Vanguard interactive Battle: Prologue II

“Yes sir, we know that your papers say that you're transporting 30.000 Hammerhead Garden gnomes and that your papers are fully legal,” the Imperial Customs Officer sighed.
The Freighter Captain's high pitched mutterings on his headset started off again, mostly claims on being an honest businessman with an honest business.
“We're not doubting that sir, ” the Customs Officer responded. “But you have to agree that such a shipment seems bizarre on the other side of the galaxy from Ithia and at least 100 parsecs from the nearest gardening fanatic.” He leaned back in his deck chair and made a hand signal to his colleague on the console next to him indicating that the guy on the other side of his line must be a complete loony.
His colleague smiled back to him knowingly. They saw some pretty weird things at the Pyrath Border Customs Base, the things some people tried to take across and the methods they used were the foundation of many a tall tale to be told in the officer's mess in the earlier hours of the morning.
The Customs Officer leaned back over his console, flipping one switch that muted out the pleading freighter captain and another that brought him into contact with his assigned inspection craft.

“Hornet Inspection Flight 1 Plus, Squadron leader reporting in,” Major Ace's voice came across immediately.
“Pyrath Control here,” the Customs Officer responded quickly. “I want you to do an inspection flight over that modified Modular Conveyor there. The – Rodian - captain and the papers claim to be transporting Hammerhead garden gnomes, but what is a Rodian doing with those in the middle of the Outer Rim?”
“Acknowledged, Hornet Inspection Flight 1 Plus is on it. Hornet One out.”
The Customs Officer saw the fighters change course on his screen and flipped his switches again… immediately flooding his headset again with the Freighter Captain's pleading, which had now progressed to tear jerking stories about his 12 starving larvae, his old dying mother and mortgages that had to be paid. “Sir, I understand completely. Don't be alarmed but we will be conducting a close inspection flyby. Then when everything checks out fine you can proceed on your journey to…” The Customs Officer checked one of his other screens. “…Tatooine, isn't it?”

“A Rodian with Garden gnomes!” Lieutenant Tuomo exclaimed. “These smugglers are getting more stupid by the day, how gullible do they think we are?”
Lieutenant Rhys laughter came over the com, “Well, you can be sure they're transporting garden gnomes… I just think we're more interested with what's in those things.”
“Two, Three, please cut the chatter,” their commander came back over the com. “This should be an easy one, please follow my lead and we'll be back on the Vanguard in no time.”
Hornet Flight 1, reinforced by their wing commander who was flying inspection runs to get his required flying hours, rolled to port and down in perfect unison, barely evading a container transport and a luxury liner and closing in on the Conveyor.
“There she is, scanners open,” Ace called in from his Toscan Fighter. “Your honors Rhys… ”
“Guys she's starting to head for the hyper space jump point!” Lieutenant Colonel mBind interrupted him.
“They are loading their laser batteries sir,” Tuomo called in from Hornet two.
Ace switched the reload of his own lasers up too. “Control?”
The Customs Officer was quick to reply: “Disable that freighter by any means, I’ll try and arrange a docking craft.”
“Roger Control,” Ace affirmed, “Flight split up in wingman pairs and switch to ions.”

Just as the craft separated in two pairs it seemed that the Conveyor managed to man it's front gun turret. It immediately started firing thick black bolts at the fighters – missing them only just. At the same time its Captain was trying to get it out on real space as fast as he could.
“Watch that fire there guys!” Ace called out as he started strafing the freighter, closely scraping its surface to make the turret hit it's own hull. “And Bender! Get the hell out with that crummy Bomber of yours!”
“Switch to lasers or we'll never get it's shields down,” Rhys yelled while he fired off ions and lasers like crazy and at the same time tried to draw the turret's fire away from Ace and Tuomo.
Tuomo found time somewhere to look at his scanners, “Second turret is now manned! Watch it!”
“No it isn't!” MindBender called in defiantly. “Bombs awaaay!!”
He had taken the time created by the faster and more “dangerous” Toscan fighters to get his bomber up close to the conveyor and only just barely made it out of the blast range of the heavy rocket he fired straight into the second turret.
“Wooohooo!” Rhys called out, “It's shields are out, now lets finish it off.”
Like hungry wolves the flight jumped on the freighter which was now defenseless to their ion cannons, disabling the craft in seconds.
Ace was amazed: “You took Heavy Rockets with you on a inspection mission?”
Inside his helmet Ender grinned apologetically, “Yeah well... I'm a bomber and I feel naked without them you see…”
“You almost blew yourself apart there, Bender,” Rhys laughed while put his fighter in a course to match Ace's again. “That brick of yours is looking black as sith now.”

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>

From my desk onboard the Vanguard (the flat top of my T/B's ordnance pod, so don't mind the carbon smudges) I present you another Wing XV report....

1.
You guys make me proud, I'm getting loads of BSFs in every day from all over the wing, and we actually doubled our score in the short while since my last report. Hornet, Python and Echo are all in the top ten or near to it, LT. Pavz is currently the third most active pilot in the ASF and CM Hawk 5th, the squadrons got together 5 new citations,... etc. etc... I'm just dazzled. Great work by you all guys:)

Besides this great activity numbers are steadily on the rise as well: Please Welcome Damon Kast to the wing. He's our 41th member and joined Python as a SL this week, only to start flying battles as well - which earned him a promotion to LT. Congrats and nice work there too LT.

(Probably forgotten because all this activity I must remark that only 1 cmdr got his MSE in and 2 missed their weekly report... come on guys, don't let the stress get to yah;) )

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. We're doing great... but especially on the squadron side we would really gain from everyone in those squadrons getting into the action, if only because we're so close to the top. Citations really get our points up, however bizarre that might sound from a MP Wing, and those are gained by ppl checking out which missions to fly and by co-ordination from their cmdrs. Upto now we're doing great, but following citations will only be harder to gain.

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.
The ASF Vengeance Comp is over with just a few XvT matches flown by us and no XWA matches at all. Because the Intrepid is even worse then us, we didn't lose this one... but still: it would've been an easy way to gain ASF:SC points as well. Ofcourse I recognize that we can't all be active on 3 or 4 comps at once and i think the ASF:SC definitely killed this one, and not just onboard the Vanguard I must say. Oh well, better luck next time I guess... at least we won't receive some crummy GW related motto and title;)

4.
The IRC channel, #Vanguard, 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. If anyone comes up with a better/good name for the bot, I'll reward it with an ISM:)

I'd appreciate it if you all idle or chat in #Vanguard when you're online anyway... for the following week at least so that when the channel registration ppl come by they see it's being used and such. For registering a channel you need about 10 ppl frequenting your channel for about two weeks so when the channel ppl come by they'll see some traffic. Until registration everyone gets ops, after that Vanguard Flag Officers, CMDRs and the VAN COM's Protector.... plus every TC admiral that might wonder allong ofcourse...

Our third Wing meeting on #Vanguard, on the Undernet (IRC), on Saturday the 2nd of December just after the EH meeting was less of a dud... though ofcourse you couldn't really notice we had a meeting... lets say there were more ppl online then normally:) We actually now have a fine amount of ppl coming there, so I invite yo all to join - hey... it might even be fun;)

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.

5.
Well i got a few suggestions from you guys for a new motto and title:)
 "Kill 'em all!" by CTXclr is quite a nicely blunt motto perhaps - if only a bit Metallica based;)
LCM Werwax came up with "Death's Army" as a nick and "We are the first to attack, and the last to leave.." as motto.... though that might be too long as a battlecry again... LT. Victor Stalwart gave me a selection of motto's and titles: "Death Dealers" (title),
"Victory or Death" (motto), "Hammer's Shield" (title), "Strength and Honor" (motto, gladiator?), "Magnum Force" (title) and Power Unequaled" (motto).
Actually I think they all have something that's usable... but I'm going to give you other guys another week to come up with something even better - if not I'll make my choice from the current submissions:)

Any good suggestions for either will be rewarded with an ISM, for both a PC... As an idea I'd like to add that a motto should be seen as a battlecry... I prefer  short and brutal over long and intelligent i'm afraid. No-one runs into battle screaming something like "Why fly like the Gray Wolf when you can sit around looking good?".
This new title and motto I'll keep as our main motto for at least a year, or at least as long as I can keep my current position if that's shorter.;)

Fleet News:

General TC News:
- If you want to see your profile online, there's a new shortcut to it! Just use your TIE Corps PIN instead of "www"! For example, my PIN is #2883. So if I wanted to look at my record, I would go to http://2883.tiecorps.org/ Try it with yours!
- Also, if you want to look at a squadron roster, you can put the squadron name then .squadron.tiecorps.org to take you right to the squadron's roster. For example, if I wanted to look at Hornet squadron, I would go to http://hornet.squadron.tiecorps.org and it would display Hornet's Squadron's roster
- http://admin.tiecorps.org/ now takes you straight to the administration section. http://rosters.tiecorps.org/ will take you to the roster section. A listing of working Virtual Domains will be listed in the near future.
- The Star Wars Galaxies site has opened at http://www.starwarsgalaxies.com. Register at the site now and you may have a chance to be picked as a beta tester in the future! You can also read the FAQ about the game and aspects of it and participate on community message boards which have close to a thousand messages on them already!
- At the request of VitCarp, the Competitions page now has a search facility. At the moment, it only allows you to search contact names. However, should it prove popular, it may be expanded to allow searching of other fields. The most obvious benefit of expanding the searching would be the ability to have a quick look at which wings and squadrons are the most active

Wing News:

General Wing News:
- We didn't lose the ASF:VC again... we didn't win it either though... :\
- LT. Pavz is currently rated as the 3rd most active Pilot in the ASF, CM Hawk comes in close after that at 5th - good work guys:)
- I'll be on leave for the next two days, so BSF processing might be a bit slower for the CMDRs, you might want to try Blade... but he's not used to doing them apparently;P
- The wing gained (over) 5 new citations all together. Nice work by all of you:)

Medals:
FM/LCM Solor Werwax (ISM)

Note that the WoW will only be awarded after the COO:A Brucmac gets them done.:(

Promotions:
FM/SL Damon Kast to FM/LT Damon Kast

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: Woohoo, we nearly doubled our score in a few days and LT. Pavz is 3rd best Pilot! We've got squadrons and pilots in the top 10 (Python almost) and we've left the Intrepid far behind and we might be catching up to the Grey mutt here! :)
I suggest the squadrons concentrate on citations. You Pilots are flying plenty, try to fly the same missions are your squadron mates have already flown. Also recognize the high points on both fiction and mission creation, if you don't have the time or feel like flying - plug into that, I am:)
Ships:
1. ISD GREY WOLF [3760]
2. ISD VANGUARD [864]
3. ISD INTREPID [518]
Squadrons: (top ten)
1. TARTARUS [996]
2. CRUSADER [973]
3. AVENGER [770]
4. VORTEX [477]
5. PHOENIX [437]
6. VALKYRIE [422]
7. ODIN [405]
8. HORNET [386]
9. COPPERHEAD [226]
10. PYTHON [219]
(11. ECHO [207])
Pilots:  (top ten)
1. CM Arestar [558]
2. CPT Brucmack [362]
3. LT. Jack Pavz [215]
4. LCM Weisio [199]
5. CM Khadgar [193]
6. CM Hawk [168]
7. MAJ Prophet [146]
8. CM Krieger [141]
9. CM Dax Corrin [115]
10. CM Mike [109]

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 November (finished)
Started: 02:00 PM, Fri. November 17
Ended: 02:00 PM, Fri. December 01
URL for XWA scores: http://www.battlestats.com/games/xwa/war/info/?wow100
URL for XvT scores: http://www.battlestats.com/games/xvt/war/info/?wow099
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: the XWA wow has ended! We didn't get any games in at all, but "luckily", so did the Intrepid... which made us not lose the comp on the base of our meagre XvT score. Because of lack of participation I will not be rewarding anyone medals this month, and also WC's Own will probably be decided on ASF:SC points.... the comp which I think took away all the activity. Better luck next month I guess.
Reports: XvT Results:
- Wing XIII: 1 Vengeance Point - Avenger Squadron:  second top scoring unit - Wing XV: 2 Vengeance Points - Wing XIV: 3 Vengeance Points
Reports: XWA Results:
- Wing XIII: 36,983 Points - 19 Games
G W/L Ratio: 1.00 - P W/L Ratio: 0.83
Kills/S-Kills/Deaths: 290 / 106 / 343

- Avenger Squadron:  4,501 Points - 4 Games
G W/L Ratio: 0.0 - P W/L Ratio: 0.14
Kills/S-Kills/Deaths: 64 / 12 / 96

- Wing XV: 0 Points - 0 Games (!)
- Wing XIV: 0 Points - 0 Games

Note: some games are still in dispute, some of these points can still change. Also some people might get more/less LoCs then they've received so far.

Vanguard Interactive Battle (postponed still)
Starts: Sun December 10th 2000 (again another week onwards)
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.
I tried to get the first mission fixed by today but failed because i got lost making CattleGroups XvT missions *grin*. But CM RogueWing and MAJ Domm have joined the team on mission creation and with their help we hope to get it on the tracks for real now:)

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 (2):
   TC-XWA Battle 3 - The Darkon Mystery (new!)
   TC-XWA Battle 4 - Privateer
   TC-XWA Battle 5 - Show of Force
Status: 9 out of 12 positions filled. (almost a full squad!) No Report Received But I know some of you are really actively flying battles. Good work, DS-61-4, jdf984 and Archon... now with you three guys (CMDR,  several ex CMDRs and an ex WC) in that squad I just don't get why I only get your report in irregulary.....

MANTIS SQUADRON: Deep Strike.
Commander: LC Garik Hizad (Heartofgold42@hotmail.com)
Page URL: http://mantissquadron.homestead.com/home.html (new!)
MB URL:  http://mantissquadron.homestead.com/messboard.html (new!)
Squadron Citations (3):
   TC-XWA Battle 1 - Avenger Encounter
   TC-XWA Battle 6 - Enemy Defector (new!)
   TC-XWA Battle 8 - Hammer to Anvil
   IW-XWA Battle 22 - Abyssi Ianua - Gates to Hell
Status: 7 out of 12 positions filled. LCM Werwax created a new page for the squadron, nice work:) LC Hizad flew TC-XWA #10,TC-XWA #11, TC-XWA #12, FREE-XWA #21, FREE-XWA #22,FREE-XWA #24 and LT. Stalwart offered suggestions for Wing motto/title, flew TC-XWA #6 and completed IWATS HTML/3. No activity from the other members. You guys! Hello? The ASF: SC comp is on! stop hoarding those pilot files, and send them in. ;)

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. (WC’s Own)
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 (new!)
   TC-XvT Battle 6 - Wolf Pack Aggression (new!)
   TC-XvT Battle 10 - Abduction of VA Priyum
   TC-BoP Battle 1 - Double Cross at Coronada
Status: 9 out of 12 positions filled (almost a full squad!). Status is pretty good, gettin a lot of submissions for ASF:SC. However, the
submissions seem to always be from the same ppl. But those guys are doing great! Hornet gained another 3 citations! (as soon as I process's Ace's file for TC XvT 5). Hornet is now in the top ten in ASF:SCII, and shall definatly continue to rise.

PYTHON SQUADRON: Interdiction.
Commander: CM Fraggle Hawk (fraggle.hawk@freeuk.com)
Page URL:  http://www.pythonsqd.com/ (new!)
MB URL:  http://www.coolboard.com/msgpost.cfm?msgboard=41209031262784&idDispSub=81299250849214
Squadron Citations (1):
   TC-XWA Battle 1 - Avenger Encounter (new!)
   TC-XWA Battle 3 - The Darkon Mystery (new!)
   IW-XWA Battle 22 - Abyssi Ianua - Gates to Hell
Status: 8 out of 12 positions filled. MSE Received. Its been a good week and Python is holding its own in ASF:SC2 but if you wants to move up the rankings you going to have to fly some battles. Lt Damon Kast joined Flight Two and made a big show on his first week, flying a number of battles on his first day. With the new web site up and the new Egroups setup for the Squadron, Hawk is pleased to announce that CM Jourdain is his new XO, congrats. So far BoroKnight and Damon Kast are leading the squadron well in battles and missions, not to say Hawkie hasn't flown.  Which is good but we all need to fly to get those cititions... The squadron gained three but Hornet has to gain alot more.:)

Wing Squadron Fiction:

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

It had been two weeks since he joined the crew of the Vanguard, a basic set up of fine crew members, but now the time had come to weed out the Rebel squad.
He had set up his special team that included, Lt Pavz a fine young officer who seem fit for under cover work also on the team is CM Jourdian a fine tactical officer.  His next officer of choice was CM Mareek.  Even though Hawk was a bit nervous to put Mareek in, he knew Mareek was an individual he could count on.  Hawk needed one more officer and his final choice was a young SL named Fortune, a so-called Dark Jedi… but who knows these days…

Walking through the hanger door he slipped his Blaster into its holster and dropped his com link into a pocket.  Turning his Head he looked at his hand picked Crew: “Ok, boys and girls we are going to spilt up into two teams: Jourdain and Mareek, you two are the Black team…”
Jourdain and Mareek turned to Hawk and nodded.
“Ok Pavz and Fortune you two are with me and we are the white team.  On touch down at station Pyrath, we will expedite to all the local drinking and gaming joints. Try to get some leads, we only got three days on that piece of junk. Ok, white team we will take a pattern search around the hanger area and meet up at the Hotel Premium, any questions?”
Pavz stood to attention: “I got a question Sir”
Hawk smiled back: “Easy Pavz we don’t want to give the game away before we start, so go ahead.”
Pavz blew out and hanged a little easier. “Well Sir, what happens if we get into trouble?”
Tapping his chest Hawk looked back. “Keep your com links open at all times ok.”

The rusted Yt-1700 gently glided into the hanger bay, then with a sudden burst of the front thrusters it smashed onto the hanger bay floor, only turning a few heads: landings like those were nothing new on a station like this.

Hawk stood by the exit ramp. “Ok black go.” Tapping each member on shoulder he sent them out. “Ok white lets move out!  I’ll lock up and we'll meet at the Premium ember… Go.”
Watching out of the corner of his eye's he notice Fortune's glowing red hair and slim figure. “Not on a mission Hawk old chap… not on a mission,” slapping himself out of his thoughts he locked up the ship and checked the equipment.

Two hours had passed and there was only 30 minutes till meet up time… But there was no leads of yet, then a sudden a burst came out of his com link. He couldn’t quite make it out: “Pavz, did you hear that?”
“Yes Sir, I’ve got a trace already on it and I’ll be there in ten.”
Hawk gripped his blaster: “Ok, I can make it in five! It looked like it came from Fortune - just get there as fast as you can! Hawk out.” Placing the com link in his pocket he changed into a full sprint.

Pressing himself up against the wall, Hawk pulled his blaster out and moved into the hallway. Looking from side to side he moved on, out of the corner of his eye he saw movement coming from behind a barrel.  Moving slowly to the front of the barrel, he leaned down: “Fortune, O my god what happened?!” Moving his hand across her face, he just felt coldness, with a whisper she let out a cold breath, which overwhelmed his face.
“Its not safe go please go,” said Fortune with a nervous look.
Hawk held her hand: “I'm not losing anyone in my team, Pavz will be here soon…”
Moving her eyes to meet his, she looked up into them: “Please…. Please…”

A sudden jerk hit his back sending him across the floor a couple of feet. Raising himself to his knees he looked back. His blaster was near Fortune and a dark tall figure was between them. Looking up at the figure, Hawk smiled: |”Hey mister! I'm back up now and you're in a world of trouble!”
The dark figure looked back at Fortune and with a sarcastic voice, “Well it is to late for you stranger and well… She will be a different matter when you are gone.”
Hawk made a move for the Blaster but it was to late, the dark figure pulled the trigger and a blue bolt smash into his body throwing him to the wall. Slowly Hawk used his last muscle movement and looked up towards the radiant Fortune and a slow fade of black nothingness overwhelmed his sight and life...

Darkness and light: for all power they contained, they could not save a life… they couldn’t bring happiness. Sudden blur images shocked his eyes and waves of sound filled round him.

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 (fraggle.hawk@freeuk.com)

Lieutenant Pavz’s TIE Interceptor screamed out of the hangar bay of the VSD Striker.  He radioed in to his commanding officers one last check:
 “Au revoir, captain Stele.  And to you, Lieutenant Commander Syrtaras.  See you both in a few weeks.”
 “Have fun on your leave, Lieutenant,” Stele answered.  “See you back here for the Battle League in a few weeks. “
 The Lieutenant made a few last minute checks to his flight systems and plotted the course to the Carrack Cruiser Artemis, where he would meet up with his good friend Lieutenant Ace Armageddon for a few last training flights before the Battle League began.  After a few days of training, Pavz and Ace planned to spend the rest of their leave time on the planet of Ord Mantell, hopefully winning some credits at the numerous casinos.  Giving the computer it's few final orders; he took one last look at the Striker before entering the realm of hyperspace.

 As he entered realspace, he immediately knew something was wrong.  In the distance, he saw the Artemis in the midst of a starfighter battle between the Recon pilots and about a full squadron each of  X-wings and Y-wings.  He scanned the scene, debating whether to radio for help or to plunge into battle.  He decided on the latter, diverting all his energy to engines and throttling up to assist his comrades.
 He neared the battle, beginning to charge his shield and cannons.  “Ace, what the hell happened here?” he asked, puzzled.
 “No time to explain now Pavz,” Ace said frantically.  “Get over here and help us!”
 As the TIE grew closer to the melee, he noticed something odd – the Artemis wasn’t providing any fire cover for the fighters.  And the fighters weren’t attacking the Carrack cruiser.  “Odd…” he muttered and targeted the nearest bogey.  Already the Recon pilots had lost Scout-3, but had two of the Y-wings on their tally.  His crosshairs lighted up as the X-wing came into his sights.  Pavz took no mercy on the novice pilot and squeezed the joystick, sending yellow-green flashes of light into the rebel’s hull.  The pilot tried a few simple maneuvers to try to throw Pavz off his back, but the imperial pilot maintained laser lock expertly, scoring repeated hits on the X-wing.  The rebel fighter burst into a ball of debris, the Pavz shouted over the comm:
 “Scratch another rebel for us boys, let’s give ‘em all we got!”
 He maneuvered his interceptor to face Lieutenant Ace, who was being chased by multiple X-wings, each scoring hits on the TIE Scout.  Ace was trying to juke his fighter back and forth, but the superiority of the rebel fighters was overwhelming him.  Pavz switched to concussion missiles and settled his fighter behind one of the pursuing X-Wings.  He let loose a missile, the projectile streaking through space and ramming up the rebel’s tailpipes, bursting into flames.  Pavz finished it off, the bright green lances cutting through the steel hull.
 That bought some time for the imperials, Pavz thought.  The radio suddenly crackled to life: “Aaarrrrrrgghhhhh!”  He looked over his shoulder just in time to see Scout 4 erupt into a ball of light.
 “Dammit!” Pavz shouted as he pulled up hard on his stick and flew behind another X-wing.  Suddenly three Y-wings came out of nowhere and bombarded him with their Ion cannons.  The TIE went dark.  The only system that was left was radio, quietly crackling in his ears.  He radioed to the other pilots, “Ace, Faeroth, they’ve disabled me. I'm done for.  Get your asses out of here, now!  We're hopelessly outnumbered!”
 “And let you stay and be revered as a hero alone?”  Ace chuckled, trying to lighten the mood.  “Never!”
 In the fading moments of the engagement, Ace was disabled as well, however, Faeroth managed to evade the rebel fighters and flee into hyperspace.  To the lieutenants, it seemed as though hours passed as the rebels began to clean up the battle site and tow the disabled TIE's toward Nebulon-B Frigate Salvation, which had recently come out of hyperspace.
 “Pavz, we should keep radio silence in case they're monitoring our channels,” Ace said calmly over the intercom.
 “Agreed.  I’ll see you on that damned rebel ship.”  Pavz turned off the comm-link and waited in the darkness.

this story will be continued in next week's report

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!)
- Wing XV Message Board - for now use the ASF one please
 

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)

Well, a nice long report with mostly good news. Thanks for the fiction Hawkie and Pavz:)

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}