The roar of an engine could be heard humming in the background. In the depths of space, a shuttle took off, bearing a curious shipment of passengers. Various soldiers, engineers and other crew sat in the crammed vessel; some were sleeping, other playing cards or quietly whispering to one another. In the corner, a gathering of short but stout silhouettes could be seen, having taken distance from the rest: anyone could recognize them as Rosnians by their long ears. While largely integrated into the Galactic Federation, and now living among humans, there was still a tinge of awkwardness and unease that permeated between the two species. After all, the Heavyworlders, as they were known, were originally created as an invasion force against Earth by their former masters, the tall and slender Homweworlders. But that is now but a memory of the past, and nowadays, even the two sub-species are on fine terms, both with each other, and even with humans.

A motley crew of pilots were also assembled, breaking up the monotonous crowd with vibrant personalities; one of the older Rosnians was happily chatting away with a younger member of the alien species. A pair of twins sat at the back of the shuttle, seemingly engaged in some sort of brotherly competition. A tanned, svelte man was sitting next to a bookish, purple-haired man, different as night and day. A large man had crammed himself into a seat, but still blocking some of the walkway due to his size. An elegant, yet stoic woman sat at the front, patiently waiting for the journey's end. One couldn't have imagined this congregation to not only be pilots, but to have a shared destiny ahead of them in the near future.

In that tight space, holding her palms against the window and peering apprehensively into the depths of space was a young girl with short brown hair and bright blue eyes wearing a fancy silver-embroidered green-and white dress jacket and skirt, complete with an insignia on the left chest: a sign of her being a graduate of the military academy Toivonhuippu, or how it's better known, Toivo. It was an establishment once known as a place where the initial research into Cruxi tactics and the ways to counter them were taught began in earnest, and where many veterans started their careers. However, nowadays the school's reputation has taken a dive, as rumors of corruption and the prevalence of upper class wealthy elites, especially those whose parents had bought their way into the place rather than through any merit of their own, had become increasingly common.

Still, even if the rumors were true, Elora didn't seem like the standard, snobbish spoiled brat that one would expect to graduate from such an academy at first glance, seeming more like a middle-class worker's daughter. In fact, she didn't seem to fit in the gaudy clothes.
She looked nervous, and flinched as a passenger walked past her to retrieve something from the luggage in the back. For the rest of the trip, she held her hands on her knees, looking down and trying to remain composed despite her anxiety.

It didn't take long before the shuttle reached it's destination. Beyond the windows, a colossal ship could be seen: Fortress Ship Solaire.



A great feat of engineering, Solaire was a reminder of the Galactic Federation's resolve in the face of the war against the Cruxi. The common colonist could only imagine the size of the shipyards and number of workers required to build such a behemoth: it is to Framewerks what battleships are to humans in terms of sheer scale. And based on the rumors, more were in production: a sign of desperation.

Soon enough, a a rectangular hatch opened, exposing the airlock that was reserved for smaller spacecraft. The shuttle landed into the hangar as the airlock shifted into place with a groan of metal. The shuttle's landing ramp descended, and the passengers walked out, the soldiers in file, and the engineers and civil workers in a chaotic formation behind. The pilots were the last to arrive: a rag-tag bunch of both younger and older individuals. While the initial grouping of pilots seemed normal enough, soon the strangeness became apparent in the arrivals, including such visible oddities as an artificial human who was wearing the symbol for the Olympus Project, and even a representative of the diminutive Rosnian species who led a group of her own and took the hand of what presumably was her offspring, though she struggled not to be overshadowed by the hulking mountain of a man who stepped out after her.

Elora was one of the last ones out of the shuttle, not daring to stand in anyone's way lest she incur someone's wrath for being being an obstacle or moving too slowly. Thus, she peered her head out from the shuttle's entrance before sighing and stepping down the ramp. As the crowds dispersed, the pilots were met with the sight of the side hangar of the Fortress Ship: engineers and other crewmembers paced back and forth as cargo was delivered back and forth into and out of larger military ships, leaving a lasting impression on the young pilot.
In the distance, she saw as a younger Rosnian ran right up to Rose and hugged her, causing her to smile.
"Aww...They're so cute," she mumbled to herself, having never seen a Rosnian before.

"Pilots!" A sharp gaze of a woman wearing the Solaire Framewerk pilot uniform accompanied the clearing of the throat, her posture perfect and her movements practiced and controlled, with an air of authority about her. Based on the insignia she wore on the left shoulder, the pilots with a military background recognized her rank as lieutenant. Elora blinked, and a blush grew on her cheeks; not only was she taken aback by the officer's harsh tone of voice, she was also beautiful, with a stunning figure that was only emphasized by the uniform.

"On behalf of the Galactic Federation Fleet, welcome to Fortress Ship Solaire; home of the Framewerk Project XJ9." The woman spoke to the group as Elora looked down, glancing down at herself in depressed contemplation. The officer took out a personal device resembling a tablet from a pocket. "I am Lieutenant Ritsu Kaname, and as of this moment you will be taking orders directly from both myself and-"

"Oh-ho! So these will be our newest batch of fresh meat!" blurted another voice as a gray-haired, frail-looking scientist with a hunched back practically shoved her aside, leaning on a shaky walking stick, startling Elora. "What a group of misfits! My, we've even got a Rosnian," he said as he leered at Rose with his single eye in an unwholesome manner, as if eyeing her up.
"A Heavyworlder, I see. They seem to be coming more and more commonplace these days. Such a curious case of divergent biology, yes. Though I must admit, I've only seen Homeworlders once before, and that was in a brothel. The ones here mainly work in microgravity, so I've never seen those. I suppose the exotic nature of them draws enough people for even a species as elusive as them to appear in human worlds..."

"A-hem!" The lieutenant scoffed at the inappropriate remark with a hint of a blush on her cheeks. "With all due respect, Executive Officer, I am conducting the introduction to the Framewerk Project, sir! Please leave any inappropriate remarks out of it!" She was visibly holding back the urge to ball up her hands into fists. However, the old man didn't seem too bothered as he blinked and glanced aside at her interruption.
"Huh? Oh, my bad, Ritsu, I didn't mean to interrupt. I was so excited to see the new recruits that I could barely contain myself, hee hee!"

The lieutenant sighed. "Anyway, Executive Officer, shouldn't you have more pressing matters than to welcome the new pilots?" The old man smiled. "I do...But I can spare a moment to see what we got to work with. Besides, I'm interested to see what they can do already." As he spoke, the professor began to walk in the direction of the main hangar. Ritsu began to follow him, and gestured with her hands for the pilots to join them.

"Very well then. Pilots, this is Professor Lorenzo, your superior in Solaire, and Executive Officer for the Framewerk Project as a whole." Lorenzo nodded. "Most of my work is classified, so don't bother asking about it. However, I'll be observing your progress periodically from time to time, and see how you're doing. I look forward to seeing how you'll fare...If you'll fare at all! Bwah-hah! Now then, let's see..." The group entered the main hangar, where an incredible sight met them: rows upon rows of Framewerks, each of them unique, stood on a lower level like statues depicting gods. Walkways on the higher level, where the group was located currently, passed by the upper chassis of these gargantuan constructs.

"Looks like all the Frames are accounted for, good," the professor mused, stroking his beard. The lieutenant turned to the pilots to continue once they were finished reacting to the sight. "You have all officially completed your pilot training in separate facilities with your Framewerks, and thus have earned the rank of Cadet. Some facilities seemed to have a comprehensive curriculum, like the one the representative of House Korrin had attended, or the one held by Project Olympus," she spoke, having let a slight approving smile towards Zane and Minerva. "The Marques also have an excellent resume," she added, "while others had a more...hands-off approach to their education," she noted, her stern eyes having turned towards Elora, who froze with fright, and then Ved, having to slightly crane her neck up to look at the large man's face. "Regardless of one's individual background, you have been individually chosen for the promising talent you have shown thus far, and for the potential to fully realize the goals of the Framewerk Project." She briefly looked down at her device.

"However, from now on here at Solaire, you will focus on developing advanced skills and training required not only to operate as a single cohesive unit, but also to realize your latent potential. Therefore, in one hour we will be holding a practice mission in the Virtual Training Chamber. This will not only be an evaluation to assess your initial capabilities, it will also determine a suitable leader for the squad. The objective of the mock battle is to work together as a single team, and defeat as many opponents as possible before your entire team is wiped out. You will be observed and then evaluated based on how you performed before and during the battle, so I expect each and every one of you to give your all. To attend the practice mission, you are required to suit up in the locker room with your assigned pilot's uniform, and then head to your assigned interface pod, and enter it as instructed in your pilot's manual."

Lorenzo pointed to a device with a bunch of red buttons he held in his hands. "The virtual space will perfectly replicate your Framewerks and the effects of damage they can incur. A pilot's virtual link will be remotely disabled once it has taken a certain threshold of damage, to avoid causing any brain damage, haha!" The professor grinned. "That's right, boys and girls, this is not like the VR games you played back at home: it's the cutting-edge in sense-immersion technology. What you experience in there will be about as close to reality as you can find in the galaxy, bwaha! The battle ends when the mission is completed, one Framewerk is left standing...or I get bored, whichever happens first, hee hee!"

Elora was trembling in fear, her legs shaking and her arms held close to her chest. She seemed to be out of her element as she desperately attempted to open her mouth and say something, but was unable to. She was like a lost puppy as she looked around her with a trembling lower lip, she if was going to start crying any second.
A...battle? Elora thought to herself. How could we do something like that? I just arrived here, I don't know what to do! I won't last a second! I feel like crying now... The young girl was visibly distressed as she looked down at the floor.

Ritsu hesitantly nodded, seemingly not approving of the intimidating explanation, and the reaction it caused for some of the pilots, but nonetheless she kept to her duty. "That is all. Unless there are any questions, then you are dismissed."
"Hoho, like so," grinned the professor as he looked at the Cadets. "Nonetheless, do well and try to get along. Introduce yourselves to each other while you prepare, why don't you? I for one am interested to see how this'll go..." However, as his eye wandered over to Minerva, the old man's jolly nature seemed to instantly shift, and what could only be described as a disgusted sneer appeared on his lips. He turned away. "Well, maybe not that interested..." He mumbled, and hobbled away, towards one of the corridors. Ritsu raised an eyebrow but stayed behind, seemingly writing something on her device as she waited for questions from the pilots.

[Post moved to OP]

---

Fortress Ship Solaire - Hangar Bay

---

"...not really my department, but I got to talk to some of the people who did work on her. It's wild stuff. Framewerks are on the edge of our scientific knowledge in terms of complexity, power generation, and control systems, but the Solaire--and the other ships in her class--incorporate all that, plus everything we know about materials and construction. Just the scale of the thing is enough to boggle..." Sanro looked up from the backgammon game that sat abandoned between him and his brother and sighed; it didn't seem like they were going to finish this one before landing.

He didn't try to interrupt his brother--that would have been more trouble than it was worth. Instead, he set about packing up the tablet they had been using and cleaning their little section of the shuttlecraft. That didn't take nearly as long as he had hoped; by the time he had shoved everything back into their rucksacks and collected what little trash they had, the shuttle had only started its approach. His brother drawled on as Sanro tapped his foot, waiting for it to finally dock.

After what felt like an eternity to him, they were finally able to deboard and enter the hangar. The first thing he noticed as he walked out of the shuttle's airlock was the sheer size of the hangar; it reminded him of planetside facilities rather than anything he'd seen on a starship before, and he couldn't help but gawk. Nero stepped up alongside and raised his eyebrows at his brother; Sanro shrugged and gave him a slight smile. Yeah, ok. It's kind of cool. Nero returned the smile, and as the crowd coming off the shuttle split apart, the two of them followed the small crowd of people they had identified as the other pilots.

Both brothers were wearing their military-issue working uniforms, which only served to make their physical similarity more pronounced, but as the Lieutenant made her presence known, they were easily distinguishable by their salutes. Nero came to attention almost too crisply; Sanro's salute was... well, "acceptable" might have been a good adjective.

Both dropped to an at-ease posture as their commanding officers gave their welcoming spiels. From a distance, their attention seemed to be on the speakers, but someone watching them closely would have been able to spot them looking over at each other, making subtle gestures of eyebrow and mouth that served as well as talking for two men who were as close as they were.

The LT seems impressive.
The LT seems like a hardass.
You don't approve?.
I didn't say that.

Is this really the guy in charge?

Training already? I wanted to get settled first.
Welcome to the military, egghead.

The LT asked for questions; neither having anything to ask, each brother took the chance to look around.

Sanro's eyes tracked Lorenzo; his gaze was cold as he noted the man's attitude towards Minerva, and he made a mental note to follow up on that.

Nero's gaze swung to the side, landed on Elora, and immediately stopped. She had been at the back of the group with him and his brother, but they must have been both too occupied with keeping up (and gawking at the huge interior of the ship) to notice her until now. Oh no... She looks like a wet puppy in the cold. What's she doing here?

Instead of saying any of that out loud, he bumped her lightly with one elbow; assuming she looked over to see who had nudged her, he glanced over and gave her a silent smile and thumbs-up, held low where the Lieutenant wouldn't see.

Just seeing the Solaire through the windows of their shuttle told Zane that impressive as it was it was way too big for him to feel comfortable in. At least he was able to get the layout on his tablet so that he could always simply take the best route to his destination but staying at the massive ship still didn't feel like a good time.

As everyone else left the shuttle Zane took a few deep breaths to calm down as much as he could. When he and the other pilots finally left the shuttle themself he made sure to stay directly behind the large man he had been sitting next too and just stared at his back, instead of looking around. He hoped nobody would realize how nervous he was, or that he at least could hide the fact it was because of the number of people and size of the hangar.

Luckily it didn't take before the pilots were addressed by their commander Lieutenant Ritsu Kaname and professor Lorenzo. Going by first impressions Lorenzo seemed a lot more likeable but not as professional as Zane had been expecting, though his brothel comment did make Zane wonder if the professor was intentionally messing with the luitenant.

When Lieutenant Kaname mentioned House Korrin Zane winced slightly. He was all too aware that with his issues he only made it into Toivo because he was a Korrin and while he didn't do too terrible he never felt like he deserved to be there. Now that it was brought up he couldn't help but wonder if him being in the program was also more the work of a family member than his own skill.

At least he would get the chance to find out soon as it was revealed there was a battle simulation planned, but while Zane was relieved but nervous one of the other pilots, a girl also wearing the Toivo insignia, seemed to have a breakdown because of it. While Zane felt sorry for her he didn't judge her over it, having been in her position before. He wanted nothing more than to retreat to Goliath Buster's cockpit for a while but he approached the girl. It seemed one of the twins had the same idea and drew her attention to himself by nudging her so he could give her a thumbs-up.

"H...hey, it's okay. Just take slow deep breaths, like this." Zane showed what he meant by doing as he suggested, but potentially making things worse by staring at the girl so that he had something to focus on that wasn't the size of the hangar.

Nero wasn’t the only one marveling at the ship the shuttle was approaching, though with the presence of a contingent of engineers onboard that should hardly be surprising. Something interesting that could be gleaned from this, however, was the way that more or less all the Rosnians were set chattering by the sight, marking most of them as engineers. The sound of their chattering would have been described by a 21st century human as sounding exactly like some cheesy b movie alien would make, unaware that the beings before them were very much responsible for that trope due to their ancestor’s abductions and experiments on humans.

At any rate, there was one exception to the nerding out over the vessel, and that was the older lady who saw it as the absurd resource investment that it was, and thought only of how much would have had to be sacrificed to make it possible. An investment and sacrifice she wondered just how long they could endure making.

Still, she didn’t throw a damper on her people’s enthusiasm for the marvel of technology, and especially not that of her daughter’s, Rose’s third eye giving her just the right amount of attention to indicate that yes, she was paying attention, even as most of the technical terms went over her head.

She genuinely wasn't bord or faking attention however, it was always nice to listen to She Who Notices The Little Things In Life And Sets Them Right (who went by Fixi when humans asked) talk about something that excited her, and so she was paying plenty of attention to respond when her daughter said “and to think that She By Whose Hands We Will Forge A New Age Of Wonders has had a hand in it! It is just so amazing! I can’t wait to see her again”

“Neither can I” the woman who was ever so proud of her daughter (who went by Val when humans asked) replied, before telling her other daughter that she was also ever so proud of that “as soon as we’re settled we’ll need to organize time to see her”

As it turned out, such an formality was not necessary, as the pair were ambushed by Val right as they were coming down the ramp (a fairly easy task given that the humans loomed over them all and how she’d had to weave between them all to get to them)

The trio embraced, foreheads touching as part of the hug (which, due to gesture needing them to close their third eyes, was one of great trust and affection) and then broke apart as they began chattering in their native tongue.

“My child! I hadn’t expected to see you here. Do they not have you working?” Rose asked, which got her a negative ear wiggle in response from Val, who then explained “They do, but we got everything sorted for you in advance so I could come greet you. They insisted. It's a human thing to welcome people right when they show up apparently”

“A good human thing then, though it is sad this will be such a short reunion” Rose replied, her third eye having seen both the engineers moving off and the lieutenant preparing to address the Pilots.

Rose pivoted and snapped to attention, ears up and alert, while her daughters stepped behind her. What followed was a very… interesting introduction to the people she’d be working under.

While Ritsu Kaname seemed like very typical human military personnel, she was entirely bemused by the comment about brothels made by the Professor. Rose had been around humans a fair bit, and so she thought she knew a lot more than average about how their body language and the ‘tone’ they used to communicate verbal intent worked than the average Rosnian. Here and now she was, however, entirely stumped and could not tell if this was some kind of joke, an attempt at hazing, or if he was actually flirting with her.

As such she just smiled at him, mouth spreading wide enough to reveal the 2 extra sets of pointed teeth her kind had, while fixing him with a three eyed stare. Smiling was, notably, not a Rosnian thing, and their attempts at it sometimes made humans uncomfortable, especially with the extra teeth. In Rose’s case this was an entirely intentional mixed signal. The way she looked at him with all three eyes (an act normally reserved for threat assessment) meanwhile made it clear, to her daughters at least, that she did nor approve of this man.

Given that she worked around him, Val felt the need to drop in the flimsiest of defenses, quietly saying that he was “He’s a bit eccentric” the last word being a human tongue rather than their own due to a lack of an equivalent term.

Rose would have had words about that later, but she tentatively accepted the explanation with a flick of the ear and dropped the fake smile, while her eye began idly roaming around again, inspecting her fellow pilots, and only periodically flicking over the pair of superiors as they kept speaking.

As such she picked up on the Marques’ subtle gestures, Zane’s wince and heavy breathing, and Elora’s trembling though she received little idea what any of them ment at the instinctual level the third eye was operating at. It also, for some reason, kept looking at Minerva for uncomfortable long stretches of time, as if seeing something it couldn’t quite put its metaphorical finger on.

The sudden change in the professor’s disposition at the end when looking at the white haired woman certainly didn’t help Rose work out what it had been so interested in, but she did mentally file it away for later. Top priority was Elora, because that was the worst case of pre-battle jitters she had ever seen in a human.

Still, while some of the others addressed that directly, adding extra crowding wasn’t going to help at all. Nor was focusing everything on her either, so after reminding her daughters “Don’t stare” she did her best to soothe some fears without, specifically, singling out the person who was gripped the most by them.

Admittedly her style of doing this was, well, somewhat unconventional. Mainly because Ronsian’s lack of natural tone modulation made them sound energetically, bordering on manically, chipper about anything and everything they said, something Rose tended to very much lean into rather than attempt to mitigate.

“Enthusiastic: I’ve heard of these! Will be good to make our mistakes before meeting the enemy!” she began, and then in the exact same enthusiastic tone said “Serious: But if it will feel like the real thing, I’ll treat it that way” before insisting “Confidence: So I, Rose, will be making sure each and everyone of you makes it back alive!”

Val’s ears perked up at that, thinking it might work, while Fixi’s drooped a little.

In her capacity as part of her mother’s pit crew, the younger of Rose’s remaining daughters had heard the woman make and then fail to keep that promise one too many times. As such she knew just how much each failure weighed on her mother and none weight more than the first.

That was, however, exactly why she kept making that promise.

The Galactic Federation had really outdone themselves, making a hulking mass of a spacecraft that cut through the vacuum of space with such vigor. It felt like a defining message that the Federation was sending to their enemy, if the Cruxi could even see the ship- a declaration of a glorious comeback, a counter punch to the face. No more Weybridges will be made. Or so, Byrne would say lived to this day. David could only borrow the commander's voice as he could not muster any proper words himself. Like a man stuck in rural towns having his first visit to a forest of skyscrapers, David was looking at a scale he's never seen before, too grand to find a decent description for. As a result, the trip to Solaire was a silent one on his side. His eyes darted between the view of the ship and the (suspected) fellow pilots that were crammed into the small space with him.
The uniqueness of the collective was as special as the project itself. While David expected them to look like "typical" veteran pilots who went through a handful of Cruxi encounters, the reality was a more colorful bunch. Most of them looked young, perhaps too young to be any kind of a Cruxi fighting veteran. They wouldn't have been called to be cannon fodders, surely. Then he would have to look forward to witnessing some impressive young talents. 'And of course, bust your ass keeping them alive out there.'

Deciding that he didn't want to make a strong impression so he could get one of his teammates, David decided to make little to no noise as they boarded the Solaire and was briefed of their position. Half his reasons was the concern of going too "himself" in a thrown comment, and the other was that he didn't feel the need to cozy up with any of them. Brushing past the Executive Officer's comment, David put more interest in the comments made by the lieutenant. It was a shame (or maybe a relief, with his choice of quiet approach) that David himself didn't get mentioned, but he was able to deduce one information about the bunch. Graduates of a prestigious academy, the two who got a smile from the Lt. The rest was a mystery, to be unveiled as it turned out that they would be thrown into an abrupt training match.

---

Once the professor left, the pilots appeared to be more eased. It was either that, or David had been too careless about the people next to him as he focused to the ones in front of him. That was, except for the one poor soul literally scared shitless among the young ones. David decided to postpone a quick strategy talk for the squad to have a heartwarming moment of calming down the terrified girl. 'But hey, she's not as bad. The first time I had to crawl into my machine out of the blue I attempted to run out of camp.' Thankfully for her, people gathered around her to provide emotional support. Three men, and a Rosnian, each with increasingly friendly and supportive comments.
"The professor promised safety measures. 'Alive' is a strong word, but I look forward to seeing your set of skills."
He turned to the scared one.
"I doubt things will go perfectly in the first run, so there's no need to be too scared about it."
He decided to chime in, with a rather inappropriate choice of words, in the millisecond hindsight.

Minerva

---

Minerva took a deep breath as the journey finally reached its end. Ever since the Olympus Project got disbanded and she started working on the military, she found herself entering spaceships a lot and being familiar with doing nothing but waiting for the destination. She hates it and finds herself mourning for the lost time.

At least she finally figured out how to play that game the twins called Backgammon, although she is pretty sure it won't come in handy.

Minerva took a peak at Solaire, the spaceship that will become her home for the foreseeable future. It is the largest ship she had laid her eyes on. It seems that this ship lives up to its designation as a fortress ship.

She left the shuttle the same way she entered it, promptly and with disinterest as if she was only there to assist in the logistics. The small things and the big things felt the same in her eyes after all.

Her eyes were briefly laid on the Rosinian who she recalled in the files is named Rose. She wasn't sure what to make of the sight of her reuniting with her children. On one hand it is a waste of time, on the other...

[/i]...handler said that it is one of the things that make fighting worth it, not like she needed one.[i]

She averted her eyes and listened to the two people that will be her superiors for the duration of the mission. Lieutenant Kaname, her age aside, is a textbook example of a Federation officer. Meritocratic, straight to the point and serious unlike the few 'blue-bloods' that she had the misfortune of ‘working with’, tasking her with cleaning up their messes is a gross inefficiency.

Dr. Lorenzo on the other hand is the definition of unpleasant. He is disrespectful, uncaring of protocols and acted like he owned the place. In her experience there are two ways he could afford to do so. The first is being related to someone important but considering where she is, she puts her bets on the latter. He is so important that the Federation can\t do away with him even if they wanted to. She hopes he won’t be too bad.

She didn’t notice the man’s sneer on her, as she soon got distracted by the conversation behind her. Oh it was her fellow pilots cheering a nervous recruit, well she saw it happen a lot.

She rolled her eyes hoping that her nervousness wouldn't get in the way.

Ved had quite the uncomfortable ride to the Solaire, the seats on transport shuttles were always too small for him. He was unusually quiet on the ride to the ship as he tried his best not to bump into anybody and squeeze even further into his seat to let people past him. It wasn't his first time in a cramped space like this and he'd learned that his boisterous nature, large size, and small spaces didn't mix well. So he kept to himself and enjoyed the scene outside his window. The sheer size of the ship filled Ved with awe and excitement. He couldn't wait to get started.

It wasn't long before the shuttle was docked and they were all off loaded. Ved took a moment to stretch and work the kinks out of his body. As he worked out the discomfort in his limbs a sudden harsh voice called out as what he soon learned was there commanding officer started to do some kind of introduction. She was quickly interrupted by an older man who seemed, at least from his perspective, to enjoy messing with the LT.

That was when he noticed the panicked look on one of the piolets face. "Hey, don't worry." He said in a very low rumbling voice. "Just think of it like a physical to see where our baseline is and where we can improve." He gave the young lady his biggest smile to try and assure her. Despite his fellow pilots distress Ved was very excited, a simulation that realistic and there only objective was to fight and survive. Sounded like a good time to him.

The lieutenant's eyes glanced over to the Marques twins, and the two men realized at that moment that they were caught. "Clever use of non-verbal communication, Cadets Nero and Sanro," she noted as she walked right up to them, before she leaned closer towards them, adjusting the rim of her glasses with a single finger. "But I won't tolerate idle chatter in my presence, whether it is in words or in eyebrow wiggles. You won't get a warning next time. Understood?" She asked.

Regardless of the two's response, the lieutenant pressed a key on her device, and a faint tone rang out briefly from the pilots' personal devices. "Your devices have now been linked to the Solaire network under my flag. I will use the designated squad channel to hand out missions and other critical information whenever I am unable to do so in person. The network also allows sending messages, so report to me whenever the need arises."

As Elora was in the middle of listening to the officer's instructions, she happened to glance over to Minerva's direction, only to meet her eyes: to her, it seemed like she was giving an icy cold glare to her, though it was simply indifference on the latter's part. Nonetheless, as she felt the social dread rise within her, she wondered whether she should just walk right then and there to her cabin and bury her face in a pillow. However, she was suddenly startled by the touch on her shoulder. "Cadet Liu'un, concentrate! This is important information, and I won't be repeating myself." The lieutenant chastised her, and she saluted back with a trembling hand. "Y-Yes, ma'm!" The officer then continued speaking of various less important matters such as daily meals, laundry and so on, while Elora glanced over to see that the well-dressed brother gave a thumbs up. She subtly nodded back, surprised by the gesture.

More expressions of kindness came her way, as Zane suggested using a breathing technique to calm herself down. She nervously complied, and managed to recover enough to stop shaking, placing a hand on her chest to measure her breathing rhythm. The tanned man of the group, David, also reminded her that the mission was non-lethal. Ved, the largest pilot of them all, also chimed in, reassuring her that the practice mission was meant for estimating piloting capability and was an opportunity to improve safely, assuaging her worries with a smile full of teeth.

Even Rose, an alien, seemed to try and lift her spirits; even if it came across as a little strange, Elora sincerely appreciated it, and a small smile began to form on her face. It was about then that Ritsu had finished her instructions. She nodded with an agreeing smile as Rose, the Rosnian pilot of the group, expressed her enthusiasm...Or as close to such an emotion as a member of their species is capable of, what with every word of theirs coming off as enthusiastic and full of energy. However, this didn't seem to mind the lieutenant. In fact, Rose could tell that for a human, she was surprisingly acute in sensing the Rosnian's demeanor past her voice and verbal signalling. "That is what I like to hear, Cadet Rose. It also seems like your family agrees," she noted upon looking down at the two smaller Rosnians. "However, do not let yourself be distracted while on duty, Cadet," she reminded the short alien in an unusually mindful manner.

"Anyway, those are the basics," Ritsu concluded. "The training schedule will be handed out at a later time. I will leave an prepare for the practice mission now. I suggest you also prepare. Dismissed." And with that, the lieutenant turned, and began to walk away, the clack of her heels echoing over the vast hangar, soon drowned in the clamor of workers and heavy machinery. Elora took in a deep breath, and then gave a bow to the other pilots. She felt like she had to say something. "M-My name is Elora Liu'un," she began, and bowed politely.
"I'm going to do my best, so...I hope we can get a-along. Thank you." And with that, she picked up her bags of luggage, and then started walking away, though it resembled more of a flustered half-sprint towards one of the corridors.

Once she reached the women's side of the pilot quarters, Elora prepared herself mentally for the mission as she unpacked what little personal belongings she had, and looked at the open locket on her palm. "Mom...Dad...I won't let your deaths be in vain. It's scary, but I will get through this...I will." For the rest of her time, she wandered Solaire uneasily as she first went to take a look at her Framewerk, Logic Diver. She approached the front chassis of the titanium titan, and laid a hand on it in contemplation. "It might be in virtual reality...But I'll still be piloting you," she spoke softly. "I just wonder if you will receive any of the data from that mission...Probably not. Anyway, see you later, LD."

With that, as the hour came to a close, it was finally time to suit up. She went to the women's locker room, dreading the prospect of putting on the uniform: the last time she had to wear one, it was meant for an older and more mature pilot, resulting in the front sagging and flapping like some bizarre poncho as she walked. She shuddered at the memory of it when she opened the locker and took her uniform out. To her surprise, the lieutenant had ordered for her to receive a new uniform: not only was it more protective, with advanced nanotechnology weaved into the Carbonox plates, it also came with a wrist-mounted display with and inbuilt small processing unit. She gasped as she saw that there was even a game installed to it: Definitive Daydream XXI, the very latest role-playing game in the hit hologame franchise.
While nervous about putting the suit on, the promise of gaming pulled through, and Elora gained the courage to change clothes.

When she was ready, she looked at herself in the mirror, and sighed: the suit fit her properly this time, though that came with problems of its own too. I don't think anyone's going to beat the lieutenant... She thought to herself, and headed towards the virtual training room:



The room was shaped like a donut, with the circle housing the open virtual reality pods the pilots were to enter, and the center a command station where the handlers for the virtual reality mission program were located. The pilots would be immersed completely in a sense-overriding chemical compound as they entered their pods. According to the pilot's manual Elora read, the chemical was highly oxygenated, allowing the occupant to breathe the liquid as if it was air. The compound's main function is as a neural mediator, allowing the pilot's nervous system to be electro-chemically interfaced with by sending specific electric signals from a central computing unit running various simulation programs. In other words, it could perfectly simulate any kind of reality directly into the occupants' nerves. Whatever they saw, heard, smelled, touched or even tasted could be controlled...And the occupant wouldn't know the difference.

Elora gulped, once again letting her body tremble. But then, she remembered what the other pilots said and showed him: she wouldn't be the only one diving into this simulacrum. They would all share the same virtual reality, and the same mission. People would count on her, and she wouldn't let them down. With newfound courage in her heart, she laid down into the pod. As the pod's lid closed, and the electro-chemical compound started to fill the pod, she closed her eyes, and let herself dive mentally.

Soon, she found herself sitting in a cockpit which was very familiar to her: it belonged to Logic Diver, her trusty metallic companion. Beyond the machine's optic detection system, she saw other Framewerks around her, like Rose's Senko-san to the left of her, and Zane's Goliath Buster to the right, among others. They were all situated in a grassy clearing, surrounded by a vast forest full of gigantic trees: they were tall enough to cover even a Very Heavy Framewerk, though Super Heavy Frames like Ved's Reaver were tall enough to see past the treetops, witnessing a sea of green leaves that seemed to stretch to the horizon in every direction except one, straight ahead. There, Ved saw what looked like a forest glade. A blue sky hung above, with only scant few clouds drifting across it.

Elora turned the ignition key, and heard not only the rising roar of Logic Diver's engine, but also the various computer systems booting with beeps and boops, accompanied by subtle flashes of opening screens and displays. She heard Lorenzo coughing in the command channel of the communication system, followed by words:

"Cadets, wait for further instructions. System checkups and communications are permitted. But If I see anyone deploy their Framewerk prematurely, they will be penalized immediately. That is all."

Even if they were permitted to deploy, Elora would still have waited until the the rest of the squad was ready. She checked her systems, and they were all green. She then opened up the Combat Analyzer, and set it to limit its environmental data processing to forested terrain, speeding up data processing. She added LD's data to the map for cross-referencing. It was easy enough to do, the Combat Analyzer being a state-of-the art supercomputer that could be customized up to the finest details, though Elora didn't touch on anything more than was necessary. She leaned back on her seat once she was done setting up a shared communication channel between her and the rest of the Framewerks, and then contacted them once they were in their Framewerks: "Testing, testing, do you read me? It seems the mission will take place in a forest. I'm already detecting at least three pathways large enough for all of us to pass through, but I'll set us up with a better map once we get moving." She then switched to the command channel. "Umm, ready for deployment."

She felt relaxed and at ease while she was sitting in front of a computer; she was truly in her element now. Elora was quite adept with computers for her young age, and was thus chosen to pilot a Framewerk reliant on expert technical skills like Logic Diver was. Unlike the outside world which was full of hate and malice, inside Logic Diver she felt like she was safe from all that. It was comforting, almost as if she was held in her own mother's arms.

But she shook her head.

I can't think about things like that. The mission comes first.

Zane would never admit it but he was somewhat grateful for the girl's luckily brief breakdown, if it hadn't happened he would have gone straight to Goliath Buster without interacting with any of the other pilots. This way he had at least some interaction with some of them without being the center of attention and he hoped it would make it easier to talk to the older men and Rosnian as well the girl herself later.

Still when the girl seemed to be calming down Zane moved back a little as he didn't feel ready to talk to anyone at the moment. He really wasn't up to talking with anyone he didn't know at the moment if he didn't have too and the moment Lieutenant Kanamek dismissed them he grabbed and headed straight to the Framewerk hangar. Once inside the cockpit of Goliath Buster he finally relaxed a little, his shoulders dropping and jaw unclenching. "I can do this. It's just 7 people, 8 counting the luitenant. That is not too much and at least three seem nice while one should understand reacting poorly due to stress. I can do this.

After about 20 minutes Zane finally made his way to the pilot's quarters hoping his absence wasn't noticed and just put his bags away, planning to unpack later. Instead he grabbed his tablet and read up on the VR system they would be dealing with for a bit. While he hadn't learned nearly as much as he had hoped Zane absolutely didn't want to be late for the first "mission". That would simply be asking for the wrong kind of attention, so after less than thirty minutes he went to the locker room and got changed.

When he arrived at the virtual training room he went straight for his pod, not worried about the electro-chemical compound that filled it after he had entered. He was a bit surprised that Elora was the first to speak up after the Luitenant but she sounded a lot calmer than earlier and knowing about that map was useful info. "Good to know." He was about to switch to the other channel when he wondered if he should say more. "Ehm my Framewerk has repair droids...so if you take damage...le let me know.

Hoping that was enough Zane switched to the Command Channel and not knowing what else to say just repeated Elora "Ready for deployment." His finger hovered over the button to put his Marker Light into Marker mode figuring he would be more helpful giving his teammate an advantage from the start than if he just shot some other weapon blindly.

@Ariamis@Goblininamech@Digmata@AlternateMan@DracoLunaris@ctrlsaltdel

As Elora was lost in thought while touching Logic Diver, she did not notice that Minerva had come into the Framewerk hangar until she had stopped before Argo, causing her to blink and silently gasp. “Oh! You’re…Umm…Minerva, right? I saw your name in the list of pilots for the squad...” Elora spoke softly as she apprehensively approached her.

The Argo is stationed directly opposite to the Logic Driver, allowing the two pilots to hear each other despite the softness of Elora’s voice. “Indeed I am.” she spoke, a little surprised but pleased at Elora's initiative at learning everyone's names. Minerva didn't move from her location or give Elora a glance, as she was more concerned with ensuring that Argo is in peak condition for the virtual exercise.

“Is there any reason you asked?” the white haired woman asked, sounding annoyed despite not intending to.

Elora glanced reflexively aside while keeping her hands up to her chest, as if expecting her to be hit with another glare. “Well…I guess I wanted to confirm the list was correct,” she said, aware of how flimsy the excuse was. She wasn’t the best at socializing, especially with someone as intimidating as the white-haired pilot. So she decided to bring up something common to them both. “That’s Argo, your Framewerk, correct?” She asked, looking up and lifting a finger to point at the Framewerk. ”How long have you piloted him?”

‘Is this what they call a small talk? This is very awkward.’ Minerva thought as she looked at Argo’s cockpit.

“I've been fighting for the Federation with him for five years, and been piloting him for eight.” she answered, a bit of pride creeping on her chest as she let out a smile. “Been in some close battles with it.”

“How about you, how long have you been piloting your Framewerk, you called it Logic Driver right?”

“Eight years?” Elora stated with a blink and an open hand lifted up to her mouth. “That’s incredible. You must know a lot about Framework piloting.” When it was her turn, she managed a slight smile: it seemed she managed to get a conversation going despite the initial difficulties. “I’ve only piloted Logic Diver for a couple of years, and even then only for practice back at the academy, and basic VR stuff. I haven't seen real combat yet…” She admitted.

Minerva's gaze narrowed for a moment, they let someone inexperienced here? And here she thought she was done babysitting idiots.

“Oh, I see.” she muttered quite weakly. “You must be very good at the academy if you managed to get here.” she tried to diplomatically add.

It is clear to her tone however that she didn't believe or that the statement is a compliment in the first place.

Elora’s smile faded as Minerva’s demeanour seemed to worsen, and she held her arm apprehensively. “I suppose so…I did work hard with my studies, but I never really felt like I belonged there. It was full of rich kids, or kids who come from renowned families. I guess they happened to see potential, or something like that in me…” As Elora lifted her eyes up to look at Minerva, her gaze seemed to linger, as if she went into a trance.

”Stop.” Minerva's voice cuts through Elora’s trance, forcing the woman to look at her yellow eyes by sheer force of being. There is no outburst in our voice but that doesn't mean it wasn't overflowing with rage.

“Don't talk about potential, what you might be, what you can be, it doesn't matter. They won't wait, won't show any mercy, won't give you time.” she paused for a little moment to emphasize her next words.

“So don't be proud of what you will be and to be honest, I’m not impressed with what I see of you now.”

Elora’s eyes snapped wide open at Minerva, and she couldn't stop herself from trembling before her open hostility.
“I-I didn’t mean it like that,” she weakly tried to defend herself, but she knew it was already too late for her: the more experienced woman had all but admitted that she had no respect or kindness for her, only cold hate for her weakness.
Biting her lower lip, Elora turned away. “I’m sorry. I…I gotta prepare. Goodbye.” And with that, she walked away, leaving a couple of tears in her wake.

The white haired girl watched Elora leave in disappointment, she didn't try to fight back, her defense is non-existent at best. She would get herself killed at their first deployment, if she didn't leave outright.

She let out a sigh, she definitely went overboard and she might've burned a lot of bridges once this incident leaks out.

But it's fine.

Her eyes fell on the red hair tie in her arm, memories of an annoying woman, a persistent woman filled her head.

If she was this good back then, would there be more survivors in the aftermath? Would she see her once again?

She'd never needed someone else since then.

Unbeknownst to Minerva, Elora had more reason to leave than was apparent: she was frightened by a vision of a scarred Minerva aiming a gun at her, followed by a blinding flash of light. She didn't know if it was an omen of what was to come, but she hoped it was simply a trick of her fearful imagination.

---

Minerva remained silent as everyone else prepared themselves in the forest. Her framewerk is properly calibrated and the weapons are functioning as intended. Sitting inside Argo her faithful armor, preparing herself for an intense battle. Yes she is made for this situation.

She made one last glance at Elora, it seems that she’ll be staying in the back.

Good, she might survive this simulation at the very least.

As the group dispersed, Nero looked over at his brother and tilted his head in the direction of the barracks. Sanro shook his head at the unspoken question, then nodded his own head to indicate that Nero should go on without him. His brother raised an eyebrow and looked back and forth between Sanro and the Lieutenant, who was now walking away; he looked like he wanted to say something, but instead he just shrugged, shouldered his pack, and followed the small crowd heading towards quarters.

Sanro grabbed his own bag as well, but instead of going along with anyone else, he jogged lightly and caught up with Ritsu. “Excuse me, Lieutenant? Do you have a minute?”

The lieutenant stopped and turned to Sandro with practiced grace. “Yes, I do, Cadet. What’s on your mind? Was there something you wanted clarification on?” She asked with a hand resting on her hip, keeping mostly the same professional outlook, but with a hint of gentleness.

Sanro came to a stop. It was awkward, with his bag still hefted over his shoulder, but he attempted at least a semblance of military posture.

"Thank you, ma'am." He was clearly trying to school his expression, but for a second something that looked like anger flashed across his face. "I wanted to ask you about the Professor." Sanro paused, took a deep breath. "I... don't fully understand his position in the chain of command. And I have some concerns about his attitude towards some of the other members of the squad." The young man tilted his head slightly and met Ritsu's eyes, hoping no further clarification would be necessary.

Ritsu sighed, and slightly lowered her head. “Yes, I should have expected that you would ask about the Executive Officer. However, regardless of your personal feelings, I suggest you do not antagonize him, or give him any reason to do so. The Galactic Federation’s Parliament of Defence had assigned him as the director of the Framewerk Project XJ9. In other words, he is the highest in the chain of authority. However,” she then spoke, lifting her eyes up in thought with a hand to her chin. “Colonel Cain has been given inspection duties over the Framework Project, and the Executive Officer, so he does not have absolute power. Still, I would be careful around him: while I hold some rank, even I cannot ignore his position.”

Sanro listened, doing his best to appear impassive. "I'm glad to hear that there's some oversight in place. That said, I'm a soldier, ma'am. I'm fully capable of keeping my personal feelings in check." An uncharitable observer might have doubted that statement, given the tension evident in the young man's body, but he continued anyway. "What I'm worried about are his."

He looked to one side, then the other. The other pilots had all dispersed, and for the moment he and the Lieutenant were alone in the corridor.

Having confirmed that no one was within earshot, Sanro turned back to Ritsu. "Do you know what the deal is with his attitude towards Minerva?" His mouth twisted into a frown, like he had eaten something unpleasant. "I hope I'm misreading the situation, ma'am, but the Professor looked... Well, 'disgusted' with her, is the only word that fits. I've looked at the service records of the other members of the squad--the publicly available parts, I mean--and hers is, well, impressive. So I'm having a hard time understanding where that's coming from."

She looked aside into the distance. “I am not at liberty to speak of such matters, for I do not know. Only the Executive Officer himself can answer about his personal feelings…not that I think he will. It might have something to do with the Olympus Project, but that's all I’ll say on the matter, Cadet.”

Sanro kept his gaze locked on the Lieutenant for a long second after she spoke, then jerked his head to the side. "Yes, ma'am. Understood." After another silent moment he straightened, saluted, and marched off towards the barracks.

---

Fortress Ship Solaire, Framewerk Hangar - collab. w/ @DracoLunaris

---

Having dropped off his things in the barracks, Nero walked through the maintenance door to the Framewerk hangar. Their brief stop there had confirmed for him that his and Sanro's frames had made it over, but something had compelled him to come back and give his machine a quick once over before training.

He admitted to himself that it didn't make much sense. Even if either element of Legionnaire had an issue, that wouldn't affect the VR training--and the same was true of any diagnostics he did. But he didn't have anything better to do with his time, so here he was.

Nero walked down the row of giants, looking for Romulus and Remus. Before he found them, though, his eyes were drawn to a curious-looking machine. Rather than the humanoid or semi-humanoid shape used by most Framewerks, this one resembled some sort of cephalopod. Also unlike many of the other machines in the hangar, this one was being actively attended to--and by Rosnians, no less.

He hadn't encountered many of the aliens, but he'd known a few, both in college and in the military. At the very least, he was able to pick out that this crew belonged to one of his fellow squadmates. Said squadmade--Rose, if he remembered right--was standing next to the frame where it stood inert. She was engaged in what sounded to him like an energetic conversation with a pair of what Nero assumed to be her crew--though with Rosnians it was hard to tell from a distance.

One Rosnian sat a short distance away from the rest--she was perched on a crate, looking at something on her holo-tab that Nero couldn't see. What he could see, though, was the military R&D ID card hanging from her neck.

For a second, he thought about continuing on to find Remus--then swerved, walking towards the sole Rosnian.

"Uh, hey. Sorry to bother you, but I saw your keycard." Nero gave her a wave and wiggled his finger around where a keycard would hang on himself. "I actually just got assigned out from R&D myself. Name's Nero Marques."

The Rosnan’s third eye, which had swiveled towards him as he approached, swiveled back down to what she had been reading even as the rest of the Rosinan’s features swiveled their focus to him. Her ears had raised in slight surprise at his approach, and then more when he told her his circumstance, which also caused her third eye to flick up again.

“To piloting!” she began forgetting, it seemed, to preface/amend this with an emotion, before her third eye looked up at the ceiling as she then said “Politeness: I am called She by whose hands we will forge a new age of wonders but you can call me Val!” with exactly the same tone as her initial statement.

Same went for “Curiosity: How can I help you, Cadet Marques!” as she put the device down, giving him almost all of her attention, sans that of her now wandering eye.

Nero laughed nervously. "Yeah, I don't quite get it, either. Well, it's nice to meet you, Val." Something seemed to occur to him, just then; his head tilted slightly to one side, and his eyebrows perked up.

"Speaking honestly, I just wanted to introduce myself. It's been a bit of a culture shock over the past couple of months, so I'm glad to see someone whose experience is more like mine in the hangar."

The young man straightened up and his expression turned curious. "Do you work on the Framewerk side of things, or are you on other projects?" Suddenly, he made a noise and pinched his nose. "Ack! I'm sorry, I'm being rude. If you're busy, just let me know and I'll get out of your hair."

Val’s third eye glanced up at her bald head as the woman herself made a clicking sound that she then clarified that she found this “humorous!” before saying “Placating: do not worry! We got all the professors’ modifications done already, so I am mostly killing time waiting for your test to start! ”

Having somewhat let on what her deal was anyway, she then proceeded to answer his question explicitly “helpful clarification: I am part of a team helping combine our tech with your tech to make something better than both! That mostly involves Framewerks here, but they’ve had us work on all sorts of different fields over the years, a few of which are part of the ship we’re on!”

Her ears had been wiggling animatedly as she spoke about that, before they stilled and she added “Apologetic tempering of expectations: I don’t have clearance for the blueprints, but I have noticed a few things while I’ve been here that are ours!”

"Oh?" Nero's eyebrows shot up. "That's really interesting! I haven't worked with many Rosnians, but I took a class on comparative computer systems in university, and I have to say that the way Rosnian architecture handles parallel data streams is really interesting."

The young man squatted on another nearby crate, his attention now very clearly focused on the conversation. "I tried to use some of the same principles when I was working on the command and control system for Legionnaire's drones, and the efficiency gains--" Nero started prattling on in that vein, his intention to visit his Framewerk before the training session all but forgotten.

Val, as it turned out, was more than happy to join in, and the minutes began to rapidly tick away without either one of them keeping track of them. Indeed, their nattering only came to an end when a certain Rosnian approached and cleared her throat.

So deeply engrossed had her daughter been, that she startled, ears perking right up in surprise and third eye glancing around wildly.

“Casual reminder: We have a test in 7 minutes!” Rose informed them, which startled her daughter even harder, the Rosnian saying “Ah! I need to be at observation!” in her tongue as she hopped up, before offering “I have to go! We should talk again!” before moving off in a hurry, only to glance back and toss back “apologizing and genuine!” to clarify her tone before continuing to hurry away. She was intercepted on her way out by her sister, who after a burst of Rosnian speech promptly tagged along.

“Light teasing: you two seem to have been getting on well!” Rose said once farewells had been said, or rather yelled. The older woman’s eyes sparked with amusement as she watched her daughters go, quite sure they’d be on time, while her third glanced Nero up and down, as if inspecting him.

Nero was just as startled as Val, but he recovered quickly and gave her a wave and a smile good-bye as she ran off. That meant he was facing away from Rose as she teased him, which was a good thing, since her comment sent him blushing--as much from the forthright admission that she was teasing him as anything. He spun around and turned his smile on the other Rosnian. "Oh, yeah, I guess so. Rose, right? It sounds like we ought to get going, too. Mind if I walk with you?"

“Polite agreement: of course!” she agreed, main eyes flicking to a holo-tab on which a little map was displayed while her third kept him in view. “Confident: this way” she asserted, ears flicking in a direction that she manually pointed to a moment later, before setting off.

Nero fell into step behind Rose, hands in his pockets. "You seem to know your ground crew pretty well," he mentioned offhandedly. "How long have you been working with them?"

The woman tilted one ear up and one down as she said “thoughtful: Quite a while for some! Ram and Rem are Fixi’s childhood friends, and Lilly Cheng’s been part of the crew since they started dating her a few years back!” all three eyes flicked to him for a moment, before she went on “Des, Hol and Noel joined when I was promoted to framewerk pilot, though (joke) you could say my crew from my starpilot days joined them instead!” before rattling off a few more names who’d joined up since then, as well as a few who had left for what seemed to be positive reasons.

Nero's smile grew gentle and wistful as Rose went on about the various members of her crew, both past and present. "You know," he interjected, once she had finished listing off the members of her team, "I'm a little jealous. I'm glad I've finally gotten to see--" Something seemed to catch in his voice; Nero looked uncomfortable for a second, cleared his throat, and continued. "--to see my brother again, but I haven't seen my parents in going on two years now. It must be nice to have people like that with you wherever you go."

“Assertion: Rosnians stick together” the woman, who had not picking up on the vocal hitch or facial expression, replied, before she insisted “We have to, with all we’ve lost, or we’d be scattered to the waves”

Had she instinctively understood his human mannerisms, or had had time to process them, she would have offered comfort there and then, but at it was, with the time they had, she only had his words, and so in response to them was “Genuine offer: if you want to talk about it, you can with me. Or val. It has been a long time since I saw her and I… she knows what that is like!”

Nero nodded as she spoke. He hadn't really though of it like that, but it made sense. 'We have to stick together with all we've lost', huh? The young man's look turned serious, and he regarded Rose for a moment. He was no better at reading her body language than she was his--probably worse, in fact. But... the loyalty she clearly inspired in others gave him the sense that he might be able to trust her too.

He nodded at her. "Thanks, I really do appreciate it." Looking up again, he came to a stop; their conversation had carried them all the way to the lockers adjoining the VR training room. "Well then. Glad we got to talk, Rose. I guess I'll see you inside."

“Enthusiastic; See you there!” she echoed, before they went their separate ways into the gendered changing rooms.

Rose entered the ladies changing room with just enough time to spare, and proceeded through her changing with regimented efficiency. Casual wear was tossed off, exposing biology that was considerably more alien than it had first appeared when covered in clothing. It also exposed a body worn by time and injury. Ironically the major signifiers of the latter were patches of skin considerably less scarred by the former, where skin grafts had replaced scars and burns.

After that she pulled on a Rosnian made pilot suit, armored plating covering her extremities, while lighter Nanoweave hugged closer to the alien’s hyper-dense muscles, trading increased vulnerability for increased flexibility. Nothing unusual there. What was perhaps unusual was the last items she donned, namely a pair of laser-handguns that she magnetized to her hips. They were unloaded, if the digital ammo counters on the back were to be believed, but the presence of several small cartridge shaped batteries attached to the armor above the handguns indicated that they were not ceremonial in nature in the slightest.

What was not clear from the outside was the multipurpose nature of the weapons. More than a weapon of last resort to prevent, one way or the other, capture by the enemy, they were also to be used as cutting tools to help a pilot escape the wreck of their vehicle, as well as as additional thrusters for navigating zero-G environments.

Thus prepared, the veteran pilot stepped out of the changing room, and headed out to see if this VR setup they had really would feel like the real thing.

---

The first thing Rose did upon entering the virtual cockpit was reach up to and pull down what looked like a blindfold from the ceiling of her cockpit, and slipped it over her third eye. Her ears shivered with discomfort for a moment as the blindfold tightened around her head, the front bulging as it pressed right up against the eye beneath it, before she re-acclimatized to the feeling.

Only then did she fire up the engine using a triangular key, causing patterns then lit up on the front of the blindfold, stylized to look like a symbolic depiction of an even larger eye, one that tracked the movements of the one below. Around her, conventional screens lit up, revealing the forest of greens and browns. That quickly changed, as with an intonation of “Testing, 1, 2, 3” the view switched from optical to RADAR, LADAR, Infrared and then back to optical again, basking the interior briefly in cold and then warm hues.

Ears flicked in please affirmation at this, before she switched to the command channel and said “Concerned warning: if you have an aversion to flashing lights, don’t look at my secondary feed!” cheerful sounding as ever, before testing the different settings of her Multiple Fire Control System once more. The mains screens did not change, but the smaller one inside the blindfold that her third eye was pressed against did, flicking first though each in turn as a test, only for some kind of debug console to pop up, Rose to type in a string of Rosnian glyphs, which caused the flicking between view modes to rapidly increase in speed till it was doing so at epileptic seizure inducing speed.

It should have resulted in a completely incomprehensible blur, and indeed to anyone looking over her figurative shoulder it did, but veteran Rosnain pilots swore that their third eyes were able to enter a zen state where all the feeds blurred together, where they could spot the unseen with ease.

Of course, they then had to work out what feed the independently operating eye had spotted something on, and hope that what it had spotted wasn’t just something that looked a bit too much like the shape of a Homeworld predator, but still, they swore by it, and as one of them, as perhaps one of their exemplars at this point, so too did Rose.

Once her hack was set in place, Rose set about making use of the MFCS’s actual intended functions, opening up the shared communication channel and saying “Informative: sending sensor data gifts to you!” before doing a test of pinging the other framewerks with data packets containing (fortunately non strobing) sets her visual feeds so they could get an example of what those were like to receive, and adapt their own interfaces to handle them accordingly.

Once that was confirmed to be working, she then directly asked Elora “Polite query: Does this help with your maps!” assuming that their two data gathering systems had been configured to work together in preparation for them working together, but making sure to double check.

With the data feeds all set up, she then did a quick test of the other systems.

The Stargazer test was simple for all that it was an incredibly complex device: she made a falling leaf dance to her tune right before her framewerk’s primary sensor.

The actual motion of the mech meanwhile was a slightly more involved process, the Ronsian flexing her fingers, making each of her framewerk’s tendrils flick and squirm to test their dexterity and responsiveness, before doing a few steps to ensure the three legs were all working properly, the limbs tracking off her own 2 and the nerve impulses of a residual tail her kind had.

It was an unorthodox setup by human standards, but was actually a rather mature Rosnain technology. Their low gravity incredibly vertical homeworld had never been very suited for roads, its trees, mountains and cities all reaching far higher into the sky than they did on Earth. As such something that could navigate that difficult terrain had been a much higher priority than it had been on the human homeworld, and the reduced gravity had also reduced the material science requirements needed to make something that would not be at the mercy of the square cube law.

The original designs Senko-San was a distant descendant too had used the brain of a native beast of burden to bypass the need for complex AI, but obviously they were far past such things these days.

Obviously.

The setup had then followed them to the stars, be it as landing legs on shuttles or as vehicles to explore low-G frontier worlds. They had even found use even on Rose’s much higher gravity world, the most ubiquitous use being that of an amphibious craft that worked around and under the floating cities dotting its globe spanning ocean. It was that, she thought, which gave the vessel such a nostalgic feeling, one that reminded her of happier days before she had lost so much.

A pinging sound caused the Rose to blink all three eyes, the woman having been briefly lost in a memory of watching a vast migration of native sea life from within those vessels alongside her lost loves, and returned to the present. A glance at the cause of the noise, a report that all three of her Framewerk’s weapon systems had passed the automated diagnostic tests she’d initiated, firmly anchored her back in it.

With that, all the systems were good to go, and so after reporting as such, there was little to do but hurry up and wait for the mission to begin.

---

Fortress Ship Solaire - VR Training Complex

---

Sanro was putting his fatigues into the locker, fully changed, when Nero came through the door of the locker room. The former raised his eyebrows: Cutting it close enough? Nero shrugged at him; even as he spoke, he began stripping. "I went walk over to the Frame; ran into Rose and some of the Rosnian contingent. Good people. Lost track of time."

Nero had yet to see real combat, but he was practiced at this part, and was pulling on his skinsuit within moments. "How about you?" he asked as he pulled the suit's gloves tight. "How did your talk with the Lieutenant go?" Sanro stood leaning against the locker next to him, drumming his fingers against the doorframe; his only response was to make a grunting noise and avert his eyes from his brother.

"I see," Nero murmured. He sealed the skinsuit up, straightened, and stretched his hands up into the air, taking a deep breath in exertion. Then he let it out, his arms dropping, and held up a fist towards his brother.

Ready?

Without looking, Sanro rapped the offered fist with his own.

Let's go.

---

"Critical systems check, complete. Power systems nominal. Legionnaire Interconnect System fully functional."

The various bits of white "armor" on Legionnaire flexed and shifted, vernier thrusters pointing in various directions as the machine vented coolant. Inside the cockpit, Nero's hands flew over the keyboard as he looked over the readings. The spherical holo-display in front of him currently showed a projection of Legionnaire, flashing various shades of yellow and orange which one-by-one turned green, and various bits of information presented themselves as they became available.

In the other cockpit, Sanro gripped his own controls experimentally; his systems hadn't yet been engaged, so the machine stayed still, but the resistance of the grips set him at ease.

"Onboard weapons check. Assault rifle, check. Energy projection module, check." The hands of the machine glowed briefly, then went dull again.

Sanro reached over, flipping his own communication set to the squad channel.

"Copying you both, Logic Diver, Goliath Buster," he said, his voice calm.

"Drone system check. Gladius drones, one through eight--" The "feathers" of the single wing hanging off Legionnaire's back rippled and undulated as the eight drones performed systems tests.
"--all check."

"I know we don't know each other very well, but I'm counting on all of you."

"Parma and Scutum drones: fully charged. Augury drones alpha, beta, gamma, delta, prepped for launch."

"And in return, you can count on me and my brother."

Nero brought his finger down one last time, and the holo-version of Legionnaire glowed green. "All systems check!" He reached over, switching his coms to the squad channel as well. "Remus, ready!"

Sanro grinned and leaned back in his shock frame, arms crossed, as a small monitor near his knee showed the same all-good diagram. "Romulus, ready. Legionnaire, ready to deploy!"

The time before the training started passed by in an eventless manner- other than the one soldier having a moment of panic (which was resolved rather quickly). Once the situation was resolved, David shrugged and turned around to check out his assigned quarters. When combat was telegraphed, there were a few things he could do to spend the desolate countdown. Many, when he was quite the new face around here, but an hour was so little to do so much. A budget cut was inevitable. His decision was quick prep.

---

Once dismissed, David's first destination was his quarters. With just enough effort put to call his actions "unpacking", David took a small sip from his water bottle as he looked at the small bags and some of its contents sprawled over his bed. 'Maybe this time we have a fighting chance. He traced his memory back to the crew. Looks couldn't deceive if he couldn't find a consistent image in the sum of the group. But maybe that's what the ones in charge saw hope in.
The sip was to control his "rhythm." He didn't want to be too thirsty, nor too hydrated at the start of the fight. Either was a distraction. Using the time to do his homework, David pulled out his personal device to go through the information on the facility, especially the one to be used in training.

---

Ten minutes before the estimated time.
"They put some effort into this, huh."
David muttered under his breath as he entered the virtual training room. One person, one pod, to be filled with fluids to encase them in a simulated reality. He found that he wasn't the first- getting too absorbed in the reading material had taken some time away from him. Already a handful of pods had been taken. Impressive, There was no reason to take his time, then. David made his way to a pod himself. As the fluids encased him, he only hoped that they got his cockpit right. After all the time he spent in there, it'd suck to find some niche details represented wrong. The distraction of a thought helped him dive comfortably into the simulation, as the sensation of floating in the midst of the compound changing to that of a more familiar, solid feeling. David spread his shoulders and reached around for the handles. Just where he usually kept them, perfect. His eyes opened to a beautifully copied sight of the inside of the Flag Bearer. A hulking machine that never forgot to announce itself. Even in simulation, he could feel the weight from just holding the handles.

"Testing comms. Do you read?"
David reached for the comms control, and let out a test mutter into the team's channel. With the other hand, he began to flick the switches on his dashboard. With each function online, the machine began to hum with life. A screen in the middle of the dashboard lit up, showing a wireframe shape of the Flag Bearer, and its attachments. The wireframe was an empty collection of contours, slowly lighting up as switches were flicked on. First, the heart of the machine. Then, the light spread around in a spiderweb of power lines. Additional reactors powered up on the back, boosting the bootup in a noticable pace. The power lines flooded in to the wing-like artillery mortars, then to the rest of its body.
"All systems green to green, Flag Bearer is ready for deployment."
He announced to the command channel.

As each pilot reported in, Elora listened quietly, noting any additional mentions for the particular weaponry or other systems her fellow squadmates specialized in. While she did read the files pertaining to them, it still helped her to retain that knowledge with vocal reminders. "Understood, Goliath Buster. Marking the effective range of repair drones on your HUD," she spoke when Zane spoke, and with a quick clack of they keyboard created a new graphical element for Zane to use when gauging effective radius for his repairs. As she finished up, she let out a slight gasp as Rose sent data her way, followed by audible joy in communications. "Yes, thank you, Senko-san!" While the strobe lights were surprising, Elora did not mind the visual feed once she dimmed the brightness down.

When the rest of the squad reported in, the pilots once again heard Lorenzo's voice on the command channel. "Alright then- Ritsu's going to give out the mission briefing now. Make sure to listen carefully." Soon, it was Ritsu's turn to speak.
"We have detected high energy readings from the mountains directly north from your position, ETA 10 minutes if travelling by full speed. We suspect that the Cruxi have set up an outpost and preparing artillery to strike against the defenses for a nearby colony."

"Your mission objective is to destroy the artillery and capture the outpost before the weapons are fired on the colony defenses in half an hour. Based on older intelligence, it seems the artillery weaponry employed by the enemy is highly accurate and devastating, but only when they have direct line of sight to the target. Therefore, it is recommended to use the local terrain to your advantage when approaching the target. However, be wary of vanguard units in the area as well as at the outpost: we suspect defenses to not only include standard Cruxi War Machines, but also Cruxi Snipers and Cruxi Beasts. You also have to keep damage to the local environment to a minimum: not only are these trees millennia old and considered a world nature relic, they also sustain the ecosystem for various lifeforms and endangered species including sabretusk mammoths. Do you have any questions?"

As Ritsu waited for questions, Elora finished mapping out the three routes she mentioned previously: the first path was the fastest, but would have the least coverage, and thus be the most susceptible for long range weaponry. Another route goes near the first one, but performs certain winding turns for more coverage, but lagging behind the first, and also happens to hit a nesting ground for sabretusk mammoths. The third path is the safest, but takes a detour, resulting in the slowest route. Of course, there was always the option of outright ignoring cover and flying above the forest for the absolute fastest route.

The Flag Bearer's vintage dashboard highlighted squadmates' connection status. And soon, Lorenzo and Ritsu chimed in to give the team a quick briefing of the situation. David analyzed what he could in the moment of standby- which wasn't a meaningful amount, as neither his machine nor his body was trained or built for long range scans. The best he got was basic visuals: woodlands. 'Eh, that's what teammates are for. No one's built as a one man army.' If there was a proper scanner mounted on someone, then the scouting results would be more promising.

Once the briefing was done, David let out a silent grunt. The situation came with a built in dilemma, as all things did. The artillery would blast them down easily if they were out in the open, but staying in cover had the risk of damaging the local environment, should they be under enemy fire. A too leisurely approach wouldn't be preferred either, as it would end up with the colony destroyed. Without some miracles, there would have to be compromises here and there as they advanced to the point of interest. For a starting test, it was a tough one. "Nothing but the best, huh." The comms input was off as he muttered under his breath.
He did a quick math in his brain as he waited for questions to pop up- either from his own mind, or his teammates'. The travel was ten minute long at max speed, and the time limit until the shots were fired was thirty. Preparation was leisurely; operations were not.
he made a question that was, maybe, one of the most crucial things in the given situation.
"Lieutenant, does the countdown start now? Or is this our grace period?"

Ritsu spoke. "The countdown started the moment I announced the time limit, Cadet. There is no grace period in war."
Ah, shit.

---

Fortress Ship Solaire - VR Training Complex

---

Nero's eyes went wide as the Lieutenant spoke; he had expected a more formal announcement for the start of the simulation. He sprung into action--at least, so much as that description applied to someone strapped into a shock frame. "Deploying drones!" Legionnaire's "wing" extended back and out, and the attached drones began glowing softly before separating from the rack. The eight needle-shaped attach drones lifted off in a line, making a track through the air that looked like an afterimage. The two shield drones--squat and bulky by comparison--separated from the backs of the machine's pauldrons, floating with their long axis perpendicular to the ground, the flaps of their projectors extending experimentally. From a rail inside the drone rack, four Augury recon drones were launched into the air and spread their "wings", then began floating lazily overhead, circling like birds.

"Setting combat drones to maniple formation. Augury drones going to maximum coverage." The attack drones separated into two units of four, each gathering behind one of the shield drones; the recon drones each flew out, one staying in orbit above Legionnaire while the other three went to the edge of their operational range and did their best to provide maximum coverage.

Sanro gripped the controls of the mech again, and smiled in satisfaction as he felt the machine react to his touch this time. "Sounds like we should get started, then. Legionnaire doesn't have the defenses to go toe to toe with that artillery for the ten minutes it'll take us to get up the direct path, so I'm going to head up the second route. ETA at target is..." He consulted the maps from Logic Diver. "Between ten and fifteen minutes. Tight, but do-able."

Nero keyed into the all-squad channel. "Our drones should be able to reach the other paths. Elora, Rose, I've got your data patched into our systems--thanks again." His display noted the shield drones were powered up; another command projected a hologram of where the protective field would pop up as they detected incoming threats. "Augury feeds look good--I'll be keeping an eye out."

There was a joke to be made here that went something along the lines of ‘no grace period except for doing systems checks’ that Rose thought might have gone down alright, but now was hardly the time. The assertion that the Lieutenant had made was, after all, true. Unfortunately they lacked the clarity of a chain of command to make these kinds of snap decisions necessary in this situation properly, nor the exact systems specs of the other mechs and pilots capabilities to make informed decisions about that.

Still, she had one pretty safe bet and that was: “Assertion: I am the fastest and fragilest” and as for what that information meant she was going to do, it was: “Confident: Can sweep the long path for ambushers with time to spare, then get sight on hill once close! Suggestion: come if you can keep up! Reassuring: Can come help if needed!”

The narrow profile of the very light mech, combined with its unorthodox limb configuration, ment that she might very well be able to squeeze it between the trees to hold true to her words (or take a shortcut or two). If that failed, well, she was fast in the air too, and her initial combat vocation as a fighter pilot ment she knew how to be evasive up there as well. Her framewerk was capable of being classed as a fighter craft when it was up in space as well, so she’d not gotten rusty either.

Still, for now, she had a road ahead of her, and the framewerk pilot wasted no time hitting it, racing ahead of anyone who might also be coming that way to act as a forward scout. The motion the tripod performed to do this was a strange undulating gallop, three legs flowing beneath it like water as the chassis was held high in the air, its six tendrils limbs fanned out behind it, training like ribbons.

The speed she traveled at was, in a way, a kind of armor, but mostly stuck on a path like this as she was, that had its limits. Thing’s be better when they hit the hill and she could really duck and weave to throw off shots instead of just going in a predictable direction faster than something her framewerks size really should.

Fortunately she had a pair of other defenses against being ambushed on this road by bush camping Cruxi. First of course was seeing the enemy so she could react to them, and the alien’s third eye roaming this way and that beneath the strobing blindfold had that well in hand as she kept her main pair on the road ahead.

The second was her Stargazer system, which she intended to use to try and deflect any shots coming her way up wards. With none of the larger frameworkz coming this way, she didn’t have to worry about this tactic flicking projectiles right at their heads, though the risk of blowing the top off of a tree was still a concern.

If she could, she’d redirect incoming shots to fly above the direction she was coming from, but she wasn’t picking where she was getting shot from, and so if some of the canopy had to go to keep her alive and the mission on track, then the forest would be getting a bit of light pruning, and that was that.