SSSD SOVEREIGN NEWS, 5-6-02

***
Secondary explosions continued to roar through the hull of the enemy star destroyer as several squadrons of TIE Defenders and TIE Advanced floated back into the hangar of the SSSD Sovereign.

On the bridge of the Sovereign, Vice Admiral Proton leaned back in his command chair and grabbed the brimming waterglass of Yukon Jack on the rocks that was offered him by his converted probe droid/assistant, Snippy.

"Snip ... ahhhh," Proton breathed between gulps of the refreshment. "You can return to the cantina. Get with Dude, Leroy, Ballista and the extra bar droids ..."

Snippy bobbed and weaved in the air in surprise, not fully believing what he was about to hear from the normally miserly commodore.

"Yes, Snip, yes, I'm going to do it. The total destruction of an enemy ISD group demands it. Yes, it's ... FREE DRINKS FOR ALL SOVEREIGN PERSONNEL!!"
***

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

-- The Sovereign Ship Policy has been updated to require a four-month mandatory minimum tour of duty for a squadron commander. The intention of this is to exterminate the "fruit fly" CMDRs who briefly rise to command to gain promotion and resume fodder only to flee to the Reserves or elsewhere after a few days. See the primary attachment at the end of this report for the complete updated Ship Policy.

-- Imperial Storm III, the Battle for Planet 0309: The SSSD Sovereign and its starfighters obliterated a Battlegroups Force, including the ISD Immortal, some ATRs and many starfighters. Our rapid strike into the heart of the enemy sector has been a success. The war game goes well so far for the SSSD Sovereign.

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

-- New comp: 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.

Disclaimer: Nothing requires the Sovereign drinking song author to specifically write about consumption of alcohol. You can write about drinking milk or water or whatever.

Excerpts: To set the mood, here are a couple of verses hammered out by a couple of the notorious partiers in our cantina:

I'm Michael, the pilot man,
I don't have a colon, man.
Swift kick to your crotch,
Cuz I'm filled up with Scotch,
I'm Michael, the pilot man! (glug, glug!)" -MAJ Mike

The SOV is great, the SOV is strong,
We win our battles and sing our songs,
The Pride of the Empire brings glory to us all,
We are just pilots on this rollercoaster ride into the unknown,
But we fight the fight and bring those trophies back home,
Now lets bugger off to the bar before they close:)" -GN SickMan

-- New comp: 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.

-- Wing III vs. Wing IV, second round of competition, XWA free mission 60. Deadline is today.

-- Return of the Rat Pack Round 7, the finale vs. Omega Squadron. Omega wins. Rat Pack wins the tour, 4 to 3 over the groups of CMDRs.
GN Reaper's recap of the Round 7 results:
Well the deadline has been and gone, the entries have been counted and are as follows:

The Ratpack
GN Reaper/Wing IV - 219,317
VA Proton/SSSD Sov - 131,698
Total: 351,015

Omega Squadron

COL Darth Vader - 301,199
LC Ixion - 215,891
COL Brian - 114,561
CPT Autoris - 61,304
Total: 692955

Congrats to Omega Squadron on their rather convincing win. Shame none of the other members of the ratpack could find the WD40 to unlock the brakes from their wheelchairs, all in all a totally pathetic display.on our part. >:(
Anywho, congrats to COL Darth Vader and LC Ixion on their IS-SW and IS-BW respectively

-- Wing III WC/COL Jahan Kalar is on leave until May 10, MAJ Popelka is A-WC.

-- CMDR/CPT Aeishline Strathaven/Beth has been given approval to pursue creation of a bimonthly Sovereign newsletter. She will be putting together an outline soon.

-- Squadron motto/nickname change of the week: New Sadhe Flight III Nickname: Embrace Chaos, Be Chaos, cause Chaos, Muhahahahaa

-- VA Khadgar reports: The EH is signed up for a Competition for X-Wing vs TIE Fighter this month called "Dance Into May". The Competition runs over The Zone and Battlestats, much like a WoW. The Competition runs until May 10th. For details, see http://www.battlestats.com/games/xvt/war/info/?war1263. LoCs and DFCs will be awarded as usual, hope to see you there!

FORCE STRENGTH

-- A big Sovereign welcome to new or returning pilots:
FL/CM Yun/Hey 2-1
FL/LT Ace Hobbes/Daleth 2-1
FL/CPT Mayk Wolverine/Vav 2-1
FM/SL Kolos Murdock/Beth 3-2
FM/SL Zev Lolet/Daleth 3-3

-- COL Kalar is comfortably clutching the La-Z-WC as the WC with the largest wing. Note the Wing III trend in the new-arrivals section above.

SSSD Sovereign [186]

Wing I [37]
Wing II [36]
Wing III [44]
Wing IV [34]
Wing V [34]
Omega Squadron [11]

SHIP COMPETITIONS

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

-- Sovereign Drinking Song Competition (see news item above).

-- Sovereign three-part recruitment competition (see news item above).

-- Coming soon, the Sovereign Bombing Run Blowout, multiple events and lots of Iron Stars up for grabs.

SHIP COMMUNICATIONS

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

CANTINA COMMENTS

"Permission to log all this? I need excuses to start IWATS - Elocution (speech :P)." -CM Mage

"I blame Proton!
What? No? Damn! I forgot Blame Proton Week was over... :( " -LC Freelancer

"ummmmm, yes MWE
/me writes it on the back of his hand and tries not to spill any whisky over it :P " -GN Reaper

"Slightly higher activity this month, with me completing two battles. I'd hoped for more, but RL has been ugly to me, with a close friend going through a rough time and me trying to comfort her and be her next boyfriend...boy, arn't I evil.." -MAJ Jason Hunter

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
The old man can't take his drink
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
/me runs and locks himself in his office before Team LSD get him :P " -GN Reaper

" **Dude bashes down Reaper's door and Snippy immediately begins electroshock treatment on the indiscrete general** ;) " -VA Proton

"Shocking ain't it Old Man Reaper? ;P -FTT (Father Time Turr) :P " -MAJ Nurel Turr

" /me gibbers about on the floor thinking to himself
well at it could have been worse, its much better than the guano bins :P " -GN Reaper

"Oh, the painful memories of Pro as a WC!
/me beats his head against the wall to get them to go away." -CM Face Loran

COM/VA Proton/SSSD Sovereign

--------BEGIN PRIMARY ATTACHMENT------
SSSD SOVEREIGN POLICY

This document, signed by the Flag Officers of the SSSD Sovereign, was written to give Squadron Commanders and WCs some general information about the way things are done here aboard the SSSD Sovereign, to help them become better CMDRs, and to inform them a bit more about what their Flag Officers expect of them. As such, it is our official policy on the diverse questions that could arise during one's stay as CMDR.

We hope that this document will prove useful to you, that you will enjoy it, and that it will help you create a more enjoyable TIE Corps for all your pilots - and make the command experience more fun and more involving for yourself!

1) The objective: The goal is to have FUN! Your job as CMDRs is simply to make sure that your pilots enjoy being in the Emperor's Hammer as much as possible! (and that they stay within the rules to make sure that everyone else can enjoy it too.) We're not in the Emperor's Hammer to get promoted. We're definitely not here primarily to show off, or to boost our egos. (Don't misunderstand us - a healthy ego can be funny once in a while... just as long as you don't promote yourself through bashing others...)

2) Priority: Keep your pilots in; keep your pilots interested; keep your pilots happy. The thing to avoid at all costs as a CMDR is to have pilots going AWOL due to lack of interest. As CMDR, the author watched manning numbers more than anything else. The idea here is not to always push your pilots to be active - if they didn't want to be active up to some point, they wouldn't have joined the Emperor's Hammer. The idea here is to give them a wide range of activities that suit their interests - which doesn't always mean flying, by the way - and to keep them very well informed about all those activities and how they can participate. Simple, eh? It takes is time, a good sense of observation, and dedication - but put that in and the results will come.

3) Promotions: A promotion is not a reward, but a pledge of continued service, to your Squadron, to your Ship and to the Empire as a whole. And two months is the minimum delay for going from LT to LCM. It doesn't mean that people will automatically get promoted after two months. Don't ever promise anyone a promotion - you never know whether it will be denied. Don't be surprised if it takes twice the minimum delay before a Wing Commander clears a promotion. Don't be surprised if the Wing Commander never clears one, either.

Also, one thing: If a pilot comes up to his leader and says "I want a promotion, dammit," it usually tends to severely decrease his chances... :)

4) Decorations: An Imperial Security Medal is not something to be taken lightly. A pilot who gets such a decoration must have shown exceptional dedication and loyalty to his squadron over a continued period of time. It is a Ship Standing Order aboard the SSSD Sovereign that all medals must be cleared by the Wing Commander before they can go through - even if you have the option of awarding the ISM on the tiecorps.org page, don't do it until the Wing Commander's approved it.

Another thing is that medals in the TIE Corps are solely worth the pride you get out of them - and that if you don't deserve a medal, you can't feel good about it. To get his first ISM, one pilot we know (as an example) had to fly about 10 battles, become a Flight Leader, and get an Emperor's Hammer Site of the Week on a web site he'd taken care of for a couple of months. This strictness is good - because how happy do you think it makes him when he gets a Bronze Star of the Empire? Very happy indeed! Medals must never lose their meaning through over-awarding.

And finally, a medal which you already know you're going to get is not as fun as a medal that suddenly drops out of the blue because you've been a great pilot all along. A good rule of thumb is this: if you would not be ready to pull that medal you're awarding off of your own uniform, don't award it.

5) Minimum mandatory tour of duty for squadron commanders. An officer who becomes a squadron commander aboard the SSSD Sovereign agrees to commit to a minimum TOD of four months. This requirement ensures that all CMDR applicants are serious about it and willing to do the job necessary. It takes time to build continuity in a squadron, and effectiveness in squadron command is not achieved if the CMDR leaves before he or she has completed a basic TOD. This policy also prevents the unsavory and thankfully rare tactic of someone applying for a CMDR job only intending to hang around long enough for the usually commensurate rank promotion. Each new CMDR with the rank of Commander is expected to work hard and excellently and therefore can expect to be promoted to Captain and then Major by the end of the four-month TOD if performance is at a high level. If a CMDR chooses to step down before the end of the four-month tour, rank upon transfer will revert to the pre-appointment rank. A final note: The TOD requirement is not an automatic pass to loaf through four months as a CMDR. Just as before, an inactive CMDR can expect to be removed quickly.

6) Honour: Quote from former Wing I WC GN Wolly: "We Sovereign vets are proud to serve aboard the Sovereign... we love our job and we love it to be part of the TIE Corps. We don't really need decorations so we won't award them so easily." It's true, boys and girls. Ultimately, we do our jobs because we care for our people and for our friends, and we know that it's more fun when people play it fair. We aren't six years old. We know that a win we deserve and accept humbly is more satisfying than a win we steal and then shove in everyone's faces. We play it straight, we play it cool, we take it all in good humor. Despite opposition from many places, we just keep rocking on. The best Wings in the TIE Corps are not made up of a bunch of unknowns in a rat race for promotion - they're friends who love the fun place they've created.

7) Worth fighting for: What is worth fighting for? A few letters you add at the bottom of certain messages? No. Friendship? Honour? Pride, fun, and glory? Yes. Vodka? Absolutely! We want to move towards Wings where people are rewarded by the fun atmosphere of the whole place - for collective achievement; rather than Wings where people are rewarded by medals - for individual efforts. Fly because flying makes your squadron a strong squadron, something you can be proud of. Not because you might get a medal for it. Have good intra-squadron communication, a lively Cantina, lots of non-flight activity - because flight and non-flight activity complement each other and having strength in one increases the likelihood of having strength in the other. People who just have fun, make it fun for others, and have a good attitude - those people are rewarded by their very work, and they also tend to get a lot of medals naturally, almost as an afterthought... while those embittered ones who work super hard, but do it solely to attract recognition to themselves, may get a few medals too - but not more than the others, and those medals will pretty much be the only so-called reward they'll ever get.
------
------END PRIMARY ATTACHEMENT------

------BEGIN EXTRA ATTACHMENT-------
-- From the Wing III report by COL Kalar:

Other Stuff (Is it better to be a jock or a nerd?)
Michael Jordan having "retired," with $40 million in endorsements, makes $178,100 a day, working or not.

If he sleeps 7 hours a night, he makes $52,000 every night while visions of sugarplums dance in his head.

If he goes to see a movie, it'll cost him $7.00, but he'll make $18,550 while he's there.

If he decides to have a 5-minute egg, he'll make $618 while boiling it.

He makes $7,415/hr more than minimum wage.

He'll make $3,710 while watching each episode of Friends.

If he wanted to save up for a new Acura NSX ($90,000) it would take him a whole 12 hours.

If someone were to hand him his salary and endorsement money, they would have to do it at the rate of $2.00 every second.

He'll probably pay around $200 for a nice round of golf, but will be reimbursed $33,390 for that round.

Assuming he puts the federal maximum of 15% of his income into a tax deferred account (401k), his contributions will hit the federal cap of $9500 at 8:30 a.m. on January 1st.

If you were given a penny for every 10 dollars he made, you'd be living comfortably at $65,000 a year.

He'll make about $19.60 while watching the 100 meter dash in the Olympics, and about $15,600 during the Boston Marathon.

While the common person is spending about $20 for a meal in his trendy Chicago restaurant, he'll pull in about $5600.

This year, he'll make more than twice as much as all U.S. past presidents for all of their terms combined. Amazing isn't it?

However...
If Jordan saves 100% of his income for the next 450 years, he'll still have less than Bill Gates has today.

$$$ Game over. Nerd wins.
-------END EXTRA ATTACHMENT------