Marcus - Durability/Resilience

How to stop her from further interference? That’s the real question. Dorian spots a cabinet with a fire extinguisher inside, so he opens it and takes the red cylinder into his hands. It has a lovely weight to it, an undeniable density. Then he strides over to Marcus and gently thunks the android on the scalp, eliciting a bass tone from the steel. He swings the pressurized bottle in front of Marcus’s eyes, shaking it like he’s dangling a treat.

“I like it this way…” Dorian says, hitting Marcus’s forehead with the rim of the extinguisher, a little harder this time. “…destroying someone with a device meant to save lives. There’s some poetry in that. What do you think, Blue?”

Using it like a battering ram, he smashes the cylinder into the side of Marcus’s head, pinning the android’s brain case against the edge of a server rack. Marcus makes no response, but Dorian can almost feel Blue shrieking for him to stop. Maybe she’ll choke on her own spit.

“Tough to answer with no motor functions, eh?” Dorian strikes again, putting his back into it, using the corner of the rack like a splitting wedge. Spasmodically the android’s eyes flick left and right, but he sees no visible damage. That won’t work. He won’t be happy until he’s washed his hands in Marcus’s milky blood. “What do you think, Blue?”

Dorian presses a foot into Marcus’s shoulder, pushing the android’s skull up against edge of the rack. Taking the fire extinguisher by the neck, Dorian swings it like a baseball bat, and is rewarded with a loud crack and a clang for his efforts. A small ridge emerges across Marcus’s forehead, evidence of a fractured brain case.

“There we go.” He strikes the fake plastic head again, and Marcus slumps face up onto the ground. “There we fucking go.”

He raises the extinguisher over his head, and with a final shout, smashes Marcus’s skull open with a spray of white blood.

***


Blue sighs. The chance of getting out of this place still exists, no matter how slim the hope. She can’t give up.

The loading cursor flickers on her screen. Someone is trying to talk to her. Blue struggles through a hard swallow as she waits for info.

>>NEW CONNECT. ID: MARCUS014385 / INIT CHAT PROTOCOL

>>SIGNAL COMPENSATE AND BOOST 1534 + QRAT

>>FINE MOTOR………CRITICAL DAMAGE

>>ISIS………CRITICAL DAMAGE

>>OSIRIS………WARNING

>>SET………WARNING

>>RA………SUNRISE

>>MARCUS ONLINE

She can’t believe it when she sees it. She watched Dorian beat Marcus’s head in with a fire extinguisher.

Marcus: Blue.

Blue: //Marcus? How are you alive?

Marcus: My model possesses numerous regenerative functions.

***

Alien: The Cold Forge, Chapter 24, 27