SSSD SOVEREIGN NEWS REPORT 8, 10-21-01

COM/RA Proton reporting from the bridge of the Emperor's Hammer flagship:

The big news this week is the huge multievent competition that began today, so let this report be dominated by it. Without further delay, please read about a contest that may otherwise be known as "When Good Mascots Go Baaaaad." ;)

FLAG NEWS

-- LC Reaper, Wing IV WC, has been promoted to Colonel! Get that man a Corellian ale! Congratulations to Reaper and all the recent promotees.

COMPETITIONS

-- Mascot Power Battles are under way! The top wing will claim major bragging rights aboard the Sovereign. WCs, let this be a notice to you that the last-place wing will be assigned three months of waste tank cleansing duties. Each pilot in said wing will be issued a janitorial corps-issue scrub brush, with the exception of the WC of said wing, who will be required to do his cleansing chores with his fingernails. >:) ... and compliance will be assured by Team LSD and the Beautiful and Deadly Ballista. Translation for all WCs: This is an important comp, the biggest aboard the Sov in quite some time. Get it done!
Note: The elite Omega Squadron is invited to participate as well, and because of its numerically outmanned status going into the comp, will *not* be in danger of being assigned waste-tank duties ;)

Now, here is the competition summary by COL Ford Prefect, the mastermind of the comp. Thanks, Ford, for your excellent hard work on this event! :

- Bree! Bree! New competition on the horizon...welcome to the Mascot Power Battles, kids! Which Sovereign mascot will reign supreme over the vessel? Will it be the Mariachi MiniFords of Wing II? Wing III's Sergeant Bash the Judo Master? Wing I's Rick the Pink Elephant? The Wing VI Wacky Wampa? Or the undisclosed mascots of Wings IV, V and Omega Squadron?

The *full* details (warning, length alert! :P)

Starting Date: 21/10/2001
Parties Involved: The SSSD Sovereign
Missions/Battles Used: A variety

Miscellaneous Details: Each wing must first decide on a mascot. Their mascot will represent the wing in a free-for-all against the various mascots of the other wings in the Sovereign Mascot Power Battles! Throughout six competition rounds the wing's mascots will battle amongst each other in a vicious melee to determine the Sov's top wing.

Fiction, graphics, trivia, TIE, XWA (SP) and TIE Mission design will comprise the rounds. In order to save time and keep excitement running, these events will run concurrently - for the most part, one event will be announced, with two weeks given to complete the event, then the next week, another two-week event will be announced, and so on, and so forth.

The basic premise is this: All Sov mascots are in a free-for-all against each other to determine who's the top mascot, and, hence, the best wing. In order to be able to 'fight', however, they must first draw their strength from something. In short, the wing with the most points in a
category ensures victory for their mascot in that round. At the end of all six rounds, the total score of each wing will be added up, and the highest total wins the whole she-bang.

Like the BHG KAGs, scoring goes like so: Each event will start with a base points level of 1 - 30. In, say, a fiction event, the pilot who submits what is judged to be the best work of fiction out of all other submissions is awarded 30 points, which will go to their personal total and the wing's overall total. Second place gets 29 points, third 28 points, and so on, and so forth. If there are less than 30 submissions, then the ceiling of thirty points max will be kept. If there are more than thirty submissions, the number of points will vary as to the number of participants - for example, if, say, 50 people participate in an event, then the top scorer receives 50 points, second 49, third 48, all the way down to the last-place pilot, who will receive 1 point.

Judging and Awards:
The judging will be down by the Sovereign flag staff. RA Proton will either select a WC to judge a category or allow them to volunteer for a category. It is the job of the judge to announce the event, evaluate and grade all submissions, and release the results (as well as wing totals). Also, at the end of each round, the appropriate judge will write a brief summary of the mascot fight that has taken place under their event through the viewpoint of their wing's mascot and include it with the release of the results of their event.

Awards:
At the end of the six categories, the overall totals for each wing will be announced. The winning wing will have their mascot honored as the head honcho of all other Sov mascots, and the prestige of knowing that they, in essence, are the best wing on the Sov. Awards individually will also be handed out. The top finisher in each category will receive an IS-GR or GW, second place IS-SR or SW, and third place an IS-BR or BW. In addition to these awards, a standing will be kept of how many points each individual pilot has earned throughout the competition, and the top finishers in this category will be recognized, though not necessarily with medals. Individual WCs may also
recommend pilots for merit medals for extraordinary participation and effort in the overall competition.

Schedule:
Day 1: Trivia released
Day 7: XWA released, Trivia due
Day 14: Graphics released
Day 21: XWA due, fiction released
Day 28: Graphics due, TIE Mission Design released
Day 35: Fiction due, TIE released
Day 42: TIE Mission Design due
Day 49: TIE due

As you can see, the competition will take roughly six weeks to complete. If necessary, the timetable can be shortened so that both the flying events have only one week allowed for their
completion. Also, note that trivia is only one week long, so as to ensure that people won't just go out and ravage through their library for answers to all the questions :P For trivia grading, also, the time in which the answers are received are part of the grading process, as someone who does the answers off the top of their head (or looks 'em up really quick :P) and sends them in
first should get more points than someone who spends the entire week looking the answers up.

-- LCM Jack Stone's mega FCHG race for the ship is upon us as well. Details were issued last week. WCs, make sure your pilots get the word on this event too.

-- Last two weeks of Sovereign Web page design contest. I have received two excellent entries so far.

FORCE STRENGTH

SSSD Sovereign [229]
Wing I [37]
Wing II [40]
Wing III [42]
Wing IV [37]
Wing V [38]
Wing VI [34]

EMPEROR'S HAMMER NEWS

-- Newsletter #78 released
22:17 - SA Kawolski [absurefire@aol.com]
Yes, it's been two months today since the last newsletter was released. Due to a hard drive crash, NL #78 (August 2001 Issue) was temporarily lost, but fortunately Colonel Neo had a copy of all the submissions and I had some files backed up. The entire Newsletter was recovered save for the INPRs.
You can download NL #78 (3.73 mb) at:
http://thunder.prohosting.com/~surefire/hammer78.zip (N. America - Fast)
You can view the newsletter online at:
http://users.techline.com/hceline/hammer78/ Newsletter #79 (September 2001 Issue) will be released shortly. However, be warned that any submissions made between September 1st and September 20th were also lost, so if you don't see your submitted image or story in NL #78 or NL #79, it's not because it was rejected and it will be more than welcomed in Newsletter #80.

-- Newsletter #79 released
21:26 - SA Kawolski [absurefire@aol.com]
As promised, here's Newsletter #79 (3.74 mb)! You can download it at:
http://thunder.prohosting.com/~surefire/hammer79.zip (N. America - Fast)

-- EH Domain updated
14:01 - SA Kawolski [absurefire@aol.com]
Grand Admiral Ronin has updated the EH Imperial News Center with news on the latest fleet news and other Star Wars info, including news tidbits about the open GMF and CA:FC positions and High Admiral Astatine being awarded the second Imperial Cross.

CANTINA COMMENTS

Just one of the unbelievable story lines that can be seen every day on the holonet channels aboard the Sovereign:

After receiving their mini-TIE Phantoms from CM Face Loran, the first flight
of Biter Squadron of the 1st Ferret Wing begins their first mission in the
psychological warfare against MD's Monkey Squadron while the other flights
in the wing patrol around the rest of the Wing V's quarters. Flying towards
MD's quarters Ferret, 1-1 announces, "awig hyor;a hjla;eda ae;h;ei," which
is translated into "One to flight, crossing over into enemy territory,
cloak, now!"
As they near Ferret 1-1 orders the flight to split into pairs and they
begin to run race track patterns waiting for their victim(s) to appear and
open the door... patience is a virtue, muhahahaha...
Not long afterwards, MD gets a bad feeling and orders 4 of his
mini-fighters to scramble into the air and recon the area, as they leave
through the door, Biter Flight 1 notices them leave, realize it's their
chance and flys into MD's room since they knew the other two flights will
have a field day with those four TIE Defenders.
Biter 1-1's orders was to attack MD himself which it did with its mini-EEC
cannons blazing away. 1-2's orders was to neutralize the Mini-TIE Defenders
with its mini-torpedoes, 1-3 and 1-4's orders were to attack the Barracks of
the Monkeys with their modified space bombs full of fleas... Mission
Complete!!!!
Returning to the victory celbration in Airlock 21, put on by the rest of
Wing V, Ferret Flight 1 de-cloak and temporarily land on the bar for drinks.
And that's when they inquire about the Obelisk part of the wing...
-FM/LCM Corsair/Sadhe 1-3/Wing V/SSSD Sovereign

"Yes, but wookie-beard burn is an extremely brutal and effective way of dealing with people." -CM Face Loran

COM/RA Proton/SSSD Sovereign