First Impressions Last
23 Nov 2023Oak7603
Several days ago....Cmdr Oak7603 walked into the Federal United Command HQ in Nanomam, eager to take part and do his bit for the Federation. The grandiose building was impressive. The history was impressive. The promise was impressive. Walking through the gardens that led to the HQ he felt his pride and purpose getting stronger. He had only just signed up to the Zachary Hudson power and wasn't sure if he would be accepted into such an integral and organised part of the galaxy defence but he was willing to offer his ships to the cause.
"Good morning", he said, saluting crisply as he walked up to the induction desk. "I'm here to join the FUC and do my part" he said eagerly. No one was there. He looked around. No one. He peered under the desk. No one. "Is anyone here?" he shouted. Still nothing. As he stood waiting he heard a voice from somewhere say that the Command Team would be there soon, but they were a bit busy right now. OK, he thought and sat down and waited.
A while later, a staff member appeared at the desk suddenly. "I'm here to sign up" he said again, trying to still sound eager despite the shine of his expectations already being dulled by the wait for anyone to let him in.
"Yeak OK. Fill this in. Orders are over there and there is a leaflet here for you to read". Disinterested, the staff member walked away leaving the Cmdr stood in an empty room. He looked around wondering what he was supposed to do. Everywhere just seemed empty and quiet. Not what he expected at all. Pulling a chair up to the table, he filled out the paperwork on the datapad and sent it off. He looked around. He expected it to be busy with activity but it didnt seem to be.
To his left he heard a door open and a pilot walked in, Cmdr Grincake was written on his name badge. "Welcome Cmdr" he said, saluting as he walked back out.
He sat there for a while but no one else seemed to be in the building. It was strange. From outside it seemed such a busy place but now sitting here it just seemed dead. His expectations were clearly far too high. A few moments later another person walked past the door, glanced in and seeing Cmdr Oak there he pushed the door open saying "welcome Cmdr" before walking back out. This pilot, Cmdr BBJEZ, was wearing the squadron suit for the FUC - The FRCS. Cmdr Oak pulled out his data pad and found the squadron details and submitted a request to join, both on Inara and to the ship registration team. What was the point being part of it if he wasn't even in the official squadron.
Not one to wait to take action, he walked over to the orders and tried to work out what they meant. It looked like they needed some military fortifications to a nearby system so he set off to the cargo bays. As he walked there a third pilot - Cmdr General ilNibbio - welcomed him as they passed each other.
A few hours later, settling down in The Trunk, for his last delivery of just under 3000t to the system the Cmdr thought about what he'd just gone through as a first timer working for a power. He'd gone to the cargo bays and spoke to the Power Representative who loaded 10t into the 758t hold of the T9 but then the ground crew just sat there. Using the ship tannoy system he shouted down for them to fill the hold. The comms beacon rang and he answered, it was the ground crew supervisor who told him that due to union rules, they could only load 10t every 30 minutes, but if he had the money, they would be happy to load him up quicker. The smell of corruption filled the air, leaving a bad taste in his mouth. "Fill her up" he said. After spending 7MCr he had set off. Getting there was easy. There were no issues and it went well. He carried on making trips, with the same BS at Hahn Gateway every time until the order had been filled.
After finshing that order, sitting back in the empty room at the HQ, he heard a little commotion as some pilots noisily walked down the corridor, talking about some fights they'd had with some rival powers the night before. They walked past but didn't look in to the room. They were all deep in conversation and sounded like they'd had a good sortie. He opened his datapad. Still no acceptance to either squadron. He pulled up the orders. A few other pilots had started to deliver the fortifications too and were updating the sheets. Not sure how to do this, Cmdr Oak looked around for some instructions but there weren't any. He copied what others had written but it wasn't working. As he sat there trying to work it out, the door opened again and he recognised the pilot as Cmdr General ilNibbio who he'd seen earlier. He'd noticed the mess that had been made with the entries and had come to help to sort it out before heading back into the building interior.
Sitting there a while longer, having completed the fortification order he looked at his datapad. Still nothing. No one had accepted the Squadron request. No one had accepted the request lodged with Inara to join the squadron. No one seemed to be in the HQ building either. With curiosity getting the better of him, he walked through the door that the two previous Cmdr's had appeared from and heading along the corridor. There seemed to be a lot of offices but no one was in them. He reached the end door with 'FUC Cantina' written on it. He looked through the glass. There were a couple of pilots in there talking to each other but that was it.
Getting disillusioned, he loaded up the orders on his datapad and completed some more. Back and forth, dropping off supplies but still not anything from the FUC, no activity apart from the pilots he'd seen earlier. No acceptance into the squadrons. Nothing. Finishing his last order wondering why he'd bothered to spend all those credits, he set off back to his own system to carry on his work helping out one of the local factions. Out of courtesy he sent a message to one of the names on the FUC list for who manages the faction work side of the FUC and he confirmed that I was OK to carry on at my home system. At least someone seemed to be on duty.
A week later, Cmdr Oak looked at his ship dashboard. He was level 4 pledge rating. That seemed a good effort for a weeks work, a days work actually, but for what? Maybe he'd looked at it wrong but he thought he was signing up for a community experience, the cut and thrust of working directly for the Powers at large, fighting against the enemy on a system level. Instead he just found himself a faceless cog in the machine. A tally on a spreadsheet. That wasn't what he wanted. He had eventually been accepted into the offical squadron according to his comms but that was it. No interaction of any note. He checked Inara. Still not accepted on there.
He flicked off the datapad and put on the local YTube. A short video caught his eye. A group of Commanders, together having fun visiting a local tourist spot. Now that was a community. That is what he was looking for. Quickly turning on the datapad he fired up a request to join this new community. Within seconds he'd had messages back. Within 10 minutes he was in the team, in the squadron, in the family, it seemed.
Smiling to himself, he fired up the Carrier navigation system and set the destination to Tewanta. The Buur Pit beckons.