Mission Briefing: PBF 4.10

PATRIOT BATTLE FLEET RENDEZVOUS
DEEP SPACE
CRS WINDSTORM
DAMAGE CONTROL CENTER

“No Sir. Not even if we worked the crew round the clock.” Major Thor Kang, the Windstorm’s Damage Control Officer stated firmly. “We need to be in a repair yard for at least two weeks just to repair the launch bay. The defensive systems can be back online in 3-4 days, but we simply are not battle-ready.”

Spokes had known the damage was extensive. They had barely made it into and back out of hyperspace. “And, the Echo Hawk?”

Major Kang shrugged. “Frigates can be repaired faster, but she took some extensive hull damage. I haven’t had a chance to go over for a look, but the reports are not good.”

Spokes reached for his comm unit. “Captain Moori?”

“Yes General.”

“Head for the nearest repair yard and get your ship battle-ready. Take the Echo Hawk with you and have my shuttle prepped. We are temporarily transferring the Command Staff to the Valor.” Spokes clicked off the comm unit, turned away from the Major and entered the lift.

SHUTTLE TEKE’S HAND
IN HYPERSPACE

“We’ll need to move fast.” Colonel Chris Earthkeeper stated as he pointed to the two White Guard Cap Ships on the holovid that glowed between him and the General. “They may know that their security has been breached and will pull out of the Enomea Rim as soon as they can.”

“Yes, but ‘as soon as they can’ will depend on whether they are willing to abandon an Escort Frigate.” Spokes pointed at the FRG Courageous before turning off the holovid. They had gone over this for most of the trip and they had not come up with any new strategies. Spokes ran his hand through his hair and leaned back to stretch his back. “I could use a drink.”

“Me too.”

Squelch tweedle out that they were about to revert to real space and reminded Spokes, unnecessarily, that drinking before battle was both unwise and against regulations. Spokes ignored the lecture because he knew that the little droid had never made the connection between wanting and doing….

PATRIOT BATTLE FLEET RENDEZVOUS
DEEP SPACE
CRS VALOR
LANDING BAY

Lt. Commander Jan-lo Sunner stood in the landing bay of the CRS Valor and watched as the General’s shuttle set down with a thump. The shuttle’s ramp lowered slowly and the two officers descended the ramp. Jan-lo napped off a salute as she said, “Welcome aboard the Valor, Sir.”

Spokes eyed her for a moment and then acknowledge the salute with an amused smile. “Thank you, Commander. Did you receive my instructions?”

“Aye, Sir. The McGrath is already in route as are the fighters. I have a vector plotted that should get us there in time to score a few kills.”

“Excellent. Get us to the Enomea Rim, Commander.”

Jan-lo smiled at that. “With pleasure, Sir.” She reached for the comm unit on her belt. “Captain, get us underway.”

WHITE GUARD SPACE
ENOMEA RIM
ISD JUDICATOR
OFFICE, GENERAL GAH’VOR

The Security Officer waited nervously while the General reviewed the data he had intercepted. They had caught traitors before, but usually they were caught stealing. After the way Commander Frenzer had been dealt with, Lieutenant Peridun was more than a little nervous.

General Gah’Vor dropped the datapad on his desk and stared at it for a few moments longer. “You’re certain it originated aboard this ship?” He asked so suddenly that Peridun took a step back.

“Yes Sir, there’s no doubt about that and I was able to isolate it to the officer’s quarters. Although the transmission was too short to get a lock on the transponder, but I was able to record the message.”

“Record, yes. Decipher, no. You can’t even tell me where it was sent, can you?” Gah’Vor was not at all amused by this development, but he believed he had a way to find the traitor. He did not waste any time waiting for the Security Officer’s response to his question. “Co-ordinate your search with Lieutenant Hasuadan. He has proven competent to date and I want this matter resolved quickly. Find the transponder and we’ll find the traitor.”

WHITE GUARD SPACE
ENOMEA RIM
ISD JUDICATOR
QUARTERS, LIEUTENANT HASUADAN

Lieutenant Hasuadan had dropped the transponder in the garbage chute as soon as he had sent the message. He knew he would never receive an answer and that he had seriously jeopardized his cover. It didn’t help to know that he had been forced to use a frequency that he was unfamiliar with. He had no idea whether the message had been received or by whom. *Covert Ops suck.* He thought again and spun like a spooked Bantha at the knock at his door. He shook it off quickly. “Come in.” Hasuadan felt more like Gavin Phalon than ever before as Gah’Vor’s Security Officer entered his quarters.

“Lieutenant Hasuadan,” the Security Officer began and Gav felt a trickle of sweat run down the middle of his back, “The General wants us to work together to locate the person who sent this message.” Peridun handed the datapad to Hasuadan and Gavin looked down at a complete recording of his message. Gah’Vor ran a tighter ship than he had given him credit for…

“This is a sophisticated encryption. It’s not really my area of expertise….” Hasuadan began. “But, I don’t believe we need to be able to read it to find out the location from where it was sent.” Hasuadan handed the datapad back to Peridun.

“Hmph, agreed. Fortunately, decryption is not our job.” Peridun had felt the same way when he was given this assignment. “I was able to isolate the transmission to the Officer’s Quarters, so our search shouldn’t take more than a few hours.”

“Finding the transponder would help. Any way to scan for it? Or, will we have to do a room-by-room search.”

“Room-by-room. If he transmits again, we’ll have him immediately, but until that happens, we do it the old-fashioned way. Unless you have any objections, we’ll start in here and work our way out.” Peridun watched Hasuadan’s reaction closely, but got no hint that he had either offended or surprised the young officer.

“By all means.” Hasuadan stepped aside and performed a half-bow and waved Peridum into his quarters. Peridum leaned over and opened a drawer of the small desk, but lost consciousness before he ever saw the contents. Gavin was just beginning to wonder where to hide the body when the klaxons started sounding battle stations. “I’ve got to get off this ship.” He said to no one in particular and stepped out into hallway…

**********************************

Here are the Final Standings for PBF 409:

Patriot Battle Fleet: 80% Reporting. Good Work Everyone!!!

-----PBF 409 Mission Standings-----

Top Pilot: LGN Spokes Gold Squadron, 41 kills, 81,457 points
Top Squad: Gold Squadron, 268 kills, 587,513 points, 12/12 reporting
Top Wing: Crusader Wing, 521 kills, 1,123,525 points, 25 reporting

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

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

Han Suul
[<|=(V)=|>]

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

The medal awarded for the best written narratives for the current PBF mission.

Gavin Phalon
Argon Viper
[<|=(PBF*MRM)=|>]


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

Given to each member of a squad that reported with 70% of its pilots for the current mission.

{[-PBFMoA-]}

Gold
Blue
Sabre
Green
Fireclaw
Red

Bonus merit for squads flying or sending in a non-flying MR at 100%:

Gold 12/12
Green 12/12
Blue 11/11
Sabre 8/8

Exceptional Performance by these four Squadrons.

-----Current PBF Mission Info-----

The current Patriot Battle Fleet mission is:

PBF 4.10

The deadline for the current mission is:

Sunday February 23, 2003, 11:59 pm EST

Narratives are due Friday February 28, 2003, 11:59 pm EST

You can download the current mission at:

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

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 TO 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 one’s 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 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.

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.

-----General 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 oplanvarok@yahoogroups.com

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/

Out for now,

LGN Tyrell "Spokes" Borran
PBF Commanding Officer

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