Loken

Erik Loken was born on March 23, 3987 in the underwater city of Lazarus. His father was in the mid-levels of management for a decent sized business. So while not incredible rich, his family was never short on money. Erik’s mother was also a typical stay at home mom, meaning that Erik rarely had any worries except for school and bickering with his two younger sisters. This bred a touch of laziness in the boy, especially as he managed to do fairly well in school without too much effort. His grades were mediocre, nothing too exciting, but he did prove to be fairly intelligent on standardized testing, and often claimed that he never studied. A more accurate statement would be that he rarely studied, or that his studying consisted of sitting in his room, listening to music, and solving the odd problem between his ‘study breaks’, which commonly lasted longer than the time he spent doing work. He did all his homework, did decent on tests, but simply didn’t try. He could have done much better in school, but didn’t feel like doing so, preferring to sit around and do nothing than apply himself and try for it.

Erik graduated from high school two years after the ceasefire in the Everwar, and Erik was bored. Living in an underwater city only has so many perks, and Erik had done pretty much everything he could in his 18 years there. Therefore, due to Erik’s boredom, the so far two year ceasefire, and a touch of laziness, Erik took the easy way out of his problems and joined the Union Fleet. He didn’t want to be a marine, that was too much physical work. Erik was fit but didn’t want to go through the training that in his mind was ‘brutal’. He didn’t want to be an engineer, as there was too much to remember and that actually involved work being done where he couldn’t cut corners. So he decided to become a pilot. After all, it was only memorizing what a few switches do, and then you get to fly sims all day, right? Erik was a bit wrong on that part, as the training was much more than he’d expected. He hadn’t expected that as a pilot, he’d be required to do physical training as well, to be able to shoot a sidearm. He had to go through exercises that improved his reflexes and honed his concentration. Basic training was the first time Erik really had to try at anything in life. Unfortunately, there was no easier way out, so Erik held onto the hope that whenever he got around to actually flying it’d be easier than basic. And for Erik, this was true.

When he finally got out of basic and into piloting school, he was finally right. After all the exercises and refinements, Erik proved to be somewhat of a natural pilot, able to have a craft do most things that he’d want it to do. As such, he was able to get back into the rhythm that he was used to, be able to pass without really giving any effort into it. His instructor eventually picked up on this, and goaded him, making him do things more advanced than the other pilot’s in his class. And so, Erik compromised a little. He did try a bit harder, but made it look like he was trying harder than he really was, pretending to be confused or tired or worn out from the exercises. As such, he managed to graduate with honors from piloting school, but could have done more and better than he did. He’s currently served on a few frigates and cruisers as a pilot, but as his records show, is perfectly capable of flying fighters as well.