Battle of the Resurrection Ship
| Battle of the Resurrection Ship | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Galactica and Pegasus engage a basestar | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Conflict: | Second Cylon war | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Date: | 6 months after the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, likely less than 48 hours after the episode "Resurrection Ship, Part I" | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Place: | Interstellar space, specific location unknown | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Result: | Decisive Colonial victory | ||||||||||||||||||||
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80-90 Vipers, 1 Blackbird, associated RaptorsThe Resurrection Ship 2 Cylon Basestars Associated Raiders, Heavy Raiders"
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| [[Colonial battles chronology ({{{series}}})|Battle Chronology]] | |||||||||||||||||||||
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The Battle of the Resurrection Ship was the battle to destroy the Cylon Resurrection Ship in the hopes of causing the Cylons to rethink their plans for chasing the Fleet.
When battlestar Pegasus reunited with the larger remnant of humanity led by the battlestar Galactica, its commanding officer, Admiral Admiral Cain revealed that Pegasus had been tracking a Cylon fleet, and upon reviewing Galactica's logs surmised that this same Cylon fleet had been following Galactica and her fleet, possibly for months. Earlier long-range reconaissance missions by Pegasus 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 Cylon fleet appeared to be protecting. Admiral Cain and Commander Adama realized the probable value of the ship to the Cylons, and began planning an operation to pool their resources to attack the Cylon fleet.
Starbuck returned from an illicit recon mission to the Cylon fleet, using the Blackbird stealth fighter to get dramatically detailed photos of the unknown ship. The name of the ship, the Resurrection Ship, was discovered by Dr. Gaius Baltar through the captive Cylon agent, Gina. Captain Kara Thrace, Admiral Helena Cain and Commander William Adama determined that the Resurrection Ship was a safety net for the Cylons chasing the Fleet and hiding within it. With this safety net removed, the Cylons would seriously reconsider pursuing the Fleet. If a Cylon'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 Cylon's consciousness would be permanently lost.
New Pegagus CAG Captain Thrace tapped once more into her unconventional military thinking in formulating an effective attack plan, which would draw 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, would congregate near a handful of ships that appeared to be managing mining operations. When the Cylons engaged, the Fleet would Jump away, but a few civilian ships would pretend to have problems engaging their FTL drives and attempt to escape at sublight speeds, drawing the Raiders far away from their basestars. Just before the Raiders would close in, the remaining decoy civilian ships would Jump away. Moments later, Galactica and Pegasus would Jump to within firing range of both basestars and engage them head-on. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Lee "Apollo" Adama would use the Blackbird to sneak up upon the Resurrection Ship to destroy her FTL drive with a missile to prevent its escape, while the entire complement of fighters from both battlestars, led by Thrace, would pummel the Resurrection Ship and destroy it (Resurrection Ship, Part I).
The attack plan is successfully implemented with minimal losses on the Colonial side. Without their fighter complements, the basestars are no match for the combined gun batteries of Galactica and Pegasus, which tear both basestars apart.
Moments after disabling the Resurrection Ship's FTL drive, the Blackbird stealth fighter collides with a downed Raptor after Adama's attack, destroying the fragile fighter. Lee Adama ejects and, in the process, suffers a puncture in his flight suit. He is successfully rescued by a Raptor from Galactica doing SAR and recovers from hypoxia.
Shortly after the destruction of the Resurrection Ship and at least one basestar, surviving Cylon forces jump away, marking a significant Colonial victory (Resurrection Ship, Part II).