=SALUTE!=

*RA Troutrooper walks to the podium and the low murmur in the audience
ceases*

Good afternoon, officers of the ISD COLOSSUS. I am here today to
address the most important issues facing our glorious ship. But before
I begin my speech, I'm gonna speak off the cuff, as they say.

One week from yesterday is my one year anniversary in the TIE Corps. A
year ago, I hired a transport to take me from my home world to Aurora.
It wasn't cheap, but I had nothing to lose. Upon my arrival, I found a
representative of the Emperor's Hammer, who noticed my old Imperial
uniform and handed me recruitment papers. I filled out the papers and
was sent to training. After a couple days of mandatory physical,
intelligence, and pyschological tests, I was fully admitted into the TC
and assigned to Omicron squadron under the command of then-CM Devlin. I
worked hard to be a good, loyal Imperial, but I was forced to take a
two-week leave due to stress. I wasn't prepared for the Corps.

Since that two-week leave, however, I have been going all-out to better
my squadrons, my wing, and my ship. Everything I have done has been for
the glory of this ship. It is the least I can do for such a mighty
COLOSSUS. I will admit that my ascension (if you will) to Commodore was
much faster than anyone could have guessed. At the one-year mark in
most officer's careers, they are a commander somewhere, possibly Wing
Commander. Hardly ever does one reach admiralty before they receive
their OV. I guess those bribes were money well spent...*cough* :)

As some of you may know, I am engaged. No, not to WyldeFyre (I think my
WC has the rights to WF), but to a lovely science officer stationed
aboard the INT Corinthian. On 17 March, we will be wed and I will take
my second two-week leave, lasting until 31 March.

Unfortunately, this coincides with the final phases of the Battlegroup
Flagship Competition, aka ECR. Completely unavoidable, but fear not. I
put my utmost trust in MAJ Drake, CM Absolut Vodka, CPT Owen Nivarian,
CM Anthony Starr, and CM Wap Eal. These fine officers will guide the
ship to glory in my absence.

This brings me to my next topic. Exercise Cantina Run. Though I do not
have specific numbers, I must say that I am pleased with the number of
participants so far. But we can do better. As far as I know, Mu
squadron already has 5, Pi has 4, Omicron is up to 2, and Eta is
somewhere between 3 and 5. Drake and I both have one submission each,
so at the very least, the COLOSSUS has 16. This is about 44%
participation for the ship. I EXPECT 100%. We have less than one week
to gather up all our submissions, so if you have not already started
working on a submission, get writing IMMEDIATELY! I will remind
everyone that there is a run-on posted on the COLOSSUS's message board.
Posts over 500 words will be counted towards our ship's total.
Remember: 500 words, related to the Battlegroup. Now get writing!

Also, the next phase of the ECR is graphics. Those of you who already
have submitted your 500-word fictions can get started on making some
killer graphics. I do not know what the requirements for the pics are,
but I would assume that BGCOM Jarak is looking for graphics which are
related to the Battlegroup.

There are several other competitions running concurrently with the ECR.
My fun comp (find my first MB post) still continues. No-one has found
the post yet, but it is out there. Many good guesses have been located
(including my first post on the new TIE Corps board), but my first TIE
Corps-related post has not been discovered. Also, CM Absolut Vodka has
announced a flying-writing-mission creation comp called the COLOSSUS
Tour of Duty. The website can be found at
www.isdcolossus.com/ctod/index.htm (if this is not right, then ask CM
AV). Due to some lame paper examinations (why does High Command want me
to know economics? Do I look like a governor?), I have not been able to
fly the current mission. If it's anything like AV's normal creations, I
am sure it will be excellent. Finally, and most recently, TO-Dean/HA
Astatine has unveiled the new EH ladder system (it can be found at
www.imperialacademy.org/ladder) for JK, XvT, and XWA. We already have a
few pilots signed up (and one of them already has loss coursety of
yours truly). This should be good practice for the Outer Rim War with
the rebels, who won the latest system because we EH'ers cannot play JK.
Hopefully, we can improve our skill here and fight better at OR.

Something I should mention, though it's a day too late for some, is
medals for flying. I follow this scale for awarding medals for flying
in one month:
10-19 BSFs: ISM
20-29 BSFs: PC
30+ BSFs: BS
100+ BSFs: well, let's wait until someone actually submits 100+ in a
month. I've gotten to 96 once, and that was hell.
I base these awards on the MSEs, so be sure to get your CMDRs to turn
their MSEs in a timely manner. I love awarding medals, but I cannot
unless I have proof of what you've done. And yes, I am too lazy to go
through all the BSF confirmations on my own.

My plan for the future of the ship revolves around www.isdcolossus.com.
First, I want all squadrons to have websites located at isdcol.com. A
good website allows people to see what is going on within a squadron
and is a very useful recruiting tool. Currently, only Mu has a working
website, but I know that Eta is creating one. I expect that by the end
of April, all squadrons will have a fully-functional website. Having
your squadron's message board on isdcol.com would be convienent as well
(but talk to AV about that).

Second, using isdcol.com as a base, I hope to go on a massive
recruiting campaign after the ECR. We are currently the second largest
ISD (one larger than the IMM, but 15 people smaller than the CHAL), but
I hate being second. We can become the largest ISD in the BG and in the
fleet, but we need to recruit. The COLOSSUS Recruiting Office (CRO)
will become our main tool in recruiting. I trust them to do a great
job. The "representative" who handed me recruitment papers while I was
on Aurora? None other than LCM Dall Star himself. I know the CRO will
be useful, so let's make it so.

Finally, I would like to see the COLOSSUS participate more in
fleet-wide events. I have seen a few people attempt MP events, but
there are more events than that. There are many small competitions held
by the Command Staff; just check the message boards every few days for
updates. Also, www.tiecorps.org/news.asp should be the first place you
look for news. The more COLOSSUS pilots are seen throughout the fleet,
the more recruits and active members we attract. So post more on
message boards, fly more (both MP and SP), create more, submit to the
EH NL more, just do more and we will all reap the benefits.

THE ISD COLOSSUS WILL LIVE FOREVER!!!

=SALUTE!=

RA Troutrooper

=====
{[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]}(>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
COM-TCS/RA Troutrooper/ISD Colossus
BSx3/PCx7/ISMx16/MoT-1gh-1rh-1bh/LoC-ISx17/
CoS/CoL/CoB/LoAx5 [GLDR]
{IWATS-M/1/2-SM/2-TT-GFX-TM-RPG-CHAR-NS-CBX-RT}
DJK TT (Sith)/Galthain of Satal Keto, DC-KC-O/(GNB) {SA:CORE}
LONG LIVE THE COLOSSUS!!