Celestial Dawn

Entombed forever in the GIVS of Kichnar, the Celestial Dawn was an Eprondak-class freighter with Nimbanese registry, on her way from Hutt Space to a world of the Banking Clan in the year 24 BBY. At the time, Kichnar had a small prospecting rig in the tumultuous atmosphere of the gas giant, with the occasional visit from inter-system ships in need of a quick repair or top off its fuel or fluids without pressing on to the in-system planets. Because this entire region of space is quite treacherous for astrogation and navigation, a stopover to recalibrate the Navcomp was not unheardof. By all accounts, the Dawn's visit was completely routine.

During the docking procedure, something went horribly wrong. The ship drastically lost altitude, and its repulsorlifts did not respond. The meager tractor beam on the prospecting rig could not counter the inertia that the freighter had gathered, and it slipped from the beam's grasp. Workers watched in shock as the ship "sank" down through the clouds, the crew trying desperately to re-fire the repulsors. In complete freefall, with only sporadic, whimpering pulses of the repulsors to slow down the descent, the Celestial Dawn was swallowed by the vapors of the planet, and plunged into what is called the GIVS, for Gelatinous Ionized Vapor Shelf, a thin, islandic "plate" of plasma that acts like a gelatin. The freighter stuck fast, like an insect in amber, and preserved for all time between the crushing depths below and the liberating sky above.

This accident would be nothing but a minor footnote in a galactic registry would it not be for the legend concerning its cargo. Some five hundred metric tons of pure treasure and luxury is rumored to be in the freighter's hold, blood-spoil of the Hutts being sent to the Banking Clan to be assessed and stored or laundered. Some have even gone on to speculate that the treasure might involve items of cultural wealth and importance to a race that the Hutts have brutally subjugated or extinguished, and that there is a curse associated with it. In any case, the Hutts were mightily disappointed in the vessel's loss, but have been unable to recover the ship. Some salvagers have boasted that it wouldn't take more than a planetary tractor beam to wrench the ship free, but to date, none such effort has been mounted.

Currently, tourists on Kichnar Orbital Station can use an imaging lens to peer down onto the wreck and see it still languishing there today.