Battlestar Pacifica (D26)

The Battlestar Pacifica was one of the first twelve battlestars to be constructed by the Colonials, each representing one of the Twelve Colonies; Pacifica was sponsored by Picon.

As a Series One Columbia Class Battlestar, Pacifica typically embarked the maximum wartime complement of 160 Vipers divided into 8 squadrons of 20 each. In addition to her airwing, Pacifica possessed an extensive battery of 24 Dual-Barrel Heavy Kinetic Energy Cannons for engagement of capital ships and orbital bombardment, a formidable secondary array of 412 Dual-Barrel Close-In-Weapon Batteries for anti-aerospace craft defense, and 12 variable-yield nuclear missiles in silos along the dorsal section of the hull.

First Cylon War

Placed into commission under the command of Commander (later Admiral) Frank Domra, Pacifica served throughout most of the First Cylon War, amassing an impressive record. But it was during her final engagement of the war under the command of Commander Adrian Kelso that the Pacifica firmly earned her place in the annals of Colonial Military history.

On the 4571st day of the First Cylon War, the Battlestar Pacifica was deployed without her escort group to maintain a defense presence around Libran during the Cylon's last strategic offensive of the war. With her escorts tasked out to support a counter-action taking place near Picon, the Pacifica was the only vessel available to challenge a force of five Cylon Basestars when they arrived in orbit near Libran.

In what became known as the Battle of Libran, the Pacifica and her airwing acquitted themselves well, with two of the Basestars falling to the Battlestar's main batteries. A third Basestar was later dispatched when Pacifica's CAG managed to penetrate his lone Viper in through the Basestar's point-defenses and use his on-board missiles to initiate a catastrophic series of detonations in the enemy vessel's onboard Raider munitions and fuel supplies.

In spite of a stout defense put forward by the vessel in her airwing, the Pacifica suffered an almost non-stop barrage, absording missile strikes from both conventional and tactical nuclear ordnance which inflicted near catastrophic damage from stem to stern. Indeed, throughout most of the battle, the Pacifica found herself fighting not only the Cylons but the extensive number of internal fires touched off by the enemy attack. Nevertheless, a heroic damage control effort directed by the Pacifica's Executive Officer, Colonel Danielle Cole, kept the ship from succumbing to her wounds. In the end, the tide of battle was finally turned against the Cylons by the arrival of the Battlestar Atlantia.

Although a tactical victory, the cost of the battle in lives was steep; a total of 1,540 crewmembers aboard Pacifica were lost. The sting of such loss was only magnified by the fact that the Cylons agreed to a cease-fire shortly after the battle itself was over. With the war ending, attention turned to deciding what to do with the gutted Pacifica.

Post-War

With the prospects of severe cutbacks in their operational budget following the war, the Admiralty made plans to decommission and scrap the Pacifica rather than repair her. But in an odd political twist, the vessel's fate was not met with the fire of a scrapper's torch. While the Pacifica's sponsoring colony of Picon was more-or-less willing to leave the ship to her fate, the citizens of Libran, grateful for the heroic effort of the ship's crew in defending their home, organized a grass-roots citizens campaign to purchase the vessel from the Colonial Fleet for preservation as a museum.

Turned over to the Libran government, the funding of her repair and conversion into a museum was taken up by a consortium of private citizen groups and industrial philanthropists. Although her weapon systems and emplacements were removed at her decommissioning, by the time she was settled into a stable orbit around Libran, the repair work to the old Battlestar had been completed to such an exacting standard and level of detail that the Pacifica was later returned to the Colonial Fleet's reserve list.

For the better part of the next four decades, the Pacifica continued her leisurely ‘patrol’ of Libran serving her new role as a museum to the Cylon War. As part of her conversion, a massive marble wall was crafted and placed on the Port hangar pod. On the wall, etched and inlaid with gold were the names of the crew who died during the Battle of Libran. In addition, the ship’s former crew began holding their annual reunions aboard the vessel in remembrance of their fallen brethren.

See: Battlestar Pacifica

See: WSG 1
 * Note: Commander (later Admiral) Frank Domra included as a tip-of-the-hat to Dimension Eighteen by AnotherEscapist.