E For Excalibur
Chapter One
They had come together at the training unit, each of the six specialities sent the latest batch to graduate and these groups had all gathered in the hanger.
A Wing Commander stood up and all talking ceased he said "You all now have finished your individual training so the next stage is to find a crew and start learning to work together. So now we want you to get yourself crewed up that is all." With that he walked out of the hanger.
Men just looked at one another and wondered "How?"
One such man was Pilot Officer Arthur Pendragon, he was a 23 year old pilot. He had just graduated from Oxford after studying law. 6ft 1in tall, blond hair, striking blue eyes and an athletic build from his days of playing football at college. He looked around the sea of faces looking for anyone who might have an idea how to go about this.
He felt a tap on his shoulder and looked around into the smiling face of Leon Parker. They had known each other at Oxford where they were close friends having met at the University Air Squadron. They had enlisted together but had lost contact as their courses got more involved. Leon was 24 with light brown curly hair and was 2 inches taller than Arthur. He had been studying medicine when he enlisted. He was a navigator, he too was a pilot officer.
Shocked Arthur said "Leon what the hell are you doing here?"
"Isn't it obvious I'm joining a crew" came the quick reply "That is of course if you don't already have a navigator!"
"No of course not! One down for more lots to go! Arthur smiled and shook Leon's pre offered hand.
They had been catching up on what each other had been doing since they had last seen each other when Arthur was shoved forward, he regained his balance and turned around. Looking down he saw a body face down on the floor. Bending down looking at the dark hair he said "Are you OK? What were you doing?"
The man started to pick himself up when he got to his knees he looked up at Arthur and quickly got himself to attention. "I'm fine thankyou sir, I was looking around trying to see if anyone needed a flight engineer when I tripped over my own feet" The man replied.
"Well that is an original way to find a crew" said Leon with a grin.
"There is no need to look any further" said Arthur offering his hand.
"Thankyou sir." the man said shaking Arthur's hand.
"For goodness sake relax, what's your name?" enquired Arthur
"Flight sergeant Merlin Emrys sir." He looked and saw the usual reaction to his name. Leon was trying to hold in a laugh and Arthur looked amused.
"What? Is it my name is that funny?" He asked
"No, no." said Arthur then looking at Leon and then back at Merlin. "I'm Arthur Pendragon." to which Leon could not help himself and started to laugh.'
"Great." said Arthur and Merlin together.
Arthur looked Merlin over, he was a tall skinny lad about Arthur's height, and he had slightly sticky-out ears that with the short back and side's hair cut looked too big for him. His eyes were blue. He was 20 years old from Wales where he had been an apprentice mechanic in one of the coal mines.
About five minutes later a group of three men came over. Arthur turned around and asked "Can I help you?" when he saw two flight sergeants and a flight lieutenant.
"We heard the laughing and thought we would see what the fun was about sir." came the reply in a soft Irish brogue. The speaker was about 5ft 10in with laughing brown eyes and a mouth that looked like it was ready to smile in an instant.
"Are you in need of gunners and a wireless operator sir?" A soft Canadian voice asked. The speaker was about 6ft 6in and solidly built.
"Yes I am, and it's a team thing it's not just me you have to ask." replied Arthur. Looking at Leon and Merlin. "Any objections?"
"No." said Leon.
"Not at all sir." said Merlin.
Arthur turned to the men and flashed a winning smile. "Welcome aboard, I'm Arthur Pendragon I'm the pilot, pointing at Leon he said "This is an old friend of mine Leon Parker he is our navigator." Turning to Merlin he gave him a wink and said. "This is Merlin Emrys our flight engineer. He was so impatient to be a part of this crew he flung himself at me!"
"Hello." everyone said.
The quiet Canadian spoke up. "I'm Percy Orson, this pointing at the Irishman is Gwaine O'Connor and this is Elyan Madden.
Percy Orson was 22 from Ontario where he was a forest worker. He was a wireless operator/ air gunner.
Gwaine O'Connor was 23 and Irish, from Dublin. He had been an accountant after graduating from Dublin University.
Elyan Madden was 21 with a dark complexion who had worked in an office in London as a clerk.
"Hello again." everyone said.
"So is this is a set up?" asked Gwaine "I mean Arthur and Merlin come on." a smile planted firmly on his face.
"Sorry it's no joke." chuckled Arthur.
After a short time when all the boys were chatting and finding out the basics of each other a single man walked cautiously towards them, his uniform was darker than the rest and it had the shoulder flash of Royal Australian Air Force.
He said "Excuse me but I'm trying to find a crew that needs a bomb aimer and I thought I would try my luck here".
Arthur turned around and looked at the new- comer." Yes we do need a bomb aimer so please come on board." He smiled.
"I'm Arthur Pendragon." He held out his hand and the man shook it. "Lance Wright, how do you do."
Arthur looked him over, Flight Sergeant, early 20's he would say, about 5ft 10in, well-tanned complexion not surprising for an Australian. Brown hair and eyes. A steady looking type just what they needed to be throwing their bombs at the target.
Arthur then introduced the rest of the crew to Lance. Lance had been a labourer in Brisbane and had enlisted to fight and also so he could see some of the world.
Gwaine asked Arthur if they could get out of the hanger and find a pub or somewhere else that would be quieter than where they were, so they could talk without yelling to be heard.
"Great idea." said Arthur.
So after they had given their crew list to the admin staff at the desk just inside the hanger they left in search of somewhere they could all go, the bars in the messes were for NCO's ( non- commissioned officers) were in the sergeant's mess and the Officer's had their own. So they went to the NAFFI canteen and found a table where they could all fit around. They got themselves some tea and sat down.
Arthur cleared his throat "Ahm – I would just like to thankyou all for joining me, I don't know about you but I think that as this is a team, we are in this together, so when we are in the thick of it we must be able to rely on each other, because if we are to get through our 30 trips of our tour that is the only way it can be done."
"Well said Skip" said Gwaine.
"All I am going to ask of you is to give it your best effort, both in training and when we get on Op's that way we may have a chance of surviving." Arthur said. "But don't get me wrong I'll will want to play as much as the next chap when I'm off duty." He quickly added looking around his crew seeing stunned faces.
"Thank God for that." Said Gwaine.
"Don't worry boys I can tell you some stories about Arthur here when we were both at Oxford that proves he is not a stick in the mud." Leon added with a huge grin.
"Thanks a lot friend!" Arthur said smiling.
"Come on then." Said Gwaine "I'm all ears."
The next couple of hours were taken up with stories from all seven men about where they were from, what they did, how they got here, with a few funny stories thrown in.
As they parted to go to their respective messes Leon walked along with Arthur.
"Well what do you think?" Arthur asked him.
"I think we have a sound base on which to build something." Leon replied.
"Yes that is what I think too." Arthur said.
"You do need good bedrock." Said Gwaine as he joined them.
"Well let us see what the next few weeks training do for us then." Said Arthur as they walked into the Officer's Mess.
Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin. Pity!
Sorry but I have redone chapter two as my fingers, word and posting it here all had their own ideas which were not mine.
Thankyou to everyone who has reviewed, followed or made E for Excalibur a favourite.
691 Squadron is fictional as is RAF Hawksridge.
I read a lot of Fan Fic where the author mentions school and studying, I'm not going to be like that, I left school in the '80s and this is the biggest thing I have written since then.
I will try to update this regularly but working night shift at a hospital and sleeping during the day leaves not much time for other things
Yes you might have guessed it! The idea of Bradley James in RAF Blue is appealing to me! Or the rest of them come to think about it.
Anyway enough of my rambling thoughts. Hope you enjoy chapter two!
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Chapter Two
It was two months later when the crew arrived at RAF Hawksridge from their Operational Training Unit. RAF Hawksridge was a feeder station to the main bases in Lincolnshire such as RAF Scampton. They were joining 691 Squadron.
When the crew arrived they were sent for by the station commander. He introduced them to Wing Commander Tristan 691 commanding officer.
"Glad to have you on board. I have looked at your progress through your training and you all have done very well, they tend to think you have the makings of a good crew."
The seven men let out a breath they didn't know they were holding and looked at one another and smiled.
The wing commander continued, "We have just been equipped with the new Lancaster bomber – so you will not be getting some old clapped out crate to fly, you will have your own aircraft, take good care of it,"
"Thankyou sir." Arthur said a great smile on his face, he had heard much about these new bombers and to have one of his own was fantastic.
"Well off you go, keep working well and we will all get along fine." Said Tristan.
"Sir." The seven men said coming to attention.
Outside the wing commander's office they gathered Arthur turned to them, "Right let's get our kits stowed in our messes and meet at the door of the sergeant's mess in an hour.
An hour later they met and decided to go to the NAFFI canteen for a cup of tea.
As they were walking towards the canteen two WRAF flight lieutenant's came towards them, the NCO's saluted the FLT's and the WRAF's saluted them in return and also they saluted Arthur, after they had past each other Elyan did a double take and turned around and ran after them, catching them up he said, "Gwen what are you doing here?"
The girl this was addressed to turned, "Oh my Elyan it's you!" and gave him a big hug. Much to her friend's amusement and also that of the crew who had back tracked to see what Elyan was up to.
"So Elyan are you going to introduce me to your friends?" the girl asked.
The crew especially Gwaine thought Elyan had caught up with an old girlfriend.
Elyan said "Of course, Gwen this is my crew, Arthur Pendragon he's our pilot, Merlin Emrys our flight engineer, Leon Parker our navigator, Lance Wright our bomb aimer, Percy Orson our wireless operator/ air gunner and this is Gwaine O'Connor our front gunner, everyone this is my sister Guinevere Madden."
"Hello." She said, "Please call me Gwen everyone does." She turned to her friend, "This is Morgana Swan."
"Hello." Everyone chorused.
Arthur looked at the two women they were opposites, Gwen had a dark complexion with brown eyes and dark hair peeking out from under her cap. Morgana had a pale complexion with green eyes and dark hair.
"How long have you been here?" Arthur asked.
"We have been working in the base Medical Flight for six months." Gwen said, "We're nurses."
"You have just become a part of my fantasy." Gwaine said to Morgana with a glint in his eye as he took her hand and kissed it.
"Thankyou, I think." Morgana said with a smile, feeling like she would like to get to know this Irish rouge.
Arthur looked at Gwen and felt a slight rise in his temperature as she was looking at him. "I have to get to know her better." He thought.
Arthur said, "It's lovely to meet you, we were on our way to the NAFFI for a cup of tea would you care to join us?"
Gwen said, "Thankyou very much but unfortunately we are about to start our shifts, could we take up your offer another time? Sqn Ldr Hughes, he is the doctor would not be impressed if we turned up late for duty."
"Of course." Arthur said with a smile thinking how he would like to meet Guinevere as he has come to think of her alone to get to know her better.
After bidding the girls farewell the boys went and found their cups of tea, but a couple of them had their minds elsewhere.
That afternoon the crew went out to look at and check out their new aircraft. As they walked towards the Lancaster they could see the call sign JJ-E.
"Well it's obvious what we are going to call her isn't? Asked Gwaine.
"What?" was the reply from the others.
"Excalibur, we have Arthur, Merlin and Lance – are you sure it's not Lancelot? Gwaine asked Lance with a grin.
"Yes Gwaine I'm sure." Said Lance with a sigh.
"I don't know about you but I like the sound of that." Leon said.
"Yes sounds good, I like it." Arthur said.
"Me too." Said Elyan.
"I like it." Nodded Lance.
"Good name." said Percy.
"Merlin?" asked Arthur.
"No I don't fancy it." Merlin said deadpan.
"Too bad." Smiled Arthur.
That evening at the pub they raised a glass to Excalibur – the team was complete.