EVE Online | Buck Reece: Suddenly Spaceships

Cynabal

I strode down the ramp onto the hanger floor. Across the room I saw Lucas and a few of the corp members already ready to form up.

"Hey Lucas!" I shouted, as I approached the group, "Would you ping the rest of the corp to get them here? It's 10 minutes until forming."

I sat down on a crate of ammo amongst the group and pushed my goggles off my face and on to the top of my head so I could rub my eyes and face.

"How was your trip Buck?"

"Yeah not bad at all, Rats mate, tested my missiles explored into QA1. It was good to be out again. How are you all feeling for the battle? Excited?"

Responses of agreement rattled around the crew. "Yeah looking forward to it, a little nervous but that's normal right?" Laughed Maxwell, as he knew most people were nervous.

"Ah, you'll be fine" said Lucas. "Just remember what Buck taught you guys. Listen to the FC and no-one else, unless instructed otherwise. We haven't flown with these guys yet so lets keep comms clear and be disciplined, just like we've practiced."

Before accepting the invitation into Sarcos I had spent a good amount of time in High Security space with the members, running over drills in a safe environment and gelling the team together. For almost everyone this was their first combat engagement, let alone their first battle. I knew they would be nervous; it's why we repeated our drills for so long before taking it in to action. It makes it much easier to act when it's instinctive. Even I still get nervous, after a bunch of fights and a few small-scale engagements there is still a pit in my stomach that turns upside down, especially in the build up to the battle.

I stood up and climbed up on to my ammo crate so everyone could see me. "Right, I think this is all of us! Have we all setup our Command Hub and tested our radios?"

They all nodded. "Yep sorted!" they shouted back.

"Good! When you get in to your ships, I want you all to take a big deep breath to settle yourselves. Don't think on what's about to happen, think about what's happening in the moment. Remember why you've joined this corporation. You want to learn to be strong combat pilots. Everything is a lesson, and all famous combat pilots started in the same place as you. You could be like them one day and this is your first step. Remember your ambitions, think of the stories to tell and the experience you will gain. There will be many battles. We will not win this war with this engagement, so lets get this first one out the way! Alright guys, lets get ready to form up."

The members cheered, clapped, high fived and fist bumped to get themselves riled up. I stepped down off the create and fist bumped Lucas. "Let's do this, mate. We've got this!" I said, starting to charge towards my ship.

"We've got this babyyy!" shouted Lucas, running towards his ship.

"Get on comms straight away and make the fleet aware you're there! Lets go guys!" I ordered to the team, as I clambered on to my ship.  "Computer, turn on the ship and connect me to my most recent setup."

The engines powered on and the ship began to rattle. I could feel the power of the ship flowing through me. I was one with the ship and that is what I needed during any battle.

"Collaboration complete," blurted the ship.

"Excellent! It's go time!" I shouted, with excitement. "Check check, this is Buck and crew ready to form."

"Hi, Buck, if you all mute up and wait for further instructions," barked Sah'ra.

I paused, pressed my mute button, took half of my headset away from my head and slowly paced around my Command Point. I wasn't used to a fleet being in silence during a form up. I know everyone FC'd differently but I found it hard to accept. This quiet moment in the build would give people too much time with their thoughts and could spiral some people out of the mindset they needed. I had no way of contacting my corp members and I thoughts were fixed on how they might be getting on in the silence, but I just had to wait for further instructions just like I was ordered.