Introduction

We're moving rapidly to full operational status. By this time next week I expect we'll have most of what we need to function as an independent subgroup, though of course we'll continue rolling out new things for months to come. This report details the rank system, some new medal requirements, a competition, website news, and some other things, so unfortunately it's another wall of text. There's a tl;dr at the bottom again.

Miscellaneous news not covered below:

• You have until the end of Tuesday to apply for the Squad Leader, Platoon Commander, or CI/WO:Prf positions. Unless we get some new members this week, it's looking like we will be filling the PC positions with NPCs and fiction will be under the purview of a WO:PRF so we're not pulling another person out of the squads.
• If you haven't already, please email all BF beta screenshots to the SOC. This includes people who aren't in the DB battleteam.
• I will no longer be listing rosters in reports. This information is available on the website, with the exception of a handful of members who haven't created profiles yet. Likewise, we have fic in this report but in the future I'll be leaving fiction out of these. They're enough to read as it is.
• Congratulations to the HF's own Vosakia Spreex (Mark Schueler) and Xavier Sienar for their recent promotions to AD and RA, respectively, for their work on the EHCS. Congrats as well to AD Montte, our TO.

Website

If you checked our site since last night, you might have noticed a new link: Submit Screenshots. We're still getting the hang of things and configuring the CO's ability to award medals, but the submission page works just fine. Hold onto your real screens for now, but feel free to submit some practice images to help us test it out. We've got a pretty big backlog of screenshots from the DB battleteam, but we hope to start awarding medals for those before the weekend. The next item on Leo's to-do list is a working competitions page.

Ranks

We have our new rank system. We tried to design something that would best serve the subgroup's needs, though I'm sure some of the choices will be controversial. Based on that survey and numerous conversations with troopers both publicly and privately, these were my design goals:

• It was pretty much unanimous that a member should move quickly through lower ranks but the highest tier ranks should take a huge amount of time and effort to earn.
• Most people wanted to trim down the rank system.
• Most people wanted some sort of separation of officer and enlisted ranks, which I believe is important for the roleplaying aspect of the HF and a key part of our military concept. However, there were also several members who argued persuasively that ranks should be given only by merit, not position alone, and/or that officers retiring with honor should not be demoted if they wanted to remain active troopers.
• The majority want clear-cut requirements for a member to advance in rank. My AP proposal was the most popular, though some like the idea of list and multiple people suggested we combine them.

I'm working on updating the HFFM page, which will have all the details, but here's a quick summary. There are 15 rank grades, numbered 0-14. Every grade is open to every member, though of course the kinds of people who claw their way up to the top ranks are also the kinds of people who will take on leadership roles in the club - it's just not required that, say, you have to be a Company Commander to be a LTC so it's impossible to reach LTC until we have companies. The bottom four grades (Cadet, PVT, PFC, LCP) only have enlisted ranks. These are intended for new members who are getting their feet wet in the club and aren't yet ready for a leadership role.

Every other grade will have enlisted and officer equivalents. So let's say Corporal Panic gets himself a leadership position. Now that he's an officer, he switches from his E-4 enlisted rank to an O-4 officer rank. Now he's 2LT Panic, and he will use officer titles and (once we have a new uniform system) uniforms until he goes back to being a regular trooper. So after many months of hard work 2LT Panic has gotten himself two promotions, and now he's an O-6: Captain Panic. CPT Panic decides he's served long enough and he retired to a trooper position. He's not an officer anymore, so his rank converts from O-6 to E-6. Now he's SGT Panic.

The purpose of this system is twofold. First, it gives members in leadership roles - including Squad Leader, which has previously been enlisted - recognition in terms of rank and uniform. Second, a member's grade will be based on his service record in the HF as a whole, not whatever position he happens to hold now or most recently. A 2LT "outranks" a SGT, but all members should know that an E-6 has had a longer and more distinguished career than an O-4; the 2LT just happens to be in a leadership role now. I admit it might be a bit confusing at first, but I don't think it's any worse than the old Order-specific ranks in the DB/DJB or the DJB's current system - or, for that matter, the old HF system for converting between enlisted and officer ranks.

The rank grades are:

0. Cadet
1. Private
2. Private First Class
3. Lance Corporal
4. Corporal/Second Lieutenant
5. Specialist/Lieutenant
6. Sergeant/Captain
7. Staff Sergeant/Major
8. Gunnery Sergeant/Lieutenant Colonel
9. Master Sergeant/Colonel
10. Sergeant Major/High Colonel
11. Sergeant Major of the Legion/Brigadier General
12. Sergeant Major of the Legion/Major General
13. Sergeant Major of the Legion/Lieutenant General
14. Sergeant Major of the Legion/General

All members have been given their new ranks. All non-SOC members have been enlisted as Privates (E-1), though many of you will be advancing one or more grades as soon as we finalize the promotional requirements. In recognition of past service to the Hammer's Fist, the following exceptions will be made:

• Aija Alura Judarrl may take a grade 9 rank; that is, a Master Sergeant when in an enlisted role and a Colonel when in an officer role. Alternately, she may choose to restart as a PVT or CPL.
• Delak Krennal may take a grade 8 rank; that is, a Gunnery Sergeant when in an enlisted role and a Lieutenant Colonel when in an officer role. Alternately, he may choose to restart as a PVT or CPL.
• Vosakia Spreex may take a grade 4 rank; that is, a Corporal when in an enlisted role and a Second Lieutenant when in an officer role. Alternately, he may choose to restart as a PVT.
• Liam Stephens may take a grade 3 rank; that is, a Lance Corporal. Alternately, he may choose to restart as a PVT.

• CO Sparky von Wagglehorn will take a grade 9 rank; that is, a Colonel now and a Master Sergeant outside of a command position.
• SO leocadio will also take a grade 9 rank; that is, a Colonel now and a Master Sergeant outside of a command position.
• XO Wilhelm Drachen will take a grade 11 rank; that is, a Brigadier General now and a Sergeant Major of the Legion outside of a command position.
• PRF Zoryn Archenksov will take a grade 12 rank; that is, a Major General now and a Sergeant Major of the Legion outside of a command position.

The Warrant Officer ranks have been removed. Warrant Officer now refers to what we used to call Assistants: enlisted members who serve in a squad but work on special projects directly under an SOC member.

The promotion requirements are not finished yet. This is something we want to get right, so that we're not adjusting them later and making your next promotion a moving target. What we'll be doing is figuring out a few scenarios for what would justify promotion for each rank, then working out a point system that respects all of them. For example, let's say we decide that a PVT who submits 20 valid BF2 matches should get promoted, and so should another PVT who writes 2000 words of accepted fiction. We want to assign AP values to writing and gaming so that a PVT will meet his promotion requirements with 10 matches and 1000 words of fiction, or 15 matches and 500 words, or 1800 words and 2 matches, or whatever combination he happens to do. All activity should be rewarded, and nobody should be punished for choosing one path over another, or for mixing them. Most AP will be coming from medals, but members in leadership positions will also be 'paid' a certain amount of AP for performing their duties acceptably for a given period of time, compensating them for their time and energy and giving them a leg up on getting to the higher ranks. There will also be time in rank requirements.

Medals

We don't need to do much when it comes to updating several of the old medals; however, we do need to add a few

Dark Brotherhood Battleteam

As of this writing, the DB battleteam is still around and issuing awards. Once I'm satisfied with our ability to track incoming screenshots and competitions through our site, I will be stepping down and BTL and asking the DB leadership to rename or disband the Hammer's Fist Battleteam. Between now and then, all BTMs should let me know if they want to remain active in the DB or be moved to the Rogues so that I can pass that information on. Applications for the BTL slot should go to CON Crsepe and PCON Pellaeon.

ID Lines

We're going to be moving people around a lot in the next week or two, and I expect the names of the squads and platoons will change, so for the time being you are not required to use your HF ID line. However, a perfectly good ID line is listed on your profile page so it doesn't hurt to get in the habit of using it.

Gaming

The Battlefront Beta still has a few hours to go. Overall, I'd say the reception was pretty warm. There were some issues of course - video card issues, Rebel teams lacking the coordination and know-how to win Hoth - but we have a month for DICE to work out the kinks.

We have a very large backlog of combat medals to award. Sparky and I will be distributing those this week.

We will be issuing two medals for general multiplayer gaming activity. The first will be a simple award for a documented win with at least one kill, like the DB's Cluster of Fire or the TC's Legions of Combat/Skirmish. The second will be given for more advanced achievements, which will vary between games along the lines of the DJB's Pendant of Blood. We will be running a contest to name both medals. You may enter up to three suggestions for each here, or by emailing Drachen and I if Google Forms isn't working for you. The winning entries will net an appropriate Cross of Destruction depending on the number of entries. Entries are due by 24:00 GMT on Friday and should avoid duplicating existing medal names in use by the HF, TC, DB, DJB, or any other club.

Fiction

This week's report fiction was provided by Delak Krennal.

The compound on Carrida II had become an overgrown jungle. The once proud home of the Hammer’s Fist was boarded up and in disrepair. The silence was eerie. Delak stood in the center of the old garrison. He reminisced about the past with the Fist. Dante, Mordred, Lander, Cypher, old friends that he may never see again. This wouldn’t be his last time in the base but they would not reclaim this base for active use either. The new garrison was almost completed. It was being relocated further inland, into the mountains. Major General Archenksov, the first new Prefect in years, had chosen an area of defendability.

The new garrison was tucked into an outcropping with mountains behind them, fresh water east of the base, and forests surrounding them for cover. The new location had been chosen for its remoteness, and the ease of securing it from prying eyes or would-be invaders. The mountains also offered a cave system which afforded them an escape route from any future incursions if needed. The Emperor’s Hammer Corps of Engineers were hard at work clearing out a section of the mountain so that a hanger for the ground and space vehicles could be stored out of sight. They had been at it for months and were nearing completion. It had been a rough few months trying to reclaim this area for the garrison. It seemed like there were nightly creature attacks. The creatures had claimed the lives of a few workers but that was all. When the barracks had been completed the trooper assignments had begun. The Emperor’s Hammer had begun sending the elite of their units to the Hammer’s Fist for training. Their numbers were growing quickly, and they would soon get more people to join them.

The command center was completed first and the current Special Operations Command officers were present. Zoryn Archenksov, Wilhelm Drachen, Sparky von Wagglehorn, and Leocadio had all come together to get things running smoothly. Delak walked into the room to them discussing the next mission at hand.

"Archenksov, are you sure setting out this soon is a good idea?" Drachen questioned.

"Yes, we need those supplies to keep work moving on the new base." Arch argued back clearly winning the battle.

"Very well. We will send a small unit to claim the supplies." Drachen said as he turned to see Delak standing behind them silently. "Just like a sniper. Sneaking up on us Lieutenant Colonel? Well you will be doing some more sneaking shortly. We need for you to take two other troopers with you on an assignment." Drachen continued as he clicked on the holomap behind him. "This location marked point tango is where one of our supply shuttles was shot down. Now you will head out immediately to assess the situation and see if anything remains."

"It will be done sir." Delak said as he snapped to attention. He turned and walked out of the Command Center. He went and located Zephon and Liam Stephens for the mission at hand.

Prefect's To-Do List

• Review applications for leadership positions.
• Start issuing medals.
• Get to track Advancement Points automatically through the website, if Leo doesn't beat me to it.
• Hand out some promotions!

tl;dr

• New ranks. No promotions just yet.
• You can submit screens through the website but hold off on doing it for real.
• New comp: name our new medals.
• You want a leadership position? Better get your ap to me and the XO by the end of tomorrow.

For the Legion,

PRF/MG Zoryn Archenksov/SOC-1/VSD Reprisal =S, AIR, CC, MD1, SN1, DT1, VS1=