Adam broke into a jog as the group of pilots dispersed into the hangar, seeking out their own individual Orbitals. He was having trouble spotting his smaller Skyhammer among the mix of heavier artillery platforms and frontline units filling the Orbital bays. Luckily, he didn't have to go far before he spotted the recognizable matte white paintjob of his personal SFC-11. He frowned as he looked over the factory-standard color. It looked impersonal, soulless and it gave the model a [i]more[/i] unsettling appearance. His eyes were drawn to a familiar crest painted on the right torso; an oblong diamond sitting in the nadir of a thin crescent angled down and to the left. He hadn't had time to have his replacement Orbital done-up like his first, but seeing the small customization carried over as he slept helped. He spotted the maintenance crews pushing a diagnostic cart into storage at the back of the bay and made his way over.

"[color=orange]How's she looking? Everything ready to fly?[/color]" He nodded towards the Starstrike II, and the lead mechanic walked over to him, dressed in Martian Naval colors. "[color=D1A060]Your Starstrike is ready to go. Just had to double-check the flight controller after we fed it a data-set Bell-Isle sent us. Communications were irate about the bandwidth being choked for two months, but we argued them down.[/color] She held out her hand to shake, and Adam returned it. She had a strong grip, because he could feel it through their gloves. "[color=D1A060]Name's Amber, nice to meet you Adam. Didn't have the time or supplies to paint it, but Sam found enough to get it's emblem up a month ago. The real paint will have to wait. As for right now, all that's left is for you to so is make sure the control surfaces work and wake sleeping beauty up. Good luck out there.[/color]" Before he knew it, she and the rest of the work crew was gone. He fit his foot into the lowered reel-lift and looked out at the hangar as he was raised into the cockpit. He saw Amber and company filter heading for the hangar. Adam stepped into the opened cockpit and settled into the seat just long enough to run the Orbital's boot-up process. The reactor began it's ever-present hum as low-resolution text scrolled down his viewscreens and the hatch folded shut in front of him.

[color=8F8F8F][i][center]MARTIAN ANTI PIRACY UNIT: RED ATLAS SPECIALIST ADAM GILFORD[/center][/i][/color]
[center][color=white]Welcome Back, Pilot[/color][/center]
[color=8F8F8F][i]SFC CoreBoot...[color=lime]SUCCESSFUL[/color]
11G(C) Module Boot... [color=lime]SUCCESSFUL[/color]
Oberth Reactor............... [color=lime]OK[/color]
Capacitor Submodule..... [color=lime]OK[/color]
Flight Control System.... [color=lime]OK[/color]
Reentry Supplemental.. [color=lime]OK[/color]
Motor Control System.. [color=lime]OK[/color]
Optics Array................ [color=lime]OK[/color]
Sensors Array............ [color=lime]OK[/color]
Weapons Systems.... [color=lime]OK[/color]
Thrusters....... [color=yellow]TEST PENDING[/color]
[/i][/color]

Adam heard and felt the countless thrusters covering his Orbital power up and blast through the thruster test, each pair of twin reversible engines pulsing "forward" thrust and then then inverting. The output was a minuscule fraction of the maximum, but it made a lot of noise, and blasted the area around it with uncomfortably hot thruster exhaust. The thruster check completed after a few seconds and the cockpit screens switched to exterior view. His instruments indicated the capacitor cable had disconnected from the wall and that the Orbital was now running fully on reactor power. HUD elements blinked into existence as passive sensors identified numerous nearby Orbitals. Adam punched in a command and the yellow "unidentified" pin-marks were replaced with green chevrons indicating friendlies. Adam finished his prep just as orders were handed out. [color=orange][i]Sounds simple, but we're dropping with zero intel. Let's hope SAM launchers don't grow on the trees down there.[/i][/color]

Adam guided the Starstrike out into the center of the hangar before walking it towards catapult access, an optical sensor sweeping each side of the facility to build up it's list of logged Friendlies. His grip tightened on his controls to suppress the shaking in his hands. 
[color=8F8F8F][i]Warning: Pilot heart rate elevated: stress[/i][/color]
"[color=orange]Just the pre-mission jitters. That's all.[/color]"