State of the Rebel Squadrons
Friday, January 26, 2007

I. State of the RS
II. High Command News
III. Fleet News Shorts
IV. ORW3: Start of the Competition
V. Other Executive Projects
VI. Recognitions
VII. Miscellaneous

Greetings, Members of the Rebel Squadrons!

Welcome to the first SotRS address of the New Year. I'm happy to be able to tell you all that the RS is doing very well, for the most part. Most of our units are quite active and have leaders who are striving to provide entertaining ways to interact in the Star Wars universe we all know and love. Hovering above all is the successfully introduced RS-wide storyline including missions available to multiple gaming platforms and an overarching fiction that binds them all together. As usual, good news does not come unmixed. The release of the VSG/RID 102 mission was late by several weeks. I know that the entire TacOps team are working hard to make sure that something like this is not repeated. Such hiccups are perhaps to be expected in a grand undertaking as vast as this project. I can assure you all that there is even more to the RS-wide storyline and VSG/RID Tour than you see right now. A vast organization is in place to support and explain the storyline, and the parts of that organization will only unfold gradually. There is much new to discover. The impending arrival of Outer Rim War 3: The Subterrel Conflict is another thing to get very excited about. The Rebel Squadrons is surely embarking upon a new golden age.

II. High Command News

The High Command roster changed slightly this past month. MGN David "Heavy" Pasiechnyk took over as the CO of Vigilance Starfighter Group. He has not yet selected an XO. There were no important discussions in High Command this month.

III. Fleet News Shorts

Patriot Battle Fleet: The PBF's Tour 7 continues, having just completed its sixth mission. I have been asked recently why the PBF is not yet a part of the RS-wide storyline. The reason is simply that PBF was already in the middle of its Tour 7 storyline when the RS-wide storyline got started, and it was decided not to interrupt that. We will connect the two storylines fictionally as often as possible, and PBF CO Josh Hawkins continues to write excellent narratives for the PBF storyline, so I don't believe PBFers are being short-shrifted. Gold Squadron in the PBF is also running its own ITOD, as you can see from the narratives occasionally posted on the RS site by Captain Gavin Starseeker.

Vigilance Starfighter Group: As I mentioned above, MGN David "Heavy" Pasiechnyk has been appointed VSG CO. He recently altered the VSG Merit system slightly and is currently looking for a new XO. Although VSG102 was delayed by several weeks, it is happily now available in both XvT and XWA formats. Pilots are highly encouraged to fly the mission in both platforms. Reports for 102 are due by February 24th.

Aurora Force: In the AF, the main storyline just recently began a new mission. The AF has also welcomed some new writers into its ranks in the past week.

Allegiance Battle Group: The ABG has had perhaps the most active month of any fleet in RS history. Over the holiday season, ABG CO Michael Raven was frequently GMing sims for ten hours a day. I believe he told me that the ABG had simmed 90 hours in one week. This level of dedication is impressive, and Raven is to be commended for spending so much time to bring an enjoyable simming experience to the members of the ABG. In addition to this, Raven will be starting up the RS-wide storyline era simming wing when he returns from LoA.

Redemption Fleet: In the RF, Righteous Indignation Division is currently in mission 2 of its tour. RID102 was late in order to come out at the same time as VSG102. In the Commando Division, plans are under way to find a way to incorporate the CD into the RS-wide storyline by giving it an ITOD of its own. More on this as information becomes available. In other RF news, Bonaparte, CO of the Jedi Division, has disappeared in what RF CO Kaz Falcion calls "The Curse of the Jedi." Cody is also busy writing stories for Giz in the Hopewell storyline.

Vanguard Fleet: Nothing new to report from our Star Wars: Galaxies fleet, which continues to represent our name in the virtual world of SWG.

IV. Outer Rim War 3: The Subterrel Conflict to start

The biggest news of the month is that the long awaited Outer Rim War 3: The Subterrel Conflict is finally about to begin. Just this past weekend we had a scrimmage to determine whether the moderation would work, the rules would be acceptable, and the factions balanced. Although attendance at the scrimmage was not as high as I had hoped it would be, all lights are green. ORW3 is now ready to begin. The first battle of The Subterrel Conflict will begin on February 3rd, a Saturday, at 9am EST, and will last until 12am EST on Sunday night. The battle will rage fiercely all weekend, and at the end one faction will have successfully won control of a new system in the Subterrel Sector. The competition will take place in #Outerrim. I hope you will come out and join us on the weekend of February 3rd. Participation will be rewarded well. Those who fight for the RS cause will receive RS merits as well as combat medals!

On the technical side of things, we are beginning the competition without the high-tech website/bot combo that we have been hoping to get. Work will continue on that, but for now ORW3 will use a matching bot to put participants together to fight. After the match the participants will have to email their scores to a mailing list to report them. Despite this, we do now have a working (and very pretty) Subterrel Conflict website. That this website is now complete is the result of the work of a whole bunch of people who deserve my thanks and will receive it later in this newsletter. Head over to orw3.net to read up about the rules, the fiction, and to see some well-crafted graphics. One last note. I should point out that ORW3: The Subterrel Conflict connects directly to the RS-wide storyline and the narratives you have been reading. The competition will be the multiplayer representation of the RS taking its vengeance on the Imperials that attacked Blerthmore, and will run side-by-side with the VSG/RID tour.

V. Other Executive Projects

Topping off Executive news this month, the RS-wide narratives continue to be put out at a generous rate. Executive Officer Michael Raven writes the VSG/RID Tour narratives, which get posted monthly. In the interim between those, I have been publishing FC narratives to describe the fictional situation from the viewpoint of our command staff and Fleet Commander. These narratives will continue to get published even as most of the RS moves off to the Subterrel Sector. Raven's narratives will cover the Subterrel front, and the FC narratives will cover the Greeop and RS home territories and what transpires there while the main RS fleet is away.

General Petr Margul, Assistant Training Officer, recently opened the Officers Training School (OTS). He is still accepting applicants and hopes that classes will begin soon. See the OTS wiki page if you are interested in pursuing this program.

Captain Gavin Starseeker, Historical Officer, recently published a complete history of the Patriot Battle Fleet. It is worth a read and quite amusing to see how many twists and turns our X-Wing units have had in the club's history. See his announcement of the PBF history for more information.

The Logistics Office recently launched the Mediator News Service. Mediator will bring fictional news updates, a la an actual news broadcast, to RS members on a regular basis. You can see it at the top of the main RS page. The most recent press release described the memorial for those fallen in the Battle of Blerthmore.

Lastly, the Logistics Office is putting out a request: they need a Holodocumentor! Essentially, this means that a person is needed to take screenshots in X-wing Alliance. LO David Vaughan is looking for somebody who "has a good computer, with fast CPU, lots of RAM, and an excellent video card," and XWA installed, and "is willing to, under the direction of the LO, load missions and take screen captures of backdrops within them." If you are interested in being a photographer for the LO, please contact BGN David Vaughan for more information. He will be happy to reward whoever is willing to assist him.

VI. Recognitions

There are a whole host of people that deserve recognition this month. I will try to be as brief as possible in describing their achievements, though.

Captain Gavin Starseeker has been instrumental in helping me with several projects of mine. Seeks has made dozens of images for me, including the banner graphic on the ORW3 website and many medals for our medals database. In addition to this, he has crafted a very fine history of the PBF for the Historical Office. Seeks, for your willingness to help out wherever needed and your dedicated service, I am happy to award you with the Burdine Cluster. Congratulations! ":)

LCM Terrak Jace is the resident graphics whiz of the RS. He is always willing to help me with special projects. Most recently, he made the graphical skin for the ORW3 website and a beautiful map of the Subterrel Sector. TJ, for your willingness to share your talents with the RS, I'm happy to present the Iridium Spire to you. Congratulations! ":)

GEN Harley "Jester" Quinn helped me out this month by writing some content for the ORW3 website, for which I'm happy to award him a Merit Commendation. Congratulations! ":)

MGN David "Heavy" Pasiechnyk and COM Himm El-Syna have been absolutely indispensable in the TacOps group. They are both talented and experienced mission builders, Heavy in XvT and Himm in XWA. They not only make the missions they are assigned to make, but volunteer to step in during emergencies and make missions on very little notice as well. Because of their dedication to mission building and supporting the VSG tour, I hereby award both Heavy and Himm with the Burdine Cluster. Congratulations, gentlemen! ":)

BGN David Vaughan as Dragon Squadron CO and the head of the Logistics Office has been indefatigable in working to bring the dream of an RS-wide storyline to reality. I cannot even begin to express to you all how much time he spends calculating dates, tweaking wiki pages, sending out emails, coordinating mission builders across multiple platforms, and helping individual RS members to expand their character histories. I try to quantify the hours he must spend and simply lose count. Simply stated, the VSG/RID tour, the RS-wide storyline, and the fictional renaissance the RS is enjoying right now would be impossible without him. Vaughan has truly defined the position of Logistics Officer for whoever comes after him, and so I am happy to award him the Distinguished Service Cross. Congratulations! ":)

As an intermission here, I'd like to give thanks to a non-RS member, Sith Warrior Karel Bruth'Kothae. Karel has been instrumental in helping put together the technical details of Outer Rim War 3 and has devoted hours to moderating already. Thanks, Karel!

LCM Luren "Dale" Ketan is an extremely dedicated officer of the RS. As CO of the two major units in Redemption Fleet (RID and CD), he manages to provide excellent leadership to both. This would not be easy under any circumstances. Yet Dale is not content to rest on his laurels, but is pushing to get the CD aligned with RID and the VSG in the RS-wide storyline and ITOD. A promotion for this thoughtful officer is clearly long overdue. Dale, you are hereby promoted to the rank of Commander. Congratulations! ":)

LGN Josh Hawkins is another officer who seems to have split personalities. In one life, he is the PBF CO. He churns out missions and narratives each month, working to provide the PBF pilots with an interesting story and a challenge in the cockpit. More than that, he's attentive to member requests and is always available to speak with about ideas. In his other life, Josh is the RS Internet Officer, and maintains our domain and makes sure nothing breaks too much. This is not an easy job and requires attention to a considerable amount of detail. On top of all this, Josh is present in person on IRC daily and dedicates a lot of time to the RS in general. Josh, it's time you were a full general. You are hereby promoted to the rank of General. Congratulations! ":)

GEN Michael Raven should need no introduction. As ABG CO and RSXO, he contributes much to the club. Leaving aside his contributions as a fictional technical adviser and a narrative writer, Raven deserves recognition for his service to the ABG alone. Anybody who contributes as much time over the course of one week to his fleet has earned the approval of his members and his peers. I'm still astounded at the way he sacrificed much of his holiday break to provide sims to the ABG. Raven, it is my pleasure to promote you to the rank of Commodore. Congratulations! ":)

VII. Miscellaneous Notes

Contribute to the RS Wiki! This past month has seen an absolute explosion of wiki articles. Character entries, ship entries, battle entries, calendar year entries... we've seen it all. You can be a part of the craze as well. We'd love to read about your character or squadron on the wiki. Anybody can edit it, and the coding is extremely simple to learn. One of my favorite parts about wiki entries are infoboxes. If you have updated your character entry, consider adding an infobox to it! The RS wiki page of the month is "Petr Margul". PM is a valuable member of the RS and has really gone out of his way to put together a first rate character entry on the wiki. PM's entry has an infobox to describe his character and plenty of biographical detail. It is a great example of what each and every member of the RS can do to advertise them self and their character.

The RS wants YOU to get more involved in RS fiction! The RS is trying to emphasize a central fictional continuity and storyline (the RS-wide storyline). You are invited to get involved in this by writing your character's biography in such a way as to fit it into the timeline we are following. Contact the Logistics Officer, BGN David Vaughan for more information.

The XvT Week of War (WoW) ended earlier today. About eleven RS members flew in this competition, marking the most RS participation in a WoW in months. Thanks and a big salute to those who represented our club in WoW!

The last week of the ICTE (Interclub Training Event) is Saturday, January 27th. The ICTE will be ending so that Outer Rim War 3: The Subterrel Conflict can take its place. If you want to get in some matches against our future enemies, join #Outerrim on Saturday and look for some opponents!

On a very serious note, longtime RS member Alexander Kerensky has shipped out to Afghanistan with the U.S. military. He and all who are in harm's way are in our thoughts and prayers.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions.

":)
Dave Trebonious-Astoris
Fleet Commander

=The Rebel Squadrons=
A H.I.E.R. Organization: Honesty, Integrity, Equanimity, Respect

"I want you to understand this, and I want future generations to believe it; you and they will do more than adequate service to my reputation if I am held to be worthy of my forebears, careful for your interests, steadfast in danger, and not afraid to be unpopular if I am serving the national good." -Tiberius Caesar Augustus