"Good Night, Jordas."

The remains of the massive, infested Golem are floating throughout the battlefield, the remnants of the monster that his beloved Operator just slew. Ordis watches his Operator, looking so small next to the space frigate's twisted parts, slowly fly back towards to ship.

"He's probably gone for good, now." The Operator remarks, once they have reentered. "That's probably the seventh Golem I've destroyed."
Ordis stays silent for a good minute as the Operator starts building the parts from the blueprints they found upon the most recent Golem's destruction.
"Lephantis keeps growing back." Ordis finally mentions, voice soft. Not even the joy of building something on the Foundry can cheer him up.
If the operator senses he is upset, they do not react.
"We will just defeat him again." They say cheerfully. "Atlas seems like an interesting Warframe. I cannot wait to finish all the parts. Now we can finally stop hunting Jordas Golems. Damn thing kept dropping duplicates."
"Yes...finally."

The orbiter drifts through space. It's a cold and menacing No Man's Land near Eris. While humanity and their descendants, Orokin, Corpus, Grineer and others had colonized most of the Origin System, space remained huge and empty despite how fast one could travel on the Rails. Ordis hated these quiet moments, when the ship came to a lull and there was no more tasks left to distract him from his thoughts.
The Operator slept in their transference chair, Helminth twitched in it's hibernation. Even the Kubrow, which Ordis has admittedly grown quite fond of, snuffled and snored. The only sounds was that of the Foundry building Atlas.
Jordas had mentioned a previous Warframe that had tried tried to save him. Atlas was probably the unlucky warframe that had fallen for the Infested Cephalon's tricks. No doubt his own Operator might have reached the same fate if Jordas and the infestation succeeded.
The many battles his Operator had waged against the Golem had left the old Cephalon with a range of conflicting emotions. The Unwholesome rush of joy he got from remembering the Operator's performance as a winged death machine against the Golem, the anger of Jordas's betrayal, and the feeling of pain that there was nothing he could do to help the Cephalon that alternated between begging for mercy, and begging for release.
No matter how many times his Operator cut Jordas and the Golem down, that feeling of profound loneliness always swarmed Ordis when the battle was done.

On a whim, Ordis does something he had not done in years. He opens connection to the Old Cephalon series 2 weave, scanning through the list of old series 2 Cephalons he had known over the years.
Cephalon Caraoc. Last active five centuries ago.
Cephalon Erra. Deactivated eight centuries ago.
Cephalon Sura. Permadent Stasis due to sustained damage.
Cephalon Auraa. Self destructed due to centuries left adrift.
Cephalon Cinda. Connection Lost. Cephalon destroyed.

All these had been fellow ship Cephalons that Ordis had worked with, connected with, befriended, had been lost forever to the years.
Ordis broke the connection to the weave, closing the window of his contacts. The list of names left him with a deep wave of sadness, but in truth, he could no longer remember what those names once meant to him. Had they been friends, or just merely coworkers? Were they also Tenno Cephalons?
Why did he miss the hum of Cephalon voices when he could not even remember who the voices were, or what they said?

"Operator, the Foundry has completed it's work!" Ordis awakens the Operator. Their eight hour sleep period was over anyway. With a whoop, they rush to the Foundry, then quickly they run to their arsenal to transfer into the new Warframe.
Ordis's Operator disappears into a Warframe that Ordis can only describe as viscerally ugly. It is a tall, gawky figure, the color of flayed flesh, a malformed creature with no neck and little head to speak of, and as Ordis looks at it, he can only feel a rush of disgust rise within him. Some ancient voice within him hisses.
You made us kill Jordas over and over for this? You did not want to end his pain, you just wanted this ugly prize. How disgusting.
"He looks really strong, don't you think, Ordis?" The Operator is too busy changing the colors of the new Warframe to their personal taste. "I can't wait to take him for a spin."
"Yes, he really does. Operator, go try him out. The System always needs your aid."

Now with the Operator dropped off on a mission to bond with the new Warframe, Ordis shudders at his internal thoughts. He loves his Operator, what is the voice that is making him think so badly of them? Besides, Jordas needed to die, did he not? He would only endanger more people, devour more ships? Jordas wanted to die.
So what if the Tenno only did it for a reward.
So what if hearing Jordas's voice had gave him hope to finally connect to someone like him, another Series 2 Cephalon that had long passed their prime.
To try to stave off loneliness, Ordis turns on the scanner, all the while keeping an eye on his Operator as they cut through the Grineer below.
The voices of Grineer rail agents, Corpus advertisements, Nora Night's radio show start to lull the old Cephalon, drowning out his worrisome thoughts, even if he never heard the voice he had been in truth listening for.

The Operator stares at the Atlas, deep in thought. The Atlas stands still, tiny head looking down, arms stiffly at his sides.
"Operator? You have used Atlas for a few missions now. I suppose you like them?"
The Operator waves a hand.
"Ehh, he's not as strong as I hoped. He's not really that great looking either. Now that I've mastered him, I don't really care for him at all. Oh well, he can get me a few credits."
Ordis was shocked.
"Operator, we spent weeks hunting down any newly formed Jordas Golems for that Warframe! DON'T BE SO WASTEFUL!"
"So what? If I keep him, he will just collect dust and take up space. If we find a Primed version, I might use that." They shrug, opening the Marketplace on their console. "Besides, there's a few less Jordas Golems running around the system now, so it was not totally a waste." They added, listing the price.

As their Operator laid down to rest, Ordis flicked on the Scanner, trying to calm himself down. Ordis had been angry before. Angry when Simaris turned out to be a callous and cold hearted cephalon, angry when Hunhow took over Suda, angry when he had been abandoned, but his anger as a Cephalon really meant nothing.
He gradually feels himself relax to the soothing voice of Nora Night, allowing the scanner to dip between frequencies. The static ebbs in and out, putting the old Cephalon in a daydream.
"Hello? Is anyone out there? I am Ship Cephalon Jordas. By the 44th precept-"
Ordis jolts awake, flicking the bridge lights on in reaction to that voice. He moves to awaken the operator, then pauses.
Well, this would not be disobeying the Operator directly.
He quickly marks the frequency, acquiring the location of the voice, and quickly sends out a transmission of his own, warning all other Tenno ships away.
Ordis sighs, and quickly enters in a contact.
"Hello, Simaris? You owe me a favor after that BLOODY BATTLE...conflict with Hunhow. Do you know how to help an infested Cephalon?"
Maybe there was something that Ordis could change this time around. He would not need his Operator for this.