LOCATION: CYGNUS
LOCAL TIME:120500Z MAR 76
The hangar is barely more than a hole in the solid rock of the mountain with the bare minimum of catwalks, platforms and reinforced ceram-plasteel walls and pillars necessary to serve its purpose. At the center on a raised platform is the primary landing platform, where the small and fast AVT-Falcon is already waiting for you, ramp down and engines hot. The hum of the idling turbines echoes off the stone, rising up the 100 meter shaft towards the outer doors above. Off to the sides of the primary platform, you can see hangar doors for Bays 1 through 5. Each bay is connected to the primary platform by a length of rail, able to taxi whatever vehicle needs to be launched into position as necessary. The doors to Bay 5 are currently open, and the tracks extended, making it clear that this is the usual resting place for the AVT-Falcon.
Off to one side, a smaller, secondary launch platform is also available, just in case multiple vehicles ever need to be prepped for take-off simultaneously. Of course, any pilots trying to take off at the same time would have to be completely insane, from how narrow the shaft to the surface is.
You head across the catwalk and up the stairs towards the primary platform, the heat of the jetwash off the VTOL engines making it uncomfortably warm just outside the ramp as you enter the vehicle and get your gear tucked away. The sound of the engines is almost immediately muffled as soon as you enter the craft, although not completely with the rear ramp still down. Along each interior wall are a row of 3 seats with full body harnesses, and minimum storage space available above and below each one.
"Welcome aboard, gentleman! Make yourselves comfortable and strap yourselves in." Internal speakers come to life as soon as you're all inside and you recognize the friendly voice of Lieutenant Jordan Stieber. The rear ramp starts to close by itself once you're inside, and as soon as it bolts into place, the only sound from the outside is a barely discernible dull hum, likely more a vibration coming in directly from the connection to the engines than any sound permeating the thick hull.
"Fasten your seatbelts and keep all hands and legs inside the vehicle as we initiate take off. You may feel a slight wavering as we hover up towards the outer doors." Jordan speaks over the speakers, sounding like a flight attendant giving a safety briefing. The vehicle does in fact waver in a manner that suggests you've left the ground, and the hum increases somewhat in volume as the engines rev up to full speed, but for a few short seconds, very little happens from inside the crew compartment that you can determine.
"It's worth noting that the AVT-Falcon is the fastest VTOL ever designed by Ares, with quad Pratt & Whitney J210 turbojet engines. Ordinarily, the on-board computer restricts the throttle on these beauties to keep it under control, but the Commander insisted that time was of the essence, so I may have made a few tweaks to the Limiters; in that I completely disabled them. Hey, just a quick question, are any of you prone to having blackouts?" Shortly after hearing this, the hum from the engines increases to the point it is easily audible in the crew compartment, and you are suddenly jerked to the side as the entire vehicle accelerates to ludicrous speeds.
"For those of you still conscious back there, we are now cruising at a pleasant Mach 3.4. ETA to Seatle: 20 minutes."
