[ericthered]

The ship is crawling with activity on the Saturday of the launch and jump, but it is orderly activity. Most of the work wasn't actually for the launch: its getting the ship in its best possible condition and making sure everyone knew their duty. A fair amount of it was make-work to ensure that crewmen weren't trying to arrive on board at the last possible moment.

Daymar and Valford both acquit themselves well, Daymar spending much of the day outside the hull, and Valford running diagnostics and tests on his reactor core.

The ship launches, and turns on its manuever drive. Even with the light touch of manuevers near the dock, the greedy engine sucks up huge quantities of hydrogen bricks, and the job of moving the volitile things all over the ship has begun. Less greedy are the plasma emmiters, but they are spread much further over the ship.

The grav drives slow their vibrations, as they are throttled down to keep the ship's gravity standard, but the ship shakes all the more from the power of the engine, fusing hydrogen in layers and sending it in circles, then up and down, and then sending it in an energetic and ionized plume out the bottom of the ship.

It takes several hours to get far enough away from the planet, and several thousand tons of hydrogen bricks are consumed in the process. As the ship travels, the Capacitors for the Hyperdrive are being charged, building up enormous amounts of energy. The coolants for the drive are circulated, and the drive itself is set to lightly spinning in preparation for the jump. As the time approaches, the plasma emitters begin to heat up.

Valford gets his first good look at his reactor under stress, though this stress is little compared to battle... not that he sees starship battles all that much. Vorno fusses over every little thing: launches from home-worlds are very much the sorts of things where superiors are watching, and Vorno is obsessed with making this reactor run perfectly. Sergeant Zuchi, who commands the reactor floor for Valford's shift, is constantly reporting the power usage to the motive section.

Daymar and Pothi are patrolling the edges of deck 6, checking on the 12 plasma emmiter there. They're all in excellent shape of course: things always are right when the ship first launches, but the patrols and reports have to be made.

When the time is right, the engine drives stop. There is a jolt as the gravity plates catch up to the correct gravity. The ship stops vibrating. Deep in its core, the hyperdrive starts spinning in Four different directions, each inside the other one. Fluids swish, and the capacitors hum in anticipation. The ship creaks as navigational corrections are made. A count down in made over speakers all over the ship. When it reaches zero, the capacitors release their energies, and jolt flows through the ship. Both Dreadstormers are experienced hyperspace travelers, and though standing, keep their feet.

The plasma emmiters kicked in at the same time, crackling as they released their ionized payloads into hyperspace around the ship, feeding enough energy and matter into it to maintain the small bubble of 3-D space around the ship.

For half the ship, this means their work is done, but they still have to stand at the ready. For Valford, it means its time to step down the reactor. For Daymar, it means a half hour of briskly walking between plasma emitters and making sure that they are working as expected.

47 minutes after the ship enters hyperspace, it is announced to have been a success. The various places respond in different manners, with the reactor room cheering. Pothi rolls his eyes "the first one always is!"

Captain Thuto comes on the speakers.
"Now that we are isolated in hyperspace, I can inform you of your mission. As many of you have heard rumor of or guessed, this is a combat voyage. We have a glorious part to play in this noble war to crush the puppets who claim to represent the Jakorbi and unite them with us, their Zorbani brothers. May fortune smile upon us! we may play a pivotal role in finishing the Unification of the Zorbani!"

He continues in a rather pompus fashion for a few minutes, before calling on his spacers:

"To be vigilant! This is not a mere training exercise. We do not only expect to see combat, we hope for it! We revel in its glory! this combat may take many forms. We may engage other capital ships. We may drive off a cruiser squadron. We may engage with orbital defenses. Or we may have spies hidden in our midst. Be vigilant, do your duty with pride, and we shall be able to overcome them all."

He continues for several more minutes, before wrapping up.