Battlestar Galactica 4

This article has a separate continuity. This article is in the Dynamite Comics separate continuity, which is related to the Re-imagined Series. Be sure that your contributions to this article reflect the characters and events specific to this continuity only.

Issue 4 An issue of the Dynamite first series.
Issue No.	4
Writer(s)	Greg Pak
Penciller(s)	Nigel Raynor
Inker(s)	Nigel Raynor
Colorist(s)	David Curiel
Letterer(s)	Simon Bowland
Editor(s)
Cover Artist(s)	E-Bass Tyler Kirkham Nigel Raynor
Adaptation of	Between "Home, Part II" and "Pegasus"
Published	September 2006
Collects	Kirkham Virgin Cover Kirkham Negative Cover
Collected in	Battlestar Galactica Volume I
Reprints	Reprint with E-Bass Variant Cover
Reprinted as
ISBN	[[Special:Booksources/|]]
Population	47,844 Survivors ( -6)
Chronology
Previous		Next
Battlestar Galactica 3	Issue 4	Battlestar Galactica 5
Purchase
Available at BOOKSAMILLION.COM - Purchase
Available at Amazon.com – Purchase
Available at Amazon.co.uk – Purchase
Available at Things From Another World - Purchase

Publisher's summary

In this issue, all of your questions are answered about the fate of the Returners, and the status of the infected Galactica crew! Plus, see Commander Adama in action as you've never see him! All this plus the set-up for our next big story arc as the unseen adventures of the Galactica continue from Dynamite Entertainment.

Plot

Commander Adama brings back a lost Caprican Cylon Brigade consisting of pre-Cylon War Centurions and Raiders, which concerns the entire Fleet, including President Laura Roslin.

Summary

• Fifteen minutes prior to the end of the third issue, Commander Adama and Lieutenant Thrace run into a wall of antebellum Cylons Raiders. They prepare for an attack, although they are initially confused as to why they haven't attacked. Adama identifies the ships as pre-Cylon War Raiders. The leader of this phalanx, Fifteen Beta Three, identifies their brigade as the Caprican Cylon Brigade.
• Upon asking for their command, Thrace tells them to go frak themselves. They start self-destructing, a process which Adama halts despite Thrace's objections. After determining that they were ordered to protect the quadrant by their former commander 50 years, 4 months and 3 days ago (during the Third Colonial War), Adama informs the Cylons that their commander is dead and that he's the last surviving high-ranking Caprican military officer. They subsequently obey his commands.
• On Galactica, Karl Agathon visits Sharon Valerii, discussing the possibility that she may be the "real" Sharon while the other Sharon was a copy. She tells him to stop, saying that she knows what she is, but is beset by feeling the presence of the antebellum Cylons.
• Aboard Medivac 12, Virtual Six tells Gaius Baltar to hide. He initially makes a glib crack, asking "how on Earth can I hide from you". However, he hides anyway upon seeing the antebellum Raiders through a view port.
• A shuttle from Colonial One heads to Galactica. Despite Adama's protests regarding the Returner virus, Roslin reveals that she was infected with it on Colonial One. She is concerned about the Cylons' presence in the Fleet and, believing Adama to be unfit for command, goes to Galactica to relieve him of command. Adama assures her that each Cylon is being tracked by their guns and will be destroyed should they do anything suspicious.
• Outside the window of her shuttle, Roslin tells Adama that the Cylons are firing. However, they do not fire on any of the ships; they are firing on terrorists from the Earth Protectorate, who are flinging themselves toward Roslin's shuttle with bombs strapped to their bodies. The Cylons interdict these suicide bombers, some flying directly into their path.
• Roslin is stunned by the display, particularly as a Cylon Centurion salutes her from a Raider that is in view.
• Roslin boards Galactica. Adama informs her that the bombers were Earth Protectorate terrorists wanting to kill her. All nine of them were killed by the Cylons, which protected her because of her status as president of the Colonies. Mistrustful of the Cylons, she brings up the point that the Protectorate may be right, and that the Cylons do want to use the Fleet as a tool to find Earth.
• Adama concedes that this is a possibility, which leads him to talk to his expert: Sharon Valerii. Valerii reveals that she can hear the Centurions through the Talk Wireless, if she concentrates hard enough. She reveals that they appear to be happy and proud, now that the humans have come back to them.
• Adama then asks how long will it take for the Cylons to "wise up" and turn on their creators. Valerii scoffs the question, saying that not all Cylons are the same and that they can learn, feel, and come up with their own conclusions the same way humans can.
• Roslin asks if Valerii's thoughts can be heard by the Cylons. She says she doesn't know, but hopes that this isn't the case.

• On Medivac 12, Gaius Baltar is thrown back by an antebellum Centurion, who declares "Cylon!"
• Baltar is forced to the ground as he pleads with the Cylon that he's a friend. Thrace enters, with a severed head from a new-model Centurion. Despite the old Centurion's insistence that Baltar's a Cylon, Thrace correct the Cylon and points out that the head she's carrying is a Cylon. The Centurion proceeds to crush the head with its hands and stomp on the remains, much to Thrace's delight.
• Scared, Baltar views the Cylon's presence as being insane, telling Thrace that the Centurion wanted to crush his head. Thrace retorts that most humans want to do the same and gives Baltar his marching orders: Adama wants him to find out of the Cylons will turn on them or not.
• Thrace leaves, while Baltar instructs the Centurion to shut down. After doing this, Six appears again, and tells him that the Centurion detected her presence and must leave for a while. He admits that he's gotten used to her presence in his fairly depressing life, while Six replies that she believes that Baltar can take care of the Centurion situation.

• William Adama visits Lee in sickbay. Lee and his father have a heartfelt moment where they try to justify Zak Adama's Returner existence. The elder Adama notes that he would have killed it again if he had to, but felt proud at the same time. Off in another part of the sickbay is a medic who fiddles with a bladder bag, looking rather ominous.

• In a lab, Felix Gaeta tells Roslin and Keikeya that both of them have the Bonoa parasite from eating traditionally prepared South Caprican noodles. The parasite, which acts more as a symbiont, is able to kill the virus and thus preventing it from being fatal. However, the symbiont cannot be used as a cure, only as a means of inoculation.
• After Commander Adama asks Gaeta how he was able to still move around, Gaeta reveals that he has a girlfriend who eats the noodles, and posits that he received the symbionts when they kissed. Adama stops him from explaining any further, telling him it's unwise to kiss-and-tell, but adds that the woman should be given a medal.
• An unmasked, uninfected Baltar returns to Galactica on a Raptor with the Centurion Thrace gave him earlier. Baltar assures the Marines that the Cylon is harmless as a baby.
• As Saul Tigh is hospitalized in sickbay, he suffers through a nightmare of a mission during the first Cylon War, when he was captain. He gets up, finding Ellen Tigh at his side, with the antebellum Centurions around him. Filled with rage, Tigh tells the Cylons to get away, only to find out that the Cylons have helped neutralized an orderly whose loyalties are with the Earth Protectorate.
• In CIC, Adama is informed that the Cylons sweeps are done and that four of the five targets have been neutralized. Adama is pleased, but orders the Cylons to return to the loading bay at the end of their mission. Baltar questions why, seeing as Baltar has devised a device that can destroy any Cylon should it show signs of betrayal. Adama reiterates his mistrust of machines.
• Gatea informs Adama that the Cylons' last target is acquired. Adama orders them home.
• As the Cylons escort the terrorists, one of the Centurions happens upon Valerii's brig, destroys the door, and starts to kill her. As she dies, she wonders what memories the Cylons will let her keep.

• Valerii downloads into a new body, which is inside of a Raptor. She panics as she realizes that the other Cylons have taken her memories, but is faced with a crisis as a group of hostile humans in EVA suits prepare to board her Raptor.

Notes

• The population at the beginning of this comic was 47,844. By the comic's end, that number is reduced to 47,835, counting for the deaths of nine Earth Protectorate suicide bombers.
• Old-model Centurions communicate via "talk wireless", which Sharon Valerii can hear. The term "talk wireless" was previously established in "Colonial Day" as being a genre of programming on wireless stations, thus Valerii's use of the term is incorrect.
• This issue notes that Felix Gaeta is involved in a heterosexual relationship.

Analysis

• The Caprican Cylon Brigade has been waiting for their commander for 53 years, 4 months, and 3 days, which closely fits in with the length of the Cylon War (12 years, 6 months) and the duration of the Armistice (40 years). Therefore the events of this comic take place 10 months after the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, although this overshoots the timeline established by the episode "Pegasus" by four months. Given that this comic was produced well before "Razor", which established the duration of the Cylon War, this level of near accuracy is rather remarkable.
  • However, it should be kept in mind that we have no way of knowing how much time passed between when the Caprican Cylon Brigade was sent out on their mission and the start of the Cylon War, so this might actually be the correct timeframe for their being floating out there.
• The comic series, particularly in this issue, strongly hints the fact that the antebellum Centurions were able to detect the presence of Virtual Six. The Re-imagined Series has been particularly careful in leaving Virtual Six's presence a mystery.
• In the Re-imagined Series, while humanoid Cylons can be boxed and can share memories, it has been proven that the Cylons can not strip away memories from other Cylons during the resurrection process. Furthermore, resurrections occur inside a resurrection tank and can't happen outside of its confines.

Questions

• Did the antebellum Centurion on Medivac 12 detect Virtual Six, as she claims?
• Furthermore, how do these Centurions know about the humanoid Cylons?
  • Also, why do they recognize Sharon as being a Cylon, but not Galen Tyrol , Saul Tigh, and Ellen Tigh?
• Are they able to hear the thoughts of other newer Cylons?
• Did Sharon Valerii download directly into the new body on the Raptor, thereby bypassing the resurrection tank? (Answer)
• Does Valerii die? (Answer)

Alternate covers

• 

  Tyler Kirkham cover.

• 

  Nigel Raynor cover.

• 

  E-Bass cover.

• 

  E-Bass variant cover.

• 

  Photo cover featuring William Adama and Laura Roslin.

External links

• Battlestar Galactica 4 - Regular Edition at Dynamite Entertainment
• Battlestar Galactica 4 - Foil Edition at Dynamite Entertainment
• Battlestar Galactica 4 - EBas Variant Cover at Dynamite Entertainment