Project New Dawn

[Frostpfote]

Project New Dawn

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Act 2: An endless journey

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Advancements

Several weeks would pass, each day bringing a number of important improvements and achievements to both crew and ship. The New Dawn's refineries have proven to be efficient at extracting even individual elements from alloys, allowing for a build up of a number of important resources that were, are and will be needed for repairs and overall ship maintenance.

The scientists have begun to analyse samples of nomad tissue and infected bits of debris, gaining important knowledge about the behaviour of the strange substance that makes up the Nomads' forms. As rumors about the ever increasing alien presence within Sirius spread across the neural net, these kinds of successes are key to learn more about their antagonists.

Despite Aurora's full intention of avoiding contact to civilian and militaristic traffic, occasional meetings could not be prevented. Luckily most of these ended up in almost pleasant conversations between the crew and these bystanders, sharing information and knowledge wherever possible. While not every individual was understanding of the the ship's purpose, each encounter encouraged Aurora approaching interactions with outsiders more open minded.

However, important lessons had to be learned through mistakes as well, such as the New Dawn's radiation shielding being unable to properly protect core components of the New Dawn's outer hull, such as sensor relays and ballistic computers. The hull panels went through extensive improvements to shield important systems from not just radiation but also solar flares that could otherwise blind the ship's sensors and leave the dreadnought open for attacks.
Further emphasis also needs to be placed on increasing scanner resistance against nebulae and other kinds of anomalies within less explored areas of Sirius. The current scanner arrays work perfectly at picking up debris fields and potential threats across wide, open space. In spite of that, their incapability of piercing less common abnormalities and detecting ever more common cloaking technology could proof a challenge for the New Dawn's mission in the future. So far no solution could be found that wouldn't divert immense amount of energy away from other important systems.

All things considered Aurora's development has progressed at expected pace, allowing her to to perform more mundane tasks autonomously without crew assistance. Should the following weeks and months bare similar successful results, cryo freezing of certain now unoccupied crewmembers could begin to store them for potential future reawakening. Only time can tell if the crew and Aurora will be capable of advancing the mission despite all future hardships and potentially lethal encounters with the dangers of the Sirius sector.

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