From the Desk of Silwar Naiilo

Vice Admiral Silwar Naiilo, dress uniform heavy with medals, ribbons, and the dense presence of his lightsaber, mulled over the concept of hiring a speech writer. 'After an excellent performance, the Imperial Star Destroyer - II Challenge'... no, too dry. 'Another victory in the bag-' no, that downplayed their hard- earned victory, months spent in simulators and debating strategy to defeat the two other ships in the fleet, the ISD-II Hammer and ISD-II Warrior, in Imperial Storm 3. He looked into the chalquilla glass in his hand and found his answer.

Seated in the hall of ceremonies aboard the SSD Avenger were many of the TIE Corps' most elite pilots, the commodores of all three ships, and most of the command staff. (FA Turtle Jerrar was notably missing, most likely working overtime on the new TIE Corps IT infrastructure.) Each person seated had a gold-rimmed shot glass filled with a harsh alcohol, a faint shimmer of what appeared to be some kind of thin oil on top.

'Officers of the Emperor's Hammer TIE Corps,' he began, 'this marks the end of Imperial Storm 3. It may be the hardest-fought competition we've had all year, and through it, the entire fleet has found new ways to work together. At times the competition got heated, but I also saw dozens of pilots flying together, collaborating and finding new comraderie on their ship and others. This was a victory for the TIE Corps, so please, all of you, raise a glass, celebrate your own dedication, skill, and competitive drive. For the glory of the Empire!'

The Challenge scored over 30,000 points in Imperial storm, coasting to victory in the last few turns. 70% of our pilots will be earning a Meritorious Unit Award for taking first place, while the other 30% who aren't on leave will be on latrine duty, which after the celebrations, won't be pleasant. The last two turns saw the Drunken Admiral return home to B'Knos, where he found the system abandoned; the Hammer had taken the system and withdrew at some point later. Presumably, the Sector Admiral found his way to the station cantina to make himself some greasy hangover food.

I have released a new mission, XWA-free battle 161: 'Tempest: Deep Strike', and along with it, a competition: ISDII Challenge: On the Offensive. You have one more week (ending September 5) to complete the battle. The highest scores earn an IS-GW, SW, or BW, and anyone with at least 50% of the high score will win a CW. To be valid, pilots must write a 20-word review.

Congratulations to Xylo Pethtel on his promotion to Lieutenant Commander!

Next is another Real Heroes of the Challenge entry, this time a story about Chief Maintenance Officer Lev Gora, written by GN Anahorn Dempsey.

My name is Lev Gora.

No one has heard of me. Not much of a surprise, as I am not a famous TIE Fighter Ace. I wouldn't know what to do in the cockpit of a TIE Fighter if you put me there. Nor do I have any desire to. People you have heard of.... they're usually dead. And I prefer to live. And so, I do my duty, keep a low progile, and make sure I don't get on the wrong side of one or another of the higherups. But - let's start at the beginning. For some reason, I was asked to write down who I am. Not sure why, but part of keeping a low profile is doing ad you're told, even if you don't know why. Maybe it's because a new Commodore was appointed. I'm not sure who it is, some guy that got promoted from a TIE squadron. Naiser I think it is. Not sure about that.

Anyway, I digress. For me, the beginning was Pereta City on Abednedo. My parents, both from Corellia, for some weird reason decided to move to Abednedo. Don't ask me why, it still doesn't make sense to me why anyone would willingly live on that backwater piece of crap. Still, I learned some skills there. Enough to get hired as a technician. And so, I got off that rock as soon as I could.

My first job was Chief Maintenance Officer aboard a Baleen-class Heavy Freighter, the Dark Sky. Don't get too excited though, I was Chief Maintenance Officer there, and in that capacity I supervised exactly one crew members aboard: me. It was easy work, as the Captain wasn't taking many risks. We weren't getting chased around, we weren't getting shot at, and so life was easy.

Well, until we ran into a group of Pikes. At least, I think they were Pikes. Or maybe it was someone whose name is Pike. No one ever told me much of anything there, so your guess there is as good as mine. Although from what I know of the Pikes, it was probably someone named Pike who wasn't an actual Pike. I'm still not entirely sure how or why, but that encounter ended with the crew either dead or taken prisoner, the cargo stolen, and me all by myself adrift on the Dark Sky. Now don't get me wrong, I knew that ship inside out, knew where every bolt should be. But when I woke up after the attack, the engine was no longer in a state that I could fix. No more escape pods, main and backup generators were ransacked. It was pretty much over and done with.

Heck, I couldn't even send a distress signal anymore as the comm array had been destroyed. And the ship's main computer too.

So what do you do in such a situation? I'm not sure, there were no protocols. No guides. No one ever told me what to do when you find yourseklf alone, stranded on a derelicht spaceship somewhere in deep space, light years from the nearest star system. Maybe I should write that guide one day. Who knows when someone might need it.

Probably never. But you never know.

Anyways, I'm not sure how long I'd been adrift, but suddenly I heard a loud bang. No sensors of course, but I'd know that bang anywhere. Someone had locked onto our docking ring. Which gave me two options: meet them with open arms, or hide until they left. The latter seemed the safe option at the time, but of course that did have the downside of me still being adrift and possibly even worse off that I was now. And so I went for door number 1. I hurried towards the docking ring, and just as I entered the corridor, I saw three guys in white armor walking towards me. I stopped, and waved at them.

They must have panicked or something. I remember I saw one of them raise their rifle at me. And the next thing I know, I'm sitting in a dark room tied to a chair. Well, at least I wasn't on the Dark Sky anymore, that was for sure. After that, I did some talkiing to this guy in a neat grey uniform. Never di catch his name. But he did give me a choice. He needed mechanics, and as I claimed to be one, he would see if I was good enough to be useful. Of course I wanted to know what the pay was, I'm not accepting just any job, you know. But apparantly he expected me to take the job. Without pay. Something about an airlock, space and explosive decompression. Not my favorite way to die, and so I took the job.

That was 5 years ago. All this time, I've been a mechanic on the maintenance team aboard an Imperial II-class Star Destroyer. I'd heard of these ships of course - everyone had. But I'd never thought I'd actually get to see one. Well, to be fair, I haven't seen this one yet either, I've been cooped up on the lower decks for all this time, but that suits me fine. Don't draw attention to yourself, do your job right, and you get food on a daily basis, and a place to bunk for the night. And I'm acually a Chief Maintenance Officer now with people who actually have to do what I say. Only 5 of them, but that's 5 more than in my last job. And not too many. If I get promoted again, I'll have to supervise 20 of these 6 man units like the one I'm in now. That means people start noticing you. And you don't really want that, do you?

I think that pretty much sums it up for me. I'm not all that interesting. I don't have a high profile job, I'm not a hero of the Empire, and I'm... Well, I say Empire, but I'm not actually sure how much of an Empire we are. I've been doing a little reading on Galactic history, and it seems the actual Emperor of the Empire died about a year after I was born. So can we be an Empire if there is no Emperor? Who knows, people do crazy things. Except me. Crazy things get you noticed, getting noticed is what gets you killed. And I intend to die of old age. Of very, very old age. Preferably on some world where it's always sunny, plenty of food. And plenty of Twi'lek dancing girls for all. I've got a few years to figure out how to do that. Maybe I'll write another tidbit once I get that far. Assuming someone then wants to know of course.

Lev Gora, MC-11543

Chief Maintenance Officer, Main Engine Crew #16, ISD-II Challenge

Ship Stats

• Missions completed: 127
• Reviews submitted: 5
• IU courses completed: 2
• LoCs earned: 172

Promotions

• LT -> LCM Xylo Pethtel

Medals

Combat Ratings Advancements

PvP Rating Advancements

• LT SirCaleb: Marksman 3rd
• LT Taurus: Officer 3rd
• LCM Jaxx Nassin: Officer 1st
• LT Aisling: Certified
• CM Morgoth: Elite 3rd
• LT Gisornator: Marksman 4th
• LT Ryuzokin: Trainee

Competitions

Activity for VA Silwar Naiilo

Communication:

Email, Discord

Flight Activity:

Squadrons PvP

IU Courses Completed:

C/DB

Submitted Approved Competitions:

Submitted competition approved : ID# 3316

Created Battle:

XWA-free 161

Medals Awarded: 1x IS-CW; 1x MUA; 6x LoC; 1x MoT-gh

Resources

• TC Discord
• Ship Roster
• Email the COM
• TC Personnel Administration
• Battle Center
• Competition Center
• Report Archive