Avalon

The Avalon on arrival in CDC-41-Gamma

The ***Avalon*** was a second-generation *Wanderer*-class Explorer Platform and command ship of the Avalon Exploratory Initiative. She served as a large colony ship and centre of operations for the Avalon Expedition Fleet in CDC-41-Gamma.

## Design

### Spaceframe

At a length of 900 metres and a diameter of 1,606 metres, the *Avalon* comprised a command tower and three counter-rotating centrifugal gravity toruses. Running vertically along the length of the ship, the command tower was the only part of the *Avalon* to employ Drift-powered Directional Paragravity Circuits to simulate gravity at all times. It housed the Operations Centre and main shuttlebay, while the lower decks of the tower housed the main engineering section.

The upper service ring contained the fleet's supply of Drift, fusion cells, potable water, and solar batteries. It also featured several large docking clamps to receive spacecraft of various sizes.

The habitation ring held most of the *Avalon's* living quarters, as well as public concourses with numerous amenities, laboratory suites, research centres. Living quarters comprised only around 25% of the central ring however, with the remaining space being taken up by enormous cargo and loading bays, which house colony supplies, mission equipment, and assembly components for the construction of a return Drift Gate.

Similar to the upper service ring, the lower service ring contained the construction equipment and drones necessary to assemble the return gate to the Cardeus Brink System in the Tantalus Cluster, using both resources harvested *in situ* and components carried by the Expeditionary Fleet's Gatehaulers.

### Power and propulsion

The *Avalon's* main power plant was a Stormcage Magnetic Confinement Fusion Power Plant. This was supplemented by fusion auxiliary power units (APUs), and where necessary, emergency solar arrays.

The *Avalon* was propelled by a KDFY Astra Relativistic Drift-Augmented High-Frequency Pulsed Fusion Engine. An extremely large Drift Drive that was described by Cassandra Farren as "bigger than most cruisers", before the *Avalon's* deployment through Edric's Gate, Gatehouse Station had to clear the approach lane to ensure no other ships were damaged by the drive plume. This plume was later used offensively against an Advari Lightship to great effect, cutting the entire ship in half.

### Crew facilities

The *Avalon* had a standing crew of 4,850 and a maximum passenger capacity of 39,784. The bulk of these were accommodated in the central habitation ring. The outer edge of the habitation ring included large public concourses filled with commercial and recreational facilities for passengers and staff, including the ship's bar, Serina's. The facilities effectively made the *Avalon* a modestly-sized port city.

### Command facilities

The *Avalon's* operations deck was housed in the upper command tower. The operations deck was similar to the quarterdeck of a military vessel, and comprised two circular levels of computer terminals. The second level housed the Director's office. The operations deck was designed to serve not just as a control centre, but also as a diplomatic conference centre for multinational representatives and Expedition department heads.

### Auxiliary craft

The *Avalon's* primary shuttle bay was directly below the command tower. Lacking any form of weaponry, the *Avalon* carried a squadron of twelve S-36 Stardancer Multi-Role Attack Fighters in Farrier and Foxfire flights detached from the Centran Defence Force for basic escort and scouting duties. The *Avalon* also carried Fletcher-TS Longboats and other personnel shuttles for use as inter-fleet transport or for planetary away missions.

The *Avalon* also came equipped with a large drone complement, docked to the lower service ring, including cargo handling, construction, and refuelling drones. However, the *Avalon's* complement of refuelling drones was destroyed in the first *Avalon* bombing, forcing it to make use of direct replenishment via fuel lines.

## History

### Development

The *Wanderer*-class Explorer Platform was originally designed for the long-range, slower-than-light colonisation of the Firewatch System. The first vessel, the *Wanderer*, was designed to serve as a forward base of operations, rated to carry enough supplies and equipment to establish a functioning settlement and construct a Drift Gate to link the Firewatch System to the rest of the Tantalus Cluster. The *Wanderer's* design was chosen for the Avalon Exploratory Initiative to house the majority of the expedition's 60,000 crew members, and support the exploration and colonisation of the CDC-41-Gamma nebula.

### Avalon Exploratory Initiative

The *Avalon* deployed through Edric's Gate in 0304 PCU with the rest of the Avalon Expedition Fleet. Much of the fleet was scattered on its arrival in CDC-41-Gamma after encounters with Lauralyn Conduits, and the survivors found themselves in a large, anomalous ice asteroid belt. After three days, the *Avalon* had successfully made contact with eight ships and had begun a preliminary scientific survey, concluding that the ice field was larger and denser than anything previously considered possible by science.

After one of the *Avalon's* Stardancer fighters from Farrier Squadron made contact with a Lauralyn Conduit, Director Elizabeth Ancelet deduced the nature of the conduits and reasoned that they could be used for faster-than-light travel within the nebula. Aboard the privateer corvette *Guinevere*, Ancelet successfully traversed a Lauralyn Conduit and assisted in the retrieval of a critical Drift Gate component from the wreck of the gatehauler GH-0007-VG for the return gate to Tantalus.

### Avalon Bombings

Shortly after arriving in CDC-41-Gamma, the *Avalon* was bombed in a terrorist attack perpetrated by Inventory Officer Michael Favara, destroying the ship's stock of remote resupply drones. Favara, a traumatised veteran of the Frontier War, believed that the Frontier Union contingent would inevitably betray the Centrans and seize the *Avalon*. Favara planted Frontier Union-made explosives at the site of the blast, prompting Director Ancelet to transfer Unioner personnel off the *Avalon* to the frigate *Abigail*.

As the *Abigail* was refuelling from the *Avalon* before departing, a second device was discovered in the *Avalon's* fuel lines, which detonated before the *Abigail* could get clear. Captain Tamika Jinn's last act was to steer her ship to a safe distance before its damaged reactor exploded.

The destruction of the *Abigail* left the *Guinevere* the only armed vessel still part of the fleet. Along with the capture of the outrider *Mariana*, the explosion of the *Abigail* alerted the native Holy Advari Empire to the Avalon Expeditionary Fleet's location.

### Redfield's coup attempt

After being separated from the *Avalon* for over two months, the CSV *Shabayev*, commanded by the expedition's Defence Adjutant, Vice Admiral Winston Redfield, unexpectedly re-established contact with the fleet. The *Shabayev's* return prompted scenes of celebration aboard the *Avalon*, and Elizabeth welcomed Redfield aboard to resume his duties as Defence Adjutant. Redfield swiftly made his presence known, promoting Lieutenant Jasper Ravi two ranks to Lieutenant Commander, ordering civilian vessels to assist in repairs to the *Shabayev*, and eglecting to tell Director Elizabeth Ancelet about his Advari prisoner: Castian Vadric, an Inquisitor of the Holy Advari Empire, had been captured by the *Shabayev* while investigating the Avalon Expedition under secret orders from Empress Valendra the Sixth.

Reviewing the fleet's logs, Redfield became increasingly convinced that Ancelet's leadership was inadequate for the situation, believing that only luck had spared the fleet from disaster. Redfield invoked Section 24-D of the CDF's Uniform Code of Conduct, removing Elizabeth from command and seizing the Avalon Expedition Fleet for the sole purpose of striking back against the Advari. Elizabeth Ancelet was placed under arrest.

The situation in the Avalon Fleet swiftly passed out of Redfield's control: Vadric continued to refuse to respond under interrogation, while the *Kestrel*, *Triumph*, and *Siochana* refused to accept his leadership without hearing from Elizabeth Ancelet. When Marines were deployed to take control of the *Kestrel*, it manoeuvred to prevent them from docking, and Redfield proved unwilling to order a forced breach. Furthermore, in an effort to expedite repairs aboard the *Shabayev*, her commanding officer, Commander Lewis Harper, ordered double shifts, which provoked a brawl in the ship's dining hall among exhausted CDF sailors. This proved impossible to contain as the *Shabayev's* Marines had been re-deployed to secure the fleet's civilian ships.

Despite feeling increasingly overwhelmed, Redfield left the *Avalon* under Ravi's command and crossed to the *Shabayev*, where he successfully put down the brawl with a single speech to the ship's crew. Recognising that he could not command the respect of the civilian fleet, Redfield chose to release Elizabeth Ancelet and Cassandra Farren from the brig and restore them to command. However, he re-iterated his concerns about Elizabeth's leadership and insisted that he be included in all command decisions from then on, a condition that Elizabeth accepted.

### Battle of the Greenhouse and destruction

Following the return to civilian leadership, the *Avalon* and her fleet relocated to a pulsar system previously scouted by Cassandra Farren and Elizabeth Ancelet. There, the expedition began the harvesting of native vegetation from the system's single vitrified planet (christened "the Greenhouse" by the expedition), which it found to be edible. Soil from abandoned Advari terrariums on the planet's surface was also found to be exceptionally fertile.

With the assistance of Castian Vadric, who came to trust Elizabeth Ancelet after she demonstrated facility with the Advari language, in 0205 PCU the *Avalon* successfully re-established contact with lost Merician ships led by Captain Maxine Blake and a Unioner flotilla led by Omar Maalsuwda. In the course of this, however, the expedition came into increasing conflict with the nebula's native Advari. The successful recovery of Drift Gate components at the Battle of Maalsuwda's Holdfast and the Raid on the Aegis of Invia allowed the fleet to complete the construction of a gate linking CDC-41-Gamma back to the Tantalus Cluster, however the arrival of Advari lightships in the pulsar system led the Director Ancelet to take the decision to abandon the nebula.

In the ensuing Battle of the Greenhouse, the Avalon Expedition Fleet took heavy losses, and the *Avalon* suffered damage that left her unlikely to be able to survive a Drift Gate transit. Elizabeth Ancelet ordered the *Avalon* evacuated, however Lieutenant Commander Jasper Ravi and Ensign Arin Bankole chose to remain behind to cover the fleet's retreat: together they overloaded the *Avalon's* reactor, briefly transforming her Drift Drive into an energy weapon that destroyed an Advari lightship. The action caused secondary explosions along the length of the *Avalon's* central axis and beginning a major structural collapse, destroying the ship.

## Crew

* Elizabeth Ancelet - Director of the Avalon Exploratory Initiative
* Lieutenant Commander Jasper Ravi - Security Garrison Commander
* Ensign Arin Bankole - Communications Officer
* Michael Favara - Inventory Officer, died by suicide in the Avalon Bombings

## Gallery

The command tower of the *Avalon*.The living quarters of the *Avalon*.The *Avalon's* cargo handling facilities.The Astra engine of the *Avalon*.
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 *Forlorn Hope*
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 The Sojourn: Wanderer Class Explorer Platform | Official Ship Breakdown
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 *The Sojourn Visual Dictionary - Edition One*
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 *The Cold Divide*
5. ↑ So named by Daniel Orrett in a Discord message
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 *Inclement Weather*
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 *Theirs Not to Reason Why*
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 *Yesterday's War*
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 *Theirs Not to Make Reply*
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 *Contact, Wait Out*
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 *Observer Effect*
12. ↑ Beneath The Banner