*** Aboard the Corellian Corvette -Rebel Dream- ***
0342, Coruscant Standard Time
0507, Relative Shipboard Time


Captain Alognae was woken from his sleep by a decidedly unwelcome
knocking that would not stop.


Of course, the Mon Calamari had been drilled when he joined the New
Republic Military, but being woken up before the ship's lighting had
started lightening up again to simulate the rising sun was NOT welcome. He
tried to ignore the knocking for a while, but, finding it impossible,
called out, "Who's there?"


"Jamison," his human Executive Officer called. "We've got a priority two
message coming in."


Alognae grimaced. That meant Fleet Command.


"Give me a second here," he said, and drew his legs out of bed. He pressed
his eyes together tightly once to try and squeeze the fatigue out of them,
but it didn't seem to help much. "Lights."


He was blinded for several seconds, but got up anyway, steadying himself
against the wall. Shuffling over to the cabinet in which he kept his
clothes, he carelessly pulled out a duty uniform and quickly put it on, not
bothering to button it up. Satisfied with his semblance of being clothed,
he walked over the door and opened it.


His XO had woken up two hours before Alognae had gone to bed, and was
therefore vital as could be. The Mon Calamari hated him for it. "What's
up?" the ship's Captain asked, flexing his muscles in a futile attempt to
wake them up.


"We got a short message from Command. The comm tech tells me it was sent
one and a half days ago. Full vid."


"What's McGrath got to say that's worth waking me up for?"


Jamison grimaced slightly. "Better watch it yourself, sir."


Five minutes later, they were watching the holoprojector jump to life and
display Commander Slyder McGrath, Commanding Officer of the Patriot Battle
Fleet. And the expression on his face was grim.


"Captain Alognae," he started, "We've got bad news."


Alognae shot a glance to Jamison, but the other officer was watching
intently, even though he'd doubtlessly already viewed the message.


"All signs point to an enemy fleet arriving at your position just over
one hour from when you receive this message. We have sent reinforcements,
but they are few and will arrive barely, if at all, before the enemy fleet
comes out of hyperspace. I...well...I'm afraid that's all I can tell you,
except that the lives of your crew ARE more important than your data.
Evacuate before the ship blows instead of fighting to the last breath." The
Chandrilan paused. "And may the force be with you." The image disappeared.


Alognae looked over to his XO. "Can we hype?"


The other man shook his head, looking grim. "The system is basically a
bottleneck in space," he said, repeating what Alognae already knew. "We can
jump in the direction they're coming from, but then we'd probably run into
their rear-guard or jump so far that we couldn't get back without
refueling. The reinforcements are probably outfitted with extra fuel and
coming in the long way around, because there are no jump windows further
than two systems back towards Fleet space, and we'd probably either get
stuck in a position worse than this or misjump into a planet if we tried."


Alognae nodded. "Then there's only two things left to do - put the crew
on red alert and pray to the force."


-----Patriot Battle Fleet News-----


1) Fleetwide State Of Emergency
The Patriot Battle Fleet CO has decreed that new Cadets will NOT be able to
choose a squadron for the next few weeks, but he will place them himself,
for the best of the fleet. As soon as squadrons have evened out a bit,
transfers will be possible, but until then, he will be concentrating on
evening out the playing field. The only exception to this rule are real
life friends of other pilots who will be allowed to join squadrons of their
friends if they wish to do so.


2) Scoring System Change
PBF Command is currently finalizing a new scoring system. Please note that
this WILL be used for 308, so now scores will be posted until the system is
finalized. The biggest changes to watch for (and that will most probably
stay): a mission complete is worth considerably more, and the lasers system
has completely changed. Instead of being penalized one point per shot and
awarded three per hit (making a net value of two points per hit), one is
now charged one point per shot and awarded one per hit - meaning one breaks
even when hitting.


-----PBF Mission Standings-----


-----PBF Mission Report Medal-----


The mission report medal for the previous month goes to:


Brigadier General Dew
Major Wraith K'Lan


You have the honor of adding the MRM medal to your signoff: [*MRM*]


The narratives themselves will be released in a future newsletter.


The current Patriot Battle Fleet mission is:


PBF308


The deadline for the current mission is:


August 31st, 11:59 PM EST


You can download the current mission at:


http://www.rebelsquadrons.org/pbf/missions.html


Send reports with pilot files attached to:


pbfreports@rebelsquadrons.org
&
RS_Slyder@gmx.co.uk (to be safe), spokes@connix.com and fion_grell@gmx.net
Plus your own squadron


The rules for flying the mission are:


1) You may run this mission as many times as you like but you MUST
get the MISSION COMPLETE message and have a valid *.plt file in order
to be eligible for the PBF Medal of victory. In addition, any score
not accompanied by a pilot file for verification will NOT be counted
by the PBF Command Staff.


2) Run the mission as "defect.xwi" ( this will place it as X-Wing
X-Wing TOD 1 Mission 1 ) so that your stats will be recorded in your
*.plt file.


3) Make a new pilot file to run the mission. If you fail the mission
and wish to run it again make sure to use a new pilot file instead of
re-running it with the same pilot. Any pilot file found to be
"unclean" will result in the score NOT being counted by the PBF
Command Staff.


4) Destroying "Friendly" craft to pad ones stats is strictly
prohibited. *.plt files containing "Rebel" craft kills will be
considered invalid.


5) You should also include a written report with your score laser/ion
shots and hits, missile shots and hits and kill totals in the email.


6) Pilot files will be manually calculated using the official
LucasArts scoring chart for X-wing. Anyone interested in obtaining a
copy of this chart, can email me to do so.


7) No individual scores will be changed after the deadline! If a
report is submitted that is never received at the report address
given above, it will not be added after the deadline. Neither will
the PBF CO accept a late pilot file. The only thing that can be
changed afterwards are errors made by the Command Staff.


8) There is a Fleet Wide competition based on this tour. Every pilot
who sends in a valid report will receive 1 merit point. The pilot
with the best overall score for the mission will be awarded a special
PBF Top Gun medal, along with receiving a 5 point bonus in the PBF
Merit System. In addition participating members from the squadron
with the best overall combined score will receive 5 bonus merit
points in addition to "Top Squadron" bragging rights. Also, the pilot
with the top score for each squadron (excluding the winning squadron,
and Top Gun) will receive 3 bonus PBF merit points. The reporting
members of the Squadrons on 2nd and 3rd places will get 2 bonus PBF
merit points.


*Note* In the even that the Top Pilot for the mission also happens to
be in the Top Squadron he may only receive the 5 bonus Credits for
one or the other. Same thing applies to each squadron Top Pilot and
2nd and 3rd place squadrons.


9) Mail problems including undelivered mail and corrupted *.plt files
are not the responsibility of the PBF command staff. If your *.pltfile
becomes corrupted and you do not include a written accounting,
then your score will be counted as "0".


10) If a pilot retires from the PBF at any time during the course of
an active mission after having submitted a report, his report will no
longer count for his former squadron. He will still receive credit
for running the mission, but will be listed as "Inactive".


11) If a pilot transfers from one PBF squadron to another (such as
attaining a squadron CO position) during the course of an active
mission after having submitted a report, his report will will now
count towards the newfound squadron.


-----PBF Information-----


1) IRC---


I'd like to invite all pilots, new and old, to take part in whatever
activities they have running in the Rebel Squadron's Bar and Grill,
on the Undernet IRC network; #RS_Bar_and_Grill is the name of the
channel. The Patriot Battle Fleet has it's own channel as well, #PBF.
I spend a lot of time on these channels, and it's a good way to
contact me if you have problems. It's also a good way to meet new
people and gather information about the RS. Make sure you're
connected to an Undernet server, and if you have trouble connecting
to the Undernet, visit the Undernet homepage at:


http://www.undernet.org


To download an IRC program for Windows PCs, and also learn a lot about
how IRC works, visit the homepage of the program mIRC at:


http://www.mirc.co.uk


To download an IRC program for macintosh, visit the ircle homepage at:


http://www.ircle.com


2) Masters of Combat Tactics---
Do you think you're the best? If so, then ComTac might be for you!
ComTac is a set of missions that you can run to increase your ability
level and gain fame! You can download the ComTac missions at:


http://www.rebelsquadrons.org/academy/postgrad/xwcomtac/


3) Operation Lanvarok---
For anyone who wants to fly a bit more than you are now, there's a
group for you. It's called Operation Lanvarok. This group flies the
Academy missions weekly in a storyline. If you're interested in
joining, contact Major Lozza McG at: lozza@gmx.co.uk


4) X-Wing Mission Building Academy---
If you would like to learn how to build missions for the game this
fleet is based on, join the X-wing Mission Building Academy You can
find more information at:


http://www.rebelsquadrons.org/academy/mba


":)


Commander Fion "Zero" Grell
Patriot Battle Fleet XO
X-Wing Academy CO
Crimson 9
Red Hand Five
Slayer 4
Grey 14