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.