[Gamma_Draconis]

Was the galatea the ship that got a whole blown through it by the lucifer in the battle of deneb (freespace 2 introductory cutscene)? I'm only saying that because that's the only orion from the Great War that was destroyed that i know of (the other was the bastion, but that was still around in FS2 to blow up a node)

No, the Galatea was the destroyer that you were stationed on in the original Freespace. It was destroyed by the Lucifer around half way into the game. Afterwards, the player was stationed on the Bastion. The Galatea looked awfully old judging by its menu screen compared to the Bastion which felt more modern.

[Hippo]

the one in the FS2 intro was the Legion

[blowfish]

IIRC, it wasn't [V] that named it the Legion

Volition was fairly clear this ship was not the Galatea. A community member asked if the ship could be called the Legion. Volition responded, "Call it that if you want," so the ship is generally referred to as the Legion.

[Hippo]

The wiki fails to note that either todd or pletcher or one of them tossed out the legion's name prior to it being formally asked, hence the obsession on it as opposed to some other.