The hours had passed pretty uneventfully; Case and Elisha had taken up the offer of cards from Logan, with Rarden joining in a few rounds later. One by one they played out the game, but moved onto chatting sociably about home, families, friends and past adventures and generally shooting the shit as soldiers are wont to do. Most of the team slept on and off, here and there. 

When Max came to wake Silver, the silver foxes' eye opened calmly as the lion approached, and he nodded at his 2IC's words. 
"Cool. Thanks for the wakeup call, Bastion." He gave a wry smile as he stood, stretching a little and wincing as several somethings popped and clicked. Sotto voce, he raised an eyebrow and spoke to the lion. "A'tween you an' me, while I might well be fightin' fit an' all, I sure as hell ain't as young as I useta be, an' all these war wounds take a toll. I'd be mighty glad if the next big GEAR innovation is findin' a way to fit a proper bed inside a cockpit..."
Adopting a more formal and commanding voice and posture, he straightened and addressed Python team. "Ladies, gents, an' any of the rest of y'all, mount up. The barn door is openin' soon, and the crew of this here fine aircraft have decided they're bored of our company, so it's comin' up on time to leave. Unfortunately, that means the air is leavin' with us, so pack up your crap and get in your GEARs, post haste!" 
Most of Python were already at work, Catriona having chivvied them along in her position as 'commander when Silver or Max aren't around', with Case being a little slow and still blinking sleep from his eyes, but slogging away nonetheless. The fox felt a flush of pride at his little group for doing so well without his need to poke them, before turning to his own business. He took his helmet in hand and slid it on, buckling the chinstrap before climbing into the GEAR's cockpit. Red standby lighting illuminated the inside before he hit the power as the cockpit hatch closed around him and the cool blue-green lights of holographic displays swimming to life in the air around him replaced the crimson glow. 
External views showed the rest of Python team slinging their gear into storage compartments and webbing on their machines, and assisting Viper with stowing the last of the equipment into the ground vehicle or external storage. Fist-bumps and high-fives were exchanged, before the GEAR pilots mounted up, hatches closing one by one. 
"Sound off, Python"
"Burner, all systems green"
"Lowdown, everything in the green"
"Red, reading all good"
"Riser, all systems nominal"
"Fantastic. Bastion, how's it looking on your end?"
As he said this, the aircraft gave a slight rumble, and the hatch at the rear cracked open, and the lights inside the bay snapped to red lighting. A sliver of dark, but slowly lightening sky painted with a brush of stars appeared and grew bigger as the ramp folded down to reveal the pre-dawn inky night skies. 
"Python all ready for drop. Standing by"