Atlantis System

Atlantis Base-Combat Training Operations

John watched as the fighters came screaming at the formation of destroyers, the PDCs and Pulse cannons shot out streams of energy and explosive shells. The coordinated fire slowly whittled down the Corsairs and Dragons but enough got through as they ripple fired Anit-Ship Missiles (ASM). Each one was equipped with a nuclear warhead that would severely damage or destroy the ship shields. In the end, 4 of the 6 destroyers survived the coordinated attack, but all suffered severe damage. 3/4 of the attack force was destroyed and the next wave was less then 5 minutes away. The formation turned away from the attackers to buy them more time to destroy the inbound attackers, but they would lose eventually.

John pulled his gaze from the simulation and turned it back toward the people running and operating it. It was a training SIM for both the PDC crews, Command staff, and the Fighter Pilots. John knew that Pride and his trainers would be chewing out the rookie pilots. 3/4 of the attack flight being destroyed for two destroyers was unacceptable to John and Pride. The Pilots were barely qualified to fly the machines even in the SIMs though. John looked at the second SIM that was operating, they were manned by pilots that were 2/3 of the way through training and both their kill count and survivability were double of the greener pilots even though they faced a squad of destroyers and a light cruiser.

Pride joined John by the second bank of monitors "I am sorry about that Captain. It is unacceptable that they lost so many while destroying so few targets. Those nuggets are hard-headed and think they know everything, I warned them if they did not get their shit together I would throw them into freighters. Now, I am not even sure I will throw them into freighters. I am thinking about washing the whole flight group out and transfer them into the Marines." Pride finished bitching about the pilots as John chuckled.

"I remember flying with a rookie pilot who thought they knew everything. I taught him a few tricks and in the end he turned out damn good fighter pilot. Why don't you wash them back a week or two and see how they do, if they do not improve then pull the trigger." John said as he walked away.

Stein smiled at Johns comments and added her opinions "He is right, give them a chance. Now the PDC crews and Command staff are doing ok, I would prefer quicker response times, but they are doing alright with the newer crews but the more experienced crews are starting to get sloppy. Just because they are getting closer to graduation they think they can slack off, I am thinking of pushing back their graduation for another week, so they can receive...additional training."

John nodded at her comments "Do what you think is best Commander." he told her as he walked away from the combined training area.

Atlantis System

Planet 4-Low Orbit

John watched as 4 squads of marines assaulted the fort, they had all been in Marine training for 2 weeks, and they faced two squads that had been in training for 7 weeks and were about to graduate. The 4 green squads were pushing the defenders hard but so far they had kept them at a distance which was to the defenders advantage. The defenders only had to last for another 5 minutes to win the scenario.

John signaled the pilot to continue onto the next training camp, this one held mainly squads that had been in the course for 4 weeks and were doing both mock battles, unarmed combat, and small unit tactics for the MECH units. This time was critical because this was when the Marines started the initial training with MECH units.

"As you can see Captain Port all the Marine training camps are running at top capacity. As soon as we graduate one group another usually takes their place within a few days. It gives our trainers some down time to rest between new groups of trainees. We will be bringing three new camps online on the continent to the east within the next week, and we have plenty of volunteers to assist in training." the Staff Sergeant Briggs told John.

Between Mary and Jaine the industrial and support structure of both Atlantis and the Heirs was finally leveling out. Income from shipping cargo was finally steadily coming in now and it was almost matching the costs of key software and hardware they needed for upgrading the ships systems they had been taking out of mothballs. The attacks on the Rigel V System and Capella III System were in route and would be completed within a week. Intel about an impending IntelDiv attack had been steadily coming in but no target information had been found. Another troubling situation forming within Imperial space was that someone was looking for operatives within the Imperium.but were not IntelDiv agents. None of their assets had been able to figure out who was reaching out, but they had done nothing hostile toward the Heirs agents within Imperial space.

Trygun Prime-Pearl Cluster

Capital of the Imperium

Shamus looked at the towering buildings around the spaceport. Aronia City was considered a smaller city but housed nearly 15 million inhabitants that worked the heavy industrial parks nearby. Anything and everything you could think of was produced and exported throughout the Imperium. One of the reasons why Shamus was here was to pick up critical industrial equipment to run to the outer colonies. Hundreds of freighters did it, but it was a pain in the ass to get the license and Shamus was the first within the Heirs. His current orders was to keep his eyes and ears open for anything strange going on for the Imperial industry. So far, it was normal on every planet he had landed including here.

"How is you day going Captain?" Shamus looked up and saw a Fleet Captain sit down opposite of him.

Shamus smiled before responding "Good, it's a beautiful day here. I won't be able to enjoy it much longer I have to make a run to one of the outer clusters. How is your day going Captain?"

"Not to bad and yes it is beautiful as far as weather goes. Sometimes beauty can hide many things. So a well traveled man such as you must have many friends within the outer colonies and beyond. One such as you might warn those friends not to trust information that is to easily obtained. Consider this a fair warning from a possible friend." with that he odd Captain stood and started to leave before Shamus stopped him.

"If I had such friends, they would want to know the name of the man who sent the warning and why?" Shamus stared at the man hard while he prepared to pull a hidden dagger and stab the strange captain if he proved to be a problem.

The Captain smiled before responding, "I am Captain Teagon Summers. If your friends are as well-informed as I think they should have no problem finding out who I am. I am not alone by the way, many orphans exist because of what happened and wish for Justice. Now I must leave."

Odd fellow and something to kick upstairs. Whoever the guy was, it wouldn't be his problem.