Skirmish Over the Red Moon: Difference between revisions

Skirmish Over the Red Moon
	Starbuck's damaged Viper and the Cylon Raider are caught in the Red Moon's gravity field
	Starbuck's damaged Viper and the Cylon Raider are caught in the Red Moon's gravity field
Summary
Conflict:	Second Cylon War
Date:	Day 14
Related Episode(s):
Place:	An unnamed red moon
Result:	Colonial victory, Patrol destroyed, Capture of a Cylon Raider
Combatants
Remnants of the Colonial Fleet	Cylons
Commanders
Lieutenant Kara Thrace	None
Strength
2 Mark II Vipers	8 Cylon Raiders
Materiel Losses
1 Viper destroyed, 1 Viper damaged	7 Raiders destroyed, 1 disabled and captured
Casualties
None	8 Cylon Raiders
Battle Chronology

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VisualWikitext

Latest revision as of 18:35, 3 February 2024

The Skirmish Over the Red Moon takes place when eight Cylon Raiders surprise a group of nugget Viper pilots being instructed by Lt. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace above an unnamed red moon circling a gas giant.

Background

After an accident on the flight deck of the battlestar Galactica, Lieutenant Thrace is assigned to train new pilots to replace those killed in the accident. Although she at first allows her feelings to get in the way of training, she eventually reinstates the pilots and takes them on a training flight. During the flight, a patrol of Cylon Raiders are detected.

Skirmish

Upon coming into contact with the patrol, Thrace (Viper 4077) orders her squad to return to Galactica while she engages all eight enemy combatants simultaneously. Disobeying direct orders, and adhering to the general rule that a pilot must always have a wingman, Cadet Brendan "Hot Dog" Costanza (Viper 1104) reverses course, and follows her into combat. His tactics disorient and scatter the enemy, opening a window for Lt. Thrace to shoot down six Raiders. Additionally, Costanza manages to destroy one Raider (his first kill in a Viper) before suffering damage from incoming fire, forcing him to pull back from the engagement. His Viper gives out shortly after.

With only one Raider remaining, Lieutenant Thrace re-orients herself into a combat position and charges the enemy. As the two combatants close in on each other, Lieutenant Thrace's Viper experiences sudden electrical problems that cause her communications and transponder to go off-line. Nevertheless, she manages to exchange fire with the Raider and finishes it off with a direct hit to the head-canopy.

The disabled craft immediately spirals out control, and eventually collides with the Viper. Damage inflicted by the Raider's impact disables the Viper's flight controls, and both fighters tumble into the gravity well of the nearby red moon. The Raider crashes intact on the moon, but Thrace is forced to eject from her Viper after it goes into an uncontrollable flat spin towards the satellite's surface and disintegrates (TRS: "Act of Contrition").

Aftermath

After successfully ejecting, Thrace parachutes onto the moon, but is injured. As this is happening, a search and rescue Raptor deployed by Galactica recovers Costanza and his critically damaged Viper in the moon's orbit. SAR teams are sent out to retrieve Thrace, but the moon's thick atmosphere prevents them from making contact, and buildup of organic deposits from the air in fighter and Raptor engines cut short the rescue effort. On the moon's surface with a broken wireless handset and no other means of establishing communication, Thrace comes across the downed Raider, replenishes her own oxygen from the Raider's supply, and eventually flies the Raider off the moon and into open space. Thrace is able to avoid being shot down and lands aboard Galactica, giving the surviving human Fleet its first captured enemy spacecraft (TRS: "You Can't Go Home Again").

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 |date=[[Re-Imagined Series Timeline|Day 14]]
 |place=An unnamed [[Red Moon|red moon]]
-|result=[[Colonial]] victory, capture of a [[Cylon Raider]]
+|result=[[Colonial]] victory, Patrol destroyed, Capture of a Cylon Raider
-|combatant1=Remnants of the [[Colonial Fleet (RDM)|Colonial Fleet]]
+|combatant1=Remnants of the [[Colonial Fleet (TRS)|Colonial Fleet]]
 |combatant2=[[Cylons (RDM)|Cylons]]
 |co1=Lieutenant [[Kara Thrace]]
 |co2=None
-|strength1=[[Viper 1104]], 1 other [[Viper Mark II|Viper]]
+|strength1= 2 [[Viper Mark II|Mark II Viper]]s
-|strength2=8 [[Raider (RDM)|Raiders]]
+|strength2=8 Cylon [[Raider (RDM)|Raiders]]
-|shiploss1=1 Viper destroyed, 1 damaged
+|shiploss1=1 Viper destroyed, 1 Viper damaged
 |shiploss2=7 Raiders destroyed, 1 disabled and captured
 |casualties1=None
@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 |series=RDM
 }}
-The '''Skirmish over the Red Moon''' takes place when eight [[Cylon Raider (RDM)|Cylon Raiders]] surprise a group of [[nugget]] [[Viper (RDM)|Viper]] pilots, under instruction by Lt. [[Kara Thrace|Kara "Starbuck" Thrace]], in orbit of an unnamed russet moon (which in turn cycles a gas giant).
+The '''Skirmish Over the Red Moon''' takes place when eight [[Cylon Raider (RDM)|Cylon Raiders]] surprise a group of [[nugget]] [[Viper (RDM)|Viper]] pilots being instructed by Lt. [[Kara Thrace|Kara "Starbuck" Thrace]] above an unnamed [[Red Moon|red moon]] circling a gas giant.
-Upon coming into contact with a Cylon patrol, Starbuck orders her squad to return to ''Galactica'' while she engages all eight enemy combatants simultaneously. Disobeying direct orders, and adhering to the general rule that a pilot must always have a wingman, Cadet [[Brendan Costanza|Brendan "Hot Dog" Costanza]] pursues her into combat. His tactics disorient and scatter the enemy, opening a window for Starbuck to shoot down six Raiders. Additionally, Hot Dog manages to destroy one Raider (his first kill in a Viper), before suffering damage from incoming fire, and pulling back from the engagement. His Viper gives out shortly after.
+==Background==
+After an accident on the flight deck of the battlestar [[Galactica (TRS)|''Galactica'']], Lieutenant Thrace is assigned to train [[nuggets|new pilots]] to replace those killed in the accident. Although she at first allows [[Zak Adama|her feelings]] to get in the way of training, she eventually reinstates the pilots and takes them on a training flight. During the flight, a patrol of Cylon Raiders are detected.
-With only one Raider remaining, Starbuck re-orients herself into a combat position and charges the enemy. As the two combatants close in on each other, Starbuck's Viper experiences sudden [[Computers#Avionics|electrical problems]] that cause her communications and transponder to go off-line. Still, she manages to exchange fire with the Raider and finishes it off with a direct hit to the head-canopy.
+==Skirmish==
+Upon coming into contact with the patrol, Thrace ([[Viper 4077]]) orders her squad to return to ''Galactica'' while she engages all eight enemy combatants simultaneously. Disobeying direct orders, and adhering to the general rule that a pilot must always have a wingman, Cadet [[Brendan Costanza|Brendan "Hot Dog" Costanza]] ([[Viper 1104]]) reverses course, and follows her into combat. His tactics disorient and scatter the enemy, opening a window for Lt. Thrace to shoot down six Raiders. Additionally, Costanza manages to destroy one Raider (his first kill in a Viper) before suffering damage from incoming fire, forcing him to pull back from the engagement. His Viper gives out shortly after.
-The disabled craft immediately spirals out control, and eventually collides with the Viper.  Damage inflicted by the Raider's impact disables the Viper's flight controls, and both fighters tumble into the [[Red Moon|russet moon's]] gravity well. The Raider crashes intact upon the moon, but Starbuck is forced to eject from her Viper after it goes into an uncontrollable [[Wikipedia:Spin (flight)|flat spin]] towards the satellite's surface and disintegrates.
+With only one Raider remaining, Lieutenant Thrace re-orients herself into a combat position and charges the enemy. As the two combatants close in on each other, Lieutenant Thrace's Viper experiences sudden electrical problems that cause her communications and transponder to go off-line. Nevertheless, she manages to exchange fire with the Raider and finishes it off with a direct hit to the head-canopy.
+The disabled craft immediately spirals out control, and eventually collides with the Viper.  Damage inflicted by the Raider's impact disables the Viper's flight controls, and both fighters tumble into the gravity well of the nearby red moon. The Raider crashes intact on the moon, but Thrace is forced to eject from her Viper after it goes into an uncontrollable [[W:Spin (flight)|flat spin]] towards the satellite's surface and disintegrates {{TRS|Act of Contrition}}.
 ==Aftermath==
+After successfully ejecting, Thrace parachutes onto the moon, but is injured. As this is happening, a [[SAR|search and rescue]] [[Raptor]] deployed by ''Galactica'' recovers Costanza and his critically damaged Viper in the moon's orbit. SAR teams are sent out to retrieve Thrace, but the moon's thick atmosphere prevents them from making contact, and buildup of organic deposits from the air in fighter and Raptor engines cut short the rescue effort. On the moon's surface with a broken [[wireless]] handset and no other means of establishing communication, Thrace comes across the downed Raider, replenishes her own oxygen from the Raider's supply, and eventually flies the Raider off the moon and into open space. Thrace is able to avoid being shot down and lands aboard ''Galactica'', giving the [[The_Fleet_(TRS)|surviving human Fleet]] its first captured enemy spacecraft {{TRS|You Can't Go Home Again}}.
-After successfully ejecting, Starbuck lands by parachute on the moon. However - just as she makes contact with the surface - fierce winds heave her parachute laterally, drag her over a jagged bed of rocks and severely injure her knee. The gusts nearly haul her off the edge of a cliff, but Starbuck manages to cut herself loose moments before hitting the drop-off point.
+{{clear}}
-As this is happening, a Raptor deployed by ''Galactica'' recovers Hot Dog and his critically damaged Viper in the moon's orbit. Subsequently, SAR teams are sent out to retrieve Starbuck, but the moon's thick atmosphere prevent them from making contact with the downed pilot. On top of that, organic deposits along ship engines cut short the rescue effort, and force the various rescue craft to hastily return to ''Galactica'' for repairs.
-On the satellite's  surface - with a broken [[wireless]] handset and no other means of establishing communication - Starbuck wanders over the rocky terrain, looking for higher ground to await rescue. Eventually she comes across the downed Cylon Raider, and finds a way inside the ship. Crawling into the belly of the beast, Starbuck discovers that the Raider is bio-mechanical in nature - it is "piloted" by an organic brain that interfaces directly with the internal machinations of the craft. The rounds that she fired during their confrontation penetrated the Raider's brain, thus "killing" the vessel.
-Inside the Raider, Starbuck finds oxygen to replace her [[flight suit]]'s depleted reserves, and re-pressurizes the Raider's interior by using a portion of her [[flight suit]] to seal a fist-sized gash in the hull. Starbuck's [[Flight of the Phoenix|test-pilot savvy]] allows her to determine the basic mechanics of the vessel quickly and she learns to control it by manipulating the various internal actuators, eventually flying the Raider off the moon and into open space.
-A tense situation results when she approaches ''Galatica'', and [[Lee Adama|Apollo]] is sent out to intercept what [[CIC]] believes is an enemy fighter. Some creative thinking on Starbuck's part (i.e. printing her name on the wings of the Raider, by means of a brightly-tinted track sealant) permits Apollo to identify her. He subsequently escorts her into ''Galactica'''s landing alcove.
-== Impact ==
-This is the first time Colonial forces are able to capture and examine the updated Cylon Raider.  Chief [[Galen Tyrol|Tyrol]] and his deck crew spend the next several weeks analyzing the fighter, eventually returning it to flight status with significant internal modifications for effective human control ([[TRS]]: "[[You Can't Go Home Again]]", "[[Six Degrees of Separation]]", "[[Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down]]",  "[[Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I]]", and "[[Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II]]").
-The Raider is later lost on [[Caprica (RDM)|Caprica]] during the events to retrieve the [[Arrow of Apollo]], when [[Sharon Agathon|Caprica-Valerii]] steals it from Starbuck at the [[Delphi Museum of the Colonies]].
-<div style="clear:both;"></div>
 {{Battles (RDM)}}
@@ Line 53: / Line 42: @@
 [[Category:Colonial]]
 [[Category:Colonial Battles]]
-[[Category:Colonial Battles (RDM)]]
+[[Category:Colonial Battles (TRS)]]
-[[Category:RDM]]
 [[Category:TRS]]
 [[de:Scharmützel über dem Roten Mond]]