SSSD SOVEREIGN NEWS, 5-28-02

***
"Find the missing paperwork!" Proton screamed at Snippy the military surplus probe droid. "Find it! How can I report to the ship when you fools keep losing my notes?"
Snippy chirped sullenly and flew around the bridge, looking for the alleged missing datapads. Leroy and Dude exchanged knowing looks -- someone had been fiddling with the commodore's memory implants again.
***

COM/VA Proton reporting for the SSSD Sovereign, flagship of the Emperor's Hammer Strike Fleet.

Wing commanders, pass this along to your squadrons, and cc: me on those mails.

SOVEREIGN AND FLEET NEWS AND NOTES

-- This report is missing some material because I misplaced some of my extensive notes (;)) ... but I'll catch up with that stuff next week. Nothing earthshaking is missing, anyway.

-- Imperial Storm III. Without continuing to belabor the obvious, the Battlegroups TFA team of admirals Drake and Mell has pulled the BGs out of Imperial Storm III, alleging unfair treatment by the War Office, which ordered a forfeit of the Saturday battle after the BGs tacticians failed to sumbit required battle files on time. For the record, VA Pel is running a good game, and we will make the most of the rest of the game as the BGs fume on the sidelines. Now it's the Sov task force against the ASF and the ATF, which apparently have an "axis" pact against us, but who are now without their third axis partner, the BGs.

The Sovereign had an overwhelming turnout for Saturday's battle, and our TACs, COL Stele and CPT Killer, are doing an awesome, competent job and are hitting all the deadlines with time to spare. I couldn't be happier with the performance the Sov crew has produced in this war game. Great work!!

Details of the war game can be reviewed at the IS III Web site: http://www.emperorshammer.net/wo/is3/

-- Wing III vs. Wing IV. Wing IV overcame a deficit in total points and participation to win the comp by having a higher scoring average. Good job by both wings, and congrats to the winners and medal winners.

-- A revival of the Sovereign Squadron League? Well, I asked for feedback from the flag officers and have not heard "boo" in eight days. So, I guess not. Or maybe I will just foist it on the ship, see what sticks.

-- Speaking of big competitions, I'm also toying with some ideas for the Bombing Run Blowout I've been talking about for a while. I think I have a good idea for a flight comp for TIE and XWA pilots, but I will need an XWA mission builder or builders if I am going to pull it off. It would involve construction of four or more missions, based on a plotline and possibly templates. At this point I am considering doing the TIE missions myself, but would also be glad for any help there as well, particularly on the briefings. If anyone is interested in helping on this, please mail me at hullbreach@aol.com

-- Speaking of more big competitions, VA Pel has offered to help organize a war game for the Sovereign after Imperial Storm III finishes. I've become a wargaming addict while serving as Sov TFA in this round of the IS, and I think we could make a hell of a fun ship wargame. Let me know the level of interest in this possibility across the ship. The best thing about a Sov game is that we wouldn't have to worry about a task force crying and taking its ball home in the middle of the game.

-- Shipwide AWOL check in progress. Pilots, report in to your CMDRs. WCs, I assume you are gathering this data to deliver to me by the deadline (May 31).

-- Wing II WC GN Ford back from leave, and he has stepped down as TIE Tactics prof.

-- Wing I vs Wing II comp under way, flying TC Battle 165 and writing fiction. I'm the fiction judge, and Team LSD will be helping me mark the papers.

-- COL Gen Es'mith has a "WC vs. the wing" competition in which he is facing off against pilots in free-mission battles. So far only four pilots have challenged him, and he's holding his own. I have a hard time understanding so many pilots not immediately jumping on the chance to beat up on their WC :)

-- Wing III War of the Squadrons Competition, sounds very cool, and here is the outline from COL Kalar:
I've submitted an idea for an internal Wing competition to the TO, hopefully it will be approved soon so we can start. Here's the basic idea. Here's the basic idea, there will be 10 rounds (each one week long), and in each round a squadron will be randomly paired with a new squadron (for the first 5 rounds), the the last 5 will be "rematch" rounds. Each pair will have a competition with the winner being determined by the highest average score (that would be total score divided by the number of pilots in the squadron, even the ones that didn't fly). Winning will get a squadron 1 point. Once the 10 rounds are over, the squadron with the most points wins the competition. If two squadrons have the same number of points, there will be a sudden death competition between the two. Everyone in the winning squadron that flew at least once will receive an IS-SW. As an added bonus, getting the highest score in your squadron for a round will give you personally 1 point. The person with the most points in each squadron will receive an IS-BW. I know that this is a lot of medals, but this competition will last 10 weeks, so a lot of work will be involved if your squadron wants to win. Hopefully this will be starting shortly!

-- Oh, yes, one other thing: The commodore of the ISD Challenge on Saturday referred to the Sovereign as a "dying rustbucket." I wonder if he would be interested in a war game to back up his trash? Ah, probably not.

FORCE STRENGTH

-- A big Sovereign welcome to new or returning pilots:
FM/CM Bonzo/Delta 2-3
FM/SL Dmitriy Lekanov/Nun 1-3
FM/SL Duxant/Mem 2-2
FM/SL Ross Sheddon/Nun 3-3

SSSD Sovereign [185]

Wing I [35]
Wing II [37]
Wing III [42]
Wing IV [34]
Wing V [36]

Omega Squadron [12]

SHIP COMPETITIONS

-- Reminder, SSSD Sovereign Cantina Drinking Song Competition

This is a songwriting lyrics contest to see who can write the best "drinking song" for the SSSD Sovereign's cantina.

Rules: To be eligible for a medal, a song must have at least the following elements:
-- A title.
-- Byline with ID line (example: By FM/LT Crooner/Gamma 1-2/Wing I/SSSD Sovereign).
-- At least two verses and a chorus (you know, like, first verse, the chorus, second verse, repeat chorus).
-- Strong relation to the ship, its pilots, and-or life aboard the ship.

Submittal: Send entries to VA Proton at hullbreach@aol.com by midnight May 31. I'd prefer text attachments with this format: "song-yourname.txt" .

Awards: Winner will receive an Iron Star-Gold Ribbon. Second and third places will receive IS-SR and IS-BR, respectively.

-- Reminder, SSSD Sovereign Recruiting Competition

This is a competition to increase the membership of the SSSD Sovereign. There are three categories:
-- Recruitment Web page. Create a personal, flight, squadron or wing recruitment page(s). Teams of pilots may collaborate or this may be done individually.
Iron Stars will be awarded to up to the top three entrants.
Deadline: midnight May 31. Send zipped entries or URLs to VA Proton at hullbreach@aol.com
-- Recruitment campaign. Create an outline of the perfect recruiting campaign. Demonstrate in writing how your individual, flight, squadron or wing will conduct its campaign to fill and maintain its ranks.
Iron Stars will be awarded to up to the top three entrants.
Deadline: midnight May 31. Send entries (text files) to VA Proton at hullbreach@aol.com
-- Total number of recruits. The top three individual recruiters (as reflected in actual pilots recruited and placed on the ship (MoIs) will be awarded Iron Stars. The top recruiting squadron and wing each will be designated "Commodore's Own" for one month and carry commensurate benefits in the ship's cantina.
Deadline: midnight June 30.

-- Sovereign Nighthawk Multiplayer Competition, each Friday night in #ehcoc on IRC, 3 to 6 p.m. eastern time

SHIP COMMUNICATIONS

IRC channel: #SSSD_Sovereign
Message board:
http://www.imperialmight.com/wwwthreads/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=cantina

CANTINA COMMENTS

"Well...just so none of you get the wrong idea, I'm not planning on leaving soon, in fact, I'll be leaving this position when VA Proton has to drag my cold, lifeless body from my office. Well, I suppose Proton wouldn't do it himself (Admirals hate handling dead bodies), but you get the picture ;)" -COL Jahan Kalar

"I thought the Omega penalty for referring to one's self in the third
person was getting kicked in the nuts." -GN Compton

"Grue physiology different from humans ... but ... if this is so, exactly who would try to carry this out?
Grue would rather go back to Battle Group.
Grue would not want to leave poor Grand Admiral without any escorts." -CM Night Grue

"Ford is contagious." -COL Tad

"Grue, you can talk in the third person all you want. Do any of you remember a comic book with a character named Gru (I think) who was a dim-witted barbarian with a big sword and a real bad attitude? Seems to fit the bill perfectly." -LC Janich

"Woo, talk about a backload of mail to plow through. It was like eating mexican food and beer for days- everything went straight through and I'm not sure what came out of it all." -LC Janich

"Congratulations to VA Toran Dan on being selected as Pri;s new bitc... errr I mean Command Attache :P " -GN Reaper

"How's this?
"Friends...Romans...Countrymen... Screw your courage to the sticking place!
And be not pale and sick with grief... that thou, her handmaidens...should
be far more fair than she...is..."
I'm not overacting, I'm OUTPERFORMING!!!" -MAJ "Shakespeare" Mike

"Ech Dear Colonel you schouldn't drink so much in our cantina.
If you stop drinking I'm sure that you will remeber about all that stuff :) " -CM Yun

"Also, we've only had 4 people fly my personal challenge...are your pilots scared of losing to an old moth-eaten wing commander??" -COL Gen Es'mith

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COM/VA Proton/SSSD Sovereign