Hurl crashes and dies, prompting Kimmalyn to also quit. Nedd quits after his brothers are killed in combat. As they further their training, they are called upon more and more, but also lose numbers. Skyward Flight is called into action again, and Bim and Morningtide are killed in the subsequent battle. However, M-Bot's memory banks are corrupted and it remembers little, beyond orders to lie low and not reveal itself to the public. Spensa is eventually able to power the ship, after stealing a power module from Jorgen's hover car, which introduces itself as M-Bot and explains that it was left in the cave by its former owner. Spensa begins to bond with her classmates. In the meantime, Spensa and her cadet flight crew continue to learn and practice new techniques under the guidance of Cobb.

Spensa, with the help of a cautious Rodge, begins to work on repairing the ship. Spensa is barred from using academy facilities and quarters, so she occupies a nearby cave, where she discovers an advanced crashed ship with an artificial intelligence computer. Rodge is left scared, and quits the flight academy to instead become an engineer. After training in a virtual reality simulator, they are suddenly called to the battlefield to aid against a Krell incursion. Their members are Spensa, Rodge, Kimmalyn (nicknamed Quirk), Hurl, FM, Nedd, Arturo, Morningtide, Bim, and Jorgen (nicknamed Jerkface by Spensa). Cobb, her father's former wingmate and an instructor at the academy, spies on her and sees her near-perfect score, so he offers her the opportunity to come train under him.Īt the academy, Spensa is introduced to her fellow cadet crew who, at Spensa's recommendation, name themselves the Skyward Flight. Angry at her defeat, she surreptitiously retakes the exam after everyone has left. However, on the day of the testing, DDF Admiral Ironsides rigs the exam so that Spensa fails. Spensa, who has been preparing for the exam her entire life, has high hopes to pass, as does her longtime friend Rodge. In order to get accepted into the flight academy, she and her peers must take an exam to prove their worth. However she is barred from any chance at becoming one because her father abandoned his flight in the infamous Battle of Alta, which ended in his own wingmates shooting him down. Spensa dreams of following in the footsteps of her deceased father, a fighter pilot of the Defiant Defense Force (DDF). Spensa is a 17-year-old girl who is part of a group of shipwrecked humans living on a ruined world called Detritus, under constant attack from mysterious aliens called the Krell.

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson