THE JUMPGATE DEFINITIVE GUIDE - Tripod

humorous background. I'll try not to go off on so many tangents from here on in. Let
me strtaighten up and become an officer. Welcome to New Dawn, ladies and gents. The
biggest, boldest, and brightest squadron in TRI. We fight Conflux, my friends. You
know that. Some of you have done it already, and I sincerely hope you'll keep on
doing it. Because you are now on the front lines of the most important war
humanity's fought. We've made contact with two non-human races - the first was the
Amananthii. Some will tell you they're not to be trusted. In this squadron, I'm here
to tell you - Amananth and New Dawn have quite a history now. Probably more history
with us then any other squadron in existence. We were *there* at the first Sentient
incursion in Amananth space, and we've been at more than we can count, now. Dr.
Qson? The one you see in the news every other week? That's our closest friend in
TRI. No joke, no lie. She's an honorary member of this squadron, ,we protect her
like she's one of our own, and she's the best ally to have. She hunts Conflux with
us, for us, and we return the favor. It's what we do.
A short history lesson. We started out out in a group called TRA. The Ripstar
Alliance. We started as a pro-Octavian Squad, but eventually became embroiled in the
great Civil war with Cruentius Legio and OEC. Bitter times, massive battles, and we
were decidedly aggressive then. If someone calls you a "carebear" because you fly
with New Dawn? Laugh. That's all. Laugh. We're fighter pilots. We just fight a
different war now. The most important one. Remember that. Always remember that. We
may tow, we may mine, we may hunt artifacts. But we're fighter pilots. We're not the
bloody military. We're better. But I digress. Yeah yeah, I know. I said I wasn't
going to. Oh well. So back to the reason I told you this. Sometimes we may have to
fight to preserve our battle lines. The occasional ne'erdowell, pirate, rogue,
thrill seeker... we get all kinds. Don't be surprised when we do. Every so often we
have to rattle the saber when someone decides to force our hand. Yeah, it sucks. But
you gotta protect your squadmates.
So what do all of our ranks mean? Well, there's a brief outline of them in the Rank
Matrix. The link is on the forums, (and on the squad page....) if you're curious.
Here's the "unofficial" version. Falcon is "The Boss". He started this thing, and
he's been around forever. Honestly? I joined New Dawn shortly after TRA broke up and
Falcon decided to make New Dawn an "all-flux" squad. I've never been anything but a
fluxer. I think I'm #2 on the seniority list, closely followed by ZeroZ95. Havik,
AvengeND, Vengy, and Darkcloud get runners up. (There's more to the origins of New
Dawn itself - we were around before TRI - but that's another story - and a bit long
to tell here. But as far as actual time of service in ND, overall, James, Falcon,
and Vengy were there at the beginning, and I was not too far after - Havik was a few
months behind me. So in case you were wondering, there ya go. I'll tell that story
later.) I'm digressing again. Neato. The CAG stands for Commander, Air Group, like I
said above. In TRI, there's nothing but air, so that implies that we have other
interests - frankly? TRI has nothing to do with that, so we'll leave that out. (I'll
tell that in the other story, too.) It's an old rank - Falcon used to have that
rank, actually. New Dawn's original founder's name is DeathGiver. He was the first
Commander, I was the second, but I never felt quite comfortable outranking Falcon.
He deserves the job. So, he is New Dawn's 3rd Commander. At present, I'm loosely the
"2nd in command". In TRI terms, that means not a thing. I actually recently resigned
my "Fleet Command" spot to actually do my job I've been neglecting. But I'll leave
that for storytime #2 as well. Fleet Command. That is a TRI specific ranking, and as
TRI is the only portion of space we are currently active in, officially, they're the
head honchos. Their word is law, ladies and gents. They make policy, break it,
adjust it, and give the orders. They're there to keep New Dawn running smoothly, and
within it's charter as the premier Conflux fighting force in TRI space. Falcon's
orders are on top, then Fleet Command. Your Fleet Commanders are ZeroZ95, Havik, and
Kelvar.
Next up are the =Huntmasters=. We haven't gone on a proper hunt in a while. Way back
when, we'd get in large groups and hunt as a team. With a quick nod to our
appreciably improved skills and reputation from those times, we seldom find a need
for such an endeavor. Your Huntmasters serve several roles, though. Firstly - They
are all good trainers. They can teach anyone to hunt anything. They know all the
"tricks of the trade" backwards and forwards. They can lead one of the
aforementioned hunts smoothly, and with extreme predjudice. Secondly - They are also
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