Disclaimer: I do NOT own Battlestar Galactica: 2003
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Hope you enjoy the revised edition.
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If you have any questions or suggestions or ideas, tell me on my Forum.
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For images, go to DeviantART, search up Lord-Lucifer1, click on Browse Gallery and then go to the Dominion Navy Folder.
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I have never advocated war except as a means of peace.
--- Ulysses S. Grant
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DOMINION NETWORK!
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JOIN UP NOW!
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Proud humans from across the Earth Dominion, from Home System Sol to the frontier system of Gliese 777 are joining up to do their part and to help preserve the Dominion and all humankind! After the fall of 70 Virginis to the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and the various attacks they committed against us, all of Mankind is united more than ever for revenge.
Two years after the attack, the Emperor has officially declared a state of war between the Dominion and the Kobolians after several Planetary Outposts were discovered and destroyed by the Twelve Colonies. Following that, colonies within the Dominion itself were struck with brutal efficiency. It is clear, now, that the Kobolians desire nothing more than our extermination. As such, our great Dominion Navy is preparing for an immediate and swift response to the aggression.
In a speech given by Emperor Stone: "October 23, 2641—a date which will live in infamy—the Earth Dominion was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the space and land forces of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. The Dominion was at peace with that star-nation, and, at the solicitation of the Twelve Colonies, was still in conversation with its government and its President looking toward the maintenance of peace in Interstellar Space.
Indeed, Kobolian Space Fighters had commenced bombing in the Starbase over the planet of Aurora and it's lunar colonies in the Mu AraeStar System, the Twelve Colonies ambassador to the Dominion and his colleague felt the desire to deliver to myself a formal reply to a recent Dominium message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or armed attack of any sort.
It will be recorded that the distance of the star of Gliese 777 and the Cyrannus Star System, 10, 198 light-years apart in two separate arms of the Milky Way, it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many months or even years ago. During the intervening time the Kobolian government has deliberately sought to deceive our great Dominion by false statements and expressions of hope and trust for continued peace.
I regret to tell you that very many brave lives have been lost in the dastardly assault two years ago. Many ships of the Dominion Navy were lost in the assault. And yet even now, two years after the attack, reports are still arriving on frontier assaults by devious Kobolian warships. Mining ships have been reported assaulted on their way to GJ 3021.
Yesterday the Kobolian government also launched as attack against our Helium-3 mining bases in HD 7924. Kobolian Forces destroyed a research station at the star system HD 10647. And this morning Kobolian forces attacked a Colony ship on its way to HD 87883.
The Twelve Colonies of Kobol has, therefore, undertaken a surprise war extending throughout our influence of Interstellar Space. The facts of the previous two years of mourning and hate speak for themselves. The people of the Dominion have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.
There is no alternative now.
As the Emperor of the Dominion, the Absolute Monarch of the people and Grand General of the Navy and the Army, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense and the destruction of our mutual and most hated enemy. But always will our whole star nation remember the character of the onslaught that is now and forever against us…
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Friday, September 25, 2643 (Military Calendar)
D.S.S. Yorktown Intrepid-class
Vega Shipyard, Vega Star System (Vega)
His limbs taut with an almost electrical feeling of anticipation, Major Jonathan Archer sat behind the newly refurbished helm console, awaiting the order he knew Colonel Akagi had to deliver any moment now. A seemingly moment of eternity later that moment arrived: "Clear all moorings Lieutenant Colonel Archer: You have permission to take her out."
"I give my thanks, Colonel," said the helmsmen. A cold grin spread across his face, reflecting his commingled delight and relief as his hands moved swiftly over the slightly unfamiliar console before him. But the fact that the arrangement of an Intrepid-class Battlecruiser standard helm controls differed somewhat from those found on the bridge of a the smaller Prometheus-class was no concern to him; he was still far too excited about his new posting for that.
Yorktown was getting under way at long last, now that her refits were finally complete, and was leaving the Vega Shipyard lane for the fist time since he joined the Colonel Akagi's newly reconstituted crew—a grew, he sadly reflected, whose numbers had been cruelly reduced, his new officers had informed him immediately after his arrival, during the Yorktown's fairly recent encounter with a Kobolian Battlestar, one of their titanic 'Prometheus-class.'
Unlike her Earth-named counter-part, the Kobolian ship exceeded the length of any Dominion ship, and was larger than the shipyards Earth had. The tiny Battlecruiserhad the very unfortunate luck to face the Battlestar's broadside gun batteries when the ship jumped. The ship had managed to inflict some damage to the ship, but had been forced to retreat.
A defeat.
"We're clear, Colonel," Archer said a few moments later.
He heard the Colonel's enthusiastic tenor voice coming from over his shoulder: "Very good, major. Nice and smooth. We don't want to scratch the Yorktown's paint, now do we?"
'The Dominion is at war and the Colonel acts as if we're still at peace,' he thought with some disappointment. 'The Navy doesn't need people like him to lead the attack on the Kobolians.' But he was an officer and a good one too, and so then he kept his opinion to himself.
"Thank you sir," said Archer with a large amount of false-pride. Having literally grown up in Deep Space, Archer had become used to achieving almost a Zen-like serenity that made a starship almost an extension of his arms and legs and eyes. "Rendezvous course entered, as ordered."
"Execute Jump one we've cleared safe navigational boundaries," said Lieutenant Colonel Tyler Mendez, "One-Quarter Impulse until then."
Archer acknowledged the XO's orders as the bridge wide forward viewer displayed an aft view of the intricate latticework of metal trusses and beams that made up one of the largest shipbuilding and repair yards in the Dominion. The sprawling orbiting shipyard was framed against the cool greenish-blue haze of Vega's Earth-like world and the cold blue glow of Vega itself.
Although the vast open-architecture facility steadily dwindled in size on the screens, signs of furious activity-tiny environmental-suited figures nudged massive yet weightless components into position amid the brilliant orange-red flashes from the beam-jacks' arc-welders while small work pods flittered about from worksite to worksite-remained manifestly in evidence. A year ago, Replicators had been created to increase ship production, but their power requirements were so massive, that they had been virtually useless. Efforts were going on to improve them, but for the moment, humans would continue building manually. Ships of Dominion manufacture, fully half of which were 22nd Century Prometheus explorers, filled each of the complexes sixteen unpressurized but solar-flare-shielded repair bays-except for the two hangers that were conspicuously dark.
One of these was the one in which Yorktown had just completed her refits and dire repairs. The other had nearly a years-served as the cradle and incubator for one of the Navy's newest 100-LY capable ships of the line.
D.S.S. Nobunaga, Sovereign-class Battleship (SBS)-03, hung motionless in the shipyards skeletal embrace, neglected and dark except for the work lights that illuminated the ship's frame, revealing the many gaps in the Battleship's still-incomplete hull plating. It occurred to Archer then that for most of the ships here, this place was a hospital, while for others it was a nursery, thanks to war's ever growing demanded for warships. 'But for the Nobunaga, it's looking like a tomb,' he thought.
"She's a fine ship," Mendez said, suddenly at the helmsmen elbow. Archer had gotten so lost in his ruminations that he hadn't heard the XO approach. "I just hope they finish her soon."
The Sovereign-class Battleships were the only ships in the entire Dominion Navy that could go toe-to-toe with a Kobolian Battlestar, their oversized Prometheus-types and their Mercury-types. The Intrepid-class could fight against a Battlestar, but there had to be two or three to completely destroy it. Their ships had so many bullet-based weapons and nuclear warheads, not even the Ablative armor could handle it, despite being better than the armor plates the Kobolian's used. "You must have read my mind, sir," Archer said quietly.
The Intrepid design was much quicker to build than the larger and far more dangerous Sovereign ships. If the rumors he'd been hearing around the shipyards and onboard the ship were true-and the sight of Nobunaga lifeless in her cradle was a pretty damn good confirmation-the Navy was hoping to give the Intrepid-class the LY ability similar to those of a Sovereign, while gradually refitting the existing Navy. Such were the war's demands on the collective shipbuilding capacity for the Dominion-a capacity that the Emperor and the Twelve General's had agreed was best decentralized as much as possible, thereby short-circuiting any Kobolian plot to cripple Mankind's wartime industrial base via a single Pearl Harbor-esqe attack.
"They say they're another under construction in orbit at either the Terra Docks or the Martian Shipyards," Mendez muttered to him as the Nobunaga and the rest of the receding shipyard drifted out of view behind the limb of the retreating planet, "The last one."
"The Enterprise," Archer said, with a nod, though he hoped Mendez was wrong about the Enterprise being the last of her kind. No modified Intrepid or Prometheus could stand up to a Battlestar the way a Battleship could. But with the dramatic rift in terms of numbers, Earth… no, the Emperor, had deemed it necessary to focus more on quantity than quality, "The SBS-04."
"I hear you're something of an expert on the SBS-series," Colonel Akagi said suddenly, surprising the XO and Archer. "Commander Mendez told me you served on the SBS-02 Challenger for a few months before you were re-assigned to a Prometheus ship for… personal reasons."
Archer didn't like to talk about it.
His father had died when he'd been on the Challenger, and so he'd gone to take over the family mining business of the Alpha Centauri Mining Facilities. "Two, actually," he corrected. "I served on the SBS-01 Sovereign for a few weeks before I was reassigned to the Challenger."
Silence fell across the bridge, and Archer made no effort to break it. He wasn't sure whether to curse himself for having invoked the dammed ghosts of the dead, and stroking the still all to hot-embers of the Kobolian attack two years ago, or to curse the too-happy Colonel for not checking his personal report. The man was going to kill them all.
Akagi was the one who broke the silence.
"Jump"
Friday, September 25, 2643 (Military Calendar)
D.S.S. Avenger Intrepid-class
Rendezvous Area, Gliese 777 Star System (Desert)
Major General John Pournel stood at the forefront of the bridge of the Avenger; arms crossed behind his back as he watched the sandy but metal-rich world of Desert rotate just below the reinforced metallic-glass window. The star 20th Century scientists called 'Gliese 777' winked at him from just behind the planet as Desert blocked it from view, creating a ring of light at the edges. He saw the tiny lights clustered together at the edge of the continent Arabia touching the Great Sea.
Eight million people occupied just a small portion of the largely desert world, at the very edge of the Dominion's sphere of Influence where the only large body of water, no bigger than the Indian Ocean, was.
"Untouched…" he whispered.
Surprisingly, Desert hadn't been struck by the Kobolian's dastardly attack. It was at the edge of Dominion Influence, and the closest world to their star system. The people down there knew how lucky they were.
Others weren't so lucky.
He couldn't sit down, and relax as his Assault Force jumped into the system. How could he relax when he was given the most important duty of his life? For soon, he would take the first step in avenging the deaths of so many brave and innocent men and woman AND the children those long two years ago… and he would do so without any shred of mercy. In war, mercy was something that the weak had, and as a Senior Officer in the Navy, he was not weak. He would crush those who stood in his way of revenge and duty.
No one would stand in his way.
He looked out of the viewport of his starship and crossed his arms over his chest, watching as four Intrepid-class Battlecruisers, Earth's first Interstellar-type warship (not the explorer-design that the Prometheus was,) took floated in front of ship, blocking out Desert for a few brief seconds. He took a deep breath and exhaled, watching as three Prometheus-type vessels swooped beneath the Battlecruisers, upside down as they tested their new engines.
After the attack, the Dominion Navy had been put in a terrible shape. Initially, since they lacked a real enemy and they had built warships to deal with the Rebellion, the Navy only had eighteen Battlecruisers and two Battleships, not including the two dozen or so Prometheus-class.
After the attack, the Kobolian's had devastated the Navy to a point that only seven Battlecruisers were still functioning, and a Battleship lost. The Emperor hadn't let out the full extent of damage, which kept people away from the beating they had taken, and the embarrassment. However, as soon as they rebuilt the damage, ship production had tripled. They were putting all of their focus, the entire industry they had, into making more warships. The long food lines of the Depression had vanished in less than few months and luxury goods were limited as focus went to war. The Emperor had created a frenzy of pure hate.
The explorer ships they had, which had remained untouched by the attack, had been refitted with weapons. But they only had 13 Railgun Quad-batteries (four turrets per battery,) and a single Plasma Pulse Cannon. It wasn't much, it would take more than four to destroy a Battlestar, but that wasn't their purpose. While the Dominion had a slightly superior technological advantage over the Kobolian's, the Kobolian's used had space-based fighters. The refitted Prometheus-class Gunboats were now designed to pick those fighters off.
He grimaced.
This all had a trade off.
It was no big secret anymore than focus was leaving the Sovereign-class Battleships, and that the ones under construction were going to be the last of their kind. The Sovereign, Challenger, Nobunaga and Enterprise were the only of their kind, and they had lost the Sovereign during the attack. It was a sad shame, but it made sense. They had quality, while the Kobolian's had quantity. They now needed quality and quantity too. But even so, with that pure, cold logic in mind, no one was really happy with the decision.
He heard the footsteps of someone walking up behind him and waited for the proper call: "Sir."
He turned and the Major snapped to attention and saluted, placing his right fist over his heart, and then extended his arm out, hand open and palm out. It was the salute of the Dominion, derived from that of Ancient Rome and the infamous Third Reich of mid 20th Century Earth. "What is it, Major," he said crisply, returning the salute, allowing the officer to ease slightly.
The Major, the name stenciled to his black uniform said HENRY ALEXANDER in bold white letters, took a deep breath. "Major General, the rest of the battle group has now arrived. Three more Battlecruisers, the Yorktown, Discovery, and Dominator have jumped in system just two light-minutes from our position; they'll join us in a short period of time."
"Appropriate enough," The Major General said. He turned his head. "Major Mitchell," he said, turning to another officer. Mao heard the un-said dismissal, snapped to attention and returned to his station.
"Sir," The Major said, turning to the Major General.
"Contact the Assault Force," the Pournel ordered. "Send them the coordinates for the Cyrannus Star System." Then he began to give off a rapid stream of orders as he finally took his seat, feeling a bit uncomfortable. "Begin the charge on our Direct Drives. Keep watch on the stability of the Fusion Core as well."
He had awaited his moment his entire life. When he had been promoted to Major General, he knew he was meant for great things. Now he knew what his destiny was to be. His unwavering belief in the great superiority of the Dominion, he would start the stepping stones for the domination of the Dominion above the only alien species in this part of the galaxy.
'But with the distance to the Cyrannus Star System, however,' he thought with some resignation, 'the new modifications to the Direct Drive allow us to travel at speeds 98 light-years per jump… and if the intelligence reports are true, then the Kobolian's have drives than can travel 120 Light-years. But if intelligence is also right, we can Jump twice as many times as they can.'
But was the trade off going to be worth it?
It had to be.
'Even worse, my Assault Force will be going in their loose influence of space, we don't know if they have outposts or mining facilities along the way, or military bases. I wonder if the rumors of a rumored Kobolian base in a Nebula are true… Although considering they managed to strike the Dominion, it is entirely plausible for them to have bases lined up down their arm of the galaxy to us. '
He shook his head.
His Assault Force had 15 ships: 9 Intrepid-class Battlecruisers and 6 Prometheus-class Gunboats. It was a small force; and they were most likely being unable to cause any amount of heavy damage. Perhaps a few destroyed Battlestars, perhaps a couple of Gunstar's, but not much in terms of military loss. What their main were efforts were going to focus on was awe and terror, to spread fear and discord amongst the worlds of the Kobolian's.
They would hit cities and refineries, shipyards and commercial spacecraft, as well as any floating habitats and extrastar facilities. They had located eighteen facilities beyond the Kobolian Star System, most of them the Kobolian's 'Tylium' Refineries, while a few were military bases, and one had been a shipyard built into the moon of a Gas Giant that was under construction.
He smiled.
"Sir, a new contact… one new contact has jumped in system," a Major said to his left side. He put it against the Dominion's database of all known ship profiles, both past and present and alien. In a voice filled with awe and shock, he whispered, "Sir… it's a Sovereign-class."
What!
The only Sovereign that was currently fielded, the Challenger, was supposed to be at the Earth Dry-dock, undergoing repairs after it jumped into the middle of an asteroid belt by accident. Despite the weight, the regal of twenty two years in the Dominion Navy had given him; he felt it all slip away. Truly they were now they could hurt the Kobolian's for sure. ~This is Challenger to Flagship Avenger… ~