Battlegroup Commander's 8th Weekly Report (11/27/00)
Submitted by Vice Admiral Jarak Maldon, BGCOM
Greetings, Members of the Battlegroups!
Glory to the Empire, pilots and officers. This has been a rather fun week, from my prespective anyway. We have had some intresting events aboard our starships, such as the comp between the Colossus and the Avenger and Tornado Squadron's continuing effort to smack down every other BG Squad... yeah, good luck Uncle Kess!
As a personal suggestion to all members of the Battlegroups, download a HTML capible E-Mail program. I suggest Outlook Express, downloadable for free at (http://www.microsoft.com). Trust me it works for the better since most every person in a command position writes E-Mails with HTML in them. I for one only use HTML E-Mail so don't expect any radical change. It'll only take about twenty minutes if you have a decent modem, too.
I would like to personally congradulate the ISD Challenge's squadrons for making it to the Squadron League's Semifinals. Even though I don't hold this comp in high reguard, as you all may well know, I find it very impressive that one of our ships was still able to show the Sovereign boys what we are made of. Good job! Also a message of congradulations to the Colossus for a suspected victory over the SSD Avenger, another show of Battlegroup strength!
With that that out of the way, on to the report!
Why is there something attatched?
Oh yeah, that. Well this was a submission to the Battlecry made my yours truly a while back. It is a fiction I cooked up back when I was the Commodore of the ISD Relentless... that would be about two months ago, if you are keeping track of such useless information. The story itself, however, is based several months ago, but it is still good. If you want give it a glance over and drop me a line, tell me what you think. This way I know if I should write more or not :)
Battlegroup Commander's Log-
All quiet here today on the Immortal. Some of the crew and pilots pitched together to buy some extra leave time when the ship gets back to Aurora Prime later this week. The Relentless is due to meet us there, so Colonel Ricaud has offered some of his own "privite funding." Sometimes I think I'm in command of a party wagon and not a war fleet.
Then, however, I sit down and realize we haven't had an open combat engaugement in months. Things are quiet here. Ever since Minos the Republic hasn't given us much trouble. They are probably more concerned with affairs in the Hapes Sector and the fringe regions out near the Ison Corridor. Our little pocket of territory doesn't seem to rank high on their priority charts. All for the better, I suppose, since we don't loose lives... though I can tell some people are itching for combat.
Speaking of combat there was an unusual incident in the Senior Officer's Mess here on the Immortal. I usually eat lunch with Colonel Mell since the Commodore operates on a nearly opposite schedulte. That lets me play Commodore for most of the early morning through standard noon hours before taking over BGCOM duties in the afternoon. Thrilling, I so miss the job. Anyway she showed up, much to my suprise. What she didn't realize was that a colony of durasteel mites decided to call her hair home during the night... a pity really, though it was a good laugh.
Our own former BGCOM, Admiral Theodore, has taken the throne of the TIE Corps as the Flight Officer and TC Commander. There was a general cheer that went out, mostly since us BGers love to see our vets in positions of power. I sent him a few bottles of brandy and some cheese logs, I'm sure that Colonel Darklord over on the Challenge will handle the... harder beverages.
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News Updates from the ISD Challenge, Submitted by Colonel Darklord-
MAJ Indaro Gallia resigns
CMDR of Thunder squadron, MAJ Indaro Gallia, has stepped down from his position due to lack of time in RL. I thank him for an excellent job as CMDR of Thunder squadrons, undoubtably one of the best CMDR's Thunder has ever seen! Indaro steps down to a Flight Member position within the squad. Applications are now being taken by myself and CoFo for a new CMDR. Expect one appointed before the end of the week so get those apps in quick if you want a shot at it!
New Tempest CMDR
Following the resignation of former Tempest squadron CMDR, CPT Vuffi Raa, please congratulate LC Zulaan Eronaile (formerly known as LC Satai Dukhat) on becoming the new CMDR! With his experiance in the TIE Corps I hope he'll make good progress with Tempest in bringing them back up to their former status as one of the best squadrons in the TC!
Tornado vs Typhoon
Tornado and Typhoon have just finished battling it out in a competition, as part of Tornado's universal domination plan... ;) And by the narrowest of margins possible Typhoon have come out victorious! Congratulations Typhoon, and well done to everybody who took part!
Cyclone vs Eta
Cyclone squadron are getting back on form it seems with CPT Brandon in charge! This week see's them defeat Eta squadron in competition! Well done Cyclone... maybe we'll see more of the old Cyclone form in the future! :)
SSSD Sovereign Squadron League
Congratulations to Inferno, Thunder, and Cyclone squadrons on joining the rest of Wing X in the quarter finals of the Squadron League! I think we are the only wing to have all 6 squadrons participate, and that is a credit in itself to Wing X! I'm proud of you all.... good luck for the quarter finals! Lets keep this title within Wing X for the 2nd year in succession! I'll forward the details of the quarter finals as soon as they are announced
Battlegroups Ace Pilot League
The Challenge is undergoing a 3-way match to determine the next champion for this ongoing competition! CPT Brandon/Cyclone, LT Sephiroth/Inferno, and CM Rover/Tempest are all battling it out to become the next ISD Challenge champion! Good luck and may the best man win!
News Updates from the ISD Relentless, Submitted by Colonel Val Ricaud:
1. MUD UPDATE
That lynchpin of our social lives for so many of us, the [vaguely] EH/BG MUD, has been down and out for the majority of this past week after the shell crashed. And so we were left with no comforting blanket of stats and skills in which to immerse ourselves, or the ruthless pursuit of money and starships ... for the first time in days, curtains were opened, and sunlight was allowed in to many
a dimly lit bedroom. Had anything happened while we had been away, engulfed in the addictive torrent of adventure and gallantry in a galaxy far, far away? Had it bugger. Oh well, back to doing work while we wait for it to back up. How novel.
2. RELENTLESS ACE
An update for the Battlegroups Ace Pilot League: CMDR/CPT Kane lost the Relentless Ace Pilot title, which he has held longer than any other single person in its existence so far ... the title was taken by, of all people, the new FO, Admiral Theodore (who challenged for it while still a Wing IX pilot). As nice as it is to have the Flight Officer as our Ace Pilot, I'm sure we all want to see
it back on the Relentless itself, rather than aboard the Sovereign ... so I expect to see some challenges for it! E-mail theodore@tiecorps.org and jarak@stny.rr.com (cc:ing COM/RA Andronicus and myself) if you'd like to take a shot at it.
3. MAILING LIST
A reminder: please, for the love of God, do NOT send bloody massive files out over the wing mailing list (wingix@egroups.com). Pretty much any communiques are acceptable over the list (so long as they're not obscene or anything, and at least vaguely relevant to the EH) ... after all, it's there for the enjoyment of the wing. But do not send out any files above 50KB without first getting the permission of a list moderator (namely, COM/RA Andronicus or me, or BGCOM/VA Jarak Maldon). We do not want to have to make the list moderated, so please use it sensibly and think about other people and their modems. ;-)
4. COMMODORE'S BODYGUARD COMPETITION
Publicised in the weekly Clarion Call, there is currently an on-going Bodyguard Competition being run by COM/RA Andronicus ... the aim of the contest is to write a piece of fiction of any reasonable length about your exploits as our Commodore's bodyguard. Alright, you may not actually BE his bodyguard (that distinction goes to Lieutenant Geoff, an overweight six-foot Geordie with a dodgy moustache and comb-over), but for the purposes of the competition, you should imagine your EH persona to be his bodyguard, then write about whatever could plausibly (or implausibly) happen. Deadline is 10th December ... get your submissions in to mad_dog_mcd@btinternet.com.
5. DAGGER VS. ALPHA
I know I'm usually able to limit the number of articles in the Wing News section to five (I like to have everything nice, structured, and modular) ... but there's enough going on this week to warrant six, especially considering the fact that it's by and large good news, as Dagger Squadron were able to lay the holy smackdown on Alpha Squadron in their competition. Congratulations again to Dagger Squadron, who've more than proved themselves worthy as Wing Commander's Own in the time they've held the title (it'll be up for grabs again at the start of December). FL/LCM Manticore gained an Imperial Security Medal for the highest score in the competition. You did us proud boys! Keep it up!
6. GRATUITIOUS ASS-KISSING WILL GET YOU YOUR OWN REPORT MENTION
This week's winner iiiiisssss .... FL/LT Rejili "NT" Holthaus! For the second time! And lordy has he earned it! After hearing the shocking declaration in the last report that nobody had brown-nosed enough for the title to be bestowed, Rejili has been working flat-out over the course of the past seven days to ensure that the case would be very different this time around. He's made a point of telling me that he loves me at least a dozen times every time he sees me on IRC, and has sent me some very flattering (and quite disturbing) e-mails to back this affection up. It was either give him this award, or have him committed to the Aurora Prime Mental Institution ... and considering we need the pilots ... hey-ho, eh?
News Updates from the ISD Immortal, Submitted by Vice Admiral Adrenaline:
*I am offering to you and the Immortal a chance to participate in ASF's November Vengeance Comp, with some modifications.
*You will be asked to participate only in the XWA WoW portion. Essentially, the Immortal will strive for highest Wing Score on Battlestats during the November WoW.
*You may award a PC to the top ranked Immortal pilot (ranking comes by flying 10 WoW matches)
*You may award 2 ISMs -- one to the second highest ranked pilot and one to
the third.
*Caveat: if the Immortal (a SinglePlayer XWA-based ship) scores higher than the Vanguard (a MultiPlayer-based ship), the Immortal may modify motto and nick of the Vanguard for the month of December as well as select SureFire entry lines for Vanguard Flag.
*Caveat 2: if the Immortal defeats the reigning champion MP craft, the ISD Grey Wolf, you will also be allowed to modify the motto and nick of the GW as well as select SureFire entry lines for GW Flag.
*Incentive: if the Immortal's total score is lower than any ASF ISD's, the Grey Wolf will be allowed to select a motto and nick for the Immortal for the month of December as well as select SureFire entry lines for Immortal Flag.
WC/LC Chrusos Ichthys/Wing XIII/ISD Grey Wolf
SSx3/BSx3/PCx6/ISMx9/MoI/MoT-1rh1gh/LoC-PSx109/DFC/CoS/CoL/CoB [LGNR]
{IWATS-SM/2-M/1/2-IIC/1/2/3-XTT-XTM-GFX}
JH Chrusos Ichthys (Sith)/House Tridens of Clan Tarentum
http://isdgreywolf.stardestroyer.org
Sounds like a fun comp to me, I would recommend going to www.battlestats.com right away and signing up if you haven't already. The Week of War is starting this Friday, Nov. 24th! Any questions ? ask. http://www.battlestats.com/games/xwa/war/ .
I have been doing some updates to the site, including a nice graphic made by LC Badlands that I found a home for on the Honor List Page! Merit points have been updated according to the most recent reports I have received from all the Commanders. Also, I have changed the battle points to 1 per mission and +4 for if you get a battle high score. If a pilot only gets some mission high scores, then it's 2 per misison high score -- does this make sense? If not, ask. Also I would like to remind everyone that if your name isn't on the personnel map and you would like it to be, then email me, or catch me on irc, I'll be more than happy to add you!
http://immortal.stardestroyer.org
The honor list is growing, and I know a couple pilots are missions away from being added! With the 3 new FREE-XWA missions -- one of which was created by Ranger's own LCM Gord Darkonian for the ECR, FREE-XWA 24 Operation Moonbaker-- pilots have a week to fly these missions, before they affect the honor list.
Congrats to MAJ Arso and CM Banger for earning enough merit points for a Bronze Star! The list of medal recipients is looking pretty stunning thusfar.. keep up the great work everyone!
The new Battlecry ( newsletter for the fleet ) has been released. Check it out for some interesting Tie Corps news, graphics and fiction, including a great story from Demon Squadrons LCM Roth Jalis! A new flying contest has also been announced, and FREE-XWA 21 is the mission to fly . Everyone who has flown this already is encouraged to send in your pilot file and ID Line to CPT Werdna Elbee at battlecomp@hotmail.com XWA and XvT pilot files must be zipped or they will not be accepted! Don't forget to include your full ID Line also! There will be awards for individual scores as well as squadron participation..I encourage you all to kick ass! Bronze Star to top scorer.. can any of you beat COL Dras Hempor's rockin score of 16009?
http://battlecry.ehnet.org/battlecry9/tc-mag9.html
Okay.. we gotta get our Jedi Knight event happening again! All crew members interested in a little Capture the Flag or just free for all killing spree.. email COL Mell and VA Adrenaline, we will get a time set up. It's a fun way to blow off some steam after a busy day of a hard days work, we had some good times a few months back! ( and killing CM Banger over and over is really fun :P)
Which brings me to another rambling.. boy I sure do go on and on.... LT Darkheart of Ghost Squadron has been assisting me in a project involving creating a virtual Immortal ship with the Jedi Knight game engine.. a project started by MAJ Nix and CM Mycroft. Anyone with some spare time and is interested in assisting should email myself and LT Darkheart - make sure to check out these sites: www.massassi.net and http://www.magicforce.com/ Massassi has a lot of cool levels to download, like one of my favorites "Morpheus". Magiforce is the home to JkEdit, which is a lot simpler and more functional than JED, which is the only other one I've tried.
News Updates from the ISD Colossus, Submitted by Major Chei-Ras:
Already usual "WC blabla" section will be short today. Some of you have already noted that a couple of last weeks I was sending out the Wing Reports on Monday ... such a decision was made to better refelect the results of the whole past week and to wait until all the Weekly Squadron Reports arrive to my inbox. Many times before I was repeating that WSRs are to be sent on Fridays, or at least Saturdays, but it appears that sending out WSRs on Sundays is more convenient for part of our CMDRs. So from now on the Wing reports (if there will be no objections) will be released on Mondays.
And hey hey hey! Attention Squadron Commanders! The Monthly Squadron Evaluation time draws near. MSEs are expected on 30th of November or at least on 1st of December. Please submit them to me in due time.
1. Colossus vs Avenger. According to Commodore Ari, our glorious Wing has officially won the competition with the pretty high Wing Total Score of 2,324,049 points. I must admit tho that our participation was pretty low and this should not happen again.
But! Have fun and lets party ... we won over the Avenger proving that raw power is stronger than force! Soon, very soon a brand new and more interesting test of our power against jedi force will have place, so polish your fighters and fix your flightsticks as for Colossus is going on a new adventure raid. [more details will follow during the week]
2. Eta vs Cyclone. The competition is over with Cyclone winning over Eta. As per CPT Brandon (current Cyclone CMDR) "Wooooo, it was a close run thing huh :P Looks like I managed to scrape together a victory by the skin of my teeth! :P Comiserations on your defeat, but congratulations for making us work our arses off for it :) "
Eta: Top Three average: 90745 Top Gun: CPT Drake
Cyclone: Top Three average: 96620 Top Gun: CPT Brandon
Eta is currently the smallest squadron in the Wing, but has currently proved herself as the most fierce one. Way to go assassins!
3. The Battle Cry magazine has started new round of competitions. Information on comps can be found at http://battlecry.ehnet.org/battlecry9/tc-mag9.html . Currently there are two types of comps: 1. Writing competition! and 2. Flying competition! So if you feel like your uniform could use more medals on it go and participate.
4. Mu CMDR. The applications are still accepted and the new Mu CMDR will be announced during the week.
5. Colossus Arena. Looks like our own Tie Fighter ladder is seeing more and more interest. Currently there are 5 challenges in progress on the Arena. Lohr Zadash, the current Iota CMDR topps the ladder with 88 points (somebody stop him! ;P). With the departure of Captain Drake to the reserves of the Tie Corps the new Arena Master is Captain Troutrooper.
6. Colossus Elite 12 vs Praetorian squadron. As agreed with Rear Admiral Akagi this competition is postponed until "better times" ... Elite, watch out for a battle cry as for this comp can start anytime soon.
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Rear Admiral Andronicus' Guide To Finances:
When it coms to adding up anything other than the number of Rebels vaped in a summer's afternoon, your average member of Wing IX struggles. However, we are all responsible adults and fully capable of dealing with adult responsibilities.
1) Mortgages - if you're going to die tomorrow, there's no point wasting time dicking around organising yourself a mortgage. Let's face it, by the time all the repayments are made, you'll have been free atoms for a couple of decades. All the top people in the TIE Corps rent. You can get in and out quickly and, if tidy, leave no trace that you've ever been there.
2) Pensions - if you're going to die tomorrow, there's no point wasting time dicking around organising yourself a pension. Let's face it, by the time you're eligible to pick up your free airbus pass and twenty credits a week you'll have been free atoms for three or four decades. At least. As far as the TIE Corps are concerned, if they discover you've taken out a pension they reckon you've lost your bottle and you're shipped off a.s.a.p.
3) Life insurance - if you're going to die tomorrow, there's absolutely ever point spending your last twenty-four hours getting as much life insurance as you can lay your hands on. The trouble is that the civvies who work in life insurance aren't as stupid as they sound. No firm will offer life insurance to a bloke who has parked a TIE Defender ourside and crashed through their front window with his standard issue DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol blazing. There is, however, one patriotic firm who offer terms to members of the TIE Corps. Not, it has to be said, the most generous of terms, as the following list illustrates:
CAUSE OF DEATH - PREMIUM - PAY-OUT
Friendly Fire - 1,000 IC per annum - 1,000 IC
Death during Training - 1,000 IC per annum - 2,000 IC
Death from Practical Joke - 1,000 IC per annum - 5,000 IC
Death from Vacuum Exposure - 1,000 IC per annum - 5,000 IC
Death from Alcohol Poisoning - 1,000 IC per annum - 5,000 IC
Death in Battle (caused by own incompetence) - 1,000 IC per annum - 5,000 IC
Death in Battle (caused by enemy fire) - 1,000 IC per annum - 10,000,000 IC
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It is that wonderful time of the month again, all! That's right Squadron Commander's, MSE Time! Get out those daily logs and write down all the little acts your pilots have done and be sure to send them to your Wing Commander, Commodore, myself, and the Flght Office, double stamped. COMs and WCs will recieve orders from me later on today... including BGCOM's Award recommendations and what-not. As for the general pilot... make sure you've pleased your CMDR so as you'll find a reward notification later on in your INBOX. And remember Commander's, HAVE FUN!!!
Quote of the Week:
"No firm will offer life insurance to a bloke who has parked a TIE Defender ourside and crashed through their front window with his standard issue DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol blazing." -Rear Admiral Andronicus' Guide to Finance.
Glory to the Empire! Glory to the TIE Corps Battlegroups!
Vice Admiral Jarak Maldon
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BGCOM/VA Jarak Maldon/ISD Immortal/TIE Corps Battlegroups
GS/SSx2/BS/PCx3/ISMx7/MoI/MoT-2gh/MoC-5BoC-2SoC/CoB/LoA/OV-2E
[HUSS] {IWATS-IIC/1-M/1/2-SM/1} (YT-2000 Nova Star) KAP(Krath)/Rogue
VPO(ret)/CG/CD (ret) CMDR(ret)/LCMD/IW/EH (ret) [MoD] [MC2] [MoI] {IWGRD:CW}
Battlegroups Ace Pilot League- Former ISD Colossus Ace Champion
http://battlegroups.ehnet.org jarak@stny.rr.com