Date: 42:2:25 Time: 1750 Hours

"That will be all pilots. May the Force be with you."

With that the first mission of Gold's new special assignment was underway. These White Guard pukes had been a menace for far too long, and now the Goldies had a chance to get to the root of the problem and cut the WG where it hurts. A convoy attack was a good call for a first strike. "Without supplies an army can not move" was a common truth well known to all tacticians and a key element to any strategy calling for a quick elimination of the enemy.

As Ace Farlander walked past assignment droid, he let out a sigh of relief when he found he would be flying the one of the three X-Wings in the missions. "Who needs the shields of a bomber when you can dance around the lasers instead?" he thought to himself. Not knowing what would be in the area at the end of the hyperjump, the X-Wings launched first. All, however, was quiet.

"Control, Gold 1, all is clear. Send in the Yakity-yaks."

"1, Control, roger sending in Alpha flight now."

Three silver dots appeared behind Ace's X-Wing, now with 200% shields and engines overdriven to 125 MGLT. A corvette jumped into the area only a few moments later, preceding several WG freighters and more corvettes. Along with these came a few Gunboats, but only four at a time. The thought that something stronger might be seconds away didn't cross Ace's mind. In years of flying and Jedi training focusing on what was here and now became, well, not even "second nature" it was a primary function of his combat sklls.

Four g'boats soon came to be four fields of flying debris as Ace started to dance with the lead corvette and freighters. Having bouys might be a good idea for keeping the WG newbie freighter pilots from getting lost, but it also aided the Gold pilots in knowing where and when to strike. Somewhere in the fight a few Shuttles decided they could pick on starfighters. While fairly maneuverable, the shuttles had nothing to counter the speed and firepower of even the Y-Wings. One shuttle however did stick out as odd.

"Control, Gold 1, one of these shuttles' manifests claim to be carrying data. Anyone back home want it?"

"1, Control. Big affirmative from 'The Hawk'. Keep an eye on 'em until more Yak, err, Y-Wings and a transport can deal with them."

"Control, 1, wil-co."

Figuring there was no reason to let the shuttle's crew feel it was going to get out scratch free, Ace decided to pump enough lasers into the shuttle to make its shields just start to fail. Might as well help the Yaks get out sooner, the gunboats could sometimes catch them with a double missile shot. The craft disabled call soon came as Ace continued to deal with fighters, frigates, and 'vettes. After finishing off the big-ones, Ace reacquired his situational awareness of the whole battlefield only to realize he was...

"Alone? No one's here. Control, 1, did I miss the jump call?"

"1, Control, negative. You're all alone with the shuttle, general. Your squadmates are all EVA, including the transport."

"Roger that control. I'm going to see what I can do."

"What, sir? 1, control doesn't copy."

Ace didn't bother to reply. What had to be done, had to be done. If Hawkins himself bothered to tell the Comm-O that this data was needed that was all that mattered. Ace flew towards the shuttle shields and lasers maxed out ready for anything the shuttle's desperate crew might try, but with his S-Foils closed to not accidentally pump a bolt into the wrong place of the shuttle. At 1.9 click out Ace slowed to 66% throttle, then 33% at 0.5 clicks, and slower and slower...

"Beginning docking procedures, sir!!!" Ace cheerfully said to himself.

::Beep whirl twirp twirp!!::

Bluebee decided to wake from his coma like state warning Ace that the X-Wings auto-docking mechanism had failed.

"I got ya Blue, going in manually."

::Whirl whirl??::

"Hush unless you're going to help." Bluebee began to beep indicating the rate of closure relative to remaining distance.

"Let's surprise them and go topside Blue, probably expecting us to go under like most fighters."

::Beep::

Without a jolt, Ace's X-Wing gently touched the top fin of the shuttle.

"Control, 1, going EVA in 5..."

"General wait!"

"4...3..."

"Protocol dict..." Bluebee muted the output from the speakers, but allowed for the Comm-O to hear the countdown.

"2..." Ace secured his face mask and initiated SCBA 02 flow.

"1..." He grabbed his left lightsaber as his right hand grabbed the cockpit release control. With a brief hiss the oxygen of the small cockpit escaped into the vapors of space. Not having been EVA in years, Ace forgot how cold it could be despite the thermal barriers woven into his special-issued Gold flightsuit.

"Blue do you read me."

"Five by five." the helmet audio system garbled. Why his helmet could have a translator, but not the in-cockpit audio system, Ace could never figure out.

"Good, get the heater primed and ready for when I get back, it's chilly."

"Wuss."

Ace ignored his droids retort. He was in luck, the emergency airlock hadn't been fused by any of the ions coming from the Yaks. Reaching out with the Force, Ace could only sense the two pilots and one trooper inside. All three were tensed and waiting near the main airlock on the belly of the shuttle, none yet sure if the X-Wing had even docked. Ace knew as soon as he opened the outer door, those inside would not hear the air escaping or the door creaking, but the inner door would buckle slightly as the contest of pressure inside the cabin fought against the lack of pressure outside. Extending his left hand towards the door, Ace pushed against in with the Force as he opened the outer door with his right. Ace slipped into the pressurization module and closed the outer door, but did not initialize the sequence to refill the module with air, knowing the sound of the compressors releasing the air reserves would alert the pilots and trooper to Ace's presence. Instead, Ace checked his 02 levels on his suit. If he did this right, everything should work.

"Should work. Heh, that's dangerous! Me likey the dangerous." he wispered into his mask. Ace turned the valve on one of his 02 tubes into the off position and then slowly unscrewed it from the 02 tank. Opening the valve slowly, Ace relased enough air into the module that no suction sound would be made when he opened the door.

Using the Force, Ace tapped on the belly of the shuttle causing one of the pilots to prematurely fire, his co-pilot to jump, and the trooper to smack the pilot in the head. With this distraction Ace entered the main portion of the shuttle. Three gentle snaps of the wrist later, the carotid arteries of the three White Guard soldiers were pinched enough to block the blood flow to their heads to knock them out. Ace quickly went to work to find the the data. The trigger-happy pilot had apparently made another mistake to showcase his flaming newbie-ness and kept the data on his person.

"Glad I wasn't in a hurry to whip out the sabers!" Ace thought. Gathering the data, Ace turned back towards the pressurization module and reconnected his 02 tube.

"Blue, I'm coming back."

"Heater is primed Ace."

Knowing the boys back home might not believe that he did all this by himself, Ace pushed himself a few feet away from the shuttle and took a picture of his X-Wing docked with the disabled shuttle.

"Control, Gold 1, I'm back inside now. Tell 'The Hawk' I got him a present and I'll be back in 10 mike."

"Roger 1, control out." The Comm-O didn't feel like talking, knowing he might be muted again.

After landing back in the hangar, Ace tossed the data into a secure evidence locker, and walked to the B&G for some chow.

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Date: 44:2:27 Time: 1315 Hours
Gavin Phalon had called together the available pilots of Gold Squadron to brief them on the next mission against the White Guard. He had a stern expression on his face as he called up a holo of the picture Ace Farlander had taken in the convoy attack two days ago. The X-Wing parked above the shuttle was glowing brilliantly in the space above the projector as Ace rushed into the briefing room.

"Sorry I'm late, every-" Ace began, as Gavin cut him off.

"You may be a Brigadier-General, Farlander, but I expect my pilots to be on time." Gavin said sternly before indicating the holo. "Good work on retrieving the information, though. Just don't mention this piece of work to the PBF Command, eh? I'm impressed, but I'd rather not have the top brass hear of daredevil maneuvors that the pilots are making."

"Of course sir." There was a chuckle amongst Gold Squadron as Ace gave a quick salute before taking his place in the room.

Gavin spoke again as Ace sat down. "I'll ignore it this time, but I will be lenient to the person or persons who own up to running up my bar tab. Otherwise I can ensure that the McGrath's liquor supplies are flushed out into space next time it happens. May the ship's crew and pilots have mercy on you if that happens."

There were furtive glances amongst the assembled pilots as Gavin left the warning hang in the air.

"Right, gentlemen, we've made a strike against White Guard shipping in the Drenner System. We hit them hard and stole some vital information in the process too. The question is, what do we do with what we found."

Brigadier-General Stalker spoke up. "Well, sir, it seemed to me that the WG seemed to be expecting attacks on the convoy. The gunboats were easy meat to our attack. Either they're recruiting amateurs, or maybe they want us to attack, so they can set a trap. I mean, why leave important data in the convoy like that?"

Gavin nodded at this. "Hmm. I have been pondering that, Stalks. It does seem too convenient. However, the scans you took of the freighter manifests, confirm that the convoy was vital to WG assets. Deep-space probe scans also confirm the data contained in the module that Farlander found."

He worked the holoprojector controls and the visual holo faded away. In its place an order of battle materialized. It was scratchy and some parts were missing as the pilot had tried to wipe the contents before the shuttle was invaded. "Looks as though they weren't total newbies," thought Ace as the pilots read the display.

"As you can see, the order of battle is missing some data, but there is enough for us to work with. In particular, it lists ship staging points, cargo areas and major repair stations. However, although we know some of these locations, the data is too sketchy to confirm what WG assets are where and what defences or supplies are kept at these locations. Therefore, we're going for a little cruise. We are going to recon some of the WG stations and repair points."

Captain Gavin Starseeker piped up. "Can't we just send probes on long range scanning missions?"

Gavin shook his head. "Afraid not, Seeks. The probes we have been sending since the Tac Staff analysed the data have all been getting vaped they transmit anything substantial. That's why we need to head out on recon flights to confirm or deny the information we have."

He manipulated the holo controls again, dissolving the OOB and bringing up a flight plan and pilot allocations.

"This will be even simpler than the previous mission, if that helps. All we need to do is to I.D ships that arrive at several WG staging points. In particular, any supply ships or shuttles. This will help us determine the strength of the WG and what kind of assets they have to fuel their war machine. I don't think I need to tell you that they'll defend themselves with TIEs. Suffice it to say, the more you destroy, the easier it will get later. Each recon flight will consist of a single A-Wing; no need to draw unwanted attention with the PBF as damaged as it is. Especially since the ambush when we tried to help out in the Battle of Blerthmore."

He stopped to allow a moment of silence as everyone remembered those who had died or been wounded in that terrible battle. It was finally broken by Major-General Chris Earthkeeper.

"A-Wings, did you say, sir?"

Gavin sighed. "Looks like I'll have to ask the galley staff to cut back on your daily food ration, EK. Unless you want to be flying a Y-Wing on the recon run."

Chris groaned, but everyone else had a laugh. Gavin managed a smile, which broke the atmosphere somewhat.

"Seriously though, Earthkeeper, if it means half-starving yourself, do it. I need all my pilots alert, ready and fit to fly in whatever craft they're handed with, not just ones that they can fit in. Can I count on you to lose a few kilos?"

Chris groaned again, but stood and saluted all the same.

"Dismissed everyone. I'll see you on the other side. Remember, GO FOR THE GOLD!!"

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And there it is, fellow Goldies. A simple ID A-Wing mission for 202, simply ID all the frigates and all transports and shuttles. Don't forget the neutral corvette or shuttle either....

For the Bonus Objective, if your report has 50 fighter kills in it, you get the 3000 points. Also note that the transports are fair game, but do NOT attack the cap ships or any shuttles.

Thanks to Ace for his excellent narrative (the first section), very nice job!!!

Good Luck!

GOLD 202 DUE DATE:

12:00am, January 2nd, 2007 (GMT-5)

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In the end, a very good turn out for Gold201! Here's the results for the mission.

1st: VA Spokes: 42075
2nd: BGN Stalker: 36540
3rd: BGN Gavin Phalon: 35708
4th: BGN Ace Farlander: 33514
5th: MGN Chris Earthkeeper: 29564
6th: MGN Anton "Ups" Nels: 13308
7th: CPT Gavin Starseeker: 10289

Okay, I know I didn't actually get an MC, kind of ironic given that I made the mission :P
Maybe I shouldn't destroy any gunboats within 0.05 of a km. I hate it when they crash into you like that

Anyway, congratulations to Spokes for 1st Place in Gold201! A drink is on you.

Good Luck, everyone!

~Gavin Starseeker

":)