Battlestar Vindication(The Long War)

Vindication
Hornet: "Hornet to Cross, broken winged bird is leaping from the nest."

Cross: "Hornet, if that line ever gets repeated in any sort of circumstances, I wil fry your ass with my afterburners."

-Cross and Hornet while watching the Vindication launch after extensive repairs.

The Batlestar Vindication is a Valkyrie-class battlestar, and one of two known surviving battlestars, nicknamed Vinny by her crew. She is currently serving as the flagship of the Colonial Remnant, under the command of Adriatic Huxton. She appears in the Fanfic The Long War

Statistics:
Length: 1350 meters

Width: 580 meters

Crew: 4000 (plus 2000 additional civillians)

Armament:

4 bow mounted 2000 millimeter railguns

24 dual 1400 mm railgun turrets

40 dual 600 mm railgun turrets

84 quad 80 mm railgun point defense guns

12 Atlatl anti-capitol missile launchers

Complement:

180 Viper MArk VII's

40 Raptors

40 Python Mark IV heavy bombers

1 colonial heavy liner currently docked in port flight pod

Pre-fall:
The Vindication was laid down twelve years prior to the fall of the colonies; the fourth Valkyrie class battlestar to be constructed. She was stationed in orbit of Picon. Five years before the fall she took the loyalist side during an attempted coup by Admiral Andareus, where she faced off against the battlestar Titan, holding it off long enough for two more loyalist battlestars to arrive. During this engagement Huxton was promoted to Commander from XO.

The Fall Of the Colonies
At the time of the fall, the Vindication was taking part in fleet week, in orbit of the fleet headquarters at Picon. She was one of ten battlestars present along with dozens of support ships and an estimated half-million civillians. When the cylons arrived they shut down the battlestars using the CNP backdoor. However, the Vindication was in the back of the formation, giving her crew enough time to figure out the problem and disconnect the FTL drive from the computer core. They made a blind jump to safety, but not before sustaining heavy damage.

It took 48 hours for the crew to repair the FTL drive and make the jump back to the colonies. They arrived in orbit of Libran to find it under nuclear bombardment. While they had been gone the cylons had completed the destruction of the human race. They rescued several surviving civilian ships and deployed raptors to the planet's surface to look for survivors. However, the arrival of four cylon basestars forced the small fleet to jump away, leaving the raptors behind to be destroyed.

Once he was sure they were safe, Huxton ordered all remaining raptors to be launched in order to track down every surviving ship and gather them in one fleet for protection. After two days of searching they were able to locate 124 oher ships, including a Berzerker-class heavy cruiser, a tylium freighter, and a trio of Zephyr type liners. Just as they had given up on finding anyone else, the fleet recieved a distress call from the Battlestar Serpentia  . The Vindication jumped in to find her surrounded by three basestars.

She demolished the first basestar with her bow cannon, then placed herself between the listing Serpentia and the other two basetsrs. After a prolonged fight, they too went down, and both battlestars returned to the fleet. From the mess hall of the Vindication Huxton announced that the fleet's only option was to keep fighting the cylons.

The Second Cylon War:
The Vindication became the flagship of the Colonial Remnant. Though she was heavily damaged at Picon, repairs were delayed as the Remnant's mobile drydock was occupied by the even more heavily damaged Serpentia. Several times the Vindication would lead the fleet in fighting off cylon basestars long enough for the civilian ships to jump.

The Vindication lead the attack on Aquaria to rescue the six thousand survivors hiding on its surface. Together, she and the Serpentia destroyed two basestars. However, before the survivors could be evacuated a cylon number four model embedded with them contacted the main cylon fleet, which dispatched five additional basestars and over twenty support ships. The Vindication used her dwindling supply of nukes to stop the first wave of raiders. However, in the ensuing gunfight with the basestars her port hangar pod was shot repeatedly by multiple cylon battlecruisers, igniting its remaining fuel and ammunition reserves. The blast crippled the battlestar but she was able to coninue fighting until the survivors had been evacuated, withdrawing with the rest of the fleet.



The Vindication's port hangar pod was deemed unsalvageable and scrapped, with the rest of the now barely functional hulk placed in drydock for repairs while Admiral Huxton's flag was transferred to the Seprentia. Eventually the remnant encountered the wreckage of the original battlestar Columbia in orbit of the ice planet. Columbia's port flight pod and vipers were used to restore the Vindication to fighting capability. This came at a price though: the excessive mass of the Columbia's larger flight pod left her lopsided in space and cut her maneuverability as if the battlestar performed too sharp a turn it would generate enough inertia to rip the hangar pod from its moorings.

Crew:
Admiral Adriatic Huxton:

Colonel Amy Nessella

Major Elliot Cage

Major Jaime 'Cross'

Captain Amanda Marlay

Captain John Grissom

Warrant Officer Aelia Wrenner

Sergeant Thomas Alenko

Corporal Boris Belsinki

Corporal David Ingrams

Private William Venko