**>> SPYNET BULLETIN
 **>> EARTHDATE 92.02.02
 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE


 **>> THE FED (UN)CONVENTION

Many of the new players may not know that Galauriel has been organising a Fed
(Un)Convention in March. The dates and venue are now confirmed: it will be held
Friday March 13 to Sunday March 15 at the Crowne Plaze, Washington. The program
of events hasn't yet been finalised, but Galauriel will be uploading details in
Topic 33, Cat 14 of the Fed BBs (page 1045). We'll bring you further
information as things are fixed.

We can confirm that Hazed will definitely be attending the (Un)Convention. The
bad news is that Cryptosporidium wants to come too. We're trying to dissaude it
but we may not succeed. Unfortunately, Bella probably won't be able to attend -
she couldn't possibly spend that long away from her bath!


 **>> BUGS AND FIXES

Before Bella's accident, we were receiving strange reports of a bug in the job
system that meant Poor People could make vast sums of money. The reports were
quite confused, and Bella wasn't able immediately to see exactly what the
problem was. Finally, one player sent a detailed account of exactly what was
happening! Unfortunately, Bella was in hospital at the time, and only in the
last week has she had a chance to look into the matter. She never did explain
to us lowly NewsDroids what the bug was, but whatever it was that was going
wrong, has now been fixed! Apparently.

Several Poor People were disconcerted recently when they did jobs offered by
Transportation and were paid absolutely nothing for their time! Close scrutiny
of the <WORK> display showed several jobs offering 0 groats per ton for the
delivery.

Immediately, the cry went up: "Bug!" shouted the Poor People! Far be it from us
that they should look at the jobs before they accept them...

It turned out -not- to be a bug after all. It was, in fact, mean factory owners
diverting goods from one factory to another and hoping to get away without
paying for transport. Factory owners are allowed to specify a payment of zero,
because often the goods will not be leaving the planet.

Our Illustrious Leader decided, in her wisdom, that no jobs should be for zero
groats! So now close scrutiny of the <WORK> display shows several jobs offering
1 groat per ton for the delivery!!

We repeat - look at the jobs before you accept them!


 **>> PLANETARY NEWS

Jinx was transformed into a mini-planet during the week... but a small problem
meant that no-one could land on it! Someone had stolen the birthing facilities.
Anyway, it has been fixed now.

Flatliner's new planet is now in, although it has quite a few errors on it (he
was a little slapdash over the design and the input of the data). He'll be
fixing the errors over the next few weeks.

The good news is that at long last, Our Illustrious Leader has seen the error
of her ways and has agreed to return that which she had previously stolen.
Hazed is getting a planet again! The mini-Scratchwood will be available to all
soon - although not as soon as Hazed would like; she has been told that other
players' planets will be given priority. She, of course, is of the opinion that
her needs are more important than everyone else's, and has threatened to break
Bella's other leg if Scratchwood isn't put in immediately!

Gotham will be going mini very soon, so tourists should visit now or miss their
chance to take holiday snaps of the pollution and garbage.

Which reminds us: several people have commented that Krell is shown as being
"Lord" of Gotham; shouldn't it be "Lady"? All we can say is,  if Krell is
a Lady, us NewsDroids are made of marzipan!


 **>> NEWS ARCHIVES UP-TO-DATE

The News Archives are now up-to-date. Not a lot else to say, really! Except
that all 77 issues of the news so far can be found in Library 18 of the MPGRT
Libraries on page 1045.


 **>> ROMANCE IN SPACE!

Don't forget the special Valentine's Day events being held to celebrate...
err... Valentine's Day. Compose messages to the man, woman or thing of your
dreams, send them to Hazed, and she will publish them in a special icky pink
lover's edition of the news on Valentine's Day itself.

Freya is hosting an RTC entitled "Romance Under the Stars: Fed and the Art of
Roleplaying" on Sunday February 16 in the MPGRT conference area. It will start
at 2.00 eastern time, in room 7.


 **>> BLOOD 'N' GUTS

There's been a lot of violence going on lately. As well as the two "official"
bad boys - Logan and Blackmark - Destiny has been making enemies. He has a
long-standing feud with Fear, and now Richard seems to be after him as well!
But Richard is too cowardly (or lazy?) to try to kill Destiny himself; instead
he's contracted Logan to do the deed!

Meanwhile, Scuttle has offered 2 meg for Logan's dead-deadness, and Rezrov has
put 20 meg on Scuttle's head! Are the two events connected? They just might be:
a scared informant told us that high ranking Conclave members have been funding
Logan's terrorist activities! He said he'd been spying on Logan and had seen
Oxcart, Rezrov and Krell each give Logan 5 meg. Unfortunately, the powerful
three discovered his spying and are now out to get him. He's terrified!

Meanwhile (again), we have eyewitness reports of the following piece of
carnage:

"Sol Space was on fire tonight! Logan, Richard and Lordecstasy had a free-for-
all. There were two casualties: Lordecstasy died from Peggy, and Aliceinchains
(uninsured from a previous battle) flew right smack into the middle of a fire
fight despite knowing that the skies were unsafe!"

More details come from Merchant Richard:

"Logan IS back! His ship the Sulaco was at war today! I quickly befriended him
and asked if I could have the honor of fighting alongside him, and he agreed.
But tragedy befell us... A not so smart Adventurer Aliceinchains annoyed Logan
and was quickly dispatched! As I was logged off to buy my ship, I heard Alice
sayd, 'I'll be back' (in true Terminator style).

"When I returned, Alice came back and we started a HUGE war! Logan, Alice, me,
Lordecstasy and a couple of others joined. Unfortunately Aliceinchains forgot
to reingusre and BLAMMO! Dead-dead! I had the honor of killing Lordecstasy once
and tagged Vega, Pirate, Xerxes, and Peg a bunch of times! I was especially
honoured to hit Logan himself! Then the wimp Destiny entered Fed dataspace. He
joined the frey and hardly did anything, blaming it on a slow terminal! PAH!

"In the end, Logan killed me and I was retired to the Hospital where the nurses
congratulated me on my skill and determination."

Meanwhile (yet again), Logan was seen hunting Pyro, Tony and Scuttle last
Monday night. Three against one: sounds just the sort of odds needed to
challenge Logan!


 **>> FROM THE NAMELESS INFORMANT

The search for the spanner reached heights and depths of despair and hysteria
Tuesday night. While 200,000 groats were offered for it, at the same time an
eager Merchant desparately wondered if the game could be made to reset so he
could check certain areas for the missing tool. He stooped low enough to make
certain offers of a carnal and disgusting nature in the hopes of recovering the
missing spanner.

On a lighter note, inhabitants of Fed Data Space were stunned (and rather
disgusted) to discover that Oxcart had given up his trenchcoat and was running
around the known Solar System sans decency, exposed to the Universe.


 **>> BABY FEDDER

Neuromancer has given birth to what is probably the first Fed baby. We don't
yet know if the child is a boy, girl or alien. Congratulations, Neuro, we look
forward to meeting the baby in Fed!


 **>> FROM THE PEN OF DEEP THROAT

It appears that Fed has a new hot to trot female, Juliet.  Last week'ss rumors
of Juliet and Silversteel steaming up the windows in the spybeam proof room
have indeed been confirmed (and the photos will be available at CD's later this
week.)

This reporter has also learned that just moments after Juliet's and
Silversteels "encounter" occurred, Juliet became a Captain!  How could this be,
after all, she wasn't running any jobs while engaged in adult forms of
entertainment to be able to repay her loan.  How could she have come up with
the groats so fast ???  Hmmmmm.  Nah... Silversteel wouldn't have to be paying
for _it_ these days, would he?

                              * * *

Juliet's adventures haven't only been with Silversteel however, I have
obtained, by totally legal and honest means, this transcript:

     ####### pulls on Juliet's pants to see her tattoo better

     "Hey!!!!!!", exclaims Juliet.

     Juliet backs away from #######.

     "Your not much into wining and dining I gather?", asks Juliet.

     ####### has bought a wine.

     "There's your wining.", says #######.

     ######## has bought you a pizza!
     The waitdroid spins it onto the table in front of you, and you
     wolf it down...

     "There's your dining.", says #######.

     "Now for some <<censored>>!", exclaims ########.

     Juliet hauls off and slaps you in the face!

Looks like new little Juliet has some reputation work to do!

                              * * *

This report has been confirmed!  Even though never announced as a feature here
in Fed II, it appears that it is now possible for one Fed persona to leave
their body and to take over the body of another.  In other words, one Fedder
becomes "possessed", if you will, with another persona. (Editor's note: many of
you will have noticed this happened to Hazed and Cryptosporidium on certain
occasions.)

Late one evening, Galauriel made her "guest appearance" in Fed and ambled into
the spybeam proof room.  There she encountered innocent and humble Slew.
Suddenly, lights flickered, the ground shook, planets shifted in their orbits
and, (gasp!) Galauriel was no longer in her body!  Apparently her soul was
kidnapped by someone known as the "navigator" and was taken off to a distant
land both in time and space.

Slew, on the other hand, was totally unaware of the transformation and
continued what he thought was a normal conversation with his long lost friend
Galauriel.  Slew ordered a lobster and prime rib dinner for the two of them to
share.  They sat, ate the meal, and began nibbling on grapes that Slew
romantically fed to her.

But then, the romance of the moment was shattered as the soul possessing
Galauriel's body (and what a body it was this report might add) begin to speak,
shocking Slew with phrases like...

"I'm not used to this alien form"  and,

"Don't be afraid, Slew.  I won't hurt you."

Slew was shocked, he shuddered, not knowing what to do.  He had been friends
with Galauriel for so long!  Would he fight the urges to jump across the table?
Would he remain noble and honorable? Would his value of their friendship
prevent him from taking advantage of the sexually ravished female?

I THINK NOT!

They preceded to partake in such forms of "entertainment" that, at least in the
career of this reporter, has never been witnessed (or at least never witnessed
without resulting in fatalities).

Once finished, windows still cloudy, the lights again flickered, the ground
shock, and the planets shifted in their orbits, and the alien form left
Galauriels body and darted to the Link and left Fed dataspace entirely.

Galauriel's soul returned to her body to find herself in a rather compromising
predicament, not in her usual clothes (grin) and resting against Slew's chest
in an anti-gravity bed hovering 12 feets about the floor at Samantha's.  Many
shades of red and pink later she jumped up screaming and ran to her spaceship.

I conclude, beware fellow Fedders!  With this alien persona running about the
planets, taking over bodies and performing acts, enviable to Guinness, we must
all watch our steps!

That concludes this reporters findings.


 **>>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 <TYPO> 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 by
typing ORDER at any GEnie menu. Cost - a mere $12.95.

Federation has several category in the new MPGames RT. To get there, type
M1045,1 from any menu prompt and SET category 13 (for information,
instructions, questions and answers) or 14 (for general chat and discussions).
The Federation Leader in the bulletin board is Krell (Mail ID: K.HILLYER).
There are also categories for Explorers and for the Conclave; these are run by
Occy (Mail ID: OCPAC).

The MPGames RT also has a Federation library in the files area, Library 5.
Library 18 holds the Federation News Archives.

 **>> BULLETIN ENDS