The Cylons Re: The Galactica, A Contridiction?

[The 14th Colony]

There is something I am curious/confused about. When the nuclear attack began on Caprika, the whole of the fleet was wiped out with nukes at the same time, except for the Galactica, which appeared to be the only warship spared from the attack. Why is that? Was it considered unimportant because A) it was an older model, B) it was being decommissioned, C) the Cylons didn't know where it was at the time? I seriously doubt the last choice, for they seemed to know everything about the Colonials thanks to Number 6's stolen data through Baltar, so they would have to have known about the decommisioning and current location of the Galactica. But if the answer was A or B, there is a problem with that logic. The Cylons had to have known that the older battlestars weren't as dependant on interlinked computer systems and would be immune to their computer virus, so if anything I would think that the older battlestars would have been nuked first since they were a greater threat. And another matter is, if the Galactica was so unimportant to the Cylons that they didn't bother to nuke it in the initial attack, why had they gone to such great lengths to plant a sleeper Cylon aboard as a trusted crewmember (Sharon), as well as plant those unusual devices on the bridge that no one seemed to remember being installed?

And...if Sharon was a plant (obviously she was) who they planned to activate at a later date to do their bidding, why did they attempt to nuke the Galactica later (I still don't believe that the ship could have survived that explosion), and after that at the end try to destroy her? Would Sharon be considered an expendable drone that they planted in case all attempts to destroy the ship failed, expendable enough to destroy if they managed to destroy the ship? But once again this is a illogical solution. When there were only 12 of the humanoid Cylons, why put one on a ship being turned into a museum, when it could have been nuked even easier?

[Dean Martin]

I think that the Battlestars had some kind of shielding. At one point in the mini a Nuke did hit the Galactica and it was protected somehow. The Cylons were able to cause all of the defenses to drop on the other Battlestars.

Also she would not be expendable since they transfer themselves into another body.

[lordpenquin]

There are only 12 models of humanoid cylons, not 12 in number. If you recall in the final scene, there were 3 of the guy they found at the station, 3 sixes, and 3 of the reporters. There are probably hundreds if not thousands of humanoid cylons. They are "immortal" (unless something blocks the transfer) so dying isn't really an issue for them.

I do believe that the galactica could survive the one nuke that hit it, because they were low yield nukes. It would take several in different locations to bring it down.

As to the fate of the other battlestars, we don't know. I'm assuming that the cylons used baltars program to disable the ship completely, so no damage control or communition between decks could be used. The battlestars were destroyed because the crew could not efficiently respond to the damage, or take evasive action. They couldn't even fire back or launch vipers.

The reason the galactica was ignored at first was because the cylons did not know of that the computers were'nt linked. I think the device was perhaps the transmitter to start the failure of the systems. We don't know yet, and may never.

Once the cylons learned of the galactica's mobility, they sent forces to respond. Their main purpose was to strike the colonies and the main fleet, not pay attention to an old battlestar away from the action.

This is all speculation, and a bit interpretation, since the script was mainly feldercarb. I loved the viper action, I liked the new design of the ship, and even the kain like persona of the new adama. The pacing was too slow, and there were a few "holes". But diet soda is better than no soda at all...

[jeditemple]

Originally posted by Dean Martin
At one point in the mini a Nuke did hit the Galactica and it was protected somehow. The Cylons were able to cause all of the defenses to drop on the other Battlestars.

Was this before or after they got the munitions from the Ragnar station? Maybe a point-defense gun took out the nuke?

Regarding the Boomer situation, since the Galactica was being mothballed, perhaps she was going to be reassigned and the transfer had been delayed. In other words, Galactica may not have been her primary target (plus she was a sleeper and that threw things off course for her assignment). We'll likely never know.

Also, the Cylons may have been dealing with primary threats first and considered the Galactica a target of opportunity. Perhaps they were going to mop it up with the civilian ships in the next series of attacks. After all, Galactica didn't have any significant munitions onboard and the Cylons may have known that.

[beeker]

Only a quarter of the fleet was destroyed in the opening attack. From what it looked the cylons were not able to completely shut down the entire fleet. There was a battle going on, and while the colonials were losing there were some successes. The cylons wouldn't send a basestar after Galactica until the rest of the fleet had been destroyed. Without weapons and with her viper squadron destroyed the Galactica was a null factor as far as the battle went.

As far as greater threats goes, the newer were actually the greater threat. All it would take is one person to realize that it was Baltar's program the cylons were using. If the program is purged then the cylons are unable to imobilize the ships. Therefore the logical thing to do is destroy as much of the newer ships as possible before anyone has a chance to counter the infiltration.

The attack the cylons launched was on a tremendous scale. They attacked at least 12 planetary systems and a fleet that included at least 100 Battlestars. Who knows how many smaller military vessels the colonies have or how many lesser planetary systems the colonials inhabit. The Galactica was attacked and was damaged. Since we don't know about the material a Battlestar is made of we can only speculate on how much damage a nuclear device would do to it. I am not sure if they said how big the device was that hit the Galactica. Since the Galactica is in space the shock wave may more easily pass over the Galactica. Since space is often a cold place the thermal effects of a nuclear weapon may be heavily negated. Since certain metals will partailly shield the effects of radiation what we saw may have been totally real for the future. No one will know until we get there.

With such a vast scale of attacks the real question I would have is how come no other Battlestar or lesser warship survived? Of course we all know Commander Cain and the Pegasus at a minimum are out there somewhere.

[Darth Marley]

When Adama took command of the fleet,the order to rondesvouz (sp?) at the depot (long term loss of short term memory kicking in).

Were there no military ships among survivors? They certainly didn't help in the battle if they did.

Good point on the Ragnar rendevous.

One thing I think people forget is that Adama was still in the counter offensive mode until he did the FTL jump to Ragnar. The civilians at that point were more a nuisance than a mission. Until that moment Adama may have held out hope that a significant military fleet remained intact at the rendevous point. I think coming out of the FTL jump and finding no other warships would have been the most depressing part of Adama's day. At that point all realistic hope was lost. Fighting on would only have served to die with honor, something I expect Adama would have done if the civilians were not in tow.