Battlestar Victorious (Battlestar D5)

 Battlestar Victorious (BS-66) is an Illustrious-class battlestar currently serving as the flagship of Battlestar Group 66 and is the title ship of Wes Imlay's 'Battlestar Victorious' series.

Delayed Construction
In the story Ride of the Valkyrie, placed six years before the Fall of the Colonies, it is discovered that the Victorious and its sister ship Kios have had their construction suspended by the Adar Administration in a set of cuts aimed at downsizing the Colonial Fleet. At the time the Victorious is 85.4 percent complete and the Kios is 72.1 percent complete. Scott Tolan states that in a perfect world the the two ships would be completed one day but felt they would instead end up either as target practice or being sold for scrap.

Commissioning
Two years after the events of Ride of the Valkyrie the Victorious would in fact be completed and commissioned into the Colonial Fleet. The time spent in storage allowed for all the lessons learned from the other Jupiter, Mercury and Illustrious-class Battlestars to be incorporated into the Victorious and the Kios, making the two sister ships unique among their own class.

Controversial Choice
The move of giving Tolan command of the Victorious was not without controversy. There were those higher up in the Admiralty who felt that while he had earned flag rank that Tolan was not worthy to command a ship of a class as prestigious as the Mercury. One admiral, speaking on condition of anonymity suggested that the Admiralty could always recommission the Mercury-class Battlestar Ares, 'If they have their minds set on giving a gangster command of a Mercury, then give him the one that's a lemon!'

Creative Notes
Images created by CanisD and modited by Marsh (XRaider)