Leiter

Commandant Leiter was a Terran who served in the navy of the Eastern Alliance.
== Biography ==
Leiter was a devoted officer and ship commander in service of the Eastern Alliance, a fascistic empire which developed out of an off-shoot of the Thirteenth Tribe. He valued the Eastern Alliance's socio-political beliefs, which considered the Eastern Alliance to be the dominant force in the universe and that any perceived threat to this dominance be eliminated.Battlestar Galactica, episode: "Baltar's Escape". Leiter first came into contact with a Galactican refugee fleet when two Vipers were detected shadowing a vessel carrying Nationalist political refugees to Paradeen. The Vipers were so alien in design they could not be identified using sensor equipment, forcing Leiter to make the decision to directly investigate rather than simply report the location of the fugitives when returning to Terra. Landing on Paradeen to investigate, Leiter was captured by Apollo and Starbuck. Their destroyer seized, he and his crew were taken back to the Galactican fleet as prisoners.Battlestar Galactica, episode: "Greetings from Earth". After their ship was docked, they were escorted out and taken to the prison barge.
During his time in the cells of the prison barge, Leiter was approached by Commander Adama, commanding officer of Galactica and leader of the civilian government under emergency powers. He explained to Adama his people's values and how the Paradeen refugees were dangerous. When confronted by the logical flaw of his beliefs - that Galactica's mere existence invalidates the Eastern Alliance's philosophy of being the strongest - he accidentally let slip that the Eastern Alliance's fleet was considerably smaller than estimated. Nonetheless, he believed in the inerrant supremacy of the Eastern Alliance, and saw the Galacticans' values as a weakness.
Following Cmdr. Adama's departure, the political system within the fleet began to change, and his emergency powers were removed by the Council of Twelve, who called for the release of Leiter and his men, the destroyer, and for a peace envoy to disembark for Terra. Contemporaneously with this, Leiter was given word of an impending prison break to be led by Count Baltar and several Borellian Nomen. He and his men agreed to take part, and successfully armed themselves after hijacking the ship. When a Shuttle from Galactica arrived to transfer the Eastern Alliance crew to their ship on Galactica's deck, Leiter was able to take its crew hostage. Rather than take the Shuttle back to Terra, the conspirators reluctantly agreed to continue on to Galactica. Upon arrival, they took the Council of Twelve's delegation hostage and placed them on the shuttle, while they themselves returned to their destroyer, the conspirators intending on returning the delegation hostages once they returned home. Cmdr. Adama could not trust the Eastern Alliance or Count Baltar's word, and instead planned for Baltar's re-capture along with the Shuttle. Leiter and his crew returned to their Lunar 7 base unharmed, though were tracked by Apollo and Starbuck the entire journey.Battlestar Galactica, episode: "Experiment in Terra".
==Sources==
Category:Original Series characters