Chapter One: Twenty-Three Percent

Somewhere deep behind his ears, he heard the simulated rumble of a mech coming online. It sounded like a giant beast opening its eyes in the dark. He did not step back. Since he was eight, he had trained in junkyard control pods, taking apart dead mining exoskeletons and rebuilding them until his fingers cramped. He had memorized the thrust curves of every Federation standard mech and could calculate gravity-well deflection without an assistant screen. His parents had died during the first Void raid on the frontier. The only thing they left him was a damaged battlefield recording: a Federation mech standing before a refugee ship until a black beam tore it apart. From that day on, he had wanted to become a pilot. Not for honor.