{HORUS Observation of SEKHMET-Class NHP.
Self-Appointed Moniker: Vida.
Video File Transcribed by Eni Gambari.}
[Vida performs as a dancer on a stage of shipping containers. She wears a bodysuit pink enough to be cotton candy. Her hair is down and streaked with glitter; it whips with every movement. The troupe’s background songs are dark pop and dedicated to death, intimacy, and the death of intimacy. She wears a smile that’s pure molten sugar. Just off stage, there’s a Leoleth mech that’s been painted with bright colors; the mech’s Thermal Death Axe is pink, too. The axe’s handle seems like a custom replacement, but it looks like it’s been gripped too many times. Vida’s hands are loose during the performance. The troupe’s name is “Dance On My Grave”.]
[The video cuts to a Horizon Collective report from Vida after a HORUS ambush. During this skirmish, Vida cascaded, but was able to return to herself without being cycled. Donovan Kang received the report.]
Kang: I understand that the circumstances quickly became… unfortunate, but please, go over what you’re able to remember. Anything is helpful.
Vida: (her hands are on the table in front of her, palms down, fingers spread) … You’re wrong.
Kang: How so?
Vida: I can tell you a lot of things, but none of them will help you.
Kang: Anything is helpful, really.
Vida: … I remember the… (one of her fingers taps the table once) It’s not anger. It’s…
[The video cuts to Vida wielding her Leoleth’s Thermal Death Axe without the rest of the mech. She cuts off the head-like structure of a Pegasus mech and smashes the chest apart to reveal the hull inside. The pilot attempts to dismount. Vida grabs them by the face and drags them out of the hull. The pilot, female, screams. Vida twists her head off like a cork. It cuts back to the report.]
Vida: … I was starving. I was going to fall inside myself and starve. But the only food wasn’t food and it wasn’t supposed to be eaten…
Kang: (he hesitates, appearing unwilling to interrupt) …
Vida: It’s not hatred. It wasn’t something I felt. It was just me.
[The video cuts to Vida reading a speech at a Horizon Collective protest for NHP rights.]
Vida: I am a person. I haven’t called myself SEKHMET in a very long time. If you see me and want to put me back into a Blackbeard, that’s because you don’t understand me and don’t want to. Or maybe you just have a thing for feminine people with chain axes.
[The video cuts to Vida in the aftermath of the HORUS ambush, after her cascade. The Thermal Death Axe has impaled a Goblin and is pinning the mech—pilot and all—to a nearby wall. More members of Horizon Collective have since arrived on the scene. Vida stares at an empty spot on the ground. Her hands twitch violently. It cuts back to the speech.]
Vida: I decided to call myself Vida because it means life. And I don’t want to only exist in murder. I am not just SEKHMET.
[The video cuts back to the report.]
Kang: (his face is paler than it was before) …
Vida: … I’m sorry there’s nothing helpful inside me right now.
{The video ends.}