Raider (TOS-RH)

This article has a separate continuity. This article is in the Richard Hatch Novelizations separate continuity, which is related to the Original Series. Be sure that your contributions to this article reflect the characters and events specific to this continuity only.

A Raider is the primary Cylon starfighter deployed throughout the Cylon Empire's military operations against the Colonial Fleet.

Design and Capabilities

Raiders serve as the standard attack craft for Cylon forces, launched from basestars to engage Colonial Vipers in combat. These fighters demonstrate considerable speed and maneuverability, though they are generally outmatched by skilled Colonial Warriors in direct combat.

The Raiders possess powerful defensive shields that can deflect all but direct hits from turbolasers. When a Raider's shields are penetrated, the craft typically explodes violently, often creating debris fields that can damage nearby vessels.

Standard Combat Variants

Raiders are equipped with turbolaser weaponry as their primary armament. In atmospheric combat operations, Raiders demonstrate the ability to pursue targets through urban environments, though their larger size compared to Vipers makes them more vulnerable to collisions with structures.

These fighters are typically crewed by Cylon Centurions, though the exact crew complement varies by mission requirements.

Advanced Variants

Dark Raiders

The Cylons develop an advanced variant known as Dark Raiders or Black Raiders, which incorporate revolutionary Quantum Shift Effect (QSE) technology. These specialized fighters are distinguished by their sleek, ebony appearance and represent a significant technological advancement over standard Raiders.

Dark Raiders possess several capabilities that make them formidable opponents:

• Stealth Technology: The fighters can bend light around themselves, making them nearly invisible against the starfield. They appear as tears in space itself, their absence of light being the only indicator of their presence.
• Superior Speed: Dark Raiders demonstrate significantly faster response times and maneuverability compared to standard models, with quicker course-correction capabilities than any starship previously encountered by the Fleet.
• Enhanced Firepower: Their weaponry can penetrate Viper force shields with a single shot, a capability standard Raiders lack.
• Phase Shifting: When equipped with QSE generators, dark Raiders can shift into alternate dimensional space, becoming completely intangible to weapons and objects in normal space.

The dark Raiders are crewed by Centurions equipped with Human Logic Function (HLF) programming, designed to better predict and counter human tactical behavior. However, this enhanced intelligence ultimately proves to be a liability, as the Centurions' attempts to predict human behavior only slow their reaction times in combat.

Quantum-Phased Operations

When operating in quantum-shifted space, Raiders take on a distinctive appearance as indigo stains against the blackness of space, described as "fluid darkness made solid." In this phased state, solid objects such as stars and space vessels appear with brilliant, multi-colored auras.

Raiders utilizing QSE technology can execute hit-and-run attacks, appearing and disappearing from normal space at will. The Cylon strategy involves using these phase-shifted Raiders to approach the Galactica while intangible, then shifting back into normal reality to attack the battlestar's weakest points.

Tactical Employment

Raiders are typically deployed in formations, with standard Cylon tactics involving numerical superiority to overwhelm Colonial defenses. During major engagements, Raiders launch from basestars in waves, with the mother ships maintaining a safe distance from direct conflict.

The Cylons employ Raiders in various tactical roles:

• Direct fighter-to-fighter combat against Vipers
• Strafing runs against unarmed civilian vessels
• Reconnaissance and patrol operations
• Pursuit operations in atmospheric environments

Raiders often travel in pairs during patrol operations, following standard Cylon operating procedures. When pursuing targets into atmospheric conditions, Raiders can operate at low altitudes and navigate through urban debris fields, though this environment makes them vulnerable to unconventional attacks.

Notable Engagements

During the Battle of Ochoa, Starbuck discovers a Raider equipped with a mysterious golden device in a subterranean Cylon outpost. This encounter leads to the Fleet's eventual acquisition of QSE technology.

In subsequent conflicts, Apollo and Starbuck steal a black Raider equipped with a QSE generator from a Cylon basestar, allowing them to escape from Cylon forces. Starbuck later pilots this captured Raider against other quantum-phased dark Raiders during a major battle, using the stolen technology to counter the Cylons' own advanced fighters.

During the Battle of Kobol, Raiders participate in a massive assault against the Fleet, with some fighters demonstrating the ability to track Colonial shuttles to hidden defensive positions within an asteroid. In one notable incident, a Raider follows Warriors into a docking bay, only to be disabled when Athena blinds the fighter with fire-dampening foam, causing it to crash.

During operations near Kirasolia, Raiders are deployed from two massive Cylon warships shaped like basestars but larger and more heavily armed. These Raiders engage in combat with Vipers, demonstrating their vulnerability when Warriors employ superior tactics despite numerical disadvantages.

Weaknesses

Despite their advanced capabilities, Raiders possess several vulnerabilities that skilled Colonial Warriors can exploit:

• Raiders require direct hits to penetrate their shields, but once shields fail, they are highly susceptible to catastrophic destruction
• In atmospheric combat, Raiders' larger size makes them vulnerable to collisions with environmental obstacles
• The dark Raiders' HLF programming, intended to counter human tactics, actually slows Centurion reaction times in combat situations
• When quantum-shifted, Raiders can only damage targets that are also phase-shifted; weapons fire passes harmlessly through objects in normal space
• Standard Raiders are generally outmatched by experienced Viper pilots in one-on-one combat

Captured Technology

The Fleet's acquisition of a QSE-equipped Raider proves pivotal in several engagements. Baltar's knowledge of Cylon systems allows Apollo and Starbuck to successfully operate captured Raiders, though piloting these fighters requires adaptation to unfamiliar Cylon control systems.

When Starbuck pilots a captured black Raider against other quantum-phased Raiders, he discovers that the fighters can detect each other while phase-shifted, as they share the same alternate reality. This allows him to engage five dark Raiders in a separate battle occurring simultaneously with, but invisible to, the larger conflict in normal space.

The stolen Raider technology enables Plutarch and other Fleet scientists to reverse-engineer QSE systems for Colonial vessels, eventually allowing the mass production of quantum shift generators for defensive purposes.