Vanguard interactive Battle: Prologue III

 “Mango!” An older tanned human with an huge black  walrus moustache was standing next to three identical copies of himself with a finger raised.
 The bartender shrugged and poured four glasses of mango juice and put them on the bar. “That I’ll be 10 credits, sirs.”
 The men each paid two and a half credits and made their way to a table in the front part of the bar, already mostly interested in the scantily clad Twi’lek girl dancing on top of that table.
 The bartender scanned the Pyrath Ritz Bar again, first getting a acknowledgement from his Garmorean Bouncer that the mango guys were alright, then a wink from one of the girls dancing to the beats produced by the smallish Bothan DJ behind the turntables. Those Dugs on table five seemed a bit overexcited by the show put on for them… the bartender pressed a button, a grunt answered him.
“Keep an eye on those Dugs for me will yah Porky?”

 In the back of the bar the owner had installed a selection of private booths to give customers the chance to handle off their business without all the eyes the front part had to offer. The action in booth one mostly had to do with some drunk sailors from one of the freighters docking to the Naval Base and one or two of the dancing girls. The persons in booth two were a lot more oddly matched: a Human and a Toydarian were bartering over something or another.
 “As you can see: it becomes nice and dark when you roll it between your fingers.”
 “Ahh yeesss, Rodian, very good.” The Toydarian answered.
The human sat back a bit into his chair. “Well, I got 50 more K’s of that stuff where I know its safe. I acquired it in a game of chance, so to say.”
The Toydarian put the stuff down and took a big gulp of the ale he had standing in front of him. “Well, yes, that might be the problem ofcourse… I know that a large shipment of this stuff on its way to the new Hutt of Tattooine was intercepted here not long ago…”
The human immediately jumped foreward again, “I just came in from BtGeux, I have the records to prove it on both ends.”
The Toydarian started to laugh. “Yes, yes, sure! But seen as those records are in the Imperial Customs records on both ends of your little trip, they don’t do us much good, now do they?” His grin widened. “I’ll give you 10.000 for it.”
“10.000! I can get ten times that and you know it!” The human looked quite angry.
“Yes, but who’s going to smuggle it to the masses ey?” the Toydarian grinned, sipping more of his ale.
The human left his Correllian Whiskey where it was. “I could! I’m not such a bad smuggler myself you know.”
The Toydarian shrugged, “Why sell then?….” Suddenly he looked distracted. “What’s that sound?”
He had the human puzzled for a moment too, “What sound?”
“There! I heard it again!” The Toydarian pointed out, more angrily.
Now it was the human to shrug, “Ohh, that? That’s just some imperial officer who’s getting beeped because he’s late for a meeting or something.”
The alien pulled a very unsatisfied face, “But it’s coming from you! Are you trying to frame me here?”
“Me? I have no clue what you’re talk…” The human was interrupted by a beeping sound.
The Toydarian instantly took to the air and grabbed for his blaster… the ale must’ve made him slow because before his blaster was halfway raised a shot from the hip by the human made him explode.

The human staggered out of the booth covered in sliminess. He was lucky the bouncer was fighting with a couple of Dugs , so he could walk by the bar and pay his bill – plus the healthy tip customary on these occasions, cleaning bills always getting higher – without getting any limbs torn off.
 

Vanguard interactive Battle: Prologue IV

Ace finger flicked the furry dice hanging from the top console of M/FRT the Luggage’s bridge. “So why meet here?”
“Well two reasons actually,” Ender answered while he dried his hair with a towel. He flicked the towel in a corner before proceeding. “Firstly I was here anyway and I thought it was easier getting you guys here then me to the Vanguard,” here he grinned widely, ”Secondly There are no bugs on this ship, as opposed to our meeting room on the Vanguard.”
Kaye started laughing: “What makes you so sure that the Security Office hasn’t bugged this thing?” he sat down in one of the bridge chairs and helped himself to some wine.
“Well, I know this craft,” Ender claimed. “Also… with the precarious balance of the Luggage’s innards, the frequencies emitted by such bugs would immediately effect some more major portion of the ship, pointing out to where the bug was placed.”
From his position next to the bottle of Whiskey Archon frowned. “I’m not sure if that makes me feel safer. So if you have a power outage, you know NF’s men have been here?”
As on cue the major power feed was cut and after a moment of darkness the emergency, red, lights came on…. and some soft music with some heavily voiced male for some reason.

“Ezali Bosoto!” Ender cursed and he stormed off into the Luggage’s innards.
 Hawk grinned to the other commanders and followed. He found Ender digging into some electrics behind a panel in the wall. Suddenly Ender jumped out again.
“Sir?” Hawk asked, only to be silenced by Ender who pulled up an index finger like Hawk had to listen up and stormed off again into the direction of the bridge. Hawk sighed and followed his WC.
In the bridge, Ender opened another panel, pulled out a Hammerhead Garden Gnome and pushed that into Hawk’s arms. He then reached far into the closet behind the panel and pulled something else out as well.
Before Hawk could ask about the Gnome it was already pulled from his hands again and locked away into the closet again.

“Found it!” Ender triumphantly cried. He showed the Commanders a small electronic device with a very small blinking light on the side, which should be fixed to a wall or something. The light stopped bliking the moment Ender pulled a switch on the other side of the device. “Great one for the collection!”
“You collect them?” Hawk wondered.
“Ofcourse he does,” Ace replied for Ender. “Don’t you know you can deduct your importance to the fleet by the amount of bugs the Security Office places on you?”
“Yeah, I have hundreds!” Hizad said, “Though I guess I find most in the office I have my docter’s practice in…”
“Wow, I must be really important then, seen the amounts I always found in my locker,” Hawk answered happily.
Archon laughed, “Nah, that was just Death and Zsinj dumping theirs, they belong to the people who believe the bugs still work after deactivation.”
“Which could be true,” Kaye added.

“Well, on with our meeting. Sir’s please take a seat.” Ender announced.
The commanders made themselves comfortable in the bridge chairs, pooring themselves a drink if they hadn’t done so yet.
“I’ve noticed the pilots are getting bored,” Ender opened. “Weve been stationed here since Operation Dark Hammer ended, and while inspection flying is fun once in a while… It’s not what we joined up to do.”
There were some agreeing mumbles from the commanders.
“Well, as you know we’re placed her for two reasons: the developments in Genko keep our high command busy and they want us to be close to that action… which is not much at the moment. And because we were requested to investigate into rebels on this platform… Something which as already cost the life of one of our pilots, and which had commander Hawk hit by a stunray.”
At this Archon patted Hawkie on the back, “Poor man, those things are hell.”
Hawkie just looked sad.
“Well, since that business has been taken over by the Dark Brotherhood, a Jedi seems to be involved after all, and since the Genko business is not going foreward… I’m sending you guys out on some long distance patrols.”
“Oh great…” Hizad sighed.

there will be more in next week's report, you can read the python ViB story over on http://vib.ehnet.org by Wednesday i guess
note: more ViB fiction at the end of the report! and also non-ViB fiction!

<salute>

Well, two stories because I needed to catch up... now on with the report:)

1.
Wow.. you guys gave VA Blade and me a hard time deciding who to be were to be WC's Own and Com's Protector. It was on one side a close fight between Pavz, Hawk and DS-61-4 and on the other one a close match between between Hornet, Python and Echo. All have been showing excellent activity lately, but we had only 1 award each to hand out :-\  In the end, Pavz continuously being our top pilot on one side and Python's great progress from just a few weeks before have been the deciding factors... Getting Pavz his Second COM's Protector and Python WC's Own, congrats all of you.

For the rest you guys have been doing great as well I must say, with still a lot of BSF's, fiction, trivia questions etc. coming in. Good work people! besides this activity numbers are currently stabilizing around 40: Please Welcome Strahd to the wing. He has come in to reinforce us after a few AWOLs.

2.
For those who might not have noticed: The ASF: Supremacy Competition II is running!! The competition page is at http://asf.ehnet.org and contains all the information you need to take part. This is a big competition and its a huge success as well, generating a lot of activity all over the ASF -  and this wing. Check for more info under "competitions".

The Vanguard is currently at second place, our 3 most active squadrons are all in the top 10 or really close to it (lets throw Copperhead out, ok?;) ) and we have 2 pilots in the top 5. Well, it seems like fatigue has struck into this competition, with all squadrons and ships just gaining a few points over the last week. In the pilots rating, Khadghar and Weisio have pushed our top pilots to lower positions, but at the same time Python is rising to take over Copperheads position. Because the fatigue is across the whole ASF, perhaps this would be the time to pull out our reserve and gain a few ranks again from GW squadrons.

Also think about the other activities that will get you points: fiction, mission creation, website making etc. will all get you a lot of points as well for when you don't feel like flying or when you can't because your cat ate your cds:)

3.
Rejoice! #Vanguard is registered! It's is still doing fine, with a good show up of Vanguard Pilots... I might even say that practically all CMDRs hang around there (and me) which makes it a good place to go if you have a question about your squadron or the wing. Ace Armageddon has been so good to supply us with a bot, VanBot. Since we've arranged with VA Matir to get us a replacement bot with more options (like competition hosting etc.) but that might take another week or two.

X access has been arranged for Blade, me, Hizad, Ace, the Bot and Hawk. If Archon and Kaye come by I'll set their pw. For the whole month of December LT Pavz will be also allowed ops as he's the COM's Protector.  (Making that spot even more fun to gain, wouldn't you say?) The channel is usually the quickest way to get your Vanguard/Wing CV questions answered and is often more active then the ASF and fleet channels:D Do remember that the EH Code of Conduct (CoC) applies here, so try to behave;)

Our forth Wing "meeting" on #Vanguard, on the Undernet (IRC), on Saturday the 9th of December just after the EH meeting was about the same as always... though ofcourse you couldn't really notice we had a meeting... lets say there were more ppl online then normally... perhaps I shouldn't forget about it myself;)

Additional for if you do not know what IRC is: IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat and it's a protocol specially for chatting. Easiest way to get on IRC is to go to http://www.mirc.com and download mIRC free. The Emperor's Hammer is based on the Undernet servers, but if you need any more help setting up, don't hesitate to call in help from either your squad mates or me.

4.
Well, something I had forgotten (or repressed) has solved our motto and nick problem.... because we lost in the XWA wow from the Immortal... our new nick is "Old Grunts" and our new motto is "The rear guard and old peoples home of the fleet"... :-\
Oh well, it's just for December and it gives you guys the chance to come up with better ones for the next two weeks. I'll decide on a new nick and motto before January, also handing out the medals to the ppl who come up with the best ones. (now lets not lose the next Vengeance comp, ok?;) )

Fleet News:

General TC News:
- CoLs! Each TIE Corps Squadron Commander, or Naval Corps Task Unit Commander will compile a list of two - three names from their unit and forward them up to their Wing Commander/Task Force Commander, who will weed out people that he/she doesn't feel appropriate, or add people that they feel were neglected. So that the Wing Commander/Task Force Commander will only end up sending three - five names to their Commodore, who will add/or remove people if they deem it necessary. Finally the recommendations will be forwarded up to the Battle group Commander, who will repeat the process, adding or removing names if warranted. These finalized recommendations will then be submitted to the Operations Office
- An experimental TIE Corps report system has been up for Squadron Commanders, Wing Commanders, Commodores, Battle group Commanders, Task Force Commanders, and Task Unit Commanders. Simply log in at the Administration section and click "Add New TC Report" and you can add reports of the past and present. Links to the reports are on the rosters.
- CM Marcin Szydlowski [pbmike@klub.chip.pl] is organizing a meeting of members of Emperor's Hammer. Here are some details about next year meeting.
Time: June/July. Meeting will last for 3-4 days.
Place: Wojszki, near city of Bialystok. North-East region of Poland, near Narew river.
Check TC site for more info.
- There's a German Star Wars site running a campaign to get the next Star Wars movie released simultaneously worldwide (as opposed to the farce that was the release schedule for Episode 1). Given all the talk of the "Global village" and global economics we've been hearing the last 5 or so years, it would seem that simultaneous world-wide releases would be a logical extension. Besides, the only effect it had last time that cinema numbers in the rest of the world were low because of bootlegs. http://www.starwarsnews.de/release/
- Sub-Lieutenants and above can now show off on their profiles what extra talents they have and their proficiency in them just by logging in the Administration Section! Skills will appear on your personnel profile.
- The Star Wars Mod for Homeworld is now at Beta 4.2. I really suggest you Homeworld players check it out. All of the models are done, and it looks extremely impressive. Not all the ships from Homeworld are implemented, so there's less ships and less research. All in all, though, this looks to be a whole new side of Homeworld. Take a look at http://www.strategyplanet.com/homeworld/zeelich/

Wing News:

General Wing News:
- LT Pavz has been announced as Com's Protector of November! Congrats!
- Python Squadron has been announced as WC's Own of December! Congrats as well!
- Please welcome SL Strahd to Mantis Squadron. I hope you have a good time in the TC and this wing in particular.
- We got a new nickname -- Old Grunts
  We got a new motto -- The rear guard and old peoples home of the fleet
Please thank COM Adrenaline from the immortal for her inventiveness, you should see what entry lines Blade and I now should take on #tiecorps:P
- The wing gained (over) 8 new citations all together this week, with 4 by Echo. Nice work by all of you:)

Medals:
FM/CM Mareek (PC)
FL/LT Jack Pavz (DFC)
FL-TCT-TCS/CM Jourdain (CoB)
FM/LT Damon Kast (CoB)
FM/LT Victor Stalwart (CoB)
CMDR/CM Fraggle_Hawk (LoC)

Promotions:
CT Strahd to FM/SL Strahd

Competitions:

ASF:SCII
Started: 20th Nov. 2000
Ends:  23rd Dec 2000 (might be subject to change)
URL: http://asf.ehnet.org
Participants: All pilots and Squadrons and Ships in the ASF.
Description: “The long awaited Second ASF:Supremacy Competition is here! The first Supremacy competition began on 17th April, and ran for six weeks, ending on 28th May. Up for grabs were the titles of ASF Flagship and ASF Escort Squadron. The six weeks saw an amazing amount of activity for all pilots. Thousands of missions were flown and scores of graphics, fiction and INPRs were submitted. At the end of the competition, well over a hundred merit medals had been awarded to the various participants. The competition had proven to be a success, and shown that the ASF was capable of amazing achievements. This Competition runs just the same way, with a slight change in the awarding of points."
SUBMISSION DETAILS: All submissions (with the exceptions noted below), must be sent to:
spellfire@btinternet.com
You must have 'ASF:SCII' in the subject of the email, and zip the submissions when needed. You must include your FULL ID Line, and a brief desc. of what you're submitting.
Failure to abide by these rules will result in the submission being deleted.
BSF approved confirmations, notifications of LoCs awarded, FCHG/CR advancements and Citations earned do NOT need to be sent in. These will be handled by your Flag Officers for you.
AWARDS: Medals will be awarded at the conclusion of the competition, and will be based on the number of points an individual has achieved. The top three scoring pilots will receive a set medal:
1ST Place: Silver Star of the Empire
2ND Place: Bronze Star of the Empire
3RD Place: Bronze Star of the Empire

The winning ship will be granted the title of "ASF Flagship" (currently held by the Gray Wolf) and the winning Squadron will be awarded the title of ASF Escort Squadron" (currently held by Vortex Squadron). Members of the winning Squadron will also be awarded with the Palpatine's Crescent.

NOTE: The number and types of medals awarded will depend purely on the participant numbers. More pilots will equal more awards!!

As you see: big prices to be won by everyone - and just by general participation, you fly a match, make graphics or whatever in an other comp, or even just for fun, and you, your squadron and the ship gain points for that. The most active Ship goes off with most of the prices. Look below (competitions) for current standings and points.

Important: You gain points by FCHG promotions and citations too... but i need to know that you just promoted or got your new citation. Pilots, please email me when you go up a FCHG rank, CMDRs, do the same for your citations. This way we can be sure everybody gets all the points they can get.
CURRENT STATUS: Well, it seems like fatigue has struck into this competition, with all squadrons and ships just gaining a few points over the last week. In the pilots rating, Khadghar and Weisio have pushed our top pilots to lower positions, but at the same time Python is rising to take over Copperheads position. Because the fatigue is across the whole ASF, perhaps this would be the time to pull out our reserve and gain a few ranks again from GW squadrons. Echo is on the way to put Copperhead behind it as well and then it's just us vs the GW squadrons. Check your CMDR's reports to see who has flown what and try to fly the same, that way citations will be easier to be gained.
Ships:
1. ISD GREY WOLF [4240]
2. ISD VANGUARD [942]
3. ISD INTREPID [642]
Squadrons: (top ten)
1. TARTARUS [1122]
2. CRUSADER [1075]
3. AVENGER [794]
4. VORTEX [585]
5. VALKYRIE [498]
6. PHOENIX [479]
7. ODIN [432]
8. HORNET [388]
9. COPPERHEAD [252] and PYTHON [252]
10. ECHO [228]
Pilots:  (top ten)
1. CM Arestar [572]
2. CPT Brucmack [446]
3. CM Khadgar [256]
4. LCM Weisio [229]
5. LT. Jack Pavz [217]
6. CM Hawk [170]
7. MAJ Prophet [151] and JamieK [151]
8. CM Krieger [147]
9. CM Dax Corrin [122]
10. CM Mike [114]

Note: this is just a brief view on the status, it might be that your points haven't been taken into account yet.

ASF Vengeance Competition December
Started: 02:00 PM, Fri December 15 (aaaaarrrrrrgggggg... that's this week!)
Ends: 02:00 PM, Fri December 29
URL for XWA scores: http://www.battlestats.com/games/xwa/war/info/?wow109
URL for XvT scores: http://www.battlestats.com/games/xvt/war/info/?wow107
Participants: The whole Aggressor Strike Fleet
Description: “All three wings will encourage as many of their pilots as they can to participate in the November XWA and XvT WoWs.
At the conclusion of the WoW, the wing that has the highest overall pilot score would be the winner. And will gain the right to modify the title and motto of the losing wing. At the end of the XvT WoW the wing ranking in points within the EH will be determined. For first place a wing gets 1 point, 2 for second, 3 for third place. The same is then done after the XWA wow. Both scores are added to each other and the ship with the lowest amount of points is the overall winner.
For the top 3 _rated_ scoring pilots on any of the three wing in both games there will be medals to be gained. (10 games min to get a rating)” I'll make the top scoring squadron Wing's Own for December and VA Blade made last  two top scoring pilots COM's Protector - he might do that again."
CURRENT STATUS: under negotiation, but expect it to go through in the same way as last time.

Vanguard Interactive Battle
Starts: undefined
Ends: hopefully never, but every 3 weeks (=turn) medals and other scores will be awarded
URL: http://vib.ehnet.org
Participants: All pilots onboard the Vanguard.
Description: “The Wing XV Commander will add a piece of a story to his wing reports, together with a XWA Mission based on that part of the story. Participating Pilots in the wing send in their pilot files of that mission to their CMDRs - including a short written fictional account of their experiences in the mission. The CMDRs check the pilot files, forward the scores, the reports and their own files to the Commodore and Wing Commander and include the best fiction of their squadron in their weekly reports. The best fiction in the wing will be taken up in the wing report, arranged into "propaganda"-type news coverage. Medals are awarded to the best flying and to the best writing but also to outstanding activity like helping to run this competition.
Flying and fiction both influence the story, and so the missions: the Pilots' performance in one mission has consequences on the next mission they'll fly. Making this a true Interactive Battle with a flexible story line, centered around the ISD Vanguard and it's Squadrons.”
CURRENT STATUS:  Delayed. The web site and Rules are up though. Go to the URL above to check them out. I suggest you read the rules through now so if you have any suggestions, comments or questions, they can still be solved before the "competition" starts.
Currently I just have put everything in the fridge till in some miraculous way we get a mission....

Weekly  TC Online competitions
Starts: various
Ends: various
URL: http://www.tiecorps.org/combat/calendar.asp?month=9&year=2000
Participants: All pilots in the Tie Corps.
Description: “On the combat calendar are all the weekly competitions like the Vengeance Comp, EuroLoC, Thursday Night – Training Night… etc. Check the combat calendar regularly.”

Wing Squadron Status:

ECHO SQUADRON: VIP Escort.
Commander: MAJ. Archon (Invincible__007@hotmail.com)
Page URL: http://echo.squadron.org/
MB URL: http://pub11.ezboard.com/fasf4062isdvanguard
Squadron Citations (7):
   TC-XWA Battle 1 - Avenger Encounter (new!)
   TC-XWA Battle 2 - First Contact (new!)
   TC-XWA Battle 3 - The Darkon Mystery
   TC-XWA Battle 4 - Privateer
   TC-XWA Battle 5 - Show of Force
   TC-XWA Battle 7 - Assault on Chimera (new!)
   TC-XWA Battle 8 - Hammer to Anvil (new!)
Status: 8 out of 12 positions filled. Ds-61-4 submitted trivia and pledged to fly TC-TIE 13 and CPT jdf1984 completed two CABs (37 missions total!), plus two ID battles!  Wow, excellent work! Keep up the good work, DS-61-4 and jdf984. Not much this week for the rest of the squad, unfortunately. Though 4 new citations are not bad at all ofcourse:) LCM Kaymin D'Varak: If your CMDR doesn't get a reply from you in 3 days, you will be AWOLed from the squadron.:(

MANTIS SQUADRON: Deep Strike.
Commander: LC Garik Hizad (Heartofgold42@hotmail.com)
Page URL: http://mantissquadron.homestead.com/home.html
MB URL:  http://mantissquadron.homestead.com/messboard.html
Squadron Citations (6):
   TC-XWA Battle 1 - Avenger Encounter
   TC-XWA Battle 2 - First Contact (new!)
   TC-XWA Battle 3 - The Darkon Mystery (new!)
   TC-XWA Battle 6 - Enemy Defector
   TC-XWA Battle 8 - Hammer to Anvil
   IW-XWA Battle 22 - Abyssi Ianua - Gates to Hell
Status: 7 out of 12 positions filled. Please welcome SL Strahd to Mantis and show him the sites onboard. LT Victor Stalwart has created a new Flight I website at http://mantissquadron1.homestead.com/index.html - check it out. Nice and frequent flying by both him and Hizad (inc. High scores! :) ) and by CPT 007! Good work guys! But... have any of you checked the ASF:SC points yet? Have you noticed that Mantis is almost at the bottom of that list? Now, I know that there are some points missing...but still.. Hizad, and me and Blade, are a little bit disappointed... Mantis can't do this unless you work together as a team. CM Halcyon has been AWOL'd already... don't follow his lead...

RAPTOR SQUADRON: Heavy Bombardment.
Commander: COL Kaye (jekaye@total.net)
Page URL: http://www.total.net/~jekaye/
MB URL: http://pub11.ezboard.com/fasf4062isdvanguard
Squadron Citations (0):
Status: 7 out of 12 positions filled. No Report Received

HORNET SQUADRON: Interdiction.
Commander: MAJ. Ace Armageddon (ace_armageddon@hotmail.com)
Page URL:  http://hornet.squadron.org/
MB URL:  http://pub11.ezboard.com/fasf4062hornetsquadron
Squadron Citations (8):
   TC-XvT Battle 1 - The Verpine Encounter
   TC-XvT Battle 2 - Capture of a Murderer
   TC-XvT Battle 3 - Preparing for Battle
   TC-XvT Battle 4 - Encounter with the Black Sun
   TC-XvT Battle 5 - Phoenix Saga
   TC-XvT Battle 6 - Wolf Pack Aggression
   TC-XvT Battle 10 - Abduction of VA Priyum
   TC-BoP Battle 1 - Double Cross at Coronada
Status: 9 out of 12 positions filled LT Pavz gets COM's Own AGAIN! Congrats:) Activity's down just a bit, even though for example Rhys flew a lot of battles and even got some highscores:)  But lets pick it up so we can move up a couple more spots in ASF:SC. LT Pavz is the new Hornet Squadron's XO. This means he is second in charge. Ace is online a lot and so is he, so if you need something, and Ace is not on, try to find him. He also takes command of the squad when Ace goes on leave. Ace will be going on a 2 week leave in about 2 weeks time.

PYTHON SQUADRON: Interdiction. (WC’s Own)
Commander: CM Fraggle Hawk (fraggle.hawk@freeuk.com)
Page URL:  http://www.pythonsqd.com/
MB URL:  http://www.coolboard.com/msgpost.cfm?msgboard=41209031262784&idDispSub=81299250849214
Squadron Citations (5):
   TC-XWA Battle 1 - Avenger Encounter
   TC-XWA Battle 3 - The Darkon Mystery
   TC-XWA Battle 6 - Enemy Defector (new!)
   TC-XWA Battle 8 - Hammer to Anvil (new!)
   IW-XWA Battle 22 - Abyssi Ianua - Gates to Hell
Status: 8 out of 12 positions filled. Congrats Python on WC's Own, you guys deserved it. Python Squadron got 5 Cititions and it keeps moving up that scores big in the ASF comp and show that Python can do what ever Python wants, and that's Points:) Damon is moving up the rankings and Knight is doing the same in there too. Jourdain updated the Python site. The rest you guys are starting to move up you're selfs and that is making Hawkie happy. (and me too, nice going Python.:) )

Wing Squadron Fiction:

Python ViB Chapter Three .
written by: CM Fraggle Hawk (fraggle.hawk@freeuk.com)

“Commander Hawk you’re ok, you were only stunned.”
Moving his head from side to side he glanced around the room picking up on medic units, a few doctors, a nurse and a Storm Trooper. He knew he was back on the Vanguard and things had gone bad.

A day had past and he had been released from sickbay. Hawk sat by the window in his office staring out on the station and ships around it. Going over and over the events in his mind, he tried to work out what he had done wrong. Reliving each moment again and again… Seeing her image flashing up and up over his eyes… a tear rolled down his cheek.

The door slide open. Bender stood by the door: “Hey there, want some company?”
Spinning round to meet his friend, Hawk wiped his face: “Well not really, but you’re not going take no for a answer are you?”
Bender smiled and walked up to the desk: “Didn’t really go the way we planned it, did it? So what’s on the cards now?”
Turning back round to the window, Hawk ran his fingers through his hair: “I don’t think covert operations is my thing frankly Sir…”
Bender leant down and took a seat. “Hawk, that’s not what your past reports say. And there was no way you could know there was a Jedi down there…”
Spinning round, Hawk smashed his fist into his desk: “Jedi? What Jedi? There wasn’t any Jedi!”
Bender laid his hands flat on the desk. “Didn’t you get the reports? Well… Pavz reports seeing a glowing blade disappearing into darkness when he got there… Also Fortune had a hole in her chest which matched a light sabre wound… Which, well you know… killed her.”
Hawk looked at Bender: “Sir I request to lead a new team down there.”
Raising himself from the desk Bender, lead himself to the door. “Sorry Hawk, the Dark Brotherhood has taken over this op. You are to return to Python and new orders will be given out.”
Looking at his Wing Commander he let out a breath and returned to his paper work.
Bender knew at that moment he should leave but he couldn’t bear to see a friend in pain but he knew he could do no more.

Standing by the briefing screen, he watched his Squadron file in. “Ok pilots, we got a patrol to do let show them we can fly like Hornet.” A smile lit up on each one of his pilots’ faces. “Ok lets suit up! You got 10 before I want you guys in the hanger.”

there will be more in next week's report, you can read the story over on http://vib.ehnet.org the moment i get off my lazy butt and update it;)
 

Hornet Squadron Fiction .
written by: LT. Jack Pavz (PAVZ99@aol.com)

 When his ship was finally in the enemy ship’s hangar bay, Ace’s heart was thumping.  He waited in silence, anxiously preparing for what was to come.  He knew the rebels had only captured imperial ships for two reasons:  to use them for scrap metal to repair their own ships, and to interrogate the imperial officer inside.  Ace steadied his nerves as the hatch on his TIE was forced opened.  He leveled his blaster at the first rebel head he saw and let a blaster bolt fly.  The rebel fell with a scream.  Next thing he realized a stun bolt was fired into the starfighter, and Ace’s body went limp in the cockpit.
 He awoke with a start and looked around him.  He was in a small holding cell, lying on a tiny bed.  Ace sat up, trying to focus his mind.  His head ached from the stun bolt, making him light headed and his vision blurry.  He got up, licking the salt off his lips as he studied his surroundings, calculating a way to escape.  He noticed a few power cables exposed toward one corner of the room.  Ace’s eyes darted back and forth between the exposed wires and the control panel beside the door.  An idea surged into his head, if only he could find enough conductors…
 Ace got to work immediately.  He quickly unscrewed the legs of the bed, placing them on the floor beside him.  After gathering all the conductors in the room, he tied them together to form a conductive rod about a yard in length.  He put it up between the control panel and power cables.  “Damn, too short.”  Ace frantically searched around the cell for another conductor.  When he didn’t turn anything up, he sighed and sat down.  Suddenly a brilliant idea popped into his head.  He reached up to the collar of his uniform and took off his rank cylinder.  He put in on the end of his construction and smiled.  He saw that it was now long enough.
 Ace ripped off the bed sheets and wrapped them around the center of the rod where he held it.  Closing his eyes, he wished that would be enough to protect him from the strong electric current.  He shoved the rod so that one end touched the control pad and the other end cut into the exposed wires.  The electric shock stung Ace’s hand but at the same time shorted out the control to the door and it opened in front of him.  “Ha ha!”  he shouted triumphantly and ran to the door.  He peeked around the corner to see the corridor; a rebel was patrolling down the hallway slowly, peeking into each room before moving on down the hallway.  Ace ducked back into the room quickly and scooped up the rod.  He stood behind the doorway, clenching the rod in his hands as his heart pounded in his chest.  Slowly the footsteps came nearer.  When he thought he heard them closing on his door, Ace leapt out and swung at the approaching rebel.  The rod met with a sickening crack on the rebel’s helmet, sending the man to the floor with a thud.  Ace tensed, ready for a retaliatory attack, but one never came.  The man now lay unconscious on the cold steel floor, limp.
 Ace sighed in relief as he bent down beside the lifeless form and picked up the rebel’s blaster rifle.  Gripping it in both hands, he moved to the cell next door and blasted the control panel.  The door slid open, revealing a surprised Lieutenant Pavz.
 “Took you long enough, Ace,” Pavz smiled, trying to hide his surprise.  “Now let’s get the hell off this hunka junk.”
 Ace nodded and they ran down the corridor to the detention control center.  Ace stopped at the end of the cell row and motioned for Pavz to look into the control center.  There stood three rebel troopers, conversing and joking with each other.  Ace looked at Pavz questioningly.
 “You take the shot Ace.  I may be a slightly better pilot, but when it comes to small arms, you’ve got me outclassed.  By a lot.”
 Ace grimaced at his friend’s comment, but took aim into the adjacent room.  In an instant, he snapped off three shots, laying the rebels dead on the ground.  “Bingo!”  The two pilots ran into the control room and confiscated the rebel’s guns, now each of them had two apiece.
 Pavz looked at the control panel.  “We’ve got trouble,” he informed Ace.  The cameras in the room had captured their escape efforts and now half of a platoon was heading their way.  “We’re never going to get past 20 troopers.”
 ”Dammit, let’s head to the turbolifts at least.  We might be able to get a little bit of a head start on them,” Ace stated.  Pavz nodded in agreement.
They reached the turbolift cluster and entered one just in time.  As the doors closed laser bolts started to fly down the corridor at them.  The imperial officers fired a few shots in response before the doors fully closed and the turbolift accelerated upward.
 

 Lieutenants Ace and Pavz ran out onto the frigid steel surface of the Rebel Frigate Salvation’s docking bay.  Rushing behind some cargo containers, the two stopped to catch their breath.  They had led a wild chase through half of the ship, desperately trying to evade their captors.  Pavz adjusted his grip on his blaster rifle and took a look at the ammo reading on the side of the rifle.  It read almost empty.  He looked over at Ace, whose reading was the same.  They had only a few more shots before surrender was inevitable.
 “Our ships are less than 200 meters from where we are now Pavz, I saw them, “ Ace said, licking a mixture of blood and sweat off his lips. “We have to reach them.  We can do it.  For the glory of the empire!”  Ace leaped up from his position, squeezing half a dozen rounds off at the pursuing rebels, a few of them falling with screams.  He discarded the now useless weapon and ran for his TIE on the opposite side of the docking bay.  Pavz charged out from behind the cargo containers, firing a few shots in cover and following his partner.  Laser bolts were flashing after them, lighting up the cargo bay in a magnificent display of red light.
 The two pilots miraculously made it to their fighters. They dived into the cockpits, franticly initiating the startup sequences.  Blaster bolts hit the naked hulls of the TIEs, leaving charred burns.  At last the two fighters pulled out of the hangar bay, much to the Lieutenants’ relief.  Their escape, however, was far from over.  They rolled and juked their fighters to avoid the enemy fire coming from the Salvation.  Diverting all laser energy to engines, they set their throttle to full, trying to put as much distance between them and the enemy frigate before fighters could be launched.  Ace sadly looked at the Carrack Cruiser Artemis that was slowly growing smaller in the distance.  “We have to find out what happened here Pavz.  We have to.”

this story will be continued in next week's report
 

Mantis Squadron Fiction .
written by: LC. Garik Hizad (Heartofgold42@hotmail.com)

“Look” said LC Hizad into the comm. unit “I don’t care that we’re a deep
strike squadron, and that being out deep in space is our job, I want to know
why we can’t ever be around for the major battles! The one’s that get
written about, and are flown in the simulators for years to come! I want to
know why Mantis never gets to save the day! Can’t we at least once get
ambushed by pirates? Or retrieve stolen missile boat plans?” Hizad listened
to the monotone voice of the junior officer on the other end. “Fine then,
we’ll go on patrol as ordered.. just like we do every time …” Hizad hung up,
and thought. “Why is it that we never get to do anything interesting?
Hmm…that gives me an idea….

**later, in the briefing room**

“ok pilots, sit down, this one’s important”  Hizad wondered why the briefing
officer always seemed to say that…..no matter the mission…. As the briefing
officer droned on about how Mantis was going to go patrol and look for rebel
targets, Hizad looked around the room,. Sure enough, most of his pilots were
either apparently drunk, sleeping, or doodling on their flight pads. “I
thought I was going to be a super ace hero pilot of the empire when I
joined..oh well..at least the booze is good…” After the briefing officer
left, Hizad stood up, and instead of giving his usual pep talk…. “Pilots,
are you sick of this boredom?” Affirmative grumbles sounded in the room. “Ok
then, here’s what we’re going to do.” “We will go out on patrol, but we’ll
visit a little paint shop I know when we get there….then we’ll come back a
little early and put on quite the flying show for our compatriots onboard
the Van.Maybe then we'll get some aprreciation” “Sounds good to me boss”
said one of the men.

***on board the bridge of the ISD Vanguard***

“cripes” said LC Ender “there go that fruity bunch of Mantis squadron
pilots, off on another boring patrol.” “They will never get to see the true
joy of flying a Tie Bomber in the heat of battle!” “Running away from battle
is more like it” Whispered RA Blade under his breath. “What sir?” “Oh
nothing Ender…”

**A paint shop, in the outer rim**

“Well, that’s just about it then, now we look pretty snazzy” Hizad looked
over the assembled craft of Mantis squadron, freshly painted in a variety of
color schemes. He especially liked the tie-die arrangement of LT Victor
Stalwart’s craft , and his own, painted red, with large Maltese crosses on
the wings…..   “Ok pilots, let’s head home…”

**On the Vanguard**

“Sir! We have multiple hostile contacts inbound!” “Oh no!” Said Ender “Let’s
get our pilots to their craft! It looks like those unknown aliens with new
technology  are after our missile boats and trying to stop the Vanguard from
being re-supplied while flying standard rebel ships!”
        The battle began to rage… “Sir, we’re not doing well, we need
reinforcements!” Ender knew that he had only sent out one squadron of
fighters, but for some reason all he could think to say was “There are no
reinforcements available”  There seemed to be a collective groan over the
imperial pilots comm. frequency…

        The hyperspace light began to blink on Hizad’s display. He reached back and
pulled the control gently back. Stretched star-lines popped into standard
pinpricks of light. Simultaneously, the other 11 Skipray Blastboats,
Toscans, and Supas of Mantis entered real space in an elaborate
configuration. “Ok Pilots” said Hizad into the comm. “Begin the show” “Uh,
sir,” said one of the pilots, “There seems to be a battle going on” “Can’t
be” said Hizad, “we’re never around for battles, they must be practicing”
“Commence the acrobatics!”  Mantis began an elaborate and beautiful series
of complex maneuvers. Hizad noticed some craft heading their way. “Ah, it
looks like we’re going to have an audience!” “turn to their comm.. frequency
so we can hear what they think.” “Begin the grand finale!” Mantis' fighters
began to perform dangerous and difficult maneuvers” Suddenly the approaching
fighters turned and began to fly away as fast as possible. Over the comm.,
mantis pilots heard “They’re not scared of anything!” “How can they fly so
cleanly in the heat of battle!” “We don’t stand a chance!” “RUN!!!” All the
non-imperial craft fled into hyperspace. “Nuts” Said Hizad, “we never get
any appreciation” “Someday we’ll get to be in a battle…”
 

And to finish up:

Meetings.
- Fleet-wide meeting on IRC-Undernet channel #emperor's_hammer (every Saturday at 5PM GMT)
- TIE Corps meeting on IRC-Undernet channel #tiecorps (It's every Sunday at 9PM GMT)
- Wing XV meeting on IRC-Undernet channel #Vanguard (every Saturday at around 6:30PM GMT) (new!)

Messageboards
- Emperor's Hammer Message Board - http://www.tiecorps.org/ehmb.asp
- TIE Corps Message Board – http://www.tiecorps.org/mb
- Aggressor Strike Force Message Board -  http://www.tiecorps.org/mb/view.asp?b=21&v=0&s=0 (new!)

I think that's it – If I've forgotten anything, let me know via email (use only a.c.w.t.zwegers@bk.tudelft for official TC/Wing mails.) or ICQ (9706474)

Thanx Hizad, Pavz and Hawk for your contributions, this report is starting out to be a good read:)

Until next time, good luck and have fun.

<salute>
WC/LC Ender mBind/Wing XV/ISD Vanguard
GS/SiS/BS/PCx3/ISMx12/LoC-PSx62/DFC/CoL/CoB/OV [HUSS]
{IWATS-SM/2-XTT-XTM-M/1/2-IIC/1/2/3-GFX}