**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 91.08.18 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE ***"Once more into the breach dear friends!"*** Well, the responsibility has once more fallen on Clem to write the News, so faulty Spelling Checker in hand, the "emise gris" of Federation Dataspace is sat at his terminal wondering how Hazed conned him into it? Clem, the one never to be seen, officially, plying the space lanes, has broken off his normal global round of Federation wheeling, dealing and skulduggery, having at last an opportunity to prove that he is not, as has been suggested, a typical absentee landlord, having, as has been raucously denied, an in-depth knowledge of what in the blazes is going on in Federation and its merky depths. *** WHAT THE! *** On Thursday, Federation under-went a massive shock. Planets supernovi 'ed, if that is the correct term for such destruction. Obviously the home system was thrown into panic. Markets crashed and boomed. Unscrupulous traderthings made and lost fortunes in minutes, massive distruption ruled supreme, as the havoc spread. What the final outcome of it all will be, is unknown, but by Friday all was restored and the heavenly bodies returned to their normal course. What psycological trauma will remain in the minds of the inhabitants is yet hard to judge, but some players have been caught staring up at the sky with a haunted look. *** AND NOW A BLOODBATH *** "All you need to do is plug the bloodbath" said Hazed, smirking evily at the obviously drunk Clem. "OK I'll do the news then," he agreed like a fool. The Bloodbath is set to take off for a night on Thursday. Apparently this slug-fest will not only let you run-amok free from fear of losing your personna but also contains TWO, yes thats TWO, competitions. The first will include the famed Hazed and the notorious Cryptosporidium to add spice to the proceedings. If either of these two dangerous reprobates are the last standing in the first appocalypse, then the main prize will be rolled forward into the second conlict. Happily, Hazed and the unspellable-one will not take part in the second round, and I hearily suggest all participants club togeather to remove these two unsavories aspects before shooting at each other. Somewhere in the fuzzy recesses of my fuzzy mind, I seem to remember Hazed saying something about a topic in the FED part of the MPGAMES BBS concering the bloodbath, with areas for groat placing and general gauntlet slapping. Also included are maps of the new battle area as there are apparently new despicable obstables to watch out for, like a black hole, to name but minus one. Have a look, prove me wrong! *** Uppers and Downers *** As is customary, I have a bundle of notes on the successes and failures of you brave new frontiers-persons. Raistlin and Draen made Adventurer, a rite of passage if ever there was one, and can now jump into the unknown of player planets, appreciated throughout the galaxy as the friendliest death traps in the Universe. Treato made Merchant and can now sit in the bar, manipulating his undoubtably expanding financial combine, while pondering the awesome puzzle challenges ahead. Alternately he can just sit back and have a good time and get drunk, a technique long since mastered by other high levels players Taliana is dead-dead, my sources in the Castillo Peoples Movement for the Correct Spelling of Planetoids, suggest this tragedy has a mixed significance. Motivation and causation are too mind-boggling to go into. *** Lies, Lies, Lies and more Lies. *** Strange rumours about Inversity have reached us concerning the fearless Catrina, who flew more out of mis-direction than bravado, straight into Inversity's sun. Rather than become instant hamburger, Catrina found herself and her craft, in Inversity's Trader exchange. It has been suggested that Oddball was responsible and that the entrapment was merely a ploy to extort an unspecified toll for release. Either way Catrina was imprisoned in her ship with no means of escape. She was left the only alternative open to a lady of virtue and resorted to the nearest equivalent to Cleo's asp, the Swiss army knife. Claiming Oddball was dabbling with forces he didn't understand, warping the very fabric of the time-space continuum for his own appetites, word has it, she may sue. Krell on the other hand has courted disaster, rather than just stumbled into it. She decided Pegasus needed a good injection of Laser plasma up the quantum drives and set about dealing destruction on the basis that what had gone out was about to come round for old horse features. The highly paid advice, suggested that a level 4 computer was a definite requirement, but undaunted Krell set off with a steam-powered level 3 computer. This course, termed in some circles, as the Zen road to Kamikaze, was to confound conventional wisdom. Krell defeated the blood-thirsty villain and the repair shops broke out the Champagne. *** STOP PRESS *** Hoards of refugees have been spotted on the edges of Federation dataspace charging in panic to Earth. All they can say is : "It's coming, it's coming" Watch the news, something big is about to break and it looks like it's going to be bigger than a Giant with a PhD in Hugeness at Harvard University ! ***>> CONTACTS <<*** The following information will appear at the end of every News Bulletin, so you don't have to read it if you already know it. In the event of a problem or question, you can: * talk to Hazed, Bella or Clem in the game * leave a message in the game log * send mail with the Federation Feedback option from the main menu You can order a copy of the unexpurgated printed Idiot's Guide to Federation II by typing ORDER at any GEnie menu. Cost - a mere $12.95. Federation II has a category in the new MPGames RT. To get there, type M1045,1 from any menu prompt and SET category 14. The Federation II Leader in the bulletin board is Occy (Mail ID: OCPAC). Topic 1 of the Fed category contains the Federation II policy statement. The MPGames RT also has a Federation II library in the files area, Library 5. **>> BULLETIN ENDS <<**