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The Battle of Kobol, a risky play for power on the part of Lucifer and the Cylons, nearly catches battlestar Galactica at a very vulnerable time near humanity's ancestral homeworld of Kobol.
Nearly all of Galactica's Viper pilots contract an unknown illness, which forces Adama to call up a group of female shuttle pilots to be trained on Vipers. Their initial training complete, the female Viper squadron accompanies Adama to the surface of Kobol, where Adama hopes to learn the location of Earth.
Baltar meets Adama on Kobol, and releases Starbuck from captivity as a show of good faith. When Baltar remains on the surface too long without contacting Lucifer, the Cylon seizes his absence as an opportunity to gain power. Lucifer orders an attack, hoping to gain the glory of having destroyed Galactica.
The female Viper pilots on the surface scramble to defend against the Raiders, but their lack of experience and being outnumbered leaves them in a dire situation. In the course of the fighting, a Raider shoots the Tomb of the Ninth Lord of Kobol, freeing Adama, Apollo, and Serina. The explosion that frees them also causes a large rock to fall on Baltar, pinning him. Falling debris forces the Colonials to flee, leaving Baltar to his fate.
Dr. Salik finds a cure in time for the regular Viper pilots to return to help the female pilots. While still not strong enough to walk yet, the recovering pilots are able to fly their Vipers. The combined male and female units are enough to drive the remaining Raiders away (TOS: "Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II", "Lost Planet of the Gods").
2 basestars, associated Raiders and at least one Heavy Raider, fixed anti-aircraft emplacement (on Kobol), at least 8 Cylon Centurions on Kobol, 10 Cylon Centurions on Galactica
Materiel Losses
2 Raptors
1 basestar over Kobol, unknown number of Raiders, 1 Heavy Raider
Casualties
10 killed on Raptor 3, 4 on Raptor 1, 11 killed in Cylon boarding of Galactica. [1]
Loss of at least 8 Centurions on Kobol, 10 Centurions on Galactica
The Battle of Kobol occurs when Galactica stumbles on the mythological human homeworld of Kobol and attempts to discover its secrets.
Discovery
During a reconnaissance flight, Sharon "Boomer" Valerii and Alex "Crashdown" Quartararo return to Galactica with information on an unusual habitable planet. Though Quartararo originally proposes this planet to be the sought-after Earth, a strangely attentive Valerii explains that this is something "much more important". Investigation of the ruins and features of the planet confirm that Galactica has accidentally discovered the original human homeworld of Kobol, detailed extensively in the scriptures of the Lords of Kobol. Commander Adama directs three Raptors to conduct a thorough surface survey of the planet, particularly to note whether the Fleet could settle there.
When the Raptors jump into Kobol’s orbit, they come into contact with a squadron of Raiders. One Raptor is destroyed when it collides with a Raider, and a second jumps away to safety. The third Raptor is shot down and crash-lands in a marsh on the planet’s surface, in the vicinity the ruined Kobol Opera House.
Since the orbiting basestar prohibits rescue of the surviving crashed Raptor crew, Lieutenant Kara Thrace suggests the use of the captured Raider (TRS: "You Can't Go Home Again") to sneak into the basestar with a nuclear warhead. The Raider would jump to the basestar, fly inside on auto-pilot after Thrace abandons ship, and then the weapon would be detonated. With the basestar destroyed, Thrace would be picked up by a waiting Raptor and the stranded survivors on Kobol would be recovered.
Adama agrees to the plan, but intervention by President Laura Roslin leads Thrace to disobey orders and to divert the Raider to Caprica in search of the Arrow of Apollo. While on a test flight—with Lee Adama as her wingman—Thrace activates the Raider’s FTL drive and jumps back to Colonial space, abandoning Galactica and leaving her crew without means by which to infiltrate the enemy basestar. This development infuriates Commander Adama, forcing him to remove President Roslin from power, and to use alternative means of getting the warhead onto the enemy capital ship. Consequently, he orders a Raptor to be equipped with a Cylon transponder (to fool the Cylons into thinking that the Raptor is a captured vessel) and directs Valerii, with Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson as her ECO, to fly into the basestar to deploy the warhead (TRS: "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I," "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II").
When Valerii and Edmondson arrive in orbit of Kobol, the transponder proves to function as intended, and the Raptor enters the basestar without Cylon resistance. However, once inside a problem with weapon deployment forces them to land within a habitable area and manually release the weapon. While working to disconnect the warhead from the couplings that bind it to the Raptor, Valerii encounters several Cyloncopies of herself. The copies attempt to talk, and repeatedly profess their love to her, but the frightened Valerii—having successfully decoupled the warhead—flees to the Raptor and instigates a hasty departure, much to Edmondson's bewilderment. The copies detect the nuclear warhead and approach it, but nevertheless allow the device to detonate, engulfing them and their vessel.
Upon their return to Galactica, both Valerii and Edmondson are summoned to the CIC for commendation. As Adama approaches Valerii in congratulation, she retrieves her side-arm and shoots him twice at point-blank range—her latent Cylon programming having been further activated during her time aboard the basestar (TRS: "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II").
Scattering of the Fleet
In the chaos caused by the shooting, another basestar suddenly appears, and Colonel Saul Tigh assumes charge of Galactica with Captain Aaron Kelly serving as his second in command. Caught by surprise and facing certain destruction, Tigh orders the Fleet to jump to emergency coordinates (pre-planned in standard procedure by Lieutenant Felix Gaeta).
While relaying the emergency jump order to the civilian ships, Gaeta neglects to update their jump coordinates, and the Fleet departs with data not fitting the local space-time conditions. Thus, after escaping the Cylons, Galactica finds herself removed from the rest of the Fleet, which has ended up in a separate and unknown location. Meanwhile, the available medical staff attends to the near-fatally wounded Adama (Dr. Cottle is overseeing patients on another ship), and Marines drag a confused and hysterical Valerii to the brig on Tigh’s orders.
To determine the co-ordinates of the Fleet, Gaeta devises a dangerous but necessary plan. He networks the FTL computer to the Navigation, Damage Control, and Fire Control computers aboard Galactica, so that it will only take 10 minutes (as opposed to 12 hours if said computers are not linked) to compute the Fleet's location. However, not only will this involve jumping back to their previous location, where they will most certainly be ambushed by an awaiting basetsar, but networking the computers will make Galactica susceptible to Cylon infiltration. Knowing that the Cylons will attempt to penetrate any network they set up, Gaeta erects four software firewalls to slow the progress of the anticipated electronic attack.
Meanwhile, on Kobol, the downed Raptor crew - lead by an inexperienced Crashdown - attends as best they can to their injured. Socinus is in especially critical condition, having suffered severe lung damage from smoke inhalation. However, they are soon attacked by Cylons and flee into the woods for cover.
Back on Galactica, final preparations are made to effectively deal with the imminent battle, and the battlestar jumps to her previous location where, sure enough, she is attacked by the lurking basestar. As Gaeta works to calculate the Fleet’s end-point coordinates, the basestar deploys hundreds of Raiders against Galactica and Vipers are scrambled in defense of the vessel. With Lee Adama as squadron leader, the air wing engages the oncoming wave of Raiders and a chaotic skirmish erupts. During the course of the ensuing battle, a Heavy Raider carrying a Centurion boarding party advances in Galactica's direction, but Adama spots the craft and assails it with a team of other Viper pilots. After briefly trading fire with the Vipers, the Heavy Raider veers into Galactica's firing solution and crash-lands into the converted starboard flight pod, depressurizing it.
Gaeta successfully obtains the Fleet's coordinates and disconnects the network, but not before a Cylon virus sent by a Raider infects one of the networked systems unknown to the command staff. With the crew having completed what they set out to do, Tigh orders all Vipers to retreat and the battlestar jumps away once more (TRS: "Scattered").
Cylon Boarding
After successfully reuniting with the Fleet, Galactica's power systems shut down unexpectedly. Jammer reports to Lee Adama that the phones are working but are being jammed with unfamiliar communications – as such, they cannot contact damage control.
While crews attempt to orient themselves in the darkened battlestar and commence work to re-power the ship, the crashed Heavy Raider in Galactica's starboard flight pod deploys ten Centurions equipped with heavy armor to endure most weapons fire. As the Cylons make their way into the ship, Gaeta notes that a virus has infected some of the ship's computers while they were networked, and that this is the likely cause of the power outage. He quickly assembles teams to clean out the infection.
When Apollo, Louanne "Kat" Katraine, Brendan "Hot Dog" Costanza, and Flyboy are attacked by a marauding Centurion, Flyboy is killed before they are rescued by Marines. After learning that the ship was boarded, Tigh orders teams of Marines assembled to deal with the Cylon menace. Having previous experience with this type of attack, he instructs the teams not to defend the gun magazines, but to try to keep the Centurions from reaching Auxiliary Fire Control and Aft Damage Control. Should the Centurions reach said areas, they will neutralize the crew by venting the ship's atmosphere, and then turn Galactica's guns on the unarmed Fleet.
Marine forces engage the Centurions throughout the ship, destroying all but three and securing Auxiliary Fire Control but are cut-off from Aft Damage Control. However, a team led by Lee Adama, consisting, among others, of Collishaw, Twinam, and Jammer, reaches Aft Damage Control after communicating with Colonel Tigh and eliminate the Centurions with their last remaining rounds. Meanwhile, Gaeta and his team complete the task of cleaning out the virus, and are able to restore power and communications. They are successful for the time being, but the virus leaves behind a logic bomb that returns to haunt the ship months later(TRS: "Valley of Darkness").
Raptor Team Rescue
On Kobol - shortly after Socinus is euthanized due to his mortal injuries and Tarn is cut down by enemy fire - Crashdown and the Raptor team locate a group of three Centurions, and notice them cannibalizing a downed Heavy Raider. After some additional recon, they conclude that the automatons are using the vessel’s parts to build an anti-aircraft battery by which to destroy any search and rescue craft sent to find the stranded team. The battery is linked to a DRADIS dish set up some distance from the battery that is used to track incoming Raptors. Meanwhile on Galactica, Lee Adama begins preparations to rescue the downed Raptor crew from Kobol, and leads a team with two Raptors as part of the rescue team.
Crashdown develops a foolhardy plan to attack the command and control console at the launcher by flanking the Centurions and sending Petty Officer Cally Henderson on a possibly suicidal diversionary feint. As the team prepares their attack, they discover there are five Centurions, not three as initially counted by Doctor Gaius Baltar. Chief Galen Tyrol points out that the two Centurions that guarded the dish had moved to the launcher, leaving the DRADIS dish completely unguarded. If the team can cover the one kilometer distance to the dish quick enough to destroy it, Tyrol reasons, they can render the launcher tactically worthless. Additionally, if they take this course of action, the team would not have to face the Cylons head on.
As the team detect the sonic booms caused by Raptors entering the atmosphere - indicating the arrival of their rescuers - Crashdown panics and negates Tyrol's new plan. He orders Henderson to initiate the diversion, but she freezes in terror. When Crashdown threatens to kill her for disobeying a direct order, Baltar shoots him in the back, killing him. The gunshot alerts the Centurions to the team's presence and they open fire on their position.
With the Cylons nearly on top of them, Tyrol hastily orders everyone flee for the DRADIS dish and the team fights a running battle with the Centurions. During the chase, Diana Seelix is shot in the leg by an approaching Centurion, but is dragged to safety by Henderson. As the Cylon battery fires on the incoming Raptors, Tyrol successfully destroys the DRADIS dish with a rocket launcher, breaking the missiles' lock on the Raptors.
As the ground team is pinned down and nearly defeated, Tyrol makes a last stand by openly attacking the Centurions with his pistol. The Centurions are unexpectedly obliterated by a missile fired from Lee Adama's Raptor. The Raptors land in a clearing and the survivors are returned to Galactica. The survivors cover up the circumstances of Crashdown's death, telling Adama that he died saving them (TRS: "Fragged").
The Final Skirmish
With most of the Cylon presence eliminated from Kobol, Roslin and her followers jump safely to the planet, and using clues from the Book of Pythia and knowledge of Colonial scripture from an Eight who abandoned her fellow Cylons, they start down the path to the Tomb of Athena. The priestess Elosha finds what appears to be gravestones but instead are mines, and is killed. Three remaining Centurions ambush the landing party from a nearby cliff, killing one and pinning down the rest. Karl Agathon, Thrace, and Lee Adama take out two of the attackers. During the skirmish, the Eight breaks away and heads for the grenade launcher. She reaches the launcher and uses it to destroy the last Centurion, and then drops the weapon without a fight, surprising Adama and earning a little more of his trust (TRS: "Home, Part I").
Aftermath
After the skirmish, a recovered Commander William Adama attempts to reunite the fleet and leads a landing party of his own to Kobol, where he makes amends with Roslin, his son, and Thrace. United, they find the Tomb of Athena and a map to Earth(TRS: "Resistance", "Home, Part I", "Home, Part II").
References
↑This number comes from the survivor count shown in the opening credits of "Fragged". However, this number is barely sufficient to account for the many bodies seen in throughout the hallways.
