Greetings once again from the Communications Officer, writing to provide a brief update and ensure that my bad habits with regards to report timing don't continue to worsen. Hopefully we're all slowly emerging from the festive period with batteries recharged and a happier 2021 ahead, so I'll simply say that I was very pleased to note the general civility and courtesy that have prevailed on our channels and servers over what have been... interesting times in certain parts of the world. In an earlier conversation with other members of the EH Command Staff I bemoaned that the EH of 15+ years ago, with a functioning HCI and Intel, seemed to exacerbate rather than prevent issues flaring up. Thankfully we seem to be far more effective and supportive in the way we do business now, with issues identified early and handled at the lowest possible level. In short, I'm very happy to see that trend continue.

Several weeks back I committed to conduct a review of the 'IRC' Codes of Conduct on the EH site, noting that they were last issued in 2010 and IRC was hardly our primary comms platform these days. A draft of that review is now with my masters in the CS, namely the IO, ISP and FC. Hopefully they'll be content with the changes made and a formal revision should be expected in the next few weeks. In advance, I would simply say that I have broadened their scope beyond IRC and tried to define terms in general to avoid being too specific to the ever changing number of potential apps or mediums out there. The key for me remains the spirit in which EH communications are conducted and the general expectation of positive behaviours and respect. Hopefully this will have been c.4 hours well spent and serve to enable the interactions we aim for, rather than exacerbate issues that arise.

This section will, in future, focus on any new communication platforms or software in use by specific units or elements of the EH. For now I will simply signpost those that new pilots or cantankerous veterans alike may find useful;

Specific links to Discord or Telegram groups can be requested from your Squadron CMDRs or across the mailing lists, while there are always platforms out there to exploit, particularly as the positive impact of Star Wars Squadrons continues to aid our growth.

The Herald sat alongside the bulky form of the deep-space hyperwave relay, an umbilical connecting it's midsection to the compact central hub. A handful of technicians remained onboard, quickly completing the slicing and modifications require to monitor every piece of data going through the relay and the sectors around it, working against the clock to accomplish their task. The basic defences had been rapidly overcome, leaving a pair of defence platforms atomised and a half dozen droids in far more than a half dozen parts. The unsubtle extraction of a specific string of transmissions would point the finger of blame for this attack at one of several civilian corporations engaged in a high profile and bloody dispute over the mining rights to local coaxium deposits. Should any roving New Republic forces look beyond this feint they would still be highly unlikely to notice the subtle changes to their system architecture - while certainly a risk it was one worth taking to give the Avenger a better understanding of what lay ahead of her.

La'an finished his review of the newly embedded protocols, content that they would not arouse suspicion and passing a quick command to the bridge crew. The faintest of tremors in the deckplates carried the vibration of reigniting engines. Within a few minutes the ship would plot a convoluted path back to rendezvous with the task group, catching up as they paused to refuel and conduct maintenance. Stretching in his chair, he glanced at the holographic display above his desk and enjoyed the absence of pending tasks or priority messages. As their progress continued the task group moved into ever more uncertain territoty and increased caution was being observed by all vessels, including breaking comms traffic only where necessity demanded it. 

His perspective of the station through the transparisteel viewport began to change slowly as the Herald pushed off, rotating slightly on her horizontal axis and picking up speed. The ship had continued to perform as needed, the lean crew bonding into a tight-knit team despite the strictly enforced hierarchy that tended to dominate Imperial vessels. It very much helped that they understood the importance of their role and were committed to achieving it, come what may. Checking his chronometer, La'an noted the timings for the return journey and resolved to spend the four hour journey as far away from his desk as possible.