Magnus
The ‘Greymark’ split from the rest of Task Force Delta and arrived in an unnamed system more than four weeks ago to begin to run training drills. Day after day Captain Hull had them in their cockpits training maneuvers over and over again, while the ‘Greymark’ preformed it’s own training. The asteroid field which surrounded the system provided them with plenty of targets for weapon firing drills.
Magnus’ hands were raw most of the time, and he struggled to maintain control near the end of his shifts in the cockpit of his starfighter. He had pushed the Star Lance starfighter harder and faster than he had ever before. He had flown some of his best flights during some of the drills and mock battles.
Green squadron had made a name for themselves on the ‘Greymark’. They were all often among the top ranks of the pilots for the scoreboard they kept in the pilots rooms. Even when not ganged up by other squadrons, which often happened. Or worse when they were split up and mixed in with the other squadrons.
Magnus had risen to the forefront of the starfighter pilots scoreboard, although only a pilot with a year's active service he had proved the end of many veterans throughout the small scale war games. He was in the lower half of the top ten for the more than hundred and fifty active starfighter pilots of the Osgar class Heavy Cruiser.
Major Oldseal had remained the sole undefeated pilot throughout the drills and war games. Magnus had come close to taking out the veteran pilot, but in the end the major had gotten the better of him and taken him down. The Major proved his reputation as untouchable, and there likely wasn’t a pilot who hadn’t been taken down by him. Anyone who could take down the Major would have been seen as the instant winner within the pilot ranks, but that had proved far harder than Magnus would have ever guessed. Two, three starfighters at a time, the Major had a trick for every situation.
As always prince Edwyn outdid Magnus. Each day the prince's score was just above Magnus’s own score before he would drift further ahead. He was able to close the gap each time, but could never overtake him. He had come close to overtaking the prince several times throughout the weeks, but always fell short. The prince had even cracked into the top five pilots and remained there. If Magnus were a natural in the cockpit, Edwyn was gifted and Major Oldseal was a genius.
A hundred Starfighters, 12 Heavy Starfighters, and 12 Assault Boats conducted drills almost twenty four hours a day with the more than a thousand pilots and support staff of the Starfighter wing of the ‘Greymark’. Day in and day men and women trained and near misses became more common. While Magnus and his shift were off duty, backup pilots took the controls and kept the crafts in flight.
Magnus would have hated to be part of the support crew. They were forever fixing something. The Starfighters were pushed to their limits and it was not uncommon for malfunctions were more common, and it was not a surprise for several craft to be grounded for major repairs.
It was amazing there hadn’t been a major incident or death yet Magnus had thought to himself. Some of the mission drills had pushed most of them to their limits, and past them to find new ones. He knew it would make them better pilots, and there was risk every time he entered a cockpit. Still he would rather the cockpit than what the fifteen hundred infantry and marines and twenty five hundred officers and support staff went through day after day.
The Marines along with much of the crew which helped to keep the ‘Greymark’ running had been stationed on one uninhabitable or another. None of the planets or moons of the system supported life, and the Captain had used them as training missions where they would be forced to battle the elements as much as the drills of mock battles.
Three marines had lost their lives to suit failures and exposure. Two had melted in their suits on a world close to the sun while another had died of exposure on a frozen rock. Dozens had arrived at the sick bay after each training deployment ended.
On the ‘Greymark’ Several injuries had resulted from training missions to repair the hull, weapons, or other systems in the vacuum of space. Jobs normally handled by bots and other robotic means. Support staff had even wandered through marine training exercises in boarding and countering boarding actions and suffered injury but the three marines off ship were the only death.
Even the officers and support staff of the ‘Greymark’ conducted their own drills and Magnus could often hear them as he attempted to sleep. Simulated damage, simulated battles, and boarding attempts were just some of the tasks they faced. Often the boarding drills were done when the Marines were away. Captain Hull even took part in the drills, and no one knew what or when a new one would be thrown at them
Most drills kept them split into their own groups though, but there were some where they were forced to aid the marines with support, or aid the ‘Greymark’ in some simulated battle or even in abandoning the ship. Magnus did enjoy the mock battles against the ‘Greymark’ the most though.
Lt Commander Arkwright had almost succeeded in taking the old Osgar class ship down once with an assault from the wing, but Captain Hull was a clever captain and always came out on top. Even with the corvettes and other craft from the hangar bays on their side the Captain had shown the power of the old starship class which helped create the Commonwealth.
Magnus felt like he knew the outside of the ‘Greymark’ like the back of his hand. The way they would hull dance just above its surface. Dancing past the turrets and blisters that rose from the armored surface of the starship. Chasing starfighters, and hunting them down before they could take out weapon turrets or sub systems, or playing the attacker and taking those systems down himself.
It was quiet today though, and the ship and crew enjoyed a much needed day of rest and light duty. Magnus didn’t know if he would get out of the warmth of his bunk. It was cramped with Lydia in there, but it was also relaxing, and it had been too long since they had the energy and time to enjoy one another. Four weeks of drills and training, he could justify a day of nothing.
