Battle for the Tylium Asteroid

Battle for the Tylium Asteroid
	Apollo flying away from the Cylon tylium mine as it begins to explode
	Apollo flying away from the Cylon tylium mine as it begins to explode
Summary
Conflict:	Second Cylon war
Date:	Day 36
Related Episode(s):
Place:	Asteroid field in interstellar space, specific location unknown
Result:	Colonial victory. Resupply of Tylium ore for fuel reserves.
Combatants
Remnants of the Colonial Fleet	Cylons
Commanders
Commander William Adama	Unknown †
Strength
battlestar Galactica; 2 Raptors, pilots Boomer, Stubbs; Strike Force One: At least 7 Vipers, incl. Fireball, Deadbolt, Spinner, Buzzer, Hot Dog; Strike Force Two: Viper 2220, Viper 7961, 10 other Viper Mk IIs	140 Raiders; Fixed anti-aircraft emplacements
Materiel Losses
4 Vipers, incl. Viper 7961 and those piloted by Fireball and Stepchild	Complete destruction of Cylon forces
Casualties
Fireball, Stepchild and 4 other pilots	Unknown, high
[[Colonial battles chronology ({{{series}}})\|Battle Chronology]]

The Battle of the Tylium Asteroid occurs as Galactica liberates a tylium ore refinery from the Cylons, marking the first time that Galactica makes an offensive strike against Cylon forces (The Hand of God).

After exhausting much of its fuel reserves from its initial fleeing from the Cylon forces (33) and after a difficult rescue of Kara Thrace (You Can't Go Home Again), Galactica sends Raptors to outlying star systems in search of the mineral tylium, used as a fuel for all ships in the Fleet.

They locate an asteroid rich with tylium, but also occupied by Cylons and fortified with Raider squadrons defending it. Commander Adama decides to take the asteroid with a daring plan, utilizing the unconventional thinking of the recovering Kara Thrace to lead the attack plan and pilot Lee Adama to lead the Viper crews.

Galactica pulls a double-feint; it first uses a cargo freighter to lure away the Raiders, which soon see a squad of Vipers that approach the asteroid from the opposite location. The Cylons believe the freighter to be a diversion and turn the Raiders away from the freighter to descend on Galactica, as well as releasing all of their base's reserve Raiders to attack Galactica as well.

Shortly after they broke off their approach to the freighter and turn to engage the first wave of Vipers, a second squad of Vipers emerge from hiding from inside the freighters to attack the base. As the fighters reach the surface and begin their approach, the Vipers encounter heavy anti-aircraft fire that destroy three Vipers. Captain Lee "Apollo" Adama commands the other fighters to hold back as he successfully flies through the refinery processing area to destroy an unstable tylium-precursor container on the refinery's surface.

The destruction of the tylium-precursor container ignites the refinery's stores and destroys the entire Cylon base with an explosion equivalent to a three kiloton nuclear warhead in magnitude. The base's destruction heavily disorients the Cylon Raiders, and also leaves them unable to re-arm or refuel. Galactica and her Vipers destroy the remaining Raiders before they could alert reinforcements.

Subsequently, ships from the civilian fleet mine a large amount of tylium from the asteroid (gathered by the mobile Mining Ship and processed on a Refinery Ship). The mining yields enough tylium fuel reserve to last the Fleet for several years.

The battle was prophesied in the Sacred Scrolls, which mention a victory "led by serpents numbering two and ten" (the twelve Vipers). The scrolls warn, however, that "though the outcome favored the few, it led to a confrontation at the home of the gods."

Notes

As the entire first season of Battlestar Galactica takes place in less than two months, and subsequent space travel between this episode an the colonization of New Caprica lasts less than 8 months, this means that that Fleet might not run into another fuel shortage for the rest of the series' run, barring some form of accident or an acceleration of the passed time.