ISDII Challenge Report # 28 (2021-02-21)

This report was submitted by COM-TACA-FSE/HA Anahorn Dempsey/ISDII Challenge


 
ISD-II Challenge
Commodore HA Dempsey reporting
Report ID: H.AD.028
Report date: February 21st, 2021

 
Prologue

In the deep dark of space, a large wedge shaped object silently moved through the darkness. From a distance, it looked like a small bit of something that may have fallen off a ship. But if you were to get closer, you would realize it actually is a ship. The wedge shaped object, a mile in length, was the might Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Challenge, undisputed flagship of the Emperor's Hammer TIE Corps. Few ships in the fleet had accomplished what the Challenge and its pilots have done. And it still stood strong.

The Star Destroyer was not, as it might appear, drifting through space. Well, technically speaking it was, with all but the most essential power systems shut down. The ship looked dead.

But inside, the crew was frantically at work. On the bridge, the bridge crew was monitoring their displays. Most of them had gone black when the power generators were shut down, but the critical systems were powered by small emergency generators. They were the focus of the attention. They monitored the space outside the ship. Where somewhere, pirates were lurking, awaiting their chance to strike at their prey. Usually these pirates were attracted by cargo freighters, hardly able to defend themselves, or small convoys escorted by a small fighter group. No match for the well-trained pirate gangs that made traveling through space so dangerous.

And now, here was a Star Destroyer, seemingly dead in space. For several weeks now, the Challenge, its fighters and its crew had been hunting a specifically ruthless group of pirates that had been making a nuisance of themselves. But wherever the Star Destroyer went, there were no pirates to be found. They knew they could never defeat an Imperial warship.

But now, things were different. The mighty warship was dead in space, unable to defend itself. The hangar bay blast shields were closed. And this is how it had been for nine days now. The ship's Commodore, High Admiral Dempsey, knew what she was asking of the crew. This was stressful and taxing, more even than combat against several Rebel ships and hundreds of their fighters. But that situation, they were trained for. The current situation, sitting in the dark and doing mostly nothing, was not. And it was breaking them.

Still, they had to persevere. Dempsey knew that the pirates would not pass up the opportunity of a lifetime. If this ship of hers appeared to be dead for real, they would be tempted to take it. After all, what was more to fear than pirates with their own Star Destroyer? No one would dare stand against them. And so, the Challenge had died. And the Challenge waited. Dempsey herself was sure this would not last much longer. The pirates had been spotted. A pirate starfighter had made a flyby of the Star Destroyer a few days ago, and then again a few hours ago. Their sensor logs would indicate nothing had changed in the Star Destroyer's energy output, and that it's course through the system followed exactly the one which the laws of physics dictated.

Soon....
 

 
Commodore's speech

Well, seems I let my half year celebration go by unnoticed. Fortunately, I had a nice celebration party. One of the techs in Hngar Bay 2 really screwed up the other day so I got to enjoy watching him float in space. Without the space suit of course. And right now, we're already past the 8 month line. Which is nice, as it's a record for Challenge Commodores. I've been going over the list, and it would appear that only the first ever Commodore of this vessel that I could find, Corran Force, managed to stay on longer than 8 months. Another record for the books :)

So, next up for business. The MSEs have been processed on this end, and as a result, two pilots have been AWOLed. I really do hope there won't be any more of them, but I've been here long enough to know this won't be the case. There's a lot of people coming into the TIE Corps, and some of them will fall by the wayside. The good news is that others who have come in are having fun, as shown by yet another sub-lieutenant earning their first promotion this week. Kudos to you, LT LegionX!

Third for this week, you may have noticed there hasn't been any trivia the past few weeks. This doesn't mean the trivia is gone, COL Stryker has taken a break in this month, after last month's change in the rules regarding to competitions. To not completely go without trivia this month, as of now there's a little one-week trivia starting up. Read the competitions section for more info on that.

Anything more this week? Probably. I must say I'm having trouble keeping up with what's going on outside of the Challenge. I've seen names of pilots fly by me the past week that I'd never even hear of. It's been a long time since that's happened. Starting to feel a little like the Golden Age of the TC, when we had even more ships floating around. I like it. Well, in some ways. If anyone has suggestions on how to keep up, let me know.

On the wiki page of the ISD-II Challenge some work was done as well. I spent a few hours compiling a list of Commodores. Thanks to old COM reports and Historic Records, we now have a list going all the way back to Corran Force in 2001. I'm not sure if that was the first time the Challenge made an appearance though, but that's the first COM report I could find. There's also a few holes regarding exact dates, as for some of my predecessors, I have no data to go as their profiles were disabled, so the big data retrieval we had a while back didn't get anything for them. The only thing to go on there was reports, and some were far and few between. If any old-timers have more info on the matter, do let me know. Anyone is invited to add stuff to this wiki page, we need to get it to be more than just some dry data. To see for yourself, go here: ISD-II Challenge Wiki page.

Lastly, a mission creation marathon has been finished up, with the submission of yet another battle to the TAC Office. I started out with 2 battles featuring the Challenge, and then moved on the the 5 squadrons aboard. So now, every one of them has a battle highlighting their skills. I do hope they like them :)

That brings this week to an end. One more week and february will end with it, so if anyone wants to get some activity in to go hunt for that shiny MSE medal at the end of the month, now's your chance!
 

 
News headlines this week

  • January MSEs awaiting SOO's final approval
  • CoLs (still) due to be awarded soon
  • new short Challenge trivia competition up!
  • Career awards for FCHG promotions arrived for several pilots. Well done!
  • 3 new sub-lieutenants assigned to the ship, and one old-timer has returned. Welcome aboard/Welcome back!
     
  •  
    Transfers, promotions and medals this week

    TRANSFERS

  • SL Critical Hit: SSD Avenger -> Eagle 2-4
  • SL Hiyama: SSD Avenger -> Eagle 1-3
  • SL LegionX: SSD Avenger: Thunder 3-2
  • LT Chapel Campbell: inactive -> Thunder 1-4

    RANK PROMOTIONS

  • SL LegionX: promoted to Lieutenant

    FLEET COMMANDER'S HONOR GUARD ADVANCEMENTS

  • none this week

    COMBAT RATINGS ADVANCEMENTS

  • SL Critical hit: none -> Trainee
  • LT EchoVII: Marksman 2nd -> Marksman 1st
  • LT CzR: Marskman 3rd -> Marksman 2nd
  • LT Morgoth: Officer 4th -> Officer 3rd
  • LT LegionX: none -> Trainee

    COOP/PvE RATINGS ADVANCEMENTS

  • LT Cupcake: none -> Beginner
  • LT Kalfer Araske: none -> Beginner
  • LT Morgoth: none -> Beginner
  • LT LegionX: none -> Beginner
  • LCM Dynamus: none -> Beginner
  • GN Jarek La'an: Private 4th -> Private 3rd -> Private 2nd -> Private 1st

    MEDALS

  • BS: LC Kadon Beir, GN Master
  • PC: COL NiksaVel, LC Kadon Beir, LCM Richlet, CPT Kalve Ryder
  • ISM: COL Tomax Drachen, COL Ricaud, CM TI-40026, COL NiksaVel, COL Mell Kerrigan, LC Kadon Beir, LCM Richlet, CPT Kalve Ryder
  • IS-BR: LCM Graf D'Jinn, COL Horus Blackheart, CPT EvilGrin
     
  •  
    Commodore activity report

  • communications: e-mail, Discord
  • SP flying: 63 missions
  • MP flying: nope
  • other: working on a fiction, yet another battle submitted to TAC

  • FCHG status: Imperator (4,520 pts = -4)
  • Combat rating: Tan (5,021 pts = +0)
  • COOP/PvE rating: Top Ace Ranger (11,764 pts = +0)
     
  •  
    Competitions currently running

    Challenge ship-wide competitions:

  • Dempsey's Weekly Screenshots (trivia)
  • Trivia for the Challenged (trivia)

    There's always competitions running at your squadron level, or TC wide. Check your Commander's weekly report or The Competitions Center at the TC website.
     

  •  
    Commodore's 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:
    CPT EvilGrin for Final Destination

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

     
    Challenge Trivia Intermezzo

    This week, we will be playing a little trivia. And with we, I mean you, the pilots of the ISD-II Challenge. Follow the link to the timed event, and you will find 25 questions. Well, 25 audio fragments. Each of a TV show that was on the air somewhere between the 1960s and now. Hit the links and listen, and identify as many of them as you can. The winner gets an IS-GR, every pilot who gets 20 or more correct an IS-SR, and if you manage to get 15 correct, the IS-BR is yours. One medal per pilot of course.

    link: https://tc.emperorshammer.org/timetest.php?testid=710320

     

     
    Wrapping up

    ...end message...

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


    MoH/OoR/ICx2/GOEx3/GSx21/SSx39/BSx38/PCx16/ISMx9/IS-12PW-188GW-442SW-408BW-4PR-18GR-20SR-88BR/MoI/MoT-51rh-52gh-9bh/LoC-PSx9-RSx2-IS-CS-Rx1
       LoS-PSx23-RS-CSx2/DFC-SW-Rx3/MoC-10doc-11poc-11goc-10soc-89boc/CoLx14/CoEx4/CoS/CoB/LoAx3/OV-13E [IMPR] [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}
    {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}

     

     


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