Chie mostly tuned out her father's explanations. She had already heard them, read any materials they produced on piloting, and then read them again once more just to be sure. And then seen her COG multiple times by this point. However, as she watched all the other pilots look up at their machines in awe, she couldn't help but feel a bit smug. Not only had she seen the COGs time and time again, but she also had the best out of all of them. In the tiny girl's mind, there was no question that she was piloting the absolute greatest of all the machines. With a rather arrogant smile, she strolled over to take position in front of the large hulk of a machine that was 'Boom'.

"Your COGs are fine, and all," she began, folding her arms over her chest as she spoke in a rather haughty tone, "But there's no question that my Boom is the greatest out of them all. Whatever yours can do, anything she can do is just plain better! She might not be suited towards close combat, but it's not like she'll ever have to fight anyone up close! She's got cluster missile launchers located in her chest, six on each side, and that's not all! Her shoulders are also full of missiles, at a farther range too! And she can use a rocket rifle, or a laser rifle!"

Moving her hands from her chest to her hips, Chie let out a small laugh. The little blond girl was supremely confident in her COG, that was for sure. "Hu hu hu~ You might as well not have bothered showing up, Boom is the best COG here!"

Pharazon saw Corina's nod of approval and returned an expressionless nod of acknowledgment. Pharazon also noticed Arienne's fascination with her cog, which relieved Pharazon who suspected that Corina and Arienne may have had misgivings about the project. Such misgivings no longer seemed to be a concern.

"Ah, Ch-Chie, e-even if your cog is great, p-please try to be more more respectful of your comrades," Dr. Alberton said in a deflated fashion.

Pharazon tried simply to ignore the Albertons altogether, "If you don't have any questions, then you have twelve hours of free time to unpack, explore the carrier, or catch up on sleep to get a head-start in aligning your biological clocks with Universal Space Time if you didn't get a chance to do so at the Space Elevator. A map of the ship has been sent to your personal drive accounts along with a fleet encyclopedia, which should be useful if you are confused about terminology or protocol. You have free access to all parts of the ship. For the time being, the Bridge and Engine Room are open as well so you may explore those locations if you wish. Usually, you shouldn't go to those places if you have no business being there, but..." Pharazon looked at Dr. Alberton, expecting him to explain why such protocol-breaching levels of freedom had been granted.

Dr. Alberton jumped in, "Ah yes, well since the cogs are based on your personalities, it is hypothesized that if any strong forces were present to change or alter your personality, way of thinking or decision-making processes, your ability to pilot optimally may be negatively impacted. A decision was made to give as much freedom and flexibility to the pilots as possible as long as it did not compromise the mission or jeopardize the safety of others. This is also why you were not subjected to professional military training."

Pharazon's eyes lingered on Chie for a fraction of a second too long when Dr. Alberton said his last remark. "And there you have it," Pharazon concluded, "If you would like to talk to me, I'll be in my office in the Barracks."

Arienne turns to Chie with a smile,
"Yes, Boom does look very strong indeed. I hope you will leave a few enemies for us to deal with or else I'll get bored on the battlefield."

Then she kicks off from Farfalla and lands near Pharazon and Dr. Alberton.
"Lieutenant Commander, when will we be debriefed on our cogs? Can I start now? I wont take it out for a run or anything, but may I sit in the cockpit and familiarize myself with the controls and systems?"

"Why, yes you can," Pharazon replied to Arienne's question. Pharazon came as close to 'beaming' as their generally expressionless demeanor would allow, pleased to see such professional enthusiasm. "You can see catwalks that lead right up to your cogs' cockpits. At the end of the catwalk is a diagnostics console. Consult it for more information on your cogs, and let the console scan your drives to gain entry into your cogs. Now each cog is unique from what I can tell, so what you find inside may differ from mine, but my cockpit lets me run practice simulations, so I'm assuming that yours' will also."

Corina folded her arms, nodding at Arienne. "That's what I do best. Just keep me from being outmaneuvered and I'll keep you from being outgunned," she replied with a slight smirk. She had good feelings about this project, her cog, and even about Arienne. Everything seemed to be falling into place perfectly, and Corina fit right in.

She restrained a wince as Chie rambled on about how she had the best cog. Unfortunately, Corina may have jumped the gun on that one: almost everything fell into place perfectly. The girl was still proving to be a handful, and at some point somebody was going to have to start babysitting her. Pharazon didn't seem remotely interested in the task, and it was Corina's opinion that Dr. Alberton was astoundingly underqualified. Arienne seemed to be handling the girl well enough, but too often Arienne's attempt at light chat with Chie was taken as patronization.

Corina sighed quietly. She had often been an anchor for squads and units she had been assigned to, be it mentally or emotionally. Her mental fortitude and unwavering nature saw to that. More often than not, teammates relied on the consistency of Corina's mechanical personality that allowed her to deliver so well in battle. But how did that combat dynamic play out when a child was involved? There was a lot of work to be done before these four could even begin to call themselves a functioning Lance.

With Pharazon's dismissal, Corina decided she would follow Arienne in the familiarization of her cog. She made her way up to the catwalk leading to Farfalla and began to analyze the various information detailed on the diagnostics console, taking in the information and beginning to turn Farfalla's strengths and weaknesses into tactical strategies in her head.

Arienne thought about getting into her cog, but decided that she would save it for her maiden test flight; to make it all the more special. Instead she spent a few minutes downloading the information from the diagnostics console. Over the next 12 hours, she will parse through and learn all there was to know about her new cog.

Before heading back to her quarters to sort through her luggage and settle in, Arienne floats over to Corina at her own diagnostics console.
"Lieutenant, do you spar? If so, it would be great to have a sparring partner and work out sometime."

Corina looked up from the console. She mentally shelved Farfalla and the relevant data she had been going over to focus on the conversation. She turned to Arienne, "I'm no stranger to the sparring ring. If what they say about cogs reflecting our personalities is really true, then it's clear to see that you and I have very different styles, so it'd be an interesting match." Corina caught her tone sounding dismissive; she straightened herself out slightly before apologizing, "Sorry if I seem disinterested. I'm a little distracted right now with everything this console is telling me." Corina motioned awkwardly at the console. "In any case, I could use a sparring partner. People in the PDF were sick of sparring with me. Something about being a wall of muscle."

At least one of them acknowledged how great her COG was the best out of all of them! The other ones didn't look too bad, sure... but compared to boom there was a pretty big difference in quality. If their COGs were great, then Boom was super awesome the best! She glanced at her father for a moment. Hmph, asking her to be more respectful... why should she? If anything, they should be respecting her! She knew way more than they did, that was for sure. ... Then again... if she really did have to work with them... maybe she should be a bit less harsh on the COGs? Chie thought on this for a moment, then dismissed it. Nope. She was certain that she had the best, and that she was the best pilot here. In the tiny blonde girl's mind there was absolutely no way it could be any other situation then that.

As she listened to the two other pilots discuss sparing, she couldn't help herself. Likely to her father's dismay, she approached them confidently.

"Oh, yes, sparring will totally make you as good as me," she declared, the sarcasm dripping from her tone as she did. "Huhuhu~ You'll never match how good I am. I've beaten all the Steel Soldier Ryoko games all the way up to New Game plus eight! Even the near-impossible extra boss in Steel Soldier Ryoko: Steppin' On Sunshine!"

With Chie's new statement, Arienne's usual smile for her faltered and became a serious grin, eyes glazing over in an intense stare at some unseen opponent from the past.

"I don't know what these games are, but it sounds like you are practiced at them and good for you. I practice by pushing my body and mind to the limit, unifying them, making me highly tuned for combat. In my opinion, one has not truly fought, killed, or won without putting their life on the line to face down an opponent, eyes locked in a battle of willpower and skill. And for me, sparring is good enough practice for that."

Throughout her little speech, Arienne had been accidentally oozing out a creeping killing intent that got much stronger by the end. Realizing this, she immediately pulled it back and with a small shake of her head, Arienne comes back to herself and gives Chie a normal smile.
"You'll have to show me these games sometime. They sound interesting."

"Well, I'm off to sort my quarters, and maybe grab some dinner. I'll see you both later." Arienne kicks off, turns around and gives an informal salute before leaving the hanger.

Leaving the hangar, Arienne had to travel through a short, air-lock-like hallway, a gravity reacclimation chamber, that was specially designed to allow those who passed through the opportunity to reorient themselves in accordance to the gravitational situation they would be entering; in this case, going from the zero-g hangar the the artificial gravity of the rest of the ship's interior.

The barracks were the living space for every single crew member, and was divided into quarters. The pilots' room was in the Officers' Quarter, and would be shared by all four cog pilots. Inside there were two bunk beds, one of the lower bunks having already been assigned to Pharazon, the other three being unassigned. Each of the new pilots' luggage stood in the middle of the room. At the foot of each bed was a steel basket just big enough to fit the regulation luggage cases each pilot was allowed to bring. This way, anyone could simply sit up in their bed and access all their belongings without needing a separate storage area. At the head of each bed was a pull down tray that operated more or less like a night stand for each pilot to place whatever bedside belongings they needed so long as they managed to secure such belongings to prevent them from flying around should the ship get hit, or artificial gravity be deactivated for whatever reason. The bathrooms however, were public and shared among the entire Officers' Quarter, with plenty of toilet stalls and shower stalls to accommodate a good percentage of people using it at the same time.

Within the Officers' Quarter were also office spaces, for various officers to attend to clerical duties. Next to the pilots' room was the Lance Leader's office, where Pharazon sat at their desk, busy with some minor work. The office was big enough to accommodate more desks if need be, as a typical carrier often had multiple lances of strikecraft and thus multiple lance leaders.

Corina crossed her arms as Chie spoke, maintaining her composure in the face of the small girl's boasting. Corina had heard of the Steel Soldier Ryoko series and knew that Chie's accomplishments were, to be fair, no small task, but they were no substitute for real combat experience. That was a lesson that Arienne taught hard, Corina soon found.

As the smaller woman - Stop calling people small. This isn't the army any more. This is navy, technically. Almost everyone is going to be smaller than you, Corina reminded herself - lectured Chie, Corina caught Arienne slipping a little bit, allowing her true personality to bleed through the typically patient, kinder character Arienne had previously maintained with the young girl. Corina hoped that Chie didn't catch that slip as she had; while Chie was more than likely going to be exposed to the harshier realities of combat and military life, she felt it best to let the girl see her lancemates as much better examples to look up to.

Fortunately, it seemed that Arienne had also caught herself, and returned to the more benign version of Arienne she had maintained for Chie. As Arienne dismissed herself, Corina crouched down to speak to Chie. "I've heard of these games you play, and those are quite impressive accomplishments. Not many people have the balls to even try New Game plus, nevertheless plus eight. However," Corina adjusted her position, turning her crouch into a kneel on one knee, "our reason for sparring is not for combat training. Arienne and I are professionals; we know how to fight. Think of sparring as a sort of real life video game, one in which two opponents get to know each other.

"Now," Corina got up from her kneeling position, "I'm going to follow Arienne and rest my head for a bit before grabbing a bite. You should join us." Corina forced a small, awkward smile, before turning away from Chie and heading for the Officers' Quarter. That went fairly well, I think, Corina consoled herself, relaxing from the surprising stress she had attained from her small chat with Chie.

Chie blinked, and watched as Arienne went into an unexpected discussion of her own feelings on what it is to be a soldier. To be honest, Chie suddenly found herself reminded of Ryoko herself, when she had a monologue about what it is to be a real soldier before fighting Kaiser Donvald in the core of the Infinite Angel Machine. The OVA adaptation of that scene was pretty amazing, especially the part where Ryoko killed him by ramming him right through the reactor with her frame's Impact Arm. But that was beside the point, it was really kind of intense and for a few moments Chie couldn't help but fall silent. Well... then Arienne mentioned wanting to see the games... and showing off Ryoko was always awesome! Some people didn't get some of the more obscure gameplay features or the secrets, but that didn't change how amazing the games were!

... And Corina had heard about it too! Maybe these people weren't so dumb... of course, she was also saying something similar to Arienne, though less intensely.

"... Well... I still have an edge when it comes to piloting mecha!" she insisted, "But it sounds like you might have some idea of how to do it... I'm still the best, though!"

She gave a confident smile. For once it was not coupled with a sarcastic comment. "And I can show off Ryoko, too!"

With that she went to follow along. She had to admit she was hungry, still...

Inside the Officer's Quarters, Arienne chose the top bunk opposite the one already occupied by Pharazon, and began sorting through her sparse luggage. Stowing away her clothes and favorite laser handgun into her basket, she then fastened a couple of her smaller sculptures and some hanger hooks onto her tray nightstand using a wash-offable but durable sticky putty to securely fasten them all into place.
With the hooks in place, using some leather string, she tied a knife in it's scabbard with the handle facing the direction of the door. This way, she could pull out with a quick swing if need be. Her small sized retractable sword (kind of a mix between a combat baton and a tactical tanto blade) that she wore horizontally on her back, just above her hips was always with her. But she would keep it under her pillow at night.

Satisfied with her sleeping area, Arienne changes into her uniform (not caring if anyone sees), grumbling as she forces herself not to put on her hoodie and stow it in her basket. She gives her mechanical looking body a look over to make sure everything is well maintained before fully dressing herself. Fastening a holster for her gun on her right hip, her trusty sword behind her, and a few hidden throwing daggers here and there, Arienne makes ready to head for the Mess hall.

The four ships comprising the Destiny Squadron set a course to the edge of Horizon territory, a journey that would take about a day in hyperspace. The ships came together into formation and synchronized their Tachyon Harps. In a flash, the ships were gone, now traveling through hyperspace in a bubble of 'real' space. The bubble would exit hyperspace once they reached their destination. If anyone looked outside a window, they would see the iridescent boundary that encapsulated the four ships.

At the end of their 12 hours of free time, the cog pilots were all ordered to report to the hangar. Pharazon stood before the pilots. "The squadron is currently headed to the border between Horizon and the FAS. As you probably know, the region is very unstable, with militant groups, pirates and rebels, and the FAS is suspected of trying to destabilize the region for political and military gains. Our squadron will be patrolling the area, which should be a good test-bed for our cogs. Though our presence alone should be enough to deter some groups, armed military intervention will be required for others. This will be a great chance to train your skills as pilots, and test the capabilities of your cogs. But before we arrive, we should do some basic training before you see some real action. At the very least, you all should be comfortable with piloting your cogs, and be able to launch via catapult as well as returning to the carrier. We might even do some mock combat training if you all are up for it. Any questions?"

Corina raised a hand. "Two questions, sir. What kind of basic training are we looking at? Movement, weaponry, the like? Tactical training? And for our patrol, what's our ROE?" It was a simple, straightforward question, but rules of engagement were important. In her much younger days, she had commonly made the mistake of not knowing her ROE beforehand, often putting the mission in jeopardy or even blowing it entirely. She had since straightened herself out, making sure she knew the ROE back and forth in order to ensure mission success.

One story she recalled with clarity was a hostage situation, one of her first missions. The directive had clearly stated to use force only as a last resort, but Corina had jumped the gun and taken fire prematurely. Ultimately, the mission had been a success and no hostages were harmed, but she had put all the hostages at risk simply because she ignored the ROE. Rookie mistakes, Corina mused, subconsciously glancing at Chie.

Teaching her to follow an order seemed like it would be a large enough task, but teaching her to operate within a set rules of engagement seemed even larger. To Corina, orders were simple: you're told to do something, you do it. Rules of engagement were less clear - they were set directives, but often came without orders. You had free will to act, but had to do so within your ROE. Chie didn't seem like she would like that very much; she was much more likely to be a loose cannon than to maintain her composure. Corina made it a personal objective to keep an eye on Chie when out in their cogs.

Arienne was excited. She had spent the last 12 hours running her cog's information through her head and doing some rough simulations. Her cog's cockpit was barely such. I was a interface free, neural link cockpit, and it was just enough room for her to stand in, hook up and have her consciousness and senses upload and take control of the cog. She would literally become one with it! She just couldn't wait to try the actual machine out!

But then, Corina's questions brought Arienne back out of her eager daydreams to reality. Hmm, good on Corina to get to the matter at hand. Knowing about Rules of Engagement would be good since Arienne had never had to deal with such before. She had always done covert or very blatant, in your face operations. Her jobs were always really simple. Save this person, get this info, kill this group. Well, it's always good to expand one's horizons. Learning and getting used to this should be helpful in the long run.

Pharazon nodded at Corina, acknowledging her question, "The training will cover basic piloting and targeting. Theoretically, it shouldn't take long to get a 'feel' for piloting a cog. Once you can get the cog to move how you want, then we'll have the carrier send out some targets to practice on. As for rules of engagement," here Pharazon paused, they didn't sigh but looked like they wanted to, they did close their eyes for an unusually long time before opening them again and continuing, "due to the 'unconventional' nature of cogs, you will be granted a lot more autonomy than would be typically allowed for normal soldiers. The only things I can say are, 'we sortie when we are ordered to', 'communicate your intended actions to the lance before carrying them out', and 'unless I say, "Commander's orders"...you are allowed to rely on your best judgment'. For the most part, our lance should only be faced up against enemy units, we should never encounter hostage situations or anything of that sort, though fighting in populated urban areas is a high possibility. In such situations...trust your best judgment, but never intentionally endanger civilians." Pharazon concluded. They didn't like these 'rules' but on this ship, the research division's word was law. Pharazon added that last part about not harming civilians intentionally as the research division was ready to give the pilots full permission to do whatever they 'felt' was the 'right thing to do' in combat.

"If there are no other questions, then everyone get in your cogs and prepare to sortie."

once everyone had entered their cogs and initiated the Cog OS boot up, the frames holding the cogs in their places began moving the cogs, sliding them along their backs out towards the compartments that ringed the central body of the carrier. A comm link was established between each cog and the bridge's catapult operator, whose voice could be heard going through the launch sequence while the cogs got situated in the launch compartment and the blast doors opened. "This will be your maiden launch. While the carrier is designed for simultaneous launch of up to six craft, for this time, we will being doing it one at a time so the Lieutenant Commander can catch you if you have trouble braking. Phalanx, you are cleared for take off."

"Lieutenant Commander Pharazon CXS, sortieing." With that, the frame carrying Phalanx shot forward, releasing Phalanx when it reached the end of the launch rail, propelling Phalanx out into the hyperspace bubble.

"Alright," came Pharazon's voice over the comm link, "Send the next one out. Let me know if you're having trouble controlling your cog. Again, the way you control your cog should 'feel right' to you, if you think this lever, or this button, or this pedal brakes, then that's probably the one."

Corina frowned. She didn't exactly like the lack of rules, but fortunately Pharazon didn't seem to either. They had done their best, but Corina could hear the restraint in their words. What they had said made sense, and Corina understood why there was a lack of restraint with the cogs, but at the end of the day she was a soldier, and soldiers liked orders. Short of orders, soldiers liked chemistry among their team in order for a proper dynamic to work itself out, but this lance had yet to develop chemistry. Their interaction since meeting had been limited, though Corina had to place some of that blame on herself. She wasn't exactly the most social of people and had isolated herself for much of the trip.

Corina could only offer a terse, "Understood, sir," before heading towards her cog to prepare. Climbing into the cockpit, Corina immediately understood what Pharazon meant by "feeling right." The interior was simple, organized, and disciplined. Everything was in a matte grey finish, matching the greyscale digital pattern that covered the cog. Corina smirked. This was definitely working for her.

As Phalanx was launched out into the bubble, Corina felt Farfalla being moved for launch. Shit. Shit shit shit shit shitshitshitshitshit, Corina began to panic slightly as the launch quickly became a reality. She was a foot soldier - any type of vehicular warfare was alien to her. That said, she found that she wasn't as nervous as she expected; the comfort and odd familiarity of Farfalla's cockpit was calming.

"Lieutenant Chun, piloting cog Farfalla. Let it be recorded that on this day, you've got a career foot soldier flying around in space," Corina announced nervously, feeling the acceleration of the launch shoot her out into the bubble. Corina braked with no problem, decelerating at a steady, even rate with the depression of the lower left pedal. She quickly asserted herself with Farfalla's movement controls: lower left was stop, lower right was go, upper left was strafe left, upper right was strafe right. Whatever direction she pulled the arm controls in, Farfalla moved to look. She could trigger a powerful burst of speed in any direction by pulling one of the many triggers on either side in combination with a directional control, though it was incredibly taxing on her physically. Corina would have to figure out a way to exercise in order to make the sudden directional changes easier.

yes yes yes Yes YES! That was all Arienne could think as she lowered herself into her cog's cockpit. Starting the startup sequence, she stands upright as latches twist around, securing her into place. Putting her head back, a helmet pops over her head, inserting plugs into the jacks behind Arienne's ears. The first time transfer and acclimation of her consciousness to the cog took a few minutes was an interesting experience, but would be faster from now on. It now very much felt like her body became that of the cog.

Finishing the transfer, Arienne did a systems check and then started moving her new arms around when she noticed her vision. The OS of the cog and her close interface with it allowed Arienne to have a very good view of All directions around her. She had read about it in the manual, but experiencing it now was more than she could have hoped for. Arienne knew she would miss this omniscient clarity when she left the cog. She also now knew what to call her cog. If the cog could have smiled, then it would, but insted, this revelation set the cog humming, almost like a purr...

"Askalaphos, heading out!"

As soon as Askalaphos lost contact with the catapult, Arienne gave another intense burst of speed. Flying straight towards the other 2 cogs, she would have collided if she didn't make an explosive 90 degree turn going up. Askalaphos spun and twirled as she flew around and about in complex and graceful maneuvers. She was an owl in the night, very much in control of her movement, and very aware of her surroundings. And Arienne felt a joy she had never experienced before.

Chie tuned out almost everything else. It was always the same dull, boring questions she had guessed they would ask. No, this was what she was waiting for. She had been in the pilot's seat before, but there was a big difference between simply seeing it and actually piloting the mecha. Excitement swelled up in the tiny girl's heart and she was practically quaking with how eager she was. Her flight suit, a powder blue, was correctly equipped, and she'd done everything properly. All that was left to do was to get going...

"Boom's heading out!"

And moments later... that speed. The sensation of escape as she was launched out into space... this was exactly as she knew it was going to be! She hadn't gotten to really try it yet, but...

"Wah... this is great! It's even better then I thought it would be!"

Boom gently glided through space as she went