"Do you really hate Blythe that much?" Israfil asked.

Solomon was a bit taken aback. She hadn't done anything to really make him hate her, maybe just annoyed him. He could just as easily ignore her if he had to, but it was his habit to attempt to crush anything that stood in his way, whether it posed a threat to him or not. "N-no, I don't really hate her..." Solomon said, a little indecisively, "It's a matter of principle..." He didn't know what to say. It was strange to realize that he would hurt someone and defend his right to do so, even if he had no real desire to hurt that person in the first place. "You know what? Let's just drop it OK?" Solomon got off the bike and headed towards the gym's exit. "I'll catchyou two later," He said, giving them a half-hearted wave, but then he noticed Blythe in the gym and froze.

Blythe had overheard the conversation between the three and headed over to Solomon when he was about to leave. "So you nearly broke somebody's nose and humiliate them in front of people out of principle?" She asked as she glared at him. Even though he had apologised, she wasn't pleased to hear that he thought that he should correct her. "And just for the record, I'm not your pet or anything like that, so there's no reason for you to 'correct' my behaviour or put me in my place. I'll act the way that damn well pleases me, whether you like that or not."

Solomon stood stoically and let Blythe speak her mind. He felt conflicted. In all truth, he had never actually met very many Wildtypes, having lived a very privileged and insulated life. Conceptually, he hated Wildtypes and what they had done historically, but he was having a hard time bringing himself to feel that same hatred for his comrades, despite his best efforts to hide that fact. Especially after the last mission, where he felt that the Rivers sisters had saved his life. When Blythe finished speaking, instead of saying anything back, Solomon simply stormed out of the gym.

"S-sorry, Blythe," Israfil said, feeling guilty that he had been part of a conversation where she was being back-bitten.

Blythe shrugged and got on one of the threadmills. "I don't see why you have to apologise for someone else being an asshole." She said to him.

"Well, he was saying some pretty awful things, and I didn't do enough to stop him," Israfil said, "We tried to get him to change his way of thinking. This is Mike, by the way, one of the engineers. Mike, this is Blythe, a pilot."

Blythe nodded. "My name is Blythe, it's nice to meet you. Weren't you on the shuttle as well?" She asked.

Mike nodded. "Yeah, I missed the flight meant for the mechanics, so I had to go with you guys." He explained to Blythe.

Israfil was glad to see that Blythe wasn't being too standoffish with Mike. "There's another pilot, Claire, who's Blythes twin. The yfound out recently that their cogs can combine. Did the engineering team already know that would happen?" Israfil asked, since Mike was a mechanic.

Mike shook his head. "I don't think so, or at least I didn't know. It was pretty obvious that there was something different about those two cogs, though." Mike said to Israfil.

"Anything you can tell about my cog?" Israfil asked, hopeful.

"Well, Orpheus does have tachyon harp built in, unlike the other cogs, but I'm not exactly sure why that is." Mike told Israfil.

"Oh, right, I think you already told me," Israfil remembered from a previous conversation. "It seems ludicrous to think that Orpheus could perform a jump successfully by itself. Well, I'm getting pretty tired." Israfil stopped cycling. "I'm gonna go shower and get some rest."

Mike nodded and said goodbye to Israfil, but didn't quit himself just yet.

Blythe also continued for a little longer.

The following day, the Incubator Concert arrived back at Cepheus, where the cargo from the Homeworld freighters was being unloaded for further inspection by the Ascendancy Defense Force. When the hangar was finally cleared out, Maya called the pilots together for some training. This time, the training simulations would be linked up, allowing them to practice in a virtual environment with each other.

Claire and Blythe got into their respective cogs, and Claire quietly hoped that her cog wouldn't start talking again to her now. She didn't want everyone to know about it.

"Alright," Maya began, "I'm going to pair you up and have you duel each other, Claire, you're with Tera; Blythe, you're with Israfil; Solomon, you're with Sion."

For the most part, they were matched up by firepower: both Asteria and Mayura were support-types, while Legion and Fury both used multiple, but weaker attacks and attacked from multiple directions to confuse overwhelm the opponent. The mismatch was with Nyx and Orpheus, where Orpheus had significantly more firepower, though it did suffer in speed considerably.

The virtual combat arenas loaded up for each cog. Initially none of the combatants could see their opponent as the simulated desert terrain was dotted with conspicuous mesas that cogs could hide behind.

This gave Mayura a distinct advantage as Tera activated the sensor array to locate Asteria's position, finding it easily. Mayura silently made it's way towards Asteria, going from mesa to mesa, trying to make sure she wasn't spotted.

Israfil, on the other hand, walked Orpheus out into the open, and upon realizing that he couldn't find Nyx anywhere, began bombarding the mesas at random.

Nyx was hidden behind one of the mesas and quickly spotted Orpheus, firing at the cog before she quickly moved to hide behind another mesas.

Claire failed to spot Natura and decided to look around carefully, not attacking anything just yet.

Because Orpheus' cannons are built into its cape-like shield, firing the cannons means that its body is unprotected. Therefore, Orpheus took some decent damage from Nyx's shots. This caused Orpheus to reflexively stop firing and close the cape around its body, leaving only its head exposed. Orpheus then pulled the beam shotgun from its back, and opened the front of the cape wide enough to let the shotgun poke through. Orpheus began lumbering around, searching around mesas for Nyx.

---

Mayura deftly maneuvered around until it had a good line-of-sight to Asteria. Tera waited for Asteria to turn away from her position before rounding the mesa and taking a shot.

Nyx remained in it's current position for a moment, having noticed that Orpheus started to actually search rather than shooting around aimlessly. That would make things a little more difficult, but for now, Blythe shot again, hoping to hit Orpheus' head.

Claire kept looking around, seemingly unable to find Mayura. The cog was hidden well, and Claire didn't want to take a gamble and give away her position by doing something stupid, in case Tera hadn't found her yet.

Blythe's shot unfortunately, impinged off of Orpheus' cape-shield's protectively high collar. Orpheus turned towards Nyx's general direction and fired his beam shotgun, hoping to hit.

---

Mayura turned around the mesa and fired a short burst at Asteria from its beam rifle.

Nyx managed to move away just in time, but did get out in the open and betrayed her position by doing so.

Asteria did got hit and was less lucky, but tried to shoot at Mayura in the hopes of hitting it.