Pharazon nodded to show that they understood that Corina's question was borne of inquisitiveness rather than criticism.
The shuttle zoomed through space, heading towards a group of four starships: two mid-sized carriers and two mid-sized destroyers. HDF ships had a smooth, silvery appearance broken by thin lines that emanated a blue glow. The carriers had a long central body with a hexagonal ring around it from which strike craft deployed in six directions, whereas the destroyers resembled umbrellas or mushrooms with short stalks, with the cap pointing forward. One of the carriers, the HDF-Evolution, had a slightly modified hexagonal deployment ring.
The shuttle headed for the Evolution and docked on a platform at a point where the ring connected to the main body. The platform descended and took the shuttle into the carrier's interior. As the elevator went down, it passed through an airlock, after which the hangar could be seen from inside the shuttle, and the pilots saw their cogs for the first time. The Hangar was a zero-gravity environment, and was also hexagonal, the cogs being mounted with their backs to the walls and their heads pointing towards the front of the ship. The hangar engineering crew could be seen going about performing maintenance on the cogs.
When the shuttle had finished docking, Pharazon stood up, "Alright, follow me. If you're not used to zero-g, make sure to hold on to the handrails. Once outside the shuttle, Pharazon turned to address the pilots again, "Welcome to the Evolution. Those are your cogs over there."
Each pilot should be able to identify their cog and, depending on their personality, will react to their cog differently, but the reaction should be positive. The shape, design and color of the cog should speak to each pilot on an aesthetic and personal level.
Dr. Alberton then took over, "So, a quick introduction to cogs. The term 'cog' was chosen as an abbreviation of 'cognition'. Though the cog is piloted with a classic stick- and pedal-based control system, the cog subtly collects your thoughts and mental commands, augmenting your ability to control your cog with greater precision and accuracy than you would be able to get with just clumsy physical controls. The cog is considered the next evolution of strikecraft. You may notice that they are humanoid. The reason for this is that the cog also subtly sends messages into your mind in addition to receiving signals. Most humans, and even most Quantums, feel most comfortable in a humanoid body, and a body, a cog that you are not comfortable with creates a dissonance that impedes the ability to send and receive mental signals essential to cog piloting. However, this problem extends beyond the shape of the body, as it turns out, individual minds can be very particular about tiny nuances, and personal combat preferences apparently have a very large impact on how a cog 'feels' to the pilot and an even larger impact on how the cog and pilot perform. You may remember a scan that was administered to the population a little more than a year ago. That scan determines each individual's 'ideal' cog. Since this individuality prevents the cogs from being mass produced, they are incredibly expensive, so all cog designs were then evaluated for their potential, and each potential pilot was also evaluated. And that's why you're all here, you've passed the selection process, your cogs have been manufactured, and now we will see if your piloting verifies previous data. Previously, only one cog had been manufactured, which is Lieutenant Commander Chess' cog, Phalanx, the green one over there. Are there any questions?" Dr. Alberton mused to himself how the concept behind the cogs was similar to random mutations and natural selection; different personalities gave rise to different cogs, each with their own unique way of adapting to combat. Multiple iterations and prolonged conflict could produce 'evolutionary pressure' and push cogs, and weapons development in general, into new, undiscovered territory; creating machines that adapt better and better to the combat environment.
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