OTC Graduate Ribbon
First, a special mention of Beja who recently completed her officer training and earned the OTC ribbon. She is also on the cusp of her Lieutenant, j.g. posting threshold. Congratulations!
The Outstanding Commitment Award
This award is granted to players who are always on, always posting, always interacting, and making the game feel more vibrant and alive with their efforts. Tess Moreno has embodied this commitment, and can universally be counted on to be here, engaged and involved. For this outstanding commitment, we recognize her.
Best Duo Award
Awarded in January and July to the two players who have shown the highest levels of cooperation. More than mere 'cooperation' I also wanted to recognize a pair who consistently write engaging scenes together. I grant this to Rayek and Tess, who have built up a great series of cooperative posts both in mission and out.
The Contribution Award
This award is granted to players who make contributions outside of missions. These could include submitting mission ideas and helping new members settle in. What may not be generally known is how much Saxon has contributed with mission ideas, canon research, and technical details for Katra station and new quadrant aliens. He largely does this work behind the scenes in emails and forum messages. I felt it was time to bring this work to general attention. Saxon, for all the texture you have brought to the sim outside of your posts, I recognize you.
The Lizzie Vaughan Outstanding Contribution Award
It's hard to give awards to people in the senior staff, as they are privy to all of the details of the award process. As a consequence, the recipient of this award has been bamboozled into thinking that someone else was going to get it. The write-up for this award criteria is as follows: "Awarded in January and July to players who make outstanding continued contributions outside of missions. These could include assisting the commanding officer with important tasks or temporarily taking on command officer responsibilities. The Contribution Award must be earned before this award." If there was a picture of this award in the encyclopedia, and it didn't have a ribbon design attached, then it would definitely be a picture of Rayek. Rayek has deserved this award way back since Katra was first conceived, providing the most excellent help to the Admiralty who first commanded Katra, and then becoming an invaluable assistant with running the station under my command. Most recently, Rayek exemplified the merit of this awart by running our Predator mission almost single-handedly. There can't be the slightest doubt that Rayek is the living avatar of 'Outstanding Contribution.' It is therefore my pleasure to honor the person I simply couldn't run this sim without. Thank you, Rayek.
Captain's Personal Merit Award
The award criteria for this award is rather vague: "Awarded in January and July by the commanding officer, to a player of his or her choosing." Well, it can be awarded for any reason I like, apparently. I'm going to use it today to honor someone who was a beacon of light for Katra during the first half of the year, when I was still new to the station. She was our Second Officer, and was a whirling dervish of activity. She won the respect of everyone in a time of tumult and change in the fleet. Eventually, she had to step down as Second Officer for the best of reasons: She was promoted to Captain. It's probably not possible that she will be able to make the same impacts for Katra now that she has taken a command of her own and is no longer involved in Katra admin. But I did not want her earlier contributions both in the game and in the sim administration to be overlooked or to go unmentioned just because she took on a sim of her own.
Hrafn, thank you for all that you've done for us. This award is for you.
Bonus Item Follows! Rayek will be handing out bonus ribbons for 'players who guest starred on another sim.' These will be posted below.
Congratulations to all of our winners! 
