Eric steadied himself on the railing leading to the Hangar bay. His duffel bag filled with his gear and a few mementos from home, he watched as other people kissed loved ones goodbye, some pointed at the majesty of the Vigilance itself or just walked nervously around. He touched the Skull patch on his flight jacket, which was coincidentally fitted over the skull tattoo his old gang had placed upon members that succeeded initiation. His other arm was filled as well, mostly juvenile bullshit that he got to make him look tougher, the only one he didn't want removed was that skull. It was always nice to remind oneself where they came from. He looked upon the vessel he was about to board, suddenly frightened of how many years he would be away, how many years since Cerol itself. He shook his head and regained his nerves, striding past a family that were saying goodbye to a father or brother.
He looked back at the other personnel too. Landermarines, Engineers, Officers, grunts. All of them look bewildered as they approached the behemoth of the Vigilance. Eric was still an Ensign, lowest officer class that got to fly, and the only reason why he still had the ability to was from his skills piloting S6-Supernovas while back in boot. His record was an open book of reprimands, warnings and suspensions, all of them for stupid things a normal person would learn from. As such while all his other buddies were promoted, he would stay behind in the promotion race. Still no one could touch him when he was in the cockpit of an interceptor, and many people said he had the makings of a great leader. Eric didn't care for things like that, he just wanted to fly amongst the stars, meet beautiful women and blow up Pirate fighters like it was a Freedom day fireworks display back on Cerol.
He remembered how he even got this gig, he was playing poker with a few of his buddies back at boot. One of them had thrown down the last of his chips, and Eric did as well. When the Ante came the other man threw in a chance to serve on the Vigilance, Eric threw in a half flask of Jorgun Whiskey. Four aces and a bar brawl later, Eric walked out with a cool three hundred credits, a smashed bottle and papers to finally get into space. After a quick trip to a Forger and then back to an Authenticator, Eric had processed the papers and received his tickets to head to the Space Station, he had only gotten here a few hours previous.
Eric grunted as he lifted his bag onto his shoulder, and it was filled to the brim with items that probably get him reprimanded from senior staff. Although there were a few restrictions on bringing things in, Eric had the guile to bullshit his way past the security check and flirt his way past the more of the obvious questions. He was about to produce his identification when the loudspeaker blared to life.
"All registered personnel to Unit Code 32-97-42 report to Hanger Bay Alpha. The Vigilance is now making final preparations for departure."
Eric dropped his identification and swore, bringing his head up to meet the edge of the desk, gripped the back of his head and handed it to the Check-in girl, who was stifling a giggle. Eric flashed her a smile and joined the rest of the crew that were making their way in. He found others that wore the same skull patch and dropped his bag next to him, trying to feel his head to see if there was any blood. He looked at his hands and saw that they were clean, he breathed a sigh of relief and chuckled to himself.
"Great, all I need to draw attention to myself is to drip blood onto the newly polished floors, that and ruin the safety days wouldn't that be a nice fine start to this journey"
He said this to no one in particular, more so for himself. He touched the skull patch once more and stood up waiting to head on into his five year future.