Francine entered a pre-flight training program when she was fifteen, having her eyes genetically enhanced and her body subjected to a chemical regime that suppressed the physical developments of puberty in conjunction with a military program designed to create pilots with optimum G-force tolerance. Thin wafers of silicon and crystal were inserted into their brains and a cybernetic procedure designed to heighten their spacial awareness and interface with the systems of their aircraft as an extension of their own bodies was initiated.