Date: 44:2:19

0300 HRS

Watching battles from a holovid was not my favorite past-time. The battle may hvae been occuring at that very moment, but I still preferred the feel of fighter controls in my hands and the G's produced from the tight dogfights. Even at least being on the bridge of one of the support ships in battle was better over this, but there were things to attend to which required my presence here on the Ad Astra, and thus the CRS Stingray and FRG Unforgiven were sent with our pilots to remove the final remanents of the Zodiac Fleet from our region of space.

As I watched, I slowly melted into a state of mind where my eyes would track along the path of one of our fighters, twisting and turning, and mowing through the TIE's like a grass cutter on a lawn. Our pilots were good, real good. This tour had taken many of our pilots, but those that were still with us were battle hardened to their prime.

The Zodiac Fleet had a large warhead complement to them, and it was becoming obvious that one or possibly both of our capital ships would become compromised, even with our fighter strength. Then, off to one edge of the display, a blue blip entered from hyperspace. I awaited as the sensor scans came through identifying this ship. FRG Tango Base. Looks like our new found friends decided to add some of their weight to the elimination of Zodiac. This was a happy surprise. With the arrival of the Tango, it was apparent the Imperials were starting to have too many targets to handle.

Watching a bombing run by a wave of our Y-wings, the Sagittarius soon after blinked out on the display. It was a pleasant sight, although nowhere near what the pilots would be able to see for a lights show. "Tactical displays," I thought to myself, "nothing but the bare bones information." It was now apparent that we had taken the battle, as our fighters were cleaning up the rest of the TIEs. "I guess we'll be sending the Stingray to Blerthmore to add to their list of repair jobs."

With that, I stood up from the display, and left the room to attend to the other pressing issues at hand.



1800 HRS

The debriefing had gone fairly smoothly after the pilots arrived back. I had gone through their reports, absorbing the details of the battle that they had just fought. It was a battle that they would all be partying over in a few hours. I did remember to alert the medical staff to be prepared for some excessive alcohol use, didn't I? I certainly know of a few pilots who liked their drink afterwards. And tonight would be no exception.

I looked through my stack of datapads, making sure I had everything lined up for the upcoming awards ceremony. Since this was my first time running a ceremony at tour's end, I was getting quite nitpicky and almost paranoid of forgetting something. But, everything was in order: medals, promotions, and a few of the more gloomy things, such as rememberances of pilots lost.



1830 HRS

I looked around at the pilots. Most were either heatedly chatting amongst themselves, sitting uneasily, wanting this to be over so that they could start celebrating, or deep in thought, thinking of the close friends the lost. I looked over to Rekio and Cable. They each gave me a nod, so I stepped up to start it off...


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And this is the point where I drop out of character and give you the stuff you really want to hear. Well, mostly, anyway.

Well pilots, we've come to the end of another tour. We've gone through a few CO's, had some slack points throughout, but nonetheless we're done the tour, and by the roster we're now merging with the IBG to form the Vigilance Starfighter Group. By looking at the website, it's been done, although I had asked for a day's grace so that I could write this NL and hand out the necessary medals and other awards with some more ease, but someone was jumping at the bit so there might be a bit of time inbetween nominating and recieving of awards and such.


First, let's have a look at the results for RgF 412.

We had a decent showing of pilots, 27 to be exact. Not the greatest showing that we've had, but better than many other missions.

The strongest showing squadron for this mission was Dragon Squadron, reporting at 100% for a second time this tour. Congratulations to the pilots and their commander with the cattle prod. Yes Vaughan, don't deny it. :P Next up was Ragnarok squadron, with a percentage somewhere in the 66% region of participation.

Along with this strong showing from Dragon Squadron it definitely boosted the chances of Guardian Wing being top Wing. However, it was nto a landslide taking, as the difference in score was but 35k, two pilots worth of flown reports.

Now, boiling it down to just the pilots themselves, we had some strong contendors for Top Ace this round. Now, although 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places were all within 80 points of each other, BGN Anton Nels managed to pull through to first with a score of 39,675, ~7000 points ahead of second. Congratulations Anton for Taking Top Ace position!

This tour we had one submission for a narrative, written by CPT Kane Redron, who took the mission's bare bones and fitted them with a more realistic perception of what happened in the mission, while also including many of his squadron mates in his narrative. For this, I shall award him the Mission Report Medal. However, there is also two other members of the fleet who have been doing a lot of pushing for members of their squadrons to write their own narratives and perceptions of the story, throughout the majority of the tour, not just this mission. For this effort, I would like to award COL David Vaughan and LCL Rahvin with the Red Star for their efforts.


With the completion of a tour, a number of other special awards and medals become available to numerous members of the fleet.

One such medal is the Tour Champion Award. This award goes to the person (or persons) who showed great skill and tenacity throughout the tour. Now, when I look to see who got the most kills and/or the highest score, I came up with one person. This person was MAJ Carlos. Congratulations MAJ!
Two other members caught my eye when looking at the cumulative stats. These were RA Gavin Cantorph Kravis, and CMDR Dyl'jo'ban. Gavin had the highest kill ratio per game (for those with 10+ missions, with the exception of Carlos) and Dyl'jo'ban is ranked seventh on the board with only 5 missions reported. For these great accomplishments throughout the tour, I would also like to award the Tour Champion Award to these two fellows.

Another medal which is reserved for end-of-tour ceremonies is the Dantooine Key. This medal goes to those members who have reported on every mission, whether it was a zero report or otherwise. This tour, we only had two members stay true to the fleet for every mission. These two people were LCL Rahvin, and myself, BGN David "Heavy" Pasiechnyk. Congratulations Rahvin on recieving the Dantooine Key!

The next medal, which is similar to the previous one, awards those who were able to support the fleet in most missions, while being unavailable for others for various reasons. Those who flew at least 33% of the tour (4 missions) and did not recieve the Dantooine Key shall recieve the Dauntless Combat Citation. These people are:

MAJ Carlos
BGN Anton Nels
VA Spokes
RA Gavin Cantorph Kravis
MGN Phil Darkfire
CMDR Dyl'jo'ban
MGN Extremegene
LCL shaolin
LCM Luren "DaLe" Ketan
LCL Hermann
MAJ Asen
BGN Rekio Corsair
CPT John Rayovac
COL jcmcgoo
CPT Guybrush Threepwood
MAJ Jair Karredo
COL David Vaughan
1LT Juval Tiesler
BGN Max Cal
MAJ Hec Losame
CPT Galactic Angel
COM Leonard Cable
MAJ Corut Po'Col
CPT Carth
CPT Kane Redron
MGN Chris Horn "Kicks"
CPT KingBird
LGN Joshua Hawkins
CPT Keldar "Whisper" Wenn
COL Jack Blazer Barnes
MGN Chris Earthkeeper
BGN Jairo Pantoja
MAJ Tingar "Tiny" Miletus
MAJ jelf boom

An Award not necessarily tied to the end of a Tour, but is worth a tour wide effort, is the Valorous Unit Citation. This is a medal very similar to the Unit Citation, however is worth much more. This award signifies great effort throughout a long time, showing that the unit being awarded is one of high continuous achievement and accomplishment, making itself stand out from the crowd. There are two units which I would like to bestow this award on. These two squadrons are Dragon Squadron, and Red Dragon squadron. These two squadrons were very competitive throughout the course of the tour, bringing in very high reporting percentages time after time, even pulling in 100% participations.

With the fact that this medal is being awarded for a tour long effort, I will be very easily missing some crucial members who helped the squadrons along who may have left prior to the tour's end. Therefore I shall be awarding the rosters of Dragon and Red Dragon as they stood in RgF 412, and then I shall request that if you have someone in mind who you feel is deserving of the award please let me know, and I shall look into the nominee's Tour 4 history for confirmation.


There is one member of our ranks who I owe a fair amount to in way of thanks and gratitude. The medal I shall be awarding him will not come anywhere near the thanks owed, but it will at least lay down the base. Commadore Cable has been building our missions for the past two tours, and he had even decided for a while at the beginning of the year (around the time I came into the CO chair) that he would be quitting making missions. However, after some poking and prodding, and a little bit of begging, he agreed to stay with us to finish the tour, and it appears that he will even be continuing to stay with us building for the VSG tour as well. For this I award Cable the Golden Eyes.


To finish this Awards ceremony, I would like to award to a number of people some well deserved promotions.

First off, I would like to ask MAJ Carlos to come up front (figuratively speaking, of course). Carlos has proven to be an excellent pilot, and good man of character. He has been an active part of Dragon squadron, and also his Spanish Squadron which he is currently trying to create some ties with us. He has also taken on some small projects to help with the VSG tour, related to opt files for some new craft. For his work and dedication, I hereby promote Carlos to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Congratulations Carlos!

Next I would like to call up LCL shaolin. He has regularly been an active member in the tours, and more recently he has become very active in the multiplayer arena, playing for the RS in the BSC Weeks of War. He is also an active member among other groups in the RS, and this dedication/increase in activity is worth acknowledgment. Therefore, I hereby promote shaolin to full Colonol. Congratulations shaolin!

Next is a young new member of our ranks showing his colours and pride being a Renegade! 2LT Jotheb has been with us for close to a month but has been a very active member of the fleet, flying multiplayer in the WoW's and on the side, and reporting the RgF 412 mission for a rank of third on the scoreboard. Jotheb also had the recommendation for promotion from COL David Vaugahan. For your hard effort, I shall hereby promote you to the rank of 1LT. Wear your rank with that strong pride, Jotheb!

The next two people I would like to promote are two people that I have worked with closely over the past year, helping me in many ways, sometimes more ways than I would like.

BGN Rekio has been right at my side for the past year. He's gone from quiet XO to loud XO and will now become your terrorsome, err, I mean wonderful CO for VSG. Over the past year he has taken the reins when I couldn't perform my duties to full over the summer months, and has been a wonderful person to work with, even though he has pushed my buttons many times, even right to this day. But it's his button pushing which makes him good. So, for being the good right-hand man and leader that he is, I would like to hereby nominate Rekio to the rank of Major General. Thanks for your support Rekio!

Next is LCL Rahvin. I was pointed towards this fellow when I took the CO chair and I have absolutely no regrets of placing him in my SO position. He has helped me in many behind the scenes stuff, and was even working on a tour 5 for the fleet with a couple other members, however this project was put on hold due to RL constraints and the RS issue of the merger between RgF and IBG. However, I do still intend to eventually use Rahvin's work in the future and not let it go to waste. Rahvin, you've been a good friend and and excellent SO. For this dedication, I shall promote you to the rank of COL, even though you plan on taking a bit of a leave from the RS. I wish you good luck in your future endeavours, and shall eagerly await your return to the RS. ":)

These last few people are also being awarded promotions as per recommendation from COL David Vaughan:

CPT Galactic Angel to MAJ -> for dedicated service and overcoming challenges to fly
CPT Kane Redron to MAJ -> for extremely dedicated service to the squadron, serving as my XO and creating the missions for the upcoming Dragon Tour
CPT Calista Fairbright to MAJ -> for high activity levels and dedication all throughout the RS, especially service to the squadron
2LT Olith Hesto to 1LT -> for eagerly participating in activities since joining the squadron
2LT Janis Deiverion to 1LT -> for following direct orders, despite feeling as though it would cut down on personal glory; for demonstrating an attitude of sacrifice for the good of the squadron


And with that, I shall make some closing comments.

The BSC WoW 100 is currently in progress, if you happen to have forgotten all the other numerous postings and emails reminding you. I know of a few of you oldies out there who used to be quite the guns in your day, it would be greatly appreciated by the entire XvT community to see at least a return for a day to have some fun behind the stick.

I would like to make a general thank you for making my tenure as RgF CO as fun as it was. I will still be your CO for a little while IC (in character), but the staff will take change fairly soon, without spilling any of the details. I won't be a part of the VSG command staff after the merger, however if I feel the calling in my bones, I may return. But for now, I'll be content flying and building missions for you guys. Thank you very much!


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"Now that the awards have been awarded, the promotions given, and the dead mourned, I would like to say thank you on behalf of the HC for removing the Zodiac force from our region of space, and have a wonderful shore leave on Tarsonis. You've well deserved it, so make the best of it! But for now, there's a number of kegs in the gally that have been dug up from long storage for you to polish off.

"However, before I dismiss you, I think a request to our newly promoted Ryn may be in order for a celebratory occasion. Jotheb, would you grace us with a tune while we drink to our hearts content in the galley?"

"Sir, I don't do requests..." was the Ryn's quick reply.

"Fair enough, COL Vaughan said you would say that," with that the room bursted out laughing. "All right pilots, dismissed!"

As the pilots filed out, I searched for a particular head in the crowd. Sure enough, he was near enough to the front that he wouldn't be able to leave before I could reach him. I slid my way through up to my target and placed my hand on his shoulder, to which he looked back and stopped moving towards the door.

"You know, Vaughan, I'm not gonna look like the fool who got turned down by a Ryn. So, be prepared for a fool-making at the galley." With that I gave him a devious grin, and moved back, letting him exit with the rest of the pilots."