Project New Dawn

[Frostpfote]

Project New Dawn

---

Act 1: The Beginning

---

Epilogue: Lies

Aboard the New Dawn’s main bridge, one week later.
The crew’s morale has been getting worse and worse over the past few days. None of the crewmembers had any idea of what happened to their friends and family that were stationed on the planet when the Nomads attacked. The ship received heavy hits on the fuel tanks, highly increasing the need to find their first debris-field to gather all the needed materials for the most urgent repairs. Captain Olivia Paige knew since they had passed the Nomad blockade that the crew would eventually start to ask for permission to establish a connection to the planet, a strictly prohibited action.

After several hours of thinking about how they would approach it Captain Paige calls the bridge crew together. People of all nationalities, from Kusari over Rheinland up to Liberty and Gallia come together to listen to her plan. Aurora takes over the navigational tasks for the time being as Olivia starts to talk loud and clearly to her fellow crew. “I know you all are as devastated as I am about what happened after we left the starport. You all remember the documents we had to sign, prohibiting us to leave the ship unauthorized or to establish direct contact to the outer world.” Some of the crewmembers who had their heads pointing towards the floor are now looking up as they pick up on the accentuation the captain just used. “However, we’ve also signed loyalty to the Pathfinders, and as such we don’t leave our people behind.” She sighs once and adds one last sentence before presenting her plan. “IF anyone survived…we will return and ensure their safety.” She turns around and faces a hologram of the ship that she can move freely with her hands for physical presentation. “We’ll move the New Dawn several miles into the closest nebula. From there we will fire a communication buoy outside the nebula to use it as a link between us and the launch site. Nobody will be able to locate use via the buoy, ensuring our safety.” As she talks she displays the plan on the hologram, so everyone can understand and remember it. “I will call you all back once we’ve established contact with the launch site, understood?” She asks all of the people around her who nod in agreement. This little spark of hope immediately improves the crew’s morale as they start to talk more freely to each other for the first time since their departure.

About two hours after the briefing Paige is in her office with just her most trustful commanders around. The buoy is in position and starts to broadcast shortly after Aurora activated it. For about a minute all they got is silence and static. “This is Olivia Paige, Captain of the New Dawn. Can anyone at Skyland launch site copy?”, she asks about the third time now, when someone appears and clears his throat. “This is Lieutenant Lorenz. What is your current location captain?” Olivia looks at the screen in hesitation before turning her gaze towards one of the captains, his eyes mirror the skepticism of the captain. “Lieutenant, we’ve come across a Nomad fleet that headed straight for the Launch site, is the fight over? How many casualties do you know of?” ,she continues without answering the Lieutenants question. His voice remained relatively monotone, as if he hadn't experienced anything interesting during his shift thus far. “We were able to fend them off with ease, they retreated shortly after we’ve shot down their scout vessels. What is your current location, captain?” Olivia mutes the microphone and turns towards the group of commanders that have all gathered up next to get to listen to the strange voice. “Everyone on the launch site knows that our Location needs to be hidden, he didn’t even ask why we’re contacting them.”

A wave of disappointment comes over her face as she slowly understands what that means, Aurora’s figure appears on one of the screens in the captain’s office: “You are talking to one of the nomads right now.” She says, her voice as neutral as she can put it at the thought that Michael is probably a nomad slave by now as well. The male voice from the speakers rises again as he tries to repeat his question. “Captain, what is your current lo-“, his voice is cut off by Aurora – for her it is a pointless attempt that only wastes their time. She opens the office’s door and looks at the commanders. “I need to talk to the captain – alone.” The commanders look at each other, half downtrodden by the recent news, half accepting. Shortly after the men and woman are gone Aurora closes the door again and looks over to the Captain Paige who leans over her desk, thinking of what she should do: “What am I supposed to tell the crew? All of their families are most likely dead…if the nomads were this reckless with the New Dawn they wouldn’t have let any ship escape the planet…”, she takes a deep breath and turns her chair towards Aurora, in hope she has an idea. “You tell them that the automated defense grid managed to buy them enough time to evacuate the launch site.” The captain’s face freezes as she hears Aurora’s words. She couldn’t believe that this was the idea she would come up with. With anger in her face she stands up and gestures towards the screen: “Are you serious?! Those men deserve to know that-“, Aurora doesn’t let her finish the sentence as she continues to speak: “They have signed to stay aboard the ship for as long as the mission needs them to. If they get to know what happened they will most likely lose hope in the entire project. Telling them about it endangers all the work they have done for the past decade. In all respect captain, but I was created to ensure the quickest and smoothest outcome for Project New Dawn, and I hereby order you to tell them what I have told you.” The screen shuts down and leaves the captain without any chance to discuss with Aurora. Olivia knows that she was right, yet if she had the chance, she would probably strangle Aurora. This leaves her with no other choice but to cooperate, despite having to bury her own moral to accomplish that. With a heavy heart she leaves her office to tell her crew about the ‘good’ news’.

---