Battlestar Galactica: New Beginnings

Updated 27/12/2019

Authors Preamble

Hi,

If you are a returning reader then don't worry, I have only made minor changes to the story such as fixing names, times etc. Although there are some sections that are being hopefully improved given what I have learnt on a masters course in creative writing. I am also breaking the story down into seasons since it has now gotten to that point.
Season 0 = Miniseries = Chapter 1-14

Season 1 = Chapter 15 onwards

If however you are a first time reader then welcome. What you are about to read is very much a labour of love and is a soft reimagining of the tv show.

As a basic synopsis which doesn't give much away, the story picks up shortly before the miniseries and explores what would happen if the Colonials had just a minutes warning of the coming attack. The story follows Adama, Apollo, Starbuck and all the other characters of the show including the Grand Old Lady. It also includes some returning characters from Caprica as well as an entirely new character introduced in this chapter. The story further explores a larger Battlestar world with a fully explored Colonial Fleet, society and a larger Colonial domain in line with what should be expected (partially in line with what we see in Deadlock and Blood and Chrome). It isn't only Colonial society that's further explored but Cylon too.

The TV show is my favourite show of all time and so I am attempting to do it justice with this story. There are many battles using fully newtonian physics as seen in the show and there's also plenty of character development, nobody is perfect. Technology is also in line with either what we see in the show or what we don't see but is conceivable for the colonials to have if we already have it (tablet computers I call tac-pads).

Theres also two branching stories to this. Don't read them yet. When it's time for them they will be introduced in the right chapter.

Anyway enjoy and if you like or even dislike the story then please leave a review.

Season 0

The Fall

CHAPTER 1:WELCOME TO THE DEFIANT

"When you are in the cockpit, you are in control. Its hard to give it up… All you can do now is wait and hope you didn't make any mistakes. Welcome to the big leagues." - Captain Apollo

48 days before the fall of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol

Leonis

Orbit of Leonis Fleet Anchorage

Raptor 312/Defiant

07/06/55

09:42

A calmness radiated off the Colonial Officer sat in the co-pilot's seat of the bug shaped Raptor as it shuttled its way as only a "glorified schoolbus" could towards the graceful shape of the Battlestar Defiant. Small on the grand scale of Battlestars, and not as powerful as most, the Defiant was a Valkyrie class Battlestar and would be his home for the next two years.

"...Captain?"

Brought back to the present, the officer mentally shook himself saying "Sorry, what did you say?" The Lieutenant looked at him, her face slightly obscured by the reinforced glass of her helmet, yet even this wasn't enough to hide the slivers of gold in her hazel eyes or the agonisingly broken shape of the nose.

"I asked how come you're still flying birds instead of being sat in the CIC? Did your mother forget to pull some strings for you?" As she said this an almost wild grin creased her face taking away the seriousness of the statement, yet still the implications were there.

"She would've done. Frak, when i was a knuckle dragger she almost had a fit. But...I cut pretty much all strings with her years ago. My great aunt once told me to choose my own path in life, and so I did. No, I got to where i am from the bottom without any 'friends in high...'"

"Raptor 312 this is Defiant, please state your intentions and transmit codes," a male voice broke in over the wireless.

"Defiant/Budget. I'm on approach from Leonis Fleet Command with authorised crew replacement. Transmitting codes now..."

"Codes verified, next time bring a pizza too. Transferring you over to flight control."

The voice of the communications officer was replaced by that of the LSO (landing signals officer). "Raptor 312, you are cleared for approach, pedestrians on the runway so reduce speed to one five zero and watch for walkers. Port landing bay ,pad 2, hands on...the checkers are green. Call the ball."

"Roger that, I have the ball," Lieutenant Susan 'Budget' Williams replied taking full control of the raptor and complying with the landing instructions.

"Hands on, I love this Battlestar already," the Captain muttered.

"Yeah it's a pain in the arse," the Lieutenant replied not realising that he actually meant it.

Sweeping into the portside flightpod, budget eased the bug shaped raptor into a sweeping arc and brought her to rest without so much as a bump on landing pad two. The electromagnets built into said pad kicked in securing the raptor to the pad before it started its descent. In front of the two pilots the starfield was replaced by the flashing red lights of the hangar airlock they were entering. In the meantime Budget purged the thrusters with coolant before she cleared her board, shutting down the Raptor's systems in the correct order while a hatch closed over the lift sealing it from the outer vacuum.

Two suited groundcrew then got to work securing the Raptor to a tractor before opening up the inner doors to the hanger deck and leading the boxy Raptor into the vast hangar beyond. Helping Budget with her post-flight power down and checklist, the officer pushed up the centre console and stepped towards the Raptor's hatch while picking up his "sailor" bag in the process. Upon opening the hatch he was assaulted by dozens of competing smells of oil, tylium, coolant, smoke, bleach and ozone, and those were just the smells he could identify, but to him, they smelt like home. Standing there on the wing of the Raptor the captain cast a keen eye about the deck, seeing the hotrack inspired Viper births that had been installed on all Valkyries in the last refit which allowed for broadside launching tubes. The last time he'd been on a Valkyrie class hangar deck he ran it. It was practically another lifetime.

The Junior Deck Chief upon seeing the new arrival, came over and saluted the captain which he quickly and precisely returned.

"Chief Lennox sir, I'll be your Senior Deck Chief during your stay with us. I understand you used to be one of us sir, back on the Valkyrie." The Chief was a thin middle aged man with immense upper body strength. Yet as the Captain looked him over, he could tell that the Chief must be fairly new to the job, he seemed to be edgy and almost as bad as a mouse after a bit of cheese but knowing that a cat could pounce on him. He wasn't used to responsibility, that much was clear

"I actually started off on the Perseus before her decommissioning, but yeah I was Senior Chief on the Valkyrie," the Captain confirmed as he picked up his pack and rucksack after shaking the Chiefs hand and logging in.

"Yeah, one of my guys used to serve on your deck...Specialist Strombe."

"Strombe?...Fingerless Joe?" the Captain asked as he made his way to the closest hatch that led into the main Battlestar's body.

"Yeah that's him. He said you ran an easy deck...but one of the best in the entire fleet".

Shaking his head the captain replied "I had a good crew and an even better instructor, plus I was given pretty much free control over the decks by Adama. He even bent some rules to get us as good as we were."

"Nevertheless sir" the Chief said as they reached the hatch "I would appreciate it if you could maybe pass on some advice when you're next free. Performance isn't exactly up to scratch."

Turning to the Chief, the Captain nodded asking "How long?"

Answering, the chief replied, "Two months as Senior, before that I'd served two years as the Junior Chief. I'm having trouble keeping both decks up to the old Chief's standards."

The Captain seeing how new to the job the Chief was said "When I'm next free I'll pop by, if you'll excuse me."

Walking down the almost familiar corridors of the Defiant, she being so similar to her sister ship the Valkyrie, the Captain was soon met at the CIC by two marines whom, after checking his I.D. allowed him to enter. Approaching a hunched over figure at the main console while ignoring the activity around himself, the Captain placed his bags at his feet and held a salute to the figure saying, "Captain David Cain reporting for duty, sir."

The hunched over figure slowly straightened and turned to face him taking stock of the newcomer. The eyes of the Rear-Admiral were tired grey orbs that hid the true strength of the man, while his face looking like it hadn't felt the kiss of natural sunlight in months and with an excess of fat as was the same with the body. The bright lights of the CIC blended with his thinning pepper grey hair. But when he straightened to return the salute, Captain Cain knew this man would be deadly in any type of fight.

"At ease Captain." the Admiral reached out and shook his hand. "We might as well take this in my Office".

The Captain followed the Admiral the short distance to his office. Smaller than those of a Mercury class it was still a reasonable size with photos mounted on the walls depicting family members, crewmates and ships.

While the Rear-Admiral sat on the desk, Cain stood at ease in front of him as the Admiral began, "It's been a while since I've had a member of Argos Air Group serve on my ship. The last one must have been five, maybe six years ago, and from what I've read about you they just gave me one of the best." Picking up a tan manila folder the corners cut off as was the custom since Kobol, Rear-Admiral Scott read out some notes;

"From what I see,you were a brilliant Deck Chief responsible for improving the Valkyrie Class launch system. You then enrolled in flight school where you soon outclassed the other cadets, guess it helps when you know a Viper so well. Recommended by both Commodore Danvers and Major Taylor for transfer to the Argos Air Group training corps at Delphi following the Founding Day disaster. While there, not only didn't you wash out on your first day, but were again top of your class.

" So...they then stuck you with one of their best most uncontrollable fighter jocks, ah…not theirs...Colonel Sloan's report says seeing you two fly together put the rest of Argos Squadron to shame, and I quote here 'it was like seeing a set of twins born in the cockpit.'

"Six months later you graduate top of your class and are given an immediate posting with the Alpha Air Wing's, Primus Squadron. You flew with them for six months before you were personally requested for special assignment by Fleet Admiral Corman. This assignment lasting three months although the rest is redacted." the Admiral raised an eyebrow at Cain, he knows that this is a definite sign of a black ops assignment. "Once this assignment was over you were offered a spot back in the Argos' Alpha Air Group or a choice on your new posting, you went with choosing a posting..." the Admiral's steel grey eyes bore right into Cain's emerald ones, "If I didn't know any better, I would swear either your mother was pulling strings or this is a holdover from Lucinda...but, I spoke to an old friend who vouched for you.

"But humour an old man...if, as this folder says you were given a choice of any posting, Why then did you choose my ship? It certainly isn't the Atlantia or the Uned."

"Permission to speak freely sir?" At a nod from the Admiral, Cain continued "Both the Atlantia and the Uned are all bells and whistles sir. Don't get me wrong, they are brilliant not only on paper but in an actual firefight. But they are also both heavily networked throughout. I had the same problem with the Battlestar Argus, if we are wrong in how secure our networks are, then our heaviest hitting ships are sitting ducks if the Cylons ever do come back and decide to mess with our systems like they did in the first war. They don't even need to mess with them, all we need is another trip in our DRADIS like on the Enterprise to shut everything down, even if they patched that out. Sir, my great aunt practically raised me, and when she did, she raised me on the stories of those ships that were networked in the first war

"The rest of the fleet is also networked sir, except for a handful of ships, yours included of course. You know you do not fly with equipment you don't trust if you want any chance of winning. Four years ago during the Founders Day disaster we saw what happens when a pilot flies with bad equipment, in that one incident the Mk-VIII killed more than a hundred, including nine it got pulled from service, but there's always a next time. The truth is, if push comes to shove and the Cylons do return, you at least have experience fighting them. Invaluable experience. I've done my homework and I know that you were a pilot during the first war, sir. Well I trust someone with experience a lot more than I would a political appointee with no experience both in combat and getting to their current position, sir."

The Admiral listened to all this then closed his eyes squeezing the bridge of his nose with his left hand, before looking straight at Captain Cain and saying, "Bill was right about you, you definitely have more than a hint of Lucinda in you. Welcome to the Defiant, Captain Cain."

Well I hoped you liked that, eh it was a bit boring I know but it gets better, hopefully. And don't worry, this story does follow the Galactica, it just shows the wider war first. Unless you want to read a bunch of boring story notes below then hit next chapter. The story notes cover a bunch of fleet numbers and my basic rules for the universe.

Authors Postamble

I wrote the start of this story before I saw The Plan so things will be different not to mention that this is a crossover with Caprica. I have also kept with the Colonials not having access to FTL communications (this is established in the miniseries when Billy informs Roslin that due to the position of Colonial One - Colonial Heavy 798 at the time - a roundtrip message to Caprica would be thirty minutes. Because of this I have assumed that due to the size of Colonial Space then they would have a network of thousands of Communications/position satellites across their space so that if Colonial Fleet knew rough position of a Battlestar (30 lightminute area) then a Raptor could jump to the closest satellite and either get the last known position of the battlestar from it and jump to the position it's likely to be at now OR the slower way of the Raptor having the Satellite transmit the message.

I have also made another assumption based off the fact that Adama had kept the Galactica network free that other Battlestar Commanders had some leeway in just how much was networked even if they all had to have the CNP (parts of which can be turned off as they were on the Pegasus. Because of this assumption the Colonial Fleet in this universe has 90-95% of ships fully networked with the rest being only partially.

Fleet Numbers prior to the Fall I am putting at the following;

Colonial Fleet

Main Colonial Fleet: 120 Battlestars and 735 support ships (mostly smaller and mostly based on the ones in Deadlock)

Colonial Fleet Protected Reserves

Colonial Fleet R&D Fleet: 4 Battlestars, 1 experimental Battlestar and 3 support ships

Colonial Fleet Training Fleet: 6 Battlestars and 5 support ships (mostly crewed by cadets in last couple of months of training)

Colonial Fleet Reserves

Colonial Fleet Reserves: 60 Battlestars, 10 Marinestars and 150 support ships

[Note: if a Main Fleet ship is at dock for maintenance or overhaul then it is temporarily replaced on the line by a reserve]

The Colonial Fleet is a unified outwards looking military force. In this universe I also have Colony Defence Fleets, otherwise known as CDF's. Scorpia's government for instance has a CDF of a handful of Battlestars and support ships. These ships including the Battlestars are older, weaker warships with thinner armour, carry a maximum of 10% munitions and no nukes during peacetime. In times of war they can be called up and conscripted into the Colonial Fleet where they will be properly armed and armoured.

Combined Colony Defence Fleets

40 Battlestars, 4 Marinestars (Marinestars belong to Leonis), 243 support ships)

I also include in the story private military contractors/private security companies who own warships. These ships are severely limited including in armour, armament and ammunition stockpiles. These ships are also generally a lot smaller with the vast majority of support ships being no longer than 100 metres. They mainly police mining areas and do convoy protection from piracy groups and are little threat to the Colonial Fleet. In addition, many old Battlestars were bought up by large trusted companies rather than going to the breakers/boneyards. Many of these Battlestars were modified into mining ships, research vessels for universities etc with only a handful remaining with PMCs.

33 Battlestars (only 8 remain in PMC hands, the rest are converted although many do retain some armament. A total of 14 represent any noticeable threat.) 519 support ships (only 124 over 200 metres long and classed as a potential threat by the Colonial Fleet).

Now those numbers may surprise you, but having just 10 battlestars per colony seems stupid even with support ships, what I am running with also isnt a massive increase. I run with the colonies having a population of around 55 billion. They also have a larger domain with two major mining regions covering hundreds of star systems. The population is centred on the 12 colonies in the cyrannus double binary system, although I have 8 other barely habitable sub-colonies across the wealth of their space with the biggest population barely over a few million. These sub-colonies are more ice resorts, mining locations, military outposts and prison colonies than proper colonies, and are in line with Djerba.

The border with the Cylons which I also call the Armistice Line or the A Line (not red line which i have meaning the furthest the engines can jump), is a straight line splitting the galaxy in two. The Cyrannus star system is a handful of jumps away from the border. Colonial space is also near the tip/edge of a spiral arm of our galaxy.

The Colonial Fleet uses a 24 Hour time period centered on Caprica City time and uses the Roman Calendar of Romulus (check either wikipedia or BSGwiki). This calendar has 52 weeks of 7 days which are named the same as ours (discovered in Caprica tv - information gathered from BSGwiki with a search for Colonial Calendar). Other Colonies systems of times will no doubt be different as some planets days will be faster than others just as their orbits are but since the Colonies must have some form of centralised economy then they would need a system of time that would work with the other colonies. The current year in this fic is 21355 meaning that the colonial calendar first started on Kobol and would have evolved differently on each colony but Caprica is the closest in rotation and orbit to Kobol.

The laws of the universe I am going to do my utmost to follow as did RDM's BSG, I may bend them as he did with the rule that you can't travel at the speed of light so he created the Jumpdrive but I won't break them with intention. In regards to technology one thing I picked up is that the fleet must travel quite fast (Galactica was 30 million miles from Caprica in miniseries and Colonial One's travel time to the Galactica was five and a half hours, maybe six meaning that it had a speed of 4.5% Light. All this info can be gathered on BSGwiki under navigation and I am using the alternative calculations. Achieving this speed in such a short amount of time means that I am adding inertial dampeners to ships larger than a Viper, they're just there in the background like the artificial gravity is.

I also introduced Argos Air Group. This is an elite group of pilots set up during the last years of the first war. There are currently 304 pilots. In peace time the pilots (Argonauts) are mostly spread throughout the fleet in order to try and improve other pilots by example. However there are some complete squadrons of argonauts. The Battlestar Argus for example, in addition to carrying normal squadrons, also carres Argos Air Group's Alpha Air Wing which consists of four squadrons, one of these squadrons being Primus Squadron. Primus Squadron being one of the squadrons acquired by the group following its founding.

If you haven't picked up on it Admiral Cain is Captain David Cain's mother. I know she was portrayed as a lesbian in the series, but she could have been bi...she could've. So I would like to think that at some point she would have had kids. I am also running with Deadlock's Admiral Lucinda Cain being Admiral Helena Cain's aunt. I know she was established as another relation but by the time I found out about that it was too late.

The Caprica parts of the story are coming soon (if not next chapter then after). Some of this will be drawn from "The shape of things to come" at the end of apotheosis. The next chapter is the true beginning of the story.