Galactica

Galactica was a Jupiter-class battlestar that served in the Colonial Fleet for almost its entire existence, from the Cylon War until the day humanity reached the planet that would become Earth. One of an original order of twelve such warships, it was instrumental in the survival of the human race following the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, the Battle of New Caprica, and the Battle of the Colony. Under the command of William Adama, it protected the last fifty thousand survivors of the Cylons' genocidal attack. Worn beyond repair by four years of combat without resources or time for refit, it was ultimately piloted into a star.

Origins in the Cylon War#

Galactica's origins lay with the Cylon War, the genocidal conflict between the United Colonies of Kobol and the sentient mechanical labor force that had rebelled against its enslavement. Because the Cylons were expert at hacking networked computers and could turn the Fleet's warships against one another, the battlestars were designed to rely on dedicated, individually crewed computers rather than networks. These vessels served multiple roles, providing heavy firepower while launching fighter craft.

Galactica was one of an original order of twelve battlestars, the number deliberately matched to the twelve member planets, with the ship itself representing Caprica in propaganda. Nine of those twelve were lost in the war. Little is recorded of Galactica's wartime service, though Commander Silas Nash served as its commanding officer for the entire conflict. Ahead of the Ghost Fleet Offensive, Galactica served as the way-station through which Admiralty orders were relayed by courier while the flotilla observed a strict radio blackout.

The long peace and decommissioning#

Wary of renewed hostilities, the Colonial Fleet maintained a strong presence along the border with treaty-designated Cylon space for some twenty years. By roughly 1980 Galactica had been superseded by newer battlestars. Its two surviving sister ships were retired and scrapped, but Galactica was kept in service for operations within the Cyrannus star system on the reasoning that retaining so historically significant a ship made good public relations.

In the lead-up to decommissioning the ship continued to operate normally, though experienced crew were steadily replaced. Commander William Adama, Colonel Saul Tigh, and possibly Lieutenant Felix Gaeta transferred aboard from Valkyrie following a disastrous reconnaissance mission, while Specialist Galen Tyrol came from Columbia after a maintenance-related flight accident and rose over time to deck chief.

The Fall of the Twelve Colonies#

The decommissioning ceremony coincided with a massive Cylon offensive across the Cyrannus system, catching Galactica without ammunition to defend itself. Most of its Viper Mark VII complement was disabled when Cylon Raiders exploited the Command Navigation Program to shut them down remotely. That program had never been installed on Galactica, because Adama forbade networking, leaving the ship itself impervious to the exploit.

Adama began preparing to assist the Fleet's counteroffensive massing over Virgon, but Galactica first had to jump to a depot station in the atmosphere of Ragnar for resupply. Damage from a nuclear detonation against its hull and the strain of an unprepared jump delayed it, and by the time Galactica reached Ragnar the battle was already lost. Adama asserted de facto command of what remained of the Fleet.

Exodus and the road to Kobol#

In the first days after the colonies were abandoned, Galactica and its convoy were tracked by Cylon forces that jumped to the fleet's coordinates every thirty-three minutes, apparently using the civilian liner Olympic Carrier. When the Carrier returned seemingly deserted and armed with a nuclear warhead, Adama ordered a Viper squadron to destroy it, leaving its fate a mystery.

A cell of Humanoid Cylons who had evacuated with the fleet formed aboard Galactica itself, with a Number One, "Galactica-Cavil," posing as a priest to obtain a billet. Over the following month the cell sabotaged the ship: Valerii ruptured the water tanks with stolen G4 explosives, forcing the fleet to hold position over a planet for mining, and a Number Five attempted to bomb the lab where Doctor Gaius Baltar was developing a Cylon detection test, only to be forced to detonate his vest prematurely when Adama and Tigh spotted him. A Number Six named Shelly Godfrey tried to discredit Baltar with forged evidence before being exposed and thrown out the airlock.

About a month after the holocaust, Galactica led the first assault on Cylon forces, destroying a tylium refinery despite several losses. Six weeks in, Raptor scouts located the habitable world of Kobol, humanity's ancestral planet. A Cylon force there assaulted a Raptor expedition and stranded several personnel, including Tyrol and Baltar. A plan to plant a nuclear warhead aboard an orbiting basestar using a captured Raider collapsed under political pressure when President Laura Roslin ordered the pilot, Kara Thrace, to jump instead to Caprica.

Following the shooting of Adama, a Cylon attack forced an urgent departure that scattered Galactica from the civilian ships. For the first time in its history Galactica's computers were networked to calculate the correct coordinates, an act that drew a basestar attack and allowed Raiders to transmit a Cylon virus, while a Heavy Raider crashed into the starboard flight pod and disgorged a squad of Centurions into the ship.

New Caprica#

After the fleet discovered and colonized the world named New Caprica, Galactica and Pegasus remained in orbit for roughly a year on a skeleton-crewed orbital watch. Conditions on the surface were rough and demanded constant military support. When a Cylon fleet rediscovered the colony, the battlestars were forced to jump away and abandon the population. In the liberation that followed, Galactica took heavy damage, its hull scarred by burn marks and missile hits, most notably three large holes across its back where the armor was weakest. When Pegasus was destroyed covering the evacuation, its nearly intact squadrons transferred to Galactica, restoring a full Viper complement.

The continued search for Earth#

The starboard hangar pod had been converted into a museum ahead of the planned decommissioning. After the evacuation it was pressed into service to house civilian refugees, earning the nickname "Camp Oilslick," and later "Dogsville" as still more passengers arrived and were screened by civilian medical staff. A makeshift bar called "Joe's," complete with a damaged Mark II Viper hung over it, sprang up behind a storage area. During passage through a star cluster the ship sheltered fleet passengers while their own vessels ran on skeleton crews under radiation medication.

Metal fatigue and final days#

Galactica weathered repeated Cylon nuclear strikes that, detonating in open space, dealt less damage than they might have, but the accumulated punishment told. After the FTL drive was disabled during a mutiny, a large crack appeared in an interior wall, and closer inspection revealed hairline fractures and structural damage throughout, aggravated by corners cut during the ship's original construction. Tyrol proposed sealing the hull with a Cylon organic resin that would bond to and strengthen the metal as it matured; Adama refused until cracks reached his own quarters, then permitted any measure necessary. The repairs went poorly, plagued by electrical faults, and Boomer's escape jump close to the bow caused a spatial distortion that worsened the damage.

By this period there were more Vipers than qualified pilots, and trainees known as "nuggets" were pressed into the line. A mutiny led by Tom Zarek and Felix Gaeta drew off many pilots, those who refused to help Adama retake the ship being court-martialed and imprisoned, which forced Adama to accept Cylon Heavy Raiders from a renegade basestar for combat air patrol duty.

With efforts to seal the stress fractures failing, Adama ordered the ship abandoned and stripped. The discovery of the Cylon colony granted a reprieve, and a volunteer skeleton crew, supplemented by rebel Centurions and a few civilians, embarked to rescue the Cylon-human child Hera. Samuel Anders, left in a vegetative state, was wired into the ship's systems to serve as Galactica's own version of a Cylon hybrid.

The last jump#

Galactica jumped to point-blank range of the colony so missiles and nukes could not be used against it, taking still more damage in the gunnery exchange. Anders disrupted the colony's systems and shut down its weapons, a Raptor squadron launched from the starboard bay and destroyed it, and Galactica rammed the colony so assault teams could rescue Hera. A negotiated truce collapsed, several nukes accidentally fired from a disabled Raptor struck the colony, and everything began to be drawn toward a nearby black hole. Kara Thrace jumped Galactica clear without retracting the landing pods, breaking the ship's back and rendering it unable to jump again. The coordinates she used, derived from the notes of a song that had haunted her and the Final Five, brought the ship to the world that would become modern-day Earth. The survivors of the Twelve Colonies and the remaining Cylon rebels settled the planet, Admiral Adama flew the last Viper off the ship, and Galactica and the rest of the fleet were scuttled by Samuel Anders, who piloted them into Earth's sun, Sol.