Crafting the Celestial Saga: Three Team Raid

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 five of Dawn of the Seekers, Three Team Raid. 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 see three different special forces teams raid a Kaltari base. The chapter showcases how the three teams operate differently from one another but come together to accomplish the same goal while possibly changing along the way.

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- Section One: The First Draft -

The first draft for Dawn of the Seekers is vastly different from the final version. One such difference is that Ithaca Team did not exist, nor did this chapter. The idea of Ithaca Team is that they were more of the traditional special forces team that people may think of. They operate in the shadows, they aren’t known throughout the United Celestial Alliance, and they operate seamlessly with each other. Which wasn’t always the case, but more on that later.

The first draft was missing a lot of things that I now think the Celestial Saga couldn’t exist without. Ithaca Team is one of those things. As I had mentioned in the previous entry of Crafting the Celestial Saga titled Ithaca, I had the idea of this team for some time and had been looking for the right spot to use them in the Celestial Saga. The larger plot surrounding Gra Ingra in the final version of Dawn of the Seekers became that spot. Ithaca Team was able to kick things off by being on the planet, so it became a larger part of the story and not just something I threw in at the end.

- Section Two: The Second Draft -

Ithaca Team did not exist in the second draft, or finished script as I like to call it, either. Three Team Raid was originally the second chapter of that version and was titled Forged in Fire. That chapter title floated around between the three currently written books of the Celestial Saga before finding its place in Brave New Galaxy in a chapter titled Alliances Forged in Fire. You’ll be able to read that chapter when Celestial Saga: Brave New Galaxy releases on 8 September 2025.

Shameless plug of my upcoming book aside, this chapter in the finished script still featured Hades Team and Nova Team. In a previous entry of Crafting the Celestial Saga, I mentioned how Hades Team played nice with Nova Team in the finished script. There was no bad blood between Carter Jensen and Ethan Richards, which was completely one-sided. That was something I didn’t care for in the finished script since it made the special forces teams feel a bit one dimensional. Showing some conflict among teams playing for the same side offered some variety.

In the finished script, Hades Team was tasked with planting a bomb to take out the weapons factory while Nova Team served as a decoy. Nova Team was also tasked with gathering any information they could. The two teams decided to go in guns blazing since the nearest town wasn’t far away and reinforcements would be inevitable. Nova Team is able to find a terminal where Daniel finds references to a large object being built at the facility. Hades Team is prevented from reaching the extraction point, ordering Nova Team to get out before the bomb detonates. Nova Team ignores that order and rescues the trapped Hades Team. Carter tells Ethan that because he does things like that, that is why he was picked to lead a special forces team. This chapter in the finished script also saw the introduction of Jennifer Anderson.

- Section Three: Sound Familiar? -

Did anything in that last paragraph of the previous section sound familiar? It should if you’ve read Dawn of the Seekers! While this chapter changed to include a third team, the overall concept remained the same with a few adjustments. Instead of a bomb, Hades Team placed charges throughout the Kaltari base while serving as the decoy to keep the Kaltari troopers inside away from Nova Team and Ithaca Team. Nova Team was tasked with finding information and Ithaca Team was tasked with finding the Kaltari operative responsible for the bombing on Gra Ingra.

There is still a moment where Carter Jensen is on the verge of being killed only to be saved by Ethan at the last second. In the finished version, this event causes Carter to see the person he had become and vow to change to become a better person. Not only that, but to become a better team leader and to make his team better as a whole. The conflict between Carter and Ethan is something that I felt the story needed to show the type of person that Ethan was. It was one of those moments that solidified Ethan being the lawfully good character that he is.

Much like the finished script, Nova Team manages to find information about what the Kaltari were doing at the facility. In the finished script, Daniel discovers that they were building something large. In the final book, that remains the case given the size of the base and with the mention of the word city in the information that Daniel finds. It is implied that the City Destroyer that appears later in the book was built there.

If you have read Dawn of the Seekers, you may recognize the opening of Three Team Raid is similar to that of Ithaca Team’s original opening that I posted on their Crafting the Celestial Saga entry. I thought that it was a fun scene and wanted to keep it in the book, it just wasn’t the right opening for a special forces team that specialized in reconnaissance. I found that it was much more fitting for the opening of this chapter instead.

- Section Four: Other Changes -

There was a major change to this chapter that was not seen in any of the former versions. When I first started writing it, it was a larger action set piece. The majority of Ithaca Team and Nova Team were going to remain at the entrance to the base along with Hades Team to fend off the Kaltari reinforcements. Only a small handful of the team members, such as Ethan Richards and Troy Cullen, were going to investigate the inside of the base.

Eventually when my mind expanded upon what I could do with the story, I realized how that didn’t make any sense. At the beginning of the chapter, there were two UCA ships in orbit, the Ever Star and the Dusk Till Dawn. Why wouldn’t they have sent reinforcements to the base to aid the three teams? It was questioning myself like that which ended up laying the groundwork for what this chapter became.

When I was reading this chapter prior to writing this entry, I saw how the earlier concept bled through into the final version. The chapter primarily focuses on a few members from the teams while the others serve as the support in the background. I had to write little instances to mention characters, such as John, so that I could give them a little something extra to do in the chapter. Perhaps that was just my way of reminding myself that everyone was still present in the chapter. I also ended up adding the part in where Clay wanted to kill the Kaltari operative for what happened to Dom. That was a later addition to the story as I wanted there to be some impact on Ithaca Team about their injured team member and not just have the impact to the team stated in the sequel as originally planned.

Furthermore, that plays into one of the overall themes of the Celestial Saga, humanity. I want to show the human side of these special forces characters. Ithaca Team had just had a member of their team injured and I didn’t have any major reaction to that. Writing a small scene where a member of Ithaca Team almost loses his composure at an enemy operative who is egging him on was a good way to bring out that emotion. Here was a person who had almost lost a friend looking at who caused his friend that harm. Of course he would almost let his emotions get the better of him. That’s one of the many human aspects that make this story, well, human!

- Section Five: Showcasing the Teams -

In Three Team Raid, we get a look at three special forces teams. Ithaca Team is the oldest of the three teams and I would say the most different from the other two. Ithaca Team prefers to work in the shadows, isn’t known around the UCA, and is geared towards stealth and recon. It was something that I had fun with when Troy and Lilly had their moment of catching the Kaltari troopers so that their bodies wouldn’t hit the ground and the sound wouldn’t alert the others. I remember seeing things like that in movies and thought that I wanted to do it too. It’s a small part of what makes them stealthy.

I thought it was important to add some backstory for the Cullen’s in this chapter as well. Specifically around how they ended up becoming that perfectly in sync pair. With Ethan and Jennifer, I have a relationship that was love at first sight. With Troy and Lilly Cullen, I wanted the opposite of that. They didn’t care for each other at first, but over time, they learned to work together and ended up falling in love. This is also a story element that I added to differentiate the teams and show how the characters were different. Not every love story is a perfect one that I make Ethan and Jennifer appear to be. Like real life, you have to work on a relationship to get it to the point where you are in sync. That is what Troy and Lilly had to do.

Another opposite from Ithaca Team is that of Hades Team. While Ithaca Team likes to remain in the shadows and not make their presence known, Hades Team wants to be as much of a problem as they possibly can. Hades Team is a demolition team who takes their job very seriously and often gets carried away with it. This is something that happens in this chapter. Having them paired up with Ithaca Team on a mission made sense to me. I wanted a team that could cause a big enough distraction that they could illicit a response from the majority of the enemy troops in a base. Hades Team planting charges and having the singular goal of doing just that is what worked. This also allowed for the opportunity to show how Hades Team did not get along with Nova Team.

While the bad blood between Carter Jensen and Ethan Richards may have been a small part of this story, it plays a larger part in the Celestial Saga overall going forward. If you have read Shadow of the Emperor, you see how the new relationship between the two unfolds. I had Hades Team and Nova Team not get along in the first draft. In the finished script I had them friends from the beginning and that just didn’t feel right. Bringing back this small conflict for the finished version of the story felt like the right thing to do as it played into the story going forward. Again, it was something that I wanted to show in that you can still have conflict even if you are on the same side. How the characters deal with that conflict and those involved is where the story is.

Nova Team remains the central characters in the ensemble cast of Dawn of the Seekers. We see the team operate together to retrieve information and escape the base. Something that I have been thinking about a lot recently that I want to mention here is the involvement of Daniel Robinson. He was always intended to be an integral part of the story, especially the plans I have with his character in the books that follow. I guess it never occurred to me until now how big of a part in the story he had. I think about how I focus on Ethan and Jennifer so much, I never stopped to consider how much Daniel shines in this trilogy. However, this is the beginning of his character arc. Daniel suffers an injury towards the end of this chapter that will define his future. Seeing how it plays out over the course of the trilogy has been a personal accomplishment of mine in that I have been able to show it how I envisioned in my head. That may be bad to say given the trauma I make Daniel endure. I suppose it’s because it is due to the fact that it is an emotionally heavy part of the story that I am proud of myself for being able to convey.

- Section Six: Effects on the Future -

Not only does this chapter have an effect on the future of Daniel Robinson, but it has an effect on the future of the entirety of the Celestial Saga. It is what sets so many characters on their ultimate path for the saga. This chapter features the start of Daniel’s mental decline. It features the last mission where John Banks is a member of Nova Team. It sets up events in the rest of the story such as the diplomatic meeting on Gra Ingra and where Ithaca Team ends up in Shadow of the Emperor. It also puts my plans for Hades Team in motion.

Reading this chapter and reflecting on it for this entry of Crafting the Celestial Saga really opened my eyes to how integral to the entirety of the saga it is. I’ve been living with this story in my head for twelve years now that even I am still surprised at the threads I start weaving in these stories. It’s fun to look back and notice them after not thinking about them for so long since I went off to write the sequel and third installment. You can see the aftermath of this chapter sprinkled throughout the Ethan Richards/Nova Team Trilogy.

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There is a lot of set up in the first handful of chapters in Dawn of the Seekers. Being the first entry of a series, and trilogy, there is a need to do so. This chapter is another one that builds up to the featured event of Dawn of the Seekers. Thinking about the first five chapters and the next two before we get to the title chapter, it is fun to see how much build up there is around the story. I personally think that it all pays off in the end, and from what people have told me, it does. Getting to include chapters like this where the main characters interact with supporting characters on a larger scale helps to build those moments in the Celestial Saga. Those human moments where the characters start to establish relationships, have feelings towards the events, and are affected by them overall. That is something I wanted the audience to build up to as well.

That will wrap things up for this entry. The next entry will be about chapter six in the book, Jumper 9. 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.