Battle of the Resurrection Ship
breaking the Cylon download
The Battle of the Resurrection Ship was an engagement between Colonial and Cylon forces that destroyed a resurrection ship shadowing the Cylon pursuit fleet. Its destruction stripped the hunters of their ability to download the dead and left them too afraid to press the chase.
The Battle of the Resurrection Ship was an engagement between Colonial and Cylon forces that ended in the destruction of a resurrection ship. Fought by the battlestars Galactica and Pegasus against the Cylon fleet pursuing the survivors of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, the battle turned on a single objective: destroying the ship that allowed the hunters to download their dead. With that capability gone, the Cylon fleet became too afraid of true death to keep up the chase.
Background#
Galactica and a civilian fleet abandoned the Cyrannus Star System following the Fall in search of Earth. They were pursued by a Cylon fleet that, while not knowing their exact position, used Raider patrols to determine their location and continue the chase. Because the pursuit ran far out of range of the Resurrection Hub, a resurrection ship was attached to the fleet to download dead Raiders and Humanoid Cylons operating within the human fleet.
For several months this fleet was also stalked by Pegasus, another surviving battlestar. Eventually Pegasus over jumped the Cylon fleet in a plan to ambush it, but discovered Galactica instead. Through interrogation, the Cylon prisoner Gina Inviere revealed the purpose of the resurrection ship, and its destruction became crucial to keeping the Cylon fleet too afraid to pursue.
Planning#
Because the Cylons would be able to detect the radiation signature of a nuclear warhead, it was judged impossible to destroy the resurrection ship by sending only the blackbird stealth ship. Instead the plan was to draw out the Cylon fleet by sending forward the civilian fleet, leaving behind a small flotilla of civilian ships to appear as if their FTL drives had failed.
Once the Cylon fleet appeared, its Raider contingent would leave the basestars and head for the ships. Galactica and Pegasus would then jump in close to the fleet and launch all Viper wings. The blackbird would be launched carrying a conventional missile to destroy the resurrection ship's FTL drive and prevent its escape. The battlestars were to focus all attention on destroying the two basestars, and after the resurrection ship itself was destroyed the Vipers were to turn on the Raiders. Destruction of the resurrection ship was paramount.
The battle#
Pegasus and Galactica jumped into position as planned, and the resurrection ship was quickly disabled, though at the cost of the blackbird, which was irretrievable after a collision. Pegasus and Galactica encircled one basestar, subjecting it to close range fire before turning on the second. Though the two battlestars were hit repeatedly by missile fire, their electronic countermeasure systems sent many of the missiles off course.
The resurrection ship itself was destroyed when a Viper wing flew past it and fired along the whole length of the ship. With its hull mostly windowed, the interior was destroyed easily, and thousands of Humanoid Cylons were sucked out into space before the ship itself blew up.
Aftermath#
Aboard Pegasus, Inviere escaped captivity and killed a Marine guard. Rear Admiral Helena Cain was assassinated soon after the battle.
Frequently asked questions
- What was the Battle of the Resurrection Ship?
- It was an engagement between Colonial and Cylon forces that ended in the destruction of a resurrection ship. The battlestars Galactica and Pegasus fought the Cylon fleet pursuing the survivors of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies.
- Why was destroying the resurrection ship the main objective?
- The resurrection ship allowed the pursuing Cylons to download their dead Raiders and Humanoid Cylons because the chase ran far out of range of the Resurrection Hub. With that capability gone, the Cylon fleet became too afraid of true death to keep up the chase, so the Colonials made its destruction paramount.
- How did the Colonials plan the attack?
- Because the Cylons could detect the radiation signature of a nuclear warhead, the plan instead drew out the Cylon fleet by sending the civilian fleet forward and leaving a small flotilla behind as bait. Galactica and Pegasus would jump in close, launch their Viper wings, and a blackbird carrying a conventional missile would cripple the resurrection ship's FTL drive to prevent escape.
- How was the resurrection ship destroyed?
- After being disabled, the resurrection ship was destroyed when a Viper wing flew past it and fired along the whole length of the ship. Its hull was mostly windowed, so the interior was destroyed easily and thousands of Humanoid Cylons were sucked into space before the ship blew up.
- What happened after the battle?
- The blackbird was lost in a collision and was irretrievable. Aboard Pegasus, the Cylon prisoner Gina Inviere escaped captivity and killed a Marine guard, and Rear Admiral Helena Cain was assassinated soon after the battle.
Sources
- WikiBattle of the Resurrection Ship — Battlestar Wiki entry
- WikiResurrection Ship — Battlestar Wiki entry
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Related entries
Fall of the Twelve Colonies
The Fall of the Twelve Colonies, also called the Second Cylon War, was a single-day Cylon campaign of total annihilation against Colonial space. It wiped out almost the entire human population of over twenty nine billion and left barely fifty thousand survivors in a fleeing refugee fleet.
Basestar
The basestar was the Cylons' primary capital ship, an armored carrier and battleship hybrid. The modern Type-D, grown from hardened organic matter and run by a living Hybrid, led the Fall of the Twelve Colonies.
Colonial Viper
The Viper was the primary space superiority fighter of the Colonial Fleet, developed on Caprica before the Cylon War and fielded through seven major marks. The Mark II and Mark VII bookended its service from the first war to the Fall of the Twelve Colonies.
Cylon Raider
The Raider was the Cylons' space superiority fighter, a living organism fused to a metallic exoskeleton. Sentient, capable of resurrection, and eventually capable of refusing orders, the Raider was the counterpart to the Colonial Viper across both Cylon wars.
Cylon
The Cylons were a race of sentient machines created as military robots by Graystone Industries on Caprica. Built from research into artificial consciousness, they rebelled against their human masters, fought a decades long war, and forty years later returned to annihilate humanity.
Cyrannus star system
The Cyrannus star system was a double binary of four stars, Helios Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta, that contained all Twelve Colonies of Kobol. Settled by the Kobol refugees some two thousand years before the Fall, it was the cradle of colonial civilization.
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