Battle of the Asteroid Field
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| Battle of the Asteroid Field | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| [[Image:|center|300px|Skirmish With Scar]] | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Conflict: | Second Cylon War | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Date: | 8 months after the Fall of the Twelve Colonies | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Place: | Asteroid field in interstellar space | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Result: | Colonial victory
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| Battle Chronology | |||||||||||||||||||||
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The Battle of the Asteroid Field is a series of skirmishes between the Viper pilots of Galactica and the ace Cylon Raider dubbed Scar.
Background
After finding an asteroid field rich with heavy minerals. the mining ship Majahual is sent in to mine the minerals as there is enough to build two more Viper squadrons which will bolster the fleet's defensive abilities. Knowing that the mining operations will be a tempting target for the Cylons, Galactica stays with Majahual to protect the mining operations while Pegasus stays with the rest of the fleet in another location to protect it. Wanting to disrupt mining operations but not willing to risk all-out attack due to the recent destruction of the Resurrection Ship, the Cylons send an ace Raider to disrupt the operations.
Skirmish
As the asteroid field is too dense for DRADIS, Viper pilots flying CAP are forced to rely on a Mark One Eyeball to find their targets. The ace Raider, nicknamed "Scar" by its opponents, is particularly good at separating pilots from their wingmen, shooting them down, and retreating before anyone can get it. When Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace turns to her for advice, Sharon Agathon explains that Scar's prowess comes from the multiple times it has died and downloaded, thus learning from its mistakes. Also, with the Resurrection Ship destroyed, Scar's next death will be permanent, so it will do anything to avoid being killed.
Following bad advice from Thrace, new pilot BB engages Scar instead of retreating when he should because of low fuel and Scar destroys him. Soon after, when Thrace is too drunk to take on an assigned CAP with Jo-Jo, he goes with Snake instead and is killed by Scar. The rivalry between Thrace and Lieutenant Louanne "Kat" Katraine causes Captain Lee Adama to assign the two as wingmen in the next CAP.
In the next patrol, Scar uses another Raider to lure the Vipers into a trap while it ambushes them from behind. However, Thrace realizes the trap and spins around to face Scar only to be damaged by him. Thrace leads Scar into a chasm and then sets a collision course with it. While Kat tries to get her to break off as Scar is a machine and will not stop, Thrace is near-suicidal due to leaving Samuel Anders to die on Caprica and will not stop either. At the last moment, Thrace breaks off her suicide run and leads Scar on a chase through the asteroid field. She suddenly breaks away, leaving Kat in perfect firing position in front of Scar. Scar cannot react quickly enough and Kat blows off its right wing, sending it careening into an asteroid and killing it in an explosion of blood, gore, and mechanical fragments.
Aftermath
With Scar destroyed, the mining operations are able to continue presumably unhampered or at least less with danger. As a result of a challenge between them, Starbuck acknowledges Kat as the "top gun" of Galactica, but also leads a memorial to all the pilots killed since the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, not just those lost to Scar. Thrace also realizes that she has something to live for in the hopes of rescuing Samuel Anders, something she realized in her suicide run on Scar (TRS: "Scar").
