LC Denys Elara walked through the Challenge's corridors at a brisk pace. Technically speaking you could say she was almost running. She had hoped HA Plif would just go away after discovering Firebird had left the system, but she was out of luck today. There was only one thing she could do now, and that was ensure all squadrons were away before he could get to them. She stepped into a turbolift and impatiently pressed the buttons. After what seemed like ages, the door closed on her, and the turbolift show down. After the door swooshed open fifteen decks lower, and Elara resumed her brisk pace.

As she turned a corner, she almost ran into Colonel Silwar Naiilo. 'With me,' she said without stopping. Naiilo stopped walking, turned his head and watched her go. Then he realized what she'd said, and he started running to catch up to her. Moments later, he slowed down to match her pace, and watched as she turned another corner and almost ran into Lieutenant Colonel Shadowclaw. Again, without stopping, she motioned him to follow her and he fell in line. Moments later, they ducked into an empty room. After the door closed, she turned, straightened her uniform and looked at them.

Less than five minutes later, both Squadron Commanders ran into the main hangar bay and headed for their fighters. Crews had already refuelled them and were just clearing the deck. Naiilo saw his pilots already in or getting into their cockpits. He went up a ladder and dropped himself into his TIE Defender's cockpit. He flicked some switched and watched his fighter come to life. One of the techs handed him his flight helmet, and he put it over his head. He took his time making sure it was properly connected to his flightsuit. After all, once in outer space, his life would depend on that. Once satisfied, he flipped the comms switch. Tempest, we're launching in 30 seconds. If you're not ready to do so, I wanna know now.' As he expected, his pilots stayed quiet. He had trained most of them himself, and they knew what he wanted.

On the other side of the hanger, Shadowclaw was going through the same routine. As he watched the TIE Defenders and Missile Boats of Tempest lift off the deck and start moving towards the energy shield that kept the hangar bay pressurized, he started his fighter's ion engines. As the hum rose to the steady sound he'd come to love, he signaled his own pilots, and the followed Tempest out and into space. He watched as Tempest broke off and turned towards the Challenge's port side. A few moments later, he broke for the starboard side. Once he'd cleared the massive starship's bulk, he pulled the lever of his hyperdrive and watched the stars disappear. This was going to be interesting.

Dempsey didn't move. 'I doubt that,' she said, and paused for a moment. 'Master Jedi.'
 

Well, last report of the month, I'm happy to say that after a dozen reports saying that the Commendations of Loyalty are pending, they were awarded today. Yay! I am also happy that I got one this round again. Congrats to all recipients.

On the ship front, I've been told that both Tempest and Firebird are still pondering what to do with their Squadron (Re)Mobilization 3 rewards. It's sure going to be interesting to see what they come up with.

Also, there's a new and upcoming ship-wide competition coming up. LCM Honzou is organizing the Challenge Championship League. It's centered towards the Squadrons Fleet Battles game mode. If you're interested in participating, find 2 people to team up with, as it utilizes the 3v3 game. If you have your 3-pilot team, send LCM Honsou a email or a DM on Discord to get in on the action. You have a week to do so!

Imperial Storm is also upon us. I'm having some trouble wrapping my head around it, as the rulebook is huge and I'm supposed to actively engage here, so we'll see what's going to happen. Frankly, I think I completely missed the last round of this, so this is all new to me.

On Discord, there's been some discussion on the part where the TCCOM emphasized an old rule. It's also been announced ina recent TCCOM report, and has been added to the TCPM. The matter in question is the submitting of SP pilotfiles and MP screenshots. This should be done as soon as possible after the actualy flying, and not near the end of the month. This to ensure fair play in competitions that are run based off of quantity flown. Please ensure you do so. Failure to do so will mean disqualification from the competition in question as a best case scenario. Fortunately, this is rarely an issue, but there have been a few instances in the recent past.

Next up: earlier today I was made aware of another change in rules that was implemented recently. For all MP matches, you should report the actual number of kills/objectives you scored, where in the past we could just enter 1 kill regardless. Unfortunately, this means that effectively, the python script we've been using for the past year or more is pretty much unusable now, and we're back to reporting every screenshot one at a time.

Last week, I added a new section to my report called State of the Challenge. The goal is to get as much opinions as possible from all pilots on this ship to see where we can improve in the leading up to the big Raise the Flag competition. I have received a number of replies, but unfortunately not enough by far. If you have notdone so yet, please take a moment to send me a response on the matter. See below for more information.

Now, with all that out of the way, let's get on to this week's good news: we have seen new pilots arrive, we have seen pilots receive promotions. The bar on deck 3 has been serving Chalquilla non-stop to our pilots, and the bartenders are getting confused as to who is supposed to pick up the tab. To make sure I don't get stuffed with the bill, whoever gets promoted next will be respobnsible for making sure that doesn't happen. Congratulations to all who were promoted! To be fair, there were SIX of you! It's been a long while I saw that many in a week!

I'm also happy to report I made the first step on my quest to re-complete my ID line. At some point, I had all available medals on there, but recently changes were implemented that left me 5 short. This week, I was awarded a Meritous Unit Award for my efforts during (Re)Mob 3. One down, 4 to go! Also kudos to the other recipients of their (Re)Mob 3 medals!
 

As we all know, Squadron (Re)Mobilization 3 has ended. Several squadrons performed beyond expectations, completing 11 tasks and reaping all the benefits and medals that come with that achievement, but there are also some squadrons who did not manage 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:
MAJ EvilGrin for The Craft

Current standings:
6pts: CPT EvilGrin
5pts: COL Stryker,
3pts: COL Mell Kerrigan, MAJ Tygra Shadowclaw
2pts: LCM Richlet, LCM Wreckage, LC Phalk Sturm, LC Kadon Beir, GN Elwood the Brave, COL Marenta, COL Silwar Naiilo
1pts: LT Dougal Cealleigh, CM TI-40026, CPT Kalve Ryder, MAJ Talon Jade

Things are moving along just as we like them. Everyone is ordered to relac a bit and get ready for the next big battle ahead of us as we get ready for Imperial Storm!

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]
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    XWAC-ESET-ISET-TIE-SMA-AWAK-BWAK-XWAK-YWAK-SN4-SM/3/4/5}
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    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}