Composed by: Admiral Darth Vader (Clanofgunn@aol.com)

The Lord Ambassador slowly paced across the bridge of his Dreadnaught waiting for his ambassadors to arrive via shuttle from their miscellaneous diplomatic and propaganda missions. His ship had been bereft of his ambassadors for nearly 4 days. The only personnel on board consisted not even a skeleton operating crew a squadron of veteran pilots. To make it worse these pilots were flying TIE Interceptors. Sure… This is a ship on a mission of peace, but pirates are always on patrol for some ship to capture a lay havoc upon its crew. One of the bridge officers spun in circle and rushed towards him. 

*** 

It is around the time of being appointed FO, that the Admiral had finally hired an assistant to his duties as FO. The Flight Office was no longer a lonely place. Lieutenant General Tad had been assigned the duty of creating the Flight Office holonet page and the Emperor’s Hammer Recruitment Center. Both pages were in excellent condition. By the time the FO’s first assistant had finished completion of those sites, I began a new roster format. The offline compiled version had been deemed too bulky and was considered to be the archaic way of doing things. HTMLization was the new thing to do. These can be found at: http://members.aol.com/Clanofgunn/FO/roster.html They are updated every Saturday with the most current of all fleet rosters along with the weekly updated membership total. Near this time, Admiral Darth Vader is ordered to hire an Attaché. Admiral Kawolski, a former CA:FO is appointed. 

By the time the new roster format is posted, the Flight Officer has graduated from the Shadow Academy. He has been appointed the rank of Guardian within the Dark Brotherhood and joins Clan Satal Keto, House Kirleta… He also joins Tachikaze Squadron that is Kirleta’s Sith Squad. 

It has come time for another idea from the Flight Office. The Squadron Commander Survey. Authored by AD Darth Vader and revised by FA Threat, it has been put into fleet use for judging a CMDR’s abilities to manage a squadron. Those that pass the "survey" given to a commander’s pilots will go about normal business. Those that fail will be reviewed by the WC for possible removal or further training. This survey was used on the SSSD Sovereign so far. Although is has not been used on a fleet-wide scale recently, the FO has plans to utilize it again in the near future, for it seems some CMDRs need replacing.  

The Flight Officer now creates the basic groundwork for the EH Reserve Corps which is a place that retired members of the EH may reside until they feel they want to come back and serve again in the EH. An officer may retain their rank and medals in the EH Reserve Corps as an added bonus while in the Reserve Corps. They are considered part of the Inactive Duty Roster of the Emperor’s Hammer. The Grand Admiral has approved of this proposal and it is in full-scale use today with about 45 members. 

Finally, the Admiral is near to celebrating his one-month anniversary as FO. According to senior members of the EH, he is breaking several FO records by the length of time he’s held the position 

Most every Flight Officer’s plan was to strive to get a proposal approved ever since the day when Fleet Admiral Yoni had held the position of Flight Officer. This proposal was downsizing of the fleet. AD Darth Vader finally has proven to the Fleet Commander that the TIE Corps will greatly benefit from a downsizing. Lack of personnel using squadron craft was leading to fragmented flight groups and inefficiency in any and all battle maneuvers. The lack of personnel had also caused lower activity and productivity among the squadron with lowered morale. 

A prime example was the Super Star Destroyer Avenger. Sure, the FO had increased it’s membership by nearly 20 when he was its Commodore but the officers which replaced him had ceased recruiting efforts, and membership was falling once again if ever so slowly. His plan was to reduce the Avenger’s active squadrons to only 6 (Not including the Elite Unit, Tau Squadron). Due to a few Squadron Commanders who were already demoted or removed for poor performance, the Avenger and the FO had only to worry about selecting a few CMDRs to step down along with one WC. Some squadrons were transferred from one wing to the other, while some squadrons remained. Rage, Hunter, Spectre, Butcher, Wraith, and Stalker Squadrons are those on active duty. The SSD Avenger is the ship that has benefited the second most in the fleet. 3 squadrons can boast near 100% capacity, while others are still working on getting their numbers increased. Most of the ship is doing excellently and has ace commanders leading the squadrons. 

Wing II and Wing III of the SSSD Sovereign are also downsized. The Sovereign is the ship that has benefited the most from downsizing as they now perform exactly how the FO predicted the TIE Corps to react. They also just happened to be the ship that the Admiral had the least complaints about concerning the TIE Corps. Because of this, it is his opinion that the Sovereign has the most mature-minded group of officers on a mass-scale. There’s not much to say besides the fact that they’ve got the best set of commanding officers the TIE Corps has to offer. If there was the TIE Corps Commander’s Own Unit Citation, the SSSD Sovereign would be receiving that from the Flight Officer in this Newsletter. 

Battle Group I, Battle Group II, and the Auroran Home Guard are downsized as well. In BG I, the ISD Vanguard has been deactivated. In BG II and the AHG, The ISD Challenge was switched with the ISD Intrepid and the Intrepid was deactivated. Currently the only active ISDs in this battle group are the ISD Colossus, ISD Relentless, and the ISD Intrepid. Not all of these ships have proven to benefit the most from downsizing, however, Admiral Darth Vader finds that may be changing soon. 

The Flight Officer goes on a much-needed Leave of Absence for a period of 8 days. The vacation was very relaxing, he says. The location of his vacation is known only to the EH High Command. He reportedly enjoyed myself. When the FO returned, he says to have found about 500 emails in his holonet console. He was certainly worn out by Monday night. Fortunately everything was sorted out and in working condition by Tuesday and Wednesday. 

When the Admiral returned and everything was in perfect order, it was August. Secret order informants tell he was appointed the position of CMDR of Tachikaze Squadron, the Sith Squadron of House Kirleta. He got in touch with my members and everyone was pretty much active. Eventually he is elevated to the rank of Jedi Hunter for his efforts as commander of Tachikaze Squadron and later awarded the Steel Cross after the Rite of Supremacy ends again for his command efforts. 

Regular Flight Office duties resume as always. The FO concentrates on the TIE Corps again while trying to improve communications. This is however an ongoing task that never seems to be complete. However he is already near a high level of efficiency from the TIE Corps concerning communications. By the middle to end of next month, all CMDRs should be sending the Admiral their squadron reports. He expects by then that the TIE Corps will be in much better shape than it is now. The FO anticipates the coming time. Recently, communications have also been on an above average level, however the Flight Officer expects things to slow down a bit as school is starting again. The Admiral has past his 2 month anniversary as the EH Flight Officer. 

The Dark Brotherhood continues on. Tachikaze Squadron activity isn’t the most promising however. Jedi Hunter Darth Vader takes on the duty as Clan Satal Keto’s Rollmaster. Duties resemble those of Flight Officer, however they are much simpler.

Consul, Krath Pontifex Alastery promotes him to Sith Warrior for "going above and beyond the call of duty of a DB house squadron commander, and for aiding the Consul through Jedi Hunter Darth Vader’s time and talents to make the Consul’s life easier."

It is unfortunate however, that the Sith Warrior will be resigning from his post as Commander of Tachikaze Squadron soon. Though by time you read this, it will already have occurred. Sith Warrior Darth Vader has plans to be CSK’s rollmaster until either next year in June, or some drastic change in his schedule forces his resignation from the position. If the rollmaster decides to stay until June next year, he will most likely pursue a Dark Council position if time allows it, or he will go for the Sith High Warrior position. 

The Flight Officer currently has plans to continue managing all non-subgroup/academy rosters, maintain current membership totals on a weekly basis, and work as the TIE Corps Commander to improve the total atmosphere and enjoyment of the EH TIE Corps. He also has plans to keep his position as Flight Officer until at least early June as well. Where the Admiral plans to go is unknown. However he does have plans to move up in the fleet, still…Whether that be the main fleet, or the Dark Brotherhood of the Jedi. 

Serve the Emperor above all others! 

<SALUTE> All loyal members of the Emperor’s Hammer

[IWATS] [IWATS-IIC] 

Editor's note: since the writing of this portion of the NL, FA Darth Vader has retired as Flight Officer. The new Flight Officer is AD Kawolski (absurefire@aol.com).