Location: Xwing Class, Scorcher, BGN Spokes' Personal craft
Status: In the green
Relatvie Time: 0740
Coruscant Standard Time: 0340

Spokes' craft took another salvo of energy to the rear sheilds. Gunboats were everywhere now. Two groups of three were causing a ruccuss.
"Fion, give me some cover here!"
"I'd love to boss, but i got squints and eyeballs all over me."
"Blast, where is our support?"
Squelch let out a squeel as the imperial frigate smashed Spokes' hull with a barrage of heavy fire.
"Rear sheilds down....Hold on Squelch!"
Spokes turned hard, heading right for the frigate. Oncoming fire that missed him hit the boats behind as he flew over the "neck" of the large ship. As he weaved to avoid beeing vaped from behind, three metal objects made the light dance in front of him. Then red arcs let loose. At first, Spokes thought it may have been cross fire from ships attacking the frigate, so he pushed down hard to avoid a colision. When he looked out his rear port, he saw three un-identifyabe A-wings fly past his position and rip through the boats following.

Loacation: On board the Rebel Vengance-in hyperspace
Status: Preping for battle
Relative time: 0742
Coruscant Standard Time: 0342

Slyder paced frantically. The battle was turning for the worse. A new threat had arrived. An imperial frigate. he was guessing it was the same one that had dropped all those fighters on his pilots last mission. Now the ship was there, plus whatever fighter support it had, giving four RS pilots hell. Slyder turned to the Cheif engineer and barked.
"Can't this bucket of bolts move any faster!" hey yelled.
"Sorry sir, but she's usin all she's got. ETA 2 minutes."
Slyder paused, and looked out the forward screen of the deck.
"Two minutes may be too late..."

Location: Xwing Class, Scorcher, BGN Spokes' Personal craft
Status: One engine failed, sheilds down to 35%
Relative time: 0742
Coruscant Standard Time: 0342

"Sithspit!" Spokes swore as his allready dying sheilds took another beating from the frigate.
The three awings that had jumped in had also brought some help. This mysterious 'White Guard' had hyped in with those, 2 wishbones, and 2 Xs. The xs were assaulting the frigate, the y's were taking on the yard with our own, and the A's were sweeping paths everywhere, clearing out imperial garbage. But even with those Xs helping now, that friagte was still a problem. Untill Spoke's HUD flashed that help had arrived.
The Nebulon B Rebel Vengance had jumped in. Spokes pulled a hard reversal on his ship, and opened the comm.
"What the hell took you so long man? You were only out 1/2 a parsec."
"Sorry man, she just wouldn't budge any faster. But we're here now, and we got a surprise for the impies."
As spokes finally brought his sluggish fighter around, he saw an incredible sight. The Vengance had come in, litterally on top of the imp frigate. There she was, rearing down right for the neck of the enemy, no more then .3 clicks away. They were practically touching. Round after round of heavy fire went into the weakspot of every frigate. The imperials didn't know what to do. Fighters were assaulting from all directions and the cap ship had just arrived. Spokes noticed a pair of small shuttles trying to leave, but the vengance locked onto them and pulled them in with tractors. The battle was soon to be over.
"Vengace, this is Brigadier General Spokes. I'm coming home. Fion, join my wing, my ship is limping in."
"Rodger that spokes, coming over now." Everyone was surprised that Fion hadn't pulled a Fion yet and caused the NR a ton of credits.
Spokes made it in ok, and as he disembarked his ship, he removed his helmet, and looked out the docking bay window. The White Guard fighters were beeing towed in as well. It appears Slyder wanted to have a talk with them. And tthen the enemy frigate. No longer shooting back, Spokes figured it was near death. He watched as the final salvo pierced through the thin "neck" of the ship, watching it twist and buckle, and the two halves seperated, floating away from each other.

It had been a good day...

New News:

Slow week again, nothing pressing beeing discussed by the CS. Be glad. And what awesome weather. Finally, no more snow.

1) 402 ends this weekend.
That's right. Last week to fly. The mission reports are due on the 30th. so get your buts in gear people.

2)Awards ceremony.
Yes, for the first time I can remember in almost 3 years of service, the PBF will be hosting an awards ceremony. Spokes is working on it now, and it should be to me by this week. Keep an eye out.

Old News:

1) The White Guard
As you will notice, some neutral ships appear in this mission, and shoot up the imps. Consider them friendly. Do not return fire. You are to protect and not destroy any of the WG. Any kills in this manner will result in a failed mission. Even if they shoot at you slightly, do not attack them. You will see why on 403.

2) New reporting format
Well, I wanted to start it this month, but I didn't have a mission. Soooo, it will start next month. The first 3 weeks will be dedicated to flying and reporting. The last week, we will use to compile scores, get all accounted for, edit merits, and accept only Non-flying MRs to come in. So, getting used to three weeks of flying isn't bad aynway, which you've had on both 401 and now 402.

3) Reporting
I just wanted to say to everyone, Exce;ent job on reporting the past few months. We've been upwards 2/3 of the fleet now. Lets see if we can get to 3/4. Don't forget all of the incentives involved.

4)Incentives section in NL
A section for awards regarding this has been placed immediately following the MRM winners. Look for it there.

5) Flying/Incentives
After a unanimos decision by the PBF Command group (all COs and XOs at every level) I have decided to implement an incentives program. This was prompted by the overwhelming number (percentage wise) of reports on 312. The new incentives are as follows:

A) For every squad that reports at 75%, a ribbon will be awarded for that mission. This ribbon will be a small graphic that can be added to pilot uniforms. I havn't created it yet...but I will be talking to those I need to shortly.

B) For every squad that reports at 100%, the same mission ribbon will be offerd, as well as an additional merit point for the mission (not counting top ace, or squad merits.)

You may ask, "What is required for the reporting.

1) A valid mission file and physical report (same as normal)
2) We know some people can't report in some instances. This will not be held against squads. If it comes to pass that you could not report for any reason, such as computer issues, you were gone...A properly written narrative will suffice for the flying report. This does not cover, "Oh, I forgot to fly" Or, "I didn't want to fly." These narratives are for the use of people who cannot fly the mission, and need another method of counting a report.

Guidelines for narratives:
The narrative needs to be more then "I got in my ship, launched, flew around, shot this and this up, went home and drank beers." A quality written narritive (Under the discression of PBF command staff looking at reports) needs to consist of some bulk. It can be, however, a report of anything. Since by using this method of reporting, you weren't able to fly for whatever reason, the narrative DOES NOT have to be about the mission directly. You could write a substancial narrative about since yous hip was damaged, you stuck back to make repairs to join the second wave. Or, sicne you couldn't fly, you volunteered to join the rescue shuttle to help an EVA pilot. What you write about is up to you. However, we have command people watching these reports, and they need to be involved, decent reports, or they will not be counted to the squad total.

Also note: If a squad is at say 10 pilots....the 75% rule would apply to 7 pilots minimum...the 12 pilots per squadron will have no effect. The 75% and 100% requirements will be based off of the current squad roster...for those that were curious about that.

If anyone has questions with this new incentives policy, contact myself and your squad leader.

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

So, i think for the first time ever, we had a 7 way tie. Congrats everyone. And yes, even you spokes, get one. You didn't build the mission.

BGN Spokes 22 37,350 Gold Squadron
Capt. Licah Fox 22 37,350 FireClaw Squadron
BGN Garrik Loran 22 37,350 Red Squadron
Lt. Col. Han Suul 22 37,350 Gold Squadron
LCM Xortia Narfasu 22 37,350 Crimson Squadron
Maj. pallr garner 22 37,350 FireClaw Squadron
Lt. Col. Jeremiah Matthew 22 37,350 Gold Squadron


You have the honor of adding the Top Ace medal to your signoff:

[<|=(V)=|>]

PBF Top Squad: FireClaw Squadron 186 341,008 11
PBF Top Wing: Hope Wing 299 552,403 20

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

The mission report medal for the previous month goes to:

312: Kerensky and Janus Victor
401: Indy and Bonaparte

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

[<|=(PBF*MRM)=|>]

Please note that the ASCI symbol for the PBF MRM has changed and has been
added to the RS Medals Database. Anyone who has recieved a MRM in the past
and does not have it reflected in their Profile needs to forward a copy of
the MR, if still available, to BGN Spokes.

*****PBF Incentives*****
Squads flying at 100%:

None at this time

You have the honor of receiving one merit point, and the PBF Activity Medal             {[-PBFA402-]}

Squads flying at 75%:
Fireclaw
Gold

You have the honor of receiving the PBF Activity Medal [{-PBFA402-]}



The current Patriot Battle Fleet mission is:

PBF 402

The deadline for the current mission is:

April 30th, 2002

You can download the current mission at:

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

Send reports with pilot files attached to:

pbfreports@yahoogroups.com

Plus your own squadron CO and/or squadron egroup.

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 PBF
Standard 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 *.plt file
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 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/

BGN Sly