Cylon communications relay
the Cylon staging ground engaged by Pegasus
The Cylon communications relay was an installation the Battlestar Pegasus attacked after the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, only to find it was a staging ground for Cylon forces. The costly engagement exposed the Cylon agent Gina Inviere and cost Admiral Cain dozens of Vipers.
The Cylon communications relay was an installation the Battlestar Pegasus moved to attack in the aftermath of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. When Pegasus jumped into the area, twelve enemy contacts were picked up on DRADIS, and Admiral Cain ordered the launch of Blue Squadron. As the Vipers deployed, fifteen Raider squadrons jumped into firing range, and the crew realized to their horror that the installation was not a communications relay at all, but a staging ground for Cylon forces.
The engagement#
Recognizing that they were outnumbered four to one, Colonels Fisk and Belzen recommended the immediate recovery of Blue Squadron and a swift retreat from the area. In a surprise move, Cain instead ordered the remaining Vipers launched to provide covering fire for Blue Squadron as it made a run at the relay. When Belzen openly refused to carry out the order, Cain asked him to hand over his sidearm and shot him in the head with it. A shocked Fisk, fearing the same fate should he refuse, immediately deployed all reserve Vipers.
The boarding and Gina Inviere#
As the Vipers commenced their attack, the Cylon operative Gina Inviere covertly took the Pegasus weapons grid offline, allowing two Heavy Raiders to reach the port landing alcove with a Centurion boarding party. In an attempt to hold off the boarders, Cain ordered the surrounding sections of Pegasus vented of atmosphere, hoping the resulting vacuum would subdue the Cylons, but the tactic failed and the Centurions made their way into the ship.
While investigating the sudden collapse of the weapons grid, Lieutenant Shaw spotted a Number Six among the advancing boarding party and deduced that Inviere must be an enemy agent. She pulled a rifle from the grasp of a dead marine and fired at the surprised Six, then returned to the CIC and revealed Inviere's true nature by displaying a security feed of the killed Cylon. When marines tried to apprehend Inviere on Cain's orders, she broke the neck of one and used his sidearm to shoot another, but as she hesitated while aiming at Cain, Shaw knocked her unconscious with the end of the rifle.
Aftermath#
Further details of the battle are unknown, but the communications station was presumably destroyed while Pegasus escaped with severe losses. Thirty-two Vipers were destroyed and sixty-one more were badly damaged, with not enough resources to repair them all.
Frequently asked questions
- What was the Cylon communications relay?
- It was an installation that the Battlestar Pegasus moved to attack after the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. When Pegasus jumped into the area and launched its Vipers, the crew realized to their horror that the site was not a communications relay at all but a staging ground for Cylon forces.
- What happened when Pegasus attacked the relay?
- Twelve enemy contacts appeared on DRADIS and Admiral Cain launched Blue Squadron, but fifteen Raider squadrons then jumped into range, leaving Pegasus outnumbered four to one. Cain ordered the remaining Vipers launched to cover Blue Squadron's run at the relay, and when Colonel Belzen refused the order she shot him dead with his own sidearm.
- How was Gina Inviere exposed during the battle?
- The Cylon operative Gina Inviere covertly took the Pegasus weapons grid offline, letting two Heavy Raiders land a Centurion boarding party. Investigating the grid's collapse, Lieutenant Shaw spotted a Number Six among the boarders, deduced Inviere was an agent, and revealed her nature in the CIC using a security feed of the killed Six.
- What did the engagement cost Pegasus?
- The communications station was presumably destroyed while Pegasus escaped with severe losses. Thirty-two Vipers were destroyed and sixty-one were badly damaged, with not enough resources to repair them all.
Sources
- WikiCylon communications relay — 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.
Battlestar
The battlestar was a class of armored battleship and carrier hybrid in service with the Colonial Fleet. First built during the Cylon War as a counter to Cylon hacking, battlestars relied on unnetworked computers, carried hundreds of fighters, and were armored to survive nuclear blasts.
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
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.
Gina Inviere
Gina Inviere was the alias of a Number Six copy who infiltrated the battlestar Pegasus as a systems analyst, sabotaged it during the Fall, and after months of captivity assassinated Admiral Cain before destroying the liner Cloud Nine.
Heavy Raider
The Heavy Raider was an FTL-capable Cylon craft introduced with the renewed war on humanity, combining the roles of troop transport and gunship. Armored, windowless, and brain-piloted, it ferried Centurions to the colonies and later carried both Cylon assaults and a rebel alliance with the Colonial fleet.
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