<salute>

Well, first report in a while, mostly because mesa was still thinking up what actually to put in these reports, because the WC's reports mostly cover it all. But I got some fun stuff to announce anyway, and then this one was delayed by my getting a virus: everyone I spammed unwantingly with a wormvirus, I'm very sorry. But on with the report!

1.
You all got the messages telling you MAJ. Zippy Hawk resigned and got promoted to LC I gather. Ofcourse it was obvious that the Wing Commander position came free with that...  The requirements I had were various, our new BGCOM - and in fact the Training Manual - demand that command positions in the ASF are taken by Multi Play pilots, and personally I also wanted somebody I knew and trusted to be the right WC too in more then just MP.
After a lot thinking I would like to announce that the new Wing XV Commander is Maj. Strahd, formally of Echo Squadron. I've followed Strahd all his TC career, starting here on the Vanguard,  and he has repeatedly proved to be very active and reliable, making Echo bloom like I never seen it before while winning numerous MP events himself. Party will be in the Officers Mess this evening - drinks are on Strahd and....

2.
... CM  Vallyn and CM Leeson our new CMDRs in the Wing!
Both used to be in Echo Squadron, where they  both worked excellently enough to get promoted to Commander (Leeson is ofcourse known for the Vanguard newspaper, Vallyn is currently the fleet's most wanted officer ;)), so I have full faith in them maintaining Echo and Mantis Squadrons as the top squads in the fleet:)

3.
And then, finally! The second round of the Vanguard interactive Battle, which is starting today!
Starts: 02:00 PM, Fri. 07/24/2001
Ends: 02:00 PM, Fri. 08/07/2001
URL: http://www.gimmie.tudelft.nl/homes/blok10b/ender/vanguard/vib/
Participants: Everybody on the Vanguard.
Description: The Vanguard Commodore will add a piece of a story to his ship 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: The Vanguard Newspaper. 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.

Read the fiction  at the end, that'll tell you what the mission is about (It's based in the Vanguard's past... around January to April). Then fly the mission just like you always fly missions, only this time write a report afterwards on what you experienced. This report has to be fictional, as for example your INPR. You are a pilot in the Imperial Navy, report what you just went through. It can be simple, it doesn't need to be great literature or anything... but it can be if you want it to. Zip it up with your pilot file and send it to you normally send your pilotfiles to - presto.

There will be a IS Silver for both the best score and the best the best fiction (as judged by MAJ. Strahd and myself), IS Bronzes for the runners up in both categories.  You have till the 7th to get your zip file in (14 days). The best fiction and scores will be taken up on the site. More awards are possible for other contributions like help running the comp or graphics for example.

Suggestions would be to film your mission and then play it back if you want to make your report (Shift-F for camera on I belief), CM Leeson used screenshots to illustrate his entry for the Echo interactive Mission - that's a nice addition too. Check the site for more exact rules.

Now Scramble! ;)

Fleet News:

General TC News:
- Virus Warning! Attention, there is another virus starting in the fleet. Your poor COM even had it and had to reinstall his computer. For information on this virus please goto:http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.sircam.worm@mm.html
- After a short break following my unexpected leave, Imperial Storm II has resumed play, and its been a very busy turn for all three teams... the following ships arrivals have been detected around planets:
Ruin: INT Intruder, A/FRG Carlten, B/CRS Gelten, L/FRG Wert, ESC Lincoln & ESC Stennis.
Stoke B/CRS Tallerano B/CRS Bogart & T/A Alpha. A/FRG Theodore.
Kata: TF Silver Saber, INT Inhibitor. L/FRG Cirque
This means there will be two battles to be played out, at these two locations. For full details on these (forces, time & place etc), please click http://www.btinternet.com/%7Espellfire/battle.html. The last two battles in this wargame have had excellent turn-outs, so please support these battles, and show up.
- Congratulations to Rear Admiral Toran Dan who has been selected as the new Immortal Commodore.
- The EH Dutch Meeting website has gone live! In it you can check out the itinerary and confirm that you're coming so we know how much beer we must stash. :P Anyway here's the URL: http://www.gimmie.tudelft.nl/homes/blok10b/ender/delft/ - Cheers from Tarks and Ender!

Other Information:

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)
- Don't forget our own IRC-Undernet channel #Vanguard it's a fun place to be after all:)
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.

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
- ISD Vanguard/Wing XV Message Board - http://tiecorps.org/mb/view.asp?b=38&v=0

Vanguard interactive Battle:

ViB Prologue XI:
by: VA mBind, VanCOM

 The moment Khadgar closed the door of his new office, his Commodore popped his head around the main door of the Primary Fighter Hangar. He whistled to a pilot that was hanging around for no other particular reason then that he had been asked to hang around there for no particular reason - but while he was doing that it would been appreciated if he'd keep his eye - no too obviously ofcourse - on Khadgar’s door.
  “Psst, Ray,” Ender informed, “Is he gone?”
  Ray nodded. “Just barely, but yes…”
  Ender smiled widely and walked into the hangar, gesturing to behind him that others should follow. “I gave him enough Battle Submission Forms and reports to check to keep him busy for days. That gives us some time to fix this thing on the storm trooper decks.”
  After their new COM followed Hizad, jdf1984 and DS-61-4, the last holding a datapad which had a weird looking hologram floating above it. ”I think I found it, Bender”
   “I'm not Bender…” Ender started - but his Commanders completed his sentence for him already: “Yes, we know… Bender is your droid.”
  “Though I've never even seen him,” jdf1984 started. “And I've known Ben... euh… Ender for years now.”
  “Well yes,” Ender shrugged, “He's mostly out boozing with his friends. But on to the matter at hand…” He pulled a ugly face and pointed at DS-61-4’s datapad: “Ewww, WHAT is that??”
  “Is that a dianoga?” Ray asked, “We had those at Kessel all the time. Make good steaks, if you forget where it comes from.”
  “Not exactly,” DS-61-4 explained while the rest goggled over the weird hologram. “But it is related to the dianoga. But way more deadly. This type of creature won't stay inside the sewers - it'll eat its way through just about anything and turn the lot into a sewer.”
  “Eww that's nasty,” Khadgar said, “Where do you find these things?”
  “In sewers I guess,” Hizad said, “…but I wouldn't want to have one in mine.” He only then saw that the interest of the rest of the crew had already gone from the hologram to the Wing Commander.
  “Hey Khad, aren't you supposed to be doing BSFs?” Ender asked.
  Khadgar shrugged. “Those? Did those some time ago already, past the time with balancing the wing records. Did you know that someone on this wing uses 70 new socks a week?”
  Ender looked disturbed… He'd been in charge over those records for months and never came close to sorting them - let alone balance them. But then his face cleared up again and grabbed DS’ datapad. “But that's great! So you can do the BSF’s for Echo too.”
  Khad looked sad as he accepted the datapad and retreated back into his office.
  Immediately as he closed his door again Ender grabbed Hizad and jdf1984 by the collars. “Come on guys - gimme more BSFs, roster changes… anything to keep him busy while we sort this out.”
  “Sorry man, I gave you everything already,” Hizad said apologetically.
  “I got some in my office,” jdf1984 commented.
  “Great!” Ender cheered and he pout his arm around jdf’s shoulder. “Go get em.” He turned to DS. “Can those things eat through frerrocrete?”
  DS shrugged, “Hey man, how am I supposed to know? You just gave away my datapad with the data. But I don't think so… its not like metal or plastics.”
  Ender’s face brightened. “Good, you go tell Engineering to encase decks 24 to 28 in ferrocrete, I’ll go look if Fond has more BSF’s to do for Python. Hiz, you and Ray check if Raven's in the rec room playing that silly X-Wing game again and ask him for some too. Wegotta keep Khadgar busy till we clean this mess up.”
  DS, jdf, Hizad and Ray all saluted and ran off in their different directions.
  “Dang,” Ender thought, “forgot to ask them where Fondor would be hanging out. Oh well - lets try the bar first…”
 

 ViB Prologue XII:
by: VA mBind, Van COM

As usual at the end of the morning, the Vanguard Officer's Mess was pretty empty… the last of the Night Watch drinking their beers before they went to bed, some of the Day Watch popping in for a quick coffee and a smoke, but no big crowds.
  Ender looked around but could see no Fondor anywhere. He did notice that Hey Darik, the bartender, had gotten himself a new protocol droid to help him behind the bar. Shouldn't he as COM be informed of that? Perhaps a great chance to score a free coffee…
  He sat down on one of the barstools and raised an eyebrow at Darik. “What's that with the droid?”
  The droid immediately responded like the typical Protocol droid and started saying enthusiastically that he was called TC-14, made excellent “hard” cocktails, could do excellent trivia competitions to entertain the guests and…. And then he got pushed away by the bartender.
  “What's with the ‘what's with the droid?’?” he asked, and also raised an eyebrow for effect.
  “Well, shouldn't  I have been informed about that?” Ender retorted. “Being Commodore of this vessel and all…”
  “Ok, let me put it this way,” Hey Darik started, “If you don't allow me to have a droid, but you do have to allow me to go on my yearly reglementary leave… Who is going to run this bar while I'm away? You?”
  “Why not?” Ender asked, “I've been a barman before, when I was a kid on my parents super bulk freighter and during my student time at Carrida academy. I could do it… and when I got active duty, Fond could take over. He has some experience too I believe…” That did remind him about something. “Have you seen Fondor around actually?”
  Darik started to laugh. Ender hated it when that happened, it rarely was good.
  “He had some sort of conversation with the Carp in that booth there and then went off,” Darik said a lot more sarcastically then you'd expect of such a sentence. “But you could just beep the bridge and ask them for his precise location ofcourse.”
  Ender smacked his forehead. Ofcourse! He had clearance now for all such things. Immediately he push the button on his comlink. “Miss Geldcent? Where is Major Fondor now?”
  “In the shuttle hangar, sir” the answer immediately came.
  “Thank you, mBind out.” He stood up and nodded to the bartender. “We'll finish this later. COM stuff to do and all…”
  “You better get it all done before my leave starts, or you won't be able to run this bar,” Darik replied and immediately started cleaning some mugs on the other side of the bar.
  Ender made an ugly face at Darik’s back and walked to the door, on his way to the shuttle hangar.

The shuttle hangar was a lot more busy then the bar had been, a lot of members of the Vanguard crew taking up their leaves in the period after the Strike at Genko, knowing that fleet command wouldn't assign another task to the Vanguard immediately. The Intrepid would be the first to be called upon now - which gave the men and women on the Vanguard the chance to go and see their families for example. Various crew members with large bags were already making their way up the hatch of the Imperial Shuttle standing there, while Hangar crews gave it their last check up.
  Fondor was easy enough to find between all those Imperial navy grays and greens- he was the only one with a pink tutu peeling out of a bag slung over his shoulder. Ender grabbed him by the other shoulder just as he started to make his way up into the shuttle.
  “And where do yo think you are going?” Ender asked angrily. “I didn't sign any leave papers for you if I recall correctly.”
 Fondor first put his bag on the ground and tucked the pink tutu a bit more into it before he replied: “I'm off back to the Sov actually. And you didn't sign anything - VitCarp did.”
  “Over my head? What the…” He beeped the bridge immediately. “Communications, get me the Battle Group Commander, NOW.”
 “No! No! Don’t!” Fondor yelled, “let me explain first.”
 Ender shrugged and beemped the Bridge again. The voice on the other side answered immediately. “The BGCOM for you sir.”
  Ender sighed and thanked the Communications Officer for his fast work. “Patch him through.”
  “What do you want, Vice Admiral? I'm taking my bath.”
  “Euhm… I just HAD to say how much I liked the way you repainted the Grey Mutt, euh Wolf. Bye Vit, have a nice bath.” Before the BGCOM could answer Ender clicked off the comunit and nodded to Fond. “Go ahead.”
  Fondor handed him a datapad and pointed to the text on it. “I received a mail last night from a certain GN Edor Crispin, who is not anyone I know. So I checked the header and it seems that it was incorrectly delivered to my account. Something which is almost impossible to happen.”
  Meanwhile Ender was eagerly reading what was on the datapad. “…doing a great job with those ‘engineered’ battle reports… …we will recommend you for you efforts…” Finally he looked up. “But that cant be true! According to this communication our respected BGCOM - a personal friend of mine I’d like to add - is working for the rebs? This surely must be a joke or set up.”
  Fondor nodded, “That's what I thought - so I didn't report it. I contacted Vitcarp personally and confronted him with it.”
  “You didn't…” Ender sighed. “So what did he say?”
  “That's where it got tricky sir,” Fond said unhappily, “He got very aggressive and said stuff about false accusations and me attacking him on his policies and so on.”
  Ender frowned: “Not good…”
  Fondor nodded: “Not good at all. He fired me for insubordination and wants me out of the Aggressor Strike Force before the end of the day.”
  “WHAT?” Ender yelled, “He cant do that! You're MY Squadron Commander, not his.”
  Some of the other crew members were starting to take an interest in their Commodore yelling on the deck and stopped loading up the shuttle.
  Ender made some ‘move-along-gesture’ and lowered his voice again. “I'm going to fight this, don't you worry.”
  “No need Ender,” Fondor said, “I'm not staying here under his command. He might send Python into a trap just to get rid of me - and I cant let anything like that happen.” He padded Ender on the shoulder. “Don't worry, I got a good offer from the Recon Office for a nice comfy admiralty desk job. And don't you worry that I will get this datapad to the Security Office the moment I get aboard the Sovereign. Let them handle it.” He extended a hand to Ender.
  Ender accepted it and shook his hand. “Dude, I'm going to miss you already. Don't be a stranger you hear - we'll always welcome you back on the Ol’ Van.”
  The shuttle's Captain interrupted them. “Come on guys, kiss and hug and be off. I got ten more loads like this to deliver today and I'm running late.”
  For a bit Fondor and Ender stared at the Captain, then they both shrugged, said “See yah.” And walked off, each in his own direction.

  On his way back to the Fighter Hangar it struck Ender that not only didn't he have any Python BSFs, he now also needed a new Commander for that Squadron… AGAIN. This was not good… usually when one went, others followed…although… Selecting and researching new Commanders, would keep Khad busy too ofcourse. Things were looking brighter already.

“I got you some more BSFs,” jdf1984 said as Ender entered the Fighter Hangar again. “They are from my new Lieutenant, Staneth, and not a small amount either.”
  “Good,” Ender said as he took the datacards from the Wasp Squadron Commander. “But I got more stuff for Khad to do anyway.”
  “Sithspit,” it sounded next to him. “Can I first have lunch or something? I'm starving and I've been doing paperwork ever since I arrived.”
  Ender turned around to finf Khadgar standing there. “Ofcourse you can. Lunch sounds like a good idea actually. Then I can tell you all about what I’d like to see in our next Python Commander.”
  “Next Python Commander?” Khadgar asked.
  But Ender didn't really answer. He was already on his targeted course to the Officer's Mess, “Come on Jay-Dee-Ef, chow time.”

 ViB Prologue XIII:
by: VA mBind, Van COM

  After he had checked the ferrocrete sealing around the “thing” on the storm trooper decks that DS-61-4 had arranged, the Commodore popped his head around the door arch of the Fighter Hangar again. There were not many people there, just one actually… a Python Pilot was hanging upside down from the racks that hung high up in that hangar, supporting the TIE Advanced Fighters of Python Squadron. "Hey Bender, wassup?“
  “The ceiling Flelm - try it once,” Ender said walking towards Khadgar’s Office. Then he stopped. “You wouldn't be interested in…” he started, looking up at Flelm.
  “What?” Flelm asked, pickinging some dust off his flight suit and throwing it down towards the ceiling.
  Ender shook his head, ”Forget it…” He pressed the chimes next to the door to the Wing Commander's Office and went in before anyone could answer.
  Up in the racks, Flelm straightened himself from inspecting his fighter, shrugged and muttered “…and they say that I'm the nutty one…”

  “We have applicants ready?” Ender asked.
  “We have applicants, but not many. You've changed a Wing Commander and three Squad Commanders in the last 48 hours already - there is not much left that even remotely fits the requirements.” Khad answered.
  “Lets be easy, as long as they have completed the Squadron Management Courses that'll be fine already.”
  “Good,” Khad said, “As that's about the best I could find.”
  “Let's get started. Who is first?” Ender sat down on one of the chairs in the room and put his boots on one of the others.
  Khad inspected his datapad. “His name is Binks, and he's a Gungan.”
  Ender immediately jumped upright again. “A what?”
  “A Gungan, kind of annoying type of amphibious antropomorph from the sector you're from, you should know them. This one seems real enthusiastic too…” He read up a bit from his datapad. “He says ‘Mesa wanna maka rebbies die!’ on his app.”
  “Khad, I've worked with that type of Bantha Bait as ship’s crews before. Even assuming he could read the bloody Training Manual, a Gungan wouldn't even fit a TIE Pilot uniform. What would you like him to do? Freeze-dry in his cockpit?”
  “He wears a specialized uniform and flight suit, just like our Calamari Battle Group Commander I might add. And he seems pretty anxious to give his career that needed next step.”
  Ender sighed and slumped back into his chair. “I'm not used to all these damned aliens in our great fleet… I must be getting old fashioned.”
  “Mesa was justa kidding,” Khad imitated the infamous Gungan dialect. “First application is by a human male, from Kuat, Lieutenant Teh’Bah, currently based on the Frigate Phoenix.”
  Ender threw a pillow from the other chair into Khad’s face. “Yousa shouldn't mess around like that with somebody who can put you on latrine duty for the next month. Show him in.”

  Later in the day, Ender looked over the list of applications processed so far. “This is why I hate taking apps. I rather just assign old friends or whatever.” He took a sip of his ‘coffee-wrong’ (Syntetic yeast coffee from the Vanguard’s own tanks with lots of hot Nerf milk and sugar). “It always brings out the weirdest people from the most unknown corners of the empire. We got people like Fell on our fleet! Bruckmack! Dras! But who applies? Right! Sub Lieutenant So-and-so from some Sov Squad I've never heard of - let alone being able to pronounce its name…. Got any more?”
  Khad checked the time on his datapad. “We just got time to do a last one before we eat.”
  “The last one before we eat or the real last one?”
  “The real last one… told you we didn't have much of a choice left after all these changes in the Aggressor Strike fleet lately… just our losses in the Mi’Suh Zone alone take their fare share of good officers.” Khad said while he clicked some links on his datapad. “Next is CrazyR2, an astromech droid.”
   “Yousa is going to die pretty soona,” Ender said. “Don't try that poodoo on me twice daily - I might be a desk jockey now, I'm not dim.”
  “He's a astromech droid.”
  The Astromech R2 was marketed as a "droid of all trades" Although designed specifically for deep space repair and maintenance, the R2 could be modified to maintain a variety of equipment. Built-in navigation software allowed it to calculate and store hyper space jump coordinates, a definite benefit for those consumers who own small star ships with limited navicomputer capability. The Rebel Alliance employed Astromech droids to enact in-flight repairs and increase the hyper space range of their snub fighters. What Astromechs couldn't do however is fly a fighter independently - nor seriously apply for the position of Squadron Commander. “However much R2s may seem alive to pitifully sentimental rebel pilots - they are not. They cant fly their own fighter for example. Deep down programming blockades and so on.”
  “He's an Astromech droid.”
  “I guess I’ll just have to play a long with your little game….Show him…’It’ in then.”
  Khad beeped his comlink. A moment later an Astromech droid rolled in on his three wheeled legs. The dome looked around the room and the droid whistled in its typical Astromech way. In the middle of the room it came to a full stop, pulled its front ‘leg’ up and stood fully vertical. One door opened on the body and an arm came out which made a movement very much like a real salute.
  On that same cylindrical body Ender noticed very real Imperial rank-insignia. He gawked at khad, who returned the favor with a very wide and evil smile.

The astromech’s voice was a clear and pleasant human male, probably carefully selected for this kind of occasion. Among the many modifications this droid seemed to have, a regular voice was a good one. Ender actually never understood why his datapad could talk to him, but a expensive navcomputer on wheels couldn't. Rebels were weird in that stuff. “Yes, commodore, I have served what you could call the rebellion for many years, and the Old Republic before that.”
  Ender took a toke of his Abucan Cigar, which smelled suspiciously like it had some Rodian Polm in it to Khadgar. “I'm sure you understand that this is new to me. But I'm curious, how you, well overcame your Core Programming and actually became ‘alive’.”
   “I didn't overcome my programming, sir. These are all the effects of my collision with the First Deathstar.”
   “The First Deathstar? You survived that? Like Lord Vader used to say: ‘Impressive’. What happened?”
   What CrazyR2 did next was pretty impressive too, he told a story including moving holograms and sound effects, while still keeping his quiet human male tone: “I was the droid on Red Leader's X-Wing. His ship was shot down, and I was severely damaged. I managed to escape the Death Star's explosion by climbing into the wrecked X-Wing, and I managed to repair it enough to get it operational... but barely. Three days later I managed to crash my ship into a backwater planet that I never knew the name of. I emerged from the wrecked X-Wing, and collapsed. I thought I was doomed... How long I lay there, I never knew. I somehow managed to deactivate myself, and I nearly forgot who I was... Then it happened. A chance Imperial patrol managed to find me, and repair me enough that I could be used as a pilot droid. I've been with the empire ever since.”
   “Aha,” Ender said and he took another toke from his cigar before he pointed it at CrazyR2 again. “Your record states that you were Commander of Asp Squadron already… which is impressive. Why did you step…euh roll down?”
   “Like one of your other Squad Commanders, I ran into some trouble with the Wing Commander on the Intrepid at that time.”
   “Ahh, that explains it a bit more,” Ender said as he stood up. He extended an arm towards the droid then rethought the action and saluted to both Khadgar and CrazyR2. “Sirs, I don't know about you, but I'm off to the mess for a bite. Khad, I'm sure you can wrap this up. I’d like to have your decision by 2100 hours ship time - I’ll get you my own recommendations when I've fed myself.” And he was out of the door.
  Khad shrugged. “Well I guess that's it then, Commander. You’ll be informed of whatever we decide by tomorrow. And Crazy?”
  “Yes sir?” answered the relaxing and gentle voice from the droid.
  “You can use your regular voice now, this one is really starting to annoy me.”
  “Whatever yah say bud.”
  “How are things on the old Mutt anyway?”

  Outside the Fighter Hangar, on the corridor between Mess and Fighter Crew Quarters, Ender almost bumbed into Hawk, dressed in what looked to be some flowery curtains tied around Hawk’s waist with a piece of rope.
  “Hawk! You got loose of those handcuffs!” Ender exclaimed.
  Hawk looked tired. “I got loose yesterday already… but you know how I hoped she didn't find my secret stash in the lining of my uniform?”
  Ender nodded. “Yes, though about everyone knows about that spot…”
  “Well she didn't need to know: she took the whole uniform with her!” Hawk grumbled. “It took me a day to arrange passage up to the Pyrath Naval Base alone - there I was able to borrow a bit of dough from Major Prophet from Wasp, who I met there. He was on shore leave or something.”
  Ender nodded again. “Yes he is… Dude! Get some real clothes on you and then join me on the Captain’s table in the mess. Dinner will be served in ten and I want to hear all the details.”
  “Oh good, I'm starving… Haven’t eaten since that nice old lady down on Pyrath gave me some bread… Well she gave it to the pigeons really - but pigeons can go to hell for all I care… bloody hard to catch too - did you know that?”
  “No I didn't Hawkie…”

 ViB Prologue XIV:
by: VA mBind, VanCOM

  Since he had become Commodore of the Vanguard Task Force, and thus effectively in command of an Imperial Star Destroyer, a full Fighter Wing, a Victory Star Destroyer, two Frigates, an Interdictor and a collection of Corvettes and other support craft which all added up to city worth of people (about 100.000 crew members in all) with a city worth of problems… Ender tended to sleep onboard his own privately owned Modified Freighter “the Luggage” to keep away from Naval Officers asking him what should be done with the “so-and-so” on “deck-whatever”. Well , the Luggage was not completely privately owned… offcially it was also partly owned by Major jdf1984, Commander Jourdain, Captain CTXclr and Lieutenant Blastfire - all of Wasp Squadron - Ender just never really repayed them for their losses when he bought it from the money owned not by him… but by the Squadron they were once all a part of. It had become his private territory over time though, although he did have staff meetings there so now and then. (And more often a party without any staff but just good friends.)
  The ceiling of the bridge of the Luggage, where Ender tended to sleep on an old couch thrown in an unused corner, had paintings and sculputured decorations on it. The bridge used to belong to an especially garish Naboo Yacht and no-one took the roccoco swirls of the walls or ceiling when they became part of a rusty old Freighter…. Which was good - as they gave Ender something to look at while he didn't sleep. The data fondor had shown him a few days back had been pretty stunning, unbelievable even. As he noticed that somebody had changed a group of cupids to resemble a parody on what could only be Farmboy and his Merry band of Rebels he told himself that not even that peasant or any of his Rebel mates would be stupid enough to send such sensitive material through something as simple as the Imperial Holonet. No wonder he hadn’t heard anything from the Security Office. Good thing too… as he, like anyone with a bit of a head on his shoulders in a military system like the Empire, wanted to avoid contact with those elements of the Imperial organisation as much as possible. Deals with Security Forces had a tendency to backfire in the most unexplained ways.
   His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his comlink buzzing somewhere between the half eaten slices of ewok-pizza and emptied cans of beer on the ground. With less problems then he himself imagined at first to have finding his comlink he picked it up out of pile of dirty civvy clothes without even ahving to get up from his couch. “Yes?” he said groggily.
   It was his personal secretary, Miss Geldcent. “Sir, I have a Commander Dharus here from the Security Office. He has a warrant for arresting Commander Raven of Scorpion.”
  Ender was fully clear of mind in a flash. “What? Keep him there - I’ll be over immediately.”
  “But sir…”
  Ender switched off his comlink and jumped out of bed and into his regular flight suit, which had been haninging over the Captain’s Chair of the bridge. “Computer, cold start on my fighter please. Make sure its up and running when I reach it,” He yelled as he made his way as quickly as he could to the Luggage’s starboard hangar… ignoring by habit the fact that the gravity orientation changed twice on his way.
   He'd been thinking about the Security Office… that was a mistake enough already. Bad juju anyway… and now he'd have to be quick as the man didn't need his approval for anything and was probably already taking Raven off to his shuttle.

  A few moments later, a TIE Bomber dropped out of the Luggage and made its way to the Vanguard’s Shuttle Hangar… not the fighter one - as Ender was trying to intercept a shuttle afterall.
  As he manouvered his TIE Bomber into the hangar and onto the Rack at the back part of it, he could see that a Shuttle with Security Office markings was definately getting loaded up. In his drive to get to the hangar deck he popped the hatch the moment he had a confirmed dock on the rack and jumped through it - his Bomber still moving to its final position. A running start on the Rack walkway got him to one of the tubes wich were used to refuel the Shuttles on the deck below from the same fuel reservoirs at the Fighters on the racks were. He jumped on the tubes and slided down the twenty meters to the Shuttle Deck with a flair that showed that this was not the first time he'd used that route on a Star Destroyer.
   For some yet unknown reason, storm troopers assigned to the Security Office look a lot more impressive then those on any other unit of the empire… though the Security Officer sweared they allcame from the same cloning vats. And there were quite a few of these impressive SO strorm troopers standing around the walkway up into the parked shuttle.
  “I'm the Commodore of this vessel. Let me through or I ensure you that your Shuttle will never get outside the turbolaser range of this Star Destroyer.”
  The storm troopers didn't budge. Ender was getting the idea that these guys wouldn't miss when shooting Ewoks either…
  “Let him through,” a voice sounded from behind the wall of troopers. And immediately a passage was made to where the representative of the Security Officer was standing with his prisoner, Raven.
  “What is he being accused of?” Ender demanded to know.
  By now, other pilots of Wing XV were starting to file into the hangar… Some carrying hydrospanners the size of a man’s arm… Others standing very tacticly next to the steel tubes “Rackers” used to fix fixers in their places for quick hyperjumps and other emergencies you don't want fighters flying around your head in.
  The storm troopers seemed to fasten their grips on their blaster rifles.
  “He has been officially accused of falsifying battle reports,” Dharus said. “I'm to take him to the Stalwart for trail by the High Court of Inquisitors.”
   Some Wing XV started handling the steel tubes… feeling their weight.
  Ender heard a heavy blaster powering up somewhere. This could get out of hand , and then the whole Wing woould end up in front off the HCI, himself included. He made some calming gestures to his  pilots and then directed his attention to Dharus again. “He couldn't have falsified any BSFs,” Ender said, “I would’ve known - I sign those things too you know.”
  “It has nothing to do - yet -  with your ship,” Dharus said calmly. “The suspicions are about his term aboard the Grey Wolf, under the, then, Lieutenant Colonel Vitrolic Carp. Now if you could please let me and my men go on their way without any turbolasers or steel tubes flying around - I might just forget about this incident.”
  “I'm getting framed here, Ender,” Raven esclamed from behind Dharus’ back. “I haven’t processed any BSF in weeks, and those were certainly not dodgy.”
  Dharus gave a signal to his troopers and they started filing into the shuttle, taking Raven with them.
  “Hang in there Raven,” Ender tried to say over Dharus’ shoulder. “We'll think of something! W always do!” But the pilot was out of sight in no time.
  Dharus gave a short nod to Ender, and a sneering grin at the assembled pilots of wing XV and left up the walkway too. Before he was fully inside, the walkway was already being retracted.
  Ender gave a short command through his comlink about letting the shuttle take off and exit without any problems and then threw it hard against the hangar deck. “Ezali Bosoto! VitCarp has to do with this - and I want to speak to him now.” He stormed out of the Hangar and started his one mile walk from there to his office in the Bridge Tower.
  The Wing XV pilots followed him out but mostly took the lots shorter route to the Officer's Mess.

  “What do you mean: ‘Resigned’?” Khadgar asked. “He cant just resign - he's the BGCOM, and only recently got that job!”
  “Well he did,” answered Ender. “Weird start of the day indeed… I knew Fond leaving was just the start of it though. Usually one Commander that needs replacing means you’ll be replacing the whole command in no time.”
  Khadgar and Ender were sitting in the VanCOM’s Readyroom, talking through their next options.
  “You think the Carp resigning has to do with the situation with Raven this morning?” Khad asked while he sipped from his hot cup of Auroran Tea.
  “You betcha I do,” Ender answered vigorously. “I think that the SO was onto VitCarp but because of his status he got a deal: resign quetly… if he tells the SO who else was involved. That way The Emperor’s Hammer avoids a scandal while the SO gets some more poor souls to interrogate.”
  “You think Raven actually did it?”
  “Well, like a lot of us, Raven wasn’t fully one hundred procent, if you know what I mean…”
  Khadgar nodded while he took another sip of his drink.
  “…but a Rebel infiltrator? Not Raven. Now think… If you're VitCarp and you have a deal going with the rebs and you get caught like this… Would you rat out your real rebel buddies or would you put some more suspicion on a non-rebel that does have a bad name with the brass?”
  “I don't think Vit was a rebel infiltrant,” Khad said, “But then again I served under him for a very long time.”
  Ender nodded, “Yes, I bet this hits the Grey Mutt hardest… Him being their hero and everything. Perhaps the reason why we still haven’t heard anything official. Although… You have any idea who’ll be getting Battle Group Commander now?”
  “Cyric without a doubt. Woobee will probably take over as Grey Wolf Commodore.”
  “Cyric is good… he’ll give us some peace and quiet for once. We need that, especially after this.”
  “He has already ordered a temperary retreat from the Mi’Suh Zone. The Grey wolf will be joining us here at Pyrath soon I bet.”
  At that moment the chimes of the door went.
  “Enter”
  Miss Geldcent was standing in the doorway. “Sir? You were not answering your comlink, but there is Lieutenant colonel DS-61-4 here for you. Shall let him in?”
  “Yes sure,” Ender replied. “My comlink is broken by the way, I must have acccidentally smashed it against something. If you could get me a new one please?”
  “Consider it done, sir.”  Miss Geldcent said before she disappaered again.
  “I’ll go back to my own work too then,” Khad said as he stood up from his chair. “If you need me, you know where you can find me. My comlink works by the way… but then its not spread out over a large part of hangar deck ofcourse.” He winked and walked out just as DS-61-4 walked in. Both gave eachother a quick salute in passing.
 
  “It’s still holding?” Ender wanted to know.
  “Yes sir, seems like we’ve finally stopped it. It has not expanded in the last week.” DS-61-4 confirmed.
 

 ViB Prologue XV:
by: VA mBind, VanCOM

  Wing Commander Khadgar was doing a routine check on the rosters of the wing he commanded. Things had been on the up since he got the job a few weeks ago. The rosters had been filling up nicely now the regular attrition of battle had been away for a while. Wasp was looking good particulary… good choice for the WC’s Own Award of this Month perhaps? He put down a note about that. There was some gurgling noise behind him. He looked around, but the noise had stopped so he couldn't locate the source. He turned back to his datacards and pads.
  Lots of pilots on leave too, but he had approved that himself. As long as they were not going into combat, the pilots might as well rest a bit. About half the wing was at their parents or family’s… the whole of Scorpion and Hornet, quite some from Mantis and Python. And the pilots that were left aboard were mostly spending their time on simmulators and short leaves to the Pyrath Naval Base. Now did he hear something again? He looked over his shoulder - but he still didn't see anything.
  He sat like that for a few moments… then shrugged and turned back to his work once again. If he'd waited just that bit longer - he would’ve seen the water running from under his bathroom door into his office. The smell in his room did change though…

  Not far from Khadgar’s Office some pilots were playing some ZG-ball in the zero-G training room. ZG-ball is a lot like many ball games across the galaxy in that its the idea to get the bal through a hoop on either side of the field. The difference is that in ZG-ball the idea is to use the ball as a projectile to disable opponents - for a least a bit. And whoever thinks “oh its just a ball” should try to block a 1 pound ball in a zero gravity field. The players don't use their - padded - flightsuits for nothing. This was a non-qualifing match between Flight II of Python and Flight II of Wasp and, much to the Pythoners chagrin, the Wasp pilots were winning.
  Hawk, on the Python team, gestured his wingy Damon Kast to make dive for the opponent’s hoop while he'd bounce off the ball after Kast. The Wasp pilots, also not first timers, anticipated the move and Jourdain, the Wasp team leader, immediately sent his own wingy Patrick Blastfire on a defensive course, intercepting Kast. He himself jumped, or bounced rather, zero-G sports asking for completely different types of movements, off the wall he had been clinging too to attack Hawk. Hawk would be either forced to make the same move (for which he'd have to pass the ball on to either Kast or one of his other teammates - no bouncing while holding the ball) or to take the full impact of 80 kilograms of Jourdain going at a good enough speed.
  Jourdain’s teammates saw Hawk’s predicament too and both bounced off to his most likely trajectories…. Which was exactly what Hawk had been waiting for. In a gigantic swirl he launched the ball at LT Mo of the Wasp team while launching himself directly at Jourdain. The ball bounced off Mo and landed exactly in Python Pilot Rothman’s hands. Who made the same manouvre as  Hawk and launched the ball at LT Paco, of the Wasps, and himself at Patrick Blastfire. The next following seconds were filled with painfull collisions in mid air as all the Wasp pilots got thrown off course and the Ball ended up in LT Boris, of Python,  hands - to the cheers of onlooking pilots from all different Squadrons aboard. LT Boris might be on the opposite side of the arena from where kast was holding on to the Wasp Hoop… but it was clear by now that that was no longer a problem…. All the Wasp pilots had stopped their bouncing and flying - and had ended up  in the middle of the room, with nothing to grab or push against. Since this meant they were permanently immobilized (well until the gravity was switched back on) It counted as a win for the Python flight - much to the joy of the other Python pilots standing outside the room and watching the fight on holoscreens…
  And to the joy of the Commodore apparently - Who immediately walked up to the Wasp Commander and smiled at him wickedly. “Pay up, Jay-Dee-Ef, I won fair and square.”
  Jdf1984 grumbled as he passed over some credit notes to his COM. “I'm not sure about that fair… For some reason hawkie always manages to pull off a Daki-Spitball - while its the rarest manouvre in ZG-Ball.”
  “Oh stop moping Jay-Dee,” Ender said, “I’ll buy you a Corellian Malt of your own money. Then at least you get some of it back.”
  “Yes, sure,” jdf1984 grumbled. “Well at least my flight don't have to join you on that mission of yours.” He followed Ender to the bar. He looked at the hologram of the arena once more before leaving.
  Inside the arena gravity had slowly returned and the players were making their way to the showers…. The score was not going to change.
  “So, you're finally doing something about that large block of ferrocrete other ships call the crew decks?”  jdf1984 inquired.
  “Yup… its too much of a bother keeping something as large as that hidden from the rest of the TC… and Archon found a perfect plumbing company in the yellow pages that ha the capacity to deal with our problems.”
  “Ahh, sounds promising… ‘1Imperial Plumbers’, right?”
  “That's right,” Ender confirmed while he ordered two malt whiskeys from TC-14 and put the money on the bar before Darik started to take an interest. “Biggest problem is going to be this though… Money.’
  “How much do you need?”
  “Well the whole plumbing system off the Vanguard will need to be replaced… If you consider that we got about 4500 toilets alone, double that amount in sinks and so on and that a regular plumber already charges 400 credits for just stopping by your house - without even having done anything…”
  “Damn, I should’ve gone into plumbing,” jdf1984 said.
 “That's what me ol’ dad said when he saw the whole plumbing contract of two deathstars go to one company,” DS-61-4 added from a barstool besides them. “But euh… are you guys supposed to talk about ‘It’ so openly? I thought it was still kinda secret to Khad and so on?”
  “Not since my toilet exploded.”
  As one person all the heads in the Officer's Mess turned to Khad,who was standing in the doorway in a puddle. Shortly afterwards, most had to turn their noses away… as a carbon based lifeform can only take so much.
  Khad walked up to Ender and the squad Commanders at the bar…who all moved away a bit again. “So why did my toilet just explode and rain lots of pieces of what looked to me like pieces of stormtrooper armour over my office?”
  For once Ender was glad he was one of these weird admirals that prefered to wear flightsuits. He popped up his helmet and was able to approach Khadgar a bit… took a bit of pink toilet paper that was dripping off Khadgar's shoulder and threw it on the ground. "Euh, just a bit of plumbing trouble..."
  "But we're working on it," assured Hizad. He had - like about everyone else in the mess who could - put on his helmet too. Besides TIE Pilots and TC-14 it had become very empty in the mess too for some reason... and someone had closed the blastdoors to the kitchen. Flights II of Wasp and Python, who were only just entering the mess were glad they had their helmets on them too (TIE Pilots tend to hang their helmets from the hook on the left side of their belt. The hook is there to fix gunholsters on by the way.) and put them on.
  "Nice perfume Khad," Hawk remarked, "'Eau du Urine du Yack' isn't it?"
  The look Khad shot him was deadly like a laser from the Death Star but Hawk was completely impervious to it. "So what are you doing to fix it?" Khad asked angrily.
  "Simple!" Ender exclaimed. "We're going to see some plumbers. Day-Es found some good ones in the yellow pages. Lets hope they accept an IOU from the Emperor's Hammer."
  "Yup," Hawk said while he patted Khad on the shoulder, rethought that action and slapped the stuff off his gloves again. "Flight II of Python is escorting Bender there..."
  "Since when is my droid going?" Ender asked sarcastically, "I thought I was."
  "Yeah Yeah," Hawk smiled back, "We all know who I meant."
  Bender looked unhappy for a bit but then looked on his chrono and said "Yes and we're going NOW Hawkie, so I hope you ate - lunch break is over."
  Around him some moans were heard from Pilots.
  "No you are not," Khad said, "I'm first using your shower, mine went up in the blast, then I'm going along with you. Why the hell did you try to hide this from me anyway?"
  “Euh,“ Ender suttered, “Well you being new tothe ship… didn't want you to to get a bad first impression I guess. But yes, you fixed the Wing XV books – we’re going to need a financial genius on our side. Ok, go and take shower – but use the ones at the rec center… I just had my bathroom cleaned.”
  “Sure, be right back, ok?” Khad ran off, his boots making squishy noises as he did so.
  “Tee see-fourteen,” Ender called to the protocol droid behind the bar who had been impervious to the stench. “Please disinfect this place – we’re going to have a late lunch at the Bridge Crew Bar.”
  “Certainly sir, immediately sir,” The droid went. But Ender already didn't take any notice of him. He was motioning the pilots to come along and walked out the smelly messhall – carefully avoiding the puddles of substance Khad had left behind.

  “Here’s your cut, fifty-fifty, like we agreed,” Ender said, as he gave Hawkie some crednotes.
The were sitting alone on the bridge of the Luggage, the rest of Flight II of Python being in its hangars, still checking up on their fighters.
  “Think they are catching on already?” Hawk asked him as he briefly counted the notes and put them in one of the many pockets of his flight suit.
  “That you trained on the Daki-Spitball for 6 months straight in Avenger? Nahh…but perhaps don't use it for the next few matches. Jay-Dee-Ef was talking about how rare it was tonight…” Ender was interrupted by Lieutenant Boris, the Ship’s Nurse, who also joined them.
  “Man, I dunno if I should take my helmet off in here,”  Boris taunted his Commodore, “I wouldn't be surpriced if we lost hull presure any second now.” He sat down on the couch in the corner and took his helmet off anyway. “Eww, I don't know if the Doc will let me back into the Medical Bay after being here. Is that a potted plant or a coffeemug with a weird mold on it?”
  Ender ignored the comment and went right over to business: ”Are all the fighters were secure in their holds?”
  His question was answered by Khadgar who also entered the bridge. “As far a possible, I also checked that hunk a junk of Hawk, the Ray of Light, its right on course. Seems locked enough for me.”
  Ender turned to Hawk.: “Sure your droid can keep that YT of yours to tag along?”
  “Yes Bender,” Hawk frowned, “How do you think I let it tag along with the Van? Since you don't let me park it in the Hangar…”
  Ender heard that before and waved Hawk’s complaints away, “Yeah, yeah… Ok – So we’re set. Lets hit hyper space.” He turned around on his chair and pulled a lever. Immediately the Vanguard, the Pyrath Naval Base and the other vessels floating around the base vanished and the stars turned to stripes before giving way to the irregular patterns of hyper space.

  “…metallic substances are main food source… these can be found in any plumbing system or sewer…” DS-61-4 read on and then stopped... “Sith Spit,” he cursed and he ran out of his cabin to the nearest lift to the bridge. The Vanguard was in serious trouble.
  Unpatiently DS-61-4 was standing in the lift, wanting it to move faster. But it was about a click from fightercrew quarters to the bridge and these lifts were fast, but no fighter….
  Suddenly the lift hit something – hard…so hard that the innertial compensators couldn't cope. DS-61-4 was picked of the floor and slammed hard into the topright corner above the door… apparently the direction the lift had been moving in.
  DS hit his head on the ceiling and was knocked out before the regular gravity of the lift dropped him back to the floor…
  DS couldn't see that the lift had suffered structural damage from the impact… and that brown sludge was starting to drip through several cracks in the walls. Slowly it started to fill the lift.

  The Luggage came out of hyper space quite close to the Golan III Platform these Imperial Plumbers could apparently affort to run their business off. It immediately was visible to the naked eye. But then again Golan’s are big ofcourse.
  “Alright, suit up and launch Python II, guys,” Ender said on the Bridge, turning his chair around to face the pilots.
  They didn't wait around and ran back through the tunnels connecting the bridge to the twin hangars built in either container of the freighter. Two for each hangar. The last two slots of this pocket carrier were filled by Khadgar’s TIE Fighter and Ender’s Bomber.
  Within moments the Python fighters had taken up escort positions around the freighter.
  Ender popped two switches that closed the bay doors and nodded to Khadgar. “Lets Hail them, shall we?” He popped another switch and spoke into his headset.”Freighter the Luggage hailing Patform Imperial Plumbers. We’ve got a job for you. We spoke over the holonet.”
  The answer from the platform was immediate:”We read you the Luggage. You wanted that Borakian Sludge Monster removed from your Star Destroyer right?”
  “I guess so, Imperial Plumbers. Can we dock?”
  “Yes, but leave those fighters outside.”
  “Roger that Imperial Plumbers. I'm on your beamsignal. The Luggage out.”

   A high squeeking noice awoke DS-61-4. He was lying in a pond of sludge that bynow had olmost reached his face, while lying on his back. Quickly he sat up, the noise being a lot louder above “water”. He coughed as his lungs rejected the gass forming in the lift but then quickly assested his situation.
  “Great,” he sighed, “Survive a deadstar and die in a stuck turbolift by drowning in raw sewage.”
  He tried to focus where the sound came from. It seemed to be radiating from behind the door. But it was suddenly joined by a breaking noise behind him… the sludge suddenly rose about a meter in a few seconds and he was slammed against the door by the pressure. He grabbed his comlink.
  “Bridge! Emergency in turbolift…” He looked around and saw the number above the door. “…lift 654437. Bridge! Bridge!”
  “Boy, are we glad to hear from you,” a voice suddenly came through clearly. “We’re working on getting you out there. The boarding crew is cutting its way straight to you.”
  DS coughed. “Watch it with that…lot of gass in here.”
  “Don't worry,we’re using watercooled saws, not lasers,” The bridge assured him. “Youmust be hearing them now.”
  The skweeking noice now sounded quite hopefull to DS, “I hear it Bridge, thanks…”
  Did he just feel something slithering against his leg? He tried to see through stil rizing sldge but couldn't. “Hurry up,” he prayed… not into the comlink..

  “So you got a Sludge Moster on your stardestroyer and if it doesn’t get removed quickly it'll be destroyed with all hands?” the spokesman of the Imperial Plumbers recapped.
  Ender took a sip of the very fine Corellian Brandy the Plumbers had been giving them as refreshment. “Basicly, yes. But afterwards we'll going to need a whole new plumbing system too. Sinks, toilets, showers, baths… you name it.”
  “Well ofcourse, quarantine rules alone would require that. Don't want it to return afteral.” He noticed some of the glasses on the table were getting empty. “Oh let me fill those upfor you. It’s expensive stuff but ofcourse nothing compared to the money we’re talking about here.”
  Khadgar coughed. “Yes well, that was something I wanted to address already before. How much would this whole thing cost?”
  There was a twinkle in the plumber’s eyes. “Nothing compared to the building price of a star destroyer I'm sure. But let me get our accountant on that.”

  The sludge had risen to DS’ armpits by the time he saw the saws cutting through the door of the left. The saw was shortly stopped as there was swearing behind the doors. Probably the boarding crew had also gotten into contact with the sludge. But then they went on again – cutting a rectangular hole in the topof the door. A storm trooper poked his head in.
  “Yo’all right?”
  “I’ll be alright when youget me out of here,” DS said as he waded towards the hole. He tried to grab the hand the storm trooper was offering him and then was suddenly pulled under.
  “Sith Spit!” The trooper cursed. He grabbed his blaster rifle and aimed into the sludge.
  “Nooo!” was the last thing one of his smarter teammembers was able to say before fire engulfed them all.

  “This is taking way too long,” Commander Rothmans said to Ender.
  The Vanguard team were waiting for the plumber to come back with the cost calculations. He had been away for some time. But had assured them to feel free to pour drinks for themselves. Which they had.
   Actually Hawk was quite sure he was starting to feel drunk. “I need to go,” he said and he uneasoily stood up. “Anyone seen a lav on the way here?”
   “Just ask a crewmember,” Boris suggested between two hickups.
  “Yeah,” Hawk agreed as he staggered to the door. “Or I’ll just find a nice quiet corner.”
  “Thjis isj sjome sjeriousjly good brandy,” Ender said as he poured himself another glas.
  Outside Hawk was zig zagging through the hallway, looking for a toilet. “These are bloody plumbers, they must have thousands of lavvies,” he muttered. He decided to just open a random door….
  The wrong one... He briefly saw a shot of their Spokes Person speaking with some uniformed Calamari. The plumber looked around surpriced but determined and went for his holster, grabbed his blaster and fired off a shot at Hawk.
  Later Hawk would recall of his great reflexes, but in reality he was swaying around so much already that the blaster bolt only grazed his shoulder. But that did sober him up immediately… well as ffar as possible. He slammed the door closed and blasted it with his own blaster. Then as he started running back towards the others he grabbed his comlink. “Bender, we have a problem!”

  DS spitted out a lot of sludge as he came up again. But he didsn’t stop and made right for the hole in the door and crawled through it. A tentacle came out of the sludge and came just to late to grab him. He as in the tunnel the boarding crew had cut through the shipto reach him. The explosion has strewn their bodies everywhere. He saluted them and ran on towards the bridge. This time he was going to walk.
  Behind him a tentacle came through the hole and started to circle itself around one of the bodies.
 
  The Vanguard team on the platform was running now too, blasters drawn this time.
   “I swear it must’ve been Ackbar himself or something,” Hawk panted. “They were probably delaying us here so we’d loose the Vanguard.”
   Where the corridor met another they almost bumbed into some crewmembers. Immediately each targeted a different man.
 “Ok,” Ender said harshly. “What the hell isj going on here, you traitorousj sjcum.”
 “We’re loyal servants of the empire sir, don't kill us!” One of the plumbers said as he got on his knees.
  Another seemed more in control and approached Ender. “What's the problem sir?”
  “Back off,” Ender warned. “And I’ll tell you.”
  The plumber backed away a bit again. “There is no need to get violent sir.”
  “Yes there is!” Hawk said, now aiming for the leading plumber too. “Your guy shot at me.”
  “He did?” The plumber seemed genuinely surpriced. “But that cant be!” He grabbed a comlink and pressed a button. “”Bridge, where is Peanut now?”
  “Near the shuttlebay sir,” the answer came.
  “Right, thank you.” He gestured down the corridor he had come from. “This way sirs, that rat is no longer employed by me. Lets catch him.”

  The Captain and the First Officer of the Vanguard seemed were really shocked by what the guy dripping in front off them had just  said.
  “You mean ferrocrete makes it stronger?” The Captain asked.
  “Well at first it is stopped, but over time, yes… it becomes nearly unstoppable” DS explained. “If we had used regular concrete it would’ve been different, but we didn't.”
  The Captain turned towards one of the crewpits of the bridge. “Helm, set a course to the Plumbers immediately.”
  “At once sir,” I sounded fromthe crew pit.
  “Lets hope we get there in time,” the First Officer said. “We already lost too many good men over this… the whole ship would be too much.”
  “Now if you please excuse me to the Medical Bay, I'm going to have a complete breakdown,” DS muttered just before he collapsed oin the Bridgedeck.
  “Medic!” The Captain yelled.

  The luxury yacht was already on its repulorslifts as the Vanguard team, reinforced by some plumbers got to the hangar. The pilots tooksome snapshots at it with their blasters but they knew they wouldn't be able to do much with them.
  “Save your fire,” Ender ordered,”To the Luggage,we might still catch this guy.”
  “I'm so sorry sirs, we screen all our personel but…” The headplumber started, but he was interrupted by his comlink. “Captain Mario here.”
  “A rebel frigate just came out of hyper space at 12 clicks from here. Its opening its bay doors as we speak..”
  “Power up the shields and the turrets,” the headplumber ordered.
  The Vanguard pilots didn't wait for the plumbers to get ready. They were running towards the Luggage as fast as they could.
  Hawk was talking into his comlink as they ran. “R5, get the Ray of Light out of here immediately!”

  The Vanguard came out of hyper space just as the Luggage left the hangar of the platform.
  “I love that ship,” Ender said as he hailed the Vanguard. “Vanguard, power up shields and turrets we have bogies coming in.”
  “Roger that Commodore,” The Vanguard answered. “Do we launch fighters?”
  Ender looked at Khadgar. “Who is not on leave?”
  Khadgar thought. “Launch Echo and Flight 3 of Mantis, 2 of Wasp and perhaps 1 on standby.” He loked confused. “I got no clue whats out there – but that's about all we got at the moment.”
  Ender nodded and spoke into his headset. “Launch 3 of Matis, 2 of Wasp and 1 of Echo on interception. 3 of Echo on bombing and make sure 1 of Wasp is in their cockpits.”
  “Echo is a problem sir,” the reply came. “Day-Es is in sickbay. He was attacked by the monster.”
  “Sithspit,” Ender cursed. “Khad, a replacement quick.”
  “Strahd!” Khad said without thinking long about it. “The rest of his flight is on leave anyway and he's one of the best aces we got.”
  “Vanguard, Lieutenant Strahd is hereby Acting Commander of Echo. Launch those fighters already.”
  “Launching sir!”

you can read over the current story/download the mission at http://isdvanguard.eh.ro
 

I think that's it – If I've forgotten anything, let me know via email (use only a.c.w.t.zwegers@bk.tudelft.nl for official TC/Wing mails.) or ICQ (9706474). Also READ the Wing report! It contains far more useable information then mt scribbles.

All my COM  reports are online as well: you can reach them via the Ship's roster on the TC database. http://www.tiecorps.org/reports/report.asp?shipid=9&reportid=1279

Until next time, good luck and have fun!

<salute>
COM/VA Ender mBind/Wing XV/ISD Vanguard
GS/SSx3/BS/PCx5/ISMx13/MoT-2rh-1gh/LoC-PSx79/DFC/CoL/CoB/LoA/OV
[CAVL] {IWATS-GFX-IIC/1/2/3-M/1/2-SM/2-XTM-XTT}