More than a year ago, the entire citizenry of Horizon underwent a mandatory, mysterious scan.  A select few had been contacted, and asked to cooperate.  In essence they were being drafted, though the assignment had to be voluntary to a certain degree.  Once consent had been given however, there was no turning back.  To pull out at this stage of a secret military project was treason.  It wasn't mandatory, but the volunteers were encouraged to enlist for basic military training and discipline.  However, training and discipline were not stressed as there was an unusual desire to preserve the volunteers 'as they are' as much as possible for reasons of compatibility.  At any rate, some already came with military or pseudo-military background, and as far as team composition was concerned, the amount of training and discipline was considered, 'enough to get by'.

The day had finally come.  Each volunteer, each prospective 'cog' pilot, was ordered to report to the space elevator on Pythagoras, the capital planet of Horizon.  The space elevator was in essence, a space station in geosynchronous orbit that was tethered to the surface of the planet by massive cables.  Large elevator trains ran up and down the cables, carrying freight and passengers to and from the surface to the orbital platform.  The platform itself was organized like a massive airport, a spaceport to be precise.  It included a 'residential district' that operated more or less like a hotel, as well as shopping centers, food courts, service kiosks, etc.  The arrival and departure gates connected to short-range shuttles that carried freight and passengers to the actual starships that hovered in orbit in the vicinity of the spaceport.  Each pilot was ordered to report to departure gate G3 at 0700 hours universal time to catch shuttle 1543, which will take them to the Horizon Defense Fleet Evolution, the carrier designed specifically for housing the products of this particular military project.