it was a killed Qekti. It lay on the ground, torn into pieces. Every one of its eyes was torn out. Every one of its limbs was destroyed in some way. The Blue light meant that its voice was destroyed.  This body would be useless to fix, as none of its original limbs would be salvageable to me or itself, but something caught my eye. Illuminated by the blue shade, its head… was a different model. It must have been hand-crafted. It looked organic and natural, with curves and hidden bolts. Whoever murdered this one must have been a fool not to claim this head. To even destroy its sockets is such a shame. I would have to fix it myself, but that's a small price to pay. There are torn eyes lying around everywhere that I could replace them with.
             A chuckle sounds from my chest. I begin to speak to the dead body to proclaim an educated guess.

“You’re alive, aren’t you?”

It was unable to respond, of course. I cut its chest open to check its circuit. It was difficult to see in this light, or lack thereof, but from what I could see, I was correct in my assumption. So I continued to speak to it, knowing that my words weren’t going unheard.
“You’re lucky I came along. I’m a medic. I’ll fix you so you’ll be able to move again. You can figure the rest out yourself.”
As I reconnect its vocal lines and a loud beep fills the air. I laugh quietly to myself. At least I’m not alone in my carelessness. Its blue light turned off and the cave was bathed in darkness yet again.

“As thanks for my favor, I believe I am entitled to a limb of yours.”
It sighed through a muffled, glitchy speaker, “My head?”
Amusement fills my voice, “Yes, your head. Did you make it yourself or did you steal it?”
“I made it myself.”
“Then you should be fine. You can make another one.” I snipped its head off, being careful not to damage it anymore than it already was, “I will install an eye into your chest so you can find your way around.”
“Thank you,” it spoke in a tired, glitchy voice. It wasn’t happy about losing its head, that I could tell.

Slowly, its body was repaired with other limbs I found on the battlefield. We made small conversation before its glitching started to annoy me, so I detached its vocal lines again. I finished with the necessary repairs for movement. It tried to stand up but was quickly pushed down by one of my arms.
“You aren’t going anywhere. I’m not done.”
I reconnected the voice lines and listened to it speak. Its tone was somewhat fed up. Its voice had more static than it used to, occasionally cutting out.
“I’m no-t going to at-ck you. I originally planned to, but I see y-now, and the odds would not be-y favor.”
“That’s good to hear, but that’s not what I was talking about. I thought I would inform you that I placed your arm and leg both on the left side-”
It groaned with annoyance before I could even finish and I laughed at its expense. It would have a rather hard time balancing like that.
“I kn-ew som- was off…” It grumbled. I lifted my arm off its body and stepped away, watching as it crawled away. It didn’t even try to stand again since it could risk falling and breaking. The sound of metal scraping against rock screeched. I used to hate the sound, back when we first engineered our mechanical bodies, but I’ve gotten rather used to it now.

I moved back to my headquarters and began to fix my new head's eyes. When it was done, I successfully attached it to my chest, next to my other four. This one was more special than the recent last two, so I kept the neck on. It could even be my primary head from now on since the eyes were replaced with brand-new ones. Its vision was much better than the others.
Despite all the bodies on my land I will now have to clean, I would consider this a good day. There are not many of those I experience.
Now for the most dreaded part of the day; recharging. Back when I was flesh, it would be called “sleeping”. Luckily, I am not flesh anymore, and I will not die if I do not recharge, but I will be weakened. And on Antura, you have no wiggle room to be weak. You have no such privilege of being off your guard. I’ve dreamt of leaving this cursed place ever since my first death 21 years ago. In desperate attempts to take action, I’ve been working to develop a teleportation device to do something about it. It has only worked in small distances so far.
I curled up all of my body parts to a more compact form, prepared for a recharge. During this, I cannot move, see, or hear, but I am conscious. I can feel when I am harmed and quickly awaken my senses to battle. But I doubt anybody is about at this time and this place. I very well could look like another dead body. That consoled me slightly. A slow, quiet beeping signaled my recharge and everything went black…