Commanded by Rear Admiral Lucinda Cain during the early years of the First Cylon War, the
Daidalos Mobile Shipyard is a jump-capable construction drydock, used as a tertiary command
post by the colonial fleet, and as the primary assembly yard for the Jupiter Class Battlestar
Project.
The station has its origins in the Scorpia Fleet Shipyards, where the Daidalos was originally
a part of the larger spacedock facility.
After the spire and its surrounding modules were separated in an attack, the Colonial
Fleet elected to convert the remaining spaceframe into a separate installation, from which the
Jupiter Project could be coordinated.
The Daidalos measures 5,525 meters down the length of its central spire, and features
three rotating ring sections, each 3,271 meters in radius.
These rings contain numerous habitation decks, and surround the extensive machinery of the
shipyard’s enormous triple-spool FTL drive.
Toward the base of the Daidalos, large docking berths provide enough space for four Jupiter
Class Battlestars, and facilitate the large-scale repair and construction operations for which
the shipyard was built.
The Daidalos spent most of the First Cylon War deployed to one of two locations: Scorpia,
where she was used to accelerate the construction and repair of colonial warships, and the Ragnar
Gas giant, where naturally occurring radiation was known to critically damage Cylons, providing
a valuable safe harbour for the crucial shipyard.
Due to its immense strategic value, the Daidalos is always heavily escorted, and is generally
withdrawn at the outbreak of combat, but should the shipyard fall under direct attack, it
is capable of mustering a limited defence.
At the express order of Rear Admiral Cain, the shipyard was fitted with a number of medium
gun batteries, concentrated mainly around the primary command deck and assembly yards,
the ship also features two improvised launch bays loaded with small flights of Mark 1 Vipers,
these fighters are used only in the direst of emergencies, and allow the drydock to protect
its vulnerable areas from enemy strike craft.
Though functional, the Daidalos was not entirely complete when launched, leading parts of its
interior to appear stark and inelegant, but the shipyard was fully capable of serving
as a strategic operations centre for the colonial fleet, with powerful sensor and communications
systems providing a constant stream of navigation data and military reports.
In addition to its normal function, the shipyard’s CIC doubles as a War Room, providing Admiral
Cain and her staff with a constantly updated image of the Cyrannus System and the colonial
war effort.
When Colonial Fleet Headquarters on Picon was destroyed in the opening stages of the
First Cylon War, and command fell to Admiral Lucinda Cain, the Daidalos Shipyard became
the provisional command centre of all fleet operations.
The facility played a crucial role in the conflict, allowing the colonials to maintain
control of the war effort, even after most of their military leaders and much of their
strategic infrastructure had been lost.
The Daidalos was eventually withdrawn from use as a mobile shipyard, and it’s FTL drives
were removed, but the facility continued to serve a vital purpose in the colonial war
machine.
The huge installation was permanently anchored within the Ragnar Gas Giant, and by the end
of the First Cylon War, she had become the most important and reliable resupply station
available to the colonials.
Though her life as a deployable shipyard had come to an end, the massive drydock would
see many more decades of service, even after the cylon armistice was signed, not as the
Daidalos Mobile Shipyard, but as Ragnar
Anchorage Station.