Preview #1 The Concord Dawn
Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2023 3:37 am
Preview 1 - The Concord Dawn
“Greetings sentient members of REPUBLIC IRREGULAR FORCE 23 and welcome to the Concord Dawn, flagship of the 640th Colony Garrison.” The protocol droid’s legs and torso swivel away as it starts slowly trundling away down the large corridor leading from the airlock. You know this is a new ship, one of the next generation of Kuat Yard’s battlecruisers, but the hastily cleaned floor and occasionally sparking wall panels mark her a veteran of the war.
“This centurion class ship is 1,200 metres long with a standard crew of 30,000 sentients.” The droid stops and makes everyone wait as it slowly and awkwardly steps over a power conduit before continuing on. “In addition the ship is now transporting the 277th Outer Rim Expeditionary Force, the 7th Temple Peacekeepers, the Obroa-Skai militia and many others. This brings us up to a total complement of UNKNOWN.” You pass a large viewing window on your right, out the ship’s starboard side. A smaller and more elegant ship with flowing lines at odds with the usual Republic blockiness is tethered there. Even from your vantage point you can see significant battle damage.
“The Light of Ancient Suns. Command ship of the Jedi Expedition. It sustained heavy damage at the battle of Itamani III and now requires energy support from the Concord Dawn.
Access is-”. The droid pauses for a moment and its eyes flicker before a calm woman’s voice issues from its mouth. “-Open to all, despite the security team’s concerns. If you seek guidance or simply a quieter place to center yourself, find me within the ship-” The droid shakes its head as its usual tone comes slamming back “-restricted.”
Your little group continues on down the starboard side of the ship following the corridor as it angles left and right, internal chokepoints to thwart boarders or incomprehensible design choices? With Kuat it is often hard to say. Almost abruptly you arrive at a heavy bulkhead and the droid spends several long moments attempting to open it before radioing up its tech problem, a frustrated and tired sounding man answers at the door intercom
“RUL8, I got half the fleet’s command on my deck, the colonel will not stop smoking despite my explicit instructions and I have to plot a jump between three rapidly expanding nebula. What do you want?”
“Captain Borintus, the starboard hanger access bulkhead is INOPERABLE.”
“...Fine, fine. Can’t keep our new guests waiting. Tell me you’re gonna skip the whole spiel about culinary hygiene?”
“Food safety is serious business captain and I-”
“Yes, well, welcome everyone. You need me for anything actually serious, I’m up on the bridge.” The intercom goes dead as the bulkhead slides open revealing a bustling hanger. The unbothered RUL8 shuffles forward.
After the quiet of the corridor the hanger is nearly deafeningly loud as hundreds of flight crews hurry back and forth, repairing, refueling and rearming. Hundreds of ships are docked here and while most bear Republic colours there are plenty with more exotic insignia. Before the protocol droid can begin to explain the hanger’s exact dimensions and guesstimate how many pilots are within there’s a loud bang from a nearby Nova Courier and a gout of smoke and blue oil jets out from underneath its left engine. This is followed half a second later by some even more colourful language describing the ship, the ship’s mother and indeed the very concept of propulsion itself in novel terms.
A lanky looking Mirialian slides out from under the engine and angrily rubs the worst of the blue off with a rag. Before her glare finds your little group. “RUL8 when are my guys going to get those coupling repairs?”
“As I said last time BREVET RANK CAPTAIN Nimi Roth-” Her glare earns a brevet rank of deadly. “-The Orboan Militia are 14th in priority behind-”
“First of all.” Nimi visibly calms herself. “Most of those other units no longer exist. Secondly, as I have explained multiple times. If my guys don’t have the right couplings our fuel cells are going to freeze when we make planetfall, and then we are going to crash.”
“I see.” RUL8 cocks their head. “...13th in priority?” The droid then nimbly ducks a thrown wrench as Nimi turns away, already beckoning her 1st officer over so they can discuss an upcoming coupling heist.
Your small party follows the droid out of the hangar and slowly down into the bowels of the ship, the heat builds slowly as do the vibrations from the Concord Dawn’s gigantic engines until finally you arrive in engineering itself. Almost as busy with engineers as the hanger was with pilots it’s a well organized hive of activity. Overseeing it all is a calm Ithorian whose camouflage cloak seems to somehow blend into the white’s and greys of the room. “The Concord Dawn’s engines generate over 14,000 Galactic standard units of power. Given their importance command has informed me that a number of you will be assigned here to stand guard.” Your guide points down at the Ithorian. “1st Ranger Uffob Zubb has volunteered his expertise here after our previous head engineer was ATOMISED.” Despite being over a hundred meters away with his back to you the ranger smoothly turns and bows his head to you all before refocusing his attention on guiding the crew through some rather unorthodox repairs.
Your tour continues on, seemingly forever. RUL8 intently guides you through the most important areas of the ship, the Bridge, the Armory, the Officer’s Break Room, the Medbay and then finally, mercifully. Your bunks. Republic navy bunks are notoriously uncomfortable and these appear to be the new generation in discomfort. Still, a bunk is a bunk and after your day the chance to rest your head for a few hours is irresistible. The droid wishes you all a pleasant stay on the Concord Dawn and then heads back to welcome the next group. Finally you can-
“Listen up.” Your room’s comm crackles into life, the voice echoing through it is gravelly, the sort of voice which tells you to do it again because you missed a spot. “Irregular Force 23, Hopers. This is your commander speaking. We’re T-minus 6 hours until jump. I want us battle stations ready in 4.” A brief pause. “Republic command is unable at this time to reroute reinforcements to our destination. So it’s just us for now. That means do or die. And I’ve always been more of a Doer myself. You know your duties, may the force be with you.” The comms flicks off leaving you with a quiet hum.
It won’t be so easy sleeping after that.
“Greetings sentient members of REPUBLIC IRREGULAR FORCE 23 and welcome to the Concord Dawn, flagship of the 640th Colony Garrison.” The protocol droid’s legs and torso swivel away as it starts slowly trundling away down the large corridor leading from the airlock. You know this is a new ship, one of the next generation of Kuat Yard’s battlecruisers, but the hastily cleaned floor and occasionally sparking wall panels mark her a veteran of the war.
“This centurion class ship is 1,200 metres long with a standard crew of 30,000 sentients.” The droid stops and makes everyone wait as it slowly and awkwardly steps over a power conduit before continuing on. “In addition the ship is now transporting the 277th Outer Rim Expeditionary Force, the 7th Temple Peacekeepers, the Obroa-Skai militia and many others. This brings us up to a total complement of UNKNOWN.” You pass a large viewing window on your right, out the ship’s starboard side. A smaller and more elegant ship with flowing lines at odds with the usual Republic blockiness is tethered there. Even from your vantage point you can see significant battle damage.
“The Light of Ancient Suns. Command ship of the Jedi Expedition. It sustained heavy damage at the battle of Itamani III and now requires energy support from the Concord Dawn.
Access is-”. The droid pauses for a moment and its eyes flicker before a calm woman’s voice issues from its mouth. “-Open to all, despite the security team’s concerns. If you seek guidance or simply a quieter place to center yourself, find me within the ship-” The droid shakes its head as its usual tone comes slamming back “-restricted.”
Your little group continues on down the starboard side of the ship following the corridor as it angles left and right, internal chokepoints to thwart boarders or incomprehensible design choices? With Kuat it is often hard to say. Almost abruptly you arrive at a heavy bulkhead and the droid spends several long moments attempting to open it before radioing up its tech problem, a frustrated and tired sounding man answers at the door intercom
“RUL8, I got half the fleet’s command on my deck, the colonel will not stop smoking despite my explicit instructions and I have to plot a jump between three rapidly expanding nebula. What do you want?”
“Captain Borintus, the starboard hanger access bulkhead is INOPERABLE.”
“...Fine, fine. Can’t keep our new guests waiting. Tell me you’re gonna skip the whole spiel about culinary hygiene?”
“Food safety is serious business captain and I-”
“Yes, well, welcome everyone. You need me for anything actually serious, I’m up on the bridge.” The intercom goes dead as the bulkhead slides open revealing a bustling hanger. The unbothered RUL8 shuffles forward.
After the quiet of the corridor the hanger is nearly deafeningly loud as hundreds of flight crews hurry back and forth, repairing, refueling and rearming. Hundreds of ships are docked here and while most bear Republic colours there are plenty with more exotic insignia. Before the protocol droid can begin to explain the hanger’s exact dimensions and guesstimate how many pilots are within there’s a loud bang from a nearby Nova Courier and a gout of smoke and blue oil jets out from underneath its left engine. This is followed half a second later by some even more colourful language describing the ship, the ship’s mother and indeed the very concept of propulsion itself in novel terms.
A lanky looking Mirialian slides out from under the engine and angrily rubs the worst of the blue off with a rag. Before her glare finds your little group. “RUL8 when are my guys going to get those coupling repairs?”
“As I said last time BREVET RANK CAPTAIN Nimi Roth-” Her glare earns a brevet rank of deadly. “-The Orboan Militia are 14th in priority behind-”
“First of all.” Nimi visibly calms herself. “Most of those other units no longer exist. Secondly, as I have explained multiple times. If my guys don’t have the right couplings our fuel cells are going to freeze when we make planetfall, and then we are going to crash.”
“I see.” RUL8 cocks their head. “...13th in priority?” The droid then nimbly ducks a thrown wrench as Nimi turns away, already beckoning her 1st officer over so they can discuss an upcoming coupling heist.
Your small party follows the droid out of the hangar and slowly down into the bowels of the ship, the heat builds slowly as do the vibrations from the Concord Dawn’s gigantic engines until finally you arrive in engineering itself. Almost as busy with engineers as the hanger was with pilots it’s a well organized hive of activity. Overseeing it all is a calm Ithorian whose camouflage cloak seems to somehow blend into the white’s and greys of the room. “The Concord Dawn’s engines generate over 14,000 Galactic standard units of power. Given their importance command has informed me that a number of you will be assigned here to stand guard.” Your guide points down at the Ithorian. “1st Ranger Uffob Zubb has volunteered his expertise here after our previous head engineer was ATOMISED.” Despite being over a hundred meters away with his back to you the ranger smoothly turns and bows his head to you all before refocusing his attention on guiding the crew through some rather unorthodox repairs.
Your tour continues on, seemingly forever. RUL8 intently guides you through the most important areas of the ship, the Bridge, the Armory, the Officer’s Break Room, the Medbay and then finally, mercifully. Your bunks. Republic navy bunks are notoriously uncomfortable and these appear to be the new generation in discomfort. Still, a bunk is a bunk and after your day the chance to rest your head for a few hours is irresistible. The droid wishes you all a pleasant stay on the Concord Dawn and then heads back to welcome the next group. Finally you can-
“Listen up.” Your room’s comm crackles into life, the voice echoing through it is gravelly, the sort of voice which tells you to do it again because you missed a spot. “Irregular Force 23, Hopers. This is your commander speaking. We’re T-minus 6 hours until jump. I want us battle stations ready in 4.” A brief pause. “Republic command is unable at this time to reroute reinforcements to our destination. So it’s just us for now. That means do or die. And I’ve always been more of a Doer myself. You know your duties, may the force be with you.” The comms flicks off leaving you with a quiet hum.
It won’t be so easy sleeping after that.