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| Fall of New Caprica | |||||||||||||||||
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| Conflict | Second Cylon war | ||||||||||||||||
| Date | 380 days after the settlement of New Caprica | ||||||||||||||||
| Place | Orbit and surface of New Caprica | ||||||||||||||||
| Result | Decisive Cylon victory | ||||||||||||||||
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Battle to destroy the Cylon Resurrection Ship in the hopes of causing the Cylons to rethink their plans for the Fleet.
When the battlestar Pegasus reunited with the fleet led by the battlestar Galactica its commanding officer, Admiral Cain revealed that she had been tracking a Cylon fleet, and upon reviewing Galactica's logs surmised that this same Cylon fleet had been following Galactica (possibly for months). Sketchy long-range reconaissance surveillance missions by Pegasus had revealed that the Cylon fleet consisted of 2 basestars, roughly a dozen support ships, and one unidentifiable vessel, much larger than a basestar, which the fleet appeared to be protecting. Admiral Cain and Commander Adama realized that it must be valuable to the Cylons, and began planning an operation to pool their resources to attack the Cylon fleet and destroy it.
However, in the meantime Admiral Cain began re-assigning valuable Galactica personnel to Pegasus, such as CAG Captain Lee Adama and Lt. Kara Thrace, and Lt. Karl Agathon and Chief Galen Tyrol were arrested for killing Lt. Thorne of Pegasus when he attempted to rape a Cylon prisoner to torture it. When Cain decided to subject them both to summary executions without court martial, Commander Adama ordered Vipers and a Raptor to go to Pegasus and take them back, resulting in a tense standoff.
At that moment, Starbuck returned from an illicit recon mission to the Cylon fleet. With the knowledge and reconnaissance obtained on the Resurrection Ship by Dr. Gaius Baltar (through Gina) and Captain Kara Thrace respectively, Admiral Helena Cain and Commander William Adama know that the Resurrection Ship is a safety net for the Cylon operatives that may be operating in the Fleet. With this safety net removed, the Cylons must seriously reconsider their actions that are made against the Fleet. If an Cylon agent's body were to die without another body to store their transmitted consciousness, not only would the Cylons lose vital intelligence on Fleet operations, but the agent's consciousness would be permanently lost.
Pegagus CAG Captain Thrace taps once more into her unconventional military thinking in formulating an effective attack plan, which draws the Cylons to the battlestars and a trap, rather than the other way around. In the plan, the Fleet, consisting only of Galactica and her original civilian ships, congregate near a handful of ships that appear to be managing mining operations. When the Cylons engage, the Fleet will Jump away. but a few of civilian ships will appear to have problems engaging their FTL drives and attempt to escape at sublight speeds, holding the Cylon fleet in place while their Raiders are drawn away from their basestars. Moments later, Galactica and Pegasus Jump in and begin attacking both basestars. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Lee Adama uses the Blackbird to sneak up upon the Resurrection Ship and destroy her FTL drive with a missile to prevent its escape, while the entire complement of fighters from both battlestars, led by Thrace, pummel the Resurrection Ship and destroy it (Resurrection Ship, Part I).
The attack is successfully implemented with minimal losses on the Colonial side. The Blackbird stealth fighter collides with a downed Raptor after Adama's attack, destroying the fighter. Lee Adama ejects and is successfully retrieved by Galactica's SAR Raptor. He recovers from oxygen deprivation as his flight suit was punctured during the ejection process.
Shortly after the destruction of the Resurrection Ship and at least one Basestar, surviving Cylon forces jump away, handing the Colonials a significant victory (Resurrection Ship, Part II).