The Living Legend question-Cylon Tankers?

[Dayton3]

The Living Legend is my favorite BG episode.

But for nearly 30 years I've had this question:

When the Vipers from the Galactica and Pegasus intercepted the two Cylon tankers (which during the battle, Cain destroyed).........how exactly were they going to force the tankers to return to the fleet?

I always assumed that given the heavy escort the tankers had that they were manned, not automated.

And even if they were automated, surely it can't be that easy for someone in a Viper to take control of Cylon tankers.

Or did the tankers have landing bays where Viper pilots were going to land and take control of the ships?

[WarMachine]

The Living Legend is my favorite BG episode.

But for nearly 30 years I've had this question:

When the Vipers from the Galactica and Pegasus intercepted the two Cylon tankers (which during the battle, Cain destroyed).........how exactly were they going to force the tankers to return to the fleet?

I always assumed that given the heavy escort the tankers had that they were manned, not automated.

And even if they were automated, surely it can't be that easy for someone in a Viper to take control of Cylon tankers.

Or did the tankers have landing bays where Viper pilots were going to land and take control of the ships?

Well.....Unless there were an automatic self-destruct, I would think that you could disable their engines and tow them back. Or, maybe the Colonials have a way of hacking Tanker control systems.

The Cylon Tanker doesn't seem to be armed, so maybe the Cylons crank them out like Liberty-ships, and assume that they will lose a lot of them along the way.

[Dayton3]

Given that apparently the Pegasus had been preying on Cylon tankers for two years for fuel, it would seem that the Cylons would have some kind of countermeasures for boarding or seizure.

And how would a Viper tow something the size of a tanker.

It would've been better if there was reference to a shuttle coming along behind the Vipers with an assault crew that would take over the tankers and pilot them back to the fleet.

[Dawg]

Well.....Unless there were an automatic self-destruct, I would think that you could disable their engines and tow them back. Or, maybe the Colonials have a way of hacking Tanker control systems.

The Cylon Tanker doesn't seem to be armed, so maybe the Cylons crank them out like Liberty-ships, and assume that they will lose a lot of them along the way.

You know, I think that this is the most likely explanation I've heard so far. Hadn't considered it myself, but wouldn't you want a fairly substantial fleet of supply ships when your battle lines are far-flung. And, if you had a large stockpile of whatever the supply is, the transport itself can be cheaply made. Some losses would be expected, and would be cheaper the less expensive the transport lost.

In the Gammoray scenario, they would probably use the standard transports but augment the escort, I'd think. Perhaps they just didn't get to the idea of self-destruct before the Galactica showed up and reduced Gammoray.

I am
Dawg
:warrior:

[WarMachine]

You know, I think that this is the most likely explanation I've heard so far. Hadn't considered it myself, but wouldn't you want a fairly substantial fleet of supply ships when your battle lines are far-flung. And, if you had a large stockpile of whatever the supply is, the transport itself can be cheaply made. Some losses would be expected, and would be cheaper the less expensive the transport lost.

In the Gammoray scenario, they would probably use the standard transports but augment the escort, I'd think. Perhaps they just didn't get to the idea of self-destruct before the Galactica showed up and reduced Gammoray.

I am
Dawg
:warrior:

The problem is that we're now into maintenance, fuel and ammo requirements for the combatents, which always presents a problem, since other than knowing that the combatents require the three, outside of some very limited info on Tylium, we know nothing about specifics.

The view that I'm taking for my "Fields" story is that what we know as the "Tanker" is actually a multi-function ship, depending on internal lay-out. IOW, you have one hull frame for bulk transport (fuel), general cargo (ammo and spare parts), maintenance and troop transport.

Due to limitations in Colonial sensor technology, they don't often know precisely what's in those ships, until they get aboard, although there may be a signature indicating the presence of Tylium or Solium. (This, to account for Apollo knowing that the Tankers at Cimtar were just that - tankers...)

Speculating here, but it may be that Cain's crew came up with something unique - i.e., a way to hack low-level Cylon protocols - that stalls the ship and/or disables its self-destruct mechanism and commo systems, until a boarding party can get aboard and take active control. Such a boarding party would need to expect at least some Cylon Centurions to be aboard, so there's opportunity for combat aboard ship.

By limiting the hacking knowledge to Cain's crew only, the RTF never got the opportunity to do something similar until Gomorray, when they acquired Sliver Spar pilots and some other crew from the Peg.

[Damocles]

I may analyze the Cylon tanker and see if that gives me a clue as to what it is.

As always;