Back in training, they said we could have Goliath friends, but not human friends. That made sense. We couldn’t talk to humans the same way, couldn’t really have a conversation. The rumor was they used to be able to, back in the double-digits. And we all still remembered the birthday party they made us stop. They got too friendly, I guess.

They train us so we think the mission is everything. Our whole life is about doing the next job.

We were walking away from the orphanage, and I asked her a question. She blanked out, and I got so mad. I was angry. I just wanted to hurt whoever did that to her.

[chuckle] Then I realized I really did want that. That it wasn’t just because I was Tower property and this was my mission.

[pause] I cared about the other missions too, I guess. Whenever I saved a human life, that made everything worth it. But Sophia… we’d only been together a few hours, and it was already different.

My job was to guard her. It wasn’t my job to find out what happened to her.

But I wanted to.

{analysis confirmed. voice match: Goliath 231}