Gurjan hadn't really noticed the new face until the commander had specifically pointed out his presence. He briefly wondered what sort of bad decisions had caused him to be 'indisposed' as Erien put it. He hoped this one wasn't another maverick, Nyx was more than enough already when it came to that. He intently listened to the briefing, it seemed the first mission would be a straightforward escort job. Of course, there was the possibility of undetected hostiles, but such were the risks of flying in hostile space. When the commander mentioned pairing up, he took a quick look at his fellow squad members. He already found himself with beef with one of them, and possibly a grudge from another one as well. Still, despite his earlier rant towards Nyx, he knew he would have to trust on her if shit ever hit the fan.

Gurjan was the first to stand up after the meeting was dismissed, he could think of a hundred things to do in the next ninety minutes. All sorts of small possible distractions to adress, like the small hunger he felt in the pit of his stomach right now. And so he swiped some leftover foodstuffs from the table to eat on his way to the hangar

[hr]
As gurjan lowered himself into the cockpit of his craft, he still ran a mental checklist of everything he had done. He had checked the ship again with the crew, he had filled in all the paperwork, he had taken his pills against hyperspace nausea or whatever the proper term was, he had sat still for a few minutes to see if anything like a trip to the bathroom or a quick drink of water were needed. He had made himself as free of distractions both physical and mental as possible, just in time to report to the hangar. If anything went wrong today, he would not be to blame.

The pre-flight checklist was something he had recited so many times before, the only reason the repair crew was around at this point was to step in if one of the checks gave a bad result. Engines were still as efficient as he had calibrated them, turret-to-eye tracking was still spot-on. All systems, both primary and  auxilliary were nominal. All equipment was secure and took up the absolute minimium amount of space.

And then came that sickening feeling of a ship dropping out of hyperspace. Gurjan fixated his eyes on the nose tip of his figther, he had heard staring at an unmoving point helped mitigate the feelings of disorientation and nausea. Whether such gave a real effect or a mere placebo, he still found himself quite alert and ready for action when the slip back into normal space was done.

The sabre shuddered ever so subtly as it was loaded onto the magnetic rail. And then came the brief moment of expectant silence just before a launch. He heard the voice of the commander through comms. “Wyld fire lead, this is Wyld Fyre five, I am reading you loud and clear, over!”