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.
Contents |
[edit] Battlestar Galactica (2003, 2004–)
| Cylon Raider | |
|---|---|
 A Cylon Raider |
|
| First appearance | Mini Series, Part 1 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Armaments | Kinetic Energy Weapons Nuclear missiles |
| Propulsion | FTL drive |
| Length | 8.94m[1] |
| Width | 5.59m[1] |
| Height | 1.52m[1] |
In the 2003 remake 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[2], 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[3].
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 the 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] Technical specifications
[edit] Propulsion
- Three sublight engines and FTL drive system.
[edit] Armaments
- Conventional missiles, Nuclear missiles in internal compartments under wings and two KEWs (Kinetic Energy Weapons), one on each "wing".
- The Cylon raiders being technological are also able to infiltrate computer networks.
[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 then 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] 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, something that was not entirely successful as a brief dogfight ensued with Lee "Apollo" Adama before he gets 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 Parts 1 & 2" 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 6 in the Delphi museum. Kara successfully retrieved the Arrow, but a Number 8 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
In the 2006 episode of the same name, Scar is a particularly vicious and elusive raider identified by a gash, resembling a scar, on the side of its "face." While they patrolled the asteroid field where the mining ship Majahual was operating, Scar would quickly attack and destroy Vipers in ambushes using its highly effective hit-and-run and divide-and-conquer tactics. He was eventually destroyed by Kat.
[edit] Trivia
The enemy ships in the 1979 Mattel Intellivision video game Space Battle clearly resemble Cylon Raiders from the original series. It was originally intended by Mattel to market the game as a tie-in to Battlestar Galactica. Because the deal fell through, the game was renamed Space Battle prior to release.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Battlestar Galactica spaceships | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Colonial Military | |||
| Battlestars | Military Vessels | ||
| Galactica | Pegasus | Viper | Raptor | Blackbird | ||
| "The Fleet" | |||
| Astral Queen | Colonial One | Cloud 9 | Olympic Carrier | other.. | |||
| Cylon Vessels | |||
| Basestar | Raider | Heavy Raider | "Resurrection Ship" | |||
