Re:"The Hand of God" Revisited

As I understand it, the Cylons have had forty years to scout and plan since they lost the first Cylon War.

They, as the defeated, probably fled Colonial Space.

In effect, the Cylons, have had their Exodus.

This time around they are the pursuers and with machine logic they probably have decided to make sure that the Colonials won’t do to them what they have just done to the Colonials.

What has this to do with Tylium and that asteroid?

Tigh comments that the Cylons have fortified all the Tylium deposits within reach of the Ragtag Fleet. This means to me all the charted Tylium deposits known in Colonial Space.

Crashdown and Boomer, scouting at extreme range from the [b]Galactica[/b], discovered a new source of Tylium unknown to the Colonials.

This indicates to me that the Ragtag Fleet is beyond Known Colonial Space.

That also suggests to me that the Cylons thoroughly scouted this region of space when they were establishing themselves. The base is well built and the infrastructure shows a reasonably long term investment in fuel processing for Cylon needs.

Lee Adama points out that there is enough processed fuel after the refinery is blown to supply the Colonials’ immediate fuel needs for years.

My other suppositions are based on film evidence.

The [b]Galactica[/b] has a reaction drive and is seen moving.

The Cylon base stars, thus far, have shown the ability to in-jump, but haven’t shown any other ability to move.

The base stars are huge in comparison to [b]Galactica[/b].

That means to me that the Cylon base ships are jump capable fuel hogs.

Add to this that machines are “logical”. This is shown on screen.

This means to me, when I see-
-that the machines build to “minimum” requirements for the use of the devices they need.(Note that the Centurions have “pistol” armament; whereas, the Colonials use at the least, combination pistol/rocket gun sidearms as well as some kind of rifle. Note that the Cylons’ Centurions show no armor plating?)
-that the machines have shown no desire or need to build in redundancy or survival into their fighting machines.(Their raiders use a biological processor that is “doglike” and is more like the intelligent software planned for the [i]uninhabited combat vehicle[/i] that is the next step in military robotics. There is no bailout pod for that control unit.)
-that the machines(biocylons) show berserker kamikaze tendencies.(Darlow[Toaster Mark III] blows itself up on the [b]Galactica[/b]?)

it indicates to me that the Cylons neither have a fleet train(not shown) nor do they have the reluctance to accept the one way range limit that a base star might have.

Remember I hypothesized that the Colonials jammed Cylon base communications and that the Tylium asteroid was in terrain too dangerous for base stars to in-jump? So range is not the only consideration.

It was shown in the mini-series that the Ragtag Fleet sought refuge in a nebula? The Cylons didn’t enter there because their sensors were useless and the space was therefore dangerous to them. They were content to wait for the Ragtag Fleet to come out so that the Colonials could be destroyed in open space.

This implies the Cylons are “conservative” in tactics as well as resources. They won’t risk anything unless they are confident of outcomes.

This makes the battle around that Tylium asteroid all the more bizarre. It puzzles me that the Cylons chased after the Colonials once the pattern of engagement was set.

It, also, is surprising to me that the Cylons didn’t have a suicide bomb to neutralize the Tylium as insurance in case the base did fall?

All of this, just indicates, that the Leoben(biocylon model) running the defense was an idiot, that the Cylons didn’t expect that their automated fuel refinery would be discovered, and that it was a base at the outer limits of scouted Cylon territory(-since it had so few defenders.).

The assumption that the base stars have shorter ranges than the [b]Galactica[/b] is just that, an assumption based on the actions of base stars as regards the movements of the [b]Galactica[/b].

If you haven’t seen [i]Kobol’s Last Gleaming[/i] then you will see further evidence of the one way nature of base stars at work in that episode.

Now the range limitations for Cylon base ships don’t hold for their Raiders. I liken their(the Raiders) failure to appear in numbers as in-jumping re-inforcements solely to be due to the efforts of the Raptor’s jamming deployed by the Colonials.(See above.).

If it turns out that the base stars did have the range to round trip, then I will stick to the terrain/ Raptor jamming hypothesis.