Yeah, Yeah, Fuck You

Despite being a foundry-created copy, centuries removed from the original, the echo of her pain and anguish flooded his mind, igniting his fury and making him grit his teeth, faintly aware of the sensation from his new vantage point. Her screams - screams torn from a voice with no mouth as Alad V sliced and peeled the hybrid techno-organic skin from her body - grew louder and louder, his blood boiling, his mind overwhelmed, he couldn't take any more, he couldn't-

The world became a blur around him as he was thrown from the Transference pod. He let out a hiss as a bloom of pain spread across his cheekbone, the cool metal of the Orbiter floor unforgiving against his softer human skin. He had to try again.

He lifted himself to his feet with a groan, straightening his suit before he returned to the pod. Before leaning back and letting it close, he took a breath. Then another. And another. He continued, breathing deeper and more evenly with each one. His mind calm and empty, he rested back in his seat, eyes closed well before the chamber had started to close around him.

After letting the rush of the initial connection wash over him, he reached out tentatively, a gentle hand brushing the shell of her memory. Their minds connected in an instant - hers, fragmented, torn, and feral after being skinned alive, and his, still only a child of sixteen with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

The ghost of Valkyr calmed, letting his solemn, assured nature take control of the body they now occupied. Her echo faded with a sigh, the artificial copy now just that - an empty shell. Just a frame to be piloted.

He flexed her vicious claws, disoriented at her greater height. Stretching her long, supple limbs, he crouched, leaping clear into the next chamber of his Orbiter. Landing lightly, he shook her head, amazed at the agility of his new form. He stood, rolled her shoulders, and padded to the navigation console. Kneeling, he took in the system map before him, watching the next mission node blink at him for a moment in apprehension.

A few minutes passed before the silence was broken. "Operator?" Ordis began, "Are you alright?"

He shook the frame's horned head before replying, his voice emanating from her mouthless face as though from a speaker, "Yes, I'm alright. Just got a bit lost in thought. I'm ready when you are," he sighed.