Viper Mark VIIa
the networked Colonial fighter
The Viper Mark VIIa was the seventh generation of the Colonial Fleet's space-superiority fighter, fielded in the years before the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. Its networked computers and Command Navigation Program left almost all of its kind vulnerable to a Cylon remote shutdown during the Fall.
The Viper Mark VIIa was a space-superiority fighter used by the Colonial Fleet in the years prior to the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. It was the seventh generation of Viper, a line of fighters that had been in production since before the Cylon War.
Design and the Command Navigation Program#
The Mark VII was designed at a time when the Colonial Fleet had become increasingly generous with the computer technology that could be used aboard its craft. As part of an initiative set forth by President Richard Adar, the Mark VII's computer components were networked and included the Command Navigation Program.
This reliance on networked systems proved catastrophic. During the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, Cylon forces were able to remotely shut down Mark VIIs through wireless access to their CNPs, with the result that almost all of the type were destroyed without firing a shot at the Cylons.
Survivors aboard Galactica and Pegasus#
Galactica and Pegasus each possessed a number of Mark VIIs that were unnetworked and whose CNP had been erased to prevent further hackings. These ships survived the Fall.
Galactica retained its Mark VIIs in more limited numbers, and they were typically reserved for veteran pilots, officers, and CAGs, while the rest of its flight group used the older yet still formidable Viper Mark IIs. Pegasus, by contrast, was a Mercury-class battlestar with an onboard foundry capable of manufacturing new Mark VIIs from resources gathered from asteroids.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the Viper Mark VIIa?
- The Viper Mark VIIa was a space-superiority fighter used by the Colonial Fleet in the years prior to the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. It was the seventh generation of Viper, a line of fighters in production since before the Cylon War.
- What was the Command Navigation Program in the Viper Mark VIIa?
- The Mark VII was designed when the Colonial Fleet had become increasingly generous with the computer technology used aboard its craft. As part of an initiative set forth by President Richard Adar, the Mark VII's computer components were networked and included the Command Navigation Program.
- What happened to the Viper Mark VIIa during the Fall of the Twelve Colonies?
- During the Fall, Cylon forces were able to remotely shut down Mark VIIs through wireless access to their CNPs. Almost all of the type were destroyed without firing a shot at the Cylons.
- Why did some Viper Mark VIIas survive the Fall?
- Galactica and Pegasus each possessed a number of Mark VIIs that were unnetworked and whose CNP had been erased to prevent further hackings. These ships survived the Fall.
- How did Galactica and Pegasus use their Viper Mark VIIas?
- Galactica kept its Mark VIIs in limited numbers, typically reserving them for veteran pilots, officers, and CAGs while the rest of its flight group flew older Mark IIs. Pegasus, a Mercury-class battlestar, had an onboard foundry capable of manufacturing new Mark VIIs from resources gathered from asteroids.
Sources
- WikiViper Mark VIIa — Battlestar Wiki entry
- WikiViper — Battlestar Wiki entry
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Related entries
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.
Colonial Fleet
The Colonial Fleet was the naval arm of the military of the United Colonies of Kobol, founded during the Cylon War to unite the forces of the Twelve Worlds. At its height it numbered some 120 battlestars, yet a single Cylon exploit reduced it to two ships in the opening minutes of the Fall.
Cylon War
The Cylon War, also called the First Cylon War, was a twelve year interstellar conflict between the Cylons and the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. It began when the Cylons rose against their human creators and ended in a sudden Armistice that held for over forty years.
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.
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.
Galactica
Galactica was a Jupiter-class battlestar that served the Colonial Fleet from the Cylon War until the discovery of Earth. Never networked, it survived the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and shepherded the last fifty thousand humans across uncharted space before being scuttled into the sun.
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