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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Teneb" data-source="post: 3652154" data-attributes="member: 3572">My tentative plan is to update about once a week, but here's one more to kind of set the stage.---Eos, four years earlierThe centennial celebration of Landfall Day was momentous for several reasons.  Over the past century the fledgling Dawning Star Republic had settled in and her residents got down to the business of crafting a civilization.  Civil institutions were created to manage day-to-day life, manufacturing and agricultural centers were constructed, and everyone slowly found their niche.  Landfall Day was a time to celebrate all the successes and remember the billions who had been lost to reach this point.The 100th Landfall Day was also significant because it saw the launch of the first deep space observing platform, the Leviex array.  Named after the Dawning Star’s chief astronavigator, the array coupled state-of-the-art optics with sensitive UV spectrum and gamma radiation detection equipment.  It was the first scientific space-based instrument created by the Sadler orbital facility, whose shipyards had previously been tasked primarily with constructing starships.The Leviex array quickly made a number of stunning observations which helped the scientific community make significant progress towards understanding the physics behind the universe’s expansion.  The array also detected an anomaly beyond the Cronus Belt; most scientists wrote off the tiny object with an irregular orbit as beyond notice.  However, one of the primary non-governmental financiers of the Leviex array became obsessed with the object, certain the it was an object created by the mythical Star Confederation.Percival Dagos was easily the wealthiest man on Eos.  Much of his wealth was inherited from his great-great-great grandfather Maximilian, one of the original colonists of the Republic, but a sizable portion was also due to Percival’s own business acumen.  He owned many businesses in the Republic, and was a generous donor to many charities and scientific endeavors.  His passion, some would say obsession, was the collection of Ancient artifacts.  From his home in orbit aboard The Last Resort, he planed an expedition to what was then called Anomaly X19.The medium frigate Nebraska was the lone military capital ship to accompany the Dawning Star on the journey to Eos.  One hundred years later the vessel was in acceptable shape, but newer more advanced ships were being constructed at an admirable pace, and there was talk of scrapping the vessel.  Percival seized upon this and offered an extravagant sum to purchase the decommissioned starship.  The government agreed, and after stripping the vessel of all military hardware, it was turned over to the civilian Dagos Corporation.  In honor of her storied history, Percival chose to keep the ship’s name but modify it to the Venerable Nebraska to indicate her new, nonmilitary function.The Dagos Corporation spent huge sums of money outfitting the vessel for a prolonged space voyage.  A team consisting of the brightest scientific and engineering minds was gathered and a mission plan was crafted.  A private army was gathered to protect the scientific effort, and trained relentlessly on ship-to-ship combat.  After a year, Percival deemed his group was ready to depart, and handed command over to his close friend and former EDF ship captain Hozoku Tsekai.  Nearly three-hundred crew, mission specialists, and private security left with him.  The Venerable Nebraska sped through the Helios system for three years, aided by a gravity assist trajectory past the gas giant Hesperos.  The science team made many amazing discoveries along the way, beaming all the data back to Eos for further analysis.  Even before reaching their destination, the prestige the voyage gained Percival Dagos was well worth his initial investment.  However, the true prize lay at the end of the journey, or so he hoped.</blockquote>

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