Patchup opened the shell's head and slid the black box into its slot, a loud click telling her that it was installed. All that was left was to boot the shell up and give the same speech she'd given dozens of times before. She closed the back of the head causing the shell to jump up and make earsplitting feedback.
Covering where her ears would be patchup shouted "Shut up! The voicebox takes a second to adjust to the data on start up! You're just making noise!"
The machine went silent for a moment before speaking up "Am…am I?"
Patchup continued to focus on the computer screen running diagnostics "Yep. You took a beam straight to the pilot chamber. You were dust before your brain could even process anything."
The shell looked down for a moment before balling his fists "W-"
She interrupted "Why bring you back? It's part of the contract you signed. You knew what would happen, the recruiters are quite clear."
The shell calmed down and sighed deeply "What am I now?"
In the most nonchalant way one could patchup said "You are a human consciousness stored inside of a blackbox acting as the hard disk for a giant robot. Just like all the others."
The shell visibly shook in anger and the readings on patchup's screen all spiked "damned decepticons. It's their fault I'm like this!"
Patchup responded coldly "it's your fault. You signed the paperwork. If it wasn't the decepticons it would have been space debris or hostile wildlife"
The shell sighed in defeat "you could work on your bedside manner you know?"
Patchup chuckled, "I'm too old for that. Now will you stay still so I can run diagnostics or do I need the restraints?"
The shell tried to relax as much as he could. "Maybe we should have taken the council's deal."
Patchup shook her head "That's the easy way. Not our style. Plus megatron needs to pay for nearly blowing us all up. There we are. Everything is stable. So what will your new name be? It wouldn't feel right to keep using your original one, trust me."
The shell looked at itself "How about slushbox?"
Patchup nodded "Welcome back to the earth defense command slushbox. You'll be needed in dispatch."
Slushbox took a few minutes to stand up and walk but he eventually did, leaving the room to avoid a reprimand