History of the Battlestar Hyperion
Previous HyperionsHyperion’s namesake is a First Cylon Era warship, but the history of the name dates back much further. The Titan Hyperion is a very old god and naming ships after the lord of light is also an old tradition. Many ships have carried the name throughout the ages but until the recent century, all of these were civilian vessels. The first militarized Hyperion was an Aerilonian gunship of the 1890s which served as part of a “brownwater” fleet of small craft. Primarily the vessel was tasked with planetary defense and saw little action there, but it was at times dispatched and skirmished over mining rights regarding nearby Hestia.
In 1927, Hyperion was reborn as a first class ship-of-the-line from Aerilon. It served for a time as the flagship of the Aerilonian military and was instrumental in the expansion of Aerilon’s influence during those turbulent years. Hyperion was one of the first casualties in the First Cylon War, falling in 1953 well before the Unification of the Colonies. The aging ship was disabled but not destroyed (only 3% of the crew was lost in the fighting). The damage, however, was deemed severe enough that it was not economical to tow and then repair and refurbish the outdated vessel, certainly not in the middle of such a brutal conflict. After rescuing the stranded crew, the Hyperion was left abandoned for the duration of the war and then salvaged and scrapped during the postbellum period.
ConstructionThe construction of the Titan Class ships was an ambitious and controversial undertaking. After four decades of peace, many came to wonder why the Twelve Colonies needed such a massive military and associated defense budget. The Titan Project was to them the ultimate example of military excess, the largest and most powerful (and most expensive) warships to be constructed to date, and there were to be thirteen of them constructed in the course of about as many years. Titan would bear the name of the class and represent Colonial Unification while her twelve sisters would bear the names of the individual titans and correspond to the individual Colonies. It was all very symbolic, or at least the military masterfully spun it that way to eke a few more ships out of the politicians.
Initial proposals for the Titans dated back nearly a decade but the original designs for the model only date to 1994. Hyperion's keel was laid down a year later at the Aerilon Shipyard in 1995 with material forged from pieces of the First Cylon War Hyperion. Four years and dozens of tweaks to the design later, the new Hyperion was completed. She left dock for the first time on October 6th, 1999. Hyperion was set to be the second of the class completed and to represent Caprica in the class. However, due to construction complications, Titan was delayed and did not launch until late November thus making Hyperion the true first of its class.
Hyperion's ServiceFollowing her launch in late 1999, the Hyperion began her first shakedown cruise before returning to port and then joining Titan on a tour of the Colonies. It was a showcase of Colonial military strength and also gave the taxpayers a chance to see where all their cubits went. The tour saw plenty of demonstrations, fly-bys, salute firing, and the like. Meanwhile, plenty of dignitaries and media personalities were aboard at nearly every port.
Following the lengthy tour, Hyperion was stationed over Caprica as part of the defensive fleet for the colony it had been dedicated to. Although such a posting was probably the best use of such a powerhouse ship-of-the-line vessel like Hyperion, it was fairly uneventful.
In early 2001, the Hyperion left Caprica for a long range patrol along the Armistice Line. Perhaps this was the Admiralty's way of showing off their new toy to the Cylons... if they were even out there. Hyperion certainly saw nothing over the long voyage. Eight months later the Hyperion returned to the Scorpia Yards to resupply and release the crew for a bit of well deserved leave.
In early 2002, Hyperion was dispatched to the garrison over Tauron. There was "political unrest" brewing on the surface so the Battlestar was sent there for peacekeeping reasons. Many feared a repeat of the civil wars that had devastated the planet decades ago before the First Cylon War and perhaps that led them to be a little overcautious in deploying an overkill military force. In the end the marines saw a lot of ground deployment, the air wing flew a few missions but there was never any actual shooting although that didn't make some of the situations any less stressful.
Following the bloodless mission to Tauron, the Battlestar was quickly dispatched to Pallas in the Helios Beta system. Terrorists had seized control of a few government installations on the fairly inhospitable world. Destruction of the installations was not authorized, even without the threat of there being hostages inside too. Thus the Hyperion conducted a massive coordinated strike on the facility. Precision airstrikes, tactical airdrops, armored assaults, and long range hikes across the wastes all culminated in a perfectly executed strike on the enemy facilities. The actual combat operation last only about an hour but the speed and efficiency of the strike was thanks to several weeks of planning and preparation beforehand across all departments of the ship.
Hyperion was once again back on duty by Martius (March) 2003. The Battlestar and a few other support vessels making up its group were sent to investigate reports of pirates preying on mining operations across the Erebos Asteroid Belt of the Helios Alpha system. Thus began a nearly five month operation to cleanse the entire area. Fighting was fairly light and sporadic as the Colonial forces methodically searched out every last alcove of piracy and eliminated it. By the end of Quintilis (July) the deed had finally been completed. Hyperion made for port at the Aerilon Shipyards. The Battlestar underwent repair and resupply while the crew was sent off on leave.
Hyperion is scheduled to shortly depart Aerilon in October. The vessel is to participate in war games around of Ophion and then proceed on a five months tour along the Armistice Line.
Since the StartThe story of Hyperion is the story of this site. A synopsis of site history can be found
here.
