Ari woke up to the senation of being sent flying from her bunk, colliding with an adjacent bunk with a thud. A gasp of pain escaped her as she began to slowly stumble to her feet, trying to figure out what was going on. She couldn't quite comprehend the situation at hand, but her mind reminded her of Tom's advice "[color=0072bc][i]Don't think, just do![/i][/color]" So, when the alert to go to battle stations sounded, she didn't hesitate in the slightest. Her locker flew open, and her flight suit was pulled on in under 5 seconds, probably a new record for her. She grabbed her sidearm after that, along with its holster, and affixed it to her hip. One extra magazine, one reload, was shoved into the boot of her flight suit before she turned to start sprinting out of the room. She was in top physical shape, and nobody wanted to slow down the pilots of one of the ship's principal means of self defense, so it was mere minutes before she was sprinting up to the Astelion in the hangar. Looking it over, she released a low whistle, noting it wasn't quite all the way patched up.

A few new hull plates had been welded on and shaped to the MAS, and she couldn't help but note all the little imperfections that covered the hull as the heat damage from the missile had left the airframe warped in some places. It'd work though, at least based on her initial survey, and so she looked over to note that some of the engineers were already prepping for an emergency launch. Absently, she noted the Astelion was a base gun-metal grey up front from where the paint had been burned off by the missile. It was certainly the least of her worries, but it served as an ominous reminder of the fact that she had to be much more careful in the coming battle. There wasn't too much separating her from death, and this time the Astelion wouldn't be in good enough to adsorb another hit. This time, she had to be absolutely flawless in execution, dodge every single shot, or the 7th would lose the Astelion, and Ari would lose her life.

Schwiss ran over, reporting in a quick rattle "[color=a36209]Ari, she's had her wings clipped a bit. We replaced her shields and the Tesla Drive is fully functional, but you've only got, by my estimate, 'bout 65% on your hull integrity. X-50s are fine though, and so are your engines and the NAV and Targetting AIs, so you should be fine. Be careful though, all your redundant systems are fried, so you don't have a backup if something goes up. So, keepin it short, don't get shot again little lady. My team and I can fix many things, and we've done our best, but now you must do your part. We can't patch you or the Astelion back together if you blow up out amongst the stars, and Tori would sure hate to see her beloved suit and its lovely young pilot blow up in a rain of debris.[/color]" Ari nodded along to Schwiss and replied "[color=0072bc]I don't intend to die, but thanks Schwiss.[/color]"

She ran into the Astelion and booted up, the system readoubts quickly displaying themselves before her. She noted, with a grimace, Schwiss hadn't mentioned that increased power output was required to make all the systems function at the moment. So, now not only was overheating something that may happen if she pushed her limits, but her operational ceiling had probably lowered. She shrugged though, neither of those thigns would matter as long as she didn't flirt with her maximum flight time. That in mind, and given what she was hearing about the conflict over the COMs, she wasn't worried at all about that part of the flight. Based on what she knew from the sims, and her first engagement, she supposed this wouldn't be a long battle. The Lincoln would win or lose, they would all live or die, and it'd probably all be over in under an hour. She didn't have time to keep thinking on this however as Trapp called for the team to sound off and, listening in, she became acutely aware of something rather odd to notice at that time. She'd never been given a call-sign or even a team nick-name, so she still sounded off "[color=0072bc]Williams, Stocked, Locked and ready to Rock.[/color]"

With that, she was hooked up to the magnetic catapult, and she got ready for another heavy insert. The speed struck her and she grinned as she was sent flying from the ship into space. The wires disconnecting and her systems changing appearance to register that were only faintly noticed as she hurtled into space. She noted that she was at least just as maneuvarable as before as shew as able to right her orientation a little quicker than before, probably a result of having done it once before. It was only half a second faster, nothing to most people, but she'd alreayd noticed that combat pilots lived and died by half seconds. By being just a half second faster than your opponent, you could land a shot before they could dodge, or slide out of the way by the skin of your teeth. It was all by the skin of your teeth, mere half seconds separated those who were alive from those who weren't. She noted the enemy MAS and immediately flipped out her cannons, beginning to analyze it for possible weaknesses. Its frame was solid, but maybe that would be its weakness then, and it was experimental, so something could short out. She couldn't depend on that though, and reported "[color=0072bc]That one....we weren't briefed on it in training. Think we can try and salvage whatever's left after this, sir? I'd love to take a look at it from an engineer's standpoint.[/color]"