Briefing

Battlecry was born during my tenure as TIE Corps Commander, from a concept by Vice Admiral Ricaud, who was then the TIE Corps Battlegroup Commander. As I remember it, things were pretty busy then. There'd been a total reshuffle of the Command officers of the SSD Avenger, we were trying to recruit more Sith pilots from the Dark Brotherhood, the ISD Colossus was in danger of being closed due to inactivity, and the ISD Relentless had a brand new Commodore at the helm. It was a fiendishly busy, but highly rewarding time to be TIE Corps Commander.

I knew that if it wasn't handled properly we'd have a lot of resistance from the XO (since he'd be understandably worried about taking business away from the Fleet Newsletter), but under VA Ricaud's guidance, the initial teething problems were sorted out and the first issue went ahead smoothly. Well, almost.

You see, I was asked to host the first issue on my website, which I happily agreed to. However due to the fact that I'm a complete and utter moron, and I got my relative and absolute hyperlinks mixed up; the first issue consisted of little more than a pretty front page and a series of dead links. Chalk one up to experience ;)

The problems were sorted out within days, but it wasn't a particularly auspicious way for the magazine to begin life. Luckily, Battlecry had more staying power than could be defeated by sloppy hosting on the part of the TCCOM, and it's mix of the usual reader-submissions, plus some insightful interviews and intelligent features ensured that it overcame its troubles and remained a staple of TIE Corps life to this day. It became my forum for announcing the winners of the monthly TIE Corps Commander's Citation, and it's always been a useful means of addressing the troops. The only problem that I had with it was that the FO's Briefing page had to be written at exactly the same time as the Weekly Report to the XO and Fleet Commander, and my own Weekly Report to the TIE Corps membership. You try writing three reports at the same time, on the same subject and see if YOU can make them all sound different!

It's a more varied read than the standard EH newsletter, and is tailored specifically to be of interest to you, the TIE Corps. It's your magazine, the Editor does some good work, but it'll only be as good as you make it. If you've got something that you're proud of and you want to show it off, submit it to Battlecry (and don't forget to cc your CMDR). It'll earn you a Letter of Achievement and it always looks good on a Squadron Report. It's your magazine, use it or lose it.

Colonel K.C. Kessler
MoH/IC/OoR/GOE/GSx2/SSx4/BSx9/PCx3/ISMx10/CoB/MoI-DC/ISx3/LoC-PSx34/OV-3E [PLDN]
Former Flight Officer and TIE Corps Commander of the Emperor's Hammer