Pegasus (TRS)

:This article discusses the Mercury class battlestar from the Re-imagined Series. For the episode of the same name, see Pegasus (episode). For other meanings of Pegasus, see Pegasus (disambiguation).
Pegasus (BS 62) is a Mercury-class battlestar, commanded by Rear Admiral Helena Cain during the time leading up to and after the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. Built sometime after the First Cylon War, Pegasus was the crown jewel of the Colonial Fleet, with a famous reputation and many officers yearning for a post on the ship . 
After the Fall, Pegasus is informally nicknamed "The Beast" within the surviving Colonial Fleet .
==History==
=== Before the Fall ===
At some point prior to the Fall, Pegasus is upgraded to include the Command Navigation Program, a new operating system (later found to be bugged) designed for use in Colonial spacecraft. Parts of it were taken offline during a three-month systems overhaul at the Scorpion Fleet Shipyards shortly before the Cylon attack, an attribute which later spared the ship from destruction .
For the three-month overhaul, technicians and staff from both the Ministry of Defense and Integral Systems Engineering were aboard the ship, assisting Pegasus crew members with the upgrades. One of those technicians, Gina Inviere, worked to gain the trust of the crew - even entering into a relationship with Rear Admiral Cain, in what is now known to be an act of subterfuge . 
=== Cylons Attack ===
:Main articles: Fall of the Scorpion Fleet Shipyards, Fall of the Twelve Colonies
Shortly after the ship enters drydock, the Cylons strike the Colonies. The Fleet Shipyards are indirectly struck by nuclear weapons, which blinds both Cylon and Colonial DRADIS. The nuclear strike is powerful enough to knock the crew to the decks, causing many injuries. Pegasus survives the nuclear strike, but with multiple casualties to her officers and crewmen, and damage to its computer systems, it is unable to fight back. With no other options available, Cain orders a blind FTL jump away from the shipyards.
Pegasus emerges four to five plotted jumps away from the Colonies, far from the Cylon onslaught. Cain uses this time to repair her ship, and calm the crew, with the intent on getting back into the fight, but repair efforts are compounded by rumors of the fate of the Colonies and the Colonial Fleet. After revealing that both have been destroyed, Cain prepares the ship and crew for hit-and-run attacks against Cylon targets, and with the help of ISE specialist Inviere, quickly determine their first target. The crew responds with overwhelming support.
As the computer systems are brought back online by Ministry of Defense officer Kendra Shaw, she discovers that the Command Navigation Program contains a backdoor, allowing access to the computer network. Shaw determines that it is Cylon in origin, and should be purged .
=== Hit and Run Campaign, and A Cylon Spy ===
:Main article: Battle of the Communications Relay
With repairs complete, Pegasus begins her attacks on what is thought to be a small communications relay. However, after launching a handful of Vipers, multiple Raider squadrons appear on DRADIS, revealing the area to be a staging ground. The Vipers are quickly outnumbered, and are unable to proceed as planned. Cain orders the reserves launched, however executive officer Colonel Jurgen Belzen hesitates and proposes to retreat in order to form a new plan. A now furious Cain calls for Belzen's sidearm, and summarily executes him on the spot for refusing to carry out orders, much to the shock and horror of the CIC staff present. As the battle continues, Cain calls up her second officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jack Fisk, to launch the reserves. Still in shock, he calls for the launch. 
The battle does not proceed well, with the Cylons soon gaining access to the ship via the flight pods. As the boarding parties fight their way into the ship, officer Shaw discovers a woman in white who looks exactly like Gina Inviere walking the corridors. Determining that she is not a Pegasus officer or crewman, she guns the woman down, and then makes her way back to the CIC, where she finds Inviere next to Cain. Shaw determines that she is Cylon in nature, and moves to apprehend her. As she sees her double on a security feed, she kills three marines before she is knocked unconscious and removed from the CIC. 
While Pegasus is able to destroy the relay, the battle was pyrrhic at best, with heavy Colonial losses. At this point, nearly 816 crewmen have been killed, with 121 injured. Losses are further compounded by the tally of Vipers lost or damaged in the battle, with half the air wing suffering damage.
The battle takes an insurmountable toll on the crew, and the communications relay would be the first and last Cylon target Pegasus strikes on its own . 
Following the conclusion of the battle at the Communications Relay, Cain begins the interrogation of Inviere, using whatever methods necessary. Considered now to be nothing more than an emotionless machine, certain members of the crew, led by Lieutenant Alastair Thorne begin assaulting and raping the prisoner. Thorne is essential in saving the lives of many Pegasus officers and crew, most of whom line up behind him in support of torturing the Cylon prisoner .
===A Lost Civilian Fleet===
Pegasus encounters a small fleet of fifteen civilian ships, found about a week after the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. Admiral Cain uses them as a source of spare parts, deciding that the military needs of Pegasus take priority over the survival of the civilians. Cain also reviews the ships' passenger lists and draws up a list of valuable selectees, people such as aeronautical engineer Peter Laird, to forcibly draft into its crew. However, some are with their families and refuse to leave them. Facing an uprising aboard the civilian transport Scylla that spreads to the other ships, Admiral Cain orders Colonel Fisk to shoot the families of any who resist. When the angry crowd grows violent, Lieutenant Kendra Shaw and her Marines carry out the order, killing ten people and cowing the rest into submission. The civilian ships are stripped of useful items, including their FTL drives, and are left to their fate as Pegasus resumes its campaign of hit-and-run attacks against the Cylons ("Razor," "Resurrection Ship, Part I").
=== Finding Galactica, and Cylon Resurrection ===
:Main article: Battle of the Resurrection Ship
Months after the attacks, Pegasus is still tracking a large Cylon fleet jumping from system to system with natural resources. When Pegasus jumps ahead to the Cylon's next projected position, it detects a large fleet. After communication is made, and authentications exchanged, it is revealed that the fleet is led by battlestar Galactica (BS 75), believed by Pegasus' crew to have been destroyed. Integration into the fleet doesn't go as smooth as both crews had hoped, with Admiral Cain quickly taking command, and integrating both crews despite having said otherwise. She also begins neglecting the civilian fleet, with many crucial supplies going to both battlestars instead. Cain also uses this time to share the information they've gathered about the Cylon fleet they've been tracking with Galactica CO, William Adama. Several basestars, their support ships, and one unidentified ship is seen in the recon photographs.
During this time, Lt. Thorne is brought aboard Galactica to interrogate Sharon Agathon, Galactica Cylon prisoner, while Dr. Baltar is brought to Pegasus to see Gina Inviere. Lt. Thorne wastes no time in abusing Agathon, and when deck chief Galen Tyrol, and pilot are told of his visit, they rush to the jail cell and pull him off Sharon, moments away from raping her. Chief Tyrol tosses him to the wall, where he knocks his head against an exposed bolt, and dies as a result. This further escalates tensions, as Cain announces plans to execute Lt. Agathon and Chief Tyrol for their actions. Commander Adama aboard Galactica launches Vipers and Raptors in an attempt to get his men back, an action which nearly sparks a shooting war between the battlestars. The fight is broken up after Galactica pilot, Lt. Kara Thrace, returning from an unscheduled recon of the Cylon fleet, is detected, and initially believed to be a Cylon Raider. Cooler heads prevail, and a truce is called while the crews work to destroy their Cylon target, now discovered to be a Resurrection Ship.
A plan to attack is formulated as the two crews begin working with each other. However, distrust remains, and each commander has one person under their respective commands ready to execute each other at a moments notice, citing concerns in leadership style. The battle proceeds as planned, with both battlestars working in unison against two basestars, while fighters are used to draw the Raiders away from the targets. With the basestars occupied, a small joint force of Vipers converges on the Resurrection Ship, and destroys it. This proves to be a turning point in relations between both crews, and both sides call off their decapitation plans. As both crews relax, an escaped Inviere exacts revenge on Cain for the physical and emotional abuse she's suffered, gunning her down in the war room. Cain's death marks the end of hostilities with the crew of Galactica, and the permanent integration of Pegasus and her crew into the surviving fleet . 
=== Service Within the Fleet ===
:Main articles: Battle of the Binary Star System, Battle of the Guardian Basestar
Following Admiral Cain's death, Jack Fisk is promoted to the rank of commander, and is instated as the ship's new CO. Thanks to his involvement in the fleet's black market, Pegasus now becomes a staging ground for smuggling goods across the fleet. However, due to his high, negligent demands with the market, Commander Fisk is murdered a short time later, further adding to Pegasus' dark history . Following Fisk's death, newly promoted Admiral Adama appoints the ship's former chief engineer Barry Garner as CO. As Garner is used to dealing with machines, rather than people, his command style is rather strict, with many crew either punished or interned for their actions. When a pair of Pegasus' Raptors go missing, Garner ignores all authoritative orders, and takes Pegasus to go find them, triggering a Cylon trap. Pegasus is quickly outnumbered, and takes heavy damage, knocking out the FTL drive, and the ship's only means of escape. Realizing his mistake, Cmdr. Garner cedes command to his XO, , while he retreats to the engine room to repair the FTL drive. While Pegasus is successful in fighting off the Cylon trap, it loses its third CO after Cmdr. Garner dies from vacuum exposure while effecting repairs . Upon returning to the fleet, Admiral Adama appoints Lee Adama as Pegasus' next CO. 
After settling into his new command, Cmdr. Adama begins the search for a new XO and eventually settles on Kendra Shaw, out of a desire to demonstrate to the crew a measure of respect for Cain's legacy that he in fact does not share. Pegasus is called upon shortly thereafter to find a missing Raptor, sent out by Galactica to study a supernova remnant. Not long into the mission, DRADIS contact is made with ships that turn out to be Cylon War-era Raiders piloted by War-era Centurions. It is quickly determined that the missing Raptor crew were taken by these Cylons back to their baseship. Pegasus initiates a battle in order to lure the Raiders away from the baseship, as a lone group make their way via spacewalk to the missing crew. Numerous kamikaze Raiders strike the ship and penetrate the hull, but with minimal damage. Pegasus is successful in rescuing the kidnapped Raptor crew and destroying the baseship. However, Kendra Shaw sacrifices herself in order to detonate the nuclear weapon smuggled aboard the baseship .
===New Caprica===
:Main article: Battle of New Caprica
Following the founding of New Caprica, Pegasus is assigned to the orbital defense force that protects the planet. During this time, Commander keeps an emergency supply of medication aboard for the pilots, despite the fact that their crew are severely depleted due to colonization of the planet. One year after the founding the colony, the Cylons return in force. Unable to defend the planet, Pegasus and the remaining ships orbiting the planet jump away .
Four months later, Pegasus and Galactica plan a rescue mission to recover the humans left on the planet . While the plans initially called for the involvement of Pegasus in the recovery, Admiral Adama decides that the remnants of the Fleet, the last free people of humanity, should not be left unprotected if things went awry. The admiral takes Galactica in the rescue effort without Pegasus, ordering his son to stay with the Fleet at a rendezvous point to await their return .
Despite the admiral's orders, Pegasus leaves the majority of its crew, fighters and all but four of its Raptor complement to protect the remnants of the Fleet and returns to New Caprica to participate in the rescue. Pegasus jumps into the fight and finds Galactica under fire from four Cylon basestars. Pegasus destroys one of the baseships with its forward batteries and attracts the attention of the others while Galactica repairs its FTL drive and prepares to jump away.
Pegasus reels from the onslaught of missiles from the remaining Cylon basestars and is beset upon by Raiders, sustaining heavy damage. It becomes clear to Admiral Adama that Pegasus's trip was one-way. Following Galactica jump, Commander Adama sets his battlestar's batteries on auto-fire and orders the crew to abandon ship, pausing just long enough to give his dying command a quiet thanks. As the evacuation Raptors jump away, the Pegasus, mortally damaged and now completely unmanned, rams an attacking basestar, destroying both vessels. Due to her alligator head detonating, Pegasus's fuel lines ignite, causing explosions to ripple down the ship's hull towards the fuel stores, which detonate and blow apart the entire engineering section. The starboard flight pod is thrown away, and is flung into a handful of raiders, eventually colliding with another nearby basestar, destroying it as well . The rest of Pegasus's crew, Vipers and Raptors are integrated with Galactica, bolstering its air wing and pilot roster significantly.
==Air Wing==
Pegasus operates at least 10 squadrons of Viper Mark VII space-superiority fighters. During the Battle of the Binary Star System four color-coded squadrons are identified verbally and on the DRADIS . Since these designations are later used for very different squadrons led by different people, they are very likely just wireless callsigns. Moreover, the standing squadrons on Galactica have more elaborate names and are numbered, such as the Vigilantes. The colors and group leaders could be assigned on an ad-hoc basis, while a more formal structure exists in the background. 
Given that Pegasus suffers over 90 Viper casualties with 32 being destroyed during its attack on a Cylon communications relay , but is still able to field a sizable Viper complement at the time of encountering Galactica, this suggests that its initial Viper loadout was very large. The exact number of Vipers per squadron for a full-strength battlestar is approximately 20 (Battlestar Galactica RPG). Also, Pegasus fielded approximately 8 squadrons of Vipers and 2 reserve squadrons, and the number of Vipers per squadron must have been 20 to equal up to 200 Vipers.
Pegasus has approximately 50 Raptors, having lost over half of its fighters and recon craft, and 20 Raptors can be deployed for the rescue mission, while Galactica alone appears to have difficulties deploying more than about 5 Raptors at one time ("The Farm," "Resistance").
==Crew==
====Senior Staff at Time of Destruction====
*Commander - Commanding Officer
*Lieutenant Anastasia Dualla - Executive Officer
*Lieutenant Louis Hoshi - Communications Officer
====Former Members of the Senior Staff====
*Rear Admiral Helena Cain - Commanding Officer (Killed by Gina Inviere)
*Commander Jack Fisk - Commanding Officer, formerly the Executive Officer (Killed by racketeers working in the black market)
*Commander Barry Garner - Commanding Officer, formerly the ship's Chief Engineer (Killed in action)
*Major Kendra Shaw - Cain's aide, later 's XO (Killed in action by destroying the Guardian basestar)
*Colonel Jurgen Belzen - Executive Officer (Killed by Admiral Cain)
*Captain Cole Taylor - Commander, Air Group (Demoted by Admiral Cain)
*Captain Kara Thrace - Commander, Air Group (Replaced Cole Taylor in "Resurrection Ship, Part I" but transferred to Galactica at some time after "Razor")
*Lieutenant Alastair Thorne - Cylon interrogator (Killed by Galen Tyrol)
*Peter Laird - Chief of the Deck (Civilian conscripted by Admiral Cain, later reassigned to Galactica by Cain prior to the Battle of the Resurrection Ship)
==Notes==
*According to David Eick's video blog, it would have been impossible to afford creating new sets for the entire interior of Pegasus on the budget of an episodic television show. This expense was circumvented when a year beforehand Ron D. Moore and David Eick bought (for next to nothing) the abandoned sets of the failed pilot for the FOX network's Lost In Space remake, directed by John Woo. The production team then held onto the sets hoping to find some later use for them, eventually using them for "Pegasus". The sets were then radically redesigned and painted to give them the aesthetic look of Galactica, but sleeker and more advanced.
*During the Battle of New Caprica, Pegasus is shown to possess anti-ship gun turrets on the dorsal surface of its flight pods (visible when the ship is firing all of its weapons). However, none of the CGI models show any evidence of such turrets, so this is likely a VFX error.
*This ship is named after the winged horse from Greek mythology.
*The Colonial Military seems to employ a network optimization process also defined by Cisco in the real world: see PPDIOO. As network breakdowns induced by Cylon viruses are the main reason for the Colonial Fleet's demise, this might comprise a pun on said networking company.
== Related Imagery ==
File:Pegasus01.jpg|Pegasus - Front view    
File:Pegasus Hi-Res 1a.jpg|Pegasus - Vipers landing    
File:Pegasus Hi-Res 5a.jpg|Pegasus - Gun batteries    
File:Pegasus 217 1080i rescale.jpg|Pegasus - Side angle    
File:Pegasus Rear Shot.png|Pegasus from the rear
File:Pegasus cripple.jpg|Pegasus taking mortal damage.
File:Pegasus flight pod turret.jpg|Pegasus flight pod turrets
File:Pegasus engine room.jpg|A part of Pegasus's engine room.
File:PegasusInterior Office2.jpg|Admiral Cain's office.
File:PegasusInterior BriefingRoom.jpg|Pilot briefing room.
File:PegasusInterior Brig.jpg|The Brig.
File:CIC - Pegasus (Razor).jpg|The CIC .
File:PegasusInterior CIC3.jpg|The CIC .
File:PegasusInterior CICHallway.jpg|Hallway and entrance to the CIC (The Captain's Hand).
== References ==
==External links==
* A collection of Pegasus images
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