Heavy Raider

The Heavy Raider was a type of FTL-capable vessel used by the Cylons following their technological evolution in the years after the Cylon War. It was near-analogous to the Raptor models of the Colonial Fleet: both were designed to ferry troops and supplies from ship to ship or ship to surface and both could make faster-than-light jumps. Unlike the Raptor, however, the Heavy Raider also served as a gunship when required. Colonial pilots nicknamed it the "turkey". (Battlestar Galactica, "Fragged"; Battlestar Galactica, "Maelstrom"; Battlestar Galactica: The Plan)

Design#

When the Cylons ended the forty-year armistice with a nuclear assault on the Twelve Colonies, their upgraded fleet of semi-sentient, bio-mechanical Raiders included the new Heavy Raider. The FTL-equipped craft was autonomous but could also be flown by a crew of Centurions or by a humanoid model. Its wedge-shaped fuselage was flanked by curved wing pods, and the windowless craft carried two tri-barreled kinetic energy weapons. Ship-to-ship missile launchers were built into the wing pods and could be removed and reconfigured as a ground-based, DRADIS-guided anti-aircraft battery. A Cylon flying it relied on telemetry fed through a datastream rather than any view outside. Its armoured hull could take severe punishment, even a crash landing. (Battlestar Galactica, "Fragged"; Battlestar Galactica, "The Farm"; Battlestar Galactica: Razor)

The Fall and the war on the Fleet#

During the Fall, Heavy Raiders served as troop transports, deploying Centurions to the ravaged colonies for ground assaults. After Commander William Adama led a civilian fleet of survivors in search of a new home, the craft were turned against that fleet. In one skirmish a damaged Heavy Raider crash-landed inside Galactica's flight pod, and the Centurions that emerged killed several crew before being eliminated. In a similar incident a pair of Heavy Raiders breached the Pegasus, landing inside a port landing bay, where the Centurions inflicted numerous casualties before being destroyed by the battlestar's marines. (Battlestar Galactica, "Scattered"; Battlestar Galactica, "Valley of Darkness"; Battlestar Galactica: Razor; Battlestar Galactica: The Plan)

Resistance and rebel alliance#

When a rogue Number Eight model later known as Athena joined the human resistance on post-Fall Caprica, she helped her new comrades acquire a Heavy Raider. The resistance fighters used the craft to free Lieutenant Kara "Starbuck" Thrace from a Cylon reproductive research facility and return her to the fleet, and later its Cylon navigation computer guided the Raptors that went back to rescue the resistance fighters. The Cylons also used Heavy Raiders to suppress insurgents on New Caprica during their occupation of that world. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Farm"; Battlestar Galactica, "Home, Part I"; Battlestar Galactica, "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I"; Battlestar Galactica, "Occupation")

Years after the Fall, a group of rebel Cylons rose against the genocidal faction led by the Number One model and joined forces with the Colonial fleet. The rebels piloted Heavy Raiders to the Cylon Resurrection Hub, towing a squadron of powered-down Vipers behind them. As they neared the Hub, the Heavy Raiders uncoupled the undetected Colonial fighters, which fired up their engines and launched a surprise assault. The Vipers ultimately destroyed the Hub with a nuclear strike while the Heavy Raiders engaged two sentry basestars. With resurrection technology no longer available, death became final for the Cylons, as it had always been for humans. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Hub")