The Launch bay was alive with flight and deck crews spread about the bay, moving with a purpose as they performed their duties.

It was the night shift, and the two 3-person flight crews of the two Arrow class runabouts were in their cockpits preparing their vessels for launch. As had been the routine since taking on the crew of the Farragut, the crews were mixed. 2 Victory, and 1 Farragut crew on the Anvil, and 2 Farragut and 1 Victory crew aboard the Amhearst.

For some reason, there was some steam flowing out of a few of the automated launch catapults across the bay. This was extremely odd as the cuts were powered by simple Electro-Magnetic rams, and there was no reason for any steam or anything resembling steam to flowing out of them. The dim orange glow of a nearby nebula bathed the interior of the launch bay in a muted wash of extra lighting.

This mission wouldn’t strictly be a familiarization and training mission. The 2 large, fast auxiliary ships would embark on a 4 day long recon patrol, paralleling eachother at a range of roughly 1 light year. The patrol route plot on an overhead map appeared to be roughly question mark shaped, with the 2 ships beginning at the bottom and heading out in a more or less coreward direction before veering to the left(driftward) and looping around to complete the patrol and rendezvous back with the Victory. Their objectives were two-folded; search for any signs of Pilgrim vessels or planetside facilities, and to try and locate the two missing Valkyries and the Farraguts former command team that were presumably piloting them, if possible.

Patch, as the mission commander, opened a comm channel to the other Arrow and announced, “Everyone make sure you haven’t forgotten anything. Toothbrushes, testicles, spectacles, wallets, and watches, we won’t be home for atleast 4 days. Pre-flight checks are complete, Anvil is go for launch at 1135 hours zulu. Amhearst, confirm launch cycle and pre-flights.”

“Amhearst is a go for mission launch, confirmed.” The veteran Chief aboard the other Arrow replied.

As the scheduled launch time got near, the launch bay warning lights and klaxons initiated and the deck crews all cleared the area infront of the two large runabouts.

“Launching in 3, 2, 1…” Patch said before he punched the runabout thrusters to full power and both vessels screamed out of the bay. Patch had ‘accidentally on purpose’ also clicked on the interior intercom system that was preloaded with his Playlist at the same time that he throttled up the thrusters. The first song loaded on the playlist was fittingly the song ‘Danger Zone’ by Kenny Loggins and the volume was preset to roughly 70 decibals of volume.