Seven months had passed since the day Alto made his vow beneath the cold, silver skies of the Mech Division's proving grounds. It felt like a lifetime.
Each day since had been consumed by relentless training. Alto had thrown himself into every waking hour with a desperation that bordered on obsession. The first few weeks were the hardest. His body, still lean and underdeveloped, had struggled to keep up with the physical demands. His arms burned from countless hours in the exo-suit gymnasium, his fingers blistered from manual interface recalibrations, and his mind reeled from the near-impossible quantum coding tests Alberta subjected him to. Sleep was a luxury he'd sacrificed. Meals were taken between drills. He'd learned to live in the simulation pods—sometimes for days—enduring nightmarish mock battles against enemies designed to outclass him at every level.
But somewhere within the grind, something changed.
He grew.
