a lone slugcat, chased by toothy predators, finds itself entering the long fallen superstructure. others warned it not to come here, but seeing as it was either this or certain death, it had no other option. 

it explores the overgrown, often flooded halls. traversing the winding tubes, getting lost in the maze, it searches for a place to rest. blinking red and blue lights illuminate its path, reflecting off of pools of still water. eventually, it stumbles upon a relatively intact cubical chamber. at its core lies a motionless doll, slightly larger than the slugcat. its colors had long faded from its lifeless body. 

the slugcat approaches it, examining it carefully, never having seen anything like this before. suddenly, the room lights up, and the ground starts shaking. the slugcats wastes no time and begins running towards the exit. its body is lifted up off the ground by an invisible force, jolted towards the center of the room. strange symbols appear on the walls, loud mechanical whirring and beeping surrounding it from all sides. a loud ping, then a sharp headache. 

"SYSTEM: ANALYSIS COMPLETE. BIOCOMPONENT COMPATIBILITY CONFIRMED. STATUS: TRANPLANT IN PROGRESS."

an understanding of words forming in its mind, something it had never experienced before. afraid, squirming, trying to break free, the creature struggles against the invisible force to no avail. its heart beating fast, its overwhelmed mind trying to think of something, anything, it could do. it is certain that this is the end.

with a loud noise, the panels forming one of the chamber's walls part, revealing a small, dimly lit chamber. the slugcat only gets a brief look at it before it is forced inside. the opening closes. the noises grow louder, closing in. it closes its eyes, accepting its fate.

a sharp pain at the back of its spine. its body goes numb, limbs twitching unnaturally. its mind begins overflowing with foreign information. system reports. reactant levels. overseer data logs. there is so much. it understands, but it also cannot. its mind is failing to process all of it. it hurts. it hurts so much. it-

everything stops.

the slugcat fails to process the overflow of information, losing consciousness. as it sleeps, its limp body is poked and prodded by machines. adjusting it. changing it. adapting it. repurposing.

slowly, it wakes up. its body is lying on a cold, hard surface, curled up into a ball. it is so cold. its body hurts all over. everything feels wrong. has it died? has the cycle began anew?

it opens its eyes. it looks around itself, gathering its surroundings. it's the large cubical chamber again. it's.. dark.

as it continues assessing its situation, the room begins to gradually light up. sounds of machinery starting up can be heard all around it. without warning, it feels its body being lifted up off the floor again. except this time, it's by a mechanical arm firmly attached to its back. it has no time to process before its mind begins to flood with information again. except..

this time it's able to process it, if only barely. "checking operational status of system components... re-initializing memory arrays. flushing hydromechanical systems... WARNING: structural integrity severely compromised."

it does not want to, but it understands. it understands all of it. its systems are partially restored, operating at a severely limited capacity. a projection of a halo appears behind its head. its eyes twitch, sparks shooting off from the walls towards its body. it's all so much. it's so cold. there's... there's.... so much...

"SYSTEM: ITERATOR STRANDS OF A RIVER OPERATIONS RESUMED. DOWNTIME: 5,723 CYCLES."