Talk:Raider (RDM)/Archive 1

Is there anything at all from the re-imagined series about a early piloted raider, or is this just speculation? --Glenmcbeth

Well, in the Mini-series before they engage the NEW Cylon Raiders for the first time, the pilots are chattering over their radios and say that no one has seen the Cylons in 40 years, so they don't know how their ships will look different now--->one guy points out (accurately) that the basic design should be that of a 'flying wing'; so it's implied they were thinking of the old ones. That, and I think a model of one of the old ones was seen in the Galactica-musuem; anyway, when they see the NEW Raiders for the first time, a pilot reacts in shock that "no one's flying it!"; the "head" part was too small to have a Cylon Centurion sitting inside of it flying it; this would seem to imply that the OLD Raiders were exactly like TOS ones: with a Cylon flying them. ---Ricimer, 22, Sept, 2005

This needs to be split into three articles - one for TOS, and one each for the piloted and autonomous RDM models. Anybody have ideas for article titles?

Additionally, should this be "Cylon Raider" or just "Raider"? We don't call them Colonial Vipers, after all. --Peter Farago 13:49, 2 January 2006 (EST)

I agree that "Raider" should suffice. "Cylon Raider" might be necessary if we needed to distinguish it from a Colonial model. --Steelviper 14:06, 2 January 2006 (EST)

Kahran wrote:

The new Raider is also succeptable to the same type of system-crashing virus which it has been known to transmit itself. ("Flight of the Pheonix")

Not correct. First of all, we've never actually seen a raider transmit a virus. In the miniseries, they exploited a back door in the CNP to shut down the fleet directly; in "Valley of Darkness" we saw a virus but for logical reasons, it could not possibly have originated from outside the ship; and in "Flight of the Phoenix" we again saw a backdoor being exploited, this time in the other direction. Secondly, it is completely unsurprising that a Cylon agent such as Caprica-Valerii would have knowledge of how to access such a backdoor in her own people's technology. --Peter Farago 05:37, 4 January 2006 (EST)

I'm questioning a part of the reasoning here. In the miniseries, the raiders exploit the CNP backdoors and command shutdown of Colonial systems. Yes; no "virus" is transmitted there. But in "Scattered" we hear Gaeta specifically discussing an infiltration attempt--

Gaeta: "Here they come. Cylons are hacking our network. Attempting to access our gateway."

Later, Galactica contracts a virus. Since Galactica's systems were never networked prior and never have used the CNP (which, combined with Gaeta's information, confirms CNP is still not installed), a virus is most likely to have come from the outside, that some ship in the Cylon attack body was at work in cracking Galactica's computer network and infecting it a'la the tactics used in Cylon War I. This does NOT necessarily mean that the fighters did it (although screen shots show Gaeta's firewall fail moments before he disconnects it). The Centurions that board could have installed it, but we have no information to confirm this, nor does this make sense. Such an infection would only affect maybe one subsystem since the Centurions could not gain access to all primary, now-again isolated subsystems. They likely could infect only one, and that infection could not spread. Same would be true if a Cylon agent were to install a virus; the isolated subsystems would make it too impossible to infect all at once without attracting attention (Gaeta's and the rest of CIC, that is). The Cylon attack body is the likely cause of the virus, since it affects many subsystems that are normally isolated and they had the means to infect through their hacking. A virus isn't "transmitted," but installed once infiltration is successful. Kahran's wording is incorrect. The sentence should say: The new Raider is subceptible to system-crashing viruses if the fighter's subsystems themselves are infiltrated (Flight of the Phoenix)"--Spencerian 14:07, 4 January 2006 (EST)

I'll reply backwards, since your last point was the most relevant one - "The new Raider is subceptible to system-crashing viruses if the fighter's subsystems themselves are infiltrated" is true, but it's also obvious, and therefore not worth stating. In fact, there is no computer system for which that statement is not true.

Second, as regarding the events of "Valley of Darkness": Having two computers networked is not sufficient to make them vulnerable to attack. In order to receive a "virus" or any other sort of malware from off-ship, one of the components must have had a connection to the outside world via some sort of RF ("wireless") frequency. Thus, of the four computers Gaeta networked, at least one must already have been vulnerable.

However, Galactica's entire design ethos was explicitly meant to separate vulnerable functions. There is no conceivable reason that any of the four systems Gaeta connected (FTL, Navigation, Fire control, Damage control) would need access to a wireless tranceiver. Therefore, the only plausible source for the virus was from within the ship itself. This does not present much of a contradiction - the simple fact of networking those four systems together would be a great moment of opportunity for an infiltrator to plant a virus for maximum effect. --Peter Farago 14:58, 4 January 2006 (EST)