He’d expected it. For six months, he’d been a ghost in the system, illegally rewiring the broken minds of veterans the Bureau had discarded. But knowing it was coming didn't stop the hollow ache in his chest.
Marcus pointed at the raging inferno on the viewscreen. "That's not the sun, kid. That's your ego. You thought a perfect pilot doesn't make mistakes. So when you made one, your mind ate itself. You didn't shatter because of the radiation. You shattered because you couldn't handle being human ." xpt trainer
"Don't forget it," Marcus said, wiping the blood on his sleeve. "That's your new co-pilot." He’d expected it
Marcus smiled, a tired, crooked thing. He picked up his old, cracked XPT trainer badge from the table. He wouldn't need the Bureau's permission anymore. He had something better: a student who remembered how to be afraid, and a new rule to live by. Marcus pointed at the raging inferno on the viewscreen
The lead agent hesitated. Kaelen Voss wasn't just a pilot. His family owned the largest private neural-net on Mars.