Author's Notes: This story is the direct sequel to AlterMyth and Eleven. It is highly recommended to read those two stories first. Book Cover/Poster art made by and commissioned from the great Akasuki_iane04 on Twitter.
That aside, enjoy!
...
...
Prologue
It all began with nothingness.
Then, weightlessness.
Then the cold, harsh silence of the void.
These were Kobo Kanaeru's first memories when she awakened in the alloyed confines of an escape pod adrift in deep space. Her tired, groggy, blue eyes looked out the viewports of the pod and saw nothing: no destination nor salvation in sight.
No stars either, she thought. Were they eaten whole perhaps? Were they erased from the universe? What sort of terrifying creature could do such a thing?
Kobo winced, searching for something - anything - in that void.
She regretted that.
Unfathomably long tendrils of dark ichor slithered and writhed in the void of space, conjoined beyond Kobo's vision like the tentacles of an octopus under the lush oceans of her homeworld.
'Homeworld...' Kobo thought.
That word echoed in her mind, but no images or memories came to the surface. Only blankness came to the eye of her mind, no matter how hard she tried to recall. A dull headache followed soon after.
No thoughts of how she got there came to light.
Not even an iota of why she was there - or what that creature in the distance was either.
But then, one of those tendrils slithered through space just beyond the peephole, retreating towards the nexus of the grand, still unseen beast. That tendril dragged along debris of various shapes and sizes. Bits of marked symbols and stenciled names on the debris told Kobo what they were.
They were escape pods, just like hers.
Smashed to pieces.
Frozen blood leaked from the smashed hulls of the escape pods. Bodies in space suits torn in half lagged behind the pods, still attached to their vessels' life supports like umbilical cords. But those vessels, and the bodies attached to them were oozing with black ichor just like the tendrils.
It was like the creature was consuming them from without and within, assimilating them into the greater mass. One of the bodies floated before the viewport of Kobo's pod and slammed into it.
THUD!
Kobo shuddered in her seat, but she couldn't look away.
She saw the face of the dead spacefarer through the broken visor of her spacesuit. Her locks of short, golden hair rose up in the vacuum of space. Her cracked monocular optics flashed with fizzling warning signs. Her dull, blue eyes were unfocused... until one of her eyes changed color, turning blood red first and then as black as night.
That cursed eye twitched in its socket, behind the space-frozen eyelids and turned to Kobo.
Kobo went pale. She gripped her seat and held her breath, but the cursed eye of the doomed spacefarer turned away.
"She... didn't see me?" Kobo gasped.
She watched tensely as the tendril pulled the spacefarer along, out of sight and deeper into the harrowing void - but suddenly...!
BAAAAAAM!
The tendril slammed into Kobo's escape pod once more with incredible force! Kobo was thrown violently off her seat and she tumbled around the cockpit.
"ACK!" Kobo grunted.
Warning lights flashed all throughout the cockpit - so many lights that Kobo had to shield her eyes. One warning in particular, however, sent chills up her spine. The holographic AI assistant on board read the message with eerie calmness.
'WARNING: MULTIPLE HULL RUPTURES DETECTED.'
'CODE RED. SYSTEM FAILURES IMMINENT.'
Under the glare of the warning lights too, Kobo saw that the visor of her space suit was now cracked.
It suddenly got harder for her to breathe.
Kobo's heart thumped against her chest, but she forced herself to focus. Her sheer muscle memory propelled her, spurring her to reach under her seat and open the compartment underneath. There, she found a mechanical rebreather mask.
She tossed away her now useless hemet, slapped the rebreather over her nose and mouth and switched on the device.
WHIRRRRR!
"Hah... hah..." Kobo steadied her breath as well as she could, regulating her inhales and exhales.
Little by little, Kobo stilled her heart and filled her lungs, but her relief would not last long. The rebreather mask started to stutter. Yellow warning lights blinked on the damn thing.
It didn't have much longer left - and neither did Kobo.
Counting her precious breaths, Kobo undid the buckles of her seat and leapt off into near-zero gravity. She launched herself towards the main flight computer mainframe and sailed through the sea of hologram warnings.
Kobo reached the terminal screen and tapped on it, but its display crackled with static.
KZZZZT~!
"Damn it!" Kobo hissed. She slammed her fists on the terminal like it was an old television until it displayed something coherent. Then, Kobo forced it to deploy a holographic keyboard.
"Activate distress beacon - all channels!" Kobo said, saying what she typed, "S.O.S.! S.O.S.!"
Kobo's frantic request, however, only yielded even more holographic error messages. Once again, the AI assistant gave its report.
'INSUFFICIENT ENERGY OUTPUT. ANCILLARY SYSTEMS OFFLINE!'
"DAMN YOU!" Kobo gnashed her teeth and typed again, "Troubleshoot! Distress beacon!"
The AI assistant answered again.
'CHECK POWER CONNECTION. CHECK POWER CONNECTION. CHECK-CHECK-CHECK...!'
The rest of the line repeated on and on and on until the AI assistant shut off on its own. Kobo clicked her tongue and searched under the computer terminal. She found the control panel and removed its protective cover with a forceful tug.
Under that panel, Kobo found the severed electrical wire and a number of breaches in the ruptured hull: holes the size of pebbles, tainted black by traces of the dark black ichor of the eldritch tendril. Through those holes, she could see the starless heavens of outer space and the remains of the destroyed escape pods smashed by the tendril.
She could feel the coldness of the void prickling her face even through the rebreather mask.
Kobo took a deep breath and grabbed both ends of the power cord by the insulators firmly, gritted her teeth and pulled the two severed wire ends together.
"Hrgggggh! Hrggh!" Kobo roared into the rebreather, "HRRRRRAAAAAAAAAGH!"
She strained every muscle in her body to bring those wires together inch by inch - bit by bit. Sweat dripped down her brow but froze into snow-like dust. Her hands and arms trembled warily.
But then...
KZZZZZZATTTT!
Kobo joined the wires together! She hooked the wires together and let go of them. Then, the AI assistant made its declaration.
'ANCILLARY SYSTEMS ONLINE! DISTRESS BEACON - BROADCASTING TO ALL STATIONS'
"I did it..." Kobo sighed, "I..."
She tried to shove the control panel cover back in its place as best as she could, but she couldn't jam it in well enough and it stayed ajar. Her own body, gripped by immense pain, stopped listening to her and felt as heavy as a rock. The yellow warning lights on her now frosted rebreather mask also turned red.
Lightheadedness washed over Kobo, robbing her of whatever strength she had left. Her vision started to fail her next. Even blinking her frosted eyelids became difficult.
And yet, Kobo still croaked.
"Someone... anyone..." Kobo's heavy eyelids closed, "Save me...!"
Kobo's rebreather mask slipped off her nose and mouth and her heavy, frosting eyelids closed. Her perception of time blurred. She fluttered between life and icy cold death... but she did catch a glimpse of something beautiful.
A sea of stars in an ocean of wavy purple hair.
The first time she saw stars in her strange new reality.
She quietly hoped that it wouldn't be the last.
After that, Kobo blacked out.
...
...
...
Blue Horizon
The Girl Adrift
...
First Scene - Dreamless Orphan
Three years later...
Kobo Kanaeru awakened again. Rather than in the confines of an escape pod from an unknown world, she was lying down on a simple bed and was looking up at the plaster ceiling of a small but cozy apartment.
Her apartment.
She took a deep, long breath and filled her lungs with air. She shot up from her bed, tossed away her blanket and tugged on her mattress, checking to see that she wasn't floating in zero-gravity. Then, she marched over to her washroom mirror and ran her hand through her face.
"No ice..." Kobo muttered. As a matter of fact, her apartment felt warm and toasty. She heaved a sigh and bowed her head, letting her short but unkempt powder blue hair cascade down to the sink, "Haaaaa... Thank goodness."
Kobo looked down to her wrist and checked on a small device strapped there. She tapped its screen and spoke to it.
"Time, date and zone." She commanded.
The screen of her device shone. Then it answered her.
'7:11AM. June 20, 2088. KW1 Jakarta-series Orbital Time.'
Kobo sighed again. She proceeded to wash her face at the sink.
Three years had indeed passed, Kobo thought. Three years in her new home.
And yet, her memory of the day of her rescue was still crystal clear, down to the last detail - up until the moment she blacked out, of course. Either way, it was like a haunting dream that she couldn't wake up from, coming to her full blast at every waking moment.
The moment Kobo caught herself thinking about 'dreams', though, she scoffed at herself.
"Yeah right." She mused with a frown, touching the bags under her eyes, "Folks like me can't dream. What am I talking about?"
Kobo wished that what she said was an exaggeration, but she truly was, for some unknown reason, incapable of dreaming.
What she saw was like a dream, but not quite.
Doctors that Kobo had met with told her that it was the condition of the Worldless orphans: people like her who were rescued from the depths of space in a phenomenon called the 'Nights of a Hundred Thousand Miracles'. A hundred thousand Worldless orphans were rescued, each one of them bearing the same burden: no memory of the past before their rescue, hauntingly dreamless slumbers and thoughts hyper fixated on certain events.
For Kobo, it was the day of her rescue.
It played out like a projection of that day that ran in her head over and over and over again like a broken record player with a film real. At every waking moment, the show repeated for Kobo beat by beat. Line by line.
Breath by breath.
It was a torturous cycle.
Because of that, Kobo made her morning routine meticulous. She checked and double-checked that the danger had, indeed, long since passed - that she wasn't back in that damned escape pod adrift in deep space. Because of all this, Kobo's sleep was rarely as restful as she wished it could have been.
As Kobo thought of this, chimes rang outside her apartment, followed by an announcement.
'Attention, citizens of Platform Jakarta-03. This is an Orbital Administration Public Service Broadcast. Simulated sunrise is beginning shortly. I repeat - simulated sunrise is beginning shortly.'
Kobo scoffed.
The irony of her situation wasn't lost on her. Even after all of her checking and double-checking, she was still practically in outer space: albeit in the safety and relative comfort of an Orbital Platform. She looked out of her bathroom window pensively and raised her eyes up to the dome over Platform Jakarta-03 and the night sky that it simulated.
Pixel by hexagonal pixel, that scene changed.
A simulated sun rose in the approximate East and cast away the simulated night bit by bit. Kobo often overheard residents of the district saying that the architects and engineers who built their dome programmed it to mimic the weather of the real Jakarta down in the Earth of KW1. Whether or not it was true, Kobo didn't know - and she didn't care.
Kobo watched every moment of it.
Compared to the starless void of the deep space she escaped from, the gradual, albeit majestic changes of the simulated dome of Jakarta-03 was quite charming.
That 'sunrise' signaled that the Orbital Platform and its residents were about to rise up from their slumbers.
"Never gets old." Kobo hummed, "I guess that's my cue to get ready too."
Kobo sauntered over to her closet and changed into her school uniform: a white, short-sleeved shirt with a triangular logo on the breast pocket, a dark gray tie with matching skirt and black leather penny loafers. Then, Kobo proceeded to meticulously braid and tie up her long locks of hair - an intricate process that took quite a lot of time.
So much time that her wrist device started buzzing. Its AI voice began fretting.
'Please hurry, Miss Kobo. The maglev train to school is leaving in approximately...!'
"Shut up! I know." Kobo barked, tapping on her device to silence it.
She picked up her brown, suitcase-like school bag and hurried out of her studio apartment. Under the light of the simulated sun over Jakarta-03, Kobo ran for the maglev train station.
...
Second Scene - Inter-Platform Commuter Blues
By the time Kobo arrived at the station, the place was already packed. The hustle and bustle of the 'morning' rush was in full display for Kobo as people crammed through the station turnstiles both ways.
She found these commuters traveling in packs: businessmen and women in sharp suits with augmented reality glasses tuned in to the Orbital Stock Market pre-open shows, maintenance personnel in uniform jumpsuits lugging their toolboxes in hand while their drone assistants hovered behind them and students like Kobo herself wearing the uniforms of their respective schools.
"That's what I get for living on a hub platform like zero-three..." Kobo grumbled.
In that sea of maglev train commuters, Kobo simply watched those wolf packs - those cliques moving in tandem with each other - from afar. She was but one drop in that sea who, despite her fancy hairdo, didn't stand out much. Her short stature probably didn't help, but Kobo shook her head and shooed that sad fact away from her thoughts.
Instead, she steeled herself, scanned her wrist device on the turnstile scanner and crossed that sea of people to get to her train platform.
Kobo made a lot of sharp turns, going through shortcuts that few people knew and ducking underneath obstacles in her way. She knew that station like the back of her hand, after all, and used her short height to her advantage.
Despite all that, though, when she made one last turn to her platform, she saw the blurry flash of something that wasn't supposed to be there: a girl with silky silver hair that she tied up into buns like cat-ears.
This girl was wearing the uniform of a different school, sipping on a can of fancy, imported Earth-branded milk tea...
And she was heading straight for Kobo!
"Shit...!" Kobo cursed, but it was too late.
BAM!
She and the silver-haired girl bumped - or rather, collided into each other!
"Oof!" Kobo grunted. She shifted her weight and kept her footing. The person who slammed into her, even though she was taller than Kobo, was the one who fell back onto her butt. Her Earth-brand milk tea slipped out of her hand and unceremoniously spilled its contents all over the floor.
"O-o-owwww..." Kobo's victim groaned, then glared at her, "HEY! BLUE GIRL! Watch where you're going." She eyed her can of milk tea and hissed, "Don't you know how expensive Earth stuff is here!?"
"HUH!?" Kobo's eyes opened wide, "WHAT THE FUCK!? YOU WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!" She caught a glimpse of the girl's curious hairdo and lashed, "STUPID CAT!"
Her victim's jaw dropped. She clenched her fists and wailed, "I'M NOT A CAT!"
Kobo clenched her fists, too.
But then, a tall girl with long blonde hair and bright red eyes intervened. She tried to put herself in between the two brawlers with odd hairdos.
"Hold it! Hold it, you two!" The tall girl cautioned, prying Kobo and her foe apart, "Let's not fight. Please."
Kobo got a good look at the newcomer. She saw the tall girl wearing a school uniform just like her foe, but the tall girl also sported a maintenance personnel jacket over it. It made the tall girl's already large and imposing frame seem even larger.
Kobo's foe gritted her teeth and pointed at Kobo, "But she called me a CAT!"
Kobo, meanwhile, pointed at her foe and argued, "She ran into ME!"
"No, YOU ran into ME!" The foe argued.
Kobo and her foe glared high-frequency daggers at each other. It was hate at first sight.
The tall girl heaved a sigh. Then, she leaned forward, lowered her face to Kobo's foe and spoke with stern authority.
"Leave this to me." The tall girl urged, "I'll buy you another milk tea at school, alright."
"But Kaela...!" The cat-haired girl hissed.
"ZETA." The tall girl named 'Kaela' snapped, changing to a more domineering tone, "I'll handle this. We're gonna be late."
Kobo's foe, the so-called 'Zeta', blushed and fell silent. Kaela smiled and turned around.
"We're sorry for this inconvenience, Miss." Kaela apologized. Then, she forced Zeta to bow her head to Kobo, "Isn't that right, Zeta?"
"I... I'm sorry." Zeta apologized halfheartedly.
Not once did she glance toward Kobo when she said it, so Kobo still pouted.
But then, the tall Kaela smiled at Kobo, pointed to her wrist device and asked, "Could you please unlock that for inflows?"
"Uh..." Kobo was dumbfounded, but she did as she was asked, "Sure."
Kaela pulled up the sleeve of her maintenance jacket and her uniform and brought out her own wrist device. She placed the face of her device before the face of Kobo's device. Then, there was a beep.
A holographic message projected from Kobo's device.
'100,000 Rupiah has been transferred to your savings account.'
This time, Kobo's jaw dropped. It wasn't that much money, given the currency, but it surely wasn't chump change that folks dole out to strangers.
"That should cover it." Kaela grinned, unfazed by her sudden donation. Then, she excused herself and dragged Zeta away, "Sorry again, Miss!"
The two oddballs from another school then disappeared into the crowd. Kobo sighed.
"Blondie's cool, but... I hope I don't have to see cat-girl ever again..." She thought out loud.
...
Kobo carried on through the crowded maglev station, rushing towards her destination platform. By the time she got there, digital bells were ringing and the barriers were closing.
"I'm not missing that train!" Kobo growled.
She sprinted down the platform and slipped between the closing barriers into one of the maglev train cars.
"Haaaaah! Safe!" Kobo cheered.
The other passengers in the train were startled by her explosive arrival. But the maglev train doors didn't close right away. The digital bells grew louder. A train company staff android with a digital screen for a face hopped into the train and started berating Kobo for running in train stations and barging into a train. Kobo folded her arms and rolled her eyes, not listening to a single word of the lecture.
Then, the android turned away and started apologizing to the commuters for an anticipated delay.
A delay that Kobo caused.
"Hrmm..." Kobo gritted her teeth.
She felt the angry gazes of the commuters fixed on her. So, she slunk away to a different train car and sat in a hidden corner by the train windows.
Then, the PA system came on with a chime.
DING-DING-DING-DING!
'Attention, all passengers. This Intra-Platform Maglev Express Train is now leaving Platform Jakarta-03, departing for... Platform Jakarta Central/Pusat. E.T.A. is approximately fifteen minutes. Thank you for riding with Lowry Intergalactic Industries.'
With that announcement, the maglev train shot out of the station with hardly a sound. And yet, Kobo saw the railway lights zipping past them at incredible speed, practically flashing before Kobo's eyes. After a short while, the train exited the simulated dome of Jakarta-03 and shot into the inter-platform tube.
Into unsimulated space.
Kobo feasted her eyes on it all.
To her right, the unfiltered celestial bodies of the solar system appeared before her in a magnificent display. To her left, Kobo got a bird's eye - or rather satellite's eye view of the Earth.
Through the many layers of the atmosphere, Kobo could see the real earthly Jakarta in the Asian continent. Or at least, she pretended that she did.
"These views never get old." Kobo mused, soaking in the sights with glee painted on her lips.
Just as Kobo traced the terran constellations in the galaxy, holographic screens started appearing on the windows of the train and on the inter-platform tubes.
"Tch..." Kobo clicked her tongue.
Against her wishes, news broadcasts from a variety of different channels blocked Kobo's view of the Earth and the stars. Audio from the broadcasts played on the train's PA systems too.
"I wish I brought my earphones..." Kobo lamented.
Left without much choice, Kobo sighed and closed her eyes, resigning herself to having to listen to the mandatory news.
...
"Good morning, my fellow Orbital Platform-dwellers. I'm Elio Peterson of Orbital Administration News Association - OANA - reporting live from wonderful Tokyo, Japan here on KW1 Earth. We're here today with the newly minted Senior Manager of the Cover Corporation: Miss Ennis Marie "Enma" Miyamoto and her Junior Manager Jennifer "Jenma" Mathers."
"Thanks for having us, Elio."
"Likewise! So, Miss Enma. You and Miss Jenma are about to go on your mission to KW8 in just a few hours. This is the Cover Corporation's first Interdimensional Mission since the Nights of the Hundred Thousand Miracles - and the first time using Iofinium-115 fuel for a dimensional door. Any thoughts?"
"Well, Elio, Jenma and I can't really talk much about specifics, but time is of the essence in this mission. Sir YAGOO has given us his orders, and I hope that the exciting people we're meeting will accept our invitations and debut-"
...
Suddenly, the broadcast was interrupted by the train's own chime and announcement.
DING-DING-DING-DING!
"Attention all passengers. This Inter-Platform Maglev Express Train is arriving at... Platform Jakarta Central/Pusat."
"Thank you..." Kobo whispered back, grateful for being spared from public television. She rested her school bag on her lap and watched the scenic views of outer space and KW1 Earth disappear - replaced by the simulated, terrestrial morning displayed on the dome of Platform Jakarta Central.
...
Third Scene - Stranded Starfighter
Despite Kobo's valiant efforts racing through the station of Platform Jakarta Central and running through the platform's streets, Kobo still arrived at her school late. The gates of the school, both the actual wrought-iron gate and the digital repulsor barrier were already closed.
"Damn it!" Kobo cursed. She slammed her fist on the repulsor barrier, causing a ripple of energy to radiate from the blow.
"Late again, Miss Kanaeru?" The indifferent voice of the school guard, an android in a security officer's uniform, called out to her from behind the repulsor barrier. The android guard twirled a stun baton and tapped it on the wrought iron gate, "That's the fifth time this month."
"HEY!" Kobo snarled, "It wasn't my fault this time! Some stupid girl with cat-hair got in my way at the station!"
The android raised its synthetic brow, "So the other four times were your fault."
"Urk..." Kobo winced.
She had no answer to that.
"I'm letting you in, but I'm logging you for your fifth instance of tardiness this month, Miss Kanaeru." The guard sauntered over to a computer terminal by the twin gates and started typing on them, "You'll also have to wait for the flag ceremony to finish. Then, you have to report to the Principal's office."
Kobo's cheeks puffed and her face went red with anger and threatened, "I should probably just skip classes then!"
The guard, however, just yawned. Androids didn't need to yawn. Kobo knew the damn robot called her bluff. It was daring her to follow through.
"You're a human." said the android, "A Worldless human, but a human nonetheless. You're free to do what you want, but I follow my programming. Okay? Now, please. Make your choice."
Kobo glared at the guard with displeasure and hissed her reply, "Let me in."
"Excellent choice. Now be a good girl and standby till the flag ceremony is done."
Kobo pouted but had no choice. She just folded her arms and stewed in her own frustration at the wrong side of the school gate. While she simmered in silence, she heard footsteps coming from beside her.
Curious, Kobo turned to the sound and found an unfamiliar face that she had never seen before: a young lady with lusciously straight red hair in a tasteful hime-cut wearing black, gothic lolita dress with frilly white accents, a brown corset with silver buttons and a large red ribbon over her modest chest.
"Who's this weirdo?" Kobo's thoughts slipped through her lips in a whisper. Then, she caught herself too late. "Ah, shit..."
Her whisper caught the attention of the strange young lady
For a moment, Kobo thought she saw a glimpse of mischief in her bright, red eyes, but it faded away in a heartbeat - replaced by the genteel, aristocratic grace of high-borns and an equally graceful smile.
"How do you do, young lass?" The unfamiliar young lady greeted Kobo with a curtsy. Then, she spoke with empathy, "I see that you too have been barred from entry to this fine academic institution! Quite a misfortune, if I do say so myself."
Kobo tensed up and looked away. She stood perfectly still, hoping and praying that the suspicious stranger would go away, leave her alone or lose interest.
But it was already too late for that.
The stranger walked over to Kobo with her unwavering smile.
"Sorry about that. I say, where are my manners?" The strange lady apologized, "My name is Olivia Kureiji, I.D.O.L. Frame pilot-in-training of the IDSC." She laid her hand over her chest and continued, "I have been tasked with giving a short lecture at this school on behalf of the IDSC. We're looking for volunteer recruits from the graduating class - and I'm here to help the school run their AO-incident evacuation drills while we're at it!"
Kobo blinked twice. She finally faced the strange lady and gave her a once-over.
"You? With the IDSC!?" Kobo challenged.
"W-why yes!" Olivia's cool veneer started to thaw. She put her hands on her hips and proudly announced, "The IDSC allows for its personnel to dress as they please when they're off-duty!"
Kobo's lips twisted and she spoke without any filter, "You look like you missed KW1 Akihabara on Earth by a loooot of stops, miss."
"Urk..." Olivia winced.
Kobo then pointed to her wrist device and asked, "Can you even prove you're with the military?"
"I... uh..." Olivia, this time, was the one who turned away from Kobo, "I forgot my WristComm at the base. I was going to download the holographic visuals for my talk in the school - maybe borrow a WristComm too... but as you can see..."
Olivia tapped the repulsor barrier lightly, sending new ripples through the perimeter.
"I still don't believe you." Kobo snorted, "Where's your space suit, Miss I.D.O.L. Frame pilot?"
"Oh..." Olivia shriveled up. She facepalmed, "I... forgot that too. Unghhhhhhhh!"
All of a sudden, a small convoy of vehicles - electric Humvees marked with IDSC decals - approached and pulled up into the school's driveway with hardly a sound. Only the screeching of their tires and brakes made a noise, drawing Kobo's and Olivia's attention.
"Ah! Here they are now." Olivia beamed, heaving a sigh of relief.
Men and women in powder blue IDSC garrison fatigues emerged bearing handguns. One of those men, a musclebound, bear-like soldier with a beard got out of the middle Humvee and marched to the back of the vehicle. From there, he retrieved a large suitcase trolley and a fancy designer-model handbag from a popular Earth brand.
The bear-like man brought those things with him and made his way towards Olivia.
"Udin! My hero!" Olivia cheered, raising her hands up like she was praising a god.
"My lady." Udin, the soldier, answered her with polite words, but his face and his tone were marked with displeasure, "If you're planning to go to official functions on your own, please don't forget your things. My logistics officers and I had to scramble to get this. Good thing we were in the Platform Jakarta series. Otherwise, the costs would have been astronomical!"
Olivia waved her hand nonchalantly, "Leave the expenses and paperwork to me. I'll call the Estate and make the transfer when I get back to base."
Kobo's face soured. The grinning face of the rich blondie she ran into at the Jakarta-03 train station came to mind - and the 100,000 Rupiah that now filled Kobo's bank account.
"What is it with rich kids and throwing away money?" Kobo whispered beneath her breath.
Olivia pretended not to hear her.
Instead, Olivia took the trolley suitcase and the handbag from Udin. Then, from the handbag, she fished out her WristComm device and twirled it proudly on her finger.
"So, dear lass, I've got my identification right here." Olivia slapped the WristComm onto her wrist and showed her public credentials, "I really am an I.D.O.L. Frame pilot... in training... ahem...! But still, I'm definitely part of the military!" She twirled around and gestured to Udin with a smile, "Commander Udin here is my subordinate. He's the commander of the Jakarta-series Orbital Defense Platforms of the IDSC."
Udin gave Kobo a gracious bow and smiled, "We protect KW1 Earth and all of the Orbital Platforms from any and every threat - at any System Hour."
"T-thank you for your service." Kobo stammered.
"Well then...!" Olivia beamed, "Isn't this proof that I wasn't lying?"
Kobo smirked back, ten times more smugly, "Proof of your incompetence, maybe."
Olivia's face went pale. Then, Commander Udin burst out into laughter.
"Heh." Kobo squeaked.
She and Commander Udin bumped fists.
"HEY! You're supposed to be on MY side!" Olivia protested, jabbing the soldier, but to no avail. She shriveled up and grumbled, "Though, I did deserve it this time. I wanted to ride the Inter-Platform trains and I got a bit too excited."
"Oh..." Kobo glanced at Olivia with rare sympathy, "I feel the same way about those trains. I ride them almost every day."
"Excellent views, yeah?" Olivia winked. She looked up to the simulated sky of Platform Jakarta Central longingly and added, "It's a view worth fighting for - a view that the Worldless like us are fortunate to be able to see at all."
For once, the strange Olivia lady seemed like an actual, honest-to-goodness soldier in Kobo's eyes.
Then, Kobo furrowed her brow.
'How did she know I was a Worldless?'
While Kobo looked at the side of Olivia's face, the school bells chimed and the repulsor barrier dropped. The android guard started opening the wrought iron school gates too.
"That's our cue to get going, kiddo." Olivia smiled at Kobo. She then cleared her throat, grabbed the handle of her luggage trolley and returned to her genteel aristocracy, "Shall we begin our esteemed business in this fine academic institution, young lass?"
"Sure, why not." Kobo shrugged.
With that, Kobo and Olivia walked through the threshold together. All the while, the wheels of Olivia's trolley rattled behind them with a clackety-clack.
...
Fourth Scene - Code Blue
Later that afternoon, after Kobo reported to the principal's office - and after the teasing of her classmates for being tardy yet again - Kobo and the other students from her grade filed into the school's multi-function auditorium hall. There, Olivia Kureiji appeared on stage to give the lecture just as she promised.
She even waved to Kobo in the crowd, but Kobo pretended not to notice.
Unlike when Kobo first saw her in the morning, though, Olivia was no longer wearing her gothic lolita clothes. Instead, she was clad from neck to toe in the specialized I.D.O.L. Frame pilot space suit. Half of the suit was plain snow white, just like the uniforms of the IDSC, but the other half was striking red with bear-shaped designs in gold like embroidery.
'So that's what she was carrying in that trolley...' Kobo mused. Then, she smirked, 'How in the world did she forget something that important?'
"Good afternoon, Jakarta Pusat Technical School!" Olivia greeted, raising up her hands and waving to the crowd. With a wide smile on her lips, she addressed the students in her genteel veneer, "Thank you, all, for having me. It is delightful to be back here - in my alma mater. Gosh, how nostalgic!"
'Alma mater...?" Kobo raised her brow, 'That crazy girl went to this school?' She snorted, 'Explains a lot.'
Olivia continued her spiel. She recounted her fondest memories at the school, reminisced about the time that she spent living in the Jakarta-series platform and complained about the still-congested maglev trains. The students laughed sparsely. Then, Olivia smiled and walked into the spotlights on the stage.
"I was a student here once, yes. I sat in those seats waiting for the lectures to end, yearning for the freedom to go to a karaoke or play the latest video games with my friends." Olivia started, eying the crowds with dramatic pauses, "But now, I serve the Inter-Dimensional Starfleet Command as an I.D.O.L. Frame pilot." She laid her hand over her chest and smiled, "I, and my colleagues in the IDSC are committed to protecting everyone in every part of KW1 - both the Worlded and the Worldless - against the onslaught of the Ancient Ones."
When Olivia mentioned the Ancient Ones, holographic screens started to appear around the stage.
"Behold, friends: the enemies of humanity and their wretched forms."
Olivia stepped back and gestured to the screens floating around her. Each screen carried photographs and sketches of sightings of the strange, unsettling foes. Whispers erupted throughout the auditorium.
Some were unsettled by the pictures.
Others snickered and belittled the beasts.
The rest either stayed silent or zoned out of the lecture altogether.
Kobo, on the other hand, sank into her seat. Chills were running up her spine. Her breaths grew short and shallow. She remembered the wicked tendril that she saw in the void of deep space.
She had seen the Ancient Ones. She knew what it was like to be powerless - to be at the mercy of unfathomable beasts.
Kobo hated it.
But then, Olivia stood in attention.
TOK-TOK
Her heavy space boots echoed in the hall and broke up the whispers. Then, she faced the crowd once more and spoke.
"The Ancient Ones are indeed frightening. It is the responsibility of the IDSC to protect our reality from this onslaught, but everyone in KW1 must do their part." Olivia paced around the stage and the holographic screens changed to pictures and videos of safety drills and exercises, "First and foremost, in the unlikely event of an AO-incident - an Ancient One attack on KW1 and its orbital platforms, basically - everyone must follow the safety guidelines and evacuate. We'll be going over those protocols again shortly."
Then, Olivia stopped. She turned towards Kobo and smiled at her.
"Secondly." Olivia started, speaking directly to Kobo, "For you brave souls out there in the audience who want to take the fight to the AO's - and for those of you who don't want to keep on living in fear, I would like to invite you to consider trying out for the IDSC."
Kobo rolled her eyes and feigned indifference, but a small smile formed on her lips.
Satisfied, Olivia nodded and continued her spiel, "Now then, can anyone tell me about our protocols for an AO-incide..."
Before Olivia could finish her spiel, though, the lights and the holographic projections in the auditorium flickered. The entire auditorium fell deathly silent.
"What the..." Kobo shifted in her seat, "Just now, that was..."
Suddenly, the entire auditorium shook violently!
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRMM!
"An earthquake!?" Kobo gasped.
Many of the other students said the same thing and held onto their seats. The only problem, though, was that they weren't on the Earth. Orbital space platforms weren't supposed to have earthquakes!
Panic started to brew in the auditorium. Fearful whispers snowballed into terrified cries. Olivia, holding onto the speaker's podium on the stage, watched this unfold and boil over before her eyes
"What the!? That... wasn't part of the program!" Olivia lamented, reverting back to her normal manner of speaking.
Moments later, warning sirens started to blare on the school's PA systems - and on the PA systems throughout the city. Then, the holographic screens of Olivia's presentation were taken over by public service announcements displayed in bright red and yellow. Automated AI voices read those announcements out loud.
'Attention, all residents of Jakarta Central/Pusat. This is a system-wide emergency broadcast from the Cover Corporation HQ.'
'Code Blue! Code Blue!'
'AO formations have been detected in the Solar System advancing towards the Earth en masse. This is not a drill. I repeat: this is not a drill! KW1 will come under attack within one system hour!'
"No..." Kobo clutched her chest and gritted her teeth, "Not again!"
Kobo's deepest, darkest fears were coming true.
...
"Code blue...?" Olivia's face went pale, "Here? Now!?"
Pandemonium filled the auditorium. The senior high school students and the faculty staff of the school cowered under their seats, hoping and praying that they had to endure an earthquake instead. The terrified flock turned to Olivia, yearning for guidance.
The pilot took a deep breath and gathered herself in a heartbeat.
"Alright everyone, you heard the emergency broadcast!" Olivia took charge of the situation and started addressing the crowd, speaking in her natural voice, "We had AO-incident evacuation drills planned for today, but things have changed. We're gonna put them to use a little earlier than planned." She clapped her hands and shook her stunned audience out of their ruts, "Come on, everyone! Get to the muster stations in a quick but orderly - and I mean orderly fashion! Chop chop!"
Despite Olivia's urging, not a mouse stirred in the auditorium. Everyone there was frozen in fear, afraid to even move a muscle.
Olivia furrowed her brow and urged them again, "Come on, everyone. The IDSC will deploy troops to help the evacuation. We just have to gather in the muster zones and..."
"We're doomed!" A teacher interrupted Olivia. She fell down to her knees and covered her face in her hands, "The Ancient Ones were always gonna come for us. It was only a matter of time!"
"I don't want to die!" A student wailed, clinging onto his seat, "These drills ain't gonna mean nothing when the AO's smash the platform!"
"Hey... hold on!" Olivia raised her voice, but the panicking students and teachers only got louder, drowning her out. She pinched her nose and grumbled.
But then, in the midst of that sea of despair, Kobo Kanaeru rose up from her seat, took a deep breath and screamed at the top of her lungs.
"EVERYBODY, SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
Kobo's sharp words silenced the auditorium, leaving the distant wails of emergency sirens to fill the void. Everyone's eyes turned to Kobo now.
The senior high school student puffed up her chest and berated the crowd, "THIS HAPPENS MORE OFTEN THAN YOU THINK! IF YOU WANT TO FUCKING LIVE, THEN LISTEN TO MISS OLIVIA. WE ALL KNOW THE DRILL! WE DO IT EVERY FUCKING YEAR!"
Olivia whistled, absolutely impressed, "Hoo-ey."
The I.D.O.L. Frame pilot clapped her hands and followed through.
"The blue brat with a potty mouth is right." Olivia spoke, urging the crowd with a more tender voice, "Please. Work with me here. I, and the IDSC, will keep you all safe. Let's follow the proper protocols and we'll get through this, okay?"
"YEAH!" Kobo chimed in, still shouting at max volume, "WHAT SHE SAID!"
Sandwiched between the loudmouthed Kobo and the gentle yet professional Olivia, the panicked crowd finally did as they were told. Olivia directed the school staff - at least the ones who weren't panicking too hard - to see the evacuation of the auditorium and the rest of the school.
Kobo lent a hand too, shepherding the students to the muster zones with her loud voice that cut through the din.
So, by the time the IDSC garrison arrived to assist, most of the people in the school were already waiting in the muster zones.
Electric IDSC humvees transporting students and staff of the high school to the evacuation zones. Olivia, with Kobo's help, spearheaded the effort and kept the flow of people and humvees running like clockwork.
...
Fifth Scene - I.D.O.L. Parade
Once the whole school had been evacuated, Olivia and Kobo took the last IDSC humvee out to the garrison bunker.
"Excellent work out there, kid." Olivia praised, patting Kobo's shoulder, "You've got the chops for this kind of gig."
"Y-you think so?" Kobo asked, her bright blue eyes sparkling from the praise.
"Mhm~!" Olivia confirmed, patting Kobo's head next, "I came to Jakarta Pusat Technical today to give a mandatory lecture and run a drill. I didn't think I'd meet such a fine candidate for the IDSC in the middle of an actual AO-incident!"
"Ehe~!" Kobo beamed, basking in Olivia's praise.
"By the way, I never quite caught your name." Olivia hummed.
"Kobo Kanaeru. Resident of Jakarta-03. Worldless." Kobo answered, finally introducing herself.
"I knew it!" Olivia beamed, "I had a feeling that you were a Worldless like me."
"How did you figure that out?" Kobo asked.
Olivia winked and pointed at her eye.
"I saw that subtle fatigue in your eyes that only us Worldless have." Olivia revealed, "We get it from the stress of not being able to dream normal dreams." Then she smiled warmly, "Plus, you sympathized with me when I talked about the trains. Most Worldless find the sight of outer space comforting. Maybe it's something subconscious: like a faint hope that our homeworlds - the ones we don't remember - are still out there, waiting to be rescued."
Kobo laid her hand over her heart, "Yeah... I do feel like that. The me from before the Nights of a Hundred Thousand Miracles - I want to know what she was like."
"You and me both, Kobo!" Olivia grinned.
While Kobo and Olivia chatted, the IDSC humvee zipped through the now empty streets of Platform Jakarta Central. Kobo looked out the humvee window and watched the peaceful veneer of the platforms melt away chunk by chunk.
She watched thick, tall walls of reinforced metal alloys and concrete rise up from platform compartments. Those walls covered up the pretty, architecturally beautiful buildings of Jakarta Central with faceless, brutalist blocks. Uniform IDSC armored vehicles repeating emergency broadcasts on their loudspeakers replaced the colorful variety of cars that once plied the streets.
On top of it all, the simulated afternoon sky displayed on the dome of Jakarta Central switched off. They were replaced by direct live feeds of outer space: the true view behind the beautified curtain of simulated terran weather.
From there, Kobo saw clearly the vast arsenal of heavy kinetic artillery batteries and missile turrets. Olivia looked up to the weapons batteries and hummed.
"Impressive array of weaponry, huh?" Olivia commented, "We don't get to see them often from this angle, but they really remind you that the Jakarta-series platforms are really orbital defense hubs." She sighed, "The Cover Corporation's been preparing for this war for years, apparently. Maybe decades. Before either of us arrived in KW1.
"Yeah... and we're now the frontline of the battle that's coming." Kobo frowned. She turned to Olivia and asked, "Can we win?"
"I have a lot of concerns about what happened - and how the AO's closed the gap with us so quickly..." Olivia rubbed her chin and assessed. Then, she grinned, "But I'm sure as hell that we're gonna win."
"How can you be so sure?" Kobo tested, raising her brow.
"I'm sure because these guns and missiles aren't everything we have to defend this system with, Kobo." Olivia explained cheerfully, "Right now, my simpais are getting ready for battle as we speak."
"Your simpais..." Kobo gasped.
"I don't have an I.D.O.L. Frame to pilot right now, but my simpais do!" Olivia spoke proudly. Then, she showed her WristComm device to Kobo and asked, "Want me to introduce them to you?"
Without hesitation, Kobo nodded.
Olivia smiled. Then, she pressed on her WristComm screen and spoke to it.
"Udin. Relay me a tactical map of our field of operation, an audio feed of the TACCOM, and zoomed in feeds of the Jakarta Pusat cameras." Olivia commanded, "Oh! And make them WristComm format, please!"
"As you wish, lady Olivia." Commander Udin replied through the WristComm, "But why are you asking for these all of a sudden?"
"I just want to give a potential recruit a glimpse behind the curtain." Olivia answered with a grin, "Who knows? She could be calling me 'Olivia-simpai' one day! With the way things are going, ID3 could be open for 'auditions' soon. Just like what Miss Enma and Miss Jenma are doing in KW8!"
Commander Udin chuckled from the other end of the line.
"Understood, lady Olivia." He acknowledged, "Patching you through to the TACCOM and the other feeds now."
When Commander Odin said this, Olivia's WristComm device started to glow. A dozen floating holographic screens burst out from the device, displaying everything that Olivia had asked for. They turned the back of the IDSC humvee into a miniature command center.
Kobo watched all of the screens before her with bright, sparkling eyes. Then, new voices spoke through the WristComm.
"Oooh! Looks like we've got new spectators on the TACCOM!" A bright and cheerful voice greeted, "Hewrro~! Is that you, Livia? You look a little tired."
A new screen popped up from Olivia's WristComm. It displayed a pretty brunette girl with emerald green eyes, fuzzy squirrel ears on the top of her head that twitched with excitement.
"Hi there, Risu-simpai!" Olivia answered, "And yeah... I've had a pretty long day."
The pilot named 'Risu' snickered. Next, another screen popped up.
This time, a cute girl with light-pink gradient hair and soft purple eyes appeared on a video feed. She tilted her head lightly and beamed, "Tenghari, Livia!"
"Tenghari. Iofi-simpai!" Olivia grinned.
The pilot named 'Iofi' nodded and turned to Kobo, "Tenghari to you too, little miss. Will you be watching over us too?"
"T-tenghari..." Kobo waved awkwardly to Olivia's WristComm screen. She stammered but joined her hands together, "B-best of luck in the battle today!"
Finally, a third voice answered Kobo through the device.
"Thank you for the well wishes, dear guest, but starfighting is less about luck and more about skill - and timing - than luck." The third voice declared with lioness-like confidence, "Watch us closely today, girl. We'll show you what I.D.O.L. Frames are capable of."
Olivia snorted. Then, she smiled and greeted the last voice, "Hah. Tenghari to you too, Moona-simpai."
Once Olivia said this, one last screen popped up from her WristComm device. This time, a gorgeous woman with long, wavy locks of purple hair appeared. Her fierce, golden eyes and her strong-willed poker face expression stirred Kobo's heart. But more than that...
"Your hair..." Kobo's thoughts escaped her ajar lips, "They have stars."
The pilot named 'Moona' smiled briefly at Kobo before she buried it in her perpetual poker face once more.
"Iofi. Risu. We're deploying now to intercept the AO formation." Moona declared, "We'll draw them into range of the Jakarta platforms and finish them off there."
"Yes, ma'am!" Iofi and Risu answered.
Through the floating screens, Kobo watched as the three I.D.O.L. Frame pilots get ready for launch. Then, one by one they made their announcements.
"1:15AM, standing by!" Risu cheered.
"Q&A=E, standing by!" Iofi followed.
Then, Moona's confident voice spoke next, "High Tide, standing by." Moona's golden eyes glowed with confidence and she roared, "ID1! Sortie!"
Kobo's eyes shone too. She was practically glued to the screens, watching the three I.D.O.L. Frames launch into battle - towards the fearsome foes that Kobo had spent her every waking moment running away from.
"So, what do you think?" Olivia asked cheerfully.
Kobo clutched her breast and answered wholeheartedly, "I want to be like them. I want to be as brave as them." She saw her own reflection on a formless screen and cried, "I don't want to be afraid anymore!"
...
To Be Continued
...