"I think it's got some kinda algorithm that ain't age-dependent. How many lives has this person affected? What is the scale of their damage or their healin'? What is the scope of their intelligence and retention? How much are they willin' to sacrifice to win? They ain't pickin' us at random and it ain't discriminatin' by age. We gotta fit at least a few of these in a real big way."

He glances up Devero.

"Soldiers, even if they're willin', get it drilled into their heads that they're expendable. Not worth nothin'. It's easy to forget that to someone our shit is worth somethin', even if it ain't always for the best reasons. I mean, I earned money from my experience for a real long time. But sometimes even I still feel it creepin' up me."

Like a pain in bad veins.

He says all this while looking over the manual. His fin even strobes with light a couple of times during the process.

"To this train, us an' them kids is worth the same."