The Fortress/Archive 6
Archived Journals 2006
 Filed by Jensonson |
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As a bonus to the December end of month report, i'd like to give to you my full Review of the Year.
New Year 2005 was a happy and peaceful affair. The Fortress celebrated joyfully but little did we know the danger and betrayal that was around the next corner...
On New Years Day the streets were eerily empty of zeds and people were carelessly partying but this happy atmosphere sure didn't last long. A multitude of hordes swept into town and suddenly The Fortress was under heavy siege - business as usual. We had handled attacks of this nature before, but not on this scale. We quickly switched tactics and kept our band of brothers on the move. The defensive tactic was successful until shockingly, out of the blue, one single member - Brent Baker - betrayed the group and informed the zeds of our entire plans. Fortress Four was ripped to shreds in minutes and for the first time in the history of our faction, The Fortress was evacuated!
Some said it was lucky how a new safe-ground was discovered so quickly, but luck had nothing to do with it. Legendary Commander Travis - the man that executed Brent Baker - had scouted Fortress Two months before, and caretaker Runcible Spoon had maintained it. As The Fortress noisily arrived in Penny Heights we recruited several new members - many of which remain with us today - and the group actually gained numbers as all our members evacuated from one suburb to another. An impressive feat, when you consider that was around 40 real-life people at the time. Fortress Two swung into action.
While Fortress Four remained swarmed in zeds, we began expanding our influence internally. The Fortress forum was created in January and members moved over to, at what first seemed to be a gimmick, but quickly became the essential part of the development of our group. To open the forum, Jensonson released a four part story - the continuation of the story of The Fortress - entitled The Origin of The Head. This story was released in nightly installments and on the fourth night, the forum reached an all time high members record that has only been beaten on one other occassion - (that i'll mention later on.)
The Origin of The Head was tremendously popular and the forum took off - (the full unedited story is available exclusively on our forum.)
In February, The Fortress became a faction for hire. We listened to pleas from other groups and sent out combat teams to assist where we could. This brought about many new alliances with survivor groups, and Ambassadors were created to manage these communication channels through each others forums.
Then, in March, the people elected the first Fortress Council. Councillors AngelWitch, Belakor, Fet, Fishel and Grey Swiftaxe were introduced into the first Council. PK law, Alt law and Sacred Ground policy were quickly introduced.
By this time, Fortress Four had been retaken by the Shadow Wolves, and The Fortress was running two Fortress' concurrently, as well as its new Boot Camp. Boot Camp was created by Drill Sergeant KsTxGirl and she turned it into something fantastic. A working system, with lessons, exams and reports that started a new age of quality-control in The Fortress. Today, all combat members have earned their place in a battle squad and are proven, high-level Maltonians. We recently qualified our 60th member through Boot Camp.
In May, Fortress Four was evacuated again, but this time due to a more humourous reason. The RRF decided to party in The Fortress! The City's biggest horde exploded into Fortress Four and declared it their party location. Our group did the sensible thing and left them to it! I've learnt that it's not always best to stand and fight. The RRF shortly departed again.
Meanwhile, over at Fortress Two, The Fortress opened a DEM revivification ground which has been maintained to today. This was orginally kept clear by Battlehawk revivification staff and also, by working with the MFD in operations, our efforts were finally noticed. The Fortress became Strategic Partners of the DEM during the summer of 2006 - a big mile-stone in the development of the faction.
June saw AngelWitch take control of a poorly organized Team Cold Cell and turn it back into a formidable force. Then Commander Seabee took the reins and led Cold Cell to a victorious reclamation of Fortress Four from the devastation of July's Big Bash. This was Cold Cell's finest moment and they have since grown from strength to strength under the leadership of Charlie Mon.
The Fortress were admittedly slow to respond to the Big Bash - although we had good intel of its imminent arrival - but acted superbly in clearing up suburbs that had been ravaged. Our work in Central Malton was invaluable to restoring peace and order in the City.
By this time, most of The Fortress' units were working entirely through the forum - now with nearly 200 members and 30,000 posts. Command teams were also forum-based now, except for one. Team Federation continued to work solely in-game.
Travis led Team Federation between January and June (a record 150 days for a Commander) until it was disbanded when he was killed by a rival group, FU. This group were small, but dedicated aggressors against The Fortress. Their policy (as stated on their Wiki) was to annoy survivor groups into PKing, then to report them. A trend that sadly seems to have grown in this cynical age of UD. The Fortress stood strong against FU and taught them a thing or two about vigilance - not to mention professionalism and team-work. Eventually FU accepted their losses and disbanded, and happily we were able to form new friendships from some of their members - The Fortress always tries to achieve good things from our experiences.
The Pitman Enigma was released in July 2006 and some people cynically murmured that it was a waste of time, yet forum stats show that a record number of members were active on its release date in anticipation of the event (still a record today - five months later), and those that took part were astounded at the difficulty, yet mastery of such a superb set of puzzles - the Enigma is still available on the forum for those that wish to challenge it.
Following the Enigma, came the Shadow Revolution. Inexplicably, a number of members were granted Shadow Wolf membership in August, and this brought about an uproar from many members of The Fortress. Many predicted (yet again) that it was the end of the group - and possibly, it nearly was - but a solution was reached that not only appeased the revolution, but actually made the group a stronger unit. One outcome of this event was that the Council was given stronger powers to influence the development of The Fortress.
A second outcome was the wave of Fortress Reporters that applied for jobs. Danny Lee created TFN (The Fortress News) in August and it has since become the essential source of Fortress news for our members. Excellent articles about our operations and events are regularly posted for all to see, making Jensonson's Journal a less essential source of information - which is why this Review of the Year report will be the only article in the journal for the time being :)
Commander Swinky - voted as The Fortress' most popular Commander - quit the group suddenly on the eve of the Anniversary party. This surprise didn't diminish from the fun and frolics at the typically cheesy, and very memorable Fortress Party '06. Hmmm, what happened at the party? Jensonson was killed by brother Bensonson, Lord Pitman and Baron Von Evil crashed the party and were put to their graves. Sex, alcohol, violence and rock and roll - basically lots of things happened that shouldn't have. Your typical Fortress get-together really.
Since the party (where our faction reached a record high 75 active members and became the eighth largest group in Malton) our group has increased in quality and quantity. Now all our members are high-level players, although we still accept people of all levels into our Boot Camp for training.
In November, The Fortress introduced New Roles to senior members of the group including Mall Liaison Officer, Power Technician, Fortress Commander and PK Executioner. These roles were quickly filled to apply a new level of efficiency and organization to the community. Many members of the Assault Squadron and ex-members with no specific role were brought in to fulfil these positions - finally finding an efficient use for the Assault Squadron.
Many members of The Fortress enjoyed Christmas in Quarlesbank, while back at home the group became ravaged by a campaign of PKing by a select few - The Ears was PKed on Christmas Day. A sad end to the year for such a fantastic character but it is a sign of the times.
Looking forward to 2007, The Fortress has aspirations to expand control beyond its home suburbs, increase its Boot Camp productivity, and launch new combat teams. Personally, I can't wait!
