Fleet Standing Orders are hereby reproduced for the benefit of all officers and crew of the TIE Fighter and Naval Corps of the Emperor's Hammer Strike Fleet.  These Orders (FSO's) are to be considered mandatory for all personnel enlisted in the Fleet, in every position.

Fleet Standing Orders should not be considered to take precedence over the regulations published in the Training Manual.    Every effort has been made to ensure that FSO's are consistent with these regulations, but in ANY instance where a conflict exists, the Flight Officer should be informed IMMEDIATELY so the necessary amendments can be made.

The Flight Officer reserves the right to make changes, corrections and additions to FSO's at any time, but notification of such changes will be posted on the TIE Corps News Page.

 Chain Of Command

The Fleet Chain of Command is the basic structure of the TIE Corps.  In all instances where a pilot has a routine question or a problem, that question should first be addressed to their immediate superior officer, regardless of where in the chain of command you are. In order to understand how Fleet Standing Orders works, the Chain of Command MUST be completely understood.  TIE Corps Command Structure looks like this:

Fleet Commander - Grand Admiral Ronin

TIE Corps Commander / Flight Officer - Admiral Theodore

Battlegroup Commander or SSSD Sovereign Commodore

Commodore

Wing Commander

Squadron Commander

Flight Leader

Flight Member

The only exception to this procedure is that Flight Members may bypass their Flight Leaders and go direct to Squadron Commanders with a routine question.  It should be noted that the Chain of Command only applies to routine communications; that is, general questions of a procedural or personnel nature.

The Chain of Command is set up for a good reason.  If you bypass it, the people directly above you will not know about your problems or questions and will not be able to help you when the person you went to questions them about your problem. 

There are exceptional circumstances when it is considered proper to bypass the Chain of Command:

1.  When the problem is about your direct superior officer. 
If, for example, you have a problem with your Squadron Commander, you should speak to your Wing Commander about it.  In all cases like this, you should go to the direct superior of the person with whom you have a problem.

2.  Where cheating is concerned.
Squadron Commanders are authorized to contact the Fleet Tactical Officer immediately upon notification or discovery of a pilot editing or in other ways falsifying pilot files or scores.  Wing Commanders and Commodores should be cc'd on the message to the TAC. The TAC will inform the Flight Officer only when there is considered sufficient evidence to suspend the accused pilot pending a Security Office investigation.

3.  Where the question cannot be answered by your direct superior officer.
If, for example, a Wing Commander wants to find out when one of his CMDRs was last promoted, then he should ask the Flight Officer.

The basic rule is that all questions should first be addressed to your direct superior wherever possible.  This way, Flag Officers are not kept busy answering emails that could have been best dealt with at Squadron or Wing level, and your Commanding Officers will get a better feel for what kind of problems you are experiencing, and will therefore be better equipped to prevent such problems from occurring in the future.

Learn YOUR place in the Chain of Command.    Learn who stands above you - you report to them.  Learn who stands below you - you are responsible for their well-being.

 Duties

All descriptions of the duties and privileges of TIE Corps Officers are in addition to the requirements listed in the Fleet Training Manual.  These additional requirements are to be considered effective only for as long as AD Theodore remains TIE Corps Commander, whereas the Training Manual is a permanent record of duties and descriptions.

Fleet Standing Orders detail the bare minimum duties expected of officers in all positions.  Individual commanding officers are allowed to add extra requirements for certain positions to their own Local versions of these Orders, but must seek approval via the Chain of Command before making significant additions to their own Battlegroup, Ship or Squadron Orders.

 General Orders

1.  Transfers
Transfers of pilots between squadrons or to and from the Reserves are traditionally a bit of a headache for all concerned.  While it may be convenient for the pilot to simply email the Flight Officer direct with the transfer request, it is far from convenient for the Flight Officer to find out the names and email addresses of every officer who needs to know about the transfer for you.  And since the Flight Officer has a daily email load of anything up to 70 emails while the average pilot is lucky to get 10, the following procedure will be adopted where a request for a transfer is being considered:

A.  A pilot wishing to transfer should request the transfer first from their own Commander. This allows the Commander time to find out the reasons why the transfer is being requested.  If there is a problem in the Squadron, now is the time to correct the problem.
B.  The pilot should then find out the email addresses of the Commander and Wing Commander of the Wing to which he or she wishes to transfer. If you can't be bothered to do this much, you're obviously not ready for the level of commitment that a transfer to a new Squadron involves and your transfer request will be denied immediately.
C.  The pilot should now send a transfer request to their Commander, cc'ing their own Wing Commander and the Wing Commander and Commander of the Squadron they wish to join.
D.  The Commander of the Squadron to which you are transferring should reply to all addressees on the transfer request, remembering to cc the Flight Officer.
E.  The Flight Officer will then approve the transfer.

The Flight Officer should be the last person to hear about a request for a transfer, not the first.  By the time it gets to the Flight Office, the request should be ready for approval.  Any requests that reach the Flight Office without having first been to all relevant commanding officers will be rejected immediately, and the person sending the mail will be invited to read Fleet Standing Orders.

2.  Promotions
Officers seeking approval for promotions should be aware of the various levels not only that officers may be promoted to, but also of the level of officer who is authorized to request promotions.  These levels are laid out in "Fleet Standing Orders - Duties", as well as the Fleet Training Manual, but for convenience's sake, they are also summarized here:

Promotion requests must come from an officer authorized to request that level of rank promotion.  For example, a Commodore wishing to promote his Wing Commander to Colonel must ask for approval from his Battlegroup Commander, and the BGCOM must be the one to request the promotion from the Flight Officer.    Any promotions requests which bypass the relevant Flag Officers will be rejected by the Flight Office.

Local Orders may add to this regulation, but may never subtract from it.  For example, it is policy on the SSSD Sovereign that all promotions above Lieutenant must be authorized by the Commodore before being sent to the Flight Office for approval.  This is acceptable.  Having a Ship's policy whereby Squadron Commanders are allowed to request promotions to CM is not.

3.  Positions.
Every officer in your Chain of Command is authorized to select officers to fill the positions immediately below themselves in the Chain.  The following table illustrates this:

What this means in practice, is that Squadron Commanders do not have to request permission from anyone to select a pilot as a new Flight Leader.    Wing Commanders do not have to gain their Commodore's approval before selecting a new Squadron Commander etc...

However, it is good manners to keep your superiors informed of position promotions.  It prevents them from looking stupid when it becomes clear that they don't know who all of their Commanders are, and therefore prevents them from getting upset at you for making them look like idiots.  Best practice is, for example, CMDRs email the Flight Office direct with requests for promotions to Flight Leader and cc their Wing Commander.  As well as that, if a Wing Commander is consistently selecting people for CMDR positions that the Commodore might object to, he shouldn't be surprised if he loses his Wing Commander job pretty quickly.    Communication is the key, keep everyone happy.

Local Orders may supersede this section of Fleet Standing Orders.  If a Commodore wishes his Wing Commander to be the one to make ALL position promotion requests, then that will be the policy on his ship.  However, remember to seek approval via the Chain of Command before making this policy official.

4.  ID Lines
Use of multiple ID lines on TIE Corps emails is discouraged.  Fleet Regulations state that only your Dark Brotherhood ID line may be added to your TIE Corps ID (if you have one).  Use of other Subgroup IDs on TIE Corps email is not allowed, especially when your ID line ends up being longer than your message.

5.  Clones
TIE Corps personnel are allowed the use of ONE email address per character in the TIE Corps.  Use of "Clone" pilots is allowed if you wish to be a member of multiple Squadrons, but they MUST have separate names and email addresses and you MUST declare these clones to the Flight Officer.

Failure to inform the Flight Officer that you have multiple TIE Corps pilots will be treated as an Article of War violation:

407: False Statements - Any person subject to these articles who, with intent to deceive, signs any false record, return, regulation, order, or other official document, knowing it to be false, or makes any other false official statement knowing it to be false, shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.

Anyone who is currently running multiple characters may email the Flight Officer directly informing him of the names of all characters and no disciplinary action will be taken.

The Golden Rule

"We're here to enforce democracy, not practice it." - former Fleet Admiral Kessler

The TIE Corps is based on a military dictatorship.  We're not a democracy, we do what we're told to do, when we're told to do it.  It's all part of the role-playing aspect of being an Imperial Officer.    This doesn't mean that we have to blindly follow the "orders" of our superior officers, however.  If any superior officer tells you to do something which you know or suspect to be a violation of one of the Articles of War, Codes of Conduct or EH Bylaws, or which you feel would be morally wrong, simply refuse.  You also have the option of reporting them to their superiors for a charge of Abuse of Power.

The Golden Rule is that we're all here to have fun.  If we're not having fun, there's little point in our being here. If your Commander wants you to fly more battles and you don't have the time, request a transfer to another Squadron where the pace isn't so busy, or contact the Flight Officer and ask to retire to the Reserves or leave the TIE Corps altogether.  If you're in any position and you're not enjoying it, get out.  Find a position where you are enjoying yourself.  Remember that the final responsibility for your enjoyment always rests with you.  Your Commanders can provide ways for you to be active in the TIE Corps, but all they can do is dangle the carrot in front of your nose.  If you don't want to bite, that's up to you, but if you're in a position where the carrot doesn't seem so attractive anymore, it's time to move on.

 Local Orders

The term "Local Orders" is taken in the context of this document to mean: "Any variation of Fleet Standing Orders specific to a lesser unit of the TIE Corps, such as Battlegroup Standing Orders, Ship Standing Orders or Squadron Standing Orders."

Abbreviations
FSO's - Fleet Standing Orders
BSO's - Battlegroup Standing Orders
SSO's - Ship Standing Orders
WSO's - Wing Standing Orders (SSSD Sovereign only)
SqSO's - Squadron Standing Orders

Individual Commanding Officers are hereby notified that any variation from Fleet Standing Orders will henceforth be disregarded unless it appears in a form of Standing Orders relevant to your area of responsibility.    No section of FSO's may be disregarded unless it is specifically stated that you are free to do so in the relevant section of FSO's.  Commanding Officers may add to FSO's for their own Local Orders, whether they be Squadron, Ship or Battlegroup Standing Orders, but all such additions must be cleared via the Chain of Command before approval will be given to make such changes official policy in your own units.