Vanguard interactive Battle: Prologue

There are many types of slicers and information "brokers" but all in all you can divide them in two categories: Those who take their information from their personal networks of contacts or the galaxy wide computer networks and those that actually go hunting for the information they want straight from the source, usually from computers or contacts that have no connection at all to any network - computers or contacts that shouldn't even be known to the "networks" in the first place. Professionals of the second type are of course much more involved into hacking - in any meaning - then the first. Of course in times of civil war and anarchy there's a lot more to be gained in the second variant.

The information hunter currently at work on the Imperial Naval and Customs Platform orbiting Pyrath was taking the "hacking" part of his job maybe a bit too far. He'd cut his way through several walls and bulkheads to get from the customs section of the base to the navy section using a device that left markings very much like a lightsaber would. Using a very detailed 3D map obtained from a corrupt Imperial officer he had carefully avoided cutting away anything that would trigger off an alarm. It was not the normal subtle procedure of a slicer, but after studying the security measures at the EH Pyrath Base he had decided that it was best just to avoid contact with "the locals" all together on this one.

The datacarddrive made just a bit to much noise for his tastes when he ejected the card he had come for, but no alarms sounded. He pocketed it quickly while he made his retreat through the private passageway he'd cut. The only thing left to do now was to get out of here as fast as possible. His cover cargo of Hammerhead garden gnomes had cleared customs already and the imperials would surely get suspicious if he hung around any longer, besides: someone might find his tunnel and within him progressing through that tunnel, that might get nasty.

He made it to the end of the tunnel without any difficulties, leaving him the difficult task of getting out of it unnoticed, which he had covered of course. He'd started his hacking from out of the toilet block next to the cantina - cutting a hole straight above the toilet while leaving a pair of fake boots and legs stolen of a mannequin in the tax free shopping zone of the last customs base he visited before coming here to cover for anyone looking under the booth doors. Now all he had to do was to slip out of the booth and get off the platform, hoping the mannequins legs would cover for him a bit longer - enabling him to get off the platform before someone else tried to use the toilet and found himself staring into a gaping hole in the wall.

Suddenly the door handle was rattled harshly "Hey, I don't know what you two are doing in there - hell, I don't want to know - but make it a quickie because I'm about to burst out here!" For a moment there the slicers heart had stopped in it's tracks but immediately he became cool and professional again, calling out "just a minute, damn it" while pulling out his cutting device again. "We'll be right out."
"Man, you've been at it for over a porrving 15 minutes alre..!" the voice from the other side was cut short when the toilet door opened and a strong arm pulled him inside. The surprised imperial pilot was just able to mutter a short "hey, aren't you...?" before his life and body were cut short by an energy blade.

Time was even more scarce now for the infiltrator as he made his way to his modified freighter docked in the customs bay. That pilot could be missed any minute and if they knew where to find him they'd find a lot more then was needed to close down the whole base and start searching everyone. He kept his cool as he handed in his launchpass, though a bit a sweat did break out when suddenly an extra platoon of storm troopers entered the customs bay.
But the officer behind the launch clearance deck noticed nothing and just stamped his clearance, folded into a brochure advertising Pyrath as a great tourist resort and handed it back to him. "All's fine sir, have a nice flight - we hope to see you back in the Emperor's Hammer Territories soon."
"I'll bet you do," the slicer muttered while he put the launch clearance together with the all-important data card and made his way to his ship.
The officer behind the desk shrugged and turned towards the next person who wanted to leave the base the legal way - A father of a Correllian family on a trip around "the savage area's".

When sirens wailed after he'd switch on the power to the engines the slicer briefly thought his generator had given up. But then he noticed that the sirens were on the outside of his ship, which meant just one thing: he had been found out... not a good thing with two Imperial Star Destroyers outside the base. Hopefully the diversion he'd created outside worked. He flipped on his repulsors and took off from the pad.
"Hey! Stop him!" The officer together with the storm troopers called out through the sirens. His platoon immediately started firing their weapons at the freighter. The officer at the launch clearance desk immediately pushed the big red button that would close the bay doors - but it was too late: shrugging off the shots from the troopers it blasted out of the bay into the open space around it.

there will be more in next week's report, you can read the story over on http://vib.ehnet.org

<salute>

Now there it is, the Prologue of the ViB... which I'm afraid is postponed again... Until I get a mission together I'll just make up more Prologue chapters, so don't worry: next week's report will have some fiction too, even if that mission eludes us again - On with the report:)

1.
I'm afraid CM Rothmans will no longer be the Python CMDR, I wish it could have been different. He has moved back to Wing III onboard the Sovereign.

As a result I'll be taking applications for Python CMDR. Requirements would include SM/2 and enough time from RL to keep up good communications and to send in your reports and MSEs. Send you apps to me, ccíng both COM Blade and BGCOM Pri and including a brief summary on why you think you'd be a good Python CMDR and what you activities as new Python CMDR would be.

I will try to get you guys in Python the best CMDR I can get for you within a week, I promise.

2.
On a more positive note, we gained 3 pilots this week: CPT CTXclr, who has transferred from the reserves to Hornet,  LT. Rhys von Pohl, who's from Krayt and has followed his old CMDR, and SL Victor Stalwart, who joining Mantis from PLT Daedalus. Please welcome them and show them the sites of the ISD Vanguard. We're almost up to 40 Pilots again, which is great. Hornet is almost filled (just 3 pilots to go) and Echo and Mantis  doing fine as well with 8 pilots each. Lets hope we can keep up the good work and surpass the Gray Wolf in the ASF:SCII :)

3
The ASF: Supremacy Competition II begins tomorrow!! (i think it might have been wrongly dated before:( ) The competition page is at http://asf.ehnet.org and contains all the information you need to take part. You may have noticed that the web hunt page isn't up yet (for obvious reasons), but should be there after about 7pm GMT tomorrow.
This is a big competition and it was a huge success last time, only with the GW snatching away the prices before our noses - but I think we might have a better chance this time:)

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. I think we have the potential to get very far, lets now use this potential and just obliterate the Gray Mutt for once;)

4.
Some of you may have already heard about this or expected it after last two months competitions... but Two Full Weeks of 24 Hour a Day Melee Fighting have started as of friday: the ASF Vengeance Competition of November! All three ships will encourage as many of their pilots as they can to participate in the November XWA and XvT WoWs. At the conclusion of both the WoWs, the ship 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 ship/wing. Besides this there will be medals for pilots and WC's Owns to be rewarded to Squadrons again of course. This competition is apparently a stayer, so expect it back next month:)

Added bonus will be the LoCs and PCs and ISMs awarded in this competition will be usable again in the ASF:SCII, so by flying once you're actually participating in two competitions!

At the moment there is talk about some BG wings also joining in on the XWA leg of this comp... with added stuff to make it interesting probably... so keep your eye on your mailbox.

5.
Our first Wing meeting on #Vanguard, on the Undernet (IRC), on Saturday the 18th of November just after the EH meeting was a dud I must say:). But I'm hard headed and will just go on hanging around #Vanguard... If you need to talk with me you know where I'll be. A few other vanguard and even non vanguard pilots hang around there now too, so it might even be fun to do so too:)

For the moment it's ofcourse unregistered, making us lose it everyday and also making it not a very likely place to meet anyone. 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. - I'd like request everyone here to idle or chat in #Vanguard if they are on IRC anyway.

Before we get it registered, every member will be allowed ops. After registration all CMDRs will get access with an honorary ops for each month's COM's Protector. A Vanguard bot would be nice ofcourse, preferably with bar and competition score keeping functions *dreams on...* ... Luckily MAJ. Ace Armageddon hs offered some help in that department, thanx Ace:)

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.

6.
With us not losing the ASF:VC last time... (we might still lose this one ofcourse) we still need a new and better wing motto and title. 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 head on my shoulders in my current position if that's shorter.:)

7.
The Vanguard Interactive Battle is postponed because the mission hasn't been made yet. One of our mission designers, CPT CTXclr, has been moving around and is now settled in Hornet (welcome). But I did not hear from the other mission creators:( I'm currently doing the XWA mission creation course, so we might get it out by next sunday... but as you might comprehend out of this: We need XWA mission designers bad! If you have any skills in this field please contact me.

Also here: anything made for the ViB (missions, fiction, graphics...) can also be submitted for the ASF:SCII - and this time around that will earn you, your squad and the wing major points:)

Fleet News:

General TC News:
- For the Jedi Convention 2001 held in Cologne, Germany next Easter, the Emperor's Hammer is going to provide some demonstration custom missions for some competitions, with little prizes for the winners. The goal of this contest is to select the missions chosen for this event. Missions will be needed for all platforms, Tie Fighter, X-Wing vs Tie Fighter and X-wing Alliance. Due to the "propaganda" nature of the event, only missions of the highest quality will be selected. Details available at http://www.tiecorps.org/tac/contest.html
- The latest issue of the TC Newsletter, Battlecry, is out now. It's now at issue 9 and is ready to view and download from the web site. The number of submissions of Fiction and Graphics is pretty massive this month. You can view and download Battlecry at it's web site at http://battlecry.ehnet.org/
- Well after a while COO Zsinj has finally decided on who the next COOA will be... Congrats go to: CMDR/CPT Brucmack/Vortex/Wing XIII/ISD Gray Wolf... lets hope he now gets us these LoCs fast... they've been due for a while.
- Congratulations also go out to MAJ. Astin, the new Wing XIV. He has a tough job ahead of him and I wish him the best of luck.
- Absolutek is going to lose his own server capabilities... which ill have consequences for everyone with a ehnet.org or squadron.org etc account. Check on the TC site for details.

Wing News:

General Wing News:
- CM Rothmans, CMDR of Python has transferred to Wing III. Leaving the Position of CMDR of Python open to applications. Send you apps to me, ccíng both COM Blade and BGCOM Pri. Do think about it if you have the time and dedication for the job.
- Please welcome CPT CTXclr, who has transferred from the reserves to Hornet,  LT. Rhys von Pohl, who's from Krayt and has followed his old CMDR, and SL Victor Stalwart, who joining Mantis from PLT Daedalus. We're heading back up again to 39 pilots... almost 40, so please get ppl to join the Vanguard, I'll throw in a uniform for them;)
- Vanguard interactive Battle is postponed till next weekend again:(

Medals:
WC/MAJ Ender mBind (SiS, ISM)
CMDR/LC Garik Hizad (BS)

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

Promotions:
CT Victor Stalwart to FM/SL Victor Stalwart

Competitions:

ASF:SCII (new!)
Starts: 20th Nov. 2000 (tomorrow!)
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.”
Additional: Go to the site and check it out, besides that it looks good it also has a lot of info on how to get all the rewards on offer here. With the ViB and the ASF:VC running at the  same time, I hope we'll be seeing a lot of LoCs, graphics and fiction from you guys anyway, plus extra missions made by the mission designers.

ASF Vengeance Competition November (started!)
Started: 02:00 PM, Fri. November 17
Ends: 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 XvT wow has started! Go to the URL above to see specifics.  Remember that you fly for the club EH and not for the Vanguard. In wow’s you can't fly vs. other EH members – so don't start flying vs WingXIII or WingXIV members, they can be your wing men. Note: you need to be signed up with BSC and with the EH on there to participate.

Vanguard Interactive Battle (postponed again)
Starts: Sun November 26th 2000 (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. Mission creation has proved to be a problem... Anyone who has any experience in mission creation pleeease get in touch. 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 need (a team of) editors for "The Vanguard", our fictional ship newspaper. You'll need to get out a single Vanguard a week in newspaper-style (black/white) with there in "fictionalized" newspaper articles on at least what happens in the ViB and onboard the ship and fleet (promo's etc.). but it would be cool to add all types of other stuff for just amusement as well. We don't expect a huge newspaper of lots of pages, just a short excerpt... a bit like the sample on http://vib.ehnet.org/news/ but just a bit bigger. The idea is to get the Vanguard into the EH Newsletter and to mail it weekly to the wing, so we'll be requesting a bit of quality - it might be going out to the whole fleet -, but you'll have a lot of freedom intact (mesa believe in freedom of press;) ). If you think this will be fun, email me (cc VA Blade) that you're interested.
- as for the Vanguard, as for the stories: we still need graphics artists to liven up the atmosphere, if you think your stuff is good enough (we be easy on this one) email me (cc VA Blade) that you're interested and what you could do.
- I would be cool to have Flash intro's for the ViB (and PO) site(s), if anyone can create these at any reasonable quality, they'll be heavily rewarded (neither VA Blade or me could do any better anyway so...;) )

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
Status: 8 out of 12 positions filled. No report received as of yet (!) Because of the enthusiasm that he has shown in this position (as well as letting CPT Archon know of it in the first place), the Echo squadron XO is: CM Edwin Lipit! Congratulations, CM.

MANTIS SQUADRON: Deep Strike.
Commander: LC Garik Hizad (Heartofgold42@hotmail.com)
Page URL:  http://www.homestead.com/mantissquad/
MB URL: http://pub11.ezboard.com/fasf4062isdvanguard
Status: 8 out of 12 positions filled. No report received as of yet (!) Please welcome SL Victor Stalwart aboard and show him the sites:)

RAPTOR SQUADRON: Heavy Bombardment.
Commander: COL Kaye (jekaye@total.net)
Page URL: http://www.total.net/~jekaye/
MB URL: http://pub11.ezboard.com/fasf4062isdvanguard
Status: 7 out of 12 positions filled. Wes came over to Kaye's house last weekend and they played a few XWA network missions. ICQ and email communication as normal though because it was a very busy week for Kaye, (tests, projects, debates,) he wasn't able to organize any Raptor matches.

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
Status: 9 out of 12 positions filled (almost a full squad!). Well, every time I read a Hornet report lately it seems it always says  "it couldn't be better" but it keeps getting better and better. Activity is high and two new active pilots joined the squadron: Welcome CPT CTXclr and LT. Rhys von Pohl. They're both old squad mates of mine, so take good care of them;)

PYTHON SQUADRON: Interdiction.
Commander: TBA
Page URL:  http://python.squadron.org/
MB URL:  http://www.coolboard.com/msgpost.cfm?msgboard=41209031262784&idDispSub=81299250849214
Status: 6 out of 12 positions filled. CM Rothmans has left for Wing III. The Squadron CMDR position is therefor open. If you're interested, email me, cc Pri and Blade, with your applications. Because of CM Rothmans leaving for Wing III, no report was received. I do know that Jourdain is working on a new web site though:)

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)

As an additional I'd like to add that going to the meeting is an easy way to be active in the fleet and quite a useful one too. The meetings are also the best times to contact people across the fleet, tc, wing that might help you on more particular questions. Another plus of going there is that people might get to know you... which is the basis of success in the EH.

Until next time, good luck and have fun.

<salute>
WC-TCS/Maj Ender mBind/Wing XV/ISD Vanguard
GS/SiS/BS/PCx3/ISMx12/LoC-PSx61/DFC/CoL/CoB/OV [HUSS]
{IWATS-SM/2-XTT-XTM-M/1/2-IIC/1/2/3-GFX}