Cylon Raider
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The Cylon Raider is the standard starfighter used by the Cylons, in the various Battlestar Galactica movies and television series.
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[edit] Original series
The Raider of the original series has a crew of three Cylons, and is armed with two exceptionally powerful blasters; three Raiders destroyed the capital city on the planet Caprica. Raiders frequently make suicide attacks on enemy capital ships, typically attacking the fighter launch bays. While a typical Basestar holds far more Raiders than a Battlestar has Vipers, it is mentioned in the second episode of the series that Cylons, as machines, cannot think on the same intuitive level and improvise as humans do, and so a single Viper pilot is a match for several Cylon Raiders. In the episode "A Living Legend", Baltar commissioned a personal fighter to take part in a battle. It is used to transport him (not unlike Colonial shuttles).
[edit] Battlestar Galactica (2003, 2004–)
| Cylon Raider | |
|---|---|
 Two Cylon Raiders |
|
| First appearance | Mini Series, Part 1 |
| Affiliation | Cylons |
| General Characteristics | |
| Armaments | Kinetic Energy Weapons Nuclear missiles |
| Propulsion | FTL drive |
In the 2003 reimagining of Battlestar Galactica, the Cylon Raider is the main attack fighter used by the Cylons, participating in the destruction of the Twelve Colonies and later actions.
This fighter is much different from the previous, piloted Raider used during the Cylon War (the Raider from the 1978 series). The new Raiders are part machine, part organism in nature. Just like the Cylon androids that look completely human[1], the Raiders are also capable of being "reborn" into new Raiders after having been destroyed. This is done so that new, replacement Raiders do not have to be trained, meaning that experienced combat "pilots" that have been killed are quickly available for duty again. This provides the Cylons with a distinct tactical advantage in the amount of battle-seasoning a Raider will have over a replacement Viper pilot[2].
The Raiders have many weapons, including conventional missiles, nuclear missiles and kinetic energy weapon guns. They can transmit a computer virus to a Colonial vessel using the Command Navigation Program (CNP), rendering the Colonial vessel inoperable. When transmitting the virus, its red eye activates and oscillates to the left and right repeatedly.
The Cylon Raider is also capable of making FTL jumps. After a Raider was captured by the Battlestar Galactica, its FTL drive system was discovered to be more efficient than those on the Colonial vessels. It could travel the distance of Kobol to Caprica in just one jump.
It is capable of traveling through an atmosphere, as was its predecessor, and is far more maneuverable in spaceflight than the previous Raider.
[edit] Notable individuals
[edit] Kara Thrace's Cylon Raider
In the episode Act of Contrition, Kara "Starbuck" Thrace shot down a Cylon Raider, but her Viper was damaged in the process and she was forced to eject, landing on a nearby planet. In the course of the following episode, she located the downed Raider and discovered its biotechnological nature. Experimenting with the various systems, she eventually managed to fly it back up to Galactica, having previously written her callsign on the wings using adhesive tape, so that Galactica's fighter patrols wouldn't try to shoot her down - a tactic that was not entirely successful, as a brief dogfight ensued with Lee "Apollo" Adama before he got close enough to read it. The Raider was brought back to Galactica to be studied by Chief Tyrol and his team.
In the first season finale, "Kobol's Last Gleaming," Thrace was ordered to use the Raider to transport a nuclear bomb on a mission to destroy a Cylon Basestar in the orbit of Kobol. However, President Roslin asked her to use the Raider's FTL capabilities to return to Caprica to retrieve the Arrow of Apollo instead. Disheartened by the fact that Commander Adama had lied to her and the rest of the crew about Earth, she pretended to embark on a final test mission, but jumped away to Caprica.
On Cylon-occupied Caprica, Kara fought and killed a copy of Number Six in the Delphi museum. Kara successfully retrieved the Arrow, but a Number Eight fled in Kara's Raider (causing her to exclaim, "Bitch stole my ride").
Afterwards, Kara meets up with the stranded Galactica crewmember Karl "Helo" Agathon and a copy of her crewmate Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, revealing her to be a Cylon. After stealing a Heavy Raider, all three return to Galactica.
[edit] Scar
Appearing in the episode of the same name, Scar was a particularly vicious and elusive raider identified by a gash on the side of its "face". Using highly effective hit-and-run, ambush and divide-and-conquer tactics, Scar repeatedly ambushed and destroyed Colonial viper patrols during mining operations in an asteroid field.
Sharon Valerii pointed out that given the (previously unknown) ability of Cylon raiders to "resurrect" like their humanoid counterparts, Scar's remarkable combat skill was likely due to having fought (and/or being destroyed by) Colonial pilots and learning from these previous encounters. Valerii also suggested that due to the lack of a nearby Cylon Resurrection ship, Scar would be more difficult to beat, given its newly added fear of death.
Eventually the raider was hunted down by Starbuck and Louanne 'Kat' Katraine. Kat destroyed Scar after Starbuck lured the raider into her sights. As the resurrection ship had previously been destroyed, this death may presumably be permanent.
As a final note, Valerii implied that Scar was Kara Thrace's Cylon Raider (see above). This could lead to the notion that Scar had a vendetta against the Colonial pilot. However, the truth of this claim has not been addressed in canon thus far.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Battlestar Galactica spaceships | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Colonial Military | |||
| Battlestar (Original | Re-imagined) | Military Vessels | ||
| Galactica | Pegasus | Valkyrie | Viper | Raptor | Blackbird | Stealthstar | ||
| "The Fleet" | |||
| Astral Queen | Colonial One | Cloud 9 | other.. | |||
| Cylon Vessels | |||
| Basestar | Raider | Heavy Raider | Resurrection Ship | |||
