Location: Shuttle Dove
Status: Doing docking operation
Shipboard relative time: 0650 Hrs
Coruscant Standard Time: 1950 Hrs

Slyder peered out the main view port. The hanger was getting larger and larger by the second. He could see individual troops moving about, setting up for the oncoming invasion. The last remaining Y-wing from the PBF unit was circling the frigate, and had become occupied by some enemy gunboats that had just hyped in, but was making fairly short work of them. Slyder let out a heavy sigh, for he knew there was still to be loss of life in the battle to come. He turned towards the rear of the modified troop-carrying shuttle, and headed to inform GAd.
He now realized how cramped it was. GAd stood at the head of fifty some commandos, all packed into the rear, with nothing more then their rifles and some ammo packs. This was to be a quick hit mission, hoping to cause any major damage to the ship as it was supposed to be a gift to the White Guard. GAd turned and nodded to Slyder when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Slyder leaned in close to the veteran and gave him the situation to relay to his troops. When it was completed, Slyder went and took his position back with Spokes near the pilots.
“Alright, listen up you apes!” GAd shouted. It was almost impossible to hear him over the roar of the engines. “We’re gunna have one helluva fight in a few. Docking ETA, 3 minutes. Here’s the scenario. Several troopers are already in the hanger. Sly says it looks like 25 or so, but expect reinforcements. Biggest problem is there are at least ten of ‘em on high ground. There are also two more near the only way in or out with heavy repeater platforms. That’ll need to go first!”
GAd continued to go through the “briefing” as the landing gear lowered. “The WG has a transport docking near the engines as we speak. They are going to be securing that end of the ship and then meeting us in the bridge. Once we have control, we’ll secure the rest of the ship! Krayt hit the ground hard and fast, find cover on the bounce. You’ll be the first thing those repeaters shoot at. Krow, you follow them, and I’ll be joining you. Once the platforms are gone, all of us will sprint out towards the hanger entrance and find cover. Stalker, Mallar and Earthkeeper, you’ll be taking up sniper positions under the shuttle. You have GOT to remove those troopers on high ground. Once completed, escort Slyder and Spokes to my position! Understood?”
The entire rear hull of the ship echoed with a simultaneous “HUAH!”
The small shuttlecraft vibrated momentarily as it passed through the magnetic shield of the hanger. It rotated ninety degrees to port in an effort to give the exiting troops a bit more cover. The ramp slowly reached the ground, and commandos were already pounding down it. As GAd had said, the repeaters would open fire. Both of them trained on Krayt squadron and let loose a hail of crimson energy. Two troopers were taken down; one of them was Lieutenant Junior Grade Feak Duran. Clipped in the shoulder, his feet leapt from under him and his body hit the ground hard. The rest of Krayt made it out fine, finding cover from the waves of laser fire behind some storage containers. Krow moved down the ramp quickly, policed the bodies, and then joined Krayt. Sporadic fire was coming from the RS commandos. The enemy shots were too frequent to get off a shot. The three snipers slowly walked down the ramp, trying to avoid being detected. They rounded the closest landing pylon, and took up their positions. One by one, the agonizing scream of a storm trooper echoed through the hanger as he fell to his death from the heights above.

Location: Transport Hawk
Status: Doing docking operation
Shipboard relative time: 0651 Hrs
Coruscant Standard Time: 1951 Hrs

The Hawk was likewise packed to capacity. It had around 40 White Guard troopers cramped into it. Captain Exavier turned to his troop and gave them their objectives.
“We’ll be docking soon. Our first objective is to secure the engine room, and plant the virus. Once that is complete, we will proceed to meet up with Major General Slyder McGrath and his stinking commandos. We will remove the enemy threat and take what is ours!”
A loud uproar of cheers flooded the small ship. Today, the White Guard would become known across the Galaxy. They would kill the leaders and troops of one of the largest fleets in the surrounding sectors.
The transport docked with a thud. A makeshift hatch was carved into the hull of the Despoiler II. Troops began to pour out, three of them tacking fatal wounds to the chest.
Captain Exavier waited on board the transport as they disembarked. “It appears they are more heavily armed then we thought, even their engineers have weaponry.” He said seemingly to no one.
The WG troops let loose a fury of fire of their own. The two closest engineers went down hard. The doors to engineering opened and 7 storm troopers poured in. The WG turned their attention towards them, and took cover behind some bulkheads.

"The room is far to small to be fighting here, we must remove this threat quickly", Exavier thought.


Location: Shuttle Dove
Status: Docking
Shipboard relative time: 0655 Hrs
Coruscant Standard Time: 1955 Hrs

Slyder and Spokes remained on the shuttle for the time being to observe the fight. Captain Alextravia Grentarii rose from his cover, and through a thermal detonator towards the repeater platforms. He took a shot in the left leg, sending him to the hanger floor as that leg suddenly gave out, not allowing him to see what had happened. The detonator bounced a bit farther then it was supposed to. However, it worked to their advantage. It detonated right on top of the two power generators supplying the platforms. A large orange-blue explosion engulfed the troopers nearby, seemingly melting their armor and sending bodies hurdling forward. The hanger doors also suffered a crippling blow as one of them toppled down into a pile of debris. The shot was well worth the sacrifice. Meanwhile, at least 20 troops had setup in cover in front of Krayt and Krow, between them and the only way out. A heavy firefight was ensuing as both sides were going full force. The snipers down below had all but finished off their targets when Major Earthkeeper came into the shuttle.
“Generals, sirs. We’re ready to go. The high ground is effectively removed, come with me.” He said as he waved his hand towards the two men. Sly turned to look at Spokes, who gave him a reassuring nod, and they followed the lone trooper down below the shuttle. The noise was tremendous as it echoed of the walls like a symphony dome from Chandrilla. The combined bang of some where around 50 blasters being fired was overbearing. Another detonation. One of the containers the imps were using as cover apparently contained munitions. Several bodies were thrown across the floor, and there were only about 10 of them left. A black covered hand emerged from behind the wreckage, waving pathetically.
“HOLD YOUR FIRE! HOLD YOUR FIRE!” GAd shouted. They had won. At least in here. The remaining imperial forces had surrendered and were now standing, hands thrown in the air. “Resnick, take these 6 troopers and secure the hanger. Police the bodies and detain these prisoners.” Sly, Spokes and their escorts moved up to meet with GAd and discuss their further plans. “Mallar, Earthkeeper, Stalker and Cheddar, secure the pilots areas, make sure no one gets off this ship. Everyone else, come with me, we’re going to the bridge!”
Slyder’s Comm system rang, showing that it was Captain Exavier.
“Yes captain, how goes your end?” he asked.
“Very well sir. The engine room is now secured, although they were more of a fight then I had expected, we have 6 wounded and 2 dead. I trust everything went well for you and your forces.” He replied cold as a Hoth night.
“That it did captain, we are heading to the bridge right now. Meet us there ASAP!”

Location: Despoiler II, Deck 1 Subsection 24
Status: Troopers in heavy combat
Shipboard relative time: 0703 Hrs
Coruscant Standard Time: 2003 Hrs

The fighting persisted the entire way towards the bridge. Around every corner was another group of troops. They had even encountered multiple repeater platforms at several of the T-junctions. But the RS commandos were good. They had been fully trained for this operation and they all knew the way. They were very close now, and still had good numbers to show. The final turn that lead to the bridge was just around the corner. GAd was in the lead, back against the wall closest to their objective. All his troops were lined up on either side directly behind him. He glanced at one of his troops on the opposite wall, put to fingers towards his own eyes, and then pointed them repeatedly towards the corner. The trooper was visibly nervous as he swallowed hard and began inching towards the edge. He began to peek his head around the corner, catching a glance of several stormies and a bright red beam heading directly at him.
GAd watched as the trooper toppled to the ground. He pushed the body with his foot causing it to roll over and he saw the wound to the forehead. The body was quickly removed, and GAd unhooked something from his body armor. He pulled a pin, and threw it down the hall to the blockade of troopers. A loud bang echoed and the hall filled with smoke. GAd stuck his hand out in the air, and gave the signal to charge. Every trooper behind him rushed out from around the corner, guns blazing. A couple of his own went down, one death and a few wounded. But by the time the smoke had cleared, there was nothing left to surrender. There were only four troopers there, all of which had several wounds across their body. The door behind them had been thoroughly melted in several spots. GAd walked up to it, and placed a detonator. Everyone took up their position behind the wall as explosives yet again rocked the hall. The troopers then charged out around the corner under small arms fire, but the threat was removed quickly. The troopers filled the bridge fast, securing all personnel and stations, and Slyder and Spokes walked in.
“I am Captain Entori of the Imperial Fleet. What gives you the right to….” He began.
“Stuff it Captain. We are seizing this ship and any information it may have. Lieutenant Wraith, patch into their computers, see what you can find out. Everyone else, secure the area, we could be seeing more imperials soon.”
A few minutes later, Wraith walked over to Slyder.
“Sir, your not going to like this.” He said frowning. As Slyder read it, Wraith summed up.
“The White Guard, they aren’t an ex rebel group. These imperials weren’t here for us, they were here for them…”
Slyder’s jaw dropped. How could they and Intel be fooled? His Comm rang again.
“Yes?” he asked.
“SIR! This is Commander Xander. Send help fast sir! The Guard are shooting at US? What’s going on! Do I have permission to return fire?”
Slyder paused for a moment, and ran over to the ship broadcast system.
“All squadrons units, engage and open fire on the White Guard. Rendezvous in the Hanger immediately, we’re leaving.” He switched it off and turned to GAd. “Get your men, were outa here. Wraith, download what you can to our shuttle, you have 5 minutes. GAd, escort these imperials to the hanger, they’re coming with us!”
Wraith bellowed to Slyder. “SIR, scans show several incoming enemy ships. Looks like Guard sir.”

"Could this day be ANY worse," Slyder thought.

“Send the call to headquarters, we’re going to need some help.” Slyder replied.


Current News:

1) Paladin Selection
406 marks the end of the selection process for Paladin. After this mission, the top 12 pilots in the fleet will be invited, do your best.

2) Non-flying MR points?
There is a discussion in the works right now about how MRs should be counted. At the moment, they are given a score of 0 so they still count for participation twoards merits. The major portion of this discussion is wether or not to award points based off of the MRs to assist in squadron standings. Watch for further updates.

3) New MRM format
MRMs will no longer be listed in the standard NL. They will be release seperately along with the actual reports so you all can have a chance to see them from now on. Look for that later tonight.

Old News:

1) Paladin Squadron
Yes, there finally is a name for our Aces unit...Paladin Squadron. Reminder, the first 12 members will be selected follwing the end of 406. The top 12 pilots overall will be given the opportunity to join, at which point from 407-410 a new 12 will be choosen. There are some great things shaping together for the unit. Their TOD will be intertwined with the fleets, as well as we are beeing joined by the Katarn Commandos....so get flying and try your best.

2) New PBF SO
With Fion beeing sort of back, but unable to fully return to active duty, we now have a new SO. Please welcome Lt. Colonel Gavin Phalon...Drinks are on him for the week!

3)New Provider CO
After a few weeks of trial runs, we have finally found a new CO for Provider. Give your congrats to Colonel Taan Ronar Hawk. Drinks are also on him this week.

4) New Automated Uniforms
The uniforms office has finally completed their mighty chore of setting up the new unniforms. They are automatically updated when medals are awarded and promotions are handed out. No more requests in the UO to get yours fixed :) You can view yours by logging into your profile on the RDB, and clicking View Uniform. Right now, the PBFf has a blueish color scheme. I have forwarded a new color scheme I came up with to your PBF COs. The pic was made by Vender, and it looks great. White/Silver coat with grey left breast. The sash is a red color with black trimming. If you'd like to see it and voice you oppinions on the experimental color, beg your COs to forward the message.

5) 405...2 weeks!!!
That's right boys and girls....PBF 405 is due the 28th!!! So get your butts in gear. 12 days is all you have left.


-----PBF 405 Mission Standings-----

Top Pilot: BGN Snappleguy 43 43,870 FireClaw Squadron
Top Squad: FireClaw Squadron 337 300,079 11
Top Wing: Hope Wing 582 495,623 23

-----PBF Medal of Victory-----

The medal awarded for the best overal performance in the current PBF TOD mission.

BGN Snappleguy (Note: Spokes was top scorer, but had major contributions for the mission. Unfortunately, he cannot win.)

[<|=(V)=|>]


-----PBF Activity Medal-----

Given to each member of a squad that reported with 75% of it's pilots for the current mission.

{[-PBFA405-]}

Red
Fireclaw
Gold
Crimson

Bonus merit for squads flying or sending in a non-flying MR at 100%:
None at this time

-----PBF "Beyond Belief" Ribbon-----

Awarded only to those Pilots who actually Follow Orders:

||[BB--;)


(Note: Only given out on missions with specific orders as in Recon types)
-----PBF Mission Info-----

The current Patriot Battle Fleet mission is:

PBF 406

The deadline for the current mission is:

Sunday August 25th 11:59 pm EDT

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.

12) 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.

-----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)--