I have a lot of reading to get through, so I'll be doing that, thanks for accepting me so far, Acerbus out.

Not offensive to me, but I'm pretty hard to offend.

In any case, my name is Jegora Fal. I'm the Naval Training Officer. I'll be around to assist you in your training, although you'll probably become more familiar with Shazam, our Training Executive Officer, along with Tomas, C-3PX2, Ibram Tyrol, and Stormz, our current Trainers and Operators. Any and all of these gentlemen will be more than willing to help you out.

Now, you've already done the first phase of your training; that is, you posted. Easy stuff, huh? Now it's time to move on to the next phase of basic training, Flight School.

Flight School can be found at: http://www.vastempire.com/wiki/index.php?title=Flight_School_%28FS%29

Flight School is broken down into several steps called chapters. After you complete Flight School, you will take the Aviator's Exam and join a squadron. Along the way you'll create a Wiki page, an Identification Line, file a Report, study tactical maneuvers, and most importantly you will define who your character is.

Now, the first step is Chapter One. This is where you will create your character. A guide to character creation can be found here. This guide will give you all the information you need to get started. When you complete your assignment (creating a character biography), post it up here and one of the staff members will critique it to check for accuracy and flow.

Of course, you may have questions that the Wiki can't answer. Thats why the VENA Staff is here. Simply post your questions on this thread, private message (PM) us over the ComNet, email us, or find us on our IRC server (irc.imperialnetwork.com). To access IRC you can use our free chat applet (jIRC) or you can download a client (mIRC). The #VENA channel is always open, and our main channel, #Vast_Empire, is always full of experienced members.

I realize this is a lot of information to process. If you feel overwhelmed, the Staff is always here to help. Just let us know if you have any questions, and we will do our best to answer them.

Until laters,

Jeg

If you would Acerbus, please copy and paste your Bio here, it makes it easier to mark.

Ibram Tyrol
VENA staff Member

Physical Description:

Name: Dessel “Acerbus” Rengo

Age: 26    Gender: Male    Species: Human    Homeplanet: Corellia

Height: 187cm    Weight: 90Kgs

  Dark Brown Hair in a short back and sides, goatee beard, dark brown eyes, swarthy complexion. Medium build, not too defined, because he’s mostly a pilot now.

Dress: Smart casual, takes care to appear smart and disciplined, even in mufti. Sombre colours, mostly Navy Blue. Corellian Bloodstripes down sides of trousers, in Yellow for Second Class. Has not mentioned to anyone how and why they were earned so far.

Walks with a very slight limp on his right leg, maybe another Coronetian street affectation at the same time, but he did break his right big toe once kicking a Speeder that nearly knocked him over as a young man.


Emotional Description:

Likes to stay out of the way at the back of the class, from being always caught as a kid. Likes to quietly get on with his tasks, does not like to be bothered until the work is done, however, he loves a good chat and banter, has a dry/dark sense of humour, hence the nick. Does not really like to talk about his past though, often in conversation his colleagues feel that he has more to say, but that he does not. All he talks about is what is to be done and about the present.

Seems aloof at first, but makes firm fast friends easily and keeps his word, his senior commanders elsewhere have noted that he prefers to react more to events and can overload himself with tasks meaning that he completes none to his own, let alone his superior’s, satisfaction.

He can also be insubordinate and sarcastic when feels wronged, can also have a very quick temper and can hold grudges for a long time. These things need only to be harnessed in the right way by a strong commander, usually equally if not more so in those personality traits that Acerbus himself can display. Despite all of this, Acerbus is famously calm under fire, it was also noted.

Acerbus believes politically that Democracy is bankrupt and easily corrupted (plus, his own experiences of being an indentured bondsman in a so-called Democracy also made him very sceptical), and that furthermore the Senatorial mandate should not be extended across the Galaxies, that rather an Imperium of command be extended for better administration and defence. Acerbus hopes to be able to further the Imperial agenda across the known and unknown regions.


History:

Acerbus does not like to talk about it, but it comes out in the fact of him always knowing a lot about life and people, and especially in the games that they play, giving him a cynical outlook, often expecting the worst from people.

  Acerbus was born into extreme poverty, and was sold into debt-slavery as an indentured worker by his own mother to a Latifunda-style Ranch-farm owned by a Muun on Corellia. This seeming rejection was a formative experience for Acerbus, and he never saw his family again, nor wanted to.

With the harsh and callous treatment at the hands of his Muun master was the beginnings of Acerbus’s deep hatred of aliens (although on the part of his Muun master it was nothing personal, just business), this is mostly kept a secret though from most others, and it only usually manifests as a casual chauvenism that is not unusual among Imperial Forces.

  Acerbus might discover some deeper reasons for this hatred later on in life, but for now it is mostly an irrational dislike that he does his best to hide from others.

As a young boy Acerbus was taught to hunt Sand Panthers in small teams of two for their valuable pelts and venom. Acerbus would spend weeks out in the arid regions with his older teacher, another indentured Bondsman called Amano. Amano had become indebted to their Muun master for life, and in him Acerbus saw his future mapped out, a lifetime of servitude working for free while only subsisting. However, Acerbus learned all that he could from the beaten but very experienced older man in the ways of hunting and survival.

Acerbus enjoyed being at one with nature, and the process of hunting where he also became one with the hunted, thinking like they did in order to anticipate their movements and place his shots perfectly.

Acerbus escaped the Latifundae at age 12 when he and Amano had travelled much further than usual, and in the heat Amano suffered a stroke and he died in front of Acerbus' eyes. From his loss he began to see a gain, so he chose this opportunity to escape from that life and into a new and more dangerous one on Coronet, where in order to survive, his hunting and tracking skills now useless; Acerbus fell in with the gangs.

He rose swiftly because he was a good judge of character regarding who to rob and who not to rob, plus he had the gift of the gab regarding talking their way into and out of situations. Still, Acerbus had ambitions to get off the planet and be truly free, because he still felt constrained by his circumstances.

  Helping some smugglers hide from trouble on Coronet and knowing the streets so well, he soon fell in with the Smuggling crew, and by age 18 he was learning to fly on smuggling runs with the smugglers, but he also inherited the gang’s vendettas, and ultimately a Hutt family got a hold of Acerbus and again he was made into a debt slave after being “robbed” while doing a run for the Hutts. He was then used as an assassin (again utilising his hunting skills with the rifle and scope, both DC-15x and T-28) and enforcer by the Hutts (He was even loaned out as a Mercenary to other commanders during this time), as time went by they took him more for granted, so Acerbus was able to slip away during an espionage mission on Anzat at age 25.

Immediately and in order to get himself a new life, Acerbus made his way into the Vast Empire and joined the Naval Academy on Abrae, throwing himself into his new life after being drawn there and seeking to free himself by submitting to the Empire, and of his own free will this time.

Not at all. I look forward to seeing how your character develops.

In the meantime, Chapter II is waiting.

Get to it.

Sirs;
      I'm just checking in to say that I'm reading most of the equipment training. This is because I agree that you need to know a few basics if you want to write realistically, plus it coincides with some reference (visual only) of TIE's that I have elsewhere for much the same reasons.

This is to explain any delays in posting, I'm stuck on the equipment training, but gladly so. I'm even re-reading some (the main three) sections to make sure that I've got it right and am playing through some scenarios (in my head) to see if I am understanding the equipment right.

Thanks for your patience, Acerbus out.

POFC Stormz, I'm very pleased to make your aquaintance, and thank you for your kind words also, and as the biog said, hehe, Acerbus overloaded himself again last week, but has learned much, some other things got in the way, but at last here are my two BFM's:


Basic Flight Maneuvres (BFM).

The Break turn.

  To execute a Break turn, you bank hard left or right, depending on how ordered by your Leader, executing a quarter roll in the given direction. Checking the enemy's bearing relative to yours, if they are approaching from the right, then you go right and get a tighter turn than it’s possible for them to execute, either gaining you the advantage over them in the final turn or causing them to overshoot and have to start their attack again.

It is also a fundamental manoeuvre because it is an essential part of wingman tactics, and the Wingman system is one of the oldest and best methods to ensure a pilot’s survival. So, although this is an often overlooked manoeuvre, it being so boring and easy to explain, but it’s very important to get this right and understand the principles that underlie it, since the break turn will pretty much be your bread and butter manoeuvre in the early days of of a pilot’s career.



The Split S.

In this manoeuvre the pilot rolls inverted and dives away vertically, pulling out in a direction opposite to that of his opponent. It is an essential and basic survival manoeuvre; 1. To disengage from combat quickly, 2. To throw off a potential missile lock attack. 3. To quickly reverse direction, causing the enemy to overshoot.

1.    Sometimes, especially when inexperienced, you might want to break off an ill-judged attack. The Split S will give you more speed as you lose altitude (the old potential/kinetic exchange), so this is useful if the enemy is approaching faster than you are, you will you gain speed and reverse tack, but because you lost altitude they might have an advantage, unless you can stay in the blind-spot beneath and behind the bandit.

2.    Missile attacks are best executed at high closing speeds (from 4-8 O’clock) to the enemy, so if the enemy is on your tail and closing fast, it might well be for a missile lock, you can easily get out of this by executing a Split S. HOWEVER; it is a Myth that the split S will get you out of an existing Missile Lock.

3.    This is simply regarding Cannon fire, you quickly get out of the respective weapons envelope. If you time it right and they do not follow you into the dive, you will completely throw them off your tail. Having a Bandit nearly at your elbow is a worst-case scenario, you can quickly remedy this with a split S.

Be careful when Executing a split S in Atmospheric combat at altitudes less than 500m and in general bear it in mind that gaining the altitude again is also harder in Atmospheres, hence the reverse, the Immelman variants being more in favour in those. Don’t forget to try to get in under the enemy's blind-spot for a nice reversal and some valuable breathing space.


I apologise again for not reporting in privately, at least.

Ibram Tyrol wrote:Well done Crewman, you may now pass onto chapter 3

Thank you, sir.

Acerbus's Report, 22nd July, 2008:

Activity: Since last week I was mostly revising for Chapter 2 of FS in snatches in the evenings, because of work commitments, but it was worth it, because on reading through them again on the Saturday (BFMs), plus making some quick comparisons with other available reference, I was able to fully report on the 2 BFMs that I'd selected to write about, and it was easier than expected, consequently (because of the so-called ground-work).

I also tested out the chat functions, but was too shy/busy to chat.

Since last Saturday I was more passive in activity, but was still reading threads and trying to get a feel for proceedures, writing-styles and so on; more research, basically.

This evening I read through Chapter 3 again and filed this report, my first.

Upcoming Plans: To complete my Aviator Exams, hopefully by next weekend, depending on how much revision I can get done during the week, past paper (ie. THE Paper) is also being looked at. I hope to get 100%, or at least aim for it.

Continue thread and reference researches as and when cabable/necessary.

Questions/Suggestions: None.

TRN/CRW Acerbus/(Unassigned)/VENA/VE

Blue-Leader wrote:Hello Acerbus,

I am the Technical Operator for the VENA. I loved the report, it was one full of immense detail, Acerbus. That is not seen in most new recruits (myself included) and your thoroughness is admired, in my book at least. Keep up the smashin' work.

Evening Blue Leader,
                              Many thanks, it's humbling, because I've just been checking your work in Viper, as well as Tyrol's, so it's humbling (what you Gents are writing), because I'm seeing you guys here in the Training also putting in work out there too. I guess that I can see that following the rules (properly, to the letter and spirit) that it's not an easy proposition, but I love the emphasis on story-writing and writing in general, and maybe it's a bit pretentious (moi? Hehe), but seeing all the solid work so far and for so long, it kind of makes you think the "on the shoulders of Giants" quote.

In short, seeing the effort put in so far, it makes me in turn want to reciprocate. But it doesn't look easy to me either (as in I'm not taking anything for granted), even at FM level there is some seriously good work going on.

As an analogy, I guess it's a bit like the Mandalorian Officer ethic, where even in training if the officer shouted "Hit the deck", it'd be as he was doing so himself, to either shame or inspire the recruits into doing as ordered, and as well/"thoroughly".

OOC:

That'd be the Prussian Officer Ethic in RL

Well, I say it's O.K.

Carry on with your exam. Send it to Ibram and myself, if you would be so kind. We'll get it graded and get you placed with all possible speed (meaning you should give us a week or two )


Being completely serious, however, send in your AE when you complete it and we will grade it with all possible haste. While we do so, we will get you placed in one of the active duty squadrons.