The Visible Gain
Kai dragged the combat frame’s last meter into Hangar 17-B and sealed the blast door behind him. Thirty-one hours remained on the court clock. The pressure sat behind his eyes like a second heartbeat.
He climbed the calf plating, ducked through the pried-open access hatch, and dropped into the pilot couch. The cockpit reeked of old blood and burnt wiring. He tore off his rebreather, clipped the emergency O₂ line, and yanked the neural crown down over his temples.
Nothing.
“Come on,” he muttered. “You spoke once.”
A crackle answered in his left ear.
You’re doing it wrong.
“Lira?”
Auxiliary panel, idiot. Main bus is slagged. Force the primary and you’ll cook your optic nerves.
He found the smaller jack under warning tape, ripped it free, and slotted the lead behind his ear. The frame groaned awake.
Pain hit like white-hot nails through both temples. Vision tunneled. Copper flooded his mouth.
Hold, Lira snapped. Let it map.
He breathed through clenched teeth. Diagnostic glyphs flashed red across the HUD—then one blinked green.
NEURAL LINK ESTABLISHED: 47%
Thrusters coughed blue plasma. The machine shifted, eager.
Thruster governor offline, she said. I can give burst authority. You’ll feel every ampere.
“Do it.”
A surgical spike. His left eye blacked out. Blood trickled from his nose.
Then pain reversed into pressure. Into control.
The diagnostic panel lit.
THRUSTER OUTPUT: +22% AUXILIARY RAIL HARDPOINT: UNLOCKED NEURAL BANDWIDTH: 62%
The frame’s legs flexed on instinct. Micro-adjustments snapped clean. Kai exhaled hard.
You’re bleeding into the gel, Lira said. Second-degree burns on both contact patches. Push past redline again without coolant flush and the next sync cooks your brainstem. I can’t keep overriding safeties forever.
Kai wiped crimson from his lip. His left eye stayed fogged. Through the haze the canopy speakers crackled with colony priority tone.
“Kai Mercer, Lot 47 claimant, provisional ladder entry confirmed. First ranked challenge assigned: Voren Kane, tier de
Preview ends here. Subscribe to continue.