Battle of the Binary Star System

Battle before: Battle of the Resurrection Ship
Battle after: Unknown

Battle of the Binary Gas Cloud
Conflict	Second Cylon war
Date	Unknown
Place	unnamed binary star system
Result	Tactical Cylon victory
Combatants Remnants of the Colonial Fleet Cylons Commanders Commander Barry Garner†, Major Lee Adama Unknown Strength Mercury-class Battlestar Pegasus associated Vipers, associated Raptors Three Cylon Basestars, associated Raiders, Heavy Raiders Casualties At least two Raptors, heavy damage to Pegasus, additional unknown losses. One Basestar heavily damaged

Engagement in which Pegasus was lured into a trap by three Cylon basestars. The Cylons had lured two of Pegasus's Raptors out into the electro-magnetic interference put off by a binary star system, then killed their crews while leaving the ships mostly intact, so they would still show up on Colonial dradis, and thus be presumed by Pegasus to be retrievable.

Once Pegasus wasin range, three Cylon basestars Jumped in and immediately fired a salvo of tactical nuclear missiles of which two hit Pegasus. Pegasus's air wing had already been scrambled under the command of Capt. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace and they began engaging the Cylons. The Cylons, meanwhile, devoted the focus of their attack against Pegasus, as a third nuke hit their dorsal side.

Commander Gardner had recently been promoted from an engineering position, and was not experienced in command. Further, they heavy damage dealt by the Cylons had knocked the FTL drive off-line, and Engineering was in need of experienced help if the ship was to escape the trap. Gardner voluntarily relinquished command and ordered Major Lee Adama to take command, while he went below to fix the FTL drive. Gardner died successfully restoring the FTL drive.

Meanwhile, Major Adama ordered Starbuck to have Pegasus's Vipers defend the ship's damaged dorsal side from the Cylons, while the battlestar's foward batteries fired on the closest of the three basestars, causing it severe damage and buying Pegasus more time.

As soon as FTL drive was successfully restored, Major Adama ordered all fighters to be recovered and an immediate Jump away.

From a tactical standpoint, this was a marginal Cylon victory: if their ultimate goal had been the destruction of Pegasus, they failed thanks to the quick actions of its crew. However, Pegasus was severely damaged as a result, and the Colonials suffered a good deal of casualties. Still, while serious, the damage it received was repairable, and Pegasus appears to have suffered no major, long term damage after returing to the safety of the Fleet. (The Captain's Hand)