Prologue
Kobo and the rest of the Majestic 12 cadets descended down the steps of the Hundred Thousand Miracles in the dead of night. Every single one of them carried full combat gear that an IDSC Garrison soldier would carry into battle: heavy boots, rucksacks filled with ammunition and gear, ceramic plate armor vests and ballistic helmets. They even had Japanese Howa Type 20 assault rifles slung over their shoulders.
All of that gear rattled and clanked with every step the encumbered cadets took, masked by their huffing and puffing that filled their ears.
The voices of their instructor Reine Pavolia, however, cut through the din.
"Let's get a move on, girls!" Reine called out to the cadets, lugging her own loaded rucksack and rifle, "The I.D.O.L. Frames are.... hah... incredibly powerful weapons. So... hah... we have to try to be strong ourselves!"
Anya followed beside Reine. She was more quiet than her taller peafowl companion, but she muscled through the descent without complaining for even a moment.
' I.D.O.L. Frame pilots really are something else... ' Kobo thought. She furrowed her brow and pushed herself even harder, ' I'm not gonna give up! '
Kobo moved her encumbered body as quickly as her feet could take her. She trailed behind Reine and Anya just a few dozen paces but couldn't quite close the distance. Her body ached and begged her to stop, but she kept on going.
She counted the steps of the Hundred Thousand Miracles to keep her mind off the pain - timing her counts to the clattering and rattling of her gear and her gasps for air.
When Kobo's boots hit the Yokosuka Naval Base landing, she counted exactly one thousand and eighty six steps.
It wasn't quite the hundred thousand steps that it was supposed to be honoring, but the heavy loads they carried sure made it feel like a hundred thousand steps!
And boy, did it feel like an eternity.
Still, Kobo's stamina held. Her body endured the agony and she placed in third - just behind her instructors Reine and Anya.
Kobo took off her helmet, put away her rifle and set down her loaded rucksack. The sweat on her brow and on her IDSC shirt glistened in the moonlight. Then, she turned around and saw her fellow cadets still descending the staircases a few dozen paces away.
She beat every single one of them, she thought. It brought a smug smirk to her lips and she nodded with satisfaction.
Suddenly, Kobo felt a hand on her shoulder.
It was Reine's. Her peafowl instructor was still wearing her full load of gear. The instructor brought out a face towel for Kobo and handed it to her with a smile.
"Good work, Kanaeru. You actually kept up with us. That's some incredible stamina." Reine praised.
Despite her tiredness, Kobo couldn't help but smile back and melt a little on the inside.
"PE was my favorite subject in school." Kobo grinned. She wiped her brow with the face towel, "My school wanted me to compete in all the sports teams, but I didn't really feel like it." She then paused and looked up to the night sky, spotting the twinkling lights of the Jakarta orbital platforms above passing placidly by the moon, "Then, the AO's attacked the only home I knew. And now I'm here."
"We're glad to have you." Reine nodded.
"Ehe~ it's always been a dream of mine to go down to the Earth - even before I wanted to be an I.D.O.L. Frame pilot." Kobo admitted, "Now that dream is fulfilled and I'm gonna keep doing my best!"
"I see." Reine folded her arms and hummed, "You told your story to Olivia, right?"
"Mhm." Kobo confirmed.
"Did she ever tell you that high school sports meets bring teams from the Orbital Platforms down to the Earth every so often?"
Kobo paused.
"HUH!?" Kobo's jaw dropped.
"Yeah. Jakarta-03's soccer team reached the playoffs and went to Earth's Jakarta two years ago." Reine confirmed, "Though, they couldn't get past the group stage - it was still a first for the Orbital Platforms!"
Kobo pouted. If she had given in to her school's begging, she would have fulfilled her dreams of setting foot on the Earth even sooner. She didn't even hear about her school's historic but ill-fated soccer odyssey because she more or less zoned out in school until PE. However, she didn't sulk for long.
"That's a shame." Kobo sighed, "But it's not like the Orbital Platforms would have sports meets after the AO attack. My school was gearing up for defense drills right before we left."
"Things have a way of sorting themselves out, huh?" Reine mused.
While she spoke, the rest of the cadets finally started reaching the naval base landing. Reine excused herself, and started to marshal the rest of the arriving cadets. A handful of IDSC staff came by and stowed away the discarding gear of the sweating, heaving cadets too.
"You girls will be carrying that equipment back up to the Academy after tonight." Reine reminded deviously, "Good thing you'll be sitting down in the flight sims for a good spell."
"R-right..." Kobo shuddered.
Meanwhile, Kobo saw Anya in the corner of her eye. The short brunette was busy speaking with someone through her WristComm. Kobo didn't know what they were talking about, but the sour expression on Anya's face showed her displeasure.
Anya's call ended and she whirled around to the arriving cadets.
"Is everyone here?" Anya asked.
The cadets, through their huffing and puffing, raised up their hands. Kobo followed suit. Anya counted hands in threes.
"Three... six... nine... huh? Eleven?"
Anya furrowed her brow and tried to count the hands again, but the number of cadets on the landing didn't change.
The petite brunette looked up to the steps of the Hundred Thousand Miracles and squinted. Kobo turned to where Anya looked up to and raised her brow.
Coming down the stairs was a haggard Zeta Vestia with a few dozen steps left ahead of her. Even from the lights of the streetlamps, Kobo saw that Zeta's face was red like a tomato. Compared to the rest of the cadets, Zeta was clearly worse for wear.
"Aww, Miss aristocrat can't climb down without an elevator, can she?" One of the cadets whispered to her peers.
"Maybe her brain's too heavy for her head." Another cadet guffawed.
"Or her bank account is probably too heavy too!" A third laughed.
Kobo folded her arms and pouted. For the briefest of moments, even as Anya and Reine tried to shush them, Kobo was tempted to join in and pile on on the irritating Zeta Vestia.
And yet, Kobo took another look at the descending Zeta and her mountain of rattling combat gear. She watched how Zeta, the top-scorer of their test, was so winded and so fragile as she struggled especially hard from climbing down the staircase.
She remembered the two times that Zeta bumped into her in public transit - and how Zeta easily fell down on her butt both times.
' Weak and frail. Just like the aristocrat that she is .' was Kobo's first thoughts, ' She's a pampered girl thrown to the fire .'
But Kobo held her tongue and kept her eyes on the struggling Zeta. The Zeta who, despite her fatigue and inequities, did not stop soldiering on - even if she had to pause every so often and slow down her pace to a near-crawl. She couldn't tell if it was sweat or tears streaking down Zeta's cheeks, but Kobo knew she couldn't turn her eyes away.
In that moment, she could see Zeta's fighting spirit.
It was much, much stronger than Kobo could have ever anticipated. A sliver of respect took root in Kobo's heart.
' She's a pampered girl. ' Kobo thought again, ' But there's more to her than that... '
Minutes later, Zeta finally made it down. She dropped her backpack, squared away her assault rifle and sat down to the pavement, heaving and gasping for air. The other cadets jeered at her - until Reine and Anya shushed them. Kobo, on the other hand, looked down on Zeta but held back her usually sharp words.
"What? You've got something to say too, fountain girl?" Zeta hissed at Kobo, her bloodshot blue eyes shimmering angrily in the moonlight.
"Not really." Kobo answered with a shrug, "I just hope they don't take time off our flight simulator session. The sooner you get off your butt, the better."
Zeta's nose wrinkled, but she didn't pounce back. The fountain-girl's words that night were much less harsh than the rest of the Majestic 12, but she folded her arms and puffed her cheeks - pretending not to notice.
The winded aristocrat wouldn't get a long time to rest, however. Reine and Anya started to assemble the twelve cadets, so Zeta picked herself up from the floor.
She took a deep breath and lined up with the other cadets along with Kobo.
...
Sixteenth Scene - The Strato-Hornets' Nest
Kobo, Zeta and the rest of the Majestic 12 cadets followed Reine and Anya into a large aircraft hangar in the Yokosuka Naval Base's IDSC complex. The moment they stepped inside, Kobo was greeted by a place buzzing with activity even in that ungodly hour. The hangar was filled with engineers from all over the Known World busy working on fighter craft.
Equipment whirred left and right and cranes lifted heavy components like wings, engines and weapons systems sailed and dangled over Kobo's head. Impressive as the operation was, however, Kobo could tell that these were fighters meant to fly within the bounds of this world - not ones built for the rigors of space.
After all, none of them had the appropriate propulsion systems: just simple jet engines.
Simple compared to nuclear fusion thrusters at least.
Jet fighters like these weren't seen at all in the confined, simulated skies of the orbital platforms that Kobo hailed from, nor did they appear among the stars beyond the digitized tubes of the maglev trains in her daily commutes.
Kobo had only seen them in movies and video games.
As such, the platform-dwellers of the twelve cadets regarded the unfamiliar jet fighters with awe.
"Are they not to your liking?" Anya approached Kobo and asked, "These are the planes that your cohort will be flying in the simulations."
Kobo paused and looked around the hangar and the fighter jets lined up there.
"Hmm... it's not that I don't like them." Kobo explained herself, "It's just that I was hoping to see an I.D.O.L. Frame up close, you know?"
"Ah, well - you won't get the opportunity to do that tonight, "Anya tempered Kobo's expectations, "If you want to run, you've gotta learn to walk first. Moreso if you want to dance among the stars! Jet fighters first! Then, starfighters."
"I guess that's true..." Kobo deflated where she stood.
Anya passed by the nose of one of the jet fighters and proudly laid a hand on it.
"But you will be able to pilot these warplanes: F/A-18X's Super Hornets upgraded to the EDX standards." Anya reassured her, "These are bonafide IDSC assets that we use for our defense. The SF/A-18 Strato-Hornets."
"EDX?" Kobo blinked. The acronym flew over her head.
"Earth Defense - Experimental. EDX. They're Stratospheric Fighter-Bombers that are built as close to I.D.O.L. Frames as we possibly could." Anya promptly explained. She let go of the fighter plane's nose and waved her finger about, "They'll be Earth's last line of defense in case the AO's break the Orbital Defense line. Folks who don't make it and become I.D.O.L. Frame pilots may have to fly or maintain these war machines instead."
"Hmm... is that so?" Kobo folded her arms, regarding the Strato-Hornets once more.
"Sorry about that." Anya apologized gingerly, "Talking about IDSC equipment and all their technical stuff gets me excited. I have to remember that this stuff isn't common knowledge."
Kobo shook her head and smiled, "It's alright. I think it's pretty cool that you're passionate about this stuff - even if you already have an I.D.O.L. Frame."
Anya's face harbored a blank expression for a brief moment when Kobo mentioned Anya's own I.D.O.L. Frame, but she soon smiled and thanked Kobo, "Thank you. I appreciate that."
Kobo blinked. She nodded back to Anya with a smile of her own, but she wondered if she had just touched a sensitive topic of some sort.
' Oh well. ' Kobo thought.
She didn't want to pry, so she just sauntered around the hangar again.
With her eyes on the Strato-Hornets, Kobo brought out her WristComm device, turned on her camera app and then started to take pictures.
"W-wait, hold on, Kanaeru!" Anya suddenly piped up, "No pictures! These jets are still Cover Corp defense secrets. It's not meant for the eyes of the public."
"Eh? B-but I'm not gonna send em' to anyone." Kobo insisted. Her lips twisted into a frown, "Not like I'd know how anyways."
"The rules are rules, kid." Anya shook her head again, "Delete those photos, please."
Kobo's frown deepened into a pout but she complied with Anya's demand. She deleted the photos she just took and let Anya confirm it.
While Anya pored over Kobo's wristcomm, Kobo spotted Zeta walking alongside Reine. The two of them were having a deep discussion of some sort, but they were out of earshot. Every so often, though, Kobo would catch Zeta's face twist and sour with displeasure - but their conversation continued.
' I wonder what they're talking about .' Kobo pondered.
She never gets the chance to eavesdrop.
Kobo heard Anya's WristComm buzz beside her. The Maintenance instructor read her message and then called up the cadets.
"Cadets! Our simulators are ready!" Anya reported, puffing up her chest to speak louder than she normally did, "Form up and we'll get this show on the road!"
Kobo gave the Strato-Hornets in the hangar one last passing glance and got into line. Zeta joined behind Kobo and they carried on towards another room in the hangar guarded by armed IDSC personnel.
Standing with them was Sergeant Sparrowhawk, also in full combat gear.
"Hold on, madams. We have to verify your credentials before we let you into the simulator hall." Sparrowhawk approached Reine and Anya, "Show me your WristComms please."
Reine and Anya complied and let Sparrowhawk scan their WristComm devices. The sergeant and her soldiers did the same for the other cadets.
When a soldier scanned Kobo's WristComm, her device suddenly displayed a warning message.
' No Signal ' it read.
After that, Sparrowhawk and her soldiers started patting down the whole class for weapons.
"What the hell? We already took off our weapons!" Kobo protested at first.
"Better safe than sorry, Kanaeru." Reine interjected, "Cover Corp is tightening security across the board."
"It's not just weapons they're searching for too." Anya added, pointing to her WristComm, "They're scanning for hidden cameras and transmission devices. Not a single byte of data goes in or out of this room without Cover Corp's permission."
"Huh. Is that so?" Kobo tilted her head innocently.
She looked up to a nearby spherical security camera watching her and wondered why security was this tight.
...
Sparrowhawk and the guards searched and cleared the whole class. Then, she and her guards escorted them into the simulator hall.
There, in a bare-bones, windowless room of concrete walls, metal pillars and industrial construction, sixteen dome-shaped Flight Simulator pods were scattered about and hooked into an isolated supercomputer mainframe. Each pod was about the size of the Strato-Hornets with wings folded up and packed side-by-side and had mock-ups of the full breadth of fighter plane instruments.
Kobo was brought to Pod 6 and Anya helped her get strapped in. Reine and a small team of IDSC technicians also helped the rest of the cadets settle into their own pods.
Once Kobo was ready, she held onto the flight stick of the simulator and the interior of the dome switched on.
Ultra high-resolution projections filled in the rest of the Strato-Hornet's airframe loitering in a daytime scene of the skies over Yokosuka, Japan appeared behind the simulated cockpit glass. Surround-sound speakers came on too and filled her cockpit with the rumble of the Strato-Hornet's jet engine.
All of the mock-up instruments came to life around Kobo too. They blinked with a myriad of lights, beeped placidly and displayed all sorts of information.
"Whoa..." Kobo's jaw dropped.
"Ever played a flight sim before, Kanaeru?" Anya asked.
"N-no, ma'am." Kobo shook her head, "I played those free-for-all arcade games with fighters though! ThunderWar. Warplane World." She stopped and laughed uncomfortably, "Though... I never really was good at those games, to be honest."
"ThunderWar and Warplane World don't count." Anya frowned a little and heaved a sigh, "This is a full-fledged military grade flight simulator once meant for the US Navy's TOPGUN school. We've inherited it and modified it to suit the IDSC's needs though."
"TOPGUN?" Kobo's eyes brightened, "Just like the movie from sixty years ago?"
"More or less." Anya snorted, "It's 2088 though. You won't be seeing Tom Cruise - unless you want to see his ghost or something."
"Yeah, no." Kobo chuckled.
"Anyways." Anya got back on track. She started pointing to the digital displays on Kobo's dashboard, "This is your first flight, so keep it simple. Just keep an eye on your fuel, speed, altitude and ammunition - and on the radar too. Reine will teach you the controls."
"Right!" Kobo said confidently. Her eyes scanned her dashboard for the information that Anya pointed out. She found most of them but not all. So, she piped up, "Where's the fuel though, Miss Melfissa?"
"That marker over there." Anya pointed to the corner of her dashboard, "I-115. Iofinum. Isotope mass 115. That's our 'fuel'." She then whispered beneath her breath, "And our ammo..."
"Ammo too?" Kobo blinked.
"It's complicated, but your ammo will replenish automatically. Don't worry about it." Anya dodged the question. "Real Strato-Hornets don't have that feature, but we wanted to make the simulation a tad bit closer to I.D.O.L. Frames."
"Oooh, I see." Kobo nodded, "One of the realism modifications."
Anya nodded, "It's not the only mod we have - but you'll have to figure out the rest. That aside, you're all set. Good luck, Kanaeru."
With that, Anya excused herself and closed up the simulator dome. That left Kobo completely immersed in the sights, sounds and feel of the modified Strato-Hornet's cockpit.
One by one, other Strato-Hornet jet fighters started appearing in the simulated Yokosuka skies until eleven other Strato-Hornets loitered alongside Kobo's own plane. A digital overlay displayed the pilot names and callsigns of each aircraft on Kobo's screen. To her left, she spotted Zeta's plane marked ' IDSC 08 '.
Suddenly, a formless screen appeared on Kobo's dashboard. It displayed Zeta's face from within her own simulated cockpit.
Kobo's face soured immediately, and Zeta's followed likewise.
" Excuse me, Miss Pavolia. Permission to unlock weapons and switch my I.F.F. for IDSC06 to 'Hostile'? " Zeta asked over the comms.
"Me too!" Kobo added impatiently, "Can I shoot down 08?"
Another formless screen appeared in Kobo's dashboard opposite from Zeta's window. The peafowl-lady instructor chuckled but shook her head.
" We're all teammates here for this exercise, Vestia. Kanaeru. " Reine promptly explained, " Plus, we're just here to learn the ropes tonight. Dogfighting with each other isn't on the agenda. "
Zeta clicked her tongue audibly. Kobo furrowed her brow.
After that, the thirteenth warplane appeared in the simulated skyscape. This one's callsign was the ' Illusion Night '.
" On that note - cadets? Attention please! " Reine called the class over the comms, " For tonight's exercises, I want everyone to follow four simple rules at all times. First: listen to my instructions. Second: treat these aircraft like they're your own I.D.O.L. Frames. Third: Don't be reckless and follow standard protocols. That includes using callsigns when speaking over the comms. Fourth: if you have any technical issues, let me or Anya know right away !"
A thirteenth screen popped up on Kobo's dashboard, showing Anya Melfissa this time. She didn't say anything, but she just waved to the students and made her presence known.
"Yes, ma'am!" Kobo, Zeta and the other cadets answered over the radio.
" Alright then. " Reine nods to the class through her camera, " Anya will unlock the controls - and the simulation will begin in three... two... one! Begin! "
...
Seventeenth Scene - Learning Experiences
In the simulated skies over a digitally-rendered Yokosuka, Japan, thirteen SF/A-18 Strato-Hornets zipped and zoomed past. Reine's warplane, tagged Illusion Night , flies ahead of the other jets of her cadets that lumber along behind her.
" Alright everyone! First things first - you gotta get used to the controls. " Reine spoke to the cadets over the radio, " I.D.O.L. Frames are equipped with HALO circlets that automatically command the starfighters through telepathy - but you have to know what commands to give them. This is your chance to learn those commands using your flight sticks - and commit them to memory! "
The moment that Reine said this, many of the Strato-Hornets that had been following hers broke formation and started flying wildly. None of them, however, flew as wildly as Kobo Kanaeru and her jet.
Kobo Kanaeru banked a hard right and flipped upside down, spinning out of control like a rotating corkscrew.
A barrel roll that never seemed to end!
"Whoa...!" Kobo gasped, watching the sky and the skyline of Yokosuka trade places over and over again. She started getting dizzy, "Oh... damn. This is more realistic than I thought!"
" Zero-Eight, break out of that spin and watch your altitude! " Reine barked at Kobo, " Pull up! Pull up! "
"Altitude...!? Pull up!?" Kobo blinked, sweating bullets in her cockpit, "But how do I stop spinning, and...!?"
Kobo jerked the flight stick desperately. The spinning stopped, but she found herself diving fast into Tokyo Bay - still upside down!
"Shit...!" Kobo cursed.
CRASH!
Kobo's cockpit seat rumbled violently, frightening her. The rumblings stopped and the simulated scene in her pod went all black. Kobo panted heavily and wiped her sweat-slick brow.
The door of Kobo's pod opened and Anya leapt inside.
"Crashed already? Good thing this isn't a real Strato-Hornet, right? Or - damn - an I.D.O.L. Frame." Anya scratched her head, "I'll reboot the simulation for you. Follow Reine's instructions, okay?"
"I... I'll try..." Kobo croaked sheepishly, shuddering in her seat. Her hands still gripped the flight stick tightly.
Anya watched the frightened Kobo and sighed. She leaned over the cockpit and tried to reassure the cadet.
"Don't be too hard on yourself. Most pilots crash at least once in these sims on their first day." Anya then whispered to Kobo, "Don't tell her I told you this, but Olivia crashed three times in her first simulation session - and she had Moona- simpai restarting her pod. Olivia wanted to hide under a table!"
"Olivia- neesan crashed that many times in the flight sims?" Kobo perked up a little, but she also cringed, "With Moona- simpaii watching too..."
"Keep that a secret between you and me, okay?" Anya winked, "The sim will start back up soon, so go get em' Kanaeru!"
"O-okay..." Kobo nodded, regaining a sliver of her confidence.
Anya excused herself and stepped out of the flight simulator pod. Kobo's simulation booted up again, and her digital warplane appeared over the skies of Yokosuka once more.
Immediately, her dashboard was filled with the screens of the other cadets. Most of them jeered at her and teased her - just about the same way they did to Zeta when she was struggling down the stairs.
" The musclehead can't even fly! " One cadet snickered.
" Wasn't she the one with the lowest score in the Maj 12? " A second recalled.
" Fastest IDSC flight sim crash: now that's a record I don't wanna have! " Another one guffawed.
One cadet's voice was notably absent from the jeering crowd, though.
Zeta Vestia's.
" Everyone, just shut up for a moment. " Zeta snapped over the comms, " Fountain-head. Just come back to our position on the map. We're doing group formations next and Miss Reine said we're not starting without you. "
" Zero-six is right, Zero-eight. " Reine added, " See our signatures on your radar? Follow us and rejoin the formation so I can continue our lesson. "
"Yes ma'am..." Kobo answered.
The rookie pilot took a deep breath and followed Reine's step-by-step instructions. She learned how to control her plane, how to adjust her speed, how to climb and descend and how to activate her afterburners.
Kobo kept her hand firmly on the flight stick this time and followed Reine's instructions to a tee.
"Okay, Bokobo. Calm down. You can do this." Kobo spoke to herself.
It wasn't the most graceful flight, but Kobo eventually caught up with the rest of the squadron. She thanked her lucky stars and drowned out the sneers of the other cadets as best as she could.
Again, though, Zeta's sharp words were notably gentler than those of their peers.
" Took you long enough, fountain-head. " Zeta sneered on the comms, " Hurry up and get into formation, or we're leaving you behind! "
"Yeah, yeah..." Kobo pouted, but she complied.
' Is this her paying me back for earlier? ' Kobo thought.
She didn't have time to ask. Her ordeal, and the ordeal of the Majestic 12 cadets was far from over.
" Alright, people! That should cover your sampler of basic maneuver. A little rough, but it's your first day. " Reine spoke to the whole class, " In a real battle, we wouldn't be flying in a straight line - nor would we be making gentle turns like this. Hell, I.D.O.L. Frames may even have to go vertical sometimes! "
"Vertical...!?" Kobo's face went pale.
The thought of adding even more controls to fret about terrified her.
" But this is just a sampler, like I said. " Reine smiled and reassured her students, " We're moving on to group formations next. Formations are crucial for I.D.O.L. Frame maneuver, you see. When we fight as one, we win! This could get a little tricky, but that's why we're practicing here and now. "
The cadets mumbled among themselves, but Reine's exercises marched on. Reine called up three of the students to be flight leaders. Zeta was one of them - and Kobo's name didn't come up.
One by one, the flight leaders started picking the callsigns that they wanted to fly with them. The flight captains, though, seemed to avoid Kobo's IDSC 08 like the plague.
That was, until Zeta suddenly called Kobo's jet as her second pick.
" Zero-eight. You're with me. " Zeta declared.
"... huh?" Kobo was startled. She pointed to herself and asked, "Me? Really?"
" Don't make me regret this, fountain girl. " Zeta rolled her eyes and picked the third Strato-Hornet of her formation.
Kobo hunched over in abject silence.
' Is she being NICE to me? ' she pondered, but she couldn't bring herself to ask.
Distracted, Kobo didn't notice one of the other Strato-Hornets of Zeta's formation veering uncomfortably close to her airframe. Kobo's instruments alerted her of the danger with beeping noises, but the sounds startled her! She instinctively pulled on her flight stick but pulled it the wrong way. That sent her plane hurtling into the out-of-formation aircraft instead of away!
KE-RASH!
A fireball engulfed Kobo's simulated cockpit dome. Her seat and mockup instruments shook violently once again. Then, Kobo found herself in the pitch black darkness of the simulator's 'game over' screen.
The door of the simulator dome popped open shortly and Anya poked her head inside.
"Didn't think we'd be meeting again this quickly." Anya laughed with discomfort.
"I-It... it wasn't my fault this time!" Kobo tried to save face, but Anya just gave her a blank stare. Kobo's voice trailed off and she shrank in her seat, "I mean... it wasn't completely my fault."
Anya forced herself to smile and rebooted Kobo's simulator for the second time.
"Don't apologize to me." Anya promptly said, "Apologize to your flight leader."
The moment the software booted up, Kobo's dashboard was dominated by a window with Zeta's furious face.
" WHAT DID I JUST TELL YOU, ZERO-EIGHT!? " Zeta shouted.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Kobo apologized profusely.
Zeta's bitterness, however, persisted. She gnashed her teeth and looked like she was going to berate Kobo some more, but she noticed that Anya was still in Kobo's cockpit. Only then did Zeta snort and hold her tongue.
"The skies over Yokosuka are peaceful again." Anya clapped and joined her hands together. She then excused herself, "Please continue the exercises, Kanaeru. Vestia."
Zeta begrudgingly did.
But Kobo's woes would continue on.
As Reine's battery of tests challenged the formations of simulated Strato-Hornets, many more mishaps plagued the cadets. Crashes and accidents happened incredibly often... and Kobo found herself in the middle of many of them!
Anya told Kobo that most greenhorn pilots would crash at least once on their first IDSC flight simulator runs. She was even told that her adoptive guardian Olivia crashed thrice when she was still new.
That evening, though, Kobo set the new record for most flight sim crashes in a single night.
Eight times.
It gave her call sign IDSC 08 a whole new meaning.
By the time that Kobo had her eighth reset, Anya didn't have any more words of consolation to give. Neither Kobo nor Anya could look each other in the eye. Anya didn't even know what to say, so she booted up Kobo's pod and left without another word.
All of the jeers and teasing that Kobo had been blocking out from the other cadets started to dig into Kobo's heart. Zeta practically screamed at Kobo too, and all the other cadets in her formation who screwed up.
Kobo buried her face into her hands.
' Am I biting off more than I can chew? ' Kobo thought, echoing the jeers of the other cadets.
Group formation exercises, to the cadets' collective relief, came to a merciful albeit messy end. When it did, a digital scoreboard appeared in the cockpits of each of the cadets with number scores and rankings in the Majestic 12.
Scores given by their instructor Reine.
Zeta took the top spot with no crashes and a score of 88 out of 100, far ahead of everyone else.
Kobo, meanwhile, was dead last by a wide margin. Eight crashes and a score of 34 tarnished her already spotty record.
It showed her just how much of a gap existed between her and Zeta.
If Kobo can't even fly a Strato-Hornet in a flight simulator, Kobo thought, how in the world can she expect herself to be able to fly an I.D.O.L. Frame!?
Kobo sank into her cockpit seat, reading the numbers displayed on her screen.
Numbers.
Those damn numbers.
They stabbed Kobo's heart like knives.
'Maybe I'm not cut out for this. ' Kobo considered. She looked up to the skies and wondered, ' Should I go back to the Jakarta platforms? I'm just making a fool of myself reaching for the stars like this.'
Kobo's melancholic rumination, however, was interrupted by a voice.
Zeta's voice.
" HEY! WATER FOUNTAIN! " Zeta hissed over the comms, snapping Kobo out of her rut, " Stop zoning out! The simulation's not over yet! "
"... huh?" We're still going?" Kobo blinked and looked at her dashboard.
The scoreboard fizzled away and gave way to Kobo's regular spread of instruments on her dashboard. Her radar, in particular, beeped and emphasized its presence.
There, Kobo saw the twelve blue dots marking the other twelve Strato-Hornets of their class. However, dead ahead of them, she saw new radar signatures.
Red ones.
They were multiplying before her eyes until they numbered more than a hundred!
"What the hell...!?" Kobo gasped.
Kobo looked out her cockpit and saw those targets: hundreds of warplanes. It was a melange of plane models that Kobo couldn't identify, but every single one of them was curiously dark and menacing.
" Miss Melfissa spawned in some enemy aircraft. " Zeta reiterated the situation for Kobo, " We have to practice everything we've learned and try out using our weapons systems... but Miss Pavolia it's not a fight we're meant to win! Every cadet has to experience this, she said. "
"Not a fight we're meant to win..." the phrase lingered on Kobo's lips.
She looked out to that array of enemy aircraft. They almost looked like fragments of the Ancient Ones that Kobo saw many years ago. Seeing them made Kobo shudder in her seat.
Kobo's breaths grew short and sharp.
Every time she blinked, she saw herself back in that escape pod adrift in the depths of space. The whole throng of black-rendered warplanes in the horizon lined up like the snaking ichor-like tendril of the Ancient One that crushed the other escape pods and nearly destroyed hers.
It was the beast that haunted her every waking moment, coming alive before her very eyes!
Kobo froze in her cockpit. Her knuckles went white as she gripped her flight stick. Cold sweat dripped down her brow and chilled her to the bone.
She stared down the simulated enemies that would soon descend upon her.
Defeat her.
Destroy her.
Crush her completely.
But suddenly... a fourteenth video feed appeared on Kobo's dashboard. There, she saw a pilot with a head of long, purple hair and a sea of brilliant stars.
Kobo's jaw dropped.
"Moona... simpai ?" Kobo croaked.
" It's only a battle that you can't win if you decide you can't win, Reine. Or, should I say 'Illusion Night'? " Moona Hoshinova spoke confidently, " You're the Navigator of ID2 - and the leader of this squadron. Have some more confidence in your abilities. "
A fifteenth video feed appeared next. This time, a pilot with bright red hair and even brighter red eyes beamed cheerfully, " Yeah, Reine! If we work together, we might be able to beat this simulation. Wouldn't that be a cool IDSC record for us? "
"Olivia- neesan !" Kobo's eyes brightened and welled with tears.
Olivia turned to Kobo and winked at her through the screen, " Hey kiddo! Having fun on your first day? "
"It's been hell." Kobo said truthfully, but she was now smiling again, "It's better now that you're here though!"
" Aww, you're gonna make me blush! " Olivia laughed heartily.
"Moona- simpai... Livia." Reine seemed equally as shocked, "Anya, did you...?"
" The two of them just barged in and asked me to boot up the other pods, Illusion Night. " Anya revealed, grinning cheekily, " Sparrowhawk let them through, so I see no harm in it, Reine, but it's gonna be your call. "
Reine paused and rubbed her chin.
" Alright, everyone. We have veteran reinforcements, so I'm changing our objectives for this last exercise. " Reine explained confidently, " We're going to shoot down every last one of those planes! At least one of us has to survive. Is that understood? "
" Ma'am, yes ma'am! " The cadets answered Reine eagerly, and so did Moona and Olivia.
Kobo, on the other hand, found it hard to speak. She started to fret and feel self-conscious.
It was at that time that Moona turned to Kobo on her screen and smiled warmly at her.
" Will you spread your wings and fly with me and Livia tonight, Zero-eight. No... Miss Kanaeru? "
Kobo felt the butterflies in her stomach fluttering about. She took a deep breath, pounded her chest and cried, "It would be my honor to, Moona- simpai !"
On screen, Zeta rubbed her temple and grumbled, " Jeez. Just how starstruck can you be, fountain girl? "
Kobo, however, was too thrilled and overjoyed to talk back to Zeta.
" Everyone's ready then. " Reine acknowledged, " Everyone, report in and standby for sortie! "
One by one, the cadets answered the roll call in order of their airframes.
"Zero-Six, standing by! " Zeta called dutifully, her voice stern and steadfast.
"Zero-Eight, standing by!" Kobo followed, regaining the vibrance in her voice.
" Jollie Jollie, standing by! " Olivia reported, speaking with rising excitement.
" High Tide, standing by! " Moona answered, completely composer.
Reine exhaled audibly.
" Illusion Night, standing by! " Reine cried, brimming with confidence. Then, she gave her marching orders, " IDSC Special Task Force! Sortie! "
...
Blue Horizon
Imperfect But Indomitable
...
To Be Continued