Crafting the Celestial Saga: The Briefing
- Alex O'Connor
- Mar 28
- 6 min read
Welcome to this entry of Crafting the Celestial Saga where I give you a behind-the-scenes look at the series. This entry is all about chapter four of Dawn of the Seekers, the Briefing. I am someone who hates spoilers so I would like to warn you that spoilers for Dawn of the Seekers follow. If you have not finished reading Dawn of the Seekers, or plan on reading it in the future, you may want to avoid reading Crafting the Celestial Saga until you do.
In this chapter of the book, we are briefed on a raid that is about to take place on a Kaltari base following the events on Gra Ingra.
- Section One: Differences from the Finished Script -
There are a lot of differences from the finished script, even the unfinished first draft, in this chapter. Mainly that this chapter didn’t exist in either! In a way this chapter is a bit of filler as its main reason for existing is to herald in the next chapter. It was important to include as it introduces Hades Team, who I will talk about in the next section.
The handling of Hades Team is something that changed over time. Originally in the unfinished first draft, Hades Team had a disdain towards Nova Team. In the finished script I changed it to where Hades Team played nice with Nova Team. In the final version of Dawn of the Seekers, I thought it best for Hades Team to have the originally intended animosity towards Nova Team. Specifically, the part where Carter Jensen has a strong dislike of Ethan Richards. This was to show the difference in the type of person that the two are and how Ethan has the ability to change people to bring out the best in them.
I will admit, when I worked on the finished script, I don’t believe that I was happy with how Hades Team was portrayed. This is evident since I went at length to discuss their dislike of Nova Team in the finished book. I thought it was important to show that even those on the same side can have enemies within their ranks. However, only Hades Team saw Nova Team as an enemy. The feeling was not mutual.
In the unfinished first draft, Hades Team appeared in the two opening chapters. I deemed the opening to be too dark for the entry to the Celestial Saga, which resulted in a major overhaul as far as the story went. What was chapter two of the unfinished first draft, the main reason I thought it was too dark of an opening, later served as the inspiration for the opening of Brave New Empire. I will address that more when I talk about Brave New Empire’s second chapter in a future entry of Crafting the Celestial Saga.
- Section Two: Hades Team -
Hades Team is almost the polar opposite of Nova Team. From the previous chapters, you see Nova Team as the all-around heroes. A positive force that seem to not have a bad bone in their body. Hades Team on the other hand, their leader is hotheaded and hates Ethan Richards. We learn that they have a tendency to go overboard with the explosives and that even a member of their team wants to transfer out. Meanwhile for Nova Team, everything seems to be sunshine and rainbows with how their team operates and gets along.
I ended up PG-ifying the negative reputation that Hades Team has. In this chapter, Captain Troy Cullen calls out Carter Jensen wanting reassurance that Hades Team would not cause any trouble on the ground. In the finished book, this trouble was a result of Hades Team having a knack for maximum destruction. The result was the demolition of structures that didn’t have to be destroyed in the first place. My original concept for the team involved them having the tendency to ignore the risk of civilian casualties. In fact, Hades Team had racked up quite a body count as far as friendly KIAs went. Due to their recklessness, they were bounced from ship to ship as no captain wanted to be responsible for their actions. Eventually they ended up on the Ever Star where Captain Stanton was doing his best to reform the team.
This did not sit well with me, however. Eventually during editing I decided that this didn’t make sense. Why would the UCA continue to have a special operations team in operation with this kind of behavior? They would have all been kicked out of the military and likely arrested. It also made the redemption of Carter Jensen seem a little more far-fetched. If he was willing to throw away the lives of civilians, I feel like Ethan would not have been as willing to rescue him or believe that he deserved a second chance. I made the decision to have Hades Team cause maximum destruction instead of having them be murderers in a sense. I felt this worked better for an overall story standpoint and certainly a character morality standpoint.
Much like Ithaca Team, I don’t go into too much detail about the members of Hades Team. One of the reasons is to differentiate them from being main characters. When you’re working with a large cast such as I was in Dawn of the Seekers, the main characters have the potential of not being clear. I didn’t want that to be the case, so Nova Team got an entire chapter discussing the members of the team while some minor backstory is given for members of Hades and Ithaca Team. That way there is a clear distinction of who the main characters of the story are.
From the backstory, we do learn that Carter is the main driving force behind the hatred that Hades Team has for Nova Team. The two newest members of the team don’t understand the hatred but join in if it is instigated by the team’s senior members. Jarick, the team’s only non-human member, does not agree with the behavior of Carter at all. He wanted to transfer out of Hades Team but found that he was often the only one that could calm Carter down. For that reason, Jarick remained a member of Hades Team.
- Section Three: The Fleet Admiral -
In this chapter, we are introduced to an important character throughout the Celestial Saga, Fleet Admiral William Devroe. While he has a small part to play in this chapter, he has a larger role to play later on. The inspiration for this character was Admiral Steven Hackett from the Mass Effect Trilogy. I wanted Fleet Admiral Devroe to be a dominating presence whenever he shows up. He’s someone that everyone knows is in charge the moment he steps onto the scene. For me, Admiral Hackett from Mass Effect perfectly represented that feeling. Giving the Celestial Saga its own version of Admiral Hackett was a must for me.
Out of all the characters in the Celestial Saga, I would say that Fleet Admiral Devroe underwent the most significant change. While his dominating presence remained, his desire to have the United Celestial Alliance win at all costs is what allowed me to play with the story. He was also the character in charge who was willing to do whatever it takes to win, whether that was sacrificing a ship, an entire planet, whatever it may be. He was not going to let the Kaltari win.
I’m getting a little ahead of myself as his character will be discussed thoroughly later on when I make an entry for Diplomatic Meeting. To me, as the writer, it’s still so interesting what I did with his character over the course of the book and the sequel. It was honestly the biggest surprise to me while working on the story. The character that I saw standing above all the others ended up having the most flaws because of his beliefs. It was a fascinating discovery while writing.
This is one of the shortest chapters of the book so there isn’t much to discuss. It is a stagging area for the next chapter and something where I thought the material presented didn’t fit in the surrounding chapters. Including it in Ithaca didn’t seem right as it took place a couple days later and didn’t fit the tone of the chapter. Putting it at the beginning of Three Team Raid also didn’t seem right as it has a different tone from what is largely an action centric chapter. While some of it could be left on the cutting room floor, I thought it was important to include to show the difference between Nova Team and Hades Team. It also tells the reader why Carter Jensen has a hatred towards Ethan Richards. That was an important part of the story to include. Telling it during Three Team Raid just didn’t make sense to me.
That will wrap things up for this entry. The next entry will be about chapter five in the book, Three Team Raid. I hope you enjoyed this entry of Crafting the Celestial Saga, and I hope you will return for the next. If you have any questions, please feel free to use my website’s contact form and I will address them in a future entry.