The ion engines of the six spacecraft emitted pale blue flames as they gradually distanced themselves from the Deep Space...
Despite his crew's strong protests, Jason did not personally participate in this mission. Instead, he stood quietly on the Deep Space's observation deck, watching the vanguard fleet depart.
Half a day later, the fleet, forming a protective escort around the Titan-Z, successfully arrived in the high orbit of Digg-114 at an altitude of approximately 15,000 kilometers above the planet's surface.
They immediately began a slow deceleration burn to lower their orbital altitude.
If the operation proceeded smoothly, the five Leviathan dropships would enter low planetary orbit, roughly 1,000 kilometers above the ground. From there, they would deploy and remote-control their unmanned drones.
A distance of 1,000 kilometers was equivalent to the standard operational range of a low-orbit satellite, meaning the remote-control signal delay would be perfectly manageable.
