A few hours later...

The iridescent hyperspace bubble shattered and peeled back in a brilliant display of light as the four ships exited hyperspace and reentered real space and approached orbit over the nearby planet, Cepheus IV.  A communications channel was opened between the planetary government and the Captain leading the Incubator Concert.  After some deliberation, the four ships entered the atmosphere of the planet and landed in the water.  A call went out to all cog pilots to prepare to sortie.

Rather than lining the pilots up in the hangar, Maya just had them all get into their cogs.  Once everyone was situated, Maya gave them a quick debriefing, "This will be your first real mission.  An insurgent group called 'Homeworld' has been plaguing the Cepheus system for some time.  One of their bases has been found on this planet.  The Cepheus Planetary Defense Force are here en masse, so it should be a fairly low-risk battle, making this a perfect opportunity for you all to try out your cogs under gravity and gain some actual experience.  Since the Planetary Defense Force probably could complete this mission without our help, so if at any point you think you're in over your head, or you do not wish to continue for whatever reason, simply let me know and I will give you permission to pull back, got it?  Alright then, instead of launching, we will simply be walking our cogs out of the hangar."

The only exception was Fury, which was jet-shaped and could not walk.  After it was launched, the frames holding the cogs in place released, and Obsidian took the lead heading out of the massive hangar doors.