by Richard Hatch and Christopher Golden

Current Date: 7362

It has been eighteen years since the Battlestar Galactica and its ragtag fleet of survivors began their epic journey to find the legendary planet Earth - believed to be the home of the missing Thirteenth Colony of Man.

Adama, the Galactica's commanding officer, has just died, and Apollo's bext friend, Starbuck, has disappeared during a recon patrol and is presumed dead - a victim of Cylon Raiders. The Quorum, the fleet's ruling body, is about to choose Adama's successor. Apollo and his sister, Athena, are in line to command. But a member of the Quorum accuses Apollo of being a traitor, and leads a rebellion against the Galactica's military rule.

it is the worst time possible for Apollo to leave the Galactica, but he has recieved telepathic images of Starbuck still alive. In the midst of growing turmoil and hostilities, Apollo strikes out on his own to find his friend in uncharted space filled with Cylons - seven foot tall cyborg berserkers who still pursue the fleet in their unending war to destroy all humans. A new Cylon secret weapon is being readied, and a sneak attack on the fleet is imminent.

When Apollo returns to the Galactica, the fleet is in chaos. Confronted by a deadly force of Cylon warriors on the outside, and rebellion led by the embodiment of evil aboard the Battlestar, he fights for his life, the survival of the fleet, and the ultimate fate of humanity itself.

All ships have shields and thus the variant shield rules should be used.

All civilian craft are armed and should have at least 1 or 2 ph.3s. All civilian ships have shields as well, and some should even have a shield strength as if they were warships, however these ships are few and limited to strategic ships (like the forge ship).

All fighters have shields too, but these are already tallied into their damage points so no additional rules are needed.

New Craft:

There are not any changes to capital ships at all. While ships do have increased technology, this is mainly in the areas of sensors and computers. As such, there are no changes needed to be made to standard ship SSDs.

However, there are a number of new fighter types available.

Azure Class Vipers

These are the first of a new line of Vipers designed by the Fleet. They are actually very similiar to the older Starhound Vipers but contain newer systems and more efficent engines.

Scarlet Class Vipers The Scarlet Class Viper is the newest line of fighter to enter Colonial service. Much upgraded with all new systems, sensors, voice control, better weapon and shielding systems, the Scarlet Class Viper is most definitely a force to be reckoned with. At the end of Armageddon, only a handful of Scarlet Class Vipers had been built. In addition to Azure and Scarlet Class Vipers, there are still some of the older Starhound Class Vipers in operation.

Dark Cylon Raider

The Dark Raider is the latest in Cylon technology. The Raiders are larger, faster and better armed and armoured than older Raiders, and with the new Dark Centurion piloting them, more than a match for standard Vipers. Even Scarlet Class Vipers are threatened by them. As well as being an all new design, each Dark Raider contains a Quantam Shift Effect Generator which makes it a particularly sneaky opponent as well.

Dark Centurions:

Dark Centurions are modified Cylons using DNA from Baltar. As a result of this, the Cylon is starting to think and act more like a human rather than a normal Cylon. To account for this, do not use the variant Cylon Fighter rule handicapping their combat abilities. While Dark Centurions chiefly pilot the Dark Raiders, they can (and do) pilot normal Raiders as well.

For GURPS rules, see here.
Alternately, the Dark Centurions could be the same as the Elite Centurions from the The Second Coming, not sure about that one.

Quantum Shift Effect:

Some ships are equipped with the QSE generator. This special piece of equipment allows a vessel to literally shift into another dimension. While in this dimension, they cannot be detected or attacked by units in 'normal space' but can themselves see out allowing them to make pop-in attacks on targets at will.

Note: When the QSE generator is on, a craft is considered 'phased'. When the device is not active the vessel is considered in 'normal space'.

A QSE equipped unit may activate their QSE generator in 6B. Impulse Activity Segment as if the QSE was a Cloaking Device. The generator takes one Impulse to phase during which the craft is treated as if it was in normal space and thus may be effected by any craft not operating QSE generators.
On the second Impulse of activation, the ship is now fully phased. Activation of a QSE does appear on sensors so a craft phasing into another dimension is not a secret.

Deactivating a QSE is much like activating the device. On the Impulse of deactivation the vessel is still considered phased, while on the second Impulse the craft is back in normal space. Again, the phasing craft can be detected, although only attacked on the second phase.

There is 1 Impulse of lag time before a ship may activate or deactivate its QSE generator again, so it is possible for a fighter that is currently phased to uncloak, make an attack and be phased again in the space of 5 Impulses.

When phased nothing in the real world will effect a QSE equipped craft. No ships in the real world can detect the vessel (either with visual aids or with the naked eye) and thus cannot shoot at them. In addition, a phased vessel may happily travel through other craft as if they were not there. Communications are not possible between phased and normal craft.

While a phased ship may not interact with anything in normal space, it may detect and see vessels in normal space with no problems. As such, the QSE makes for great sneak attacks.

When using QSE equipped vessels, any phased ship should have it is counter removed from the board and until it reappears, have all its movement plotted.

By the end of 'Armageddon' only one QSE was in Colonial hands and that was attached to Commander Apollo's Scarlet Class Viper. It is unknown how many units the Cylons had, but in their final attack on the Galactica and her fleet, they only employed five Dark Raiders with these units.

• (+1) Treat as a normal Viper for attacking purposes, but attacker gets a +1 to their roll

Azure Class and Scarlet Class Vipers are treated as normal Vipers for combat purposes.
Dark Raiders are treated as Vipers for attacking and defending purposed. They are equipped with QSE generators.

Dark Centurions

If a Dark Centurion is piloting a normal Raider, then treat the Raider as a Viper for attacking and defending purposes in combat.

QSE Generator:

A QSE Generator must be declared On or Off at any point during the units movement phase. Once the QSE generater is On, the unit may only attack or ram other units in phased space, and vice versa. If the unit is switch Off, then the unit is in normal space and may be attacked by any unit normally. Note that the QSE may only be switched On or Off once per turn.

Azure Class Vipers are treated as normal Vipers.

Scarlet Class Vipers:

Turbolasers A and B have FA arcs.

Dark Raiders:

Turbolasers A and B have FA arcs.