As absolutely little as possible.
Drunken lout, as often as I can manage it. When I can’t… I’m a servant and enabler of monsters. I do things so they can be monstrous, because that’s the commitment I’ve made. The ways I perform this role vary, though:
-
Fleet Logistics pilot
** Doesn’t really take much explanation, I’m sure most of you know what a logi pilot does. This is, however, what I still consider to be my most elementary role when I get into the pod. My job starts with ‘Keep our guys alive’. -
Fleet Logistics Lead
** Again, I’m pretty sure most of you know the basics of what a Logistics Lead does: We organize the Logistics in a fleet. This includes building and giving out the watchlist, making sure nobody’s in the wrong ship type, keeping the cap chain sorted and the channel we use for it clear of squatters, and a bunch of other annoying-but-necessary small tasks before we undock. Once we get to the fight, I do the driving, keep an eye on everyone’s positioning—one Guardian or Basilisk who gets a nav glitch while they’re focused on Logi-ing can screw up the whole chain, after all—and most critically, provide additional situational awareness in the FC’s ear on command comms. That includes our fleet’s positioning, movement of enemy fleets, how well we’re holding, etc. Experienced FCs will need less assistance with this, but when there’s 3,000+ people trying to kill one another, more eyes never hurts. Most people think of it as ‘Anchor’, but we’ve started moving away from that nomenclature because of the mistaken assumptions it can bring (like ‘they just drive, and don’t have any responsibilities in fleets where the Logi are in formation on the main anchor’). -
SIG Lead
** This one is 99% Administrative. Over the past 3 years, it’s been my deep and abiding honor to have established (with others) and led the Imperium’s RepSwarm Logistics Pilot and Leadership Special Interest Group. Our mandate is to provide logi pilots with all the tools they need to excel at their jobs and understand mine. It’s not uncommon for there to be enough fleets going out in enough directions at roughly the same time that the Coalition’s experienced Logistics Leads are unavailable—we may be dealing with other issues, or already helping an FC in some capacity. One of the defining traits of dedicated logi pilots at all levels of the structure is that we like to help out. With this in mind, when the regular line logi pilots understand what goes into the Lead’s job, they’re in a better position to step up and take the reins if they need to.
** Beyond that, our job includes sorting out who’s leading which fleet’s logi wing on larger multi-fleet operations, training newer Leads, answering questions, and teaching FCs what goes into running their logi. The more an FC understands the operation of his fleet (even if he isn’t being called on to manage that section of its performance), the better positioned he is to make informed on-grid decisions about just what his current operational capacity is. Many FCs have little to no experience with the Logistics role in their fleets. If we’re doing our jobs properly, then we’re just the magical hand of ‘nope, you don’t die today’.
** We also provide feedback to the coalition fitting team about proposed fits for Logistics ships of all sizes. A focus group of over a thousand experienced logi pilots can do a good job of offsetting the often unrealistic expectations of a few FCs who are agitating for their little wet-deam builds. This is currently made easier by… -
Director, Goonswarm Federation—Fitting Team
** It’s my job to make sure that the ships our line members fly are suited to the tasks they’re expected to perform, and not configured in such a way as to present an excessive financial burden on the pilots or the Reimbursement Team. Not gonna lie, as a 100% Administrative position, this one’s definitely my least favorite among my jobs, but in a lot of ways, it’s kind of the most important. I won’t claim perfection, as there’ve been at least three instances I can think of where the fleets generally did not serve the Coalition’s needs, but by and large, I’ve learned the lessons of those missteps:
A. It’s not the FCs’ fault they’re stupid. FCs are going to fly how they’re going to fly. If you have an FC who’s always looking for an excuse to get in some in-your-face brawling, that’s what he’s going to do. When you give him a doctrine designed to kite, he’s going to brawl with it. When you give an FC who only understands kiting a Fast Attack doctrine (there IS a difference), he’s going to kite, and wonder why he doesn’t get the results other FCs get with the same doctrine. FC training is not within my remit, so I cannot change this fact. Therefore, it is important to understand that the tools we give the FCs need to be robust enough to perform when being misused. If I hand them a hammer, that hammy needs to be able to turn a screw, too.
B. Just because someone else is intelligent, knows what they’re doing, and in charge, doesn’t mean they’re right, or that their ideas should be accepted. It doesn’t matter how well a Special Interest Group’s niche-doctrine does the thing it’s supposed to do, when it goes to the main fleet, it can’t be a niche fleet, because even the guy who originally used it will find it being put in situations it wasn’t meant for, and no matter how much he says his Typhoons are totally trading well with those enemy Machs and fighter-bombers, we’re not actually getting the job done. When that happens, that’s on me, because it was my job to be the methane detector, and I can’t allow ‘oh, he knows what he’s doing’ to blind me to the fact that really, his fedo did just pass gas in a staff meeting. Also, I have to deal with freaking staff meetings. G’dammit.
At every level, my job is to take care of the line guys. To serve their needs. It doesn’t matter if I’m repping them, if I’m leading the logi, training the logi, or designing the fleet doctrines those line pilots are going to have to trust to get them home in one piece, my job is to watch out for them. It’s very much a ‘check your ego at the door’ gig… which may be why so much of it makes itself known here, where I don’t have to think first, last, and at all points in between about ‘if I screw this up, how many people die that I’m responsible for?’
Do I wish, some days, that I wasn’t where I am, doing what I do? Yep. Totally. But I took these responsibilities on myself. I made these commitments to the line guys. Nobody else answered for me when Mittens saiid ‘can you do this?’ S’all on me, and as long as the answer remains ‘yes’… I have an obligation to discharge those duties to the best of my ability.
So that’s my role: servant and enabler of monsters. And also why, whenever I can, I prefer my role to be ‘drunken lout’. It’s a hell of a lot less stressful. Maybe when I’m done here, I’ll go back to being a space station ventilation and life support technician. That was… relaxing… when I was 14.