"Space,
The Outer Rim. These are the reports of the Imperator Class II Star Destroyer
Vanguard... Its continuing mission to suppress strange alien worlds. To
wipe out alien life and rebellious populations. To boldly plunder planets
for plumbers!"
<salute>
Well,
first report in a while, mostly because mesa was still thinking up what
actually to put in these reports, because the WC's reports mostly cover
it all. But I got some fun stuff to announce anyway, so here goes:
1.
First,
I would start with congratulating everybody with all their new positions
and ranks. The Sub Lieutenants that entered Scorpion, LT. Sicamicanico
and LT. Jones quickly progressed to Lieutenant, CrazyR2 seems to be settling
in after some initial trouble too. Hawkie finally got his promo... (and
I deny any rumor that i shined Pri's medals for that) ... and so did Damon
Kast. Congratulations all. And welcome (back) too, Cpt Raven Arestar,
LT. Sicamicanico, LT. Jones, LCM Schitzo, LCM Aeron, CM Flelm and
CM Rothmans. Generally, numbers are up, Scorpion briefly even reached 6
and Python 12 in the last week, though some transfers and promo's have
made it go down from 35 to 30 again. No worries, I have information that
CPT jdf1984 is set on reopening Wasp and actually already has 6 pilots
for that.
2.
That
same CPT jdf1984 brought up an idea for a fiction competition earlier this
month and now that the Wing and Ship have gotten themselves a new web site
(http://isdvanguard.emperorshammer.ca/
... not much on there yet, just Khadgar's office at http://isdvanguard.emperorshammer.ca/Khadgar/
and
the ViB site) we think we'll run it in a completely new fashion. An online
one where stories would be put upon the site and people can give a rating.
Giving the judgment on what is good or not to the partial pilots of the
fleet instead of some impartial judge. ;)
As
such I'd like to announce that coming up is the Vanguard interactive
Fiction Competition and the Vanguard
interactive Graphics Competition which will most likely
be started off in the next Wing report... which gives us time to set up
the site and everything.
Because
fair is for sissy rebels, you can already start writing your novels, short
fictions and encyclopedia's now already ofcourse. But we do have some requirements
on the submissions, may it be graphics or fiction:
-
they all need to have a content that involves the Vanguard, its Wing and/or
Squadrons.
-
submissions which include profanities, racial slur, plain out plagiarism
and pornography will be ignored. (it's a family club after all)
-
submissions must not have been entered into an other EH competition already.
(to avoid you guys getting out all your award winners;) )
The
submissions must be done to Khadgar and me, after which we'll put it on
the site ASAP. Then you can get people from all over the TIE Corps to give
your piece of art a high rating so that after a month, you'll have the
highest rated fiction or graphic and win IS nickel (2 times) (or whatever
type of IS is appropriate here). Expect more details on the TO's site and
in Khadgar's report soon.
3.
While
we got that to keep our creative minds busy, our fighters will want to
look into the ASF Vengeance Competition of
this month, which is starting friday!
Starts:
02:00
PM, Fri. 02/16/2001
Ends:
02:00 PM, Fri. 03/18/2001
URL
for XWA scores:
http://www.battlestats.com/games/xwa/war/info/?wow130
URL
for XvT scores: http://www.battlestats.com/games/xvt/war/info/?wow132
Participants:
The
whole Aggressor Strike Fleet
Description:
All three wings will encourage as many of their pilots as they can
to participate in the November XWA and XvT WoWs.
At the
conclusion of the WoW, the wing that has the highest overall pilot score
would be the winner. And will gain the right to modify the title and motto
of the losing wing. At the end of the XvT WoW the wing ranking in points
within the EH will be determined. For first place a wing gets 1 point,
2 for second, 3 for third place. The same is then done after the XWA wow.
Both scores are added to each other and the ship with the lowest amount
of points is the overall winner.
For the
top 3 _rated_ scoring pilots on any of the three wing in both games there
will be medals to be gained. (10 games min to get a rating)”
I'll
make the top scoring pilot COM's Protector. the Week of War is an "Open"
event where clubs from all over the XvT and XWA Community participate in
a week long, fly till you drop event. Score keeping is handled by the database
and provides real time stats in a vast array of categories. This means
you can now fly 24/7 and score plenty medals. The EH is just about in the
top 5 every time and just needs that extra effort to really get there.
I'll try to be there cheering you guys on... and if you need a wingman
ofcourse:)
Remember
that you need to sign up with BSC to play in this competition. If you need
help with that, your CMDR, WC and COM are there for you.
4.
Thanks
to Major Khadgar we have a new message board at http://tiecorps.org/mb/view.asp?b=38&v=0
It's a bit new... but if you want to give your input on how the ship is
run, or just want to BS around a bit, It's a great place to check out.
I'm going to check out what happened to the Medal of Communication, or
else I'll just award some nice merit awards or something like that to people
who real make good contributions to the Message Board. It's a great way
of communicating across the ship, even if you don't really like to chat.
5.
Last,
but not least... My ViB. I'm currently working on the next mission (XWA
this time) and I've put the deadline for submissions for our VAnguard Newspaper
on 3 days before that of the next newsletter. If you want to contribute
to that, send your news articles, sports reviews and so on to me too...
Also, if you can make XWA missions, please call me - I need some help on
this.:)
Generally,
I need to catch up with the story line. Therefore attached to this report
are 4 (!) chapters getting us updated to last week... I hope to catch up
to this week again by this weekend. I hope you like it.
Fleet
News:
General TC News:
- It's the last issue of Battlecry
I'm afraid. Never mind, Issue 12 still has all of this in it... Interviews
with GA Ronin, HA Kawolski and HA Astatine. Look back to the beginnings
of Battlecry. BIG Competition Results. All entries to the BIG Competition
(that work) are published this month. XvT & XWA Week of War Stats for
January. Writing Contest story completed and ready to read. Plenty of great
submissions You can download and view it at http://battlecry.emperorshammer.ca
- Star Wars Quake interview:
Stomped has an interview with the Star Wars Quake team, who are developing
a modification for Quake 2. According to the interview, the mod is expected
to be out this week. You can check out the interview here: http://www.stomped.com/published/aurora981991327_1_1.html.
- Duality - Fan Film:
High quality Fan Film here! Actually, a lot of it is showing off the graphic
design talents of a team of two guys, but it's amazing what just two people
can do! The film is completely shot on blue-screen and shows off stunning
special effects and beautifully rendered digital sets. It comes in low-res
(320) and hi-res (480) versions which are pretty big in size, but worth
the download!
http://www.theforce.net/theater/shortfilms/duality/index.shtml
Other
Information:
Meetings.
- Fleet-wide meeting on IRC-Undernet
channel #emperor's_hammer (every Saturday at 5PM GMT)
- TIE Corps meeting on IRC-Undernet
channel #tiecorps (It's every Sunday at 9PM GMT)
- Don't forget our own IRC-Undernet
channel #Vanguard it's a fun place to be after all:)
Additional
for if you do not know what IRC is: IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat
and it's a protocol specially for chatting. Easiest way to get on IRC is
to go to http://www.mirc.com and download
mIRC free. The Emperor's Hammer is based on the Undernet servers, but if
you need any more help setting up, don't hesitate to call in help from
either your squad mates or me.
Messageboards.
- Emperor's Hammer Message
Board - http://www.tiecorps.org/ehmb.asp
- TIE Corps Message Board –
http://www.tiecorps.org/mb
- Aggressor Strike Force Message
Board -
http://www.tiecorps.org/mb/view.asp?b=21&v=0&s=0
- ISD Vanguard/Wing XV Message
Board - http://tiecorps.org/mb/view.asp?b=38&v=0
Vanguard
interactive Battle:
ViB Prologue VI:
by: RA mBind, Van COM
“..mBind, wake up sir.”
Ender mBind woke up uneasily….
His head seemed to be exploding… But something must have gone right at
the party yesterday evening, because the first things he saw this morning
were the beautiful eyes of a girl. … Those ‘how to pick up a chick and
a variety of other birds’ courses by Hawkie were apparently finally paying
off. Still half asleep the best thing he could say was a simple “Bubble.”
“Bubble, sir? No, it's
your breakfast,” the girl smiled.
“Great smile,” Ender
thought, fighting his hangover, “I've really scored well, she even brings
me my breakfast – nobody ever brings me my breakfast… But why is she in
full uniform already?” He finally succeeded in opening his eyes fully and
getting his back up against the pillow. “And why are all these people in
my room?” he finally brought out. “And where are you going with my clothes?”
The female ensign, at least
that's what her uniform told him, smiled again. “Oh, it's a surprise by
Vice Admiral Blade sir, he's getting our tailors to completely refit all
your uniforms.”
Ender lay back into the pillow
a bit more, “Ahh, ok… that's nice of him. So lets see what you've brought
me..” The tray on his bedside was luxuriously packed. On silver plates
he saw some healthy sandwiches with some sausages, backed beans in tomato
sauce, baked bacon, fruit, fruit juice, and so on… Ender was impressed.
“So this how Blade starts his day, ey… I could get used to that.” Then
in his enthusiasm he made just that shake with his head that brought his
hangover back full force. He put a hand to his forehead. “Sorry, very nice
and all but I’ll just have pint of coffee,” he brought out weakly.
At that moment suddenly the
smile disappeared from the ensign's face. “I'm sorry sir, I'm afraid I
don't have that.” She scanned her trolley to make sure. “I think the chef
of the morning crew forgot about it.”
Ender sighed heavily. He looked
around his room, all of the people seemed to have left with his stuff.
He sighed again and pulled up his shoulders. “Well then I guess I'll have
to crawl to the pilot's mess then, tell Blade I appreciated the gesture
and so on…” He grabbed some sheets around him and made an effort to stand
up.
“I'm terribly sorry,
sir. It won't happen again.”
“Nah, don't worry about
it,” Ender murmured while he made his way to his bathroom with one hand
holding the sheets in place and the other holding his head… his brains
seemed to big for some reason… they definitely were trying to get out his
skull, or so it seemed.
He turned on the hot water
tab to the max. and added some cold, with his face under the shower he
grabbed for his toothbrush and paste in the rack next the water controls.
He grabbed again…. And got his face out of the water. “Where's my toothbrush!”
He shouted. “And my soap?”
From out of his room the girls
shouted back apologetically. “Sorry, sir, Blade order them all to be refitted
or renewed.”
“Damn,” Ender growled.
He continued to stand on the hot water streams for a while…. The hot water
stinging in his skin seemed to bring him back alive a bit more. Then “coffee”
came back into his primary goals list and he turned the water off and grabbed
for his towel. More expectedly then last time… it was not there. On closer
inspection it seemed his whole bathroom had been completely stripped. As
good or bad as it was possible, he just grabbed the bed sheets and dried
himself of with those… Still slightly muttering to himself about admirals
and their crazy ideas he wrapped them around himself and stepped back into
the room.
“You still here?” He
growled to the ensign.
“Yes sir, I've been order
to make sure your morning goes as pleasantly as possible.”
“Well, that hasn't been
very successful i must say. Did your people leave me anything to wear for
today?”
The ensign pointed at his closet.
“Well ofcourse, we left your first flight suit for today, if you don't
mind.”
“My first flight suit?
The one from before Yavin?” Ender’s headache was definitely coming up again.
“I don't know, sir.”
The girl was definitely looking unhappy about the whole situation.
“My first flight suit?
That ‘Thing’ is purple and orange, still has bellbottoms, and last but
not least features Wookie fur on the shoulders. Its hideous! Next I'll
be wearing a large golden religious symbol on my hairy chest and play disco
music!”
“You don't have a hairy
chest sir…”
ViB Prologue VII:
by: RA mBind, Van COM
Ender almost crawled into the
Vanguard's pilot mess. It was nearly empty, the cleanup crew had been very
efficient… Just a few hours earlier an exotic dancer from Bothawui had
been rubbing various body parts against that same table that guy from the
transport squad over there was trying to get a large bowl of fruit yogurt
inside him. The other scarce pilots were mostly hanging on the bar behind
huge mugs of hot caffeined drinks. Ender’s autopilot took over and he made
his way to the bar himself as well.
Passing one one of the tables
on his way there he glanced at a folded newspaper on it. ”The Empire Strikes
at Gecko.” Ahh yes, that's what the party was about…. Good party too… what
he remembered of it. At that moment one of the ISD’s crew members came
up to him from out of no-where and saluted.
Ender managed to pause a moment
to give the guy some time to talk. “Whatcha want?” he said friendly.
“Sir, the port engine
room crew reports that there is a near leak in the cooling system.”
Ender sighed and then shrugged.
“There are some welders working on deck 20c, get them to the port engine
room to put some extra plating over that.”
“Yes sir!” The officer
saluted and ran off again.
Ender shook his head a bit,
and immediately stopped again by the feeling that his brain was bouncing
around in his skull. “Do I really have to do everything around here?” He
continued on his course to his primary goal: “coffee”
The pilots at the bar hardly
noticed that he sat down with them.
“Mornin’ guys,” He directed
his attention to Darik, the barman of the mess. ”One Grand Café
aux Lait please.”
There were some murmurs of
“Morning Bender” from the other pilots, most still not very communicative.
Darik put down a pint of coffee
in front of Ender. Who instantly remembered something else… This was going
to be painful. “Euh, could you place it on my tab, please? I don't seem
to have anything on me.”
“No problem sir. It's
on the house.” Darik said and he made his way to another part of the bar
to wash some glasses.
Ender fell back in amazement…
Usually you were lucky if Darik didn't sick some stormies on you if you
even suggested anything like a tab. He gestured to the other pilots of
the bar… “Guys, see that? Darik actually gave me a drink… Darik doesn't
give the Fleet Commander a free drink unless order to do so at gunpoint!”
There still wasn't much reply
from the pilots, except perhaps a pitiful moan after somebody in the kitchen
dropped a metal plate while cleaning… Until Ender grabbed his mug
of coffee and the orange of his suit reflected in the glass of their own
coffee mugs. Suddenly it was like somebody had told an alien joke in a
party of new republic representatives: all 5 pilots jumped up and away
from Ender and stared.
“Wha-What are you wearing?!”
Damon Kast from Python managed to exclaim after a while of total stunned
amazement.
Ender grinned, coughed and
tried to ease away a crease in his flight suit – as if that would really
solve anything. “Well, Blade thought it was a good idea to ‘refit’ all
my stuff and he only left me this thing to wear for the day.” In a vain
attempt to keep his posture, he took some needed gulps of his coffee.
Ray Lazzak from Mantis carefully
poked the fur on his shoulders. “Sure that thing is dead? Does the Quarantine
Officer know about this?” He said with a disgusted face.
Raistlin, who was standing
next to him laughed. “My mother used to have a wookie slave with just that
fur pattern.”
“Well, I did buy this in the
Correllia system I think.” Ender said teasingly at the Corellian Raistlin.
“So actually, where is everybody? Isn't Hawkie here normally around this
time?” He poured some more coffee into his throat.
The pilots had passed over the
initial shock of seeing Ender’s flight suit and more worrying concerns
of huge hangovers made them sit down again and grab some coffee themselves
as well.
“Well Hawkie apparently
disappaered off ship last night with some girl he picked up at the party.”
Kast said conspiraciously. “She was quite a piece of work it seems.”
“Yeah, I bet. As long
as he's back by dinnertime.” mBind grumbled, reminded of his lack of success
at last night's party.
“Yes, well and Archon
resigned. Said he'd prefer to let Dee-es or Jayday-ef take over.” Zero
Pain from Echo commented from behind Ray. They're busy cleaning out his
CMDRs room now.
“What? I didn't hear
anything ‘bout that!” Ender said… he stood up, grabbed his forehead because
of the sudden movement, gulped down the rest of his coffee, felt a bit
better and said: “Guess I'll have to go down there and see what's up then.
I'll see ya all later sirs.” He staggered back towards the door, meanwhile
saving the guy from the transport squadron from drowning by grabbing him
by his hair and putting his sleeping face on the table next to the bowl
of yogurt instead of inside it.
Just before he made it the
door some officer came to him that seemed to want something from him.
Ender managed to pause a bit again.
“Sir,” The officer immediately
started. “The toilets on the storm trooper decks 26 and 27 are clogged
up and it's really getting messy over there.”
Ender sighed once again that
morning. “Come on! Do I look like the Sanitation Officer?” He pointed towards
the wings on his purple and orange suit. ”See that? TIE Corps, not ‘Latrine
Corps’. Go find him, his office is in the aft section of deck 1. I believe
room 350.” He walked on before the officer had even the chance to salute
and run off again like his colleague had done before.
Behind Ender’s back the officer
still saluted and ran off.
The deck where the squadrons
were housed was overly busy after such a hard night partying. Everywhere
there seemed to be people carrying boxes and other stuff around. Between
those were standing some dazed hungover pilots who's main function seemed
to complain about the noise. Mostly produced by a stereo further
down the hallway.
Ender grabbed one by the shoulder
that looked the most clear to him. It happened to be Lieutenant Strahd
from Mantis. Over the noise of all the stuff that was happening there he
tried to ask him: “You know what's going on here?”
Strahd just looked at Ender’s
clothes in amazement and managed to stutter: “Damn, and I thought I’d sobered
up quite a bit.”
Ender rattled victor out of
it by his shoulder. “Forget about the suit, ok? Tell me what's going on
here?”
Strahd got himself together
again, and started off: “Well what I've managed to make clear for now is
that the movers in the red have been hired by Hornet Squadron to get their
stuff to the Intrepid…”
Ender was struck in amazement
“What?! Tell me more out that one!”
But once started, Strahd was
on a run and virtually unstoppable: “… the guys in the Blue suits are the
movers hired by Raptor Squadron to get their stuff to their retirement
homes on Dar in the Heir System. They don't like the guys in the red suits
using their duct tape…”
Ender tried to intervene again:
“Retirement homes? What the…”
“…the red guys on the
other hand do use the repulsor trolleys of the blue ones and of the green
ones. The movers in the green suits are hired by Blade I think…”
Ender just went along with
the flow “Yes, I've seen them in my own room earlier. What do they do?”
Strahd looked at him with an
angry-hurt face; he held his forehead a bit. “I don't know, but their music
from that stereo over there is killing me.”
At that moment somebody tapped
Ender’s shoulder. When he looked around there was another guy from the
ISD crew. “Sir? The situation on the storm trooper decks is getting out
of hand. Now all of the toilets there are clogged.”
“Talk to the Sanita…!”
Ender tried to yell at the guy.
Somewhere between all the traffic
of movers in the corridor a blaster shot was fired after which the music
of the stereo died out.
“…tion Officer,” the
crew member finished the sentence for him. “Apparently went in there with
a full team of heavy construction droids three hours ago. We've had no
contact with him since, Sir.”
Ender was a bit taken aback
by that. “Euh, ok, tell the stormies they can go use the facilities on
the sports decks, but make sure the amount of bog paper available to them
is limited.”
“Yes sir!” The officer
saluted and disappaered in the habit these kinds of guys seemed to have.
Ender turned around to ask
Strahd some more questions but Strahd had disappaered among the crowd of
movers and pilots who had now centered themselves on some people fighting.
Ender looked at the whole situation for a bit more, shrugged and turned
around to go back to the mess, “I definitely need more coffee.”
ViB Prologue VIII:
by: RA mBind, Van COM
The Wing Commander looked even
more tired around dinnertime then he was looking around breakfast. Apparently
the whole ship had decided that day was a great day to change everything
around… worse… the whole fleet had! Within no time at all, there had been
a new Flight Officer, a new BGCOM, two squads that moved out, new Commanders
that needed to be appointed, Phalanx Assault Shuttles to be sold off to
make room shiny new Missile Boats and Defenders, 3 Squadron lounges that
were getting completely refurbished and so on… And that was besides the
added hassle that everyone on the ship seemed to want him for whatever
problem there was: Storm trooper sanitation, a bacteria infection in the
yeast tanks, engine coolant problems… whatever you could think of was getting
thrown on his shoulders…. And Blade was no-where to be seen, well no… He
had seen Blade around lunchtime. The Vice Admiral had been very nice, shaking
hands and all and it made Ender feel good to see that Blade was also wearing
his old uniform from the time when he was with Nun Squadron onboard the
Sovereign… But he hadn't been able to track the admiral down since, even
though Hawkie was still missing, DS-61-4 had just been (re) instated as
Echo Commander, the plumbing problem on the middle decks had definitely
reach catastrophic dimensions and the new BGCOM was going to arrive any
minute for a quick inspection!
Ender felt his stomague. He
thought he might be having an ulcer starting up there, though it might
ofcourse also be the gallons of coffee he had used since that morning.
On to the next task: getting some stormies cleaned up enough for an honorable
reception of the BGCOM. He looked at the collection of stormies standing
in front of him and made a step back not to stand in the puddle of fluids
that was starting to form around them. With a keypin from his shoulder
pocket he tried to lift some wet bog paper from the helmet of one of them.
Instead it decided to sludge down his hand. He made a slapping movement
so it shot off towards the floor, where it hit some black boots.
Hizad looked sadly at his formerly
nicely polished boots before he saluted. “Sir, Hawkie is on the hyperlink
for you, I thought you might want to take it privately.”
Ender nodded. “Yes, thanks,
I'll take it in blade's ready room.” He pointed towards the sorry bunch
of storm troopers that was dripping on the floor next to him. “Could you
hose them off with the high pressure hose from medlab, sprinkle some deodorant
on them and make sure they are lined up in the main reception hangar in
10?”
Hizad looked at the storm troopers
and coughed a bit. “Yes sure, I think I can do that.”
“Great, I'll go talk
with Hawk then, thanks Hiz.” Ender walked off to the elevator.
Hizad looked a bit sad when
he checked out the storm troopers again. “Well, come on ladies, The Medlab
is this way – and don't touch anything!”
Hawkie’s hologram looked even
worse then Ender felt at that moment. It featured a partly clothed Hawk,
from the waist up and a piece of bed frame. He seemed to be holding onto
the bed in a quite uncomfortable position. “Hey Bender.”
“Hi Hawk, now tell me
why you aren't here on your post…” Ender frowned. ”Is that a bra you've
got hanging from your shoulder?”
The hologram Hawk pulled something
off his shoulder and threw it out of view. “Yes well, sir… it's a bit like
this…” He paused… “You know this girl I was with last night?”
“Which one? The Blonde,
the Brunette, the Twi’Lek or the four breasted one? After that I don't
really remember…” Ender felt a headache coming up again.
“No, that nice human
one with the large…” Hawk started.
Ender waved away Hawk's words,
“No, spare me the details. Are you coming up with the next shuttle?”
Hawk seemed to hesitate for
a bit, looked around the place he was in and then said. “No sir, I doubt
it. At the moment I'm kinda tied up.”
Ender peered at the small hologram
more closely. Then started to laugh really hard. “Don't tell me your cuffed
to that bed?”
Hawkie looked very uncomfortable.
“Well yes sir, and she ran off with all my stuff.”
Ender laughed out some more
and then pulled his face into shape. “You want me to send down a rescue
party for you? I think I can pull off a Assault Transport and some stormies
of other duties.”
Hawkie grinned, “Well, no sir…
I’l make it out on my own.” He waved with his free hand. “I got one arm
free already, this is not the first time this kinda thing happens. And
I bet she didn't find my private stash of money.”
Ender looked away. “Don't tell
me where you keep it.”
Now even Hawkie laughed a bit,
even in his precarious position. “Noo Bender, It's in the line of my uniform
coat.” He then paused a bit. “As you will understand I’d hereby want to
resign my position, because I doubt I can make it back in any short amount
of time. And you need a new Commander for Vit’s inspection.”
“I understand… You were
a good commander Hawkie. Make it back please?”
Hawk nodded, “Ofcourse sir!
But for that… I have to return to my lock opening business”
“Ok Hawk,” Ender agreed,
“We'll just forget about all this if you make it back in a reasonable amount
of time. Good luck Hawkie… And Hawkie?”
“Yes Bender?”
“Next time you go out
with a girl, bring a vibroblade. Rule number one of ‘Picking up birds and
other chicks’ is ‘make sure you are protected’ after all.” He grinned evilly.
Hawkie obviously didn't like
his own course to get ripped out of context like that and just gave a short
“Hawk out” before his image disappaered from the desktop.
Ender was left alone in Blade's
ready room. “Damn, now I need another Commander.” He thought and at that
time his eyes rested on the photographs of all the former Vanguard Squadron
Commanders that Blade had collected on the walls. That was an idea….
He punched a button on the
desk and spoke into the mic. “Miss Geldcent? Can you give me a line to
the VSD Aggressor please? I need to contact Major Fondor.”
“Ofcourse sir, but if
you have a moment? They have at last found the Sanitation Officer”
“Oh, great where is he?
Any progress on the plumbing on the storm trooper decks?”
“Well he's Extra Vehicular
sir, he took airlock THX539…”
Ender didn't get that. “What's
he doing outside the ship? The plumbing problems are inside it, not outside!
Get him back in here or we'll have a flood on deck 26 soon.”
Miss Geldcent coughed politely.
“Sir, I doubt it would matter much if he's in or outside, he didn't put
a suit on when he stepped out….”
ViB Prologue IX:
by: RA mBind, Van COM
Cygnus Shuttle Barracuda arrived
out of hyperspace near nav buoy PYR763, where Echo Squadron awaited her
to escort her through the traffic at the Pyrath Base to the main reception
hangar of the Vanguard.
Clearance codes were exchanged
and the fighters of Echo formed a diamond like formation around the shuttle,
protecting her from all sides. Near the hangar the Shuttle was heading
for
the diamond desolved into a vic, that after a few circular maneuvers to
make sure the Shuttle docked safely moved on towards the TIE hangar to
dock themselves.
The Shuttle landed softly in
the reception hangar, that for the occasion had been cleared from rusty
old YT’s and bombers. Before it were lined up about two dozen storm troopers
that smelled strongly of deodorant and another two dozen pilots that were
trying to have catnaps standing up behind the protection of their face
masks. In between the two lines of storm troopers and pilots stood Ender
mBind in a purple and orange flight suit with bellbottoms and wookie fur
on the shoulders. On his left and right were standing Lieutenant Colonel
Hizad, the Medical Officer, and General Lemmor, the Chief of the ground
forces onboard the Vanguard. They instantly jumped to attention when the
walkway lowered and their BGCOM walked down it.
As Blade's direct representative
Ender walked towards the Calamari Vice Admiral to greet him. “Welcome aboard
sir.”
Vice Admiral Chrusos Ichthys
nodded his big Calamari head and opened smiled in his own way, “Thank you
Wing Commander. Its good to be on the Vanguard for once.”
They started walking between
the rows of imperial soldiers towards the hangar bay doors.
“How is the Campaign
in the Mi’Suh Zone handling sir?” Ender informed.
“Not bad, the Grey Wolf
is handling the situation nicely,” Chrusos Ichthys grinned. “But I want
to bring the Intrepid and the Vanguard over there as soon as possible.
This Genko Business has taken long enough. I think the rebels have got
the picture after yesterday's attack. Nice fur by the way, didn't know
that was still legal.”
“It was when it was shot
sir.”
Right after the welcoming banquet,
Ender gave the BGCOM “the Grand Tour of the Ship”, carefully avoiding any
possible disaster areas. Which started at the bridge… Included the hangar
bays ofcourse, the stern engine room and part of the recreational facilities,
like the swimming pool. Somewhere around there, Chrusos Ichthys and Ender
got separated from the rest of the tour enough for a private chat. It happened
to be on deck 24 near the storm trooper gym.
“So what you think about
the Blade situation?” Chrusos Ichthys opened. “He recommended you ofcourse.”
Ender looked at him with a
puzzled look on his face. “What situation? Sorry Vit, it's been a busy
day… I haven't really been able to check my mail yet.”
Chrusos Ichthys just looked
sat him.
For Ender certain things started
to fall in place, the breakfast in bed, the moving of all his stuff...
He'd bet it was all in Blade's quarters now… Why Blade had been wearing
a Nun Squadron suit.. Why everybody had been bugging him with all the smallest
details of the ship's running…. “Blade resigned?”
Chrusos Ichthys just looked
at him.
“But why? And who's the
next Commodore then? Me? But I got some things lined up for the wing and
euh… I’d miss out on my Colonel promotion next month – I was looking forward
to that…” Ender rattled on.
“You'd be Rear Admiral,
even if you resign again you'll be Colonel.” Chrusos Ichthys stated matter
of factly. “Blade decided to resign back to a Flight Member position because
he wanted to fly fighters again instead of desks.”
“But, VitCarp… So do
I,” Ender answered. “I'm too young to rot away behind so desk…”
VitCarp laughed evilly. “Haven't
you heard? I demand from my Commodores that they keep up with their flying
hours.” Vit put a arm around Ender’s shoulder, then decided not to because
of the wookie fur. “So I guess that's arranged then, Rear Admiral. Any
thoughts on a new Wing Commander? Take anyone you want, except the two
new Squadron Commanders… we want some continuity after all.”
“Dee-es and Fondor won't
like that…” Ender answered. “But ok, I agree. Damn, this won't be easy.”
“Well, I’d suggest….
Ewwww… what's that smell?” VitCarp looked around. “What's that brown stuff
dripping from the ceiling?”
Now it was Ender’s turn to
put his arm around VitCarp's shoulders and start guiding him away from
deck 24. “Ohh, nothing… we're having some plumbing problems, but we're
dealing with it.” He did make sure the blast doors closed securely behind
them.
Later that evening, Ender crashed
into an old ragtag couch on his own Modified Freighter “the Luggage”. He
rummaged under the couch with one hand and pulled out a bottle of Corellian
Malt Whiskey from under it. With a singly wirr at the top he opened it,
after which he gulped a large quantity of the strong liquor…. To large
actually, so he twisted his face to keep it all in and managed to get it
all away. He shuddered a bit and felt allot better. He initially had gone
to the pilot's mess but that was not the place for rest now…. Everyone
wanted to get him to give him or her the Wing Commander's position or to
congratulate him or complain about their toilets backing up pieces of storm
trooper armor. Blade's, or no… his own now… ready room didn't really protect
him from all kinds of ensigns with silly requests and problems either.
“So who would be a good
Wing Commander?” he murmured, taking another sip from his malt. He looked
around the living quarters of the Luggage and his eyes rested on a group
photo of Krayt Squadron a while back. “Nahh, I gotta stop appointing people
because they happen to cross my eyes on a photo…” he thought. “Besides,
it looks corrupt to keep assigning your old squad mates to comfy jobs.”
He took some more sips from
his whiskey and then punched a button on his data pad which was lying on
the floor next to his couch between an old pizza and an ashtray. “Miss
Geldcent?”
A female voice immediately
came from the pad. “Yes sir?”
“Make up some orders
for Commander Mareek from Python to fly to the Grey Wolf to pick up our
next Wing Commander. Let him take the Flag Officer's Shuttle. And make
sure the Grey Wolf knows he's coming over there so they can let him board
and stuff…”
“No problem, sir. And
sir?”
“Yes?”
“The death count of the
situation on the storm trooper decks might just have gone up with three.
Somebody send in a crew of welders to deck 26 and apparently there has
been an explosion.”
Ender sighed and lay back into
the couch. “Euh, make sure what happened. I need some sleep. Put General
Lemmor on that plumbing problem and keep me updated and such. Wake me in
an hour…”
“Yes Sir, have good rest.”
Ender pressed another button
on the pad and some relaxing music came on. He only just closed his eyes….
….and as it felt almost immediately
after that the data pad on the floor next to him was beeping. He yawned
and checked his watch… yup… an hour gone, dang. He pressed a button on
the data pad. “Yes?”
“You wanted me to wake you
sir?”
“Ahh, yes… so what's
up?” He rummaged through his hair a bit.
“Well it seems General
Lemmor is dealing with the situation on decks 24 to 28. He has called in
two of his AT-st and about 60 men infantry.”
Ender yawned again. “Good to
hear… Can you give me the Grey Wolf please? Commander Khadgar of Valkyri
Squadron, or however you pronounce that.”
you can read over the current
story/download the mission at http://isdvanguard.emperorshammer.ca/vib/
I think
that's it – If I've forgotten anything, let me know via email (use only
a.c.w.t.zwegers@bk.tudelft.nl
for official TC/Wing mails.) or ICQ (9706474). Also READ the Wing report!
It contains far more useable information then mt scribbles. The last Wing
report by Maj Khadgar you can read here: http://www.tiecorps.org/reports/report.asp?wingid=15&reportid=1261
All
my COM reports are online as well: you can reach them via the Ship's
roster on the TC database.
Until
next time, good luck and have fun.
<salute>
COM/RA
Ender mBind/Wing XV/ISD Vanguard
GS/SiS/BS/PCx4/ISMx12/LoC-PSx66/DFC/CoL/CoB/OV
[HUSS]
{IWATS-SM/2-XTT-XTM-M/1/2-IIC/1/2/3-GFX}
