CLOSEUP on the face of SHIZUKA HATTORI. She looks preoccupied. Thoughtful. Not scared, particularly, but like she's considering something very hard. Her bangs are whipping around, blowing upward. There is considerable wind noise, and above it a sharp CRACKING sound can be heard, steadily repeating at about 120 beats per minute.

SHIZUKA
(voiceover)
It's funny, the things you remember. When I was in basic flight training at the Naval Academy last year, a famous Striker test pilot from the Army came to speak to my class one day. She mostly talked about the different foreign Striker models we were likely to see once we were in the field, and how we'd have to adjust our tactics to work with the people who were flying them. But at the end...

CUT TO - flashback. INT. DAY, a classroom in a hangar on a Fusō naval base. Outside the windows, various Strikers and regular aircraft can be seen going about the day's business. Inside, a group of CADETS (including SHIZUKA) are being lectured by MAJOR AYAKA KUROE. One of them has her hand up.

AYAKA
Yes.

CADET
Is it scary being a test pilot? It seems like a dangerous job.

AYAKA
It can be dangerous, that's true. We're working with experimental aircraft, after all. Sometimes things go wrong. To be a successful test pilot, though, you have to be able to focus past that and concentrate on the job. When things go wrong, you don't have time to be afraid. You're too busy trying to figure out what went wrong and how you can fix it.

She grins.

AYAKA
A test pilot doesn't think, "I'm gonna be dead in ten seconds." A test pilot thinks, "Hell, I got ten whole seconds!"

CUT TO - SHIZUKA'S face again. That snapping noise is still happening. The camera slowly pulls back; we see that she's wearing a white uniform jacket instead of her usual blue one. We keep pulling back until it's apparent that she's not wearing a Striker Unit, then still more to reveal that she's not alone: GRYPHON is there too, right behind/above her. They almost seem to be tandem skydiving, except she doesn't have a proper harness on - she seems to be lashed to him with in a markedly ad-hoc way with a length of canvas-web cargo strap - and he's not wearing a parachute. Instead, he has a red-painted single-engine jetpack on his back... and it doesn't seem to be working, other than to make that repetitive electrical snap. It's hard to tell with the goggles and Fallschirmjäger helmet he's wearing, but he seems to be no more than annoyed about this as he fiddles with one of the hand controls.

SHIZUKA
(voiceover)
Well, I guess I'm a test pilot now.

When she speaks aloud, she has to shout to be heard over the wind noise, but is otherwise oddly calm.

SHIZUKA
So... now what?

GRYPHON
I'm thinking.

A beat. They fall past a small cloud.

SHIZUKA
(with just a hint of urgency)
Well, think faster.

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