Battle of Kobol (TRS)
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| Battle of Kobol | |||||||||||||||||
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| Conflict | Second Cylon war | ||||||||||||||||
| Date | Day 50-51 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place | Kobol, nearby space | ||||||||||||||||
| Result | Colonial victory | ||||||||||||||||
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Battlestar Galactica stumbles upon the mythological human homeworld of Kobol and attempt to use its secrets or resources. (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I)
Discovery
During a reconnaissance flight, pilots Sharon Valerii and Crashdown return to Galactica with information on an unusual habitable planet. Investigation of the ruins and features of the planet confirm that the Galactica had discovered, by accident, the original homeworld of Kobol, detailed extensively in the scriptures from the Lords of Kobol. Adama directed 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 is shot and crash-lands on Kobol.
Since the orbiting Basestar prohibited 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 Valerii to fly a Raptor with a Cylon Transponder to the Basestar (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II).
Simultaneously, Adama demanded Roslin resignation over her violation of the chain of command. When she refused, he ordered a marine team on three raptors to arrest her, led by Colonel Saul Tigh and Captain Lee Adama. During this operation, the younger Adama unsuccessfully mutineed against Tigh and was himself arrested.
The Raptor entered the occupied zone undetected, but a problem with weapon deployment forced the crew to land within the Basestar in a habitable area to manually deploy the weapon. Valerii encountered several Cylon copies of herself while in the Basestar, who apparently activated more of her latent Cylon programming. They detected the nuclear warhead, but nevertheless allowed it to detonate. The Basestar was destroyed with all hands, 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 destroyed a Cylon Basestar.
As Adama congratulated Valerii, the Cylon agent pulled out her pistol and fired on the Commander twice at point-blank range.
Scattering of the Fleet
In the chaos caused by the shooting, another Cylon Basestar suddenly appears. Colonel Saul Tigh assumes command of Galactica, with Captain Aaron Kelly serving as his second. Medical staff attended to the seriously-wounded William Adama, Valerii is taken to a high-security brig facility, and Lee Adama is placed in a cell adjacent to Roslin. Caught by surprise, Tigh orders the fleet to jump to its emergency jump coordinates pre-planned by standard procedure by Lieutenant Felix Gaeta. However, Galactica herself had incorrect jump coordinates and finds herself separated from the rest of the fleet (Scattered). The ship cannot return to their original location to obtain the fleet location by conventional procedure; this would take hours, and the Basestars 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 inflitrate 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 attend as best they can 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 is released on parole to lead a squadron of Vipers in defense of the ship. During the attack, a Heavy Raider heads for Galactica. Lee Adama attacks the craft, which veers into Galactica's firing solution and crash-lands in the starboard landing pod, depressurizing it (it had been converted as a museum area in preparation for the ship's decommissioning and was unused for flight operations). Gaeta successfully obtains the fleet coordinates, but not before a Cylon virus infects one of the networked systems, a fact of which the command staff is not yet aware. He disconnects the network a moment later. Galactica jumps to reunite with the remaining fleet.
Cylon Boarding
The crashed Heavy Raider in Galactica's starboard landing pod deploys 10 specially-armored Cylon Centurions, which can 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 a counterattack, wary that the Cylons will attempt to vent the ship's crew to neutralize them 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.
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.
Raptor Team Rescue
Shortly after their two most seriously wounded teammates have died, Crashdown and the Raptor team scout and locate a group of three Cylons building an anti-aircraft battery using parts from their downed Heavy Raider (or variant) to order to destroy any Galactica search-and-rescue craft (Fragged). The battery is linked to a DRADIS dish set up some distance from the it. Crashdown develops a plan to distract the Centurions while a smaller group destroys the DRADIS dish, rendering the battery tactically worthless. As the team prepares their attack, they discover there are 5 Centurions, not the 3 initially counted. The team also hears the sonic booms caused by Raptors, indicating their rescue would be arriving soon. Specialist Cally is ordered to create the distraction by Crashdown anyway, but she refuses in fear. When Crashdown threatens to kill Cally for disobeying a direct order, he is shot in the back and killed instantly by Gaius Baltar.
The gunshot alerts the Centurions to the team's presence, and they flee. The battery fires on the incoming Raptors, but Chief Galen Tyrol successfully destroys the DRADIS dish, which breaks the missile's lock on the Raptors. The Centurions are destroyed by a Raptor missile from Lee Adama's Raptor. The survivors are rescued and return to Galactica.