Prologue
Three years ago, in the far depths of space - far beyond the realm of KW1, an astronaut floated through a debris field. She dragged along an umbilical cord attached to her suit that snaked behind her all the way to a large space faring vessel. She activated the thrusters of her pack, propelling her away from the ruined, ichor-stained remains of escape pods that littered the void. As she flew, her visor displayed the coordinates of a distress beacon.
The astronaut followed that beacon to the only mostly-intact escape pod in the field.
"I have a visual of the beacon source." The astronaut reported, hailing the warship, "I'll attempt a rescue."
Her earpiece buzzed with an answer.
'The signal's one and a half system hours old, Moona. The Nousagi's sensors say the pod's hull has been compromised pretty badly too. Whatever KW these pods came from... they don't have shields. I don't think anyone would have survived that.'
The astronaut, Moona Hoshinova, frowned. The message continued, echoing in her helmet.
'Sora-senpai says she wants to prepare the fleet to move on to the next sector, peko. We're very far from home base. The AO's that caused this might still be out there. We have to warp together but they're waiting on me - and you.'
"We still have to check, Pekora-simpai. Please ask Sora-simpai for more time. She'll understand." Moona insisted, "In the meantime, power up my beam cutters, please."
An amused laugh came through the comms.
'Oh Moona. Daring as ever. Alright. I'll see what I can do and trust you, peko. Just don't do anything stupid, okay? The new EVA cable's sturdy, but that's your lifeline out there. If things get bad, I'm reeling you back into the Nousagi.'
"I know, I know." Moona reassured, "This isn't my first EVA... and this isn't my first rescue mission either."
"Alright, peko. Routing power to you now.'
The pack on the back of Moona's space suit started to whir and glow powder blue. She reached to the side, brought out her beam cutters and pointed them at the escape pod's airlock doors.
Then, she pulled the triggers.
FZZZZZZZZZZZTTTT!!!
High-powered cutter beams melted through the alloy hull of the escape pod, but she did not have to cut through much. The already damaged airlock doors opened without a hiss of oxygen and floated off without resistance. Moona retracted her beam cutters and entered the cockpit.
Inside, she found a lone girl who was frosting from the extreme cold of space. Her broken helmet and visor floated beside her. A rebreather mask covered her nose and her mouth, but it was flickering with red warning lights and was already slipping from the girl's face. The girl's blue eyes were unfocused, but they turned towards Moona.
Moona rushed to action.
She launched herself towards the girl and opened a compartment of her space pack, retrieving a brand new, fully-charged rebreather mask. With a brisk tug, she yanked off the girl's old, spent rebreather and placed the new one.
Moona took a deep breath and took off her helmet.
HISSSSSSS!!!
Oxygen spewed out of Moona's helmet and spacesuit and the harsh cold of space bit at her, making her wince. Her starry purple hair flew out and started frosting almost immediately. Despite that, she took her helmet and fitted it as best as she could onto the girl's space suit. Then, Moona took out another rebreather mask and put that on for herself.
"Gahhh...!" Moona grunted, forcing herself to breathe the recycled air and brave the cold. But she wasn't done. Moona unplugged the EVA cable from her suit and plugged it into the girl's.
Suddenly, her comms rang again, blasting with a frantic voice.
'MOONA! YOUR VITALS SPIKED JUST NOW! YOUR LIFE SUPPORT'S FAILING...'
"Get me... an extraction team... Pekora-simpai..." Moona spoke through her rebreather, "I found a survivor... she's in worse shape... than me... so, be quick about it!"
'O-oh... okay! Hold on! Dispatching an extraction team to you now!'
"Good." Moona croaked. Her entire body trembled, clinging onto her residual warmth.
'Don't. Die. Moona.'
Moona scoffed.
"I won't." She promised, "Not 'till I can dream again."
So, Moona held onto the warming body of the girl adrift, sharing her heat. She looked into the girl's eyes through her new visor and promised, "I won't let you die either."
...
BRRRRRRRRRM
Back in the present, Moona's memory was interrupted by the heavy, mechanical hum of machinery. Those hums filled the cockpit of a different vessel - the High Tide I.D.O.L. Frame. A crane carried her starfighter through the length of a long corridor slowly but surely.
Moona took a deep breath, taking in the fresh, temperature-controlled air that circulated the cockpit.
The space suit that she wore was no longer the bulky, no-frills number for Extravehicular Activity "EVA" gear. Instead, through the reflection on the reinforced glass of her cockpit, she saw her sleeker, more stylish I.D.O.L. Frame flight suit with purple streaks adorned with a pattern of the moon cycles waning and waxing and the triangular insignia of the Cover Corporation over her heart.
Moona pinched the triangular insignia and snorted.
"It's our time to shine." Moona whispered. She heaved a sigh, "If only Peko were here to see."
The moment she mentioned 'Peko', Moona laid her hand over her heart, holding it firmly.
When she said this, a formless screen appeared on Moona's dashboard. It showed a frowning Usada Pekora.
'I heard that, peko.'
"Tenghari, Shachou." Moona answered the screen with a small smile.
'Konnichiwa, Moona." The voice answered in Japanese, "How many times are you going to make me worry? You're really deploying with just I.D.O.L. Frames?"
"We have no choice." Moona replied firmly, "All the other IDSC vessels are engaged in battle already around KW8 and KW11, right?"
'Yeah... the Nousagi's attached to the Ankimo battlegroup thirty-six system hours away from there.' Pekora shifted in her seat and shook her head, 'And we're the closest ones.'
"We'll hold, Shachou." Moona emphasized, "We'll hold. Believe in me, please."
Then, the crane came to a halt and sirens blared, followed by an announcement on the PA systems, and within Moona's comms too.
'Attention all hands! The Garuda's fighter bays are opening. Prepare for I.D.O.L. Frame takeoff!'
"That's my cue to go." Moona said.
Pekora sniffled. Then, she croaked, "Be safe out there, peko."
"Be safe too." Moona smiled, "I'll be eagerly awaiting your return."
Pekora smiled on the screen. Then, she cut the transmission.
...
The doors beneath the High Tide open with loud, hydraulic hisses, but Moona was unfazed. She looked up to the crane dragging her starfighter, watching it whir again and lower the High Tide beneath their mothership. Moona's golden eyes twinkled for a moment as she looked out to the vastness of space and its myriad of stars and planets.
But she could not enjoy it for long. The lights of a handful of those stars flickered.
"Way to ruin a view..." Moona hissed, "We'll have to fix that."
Two other I.D.O.L. Frames were lowered before and behind the High Tide, joining Moona's formation. Through the cockpit glass, the pilots of the two starfighters waved at Moona. The pilots, just like their starfighters, were vastly different from Moona's.
'But that's what makes them wonderful.' Moona thought.
With a smile, Moona waved back to her teammates.
Then, an announcement came straight to Moona's comms.
'1:15AM, Q&A=E, High Tide. Battlefield control has been established. You are clear for takeoff.'
Moona reached up above her seat, grabbed a metallic alloy circlet and lowered it down to her head. At her touch, the circlet glowed bright purple like an angel's halo. Then, the systems of the High Tide came to life. Floating, holographic screens appeared around Moona, displaying all sorts of information. The screens organized themselves before her in a neat concave. Moona shifted in her seat and answered calmly.
"Acknowledged, M-chan. High Tide online. I am taking command."
She brought up one of the formless screens and expanded it, revealing a three-dimensional map of the Solar System. Red circles with exclamation marks appeared on screen, massed between Jupiter and Mars. Moona traced the mass of pings on the map with her gloved finger, encircling them in a purple ring.
"Risu. Iofi. Our enemies are massing in this sector." Moona spoke, watching the red pings inch closer, "You've already been briefed on our strategy. All that's left is to see it through."
A formless screen popped up to Moona's right, showing the face of the space suit-clad Risu Ayunda.
"It's finally time, huh?" Risu spoke cautiously, "We've only flown escort sorties for the big IDSC warships 'till now. This is our first time going solo. Just us and the mothership."
"What? Getting cold feet, Risu?" Moona teased.
"Heh. Me?" Risu laughed heartily at first, but she paused. In the screen, her fluffy squirrel's tail drooped behind her, "... maybe a little, if I'm being honest."
Moona chuckled and thought, 'Is worrying this much a rodent thing?'
"The Garuda will be fine if we do our jobs right, Risu." A second screen appeared, opposite to Risu's, showing the bubbly, smiling figure of Iofifteen Airani. Her kind purple eyes shone as she spoke, "The I.D.O.L. Frames are much more powerful than most folks think, especially after our upgrades. I would know - and so would the two of you! Now's our chance to prove just that! Isn't that right, Moona?"
"Yeah." Moona nodded. Then, she spoke sternly, "We have to crush these AO's completely! Anything less is unacceptable."
"Ma'am, yes ma'am!" Risu and Iofi answered her challenge.
It was at around this time that another line patched into their secure line. Risu's expression brightened up and Iofi's smile grew warmer. The two of them were talking to someone on the TACCOM.
Soon enough, the observer's screen appeared between Risu's and Iofi's screens. It was Olivia Kureiji... and the peculiar child that she rescued three years ago. The two of them seemed to be in the back of an IDSC humvee. The girl's voice came through to Moona.
"B-best of luck in the battle today!"
'So, that's what she sounds like.' Moona watched the child beside Olivia closely, 'She's breathing. She's alive. Thank goodness.'
She answered the girl's stammered but wholehearted greeting, "Thank you for the well wishes, dear guest, but starfighting is less about luck and more about skill - and timing."
'Hah.' Olivia scoffed through the comms, 'Tenghari to you too, Moona-simpai."
Moona ran her hand through her starry purple hair and turned on her TACCOM camera. When she did, the child's blue eyes sparkled.
'Your hair...' the child spoke with awe, 'They have stars."
'Did she remember me from back then?' Moona wondered. She kept her poker-face on, but she could tell that this child was looking - listening - observing her. So, she thinks, 'I've got to put on a show, then.'
"Iofi. Risu. We're deploying now to intercept the AO formation." Moona declared, "We have to make those monsters fight on our terms!"
"Yes, ma'am!" Iofi and Risu answered.
With that, Moona, Risu and Iofi prepared their I.D.O.L. Frames. A myriad of cords and cables split off from the three starfighters and retracted back into the fighter bays of the Garuda.
Then, Moona cried out, "ID1! Sortie!"
One by one, the thrusters of the 1:15AM, the Q&A=E and the High Tide roared to life.
...
FWOOOSH!
FWOOOSH!
FWOOOSH!
...
The three I.D.O.L. Frames took off, soaring through the vast expanse of space. Moona's High Tide led the formation. Her golden eyes swept through the battery of formless screens on her dashboard, but she watched the formation of eldritch horrors grow closer and closer.
'Damn. That's a lot of AO's...' Risu clicked her tongue over the comms, 'They're all bunched up together too. That's new.'
True enough, as the I.D.O.L. Frames shot towards Mars, Moona saw the sheer size of the Eldritch Horrors with her own eyes. They coalesced into a large mass many times larger than the IDSC Garuda - enough to swallow the mothership whole. Moona held onto her seat firmly, furrowing her brow.
'Could they be mimicking IDSC warships?' Iofi theorized.
'Looks more like a big damn orca to me.' Risu scoffs, "Either way, we're entering missile range, Moona.'
"Roger that." Moona answered. She tapped on the screens on her dashboard, "Let's give them a warm welcome to KW1!"
...
Blue Horizon
Dreamless Angels
...
Sixth Scene - Sword and Shield
The flight formation of the 1:15AM, the Q&A=E and the High Tide appeared on the projections of Olivia Kureiji's WristComm device. Video feeds from the Jakarta-series platforms and the IDSC's three-dimensional Deep Space Sensor Array star map of the Solar System showed Olivia and her passenger Kobo the battle from the sa fety of the Platform Jakarta Central.
Eventually, the three starfighters disappeared from the video feeds. The voices of Moona, Risu and Iofi broke off their transmission too, leaving just the star map populated with blips of many different colors. Still, Kobo watched that star map with sheer awe.
Excited as she was, however, she didn't have a clue as to what was going on!
"W-what's going on here?" Kobo asked Olivia, frantically pointing to the map, "So many things! So many colors!"
Olivia smiled and expanded the map with a wave of her hand. She traced her finger through the screen, scrolling and zooming to the different-colored blips for Kobo to see.
"The Greens are us - that is, the Jakarta-series platforms and Mother Earth itself." Olivia spoke as she scrolled, "The red mass between Jupiter and Mars... though closer to Mars about now... that's the Ancient Ones. The AO's."
"Just like in your presentation earlier." Kobo recalled.
"That's right! So you were listening to me after all!" Olivia beamed.
Kobo snorted, pretending not to care. That was Olivia's cue to continue.
Olivia zoomed in to the blues and smiled, "And these are our heroes - the IDSC Garuda Autonomous Aviation Cruiser and her complement: the I.D.O.L. Frames of Strike Force ID1."
Olivia held her head high and watched the map proudly.
"There's gonna come a time when I get to see this star map in the cockpit of my own I.D.O.L. Frame - a day when I can deploy from the Garuda, or the other AAC's." Olivia mused longingly, "But for now, the best I can do is to cheer my simpais on."
Kobo nodded eagerly. She kept her eyes on the map, following the blue blips keenly - especially the blip of the High Tide.
All of a sudden the blips of the I.D.O.L. Frames blossomed. Kobo's jaw dropped.
"They're like angels spreading their wings." Kobo noted, bringing her face closer to the map.
"That's a missile salvo, dear. Good ole' eighty-six blast salute. Forty from Risu-simpai, thirty-one from Moona-simpai and fifteen from Iofi-simpai!" Olivia explained, chuckling. She followed the trails traced by the missiles and added, "I can see what you mean, though. The IDSC and their galactic warships are the protectors of KW1 and everyone under its protection." She pointed to the blip of the High Tide and mused fondly, "But in Moona-simpai's eyes, the I.D.O.L. Frame starfighters are the swords and shields of us Worldless."
"Miss Moona is...!?" Kobo gasped.
"A Worldless, just like you and me." Olivia confirmed gladly, "Us Worldless are unable to dream, but Moona-simpai insists that we can dream in our own way. The I.D.O.L. Frames bring those unmade dreams to life. All of our pilots are Worldless!"
"I... didn't know we were able to do that..." Kobo touched her forehead curiously.
She and Olivia turned to the 3D map again. The blue blips of the I.D.O.L. Frames soared, destroying blip after red blip. The once fearsome formation of AO's thinned out in minutes.
Moments later, the Jakarta platforms unleashed their own salvos of missiles at the approaching AO's. Heavy-caliber guns of the Jakarta-series defense platforms whirred and fired their salvos.
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
The salvos shook all of Jakarta Central and the IDSC humvee, but Kobo and Olivia held firm. They just looked up to the Jakarta Central's dome and watched the explosions going off like fireworks in space. All the while, more and more of the red blips of AO's disappeared.
One after another, the 1:15AM, the Q&A=E and the High Tide flew over the Jakarta Central dome.
FWOOOOOOOOSH!!!
FWOOOOOOOOSH!!!
FWOOOOOOOOSH!!!
It was a victory lap.
Kobo held her hands over her heart. The display of power stirred her from within.
Above them, the gun and missile batteries of the Jakarta-series platforms fell silent as the last of the eldritch horrors were consumed by flames of starburst artillery.
Slowly but surely, the two saw brutalist blocks of steel and concrete retracting back below the ground, releasing the beautiful city from its bondage. They watched the residents of Jakarta Central emerge out of the underground AO-incident shelters too. Then, the simulated environment appeared once more on the platform dome and painted a scene of late afternoon.
"We are more powerful than we think, dear Kobo." Olivia pointed to Kobo's head, "I.D.O.L. Frames only respond to the strongest of wills. I have been privileged and fortunate to serve!" She glanced at Kobo, "Me and my Strike Force ID2 are definitely gonna be activated soon, but I heard our commander's looking for candidates for ID3 already!"
The moment Olivia said this Kobo straightened up in her seat and laid her hand over her heart, "Can I sign up, Miss Olivia? For the IDSC?"
"Definitely!" Olivia joined her hands together, beaming, "I'll chat with your school principal about it, so talk with your homeroom teacher and get your affairs in order. The Academy's all the way down on the Earth after all."
"On Earth?" Kobo's eyes shone.
Olivia nodded, "You'll be leaving Jakarta-03 behind, so you'll need the approval of your legal guardians."
Suddenly, Kobo went silent and shrank into her seat.
"You don't have any?" Olivia guessed.
Kobo pouted and shook her head.
Olivia twisted her lips and she pulled on a lock of her red hair. Then, she heaved a sigh and proposed, "I could sign off on the necessary documents for you if you don't have a guardian. The Orbital Administration's gonna chew my ears out for this, and I won't hear the end of it from M-chan either..."
Kobo's silence, however, gave her pause.
"S-something wrong, kid?" Olivia asked.
When she turned to Kobo, though, she saw tears in the young girl's eyes.
"Y-you're..." Kobo sniffled, wiping her tears, "Y-you're gonna adopt me, Miss Olivia?"
"I didn't..." Olivia tried to correct, but she didn't get the chance.
"THANK YOU!" Kobo pounced on Olivia, hugging her tightly.
Wrapped in Kobo's arms, Olivia lost the strength to argue and came to terms with her fate. Kobo, on the other hand, snuggled lovingly with Olivia under the light of the simulated sunset.
That night, after Kobo had come home to Platform Jakarta-03, her haunting first memories did not come to her in her waking moments. In their stead, she dreamed about Olivia Kureiji, Moona Hoshinova and the I.D.O.L. Frames.
For the first time in as long as she could remember, Kobo Kanaeru slept peacefully.
...
...
...
...
Seventh Scene - Shelter From The Rain
One month had passed since the battle in high orbit.
Ever since then, Kobo Kanaeru had been blessed with peaceful sleep and calm awakenings. However, that morning, Kobo had rings under her eyes. After all, rather than a dreamless sleep, Kobo wasn't able to sleep - at all!
"Ungh..." Kobo grumbled, shifting for what felt like the hundred thousandth time in her bed. She threw her blanket off and sat upright, hunching forward as she looked around her room.
Kobo didn't have a lot of things to begin with, but most of what little she had no longer populated her tiny studio apartment.
Most of the furniture had already been taken away, leaving, leaving off-color markings on the floor and the walls. Her walk-in closet, with its door slightly ajar, had nearly nothing left. Then, her trolley suitcase stood by her bed, barely half-filled with clothes and anything else that wasn't bolted down.
Suddenly, Kobo's WristComm device then buzzed and blasted out her alarm: a song from a virally popular and anonymous idol group.
"Yikes!" Kobo shot up from her bed and turned off her alarm, "Seven o'clock already?" She facepalmed, "I couldn't sleep even a little bit, huh?"
Despite her frustrations, Kobo hummed the tune and sang some of the lyrics, "Dan menjadi satu, id:entity~"
Satisfied, Kobo ran her hands through her unruly hair, taming them as best as she could, and marched over to her bathroom window for her morning ritual. Resting her elbow on her windowsill, she looked up to the simulated sunrise on the Platform Jakarta-03 dome one last time.
The simulated sunlight, however, was obstructed by gray clouds that hung in the sky. A light drizzle even fell from the dome, mimicking a gentle springtime shower.
Kobo opened her window and held her hand out to catch the 'rain'.
'I wonder what real weather on the Earth is like.' Kobo thought, feeling the water droplets slide down her hand and her arm.
Just as Kobo was about to close her window again, she noticed something stirring in the midst of the garden shrubs under her windowsill. Kobo poked her head out the window and looked down.
It was a small garden snail.
"The rain startled you too, huh, little guy?" Kobo chuckled. She grabbed a hold of the stem of a lotus leaf and held it over the snail like an umbrella, "There you go." She smiled at the snail and closed her window, whispering, "Take care, now. Goodbye."
...
Kobo finished up in the bathroom and put away her toiletries for the last time, stuffing them into her trolley suitcase. She zipped up her suitcase and stepped out the door of her apartment unit. Just as she did, though, the simulated rain intensified.
"What the hell...!?" Kobo fumed, frowning at the heavens. Droplets splattered on her face, but Kobo just clicked her tongue and stood defiant.
But then, a large powder blue umbrella with a bright red interior opened over her head.
FWOOP!
Kobo's eyes traced the umbrella to the hand that was holding it. She turned to the side and saw Olivia Kureiji holding up the umbrella for her.
"Rain's part of the ecosystem." Olivia remarked, looking up to the cloudy dome above, "Even if it's simulated, it has a purpose."
Kobo pouted at Olivia and cheered, "Livia!"
"Yeah, that's me." Olivia beamed, "What kind of a legal guardian would I be if I didn't come to pick you up for the big day."
Kobo pursed her lips and tested, "What kind of a legal guardian, huh?"
She looked straight into Olivia's eyes and frowned. She wanted to talk about how after Olivia dropped her off at the maglev train station last month, the I.D.O.L. Frame pilot made herself scarce, but held her tongue. Aside from some texts and emails confirming her IDSC Academy enrolment, Olivia practically disappeared from Kobo's radar.
Olivia got the message and started to fret.
"Ah... ahahaha~ L-listen! Things have gotten pretty busy over at HQ." Olivia started making excuses, but Kobo didn't budge. So, Olivia bowed down apologetically, "I swear, I didn't mean to ghost you Kobo. It was out of my control. I haven't forgotten about you - nu-uh!"
"Really?" Kobo tested.
"Cross my heart and hope to die!" Olivia swore. She promptly placed the large umbrella in Kobo's hands and explained, "I actually got this for you. It's my birthday gift to you."
"My birthday...?" Kobo paused. The umbrella nearly slipped from her hands.
"Today's the day that Moona-simpai rescued you from that escape pod." Olivia reminded her with a grin, "Happy third birthday, Kobo! Welcome again to KW1!"
Kobo fell silent. The large umbrella trembled in her hands.
"K-Kobo...?" Olivia stammered, her voice shaking with concern.
Kobo, with umbrella still in hand, hugged Olivia. The young girl then croaked meekly, "I'm... I'm sorry for doubting you, Olivia-neesan."
"...neesan?" Olivia blushed. She hugged Kobo back, "Heh, it's alright, kid. I would have felt the same." She patted Kobo's back and smiled, "Come on now, I'll buy you some snacks at the Skyport. Anything you like!"
"Anything!?" Kobo brightened up immediately. It was almost as if she hadn't even shed a tear!
"W-within reason." Olivia walked back her promise.
Kobo stuck out her tongue, "Good enough for me! Let's go, Livia-neesan!"
With that, Kobo held up the umbrella for Olivia and herself. Olivia, meanwhile, pulled Kobo's luggage for her. The two of them then walked under the rain. As they did, Kobo walked through the puddles in the pavement with a spring in her step. All the while, she whispered the refrain of the idol song.
"Dan menjadi satu id:entity~!" Kobo sang in the rain.
Olivia glanced at the singing Kobo and smiled, not saying a word. She just bobbed her head along to Kobo's tune, enjoying the rainswept performance that was just for her.
...
Eighth Scene - Connecting Flight
Kobo, together with Olivia, took the maglev train on her usual route but they went three stations further than Platform Jakarta Central/Pusat. All the while, the dysfunctional family chatted and caught up with each other over the past month. The PA system announced their destination.
'Skyport Banda Aceh. Skyport Banda Aceh. '
The maglev train doors opened. Kobo and Olvia marched out along with the rest of the crowd, taking their things with them. They went out one set of turnstiles and headed through another into the Skyport itself. There, just as Olivia promised, she bought her new ward a snack: chili dogs from a peculiar hotdog stand called 'O.Wurst'.
"O.Wurst hotdogs might not seem like much, but they're the best hotdogs in the Orbital Platforms by lightyears!" Olivia praised while she ordered at the stand with Kobo, "Pair that together with Peter E. Pepper chili? It's the greatest thing you've ever tasted!" She lowered her voice to a whisper, "Though, I might have to hit the gym when I get back to HQ after this..."
Kobo, however, was already too hungry to listen to the last part. Her mouth was already watering!
Olivia handed Kobo her chili dog and the two of them found a bench by the hotdog stand. Together, they enjoyed Kobo's birthday snack while the other commuters zipped to and fro before them.
As they ate - or rather gorged on - the chili dogs, advertisements of Skyport orbital zeppelins and the Space Elevator Yokosuka appeared on the walls. Physical posters and digital holograms catch Kobo's eyes left and right.
"So, this is your first time taking an O-Zep, kiddo?" Olivia pointed to a hologram of an orbital zeppelin across from them.
Kobo nodded eagerly. She finished off her chili dog and wiped her mouth with the wrapper, "I was brought straight to Jakarta-03 and spent my whole life there. I never took the train past Jakarta Pusat."
"Heh. You'll be in for a treat, then!" Olivia cheered, finishing her chili dog too, "Most of the Worlded folk hype up the Space Elevator... and it definitely is a hell of an engineering marvel, don't' get me wrong. But for us Worldless? The view of outer space from the O-Zeps is to DIE for!" She waved her arms around, "Unrestricted view! You won't have the maglev tube spoiling the wonder of it all! It ain't flying through space in an I.D.O.L. Frame, but I tell you, it gets pretty close!"
"Really!?" Kobo piped up, sitting upright on the bench.
"And the best part...!" Olivia grinned. She leaned towards Kobo and whispered, "A Cover affiliate, Pink Rabbit, owns the O-Zep company, so they don't force the riders to watch OANA news."
"Pfft...!" Kobo snickered.
Then, Kobo and Olivia laughed.
"Heh. So enjoy our little connecting flight to the Space Elevator while you can." Olivia urged. Then, she mimicked the OANA newscaster's voice and tone, "Or it'll be 'Elio Peterson of OANA reporting live from wonderful Tokyo, Japan,' before you know it - aaaaaaaall the way down to the Earth!"
"Hahaha~! Oh, please no!" Kobo guffawed.
The two of them, however, were interrupted by an announcement on the PA System.
'Attention, all Skyport passengers. Orbital Zeppelin flight PR-115... with nonstop service to Space Elevator Yokosuka... is arriving at Gate 11. Please have your WristComm passports and boarding passes ready for inspection.'
"Right on schedule." Olivia wiped her own mouth on the wrapper and stood up from the bench. She crumpled up the wrapper and sauntered towards a nearby trash can.
"Oh, let me throw that for ya!" Kobo offered.
Olivia smiled and handed her wrapper to Kobo, "Thanks, kiddo."
Kobo grinned, marched towards the trash can and threw the hotdog wrappers triumphantly. On her way back, however, a Skyport passenger slammed into her!
WHAM!
"Urk!" Kobo grunted.
The passenger who slammed into her, however, fell back and dropped butt-first to the floor. The passenger's trolley luggage fell down beside her unceremoniously, scratching the logo of the designer brand.
"HEY! BLUE GIRL! Watch where you're...!" The passenger started at first, but stopped halfway, "Wait a minute..."
Kobo gritted her teeth and glared at the passenger, but she fell silent too.
"Hey, you're..." Kobo started.
Olivia rushed over to the scene and intervened, "What's going on here, kids?"
Kobo and the passenger puffed up their cheeks and pointed at each other, shouting, "THIS BITCH RAN INTO ME!"
Olivia facepalmed. Then, she urged, "Kobo. Help her up, will ya?"
"But she's...!" Kobo protested.
"She's Vestia Zeta - daughter of the Inter-Orbital Security Bureau chief." Olivia explained bitterly, "And she's... she's one of the cadets gunning for the I.D.O.L. Frame pilot slots for ID3." She looked straight into Kobo's eyes, "She's probably going to the Academy too."
Kobo's jaw dropped in utter disbelief.
"HUUUUH!?!?"
To Be Continued