A Deck (Launches)
The uppermost deck consists mainly of a hangar for the two launches. These are often used to bring crew and passengers aboard, but rarely for cargo since anything
unloaded from them has to be manually moved to the cargo hold several decks below. For this reason, the launches are mainly used as personnel shuttles and
liaison craft, with the shuttle and pinnace being far busier transferring large items in and out of the cargo area. The fore end of this deck contains a small sensor suite, whilst aft is an engineering section. This deck saw relatively little infighting among the
crew. Both launches left at a time when at least some of the crew were thinking normally and able to cooperate. There is serious damage to the cradle and hangar doors on one side, where the second launch made a difficult takeoff. The hangar doors closed automatically, but the starboard side one, being damaged, could not seal and was further damaged by atmospheric entry. The aft engineering spaces are reasonably intact, but the sensor suite is virtually destroyed as a result of the barely controlled atmospheric descent.