An Uncontrollable Factor with a 91% Compatibility Rate

In the year 2147 of the Star Calendar, radiation fields from star-core fragments render missiles useless, fill radar screens with static, and send drones careening around like drunks.

War has regressed to close-quarters mech combat. Pilots must be between 14 and 22, because interfacing with a neural resonance link past that age is tantamount to suicide.

Lu Chen, seventeen, is an "uncontrollable variable" who clawed his way out of the slag heaps of a ruined mining planet. His compatibility rate is 91%. He pilots "Broken Chapter," a failed prototype mothballed by the military. Every time he pushes synchronization beyond its limits, he loses a fragment of his memory. All he remembers is an emptiness in his heart: he's looking for someone, someone he can't remember.

The day Anvil Base was attacked, he pushed his synchronization rate to 87% for the first time and saw a faintly blue-lit figure deep within his consciousness.

Then he met Chen Yuan, the rebel leader who pilots the S-class mech "Whitechapel," a cold-blooded martial artist with "CY" carved into his chest.

The mech spirit of Broken Chapter whispered softly in his mind: "When you touch your left ear, that person is watching you too."

Metal endures, and souls never fade. Gears turn, and memories remain.