The Strike Cruiser Hermes emerged from hyperspace. In the distance, the giant shape of the Super Star Destroyer Avenger dominated the view and dwarfed the other Star Destroyers. Moments later, a squadron of starfighters, X-wings and Y-wings, departed from its hangar bay, strike foils closed. In perfect formation, they slowly moved towards one of the Star Destroyers. In the cockpit of the lead X-wing, Stryker watched the ISD-II Challenge grow bigger as he came closer. He cursed in silence as he saw the damage to the massive ship he'd come to call his home away from home. Even from this distance, he could see several large holes in the ship's hull. A lot of new hull plating had already been installed from the looks of it, and Stryker had no doubt the Challenge would soon fly again.

A beep from his R2 droid distracted him, and he checked his display. Incoming communication on a secured channel. That was weird. Usually the flight controller would use regular channels. He flipped a switch and called in.

'Colonel Stryker,' came the voice of the Wing Commander. 'I have a change of orders for you and your pilots. Are your fighters hot?'

Stryker smiled. Of course they were. No matter the situation, he would never take to space without a fully-armed fighter.

'Good. I'm transmitting coordinates to your R2 unit. Jump as soon as your squadron is ready. Once at your destination, your R2 will relay your new orders.' A crackly indicated the connection had been terminated and Stryker was left wondering what was going on. He didn't bother dwelling on it though. The ways of the brass was something complete madness and unable to be understood. A bleep from his R2 signalled all his pilots had the coordinates locked into their hyperdrives. 'Jump,' he said. As he pulled his hyperspace lever, the first of his wingmen proceeded him and he saw the fighter jump.

On the bridge of the ISD-II Challenge High Admiral plif, TIE Corps Commander, watched as the Alphabet squadron jumped to hyperspace. He frowned and turned to the ship's Captain. 'If I recall correctly,' he began, 'I had just told you I wanted to talk to those pilots as soon as they landed.' The Captain nodded. He wasn't sure what was going on either. 'I'm not sure, Admiral,' he said. 'The order was relayed to the hangar.'

A few moments later, the turbolift door swooshed open and the Challenge Wing Commander stepped onto the bridge. Plif turned his head and looked at her. 'I don't suppose you know what just happened to Firebird?' he asked.

'Mission for the Commodore, sir,' she said. Plif smirked. 'The Commodore that's not here you mean...' He turned back towards the transparisteel viewport and stared at the spot in space where Firebird had just been. His thoughts wandered. One of these days I'm going to have to figure out how to get this ship under control, he thought to himself.
 

April evaluations are done, and the first medals have been recommended, they should be awarded soon. The rest will follow shortly. That said, it's taken awhilem, but that happens when life gets in the way of hobbies. Oh well, it happens.

All Challenge pilots are reminded of the Dempsey's Mad Musings in May competition which runs until my next report. So far, I have a grand total of FOUR submissions, which is not acceptable given our numbers. So get to it. Check your email, the images were sent on the 13th.

As far as I'm aware, things are pretty quiet at the moment. The biggest news was the awarding of a number of rare Iron Stars with Platinum Wings for the Chalquilla Cup winning team members, and the promotion to Lieutenant of our only resident sub-lieutenant. Grats to you all! For the rest, this is a pretty short report. So go enjoy your weekends!
 

TRANSFERS

Challenge ship-wide competitions:

Dempsey's Weekly Screenshots

Every week, the report will have a screenshot. Not necessarily from a Star Wars movie. First Challenge pilot to send the correct answer to the mailing list wins. Each victory earns you an IS-BR. Unless it's a 5th victory, you then get a IS-SR. Unless it's a 10th victory, which gives you an IS-GR!
Remember - your answer has to go to the list.

Current screenshot:

Last week's winner:
LCM Wreckage for Gravity

Current standings:
5pt: CPT EvilGrin
4pt: COL Stryker
3pt: COL Mell Kerrigan, MAJ Tygra Shadowclaw
2pt: LCM Richlet, LCM Wreckage, LC Phalk Sturm, LC Kadon Beir, GN Elwood the Brave, COL Marenta, COL Silwar Naiilo
1pt: LT Dougal Cealleigh, CM TI-40026, CPT Kalve Ryder, MAJ Talon Jade

 
Dempsey's Mad Musings in May

On the 13th of May I will send 9 images. I want to know what the images are of. Of course, it won't be easy as that as the images are all garbled up. In groups of 3, new images were created from the old 3. Identify as many of the 9 images correctly as you can. As a hint: 4 of them are Star Wars related, the other 5 are celebrities. In all cases: be specific as to what you mean (eg: 'jedi' will never be correct, I'd need a name...)

All pilots, you have one more week to get your squadron's number of completed tasks for Squadron (Re)Mobilization 3 up to the next level. Do what you can!

COM-TACA-FSE/HA Anahorn Dempsey/ISD-II Challenge, signing off

MoH/ICx2/OoR/GOEx3/GSx21/SSx43/BSx39/PCx16/ISMx9/MoT-51rh-52gh-9bh/MoI/MoC-11doc-11poc-11goc-10soc-91boc/IS-12PW-192GW-443SW-408BW-4PR-18GR-
   21SR-89BR/LoC-PSx9-RSx2-IS-CSx2/LoS-PSx23-RS-IS-CSx3-Rx4/DFC-SW-Rx3/CoS/CoEx4/CoLx14/CoB/LoAx3/OV-14E [Imperator] [Tan] [TAR]
{IWATS:MCBS-XAM-XMD-TM/1/2/TM/3-XTM/1-MP/2-AMP-XWAI-BFM-TT-XTT-SFT-CTW-AT-SU-CM2-MD1-DT3-ARTY1-VS4-ST-SC-SEA-SD-SZ-SR-AIR-CC-SFW-WPN-
    XWAC-ESET-ISET-TIE-SMA-AWAK-BWAK-XWAK-YWAK-SN4-SM/3/4/5}
{IU:C/TC,C/DB,C/DIR,S,UL,CRD,EJE,TD,REP,WM,FT,IO,INST,MI,BTL,LDR,COE,WD,AIM,ICQ,MS1,TLN,ASP,BX,CSS,CBX,DW,FLA,LIN,GFX,IBX,JS,WIKI,PHP,VBS,XML,
    MAN1,MAN2,WKS,INO,HIST,INTEL,PRER,GR,SPW,HAD,GHA,THR,OSS,M/1/2,IIC/1/2/3,IA,CA,ARG/1,STM}