Greetings one and all, and welcome to this week's Wing III weekly report! That's right, the e-mail you've all been waiting for! You can stop holding your breath now!
All CMDRs, remember to forward this to your pilots, as usual. Also, since you have all been CMDRs for quite some time now, and I assume that you know all about the jobs and duties that come with your post, I am going to stop insulting your intelligence by telling you to forward this to your pilots every week. So remember ... Wing III Report = Forward to pilots!
Okay, introduction is down and away ... now on to the good parts!
Wing III Stats
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Aleth - 8
Beth - 9
Gimel - 6
Daleth - 8
Hey - 6
Vav - 0 (Inactive)
Flag Officer ("Mr. 3:00am in the morning is a good time to write reports!")
Total: 38 (+2 from last week ... yeah, baby!)
Position Moves (8.28.00 -- 9.04.00)
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- TRN/CT Betabeton : Promoted to Sub-Lieutenant, assigned to Hey Squadron!
- FM/SL Betabeton, Hey : Promoted to Lieutenant!
- TRN/CT Ordos : Promoted to Sub-Lieutenant, assigned to Hey Squadron!
Awards 'n' Stuff
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The Palpatine's Crescent (PC) has been awarded to :
- CPT Werdna Elbee
Wing III News Headlines
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- Not a whole lot of news this week, so cross your fingers ... maybe this report will be shorter than most ;-)
- The High Court of Inquisitors has declared "Marshall Law" in a drastic attempt to end cheating! No, I'm not making this up. Due to a disturbingly high rate of cheaters that have been caught lately, the HCI has declared that all cases of cheating will be handled in a quick, efficient, and brutal manner. If you thought the rules against cheating were strict BEFORE ...
I highly encourage everyone to go read the HCI's announcement. It can be found on the Emperor's Hammer main news page ... scroll down toward the bottom. I think the HCI is acting accordingly. Cheating, by it's very nature, undermines the very existance of the battle board, and really the entire Tac Office as a whole. Cheaters beware ... the honest pilots out there are hunting you down, and it's just a matter of time until you are caught and stripped of your rank and awards.
- Gimel Squadron collective story has been started! I requested to write a little of it myself, so I have it sitting in my inbox right now ... I plan to send this on to the next author (hopefully) sometime tomorrow. Ah, some of those old fiction writing ideas are beginning to return!
- Aleth CMDR Jahan Kalar is on emergency leave due to a faulty computer monitor that has ceased to function. I can tell you from personal experience that this sucks! Jahan expects to have visuals back by Monday (today!) ... until then, he has named LCM Nurel Turr as Aleth's A-CMDR. He has also authorized him to shoot any Aleth pilot that acts up, or fails to participate in the Wing III competition (but more on that later). Don't forget Turr, this means that YOU need to forward this report to all of Aleth.
- Commendations of Loyalty have yet to be officially awarded, but you can find a report at the main EH news page. That report contains a partial list of pilots who will be recieving the CoL ...
- Beth CMDR Sequoh Marden has acquired a scanner in a game of chance, and he has posted a picture of "himself" for our enjoyment ... you will find it attached ;-)
- Competition with Wing XV is still in the works, and scheduled to start sometime this month. Stay tuned!
Wing III Orders
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- Top Priority Orders go to the new MegaSov Competition ... this is a ship-wide competition that your CMDR should have already told you about! However, just to review, here is the announcement from the Commodore himself :
Fourthly, the Big Sov Comp. Okay, here's how it works. Every Wing will work
as a team, with Omega's scores added to Wing VI (the Wing with the least
pilots). One point for each FCHG point one of your pilots (or yourselves!)
gets in the month of September. At the end of September, ... [the winning] WC will be able to nominate one of their pilots for a
Bronze Star and one of their pilots for a Palpatine Crescent. The other five
Wings will submit one pilot who will be awarded an Imperial Security Medal.
The WC with the LOWEST score will get the dubious honor of wearing the
Jester's Cap and "Kick Me" sign and post a message on the winning Wing's
message board about how great the winning Wing is.
This is our chance to really show the rest of the Sov how much Wing III has improved lately! And the rules to participate couldn't be simplier ... just go fly a battle or free mission! Any new FCHG points you earn for yourself will automatically be added to our wing's overall score. It takes about 5 or 10 minutes to fly one free mission on 'easy', so there is NO reason that everyone in this wing cannot get us AT LEAST one point each. And remember, the more missions you fly, the better your chance for being awarded that Bronze Star of the Empire ...
- Time is running out for the Wing III multi-catagory competition! Deadline is September 10th ... next Sunday!! Here is a complete re-print of the rules and catagories :
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THE CATAGORIES!
TIE FLIGHT : Your mission, should you choose to accept and participate in the TIE Flight catagory, is to fly the attached ORIGINAL Free-XWA mission that has been created by Daleth's LCM Herman. You will find the mission, "The Duel", attached to this report.
GRAPHICS : Should you choose to participate in the graphics portion of the contest, you need to get to work designing and creating some great artwork. I'll make it even easier ... there is no particular theme that your picture must follow. Just as long as it has SOMETHING to do with Star Wars and the EH, then it will count as a valid entry.
FICTION : Attention all budding writers! This is the chance to make yourselves known in the wing. All fiction entries should be no less than 300 words, and preferrably will detail some of the exploits of your fellow Wing III pilots. .DOC format is preferred, but others (.TXT, etc etc) will be accepted.
Participation in more than one catagory is not only allowed, it's highly encouraged!
TIE Flight will be judged according to who has the highest score. There will be an individual winner, and also a top squadron. The top squadron will be determined by averaging the scores of the participants on a squad basis.
Graphics and Fiction will be judged by myself and a panel of judges, probably 3 or 5 judges so a tie cannot be possible. I will be a judge, and other high ranking Sov officers will be asked to fill the other judges spots (most likely the Commodore and some of the other Sov WCs). So let's get busy, people, and give them something to judge! I want this to be as hard for the judges as possible ... in other words, I want to see some really good entries ;-)
Remember, deadline is September 10th. All entries should be e-mailed to me, ZIPped if necessary, and CC'ed to your CMDR. Let's get busy, and prove that your squad is the best!!!
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(Prepare yourself now for a good old fashion rant)
WAKE UP CALL FOR WING III :
So far, I have recieved 2 flight entries, 1 graphics entry, and 1 fiction entry ... for a grand total of THREE pilots who have found time to participate in this contest. 38 pilots in this wing, a competition that ran for over a month ... and THREE people managed to take part. I'm glad we were doing better than this during the XWA League. Which raises a good question. Why is it that the XWA League continually got constant participation from most Wing III squads, when no other competition has? There is a very important piece to this puzzle, and I feel I'm missing it. No matter how you look at it, this is a bad omen for our upcoming competition with Wing XV. There is no dishonor in losing a contest fair and square, if people put forth a good effort. However, I don't know about the rest of you, but I find it downright embarrassing to lose just because nobody would even try. If I begin to suspect that this will be the end result of our competition with Wing XV, then I will cancel it before it even begins.
This is your chance to prove to me that you have pride in your wing, and that you WANT to get out there and mix it up with the rest of the fleet ... to prove to everyone else how good I know you are. PARTICIPATE IN THE WING III COMPETITION. You have 7 more days to simply DO SOMETHING. If I don't get a blitzkrieg of entires before this comp. ends, then we will simply continue to run internal competitions until we are ready to take on someone else. But I refuse to take part in another wing vs. wing competition if I have even the slightest suspicion that we will suffer another humiliating defeat just because nobody cared enough to even TRY.
And that goes for the SovComp, too ... I'm not ordering you to win, but you'd better believe that I AM ordering you to at least TRY. This will not be a happy place to be if we finish dead last just because only 3 or 4 pilots found time to fly during the course of an entire month.
Believe me, the EH can be one of the most fun organizations you will ever find yourself a part of, and it only gets better the more you take part in it. Fly! Talk! Take pride!
Fly! It's the reason you joined, right? And when it comes right down to it, it's fun as well! Ask most people why they signed up in the EH, and they will say, "because of all the additional battles they had available". And yet, look at most pilot profiles, and very few pilots seem to get even TWENTY FCHG points. Only one thing can possibly be more fun than flying ...
Talk! Communicate with your squad mates ... you'll find that they have very interesting things to say! E-mail them! Often! Do it enough, and you'll find that they are less like "squadron pilots", and more like actual friends. When you get to know the rest of the pilots in the wing, and they become actual people to you instead of just names on a roster ... then it becomes a lot harder to just sit back and forget about competitions. Because you know the people around you, and you know the friends you would be letting down. And they know you. And that makes victory all the more sweeter.
And take pride! Let me tell you something ... there is nothing else in this world quite like pulling together with your squad or wing mates, and truly winning a competition. Not because the other guys didn't try ... but because you had to give it your all, and trust that the people with you were going to do the same. I know ... I've been there, at 11:59pm, watching my inbox to see if the other guys were going to be able to squeak past us and win or not. Win a few competitions like that, and watch as your squad's pride and morale suddenly shoots through the roof.
So, to wrap things up ... I've been here now for awhile, and I'm not going anywhere. We have many pilots in this wing, too many for me to communicate with on a personal basis. But even if the only words you've ever seen from me have been wing reports ... I am still watching you. I'm watching you, and the hidden potential within each and every one of you, and within this whole wing. We have good pilots here, when they care enough to actually fly. We have all the elements, right here, right now, to make this THE premier wing in the TIE Corps. I really believe that. We have the pilots, we have the tools, and we have the talent. We are only missing one thing ... just ONE crucial element. The desire. You must have the want ... the pride ... the NEED to stand up and make yourself, and your squad, and your wing the absolute best that they can be. And once you obtain that desire, it never dies ... it just changes form. And it will boost the fun factor in this wing to absolutly steller proportions.
But it's all up to you. Yes, YOU, reading this report right now. Turning this wing around starts with YOU, deciding that maybe this is all a good idea, and that you will do your part. Go do something, right now. E-mail your CMDR, one of your fellow pilots, or even me. Strike up a good conversation, whether it has anything to do with Star Wars and the EH or not. And then go fly a battle or free mission, or better yet, participate in a competition. And while you're at it, make this a regular habit. Pretty soon, you will find that all the fun that was promised to you when you joined the EH has never left you ... it was just waiting for you to do your part.
Well, so much as for keeping this report short. I'm glad I said that and got it off my chest. If even one of you reads all that and is motivated to try and help us all rebuild this wing into a lean, mean, fighting machine ... well then, I guess I've done my job.
Wing III Quote of the Week
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"Don't assasinate the WC (just to make sure nobody says 'Hey, I thought you said we should just not assasinate him while you were away...')" -- MAJ Sequoh Marden is so thorough with his orders that I'm suddenly fearing for my life ...
Other notable quotes this week :
"Excuse me, (name withheld)? While I'm usually pretty easy going, "Yo" is not an appropriate header . . . -- COM/FA Kramer, to a certain Wing III pilot who forgot his P's and Q's ...
"Man, it's obvious those pilots never set foot in Wing II or they'd know all about the fearsome "assistants." -- ... And former Wing II WC, COL Gallows, should know ... because he helped write the book!
"Nearly every member in the tiecorps has some sort of drinking problem!" -- Wing V WC Fondor may have discovered why we lost the Battle of Endor to Ewoks ...
"Mock thou not the gods of trivia, lest they smiteth thee down with their stores of useless knowledge." -- Don't insult trivia's importance to the fleet while CMDR/MAJ Ford Prefect is around.
"Good to have you back, especially since I'm not very good with a blaster against stationary targets. Of course, put them in a flying target and I'm good to go." -- LCM Turr welcome's back CPT Jahan Kalar, but before his monitor died!
Misc.
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- Are you kidding? After the short novel I wrote above? I'm done with original thinking and typing for one day. Must sleep.
So, that's it for this week. Questions, comments on our new policy as outlined above? Hey, that's what I'm here for. Until next time, fly high and watch your six!
WC/COL Sasquatch / Wing III / SSSD Sovereign
[BSx2] [PCx10] [ISMx9] [MoT-gh] [CoB] [LoA] [OV-2E] [IWATS-SM-TT-TM-M-IIC-GFX] [CAVL]
M-T/A 'Silhouette'
Wing III - Phantoms
"We are your Grim Reaper"