Tales of the Admins

[Garrett Jax]

Garrett stumbled upon an unexpected announcement when he fired up his terminal. Wiping the sleep from his eyes, he tried to focus on the words as they gradually became clearer.

Garrett has been selected to serve as Admin.

What in blazes! What kind of sick joke is this?

Before he could dismiss it entirely, the door slammed open, with Cannon standing at his threshold.

"Don't screw this up!"

And, with that, he was gone.

"So that's it, huh?" he muttered to no one. "For some reason, I thought there would be a little more direction than that."

He walked out the door of his office, noticed Dieter passed out again in the corridor still holding onto a bottle of Dab beer.

Yuck! Why did he insist on drinking that garbage?

He stepped over the incapacitated, and quite frankly, smelly body and pressed on toward the docking bay.

He had one goal.

The Admin ship.

The most powerful guns, the strongest shield, cloak, beam, kill. Yes! Finally! He shivered with the thought of ultimate power.

Just as he was about to enter the docking bay, a voice called out from behind.

"Aha! Garrett."

It was Reverend Del, back from a lengthy hiatus. With him, was Fellow Hoodlum.

"Wondering if you might want to join us in handling some sanction reports?"

With a sigh, Garrett assented. He could forego his dream ship for a few minutes.

Two and half emotionally draining hours later...

Garrett finally freed himself from a pair of grateful Admins and started again toward the docking bay.

Another voice stopped him in his tracks.

It was Zelot carrying a forbidding stack of manuals.

"Garrett!" he bellowed. "Where do you think you're going? You need to read these tutorials right away."

"Now?" Garrett looked dismayed.

"Now!"

Again, he set aside his dream of flying the Admin ship, and dutifully went to his room and poured over the tutorials.

Hours later....

Mentally drained, Garrett looked longingly at his bed.

No. Not yet. He promised himself a jaunt on his new Admin ship, and that was exactly what he intended to do.

He practically sprinted down the corridor, ducking and dodging every time he suspected an Admin might cross his path, praying to avoid any further encounters.

Finally, he made it to the docking bay and there it sat. His very own, brand new, fully kitted, Admin ship.
He slid into the cockpit, closed the hatch and started singing an old Earth tune. "We are the Champions."
The engines fired up, thrusters engaged and down the runway he soared.

He finally made it.

Now, he thought. Time to unleash the POWER!

A message appeared on comms.

It was sent from an unfamiliar person. "Uh...Can I have a Venator?"

What?!? What sort of nonsense is this. He ignored it.

He turned his attention back to his ship, when another message appeared.

Someone else was speaking. "Hey, my Osiris needs more power, can you get on that?"

Oh my god! "No," Garrett replied.

Almost immediately, another comm interrupted his dream.

"Hey, I can't find the jumpgate in Kansas System. Can you tell me where it is?"

Before Garrett could reply, a pilot in a Rhino appeared and started ramming his ship repeatedly.

Garrett's finger inched ever closer to the kill command.

More comm messages appeared. He tried to answer them all, even the ridiculous ones.

He barely restrained himself from obliterating the suicidal Rhino pilot and sending his remains to Bastille.

I have to get out of here, he thought.

With haste, he beelined it back to the Lost Battlestar.

"Home Sweet Home," he muttered.

He went to his room, exhausted from everything that took place that day.

The sanction reports, the tutorials, the general questions from the populace that were thrust upon him nonstop...

He looked back at the events of the day with a tired satisfaction.

He decided to fire up his terminal for one last look at the news.

Discouragement hit him like a sledgehammer.

Accusations of Admin abuse, complaints about unfair treatment and arguments about rules filled the headlines.

After all the work he did that day... *sigh*

Depressed, Garrett walked out his door back into the corridor. Dieter hadn't moved an inch.

He dropped down, grabbed the bottle of Dab beer from his hands and drank heavily.

Dieter, with a eye half opened, slurred out a single sentence...

"Welcome to the Admins."

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