The corridors of the ISD-II Challenge were dark. Well, not completely dark since the emergency lighting was on, but still. The mighty Star Destroyer was running in night mode. Which is a weird concept when you're in deep space and not on a planet, as that means there simply is no such thing as night. Or day for that matter. But Dempsey didn't care. To retain some semblence of normal, she'd always started using night mode and day mode on her commands. She didn't know about the crew on the Star Destroyer, but she felt better that way.

And of course it made sneaking around unseen a lot easier.

Dempsey walked along the corridors. With her dark uniform, it was hard to see her if you weren't expecting anyone. Good thing the security cameras aren't operational yet, she pondered. As she moved from deck to deck, she closed in on her target: the main hangar bay and her sanctuary away from home: the modified Transport Andromeda. With yet another new squadron commissioned, as expected, the workload and administrative duties sent her way also increased. Also as expected. And dreaded. As good as she was at her job, paperwork is something she never liked.

As expected, the main hangar bay was also silent. Although Tempest had drawn the short straw and was on duty tonight, one of their flights was patrolling space around the Challenge and the pilots of the other two were hanging around in the pilot's mess waiting for their turn. Or an emergency. or a drill. Or anything else that required the immediate launch of more starfighters.

Like the unauthorized launch of a transport from the main hangar bay.

A few moments later, Dempsey heard the hiss as the aft hatch of her personalized transport closed and created its vacuum seal. She punched a few buttons and a soft hum indicated her ion engines starting up. The cockpit lit up as her concole came alive. this felt good. She checked some settings, and then slowly engaged the repulsors, lifting the transport a few inches off the deck. She rotated her craft to face the energy shield keeping the atmosphere in the hangar bay from being sucked out into space, as well as any unfortunate personnel that happened to be there, and puched the accelerator. For a millisecond, the Andromeda trembled in its place, then it shot forward, and she was surrounded by the black of intersteller space. In the distance, she could see Aurora Prime's yellow star. Her console showed her the swiftly decreasing hulk of her ship as the distance quickly grew.

'Unidentified transport, you have not been cleared for launch!' came the voice of Colonel Silwar Naillo over her comm system. 'Shut down your engines or we will be forced to open fire on...' Dempsey hit a button and the sound died. Her threat indicator shows Tempest's flight of Missile Boats quickly approaching. A small smile formed. A few key punches later, she was pushed back in her chair as the Andromeda accelerated far beyond the maximum velocity of a normal DX-9 transport. Her threat indicator showed the distance between her and the Missile Boats quickly increasing. She noticed that at least one of them had engaged his SLAM thrusters. The Andromeda was fast, but she was pretty sure it wasn't that fast. Fortunately, the SLAMs couldn't be engaged for very long, and she had quite the headstart.

She punched a few more keys, and her HUD showed an overview of the system. She quickly glanced through the list of ships in space, and located the Interdictor cruiser Fairchild. She was pretty sure the last status report had told her its massive gravity well projectors were'nt ready yet, but better not to take the chance. She changed course to stay clear of it. A few seconds later, the hyperdrive computer started beeping to let her knew it had finished its calculations for a safe jump to light speed. Dempsey pulled the lever, the stars turned to lines, and she was in hyperspace.

In the cockpit of his Missile Boat, Colonel Naillo smacked his fist against the control yoke of his Missile Boat and cursed. He punched up the comm system. 'Tempest 3-1 to Flight Control, can you tell me how a simple DX-9 manages to outrun a Missile boatd? What in the name of Palpatine is going on here?'

Well, after that dramatic escape, I'm going to be off on a short Leave of Absence as I continue my foray into my latest hobby: skydiving. Three weeks of uninterrupted jumping out of perfectly fine aircraft... As there is no Wing Commander to take over, I've asked the TCCOM to handle the upcoming Ship evaluations. It's too bad I can't do the first one myself, but I won't have access to my email account from where I am, so it would be hard. Telegram will be an option, so if it's important, you can reach me there.

Big news of course is the opening of a third squadron in 3 weeks time aboard the ISDII Challenge. This time, an old vet from the Challenge, GN Dunta Polo, was appointed its commander, and he has opted for Tempest squadron, with one flight of TIE Defenders and two of Missile Boats. Another old vet, COL Silwar Naillo, and a few of his recruits have taken possession of flight III. That means we have room for 5 more pilots, and then we're done. As we're pretty much matched up with the Warrior when it comes to numbers, the next squadron to open up might be here, or with them. We'll see where things go. For now, we have three operational Star Destroyers, and enough pilots to make for an interesting Raise the Flag this year. Challenge squads then too. As they all seem to focus on different activities, making it a fair fight without going berserk is a nice challenge for me. Let's see if I can come up with something suitable.

The new TC website is underway as well, and it shouldn't be long before the switch is made. To be fair, all credits go to the IO, COL Turtle Jerrar, and the TAC, AD Pickled Yoda. their knowledge when it comes to webdesign far exceeds my own, and it shows. You'll love the new site! It also shouldn't be long before the release of a new Star Wars game, Squadrons. Finally. Let there be more to follow!

Remember when I said we were at comparable numbers to the Warrior? Unfrotunately, one of the reasons for that is the TCCOM's decision to close down Kappa squadron there. It happens when activity in a squadron dwindles. Let's hope the remaining TC squadrons won't follow suit in this time of expansion!

Lastly this week, I urge everyone to go and fly XWA free 159: Recon Run. It's been a long time since I saw one of my creations added to the database!
 

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