Dempsey had lost track of time. There was little to do, and she'd already completed a very thorough search of the hermit's home. And a hermit indeed. There was little to no evidence anyone was even living here. Still, she was certain of her sources, and so she was certain that in the end, the inhabitant of this shack would return to it. Unfortunately, with all the time in the world to think, Dempsey still had not come up with the best way to approach the situation. Old guys like this usually needed to be played just right if you wanted to get something. And tact wasn't her strongest character trait.

Dempsey woke with a start. Her mind had triggered an alarm somewhere, and she opened her eyes. Her head was resting on the solid wooden table, not the most comfortable of places to rest one's head, and she felt it. She closed her eyes again and concentrated, wondering why she had awoken so suddenly. At first, there was nothing, but then she picked up a very faint shimmering. A ghost of a shadow isturbing the peace of the Force on this planet. She smiled. Finally.

She sat up straight, rested her elbows on the table and folded her hands, then rested her chin on them. And she waited for the old hermit to return.

Stryker sighed. The mission hadn't even started yet and they already lost a pilot. This was not the way for an Imperial pilot to go. Not at all. He decided to see the cause of the commotion, so he turned his snubfighter around. Before him drifted the burnt out hulk of an ancient Venator-class Star Destroyer that looked like it had last seen action during the Clone Wars, so many decades ago. 'Any signs of life aboard that thing,' he asked. The astromech warbled a negative response. No energy readings whatsoever, and the ship had so many holes in it, it most likely was no longer able to contain an atmosphere either. He sighed.

The astromech warbled again, and a message appeared on his display. 'Let me hear it,' he said to the droid. On his display, an image of the Wing Commander appeared. 'Colonel Stryker, the mission I have for you is from the Commodore herself, and requires the utmost secrecy. As such, I was unable to give you these orders before, nor was I able to transmit them. I also cannot allow you to transmit them to your pilots, even on a secured channel. Your astromech has all the information you need, but will be unable to release this information until you and your pilots can talk directly without electronic communication. As such, we hav sent you to a system known to be devoid of life and activity. Your scanners will tell you this system has several planets, one of which is a gas giant with a single satellite in orbit. This moon has a breathable atmosphere and won't be dangerous to organic life. Well, not unless you plan on staying there for a few weeks anyway. Land your squadron on that moon, and once there your astromech will deliver the Commodore's orders.'

With that, the image disappeared. Stryker activated his scanners, and found the moon LC Denys had mentioned. He ordered his pilots fo follow him in. As they acknowledged without question, he cursed.

This had better be good.
 

Dempsey's Mad Musings in May has come to an end. I'd hoped for more submission, but I guess 5 will be what it is. The images I used can be seen right below here if anyone's interested: William Shatner, Pamela Anderson, First Order Star Destroyer, Nicole Kidman, Gordon Ramsey, Taun-taun, Acclamater class Assault ship, Queen Elizabeth II, Death Star II. Most people thought the Venator was part of it, but alas. I also gave only half a point to Queen Elizabeth, as the current one is the second by that name. Someone also saw 'Rose from Titanic' in here somewhere. I'd love to know where people got 'Donald Trump'. Someone saw Luke sitting on a Taun-taun. Must be using a Jedi mind trick on me then, as I don't see him......
Anyways, kudos to LT Cupcake who scored 6.5 points :) Medals for all winners will be recommended shortly.

I must admit the past week has been extremely busy for me, as will the next week or 2. Right now I'm not even sure I can send out a report the next two weeks, time will tell. It's finals period over here and unfortunately that means an enormous anount of stuff to grade and very little time in which to do so. But I will be back in full force in June. I have a long weekend before the storm, so I'm doing a little flying. Despite some of the utter crap on the Compendium, it always does relax. Especially when you can go grab a cup of tea while TIE is running at 4x normal speed and all you need to do is wait for a few Corvettes to dock and hyper out. Always fun....

Muchos gracias to LC Phalk Sturm who noticed it was time for a small uniform upgrade for me. Seems my version from 2015 was a bit out of date.

April's MSEs were approved by the SOO, and that means the medals due will be or already have been awarded. Congrats to everyone on their medals, whether it be a Imperial Security Medal or a Silver Star.

Unfortunately, we've had to say goodbye to a few of our pilots this week, who have been unable to contribute as they wish due to real life. Somehow that always gets in the way. But we all need jobs, and we all have families. I wish them well, and hope they know they will always be welcomed back aboard this ship if in future time permits. This of course applies to all pilots who have had to take a ride to the M/FRG Phoenix. Fortunately, there will also be pilots eager to take their place and keep it warm for them, as this week we welcome SL Hijacker aboard, who was assigned to Firebird squadron and already got his first promotion in the bag. Welcome and congratulations!

Lastly, my email program decided to forget my STMP password and I've not been able to get it sorted since, so ougoing emails will be far and few between. Feel free to send them as receiving is not an issue. If your email requires a response I'll do so on Discord if you're there, and figure out something else otherwise.
 

As we all know, Squadron (Re)Mobilization 3 has ended (well: technically speaking it ends tomorrow), and it's safe to say that there won't be many more chancges to the current standings. I'm not sure what those are exactly, but I do know that several squadrons performed beyond expectations, completing 11 tasks and reaping all the benefits and medals that come with that achievement, I also know that not all squadrons managed to complete 5 tasks, which was what I had hoped for. While there can be plenty of reasons for this, it does have me slightly worried. There are two more big competitions in our future, most importantly Raise the Flag. We do not stand a chance of winning that unless all squadrons are performing at peak efficiency.

As such, I encourage all members of this ship who have an opinion on this they wish to share, to send me an email. I would love to see an email from every single pilot, but that's unlikely to happen. Still, the more information I have, the more I can do in the coming months to prepare our ship for this competition. So do not hesitate to send me an email. This is not a call to send only things you think are not going as they should. While those are of couirse welcome, I also would love to hear what is going as it should, what is going great, and what is going fantastic. The entire spectrum is welcome, from best to worst.

Now I've been a COM for just a few days short of 11 months now, and I've served as COM before on the Hammer for another 23 months before, but to be honest, I've never done this before. So I have no idea what to expect. Surprise me, wow me, and inform me! This call also includes feedback on my own performance. As said, I've done this job for 34 months now, so odds are I'm not seeing things I could improve on!
 

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!
WARNING: there seem to be some issues with emails sent in response to this report not getting through on the mailing list, so be sure to email the list, and also send a mail directly to me!.

Current screenshot:

Last week's winner:
COL Stryker for From Dusk till Dawn

Current standings:
5pt: COL Stryker, CPT EvilGrin
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

Below the images used:

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}