UNCLAIMED SPACE- Atlantis System

Planet IV- High Orbit

Atlantis Station

John's second week at Atlantis was more of the same, progress was slow but ongoing. On a positive note, Miles did clean and organize the R&D labs as he promised. The training Camps for the Marines were progressing nicely and Smitt, Jones, and Pride hammered out a two-week course for SEAR training for combat pilots to go through. At first, Pride didn't want to add the training to his program, but once it was explained to him some of his pilots might be shot down on a planet, his opinion quickly changed. He also had requested a Marine Sergeant to assist in the physical training of the pilots for the weeks leading up to SEAR school. 

Pilot training ended up being six weeks for basic training, including SEAR school then another three weeks of advanced Flight Ops. Smitt and Jones were thinking about putting together a more advanced training course for making an Elite unit of Marines, but John told them to shelve the idea until they could at least field two whole divisions. 

Rebecca was on her way back and would arrive within the hour with the newest recruits. All told, she was bringing fifty-five new members into their little rebellion. Most were aliens but some humans as well. The Beta forums were plagued by trolls going off on the rebels for leaking lies, but enough people were thinking that some of it might be the truth and enough people had ended up in the IntelDiv to confirm that the Admirals Board was into some very shady dealings and actions beyond the expected normal Black Ops. 

Two squads of Marines would be there with two squads of MECHs to make sure no one was here to pull a suicide mission. Douglas and Kara would be there as well to help with running the In-doc for the new recruits. Until then though he was signing off on some last-minute reports authorizing repairs for damaged ships, authorization for scrapping others and listing why they had to be scrapped. 

Of the three hundred support vessels they had to test out, they had completed two hundred and thirty, forty of which had to be scrapped for various reasons and seventy were in the repair bays or waiting to be repaired. The good thing was, thirty of the vessels that needed to be repaired would be operational within the next twenty-four hours, and the testing of the last seventy ships would be completed within the next seventy-two hours. Once that was complete, they would start testing out the smaller warships starting with the destroyer class. 

Spoiler: Spoiler

Class: Badger class Destroyers were the backbone of all Imperial fleets for closein anti-fighter and anti-missile fire while coordinating their fire support of the heavier fleet units

Length: 600 Feet

Width: 200 Feet

Crew Compliment: 100 Sailers (200 MECH Units), Marines-Unknown 

Reactor: 4 Mark IV Fusion Generators

Engines: 4 Type III Pulse Engines, Class 2 Military Warp Drive (1 Hour cooldown)

Shielding: 1000 Damage

Armor: 1000 Damage

Defensive Weapons: 40 PDCs

Defensive Electronics: Class II ECM Suite

Weapons: 30 Dual Pulse Cannons, 10 Forward and 6 Aft Missile Launchers (150 Kinetic Missiles, 50 Nuclear)

Other: 2 Personnel Shuttles, 4 Aussualt Shuttles, 10 Combat Drones, 10 Sensor Drones

 Well, John wanted a rebellion, he couldn't really complain about the paperwork now could he?

John watched as they walked through the docking port, 55 new people for a cause that might get them all killed. All had a look of awe on their faces at the station, the MECHs and everything around them. Some were looking to become Marines, others were Engineers, a few scientists, and even a few cocky fighter pilots. Locals and Travelers. They all came to fight for something more than themselves. For Travelers, it was usually for the fun of it, but some wanted to do something in their life that mattered even though they didn't see a change in the real world, effecting a Virtual World helped them. The Locals fought for their own survival and to throw down a very real oppressive regime. 

"Welcome everyone. Before we start anything I want to thank you all for coming. It doesn't matter if you are a Traveler or Local, you thought about our cause and decided to join up. Those reasons are your own and if you are not sure why you came, hopefully, we can help you find that purpose. Now before we go any further, you are going to receive a briefing about why we are all here. You are also going to receive a wrist band. You are to wear it all time, no matter what you do or where you go. If you lose it or its damaged you are to notify either your superior immediately. Failing to keep the wrist band on you will have repercussions.' John informed them. 'Now, please follow these Marines they will take you to the Indoc briefing then to medical for scanning and checkups. After that, you will go with the various department heads to where you will be assigned. I will be seeing you all over the next week, for those going into military training, good luck and stay safe. Oh, and welcome everyone to Atlantis." with that John strode off while talking to the two A.I.s. Commanders Smitt and Jones would be keeping an eye on the newbies for the duration of the initial briefing and medical testing. After that Jones would be taking the new Marines dirt side. 

"Well Rebecca, did any one of them look to be joining the Fleet Track, cause all I saw were grunts, a sprinkling of scientists, a handful of fighter jocks, and a few engineers. Without people choosing the Fleet, all those ships out there are just oversized paperweights." John told his fellow Captain. 

"I know Sir, considering we mainly have freighter pilots and mercs doing the recruiting, we are lucky we got such a diverse group. Yes, I know your Traveler friends have a very wide skill set that has allowed them to survive, but it will also limit them. It will just take some time John, but we will grow this rebellion and bring them down. Now if the recruit groups do keep growing I am going to have to transfer some of my personnel to the station to make room for them all." Rebecca replied to John. 

"Yeah, the Raven wasn't really designed to transport personnel. You think that your XO, Lt Grimes, could handle the shuttle runs between Backhole Station and here if we got one of the troop transport up and running?" John asked his former XO. 

Rebecca took a deep breath before she responded "Maybe if it's just there and back, but he is still very new. The Raven was his first assignment, and he led a mutiny. Yes, he saved our asses, but he still led a mutiny. Now you want to give him a ship??? I honestly don't know John. I understand we are stretching all of our experienced personnel, but I just don't know if I trust him for this or know if he is ready." John nodded at her concerns. 

"I know, but Rebecca, we got to start somewhere, and I was hoping you would take point in starting the officers training school for fleet personnel. I know we didn't get any this time, but it will happen and I have to have someone there I know has both the experience and the trust. That is you." John told her. 

She nodded her head in understanding. "So how long until you can get a transport ship ready for him and where are you going to pull the personnel to man it from?" Was her response to John's statement. 

"I am thinking we pull personnel from both Riptide and Raven, if we have Chief Letts start checking the transports tomorrow, we could have one ready as little as a week. Give Grimes and the new crew two weeks to train on their new ship before they start making bus runs. So you would have to make one or two more runs before he took over for you. Now thank you for bringing them to go get you people settled and relax I know you are probably tense and tired. If you want, they have an amazing simulator for the shooting-range." with that John wandered off to check on the recruits.

John watched as the new people asked questions about the various training programs that they were about to undergo. Some of them were scared, but all were determined to continue on. That was good, John could use that and make them stronger with it. Various department heads started filtering in and calling out names. The Marines would go to medical first to get full body scans and workups before going down to the planet and the rest of the groups would go to medical go later or the following day. 

Thirty Marines, five Mechanical Engineers, three Biologists, five Medical Doctors, ten Pilots, two Starship Engineers were the groups' makeup. Miles looked excited to see the newest members of his team, John was sure once the people actually looked at the labs they would be working in, they would be happy too. Chief Letts was fairly relaxed with his two new people, but the Pilots and Marine recruits got yelled at. From what John understood the pilots were going straight to the barracks to stow what they had brought in, then they Pride planned on having them run the entire central ring. It was a great view of the surrounding space, but the ring was a little over two miles long. The Sergeant that had been assigned to the pilot's training program had loved the idea of how to break them in. When they got back to the dorms their items would have been put in storage and new uniforms would be waiting for them. 

They were building a military to fight another that had a five hundred year head start. Atlantis gave them a huge boost, but they needed people and a way to train them quickly. A minimum eight week turn around for new Marines and nine weeks for pilots. Naval Officers would be close to ten weeks and enlisted sailors could be anywhere from six to eight weeks long depending on what they would be trained to do. So about two months before they started to see any real results from any of the training programs. Patience was what they needed to win the coming war. John would have to remind himself every day. John watched as the two shuttles head toward the surface and wondered if Thrax Rebel groups told themselves the same thing at the beginning of their rebellion. "'Jeeves remind me to talk to Jones, Letts, and Pride about running some War-game scenarios once the trainees are close to graduation.' Now Kara, why don't we go check on those pilots and see how they are doing with the run."