Sara slumped in the seat of her fighter, listening to the chatter and roar around them, and passing by the time sharing stories with her the other pilots of her squadron. Sure they were a single unit, but they had been through vastly different circumstances before being assigned to the Vitae. For instance, while Loch, like Sara was an Earth-raised Armani, Crowly was a martian-borne and refused to undertake any of the augments that the other pilots had. Thomas, was every bit the adventurous Armani spirit, and Lin used to be part of an acting troupe. 

Suddenly, all the lights shut off and were replaced by the dim red of the Hangar's emergency lights, supplemented by the headlamps of various technicians and engineers. The entire hangar was silent and still for a single moment before quickly springing back into action. Power had just been diverted from their lights to most likely something that needed it more, which meant something was going down. Sara pushed open her cockpit and stood up, her helmet's headlight automatically activating to illuminate the space in front of her.

"What the hell is going on?" Sara shouted, as a team of techs sprinted to her fighter, mechanical dollys loaded with ordinance following them. While there were dedicated stations for changing out munitions in the hangar, when the alert-5 fighters were in the launch bays, any chance in ordinance was brought to them and changed out by hand.

"Devastators!" Replied her crew chief, grunting as he helped some of the techs heft one of the heavy trebuchet missiles. "We're switching out the Trebuchet missiles for Serpent missile pods."

"What the hell are Serpent missiles going to do against Devastators?" Sara grumbled as she sat back down in her seat. The crew chief didn't have to bother answering her, almost as if on cue, Sara's CAG came on the comms. 

"Grave Robbers," barked the gruff commander's voice, "Direct orders from the bridge to scramble a squadron outfitted with anti-fighter weapons. We have reports of small Devastator signals exiting a massive Devastator that has jumped in over Earth. Command has concluded that these must be some sort of fighter-type Devastator."

"Roger that," Sara replied as she sat back down in her seat, watching her smart-display change as her 4 of her 6 trebuchet missiles were replaced with Serpent missile pods- each pod sporting 5 small, but potent missiles- a single one capable of critically disabling a T-22 fighter. Her display read 20 Serpent missiles and 2 Trebuchets, and her squadron mates were likely being fitted out the same way. Noises from the crews in the hangar suggested that the Barracudas squadron on the other side of the hangar, and several other squadrons were being outfitted in similar fashion too. 

"Thats a lot of Serpent missiles," Sara noted with a low whistle, "Sure we got enough?" she remarked offhandedly to the rest of her squadron.

"No, I don't think we do." the CAG replied- Sara had forgotten to close off the comm channel, allowing the CAG to throw out his opinion. It didn't make Sara feel any better. They must really be in some shit.

"Alright Sara, you're good to go." Called her crew chief through his mic as he began sprinting out of the catapult, other engineers in tow. "Good hunting, Hawkins."

Around her, the catapult's blast shield lifted up, and the launch catapult shut itself off from the rest of the ship and began depressurizing. The launch doors opened, revealing to Sara the blackness of the deep empty. Now, the only sources of color and life within view were the display monitors, and her squadmate's bio-signs quietly blinking in the corner of her vision. The catapult's runway floor lit up, revealing to her the path, and the launch display rapidly cleared her. 

"Sara Hawkins, launching." Sara reported as she pushed her throttle stick forward and her fighter blasted out of the bay, the speed of her ship forcing her head into the back of her headrest. 

The view was incredible. Spectacular and terrifying at the same time. The void of space that surrounded their home planet of Earth was now filled with dozens upon dozens of Devastators. Swarms of angry red dots flew towards them, all while their mothership, a Devastator as big as an Ark wreaked havoc on the ground. On the Vitae's side a spread out line of Arks fled towards their destination, tiny flecks of blue lights- the thrusters of Ark's aerospace fighters, deployed from their motherships and moved to defend. A swarm of red dots was rapidly approaching the [i]Destiny[/i] to the Vitae's rear, and the Destiny had deployed what looked like all of their fighter wings to combat them. The Vitae had launched just the Grave Robbers and the Barracudas, holding the rest in reserve. It was a conservative play, one that Sara understood, if not particularly liked. 

"Hawkins, 7th Grave Robbers, moving into defensive formation." Sara reported to the bridge, her counterpart in the Barracudas replied in a similar fashion.