Location: Calamari Cruiser Windstorm, orbiting Tarsonis
Status: In the green, holding steady
Relative Ship Time: 1926
Coruscant Standard Time: 1326

Slyder sat at his desk. One thing about beeinf PBF CO was that it seemed you had an office aboard every ship in the fleet. Paper work had mounted as he had taken on some extra duties on the outside. The door chimed, and nonchelantly, Slyder spoke to it.
"Come."
The hydraulic hiss filled the air as a bumbling Intel officer fell through the door, sending his papers to the ground. Slyder looked up from his duties, and hefted a heavy sigh. The General, quite out of charachter, got out of his chair and began to help with the clean up. After they were done, Slyder returned to his chair, and offerd a seat to the officer.
"What can I do for you officer....Schtalki?"
The officer was racing to catch his breath. It appeard he had run all the way from Coruscant.
"Sir, General Spokes reported back from the meeting. He said they were ambushed by a small Imperial patrol."
A breif pause, and the Slyder seemed impatient.
"And? What happend?" he asked.
After the officer recaptured his breath, he went on.
"Sir, The meeting went well. We are allready planning out missions to aid the White Guard in some of their endevors in exchange for their help in discovering who is trying to burst out borders. However, I didn't like the sound of the ambush. Something doesn't add up. At first, I thought it was a standard imperial covoy that happend to pass through."
The officer could tell now that Slyder was growing steadily impatient.
"Sorry," he said. Then he contiued. "But after a deep scan analysis, and some communicae with the White Guard....well, look sir."
The officer handed Slyder a holo pad. Just as he was beggening to get bored with the stary void, something just out of range slipped into view. Then another, and another and another. A large grin gre across the General's face.
"Get me Spokes and the White Guard leader on the line Jenette." Slyder said to his aid. He turned to the still bumbling officer.
"Good day."


********

New News:

1) 1 more day!
That's right everyone. 403 is due Saturday the 25th by 11:59 pm EST. That means you all have 32 hours and 36 minutes to send in reports as of the second I am typing this. For the week following that, the new mission will be assembled, scores will be checked, participation will be counted and ONLY Narratives and NON FLYING MRs will be allowed. THAT IS IT. NO PILOT FILES ater tommorow will be accepted.

2) Honorary Wing
The CS is dicussing creating an honorary wing with the available space that we have. Once an agreement is reached on what squads will be moved, more information on this will be given out.

3) Possible Aces group?
A proposition was recently set forth for a possible Aces division. This is a brand new brain fart, so watch for details as the develope here.

4) Tour 3 Awards
We havn't forgot. We have some issues that still need to be delt with Rahj and Jyzner berfore we can release it. Don't worry. This is the first awards ceremony the PBF has ever had, so be patient. We'll have it for you as soon as possible.


Old News:

1) 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 anyway, which you've had on both 401 and now 402.

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.

5) Flying/Incentives
After a unanimous 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 haven'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 offered, 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 narrative (Under the discretion 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 substantial narrative about since your hip was damaged, you stuck back to make repairs to join the second wave. Or, since 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-----

Maj. pallr garner      37      44,740      FireClaw Squadron
Top Squad: Gold Squadron      110      221,160      7
Top Wing: Hope Wing      297      427,933      14

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

[<|=(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 received 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.

The current Patriot Battle Fleet mission is:

PBF 403

The deadline for the current mission is:

Saturday, May 25th 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@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 Gabrich Varmer at: varmer@gmx.net

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/

MGN Slyder McGrath

--Rebel Squadrons, A H.I.E.R.* organization--
--(* Honesty, Integrity, Equanimity, Respect)--