Battle of the Binary Star System
| Battle of the Binary Star System | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Battle of the Binary Star System | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Conflict: | Second Cylon war | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Date: | 8 months after the Fall of the Twelve Colonies | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Place: | Unnamed binary star system | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Result: | Tactical Cylon victory | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| [[Colonial battles chronology ({{{series}}})|Battle Chronology]] | |||||||||||||||||||||
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The Battle of the Binary Star System was an engagement in which battlestar Pegasus was lured into a trap by three Cylon basestars. The Cylons lured two of Pegasus' Raptors out into a shroud of electro-magnetic interference (EMI) generated by a binary star system. Once the Raptors were there, the crews were killed and the craft left intact and adrift at the edge of the Colonials' DRADIS range. By all available data to the Colonials, the craft appeared to be disabled, albeit non-responsive. The new commander of Pegasus, Barry Garner, disobeyed Admiral William Adama's orders and took the battlestar in to rescue the Raptors, ignoring Adama's planned five-Raptor SAR mission and warning of a likely Cylon trap.
Once Pegasus took the bait and entered the region, three Cylon basestars Jumped in and promptly launched a full salvo of tactical nuclear missiles, scoring two hits on the stern of the battlestar. Pegasus' air wing, already spaceborne under the command of Captain "Starbuck" Thrace, immediately engaged the Cylons and returned fire. Virtually ignoring the Vipers, the Cylon basestars focused their efforts on Pegasus and produced a third nuclear missile hit on the battlestar resulting in damage to the topside heat exchanger.
Commander Barry Garner was an engineering officer, inexperienced in combat command. Worsening the situation, the heavy barrage dealt by the Cylons damaged the FTL drive, putting Pegasus' survival in peril. Realizing his skills would be best used in engineering, Garner voluntarily transfered command to (newly promoted) Major Lee Adama, and dashed below to Engineering.
After only a moment of hesitation, Major Adama promptly ordered Pegasus to make for the nearest baseship, while rolling Pegasus over to keep its damaged dorsal side out of the line of fire. Adama ordered Starbuck and Showboat to take the rest of the Vipers and concentrate on defending the compromised portions of Pegasus from further damage, while directing the battlestar's forward batteries to fire on the closest of the three basestars, inflicting severe damage to its central axis to buy Pegasus more time. The wounded basestar was forced to withdraw; the first documented occurrence of a baseship diverging from their normal tactic of fighting to the death, perhaps due to the loss of the Resurrection Ship.
The problem in repairing the FTL drive was an oxygen leak that blocked technicians from making repairs to the damaged FTL drive components by openning the auxiliary coolant valve. Pegasus was running out of time and its Vipers were beginning to run out of ammo. Commander Garner heroically sacrificed himself, dying of asphyxiation after entering a vented compartment and successfully opening the auxiliary coolant valve to restore the FTL drive to operational status. With the FTL drive restored, Major Adama ordered all fighters to return and ordered Pegasus to Jump.
From a tactical standpoint, the battle was a marginal Cylon victory — if their ultimate goal had been the destruction of Pegasus, the attempt failed, thanks to the quick reactions of the Colonial crew. Pegasus suffered fairly minor damage and casualties, however it suffered the significant loss of its third commanding officer since the destruction of the Resurrection Ship. The battlestar returned to the relative safety of the Fleet. The extent of the damage appears to not have been very severe, as by one month later Pegasus seemed to have fully recovered.
Lee Adama's tour under the rank of Major and duties as XO were short-lived. For his efforts in returning Pegasus under dangerous odds, Admiral Adama awarded him with the rank of Commander and the command of Pegasus (The Captain's Hand).