Battle of Kobol (TRS)

For information on a battle over Kobol from the Original Series, see Battle of Kobol (TOS).

Battle of Kobol
Cylon basestar destroyed by a tactical nuke, in orbit of Kobol
Cylon basestar destroyed by a tactical nuke, in orbit of Kobol
Summary
Conflict:	Second Cylon war
Date:	Day 50-51
Related Episode(s):
Place:	Kobol, nearby space
Result:	Colonial victory
1 captured Raider (on Caprica) 1 captured Heavy Raider (on Caprica)2 Basestars Raiders At least one Heavy Raider Fixed anti-aircraft emplacement (on Kobol) At least 5 Cylon Centurions on Kobol 10 Cylon Centurions on Galactica" Combatants Remnants of the Colonial Fleet Cylons Commanders Commander William Adama, Colonel Saul Tigh Unknown † Strength Battlestar Galactica 18-35 Vipers 6 Raptors 1 captured Raider (on Caprica) 1 captured Heavy Raider (on Caprica) 2 Basestars Raiders At least one Heavy Raider Fixed anti-aircraft emplacement (on Kobol) At least 5 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 the Galactica. Total Survivor Count decremented by 34, excluding Cylon agents Loss of at least 5 Centurions on Kobol Loss of 10 Centurions on Galactica
[[Colonial battles chronology ({{{series}}})|Battle Chronology]]
Previous Next Battle for the Tylium Asteroid Battle of Kobol Great Cylon Turkey Shoot

The Battle of Kobol occurs when battlestar Galactica stumbles on the mythological human homeworld of Kobol and attempts to discover its secrets.

Discovery

During a reconnaissance flight, pilots Sharon "Boomer" Valerii and Crashdown return to Galactica with information on an unusual habitable planet. Investigation of the ruins and features of the planet confirm that Galactica had discovered, by accident, the original human homeworld of Kobol, detailed extensively in the scriptures from the Lords of Kobol. Commander William Adama directs three Raptors to conduct a thorough surface survey of the planet, particularly to note whether the Fleet should settle there.

As the Raptors complete their Jump near Kobol, they are attacked by Raiders. One Raptor is destroyed and a second Jumps away to safety. A third Raptor is shot and crash-lands on Kobol.

Since the orbiting basestar prohibits a rescue of the surviving crashed Raptor crew, Kara Thrace suggests the use of the captured Raider (You Can't Go Home Again) to sneak near the basestar with a nuclear warhead, leaving it there to destroy the capital ship and as many Raiders as possible. Adama agrees to the plan. However, intervention by President Laura Roslin with Thrace leads the pilot to disobey orders and to divert the Raider (while on a test flight) to Caprica to seek an artifact known as the Arrow of Apollo. This change requires Adama to direct Lt. Valerii to fly a Raptor with a Cylon transponder to the basestar to carry out the nuclear attack, with Racetrack as her ECO.

The Raptor enters the orbit of Kobol undetected, but a problem with weapon deployment forces Boomer to land within the basestar in a habitable area to manually deploy the weapon. Valerii encounters several Cylon copies of herself while in the basestar, whose presence apparently activates more of her latent Cylon programming. The copies detect the nuclear warhead, but nevertheless allow it to detonate. The basestar is destroyed, clearing the way for a rescue operation and leaving a small party of Cylons stranded near the ruins of the Opera House on Kobol. This was perhaps the first time during the entire Second Cylon War that Colonial forces successfully destroy a Cylon basestar.

As Adama congratulates Valerii, the Cylon agent pulls out her pistol and shoots the Commander twice at point-blank range (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II).

Scattering of the Fleet

In the chaos caused by the shooting, another basestar suddenly appears. Colonel Saul Tigh assumes command of Galactica, with Captain Aaron Kelly serving as his second in command. As medical staff attended to the seriously-wounded William Adama, Valerii is taken to the brig. Caught by surprise, Tigh orders the Fleet to jump to its emergency jump coordinates pre-planned by standard procedure by Lieutenant Gaeta. However, Galactica herself has incorrect jump coordinates and finds herself separated from the rest of the Fleet (Scattered). The ship cannot return to its original location to obtain the Fleet's location by conventional procedure; this would take hours, and the basestar would likely destroy the ship in far less time. Gaeta devises a way to determine the fleet location faster by temporarily networking several ship computers to process data faster. Knowing that the Cylons would attempt to infiltrate the network, Gaeta places four software firewalls in place to slow the progress of the expected infection.

The downed Raptor crew on Kobol, lead by Crashdown attends as best they could to their injured. They are later attacked by Cylon Centurions and flee to the woods for cover.

Galactica returns to its previous location and is immediately attacked by the waiting Cylon fleet. Lee Adama (on parole) leads a squadron of Vipers in defense of the ship. During the attack, a Heavy Raider heads for Galactica. Apollo attack the craft, which veered into Galactica's firing solution and crash-lands into the starboard flight pod, depressurizing it (it had been converted as a museum area in preparation for the ship's decommissioning and was unused for flight operations at the time). Gaeta successfully obtains the Fleet's coordinates, but not before a Cylon virus infects one of the networked systems, unknown to the command staff. Gaeta disconnects the network a moment later. Galactica Jumps to reunite with the civilian fleet.

Cylon Boarding

The crashed Heavy Raider in Galactica's starboard landing pod deploys 10 specially-armored Cylon Centurions, which could only be destroyed by explosive rounds (Valley of Darkness). At the same time, the Cylon virus infects other systems of the ship and shuts down parts of the CIC's control. Tigh orders Galactica's marines not to defend the gun magazines, but to try to keep the Centurions from reaching Auxiliary Fire Control and Aft Damage Control, wary that the Cylons would attempt to vent the ship's air to neutralize the crew and turn the ship's guns on the unarmed Fleet to destroy them. Marine forces, lead by Sergeant Hadrian and Lee Adama manage to destroy the boarding party before they can reach their targets.

Apollo begins preparations to rescue the downed Raptor crew from Kobol, and leads a team with two Raptors (one piloted by Racetrack) as part of the rescue team.

Raptor Team Rescue

Shortly after Socinus is euthanized due to his mortal injuries and Tarn was cut down by Centurion fire, Crashdown and the Raptor team locate a group of three Cylon Centurions building an anti-aircraft battery using parts from their downed Heavy Raider in order to destroy any Galactica search-and-rescue craft sent to find the downed Raptor crew (Fragged). The battery is linked to a DRADIS dish set up some distance from the battery.

Crashdown develops a foolhardy plan to attack the command and control console at the launcher by flanking the Centurions and sending Cally on a possibly suicidal diversionary feint. As the team prepares their attack, they discover there are five Centurions, not the three initially counted. Chief Tyrol points out that the two Centurions that guarded the dish had moved to the launcher, leaving the DRADIS disk completely unguarded. If the team could cover the one kilometer distance to the dish quick enough to destroy it, Tyrol reasoned, they could render the launcher tactically worthless while not having to face the Cylons head on. As the team heard the sonic booms caused by Raptors entering the atmosphere, indicating their rescuers would be arriving soon, Crashdown panicked and would hear nothing of Tyrol's new plan. Crashdown orders Specialist Cally to create the distraction anyway, but she refuses in fear. When Crashdown threatens to kill Cally for disobeying a direct order, Gaius Baltar shoots him in the back, killing him instantly.

The gunshot alerts the Centurions to the team's presence and open fire on their position. Tyrol's team flee for the DRADIS dish. Fighting a running battle with the Centurions, it became a race to see who could get to the dish first. Seelix is shot in the leg, but dragged to safety by Cally. The Cylon battery fires on the incoming Raptors, but Chief Tyrol successfully destroys the DRADIS dish, which breaks the missiles' lock on the Raptors. Just as Tyrol and his team are making their last stand, the Centurions are destroyed by missiles from Apollo's Raptor. The survivors are rescued and returned to Galactica.

Re-imagined Series definition: used to signify a civilian transport vessel over a certain gross weight/mass, i.e. Colonial Heavy 798

Re-imagined Series definition: the process of using the FTL engines to make an near-instantaneous apparent faster-than-light transport of a ship from one point in space to another

Re-imagined Series definition: "Direction, Range, and Distance", Colonial equivalent of radar or lidar