Celeste (Individual Merchant-class JumpShip)

The Celeste was a Merchant-class JumpShip.

History[edit]

In 3095, the Celeste was operating under the aegis of the Republic of the Sphere, commanded by Captain Leonardo Jackson. It was tasked with delivering a Mule-class DropShip (the E.F. Marie) and possibly another cargo or 'Mech carrier DropShip with weapons destined to be decommissioned to a Republic bone yard on Rigil Kentarus when it vanished in a misjump.^[1]

The Celeste is among the canonical items featured in the 2014 Halloween special product Empires Aflame. The focus of that product was an (expressly noncanonical) alternate universe; the misjump of the Celeste served as the entry point for the players into that other universe. Canonically, the Celeste vanished and its fate remains unknown.^[2]
The names of the JumpShip Celeste and the attached DropShip E.F. Marie appear to be a reference to the famous ghost ship case of the Mary Celeste, namesake of both spacecraft (with "Marie" being a common error in the name due some of the stories and "retelling" formed around the ship) where the brigantine was found in December 1872 abandoned drifting in the Atlantic Ocean near the Azores in a mostly seaworthy state with most of her cargo of denatured alcohol intact with no real explanation for the abandonment with the last entry in a found log being from 10 days before discovery that didn't suggest any problems; none of those who had been on board were ever seen or heard from again, sparking intense speculation and mystery over her abandonment.

↑ Empires Aflame, pp. 6–8; see also comments on Canonicity in Empires Aflame article
↑ See also this posting: "And, as already mentioned, yeah, that's all pretty much canon--right up to the point the players' ship fires up its KF drive for the last leg of its journey...and vanishes from the Prime setting forever."