The battle had unleashed in earnest now. The easy victory against a scattered few pirate forces had turned into full scale carnage. As far as Dempsey could tell, there were now three different pirate factions in the immediate area, and they were shooting at everyone. After the unecpected appearance of a Victory-class Star Destroyer, two more heavy cruisers had entered the area and were spewing fighters from their hangar bays. Reluctantly, she hard order the launch of all her fighter squadrons as well, and the Challenge's gunners were earning their overtime pay. A never-ending flurry of green turbo laser fire and missiles were sent into the fray. The pirate forces were being decimated at this, but the three enemy heavy cruisers were getting closer. The bombers did their job and were pounding away at the enemy shields, but enemy bombers were doing the same to her ship. She'd already realized that should the enemy cruisers get within firing range, the Challenge would have a hard time withstanding the onslaught and surviving.

'Ma'am, we're starting to run out of missiles,' a voice came from across the bridge. Well, that was to be expected given the number of missiles that had been fired over the course of the last half hour.

'Any idea where we stand,' she asked. She knew the answer. Though losses amongst her pilots were small, there were losses nonetheless.

'We've lost 12 fighters so far if I'm not mistaken,' the same voice responded. 'We have damage to the outer hull on 6 decks, shields are down to 60 percent, and we've received casualty reports from several of the medbays. Engineering reports the main reactor is starting to overheat.'

Dempsey pondered their position. It was obvious this was not a fight they could win. She wondered what had gone wrong. Or rather, why their intel about the pirates in this region of space was so flawed. Still, those were questions for another day.

'Pull us back,' she said. 'We need to put some distance between us and those cruisers.'

A few moments later, she felt the Challenge's shift as the Star Destroyer changed course. This was going to be a long day...
 

Another tumultuous week is behind us. The last of the February MSE medals is in, and we are still awaiting the awarding of the Commendation of Loyalty for January, but this was expected as it has never been any different I think. They will come, rest assured.

The big news this week of course is the departure of LC Talon Jade for the Reserves. I do hope he will find his way back to this ship some day in the future. As his replacement in command of Eagle squadron, we have appointed COL Horus Blackheart. The Colonel has extensive experience in command of a fighter squadrons, with a successful Tour of Duty as commander of Sword on the Relentless as well as being part of multiple squadrons across the fleet, on each of our currently active ships. Oh, and he was Combat Operations Officer for a while (about 2 years worth) as well. Good luck to you, sir!

Looking at the roster, I see a ship that's nearly full. Well, almost as there is always room for an extra squadron. So far, we only have three open slots left, 2 in eagle and 1 in Firebird. There's a lot of new pilots coming in, which is good. Let's hope they stick around :)

Specifically, we're talking no less than FIVE new Sub-Lieutenants fresh off the SSD Avenger, three of which have already received their first promotion to full LT. This was the result of a fine recruiting effort by Challenge pilots, which yielded an astounding FIVE MoIs awarded this week. Of course, i won't forget two who were already Lieutenants, who earned their promotion to Lieutenant Commander this week: grats to you as well, LCM Morgoth and LCM WoofWolffe!

To all new pilots: earning your first promotion to Lieutenant isn't all that hard, but I remind you that to surpass that rank in the TIE Corps, the taking and passing of the TIE Corps CORE exam is a requirement, so go do that. It will inform you of all you might need to know about positions, ranks, medals, and so on.

I finally took Squadron management 5 this month. I'd been putting it off for a bit. After all, it would be a disaster were I to score less than a 90% there, or even worse, fail. Fortunately, I aced the test, so once again my Academic Record is as complete as it can possibly be. And I'm not alone, I've seen a lot of emails and announcements come by my desk of people who have passed IU exams. keep going!

There's a few easy competitions going on at the moment where I urge everyone to participate. There's Stay in the Lines (link here), TIE Corps in Battle (link here - and true, not all that easy but still), Trivia for the Challenged (link here) and the Trivia Grand Tour (link here). I'm of course still running the Weekly Screenshots (link here), and I've also added a small fiction competition for the rest of this month (A Challenge in need is a Challenge indeed (link here)), and COL Stryker as started a TIE Corps book club (link here). Plenty to keep you all busy I would say!

Lastly, kudos to CM Graf D'Jinn who was officially appointed Squadron XO for Eagle. Enjoy your new super powers!
 

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:
COL Stryker for Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones

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

We're slowly creeping up on the first big TC wide competition. The exact start date is not yet known, but it can't be long. All pilots, prepare to defend the honor of your squadrons. Get some training done in your preferred discipline, and prepare to venture out into other disciplines!

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

MoH/OoR/ICx2/GOEx3/GSx21/SSx42/BSx39/PCx16/ISMx9/IS-12PW-192GW-443SW-408BW-4PR-18GR-21SR-89BR/MoI/MoT-51rh-52gh-9bh/LoC-PSx9-RSx2-IS-CSx2/
   LoS-PSx23-RS-IS-CSx3-Rx4/DFC-SW-Rx3/MoC-11doc-11poc-11goc-10soc-91boc/CoLx14/CoEx4/CoS/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}