Galactica (D31)

The Battlestar Galactica is the main protector and flagship of the Colonial Fleet, under the command of Commander (then promoted to Fleet Admiral) William Adama, whose first combat posting was none other then Galactica over 40 years before.

Galactica's early history
Most of Galactica's early history is unknown, but Galactica was built during the opening days of the First Cylon War. This meant her construction was rushed, and corners had to be cut to get the ship onto the front lines, which was never noticed until very late into her life. (RDM: No Exit) Galactica fought throughout the conflict, right up til the end of the war during Operation Raptor Talon.

Post-war refits, service and planned retirement
After the war, Galactica was stripped of most of her armor and KEW batteries, serving for another 40 years in coast guard-type patrols. After almost 60 years of service, Galactica was slated for retirement and scrapping, but was later transferred to the aegis of the Ministry of Education to be turned into a living museum. (much like the battleship Missouri Memorial in real life) Her last commander was William Adama, who was sent there as a result of his disasterous recon mission involving the Battlestar Valkyrie the year before. (RDM: Hero)

Second Cylon War and the Fall of the Twelve Colonies
Shortly before the ship could go anywhere after the decommissioning ceremony, Galactica recieved a message from Picon Fleet Headquarters over an open channel, stating that the Cylons were attacking the Colonies and that it was no drill. Less then a minute later, Galactica was getting to action stations, where Adama addressed the crew and told them what was happening. Over the next few hours, the museum's Mk II Viper squadrons were moved to the port flight pod and readied for combat. However, while Galactica had ammunition for her Vipers, her magazines had been emptied and detonated during the decommissioning ceremony. (RDM: Miniseries, deleted scene)

Cylon Attack
Things quickly went from bad to worse as a pair of Cylon Raiders moved in on Galacticas' position after slaughtering her last Viper Mk VII squadron and nearly killing Lt. Sharon 'Boomer' Valerii and Lt. Karl C. 'Helo' Agathon. Galactica's Mk IIs were launched to engage the Raiders, but the pilots, who were either undertrained or simply not familiar with the older Mk IIs, were unable to take out the Raiders. After a few minutes of this, Lt. Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace was launched in her Mk II (which had engine troubles) and quickly destroyed both Raiders, but not before the second could fire three nuclear missiles. She destroyed two, but the third detonated and caused damage, internal and external, to Galactica. Eventually, after the loss of 85 deckhands, Galactica was brought back under control and prepared for her first FTL jump in over 20 years to Ragnar Anchorage, where she could rearm and refill her magazines. As soon as preparations began, Galactica received word that Admiral Nagala was killed on board the Battlestar Atlantia, and that the highest ranking officer left (sans Rear Admiral Helena Cain of the Pegasus, who jumped outside of Cyrannus when Scorpion Fleet Shipyards was hit and Vice Admiral Zeus Avalonia, who had taken half the Colonial Corps of Engineers fleet with him on an exploritory mission) was Commander Adama. After sending the message to all surviving Colonial units, the seeming destruction of Colonial One and the deaths of the Commander's son, Captain Lee 'Apollo' Adama, Galactica successfully jumped to Ragnar.

Rearmed, Repaired
At Ragnar, Galactica's crew encountered the man known as Leoben Conroy, who turned out to be an organic model of Cylon. (He was later identified as a Two) A small group of Vipers and Raptors from the Battlestar Trition made their way to Galactica, and joined the beleaguered ship's squadron. (Assumption, but it explains Crashdown's presence on Galactica and the small number of Mk VIIs that were involved in the Battle of Ragnar Anchorage) Later, Colonial One, leading a large civilian fleet, arrived at Ragnar, and Galactica prepared to leave and continue fighting the Cylons.

'The War's Over, And We Lost'
However, Laura Roslin managed to convince Adama to defend the civilian fleet instead, and thus began the Battle of Ragnar Anchorage. Galactica and her Fleet moved out of Ragnar, where a Cylon fleet was waiting for them. Galactica, however, was ready for them and began opening fire on the Cylons, forcing the Raiders back and allowing the Vipers to engage the Raiders and keep them from attacking the civilians. Galactica took hits, and eventually jumped away, nearly leaving Starbuck and Apollo behind.

On the Run
Over the next week, the Colonial Fleet was harassed by the Cylons, who jumped in and tried to destroy the Fleet every 33 minutes. Only after the destruction of the Olympic Carrier was the Fleet safe from the Cylons, at least temporarily.

Water and Politics
When the President was visiting Galactica, the ship's water tanks were blown open, (by sleeper agent Boomer) the Fleet's population was put in danger. The tense situation was made even worse when Tom Zarek, political radical and terrorist, refused to help get the water (found, ironically, by Boomer) onto Galactica and took several personnel hostage. Eventually, after agreeing to free elections in nine months time, Zarek backed down and agreed to help.

Pilots lost, Asset gained
Life did not get any easier for Galactica's crew, as proven when a comm drone caused the deaths of half of Galactica's pilots. While training a group of pilot trainees, (or 'nuggets') Starbuck engaged a group of eight Raiders, and was downed on a gas giant's moon. (RDM: Acts of Contrition) Later, it was discovered that Starbuck only destroyed seven of the Raiders: number eight was only damaged and forced down, where Starbuck recovered it and returned to Galactica, but not before almost getting killed by Apollo. To quote Chief Tyrol, the Raider's ass belonged to them now. (RDM: You Can't Go Home Again)

Suicide Cylons
After a copy of Doral exploded himself in an attempt to destroy Baltar's Cylon detector, the Fleet's leadership was forced to admit that the Cylons looked human now. (RDM: Litmus)

First Victory
While performing a minor upgrade to the DRADIS array, Lt. Felix Gaeta and then-Major Ronald Pinkerton discovered a large debris field near the Fleet's location. A Viper and Raptor team, led by Major Pinkerton's Mk I Viper, then investigated the field, discovering what would be a major game-changer: the GFAS-X1 Destroy, ZGMF-X47S Impulse, ZGMF-X10A Freedom, LCAM-X01A Archangel and LHM-BB01 Minerva, which had been sent there by a natural FTL event. Before the ships could be recovered or their crews helped, however, a Cylon Baseship jumped in, investigating the debris. In order to save his people, Adama jumped Galactica in behind the Baseship and opened fire on it, causing heavy damage, The surprise attack was made more surprising when the Archangel's Gottfried plasma cannons destroyed the Baseship. (THAB URE: Prologue and Chapter 1)

Victories
While the Earth ships and Mobile Fortress were refit with FTL drives, the debris field stripped for new weapons to equip Galactica with and more materials to repair the aging warship, the Cylons continued attacking the Fleet. However, the Archangel's superior weapons destroyed another Baseship witrh Galactica damaging another. During this time, the Cylons lost two Baseships, and they adopted the tactic of running before the Archangel could fire on them. A week into the operation, the Cylons launched a mass attack with three Baseships, but this failed due to the actions of the Minerva and the Archangel, which assisted Galactica in destroying two of the Baseships. (THAB URE: Chapter 2)

Resupply and Finding the Agrippa
While the Cylons learned to give the Colonials a wide berth, events forced Galactica to attack a Cylon fuel base, which resulted in the destruction of another Baseship and the capture of the fuel depot. After the battle, Lunamaria Hawke (a pilot from the Minerva on her first flight in a Viper Mk VII) discovered a derilect Colonial ship from the First Cylon War: the Serpent-Class Heavy Tender Agrippa, which still had a full load of Vipers and Raptors. With the Agrippa, the starboard flight pod could be reactivated, which was done over the next two weeks. (THAB URE: Chapter 4)

Discovery of Kobol
Less then three days after Colonial Day, a Raptor was sent on a scouting mission, which discovered a planet that could support life. Aforementioned planet turned out to be Kobol, the homeworld of humanity. Galactica launched a survey mission with three Raptors (one piloted by ex-ZAFT pilot Shinn Asuka) and Major Pinkerton's Mk I Viper, which was equipped with an FTL drive taken from a Raider. The mission went poorly, with the loss of Raptor 1 and Major Pinkerton's Viper, but Raptors 2 and 3 jumped back to Galactica while Raptor 1 crashed on Kobol and Major Pinkerton blind jumped back to the Colonies.

Attempted Assassination
When Starbuck stole the Raider and hauled ass back to Caprica, Boomer was chosen to destroy the Cylon Baseship in orbit of Kobol. When she came back, just as Adama congratulated her, she put two 9mm rounds into his chest. This revealed her as a Cylon, and it got worse as a Cylon Baseship jumped in less then two minutes later.With Tigh shell-shocked, Murrue Ramius, usually commander of the Archangel but meeting with the Admiral, took command of Galactica and ordered a fleet-wide jump. However, the civilians, Archangel, Agrippa and Minerva jumped to one location while Galactica jumped to the updated set of coordinates. Less then a few hours later, Galactica jumped back, but her new Tristan high-energy cannons were offline for maintenance reasons, so they had to network the computers and risk cyberattack from the Cylons. Unbeknownst to the Colonials, the Earth ship Eternal, which had been attacked by the Guardian Centurions, had been forcably jumped to the same location. The ensuing battle resulted in the destruction of the Baseship and the Eternal joining the Fleet after landing on Galactica's topside.

Boarding Actions
Life got worse from then on as the Cylons boarded Galactica and the Eternal, with the latter coming under Cylon control. As the Archangel and Minerva duelled with the hijacked ship, Galactica's Marines and several of her pilots fought to regain control of the Battlestar. By the skins of their teeth, they did, but 20 people lost their lives.

Tigh Declares Martial Law, Roslin Splits the Fleet and Adama Returns
After the Eternal had been secured, Colonel Tigh ordered the Quorum of Twelve desolved and declared marshal law, which resulted in Roslin eventually escaping Galactica and splitting the Fleet in two, taking 25 ships, including the Eternal, to Kobol. Prior to this, Adama had just awakened and retook command of Galactica.

The Second Battle of Kobol/Psycho's Return
Adama decided to reunite the Fleet at Kobol, jumping all of his ships there, but seconds after the Galactica Fleet arrived, 40 Cylon Baseships, ranging from War-era designs to modern ones, jumped into orbit and began firing on them. Only the timely intervention of the Colonial Corps of Engineers and surviving regular Fleet ships did they manage to survive. The CCE fleet was under the command of CCE field marshal Major Ronald 'Psycho' Pinkerton, who had been recovered by the CCE after his jump. As soon as they were safe, the Fleet jumped away from Kobol, which was clearly a deathtrap.

The Great Cylon Turkey Shoot
The virus that the Cylons sent into Galactica's computers mutated into a logic bomb despite attempts to destroy it. The Cylons sent a massive formation of Raiders and Heavy Raiders to board Galactica, hoping to turn it against the Fleet despite the massive number of other military ships that had joined Galactica. All of the Fleet's Vipers, led by Apollo, Lunamaria and Starbuck, went to engage the Cylons and keep them from the flagship when the virus was sent back at them, disabling the Cylon fleet. The Vipers and the few Mobile Suits that were launched into the fight began summarily slaughtering the Raiders with no losses. Following this battle, the Blackbird and CDF-X01 Proto-Dart were launched on their first test flights.

Meeting with Pegasus
Less then a week after the battle, Galactica was getting her first load of Mobile Suits (YCDF-01 Darts) loaded onto the ship when DRADIS picked up a mystery contact. This turned out to be the Battlestar Pegasus, under the command of Rear Admiral Helena Cain. Due to Adama's promotion, this made Cain Adama's subordinate, much to Cain's chagrin. More horrifying discoveries (Cain's treatment of Gina Inviare and the conscription of hundreds of civilians) would have made Adama court marshal her, but he still needed Cain as he needed a proper flag officer.

Battle of the Resurrection Hub
Adama, after getting intel from Boomer on the Cylon Civil War, decided that they would attack the Resurrection Hub and destroy it, forcing the Cylons to leave humanity in peace. Galactica was part of the task ofrce that destroyed the hub, although the Battlestar Dreadnought Legacy (from the CCE Avalonia Task Force, which had arrived in the area minutes after the attack began) destroyed the Hub itself. Cavil, in an attempt to destroy Galactica out of spite, launched 200 nuclear missiles at the Battlestar. Galactica, who had barely reloaded half of her Vipers and the damaged Minerva, was forced to jump away blindly, seperated from the rest of the Fleet.

Meeting the Junk Guild
Galactica's blind jump took her exactly where she was heading: the Earth Sphere. The issue was, it was in the middle of a battle between four Cylon Baseships, the Orb Izumo-Class battlestar Amaterasu and the Junk Guild Girty Lue-Class warship Hell Vulture. While lacking half of her Vipers, Galactica quickly relaunched her remaining planes into the fight, but before they could do anything, Pegasus jumped in, followed by the Eternal and Archangel. Under this overwhelming show of force, the Cylons jumped away, leaving behind two very confused Earth crews.

Operation Nemesis
After explaining what was going on to Junk Guild commander Jaden Takeo, Galactica's crew made repairs to the ship and prepared to counter ZAFT's Operation Fury with Operation Nemesis. This was a two-part operation: in space, Pegasus, Legacy, Eternal and a small JG task force would keep ZAFT from landing any more reinforcements from orbit. In the atmosphere, Galactica, equipped with a levitator unit, would, quote, 'beat the shit out of ZAFT'. After crash-diving and jumping into a cloud bank, Galactica practically destroyed ZAFT's surface fleet and dealt heavy damage to the Minerva-Class battleship Fortuna.

Refit/Attack on Althea Crater
Galactica under went a major refit over Orb before launching an attack on Althea Crater, when the Extended program had been moved to. Galactica was the first ship involved in the attack, destroying much of the base's defenses in the opening attack and tearing apart the defenders with her 600cm cannons. At the apex of the attack, the Guardian Baseship jumped in over Althea, and was disabled by Colonial forces.

Cylon Invasion of Earth
Hours after the destruction of Daedalus Crater and Requiem, the Cylons under Cavil's command launched a massive invasion of Earth. In response, Galactica jumped to the PLANTs to protect them. Galactica engaged four Baseships and destroyed them, but not without taking heavy damage. Eventually, Galactica moved away from the PLANTs and took a hit from multiple nuclear missiles.

Pounding
Galactica's new 75mm CIWS turrets ran out of ammunition, and without precise interception, missiles got past Galactica's flak field and caused heavy damage, forcing Adama to use a nuclear device at point-blank range. It was only due to the intervention of the Hell Vulture and several other ships that Galactica survived.

'All ahead, flank speed!'
However, Adama realized that Galactica had taken too much damage, and that the Cylons had taken over MESSIAH, ZAFT's command post. He ordered the engines to full ahead, and all hands to abandon ship. Under escort, Galactica sped on, with both her flight pods getting sheered off and taking out two Baseships (not before the crew could evacuate, however) and finally rammed into Neo-GENESIS and, with her remaining nuclear weapons armed and primed, destroyed MESSIAH.

Weapons
In her original form, (as seen in the 2003 series) Galactica outgunned almost any Earth warship. Once she is refit, Jaden Takeo comments to himself that Galactica is 'plowing the Moon with bullets' during the attack on Althea Crater. They could also destroy Gells-Ghe and Zamaza-Zah Mobile Armors even with their beam shields deployed.

Defensive systems
Originally, Galactica had most of her armor plating removed, but multiple refits readded the armor, allowing Galactica to survive almost anything the Cylons or anyone could throw at her.

Nuclear weapons
Galactica originally only had 6 nuclear weapons, but was resupplied by the CCE when they met up.

Mobile Suit catapults
The starboard flight pod was modified to carry and launch 20 Mobile Suits as well as Vipers and Raptors.

Levitator unit
Before the Battle of Orb, Galactica is fit with a levitator unit to allow her to fly in the atmosphere.

Beam weapons
Originally, Galactica's beam weapons were makeshift MS-sized beam cannons taken from destroyed ZAFT Mobile Suits. During her refit prior to the assault on Althea Crater, all of these makeshift weapons were removed and all the turrets were turned into 'Swingfire' cannons, meaning, with the flick of a switch, they could fire either beams or conventional KEW rounds.